#the thing about kings dying is they are immediately replaced

[madtomedgar]

How come whenever something bad happens to someone in power it's never fucking mitch mcconnell.

[entitled-fangirl]

Four days of hell.

Duncan Visla x Swedish!reader

Summary: Duncan curses Blut for involving his neighbor in the man's schemes.

Warnings: torture, blood, inappropriate comments, cursing, name-calling, shooting, idk just Duncan Visla things.

Author's note: I thought it was spelled Vizla, but the closed captions said Visla. Idk. Either way, I guess.

Masterlist

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Duncan was enraged.

Here he was, held up by chains like an animal, awaiting his fate at the hands of Mr. Blut.

And they had taken her in the process.

Y/N.

Mr. Blut walked through the doors, the light revealing little but the bright red of his suit. And behind him was Y/N.

She had a collar wrapped around her neck, the leash being held by the man.

Duncan was ready do make him regret the day he was born.

Mr. Blut handed the leash off to one of the guards who ties it to a nearby pole.

"You hurt me, Mr. Visla. And that cannot be repaid with a swift, impersonal death."

He slowly takes off his jacket as he speaks, replacing it with a transparent apron.

"When the English caught the traitor William Wallace, they dragged him naked through the street for six miles so that peasants could smear their warm, fresh piss and shit on him…"

Duncan didn't even bother paying attention to the man, his eyes resting solely on the girl, as if his gaze would be enough to unlock the chains on the two of them.

The old man remembers the day she came into his life. He has been out splitting logs when he heard a noise coming from around the house next door.

Y/N had fallen outside in the snow, and now sat in it, half embarrassed, half amused.

Although Duncan hadn't noticed the fall, he saw the girl immediately and found himself walking in her direction.

The girl, as it had turned out, had just moved from Sweden, and was trying her luck at a life in America.

Duncan thought her foolish for picking Montana of all places, but he would never say that to her.

In the fall, she had scratched her leg, and hadn't noticed the red seeping into the snow. So, Duncan helped the poor girl into the house. 

And that was eight months ago.

He had grown too fond of the girl since then and he now was cursing himself for it.

"…because the traitor had hurt the king."

Duncan snapped away from his thoughts and back to the situation in front of him. He was dripping sweat as his eyes glared at the man.

"…I guess Wallace hurt England pretty bad," Mr. Blut leaned in towards Duncan, "YOU hurt ME pretty bad, Mr. Visla. I have four days before I have to kill you. Four days of HELL! And on your birthday….

…you die."

Y/N had sat against the pole she was tied to, her eyes focused on Duncan's face. She had never seen the older man like this: focused, angry, and unforgiving. It was a scary sight for her.

But beyond that, she focused on the man in the red suit's words. She was struggling learning all of the English words, and lots of them she had missed just then. But the ones she did catch were the most important ones. 

Something about his birthday and hell and dying.

She continued to watch her neighbor closely. So much so, that she didn't notice the other man shift his gaze to her.

Mr. Blut gave a sick smile as he turned back to Duncan, "I'm going to have a little fun with your lady. And you're gonna watch."

She didn't quite understand what he meant, but she saw Duncan's eyes narrow just slightly.

He held a picture up to Duncan of the girl that was taken earlier, her body in a kneeling position and the man's hand gripped her jaw, his thumb in her mouth. She looked scared and confused in it, and Duncan was ready to murder.

Mr. Blut held up a knife, stabbing the picture into Duncan's chest. 

Duncan let out a groan.

Y/N pushed herself forward slightly, her eyes wide in shock. A small shriek left her lips but she covered it with her mouth.

Mr. Blut moved to his instruments of torture, "So I've given it some thought, and I've decided that we're gonna start…" he held up a small snipping tool, "…with these. Music please."

The man proceeded to cut Duncan's skin to the sound of the bagpipes. 

The sounds of Duncan's wails and cries becoming too much for the girl. She backed herself up against the pole, covering her ears and shutting her eyes tightly.

After what felt like hours, he finally stopped his torture. He pulled the knife from Duncan's body, taking the picture with him. 

"The fun continues tomorrow, Mr. Visla."

He untied Y/N, dragging her out of the room with him.

The door closed, the lights shut off, and Duncan's chains were given slack, making the exhausted man fall to the ground in a slump.

…

The pattern continued for the next three days. The endless torturing, the pained cries, the blood, and the crying girl in the corner.

By the third day, Duncan was entirely disoriented, his eyes not moving as fast as he wanted them to. His body wasn't listening to his brain and he was dying of blood loss.

Mid-torture, Blut's knife broke in Duncan's torso. He cursed at the man, and held up the remaining part of the blade. "You broke my favorite knife."

But Duncan wasn't responding. He could barely keep his eyes open. 

Blut got in his face, "I said, you've broken my favorite��� hello?"

He cut at Duncan's cheek to try to get a reaction, but none came.

"I'm obviously not getting through to you, am I?"

And with that, he stabbed the broken blade into Duncan's eye.

Duncan screamed, the deep vibrato echoing in the room.

Y/N let out a shriek, her voice finally coming through. "Sluta! Sluta såra honom!" 

Blut looked over his shoulder, taking the blade from Duncan's eye. He looks back, pulling Duncan's face up by his hair. "The fun continues tomorrow, Mr. Visla."

As he walked back towards the door, he stopped by the girl. He leaned close.

The girl was panting now, her voice now turning soft compared to the shriek she had given earlier, "p…please."

The man kicked at her legs in anger. "You'll learn to shut your fucking mouth, you little whore."

She retreated slightly, her eyes wide.

Blut turned back towards Duncan. "And for your birthday present, Mr. Visla… you get to keep your whore tonight."

And then he left.

…

The silence continued in the space for longer than she would have liked.

Duncan could barely keep his eyes open.

"D…Duncan?"

He let out a groan of recognition at the sound of her voice.

"What did… what were the words he said… about me? I tried to follow but I… it was too fast."

A light hum from the man and a strained, "…No."

She nodded, understanding to keep to herself. 

"Sleep…"

She turned her head to Duncan. "W…what?"

"…sleep."

A nod, and she leaned back against the pillar, letting herself fall asleep.

…

The next day, Y/N awoke to the sound of gunshots. She jumped, her head swiveling to Duncan.

She watched as Duncan fought off the guards. She was unfamiliar with the sound of bones snapping until that day.

She hid as much as she could to avoid the bullets that flew across the room. Duncan stood straight when it was done, his mind now focused, and his body responsive like never before.

He took heavy steps to the girl who now was looking up at him with an unreadable expression.

When he neared her, he took the piece of broken blade in his hand, and stared at the collar, as if asking for permission to touch.

When she nodded, he stood in front of her now, her head tilted up from her place of the ground to look at the ex-assassin.

His fingers lightly ghosted over the scratch on his cheek, his eyes studying it closely.

She let him, unsure of what it was he was doing.

Finally when he deemed her alright physically, he knelt down face-to-face with her, his hand fidgeting with the collar's lock until it opened.

He threw it from her frame, his eyes now ghosting over the bruises that laid under the collar.

He took deep breaths.

"Did he touch you?"

She tilted her head slightly in confusion.

He sighed, "Did he… hurt you in other ways?"

She slowly shook her head.

He left out the biggest sigh of relief. "You're gonna follow me. And you're going to do everything I say without hesitation."

He grabbed her arm, pulling her up with him.

When he hurt more guards climbing the stairs, he pushed up under a table. "Stay there."

He then shot the light box, making the building lose power.

The guards came in slowly and on edge, their flashlights being their only source of light.

Duncan managed to take them out one by one.

When they had been cleared from the room and the outer room, he whistled lowly and the girl slowly emerged, following him down the stairs.

He checked around each corner carefully before leading her through. Once they entered the underground tunnel, he took the fire extinguisher off the wall. "Cover your ears and stay right there."

He threw the extinguisher around the corner and shot it, making the guards both with ringing ears and blind eyes.

After a lot of shooting, she heard his whistle again and moved to follow.

She stepped close to him then felt a hand wrap around her throat from behind, a gun now pointed at her temple.

"Don't move, Visla."

Duncan cursed under his breath and turned around slowly, his calculating eyes taking in the sight, "Give me the girl."

The guard pushed against the girl's already bruised windpipe. "I said don't move."

"Christ…"

The man was shot before Y/N even processed that Duncan had moved.

She felt his body crumple to the ground, his voice pleading.

Duncan stepped to them slowly, taking the man's shirt in his grip. He punched the man harshly.

And again.

And again.

And she let him.

After about six punches, Duncan fell to the ground in exhaustion. 

She knelt down beside him with a gently hand on his upper back.

He finally stood up with her help, and they slowly walked out of their seemingly endless enclosure. 

He pulled her to him, placing a gentle kiss at her temple.

Duncan held her close, and she let him. The blood seeping into her clothes didn't bother her at all.

.......................................................

Part 2 would be cute :)))

[jennrypan]

It'd kind of weird how..Persephone has a closer relationship to Hera than her own mother like 🤨

Demeter literally gave you everything you could ever want, she just didn't want your dumbass running around with the Olympians FOR GOOD REASON?? (And low and behold as soon as she left the Mortal Realm everything went shitty and bad things immediately happened to her 😶)

Like..you wanted MALE god friends so bad?? Cuz ig Hermes wasn't enough?? All the nymphs, Athena, Hestia and Artemis weren't enough?? Fucking weird.

Like I'd get it if it was about hee wanting to go to school but she only did that for like one WEEK or less, before she pussied out and got distracted by Hades and all his riches.

Demeter should be disappointed that she put so much effort into Persephone only for her to become this ungrateful, spoiled, tantrum throwing, sugar baby. Like holy shit--

She was raised around nymphs but she takes every chance to terrorize them, but let a God actually insult her and she just grumbles and pouts and let's Hades deal with it. (Unless it's Zeus for some reason?? She has no issue getting bold with the literal king.)

Like her act of Wrath was because of her two nymph friends dying and yet..she clearly doesn't care about nymphs. Or anyone in the Mortal Realm for that matter.

(Also.. she doesn't seem to like Hermes or Artemis for that matter either, easily replacing them with Eros and Hades, despite Hermes being her first male friend and Artemis LETTING HER STAY IN HER HOUSE. Also..Eros got to ealk her down the isle.and not of her nymph friends were there except for Daphne?? What the hell.

[growingingreenwood]

After thranduil became king, was he still heavily involved in the army, like, going out himself to fight and stuff, or did he stay more often in their mountain to take care of other things? Thanksss <3

Immediately after he came back from the War of the Last Alliance and was crowned King, yes he did. They’d just lost ⅔ of their entire army and so it was an ‘All hands on deck’ situation. It wasn’t simply to make up for the lost numbers, Thranduil had been a MAJOR part of the leading Orophers army and so it took time to train others to replace him in all that he did. 

