#so they don’t have to acknowledge what trafficking and kidnapping actually is

[howlsofbloodhounds]

I bet the people who subscribe to the “nightmare and killer are equally toxic!!” narrative can’t even name one thing killer ever did or said to nightmare in his canon that was toxic.

[link4eva]

Kiro’s Seeking Date Translation [CN]

Hey, everyone! Just a couple of things before you begin reading. I don’t actually know any Chinese so this translation was done through the power of Google Translate. A HUGE shout-out to @keliosyfan and @cheesy09 for helping me with edits and revising. Thank you!!! 💛

Here’s a link to the date video uploaded by @keliosyfan​ that you can follow along with.

 Also, here’s a link to the call that comes before the date.

*TW: I feel like I should note that this date has mentions of human trafficking.*

This translation contains spoilers for a date that has not yet been released to the ENG server. If you wish to not be spoiled, please don’t look below the cut. 

Hope you enjoy~ 💛

*Spoilers for future content below!*

[First Part]

??: What are you doing kidnapping her, idiot?! 

??: She has been with Helios for so many years, she must be his most important woman.

??: With this woman, we can make him write off his debts and also crush his spirit as a gift to those foreigners.

In the dimness, two male voices drifted into my ears.

My hands were tied behind me, and the rope bore through the cloth on my body. The rough and wet touch made me very uncomfortable.

??: If he really cared about this woman, would he always keep her by his side? Tell everyone that she is his weakness?

??: This woman is a target he bought four years ago to get rid of trash and see who in the city found him unpleasant!

Although I was very certain that these people were telling the truth, after hearing those words, my heart still couldn’t help but ache.

??: This is the end of the matter. This woman can’t stay.

??: Sooner or later, that beast Helios will know what you have done. He would never let us get away with it. *Changed some wording*

??: This person has just been taken away, and Helios won’t be so fast.

The icy sound of a knife unsheathing made me clench my teeth. My whole body shook.

The hemp rope had been cut with the blade hidden in my sleeve, and I waited for the opportunity as it gradually approached.

Even though I closed my eyes, I could always see that person’s face and a pair of indifferent blue eyes.

If I died, would he be sad? 

??: Hope... is the most precious thing in this world. 

??: Do you want to go with me?

I can’t die yet.

But just before I acted, someone ended up being faster than me.

With a “shink”, it seemed that a sharp weapon pierced the glass and embedded itself into the wooden board. The sudden noise made my heart constrict.

??: Don’t open your eyes.

After an extremely cold and commanding voice sounded, there were shrill screams. In the continuous plethora of sounds, there was the harsh sound of bones being twisted.

I closed my eyes and curled up tightly, worried that this was just a dream.

Until I was hugged in a strong and warm embrace, with the fragrance of smokey tobacco wrapping around me. 

I opened my eyes blankly and caught sight of the silver hair that was eye-catching and dazzling in the gloomy thatched house.

Those blue eyes, which were normally calm, were now mixed with a little anger.

MC: ...Am I dreaming?

Helios: Do you often dream of me? 

The man gave me a look, held me, and walked out the door. It seemed to be the warehouse of a wine shop.

(Cut to outside)

Suddenly his figure stopped, and I lowered my eyes to find that a man was holding onto his trousers tightly.

??: Mr. Helios, boss, please forgive us this time. We will soon have a big deal, and then we will be accommodated…. 

Helios: Is the restaurant I run like an orphanage?  

Helios: Repaying debts is justified.

He turned a deaf ear to the man’s pleading and the whispers from the bystanders. He moved his long legs, and the man fell to the ground.

At the same time, a group of people began to move in and out of the store.

MC: Should I first….

Helios: Don’t move. 

His voice sounded impatient. I blinked and didn’t speak anymore.

After the fight was over, Helios raised the corner of his mouth and gave a slight retort to the kneeling man.

Helios: Mr. Cao, you’re welcome to visit Spring Moon Pavillion next time. 

??: You foreign devil, don’t lie! Go to hell! 

The curse echoed behind us, and the sound of a solid, steady heartbeat fell upon my ears.

Here, people called him many things-- Mr. Helios, the boss, foreign devil. 

No one knew his origins. There was a rumour that seemed to say he was of mixed race.

Most of the restaurants, diners and pawn shops in the city were under his name, and there were many other shady places.

Countless people ate his meals, and countless people enjoyed his turf. They were his business partners, his subordinates, and his debtors.

He was the unspoken ruler of this city.

Everyone here respected him and feared him.

MC: Are you hurt?

I felt the person stepping forward seem to pause, but it was only momentarily.

Helios: No. 

I leaned into that somewhat cold embrace, and in my sorrow, it seemed to overlap with the heavy snow from four years ago.

[Second Part]

(Flashback)

I stretched my arms strenuously, trying to grab the flying photograph.

The man behind me tightened the chain on the back of my neck, leaving only the muddy photo in my blurred vision, which ended up crushed with shoe prints on the ground.

Like unforeseen freedom, it broke free, but also decayed. Like my freedom, slowly slipping away with each step.

The world was covered with a film and the insults behind me were drowned out, and only cold white noise remained.

Suddenly, a pair of delicate leather shoes stopped next to the photo, and someone picked it up in the next second.

I blinked slowly, and found an eye-catching and sharp silver light under the extremely gloomy sky.

It was like the first speck of snow that one would find stunning in the late winter, burning straight into people’s eyes, beautiful and cold.

The boy looked around the same age as me, and a pair of azure blue eyes met my own.

The biting cold caused my reaction to delay and another pair of distant and similar pupils appeared before my eyes.

But they were warmer and brighter.

??: Snap out of it!

When my consciousness was pulled back to reality by the pain, I heard screams that did not belong to me. The force that restrained me suddenly disappeared, and I fell directly to the ground.

I reluctantly raised my eyes and found that the silver-haired boy had come over at some point, twisting the man’s wrist with one hand. His gaze shifted from the photo in his hand to me.

??: Did you stay in the orphanage in the east of the city as a child? 

I looked at him dumbfoundedly and lost my voice for a moment.

??: Answer me.

MC: [flustered] ….Ye-yes! I stayed there for a year.

The boy’s eyes seemed to light up for a moment because of my answer, and then became alienated in the blink of an eye.

He threw the man aside, lowered his eyes and wiped off the mud from the photo with his white sleeves, then squatted down and handed it to me.

??: I’ll only ask once.

??: Come with me?

I stared at him in a daze, and the roaring from the outside world came to an abrupt end. Only the voice of the boy in front of me and my own heartbeat could be heard.

MC: Ok.

As soon as I spoke, the boy threw a few silver bills at the man.

The heavy snow fell silently, and I was taken into his arms, like a fragmented snowflake.

The blood, water and frost all mixed together, and I heard his voice in the dizziness.

??: Starting today, you are mine. 

??: My name is Helios.

??: But I don’t like this name, so don’t call me that.

MC: My name is MC….Then um….what should I call you?

His attitude left me a little perplexed.

Helios: If you have something to say, I will acknowledge it.

Helios: Is that photo important?

In the heavy snow on the quiet road, I lifted my head laboriously, trying to muster a smile.

MC: [smiling affectionately] Very important. He was my best friend in the orphanage and a big star in the city.

MC: Everyone loved to hear him sing. He never cared about who his audience was; he shined nonetheless. 

MC: It’s just… He went abroad six months ago, so he must be an even better person now.

The boy’s footsteps froze for a moment as if his feet were bound in ice and snow.

Helios: He’s just an actor. 

Helios: A useless profession.

MC: But….it was his smile that gave me strength.

Without him, I would not have been able to hold on till the day I met you.

(End of flashback)

I opened my eyes and turned my head to see Helios sitting on the sofa, casually reading the newspaper. As usual, he should be in the restaurant at this time.

Looking at his profile, the dream I had just now made me a little confused.

It turned out that I had stayed by his side for so long.

He took me back to the small restaurant, healed my injuries and taught me all kinds of things.

Literacy, singing, dancing, medical skills, business….

He was the most ruthless and sharp blade. I had witnessed how he, with his own power, had expanded this small restaurant to its current size in just a few years.

Helios: Get up and eat if you’re awake. 

The sudden words interrupted my thoughts. Helios didn’t look up as he slowly took a sip of tea from his teacup. Seeing him frown, I immediately got up from the bed.

The food had been arranged on the wooden table, the temperature just right; neither too hot nor too cold--

Obviously, the people who prepared this had carefully taken time into consideration.

I looked at the man sitting aside from the sidelines and saw the teacup he put aside. I was a little puzzled.

MC: Is that pot of tea not brewed?

Helios: It’s poisoned. 

Helios: Tastes terrible. 

I almost choked on the spring rolls in my mouth and sighed inwardly at his calm demeanour.

I went up to the cabinet, skillfully took out the bottle of medicine and poured out a pill. I walked up to him and handed it over.

Helios: I won’t die.

After hearing the expected answer, I picked up the pill and brought it to his mouth.

He didn’t open his mouth but stared at me coldly.

MC: You don’t need to stare at me. I’m not afraid of you.

With that said, I continued to pry open his mouth with the pill.

Probably moved by my fearlessness, his mouth finally opened slowly and swallowed the pill.

I smiled with satisfaction and when I turned around to continue enjoying my spring rolls, a pair of cool palms swept over my waist.

The incense stick burned quietly, and a small sigh and familiar body temperature covered me closely from behind.

Helios: Don’t you blame me for using you as bait? 

He closed his eyes. His long eyelashes were covered with sunlight and his brows were furrowed.

MC: You taught me that there is no meaningless business in this world.

MC: You bought me. My life is yours.

Helios: That’s the spirit. 

The person behind slowly opened his eyes, his pupils full of jest and scrutiny.

MC: Today I just wanted to go to the temple to ask for a peace charm like in previous years. 

MC: I was going to go there by myself, but I didn’t want to cause you trouble.

He probably didn’t believe me. Even so, I explained it word by word.

A cool finger stroked my neck and entangled a few strands of my hair.

Helios: How many years have you been with me?

His sudden question had me stunned for a moment.

MC: ….Three years and two hundred and seventy-five days.

Helios: It’s three years and two hundred and seventy-six days.* 

*This is a little Easter egg that @keliosyfan spotted.  “When Helios asked MC how long she has been with him, she says "3 years, 275 days" but he corrects her saying "3 years, 276 days". If you put the numbers together you get 3276 which in CN numeric slang means "love Qiluo(Kiro) for life" or "生爱棋洛"So in a way, he wants MC to say "I love Kiro for life"(3276/生爱棋洛). 🥺😭🤧”

Although his voice was faint, it was conclusive.

I thought about it and didn’t argue with him. For me, there was no difference between one more day and one less day.

Helios: Want to leave?

MC: ….?

He laughed suddenly, but only slightly mocking this time.

Helios: I can teach you enough to live a better life.

After that, he stood up. The sudden drop in temperature made me feel a little cold in this midsummer weather.

Helios: Since you want to leave, I won’t stop you.

Helios: But leave before the seventh day of July. 

[Third Part]

Helios left after saying this, leaving me alone in the room in a daze. 

Compared to his sudden expulsion, I was more concerned about another thing.

The seventh day of July.

What was going to happen on that day?

The annexed restaurants, and suppressed merchants….I know what Helios has been doing for several years.

Would my existence cause him any trouble?

I looked at my bare wrists and couldn’t help laughing at myself.

Maybe I was locked in place by a pair of invisible shackles.

I pursed my lips and walked to the closet to take out the bag hidden in its depths. Perhaps it was just my illusion, but it seemed to have been turned over by someone.

(Outside of room)

Outside the dark room, late at night, I tiptoed over with my bag. There were faint sounds of firm punching and kicking coming from inside the room. 

Helios stayed alone here every night, not letting anyone come close.

But this was my hidden secret, and I could secretly monopolize Helios at this moment.

As usual, I opened the window a crack.

In the room, Helios was half-naked, and the small old silver locket hung with silver bells, reflecting sharp lines of bright silver light in the cold moonlight.

His movements were swift and fierce, harder than usual as if he was venting out something.

His wet hair was weighed down, and sweat dripped slowly from his lower jaw and down his strong and undulating chest.

He stood at the junction of light and shadow, with most of his face hidden in the darkness.

The sound of cicadas in midsummer made people feel a little restless, and the silver locket on his chest heaved slightly as he panted hard.

Helios stood there and didn’t move. I don’t know what he was waiting for. *The music from the first Valentine’s Day event starts playing so it’s getting steamy 😏*

In the next second, those blue eyes passed through the window and were firmly locked on me.

MC: ….!

I instantly withdrew my head and squatted down.

Helios: ….Come in. 

Helios: I’ll only say it once. *Don’t need to tell me twice!! 😩😩 *

Hearing the slightly stiff tone, I stood up, lowered my head, and pushed the door open. I only took a single step in and then stopped.

Helios: I don’t see you this compliant on weekdays.

MC: ….You knew?! Then why did you never let me go before….

Helios: For my own pleasure. 

I suddenly raised my head and found that he had positioned himself right in front of me. His scorching body temperature seemed to be able to cross the distance between us and set me on fire.

MC: I-I didn’t come here today to take a peek, I just….

He lowered his eyes and his gaze flicked across the bag I was holding behind me. His smile melted into a bit of a smirk.

Helios: If you’re saying goodbye, you don’t...

MC: I want you to teach me some martial arts.

I held my breath and did not miss the momentary surprise that flashed through his eyes.

MC: What you taught me isn’t enough.

Helios looked at me condescendingly, his eyes dim. A breeze flitted past my ear as his hand smacked against the door frame behind me.

Helios: Not enough? 

In this tense atmosphere, I tried my best not to avoid his gaze.

MC: You taught me a lot, but….it felt like things had become even serious today.

MC: So I…. I still need you.

Before I finished speaking, Helios suddenly grabbed my left wrist from the outside and at the same time stretched out his leg to hook behind me. 

When I lost my balance, his left hand instantly reached out to support my waist, and his right hand came out from under my arm and clasped my wrist from the front again.

When I came back to my senses, I found that I had been directly pinned to the floor, and the bag in my hands had been tossed aside.

The entire movement was executed clean and smooth, and there was only the faint sound of the silver bell on the old silver locket swaying in the silent air.

Helios: There are many people who need me in this city. 

Helios: I can teach you. Want to learn?

He lowered his head slightly, and the old silver locket grazed my chest, which made me take in a sharp inhale. My entire heart and lungs seemed to be occupied by his breath.

I tried to lift up my wrists and lower limbs, but it wasn’t enough to shake off the person above me.

MC: In this bag is the money that I have saved over the past few years. The money you bought me for back then, plus four years’ worth of interest, will be given to you.

Helios: I’m not short on cash.

MC: If you accept the money, I won’t owe you anything, but I will still help you.

I tremblingly stroked the old silver locket on his chest. It carried his body temperature and made my fingertips hot.

It coincided with the seventh day of the seventh month of the first year we met. For the first time, I heard someone cursing him and wanting him to die.

I had cried and went to the temple to ask for a peace charm and an old silver locket. When I got home, I gave them to him together.

I knew that many people in this city hated him, but I wanted him to be safe.

He had just smiled sarcastically at the time, and I threw it away when he turned around. Who knew that I’d see it dangling on his chest here that night.

The silver bells chimed, just like my unstoppable heartbeat. 

MC: You still wear this old silver locket.

Helios: I forgot to remove it.

His hot breath fanned my face, entangling with my own breath in the scorching air.

My fingers followed the silver chain of the old silver locket and stroked his chest. I could clearly feel his taut muscles under my fingertips.

MC: There are many orphans like me in the restaurant.

MC: Those merchants who were suppressed by you could always open new shops.

MC: Underground, the losers will always be the bureaucrats who usually bully others and gain funds out of ill will. 

MC: I don’t know why you want to be a bad person in the eyes of the city, but what I see is different from others.

Helios: Ridiculous.

MC: This is what you taught me.

Looking at my smile, he snorted coldly, but the moonlight sneaking in illuminated the faint smile in his eyes.

Helios: You just said it wrong. 

He glanced at my bag and lowered his body even further.

Helios: Don’t owe me anything?

Helios: The three years and two hundred and seventy-six days with me were enough for you to repay me?

MC: [confused] You didn’t even see how much there is inside…. 

Helios: I’ve seen it.

He pulled slightly hard, making me stand up instantly.

Helios: You owe me too much. 

Helios: I’ll ask you to settle the tab later.

Helios: However, you do need to learn some self-defence skills.

Unlike his usual touch, his fingertips caressed my eyes, ears, nose and neck.

Helios: People have many weaknesses.

Helios: Eyes, ears, throat, heart…. *The way he said this sent shivers down my spine 😳🥵*  

As he whispered, his fingertips kept moving downwards, making me nervously hold onto that hand.

Helios: [more sexy whispering] What’s the matter? Don’t you want to learn? 

Helios: I gave you the chance to leave.

Helios: But you refused. 

[Fourth Part]

Helios implemented his teaching method, “diligently” teaching from the most basic style, which made me extremely embarrassed.

MC: [flustered] ….Can you put on some clothes next time? *MC, no!! What are you even asking?! You enjoy it and you know it! 🥵

Helios: I can wear what I like. 

Seeing the obvious teasing in his eyes, I ran away completely.

Finally, I asked him about what would happen on the seventh day of July, and his expression became a little solemn under the clear moonlight.

Gradually, I became even more sure that this was related to what he had done for so many years.

(Cut to store)

In the early morning of the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, a few foreigners in suits and arrogant expressions came to the store.

These people seemed to be a little unkind, and my heart felt uneasy.

Waiter: Miss MC, a guest of the boss, made a reservation at Spring Moon Pavillion.

MC: Let me take care of it.

With a smile, I went to the foreigners and led them to the booth. I didn’t expect that Helios would already be waiting there.

The moment he saw me, his brows lightly furrowed and he tilted his head slightly.

“Leave.”

I blinked and instantly understood what he meant. After the foreigners walked into the booth, they positioned themselves again at the door.

MC: Boss, your guests are here.

After that, I took a step back and then ridicule suddenly rang out.

??: Leaving already?

Unexpectedly, a foreigner walked over, grabbed my wrist and dragged me directly into the booth.

??: Helios, you must have misunderstood.

??: What is the meaning of a group of men when talking about business?

The foreigner smiled sarcastically. I restrained the urge to shoot and looked at Helios cautiously.

