#the man gets confronted with a spirit who is like “hey I'm sensing that what you want to do is not what you actually need”

[krems-chair]

Smear of Paint, you say? *stares harder*

THE PROSPECT THAT OUR HEART'S DESIRE AND OUR TRUEST NEED COULD DIFFER--OR ARE EVEN AT ODDS--IS HARD TO CONTEMPLATE, you say? *stares so hard my eyes fall out*

This second playthrough (for observations, not just desperately speeding to the end) is already taking me out.

[diagonal-queen]

Omg you're backkkk<3 I hope uni's going well for you!

Maybe the Hunting Dogs with a s/o who's kind of mean/petty?

Hunting Dogs with a mean S/O

♡ pairing: Fukuchi Ouchi, Jouno Saigiku, Tecchou Suehiro, Teruko Okura (platonic), Tachihara Michizou x gn!Reader

♡ synopsis: How are the Hunting Dogs with a mean and petty S/O?

♡ cw: Swearing, u r a BULLY >:((, dw it's pretty chill though, non-graphic NSFW with Jouno, teensy bit of NSFW with Tachihara, mentions of violence, crime and torture

note: ahhh hello yes i'm back! uni's pretty great actually. i love being able to tell people i go to law school lmao, it makes me feel smarter than i am. uhh but i've been swamped and a bit busy, and i'm going back home for a week so i might not be super active over the next couple weeks, i'm so sorry my babies </3 but i'll still be lurking in case you wanna chat! as always, apologies for errors and i hope you enjoy x

Fukuchi:

Mf you think he cares?? He hired Jouno and Tachihara because they committed crimes, and he's more than happy to keep Teruko around. Bro doesn't give a FUCK that you're mean

If you're dating Fukuchi you clearly do give a shit about the welfare of society and world peace, so your individual quirks are just that. Quirks

He will fully let you just be a dickhead sometimes, because...like, why not?

I feel like Fukuchi is obviously often a very intimidating individual who strikes fear and commands respect from everyone else. But you? You just walk all over him

In some ways for him it's probably kind of refreshing to have someone around him who doesn't idolise him at all, or look up to him as a superior. It gets exhausting, for sure. Sometimes he just wants to be humbled and that's so okay Fukuchi, you deserve it actually /mean-spirited and condescending

Don't get me wrong it's not like you're an abusive partner! You're still obviously nice to your partner and you love him, but you definitely don't go out of your way to sugarcoat things or try to avoid any necessary confrontations

And Fukuchi genuinely really respects that about you. He's pretty similar like that, though still definitely goofier than you

I mean he won't want you sitting around with an RBF when he's at formal events and whatnot, because that really wouldn't have the best impression, but he's usually very gung ho about letting you be yourself

You're lucky he loves you man...lmao

Jouno:

He loves it. Full stop.

You two are just sadist central over here. Like he'll be torturing a suspect and you're just watching. Bored. Not a care in the world

(Jouno, I don't think you're legally allowed to invite your partner to watch you do your job- much less one like this, but...eh...)

You two are always just talking shit about people to each other, and like when you're out in public on dates you're just whispering to each other and judging people T-T

Lowkey kinda gets turned on when you guys argue. He thinks it's hot when you get heated and angry. Usually it ends in rough "passionate hugging", and the pillowtalk is when you both actually resolve the issue (dumbasses)

He might even purposefully rile you up sometimes because mf is just THAT much of a horny degenerate. You guys can call him classy and gentlemanly all you want, but we all know he's secretly deranged

Like an angry, horny goblin with a knife...someone stop him

Tbh you should probably bully him a little bit every now and then. I think he needs to be taken down a peg sometimes

Hey, he's more likely to listen to you than Tecchou, isn't he? Besides, it's nothing genuinely malicious. Just couple's banter

Oh, you guys are fucking LEGENDS at the couple's banter. Though you never do it in public, because a lot of the times the things you both tell each other as jokes can come off as really cruel jabs

Nah your senses of humour are just not family-friendly (violent and malicious)

You guys have very strange ways of showing your love and affection. But, hey, it works for you and that's what's important :)

Tecchou:

Ah yes, arguably the least meanie of all of the Hunting Dogs. Yeah uh he doesn't really like you at first

Tecchou doesn't understand being mean just for the sake of it. I mean like, for Teruko, she uses it in her career, and Jouno is sadistic and weird and also uses it in his career. You're just petty because you can be

But the more time you spend together the more he realises that you're really not that bad- you're really just more of the loveable asshole type

An acquired taste, yes, but this is Tecchou we're talking about! That's his thing!

He learns to appreciate the things about you that many others would probably consider flaws. He influences you for the better definitely...

...BUT you also kinda make him worse

He will adopt your 'deal with it bitch' attitude sometimes, but it doesn't hinder his relationships or work so it's fiiiiine

(Jouno isn't a huge fan of it though...but at the same time he kind of respects you)

Tecchou probably won't admit it but he really likes to listen to you rant and bitch about people you don't like. He just likes to listen to you be angry about trivial things, he finds it equal parts endearing and entertaining

If you're mean to someone who deserves it? Well I mean...who is he to stop you?

At the end of the day you're definitely emotionally self-sufficient, so that's one less part of you for him to fret over. All's well that ends well or some shit idk

Teruko (platonic):

You guys are literally the best of friends

She's the loud fiery kind of mean and you are the 'I will straight up meticulously ruin your life' kind of mean

You on some r/nuclearrevenge type shit and she fucking loves that for you

Like she's fully willing to plot and scheme with you and do whatever mean shit you suggest. You two are menaces and she should absolutely not be a military soldier

Teruko WILL smite your enemies. And by smite your enemies I mean she will actively do what she can to ruin the lives of people you don't like, with absolutely no remorse (pretty sure she actually commits crimes to do this)

She LIVES for your cruel one-liners and clever insults. Every time she hears one she absolutely hollers

Teruko enjoys it when you're mean to the other Hunting Dogs (except Fukuchi). They can handle a couple bitchy words so it's not a huge deal, but she's just extra amused by it

For the record you're not *mean* mean, you're just...humbling them (which let's be real they could use from time to time (Jouno, again, looking at you))

Nobody is surprised by your guys' friendship really

You're a dangerous pair. Please stop

Teruko kinda likes that you hold grudges so frequently because she'll never tire of hearing you shittalk the same exact people and events over and over again

She'll shittalk them too

Dia doesn't approve of this friendship

Tachihara:

You guys know that scene in B99 where Jake says that he can't decide if he's scared of Amy or turned on by her and then decides that he's both? Yea, that's Tachihara with you

He is a good person at heart, and outside of his mafia gangster persona he's really not that mean, and as such he does not encourage mean behaviour. But like, when you do it? Mm...

Bro is WHIPPED

Lowkey he probably gets some of his mafia persona ideas from you 💀

His mafia coworkers have no questions about how you two get along, and they generally like you. The other Hunting Dogs have a few more questions

Tachihara isn't some shy, quiet introvert, but he is generally pretty chill and a nice person. They like to playfully tease him about how different the two of you are (though if it gets too far he knows he can count on you to rip them a new one with no issue)

Dw they still like you though! Especially Teruko

He has absolutely no problems with you for being cold and blunt. It's nothing he himself can't handle, and in some ways it actually makes talking to you easier

Again, I'll stress that you're not mean to him, you're just not the most lovey-dovey person out there. But you DO put effort in and that's what Tachihara cares about, even if it isn't in a stereotypical way

If anything else, you're certainly loyal!

Tachihara loves you for all of your different eccentricities, and he's also kinda turned on by them. Win-win? Win-win.

taglist~ ♡ @gettinshiggywithit, @fyodorhatr, @flower-of-darkness, @bejeweledgirl, @kokoenjiandco, @pinkiipeachiikeen

[aicosu]

Hey, just saw your post about Veilguard - do you mind me asking what it is that put you off? Thanks!

I can start by saying I've not played it. I'm not going to at this point. But basically, every cutscene and dialogue option and plot point I've watched. And for those of you that don't remember I was hugely critical of Inquisition despite my love for it. And I downright hated Trespasser. So this shouldnt be shocking.

And its a lot of stuff I dont like. I can make a short list of major things below, obvious spoilers.

Please dont read this if it will make you angry okay? This is a lot of angry ranting.

1. I said this with inquisition and trespassers but veilguard seals my hatred for the decision to center the entire plot of ripping apart the dalish culture and religion. I'm sorry I just don't think this is compelling. It's icky to create an oppressed and marginalized race with parallels to most indigenous cultures in the real world, and basically call them wrong and stupid for clinging to their culture and history. I don't care that validating the Enuvanris existance means also invalidating the maker and the tevinter reiligions too, or even the dwarven: the game centers this narrative on the DALISH. The entire implication that its their fault all along or they sold themselves into a cult and slavery is gross. The game could have easily done this but centered it around the Maker. Andraste as the blight corrupted crazy deity or spirit whatever the fuck. Makes more sense with how much Chantry has been shoved down our throats since origins, and given how much wider spread it is after literal genocides of the dalish, qun, etc it would just mean a lot more to target the oppressors/majority religion directly. And look listen, I'm a pretty hardcore athiest and even anti thiest. I hate all religions, I find stories about dismantling religion compelling but to couch it histories of marginalized people like... its just not great. Not to mention twisting their gods into systematic greedy people or shoving their "bestest god" into a human woman and trying to make her prostheltize at me. I don't like it!

2. I get why old decisions dont matter. The world is too big, sure. I dont mind that at all, actually, even with all the problems, it gives people invested in those choices. Im happy to accept it. But then... make the actual plot less beholden to it. Why bring in cameos at all, then? Fuck man set it 50 or 80 years later. But if you cant cause everyone wants closure in the DA fandom then give us closure. If not personal closure with wardens and hawkes and etc cause its all too variant — lore closure. We arent going to talk about how darkspawn were thinking and talking? Blight was always just a random elvhen weapon? What apparent the tevinter magisters then? What about the architect? What about the idea of darkspawn becoming their own race and culture? What about the old gods themselves they were just always enuvanris? How do magisters actually feel about that? Why did those who worshipped corypheous or the black church follow Elvhen gods, their most oppressed and hated enemy aside from the qunari?