The longer he was King the less he participated in any fighting, but always remained involved in the army's tactics and to a lesser extent their training. The process took longer than some would have liked, as Thranduil felt guilt about ‘abandoning’ others to do all the fighting and dying, but by the time Legolas was a few hundred years old he hardly ever appeared on or even near a battlefield unless some Serious Shit was about to go down.  Thanks for the ask!! <33

[dybynyght]

An Okay Pretender I (Bowser X Reader)

A/N: This is my first post and I wanted to do something kind-of-chapter-y! Dunno. Wanted to take a stab at it. It is GN reader! Sorry if things are a little wonky. I'm used to the AO3 platform! Either way, thank you for stopping by!

Word Count:473

Never take this crown off.

It was the only rule Peach gave you when she placed a baby pink crown with gold linings atop your head. Straightening from your kneeled position with your eyes locked on the polished palace floors, you watched as your appearance morphed completely. Your (h/c) hair bleaching out and becoming a bright blonde, (e/c) eyes becoming blue with a single blink, and your usual palace attire being replaced with a matching pink outfit. You had seen this type of magic before. If you could call it that. Toadette had done it a few times over back when this power was first discovered and had even changed her name to Peachette when she entered this state. You gave yourself a quick twirl and watched as your newly dyed blonde hair swayed over your back in a hairdo you favoured. You were grateful you had control over at least one defining feature despite looking like Princess Toadstool. Peach nodded to herself in content as a smile slipped onto her pink lips.

“You’ve seen me run this place a million times over, I’m sure no one will know the difference.” With determination swirling in her eyes, she clamped her white gloved hands on your shoulders. “I’m trusting you to run the kingdom in my absence. Are you sure you’re up to it?”

Giddiness raced through your body. Of course you were ready! Well, about as ready as one could be. You suddenly weren’t sure if the giddiness was from excitement or nerves. What if something goes wrong? Something was meant to go wrong! Something always did at least once in the week and the culprit was usually the same person: the King from the neighbouring Darklands. It wasn't to say you feared him…at least, that was the story you made up for yourself and you were sticking to it. Don’t show fear. Realising you hadn’t answered, you quickly nodded. “Yes. I can do this!” You gave her the warmest smile you could muster before peaking over her shoulder at the primary colour wearing brothers behind her. “You all have fun. If anything, I’ll be sure to send word to you immediately.” Carefully, you took Peach’s hands into your own and gripped them tightly as you met her gaze once more. “I’ll be alright.” And with a final tight squeeze, you sealed your promise. 

You watched as a sliver of worry you hadn’t noticed before vanished from Peach’s face as she hummed softly. Turning to her travel group, each grabbed a bag before making their way to the centre room wrap pipe with a few Toads padding after with piled high pink luggage. With a silent wave, you saw them off and hoped that their trip to Sarasaland wouldn’t be as long as predicted. A lot could happen within a month.

[spider-stark]

RITE OF PASSAGE

JONATHAN BYERS X READER

Summary - Your best friend, Jonathan, likes you. You like Steve.

Warnings - mentions of sex

JONATHAN HAD never been a fan of Steve Harrington. He had a lot of reasons for his distaste, given that the infamous King Steve was a royal dick. Steve had called Jonathan almost every name in the book, labeling him a pervert and a creep. On top of this, he was never shy about attacking the Byers name as a whole, regularly taking hits at Jonathan’s family. 

Truthfully, his list of reasons to hate Steve was quite literally never-ending. There was only one reason, however, that had the power to make his blood boil; serving as both a reason to hate Steve and a reason to envy him. 

You. 

He wasn’t surprised by your fascination with Steve, especially given the fact that every girl in Hawkins would die for a chance to so much as touch his hair. He just didn’t find it to be very fair, though. 

Steve Harrington already had everything he wanted; money, popularity, a swarm of girls all dying to get on their knees for him, and all Jonathan wanted was you. But, all you could seem to think about was Steve, and that little fact was almost enough to drive him insane. 

“They say it’s like a rite of passage, ya know.” 

Jonathan’s eyes flicked over to you, perched atop his bed while mindlessly tossing an old issue of Teen Beat to the floor. The two of you always spent your weekends like this, cooped up in his bedroom listening to whatever record held his attention at the moment, just passing time together. 

“What is?” He asked, sitting cross-legged towards the end of the mattress. Your legs were laid across his lap as you leaned against the wall behind his bed, your gaze glued to the ceiling while his remained fixed on you, watching as you chewed at a piece of loose skin on your lip. 

You hesitated, ceasing your assault on your chapped lips as they pulled into a coy grin. The sight made his heart flutter in his chest, unintentionally mimicking your expression. “Having sex with Steve.” 

A strangled sort of sound escaped Jonathan’s throat as he threw his head back, the fluttering in his chest now replaced with a familiar sinking feeling. You mistook his frustration as teasing, never having considered that Jonathan thought of you as anything but. 

“I’m being serious!”  You squealed at him, cheeks now flushed as laughter spilled out alongside the words. “I heard Tammy talking to some other girls at lunch, and they all agreed that you just can’t go off to college without the King Steve experience.” 

Jonathan straightened himself back out in time to see you playfully wiggling your eyebrows, clearly more into this conversation than he was. 

He was used to hearing you talk about Steve, and most of the time he did his best to play along so you wouldn’t get suspicious of his feelings towards you. He always listened to you drone on and on about Steve’s car, Steve’s hair, Steve’s clothes, and, once, even Steve’s ass. But conversations like these were the ones he struggled with the most, the ones where he couldn’t quite force himself to play along anymore. 

It made him sick to think about it, the idea of you being just another girl for Steve Harrington to stick his dick in. 

You deserved better than that. 

You deserved him. 

When he didn’t reply, you continued. “And I was thinkinggg-” you drug the word out, scooting down the mattress to get closer to him, “that maybe you and I should go to his party tonight!” 

Jonathan’s face dropped. “You’re kidding, right?” 

“C’mon!” You immediately whined, placing your hand against his knee as you prepared to beg him, looking at him through your lashes. Jonathan was always a sucker for your puppy-dog eyes, but right now he couldn’t focus on anything other than the knot forming in his stomach. “I know it’s not really your thing, but I don’t wanna go alone. You know that going to one of his parties is my best chance to get his attention, plus Tammy already said she’d introduce us and everything! And you don’t even have to stay the whole time! You can leave as soon as Tammy brings Steve over—”

“No!” 

You jumped a bit at the sudden shout, stunned as Jonathan shoved your legs from his lap before rising to his feet. Jonathan rarely ever yelled, especially not at you. 

A frown settled on your lips. “Look, I get you don’t like parties, but you don’t have to freak out-” 

“It’s not about the party, y/n!”  Jonathan interjected again, his hands running through his hair as he began to pace across his room, his mind moving at a hundred miles a minute. “Like, seriously, do you even hear what you’re asking me?” He didn’t give you enough time to respond, already continuing his frantic rant. “You’re literally wanting me to drive you to Steve’s house just so I can keep you company until he decides he wants to fuck you!” 

“Okay,” you raised your hands like a white flag, keeping your voice steady as you followed him with your eyes, still moving from one end of the room to another, “if it’s gonna piss you off this much then you don’t have to take me, alright? I think Nancy’s gonna go, so I can just see if I can hitch a ride with her or something-”

Jonathan’s fingers tightened around his sandy hair, pulling it roughly as another groan escaped him. “I’m not pissed cause you want me to take you!” Your brows furrowed together at his words. “I’m pissed because all you care about is getting with Steve!” He paused his movement, feet coming to a halt as he pointed an accusing finger in your direction, “You’re better than that! You’re better than a fucking easy lay for Steve Harrington!” 

“You’re acting dramatic.” You told him plainly, arms moving to cross over your chest. 

“And you’re acting stupid.” He quickly countered. 

Your eyes only narrowed at him, still trying to keep your cool, not wanting the whole Byer’s household to hear the two of you fighting. “It’s not a big deal, Jonathan! Everyone has flings in high school. And if you had someone you were interested in I would happily help you get with them! So why are you acting like such an ass about this?” 

Jonathan shook his head at your statement, huffing as he spoke. “It’s different.” 

“No, it’s not!” You retorted. “You're just being a dick about this because you don’t like Steve!” 

“It’s not about Steve! I mean, yeah, sure, I don’t fucking like him—but that’s not the point!” Warmth crept up his neck, frustration reaching a boiling point as he struggled with picking his words. “It’s different because you don’t like me!” 

He spoke with such a harshness, his words carrying an unfamiliar edge. It took you by surprise, and left you sinking further into the mattress as you watched his hands fall from his hair to his face, covering his reddened cheeks. The atmosphere had changed now, anger having morphed into discomfort. 

“What are you talking about?” Your voice was low, just a few notches above a whisper. “Of course I like you, Jonathan.” 

His head shook again, rubbing his face as he let his hands fall back to his side. “No.” He told you as if it were a fact. “You don’t. Not the same way, at least. Not how I like you.” He hesitated, looking somewhere over your shoulder, too embarrassed to meet your gaze. “Not how you like Steve.” 

Something cracked in your chest as he spoke, the words lingering in the air between the two of you. Instantly you found yourself filled with a sickening sense of guilt, thinking of all the times you had gushed over Steve to Jonathan, having been so oblivious to his feelings the whole time. Beneath that guilt, though, was something else; perhaps best described as a streak of curiosity as you considered the idea of being with your best friend. 

It was uncharted territory in your mind, a forbidden topic that you had never dared to consider previously, and now that thoughts of it bloomed in your mind, you were a bit shocked to find that you weren’t put-off by it. 

Jonathan, on the other hand, had gone into a full blown panic as he realized what he had admitted. He had bitten his tongue for years now, too afraid to ruin what he did have with you, and now in a single moment he had risked blowing all of it. He took a deep breath and readied himself to find some excuse to leave, maybe lie about needing to pick Will up from Mike’s house, but you spoke before he had a chance. 

“I don’t not like you how I like Steve.” You clarified, sounding vaguely unsure of yourself and awkward. “I just—I don’t know—never knew that you were…” you paused, sighing as you tried to find a way to phrase your thought, “an option.” 

Neither of you had ever done this before, never thought to cross the simple boundary of friendship and venture into something else. Because of this, Jonathan matched you in awkwardness as he replied, “I am.” He cleared his throat, still diligently avoiding eye contact with you. “I mean—if you want me to be, then I am.” 