In the next second, an invisible cold front flew past my face, grazing the wrist of the foreigner and leaving behind a small, bloody wound. 

No one knew when he fired the shot, and Helios was still leaning on the sofa, lazily looking at the wailing foreigner. He made no effort to hide his coldness and murderous intent.

Helios: Next time, it’ll be your head. 

Helios: Come here.

I stood cautiously behind Helios, and saw a man in a white suit standing up with a feigned smile.

Foreigner: Just kidding. Don’t get upset, Helios.

Helios: Is that what you learned by spying on me every day?

My heart sank and I tried my best to calm my nerves.

Have these people been spying on him?

Foreigner: Don’t say that, we just need to confirm whether you are worthy of our cooperation.

Foreigner: After all, with this kind of business, ordinary people are not eligible to participate.

Foreigner: But….we also have to look at the sincerity of the boss.

His eyes moved from Helios to me with an arrogant smile.

Foreigner: I heard that you have a well-trained girl who is clever and easy to use. I wonder if you are willing to share?

I was shocked and couldn’t move. I waited quietly for Helios’ answer.

Helios: I can. 

The cicadas kept humming noisily, and for an instant, I seemed to be back to that moment from four years ago, when there was only haziness left in this world.

But I just blinked and walked respectfully from the back of the sofa to the foreigners.

It sounded like a serious matter. Maybe he wanted me to be an undercover agent for these foreigners?

Or maybe he just changed his mind again and didn’t need me anymore.

My vision became a little blurred.

Helios: Did you really think I would say that? 

Helios’ arms encircled me from behind. His familiar breath came over me, and his voice was filled with pure mockery.

Foreigner: Helios, what do you mean?

Helios: Your nonsense... will anyone still want it?

The foreigner was stunned as if he didn’t expect him to say that. But in the next second, his expression became fierce again.

Foreigner: So it was you who brought those people…!

In the horrified eyes of those foreigners, Helios’ smile became even more ruthless.

Helios: I’ve been tired of looking at the faces of you idiots for a long time now. 

Helios: I asked you to come today to settle the account.

At Helios’ signal, I slowly withdrew from the booth.

(Cut to lobby)

I didn’t know what would happen to them next, but maybe something would briefly end today.

I returned to the lobby and asked for the guestbook from the front desk. I wanted to distract myself but there was one face that was stuck in my mind.

Helios won’t get hurt, right?

Helios: ….MC.

Did I trouble him again just now?

Helios: MC.

An impatient sigh sounded in my ears and I felt my figure tilt, and in the next moment, I was trapped in someone’s arms.  

Helios: Didn’t you hear me calling you?

MC: Helios….!

Helios: I should’ve said that only you can’t call me by that name.

In this lighted corner, the ambiguous gazes of the other guests in the lobby wandered over to us.

MC: Did you just call me? Wait… Has your matter been resolved?

MC: And let me go first. Th-there are other guests here.

Helios: This is my restaurant.

His fingertips rested on the guestbook, and a faint chilly scent emanated from him.

Helios: Did you really think I would give you to those people just now?

MC: ….

He narrowed his eyes, his voice carrying with it some faint, dangerous warning.

MC: …. I didn’t.

Helios: You’re a terrible liar.

Helios: Why did you walk over?

MC: Because I believe in you. I know you have your reasons.

I couldn’t help holding onto his drooping lapels. At this moment, Helios seemed to reveal all those sharp edges and corners of his heart. 

There were only some unfamiliar ones left, which belonged to the insecurities of youth.

Helios: Ridiculous.

As he said this, he pulled me up and walked into the depths of the lobby.

MC: ….Sorry.

Helios: I’m talking about myself. 

I looked up in surprise and saw his slightly ironic expression.

Helios: They have a large munitions factory behind them.

His voice was indifferent, but what he said was like a time bomb, going off in my brain.

MC: Munitions factory?!

Helios: Those foreigners have been smuggling arms into the city.

Helios: I couldn’t find the buyers and sellers, but there was always a steady stream of arms that kept coming into the city.

Hearing this, I felt cold sweat ooze from my back.

I knew what the meaning was behind all of this.

I remembered the unfinished words under the hideous faces of those foreigners just now.

Helios had found those people now.

MC: Why…. are you telling me this?

Helios: Because I want to.

In the midst of my wildly racing heartbeat, his words were sure and firm, as if something seemed to be coming to light. 

MC: The merchants and bureaucrats that you suppressed were all related to this, right?

Helios’ silence secretly confirmed my suspicions, and my heart couldn’t help but race.

He always carried all the dangers by himself; walking alone in silence.

Why not ask other people for help?

Just as I was about to ask, I immediately thought of the answer.

With the continuous delivery of arms, both buyers and sellers were in the dark, and easy actions against them would only be a surprise.

Did he destroy those arms?

Helios: Strength and weapons are necessary. 

Helios: Those who really need it will use them to protect important things.

He said this matter of factly with determined eyes as if understanding what I was thinking in my heart.

We walked through the corridor of the hotel and came to the street from the side door.

The dusk was heavy, the red lanterns softly brightening the sights of the entire street, and it was full of liveliness.

The girls blushed as they cuddled up with their partners under the lights and the crescent silver moon.

Such a quiet night made my nose itch.

MC: If those goods were sold to the original sellers.

MC: What would tonight have been like?

I turned my face to look at Helios by my side. The warm yellow lights shone on the side of his stern face. He didn’t say a word, probably accepting something reluctantly.

MC: What you said about this world… What do you think it will look like in the future?

Helios: There is only brief peace at the moment. 

Helios: But suffering will bloom into a flower. (Sidenote: what he means to say is "no pain, no gain." It's one of Kiro's character themes :>)

He raised his head slightly, and the cold moonlight reflected in his blue eyes, like the sea under the moon. 

Silent and immense, as if it could contain everything.

Seeing him like this reminded me of those distant eyes.

In a ghostly manner, I took out the crumpled old photo from my purse and held it beside his face.

Helios: Why do you carry this person’s picture with you everywhere?

MC: [smiling affectionately] Because he is special to me.

Helios: And yet you still follow me?

MC: This is different.

Looking at his teasing smile, I snorted at him and looked at the boy in the photo with a warm smile.

MC: You said that when technology advances in the future, this photo will definitely become the colour in my memory.

Under the blue sky, the blond boy was like a passionate golden sun under the eyes of the crowd.

He smiled and seemed to be able to become a source of invincible courage.

He could gather endless amounts of enthusiasm as long as he stood there.

His voice turned into notes and tunes, dancing along with the wind, driving some of the darkness away.

In this devastated generation, he was like a burning flame.

Kiro: I’m Kiro. 

Kiro: Thank you for listening to my song. 

Helios looked at the yellowed black and white photo, looking a bit dazed for a while, and a little lonely.

Helios: No one in this city remembers him anymore. 

MC: I still remember.

MC: Even if the whole world doesn’t, I will remember him.

In those turbulent years, I had always remembered the embers left behind by that meteor.

Once, there was a young man named Kiro who helped me through countless dark and dull times with a smile.

Until the day I met Helios. I gained the strength to live again from this person.

MC: I think you are very similar.

MC: Although your methods are different, you are both using your own strength to illuminate and empower others.

Helios’ pupils contracted unconsciously, and became deeper with my words.

The slowly rising paper lanterns glowed with a gentle light, quietly surrounding us, like a tender embrace.

Helios: You haven’t asked for this year’s peace charm.

Hearing what he said, I suddenly remembered that because of the previous kidnapping, I couldn’t find a peace charm.

MC: Seeing your attitude before, I thought that there was something that was making you anxious, so I kept following you.

Helios: What attitude?

MC: You said I should leave before the seventh day of July. I asked you about it later, but you didn’t say anything. Wasn’t it about that serious matter?

Hearing my question, Helios froze for a moment and then turned his face to the side, his earlobes slowly turning red.

MC: Was that not what it meant?

Helios: …. 

He pursed his mouth and the lights shone behind him like a splendid landscape painting.

Helios: Because “weakness” really does become a weakness.

MC: Huh?

Helios: You are the only person here who wants me to be safe and live a long life.

Helios: I was reluctant to wait until the Qixi Festival this year.

Helios: Although, I don’t understand why you would want to wish for peace during the Qixi Festival.

My heart was beating fast, and seeing Helios’ face turned to the side, I found his eyes to be brighter than the stars.

MC: [blushing] Because, because I just happened to run into you at that time. *Changed some wording*

MC: And if it’s the New Year, the wishes would all pile up on top of each other, and God won’t be able to hear them.

MC: During the Qixi Festival, maybe God is used to hearing the wishes for marriage, so he can hear my request for peace without needing it to unheard.

Helios: Then today, in addition to asking for peace, you can also wish for marriage.

Helios smiled slightly with some clarity and sincerity.

MC: ….In that case, a name is needed.

MC: But you never let me call you by this name.

I held my breath nervously and saw his face slowly leaning towards me. I didn’t mind the attention around me, and his breath slowly entangled with mine. 

Helios: Let me see.

His protracted tone was a bit tempting and bewitching as if it had lost a thick shell; more naked and intimate than usual, and finally landed on my lips.

Helios: Ki-Ro. 

Helios: Please use that name.

End

 You can find the call that comes after this date here!

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

So I watched 10.09 recently, and it has that part where Dean tells a story about him basically being almost roofied as a teen, but somehow it ends up framed as the funny joke and yet another proof that John "did what he could", and I kind of hate this? And it's the same episode in which MoC!Dean killed guys that kidnapped and tried to rape Claire, and you'd think writers would've addressed the parallels and acknowledge that Dean could've been triggered by this situation. 1/2

2/2 But in the end, it's never addressed, and the whole situation is framed as the proof that Dean is evil now. And I'm not even sure what I am trying to say, but with that being the show's approach back in s10, I'm not surprised about the finale anymore. Guess we should've known?

That’s an excellent angle to look at the issue because the Mark of Cain arc is a clear example of how people with different experiences will see the same thing in wildly different ways. There’s this phase of season 10 where everyone is like “oh no Dean is Getting Worse” and when you look at what Dean is doing... you actually go “...good for him”.

Let’s give Caesar what belongs to Caesar. It’s not “the writers” in this case, it’s Dabb. Plenty of other writers don’t fall into this John apologism thing. Just look at how the episode before Lebanon, written by Buckner and Ross Leming, says that sometimes John would temporarily kick Dean out because he was “pissed at him” despite Dean always taking his side to mantain the peace. It almost seems like a statement to sprinkle some salt given what Dabb does in Lebanon, you know? Maybe not, but there is a tension between “John was shitty” writers and “John did his best” writers.

In hindsight, we gave Dabb too much of the benefit of the doubt. We were like, weeell, that’s supposed to be way the characters perceive the truth, which is distorted by the trauma... But now it’s obvious that he truly believed in the John-did-his-best version. He brought him back and got Mary back with him. No matter what happened to the finale, the network didn’t print those pictures of John and Mary to hang on Sam’s wall. He never took Dean’s abuse seriously and it shows.

The “anedocte” of Dean getting drugged and “saved” by John from being raped is obviously there to parallel him with Claire. Which works! It’s so weird because it’s like. You are soooo close to getting the point. Younger Dean was assaulted just like this teenage girl is assaulted and Dean saves her... but apparently John yelling at those people is a good way of dealing with the issue, while murdering child traffickers is an overraction thus bad.

That’s the problem, isn’t it? That Dean’s murder spree is framed as an overreaction. Sam is like “tell me you had to do this! tell me it was you or them!” - the answer to which (by the narrative) is obviously no, it wasn’t self defense, he just killed them because he could. He just murdered those men for no reason except he felt like being murdery. And the audience is supposed to be like “oh no! Dean is murdery for no reason except for murderiness! That’s bad!”.

But it’s a power fantasy, isn’t it? Going on a murder spree on rapists and traffickers. I bet any people who’s been violated like that has fantasized of doing the exact thing Dean does here. Killing them all.

Dean had the physical strength and skill to kill them all, why shouldn’t he kill them? (I mean, in real life I’m against private justice because I’m a fan of the state of law, but the Supernatural universe obviously works on different principles than the state of law. Again, it’s a fictional narrative that plays out as a fantasy for the audience, so.)

So what was Dabb’s intention? I’m afraid it’s the worst one. “John Winchester’s not going to win any Number One Dad awards, you know? But, you know, damn if he wasn’t there when we needed him”. What the fuck, Dabb? It’s been established since season 1 that John WASN’T there when they needed him. Which... I’m afraid... leads us to the Cas-Claire plot in the episode. Cas has fucked off with Jimmy’s body leaving Claire on her own. Parallels how John wasn’t going to win wny Number One Dad awards. But! Cas is there when Claire Really Needs Him i.e. when she’s about to be raped by older men. Parallels how John was there when Dean Really Needed Him i.e. when he was about to be raped by older men.

I think the point is to say, Cas kinda sucked because he took Claire’s dad away but hey! He’s actually a good figure for Claire because he gets there in time to prevent her from being raped. Just like (ew) John kinda sucked as a father because hunting and stuff, but hey! He’s actually a good figure for Dean because he got there in time to prevent him from being raped.

It’s pretty yucky. Literally NOBODY wanted a parallel between Cas and John. But he made one. And he made one to absolve Cas from the guilt he carried for what he did to Claire (Claire’s mother is a mother so who fucking cares about her. She’s basically a Blurry Wife(TM), she’s only a tool for Claire’s arc, Cas apparently only cares about the harm he did the child, not the wife, for some reason.) and to absolve Cas from his guilt it absolves John too. Don’t worry, being a parent is hard. You often screw up. But you can *looks at smudged writing on hand* prevent the kid from being raped by predatory adults and everything’s fine now.

It’s not really important if the child suffered hunger or whatever, the only important thing is that they don’t get raped, because that’s bad, everything else is just a little detail.

All Dabb got with that scene was to paint Sam as extremely unsympathetic because he’s no longer a child, he’s a full adult now and still thinks of that episode at the CBGB as a funny story. That’s not a good look. It almost makes you think that the writer himself saw it as a funny story. Lol teenage boy biting more than he can chew. But then why the Claire parallel? The Claire scene onviously is not supposed to be anything but horrific. I'll give Dabb the benefit of the doubt on this specific thing.

It’s weird, yes, because Dabb wrote Dark Side of the Moon where he establishes that John was a bad husband/father even before tragedy hit the family. But apparently that’s the “not going to win any Number One Dad awards” part, I suppose? I guess he intended to write John as this flawed, ~complex~ figure who was imperfect but still brave and whatever blah blah did his best blah blah. I’m all for flawed complicated characters but a horrible father is a horrible father. A rose by any other name... parental abuse is still parental abuse even if the poor guy was complicated and traumatized and did what he thought he had to do to prepare his sons for a violent world.

Also, the story frames Dean’s escapade as a teenager being stupid. “You know what he got for that? Me whining about how much he embarrassed me. Me telling him that I hated him. But then he stopped and turned around looked at me and said, Son, you don’t like me? That’s fine. It’s not my job to be liked.” “It’s my job to raise you right.” This seems straight from a novel about teenagers doing something stupid that they’re too young to realize that their parents are right to be against them doing. But this isn’t just... a parent walking into a bar to stop their child to drink alcohol. Dean literally describes feeling sick from something that was inside the alcohol.

Sure, it makes sense that he’d lash out to John because of the shame and shock. But the scene is... off. Are we supposed to see this as a typical teenage mistake? Are we supposed to read it as something as horrific as what happened to Claire, literally sold into rape? Or, worse, are we supposed to see what happened to Claire as a teenage mistake, ah silly teenager, blindly trusting shady people, no wonder you end up in a situation where you’d get raped if a father figure didn’t sweep in and save you. I hope that wasn’t the intent.

To get back to Dean’s Mark-of-Cain violence, the writers clearly didn’t intend it to come from the Darkness up to a certain point. It was supposed to an arc about your own inner darkness (consider the Charlie episode, a couple episodes later). Then they came up with the idea of The(TM) Darkness, the suppressed cosmic feminine. While it caused a bit of dissonance in the subtext, it doesn’t really change Dean’s narrative, because his inner darkness is the trauma, and his trauma is inherebtly tied to the “feminine” i.e. the parts of him that don’t fit seamlessly into the scheme of toxic masculinity values. That the violence that comes from the Mark of Cain comes from Dean himself and that’s it, or is connected to the Darkness, it doesn’t change what it means for Dean. Dean and Amara have parallel histories, the feminine principle locked away, the trauma the anger stems from.

In 10x09 we’re still in the Before The (TM) Darkness era, before the suppressed cosmic feminine. The Mark of Cain arc is still about... well, Cain. But the shift is the signal that someone looked at Dean’s arc and said... you know what? “Lucifer gave me this curse so now I’m demonic and murdery” is meh. “Toxic masculinity suppresses the feminine and it creates trauma which rage and violence comes from” is more interesting. I don’t know whose idea it was, but it was a good idea, and surely the idea came from seeing how Dean’s MoC narrative was unfolding.

Dean’s MoC narrative was unfolding in a certain way, in fact, because of a pretty simple reason. There’s a fundamental tension in Dean’s MoC arc. We want him to go murdery, but it’s also our main character, so we don’t want him to do really horrible things because he still needs to be relatable. The audience cannot hate him, so he must NOT do something entirely unforgivable. He still needs to be somewhat relatable, even when demonic or demonic-adjacent.

So he goes on a murder spree... but it’s rapists and child traffickers. He’s demon, but he kills a misogynistic dude that wanted his wife dead for cheating on him. He’s a demon, but beats up dudes that harass women. He does a slaughter, but they’re nazi. He’s off the deep end, but works a case of kidnapped and abused young women...

Speaking of which. 10x23, written by Jeremy Carver. Dean works a case where a girl was killed while dressed scantily and Dean makes some slut-shaming remarks, and we’re supposed to think “whoa Dean, that’s bad”. But later he confronts the girl’s father and what does he say?

I’m just doing my job, Mr. McKinley.

By suggesting my daughter was a slut?

I’ll admit that thought crossed my mind. Then I came here, and I smelled the deceit and the beatings and the shame that pervade this home.

You shut your face right now.

And you know what? I don’t blame Rose anymore. No wonder she put on that skank outfit and went out there looking for validation, right into the arms of the monster that killed her.

