#survived his Master dying in front of him

[smeraldo-heart]

Cal Kestis as a padawan:

What Cal would have really looked like at that age:

[brokenmenswhore]

betrothals & brothels | aegon, aemond, & jace

part 3

pairings: aegon targaryen x stark fem!reader, aemond targaryen x stark fem!reader, jacaerys velaryon x stark fem!reader

series summary: aemond targaryen tells the realm that you, the lady of house stark, are to wed him and secure a partnership in the north. in protest, you agree to marry jacaerys velaryon, affirming the north’s allegiance to rhaenyra. when the news hits king’s landing, aegon decides it’s better to have you under his watchful eye until the political partnership is solidified, but doesn’t realize you have a life away from your duty as a stark

chapter warnings: angst (a lil from everyone)

a/n: are you guys dying for the smut are you just dying for it i promise we’re almost there

series masterlist

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“This is your fault!” Aegon screamed, bursting into the small council room, doors swinging shut as he slammed a thin piece of paper down on the table in front of Aemond.

Aemond remained level-headed, eye traveling down to the paper in front of him as he began to read.

“You,” Aegon stomped forward, an accusatory finger pointed at his brother, “you granted her access to a raven. She must have asked him to come. This is on you.”

“Speak plainly, Aegon,” Alicent snapped, elbows resting on the table as she wiped her fingers across her eyes in frustration, “we do not understand your hysterics.”

“The precious prince allowed his newly betrothed to send a letter to Dragonstone,” Aegon spat, “without clearing its contents.”

“I do not understand,” Alicent spoke.

“Our beloved nephew has requested to visit,” Aemond spoke, completely unphased by the rage exhibited by his brother, “he is aware the Stark girl is here.”

“Jacaerys requested an audience with you?” Alicent clarified, bewildered at the boldness of the young prince.

“He must only be so bold by request. She must have requested he ask such a thing. He would not do it on his own. I dare say his cock is not big enough.”

“Aegon!” his mother scolded, taking a deep breath, “I assume we are all in agreement that this is not permissible?”

Lord Wylde, Master of Laws, raised a hand, “if I may, Your Grace, denying this request may only worsen things.”

“How?” Aegon asked.

“If the boy does not intend to commit an infraction against the crown, denying him travel may seem like an act of fear. The false queen may believe you see her as a threat that cannot breach the castle walls, for if she does, she will take the throne.”

“And you think her capable of doing such things should she be in my presence, Lord Wylde?” Aegon said, standing at the head of the table, palms flat against the wood.

“Your Grace, I mean no offense-“

“We are talking about Jacaerys, not the false queen, Lord Wylde,” Aemond interrupted, “and he would not dare try anything rash. He knows he would not survive a battle against my sword.”

Aegon raised a hand and gestured toward his brother. “Are you saying you think the crown should allow this visitation?”

“I do not see why not.”

“Are you simply trying to absolve yourself of guilt, brother?” Aegon’s tone began to calm down, “for you are the one to blame here.”

“Why don’t I simply ask the girl if she requested his presence?” Aemond suggested, sighing through the words in annoyance at his brother’s temperament.

“She would not tell you,” Aegon replied.

“I believe she would. She is many things, but she has not yet proven herself to be dishonest.”

“If she is so trustworthy, why did she insist on sending a letter without clearance in the first place? What do you possibly think her writings contained? A declaration of her love for you?”

Aemond slammed a hand on the desk and stood up abruptly, his chair sliding back on the stone floor behind him. Aegon was taunting him now.

“If you think yourself incapable of holding ground against our nephew, then by all means, brother, deny his request. I, however, know that no destruction could come from the hands of Jacaerys. I believe him too weak. Do you not?”

Aegon sighed in frustration, trying to remain discreet with his eyes as he glanced to the members of the council, all staring at him in wait.

“Mother?” he spoke, head turned toward Alicent, awaiting her input.

“It is rather dangerous,” she began, her mild slightly changed, “but I believe it may be taken as a sign of good faith. We simply must be diligent in our protective measures upon his arrival.”

Aegon dropped his head. He did not want Jacaerys to come to King’s Landing- he hated his young nephew. Jacaerys was Rhaenyra’s heir, making him a direct threat to Aegon’s crown, and Jacaerys was the reason everything with you had become so difficult. Aemond was not a great help, but if Jacaerys had not proposed a betrothal upon hearing Aemond’s announcement of his intentions to wed you, Aegon would not be in this predicament.

Denying this request was an assurance of Aegon’s safety against the Blacks, but could also be taken as a gesture of war, a true strife between a broken family. Accepting this request put Aegon’s livelihood in danger, but he did not want to appear weak enough as to think Jacaerys could be a legitimate threat to him or his power.

“Does no one think the boy may have ulterior motive?” spoke Ser Tyland Lannister, Master of Coin, “we are discussing inviting the enemy into our walls. There should be no question about what decision is best. He should not come.”

“What do you believe he is capable of, Ser Tyland?” Aemond asked, almost mocking.

“For one, how are we to ensure only he will arrive? Granting him access to our city may spark a chain reaction. Other Blacks may think it okay to come here. Rhaenyra herself, for one.”

The small council remained quiet, debating upon Tyland’s words. Many of them had not considered the possibility of Rhaenyra taking the opportunity to come, likely on dragonback.

“We should be worried about Rhaenyra always, not just if her son were to come,” Ser Criston Cole chimed in, “if she intended on bringing herself and Syrax here, she would have done so. She does not need a formal invitation. I believe her capable of doing as she pleases, when she pleases. The threat of her arrival is always imminent, I do not believe it more prominent should we allow your nephew to come, Your Grace.”

“Ser Cole is right,” Aemond agreed, “the same applies for our young nephew. If he wanted to, he could simply arrive of his own volition. He, instead, had the courtesy to request an audience with us, lest he decide to take it by force instead. We should take this request as a gesture of good will.”

“Does no one understand how detrimental this would be?” Aegon said, clearly becoming frustrated with the council he was receiving, “we are at war. There is a tremendous deal of pressing matters to attend to and we are here, discussing if it is wise to allow the enemy into our home.”

“None of us believe this war could have been avoided,” Alicent’s tone was calm, pulling Aegon out of his head, “but I believe there are those of us that wish it different. He is still your family, and he truly may just want to see the Stark girl. Maybe this will render our situation capable of change.”

Aegon took his mother’s words to heart. He was perhaps the only one who truly wanted a war, he was angry, and he wanted to spill blood, but he trusted his mother. Catastrophes may have been avoided if there was still a sense of family amongst the Targaryens.

“Tell him to come,” Aegon said, “but only come alone.”

✶

Aegon had considered storming into your chambers, voice raised and demanding to know the contents of your letter to Jacaerys, but he had not seen or spoken to you since his moment of vulnerability. He did not know what to say or how to act in your presence, and he thought it better to avoid placing himself in any circumstance that would require him to think of it.

Instead, he found himself beside Aemond, watching from atop the Red Keep as Vermax’s wings came into focus, a hint of green visible in the distant sky when the sun hit at just the right angle.

When Aegon felt comfortable that it was only Jacaerys who was approaching, he retreated to the throne room, Aemond maintaining his position to assist in security measures should the King’s Guard need him.

Jacaerys landed Vermax directly in front of the Keep doors, the wind from the dragon’s wings nearly knocking over guards and smallfolk alike.

The moment Vermax calmed, Jacaerys left his mount, feet not on the ground for a moment before the King’s Guard rushed him and began to pat him down. His hand remained tightly secured to the hilt of his sword, at is always had, as the men stepped away, gesturing him forward. Jacaerys nodded, entering the keep and directing himself toward the throne room. He expected nothing less of his uncle, knowing his desire to appear powerful would manipulate his choice of placement.

He marched forward, the guards desperately attempting to keep up with his footing, as he swung the doors to the throne room open, finding Aegon sat upon the mess of swords, expecting his entrance.

Jacaerys did not bow, the only reason he stopped at the steps of the throne being a gesture of good faith, an assurance he did not intend to charge his uncle, sword in hand.

“It has been quite a while, uncle,” Jacaerys spoke, matter-of-factly.

It bothered Aegon to no end that he did not speak first. “As it has.”

Jacaerys and Aegon exchanged a glance for a brief few moments, neither sure of how to initiate a conversation.

Jacaerys took a deep breath, fighting with every cell of his being to remain calm. “You know why I am here, uncle. Where is she?”

Aegon smiled, his posture resting in a casual position on the throne. “You already know her whereabouts. Is that not why you’ve come?”

“Let me see her.”

“No.”

“Let me. See her,” Jacaerys repeated, a pause between the words.

“Or what?”

Jacaerys cocked his head to the side, trying to control his breathing. He refused to be the reason any hostility was initiated.

“Do you think I’ve traveled all this way for a bickering match?”

Despite Jace’s better judgement, he could not mask his bitter tone.

“You asked to come. I do not remember ever promising you an audience with the Stark.”

“Her brother misses her dearly.”

“I am sure he does.”

“As do I.”

Aegon did not expect anything remotely close to a genuine confession from Jacaerys. He searched Jacaerys’s eyes for any hint of regret, but to no avail. Jacaerys had meant to toy with Aegon’s heart; there was hope that if Aegon could view him as human, as family once again, he would he more lenient with granting requests. He knew Aegon had a somewhat tender heart underneath his cold exterior.

“She is not a piece of property, Aegon, tell me where you are keeping her.”

“Soon she will be wed to Aemond, in which case, she will be more my family than yours. She is not property, sure. She is Aemond’s.”

“We do not hold family hostage.”

“How is your mother? Hm?” Aegon started, beginning to play with the fabric on the hilt if his dagger as he shifted the subject, “still crying over a lost throne?”

Jacaerys’ nostrils flared in annoyance, the muscles on his neck flexing as Aegon laughed, happy to have garnered a reaction from his nephew. He loved to tease Jace, annoy him, get him all worked up, and force him into a rage. Jacaerys knew this, and fought against it as hard as he could.

“Be nice, brother, Jacaerys is family after all,” Aemond interrupted, a confident walk taking him across the room until he was standing but a few feet away from Jacaerys. “Besides, who wouldn’t want to see the girl? She is all too pleasurable to look at.”

“Mind your tongue, uncle,” Jacaerys snapped back.

“You are rather possessive of my betrothed,” Aemond teased.

Jacaerys took a deep breath, bowing his head briefly to reset his temperament. “Where is she, Aemond?”

“In her room, where else?”

“It is not her room if it is not her home.”

“Aemond will be her home soon,” Aegon chimed in, “and I’ve already told you you may not see her. She is not permitted to leave her chambers.”

Jacaerys’s brow furrowed in slight confusion as he looked back and forth between his two uncles. “First you kidnap her, and now you do not even grant her the courtesy of leaving a singular room?”

“Though I will say, Aemond seems to have no issue letting her out at will,” Aegon spoke, resentment evident in his voice.

“Meaning what?” Jacaerys asked for clarification.

“Meaning nothing,” Aemond said, rushing to get the words in before Aegon could elaborate.

The three Targaryens exchanged glances, unsure how to continue. The conversation was going nowhere, and Jacaerys was concerned about Aegon’s previous comment. What was Aemond doing to you?

“I did not come all this way for nothing,” Jacaerys stated, “let me see her.”

“What do we get in return for granting you an audience?” Aemond bartered.

“The gift of keeping your life.”

Aemond snickered. “You could not beat me if you tried.”

“I do not wish to. I, however, will do whatever it takes.”

“You would dare draw your sword at us just to speak with your Northern whore?” Aegon threw your scandalous reputation at Jacaerys, hoping it would strike a chord and cause him to act irrationally.

“I would,” Jacaerys focused on Aegon, “and if she is truly a whore, you should exhibit no true possessiveness toward her.”

Aegon stood, ready to combat his nephew’s words, potentially with his dagger.

“Under supervision, of course,” Aemond spoke, cutting off Aegon’s thoughts and actions, “I’m sure such a thing can be arranged.”

“I do not answer to you,” Jacaerys spat.

“Then why did you ask permission to come here?”

“I will not be responsible for worsening a war.”

Aemond gave Jacaerys a slight nod. Aemond’s greatest gift was his inability to be manipulated. Each and every decision he made was cold and calculated, never faltering on his own personal plans.

“I’m sure you expect conditions.”

“I do not need a handmaiden present to speak to my future wife.”

“You will not have a handmaiden present,” Aemond sighed, “but I require to be present for anyone who expects an audience with my betrothed.”

Aegon sighed and threw his hands up. Aemond had a habit of negotiating, despite never seeking Aegon’s authority to do so.

Jacaerys remembered your letter. It is imperative that he believe me good on my word. He was angry, and unafraid to contest your betrothal to Aemond, believing you to still be betrothed to him. He would call you his betrothed to the ends of the earth, but he was cautious to not mentioned your promise to him in your letter.

“Fine.”

If it meant he could see you, he would bear more time spent with his uncle.

Aemond showed Jacaerys to your quarters, silence befalling them both. They had much to say to one another, but neither of them wanted to fight. Aemond just wanted Jacaerys to leave, and Jacaerys just wanted to see you.

Aemond gave a small knock to your apartment door, something he never did.

The unfamiliar sound caught you off guard. “Come in,” you called toward the door, expecting to see an inexperienced handmaiden enter.

When Aemond appeared, you stood up abruptly, nervous as to why he was here in the middle of the day. Was he revoking your access to the streets? Had Aegon discovered your secret? Was he aware of your business in the streets? Were you being further punished for existing?

Every worry, every thought, every nervous feeling swiftly left your body as Jacaerys walked through the door, stopping short the moment he saw you. Your breathing caught in your throat, a sharp gasp lost before it could be completed.

