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codex-archives-exe · 4 years ago

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Only A Heated Touch Truly Conveys The Sentiment | Yahari Ore No Seishun Love Come Wa Machigatteiru. Kan. [EP 11] | Yukinon x Hikigaya/Hikigaya x Yukinon [Yukigaya]

Transcript:

(Yukinon and Hikigaya begin walking up the bridge)

Hikigaya: “Sorry to drag you into this.”

Yukinon: “It was inevitable. There’s no way I could have refused in this situation.”

Yukinon: “Seriously, what are you doing?”

(Yukinon, in denial, that after everything, Hikigaya persistently tries to be with her)

Yukinon: “I don’t get this at all.”

(Yukinon slightly ahead of Hikigaya, walking up the entrance of the bridge)

Yukinon: “It actually felt terrifying watching my own family get coaxed along like that.”

Hikigaya: “I wasn’t really doing anything of the sort.”

Hikigaya: “To be honest, I’m terrified by the fact that they just backed down.”

Yukinon: “Good point.”

Yukinon: “My mom and sister definitely aren’t the type to give up that easily.”

(Hikigaya, awkwardly asking if he can move ahead because he has a bike, Yukinon shakes her head in disagreement)

Yukinon: “That look my mother had... It was the same one she has when she looks at my sister.”

Hikigaya: “Do you mean she acknowledged you?”

Yukinon: “She might have given up on me instead.”

[...]

Yukinon: “Why did you say something so absurd?”

Hikigaya: “That was the only way I could stay associated with you.”

Yukinon: “...Huh?”

Hikigaya: “With the club ending, we’d lose our only real place of contact.”

Hikigaya: “I couldn’t think of another excuse to you to come to me.”

(Yukinon stops in her place, as Hikigaya moves up slightly ahead)

Yukinon: “Why would you do that?”

Yukinon: “What about your promise? I asked you to grant her wish.”

Hikigaya: “We could say that this is a part of it.”

(Hikigaya puts the stop on his bike on the bridge)

Hikigaya: “Because she told me she wanted you to be a part of our afternoons filled with nothing.”

Yukinon: “Then there was no reason for you to do all of that...”

Hikigaya: “As if.”

Hikigaya: “Acquaintances, associates, friends, classmates. You can call it whatever you want. But I have no confidence I maintain that kind of relationship.”

Yukinon: “That may be true for you, but I’m going to do this. I’m going to get better at doing this!”

(As Yukinon, walks out of Hikigaya’s way creating distance between them)

[...]

Hikigaya: “This may hurt to hear, but both of us have pretty much zero communication skills, and we make things too complicated.”

Hikigaya: “Not to mention that we’re absolutely terrible at socializing!”

Hikigaya: “I don’t think we can start doing it well now!”

Hikigaya: “Creating any distance between us won’t be the end of it, and I’m positive we’ll just drift apart even further apart!”

(Hikigaya starts to run after Yukinon as she walks further away)

(Yukinon begins to walk faster and further away as Hikigaya reaches out his hand)

(Hikigaya realizing that Yukinon is getting too far away)

(Determined - Hikigaya, begins to gain speed and run after Yukinon)

Hikigaya: “That’s why...!” (as he grabs Yukinon’s hand)

Hikigaya: “If I let you go, I can’t grab hold of you again.”

Hikigaya: “This is extremely embarrassing for me to say, and I’d like to drop dead right about now, but...saying all that stuff about “taking responsibility” was totally insufficient...I don’t feel an obligation to do this...It’s more like I want that responsibility. Or rather ...I want you to let me have it...”

(Hikigaya, finally lets go of Yukinon’s hand, and they blush and look away from each other for a brief moment)

(Yukinon rubbing her wrist and hand, where Hikigaya held tightly)

Hikigaya: “It might not be something you’re wishing for, but I want to remain involved with you. This isn’t about obligation, but desire.”

Hikigaya: “So...allow me the privilege of distorting your life.”

(Yukinon shocked, realizing what he really means)

Yukinon: “What do you mean “distort”? What do you mean by that word?”

Hikigaya: “Well, I don’t mean that I have enough influence to change your whole life or anything. I think both you and I go on to university like normal, reluctantly join the workforce, and then go on to live decent lives. But if we’re involved with each other, we’ll take detours, stay at a standstill, and things like that, right? That’s why I’ll distort your life a little.”

(Yukinon sighs in relief, and then smiles, knowing what Hikigaya means)

Yukinon: “If that’s what you mean, then my life’s been distorted for a while now.”

Hikigaya: “I agree.”

Hikigaya: “We met, talked, learned, and then separated...and at each my life got distorted.”

Yukinon: “But you were already distorted from the very beginning.”

Yukinon: “I was, too, though.”

Hikigaya: “And things are going to get even more distorted. But as long as I keep distorting your life, I intend to pay a price to make up for it. ”

Hikigaya: “Well, I have basically have no assets, so the only things I can give you are time, emotions, the future, a life and other vague stuff like that. I’m not living much of a life, and I don’t have a lot of prospects for the future. But as long as I’m involved in someone else’s life, I have to give something, otherwise it’s not fair.”

Hikigaya: “I’ll give you anything and everything, so please let me be involved in your life.”

[...]

(Yukinon blushing and somewhat upset)

Yukinon: “You’re wrong...There’s no balance to that at all!”

(Yukinon, upset, knowing very well, that is completely unfair for only her to rely on him)

Yukinon: “There’s not that much value in the path that I walk to the future.”

Yukinon: “In comparison, you have...”

Hikigaya: “That’s a relief, then.”

Hikigaya: “As it stands, there’s not much value in my life. It’s an unpopular brand that has so little value it can’t get any lower than it already is. It’s basically bottomed out. In a sense, you could consider it a principal-protected investment. Now’s the best time to buy in!”

Yukinon: “You make it sound like a huge scam.”

(Gently punching Hikigaya’s chest)

Yukinon: “Learn to present yourself better!”

(Yukinon, upset, knowing Hikigaya is worth much more than he always tends to describes himself to her)

Yukinon: “Why are you standing there spouting all this stupid stuff that doesn’t matter? There’s something else you should be saying!”

(Yukinon, knowing full-well he is talking about “love” but does not have the bravery or courage to be upfront about it)

Hikigaya: “I can’t say it. No way. You really think I can put that into words?”

Yukinon: “I think I may be a very tiresome person to deal with.”

Hikigaya: “I know that.”

Yukinon: “In any case, I’ve done nothing but cause you problems.”

Hikigaya: “I’m used to that.”

Yukinon: “I’m stubborn, and I’m not very charming.”

Hikigaya: “Yeah, that’s true.”

Yukinon: “I wanted you to deny that part, though...”

(Hoping Hikigaya would at least deny one thing about her)

Hikigaya: “That’s a tall order.”

Yukinon: “I feel like I’ll only become more useless as I continue to rely on you.”

Hikigaya: “Which means I just to have to become more useless than that. If we’re all useless, then no one is.”

Yukinon: “And also-!”

(Yukinon tries to deny every moment of Hikigaya doing everything for her)

Hikigaya: “It’s fine.”

Hikigaya: “I don’t mind how tiresome you get. Or how burdensome. I could even say that’s a good thing about you.”

Yukinon: “What?”

Yukinon: “That doesn’t make me happy at all!”

(As Yukinon, lightly jabs at Hikigaya’s chest)

Hikigaya: “Ouch...”

(Yukinon, then gently grabs and tugs a small part of Hikigaya’s scarf)

Yukinon: “There’s more than that, right?”

(Yukinon puts her hand down, then Hikigaya grabs her hand, and puts her hand on his heart)

(Surprised, Yukinon looks back at Hikigaya as he does this)

Hikigaya: “It may not be enough compensation for distorting your life, but well...I’ll give you everything. If you do not want it, then throw it away. If it’s annoying, then just forget about it. I’m still going to do it regardless, so I don’t need you to reply.”

Yukinon: “Well, I’m going to say it clearly.”

(Yukinon then grasps part of Hikigaya’s blazer then begins to lean on him)

Yukinon: “Please allow me to have...your life.”

Hikigaya: “That’s stiff.”

Yukinon: “I don’t know any other way to say it, so deal with it.”

(Yukinon completely leaning on him, almost crying)

(Hikigaya, then fully embraces Yukinon, and they hug each other)

Preface

Hello everyone, so I used to have a Tumblr a long, long time ago; 5 years to be exact; but have chosen this time, because on this very site I used to endlessly blog and jot down so many theories and thoughts about the possibilities - the sheer possibilities, of this couple, this ship being a thing.

AND THEN IT FINALLY HAPPENED. 100% CONFIRMED.

THERE ARE NO WORDS THAT CAN DESCRIBE HOW HAPPY I AM.

7 YEARS

3 SEASONS

38 EPS

AFTER STORY CONFIRMED TO BE IN THE WORKS

Sadly, I do not have the receipts or any core theory pieces or fragments from my past blog because it was wiped. Attempting to reconstruct any form of it from past memory, from what I thought from this, solely came from the fact Yukinon and Hikigaya, despite having so many disagreements and dragging each other down almost in some instances - they always watched out for each other. They always did. No matter if it was Hikigaya for Yukinon’s sake, or Yukinon for Hikigaya’s sake even in the some of the most simple scenarios.

I always thought the beginning of S3, was so daunting because the sheer separation of the Service Club caused so much anguish, because each one of them felt for a different desire for another. Although, the entire premise going out of his own way to be there for Yukinon. Is absolutely the cutest and most romantic proactive thing someone could do for someone they ‘genuinely’ loved.

Yes, I did go out of my own way to write the entire transcript of that five minute sequence because it is so incredibly memorable, cute, and heartwarming. As many have claimed from the start, they were absolutely meant for each other, knowing how much they rely, trust, and lean on one another. The writing is just so beautiful and always gets my heart pounding, and I practically cry every time. I could watch this a million times, I could never ever grow tired of it. Protect these two AT ALL COSTS 😭💗💗💗💗 it being well worth the seven years of waiting, was such an understatement, I am so excited for whenever the After Story for these two gets animated. My heart will not be able to handle it.

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sleeping-on-cracking-ice · 4 years ago

Note

Can you please write a SFW Alphabet with Kuina? 💕💕💕

Of course I can! Thanks so much for requesting! ❤️

SFW Alphabet | Hikari Kuina

{Alice In Borderland Masterlist}

Character: Hikari Kuina

Genre: fluff

*based in the real world, not in the Borderland

A - Affection

(How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

People would always perceive her as someone who hates affection, but only you would know the truth

PDA wise, she wouldn’t be a fan of affection out in public

She would hold your hand or have an arm around you but that’s it

When it’s just the two of you though, she would be so affectionate

She wouldn’t particularly always want to be touching you, but she would show her love through acts of service, like cooking or taking care of you

She would also just like being in your presence, like just being in the same room with you would be enough for her to feel comforted

B - Best Friend

(What would they be like as a best friend?)

She would be the quiet friend, but secretly really protective and strong-willed

She would always love spending time with you

Every time you ask her to hang out she would always accept

Your favourite thing to do together would be going to all different restaurants and trying the food in each one

I can see her as being quite hard-headed as a friend, probably not listening to a lot of people when they tell her not to do something

With her best friend, she would be very open to and would love to have deep conversations every now and then

Your parents would love her, for some reason everyone’s parents absolutely adore her

C - Cuddles

(Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

She would probably become super cuddly when she’s tired

If she’s had a long day, she would walk up to you and throw her entire body weight onto you, wanting to be babied

“Y/N, carry me.” “Kuina, I’m in the middle of somethin-” “Carry me please!”

You would never be able to sleep without her tucked so close to you

Even on really hot nights, she wouldn’t care if you’re sweating, she wants to feel you close and that’s all that matters

In the morning though she’d somehow end up on the complete opposite end of the bed to you

Her favourite way to cuddle would be sitting on each other’s laps

She would love the protectiveness she feels when seeing you all curled into her, tucked into her neck

And she would love having your arms around her when she’s on your lap, feeling happy and safe

If you thread your fingers through her hair, she would marry you right there

D - Domestic

(Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

She’d settle so quickly with you

Would act like you’ve been dating for years after only living together for two weeks

It would be comforting, seeing how she obviously trusts that she’ll be with you for a long time

She would talk about you to Chishiya and Alice like as if you two were married

Helping around the house wise, I have a feeling she has a hidden cleaning obsession

It would drive you insane most of the time, because she would always clean your empty cups and bowls up seconds after you put it down

She defiantly moves things all the time, and you always have to ask her were she’s put stuff

E - Ending

(If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

She would do it very slowly and gradually, always sending small signals that she wants to separate

She wouldn’t be able to do it straight up, she would feel too guilty

In the end, it would come to a mutual agreement, both of you deciding that it’s what's best, even if it’s incredibly hard

Would try her best to move on quickly, but would probably still have moments wear she would miss you months after separating

I think she would try her best to stay friends with you

She knows it wouldn’t be as close as when before you were dating, but at least it would be something

F - Fiancé(e)

(How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

Would be so committed to you, she would want to marry you and have kids so quickly

She would want to go quickly because she gets excited about spending the rest of her life with you

She would always drag you to the jewelry shops to look at the rings

“Y/N look at this, they’re matching rings! This would suit us so well!”

You honestly find it adorable when she gets excited over things like marriage and kids

Look forward to it because it would definitely happen soon enough!

G - Gentle

(How gentle are they, physically and emotionally?)

Physically, I think you both would be a bit rough with each other

You would have wrestling matches on the loungeroom floor, the winner being the one who doesn’t have to cook dinner

I feel like in heated moments you two would throw each other around playfully while laughing and making out

Emotionally would be the complete opposite though

If you weren’t having the best day, she would stop everything she is doing and make you talk to her about it

She would be such a good listener, always taking your feelings into account in every situation and making sure you’re 100% comfortable

If you ever started crying in front of her, mother mode activated

She would coo and rub your back as you cry into her shoulder

Then she would pull back and kiss the tears from your cheeks, giving you big smooches everywhere until you felt better

H - Hugs

(Do they like hugs? How often would they do it? What are their hugs like?)

Her hugs would feel like a warm fire

I have a feeling that she always radiates warmth, like her skin is always hot

She would be your own little personal heater

She loves to do surprise hugs by picking you up from behind and pressing her face into your upper back while laughing at your struggling

She would hug you so much at home

Mostly when she’s bored. She would get up and go looking for you just to give you a big snuggle

I - I Love You

(How fast do they say the L-word?)

I think it would be an unspoken thing between you two that you’ve just always said it

When you said it to her for the first time, it wasn’t a big deal because it felt so natural

You didn’t even realize that you had said it until a few minutes after

Kuina would always have said it from the start, wanting to be honest and give her heart to you fully

You would say it to each other so often, like multiple times a day

It would be like a ritual to say it before going to sleep

Even if you’ve had an argument, she would refuse to go to sleep without saying it to you

J - Jealousy

(How jealous do they get? What would they do when they’re jealous?)

Probably doesn’t get jealous too easily

She would only get jealous if someone obviously was showing much interest in you

She knows and trusts that you love her too much to find someone else

Although, on the rare times when she would get jealous, she would be very upfront about it

If you were talking to someone who was very obviously flirting with you, Kuina would act really cliché and place a passionate kiss on your lips right in front of them

That alone would most of the time draw them away from you

“Oh hey baby, what was that for?” “Just claiming what’s mine.”

K - Kisses

(What would their kisses be like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where would they like to be kissed?)

Passionate kisses 24/7

She wouldn’t want any sissy pecks on the lips, she wants passion and tongue

Your kisses together would always end in dazed eyes and messy hair

Especially ones where Kuina would smash her lips onto yours surprisingly

You would just melt into her, completely at her mercy

Her favourite place to kiss you would obviously be your neck

Such spice and passion

She would love to mark it up, ending in your being frustrated about having to wear turtlenecks or cover it with heaps of foundation

Her favourite place to be kissed by you would be her shoulders

She would love when you hug her from behind and press your lips against her shoulders

She would just fall back into your chest, smitten for your kisses

L - Little Ones

(How are they around children?)

I honestly think she would not like any kids accept her own

She would tolerate kids, but she would hate it if they begun climbing all over her and pulling her hair and such

She would probably prefer newborn babies rather than toddlers

She loves their mushy little faces and big eyes

If someone in one of your families has a baby, she would always ask to hold them

Could probably spend hours just looking down at the tiny human in her arms, captivated by their small hands wrapping around her thumb

Would be so cute to watch though

After every time she holds a baby, she would have baby fever for a few days, always bringing them up in conversation with you and showing you cute pictures online

M - Morning

(How are mornings spent with them?)

Mornings would be so chaotic

I can see her being an early bird, always waking up refreshed and ready for the day

If you were still asleep when she wakes up, I can see her leaning over you with a cheeky grin on her face

“Baby~ It’s time to... wAKE UP!” *tickle attack* “AHHH”

She wouldn’t leave you alone until you woke up

Climbing and lying on you, peppering kisses all over your face

Never expect to have a peaceful sleep in with her around

N - Night

(How are nights spent with them?)

Probably gets tired easily, so she goes to sleep early

If you watched a movie together, she would probably fall asleep and you would have to carry her to the bed and tuck her in like a baby

If you go to sleep together, she would become extra clingy while she’s tried

When you’re trying to brush your teeth she would be draping her body across you

“We can cuddle in a sec just let me wash my face.” “Just come to bed now you don’t need to.”

O - Open

(When would they start revealing things about themselves?)

Would be open from the start of the relationship

She would hate hiding things from you

She knows that you may not be as open, because she understands that everyone has boundaries

She would tell you about her childhood growing up and how she struggled with her father accepting her

You would be the only person she’s completely open to

Everyone else has to earn her trust, but to her you’re going to spend the rest of your life together, so she may as well be honest

P - Patience

(How easily angered are they?)

She would be quite hard to really piss off

In your relationship, you would have really small arguments but they would be resolved super easily

Although, on the one occurrence that she became incredibly mad, it would be terrifying

She becomes so quiet, not talking at all

It would freak you out because it would be so unpredictable

Nothing you do would get her incredibly mad though, it would always be someone else related

Q - Quizzes

(How much would they remember about you?)

Probably everything

She’s quiet, but she’s observant

She knows everything about everyone

Definitely knows more about you than you do yourself

But she would always use it to her advantage

Always tricking you into doing things by involving things like your favourite foods or your favourite places to go

R - Remember

(What is their favourite moment in your relationship?)

It would be one night when you first became really emotionally vulnerable in front of her

You would have a lot of walls up during the first few months of your relationship, so Kuina values this moment so much

You had a bad argument with your parents, making you feel very emotional

You dragged yourself to Kuina’s place, wanting to be with no one else except her

You laid in her arms all night, feeling safe and warm in her embrace while talking about what happened, crying every so often

She loves this moment because she feels like it really brought you two so much closer and was a huge step in your relationship, strengthening your trust in her

S - Security

(How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

She would be very protective

Always keeping you close when out in public

Even with your friends that you’ve known for years, she would always get you to text her every now and then when you go to hang out with them

If someone sketchy was approaching you and talking to you, she would make sure to put herself in between you two and hold you behind her protectively

But of course, no one would want to mess with her due to her martial arts skills

One time she kicked a guy in the side of the head because he tried to grab your arm to drag you away from her

He definitely learned not to do that again

T - Try

(How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

You both wouldn’t go overboard on anniversaries

She’d plan something super simple, like a picnic date down at the local lake

Or a late night swim at the beach together after a restaurant dinner

For gifts, she would love to buy you clothes

She always looks at nice clothes and imagines you in them

Would get super proud when you like it and wear it a lot

As I mentioned before, her love language would be acts of service

She would show how much she loves you through doing tasks for you

Like making you tea / coffee when you don’t ask

Or giving you shoulder rubs after a stressful day

She would just love taking care of you

U - Ugly

(What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

She would be really bad at admitting she’s wrong

It would be the cause of most of your small arguments, but you would usually have to be the person to apologize

It��s not that she’s too prideful to say sorry, she would just most of the time believe that she is the one in the right

V - Vanity

(How concerned are they with their looks?)

She definitely tries to look at least half decent before leaving the house

It would sometimes cause you to be a bit late to some events

She would at least always wear foundation and mascara

Looking at her hair, it would sometimes get hard to keep that managed

When she’s around the house, she would her dreadlocks down and around her face

But when she goes outside she would always tie it up

W - Whole

(Would they feel incomplete without you?)

She’d try so hard to not come across as completely smitten for you, but the truth is really obvious

She honestly cannot go a day without seeing your face

If she had to go a few days without seeing you, she would feel quite lost

She trusts no one as much as she trusts you

Wants to spend her whole life with you, always being by your side

X - Xtra

(A random headcanon for them.)

She would have a weird love for onesies

Like the animal ones

Would have multiple in your cupboard, always wearing them around the house on cold, rainy nights or lazy mornings

She would look so cute and cuddly in them

You would not be able to let go of her while she wears them

Sometimes you wonder if she wears them just to have your undivided attention

Y - Yuck

(What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

She would hate incredibly loud and obnoxious people

Like those type of extroverts that are a little too confident for their own good

It would give her headaches if she dated someone who was always full of energy and talking her ear off

She prefers friends and lovers who are real and emotional, usually acting rational and calm

Of course she would love a little loud fun once in a while, but she knows when it’s time to chill

Z - Zzz

(What is a sleep habit of theirs?)