For a moment you both stayed quiet. You remained planted on the bed, Jonathan still standing across from you, nervously fidgeting with the fabric of his jeans. 

“Okay.” You spoke, breaking through the fairly new silence, sliding yourself back up to the top of his bed. You reached for the floor, your fingers grabbing hold of the Teen Beat you had tossed aside earlier. 

Jonathan finally looked at you, staring as you began to flip through the pages again. “Are you not gonna call Nancy?” 

Your shoulders lifted into a lazy shrug, stopping you incessant flipping as you landed on an article about Molly Ringwald. “The album isn’t over.” You told him, referencing The Clash record he had put on before the two of you had gotten into it. “Besides,” you added on, glancing over the thin pages of the magazine with a playful glint in your eye, “I’m better than an easy lay, right?” 

All he could manage to do was look at you, even after you shifted your attention back to the magazine. Without another word, you patted the comforter beside you with your palm, silently urging him to rejoin you on his bed. 

Maybe he didn’t have to be jealous of Steve after all.

a/n - decided i wanted to start writing for stranger things, so ofc i had to start with my boy jonathan&lt;3 obviously very new to writing for stranger things so bear with me i'll improve ok i promise

steve totally wouldve fallen in love w/ the reader if she went to the party but whatever we will let jonathan have this win ok

[myonlypen]

I am utterly baffled by the amount of conspiracy theories going around about the royal family at the moment. Maybe it's because I don't care about them in the first place so I couldn't give a monkey's if Kate has been replaced with a body double or whatever because it literally doesn't matter either way.

But what confuses me is how low-stakes the conspiracies are. Most of them fall short on at least one of the three tests I like to apply to conspiracy theories.

1) How many people would need to keep quiet for it to remain a secret?

If Kate is secretly dead and they've replaced her with a body double, then the staff, doctors, body double's family, and probably more people know about it and need to keep quiet. And they presumably need to keep quiet forever, because if they're going to announce she's dead later rather than immediately for some bizzare reason, the truth is going to come out eventually anyway.

2) Is there actually something in it for the conspirators?

The thing I find most laughable about flat earth is simply "if the earth is flat, why are the scientists and politicians lying to us that it's round?" because I have never heard an answer to this that doesn't reveal how even more disconnected from reality the believer is. In the case of the royal family, what do they gain from pretending that Kate or the King are fine when they might be dead or very sick. They're going to die one day anyway right? The best motivation I can gleam is that the monarchy is obsessed with its PR image and want us to think they're perfect, because if we don't they risk losing their legitimacy. Again, maybe because I don't think they have legitimacy in the first place, but surely they wouldn't risk a scandal of being caught out in a lie since that would damage their reputation more than one of them dying from cancer.

3) Is the thing they're allegedly doing actually worth talking about?

One sympathy I have with conspiracy theorists is that their emotions aren't wrong, just their facts. It would be bad if Bill Gates was secretly injecting us with microchips; it would be bad if they had assassinated Diana. But, if they're covering up a natural death or illness or extramarital affair, is that really that outrageous? If they're not doing anything beyond that which your average Joe might lie about I don't see the problem. It doesn't affect society at large what these people get up to between themselves. If they were channelling tax money in a certain way or had a torture dungeon then that would be something to care about.

[cosmicjoke]

**Seeing old threads on a specific subreddit insinuating that Historia was a better moral person than Levi and I’m trying to see how people could even possibly see it this way?**

They say how fans want to ignore that he’s a bad person for strangling her when she was about to make all their sacrifices to replace the puppet king for naught. God forbid she’s treated like an equal and a soldier. I was never able to stand how she was so stuck on feeling sorry for herself as if everyone else around her isn’t living in the same horrifying universe. I doubt they’d get their panties in a bunch if he manhandled Mikasa instead or any other female character. Apparently to them, Historia is an angel and Levi is just a thug…

So many characters have been forced to sacrifice their lives and their comrades and any semblance of happiness. But Historia exercising her own free will by agreeing to inherit the beast titan is the most tragic thing ever and should be avoided, even if it stalls the rumbling. Fuck every body else I guess, in this harsh world only SHE’S exempt from making horrible sacrifices. s/ …. Her abandoning that promise and betraying the scouts so she can live her cottage core girl life at the price of millions of people being crushed, and she’s supposed to be an angel compared to the “thug Levi”?? But this discussion just got me so mad 😭 I was just trying to read some threads to get fan fiction idea juices flowing. sorry for ranting at you…

But as if Levi himself hasn’t had to sacrifice his own humanity or a normal life, just to keep moving the needle forward in the right direction. He’s had to kill humans, he’s had to watch everyone around him die and live with the bitter pain of being the last man standing just so nothing was in vain. He fully stepped up to the responsibility of his Ackerman powers for the betterment of humanity. He could have easily been like his uncle Kenny and abused that strength, but he didn’t. Just because he doesn’t outwardly try to make everyone think he’s the stereotype of a good person like Historia, doesn’t mean he isn’t.

Haha, I really can't add anything more to this, because you said it all perfectly.

Anyone claiming Historia is "morally superior" to Levi has their head so far up their ass, it's not even funny.

Historia was one of the most selfish characters in the entire series, and that is saying SOMETHING, because there isn't a lack of selfish people in this story.

I've said before just what you reiterate here, which is that Historia got manhandled by Levi because she was too busy feeling sorry for herself to consider the consequences of her kneejerk refusal to take the throne. She didn't think of all the lives that would be lost and ruined because she was more interested in maintaining this humble facade she liked to play at, including all the lives of every one of her comrades. Every single member of the SC would have been on the chopping block if the coup failed, and the coup succeeding entirely hitched on her taking the crown.

So, knowing the type of person Historia is, it really shouldn't come as any surprise that she would renege on her previous agreement to inherit the Beast Titan, and actively aid Eren in committing a global genocide, all so she could, as you hilariously put it, live her cottage core girl life, lol. Historia AGREED to take on the responsibility of inheriting the Beast Titan and to safeguard the island that way. Levi didn't, nor did anyone else, ever force her to make that agreement. And then, she turned around and intentionally sabotaged it all, by getting herself knocked up. All those scouts that died in the forest with Levi, every person that died as a result of Zeke's and the Yeagerist's and Eren's actions, Levi almost dying, Hange dying, etc, etc... all of that is on Historia's head for her breathtakingly selfish actions. Because by intentionally getting pregnant, she made it impossible for Zeke to be fed to her immediately, which is in turn what led to the Yeagerists being able to take over the island, which is what led to Eren being busted out of prison and making contact with Zeke, which is what led to the Rumbling. And she did all this knowing what Eren's plan was all along. The only one who knew. It's always Eren fanboys and people that think Eren and Historia should have been confirmed as a canon couple, and that Historia's baby should have been Eren's, that are the ones who claim Levi was somehow in the "wrong". That's such bullshit. Like you said, Levi did everything in his power to save everyone. He never hid from any responsibility, and as you said, fully stepped up to the responsibility he felt his strength put on him to help people. He could have been completely selfish like Kenny, like Kenny TAUGHT him to be, and it even would have been completely understandable why he was, given the hell his life had been, but he never was selfish. He never allowed any sort of bitterness or hatred to dictate his actions, despite having the hardest life of anyone, despite losing more and sacrificing more than anyone.

Levi is, in every way, shape and form, morally superior to Historia. Levi is a hero. Historia is bordering on a villain.

So, yeah, Historia isn't a good person. She isn't morally superior to anyone. She's "the worst girl in the world", as she calls herself. She's so selfish, that she was cool with the rest of the world being destroyed so she could live out her own life in peace.

[nonuggetshere]

I keep seeing u post about ur kingsoul au, would u be willing to write a basic rundown of the plot!! BC I LOVE everything that I've seen but ik none of the context :///

ALRIGHT, joke about never revealing the lore over, time to release the brainrot

The basic premise is that PK and WL gave the Pure Vessel kingsoul charm to keep their soul levels stable, in case Radiance tried to physically damage them to get out.

Fastforward many years later, and the infection resurfaces. Pale King and White Lady are hit with the possibility that the vessel was alive all this time and they...do not take it well. Pale King immediately dives back into work to cope, just to keep his mind off this. Meanwhile White Lady completely bottles up her feelings and tries to pretend everything's okay, and instead distracts herself by trying to make sure her husband is alright.

Things keep getting worse and worse, and finally when he's completely out of ideas, Pale King decides to trap himself and his palace in the dream realm in hopes that Radiance will go for him instead. He discusses it at length with his queen, says his goodbyes in case he dies and leaves. The moment he's in the dream realm she can no longer feel him, so she has no idea if he's dead or not.

His plan does not work. He's alive but trapped in the dream realm, presumed dead by most people.

White Lady is now alone, watching her beloved's hard work crumble to dust, feeling powerless to stop it. Finally, she gets an idea, and in her desperation she tries to reach to the Hollow Knight through the kingsoul charm, much the same way she would with her Wyrm.

It works.

They're momentarily pulled from the Radiance's grasp, confused and disoriented. Then they see their mother and their confusion grows. For a moment they think it's another one of that damned moth's tricks, but they can't feel her presence at all. Realising that it's their actual mother, they just break down, relieved to be free of the torment at least for a little while.

This cements her suspicions that they were alive, when before they thought Pale King might have been just wrong about how the infection works, now she's sure they're alive.

She hugs them tightly and tells them it's going to be okay, but their kingdom is dying, their people are suffering, their father might be gone forever, and she just needs them to hold on a little longer. Can they please do that for her?

They nod.

She smiles. They're strong, she says, they've got this.

And it works.

With her help, getting frequent visits and breaks, her reassurance; they manage to fight off the infection once again. Hallownest can begin to heal and rebuild once again, under her rule. She will continue what her beloved started. For his sake.

She sees them again, tells them as much. The kingdom's doing better, the infection is disappearing, all thanks to them. Their father would be proud, she tells them. They smile so brightly at that.

She reassures them, tells them to keep fighting, and one day another vessel will show up and they can be relieved of their duty. They will be named a prince, they could be a family. She promises.

They trust her. Trust her that she's sure of it.

Years pass, Hallownest is thriving again, the Hollow Knight has new strength to keep fighting. They've got their mother's help. They look forward to her warm embrace and soft words everytime.

But the time keep stretching on and on, and no other vessel shows. They're getting impatient, nervous, they can't keep going on like this. She knows it, doesn't she?

She reassures them. She's sure another, truly pure vessel will show to replace them, and then they can reunite once more in the waking world. She's sure. She promises.

Ages pass. They're getting tired. They can't keep going, even with her help.

