#the boy who swore revenge on the world

[idontthinkimokaymentally]

Hello there Princess Elise fans.

[glitterycvm]

★ NEXT TIME SHES MINE ★

[•~suguru x reader, fluff, smut, and slight angst~•]⊹₊⋆

[•~sypnosis: your boyfriend cheats on you with your best friend. and your boy best friend, suguru has an idea for revenge~•]⊹₊⋆

so many emotions were running through your head right now. you weren't sure why. why you weren't good enough for him. good enough for your so called true love. your boyfriend. the boyfriend who swore you were the only one. he would constantly utter sweet sentences always along the lines of "you're all mine. you're perfect" in your ear. you didn't understand it either. why would he lie to you? if you weren't good enough for him why did he keep you wrapped around his finger.

and out of all the women in the world he chose your best friend to cheat on you with. and your best friend willingly obliged. lying to your very face. it explained all the whispered phone calls, and sudden absences your boyfriend has excused with the same "oh I had work to attend to". if you hadn't came home early today, and witnessed the disgusting gut wrenching sight of your best friend under your boyfriend, you would've still been under his manipulative control.

the whole situation made your stomach ache with betrayal and sorrow. the tears flooded your eyes, not seeming to ever come to a stop. you needed someone right now. someone to comfort you. someone who could listen to all your issues right now. it wasn't like you had anybody right now either. you would always go to your best friend for comfort and support. yet she had stabbed you in the most vile way possible. but not all hope was lost. you still had your guy best friend. suguru geto.

you had told suguru about the situation over the phone, voice shaky and strained. suguru felt so much pain and anger for you. he knew that your boyfriend wasn't the best guy in the world. he could always tell something was off about him, but didn't wanna tell you because he knew how much you loved him. not only that, suguru had also been in love with you ever since you two met. it was like his world brightened ever since you started talking to him. and no matter what he did, he couldn't stop loving you. and suguru didn't want to admit it but he was gleeful upon hearing you were done with the man.

so here you were, head buried in suguru's chest. as he sat against his headboard. your tears had soaked his shirt but he didn't mind. he was rubbing circles on your back as you sobbed, humming small "shh... it's okay.." "you'll find someone so much better..." you felt so safe in his arms. it was so therapeutic, the sudden feeling of support he brought you. it helped bring you back to your sense. minutes of sobbing passed by, as you calmed down eventually. you take in one final loud breath. you finally look back up at suguru, who was lost in thought. he was thinking about how furious he felt about how the man who was supposed to be taking care of you, brought you so much heartbreak. not only that but he was also lost in thought, imagining several ways to get revenge.

"suguru?" you call out, your voice was so hoarse and strained. the heartbreak was evident. suguru snaps out of his daydream, a sense of relief washes over him after seeing you had finally stopped crying. "yes?" he answers, fingers running through your hair. "was I not good enough for him? why would he do something like this?" you stutter quickly. suguru sighs and answers "it's not your fault Y/N... it's his, he just couldn't appreciate the absolute goddess which was with him. and he didn't deserve you. he really didn't. don't ever think that it's your fault." he comforts you "you don't deserve him either, you're too pretty and sweet for such a creature" he chuckles quietly.

you smile warmly at his words. you were feeling so much more warmth and love from suguru than your actual boyfriend. you giggle a little too. "thanks suguru..." you mumble, the hole in your heart still hurting tremendously. you sigh deeply, overthinking once again. suguru quickly notices this and smirks mischievously. "hey Y/N..?" he asks, a dark tint growing in his eyes. you hum a "yeah?" in response. "you up to get some revenge?"

the bed creaks loudly under you, almost covering up the sounds of your sweet moans. suguru had you on all fours, pounding into you so harshly. making sure you were able to feel him in every single part of your sweet pussy. he wanted to make sure you knew who could really treat you best. it was his chance now. to show you no one could ever fuck you as good as him, to show you that only he was good enough for you. he needed you to know who you were meant for.

you on the other hand were simply to lost in the rhythmic thrusts you felt. you had slept with your boyfriend before, but he could never reach the lengths suguru could. it was obvious suguru had a lengthy and girthy dick and it took you some time to adjust to, but oh how it kissed your cervix so perfectly, making you lost in the stars. you never wanted it to end. and it distracted you from the fucked up decisions of your precious boyfriend and best friend.

suguru can feel your walls begin to tighten, which he could tell was your orgasm building up and approaching. he gave your ass one hard slap, making you scream out of both pleasure and pain. suguru leans down and whispers in your ear, in a deep and husky voice. "unlock ya phone f'me." he grunts, hand you, your phone. you were too focused on your own pleasure to question why suguru would need your phone, but you typed in the password quickly and handed it back him.

suguru reward you with a softer slap on your ass, making you squirm a little, mumbling something that sounded like "such a good girl for me-" he then holds your phone with one hand, the other hand gripping at your hips harshly, it was sure to leave red marks the next morning. he then begins to start recording, recording the way you were so dumb in his cock. he then began to rub circles on your clit with his rough fingers, "cmon tell me pretty girl, who do you belong to?" he says, loudly so it can be caught in the video.

"y-you!" you whine out. another harsh slap meets your ass again, the sting making you cry out in pleasure while the pressure of the slap leaves a red on your ass. "y'know that's not good enough." he says, pausing the circles on your clit for a moment, and slowing pulling out of your sore puffy cunt. you whine at the sudden pause in pleasure, "I'm yours suguru!! p-please more..." you mewl, so needy for him and his cock. suguru chuckles and makes sure to record his cock sliding right back into you.

you gasp, the satisfying feeling of being filled up by suguru flooding your mind. suguru chuckles and begins to thrust into you again, making sure to hit all your sweet spots, spots your boyfriend could never reach. "tell me princess, could your boyfriend fuck you as good as me?" he asks, the cockiness in his voice evident as he plays with the fat of your ass, making sure to capture everything on camera.

"n-no! just you suguru- fuckk" you moan, suguru laughs loudly and begins to rub circles on your clit in quick circular motions. the sudden sensation on your bud makes you arrive at the brink of your orgasm even quicker. suguru continues his thrusts, the same pace as he too was approaching his high. "s-see this? ya can't even fuck your girl good enough..." he grunts, the hand on your hip tightens as he reaches his orgasm, the circles on your clit quicken even more. "shit! suguru! m'cumming!!" you sob, your eyes closing shut at the feeling of your overwhelming orgasm.

suguru groans at the sensation of your liquids, making him cum too in the process. "ah- fuck y/n... gonna cum in you, so ya nasty boyfriend can see who you really belong to..." he groans, strings of his semen shoot down your walls, coating them a pearly white. suguru pulls out of you, recording himself "see even cummed in your girl, bet you couldn't even get her to orgasm." he boasts, before clicking the stop button.

you were too cock drunk to even process what he was doing, but you were sure to regret it later on. suguru hastily sends the video to your "beloved" boyfriend, along with typing, "next time she's mine." suguru tosses your phone to the side of the bed. "what was that?.." you ask him, still heavily panting. "oh nothing, now where were we?" suguru brushes off. he'll let you find out tomorrow morning.

[tomorrowusa]

A lot of those bros who embraced Trump may soon become incel bros.

Apparently the "4B" movement has crossed the Pacific from South Korea.

To explain 4B, this is from Elle...

McKenna, who did not want her last name published for privacy reasons, first heard about 4B a few months ago, via a TikTok video referring to the South Korean social movement. The basic idea: women swear off heterosexual marriage, dating, sex and childbirth in protest against institutionalized misogyny and abuse. (It is called 4B in reference to these four specific no-nos.) The mostly online movement began around 2018 protests against revenge porn and grew into South Korea’s #MeToo-esque feminist wave. In the wake of Trump’s victory, 4B is once again on McKenna’s mind – and she’s not the only one.

Trump’s embrace of manosphere figures such as Joe Rogan, the Nelk Boys and Adin Ross means he has strong support among their evangelists – mainly, young men. But for young women, the former president’s long history of misogyny means a vote for Trump is a vote against feminism, especially with reproductive rights as a key issue in 2024. Ahead of the US election, pundits predicted a history-making gender gap, and early exit polls support that prediction: women aged 18-29 went overwhelmingly left, while Trump picked up ground with their male counterparts compared with 2020. With the race called, TikToks viewed hundreds of thousands of times offered one way for women to go for the jugular: 4B, specifically cutting off contact with men. “Girls it’s time to boycott all men! You lost your rights, and they lost the right to hit raw! 4b movement starts now!” one creator wrote on TiKTok in a video viewed 3.4m times.

B4 began in South Korea to protest blatant misogyny. It grew when South Korean bros helped to elect a misogynistic president.

In South Korea, 4B began as an offshoot of national protests against the spycam epidemic, in which perpetrators filmed targets – most of whom were women – during sex or while urinating in public bathrooms without their knowledge or consent. “These videos were sold and exchanged by men on Discord, and women didn’t know how many men had taken part, and if any of the men in their lives had,” said Min Joo Lee, an assistant professor of Asian studies at Occidental College. “There was a general sense of, ‘Who can I trust? And before I regain my trust in men, I need to refrain from contact with them.’”

Voyeurism is something Trump is famous for.

4B happens at a time South Korea is experiencing a drop in its fertility rate. So women are operating from a position of strength. Of course fertility fanatic Elon Musk is appalled by B4.

South Korea’s fertility struggle caught the attention of the vehement Trump ally Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO has at least 11 living children (one son died in infancy in 2002). He describes pronatalism, the enthusiastic promotion of reproduction, as a way to save humanity from “population collapse”. When Taylor Swift came out in support of Kamala Harris this summer, he seemingly offered, creepily and unprompted, to get her pregnant. He’s propped up South Korea’s declining fertility rate as a case study for Americans who do not get busy making babies. Consider Musk an archetypical 4B foe. He’s far from the only one. Far-right figures such as Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist who has praised Hitler and once described his “ideal wife” as 16 years old, celebrated on X after Trump’s win, tweeting, “I’d just like to take the opportunity to thank men for saving this country from stupid bitches who wanted to destroy the world to keep abortion,” and, “Your body, my choice. Forever.” That sort of violent rhetoric, which is spreading among Trump’s far-right supporters, will not exactly convince the majority of young American women they should be dating at the moment.

Musk's worry about "population collapse" is contrived and probably racist. What he really wants is higher white fertility.

We're in no danger of our species going extinct unless we make the planet unlivable. There are currently 8.1 billion humans. Even if that were cut in half, that would leave us with more humans than there were in 1974; they seemed to do just fine back then with ABBA and Gerald Ford.

So women, do whatever it takes to secure your rights. At the very least, discriminate in favor of guys who donated to Harris-Walz before November 5th.

[ashsimpsalot]

Mera naam... (Monkey man Kid X Reader)

A/n: uhhhh idk if I like it as much as coconut & honey but enjoy!

'you should never lie'

his mother once told him with angry eyes that he hated to see so much. When Kid was just 8 years old, he had lied to his poor mother about going to play near the river just in front of their humble home, instead, going off far away into the market because he wanted to buy the bangle she's been eyeing for a while.

He's been a proper good boy, he swore, he helped Mr Deepesh, their next door neighbour, by cleaning up his chicken coop for money. He didn't mean to worry her.

'You shouldn't lie to the people you love, even when you think it's for a good reason, a lie is a lie,' she had worriedly say while hugging her boy to her chest.

He didn't think those words would haunt him 20 years later. Kid didn't even mean to lie to you, he didn't even mean to fall for you, but he had, and his lies only bury him into a deeper hole.

"Bobby? You're ready to go?" your sweet voice snapped him out of his thoughts, the beer he's been nursing while you pack up the kitchen still in his hand.

"yeah," he nods, giving you a small smile. You wrapped your hands around his arm so easily as if you've been doing it for years, in reality it's only been 4 months.

4 months of lies

4 months of love

His mind wandered back to how he got here, with your hands wrapped around his arm, heading for your motorcycle. Was it that night? When he first entered his shift, he noticed you eyeing him. He didn't think much of it, you were a chef after all. You could've just been curious about the new staff.

Was it when he keeps staring at you too? Unintentionally?

But it's definitely when you start smiling at him. He's never had any other thought than revenge then this.. You... You happened.