Speaking of, what about all of us who wanted to confront Minrathous and Tevine for the atrocities we've built up about it for 3 games. Slavery? Off screen solved before we get there? Dorian fixed it all? I had a heated debate with Dorian about him saying how slavery wasnt all that bad "They like being slaves!" And so many conversations with Fenris about how horrible it is. Rape and murder and submission? We don't as players get to finally confront that?

How about red lyrium being sentient. How about it being a tool the elvhen then used to murder titans, but not its alive and unstoppable? How can anything be unblighted? Because plot?

What of the calling? What of it really? What of those in The Calling who were unblighted? nothing?

Not even a deep conversation about the murky ethics of liberation/slavery when it comes to the Antivan crows stealing children? I'm to forget that?

How about anything all to do with the Qun? How about that burnt in memory I have of Saarabas immolating himself in service to not just the system of his culture but his belief in his faith. We're writing him off as a terrorist and not as an example of the Qun? Lets be really real; they have been retconning the Qun every game till now them being a fully gender and sexual accepting society.

How about the changes of mages vs templars if and maybe they walk free now? As if that entire conflict wasnt the brewing boiling point for three games?

What about the elvhen rebellion they so rightly started after centuries or murder and racism? Can we stop pretending that rebellion isnt an act of violence and has to be? Can we stop erasing the idea that systemical upheavel can be anything other than radical? Hello? Anders is one the phone asking for you?

How about that ending, the veil isn't even torn? Spirits don't walk the earth as intended. Why not solas' plan? Why not restore order. Why not join or dissuade him as he asked us to in trespasser?

It just all feels washed off, Thedas. I'm allowed to be angry and upset that they spanned all of these topics and asked me to engage with them on a deep ethical and moral grounds only to never mention them again. I dont think making your player base feel stupid for caring is great.

3. On personal levels, Solas has been ooc since trepasser. And frankly, the explanation of his relationship with Mythal is disgusting. Made the first slave and turned from his true nature into a tool of war—and reaffirming his subservance by making it that only Mythal could stop him? How is that not a toxic dynamic, and they fram it as loving and romantic? Imagine them trying that Fenris who can only be talked down by Danerous. Come on. It should have been Lavellan — or it really should have been not at all. Let him. The devs want to destory Thedas and start over? Let solas reset time and recreate the earth and tear is all down and erase most of the history. Do it you cowards. Give me an unrecognizable DA5 where spirits and mages rule and the elvhen thrive and war with each other. Give me slaved humans and a topsy turvy all that changes remains the same reality. Why not if you want to illuminti titan everything anyway.

4. I dont believe in the veilguard, I should have a choice not to. I should have a reason to care about it or my companions or fewl some sort of reason we must all work together aside from "theyre adorable". All the other games you had companion parties in organic and believable ways. Rook is leader cause.... ? What if I dont want to be? At least my Dalish inquisitor fought tooth and nail not to be called a christian messiah. Hawke had FRIENDS. And the warden found those who knew what a blight meant. And many of all of us disagreed. Vivianne got not sympathy from me. Why should Neve? Fenris will leave your party if you waste your time when the Magister comes to town. I dont want to coddle Harding about her stupid chantry. I do not to talk to Lucanis happily about the crows. Maybe I dont want to be friendly all the time. Maybe I hate everything Bellara is doing. Or taash.

5. The writing was on the wall in inquistion hoenestly. What with Iron bull letting me decide is he mass murders his found family or not. But jesus these new companions are like 10 yrs old. I don't know you decide. Your a fucking adult. I cant take a single one of them seriously. Even Sera screamed and yelled at me if I challenged her. Solas and I almost broke up mutiple times arguing about tradition and purpose or that damn Mythal well (again and no wonder he would object to doing anything akin to being emslaved by her, only to submit himself in this game. As if the well mattered at all. As if morrigan matters at all.) I just don't feel as though I'm bonding with anyone, I'm babysitting. Im being told what a great person I am that I can teach everyone elementary school behaviorial learning. I dont want to, I dont even want to be "good".

6. Petty stuff:

I hate the art style both in the UI and the models. I hate it. And the expressions are so poor compared even to Da2.

I hate all the armors. Everyone is bulky. Hate it.

Ugly combat.

Cant control or walk around as my companions and try out other classes.

CC cant change eyes or facial structure much so all rooks heads look the same and kinda... everyone looks like a dwarf. Sorry. Imo, imo, every rook I have seen looks like a dwarf.

Dont like the music.

Dragons are ugly.

Morrigans outfit makes it look like she has 4 titties.

I hate this elvhen "steampunk" tech when so much of their magic was shown to be earthen and mystic. Dumb. No explanation as why it would become this way it just is now.

Blood magic erasure cause the devs are scared of us being cool I guess.

I hate the humor. Every joke doesnt land for me. And there are simply too many.

[thebunnednun]

Hey! You write for Sabo? If u do... can you write Sabo x Marine reader? This man needs more attention

Bound by Justice Sabo x Marine! Reader

My love, I'd write just about anything for this man.

Babes, we are adding another husband to the list!!

Ngl, I think he's a real cutie, and in a perfect world, Sabo and Ace are protecting Luffy like the good big brothers they are.

This is a request from my Follower Fridays: Requests from followers are posted. If you have a story request or anything you want to ask go ahead and do so on this day. Just make sure you send them in early so I can get to it in time. If you send something the day of I might be able to make it happen.

Don't be afraid to send me any requests my loves and if you are waiting for the next installment I have my masterlist posted!

Like usual, never be afraid to hang out in the comments. I love your feedback and snort up all the love you show. <33

The moon hung low in the sky, casting an ethereal glow over the deserted streets of the coastal town. Sabo, shrouded in the darkness, moved with the grace of a shadow as he watched the marine outpost from a safe distance. His mission tonight was crucial, yet his thoughts were unexpectedly drawn to her.

She was a force to be reckoned with, a marine with a fiery spirit and a heart of gold. Sabo couldn't help but admire her from afar, her dedication to justice both inspiring and captivating. It was a dangerous game he played, allowing himself to be drawn to someone on the opposite side of the conflict, but he couldn't deny the pull she had on him.

Meanwhile, at the marine outpost, she paced the dimly lit corridors, her mind racing with thoughts of the day's events. Her encounters with the notorious Straw Hat Pirates had left her questioning everything she thought she knew about the world. But amidst the chaos, one thing remained clear to her: her unwavering commitment to protecting innocent lives, even if it meant defying orders.

As she rounded a corner, she caught sight of a familiar figure lurking in the shadows. Instinct kicked in as she reached for her weapon, ready to confront the intruder. But as the moonlight fell upon his face, she recognized him instantly.

"Sabo," she breathed, her voice a mixture of surprise and disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

Sabo stepped forward, his gaze meeting hers with a mixture of determination and something else, something she couldn't quite place. "I could ask you the same thing, Marine," he replied, his voice low and steady. "But I think we both know the answer."

She felt her heart race at his words, a flutter of excitement mingled with fear coursing through her veins. "I won't let you interfere with our operations," she said, trying to sound stern despite the uncertainty in her voice.

Sabo chuckled softly, the sound sending shivers down her spine. "I'm not here to cause trouble, I assure you," he said, taking a step closer to her. "In fact, I could use your help."

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "My help? With what?"

He hesitated for a moment, his gaze searching hers as if trying to gauge her reaction. "There's someone I need to protect," he said finally, his voice barely above a whisper. "Someone who means everything to me."

She studied him for a long moment, sensing the sincerity in his words. Despite everything, she couldn't bring herself to turn him away. "Lead the way," she said quietly, her resolve firm as she followed him into the night.

As they made their way through the deserted streets, Sabo couldn't shake the feeling of unease that gnawed at him. He knew the risks of involving her in his mission, yet he couldn't deny the sense of relief he felt having her by his side.

Suddenly, a commotion up ahead caught their attention, drawing them towards the source of the disturbance. As they rounded a corner, they came face to face with a familiar figure: Luffy, the infamous Straw Hat Pirate.

Sabo's heart clenched at the sight of his brother, battered and bruised yet still defiant in the face of danger. Without hesitation, he rushed to Luffy's side, grateful for the marine's presence as they worked together to fend off their attackers.

Amidst the chaos, Sabo stole glances at the marine, marveling at her strength and determination as she fought alongside them. He couldn't help but admire her, her fiery spirit a stark contrast to the darkness that threatened to consume them all.

As the dust settled and their enemies retreated into the night, Sabo turned to the marine, a newfound sense of gratitude and respect burning within him. "Thank you," he said softly, his voice laced with emotion. "For everything."

She smiled at him, a glimmer of warmth in her eyes as she returned his gaze. "Anytime," she said, her voice soft yet resolute. "After all, we're on the same side, aren't we?"

Sabo's heart swelled with affection at her words, a sense of belonging washing over him like a wave crashing against the shore. In that moment, he knew he had found something worth fighting for, something worth risking it all for.

As they stood together in the moonlit street, a silent understanding passed between them, binding them together in a bond that transcended the boundaries of their respective worlds. And as they walked into the night, side by side, Sabo couldn't help but feel grateful for the unexpected twist of fate that had brought them together.

This is also posted on the a03 account by the same name. I also have a sexy Ace x Straw-Hat! reader posted in the masterlist! Please go check it out!

Please check out my other works and leave likes and comments, they really help. Drop a follow as well if you please. Don't be shy to leave me a little reblog if you want.

Seen you soon my loves!!~ <<33

[blackknight95857669]

Kena: Bridge Of Spirits Review (mild end game spoiler)

Just rolled credits on Kena after 35 hours so it's time to get my thoughts down. Kena is a 3D platformer that sees you take control of the titular Kena, a young spirit guide who has arrived at an abandoned village near The Mountain Shrine she's been searching for. In order to access the Shrine, she uncovers the secrets of the village, helping the spirits who in turn will aid her in her quest.

So for starters, this is a very pretty game, and it only gets prettier as you restore the corrupted lands. I quite like the art style which is very reminiscent of Pixar animation. This is reinforced by the story telling cinematics, which could easily be fleshed out into a full length feature.

Speaking of the story, it's very good. Well acted all around. In a nutshell I'd say it's basically Spiritfarer 3D, just without the extended conversations with the spirits you help, and in this game it's obviously leading to a final confrontation with... something. There's a decent amount to see and do in the game, and honestly none of it felt like "make work". There were solid rewards for going the extra mile and exploring everything.