They're impatient, nervous- no, terrified. She promised.

The infection starts showing up again. She's angry. Don't they know what they're fighting for?

They can't keep going. So try harder, she tells them. Do not disappoint her. Do not disappoint their father.

They're at their breaking point, they can't keep going. She promised them. Did she lie? Was all of this just empty stories all along?

But how dare they accuse her of that. They're a warrior. They were trained for this. They should be stronger. They let their father's legacy crumble once more.

They're a failure. She tells them. The king would be disappointed.

They snap.

The kingsoul lays broken between the two of them. The vessel pants heavily, still reeling after their argument.

She looks at them in shock then shakes her head. She turns away.

She overestimated them. She shouldn't have expected any better of them. After all...

They're only human.

They've failed them.

...No. No.

They'll show her. They'll show her. She's wrong about them.

For the first time in ages, they raise their blade towards the sun shining in the distance.

So that entire thing came to me after listening to My Goodbye from EPIC: the musical on repeat for two days straight. A lot of plotpoints in this AU come from me rotating these characters in my head while listening to these songs.

Pure ascends as the Lord of Shades and brings The Radiance down. But they don't kill her.

She'll get to live out the rest of her life as a mortal. In the ancient fallen kingdom that she brought to ruin.

They break from their chains, take one last look at her from the entrance of the black egg, and leave. They rise to the surface, don't look back as they pass the howling cliffs. It's not their home anymore.

White Lady feels a shift in her kingdom. Dryya runs to her, the infection is dying.

Shocked, she uproots herself and goes to the temple. There, she finds the Radiance, and no sign of her child.

So after being informed of what went down by a very pissed off Radiance, her reaction pretty much boils down to "THEY DID WHAT?"

Along their travels, Pure finds their other siblings. Mainly, Ghost, Mellow (BV) and Greenie (GV). They find their way, after many years, into the ruins of yet another fallen kingdom.

This time though, they find their new home here. They help build a new kingdom and are crowned as its monarch. Life's good.

Except for the fact other Hugher Beings get the wind of a void being doing that to The Radiance and want to kill them out of paranoia but that's a story for another time.

Oh, and PK finds his way out of the dream realm. Somehow.

Also WL and PK can still talk to Pure through now voidheart, but they immediately cut contact and most of the time don't even let them sense them.

[longroadstonowhere]

okay, after approximately.... seventeen hours? something along those lines (did, you know, have to do the occasional work task and, like, eat and get water obviously), i’m putting down the game for the night - got to a point where i didn’t immediately have an interesting task in front of me and needed to make a stopping point for myself

i’m gonna put a cut here and do some freewheeling thoughts on tears of the kingdom thus far, but generally it suffices to say that i am having a good time

first of all, i’m really glad i played age of calamity somewhat recently, because it gave me little bits of character info that i honestly would’ve completely forgotten without it - namely that teba had a son who was one of the tiny birds in the last game

anyway it really feels like they took the notes/complaints about breath of the wild’s story to heart, cuz god damn is there a healthy amount of story here, especially with them bringing back sages and temples and such - for posterity’s sake, i have completed the wind temple, and am on my way to death mountain for what i assume will be the fire temple; should be interesting to see who the sage is, since we got a little curveball from the ritos not making it teba (so now i’m thinking yunobo or someone else? and the someone else is a little more likely)

okay also for posterity’s sake - i have gotten four glyph memories, which i assume they’re assigned to the glyph and not given in a particular order, so i got the intro one (zonai), the castle, the demon king, and the sword; i’ve also done precisely 1 (one) chasm visit and started my job at the lucky clover, as well as completing enough shrines to get up to eight hearts with enough orbs currently on my person to get something, and i uncovered the demon statue under hyrule, as well

sad they’re not letting me play as zelda, but also love that she is literally an actual part of the imprisoning war from ten thousand years ago, like yup nope the zelda in that mural was in fact the exact same zelda who was critiquing and comparing herself to that perfect image of, it turns out, herself

like fucking hell i just love the character beats there, and hopefully some amount of that gets discussed on screen, cuz damn

oh, right, by the way, if i had a nickel for every time a dead king guided me through a great ____ zone i’d have two nickels - i kid, i kid, i really liked king rauru (which!! king rauru what?!?!? aaaaaaa my zelda lore brain is firing off all the time) bamfing around and actually, like, guiding us? like he doesn’t really quite know more than we do, he’s just more familiar with how the land works and such

... now that i’m thinking about it, though, how the hell did we end up where we did? like i was jokingly complaining to myself about how we were literally just shoved in a random room (on the floor), as opposed to breath of the wild where we were intentionally brought to an advanced piece of restorative technology, but also, rauru didn’t have a corporeal form? how was he able to replace my arm? and how did i get in that room????

guess that’ll be one for the zelda youtubers - oh, wait, right! i was gonna make this joke like fourteen hours ago, but i loved the opening bit where zelda is just like the zelda lore youtubers i watch sometimes, where she’s just excitedly pointing at things and going ‘!!! this is cool! i don’t actually know what’s going on entirely but it’s cool!!!’ like yes, love that for you darling, i will like comment and subscribe every moment you’re on screen doing what you love

let’s see... oh, the gameplay is pretty excellent, even if i keep dying because i’m bad at fighting without all my special powers (and because i couldn’t find a shirt for so damn long, like i know that was just luck probably but still), and the new magic abilities are fascinating - it’s interesting how they’re both more and less expansive than the previous set (like with the attaching things power, you can pick up anything not just metal stuff like you could with magnesis, but without cryonis water is way more terrifying cuz none of the other powers can really do anything about water by themselves)

fav so far is the ‘swim upward through solid objects’ one because ya know i love to climb things, and it’s really fun to have an escape clause on, like, most caves and a lot of other places (i think i used it a fair amount in the wind temple just to get away from dudes)

i haven’t made very many vehicles, because when i make stuff for movement i feel bad about abandoning it out in the wilderness but also sometimes you just gotta cut that corner and jump off the cliff (which, gods, it took so long to get the paraglider and i was so happy when it finally dropped into my hands) - this is how i felt about horses in the first game, although i’ve actually ridden a couple horses around this time

you know what i have done what feels like fifty times? supported president hudson, that’s what - actually it’s a really fun and simple engineering puzzle that i’m glad shows up again and again, but by gods i wanna take addison’s hands and just go ‘why didn’t you guys just make the sign stable to start with??’

it’s been very cool seeing how the world has changed, both with recovery after breath of the wild and with the stuff falling from the sky at the start of this game, although i think what fascinates me the most is that no one’s actually said (or even implied) exactly how long it’s been either since botw ended OR since link and zelda disappeared on their archaeological survey - like i have no idea if link was out for days, weeks, or months honestly (my guess is like three weeks but who knows!)

negative things... not a fan of how often i died, and it took me way longer to figure out how to use the zonai wings than it should have, i wish there’d been a slightly better explanation at some point, and i wish i’d gotten the latest memory i found (the sword one) later in the quest line, cuz it feels very resolution-y and while it’s occasionally fun to get these things as an almost in media res conclusion, in this particular instance i’d rather have just seen it later

the whole geoglyphs concept is super awesome, though, that was a fantastic addition and really rewards the whole flying around the sky thing that this game is really about

can’t wait to get through the rest of the major story beats so i can spend the next few months just dicking around

but first sleep

[halfbakedspuds]

Alright, let's do this for one of my characters. Probably gonna keep coming back to this post to do so for all of them cause it's useful.

Adrian Castellan

1. Adrian lies as part of his job, but the major one he constantly has to tell Lyanni is that he spent the years 2618CE to 2622CE recovering from a near fatal injury.

2. In a quote, "My social life extends to you and no further. In a sense, you are my only friend,"

3. Very rarely. Only one person has that he deals with regularly even knows he can feel emotion

4. As a kid on Callisto, he and his sibling's competed in virtual arenas once a month, and he sorely wishes to get back into that but can't since he's stuck on the other side of the galaxy for the foreseeable future.

5. Due to physical injury from a battle, he had to get his eyes replaced with cybernetics as shrapnel had taken them out. This also urreperably damaged some other parts around his eyes, such as the muscles that would usually allow for their movement, his eyelids and his tear ducts. However, even if he was still physically capable of crying, he'd likely suppress it.

6. Stephen king's Dark Tower books. Adrian is a nerd for all things antique, including most literature and art from the 20th to 22nd centuries.

7. Considering that having a human name is unique on a non-human world, probably just his name, though Lyanni yelling 'Dumbass!' Tends to also get his attention because it's usually warranted and only she actually calls him one.

8. Strict. He uses it exactly once in the entire book when he's borderline proposing to someone.

9. He prefers giving gentle love but growing up on Callisto has taught him that the other has it's uses too.

10. "Did you know that our standard ammunition used to be considered mounted machine gun ammo? Yeah, that's why we need power armor"

11. "What year were you born?" Is a question only Lyanni and his siblings (Maternal figure is deceased) would also know the answer too, and if the impersonator replies with 2595 they will be shot immediately, as Adrian lied about his age on official documents in order to enlist early and get off Callisto.

12. There is an in-joke between him and Lyanni about her first time seeing a dog, and not understanding domestication since her species doesn't do that she tried starting a conversation with it about IUC operations on the planet. Whenever it gets mentioned he just starts dying of laughter.

13. Very often, to the extent that a legitimate one genuinely unnerves people at times.

14. Pinch it.

15. 'At work' for Adrian constitutes whenever some random person on the street can see him. During that time he needs to maintain the facade of a divine messengers to keep the influence he needs to do his job. With King Alahn, he's still rather serious but noticeably relaxes. With Lyanni we see the joking idiot he would've likely been at all times had certain trauma not happened. Alone, he broods on the past, and usually works himself until he passes out to avoid thinking about it.

16. Mostly religious zealots and nobles because those are the kinds of people he actually has to argue with daily.

17. Adrian's natural hair colour is snow-white hair, and although people with mutations aren't seen as freaks anymore, it still bothers him. Everybody else notices his cybernetics eyes, which he changes the colour of to match whatever he is wearing that day.

18. Two people. Zeltin Kasrik, who's managed to become almost like an adopted son to him (and legitimately becomes his adopted son later on), and although it takes a while to get there, Lyanni Sverik.

19. Have you ever seen a cyborg purposefully deactivate their eyes and ears to avoid dealing with someone? Cause that's him.

20. He likes Baron Jormahnd Sverik (Lyanni's father) as a person but feels like he wasted his talents when he could've accomplished much more as a praetor. He doesn't like premier Richard Cade as a person or his work, but he respects the efficiency that the man brought to Titan during the uprising.

