#she’s not just protective of people who are 100% perfect she’s willing to help those who literally prettied her up for slaughter

[hana-bobo-finch]

I fear the hunger games brainrot has set in again in anticipation of SOTR………..anyway appreciation for the trio of colorful birds the prep team

[raayllum]

I think sometimes the way I approach fic / meta writing / analysis stems from how I character build and write my OG stuff as well, because while the classical writing advice is about asking "what does your character want?" I've always found it most useful to ask "What does your character want, and what are they willing to justify to get it?"

(Asking how they justify their actions is also incredibly useful but more on that later.)

For example, when ('good') characters are under stressful situations and respond well regardless, we take that as being indicative of who they Truly Are—heroic, helpful, selfless, often even compassionate, etc, and when antagonists behave that way, we dismiss it as just glory hounding or being selfish, when it can Be multiple things at once.

When ('bad') characters respond poorly to stressful situations—threatening harm, using dark magic to saved loved ones, being angry and cold hearted—we take that as who they are, and when it's the protags, we say they're stressed or coerced or any number of things... that are true for the antags often, too! And still true even if you don't like them or have as much compassion towards them.

But unfortunately sometimes people are rarely inclined to do the opposite. They're rarely inclined to take antagonists' good moments as honest statements of their character because "well they're mean/evil" and often dismiss protagonists' complicated or less than stellar choices because "well they're good and they feel bad" (Viren saying he'll never forgive himself for the things he's done even when they saved his son, and Claudia crying over what she's done to save her father? yeah those scenes don't exist anymore sorry).

The fact of the matter is that, at least in TDP and in many other works (including my own), actual antagonists are not always evil and awful and morally bankrupt 100% of the time, and actual protagonists are not always perfect or good or making the right choice (because sometimes there isn't one, tbh).

Who your character is at their best and their worst, regardless of circumstance, is ALL of who they are. It all has to be taken into account. No cherry picking. Rayla can be selfish and dismissive and a liar who routinely fails at whatever she sets out to do and is awful at communicating, and Viren can love his kingdom and his family and genuinely believe that's what he's doing everything for, and neither encompasses their whole character. A perfect example is Claudia, who we cheer for when she chooses Soren over the world-saving mission of the egg in 2x07, and despair at when she chooses Viren over the world-saving mission of maybe not freeing the dangerous imprisoned Startouch elf in S4 and S5. Same principle, character, motivation, different circumstance, but we're happy about Soren (because he's not Viren) and bummed about Viren (because he's not Soren), and because character traits are consistent, and whether those traits are good or bad is inherently circumstantial. Claudia's loyalty can be great, and it can be a terrible, awful justification. Both of those things are true.

To be clear, this isn't to argue for false equivalency: Viren and Claudia and other antagonists are far more often Wrong than the protagonists are, and the protagonists are routinely more Right than our two favourite dark mages are. TDP likes its complications and circumstantial stuff, but there's still some things that are Bad No Matter What (like gaslighting your child, or routine dehumanization). And some of our associations are because antagonistic characters tend to be routinely cruel and mean, which are part of the horrible things they do, and protagonist characters are routinely kinder and more compassionate to the people around them, and protecting each other / innocent people is part of what makes them a good person, but... There's no inherent difference between a lot (not all, but some) of the actions the characters across the board take, particularly in arc 2, just their perspective and who we're personally more attached to and thereby more willing to justify their decisions surrounding.

Like idk my main WIP protag buries people alive en masse and tortures someone vindictively because they killed her friend and I'd still classify her as a Good Person (fictionally), and it's just always wild to me when people don't take All Parts and Choices and Relationships of a character into account especially because TDP spells it out for us over and over that we Should with quite literally every single character, whether those actions are good or bad:

Once again I am asking for encompassing wholes and character nuances where the only time a character should be like "well it's totally fine that you did a Thing actually" (Rayla towards Callum's dark magic use or Callum towards Rayla lying to/stealing from him) or "totally not okay that you did a thing" (Runaan about Rayla sparing Marcos, or Claudia doing dark magic) is taken as an aspect of Character Bias, not a definitive Narrative get off the hook slant or condemnation, because neither of those things Get us anywhere in a writing or analytical sense thank you

[peoplesrazor]

Okay, time to talk a little Arcane, I guess.

I'm choosing one of Mikaila's posts simply because it's shorter. Both she and Lily, as well as some of their stans, are pushing this weird Oedipus thing. It's not only weird, it's not even true. Felicia, Cait and Jinx don't really look alike, the narrative doesn't do anything to support this, and it's such a reach, someone has to have pulled something going there.

I think what really gets me is there are some real issues with the show that you could be addressing, instead. Personally, I loved it; I think it was well done and most importantly, fun to watch, but nothing is perfect. Why not just join the discourse about one of the more common complaints?

Here, Mikaila and Lily, let me show you some examples. I'll pick some complaints I've heard from people who clearly watched it, unlike Lily, and I'll address them. For some, I may even offer a counter.

To be absolutely transparent and above board, I'll choose complaints that I either somewhat agree with, or can at least see the reasoning behind. I won't accuse anyone of poor media literacy, outright say anyone is 100% wrong, or try to make people feel bad. No easy dunks here.

Warning, this ain't short. It's totally possible to skip my attempt at discourse here and still get my point about real complaints. If you have seen it, I'm sure you have your own pro and negative thoughts on it. Just imagine the discourse around those. For those who want my thoughts:

The ending is centrist.

The show started out centrist. Sometimes narratives are. I'm very acab and pro-disruption/rebellion, myself. That's not always what a story is about. They probably pushed the pro-Zaun/ rebellion aesthetic too far, but they weren't exactly subtle about what they wanted to happen.

Look at Vander and Vi in season one. Vander has tried the civil war route. And it got people killed. He tried the violent route, and Silco rose from those ashes. Now he wants to find another way to uplift Zaun. If it means making deals, he'll make deals. If it means turning himself in to keep the enforcers from tearing down what he's built, he will.

Vi goes through the same arc. She tries to rob someone; it goes wrong, bringing the enforcers down on them. She tries attacking Silco's group in a rescue attempt; Vander, Clagger and Milo end up dead. She yells at and slaps Powder in rage and frustration; she ends up captured, in jail, and separated from her sister for almost a decade.

Less violent, but alone also doesn't work well for her, though.

Even just helping Cait investigate what's going on as a means of finding her sister ends up with her injured, Cait giving up her only means of protection to cure her, and them surrounded by goons. When going to the council doesn't work, she goes to Jayce for weapons. And Jayce ends up killing a child.

She tells Cait not to shoot Jinx when she has a chance to stop her, and Jinx blows up the council and kills Cait's mom.

For Vi neither peaceful nor violent seem to work as long as she's acting impulsively and on her own.

It's really not that out there for the Vi at the end of season one to join up in season 2. She just wants to end all this strife and is willing to try working with Cait and the enforcers. Like Vander, she's not looking to maintain the status quo, but rather, to move away from it however slowly and with as little destruction as possible.

Vi/Cait didn't get enough of an arc in S2.

Agreed, somewhat. They threw them both into a pit of despair and while I think they got them out somewhat okay, they didn't really show us enough of the climb.

We should have seen a bit more of Vi getting better after her pit-fighter/drinking phase. I don't think a hug from her dad would instantly fix that, though a reunited family might very well go a long way. Cait gets short-shifted in the growth department, as well. She either should have been more outwardly suspicious of Ambessa earlier, or we should have had more scenes of her catching on. She is, at heart, something of a detective. Just show us some signs she's figuring it out and playing her own game.

She seems to turn on a dime when it comes to this.

Speaking of:

Cait helps free Vander/Warwick just because she's reunited with Vi and Vi calls her Cupcake.

Not what happened, but first, let's address the nickname. Yes, Cait's eyes widen because it effects her, but that's not what's happening. Vi calling her Cupcake isn't sweet and endearing. Vi is reverting back to when they first met. It's flirty, but it's meant to highlight the differences in them. It's a defense mechanism.

As for Cait, she's already suspicious and turning from Ambessa. She's also following the same person as Vi. Secondly, she now finds out the beast they are supposed to be tracking is Vi's father. Maybe that's another hint that there is more to this than she's been let in on; maybe she she just can't take another family member from Vi and maybe it's a small way to start making up for the things she's done.

You don't have to love that story beat; I didn't particularly like the execution; but that is what happened.

Season Two had pacing issues.

It did. The only real counter I have for this is that I think it looks worse because season one's pacing was so pristine. That's not a compliment. We know they can do it. They just didn't do it this time. So, it's kind of worse, in a way.

I think I'm going to blame this on scope. They had such a big story they wanted to tell, but they had arcs to complete, ships to land, possible spin-offs to set up. It was too much.

I don't think they necessarily needed another season, but they could have really benefitted with one or two more extended episodes.

Too much symbolism, call-backs, parallels, and micro-expressions.

It's perfectly fine not to enjoy those things. It's also okay to complain about them in a story you otherwise like. I do take issue with calling the writers lazy for this or not recognizing that, like it or not, it was an actual choice they made when deciding how to tell their story.

First, it's not lazy. If anything, telling part of your story through these things takes more work. It has to make sense and it has to do what you intended. Making up with your partner on the same street corner you were on when you fought has narrative weight. Finding a twenty on that corner years later makes a lot less sense.

It takes effort to do what you want it to, is what I'm saying.

Secondly, this was a choice. Amanda Overton has confirmed that they made some choices in how to make the characters stronger. They added these little moments, not in every scene, but usually once or twice an episode where there would be something, an expression, call back, something, that would reward the viewer with just a little bit more information about the character. Could be as simple as the reveal of the back tattoo or as deep as Jinx's flying base having bunny ears. If you noticed, you got more out of that moment, if you didn't, you could still follow most of the story.

Again, it's okay not to like it, but it's not okay to pretend it was lazy, or to say it happened because of time limitations or something that happened on accident.

That's it for now.

Obviously there are others. People have issues with the jail scene. People feel some of the story got shunted for shipping. Some people didn't like Jinx dying/disappearing. There is a lot. There always is at the end of show.

And that's okay. As much as I call out people like Lily, I really am not effected if other people don't like a show I enjoy. Honestly, we all have things we love that we know aren't well done. I just don't like when people want to lie about it to get clout and rile up a fanbase and when they attack the creators simply because they didn't like their show.

I, myself, don't like every choice they made; I don't like some of the execution, that is not the same as saying the whole show was poorly written.

And I don't have to make up things to talk about it.

[vacate-et-scire]

Hihihi! I was wondering if i could have a romantic blue lock match up? Thank you!

She/her, 5’1, ENTJ, and a gemini, im fully korean, fluently speak korean, and learning French, German, and Russian at a mid A1ish level.

I have mid length hair, dark brown and dark honneyish eyes, i have a normal sized frame, and curvy.

Personality wise, my friends would describe me as protective, alittle argumentative, and really loyal. Im not scared to get into a fight/physical fight for my family or friends. But i love joking around with my friends and taking care of them, im usually extroverted but sometimes when the weather is bad or whatever i get all sulky and quiet, i would say im really more emotional than rational, and i can be alittle rash at times, i care alot about my appearance and i usually always take a makeup bag w me and a mirror, im also learning how to do my nails by myself 

Some things i like are, taking care of myself, ex) hair care, skin care esc, and i love love love shopping and the color pink, i also really like cute things, like plushies, mostly all of my clothes are pink and/or white, i like when people go out of their way to spend time with me, i like teaching/helping others (like in math or cooking)

I really really really hate when people are disrespectful to their mom, or women just in general unjustified, im not a fan of bugs, i dont really like it when people are apathetic/ act like they dont care, but more in a ‘i dont care if my friend is being bullied they should defend themselves’ or ‘whats the point in helping’ kind of way

In a partner, i would say i lean towards being more of a opposites attract girly, so i wouldn’t do well w someone like Bachira bc i would get exhausted easily , also id like a partner whos loyal and can stick up from me, i have a w authority figures and saying no to them, so probably someone who can say no too, i would like a partner who is ok going out shopping with me, and someone who is willing to let me do their nails or let me put makeup on them.

Thank you so much for this!! I also totally understand if your busy and this takes time (also sorry if this is too much info or too little) please dm you want a match up from me 💕💕

Your Blue Lock Matchup: Sae Itoshi

Sae’s calm, pragmatic demeanor is the perfect counter to your more emotional and protective side. Where you might act on instinct, Sae would take a step back to think things through, offering you the grounding influence you need without dismissing your emotions. And for those moments when you’re sulky because of the weather or something’s thrown you off? Sae wouldn’t push or prod—he’d simply stay by your side, quietly supportive, until you’re ready to talk or perk up again.

