#shes so scary

[metianull]

ARADIA MEGIDO

[katscythe]

Chapter 9 ~ Protective Instincts

~~~ Vic reached down to help Garfield up, threading a massive arm under his uninjured shoulder and supporting some of his weight as he stood. He grabbed the boy's green wrist with his other hand and held it steady between them, sensors in his fingertips taking his pulse.

Blood dripped softly onto the tile.

“Let me see your shoulder—”

“What the fuck was that!” Raven's low voice cut through the room with a boom of sound.

Shadows exploded out from her, racing across the floor and casting the whole space into darkness, the light from the window suddenly dimming as if a heavy cloud had passed in front of the sun. Every piece of furniture in the kitchen shot away from her, chairs toppling over backwards to crash on the floor, the ceramic canisters on the counter shattering, contents spraying out in every direction as they hit the tile. Cabinet doors slammed open then rebounded back into their frames with sharp cracks, hinges shrieking, the lights above her bursting with little pops.

A burst of shadow slammed into Victor's chest, shoving him away from Garfield and sending him stumbling.

“What—” Gar's eyes shot open wide as Raven stepped aggressively towards him.

Every hair on his body instantly stood on end, dangerous energy crackling through the room. Everything else faded away as his mind focused in on the predator coming at him.

He staggered back, trying to catch his balance.

Vic and Kori retreated immediately.

Raven advanced on him, visceral waves of anger rippling off of her body, strands of chin-length black hair lifting to curl around her face

He backed away from her as quickly as he could, nearly toppling over on his unsteady legs.

“I don’t need you to protect me!” she snarled. Her voice dropped impossibly in pitch, a strange, harmonizing note echoing through it as if another person was speaking through her mouth at the same time.

“I wasn’t—I just—”

“You almost got yourself killed, you fucking IDIOT! If he had shot me, I would’ve been fine!” She threw her arms out with the words and darkness slashed across the few remaining feet of space between them. Glass shattered.

Gar flinched back. He hit the counter behind him, pain searing across his back, and grabbed onto it desperately, trying to stay upright. His chest heaved with sharp, rapid breaths, every beat of his racing heart stabbing into his head.

Raven leaned in, her shorter frame somehow towering over him.

They held that position for a breathless second, gazes locked. Darkness crawled up over every surface around them, slowly devouring the room.

And Gar saw the tears tracing silently down her icy cheeks, the terror dancing in the darkness in her eyes.

“Rae—”

“I DO NOT NEED YOU TO PROTECT ME.” ~~~

[littlegreengent]

Ringer doesn’t even cover it. They’re putting Claudia through the hydraulic press.

[scrawnym4]

thousand mile stare

[quillweaves]

Reading the Horror of Hormak and lads… if Ghilan’nain is freed we are SOOOOOO fucked fr

[cannibalindsm]

Rosemarine if he was worse

[sparrow-ceiling]

slay

[llycaons]

jiang shuran is ice-cold as a mother holy shit. 'if you were mad at your cousin for sleeping with your fiancé, then bring her home and torture her in a thousand ways behind closed doors. but since you lashed out publicly and injured her, now she's the wounded party and she'll be the pitied one. you idiot' jesus christ

[artkaninchenbau]

Crocodile finds a strange stray cat an 11-year old Nico Robin (AU where they met 13 years earlier. Robin's been on the run from the World Government for 3 years. Crocodile's 27 and has not set up base in Alabasta yet)

It seems like I have become possessed. By some sort of demon.

Bonus:

[morebird]

my beloved murder wife (who is definitely not about to step on me)

[thesinglesock]

my mom walked upstairs in her seal skin boots. Fjonka (my rabbit) came running to greet them (her seal skin boots). she sniffed them for a second. nuzzled them, before realizing they weren't breathing. horror dawned on her. she begun to understand she was dealing with something she couldn't comprehend. she backed off, without letting them out of her sight. she STOMPED to let them (the seal skin boots) know that she did NOT like this situation. my mom stomped back. Fjonka stomped harder, exhibiting a bravery and assertedness I had no idea she possessed. mom turned and went back down the stairs. Good job, Fjonk. You sure showed those undead vampire rabbits who's boss.

[steelsartcorner]

the make-everything-hades fever has spread to lae'zel

all her boons are for sure big huge damage boosters at the expense of your magic meter

others: the dark urge (OC); minthara (bg3), karlach (bg3), shadowheart(bg3), gale (bg3), halsin (bg3), astarion (bg3), wyll (bg3), kotallo (horizon)

[chloesimaginationthings]

The ending of FNAF Help wanted..

[bigfatbreak]

they both got bonked for being silly.