Back then the episode was super controversial and everyone hated the case because of the apparent slut-shaming but I loved it! Because it’s not about the girl. It’s about Dean. Dean doesn’t think that a girl gets killed because she dresses in a miniskirt so it’s her fault. Dean is projecting on himself and he’s not actually victim blaming the girl, he’s victim blaming himself. And when he absolves the girl by putting the blame on the father... well, subtextually he’s absolving himself by putting the blame on his father. On the deceit and the beatings and the shame that pervaded his own home. He’s textually not ready to absolve himself, of course, he summons Death to ask him to kill him later, but subtextually he’s on the right path.

Rose McKinley basically did the same mistake Dean did at the CBGB when he trusted some older people who offered him drinks and the same mistake Claire did when she trusted a man who sold her for money because he offered him a place and stability. She trusted the wrong people (in this case, vampires, which adds the whole subtext of vampires and sexuality) who took advantage of her. Except Rose had no one to save her. (Her friend, Crystal, gets rescued by Dean, even if he causes the other hunter Rudy to die in the process.)

Carver’s writing is pretty brutal. The girl made that mistake because was abused at home, so she was desperate for validation and that desperation drove her into the wrong hands. (Rose even has a brother who blames himself for bringing her sister to her future murderers, destructive sibling relationship check.) It doesn’t actually even matter if Dean guessed right about Rose’s family situation, because what matters is what it tells us about Dean. He basically relates to a dead abused girl. Actually all through the season Dean is paralleled to “skanks” “sluts” and sex workers. Obviously this happens kinda all through the show, the whole “the business is based on absent fathers” thing happened much earlier in the story, so it’s not new. But s10 draws a picture of female suffering - abuse, manipulation and death. Season 10 was difficult to go through. In hindsight, it was probably on purpose because it was supposed to be darkest hour of the feminine. Summed with some good old fashioned misogyny, but hey.

The Carver era was wonky but Carver wanted to free the feminine. (I believe that Mary’s comeback, while written by Dabb because of the showrunner shift, was planned before the showrunner shift.) We thought the Dabb era wanted the same, with Mary choosing life and Amara being independent and so on, but it evidently wasn’t the case. Not a single woman arrives at end of the story. It’s hardly ~Bucklemming or ~the network or ~covid because it starts before the very end.

I’m not saying that dead sluts are more feminist than living women, but if the women die or disappear anyway (and they did) I’d rather have an exploration of trauma than nothing. And I definitely prefer a dead slut narrative that calls out parental abuse than a narrative where women live but abuse gets the you-did-your-best treatment.

Whoops! I digressed! But feel free to ask for any clarification or send me any observation or thought.

[sazc94]

Bad Idea, a Bucky Fanfic

A/N Sensitive themes including injury, smut and kidnapping/suggestions of abuse. 18+ Also I'm still new at this so any feedback is appreciated.

Requested by @lannycleave

Prologue Part 2

Words: 3153

Part 1

6 Months ago: NYC Avengers Tower.

You rocked up to the tower with a duffle bag, Natasha had text you to say they had a mission for you, and it would be a 3 day one so to bring clothes. You were an agent of S.H.E.I.L.D not an Avenger. That being said Sometimes when agents were needed you got to go along on their missions thanks to your Friendship with Miss Romanoff and America’s golden boy Steve Rogers. The rest of the time you were on your own missions or helping to train new recruits.

“Hey Y/N, long time no see, did Mr. Roboto scare you off” Joked Sam as he clapped you on your back. You weren’t as good as FitzSimmons when it came to tech, but you held your own, you’d recently helped Sam with some upgrades to Red Wing, that was when you’d been introduced to The Winter Soldier, Sargent Bucky Barnes. You couldn’t help but stare at him when you met him, he was just so, well hot to put it bluntly.

Of course, he had barely acknowledged your existence other than polite conversation before he got called away to a mission.

“Ha, if anyone was going to scare me off it would be you with your creepy obsession with red wing” you winked at Sam before taking a bite of the apple you had swiped from the fruit bowl. Before Sam even had chance to think of a comeback, Tony walked into the communal dining/living area, followed closely by Nat and Steve. Nat nodded her head in the direction of the small briefing room. “That’s my cue” you smiled at Sam before following along.

“Agent Y/N, good to see you again, as your aware we require your assistance for a mission, I’ve been given clearance from Commander Hill, and you come highly recommended from the team. I’ve seen you in action in the training rooms and you seem like a capable candidate,” Said Tony. Your eyebrows shot up, it appeared Tony was running point on this mission, not unusual for the Avengers sure, but all your previous missions with the Avengers had been overseen by Nick Fury or more recently Commander Hill.

“This mission is off the books, I got the intel from Morgan actually, we have reason to believe there is a small cartel family, trafficking young children to Hydra” Tony continued.

“Morgan noticed a new kid at school, acting suspicious, they reminded her of how Uncle Bucky, and Steve are when lifting heavy things” Said Steve. “Morgan said they joined her class out of know where, quietly slipping in as if they’d been in her class all along, then a week later, they stopped showing up.” Concluded Steve.

“So, why do you need me?” You asked. At that moment, the door to meeting room opened and in walked Bucky, he didn’t move to sit down instead pressing himself into the corner of at the back the room. “We need intel” Said Nat. “Basically we need someone who’s not recognizable like me, but is someone we trust, and Y/N if Steve and I trust you then that’s good enough for Tony”. She continued. “Intel, right I can do that, so what’s the plan and where am I going” you asked.

“We’re going to Boston” said Bucky, your eyebrows shot up, you had presumed you were going by yourself. “I may not be The Winter Soldier anymore, but I can still remember some hotspots for HYDRA activity and Boston is their most obvious choice as a few higher ups from HYDRA own property out there” he continued.

“Y/N, we know we are asking a lot of you here, but we trust Bucky to keep this under wraps and we trust you,” Said Tony.

So that was how you ended up in Boston in the middle of October in a small one-bedroom apartment with Mr. Bucky Barnes. There was a fold out couch which Bucky took and left you the bedroom. You had been given Three days to gather as much intel as possible before reporting back to Tony, Steve and Nat on day 4

. Day one had been a bust, you and Bucky had split off to follow separate trails, your paths meeting at the same spot where the trail had gone cold. Day two had gone much better, as your paths had already crossed once you both decided to work on the same lead. Stark had been on to something with the human trafficking, you tracked a lot of vehicle traffic coming into an old gym/leisure center.

Day 3 was when everything changed. You had agreed with Bucky that he would stay back at the apartment whilst you tried to get into the building, you couldn’t risk Bucky being discovered by Hydra and whilst you knew what intel you already had would be a huge lead for Nat and the rest you decided you had come this far you might as well try and see inside.

“You promise you’ll get out of there the second you feel like you’re in danger?” Bucky asked. “Stark might trust me to keep this under wraps but that doesn’t necessarily mean he trusts me and if anything happens to you, I’m sure he’ll find a way to blame me” Bucky said, his blue eyes flickered over with confliction and pain. Before this mission you hadn’t really had much interaction with Bucky, but you could tell he regretted his actions as The Winter Soldier. I put your hand on Bucky’s Vibrainium arm and smiled at him softly.

“ I solemnly swear that I am up to no good, but if I’m about to get caught I will high tail it out of there” you said. (Spoiler alert you didn’t)

“For Fucks Sake Y/N!” Bucky shouted slamming the apartment door shut behind him, he looked pissed, like really pissed. His usually clear blue eyes had thundered over, turning them a deeper shade of blue almost black.

You’d had every intention of getting out of the building if you felt you were in trouble, but then you’d gotten cocky thinking that this could lead to a promotion, even if the mission were off the books if Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were impressed with your work then that would mean something.

Unfortunately, this attitude had nearly cost you the mission. You had let your guard down and not only that you had actually fallen down. You had been creeping along a ledge outside what appeared to be a makeshift infirmary on the first floor. You head voices coming from two windows along and had inched further to try and get a clearer listen, however you hadn’t realized the brick was in poor condition and had already started to crumble away from the wall. T

hat was the moment you knew you’d fucked up because you went barreling down. Thankfully, there was a balcony to break your fall or else you’d have done some serious damage. You also hadn’t exactly been quiet as you fell down the face of the wall, so you didn’t exactly stick around, you snapped a few pictures of the building entrance from the balcony, hearing the voices around the building getting louder you decided to jump from the balcony to the ground floor and just hightail it out of there.

“I know, I know I fucked up” you bellowed. You were in pretty rough shape and you’d had to text Bucky 911 when you were a safe distance from the gym. “I let my guard down thinking I could get enough intel to finally get a promotion within S.H.E.I.L.D or at least get enough recognition to be considered for a position within Avengers” you continued.

The black turtleneck shirt you were wearing was starting to stick to your side. You headed to the bedroom desperate to get the top off. “I don’t need you telling me how badly I fucked up” you shouted slamming the bedroom door behind you.

“Fuck” you hissed, you were in pain and felt utterly humiliated. You pushed your palms into your eyes to stop yourself crying. With a deep breath you whipped of your shirt, deciding to treat it like a band aid and that ripping it of would be better than an agonizing slow peel.

You were bleeding, thankfully not an amount that would require medical attention but enough that you were going to have to put some gauze over it. You really didn’t want to ask Bucky for help so decided to be a martyr instead and clean yourself up in the mirror using the first aid supplies you had packed into your duffle bag.

Thirty minutes later you were admiring your handy work and the feeling pretty pleased with your hard work when Bucky knocked on the door, he didn’t wake for you to respond before opening the door. “Look Y/N I know…” Bucky’s voice trailed off as you stood there in your underwear, in your anger and rush you hadn’t locked the door.

Everything in that moment seemed to go in slow motion as you went to grab a jumper off the bed at the exact moment Bucky’s eyes trailed your body taking in all the scrapes, cuts and injuries on your body. He knew you’d been injured but not to this extent.

“Y/N…” Bucky’s clear blue eyes had thundered over again this time a mixture of anger, concern and (all though you didn’t know it) lust swirled in them. You went to pull your jumper over your head but before you could even pull it on over your arm’s Bucky had closed the distance between you, pinning you to the wall with one arm above your head and the other to your side. You felt your breath catch in your throat, even though he was clearly pissed you liked the feel of him pressed against you.

“It’s not as bad as it looks, I cleaned myself up and patched it up fine, we don’t need to tell Nat about it”, you said turning your head away from him, you were protecting your reputation as much as his. Bucky’s eyes softened, loosening the grip on your arms just a touch, you felt a delectable burning sensation where his pressure had eased.

You could feel yourself growing farm under Bucky’s gaze. You’d fantasized about a moment like this since you’d met him that day helping Sam out, sure you’d imagined it would have been under better circumstances and he would have also had less clothing on. Suddenly all you could think about was how much you wanted Bucky. Bucky seemed to sense the change in your demeanor as he gulped. His eyes met yours.

“We shouldn’t… we really shouldn’t” he said his voice coming out at barely a whisper. “Oh, but we should” you said a sly grin on your face. Before Bucky even had time to respond you were kissing him. Bucky’s lips parted slightly welcoming your kiss, deepening it as your tongues crashed against each other.

Bucky released the grip on your arms as his hands danced their way down your body, the contrast between the cool metal arm dragging down your right side to the way his right arm left a blazing trail down your left side. Bucky crushed himself against you as your fingers tangled in his brown hair. You couldn’t help but moan as you felt Bucky’s hard cock pressed against you restricted by his jeans and underwear.

How you longed to reach out and grab his cock and release it from his jeans. Bucky was taking this torturously slow fingering the waistband of your underwear, leaving a trail of blazing hot kisses along your neck.

His cool Vibrainium arm cupped your ass. Something in you snapped and you decided you couldn’t wait any longer, so your hand moved to Bucky’s waistband. Before you could even undo the button on his jeans Bucky had your arms pinned above your head with his Vibrainium arm. He chuckled.

“My my, my, impatient little thing aren’t we” he said between kisses. “You should know by now Y/N I’m the one in charge here, that goes for the bedroom as well as the mission” he said, before you could even process what he’d just said Bucky pushed his hand down the front of your underwear Bucky shoved two fingers in making you gasp at the shock, the pain and how good it felt to have Bucky warm fingers inside you. You whined as Bucky’s fingers did nothing. He let out a slight moan.

“Holy fuck you’re dripping already, just from a few light kisses, just how long have you been imagining a moment like this” he asked. When you didn’t answer Bucky flicked his thumb over your clit sending shivers down your spine, you let out a moan.

“Don’t make me ask again Y/N” said Bucky. “So, so long, since I met you” You said between gulps as Bucky started gently pulsing his fingers in and out of you. Your admission seems to stir a hunger in Bucky, has his thumb finds its way back to your bud, Bucky gently swipes his rough thumb over it, making you whimper, suddenly he’s pushing his two fingers into hard and fast whilst his thumb swipes ferocious circles on your now throbbing bud, your hands clawing at Bucky back.

You feel your cunt tighten round his fingers. Your so close and Bucky can tell. Which only encourages him as he pushes a third finger inside you slowing his pace right down back to slow agonizing strokes. You’re putty in his hands and he knows it.

“You’re only allowed to cum when I say so Y/N” he says as his pace quickens once again, hitting that sweet spot. You had never been so fucking turned on before, but the way Bucky’s fingers played you like a fiddle and had you dripping was something else. It was taking everything in you to hold back your orgasm.

Suddenly just as you felt like you couldn’t hold back any longer and your legs were about to give out Bucky withdrew his fingers, you instantly felt empty. However, you didn’t have to wait long, as Bucky sank down onto his knees, pulling your legs up over his shoulders.

“Now what did I say Y/N?” he asked as he started peppering kisses and gentle bites along the inside of your things. You could barely think straight, and the sudden change had you gasping from the shock and delight.

“I – I’m only allowed to cum when you say so” you stuttered. “Good girl” he replied before picking you up by your thighs. You thought he would have perhaps moved to the bed, but no Bucky pushed your back up against the wall, standing tall with you sat on his shoulders with one hand still holding you up he removed your underwear which was soaked and took one slow lick up your slit, his tongue gentle yet rough at the same time.

“Fuck. Bucky” you hissed. Your eyes fluttered close. “Mm that’s right doll, you just enjoy the ride” he chuckled before he started licking at your bud, Bucky’s pace was frantic like he couldn’t get enough of you, you felt like every single nerve in your body was on fire. You could feel yourself getting close still sensitive from the feel of Bucky’s rough fingers pumping you. You weren’t used to being denied your orgasm, hell most of your escapades had very rarely even managed to get you one orgasm let alone deny you it.

“Please Bucky,” you whispered hands tangled in his hair you weren’t sure how much longer you would hold out. Bucky didn’t respond instead slowing his pace right down again his tongue dragged across your hypersensitive bud you opened your eyes to find Bucky’s blue eyes dark with hunger and lust staring straight at you as a small smirk tugged on his lips, it was almost as if he was staring straight into to your soul.

With Bucky’s tongue still slowly swiping your bud Bucky entered one finger into you, curling up to hit that magic spot, Bucky’s rough finger combined with the licking and sucking was almost too much and just as you felt like you couldn’t take any more….

“Y/N cum for me” said Bucky, that was all it took and suddenly you were screaming his name as you felt your orgasm crash over you, wave after wave as your cunt pulsed round Bucky’s finger.Bucky lowered you from the wall onto the bed, your chest heaving as you caught your breath. Keeping his eyes on you Bucky popped the button on his jeans and unzipped them shimmying them along with his boxers down his body. His cock sprang out and you couldn’t help but lick your lips, it was magnificent, and you wanted nothing more for it to fill you.

However, Bucky had other ideas first. He leant down and pulled you towards the end of the bed when he straightened up you were at eye level with his waste, Bucky noticed the glazed look in your eyes and how transfixed you were with his dick, he chuckled all though the look you were giving was shooting straight to his cock, he was going to enjoy all you had to offer and make you work for it if you wanted his dick to pound your insides.

Bucky nudged your mouth open with his cock, you parted your lips and Bucky slowly pushed his cock into your mouth he was bigger than you realized and it took you a moment to adjust you took a breath and then slowly you dragged your tongue all the way up his shaft, lazily sucking his length you brought your and up to the base of his shaft moving in tandem with your mouth, your pace started to quicken hollowing your cheeks. Bucky moaned.

“Fuck Y/N you look so pretty with my cock in your mouth, so fucking pretty” Bucky said tangling his Vibrainium hand in your hair whilst his right had gripped your shoulder, Bucky bucked his hips fucking your mouth. You drew your head back and licked his throbbing dick with little gentle kitten like licks before taking him back in all his glory into your mouth. Just then your phone rang you were going to ignore it until Bucky’s started ringing from the front room, Bucky seemed to snap out of whatever haze had taken him over and removed his cock from your mouth and quickly pulled up his boxers and jeans before walking out of the bedroom avoiding your gaze the entire time.

You felt your heart plummet and tears started to gather in the corner of your eyes, you furiously swiped at them taking a deep breath before getting up to answer your phone. Tony’s name flashed up on the caller id.

“Tony…” you said

[liawing1]

I’m feeling quite opinionated despite having not being active on this site due to a multitude of private reasons, so I practically woke up and chose ‘violence’ so here you go with my mixed opinions on miss Rika and the community. I’m literally obsessed with her despite being a V simp.

Before diving into the subject, I would like to preamble this with a notice: The following information discloses Rika Kim discourse and has spoilers to Rika’s Behind Story. 

Trigger warnings: mental health, abuse, kidnapping, drug trafficking, and other crimes committed by this character. 

Otherwise, proceed below the cut.

☼ General thoughts

There are certain elements of Rika’s character that go disregarded, as she is certainly the most complex written character in Mystic Messenger. What she has done and the violent ends that entailed are unforgivable, without a doubt. However, I see people disregard these because of their perspective on her; and this goes for both sides. 

The same ‘snake’ comment, if used seriously rather than just as a joke, is really ignorant and quite disrespectful to Rika’s character and trauma. The woman’s trauma cannot be properly acknowledged without 93% of the fandom starting an argument - ”Don’t sympathize with her, you are justifying abuse! Snake!”. You may hate her, but she has a story to be told in order to understand her motives. The fact that she has a behind story that explains to the audience what lead to her final descend into darkness is better writing than her being a one-dimensional villain; and all villains have their fair share of heartbreaking stories that explain their role in the story, but everyone seems opposed by Rika’s for some reason. Rika is a character that cannot be reduced to either ‘misunderstood angel’ or ‘evil snake’, because she is neither as a morally gray character and complex antagonist.

