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lady-of-lyon · 4 years ago

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So, I made one post a while back about how awesomely feminist the show Wild Kratts was, with how its two main female characters were women of color in engineering and deserving roles of power, female villains who weren’t motivated by spite or quest for youth, etc, but today I wanted to talk about something slightly different, that I’ve wanted to cover for a while now, because I also think it’s very good - and that’s how the show portrays masculinity, in a way that’s really positive!

First, we have our two main characters, Chris and Martin Kratt. Keep in mind these two are basically self-inserts - and there are plenty of creators, especially males, who have used self-insert characters in really scummy ways - all I have to say is Powerpuff Girls reboot and you know exactly what I’m talking about. Even if they weren’t literal self-inserts, male characters, superheroes especially, oftentimes serve the male power fantasy, being just the strong, stoic, all-powerful person so many boys are told they’re supposed to be. I could get into a whole discussion about how the male power fantasy is present even when males are not (ever look through a fashion magazine and wonder why there are so few men? Sure, part of it is that the industry thrives off exploiting women’s insecurities, and men aren’t as concerned for their appearance, but another part of it is so that the guy, looking through it, can feel like he has no competition for these women - there’s a reason so many comedians have jokes about fashion magazines being their sexual awakening as kids. It’s really scummy) but that’s not what this is about. So, the bros had every opportunity to do just that - make themselves these traditional heroes who aren’t actually really good role models, like batman or what have you. It’s certainly not uncommon for celebrity cartoons to do stuff like that. But Martin and Chris chose a different approach. They’re pretty strong standouts for positive masculinity. They’re openly affectionate - both with eachother as brothers, and with their friends. They cry, sometimes over little things - most of the time when big superheroes cry, it’s ‘cause they lost the girl they loved or their mentor or something like that, only in the big, most agonizing moments do they shed a tear. But here, Chris or Martin will cry just because they’ve had a bad day, or because they’re overwhelmed and overjoyed that someone named a mantis after them! In a lot of shows or movies when a guy cries over something little, it’s usually played for laughs, or to emasculate him, but here it’s casual without being unreasonable or overdone. The brothers cry just ad much, maybe even more (haven’t gone back and counted or anything) as the girls do. Not to mention, it’s a very nice depiction of a loving, healthy sibling relationship. As the youngest sibling myself, it’s refreshing to see a pair who don’t abuse eachother with noogies or cruel and snarky remarks. When they do fight, it’s never a screaming match, and also because they had a conflict of interest or disagreed over a fact, not because, say, one of them stole the other’s shirt or is neglecting the other’s feelings. Kids, being very impressionable, get exposed to a lot of abusive sibling relationships played as normal in media, and start thinking this is how siblings are and should act. For instance, my sister (who is now my best friend and has gotten over all these bad habits over time) when she was younger watched a lot of Kim Possible, a show that is great, but has a bad family dynamic with Kim and her little siblings. The “tweebs” as she calls them are always irresponsible, destructive, and making Kim annoyed to no end. My older brother was one of the most polite, reserved, kind little kids, but she still treated him like he was a brat and a nuisance, because that’s what shows like Kim Possible taught her little brothers were. Additionally, I was always treated like a spoiled crybaby who just wanted attention and got away with everything - I was not any of those things, ever, but that’s what shows teach you little sisters are. Sure, Wild Kratts has a smidge of that, with Chris seemingly being the stereotype of the know-it-all little sibling, but instead of being constantly looked town upon for being too “perfect” like with Hailey Long in American Dragon, Martin often praises his brother for his abilities. Sure, Martin gets annoyed when Chris tries to correct him on things, like in the episode Wolf Hawks, but everyone else does too, so it feels more like a take-down of mansplaining than a sibling spat.

I talked too in the feminist post about how refreshing it is that Chris and Martin more or less willingly put themselves under the authority of Koki and Aviva, two women of color. I don’t think it’s possible to say any one character is the “leader,” they all work as a evenly balanced team, but it’s safe to say that Koki and Aviva make the more responsible decisions. The bros try to get out of their calls a few times, but the show plays it more like they’re being irresponsible, and less like they’re renegade cool dudes who don’t take nothing from nobody, especially not two girls. They are pretty much always punished via karma for their reckless choices, most especially in To Touch a Hummingbird, where their arrogant attitudes blow up in their faces rather spectacularly. We also never see the narrative most present in sitcoms, where the male leads mess up and go out of their way to cover it up and ultimately gets away with it - after all, you have to root for them, right, because sure they messed up and had no consequences, but aren’t they just so lovable? No, here Martin and Chris always have to fix their wrongdoing, and it’s always deserved when they get comeuppance. Another aspect of the show I like is that, many times, when the bros get captured or are in peril, they are saved by the women - and most refreshing of all, there’s never a moment of “wink wink nudge nudge wow I can’t believe I had to be rescued by a GIRL” or even “wow you saved me you’re pretty good honey guess I shouldn’t have underestimated you, you go girl!” No, when the girls save them, it’s just - you know, relief? Because they were saved? It’s never a scenario played as an exception, or any more dire than when the bros need to rescue eachother. The bros are genuinely happy to have them as teammates. The show even did the standard “boys vs girls” episode in the form of When Fish Fly - but instead of being actually girls vs. boys, it’s engineers vs. adventurers. There’s nothing really gendered about it - the girls happen to be engineers, and the boys happen to be adventurers. And the episode doesn’t end with the boys being “wow gosh darn I shouldn’t have doubted you girls are better at everything,” it’s a mutual agreement that both parties have hard jobs. Basically, the bros are very naturally respectful of women. That plays more into their feminist narrative too, but either way, it’s refreshing.

Then, we have Jimmy! Jimmy, the lovable gamerboy pizza man. At first glance Jimmy seems like the stereotypical cowardly, pathetic, emasculated loser. He’s frightened of most things, as of yet has no power suit, and he BAKES for crying out loud! But none of these things are framed as terribly bad traits. Sure, we laugh when he screams and runs from an animal, but though it happens over and over, the crew doesn’t get sick of it. They don’t berate him or belittle him because he’s so gosh darn cowardly. There’s a great scene in Rattlesnake Crystal where Jimmy has to deliver something to the bros alone, in the middle of a spooky desert. He is terrified the whole time, sprinting off after he delivers the goods. When Martin and Chris run into him, they don’t laugh at him for being spooked, they just greet and then bid fair well to their friend. To them, this is just Jimmy, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Jimmy isn’t coddled, but he is reassured many times that he’s a valuable member of the team. I love that little message, that you’re just as important of a person even if you can’t do as much or have greater limits. When his friends do try to get him over his fears, it’s not because they have to, that the day will somehow be ruined by Jimmy’s incompetence p, but because they’re his friends, and want him to experience fun and wonderful things that he would otherwise miss out on. But what Jimmy CAN do is just as important! Jimmy is a gamer, which in a lot of shows, is portrayed as a lazy, useless, mindless hobby. But here, because he plays video games, it makes him essential for piloting the ship and teleporting important items. There’s always the joke that video games improves your hand/eye coordination, but recent studies have shown it has much better effects. It can make you much better at keeping track of multiple moving objects and processing technical but variable information- two traits which, fittingly enough, are really really important for air traffic controllers and airplane pilots! He also demonstrates a lot more courage behind the wheel of the Tortuga, which makes sense - in an impersonal setting, he would have more sense of calm and control and courage, because it’s so similar to a video game world. It’s not all too different with how I feel more emboldened to pick fights with people on the internet, but get crazy anxious if a real person so much as looks at me. So Jimmy’s love of video games isn’t because he’s irresponsible, it has real benefits. A quick last point - Jimmy also eats a lot, but they thankfully don’t make him fat or greedy or anything like that. He never takes food from people, he actually bakes, and shares it with others! Having the baker be a boy is a lovely touch.

I might do another post about the toxic masculinity of the two villains, (or four villains, I guess, if I wanna discuss the minions) but I’ve got other work to do, and this post is long enough already, so I’ll get around to it later. I’ll sum it up with this - Wild Kratts is a show that teaches boys it’s not only ok to be kind, but essential. The brothers protect defenseless animals, advocate for things “icky” and “weird,” like bugs or snakes or worms - not because they’re boys, and boys like icky things, but because they genuinely see the beauty in all life, and are encouraging us to slow down and do the same. The Wild Kratts are heroes who save the world not by being the strongest or smartest or coolest, but by looking after those who are exploited and vulnerable, who are essential to the world, even if they can’t always do everything. In Wild Kratts the only weaknesses a man can have isn’t what he can’t do, but what he does do that he shouldn’t have. Sure, it’s a cute show about two funny guys who have cool powers, but it’s also a show about accountability, compassion, respect and trust. The show says “boys will be boys” in all the right ways - Martin is a lovable goof with a heart of gold, but he still has to get his act together when he messes up, and he’s still creative and smart and openly sensitive. Chris is a bit of a know-it-all show-off, but he can also mess up as much as his brother, and is still bold, brave, adventurous, and can put his money where his mouth is. Jimmy is a cowardly, napping, eating machine video-gamer, but he’s still a valued member of the team, has incredible skills and talents, and will always help his friends, even if he is really, really scared. It is so important to have role models like these, in a world dominated by unhealthy machismo. The Wild Kratts are heroes who save the world - both animated, and real.

All they need now is a canon queer character, and I’ll stan them forever! My money’s on Aviva!!

#wild kratts #chris kratt #martin kratt #long post #hottake #feminism #meninism #positive masculinity #toxic masculinity #jimmy z #wk jimmy #kratt brothers

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thejustmaiden · 4 years ago

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Jaken = Rin's Dad?

Okay, is this how a daughter treats their so-called father?

Most definitely not.

Rin and Jaken's relationship clearly screams of your typical sibling rivalry punctuated with cute and silly moments of playful bickering.

Yes, Jaken may technically be her main provider, but that doesn't necessarily equate to him being more of a father than Sesshomaru. If anything, he demonstrates more of a brotherly love towards her. As we all know, parents (which Sesshomaru embodies more based on real life patterns and parallels) will leave their older more capable children in charge of looking after their younger brothers and sisters. In this case, that would mean making Jaken responsible for watching over Rin and protecting her if need be. Ah-Un offers protection, too. Think of it as Jaken as the big brother and Ah-Un as the family dog who are babysitting while Sesshomaru as the parent of the household is away at work or taking care of business. I mean, they literally fit that description to a tee and I'm dying at the accuracy of it all! 🤣👌

[Quick! Someone write up a modern au where Sesshomaru finally gets out to have a nice date night but everything goes wrong in the most spectacular way. Like maybe Rin and Jaken catch a ride on Ah-Un to go spy!]

I recently revisited some episodes from The Final Act, and I couldn't believe how many moments like this there were where Rin got after Jaken or when she would "put him in his place" so to speak. Obviously, all of it is mostly harmless. I was only surprised by how often it occurred, not to mention how Jaken would just stand there and take it. Towards a supposed father figure, Rin's behavior is downright unacceptable. There's a certain level of respect a child is expected to show their parents/guardians, and that's just not what I'm witnessing here between them. Like at all.

Rather their dynamic has the nature of some sibling relationships like I mentioned above. So I really wish fans would stop pretending otherwise, because based on what we know of father-daughter relationships- healthy ones at least- they don't appear anything like what Jaken and Rin have. If you could please provide me other examples of where we've seen similar portrayals in fiction or in real life, then perhaps I can get on board.

Look, that doesn't have to mean that because Jaken isn't her father then Sesshomaru must be. They can both be her caretakers without necessarily filling that traditional father role. I'm just saying that if we're going to start assigning titles to characters, let's make sure we are accurate and truthful in our assessments. If you're going to label anyone Rin's dad, then it needs to be Sesshomaru. Jaken doesn't have precedence over him in terms of fatherly attributes, that just wouldn't make sense.

After all, this isn't about what you want to see, this is about what Rin very likely sees. It's safe to assume that she views Sesshomaru more like a father than she does Jaken. She knows she's safe with him (broadly speaking lol) and that he'll come for her no matter what. That sense of security and comfort is what a child seeks and what they should always feel in a parent's presence. She trusts and even idolizes him, just as a young and innocent child tends to do with their parents. At that age, parents are perfect and could do no wrong in their child's eyes. Idk about you, but this describes perfectly how Rin is around Sesshomaru.

Rin adores him and will follow him anywhere- yes, even into danger! That's what the innocence and unconditional love of a child will bring them to do if necessary. Fortunately, at the end of The Final Act we learn Sesshomaru takes Kaede's advice when he realizes that leaving Rin with her in the village is in her best interests. That way she'd be able to lead a more normal and safer life alongside other humans. Remember, Sessrin shippers, that doesn't mean he wasn't still a part of her life and didn't witness her become a young woman over the years right before his very eyes. Therefore, if they eventually do become romantically involved, then most if not all of those gifts had intimate and seductive intentions and it essentially constitutes as child grooming.

I understand from a Sessrin shipper's point of view why it'd be so much easier to claim Jaken as the father. In doing so, they diminish Sesshomaru's role in her upbringing. By refusing to acknowledge the real role he had in helping raise Rin (short periods can be crucial and impressionable too esp. in a child's early years so yes they did assist in raising her not only Kaede), these shippers are better able to justify how their filial-like relationship evolved into a romantic one. So yeah, I get it, if I were a Sessrin shipper I'd probably do the same. It's one of the more plausible arguments available to them, after all. "Let's pin Jaken as the father to fend off antis!" is the best chance they've got, but even so, it's still not good enough. But if you insist Jaken is indeed like a father to Rin, then Sesshomaru is most certainly one too. Who says she can't have two fathers anyway?

The thing is however much you want to deny or downplay what Sesshomaru truly means to Rin and vice versa, nothing will ever change or hide the truth of the matter. Please, stop acting like they're only traveling companions and nothing more. Some of y'all even go so far as to say that they're like strangers. Knowing potentially little about a person is not equal to a lack of love and affection. Making big assumptions such as this to defend your ship is actually doing you more harm than good. Let me elaborate.

According to your reasoning, if that's all Rin ever was to him was a companion and Sesshomaru had no real attachment to her, then what precisely is the basis of your ship? Recall that Adult!Rin doesn't exist yet, thus we have no real idea what she will be like or if she's even alive. So how can you make comments like that but then go on later to say "they have such a unique and unbreakable bond" or "only Rin can be the mother because she's the only human he ever cared for" if all that time spent traveling together didn't amount to much in the first place like you claimed to believe beforehand? Do you see how your rationalizing is confusing?

Contrary to what some of you may think, I'm not just saying all this because I'm an anti and I'm obligated to disagree with you, or whatever other excuse you want to tell yourself. Believe it or not, I'm attempting to give as unbiased and objective of an analysis I can based on widely accepted interpretations of family dynamics, development, and any history we know of.

Of course I respect that at times fans will perceive things differently since that's bound to happen. What's hard for me to wrap my head around however is the unwillingness of some fans- not exclusively Sessrin shippers- to apply basic common sense and sound judgment to their observations and deductions.

Looking at all our facts, then taking the small handful of scenes Sesshomaru and Rin do share together into account, one can logically conclude that their dynamic is akin to one found in a typical parent-child relationship. If you still fail to recognize Sesshomaru as a parent to Rin, then that's fine too. In the end, that won't really change the fact that he'd still take on a role resembling an adult figure overseeing a young child's care and protection. Be it as a vassal, guardian, what have you. Plus, nobody is saying here that Sesshomaru doesn't make mistakes regarding Rin's general well-being, but so do all parents. Overall, I think the majority of us agree that Rin is in good hands. Whether it's in his direct company or in his occasional supervision from his frequent visits to the village.

In other words, it doesn't really matter what exact title you assign him in relation to Rin, as the distribution of power is all inherently the same with any and all adult-child relationships. That bond never changes once you've established it either, seeing as it's a special kind of connection one can only form with a child and a child alone.

I was a teacher for a few years, and speaking from personal experience, you don't need to be a parent, per se, to take on a role of authority in a child's life. I know without a doubt that I could never and will never view any of those kids I taught in a sexual/romantic light later down the road; yes, not even once they become grown-ups who are independent and more than capable of making their own decisions. Those of you who disagree are usually missing the whole point though, because we're not trying to dictate what Adult!Rin can and cannot do like many tend to accuse of us doing. This isn't a question of taking away from her autonomy nor does it fall under "purity culture," which is why people shouldn't continue jumping to these outrageous conclusions and really listen for a change. You're deflecting from the real issue here when you choose to misinterpret what we're saying by ignoring the problem we're actually referring to. You cannot present a valid counter-argument if you persist in twisting our words.

Bottom line: once these kids become old enough to pursue a sexual/romantic relationship, of course they have that right if they're ready. All we're trying to say is you guys ought to stop pushing forward this it's-completely-normal-to-want-to-bang-your-adoptive-dad-since-you're-an-adult-and-can-do-as-you-please agenda and not expect backlash. Ship it if you want, but please stop acting like their romance would be the epitome of a pure and healthy relationship.

Sesshomaru may not wear his heart on his sleeve, but it's foolish to presume he didn't actually care about Rin during their whole time together just because he didn't openly express his feelings until the very end. Surely everybody can comprehend that people handle and process their emotions differently. The way Sesshomaru chooses to is completely valid for the most part, so let's cut him some slack regarding this already.