"hey handsome, where's your mind travelling to?" you asked so sweetly he didn't even mind. Kid didn't know much about himself but he knew he hated when anyone else interrupt his thought process, not you though, never you.

Kid smiled and shook his head. "nowhere, right here," he covered it up with a quick peck on your lips and took your helmet from you, placing it onto your head and pinning it on for you, then with a stupid smile on his face he lifted the visor to boop your nose. You chuckled.

Fuck, is this love? This overwhelming feeling over the slightest thing you do?

He put on his own helmet and got on the bike, waiting till you get on too. His waist never felt so empty until you wrapped your arms around them.

4 months ago he didn't even have his own room, now he's heading to "our store" getting off the bike and ordering "the usual" and going straight to "our spot"

He doesn't even know who he is anymore.

Your kiss on his lips brought him back to reality.

"congrats, baby, on making it to VIP floor." you said with a smile on your lips.

If only you knew why he wanted to be on VIP floor so bad.

"thank you, jaan," he whispered softly, arms around your waist, swaying left to right lightly as if dancing to a song. He leaned down and kissed you again. "what's this? What's wrong?" damn you, you always somehow knew, your finger tracing his eyebrows as if to pull the frown out of his face.

He didn't know what to say. Tell you what? He's not at all who you think he is? He's plotting to kill a man? Burn the hotel? Kill one of the most influential fucking man in India?

"hey, you can tell me, Bobby, I'm here," you called that name so lovingly he had to physically fight from flinching.

In a perfect world where he isn't such a coward he'll open his mouth and tell you the truth but the truth is he's just that, a coward.

"i swear it's nothing, jaanu, just... Tired," he smiled and hugged you burying his nose in your neck, scared that he'll forget what you smell like once you find out who he is.

Your fingers snaked into his curls, playing with them like always, like it's yours, like he's yours.

"I've got you, always," you whispered into his ear, planting a soft kiss after.

He hope you meant that

Because after almost 2 months of disappearing, hiding from the police in the temple with the hijras, he's back, at your house, knocking.

You opened the door, you looked great but your eyes looks almost dead, somber.

"jaanu," that's all he could whisper, seeing you again is...

You tried to close the door but his reflexes made him able to hold the door open.

"please, please just let me explain myself"

You looked at him and scoff. "explain what? I don't even know who you are, what could you possibly say to me? What was your plan? Kill Rana and pin it on me or something? Is that it?" your voice gets shakier and shakier by each sentence, your grip on the door loosen. Kid quickly shook his head.

"no, no, never, jaanu," he had wrapped his arms around your crying figure, his body is half through the door, cupping your cheek and tenderly caressed your tears away.

"I trusted you! I loved you!" you cried out and all he could do was hold onto you while you smack your fists on his chest again and again.

"I know, i know," he whispered, he lead you inside as you limped against him.

On the couch he held you, tighter than usual, he lets you cry onto his chest, not caring about the condition of his shirt.

"you didn't call, you didn't explain, you just vanished, I thought you fucking died!" you cried out.

"I know jaan, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" thats all he can offer. He kept whispering apologies and sweet nothings into your ear until you end up falling asleep on his chest. He laid you down on the couch, planted a soft kiss on your forehead and went to the kitchen. Skillfully manoeuvring through your kitchen, making a meal as he's been there countless of time. He didn't keep track of time, only glancing at the clock when he hears a croak of your voice calling his 'name'.

"I'm here jaan," Kid said walking towards the couch to see your eyes teared again.

"I thought you left again," you said with a whine in your voice, he sat next to you, arm pulling your towards him to kiss your head. "I'm here," he repeated.

"I went to make you some food, it's pretty early I don't think you've eaten," he explained, you simply nodded.

"I... I want you to explain to me who you are and what's happening." you said voice beyond tired.

"my name isn't Bobby,"

"yeah no shit," you scoffed, he only nodded, he's glad really, you're letting him hold you, touch you that's a good sign, right?

" my name... Is Kid. I worked at Queenie's hotel because I'm... Plotting revenge on Rana and Baba shakti. For killing my mother." his voice grew quieter and quieter. The obvious pain in his voice when he mentioned his mother.

"my hands," you looked at those hands, his scarred hands he meant, the ones you would plant kisses on after a night of passion, the ones you loved so much. "they got hurt when I tried to put out the fire my mother was set on... By Rana Singh," he said, face grew harder, voice turned colder.

You stared into his eyes. "Kid," you tried calling his name. He looked at you, all attention on you as if nothing else matters.

"I swear I didn't mean to rope you into this. I didn't mean to hurt you, I couldn't... I couldn't stay away from you, I tried. You consume me, my thoughts, I've never thought of anything else but revenge all my life and you walked into it and make me feel alive again. As if I could have any other life than just death after revenge. I never wanted to live but when I hold you I feel this fear of death that I've never felt before. Understand that all was real, my feelings for you was real, is real," he begged, his hands on your cheeks again.

"but you tried to kill him anyway, why?"

He shook his head. "when I saw him. When I saw that bastard I lost it. Why does he get to live his life while my mother is ashes somewhere on the forest floor?" he grunted, face angered.

You do what you always does, your finger start tracing his eyebrows, his face visibly soften. Like he could breathe again. He took your other hand and kissed it, leaning into your touch. He had been craving you, and you knew. "you're going after him again aren't you?"

"yeah" was all he could breathe out.

You sighed but you understood. The rage he has, it's all he knows.

"will you come back?"

His face lighten. "you want me to?" he asks, hopeful.

"always, always come back to me."

"but I'll be a fugitive by then," he said worried, he's not sure worried that you'll change your mind or that you'll be a fugitive too if you chose to follow him.

You shook your head. "I don't care, come back, we'll run together, I rather not live without you by my side. But Kid.."

"hm?" he asked, looking at you intently with your hands on his. "don't lie to me ever again. Ever." you warned.

He nodded his head and pulled you into him. "never, jaanu." he kissed you deeply, deeper than he ever did that day, lead your body the way he missed. He devoured you full that day, passion spilling into physical touches. He need you to understand his love. He needs you to scream his name. His real name.

[atarathegreat]

Zoning Out With Them Tokyo Revengers

Featuring: Chifuyu Matsuno, Kokonoi Hajime, Taiju Shiba, and Souya Kawata.

Genre: Fluff

Synopsis: You zone out while spending quality time with your boyfriend.

Chifuyu enjoyed spending time with you, even if it was just him reading and you playing on your phone. Your presence was much appreciated after a rough day of school and doing things with his friends, and Peke J wouldn't complain about you giving him chest scratches.

It wasn't until the black cat jumped in his lap that he noticed the same sound kept coming from your phone, a video on loop. Peke J was pretty upset that you had stopped petting him, but Chifuyu could see your hand stretched out as if the cat was still there.

"Y/n?" He reached out and shook your knee, snapping you out of it.

You looked up at him, your arm falling back to your lap, "What?"

Chifuyu laughed, patting your knee and returning to his previous position, "Ya' zoned out, weirdo."

It wasn't anything new or surprising for Kokonoi to bring you to work with him. Something about having you next to him as he checked papers and counted cash, occasionally asking you to double check numbers, and having everyone see you when they stopped by for a brief moment, it only cultivated Koko's ego.

His fingers rubbed absently at your back, helping him feel more than hear your massive sigh.

"Are you alright, love?" He asked. When you failed to respond, Koko diverted his attention to you. He could've pissed himself if you were glaring at him like that.

His dark eyes inspected your face. Knit brows, relaxed lips, soft gaze that tracked something slowly up the side of the wall. For a moment, Kokonoi let himself watch you, your mind gone from where you sat and somewhere deep in thought. As much as he loved knowing your mind felt safe enough to wander, he didn't like the way you glared.

"Hey." Koko lightly slapped a band of cash on your nose, chuckling as you jerked backwards, "What has your mind running away from me, sweetheart?"

You giggled, and Koko swore his heart stopped for a second as your eyes closed, "I was thinking about what to make for dinner."

Asking for something twice wasn't something Taiju was good at, nor was it something he wanted to do. When he asked you to go and grab him something and you didn't even respond to him, he was nearly thrown for a loop. You always responded to him, you were always alert to the things around you.

"Y/n?" Taiju leaned over the back of the couch, brushing your hair aside to look at your face, "Can you hear me?"

"Huh? Yeah..." He could tell you weren't actually listening, your eyes looked almost dead, "What did you need?"

He sighed, swiveling your head and watching as your pupils refocused. "Hm?" You looked into both his eyes, "Sorry, what did you need, Taiju?"

Taiju rubbed your head, his worry vaporizing, "Nothing...I'm already up anyway."

It was weird for you to stare. You hated when people stared and it bothered you even more when people were staring at you. It was confusing as to why in the world were you sitting at the lunch table, staring at Souya?

The poor boy didn't know how to bring it up or how to gain your attention. He looked over at his twin, who was, of course, busy slamming a bowl of spicy ramen. "Smiley? What do you do when someone has zoned out?" Souya asked quietly.

His brother paused, "Let them be?"

"Uhm...what if they're staring at you?" Souya glanced back across the table. Nahoya laughed, "Ew, how weird. Hey!"

Nahoya kicked you under the table, making Souya glance fretfully between you and his twin. But you just hissed and turned to glare at Smiley, "What the hell?"

"You're staring like a creeper." Nahoya went back to his bowl, "You made Angry uncomfortable."

"Shit, sorry, Sou." You smiled, tapping his foot with yours, "Zoned out for a sec."

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

How the TWST boys would react to their S/o going blind (having her/they're eyes gouged) out

(Preferably Fem!)

Preference for characters : M. Draconia ; R. Rosehearts ; L. Kingscholar ; V. Schoenheit ; L. Vanrouge ; I. Shroud

- M. 🥀🦋

Forcefully Blind Reader | Yandere Twisted Wonderland

Not by them. They love you dearly and even when you fight them they’d rather blindfold you than brutalize your precious eyes. Now whoever had this done or made this happen will suffer the same fate plus a world of suffering in some cases eternally. But even with your precious orbs no longer there, they love you all the same and will be more than supportive of this new change:

Malleus Draconia  

“If you cannot see then who deserves to!?”

Is livid

Raging indiscriminately until he finds a solution usually of the magical variety

Or by exacting his revenge with you encouraging him

If neither of those choices works he is practically glued to yourside

Kissing at your hand as he hovers over your bedside

You’ll have to convince him to let him be your eyes

In which he will create a description with poetry and flowery language

“Let me be your eyes, your sword, your everything!”

Riddle Rosehearts 

“OFF WITH ALL THEIR HEADS!!!!!”

He’s going on a spree 

With you safely tucked away he goes on a beheading and magic sealing spree

Returning to you with a hanged head and bloody clothes

He apologizes 

He swore to protect you and this is what happened

But now you must let him take control for who else is so encouraged to detail your recovery and established routes in the home

“These unfortunate circumstance, my rose will be what gives us order. Please don’t resist me!”

Leona Kingscholar 

“Grrrrarrr!”

Has more of silenced anger

He’s guarding you and having only his most trusted compatriots watch over you

Specifically while he gouges out your attacker’s eyes

When he returns to your side he’s heavily privy to the way it effects you

And thus he will nuzzle into your side 

“You’ve got the other senses don’t you? We just have to make them stronger.”

Vil Schoenheit 

“There…now you’ll have to trust that we both look immaculate today. You especially.”

He’s already ordered a hit on the aggressor 

Because he has no time for potato dredge outside of taking care of you

He will admit he appreciates how much more you rely on him

How he can always have you just out of sight of the camera so he can keep an eye out for you

But ultimately he focuses on keeping your spirits up

“Lets avoid the negativity and explore the positives.”

Lilia Vanrouge 

“Don’t worry love, nothing will change! Now we can play mystery finger more often!”

He is going to make your attacker suffer

He’s not going to kill them…on purpose

Because sometimes he gets a little carried away

He doesn’t change his inclination to tease 

And he finds how much more sensitive you are to be so cute

And believe he’ll sooth you as you mourn your loss of sight

“There there my bat, we’ll make this work.”

Idia Shroud 

“I-I can’t share the same games we used to…but on my life I’ll make this an experience we can share.”