21. The native species of Kradoma had a very different sense of modesty to what humans do. They don't feel shame at their own nudity but see it as a sign of ferality if done outside of a home and will change clothes basically anywhere that isn't a public space (Living with one of these natives has prompted him more than once flee a room utterly flustered, trailing the words 'Oh for throne's sake!'). To the contrary, this species sees dancing as scandalously inappropriate if the partners aren't married. Growing up in festivals were people just danced with any random person they could find and swapped partners multiple times during a single song, this seems silly to him.

22. Listen to breathing in his ear without getting PTSD flashbacks to the war. In space, there is no gunfire, but his mind came to associate his own breathing in his helmet with danger.

23. The original reason for rescuing Lyanni wasn't to use her as a way to propel the native species forward technologically, but rather his plan was to trade a 'witch' with the witchhunters in Szeraan so they would leave the kingdom be for a little while longer. He dealt with this silently before she could find out about it, but he feels guilt and horror at the fact that he was about a day off of actually doing it before his conscience stopped him.

24. Depends. Would stealing the cookie help him more or less in a week or two than leaving it in the jar? If the answer is 'the same', he wouldn't have wasted the effort.

25. Music and literature from about a century before the fall of Earth to about a century after (1970's to 2190's)

26. Silence. He'd probably just stop talking entirely until he's confident that he can open his mouth without going on a tirade about the event.

27. One of those old monkeys that you wind up and it starts clapping cymbals together. He put it on his shelf, and the in his teenaged years while making his guns, he took it apart to see what parts he could repurpose.

28. To him, his posting to Kradoma is a kind of voluntary atonement for some of the things he's done or feels he is guilty of. At the start of the book, he claims that all he wants is for the native population to become independant as an interstellar civilisation. By the middle, all he truly wants is to go back to Callisto and make amends. In the end.

29. Either the way religion has drilled it into him: "All saints and imperator as my witness, I speak true!" Or if he can he'll go find proof, either through a quick data net search or by stellalimg evidence.

30. There is no professional guilt for him. He acknowledges the mistake and fixes it as soon as he can. In his personal life he feels extremely guilty about things that those affected will probably forget before lunch.

31. Anything involving Lyanni, Zeltin, Alahn or Maia Williams, plus his siblings. He almost immediately tries to rectify it even if it cause more problems

32. Stealing a sandwich just to get a break from nutrient bars.

33. A very mechanical "Ave Imperator," whereas a warmer greeting is in store for people he likes

34. "Hey," "Howzit?" "Eya"

35. Allowing an "Illegal" (someone not sanctioned by the IUC as a worker, officer or Praetor or other) to continue operating planetside cause they got him information. This comes with the added risk of them not being regulated by law, which could've been disasterous

36. King Alahn. He needs a working relationship with the king to do his job, but there's no malice in it.

37. What he was actually doing from 2618 to 2623. It's to keep them safe.

38. He's a surprisingly good dancer, but he fumbles because of nerves in front of others

39. He'd rather just be left alone with people he cares about.

40. Handshakes aren't as much of a cultural thing in the 27th century, but he'd probably have some unsavoury things to say.

41. He speaks Latin with a Callistoan accent, pronouncing 'V' as 'W' and a 'K' as a gutteral. He's also picked up some of Lyanni's dialect with Axidemir, and will occasionally pull out words that are antiquated in the common speech.

42. Probably "the art of subtle Manipulation" since it's something he got incredibly good at as a Praetor

43. Being Callistoan, if someone draws a weapon it means that they wanted a fight. The Imperial etiquette of leaving weapons by the door when visiting someone still gives him anxiety cause he either thinks someone wants to shoot him or he's afraid someone will misinterpret what he's doing.

44. Probably Italian or French since he speaks a later iteration of Latin as a home language, and probably wouldn't have too much trouble pronouncing Arabic since most of those sounds are in Axidemir.

45. Skew paintings annoy him to no end.

46. Part of his job is talking entire empires into setting themselves on fire, but he prefers to listen.

47. Pavel DeSantos. Now the Governers of the Jupiter moons, but a former bf of Adrian's.

48. Yes, or if he noticed they didn't want to be there he'd find a way to get them out.

49. At this point he'd eat anything as long as it meant an end to 8 years of nutrient bars

50. He will not hesitate to sacrifice close friends if it benefits the greater good or furthers the upliftment process.

51. "By the throne..." Or "Tears of the Empress!"

52. He tends to wait, but there are exceptions to this rule.

53. That humanity's war with the council races is justified. Also that his Maternal figure died because of him.

54. He can go from laid back and relaxed to guns drawn and twelve people layed low in only a few seconds thanks to the utter hellhole that was the moon he grew up on.

55. Reading. He used to actually enjoy it but because of the amount of reports he needs to compile and read as part of his job it's kind of lost it's appeal to him.

56. Usually he just wants one of his guns in hand, but later in he'll also take being around Lyanni Sverik as a comfort.

57. His sleep schedule. He keeps overworking himself by about an hour without noticing.

58. Mostly creative hobbies such as drawing or painting, but he always falls back to tinkering. The exception to this was back when he still played for his habitation tower's arena-sim team.

WEIRDLY SPECIFIC BUT HELPFUL CHARACTER BUILDING QUESTIONS

What’s the lie your character says most often?

How loosely or strictly do they use the word ‘friend’?

How often do they show their genuine emotions to others versus just the audience knowing?

What’s a hobby they used to have that they miss?

Can they cry on command? If so, what do they think about to make it happen?

What’s their favorite [insert anything] that they’ve never recommended to anyone before?

What would you (mun) yell in the middle of a crowd to find them? What would their best friend and/or romantic partner yell?

How loose is their use of the phrase ‘I love you’?

Do they give tough love or gentle love most often? Which do they prefer to receive?

What fact do they excitedly tell everyone about at every opportunity?

If someone was impersonating them, what would friends / family ask or do to tell the difference?

What’s something that makes them laugh every single time? Be specific!

When do they fake a smile? How often?

How do they put out a candle?

What’s the most obvious difference between their behavior at home, at work, at school, with friends, and when they’re alone?

What kinds of people do they have arguments with in their head?

What do they notice first in the mirror versus what most people first notice looking at them?

Who do they love truly, 100% unconditionally (if anyone)?

What would they do if stuck in a room with the person they’ve been avoiding?

Who do they like as a person but hate their work? Vice versa, whose work do they like but don’t like the person?

What common etiquette do they disagree with? Do they still follow it?

What simple activity that most people do / can do scares your character?

What do they feel guilty for that the other person(s) doesn’t / don’t even remember?

Did they take a cookie from the cookie jar? What kind of cookie was it?

What subject / topic do they know a lot about that’s completely useless to the direct plot?

How would they respond to being fired by a good boss?

What’s the worst gift they ever received? How did they respond?

What do they tell people they want? What do they actually want?

How do they respond when someone doesn’t believe them?

When they make a mistake and feel bad, does the guilt differ when it’s personal versus when it’s professional?

When do they feel the most guilt? How do they respond to it?

If they committed one petty crime / misdemeanor, what would it be? Why?

How do they greet someone they dislike / hate?

How do they greet someone they like / love?

What is the smallest, morally questionable choice they’ve made?

Who do they keep in their life for professional gain? Is it for malicious intent?

What’s a secret they haven’t told serious romantic partners and don’t plan to tell?

What hobby are they good at in private, but bad at in front of others? Why?

Would they rather be invited to an event to feel included or be excluded from an event if they were not genuinely wanted there?

How do they respond to a loose handshake? What goes through their head?

What phrases, pronunciations, or mannerisms did they pick up from someone / somewhere else?

If invited to a TED Talk, what topic would they present on? What would the title of their presentation be?

What do they commonly misinterpret because of their own upbringing / environment / biases? How do they respond when realizing the misunderstanding?

What language would be easiest for them to learn? Why?

What’s something unimportant / frivolous that they hate passionately?

Are they a listener or a talker? If they’re a listener, what makes them talk? If they’re a talker, what makes them listen?

Who have they forgotten about that remembers them very well?

Who would they say ‘yes’ to if invited to do something they abhorred / strongly didn’t want to do?

Would they eat something they find gross to be polite?

What belief / moral / personality trait do they stand by that you (mun) personally don’t agree with?

What’s a phrase they say a lot?

Do they act on their immediate emotions, or do they wait for the facts before acting?

Who would / do they believe without question?

What’s their instinct in a fight / flight / freeze / fawn situation?

What’s something they’re expected to enjoy based on their hobbies / profession that they actually dislike / hate?

If they’re scared, who do they want comfort from? Does this answer change depending on the type of fear?

What’s a simple daily activity / motion that they mess up often?

How many hobbies have they attempted to have over their lifetime? Is there a common theme?

[ivarismaybecrazy]

Right, now that I’m more awake and not crying from the finale...

LET’S GO OVER MY FAAAAVVOORITE PARTS OF WATCHING AND DREAMING!! Beware of spoilers if ya haven’t watched it!

First, the little premiere/teaser thingy before watching and dreaming started. I tried not to cry during that, I wanted to save my tears for the actual finale. “...For one final flight home.” I had to clutch my heart, it hurt so much!! From happiness, don’t worry.

Unfortunately, that happiness immediately turned into “what the fuck” as soon as Watching and Dreaming started. I didn’t realize we were doing the whole “Luz gets Belos’s outift” so soon! But the line Amity said was beautifully executed. “What do you do when you wake up from a bad dream?” “You turn on the light.” GAAAAAHHH I LOVE THAT!!

COLLECTER!!!! THEY JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN!!! And oh my GOD, they don’t know what death is. aaaahhhhhhh, THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT DEATH IS!!! (also them giving dragon belos a hug and trying kindness and forgiveness, omg theyre so cute my god-)

Well, they learned what it was preeeettty quickly! Me and my friends who I watched it with made guesses on who was gonna die in the finale. One said I was gonna die as a joke, then stuck with it. (They were right, the finale killed me lol) My other friend said King. I said Luz because it’s such an MC thing to die in the last episode. 

I’ll be honest. I believed more that King was gonna die. So Luz dying? To Dragon Belos’s corruption flame? Oh my god. And the way Luz just said “I think we’re gonna be separated again.” with such a broken and trembling voice... oh my god. I shed Tear 1 there. What really broke me was seeing King and Eda go feral and The Collector just snapping their fingers, trying to “fix” Luz.... oh my god.

KING’S TITAN DAD IS GENDERFLUID. EVERYONE. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. KING’S DAD. THE OG TITAN. IS GENDERFLUID. WE ARE WINNING!!!!