What I'm trying to get at is that any child whose life you played an influential role in will always be a kid in a lot ways to you even when they're old and wrinkly. Just as they will always picture you as the loved one who guided and protected them when they were most vulnerable and couldn't always fend for themselves. Can't we relate this to children we know personally and apply it accordingly?

Finally, I want to end on this note. Could you kindly take a look at these two images below for a second?

The reason I ask is because of something I recently read that's relevant to the topic. There was this pro-sessrin tweet I saw that stated Rin trying to take care of Sesshomaru when they first met is what a mom would do for a child, which in their opinion, translates to Rin being more like a mother than a daughter if anything.

First off: are you freaking kidding me????

Seriously, so now children aren't allowed to tend to their sick or injured parents?! Parents are apparently superhuman and shouldn't be offered a helping hand from a child, even if they mean well and want to help their parent who's in pain?? Now this Twitter user was mostly being a smartass, but at the same time, it was evident they genuinely thought they offered a valid enough point that warranted no further explanation or clarification.

Secondly, by saying this Sessrin fans don't seem to realize that in actuality they're contradicting themselves and proving the point we've been trying to make all along. Glancing at the first picture and moving down to the second, the role of the one being cared for and the caretaker is reversed. So then by their own logic, Sesshomaru IS in fact like a father to Rin.

What it comes down to is the names you give to the roles these characters play aren't as crucial as the dynamic they share. The specific characteristics of that dynamic are what define the importance of said role, not so much the name in the role itself. So real father or not, Sesshomaru and Rin clearly mean a lot to each other. Close relationships are defined and solidified by the devotion and belonging they have to one another, not solely by the duration of time spent together and their proximity.

Well, that's a wrap! I hope you guys got something outta this blog, and that you enjoyed or found some portions of it interesting. I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject from this fandom, but only engage in conversation if you plan to be respectful. Thank you!

#inuyasha #hanyo no yashahime #sesshomaru #rin #jaken #anti sessrin #child grooming #family dynamics #parent child relationship

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perthshirecottage · 4 years ago

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Okay this wound up way longer than I thought it was going to. I was thinking about little Five in the apocalypse and finding Vanya’s book. Has anyone ever thought about how much Vanya’s book influenced Five and his perception of his siblings? Because I think about that and I haven’t really seen too many posts about that so here’s my two cents.

Five was only 13 when he got stuck in the apocalypse and yet he comes back acting like he knows these 29 years old versions of his siblings. Five obsessively reading the book actually explains why he comes back and immediately thinks every single one of his siblings besides Vanya are stupid and useless despite not having seen any of them in 45 years. The book would have been written to make Vanya the poor sympathetic victim and her father and siblings the villain of her story. 45 years is a long time and I’m sure Five has forgotten plenty of details about his siblings. He still has his own faded memories of the people he remembers and so he might remember bits and pieces that weren’t in the book but those memories would be influenced by the things Vanya had written and perhaps make him question if he was remembering correctly. Not to mention Vanya’s book is the only written account of the kind of people they became and Vanya made sure she was the only one who came across in a flattering light. Five would have read about Klaus and his spiral into addiction and how he stole and lied to his siblings. How Allison became even more shallow and vain. How Luther was almost cruel in his need to be the leader, acting more and more like dad every day. Deigo was selfish and only cared about making sure everyone knew he was better than them and he was angry and bitter when he couldn’t. And Vanya would have written herself as the saint who endured all of this only to be tossed aside like a broken doll that no one wanted. Of course Five is going to lean towards seeing things Vanya’s way. Her voice is the only influence he had on knowing who his siblings became. The only fact that Five would have kept alive outside of Vanya’s influence is that he loves his siblings. I don’t say any of this to diminish what Vanya went through. She *did* suffer. But so did everyone else in that house. And Vanya’s book would not have shown that because she didn’t think anyone else suffered the way she did. She thought she was treated horribly and abused while her siblings were living the high life of being extraordinary and that she had to be the martyr for living through that. So Five, young and impressionable and all alone would have had Vanya’s voice in his ear telling him all the reasons why she was the only good person in that house, the only one that was competent and could be trusted. Five would have felt more of a kinship towards Vanya than anyone else because her book would have endeared him to her. Unfortunately when he got there and Vanya didn’t believe him it went against the Vanya that Five had created in his head. Because none of Five’s siblings were quite the people that Vanya had portrayed in her book, not even herself. And Five has had to adapt to anything the world has thrown at him so he just rolls with it. He also didn’t have time feel any loss at his preconceived notions being wrong because, you know the apocalypse was in 8 days.

I don’t know the exactly what the kids’ relationships were like growing up, and I know that Vanya wrote about how Five was her only confidant. How he was the only one who cared, but that is the voice of someone who is 15 years past what happened and seeing things with rose tinted glasses. I know the popular opinion is that Five and Vanya were the absolute best of friends and everyone else was just sort of there, but that’s based on a head shake, a name called, what Vanya said, and the fact the Five went to Vanya first. That’s not to say that Five and Vanya were not friends, but I don’t think that Vanya was Five’s only friend. Because of their dad’s influence no one wanted to hang out with Vanya that much but since Five did that meant that he was her best friend. And Five left and so those are the memories that Vanya held onto to but I highly doubt that Five hung out with Vanya and only Vanya. The fact that Five had enough love and connection to endure 45 years of hell to get back to his entire family and not just Vanya shows that five had to have had an honest connection to *all* of his siblings. At 13 I’m sure that Five played with all of his siblings and had a relationship with each of them. In flashbacks he was arrogant and smart but also a little silly and playful and he wasn’t as stressed and mean as he is in the show because he hadn’t endured 45 years of trauma. And while yes, I do think Five was probably closer to Klaus, Ben, and Vanya, if only because Allison and Luther were caught and up in each other and Diego had latched into their mom, it doesn’t mean that Five didn’t hang out with people who weren’t Vanya. He would have bonded with everyone else over things that Vanya couldn’t understand. Vanya thought getting a tattoo would have been cool, and wanted one only because she was left out while everyone else knew how frightening and traumatic the whole thing was. Vanya didn’t endure training sessions and know how brutal those could be. She didn’t go on missions and experience how thrilling they could be when they went right but that also meant she never felt the panic and desperation and fear when they went wrong. Back to my point which is that Vanya would have only had good things to say about Five and how close they were. Vanya probably would have written about how everyone didn’t seem to mind that much about Five going missing because that gave them more room to shine and how she was the only one to make him peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches and leave the lights on for him because she was his best friend and the only one who cared about him. so of course Five is going to come out years later remembering how close he and Vanya were because her book would have influenced his memories. He wouldn’t as clearly be able to remember joking around with Klaus or sitting around complaining about training with Diego or those moments where he and Ben would sit in compainiable science while reading or how he and Luther would excitedly talk about whatever new science fact they had learned that day or how he and Allison would laugh over some of the more ridiculous articles that were written about the esteemed Umbrella Academy. Vanya’s account of their friendship would have made Five feel closer to her than anyone else. And I’m sure Five would have felt a connection to Vanya’s portrayal of complete isolation. Five understands on a visceral level what it means to be cut off from everyone and everything and he would have felt this kinship with Vanya over that as well.

Which brings us to season 2. Five still loves Vanya and wants to protect her, but Vanya also isn’t the same person he thought she was. She is more angry and vindictive than he thought. And the rest of the siblings aren’t quite what Five had built up in his head either. Klaus isn’t just a lying junkie, but also empathetic and sad. Diego isn’t just an angry number 2 but has a protective streak a couple miles wide. Luther isn’t just Dad’s lackey but is someone who just wants to protect his family but is floundering in figuring out who he is. Allison isn’t completely focused on herself but wants to be a better sister, a better person. Five is reminded more of the people he knew when he was 13. He is reminded that Vanya has some bad qualities but that those don’t diminish the good ones. He is also reminded that the others are not just the horrid useless people from Vanya’s book, but people who are hurting just like him (even if he still knows he had it worst) and who are good and loving people that he wants to reconnect with. And so seeing them in this new light and also realizing that leaving people out of the loop is what caused the last apocalypse, Five puts more trust in his family and tries to bring them together to stop this new apocalypse. He wants to be closer and work with and spend time getting to know this version of his siblings. In S1 when Five is given a minute to breathe because he thinks the apocalypse is over, he realizes that all he wants to do is grow up and be with his family. He wants to just be, without a mission, without an apocalypse. He is tired of fighting and clinging to rage to keep his adrenaline up just so he can function to get through his exhaustion and pain to save the world. He wants to connect to his family. He wants to know all of them. And Five is willing to do whatever he has to get the chance to truly know his siblings on his own terms and not through someone else’s skewed perspective. Five is even willing to fight Vanya because again, he is seeing that she is willing to toss away all of his hard work because she cares more about her selfish desires than going home which is all Five has wanted for 45 years not to mention the fact that he hasn’t had a single break in two weeks. Of course it’s not just Vanya, everyone does get sidetracked by their own personal problems and Five winds up just about losing his mind. Even older, younger Five shows that Five is automatically going to side with Vanya for destroying the world. This Five hasn’t been rejected by Vanya or seen her get angry or been reminded that his family is more than just the bad people in Vanya’s book so when he finds out that Vanya destroyed the world because she was ignored then he is like yeah that tracks. Five has seen all of his siblings too long through Vanya’s eyes and he deserves the chance to know them himself.

Five has lived far longer without his family than he did with them plus he was so young when he left that he wouldn’t have had that many years of concious memories. So Vanya and her book would have had just as much of an impact on his life as the apocalypse did.

#tua #five hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #the hargreeves #tua s2 spoilers #the umbrella academy season 2 spoilers #the umbrella academy

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marshmallowprotection · 4 years ago

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Heyo! Do you mind taking from my last ask (the one about an mc with a sister), and doing it for the rest of the RFA+V?

Yoosung

He didn’t expect you to come to the apartment, well, nobody did, but he never thought that you would be there with your sister. It seemed as though you were the one taking care of her and making sure that she had everything that she could ever want or need. You were rather quiet and selfless in that regard. He admires that about you and it reminds him of the way that he used to feel when he was around Rika.

It’s kind of humorous to him that your sister is always trying to speak for you in the background, whenever you get tonguetied on the phone, he can hear your sister say what you wanted to say. He doesn’t have that kind of relationship with his own sister so it does make me chuckle. He thinks it’s kind of sweet how the two of you are. It does make him miss what he used to have, but now he gets to experience something new with the two of you, a new kind of family.

Jaehee

You were always polite and well-mannered and that was something that Jaehee could admire about anyone because it’s a quality that she enjoys herself. Being able to not worry about chaos or that sort of thing actually makes her comfortable. You supported her and kept your smile strong but your voice was always very soft. She did admire that you were looking out for your sister and actually doing a good job at it; It wasn’t easy to be a guardian or look after someone young and impressionable, but you did it.

What she doesn’t know is how there’s such a stark difference between you. Your sister is always speaking for you, and she’s always without a kind of filter. She doesn’t judge how you’re helping her, but her mouth could use some work since she can be rather blunt. Jaehee can say she appreciates how the two of you stood up for her to Jumin. She never had that before, so as much as she’s unsure of how to proceed in this friendship with her, she knows that they have an understanding.

Zen

You were the perfect balance to his energy. That being said, he was outgoing and you were more reserved and waited to say what you wanted to say. He could be a bit of a hothead and you were the icy breeze that he needed to function. You’re everything that he never knew he wanted in a person and more. Though there’s one thing that he realized when you came into his life and that was you knew how to handle him because your sister, who was always glued to your hip, was always speaking her mind and never mincing words.

He knew he liked your sister when she told off Jumin in one sitting. She clearly cares about you, and he appreciates that she tries to play wingman for her sibling, but it does get a little silly if she speaks over you. He knows what she’s trying to do but hey, you’ve got your own voice. So, they both take it upon their good natures to help you speak a little more confidently.

Jumin

You’re everything that he wanted in a partner. You’re understanding, calm, quiet, and you know when you say just what you want. It may come out as a stutter, but you do best your best foot in everything to be genuine. He appreciates that about you and what he loves at the end of the day is that you’re happy and smiling with him. He knows that you’re devoted to the care of your little sister, but you two are polar opposite. She reminds him of Luciel in the sense that she’s always being creative. She’s always trying to help you say things and she’s just always trying to take the role of the one that looks out or the other.

While he admires the tenacity in young people, he wishes that she would give you the chance to say things before she steps in and he’ll make no qualm discussing this with the two of you to see why this is and how it can be worked on. All and all, he looks out for her because she means so much to you, and he appreciates how blunt she will be with him, never fearing his status.

Seven

You’re someone that nobody expected to get involved with him because compared to the mask that they knew, you’re quiet and never seem to make much of a fuss. He knows that you have a cute laugh and that you care for him. You’re the person that made him believe in himself again and that’s that. He feels proud to be with you. You’re caring for your sister and hearing you talk about her and how you’ve had to do everything to keep her smiling, he admires you even more because you’re doing what he can’t do.

Your sister means well, and he understands why she is out to try and protect you, and help you clear your thoughts. It may be the fact that he took on the role that your sister tries to take that he relates to her so much. It seems like they’ve got their own little language. Seven knows all kinds of things that she loves so seeing them get along is really nice. Probably the most understanding of how the two of you are.

V loves that you’re a gentle soul and that you’re someone that just understands him better than anyone else may. It’s something that he’s come to appreciate because he’s never had something like this to a degree of your level. Your voice may be quiet but that doesn’t mean that your heart is. You stood by him and kept him steady in the midst of a crisis and he will never allow himself to forget that fact, nor will he let a day go by where he doesn’t treat you like the most important person.

What does take some getting used to is the fact that you’ve got a loud sister and she has your best interest at heart, but she makes no qualms about hiding it. He appreciates that she will not hesitate to tell him when he needs to try harder, you always gasp and try to make her say she is sorry and apologize, but he shakes his head because the truth is hard sometimes but you have to hear it.

#littleghostlyrose #ask #mod kait #mysme #mysticmessenger #mystic messenger #jihyun kim #kim jihyun #hyun ryu #ryu hyun #jaehee kang #kang jaehee #jumin han #han jumin #saeyoung choi #choi saeyoung #yoosung kim #kim yoosung

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selfcareparker · 4 years ago

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hi bae <3 reading that last ask i’m realizing i have no grammar? lmao

glad university is funnnn, when you said linguistics i was like 🤨 but then i googled it and it does sound interesting lmao

the too much free time part though... :( its like you expected to be thrown in and like WOO BUSY and WOO purpose (purpose may be going too far lol) but i totally get what you’re saying. ESPECIALLY when you expect to be busier and you’re not it’s like :/ ok. (& girlllll it’s fine to complain, it’s how ur feeling)

and bc of covid you have eVEN LESS STUFF TO DO, which sucks. the social part may help? even just a little bit, but maybe having some socialization.. it could be somewhat uplifting? idk gsjshsj

where i live the vaccine is for 16 and up right now but for the younger kids (12-15) it hasn’t been ✨FDA approved✨ yet so my brother is still waiting for his 🤠

okay really quick, how does drivers license work there? here you learn to drive at 16 and you can like actually drive (sometimes even alone in the car) by 17... (also burneks?)