She moves a lot

I mentioned this before, but she would have herself wrapped around you when going to sleep but by morning she would be on the other side of the bed

You aren’t sure if it was from dreams she has or if she just does it naturally

Sometimes her tossing and turning would wake you up, and you would shake her awake to make sure she’s okay

SFW Alphabet Template

#sfw alphabet #hikari kuina #alice in borderland #alice in borderland imagines #alice in borderland headcanons #hikari kuina headcanons #kuina headcanons #aib imagines #aib reactions #alice in borderland scenarios #kuina imagines #hikari kuina imagines #chishiya #arisu #usagi #niragi #karube

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nyasha-of-germa-66 · 4 years ago

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hi! 💕i really like your blog! it’s so detailed and well written! not only that but it’s accurate as well! you’re doing great! ☺️ if someone hasn’t asked already, can u write general relationship hcs for the vinsmoke brothers! (excluding Sanji lol.)

You two are so sweet! Your words really mean a lot to me and I hope I continue to meet your expectations haha.~ But I’m not gonna lie, writing for these boys was hard. I thought Yonji was going to be the easiest, but he probably gave me the most struggle out of the three (can you tell which brother I’m partial to? lol). With that being said, I hope they’re not too OOC, and if they are... my bad. I really hope you guys enjoy it, though!~ Thank you for the requests!~ 😁

General Relationship HCs - Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji Vinsmoke

Ichiji

Ichiji is probably the hardest one to form a proper relationship with as he tends to let his strong sense of superiority dictate his behaviors, though his actions aren't necessarily governed by choice. In order to be in a relationship with him, his S/O ought to meet his standards. He doesn't want someone who's weak-willed or easily discouraged by a challenge; he wants someone who can keep up with him and share his unwavering mentality.

He's often distant in the relationship, only seeking his S/O if he wants something from them or wishes to brag of Germa's victory from their latest battle. He's mostly talking about how he practically does all of the work each time, but it strokes his ego when his S/O listens intently and compliments him.

Being the eldest brother, he prefers to keep a dominant role in the relationship where he gets to make a majority of the decisions, feeling content as long as he isn't undermined. His S/O will have some say, of course, but if he feels like he's being forced to do something he hates, he won't refrain from putting his foot down.

Ichiji will only behave romantically if the mood calls for it, so if he's not craving attention from his S/O, he'll just remain unbothered despite his S/O's advances. He'll smile at their gestures, but he values his autonomy too much to let anyone, including his partner, sway his actions.

He puts a lot of value in his S/O's beauty, but not nearly as much as Niji and Yonji do. He tries to compliment their most alluring features, but they often sound like lecherous comments.

He certainly wants his partner to be loyal to him at all times, disliking when they scold him for his cruel and callous behaviors. It's confusing when his S/O claims to love him one second only to wish for him to change in the next. He feels belittled, and this doesn't sit well with him.

On a brighter note, he is very protective of his S/O, reacting violently when his S/O is in threat of danger. He can never keep a solid explanation for why he behaves in such a way toward them, but his S/O can speculate a few causes for his protectiveness.

Ichiji is not as active as his brothers, so time spent with his S/O often includes lounging around in silence or going for leisurely walks. Surprisingly, he does enjoy a good conversation with his S/O, finding amusement in their stories and hopeful plans for their future.

The eldest brother is rarely, if ever, affectionate with his S/O in public or in the presence of his family, but in private, he's much more willing to slink an arm around their waist or allow them to hold his hand. He doesn't quite understand his S/O's liking to his small affectionate gestures, but he will admit that he gets a good feeling from it.

Although maintaining a relationship with Ichiji comes with it's grueling challenges, there will always be moments that remind Ichiji's S/O that he willingly accepted to be in a relationship with them, and he does value his S/O. He just can't bring himself to say it so blatantly.

Niji

Of the three brothers, Niji comes across as the least desirable in terms of relationship material, but he may as well be the most considerate brother. Sure, he may lack sympathy and compassion for others, but he's still capable of forming a proper partnership with someone.

A relationship with Niji thrives on the idea of costs and benefits. He'll be more than happy to go on the little date his S/O planned for them as long as he gets something out of it, whether it may be a dessert he's been craving or a heated make out session by the end of the night. As long as he gets what he wants by the end of the day, he'll oblige his S/O's wishes.

He may be a tad more hotheaded than Ichiji when it comes to being questioned for his morally questionable behaviors. He'll yell and argue with his S/O, and maybe breaking something, but he won't raise a hand to them as he holds too much respect for them. The servants, on the other hand, may end up on the receiving end of his wrath, unfortunately.

Since he's got an explosive temper, his S/O has to be able bounce back from any fights or arguments that they have, or they should at least be comfortable with letting him have his episodes and not stir the pot. He'll calm down sooner than you might think, and he'll go back to being his regular self, as if the fight never happened. He never apologizes, but if his S/O does, he'll say that the feeling is mutual.

Among the three brothers, Niji is perhaps the most romantic and that's saying a lot on it's own. He's more attuned to what his S/O wants in the relationship, and he'll oblige so long as he gets what he wants, too.

Like Ichiji, Niji is very protective over his S/O, becoming visibly upset and worried when his S/O is hurt. He's the type to never show any mercy to those who harm his S/O, even if it was only an accident. In his mind, people ought to treat his S/O as if they're the most sacred person on the planet. Otherwise, they'd have to deal with him.

Niji also has a great sense of humor, as long as he doesn't feel like he's the butt of someone else's joke. He's prefers to laugh at someone else's expense, but if his S/O says something clever and sarcastic, he'll have a good laugh.

Being in a relationship with Niji is complicated and tricky, but if his S/O can navigate him towards his better self, he could make for a relatively charming boyfriend. And he may not come upfront with his love for his S/O, but he’ll remind them in his own unique way.

Yonji

Yonji is the most honest of his brothers, often speaking out about his desires and openly expressing what he likes, so it's obvious when he fancies the idea of a relationship. As long as his partner meets his standards, he'll gladly start a relationship with them.

He's terribly blunt, so when he flirts with his S/O, he's guaranteed to sound a bit sleazy. He doesn't mean to sound perverse all the time, but he honestly thinks he's being romantic and sweet with them. His S/O will have to teach him the difference, and whether he learns from it or not depends heavily on how mischievous he's feeling.

Yonji has a much better sense of humor than his two brothers, so his S/O is free to joke with him all they want. Pranks wars are another story. His competitiveness may lead to him taking things a bit too far if his S/O doesn't watch him. Aside from that, he genuinely enjoys making his S/O laugh until they're blue.

The green-haired Vinsmoke always tries too hard to impress his S/O with his strength and prowess. His idea is that if he keeps going over-the-top with everything he does, his S/O will continue to think highly of him, but he doesn't know that he looks like a dork sometimes. It might give his S/O a good laugh, though.

He particularly enjoys taking his S/O on dinner dates or picnic outings, as long as he's doing two of his favorite things: eating some good food and spending time with his S/O, one of his favorite people.

He absolutely loves it when his S/O is feisty. Nothing gets him more riled up than a partner who challenges him, and he'll sometimes push their button just to get them all fired up. He can't think of anything hotter than an irritated, yet gorgeous S/O.

As much as Yonji likes to spoil his S/O with expensive gifts and all the worshipping he can offer, he’ll never deny that he likes being spoiled. He wants his S/O to cuddle up to him, he wants them to surprise him with home-cooked meals even if those meals go wrong, and he definitely wants them to shower him with loving gestures and sweet praises. He is the baby, after all.

He's definitely a ride or die kind of guy, so if his S/O gets into trouble, he'll hop to the rescue in no time. If his S/O wants him to bend the rules a little bit, he's all for it. As long as he and his S/O are living it up and having a good time doing it, he'll gladly neglect his duties to Germa to have some fun.

Like his brothers, Yonji is very protective of his S/O, but he's less likely to throw punches unless he finally gets fed up with whoever was starting trouble. For the most part, he'll shield his S/O from any danger while bragging to his S/O that he doesn't feel a thing.

Yonji is also the most affectionate out of his brothers, always wanting to hold his S/O's hand and kiss their cheek. And though he can't explain why being with his S/O makes him feel warm and fantastic on the inside, he has a much easier time showing it through his actions. Even if Yonji's actions are a miss sometimes, his intentions are always there, and his intentions are to make his S/O happy.

#one piece headcanons #ichiji vinsmoke #niji vinsmoke #yonji vinsmoke #ichiji #niji #yonji #germa 66 #nyasha of germa 66 #thank you for the ask!

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ninjastormhawkkat · 4 years ago

Text

Another Wordgirl Au: Morally Gray Wordgirl

Morally Gray Wordgirl au

I don’t know if anyone else in the Wordgirl fandom thought about this at one point. A what-if I thought one day was what would have happened if Steven became Dr. Two Brains before Becky became Wordgirl? Such as what if Steven became Two Brains when Becky just came to earth as a baby? This is where the au begins

In this au, Becky is adopted by Dr. Two Brains. After Becky and Bob crash land on earth, Bob carries Becky around for a bit and enters the city. This is around the time Steven first becomes Two Brains. Bob, while carrying Becky, runs into Two Brains. At this point, Bob has no idea that Two Brains is a villain. Two Brains has cheese with him and Bob is hungry. Two Brains awkwardly hands some of his cheese to Bob. Two Brains may be a villain now but he is not heartless to not offer someone that is hungry food. Bob eats the cheese while Two Brains holds Becky. Two Brains is nervous at first because some random monkey just gave him a baby to hold😟. When Becky looks at Two Brains, she curiously calls him daddy. She is just a little kid who think that this new man holding her is her parent now. Two Brains heart just melts😍after hearing her call him daddy and looking into her innocent, alien, eyes. He immediately begins to dote on her as a dad would, ex. baby talk and cooing. Bob watches the interaction between Two Brains and Becky and decides that Two Brains would be a great person to stay with and raise Becky. He later regrets his decision.😓😆Here is an outline for how this au would go:

1. Becky still becomes Wordgirl. Bob tries to implement heroic morals into Becky during the time she is being raised by a villain. Becky wants to become a hero because she does not want to see the lives of innocent civilians hurt. However, since Dr. Two Brains also implemented villainous ideals into Becky growing up, her moral values are kind of mixed in her actions as a hero.

2. Becky is more sympathetic towards villains. Ex. When Chuck and Butcher claim to be innocent after being framed by Amazing Rope Guy, she immediately believes them and tries to figure out another angle of who really committed those crimes.

3. She isn’t as upset as when the spotlight is turned off her such as when Tiny Big came onto the scene or when Granny May became bingo champion. She is still upset, but Becky is not as focused on the limelight as canon. She, from Huggy’s teachings, believes that a superhero’s true reward comes from protecting the citizens and just helping when needed to prevent or avenge the cruelest of injustices. Wordgirl will accept gifts or keys to the city out of politeness. She uses the limelight to give the people of Fair City comfort and assurance that she is still there to protect them. Becky views heroism as a job more than a pleasure. It is basically, “You get good results based on how hard and well you do the work, not just what others say.” mentality.

4. That being said, Becky will not take a passive stance and try hard to prove her innocence if the citizens suddenly began to take advantage of her heroism or if they turn on her such as with the evil duplicate or when Granny May framed her for crimes. As I said earlier, Becky in this au views heroism as a job she enjoys and doesn't take impolite backlash, constructive criticism yes. Basically she just becomes done when residents of Fair City act like morons who think they know better. (I have always had a problem when a majority of the residents in Fair City act like gullible idiots. It always irks me how they will turn on Wordgirl easily and not often give a proper apology when they realize they were wrong. Sometimes, to me, it seems the villains have better appreciation for Wordgirl than the citizens. I am not including all citizens, just seems like a majority do this.) (Okay rant over.) Becky will be like, “if you guys don’t want me anymore then good luck.” She will intervene again just to keep the city from going into complete chaos. She still cares about the safety of the citizens, she just does not like it when they abandon their trust in her for no good reason. She is not even mad at the villains who cause this. They didn’t force the citizens to dislike Wordgirl, that was their choice.

5. Becky will not often take her dad to jail. She loves her dad and does not like the idea of him not being home (the warehouse; Becky’s living conditions their are like my version of the Becky Boxleitner au, just somewhat better due to her living their all her life.) She also does not like the idea of having to fight him, but has to in order to keep up appearances and not let anyone get suspicious and start suspecting her identity. That being said, she will let Two Brains escape after stoping the crimes depending on the severity. If Two Brains just steals cheese from the grocery store, she may often ignore it (its just cheese and it can easily be replenished). For crimes such as stealing money or turning artwork into cheese, Becky will stop her dad, but later act like he got away (if police are not around. “Two Brains Quartet” still happens because police are there.). Becky may do this sometimes for other villains depending on her or their mood. Citizens and Villains believe that Dr. Two Brains is an extremely tough villain to catch which raises his credibility as Fair City’s #1 villain when Wordgirl does this. Captain Huggy Face is not happy when Wordgirl let’s her dad go, but he deals with it because she cares about her dad. Becky does stand her ground if her dad, and the other villains, do something dangerous that affects the lives of the citizens. Incidents such as the plot to mind control all the city with bunny buttons and the cheesteroid do get Two Brains arrested. (Becky is like, “Sorry dad, but I can’t let you threaten the lives of innocent civilians.”) Since this happens rarely, Becky usually stays at her friends houses until her dad leaves prison. She has a visitor clearance and does visits with her dad when she can. (Still brings him cheese.) Not much interaction with the Botsford family unless they were a focus in episodes.

6. Becky is more aware of when villains act deceitful. (She was raised by one herself.) She pretends to be tricked to let their guard down before turning the tables on them. (She can be tricky and deceitful herself when she wants to be.)

The police force are more competent in this au than in canon. They were able to capture most villains, with exception to Two Brains and other major villains, before Wordgirl came onto the scene. The city was similar to Gotham before Batman showed up. It was fine, but crime rates were still high. The episode “The Wrong Side of the Law” happens differently than canon. Wordgirl is civil and polite to the police, but does really like law enforcement or fully trusts them due to her upbringing by a super villain. (Two Brains taught her she can respect law enforcement because they are capable of doing a good job, it does not mean she has to like them or follow the rules all the time. I sorta think that the villains have some respect for D.A. Sally Botsford because of how she is good at her job.)

Now on to “Normal” girl Becky. Becky is still referred to as Becky Boxleitner. (Dr. Two Brains did not want kids ignoring or making fun of Becky with a last name like Brains, or something mouse related. He wanted people to know and treat his daughter as herself, not just who she is related to. Two Brains also wanted to give Becky some protection so random people wouldn’t bother her because of his actions. So he just gave her his old human name.) Becky is similar to her canon character with a few changes.

1. Becky will empathize with someone if they are feeling upset and hurt. But if they are doing something dumb and stupid, or anything that is concerning to her, she will be upfront and honest with that person (not complete brutal honesty but something like “Please don’t do something stupid, I care about you and your health.”). She isn’t mean, but she is forward and won’t bother to hide feelings if hiding your emotions will only make the situation worse.

2. Both Becky and Wordgirl are sassy like her dad.

3. She is still passionate about words and respects her teachers and main authority figures.

4. Becky is more clever about excuses.

5. She enjoys science more as well as literature. Becky has top grades in her class. (Next to Tobey). She enjoys science fairs and is a bit better at creating workable, and visually acceptable, inventions.

6. Becky likes puns (Two Brains) and knows every fact about cheese as well as every fact about words (again Two Brains’ fault).

7. Becky is still a fan of Pretty Princess, but has ponies, books, and science stuff in her room. She is a bit more tomboyish than canon.

Becky is still friends with Violet in this au. I always viewed Violet’s mom as an open-minded nature women, based on Violet’s character and where they live. She is easily accepting of Becky and Dr. Two Brains despite Two Brains life as a villain. Becky is also forward early on how some of Violet’s traditions make her uncomfortable so there is no issue in the series.

Becky is more a fan of words and science in this au. She and Violet have fun mixing art and science. Becky does not take art classes, but rather is part of after-school science and reading clubs. (She takes science club with Tobey and reading club with Violet.)

Becky is also friends with Tobey in this au. I have nothing against Scoops’ character. I was just more fond of his character development in the episodes during and after he learns Becky’s identity, plus a few before the reveal. (In the early seasons, it seemed that Scoops would do anything for a big story, even as exposing Wordgirl’s identity as Becky. I was upset in that Vocab Bee episode because Scoops did not seem to consider Becky’s input or feeling when he found strong evidence that Becky was Wordgirl. To me it seemed unfair that Becky had to throw her chances at a competition she was having fun in just to protect her identity because of Scoops’ actions and attitude.) Tobey met Becky when they were between 5 and 6. Tobey just lost his dad (up to interpretation on how) and was just lonely. Kids would make fun of Tobey’s nerd-side and some other mean reasons, or they would ignore him. Becky sympathized with Tobey because most kids, not Violet, would avoid her because of her dad. (They would not dare bully her for fear of how Dr. Two Brains would react.) Tobey and Becky easily began to get along and overtime became friends. Claire McCallister was worried about her son hanging out with the child of a villain. But quickly after seeing how Becky was a good kid plus Two Brains being a good dad despite his status, and that her son was happy with friends, she let her worries slide. Claire, Dr. Two Brains, and Violet’s mom, have made an unofficial single parents support group between the three of them. In this au, Tobey does not become a villain, but still builds robots. (I already have a new villain that takes canon Tobey’s role.) Becky and Tobey are silently crushing on each other. Tobey does suspect Becky is Wordgirl, but respects her secret identity and will wait for her to tell him (or a reveal). (Still cares for her anyway.)

Scoops parents are friendly but are strong law-abiding citizens so they avoid Two Brains and Becky. Scoops in this au is nice, but is more concerned on news stories. He originally talks to Becky in hopes of getting an interview with her dad. Scoops is trying not to be inconsiderate, but he is sorta using Becky as a way to get to her dad. Becky deals with this stuff from other reporters and fans of her dad. Neither Dr. Two Brains and Becky like this attention. (Two Brains likes being in the news and in magazines, but he doesn’t like people using his daughter to get to him. Becky is the most important person in his life with cheese being second.) Becky shuts Scoops down after his first few initial attempts. Scoops is disappointed, but he apologizes and doesn’t bother her anymore. Becky is civil and polite to Scoops in this series, but that is about it. There is no crush. (I don’t know if I will keep the Violet x Scoops ship in this au or change it.)

I really like this au along with a few other aus I made up which include an Alliance Swap au. I am going to expand more on this au and the characters later.

#wordgirl au #morally gray au #a becky boxleitner au #with just a Dr. Two Brains dad twist #poor Bob #he has to deal with a good/evil Wordgirl #I just realize I made Becky a little bit like Manny Rivera from El Tigre #That was not my intention but okay then.#wordgirl #oc mention

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attack-on-kiwi · 4 years ago

Note

Alphabet for floch alphabet for floch??? 😳😳😳

This got kind of lengthy, so I’m putting it under a cut:)

This was open on my computer all day and I just remembered I never clicked post lmfao

Floch Forster:

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Floch loves to go for walks in the districts at night. If they’re not in a town, then he likes to sneak into their barracks and convince them to go on a walk during the late evening. He won’t tell his s/o, but he likes using the cold air as an excuse to latch onto their hand or attempt to have them hug him because he is C O L D and if he freezes, it would have been a preventable death on their part.

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

A bit cliche, but Floch truly admires everything about his s/o. He believes them to be the most beautiful person he’s ever laid eyes on, and he’s no stranger to bragging about them to anyone and everyone. Chances are, he’ll even brag about his s/o to his s/o. “You’re so unlucky because you have to live not knowing what it likes to be someone that loves you” He’s a little shit.

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

Floch’s not that great at comfort. If they’re panicking, his first instinct is to tell them the situation sucks, but they can’’t seriously be freaking out NOW, can they? Honestly, he never grows out of the blunt and borderline arrogant and pragmatic sense of his, but he knows seeing his s/o upset doesn’t make him feel great. If he can get his hands on some tea or take them away from what is triggering them, he’ll do so.

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

Floch is idealistic about their future. He believes once everything is in control, he can offer his s./o a life of ease and treat them like the royalty they are. He doesn’t care about kids, but would agree if his s/o desired so. He pictures himself living in a nice multiple story home with a large garden where his s/o and he picnic while watching said potential child (or furry companion) make a mess of themselves.

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

He tries to be dominant, but he can be cunning when it comes to the relationship. He likes to impose himself and look bigger than he is by having his arms around his s/o and walking straighter. Most of their decisions seem to be based on mutual agreement, but Floch has a way of guiding his s/o into agreeing with his point of view. Call it toxic or call it being persuasive-- he usually gets what he wants.

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

Being in a relationship with Floch means almost always having a debate. He’s confrontational and speaks his mind. He’s also quite stubborn when it comes to his beliefs, so it’s often that he and his s/o will have a dispute.

Floch is really good with his words, but the poetic ring of his voice can quickly turn into venomous jabs at his s/o. He’s relentless-- especially if the conflict involves doubt of fidelity or his morals. He’s also a suspicious person, and without meaning to, he may hurt his s/o by questioning their loyalty.