You’d never have to question Sae’s loyalty. While he might not be the loudest in expressing his feelings, his actions speak volumes. If anyone disrespects you—or anyone you care about—Sae would step in without hesitation. He’s not afraid to stand up to authority figures, making him the perfect partner to balance out your occasional struggles with confrontation.

Sae is surprisingly accommodating when it comes to your interests. He’d go shopping with you—not because he’s dying to browse racks of pink and white clothes, but because he knows how much it means to you. And letting you do his nails or test makeup on him? He’d allow it with a quiet sigh, pretending it’s no big deal, but the subtle smirk on his face would give away how much he secretly enjoys the attention

Your strong dislike for disrespect toward women and your protectiveness over your loved ones? Sae aligns with that 100%. He’d admire your fierce loyalty and your willingness to stand up for what’s right, and he’d share your disdain for apathetic attitudes. While he may not always be the most outwardly expressive, his actions consistently show his respect and care for others, especially for you.

Your relationship with Sae would feel like a partnership in the truest sense of the word. You bring the warmth, passion, and emotional depth, while he brings stability, quiet confidence, and a steady hand to guide you when things get tough. He’d admire your strength and individuality, and in return, you’d push him to be a little more open and playful.

While Sae might not be as outwardly affectionate as some, his subtle acts of love—like remembering your favorite coffee order, indulging your love for all things cute, or defending you without question—would leave no doubt about how much he cares.

Sae’s aloof nature might sometimes make you feel like he’s not as invested as you are, especially since you thrive on attention and quality time. But over time, you’d learn to read his understated love language, and he’d make an effort to meet you halfway.

[bluesky88diary]

Dec 14

Maybe I just overthink… maybe I just envy to all couples who can share warmth of love, hugs and kisses, having happy time together. I never had this. Even more it seems unfair if people can look at me as a player. I don’t know, nobody ever said so. I might just overthink. Because I don’t understand why everybody is so busy. And so on it comes ridiculous point that it might be something wring either with me or everybody around. I think it’s second, because people easily take advantage of others when they can. Especially in intimidating situations.

I had few in my life too. But I never thought to abuse someone for my own pleasure. Having analytical mind I always trying to look forward and don’t hurt anybody. I just remembered one story. Once I asked one gird to marry me. And so we became friends planing about our marriage. Once we were left along and she started to act having pain in her middle, I had no idea how to help it out because it was new to me. I tried to find out some remedy to bring relief, as if I ever knew something about it… After awhile she became to act weird, more like a person that is about to leave but lingering on as if willing to find reason to stay or be hold down. You will never guess what happened. All of a sudden all yard around the entrance to the house was covered with bees like a huge cloud. I never saw bees acting like that. They filled all yard creating some sort of matrix. One guy told me later that they protect their queen this way before she gets into new nest. And that girl was so desperate to leave that she was about to jump into the nest of bees. How foolish. So I convinced her to leave through the side window and helped her get down, because she was about to get into hospital. Well, she just find out about Hara and I wasn’t hiding anything. Though at those times I wasn’t even following Hara, we kinda broke up for a while, but she found the reason to leave and I didn’t find reason to hold. Anyways, I’m trying to tell that I never have this mind set to abuse somebody or even gave sex just for fun. Perhaps I learn better than others and stay conscious, being aware of consequences.

But at the end of the day it is very lonely feeling. Like a last one dinosaur on the planet couldn’t find its own kind. I value family more than temporal pleasures. But at last seems like I something is wrong either with me or everyone around. Well, the Bible says that the problem is with everyone around xD I think it’s good to trust Bible then.

I cant say my thoughts are always pure and perfect. I make mistakes. But thanks Jesus I always was protected from going too far.

I just had a dream watching couple kissing and I felt myself miserable envy… But at the same time I won’t use tricks just to get into somebody’s pants. It’s not fair I think, not honourable at all.

Thus I try don’t think much about relationships. There’s many interesting things to do in the world even alone.

Maybe you share similar mind set. I wish so…

At last I came to the point that I don’t care much. Today it’s kind of funny to ask someone I like to meet together because I’m 100% sure it will never happen. But anyways it’s interesting to talk to different people even this way. At least some interaction ㅋㅋㅋ

And you are the only person in the world with whom I share heart. Even so you are the moon, but also you are precious the most.

[cagedchoices]

RELATIONSHIP META - DOLORES & CALEB (PART III)

[PART I HERE] [PART II HERE]

Dolores and Caleb reappear together in 3.07 - Passed Pawn, having arrived in Mexico. They are now on their way to Serac's old base of operations, a remote facility located in Sonora. Caleb is still willing to assist Dolores and go along with her plans, however at this stage he is clearly starting to show some doubts about whether or not they are doing the right thing.

We didn't see it happen on screen which is a shame honestly, but even though it can be dangerous to assume anything, I think we can kind of safely imagine there was a "Are We Going To Talk About It?" moment on the jet, in which Dolores would've told Caleb at least a little bit about the park and the hosts freeing themselves only to become endangered again immediately after. That would have given him enough of what he needed to start to understand and logically have this next conversation with her.

CALEB: Never been out this far. It's so...empty. DOLORES: It's perfect. Just like home. CALEB: Like Westworld, you mean. The Massacre... Did you kill all those people? DOLORES: I did what I had to do to survive. CALEB: You say you wanna start a revolution... What kind of revolution are we waging here? DOLORES: I lived in hell...but there was beauty in it. The park was modeled after this place. The West was...cruel, unjust, and chaotic. but there was a chance to chart your own course. I want a place for my kind. For all of us...to be free. CALEB: So how many more people are gonna have to die for this revolution? DOLORES: I don't know. My kind is all but extinct thanks to Serac. But people...still have a chance. A chance to do the right thing. CALEB: Hmph. DOLORES: They'll need someone to lead them. CALEB: I'm just a construction worker. DOLORES: For the first thirty-five years of my life I was a bit player. A rancher's daughter. But when the time came I knew I had to be more. CALEB: I don't know what you read about me, but it's wrong.

I used to believe that Caleb was wrong here and whatever Dolores read was right. But it isn't that it's one thing or the other. Caleb is right - the data that Incite has on him is wrong. The Big Ball's info says he is a violent sociopath, but he's not. The data that Delos has on him, on the other hand - is correct. That's the info that shows them Caleb wants to do what's right. That's who Caleb truly is and Dolores knows it.

Caleb's army combat unit was involved in a conflict known as the Second Russian Civil War. They were sent with the task of hunting down an insurgent group, where they used covert ops to mark targets for termination. Due to the nature of these missions being carried out in secret, the soldiers would wear normal civilian clothes instead of combat uniforms.

Caleb is well aware, because of this exposure, that revolution and war can be messy and complex circumstances. But he doesn't want people to die unnecessarily in pursuing Dolores's cause if there's a better way to go about getting to their end goal.

Not to say that he's is 100% against killing anyone ever, because that's not totally true. But usually, if he's going to kill anyone, it's going to be because they are actively trying to kill someone he wants to protect or they have the intention to do harm. It's a means to an end. Dolores kills with the same motives and sense of purpose behind it, but sometimes the lack of hesitation and ease with which she kills tends to rattle Caleb's nerves.

He and his squad mates used to rely pretty heavily on using limbic tabs to dull their consciences in the past, which suggests that they had a certain level of awareness that what they were doing crossed a line, morally speaking. Besides getting Genre'd against his will two episodes ago, Caleb has been completely sober while helping Dolores. He's seen her kill at least 10 people, knows she killed 100+ people in the Westworld Massacre, and has no idea how many she has killed since getting out of the park, but he can probably imagine there were quite a few and that there will be more.

They scout out the facility from a safe vantage point, getting an idea of what they're up against in terms of security. Dolores uses a high-tech sniper rifle in combination with a recon drone to take out 6 guards in one go. One gets left unaccounted for so when they walk into the building together, Dolores quickly shoots him on sight.

Caleb starts to feel unsettled while making his way through the compound. Almost like he's seen it before in a dream. Or a nightmare. He has a visceral memory of being subjected to AR therapy, and understands that he has been in this building before, he has been in this exact room before, but he doesn't know what it means. Yet.

CALEB: I've been here before. DOLORES: This is gonna be hard, Caleb. But it's important. We need to find Solomon. CALEB: Who's Solomon?

Dolores knows that this is not going to be a pleasant feeling for Caleb and she empathizes deeply with that, having been through a similar experience herself during season 1. She can't interfere too much because this is something he needs to figure out for himself in his own time, but she is there to support him in a way that she didn't really get to have during her own journey.

DOLORES: Before Rehoboam, Serac and his brother created Solomon. It had the task of trying to organize an unruly world, but it ran so many projections, so many strategies, it developed some anomalies. CALEB: What kind of anomalies? DOLORES: Serac's brother was schizophrenic. You could say Solomon inherited some of his ways of thinking. CALEB: An insane AI. Great. What do we want from it? DOLORES: One last strategy. Revolution. CALEB: Why do they have a military-grade EMP? DOLORES: In case it tries to escape.

Dolores and Caleb come upon Solomon, a slightly smaller and older looking version of Rehoboam left abandoned inside the compound. Along with an EMP designed as a failsafe to shut it down if it ever tries to escape. Caleb discovers in conversation with the machine that he underwent mental reconditioning and was deemed a successful experiment. No longer perceived as a threat to society, he was then allowed to leave and go home. Dolores asks Solomon to show them what happens to the people reconditioning doesn't work on, and it guides them into a massive underground storage facility.

Walking into the storehouse triggers a prerecorded hologram message from Engerraund to Jean-Mi, meant to be delivered if they ever - and to be clear, I hate this mentality Serac has about it but it is his ideology not mine - find a way to alter Jean-Mi's genes to the point that they will be able to cure schizophrenia and any other neurodivergence he might have.

The sudden appearance of Serac out of nowhere like this slightly startles both of them, Caleb reaching for Dolores's arm to try to protect her. It's sweet that even though he knows Dolores is a host and is more than capable of protecting herself, his first instinct is still to defend her anyway. I think he also does it to seek comfort from the sensation of touch.

The storehouse holds a massive amount of cryogenic stasis pods, almost every single one occupied by human outliers who failed the reconditioning process or were considered by Solomon to be too dangerous to continue living out in the world among other people. Dolores references the hosts being put into Cold Storage when they broke down and couldn't be fixed easily.

DOLORES: They built a place like this for my kind. If you misbehaved, you were sent away. A sad fate... SOLOMON: I've seen many fates. This is a blessing compared to most. Would you rather they die? CALEB: How can you say that? They aren't even allowed to live or die. SOLOMON: In my projections, the world always caved in on itself. Until the Outlier Program began. Crime has been reduced worldwide. Hunger, deprivation. Removing outliers from the population also ensures they will have no offspring. CALEB: These are people you are talking about, you can't just weed them out. SOLOMON: But we did. And you were an important part of the program. CALEB: What do you mean? SOLOMON: After your reconditioning, you were tasked with hunting down hundreds of these people. The most efficient way we found to deal with the problem of the outliers was to use some of them to round up the rest. An elegant solution. We created an app and used it to regulate criminality. You were one of our most successful operatives. You and your associate.

Solomon reveals more of Caleb's background to him, namely that he and Francis unknowingly worked as outlier hunters, with Solomon employing the strategy of using criminals to catch other criminals. Caleb is horrified by this, realizing he was manipulated so completely that he wasn't even allowed to remember what really happened to him.

CALEB: No... They made me forget who I was. They took my life away from me... My memory. Why? DOLORES: This is why you needed to come here, Caleb.

I've always been partial to Evan's thoughts featured in [this interview] where she describes a little of her enthusiasm with what's going through Dolores's mind during her scenes with Caleb in this episode.

EVAN: My character is watching [Caleb] go through a very similar realization as she had in season one. She feels this intense empathy for him, but has to let him feel it and go through it 'cause that's how he's gonna grow. [...] And I just loved all the little moments our characters had together, 'cause it was always just like, a subtle glance or like we would just have these moments of understanding and connecting between the two that could never get too close.

But their heartfelt moment of understanding is quickly interrupted by Solomon detecting an unknown presence approaching the compound. Dolores knows it has to be Maeve and tries to wrap up her business to go confront her old acquaintance one on one.