YAYYYY GIRLLL i remember you telling me about how you haven’t seen your family in England in such a long time 🥺🥺🥺 i really hope you get to see them soon!!!! and that covid eases up so you can see them frequently again 🥺🥺🤍

i’m gonna tattoo that to my forehead “not being friends with your parents is unhealthy” EXACTLY!! the people saying that stuff are usually not close to their parents so 👀

i’ve been really busy (unfortunately imo lol) with my dance recital coming up and this singing group (which i don’t like at all) and my final tests bc of school i’m EEK but it’s a good eek i think? maybe? idk lolll, i can’t wait for everything to be over though so i can CHILL. after school however i have a missions trip in north carolina? don’t quote me on that, but yeah 🥰 i’m really excited about it bc i’ll be without my family (like on my own :)) and it’s this whole thing and i’ll get to know people and i’m gonna buy a new bathing suit that makes me look gooooood cuz i’m tryna cop a boyfriend while i’m there HAHAHAH but besides that... more acting and singing camps probably? most likely a summer job.. i don’t have any plans reallyyy set in stone but ya know (ACTUAL i do have a few things planned. but those are things i don’t want to do. so i will be ignoring them <3)

that was a long ass paragraph- but PLEASE UR RESPONSE WAS FINEEE & i love you 💓💓💖💞💘💓💞💕 literally watch me buy a ticket to germany rn

- lovely anon (or catherine? i feel that lovely anon is iconic now tho so. kinda like how i call you aria in my head not your real name lol ALSO I PROMISE IM GONNA RESPOND TO THAT REALLY SOON, it’s just really busy rn) <3

what’s wrong with tumblr i just saw this a minute ago 🥲🥲🥲🥲 they don’t want to see us together ✋🏼 but fuck them 💘

Whaksk wait wdym by you have no grammar? 😭😭hejsjs

Honestly I’m so surprised that I’m enjoying linguistics but i think since i speak english and german i’ve just always been interested in language and esp english since it’s just my second language so i was forced to learn more about the language than just words and grammar, because it’s such a big part of me and also i didn’t always have a british accent so i kind of had to... develop a british accent, and it was natural but also kind of wasn’t??? Anyway why was this one sentence like 17 lines i’m sorry

YES OMG EXACTLY and obviously i’m missing out on the whole uni experience i mean I’m introverted anyway but i don’t mind going to a party every now and then? but i haven’t talked to a single person from my uni (except in class when we had to analyse a poem or something— okay technically some of my friends go to the same uni as me but they’re all studying other stuff)

But yeah I’ll definitely try to meet my friends more often 🥺 but we all have really different schedules rn so it’s really hard to find days where we both/all are free and not too tired and yeahssjsksj but i mean.... i can pay 50% of your ticket to germany? and then we can hang out? 🥰

I think everyone over 18 can get their vaccine from Monday on so I’ll try to call (okay, my mum will call sisjsh) and see if i can get an appointment. but i think everything will be super full because previously only people over... 50?or 60? or people with like illnesses could get it and now everyone over 18 can get it??? Like that’s a lot of people who can suddenly get the vaccine sksjjs but at the same time they’re getting quicker with it (i think today over 1 million people got the vaccine???? Like i know the US probably gets wayyy more people done so idk if that sounds like nothing to you but obviously Germany is much smaller so to me that sounds like a lot???) and also one of my father’s friend’s wife (djdkdj) works at a hospital or something? And she said she’ll ask if I can get it done there so yeah 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

Isksmsjjs it took me so long to figure out what burneks was, i googled it (very weird results?) and then i realised i made a typo.... yeah no idea what i was trying to say lol

So in Germany (as far as I’m aware) you can start at 17 and you can’t have your test before you’re 17 years and 6 months old (idk why) and then you’re not allowed to drive alone until you’re 18 and then you still have two years on probation(is that what it’s called?) and you’re not allowed to drink a single sip of alcohol before you’re 21 (and drive) (cause in germany you’re allowed to drink when you’re 14 (if your parents are with you and allow it), then when you’re 16 you can buy beer and wine, and when you’re 18 you can buy everything. But you’re not allowed to drink and drive (even if it’s just 0.01 promille) until you’re 21)

(Okay I just googled and I don’t think you say pro mille/per mille in english sksjsjs but like the percent (or something...) of alcohol you have in your blood (idk biology sorry) (not that you asked about drinking and driving anyway? 😭 but there you go lmaoo)

Also idk if that’s just a UK thing or you also have it in the US? But all of my relatives from England keep asking me how often I’m driving with my parents (for practice)... and in Germany that’s.... not allowed? Like in england you can get these L (Learner) plates that you can stick on the back of your car and then you can drive anytime with your parents, but in germany you can only drive with your driving instructor during a paid for and legally organised driving lesson so. Kksskaj

Yess, the good thing now is that i can go to england anytime? Because Uni is all online anyway so it’s not like i have to wait until the holidays to see my family, i really hope i’ll see them soon🥺 it was my nana’s bday today and my grandad’s a few weeks ago so i’m painting two pictures for them tomorrow and sending them as a (late) gift next week 😌 (i’ll do like an impressionist ✨field of flowers✨ (that sounds awful sksjsjsj for reference i’ll look something like this: (it’s not mine i just found it on the internet while i was looking for some inspiration

for my nana, and something with a waterfall for my grandad) (looking at it now i don’t even think that’s impressionism? Idfk i had art as my subject for my a levels (like one of my final exams) and i actually got an A 👀 but it was mainly architecture and i don’t even remember that so

Ahhh I hope it’s a good eek!! Sksjj hopefully you’ll be done with everything soon and i already know you’re gonna do really good in all of your tests😌 but still: good luck ❤️❤️❤️

Idk if it’s actually cool? But North Carolina sounds so cool to me (but honestly you could have said any state and i’d think it’s cool sksksskm) And girl I still think it’s so amazing that you just sing and dance and act and omg ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

(I’m imagining us in a montage (?) like they always have in films while we’re shopping to get you a hot bathing suit😌😌 and then they always come home with like 6 shopping bags in the movies—)

This is gonna sound so dumb because who tf wants to work? But I’ve always wanted a summer job 🥲 like nothing too exhausting obviously but i’ve never earned any money by myself? I haven’t had a single job in my life (not that I’m that old and like only one of my friends has worked in her life like we’re young sksjsj) and yeah i think it would be really cool to have a summer job and earn some money 😌 but during the summer holidays (they’re only 6 weeks in germany) we’d always go to england for at least two weeks and then we’d drive to bosnia to see my dad’s family for a few days and then to croatia and then to Bosnia again sksksksms so i never had time for a summer job (obviously i’m aware that it’s a fucking privilege that i’ve never had to work and that i get to go to multiple countries during the holidays but yeah)

WHY DO I TALK SO MUCH AUSSKKSSM

Like I said I’ll pay 50% of your ticket 😌 i’ll be here stuck at home anyway, just let me know when you’re coming so i can come pick you up😌 (this emoji djskksks— but i mean it fits so i’ll use it as often as i can 😌)

Lovely anon IS iconic 😌✨ but Catherine is more than okay too🥰 so just say whatever you prefer ❤️

(And omg you never have to apologise for responding to my long ass, full-of-mistakes responses late sksjs take your time (i mean i wouldn’t be mad if you just didn’t respond to some of them i talk too much anyway <3333)

#lovely anon #<3

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saiilorstars · 4 years ago

Text

Redemption

Ch.2: The Mantle of the Jinx

// Story Masterlist //

Fandom: Legends of Tomorrow // Pairing: Rip Hunter x OFC

Story summary: Graciela has to deal with a stowaway on the Waverider and a team member who suddenly gains powers. Being the new leader of the Legends isn't at all what she thought it would be, especially when she can't bring herself to tell them exactly who she is.

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel @stareyedplanet @perfectlystiles

(If you’d like to be added to this OC’s works/edits, let me know!)

All was quiet on the Waverider; no new aberration had occurred since the 1942 incident. The Legends had shown Graciela to a room for herself after the chaos. They were going to show her the rest of the ship until Graciela told them that she basically already knew where everything was. There was no hesitation on her part to show it by revealing a stash of hidden alcohol that Rip stored in his study. It was a done deal after that.

In her room Graciela laid on her bed with one arm over her forehead and her gaze glued to the ceiling. The letter left for her was resting over her chest, still unopened by her hands. She couldn't bring herself to do it just yet. The last time they spoke to each other, the last time they'd been in the same room, it was like every chaotic possibility happened. The screams and yells of that last argument still echoed in her head. Rip had made it very clear that he didn't want to see her ever again, much less on the Waverider.

So why didn't you get rid of the letter?

Graciela couldn't come up with a plausible reason. Her dark eyes flickered to the side. "Gideon?"

"Yes, Miss Haynez," the A.I. dutifully answered.

"The letter—did Rip really keep it voluntarily? Or did he just forget about it? Be honest, please." Graciela waited patiently as much as she could to hear the answer.

"The exact reasons as to why Captain Hunter kept the letter, I cannot say—"

"Gideon."

"Contrary to my impressionable talents, mind reading is not one of them."

Graciela rolled her eyes with a hint of a smile. She did miss that A.I. more than she cared to admit. "Do you know why he kept it? Did he forget about it? Is-is that why it's still here?"

"No, he was very aware of that letter," said Gideon. "In fact, I was privy to when he pulled it out after years of it being hidden."

Graciela blinked. She turned her head up to the ceiling. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

Graciela pulled the letter off her chest and raised it up. She could see some of the words through the light but for the main part, it remained unknown. "Why'd he do that?"

"He edited something. I'm not sure what."

Graciela breathed in at the thought. What could Rip have done with the letter? She knew the first edition of the letter word for word. What could have changed? Her thoughts were interrupted with the loud sound of a thump out in the hallway. She sat upright and waited for another sound. Eventually, she left the letter on her bed—neatly folded—and walked out. Only two steps were taken in the hallway before someone dropped in from behind and knocked her out-cold.

Amaya Jiwe had stowed away on the Waverider.

~ 0 ~

Mick Rory planned to have himself a nice lunch. Graciela had given him the bottle she revealed in Rip's study. It wasn't much but it was his lunch and it tasted damn delicious. He was momentarily taken aback when Amaya literally dropped out of nowhere and threatened him with a knife at the neck. Despite her smaller stature, she had grasped him from behind and refused to let go.

"Look, if this is about me taking all the mayonnaise, you might be slightly overreacting," Mick said calmly.

"You killed him!" Amaya growled.

"Killed him? I've killed lots of people. You're gonna have to be more specific," Mick attempted to reach his sandwich again but Amaya pulled him back.

With a roll of his eyes, he reached back for her and threw her to the ground. Amaya touched the golden totem around her neck and an ape's figure and growl erupted in a blue mist above her. She charged forwards and threw Mick over the table. Amaya jumped over the table and meant to finish her work when a silver hand grabbed her wrist. Amaya's eyes widened in alarm but that didn't stop her from attempting to fight her newest opponent.

Nate's entire body was shining silver and of...steel? Even he didn't look quite sure of what was going on. Amaya tried punching him but instead hurt her own hand. Nate then hit her over the head with a lone hand and knocked her out.

Mick stared, dumbfounded, at the new sight of Nate. "What the hell happened to you?"

"I really...don't know…" Nate went honestly, raising his steel hands to look at them better.

~ 0 ~

"Let me get this straight..." Graciela rubbed her temples and not because of the pain she felt from Amaya's hit. This team was definitely something else. "You can now turn into steel?"

Nate was once again back in the infirmary and was with Ray and Graciela. His skin was non-steel at the moment but everyone was pretty freaked out by is new ability. "He injected me with Nazi serum," Nate pointed to Ray as his main defense. He definitely hadn't been searching for this.

"Good point," Graciela turned on Ray, making the taller, dark-haired man go high with alert. "Ray, what the hell did you do!?"

"U-uh, I...well..I had redesigned the serum to quintuple my own strength and transform my skin into an alloy a hundred times stronger than steel," Ray said then smiled to himself. "Steel, that's a cool name."

Nate agreed with a light smile of his own. "Yeah, especially since my grandfather was called Commander Steel. But what does that make me? Corporal Steel? Mr. Steel? Citizen Steel?"

"Who cares?" asked Ray. "You got superpowers now, dude."

"This is not a laughing matter!" Graciela interrupted their bit. "We don't know what side effects this...this thing caused. Ray, I need you to fix this!"

"Woah, hey!" Nate got up from the bed to argue over this 'fixing' bit. "I don't need fixing. If anything, I just need to learn how to control this steel-changing."

"Nate, listen to me, you don't want this," Graciela promised him. "This is some experiment gone wrong! You don't know what could happen—what could be happening—to you because of this!"

"I feel fine!" Nate snapped, and loudly. "And because it's my choice I choose to keep these powers! Ray, you can start teaching me now."

"Uh…" Ray's eyes flickered from Nate to the pretty upset Graciela.

She growled and stormed out of the night wing. She made a direct beeline for the holding room where Amaya had been placed during her unconscious state. By the time she arrived, she was more put together. Demanding and cold were one of the things she was infamous for in her days.

"What's the situation?" she asked Sara, ignoring Amaya for the moment.

Sara didn't look any happier than Graciela and Amaya did. She had her arms crossed and was facing Amaya suspiciously. "Well, she stowed away before the time jump from 1942—"

"Clearly," Graciela rolled her eyes.

"Well, she's claiming Mick killed Rex so she wanted to kill him in retaliation."

"Wait," Graciela blinked and now faced Amaya, "Rex Tyler? The Hourman? He was murdered?"

Amaya gave a curt nod. "His killer stole the Askaran Amulet."

"As surprising as that is—and it is—I'm sorry to say that Mick hasn't done any crime while I've been on board."

"He's a thief and a murderer!" Amaya rushed up to the clear wall separating her from Graciela and Sara.

Graciela shrugged. "Yeah, I know. But as far as we know, Mick hasn't been off the ship since we dropped off your team at the JSA."

Amaya still didn't seem very convinced. "With his last words, he told me his killer was a time traveler."

Graciela didn't care but beside her Sara stiffened. "Well, hate to break it to you, sweetie, but there are plenty of time travelers. Some of them are pirates and this is the sort of stuff they loot for."

Sara cleared her throat and put a hand on Graciela's arm to get her attention. "We've, um...we've been tracking someone who's been trying to alter history." Graciela's head whipped in Sara's direction, her eyes wide with surprise. "We think it's the same person that gave Krieger the super-serum. This might be your time traveler."

"What?" Graciela stepped back from Sara, completely lost. "Why am I just hearing about this now?"

"Because you've been locked away in your room!" Sara exclaimed. She had tried coming up with a way to give Graciela the rundown of the things that happened in Rip's absence but she literally disappeared for hours after 1942. Sara went for the control pad of the holding cell. "Look, if I let you out of here, you promise not to hurt Mick unless he really deserves it?"

Amaya nodded her head and watched as Sara unlocked the cell. She then stepped out and glanced at Graciela, just to be sure they were all on the same page. Graciela, though still processing what Sara revealed, motioned for Amaya follow.

"So you want to tell me a little more about this time traveler person we're facing?" Graciela didn't waste time and prodded Sara for information.

"There's not much to tell, honestly," Sara admitted. "Because we don't know a lot. This is sort of the thing we would want from you, you know…"

"Look, I may be from the future but you saw where I was from. I'm a rebellion fighter—"

"You're a what?" Amaya now oddly staring at Graciela's back.

"It's fine, I was fighting to build the city again," Graciela waved her off casually. "My city had been destroyed by this man called—"

"Vandal Savage, yeah," Sara nodded. "We know. We're We're the ones who stopped him!"

Graciela snapped her fingers in Saran's direction. "And I thank you for that. Seriously. You gave me my freedom for that."

"What?" Sara raised an eyebrow but Graciela didn't explain. It wasn't the first time she said something along those lines.

"I knew Rip before he went into their training as well as another friend there...and I may have been arrested by them for some unauthorized time traveling I did a year ago."

Amaya was still stuck on the earlier words Graciela had said. "When you say 'rebellion fighter'..."

That, Graciela would answer happily. "They took down the dictator of my city but when he was gone, every politician raced to take the power he left behind so naturally there was still some fighting left to do for the city."

Sara was silent. They supposed that none of them ever really considered what aftermath would take place with Savage's defeat. Rip certainly never talked about it either, but they all figured it was due to the loss of his family.

"Okay," Amaya started again, "So...can't we just go back in time to save Rex? This ship is a time machine, right?"

"Because we're dealing with another time traveler," Sara answered her. "If we go back and save Rex, the time traveler will just go back before then and kill Rex again, so instead of chasing our own tails, we need to identify who we're up against."

"Impressed you actually knew about that," Graciela mumbled but Sara heard perfectly.

"Rip did teach us some things…"

"I don't understand any of this," Amaya cut in again.

"Look, I just need you to trust us," Graciela turned around. "I didn't know about the rogue time traveler but now that I do, I promise we'll find them. In the meantime, Gideon will fly you home."

"I'm not going back until Rex's killer is brought to justice," Amaya said like it should have been obvious that was what was going to happen.

"You're from 1942 and part of the JSA, I'm pretty sure it'd be detrimental to have you here."

"You're from the future—"

"—yeah, so my legacy has already been jotted down in history, unfortunately," Graciela said quietly. It wouldn't be the best legacy but it was there. "But don't worry, everyone here is a professional who knows what they're doing." But just as the words flew out from Graciela's lips, the three women heard an incessant blasting above them. "Most of us," Graciela added before going to see what was happening.

They walked into the entrance of the ship where they saw Ray, in his Atom suit, shooting at Nate who was once again steel. The energy would simply reflect off him or bounce off.

"You're kidding me," Graciela's voice was enough to get their attention for about ten seconds before they started going back and forth.

"Professionals?" Amaya reminded her.

"I just met them."

"I know you not gonna take that, Ray," Jax laughed after Nate threw a humorous joke apparently. "Go crush this Tin Man."

"Nate, you shouldn't test yourself—" Graciela barely got to say before Ray was thrown against the ship's cargo door, managing to bust it open. Green clouds swarmed in the open and threatened to suck everyone out.

"Hold on, I'll close it!" Nate pushed through the force trying to pull them out. He clapped a hand over the control but electricity crackled against his steel hand and blasted him back. He was sucked out into the vortex.

Ray began to push himself closer to the door.

"Ray, get inside! We have to close the door!" Sara called to him.

"No, I got to go after him!" Ray activated his suit's helmet and flew out after Nate.

"Gideon, shut the cargo door!" Sara then shouted to their A.l.

As soon as they could, everyone rushed out of the cargo room. Alarms blared with the ship's several malfunctions and with only Jax to fix them, it was going to be a tricky one.

"What's happening to the ship?" Stein demanded when the group strode into the main room. He and Mick were standing with obvious confusion.

"Your idiots of a team," Graciela explained it with that, and frankly it was enough to understand. Sara helped her with the communications of the ship to get ahold of Jax in the engine room. "Jax, what's our status?"

"I've rerouted power from the secondary manifolds!"

"Where are Dr. Palmer and Dr. Heywood?" Stein looked around.

Graciela turned around, crazy angry. "Doctors? Ha! They don't deserve those titles! From now on, they're idiots 1 and 2!" Sara thought about defending the two but then she figured it wasn't such a far fetched statement.

"How is it you people haven't managed to kill yourselves yet?" Amaya rushed to get a seat. The ship was rocking and it wasn't gentle.

"The day is still young," Mick said just as calm as ever.

"Shut up!" Graciela snapped. She re-opened up the comm. with Jax. "Jax?"

"Yeah, I'm working on it!"