Forgiveness is difficult for him. He and his s/o will need space, be it a f ew hours or a few days, before he’s ready to clearly discuss.

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

He truly is grateful- he just can’t express this in a manner that isn’t him bragging. He loves to be cradled in their hold and eats up any sweet nothings they want to throw at him. Words mean more to him than anything else. His s/o gives him something to believe in, and he’s latched on. He doesn’t tell them how much he appreciates them, sadly.

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

Floch doesn’t think he keeps secrets,-- he just doesn’t divulge in unnecessary details. He will tell them information relevant to them, but won’t go in detail about his work or other affairs. For example, he won’t care too much about telling them about his missions in specifics, but he will speak to them about Jaegerist ideology and how it makes for a true future.

He prefers to be honest with them, which can be interpreted as rude or blunt.

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

Floch wouldn’t say they have. If anything, he’s more obnoxious. His s/o truly learns how to be more open minded and patient when dealing with him.

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Yes, Floch gets jealous at the drop of a pin. Whenever anyone is giving his s/o attention that’s even the slightest bit suspicious, he’s going to be both on their asses and on his s/o’s ass. He’s quick to intervene and blow a fuse. He won’t blow up at his s/o in particular, but he’ll tell the perpetrator to fuck off and if they need something, they have to get it through him. He deals with it by just having his s/o near him. Whether he shares his concerns or not depends on his mood.

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

Floch’s kisses are surprisingly gentle and he likes to rest his lips on his s/o’s when he’s out of breath. He won’t pull apart, just catch himself and continue.

Floch’s first kiss was awkward. He noticed his then not-s/o was getting close with another person he didn’t like that. He remembers waiting for his crush outside the barracks. He’d gotten one of the other cadets to call them for him. When they were in his presence he just blurted out “I want to kiss you” and when there was no objection, he did. He remembers missing their mouth, whispering curses right in their face then trying again. Whenever they bring it up, he denies any memory of it.

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

Well, if his first kiss was anything to gauge from, it’s a bit of a mess. It’s not really on his mind to tell them he loves them. His s/o is the one who has to smack some sense into them and confess to him after a mission. He’s nearly bursting from that really weird warm sensation in his chest, but he’s also taken aback. Do they need to be so embarrassing about it?

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

Floch wants to get married for the reason of just fulfilling a desire of having a family. To him, being married signifies that his life is on the right track and that he’s winning. He won’t by any means rush into it, though, waiting for the right person is important. After all, he’s not trying to be miserable.

He’ll propose by the sea side, traditionally, of course. He makes it a point to wear a relaxed outfit and he looks quite dashing in the sunset, waves reflecting in his eyes. He’ll just approach his s/o and mumble something about how he loves them and wants to see the rest of their lives play out before popping the question. The way his brow is furrowed, one would think he’s irritated.

Marriage with Floch is like normal. He’s still just as possessive and relentlessly teasing. Unless something dire happens, there’s no notable change. (He’s the type of guy who gets really upset if you don’t wear your wedding ring but he won’t wear his bc ‘it’s gonna tear off my finger if I’m called to action’).

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

Prince/Princess, Majesty, very fantastical names that often allude to royalty and etherealness

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

Possessive? Possessive. Easy for him to get in his head. He means well, but he’s not at all skilled in displaying so with his words and actions. He wants to be with them at every waking second and gets extremely protective. It’s easy for others to see that he’s claimed his s/o, what with his constant hovering and making sure he’s got eyes on them. Part of this is due to a fear of losing them at any given moment, which simply magnifies his desire to be in their presence.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

Floch doesn’t go out of his way to hide his relationship, and he doesn’t consciously try to flaunt it. He’s going to praise his s/o, and this translates into him bragging about them at any given chance. He’s not going to outright make out with them, but he will have his hand on their back or try to have them attached to his hip when the two are together-- especially if it’s in a group setting.

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

Due to his paranoid nature when it comes to his s/o, Floch is quite skilled at detecting when they’re not being honest with him. He’s not completely accurate, but he’s well versed enough in their tendencies to predict their next move or how he can help take the edge off. He’s particularly good at detecting any anxieties they might be experiencing.

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

He’s romantic in the sense that he will get his s/o whatever they want and shower them with more affection than they know what to do with. Once he’s loyal to someone, he puts his all into the relationship, though this can come off quite strong should they not be prepared.

One of his favorite ways to uplift his s/o is by going on evening walks and talking about their future. He won’t bring the topic up himself, but he’ll subtly guide them to the topic. He likes to come up with scenarios, and his s/o will indulge because it’s not often they get to see him with such a hopeful look in his eyes.

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

If his s/o’s goals are realistic in his perspective, then he will do whatever he can to help them achieve it. However, if he deems their goal too unrealistic for them or thinks they aren’t suited to it, then he will straight up tell them. He’s not going to humor something he doesn’t believe will turn out well. If they continue to strive for whatever it is, he will watch and comment, but he won’t stop them.

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

Floch wants a mundane romance. He wants someone to come home to. He wants to cook breakfast together. He wants to know that they’ll be reading at the park at noon. He wants there to be a structure that lets him know what to expect. Part of it due to the uncertainty of life in general, but part of this also stems from his desire to be in control.

That’s not to say that Floch isn’t adventurous or spontaneous. He just likes to know what to expect.

U nderstanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Floch likes to think he knows his s/o more than they know themselves. He’s in tune with their mannerisms and various quirks. He can tell when they’re upset and how to guide them into being more energetic. He likes to use his way with words to keep them as happy and fulfilled as he can.

Floch isn’t empathetic, though. He’s quick to disagree on topics and it’s hard for him to understand why his s/o may be reacting the way they do. He doesn’t mean to upset them, he just can’t fathom viewpoints and opinions that might differ from his. He’s also emotionally guarded and pragmatic, so he will respond to most situations as such.

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

As dedicated to the cause he is, Floch would put it in front of his relationship. He loves his s/o, but the eradication of evil in the world holds just a bit higher to him. His reasoning is that the bigger picture is what matters, and the two will be much happier once the world is peaceful. Whatever that means..

His s/o is just a notch less important than the mission he’s convinced himself is top priority, but he never speaks about it. There’s a silent understanding that he’ll do what he must.

Maybe in another life, he wouldn’t have to choose.

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

Floch is the grumpiest after waking up and will get irritated if people try to talk to him. He refuses to get mad at his s/o first thing in the morning. If they want to tease him, they’ll start asking him questions about a paper they read or an interesting rumor they heard. He literally cannot process that for shit and gets increasingly irritated, but he’ll just sleepily nod and twitchily smile at his s/o.

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

Floch absolutely loves physical touch. He won’t be all up on his s/o in public, but he’s damn near close. Behind closed doors, he’ll pull them into his lap just to kiss them. Whenever he’s bored, he’ll bury his face in their hair. Sometimes walks up to his s/o just to admire them before hugging them. He’s genuinely sweet when he’s like this. Catch him in a sleepy mood, and it’s even softer.

Y earning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

He doesn’t. He’s irritable and masks it by claiming someone fucked up and he’s gotta clean up a mess.

