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danwhobrowses · 2 years ago

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My Highlights of Wrestlemania 39

The time for sign pointing is over yet again

It's time for the stars to seal themselves in Hollywood. Thanks to family arrangements and travel I am doing this as both days at once, and unfortunately that means some results I was already spoiled on, but let's see how the show went on the positives side

Spoilers for the PPV Days 1 AND 2

So I am gonna split them in Day 1 and 2 just so it's easier to follow, but like we did for EC and Battle in the Valley's joint fixture we'll keep the conclusion across both events.

Day 1

The stage looked great

Cena using his entrance to bring some Make a Wish kids on stage

Hollywood crowd still pulling out the 'Lets Go Cena/Cena Sucks' chants XD

At the very least you have to respect the hustle of Titus O'Neil, he always gets to show up for Wrestlemania

Valhalla's attire looked menacing

Gable hit a Chaos Theory on Strowman!

It's nice to see Otis return to a similar amount of over-ness he had back when he was in that Mandy storyline

Richochet's Springboard Shooting Star Press

I...Don't think I can quantify Seth's attire, at first it looked like Drag Queen Jafar, then ended up being Scarlet Witch's secret lovechild with Jeff Jarrett. I guess the pink could be Bret Hart too

At the least Logan Paul didn't win

Becky, Lita and Trish's comic book entrance at least had some 90s comic book aesthetic to it. Trish out with the classic cloak and cowboy hat too

Lita had a much better showing than last time, mainly thanks to Iyo Sky's selling

Trish did really well too, much less ring rust on her

The Mysterios promo package was great

Dom with the prison-style entrance, and the Halloween Havoc Mask. You can see that he at least tried to grow out a tache to match Eddie's too

Rey though coming out to Eddie's music with the Low-Rider, no Hydraulics though

The black tones of Rey's attire better blends against the McDonalds colors too, but the mask does look odd but I get that it's meant to be Muta-coded

Rey giving Dom the belt XD

Dom throwing Aaliyah's drink at her for the heeeeaaat

That counter with Rey facesmashing the bottom turnbuckle was meaty!

LWO at least arrived to help after being formed

Rey won! I'm glad he did because he's been overdue a win, shame it required minor interference a la Bad Bunny (which I'm sure will lead to a Backlash match) and was sponsored by a cereal, but I think we were all certain that Dom would win. Make no mistake Dom has improved resoundingly, he will bounce back, but that's a testament to how well feuding with Rey has elevated him

The DDT counter to the Riptide was clean

At least Rhea won

Starting the main event with Jey vs Sami

Olé chants for Zayn

Zayn kicking out of the 1D

I will say it's funny how WWE purists will lose their shit over consecutive finisher kickouts, just...funny, ain't it? Almost like another company did it and got criticized for it by these same people...

Sami and Owens at least won, because they had to win, even if it is a consolation prize

Day 2

At least Brock/Omos went first because Brock likes going home early

They also at least let Liv get a pop by entering first in the showcase

Probably should've known that Endeavor was buying WWE with Brock and Ronda winning back to back after barely doing anything

Man we talk about GUNTHER's chops but Drew had some bass in his too

The staredown after Drew broke Sheamus' pin was great, I mean he should've expected it but the look of betrayal

It was a really good finish to the match as well

I wonder if the other Kabuki dancers are NXT women

Bianca's gear is good too, always gotta give it props since she makes it herself

I'm not a huge fan of the host setup but Miz and Snoop did bounce off of each other really well

Props to Snoop and Miz for adlibbing as well after Shane's injury

Doing the Brood AND Metalingus was a good decision

Edge and Finn had colour-coded weapons XD

The microphones embedded in the turnbuckle posts have been detrimental for most of the event (since that's when the wrestlers try to whisper to one another) but the sound they picked up from around the Cell did at least pay off there

I saw the gash of the aftermath and yeah jayzus Finn. Probably shouldn't have kept going but still you are one tough bastard

Pyros working for Rey this time in his entrance, and really nice that he personally congratulated each of the other class members, the hug with Stacy as well because WCW familiarity

Mania in Philly is a good choice still, gotta build a Rocky-esque storyline there

Negative 1 is a faction leader, an AEW wrestler and has been in Wrestlemania XD

Cesaro even got a mention (sure it was the list of people Roman beat but still)

And hey it only took about 15 minutes from Cody's entrance to them locking up

Paul texting for the Usos clear as day to motion their arrival was smartly positioned not front and center but in view to be noticed

Gotta talk about the absolute idiocy of Cody Rhodes for a moment too, because it's fucking hilarious how he spent all this time getting Sami and Owens to work together so that he could eliminate the Usos as interferences but had nothing reserved for a the ref bump, Heyman or Solo Sikoa - the guy who cost Drew the title in Clash at the Castle - and it bit him in the ass not once, not twice, not even three times, but FIVE TIMES. He literally just had to watch every Reigns title match from the last year (all 5 of them) to see all this coming

The fucking rubber duck too XD That just sums it all up doesn't it?

Conclusion

Well it could've been a lot worse, sometimes you just have to laugh. Night 1 was much better than Night 2, much better wrestling across more matches, the choices of winners weren't all bad across the board (even I had Cody not leaving as champ, but I was thinking he'd win by DQ like Dusty did) I think really it's just the odd choice of the Street Profits since that'd be face v face for the tag titles, but yeah it was alright, had its ups and downs, but since this is more about the positives we'll just leave it at that.

Match of the Night(s): IC match was close but I think I gotta give it to the Night 1 Main Event, just because it was more storyline-charged Best Attire: Seth, it was ridiculous and loud but dammit that's the point Best Entrance: Dominik Mysterio, the presentation and the silliness befitting to his character made it perfect Best Performance: Sami Zayn, Rhea was close but again Sami had to carry the wrestling goods and the greater storyline Best Spot: Snoop Dogg's People's Elbow Ricochet's springboard Shooting Star Press to the Outside of the Ring

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crowedly · 8 months ago

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( mari yamamoto , cis woman , she/her ) — amongst the faces lining the staff portrait wall, you recognize ARDEN KUROKI, the thirty-five year old gardener within the school. having spent five years as a member of the verum staff, students say that they’re reminiscent of clinging vines climbing up a brick building meticulously winding around every brick along the mortar; flickers of distraction in the middle of a deep discussion; the scent of top soil clinging to skin; a cat in one’s lap who determines when it is appropriate to move. their decisive and gracious temperament brings color to these halls, but be warned, you may also find them to be capricious and dogged. regardless, hopefully they’ll remain when it’s time for verum to open its doors again.

GENERAL

full name: arden kuroki nickname(s): she says none, thanks age: thirty-five gender & pronouns: cis woman, she/her orientation: bisexual height: 5’3 home: cynefin occupation: gardener for the academy; horse trainer magic: conversing with animals positive traits: decisive, gracious, curious, polite negative traits: capricious, dogged, impatient, stand-offish

AESTHETIC

clinging vines climbing up a brick building meticulously winding around every brick along the mortar; flickers of distraction in the middle of a deep discussion; the scent of top soil clinging to skin; a cat in one’s lap who determines when it is appropriate to move.

CHARACTER INSPIRATION

tba

BIOGRAPHY

- Born to a valley family and raised with little ambition of leaving it, Arden was a dutiful eldest daughter and saw to her chores alongside her siblings with no complaint. They were all loved by their parents, but in a way that fancy China plate sets were; equally as if they were the same, polished only when really needing it, and if one was chipped it was discarded rather than fixed.

- Arden doesn’t have a memory of her childhood that isn’t strangled by anxiety, an ever-present sense of being watched and listened to. Snatches of awareness that weren’t her own, of conversations had in twitches or shakes, poked at her. There was a persistent, amorphous hum in the back of her head that ebbed and flowed that she couldn’t escape in the dead of night, the deepest parts of the woods, or at her own dining table with the family cat winding between her ankles. It was exhausting, as if she were a water bucket that had sprung a leak. She had to drag her heavy feet from chore to chore or force her mind to focus on her school lessons and deafen the rest. If she shut her eyes and focused, and focused it would abate, but it was always there.

- Arden wasn’t dumb, although her parents seemed to think so since she couldn’t hold a conversation or focus on a page. Quickly she realized it was the animals, from the horses her family raised to the beetles their lanterns attracted on summer evenings. They had an awareness to them, an opinion, a voice. The larger of them had the truer thoughts, they could hold a conversation if she really squinted at them. Others were like pinpricks to the side of her awareness. There were just so many of them, so many possible conversations to be had, that they were cacophonous. That was the constant drain on her energy, why her head would ache after focusing for too long and her dreams restless and plagued––nothing would shut up long enough for her to catch her bearings.

- By the time she was in her mid teens, entirely schooling herself by then and devoting her time to the horses and the expansive garden plots the family had, she’d found a way to plug that leaking bucket. By then she had to tap into that odd power she had never heard of before and make the words of beasts flow into her head rather than allowing them to run her ragged. She grew into a somber young woman, although she still feared her parents finding out she was somehow other, somehow failing even as they thought she got better. More personable, more focused.

- At their behest, a familial insistence she couldn’t say no to even in her twenties, she married. At her behest they moved off of the Kuroki’s property and purchased a farm of their own. Of hers, really, as she had insisted and took great care perfecting. She raised her own horses, kept her own gardens, and yet never let her spouse into her oddities or private thoughts. The marriage was not a horrid one, but it was a distant one. An untouchable partnership as she kept them further than arm’s length away even as she wished to be known.

- She kept her farm when they separated amicably. Or neutrally, as the case may be. Her parents called her cold, anti-social, and foolish, and perhaps some of that was true, but she was also safe. Safe from scrutiny for why her head pounded after a difficult training day, why her eyes would skitter to the side as a bird flew overhead and screamed in her head that it saw a mole for dinner. It was better to be an arm’s length away. It was quieter.