Graciela then followed up with Gideon. "Alright, Gideon, I don't know how you work exactly but can you track down Ray and Nate and take us to their position?"

"The explosive decompression caused us to lose corrective altitude, which put too much strain on the station-keeping thrusters," Gideon replied dutifully.

"For God's sake, say it how it is," Mick said gruffly. "We're screwed."

"We're screwed," Gideon repeated.

"You're a wonderful team!" Graciela ran her hands through her hair, fresh out of ideas.

Since there would be no option but to physically go and retrieve Ray and Nate, it was best to figure out where they were in the meantime and how best to find them in the new land.

"Fugile Japan? Seriously?" Graciela looked over to Sara to see what she made of the situation.

"At least we know they're alive," the blonde had settled for. "We best go get them before they get into trouble."

"How can you bring a thug on a rescue mission?" Amaya was quick to as once they group started for the wardrobe room. Mick grumbled at the insinuation. "I've known men like you. Men who take and prey on the weak."

"Listen, girly, I'm risking my neck for two morons who fell out of a ship. Why? 'Cause they'd do the same for me," he retorted in return.

"Gotta say that some crooks have a code," Graciela spoke up then added, "No offence, Mick."

"None taken. It's the first useful thing you've said."

Graciela rolled her eyes. "Now do you think Jax and Stein can really fix the ship, then?" She asked from Sara since the blonde had instructed the other two to work on the ship's malfunctioning parts.

"Rip taught Jax everything about the ship, he knows what he's doing," Sara reassured.

"Why are you on the ship?" Mick continued to argue behind them with Amaya.

"Cause I'm a member of the Justice Society of America. It's my job to protect everyone!"

"Except for me. You snuck up behind me and threatened to slice my throat like a ninja."

Amaya shot the man an annoyed look. "There's no such thing as ninjas, you idiot."

"Tell that to Chuck Norris."

"Who's that?"

"And I'm the idiot," Mick rolled his eyes this time.

Amaya resented that insult and snapped back. "And by the way, I'm not your girly—"

"Oh my God, shut up!" Graciela had stopped to turn around, her dark eyes blazing with irritation. "Now don't think I won't lock you both up in the same cell if you don't shut the hell up." She put a finger to her lips, warning them not to continue their argument and continued to walk on, though she called for Sara to lead her to the wardrobe room again.

~ 0 ~

The day was dark when Graciela and the others emerged from the Waverider. Thanks to Gideon's help, they had acquired a device that would pick up on Ray's suit signals. It would make for an easy find, hopefully, and then off to find Nate.

"The Signal from Ray's ATOM suit is getting stronger," Graciela read off the handheld device. Her boots trudged along the muddy grass, but they were dirty as it was so it didn't really matter.

Unlike Sara and Amaya, Graciela had refused to change into a typical Japanese clothing because she fully believed this would be a quick 'in and out' plan. Sara then told her she still had a lot to learn. So there she was, dressed in jeans, a purple and white, buttoned up blouse and dirty brown boots.

"Hm," Mick was the one to stop when he figured where the device would lead them. Graciela stopped and glanced back at him. "Doesn't exactly look inviting, does it? It's like "Ninja III: The Domination."

Confused, Graciela followed his gaze and saw what could only be an emperor's living quarters. This was definitely not going to be a quick 'in and out' trip.

"Never took you for a cinephile," Amaya was close to laughing as she passed Mick.

"All I know is ninjas like to hide in trees. I don't see anything," Mick's eyes were wide as he spoke. "You don't find them, they find you."

"Just because you saw ninjas in a movie, that doesn't make them real," Amaya rolled her eyes, thinking of it as nothing but stories.

Sara, on the other hand, spoke up to agree. "I have to side with Mick on this one. They're real."

Amaya couldn't decide how worse this team could get. "You think there's a secret brotherhood of men trained in the art of assassination?"

Sara almost laughed at the irony of her back story. "I hate to break it to you, Amaya, but I'm basically a ninja."

"A deadly one," Graciela agreed in front, not that delved into the topic. She'd only read the profile of Sara left by Rip and was genuinely stumped how he could have chosen such a dangerous woman.

Then again, she never understand what Rio did anyways.

~0~

It was easy to slip into the Shogun's building. It almost made Sara sneer at how their security was primitive for such an important man. Amaya, on the other hand, insisted they not get ahead of themselves and just find Ray. Graciela agreed. If there was anything she learned in her past is that what started easy rarely ended easily.

The group crossed a hallway in silence, following where the handheld device led them to. The strode into an empty room where they thought Ray stood inside his suit.

"Haircut, let's get out of here," Mick motioned Ray with his heatgun to the door. "We're saving your ass, again."

The man, however, turned around to reveal to be the Shogun himself. "It is you who needs rescuing."

Graciela lowered the handheld device with a sigh. "Seriously? He let the Atom suit get taken?"

The Shogun revealed a teethy, smug smile as he took a step towards them. "You are already defeated before you have even begun. I have been trained in the art of war by Shimura himself."

Sara didn't seem very concerned as she took the same step towards him. She whipped out her staffs and declared, "League of Assassins, class of '09. Don't take it easy on me." She zoomed past Graciela and started fighting the Shogun.

She did her best to fight him off but she didn't expect to find a more skilled opponent. The Shogun kicked her backwards and started for them when Graciela snapped her fingers and a purple beam of energy passed over the ceiling. A part of the ceiling then crackled until it fell over the Shogun.

"Interesting," Sara blinked at the sight but Graciela grabbed her arm and yanked her into a run. "How did you do that!?"

"Explain later!" Graciela hushed and nearly crashed into Ray on the turn.

"Oh, hey guys!" Ray was cheery enough to greet.

"Wrong way, Haircut!" Mick pushed him to keep going, but Ray wouldn't budge.

"What about my suit?" He froze when he saw the Shogun making his way out of the room with bits of ceiling over him. "We can get it later," he decided and rushed away.

Getting out of the forest was definitely easier by the time dawn arose. Now that they had Ray with them, they could turn over their attention to getting Nate back. Although the nab didn't have something like the Atom suit to stand out, since there was only village it was not hard to find the American amongst them.

"Nate, you're alive!" Ray beamed after he opened the door to a small cottage house.

Nate was indeed alive, and in good company with a woman. "Oh, hey, guys! You found me…" he said with a fake smile.

"I'm sorry, was this a bad time?" Graciela raised an eyebrow.

"Nope," he cleared his throat and got up, though with some groaning from his injury. The team questioned him with sharp looks but he didn't answer.

"Masako, these are, uh, my friends I was telling you about," he instead gestured to the woman with him.

She courtesy bowed at the others. "Hajimemashite. Can I get you something to drink?"

"Sake, lots of it," Mick didn't fail to answer.

Amaya shook her head disapprovingly. "What he meant to say is thanks for your hospitality, but we must be going."

Mick's gaze lowered to her with even more dislike. "No, I didn't."

"But she's right," Graciela said, siding with Amaya for logical reasons. She herself was a bit distrustful of Amaya at the moment. "Nate, let's go."

"I can't," the man made a face and soon earned the confused eyes of his team.

Graciela's eyebrows raised together, but before making a scene she smiled at Masako then flexed her finger at Nate to come over. Knowing he would have to explain himself, he followed the team out into the field where they would get some privacy.

"Why are you limping?" Sara eyed Nate's hand which wouldn't leave his abdomen for more than a minute. It was also where there was a blotch of blood. "What have you been doing!?"

Nate waved her off with a little groan as he moved to face them all. "We can't leave. Masako's supposed to marry the Shogun Tokugawa lemitsu."

"Yeah, met him. Not a fan," Sara sarcastically shrugged. She was mighty bitter he'd managed to beat her at something she was practically a master at.

"Well, the reason he sticks out in the history books is because he likes to murder his wives, and I can't leave Masako to his mercy."

"Especially since he stole my ATOM suit," Ray remarked.

"Exactly," Nate agreed before it actually hit him what Ray said. "Wait, what? You let the Shogun steal a 21st century super-suit?"

"After I crash-landed trying to rescue you," Ray made sure to remind How they all got into this mess in the first place.

"How the hell does the Shogun even know how to operate your suit?" Graciela had been wondering ever since they escaped the Shogun.

"I designed it so an idiot could use it."

"An idiot does," Mick grumbled from his spot. He'd made himself comfortable over a wagon full of hay, even looking close to falling asleep.

"Guys, bottom line is, if the Shogun has the ATOM suit, it's not just Masako and the village we have to protect. He can use it to conquer the whole region," Nate pointed out for them all to see the true danger of leaving prematurely.

"You said the Shogun's coming for your new girlfriend?" Sara eyed the field past Nate.

"Uh-huh."

"Easier to defend a village than to attack a castle," Sara then directed her glance at Graciela to see what she would say.

"Yeah, experience says that," sighed Graciela. "But here's the thing, that Shogun with the suit is practically invincible. He threw Sara like a ragdoll."

"But steel—" Sara moved towards Nate and rested an arm over his shoulder, "—is stronger. There's our win."

Nate cleared his throat rather awkwardly. "About that, I'm having a little problem accessing my powers."

"Sounds like you're having performance issues and it looks like you're not done training him yet," Sara told Ray who opened his mouth to retort when Graciela went on.

"Alright, fine. Ray and Nate can work on the Shogun strategies while the rest of us figure out how to defend a village. It should be easier than a city but I don't want to get too cocky."

"Wake me up when the action starts," Mick moved himself slightly for a better position. He spit out the thread of hay from his mouth and shut his eyes.

Graciela's look was sharp. Her eyes flickered purple, causing a same colored beam to hit the wagon and tilt it over to the side. Mick dropped with a thud and he quickly shook himself up, confused with the matter. Graciela shook her head and started back for the house.

"Did she just…?" Nate's finger moved from where Graciela had stood to the tilted wagon.

"Yeah," Sara lowered his fingers, eyes glued to Graciela's direction. "I'm curious myself of what else she's hiding."

~0~

Jax and Stein had discovered a secret room that Rip never told then about, peeving Jax off especially since he'd been forced to learn every inch of the Waverider. They'd managed to enter the dark room, which turned out to store numerous weapons.

"It appears to be some sort of armory," Stein remarked after his flashlight illuminated a row of large guns inside a glass case.

"Among other things," Jax saw a pile of books over a desk, barely lit from a computer screen. "There's a reason why Rip didn't want us in here. Some things you can't un-see."

The lights of the room turned on, giving them full view of the armory. Stein lowered his flashlight, flicking the switch off at the same time. His eyes landed on the screen and saw a familiar name blinking in and out. "Look, Jefferson, our old friend has hailed the Waverider."

Jax saw the name and blinked. "Well…" he moved towards the screen and stopped when he saw a leather bound book at the stop of the paper stack.

"Let's play it," Stein was more focused on the video. He pressed his finger against the blinking message.

'Sorry to contact you like this, Captain Hunter, Graciela. But I can't risk putting any more lives in danger…'

Jax briefly looked up from the open book he'd picked up. "Thought this was from Barry Allen?" He had made a face at the deep voice of the message. That certainly didn't sound like the speedster they knew from Central City.

"It is. Only from 40 years in the future," Stein pointed at the date beside Barry's message.

"Yeah, but he also knows Graciela? A woman born a century later?" That alone made Jax even more suspicious.

'And neither can this. Which is why you'll keep what I'm about to tell you a secret. Even from the rest of your team…'

Jax stopped passing the pages of the book, which turned out to be a journal of some sort, when he spotted a familiar person in a photograph.

~0~

Training Nate would be a little more difficult than he thought but it was not impossible. There was only a bit of a pressure since Graciela had planted herself a couple feet from them with arms crossed and a serious face that versaw everything. The woman reminded Ray of Oliver Queen at that moment.

"The ATOM suit is made of and powered by dwarf star alloy. It's strong enough to withstand bullets, arrows, and explosives." Ray had built a target out of a scarecrow and used a stick from the ground as a pointer.

"So it's impenetrable?" Nate asked, his hopes of winning beginning to dwindle.

"Not quite. Underneath the left thruster is the alpha-stabilizer. If you destroy it, the photons that stream from suit's weapons systems will overheat, theoretically causing somatic overload."

"Theoretically, that's... that's comforting..."

"You have to get close to the Shogun, and in order to do that, you have to be able to harden."

"Well, when you're putting it in those terms it isn't helping!"

Graciela rolled her eyes at the two and finally moved forwards. "Ray, how did you get him to turn his powers on the first time?"

Ray tilted his head in thought. His eyes gazed over the stick in his hand, and suddenly he whacked Nate on the side with it.

"Ow!" Nate cried but Ray him a second time.

"Interesting," Graciela mused but Nate was not having fun.

"It worked the last time," Ray almost pouted before continuing to whack Nate, this time on the back of the legs. "Come on. My serum is flawless!"

"The serum was genetically engineered," Graciela set her hands on her hips. "Nate was not. It's probably your lack of focus."

That was like an alarm set off inside Nate. His eyebrows knitted together in outraged anger. "You think I'm not focusing!?"

"Well, you did fool around when I first asked you to train with Ray and then instead of trying to find us after crash landing—on your ass I may add—you waste time with some woman—"

By the time Graciela finished her answer, Nate's anger had risen to the next level. "You don't think I don't want to save the girl, spare the village, and be a hero for once in my damn life? I spent half of my childhood in the hospital where it didn't even occur to me to dream about having superpowers—"

"And did it ever occur to you that I know what it's like to be locked away without any remote possibility of escaping?" Graciela's louder voice was able to cut him off. "I know exactly what it's like to know that you won't amount to anything good in the world. If you knew where I spent the previous year of my life, you would think twice before telling me that," she spat and stormed off.

~0~

Stein and Jax emerged from Rip's secret hatch room with troubled faces, one more than the other.

"Should we tell the others?" Stein inquired over Barry's future message.

"Barry sent the message to Rip and... Graciela, so maybe we shouldn't," Jax bitterly said as he went through the journal he'd insisted on taking. "But this—" he pulled up a photograph from the journal, leaving Stein to wearily stare at it again, "—is something we can't let slide."

A prison mugshot of Graciela was definitely something Stein would never forget.

~0~

Graciela sat lonesomely on the back porch of Masako's home, picking and tossing hay between her hands. She saw Ray's shoes coming towards her but did not initially say something when he sat down beside her. She knew the spectacle she'd made back there. It was completely unnecessary when the situation was so dire.

"Ray, I'm sorry," she surprised him with. He barely blinked when Graciela continued, "I was busy yelling at Nate when you're the one about to lose your suit."

"Well…" Ray hadn't necessarily talked about the fact he was about to lose his most prized possession.

"I'm not a top notch scientist but I know what overload means," Graciela faced him with a sad smile. "I'm sorry." Ray's shoulders slumped forwards, his eyes stuck on his lap. "I should have been more attentive to everyone and not just Nate, I just…" she sighed, shaking her head and throwing the last of her hay. She picked her head up, eyes flickering to the side. "I guess I'm just trying to be like Rip in this...team…"

Ray smiled in amusement. "Are you kidding? Rip would never shout like that, I mean he'd attempt to but Sara would shut him down. You're not like him, and I don't think that you should try."

"He was a good Captain," Graciela said, reminiscent. "I remember him, he was... just...amazing."

"Rip was…" Ray tried to figure out the best word to describe their troublesome Captain. Graciela chuckled as Ray swayed his head with no words coming to mind. "He was one of a kind, I guess, and I think if he left you in charge it was because he thought you were the best woman for the job."

Graciela's eyebrows knitted together, a slight guilt pouring from her. "I'm not so sure," she whispered. She put her hands on her knees and pushed herself up. "But I suppose it's time I stop wondering what Rip wanted and I just start doing what I always do."

"And what would that be?" Ray watched her go.

"Cause trouble," Graciela's eyes glowed purple as she smirked, much more determined now.

~0~

The Shogun made his appearance at the scheduled time the team estimated he would. He first met Nate - who was shot down by Ray's suit - and then moved on to find Masako in the fields. The rest of armed men went on a hunt for the villagers.

Sara stood tall and ready for her looming battle. The gates behind her were shut to keep the villagers protected and they were going to remain that way. Her eyes gazed over the challenger who stared back at her condescendingly. "Rematch?" Sara gave a twirl of her swords.

The man seemed more amused. "Who is your master?"

"I have no master."

"A ronin. You're not worthy of the effort."

Sara's eyebrows raised, her smirk pulling the man into the battle. The two charged at each other with all the intent of winning. Amaya charged on with her totem's help - using the strength of a lion - and went after the other men threatening them.

In another part of the forest, Mick had a run in with the very fantasy he always dreamed of. "I don't want to shoot you guys," he raised his hands, complete with his heat-gun. "I love ninjas."

The three ninjas surrounding him did not feel the appreciation.

Ray was having his own battle against the Shogun himself and was having trouble getting his sword to make damage on the Atom suit. Eventually, the Shogun knocked Ray down with the sword and let it drop to the ground. Just as the Shogun aimed his fist, powered up by the suit, Masako cut in with her family's sword.

"You dishonor my family and torture my village," the woman breathed hard and held her sword ready to use it.

The Shogun sneered and snatched the sword from her and, in the process, pushed Masako down. He raised the sword. "I will enjoy killing you."

Before he could do anything, a steel-covered hand grasped the sword. Nate had finally re-acquired his lost powers and was more than ready to use them for good. "We haven't been introduced. Name's Steel."