Not to mention, with a majority of Rika haters, gender is a contributing factor to her likeability. If Rika were a male, I really do think that 60% of the fandom would be less opposed by her and would probably romanticize her like they do with the other characters. This is not targeting people who are genuinely uncomfortable with her for being sentient scum (+ especially for having a trigger to the crimes she’s committed), but for the people who let gender define their opinion on a character. I’ve seen people in the comment sections on genderbent Rika drawings and concepts suddenly simp for “him”, one even admitting in these very words: “Not gonna lie, I hate Rika but I would like her if she were male”...

☼ Mika and her role in Rika’s Behind Story

It must be acknowledged that Mika is the true antagonist of Mystic Messenger, considering her intentions were always bad and she manipulated Rika. Mika, from the beginning, believed that children don't need kind or caring parents, but cruel and strict ones to prosper in life. Another mentionable factor related to this is that she helped Rika create the concept of Mint Eye as an organization based on her idea that fear is the only way for people to ‘prosper’, also manipulating Rika into being distrusting of V. While Rika originally wanted to ‘be the light’ and save people for ultimate happiness, Mika wanted to exploit their fear so they could ‘prosper’.

Now, I’ve seen people on here that believe that Mika is just an irrelevant excuse to redeem Rika. I mostly agree, yet somewhat disagree with this. 

Mika was a very integral character to Rika’s Behind Story, and she majorly contributed to major events without actually being there in the stories. Without her, I’m not sure if Rika would even be the same character that we love to hate. To be honest, I actually thought that Mika died in the hospital from her eye cancer and the scenes of Mika manipulating her into distrusting V and creating Mint Eye were supposed to represent Rika’s ‘devil’ through her psychosis... which probably would have been the most fitting and accurate route, but I suppose not.

However, Mika’s character was never alluded in either the main story or another story at all. Not to mention, her being the catalyst behind Mint Eye goes against everything we have seen of Rika through the story snippets, and distracts from interesting parts of her character because of how it ‘shifts the blame’ onto someone else. Her philosophical beliefs, her manipulation tactics, and her motives and general role as Mystic Messenger’s antagonist. Rika is a force to be reckoned with, with her utilitarian motives and to what extent she would go to in order to enact these changes, so Mika’s character practically takes away from such an unstoppable character.

On a different note, I’m honestly tired of seeing the way the Mystic Messenger fandom handles diverging character opinions on Rika. Now, a number of Rika haters and fans alike need to learn tolerating each other’s opinions more maturely, as it’s gravely important to remember that you are belittling real people over a design. Yes, I have a problem with nearly all of you. lol

 ☼ The extent that Rika haters go to belittling her fans is quite disgusting considering she’s a fictional character.

If you are going to police people on liking her, particularly through the use of ad hominem, stop and think about the consequences of your behavior. At the end of the day, Rika Kim is merely a fictional character, and you are willing to bully and belittle someone over an antagonist design that... is practically fulfilling her role as the game’s antagonist. Not to mention, if you actually harass Rika fans through telling them to marry an abusive woman, calling them ableist insults, or telling them to end their life, you are a disgusting person. 

Before you argue that you’ve never seen it, people in the Mystic Messenger community always went too far in regards to Rika. They would go into grisly detail of what they would do to her, and sometimes her fans, for example: talking about torturing her and telling her fans to marry an abusive woman that would blind them the way she did to V. Not to mention, vandalizing her wiki page with the same ‘snake’ insult and even worse, ableist slurs. If you’re reading this as someone who’s done these, please get the fuck off of my blog and block me if you will because you are clearly not mature enough to handle villain characters or playing games that tackle serious and complex plot in general. 

I’ve met a number of people, particularly within the Tiktok platform of the Mystic Messenger community, that have Rika as a comfort character and constantly watch as she gets slandered. A person watching their comfort character surrounded by so many discourse may be detrimental to their mental health, not to mention how painful it is to be belittled and bullied for having a comfort character. It’s always ‘respect people’s opinions on a character ’ until it comes to a person innocently having Rika as their favorite character; calling her the worst person alive, saying that she should die for abusing people, and then go and romanticize a character like Sangwoo. 

☼ The particularly pushy Rika fans that try and force people into liking her.

As someone who is quite monomaniacal about Rika myself, I understand how frustrating it is liking the most hated character in the fandom, especially if you’ve analyzed her like I have. However, a number of people have a problem with understanding that not everyone likes her. Remember that she is quite infamous for domestic violence against her lover, starting a cult, abandoning the RFA because they were too “happy” for her liking (see Yoosung), taking a child out of an already hostile and traumatic environment only to put him into an even worse one through high dosages of drug trafficking and child exploitation, amongst other things. No person is obligated to like a woman who abused the people that loved her, and is generally sentient scum. 

No, she is not some ‘beautiful, misunderstood, fallen angel’ but still an abuser who hurt the people that loved her, and she knew it. She navigated through her life with depression, anxiety, and paranoia, which skyrocketed post the death of her puppy Sally. However, while I do think that V was the final contribution to her descend into darkness, it’s also on her to a degree. She refused to get treated, and not only can you force someone to get treated if they are opposed to it, but you cannot save someone else if you refuse to save yourself. I do acknowledge that everyone handles trauma differently so the “I also suffer from the following mental illnesses, yet I never abused anyone nor started a cult” argument is a giant fallacy. However, mental illnesses and a traumatic past do not justify any abusive behavior in the future, and she needs to be held accountable for her actions as any criminal would. Rika’s character theme revolves around ‘good intentions turned bad’, making her more of an anti-hero, but it is an explanation, not an excuse.

So stop forcing people to listen to your attempts at making her sound like a good person - she originally had good intentions, with wanting to save people through achieving happiness, but with her final descend into darkness, she wanted revenge against those who had wronged her and then took it out on the people who loved her (I.e. Saeran).

Generally, Rika is a great antagonist serving as the artificial blonde beauty of Mystic Messenger, but god damn stop bullying each other over her. She’s a fictional character.

[idreamtofthereaper]

Trouble Waiting to Happen... v

bigbrother!jaehyun x sibling!reader x loveinterest!jaemin

𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢 𝘗𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘺. But Jung Jaehyun knows better, and that’s why their group remains superior and unbothered -only you didn’t.

𝙥𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨: reader x nct jaemin

𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙧𝙚: angst, fluff

𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨: mafia theme, gets dark a little later, mentions of kidnapping, deaths, threats, mature theme, cursing/swearing

𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧: hi-  I still haven’t moved on from jaehyun’s kick it get up. reach out to me in anyways if you want to be included in the taglist!

M A S T E R L I S T

Taglist: @hiqhkeybby​  @huangxx @shyshybabyy​ @itlittlefangirl​

“Hey Peaches” You greeted to your brother, seemingly in a middle of something as he only gave you a quick, acknowledging nod. When you peered at your side, you were quite surprised to what he was doing, your brother was baking.

“Woah, are you okay?” You asked, putting the back of your hand to his forehead. You looked at Jaehyun then with genuine worry, who in return glared at you all the while he was still stirring the ingredients in the big bowl.

“I just wanted to do something for us-”

“We got his injury checked out and he’ll be on desk duty for the next 2 weeks.” Johnny announced as soon as he walked in the kitchen, holding a couple of aprons before handing one to apron.

You caught the glare Jaehyun threw Johnny but you didn’t care, and it was evident as you yourself have a glare to give Jaehyun. “I knew it! I told you to stop doing all those stupid dumb stuff, you’re not Al Pacino.” You said, hitting your brother on the arm.

“I’m fine! I just strained it or something I don’t know I wasn’t listening.” You looked at Jaehyun with disbelief, shaking your head before giving him another smack on the arm, the non-injured one but will be soon.

You helped out the two guys bake, grabbing the bowl and mixing spoon from your brother and doing it yourself while you instructed him to just heat up the oven. Johnny then just assisted you as he was finished with what he was doing.

You instructed Jaehyun to just rest but stated he wanted to be here since it was his idea in the first place. But you know better, he was staying because he doesn’t want to leave you alone with Johnny.

You know that Jaehyun knows you’re just joking with Johnny. Still, there’s a reason why he trust Johnny Seo so much, especially as a business partner. Johnny could get anyone to do what he wants if he really wanted it. Jaehyun was smart enough to not treat Johnny as someone below him.

The maids already set up the table and as you waited for the cookies, you decided to disappear from to your bedroom, instructing your brother to call you when everything is good.

You opened the door to your bedroom with all of your attention to your phone. You closed the door behind you as you continued scrolling down, reading a rather interesting article about the Terror Law in the Philippines.

You were seated on your bed and had a pillow on your lap when all of a sudden, you heard a voice speak beside you. “You really made it all the way to your bed without noticing me?”

You shrieked, causing your phone to fall from your grasp and down to the floor. You turn to your side, one of your hands stretched out to your nightstand drawer for the pepper spray when you realized it was Jaemin, looking at him with bewildered while he looked back at you innocently, a cheeky grin even on his face.

Both of your faces then grew into panic when footsteps approached the the room, ushering Jaemin to get into the covers and just as his body went under your thick blanket and you got a pillow to cover him, the door opened to reveal Jaehyun and Johnny behind him.

You saw how Johnny has one of his hands behind his back, his eyes scanning the room while Jaehyun just looked at you. “What happened to you?”

“Nothing, a bug flew and I freaked out.”

“You yelled like someone was about to kidnap you, again.”

You leaned back to the pillow which beneath that was Jaemin. “I- no. Look, I’m okay. There’s a big bug, I freaked out.” You said, seeing your phone was still on the floor so, you carefully moved and picked your phone up.

“Okay. The cookies are done.” Jaehyun announced, though he was still looking around your room, unconvinced but he couldn’t see anything wrong anyways. 

“Yeah, I’ll get some in a bit.” Jaehyun and Johnny nodded, closing the door to your room. When you couldn’t hear their footsteps anymore, you turn around and lifted the covers, looking at Jaemin with disbelief.

“How did you get in here? There’s security everywhere.” You exclaimed, surpassing your voice to not alert anyone again but you couldn’t hide your emotions that much.

Jaemin removed the covers from himself and leaned back to your bed, closing his eyes and putting his hands behind his head. “Yn, if that was your security I will have to apply to be your personal bodyguard.” 

When Jaemin didn’t said anything else, he opened one of his eyes to look at your direction. Seeing he still has your attention, he closed it again and made himself comfortable, putting pillows under his arms and even back. “I have so many questions.”

“You beat me there then, I only have one question.” He said, his eyes opening to look at you with amusement. “Do you know that your address is easier to locate than looking for your number? Or anyone who is willing to share your number?”

“Is that why you broke in?” You asked, standing up and checking your window. Of course, you left it unlock. Or he just pried it open from outside for some reason?  Still doesn’t answer your question of how he got in, your room was located at the 3rd floor of the house. “For my number?”

Jaemin crawled to the end of the bed to face you, your face inches apart as he wore a smirk. “Yes. So, is all of my efforts into waste?”

“Yes.” You said, copying his smirk before getting all serious and removing yourself from him. You dragged a chair to the door and placed it underneath the doorknob. 

Jaemin had a questioning look, which prompted you to answer. “My room doesn’t have a lock. My brother.”

“Speaking of your brother, what does he meant about getting kidnapped? Twice?!” He asked in disbelief, his voice slightly raising. Now, he changed positioned again and was facing you, his feet touching the floor and his arms on the bed.

“It’s an inside joke, it doesn’t mean an actual kidnapping.” You reasoned out, folding your arms and leaning on your door. “Back to you mister, how many girls windows did you climbed up to?”

“Why, you jealous?” He asked, grinning at you mischievously. 

“You really don’t want to answer my questions don’t you?” You asked, feeling frustrated talking with him. “You haven’t even answered any of my questions. Is that why you went here? To deflect my questions?”

“I never climbed in any girls windows, usually I climbed out since I use their front door. I don’t really get invited when the parents are present.” He answered, standing up and stretching. After that, he looked back at you. “And besides, I would usually have their number.”

“Why do you want my number?” You asked, not letting his flowery words affect you. 

“Okay. I was watching Spirited Away and don’t get me wrong, I love the movie and actually watched a couple more Ghibli films but, I’m really not that smart enough to dissect a film.” He explained, his playful demeanor disappearing as he explained.

You examined him first, narrowing your eyes while your arms are still crossed. “Did you really watched the film?

“Yes.”

“Hmmm”

“I only got until the middle part because I got frustrated I couldn’t think of anything else.” Jaemin said, your eyes widening to signal him to lower his voice. Jaemin getting the hint nodded, even doing a motion of zipping his lips.

“Fine, let’s watch the film together. But as soon as it’s done you’re leaving, got it?” Jaemin smiled widely at this, nodding at you enthusiastically. “Okay, I’ll just get some cookies or something then we’ll start.”

--

Jaemin is the type of person you like to watch movies with. He doesn’t speak or ask any questions. It was even as if he wasn’t there with how engrossed he was with the movie. Yet, you could still feel his presence. Hearing his little gasps in particular scenes.

When the movie was finished, the cookies you had was almost done, along with the milk you got. To not raise suspicions, you had to put the milk in a big glass and get two straws instead of separating it.

You closed the movie and lowered your laptop slightly, looking at Jaemin who was squinting and rubbing his eyes, the blanket draped over the both of you. You watched as he stretched, slumping back down when he was done.

“So, what did you think?

“I really just thought it was a great movie. It was cute, I like the animations.” He said with a slight pout, the milk evident around his lips.

You chuckled at his answer, earning a look from you. “There’s really still something there?”

“Jaemin, the film is about child trafficking and prostitution. The movie was literally set in a bathhouse. In Japan especially back in the day, bathhouses are known to be the prostitution place in Japan. And think about it, the visitors were Ogami, meaning male gods. The visitors were all men.” You explained calmly, seeing how Jaemin’s face changed with this information.

“The witch wore this expensive and western like clothes as well. In those type of establishments, the owners or those running the place taking too much than what they should are not new. And historically speaking, fancy and western clothes were given by American soldiers to the prostitutes.”

“Woah woa, you’re ruining the movie for me. Stop there.” Jaemin said, his sleepy and tired eyes. He put his hands on his hair, his expression extremely amusing to you.

But, you weren’t done with your fun. “When Chihiro got signed to the bathhouse, Yubaba made her change her name, a very common practice when it comes to bathhouse women. No face is a pedophile who is obsessed with Chihiro, an underage girl. When no face gets constantly refused, he would chase after her obsessively.” You said, Jaemin’s face scrunching up at the information he’s getting. 

You gave him a moment to himself as he whined, then his eyes lit up. “Chihiro’s parents, they’re like paying off a debt. Don’t people do that before, they would sell their children to do stuff like those to pay off a debt and when Chihiro was finished, it represents that they debt was done.”

“See? You’re getting the hang of it!” You said with excitement, your face lighting up at this result. “Lastly, what was the color of the bathhouse?”

“Red.”

“In some studies, Red is the color to represent love, seduction, violence, danger, anger, and adventure. Which really furthers explains that the bathhouse could be used as a prostitution house.” Jaemin nodded at your words.

You chuckled at his reaction, patting his hair comfortingly. He buried his face to his hands as he went down to the pillow slowly with a groan. You continued caressing his Pink hair.

He sat straight up and looked at you. “I’m never watching another movie with you”

“Fine by me.”

“Can we watch another one though? I want to watch Howl.” You rolled your eyes at this, looking if he was serious. “Please?”

“You said you’ll go home after this movie.”

“Pleaseee. Just this once.” You were about to give an answer when Jaemin again pouted, even clutching his hands together in front of you.

“Fine. Last movie.” And like earlier, he wore a victorious smile and watched you with admiration while you looked for the film on your laptop. When you found it, Jaemin already made himself comfortable and was leaning relaxingly on your bed.

You set the laptop on the middle and when you were about to lean back, you saw Jaemin with his arms wide open. “Come on, I make a great pillow.” You didn’t know why you did it but you slumped back to his arms, even going as far to cuddle at his side.

Jaemin didn’t know you were actually going to do it. He was so taken aback that you personally had to grab his arms to put it down around you, a giggle emitting from you when you felt him suck in a deep breath.

Just like earlier, the both of you watched the movie in silence. Jaemin noticed how your hands even clutched his sweater tighter, pulling him closer to you. 

When the movie ended, he realized why you were doing that, he moved a little to found you fast asleep. He knows how weird it is to stare at someone while they’re sleeping, so Jaemin looked away not long after, though he kept glancing at you.

He moved ever so slightly and turn the laptop off, putting it on the nightstand beside him. Doing all of this without waking you up, feeling pride for not waking you up.

Knowing your door doesn’t have a lock and who your brother is, Jaemin didn’t made himself too comfortable and sink deeper the bed. He moved your position so you weren’t that cramped and have a more comfortable position. 

Jaemin thought he couldn’t sleep, he was just too excited and happy and- he was just happy. But, the emotions may have been too much since he still fell asleep even if he was sitting up with your headboard being his head’s anchor.

So much for getting your number.

[iam93percentstardust]

More Important Things

I! Am Apparently writing Old Guard fic now! (don’t worry, I’ll be back to the regularly scheduled Marvel soon enough) So if you’re interested in soft Immortal Husbands who are too busy being in love to get themselves out of trouble, please go check it out on ao3 (or give it a reblog here)

~

Kidnappings, Nile comes to learn, are a simple fact of life when you’re part an immortal band of warriors dedicated to upholding all that is right and good in the world.

Wow, there’s a sentence she never thought she’d say.

It’s never again like how it was with Merrick Pharmaceuticals. No one is ever looking for them because of their immortality, especially not now with Copley covering their tracks. But when you’re part of an immortal band of warriors dedicated to upholding all that is right and good in the world, you tend to make a few enemies and, try as you might, you can’t always get everyone involved in a drug trafficking ring or a warlord’s band. Hence, the kidnapping.

She’s been kidnapped twice now: once with Andy and once on her own. When it was with Andy, they’d used gas and Nile suspects that’s the only reason they were kidnapped in the first place because she doubts Andy would have gone quietly the way Nile had when it had been just her facing off against ten armed men. Sure she could have eventually beaten them but they had been standing in a crowded marketplace—she hadn’t wanted anyone innocent to get hurt and she really hadn’t wanted any of the bystanders to notice her immortality.