The controls are good, nice and tight. No floaty jumping, or slide-ish running. The control scheme is set up well, also. I only had a few moments of "whoops that's not what I meant to do" mis-inputs. There are a bunch of accessibility options as well, which is still always nice to see, even as it gets more prevalent in the industry. Hey, I'm old, I remember when inverting Y-Axis was a pipe dream for most games.

Ok, so now the negatives. Mostly I have some nitpicks with the combat. So I noticed that taking a knockdown hit near structures more often than not would put you into a slow motion fall as you would get hung up on the environment. This led to a couple "cheap deaths", as the enemies would gang up on your defenseless protagonist. Another minor issue I had with a couple enemies in the last 3rd of the game: they didn't do a good enough (for me) job telegraphing what move I needed to use to break their "shield" to then damage and defeat them. I figured it out, obviously, but yeah for a bit there I was confused as to how I was supposed to get by em, lol.

**********Spoiler warning*********

The final confrontation was a disappointment to me. I haven't been a big fan of "multiple waves of enemies" final bosses for a long time, especially when it doesn't really make sense to the game's story or style. Kena has one of those types of end bosses. I tried a few times on the default difficulty level, but it was just too much stuff for this old man. I had to turn down the difficulty level in order to beat it. I'm glad that was an option for me so I could see the ending, but it still disappoints me a little.

**************End Spoiler***************

Overall, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a really good game, with a great story, acting, controls, etc. I absolutely enjoyed 99% of my time with it, and would heartily recommend it to anyone that's a fan of 3D platformers especially, but all gamers should at least give it a try. Especially if you own a PS5 and have PSN Extra, as it's in the game catalog right now so it's "free" to play.

[rrasado]

hi!! hope ur having a good day today <33 was wondering if I can order some platonic savanaclaw boys (or the first year gang) acting all parental/brotherly towards a yuu/reader who's markedly younger?? i was thinking around 10~12 mayb??

⸢ Found Family ⸥

Other notes ➽ Gosh my heart TwT, though since you didn’t specify whether you wanted this in fic format or headcanons I went with a mix of both! But please specify next time what format you’d like thank you!/NM. Raise a glass to us touch starved peeps 🍷

Featured Characters ➽ Ace, Deuce, Jack, Epel & Sebek 

Trigger Warnings ➽ Implied injury and negligence.

Summary ➽ When you receive familial love from NRC’s twisted students.

Ace as a younger brother himself found your presence to be an opportunity to experiment. More specifically— he wanted to know what it felt to tease and bond with a younger sibling the same way his own brother did. He did seem to enjoy messing with Ace so maybe he'll learn from you?

Remember your first meeting with him at the statues? He may have laughed at your betrayed expression after calling you a dummy; but he did attempt in making it up to you using a few comedic tricks he picked up.

Coin behind the ear trick? Pick a card? Just a few magic trick phrases and your attention is on Ace-nii whether it's out of curiosity or annoyance. But he did have to admit learning these sleight of hand tricks from his old man paid off.

The Heartslabyul red head could tell from a mile away how you seemed adamant on getting something from him. In hopes of messing with you for a bit the first year hooked an arm around your neck before giving a hard noogie to your shorter figure.

"Hey my hair!-" "You'll fix it again squirt, now— what's got you marching in here like a queen's guard.?"

If your annoyed expression was subtle before it grew evident after he bursted into fits of cakles, the offense on your honor didn't go unconsidered but your request was nothing but amusing to him. At this point you were close to deeming this confrontation fruitless but before you could sigh and turn the other way, Ace threw you a pack of playing cards.

"Look, you said you wanted to learn some stuff from yours truly, right~? Well let's find us a better place then 😌."

A grin crept on your face sending a sense of satisfaction to the first year. Maybe being a big bro wasn't so bad after all? With an amused chuckle he pulled you towards the direction of the garden.

"Your hands are a bit small for most sleight of hand skills— but I've got a few spare tricks bearable for a kid like ya!" "Oi I'm still growing !"

Deuce wasn't sure at first, the protective nature he bared whenever you came into concern was simultaneously foreign yet familiar. If he had to compare its something akin to his former delinquent brotherhood bond but in your case— it was more precious for lack of a better term.

It's funny seeing you two believe in the same urban myths, sometimes it becomes a game among the first year gang who'd discover the truth first, your or Deuce? (Epel has a winning streak-)

He's the type to protect any teenage dream you have going on, you want to be a celebrity? He'll be your number one fan, you want to be a great inventor? He's willing to bestow whatever he knew to a future field expert like you! Deuce-nii may not be the best at helping academically but life lessons are something he's never short of.

It was a conflict he couldn't prevent, no matter how bad he felt for you fighting for his honor. Maybe his fighting spirit started rubbing off of you the more you stick by his side; that's bad... should he start lessening his time with you? He doesn't wanna be a bad influence after all-

"Deuce?" "Ah- sorry, does it still hurt?"

You two were at Ramshackle's foyer patching up eachother after he intervened a festering fight between you and some scarabia brats. He didn't even know whether to feel touched or worried when you revealed why you threw the first punch despite knowing how wrong it is to resort to violence. Maybe he really was a bad influence-

"My honor is mine to defend- g-got that? Look it's admirable that you well... stood up for a brother but I want ya to leave the hits to me." You're too young to delve into that side of life, he thinks.

The frown anchoring your lips sent a twinge of guilt to the spade marked first year, great was he being too hard now? How does Trey-senpai make it look so easy lecturing juniors- Lost in what to do he simply let his body slouch, leaning into your frame before allowing one arm to wrap around you in some tired side hug manner.

"We have eachother's backs right? Hah 😅, when I was your age I might've done worse things than just sending an uppercut at some entitled bastards. We both have a long way to go huh..."

The slow nod was enough to earn a bruised close eyed smile from Deuce. "Let's just wait it out, I don't think I can physically take Dorm leader's lecture tonight... But— that doesn't mean we're not owing up to our mistakes ok!?"

Jack was practically experienced, to the point it came naturally for him to subconsciously send a glare or two at those who gave the youngest student the stink eye.

He told himself repeatedly that he'll just aid you from afar but after the events of the second arc well- he wasn't sure whether leaving you to the adeuce duo was wise. Hence your roster of big brothers grew by one when he let you ride on his wolf form (after much convincing of course).

The more rational part of him honestly felt concerned over your psyche, to be taken from your home no matter how good or bad must've done a number on your thoughts, right? He never brings it up for the sake of your current stability but he does try to sniff out signs if he can.

The beastman's expression was stuck between confused and indifferent. How did he end up walking to class with you on his shoulders?

"You're so tall and you're only 16? Is it because you're a beastman? Or- a guy? What do you eat? Can you eat vegetables?"

One question after the other; and the fact that you were resting your chin on his head meant that all your questions were directly broadcasted to his hearing. It wasn't like he disliked your curiosity, sometimes he encouraged it! After all truth can be reaped from a curious mind's persistence. It was his assurance that it'd take more than a few jabs to break your moral spirit. If Jack was brutally honest you were a bunny in the jungle.

"A mix of both, maybe if you listen to proffesor Crewel's lectures you'll get a better gist."

He was half joking but a vibration wavered his head's senses when you sighed in defeat. An annoyed groan followed not long after before your talkative streak was boiled down into a hopeless inquirer.

"He's scary and that thing he carries looks like a pet weapon... aren't you scared of him, Jack?" You're a kid of course you'd come to that sort of conclusion, shaking his head Jack rolled his eyes before uttering a reply.

"You said it yourself right? I'm big for my age so what's a beast gonna do." Childish logic it may, he saw it effective when your state became that of satisfaction. Your hum of agreement letting the wolf rest his worries.

Epel didn't get why you stayed there, did you even have a choice? He felt like RSA could've accommodated you better seeing as how friendly their students are. But the more you hung out with the first year gang the more backbone you began to express in your aura.

As a ruffian kid himself he got along with you pretty good! Except maybe the first time you met but it wasn't like you could critique his singing when you're barely above the nursery rhyme category-

Something you two tend to bond over are road trips! The conversations surrounding the topic can go on and on until Vil has to interrupt lest it reaches nightfall, it wasn't wise to keep you both up after all.

A bottle of apple juice sat on the balcony of the dorm whilst your shorter self sipped happily on your own beverage. The lilac haired male was on another rant regarding the sights of Harveston rendering his drink abandoned whilst his hands moved in all sorts of mannerisms; just so that he can emphasize the value he holds on his home town. A place he's sure you'd like to visit seeing as how bright your gaze was watching his explanation.

"If we went there after exams we'd make it in time for harvest season! There's lots and lots of apples there with different sizes and colors!"

"Would their juice also taste different ?"

"Yeah 😄! Not only that- the folks are gonna like ya, that much I can bet!"

He shared Jack's concerns over your wellbeing, this whole time the only adult you've come into respects is the staff but with your predicament, maybe a more domestic scene of people would help you better. His folks may be on the more traditional end of the spectrum but hey- who doesn't like old folk!

"They won't force me to work would they 😰?" Epel bets ten maddol that you got the idea from Ace but his sigh was left unnoticed, the first year shook his head in a dramatic manner hoping to at least get you in better spirits for this tentative plan.

"So what? I ain't letting that happen- and even if it well- did, I'd be with ya picking apples from dawn till dusk! We can make it a game where the winner gets all the pick >:D"

Your competitiveness flared even if you tried hiding it by suddenly drinking your juice faster. Epel clenched his fist in silent victory, perhaps you staying in NRC was alright.

Sebek was the most unexpected member of your found family, it was hard calling him a brother. Wayward uncle somehow fits him more but no one would dare bring up the idea in both his or your presence.

After Jack, he's actually the most diligent in helping your academics. At first it was simply him wanting to show the young master that he's competent enough to aid the cherished child of man; Lilia however doesn't miss the genuine proud smile he wears whenever you perfect a practice sheet.

The old fae concluded that sebek was projecting in a way, a young soul in pursuit for learning but unlike him who was faced with double standards due to his human blood, you had people looking after your progress. Waiting to cheer your success.

The diasomnia student felt appalled by the others, their cheeky grins when he told them he'd be tutoring you on selected days felt belittling as if they won some unspoken battle. How preposterous! He thought.

"For a still developing human you catch on quick, as expected of the young master though! Only the finest catch his gaze." Everyone around him knew how eager Sebek was to be the subject of Malleus' astonishment, but that desire for recognition was currently a fleeting afterthought. The determination in your eyes was enough to urge the green haired male to move on to the next topic.