Jacaerys’s features softened the instant he saw you. He nearly forgot how beautiful you were. The crown had only given you lavish green dresses, forcing you to look as one of them. Despite Jacaerys’s internal recoil at the sight, you wore the color well, and he knew it was not your choice. He believed that you would look beautiful in any color, even that of the enemy.

“Jacaerys,” you spoke, so softly he wouldn’t have heard it if he wasn’t giving you his complete attention.

“Hi,” he spoke, both of you completely frozen in place.

Aemond noticed the way you looked at his nephew. Your eyes was softer than they were when they were focused on him, your gaze usually cold and callous, unable to show any vulnerability in front of him. When you looked at Jacaerys, your features relaxed so much, you nearly cried. It bothered Aemond. He did not realize how much you truly resented him until he saw how you gazed upon someone you did not resent.

“W-“ you choked. You were nearly crying from overwhelming disbelief, and a lack of trust at the situation, “what are you doing here?”

“I had to see you,” Jacaerys said, moving his feet toward you in desperation to touch you, “I had to know you were alright.”

Jacaerys took your hands in his own. His voice dropped, low and soft enough to signify his words were only meant for your ears, not Aemond’s, “and I missed you.”

A few tears fell from your eyes as you disconnecting your hands, wrapping your arms around his neck as you pulled him close. Jace’s hands wrapped around your waist, holding you tightly as he pulled you as close to him as he could. Your bodies melted together, the comfort of one another consuming you until your eyes blinked open and you saw Aemond, the sudden reminder that you were not alone, and you were not as safe as you felt in Jacaerys’s arms.

You pulled away from the hug, turning away from Jacaerys and taking a seat in front of the fireplace. Despite the early hour, the fire was lit, the dancing of the flames the only entertainment and stimulation for you during your days.

Jacaerys followed you, kneeling down on the floor in front of you. “Are you okay?” he counciled.

You discreetly gestured toward the door, reminding him that Aemond was present, and therefore you had to act differently than you would if you were alone.

“He insisted on supervision,” Jacaerys explained, disappointment in his voice.

“Nothing more pressing to attend to?” you called toward the door, turning slightly so Aemond knew the question was meant for him.

“You know I like to keep an eye on you,” Aemond responded, referencing him escorting you at night, hoping the mystery of his words would bother Jacaerys.

Jacaerys took a sharp breath. “I want you to come back with me.”

Your eyes widened. “I do not wish to remain here, Jace, but Vhagar is capable of melting much more snow.”

You could both hear Aemond snicker behind you, but neither acknowledged it.

“If you stay here, I fear they can force your hand,” Jacaerys pleaded.

“They have already forced my hand,” your voice broke, fighting any sadness or tears in your confession.

“You have promised yourself to me,” Jacaerys whispered, hoping Aemond was not intent on listening, whispering almost inaudibly “or did you not mean your written words? I will not allow them to force you to abandon me.”

There was no volume low enough to avoid Aemond’s impeccable hearing, especially when he was determined to hear every word his nephew spoke. Aemond stomped over in a rage.

“You what?” Aemond snarled, eye focused on you.

“What?” you responded, playing dumb with a confidence that had him almost believing you.

“I trusted you,” Aemond was furious, “I trusted you to do the right thing, and instead you sent a raven saying you intend to honor your betrothal to him? Did we not have an understanding?”

Despite his anger, Aemond mostly felt betrayed. He thought there was an unspoken understanding of trust between you two, and he was jealous of your affections toward Jacaerys.

“Have I given you any reason to relinquish your trust in me?” you combatted.

“Do you think me a fool?” Aemond spat, “I heard your little catch-up.”

You stood, Jacaerys following suit and standing guard next to you as you began to raise your voice at Aemond. “What did you expect of me? You hold me captive, begin to burn my house, force my hand in marriage, confine me each and every day, and only let me free to pursue your own exploits. Did you think me growing affectionate toward you for simply unlocking a door that I do not deserve to have locked? You and your brother have been nothing but cruel. The only kind thing you’ve done for me in my time here is allow me to see Jacaerys, and I am sure you have your own reasons for such things. You should not dare take issue with me, Aemond.”

“Our agreement, lest you forget, included you renouncing him and acknowledging your betrothal to me. You did not follow through, and therefore there is no understanding between us anymore. I’m sure you will find the dungeons quite comfortable.”

“Try as you will, you are simply mad that she cannot be controlled,” Jacaerys defended you. He knew you didn’t need it, but he would try regardless.

“Mind your tongue.”

Jacaerys unsheathed his sword, pointing the tip at Aemond. The room stilled for a moment.

Aemond made a swift move to mimic Jacaerys’s actions, the two men armed, your body the only thing between them.

You desperately wished you had some sort of weaponry as defense. You always wanted to learn the skills of the sword, but the men of the Watch never let you participate, only allowing you to spectate.

“Do it,” Aemond taunted.

“You do not have the authority to banish someone to the dungeons, for you are not the King,” Jacaerys matched his tone.

“Strike me, nephew. If you truly dare.”

“Would you both please sheath your weapons? Aemond, I am nothing more than your prisoner. The dungeons cannot hold my temper the very same way this room cannot.”

“Then you shall not mind the change of scenery.”

“You underestimate me,” you threatened.

“You underestimate us both,” Jacaerys huffed in anger.

“Well well well, I see this is going well,” Aegon smiled, strutting into the room, “I expected nothing less.”

“She must be taken to the dungeons, brother,” Aemond informed.

“I told you as such upon my arrival,” you reminded them.

Aegon approached you. “Shall we?”

“I would hope you know me better than to simply go at will.”

Aegon called the King’s Guard stationed by his side at all times to enter the room, four different men swarming you and holding your arms behind your back. Jacaerys dropped his sword down, looking for any entrance to help you, but found none. You jumped and kicked and clawed, adamant on not going down without a fight. You elbowed one of the men straight in his nose, blood rushing down his mouth and chin as he stumbled backward at the sudden pain. You took the opportunity to twist the arm he was holding back in front of you, punching the man directly in front of you. As your fist approached his face, Aemond caught your wrist, gripping tightly as he shoved the arm behind your back again, his other hand occupied with the sword that was now at your throat.

You remained cautiously still, but refused to show any sense of fear.

“Do it,” you spat, “it would be a great relief from spending the rest of my days with the likes of you.”

The blade pressed harder into your neck. Jacaerys stopped closer to you, but Aemond shot him a look. Jacaerys raised his sword again, the tip facing Aemond again. “Drop it.”

“Make me,” Aemond replied.

Aemond shoved his body into your side, nearly making you fall as you stumbled closer to the door, the men of the Guard seizing the opportunity to walk you out of the room and toward the dungeons, Aemond keeping his hand around your wrist.

Jacaerys and Aegon were left alone in your (now previous) chambers, the sun beginning to fade from the windows.

“You may take your leave now,” Aegon said.

“You do not expect me to just leave when you’ve impriso-“

“Take your leave.”

Jacaerys sighed. He needed more strength, more dragonfire, more support. He knew his talents, but he knew himself not capable of defeating both of his uncles on his own. He hated Aemond, but he would be a fool to not admit Aemond’s capabilities when wielding a blade.

Jacaerys stomped out of the room, ignoring anyone in his path as he marched back to Vermax.

✶

When you were placed in your cell, the men immediately locked the door and left, leaving you trapped with Aemond peeking into your cell as if you were a caged animal.

“Feel safer, do you?” you taunted, “is a woman truly so much of a threat to the one-eyed prince?”

“You are here by your own volition,” Aemond told you, “it did not have to come to this.”

“I could have spoken those words to you the moment you commanded Vhagar upon my home.”

Aegon dropped his head. “What will it take for you to not be so combative?”

“I will never stop being combative, especially so long as you treat me like this.”

“I would not have to treat you like this if you stopped acting like this.”

You began to raise your voice. There was no point in holding back now. “This started when you decided to announce a betrothal to the realm that I did not consent to! I had no reason to ever know you until your idiot brother saw no other way to secure an alliance in the North but to strip me of my right to choose a proper husband! I never wanted any part of your war, Aemond, and now you are punishing me for it.”

Aemond slammed his hands against the cell door, the metal violently banging and clashing. “I have never, in all my years-“

“That’s enough,” Aegon interrupted, “leave us, will you brother?”

Aemond desperately needed to calm down, his breathing erratic, his cheeks red. “I was in the middle of-“

“Leave us.”

Aegon was serious now, glaring at his brother until he was out of sight.

“You stupid fucking whore,” he spat at you, “it was my brother’s own fault for trusting you.”

“You’re the one who allowed Jacaerys to come here, are you not? I had no part in such.”

“Did you not request his presence? In your special little letter to your prince?”

You gave him a confused look. “You believe I told him to ask for such things?”

“I would not trust if you denied it, so do not even bother,” Aegon sighed, taking a seat on a guard stool a few feet away, resting his elbows on his knees as he clasped his hands together.

“So what is your plan? To keep me captive forever? To only let me out on my wedding night and force me to carry your brother’s seed? To hope that I die in child birth and allow your men to find my newborn crying on this floor?”

“What do you expect me to do with you? I need your house on my side.”

“I’d rather you have asked nicely, to speak plainly.”

“And you would have bent the knee if I had?” Aegon questioned.

“Absolutely not.”

“So you see why I must resort to force.”

“Did you ever question whether or not you are deserving of my House’s allegiance? Do you truly think yourself worthy of any noble house’s support? You resort to pain and force and threats, but never bargain with any Lord or Lady for how their allegiance to you may benefit them. You are not fit to be a king.”

“I am!” Aegon yelled, shooting upward and approaching your cell door, “I am fit to rule, and I am ruling! You shall wish your brother bends the knee to me. You will be terrible collateral damage should he not.”

“You have imprisoned me in your dungeon, Aegon, is that not damage enough for you?”

“Winterfell has not yet raised my banner.”

“Winterfell will never raise your banner,” you stated.

“We shall see.”

“You will not see,” you fought back, “my brother is much too smart to bend the knee to you. He knows me capable of caring for myself, even with your constant bitching and bombardment.”

Aegon sighed. He put his face as close to you as the bars would allow him. “I have never loathed another as much as I loathe you.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

Aegon stomped away up the stairs and out of your sight, leaving you abandoned in your prison cell. You began to scan the room, looking for any way to escape. No windows, makes sense. Solitary, no one else around, not that they could be much help. The lock can be picked, but there’s nothing here I can use to unlock it. They would not be so stupid as to leave something that I could use to-

As the thought crossed your head, your hands clasped your stomach, and you felt the multitude of adornments on your gown. The King and his brother had made one grave mistake: they locked you up in one of the finest gowns you had ever worn, which included a Targaryen house symbol pin sewn into the center of the navel area fabric.

A pin.

────── ☾ ──────

tags: @torchbearerkyle @dracaryxzs @hangmanscoming @callsignwidow @velvetcrowbarcherry @kravitzwhore @darlingisntit @not-neverland06 @albionfay @cluz1babe @flusteredmoonn @sab-falco

[kiaxet]