- Eventually without their dual income keeping her farm going she decided to work for the academy as well and became their gardener. A bit of a lurking, soil-stained ghost to be honest, content to wrangle the many copses of trees, decorative bushes, and plots used for classes or meals rather than socialize. But she found herself curiously auditing classes through first floor windows and chatting with professors despite this. She doesn't dislike folk. It is just tiring to listen.

- She is content enough, although some of her days as she collapses at home with the kettle on and too many cats mewing for more dinner, it feels somewhat hollow. Perhaps it was not wise to always be apart, but she’d come this far that way and she’d figured out on her own how to make her head quiet. It would have to do.

FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

mother: alive, doesn’t speak with father: alive, doesn’t speak with older brother: only moved back recently, but trade letters younger siblings: doesn’t speak with, thinks she’s selfish

ex-spouse: … not great, but still cares for them

CONNECTIONS

possible wcs

older brother: she was the second oldest and her older brother was the eldest child. he left the valley for a period of time after one too many confrontations with their parents and he was all but erased from their lives. once she was an adult, however, arden worked to get back into contact with him through letters but hasn’t seen him in person in a long time.

ex-spouse: they were married in their 20s and separated by the time she was 30. it was an arranged marriage by their parents that never truly grew into friendship or love, but both cared deeply for each other. both had hurdles neither could breach.

general

audited professor: a teacher at the academy that has noticed her curiosity and she sits in on some of their classes to observe.

fellow grower: perhaps a staff member or a professor who has requested her help in growing particular kinds of plants or maintaining part of the grounds for an academy project. she’s really stubborn when it comes to her work so they’d be simultaneous allies and rivals.

employee: while arden works at the academy for extra funds, she still runs her own horse barn. she can’t compete for sales with her own parents, but it makes enough money and is busy enough to require stablehands part time, especially during busy seasons. in return they may be allowed to keep a horse as their own or board their horse in her barn.

would-be-friend: arden is not the warmest person, nor the easiest person to befriend as accustomed as she is to self-isolation, but this person has decided she is friend-shaped by god. a golden retriever to the black cat–well, greyish cat.

basically anything else…

#arden intro #verum.intro

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trillscienceofficer · 5 months ago

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I'm going to address the episodes you've brought up one by one, but I realize we just may have a different interpretation of the conflict between Janeway and Seven.

[All the dialogue I've quoted in this post comes from chakoteya.net]

First, about the catsuit, at the very end of “The Gift” it's hinted at the fact that it's actually functional, and a medical necessity after the Doctor took out so many of Seven's implants:

EMH: I've extracted eighty two percent of the Borg hardware. The remaining bio-implants are stable, and better than anything I could synthesise at such short notice. SEVEN: It is acceptable. EMH: Fashion, of course, is hardly my forte. Nevertheless, I've managed to balance functionality and aesthetics in a pleasing enough manner.

it's just as dumb an explanation as the catsuit itself, and it's not incontrovertibly clear, but the hint is there. There also was the intention from the costuming department; the silver catsuit especially was designed with a kind of corset partly to “make it look mechanical and sort of just strange, not totally human. You got the sense there was something strange and vaguely mechanical-looking going on underneath.” (This quote is from Jeri Ryan, from the book “Star Trek: Voyager - A Celebration”). I totally understand seeing this as pretty much just an excuse, but it is there for better or worse.

Second, I admit I have a very different interpretation of “Prey” than the one you're putting forward here. I think the episode makes the case that Seven's insubordination was due to her misguided response to her own fear. The episodes hints at it early on:

TUVOK: You missed. Since species 8472 invaded the ship, you've become increasingly agitated. SEVEN: They were the only species to offer true resistance to the Borg. They destroyed millions of drones, hundreds of our worlds. I have reason to be agitated.

Furthermore, Seven's reasoning against returning the (gravely wounded!) Species 8472 individual to fluidic space may sound rational but I think there is the suggestion that it is a post-hoc rationalization on her part, more than actual weighing of pros and cons. When Janeway asks her to open a singularity, at a point when Voyager is not yet under direct Hirogen attack, Seven flat out refuses, basically not even hearing Janeway's impassioned case:

JANEWAY: No, I'm trying to help you see this as an opportunity to grow. I know you don't want to do it, Seven, but I'm telling you as your Captain, and as your friend, you won't regret it. SEVEN: No. Your decision is tactically unsound. We will be surrounded by Hirogen ships in approximately two hours. If we do not surrender the creature, they will destroy us. A lesson in compassion will do me little good if I am dead.

Here Seven is assuming that they will all die if they try to help the Species 8472 individual doing what it was already trying to do on its own but failed. She has that certainty because she is afraid of it, because her last experience in the Collective was during the conflict with Species 8472. But drones don't have emotions, only the voice of the Collective in their ears, and Seven has yet to learn how to deal with those feelings—so she defaults to what she knows best, the brutal calculus of the Borg. But it's only her own, very partial assessment of the situation, and the odds by that point were far from certain. Voyager could've still opened a singularity and found a way to outmaneuver the Hirogen ships, still two hours away. That's why Janeway asks Seven to help in first place.

Ironically by refusing to open a singularity when Janeway asked, Seven condemns herself and Voyager to either certain destruction or turning the Species 8472 individual over to the Hirogen. So in a way yes, I agree with you: Seven did save the ship by disobeying direct orders, but only because she put herself in that position in the first place, out of fear and her inability to break out of it. It was also likely that Janeway may have had to beam Species 8472 over to the Hirogen herself, since Voyager was taking a beating, if Seven hadn't intervened. But I think it's not as relevant as Seven's first refusal to hear Janeway's argument about opening a singularity. That was the insubordination that caused all the other mess, and Seven may rail against Janeway wanting her to be just one way, but no adult can truly make informed decisions if they let their fear rule them to the extent Seven let it on “Prey”. And perhaps Janeway's punishment is harsh, but Seven did put Voyager in danger because of that. I can't entirely fault Janeway for trying to ‘teach Seven a lesson’, even if I disagree with the method.

And finally, third—I find it hard to take Janeway's actions in “Repentance” seriously because frankly that episode makes no sense to me, and in my opinion it's one of the worst Voyager episodes full stop, on several levels. Even I didn't find the episode a steaming pile of reactionary crap (which I do), the episode obviously can only reach its ending by making Janeway wildly out of character and suddenly unwilling to follow a code she's adamantly stuck with even at great personal cost, for no reason. Hell, I can buy Janeway's sudden descent into vindictive violence in “Equinox part 2” but “Repentance” is just beyond any attempt at explaining for me, and much like “Tattoo” and “Retrospect” I can only approach it as a very misguided mouthpiece of the writing room's worst biases.

The episode is made worse by the fact that it's, imho, part of a terrible trend regarding Janeway, in which the writers felt the need to put her in difficult situations over and over, and her difficult choices are always framed as... not her trying to make the best of terrible situation, but rather her taking a decision on her own personal authority disregarding everyone else. Which is, I think, interesting to say the least. Janeway is so often called to contemplate Gordian knots, but when her response is to cut them in half she's hardly hailed as the next Alexander the Great, even by the show's own writers. Returning to the main topic of the conflict between Seven and Janeway, personally I think of it as one of the few situations in which Janeway is actually afforded a lot more latitude and understanding by the plots she's given—which again points at the kind of bias that was going on in the writing room. The nuance only comes out when the writers can comfortably sit back and write within the old and tested dynamic of “mother-daughter”. (I don't see them as mother-daughter, to be clear, but that was unequivocally the intention behind the writing.)

So yes, in a way I agree that “Repentance” seems to contradict the decisions Janeway made re: Seven. But only because I think the episode manages to contradict every single decision Janeway ever made on the show. It's an inconsistently written episode and one that imho taps into misogynistic ideas about women in power being fundamentally fickle, in addition to the backward and horrible overall message about prisons and the death penalty.

Again, I totally understand seeing Janeway's behavior and choices surrounding Seven as wrong or at least misguided. I don't agree with her reasoning fairly often, in fact. Still, in my own interpretation of their relationship, I think that on one hand Seven may sound rational but often actually isn't, and is just rationalizing emotions she doesn't know how or want to deal with. This was also true for example in “The Gift”, imho. On the other, Janeway is very often called to make decisions that have no ‘right’ answer, only ‘least terrible’. Neither of them are infallible for sure, and that's the point of view I personally favor on their interactions.

I hope this post managed to further clarify where I stand.

I would like to clarify that when I say that Seven's situation on Voyager is fucked up (like in this post I wrote yesterday) I don't mean that Janeway should've listened to her demands and let her go in “The Gift”, or that Janeway and the Doctor had no right to start removing her implants (leaving them would've killed her after all). What I mean is that the fucked-upness is in the whole situation that made Seven's reclamation from the Borg possible but also put her in an environment (the USS Voyager) where survival is guaranteed by the close collaboration of everyone on board, which also means concessions of personal freedom and privacy. Other crewmembers entered this pact voluntarily (we can discuss some other time what choice did the Maquis actually have other than join the crew), but Seven unequivocally did not. Yet it's the only way she could've been reclaimed because we know, and the show drives this point home multiple times, that she was so young when she was assimilated that Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One alone would always choose the Borg. She knew of no other alternative.