Back with Sara and Amaya, Amaya was going through the men as best as she could. Despite her super strength and agility, it did not make her impenetrable. As she was finishing up with one, another was trying to sneak up on her. She kicked the man in front down and heard the rise of a sword behind her. Turning around, she found the sword only midway down because someone else had grabbed it.

Graciela's eyes were fiercely purple, no sign of pain on her face despite the sword cutting her palm. "Game's over," she declared. Her purple energy encased the sword and made its texture rusty enough to break. She raised her boot and smacked it hard against the man's chest.

At the same time, Sara ran past them and appeared to go directly beside her challenger. They both came to a stop, breathing heavily, but the man began to cough. Blood spilled from his mouth and Sara turned around with a smaller blade in hand.

There was silence for a couple of seconds until the three women heard the crunching of footsteps nearing them. Thinking it was another of the Shogun's men, the three prepared themselves. A black-clothed figure stepped out with a familiar heatgun in hand.

Mick pulled off the cowl of his ninja apparel with a biggest grin possible. "Ninjas are so real."

~ 0 ~

When the team returned to the Waverider, they spotted Jax and Stein in the main room having their own personal conversation. As soon as Jax saw the group coming in, he closed down the journal he'd taken from Rip's hatchroom and waited for them all to gather.

"So, is the Waverider good to go?" Graciela came up and planted her hands on the console. She swallowed down her hiss when her bare, cut up palm touched the cold metal of the console.

"Uh, yeah, all good," Stein gave a firm nod and glanced at Jax.

Graciela's eyes flickered from one half of Firestorm to the next, and soon the rest of the team figured there was something off.

"What is it?" Sara asked, crossing her arms.

Stein seemed reluctant but Jax was determined to get some answers. "We found something," Jax took lead and picked up the journal from the console, waving it for the team to see.

"Is that Rip's?" Graciela assumed since the ship did belong to the man after all.

"Yeah, but, uh...it's about you." This is where Jax's suspicions resurfaced. His eyes narrowed on Graciela who blinked and looked back at the team. "Tell us, Graciela, what exactly is this?" Jax raised the mugshot of Graciela for the others to see.

There were various reactions from the team upon seeing the photograph. Sara's eyebrows raised together, clearly interested in the story behind that picture. Ray and Nate's mouths fell open with shock. Amaya's face hardened with even more suspicion against the team as a whole.

Mick was the only one to give a sound of reaction, it being a low grumble. "You just got more interesting."

Graciela passed a hand through her curls and sighed. "I don't think you were supposed to find that…"

"But we did," Jax went around the console with the picture still held for the others. "And you were in jail. You said that before, when you first arrived, but I didn't really think you were being serious."

Graciela snatched the mugshot from him and stared down at her face. She figured this was on her for not telling the team of her backstory, but in her defense she didn't think they would go snooping around and beat her to it.

"What were you in jail for?" Sara asked out loud, knowing that was the question everyone behind her had.

Graciela turned around, lowering the photograph. "Gideon? Pull up my case in the Time Masters' archives, please."

"Of course," Gideon pulled up a hologram a video.

"Play it, please."

The video began to play from where Graciela was forcibly pushed down into an interrogation chair. Her wrists were forced down on the table and kept there like magnets. The team could see two men walking past the camera to stand across Graciela.

"You are being charged with stolen possessions of a Time Master, illegally time travelling and trying to alter history," spoke one particularly deep-voiced man.

Graciela blew some air to get a curl out of her face. She raised her head at the pair of men. "You want me to plead guilty? Fine. Yeah, I did it." There was absolutely no regret in her voice.

"The stolen time watch belonged to Rip Hunter—" the second man began to say, alarming Graciela.

"Hey - I stole it!" she exclaimed. "He didn't even realize I did it. He had nothing to do with it!"

"You also had contact with the Time Master Kai just before making your trip—"

"He also had nothing to do with it," Graciela enunciated slowly for them to understand what she was saying. "I made the decision to go back in time, find Vandal Savage and terminate him. It was all me, alright? Me!" she shouted. She smirked, all too proudly. "And if I could, I would do it all over again."

Graciela gave the order to stop the video. She wouldn't face the others just yet. "A couple hours later is when they would tell me that everything I did in the past wouldn't even matter. Vandal Savage wasn't dead."

"You went back in time to stop Savage?" Sara blinked. "How—we...we were trying to do that!"

"I know, that came after my failed attempt," Graciela sighed heavily. "See, I went back in time about a year ago from my perspective. I went back to Central City 2016 to stop Savage. I met the Flash there and then later the Arrow and the Azalea. All of us fought against Savage, including the reincarnated Hawks, and after fighting, after thinking he was gone...I was arrested." She chewed on her bottom lip. "No jury, no court—I pled guilty and I was sentenced to a life in prison."

"But when the Time Masters were wiped out...then you must have…" Stein moved past Graciela to join the others.

"We were set free, the lot of us. I didn't understand how but the guards there - the remaining Time Masters that weren't in their headquarters didn't know what the hell had happened so...they set us free."

"But why did you go back in time in the first place?" Jax demanded.

Graciela shrugged. She supposed now was a good of a time to tell them the truth. "My name is Graciela, but to a lot of people I'm known as the Jinx. Now that name—that mantle—I took from my mother who took it from her mother and so on. From where I'm from, the Jinx was known as an evil sorceress who was capable of anything. Authorities led by Savage at that point thought it would be in the people's best interests to dissect metas and...my kind of people...and experiment on them. You have no idea how many people I lost to that," she swallowed hard. For the first time, the team was privy to a vulnerable side of her. "My parents were one of those people. My grandmother...important people. They weren't the best people—I certainly am not one either—but they did not deserve to die like lab rats for a dictator."

Her teary eyes and her shaking body reminded the team of Rip when they'd first came along the Waverider. The man had been nothing but determined to stop Savage in the past to prevent his dictatorship in the future and thus save his family. It sounded like Graciela had made a similar decision, only she had been unsuccessful and caught.

"I was sentenced to prison because I made a bad call, but I don't regret it," Graciela clarified. "I'm just sorry it didn't make a damn difference." She put the mugshot on the console and walked off into the corridors. The last thing she wanted was for the others to see her cry.

~ 0 ~

It was beyond Graciela why people would decide to bother her after such a spectacle she made earlier. She was sure it nearing sleeping time - if not it had already passed - so when she heard a light knock on the kitchen threshold and saw none other than Jax coming in. Graciela wasn't upset with him but he certainly wasn't her favorite person at the moment.

"Can I help you?" She stuck a spoon into a carton of ice cream she'd found. There had been a label of 'Sara' but she figured she could replace it before the blonde even found out.

"Um, first I would like to apologize for bringing up your, uh...history," Jax left it at that and forced himself to look at Graciela's sharp eyes. "I just wanted to make sure there was no danger to my friends alright?"

"That's fair," she agreed. "Everyone before me was...pretty bad. Me? I'm...Well, I'm not going to lie, I was a really terrible person. I was a crook, a criminal...and I liked it." She waved her spoon in the air before stabbing her spoon into the ice cream again. "But I like to think that I'm not completely terrible if I managed to switch sides wholeheartedly. I turned a new leaf and ended up leading the rebel team…"

"I'm sorry," Jax reiterated and took a seat across the table. "But I think there's something you need to listen to."

Graciela scoffed and stuck her spoon into her mouth. "Like what?" came her muffled question.

Jax pursed his lips.

~ 0 ~

Graciela followed Jax down the corridor, still eating Sara's ice cream, into Rip's secret hatchroom. She chewed calmly - something that made Jax wince because who the hell chewed ice cream?

"Leave it to Rip to hide the goodies," she mused over a glass display of guns.

"Yeah, that's not why I brought you here," Jax walked up to the large computer screen still holding Barry's message. "At first we didn't know whether or not to show you this—"

"We?" Graciela started for him.

"Stein and I were here earlier," Jax explained but moved on. "And we found this message from, uh, our friend which I guess you know."

Graciela had come up to stand beside him and saw the screen. "Barry Allen? Huh. Never thought I'd see that name again."

"You said you fought Savage together so...you know who the Flash is…?" Jax asked, just to make sure this wasn't a mistake.

"Course I know. And of course I remember him. You should've seen his face when I was arrested in front of him," Graciela held her spoon to the screen. It occurred to her that from where Barry stood, she was still imprisoned. "Did you play the message?"

"Uh, yeah, and we don't really understand it…" Jax admitted. Neither he nor Stein had been able to decode Barry's message despite all the possible topics they came up with. "But maybe you can since you're from the future...and it is addressed to you too."

Graciela made a face at him, but he just went ahead and replayed the message. Despite the good ice cream in her hands, she ended up putting her spoon back in the carton once Barry's message finished playing. Her mouth slightly opened, her eyes widening to match. Jax ultimately decided to leave her with it but was sworn not to say anything to anyone.

Graciela put her ice cream carton on the desk and stared at the screen. There were various questions that came to mind, starting with what the hell had Barry changed that would now alter the future. But then another curious thing caught her attention - why would Barry address the message to Rip and her? This ship belonged solely to Rip, people probably knew that. So...why would Barry think otherwise?

Author's Note:

So here we are with a basic overview of Graciela's background. We'll see more as the story goes on! Once again, Graciela is not the original Jinx. She's a descendant!

#ocappreciation #arrowverseocs #legends of tomorrow #rip unter #lot #fd: legends of tomorrow #legends of tomorrow fics #lot fics #rip hunter fics #legends of tomorrow imagines #lot imagines #rip hunter imagines #oc: Graciela Haynez #oc: the Jinx #fic: redemption

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ramblesofadreamerofthestars · 4 years ago

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The 100 said Live Fast Die Young, Bad Bitches Do It Well, and they were Right

We were so fed this episode with women kicking ass, it’s what we deserve. As always, spoilers for the most recent episode (7.06) of The 100

Indra becoming the commander of Wonkru, you love to see it. Like we’ve been saying this shit for years now, destroy the fucking flame and let Indra lead. Shout out to Adina Porter’s amazing acting skills (again), because every scene she’s in she absolutely kills and I am constantly in awe of everything she does. I understand where Indra was coming from with trying to get Madi to unite Wonkru again, the flame and the commander is all she’s known, but it was still,,,, Not Great! I’m so happy Jackson, Murphy and Emori showed up and put a stop to that shit, and I love how much they genuinely care for her. Side note, while I love getting to see Madi being a kid and getting to experience being normal, the fucking whiplash I got seeing Duncan/Quigley Quagmire on screen was a Time. “Yes I was a null left out to die, no I don’t want to fight you”, this kid is so Tired already I love him and want the best for him.

Beyond that incredible scene of Indra taking control of Wonkru (complete with “Can I at least watch?” ‘No.’ “I’m going to watch” and Murphy’s little clap, fucking amazing I love every moment Memori is on screen), the Sanctum scenes Once Again Dragged On. And now we added another plot? Technically we added it on a couple episodes ago but I’m already So Tired of Hatch’s girlfriend whatever the fuck her name is. “Tell Raven Boom Boom” fuck out of here with that corny ass shit, you are the Least important storyline in the clusterfuck that the writers have created. I kind of hope they all just get like...sent to a different planet I don’t Care about it.

Sheiheda (finally spelled that bitches name right I think) is so....one dimensional. Like, I get it it’s the increased tension with the believers and Wonkru fracturing and what not but he’s so fucking evil for...no reason?? He’s like, “everyone wants power blah blah blah power is the greatest weapon you could have, I’ll teach you how to gain power” whoop de fucking do. You’re not special, you’re not even an interesting flavour of evil I’m so tired of your shit. Penn getting the best line of “please Shut Him Up” was the audience taking over his body for a hot sec. Nelson I had hopes for you but like....b u d d y. “Hmm, I have dedicated my entire life to taking down corrupt leaders who take away people’s free wills so they can stay in power, but I guess I’ll listen to you, who won’t shut up about how people want power (self project much?) and also just give off bad vibes” like b r u h.

THE DIYOZA-BLAKE FAMILY IS BACK IN ACTION BITCHES!! When Diyoza appeared I was so fucking happy I have Missed Her. The montage of her being as inconvenient as possible and rescuing herself to a kickass soundtrack? Art. I love them all getting to reuinte and the little moment of comforting Octavia when she said Bellamy was dead (just you fucking wait babe). I think it’s fairly obvious which direction they want Echo to go but I’m still hoping against hope she gets some good character development before the series ends. Diyoza agreeing with Echo killing that old man picking flowers but Octavia not liking it, Interesting.

And Levitt!! He’s Not Dead!!! I am still very concerned for him and also slightly suspicious of him but I really really hope he’s as genuine as he seems. His and Octavia’s little moment, beautiful I loved it, Levitt really said punch me in the face it’ll be awesome huh. Not like, super thrilled with Gabriel’s choice but whatever they needed them to stay on Sanctum I guess.

(fuck you for mentioning the native Bardoans again without letting me see them or giving me more information Let Me See The Crystal Giants.)

And finally, our lord and saviour, Clarke Griffin and her team of planet hopping idiots. Did Not enjoy the spiders, just right off the bat, not a fan of those. However, Nakara being the human garbage disposal is so fucking funny to me and the fact that the caves are a living being (with an anomaly stone in it like fucking what??? Did this bitch eat that too???). That smash cut between Russel saying “Then you take out the enemies Queen” and Clarke Griffin, poetic cinema. I love her so much y’all and I love her and Raven’s little moment. ALSO! I would die for Niylah and her stupid puns I love her and want her protected at all costs. Jordan geeking out over aliens continues to be a delight, this is what we deserved from Monty and Harper’s kid. Remove the impressionable youth from the shitty influences and would you look at that, Much Better. And Miller continues to be a delight and a whole ass mood in every episode, just here for Clarke and to get their people back but complaining the whole way because of the batshit insanity they go through, I Love Him. So many “side” characters got like, three lines this episode and that’s really great for them, would love to see them say more some day.

I will say I wish Raven apologized to Clarke for what she’s said and done in the past, but her line of Clarke Griffin doesn’t break was really indicative of how the rest of the deliquints saw her, as their leader yes but also someone who could kill without falling apart when in reality we know it nearly destroyed her inside. I really hope that Raven continues to grow and understand and her and Clarke get to where they should have always been. Also, Raven talking about killing twelve (12) people and how it feels like her soul is breaking or whatever and I can just imagine Clarke’s inner monologue of “Remember that time I killed an Entire Mountain Of People and y’all got mad at me for leaving to process that, good times good times”. It’s definitely the start to a better path for Raven and I really really really hope it continues.

Overall, this episode while the plot was kind of boring was saved by just how amazing the ladies were, kick ass take names and look incredible doing it, I love them. The acting continues to be incredible (once again shout out to JR Bourne for doing the Most) and even though I despise some of the storylines, the actors should be given praise for making it compelling stories to watch with how far their characters have come. Fuck Sanctum though.

Next Episode Emori getting her time in the spotlight? You love to see it. I will say I’m incredibly worried for her (JRoth if you kill her is2g) but I am also So Ready to see her go off. I think this is the episode of Murphy with a gun to his head comes from? Idk should be interesting even if it’s dealing with whatever the fuck her name is crazy lady. Also, trouble with the Diyoza family, which will be Extremely interesting to watch as Diyoza has to come to terms with the fact that Hope has grown up without her, but also trying to make sure she doesn’t make the same mistakes Diyoza made.

When will Bellamy return from the war. When we get the Bellarke reunion I’m going to lose my mind y’all already know I’m a clown for them and I miss him (once again the character not the actor because Once Again, it is Completely understandable for them to prioritize their mental health first). I feel a little like Kronk watching these episodes like “oh ya, it’s all coming together” I can’t Wait for all the OG’s to reunite for the final season

#The 100 #the 100 s7 #the 100 spoilers #I know I didn't mention the Second Dawn #this post is already so long and I'm tired #but Miller saying It has to be a coincidence is dumbass representation baby #like ya ok it's a Coincidence that sounds logical #bellarke #because i'm literally always a clown for them #let Madi play soccer 2kwhateveryearitis

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kunoichi-ume · 5 years ago

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11. “Wow, you look… amazing.” - I'm seeing either Noara IN armour, or Torian OUT OF armour!

Drabble Request Help

Thank you for asking! This took a bit but there was so many fun options for what I could do here. I do have a fic out there of Torian seeing Noara in armor for the first time, even better it’s armor he gifted her, so this time Torian is the one getting a wardrobe change.

Characters: Noara Starspark and Torian Cadera

Story: Courting Disaster

Word Count: 1150

Lively music spilled out of the Drunken Gundark’s open door, loud enough to drown out most of the ambient sounds of Nar Shaddaa’s red light sector. Noara could almost feel the bass in the air, the vibration adding to butterflies nesting in her stomach that made her hesitate before walking into the bar. Part of her couldn’t believe she was actually doing this, but when Torian asked her to meet him she had agreed readily. Didn’t even have to think about it. It had been months since they had met on Taris and, despite keeping in touch through letters and calls, Noara needed to see him again. It felt like forever and no time at all had passed since then, like she could still feel his lips against hers, his arms around her.

To say Noara was more than a little confused by the strong pull she felt toward the Mandalorian, and a lot scared of it, would be an understatement of titanic proportions. It went against everything she was ever taught about the dangers of attachment and unrestrained emotions and for the first time in her life, Noara didn’t care. At least not enough to stop her from stepping inside the bar.