Sooooo y’all see the latest @somerandomdudelmao comic update? Because once again it is living in my head, which means once again my brain has generated fic. This one’s ~1200 words and slightly less tragic, depending on whether or not you take dramatic irony into account.

~~~~~~~

It starts fairly innocuously.

One of the surviving technicians monitors a computer as it finally, finally boots up successfully, whooping when the Genius Tech loading screen pops up. He grins and pats the power cable. "Thanks, Raph!"

It catches on.

A water purifier, disconnected to save a struggling power supply, gets plugged back in. It chugs back to life, and the kids responsible for its upkeep cheer and high five. One of them waves at the ceiling, where a power conduit runs overhead. "Thanks, Mister Raph!"

And it spreads like wildfire.

Every time something works the way it's supposed to - every time a much-needed device pops back to life, or the emergency doors close correctly, or a dying lightbulb flickers on one more time - they thank Raph. In gleeful shouts and careful whispers, they show gratitude for the person who gave up his life - and his second chance at life, at that - to keep them safe. It makes the emergency base, ramshackle and barely held together as it is, feel a little more like a home. A little more alive.

It doesn't take long for a few unspoken rules to develop.

They never say it in front of the metal shell. It's one thing to say it to the walls, the cables, the electricity; it's something else to say it to a figure with a face, seated against the wall like a sentinel that will awaken and protect them when danger arises.

(Nevermind that they've been in danger, constant and unending, for decades, and that this sentinel is already protecting them in smaller, everyday ways.)

They learn very quickly never to say it in front of Raph's surviving family, either. Master Leonardo gets angry when he hears it. It's an anger born of grief and loss, painful but not dangerous to allies, but given how terrifying Master Leonardo can be on the battlefield or a bad day, nobody really wants that anger directed at them. Master Michaelangelo just stops when he hears it, lips curling up in an expression too devoid of life to truly be called a smile. It's almost worse to witness than Master Leonardo's anger. No, they learn to watch themselves in front of the family, carefully taking their gratitude towards a dead man elsewhere.

Until the day someone forgets and says it in front of Casey Junior.

The kid looks up at Roger with wide, almost hopeful eyes. "Why did you- is he here? Can you feel him?"

Roger stares back at him with equally wide eyes. He'd just been grateful the computer had booted correctly for his monitor shift, and he hadn't been looking, and now he has to try to explain this to a kid who's never known a life outside the apocalypse. Oh boy. "No, uh- I mean- I don't have magic like your dads do, Casey, I couldn't-" He sighs. "It's just...a thing people do, when things work. Before the Krang, we had all sorts of machines that made life easier, and...we'd talk to 'em. Thank 'em when they worked, yell or beg when they didn't...I remember threatening a fax machine once, not that that made any difference. I think that just...kinda carried over here." Wait. "Not that your uncle was a machine or anything-"

"His body was a machine," Casey says simply, with a pragmatism that Roger hadn't been expecting. Apocalypse-raised kid. Right. "That wasn't what made him Uncle Raph. He was- it's-" Casey falters, expression starting to crumble. Pragmatism be damned, the kid is still grieving-

Rem, just coming off her shift, steps in smoothly. It's not the first time she's saved Roger's ass, both on and off the battlefield, and it won't be the last. "We know," she says gently, putting an arm around Casey's shoulders. "What Roger means is that we're grateful he's keeping us going, and that people like to bond with machines even when they're too simple to bond back. We all used to name our cars - can you believe it?"

"I named mine Red Rider," Roger says wistfully. He still misses that car.

"And I used to sneak out of the Hidden City with my cloaking brooch and go joyriding outside of human cities," Rem says, a grin splitting her feline muzzle. "I named every car I stole Phantom, like I thought I was cool."

Casey smiles - small and watery, but there nonetheless - and Roger breathes a sigh of relief. "What else did you name?"

"I mean, it was mostly cars, but some people named their computers."

"I had a friend who named her phone and just kept adding numbers when she had to replace it. It was Duchess O'Brien the eighth last I'd heard."

"I know some Yokai named their weapons, but I never really kept track of those. It was more of a Battle Nexus fandom thing."

Another Yokai leans in - a four eyed lizard whose name Roger could never remember no matter how hard he tried - and Roger shuts up. She's in charge of security now, and honestly she intimidates him. She looks around - at him, at Rem, at Casey - and then intones seriously, "I once named a kitchen appliance Toasty McToastFace."

There's a beat of silence. Casey has a lopsided grin growing on his face, like he doesn't get the joke but he knows it is one, and that's enough to lift his mood.

And then Rem doubles over, cracking up, and Bob smiles carefully. "Really loved that toaster, huh?"

"It was my closest friend," the lizard Yokai replies, deadpan as hell, before leaving the conversation.

Casey turns that confused grin on Roger. "Was she serious?"

"Kid, I have no idea. Some people are just really into this kinda thing."

Rem finally straightens up, wiping a tear from her eye with a paw. "Ohhhh boy. Oh, I needed that." She turns her smile back on Casey. "Point being, naming something makes it a little more real, and makes you a little more likely to take care of it. The system here...already has a name. We're just saying thank you, you know?"

The grin on Casey's face settles down into consideration. "Yeah, I think I do. I- Thanks. I'm gonna-" He waves at the door to finish his sentence.

"Go for it, kid." Roger waves him off as he departs, then sighs once he's gone. "God, that kid is just hemmhorraging family, isn't he."

"We all are, Roger, it's the fucking apocalypse." Rem flicks an ear.

"Yeah, but still. It's rough." There's a second or two of silence. "Also, if he says it in front of Master Leonardo, I'm denying all knowledge of this conversation."

"Spirits, same."

Roger learns a few days later - from Rem, of course - that Casey has named his chainsaw hockey stick Killer, because it's what his mom used to call him. Well damn, if kids like him are gonna be the future, then maybe they have some hope after all. He raps on a wall lightly, just below where the power conduit is mounted. "I know you didn't have a lot of time with the kid, but you did a good job." He can't help but smile. "Thanks, Raph."

[yuesya]

Humans are fragile.

Weak, helpless creatures that they are. If they bleed too much from being injured by a wild beast, then they die. If they stay out too long in the cold, then they die. Sometimes it feels like all he does is blink, and then they die. He knows this well.

Decarabian stares impassively down at the crumpled form of the white-haired human child buried in the crimson-stained snow.

… It appears as if this child has had a rough encounter with a monster of some sort, although Decarabian does not know of any monsters in these parts whose claws resemble knives more than talons. Perhaps the wild wolves…? But most of them remain close to their lands much farther in the north-east, where their newly-crowned wolf-god has recently staked out his territory.

“This is what happens when you raise animals into gods,” Decarabian murmurs, disapproving. The former Lord of the North had been a powerful, ancient god whose dominion over Cryo was –perhaps, by the slightest measure– more masterful than the control that Decarabian himself commanded over Anemo. He cannot fathom what the other god had been thinking, relinquishing the full might of their divine power and bequeathing it all to a beast, but such matters are not his to intervene in.

Even if the result is the swift rise of a beast-god who despises humans. Something that should be anathema to gods, whose very natures are fundamentally predisposed towards loving humanity…

Just as Decarabian himself does, and he is not one to deny his own nature.

The child in front of him is dying. That much is clear from the severity of the wounds that she bears, her body flayed with bone-deep gashes to the point where it almost seems as if something had tried to turn the child inside-out. This is not the work of a beast that attacked in hunger –this is the work of something that aimed to hurt, for nothing more than bloodthirsty enjoyment.

There are no older humans in the nearby vicinity. Animals will abandon their young who are too weak to survive. Decarabian had not realized that humans also followed that same practice.

This child is dying. Blood continues flowing sluggishly from her wounds, mixing into the snow. A chill wind whistles past, sending red-stained strands of long white hair whipping upwards–

Long lashes flutter, and the child opens her eyes.

Decarabian had not realized that she still possessed the strength to do so.

… The child does not speak. She cannot, for how can she? Who can speak when there’s a long gash splitting their throat open, red and wet and glistening in the open air? It’s a true miracle that she’s still alive, somehow. Even though it’s abundantly clear that she won’t be remaining so for much longer.

Decarabian looks into her eyes. It’s expected that her gaze is unfocused, given the poor condition of her body, and he prepares himself to witness pain. Suffering. Desperation –or perhaps hopelessness. It is only human nature. Weak, and despicable. But beautiful all the same, and it is for that very reason that so many gods–

Oh.

Decarabian has never seen such oddly-colored eyes before. Not on any human –nor beast, nor god. There’s something about these deep blue eyes that are almost reminiscent of the nighttime sky, but not quite. Not when they glow, gleaming with a prismatic, bejeweled light. But it’s not an ethereal sort of beauty; rather, it’s one that causes Decarabian to feel a sudden chill, for seemingly no reason at all.

But more importantly–

“You won’t ask me to save you?” Humans worship gods. Beg them for favors, for blessings, and it is only natural for gods to respond to their wishes. Poor, deplorable humans. Precious, lovely humans.

The child’s eyes are clear. There is no unspoken plea, no mindless terror. From all appearances, this child… does not seem to fear death at all. How curious.

A sudden thought strikes him. Whimsical impulse, that solidifies into genuine interest. 

What would she say to him, if she could speak?

…

Decarabian extends his hand towards her, holding it out over her body.

He does not possess the ability to heal. But, there is a certain magic that allows a god to share their power and grant protection to another by bestowing a new name –a new life. He suspects that this is similar to the spell that the Lord of the North had used to ascend that young wolf to godhood. It’s not necessarily Decarabian’s intent, but–

“Child of man. One who has bled upon consecrated ground, who still possesses strength to endure,” he says. The words are slow at first, but begin flowing smoothly as the ancient magic is fully invoked. “Upon the authority of Decarabian, God of Storms, I grant you my blessing. Partake of my power and rise anew, as a daughter of the unfettered wind.”

The next words coalesce on the tip of his tongue on their own.

… For a moment, Decarabian pauses. Because he can feel the power that’s gathering within him –power that rises on its own volition, for it is the necessary price for granting this child new life.

And it’s a steep price. Quite steep indeed. It is… possible… that Decarabian would be unable to maintain a human form anymore after this, or even reduced to an empty voice upon the wind in the following years.

But he will not change his decision, nor renege upon his words. No matter what the consequences might be.

“Rejoice. For I shall bestow upon you the name, ‘Balor,’” he declares, completing the spell. The winds pick up around them, and the human child is enveloped in a bright glow, slowly shrinking down into an even smaller form.

So even Decarabian’s power isn’t enough, is it?

Ah, what a curious child.

“Heed my command, and hear my words –rise.

… Rise, and live.”

[stealingpotatoes]

just watched mando s3 it’s great that we TOTALLY had a whole season about din coming to grips with being mand’alor & life without grogu and about dueteragonist bo-katan coming to realise she was only trying to lead mand’alor bc of her sister not bc she thought she was the best leader. and the whole season centred around the theme of accepting who you really are even if you’re certain you’re something else and was about how heroes and leaders can come from anywhere, they don’t have to come from a special bloodline (a sorta thesis against the skywalker saga) and about the uniting power of grief and oppression. isn’t it great we had that instead of a season with no plot 

isn’t it great that there were no mando cameos in tbobf and mando season 3 started with him on a bounty, cringefailing at using the darksaber and stabbing himself but he did the job and got paid in a nubian starfighter (he wanted a razor crest but he’s injured so he doesnt argue much) which he then used to find his covert on the canyon planet. then he revealed to the armorer and paz that he had the darksaber which after some time leads to paz duelling din for the saber (without telling the others bc they dont know din has it) and din wins but its revealed he took his helmet off. he’s made apostate IN FRONT OF EVERYONE (EVERYONE!!) with only one IMPOSSIBLE chance of redemption (nobody can go to mandalore anymore!!) and has to leave and now has nothing — no child, no clan. so he does the only thing he can think to and goes to a green planet we’ve never seen before. he lands safely but still injured from his fight with Paz and not fully healed from the original injury he passes out. and the episode ends with a kid running over and telling another kid to call master skywalker

and sure episode 2 was the fanservice episode but its disney! we have to expect a marketable plushie cameo episode — except of course that didn’t mean it wasn’t plot relevant! din wakes up and we realise he’s at luke’s jedi academy and this is great n stuff we finally get to see luke in his prime teaching a whole bunch of students! and we get to see grogu happy and having fun with his kind (which makes din happy but miss his own covert). luke notices din has a saber himself (despite it being well-hidden — luke can sense it) and din admits he can’t use it and that he doesnt think it even belongs to him while luke shows him saber forms (but pretends its for his own training and not din’s bc din refuses to learn). they have a discussion and din reveals he came here bc he got kicked out and has no way to redeem himself bc there are no mines left and even then the planet’s poisonous. luke spouts some jedi stuff asking din if he’s certain and says blind certainty is the enemies of hope and progress or whatever (setting up the larger theme of identity certainty in the season). luke also points out that if they imps r there then they have to have some way of getting around the environment they caused. inspired and knowing grogu is safe here, din is ready to go redeem himself on mandalore. he says he’ll come to see grogu again and luke makes it clear that while attachments can’t get in front of duty, din is always welcome here <3 

episode 3 of course had din go to the ruins of mandalore to redeem himself, inspired by luke’s words about certainty he goes to the ruins of sundari, where he knows there was once living waters (the other option is the one surviving and imperial-controlled city, but he’s not that dumb). also bc the imps only hang around the cities so that must be where it's survivable. there’s some imperials about the edge of the city (not many) and he does have to subtly fight them but he gets spotted. he wins but he’s panicking bc during the fight his breathing system got hit but then he notices a plant growing. and he realises he’s not dying — the air isn’t poisonous anymore or whatever! so he turns off his failing life support and goes to the city. he explores the city and finds many remnants of mandalorian culture there in the small parts that survived. ash-covered murals, mostly-burnt toys, something that could have once been a palace. he finds a memorial to a duchess satine kryze and thinks huh like bo katan? (because of course the show wouldn’t ignore bo’s motivations) anyway after some slow but meaningful exploring (its quietness eerie, unlike the quietness of the previous stealth section) he manages to make his way below the city. he finds the mines, reads the inscription and then goes in. except of course its no longer shallow and he falls and he falls and he realises well fuck he’s gonna die. his life support got hit earlier and he doesnt have his jetpack he’s going to sink. but then in the darkness, a great looming eye opens and before din knows it, SOMETHING is throwing him out that sinking water. it had to have been a freak current right? he was hallucinating. surely a MYTHOSAUR didn’t just save him… those are all dead, only to return with a new age of mandalore! he shakes his head, ignores it, and collects the water with something new to bring to his people