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

Part of the reason he’s working with the Jaegerists is to secure a better future for him and his s/o (again, whatever the hell that means). He’s willing to 100% kill for his s/o. Post time skip Floch won’t even bat an eye. It’s safe to say he’d do a grand amount of evil deeds just to keep his s/o happy.

~~~

Based off @snk-warriors fluff alphabet prompt

#floch forster #floch forster x reader #fluff alphabet #shingeki no kyojin #shingeki no kyojin imagines #attack on titan headcanons #shingeki no kyojin headcanons #shingeki no kyoujin x reader #attack on titan #attack on titan imagines #attack on titan x reader

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solatude · 5 years ago

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ATLA Unpopular Opinions

I’ve had some thoughts about various aspects in Avatar: The Last Airbender. So, in order of least to most controversial, here we go:

Sokka looks better with his hair up. Sokka’s wolf tail is one of the more unique hairstyles in the show, at least for the guys. He looks so basic with his hair down. The wolf tail adds to his personality, his dramaticness, and humor. How can a water tribe warrior fight with hair in his face? Please also refer to his topknot in Book Three.

Sokka didn’t have as much pull as fans think he does. Pull, in this context, means to attract someone romantically/sexually. First of all, Toph is a child, so I’m not counting her because a 12 year-old crushing on a 15 year-old should be nothing more than that---a crush. Yue and Suki pulled him first, as he fell for them before they fell for him. Suki could care less for the sexist guy who insulted her on her own island; but teaching him the ways of the Kyoshi warriors, plus a kiss on the cheek had him blushing---HARD! He thankfully changed his mindset after that. Yue, while she barely had a choice, had accepted her role as princess and was prepared to dedicate her life to the values of her tribe in an arranged marriage. The amount of times she ran away from Sokka was both tragic and hilarious. But that only made Sokka want her more, she never chased him. To be honest though, he was probably the first guy who treated her normally, despite her status. I think she mainly wanted a friend, but was surprised to find a potential lover in Sokka. Plus he made her laugh. Ty Lee thought he was cute, but Ty Lee thinks everything is cute. That is all. If you wanna talk about pull, Aang had Zuko risking his life chasing him for three seasons (I’m joking, don’t think too deeply about that).

Azula and Katara are almost equal in power. I get that Azula is a firebending prodigy, but sometimes her skills are overestimated by fans and she’s made to seem as though she can overpower everyone. It makes perfect sense that she lost to Katara in almost every fight. Before meeting her, she’s only ever fought nonbenders, firebenders, and earthbenders. She never had experience fighting a trained waterbender, so her losing to Katara shows that even she has her limitations. Whenever she did win a fight against her, it was because she got help from her friends, brother, or subjects. Katara never hesitated to fight her, and being 14 years-old herself, allowed for an even exchange of combat. Let’s be honest, what bender would go up against Azula fearlessly except the one who’s element puts out fires?

Ursa was not a bad mother. Ursa was a victim of an abusive, arranged marriage. For context, Fire Lord Azulon wanted Ozai to marry Ursa because she was the granddaughter of Avatar Roku, and he felt that they would produce powerful heirs to the royal family. Ursa was forced to leave her village, family, and fiance behind for this marriage; because who would dare turn down the request of a Fire Lord? Ursa never really loved Ozai, but he never cared. He just wanted to increase his status and power. Ursa is often criticized for giving Zuko attention over Azula, while scolding Azula and not showing her any love. However, Azula was praised by Ozai, and as a result showed more of an obedience towards him. Ozai showed a great disdain for Zuko. Ursa was simply doing her best to show Zuko how much he mattered. He was living in his sister’s shadow, while being neglected by his father. I also really feel for Azula, because she was only valued for her firebending skills, and she probably had no emotional outlet that she trusted to help guide her. However, I do think Azula was too far along for her mother to really help her. Ursa encouraged Zuko to play with Azula; she genuinely wanted her children to get along like any other parent. I just don’t think there was anything she could say or do to encourage Azula to be less destructive and show remorse for her actions. She should have never called Azula a monster, but she was a woman filled with fear. She feared her abusive husband and the repercussions of speaking out against him, she feared the destructive tendencies of her daughter and the ways she hurt other people without caring for how they felt, and she feared for Zuko’s life for not living up to the impossible ideals of the royal family. Ursa was not a perfect mother, but she tried given the little power she had. Also, to be fair, we only see Ursa’s life from Zuko’s perspective in the show. Azula probably had many memories with Ursa but she most likely blocked them out to hold space for firebending forms and her father’s approval; one of which she never really secured.

Bloodbending is overrated and unnecessary. Some fans claim that Katara should have had a more positive reaction to becoming a bloodbender. However, it was never in her character to be so controlling, especially against another person’s will. Bloodbending is also not as useful as it’s made to seem. Since one can only bloodbend on a full moon, you would have to wait an entire month to even utilize the skill. That’s extremely inconvenient and because you have to wait until nighttime, it’s even less practical. How often does Team Avatar fight during the night compared to the day? They would be sleeping if anything. Also, when your team consists of an agile airbender, a master waterbender, a powerful earthbender, and a weapons strategist, plus Appa and Momo; why would anyone need to bloodbend? Most of the Gaang’s enemies never required that level of power in order to be defeated. Bloodbending is also VERY niche. If this is allowed, should bonebending be allowed since there are minerals in bones? Should soundbending be allowed since sound is produced from vibrations? I admit it’s a really cool ability, but it’s not that important in the grand scheme of things. Also, speaking of Katara...

Katara gets too much hate. I’m not sure if it’s the surge of new fans since the Netflix debut or the repressed thoughts of old fans but lately Katara’s character has been mercilessly criticized. It’s been said that she brings up her mother too often, and that she’s overly emotional and selfish. First of all, Katara was eight years-old (and Sokka nine) when her mother was murdered. During the run of the show, only six years have passed since then, as she’s 14 when she finds Aang. She lives with survivor’s guilt due to her mother lying about who the last waterbender was so that Katara wouldn’t be taken prisoner. Unfortunately, the firebender soldier Yon Rah wasn’t taking prisoners that day, implying that he was going to murder her. Katara mentions her mother only a handful of times, usually to relate to another character who lost someone close to them in an effort to empathize (Aang, Haru, Jet, Zuko). People forget that she saw her mother’s dead body after running to get help. It was definitely wrong for Katara to tell Sokka that he didn’t love their mother the way she did in the Southern Raiders episode, and she definitely should have apologized. But, she was right. Sokka was shown to be closer to his father. She was in extreme emotional pain and instead of being comforted, she was criticized by Aang and Sokka for wanting revenge. How many times has Katara sacrificed something for the sake of others? She barely had a childhood considering she took on a maternal role in her tribe after her mother’s death. She had to deal with Sokka’s sexist comments, she had to suppress her talent for waterbending, and she felt isolated and alone because the one parent that was alive left to fight in the war. When someone needed encouragement, Katara was always there to encourage them. When someone needed help, she never hesitated to assist them. She often put herself in harm’s way if it meant someone else didn’t get hurt. For a 14 year-old girl in a war torn world, she is immensely brave. How many times has Zuko gone on and on about his honor, or lashed out at his Uncle for a seemingly small reason? How many times has Sokka talked about meat? Or Azula and her speeches about controlling and manipulating people? Toph and her rebelliousness? Even Aang’s laid back attitude turned into carelessness every now and then. Every character has a crutch that they attach themselves to, but Katara isn’t given the grace that other characters have been given. Yes, Aang lost his entire nation, and Katara would never know what that felt like. However, Aang wouldn’t know how Katara felt either. Aang was in the presence of children his age and was able to travel around the world to make friends (i.e. Bumi from the Earth Kingdom and Kuzon from the Fire Nation). He was taught to be less detached, so his idea of family is very different from Katara’s. He never witnessed the dead bodies of his people firsthand, though he did see Gyatso’s skeleton later on. Katara grew up in a world ruined by war. She had little to no friends, and the one person she was closest to left her life very early. Her tribe was VERY small and I doubt she had a lot of people to talk to. She had never left the Southern Water Tribe before, so it’s very likely that she was going to stay there her entire life had she not met Aang. She’s been accused of not allowing Sokka to feel sad about their mother, but why should she? It’s not Katara’s job to burden the weight of Sokka’s emotions, especially about their mother. She cannot force Sokka to open up about his feelings, that is something he must do at his own free will. Sokka hides his pain behind his masculinity. He’s protective because he feels guilty about not being able to do anything to help his mother. He doesn’t even remember what she looks like, he could only picture Katara’s face in her place. He felt even worse when his father left and he, understandably, couldn’t go with him. Sokka is not upfront about how he feels, but Katara should not be blamed for that. Overall it may be said that Katara was a flawed character that has recently been more scrutinized for her flaws than acknowledged for her strengths. We can do both, but there’s been an imbalance. She successfully revolted to free Haru’s father as well as other prisoners of the Fire Nation. She guided her friends out of the Si Wong desert despite the obstacles that stood in their way. She healed Aang and Zuko when shot by lightning, ultimately saving their lives and the lives of many other people who have been physically hurt by someone. She even washed Sokka’s underwear and sewed his pants. We can cut the girl some slack if she wants to talk about her mother, can’t we? She’s the glue that holds everyone together. Katara’s emotions make her a stronger fighter. Her trauma has shaped her into someone determined to master waterbending and has allowed her to be more empathetic to those around her. But she shouldn’t have had to go through all of that. She was forced to mature faster in order to survive. Katara can sometimes be arrogant, misguided, oblivious, and doubtful, yes. But she is also resilient, brave, selfless, and generous. That is the duality of her character. She is NOT to be disrespected. After all, as she said to Sokka in The Painted Lady, “I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me!”. And she hasn’t.

Iroh should be banned from the Earth Kingdom. It’s not an unpopular opinion that Uncle Iroh is a war criminal, but I just don’t think he should be allowed anywhere near the Earth Kingdom; either temporarily or permanently. Yes he played an instrumental role in Zuko’s redemption, with tea in his left hand and wisdom in his right. However, that does not excuse his invasion of Ba Sing Se. He laid siege to the impenetrable city for 600 days. Surely hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent people died under his commands. He broke the lower ring, home of the poorest members of the Earth Kingdom. The only reason he stopped was because his son, Lu Ten, died in battle; not aware that many citizens also died as a result of his actions. How many children’s lives has his army taken away? How many sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents have died under his siege? Not only does he get to establish a business and earn money, he is elevated to the upper ring of the city; meanwhile an entire population can barely afford food and stable jobs. I understand that is was for plot purposes, but It’s a slap in the face to allow him to thrive in the city after Aang defeated Ozai. His wanted poster should be everywhere, not just for supposedly betraying the Fire Nation, but also for crimes against the Earth Kingdom. The very least he could do was shut down his tea shop and hand the building over to a family who may need it, and establish a tea shop in the Fire Nation. I’m not saying Iroh couldn’t be redeemed for his war crimes, but it definitely would take more than what was seen in the show for him to be forgiven for them.

Anyways, let me know what you think. This took an ungodly amount of time to write.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #sokka #aang #katara #toph #zuko #iroh #ozai #ursa #azula #ba sing se #fire nation #water tribe #bloodbending

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some-cookie-crumbz · 4 years ago

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Passing of the Torch

Passing of the Torch Fandom: My Hero Academia Pairing: TodoMomo Summary: TodoMomo Positivity Week Day 4 Prompt Fill: An evening is spent where the Todoroki and Yaoyorozu families finally have the chance to meet and get more familiar with one another. And Shoto gets the sinking feeling that his girlfriend’s father may not be his biggest fan. Standard Disclaimer: If you read and enjoy this, please give it a like/ reblog so I know if I should write more.

Shoto took a deep breath as they approached the upscale barbeque restaurant, feeling unusually nervous. He was normally a rather composed sort but this situation was not something he had ever been faced with before. After a year of dating, the time had finally come for him to finally meet Momo’s parents and, in turn, for his family to meet Momo proper. Natsuo and Fuyumi had had plenty of run-ins with his girlfriend before they were dating and even since, but this was going to be the first time they’d be having a meal together. It was also to be the first time his Mom and Father would be meeting her under the proper terms of being his girlfriend.

“Relax, Shoto,” Mom’s voice giggled softly in his ear, causing him to jump and glance at her. She giggled and reached out to gently smooth his bangs back out of his face. “If you don’t breathe a bit, they’ll be able to see how tense you are the moment we walk in.”

“Yeah, Sho!” Natuso agreed as he came up on his other side, grey eyes twinkling in mirth. “I mean, so long as you don’t spill tea all over them, I doubt you could make a worse first impression than Keigo did.”

“I heard you insulted Nezumi-San’s older sister the first time you met her family,” Fuyumi chirped behind them, leaning a bit closer to her own fiancee as she spoke. The blonde man flashed Natsuo a smug smirk, clearly unashamed to let Fuyumi fight his battle for him.

Natsuo puffed his cheeks out. “I’m starting to think that there’s a problem with you and my girlfriend getting along so well,”

“If you ever gather enough courage to ask for her hand,” Father chimed in flatly from his position beside Fuyumi, “shouldn’t that be a good thing?”

Natsu looked like he had some snarky retort ready but a quick snap from Mom silenced them both. “Mind your manners, boys. Tonight is very important to Shoto and I do not want either of you ruining this for him,” she said evenly, smiling as both men dipped their heads and let out grumbled agreements. Shoto himself let out a small, relieved breath and silently thanked whatever greater forces were at work for Mom.

Upon entering and offering their name, they were whisked away to the back of the restaurant. There was a spacious booth area in the back, where three figures were already settled in. Momo was easy to spot, with what could only be her parents settled in beside her. Her mother and she had many similarities, he noticed, in the curve of jaw, shape of cheeks and jet black hair. Her mother’s eyes, however, were a striking orange hue and more narrowed, the shape reminding him a bit of an almond. To her other side was a frail, pale man with dark purple hair. His eyes were a perfect match to Momo’s in both shape and hue, watching her as she shared some story with a softness that left him a little shaken. Her mother perked up and blinked. “Ah, Todorokis, I see you’ve made it in one piece,” she said, carefully moving out of her seat to greet them properly. “I am Yaoyorozu Miran, Momo’s mother, and this is my husband and her father, Umeo.”

Umeo squirmed his way out, his movements slow, but righted himself with his cane as they went through introductions. As he and Shoto shook hands, his grip tightened a surprising bit. When he stole a glance up at the older man, the look in his eyes was unreadable and his smile cryptic. For a moment, all of Shoto’s worst fears pushed to the forefront of his mind again, panicked that he’d already somehow gotten off on the wrong foot.He was snapped out of it as he was ushered into the booth, Mom insisting that he and Momo sit next to each other. He resolved himself to try and redeem himself for whatever transgression he’d committed against Yaoyorozu-Sama.

Which, as it turned out, was near impossible.

Yaoyorosu-San ended up taking the spot beside Momo, with Yaoyorozu-Sama taking the seat on her other side, placing him at the far end of the table. There wasn’t an extraordinary amount of space between them, but it was a bit difficult. He tried a handful of times to strike up conversation with him, only to have his words drowned out by some large proclamation by Keigo or a inquiry regarding business ventures from Yaoyorozu-San to Father. Momo took his hand under the table, giving a small reassuring smile when he turned to face her. He let himself relax and get swept up in a conversation about a recent mall trip she’d made with Jirou and Uraraka.

When he was paying attention again, their food was being delivered and he noticed Yaoyorozu-Sama staring him down, expression blank. A knot settled itself in the pit of his stomach.

As they ate, he tried a handful more times to speak with his girlfriend’s father between conversations with her, but the man seemed to be outright ignoring him. Instead, when he saw Shoto opening his mouth, he would direct his attention to a different Todoroki. He would ask Fuyumi about her work as a school teacher, or what he was to be his specialized area once he completed med school. He even prompted Father about a discussion regarding the changes to Pro Heroics in the time between their high school years and the modern era, which seemed to take over the rest of their meal time.

While they awaited the checks, Shoto excused himself to the restroom. He splashed a bit of water on his face, using his right side to chill it up and help refresh himself. He stared at his own reflection and tried to mull over what, exactly, he could have done to perturb the older man so terribly. Did he think that the fact they were only meeting after Shoto and Momo had been together a year was a bad sign? He’d heard that normally introduction happened a few months sooner than they had done, but it didn’t seem to be such a large issue to warrant being ignored. Or perhaps he was concerned based strictly on Shoto’s family name alone? The Todoroki family certainly didn’t have the most pristine reputation around. But his being a Todoroki didn’t seem to bother Yaoyorozu-San.

But it wasn’t Yaoyorozu-San that worried him. He knew from what Momo herself said that she was closer to her father than her mother. Yaoyorozu-Sama’s opinion, he reasoned, would therefore be the one that could make or break their relationship. He shook his head and headed out, telling himself that the likelihood of Momo breaking up with him just because her father did not completely approve was slim to none.

But that didn’t stop him from following after than man when he saw him stepping outside while everyone else tended to the check.

The other man was leaning against the wall beside the restaurant when Shoto stepped outside, his eyes closed. He steeled his nerves as he walked over. “Yaoyorozu-Sama,” he said.

The other perked up, blinking at him in clear surprise. “Ah, Shoto-Sama! I didn’t realize you had come outside as well,”

“I want to apologize,” Shoto said while quickly bowing, “if I have said or done anything to offend you this evening. It was not my intention and, if told how I stepped out of line, promise to never do so again.”

A small chuckle came from the older man. Shoto tilted his head to peek at him through his bangs. The other man was covering his mouth to try and muffle the laughs escaping him, a gesture he’d seen Momo imitate multiple times. “I’m sorry, Shoto-Sama,” he said, clearly his throat and letting his hand fall away. Any sense of mystery in his expression was completely dissipated, revealing only genuine amusement. “Please rise. You’ve done nothing to offend myself or Mikan.”

He blinked as he stood back up at his full height. “I do not understand. If I haven’t crossed a line, why did you seem to be ignoring and dodging me when I attempted to speak with you?”

Yaoyorozu-Sama smiled. “Because I wanted to observe how you interacted with my daughter as opposed to how you would address me,” he said simply.

Shoto blinked a few times before tilting his head at him. “I don’t understand,”

“If you’ll be kind enough to humor an old man, Shoto-Sama,” he hummed, his gaze shifting to the stars above, “allow me to explain. If there is something I observed frequently in my youth, it was the idea of presenting oneself in a specific light for a specific audience. When speaking from the lens of Pro Heroics, it makes sense. One must be attractive to the public to have any level of true success. But… When it comes to courtship and romance, I saw this frequently as well. I saw peers pretend to be someone they were not in front of their partner’s families, just in hopes of impressing them. I decided, then, that I wanted my opinion to be based on who my Momochi’s partner was when they were with her. Because… That is what is truly important, especially if you intend to be with her for the foreseeable future. The person you are towards my daughter will forever be more important than who you try to be to me.”

“The foreseeable future?”

“You two are young. There could come a day where one of you wakes up and realizes that the love is gone between you,” he said patiently. He let his gaze turn away from the stars to Shoto, still smiling but his eyes bright with conviction. “I am asking you, as her father, that if that day comes you be a real man about it and walk away as gently as you can. To be honest and upfront, to not play games. And if it is she who decides to end it, let her go with grace and dignity, in a way deserving of the kind of love you claim to hold for her.”

The request caught him off guard. The idea of someday being with someone else? FInding a partner other than Momo? He took a deep breath as he tried to sort out the thoughts in his head to something cohesive. “I do not see such a day ever occurring. The only partner I can ever see by my side is Momo. A future we are not facing together, as a team, is impossible for me to envision. However… I promise to fulfill this request, if such a day should ever come to pass,” he said, squaring his shoulders and holding the other’s eye the whole time he spoke.

Grey eyes gleamed before he chuckled, closing his eyes as he nodded. “Thank you for your honestly and promise, Shoto-Sama,”

He nodded. “Though, in the spirit of honesty, if I may say one thing, Yaoyorozu-Sama?”

“Of course,”

“I feel as if there were better ways to accomplish your goal without spending most of the evening ignoring me, thus leading me to believe I had somehow started out with making a bad impression with you,”

That got a hearty laugh out of the other man. “My, you don’t hold you back, do you? How charming to see that level of honesty from a man so young!” His laughter only lasted a bit before he started coughing, pulling a handkerchief from his coat pocket and coughing into it. “Forgive me. I’m afraid I fall into coughing fits much easier than I did in my younger years.”

He opened his mouth to tell him there was no need to apologize when Momo appeared beside them with a worried frown. “Father, are you okay? Are you pushing yourself too hard again?”

Yaoyorozu-Sama flashed her a bright smile and shook his head. “Not at all, Momochi. Shoto-Sama just said something incredibly clever,”

She visibly relaxed. “I am glad that the two of you are getting along, though I would appreciate you stay close to Mother or I if you need help,”

“Of course, darling,” he hummed, taking one of her hands in his own. He stroked the top of her hand gently before offering it to Shoto. “Now, why don’t you two go on ahead while this old timer catches up with the grown ups again?”

There was no hesitation as Shoto took Momo’s hand in his own, offering a small smile to her father. “Thank you for your time, Yaoyorozu-Sama,” The older man smiled and tipped his head before moving past. Without needing to say it, Shoto knew what this gesture had meant.

He squeezed Momo’s hand gently at the inquisitive look she flashed him, choosing to leave it at that for now.

#My Hero Academia #TodoMomo #Yaoyorozu Momo #Todoroki Shoto #TodoMomo Positivity Week #my fics #I wanted an excuse to do more stuff with Umeo and Mikan and the Todosibs #So I seized it #Loosely connects to previous days #But works just fine on it's on so no link

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ibijau · 4 years ago

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You’re a marked man, brother, part 2 / also on AO3

Lan Xichen prepares to go rescue Nie Mingjue, and finds himself accepting help he wouldn't have considered an option

Lan Xichen stumbled at having his fears confirmed, and had to support himself against the trunk of a half dead tree.

Nie Mingjue was his oldest friend, one he had made before either of them ascended, just like Jin Guangyao. In fact, because all three of them had ascended after being so close as mortals, because they had become even closer after ascending, there were a few temples where the three of them were worshipped together as the San-Zun, three brothers either by oath or blood depending on versions.

None of them were quite brothers. Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao, tied by a red thread of fate, were married. Lan Xichen had no closer friend than Nie Mingjue. As for Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao, the first often insisted they call each other as brothers, even though Jin Guangyao worried it was disrespectful since he used to be Nie Mingjue’s servant, but this was just a manner of address.

To think of Nie Mingjue falling in the power of the Magpie King was a frightful thing. Aside from the reputations the Magpie King had gleefully destroyed in the past, it was also said that he had pushed countless people to madness, sometimes to the point they would kill themselves. He was not someone to take lightly.

If it had been anyone else involved, Lan Xichen might have been curious to see how the fight would go between a ghost king who only used indirect means, and a martial god who refused any trickery. In truth, he might not have bet on the god. But since it was Nie Mingjue who was doing this foolish thing, Lan Xichen had to believe that he could win… or better yet, that he could be stopped before meeting his adversary.

"A-Yao, how long ago did he leave?" Lan Xichen asked through the array.

"Early this morning, shortly after us."

Lan Xichen wanted to curse. After this long, anything might have happened.

"Do you know where he might have gone? I didn't think we even knew where the Magpie King lives."

"I will be asking his lieutenants right away," Jin Guangyao promised. "From what I’ve heard, he seemed to have a particular place in mind when he left.” He paused. “Xichen, you're thinking of going to his rescue, aren't you?"

"I am," Lan Xichen confirmed. Now that the initial shock had gone, he pulled away from the tree that had supported him and stood straight. Of course he had to go help Nie Mingjue. He feared nothing from the Magpie King after all, so he was the most suited for this. The only secret he'd ever kept was that old flame he'd never quite forgotten, and it was not something he was ashamed of, so it could not be used against him. "Will you come as well, A-Yao?"