Inside was louder than she expected, voices overlapping the music - competing to be heard. Bodies gyrated together in the center of the space, moving along with the beat. Most of the tables were taken, either with large groups full of loud laughter and bright smiling faces or couples pressed close together to whisper to one another.

Scanning the room, Noara looked for a sign of her date. Like it had every time since they’d set up this meeting, the word made her breath hitch. She’d never been on a dare, never done something to blatantly against the Order’s teachings. Kira had teased her mercilessly about that, telling her what a bad example she was setting for her ‘impressionable’ young padawan, regardless of the fact she was the one helping choose an outfit. It had taken most of the day to decide on a purple sleeveless top and black leggings that were tighter than she was usually comfortable with.

Apparently the fit did amazing things to her assets and Kira assured her Torian would like it. Despite being younger, even if only by about a year, the other woman had far more experience outside of the Jedi Order’s influence. She didn like to talk about it, so Noara didn’t ask questions but always paid attention when Kira chimed in with advice that drew on those experiences.

Now that it was too late to back out, Noara couldn’t decide if it was nerves or excitement making her heart race. Was the outfit too much? Or leaving her hair down, letting Kira give it some loose curls? Was she reading too much into his invitation to get a drink? Torian hadn’t used the word ‘date’ after all. If he showed up in his armor, which she knew he wore in almost every situation, like this was nothing special and she was obviously expecting a romantic rendezvous she might just die of embarrassment.

After failing to spot Torian in the crowd, she made her way over to the bartender to wait. If a drink helped settle her nerves before she had to face him all the better. The bartender had just set her drink, a bright pink fruity cocktail, down in front of her when a hand landed on her shoulder. Noara spun around quickly and took a startled step backward, not noticing the way the edge of the bar dug into her back, when she saw Torian smiling at her.

“Sorry,” he said, not sounding sincere at all, “didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You just surprised me is all,” Noara said, letting her eyes drink in the sight of a man she had missed more than she knew she could miss anyone. Somehow in the course of their short partnership on Taris and the resulting long distance communications he had become one of the most important people in her life. She was staring at him for almost a whole minute before what he was wearing really sunk in.

Gone was the well worn, scuffed armor she had feared he would be in. Instead he was in a much more relaxed, casual outfit. Black leather jacket, open just enough to let her see the way his dark shirt stretched across his chest and make her mouth go dry. Swallowing, Noara forced her gaze up to his amused eyes and grasped for something to say. “Wow you like am… different,” she managed, barely catching herself before gushing over how amazing he looked. She fought back the urge to cringe in embarrassment, less than five minutes together and she had already made a fool of herself.

Was it too much to hope he didn’t notice? Everything she knew about Torian said he was sharp, always observant of his surroundings.

“Thanks,” Torian said with a laugh, reaching past her to grab a drink she didn’t notice him order and hand her the cocktail she had forgotten about. “You look am-different too.”

Noara dropped her eyes to stare at the cocktail in her hands, feeling her cheeks burning even before taking a drink. Why was it she could face down Sith lords, defend her beliefs against some of the darkest beings in the galaxy, but couldn’t manage to look a handsome man in the eyes without getting tongue tied. It was so much easier to talk to him through letters, when she had all the time she needed to find the words to sound like the mature, intelligent young woman she wanted him to see.

Torian stepped closer but she kept her face turned down until his hand settled on her lower back. Looking up, she was surprised by the expression on his face. His amusement was gone, instead he was looking down at her with a soft smile and something she suspected was admiration in his eyes. Ducking his head down, Torian kissed. It was just a quick brush of his lips against her but it made her heart race again, and this time she knew for sure it wasn’t nerves.

Shifting, Torian whispered in her ear. “You look amazing Noara.”

Swallowing around the sudden lump in her throat, Noara managed to gasp out a single word. “Really?”

“Really,” he answered, wrapping his arm more securely around her waist and starting to lead her toward the back of the cantina. “Let’s find somewhere to sit.”

Nodding, Noara followed him through the crowd with a sappy smile on her face. She was still nervous, and not sure what the night would bring, but she was fairly confident she had an answer to at least one of her questions. Even better, it was the answer she wanted. This was a date.

Hopefully, the first of many.

#swtor #Torian Cadera #Jedi Knight/Torian Cadera #OC: Noara Starspark #Ship: Mando and Jedi #My writing #Drabble request help #dingoat

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justkeeptrekkin · 5 years ago

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Celestial Bodies: the OCs!

Hi everyone! So, my 1920s ineffable husbands fic, Celestial Bodies, was received with the most ridiculously unexpected praise- I was fully prepared for people to hate this fic because it had so many original characters. But you all seemed to love them just as much as I do, and that really means a lot.

I had a think about this, and figured, hey, some people might be interested in hearing a big of back-story. If you want to find out more about their appearances, you can find it in this post here.

Julian Knackerton (Jules)

Jules has always stood out amongst the rest. As a child, people immediately identified him as ‘the strange quiet one’, the child who stood at the periphery and measured the situation before joining. So introspective and, to his teachers, almost frighteningly advanced in his studies. Jules has never considered himself that strange, really, just different. The two needn’t mean the same thing.

His was born in Kensington. His mother, nee Edi Abramovich and daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrant Lev Amramovich, married local businessman Fenston Knackerton. They had just one child, Julian, who showed signs of being incredibly empathetic and kind, if not very quiet. They had no concerns for him at all, despite what his school peers (and their parents) said about him.

Julian went to a local grammar school and subsequently to Cambridge, where he met Dodders and Bingy. They fast became friends, as not a single one of them performed any pretence- unlike some of the boys at the University. Jules never had so many friends as he did at Cambridge, and it’s for that reason that he loved the experience quite so much. He is unfailingly loyal to each of them. His parents often asked whether he had met any nice girls in Cambridge, their letters regular and comforting. He always responded: not yet, mother. I’m not at all interested in marriage and daresay I never shall be. I hope that doesn’t disappoint.

Perhaps it did disappoint, at first, and likely neither one of them understood. But they didn’t mention it any further, and when they saw just how comfortable he was without any prospect of a wife, they didn’t feel like they had to press the matter.

Jules has never had a job, living off the rewards of his father’s successful mattress business. Or at least, that’s the impression that the others have had.

His employers, the British Secret Service, know otherwise.

Xenophon Smith (Xeno)

Xeno will never work for the British Secret Service, and we can thank God for that. But that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a wonderful way of looking at the world that we could all learn from.

Xenophon Smith is one of four children, a middle child; the oldest, Alcibiades; second, Agrippina; then, Xenophon; then the youngest, Hektor. Each of the Smith children shone in one particular way or other. Alcibiades became a minor politician, being fairly skilled in rhetoric and encouraging the crowd. He is quite fierce, to this day. Agrippina is a spectacular sportswoman, and became one of the few women to play at the Olympic games, in swimming. Hektor is a chef, and cooks at the Ritz. (How he came upon this job is unknown to anyone in the Smith family. Xeno had told Crowley that his little brother was looking for a job, so perhaps it something to do with that? Xeno will never really know.)

Xeno’s skill, meanwhile, lies in his optimism. It is not a skill to be downplayed, although people have done so throughout his entire life. He is one of the only people amongst his friends to have not gone to university, instead, enlisted in the War.

He is a survivor of The Somme.

Stronger than anyone in his family, including his athlete sister and rhetorician brother, Xeno emerges from the tragedies of World War I and re-enters the social scene in London, living with his parents. He finds good in all things and all people, finding joy in many things that might help him forget the rest. Very few people can mentally survive such monstrosities as he’s seen, but Xeno does.

He meets Jules one day in the post-office queue, when Jules helps him find the right sized envelope to post a letter to his sister. How they ended up being so close, it’s hard to say, though it may have something to do with the fact that after their post-office meeting, they went to The Ritz and got extraordinarily drunk.

Shortly before Crossley Hall in 1923, Xeno thinks he’s actually quite ready to live on his own. After the heart-break at Crossley Hall, and no longer living with his family, he thinks he might, in fact, need a little help to get back up on his feet. And thus he meets Evans.

Evans is the first person to speak to him neither with patience nor impatience; only with interest, and perhaps something close to admiration. Xeno, at last, feels special.

Tilly Topping (Tilly)

Tilly is from a large family based in Birmingham. During the industrial revolution, her father, Samuel Topping, worked in a cutlery manufacturer, it being a city well-known during the Industrial Revolution for its metalwork. The owner of the factory, Gerald Smythe, had been a cruel employer and overworked his men and women. Samuel had led a rebellion against Smythe Metalworks, and ended up, inadvertently, being elected its new leader. Samuel Topping thus came into a sudden influx of wealth, formally bought the factory off of Gerald Smythe, and renamed it: Topping’s.

Samuel and his wife had already two young children, and moved from their smog filled little home to a countryside mansion. They had two more children before they had Matilda, aka Tilly. She is the youngest of the family and by far the feistiest. Her father, ironically, has never been keen on her attitude, fearing it would bring a bad name up on their family; her mother keenly encouraged it. Tilly still likes to spend time with her parents, but moved to London once she finished at school to see a little more of the world. Samuel Topping hoped that this would earn her a good husband from a wealthy, London-based family.

Tilly was dazzled by London and its nightlife. During her younger years, she found that boys were quite entertaining, but only to laugh at. This hasn’t changed in her adult years. It wasn’t until her first burlesque show in Hackney that she realised that she was extraordinarily interested in women, and not just in the mischievous girlish way she’d always told herself had been the case.

She has a brief but tumultuous relationship with a dancer from a club in Hackney, waking up one day to find that she’s been both robbed and left for a man, of all things. She mends her broken heart by finding some silly men with little pretence and nothing to hide- running into Dodders, Bingy, Xeno and Jules at Henley rowing regatta. They take her under their wing like they’ve known her all their lives, and they are immediately dedicated.

Although she has never been afraid of entering social spheres alone, with no recognisable name title, no one to link arms with her, she is far happier having her boys around. She especially loves how no-nonsense Jules is. And it is through Dodders that she meets a certain girl, pretty and perpetually pink cheeked. Constantly smiling and gentle in way that Tilly has never encountered.

Tilly has a pet guinea-pig called Sausage. This surprises any guests who come to her flat. Lottie Swaddle-Swidworth loves both of them.

Lottie Swaddle-Swidworth (Lottie)

Lottie went to Hanford Girls’ School in Dorset. Lottie specifically chose this girls’ school in the countryside because it has a lot of horses. There is very little that brings her as much joy as riding a horse, answering to no one and feeling no pressures of the world other than whether Sugar-plum the horse needs to stop for a drink.

The Swaddle-Swidworth family go back generations. They hail from Wiltshire and own half of the county. Lottie has a sister called Phillida, who is substantially more intellectually endowed than Lottie but not necessarily any better for it. The Swaddle-Swidworth parents were sad not to have borne a son, but were happy, at least, with two content daughters, should they marry well might inherit the estate. Phillida is three years older than Lottie and does just this; she finds a silly but impressionable man from Lancashire and they both inherit the family home. Phillida reigns there for many decades.

Lottie quickly realises that she, in her family’s eyes, is now superfluous. She is loved, but nothing she will do will make any of them proud. In a way, she is relieved; she has never had her sights set on greatness. But it naturally, of course, makes her feel dull and unappreciated (when she is in fact shining-bright and wonderful).

Seeing little else that she can do, she moves to London to live with a school friend. She misses the countryside enormously, and dreams of cuddling chickens and mucking out the stables. At night she dreams of fields, but during the day, she dines at the finest restaurants, shops at Harrods, and drinks at the best watering holes. It is at one of these watering holes that she meets Humphrey Doddering-Heights, and the both of them get on enormously well.

It makes perfect sense to get engaged the following day. It pleases both of their families enormously.

Lottie likes all of his friends, and they all like her. It all seems like it’s going perfectly, could she want anything more? It’s only when she meets the most astoundingly beautiful, powerful, witty woman on the planet that Lottie reassesses everything she knows about herself. (Perhaps those midnight games she played with the girls when she was at school, kissing each other for a dare, were a bit more meaningful than she’d realised at the time.) Tilly is larger than life, but kind and intelligent. She is unabashedly herself and she sparkles.

Tilly makes her feel like she can sparkle too.

Humphrey Doddering-Heights (Dodders)

Dodders comes from an old Devonshire based family. In England, you do still get these types of families, even after the economic drain of the war; they have generations of history, having owned estates in the countryside, having owned their land and seemingly going back forever and ever. If you walk down the corridors of Crossley Hall, you’ll see the esteemed Doddering family, once a strong line of soldiers, wise and sometimes cruel. You’ll see them marry into the Heights family for peace-keeping reasons, and over the years, each Doddering-Heights master portrait becomes a little less intimidating, a little less foreboding, and there’s possibly a little more creative licence used in making their jaws appear squarer than they probably were.

Dodders is the gentlest of them all, the softest product of the Doddering-Heights lineage. But by no means the least brave or good of heart. He has a younger brother, Eustace, whom he has done all he can to help out of the Doddering-Heights home; an oppressive place that was filled with dread and anxiety during their childhood. He’s learned to cling onto his golden-retriever smile and bouncing attitude, if not just to make his little brother smile. Life was often spent tip-toeing quietly downstairs so as not to disturb their parents, playing loudly in Humphrey’s room with toy soldiers. They weren’t allowed to play outside, or on the beach.

Sometimes, the butler Thomas would sneak them away to the dinghy for an afternoon, conspiring with their tutor (who would tell their parents they’d be going for an educational trip to the Roman ruins in Bath). Thomas would be the one to come running if they had nightmares; and Dodders would be the one to wipe his little brother’s nose when he cried.

Shortly after graduating (with an underwhelming qualification from Cambridge, having just scraped by in his exams) he left the Doddering-Heights estate and moved to London, where he lived off a monthly allowance from his parents- who assumed he was training to be a lawyer, soon to return to Devon. He ended up being fired quite swiftly from his job, and did not tell his parents. His little brother, hating Cambridge just as much as he had, ran away to live with him in London.

His parents think they’re supporting his training in London up until 20th February 1924, when he tells him he’ll be moving in with Bingy (who does end up having a job, and can hold one, too.) He adds to this that he is no longer engaged to Lottie. Their parents do not take this well.

Eustace marries a lovely girl from a Lincolnshire family, more old money that doesn’t look like it’ll dry out soon in the wake of the war. He is very happy walking dogs and doing little else. This, at least, pleases the parents.

Dodders is a naturally joyful man who’s used this demeanour to brighten everyone’s lives.

Particularly a certain-

Alistair Bingham (Bingy/Bing)

Bingy does not come from old money, but he does come from a background of relative privilege. His father is a doctor from a small town North of London, and his mother is an History teacher. Bingy inherited their wits, and gained something more that neither of his parents had; a sense of humour.

When he joined Eton, he prepared himself to hate it, knowing that his peers would all be children of politicians and Lords and Dukes, people who were far higher up the food chain than himself. At the tender age of 11 he ended up being put in a dorm with two rather brutish boys, twins of the Earl of Kent, and another boy. This boy was quite short and round; little did either of them know he’d shoot up to six foot five by the time he was seventeen. This boy was Humphrey Doddering-Heights, and he was the first person Bingy met at Eton.

When the others teased him for his relatively low social standing, Humphrey didn’t seem to care. More than that, he seemed to like Bingy, despite his serious demeanour. Perhaps because, through it all, Dodders knew how to identify someone who was actually dull, actually cold. Bingy warmed around Dodders immediately.

They became a duo very quickly, the other boys singling them out at first, hiding their books or leaving dog turd on their desks. After a while, people grew bored of teasing them. Bingy never retaliated, only coolly dealt with said dog turd without comment or a turned nose. There was something disappointing in that, for the bullies who lived with them.

Bingy has known that he loves Dodders since pretty much the beginning.

He graduates with a 2:1 at Cambridge in History, going through it all with Dodders. They find something in each other that they’ve never known from anyone else.

It seems perfectly natural to spend the rest of his life with Dodders.

#celestial bodies #my OCs #my writing #i can't believe how much people loved them <3

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film-logs · 4 years ago

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SAAN NAROON ANG BATAS?

Manila, the land of dreamers.

It has often been implied that if you want an escape from the mundane life, Manila is the place to go.

Manila is the capital of the Philippines, filled with opportunities, entertainment and luxuries. It is often portrayed as the city of hope for those residing in rural areas. “If you go to Manila, you’ll get rich!” is a narrative that gets pushed so much in Philippine media, and for a young impressionable me living outside Manila, I used to believe in that as well. Obviously things have changed now as I have grown and learned more, but for a time I did believe that working and living in Manila was the dream.

I did not grow up watching a lot of Philippine cinema. However, I do have a vague memory catching Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag (directed by Lino Brocka) on television. I am not sure if this is even the right film, but I do remember seeing the scene where the singing construction guy fell from the site somewhere in my early childhood. It was a scene that left quite an impact on me, and it still sits in the archive of my memories to this very day. But other than that, I had no clue as to what I was getting into as I started this film.

Overall, I would describe this as a film as slow. Not that being slow is a bad thing, but it really is just so slow. Right from the beginning up until the part before the third act, it was slow, taking it’s time to fully introduce our main character, Julio, a naïve country boy who ventured out to the streets of Manila in search of his missing lover. It took it’s time fleshing out his peers as well, giving the audience small glimpses of their lives in Manila. And it was not as pretty as one would expect.