"You sly human— think you can trick me into overworking you? If I didn't know any better it'd seem you're trying to sabotage my relationship with the young master by framing me!" Despite his exaggerated accusations, his actions were more endearing, as endearing as Sebek can be of course. He passed you some chocolate milk and fish crackers, a childish iteration of his own favorite meal consisting of Salmon Carpaccio. It's too early for supper but you need energy if you want to keep with his subconsciously placed expectation. Even with his eccentric assistance you can't help but to appreciate his diligence.

"Heh think what you want Seb 0w0. Though you can always say if you're tired of me—" "Cease the foolish thought! And let you disappoint the young master? I'll have you know I've gone too far to just give up."

As blunt as his answer was there was an irk in his psyche, the way you worded it could've been interpreted as having a history of being given up on...

"No matter what measly tricks you pull, know that I'm not backing down, human! Prepare yourself because I'll make sure even the young master would praise you!" And by then, maybe Sebek can be proud of himself to.

Tag list :: @luvielle @sherbet-shark @citirusu

[sunny6677]

Buzzfeed Unsolved(this was inspired by a story I saw on wattpad)

Shane & Ryan x Reader(platonic) part 1

Summary: After an episode of the now canceled Buzzfeed Unsolved went wrong, Y/N decides to confront their trauma head on after months of grieving.

//////////////////////////

After.. they died, it took weeks for me to even get back up on my feet again. I only stayed in bed, curled up in a ball and crying my eyes out. Snapping at anyone who dared to try dragging me out of the cushions of my now comfort place.

I finally started going out again, but i wasn't the same. I was an empty shell of the once witty Y/N L/N. My body was heavy with the urge to give up anytime i moved. I couldn't help it, it was so.. traumatizing to see them go like that.

Shane.. Ryan.. i whimper every night thinking about them. Weakly, I keep calling out their names even if i know they aren't here. They.. they are dead.

It was so hard for me to accept something like that. My friends forced me to hang out so they could at least get my spirits up again. Heheh.. spirits, it sounds like a pun Shane would make.. no, its.. I shouldn't be reminded of him.

One night, in my apartment, I heard a knocking at my door. I looked through the keyhole, it was our former cameraman. I opened the door, slunched over. "Hey.." I greeted weakky, my voice was rasp from not speaking in a while.

"Hey, um.. dude, you need to move on." He said, stepping foward. He seemed to be tense. "What?.." My eyes were filled with a sense of surprise. "You have to move on. But I figured the only way to do that is to face what happened head on." He suggested.

"I.. but-" "Y/N, I know it hurts. It hurt me too. But you have to move on, i don't think they would have wanted this." He cut me off, i felt a sense of irritation in me. "Why can't I just grieve?.." I asked, my body tense. "Y/N, please.." He grabbed my hand. I felt salty tears form in my eyes.

"Alright.. lets go.." I said.

♡////////////////////////♡

I stepped out of the car, and onto the stony paths of our last haunted location. I felt my body shiver at the cold wind, and.. this. I gulped, and walked in. I tried to be brave, but no person would be brave if they were a grieving slunched over.. whatever.

Walking up to the well i witnessed their deaths at, i looked down into its murky black abyss. The cameraman stood behind me. If wishing wells worked for real.. then I'd wish to see them again. K felt tears drop into it. I rubbed my tired eyes with my hands. No, I can't cry! Not right now..

Suddenly, I heard hard breathing. Like someone ran and finally stopped. "Its.. holy fuck, its them!" I heard a scrawny voice say from my right side. I flipped over, no one there.

I felt a cold feeling on the back of my shoulder. "Its really them?! Holy shit, man!" I heard another voice say from behind me. I flipped over again, nobody there once more. I sighed, and pulled out the spirit box. Heh.. i knew Shane would hate this if they both really were here, so I'm gonna do this first.

I turned it on, the static sounded into the cold air. I heard a bothered grunt from the box. "Hello? I.. i am looking for my friends who died here. My.. my name is Y/N, I guess." I said awkwardly, rubbing my eyes because of the water forming in them from the cold.

"Its us!" A voice said, wait... it sounded like.. Ryan?! "Y/N, we're here! It's us!" Then.. a voice that sounded like Shane?!

"Shane?!.." My voice weakly talked, as I began to finally cry without control. "R-Ryan?!.."

(TBC)

[dukereviewsmovies]

Duke's Holiday Reviews: Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome Back To Duke's Holiday Reviews..

Well, There's No Doubt About It, The First Remake Of The Grinch Is A Holiday Classic, Jim Carrey's Hilarious And The Sets Are Imaginative, Yes, Everyone Loves It, Through And Through, But The Critics.... On Something Called The Internet Do Not!

Now, Please Don't Ask Why, No One Quite Knows The Reason, Perhaps It's Because They Have No Lives To Brag About, Perhaps It's Because Their Shoes Are Too Tight, But I Think The Most Likely Reason Of All It's Because Their Brains Are 2 Sizes Too Small...

Ok, Screw Rhyming From Here On Out, What Is Wrong With You People!?!

The Grinch Is One Of The Perfect Remakes As Far As I'm Concerned, But It As Bad As Every Moron On The Internet Believes It To Be?

Let's Find Out As We Watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas...

Our Tale Starts Inside Of A Snowflake Which Leads Us To The Town Of Whoville, Where The Whos...

Who Look The Way Whos Should Look In This Reviewers Opinion...

Are Preparing For Christmas As We Come Across Cindy Lou Who (Played By Taylor Momsen Before She Went Insane And Her Taste In Style Got Thrown Out The Window) And Her Father, Lou Lou Who...

Everyone Of Course, Except The Grinch (Played By Jim Carrey) Who Soon Finds He Has Visitors In The Form Of Drew And Stu Lou Who And Their 2 Girlfriends Who Want The Brothers To Knock On The Grinch's Door...

But When They Do, They're All Scared Off By An Animatronic Controlled By The Grinch's Dog, Max...

Realizing He Could Use A Little Social Interaction, The Grinch Heads Down To Whoville With Max Where He Causes Some Trouble With The Mail But He's Soon Confronted By Cindy Lou, Who He Scares Into A Pile Of Boxes But He Saves Her With A Little Push From Max...

But Not Wanting To Look Like The Good Guy He Wraps Her In Wrapping Paper...

Eventually Finding Cindy Lou, Lou Takes Cindy Home To Her Mother (Played By SNL's Molly Shannon) Who Is Putting Up Christmas Lights As Her Neighbor, Martha May Whovier (Played By Christine Baranski) Puts Up Hers.,,

As Cindy Gets Ready For Bed, She Sings One Of The Only 2 Songs In This Movie...

And All I'll Say Is It's Better Than Anything That Comes Out Of Taylor Momsen's Mouth Nowadays, Seriously, Taylor, You Call That Crud You Sing Music?

This Message Brought To You By The Taylor Momsen Get A Life Foundation

Returning To His Lair, We Get A Couple Of Funny Scenes With The Grinch Before We Cut Back To Cindy Lou Who Is Visits 2 Biddys (One Of Them Played By Frau Farbissina) Martha May, The Mayor (Played By Jeffrey Tambor) And His Right Hand Guy (Played By The Ice Cream Man) Who Tell Cindy The Origin Of The Grinch...

Yeah, Seems That The Biddys Raised The Grinch From When He Was A Baby To When He Was A Child (Played By Timmy From Passions RIP) And He Hated Christmas Even Then...

But When He Fell For Martha May, He Finally Got Into The Christmas Spirit, However, When He Was Bullied By The Mayor, He Shaved His....Beard?...(I Never Considered It A Beard But...) Everyone Laughed At The Grinch To The Point He Went On A Rampage And Ran Off To Crumpit...

The Next Day, The Holiday Whobilation Begins As Everyone Votes For A Holiday Cheermiester, This Leads Cindy To Vote For The Grinch At The Mayor's Behest But With Cindy's Words Touching The Town, The Mayor Says Screw It But When The Grinch Doesn't Show He'll Wear The Crown By Default...

So, Cindy Goes Up To Crumpit To Tell The Grinch That He Won To Which He Has Mixed Reactions To, And By That I Mean He's Glad Alot Of People Lost But He Still Doesn't Want To Go...

But After A Long Funny Scene Of Him Figuring Out What To Do, The Grinch Eventually Shows As He Lands In Martha May Whovier's Boobs First...

To Which Some People May Go...

But I Go...

Despite The Grinch Wanting His Award, He Goes Through All The Contests Before They Get To A Gift Exchange Where The Grinch,..Gets A Razor... As The Mayor Proposes To Martha May...

To Which..,You Can Probably Guess What Happens From There....

The Grinch Goes On A Rampage In Whoville Before Heading Back To Crumpit And The Town Blames Cindy Lou Despite Her Just Wanting Everyone To Spend Christmas Together...

With Tomorrow Being Christmas, The Grinch Decides To Stop Christmas From Coming By Disguising Himself As Santa Claus And Max As His Reindeer, Leading To Our Last Song...

And...While Carrey Is No Thurl Ravenscroft He Does It Well, But Hey, Anything Is Better Than That Dumb Grinch Rap In The Illumination Animated Grinch Movie...

Seriously, Illumination, What The Hell!?!

Going Down To Whoville, He Starts Swiping Gifts Starting At The Lou Who's Where He Swipes Everything But When He Goes To Swipe The Tree, He's Caught By Cindy Lou, Who He Tells A Fake Story Before Getting Her Water And Sending Her Back To Bed...

With Everything Swiped At The Lou Who's He Moves Onto The Other Whos Houses Including The Mayor Who He Gives A Interesting Gift Which Makes The Me Too Movement And Myself Laugh, Despite Other People Asking "Really, You Had To Go There?"

With Everything Swiped He Takes Everything To The Tip Top Of Mount Crumpit To Dump It, But Before He Does He Goes To Listen As The Town Cries Boo Hoo...

To Which They Do At First, With The Mayor Blaming Cindy Lou For Ruining Christmas But Lou Stands Up For His Daughter Saying He's Glad The Grinch Stole Christmas As It's Not About The Gifts, Contests Or Fancy Lights But About Family...

Hearing The Whos Sing, The Grinch Puzzles Until He Realizes Christmas Doesn't Come From A Store, But Means A Little Bit More To Which His Heart Grows 3 Sizes...

And I Do Got To Admit This Scene Is Hysterical...