He’s determined and resoundingly angry

Determined to find games and making inventions that will stimulate your other senses instead

Angry because this neet stole your eyesight from you

And it kills him to see you struggle around his room

So he puts more effort into cleaning or making robots that clean

But it does make a good case for keeping you in his room

“I’ll be here to help, and this way you can memorize where everything is! You’ll always be my player 2!”

[bridenore]

HD Being on the run fic recs

Here are a few Harry/Draco recs where Harry and Draco are on the run. Listed in alphabetical order, as always.

9 ½ Days by @magpiefngrl [69k]

After the events at the Manor, Harry and Draco find themselves stranded in the countryside with a broken wand and Death Eaters on their tail. This is the story of an uneasy truce, featuring faerie forests, seaside caves, Romani camps, kind old ladies, and a shared bed in an attic. Or how two boys fell in love in the midst of a bloody coup.

Crown Witness by @slytherco [70k]

After the war, wizarding society is oppressed by a new kind of plague—an organised crime group calling itself the Family. When Harry Potter goes to interrogate a potential witness, he doesn’t expect to end up on the run again, trying to keep Draco Malfoy alive, while a manhunt follows in their footsteps, adamant on eliminating the one witness that could ruin everything. In which Harry and Draco learn that the way to each other might just have to go through the dingiest hotels in Britain.

Eclipse by Mijan [287k]

"You're dead, Potter... I'm going to make you pay..." Draco swore his revenge on Harry for Lucius's imprisonment, and Harry all but laughed at him. But Draco is planning more than schoolyard pranks this time. The old rivalry turns deadly when Draco abducts Harry for Voldemort. It's the perfect plan, guaranteeing revenge, power, and prestige, all in one blow. But when Draco's world turns upside down, the fight to save himself and Harry begins, and the battle will take them both through hell and back. If they come back.

Hermione Granger's Hogwarts Crammer for Delinquents on the Run by @waspabi [93k]

'You're a wizard, Harry' is easier to hear from a half-giant when you're eleven, rather than from some kids on a tube platform when you're seventeen and late for work.

Oh, Sinnerman by @lou-isfake and @babooshkart [40k]

“I’m serious, Potter,” Malfoy said quietly. “That was some real bad luck you had, being there last night. They will come after you, and they will kill you—after torturing you for information on my whereabouts.” He pocketed Harry’s wand, but held on to his knife, twirling it between his fingers. Harry was distracted by its movement, the reflections of the bright, dawning sun on polished silver. “I’m not happy about it, either, but you’re stuck with me for the foreseeable future.”   He watched Malfoy’s face for a long time, in a staring contest he wasn’t sure he’d signed up for. Stuck with Malfoy, for the foreseeable future, on the run from a massive crime syndicate that had infiltrated the Ministry and was out for their blood. It was all very familiar, except for the Malfoy part.

REVOLVEVLOVER by @firethesound and @lol-zeitgeistic [88k]

The work Harry does is justifiable. It’s justice. He works for his country, and his country is a republic—the magical side, anyway. It’s not laudable work, it’s not work he’s proud of, but it’s necessary work. Harry has always taken the necessary jobs that no one else has the stomach for. It’s just that he’s never deciphered a kill sheet and seen Draco Malfoy’s name on it.

A Sword Laid Aside by @korlaena [128k]

When Draco’s cover is blown during a deep undercover operation and the Ministry is compromised, Ron takes Draco to the only safe place he can think of—Harry. Hiding out with Harry Potter, who has been missing from the Wizarding World for almost two decades after a shocking fall from grace, is nothing like Draco thought it would be.

I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I did!

[mxltifxnd0m]

having a witch s/o headcanons ⟡ s. winchester

pairings: sam winchester x witch! reader, sam winchester x gn afab! reader

word count: 1.8K

warnings: none really, no use of 'y/n', mentions of death and violence, some angst, fluff, dean being dean and not liking witches, [a part of season of the witch verse!]

a/n: ahhh im so excited for this little universe i've created and i hope you guys enjoy it as much as i had making it!!

as always enjoy the fic! please like, comment, and reblog! your feedback fuels me <3

[here's my taglist; read rules before sending in an ask]

𝘴𝘢𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵

⟡ before dating you/ how you met: 

the two of you didn’t exactly get off on the right foot when you guys met for the first time 

you taught at the local university in your town, trying to live as normal as a life as you could while being a witch

the boys were on a hunt in the town you were living in, and they thought that you were the witch that was killing the college students (they were your previous students, hence why they came to that conclusion) 

they had tried cornering you in your office after hours while you were working late but you managed to escape their grasp and flee. (you called in sick the next day and canceled classes) 

after the minor altercation the three of you had, you managed to track down the winchesters and confront them at their motel room, and you explained the situation to them (it was a rogue witch from your father’s previous coven that was seeking revenge on your family since they were betrothed to each other but your father had fallen in love with your mother, running away, and then having you)

you knew about the winchesters, who hasn’t? so you knew that they would be hesitant about accepting your help, but you weren’t doing it to help them; you were doing it to save your own behind and save your students 

dean outright refused your help, but sam, being the smart man he was, knew that without your help or knowledge, tracking down that witch would be difficult, so a hushed conversation later (you heard every single word that they said in that small motel room) they had accepted your help on the condition if you ever stepped out of line that they wouldn’t hesitate on killing you 

you rolled your eyes at their threat but agreed (you haven’t killed a human being in all of your years of being alive so you weren’t going to start now, though with dean’s attitude towards you, you just might break that record) 

working with the winchesters was like pulling teeth, but at the end of it all, you guys killed the witch, and the winchesters went on their merry way. 

you were hoping that would be the first and last time you’d ever see their faces, but alas fate is a mistress that you hate to serve, and they ended up at your office, posing as FBI agents once again and needing your help (it was mostly sam asking and dean standing next to him stone-faced)  

you flat out refused to help them, not wanting to be pulled into their world of crazy (your mother made sure you had as normal a life as you possibly could, and you weren’t going to give that up for the winchesters), so you swiftly sent them out of your office   but you weren’t very lucky later that night when sam had shown up on your doorstep and all but intruded on what you thought was going to be a quiet night

against your better judgment, you invited the gentle giant into your home, and you shared the pizza that you had ordered in silence before he tried once again to ask for your help 

it was either the wine you had consumed or his pleading puppy dog eyes (it was probably the combination of both) but you found yourself saying yes to help them 

you swore to yourself that this was the only time that you would help them 

but newsflash, they didn’t end up happening, after that hunt, you and sam had exchanged numbers, and you found yourself texting sam and helping them out with either research or spells that they needed for a hunt 

hell, even dean had gotten ahold of your number and texted you for help (but this was very rare and sam was typically the person to reach out and ask for help) 

then the texts with sam had crossed over from just asking for help and the two of you started to have friendly conversation with one another 

it was nice, being able to chat with him, you knew that sam was kind and intelligent in his own right so the two of you texted each other often before it turned frequent 

months had passed, and you had a tentative friendship with sam but before you knew it, you had developed feelings for the taller winchester and you were a little terrified about it (you knew that sam was generally more open about monsters, but there was a little voice in the back of your head telling you that he could always turn on you) 

you became distant with him, trying to be discrete about it but sam was perceptive and called you out on it, and you gave him a bs excuse about it 

turns out that wasn’t enough because a day later, he had shown up on your doorstep like he did when he asked for your help that night and practically confessed his feelings towards you

you were shocked by it, but managed to tell him that you felt the same, you melted seeing the grin that he gave you before he leaned down and captured your lips in a passionate kiss 

⟡ dating sam winchester 

at first, the two of you took it slow; you didn’t want to rush with sam, considering that you felt so strongly for him and sam to you

sam also had to deal with dean, knowing how his brother felt about witches, and even if you guys were on decent terms, the two of you had no idea how he’d feel if his little brother was dating a witch. 

so sam kept it from dean, but it wasn’t going to be for long, just until the two of you were comfortable telling him, but considering you lived a couple of states away, you’d hope it be soon because you knew that the older winchester wasn’t dumb and would question sam about his whereabouts if he visited you often. 

the two of you did long distance, which was difficult, to say the least, not seeing each other for weeks at a time, and with you teaching and sam traveling the states for hunts, it left a lot to be desired, but you guys found workarounds for it  

but there was an insistence that sam didn’t respond to your texts for at least three days, which was out of the norm (he usually took a day to respond if he couldn’t find time to respond if he was out on hunts) and so you panicked and tracked sam’s phone to a hospital (which worried you immensely). you immediately high-tailed it to the location where his phone was. you burst through the hospital doors, and dean was waiting in the lobby for his brother to be discharged and was confused to see you here 

then sam came walking (limping) down the hallway, and his eyes landed on yours, and before he knew it, your lips were on his, but he sank into your embrace nonetheless (dean looked at this scene with wide eyes and when you guys broke away, you expected dean to drag you off of his brother and possibly kill you) 

lucky for you and sam, dean liked you enough that you had his permission to date his brother (but that didn’t mean that he pulled you out of the motel room that the boys were staying in and threatened you lightly) 

soon after dean had given his seal of approval, sam asked you to move in with him in the bunker after a year of dating

you almost said yes immediately, but you said you would think about it since that would mean uprooting your life and abandoning a life of normalcy

it only took a week to think it through and about a month and a half later, you were moved into the bunker in Lebanon, Kansas living with the boys was a huge adjustment at first, but you guys eventually found your groove, and you had become an important asset in helping them out on research and spell work 

speaking about spell work, since you were born with your abilities (thanks to your father), magic came easy to you, but you only worked with healing magic and light magic (you studied everything else; it was good to be knowledgeable about all facets of the craft) 

but your healing salves and magic came in handy in their line of work any time they were injured 

you had a separate workspace when working with your craft (you had cleared out an old room that wasn’t being used and they were okay with it) 

you found yourself in that room more often than not and usually sam would come in and just study you as you bustled around the room (his gaze never strayed from your focused face as you worked and found it adorable when you slightly jumped when you looked up from the book you were reading to find sam smiling at you) 

sam never really expressed his feelings about learning about the magic you used, so you were thoroughly surprised when sam came to you asking if you could teach him 

you weren’t sure at first but eventually caved (those damn eyes of his would be the death of you) 

he was a good student and a fast learner, which shouldn’t have surprised you considering you knew how smart he was

but dating sam while you lived with him was a breeze (bar from the fact that even when he was a human heater, he stole the covers often and the little spats the two of you had, which most of the time were solved in a matter of hours and led to great sex) 

it was the first time in a relationship that you felt like you could be yourself for once, having to brush off the side of yourself as a hobby or hide it from your partners 

but with sam, you didn’t need to hide it and it felt so freeing

sam was understanding, compassionate, sweet, gentle, and so many more things that you could rattle off but it would take too long to even explain, but you couldn’t have asked for a better person to be your partner 

he’d given you the pet name of jinx, and at first it sounded like a nickname that dean would have given you, but it slowly grew on you, and he was the only one who could call you that (mainly because you threatened bodily harm if dean had called you by it) 

so in return, you’d given him the pet name of “my heart” which you thought was fitting because he did have it fully and you loved the blush that crept up his neck and bloomed on his cheeks when you called him by it

there were always going to be bumps in the road, and life-ending events looming over the two of you, but you were convinced that if he was by your side and you by his, you guys could do anything 

[linkspooky]

DUEL VS. DUEL: Yubel and Judai vs Ai and Playmaker

If you haven't noticed YGO! often recycles different characters and plot ideas throughout its various spinoffs. There's usually a rival whose ace monster is a dragon, a best friend character to support the main character, there's almost always a guy like Bakura who has several things wrong with him. This isn't a criticism, I actually love the way that each spinoff builds off of all the other series while also remaining its own thing. There's a lot of meaning you can decipher from analyzing the intentional callbacks the authors put in to previous series so that's what we're going to do today.

Both GX and Vrains feature a third season where the protagonist's partner character becomes the main antagonist for the entire season, and manages to pick off the protagonist's friends one by one until they're all alone with the protag for the final duel. Both of these characters, Yubel and Ai aren't motivated by hate but rather a twisted form of love and the parallels between these two duels don't stop there.

Yubel and Yusaku: Love vs. Ai

The partner character appears in almost every YGO! series with the exception of 5DS and Sevens. It began with Yami Yugi, a second personality created inside Yugi who played took over and played games in Yugi's place and cursed everyone who offended him only to eventually build a partnership with Yugi that lasted for most of the series until Atem reclaimed his name and memories and became his own person again.