The answer didn't come right away, which was no real surprise. Jin Guangyao, as a mortal, had been the son of a prostitute and a married man, he had done several menial jobs in his life before eventually becoming a mere servant in Nie Mingjue's household, where his fortunes had finally changed. Because he had been relentlessly shamed for his origins as a mortal, he didn't want them revealed as a god.

If they went against the Magpie King, this might become discovered and turned against him.

"I cannot really fight," Jin Guangyao point out with a sigh. "So I don't know what good I would be to you and da-ge."

"You'd be my good luck charm," Lan Xichen replied. "Things always go smoother when you're here, don't they? But if really you'd rather not…"

"I owe this to da-ge," Jin Guangyao said, his voice a little firmer. "And maybe you'll need my luck indeed, against such a character. Fine, I'll start gathering information, hurry home so we can go quickly."

Lan Xichen nodded, even though his husband couldn't have seen him. He turned to look back at the Burial Mound which he'd only just left, and frowned.

"A-Yao, I will be out of reach again for a little while," he announced. "I want to see if Wangji might agree to come help, and if his husband might know anything about the Magpie king's domain."

Even though he wasn't there, Lan Xichen could just picture the frown on Jin Guangyao's face.

"That doesn't sound too wise. What if those two Devastations are working together? Just because Wangji married this Yiling Patriach doesn't make him trustworthy."

"Then I'd still like for Wangji to come along, it'd be safer."

For one thing, Lan Wangji was a strong fighter, definitely the stronger god in the entire Middle Court. But more importantly, Lan Xichen was almost certain that his brother had had dealings with the Magpie King before, either in good or bad. Lan Wangji wouldn't confirm it, but he wouldn't deny it either, possibly because he wasn't sure himself.

Having made up his mind, Lan Xichen ended the communication with his husband and hurried back to the Burial Mounds. The ghost village was far more lively now that night had fallen, but Lan Xichen ignored all the ghouls and monsters to head right for the gate of the Mounds themselves. He feared, at first, that he would be unable to cross the barrier, but to his relief Wei Wuxian had given him a permanent welcome. Then it was only a manner of walking up the mountain, passing through the other village that existed there, and stopping before the foreboding Demon Slaughtering Cave where the Devastation lived.

"Wei Wuxian ! Lan Wangji! I must speak to you right away!" Lan Xichen called out from the entrance of the cave.

He had to shout this way for a while before at last the two men came out of the cave. Judging by their hastily thrown on clothes and their annoyed looks, Lan Xichen guessed he might have interrupted something. He was sorry for them, but this was an emergency and their fun had to wait.

"More of Nie Mingjue's temples have been attacked," Lan Xichen told his brother. "He has gone to confront the person who did this, but I am worried this might go wrong and I wish to stop him or rescue him. Would you come with me, Wangji?"

"Who did it?" Lan Wangji asked.

Lan Xichen hesitated and glanced at Wei Wuxian, unsure how much to say. Before he could decide on that, Wei Wuxian laughed.

"I know it's not me, because my location is well known and Nie Mingjue would already be there," he guessed. "If it were a mortal or an ordinary ghost, you wouldn't have any reasons to worry, not with Chifeng-Zun's reputation. So that means it's the Magpie King, hm?"

"You came to that conclusion really fast," Lan Xichen noted.

Wei Wuxian laughed again.

"You got me! The truth is, that rumour has been going around for a few days, I just wasn't sure it was worth mentionning. But really... aside from the Magpie King, who'd ever be bold enough to anger the Martial God of the North? And you didn't deny it, so you also think it was him, don't you?"

Lan Xichen gave Wei Wuxian a long look, trying to decide how to answer.

"This time the crimes were signed," he explained. "But just as some people tried to make you take the blame, maybe some of the Magpie King's enemies would like to get him in a tight spot. And even if he was innocent up to this point, once Nie Mingjue attacks him, the Magpie King will have to retaliate, it's only natural."

Wei Wuxian smiled, and leaned against Lan Wangji's side who wrapped an arm around his waist.

"I think I like you, Zewu-Jun," he said, scratching his nose. "I think I wouldn't mind helping you, except… well, it could also be the Magpie King's own doing," he said with a grimace, "and in that case Nie Mingjue must have done something to deserve his hatred. So I'd rather my husband and I stay out of this."

It made sense of course. Since they were of similar rank, Wei Wuxian and the Magpie King probably had as much power. But one had had centuries to improve his craft, while the other was still only starting to figure out what he could do. Unless provoked, Wei Wuxian wouldn't want to aggrieve his fellow ghost king. And yet…

"I know the Magpie King cannot be behind this, because I know Nie Mingjue," Lan Xichen claimed. "In the past, victims of the Magpie King were always those who accomplished dark deeds in secret and tried to hide it. But Nie Mingjue isn't a man who keeps secrets. The good and the bad, he is upfront about it. How could such a man catch the interest of the Magpie King?"

"Maybe you don't know him as well as you think," Wei Wuxian said.

"I know Nie Mingjue as well as I know myself," Lan Xichen insisted. He turned to look at Lan Wangji. "You know him too, and you know the restrictions imposed by his cultivation method. There's a reason no one else from his sect ever ascended. The sabre path only works for one who is fully honest and open. If Nie Mingjue lied, don't you think Baxia would turn against him, as such weapons always do?"

Lan Wangji nodded, but still looked at his husband with a forlorn air, as if to say even if it was unfair, he wouldn't act unless Wei Wuxian agreed. Lan Xichen couldn’t decide if it was endearing to see his brother so whipped, or a little infuriating.

Considering the circumstances, he leaned toward the second.

“Is Chifeng-Zun’s sabre really such a mighty weapon then?” Wei Wuxian asked in a tone betraying great curiosity. Considering with what enthusiasm he'd spoken of testing his new powers that afternoon, it was no surprise.

Wei Wuxian was something of a cultivation nerd, Lan Xichen suspected.

“Baxia, once unsheathed, will not stand for dishonesty,” Lan Xichen confirmed. “I have seen sabres turn against their masters, back when that branch of cultivation was still in use among mortals. But of course, you may choose not to believe me, and to still think Nie Mingjue hides dark secrets.”

“It’s not an ideal situation,” Wei Wuxian sighed after some consideration. “Of course, I trust Lan Zhan, who trusts you, and you in turn trust Chifeng-Zun… but I don’t know if I should trust Nie Mingjue just because I trust Lan Zhan, if you follow me?”

“Then I will not insist,” Lan Xichen said, bowing before the other two. “Thank you for at least listening to me, but I will go now before it is too late. And don’t worry, Wangji. I understand your position is difficult. If you asked me to do something A-Yao disapproves of, I do not know what I would choose.”

This appeared to comfort Lan Wangji, who looked a little less miserable upon hearing that his brother wasn’t angry at him. Lan Xichen sighed, actually somewhat annoyed that his brother was choosing his new husband over an old acquaintance, and turned away from the young couple. Before he’d taken three steps, Wei Wuxian called out his name.

“Zewu-Jun, I’ve changed my mind, we’re coming!” he said, starting to straighten his clothes. “If Chifeng-Zun is really as honourable as you say, I’m curious for a chance to meet him. If he’s guilty of something, then I’m curious as well, because his reputation is really excellent and I wonder what the Magpie King might have against him.”

Lan Xichen’s face showed no emotions, but inwardly he grimaced.

“You don’t have to come as well, it’s fine if it's only Lan Wangji.”

“Nonsense. Look, Lan Zhan badly wants to go, it’s clear,” Wei Wuxian said, pointing at his husband impassible face. “So it’d be cruel to stop him. But also I’m not leaving my husband when we’ve just started our honeymoon! Poor Lan Zhan would miss me, right?”

With a shamelessness that shocked his brother, Lan Wangji nodded in answer to that question, which in turn made Wei Wuxian grin and kiss his cheek.

Lan Xichen could only stare at those two, a little unsure how to feel about such open displays of affection. Even when Jin Guangyao and him had just gotten together, they’d never behaved in that manner, least of all in public. But of course, Lan Xichen and his husband had always behaved more like an old couple who no longer needed constant affection, even as newlyweds. Nie Mingjue used to tease them about that, just as mercilessly as he would have teased him if they’d been holding hands and cuddling the way Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji were doing.

“Then let’s leave the Burial Mounds and go somewhere I can contact A-Yao,” Lan Xichen sighed, wondering how his husband would react to the company of Wei Wuxian, since he’d taken the first possible excuse to leave that morning. “Hopefully, he’ll have found some information to help us stop Mingjue from making trouble.”

After Wei Wuxian had a quick chat with the pair of ghostly siblings he’d picked as his lieutenants so they’d keep everything in order while he was gone, the three of them went down the mountain and contacted Jin Guangyao again. For the occasion, Lan Xichen invited his brother and brother-in-law into his private communication array, though he made a note he might change the password after this was over. He still didn't know what to make of Wei Wuxian, and didn't want to be too accessible just yet.

“A-Yao, are you free to talk?” Lan Xichen asked into the array. “Wangji and Wei Wuxian are with me, they’ll both be coming to help.”

“Is that so?” Jin Guangyao asked in that very polite tone he only used when he thought someone was stupid but he wasn’t in a position to openly say so. “Then I suppose I thank the Yiling Patriarch for offering his help in this matter, it is very kind of him.”

Next to Lan Xichen, Wei Wuxian grinned. He knew he wasn’t wanted, but it didn’t seem to particularly bother him. Of course, being what he was, he probably was used to being undesired.

“Have you learned anything about where Nie Mingjue might have gone?” Lan Xichen hastily asked, still unsure himself if he wanted Wei Wuxian there.

“Among the temples attacked, one of them was a San-Zun temple,” Jin Guangyao said. “And in that one, the Magpie King claimed that he had had enough of liars and murderers, and challenged da-ge to come meet him in a certain mountain range near Qinghe, if he dared.

Lan Xichen gasped, and exchanged a glance with Lan Wangji who looked just as stunned as him, in his understated manner.

Back when he was mortal, Nie Mingjue used to live in Qinghe, as did all his family. Although nobody else survived who shared blood with him, Qinghe was a place of special attachment to him, and he still considered it his home. To challenge him in a place so dear to him was a hard blow on his pride, so it made sense that he had run there right away.

"A mountain range? Xinglu Ridge?" Wei Wuxian asked, a deep frown on his face.

"Have you heard of it?" Lan Xichen asked.

The area was notoriously haunted. It had been even when Lan Xichen was mortal, to the point Nie Mingjue and him had gone there sometimes to fight demons. Of course back then, the Magpie King wasn't around yet, and wouldn't be for nearly another century.

Wei Wuxian grimaced. "If that's his lair, then I've definitely met the Magpie King in the past. Back when I was still alive, a ghost of some power told me to come to Xinglu Ridge if I needed help. Never did, and I died soon after anyway, but still, it's funny!"

Funny was definitely not what Lan Xichen would have had to say about this situation. For a ghost king to have dared make his home so close to the place a martial god as powerful as Nie Mingjue favoured so much… it was really bold.

"If you prefer to let us deal with this alone, I will understand," Lan Xichen said. "If you have debts or loyalties to honour, of course those have priority."

"No, I'm still coming," Wei Wuxian replied. "If there was a misunderstanding, I owe it to that person to prevent any unnecessary fighting. And if there's a reason for him to attack Nie Mingjue… ahah, then that man will need help! He's good at underhanded things, but a child could slap him and he'd faint."

"I'm not sure I want you to come along if you might turn against us," Lan Xichen objected.

"I'll only pick my side when I'm sure which one is the just one. You've said Nie Mingjue is a righteous and honest man, so there's nothing to fear, right?"

There was just a hint of malice in Wei Wuxian's voice, giving the impression that it might entertain him to see a god exposed for crimes of any sort. But of course, no truly good person would have become a ghost king, would they? And if there were crimes to be exposed, Lan Xichen too would have to side against his friend, since justice was to be ranked above affection.

Still, he wasn't sure how much he liked Wei Wuxian. Couldn't Lan Wangji have picked someone a little less difficult as his partner?

“A-Yao, have you heard anything else that might be interesting?” Lan Xichen asked.

“No, I’m afraid not,” Jin Guangyao sighed, sounding truly sorry that he didn’t have more information to share. “If we’re going to Qinghe, then let’s meet at the San-Zun temple there, shall we? How soon can you be there?”

“I’ll draw us a Distance Shortening array,” Wei Wuxian offered. “It’ll take us right to the temple, so we can be there in less than an incense stick’s time.”

“Then I shall head out immediately as well,” Jin Guangyao said.

"A-Yao, since this could be dangerous, take one of your fans with you,” Lan Xichen suggested. “I'll do my best to protect you in case of trouble, but I'd feel safer if you had your own weapon as well."

There was a brief moment of silence, and Lan Xichen could just picture the long suffering look on his husband’s face.

"It might be safer," Jin Guangyao reluctantly agreed. "Da-ge will never let me hear the end of this, but… fine, I'll take one. I’ll see you in a moment, Xichen."

With this, Jin Guangyao left the array. Immediately Wei Wuxian produced a stick of cinnabar and started drawing right on the floor, in the middle of the road. Lan Xichen watched him work with some puzzlement.

“Shouldn’t we find a door for this?”

“No, it’s fine, this works as well,” Wei Wuxian explained, drawing in a lackadaisical manner. “It takes a little more energy to do it that way, but it’s really easy when you know how, and there’s rarely any problems.”

“Rarely… so there can be problems?”

Wei Wuxian cackled as he added a few finishing touches to his array.

“Well, sure. Hey, Lan Zhan, remember that time we accidentally ended up on a boat because I’d messed up a character?”

Lan Wangji nodded, the barest hint of a smile on his lips. “Hm. Wei Ying has improved,” he noted, either to flatter his husband or comfort his brother. And Lan Xichen certainly needed a little comfort, because he did not want to end up in the wrong place when Nie Mingjue was in danger.

Meanwhile Wei Wuxian laughed again. “True, it was only the second time I’d used it, and the first time I had another person with me, so of course it wasn’t very stable.” He stood up and wiped his hands on his robes while admiring his robe. “Yes, this one should be quite good. They’re a lot easier to control since becoming a Devastation, and can go further away too. Maybe when this is dealt with I should test how far I can make them go. Fancy a proper honeymoon, Lan Zhan?”

“Hm. If Wei Ying wants,” Lan Wangji earnestly replied.

Lan Xichen had to look away. To a stranger, his brother’s answer might have passed for cold, but to him Lan Wangji might as well have been giggling like a schoolgirl whose crush had winked at her.

“Let’s get going then,” Lan Xichen said with a cough. “I’d rather not make A-Yao worry by being late.”

“Sure, sure,” Wei Wuxian agreed. “Come here, Zewu-Jun. I’ll need to be touching both of you, so if you could both give me your arms… perfect. Then we all step on it together. On my count, one, two, three!”

Lan Xichen diligently obeyed, stepping forward when he was told. One moment he was in the desolate lands that surrounded the sinister Burial Mounds, with nothing but a slim moon to give some light. The next he was standing in a busy street where people walked around in spite of the late hour, with lamps illuminating everything and many smells hanging in the air.

Too many smells, in fact.

That Distance Shortening array had done something to his stomach, and Lan Xichen found himself heaving, trying not to vomit in front of his own temple.

“Yeah, I still don’t know how to deal with that side effect,” Wei Wuxian weakly admitted, leaning against a rather gray-looking Lan Wangji. “But it’s efficient, eh?”

“We’re walking to Xinglu Ridge,” Lan Xichen retorted, unsure he could bear with that sensation twice in a single day.

Wei Wuxian must has felt the same. He didn’t protest at all, and continued leaning on Lan Wangji for a while. Maybe the array had really taken its toll on him, or he just enjoyed the excuse to be shameless. Either way, all three of them promptly entered the temple. Jin Guangyao was waiting for them inside, putting some order to the altar, making sure everything was in its right place and removing the less fresh offerings. He only stopped when he saw the other three, and looked a little embarrassed at being caught doing something like this. Lan Xichen couldn’t help smiling, endeared by his so serious and dedicated husband.

“So that’s how it looks like inside a San-Zun temple,” Wei Wuxian remarked, looking around. “I like it, it’s not too tacky, not like the gods we had back home. Though you really don’t much look like your statues, either of you.”

“Where are you from, if I might ask?” Jin Guangyao asked, ignoring the comments about the statue even though it had to be about him. His personal temples weren’t a problem, but for some reason his statues in San-Zun temples were always way off, which bothered him and made him avoid them.

“Eh, the place doesn’t exist anymore,” Wei Wuxian eluded. “It was one of those places destroyed during the Sunshot Campaign. San-Zun never really caught up back there, not until after the war anyway, but I think Lianfang-Zun is pretty popular over there these days, when it comes to Civil gods.”

“Oh, so you must be from the Yunmeng area?” Jin Guangyao remarked.

Hearing this, Lan Xichen looked at Wei Wuxian with new curiosity. Ghosts tended to be eccentric in their outfits, and to wear clothes from all times of history, sometimes even mixing periods, so he hadn’t really paid attention so far. Now though, looking closely, Wei Wuxian’s clothes were of a style that matched the old Jiang dynasty, as did his hair. He even wore at his belt the type of bell that members of the royal palace used to carry for protection against evil.

These days the Jiang dynasty had disappeared, replaced by the Jin who had taken over thanks to trouble after the Sunshot Campaign and some advantageous marriages. At the same time as this change of power happened, the Magpie King had attacked certain gods of that area for provoking the Sunshot Campaign in the first place. In the power vacuum that had followed, Jin Guangyao had gained a certain popularity in that region, just because he was lucky enough to bear the same name as the new line of kings.

“I spent some years of my life there,” Wei Wuxian admitted with a dismissive hand gesture. “It was long ago. I don’t think about it too much these days. But enough talk, let’s go rescue your friend, right?”

They left the temple behind, and walked through the streets of Qinghe, in direction of Xinglu ridge. All too soon, Lan Xichen found himself swallowed by a certain nostalgia, one strong enough he wondered if Wei Wuxian’s Distance Shortening array wouldn’t have been better.

Although many centuries had passed, and the city had changed in that time, ultimately it was still the same place it had been in Lan Xichen’s youth. He had never visited for more than a few weeks at a time, following his uncle on business, but those periods had been the happiest of his mortal life. He had spent most of his time there in the company of Nie Mingjue, with later the addition of Jin Guangyao once he had entered the Nie’s service… but he had also spent no small amount of time going around with A-Sang, who knew the city like the back of his hand.

A-Sang had taken such pride in making Lan Xichen visit a number of little shops, obscure restaurants, and odd small temples to lesser gods, claiming those secret places were so much better than the big famous sights everyone went to. Often enough, Lan Xichen had agreed with that judgement. He’d always found it easy to agree with A-Sang. It had been so pleasant to go along what the younger man wanted. Lan Xichen had never had to regret it, not until the day he’d found out A-Sang, after refusing his offer to rise to the middle court, had been murdered. If only he’d just insisted a little more, if he’d only guessed what was about to happen…

He vaguely remembered that A-Sang’s luck, which had always been great up to that point, had recently started failing him. Shouldn’t it have been a sign his friend couldn’t be left behind? If Lan Xichen had tried harder…

As they left the outskirts of Qinghe, Lan Xichen forced himself to stop thinking about his lost friend. First of all, because it was wrong of him to still be so hung up about that person, when he was happily married to a kind and gentle man who did not deserve to be betrayed, not even in thought. Secondly, because it would be foolish to take a guilty heart into the Magpie King’s territory, where that would surely be turned into a weapon against him.

What had happened in the past was in the past. Lan Xichen, as he was now, was happy, and so there was no sense in holding regrets.

A few hours after leaving Qinghe, they finally reached the foot of Xinglu ridge. Because of the area’s reputation, the road less wasn’t as good as it had been near the city. Even locals didn’t want to go there unless absolutely forced, and as a result they didn’t maintain that path which was muddy and uneven. And yet, on that abandoned road, the four of them eventually encountered a high stone gate, the sort that might be seen as an entry point through a defensive wall, except it stood alone, with nothing but the mountains’ forest on either side and the dirt path under it. There was, however, a guard before that door.

Actually, to call that person a guard was being very generous. The middle aged man, a ghost by the look of it, certainly had a weapon with him. But that sabre had been carelessly abandoned on the ground, and the ghost was just sitting with his back against the gate, squinting over a small book while fanning himself. The fan probably wasn’t his own, Lan Xichen guessed. Everything else about the man gave him away as someone of humble extraction, but the fan was truly beautiful, almost as much so as the ones Nie Mingjue would occasionally force Jin Guangyao to accept.

This really was a pitiful sort of guard, but a dutiful one at least. When he realised that there were people coming, the ghost quickly put away his book and fan, then reached out for his sabre and jumped to his feet. Even like this, though, it was clear he wasn’t suited for his job, his hold on the weapon was all wrong, and his posture so bad Lan Xichen felt tempted to correct it.

“Hey, halt, you can’t come here!” the man exclaimed. “Or else, I’ll have to try to stop you, and nobody will like that!”

“You don’t look like much of a guard,” Wei Wuxian remarked. “You’re barely worth making Lan Zhan unsheathe his sword, you look that pathetic.”

The ghost’s face pinched into a tight expression, as if he were offended by that comment but too self aware to protest, especially when Lan Wangji nodded in agreement.

“Hey, save me some face,” the man grumbled, lowering his sabre a little. “This is my first day on this job, can’t you cut me some slack and come back another day? Everything is already bad enough, the Magpie King will have my head if I also let intruders in!”

“Could it be that there has been a recent intrusion then?” Jin Guangyao asked, sounding sincerely sorry.

The ghost took note of his accent and, thinking this young master might be more sympathetic than grinning Wei Wuxian or cold Lan Wangji, turned all his attention to him.

“Indeed there was, and now we’re all in trouble!” he lamented. “Some god or other managed to come in yesterday, and last I heard he was making his way to the King’s palace! I mean, who would do that? What’s the glory there? He even killed the old guard, you know. Killed him! A poor old ghost who was just waiting for the end of his time serving the King!”

“How very dreadful!” Jin Guangyao agreed, glancing at Lan Xichen.

Nie Mingjue wasn’t particularly bloodthirsty, as far as martial gods went, but he wasn’t a pacifist either. If he thought he was right, and someone tried to stand in his way, no matter how strong or weak they seemed he’d treat them the same and fight with all his might. To do anything less would be an insult to both him and his opponent, he believed.

“Right, right, it’s awful!” the ghost insisted, glad to have found a kind soul to commiserate with him. “His majesty is furious, I’ve heard, and now everyone has to be on high alert!” He paused, looking over his shoulder at the road on the other side of the gate. “Actually, I’m glad I’m not in there. The King has released all sorts of nasty things to slow down that intruder, and even if I know how to get around the traps, I don’t like knowing some of that stuff’s out there. I’m not a warrior, anyway! This wasn’t in my contract!”

“Isn’t it always like this?” Jin Guangyao sighed. “You sign up for one thing, and then get another one entirely.” Hearing this, the ghost nodded quickly, throwing his sabre a disgusted look. Jin Guangyao smiled. “You know, if things are so bad for you, nobody could blame you for breaching your contract. If you wish, we’ll let you go without a fight and tell others that we defeated you, if you only let us in and tell us a bit about what’s to come. How would that sound?”

With at least two of them skilled with a blade, and a third one rumoured to have terrifying powers, defeating such a pathetic little ghost would have been as easy as breathing. But if that man could give them information on his master and on what might await them inside, it would give them a clear advantage. As far as Lan Xichen knew, nobody had ever entered the Magpie King’s realm before, mostly because nobody knew where it was. The Heavenly Court had long suspected he had to have a den somewhere, as most powerful ghosts did, but they’d never been able to find any information on that. The Magpie King, who knew how to find everyone’s secrets, was quite good at keeping his own.

Indeed even that ghost, so vindicated against his master a moment ago, looked worried as soon as he was asked to let information filter out.

“Now that’s a lot to ask, my lord. Sure I’m asked to do more than was in the contract, but that’s a bit extreme. Betraying the Magpie King? Now, now, let’s be reasonable. I am faithful to my lord and master, of course.”

Although the ghost tried to look very dignified and noble as he said this, Wei Wuxian burst out laughing.

“Let me guess. You’ve sold your secrets to the Magpie King, and now you’re scared they’ll be spread around if you displease him, eh?”

"I made mistakes in my youth," the ghost wryly replied. "Now I must pay for them, until the King feels like erasing them. But just because I’ve not always been as diligent as I should have been, he keeps adding years to my time with him, how is that fair?”

“Sounds pretty tough,” Wei Wuxian said in a voice lacking any sympathy.

“Honestly, I’m not even sure I made that good of a deal,” the ghost lamented. “But it’s too late now. Since my secrets aren't mine anymore, I'm kind of trapped.” He paused, and gave them a long look. “But if someone freed me from that, I bet I could guide them through here, yeah?"

"And how do we free you?" Lan Xichen asked.

The man shrugged and pinched his lips. He looked very uncomfortable, and glimpsed again toward the mountain road, as if he feared the Magpie King would descend from there and punish him for even thinking about betraying him.

"Of course it'd be too easy if you could just tell us the conditions," Jin Guangyao sighed, watching the ghost attentively. "Sealed secrets… I believe I've encountered something like this before. If the Magpie King is using that curse I’m thinking of... the conditions to break the contract is for those secrets to be revealed out loud. And of course, I'm guessing you can't give us any hint, right?"

The man shrugged again. Since it wasn’t a direct no, it might as well have been a yes.

"Then we'll have to do without a guide," Jin Guangyao concluded. "It would take too long to guess and da-ge could be in danger. We'll have to fight our way in, Xichen."