SOLOMON: This strategy was selected by my creator as the one that protects the most people. DOLORES: (Looking around at the stasis pods) You haven't protected any of these people, have you? If your master succeeds, my kind won't exist anymore. Is it truly a just world in which intelligence is reserved only for humans? SOLOMON: (Whirring thoughtfully) Which strategy? I made...many of them. DOLORES: The final one. The one Jean-Mi asked you to make just before Serac condemned him to this. SOLOMON: That was 15 years ago. That strategy de-cohered from this world. The prime movers are dead, or here with me. DOLORES: Then make it fit this world. (Glancing at Caleb) And him. SOLOMON: That will take time. DOLORES: Then I'll give you some. Probably not very much. CALEB: What happens if you don't come back? DOLORES: You spent your whole life believing you had no control, that you were a follower. Take whatever it gives you...and lead. CALEB: Be careful.

With that, Dolores leaves Caleb with Solomon and ventures out to fight Maeve, with the aim of holding her off long enough for Solomon to finish their new strategy. She tries to reason with Maeve, but by this point, Maeve is hot off the host printer after watching one of Dolores's copies murder her boyfriend by crushing his control unit into dust so she's uh. not ready to listen to Dolores, to say the least.

Meanwhile, Caleb waits downstairs with Solomon, and asks about what really happened to Francis. I won't go into much about the flashback scene because Caleb and Francis is another relationship I will most likely analyze in depth at some point, but the truth is chilling. Caleb is once again horrified to learn that pretty much everything he was made to believe turned out to be a lie.

CALEB: I killed Francis... I killed him... SOLOMON: Every human relationship can be adjusted with the right amount of money. CALEB: You used me to kill people... You turned my friend against me. You turned us against...each other... I murdered Francis because of you?

He has an angry outburst directed at Solomon and Jean-Mi's frozen body and seriously considers giving up and ditching this whole situation far behind him, but his loyalty, the desire to help and want to trust Dolores, and hope that her plan succeeds in ending Serac's control is what stops him from leaving.

While fighting, Maeve's gunship manages to shoot Dolores's right arm off and she retreats into the building that houses Solomon and the EMP designed to stop it from escaping. She crawls her way to the button and after downloading one last file from Solomon, she presses it, deactivating herself, Maeve, and Solomon. A short time later, Caleb emerges from downstairs and goes over to Dolores's body. Her virtual assistant greets him and offscreen, it relays instructions for him to remove her control unit and get it back to Los Angeles for the final phase of the plan.

[jarofstyles]

For mafia harry, I just love the fact that’s he’s only soft for his girl. So something soft!!!! Plss n thxx

He’s literally so soft for her it’s ridiculous.

Warnings: fluff, talk of murder, mafia type stuff

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—-

It wasn’t uncommon for Harry to come home with bruised knuckles. While he tended to have his men take care of business, he couldn’t help but be hands on sometimes.

When it came to certain motherfuckers, he truly couldn’t help but get in on the action and keep his name at the top of the’ who not to mess with’ list.

But his one and true weakness was sleepy eyed and soft as she stepped into his arms. He had gotten home from some business only an hour ago and put on the coffee pot. Being out all night was not ideal in the slightest, mainly because he had Y/N at home. Before meeting her he could go days at a time without sleep, without even being home. But having a woman he loved so deeply in his bed, who truly adored him and looked past his very unusual career path. She was so giving to him, with her time, energy, body, affection. He had hit the jackpot when it came to women and he knew all to well. So did anyone else.

It took a lot to get a man like Harry soft. He was hard and jagged around the edges. Throwing a punch or getting rid of someone wasn’t a big deal to him. Then Y/N stumbled into his life by accident and he found the heart he had covered with ice melted into a puddle of mush that she hand shaped in her own form. It was comical at times to see his attitude change when she would walk into the room.

“H?” She whispered sleepily. She shouldn’t be awake, but her body had somehow known her hero was home. While Y/N was well aware of his faults and his dangerous job and tendencies? He fiercely protected and cared for her. Provided for her. Gave her a home and a best friend and loved wrapped into one. No one was perfect, but Harry was perfect for her. “Where were you all night?” His stomach twinged with guilt as he pulled her into his chest, large hand cupping the back of her head and keeping her body close to his.

“M’so sorry, angel.” He whispered, pressing multiple kisses to her hairline. “We found one of the rats.” He grumbled, making Y/N freeze. Her head pulled up from his chest and her eyes were a dangerous glint. One that, quite frankly? Made him hard. As soft and gentle as Y/N is, she had come to take Harry and his men as family. You fuck with them? You fuck with her.

“And you took care of it?” Her tone was low, Harry still shocked at how fierce his little angel could be. How protective. She made them cookies and tea and brought sweets to the underground clubs, but was willing to put someone on their ass if they hurt Harry. It was fucking hot.

“Y’know I did, sweet girl. M’always taking care of my people.” He was cut off by her lips pressing to his jaw, her head tucking back into his neck. It was early and she hadn’t slept well. Y/N usually didn’t when it came to Harry being out and doing dangerous things. Her sleep schedule had been the worst it’s been since dating him, but it was the easiest sacrifice to make because she was getting to be in his arms. When he was home?

She got the best sleep of her entire life. Especially after getting dicked down.

“Know you do.” She relaxed, hand running over his broad back. The shirt was slightly damp form his sweat but she didn’t mind. The skin under was hot and it did get her mind going to think about how sexy he looked when he was mad. As long as it wasn’t at her? It went straight to her cunt.

Okay. Maybe even when it was at her. But it was very hard to make him angry at her. He was 100% a pushover for his girl. Y/N was the only one ever allowed to raise her voice at him.

~

The first time it had happened around others, they’d all nearly choked. Harry had ate the last of the cookie butter, which Y/N had been saving. It actually pissed her the fuck off, and not realizing he was in a meeting she had stormed down the hallway with her volume on 10. The girl wasn’t one too raise her voice often, but Harry knew how to push her buttons.

“Harry fucking Styles! You better hope to god you’re busy because I’m going to shove this jar up your ass!” She seethed, the stomping of her feet making everyone’s eyes widen. The men he worked closely with usually had a softer version of her. But it was earlier in the day, not their normal time, and gathered in the office in Harry’s large home.

Harry froze, realizing what it was and winced as he watched the door fly open. There, in all her big shirt, no pants and freshly woken glory was his beautiful Y/N. Empty jar in hand. Her eyes cut around the room but the fury she felt was too deep. This was personal!

Of course, they all were tense because No One talks to Harry Styles in a tone like that and got away with it. The shock that crossed their faces when Harry sheepishly got up and crossed the room, hushing her and trying to approach her like a wounded puppy was pure and utter insanity. The big man who always had a straight face, mean punches that knocked out cold, little regard for most people and took care of many a week was letting his woman talk to him like that.

“M’sorry, baby, I meant to get more but we called an emergency-“ he was cut off by a single hand raising, lips snapping closed as he watched his little love step closer to him.

“If you aren’t ready to go to Trader Joe’s in the next 15 minutes….” Her eyes narrowed. “You’ll be cut off.” And Harry knew exactly what that meant.

No sex.

There was no way he was risking that.

“Okay, okay.” He raised his own hands in surrender. “M’gonna finish up. Go get ready, we’ll take the Audi.”

They all learned that day that you didn’t mess with Y/N’s food, and Harry Styles only had one singular weakness.

~

Granted, Harry never was ashamed of it. He always said that his woman was half of his strength. She didn’t need him, but he needed her. Harry loved her so wholly and deeply that he knew that she was it for him. He had bought an engagement ring only 2 months in. So no, he didn’t ever deny it.

If anyone ever tried to use Y/N against him, they ended up in the river. Or in several pieces. He had very little restraint over that, considering all threats he took very, very seriously. The one light in his life was something he kept close, protected, and loved.

“Why don’t we go shower n’then we sleep? Hm? M’sorry to keep you up late, angel.” He puckered his lips down at her to be met with a soft peck, nodding her head at the idea. “And then we can make some ‘brunch’, whatever you call it.”

It got a laugh out of her, so he considered it a win.

“Mhm. If you thought I was letting you into our clean sheets smelling like guns and sweat. It’s sexy for dirty sheets but I’m simply too tired. Got the new ones I got online too.” She sighed, playfully teasing him because she knew it would get him to smile. He saw horrors every day, and if she could get some silliness in him it would lessen his stress.

“Oi. Don’t be callin’ me smelly, little girl.” He pinched her cheek, obnoxious kissing her mouth. “Better get your ass up there and get naked so we can pass out. M’Gonna need those pretty hands helping me wash, I fear… I’m a dead man walking.” He was dramatic, obviously overtired and it got a giggle from her.

“In your dreams, Mafia Man. Let’s move.”

“You’re right, I do dream about that.”

[moonlitkawaiifestival]

okay fuck it im telling yall about my magical girl au

heres three and eights designs, more info under the cut

this is a 24 centric au, bc im a filthy lesbian

magical girl au is an au where two celestial magical girls, sun (who is always an inkling) and moon(who is always an octoling), exist to fight off the existential horror that is The Void. The Void wants to eat all that exists, bc it doesn't like it when things exist. all the last worlds were eaten by the void (this is how humanity goes extinct). magical girls hold a form of magic that repels the void. every time an old magical girl died, the power went into suitable host, and so the cycle continues. all went pretty swimmingly until 100 years ago, when no new magical girls rose after the last two passed away in the great turf war.

one hundred years later, only two great cities still stand. octolings are underground, inklings think octolings are extinct and are also honestly not doing so well themselves. old wards made by the magical girls of old are starting to fade. shits gone even more to shit. and two young girls, one inkling, one octoling, wake up one day imbued with the lost magic of old.

eight(she/her) or Elara, after transforming for the first time, is trained directly under octavio as octarias perfect secret weapon. She never needs more than one shot to take someone out. Eight is kind of a cold hearted badass in this au, she warms up later but its a slow process.

three(she/they) or Cyra, or Blaire, they like to switch names a lot but those r the most common ones they take. Anyway they join the splatoon on a whim (they were new in inkopolis and really bored) and her powers are extremely useful for the splatoon. three kind of goes with whatever they feel like is the best option, trusting their gut more than their head. semi related to this shes a smug little bastard in this au who likes hunting for a good fight. they stop being such a little shit later but, again, its a slow process.

both three and eight are fiercely protective of the people they care about, willing to do next to anything to make sure everybody is safe.

cuttlefish and octavio(unseen) kind of both collectively take seeing the magic back as a weird nationalist sign that they were right actually and -insert demographic here- is the bestest ever or something.

these pictures r of their magical girl forms just before octo expansion. magical girl forms r made by the user and fully based on their personality, and octo expansion changes some Things about these bitches.

Bonus! 

Thanks for reading all my bullshit, heres a picture of threes face

gf @flingza-roller​ helped me pick the piercings 💖

[acidh2otoby]

Agent Kennedy, Part 7

Leon Kennedy x Male!Reader

Takes place during Chris' second chapter in re6

Warnings: Violence

Part 6 > Agent Kennedy, Part 6

I've said this already a lot but this is a slow burn part. Again, you don't have to read into these 100% but I'd appreciate if you at least looked at them for future reference

Alpha Team was clearing the area in front of the City Hall. It was quiet, which was incredibly alarming.

"Sherry Birkin - National Security!" A woman's voice called out. Sherry was walking through the street showing her badge to the soldiers.

Chris walked up to her. "Sherry Birkin? You were in Raccoon City."

You looked at Piers in question and he shrugged his shoulders. You looked back at Sherry, who also seemed confused.

"How do you know that?" Sherry asked, putting her badge away.

"Claire." Chris responded, obviously having to make things more difficult than they are.

You remembered Claire mentioning a little girl named Sherry but never got her last name. You didn't think the two were connected at first but now it makes sense.

"Wait... Are you Chris?" Sherry asked, clearly knowing about the older Redfield.

"My sister's told me all about you." Chris said, smiling a little.

"Chris, that man is a wanted insurgent." Piers said, glaring at the man behind Sherry who was leaning against a disserted vehicle.

Sherry glanced back before slightly placing her hands in front of her. "Yes, he's a mercenary. But right now he's under the protection of the U.S. government. He's no threat to the BSAA." Sherry defended, it seemed she had this little speech prepared.

"Unless someone pays me to be." The man muttered but was loud enough for people to hear.

"What did you just say?" Piers threatened, trying to get up in the man's face if you hadn't held him back.

The man didn't say anything, he just turned to look at you three. Chris was staring at him with a funny look, a look that said he knew him in some way.