But With The Sleigh Starting To Move, The Grinch Goes To Get It But Is Unable To, But Seeing Cindy Lou On Top Of The Sleigh As She Didn't Want Him To Be Alone On Christmas...

The Grinch Manages To Lift Up The Sleigh So Him And Cindy Lou Can Take It Down To Whoville Despite Losing Their Brake, But With The Help Of Martha May, Lou And Cindy's Mom, They Manage To Stop It...

With The Grinch Apologizing, He's Let Off Easy Before Martha May Refuses The Mayor's Marriage Proposal From Earlier As She Loves The Grinch...

So, As The Town And The Grinch Sing, They Head To Crumpit Afterwards For Their Feast As The Grinch Carves The Roast Beast...

And That's How The Grinch Stole Christmas And I Ask Again, How Is This Movie Horrible?

Carrey Is Hilarious As The Grinch, The Makeup On The Whos Are What Whos Look Like In My Opinion, The Sets Are Fantastic With Some Still Up At Universal...

Why People Complain About Weird Angles And The Film Being Smokey Is Completely Ridiculous, And The Reason The Whos Are Corrupt And Materialistic Is A Mirror Reflection Of Us At This Time Of Year, So It Makes Sense To Make The Whos That Way...

So, Yeah, Despite Internet Critics Hating It So Much, I Love The Film And I Honestly Say Don't Listen To Those Morons And See It...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

[selineram3421]

Fan Favorite

Oneshot?

Saiki X Background Character Reader

~

Life was the same old kind of cycle.

Wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed, go to school, learn in class, have lunch, more class time, get out of school, go to the convince store to get a snack sometimes, get home, help with chores, do homework, get ready for bed, sleep.

Then you repeat it again the next day.

Yeah, sure. You do other stuff but that list was getting long and I didn't want to type every detail.

Anyways.

Life was pretty easy going and your parents didn't nag at you much because they were always busy with work or just not paying attention.

It was kinda crappy when you were little, but now you're ok with it. You were ok with being in the background. No one bugs you much and you don't have to deal with annoying people! Which is great.

But then something weird happened.

You bumped into the "main character" one day.

"Oh, sorry!", you say, turning to look at the person you bumped into.

He looked a bit surprised, also taking a look at you.

Did he not get told sorry when bumped into?

You had thought, then waved as you walked away. It was kinda getting weird because he didn't talk. But maybe he didn't want to and you can understand that. There's days when you don't want any human interaction.

A few days after, you bumped into him again. Not literally, thank God. This time some guy with purple hair and beads was with him.

"You!", the purple haired guy pointed at you. "Have you been experiencing strange things?", he asked.

"What?", you said confused.

"Just like I asked! Have you been seeing anything strange? Shadows, white orbs, spirits?", he says, leaning closer with every thing he listed off.

Thankfully the pink haired teen pulled the guy back and shook his head.

You got a better look at him this time. Pink hair, weird hair clips, and green glasses to match.

He looks like a strawberry... You think, and start thinking of strawberry baked goods. Man. Now I want something sweet.

It kept happening.

Again and again..

And AGAIN.

It was weird as hell. You met a really dumb but nice guy, a person who thought he had super powers and was being hunted down. Then you met the most popular girl, and someone who was really insecure but was very nice non the less, then some girl with glasses who could clear a whole buffet table.

Today you met someone who was like one of those anime characters that trains all the time.

"I'll do squats all the way to the nurses office!", he said, doing just that with blood dripping from his head.

Yeah, weird.

.

Things calmed down for one day.

Maybe it was just the author trying to give you a false sense of security but it didn't feel right. You had so many questions.

When you got to school, the answer grabbed your hand.

Literally.

"I'm dating this person.", the guy you kept bumping into said to the popular girl.

What. You thought frozen in place, not fully processing.

Snapping back into reality, you found yourself sitting at your desk, taking notes.

Did I just disassociate? You furrowed your brows in thought. Eh, whatever. You shrug and keep jotting down notes.

The next day you were confronted by the popular girl.

"I hope you and Saiki are happy together!", she smiles, glittering light and doves appearing from behind her form.

How in the frilly fuck? You think, squinting because of the blinding light.

"Thanks?", you say, not really sure what she's talking about and put a hand up to block out the light.

She just nods and walks away. Then you see a group of guys following her like puppies.

Then school is over, so you are at the shoe lockers to get your shoes and put them on. When you turn to leave, you see the pink haired guy.

Both of you just stare at each other for a bit.

"Uh..hey?", you wave.

He's quiet...

You go to scoot out of the way, thinking his shoe locker is just above/under yours.

He shakes his head though, and puts a hand on your shoulder.

"I wanted to apologize for putting you in a weird spot yesterday."

Weird spot? You think and remember what happened with him and the popular girl. That actually happened!?

You panic a little bit on the inside.

"Oh um.. Its fine?", you say, a little bit as a question.

I know I disassociate but I didn't think it was that bad. You then remember what happened earlier today. Is that why she said she hopes we're happy?

"Sorry anyways. I won't do that again.", he..says?

Huh. His lips aren't moving. You think and shake your head. Man, my brain is not functioning properly today.

You get home and take a nap immediately.

Then the next day, you wake up to your parents actually acknowledging your existence.

"Hello honey! I made you some breakfast!", your Dad says and puts a plate down for you. "Its your favorite, eat up!"

You sit down at the table and look down at the food as if something was clearly wrong with it. Like you were in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

"Hey darling.", your other father says walking into the dining room, giving a kiss on his husband's cheek. "I'm going to be late today, leave dinner in the fridge for me?"

"Will do my love.", your Dad smiles.

"What the fuck?"

Your Dad gasps and says your name with a stern tone.

Oops? I said that out loud? You apologize, then start eating your food. But still, what the fuck?

You try to remember your original parents. They weren't these two lovey-dovey men but instead they were-

"Ow!", you rub your forehead.

"What's wrong hun?", your Father asks, coat in hand and ready to head to work.

"Nothing, I think I hit my head when I was asleep.", you say, forgetting what you were thinking about earlier.

"Ok, if you say so.", your Father says and opens the hallway door. "Help your Dad with chores when you get home, please?"

"I always do.", you smile and wave bye to your dad.

You finish breakfast and get ready for the day, putting on your favorite sweater.

Favorite sweater? You look down at the extra layer you just put on. That's weird. I never had a sweater in this color.. You shrug and get your school bag.

Your Dad gives you your lunch and wishes you a good day.

This whole morning felt off. Neighbors were waving and saying good morning, dogs were extra friendly and then you were asked by an old lady for help to cross the street.

What is going on?

You felt like everything was turning upside down.

The memories you had were turning into new ones. Apparently you have an aunt and she has a cat. You are friends with the neighbor's dog, you like to eat strawberries, and you used to be friends with the popular girl?

Wait whoa author, that's a bit of a jump there.

Shush, anyway.

Things were getting weirder as the day went on. With everything changing, you didn't notice the pink haired teen come up to you until he placed a hand on your shoulder.

"Are you ok?", he asks.

Both of you were standing in a hallway with windows that showed the courtyard.

"I-I don't know.", you say, looking around. "I don't know what's going on anymore."

He sighs and looks to the fourth wall before looking back at you.

"You've become the fan favorite."

Somehow that helped everything click into place.

~

A Saiki work because this was perfect for it. Maybe I'll make more?

~Seline, the person.

You are a unimportant background character just trying to survive whatever nonsense the main characters are up to. However you keep finding yourself being drawn into dangerous stituations, and to your horror you realise that you’re a fan favorite character the show is giving more “screen time”.

[rebelsofshield]

I'm in the animated fandom, and I thought TLJ was a pile of garbage. While I loved the creatures, and they are definitely Filoni-esque, I was not satisfied with many of the story decisions in the movie, along with many of the 'jokes' in it. Everyone's going to tell me that "Luke wasn't the same guy he was when he was young" but I can't imagine Luke entertaining the idea of killing his nephew. I didn't like the "Reylo" stuff, or the fact Kylo chooses to become a one dimensional evil tyrant. (tbc)

I’m going to consolidate both into a single post so I can respond to them all at once:

I hated that Hux was reduced to comic relief even though he was a threatening, cunning villain in TFA and in the books. I was so excited about Finn’s arc, and Rose, but that ended up feeling pointless and with no payoff. Rose really came off as boring, they should’ve tied her into the story more than her just being Finn’s sidekick. Oh, and Snoke was pointless. I don’t care if he gets a book or whatever in the future, it still felt like a waste in the film. Also the movie draaaagged. Just a mess.            

First off, I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy the movie. I don’t think it was perfect, but I think The Last Jedi is a genuinely good film that does a lot really well. I’m going to respond to your individual critiques, but I want to stress that I don’t want you to feel that I am attempting to criticize you or change your mind about the movie. If you didn’t enjoy it, that’s totally fine. I can’t change that about you and you’re unlikely to change my opinion of it. Regardless, here are my thoughts.I’ll address the small stuff first.I never really cared for Snoke. Snoke was always a character that was more interesting in terms of what he was rather than who he was. He’s a big scary evil man that tempted Ben Solo into being Kylo Ren, but he doesn’t really serve much else of a narrative function in both The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi outside of this. I think fan’s latched onto him as a concept and started theorizing about him because JJ crafted him as a deliberately vague character. At the end of the day he is an uber powerful Dark Sider that is not very different from the dozens of ones we have seen in the past both in canon (film, comics, television, novels) or the Legends continuity. Kylo Ren as an extension is a newer form of villain and, in my opinion, significantly more interesting. I really enjoyed how The Last Jedi doubled down on Kylo’s varying aspects of instability both in his volatile emotions but also in his unpredictability. He’s a tortured man who is haunted by a legacy more powerful than he is. That’s a more interesting villain to me than another Force Big Bad who seems to demand some complicated origin story. Snoke’s death also doesn’t prevent him from being discussed in future movies. Kylo could just as easily have a line of “An ancient Dark Side prophet from the outer rim discovered me as a child and crafted me into his apprentice,” or something along those lines and it would cover the majority of the needed background.I also never really got the impression that Hux was really anything but a sniveling “Yes, Man.��� His biggest moment in The Force Awakens is when he cries delivering a speech regarding the destruction of a Republic government. I also am pretty caught up on the novels and comics and if I remember correctly, he really isn’t featured much. In general, I enjoy the sort of allegory of the First Order being a well-funded fascist organization that is more or less lead by impetuous man-children (Hux, Kylo Ren)  and opportunists (Phasma) who are more concerned with the legacy of a past dictatorial government than in any actual real world politics. Sounds a little familiar right?