episode 4 reintroduced us to old fan favourite bo katan in her depression girl era bc din shows up to her empty palace ready to help her take back mandalore… only to find her in a depression pit and— oh my god is she drunk??! she drops that her ppl left her bc she didn’t have the darksaber and din’s looking at the depression pit like. right. bc of the darksaber. he briefly tries to convince her to fight him for it but she’s like no you’ll throw the fight it won’t be true comba— oh no! explosion nearby bc looks like din wasn’t as careful as he thought and the imperials followed him to bo’s place so both of them have to fucking skeet outta there and bo’s home’s destroyed so din’s like hey come on let’s go to my people we can take back mandalore with them or smthn. so they head back to the covert, din reveals he’s no longer apostate and that mandalore isnt cursed it’s breathable + you can successfully walk on the surface now. this is however interrupted by a beast showing up and trying to kill some ppl. it almost kills paz’s son but din kills the beast first in his starfighter. anyway back to the conversation (now within the cave) and din’s trying to convince his clan that they can take back mandalore (with bo as leader) but none of them want to follow her or risk what few numbers they have left. dejected, din and bo make to leave again, but paz follows them out and is like ?? din you literally have the darksaber why didn’t you use it to get at least SOME of them to follow you and din’s like i don’t want people to follow me bc of a legend, if they follow me it has to be bc they want to and paz and bo r internally like wow damn. anyway paz then says he’ll always fight w din if needed bc he saved his son but if he wants the people to follow him they should try get some of the other clans to help so it looks less dangerous. so bo and din leave on their quest. also throughout this episode, we’re introduced to some random civilian in the reintegration program. its implied they worked with gideon and that they’re preparing for something, but we don’t get much more than that. 

episode 5 is the bo episode, this is where we explore her character, have her arc, and ya know really cover her motivations (bc disney would NEVER make it so her motivation is invisible unless you’d seen two other tv shows). din and bo head to where her clan is. they just want to see the clan but they end up being dragged into a b-plot about helping the local pacifist duchess (& duke). din tries to say no but bo-katan says smthn abt diplomacy. this quest initially doesn’t seem plot relevant but throughout bo opens up about her own pacifist duchess sister and she comes to realise how much of this quest has been about trying to live up to satine and not bc she thinks herself the best mand’alor. the thing she said abt diplomacy earlier, she reveals, is just a quote from her sister. anyway they’re finally able to go to bo’s old clan and she, now reinvigorated in accepting and knowing who she is and what she wants (no longer depression girl) challenges axe for leadership of the clan. she wins and in a speech is like we’re gonna retake unpoisonous mandalore by uniting the clans!! most agree but theyre like HOW are we supposed to convince the other clans? and it descends into insane yelling UNTIL a low hum and a black-white light falls over the group. silence falls. everyone looks on. high above his head, din is holding the darksaber (proudly!!) and he’s like we’ll unite them with this. but axe has to constantly be chatting shit and getting up from the floor where he got his ass whipped he’s like really???? you wanna follow him???? he doesn’t even have any mandalorian blood in him!!! and bo makes a great speech about blood doesn’t make a good leader what makes a good leader is knowing when to use your power. and then she’s like he is my mand’alor amen and kneels before him. everyone else follows and din awkwardly stands there still not fully accepting his role 

episode 6 was the great prep episode. we start with din and bo helping and getting a new tribe on their side and heading back to Concordia we realise they’ve got this HUGEEEE war camp of mandalorians!! there are so many clans with them now (except one, which din is really missing)!!!!! this episode mostly focuses on mandalorian culture and them training/ planning and din and bo trying to keep the clans from biting each other’s heads off. but this is interrupted when a small group of imperials try to pre-attack them (like they did w bo’s palace) but the mandos all manage to fight back and take them down, which then leads to a whole speech from din and bo about how mandalorians are all fighting but theyre united now in their grief and with this they can fight the empire. the b-plot of the episode comes back to that random civilian from episode 4 and whoomp turns out their plan was to BREAK MOFF GIDEON OUT OF JAIL!! shitttt!!!! oh no!! he’s back now, that’s gonna make their very decent plan to take back mandalore harder but they dont knowww (irony!)

episodes 7 and 8 were the battle of mandalore, woo! it had to be two episodes because it’s a taking whole occupied planet and not a single base, a pretty damn difficult task that definitely can’t be done by two single clans in like 40 minutes! there’s all those mini tiny bases scattered throughout the planet on the ruins (like din encountered in episode 3) AND more importantly there’s the one domed city that the imperials kept alive as their main base — which means they have to be careful, bc they can’t do any sort of aerial assault or great deal of damage to the imperials without also destroying the one surviving place for them to live. so the plan is smaller strike teams to go the bases plopped around the planet as a distraction and to stop reinforcements to the city while the main force surround the city and take it. the first city team (with din and bo) has to open up all the ports and stuff to allow the HUGE armies to get in. unfortunately this is in the main imp base in the centre of the city so they have to get there. (they’d prefer 2 strike teams but they can only spare 1) MOST of the mini-bases r meanwhile being successfully captured. the strike team gets to the centre to de-activate the port shielding n stuff and GASP! IT’S GIDEON!! FROM JAIL!! and he’s surrounded by fucking MANDO STORMTROOPERS and IN BESKAR ARMOUR oh no!! ambush!! he knew they’d have to go here to allow a full-scale assault! the small strike team at sundari also gets captured bc there were some mandotroopers there (they increased security post episode 3). episode 7 ends on a cliffhanger bc all seems lost and the strike team’s surrounded 

episode 8 starts straight off the cliffhanger and oh no they’re all gonna die gasp WHEN BAM fighting noises elsewhere, everyone’s confused, when paz’s voice crackles over din’s comm like hey bro! BC DIN’S CLAN FINALLY SHOWED UP TO HELP AND THEY WERE ABLE TO MAKE THAT SECOND STRIKE TEAM and in the confusion din & bo’s team take out the mandotroopers, gideon gets away. din and paz and the armorer come face to face and paz calls him mand’alor or smthn bc he’s also accepted it and they’re like woo let’s go now we can fight fr!! din heads to help lead the battle ig but bo’s like nah i have to end gideon for what he did to our planet. and din’s like well he’s wearing beskar armour so you’ll need this and gives her his beskar spear WHICH IS SYMBOLIC BC he’s finally giving up his other weapon and is going to solely use the darksaber!! he’s accepted who he is and is going to lead their ppl!! so yeah instead of having din fight gideon, who he already beat once, bo fights him and its incredibly cathartic. at sundari that strike team who got captured is also not looking great but MYTHOSAUR EX MACHINA COMES AND FUCKS UP THE IMPERIALS THERE (its returned!!). so big battle and gideon’s down and the darksaber DOESN’T get destroyed yay! afterwards they all vibe and they go to the forge and the armorer relights it and they proclaim din mand’alor fr and he accepts it and throne. sure he's still a BIT uneasy (mand'alor the reluctant anyone?) but he's not saying NOO now loll. yayyy!! AND THEN final scene is din returns to the jedi academy like hii thanks for ur advice u were right being blindly certain abt stuff is meh and leaves no room for hope. uh could i show grogu mandalore i promise i’ll bring him right back and it ends on din showing grogu the planet finally bc thats cute and fanservice

anyway isn’t it great this is exactly what happened, it’s all canon and definitely not the stealingpotatoes sequels canon continuity rewrite! 

[physalian]

Transformers Prime Appreciation Post

You know what. You know what?? This show has featured in so much of my writing advice, it deserves its own “This show is amazing and has amazing writing and shit you can learn from it to be a better writer” post. It’s streamable on Netflix at the time of this post. I own it on DVD. I have all three seasons on actual, physical discs that I bought new for my DVD collection. That’s how much I love this show.

What is TFP? TFP aired on The Hub network, the joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery Channel that died after MLP ended, I think. We lost cable before that happened. TFP was probably single-handedly sustained by MLP money for a while, like the rest of HBO on GOT.

This show came out when I entered high school and I have extremely vivid memories of some of the constant previews they showed of the season 1 finale 3-parter, to the point where whenever I watch the scenes that were in those teasers, I still get a physical reaction from being bludgeoned over the head with those lines of dialogue.

I used to scroll ahead in the TV guide as far as the scheduled programming allowed, just to catch snippets of what episodes were slated to air within the next month. This show was the shit.

But it was too expensive and its budget got eaten by Friendship is Magic. The bronies ruin everything I guess.

It’s 3 seasons (technically 2.5 since 3 was only greenlit for half its episode count) of near-perfection and a tv-movie. There are a few weak episodes, sure, and one absolute dud of a clipshow episode, but there are no awful episodes. There ain’t no “Great Divide” for this show.

Why you should watch it:

1. A “kids” show that absolutely takes itself seriously

One of the Autobots dies 5 minutes into the series and it’s the inciting incident for the entire story. He gets blown up, taken prisoner, and then stabbed through his chest by a Decepticon’s fist without warning. He then gets brought back as a zombie, killed again, infects his partner with the zombie juice when she’s trying to save him, and dies for good.

Two main characters get straight-up murdered, long-running characters whose deaths have lofty consequences for the narrative. There’s betrayals, double-agents, robot torture, robots getting eaten alive by scraplets, gaslighting of an amnesiac, near-murders of POWs, near-murders of fan-favorites who get so hurt, their recovery spans 4 whole episodes, attempted child murder, terrorism, and mad science.

But there is also some heavy emotional shit. The surviving partner of the zombie is damaged by his loss for the entire show because she can’t properly manage her grief. There’s characters going on suicide missions to avenge their dead/dying friends, getting beat to shit while a child watches helplessly on the sidelines screaming at them to get up and run through tears. There’s war flashbacks to dead friends and comrades and the terror and fallout of being eons-old soldiers.

There’s quiet moments, too, about grief and loss and living with disability and disfigurement from battlefield wounds. There’s the machinations of a tragic villain, openly and explicitly abused in front of his whole team and who keeps crawling back and groveling at his master’s feet and his internal identity crisis over who he is, if he’s not with his abuser. There’s the fallout of an extremely divisive trolley problem where a normally calm and collected character loses their shit with grief over the decision that was made. There’s the quiet rumblings of dissent and rebellion in the ranks and all the backstabbing that follows.

And there’s clever moments. Rogues and rebels orchestrating complex and interwoven plots to further their agendas. A POW who no one would ever expect to be captured absolutely trouncing their captives and laughing all the while while they free themselves. Characters who always have a backup plan to force others into awful predicaments.

The first episode after the 5-episode mini-movie that opens the show features an A-plot about school science projects, and a B-plot about waking a loyal ‘Con from stasis and trying to convince him to bow down to the ‘Cons’ temp leader, Starscream, while Megatron is elsewhere. It does not end well for him. The very next episode features robots getting eaten alive by alien metal termites.

2. Depth of Character

Beyond the actual plot, the villains might be more compelling characters than the heroes across many arcs and episodes. You’ve got five main autobots for most of the show that generally fit the 5-man band:

Optimus: Leader

Ratchet: Smart Guy

Bulkhead: Tough Guy

Arcee: Lancer

Bumblebee: Heart

Also guest starring the Alien Robot Cowboy Samurai known as Wheeljack, he’s amazing.

These characters have some really rich episodes and arcs, and moments where they have to put their own values, wants, and agendas aside for the greater good or the problem at hand. They feel like real people, for lack of a better word. They laugh, they cry, they rage, they grieve, and since the show is one long storyline, what happens seemingly inconsequentially in season 1 will come back to haunt them in season 3.

But then you have the villains, an extremely dysfunctional team of “every man for himself, we’re all not here because we like each other, but because we hate the Autobots,” and I can tell from the fanfic that the ‘Cons are the much more popular characters to write about.

Megatron: The fascist narcissist warlord

Starscream: His scheming SIC both too smart and too dumb for his own good

Soundwave: The utterly badass TIC comms chief who never loses and is insanely, fiercely loyal to the cause

KnockOut: The absolutely gay-as-fuck cosmedic surgeon/chief of medical voiced by Daran Norris, who’s only design requirement was to make him a sexy sportscar, and they ended up with a cherry red Aston Martin. One of his first lines in the show is "*whistle* Sweet rims” at Optimus in truck mode.

Breakdown: KO’s himbo, canon* boyfriend with some of the best, cringey puns

Airachnid: Arcee’s arch nemesis, the only other female transformer, a “love to loathe her” type

And others down the line for both teams.

*Canon insofar as a kids show on a kids network allows a la “we’ve given you as much subtext as we can, do the rest”.

KO is technically my favorite but it’s a tossup between many and that is a feat, especially when they’re the villains. They are all extremely compelling characters.

3. The Story

With some exceptions, episodes don’t happen in isolation. Most of season 1 is a bit random with a foggy throughline, but season 2 is utterly amazing, sans that one clipshow the producers probably insisted on.

Season 2 is the show’s finest hour and without spoiling anything: The end of season 1 sees this database that had been in the ‘Cons possession suddenly now with the means to decode and decrypt whatever’s locked behind it. The database contains coordinates on Earth of a myriad of confiscated weapons, ancient relics, and the like and the entire season is one big fetch quest with both sides racing and beating the shit out of each other to decode coordinates and retrieve the relics before the other side.

The macguffins are pretty cool in their own right (alien mustard gas, a giant Final Fantasy sword, an alien nuke, a phase-shifter) but it’s the intensity of the story and the action and drama that happens around the various quests that is so amazing.

At one point, the show takes four episodes to tackle a fetch quest across four separate relics that involves the entire cast on both sides and the two rogues all gunning for their targets at the same time, ending with one character critically injured that grinds the whole plot to a stop.

The show is one long story, as I mentioned, where something that happens in episode 2 shows up again as critically important in episode 40 and that’s a heck of an achievement on the writers’ part, making it all feel like it was planned that way from the start, even though it wasn’t.