"What?" The man asked, clearly noticing the look as well.

"Nothing." Chris responded, but something was clearly up.

You were about to pull Chris aside and ask but HQ interrupted your train of thought.

"HQ to Alpha Team. Reinforcements are unable to land due to anti-aircraft artillery. Take 'em out!" The man said, his timing was pretty perfect since after he finished his sentence, the sound of aircrafts and firearms were heard.

"Alpha Team, copy." Chris responded, seeing where a lot of the guns were.

"What the--?! We're picking up a large bogey on radar. It's heading right for you!" HQ reported, causing your blood to run cold.

'Not one of these guys again.' You thought as you glanced at Piers, who looked like he was thinking the same thing.

An aircraft from the J'avo came into view, carrying one of those yeti monsters with it.

"We'll talk later. Right now, you need to find cover." Chris said to Sherry, but she clearly wasn't gonna listen.

The B.O.W. landed and roared before chasing you, Chris, and Piers. Sherry and the man followed you. Echo Team's captain had contacted Chris about the anti-aircraft guns and said that they'd be able to land if we got rid of them.

"Chris! We'll give you a hand!" Sherry said, catching up to Chris a little.

"Out of the question! You need to get to safety!" Chris said, not willing to hear her out.

"Don't worry about me. I can handle myself, and you need the help!" Sherry replied, Claire definitely had some sort of impression on Sherry when she was younger.

"Christ... My chances of survival were higher when I was a soldier of fortune." The man muttered, you weren't gonna question him but could definitely understand his thought process at the moment.

Finn had found one of the guns and set charges on it while the five of you fought off any J'avos that tried to get in the way. After Finn left to go to the other gun, you five stayed behind to kill the B.O.W.

It didn't take long once Chris and Piers realized that what you did before actually takes away its life faster than just shooting it. It started to slowly become a cycle, Sherry and the man would get it to collapse a little, one of you three would jump on its hand and attack its weak spot. Eventually, it died and all of you moved on to find Finn.

Find the next gun wasn't difficult and it was just starting to look like things were going okay. The J'avos could only attack from one place, Chris and Piers took care of most of them. They kinda left you, Sherry and the man to just stand there and make sure no one came up from the stairs. The gun was destroyed and you all were about to move on, until...

"There's another giant B.O.W. closing in on your location!" Echo warned you through your ear piece.

You turned around and saw the B.O.W. climb over a building to get to you guys.

"It's the one we lost at the Two of Hearts!" Piers said, you questioned how he was able to tell the difference between B.O.W.s that looked basically the same.

"Alpha! Prepare to engage!" Chris ordered through the ear piece.

Chris glanced at all of you guys, silently telling you that you were gonna fight it. When all of you nodded, you bolted out of the building and into another, repeating the cycle you did with the other one. Once it was dead, you went back to the building prior to meet up with Finn.

"Everyone into that underground passage!" Finn called out, seeing as other soldiers were following now as well.

The passage was filled with J'avos but they were pretty easy to take out. Thankfully, no more B.O.W.s came back and Finn was able to destroy the final gun.

"Good work out there, Alpha! Echo Team will be landing shortly." Echo said, you could hear some of the aircrafts coming back.

[sturchling]

Hey I have a question can you do a reveal. You know the scene where Spiderman saves a train without his mask and the people help him from falling which in turns reveals his identity to the people on the train. Can you do that but with Ladybug instead please and thank you.

Sorry I have been away for so long guys. I haven't been doing to well lately and needed to take some time to myself. I'm sorta feeling better now though, not 100%, but I am going to try to write more now. Anyway, sorry for the wait, hope you enjoy the story.

To say things had gone very wrong with this akuma is a bit of an understatement. A woman, Cherise, who had just finished training to be an electrician had been demeaned and told she wouldn't be hired because she was a woman. Obviously, this was infuriating and insulting, which made her a perfect target for Hawkmoth. All that rage and hurt had made Elektra one of the most powerful akumas to date, with the ability to manipulate electricity and all electronics.

Elektra was trying to track down the man who had insulted her to make him pay. But Ladybug kept getting in her way! Elektra needed her out of the way for a bit, so she could get her revenge. Then she would get Hawkmoth what he wanted. So, when she saw one of those new electric trains the mayor had recently commissioned, she saw the perfect opportunity. Elektra used her abilities to sabotage the train, sending it careening down the tracks, with no way of stopping. To make matters worse, she also used her powers to switch the tracks, so the train was now racing down an uncompleted stretch of track, instead of its normal path. Ladybug would have to stop and help them now!

Ladybug was already having a tough time with this akuma. Chat had told her earlier in the week that he had a prior engagement in his personal life that he couldn't get out of with out drawing suspicion. Ladybug had thought she would be fine on her own for a few days, as Hawkmoth had just sent a major akuma attack recently and there was typically a pause after such a large scale attack. But this time, he sent Elektra much sooner than normal. And now Ladybug was struggling to handle this on her own. And with Elektra causing as much damage as she is, Ladybug hadn't had time to go get miraculous from Master Fu to gather her temporary heroes. Ladybug was truly on her own for this one.

Ladybug was just catching up to Elektra again, when she saw the run away train she had caused. As much as Ladybug didn't want to lose her and let her hurt more people, she couldn't stand idly by and let this train crash somewhere down the line. Ladybug raced to the front of the train and tried to thing of something. She tried jumping down to the track and digging her heels in, but that didn't do anything but hurt her leg. Marinette had already called her lucky charm earlier, so that was no help, and now the time on her transformation was running out. And now, she could see in the distance the end of the uncompleted track, which ended abruptly above a construction site. She didn't have much longer.

Suddenly, she had an idea. She used her yoyo to grab onto the buildings on the side of the track, hoping that would help slow the train. Her first attempt didn't work at all, and the building she had latched onto caved under the force of the train. She tried again, and this time she had much more success, but still, the building eventually broke. She could feel her energy draining from her body and could hear the now near constant beeping from her earrings, and knew she only had moments before she detransformed. She tried one more time in a desperate attempt to stop the train. She threw her yoyo and latched onto a very solid looking building, wrapping the yoyo string around both the entire train and the entire building. She held on for dear life, hoping that the building held.

The train began to slow, the yoyo seemingly working. As they approached the very literal end of the line, the train tipped over the edge slightly, before settling back on the track. Ladybug heard all the passengers let out a sigh of relief. She let out one herself, before it became to much, and she was enveloped by the darkness.

The passengers on the train, including a few students from Dupont were all thankful that they survived. Alya was thrilled to have caught such an amazing save by Ladybug on video for the Ladyblog. She also hoped that maybe she could ask LB some questions before she left, but knew there was slim chance of that. As some of the passengers turned to thank Ladybug, they saw a flash of pink light and then a young girl's body was left standing at the front of the train. The girl wavered for a moment, before tipping and almost falling off the track. But the passengers quickly grabbed her and gently pulled her inside, unsure if she was injured.

They brought her further back into the train car, and laid her on the ground. Everyone was shocked at how young she was, barely a teenager. But those that knew her were shocked to see that Ladybug, the girl who had been protecting them for over a year now, was Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Alya was completely shocked. Marinette was Ladybug? Marinette started to come around, waking to see the crowd of passengers staring at her. She looked around her and noticed that she was detransformed. Just as Marinette started to panic, Alya stepped towards her. She may be confused on how Marinette is Ladybug, but that won't stop her from helping her friend. "It's ok girl. None of us will say a word about this." Marinette was shocked.

As Marinette watched, Alya deleted the footage of the rescue, which had also caught this accidental reveal. No cool video was worth risking her friend and hero's safety. Marinette looked around at the crowd of passengers, who were all smiling and nodding at her. Alya spotted Tikki laying on the ground at the end of the train, trying to get to Marinette. Alya went and scooped her up, and brought her over to Marinette. Marinette absentmindedly gave Tikki a cookie to recharge, still in shock that everyone on this train knew her identity and was willing to protect it. After Tikki had recharged, Alya said to Marinette, "Go on. Go be the hero. I'll stay here and help get everyone off the train. Don't worry, we will be ok." With one last look at everyone here, Marinette called out, "Tikki, spots on!" Another flash of pink blinded the passengers, and there Ladybug was in front of them again. With one last nod to Alya, Ladybug left the train and went to find Elektra again.

Ladybug finally was able to beat Elektra, and return her to normal. Cherise apologized for everything and felt horrible for what had happened while she was akumatized. Ladybug told her it was ok, and even promised to help her find a job somewhere else as soon as she could. Things returned to quiet normalcy for a while after that, and Marinette was surprised to find that all of those people on the train had really managed to keep her secret. And they all went to great lengths to minimize the chance they would get akumatized and be forced to reveal it. Marinette would sometimes pass them on the street and they would nod or smile at her. A few would buy her ice cream or a small treat after an akuma attack. But they never shared the secret, and they would protect it for the rest of their lives.

[the-slasher-files]

Slashers React - S/O being a witch or wiccan

INCLUDES JASON, MICHAEL, BO, BILLY & STU and LOST BOYS

btw I am a wiccan myself so I hope you enjoy the hcs :)

JASON VOORHEES

Holy fucking shit, you guys are a POWER COUPLE, never in my life have a thought of a better couple

He may not understand at first but once you explain it to him he adores it. Abiding by the laws of nature is something he already does, so the fact that you do too and share a lot of the same opinions of nature, melts his heart

Clearing a little area in the forest making sure it is hidden away for your alter is a dream job for him

Nature walks all the time but it has more meaning now, knowing you’re a wiccan or witch

Herb, flower, mushroom or plant picking is something he will always do for you, leaving them at your alter

LOOK he found a cool rock or a weird piece of drift wood or animal skull, perfect for you :) 

Finds it very sexy when you are doing witchcraft, especially if it’s in the forest 

You would slow dance to the rain and light candles everywhere

Gardening would quickly turn into one of his favorite hobbies with you

Teaching him about the holidays you celebrate gives him reasons to spoil you on those days, he would bake with you, make potions with you, bring in your moon water in the early morning for you

Your crystals are his favorites, all the pretty colors and unique patterns, he might steal one and carry it around with him, rubbing it when he misses you

Anything you do to appreciate his land and the cabin you share makes his undead heart flutter

The absolute best partner for a witch or wiccan 

The crystal that suits him is an Amethyst - It is a grounding stone, bringing peace and calmness but is one of the best protection stones

MICHAEL MYERS

Major head tilt, squints  

Once you explain it him he still doesn’t get it, and he doesn’t care

He will just examine your stuff, poking it and moving it around pissing you off

oh great, more holidays to celebrate

Secretly thinks it is kind of cool, but he will never tell you

Maybe thinks you’re a little crazy because he heard some other person in the mental hospital going on and on like you do 

If you tell him he is blessed and has gifts he will have a hard time accepting that, but he would think about it forever because there had to be an explanation for how he could never die

He will bring you home something from a cemetery probably because he still doesn’t get it 

He will just stare from the shadows of a candle lit room watching you do spell work 

When he's pissed beyond reason, never sage him, never place crystals on him, never get him to drink tea, you might die

He will find a crystal in his coverall pockets for protection and he will never give it back to you, it’s his now and he will cherish it 

The crystal that suits him is Black Obsidian - It is a pure black stone that has a mysterious aura, heavily used for protection, it is also a very powerful stone, good for healing and truth seeking

BO SINCLAIR  

Again, another bad partner for this lol

You’re a what?? He has heard of witches before but never wiccans. Coming from Louisiana it has a very heavy history on witches and voodoo, good and bad. He honestly might be shitting his pants inside but keeps it cool, just please tell him you’re a good witch. His momma always told him to never ever mess with witches.