This is the first time though that she’s ever been kidnapped with Joe and Nicky. It had been gas again, something potent and strong that made her wonder if they’d accidentally gotten the dosage wrong since she’s pretty sure she died at least once before waking up for good in an abandoned warehouse. She says accidentally because in another room, she can hear some of their captors talking and she’s pretty sure they’re not smart enough to have actually figured out their secret.

Nile wasn’t there when Joe and Nicky had been taken by Merrick Pharmaceuticals but she can’t help but imagine that it had probably looked something like this, with Joe hunched over Nicky, muttering at him in Italian though she has no idea what.

She likes the way Italian sounds, especially the way it just rolls off of Joe and Nicky’s tongues. She’d asked Nicky once if he would teach her, seeing as how Andy is already working on teaching her several other languages—Mandarin and Greek and Swahili among others—and Booker’s supposedly going to teach her French once his banishment is over. Nicky had just looked at her and simply told her, “No.”

It had been Joe who had told her that Italian and an ancient dialect of Arabic that no one else speaks anymore are their languages. Andy had told her later, “Don’t be offended. I don’t speak them either.” At the time, Nile, only a few weeks into her immortality, hadn’t understood but by this point, she understands it perfectly.

Joe and Nicky, Nicky and Joe, two suns that orbit each other, are terribly soft, even when they’re speaking in English. She can only imagine what it must be like when they’re speaking a language no one else understands.

Nicky coughs, says something in Arabic, and rolls over so he can sit up. Joe is right there to help him even though it’s obvious that Nicky doesn’t actually need any help. Soft, Nile thinks again. Soft with each other, with the members of their little band, with random people that they pass on the street. She doesn’t know how they’ve lived so many years and stayed soft but she suspects it’s for the same reason that all of their other traits are different than Andy and Booker—they’re Joe-and-Nicky.

“An abandoned warehouse,” Joe replies, switching to English.

“We got kidnapped by the most incompetent people imaginable,” Nile tells them.

“Did we?” Joe asks.

“You didn’t notice?” Nicky chides.

“I was a little wrapped up in you, habibi,” Joe murmurs and Nicky’s eyes go soft.

Nile makes a gagging noise. There is a time and place for their antics but this is definitely not it. They can be disgustingly romantic once they’re back at the safehouse.

Nicky glares at her but there’s no heat behind it. “One day, you will no longer be surprised by us.”

“I’m not surprised now. I’m trying to focus on how we’re going to get out of here.”

“You said they’re incompetent,” Joe says, switching into his professional mode. “How sure are you?”

“Pretty sure. I’ve been listening to them while you two napped—”

“—Ouch,” Joe mutters.

“—and I don’t think they gave us the wrong dosage on purpose.”

“So the question remains, did they figure out they killed us?” Nicky asks. He rolls his head to look at Joe. “Amore mio, I’m sorry but your dinner is going to have to wait. We need to know what they know.”

Joe swears in a language that doesn’t exist anymore, gloomily saying, “I was looking forward to that chicken. Nile, you would have loved it. He makes this lemon and white wine sauce, the recipe is from the 1500s, nearly perfected—”

“Nearly?” Nicky asks. He sounds almost offended, which is every bit as hilarious as the situation they’ve ended up in.

“Habibi, it’s so good, you know it is, but you know I’ve always thought it needed mushrooms and—

“Mushrooms would ruin it. How many times do I have to tell you—”

“—but if you just tried—”

“—I don’t have to try to know—”

“Quiet!” someone shouts from the other room.

As one, Joe and Nicky turn to glare at the door and then continue squabbling, this time in Italian. Nile can’t help but laugh. This is nothing like her kidnapping with Andy, which had felt more like an action movie (or a horror one depending on the viewpoint), or even like her own, which had mostly been a lot of waiting until the team had shown up (could she have broken herself out? Sure but that would have involved breaking her own wrist and she hadn’t wanted to do that).

As they bicker, she works on loosening the ropes around her wrists—further proof of their kidnappers incompetency because she twists her wrists the right way and the ropes just fall off—and then crawls over to Joe and Nicky to start working on theirs, who barely even bother stopping their argument to acknowledge her.

“Chi è il cuoco—thank you, Nile,” Nicky says, “in questa famiglia?”

Joe groans. “Non questo di nuovo—thank you, Nile.”

They suddenly stop as they hear footsteps coming from the other room. Nile glances at the two, they look back at her, and she’s suddenly glad that Andy insists on so much training because she knows exactly what it is they want her to do. She creeps to the door, stationing herself on one side of it, as Nicky positions himself on the other side. Joe stays in the center of the room, whistling to himself and generally looking as innocent as he can.

Again, she thanks whoever might be listening for the stupidity of their kidnappers as none of them even seem to think it’s suspicious that Joe and Nicky have stopped arguing. Instead, one of them steps right through the doorway, gun trained on Joe, wondering, “Hey, where are the other—”

He doesn’t even finish his sentence as Nicky sweeps his feet out from under him, neatly catching his gun and tossing it to Joe. The other two kidnappers shout and rush through the door, tripping over the first. Nile snatches the gun from one of them and Nicky takes the other. It’s over in moments, the kidnappers prone on the floor, no one else coming through the door, and their team with all the weapons.

Nicky trains his on the leader. “You were going to shoot Joe,” he says coldly. Nile shivers, remembering what Joe had once told her—that Nicky was the kind one. And for the most part he is: if they’re short on food, he always makes sure Nile ate first; he rescues baby birds; gives the local children in the village they’re hiding in candy. But when it comes to Joe, even when they’re immortal and it doesn’t matter if Joe gets hurt, he’s always hard. “You were going to hurt him and so you are the one who will answer my questions.”

“And if I don’t?” the kidnapper sneers.

Stupid, Nile thinks.

Nicky adjusts his aim and fires. The kidnapper screams, left hand going for his right shoulder, now a bloody mess. “Who do you work for?”

~

They’re leaving the warehouse, Joe and Nicky fussing over each other even though neither got shot, when Andy pulls up in their car, remarkable only because it’s practically falling apart. No one would look twice if they saw that on the road and that’s just how Andy likes it.

“I take it dinner is off, then?” she calls through the window.

“Sadly, yes,” Joe says mournfully, climbing into the backseat next to Nicky. “Nile, it’s such a shame. You really would have liked it.”

“Amore mio,” Nicky murmurs. “I’ll make you something else.”

“Nothing else could be as wonderful as the chicken you were going to make unless it is your smile, which warms even the coldest winter.”

Andy rolls her eyes and Nicky laughs.

“There it is. There’s that smile I love,” Joe murmurs, thumb gently touching the corner of his mouth.

“What about if I make you—” He slides into Arabic and Joe hums thoughtfully before responding in another language that Nile doesn’t know yet though she doesn’t think that it’s Italian.

“How was it?” Andy asks her as they drive off.

“Honestly?” She thinks about it for a moment and then says, “Best kidnapping yet.”

[hotdadslade]

Deathstroke: Knights and Dragons Impression

For those who haven’t heard, CW Seed (their streaming platform) has finally put out Deathstroke: Knights and Dragons.

Originally conceived as a series of 5 minute long shorts and announced in early 2019, the series released it’s first (approximately 40 minute long) episode in early 2020.

And then... nothing. No second episode came, and while the reviews were fairly positive, nothing came of Knight and Dragons until a few weeks ago, when it was announced that Deathstroke: Knights and Dragons was going to be released as a direct-to-DVD-and-digital video.

The 90 minute film is effectively what the full original series was intended to be, and about 50% of its content is the free part one that came out back in January, with a few added segment and an actual conclusive ending.

I really enjoyed part one, so I was hugely excited for the movie. Having watched it in full... well, the movie has some major issues.

First, the good: the animation, voice acting, humor, and fights in the movie are all particularly good. Overall its much higher quality then I expected a five minute long straight to streaming CW project to be, and if I was rating purely on aesthetics, the movie would have gotten top marks.

Unfortunately, there’s an actual plot to go along with the cool visuals, and that’s where the movie falls apart.

I’m going to be fairly light on the spoilers here, but there will be at least some. None of these should be surprising for anyone who already watched part one.

The simple explanation of the movie is that Deathstroke is not Deathstroke as you know him. This Deathstroke isn’t a villain, and is firmly in the anti-hero category. While he kills, and the movie repeatedly mentions that he’s a mercenary, we’re shown repeatedly that this Slade has a firm sense of morals. He kills bad people, even mentioning at one point that he’d take a job ‘for free’ because the person he’s killing is involved in human trafficking. There’s even a sequence early in the movie where Slade takes off his mask to comfort some traumatized women.

The same lack of familiarity permeates the other characters. Joey is rendered mute as he is in canon, but simply speaks via telepathy for the remainder of the movie. At no point does anyone act surprised, or really acknowledge this, despite the fact this is apparently something new that only just happened.

Adeline is perhaps the most confusingly portrayed character for me. Neither I nor the friends who I watched with were clear on if she was supposed to be sympathetic or not, and her depiction seemed to bounce between New Earth and Rebirth depictions.

I’m going to talk a bit more about the plot, but that’s heavily into spoiler territory, so under the cut we go.

The biggest issue with this is the fact that the plot and characterization is, in a word, all over the place.

While the first part was relatively solid, the second part is where things really unravel, and at no point in the second half did I have a clear understanding of what characters were after or why they were doing things. Sure, the characters would say why they were doing things (This movie has a lot of telling but very little showing), but those explanations didn’t make any sense with their actions.

A good example is Joey: Joey, we learn midway through, has teamed up with Rose to... kill Slade? Take over the world? Definitely something bad. He’s doing this because he feels abandoned by his parents: Slade left after Joey nearly died and Adeline ordered him to leave, and Adeline... sent him to boarding school.

Yeah.

90% of Joey’s motivation comes from the fact that his mother sent him to an elite boarding school over in Europe, and he felt lonely. That’s the reason he tries to (and nearly does) kill Slade. It’s the reason he betrays Adeline for Rose. And, quite frankly, it doesn’t make any fucking sense. He was still in contact with Adeline! She didn’t abandon him!

Even if you take it entirely at face value, what he’s doing makes no sense. It’s established that even before the HIVE Queen kidnaps him he’d met Rose telepathically, was fully aware of what she was doing, and had agreed to go along. So the entire section where Joey is behind glass, asking Slade for help... entirely an act.

But why does that even happen at all? Why does Rose specifically alert Slade to the fact that she has Joey so that he can find her? Why have him as a hostage, totally at her mercy, and then... lure him along to kill him?

There’s a similar problem with Jackal: according to a line at the very end of the movie, the reason behind Jackal’s actions was to get revenge for his... something (I thought daughter, a friend thought significant other). Only when she actually died, he really wasn’t particularly bothered, and went ahead and tried to recruit Slade anyway. So if he was so upset with the fact that Slade killed someone that Jackal sent to kill him, why did he brush the death off and try to recruit Slade for HIVE again?

Some other details that probably deserve more time than I’m willing to give them: Joey and Rose appear to be... apparently soul mates? It’s hard not to draw parallels to the whole star wars force dyad concept, considering they’re ‘two halves of a whole’. Multiple people over on reddit described it as ‘weirdly incestuous’, and they’re not wrong.

Jackal’s master plan involves orchestrating three massive terrorist attacks, including hijacking a plane to crash into the Golden Gate Bridge, an armed terrorist cell attacking Times Square, and the capitol building being bombed. These kill hundreds of people, and all of this is to... allow them to get Joey close to the president so he could mind control him.

I don’t want to sound like the movie was complete trash, because it wasn’t. There were a lot of individual scenes that were good (Rose’s backstory stands out to me), Wintergreen was excellently done, and a lot of early humor holds up as well. However, a lot of the stuff I enjoyed in part one has become retroactively worse once I had all the details. With how it is overall... My suggestion to anyone interested would be to watch part one (linked above) for free, and then imagine your own ending.

It’ll probably be better than what came out, and since almost every good part is in the first half, you’ll get the best part of the experience.

[queen-of-the-avengers]

I’m Going to be Okay

Characters: Bucky Barnes x Reader, minor characters

Word Count: 1,780

Warnings: angst, panic attack, being able to read others’ thoughts and becoming overwhelmed about it

Request: Do you think you could write a Bucky x Reader where she has psychic powers and she loses control of them during a fight and Bucky is the only one who can calm her down? Like maybe she starts off hearing people's thoughts and it just kinda spirals from there? I know this idea has been done before, but I really like your writing style and would love to read your take on it. Thanks in advance! 

Summary: The ability to hear others’ thoughts can be a bit overwhelming, but Bucky is there to help you thought it all no matter what.

Squared Filled: Free Space // Wrting Style: First Person // Panic Attack

Author’s Note: This is for @star-spangled-bingo and @buckybarnesbingo and @badthingshappenbingo respectively. If you have any requests, please send them in! This is unbeta’d and any and all mistakes are all on me.

Feedback the glue that holds my writing together

Tags at the bottom

Why can’t I remember what I did last night?

Is this my bra or Jenn’s? Who cares, I’m keeping it.

I really hope that bitch is out before my wife comes home or else I’m dead.

Medicine. Food. Clothes. Kids. Easy to remember.

I wonder if Madison would like that new underground restaurant that just opened for elites. I am putting my entire savings into this.

The chick with the red shirt is smoking, but her eyes are crazy? Do I try and make a move? Ah, fuck it.

“Excuse me?” a man asked as he tapped on my shoulder while Bucky was off getting us something to drink in a nearby store.

“Shut up!” I hissed to the voices inside my head before whipping around. The man smiled nervously before making an excuse to get out of there quickly.

Never mind. That bitch is just straight-up crazy.

“Please shut up!” I whimpered as I tried to cover my ears as if that would stop the voices from speaking. If anything, it only made things louder for me. The voices weren't my voices in my head, they were everyone else’s. My special power was able to hear people’s thoughts among other things. Only recently was I rescued from my own super hero trafficking ring where mad scientists experiment on people that bad men captured before selling them off to the highest bidder. Experiments that would create powers in people that only others could dream of.

Before my kidnapping, I was a normal girl: I got straight As, went to a good college, had a tight circle of really good friends, and even had a long-term boyfriend that I saw marrying one day. Everything was going according to plan, and I was really excited for what the future could hold for me. But then the kidnapping happened, and my life hasn’t been the same since.

“Hmm,” I muttered as I approached my apartment door.

“What is it?” my friend, Tamara asked over the other end of the line. We had just broken off from an intense day of studying for one of the biggest finals of our college experience. This final would make or break our careers so I really wanted to ace it.

“My apartment door is opened slightly. I thought I closed it before I left,” I sighed.

“Girl, your apartment has all kinds of problems. The offer still stands, you know.”

“You’re too kind. I feel like I would be intruding on yours and Mark’s life. I’ll be okay. It’s just a few more months until I can move to California to start my new job,” I said excitedly as I entered my apartment. The light switch doesn’t seem to be doing anything, and I figured a fuse was blown. What else could go wrong? “I gotta go. I’ll call you later.”

“Okay. Get some sleep. We can meet around the same time at the cafe across the street from the school.”

“Okay, bye,” I said as I hung up. With the lights not working, I felt kind of unsafe, but decided to check the fuse box in the morning since I was pretty tired. Making my way to my bedroom, I got the uneasy feeling that someone was watching me, but I forced myself to let it go. Before I could take my jacket off, someone appeared behind me before grabbing me and knocking me out.

The last thing anyone has ever heard me say was “okay, bye” because I never saw my friends after that. They may as well think I was dead, and in a way, I kind of was. A lot of experiments were done on me to gain the abilities that I had. Apart from hearing other people’s thoughts, I was psychic as in telekinetic. I was able to move things with my mind which happened often. After receiving my abilities, I was bought off by some rich man, but before I could actually meet him, Tony Stark came in with his team to save the women who were kidnapped.

The men started shooting up the place, and I was the only one that survived. Tony brought me in to help me gain control of my powers, but it was proving to be difficult. The only person who didn't look at me like I was crazy was Bucky Barnes. Tony assigned him to me since he was the only one that could actually connect with me on some level. Whenever he was in the room, I found myself being calmed merely by his presence. There was a certain level of comfort he radiated, and I felt safe with him around. When he established a safe zone with me, that is when the training began.

It took many months until he deemed me okay to be out in public. However, he never anticipated just how much stress other people would be on my mind and body. I never had a choice if and when I heard other people's thoughts, so they all raced at me at full speed. The words pounded in my head, giving me a constant headache that never seemed to go away. I tried to tune them out with music, but the voices won every single time.

“Why don’t we go into a library where it’s quiet,” Bucky whispered to me as he steered me into the nearest one. He was taking me out on a date, and I was trying to have some fun but was failing miserably. Walking inside the library, I noticed everyone’s mouth closed as they silently did their things, but all I could hear was their thoughts as they screamed at me.

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

“When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."

“Shut up!” I yelled, startling everyone in the library. They all looked at me like I was crazy which then changed the thoughts I heard. Crazy. Bitch. Psycho. Those were just some of the words I was hearing when my heart started to race. One of the things that was guaranteed with these powers was panic attacks, and one of them was coming on. When my blood pressure was high and I started panicking, that is when my telekinesis took on full effect.

Books started flying off the shelves with some of them hitting people in the head while others slammed to the ground. Chairs flew from their places near tables to across the room. The lights started flickering, and the only thing I could hear was screaming both inside my head and out.

“Shut up!” I yelled as I covered my ears. Bucky rushed to me and grabbed my shoulders to at least start the process of calming me down. Everyone was scared of what I could do, and I knew that going out in the world was a bad idea since I clearly wasn’t ready.

“Y/N, you need to calm down. Listen to the sound of my voice and only my voice,” he said.

“I can’t, it’s too loud in here!” I whimpered as tears leaked from my eyes. Everyone around us watched with wide eyes filled with fear which only got me more anxious. I never wanted to be the reason that fear was in someone. I never wanted to be the person that people dreaded going near.

“Y/N look at me. You can do it. Just look into my eyes,” he urged. My eyes flitted all around the room before settling on his. I tried to look away, but his eyes were too captivating to leave.

“Please help me,” I whimpered.

“Just breathe with me. The voices seem loud, but the volume will go down if you’re relaxed and calm. You can do it, I believe in you,” he said as he took deep breaths with me. “Take a deep breath and hold it.” Thinking he was onto something good, I took a shaky breath in and held it for a few seconds before letting it out. “You’re doing so well. Keep going. Try holding it for longer.” Taking another steady breath in, I was able to hold this one for a few more seconds longer. The books stopped flying, the chairs stopped moving, and the lights stopped flickering. Everyone could see that whatever Bucky was doing seemed to be working as they let him do his thing as they waited.