The Finn and Rose stuff I do have to agree with you on. I didn’t dislike Rose as a character, but she really failed to make much of an impression on me after my first viewing. I did like Kelly Marie Tran’s performance though and am open to seeing more of the character.

Finn was a disappointment and I totally get why if he was your favorite character in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi would have been a let down. Personally, I left The Force Awakens with Finn being one of my favorites in the ensemble in that film due to his complicated narrative arc and John Boyega’s incredible energy and charisma. While this remains here, it doesn’t help matters that the narrative Rian Johnson crafts for Finn and Rose just feels like a distraction from the two other narratives occurring which are more emotional involving and more exciting as a narrative. When both characters are playing off the Resistance I think it works rather well, but their sojourn to Canto Bight is by far the film’s low point. That being said, I really dig the fight scene between Finn and Captain Phasma or most of their narrative on the Supremacy.On a surface level, I do understand the frustration with Luke’s portrayal. However, I honestly think it’s my favorite narrative arc for the movie both for who it means for Luke as a character and for the larger meta-narrative of the sequel trilogy. The Last Jedi continues an appropriate reality set up by The Force Awakens where Luke Skywalker is a legend and something approaching a mythological figure: the last of an ancient order of a magical beings that stood at the forefront or a movement that defeated a galaxy-wide totalitarian government. It works because it makes sense in-universe and in our own world because that’s what Luke Skywalker has become for us as viewers. Just as Darth Vader is a paragon of evil, Luke is that light hearted spirit of adventure that ages into adulthood that made the original trilogy so special. He has ceased to become just a person but a larger than life figure, even one that may have something akin to biblical or mythological importance.

However, Luke has always been defined by a push and pull to the Dark Side, even in his redemption for his father there are moments where he hesitates. When he goes to see Ben Solo in his tent it isn’t to kill him but to confront him, but in that moment he is tempted as many Jedi are. He knows that Ben Solo has the ability in him to cause great pain and suffering and to plunge the galaxy into war and further genocide and instability. One of Luke’s defining personality traits has also always been his eagerness and impatience. It’s what Yoda had the biggest difficulty in training him to do. He even has to beg him not to rush off to attack Vader in The Empire Strikes Back before he is better trained because he fears what a conflict such as this would do to him. He is tempted by the Dark Side because of its relative ease and here killing Ben Solo is the quick act that is easiest to solving what he sees as a potential disaster. It’s important here that Luke checks himself though. He feels the pull to the Dark and pulls it back because he realizes that what he is doing is fundamentally wrong. If Luke had gone through with this and tried to actually murder his nephew, than yes, I would be on your side regarding the a potential assassination of Luke’s character, but having that temptation there is important to both him as a character and of the Saga. You can argue that it is maybe a tad too convenient that Ben would wake up to see this and I would be inclined to agree, but hey that’s how stories work.From here I think is where we get into the really meaty stuff with how Johnson and Mark Hamill have characterized Luke here. Luke realizes in this moment that he has failed dramatically. Not only did he let down his nephew, but his sister, his brother-in-law and best friend, and perhaps most damningly this perception that he is some infallible legendary figure. It’s a crushing moment and one that does realistically stick with him for years. What The Last Jedi does that’s really beautiful with Luke’s character is stress just how important these emotional and symbolic heroes can be to those who need them. This is a narrative of Luke coming to understand that he is greater than his failings, but also that the galaxy at large needs heroes like him and that he can still do a great thing for the world and galaxy at larger. So he saves his sister. He saves Rey. He confronts Kylo and he inspires a galaxy. This is what the shot of the little boy at the end of The Last Jedi is meant to symbolize. He’s a young Force sensitive child who carries on through slavery and oppression because of the inspirational symbol of rebellion and of heroes such as Luke. It’s here that The Last Jedi realligns what we know of Luke with what we have come to expect of him. In times like the one’s we are living in now, heroes matter and coming to respond to that and accept that is really beautiful and one of my favorite parts of the film.

[d-noona]

MAKE OVER

Chapter 15: Personal Devil

Jung Hoseok x Reader

Reader as Kang Hyeonji

SUMMARY: When Kang Hyeonji transformed herself into a striking redhead, the entire male population of Seoul stood up and took notice. But her make over was for Jung Hoseok’s benefit alone. He began to show interest in the new look but not in the way she wanted. Suddenly he was over-protective, perhaps a little jealous. It seemed that the idea of having a relationship with her couldn’t be further from his mind. The girl however wants more. So it was time for an ultimatum. If Hoseok didn’t want Hyeonji to lose her virginity to another admirer, he had no option but to make love to her himself.

"Hyeonji...?"

Hyeonji was lying cross ways on the bed with her head cradled in the small of Hoseok's back. Hoseok stretched out on his stomach, face buried in the pillows. Till a moment ago, she'd thought he was asleep. And well he might have been. He had to be utterly exhausted. She herself was bone-weary.

But what an afternoon it has been!

She would never have believed she could come so many times in a few short hours. Or that a man and woman could make love in so many different ways and positions. Hoseok had seemed to delight in witnessing her shock at each successive and seemingly outrageous suggestion, before seducing her to his will with an ease that made mockery of her initial inhibited reaction. How quickly he's routed those inhibitions, showing her pleasures she could have only dreamed of, once she'd put aside or at least learnt to ignore that squirming embarrassment which came whenever he looked upon her body in some new and increasingly intimate fashion.

He'd become her own personal devil all right, tempting her in ways she might have read and dreamed about, but which she would never have believed she would dare to do. Her stomach fluttered at what he might be going to suggest now, just when she'd thought everything had to come to a satisfying conclusion. Was there anything else? She doubted it.

"Yes?" she murmured warily, her own eyes staying shut.

"Lift your head for a second will you?"

She did, and he rolled over onto his back. "Right. You can put your head back down again."

Her head now nestled into his stomach, Hyeonji's own stomach contracted. The nearness of his slumbering cock brought back hot memories of the last time she'd encountered his flagging desire, less than thirty minutes before. Hoseok had carried her into the shower after one of their torrid mating's and, after washing her all over, had given her the shower gel and the sponge and set her to returning the favor. She'd been shy at first, as she always was when confronted by one of Hoseok's new suggestions. Her hands had initially been hesitant on him, but not for long.

How exciting it had been to bring him to life again in such a stunningly intimate way. There'd been a dizzying sense of power at the sight of him growing harder and larger by the second, his moans letting her now how much he was enjoying her ministrations. The decision to sink to her knees and do to him what he's already done to her more than once had come without conscious thought.It had seemed perfectly natural, yet at the same time the most wildly exciting thing she'd ever done.

Hoseok, however had not been as comfortable with her bold lovemaking. His thighs had alternately trembled and tensed as he'd struggled to control himself.

"stop," he'd rasped at last, stiffening and bracing himself back against the cool, wet tiles. "You must stop."

But she had not stopped. If he'd been her own personal devil before, she was his at that moment, her lips tempting him with the dark excitement of total surrender to her will this time. And while the hot water beat down on them both and the bathroom filled with steam Hoseok had finally lost his battle of the flesh, and she'd her wicked way with him.

"Hyeonji?" he said again, snapping her out of her erotic reverie.

She shivered then glanced up at him. "What?"

He was staring down at her with heavy-lidded eyes.

"Why is it, do you think, that everyone seems to believe you're in love with me?"

Hyeonji froze, then forced a light laugh. "I didn't know everyone did. Surely you're not talking about Tinashe? She was so green-eyed she couldn't see straight!"

"I realize that, but Jungkook seemed to think so too. Then this morning even Mom hinted the same."

Hyeonji gulped. "Really?"

"Yes, she said how much you cared for me and if I hurt one hair on your head I'd have her to answer to."

Hyeonji was touched, but also flustered. Was this the moment to confess, to tell Hoseok the truth? How would he react, she wondered, to finding out he was the enigmatic Mr X? Even if he was initially flattered. he might also be annoyed. He might think she'd made some kind of a fool of him by playing with his own identity. Hoseok would not like thinking that she'd been mocking him, or amusing herself at his expense. Which she had been, in a way. Though never maliciously. Then there was his possible reaction to finding out she'd been in love with him all these years like a love sick puppy dog. Even Tinashe had realized that if she declared a life long love and undying devotion Hoseok would have run a mile.

His mother's advise had been similar.

Hoseok was captivated by spirited women who went after what they wanted, not little mice who languished for years from an unrequited passion.

No, she could not tell him the truth. She could not risk losing Hoseok's respect, and possibly losing Hoseok in the process. She might have only won his lust so far, but it was a start.

"Well, of course I do care for you, Hobi," she confessed rather nonchalantly. "I always have."

"Yes, but it's this Mr X you're in love with," he muttered, none too happily. His disgruntlement gave Hyeonji hope. He lifted his head to glare down at her. "You are still in love with him, aren't you?"

She didn't know what to say. She really had to get rid of that infernal Mr X once and for all. He'd become a nuisance and an embarrassment, but how?

"Well?" Hoseok glowered at her.

Incredibly, she blushed.

Hoseok took that for admission, and scowled. "What in God's name has he got that I haven't got?"

Now Hyeonji ratlled "Err...nothing. I guess."

"Then there's no reason why you can't fall out of love with him and in love with me, is there?"

Hyeonji's mouth dropped open. "What..what are you saying?"

"What a I saying?" he bent down and scooped her up on top of him. "I'm saying I'm mad about you, Hyeonji. And I won't rest until you're just as mad about ,e." He rolled her under him and kissed her with a breathtaking hunger, hands cupping her face and keeping it solidly captive beneath his. "But that's not enough. I want to drive all thoughts of Mr X from your mind. I want you to love me as you've loved no other man."

"But I already have, Hobi. Loved you as I've loved no other man."

His head jerked back. "What?"

"Do you think I've done any of the things I've done with you today with any other man?"

He frowned. "But I thought...I mean... Look, lots of girls out there are technically virgins these days, but that doesn't mean they haven't done plenty. I thought...in the shower...I mean...My God, baby," he said, awe in his voice, "You're damned good at that for a beginner."

"Perhaps I just have a damned good tutor," she murmured, smiling. "And perhaps you were right about Mr X. What I felt for him was probably only infatuation, a fantasy. To be honest, I haven't given him a thought all the time I've been with you."