[stromblessed]

Mizu, femininity, and fallen sparrows

In my last post about Mizu and Akemi, I feel like I came across as overly critical of Mizu given that Mizu is a woman who - in her own words - has to live as a man in order to go down the path of revenge.

If she is ever discovered to be female by the wrong person, she will not only be unable to complete her quest, but there's a good chance that she'll be arrested or killed.

So it makes complete sense for Mizu to distance herself as much as possible from any behavior that she feels like would make someone question her sex.

I felt so indignant toward Mizu on my first couple watchthroughs for this moment. Why couldn't Mizu bribe the woman and her child's way into the city too? If Mizu is presenting as a man, couldn't she claim to be the woman's escort?

However, this moment makes things pretty clear. Mizu knows all too well the plight of women in her society. She knows it so well that she cannot risk ever finding herself back in their position again. She helps in what little way she can - without drawing attention to herself.

Mizu is not a hero and she is not one to make of herself a martyr - she will not set herself on fire to keep others warm. There's room to argue that Mizu shouldn't prioritize her quest over people's lives, but given the collateral damage Mizu can live with in almost every episode of season 1, Mizu is simply not operating under that kind of morality at this point. ("You don't know what I've done to reach you," Mizu tells Fowler.)

And while I still feel like Mizu has an obvious and established blind spot when it comes to Akemi because of their differences in station, such that Mizu's judgment of Akemi and actions in episode 5 are the result of prejudice rather than the result of Mizu's caution, I also want to establish that Mizu is just as caged as Akemi is, despite her technically having more freedom while living as a man.

Mizu can hide her mixed race identity some of the time, and she can hide her sex almost all of the time, but being able to operate outside of her society's strict rules for women does not mean she cannot see their plight.

It does not mean she doesn't hurt for them.

Back to Mizu and collateral damage, remember that sparrow?

While Mizu is breaking into Boss Hamata's manse, she gets startled by a bird and kills it on reflex. She then cradles it in her hands - much more tenderly than we've seen Mizu treat almost anything up to this point in the season:

She then puts it in its nest, with its unhatched eggs. Almost like she's trying to make the death look natural. Or like an accident.

You see where I'm going with this.

When Mizu kills Kinuyo, Mizu lingers in the moment, holding the body tenderly:

And btw a lot of stuff about this show hit me hard, but this remains the biggest gut punch of them all for me, Mizu holding that poor girl's body close, GOD

When Mizu arranges the "scene of the crime," Kinuyo's body is delicate, birdlike. And Mizu is so shaken afterward that she gets sloppy. She's horrified at this kill to the point that she can't bring herself to take another innocent life - the boy who rats her out.

MIZU'S ONE MOMENT OF SOFTNESS AND MERCY, COMING ON THE HEELS OF HER NEEDING TO KILL A GIRL TO SPARE HER THE WORST FATE THAT THIS RIGID SOCIETY HAS TO OFFER WOMEN, AND TO SPARE A BROTHEL FULL OF INNOCENT WOMEN WHO ARE THE CASTOFFS OF SOCIETY, NEARLY RESULTS IN ALL OF THEIR DEATHS

No wonder Mizu is as stoic and cold as she is.

And no wonder Mizu has no patience for Akemi whatsoever right before the terrible reveal and the fight breaks out:

Speaking of Akemi - guess who else is compared to a bird!

The plumage is more colorful, a bit flashier. But a bird is a bird.

And, uh

Yeah.

I like to think that Mizu killing the sparrow is not only foreshadowing for what she must do to Kinuyo, but is also a representation of the choice she makes on Akemi's behalf. She decides to cage the bird because she believes the bird is "better off." Better off caged than... dead.

But because Mizu doesn't know Akemi or her situation, she of course doesn't realize that the bird is fated to die if it is caged and sent back home.

Mizu is clearly not happy, or pleased, or satisfied by allowing Akemi to be dragged back to her father:

But softness and mercy haven't gotten Mizu anywhere good, recently.

There is so much tragedy layered into Mizu's character, and it includes the things she has to witness and the choices she makes - or believes she has to make - involving women, when she herself can skirt around a lot of what her society throws at women. Although, I do believe that it comes at the cost of a part of Mizu's soul.

After all, I'm gonna be haunted for the rest of this show by Mizu's very first prayer in episode 1:

"LET" her die. Because as Ringo points out, she doesn't "know how" to die.

Kind of like another bird in this show:

[charowon]

Throwback to the Circe Saga