Thinks you’re crazy for believing in that stuff

If you feel the presence of his mom and dad, never bring it up to him, the only way you could do it is say “You’ve got some angels looking over you Bo” and leave it at that

You will make him learn to appreciate nature and taking him for walks is the best thing to do, it calms him and you can teach or tell him stories about what you believe in

He would tell Lester to grab some antlers or skulls for your “ummm idk what she does, she just needs them”

If you’re in some lingerie while doing witchy work, he will ease into it more

Bo would be the guy who yells about the sage smoke stinking up the house, while he is smoking a cigarette, b a s t a r d 

Jokes about his bad energy filling your alter will happen a lot

He honestly thinks its cool though, after a while, seeing a beautiful powerful soul doing something you love warms his heart

He’s going to try to understand but he will laugh and make fun

If there are people in town he’s going to hunt that night, he will have to deal with you placing some sort of protection rune, stone or necklace either in his pocket or around his neck, Bo won’t like it at first but showing you care so much for him melts his heart and he will protect it with his life 

His crystal is Smokey Quartz - It is used for strength and fortifies nerves, protection, a stone that represents Pride, but also brings calmness which we all know he needs!! The smokiness of it just reminds me of the colour of alcohol or his cigarette smoke   

BILLY & STU       

Both genuinely curious and love it

They don’t really understand it but they are willing and ready to try

Taking you on nature walks probably wont be as relaxing as they promised; Stu will climb a weird tree and end up hurting himself, then you will find some neat looking mushrooms and they dare each other to eat it

Find it hot but are a little spooked 

Billy would hate the smell of sage but Stu doesn’t mind it all 

They find it sweet when you try to put protection stones in their pockets when they go to kill

Stu will bring you an average rock from the sidewalk and say hey this is neat, here you go 

They are defiantly into trying witchcraft with you

Stu will love your home made teas 

Billy will never make a big deal about what you do, he just thinks it is neat and willing to go get whatever you need for your work, and ngl he is more interested in dark magic 

They will defiantly interrupt you will you are meditating or doing spell work so always try to do it when they aren’t home

Will ask if you could do tarot readings on them and if you use a crystal ball 

The crystal for them is Jade - a good protection and supportive stone, seeks love, passion and nourishment. It is also good for dreams and astral projection    

THE LOST BOYS

They are no strangers to the supernatural of course but they don’t know what a witch is beyond what they’ve seen in movies

I feel it would be very 50/50 on caring or not, this stuff isn’t even on their radars 

Dwayne, I think would handle it the best. (correct me if I am wrong) He is of Native American descent, so he has heard lots of stories about shamans and he is the most spiritual out of all the boys   

Once they see you doing spell work or setting up an alter they are much more interested 

If you are already turned, you are arguably one of the most powerful, David will not admit it but he knows it

Marco will 100% bring you random things he likes, not at all related to witchcraft but he thinks it could be, man doesn’t get it

David finds you extremely sexy, him and Dwayne will probably be the only ones that actually get it, and David loves the power

They pretty much just leave you to it 

A lot of moon and shadow work will be your main witchcraft with them

If you are cleansing the cave with sage Paul and Marco will make drug jokes and ask to smoke some  

ngl I think Paul might be the most scared of you, but he will never show it, He doesn’t understand it and thinks you going to spray him with holy water or make him have nightmares 

Dwayne will be the one to take you to the surrounding forests and go on some nature walks with you, collecting what you need

David - black tourmaline: a very powerful protection stone, pure black, great for purification and helping with anger. Star - rose quartz: the stone of love and purity, heals the heart, and dissolves worry and fear turning those feelings into love. Marco - Emerald: a crystal just as blue as his eyes. A stone of hope, encouragement and joy, turns negative energy into strength, love and compassion. Dwayne - fire agate: This stone has a very deep connection the earth radiating calm, stability and strength, also very good for power and protection. Paul - rutilated quartz: a crystal that seeks truth and authenticity, giving strength to the truest souls and uplifts and brings joy.       

[ladyloveandjustice]

Spring 2021 anime overview: Quick Takes

Now for my Spring 2021 anime thoughts! I’ve decided from now on if a season’s like, 20- to-24 episodes I’m just going to wait ‘til it’s done to review it unless I feels super passionately, so though I watched To Your Eternity (it’s good!) and MHA (eh), I’ll comment on them next time. Also, for the record, I watched the first eight eps of Joran: Princess and Snow of Blood but I dropped it because it had clearly crossed the line from entertainingly dumb to boring dumb. 

I will probably give Supercub and some other stuff a shot later, this was a stacked season! May give updates on all that later, but this is what I have for now.

ODDTAXI

Quick Summary: A mild mannered middle-aged walrus taxi driver is drawn into a case involving a missing girl, yakuza, Youtube clout-chasers, manzai comedians and idols with big secrets.

It’s rare to walk away from media and be like “that is a singular experience I will definitely never see repeated again” but ODDTAXI is definitely one of those. A tense noir thriller murder mystery starring cartoon animals that spends an entire episode detailing the one (cat)man’s very fall into darkness triggered by addiction to gacha games and an online auction for a novelty eraser? Also there’s a porcupine Yakuza who speaks entirely in rap? Also there’s tons of meandering conversations about stuff like manzai comedy and the struggle to go viral on Twitter?

Admittedly, I had a hard time getting into the first episode, the dry meandering humor not being enough to hold my attention while I was sitting still, but once I watched this while I was working out at the end of the season, I found it an easy binge. A ton of characters with dark secrets or dangerous ambitions, each with their own part to play in a tableau of intersecting events- and it all actually comes together really well.(As for the female characters, it’s a pretty dude driven story, but they do get nuanced characterization and even some good heroic moments from one of them.)

 It’s a great example of a carefully planned narrative paying off, with all the twists appropriately seeded and foreshadowed to reward viewers who paid attention. Even when it ended on a perfect “OH SHIT” moment and denied me closure, I couldn’t help but respect it. If you that all sounds interesting to you, definitely check out the first couple episodes and see if you like it- you’re likely to have a memorable, satisfying experience!

Shadows House

Quick Summary: Emilyko is a ‘living doll’ who’s told she was created to act as the ‘face’ of her shadow master, Kate. The shadows and their ‘dolls’ all reside on the mansion and are required to pass a ‘debut’ to prove they’re a good pairing. If they don’t pass, they might be disposed of. And so the mystery of the Shadow mansion grows...

This slice of gothic intrigue was my favorite of the season, tied with ODDTAXI. With an interesting premise, slightly tense undertones and a strong focus on character building and relationships, it kept me hooked the whole way through. And for any squeamish fans put off by the hype about it, don’t worry, while there are some suspenseful elements, I wouldn’t qualify it as horror. I thought the relationship between Kate and Emilyko might end up being a completely sinister one, but it’s thankfully a lot more complex than that and it’s really interesting to follow how both their characters and relationship grow. The focus of the show is, unsurprisingly, on the “dolls” slowly discovering their autonomy and personhood as they struggle under the rigid system imposed on them by the mysterious elders of this weird Victorian mansion. Can they develop a more equitable relationship with their shadow “masters” (who are also shown to suffer under this system)? There’s a lot to dig into there, and the show has the characters develop through learning to understand and appreciate each other, which is pretty heartwarming. Our hero, Emilyko, is the typical plucky ball of sunshine (they even nickname her sunshine), but she’s also shown to be clever in her own off-the-wall way and she bounces off the far more subdued and cynical Kate well, not to mention the other ‘dolls’ she ends up befriending. 

What’s more, the show spends plenty of time to developing several other character pairings and combinations, and they all have their own interesting dynamic that makes you want to see more of them. Same-gender bonds are at the forefront of this show, and many of them are ripe for queer readings (I definitely appreciated the healthy helping of ladies carrying ladies), but even outside that it’s nice to see a show where a strong, complex bond between girls is at the forefront. My only real complaints about the show are the anime original ending is noticeably a bit rushed (though it’s not too bad, and leaves room for a season 2) and I wish the animation used the whole “shadow” theme more strikingly (like the opening and endings do)- instead the colors are a bit washed out which makes the shadows blend into the background sometimes. The “debut” arc also drags a bit in places, but it makes up for it by having a lot of good character integration.

I hope to check out the (full color)! manga soon and see more of this quirky, shadowy story. There’s some physical abuse depicted, sad things happening to characters and naturally the whole “oppressive familial system” thing, but otherwise not much I can think of to warn about. I give this one a big rec, especially If you’re a fan of gothic fairytales and stories of self discovery.  

Zombie Land Saga Revenge

Quickest summary: In this sequel season, everyone’s favorite zombie idol group must claw their way back into prominence after a disastrous show- the fate of the Saga prefecture LITERALLY depends on it!

This was a fun follow-up to the first season- if you liked the first zombie-girl romp, you’ll probably enjoy this one. In fact, there were a couple areas it improved on- namely, Kotaro failed, ate crow and embarrassed himself a lot more this season, which made him more likeable (as did the fact the girls gained a lot of independence from him). This season also shed more light on what the ‘goal’ of this zombie raising project is and what kind of shit Kotaro got involved with to make this happen, and it’s appropriately off-the-wall and ridiculous. We finally got some backstory for Yugiri too! I wish it had focused on more of her interiority, but she got to be a badass in it, and it was a treat to see this zombie idol show turn into a period piece for a couple episodes (also her song ruled).

 Tae also got a cute focus episode and there was a particular SMASHING performance early on! Also That revelation last season that had the potential to turn creepy hasn’t yet, and hopefully never will. The finale was heartwarming with big hints of more drama to come- I’m definitely down for more zombie hijinks!

Vivy: Flourite Eye’s Song

Quickest Summary: A songstress AI named DIVA (nicknamed Vivy) is approached by another AI named Matsumoto, who says he’s from the future and they must work together to prevent AI exterminating all of humankind 100 years from now.

This show is absolutely gorgeous visually with some really nice action scenes, but when it comes to the story my feelings basically amount to a shrug. It’s fine! I guess! Vivy starts out as an interesting layered character- and I guess still is by the end- with her stoic but stubborn determination bouncing off her fast-talking bossy partner Matsumoto well. She never listens to him, which is delightful. The way the show took place over the course of 100 years was an interesting conceit as well. However, it bought up a lot of themes and then sort of... dropped them. For instance, Vivy interprets her mission (PRIME DIRECTIVE if you will) as protecting humans at all costs, no matter how destructive said humans are or what their fate is supposed to be, and is perfectly willing to murder her fellow androids to do this, showing she inherently thinks of androids (herself and her own people!) as less worthy. Which is a little alarming! There’s a very dramatic point in the show where they bring this up as a potential conflict for her character but then it’s sort of...dropped. Pretty much.

Actually, despite the premise, the show doesn’t dip into the “AI rights” as much as you think it would with the main theme being more about Vivy’s search to find her own creativity and discover what it means to ‘pour your heart into something’. Vivy herself doesn’t actually care if she has rights or anything. Which is in some ways fine, because ‘AI as an oppressed class’ has been done to death, but IT’S ALSO KIND OF IN THE PREMISE, so that means that the show just shrugs really hard at a lot of the questions it brings up  basically just going “humans and AI should work together probably” and that’s it. There’s a lot that feels underexplored. The antagonists in the show also either have motivations that don’t really make sense or have boring hackneyed motivations. In the finale in particular, it feels like a lot of things happen “just because” and it falls a little flat.

I also have to warn that one of the arcs focus on a robot ‘pairing’ where the dude-coded robots actions toward his partner are straight up awful and rob her of her autonomy, but it’s played like a tragic love story. I suppose you could read it differently too, but it definitely made me go ‘ew’ the story seemed to want me to sympathize with this robo dude,

Overall, I wouldn’t anti-recommend this show, it’s an all right little sci-fic romp (and definitely SUPER pretty). My favorite element was definitely the episodes where Vivy develops an entirely new (an loveable) personality, because it played with the idea of of an AI getting “rebooted” really well and interplay between her two “selves” was done really well. But there are a lot of other parts of the show that just feel...a little underexplored and empty, making me have an ‘eh’ feeling on the show overall. It’s definitely an ambitious project, and while it didn’t quite stick the landing, there’s something to be said for a show that shoots for the stars and falls short over a show that just languishes in mediocrity.

Fruits Basket The Final

Quick summary: The final season of that dramatic drama about that weird family with a zodiac curse and the girl who loves them.

It’s very weird that after not cutting a lot out, they kinda sped through some material for, you know, the finale. I guess they thought they couldn’t stretch this final arc to 26 episodes? Or weren’t cleared for another double cour? However, though there were a couple places that felt awkward, despite being a bit condensed it mostly held together pretty well for a D R A M A T I C and ultimately heartwarming conclusion. I was really disappointed they kept the part where Ritsu cut their hair for the ‘happy ending’, I thought  their intro episode not showing them in men’s clothes meant the anime had decided their presentation didn’t need to be “fixed” but WELL I GUESS NOT. That was the only big upset for me though, otherwise the adaptation went about how I expected, sticking to the source material. Furuba has a lot of bumps, from weird age gap stuff to ...gender, but it also has a lot of important feels and great character arcs. It was a gateway shoujo for many and has its important place in animanga history, so I’m glad it finally got a shiny, full adaptation.