These partner characters usually assist in duels, and are either another personality existing inside the protagonist, or if they're external like Astral or Ai they still share a special link with the protagonist.

Yubel and Ai are unique because they are both partner characters who turn into major antagonists. They don't just share the role of antagonists there's also several similarities between the two of them, from motivation, their connection to the protagonist, and both characters being built around the concept of love. This is probably intentional because the scenario writer for all of Vrains also worked on large parts of GX and was the main scenario writer for Season 4.

To introduce both characters, Yubel is a Duel Spirit. They were originally a human child named Yubel who was the closest friend of the boy who would eventually grow up to be the Supreme King and reincarnate in the modern day as Judai Yuki. Yubel gave up their humanity and in a painful surgery became a hideous dragon with an impenetrable body in order to protect Judai.

Afterwards the boy who would eventually become the Supreme King swore eternal love to Yubel. Yubel's devotion followed Judai into the next life, where because Yubel gave up their humanity they reincarnated as a card spirit instead that only Judai could see. They used their considerable power to protect Judai from anyone they considered a threat, including other neighborhood kids who beat him in card games. Judai as a result became completely isolated. Which Yubel didn't mind because Judai was their entire world and they believed they should have been enough for Judai.

Judai decided to send Yubel's card away into space in the hopes that the space rays would calm Yubel's troubled soul, but instead Yubel became corrupted by a cosmic force known as THE LIGHT OF DESTRUCTION. Yubel endured ten years of torture and agony all along. At first they called out to Judai in his dreams, but his parents eventually forced Judai to go through a procedure that made him forget all memories of Yubel.

Alone and forgotten Yubel crashes down to earth and is torn to pieces. As an arm they parasitize several people until they gain enough power to reconstitute their body, and then dragon Judai and all his friends into another dimmension all as a part of their grand scheme to finally reunite with Judai and awaken his memories of the Supreme King.

Even though they were hurt by Judai, Yubel isn't motivated by revenge, but by love and a desire to be together with Judai and secure all of Judai's love for themselves. Yubel's twisted definition of love was formed when after crying for help one final time, they snapped and told themselves a lie in order to keep going. That ignoring Yubel, making them suffer, leaving them all alone it was just the way that Judai expressed his love. Yubel then becomes dedicated to showing that love in return and effectively dragging Judai down to their level.

Yubel: I was suffering as you came to forget about me… Yubel: It burns… It hurts…It’s killing me. But why? I love him so much. Why is Judai treating me like this? Yubel: And then it hit me. This is just a form of Judai’s love. Judai is hurting me and making me suffer because of his love for me. But you see, I couldn’t possibly forget about you in the time i’ve suffered. Yubel: So when I solved the riddle that you posed to me, I was delighted. And that fueled my decision. I would try to fill the entire twelve dimmensions with my love for you. Yubel: And once I did you would have to recognize my love for you, wouldn’t you?

Ai is also a character that's connected to Yusaku's childhood. Ai is an ignis, and artificial intelligence that was created by basically torturing six children by forcing them to duel over and over again and then scanning their brains and modeling six different AI off of the data.

The shadow ignis or AI quite literally came from Yusaku's brain, even though they don't meet until much later on in life. From the onset there's a lot of differences between Ai and Yubel's role as partners. Ai is Yusaku's partner for most of the series, and is effectively introduced as a stranger and has to build a bond fo trust with Yusaku over the first two seasons.

Whereas Yubel was Judai's best friend and favorite monster in childhood, but Judai has forgotten about Yubel in the first two seasons and when Yubel finally does appear again it's as an enemy. The bond between Yusaku and Ai forms and then falls apart, whereas both Yubel and Judai start out with their bond completely broken and over the course of season three they reunite and come back together.

Ai is motivated by first his own survival, and second the survival of all the other ignis who are currently being hunted by several human corporations, a group of hackers known as the knights of Hanoi, and one Ignis themselves known as Lightning who turned traitor to the other Ignis. Yusaki and Ai's shared goal is to find a way for the Ignis and Humans to co-exist without one of them trying to pre-emptively wipe out the other because of the danger both of them pose to each other.

Over the course of the story though, as one by one Ai loses his friends in the fellow Ignis who either die or are absorbed, he comes to obsess over Yusaku as his one remaining friend. Yubel and Judai's feelings for one another are a holdover from a previous lifetime they become estranged and reunite again, whereas Ai comes to love and obsess over Yusaku similiarly to Yubel does and it's precisely because of those obsessive and overprotective feelings he decides to terminate their relationship permanently.

Ai enacts a plan similiar to Yubel's to destroy Yusaku's friends one by one all while threatening the entire world. Yubel sought to fuse the dimmensions together, while AI wants to start the inevitable fight between the Ignis and Humanity on his terms.

While their role in the story and characters are similar, they're also contrasting opposites in many ways. Yubel started out as a human and gave up their humanity to become a duel spirit. Ai started out as an artificial intelligence, he thinks as an artificial intelligence who has trouble understanding humans, and while he becomes more humanlike all the time he's eventually hampered by his inability to think like a human. Yubel is also much older than Ai having lived two lifetimes with memories of both, whereas Ai is essentially a child, a fledgling sentient being who still doesn't understand many things about the world.

Their different levels of maturity really show in their understanding of the world around them, or rather Ai's naivete and lack of understanding. Both characters are built around the concept of love, with love for the protagonist as their main motivation but Yubel while twisted demonstrates a deep understanding of love.

Yubel is able to see inside the hearts of people and uses their intimate knowledge of their inner darkness in order to twist people according to their own desires. Yubel's actually a deeply empathic character able to understand people's feelings sometimes better than they understand themselves, they just use that empathic understanding for evil.

While their understanding of love sounds insane at times they're also able to make deep observations about not only people's relationships to each other but the darker nature of love. As much as we shy away from the idea of hurting the ones we love on purpose, there's a seed of truth in the fact that whether intentionally or unintentionally being close to someone means you will hurt them. That pain is a natural part of love. She's also able to suss out the unhealthy love and devotion shared between Amon and Echo quickly.

Yubel: I get it now… You weren’t in love with Echo. Yubel: No. You may have loved her just enough to clear the conditions in place for you to control Exodia. Yubel: But then, you didn’t truly love each other. Yubel: You were only unfairly hurting her, while you would stay unharmed. Yubel: You wouldn’t suffer. You wouldn’t be in pain.

Yubel also ultimately seeks a love between equals. As much as they frame themselves as Judai's protector, what they want is for Judai to be dragged down to their level so Judai will finally understand them.

Their entire plan revolved around isolating Judai until Judai understood the pain of suffering ten years alone in space that Yubel went through. When Judai snaps and becomes the Supreme King taking a similiar dark turn to Yubel, Yubel turns out to be right in the end. By the time they've reunited both Judai and Yubel have done terrible things and hurt the people they loved.

Yubel: So when I solved the riddle that you posed to me, I was delighted. And that fueled my decision. I would try to fill the entire twelve dimmensions with my love for you. Yubel: And once I did you would have to recognize my love for you, wouldn’t you? Yubel: That is why I sought to fill all those linked to you - your world - with both sadness and anguish. Yubel: ANd my line of thinking wasn’t wrong. Yubel: I mean you are right before my eyes, Judai.

Yubel operates on a principle of empathy and understanding through shared suffering. Whereas, I would argue while Ai cares about Yusaku they are not particularly empathic nor do they understand Yusaku. This is because Ai is practically a newborn existence naive to the world, and also as a computer with a computer brain fundamentally thinks differently.

However, I'd also argue that Ai also doesn't really want to try to change their thinking to bridge the gap between humans an AI. In despair they've completely given up on trying to understand humans. They also on some level don't want to change, because they arrogantly assume they know what's best for both them and Yusaku.

Ai has given into despair from losing their loved ones and suffering isolation just like Yubel, but I think a key difference is that everything Yubel does no matter how twisted is a desperate attempt to reunite with Judai, to understand Judai and be understood by them. Whereas, Ai doesn't want to try anymore.

Ai: Back then I would have done anything to save my friends. Yusaku: There's nothing you could have done there was no other way. AI: I know that. [...] Yusaku: Ai, you have the power to change this. Yusaku: As a special ignis you have the power to live with humans. Find a way to backtrack from this. AI: You trying to pull me back? AI: Thank you Playmaker, but you don't understand. I learned when everyone was gone that when you lose friends your heart breaks. AI: My heart was broken back then and I lost all self control. Yusaku: If losing a friend makes your heart break then are you trying to break my heart?

Not only does Ai not want to understand, but they also deliberately ignore Yusaku's feelings and personal autonomy. Yusaku is a kidnapped child who had a lot of their life robbed from them and manipulated they hate anyone who disrespects their free will but Ai walks all over it and disregards all of Yusaku's opinions. They do the one thing Yusaku asks them not to do, because Ai incorrectly assumes they know best.

They also don't really understand Yusaku on a fundamental level and as I said, they don't want to make the effort to bridge the gap either.

It seems kind of silly saying which one is worse, because both Yubel and Ai violate Judai and Yusaku's personal autonomy multiple times. They both act selfish and entitled towards the person they love. They both also intentionally hurt that person and then turn back around and claim it's protecting them. They both act incredibly possessive and try to manipulate their partner into doing what they want.

They both have the gall afterwards to claim they're doing so out of selfless devotion, downplaying any feelings of selfishness on their end. Both consider Yusaku and Judai's other friends to be targets in order to get at their partners. Both will inflict pain on the person they love and are so devoted to in service of getting what they want.

The only real difference is motivation because as I said, as controlling as Yubel is it's out of a desire to reunite and be equals. They're both in too much pain to express their love in any kind of healthy way, but Yubel at least wants things to be better whereas Ai has just given up. The fact that Yubel's themed around sharing pain too also makes them and Judai equals, whereas Ai is trying to have power over Yusaku and take Yusaku's decisions away in order to force Yusaku to do what he assumes is best.

That might be the most important difference between them. Whereas Yubel wanted to live together with Judai, Ai wanted to force Yusaku to kill him in order to avert a potential future where Yusaku dies trying to protect Ai. It's a motivation that turns one story into a love story, and the other into a tragedy.

Judai and Yusaku: Hero vs Anti-Hero

Judai and Yusaku are two characters who could not look to be any more different at first glance. Though they're both themed around heroism Judai starts as the fun loving kid who admires heroes and is always dueling to save others when his friends are in a fix. Yusaku is the loner anti-hero who is on a revenge quest all alone against the Knights of Hanoi.

Yusaku starts out unwilling to make friends and refusing help from others. Judai on the other hand is constantly surrounded by people. Though both of them are forced into the role of always dueling to protect others and carrying the responsibilies of other people on their shoulder. Often times it's forced upon them unwillingly and they have to take on too much responsibility.

Judai forms unhealthy relationships with people that are based on him always needing to clean up their messes and those same friendships eventually unravel. Whereas Yusaku spends three seasons learning to form healthier relationships with people, and the climax of the first season is even Yusaku developing from dueling for revenge to dueling to save his very first friend in Kogami.

Judai loves dueling and even duels exclusively for the fun of it, often in the first two seasons protecting others and facing the villains as an afterthought. Yusaku on the other hand hates dueling because of the trauma he was forced to undergo as a child and despite being the strongest duelist simply views dueling as a means to an end.

Perhaps the most interesting way to compare them is their opposite journeys. They're both commentaries on heroism. They both eventually gain alter egos that are really just emphasizing different traits of their personalities. The Supreme King is the embodiment of Judai's selfishness and his fixation on always winning and dueling for power. Yusaku is a socially withdrawn kid, and Playmaker his internet identity is the way he fights back against his abusers. He's also a strong willed, determined and active where Yusaku is almost entierly passive. They're both ultimately the same guy though, Supreme King is a part of Judai, Playmaker is Yusaku with more freedom to be himself online.

However, Judai starts out as a straightforward hero and goes on to be a dark deconstruction of the pure hearted hero. All of Judai's flaws that go unaddressed because people constantly put him on a pedestal eventually lead to his ruin. The pressure Judai is always under to win turns into an obsession with power.