“I’m scared,” I whispered.

“I know. I know the voices are loud, but just listen to the sound of my voice. Focus on me and tune everyone else out. Just hear the waves coming from my mouth and block everyone else’s,” he instructed as he continued to coach me through this. As time ticked on, the voices in my head reduced in size until his thoughts was the only one I could focus on.

I love you.

“You love me?” I gasped.

“Is that what you heard?”

“That’s the only thing I hear. I can’t hear anyone else’s. It’s like my body is focusing only on yours and shutting everyone else out. I can do this? I can control who I listen to and when?” I asked emotionally. This was a major development in my case and I was excited by the results.

“It’s been there all along. Your anxiety refuses to let you single someone out until I forced you to focus on mine only. You think coming out here was a bad idea? No, it got to you to realize that you can live with this ability and still have a normal life. I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“I can do this?” I struggled to get out. This was all very emotional to me since I’ve always felt so submissive to this power.

“You can do this,” Bucky smiled widely as he turned to the crowd that was watching. He began to calm them down and assure them that everything was going to be alright, but the only thing I could hear and focus on was I love you coming from his head over and over again.

I was going to be okay after all.

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[wickjump]

ok i rambled a lot in the tags and there’s a STUPID TAG LIMIT so my thoughts are CONDENSED and LAMEand not smart. but i could be. i could be if i wanted to. also the second half of this is literally me just talking about krepicolor im So sorry i got so off topic and distracted. the first half is good tho and makes sense i think

Why am I chill with most color ships but eh or 😡 and 🙄 or 🫤 on most killer ships

[jinmukangwrites]

Dwelling on What If (1/6)

Summary: The children of crime alley suddenly start disappearing with Red Hood suspecting a trafficking scheme in play. His questions are answered as he finds himself and Damian Wayne abducted and hunted for sport.

Notes: Dedicated to @doc-squash who is an amazing, talented artist who is carrying the entire batfam fandom on their back. They also made the prompt idea in an old post a few weeks back and I've been working on this 12k beast of a fic ever since then because I couldn't get this particular prompt out of my head. Seriously, Doc, I know we have never talked before but you are seriously amazing and I have mad respect for you <3

Warnings: kidnapping, trafficking, description of injuries, a swear here and there because it's Jason and he gets to swear sometimes, probably inaccurate descriptions of New Jersey geography and medical stuff but it's fan fiction so I don't care too much to make everything super realistic, some blood, guns, knives, hunting for sport, slight dehumanization, angst. It's not as violent as it sounds, I tried to keep this toned down, but just to be safe :)

It was interesting to write exclusively in Damian’s perspective for this. Honestly, I am so much more confident in writing his character now. Anyway, please enjoy!!

-o-o-o-o-

Damian groans as consciousness slowly returns to him. His head pounds as he brings his eyebrows together, trying to remember how to open his eyes. It takes a second, and the feeling of cold metal seeping through his clothes reaches him before he can even blink his eyes open. Blurry images greet him, fuzzy shapes obscuring more fuzzy shapes, until it slowly focuses into something that only slightly unnerves him.

Bars, well, not quite bars actually. Bars are what his grandfather used in his prison, thick tubes of steel usually an inch in diameter placed closely together so the one trapped behind then couldn't even squeeze their shoulders through. No, these aren't bars, these are wires, a few millimeters in diameter and crisscrossing around each other to make some sort of woven pattern. For a second, it reminds him of the kennel father bought when they first got Ace and Titus until he realizes that this is exactly what it is.

He's staring at a kennel wall. From the inside.

An uneasy feeling settles in his gut but he pushes that aside as he slowly places his hands on the cool surface below him. He leveres himself up inch by inch, fighting down the feeling of nausea that rises to his throat. He slows and forces a breath through his mouth, the symptoms of being drugged are easily recognizable. 

Finally, he finds himself upwards and collapsing back so he's sitting back on his legs which are folded beneath him. He closes his eyes and breathes through his sudden lightheadedness until his stomach stops trying to force whatever he had for lunch upwards. A few moments pass, and a few more, and he's about to risk opening his eyes and moving again until he's stopped by a familiar voice. 

"Mornin', demon brat."

Todd.

In a matter of a few heartbeats he has already thought of two different situations where he'd find himself in a cage with the voice of Todd nearby. Maybe Todd has finally truly snapped and decided to kidnap Damian to get to his father or Grayson. Damian wouldn't put it past him, Todd is a delinquent and a disappointment to the family, yet that doesn't explain how Damian would have actually ended up captured. One things for sure, if Todd ever decided to take Damian hostage, he wouldn't succeed. Damian is the one true heir to the cowl of his father and could have defeated every single one of his so called adoptive brothers in combat by the time he turned six. 

The next situation seems like the more likely one: Todd isn't the cause, but the victim to it too.

He forces his eyes open and finds his second theory is the correct one, through that only makes things more complicated; at this point he would have preferred Todd go wild and kidnap him. 

Across a small, wooden room with nothing but a dull bulb hanging from the ceiling to illuminate is a second kennel, same size as the one Damian currently finds himself trapped in. Inside that kennel is none other than Jason Todd, fathers greatest mistake… after Drake of course. The guy is a nuisance in every sense of the word. Carefree, idiotic, never taking a single thing seriously. He likes to pop in randomly to start arguments for argument sake, he's famous for interrupting important stakeouts with his loud guns and annoying personality, and worst of all, he thinks Damian like a child.

Tt.

It's proof of this as Damian comes to meet the sight of Todd casually leaning in the corner of his kennel, hands crossed over his stomach and legs crossed at the ankle, toes just touching the opposing corner of the cage. He's staring at Damian with a half eyebrow raised and a goofy, lopsided grin which makes Damian want to tear right through the wires separating them and break only the most painful of bones in his body. 

"Have a good nap there, buddy?"

Damian shoots a glare before he turns away and scoots over to where the door of the kennel he found himself in would be; slowly as to not aggravate any lingering nausea. He reaches his fingers up to the latch of the kennel door and frowns as he wraps his grasp around a small yet sturdy looking padlock. Frowning, he brings his hands down so he can place his feet—bare, shoeless, someone took his shoes and socks—against the lower part of the door in an attempt to bend it outwards and crawl out. 

"I'm gonna tell you now it won't work, squirt," Todd's voice cuts in and Damian refuses to roll his eyes or even acknowledge him. "The bars are stronger than they look."

Damian ignores him still as he pushes against the door and braces his hands behind him. He pushes and pushes until his back is pressed painfully against the opposite wall of the kennel and his legs are shaking with effort.

Defeated, he relaxes his legs and glares at the door. Not a single bit of metal even slightly bent out of shape. He can hear snickering besides him. 

"Tt."

"Oh, c'mon. Maybe if you push a little harder-"

"Shut up, Todd."

"He speaks!" 

Damian spins around to shoot a narrowed look but it doesn't go quite according to plan as his stomach rolls and vision blurs ever so slightly. He allows the feeling of sick to settle before he opens his mouth again. "What happened?" 

Todd fakes a surprised gasp and Damian bristles at the action. "You mean to tell me the great Damian, the blood heir, doesn't remember how we got here?!"

"Of course I remember!" Damian snaps, he doesn't but there is no way he'd raise Todd's already cliff-like ego another notch by telling him so. "You're going to tell me what you think happened so I can correct you where you are wrong."

Todd sighs and leans his head back against the wall behind him. "Whatever you say. So bossy…"

Before Damian can snap at him again, Todd quickly launches into a story about how he was in Crime Alley scoping out a possible lead into a case of some sort that he's working on and he ran into Damian who was also working on a lead, though Todd seems pretty confident that they were working on different cases. Damian wonders why he was alone in a place like Crime Alley until it occurs to him that he had just finished an argument with his father and had stormed out of the house for cool off. What the argument was is beyond him.

Apparently, they were cornered in some shady, insignificant alley by a group of people who looked like they were on drugs but still knew what they were doing with the tasers in their hands. 

Jason and Damian, looking like unsuspecting wonderers who had stumbled into the bad part of town, had to act like so because of Bruce's stupid "don't give yourself away" thing. As Todd speaks, Damian begins to remember the event  with clarity. In fact, that was the exact cause of the argument with father. Damian doesn't see the point in holding back while in civilian clothes. What's the point to? If he can fight someone he should fight them, not pretend to be helpless just because he's not wearing a mask. 

He supposes there's a reason to hold back, after all it would be bad if all of Gotham were to find out Damian Wayne was actually a local hero called Robin. But what he doesn't understand is why he has to hold back as much as his father wants him to. Children all over the world know basic defense, many others have actually taken karate and martial arts classes. He doesn't see why he needs to pretend to be completely oblivious and weak when it comes to hand to hand combat. 

He remembers forcing himself to hold back when they were cornered, he can tell Todd was as well, yet he still threw punches like any well built man his age would when confronted by hostile parties. However, it was inevitable in the end. There were too many thugs to knock them all out and not raise questions. Todd eventually let a fist slip and Damian was grabbed behind. He could have easily slipped his arm out so he could break the jaw of his attacker, but he caught the glare of Todd and then he watched as Todd was viciously jabbed by a taser gun and he went down. It was then, as annoying as it was, that he knew he had to go down too. Thankfully, the taser wasn't used on him, but a sickeningly sweet smelling cloth was sealed across his nose and mouth by the hand of his attacker. 

It was humiliating to pretend to struggle, to let them drug him and drag him to the blurry image of a classic "kidnapper van" as Grayson calls it.

"Does that all sound correct to you?" Todd suddenly asks, his eyebrow twitching upwards with the corner of his lips matching the action. 

"It was adequate."

"Screw you."

Damian once again resists the urge to roll his eyes. "Have you made any contact with the thugs in-between the time you awoke and I did?"

"You mean did I see the kidnappers while you were sleeping like a princess?" 

Damian couldn't stop the eye roll. He tried. 

"Have they talked about any ransom? Plans?"

Todd shook his head. "Silent, haven't seen a soul. Also, I don't think they'll be asking for any ransom. It's not like this was an aggravated abduction."

"How so?"

"C'mon, kid, they cornered two random guys in an alley. Plus, if it was for random, why did they take me?"

Todd, for once, is correct, though Damian hates to admit that even to himself. Jason Todd died years ago, right now, the man across from him has no connection to the Wayne's whatsoever as far as the public knew. This isn't premeditated, there is no way the abductors could have known Damian would travel alone to Crime Alley that night and meet up with a random man. The chances of that happening is close to zero unless they somehow had some sort of fortune teller with them, which in of itself is extremely unlikely. 

At this moment, Damian notices something flash across Todd's seemingly laid back expression. Something in the way his eyes glanced over to the closed door to the small, practically humid room they find themselves trapped him for just a second. Something cold, calculating, and almost… cautious. 

The uneasy feeling settles in Damian's stomach once again, though this time it isn't because of nausea. 

"Todd, what was that case you were working on?"

Todd looks Damian straight in the eyes and it occurs to Damian that this is the first time since he's woke up that Todd has actually made eye contact with him. Then, before Todd can open his mouth and explain anything, the door flies open. 

-o-o-o-o-

The man is a medium build, though he looks bigger because of the beard hanging from his chin and resting on his chest and the way his stomach bulges out in an obvious beer belly. Damian feels the urge to try and get the man to spill what's going on, but he holds back when the man sets a reusable grocery bag on the floor next to his kennel. The man reaches down to his belt and pulls out a small gun. 

"Go all the way back, brat, or I'll shoot you," the man grumbles simply. Damian glares at him but begins to scooch away from the kennel door so his back is pressed against the far side of the cage. As strong as the wires of the cage are, they'll do nothing to stop a speeding bullet. He draws his feet closer towards him and stays that way as the man lowers down to put a key inside the padlock. There's a click and Damian tenses as the kennel door opens and the gun is pointed directly at his head with nothing now to stand in between. 

If he were dressed as Robin, he could easily grab this man's arm and break it in three different places before he could even think about shooting, but right now he's Damian, which forces him to be vulnerable. 

In what looks to be sickeningly practiced movements, the man grabs inside the bag with his free hand and pulls out a water bottle and… what looks to be a doggy bowl filled with gross looking crackers of some sort. The smell alone suggested dog food, from a local Walmart, not an actual pet store. The bowl and bottle are placed inside the kennel and Damian makes no move as the cage is closed again and locked. 

The man picks up the bag and sets of down now in front of Todd, he puts Todd through the same procedure until they both now have water and food probably not meant for humans.

The man steps away from Todd and gathers up the bag, he goes to walk away and Damian can't hold his tongue any longer. 

"Who are you heathens?!" He demands. 

The man stops in his tracks and shoots Damian a glare. "If you want to live long enough to see tomorrow, I suggest you keep your mouth shut, brat."

Damian narrows his eyes and is about to retort against all better judgment but Todd suddenly speaks up.

"Hey, I need to pee."

The man snaps his neck over to Todd and strides over to the cage. Todd puts on a fake, fearful expression and even flinches when the man kicks the kennel violently. "Then go, bitch."

And without another word, the man turns and leaves, closing, and locking the door behind him. 

Todd let's out a breath and Damian stares at him. "What was that?" He demands. 

Todd takes a second to look away from the door before he meets Damian's gaze. "You asked what my case was," he says slowly, "if… this is it, and I'm pretty sure it is, he would have killed you if you talked back. No hesitation."

Damian falls silent for a second as the weight of the situation blankets the atmosphere. Kidnapped, in civilian clothes, with allegedly merciless abductors. "What do we do?" He asks quietly, on instinct, almost like it's Grayson or his father in the other cage; he wants to take the question back but Todd has also seemed to recognize the heaviness in the air.

His face remains grim as he answers. "Act your age, and if you have a chance to escape, take it."

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hey! I love the "for a case" fics! I was just wondering if you had any new ones?

Hi Nonny!!

I ACTUALLY DO have new stuff to add to this list! 

For anyone interested, here are past similar posts:

For a Case Trope

Meeting the Family With a Fake Relationship

Married For a Case / Fake Husbands

Here we go! Apologies if I’m overlapping; I’m trying to remember where I left off, LOL.

FAKE RELATIONSHIP / FOR A CASE (PT 2.)

Ex by Itsallfine (T, 1,248 w. || Love Confessions, Coming Out, Exes, First Kiss) – One night, in the midst of their post-case high and on the cusp of something more, John and Sherlock run into John’s ex. His ex-boyfriend.

Christmas at Holmes Cottage by johnlockedstarkid (G, 4,295 w. || Christmas, Fake Relationship, Love Confessions, Holmes Family, Pining, Kisses, Fluff, Allusions to Mystrade) – Sherlock doesn’t want to have to deal with his mother’s wishes for him to find a partner when he goes to visit them for Christmas, so asks John to pose as his boyfriend. Little does he know he’s not the only one who wishes that the relationship could be real.

On Hiatus: Rotterdam (T, 4K+ w. || Friendship, Drama, Couple For A Case, Post-TRF, John Joins Sherlock, No Slash) – “Used them after uni a bit. Purely for research purposes, of course,“ Sherlock said tiredly, head lolling against John’s shoulder.” Sherlock goes on a mission alone, or: Two blokes in a luxury hotel in the Netherlands. Non-linear timeline. Set during the Hiatus.

The Honeymoon Suite by Salambo06 (E, 5,827 w. || Fake Relationship, Fake Marriage, Frottage, First Kiss, Cuddling/Snuggling/Sleepy Cuddles, Bed Sharing, Holidays / Hotels, Case Fic) – “You’ll see,” the receptionist smiles, handing John the key to their room, “This honeymoon suite is quite spectacular. Our hotel has won many awards, most of them for these rooms.” John nods, licking his lips and playing with the key in his hand. We’ll probably be leaving first thing in the morning, he wants to tell her. As soon as Sherlock proves who robbed the previous couple who booked a room here, we’re out of here and stopping this happily married charade. “Thank you,” he says instead.

The space between by Salambo06 (E, 6,830 w. || PWP, Friends to Lovers, Masturbation, Virgin Sherlock, First Time, Miscommunications, Bottom Sherlock, Mutual Pining, Sexual Fantasy) – “It’s for a case,” Sherlock says as soon as John looks down at his computer. John remains silent for a long moment, eyes moving from the screen to Sherlock, before saying, “You don’t have to explain.” His voice is low, too low, and Sherlock looks at the computer, putting the video on pause. “Lestrade asked me-, no, forced me to find out who’s threatening a famous porn star, and the suspect is among his co-stars, so I only need to watch out for any signs from his partners, anything that might show they’re the one sending those threats and I can move to something else.” “Right.”

Full Disclosure by Itsallfine (E, 7,032 w. || Bars & Pubs, Fake Relationship, First Kiss / Time, Love Confessions, John’s Army Mates, Three Continents Watson, Semi-Public Sex) – John’s army mates get together for the first time post-discharge and invite John “Three Continents” Watson to join them. If John shows up alone, he knows he’ll be the object of non-stop ridicule all night. Sherlock plays along. John tests the waters.

that thing you like by misspamela (E, 7,165 w. || Holmes Family, Fake Relationship, Friends to Lovers) – “Happy Christmas, etc. etc.” Sherlock and John go to the Holmes’ for Christmas, and everyone thinks they’re together.

Down with this Ship by FrostedFlame (PinkOrchid) (M, 10,862 w. || For a Case, Gay Bar, Coming Out, Slow Burn) – Sherlock drags John undercover to a gay bar - for a case, of course - looking forward to seeing John flustered by their surroundings (since you know, he’s NOT GAY). John decides that he has hidden both his orientation and his feelings for his daft flatmate for far too long. He is done hiding, time to be honest with his bloody best friend in the world. He just hopes it won’t change anything between them. And then it does.

Twelfth Night by yourdykeinshiningarmor (E, 15,139 w. || Fake Relationship, Christmas, Mutual Pining, Friends to Lovers, Angst & Fluff, BJ’s, Anal) – John is invited to his aunt’s Twelfth Night ball. Sherlock offers to attend with him as a friendly face among strangers, but John’s family force him to address his true feelings for Sherlock.