I don't think letting Seven go back to the Borg in “The Gift” would've been an actually ethical choice, even if it's true that that was what she wanted. She was undoubtedly a prisoner, but I think that we forget (well, I do sometimes at least) that Seven, outside of any metaphor, can be very dangerous. She is strong and quick, she has Borg weaponry and technology at her disposal, she is relentless when pursuing her goal, and even as a drone she knows how Voyager works inside and out. Janeway took the gamble of disconnecting her from the Collective in “Scorpion, part 2” because they were expecting her to try and assimilate Voyager on her own, which she promptly tried to do as soon as the Species 8472 was no longer the main threat. So imho the ethical question posed by “The Gift” is, what do you do when an extremely dangerous individual asks you to be freed so she can rejoin the genocidal alien army of brainwashed zombies that terrorizes the galaxy? They will likely pursue you afterwards, but even if by some lucky chance they don't, you'll still have given back both a weapon and cannon fodder to the genocidal alien army. In addition to that, there's the concrete possibility that your prisoner might one day start living a different life once the brainwashing loses its hold on her.

So no, I really don't think that Janeway made a bad or even questionable choice in “The Gift”, even if it's painful to see Seven struggle against it. The complication has only just started at that point, imho. The fucked-upness comes from her having to “become an individual” in a highly-regulated and closely-surveilled community, one she could've never chosen on her own. On one hand this allows Seven to develop skills she completely lacked in a somewhat safe environment, but on the other hand it limits quite severely what she can or can't do. And while at first she rails against those limitations (she spends the entirety of season 4 doing just that), with time she starts understanding the value of living on Voyager. She manages to resist the Borg Queen's threats in “Dark Frontier” because she has learned compassion in the meantime, eventually choosing voluntarily to return to Voyager. It's a turning point that definitely does a lot to compensate for her lack of agency in “The Gift”. She thinks of Voyager as her new collective, which is equally a testament of how far she's come as much as it is a worrying admission that her new group identity is not that far off the Borg, in her mind.

By season 7 Seven is outright grateful for everything Janeway has done for her, but it still doesn't make her arc learning to ‘fit in’ any less of an exercise in shaping herself into the mold she was given as her only possible future. Is it better than being a murderous, mind-controlled zombie? Yes, it absolutely still is. Seven's independent thoughts and actions now matter, even when they clash with the rules, which is just not comparable with being a Borg drone in any way. Yet it's easy to see why her role on Voyager is also stifling, and that again she can't choose differently because she knows of no other alternative, and none are available to her anyway.

The fucked-upness also comes from extra-diegetical, production reasons, of course. The stupid ideas about what a woman is and what Seven should do to really be one (does she even want to be one?), the fact that a medical practitioner could control so closely how she presents and what she eats, the lack of actual clothes in order to make her a sexy babe for the 90s Trek target audience (“males aged 16-40”), the lack of locks on Cargo Bay 2 where she regenerates, and many other aspects that I'm sure I'm forgetting now... Ignorant, ‘default’ assumptions on how things ‘are’ that the show simply refuses to acknowledge. I know they only seem so obvious now because more than twenty years have passed since Star Trek: Voyager was on the air and the culture (in the US) has changed so much since then. This, I agree, is the kind of fucked up that I could easily do without and Seven's story would be better for it.

So in conclusion, when I say that Seven's situation is fucked up it's not so much because I think Kathryn Janeway should have chosen differently when it came to her; it's more that Seven's arc on Voyager is very complicated, for the most part, by design. Even if I think Janeway could've handled some things in a different way, in most cases it makes sense for her character to have taken those decisions regarding Seven, and I don't always think it would've made for a better story if she hadn't. Obviously I wish the production-level assumptions weren't there, and I think part of what Star Trek: Picard did right in its first season was flipping a lot of those assumptions on their head in just a handful of episodes where Seven appears.

Personally I find it valuable to keep in mind that Seven's storyline on Voyager can be complicated and fucked up without necessarily wanting to make it ‘better’. It still is interesting and effective because it's far from perfect, because everyone tried the best they could given the very difficult circumstances, because we've never seen the whole crew, much less the Captain, outside of survival mode. Yet Seven is also a survivor of almost unimaginable violence and coercion and it makes sense, I think, that her presence regularly poses ethical challenges to what other characters and even the audience might consider ‘right choices’ or ‘right behavior’. Survivors in real life, I think, often challenge our societies (none of them perfect, and where many also live in survival mode) in precisely the same way.

#seven of nine #kathryn janeway #voy #long post

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its-monster-mash · 4 years ago

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Wild Thing: Part 2

Paul (The Lost Boys) X Michael’s Ex!Fem!Reader Imagine

Content Warnings: She/her pronouns, Canon Typical violence/weed/Alcohol/Lite Vampiric Manipulation/Blood

Part 1

This is really long so it’s going under a Readmore

• It’s a miracle all of you made it in one piece; the boys had played a nasty trick on Michael; and he damn near went over the edge of Hudson’s Bluff. Normally it took a lot to rattle you, but in that split second before Michael was actually able to stop, you practically felt your heart stop. It wasn’t every day you watched your best friend nearly fall to his death. You can feel Paul’s abdomen tighten beneath your arms as he laughs. It’s a cruel sound, and you’re not sure if it’s at Mike’s expense or yours. David nods toward him, and he turns to look back at you, grinning like the fox in the henhouse. “Oh come on babe, lighten up.”

• As soon as he catches his breath, Michael lunges at David, understably furious. You’re pissed as hell yourself, but when you try to climb off of Paul’s bike to give them all a piece of your mind, he grabs your thigh, keeping you in place. You open your mouth to tell him off, but he interrupts you. “Shhh girlie, just look, s’all cool.”

• You’re about to argue with him when instead of knocking David’s lights out or storming off, you notice Michael talking to him, Star looking entirely uncomfortable between them. “How far are you willing to go, Michael?” Your jaw practically drops in surprise when you see Mike nod, getting back on his bike. It worries you, this is so unlike him.

• Paul smiles down at you, no trace of his cruelty from earlier. He jostles your leg playfully. “See? It was just a little joke, everything’s cool.” You can’t help but lose yourself a little in his beautiful blue eyes, there is just something about him that makes you want to relax. “Cool,” you repeat back to him, sliding your arms around his midsection again. “Atta girl.”

• The rest of the ride is pretty uneventful, and you come to a stop at the mouth of a cave, with no shortage of signs warning of the dangers within. “Oh please tell me we’re going in there,” you say with a grin; this is absolutely up your alley, and Michael shakes his head at you with an exasperated smile. How many ill-thought-out adventures had you dragged Mike on growing up together? You can’t help but recall the time you found that creepy old military bunker and accidentally locked yourselves in...the two of you ended up finding an alternative exit that opened up into the library basement of all places...

• Paul helps you off the bike, tugging you against his chest so he can whisper in your ear. “It’s your lucky night babe.” You can’t help but grin like an idiot as your heart races. He presses a teasing kiss to the side of your head and you feel yourself begin to melt.

• “We’re not seriously going down there, are we?” Mike pipes up, catching your attention much to Paul’s annoyance. “Mike wants to know if we’re seriously going down there,” Marko repeats, circling the cavern. “I dunno Marko, are we seriously going down there?” Dwayne asks, joining him. “We understand if you can’t hang, Michael,” David mocks with a false tone of sincerity. Paul wraps his arm around you, pulling you tight against him. “Yeah Michael, you don’t need to worry about (Y/N), I’ll keep her nice and safe.” “Stop it!” Star scolds him, taking Mike’s arm. “Don’t listen to them Michael, you can still back out if you want.” David stalks toward the edge of the cavern, his expression foreboding and mischievous. “It’s time to make a decision, Michael.”

• “Well, Either way I’m going in,” you say, getting a little impatient. You were never one to wait around while everyone else danced around a decision. “I’ll help you down,” Paul chimes in a bit too eagerly. He slides his arm around your waist, holding you tightly hip to hip before he jumps down into the cave.

• You gasp, very much expecting to break an ankle or something with the way Paul just leaped down in, but are surprised when your feet touch the ground almost feather light. “How did you DO that?” You whisper in astonishment. “Baby, I am all kinds of magic.” “What are you, the fucking Goblin King?”

• He laughs, watching you squint in the pitch darkness of the cave. “Hey I’ll take that as a compliment, Bowie’s hot as fuck.” “So are you,” you say, trying to reach for where his voice came from, but he leans away from you with a smirk, watching you stumble. “You know what the difference between me and Jareth is though?” You turn around to face him, gasping when he presses you into the cold cave wall. “I’m gonna get the girl.”

• You wrap your arms around his shoulders in excitement. It’s too dark for you to see him, but you part your lips and let your eyes fall shut, expecting a kiss. He doesn’t kiss you just yet though, holding back a moment to drink in the sight of you, beautiful and ready to give yourself to him. His lips only barely touch yours before you’re startled by the sound of several more pairs of feet hitting the ground. He groans with disappointment. “Guess we’ll have to put a pin in this,” he whispers, grazing his teeth ever so delicately against your ear. You shudder.

• Your eyes sting a bit as the cave is suddenly illuminated as Dwayne circles the room, lighting improvised trash bin braziers as he goes. Your jaw drops as you admire the sheer aesthetic of the place. Paul smiles with pride at your positive reaction.

• “What is this place?” Mike asks, climbing down from the ladder you probably should have used. David claps a hand on his shoulder, before moving to circle the cavern. “It was a Hotel once,” David says, gesturing to the now faded and ruined wallpaper. “The Jewel of Santa Carla, really.” He sounds wistful and nostalgic, almost as if he had seen the hotel in its heyday. He goes on to talk about the events leading up to its destruction, but you can hardly pay attention with the way Paul’s fingers trace little patterns against your exposed skin.