Season 3 is… lesser, mostly because it has half as many episodes because the show was canceled. However, the writers knew about the cancellation early enough to still deliver a satisfying story, and wrap up loose ends with a tv-movie that is also pretty good.

Episode-to-episode there’s definitely a mixed bag of what kind of tone you’ll get. It’s still a kids show and there are human characters so there are some lesser episodes with the humans’ lives as the focus and the Autobots running support. Then you’ll have small-screen perfection, but like I said, there’s never a single episode of story (not clipshow) that I skip upon rewatch, no matter how many times I’ve seen it. The second “clipshow” episode is far and gone above the first, told through the eyes of a character as they’re on trial, only their scenes through the story, as they await judgment that might see them executed.

4. The Production Value

The majority of the animation budget rightfully went to the transformers themselves, which left the environments and the human characters a little rough around the edges. But you came for alien robots and before I got this show on DVD, I streamed crap quality episodes online. Once I saw these characters in full HD color, for the first time since it aired on TV, I was blown away. The reflections are, bar none, the best part. Which seems like a strange hill to die on but these are shiny metal giants. There’s some shots where you can see the reactions of other characters reflected hazily in the chest plates of the speaking character, and this is kids animated TV.

Some episodes do stand out, possibly because they changed studios, but some do have some off-kilter coloring or shadows, but you wouldn’t notice if you’re not like me and have picked some scenes apart frame by frame.

The music, also, is amazing. It’s grand and epic and far and gone from the 80s synthesizers, with a few choir tracks thrown in. The foley and sound design can get a little gratuitous with the metal-on-metal squeals, but none of it ever feels out of place.

I bought the directors’ commentary without knowing it for seasons 1 and 3 and they talked about having all the digital screens in the backgrounds of both bases constantly moving and showing data, not just static, blank images, and it really ups the feel of the quality and care put into the show when there’s always something cool to look at in every frame.

There are also some money shots. At one point there’s a fight that demands Optimus and Megatron join forces and with zero dialogue between them, only choreography in the span of about 25 seconds of animation shows you that these two really were old friends, old allies, old confidants. Their moves are mirrored, back to back, showing that Megatron clearly taught Optimus how to fight and this shot, the one at the top of the post, is too good to not spoil.

5. The Writing

Beyond the overall arcs, I mentioned in my “How to make your writing less stiff” post that the dialogue in this show is stellar. Due to animation budgets, they didn’t have the means to fully render a huge variety of environments, and that includes anything on Cybertron. So, when necessary, outside of when characters actually go to Cybertron later in the show, they use some beautiful matte paintings and voiceover narration by Ratchet, absolutely dumping exposition on the audience in spectacular fashion.

I have the director’s commentary. I know Ratchet’s monologues were a thing of beauty. They also had the cast all recording their dialogue at once, standing in a big U for more natural line deliveries.

The actual writing though, from the different ways the characters speak to the lore, the backstories, how the show can be a horror trip one minute and a kids’ science fair the next, showed incredible variety and flexibility in the writers’ room.

Optimus’ lines remain my favorite because they’re just that juicy, but then you have characters like Starscream, a perpetual schemer who loves to hear himself talk, pontificating whenever he can about his plans and how much he hates Megatron and how self-important he is. Or other righteous characters who use Big Words like Optimus that don’t feel out of place against somebody like KnockOut who says stuff like “I like the way I look in steel-belted radials” or Wheeljack who clearly learned English from watching Clint Eastwood movies.

Or, a later character, Shockwave, the most “robotic” of the robots and very poncy and scientific with the way he talks and interprets the world, with most of his lines including whether or not a character’s choices were “logical”.

This show is fantastic at creating tension out of mundanity and keeping you on the edge of your seat for nail-biting action scenes. You feel the anguish and the grief with the characters. Their rage and elation and devastation.

Some faults, because I love this show and I can recognize them

The human characters are… well, teenagers. Miko is pretty divisive, you’ve got the camp of “wah she’s a girl and she’s annoying” and just people who don’t find them as compelling. Which, fair. Their animation is a bit gummy and sometimes they disappear for entire episodes and their human world arcs are kind of abandoned. They’re not the best, but this isn’t about humans, it’s about transformers.

Due to probably time constraints with the show being canceled, some transformers’ arcs also felt abandoned or not given their due time to shine (of which fanfic has made painfully clear and rectified). It’s a very tight plot, but there are some dangling loose ends.

Sometimes it is incredibly in-your-face that this is a show meant to sell toys, particularly in season 3 with the whole uh, “we must become beast hunters” and the soft rebrand.

There exists a subplot of C-list villains, human militants who want to dissect cybertronian biology and make weapons. While some of their episodes are absolute bangers, you can tell the writers were getting sick of them before they’re finally written out of the show.

And a few awkward lines here and there.

Other cool shit if nothing else has convinced you

No love triangle or romantic subplot for the two female robots and one of the female humans. You can read one of Arcee’s relationships as romantic or platonic, but she is far beyond just “the girl” of the group, she’s a badass. The other romantic subplot is between a mom who’s deadbeat ex-husband is inexplicably missing, and a pot-bellied Army vet, and it’s really sweet and healthy.

(I think) incredible representation of characters with disability, in Bumblebee’s various war scars and his mutism.

The Gays. I swear there’s a page in the art book (of which I am desperate to find a copy of) for KnockOut and the caption of his art legit says something like “we made him too sexy, oops”.

So. Many. Puns. Puns that know they’re awful and relish in it. Dad jokes, too.

Ratchet losing his mind over how human children can get “twisted limbs and metal burn” if they do a dangerous thing before realizing the latter does not apply. Ratchet losing his mind in general. Just all of the cranky medic. Jeffrey Combs can make a phone book entertaining.

One of the last times we’ll probably get Peter Cullen and Frank Welker together doing Optimus and Megatron, the OGs. And also, one tiny moment where Frank has to say “treasure” and he still flubs it just like he does for Fred in Scooby Doo.

Consistency between character injuries. If Optimus’ sword breaks in a battle, whenever he summons it before he can have time to fix it, it’s still broken in ensuing shots.

An episode of zombies infecting the Decepticons’ ship and Starscream and KnockOut accidentally admitting they love each other while cowering in terror, while also calling back to a different pair of characters they did not witness saying the exact same lines.

Optimus transforming, ramming Megatron in the chest in truck mode, booting him off a cliff, and using his tires to melt rubber in Megatron’s face once they land because he is pissed.

All of Starscream’s immensely satisfying comeuppance for situations he gets himself into.

Using the murder termites for good in a rather horrifying death of a random goon.

Megatron’s hate boner for Optimus that clearly shows how badly these two don’t actually want to kill each other, despite having a million chances to do so, because like Batman and the Joker, “you and I are destined to do this for eternity,” and killing one would leave the other alone, after eons of fighting.

The gorgeous matte paintings.

—

Somebody on here once drew KnockOut with Autobot blue eyes and I have not been able to find that post since. If anyone sees it, please send it to me, it was gorgeous.

Now go watch this show. You can do it in a weekend.

[linkspooky]

Hey! sorry to bother you but after your jjk break down i wanted to know what you think about Shoko and her role in the story. I'm just not sure where to put her narratively.

This is going to be a brief answer, but I believe for her limited screen time she still has an important role in the story and it's the same role she plays in the S / S / S trio. Shoko is the adult, as evidenced here by how she's the only one who undercuts Geto's dramatic monologue to point out how childish he's acting. Unlike Gojo who can't get through to Geto whatsoever, Shoko underlines his problem in one sentence. Geto thinks that he's growing up by finding his purpose in deciding to become an extremist, but Shoko calls him out and says he's actually regressing as a person.

Jujutsu Kaisen is a story about children growing into adulthood, and there's a reason that Shoko is the only person in her class to actually reach adulthood. It's because unlike Gojo and Geto who were eternally trapped in their "springtime of youth" and failed to ever adjust to the trauma they experienced in that youth Shoko grew up.

A character who doesn't grow in a story is as good as dead. Gojo had a character arc, but looking back from beginning to end it almost seems like his death against Sukuna was inevitable because he never learned who he was outside of being the strongest, and he never moved past Geto's death in any real way and tried to make connections with other people.

It's something even Shoko of all people was able to see that Gojo wasn't. That for all of Gojo's claims of being alone, not only did he have Shoko by his side all along, but he also has an entire group of students who he was responsible for who were all relying on him. Gojo could have continued living for them instead of going out in a blaze of glory against Sukuna, but he wasn't able to see all the people in his life until it was too late. He kept on being blind to them because he was trapped in the mindset of his youth that he was too powerful to be understood by anyone and then never grew past that.

Shoko is one of the few teachers left alive at Jujutsu High and that's not a coincidence. Nanami's death is deliberately tragic because he was unable to protect people properly as a sorcerer the system was against him. Shoko's not a fighter on the front lines however, she's a doctor who exists sort of outside that system. Yaga was killed by Gakuganji as well. Haibara died an unfortunate victim in his youth. Geto defected because he was unable to grow up, and Gojo goes out dying against Sukuna in a battle to see who's strongest.

The only teachers who are alive are Kusakabe who's a minor character, Utahime who is the only other adult who shows concern for her students, and Mei Mei. I doubt Mei Mei is going to survive either considering she's the game master (this is just my theory but watch I'm correct).

Which leaves Shoko and Utahime who are both adults, and who also have a much more functional friendship that explicitly parallels Geto and Gojo's. There's a reason Gojo's death dream reverts him back to seventeen years old again, because in a way he didn't grow significantly since that time. Nanami, Gojo, Geto they were all unable to leave the regrets of their youth behind so the last we see them in the imaginary afterlife they are seventeen because that's the time they failed to move past.

Shoko grew up. She and Utahime are the only ones who were able to grow up, and because of that they ended up leaving a lot of their friends behind. I think Megumi and Shoko will parallel each other in the end of Gege decides to stick with his plan of three of the four dieand one lives. Megumi the child that needs to grow up, will be the only one of his friends to reach adulthood just like Shoko.

It will be bittersweet because Megumi won't have his friends with him, but unlike Gojo who was trapped in the past forever, life will go on for Megumi and he'll be able to live with all those losses.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Gay wrongs tournament, round 2 of the losers bracket

Propaganda:

For Vegas and Pete:

Evil babygirl & stealthily evil babyboy. Vegas, known committer of atrocities, and Pete, who didn't rise up the ranks of being a mafia bodyguard for nothing. Never forget how Pete brutally shot and killed his coworker who dared to shoot Vegas in front of him.

I mean. They both kill people all the time. They even have evil gay BDSM sex. It's all right there.

it's plainly obvious to anyone even looking in their direction how murder husbands they are. both have canonically killed multiple people, often on screen. Not to mention the onscreen scene of Vegas literally torturing someone. 

For Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu:

you've got the founder of the fantasy ancient Chinese CIA and the leader of what is essentially the mafia and then they're soulmates and in love. they're both willing to kill anyone who dares hurt the other while also just wanting a soft domestic life together

Zhou Zishu is an assassin and spymaster who put the current Emperor on the throne, and then quit his job by faking his death (kinda, hes still dying but not as fast as he was supposed to). Had done A Lot on his old job, including murdering children (more than one, and at least one of them in a way I can't even describe without several trigger warnings), exterminating whole families, war crimes (and i dont mean this in a buzzword way, i mean "organized a public execution of foreign diplomats during war time")… btw he doesn't feel particularly bad about any of this, because he believes it was necessary. Like he wouldn't do it for fun, but he thinks the ends (putting a good Emperor on the throne) justified the means (all of the atrocities). As a retiree, he definitely cut down on the amount of morally reprehensible murder, but not murder in general. He still routinely kills ppl, he just doesn't go out of his way to kill more. Wen Kexing, meanwhile, is the Ghost Valley Master - Ghost Valley being a place where the worst of criminals are exiled. Even in such a place, he has reputation as a complete lunatic, owed partially to the fact that he either skinned a man or fed him his own flesh or both at one point, and partially to him having a rule where he would kill anyone who came closer than 3 meters to him. But in truth, everything he'd done was to survive the Ghost Valley and eventually take revenge for his parents, who were brutally murdered when he was only nine. By the start of the novel's timeline, he put his plan in motion - the plan that would drown jianghu in blood, but also deliver poetic justice to all responsible for his parents' deaths, as well as all who'd commit the same crime given the chance. And these two men, these two murderers and schemers, meet - and unexpectedly, find in each other the person who /understands/. The person who is just as ruthless and whose hands are just as bloody, but also the person who knows standing at the top of the world is not worth it, who seeks the same freedom of leaving it all behind, and who is still, underneath it all, a human, with human heart seeking connection. So you have this couple who understand each other with barely a word, and who want the same things - who are so hungry for domesticity and for people they can just goof around with when all their lives they had to measure every step and word - but ALSO where one half a couple is like "i gotta go murder hundreds in revenge" and the other half is like "ok pick you up at 6". (This btw is why I'm submitting novel's iteration of the couple in particular. Show wenzhou with their ridiculous breakups over morality could Never.) Also they were both hiding who they are when they first met, and later flirted about having figured each other out. Finally, I'll leave you my favorite quote that just. perfectly sums up their relationship: "And just like that, they fell asleep in each other's arms, steeped in the smell of blood."

You’ve probably already had submissions for them but I’ll add on. One of them founded an assassin’s guild and killed a staggering number of people. His malewife is the leader of a sect of insane murderous outcasts, and he attained his position by proving to be the most crazy and murder happy of them all. Most of the plot involves him wandering around watching his schemes get more people killed. Together they adopt a kid that was only orphaned due to said scheming (oops). They’re terrible and I love them.

[aphroditesmoon]

here with me

joel miller x reader

summary: you've had better days, but as long as he's with you, you wouldn't ask to be anywhere else.