Till Death Do Us Part by prettysailorsoldier (M, 15,390 w. || Fake Relationship, Case Fic, Friends to Lovers, Fake Marriage, Christmas, Fluff) – When Sherlock links a recent spree of murder-suicides to a psychologist who specializes in marriage counseling, there’s really only one thing to do: Go undercover as a couple in hopes of drawing the killer out. Faking a relationship seems easy enough, but things take a turn when their real issues start to creep into the sessions, and, all the while, a killer is watching, waiting in the shadows for their chance to strike.

Couples Retreat by Madam_Fandom (E, 18,717 w. || Fake Relationship, Undercover Couple, Case Fic, Angst, Kidnapping, Fake Marriage, Cross Dressing) – Couples are turning up missing at a very high class couples retreat; and the only way to get to the bottom of it is for John and Sherlock to go under cover as a couple. {{Haven’t read this yet, so read at your discretion}}

Just a Kiss by emmagrant01 (E, 19,695w. || Case Fic, 5+1, For a Case) – Five times John and Sherlock kissed because of a case and one time they kissed for real. (Chapter 7 is the one you want :D)

Ghost Stories by SwissMiss (M, 22,256 w. || Pining, Holmes Family, Christmas, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Bed Sharing, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, First Time) – Sherlock’s parents think he and John are a couple. They might be onto something.

Dropping the Act by jadztone (T, 27,258 w. || Parentlock, Fake Relationship, Mary’s Family, Post-S4, Cuddling & Snuggling, Bed Sharing, Pining, Christmas) – Sherlock and John are quite happy living together with Rosie in Baker St. They might be even happier if they didn’t act towards each other like their love is only platonic. Mycroft brings troubling news in the form of Mary’s parents wanting to know just what their grandchild’s home life is like. The boys decide to spend Christmas pretending like they are in love in order to seem more like a “normal” family. It’s easy enough to pretend when all you’re doing is dropping the act.

Sherlock Holmes & The Mysterious Ex by Gatergirl79 (M, 27,942 w. || Family, Romance, Holmes Family) – Sherlock and John are forced to spend Christmas with Sherlock’s family. An unsettling idea especially when John will have to play ‘Boyfriend’ thanks to Mycroft. But why exactly does Sherlock want to avoid a family party?

“finally kiss the bloody idiot” by Salambo06 (E, 29,812 w. || Mutual Pining, Declarations of Love, First Kiss / Time, Angst, Misunderstandings, Fantasies, POV John) – Inspired by a fic idea on tumblr : “John and Sherlock know the Yard has a pool going for when they’re finally going to get together. It’s been running forever, and it’s worth thousands of pounds. It’s all fun and games, hahaha, until they find out Lestrade is in dire financial straits (dog needs emergency surgery, he’s putting his kid through gymnastics training, I don’t know, something), and they decide to fake a relationship to win the pool for him. Sherlock figures out the day and way that Lestrade thinks it’s going to happen, and they act it out. It’s all for a good cause, fake relationship style, until it’s not.” Part 1 of The Pool

Classified(s) by blueink3 (E, 36,153 w. || Wedding Date AU || Fake Relationship, Jealous, PIning, H/C, Idiots in Love, Happy Ending, Mary is not Nice, Escort Service) – Clara’s American father is the ambassador to some such territory that Great Britain probably used to own, but she (and Harry’s undying love for her) is the reason John is getting on a flight at 12:30pm, flying across the second largest ocean in the world, and pretending to be in a perfectly happy, healthy relationship with an undoubtedly perfectly coiffed stranger. See, Clara is not only American (and wealthy to boot), she’s also best friends with John’s ex-fiancée. Whom she’s placed in the wedding party. As Maid of Honor. And John just happens to be Best Man. Bloody brilliant.

A Promise Made to Be Broken by PlantsAreNeat (E, 37,018 w. || Fake Relationship, Pining, Slow Burn, RST, Eventual Relationship, POV Sherlock) – A young John makes an ‘if we’re still single at 40, we’ll get together’ pledge to a woman who ends up all wrong for him. She keeps reminding him of the promise, and won’t let go of it. John asks Sherlock to pose as his boyfriend at a family wedding, so as to dash her hopes permanently. Sherlock, who has at last acknowledged his feelings for John, reluctantly agrees despite knowing how painful it will be to ‘have’ John, but not keep him.

The Case of the Vanishing Pants by SwissMiss (E, 44,025 w. || Five and Ones, Friends to Lovers, Case Fic, Homophobia, UST, Post-TRF) – Five times John and Sherlock lost their pants in the course of a case. (Chapter 4)

John Watson’s Twelve Days of Christmas by earlgreytea68 (M, 53,464 w. || Christmas, Holmes Family, Fake Relationship, Alternate First Meeting, Falling in Love, Fluff and Angst, Hardcore Pining) – It’s the holiday season. John Watson needs money. Sherlock Holmes needs something else.

Wars We Fought, Things We’re Not by blueink3 (M, 55,204 w. || Parentlock, Fluff & Angst, Kidnapping, Whump, Post-TAB, UST, Slow Burn, Couple for a Case) –  Five months after John’s world has fallen apart, Mycroft sends the consulting detective and his doctor on a case that neither is prepared for.

Bridging the Ravine by SilentAuror (E, 58,887 w. || Post S4, Couple For a Case, Bed-Sharing, First Times, Confessions, Awkwardness, Sex Trafficking) – Sherlock and John go undercover at Ravine Valley, a therapy centre for same-sex male couples in an investigation into a possible human trafficking ring. As they pose as a couple and fake their way through the therapy sessions for the sake of the case, it quickly becomes difficult to avoid discussing their very real issues. Set roughly six nine months after series 4.

A Cure For Boredom by emmagrant01 (E, 81,665 w. || Dirty Talk, Threesomes, Light Dom/Sub, Sex Club, Experiments, Anal, Mildly Dubious Consent) – They’d never talked about sex in the year they’d known each other. Well, that wasn’t quite correct: Sherlock had never said a word about sex; John had bemoaned his personal dearth of it on many occasions.

[sedeso]

Preparing to Travel Abroad Alone at 18

Turning 18 and beginning my gap year planning, I’m faced with the realities of “traveling alone.” My parents are against it, random relatives are praying for me, everything is so expensive, and what am I actually doing? It took a while for me to reconcile being my own support system because of my parents’ disapproval, but I am ready for this experience. 

In September I will be going to Balgue, Nicaragua for 3 months to intern with an organization called Project Bona Fide. My internship is focused on sustainable agriculture and herbal medicine. I’ll be learning permaculture practices, tending the herb garden, and attempting to create a local shop for the farm’s herbal remedies. This in tandem with improving my Spanish and participating in the many workshops and excursions at the PBF Farm.

I got into contact with PBF and this internship through an organization called Omprakash, which matches volunteers and interns with nonprofits and other organizations worldwide. They provide an incredible pre- and post-departure support team, with an online classroom dedicated to global development and volunteerism. Through them I am doing crowdfunding for my trip, getting discounted travel insurance, and have a mentor! I really recommend their organization for anyone looking to travel abroad and have it be more than a vacation. 

There are multitudes to my gap year, I will be completing my yoga teacher certification, returning to Antigua, and possibly doing a volunteer trip through Omprakash. It really all depends on my finances and flexibility, but I’ll keep you all posted!

So I’m Caribbean. The only time I’ve traveled alone is to my mother’s home island and country Anguilla. And that was to stay with my aunt the entire trip, and travel back with an older cousin of mine. I know the ins and outs of air travel from going to Anguilla and Antigua with my family all throughout my life, so this shouldn’t be that daunting right?

Right! I am excited to not have to juggle 3 bags because we always bring things for family and to be able to stick to my schedule. I am flying to Managua in September, where I will meet up with 2+ other interns and we will travel together to the PBF farm. Thereafter, I will be with PBF staff, interns, volunteers, and the surrounding community. 

Oh, but it is that daunting. As I mentioned I’m Caribbean, and my parents are fighting me tooth and nail to get me to call off this trip. I can do another post about why I am going to take a gap year at all if you’d like. Their concerns are rooted in safety, which I acknowledge. I’ve always wanted to take Krav Maga defense art classes, and will likely be doing so sooner rather than later to appease them. 

Human trafficking is a very real threat, and tourists are such easy targets. Literally fuck being a tourist. I hate the idea of walking into a new place ready to drop a ton of US money, look stupid, and appreciate the scenery more than the people around you. So many people that travel and volunteer do not have this attitude but you will always note the tourists in any place you go. 

Making yourself into a target is a for sure way to get pickpocketed and even kidnapped not only in Central America, but all over the world. I advise you not to be flashy with money or gadgets, and to just enjoy your time without taking a photo of everything. 

Some other tips I’ve made up or come across for keeping yourself and your shit safe:

Get a money belt thing, its like a flat fanny pack u can wear under your clothes to make it way harder to pickpocket

Know where you are going, download the google maps in wifi BEFORE you even leave for your trip

Do not look at your map on the street, rather duck into a store or cafe (looking lost makes you a target)

If you have a daypack and are going through a busy area wear it on your front

Try to know as much as you can of the language where you are going (being confused makes you a target)

Make a female friend, ask them where not to go and safe areas

Do not have both headphones in in public places 

Snap a picture of your cab’s license plate before you get in it.

If you stop to buy tickets or anything where your attention is away, put your bag between your legs or in between your body and the counter instead of beside you

Don’t feel guilty about saying no to anything

Know how to use the emergency call function on your phone, for if you have no service or wifi 

Have scheduled calls with someone back home

I plan on using all of these tips myself, and will be documenting my gap year travels here and on youtube (videos coming soon)

I am also new to blog-type posts, so any feedback or constructive criticism is welcome, stay safe and love you all!

[loudlytransparenttrash]

Any thoughts on the "Trump hates children" hysteria?

Hello! I don’t like kids being separated from their parents. I have no doubt of the fear and stress it causes on both parent and child. But I also don’t like parents using their kids as bargaining chips to cheat the system. We also have to remember that many of the adults caught sneaking in with children aren’t related to the child whatsoever. As much as it’s justified to have real concerns of what’s happening, we also have to be honest in order to be able to find a solution. Even if the policy is misguided, the administration isn’t “kidnapping” or “snatching” little children from poor, innocent immigrant parents. Nor is the policy equivalent in any conceivable way to the Holocaust or human rights abuses of third world nations.

Democrats and the media offering hysterical analogues, comparing temporarily separating illegal parents from their children in order to keep kids out of the rough and poor conditions of detention centers while cases are being heard with Auschwitz guards leading children to gas chambers, all they’re doing is creating a moronically hyperbolic and trivialized conversation that makes it increasingly impossible to fix anything. These children deserve better, yes, but there is also no evidence that they are being willfully mistreated.

We also have to be honest about what is happening at the border. Those who claim asylum at ports of entry are not being separated from their children, only parents being charged with sneaking into the country illegally and then claim asylum after being apprehended are detained are. Adults who choose not to be deported have to wait for adjudication of their case and while this happens, the law prohibits children from being held in the same detention centers as adults, not because we hate brown people as Buzzfeed believes, but because we don’t like seeing children held in Obama’s cages.

Defining “children” is crucial. A child is defined in this legislation as any individual who has not reached 18 years old. Just like the mass imports of “child” refugees in Europe, most of them ain’t kids. Many in the media are also misleading the public by conflating unaccompanied under 18s with separated under 18s, making no distinction by age or circumstance. The majority of kids in care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, most often teenagers, are apprehended because they’ve come without any parents. It’s a growing problem. In 2013, a little fewer than 40,000 unaccompanied minors were apprehended by the Border Patrol. That was a historic high. In 2016 there were nearly 60,000. This year there are likely to be more than 80,000.

An Obama administrator described the reason children ended up in cages under the former president’s watch: “In 2014, we saw an enormous spike compared to what usually happens every year in the number of kids crossing into the United States. We didn’t have enough shelter facilities because we had a huge increase, so kids ended up piling up in Border Patrol lock-ups.” Democrats and the media say ‘fair enough’ to Obama’s management of the massive child crossing influxes, but when that already history high number doubles, and Trump creates more comfortable conditions for the kids as they temporarily wait, it’s being compared to the Holocaust. Really?

We also have to acknowledge the role Mexican cartels are playing in the problem. Since Trump’s crackdown and the legalization of marijuana, they’re putting more time and effort into human trafficking. The cartels use these people to flood the system and clog up border patrol resources, functioning as human pawns to distract from their efforts to smuggle opioids and other drugs across. It’s exactly what happened in 2014. U.S. authorities were well aware the cartels were taking drugs just a few miles upstream while they dealt with the huge amount of minors, but there was nothing they could do about it due to their own humanitarian policies.

It’s true that some Republicans act as if everyone coming over the border is an MS-13 drug mule, but most on the left act as if there is no criminality associated with unregulated immigration and a picture of a child tangled up in their group’s illegal actions is all it takes to erase our borders, law and security.

Unless your position is that anyone who wants to walk over the border should be able to do so, there will be detention centers, and there will be children involved. It’s clear we can’t place the children in temporary comfortable homes and safe shelters as that’s “kidnapping.” We can’t keep children in detention centers with their parents as that’s inhumane. We’ve tried releasing them into the U.S. if they promised to show up at a hearing at some later date, unsurprisingly that didn’t work out either. We can’t deport them, we can’t separate them, we can’t detain them, we can’t prosecute them. By coming in unmanageable numbers, there’s one hell of a stand-off with many corrupt groups hoping that humanitarian guilt-tripping will become their “get into America Free” card.

So what’s the solution? We just allow the ones in with children? Do we maintain the definition of a child being anyone under 18 years old? And what do we do when cartels and desperados begin rounding up kidnapped kids to throw into their human trafficking package deals? Because that’s already happening, imagine if Democrats had it their way and anyone traveling with children were welcomed into the country. There’d be no kids left in Mexico. No matter what Trump does, he’s going to be attacked for it. Unless we let the families of children into the country with no questions asked, or house all 200,000 groups in five-star hotels as they await their adjudications, Trump is going to be accused of being inhumane and evil towards children.

The majority of Americans aren’t ideologically rigid on the issue. We’re all open to immigration but most also want secure borders and for the laws to be followed. None of us should be proud of what’s happening at the border, but we also shouldn’t be ashamed of our borders and upholding the rule of law. So far the whole thing has been ham-fisted but I’m a firm believer of a tough reaction to illegal action. At the same time there has to be a better way to manage the actual children. Maybe tough love against their parents is the answer? Who knows? I’m not sure what the answer is but for as long as both parties remain stubborn and deflect accountability, we’re never going to find out either xx 

[juneboba]

ancient magus bride

finished my ancient magus bride review which you can help me upvote on myanimelist here (g’bye 660 upvotes ;~;). also added it under the cut.

final verdict: 3/10

There’s so much to love about Ancient Magus' Bride but their entire relationship is predicated on: 1) an older non-human man buying a 15-year-old girl at an auction (in other words, human trafficking), 2) calling her dehumanizing things like “puppy” right after she was sold, lording it over her that she's "expensive," and every character acknowledging she’s a “child” (especially him), 3) invading her privacy and trying to touch and bathe her without her permission (he understood that what he was doing to a child was morally reprehensible as indicated by Angelica), 4) telling her she has no choice in matters but is “free to reconsider”, 5) calling him his bride, and 6) her being FIFTEEN goddammit (pedophilia). Chise and Elias could have been terrific characters in their own right but their relationship is marred by their creepy creators’ bad writing. So many things Elias says reeked of things predators actually say to their victims and romanticizing it is gross. He even admits outright that he's grooming Chise and "raising" her to be perfect for his use. If a creator is incapable of making a character ANY way other than a child and a creepy man who says predatory things, that's bad writing. They also didn't need to write it so that the characters meet via human trafficking and continue to portray it as if the guy "saved" Chise; that's not how human trafficking works and glorifying it is despicable. I can't imagine hopping into this without watching the "Those Awaiting a Star" OVA because Chise is even more watered down and underdeveloped as a character. She always looks like she's dead inside, even when she's smiling. Considering everything that's happened to her, I don't blame her but there needs to be more substance to her other than her history. She's not relatable and there's very little that's interesting about her. Other characters would talk up how special she is because she's a "sleigh beggy" (a rare, fragile but powerful mage) but I never felt that importance come to light. Not to say Chise's experiences are invalid but her past defines her and she's a child witnessing horrifying situations. For example, they revisit the place where she was sold. Chise is friendly—to the point where she seems grateful—to the guy who manipulated and trafficked her. All the while a baby dragon who speaks like a human child, is kidnapped, maimed, and sold off (the sounds are horrifying). This is not entertainment, it's borderline torture porn. Now that I think about it, Ancient Magus' Bride reminds me of the Twilight series. Chise is exactly like Bella. She's a teenage child who is loyal to an old guy who wants to eat her, she suffers from Same Face Syndrome, and for some godforsaken reason everybody loves her despite having no discernible personality. Elias also seems like he's gunning for the Edward Cullen Award. It's his way or the highway and everybody has to bend over backwards to cater to him otherwise he loses his shit. Elias literally becomes a violent, jealous monster. There was an episode where Chise made friends with another child, no older than 12, and he got jealous that her attention wasn't on him for a day. She returned that same evening, he ran away the minute she arrived, Chise ran after him, and he tried to consume her by constricting her entire body to the point where she was damn-near lifeless. In an earlier episode, he said he couldn't control himself to serve as an indicator that he is likely to cause Chise physical harm [insert Will Smith red carpet meme]. Like Bella, she sticks around anyway and it astonishes Elias for some reason. He is amazed that a human emotes human sentiments, he excuses a lot of his toxic behavior on his "uncontrollable" monstrous side, and he is surprised by mundane human interactions despite living among humans for more than a century. Let this situation serve as a life lesson: if someone tells you they're dangerous, leave them. They're doing you a service by telling you exactly who they are. Elias is abusive and possessive; because when an adult gets jealous of a child, the correct response is to run away from home and then choke your partner nearly to death when they check to see if you're okay. Also like Twilight, every supporting character is more interesting than the main cast. They're complex, they're mysterious, they're charming, they have a tapestry of history that is engaging, and sometimes their stories have a satisfying resolution. Some of them only show up for a couple of episodes and they still manage to have more memorable moments than Chise and Elias. The amount of similarities between Ancient Magus Bride and Twilight is comical. If the antagonists aren't complete psychopaths, they are totally relatable. The human sorcerers were some of the most engaging characters in the anime. I would rather the main characters be the Barley family or Mikhail and Alice. They understood Chise's situation and, much like real life when trying to help victims of abuse/Stockholm syndrome, they tried to get her to see the issues of her relationship with Elias. The human sorcerers reminded her that she was tricked into auctioning herself by predatory men and sold into servitude, that she's young and impressionable enough to manipulate, and that Elias knew it when he bought her. They made it clear she was being used, that she has no idea what for, and pointed out that she had no freedom being with him (Elias admits to this in the first episode). Chise brushed aside their concerns because Elias was the first to assign value to her—he keeps reminding her how expensive she was and that makes her feel special (another thing many real victims say). After being rejected, the sorcerers left it at that and said they stopped caring about her. It felt really out of character seeing as how they cared more about her than anyone else ever did 2 seconds ago. That's not good writing! Subject matter like this needs to be handled with nuance and care; the writers clearly bit off more than they could chew. If anyone made more sense to foster a healthy relationship between, it's Ruth and Chise as his surrogate sister. They were way more interesting together than anyone else because Chise lacked chemistry with most of the other characters. Their bond was strong from the beginning and I would have liked to see more between them. I'm not surprised the writers went in the wrong direction with Ruth by using him to try to steer Elias and Chise closer together and then forgetting about him for the majority of the anime. What a wasted opportunity. It's such a shame because the animation and world Wit Studio created is beautiful, the music and sound department did a superb job, and I personally have a weakness for jersey devil skull monster boys. The minor characters are also intriguing and complex, often times more than the main characters. The minor characters and the production quality is what saved the score from dropping lower. Had it focused solely on Elias and Chise, the score would have easily been a 2 or 1 because the story itself begins to drag and get boring around the sixth episode. Ancient Magus' Bride has its moments after that. Ancient Magus' Bride is like a collection of fantasy scenarios that the creator put into a jar, shook up, and sequenced in the order that dropped out of the jar. The anime kept introducing characters only to abandon them within the next couple of episodes and a big chunk of the worldbuilding that came with them. About halfway through the series, it was as if they suddenly remembered they had an enormous roster of characters so they thought to dedicate segments to them every other episode only for them to disappear again. Aside from the poor writing, editors need to do something about their creators with some kinda creepy lolicon. Pursue projects with writers who aren’t afraid to create protagonists older than 20 instead of underage ones whose lack of world experience is taken advantage of by predatory adults.