Manila is the capital of the Philippines, yes. It is filled with opportunities, entertainment, and luxuries, yes. Manila is the city of hope, yes. But it is also the city of despair for many. It is introduced early on in the movie that life in Manila is going to be tough if you fit into the category of the penniless. And our characters? Well unfortunately, they meet that criterion. Julio’s peers are humble construction workers like him, earning barely enough money to support themselves, let alone their families. A hard day’s work means nothing when they earn so little, and that little sum is also being chipped away at by taxes. It was hard to survive in that world, but despite that fact, Julio was determined.

As the film progresses, we begin to learn the ways of Manila through the eyes of Julio. We learn how easy it is to get laid off work for saying the wrong thing, we learn how a death in the site is seen as a small scale event, even to the extent of it being a bother as hospitals are charging a sum of money that these workers do not have, we learn that it is not so easy to navigate the dark streets of Manila alone at night for there could be something or someone waiting in the shadows, ready to pounce on you. Julio’s character arc takes us through all the wrong corners of Manila, ranging from a poverty stricken population to the prostutition and sexual exploitation business that thrives in the late night. These all happen while he constantly pushes on his search for Ligaya.

Who is Ligaya? Well, Ligaya Paraiso is Julio’s lover. We are teased with her character from the very beginning, and are fed more information about her as the film goes on. She is a young, beautiful girl who was plucked out from her province and brought to Manila in promise of work and education. She is Julio’s main motivation for staying in Manila and entering all kinds of jobs just to survive as he searches for her.

There was a point in the film where I felt more uncomfortable that I would have liked, but I just thought about the quote “art is meant to disturb the comfortable” and moved along. It was when Julio dipped his toes into the world of male prostitution. We get introduced to what the business looks like, how some of these men aren’t even homosexual, but they still do it because it pays big bucks. They define it as part of their job, not part of their being. This made me think a lot about our sex workers. These people aren’t in that industry because they necessarily enjoy it, but they are in that industry because it is an industry that pays them the money that they need to live normal lives. I don’t think it’s right to demonize these people because just like you and me, they are just people who are doing a job because a, the money and b, for the people who consume their work. No one has the right to point fingers and say what they’re doing is bad because at the end of the day a moral compass does not save them from hunger and poverty. (Plus there are people who point fingers at these workers but then turn around and consume the same work that they are shaming, so who really is in the wrong here?)

This sexual exploitation theme is sprinkled throughout the whole film, from the small bits of offers from the men advertising their females, to Julio having an experience as a male prostitute for money, to Ligaya herself, which was whisked off to Manila only to become a prostitute herself. There were also several recurring themes such as poverty, shown through Julio’s peers, and even in Julio himself. There was also a social injustice theme, which was again shown through Julio’s peers and through Ligaya. This weirdly encompasses life during the Martial Law, the period that this film was made in. People were being ruled over by an iron fist, and the abuse of power is so prevalent in this film. The common folk were no folk, they were just stories waiting to fill up the tabloids. One wrong move and it could mean their life.

This social injustice is heavily included towards the end, as an implied murdered Ligaya just ended up to become news in the papers. This drove Julio to his breaking point, as he sought out justice for himself. Arguably, he did not take the right path. But that was the final straw, the final button pushed, and now he was off the edge. It was an action driven with pure rage, pure madness that I could almost forgive it. But alas, Julio had made the wrong choice as he was chased out and beaten, the people doing the deed even shouting out “Pumatay siya ng Intsik!”. This just goes to show that no matter how justified his action may seem to him and to us viewers, the people will always side with the powerful.

(Also, there is a small detail that I have noticed in this film. The name Ligaya Paraiso literally means Joyful Paradise. Interpret this as you will, but for me, her death is quite significant to the whole message of this film. A young, naïve country boy coming to Manila, the city of dreams, in search of his paradise. What does he find instead? That that paradise that he is so desperately looking for might not even be paradise at all. But I digress.)

This film is just so dense with meaning and message that I cannot even wrap my head around everything that this piece wishes to say. But I do know that it is a masterpiece within Philippine cinema, portraying a very raw, very wrong side of Manila that needs to be so rightfully shed light on.

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crescentharborrp · 4 years ago

Photo

BASICS

Name: Riley Jones.

Gender/Pronouns: cisfemale, (she/her).

Date of Birth: June 3rd, 1991.

Age: 29.

Hometown: Crescent Harbor, Washington.

Length of time in Crescent Harbor: 29 years, minus college.

Neighborhood: Hemlock Docks.

Occupation: Licensed Therapist.

Faceclaim: Margot Robbie.

BIOGRAPHY (trigger warnings: depression)

The Jones family were never the flashiest in town, just generations of simple, hardworking people. Much like the generations before, Riley’s father was a fisherman that worked his own business off the harbor. Her mother worked at the local grocery store, starting out as a cashier and eventually becoming the assistant manager. The two had met in high school, marrying shortly after so they could start their lives together. They never had much, but they had enough to get by. A few years into their marriage, Riley came into the picture, the first and only child that the Jones family would have.

The start of Riley’s childhood was quiet, but good. Her family was loving, she had friends, and did well enough in school. As she got into her high school years, however, things started to shift. Her mother changed, became distant, her personality night and day from the mother that Riley had always known. Things grew worse for a time before her father finally stepped in and they took her mother to see a doctor about the changes. Her mother was diagnosed with bipolar depression and now that she was able to get the help she needed things stabilized again. The shift had hit Riley pretty hard, so she threw herself into studying up on what had happened. Knowing how hard it had hit her own family, the budding idea of going on to college to become a therapist began for Riley. The thought of being able to help other families and individuals through their own struggles cemented the desire and Riley renewed her focus on school.

The family didn’t have the money to afford college, but working hard Riley earned a scholarship that would help her get started at least. Riley was accepted at UCLA, where she majored in cognitive psychology. The move out to Los Angeles was a big change for her, but she thrived in the environment. Her high school years had been spent focused on helping her mother, so being in college gave her a chance to come into her own and live her own life.

The freedom led to a few months of bad decisions for Riley. She went out most nights, joined a sorority, partied, and she blew through her scholarship money faster than she could afford to. By the end of her first semester, she found herself struggling to make payments, her bank account zeroing out. Her parents were already tight on money and Riley wasn’t going to ask them for help, trying desperately to figure out how to fund her education on her own. At the advice of one of her sorority sisters, Riley found herself applying at one of the local strip clubs that employed mainly college girls.

It was hardly the kind of job she’d ever wanted to see herself in, but it paid well enough to get her back on track. She had to cut back on a lot, but it was enough to keep her afloat. A few weeks before her first year was through, the owner of the club approached Riley with an offer. If she would agree to do a few favors for him, he would pay off the remainder of her four years of college. Riley didn’t question it, taking the money without a second thought. She ran a few odd jobs for the guy, not really sure what they were about, but decided not to question it any further.

The rest of her undergraduate studies went by in a flash. With everything already paid for, the stress of having to struggle for money was gone, allowing Riley the chance to focus on everything that actually mattered to her. She got more involved in her sorority, got involved with clubs and research projects, doing everything she could to get the most out of her college experience. By the time her four years was up, she had all but forgotten about the deal she had made that made it all possible.

Degree in hand, Riley had already sent out applications for graduate school, wanting to get a full spectrum of studies under her belt before starting her career. Knowing that once she started graduate school she would have little time for anything else, Riley wanted to do something crazy with her last summer before life really took over. Almost on a whim, Riley applied for and was cast on the television show Survivor, finding the adventure that she craved before she settled into her life. Much to her surprise, Riley found herself not just doing well on the show, but winning it.

With a cool million dollars in her bank account, Riley felt confident that she would be able to not only afford her Ph.D, but do so without having to work as well. Picking up and moving across the country, Riley settled in at the University of Florida, where she began working on her Ph.D in Counseling Psychology. It took five years of blood, sweat, and tears, but Riley graduated with honors, receiving her Ph.D from UF. The decision to move back to Washington and her hometown had been an easy one for Riley. She missed home, she missed her family, and she could think of no better place to put her degree to use than Crescent Harbor.

Moving back home, Riley purchased a quaint house on the harbor to live in, while starting up her own general therapy practice downtown. Riley has now been back for two years, settling into her job and life back in Crescent Harbor with a comfortable ease. She’s built up a fairly steady stream of business, finding it surprisingly easy to build a client base for such a small town. Everything seemed to finally be set when her past came back to haunt her.

The gentleman that she had made a promise to all those years ago came back into her life seemingly out of nowhere. Riley had put that part of her past out of her mind by that point, having thought her debt to the man repaid. A package came to her door filled with incriminating evidence against her, all of the “small favors” she had done for the man linking her to an array of criminal activity. The threat was clear and once again she was right back under the thumb of the man she had gotten herself away from. His offer was simple. She would use her office as a funnel of information, giving him enough dirt on the people she was spending her life trying to help so that he could extort them for anything he wished, and he would make sure that the pile of evidence against her never came to light.

Guilt over what she’s doing is crushing Riley, but she has no idea what to do about it. She doesn’t want to hurt the people that are coming to her for help, but she knows that she could easily end up in jail and lose her license. Even if she wasn’t a knowing participant in what had been happening, she’s under the impression she wouldn’t stand a chance in court if it came down to it.

PERSONALITY

+ sociable, adaptable, adventurous

- nosy, impressionable, impulsive

#town rp #city rp #lsrp #lsrpg #oc rp #margot robbie #riley jones #f #taken #hemlock docks #depression tw

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thatbangtanbloom · 6 years ago

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all that glitters || bts [3]

all that glitters | bangtan

prologue | chapter one|chapter two|chapter three

Characters: Jungkook, Taehyung, Namjoon, Jimin, Yoongi, Hoseok, Seokjin, Reader

AU(s): 1920s!AU, Mafia!AU, Historical!AU

Word Count: 3,255

Late springs in New York always proved to be grueling. Clouds lined the somewhat aesthetic atmosphere, hiding away the rain that would inevitably fall. There were the rainy days, causing havoc on the shabbily remodeled apartment buildings, with water leaking through thin roofs. Children were often inclined to pull daisies from people’s flowerbeds and said flowerbed owners often found themselves yelling at the aforementioned. The busy hustle and bustle meant daylight rising earlier and people leaving for work to get a head start on life, to achieve the American dream that was allegedly promised to those daring enough to take a risk. For many, spring symbolized new beginnings. For many, every cloud had its own silver lining.

Yet, you could not find your silver lining. Your routine, however habitual it may have been, was welcoming. You liked waking up at five in the morning to catch the bus to the nearest train station and then squeeze into the metro for a thirty-minute commute to downtown New York. You liked stopping at Sears and Roebuck to buy yourself a sandwich and spend ten cents on a strawberry milkshake for your lunch before reporting to the Yankees Stadium to catch any practicing players for interviews. You also liked working overtime at your small cubicle, just to make the same amount as your male counterparts. You liked having a routine. Until you no longer did.

Gone were the days of your usual routine, because it seemed that the Bangtan Boys were squeezing themselves into every crevice of your life. You noticed the raven-haired boy lingering near the metro station with glasses over his face at six-fifteen in the morning on Fifth Avenue. It was hard to ignore the blonde haired man in Sears and Roebuck as you ordered your strawberry milkshake when his eyes never left your figure, ignoring the waitress when she asked him what clubhouse sandwich he would like. And when you attempted to leave from work at the later time, there was an impressionable car at the corner with its lights on, that always turned off the moment your head peaked outside.

To put it simply, you did not see a single silver lining.

Taehyung was inclined to think clouds had their own silver linings too, especially with your monogrammed memo pad burning a hole into his freshly imported Guccio Gucci suit. His hair that once was an ash gray was now dyed black, matching his own busy eyebrows to give him a colloquial look. Though, it be in vain, for his features were not common in the hustle and bustle of New York City.. but it would do.

Ever since your little game of cat and mouse began a week ago in the speakeasy, Taehyung has been working around the clock to plan a way to lure you back to the speakeasy. He had dropped hints purposely, leaving a single flower at your desk with a note tied to it in efforts to draw you back. He had considered the idea of having Jungkook do the honors of returning your memopad, but the younger boy was shyer than he would like to admit and time was money. Every action one of the seven members partook in was a building block for the enterprise.

So here he was, arriving at your place of work only ten minutes before your regularly scheduled lunchtime with a single bouquet of flowers in his hand and a blue box dangling between his fingers as he walks over the steps and smiles prettily at the secretary.

“O-oh,” She is awestruck when her eyes fall over his dark alluring eyes and his masculine features. She can barely breathe when she notices how deep he stares into her, almost as though he could stare through her.

Taehyung knows that she is not the first woman to fall privy to his charms, so he does not hesitate for a moment to use them against hers. He had one objective and one objective alone - to get to you and to find out what information that you knew. “Darling,” He purrs and she swears that he is the devil incarnate himself. “My… my doll works here and I wished to surprise her. Her name’s Y/N L/N… Is it possible for me to go up there and visit her, darling?”

“Y-yes. Of course. Y/N? She should be on the third floor…” She stutters as Taehyung nods at her every word. She wonders if all men are able to stare that intensely and keep a platonic gaze. She thinks that he is one of one. “S-she covers the sports column from time to time, so she should be out-”

Taehyung sends her his prized boxy smile and he knows that she is a goner. “Darling, do you know if she is upstairs or not? I would hate to have come all the way to visit my dollface and she is not here…” His tone is sultry as he caresses each syllable of each word with his tongue. “Can I just.. Can I just go up there to see her?”

“O-of course! Let me just write you a small note…” She is absolute putty in his hands. She practically trips over herself writing down your cubicle number and department before batting her lashes up at him. “And if she is not here… feel free to come back and keep me company.”

Taehyung only winks in reply, not giving a verbal confirmation. As beautiful as she was, Taehyung had bigger fish to fry. You were at the top of his list, and he would be damned if he would let you escape him for a second time.

“For the last time, do you think Miller Huggins would let Chick Autry bat over Wally Schang? He is a seasoned player.” You lament with a frown as you sit down across from your editor of the sports column, Calvin Bush. He was three years your senior and biologically male to the point where he felt that it was quintessential to run everything by him first. At times, you questioned if he actually took anything that you said seriously or if he only disagreed with you because you did not have the same biological makeup as him.

Calvin scoffs in response as he rolls up his sleeves, glancing over the New York Times’ sports statistics and shakes his head. “Look, I get it. You’re trying to commit yourself to the big leagues, but do not let a pretty face fool you. Chick Autry is the present. Wally Schang is the past. Do you think that because Schang has more experience that he has more precision? That doesn’t suggest causation.”

“I could say the same for you,” You murmur under your breath as you sit back down in front of your typewriter. You were certain Wally Schang would be played against the Washington Senators before Chick Autry would. Breakout star or not, Schang had the consistency that Autry lacked. “Autry was just recruited a couple of weeks ago. He may have the tenacity and the ambition, but precision is something he lacks. We’ve seen that in how he can only bat with his right.”

He pauses, as though considering your words. He did have a point. While Autry was a top pick, it was news that he was having trouble adjusting from his school league to the Majors. But who was he to let a woman one-up him that much? “Not everyone can be as skilled as Schang..” He ends up conceding, deciding to focus his attention on the way your shoulders look under your blouse. That was one perk of the job. “Say, so you think that we could discuss Schang’s greatness a bit more at Sears?”

“That is exactly what I was saying,” You reply, thinking that Calvin had reached some sense in his head. You do not even notice the hidden meaning of his words. You sigh as you go back to writing your article, being greeted with the Courier font before you hear the clearing of your throat.

“I do not believe I appreciate you staring at my woman that way.” A voice says from in front of you and your eyes furrow. A bouquet of roses blocks your view of the man who spoke and you frown. You certainly were not anyone’s woman but your own.

Calvin scoffs in reply as he stands up straight to meet the gaze of the taller man. He almost feels intimidated, observing the tweed suit that the unfamiliar man wears and how deep the timbre of his voice is. “I did not know that she was taken.”

“Well now you do.” The voice quips with a slight scoff before the owner of the voice kneels in front of you to place the bouquet of flowers into your arms. “My doll.. Mon chéri, my Y/N… I have missed you so.” He purrs into your ear while sending daggers to Cavin. You immediately recognize that purr from anywhere and you know that it is none other than the silver-haired man from the bar… well, now the black-haired man at the bar.

“I am not taken.” You deadpan before unwrapping Taehyung’s arms from your body before standing up. Your blood runs cold that he has managed to know where your job is… Well, it was not very hard for him, considering that it was the only other address that your roommates, Elizabeth and Margot, had given him. “Please leave.”

Taehyung forces a tight-lipped smile as he notices Calvin’s lingering interest before pulling you into a tight embrace. His chest is warm and welcoming despite his intimidating aura. He pulls you between the small aisle and places a soft kiss to your forehead before whispering softly into your ear, “Would you rather waste your time with bluenose* over here or would you like to get information on that Bangtan Rouge place you’ve been scoping?” His voice is low enough so that only you could hear it and your heart skips a beat at how close he holds you. “You’re not a damsel in distress, but some of them won’t take a hint.”

You hate how well he reasons with you, but you concede with the agreement that he will give you the information that you want. “It sure is the berries*.” You murmur as you pull away from him and force a smile. “Can we talk about this in private?”

“I thought you would never ask, baby.” Taehyung absorbs himself all too quickly into the role as your quarreling lover and passes you the flowers before sending one last glare to Calvin like any self-respecting actor would before grabbing your jacket and placing it onto your shoulders. “Let’s go.”