Uhm. Titan Luz. Slay. Slay. Slay. I know we are all still broken over the owl house ending, but can we cope by talking about TITAN LUZ!?!?!???!!! She’s so fluffy!! And and and she acts like Eda!!! and and she’s so badass??? and AMITY NEEDS TO SEE HER RIGHT NOW OH MY GOD- 

I love that King, Eda, and Luz all went to just about outer space, looked down and said “Wow.” Like, you’re in the home stretch of the biggest battle of your lives and you’re enjoying the view. That’s such a found family thing to do, oh my gosh.

Belos really tried to gaslight Luz. He really thought. HE REAAAALLLLYY THOUGHT. BITCH STFU AND DIE. Thank you to Raine (MVP OF THE SERIES!!!! NO JOKE!!!!), Eda, and King for curb stomping him. 

Everyone’s future designs looked so. fucking. incredible!!! I saw other pointing this out but I’ll also say it. LUZ AND HER FRIENDS GOT FLAPJACK TATOOS!!!! They’re so cute!! Also Luz is in her emo phase, she had black eyeliner under her eyes. Vee looks adorable aaahhhhhhhhh!! GUS WITH THE DREDS OKAYYYY!!! King is a teen now guys! Eda became headmaster of the wild magic academy and has a hook to replace her arm. Amity looks like a very very succesful young lady, very proud of her. Willow and Hunter are still stumbling around with each other it seems, but that’s okay!! We love them!!

And to top it all off. Everyone (well, just about everyone) turned the camera, waved, and said “BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!”

I missed several things here, but this was a summary of my favorite parts (all of it) of Watching and Dreaming, the FINAL EPISODE of The Owl House. It doesn’t feel like it’s over. It’s gonna hit me later today and I’m going to start crying. But it’s okay. I’ll have fanart and fanfics and other fanworks to remember this incredible show by.

So uh. In case it wasn’t clear in my “Thank you” post. THANK YOU, FANS!!! WE ARE ALL AMAZING AND DON’T YOU EVER FORGET IT!!!

[753398445a]

I feel like designing OC Endbringers, and I might as well share them.

So. How do Endbringers get made? I believe Eidolon's shard mixes concepts on his mind at the time with religious imagery he's familiar with and a powerset provided by Eden shards. This means that the "backstory" requires a specific time and that we know David's thoughts from this time period. On a more Doyalist level, I would also like to keep each one unique, narratively useful, and thematically relevant to Worm.

What if Scion killed an Endbringer immediately after Kevin said to? So like. The Echidna fight happens on June 20th, with Scion burrowing into the Earth and lasering Behemoth on the same day. Then Eidolon attends the June 21st Cauldron meeting from his flashback, and while here somebody adds on "By the way, it turns out Scion just randomly killed an Endbringer yesterday. What the fuck, right? Why did he do that? Should we tell people it happened?" The things on his mind from the fight, from the revelations, and from the meeting would be the building blocks for Behemoth's replacements (I'm giving him two for the record, no idea if that's always the result of one dying but I'll operate as if it were for the purposes of this post).

His own powers are weakening (this seems to be on his mind constantly)

He isn't strong enough to fight Scion (ditto this)

His Echidna duplicate seemed to be at full strength (this appears to have been on his mind ever since it happened)

The scrutiny caused by his clone's revelations (immediate relevance)

Shame for the things he's done (immediate relevance) (assume all unspecified bullet points are also immediate relevance)

The case-53s probably made him think about his role in abducting people, giving them powers, locking them up and/or wiping their memories and releasing them

Echidna's powers

The powers he employed against Echidna: Dessication, gravity manipulation, weird homing electric things, some sort of thinker power speculated to include precognitive danger sense and also knowledge of where to attack without harming civilians, sepia timeslow bubble, unknown power that explodes Alexandria clones

Queen 18.8 featured two Texas Wards named Young Buck and either Strapping Lad or Intrepid dying in front of him. I assume watching children you knew die of a knife to the stomach and immolation (respectively) leaves an impact for at least a couple of days.

The portal to Gimel

Echidna trying to bargain for her targets. (Imagine an Endbringer that does that. Communicates what person or thing its targeting and allows the defending capes to hunt down and sacrifice them "for the greater good". An EB that can be stopped easily harms their collective air of implacability, but also many people would do really fucked up things if they thought it would save a whole city.)

Missile strikes

Therapists

Cauldron's silencing of heroes who would leak information related to them

Being replaced

A lot of pieces to work with there... I would invite you to stop for a second and try coming up with your own Endbringers using this list before reading mine. Reblog with your ideas, even! The world needs more Endbringers (I mean, it really doesn't. But this fandom does).

Endbringer 1 is based on Worm's running idea that giving people powers hastens societal collapse. It takes the 'forcibly giving people powers' idea from what Eidolon helped do to the case-53s and mixes in an offensive power that mixes scrutiny with the shard that Hero, Citrine, and probably Softball got powers from.

Imagine an Endbringer who gives an entire city Codex's power (She was the Ambassador who shot invisible rays that permanently lower their targets intelligence for a temporary boost to her own). Imagine an Endbringer who makes 7,000 Heartbreakers. Or Svetas. Or Kings or Scrubs or Nice Guys or Tritaniums or Burnscars. Distributing a teleportation power that lets somebody chestburster their way out of any person they've ever met sounds horrible, but how much worse is it if the attack its happening on is when this fucker is attacking The Birdcage? What about giving a physically altering power to everybody that shows up to fight it, ruining their secret identities? What about making all the mundanes merge into Case-70s the next time they touch a parahuman?

An Endbringer who causes more problems in the long run is straying a bit close to The Simurgh's schtick, which isn't helped by her on-page attack involving flooding a city with parahumans and providing people with powers. The big difference is how this one fights at the time. Remember Citrine's line in Imago 21.4: 'I can use my power to cancel out the filters that keep someone's powers in their control. I can also remove the filters that keep their power from affecting them.' This Endbringer takes that horror game trope where something has a roving or flashing light, and if you end up in it there's just a cutscene of you dying with no recourse. Batman: Arkham Asylum is the first that comes to my mind, but it shows up in everything from Dishonored to WarioWare. In this case, its roving spotlights that appear to be emitted by the Endbringer's eyes (because being scrutinized by hostiles was on Eidolon's mind). Of course, the Endbringer doesn't actually need its eyes any more than the others do, and is capable of creating these beams anywhere if it wanted to stop going easy.

Now we move on to its appearance, which is a bit tricky. See, the first three used Christian imagery and the latter three used ideas from other beliefs. This could just be a weird coincidence, or it could be suggesting that at some point between The Simurgh and Khonsu David broadened his understand of faiths outside his own. I'm inclined to go with the latter, but that leaves the question of whether its happened at the point my Endbringers are created. I'm going to say it did, just for the sake of giving myself more options. Also, I would like to take this moment to point out that there is no obvious (at least to me) connection between what imagery an Endbringer is given and what their powers or M.O. are.

This Endbringer needs to have some longevity, which means its thick. It needs to be able to use its offensive power effectively: That means lots of eyes, and either being mobile/flexible enough to turn its head anywhere easily or that its eyes are all over its body. Ideally (for the Endbringer) its body should have the ability to do a lot of damage, since its powers can only directly affect people. My idea is a giant tree stump with eyes opening and closing all along the creases in its "bark", and roots that function as both flailing tendrils and as spidery legs. Against all reason I easily found a webpage that lists bible verses with tree stumps in them: the only ones with any distinct imagery are Daniel 4:15 and 4:23, which talk about having 'a band of iron and bronze around it'. This seems to mean circles of it on the ground, but making it be more like stump-bracelets makes for a good visual and obfuscates the inspiration a bit. Sadly the only named tree stump is Jesse (I'm not kidding, Isaiah 11:1 calls one that), which is an abysmal name for an Endbringer, so I had to look further. 'Irminsul' sounds Endbringer-y and was the name of a type of sacred pillar in Germanic Paganism. According to wikipedia, the oldest known description of an Irminsul referred to it as a tree trunk erected in open air. That works.

Endbringer 2: This one is inspired by the mystery aspect of Worm/Ward. It harms anybody who tries to spread information on it, even when dormant, and was naturally the result of Contessa(?) talking about offing whistleblowers in the June 21st Cauldron meeting.

On the subject of how information-spreaders die, we have several options. They could spontaneously combust (like that one Ward), but that's getting in Behemoth's way. Same for being electrocuted. They could suddenly have a knife in the stomach, but that doesn't feel like a Worm power to me and is a bit too on the nose. Likewise for using the missile strike as inspiration. They could be crushed by gravity or dessicated by heat, either of those two would feel suitably different from existing Endbringers but still like an Endbringer power. Annoyingly, I don't believe we ever saw one of these effects provided by an Eden shard besides Eidolon's, which would have made for a good selection method. (I flipped a coin, this is a gravity Endbringer now)

So I suppose that's also how it fights capes directly. Gravity manipulation is somewhat versatile, allowing for Eidolon's crushing effect, Topsy's ability to launch people skyward, even temporary black hole generation to round things out.

This feels like a very fast-acting Endbringer to me, one that shows up, crushes/elevates/black holes the area, and then leaves again (As opposed to other Endbringers, which show up further away from their targets and approach). It operates using the guerrilla strike method that all Endbringers (except Tohu Bohu) canonically adopted after New Delhi. And anybody who tries to report what happened is suddenly squeezed into a quarter-sized ball. Authorities can't warn people its going to show up, nobody can turn on the sirens, even trying to mobilize the heroes who signed up to fight Endbringers without getting crushed is playing with fire. Only figuratively playing with fire though - the coin didn't land on tails.

Its not a tank, so a smaller, nimble form is fine. Its not attacking directly, so it won't need a body that allows it to do so effectively. Its power is not connected to any body part. With no real guidelines as to what form it should take, I'm going to fall back on which religious symbol is the most religious: That's right, this Endbringer is a giant cross. Not really, that would be too silly. Its instead based on the largest religious structure in the world, which the internet tells me is Angkor Wat (its a Cambodian temple/city built in tribute to a Hindu goddess). Apparently it has five central pillars and a moat, and is covered in devatas. That's pretty easy to eldrich-up: Five arms and legs evenly spaced around a torso (the five central pillars), and instead of a head give it the appearance of faces trying to escape from all over its body (the devatas). Have it be blue because moats are blue. (I know technically water is reflective rather than blue, but shards don't care. They'd know that humans associate water with blue and go "Okay, sure. Whatever.")