It seemed inevitable, and Jin Guangyao took a step back to let the others deal with this. Lan Xichen felt sorry for that ghost, but he still put one hand on the handle of his sword. Seeing this, the ghost cried out in fear. He threw his own weapon aside and fell to his knees, desperately raising his hands about his hand.

"Wait! No need to be so hasty! I'll help, I'll help, but you have to help me back! If I take you to that damn king, then you have to free me when the time comes!"

"We can't be guessing," Lan Xichen sighed. "And I do not wish to promise something I can deliver."

The ghost considered that answer, his eyes jumping between the four men before him.

"Well, I'd take a half chance of freedom over another few centuries stuck here!” he decided. “At worse, maybe I'll just get killed this time, and that'll be it. Beats being miserable under a cruel master, it sure does!"

Lan Xichen hesitated but eventually dropped his hand from Shuoyue, to the ghost's obvious relief.

"I'll try to keep your case in mind," Lan Xichen promised, "and I'll do my best to break your curse."

"Thank you, kind lord!” the ghost cried out, bowing and grovelling before Lan Xichen. When I am free, I will burn incense for you and tell mortals to do it as well!"

"Let's see about freeing you, first," Wei Wuxian snickered. "Do you have a name, friend?"

Straightening up, the ghost shrugged.

"Been a while since I've had friends, but some folks used to call me Sangcan."

Wei Wuxian's eyebrows rose at that nickname, and he failed to hide a grin, glancing at Lan Wangji who didn't react.

"Sangcan like a silkworm?" Lan Xichen asked, a little amused as well and trying to see what could have prompted that nickname.

Sangcan had nothing refined to his appearance, his face was ordinary and rather too thin, his clothes were of coarse linen, so it couldn't have been that Sangcan used to be a young master living comfortably, or that he had expensive tastes in clothes. Then, a poem jumped to his mind.

“Time was long before I met her, but is longer since we parted, and the east wind has arisen and a hundred flowers are gone, and the silk-worms of spring will weave until they die,” Lan Xichen quoted, prompting Sangcan to look at him with an intense expression. "You were reading earlier, could it be your nickname is a reference to something?"

The initial intensity on Sangcan’s face melted away, replaced by embarrassment.

"This lord is really too kind, to think it'd be anything so fancy. No, the truth you see... the real truth is...I was just a fat, lazy baby who did nothing but eat," Sangcan confessed lamentably. "Didn't improve much as an adult, so it stuck."

While Wei Wuxian burst out laughing at that explanation, Lan Xichen blinked a few times. Somehow, that exchange felt familiar. He looked more closely at Sangcan, but definitely this wasn't a person he'd met before. As for the conversation, if such an exchange had occurred before, Lan Xichen knew he wouldn’t have resisted sharing the anecdote with his husband. Since Jin Guangyao wasn’t reacting in any particular way aside from vague amusement, then it was proof Lan Xichen had never met Sangcan before.

Pushing aside that thought, Lan Xichen ordered Sangcan to walk ahead, and the five of them entered the domain of the Magpie King.

#xisang #wangxian #lan xichen #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #technically there's xiyao but it's not endgame #jau writes #marked man au

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a-crimson-lion · 5 years ago

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My Thoughts On Chapter 257 and Why I Think The Bakudeku Dynamic Is Still Fundamentally Broken

[Spoilers and Bakugo-Bashing ahead. Long post. Avoid if you don't want to see.]

Look, I can kind of see why people enjoy the idea of Izuku and Katsuki making up and being friends again after all the crap Katsuki did. Honestly, if Horikoshi had set it up right, I might have been rooting for them, too. Of course, I don't root for it, because I don't see much improvement in the dynamic, especially on Katsuki's part.

Before I get started, remember: if you like the dynamic between Izuku and Bakugo, that's fine. This post probably isn't for you, and that's fine, too. I'm not writing this post to attack anyone personally, but if you feel offended, feel free to ignore this post and go about your day. I'd like it if we could be respectful of one another's opinions. Sound good? Good.

Now, let's begin...

So the big thing in this chapter (257 chapters, dear God...) is that we're finally learning a bit more about the OFA Holders. For starters, we now know the Black Whip user's name: Banjo Daigoro (heads up, the "Go (五)" in Daigoro means "Five," continuing the trend of OFA Holders having their wielder number in their names). We've also learned that Nana's Quirk was "Float" or "Levitation," which makes a lot of sense.

(I mean, Flight is one of the most iconic superpowers besides super strength, and since Nana is Izuku's metaphorical grandmother, it's incredible for her to be using such a by the book super power. Plus, it only compliments her friendship with Gran Torino, another hero with a flight Quirk.)

I'm rambling at this point. As intriguing as the Quirks of the previous holders is, my attention (as well as other readers' attention) was pulled towards Katsuki. Most say that the relationship between Katsuki and Izuku was adorable in this chapter. Others say Katsuki was a gremlin, but they still love him for it.

Well, pardon my pessimism, but if I'm using the phrase right, it looks like I'm gonna be playing devil's advocate.

[Keep in mind, the official translations haven't dropped yet, so this might screw up my analysis a bit.]

There's another meeting about OFA between Izuku, Toshinori, and of course Katsuki. Toshinori talks a bit about how he couldn't find everything for the previous holders, and what does Katsuki say?

If you don't know it then just leave it at that, I'm waisting my precious time on you guys.

There are a handful of other rude/passive-aggressive ways Katsuki could have phrased that. He could have made it sound like "That's nice and all, but could we skip to the important stuff?" But no, even though this information is crucial to Izuku, even though Katsuki has every right to just stay out of the room since the conversation won't benefit him, he says they're wasting his "precious time." Once again, Katsuki is being self-centered, but that isn't anything new.

A little later, Katsuki is taking a loom at the notebook, and he remarks that all the Quirks Izuku got must have been lame. Katsuki is immediately writing the Quirks off just because they aren't upfront with their badassery. Izuku appreciates all Quirks because he wasn't born with one, but Katsuki only appreciates strong Quirks because that's what society and his own self image have taught him up to this point.

Think of it this way: A man with diamonds can't understand why a man is happy with silver, but a man with nothing understands the value of both.

Katsuki's Quirk is admittedly versatile and efficient, and I can respect the work he put into it. However, immediately dissing less flashy Quirk's might be his downfall. Characters like Sir Nighteye don't have "powerful" Quirks, but are still capable adversaries thanks to how they use them in tandem with their other abilities. Foresight might not be a powerful Quirk in a fight, but Nighteye's own strategy, deceivingly ripped physique, and his high-density stamps help round him out as a capable opponent. We've seen Izuku utilize Black Whip in ways which can be definitely declared badass. Even Nana's Quirk can be used in incredible ways, especially considering Izuku's strategy and relentnesses.

Speaking of Nana's Quirk, here comes the part I hate the most...

Lots of readers talk about how Katsuki and Izuku's dynamic has grown a lot since their middle school days. That's not to say the statement isn't true, because there has been some growth, but I feel like most of it is exaggerated. Katsuki and Izuku haven't had an introspection (or at least a meaningful one) on themselves where they've come to grips with their faults and have vowed to change for the better. Izuku doesn't stop to think that maybe Katsuki shouldn't have treated him the way he did since they were kids, because Izuku's more concerned about heroism, mastering OFA, and (ugh) proving to Katsuki that he'll surpass him, being his image of victory. Katsuki hasn't really thought about his actions aside from that one time after the Provisional License Exams that ultimately amounted to nothing. It's been said time and time again by several in the fandom that Katsuki hasn't really changed, and for as much growth (or lack thereof) as he's had throughout the entire course of the series, the statement is not without merit. Case and point: the very first thing Katsuki spits out to Izuku when All Might reveals Nana's Quirk?

I WON!

He's more concerned about his own image and pride then about Izuku's progress. He's already got flight down, so instead of leaving it at that or (highly unlikely) offering to help Izuku figure out the whole flight thing, he decides it's a great thing that Izuku will waste his time learning something Katsuki already knows so Katsuki can make sure he can beat Izuku yet again. He's not adding anything to the conversation, and while Izuku isn't personally bothered, Katsuki's next words are not okay, even if they're relatively tame.

Before you tell me that Katsuki is just trying to encourage Izuku or something like that along those lines, let's take a look at their proceeding dialogue:

T-that's not true! I'll just master it and catch up to you!!

You're just going to panic again! Explode and go to Hell!

Buy I managed to get the gist of Blackwhip, so...

DIE!!

No hesitation...!

...Katsuki is not being encouraging in any way, shape, or form. He's being discouraging; in spite of Izuku's protest, Katsuki insists that Izuku is going to crash and burn once more. Never mind that Izuku isn't bothered by it, what Katsuki is saying is not okay. No one can be the best but him, so no one can improve... including Izuku. Forget about Izuku's previous feats, forget the fact that he learned to use the base Quirk without damaging himself AND a second Quirk in less than a year. As long as Katsuki can pull ahead, stupid Deku won't be able to catch up and he'll prove that he'll forever be the best.

...can you feel my frustration with this character?

And then there are the panels where Izuku looks like he reading the journal, and Katsuki is making a gremlin face while make the "kill" gesture across his neck, and All Might's looking at it like it's something precious. Other people called this scene adorable, but for me, it only proves that Katsuki hasn't changed and WHY he hasn't changed. He still treats Izuku as someone lesser instead of as an equal; he might not be Quirkless anymore, but for Katsuki, Izuku just another extra to surpass. And then Izuku tries to be civil with Katsuki, but... the boy really does not care about him. And then people like All Might don't know the full depth of their relationship and consider this a massive improvement, and see no reason to confront Katsuki or Izuku about their issues.

Seriously, the narrative is so contrived in Katsuki's favor, I'm losing hope that Horikoshi will ever try to fix it properly.

And before you give me Izuku's whole spiel about:

I never thought the day would come where I could speak so naturally with Kacchan.

NARRATORS! CAN! BE! BIASED!!!

Just because Izuku is the protagonist and overall honest does not mean his views/relationship with Katsuki are ultimately well. I'm not saying he's an unreliable narrator, since he hasn't really gone to Delusion City as he's told us the story, but it's very clear that he doesn't give Katsuki's actions too much thought. Him suddenly being able to talk casually with Katsuki is not a major feat: EVERYONE ELSE can casually talk to Katsuki just as well even if his personality is, quoting Denki, "flaming crap mixed with sewage." At this point, I'm just tuning out all the times the narrative tries to claim that Izuku is completely mentally sound, or that Katsuki has made significant progress.

You can keep shouting it from every roof top you want to, but unless you're showing CONSISTENCY, you're not showing substance.

So, TL;DR This chapter continues to push the Bakudeku rival dynamic while instead showing how Katsuki has ultimately barely changed and is continually enabled by other characters and the narrative to continue his behavior because virtually everyone around him has an abnormally high tolerance for his bulls***.

That's all I can write right now. Thank you for reading.

-Crimson Lion (18 January 2020)

#bnha #boku no hero academia #mha #my hero academia #izuku midoriya #katsuki bakugo #katsuki bakugou #bnha 257 #character analysis #meta #drabble #long post #anti bakugo #anti bakugou

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yet-another-saberface · 4 years ago

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Fate/ & My Anxiety

Okay, so, I kinda had a rough day today, but that rough day really made me want to write this. I’d been thinking about it for a bit, but now I’m sure that this is something I should put out there, because I’m sure at least someone out there has had a similar experience. And if I write this correctly, it should be an interesting read anyways. (Post now updated with a cut & pretty gifs and things! I tried to keep the gifs more positive to offset some of the more serious parts of what I’m discussing.) So uh... Enjoy I guess? It’s kinda what it says on the tin.

Warning for serious mentions of anxiety and stuff. But I try to keep it lighter than it could be. For anyone else that might have some anxiety problems like me, it might help you to read this, because it’s really just a discussion of some themes I’ve taken away from the series that really helped me with my own anxiety. But whether you read it or not you should probably take a sec to breathe, that never hurts.

So. I’m going to be upfront about this. I have anxiety. Not just a normal amount of stress, but actual, diagnosed anxiety. I am not medicated, but at the moment that’s mostly because my doctors think that trying medication during this whole pandemic situation wouldn’t actually let them know if it would help me in the long term. I’ve been living with anxiety for pretty much my entire life, but I just thought everyone was stressed out, and that life sucked, and that I was bad at dealing with it. But that wasn’t the case.

But one thing is going to ring true for me regardless of what the state of my anxiety is, be it in the moment or over the course of my life. And that’s that like most things, media helped me with it before I even realized what it was. As I sit around in quarantine and try to manage my fluctuating stress levels, I’ve found myself drifting back to the Fate Series, and FGO, after taking a break from them for few months, arguably even the past year.

At this point, it’s been around 3 years, maybe even 4, since I originally discovered Fate. And I’m not going to lie, I didn’t get the best possible first impression, because I started with the Deen anime from 2005. I’d seen Saber before, had no idea who she was other than some chic I vaguely looked like with a good character design and a sword, and saw her on the cover of an anime. So I watched it. I had no idea what the hell was going on, and was trying to piece everything together as I watched, but I watched to the end. And I liked it. It definitely wasn’t my favorite show. But when I heard that it was “the bad one,” and that there was more, I gladly went to go watch it.

And that might not make sense at first, but I’m emitting a huge detail. I was, and still am, a huge mythology nerd. As I was watching the original Stay Night anime, I was fascinated by the portrayals of these characters that, technically, I already knew. And I was really into the idea that there was more of that.

So later that year, I watched Fate/Zero. And I’m gonna be honest, I was too young to really appreciate everything it had to offer, and I’m planning on going back to it soon, but I loved every second of that show. When I got the chance, I binged through it, and it was heavy stuff, but I couldn’t take my eyes away from it.

And after that, I started looking up what else there was. I watched Carnival Phantasm in maybe 2 days tops and adored it. I procrastinate on watching a lot of stuff, because I found myself having less and less time to myself, but that same summer I watched Zero, I also started playing FGO. I started the game for the characters I already knew. I stayed because I found a story I was genuinely invested in on its own, and a community that was really fun to observe, if not be an active part of. I still remember sitting down on a day when I had nothing to do and finishing Okeanos all in one go. Or laying down after a long day at school and doing the same to a ReRun event. It was a great stress outlet, and I was invested.

But the more I look back on all of that, I start to see details that explain even better why I was so invested. I don’t have a single favorite Fate character, but I will admit that I adore Saber. She’s what drew me in, my friends who know Fate apparently think I look like her, and we all know the Excalibur scene from Zero looks like it should be in an actual movie.

I won’t claim to be a character expert, despite being a writer. I didn’t write Saber, let alone any other Fate character. But the more I think about her, the more I start to realize that yeah, I understand a lot of what she’s gone through. Do I know what it’s like to be a King and run a country and what that entails? No obviously not. But I do know what it’s like to feel that you have a duty to everyone around you to not screw things up. I understand how someone could feel extremely guilty when they do eventually screw things up. There’s a lot of ways to look at any character, but I realize now that from the beginning that that specific idea was the lens through which I understood Saber.

And it holds true for most other characters. With Shirou, did I understand losing your parental figure or an undying desire to be a hero? Not really. But I did understand the fact that he felt like he wasn’t good enough, and that he gained value by putting himself on the line for others. I may not have risked my life for another person, but I’ve definitely put myself through mental stress enough to induce multiple panic attacks a day for other people.

And now we get to the part of this... I don’t want to call it an essay. The part of this post. Where I talk about Gil.

Am I aware that in most (early) depictions of him in Fate, he’s a horrible dick of a person who deserves no respect? Yes, I am.

But I also know that when I think about some of the less horrible aspects of him as a character now, there’s stuff in there I should take away that is good. I just went on an whole rant about how I can understand low self esteem and self sacrifice and crushing responsibility and the pressure to not screw it all up. And these days, I can’t stop thinking about how Saber admitted to a lot of that and (this is obviously a gross oversimplification but you should get by now that this is personal and specific) the response from Gil and Rider was “It sounds like you aren’t living life as happily as you could and are setting a bad example of how to live life for those that look up to you.” And that idea keeps coming back to me in every moment when I’m having an anxiety attack, or cram studying even though I know I’m ready, or finishing something due two weeks from now tonight because I won’t have to do it later. And it only hits me harder because I know I’m not a King or anything lofty like that, but I am a labeled “gifted student” and a support person for many of my friends and a designated “responsible one” and all of these other things. And yet I’m preaching for them to do as I say not as I do when it comes to enjoying life and taking care of yourself.

I don’t know if I fully internalized that message when I first watched that scene. But I must have in some capacity because it still haunts me now, reminding me that maybe I shouldn’t be giving into all of this stress. And I’m trying, I really am, to keep that in mind as I fight against all of it and try to keep things under control.

And then there’s Babylonia. When I really get down to it, I have a pretty strong emotional connection to this part of FGO. I joined the game pretty late, roughly right after Camelot’s release, so I had a lot of catching up to do. But I caught up, and I got to experience this story that I’d heard was one of the best in the game as it came out. If I wanted to I could say a LOT more about Babylonia, and maybe I will in the future.

But I’m not going to deny that CasGil has been a pretty prominent presence in my mind ever since when it comes to stress and responsibility. (Heck I could probably talk about just him specifically for at least a good 5th of what I have so say about Babylonia. Maybe I will someday.) I mean, it’s kind of his thing, you see the fandom joke about it all the time how he’s the Gil that doesn’t sleep because he just keeps on working and working and working. And that’s why there was this one moment when I was watching the Babylonia anime that now stands out to me. When Gil goes with the player out to the observatory, he just leaves. He doesn’t bother apologizing to anyone or explaining his actions, he just goes. And we know, as basically an outsider, that this is him taking a break. He needed a break and so he just took a break without any clarifications or explanations or apologies. Sure he might justify it to the player has needing to do some other work out there, but that actually makes it hit harder for me. Because he’s justifying his breaks as more work.

I used to be lucky enough to have a clear cut line between what was my time and what was other people’s time (that I was giving them out of my time) and what time belonged to school/work. And now all of that has been thrown out the window and I’ve been having to teach myself how to do what I just described.

Take a goddamn break without having to tell everyone else how sorry I am for taking a day to actually rest and breathe and all those other important things. And yet I still have to justify those breaks to myself as time to take care of other things. 90% of the time, those breaks aren’t breaks to me, they’re time to work on my novel instead of my essay, or something like that.

And then I glance down at my phone and I’m hit with most of what I just wrote flooding into my head. And I try to tell myself that no, it’s okay to just take a break. And that I should be allowing myself to enjoy being alive instead of being a slave to expectations and responsibilities. And that as a person I know other people look up to I should be setting a better example of how to take care of yourself. And sometimes it works. Other times there’s more things at play and it doesn’t get through to me the same way, but it’s something that works. All of the hours I’ve spent with those character remind me that what I’m doing isn’t okay on a pretty regular basis at this point. And I’m really glad for that. And I hope that all of this stuff will continue to help me as it’s helping me right now.

At least I know that when I feel like I’m freaking out, I can open FGO and play through a quest and I’ll usually feel better. So I’m just gonna keep trying, keep managing, until I find a place where it’s finally all okay again, as much as it can be.

(P.S: More reasons that CasGil is my grailing target right now? Yeah that’s true but these reasons are deeper than “I got a Merlin look at that” or “Grailing Jalter is useful.” He’s a character that’s genuinely important to me and I think that finally investing in him is going to be really satisfying for me.)

#fgo #fate go #fate/go #fate grand order #fate/grand order #my writing #life update #i guess #serious stuff #if you read this thank you so much #anxiety #i don't know if stuff like this will become regular content #it might i dunno #but if it does it'll be more analysis and less personal #but seriously y'all take a break #breathe #take care of yourself #and if characters help you do that that's great

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bigfan-fanfic · 5 years ago

Note

Hi xx love u and do u think u could do Bruce in the a-z thing 💋 xxx thnx

Love you too, anon!

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Bruce freakin’ loves it if you end up working with Alfred during patrol. Also he likes it if you take a job at Wayne Enterprises because then the two of you get to be together all day and it means that you actually enjoy this part of him. Free time, when not spent with the boys, is generally used in physical pleasures or romantic dinners. But really, any time he gets with you he cherishes, even if he doesn’t say it.

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

Bruce admires your ability to commit, because let’s face it, you must have an iron will to stay with him this long. He thinks your kindness and determination are beautiful, and the fact that you remain with him day after day is astonishing.

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

Bruce helps with firm hugs and quiet reassurance. He’s not so great with expressing himself or dealing with his own self-loathing, but he’s sure as hell not going to let you feel bad about the best person in the world - you.

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

Bruce has no delusions about actually being able to eradicate crime in Gotham, so he dreams that one day he’ll retire, leaving Gotham in the hands of his children, and be able to dedicate his time to you. It’s an improvement from the times he thought his future was eventually dying on the job.

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

Bruce tends to take a dominant role in the relationship, being the control freak he is, if not necessarily in the bedroom. He’s in charge of where you two go out on dates (since he’s in charge of safety) and he likes to take care of you.

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

Bruce doesn’t like to admit he’s wrong, but he’ll definitely be quickly forgiving when you say you were wrong.

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

He’s mostly grateful, although in moments of frustration he might lash out. He, with Alfred’s help, tries to remember how much you have sacrificed for him.

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

Bruce often hides certain details from you in order to “protect” you, unless you take an interest in his vigilante life, in which case he is very honest with you and grows to depend on you. Either way, he ends up growing more honest over time.

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

Bruce’s relationship with you gives him what amounts to a crash course in emotional intelligence. He slowly learns how to process and deal with things like grief, guilt, frustration, and anger while allowing himself to be happy. Basically, the longer he’s with you, the more he gets over the emotional stunting his parents’ death caused him.

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Bruce responds to most emotions by becoming surlier than usual. Unfortunately, his “jealousy” surly is very similar to his “hungry” surly, so you might accidentally get a jealous Bruce a burger and be met with annoyance (however, giving a hungry Bruce some kisses and attention seems to go over much better).

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

Bruce is a fantastic kisser. He leaves you dazed and dreamy after claiming your lips in an almost innocent way, then cupping your head and tilting you to deepen it, and not coming up for air until necessary, wanting to remain forever in that kiss.

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

He’ll come right out and tell you that he loves you. Or, alternatively, he’ll show you the Batcave, which is like a love confession because he’s showing you his true self and placing an extraordinary amount of trust in you.

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

Hell yeah. Bruce cares for you a lot, and beyond wanting to spend his life with you, he wants to make sure that you are cared for should he die and immediately modifies his will. He’ll propose in private, in a sweet and intimate moment, and then probably he will do a proposal in a public space for the press. The marriage will be tough at times, but definitely rewarding.

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

Bruce uses the sappiest, corniest, schmaltziest nicknames he can come up with. “Sugar,” “Pumpkin,” “Honeybear,” “Snugglebug.” Sometimes he accidentally says it while still in Batman voice, and everyone around him just freezes. It happened once to Gordon and he doesn’t believe he actually heard it.

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

Not obvious at all. He hides it well. Except for Alfred. And if your relationship dates back to before his parents died, Thomas and Martha totally knew one day their son would fall head over heels for you.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

Super possessive. He holds you close and kisses you often in public and totally proclaims that he is the luckiest guy in Gotham to be with you.