• You notice Star staring at you, almost like she’s worried...about what? Michael looks down at her, brow creasing as he follows her concerned gaze to see you standing all cozy with Paul. His eyes widen and he looks away, swallowing awkwardly. David seems to notice, and he looks straight at the pair of you. “Paul, it’s your turn to pickup dinner.” “But-” He protests, squeezing your arms just a little too tightly to be comfortable, but is cut off by the look of finality on David’s face. He sighs in deep frustration, releasing you for just a second before he startles you with a deep and forceful kiss. You barely have a chance to actually enjoy the kiss before he’s pulling away, looking at you with just the sweetest smile that makes you melt. “Wait up for me, okay?” You nod in agreement, blushing furiously. You hardly notice him side eyeing Mike as he turns to leave. “I’ll be back soon.” Just as he sets foot on the ladder, he suddenly turns around, jogging back to place another quick peck to your lips. “Okay, I can go now.”

• “Why don’t you go with him, Star,” David says, causing both Mike and Star to stare at him. “Or else we’ll end up with nothing but fortune cookies and chinese doughnuts.” Star looks at Michael apologetically, staring David down while she moves to exit the cave.

• You look over at Mike, smiling sheepishly and scratching the back of your neck. “Friendly guy,” he teases you, trying to cut through the awkwardness. David laughs, moving to clap a hand on Mike’s shoulder and yours. “What are the odds, huh? The two of you ending up lured into our little family.” Mike cracks a grin. “(Y/N) never could pass up an adventure.” David’s own face splits into a wide grin. “And what about you, Michael? What made you decide to follow us after all the crap we gave you?” “I go where she goes,” Mike says, crossing his arms defensively. “Really? Kinda looks like she’d be entertained plenty without you,” David nods toward you. “Paul’s taken quite a liking to her...that bother you?” “No,” Mike says a bit too forcefully; he never was very good at lying. “Hey, back off.” The words come out of your mouth before you even think about it. David looks at you with stunned amusement. “Yeah, back off David,” Marko mocks you. Dwayne shoves him a little.

• You take a deep breath; Mike tended to close himself off, but you were never very good at holding your tongue when you got upset...still, you didn’t want to overstep your boundaries in the boys’ own territory. “Look, Mike and I were together for a lot of years. Of course it’s weird to see each other with new people-” “You don’t seem too bothered to see him with Star,” Dwayne says from his seat on the old moth eaten couch. David grins, looking between you and Mike. He claps his hands together. “I think maybe these two could use a minute to talk things out, what do you boys think?” Dwayne nods in agreement, and Marko makes kissy noises; Dwayne gives him a light smack to the chest, before the three of them go chill in the other side of the cave to give you and Michael a little space.

• You and Mike stare at each other awkwardly; you gesture to the floor by the fountain. “You wanna sit?” “Yeah,” he agrees, his voice a little hoarse as the two of you take a seat leaning against the fountain. You sit quietly for a bit, awkwardly picking at your fingernails, before Mike breaks the silence. “I’m not upset that you’re moving on.” You turn to face him, and he continues. “I’m trying to move on too...it’s just-” “What?” “Him? (Y/N)? How did you even meet these guys?” You scoff, a little offended by the contempt in his voice when he mentioned Paul, it’s the same way his dad’s family talked about you when Mike first started bringing you around as kids. “He saved me. I was being harassed by a group of guys off the boardwalk, and Paul scared them off.” His gaze turns to his feet, partly ashamed at pre-judging Paul, and oddly ashamed of himself. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.” You scoff humorously, patting him on the back. “Mike, it’s not your job to protect me, I can look after myself.” “What would have happened if Paul hadn’t shown up?” You laugh, flashing him the knife tucked discreetly into your boot. “Like I said, Mike, I can look after myself.” He lets out a deep sigh, smiling at you sheepishly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

• You give him a friendly smack to the shoulder, lightening the mood a bit. “And what about you, Mr. Badboy, with your leather jacket and fancy earring,” you tease. “What happened to the goodie-two-shoes I grew up with?” It’s Mike’s turn to scoff, he grins at you. “Wow, it’s almost like having my first love leave me for being too much of a Goodie-Two-Shoes right before my parents get divorced fucked me up a little, huh?” “Mike...I-” He laughs, giving your arm a playful shrug. “Hey, no, in all seriousness you were right. I never really pushed the envelope growing up unless I was following you. I just thought with the move that maybe it’s time for me to reinvent myself, you know? Explore what I want for a change.” He’s smiling, and you smile back at him. “She’s beautiful,” you say. “I think she likes you too.” A blush creeps up on his face, and he can’t keep himself from smiling. “Well I’m not sure if Paul likes you,” he teases, trying to draw the attention away from himself. “He might just kiss everyone like that, we don’t know.” You can’t help but laugh, shoving Mike. He decides to be dramatic, falling over onto the floor like you actually pushed him. He sits up on his elbows, smiling at you like he used to when you were kids. You return the favor.

• Unbeknownst to you, Paul stands in the entrance of the cave, his chest tightening as he watches you laugh and smile with Mike. He walks over to you quietly, so he can startle you when he drops to the ground to sit next to you. “Easy there, Mikey. You had your chance,” he says with thinly veiled contempt as he throws his arm around you. He hands you a carton of takeout. “You seem like a beef and broccoli kind of girl, hope that’s alright.” You smile up at him, cradling the hot container carefully in your hands. “It’s my favorite, thank you so much.” He smiles back, very pleased with himself.

• Star calls Mike over, handing him a carton of plain rice. She apologizes, saying she wasn’t sure what he’d like. She doesn’t quite believe him when he insists that it’s fine. “He means it Star, he hates chinese food, the rice is all he’ll eat,” you clarify. David perks up, stirring a carton of noodles. “You hate Chinese food? Jesus Michael, how could a billion Chinese people be wrong?” “Guess not everyone likes flavor,” Paul taunts, skewering his General Tso’s with his chopsticks. “‘Least I know how to use chopsticks,” Michael spits back, earning dramatic ooos from the boys. “He’s always been shit at it, doesn’t have the patience,” Dwayne says. “Not me,” Marko pipes up. “I can catch a fly midair.”

• “Oh fuck off, (Y/N) doesn’t care if I can use chopsticks or not, do you babe?” He asks, leaning in for a kiss. You take advantage of his momentary distraction to snatch a bite of his chicken...with your chopsticks. He gasps in mock offense at your sneakiness, and you quickly press your lips against his to make up for it. “Nope, I think it’s cute.” He’s smiling ear to ear, his big blue eyes locked on you, and your smile.

• David makes an exaggerated gagging noise, staring at the two of you and thoroughly ruining the moment. “Mind wrapping it up? Some of us are trying to eat here...Speaking of which, how are your maggots, Michael?” “Excuse me?” “Maggots, Mike, you’re eating Maggots.” Mike rolls his eyes, humoring David and looking into the cartoon. His eyes go wide and he instantly drops the carton, spilling rice all over the ground as he gags. The boys all laugh, and you look at Mike with concern. “What the hell Mike? It’s just rice.” He looks at you like you’re crazy, pointing frantically to the carton. “(Y/N) are you crazy? Look, it’s-” He looks down to see nothing but rice...certainly no maggots. “It’s...rice.” He looks up at David. “What the fuck did you do to me?” Paul laughs, pulling a positively ancient altoids tin from his jacket. “Take it easy, Mikey, you need to calm down,” he says, popping open the tin to reveal a collection of hand rolled joints.

• Your eyes light up, it’s been a while since you’ve smoked, and it’s always good with Chinese food. You look at Mike, being consoled by Star. “Could be the stress, Mike. When was the last time you even slept well since...” You don’t mention his parents’ divorce in front of the guys. That’s Mike’s business, not yours. He nods, catching your meaning. “...Yeah, yeah I’m in.” Marko jumps down from his perch, smacking Mike on the back. “Atta boy, Mikey!”

• Paul tosses Marko a joint, pulling out another and slipping it between your lips. “This one’s just for us.” He lights the joint, and you inhale deeply. “Romantic,” you say, blowing smoke at him. “I try,” he says, leaning in for a kiss as he takes the joint from your fingers. He pulls away just far enough so he can press the tip of his nose against yours. He takes a long drag, holding the smoke in as he leans in for another kiss. You inhale the smoke from his lungs, trying hard not to cough and ruin the kiss; this was the first time you were on this end of the shotgun. Your chest begins to heave, and he pulls away with a grin so you can cough in peace. “Wow, you take my breath away,” you squeak out between heaving coughs. He laughs, not a mean sound this time, but with genuine delight. “Damn babe, I think I might end up falling for you,” he jokes, hand on his heart.

• You planned on sassing him back, but you find yourself lost in his big beautiful eyes. You swallow, hard. Maybe it’s the weed, maybe it’s the excitement of the night, but you can’t help but think that sounds...kind of nice. You glance around the cave, at the guys, and back at Paul. Would it be so bad to stay here forever? You’re broken out of your trance by a musical tinging sound, you and Paul both look up to see David clinking an old spoon against the gaudiest decorated wine bottle you’ve ever seen. Oddly; Paul tenses beside you, his hand on your knee almost trembling.

• David turns to Mike with the wickedest look on his face. “Join us, Michael.” Star grabs onto Mike, looking even more tense than Paul does now. “You don’t have to do it, Michael. It’s not too late to back out,” she urges. “What is it?” “Blood,” she says. You laugh at the obsurdity, and Mike shakes his head at her, knocking back the bottle and drinking deeply. The boys cheer, and David turns the bottle to you. “(Y/N)...drink, and be with us forever.”