Judai: Why? What did I do that was so wrong? I… I did the right thing! And yet… everyone keeps leaving me! What… What is wrong with me? Supreme King: Yuki Judai. To be willing to be evil to defeat evil. This world exemplfiies survival of the fittest. It must be ruled with power. Judai: Power? I don’t have that much power… Supreme King: You hold the Super Polymerization card in your hand. Defeat the spirits that stand against you. Breathe their lives into it and complete that card.

Judai also exists in a narrative that won't allow him to be a hero. GX deconstructs all kinds of heroism and self-sacrifice. Edo Phoenix's quest for revenge is called out as him being childish, and unwilling to grow up from the trauma he suffered as a child. Johan is the most straightforward hero, but his decision to sacrifice himself to protect Judai and everyone else is what starts Judai's breakdown. When Jim duels against the supreme king he declares he's not sacrificing him to save the world but rather trying to help a friend.

Judai's eventual character growth in choosing to fuse with Yubel isn't a sacrifice, but rather Judai finally growing up and taking responsibility for the way he hurt Yubel.

Yusaku on the other hand is on the journey from going from an anti-hero who fights for himself and his own personal revenge to becoming a more straightforward hero. I wouldn't say Yusaku's arc is more shallow in comparison just because it's not a dark deconstruction, rather it's exploring a different topic the responsibilities of being a hero.

His greatest moment of character growth in the first season is going from caring only about revenge, to dueling the pesron who saved him as a child because he wants to save his very first friend.

You could say Yusaku because he's not allowed to crumble is actually under more pressure than Judai is. He's almost forced into the role of a hero and not allowed to be selfish, while Judai from start to finish is a selfish character even if he grows up quite a bit over the course of the story.

Yusaku is also someone who from start to finish follows his own sense of unbending justice. Where, Judai doesn't have any consistent moral code. He's defined in the first two seasons of only dueling for the fun of it, and by Season 3 he's deeply troubled that he doesn't have a reason to duel like Johan does.

Following his own justice is actually deeply important to Yusaku, probably what he values the most actually. Since his life was thrown off by the Lost Incident he starts out deeply untrusting of others and even when he grows past that he hates people who try to influence him and insist they know what's best for him. It's what led him to not only be deeply offended by Zaizen telling Yusaku to back down and let him handle it, but also him refusing Zaizen's help.

This quality of Yusaku's also dovetails into my next point where we finally get to comparing the two duels.

A LOVE STORY vs. A TRAGEDY

The setup for the duel is identical in both cases. Yubel and Ai have eliminated almost all of Judai and Yusaku's friends and now they are on the endgame of their plans. Yusaku and Judai are both dueling against their former partners to stop them, and both partners refuse any attempts to work things out any other way and force a fight.

However, the motivations of each member going into these duels are so opposite that it makes a neat little foiling square.

Starting with Yubel their motivation for getting into the duel is simultaneously a desire to reunite and express their love for Judai, and a thinly veiled cry for help.

Judai: If you hated how I treated you, then you should have gotten revenge on me. Yubel: Hate? Revenge? What are you talking about? Didn't I tell you? I went to this trouble hoping it would make you happy, Judai. Judai: Make me happy? After my friends suffered by getting hurt and killed. Yubel: But that's love isn't it? Yubel: I wanted to torment you to share the depths of my love.

Yubel's plan is to both awaken Judai's memories of the supreme king by engineering his downfall, and also after taking his friends away one by one to fuse the dimmensions together so Judai and Yubel can be together forever with Yubel by his side protecting him. As Yubel defines their entire existence and worth by being Judai's protector and doesn't understand why Judai would ever reject their protection or need friends other than them.

Yubel: My every waking moment was for you. Yubel: I even got rid of everyone around you who tried to make you cry. Judai: Yubel. By doing that you hurt the friends I had around me. Judai: None of my close firends even wanted to duel with me. Yubel: You had me as a close friend, didn't you? All you had to do was focus only on me.

Yubel frames their actions as selfless while also acting out an entitlement that they're owed Judai's love for all of their devotion to him. They're also willing to hurt his closest friends, isolate him, and basically throw tantrums in order to get it.

When they come to the slow realization that Judai won't return their feelings, it leads to them breaking down slowly over the course of the duel. All of the lies they told themselves about the love between them and Judai slowly starts to unravel along with their mind.

The duel beings with Yubel actively enjoying all the pain Judai is inflicting upon them. When Judai activates the supreme king though, and starts dueling seriously to eliminate Yubel, it chips through Yubel's delusions and Yubel is no longer able to keep pretending that pain is love.

I couldn’t have lived with the heartache unless I felt that I was being loved…

Moving on to Ai, the primary difference between Yubel and Ai's motivation is that Yubel's plans are a thinly veiled cry for help while Ai refuses to accept any help.

Yusaku: Find a way to backtrack, Ai! Ai: I can't. Ai: Sorry, but there's no backtracking. Ai: Let's go, Playmaker!

Their desires are opposite too. Yubel's plan is to continue living with Judai, and Ai's plan amounts to forcing Yusaku to kill them.

Ai: If this attack gets through I lose. AI: Well, make up your mind already. AI: You came to get them back, right? AI: You're everyone's hope so you have to do it, even if I'm the opponent.

Yubel and Ai are both incredibly manipulative characters, and Ai in particular is holding all of Yusaku's friends hostage in order to make him do something he does not want to do and will hurt him beyond repair. He's also inflicting the same trauma the loss of all of his friends and the loss of an important friend the same way that Yubel wishes to make Judai suffer the same way they did by isolating them from all of their friends and pushing them off the edge to bring out their darkest emotions.

However, once again Yubel's manipulations are done with the intent of getting Judai to understand them whereas Ai no longer wants to try understanding Yusaku and presumes he knows best.

Ai: Back then I had to do whatever it takes to save my friends. Yusaku: There's nothing you could have done to save them. Ai: I know there wasn't. Yusaku: Ai, that simulation was lightning's trap. He knew if you saw it while in despair your heart would fall into darkness. So don't worry about it. Ai: I considered that possibility. Because he left it after he fought us. AI: So I redid my own simulation and ran it over and over. But the result wouldn't change.

Ai also chooses to trust simulations and the words of his enemy Lightning over the words of his own partner and the urging of Yusaku that they can try to take a third way out together. His basic inability to trust is what damns him, relying on controlling manipulation instead to coerce and eventually force Yusaku to do what he wants and what he has decided is best.

It shows in his plan to, Ai's conditions for the duel is that he'll either copy himself and spread the copies into all of the mass manufactured robots or Yusaku will have to stop him with his own hands at which point Ai's programming is terminated. Either way Ai dies. The only real way for Yusaku to save Ai is to convince him to stop the duel which Ai won't do.

Ai: Oh I didn't tell you. When my copies are created, as the final trigger my free will will be divided and given to them. Yusaku: What will happen to you? AI: My free will will be broken apart. AI: I'll be no more. If you win you'll retrieve everything I took and I'll be no more. Either way, I'll be no more. Yusaku: Ai, you're making me choose how you die?

He's stripped away all of Yusaku's choices. Yubel is stripping away Judai's choices to but once again it's out of a desire to be together with Judai while Ai is doing the opposite forcing Yusaku to be an enemy and end him with his own two hands.

Moving onto the process of the duel itself, the duel begins with both Yusaku and Judai trying to talk their partners down from dueling and finding some other way to settle this.

They fail but for opposite reasons. Judai because his pleas with Yubel are half hearted and done more in the spirit of lip-service. Judai fails because Yubel sees through his half hearted attempts. In their previous duel Yubel calls out the fact that Judai went to the ends of the earth to save Johan, but after subjecting Yubel to years of torture barely lifted a finger to reach out to them.

While Yusaku genuinely shows a desire to solve things with Ai with anything other than dueling, but Ai is the reason they have to fight. Ai is the one who forces Yusaku's hand. While Judai does not understand Yubel and does not empathize, Ai is the one who fails to understand Yusaku and how much pain forcing this conflict on him causes Yusaku. He also doesn't want to understand, while Yubel is at least self-aware of the fact that they are intentionally hurting Judai.

Yusaku's sincerity can be seen in how much he refuses to victim blame Ai, starting right away and continuing through the duel. Repeatedly over and over again Yusaku tries to reassure Ai that the guilt he's experiencing isn't his fault. Whereas, Judai victim blames Yubel continually. Yusaku is a character who values responsibility above all else, while Judai is avoiding personal responsibiltiy even though they're the ones who put Yubel in a situation where they were tortured.

Ai: As you know I got rid of my friends and ended up alone. There were only six of us but we foolishly hated each other. Yusaku: AI that's not your fault. AI: I know but it doesn't matter who's fault it is. I'm earth's last surviving human. And that fact won't change. Playmaker I sort of understand how you felt. Being alone is very painful. Yusaku: [...] I understand your sadness but don't let this fate sweep you away.

Whereas, Judai quickly resorts to victim blaming Yubel pretty quickly.

I made a lot of friends… And they all taught me something… real love is wide enough, large enough and deep enough to fill the universe. Your so-called love is only a conceited delusion.

There's also a distinct difference in both Yusaku and Judai's behavior throughout the duel. Most of the time it's Yubel iniating conversation with Judai because as I said by the time their second duel has started Judai has given up on understanding Yubel and dismisses them as crazy and beyond comprehension. Whereas Yusaku is the one who initiates most of the conversation with Ai.

Moving onto the duel part of duel it's interesting to note how different Yubel and Ai's dueling styles are. Yubel dominates almost any duel they're in. They toy with the likes of Ryo and Amon. Even when Judai duels them to a draw, the duel went exactly as Yubel planned because their true objective was to snatch away super polymerization from Judai's graveyard.

Yubel's boss monster is also unbeatable. It never takes damage, in fact most of the cards in Yubel's various decks don't take damage. Their ace monster for the sacred beast deck is a card that inflicts 10,000 damage once a turn. Advanced Darkness crystal beasts allows them to negate all damage done by sending a card to the graveyard. Even when judai manages to get Yubel off the field it simply upgrades into a stronger form.

Ai on the other hand duels on the ropes and duels very defensively, Yusaku at several points is about to go for game and end the duel in one hit and Ai only manages to barely avoid ending the duel early with a trap card or the like.

Yubel's main strategy is to prolong the duel until Judai is forced to pick Super Polymerization with spell chronicle. They want Judai to choose them and choose staying together with them by spell chronicle. Whereas at multiple points Ai continues to encourage Yusaku to crush them with everything they have.

Once again, one wants empathy, the other disregards Yusaku's will.

Yubel: My suffering becomes your suffering. Yubel: Such empathy... Yubel: Nightmare pain. It has us wrapped in the same anguish, and the same love.

Ai is forcing Yusaku's hand because once again, no matter the result Yusaku kills Ai. On the other hand, Yubel grows increasingly disturbed by Judai's lack of mercy.

Yubel: Oh my, you shouldn't be so heartless my dear judai. Judai: We can't protect what matters to us just by being kind. I'm prepared to fight for the friends I love to the end even if it becomes becoming a demon or the devil.

Judai also quickly abandons heroism for the power of the supreme king, whereas Ai practically forces Yusaku to choose being a hero and saving his friends. Judai prioritizes Johan and then the rest of his friends over Yubel, Yusaku doesn't want to choose and a horrible choice is forced upon him.

Yubel for their part is aware of Judai's hypocrisy, once again they demonstrate a deep understanding of Judai. Whereas, Ai doesn't understand Yusaku one bit, while at the same time claiming to know better.

AI: When it comes to memory and calculations we're far superior to humans. We can figure out humans' faults and contradictions. AI: That's why it's easy to become arrogant. With Ai's with free will it's in their nature. AI: Something awakened within me. They're not evil thoughts. But I wonder, in order for me to live why do I have to adapt to humans. AI: I feel differently from humans.

Ai continually urges Yusaku to choose his friends over him. He forces the choice where there should be done. On the other hand Yubel wants to be chosen over Judai's friends. Out of a sense of entitlement but also a fear of being abandoned again.

Yubel: The camraderie of yours with the neo-spacians will be of no use to you. And my love alone is much stronger. Yet even so you're saying that you'll choose friendships with the neo-spacians over my love. [...] Yubel: Judai so you want to drive me away at any cost. Do you and the neo-spacians find my love to be such a hindrance.