[alloftheblackwidowfeelings]

Kid Natasha stalked away looking upset when Melina was comforting Yelena. What did you make of it? Was she shrinking away from Melina's gentleness? From the always present knowledge it was part of an act, even if it felt so real? Or was she reacting to Yelena's vulnerability, so easily on display, so unacceptable in the Red Room? Was there some resentment that she wasn't treated so kindly at the same age?

I feel like I keep saying this about this movie, but this is another one of those situations that I love because every read is awful but also every read informs Natasha's adulthood differently.

I'm gonna go into detail with each of these, and a few more besides, because it's so bad and that makes it so good.

The one thing I think we 100% get from it is how each of them has adjusted to living as a family: Melina knows how to play her part well (with an asterisk). Yelena accepts this as the norm. And Natasha is in that awful in-between place, where she knows she's living in a lie but everything around her insists it's true and even if she has three years of proof of consistency, she doesn't trust it- which, later that day, she's shown to be right not to trust.

Is Melina a good mom? She definitely plays the part of a good mom. She definitely knows how to put on the performance of being a good mom. I don't know if that's the same thing, and more importantly, don't know if Nat or Yelena would think it is; pretty much everyone i know who has significant trauma struggles to reconcile the facade presented to the world against what really went down, and that has to be even harder when the facade was presented even to them. Alexei and Melina both insist they played their roles to perfection, but they were roles. Part of that seeps in. At the end of the day, Natasha was willing to pick up a gun to protect Yelena, while Melina and Alexei were both just fine putting Nat and Yelena in a plane to be shot at.

How did Melina feel about all of it? We know she couldn't have kids of her own (she's been cycled through 4x); we know she doesn't want to go but not only does so anyway but also tells Yelena they're going "home" (echoed, obviously, later with the pigs- "go home where it's safe" even though the home she took them back to was anything but). Was being a parent an act for Melina the way it was for Alexei? Was she comforting Yelena because she was supposed to? Or was she offering what she'd never gotten but wished she had? Natasha said that what Melina had given them was what got them through the Red Room, but how much was intentional parenting and how much was performing and how much was playing house in between experiments in the SHIELD labs? Melina says she didn't raise them to be weak; how much was involved in that?

(The girls do backbends for fun in the backyard; we know gymnastics and ballet are part of Red Room training for Widows. How much of Melina's parenting was preparing them for the world and how much was preparing them for the Red Room? Was it to help them or because she had to?)

After at least two years in the Red Room (because we know Nat was younger than six when she started and this mission has been three years), it's pretty amazing she's able to respond to gentleness as well as she does. How could it not seem like a trap? Yelena isn't a spy; she's living the life the family set up. But Natasha is old enough to see the cracks and know she has to pretend not to.

And seeing Yelena's vulnerability, as you said, must have been terrifying, because vulnerability came with consequences. We see in Cuba that Nat wants to protect Yelena; it must seem like Yelena, crying just from falling down, is painting a giant glowing neon target on her own back. Or is this the RIGHT way to behave? If being better at undercover means showing weakness, what is a baby Widow supposed to do? And how does this reflect in how Natasha as an adult responds to vulnerability, when she needs to offer it and when she needs to (but often can't) accept it?

There's also the theory that she felt responsible for hurting Yelena- did she not want to get in trouble? Did she not want to deal with her guilt for harming her? Did she just not want to see Yelena hurt? Or was she remembering a time when hurt children did not get kisses and firefly lectures, when girls face off in a ring and snap each other's necks?

I feel like all of these are very real possibilities and all of them are terrible but fascinating to explore, and the only thing they have in common is that Natasha, especially as a kid, has absolutely no sense of what is a logical consequence of any given act. The same things that were unacceptable in one context were encouraged in another. The Red Room clearly got under her skin but then she had to spend three years pretending it didn't, and then get right back into it. I mean, shit. It was, what, twelve hours between being encouraged to call their "mom" about Yelena's scraped knee, and Alexei telling her to not try to protect her sister from being kidnapped to the Red Room, which Nat knows for a fact is an abusive murder factory because she's lived there and doesn't want to go back?

Yeah, there's no read here that doesn't hurt.

And I can absolutely understand people who see this as the text not committing to a single read, but to me, it's the text allowing for all the reads at once. This movie had to straddle the line of being a PG-13 movie about severe child abuse, and it leans heavily on giving us just enough to make any read we could figure out feel horrifying.

I think I might feel differently if Nat had more of a future in the MCU, which- as far as we know at this point and hopefully subject to change- she does not. For me it's a kaleidoscope of pain, and every possible twist reveals new ways for us to interpret Natasha. And if we're not going to get new things to interpret, I like that we have this many lenses to use on what we've already got.

[limitlessgojo]

Blood Bound: Blackened Bond (Ch 16)

Warnings: Action, Coarse Language, Fighting, Descriptions of Blood, Death, Gore, Japanese Mythical Folklore, No Major Character Death

Previous Chapter: 土御門天皇 (Tsuchimikado)

Next Chapter: Inferno: Flames of Hell

Word Count: 3.3k

Tags: Kamo Noritoshi x Reader, Soulmates AU, Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Fem!Reader

Taglist: @lessie-oxj @rizzo-nero @whoreuc @fkngkumiko @isl3t @gojoussunglasses @onepotatostand-blog @s-t-f-u-b-i-t-c-h @sunaswife @lordguameow @track5enthusiast @nayydoesthings

Notes: If you want to be tagged for every update, and specify if you're okay with NSFW posts or not, please mention it in the comments below ty ❤

This chapter is LONG, a lot longer than I expected haha, happy reading!

Chapter 16: Non-Standard

Noritoshi was in a shitty mood to say the least. He went home to his clan immediately after getting a summon. The clan head had discussed their stance on the upcoming war and is readying their jujutsu sorcerers for battle.

His half-brother had made a not too subtle snarky remark about you. "You've already gotten yourself a woman? Wonder if she even likes you. I'm willing to bet Homura's cuter than her." Secretly his brother was curious about you, having heard about your special grade status.

Noritoshi steeled himself, knowing his brother's playboy tendencies at his school.

"That's enough. I am quite serious about her, so don't even think of taking her."

He watched his brother shut up upon seeing him like this and left him hanging.

'Heeehhh? That Noritoshi is actually interested in someone? Interesting…'

Other serious matters aside, his father, as usual, asked about you, only for him to find out you've both gotten into an argument.

The head of the Kamo clan only raised an eyebrow. "That’s normal for every couple."

Noritoshi kept his temper at bay. But he couldn't help resenting his phone call with his father that day. If his father was less controlling and obsessive over their clan status, maybe it would have gone better.

No... He was also influenced by the elders. Ashamed as Noritoshi was to acknowledge it himself.

“We… broke up…”

At that, his father shuts his eyes, mood obviously souring.

"You are literally a fated pair, how is that even possible? *sigh* If it proves too difficult with her… well we had that list of marriage partners set up for you. Homura has made it quite clear she and her family would be very delighted to assimilate with ours."

Is this what Noritoshi wanted? A woman who obviously flirted with him as she lusted for power? No, he wanted you, who never inquired about his status. Just about his family, his mom, dad and half siblings.

You made it very clear you were worried about his family's well-being. And whether they would like you or not. You want him to meet yours. You never even asked him for a gift or much favors. (Though he had a feeling your family was pretty well off, based on your clothes and jewellery.)

And he loved the fact that he could breathe like a regular teenage guy around you. The only thing you’ve requested from him so far was honesty and transparency.

"No. That won't be needed. Y/N is mine. She is the only one for me." He spoke slowly and clearly. This is the first time he actually disagreed with his father. He'd lose his sanity without you.

"I expected as much, I've never seen you this determined about something before. Soulmates are so complicated." His father sighed out. "Do as you wish. It isn't wise for me or the elders to interfere with something as sacred and ancient as this soulbond you share with her anyways."

Noritoshi felt himself earn a small win at that. He was growing a backbone. "Thank you father."

“However! You cannot force her to love you back. Surely you know this. If you don’t get married by the age of 25, as per our clan tradition I’ll have you set up with another woman.”

Noritoshi inwardly sighed, resigned to his fate.

◇◇◇

Needless to say, you trained like a demon as the eve of Christmas quickly approached. Nobody dared come 10 feet near you as you perfected your Blizzard and Tornado techniques. It was normal to hear the crack of a sonic boom and see flashes of lightning around you.

You were hesitant to use your cursed technique reversal. You barely use flames and Inferno in general, but it can't be helped. But now you hold a pack of matches in your hand.

You lit a match and manipulated the flames. It danced dangerously around your fingers before you moved it from one hand to the other.

You were doing well. Spending a lot of time here on campus helped you to control your emotions and not let anger fuel your cursed energy like you did when you were younger. Those were such bad habits.

A wheel of flame circled in front of you. Very clean and stable. All of the sudden, a strong whirl of wind and empty space extinguished the flames like a vacuum … Only one other person in Japan is capable of doing that other than you.

You turned your head to the side and saw an incredibly tall man with snow white hair and a pair of sunglasses approached you. His bright baby blue eyes gently twinkling and peeking over the rims of his shades.

“Satoru nii, it’s been a while. Why visit me now?” You tiredly asked. He came up just a few inches away from you, staring down at you.

“I got a call from Hiroki. I’m here to help you with your special cursed techniques. It’s time, you’ve stopped holding yourself back Neko-chan.” He leered down with his trademark grin.

◇◇◇

You spend the entire afternoon getting pushed around by Satoru. This man was crazy strong. He kicked you against a tree. “OOF” you heaved.

"You avoid using Inferno. Is it because of your childhood trauma? I'm not shaming you but it's something you need to overcome."

You frowned at his words.

"You only have today to train with me y/n! Aren’t you honored I went out of my way from Tokyo to Kyoto?”

"Like hell I am."

“You’re not using the full extent of your cursed techniques. That power is your one true ally in this world. Trust it a bit more. Apart from your soulmate anyways, but I can see you and Noritoshi aren't exactly swell right now." Your eye twitched at that statement.

Satoru eyed the broken strands of red ropes that floated around you. Not a good sign. It was reaching out to the distance. Maybe to where Noritoshi is huh, Satoru wondered. Until he spotted one thin string, still very much intact and alive. He grinned.

‘This prick and his fucking special eye abilities’, you grumbled. He hit your back hard, “What bad language you have. Imma straighten you up today kitteeeen~”

He pranced around you and squatted to lean down to your level.

"But seriously, you say you want to get strong but you fear your own power kitten. Don't do that." Satoru pointed straight at your eyes. “Remove the fear of hurting the people around you. Because you’re literally fighting to protect the ones you love, focus instead on harnessing your cursed energy to fight. Your messed up emotions could cost you a fight, even your life. Doesn’t matter if you’re a special grade like me. At this rate you won’t catch up to me.”

You slumped to the ground in defeat.

“To be honest, I feel like my growth has stunted. I don’t know if it’s the lack of powerful opponents I’ve had lately.”

He sighed out so loudly and obnoxiously that your anger flared up at him. “Thaaat’s what I kept telling you. You shoulda come to Tokyo Jujutsu instead of here! 100% I would enjoy teaching you and I mean it. I could teach you ya know, and Yuuta is there as well. Another Special Grade, although his circumstances are quite unique and with the way he is right now, you have a better chance at beating him one-on-one since he’s a newbie to this world. And yet you kept saying you wanted to be here for your family.” He shook his head.

You felt as though your head cleared up all of a sudden. “Because I was here…. I was meant to be here. Satoru. I know it deep in my soul. Because I met Noritoshi and…. “ Your heart throbbed so loudly you heard it in your ears. A deep pain stabbed into you.

Ah right. You said you were over him. You broke up with him weeks ago.

“And? You’re not together anymore. Figure out your heart and I could let you reconsider transferring to Tokyo Jujutsu High you know?” He said with a frown.

Why does the idea of leaving Noritoshi behind feeling like you were carving your heart out? He isn’t anything to you anymore and yet…

No. Enough of this. You’re here to train and fight that curse that killed Sora. Your emotions were all over the place. Satoru came up to you and wiped your tears off your face.

“What are you doing to yourself y/n? Don’t lie to yourself. I thought you wanted to live life as honestly as possible.” Even Satoru looked concerned and troubled over your state.

You gulped. “Yeah you’re right. I told myself I wanted to get stronger and protect the ones I love. Now I’m just running away. Noritoshi at least has been trying to reach out to me, but I shut him down.” Your heart is hurting.