The atmosphere is tense as Taehyung immediately sits in the corner of the Sears and Roebuck with your memo pad still burning a hole in his pocket. He is smirking at you as though you hold the key to all of his problems, and quite frankly, you do. The elder members of the group had been ridiculing him from letting you get away in the first place when he had the largest window of opportunity of bumping you off*.

“You promised to tell me about Bangtan Rouge.” You grumble after you have taken three half-hearted bites into your club sandwich. It was unsettling that Taehyung had paid for you when you knew that you were a fully autonomous woman. Sure, it was 1924, but you would be damned by letting this man upend your life without lifting a snap of his figure.

Taehyung smirks, his red lips contouring into the perfect arch to display his amusement. “I did promise to tell you about Bangtan Rouge, but I think that it is necessary that you tell me first what you know. Would it not be a drag if I just rattled off everything that I know?”

“I think you are pulling my leg here.” You retort with another bite of your sandwich. You glance out to the window, noticing the way that the school children begin to file their way in, immediately running to the candy machines to deposit nickels and dimes to attain sugary euphoria. You wish that Taehyung was that easy to satisfy. “Why would we beat around the bush? I am well aware that you came here to ask me what I know, and the truth is, I know nothing.”

Taehyung scoffs as he leans back into the faux leather suits. He looks like a million dollars, seemingly out of place in the small time diner. You notice how his eyes soften at the sight of the kids playing so happily and you almost forget that he is a complete stranger to you who quite possibly has your very existence’s timeline in his hands. “Then you would not mind telling that to my Boss.”

“Your Boss?” You nearly scoff in reply at the idea of meeting someone who one openly referred to as ‘Boss’. That was the classic signature for mafia talk. The very last person that you wished to meet was Boss.

Taehyung smirks before he eyes your sandwich and slides the small ceramic plate in front of him to take an eager bite before letting his arm relax on the back arm rest. “Yes. Don’t worry, we have no intentions of making you a moll*.”

“Moll?” You yelp in surprise before Taehyung leans forward to cover your mouth with his hand to silence you. The very idea of being called one shook you to your core and you could not even fathom such things. “I am not and nor will I ever--”

Taehyung finds it amusing to see you freak out in such a way. To put it simply, he thought of you as the cat’s meow. He did not know many women who were not as entangled in life in the underground as you, but he did know a self-respecting girl when he saw one. It was not to say that he did not respect the women he often frequented with, but it was less prominent than how he felt it with you. “You’re a regular sheba*, you know?” He replies with a small grin as his brows wiggle suggestively at the way you eagerly drink your milkshake. “It’s a shame that you witnessed such things. Though, I’ve always wanted a girl with a deadline.”

“I am not that girl.” You retort as you force yourself to look away from Taehyung and his evident prowess. Something about him was overwhelming, and you are unsure if it is his attractiveness or his level of conceitedness. “I am only a girl who wants to be the head editor and bring back the Times to where it should be. If you are not going to give me the information that I desire or patronize me, do not waste my time.” You reply before putting down your milkshake and forking out a couple bills onto the table.

Taehyung chokes on the sandwich at the sudden statement, “I beg your pardon?”

“I do not know who you are, nor what you are capable of… but I will not let that deter me.” You reply adamantly before you swallow your courage and force yourself to walk around the booth and kneel over him. “All my life, men have tried telling me what to do, when to get married, who to marry, how many children I should have, and practically dictate my entire life without my say in it. You will not be one of those men.”

And Taehyung sits there, utterly gobsmacked and surprised that you had the courage to speak to him that way when your fate is dictated by a mere tug of a string from his hands. Yet, he finds himself all the more intrigued in you. It is almost instantaneous, as he watches you leave the Sears and Roebuck and cross the street fiercely through the crowd of businessman and schoolchildren. He almost thinks you look like something off a silver screen, a modern-day woman. And if he did not realize it before, he definitely knows that he will not let you go anywhere now.

The rest of your day remains uneventful as you go through the motions of listening out the latest statistics of the New York Yankees in your all-too familiar best friend of Courier Font until the lights outside have begun to grow dark. You are left even more unsatisfied as you hear the dewdrops crash against the glass window, distorting your margins and forcing you to groan when you have to start over every so often because of your perfectionist tendencies. You curse yourself, knowing that you would have to run to the subway to try to avoid getting pneumonia, much less in the dark. You had been warned many times about leaving so late, especially alone, but you were a strong woman. A couple years in Chicago had taught you what it meant to grow tough after leaving your original small town.

Though, you are more surprised to find someone waiting for you when you leave the building with a dimpled smile and an umbrella in his hands. You do not recognize him from anywhere, but you can not help but grow weary as you think back to Taehyung’s statement of you needing to meet his boss. Had this been him?

“Y/N L/N?” His voice is softer than you expect, matching the gentle tone of his voice as his deep brown eyes meet yours. You immediately wreck your brain to try to remember him seeing from before but draw nothing.

You swallow hard before nodding slowly. “That would be me, but who is asking?” You ask, a bit nervous to hear his reply.

“Someone who you will be knowing well in the future.” He says with a soft chuckle, as though he has told you the most charming joke in the world before he hands you a small, beige packaged envelope and the umbrella. “I believe this is something that belongs to you, but I have conditions. Review them and get back to me in three days if you want it to be worth your while.”

You do not even have to open it to know what is inside as you awkwardly hold the umbrella in your hand. You are no longer the one being drenched in water, but now it is him, standing six feet tall with his beige trench coat. He looks like he stepped out of a silver screen film. “I do not wish to have any part in this.”

“It is not a choice.” He replies with a smirk on his face before shaking his head. His voice is sweet like velvet, sickeningly sweet to the point where you question if it is stable to have such thoughts cross your mind. “Do you think that we chose this? It chooses you.. And, you, my lovely butterfly, are our latest addition.”

And that was the last words he spoke to you before climbing into his car and disappearing into the night. You almost wish that you would have been alone until you open up the envelope slowly to look into its contents - your lovely monogrammed memopad with a single note attached to it.

Even angels come down to play with demons at times.

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

1920s Decade Specific Terms:

Bluenose - prude

Berries - something that is attractive of pleasing

To bump off - to murder

Moll - a gangster’s girl

Sheba - a woman with sex appeal

- - - - - - - -

Don’t be a silent reader! Feel free to send your reactions! :)

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coeurdastronaute · 6 years ago

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Titan 4

Previously on Titan

From the elevator, the guests could hear how busy the penthouse grew with every ding and opening of the doors. Every light was on, and every door was opened leading out onto the balconies and patios. Albert slept uneasily on a pile of coats on the guest bed, and no one knew as they were distracted with re-welcoming the returned lovebirds. The murmur of friends and family, mixed with the music and the evening and the summer breeze that whispered in from the balcony.

The dining room table was full-- glasses of mixed levels, empty and full bottles of wine, lots of amazing food. The faces around it all laughed and talked over and across of each other, while the evening grew long and deep into the night, unnoticed by anyone at all.

While it was once very empty, despite Kara’s best attempts, the penthouse warmed with its new furniture and nicknacks. After just a month back, it all felt still new and familiar at the same time. The city was the same, the work was the same, and yet everything was skewed slightly, and they were different people.

As everyone finally sat down, as Kara finally finished fluttering around the table, and Lena finished topping off glasses and chatting with Eliza about some shared research methods, as Jss mocks James for his cover story, and earns a laugh from Kat who yells down the table for Lucy to recall a time in Budapest, and so on and so forth, the couple finally found themselves sitting close together at dinner.

Kara winked at Lena between a smile and a talk with her sister. Lena smiled at all of it and decided that she needed more nights like that.

“Thank you everyone, for coming to this dinner, and I guess a welcome back party,” Kara stood from her chair after earning a slight nudge from Lena.

The voices chattered their approval, clapping their hands and making the host blush slightly.

“But we didn’t invite you here just as a re-house warming.”

“Are you leaving again?” Alex interrupted.

“Adopting?” Eliza smiled over her glass of wine.

“Engaged?” Nia squealed.

“Close. Um,” Kara gulped and looked at Lena. “We wanted everyone here to tell them-- well… we had to explain-- about how… see--”

“What Kara is trying to say,” Lena stood and rubbed Kara’s shoulder. “Is that before we came back, I asked Kara to marry me.”

“I knew it!” James shook his head as he wagged his finger, leaning forward at the table. “I told you Lucy.”

“And we got married,” she continued, the shock registering quite quickly. “A very quick afternoon trip to the courthouse, and a honeymoon planned for the summer.”

The quiet was a noticeable difference from the hubbub of the party. Kara gulped again and sipped her wine more eagerly. She felt Lena grip her shoulder and then hug her bicep tight as she could. It was an anchor when Kara very badly wanted to float away and disappear.

At one end of the table, Eliza looked to J’onn for confirmation, earning a slight nod as he smiled into his glass. In the quiet, the mother looked at both of the girls, the same ones she watched grow up together and face some of the most difficult things anyone could imagine-- and she saw how right it seemed.

With a small movement, the matriarch pushed out her chair and made her way around toward the center of the table, where she paused near the couple.

“I am so happy for you, both,” Eliza smiled, eyes growing glasses. She hugged Lena and Kara to her.

The table lashed out with its energy, disbelief and joy raged together in smiles and hugs and jokes and cheers. Down the line, the gobsmacked members of the makeshift family shared in on the celebration because they were too surprised to do much else.

“Welcome to the family,” Eliza smiled as she held Lena’s cheeks. She hugged her tightly and Lena clung to the motherly figure as tightly as she could, burying her nose there.

Among the hugs and all, the mother swallowed Lena in an embrace and kissed her cheek before whispering how much she loved her and wanted her in her family. Lena cried, she couldn’t help it and she hated how happy it made her.

“Does this mean no wedding?” Alex furrowed. “I thought you would want the whole wedding experience.”

“Um,” Kara squinted slightly and looked to her wife. “I think we’re okay without it. It was more important that we just committed, to be a team.”

“But the fancy dress, and the reception, and your family?” Maggie offered, swooning at the thought of her own as she looked at the ring Lena put on.

“We didn’t think you all would mind missing a rather large swaray,” Lena shrugged.

“It’s just something to think about.”

Kara offered a smile and wrapped her arm around her wife’s waist.

“A nice dress would be fun,” she shrugged.

When she was seventeen years old, Lena Luthor fell in love with two things at the exact same time. One, was her beautiful, kind, funny best friend, who had hair like wheat and eyes like the ocean, who ate all of the snacks she set out and still wanted more, who liked to sit and soak up the sun until her skin was burnt.

The second, of course, was the complex system of nerves that connected the bran to the rest of the body. During an anatomy class geared toward mechanical studies, Lena fell absolutely head over heels for the way the body worked and how it could heal and adapt, and more important, how tiny impulses that fired at alarming speeds operated the simplest of movements at a near constant pace. It was a computer, and she was obsessed with computers.

It became her life’s mission to love and understand each of her passions, one she took up very eagerly.

“We had a deal, Sam,” Lena shook her head as she dug into the open guts of a computer-esque system that took up a rather large desk in the corner of the building.

“We did, and you were supposed to be living a stress-free life in South America, but we’re compromising.”

Big brown eyes waited anxiously, surveying the working hands as she leaned against the desk. She was reluctant to admit her job was easier with Lena back. The mega-corporation was a multi-headed beast that required many skilled wranglers, and Lena wasn’t apt to hire many of them, because that would involve trust.

But she had a weakness for the ones she did.

“I’m supposed to be planning my honeymoon, just so you know.”

Lena didn’t look up from her work as she spoke, but rather surveyed after soldering.

“It’s a quick trip, and then you can get back to being ridiculously adorable with Kara. I can’t make it there and to the conference in Paris, where I was summoned.”

“I’d rather answer to the EU assembly than go to Metropolis.”

“And I’d rather go speak at the university, but they settled for you, and it’s commencement. Think of all the impressionable kids that need to hear your words.”

Flattery wasn’t as effective as it was on most, but Sam knew it got her somewhere with her boss. She also knew that Lena was fighting it for reasons other than wanting to stay home all of a sudden.

“The deal was, I do busy work and help with the management side of my company, in exchange for two uninterrupted days of research,” she reminded her appointed president of the company that bore her name. “You do your thing, and I get to do mine. I keep strict hours. I’m learning to cook.”

“Kara can order out for a night,” Sam reminded her. “She can take Ruby for pizza. Then both of them are fed, and hopefully one will keep the other out of trouble.”

“That’s too much responsibility for Ruby.”

“Fly in for the evening, do your speech, shake some hands. The press will be fantastic, and after your marriage news broke, we kind of need something else in the headlines.”

“First, Eliza guilts me, and then Maggie. I didn’t expect you to also be in on this conspiracy to make me have a wedding.”

“No one is making you, I think we just would have liked to have been there,” she shrugged. “And the press loves a good story.”

“There’s no story,” Lena grumbled, exasperated and annoyed. “She’s not some stranger I picked up on the street.”

“A quickie marriage, a swift and quiet return after fleeing in the night-- it’s a very particular story.”

“I’m going to go on this trip, just to get away from all of you.”

“You’ll go then?” Sam didn’t wait. She hugged her friend and earned a grimace before melting. Lena Luthor wasn’t the hardest person to convince when she felt something. “Think of it as a pre-honeymoon,” Sam sang as she wiggled her eyebrows and made her way back towards her own office.

The penthouse was alive as Kara trudged her way home, slightly sloppy from the sudden shower that popped up on her commute home from a long day of hunting down a lead to a very old story she hoped to turn into a rather long article. She expected a few hours of quiet. Thursdays were Lena’s night at the lab, but after her day, Kara was excited to see her wife.

She hadn’t necessarily gotten used to that word-- wife. Kara wrestled with her coat as she tugged the sticky fabric from her arms and fiddled with the ring on her finger. Lena Luthor was her wife. They were forever. The seventeen year old in her was still kind of surprised by it.

Two months back, and they were a married couple that lived in the same city that was nearly torn apart because of them, and that was challenging. Maybe Lena planned n the joys of the first year of marriage as the thing that helped them get over the hump.

“Son of a --”

The pans rattled in the kitchen, blurring out the inevitable swearing.

“How hard is it to make a damn lasagna?” Lena complained as she stared at the mess in the pan.

The rest of the counter was covered in food and bowls, and the smell was a little different, not exactly what Eliza or even Alex could mix up.

“Hey, honey,” Kara muttered as a particularly despondent Lena furrowed at her mess. “I didn’t expect you home… and cooking?”

“I really wanted some comfort food, and Eliza’s lasagna is my favorite, but I can’t get it right,” she pouted, swirling the goopy mess in the pan. “And Sam is making me go to Metropolis.”

“Hm, okay interesting.”

The former hero slowly circled, avoiding her wife only to reach around and fill up two glasses of wine from the half empty bottle on the counter. Sometimes there was no really understanding Lena and her moods, there was simply surviving them.

“Did you see that article?” Lena asked, taking out more things to chop and cook.

“Mhm.”

“Prison paroles employment and education plan.”

“Mmm,” Kara nodded into her glass of wine as she sipped and watched.

“He’s an ass. I should have burned that house down in Metropolis. I should have emptied his accounts. All of them.”

“Yeah.”

“And I have to go to Metropolis. I didn’t even want to come back to National City.”

The pan clanged into the sink as Lena gave up her struggle and tossed it aside, distraught at her failure and everything else.

She was new to the marriage thing, but Kara knew better than to point out the fact that her wife wanted to come back-- felt the need to come back, were the exact words. She definitely wasn’t going to point that out though. She definitely wasn’t going to take the brunt of the pent up anger that was evident toward the lasagna.

“Hey, look, I poured you more wine,” Kara offered, kissing her wife’s cheek and handing over the new cup.

“I have to go to Metropolis, and I have to learn how to make lasagna.”

“Sit, yeah, sit down and drink,” she tutted.

“Why did you make me come back?”

“Because I am a terrible person, and I am only happy when you’re miserable,” Kara explained as she started to dig through the cabinet.

“Don’t say that, you’re spectacular,” Lena disagreed eagerly. “You’re my wife. You can’t say things like that.”

“Before I could though?”

“Well no.”

On the space she cleared, Kara began her work as best she could, prepared to provide sustenance to her worried wife. Sometimes, she was learning, making a peanut butter sandwich after a long day and drinking a very expensive bottle of wine was all that being married meant.

“I’ll go with you, if you want,” Kara offered as she cut the sandwich in half.

“It’s just for a night.”

“Still. I like a night away. A fancy hotel with the good soaps and all that privacy.”

With a smile, Kara handed over half of her sandwich to her wife.

“Are you…. Do you want to spend money?”

“Shut up.”

Lena smiled into her glass while she picked at the sandwich. She didn’t worry about the mess and she didn’t think too hard about much else than a trip with Kara. That was how she survived most of the time.

“We came back here as a team,” Kara explained, her blush moving to her ears as she spoke with conviction. “I’d go anywhere with you. You don’t have to do it alone.”

“Thank you.”

“Good. I’ll thank Sam for giving us a vacation,” she smiled before taking a big bite.

“I have to work.”

“Right, yes, but hotel sex.”

“Today was a really shitty day before you came home,” Lena sighed contentedly as she shared the rest of her sandwich after her wife inhaled her own part. “And you’re slightly damp still.”

“The hazards of marrying a Luthor-- perpetually damp.”

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