Once again, Ai remarks frequently that the loss of their friends made them give up all hope on continuing. Yubel on the other hand is capable of enduring almost anything. They're defined by their endurance and determination to hold on. When they burn up on re-entry they slowly piece themselves back together. When they're disintegrated after Johan's sacrifice, they take Johan's body and then slowly restore themselves once more. Judai duels them to a draw, that's yubel's plan all along and they take super poly. Judai destroys their boss monster, they just summon another one.

Ai on the other hand fundamentally believes free will in Ai's will lead to conflict and that future is inescapable, so they force Yusaku's hand in ending their existence.

AI: You said humans don't want sudden changes. AI: But I can't help my own changes. I may become someone like Bohman or Lightning so I want to vanish before that happens.

Ai has already reached their breaking point, whereas Yubel is slowly driven to their breaking point by Judai's lack of empathy throughout the duel. Yubel similiarly becomes suicidal like AI, but only after Judai continually insists that they're only dueling to destroy Yubel. Once again, while Ai's plan is to self-terminate for Yusaku's "sake" choosing to die while Judai lives on without them is something Yubel would never do.

At least, they might take a bullet for Judai, but they don't want to be alone and abandoned while Judai goes back to live on happily with all his other friends. Yubel wants to be chosen, Ai wants Yusaku to choose his friends. In fact, it's the idea that Yusaku wouldn't abandon him even if the war against Ai and Humans did happen that drives Ai's decision to die rather than let that happen.

AI: When I lived in the simulation I saw it. What my existence will lead to. You get dragged into it and perish. I can't choose that future.

Once again though, it's a decision Ai makes out of an inability to trust Yusaku. Also, if Yusaku wants to stay by Ai's side in spite of the danger it poses to him, that's Yusaku's choice. Ai may perceive himself as protecting Yusaku, but he's also disrespecting his autonomy.

It's also driven by a lack of understanding of what love and trust are. That's not entirely Ai's fault, he is in fact a newborn who recently lost every single one of his friends due to the conflict between humans and AI. It makes sense he'd have trouble trusting humans even the one that's been by his side all this time.

Whereas, Yubel wants Judai's understanding and breaks down when Judai continually denies it to them.

Yubel: Do you hate me that much? Yubel: I thought of this twelve-dimmension universe as a space for us together... so I tried to fill the universe with my love. But if you're calling on your friends and going to such lengths to get rid of me I no longer need to fill this universe with love. No, I no longer need this world. Let me put an end to this universe, to the void as well, and to our time together. Yubel: It was fun Judai, even those who helped lure you to me had dark, dark hearts. I feasted upon their hearts and waited for the reunion with you, my beloved. Yubel: I even invited you to that first dimmension. Well, I enjoyed that duel as well. Until he interfered. But I suppose you just weren't ready to accept my love back then. Yubel: I mean, the darkness in your heart, the supreme king was lying dormant. Yubel: Though I did have your friends help me. Which pulled out the darkness in your heart and ushered you this far. Yubel: I didn't think you were so hardheaded. You're the one at fault. If you can't grasp my love I don't need you. Or this universe. You can all just vanish into dust.

Judai needs to accept responsibility for both what he did to Yubel, and his own actions for the supreme king and how both him and Yubel can be pushed to do terrible things when they're alone and in pain. Part of the motivation for Judai's demonization of Yubel is he wants to keep playing the hero because the guilt of everything he did as the supreme king is crushing him and making him borderline suicidal.

On the other hand Ai is the one who's given up on trying to understand others. Yusaku is doing the best he can to both balance his feelings for Ai and desire to save him against his responsibility to save his other friends but he can't really be held personally responsible for Ai's actions. Whereas Judai on some level is responsible for Yubel's actions since he created the situation in the first place and continually chooses to abandon Yubel instead of trying to reach out to them.

Yubel is right to an extent that this situation is his fault and he never made any attempts to save them. Whereas, Ai is being manipulative when he forces Yusaku to make the choice to kill him putting all the responsibility on Yusaku's shoulders.

Which is why when the duels end in completely opposite fashions. Judai's way of taking responsibility is to fuse together with Yubel, whereas Yusaku refuses to fuse with Ai.

In Yusaku's case the refusal to fuse isn't turning down Ai's proposed third option, or a peaceful solution to the duel. After all, if Ai called off the duel right there Yusaku would accept it and work to forgive Ai for what he did to his friends. Even if they continue on as individuals it's not like Yusaku would leave Ai's side. In fact his reason for refusing Ai's offer to fuse is that he wants them to remain together as two individuals.

Fusion means two entirely different things in this context. Judai acknowledges there's a risk he may no longer exist after fusing with Yubel but like, they keep going on as two seperate individuals and consciousnesses even when they share the same body. Whereas in Ai's case, fusing with Yusaku would destroy both of them and give birth to a completely new being. Ai is using fusion as yet another method of self destruction, because he doesn't want to change himself and doesn't believe in the capacity to change himself.

Yusaku: Even if we become one, that's not the solution you're seeking. We only have one life. One consciousness. Yusaku: If I fuse, I won't be me and you won't be you.

Ai makes his choice out of his inability to face the future. He wants to self terminate, either by distributing his free will among copies or fusing with Yusaku to become someone else because he doesn't trust in his ability to grow and change. In fact he's avoiding having to change and grow up.

Yusaku: So living is a series of bonds! That's what life is. AI: So I have to do that forever? Yusaku: Yes. AI: That's a lot of work. And you can't do that unless you're strong. Yusaku: That's why people become stronger. And that occasionally leads to conflicts. But even if that happens we have to keep fighting. Keep searching for bonds even if there's no solution. AI: I was thinking too logically like an AI. Yusaku: You can't rush living. AI: But I don't want to keep fighting if there's no solution. Since I've lost the desire to fight I'll just vanish.

You could say that Yusaku's unbending nature and his responsibity as a hero made it so he couldn't fuse with Ai or throw the duel but like, there's only so much Yusaku could have done. He didn't give up trying to convince Ai at any point and it's not fair to put Ai's refusal to give up on their suicide plan on Yusaku.

It's also Ai's decision to activate TA.I. that made them lose the duel, so in the end Ai did self terminate. Even in the Yuma vs. Shark duel where Yuma is a character who will never sacrifice anyone even if the whole world is at stake, and kept throwing the duel and prolonging it to try to convince Shark, Yuma was unable to reach him in time. In both cases it's also Shark's decision to go all out for a final attack, and Yuma's decision to negate his own attack and not attack in the hopes fo reaching Shark that loses Shark the duel.

On the other hand, Judai's decision to fuse is him finally taking responsibility. Ai gave up on trying to change the future and himself whereas Judai's decision to fuse is him growing up from a child to an adult.

I also want to state I don't want to victim blame Ai for being suicidal, and not having the strength to go on. Not everyone does in that kind of situation, it's perfectly human (even though he's a robot).

Ai's story is also meant to be a tragedy. In tragedies characters succumb to their flaws instead of overcoming them. GX and VRAINS' third season are two entirely different genres of story, one is a love story where two traumatized people finally reunite and heal and Vrains is a tragedy where Yusaku can't save Ai.

Even then Vrains doesn't state that Ai doesn't deserve salvation, even if he chose to refuse help and didn't want to be saved. Yusaku's very last actions in the series are diving into the net to search for some remnant of Ai and it's implied after months of searching he's not stopping anytime soon. Even if Ai gave up on himself, Yusaku hasn't given up on Ai.

That's another thing even if Yusaku refused fusion with Ai, he still would have stayed by Ai's side. Ai literally simulated a thousand futures and Yusaku in every one of them stayed by Ai's side even if it led to his death. Yusaku still wishes to be with Ai and searches the net for Ai in the end of Vrains. He calls Ai the best partner even when Ai's in the process of breaking his heart.

So while both of these duels have very different endings, I'd say they both still advocate for forgiveness and love. Both duels are true to the message of YGO! that bonds are the most important thing and what give our life meaning - which I think is beautiful. People cannot live on their own and make bad choices when they're alone, but in the end it's bonds that save us.

"If there's no absolutes then what's left?"

"Bonds. Bonds between individuals. Bonds between one another. That's all there is. That also changes with time. A huge trigger can cause a huge change. Bonds may be severed but new bonds can also be formed. So living is a series of bonds. That's what life is."

Also as a final note on this post I'd like to thank @talaofthevalley their takes on Yusaku are all great and talking about Vrains meta with them really helped writing a lot of this post.

[monimccoythings]

Classy Turtle

Okay, here’s part 2. Second parts were never good but I was dying to make this one. Just the mental image of it. Been watching the critics reviews of this glorious movie and every single one I’ve read are just terrible reviews of movies the audience absolutely adored (it’s the freaking Super Mario Movie, it doesn’t have to be the new Godfather) And those people who want to cancel Bowser, the villain of the Mario saga, for acting like a villain and singing a villain song that slaps? Are they okay? Don’t they get the basic concepts of villainy?

Previous Parts: 1

Next Parts: 3,4,5

tags: @loveforfandomsstuff​ @harpy-space​

You kept coming back to the palace to visit whenever you had the time. You really enjoyed spending time with your new friends and learning more about the Mushroom Kingdom. It’s like everyday there was some new adventure!

You also met the famous fearless Toad who had accompanied Peach and Mario throughout their dangerous journey to the Kong Kingdom and were lucky enough to eat one of his even more famous meals. You weren’t sure you had tasted something so divine in your entire life, goddamn it, Toad, drop the secret recipe book.

But if there was also a not entirely malicious ulterior motive for your visits, it would probably be your endearing wittle piano playing turtle that on his free time commited war crimes. It’s not like you were obsessed (liar), you just found yourself completely enamoured by the concept of some tiny musical tot that spoke highly of himself in a high pitched voice.

You were no fool. You knew he was dangerous and that given the chance, he would commit all those atrocities again. But he was SO LITTLE AND CUTE NOW. You just have to be careful with your gushing. The least you wanted is to cause the literal Third World War over a turtle.

It became an habit of yours to bring some gifts for everyone of your friends whenever you came to visit, and that included him, be it a tiny chair from an old house, a Ken doll, that always ended with his head chewed off, some lettuce (or whatever this turtle ate)...

Presenting him your offerings always was a tricky task. Peach and the bros had kindly drawn a perimeter around his cage that was called the “no-no zone”. Anyone that dared to cross that line, would meet their untimely end at the hands of a flame with the burning power of some kid using an aerosol flamethrower. Maybe it was a bit dramatic but he nearly burnt part of your hair last time so better not risk it, as he was an amgery firey boi. Unfortunately for him, you had put your wicked mind to use and had developed a system that didn’t put your hair or any part of your body in danger of suffering third degree burns. You called it “The Salad Tongs Solution”.

You had decided to use them instead of sticking to the classic put them in while he sleeps. Next time you tried to put a blankie over him when he slept he got scared so badly he went inside his shell and started spinning against the walls of the cages like some deadly top toy. Never again. Poor baby needed his beauty sleep.

So today, you were bringing in a special gift. After some rumaging through your old toys, you found some old tuxedo from one onf your dolls, you didn’t remember which one. But hey, maybe he would like this one?

Welp, he didn’t. As much as Mario would have loved to see him in it, nope, this turtle had expensive tastes and apparently this old tuxedo wasn’t up to his standards. Awww, classy turtle. The high pitched voice just made his rant look like an angry smurf that swore like a sailor. It was so adorable, you were not even bothered he didn’t like it. “It’s okay sweet baby!” You cooed to him. 

Bowser was bewildered at your audacity, your nerve! How dare you not praise him like the feared warlord he is! This will not stand! He will get out, and when he gets out the world shall get a taste of his revenge! You will bow to him in reverence! You will- oh, there you go again, looking at him with that dopey smile and those adoring eyes. Disgusting. Embarrassing. He is NOT a cutie patootie, thank you very much. He is KING OF THE KOOPAS, the strongest and baddest there is! That’s why you should look at him adoringly! Not because he is burger shaped!

A couple of days later Luigi sent a message with a photo attached to the groupchat. Opening it was the best decision in your life: there he was, your little buddy dressed in the tuxedo with the most disgruntled face he could make and being held with the salad tongs. A warm feeling spread through your chest, and for the rest of the day a huge smile was plastered on your face. He was such a dapper little gentleman.

[idontthinkimokaymentally]

Hello there Noel fans.