[dailynewswebsite]

Three women: stories of Indian trafficked brides

Cornfield/Shutterstock.com

“I attempted to flee in the midst of the night time,” Mahira* recalled. “With a small packed bag, I tiptoed in the direction of the door considering that he was asleep. Abruptly, he grabbed me from behind and attacked with a cutlass.” I sat, surprised, as she lifted her saree and revealed a large scar beneath her knee.

In north India, there’s a explicit historical past of buying brides from different states because of the “male marriage squeeze”: there’s an extra of eligible males however not sufficient native girls for marriage. That is attributable to an imbalanced little one intercourse ratio attributable to sex-selective abortion and feminine foeticide.

A latest research discovered that selective abortion may result in 6.Eight million fewer women being born by 2030, with choice for sons highest within the north of nation. These gender imbalances have elevated cross-cultural and cross-regional marriages, which has in flip exacerbated trafficking of brides in India.

There may be inconsistent and restricted information on what number of brides are trafficked within the nation. However the numbers are vital. In 2013, a research that included 10,000 households throughout 92 villages confirmed that about 9,000 girls have been bought from completely different states in pressured marriages. And a door-to-door survey in 2014 discovered 1,352 trafficked wives dwelling with their patrons in 85 villages in north India.

Native women and men function as brokers, brokers or suppliers, to facilitate marriages with brides in different states. In lots of circumstances, younger girls are sometimes tricked, manipulated, kidnapped or coerced into marrying “unmarriageable” males: these which are older, widows, disabled, alcoholic, separated from their earlier spouse, or financially unstable. For such males, it’s handy to buy a bride throughout state for a less expensive worth.

For my PhD analysis I spoke with a number of migrant brides in cross-regional marriages. Some have been survivors of marriage trafficking. I discovered that these girls usually give consent to those marriages to flee poverty and the burden of dowry. Regardless of varied challenges and difficulties, they often keep in these marriages for his or her youngsters and for materials, social and cultural causes. I met all of them in villages within the northern states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Assam and West Bengal.

In line with the 2011 census, for each 1,000 males, there are 947 girls in West Bengal. In Rajasthan the determine stands at 926 girls, whereas in Haryana it’s 877 (the bottom of all states). Assam and West Bengal, in the meantime, are often known as “supply states” – localities scuffling with poverty, the aftermath of pure disasters and the burden of the dowry system.

Households in these areas are manipulated into sending their daughters away for work, unaware that this finally results in them turning into subjected to pressured marriage in a distinct state. In different circumstances, households in supply states prepare such long-distance and dowry-free marriages for at the very least one daughter, in order that their different youngsters are capable of marry in the identical state or area.

Mahira was one such spouse. Her expertise of exploitation, social isolation, abuse and an absence of primary human rights are removed from distinctive.

This text is a part of Dialog Insights The Insights crew generates long-form journalism derived from interdisciplinary analysis. The crew is working with lecturers from completely different backgrounds who’ve been engaged in tasks geared toward tackling societal and scientific challenges.

Mahira’s story

I met Mahira on a heat November afternoon in 2016 throughout my first go to to a village named Kherli within the district of Mewat, Haryana.

As a researcher from overseas, the locals have been interested by my presence and Mahira and different girls willingly shared tales about their marital journeys. I adopted Mahira’s lead as we walked on a sandy path passing cattle and hens, girls drying cow and buffalo manure in entrance of their homes and on their partitions, youngsters taking part in round, and males fixing damaged roofs or rebuilding their homes. Upon reaching her home we drank chilly bottles of Thumbs UP (Indian cola) with seasoned chickpea leaves. A few different girls joined us as we sat in a circle.

Mahira recounted obscure reminiscences of leaving her household residence within the state of Assam on the age of 14, after which being pressured to marry to a person in Haryana who was thrice older than her. A distant member of the family had accompanied her beneath false pretence of touring the town of Delhi along with her, the place she was offered to a “dealer”. It’s believed that Mahira’s relative and the “dealer” acquired cash for the deal, however in lots of circumstances of marriage trafficking, mother and father who supposedly “promote” their daughters in the end fail to obtain any money, even when promised. It’s usually solely the so-called “marriage agent” that earnings from the commerce.

Mahira was pressured to hitch different women who have been being auctioned off to males bidding for brides. She was bought for Rs.8,000 (US$104) by a 45-year-old Sikh man. He lived in a small village in Haryana and labored as a driver and labourer within the fields. By 28, Mahira was a mom of three and earned Rs.2 per hour for working within the fields.

A home within the village of Mewat, Haryana. Creator supplied

Life turned a steady wrestle to take care of her alcoholic husband whereas partaking with strenuous home chores and work within the fields. For most of the girls I met, it was tough for them to recollect their age due to how younger they have been once they acquired married (most of them have been between 14 and 17 years outdated). And so it was not doable to determine Mahira’s age. However the age distinction between her and her husband was over 30 years.

Her husband died in 2014. Since turning into a widow, Mahira has been dwelling alone along with her youngsters in a small village in Mewat, Haryana. She walked throughout the room and returned with a passport-sized {photograph} of her late husband – a person who appeared to be in his late 60s with a protracted beard and a clean look on his face.

Some 15 years later, Empower Individuals, a number one pioneer grassroots organisation that campaigns towards marriage trafficking, helped Mahira to be reunited along with her household in Assam. After they suggested her to go away Mewat and settle again at residence, Mahira instructed them she would keep the place she was, replying: “Jaise mere bhagya mein likha hai, foremost who hello bhugtungi” – “I’ll endure no matter is written in my future.”

I additionally met Mahira’s cousin in Assam and heard his facet of the story. He nonetheless needs Mahira would return to their village in Assam, however understands and respects her causes for staying in her marital residence in Haryana. In different circumstances nonetheless members of the family abandon girls after studying that they have been offered to a groom in a distinct and state. In different excessive circumstances the place girls select to be rescued and return residence, they usually expertise social stigma and wrestle to reintegrate.

Related tales have been instructed by different girls whose marital journeys resembled Mahira’s. Most of them had restricted or no contact with their household. In lots of circumstances, these girls are thought-about “lacking” or stay deserted by their household because of the disgrace and stigma related to being offered or kidnapped for marriage. These marriages typically break caste and non secular boundaries, and a number of other girls face exclusion of their new marital communities. The lads that buy brides for marriage don’t face social stigma to the identical extent, even when brides usually belong to a distinct caste or faith. It’s extra shameful for them to stay bachelors.

A room in Mahira’s brother’s home the place we chatted over buffalo milk tea and fruits. Picture © Sreya Banerjea, 2016, Creator supplied

Most of the girls discovered comfort in believing that their marital residence, or “sasural” was written of their destiny. But it surely was clear that their thought of “residence” was distorted: it appeared as if many of those girls didn’t actually really feel a way of belonging to their marital residence and neighborhood. They struggled with feeling like a foreigner of their marital village, and sometimes felt remoted, deserted and that their voice was subjugated.

The ladies in these marriages confronted many issues. Their mobility and determination making was closely restricted and so they lacked primary reproductive and property rights. They often needed to take care of monetary points and home abuse. Added to this, these girls have been additionally coping with primary points like an absence of water and electrical energy, to not point out the final shortage of bogs and bogs. Brides from far-off states with completely different cultural backgrounds have a tough time adjusting.

‘Sons are pinnacle of the house’

My analysis has proven that there’s extra to marriage trafficking than the “marriage squeeze” and feminine shortage. Intersections of gender, class, age and caste play a big function in pushing girls into exploitative conditions. Women from poor households dwelling in precarious situations are extra weak to such long-distance and cross-regional marriages.

The choice for sons amongst land-owning caste teams within the north is supported by native folks’s disapproval of inheritance legal guidelines that acknowledge the rights of men and women equally. However there’s a demand for women and girls for labour, home manufacturing and sexual pleasure. A well-known saying within the Hindi language is: “Ladki paraya dhan hoti hai” – “a lady is another person’s property.” Because the Indian sociologist Ravinder Kaur has identified, a daughter is “dispensable” and “burdensome”, whereas a daughter-in-law is required for “household wellbeing and perpetuation”.

There are legal guidelines towards bride trafficking in India. The Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA), the Bonded Labour Abolition Act, the Little one Labour Act, the Juvenile Justice Act, and elements the Indian Penal Code are all used to penalise trafficking for business sexual exploitation and compelled labour. However analysis has revealed a number of gaps and ambiguities in how worldwide regulation conceptualises trafficking, migration and slavery. This makes it much more difficult to know and recognise it.

‘He used to beat me along with his sneakers’

One purpose it’s so tough to doc the correct variety of trafficked brides is as a result of they’re usually recognized as home servants by the marital household and “brokers”. The story of Sahar is an instance of this.

Sahar was simply 14 when she was pressured to marry a person of 50. Born and raised in a small village of Bihar, she was the youngest of her 12 siblings. She instructed me that her cousin’s husband labored as a wedding dealer and organized her marriage with a person in Haryana. Sahar’s new husband was a widow and sought a second spouse who would elevate his three youngsters and handle home duties reminiscent of cleansing and cooking.

Sahar instructed me that her mother and father have been hesitant in regards to the proposal as a result of they needed her older siblings to marry first. To persuade them, the dealer instructed them that the groom lived in Delhi and Sahar wouldn’t be too far-off from residence. They got a false age of the groom and have been instructed that he solely had one little one from his earlier marriage.

A village close to Thanesar in Kurukshetra, Haryana the place I met one of many girls I spoke to. Picture © Sreya Banerjea, 2016, Creator supplied

Sahar spent the preliminary three months of her marriage crying and secluding herself from the remainder of the village. Later, she discovered that her mother and father got a false deal with in order that they’d not be capable to hint her. In the event that they did discover her, she stated: “I’d’ve returned residence with them as a result of I didn’t prefer it right here and didn’t wish to cool down. However they might not attain me and with no different alternative, I needed to get used to this place.” After pleading along with her husband, Sahar was allowed to go to her mother and father as soon as, beneath supervision of the wedding dealer – her cousin’s husband.

Sahar’s husband died in Hyderabad when her youngest daughter was born (who sadly died on the age of two). She has been elevating her three youngsters on her personal by working within the fields. Once I requested whether or not her husband beloved her, she replied:

He used to inform me that he didn’t kidnap or steal me from anybody, he married me … He used to beat me along with his sneakers and broke my bangles. It angered him once I instructed him I didn’t wish to dwell right here. He would punch me. I’d cry all night time and my bruises would develop into swollen. My mother-in-law didn’t say something and I used to be not capable of confront her. Now we have now cellphones, however again then, we solely had letters to speak. How would I’ve escaped or ran? The place would I’ve gone? How was I presupposed to contact anybody?

Like a number of different girls that I spoke to, Sahar’s views on marriage and emotions in the direction of her husband have been sophisticated. They have been lowered to the mistreatment she confronted.

He was an outdated man with a protracted beard. How may I like him? I couldn’t even tie rakhi(a Hindu competition which includes sisters tying a threaded bracelet across the wrists of their brothers to rejoice brotherhood and love) on him. I used to be very younger once I acquired married, however I discovered to cook dinner from different girls within the village.

Her views and emotions are additionally formed by social and familial norms that situation women and girls into believing that a part of their responsibility as a spouse is to stay submissive, compromised and have interaction in care work, little one rearing, home and agricultural work with an amazing lack of economic safety, respect and primary freedom. The thought or expression of affection in these marriages are advanced, and typically, absent. It’s primarily the ladies’s unpaid care work and casual labour that informs their perceptions about their conjugal relationship.

Sesame crops and handmade quilts dry in a small village on the outskirts of Barpeta, Assam. Picture © Sreya Banerjea, 2016, Creator supplied

Security and hurt

In circumstances the place women are kidnapped or tricked into marrying out of state, their experiences of isolation, dislocation and their wrestle for a way of belonging are rather more nuanced. Regardless of varied constraints, some “select” to remain and fulfil the wedding as a survival technique.

Amreen was 15 when she was kidnapped on her manner residence from college. She lived along with her mom, Mahnoor, and three brothers, ages 14, seven and three. Since their father deserted the household, Mahnoor raised all 4 youngsters on her personal and paid for Amreen’s training. Amreen was first taken to Ambala in Haryana, 2,033km away from her residence village. Then, she was taken to a different village the place she was married off to a person 12 years her senior. I requested Amreen’s mom how she ended up in Haryana. She stated:

I don’t know. I returned residence from a relative’s home and realised she was lacking. A month later, I acquired a cellphone name from her and she or he defined that she married somebody and lived in Haryana. Her husband took the cellphone and we chatted for some time, though we didn’t communicate the identical first language. I visited her as soon as and requested her to return residence with me, however she refused to return again with out her husband.

Round 5 years later, in 2015, Empower Individuals was capable of reunite Mahnoor and Amreen. The organisation and the police initiated a “rescue try” however Amreen refused to return residence to her mom. She instructed Mahnoor that two males had pressured her right into a automotive and she or he ended up in Haryana. The husband, in the meantime, claims that he discovered her at a railway station and managed to rescue her from the abductors, and later, they determined to get married. When Mahnoor and Amreen reunited, Empower Individuals discovered that Amreen was pregnant. Once I spoke to her, it had been six months since Mahnoor final spoke to her daughter. Amreen’s quantity is now not lively and she or he has not tried to contact Mahnoor.

Many ladies stay in these marriages as a result of they don’t bear in mind their deal with nor have they got the means to go away or escape. Meaning there’s a lack of enough and constant information on marriage trafficking. When a girl’s natal household involves know {that a} marriage has taken place by means of abduction or commerce, in lots of circumstances they refuse to reconnect because of social stigma. Some really feel relieved that the burden of dowry and financial baggage of single daughters have been lifted. Amreen’s mom, nonetheless, genuinely needed her daughter to return residence. So why did she refuse?

Cow dung chips drying in a subject. Picture © Sreya Banerjea, 2016, Creator supplied

Mahnoor didn’t understand how her daughter reached Haryana. All she knew was that after gaining consciousness, Amreen discovered herself to be very removed from residence, in a spot the place the native language was utterly unknown to her. It’s doable that she willingly determined to stick with her husband. Whereas the motivating components behind Amreen’s determination stay unknown, such survival methods are utilized by many ladies and should shed some mild on Amreen’s determination.

Amreen’s being pregnant may additionally be a key think about her determination to not attempt to escape or be “saved” by the native NGO. It might seem to be frequent sense to attempt to escape the oppression of a pressured marriage. However Amreen – and girls like her – even have materials and safety wants and an obligation towards their youngsters. This is the reason many select to remain.

On the finish of our dialog, Mahnoor instructed me: “I hope that she comes again in order that we will dwell collectively once more.”

Greater than a ‘trafficked bride’

The life tales of those girls reveal that the difficulty of marriage trafficking can’t be equated with different, legally recognised, types of human trafficking. It’s a type of exploitation that’s embedded inside the establishment of marriage – significantly the customs, guidelines and concepts round gender roles and gender disparity. Marriage trafficking perpetuates financial, reproductive and sexual violence beneath patriarchal domination. This results in varied levels of marginalisation and oppression in girls.

A analysis participant strolling in the direction of her home in West Bengal. Picture © Sreya Banerjea, 2016, Creator supplied

Listening to those girls allowed me to know and recognise their very own wishes and opinions. They talked about their targets, their childhood reminiscences, their ideas round love and marriage and the gendered division of labour. The ladies’s tales of survival reveal that – even within the face of normal oppression and abuse – they negotiate for his or her rights and “discount” with patriarchy each day.

Acknowledging the tales, voices, changes, and survival methods of migrant brides to find out about their lived realities supplies a technique ahead. With the help of grassroots organisations and native activists, a few of these girls have develop into neighborhood leaders and mentors.

Many of those girls don’t essentially wish to be “saved”. They strongly consider that marriage trafficking and gender inequality should come to an finish. However on the similar time, they want to be recognised for his or her contributions as a spouse, mom, and widow – not only a “trafficked bride”.

*This text doesn’t disclose any identifiable data of the analysis individuals, and makes use of pseudonyms to take care of full confidentiality.

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Sreya Banerjea doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or group that may profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their educational appointment.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/three-women-stories-of-indian-trafficked-brides/ via https://growthnews.in