warnings: age gap (reader is 34), fluff, used both game/show Joel for inspo.

a/n: hope u guys like this<3

°°°

The car tank was gonna run out sooner or later. It was a bit nerve-wrecking that it had to happen around an abandoned neighbourhood.

Your feet are eating you up, the pain shooting up at the sole. Joel seems to feel the same way as he decides to search an abandoned mansion. You roll your eyes at his choice of house. "You couldn't have picked anything more lowkey?"

"What can I say, I'm a man of taste." He replied nonchalantly.

You scan the kitchen and laid eyes on the wrapping papers and finished Cheetos package.

"Someone was here, Joel." You called out, picking up the wrappings and waving it up for him to see. He nods and keeps searching.

"That's either a good thing or a bad thing, keep looking out." He orders. You sighs lowly before heading upstairs. The floor was wooden, smoothed out, and as wrecked as the house looked like, you can see the potential, with everything cleaned up a bit, a little redecorating going on.

You eye the large grandfather clock hanging on the wall, somehow still surviving despite the other furnitures destroyed. Though pretty, it doesn't work anymore unfortunately.

As you glance next to the wall, empty picture frames that hang next to the clock makes you frown.

The owner must've taken them all out when the pandemic started.

You continue walking until you reach the first room with it's door closed. You kick it open, gun ready to aim and shoot.

You're met with an empty room as it looks, entering inside, you study the large master bedroom, the bed was dust filled, as is the table by it's side.

You pull open the closet inside, met with more emptiness, you quickly move to look behind, Cursing loudly at the sudden view of a rotten dead infected, attached to the wall. Your face pulls in disgust and you immediately walk out, suddenly feeling more aware and on guard as you search the other rooms.

Joel's voice fills loudly as it echoes throughout the whole house. "You wouldn't believe this, these stupid rich people be leaving behind the wrong things."

You hummed softly, hopping down the two way big staircase, feeling like you're in one of those movies.

"Oh yeah, I know, they even left behind some some of these sick ass Celine Dion CDs." You laughed out making him snort.

"Well, that'll go well in the car ride, now that we have the oil for car tank." He had a small smile as he lifts up the two large bottles of car oil and placed them at the broken dinner table.

Your eyes wide at the sight before you looked up to him and grinned. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go." You ask hastily.

He shook his head to your suprised. "You and I both need rest. We'll stay the night here, and drive back tomorrow, Were getting closer to Jackson anyways, so no fuss."

"Seriously?" "Seriously." He moved to go upstairs but you called out immediately. "Dead infected occupy the rooms! They're rotting on the walls, but still not a nice view to sleep to I guess."

He keeps walking up and you watch him enter each room.

Reaching the last one, he exits holding up two large comforters and a long blanket. You nod your head subtly understanding his actions.

"Dust them out a bit, can't risk you dying of asthma or something." He teased as he passes you a comforter.

"That was one time, the room was basically a storage box." You mumbled, annoyed.

You open the comforter wide before waving it up and down to removed the dust, coughing loudly. "There ya go."

You lay your comforter down next to his and sits down on it, letting your body enjoy the rest while it could.

Joel instead, walks towards the fireplace ahead of you. "Wonder if this still works." He voices out.

You watch him from where you're sitting and enjoy the view. "Probably not."

He kneels down in front of it and checks the wire for the electronic starter of the fireplace.

After a few minutes of clicking and pulling wires, the fire lights up. You cheer loudly at the sight and he turns his head back to look at you, a small rare smile on his face.

°°°

That evening you slept easily on the comforter until night came. Your begrudgingly open you eyes to the sight of Joel bending down by the kitchen cabinets.

You sit up and run your tired eyes as you continue to eye his actions. "What are you doing?" You mumbled at him. He doesn't say anything at first, but then you hear a congratulatory 'aha'.

He walks up to you with a satisfied smile, holding two mugs in his hands. He gently sits back down next to you, passing the mug in your hands.

"What's this?" You asks. There was nothing inside, you frown at the mug and look back at him with an amused expression.

"It's a birthday present." He spoke smiling.

Your breath hitches and you lose yourself in your head for a second. You couldn't even remember the date today.

You stare at him and blinked a few times. "How do you know it's my birthday?"

He shrugs. "I keep up with time." He says simply. "How old are you now? 40?" He asks teasingly. "34, I'm almost as old as you."

He actually laughs and places his own mug next to him. "Now I'm really sure you're just an ass kisser."

You let out a short laugh before studying the mug. Your eyes widen excitedly when you realize the mug had cat ears.

"Oh it's a cat mug!" You exclaimed. You lifted it to show Joel, but he already knows of course.

He shoots up and reach out for his backpack. "Oh there's one more thing-" He pulls out an ukulele. "-Im more of a guitar person, but this will work."

You burst out a laugh and had to clamp your mouth shut when he sends a glare your way.

"Sorry I just- I don't understand why you'd have a whole ukulele in your backpack."

He snorts and shook his head. "Not mine, one of them rich fuckers got it in their room, if it fits in the bag, then it fits."

You laugh again at his antics and shook your head. "Okay then mister country star, go at it." You joke, nodding your head at the ukulele.

"You gotta lie down, I'm supposed to be serenading you." He jokes as he starts strumming.

You lay againts the worn out comforter and watch as his face changes into a focused frowning image as he plucks the strings into a simple beautiful melody.

When he starts singing, his deep voice catches you off guard, but you were pleased. You never knew someone so brutal was capable of such tender acts.

You wouldn't say being a world post apocalypse where a simple bite can turn you into a flesh eating monster didn't suck, but you were glad that out of all the people you've met in 20 years, He stayed.

When your eyes starts feeling heavy, and your mind turns dizzy, you're still awake enough to feel him cover you with the blanket before sliding under it too, pulling you into his chest before tucking your head under his chin.

"Happy birthday baby."

[feral-childs-word]

A knights honor

Yandere!totk x knight reader

Description: As a royal knight it is your sworn duty to protect those around you and the royal family until the day you die. So why are you suddenly in the past during the imprisoning war with people wanting you as their protector even though you sworn the protect the one who carries the goddesses power.

Warnings: Cursing, gore, possessiveness, A little smut not full blown smut but like making out, and death. Also reader is gender netrual! But it will talk about masculinity.

Adults do not interact meaning do not follow or repost. (Commenting and liking this post is fine)

A/n: i made this because I was annoyed with little totk fanfiction there was and how their were none actually with reader being taller than Ganon or as a knight from the future like zelda 😮‍💨

Words: I dunno man I don't take track of this type of thing 🗿

Chapter 1- The awaking

You don't like this at all. Traveling down the dark and narrow path of the cave gives you chills. Your hand clutching the very sword that managed to survive during the age of calamity and when you fell alseep for 100 years along with the hero link.

Though it feels awkward because 1 you are walking down a path that feels weird. It felt like it was slowly dragging you down without knowing. Zelda the princess who survive Ganon was egar to do this after finding out that the muck or something you don't really recall what was making the villagers sick. So as a friend and knight you went along with Link who as ever was quiet about this but you could tell he was weary of this also.

Your eyes were focused forward ignoring zeldas excitement as she held the sheka slaight. Suddenly Links master sword bursted into light. You tensed and swallowed meaning that links sword is detecting danger. Zelda looked worried and gripped on your forearm.

Though you didn't notice since you were to busy looking ahead and trying to find the danger Zelda squeezed on your arm admiring how much muscle you have for being a women. You were actually tall taller than a average hylian and taller then a gerudo women. So you were possibly the tallest women Zelda has ever met and the strongest to almost matching links strength.

Both Zelda and you flinched once hearing something scream like it was dying and noticing link was gone. Swallowing your salava again you jogged down with Zelda who followed. Zelda noticed link and went ahead of you to see and ask if link was okay which he was and it was just a simple bat according to him.

Zelda nodded her head and turned it only to awe at what's ahead of her. Her eyes sparkled as she put the sheka to camera and rambled about something. Your eyes moved also and looked at the designed in awe also admiring the detail and time that person who made it took. Although you were interesting in everything you still had that gulch wrenching feeling like something bad was going to happen. Like.....something is supposed to happen.

Yet agian you shook it off thinking it was just you bring paranoid and ventured forward with link and zelda in the front rambling about something but you didn't really care since you were busy trying to ignore the feeling that came back once again. Once hearing zelda gasp softly you looked forward only to make your heart drop when seeing a pit. A very VERY deep pit with a green glowing light that swirled around gently but it was at one single spot whole the red looking smoke danced around everywhere.

"Zelda I do not think it's a good idea to go down there" You said finally speaking during this whole time down here. Zelda looked at you with a caring but determined look. "We must y/n we need to find out what is causing the people to become ill." Zelda said with a determined tone. Link sighed and shook his head knowing that y/n was right since he too had a feeling something bad was going to happen.

Zelda turned and continued walking down the path along with link. You grumbled about how this was a bad idea but followed since you didnt want to be left behind at a place like this. The steps of you, link, and zelda were echoing around the hallow place. Your hands sweated slightly as you finally made it down the final step and was walking down the crumble path.

"What is that?" Zelda suddenly asked. She stopped and slightly moved back once seeing the thing. Your eyes and even links eyes widened seeing a mummy of a man. His hair a deep blood red. His skin for some reason a deep brown color not normal for a decaying mummy. Yet your eyes were focused on the hand thar slowly fell to the side making a gem of some sorts fall off the hand and roll to zelda. Zelda knelt to the ground and hesitantly took the gem off the ground her eyes were focused on the gem them gasped softly when seeing the gem was glowing a golden color.. Your eyes once again snapped towards the mummy when hearing the sickening sound of joints and bones cracking. Zelda flinched and yelped softly once hearing the sound also and stood up, clutching the stone tightly.

The mummy rose up slowly making you flinch at the cracking sound. The mummy soon fell limp and making you hold your breath.

There was dead silence before the mummy snapped its head towards the three of you. Red stuff then shooted out of the mummy like it wad a command and shot towards the three of you more specifically zelda.

Zelda screamed but link managed to block the red things attack while you used your shield to block the up coming attacked that were coming towards you. Grunting you pushed away the red stuff and moved towards zelda protecting her with your sword and shield. Your eyes widened seeing the red stuff destroy links hand. It was coming to fast and you didn't know bit the red stuff then attacked you but not your body but almost half of your face making you scream and clutch the bleeding side.

"Y/n!" Zelda yelled with shock and worried tone. Your eye looked over and gasped seeing that the master sword shattered into pieces and flew everywhere. Including to the mummy.

"Link!" Zelda then called out links name once seeing the damage the red stuff had did to link. Your eye widened was a peice of the master sword grazed your cheek like the top of the shattered sword did to the mummy.

"Was that the blade that seals the darkness? A blade that shatters to easily against my power cannot save you from me." The mummy finally spoke as it slowly rose up looking at the three. Your eye spewed out blood making your hand painted with blood. You took shaky breathed whole looking at the mummy that was now finally at its height and looking at zelda.

"Zelda" It rasped ignoring the sheer fear that held in zeldas eyes. The mummy then turned to link his tone lasing with hatred. "You, that carries that fragile sword...are link" It hissed out. Links face hardened as he breathed heavily and clutching his whole wounded arm with the handle that was once the master sword.

Its rotten and olden face then and finally noticed you. "You........" It rasped his tone calming for odd reason but you didn't care. Clutching the sword you finally put your hand down revealing the eye socket that held nothing anymore. The eyeball shrunken and gone so now that right eye socket was hallow but still spewing out blood as the red stuff slowly crept around your eye.

"Raru placed his faith in you" It hissed out like that name made its blood boil with anger like that name was a name of an enemy. "And that was all ypu can do?" It responded his voice lacing with dissapointment like it was expecting something.

"How do you......know our names" Zelda managed to say her grip on the lighten touch was tight since she felt shame because she couldn't do anything to help y/n and link.

Yet the mummy ignored Zeldas question and shot out the same red stuff and moved it so now it was blasting upwards. The place crumbled as rocks were falling once the triangle peice was moving upwards. "Zelda, link!" You yelled moved zelda away as you used your upper body to push rocks away from the three ignoring the burning and painful feeling that was happening on your right eye.

The ground shook violently. You used tour sword for support while link knelt down finally feeling the intense pain. "Link, y/n!" Zelda called out but screamed when the rock under her fell making her fall. Your eye widened as you immediately jump and holding Zelda closed as you fell. Link soon then jumped and tried catching the bothof you but couldn't. You shut your eyes tightly as you felt wired rush through you and zelda expecting a impact but didn't. There was then a bright light coating you and zelda and made both of you suddenly dissappear.

Before you fell into unconsciousness you saw a small part of a little forest but fell into a darkness. Not knowing that a certain two people noticed both you and zelda unconscious.

[mydisenchantedeulogy]

Dying Light [Chapter One] Choking [Bi-Han/Sub-Zero]

A/n: this first chapter took a bit longer than intended. I'd like to thank those who voted, regarding the reader's magic. Thank you so much. Also, I added some aspects from previous games to fill out the plot for the first half a little. Please enjoy.

Tag List: @genesiswrld

Warning(s): arranged marriage au, female reader, cliches, fighting, blood, magic, and family drama.

No Minors Allowed!!

In your youth, new to the ways of the world, you were told about your inescapable fate; that when your clan began its new era, you alone would be the key to its tomorrow. 

The clan was dying off, a has-been of the past. It could not survive another century of change in a world that had no use for it or its teachings. There was no way to preserve them. To keep its lineage from fading into history, your family had no choice but to unite with another clan. 

This was where you would come in.  

When the time was right, you would be wedded to a clan head, and your clan, its strongest and most capable fighters, would merge with them, starting anew. However, this foretold life did not sit well with you. It was not fair. 

For years, you trained with a Grandmaster of martial arts, and then with your father’s consent you were given the Amulet of Damashi, an ancient heirloom passed down through your clan; one capable of substantial magic, enough so that you hoped to call off the merger. Yet, your longings and sacrifices were not enough.   