[theprinceofliones]

Elizabeth never relished in her previous title; "Bloody Ellie". It was something that made her stomach churn when reminded of harsher times during the first Holy War. Her name shot fear through the hearts of all demon-kind and any stupid enough to face her would likely not live to tell the tale. It was not a happy time in her life, she was more slave and soldier for her mother than a daughter.

It wasn't a title she wore with pride, it wasn't one she enjoyed basking in. In fact, she had come to despise it and was overjoyed that she lived in a time of peace where that name could never be uttered again.

Instead, the people of her kingdom referred to her as the; "Goddess of Wrath."

With the disappearance of her son, who was most likely either killed by the hands of King Arthur Pendragon or being held hostage within the Chaos Realm of Camelot, all traces of the once "Good Queen Elizabeth" were gone. King Arthur hadn't just taken the kingdom's Crown Prince, he had taken the people's good and gentle queen with him.

Prince-Consort Meliodas was an empty tomb, a shell of what used to be a strong and noble man. He was nearly as lifeless as a doll, limp and useless practically. His son was the one thing that made all of his suffering for over three millennia worth going through, was the very centerpiece of his world along with his beloved wife. Prince Tristan was the king's soul, his heart walking outside of his body, and he had been /taken/. The Prince-Consort was ruined and was a dead man walking to the people of Britannia, damned to his own personal hell with the loss of his son and his once kind wife.

Queen Elizabeth, on the other hand, had never seemed more alive, but it was if she was being kept breathing by the scorching flames of /hatred/ that fueled her soul every waking second of every waking hour, practically breathing smoke from the fumes of her wrath. Every moment, she worked to find King Arthur and take his head as she had once demanded of her husband, /commanding/ that his dead ruins be brought to her for what he had done to her little boy.

She had taken complete control of the Holy Knights and the kingdom's military, planning counter attacks and carefully planned battles against King Arthur and his army. Every day, the kingdom awaited news that Queen Elizabeth had taken revenge and avenged their beloved prince. But, as days, weeks, and months passed, no end the sudden exploding war was in sight.

The kingdom thought that peace was finally here in it's totality, that after the second Holy War, there would never be such a bloody war ever again, that everyone would move on to work towards an eternal peace within the realm.

King Arthur had taken that from them, and had taken their beloved, kind, and generous Queen, Prince-Consort, and Crown Prince along with it.

And, they swore they'd never forgive him. Not in this life, nor the next.

Meanwhile, Prince Lancelot of Benwick carried the fury of the country in his heart and very soul.

He was on the front lines at all times. Every time they'd face a Knight of King Arthur, Prince Lancelot was there to take them out, to take his own piece of revenge for what King Arthur had done to his best friend, the other half of his soul, almost, as Prince Tristan and him were born only five days apart and had grown up side by side before his disappearance.

He was a merciless beast of a man, as he had his future stolen from him, his future with Prince Tristan. Everything they could've had together was no more, gone in the blink of an eye.

When he was informed of Prince Tristan's death and disappearance, Prince Lancelot swore a great promise of /vengeance/ against King Arthur, bowing before the Queen and swearing to her that he'd deliver the damned bastard's head to the royal family no matter the cost. Those who were witness to this, whispered that Prince Lancelot even /wept/, shaking and sobbing as he swore his revenge before Queen Elizabeth.

He was the Goddess of Wrath's; "Master of War", as some called him. She was the Judge and he was her Executioner.

The rest of the Seven Deadly Sins aided in Queen Elizabeth's war plan. As the King and Queen of the Fairy and Giant race, the King and Queen of Benwick, Lord Gowther, and even the King and Queen of the Demon Realm, all joined Queen Elizabeth and stayed at her side.

Meanwhile, the once revered Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins drowned in cups and ale to wash away the devastation that laced his being. He was no longer the supposed "Sin of Wrath" he had been nearly twenty years ago. He was stripped of everything and his anguish was the only thing left of him.

The King of Benwick, Ban the Fox Sin of Greed, often visited his former Captain, rumors spread---as the Prince-Consort was cooped up in his son's bedroom and never left it. Guards who were stationed near the former Prince's bedroom would often hear Prince-Consort Meliodas /weep/ whenever King Ban visited him. They could hear the sounds of sobbing, sounds filled with so much pain that maids and servants alike steered clear from Prince Tristan's former chambers because of the anguished wails coming from beyond those double doors.

No one knew what King Ban and Prince-Consort Meliodas spoke of behind the closed entrance, nor do they know what other things transpired. All they knew, was that a family had been split in two, and neither the Queen nor Prince-Consort would ever be whole and hale again.

With Prince Tristan's death, the dominos of all out /war/ fell into place; and the clash of wrath and chaos would now explode all across Britannia.

And no one, not a single damned soul, would be left unscathed---not while the "Goddess of Wrath", Queen Elizabeth still drew breath.

She would avenge her son. No matter the cost.

And /nothing/ would escape her wrath.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alaina Demopoulos at The Guardian:

McKenna, who is 24 and lives in a rural, conservative state, recently got back on dating apps after a year of finding herself. She had two first dates planned for this weekend, but after Donald Trump won the election, she cancelled both. “It’s heartbreaking to know that in this country you only matter if you’re a straight white man,” she said. “It’s just devastating that we’re at this point. So I will not let another man touch me until I have my rights back.” McKenna, who did not want her last name published for privacy reasons, first heard about 4B a few months ago, via a TikTok video referring to the South Korean social movement. The basic idea: women swear off heterosexual marriage, dating, sex and childbirth in protest against institutionalized misogyny and abuse. (It is called 4B in reference to these four specific no-nos.) The mostly online movement began around 2018 protests against revenge porn and grew into South Korea’s #MeToo-esque feminist wave.

In the wake of Trump’s victory, 4B is once again on McKenna’s mind – and she’s not the only one. Trump’s embrace of manosphere figures such as Joe Rogan, the Nelk Boys and Adin Ross means he has strong support among their evangelists – mainly, young men. But for young women, the former president’s long history of misogyny means a vote for Trump is a vote against feminism, especially with reproductive rights as a key issue in 2024. Ahead of the US election, pundits predicted a history-making gender gap, and early exit polls support that prediction: women aged 18-29 went overwhelmingly left, while Trump picked up ground with their male counterparts compared with 2020. With the race called, TikToks viewed hundreds of thousands of times offered one way for women to go for the jugular: 4B, specifically cutting off contact with men. “Girls it’s time to boycott all men! You lost your rights, and they lost the right to hit raw! 4b movement starts now!” one creator wrote on TiKTok in a video viewed 3.4m times. In another video, a woman exercises on a stair climber machine. “Building my dream body that no man will touch for the next 4 years,” reads the caption. The top comment on her post: “In the club, we all celibate.” On Wednesday, Google searches for “4B” spiked by 450%, with the most interest coming from Washington DC, Colorado, Vermont and Minnesota. In South Korea, 4B began as an offshoot of national protests against the spycam epidemic, in which perpetrators filmed targets – most of whom were women – during sex or while urinating in public bathrooms without their knowledge or consent.

[...]

As with #MeToo in the US, men have called 4B an overreach, and discriminatory. South Korea’s conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, ran on a platform of abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which protects against gender-based violence and discrimination, saying feminists were to blame for the country’s economic woes.

Haein Shim, a South Korean activist and current undergraduate researcher at Stanford University’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research, said in an email that women who participated in 4B protests faced cyberbullying, harassment, stalking and threats of violence. “Many of us wore masks, sunglasses, and hats to cover our faces, and it was common practice to dress differently before and after a protest to minimize being stalked.” There were more nuanced critiques, too. “Some debated if it was a sustainable way to participate in feminism, because it was a total disconnect with men, and some people believe there have to be productive conversations among people with different world views in order for society to move forward,” Lee said. Feminists expressed concern over whether 4B “disregarded heterosexual women’s desires, in order to punish men who may or may not have participated in misogyny”.

Shim, the activist, says that 4B goes beyond just boycotting men, and encourages women to find solidarity with each other. “It’s a new lifestyle focused on building safe communities, both online and in-person, and valuing our existence in this crazy world,” she said. “What we want is not to be labeled simply as some man’s wife or girlfriend, but to have the independence to be free from the societal expectations that often limit women’s potential to be fully acknowledged as human beings.” Second wave feminist groups of the 1960s and 70s such as Cell 16, which advocated celibacy and separation from men, and political lesbians, who opted out of heterosexuality, were historically deemed as extreme – or simply trendy. 4B, a more contemporary movement that mostly lives online, may seem more accessible to gen Z women. On TikTok, 4B posts play as communal and therapeutic, a way to take back control during a time when basic rights are at stake.

Donald Trump's election, combined with the erosion of abortion access post-Roe, has fueled an angry backlash among feminist-inclined women by importing the South Korean 4B Movement to the States.

[rocknroll7575]

Awakening

Raven walked away after she dealt with her daughter, it was rather easy, which was disappointing, still, she let her daughter's team live, and that one girl from that other team had potential, however, those three other weaklings were dead, or sure to die soon. She stabbed the sniper in the kidney, the one with the mace had his chest cut nearly open, and the blonde had been surely killed, she had stabbed him in the chest and then slit his throat.

Raven closed her eyes and sighed, 'Shame though... that girl with the blue hair had such potential with her semblance' Raven thought as she walked to the front entrance. 'Sad that Summer produced a stronger spawn than I did,'

"Hey there!"

Raven's eyes shot open and she looked in front of her only to see the blonde knight in front of her. He had a wicked grin on his face and his armor was indeed bloody. She was shocked, she swore she had killed him! She stabbed him in the chest and then the throat! How could he possibly be alive?

'How is he alive!? Wait... his wounds are completely closed! Not even scar marks... Aura can't do that! Not even an extreme healing Semblance erases scar marks... could it be he possesses magic!?' Raven thought. "You... possess magic!?" She asked.

Jaune chuckled, "In a way I do but I never thought I'd be able to use it while he's stuck deep in my head! But here I am! I could never do this before! Even when Ozma was trying to teach me I couldn't understand a damn thing! But oh man! This! THIS FEELS SO GOOD!" Jaune cried before continuing to talk

Raven glared at him, 'Somethings off... he rambling, spouting almost udder nonsense... Is he high?' Raven asked.

"But Ozma was right! It's easier said than done! I never could do any of this until now!" Jaune cried as he looked the happiest he had ever been. "I finally understand it! I finally grasped it Ozma! The core of my soul! The core of Magic! See Raven! The reason you're going to lose is because you didn't cut off my head!"

Raven smiled and glared at the young boy, "I'm going to lose?" She asked as she pulled out her Katana and took a fighting stance, "You must be joking! You've just barely learned how to use Magic! This fight is just getting started!" She cried with a glare and a smirk.

"Is that right?" Jaune asked before his smile widened, "You could be right... no... no... YOUR SO RIGHT!" Jaune cried.

"Unlike Raven, who was given magic by the previous Maiden, all the knowledge of how to use it was passed on to her, which allowed her to understand how Magic works..."

Raven charged at him with her sword ready to strike him like she had before, however, Jaune's eyes glowed green and he pointed his finger at her and a bright green ball of energy, still smiling.

Reven went wide-eyed as the ball formed and then blasted forward, Raven quickly tried to block it, but the attack pushed her back, sending her flying back

"However, when one who possesses manages to awaken their Magic for the first time... something happens within them..."

The attack disappeared once Raven was sent crashing into a part of the building and Raven grunted in pain, however, she looked forward at the young knight only to see him floating in the sky, as if he was simply floating in the ocean.

"Once one awakens their Magic, they gain an understanding of their soul... they achieve Nirvana for that moment,"

Jaune looked at the sky and simply seemed to be at peace, a soft smile on his face, it was as if he wasn't in a fight, as if he hadn't seen his friends get hurt.

Raven was in awe at how... at ease, the young man seemed.

"However, usually that feeling only lasts a minute, but because Jaune Arc's Soul is far different than most..."

'I'm sorry guys... I don't feel a thing right now... all I'm feeling, is this beautiful world around me, I don't even feel hate, nor do I want revenge, all I feel is pure bliss,' Jaune thought to himself. 'However, I know... I can't let raven go unpunished'

Jaune then looked down at Raven, as if coming out of a daze, and when Raven looked at him, she felt fear strike her very soul.