That leaves the name. I get nothing for five-armed, too much for blue, and looking for religious figures assosciated with secrets only turned up Raziel from Jewish mysticism. Sure, let's go with that. I have been working on this post for four hours now.

In conclusion, my Endbringers are:

Irminsul, a giant tree stump covered in eyes that project rays that are an insta-kill (or worse) on parahumans, and ruins the world by distributing harmful powers. This is a good Endbringer.

Raziel, a five-armed, five-legged, blue torso with faces poking out of it that hit-and-runs with gravity powers that cannot be talked about without dying. I am unsatisfied with this Endbringer.

[varietaltiger23]

Hello!! Can I request Mikey fucking male reader? Or sugar daddy Akashi Takeomi fucking male reader coz like 😩

🤭 might do both cause sugar daddy akashi so this will be a mix of shorter smuts and yes I did roast takeomi and don't regret it. Also I made myself jealous cause damn I wish I was their sugar baby 😔

This talk/contains: smut, semi public sex, car sex, marking up, sugar baby reader, me roasting Takeomi, bratty reader with punishment, this is a mix of short pieces of smut and headcanons.

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Becoming a sugar baby was your first good idea, becoming the sugar baby to the leader of bonten that was your best decision. Not even for the pay, trips, or the clothes in all honesty. What really was the grand prize was manjiro sano, the king of darkness and back breaking sex.

Finding out that he was a sex demon and the kinkest man to ever exist, he's taken you from every angle on every surface. The fondest one was after you had asked for a new car, a Toyota camry with a red interior that had black high lights. Of course mikey had bought it but before you even drove it off the lot. Mikey had you testing how good the durability of the seats were, bruising your prostate while he made you count how many times the car moved.

And we couldn't forget about the day when he took you to Italy to watch the Carnival of Venice, it was heavenly to witness the costumes dancing around each other to show the audience every extraordinary detail of their masks to the tips of their gowns and coats. But what tipped the night off was listening to Teatro La Scala while mikey treated you with such tenderness and love that it left phantom touches even today. From the gentle kisses that were focused on only two things which were to leav hickeies and encasing your nipples in overwhelming heat with a slippery snake of a tongue glazing you them, and the attention that your balls got was sinful enough that it would turn a dungeon master to a virgin. You were sure that mikey had left hickes on them even if you didn't check.

Picking the leader of bonten as your sugar daddy was the best decision and you planned to capitalize off of it right now, with nothing on you expect for satin sheets that slid off you shoulders to pool over your dick that was at full attention once you heard the click of the pent house lock. Walking was over rated when you fucked with mikey.

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To be fair, when you first started fucking takeomi. You expected him to bust in the first 4 minutes and for him to not be that big. You left with a limp and refusing to touch yourself, takeomi was a suprise after all he looked one sip of McDonald's sprite from dying but he proved you wrong especially after you mouthed off to him.

You learned pretty quick that takeomi didn't take lip from you and would shut you down immediately even if in public, all he had to do was give you the look to shush and prepare for punishment. And his punishments were so cruel but creative all the same, if you insisted that you needed to spend more than allowed on something trivial such as cookies then the punishment would be to fuck your self again a dildo that was attached to whatever surface was closest to takeomi but he controlled how fast and hard you could go. While you were focused on gaining forgiveness and the ability to cum, he threw in degrading but praising comments then after you finally gained forgiveness from four organisms he would fuck you though at least three more if you were up to it though the treatment afterwards was heavenly with him calling in the maids to replace the sheets with you favorite ones and to draw a bath that was filled with kisses and promises of using all four of his black cards for being such a wonderful boy and taking him even if you were tired and spent.

Then the special treatment for the anniversary, well those shopping sprees in Paris and takeomi helping you choose sn outfit to match his; when yall went to your resume at Le Fouquet's. He practically kissed the path you walked on and the hungry look in his eyes only grew with each swipe of the card, you were a master piece that was reaching completion, he was ready to show you in every light with his hand marks peeking through when your clothes just couldn't follow you movements. Takeomi can't wait for you to try and explain to your friends, just why you let him mark you up so bad.

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Hm headcanons or smut thoughts idk honestly both

No, I'm not taking my roasts for takeomi back.

Takeomi picks out brats so he can enjoy taming them by first allowing them to do whatever they want and run their mouths.

Mikey picks the duel, he loves a brat but also someone who will follow directions with no question asked.

Takeomi dick curves a bit as it reaches the tip, call him captain hook cause he has you hooked on deep throating him.

Mikey is thicker at the base and narrows out, though he is leaning on the more normal side of length. Man's knows how to sling that dick.

Please mikey loves to take you with him to every meeting he is forced to go to and loves showing you off but in your own way, such as if you prefer jewelry to high light your facial features then expect jewelry to go with even your lazy wear. You prefer clothes then you have every style, from baggy to sleazy to priceless and he allows you to walls slightly infront if him to have everyone's eyes on your clothes.

And takeomi, there's a reason he allows his little sister to buy anything. It's because he wants to see you with everything you enjoy, spending all your allowance in the art supplies section/store well then expect your own work shop. You like love some sports and need some new shoes or a better bag well then you getting your own storage filled with everything you could ever need in any color. Oh you like mathematics and science (this includes cooking)  well guess what you getting a lab/kitchen so you may get all those crazy 3 am thoughts out but please let him know what your doing before you blow something up.

They are willing to support you as long as you talk in some way even if it's nonverbal, if you don't then please these boys will be stressed trying to figure out what's wrong.

In case you don't know what they do then listen please mind you business, they like you and wanna keep you bit if they think you gonna snitch or veiw them differently if you knew what they do then you gotta go.

[gaylittlemans]

I scrolled through so much to find this

Fyodor Ursula and Nikolai is the eels

And Dazai can still call Chuuya “sea slug” (credits to @ratsbanes for the sea slug idea. This has occupied my thought for too long) because that’s obviously the only kind of slug he really knows and this annoying attractive prince deserves to be demeaned in some way and Chuuya calls Dazai “Mackerel” because he’s a water-born menace and there’s just something fishy about this mute boy he found.

Would Dazai’s tail red or blueish teal of some sort (I personally like a sort of coppery, shimmery carmine of some sort for his fish half)? And how would bandages translate to fish form? Maybe some kind of white seaweed or kelp?

I think taking the ADA and replacing Ariel’s sisters and flounder and scuttle and the president being trident would make sense. (Obviously with Sebastian Kunikida because when will this man get a break?)

Maybe Kouyou or Hirotsu could replace Grimsby (the advisor) for Chuuya’s side. Mori would obviously, probably, be the king. Also, looking at the Disney Wiki, I think Chuuya and Prince Eric’s characters align decently (mostly the dog thing and his family as well as the loss of loved ones stuff lmao) and you could add in a fear of storms to Chuuya’s character after the whole “being tossed overboard his own ship during a nasty thunderstorm and almost fucking dying” thing if you wanted 😚

Perhaps Akutagawa would be a guard Chuuya considers to be close, maybe he’s a guard who trained beside Chuuya (because I assume Princes would receive battle training. And perhaps Chuuya mentored him a little bit but only in small things like keeping your stance wide and staying light on your feet enough to move quickly) after Akutagawa forced his way into the royal guard very young.

And I think Verlaine would be kept in the castle basement because why the fuck not? Or maybe in an observatory. I dunno. Or perhaps he’s never even there? ����

Anyways—They suddenly appeared in my head and I remembered you and I realized I had more ideas than I thought and I needed to get them out immediately 😚

I haven’t checked your account, op, so I don’t know if you’ve already written this story or not, but I hope you don’t mind my ideas. Best wishes!

I want to do a skk little mermaid au, but idk if dazai or chuuya would be Ariel

Like chuuya kinda looks like Ariel and Dazai kinda looks like Eric. Also I like the idea of Kunikida being the advisor

But I also really like the concept of dazai being Ariel and chuuya being prince Eric. Cuz I think it would be funny if Kunikida took the role of sebastian

I'd have to figure out the other roles too, but I think that depends on who plays who

[writer-in-theory]

bleachers & diner booths — harringrove.

whumptober no. 4 — dead on your feet

summary: steve notices the signs in billy, and wonders how no one’s ever noticed before. prompt: hidden injury pairing: steve harrington/billy hargrove category: hurt/comfort content warnings: language, discussions of injuries, mentions of abuse word count: 2.9k

Before the disappearance of Will Byers, nothing of note ever happened in Hawkins. Pool floors never opened up to swallow a classmate whole, Steve Harrington never had his heart broken by a girl everyone was surprised he’d asked out anyway, and guys from California with an attitude to fill the whole state never moved in. 

But Steve had long since forgotten what the status quo felt like anymore—could barely comprehend waking up for the day not immediately on edge much less worrying about such problems like no longer being the coolest guy in school. It had been a harsh reality the day after the Halloween party, coming to school to see everyone laughing at him rather than at whatever lame jokes he made at the expense of others. Tina had overheard Nancy berating him, apparently, and within hours the entire school knew of King Steve’s fall at the hands of, well, a nerd. It stung, at first, to think that everything he’d spent seventeen years building had crumbled within one night only to be replaced by a guy no one knew before this year, but then he remembered the look on the Holland couple’s faces when they talked about how they never knew what happened to Barb, and how Steve still could hardly look at his backyard pool without wanting to curl into himself and wither away. He remembered Dustin Henderson’s face when Steve showed up at the house to do his hair, and he remembered the feeling of knowing he would die down in those tunnels, reduced down to nothing but a ghost like Barbara Holland.

And well, after nearly dying not once but twice at the hands of beings not of this world, losing a title in a high school he was nearly finished at anyway didn’t seem like quite a big deal anymore.

So he stayed out of Billy Hargrove’s way, stopped trying to fight against him at every turn. He stopped being entertaining to the guy, hoping that would allow himself to coast his way through the last semester of his high school career. 

Steve wasn’t sure if it was because of the cold shoulder or because of the needle Billy’d gotten to the neck months before, but the Californian stopped bugging him. It was like the guy forgot Steve even existed, which should have been relieving but only made Steve watch him closer, like he was waiting for a stray fist to clock him when he was least expecting it. 

Instead of catching a fist, Steve began to actually notice Billy beyond their past fight for a title. Because Steve may not be great at school, but he knew how to read people. He wouldn’t have made it as Robert Harrington’s son for so long if he couldn’t catch onto microexpressions and miniscule changes in body language. He couldn’t have survived as the top dog of Hawkins High if he couldn’t tell someone was spreading rumors about him by just a change in their tone when they spoke to him next. And suddenly having once been King Steve became useful, because not only did he notice Billy but he noticed the things that Billy clearly wanted kept hidden away.