"So you're not in love with him anymore?"

"I can't see how I can be."

His triumph ant smile sent shivers down her spine.

"In that case that's going to be my next project - making you fall in love with me."

Hyeonji tried not to stare too hard, or cry. But it was too good to be true. She swallowed and tried not to let her feelings overwhelm her. Common sense dictated she be careful and not let her hopes get too high. Hoseok might me mad about her at the moment but that didn't mean he genuinely loved her. It might all be one of his passing passions, a temporary obsession. He's probably been mad about Tinashe at one point, plus all those other girls.

"And how do you aim to do that?" she asked him with a saucy smile.

He pursed his lips and made a thoughtful sound. "I'm not quite sure yet. You're so much more of a mystery than I ever imagined. A highly complex girl, not the simple creature I thought I knew so well. And you're far naughtier than I'd imagined too," he added, his eyes gleaming.

"Really?" she laughed. "Well, you're exactly as I always imagined."

"Is that good or bad?"

"Oh, definitely good. AND bad. You are as selfish as you said you were, but not in bed, thankfully."

'I'm not going to be selfish anymore," he vowed. "I'm going to change."

She smiled. "And the sun's going to rise in the west."

"You just wait and see. Besides, who are you to talk? Moved-on-made-over Hyeonji isn't exactly Miss Sweetness and Light. You could have knocked me over with a feather the way you stood up to Tinashe out there."

"Where as the Hyeonji I used to be would have stood there and not made a sound, not even a little squeak." she smirked.

Hoseok laughed. "Hey! Don't run her down. I really liked that girl. She was very sweet."

Hyeonji's eyebrows lifted. Yes, but you didn't fall in love with her, came her rueful thought. "She was a bore!"

"She was VERY nice," he defended hotly.

"She's dead and gone. Banished!"

"No. She's not," he said, his voice dropping to a soft and sentimental timbre. "She's still there, hiding underneath your new hair and your newly found assertiveness. I think that's why my feelings for you are different to what they were with any of those other girls. Different, and deeper. Because YOU'RE different. I've always liked you Hyeonji. You're not a vain little puss, and you're honest as the day is long. You'd never lie to me. You're the sort of girl a man is proud to take home to his mother. The sort a man wants to ma-"

She pushed her fingers against his mouth, panic flowering all through her. "Hush! Don't say that Hobi. Don't!"

He groaned, then picked up her fingers and kissed the trembling fingertips. "I'm rushing you, I know. I can be like that once I set my sights on something. I can see it's the wrong timing for me to do. Only yesterday you were a virgin, and in love with another man. I can understand you might be a little confused. But I can also be patient too," he vowed passionately. "And very single-minded. You're going to be mine Hyeonji. Fight me. I enjoy a good fight. But come the year you will become my fiance, with my ring on your finger and true love for me in your heart."

She stared at him with wide blinking eyes. She almost told him then, but didn't for she knew she had to make sure of him, had to let him fight his good fight for her, and for her love. It was fitting, after all the years of heartache and longing she'd been through, that should not win her easily. Men did not value what they gained easily. And Hoseok was going to value her. She deserved it.

"The new year?" she said, her mind racing. That was ten months away, ten months of him chasing her, courting her, pursuing her and seducing her. It was an irresistibly exciting thought. "Well I suppose by then I should know if it's true love I feel for you and not just infatuation. After my fiasco with Mr X, I would want to be sure."

"You'll be sure, my love. Don't worry. I will make sure of that" as he smirked.

Chapter 16 Final

Masterlist

[coramatus]

Ohhhh I see those tags. Firefly AU? Bro I'm all ears.

Oh boy~! I hope you like Mob angst, because man did I create a lot of Mob angst! >8D

Mob Psycho 100/Firefly Crossover AU

(This is just a brainstorming thing, not meant to be taken as a finished piece. Even if it is 3.6K words...)

Everyone is five years older than in canon. So Mob’s 19, Ritsu is 18, and Reigen is 33.

Arataka Reigen is the captain of the transport spaceship S&S, or the Spirits and Such. He prefers keeping a low profile after a shady past that he’s since tried to clean up. Has an entire crew under his command, none of whom take him that seriously. He still dads them relentlessly. Teruki is first mate, came on board after Reigen helped him out of a tight spot, is surprisingly good at ordering people to do stuff, isn’t a dick about his powers after the new pilot kicked his ass. Shou is pilot, Serizawa is the medic/cook; both are powerful espers that came on board after Shou convinced Seri to run away with him and hijacked the ship to escape, Reigen subsequently hiring them after finding out Shou was a damn good pilot and that Seri needed like so much therapy. Tome is on communications, who took the job on the condition that she be allowed to attempt making contact with aliens (Reigen doesn’t ask). Mezato is a traveling journalist that pays Reigen to let her stay on board and hunt for news stories, but he suspects she’s just a nosy busybody. Onigawara is a mercenary Reigen hired after one too many scuffles, but now has even more to deal with thanks to the guy’s temper. Musashi is a mechanic with experience in fixing up farm equipment, but can pretty easily extrapolate it to an entire spaceship (Reigen isn’t sure that’s how that works, but hey the ship hasn’t exploded yet). Dimple’s a questionable preacher they picked up after he got run out of town, claims to be a priest but acts like he’s got a god-complex or something (might be an alien brain slug). They’re kind of a disaster, but with Reigen’s people skills, he’s able to avert the worst of it.

They’re given a relatively easy job when they take a young man on board, named Ritsu Kageyama. Also with him is an unusually large suitcase, which he says contains “his entire life”. He just asks to be taken as far from the planet as possible but doesn’t elaborate. Reigen can tell something’s up, but doesn’t have the heart to bother the guy, who is clearly going through some bad shit.

Not a day or two into their voyage, the crew finds out that the government has put out a bounty on Ritsu for stealing their property. Ritsu denies doing anything wrong and they decide to search his luggage for whatever he stole. He flips out at this and tries to stop them, but it’s too late. The large suitcase opens to reveal it holds a stasis chamber containing a sleeping young man. They’re horrified and free the guy, thinking that Ritsu is some kind of human trafficker until he yells at them that he’s trying to save his brother. The sleeping man wakes up then, but something’s clearly wrong with him in how he holds himself like a terrified animal. He seems to realize he’s somewhere unfamiliar and curls up, screaming and crying. Ritsu comes in, covering his brother with his coat and trying to soothe the crying man, now clinging to him desperately. The crew is polite enough to back off and give the two some space.

Soon after, Ritsu and his brother are given a chance to explain what’s going on. Ritsu’s brother is silent this entire time, curled up clutching at Ritsu’s side, staring off into space with glassy eyes, like he’s not there at all. Ritsu starts by telling them that everything he’s done was to save his older brother, Shigeo. All of this has to do with the fact that he is an esper and a particularly powerful one at that. Despite the powers, the two grew up pretty normally until his brother was invited to study at a special Academy for espers. Shigeo took them up on it and left home. At first things seemed normal, the brothers messaging each other regularly. But after a while, Shigeo’s messages started to taper off. The few he did manage to get out were short and often about his exhaustion and the trials he was being put through. Then for a long stretch, Ritsu didn’t hear anything from him. Until he receives a bizarre message from Shigeo’s email, claiming that his brother is dead. For some reason, it’s signed by a “Mob”. It takes Ritsu a while to do some digging, turning up results that made him more and more fearful for Shigeo’s life. So Ritsu left to rescue him, dropping everything to break into the facility and get Shigeo out. By the time he got there, he found his brother already in the stasis chamber. He only had enough time to grab the entire thing before hiding it in the suitcase and fleeing to the spaceport.

Which leads to now. Ritsu knows he doesn’t stand a chance against the S&S crew if they decide to turn them in and has resigned himself to that fate. To everyone’s surprise, Reigen declares that they’ll do no such thing. In fact, everyone’s under orders that they’re to do everything they can to protect the brothers. They’re both victims and Reigen can’t possibly give the abused back to their abusers. They can stay.

The crew is less than pleased at this and start yelling at Reigen until he makes them settle down. Ritsu is distrustful of course, but a quiet whimper from Shigeo gets him to back down. Reigen orders Seri to take the two to larger quarters, while he discusses things with the others. Teru is pretty against the whole thing, knowing they can’t hide the brothers forever. It’s only a matter of time before one of them slips and all of them land in hot water for harboring fugitives. Reigen points out that Ritsu is a fugitive for rescuing his brother from said law, which referred to Shigeo as their “property”. Reigen may be greedy at times, but he’s not heartless. He also doesn’t want to admit that the sight of poor Shigeo struck a nerve in him.

As the Kageyama brothers get settled, there comes the question of what they plan on doing. Ritsu’s plan was to flee to the outer reaches and maybe start a new life there. But with the bounty on him, he’s not sure that’s a workable plan anymore. So Reigen offers them a place on the ship. Any skill set they have would definitely be put to use. Ritsu hesitantly says he’d been studying medicine before upending his life. “Medic,” Reigen declares, “Which would be great, because oh my god Seri just can’t deal with blood.” With a lot of reservation, Ritsu accepts and the job is sealed. As for Shigeo… Reigen decides that he’s infirm and can’t be expected to work yet, much to Ritsu’s relief and zero response from Shigeo.

Things settle down in their own weird way. There’s shenanigans on various planets, Reigen scraping through bad situations through his sweaty charisma, things get shot at, lots of running, like how most of Firefly went.

As time goes on, the crew observes a lot about the two. Ritsu is normal enough, maybe a bit naive in some regards and a bit too aggressive in others. By contrast, Shigeo doesn’t speak at all, doesn’t make eye contact, and is quiet and submissive. He’s a bit perplexing. He always looks haggard, bags under his eyes, hair set in an overgrown bowl-cut pattern. He generally goes around barefoot, preferring oversized knitted turtlenecks and sweaters to hide himself in. He wanders the halls aimlessly, often reaching out to touch the walls. Sometimes he’ll stare at a spot for hours without moving. Other times, he seems to be listening for something only he can hear, sometimes even humming along to some strange tune. They tend to find him curled up in odd places, sometimes observing the others as they go about their duties, sometimes blankly staring into space. The more… interesting times are when Shigeo gets flashbacks of some kind, triggering his powers spiraling out of control. These episodes leave him screaming in the eye of a hurricane of objects until Ritsu can get to him and calm him down. Because of this, Ritsu spends most of his time at his brother’s side, trying to coax him into talking, eating, or calmness. He often glares at anyone who dares approach them. The few times the two are separate, Reigen finds himself gravitating to Shigeo. He talks to the guy, just sharing stories or offering words of encouragement. Shigeo never responds, but Reigen can sense something in him paying attention and keeps it up. Then Shigeo has an episode without Ritsu, leaving Reigen to dive in and calm him down. Something about it works and he’s able to comfort Shigeo until his brother arrives.