Your fate was set in stone. But still, you did all you could to draw attention to your clan, and for another year, all was well. 

Until one autumn afternoon. 

Sitting on a balcony at the far end of the main house, you occupy your time with a humorously erotic book brought from the city; it is cliche but you can not seem to put it down. 

As you are lost in the plot, a retainer wearing the clan’s insignia suddenly approaches you from the doorway and bows in respect. 

“Forgive my intrusion, honorable–”

You raise your hand and interrupt him; his immediate silence makes you hum in thanks. Whatever he has to say does not interest you, but you know that he is simply doing as someone ordered him to. Even so, you dislike being called away from your alone time. You continue to read in silence until you reach the end of the page, then you avert your eyes to him.

“It's unsettling when stories are left on cliffhangers,” you state. Resting the book in your lap, you motion for him to continue.  

 

The man bows again. 

“The Master sent me to retrieve you.”

You hum. 

“What reason does he need me for?”

If it is not urgent then he can wait until you have had your lesson with your master for the day. 

The retainer rests his arms at his sides and leans up.  

“To greet the honored guest who is waiting within the front courtyard. He came from Arctika to see you.” 

Honored guest. From the tundra region. 

Your eyes widen in realization. It can not be. 

Father brought him here.  

With a frustrated groan, you stand and rush past the retainer and through the main house to the inner courtyard.

I should have known. 

The servants had cleaned and prepared the main house the night before but you ignored the action, thinking your mother was just being choosy again. You had no idea that your parents were keeping secrets from you.

You manage to squeeze through the throng of clansmen in the inner courtyard until you are at the front, and then you rush to stand beside your father, giving him a heated look.   

“It is nice of you to join us,” he says with a serious tone. Taking the book from your hand, he grimaces at the title and hands it to your mother, who is beside him. 

“You gave me no other option,” you retort. 

Your mother sighs. 

“Had we, you would have found a way to vanish before your fiance arrived. It was the lesser of two evils, dear. Understand this.” 

You do, but it does not make it right.

I've never even seen him before.

“Send him away,” you implore. “We do not need to–”

“Your opinion is unneeded,” your father sneers. He gives you a look that warns you to keep your mouth shut.

An air of gloom and disappointment surrounds you. After what you have done, he and your mother do not seem to appreciate it. You take an uneasy breath and clutch the white and gold amulet attached to your side. Did achieving this mean nothing? 

It certainly feels so. Even after making an effort to master it, they pushed this merge in secret. 

Who is he? Your parents certainly trust in him. You want to know. 

Under your father’s orders, the guards open the doors to the southeastern entrance, and inside walks a group of what appears to you to be assassins dressed in similar attire, sporting a color scheme of blue and black. Some of them wear hoods over their heads, while all of them have their mouths covered, as well as the man in the lead.  

He must be their clan head.  

My fiance.

He is certainly handsome, with defined well-built curves and muscles that strain against the thin fabric of his twilight blue tabard. Even so, there is an air of bitterness that surrounds him as he measures your clan.

You share his sentiments. 

Watching your father bow, you quickly do the same. 

“It is an honor to have you grace us with your presence, Bi-Han of the Lin Kuei,” your father states. 

Bi-Han follows suit.

“It was the former Grandmaster - my father - who had hoped to see this merge.” He pauses to stand. “If your clan is as strong as promised, then I too share his sentiments.”

His tone is deep and high-handed, not promising in your opinion. While a part of you is thankful to him for taking in the clan, the other part is irritated that this is a recruitment visit. 

I am merely the weight that comes with the contract, nothing more.

“I too have been eager for this day. It is a shame, however, that your father passed on before his time. He was a respected man.”

Bi-Han knits his brows. 

“The Lin Kuei are in capable hands.”

No one said otherwise. 

You sigh in dread. 

“Yes…well, allow me to introduce my family,” Your father awkwardly states. He motions to your mother first, then to you. “My wife and my daughter, your bride-to-be.” 

You visibly frown. Must he refer to you as such? Like it is a title. So not to enrage or embarrass him, you smile at the stranger, then give him your name. 

“It is…an honor to meet you.”

Bi-Han remains silent. He looks you over and then turns his attention back to your father. 

“The terms of the marital contract come after.”

Your father hums in agreement. 

“Of course. A demonstration of might is of high priority. But should we not wait for your brothers? I was informed that they would be journeying with you.”  

“Their presence here is nonessential,” Bi-Han states.

You wonder why. If they are anything like him, you are thankful for their absence. 

Hearing your father order the servants to prepare the blocks for the test, you along with your mother stand back as your father gathers the six best fighters and has them line up in the center of the courtyard. 

In the meantime, Bi-Han stands at a distance in front of them with the Lin Kuei on his right. 

Once the six are ready, standing over seventeen 1-inch thick reinforced concrete pavers, your father joins Bi-Han and gives the word for them to begin. One by one, the fighters strike the blocks dead center, breaking them with ease.

You grin with pride. Yes, they can break more, but there is no need to push them, so long as Bi-Han is baited. In the end, it will be his guidance that shapes them to their full potential. 

With his mask on, it is frankly hard to tell. You lean just a bit to see his expression but you can not. He does however cross his arms and hum. 

“Are they competent fighters?”

Your father laughs. Of course, they are. He calls on a man with deep-set eyes - a good choice. The fighter steps forward and bows.  

“This is one of our strongest. If you wish to test–”

“Let us not be hasty, leader,” a familiar raspy voice interrupts.

Your master, an elderly woman with sunken features, saunters out from the throng and approaches your father.

“Excuse my interruption, but your daughter is a competent fighter. Should she not be tested instead?”

You frown. What is she doing? Proving yourself is no issue, but must you do it for your fiance? It is the fighters he came to test. Though you suppose you are not against showing off your techniques.

“If it’s what you wish, Father, I will fight,” you state in confidence. 

“Is this acceptable, Bi-Han?” Your father asks.

The man in question knits his brows in thought and then nods. He snaps his fingers and a member of the Lin Kuei without a hood steps forward and bows. 

“Do not pull your punches,” Bi-Han orders. His keen brown eyes turn to you, as though he wants to measure your expression. 

You remain stoic. If he is eager to see your strength, then that is fine. With confidence, you saunter to the center of the courtyard. Soon, the young man chosen to be your challenger joins you, striking a fighting pose. You do the same. 

A deathly silence consumes the stage.

You are not certain who calls the fight, but the moment it begins, the assassin rushes at you, attempting to strike you with a series of fast kicks. You step back, avoiding them, and manage to catch his leg against your side. Using his momentum to pivot him the opposite way, you strike him in the back with a front kick.  

The assassin staggers forward but catches himself. When he faces your direction, you can see the aggravation in his eyes. He rushes at you with a shout, throwing punch after punch. You can hardly match his speed, blocking what you can with your arms and hands. But then his stance changes and with a hard-hitting mountain punch simultaneously to the chest and face, you stagger back. 

For fuck’s sake.

An intense pain lights you up, but you push through it and rush at him. You do not want to continue this spar; you want to end it quickly before he puts you on your ass. Springing off your foot, you pull off a flying scissor kick, wrapping your legs around his head. Using your momentum against him, you toss the assassin off his feet and onto his back. Then with a shout of irritation, you raise your leg straight into the air and slam your heel into his face, breaking his nose with a wet crunch. You quickly roll back onto your feet and step away from him.

The Lin Kuei are no joke. 

You had hoped that he would not stand, but he does. The thin cloth over his face stains red as he bleeds profusely. All this seems to do is annoy him further. He comes at you a third time in anger, aiming at you with a straight punch. His mistake. You dodge it with ease and grab his wrist, yanking him forward and off balance. Turning in quickly, you elbow him in the stomach, then toss him over your back and onto the ground with a sharp smack. 

Your slip-up, however, is assuming that he is ready to submit. As you advance, the assassin flips back onto his feet and punches you in the face.

Instantly you taste blood in your teeth. Running your tongue on the inside of your lip, you wince in pain. He busted it. 

Your blood boils. 

Pointing your hand behind the assassin, you draw a circle with your finger, and then a swirling black portal materializes. One of the techniques of the amulet is portal creation via space and time magic. You do not want to use it in such a spar, but it is necessary.

Connecting it to one at your feet, you leap into the portal and appear behind the assassin, catching him off guard. He turns, but you pivot and roundhouse-kick him in the face. Your foot connects with his chin and he goes down like a rock, motionless. 

You do not even realize it is over until you hear a round of applause. You win. Stepping over the body, you bow, peeking up at Bi-Han. He seems almost surprised.

“I was not aware that she was capable of magic,” he states, turning his wide eyes to the man beside him. 

You raise a bow. They did not tell him. 

Your father hums. 

“Let us discuss it over some tea.”

He spares no words of gratitude and motions for Bi-Han to follow him. While hesitant, the high-handed man gives you one last look before he follows your father into the main house.

You sigh and saunter toward your mother, who appears elated. 

“Incredible work. I believe that you have impressed him.” 

“I should hope so,” you state with a snap, a bit annoyed that you were kicked around like a ball by his fighter. 

All it took was a few bruises and a busted lip. 

Your mother sighs and offers you back the book she took.

“Tame your anger. Go and rest. Tomorrow is a new day.” 

You give her a look of irritation before you saunter to the main house. Your master looks on at you with pride as you pass, but you are in too much of a foul mood to share your appreciation with her. The fight took too long, in your opinion. 

At least you are at last excused from this fiasco. A part of you, however, is curious about what Bi-Han has to say about you now.

It stays on your mind well into the night.

[inconspicious-random-thoughts]

Alastor wound

I doubt this be done in canon, and not really a theory. More of an idea. A story prompt I suppose?

So we know Alastor go injured by a holy weapon. The fanbase assuming this will disrupt Alastor power greatly. He be weaken significantly and suspected that the wound struggle to heal my normal means.

So here's my thought. What is the wound react by the virtues/morals of the injured. For example Alastor wound struggling to heal, but it gets worse. Every little deception and sin he takes part off, more of the wound inflicts a burn into him. Which, with Alastor, his him basically breathing. The man playing 4d chess and working with 3 agendas that work aside with each other. Trying to fulfill his roles and gain Charlies Trust, His master agenda, and his own to break his contract. So as he trying to plot, this wound is just getting worse and he doesn't know why. So he has another agenda and try to plot and extract favors to learn why.

Eventually, the wound he trying to keep a secret got revealed. Because he plotted something behind Charlies back and it nearly ended him while standing by the Hotel front desk. Lucifer drops the bombshell of why it not getting better. Because the holy magic is trying to burn away the wickedness of the wretched thing its inflicted on. The rest of hotel realized when he nearly died again in front of them that whatever he try to manipulate just then is now revealed Alastor as the manipulator that he is. Hurt and betrayal throughout the whole hotel as Alastor is struggling to stay conscious at this point as Lucifer performs a emergency spot heal. Vaggie and Lucifer pulled the "I told you so!" even though they JUST started to trust Alastor. That heal took a lot of argument amongst the hotel if he should receive, but Charlie being Charlie, wanted him save despite how utterly hurt and betrayed she felt.

Alastor, temporary mended and severely weaken to the point its basically a death sentence if anyone else in hell that the overlord is weak, and he is s forced to reveal some truths he kept hidden to the hotel.

So here's the twist, the only thing that can save Alastor from dying from the wound, is he has to actively try to redeem himself. Something he never believed the hotel could fulfill and he definitely knew his own soul is beyond redemption. All his careful plotting and careful control in his 4 D chess, the game board has been flipped over. He has to pick up the mess of pieces it left. He lost it all. HIs first priority is he need to find redemption to survive then he can try to find a way to free from his contract any anything other plan that salvageable to the back burner.

Alastor only way to survival is to try to redeem his unredeemable soul in a place where he betrayed everyone and nobody likes him. They all reluctantly help Alastor but because of Charlie (her belief now shaken because of Alastor) that everyone deserve a second chance and its the right thing to do. Beside, they needed Alastor knowledge of the oncoming big bad thing that was coming he was involved in that he can't really help in when it comes because of his contract. So While he a "guest" at the hotel now, he also a prisoner. They know when he being deceitful if his wound flares up.

Alastor redemption was basically him trying to earn everyone forgiveness. He was fond of the hotel crew before but they weren't friends. But throughout his healing arc he missed their warmth from their friendship to him.. He only receive cold glares from everyone now...which is deserved. When trying to earn their forgiveness and trust he actually developed (slowly!) a genuine friendship with each member of the hotel.

ttldr: Alastor would never go through redemption arc unless he needed to do ti save himself from the brink of death.

[imtrashraccoon]

I absolutely adored the way you wrote Papyrus in your last don't imagine that includes him. I know you wrote that one with a (I think) Moba game.

Can I have one in which has that Papyrus but where the game of choice is an MMORPG (Mabinogi [My MMORPG of choice], World of Warcraft)? And of course, Reader being one of the top players. Thank you if you do so!

Well, I didn't have a specific game in mind for the original Don't Imagine but I loosely based it on competitive shooters. My game of choice is usually a cozy or a survival type so I only have a surface level of knowledge for these types.

Don't imagine being one of the highest ranking players in a popular MMORPG. How you know the game inside and out. How you've mastered most, if not all, of the different characters even if you only ever play your favourite. How you play all the seasonal events the day they drop and make it a point to collect all the event items.

Don't imagine hopping online after a tiring work week and joining a raid with a couple other players. How you're playing like you always do when one of the other players catches your attention. How he seems rather underleveled for this zone and keeps dying a lot. How he seems very enthusiastic about trying out the new event despite this.

Don't imagine feeling a little bad for him when the other players start flaming his skills in the chat. How you keep an eye on the player and how you realize he actually has a better grasp on his character's abilities than most. How he's clearly trying his best and how he refuses to quit mid-match, despite the vicious mockery.

Don't imagine how your team manages to beat the raid by the skin of their teeth. How despite the rocky start, the new player held his own in the end. How you send him a friend request afterwards on a whim.