Steve noticed that Billy never started fights. The guy always bore the marks of one—bruises on cheekbones and the occasional split lip, but his fists had stayed clean since that night in November. He noticed that Billy would sleep in class and the teachers never called him out in the way they always jumped on Steve for it, how in fact most teachers seemed to let Billy do whatever he wanted. Even Mr. Carter would, and the retired Marine had never taken shit from any student before, no matter how intimidating. Steve even noticed that Billy never quite looked other guys in the eyes, always glancing down at their noses as though he were scared to. He noticed that Billy got one of those gold honor roll slips that Nancy would keep pressed in a clean manila folder, and the one day Steve tried to avoid the crowded cafeteria he caught Billy sitting outside by the bleachers fucking reading. And not just reading, but he held what looked to be a well-loved book with the word Tolkein written along the spine, a book Steve had seen sitting on Dustin’s desk too. As he watched closer, he noticed the days that were different, too, the days that Billy would sit down gingerly with stiff shoulders, barely fucking breathing at all like even the act of shifting his lungs was painful. He wondered how no one else had noticed it before, how no one else had accumulated the puzzle pieces that Steve held between his fingers.

With every new piece of information Steve gathered, he realized the image he’d been made to believe was Billy Hargrove was nothing more than a fake, a cover meant to hide away the things Billy didn’t want people like Steve to see. 

Steve didn’t know what to do with any of it. He thought about talking to Billy, thought about apologizing for his hand in that night after Joyce mentioned how suspicious it might have seemed that Max was alone with so many guys at night, he even thought about picking a fight just to get his attention. But none of it felt right, and anytime he got close enough to speak those blue eyes would turn on him and Steve’s throat would close up like none of the words he had left were acceptable. 

So he didn’t say anything. He let Billy read alone on the bleachers despite the icy sheen to the metal seats, and he let Billy get away with getting away with everything, and he even let the bruises and limps of mysterious origin continue to accumulate—because nothing of note ever happened in Hawkins, not if it wasn’t Upside Down related. 

Sure, Steve had heard of parents who were violent with their children. He’d heard of it in the same way his dad had once made him cry for nearly getting held back one year, in the way that people around here would say that’s just how things are, sometimes. But he’d never thought he’d see something like this.

This, being Billy Hargrove slumped over those frigid bleachers not holding a book but rather sitting with his arms curled tight around his middle. 

Steve wasn’t sure why he’d shown up at the school so late at night. Maybe it was because being alone in such a large house was too lonely at night, or maybe it was because his usual nightly patrol routes along the edge of the woods were starting to become monotonous. Maybe it was because Steve knew how fucked up his head was after everything he’d seen, and if maybe he could spend one night without carrying around a bat of nails maybe there was hope he could recover. Maybe it was because he’d hoped to sit on those bleachers with a book he borrowed but never intended to read if only to get closer to the guy he longed to understand.

But then there he was, already taking up that same spot with none of the usual confidence. Billy’s shoulders were turned inward, curled around the hands he pressed tightly into his sides. That wasn’t what clued Steve into the fact that something was wrong, though. No, it was rather the fact that Steve was close to him on the bleachers, standing in the narrow aisleway after not being particularly quiet on the metal steps, and Billy hadn’t looked up even once. The guy was usually high-strung, keeping his eyes focused intently on Steve when he entered the same room like he didn’t fully trust Steve not to lash out at him at any second.

“Stare any longer and I’ll start chargin’ by the minute, Harrington,” Billy spoke up, voice rough from either yelling or maybe from some other injury Steve couldn’t see under the moonlight. He remembered the time Tommy had accidentally launched a baseball into his throat when they were practicing, leaving him barely able to speak for a straight week. Billy sounded a little like that now, he thinks.

“You look like shit, Hargrove,” Steve returned before thinking about it because, well, he did. The full moon was the only reason Steve hadn’t tripped on his walk up here, and now it illuminated every feature of Billy’s that got drowned out by California tan in the sunlight. Dark circles under his eyes stuck out harshly in this light, along with the smattering of little white lines indented into skin. It seemed obvious in this light, everything that Steve was sure never could have happened in a place like Hawkins. 

He thought to Mr. Hargrove then, who didn’t seem to fit the image that Steve knew of those kinds of men. They always talked about rude guys, men who drank and cursed and couldn’t help but to take out their anger at the world on their children. Never once had anyone warned him of polite men who charmed even Steve’s mom, who helped carry groceries for the older ladies and who always thanked the police officers when he saw them around town. The entirety of Hawkins had been immediately charmed by Neil Hargrove, which had made it all the more tragic when they then had to learn of Billy—the rude, rebellious, angry son who lashed out at a good parent for no reason.

It made Steve’s fists curl tightly now, seeing just how easily they’d been tricked. Because even now Billy’s knuckles were clean despite the clear pain in his abdomen and the fresh split in his temple Steve knew would become another one of those faint little lines. 

“Real charmer, you are,” Billy huffed, the exhalation clearly aggravating something by the sharp hiss he let out. “Would you at least close your mouth then? Don’t need you drooling over me too.”

“You’re such an ass.” This was supposed to go better. There were so many words Steve had thought of before, ways to befriend Billy Hargrove without pressing on that deep-set anger in him yet still Steve found himself getting frustrated. 

Maybe it was easier to be frustrated by the attitude than to think about the dark bruises that stuck out against Billy’s moonlit face.

And God did Steve never understand Billy’s temperament more than he did in that startling realization.

“You’re hurt,” Steve pointed out, finally moving from where he was standing in the aisle. He moved, slowly at first as though Billy might be frightened off before remembering that the change in behavior might make the situation worse. He moved to the bleacher in front of Billy, swinging around so his feet were in between Billy’s, hands lifted awkwardly in the air until finally settling them to his own lap.

“You should see the other guy,” Billy told him, trying for a trademark Cheshire grin but the split in his lower lip inhibited the motion considerably.

“I know, Billy,” Steve tried, sucking in his breath and trying to force out all of the confidence he’d saved up over the weeks for this moment. “I know what’s happening to you.”

Steve watched as Billy’s expression turned into a snarl, blue eyes widening only a fraction before they squinted in a scowl. “You don’t know shit, Harrington.”

“I know that wasn’t a fight, not a two-sided one anyway.” Steve gestured with one hand weakly at the spot Billy was still clutching tightly. “I know you want everyone to think it was a fight, maybe to help your reputation or whatever. Or maybe you just think no one would believe you.”

“Watch it, pretty boy, or your pretty little face’ll hurt for it.”

“Go ahead man, if you think it would help,” Steve shrugged, “I’ve had so many concussions in the past year I think I could take one more.”

“You’re a sick fuck, Harrington, asking to get the shit beat outta you,” Billy tried again, though some of that anger was already beginning to leak out and away. 

“Look with those busted-up ribs of yours, I don’t think any beating you try to give me would be all that great.”

“My ribs are fine.”

“Your fingers grip your shirt tighter when you breathe in. I’ve had broken ribs before, man, it felt like my lungs were full of glass for weeks,” Steve explained, “I have some bandages in my trunk, you really should wrap them up.”

“Why the fuck do you have bandages in your trunk?”

For when the Upside Down inevitably opens up again. For when another friend gets hurt on his watch and for when he gets stuck trying to make sure five kids didn’t get killed. For when he feels a little useless on the team, unable to contribute to theories and plans but definitely able to fight and protect.

“For emergencies.”

“I don’t need your pity just ‘cause you think you know somethin’.”

“Sure,” Steve answered simply, fighting the urge to look away from the guy who confused him so much. He didn’t want to see the guy who beat him so badly Joyce took him to the hospital to get checked over on the verge of tears, he didn’t want to see the guy who threatened Lucas trying to hide injuries that someone who was supposed to love him bestowed upon him. He didn’t want to see it, but he also knew there was no working out whatever fucking problem they had with each other if he refused to see it, so Steve looked. He stared at the scars and he stared at the shine in Billy’s eyes and he forced himself to notice, because he was sure no one else had even tried to notice before. 

“Yeah, sure, man. No pity here,” Steve reiterated, hoping keeping as calm as possible was the right move. He wanted to do right by this guy, by this person that clearly no one else had even bothered to consider as anything more than just a lost cause before now. “You wanna grab a bite? There’s a diner off of Oak that’s open 24 hours.”

“You—what?” Steve couldn’t help but smile a little at finally catching Billy Hargrove off-guard. He watched as shock and confusion took over Billy’s expression, as he actually tilted his head to the side a little to consider Steve. “You want...to get food?”

“Why not? I mean, we could sit here freezing our asses off on these bleachers while you dodge all the questions you’re not ready for, or we could go sit in a warm diner with some decent burgers instead.”

Billy just stared at him. It was almost uncomfortable, going from dodged glances to such a piercing stare like he was trying to see down to the worst of Steve’s intentions. He probably was, because why else would Steve invite him out if it wasn’t some kind of trick?

“No games, man. It’s just a burger and maybe a truce.”

“A truce. You waving the white flag already?”

“I don’t remember ever starting the fight in the first place,” Steve countered, though hoped the smile let Billy know he wasn’t actually angry. “But hey, we’re a couple months from graduating and I’m over the bullshit. I think you could use a better friend than Hagan and I need to have some friends my age before I lose my shit.”

Billy nodded along slowly, considering. His teeth worked at the split in his lip so intensely that Steve feared it would break open and bleed again, and didn’t say anything for so long Steve nearly stood and left before Billy actually considered throwing a punch. The chill had frozen over the skin on his face so badly that he knew just how terribly a punch from Hargrove would sting right now. 

But a punch never came, and neither did that anger that Steve was used to receiving. Instead, Billy shrugged, wincing against the jolt in his ribs, and stood. “Sure, pretty boy, we can grab some burgers but you’re buying.”

“You gonna let me wrap those ribs?” Steve tried as they walked down the bleachers together, laughing at the indignant look that spread over Billy’s face.

“Don’t push it, Harrington.”

Billy still allowed him to press the bandages into his hands, though, and even laughed when Steve admitted that he had no idea how to help him anyway. And though Steve didn’t get the chance to confront Billy about everything he’d noticed, he still thought tonight was a win. Because somehow, Steve Harrington and Billy Hargrove ended up pressed into a diner booth together, laughing over french fries and stories of past trouble. Other people watched with terror and unease, knowing the two boys had fought more times than any other set of teenagers in town, but all Steve could do was smile brightly at the guy across from him, the guy he was sure he hadn’t actually gotten to meet until that night.

And Steve saw hope, that maybe, someday, he and Billy Hargrove could understand each other in a way no one else in Hawkins could even begin to.