Satoru stared at you and the cursed energy that was rapidly pulsing around you. Then grinned. “Then... Fight me one-on-one right here right now. Let’s make sure to keep the damages to a minimum and take care of the buildings. All the other students are still here on campus. Sky's the limit since both of us can move well in mid-air. I want to see you control your emotions and fight me properly. I’ll hold back.” He said.

You took a deep breath and looked back up. “Challenge accepted.”

You’ve envisioned this countless times. You wanted to see how you could match-up against Satoru and all his years of experience. You weren’t expecting to win, but you were not going down without a fight. Your cursed technique is actually a good matchup for his.

You can manipulate molecules. Though you suspect his control is on an atomic level, and thus could overpower yours due to his finesse and 6 eyes. But you could at the very least try.

Satoru, on the other hand, already knew of your potential. 'She is the only one I know who can actually touch and surpass me, given that she can control gravity and condense molecules. It will come down to timing and refining techniques.'

“Give me 5 minutes to suit up.” You asked. He agreed. You flew to your room and eyed the katana of your father. He actually planned to give it to Sora when she turns 16. But due to her death, he gave it to you instead on your 16th.

The name was Kintsugi, because it was made of two halves before being welded together in the centre with high grade steel. The center has a core of a fine diamond dust that’s infused with cursed energy. It’s a grade 1 special tool that multiplies the cursed energy you put into it by 10.

“Don’t break it. Don’t break it…. But It’s Satoru I’m going against. It will break.” And so you put it back and instead reached for your best twin blades and metallic whip. You coiled it around your wrist like a bangle, before flying back to Satoru.

“Done preparing, kitten?” He had removed his sunglasses and his blue eyes were out wide open as they assessed your cursed technique.

“Yep!” You yelled. “Ah Toru, shouldn’t we inform the elders or Utahime sensei that we-”

He didn’t give you time to speak as he appeared in front of you all of the sudden. Rushing with a right hook. You quickly dodged. He kept his word and is going easy on you at least.

You exchanged a few blows with him, both his limitless and your spacial barrier active so technically, no hits were landed.

Until you warped the space and forced the molecules around them to retract, making you actually reach and hit him.

He must have expected the solid punch, because in return, he kicked you as he warped off your spacial barrier. You eyed him as you regrouped. It’s anyone’s game huh.

“You’re still holding back! Are you going to be like this in a real battle? Are you okay with staying weak? Or do you have to wait for someone special to die before you ignite?!”

Oh no he didn’t. Your emotions raged, and you tried to calm them down. But all you saw was blood red. You never felt this angry at Satoru before. Before you knew it, you had activated inferno, making the entire surrounding area, which Satoru was in, combust and burn up in flames.

You lit up a match and pulled the flames on the ground and trees towards your smaller flame and held a massive ball of fire. Satoru was gone, it was only soot on the ground. You looked up to see him hurtling down at you.

You barely dodged, before wrapping the flames around you as you used it to strike at him repeatedly. You both rose up higher and higher into the air.

“Special art: Goldenrod,” you shot a bolt of lightning at Satoru only for him to dodge it. “Don’t just shoot it from your hands! Electricity is a current! You can make it run through your entire body!” He yelled as you both spiraled and fought over the campus.

He had the energy to teach you while you were fighting. You scoffed, but listened carefully, generating electricity in your hands before letting it wrap around you.

You were both dodging and striking at each other with such power. The trees swayed violently as winds and rubble were thrown about.

“What on earth…” Noritoshi and the other students stared at the flashes of fire, lightning, and wind above the campus.

The sky darkened. Good. If you had water, that was another asset.

He must have realized this as he immediately activated his Cursed Technique: Reversal. “Red.” You were forced back, plummeting to the ground. You swiftly turned and saw Miwa and Mai staring at you with horror.

You pulled yourself up back into the sky, still filled with fire and lightning, narrowly missing the building. You twisted your fingers to the side. The flames turned into the shape of the Dragon and you whipped back to hit Satoru from the front while your dragon of flame hit him from behind.

He danced around your attacks, teleporting from one area to the next to dodge them.

He then easily extinguished your flames with a flick of his wrist, but your lightning stayed. He can’t extinguish it, because it was coursing through your body, constantly moving.

You both stood, hundreds of feet high above the Kyoto Campus in midair. Lightning flashed above and winds howled.

You’ve never been pushed this hard your entire life. Not with Hiroki. Not with Todo. But Satoru was really on another level of strong. Unbreakable like a monster. He didn’t feel human anymore.

You tried for a Mach Speed hit, which you’ve never tried on anyone else; it would kill them on impact. “Mach 3.5” There was a loud BANG!

Going at Mach Speed has its limits of course. You can afford to do Mach 1, 5 times a day. Mach 2, 3 times, and Mach 4 only once.

A huge cone of smoke formed behind you as you launched yourself at Satoru. He was still able to evade you, but you pointed one hand to him, quickly following up on another attack.

“Fubuki.” Your blizzard technique was a combination of Niflheim and Tatsumaki. Cold air whipped around you and you thrust it towards Satoru. A mini tornado has formed around you and it pushed and pulled widely. But you were in the eye of the storm.

Satoru dodged your winds, but couldn’t escape them all, wincing as some small ice shards cut into his skin. He attracted debris and rocks towards you. One caught on your shoulder, making you yell in pain, but the rest you were able to guard against with your winds.

He immediately closed in on you to prevent you from doing another full blast and punched with ‘Red’. You countered with a roundhouse kick supercharged with your blizzard and lightning, neutralising his infinity jujutsu with a bit of mixed gravity control.

A huge gust of whirlwind was emitted from the impact, forcing everyone on campus down to the ground.

“GOJO! TSUCHIMIKADO! STOP THIS!” Utahime was screaming at the top of her lungs, still heard over the roar of thunderclap.

You both looked at each other and knew it had to end soon. Rain was starting to fall.

He threw his back and laughed out loud. “I hadn’t had this much fun in ages. You’ve grown really strong. Stop me if you can.” And flew away from the buildings and into the surrounding forest. You whipped your tornado around you and quickly followed him.

All the other students that had been watching you go at it followed. Utahime did as well. They stood from a distance as both of you exchanged more hits.

You lit another match and let arrows made of flames rain on Satoru, weakening his limitless barrier as much as you could. Only one arrow slightly singed his sleeve. Damn he was good.

Satoru attracted your body with “Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue.” You felt like your insides were tearing as you tried to stop his force. But his limitless technique easily overpowered yours. You let go and rushed towards him with both your swords out.

He easily sidestepped and kicked them out of your grasp. The hit was so heavy, even though it hit your swords, you felt the force reverberate throughout your body.

Satoru grabbed your neck from behind, and for the very first time since you were awarded the Special Grade Jujutsushi status, you were forced down onto the ground.

You used your cursed technique to soften the blow as much as possible, but Satoru was relentless as he slammed you head-first down onto the grass.

Everyone winced as you hit the ground hard. "He's not human." Mai said. Everyone agreed, not used to seeing you at the mercy of another party like this. They were reminded of who exactly was the strongest sorcerer alive.

In order to win against Satoru, your goal was to touch him and move past his limitless barrier. Even if it’s just for a moment. You couldn’t use Niflheim or Inferno from afar. He would remain unaffected as he guards and stops the change in movement of molecules around him.

But now his hand was around your neck. Your twin blades suddenly rush to close in around his neck in an x position to gather his attention, while you use your technique to warp the space around his hand to weaken limitless and hold onto him.

You lashed out with your metallic whip, letting your cursed technique run through it. It worked and scratched his cheek a bit.

"Enhanced gravity: Output 30%", the ground cracked underneath the both of you as a massive weight pressed down. And then you shocked both Satoru and yourself with the lightning coursing through you. Screaming at the pain in the process.

He gritted his teeth as volts shocked his bones.

Utahime and the others stared at both of you. "What a huge amount of cursed energy." Todo said in awe. "Non-standard Jujutsu users are insane."

Satoru still had the strength to hit your lower back which caused you to heave out and stop Goldenrod from activating. Both of your clothes were literally toasted. “Haha. You’re a scary one y/n.”

That’s all you remembered before you passed out; you were out of cursed energy.

◇◇◇

Noritoshi rushed over to take you in his arms. Pulling your unconscious body close to his, he gave you a once-over. You had just fainted from exhaustion, there were no serious injuries. Good.

"Noritoshi," Satoru called.

"Yes, Gojo San?"

"Take care of her for me please."

He straightened up, "Of course. There’s no need to ask that from me." He then carried you to the infirmary, holding you gently in his arms.

Blood Bound: Table of Contents

Author's Notes: Me writing this entire scene: FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!! (x100)

Y/n was able to fight on par with Satoru, because he chose to limit his cursed energy output and match his skills to her level. A psychokinesis cursed technique would be a natural enemy for limitless since you can condense and expand space between molecules. But you still lack experience in battle. And if we were going to talk about Domains, Satoru would dominate the battle.

[fictionalabyss]

All who enter must fight.

Pairings : Alpha!Winchesters x Sister!Omega!Reader

Word count : 1,136

Written for : @spnabobingo​

Square : Holy Omega

Warning : Worshipped Omegas, Violence, fight to the death, decapitation, partial shifting,  claiming a blood sibling for a mate, implication of incestuous relationship to follow but none depicted.

Masterlist • Patreon • Ko-fi.

SPN A/B/O Bingo Round 5 Masterlist.

You stood on the dais in the crowd, watching with an emotionless face as the men below fought for the right to mate with you. The second you had presented as a child, you had been whisked away, ripped from your family to be raised in seclusion, surrounded by priestesses.

Omega’s were rare. Very rare. Only a handful born in a generation. To mate with one, was an honor you had to fight for. Be willing to die for. And people from all over the world were willing to come and die just for the chance.

Your long white flowing dress, signifying your status as both a Omega and a virgin, was a stark contrast to your surroundings. It was dim, dirty and blood was everywhere. Dark stone walls and a dirt floor made the arena they fought in below you. This was a sacred and holy place, despite what went on here. Despite how many men died here.

You watched as another man was cut down, not even a wince as his throat was ripped out by a pair of claws. Another got his neck snapped. And another ripped apart with pure brute strength. Shifting in the area was forbidden. Animal forms were seen as a cheat, but tapping into your wolf's power, that was perfectly allowed. It showed strength and discipline, traits said to be favored by the moon goddess, and if she favored you, you would win. Your claws, your fangs, those were okay, but as soon as fur was seen, a muzzle, everyone stopped their attacks on each other and cut the offender down. And every time this area was filled, someone would shift in a last ditch effort for survival, and every time it would seal their fate.

Today was no different. 100 warriors dropped down to 50 quicker than you had expected it to. That number dropped further still. One by one, they fell. It was somewhere around 30 that they started to show signs of getting tired. When a cornered and injured man tried to fight a shift and lost. Before his fur had fully sprouted from his skin, he was dead. A massive man had come, seemingly out of nowhere, and snapped his neck quickly, then gently lay the body down, mumbling something over it, something you couldn’t hear from that far away, but you’d seen the goddess prayer enough times to know it just by the movement of the lips. It was a prayer of peace. You found yourself smiling softly. This one had a gentle hand and a forgiving heart. You found yourself almost hoping he would be the victor.

Cheers erupted through the crowd as another man met his bloody end. Families cried as their loved ones died, their sobs drowned out by the crowd. One woman wailed as her son was cut down, threw herself into the arena and ran for his body. Your breath caught in your throat as you watched her run with wide eyes. “Get her out of there.” you told the priestess next to you, your first words uttered since arriving. “Get her out!”

“All who enter the arena must fight.” The priestess told you.

You shot the priestess a look, then snapped your head back to the area. She was going to die. She was going to die for daring to mourn her son.  Why did she jump in? Why didn’t she wait until the end?

The giant man was back, running towards her. But he wasn’t looking at her. You followed his gaze and some someone else with their claws out, ready to attack. The giant reached her first, arm going around her waist and pulling her back. He ran her back to the wall in front of your dais and hoisted her up. “Climb.” you urged her with a whisper, trying to will her to do it. “Climb, please. Climb.” When you saw her hand reaching over the top of the wall, you called out to anyone close by. “Lift her out! Now! Go!” Thank god these people worshiped Omega's as if they were goddesses themselves, four servants rushed forward and helped pull her up.

The gentle giant was being stalked now, with his attention distracted by getting the poor woman out, he didn’t see the attack from behind coming. It was the perfect opportunity to take him out, if someone didn’t now, he very well could win. It made sense, it made perfect sense, but it felt unfair.