• Before you can reach for it, Paul holds his hand out to David. Unfortunately, it slips out of his hand, the bottle shattering at your feet, spilling wine over your shoes. David shoots him the nastiest look, and Paul puts his hands up in apology. “Fuck, shit, I’m so sorry; I’ll clean that up,” he says, dropping to his knees. You drop down beside him, and his eyes go wider than you’d ever seen them. “(Y/N)-” “I can help.” “No, You don’t need-” Suddenly he winces, and you instinctively grab his hand. “Fuck,” he grunts, watching the blood well up in his palm. He puts his hand to his mouth, trying to cover the bleeding. “Shit, Paul, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-” “Maybe you should kiss it better,” Marko taunts. “I’m fine, (Y/N), really.” He gazes at you soothingly with those eyes of his, trying not to wince as you blot at his bleeding hand with your shirt. “You’re bleeding like crazy-” you start to argue, before noticing that his hand is hardly bleeding anymore. How could that be? He flexes his hand gingerly. “See, I told you I’m fine,” he smiles at you, his eyes sparkling. “Wouldn’t mind that kiss though.” You smile back at him, taking his hand to your lips. You taste the blood still wet against his hand, and strangely, it tastes almost sweet. You wonder if maybe it’s the weed smoke on your tongue, or maybe the chinese food, that’s making his blood taste so strange. You stare up at him sheepishly, thankful he can’t tell what you were thinking just now. He caresses your face softly in his hand, and you melt into the tenderness of his touch. “You’re so cute when you’re worried about me.” He presses his lips against yours, and you’re immediately hit by the sweet taste of his blood again. Part of you is horrified with yourself; you know you should pull away, but it’s just too good. You think you might die when he slips his tongue into your mouth. All too soon he pulls away, looking more than satisfied with himself, a breathless glee in his eyes. He strokes his thumb across your mouth, coming back bloody. “Looks like we made a mess.” He leans in to whisper in your ear. “And it looks like you liked it.” Your body tenses, mortified at being caught, but he runs a comforting hand down your back. “Don’t worry babe, it’ll be our dirty little secret.”

#mypost #the lost boys #paul lost boys #Paul lost boys imagine #paul the lost boys #the lost boys imagines #paul lost boys x reader #David knows he TOTALLY did that on purpose #He wanted the Reader to turn with HIS blood #He was scared as hell when she bent down to help though because if she’d have gotten cut he wouldn’t know how he and the boys would react #tlb imagines #paul tlb

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ignisnocturnalia · 4 years ago

Text

Eramis x Reader Relationship HCs

Your first meeting isn't really a meeting.. more like hiding in the upper level of buildings and listening in on conversations

Despite clear Vanguard protocol, you found yourself too enraptured by her speeches and voice in general to report her

You don't have a name to the face until the Darkness arrives, bringing all hell to Europa

As a hero of the Red War, Zavala is genuinely surprised when you advocate the use of Stasis

The reason becomes obvious during a conversation with Variks regarding the Ship Stealer

You're in love, even if you won't admit it

Happening at the same time as this conversation is the investigation mission the Vanguard cleared you for

The first time Eramis sees you, she thinks nothing of it; a lightbearer was simply there for contest

As a leader, however, she recognizes the spirit of a strong warrior

The next few meetings are a sort of dance

Verbal jabs, followed up by subtle shows of control using Stasis

After a while, the fights become less vicious and even the Vanguard reprimands you for your lack of action against her with their rising concerns

Eventually, you receive a personal invitation from the Kell herself

Being face to face and not trying to kill each other is odd at best

Being 100% unsure about Eliksni etiquette, you make a full bow

She's laughing at you

While your face is burning up, there's also a quiet pride in gaining such a reaction from her

Just like teens in love, you and Eramis (mostly you) begin courting behind your peers' backs

She thinks most human concepts are ridiculous, especially those regarding religion

YOU think Eliksni hierarchy traditions are convoluted

Lots of arguments, but with no real backing and more like sharpening your partner's wit in case of external opposition, all while trying not to break personality

Eramis enjoys the texture of your hair, often lightly scraping her claws along your helmet when she wants to groom it

She doesn't allow it at first, and it takes a lot of persistence, but you finally get to pet the side of her face where her eyes have been lost

"Wait. You can purr?"

"Shut up, insect."

Insults are the name of the game, all in jest, of course

You find immense satisfaction in sitting atop her shoulders, who knew being over 10 feet in the air on the shoulders of your Eliksni significant other could be so fun!

Likewise, she admires that such a tiny vessel could carry the amount of power it does

Power👏Couple👏

While she initially doesn't know what you mean by "aesthetic", she's more than happy to provide you with a custom class item marked by the House of Devils/Salvation sigil

When she approaches a situation with too much energy, you mellow her out enough to let her council speak to her and be heard

While her council does have doubts about you, they begrudgingly acknowledge your usefulness

She does NOT tolerate any bad speak or dirty stares directed at you

Eramis helps you with tactical poise, and you both typically share many laughs over knowing half the strikes you carry out are following her advice and not what Zavala and Ikora say

Many quiet moments where you are splayed out in her lap and you simply stare at each other

Comfortable silence, but also knowing that when things really go down you'd have a tough decision to make

Nsfw 👁👄👁

You can't look me in the eye and tell me that Eramis isn't a dom

Surprisingly, she does not like biting hard enough to leave marks and such; she much more prefers grazing over sensitive spots with her fangs to get sounds out of you

Eramis uses her primary arms to mess with any part of your upper body: arms, neck, face, chest, etc whether it be massaging or restraintment

Her secondary arms are usually busied with making sure you can't close your legs to stop her from delivering any ministrations on your body

You can certainly try, but most likely won't get her to fully derobe for the act; vulnerability on the physical level is a big no no for someone of her position

If YOU'RE a dom... fuckin beyblades man

Battle for dominance is worse than any other argument in history

Lots of grabbing handsy action, multiple attempts at finding sensitive spots to gain an upper hand

POV: Riskrunner, except the perk is not activated by being hit by arc sources, but by the immense amount of horny in the room

Fluff

Things calm way down when you both finish

The low temperature of the planet naturally prompts you to snuggle

Eramis will oblige, so long as she is the big spoon or laying with 50% of her body on top of yours

Part of her still doesn't want to accept that you, in all of your glory, is fully capable of defending yourself, not to mention a killing machine on the field

You always give her this victory, because soon after you both share concerns for the future of your people

It's comforting knowing that something so radically different from the human race would have similar worries, and it brings forth hope that the relationship could be used as an example to bring human and Eliksni together for the better

#eramis #destiny 2 #relationship headcanon #eramis x reader #variks #variks the loyal #vanguard #ikora rey #commander zavala

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archived-gtronpa-account · 4 years ago

Note

you mind writing anything with shuichi and kokichi? i just love how you write them iejfjdkdij

Tysm bby 🥺🥺 I too love writing those losers pfpfpfpf

(sorry this took so long btw!! at this point ur prolly thinking your ask got eaten by tumblr bsbsbsbs writer's block just hit me HARD)

____

Word count: 2800

Summary: The participants of the killing game stay away from Kokichi, and big villain Kokichi antagonizes himself. Meanwhile, Shuichi just wants to have a talk.

____

After Monokuma's new motive, everyone agreed that Kokichi had to be the mastermind. It didn't help that even the boy himself pushed the idea on to his classmates. Shuichi didn't buy into the obvious lie.

The motive put Kokichi at a severe disadvantage; he couldn't access the main school building, the dorms— really, he couldn't get inside any building. Not only that, but he was much easier to spy on and sneak up to. Still, Shuichi could see why it was so easy for his peers to think of Kokichi as the villain hiding among them; on surface level, it would make sense for the mastermind to put himself in a position of power to strike fear and force the killing game to start, and somehow making himself grow taller than every building overnight seemed like a good way to do that.

Shuichi's footsteps were slow with reluctance as he walked through the courtyard. Kaito and Maki wouldn't let him go talk to Kokichi if they knew— at least not alone, but they didn't have to know nor find out. The three of them had already separated long ago after they were done with training, and come to think of it, he hadn't met anyone else wandering out on his way, besides Ryoma who hung around the dorms. He was glad no one would question him, but nervous at the idea of having little to no witness should something happen that night.

Kokichi was thankfully awake, sitting behind the main building and staring hard at his checkered scarf that had for some reason been laid out on the ground. Shuichi felt even more hesitant to break whatever odd thing was going on. All of a sudden, he remembered why he was so nervous; Kokichi looked much, much more intimidating when he could grab anyone in a fist and dangle them twenty feet above ground. Shuichi decided he could try to talk to him another time, and spun on his heels to retreat when a voice made him freeze on the spot.

"My beloved detective! I was just thinking about you~"

When said detective looked over his shoulder, he found a giant Kokichi peering down at him with a radiant smile, and he somehow found himself regretting both his decision to come and to leave.

"Kokichi, ah… Wh-what were you thinking?"His hand unconsciously reached for the hat on his head to pull it further down, and he didn't miss how Kokichi's eyes flickered to the hat and reflected something that vanished too fast for Shuichi to read into.

"Nothing, nothing! Just thinking that you're basically my best target to kill," almost too easily, his smile stretched into a familiar leer, "An investigation without our dearest, coolest detective just wouldn't go the same. Besides, no one could suspect me of killing my beloved, so you're my ticket to get out of this hell school! Ah, or maybe I could bury your dead body so that there would be no body discovery and no class trial, only the pain and despair of loosing yet another classmate. How's that sound?"

What the— that was harsh, and quick, almost instantaneous. Kokichi was definitely on edge, all the more reasons not to talk to him. Still…"Please don't joke about that," Shuichi pulled his hat further down, silently apologizing to Kaede for still being this weak after the death of so many of his friends. He didn't dare look up to the large face of the evil leader.

A beat passed, then another, and when nothing more happened and the boy thought nothing more would happen and he would better leave already, "… Sheesh, fine. I'm sorry you're so sensitive, Shuichi."

"A-ah," the sudden mood swing caught him off guard. Kokichi's voice had fallen much lower and quieter than its usual childish high pitch. "It's fine." He still didn't dare look up, instead focusing his gaze on the scarf that laid on the ground. "I… What were you doing?"