Don't imagine how he almost immediately accepts and how you start regularly playing together. How you decide to use a lower leveled character for a while to keep the enemy spawns more fair. How you admire his sense of strategy and enthusiasm towards even the small aspects of the game. How it never ceases to bring a smile to your face to log on only to be greeted by a pm about the latest drop he got.

Don't imagine how you eventually move to another platform so you can communicate outside of the game. How you learn that he's a monster and a skeleton at that. How his choice of characters makes so much sense now. How you realize he really is just a genuine person and not putting on a front all the time.

Don't imagine gaining a peek into his everyday life and how close he is with his friends. How he introduces you to his friend Alphys who also plays the same game you do. How the three of you regularly play together for months before Papyrus brings up the idea of meeting up in real life. How you're a bit hesitant at first since you did meet over the internet but ultimately agree.

Don't imagine getting off the airplane to find your two besties waiting in the terminal for you. How Alphys seems a bit shy at first but Papyrus is as friendly as ever. How you get to ride in the red convertible he's so proud of and see the city with them. How they introduce you to their friends and help you feel right at home.

Don't imagine Papyrus offering to put you up in the guest bedroom so you wouldn't have to get a hotel. How you get to sample his cooking for the first time and how he's even better than you expected. How he double-checks that you have everything you need before bed. Definitely don't imagine pulling him into a hug and thanking him for everything. How he seems stunned at first before melting into your embrace. How he expresses how glad he is to have met such an amazing person like you.

First, Previous, & Next Request

[mairitess]

ebbs and flows pt. 1 // jaya

a/n: i wrote this bc i got back into ninjago and i needed to write something for them bc i'm not caught up enough to be able to read the current fics + also on ao3 in capital letters

words: 1.5k

tags: angst, fluff, post-skybound, post s10 ninjago: masters of spinjitzu, jaya, no beta we die like kings, they r so traumatized after nadakhan, minor violence mentions from skybound, kiss kiss rated t just in case

preview:

she might’ve missed it, if she weren’t so keyed up already. “you’re my yang, nya.”

memory was clever in a cruel way. sometimes nya practically forgot what she and jay had endured, had survived. other times, though it had been years since, nadakhan’s grip was still around her wrist. memory was kind when it ebbed, cruel when it flowed. and the master of water, unfortunately, was far too familiar with ebbs and flows.

it started when she and jay were on a date downtown, a rare luxury given their line of work. they’d compulsively started window shopping, ducking into quirky stores, stealing kisses in the alleyways between. ninjago city hadn’t been quiet in so long.

“has this shop always been here?” jay asked, pointing at the large antiques sign hanging from the side of the building. “i feel like we’re always around here. why haven’t i seen it?”

nya smirked and nodded towards the restaurant next door. “maybe because you’ve been too focused on downing chen’s hand-pulled noodles to pay attention to anything else around here.”

“hey!” jay reached for her in fun, and nya twisted away, bolting to the antiques store. her laughter echoed down the street, and jay’s breath caught in his throat. no one laughed as brightly, as freely as her. his soft smile grew. no one made her laugh as brightly, as freely as him.

he was grinning wildly when he walked into the shop, nya waiting for him inside. “what?”

jay enveloped her into a hug, his arms snug around her. “i love you.”

“i love you too, jay. now look around with me! i wanna see if there’s anything interesting.” jay caught a quick kiss before pulling away, and nya’s cheeks were warm as they wandered through the store, hand in hand.

—

she saw the lamp first — not the same one, but far too close for comfort. it was rusted and dented like it had been thrown around in the wash, but the lamp’s handle curved at the bottom, whereas nadakhan’s stayed flush to the rest of the body. still, nya froze.

“nya? did you find anything?”

jay’s voice felt so distant and hazy, as if she was hearing him underwater. “honey?”

she felt his hands on either side of her face, and nya realized he was standing right in front of her. “you’re crying, nya.” he leaned in closer to look at her more directly as he wiped the tears from her cheeks. “what’s wrong?”

he followed her gaze to the shelf behind him, to the lamp sitting all on its lonesome. jay sighed then turned back to nya, resting his forehead against hers.

“look at me, nya.”

she felt like she was ripping her vigilance away as she did.

“that’s not his, i promise. and neither of us are going to touch it. we’re safe, okay? he’s gone.” 

nya didn’t remember leaving the antiques shop, or going home, or anything else that happened between seeing the lamp and ending up in jay’s bed. she was spooned against him, so jay couldn’t see she was keeping her eyes open for as long as she could — every time she blinked, she saw nadakhan and that lamp. she could feel herself dying in jay’s arms again, on the floor of nadakhan’s stolen makeshift palace. she could feel her last words trying to snake their way out, but her energy draining before jay could hear them.

jay’s arms tightened around her waist, and she jerked away from them, tearing out from his grasp. she turned, and he was staring at her, worry lines stretching across his forehead.

“do you want to talk about it?” he asked. nya was quiet, though she cuddled closer to fit her head under his chin. jay slowed his breathing, taking deeper breaths in and out — he hoped she’d match him, even if subconsciously.

he was starting to fall asleep when he heard her mumble into his chest. “you couldn’t say his name.”

—

everyone else knew about nadakhan from the murals on the wall in the courtyard, but they would never remember him, especially not the way jay and nya did. but honestly, that made it somewhat easier for nya. she could pretend everything was okay with them.

but jay was there. and it felt so careless and insensitive for him to pretend, too, when he was with her. a small part of her knew it wasn’t fair to be upset at him for that — while she was dying, he watched, and maybe that was worse. but still.

nya hadn’t spoken to jay when they were alone in days. she still came to his bed each night, but they would lie in silence, and every evening she would get further and further away from him in sleep. at this point, they were on opposite sides of the bed, and her back was to him. if he just reached out, he could hold her, but he was scared she’d jerk away again if he did, and that would hurt more than anything before. when they woke up each morning, he’d ask her if she wanted to talk about it. she’d stay silent, though sometimes she’d shake her head. then jay would say he’d talk about it whenever she was ready. it was their new routine.

she started to have nightmares the day after they’d first seen the lamp. he tried to hold her close, whisper “i love you” to her over and over again as she shook and sobbed, but she’d end up pushing him away as soon as she got up. one night, he tried not touching her at all, and her nightmare subsided easily. so he opted to just lie awake until it went away, waiting for her to still. then she’d wake up in the morning, and they’d do their routine all over again.

weeks passed, and nya had caught a cold. jay would’ve stayed home with her, but their recent villain needed all hands on deck. misako and wu promised to take care of her while jay was away, though they figured some sort of fight had transpired between the two lovers. 

usually when they had to split the team, jay and nya would kiss each other good luck. but jay stood in the doorway, quietly watching her sleep. he toyed with the yin symbol hanging around his neck. his partner, his love, was starting to feel more distant than a stranger, and every day more like a ghost. but he needed her to go to him. he was nervous about touching her and making any nightmares worse, so he opted to leave a note instead.

nya, my yang, i’ll be back soon. i love you.

—

nya could not tell him — she would not tell him. guilt slashed at her chest every morning she woke up, her throat dry and caked tears streaking from the corners of her eyes. but she had to tell misako and wu when she woke them up screaming in the middle of the night, the first time anyone else had heard her nightmares.

“nya?” misako rushed in first to see nya shot up in bed, gasping for air. misako put the back of her hand on nya’s forehead. “you’re burning.”

there was a small tub of water and a washcloth on the side table next to her bed, and misako wet and wrung the towel before leaning nya back gently and placing the rag on her forehead. nya’s eyes were still wide open, and she didn’t have to look to ask —

“where’s jay?”

wu walked in, staff in hand. “jay is with the other ninjas. they needed more help. i thought you knew…” he trailed off, seeing the note next to her. nya grabbed it, and as she read it, started crying harder.

“i’ve been so horrible to jay,” she said, stuttering. “and i can’t even tell him what’s wrong.”

misako held nya’s hand, squeezing it lightly. “then maybe it’ll help if you tell us first.”

—

every time nya fell asleep, she’d find herself in her almost-wedding to nadakhan. then she would get shot, and she’d lie on the floor. when she was first getting these nightmares, she could feel jay holding her again, just as he did the first time. but that made the dreams a little too real — she needed some sense they were just dreams. she would kick him away, and he’d disappear, and she could breathe again. eventually, she stopped imagining jay holding her, and as she lay on the floor, she knew it wasn’t real because it was playing out differently from what was real, and she was able to move on.

but how could she tell jay, that now, whenever he hugged her, she felt like she was dying?

xx

part 2 here

[incorrectjttw]

golden cicada, since you were a cicada, have you ever sung to find a partner, like your brothers?

I know that cicadas live a long time underground and all their young emerge at the same time to reproduce. This as a method of survival and ensuring the greatest number of future offspring. And then the cicadas die after reproducing.

Do you remember your brothers?

Tripitaka, have you ever felt the desire to sing like in your past life? I know you like poetry and nature. Do you feel connected to your insect half?

Wukong, have you ever been curious about the taste of golden cicada? If you had not met Tripitaka, would you have eaten the monk Tripitaka? If you had met the golden cicada when you were younger, would you have eaten Golden Cicada?

I heard that golden cicadas are a delicious dish for Chinese people.

Golden Cicada: Uhm ... yes and no. The answer to this is kind of complicated. I have never mated, because by the time I reached adulthood, I was a full blown spirit with a mind of my own.

Golden Cicada: The forest, where I was laid as an egg, is the home of my original master, Yuding Zhenren, a Golden Immortal whose magic fills the forest. Of course my siblings and I all paid our respects to him after emerging from the earth, but that's where we parted. They were content with mating and dying, like you said, but that wasn't enough for me. I wanted to be immortal, so I became Yuding's disciple.

Golden Cicada: But while I never reproduced, I do still sometimes sing at night. Partly in memory of my dead siblings, but mainly to annoy my fellow disciples. *snickers* I kept that habit, even after I converted and followed the Buddha. It'll never not be funny!

.

Tripitaka: Oh, I do like singing! I'm not comfortable doing it in front of others, though. I get stage fright. And yes, I also love poetry and nature. They relax me. :)

Tripitaka: Well ... to be honest, I have mixed feelings about Golden Cicada. Since becoming the Buddha of Sandalwood Merit, I remember when I was them, but they feel so ... wrong. Not wrong as in, a horrible person I'd never want to be, but more like ... someone I'm expected to be, but am not. Being treated like them feels wrong. Being called by their name feels wrong. They're a stranger. We have few things in common. That person ... isn't me.

.

Sun Wukong: Hmm ... no, I've never thought of that. It wouldn't even have been easy, because Three-Eyes (Erlang Shen) has told me some stuff about them that actually makes me think they could've kicked my arse. And that I would've chipped my teeth on Golden Cicada's exoskeleton.

Sun Wukong: But yes, we do sometimes eat insects. When prepared right, they're pretty tasty! Still kinda unsettled me, when my master said that if he wasn't a vegetarian he'd eat cicadas purely to spite his past life. I ... I think he needs help.

[grassbreads]

The more I linger on it, the more I think this might be the most subtly unhinged thing in all of SGRS. What do you MEAN you dated for eight years and never told each other your real names???

Miyokichi talks after the breakup about how she was putting on a "professional front" with Kikuhiko. As a survival technique, Miyokichi tends to make herself into whatever she thinks the man she's with wants from her, and in this case, that means she presented herself as her idea of Kiku's idea of a "good woman" for a full eight years while they were together. She probably would have tried to go on like that forever if he didn't break things off.

Yet at the same time, I think she's rightfully upset on some level that Kiku never looked at her more deeply. We see very little of their relationship, only the beginning and the very end, but given what we do see, it seems like Kiku never quite stops holding Miyokichi at arm's length. He goes along with things and initiates some level of closeness (like leaning into her when he's upset during the rain), but he doesn't push her to get more intimate.

Kiku looks scared when Miyokichi talks about dying during their breakup, he defends her personhood to his master, and he wants to bring her back to Tokyo with along Konatsu and Sukeroku when he finds them, so it's not like he doesn't care about her at all. But while he treats her his own version of decently, he never tries to get to know her on a deeper level. He doesn't take initiative to look for who she is behind her front for him.

(Personally, I'd blame his disinterest in knowing her largely on his own fear of being known, but we don't have time to get into that right now).

The problem with Miyokichi's frustration with being taken at face value, though, is that she doesn't know Kikuhiko's real name either. She most likely never asks, just like Kiku never asks hers. I think she falls in love with the idea of dating Kiku as much if not more than she falls in love with him. He's safe and well-mannered and very handsome, and I think his distant coldness is a comfort to her on some level because neglect, though an unhappy business, is what she has experience with.

Miyokichi likes the idea of ~being the woman~ and supporting Kiku emotionally. I'm sure she encouraged some playact of emotional intimacy between them. I'm sure they found comfort in each other in a very real way sometimes. But, if she got to know Kiku too well, she would have seen things about him she didn't like. Could she have truly known him without knowing he didn't love her the way she wanted? She never quite looks deeper to see whether he's really the type of man that she needs him to be.

I think Kiku is a bit more at fault for the dysfunction in their relationship overall. Whether or not he was ever properly attracted to or in love with her, he's quite clearly an inattentive boyfriend to an egregious degree. Who the hell goes traveling for an extended period without saying a word to their partner?? But he's not the only one that lets their partner pretend to be something they're not.

Kiku and Miyokichi are both very talented actors. Boyfriend and Girlfriend are roles that they're both playing. They're the happy heterosexual couple! Miyokichi seems to latch onto Kiku in large part for the sake of her safety (and because she doesn't know how to exist without a boyfriend in her life). And however much pleasure he may or may not get from Miyokichi's advances, I think Kiku stays in the relationship with her at least in part out of a sense of social obligation. She's beautiful and hitting on him. Young men are supposed to have girlfriends. He's encouraged to date to get experience for his rakugo. Is saying "no" even an option?

But because they're both playing roles, because they're both invested in Doing A Relationship as much as they're invested in each other as individuals, both of them skim along the other's surface. Neither of them ever volunteers to tell the other their real name, and apparently neither of them ever tries to ask. They spend eight years together, but those years are spent dating the personas of Kikuhiko and Miyokichi, not daring to look at the people underneath those masks.