"Jaune's very soul houses the most powerful and greatest wizard to ever exist and it alone possesses an extreme amount of Aura that surpasses the likes of Ruby Rose and Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch..."

'Something's off...' Raven thought, 'Something is very off...'

Jaune seemed to turn in the air and stand right where he floated and he smiled down at her, then pointed his finger up in the air and one to the ground.

"So that feeling of Nirvana would last a whole 7 hours, and in those 7 hours, Jaune Arc, the host of Ozma the Great..."

"Understand this, Raven..." Jaune began, "Among the heavens and of Remnant, I alone am the honored one," He said softly.

"Was the most powerful being on the face of Remnant!"

Suddenly, Jaune appeared a few feet in front of Raven and summoned his sword in the blink of an eye, shocking the older huntress, Raven prepared to block Jaune's attack, however, the young knight's sword glowed green and he swung, cutting through Raven's sword... and Raven herself...

In that single moment, the weakest student at Beacon had killed the most dangerous woman on Remnant...

XXX

A few minutes later, Yang slowly made her way back up to the entrance and that's when she saw a sight that shocked her to the core.

On the ground, cut in two, was her mother.

Yang fell to her knees in shock, she couldn't believe it, her mother, the person she had been searching for her whole life, the person she needed answers from on why she abandoned her... was dead.

She looked away from the body only to see Jaune, standing next to the bodies of his team, all three had green orbs floating over them.

"J-Jaune...?" Yang called out, "What happ-?"

"I killed her,"

Yang's heart stopped, "You... you killed her?" Yang asked, her voice slowly breaking.

Jaune didn't turn to her, he just nodded. "I killed her, I don't regret it," Jaune said. "If you're feeling angry then-"

Suddenly, Yang's fist came at him but was stopped in mid-air, not even close to touching him. The blonde girl's eyes were red and her hair was ablaze, she was seething with anger and it was all focused on the one in front of her.

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Yang yelled.

jaune finally turned to her with a soft smile, "If that is what you want... you can try," He said.

"There was still 7 hours till Jaune's "Nirvana State" would disappear and it seemed that the fighting was not over..."

[ap-kinda-lit]

Saiyan Squad AU outline (part 2) ⭐️

part 1

Vegeta, Nappa, Raditz, and Kakarot form a squad and fight in a war between Frieza and what remains of the Saiyans.

At some point early on, they land on Vampa, where they find Broly.

Broly’s father, Paragus, was banished to Vampa after he was accused of working with Frieza. As further punishment, Broly was sent with him so the two would surely die on the planet together. They managed to survive and Paragus swore revenge. Before the squad arrived, Paragus had presumably abandoned Broly. When Broly meets Raditz, Kakarot, Nappa, and Vegeta, they right away recognize his immense power and take him in.

The Squad travel space and go on mission after mission, trying to find a new planet call home and bring down Frieza’s empire.

As king, Vegeta is the self-declared leader and the angry, arrogant gremlin we all know and love. Since they’ve known him since childhood and practically grew up together, Raditz and Kakarot are pretty casual with him and call him names like “boss” or “Geets”, which annoys Vegeta. He also hates how he turns out to be the shortest among his team of giants. Also, after being forced into being a child king, held hostage, and having his world and people mercilessly slaughtered, Vegeta is (understandably) hell bent on killing Frieza himself. He also strives to rebuilding his kingdom to its former glory and becoming the strongest king there ever was.

Raditz is a sarcastic (not so) little shit and the stressed, tired older sibling of Kakarot. He always picks on his idiot little brother and bemoans about constantly looking after him (but let’s face it he does care about his baby brother). He himself is a hot mess who somehow gets into trouble a lot and loves chaos (when it’s done to someone that’s not him, that is).

Ah, Kakarot…he’s essentially still our beloved goofball himbo. He aspires to being a great warrior and may come off as intimidating due to his strength, gruff appearance, and wild nature at first, but Kakarot is surprisingly friendly, kind-hearted, and not as gung-ho on killing as most Saiyans would be. He’s laid-back, happy-go-lucky, and loves a good time. To him, the whole team is his family and his idea of a mission is exploring like he’s on a fun field trip. Kakarot is weaker than his teammates and his demeanor doesn’t make it any easier, so he’s seen and treated as the runt of the bunch. He makes up for it with his loyalty and hard-work ethic. If he is intimidated or attacked, he will fight. He also doesn’t like being mocked. Kakarot tries to be an ideal Saiyan, scary and tough as nails, but his good nature always somehow comes out.

Nappa is basically the Team Dad. He trains and looks after Vegeta, Raditz, Kakarot, and Broly from young ages (so it’s no wonder he ends up bald as a melon so soon). He’s essentially a more butch version of Ginyu; rough but still very flamboyant. He would exercise to The Village People and kick back and happily watch his boys raze a whole city. As you can guess, he’s not a very responsible parental figure.

Broly is the newest recruit and the wild card. He normally keeps to himself and is very quiet, so when chaos erupts (as it almost always does) he usually just watches or casually plays a small part. He’s just glad to be a part of something. But by no means is he all that harmless. If he’s called into action or when things get hairy, you might want to start running. He’s basically a nuclear bomb crossed with an elephant.

The Saiyans come across Earth by happenstance. Kakarot crash lands there after being chased by Frieza’s men. His pod and scouter are both badly damaged in the wreck, so he explores around while finding a way off the planet or at least contact his squad. Along the way, he finds the four star dragon ball. He doesn’t know what it is but he thinks it’s neat and it reminds him of Planet Sadala. He does also get chased after by Frieza scouts and encounters the Red Ribbon Army (who are attracted by his new souvenir and they steal his totaled pod). With all the havoc going on around him, he of course attracts the attention of the Z Fighters (Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, Krillin, Roshi, and Bulma).

Kakarot does cross paths with the Ox King & Chichi also and an accidental marriage proposal still takes place, but Kakarot doesn’t understand it at first because Saiyans do not practice marriage and are not that familiar with ‘dating’, ‘boyfriends/girlfriends’, ‘husbands/wives’ or weddings (the closest they have is a very small formal ceremony practiced only by Saiyan royalty). When it’s explained to him and Kakarot realizes he’s technically chosen Chichi as his mate, he’s…thrilled. She’s a cute princess who can use a giant fan as a weapon like it’s nothing and she’s a hell of a cook. She’s pretty much his dream girl.

There’s also Vegebul & Launchitz, but I might go into detail in another post.

On a random, fun note, Nappa and Master Roshi strangely become sort of friends. They’re both bald senseis and they love exercise videos (Roshi for perverted reasons, Nappa actually does like them for fun exercise)

[teenandbeyond]

Loki x M. Magician Reader

I don't why this came to my brain 😭 Did it come out well? Let me know if you want a full love story flashback with...hmm...50 hearts? I don't think that's too bad.

Want more from me? Master list II

☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆

Love Archive (Marvel)

Warning(s): Fluff, kinda long, slight angst bc past Loki, Ragnarök, Reader is stuck with insanely long life, Exes (ouchies), Smut (but not graphic and will leave warning when time)

You and Loki were in love once, then it fell apart...Only to see each other again over 200 years later...only to be forced to save the universe together...fun...

✨✨✨✨✨

"[Name]! Is it truly you?"

With furrowed brows, you turn to be blinded by a bright grin.

Yeah, you had no idea who this bulking blonde was.

"Who are you, sir?"

He chuckled, running a hand through his short hair, "Right, you wouldn't know me. You knew my brother, Loki. Correct?"

Hearing that name still strangely brought warmth to your heart.

But how...?

"How do you know of me?"

"Ah!...I might've...followed Loki once and saw you. He doesn't know."

With a huff of amusement, you cross your arms. So this was Thor. Loki often spoke of him.

So you knew he was nosey.

"And what do you need from me?

"I saw you fight. Earlier."

"That was only but a correction."

You were a type of security on Grandmaster's planet, but because you were a pretty boy, people liked to test you.

Let's just say that was a mistake.

"Well, I'd like you to join my team. I need a fighter such as yourself."

"Team?"

"Yes, the Revengers!"

"Re...ven?"

"Yes, a team of those who want revenge against the world and this place."

You didn't have anything in particular you wanted revenge over, but...you were a bored old man.

"Sure. Sounds fun."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah, where do we start? How many members are there?"

"Ah...less than five?"

"Oh, dear."

☆: .｡. .｡.:☆☆: .｡. .｡.:☆

So much happened in less than an hour. You met a socially awkward scientist that Thor swore could transform into a monster, but the man stayed a man. Until...he wasn't?

You were confused.

Even as a half-human yourself, you found humanity weird.

And then, after doing a little...ah...clearing of obstacles, you were told to come to a familiar room.

You could hear conversation on the other end as you knocked the random code Thor had given to you.

And the door opened...he was there. Restrained, but there.

Loki.

And he froze in place, just as you did.

He looked like a deer in headlights, guilt you didn't understand riddled his face.

You smiled, "Hello. It's been a while."

"Ah--Yes, hello. It has."

The silence was heavy with a story that slowly bared itself from the archives.

"They definitely know each other," Bruce observed.

"Obviously," Valkyrie, one of your coworkers, deadpanned.

That was an understatement.

1800s Britain, that's when you met him.

You were 26 at the time, but you'd long discovered magic and the inhuman part of your lineage.

Loki could smell the magic on you, he was drawn to that and your quiet charm.

You mostly kept to yourself, a bit soft-spoken, you weren't brutish like many men were at the time.

And in a short span of time, he realized just how easy it was to talk to you.

You were understanding, you always listened. And you loved no matter what.

That's all he'd ever wanted.

Someone to just smile and say, "I love you, I'm listening."

Someone to hold him when he wanted to cry.

Someone who made him feel like he belonged.

Someone who could kiss him like he was their world.

And you were his.

But one day, it hit him. He wasn't good enough for you.

So he left, and what broke his heart even more?

You understood. There were no hard feelings.

But ever since that day, he'd wished you had been selfish, wished you'd disregarded his words and kept him close.

And now here you were, over 200 years later.

One of you still felt a warm love.

And the other was filled with guilt, having taken out that regret on others for years.

"So, how have you been?" Loki forces the words out instead of keeping the silence that was admittedly getting awkward for everyone else.

Oh, it hurts that you still smile at him so warmly. Why couldn't you at least pretend you hated him?

"I've been alright. Mostly travelling. You?"

"Ah--Well, mostly mischief."

"That's a given."

"Any, uh...Did you ever have a...?" How did he ask?

You nodded, "Yeah. For a while, I tried again. But mortals, you know, they die. So...after that, I decided I'd save myself from losing anyone again."

Then Loki took in what was around your neck, and his heart warmed at the sight.

You'd kept it. The ring he gave you, the promise ring that held a false promise of forever.

To him, it was a failed promise.

To you, it was a devotion of love. One you could never get rid of.

Even after all this time, you could say, without hesitation, you still loved him.

Even when you learned he'd tried to betray Thor as you tried to escape this forsaken planet.

He still arrived to save the day when it was needed.

And he was still there to guard you as you struggled to heal the wound of Hela.

And you were there for him as he mourned the home that never felt like home in his heart, but still belonged to him.

The father that never felt like home, but still belonged to him.

There was so much pain weighing on his shoulders.

He just needed to wash it away.

Scrub it away.

No, it needed to burn like the flames that had engulfed Asgard.

And you were the only person who could ever burn things away, even if just for a little while.

"Please. I don't want to think."

"I understand."

You always understood.

You understood that he didn't want words, not now. You did well enough at that.

He wanted warmth.

[NSFW]

His mind began to blank out the moment your lips trailed down his skin.

"I want to burn it all, [Name], can you do that?"

"I'll utterly engulf you. As much as you want. Wherever you want, my love."

It wasn't long before you had his skin scorching, flushed, and red.

He gasped for breaths between kisses as you got so close you were one.

He left thin, hot trails of red down your back, your sides.

And when he wanted the control, you relinquished it.

And by Odin---perhaps it was improper to say that, a habit--you were utterly beautiful beneath him, too.

He felt flattered to know he's the only one who's ever had you in this way.

The only one to have you vulnerable for a change.

Once again. Loki was realizing...

He was a fool, an absolute fool...for putting your love in the archives.