"Oh, this? Nothing, really, just lil' old me playing games with lil' old myself. Hey, maybe I won't kill Saihara if he beats me at a game of chess!" Without looking up, he could feel the giant boy shift and lean above him and saw his shadow stretch until it engulfed him.

"Wha- I didn't- I only wanted to talk a bit."

"Wha-? Ah? I did-didn't- I only want to play a game. So really, it's your choice."

There was really no arguing with him. Maybe Shuichi could get him to talk if he accepted to play with him for a bit. "Alright, but," he stepped closer up, inspecting the scarf. It had been folded into a sixty four squares chessboard, but, "How are we playing without pieces?"

"You just have to imagine real hard that they're there, and suddenly you can see them right in front of you! I also hope you know the algebraic notation, since we'll be needing it." Shuichi tried to ignore the unnerving feeling of the ground faintly shaking under his feet as Kokichi shifted and fidgeted on his spot like an overly excited child.

"I think I do, but doesn't this sounds a little too hard?"

"Geez, Shuichi, I didn't think you of all people would have trouble imagining what's not there. You look like the kid in middle school who only talked to his imaginary friends. Besides, games are always more fun on hard mode anyway." Shuichi sighed and resigned himself to the fact that he was about to waste precious sleep hours playing an impossible game of chess with a giant clown. He stepped closer still and positioned himself in front of the makeshift gameboard, then glanced up to Kokichi. Instead of the mocking smirk he'd expected, he was only met with a big, almost amused grin and eyes sparkling with excitement. Shuichi looked down again, some of the previous tension leaving his body. "Alright, I'll start, since black fits your aesthetic better. E-four."

And if the 'game' itself wasn't already hard enough, Shuichi couldn't, for the life of it, stay focused with how fidgety Kokichi was being. His fingers hammered down on the ground incessantly and his head rocked left and right the same way Angie's would, both motions sending faint vibrations in the ground under Shuichi's feet. He didn't get a break either when it was the others turn to play, since he'd state his next move without missing a beat— almost as if he'd already known what Shuichi would do. It was uncanny yet interesting to get an insight on how the supreme leader's brain worked, only it would have been better if it had happened before the weird growth motive, when Shuichi didn't have to fear he'd get snatched up in the air at any given moment.

Sometime in the next hour, he ended up taking his hat off to help him focus and get a clearer look at the gameboard; gameboard which he stood in the middle of, in an attempt to help him keep track of the pieces' placement. He frowned, spun around and looked left and right as he tried to remember where he'd left his rook. So focused and lost in the game, he failed to notice when his foot got caught in the fabric; on the next step he took, he fell back on his back. Startled and faces reddening, he fumbled to get back on his feet, when a large face came in his view and stopped him in his track.

"Nishishi~ Shuichi, you're really funny being like this." An encore of the insect incident; Kokichi's upside-down face loomed over him, so close he could faintly feel his warm breath ruffling his hair. Shuichi instinctively reached for a hat that wasn't there, before shuffling his hand back down in shame. He wished it had been there for reassurence, but ultimately decided it was for the best that he couldn't hide behind it. He couldn't be anything but intimidated by Kokichi when he towered over him like that and could so easily do so much, but he didn't want to be scared when he knew that Kokichi, despite all the awful things he was (and he was a lot of awful things) wouldn't go far with his games and wouldn't use his new stature to his advantage.

"It's…" he took a second to breath, regain his composure and look the giant supreme leader in the eyes, "It's hard to remember how the board is set after every move," he got up and brushed himself off. Why can you do it so easily? He wouldn't expect a serious answer to that, so he kept the question to himself.

"Oh hush, this is the only excuse you got to justify losing so badly?" He leaned away and smirked, "I could do you a favor and capture a couple more of your pieces, hmm? Or maybe, here," out of the corner of his eyes, Shuichi saw a large hand come his way, and all the courage he'd been building up for so long all but melted away as his eyes shut tight and stumbled several steps back, once again getting his foot caught in fabric and falling back on his butt. Atua help him, at that point, he only wished the fabric would swallow him whole so he wouldn't embarrass himself again.

He kept his eyes closed tight and waited, but when there was no pressure around himself he cracked an eye open and saw, to his relief, the hand hanging a few feet away from him. The relief was quickly replaced with shame, and he felt a little stupid for having gotten scared so easily after having put so much faith in Kokichi. From above, he heard the boy groan and say, "Relax Max, I said I wouldn't kill you until we're done with this game," with a tinge of annoyance. Fear lingered in Shuichi's mind when he saw the hand approaching him once again, but this time he managed to stand his ground when fingers slipped behind his back and easily scooped him up in an open palm.

In the next second, he was lifted and dropped off in one swift movement, leaving him dizzy and slightly sickened. He clutched on to whatever his hands found first, and took a moment to process his position on Kokichi's shoulder, and another moment to answer him when he said, "Better? Now you can't come whining that you can't see the board clearly."

"Yeah…" he muttered, still busy trying to find his balance. He found his hand balled up in a fist around a lone lock of purple hair, so he moved closer still until he was huddled against Kokichi's neck, and he hoped the other boy wouldn't hear his heart pounding with unease.

They were able to carry out the game for a while longer. At some point, Kokichi's hand ended up on his lap, and Shuichi, despite his anxiety spiking up at the gesture, stayed quiet about it, deciding to accept the extra bit of safety. He took it as a sign that Kokichi, too, was comfortable enough, so he decided to try to strike up the conversation he'd wanted to have.

"Are you sure you're not cheating ?" Maybe not the best way to start some small talk, but the first to come to mind when he was loosing more and more of his important imaginary pieces with every turn and he was sure Kokichi was somehow cheating.

"Who? M-Me?" Kokichi sniffled, and his shoulder jolted with a faked sob, leaving Shuichi to clutch onto the large hand on his lap like a lifeline. "I can't believe my beloved would accuse me of such- such a nefarious deed! Shuichi, you really broke my heart here."

Then all at once, his voice switched from 'heartbroken' back to nonchalant when he said, "Besides wouldn't you except the mastermind of this thrilling game of murder and betrayal to be good at some kids' strategy games? You know, I lied about my real talent, I'm actually the ultimate chess master…"

"You have poor taste in motives if you're really behind this killing game." Shuichi cut him off before he could drift away from the subject. A perfect opportunity not to waste. "I mean, this is more disadvantageous to you than anything. You can't access any building, nor can you hide anywhere if you need to be discreet for your secret evil plans. And if you were really the mastermind, you wouldn't want to single yourself out and leave our classmates feeling safe and secure…"

More and more inconsistencies came to his mind as he presented his deductions, and Kokichi listened, silent and unmoving. "I think… I think the reason behind this motive is for the mastermind to push our classmates away from you and to," he bit his lip and prepared himself to present yet another truth he didn't want to believe, "To force you to kill someone. The school can't accommodate for you for more than a few days at most, so unless the motive's effect is reversed soon…" he left the end unsaid.

Kokichi remained silent and still, so much so that Shuichi was almost tempted to reach out to his neck and check for a pulse, when he settled for, "Maan, Shuichi, you really are naive. You really thought this was all there was to this motive?" The hand on his lap slid off, and Kokichi leaned back against the wall behind him in an viciously abrupt movement that made Shuichi slip and almost fall, then he went on without a pause, "You know, your logic doesn't apply to every situation, mister detective. The only reason I care about is my own entertainment, simple as that. And if I get bored, I can reverse the motive whenever I want."

Shuichi couldn't see his face from his angle, but he could imagine the leer easily plastered on it, like a mask worn a hundred times. "Wouldn't you be breaking your own rules then? And admitting defeat to the participants of the game?"

The debate that ensued made Shuichi feel like he was back on trial grounds. Kokichi shot him arguments to prove he was mastermind. They were full of contradictions, half-hearted and shaky as a card castle in the middle of a storm, and too easily, his truth cut through the other's words like a bullet. Kokichi sounded bored, like he'd prefer keeping his lie true but wouldn't mind an outcome in which Shuichi busted him. And Shuichi wanted that, to see through Kokichi's lies, to get a chance to understand why he was so hellbent on making a villain out of himself when he so obviously worked to stop the killing game just like his classmates, he wanted to reach out to him and pull him out of his self-inflicted loneliness and work together with him to save their friends, if only he would take his hand.

Their debate came to a halt when a crash was heard from Miu's lab. Shuichi distinctly felt Kokichi stiffen and tense up at the sound. He brought a hand back up to his smaller classmate and wrapped it around him in a loose fist, before he got up and made his way to the inventor's lab in quiet, quick steps. There, Shuichi was lowered back on solid ground and rushed in the lab.

His knees almost gave out, his mouth hung open in a silent scream. Ryoma's body lay in the middle of the room in a pool of his own blood. Lifeless eyes stared at the detective, and the detective stared back. Shuichi felt his throat constrict, his vision swimming, he clutched his chest and tore his eyes away from the scene. He had let another one of his friends die, he would soon have to investigate the crime, to doom the killer among them by his own hands.

"Shit," he turned around, and there was Kokichi peering in the lab and their classmate's body with a frown. It vanished as quick as it had come and was replaced by a blank face with a click of his tongue. "Well then, Shuichi, I guess I'll leave you here to do your detective work while I go call the others, hmm?" And he got up without waiting for an answer. Before he left, Shuichi heard him mutter, "I hope the next motive doesn't make me really tiny or something."

_____

Gosh this took so long yet I still feel it's so bad. Hope I was at least able to quench some of your thirst for saiou bae

#ask #request #writing #shuichi Saihara #kokichi ouma #saiouma #oumasai #tiny!shuichi #giant!kokichi #gtronpa #gt #danganronpa #ndrv3

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addictedtostorytelling · 4 years ago

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Hey, hope you're doing ok!