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

None. Bruce has to work hard to be romantic and maintain the relationship. This poor guy needs your help, okay?

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

He’s actually pretty romantic when he puts his mind to it. He really does want to make you happy. And for someone so calculating and analytical, he is pretty creative in romance.

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

Bruce does believe in you, but sometimes he focuses more on patrol and the League. But he makes an effort to be supportive and present. You learned that Bruce has programmed the Batcomputer to remind him of important events for you, and even made an alarm to alert him to see how you are every couple of hours so he doesn’t neglect you.

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

Bruce likes to spice things up sometimes, whether it’s a fancy dinner or a spontaneous trip to Hawaii (that has been meticulously planned and organized).

U nderstanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Bruce has trouble at first knowing what you need unless you tell him. He isn’t naturally an overly empathetic person and often has trouble communicating. It’ll be up to you most of the time to bridge the gap.

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

It’s very important to him to be with you. He’ll sacrifice time at Wayne Enterprises or social engagements to stay around you.

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

He once tried to cook for you and very nearly burned down the Manor. So he consigns himself to bringing you breakfast in bed made by Alfred or picked up from somewhere.

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

Bruce tends to kiss in public and cuddle in private.

Y earning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

Bruce gets more surly than usual, which is saying something.

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lenghts for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bruce has trouble putting the relationship first. He’s definitely one who will put his self-imposed duty before you. But anything else, he wants to please you. He’ll do whatever he can to make you feel wanted and comfortable, short of stopping patrol.

#fluff alphabet #my writng #batman headcanons #batman x male reader #alphabet

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lovemesomesurveys · 4 years ago

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Have you ever dated someone more than twice your age? No.

Have you ever “dined and dashed”? Absolutely not.

Have you ever been cut off by a bartender because you were too drunk? No.

Have you ever borrowed money from your mom & lied about why you needed it? Nope.

Have you ever dated someone just because they had money? No, and I never would.

Have you ever lied to your spouse about the money you spent shopping? Never been in a serious relationship where I discussed my spending habits, but if I was I wouldn’t feel any reason to lie about what I did with my own money.

Have you ever flirted with a cop to get out of a ticket? Never been in a situation where I got pulled over or issued a ticket for any reason, but I wouldn’t even attempt doing something like that. I’d just take the ticket and either pay it or try to fight it if I felt I wasn’t deserving of it. Not to mention, it wouldn’t work cause I’m an ugly mess and have no flirting skills at all lol. That takes confidence that I don’t have. Have you ever gone on a first date with no underwear? No.

Do you treat attractive people better than others who aren’t as attractive? Uh, no. That’s a really shitty thing to do.

Are you more comfortable with friends that are less attractive than you? Wow. I don’t think about the attractiveness of people when befriending someone, that’s not even a thought in my mind. I befriend people based on them as people, on their personality and character. Ya know, the important stuff. I’m also not a narcissistic, vain, arrogant, cocky person who thinks I’m better than other people. Plus, ya’ll know my self-esteem is shit.

Have you ever hated a job to the point that you tried to get fired? Never had a job, but if I was that unhappy I think I would just try and find something else if possible and then quit? I wouldn’t want to get fired.

Have you ever lied about your weight on a driver license? No.

Have you ever lied during a job interview? Never had a job interview.

Have you ever lied to your boss to get out of work?

Have you ever lied under oath in court? Never been in court.

Have you ever bought alcohol for someone underage? No.

Have you ever started a rumor to ruin someones reputation? No.

Have you ever switched tags on an item to pay less for it? No.

Have you taken any pics of yourself that you wont want your parents to see? Yes. No nudes, but sad attempts at sexy poses haha.

Did you ever tell your BF/GF you like their outfit when you really didn’t? I don’t think to a boyfriend specifically, but I’ve said that to people, yes :X I feel bad if someone asks if I like their outfit or hair and I don’t. I’ve been honest as well, in a nice way of course, but I feel bad. I’ve been like, “Maybe not in that color or style” or “try a different pair” or something. But I also like to make known that it’s just my personal opinion, so if they like it and it makes them feel good then go for it cause that’s what matters.

Did you ever get fired and tell someone you were laid off?

Would you turn a family member in if you saw them commit murder? Yikesss.

Have you ever turned in a school paper that someone else wrote for you? I never had anyone else write a paper or do any assignment for me.

Have you ever written a check that you knew was going to bounce? No.

Do you feel accepted by your BF/GF ’s family? I’m single.

If you were an employer, would you hire someone with your exact work ethic? With my work ethic? Uh, no haha. I’m not doing anything productive with my life. I have no energy, no motivation. I would not be useful to anyone.

Do you lie about your age? Nope.

Would you risk your life to save a total stranger? I don’t know. :X I feel like that makes me a bad person. That’s not to say I wouldn’t try to help them in some way either by myself or by getting them the necessary help.

Have you ever trashed your ex’s car after an argument? No.

Have you ever snuck out of the house to go out with friends? Nope. I wouldn’t have had to do that, I could have had a social life when I was a teenager, my parents would have encouraged it. I just... didn’t. I was a total homebody.

Have you ever shoplifted? No.

Have you ever done something because of peer pressure you are ashamed of? Yes. Have you ever been embarrassed to introduce your parents to anyone? Nooo. I’ve never been embarrassed by my parents, never would be. I have awesome parents and I love them. My mom and I are especially close, she’s my best friend. And besides, everyone always thought my parents were cool haha.

Would you leave a note on a car claiming responsibility if you damaged it? Yes. That’s the proper protocol, right? I’m not gonna be an ass and say nothing.

Have you ever dis-liked some because you thought they look better than you? Wow, no. I got into this already with the friends question. I don’t base how I feel about someone as a person based on how they look. That has nothing to do with who they really are. My brain also just doesn’t work that way, like I don’t see or meet someone and think, “hm they’re really attractive, that could be a threat to me in some way and I don’t like them” or something. Like what??

Have you ever used someones handicapped parking pass to get a parking spot? I’m handicapped and have my own parking placard, thanks. Please don’t do that, though.

Hve you ever held back a well deserved compliment because you were jealous? I might have before.

Do you guilt people into giving you what you want? If I’ve ever done this, it wasn’t intentionally. <<< Yeah, I don’t pull the disability or health problems card. I’ve done it in a playful way with my family like, “aww I don’t feel good, I bet my favorite food would make me feel better *wink wink*” but that’s it. However, I feel that happens without me doing that if that makes sense. Like, I think people get things for me sometimes because they know I’m going through a hard time and feel bad for me. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain.

Would most ppl consider you better than average looking? Uh, I highly doubt that. We know how I feel about myself, but others would probably just say I’m average to be nice

For yourself, would you rather have a perfect body or high IQ? High IQ.

Have you ever embarrassed some intentionally in public? Not intentionally, but I’m sure I have.

Have you ever used a false ID? Nope.

Are you embarrassed to tell people your job? I don’t have a job, soo.

Would you give up your car to save the planet? I don’t even have a car. I’m glad my parents and brother have their own cars, though... I see it as a necessity for us.

Are you more likely to believe a man or woman? I don’t decide who to believe based on gender. I hear what they have to say and make my own judgment. Unless they give me a reason to doubt or be skeptical then I’ll likely believe them.

Has your credit card ever been declined? No.

If you ran over an animal would you keep driving? Gahhh. I don’t drive, but that’s something that worries me.

Do you think your parents are too critical of you? No.

Would you cover up your boss’s wrong doing for a promotion? Uhh, what kinda shady company am I working for??

Do you avoid conversation with ppl you think are smarter than you? I admit that I feel intimidated and would feel self-conscious about myself. Like if they asked me about something I didn’t know about or was having a conversation I couldn’t contribute to. I’ve been around people who I felt dumb or bad about myself around and as though I was being judged, so I definitely try to avoid that. There’s also been times where it was encouraged to ask questions and the person was inviting and didn’t make me feel inferior in some way.

Ever blame a sibling for something you did wrong? No.

Have you ever dated someone you met through a personal ad? Nope. Also, personal ad sounds so old school lol.

Ever lie about you [or your kids] age to get a discount? May have stretched the kid’s discount a couple years a time or two when I was a kid. :X Like if the cutoff was 11, but I was like 12 or 13. Shhhh.

Have you ever accepted credit for someone else’s work? No.

Did you ever buy something expensive,wear it once and return it? No.

Have you ever re-gifted something? >> Of course. No use keeping something I’m not going to use, or that someone else would enjoy more. <<< Same. I don’t really see it as a bad thing. And I’m usually upfront about it anyway like hey I thought maybe you would enjoy this, I don’t personally have any use for it right now or something.

Do you really care about saving the planet for future generations? I care, but I admit I’m not doing much about it.

#personal #text #survey #surveys

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ridiasfangirlings · 5 years ago

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Hi Ridia-san! I had a discussion with someone who thought that yata had the tendency to get away with things in canon and didn't have any character depth whatsoever,I'm new in the fandom so I don't have all the material to make an argument,what's your opinion on this topic?(they also think that yata is not good enought for fushimi but i don't know about that)sorry for my engli

….I don't usually answer these out of order but I feel the need to defend my baby whose good name has been besmirched D: Also you’ll see this is why I only did a short answer today, this one took me all evening...long rambly meta under the cut:

To be honest I find it a bit odd to say that Yata 'gets away with things' in canon while also claiming he's not good enough for Fushimi, considering Fushimi arguably gets away with more than nearly anyone else in canon – like, I love him and he has a lot of issues that make his reasoning clear, but it doesn't make the way Fushimi acts okay and one of the unfortunate weaknesses I think in his character arc is that he's never really quite called on it or forced to examine his actions very closely, whereas I would argue that Yata is forced to face the weaknesses in his world view and comes out a better person for it. Same with the argument that Yata has no character depth, his arc is one of the more clearly articulated in the series and I would honestly wonder if someone's been actually paying attention to what's happening in the series if they think Yata has no depth and that the Yata we meet at the beginning of the series is the same as the one that ends the series.

So yeah, Yata. I've got a few more in-depth asks about him here and here that are worth looking at, but just to go over his character beat by beat and why I don't see him as 'getting away' with very much at all. He's definitely a flawed character, but so is everyone in K (as it should be, as they say there's nothing more boring than a perfect hero). The Yata we meet first in LSW is young and probably a bit overbearing for a lot of people, someone who isn't good at reading the emotions of others but who ultimately wants to be a good kid. Like at the beginning of LSW with the Yata Team we can see Yata's good and bad sides: he wants to be part of a group, he wants to go on adventures and do awesome things and maybe be a bit of a delinquent (but, notably, for all Yata wants people to think he's a tough hardcore punk Yata's not the one who was cheating on tests or bullying skinny unhealthy nerds, Yata's form of rebellion actually comes off as a bit more of an outer shell covering the actual inner core of creamy nougat).

At the same time, Yata doesn't realize at all that this isn't what his 'friends' like or what they want to do, he tries to get them to join in with him without seeming to care that they have no interest and he gets annoyed at the school being full of boring stuck up kids. Obviously this is an immature worldview but Yata's immature, he's a kid. And it's worth remembering his back story here, that Yata's a kid who doesn't feel he fits in with his own family, who felt for years that he was the only one who could protect his mom and that he just moved back to Shizume after having lived away in a place where it's pretty clearly implied that he did in fact have his own group of friends – Kamamoto, notably – and where he was popular and looked up to. Now he's in a different school in a different place and he doesn't quite manage to fit in well and it's like here he is again, the only square peg in a place full of round holes.

Even so, Yata still tries to keep strong to his own beliefs. Yata has some notable masculinity issues and I think he has this image in his head of what a 'man' should be, and that image is basically a superhero. Yata just wants to be someone who fights on the side of justice and protects everyone, to the point he takes the fall for his not-friends cheating even though he had nothing to do with it. And as Fushimi somewhat points out to him afterward, some of that may well have been rooted in Yata's own ego – wanting to be acknowledged, to be looked up to as the one who protected his friends – but I think he also sincerely wanted to do what he thought a good leader would do. Then when he sees Fushimi being bullied it's the same – Yata I think wants to be needed and to belong, and just as Fushimi feels outside his family Yata does too, like maybe if he can protect people and maybe if he has someone who needs him then Yata can finally feel like he's found a place where he fits.

Then of course he's blindsided when Fushimi doesn't show any gratitude and it makes him reexamine his own motivations, like did he really want to save Fushimi or did he just want to look good, superficially, be thanked and praised. Yata also realizes what his 'friends' think of him at this point, that they've been mocking him all this time and of course Yata gets mad – as a straightforward kid who wears his heart on his sleeve Yata doesn't get why people would talk behind his back, he wants to be told upfront. But here he's thrown the same words, that he just wanted gratitude and praise, that he made the 'Yata Team' do what he wanted and play the games he wanted, and that they thought he'd get mad if they said anything. The notable thing with Yata here though is when he thinks about it he does get depressed, he feels like a bully and that truly is the last thing he wants. Yata can be overbearing but he's not a bad kid and he's really upset by this. And remember again, we're talking someone whose behavior previously made him popular (in the Unused Tickets comic Yata mentions that at his previous birthday a lot of classmates showed up, so basically Yata went from being part of a huge friend circle to being outside of it, at the same time that he's also started feeling on the outside in his own family). And even though Yata was the one who was badmouthed behind his back, having his 'friends' repeat Fushimi's words about needing gratitude is enough to make him start to examine his own actions at least a little, trying to figure out where he went wrong.

This is the point where he meets Fushimi and everything's great for a while, they become friends and Yata gets clearly attached to this person who he thinks is so amazing. Even with the two of them more in sync at this point though it's clear that there are still things Yata doesn't understand, particularly involving Fushimi's family. He's confused when Fushimi's parents aren't home while Fushimi's sick and he knows that Niki affects Fushimi in bad ways, as he tells Aya, though at the same time he still wonders if Fushimi should visit Niki while he's in the hospital. I think it's clear that Yata knows something is wrong with Fushimi's family – he sees how Fushimi is with Niki and the Mothers short story indicates that Yata did see Niki at least a few other times and that he saw Kisa even less. He also has the whole scene at Fushimi's house when Fushimi's sick, noting how things that everyone should understand, like being taken care of when you're sick, are things that Fushimi doesn't get at all.

I can see there being some argument there that Yata should have known Fushimi was being abused and should have done something but remember, Yata's still a middle schooler at this point and besides, what would he have done? Telling his mom to call Child Services probably wouldn't have gone well, particularly considering that Kisa's super rich and that Fushimi I think wouldn't want to admit that anything's happening there, and making a fuss about it could cause Fushimi to push Yata away. With the circumstances being what they are, Yata does the only thing he can think to do: he asks Fushimi to run away with him move in with him, so that Fushimi can have a 'home.' (And speaking of the Mothers story, a note of development: when Yata meets Kisa post-ROK, he decides not to tell Fushimi and not to force on him the idea of seeing his mother again, because Yata's realized that it's up to Fushimi to bridge that gap and if Fushimi doesn't want to see Kisa he shouldn't have to.)

So a couple points about that previous paragraph, and their relationship this far: first, obviously, there's the idea that the two of them are people who feel they don't fit in anywhere who find themselves fitting in together. However, their ideas really aren't as aligned as they think, even at this point when things are going relatively well: Fushimi is happy with just Yata, Yata is happy with Fushimi but as we see eventually he clearly wants to belong to a larger group. Yata doesn't understand Fushimi's worldview, but the same is true for Fushimi, who doesn't realize that Yata doesn't think the same as he does. Also note that Fushimi at this point tends to categorize Yata's words in terms of 0 or 100 points, basically the idea that if Yata pleases Fushimi it's good but if he doesn't it's bad, and allowing no room for anything in between. Fushimi's upbringing being what it is I think that's understandable – I feel like Fushimi at this point in particular is fundamentally selfish, because he's had to be to survive, he's had to focus on himself and protect himself because no one else will. So it's easier for him to put Yata in the box of the person that pleases him, the person who's here to call Fushimi 'amazing' with shining eyes and to prop up Fushimi's own rock bottom sense of self esteem, rather than admitting that Fushimi's really the one who's clinging to Yata all this time as his only good thing, the only one who's ever cared about him. Yata, for his part, is clearly hugely protective of Fushimi and does plenty of things for Fushimi's sake that may not be the best for Yata himself – when Fushimi decides he isn't going to high school Yata does the same, even though he has way less prospects than Fushimi does.

(An aside, here: despite Fushimi's apathy towards school, he still gets good marks on exams and is noted to have some talent, while Yata is called useless by his teacher and later by Aya. Aya even says that Fushimi's 'merit' drops being near Yata. Basically Yata is being told by all corners that he's no good, he's useless, he's stupid, that even if he didn't drop out he wouldn't be able to go any further than he already has. For him, dropping out has more meaning because he won't be able to become anything with just a middle school education. Even so, Yata does it for Fushimi, because Fushimi's his best friend and because Fushimi wants to take on the world, and Yata believes in him – and Fushimi, for all his 0 or 100 points, doesn't think Yata's useless, or stupid, or without merit.)

On Yata's end, there is probably some selfish desire in his closeness with Fushimi: Yata wants to protect people and in a similar way to how Fushimi feels he must be useful somehow or else he's worthless and easy to abandon, Yata needs to have someone to protect or he feels out of place like he did in his house. Once his mother remarried to Yata it's like he lost his place entirely in a variety of ways: he can't be the one who protects his mom, he's not fully blood related to his siblings, he doesn't have a team of friends who look up to him and follow him. But with Fushimi, Yata's got someone who needs him, a guy who can't take care of himself and needs someone to make sure he eats his meals and has a decent bed to sleep in. Of course there's true affection there as well-- Fushimi is Yata's partner, he's Yata's best friend, he's the guy who Yata truly believes can take on the whole world.

And I think Yata has changed by this point too, that even though he wants to have someone to protect he's not doing this just to get gratitude or to feel better about himself. He's doing it because fundamentally Yata wants to protect people he cares about and Fushimi at this point is the number one person for him (and here's already where the cracks start forming too, because for all Yata thinks Fushimi is amazing I think he's always seen them as partners, whereas Fushimi for his own protection tried to think of Yata as beneath him, as someone who followed him, because he can't trust in Yata's sincere affection for him as friend. There has to be a reason, there has to be something he can quantify so he knows Yata won't leave).

Then Homra happens and this is where I feel like Yata gets some undue shit from fandom because I've seen a lot of people claim that 'Yata ignored Fushimi in favor of Mikoto instead, Yata stopped caring about Fushimi and only cared about Homra, Yata made Fushimi leave, etc. etc.' The thing is, I don't think the text entirely bears this out. Side Red and LSW I think make it clear that it's not that Yata ignored Fushimi, it's that the parts of both of them that the other didn't really understand were exacerbated by joining Homra. Like I said above, Fushimi was happy just with Yata (from LSW: “Why do you want me to be understood by everyone when you yourself don’t? … If YOU understand me, I would be content”) and he assumed Yata felt the same. Yata, meanwhile, has always longed to be part of a group and he assumed that Fushimi, being the lonely kid whose walls are always up, must have felt the same (LSW, again: “You don’t want to keep being misunderstood like this, do you?”). Neither one understands the other. When they join Homra, Yata thinks that it's the most amazing place and that Mikoto is the most amazing hero, and he can't understand why anyone would think otherwise. Side Red:

“I wonder if it’s the same for Saru-kun?”

In response to that unexpected question, Yata blinked once or twice.

“Eh?”

“I wonder if Saru-kun, who felt the same way as you, is also letting himself be saved by us?”

It was a question he’d never even thought of. It wasn’t something he had thought of, but he tried thinking about it and came up with a simple answer.

“I dunno, but isn’t he?”

Being beside Suoh, there wasn’t anyone who wouldn’t have their hearts moved and wouldn’t have their blood boil, Yata thought simply. Totsuka didn’t comment on Yata’s answer, just said ‘I see’, and then put on a face like he was looking somewhere distant again.

Clearly, this shows that Yata assumed that Fushimi was also being 'saved' by Homra, because he can't fathom anything else. On the one hand, here's Yata's flaws in glaring obviousness, he's so blinded by his own hero worship of Mikoto and his own needs that he doesn't realize at all what I think Totsuka is trying to hint to him here. On the other, it's not like Fushimi's doing himself any favors. In Side Red it's also noted by Yata that since he joined Homra he hasn't hung out with Fushimi as much anymore, just the two of them – but earlier in the novel when Yata and Kamamoto are watching over Honami and Anna Yata mentions that the orders were originally for himself and Fushimi, and Fushimi bailed. A mission for the two of them, where they could hang out together, and Fushimi was the one who turned away, likely because it was a Homra mission, and so on Homra's terms and not Fushimi's. But Yata doesn't know that because Fushimi never says so and Fushimi's a hard guy to understand, especially for a straightforward person like Yata. So to Yata this seems more like Fushimi blowing him off when they could have hung out than Fushimi being upset because he doesn't want Yata to look at anyone else with shining eyes, and there's really no way Yata could have known what the reason was when Fushimi won't even give him the smallest crumb of a hint.

We also know from LSW that as much as Yata loves Homra, Fushimi is still important to him even then. In LSW it's noted (emphasis mine) “The position as Homra’s vanguard he held together with Fushimi was Yata’s pride.” For Yata, it's not just that he's trusted by Homra, it's that Fushimi is there with him. Seriously, read this and tell me Yata 'stopped caring about Fushimi':

They constantly had disputes with other groups and had a brush with death on countless occasions. In this one and a half year - as long as Fushimi was at his back, Yata was never afraid. He had not even once regretted that they had thrown themselves into this world. He didn’t think that these satisfying days were lacking anything.

He could feel the heat beneath his left collarbone. As if there was a second heart, throb, power was carried through his whole body with one big beat. If Fushimi was close he could even feel the power of the mark he had in the same spot.

Yata's pride isn't just Homra, it's Fushimi. And this is where their misunderstandings continue, because Fushimi assumes, all on his own, that Yata doesn't care about him anymore, because Yata's looking at someone else with shining eyes. Yata is not obligated to be Fushimi's self esteem crutch, he's allowed to be impressed by other people (and as is clear in the interlude I quoted above, Yata still thinks Fushimi's amazing in his own way). Yata wants Fushimi to be part of Homra, to make friends, and Fushimi doesn't like that because I think he assumes that if there are other people around why would Yata ever choose Fushimi – if Fushimi's not the most amazing, if Fushimi's not the one whose plans never fail, then Fushimi has nothing to offer and why would Yata ever choose him over all these other people. And I think in a way Fushimi almost makes this his own self-fulfilling prophecy: he never tells Yata what he's feeling or what's happening with him, so it seems like Yata doesn't care because Yata doesn't know. An example: in LSW when he sees Niki's 'ghost' in the window of his old house he almost tells Yata, and Yata misunderstands thinking Fushimi's talking about something that happened at Homra. Rather than correcting him or qualifying what he meant, Fushimi sinks back into silence and takes this to mean that because Yata didn't push him – when Yata has no way of knowing what was going on – this means Yata didn't care. Yata may not be listening as hard as he could be, but Fushimi isn't speaking loud enough to be heard anyway.