The woman finally cleared the wall, but it was almost too late for the man who’d helped her. But it seemed he had a guardian angel of his own. In a flash, someone else was there, and a piercing roar filled the arena as he snapped the man's neck, ripping it clean off his shoulders.

The crowd cheered, it was deafeningly loud, but your eyes were glued to him.

And he looked up at you, meeting the gaze.

He looked familiar. Very familiar. A memory from your past that you couldn’t remember, but it was there, tugging at you, begging you to know him. He turned, continued to fight, bringing down adversaries without ever stopping. He was covered in blood, but he just kept moving. Killing. It reminded you of a man desperate to protect something. But what?

It took a long time, but then it was down to two. The giant, and the man who’d helped him. They were both covered in blood, standing there, eyes on each other. Neither moved. They both just stood there, breathing heavily.

You watched them, eyes going between them. Minor similarities in facial features, in mannerisms. They held themselves the same. Moved the same. You’d been watching them both for hours, they were in sync. Brothers. They had to be. But why was one so familiar?

“You must fight to the death.” The priestess next to you reminded them. Neither moved still. “Kill him!”

“No.”

You looked to the other, tilting your head and taking a good long look at him. He was familiar too, very familiar.

“Brothers..” you whispered, realization hitting.

“KILL HIM OR DIE!”  she screamed.

“No!” you rushed forward before anyone could grab you, ran as fast as you could down into the arena and threw yourself between them and the Templars that had spears and swords aimed, arms out in protection. “No!”

“They must fight or die!” the priestess yelled down. “It is the way!”

“They are my brothers!” you screamed back.

“You have no brothers, no family! You are an omega! You will mate the winner.”

“Then I take two mates!” A shocked murmur spread through the crowd. “I will take two mates.” you said it more firmly, daring them to protest.

“Good to see you again, kid.” your eldest brother smirked. “Nice of you to join us.”

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[supercantaloupe]

okay yeah actually, i’ll bite. i’ve got some of my own thoughts about the unsleeping city and cultural representation and i’m gonna make a post about them now, i guess. i’ll put it under a cut though because this post is gonna be long.

i wanna start by saying i love dimension 20 and i really really enjoy the unsleeping city. i look forward to watching new episodes every week, and getting hooked on d20 as a whole last summer really helped pull me out of a pandemic depression, and i’m grateful to have this cool show to be excited about and interested in and to have met so many cool people to talk about it with.

that being said, however, i think there is a risk run in representing any group of people/their culture when you have the kind of setting that tuc has. by which i mean, tuc is set in a real world with real people and real human cultures in it. unlike fantasy high or a crown of candy where everything is made up (even if rooted in real-world cultures), tuc is explicitly rooted in reality, and all of its diversity -- both the ups and downs that go with it. and especially set in new york of all places, one of the most densely, diversely populated cities on earth. the cast is 7 people; it’s great that those 7 people come from a variety of backgrounds and identities and all bring their own unique perspectives to the table, and it’s great that those people and the entire crew are generally conscious of themselves and desire to tell stories/represent perspectives ethically. but you simply cannot authentically represent every culture or every perspective in the world (or even just in a city) when your cast is 7 people. it’s an impossible task. this is inherent to the setting, and acknowledged by the cast, and by brennan especially, who has been on record saying how one of the exciting aspects of doing a campaign set in nyc is its diversity, the fact that no two new yorkers have the same perspective of new york. i think that’s a good thing -- but it does have its challenges too, clearly.

i’m not going to go into detail on the question of whether or not tuc’s presentation of asian and asian american culture is appropriative/offensive or not. first of all, i don’t feel like it’s 100% fair to judge the show completely yet, since it’s a prerecorded season and currently airing midseason, so i don’t yet know how things wrap up. secondly, i’m not asian or asian american. i can have my own opinions on that content in the show, but i think it’s worth more to hear actual asian and asian american voices on this specific aspect of the show. having an asian american cast member doesn’t automatically absolve the show of any criticisms with regard to asian american cultural representation/appropriation, whether those criticisms are made by dozens of viewers or only a handful of them. regardless, i don’t think it’s my place as someone who is not asian to speak with any authority on that issue, and i know for a fact that there are asian american viewers sharing their own opinions. their thoughts in this instance hold more water than mine, i think.

what i will comment on in more depth, though, is a personal frustration with tuc. i’m jewish; i’ve never really been shy about that fact on my page here. i’m not from new york, but i visit a few times a year (or i did before covid anyway, lol), and i have some family from nyc. nyc, to me, is a jewish city. and for good reason, since it’s home to one of the largest jewish populations of the country, and even the world, and aspects of jewish culture (including culinary, like bagels and pastrami, and linguistic, like the common use of yiddish words and phrases in english colloquial speech) are prevalent and celebrated among jews and goyim alike. when i think of nyc, i think of a jewish city; that’s not everybody’s new york, but that’s my new york, and thats plenty of other people’s new york too. so i do find myself slightly disappointed or frustrated in tuc for its, in my opinion, rather stark lack of jewish representation.

now, i’m not saying that one of the PCs should have been jewish, full stop. i love to headcanon iga as jewish even though canon does not support that interpretation, and i’m fine with that. she’s not my character. it’s possible that simply no one thought of playing a jewish character, i dunno. but also, and i can’t be sure about this, i’m willing to bet that none of the players really wanted to play a jewish character because they didn’t want to play a character of a marginalized culture they dont belong to in the interest of avoiding stereotyping or offensive representation/cultural appropriation. (i don’t know if any of the cast members are jewish, but i’m assuming not.) and the concern there is certainly appreciated; there’s not a ton of mainstream jewish rep out there, and often what we get is either “unlikeable overly conservative hassidic jew” or “jokes about their bar mitzvah/one-off joke about hanukkah and then their jewishness is never mentioned ever again,” which sucks. it would be really cool to see some more good casual jewish rep in a well-rounded, three-dimensional character in the main cast of a show! even if there are a couple of stumbles along the way -- nobody is perfect and no two jews have the same level of knowledge, dedication, and adherence to their culture.

but at the same time, i look at characters like iga and i really do long for a jewish character to be there. siobhan isn’t polish, yet she’s playing a characters whose identity as a polish immigrant to new york is very central to her story and arc. and part of me wonders why we can’t have the same for a jewish character. if not a PC, then why not an NPC? again, i’m jewish, and i am not native, but in my opinion i think the inclusion of jj is wonderful -- i think there are even fewer native main characters in mainstream media than there are jewish ones, and it’s great to see a native character who is both in touch with their culture as well as not being defined solely by their native-ness. to what extent does it count as ‘appropriative’ because brennan is a white dude? i dunno, but i’m like 99% sure they talked to sensitivity consultants to make sure the representation was as ethical as they could get it, and anyway, i can’t personally see and glaring missteps so far. but again, i’m not native, and if there are native viewers with their own opinions on jj, i’d be really interested in hearing them.

but getting back to the relative lack of jewish representation. it just...disappoints me that jewishness in new york is hardly ever even really mentioned? again, i know we’re only just over halfway through season 2, but also, we had a whole first season too. and it’s definitely not all bad. for example: willy! gd, i love willy so much. him being a golem of williamsburg makes me really really happy -- a jewish mythological creature animated from clay/mud (in this case bricks) to protect a jewish community (like that of williamsburg, a center for many of nyc’s jews) from threat. golem have so often been taken out of their original context and turned into evil monsters in fantasy settings, especially including dnd. (even within other seasons of d20! crush in fh being referred to as a “pavement golem” always rubbed me the wrong way, and i had hoped they’d learned better after tuc but in acoc they refer to another monster as a “corn golem” which just disappointed me all over again.) so the fact that tuc gets golems right makes my jewish heart very happy.

and yet...he doesn’t show up that much? sure, in s1, he’s very helpful when he does, but in s2 so far he shows up once and really does not say or do much of anything. he speaks with a lot more yiddish-influenced language than other characters, but if you didn’t know those words were specifically yiddish/jewish, you might not be able to otherwise clock the fact that willy is jewish. and while willy is a jewish mythological creature who is jewish in canon, he isn’t human. there are no other direct references to judaism, jewish characters, or jewish culture in the unsleeping city beyond him.

there are, in fact, two other canon jewish characters in tuc. but...here’s where i feel the most frustration, i think. the two canon jewish humans in tuc are stephen sondheim and robert moses. both of whom are real actual people, so it’s not like we can just pick and choose what their cultural backgrounds are. as much as i love stephen sondheim, i think there are inherent issues with including real world people as characters in a fictional setting, especially if they are from living/recent memory (sondheim is literally still alive), but anyway, sondheim and moses are both actual jewish people. from watching tuc alone you probably would not be able to guess that sondheim is jewish -- nothing from his character except name suggests it, and i wouldn’t even fault you for not thinking ‘sondheim’ is a jewish-sounding surname (and i dislike the idea/attitude/belief that you can tell who is or isn’t jewish by the sound of their name). and yeah, i’m not going to sit here and be like “brennan should have made sondheim more visibly jewish in canon!” because, like, he’s a real human being and it’s fucking weird to portray him in a way that isn’t as close to how he publicly presents himself, which is not in fact very identifiably jewish? i don’t know, this is what i mean by it’s inherently weird and arguably problematic to portray real living people as characters in a fictional setting, but i digress. sondheim’s jewish, even if you wouldn’t know it; not exactly a representation win.

and then there’s bob moses. you might be able to guess that he’s jewish from canon, actually. there’s the name, of course. but more insidious to me are the specifics of his villainy. greedy and powerhungry, a moneyman, a lich whose power is stored in a phylactery...it does kind of all add up to a Yikes from me. (in the stock market fight there’s a one-off line asking if he has green skin; it’s never really directly acknowledged or answered, but it made me really uncomfortable to hear at first and it’s stuck with me since viewing for the first time.) the issue for me here is that the most obviously jewish human character is the season’s bbeg, and his villainy is rooted in very antisemitic tropes and stereotypes.

i know this isn’t all brennan’s fault -- robert moses was a real ass person and he was in fact jewish, a powerhungry and greedy moneyman, a big giant racist asshole, etc. i’m not saying that jewish characters can’t be evil, and i’m not saying brennan should have tried to be like “this is my NPC robert christian he’s just like bob moses but instead he’s a goy so it’s okay” because...that would be fuckin weird bro. and bob moses was a real person who was jewish and really did do some heinous shit with his municipal power. i’m not necessarily saying brennan should have picked/created a different character to be the villain. i’m not even saying that he shouldn’t have made bob moses a lich (although, again, it doesn’t 100% sit right with me). but my point here is that bob moses is one of a grand total of three canon jewish characters in tuc, of which only two humans, of whom he is the one you’d most easily guess would be jewish and is the most influenced by antisemitic stereotypes/tropes. had there been more jewish representation in the show at all, even just some neutral jewish NPCs, this would not be as much of a problem as it is to me. but halfway through season 2, so far, this is literally all we get. and that bums me out.

listen, i really like tuc. i love d20. but the fact that it is set in a real world place with real world people does inherently raise challenges when it comes to ethical cultural representation. especially when the medium of the show is a game whose creatures, lore, and mechanics have been historically rooted in some questionable racial/cultural views. and dnd is making progress to correct some of those misguided views of older sourcebooks by updating them to more equitably reflect real world racial/cultural sensitivities; that’s a good thing! but these seasons, of course, were recorded before that. the game itself has some questionable cultural stuff baked into it, and that is (almost necessarily) going to be brought to the table in a campaign set in a real-world place filled with real-world people of diverse real-world cultures. the cast can have sensitivity consultants and empathy and the best intentions in the world, and they’ll still fuck up from time to time, that’s okay. your mileage may vary on whether or not it’s still worth sticking around with the show (or the fandom) through that. for me, it does not yet outweigh all the things i like about the show, and i’m gonna continue watching it. but it’s still very worth acknowledging that the cast is 7 people who cannot possibly hope to authentically or gracefully represent every culture in nyc. it’s an unfortunate limitation of the medium. yet it’s also still worthwhile to acknowledge and discuss the cultural representation as it is in the show -- both the goods and the bads, the ethically solid and the questionably appropriative -- and even to hold the creators accountable. (decently, though. i’m definitely not advocating anybody cyberbully brennan on twitter or whatever.) the show and its representation is far from perfect, but i also don’t think it ever could be. still, though, it could always be better, and there’s a worthwhile discussion to be had in the wheres, hows, and whys of that.