Not long after, Reigen finds a lone Shigeo huddled in his bunk of all places. A baffled Reigen asks what he’s doing there, not thinking he’ll actually get a response. “It smells safe,” Shigeo quietly answers. Reigen realizes it’s because of the incense and candles he kept from his old job and goes on to explain when the fact that Shigeo just spoke to him finally hits him. He has no idea what to make of this, but if his bunk smells safe then, sure, Shigeo can stay if he likes. Before dozing off, Shigeo corrects him. “My name is Mob. Shigeo is dead.”

With that bizarre proclamation, Reigen confronts Ritsu about it. However, Ritsu gets mad that Shigeo actually spoke to Reigen of all people. Reigen doesn’t see what the big deal is, but Ritsu tells him that his brother hadn’t said a thing since he was let out. Reigen is left even more confused, as he thought they had been talking. With some more prodding, Ritsu admits that he has no idea how to really take care of his brother, able to tend to physical needs but not mental or emotional ones. Nor does he know just what the Academy did to make Shigeo this way. He knew his brother was autistic, always having trouble socializing and interacting, but it was never like this. Neither did he claim he was dead nor refer to himself as Mob (which is what Reigen refers to him as from then on). (how do i conclude this section i have no idea 0_0;;;)

To Reigen’s surprise, Mob keeps turning up in Reigen’s quarters no matter how well it’s locked. Mob is often found sleeping or blankly staring at the walls. Reigen doesn’t have the heart to kick him out. Though Mob doesn’t say anything, Reigen gets the sense that the young man keeps coming to Reigen’s room to get away from his brother, whose overbearing side has been coming up more often.

Afterwards, the others begin finding Mob in their personal spaces. He seems to particularly resonate with the other espers: Teru finds something grating about his presence, Shou is more fascinated with him and tends to poke and prod at Mob more, while Seri appreciates his quiet, non-judgmental presence.

However the thing that breaks Mob out of his silence is when Claw rears its ugly head. During one of his more lucid moments, Ritsu manages to coax Mob out to explore the spaceport the ship has docked at. Things seem to be going fine until Mob freaks out at the sight of a weird triangle symbol painted on a door. He runs like his life depends on it, quickly losing Ritsu and getting lost in the crowd. Ritsu freaks out of course and enlists the help of the crew to find his brother. It’s Teru who comes across Mob huddled in an alleyway. Mob is shaking, muttering something about Claw searching and finding him. Teru doesn’t have time for this and hauls Mob up to leave, but are stopped by a hooded figure. The figure tells them to come quietly or else things will get ugly fast. Teru has no intention of listening to some thug, but realizes something might be wrong when Mob desperately begs him not go with the figure. It’s because Teru’s guard is up that he’s able to fend off the figure’s sudden very psychically charged attack. The figure turns out to be Koyama, who intends to bring the two psychics in. A fight breaks out with Teru on the offense and Mob on the defense. The fight eventually gets out of hand enough that Shou and Serizawa come in to help. Their arrival is enough to freak Koyama out into fleeing, recognizing the two as powerful espers. (chase down and capture Koyama? give them time to dump him in a jail and leave Claw wondering what’s going on. otherwise he gives their location to base, meaning they get chased) No one’s entirely sure what’s going on until Reigen drags everyone out into a group meeting, deciding it’s finally time for Shou and Serizawa to spill their backstory (he didn’t ask before to be polite).

Like in canon, Shou is fighting back against his father, still Claw’s leader. Only this time, his father knows about it because Shou ran off with his second-in-command, Serizawa, who reluctantly went with Shou because he thought the kid needed protection. Since joining the S&S crew, they’ve been laying low, waiting for a good chance to start making battle preparations. In that time, Serizawa’s realized the error of his ways and is trying to do right by Reigen and Shou. Both of them go on to explain Claw.

In this universe, Claw is sneakier, running in smaller proxy operations but has roots in places like the government already. Their other major asset is the Psychic Academy that Shigeo attended. In the front, the Academy trains and hones a psychic’s abilities. Most people have super weak powers but do genuinely get a lot out of it. Mitsuura enthusiastically runs that part of the operation but honestly has no idea what the darker side of the Academy is up to. The stronger psychics get a completely different story. These are the ones who are made into pawns for Claw to use in their plot to come into power. Otherwise they’re experimented on in a bid to strengthen their abilities to a dangerous degree.

Teru perks up at this, stating he was invited to the Academy once as well, but opted not to. (why? wanted to stay somewhere familiar? wanted to keep hold on his little gang?) Mob just comments that he was smart not to go.

“They do bad things to you.”

With a little prodding, Mob finds the words to explain himself.

Mob insists that he isn’t Shigeo and that the real Shigeo died. That Mob is just a thing inhabiting Shigeo’s body, nothing more. Why he calls himself Mob is because he’s “just a face in a mob, [he’s] no one, a nothing.” He knows a lot about Shigeo, who he was and what he was like. He knew that he was an esper prodigy and the Academy took advantage of that. But they went too far. They put something in him, something that was never meant to be. It killed Shigeo and Mob was born from his shattered remains. Now it’s just the two of them in there, Mob and the Thing. Mob’s been doing his best to keep his distance from the Thing, but it’s hard to do when he’s barely functional. Mob can’t quite explain the Thing either, describing it as a black hole with its own mind trapped in his head.

This is all a bit much to swallow at once, so Reigen breaks them up for now and promises to come back to think of a plan.

Ritsu hasn’t been taking this well, hurt and confused by what his brother is saying. While his brother is obviously not dead, Ritsu’s not sure he can handle losing the person he was. He insists on calling his brother by his real name. Mob can only sigh.

Though their relationship is strained, Ritsu resolves to do everything he can for his brother. Mob tends to shrink away from this. He insists that he’s not Shigeo, therefore: not Ritsu’s brother. But Ritsu is able to get through to him by reasoning that if Mob was formed out of pieces of Shigeo, it means that Shigeo can’t entirely be gone. But this isn’t about that, Ritsu admits. This is about who Mob is. If Mob formed in Shigeo’s body, then that makes it Mob’s body too. And Mob’s body is blood brothers with Ritsu. As far as Ritsu is concerned, Mob IS his brother, whether he likes it or not. Mob isn’t sure how to feel about this until Ritsu hugs him, telling Mob that he isn’t “a nobody, a nothing”, Mob has family and that means he IS something, someONE. Though he tries not to, Mob breaks down crying.

(Presumably, they go in to take care of the Claw problem, possibly first with 7th Div. cell before thwarting the World Domination arc. Blow open giant government secret like in Firefly/Serenity canon? Would probably have to break into Academy again to figure out what they did to Mob, learns about the Thing in detail here. No idea where other elements would go, like Mogami arc. How would space ghosts work? Maybe Mogami arc could be a haunted spaceship story, replace Reavers with evil spirits. Broccoli arc???? HOW DO EITHER STORY END? HOW WOULD THIS END??)

Stuff that would probably only be hinted at in-story, but can be fully explained here:

Mob is either Shigeo gone insane or a new personality entirely. Both are plausible.

The Thing is ???%. While it’s still a mystery in canon apparently just Mob’s powers set to survival mode (something to do with a Japanese idiom?), here ???% is a tiny scrap of what can only be described as a cosmic entity. It’s a small, inky black, strange free-flowing blob, lit up with intermittent glowing white spots. When its discoverers noticed it reacted strongly to espers, it was taken to the Academy to see what it would do. They thought it could be used to give a massive boost to psychic powers. It was implanted in Shigeo to test it out, but his powers went haywire and leveled the building.  When they found him at the epicenter, Shigeo was a shivering, crying wreck. It would be the only thing he could do for a while.

The implantation of the Thing shattered Shigeo’s mind as it forcibly made room for itself in him. The Thing did not originally have a mind of its own. But when Shigeo broke, it absorbed enough pieces of him that it gained self-awareness, changing it from a blob into a shadowy copy of Shigeo. With pieces of humanity in it, the Thing understood human thoughts and emotions. While the Thing could simply have taken over Shigeo’s body completely, it didn’t out of regret for the consciousness that originally was there. Instead, it nudged the bits of Shigeo that were left into a new entity entirely. Sadly not enough was there to create a functioning person, instead the new consciousness was marred with fear and pain. It would come to name itself Mob.

To the Academy scientists, the procedure damaged Shigeo’s cognitive abilities, leaving him unable to recognize his own name or even understand human speech. Instead, he acted almost like a terrified animal half the time. The worst came in the form of screaming episodes, where he seemed to see something terrifying no one else could (it was the Thing manifesting in its vessel’s mind, curious about the entity it shared a body with; it didn’t know what to make of the screaming and crying, so it kept its distance). Only twice did lucidity briefly return: once to ask for pants; the other was to beg them to stop hurting him. The Academy tried many different unsuccessful treatments on him, steadily getting less and less humane until it became more of an exercise in torture than anything else. Ultimately, the Academy deemed Shigeo too unstable to continue making use of, opting to put him in stasis until they could figure out what happened. However, both minds overhear this and in a rare moment of joint lucidity, they secretly send out a message to their brother for help. Afterward, the doctors have to physically fight Shigeo to get him sedated. Shigeo is put into a small stasis chamber and set aside, where he was supposed to sleep indefinitely. It takes a while, but Ritsu is able to break in and is horrified that his brother is in a freaking box. And things go from there.

Mob hates being alive. He doesn’t want to be here. He’s convinced his existence is a mistake, one that he constantly regrets. Most of this pain comes from simple self-hatred, that he’s alive in a body that doesn’t belong to him and never did, that he unfairly stole Shigeo’s life. It’s made worse when Ritsu expects Mob to act like Shigeo but he never can, feeling like he’s incapable of being a real person. There’s a lot of crying on his part, driven by intense despair. It takes time, but Mob slowly stabilizes as he comes to terms with his existence, characterized by increasing moments of speech and lucidity.