Odd question: do you think the CSI reboot will still focus on the graveyard shift? It occurred to me that the absence of some of the original lab techs etc could be (partly) explained if the new team it focuses on is either day or swing shift? But then a number of scenes in the trailer did seem to be at night...

hi, @thegirlinflat4a!

good to hear from you. i hope you're doing okay, too!

honestly, i'm not sure which shift the reboot will focus on.

on the one hand, as you point out, the new promo shows scenes taking place at a variety of times, so it seems that at the moment, all three shifts are potentially on the table.

it’s also true that, as you say, if the reboot were to focus on the day or swing shifts, then that creative decision could possibly account for why grissom and sara are interacting with a whole new team rather than with the holdovers from team graveyard who should by all accounts probably still be working at the lab (namely, catherine, greg, morgan, doc, super dave, henry, ecklie, etc.).

on the other hand, i don’t know how likely the csi production team is to go the “different shift” route just because this particular branch of the franchise has always, at least in theory, been about graveyard.

while later seasons of the show admittedly were less committed to the nighttime temporal setting than were the earlier ones, darkness and shadow were integral to the aesthetic of “classic csi,” meaning that to move away from that identity would be a big departure from the original blueprint indeed.

and who knows? maybe that’s something they’re willing to do, or maybe it’s not.

of course, beyond just the matter of aesthetic, i also don’t know whether or not focusing on another shift besides graveyard would satisfactorily account for catherine, greg, morgan, doc, super dave, henry, and ecklie’s absences from the new show on a logical level, particularly given the reboot’s premise.

i mean, if grissom and sara become involved with the case shift supervisor maxine roby’s team is investigating because it calls into question some or even all of their previous work, then wouldn’t it make sense that if catherine, greg, morgan, and co. were still employed at the lab (even on a different shift than roby’s), they would become involved in the case, too?

the only reason i can think of why that they wouldn’t do so is if there were some kind of a "because you've been working at the lab basically the whole time that this fabrication ring has been running, until we can rule you out as potentially having participated, we can't have you anywhere near this stuff" situation in play.

even then, one would still expect to see them appear on screen, though.

with those points in mind, while the writers could attribute the fact of the other original characters not being seen on screen to them working a different shift than the new protagonists, i could also see the writers contriving an explanation that goes beyond just the notion of "this show is set mostly during the daytime or afternoon and early evening, and these other characters don't start working until after fall of night."

what exactly that explanation might be, i can only conjecture about.

on the more melodramatic side of things, they could maybe come up with some sort of a mass-firing kind of situation.

on the more but still not entirely realistic one, they could maybe generate individual excuses, like saying catherine has been promoted to undersheriff (and so is no longer working field cases), greg has taken a supervisory position at another lab, morgan has quit due to ptsd after being kidnapped and nearly killed so many times, doc has retired, super dave has gone back to medical school to complete a pathology residency so he can someday become a chief medical examiner, henry has been laid off because his job has become redundant due to the advancement of technology, ecklie is campaigning to become lieutenant governor of nevada, etc.

i mean, there are ways they could explain the absences beyond the shift thing.

—it just depends on if they actually manage to “pull it all off” or not.

fans are going to want to know why grissom, sara, hodges, and (temporarily) brass are the only returning familiar faces on this show, and they’re only going to accept the reason the production staff gives them if it’s plausible, grounded, and makes sense within the universe of the show.

there are ways that tptb could check all of those boxes and fill all of those requirements.

however, there are even more ways that they could potentially miss the mark and fuck everything up.

god forbid they don’t even attempt to address the absences at all.

regardless of how exactly they choose to play things, for my money, it’s in their best interests if whatever explanations they offer leave the door open for other original cast members to eventually join the reboot, and in particular for marg helgenberger (whose show all rise was recently cancelled) and eric szmanda (who seemingly hasn’t been attached to any projects since last year) to do so.

but that’s just my sense.

for all i know, they may actually want to limit which past cast members are part of the new series, as they already have a fairly robust roster that could easily become too top-heavy if more actors were to be added on.

in any case, i’m curious to see how they handle this issue—whether by focusing on a different shift or taking some other tack. i’m also curious to see which shift roby’s team is on just in general.

anyway, thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

#answered #thegirlinflat4a #asks: csi #csi vegas #**#my meta #meta: csi #let's talk shop #csiverse

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televisionrulesthenation · 3 years ago

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S1E8 - “To Tell or Not to Tell”

Original air date: November 14, 1961

Episode recap

The Petries are hosting a dinner party. Buddy and Sally do a sing-songy comedy routine while Rob plays the piano. Rob gets up and does a physical comedy routine. Laura gets up and does (what I assume is) some sort of ‘60s-style dancing. Cut to the end of the party, all the guests leave, Rob is tired, Laura goes on and on about what I wonderful time she had dancing.

Next day at the office Rob talks about how much fun Laura had dancing for the dinner party audience. Buddy is worried. Apparently non-homemaking interests from the wife should be worrying to the husband. Mel comes in and asks Rob if Laura can fill in as a dancer on the show this week. Buddy gets more worried. He thinks being married to a career woman is bad. Rob calls Laura to see if she’s interested assuming she won’t be. She’s interested.

Back at home Rob and Richtie are having dinner together because Laura is still rehearsing at the show. He fails at making a TV dinner. They eat bananas instead. Later that night Laura comes home tired. Rob has questions about how to operate the washing machine. Roles have become reversed. Rob is not happy but keeps it to himself.

Next day at the office the snappy service guy is dropping off lunch for Rob, Buddy and Sally. Laura comes in on a break looking hot in her leotard. The lunch delivery guy gawks over her.

After Laura’s successful week as a fill-in, Mel tells Rob he wants to offer her a permanent contract as a dancer on the show. Rob is worried but delivers the news to Laura at home that night. Laura is happy. She had a fun week proving to herself she could do it. But her body can’t keep up. She wants to be a homemaker not a career woman. Rob is relieved.

Everything is about me

Ostensibly, we can make it on my salary alone. But then she went back to work part-time, and the budget balanced a little more easily. We were able to move into this bigger house. There was a little money for some fun.

But she wasn’t happy working, and we figured she didn’t need to work, so she quit.

And the budget got tighter. We can make it. But there’s not a lot of room for fun. Or all those finishing aesthetic touches on our new house.

Her going back to work part-time bought me some peace if I’m being honest.

In the back of my mind I figured as the kids got older, she’d be able to work more, and that be our money boost. I didn’t need to obsess over getting promoted to make an income leap. That leap would be solved for organically by her eventually working full time.

And I still sort of feel that way. But her quitting is a temporary blip. Like I said, she wasn’t happy. She was feeling stressed and not operating in a position of strength to be the best mom she could be. She wants to focus on her health and happiness and kids’ health and happiness.

She wanted to figure out what the heck she wants to do with the rest of her life. She wants to take an art class and find the right exercise program and start a garden and do whatever else projects.

Problem is all that figuring out costs money and there isn’t a whole lot of it to spare in the current tight budget. And my attitude is probably putting pressure on her that some sort of clock is counting down until she figures something out and gets back to work. I keep saying “this year” or “these two years” like there’s a cliff at the end.

And she really doesn’t love doing some of the things she would need to do to truly make this work. We backed off some expenses, like housecleaner and dog groomer only once per month. But haven’t gone truly all in.

To truly make this work, we would need no housecleaning, no dog grooming, no pool cleaner, no yard guy. Her do all that stuff, work it into a schedule. Do whatever the 2021 version of clip coupons is, and really lock down our grocery budget. Essentially do all the homemaking things.

Our kids’ soccer training schedules are brutal Monday through Thursday evening and we still haven’t figured out how to do dinner those nights in a healthy and cost effective way with our sanity in check. That would take effort that she doesn’t want to put forth.

So it’s been four months, and she is not any closer to figuring out what she wants to do, she is not any healthier or happier. The trade-off was supposed to be less money for more time and happiness. But I’m not sure we are getting what we paid for with the forgone part-time dollars she was bringing in.

I am not sure where that leaves her or us.

Episode observations

Life before cell phones

No major changes to the plot except I reckon many of these Rob/Laura conversations--both the routine and the difficult--happen via text not phone.

Clothes and fashion

Rob’s cardigan and polo shirt and slacks house wear, he looked like Mr. Rogers.

Richtie’s robe and button up pajamas, he looked like Hugh Hefner.

Laura’s leotard, she looked hot.

Vocabulary lesson

Someone, I think it may have been buddy, said something along the lines of, “give him a rap, right in the mouth.” I assume raps means punch/hit/strike. I feel like I’ve heard this usage before but can’t think of where.

OK, wow, just Googled it, and this usage is the first definition in both noun and verb form, while rap as in the music is the second definition.

Best joke/funniest moment

Clearly, the funniest moment of the show was Buddy’s. He was funny throughout. But one moment in particular stood out. He’s talking to Rob about how to get Laura give up on a career in dance and says to take her on a skiing trip. Rob replies that Laura can’t ski, she’ll break her leg. Buddy gets this evil look in his eyes and says, “yeah” with a dramatic pause. The “yeah” was good enough, but he tags on, “you catch on fast.” They call back to this at the end of the episode when Laura mentions maybe she could dance on the show one week per year then Rob asks if she’d like to go skiing.

But I have to give honorable mention to a not as funny but just so well written joke. Rob is about to call Laura about her career prospects. Buddy says, don’t do anything rash. Sally says, leave him alone, it’s his rash.

(Dishonorable mention to Sally’s jokes about needing a husband. They are getting old and I would like them to stop.)

Assorted thoughts on life in the 1960s

Laura’s dancing at the beginning of the episode was odd looking to me. I guess it’s just dated. I kept waiting for it to be a comedy setup. That she’d get injured or something. Not that it’d be interpreted as good.