The betrayal is another point between them, when Fushimi actually leaves. First, obviously, Fushimi never 'betrayed' Homra – he is fully within his rights to leave a clan he didn't feel comfortable in, and Mikoto clearly never thinks of him as a traitor. Yata doesn't see this at all, but there are different reasons for it. First – Fushimi clearly frames all this as a betrayal. He doesn't say the real reason he's leaving, he doesn't approach Yata calmly and explain himself. He mocks Homra, mocks Mikoto, mocks all the things that he knows will make Yata angry, and then he burns his tattoo. To Fushimi, Yata's anger and look of betrayal here is all for Homra, that when Yata says 'did you forget this mark is our pride,' Yata means Homra. But the passage I quoted from LSW a bit ago reveals the misunderstanding: to Yata, that mark isn't Homra's pride, it's his and Fushimi's. To Yata, the Homra tattoo in the same place as Fushimi's symbolizes their bond as partners, that second heartbeat he can feel whenever Saruhiko's near.

And Fushimi burns it in front of his eyes.

So for Yata's feelings: yes, he's angry that Fushimi dared to leave Homra and Mikoto. Yata's always had that blindness, the same one Kusanagi notes in the Shrine Visit short story is common in Homra, that everyone tends to assume it's Homra vs the world, that you're one of us or you're an enemy. That blind hero worship is enough to make him think of Fushimi as an enemy just for leaving Homra...except it's pretty clear throughout the series that Yata doesn't actually feel that way (in fact if there's one weakness in Fushimi's arc I feel it's that we get a lot of how Yata feels about Fushimi but precious little concrete moments showing how Fushimi feels about Yata). Shortly after Fushimi leaves we have Yata talking to Totsuka and Yata's angry, he's upset...but:

He regretted it. Grabbing a pillow and pressing his face into it, clenching his teeth so much he cut his own mouth, even then he couldn’t stop regretting.

“I- if he’d say he changed his mind and wants to apologize and come back, then I’m going to apologize together with him to Mikoto-san. He isn’t the type to apologize by himself so I’ll make him apologize and if Mikoto-san’d say things won’t be settled unless he beats Saruhiko up then I’ll get beat up together with him.”

No one's here to give Yata gratitude for that. Fushimi can't hear Yata saying he would be beaten up for Fushimi's sake, because he can't let Fushimi get beaten alone. But Yata still says it, because he still can't abandon Fushimi. And yes, he still doesn't understand – he still thinks of things in terms of Fushimi coming back, not that Fushimi didn't belong in the first place – but Yata doesn't really hate Fushimi either, as much as he wishes he did. Nor does Yata ever stop trying to understand – in the Cellar chapter of Memory of Red he even asks Fushimi straight out why he left Homra. And even with Fushimi still a member of S4 Yata also clearly seems about to ask Fushimi if they can be friends again at the end of chapter, even though Yata still doesn't know why Fushimi's become this way. It's Fushimi who rebuffs him, who won't take anything less than total understanding, and who can't let himself have a 'half-hearted thing' – he can't trust that he has all Yata's affection, so he'll just have all Yata's hate instead.

Jumping ahead then to S1 and after, the first thing I feel should be said on Yata's behalf for anything that happens during the season and the aftermath: Totsuka fucking died in Yata's arms. This is important, because even though the series only lightly touches on Yata's trauma he is still very clearly traumatized by it and I think that informs a lot of Yata's actions in S1. And honestly if we're going to complain about Yata getting away with things in S1 we have to extend that to all of Homra because yes, they do make what from an objective viewpoint would be some rather poor decisions – in seeking revenge, and helping Mikoto seek revenge, they're basically risking a catastrophe that could kill hundreds of thousands of people if Mikoto's Sword falls.

Now whether anyone in Homra aside from Kusanagi and Anna really understands this is debatable, personally I really don't think Yata does. He even says himself in Countdown that he never thought about what Mikoto was thinking and that he never really understood Mikoto. Yata's giving his best in this space though, even as Kamamoto notes that he hasn't been eating or sleeping well, because Yata is determined to avenge the death of a precious friend who died in his arms. That this feeling could have negative consequences isn't really his to think about and that it puts him on opposite sides from Fushimi isn't a consideration either because they're already on opposite sides (and even so, Yata does try to rein in his temper when he meets Fushimi at Ashinaka in episode 5. It's Fushimi who clearly initiates that fight and who goads Yata into it, because he still needs Misaki's eyes on him, he needs Misaki's hate, and he doesn't want to deal with a Yata who puts things like Mikoto's wishes over hating and fighting Fushimi).

Then Mikoto dies and this is another point where I think Yata gets some undeserved flack, for the way he acts in the aftermath. So keep in mind Yata has just lost two people who are very important to him (as have Kusanagi and Anna and all the others, and that's why I personally give them all some leeway in their respective reactions at this point because you can't always control grief). Yata's also lost the place he belongs – to Yata, Homra was the thing he always wished for, a space where he really fits, where he's one of the group and not that kid on the outside. Even when Fushimi is gone, Homra is Yata's rock. When Mikoto dies I think part of Yata knows that Homra's not going to be the same and that it's likely to break apart but he doesn't want to believe it, doesn't want to see his precious place crumble, and so he reacts poorly when Kusanagi says he's closing the bar down.

Obviously Yata's not considering Kusanagi's feelings in this, and he's running a little roughshod over everyone else, trying to keep the mood up by suggesting a trip to the sea even though it's clear that no one is interested. It's like he's regressed a little to the middle school kid with the Yata Team, deciding what they should do for them, but in this case it's not because he wants to be someone looked up to but more that he's trying to hold onto his past because the idea of a future without Homra scares him. Again, Yata's someone who is pretty constantly told he's an idiot and has no other prospects (and he's internalized that too, in Countdown 1 he even says right out “Because I'm stupid I fail even though I give my best”). I think even though Yata hasn't got the same level of issues that Fushimi does he's still someone who feels like maybe he can't belong anywhere – he wants to try, which Fushimi doesn't because Fushimi assumes he'll fail which I think is where their difference lies – and I think for him seeing Homra crack is like suddenly not belonging anywhere at all, like when the Yata Team told him they didn't like him, except this time there's no Fushimi there by his side (and it is notable that while Kamamoto, good guy that he is, tries to cheer Yata up and be there for him Kamamoto's also busy with his own stuff and that really leaves Yata as the only 'main' member of Homra with no partner to help him get through this. The Homra alphabet pairs have each other, Kamamoto's taking care of Anna, but Yata has no one because his 'person' left long ago).

This sends Yata into a pretty long period of depression, which we see in MK and throughout the pre-MK side materials. Obviously Yata's not the only one hurting (Anna and Kusanagi have a lot of pain too, though most of Kusanagi's is offscreen), but I don't think it's fair to fault him for being selfish in his own pain. Yata sits at the bar and stares at old videos of when everyone was happy and for him this is just the lowest point, where he feels like he has nobody who cares and no place to belong. It's indicated that Kamamoto has tried a little to keep an eye on Yata and he does try to call Yata in MK when Anna's in danger (and is ignored), but I think it's understandable that Yata would feel so down and abandoned. He says in Countdown that he hates when people leave him without explaining themselves, the scars of Fushimi's betrayal still strongly there, and I think it's understandable at this point that he feels as if he's been left by everyone.

(Though also worth noting: even though Yata was so angry at Fushimi, in the LSW novel epilogue the one thing that Yata has to cling to, that he doesn't have to regret, is that Fushimi is still alive. “That guy was alive. They would collide again endless times after this, let out anger and questions, and they could try to talk.” Yata can't speak to Totsuka or Mikoto anymore to find out what they were thinking or why they chose the paths they did, but he can still one day reach out to Fushimi and that's important to him.)

And then in MK when he hears that Anna's in trouble Yata does pull himself out of his funk and goes to help her. Even if he doesn't answer his phone for Kamamoto right away due his depression and the general lethargy brought out by it, now that he's needed, now that there's someone who needs protecting, Yata's up and ready. It isn't because he wants gratitude, it's not because he wants to be a hero, it's because Anna's in danger and he cares about her. Yata also swallows his pride and calls Fushimi for help and I think it's clear that this isn't Yata just using Fushimi when it's convenient or anything like that. Yata initially is against calling Fushimi when Kamamoto suggests it because Yata has all this resentment and anger still built up about the betrayal, but even so he knows that Kamamoto's right that Fushimi might be the only person who can help them and so he makes the call. Fushimi of course mocks him for it (I wrote a bit about the call in general here way back), probably feeling like Yata's only calling him because now Fushimi's needed, but that isn't really the case and even if it was, this is still something Fushimi broke himself.

When we get to the back half of MK I think Yata shows a lot of growth actually – even though he does rush in like an idiot, because rushing in is really all Yata knows how to do, he still doesn't completely blow off help from the Silvers, not treating this like a 'you're in Homra or you're against Homra' situation like he might once have. He also clearly tries to thank Fushimi for his help after everything's gone down, which to me shows some definite growth again on Yata's part – Fushimi is still unable to accept that gratitude, but Yata tries. And he keeps trying even into ROK, where his first non-flashback scene with Fushimi is once again Yata trying to thank Fushimi for his help and I think at this point Yata really doesn't want to treat Fushimi like an enemy anymore. Countdown 1 gives us a lot of character growth for Yata, where he really recognizes that he's never quite understood the people he loves and where he makes the decision not to make that mistake again. He wants to support Anna, so he asks her what she wants from him instead of assuming. He wants to understand Fushimi, so he tries to find a way to mend fences (and then Fushimi hits all the buttons he know will hurt in order to make Yata lose his temper again, because Fushimi is nothing if not a master of sabotaging his own happiness).

Continuing from there too, we see a lot of growth in Yata's mindset and his way of dealing with Fushimi and with other clans from this point out. Where Fushimi is clearly displeased about the alliance from the beginning, Yata seems to accept it fairly quickly and he appears to be on pretty good terms with the Silvers, treating them as Anna's friends rather than outsiders who aren't part of Homra – he's graduated from the narrow viewpoint that Kusanagi describes in the Shrine Visit story, he's willing to see people now as more than with us or against us. And even though he may not like Munakata Yata is very clearly trying to understand why Fushimi does – during the Mihashira attack we see him wondering why someone would follow a person like the Blue King and it's blindingly obvious that he's meaning Fushimi here. Yata is trying to understand, because he clearly has decided he wants to fix what's broken between him and Fushimi. Saying Yata 'gets away with a lot' or 'doesn't deserve Fushimi' seems particularly unfair to me in this context, especially seeing as Fushimi shows no real signs of trying to understand Yata at all. Fushimi's still trapped in his own little mess of issues and the closest he lets himself open up is to tell Yata to come and chase him right before the fake betrayal, which is a fairly obtuse way of putting it (and yes you could argue that Munakata understands Fushimi a bit more than Yata does, but I don’t think ‘less perceptive than Munakata Reisi’ is grounds for saying a person doesn’t ‘deserve’ someone else).

Of course for all that Yata does still come to save Fushimi, and I think his reaction to Fushimi's 'second betrayal' shows a lot of how he's grown too. First we do know from the short story 'The Eldest Son and His Mate' that Yata keeps trying to call Fushimi even though he's angry that Fushimi 'betrayed' his clan for a second time. Yata's still a bit immature here, still thinking of it as betrayal, but then when he talks to his mother and she mentions that “My son isn’t somebody who gets wrong what he should do for his best friend” Yata decides to reach out one more time, to search one more place. He's angry, but he also wants to find Fushimi, to ask him why, to understand him. Yata's not looking for Fushimi just to beat him up, he's grown from that.

And even though Yata thinks he's an idiot, even though he gets so many things wrong, in the end Yata comes to a conclusion even Fushimi couldn't manage: “To you, the Blue King was your King all along.” Yata's the one who tells Fushimi that he isn't a traitor, when prior to this Yata was always more than happy to yell that word back at him – because Fushimi wanted him to, because Fushimi wanted to paint himself in those colors. Yata has no way of knowing the real reason why Fushimi broke off their friendship the way he did – Yata doesn't know about the anthill, after all, and there's no way he could – but he tells Fushimi straight out: “Say it in a way I understand. Keep saying it until I do understand.” He's not saying that all the onus is on Fushimi to communicate in their relationship, because Yata himself always communicates everything he feels loudly. What he's saying is that Fushimi can't keep hiding all his emotions and pain and forcing them down into nothing, and then feel upset when Yata doesn't read his mind. It's like with the hallucinations in LSW, when Fushimi finally leaves Homra. He tries to tell Yata only once about anything related to them (the bit I mentioned earlier, where he sees 'Niki' in the house), and clams up as soon as he's misunderstood. Fushimi doesn't say anything and Yata knows it, and he's putting it to Fushimi plain: I want to understand, so don't stop talking until I do. Don't give up on me. Don't carry it all alone.

So basically with all this above, I find it really strange for someone to say that Yata 'gets away with things' or that he 'has no depth.' The after story with him and Fushimi also makes this clear:

'Homra might not be able to exist the way it was now. When Suoh had died Yata was the the only one who couldn’t accept that until the end. He resented his comrades for leaving the bar and labeled them as coldhearted. He had stubbornly persisted to protect Homra and the bar the way it had been when Suoh was around. Now he understood that Homra was changing its form from a ‘street gang’, also for Anna’s sake. They had to change to be able to properly deliver to the future what the now deceased had treasured. And because of that there was no guarantee that all the comrades who respected Suoh wouldn’t walk down a different path now.

When Yata had accepted that, and even though it was strange, the day where he could walk side by side with his once lost best friend had come at the end of the way he had started to move on.'

I don't think you could see that as anything but Yata acknowledging his own faults, acknowledging that he can't hold onto the past forever and that trying to do so was wrong, while also expressing a desire to move forward, and a happiness that he can do so with Fushimi back by his side. Yata worked fucking hard to get Fushimi back. He grew, he changed, he questioned his old outlook on things, he did his best to understand something that he really never would have been able to understand entirely by himself. From the Mothers short story: 'Trying to understand Fushimi based on his own assumption was not the way to go. Because he assumed this way back then, they had missed one another for so many years. Guess that guy would still need some time.'

Yata's been through some shit and he lost a friend, and he matured and worked to win that friend back. He's got plenty of depth to spare for a guy who thinks he's an idiot (yet still can make insightful comments on his own, who still does understand Fushimi a lot more than I think Fushimi himself realized despite what happened between them) and he definitely doesn't 'get away' with anything, especially when by contrast we never see Fushimi so much as apologize for his part in the betrayal (and while Fushimi has all his myriad of issues and mental and emotional struggles that make forgiveness possible, it doesn't give him carte blanche for everything he did to Yata either, that's not how a relationship works. I love Fushimi, but he owes Yata a damn apology). I think the reason the two of them do deserve each other is because they've both gone through the fire together, broken apart, and still found their way back together. They're both reaching for an understanding, even if it's hard to grasp, and there's no shame in a few missteps along the way.

#Yata Misaki #K project #Talking K #K Meta #giant meta post of doom #the second #yeah this got away from me I hope everyone enjoys it #also I should note that again I do love Fushimi and don't think that all of the things between him and Yata were 'his fault'#or that he 'doesn't deserve' Yata #basically Fushimi is an absolute disaster child who has reasons for why he is the way he is #but at the same time I don't think that should mean that Yata has to take on all the blame and heavy lifting in their relationship #honestly if someone told me they didn't think Yata had any depth I'd wonder if we watched the same series #I personally wish the end of Fushimi's arc had gotten more depth myself #but Yata gets plenty he has one of the clearer arcs out of the whole cast

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violetosprey · 5 years ago

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Wanted to hear you go on about child yandere. more types of love than romantic. the your my friend or your going to take care of me and me you is scary in a different way. smart kids can more easily manipulate the victim and others emotionally.

Child yanderes huh? Admittedly, that’s a topic I never really think about a lot. The wording here was a little strange, but I’m taking this as pretty much a “free rein” question.

Quick thoughts here before the read more section:

Can a child be a yandere? – Absolutely

My feelings towards child yanderes (where the cast is roughly the same age) – Same as a normal yandere

My feelings towards child yanderes (where the yandere’s S/O is much older) – Frustrating to okay

To be perfectly upfront here, I don’t focus on child yanderes a lot with the media I consume. That doesn’t mean I don’t come across any. In fact, in may just be a case where I’m not even considering “this is a child yandere” when technically yes they are. I guess it depends on what age range you think of when you hear the word “child” to begin with. For me, that makes me think elementary school and maybe even middle school. High school I would rather say “kids” if that’s a step up in anyway?

If you consider anyone who is a minor (under the age of 18) a child, then yeah there’s a lot of child yanderes I’ve seen. Lots of media I’ve read or watched focus on a cast of characters in high school for instance, or sometime middle school age. I don’t think I’ve read or watched something with a yandere where the cast is strictly elementary school age. Would I even really enjoy that? To be honest, elementary school (and sometimes even middle school) romances for me might sound cute, but I hardly take them seriously. There’s a lot of yanderes who met their S/O in elementary school in the story I’m sure, but that’s usually a past element and the story is focusing on the characters when they’re older.

For the sake of this post, I’ll just assume anyone who is under the age of 18 may count as a child yandere.

Can a child be a yandere? Of course they can. They just have to have intense feelings of love that are overwhelming towards another individual, often leading to obsessive and/or possessive behavior.

If you’re the type that believes in “platonic yanderes,” the most common obsessions here would be like the best friend kind (like you stated anon), sibling or parental figure. In cases like these, I know for a fact I’ve seen some stories where the character is just severely deprived of safe and affectionate love in general. Their relationships at home either aren’t stellar, or the character doesn’t have anyone period. They child may have faced abuse or neglect, or they may simply be an orphan. There’s no desire for sexual or romantic connection here. The character rather just wants companionship and sometimes a caretaker. Depending on the backstory given, you can feel kind of sad for these characters since they just don’t want to be alone. They may also have a tendency to latch onto someone who fits an “ideal” of theirs. Like the other person seems like the best role model for a friend/sibling/parental figure they always wanted.

If you’re like me though and are more focused on straight up “romantic yanderes,” yes a child can still develop these intense feelings. In fact, it’s very common for a person in their younger years to grow easily infatuated with someone else, obsess over having a relationship and fumble with healthy dating behavior. Pretty understandable because when you’re young, you’re just figuring things out. Lots of people have getting married as a main goal in life, so figuring out relationships early on is a benefit sometimes. You’ve got other things affecting your goal like your social environment and puberty (you know what I mean). I just stated the obvious here but oh well. So yeah, a child yandere could fall in love with someone around their age, but they could also develop feelings for someone older. Usually with the latter, it’s just innocent crushes that blossom from getting attention from someone they view as much more mature than their peers. Plenty of people will probably say, “I had the biggest crush on my third grade teacher” for instance or something like that. They’re mostly harmless and will fade away in normal cases. By the way, just because a kid CAN develop a crush on an older individual, that is NOT permission to pursue a relationship with them -_-. Sorry for that interruption, but I don’t want people to misinterpret what I’m saying here.

Now if the child yandere in question is part of a cast that’s around the same age as them, including their S/O…I just kind of treat them like any other yandere. No special feelings really towards the character more of less because the setting allows me to just focus on the relationships and not really the ages. Especially with anime and manga where like, character appearances will hardly match their age sometimes, so I halfway give up even worrying about how old these characters are to begin with.

Currently the most recent child yandere I could think of observing was Norman in the Promised Neverland parody manga, The Parodied Jokerland. He’s very enjoyable in that and incredibly yandere. He’s the cute kind of creepy obsessive, if that makes any sense. In that scenario, his S/O Emma is the same age as him, and the majority of the cast are also kids.

If you have a child yandere who’s focused on an OLDER S/O though…that’s kind of difficult to ignore.

I had this very funny and sad realization: Most of the media I’ve viewed where a child yandere is in love with an older S/O is via Lifetime movies.

Yeah…

So that gives me a more narrow view here of child yanderes if their S/O is older than them 0.o. Lifetime is basically my junk food. It’s bad for me, but I’ll watch it occasionally when I have cable access. Not stellar entertainment, but my god they love to run the obsessive love trope over and over again. Believe it or not, I know I’ve seen a few variations of cases where they have a younger character desperately trying to get together with an older character. They probably have all combinations, but for some reason the one that pops into my head first is, “teenage girl wants to marry this older man who’s already married/in a relationship.”

The way most of these plots play out is something like:

1) Kid tries to find a way to get access to S/O (ex. Class, lessons, be a friend of S/O’s kid)

2) Kid tries to get the S/O to support them with a sad backstory and/or tries to be the “perfect helper” for the S/O

3) Kid tries to bump off the S/O’s partner at some point (may or may not succeed)

4) Someone dies (because it’s Lifetime and someone you honestly don’t care about has to get killed at some point just to up the ante- I have literally only ever cared about 1 person that died when watching Lifetime and I don’t think it was even an official Lifetime movie)

5) Kid confesses their love for their S/O and claims they’re the best match for them

6) S/O (unsurprisingly) shuts them down with a “No”

7) Kid snaps and depending on how much time is left in the movie, usually a fight culminates between individuals or there’s a kidnapping or blackmailing (you get the idea)

8) Ends with kid either getting killed or arrested (Wait do they kill the child yanderes in these movies? I haven’t watched them all so maybe they live, I’m not sure).

So yeah that’s what this ask made me think of first, haha. Obviously with Lifetime, pretty much all their yanderes (as low-brow as some of them are) are the antagonistic/villain kind with Yandere vs. S/O stories. It’s no different if the yandere in the film is a child. It’s a guaranteed that the child yandere is going to lose in these films. But quite frankly…I know a lot of people actually want the S/O to reciprocate and work with the yandere, but I think we can all agree that this particular scenario should be fine staying Yandere vs. S/O. Because if it wasn’t, that means you’d be making…an OLDER S/O…attempt a relationship…with a minor….yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaahhhhh I don’t recommend going that route for obvious reasons.

Now are child yanderes ever really a threat? Actually yes, they can be quite dangerous. Sure, they’re not like a high political figure or CEO like in the stories I like to read that can use their power and wealth to push the S/O into a corner or anything. But child yanderes can become surprisingly selfish and underhanded with their tactics. One thing I notice is that they’re incredibly observant, so they know where to find items they need to use (like weapons or drugs) for a wicked task or they know what kind of people to talk to and manipulate for their own needs. While child yanderes lack a higher social and economic standing, they have their “innocence” that can often help avoid detection from the authorities when trouble arises. The most dangerous weapon I’d say a child yandere has at their disposable would be the ability to slander someone without repercussions. Especially if they’re claiming someone else was violent with them or sexually abused them. Why? Because let’s be honest, lots of people would be deathly afraid of doubting a child making such accusations. And in turn, their feelings would rise quickly and they’d turn against the accused.

Another fun Lifetime fact: Depending on the film, they always purposefully make it frustrating for the viewer when it comes to false accusations vs. real accusations. If it’s a film where they have an actual victim speak out against their perpetrator, the circumstances will usually be set up so that most of the film cast won’t believe the victim. On the other side, if it’s a character making a false accusation against another character, most of the film cast will side with the liar over the accused. Because I guess Lifetime just likes to say that life is infuriating like that 0.o

Getting back on topic though, so why did I say that child yanderes can range from “frustrating to okay” for me? Well, like I said earlier, I don’t really take a lot of young romance that seriously. Kids can also be very volatile and irrational, so you know in ADDITION to this character being a yandere, it’s going to be nearly impossible to try to talk some sense into the character that they cannot be with the S/O they desire. It’s a doomed relationship, so I find myself either rolling my eyes at or pitying the yandere in this case. The child yandere could be “okay” though if, well…I like their yandere actions honestly. I AM still a sucker for yanderes in general, so I’m not gonna mind if I get a nice fix of crazy in there.

This probably isn’t a stellar answer, but like I said this isn’t really a topic I think about a lot. Hope it was interesting?

#yandere #male yandere #female yandere #answer

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