People watched sing-songy variety shows on TV backed then apparently. Up until this episode--or maybe the previous episode--I hadn’t put much thought into what the fictional Alan Brady Show was supposed to be. But I guess it’s a sing-songy variety show. And I guess people liked that sort of thing. I haven’t done a “checking in with my mom” section on this blog recently and probably should have on this topic. Maybe in upcoming posts I will get her take on ‘60s variety shows

The 1960s attitude on traditional gender roles were on heavy display. Buddy was laying it on thick about disdain for working women, e.g. “losing a wife, gaining a roommate.” (Buddy has plenty more borderline sexist analogies about working women sprinkled throughout.) Mel checks with Rob first about career decisions concerning Laura. Rob can’t cook, even a frozen dinner. Eventually Laura conforms to this too, admitting she’d wants Rob to take her away from all this, doesn’t want to be a dancer, she wants to be a wife.

Final thoughts

Sometimes I question if were are splitting the baby to some extent when it comes to working. At least at this point now that our youngest is less than a couple years to middle school. That is should we go full traditional model or full dual income model not this mixed economy model we’ve got going on? And sometimes I think maybe we’re doing exactly the work-life integration model that 2021 calls for.

#s1 #e8 #the dick van dyke show #sitcoms #tv #dick van dyke #mary tyler moore #1960s #work #marriage #happiness #money

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risingsouls · 3 years ago

Text

Recruited: Chapter 15

[A little slower this chapter with a nice little time skip and basically setting up the traumatic experience that Namek is going to be for everyone involved! Fun to write though because we’re ankle deep in more canon shit, so I get to play around and figure out how Nabs is fitting into it.

Oh, and it does get a little graphic and murdery. Which isn’t surprising if you’ve seen the series.

Find the full story and other junk I’ve written over here!]

Nabooru

The next year challenged Nabooru's sheer force of will to live and not lose her composure. Made her question if the deal with Frieza between him and the Gerudo would suffer if her life ended. Never in her life had she felt so devalued and miniscule, a complete joke. Outside of an occasional job tagging along with Zarbon and Dodoria once in a great while, Frieza kept her confined to his side, performing menial and degrading tasks for him or around the ship. Her status as a warrior had become almost completely null and void until he decided those skills were worthwhile. Otherwise, outside of training which became the best part of her days despite the beatings she endured for quite some time, she deeply felt the truth of his asinine reasons for promoting her. A mere bauble meant to make his entourage more aesthetically pleasing. None of her talents mattered.

The rare occasions in which she had a moment of privacy that coincided with Nappa's reports of his and Vegeta's missions offered small reprieve from the drudgery and humiliation of the position she occupied. Even if Nappa did not trust her as he led her to suspect that day, he spoke with her as if nothing happened, pressing her for the dirt on her new cohorts and telling her stories about their adventures. The latter bittersweet in its own way; while she did considerably less killing with less missions tossed her way, she missed fighting in the field at the very least. With Zarbon, Dodoria, and her new found power, the few missions she helped them with never lasted a full day before they returned to the ship. She missed Nappa and Vegeta. She missed Raditz who she couldn't even speak with any more.

Mourning Raditz had been reserved almost solely to the shower she took after her conversation with the Saiyans. In truth, she wished she had requested she accompany him or perhaps fought the decision to let him go in the first place. But Vegeta would have refused to let her for his own selfish needs as well as pointing out that the planet should be full of weaklings and only Raditz would be needed to retrieve his brother. Which was why fighting it the other way would have made her look silly as well. She understood death circulated their job and warrior status like a starved vulture, had known such from a very young age, before Frieza, before the gradual ripping of her life and sanity at the seams. And yet her tears still poured from her eyes, blending with the steady stream of water dousing her from above, loss and survivor’s guilt too strong to deny.

Outside of that, she stole a swig of Frieza's wine in his honor the first chance she got.

Nabooru only spoke with Nappa and Vegeta twice on the fateful day they landed on Earth. The first informing her of their arrival and the second an update from Vegeta while they awaited Kakarot’s arrival after apparently being wished back from the dead somehow. She kept tabs on them throughout the seemingly successful encounter out of curiosity, Earth’s defenses falling easily to Nappa’s might. Unfortunately, Frieza and her fellow generals shared her interest after questioning why her charges used their off days to venture to Earth after their comrade’s fall. With little choice but to respond, she elaborated on the details she knew: a quick retelling of Raditz’s death and that Nappa and Vegeta wanted to avenge their comrade as well as see if the Saiyan living there or anyone else might be worth a place in the force.

Nausea and absolute dread swept over Nabooru quicker than a freak sandstorm in her homeland. The mention of how bringing the dead back to life came to light in conversation, as did the true reason Vegeta and Nappa traveled to Earth: to use something called the dragonballs to grant them any wish they wanted along with the realization that, since the Namekian on Earth refused to cooperate, they could travel to Namek to get their way. And, knowing Vegeta at least, she had no doubt he planned to use them to gain some kind of edge over Frieza.

Any hope for his success crashed and burned in the wake of catching a glimpse of Frieza’s morphing expression: from mild boredom in listening to the situation play out, to slightly widened eyes in shock, a flash of fury, to finally resting on the expertly crafted blend of amusement and indifference that preceded a barrage of questions aimed at Nabooru and her knowledge of these mystical orbs and Vegeta’s plans for them at such a rapid fire rate she barely had time to respond: did she know about them? Did she know of Vegeta's plans to gather them to make some kind of wish? What did he plan to wish for? Did the filthy little traitor really think he could get away with this? Not telling his emperor about such a grand opportunity to tighten his hold on the universe?

Nabooru only answered the first two questions--"No, this is the first I've heard of them and his plans"--as Frieza deemed it enough information to assert two facts: they would head to Namek to secure the dragonballs for his own wish and that, once Vegeta and Nappa returned, both would be effectively cut loose of his service. The vicious smile on his lips suggested it would not be in the form of a strongly worded letter of severance. Their course was immediately set for Planet Namek, and Nabooru was more than grateful when Frieza excused her for the equivalent of an evening. Panic tore through her, ravaged her mind and picked her heartbeat up to a startling pace.

She paced her quarters like a woman possessed, unable to contact Vegeta or Nappa and warn them as both scouters went offline hours ago, only feeding her panic. Chewing her thumb, she fought herself over which message to send their pods' messaging system: a warning to stay as far away from Namek as possible, as far away from Frieza and his claims to the empire as they could. To stay alive and just escape this damn life while they had the chance as Frieza meant to kill them on sight anyway. But on the other hand, she suspected they wouldn't heed such a warning, and her own pride recoiled at the idea of telling her former comrades to tuck their tails and flee after all they've been through under this regime. They deserved revenge, no matter how slim their chances had become.

The distress signal halted her threatening to create a trench in the floor of her quarters. A single signal. From Vegeta's pod. She tapped into the ship's systems and nearly choked at the readings of his vitals: the labored breathing, the dangerously low heart rate and brain activity, the loss of blood, all of which caused him to swim in and out of consciousness while connected to the emergency life support. With the coordinates days away, she ordered the fleet command to ensure he was routed to the nearest base and to have a healing tank prepared for his arrival. She asked if they had received any signals from Nappa's pod, but they claimed it had not been in motion since several hours before.

What had gone so wrong? It sounded like Nappa alone had Earth's defenses under control. How had he ended up MIA and Vegeta on the brink of death?

Once it was confirmed Vegeta was headed toward the base nearest his location, this one half a day away instead of several, only then did she allow herself to sit on the edge of her bed. Part of her wondered if she should have let him take his chances with the longer flight. But she knew he would never forgive her for it, even in death. The thought helped her decide on the message to send to his pod. One hand balled into a fist on her thigh, she tapped into the proper channel to leave her message:

"Frieza requests your presence on Planet Namek. Stay alive, Vegeta. We end this there."

Pulling her scouter from her ear, she turned it over in her hands, contemplating the future. Namek. The stage of potentially their final showdown with Frieza. Her odds of survival were slim. If Frieza didn't catch wind of her treason and kill her, Vegeta likely would once he got what he needed as he, too, viewed her as a traitor, as appalling as Zarbon, Dodoria, or any of Frieza's most devout cronies. Still, she wanted to aid him in whatever way she could with his endeavor. She doubted he would do much better with his immortality than Frieza would, his ambitions after killing the tyrant similar enough as far as she could tell, but if anyone deserved to put an end to Frieza, it was Vegeta. She wanted the emperor to pay for all that he had done to the Saiyans, to her, and all the other races he subjugated and wiped out in his quest for universal dominion. If Vegeta didn't show, she would stop Frieza herself from, at the very least, obtaining immortality.

While she could now hold her own against Zarbon and Dodoria, she knew she would only have a few days left of training with them and little time between to strengthen herself further. She needed an edge on them, even a slim one. Her mind wandered to the Saiyans' adventures on Earth, the details about how they could sense power levels without a device like a scouter and could lower their power levels to near nothing to go undetected. Both abilities the empire likely never considered thanks to the technology they had. It wasn't much, but figuring that out could aid her in the coming clash. She would just have to use the time she had to sleep to figure it out instead.

She lowered herself to the floor and crossed her legs, setting her scouter across from her. If she could raise her power level to its limits, surely she could figure out pushing it down the other way. And meditation might help her find the focus to sense others' ki. Keep her focused on what the future may hold for her.

---------------

Namek exuded the peaceful atmosphere the reports hastily thrown together for Frieza, his generals, and the foot soldiers brought along for the missions touted. With three suns, it never experienced night. The green sky overhead and matching seas had a calming effect, and the lush, blue grass their ship set down on could pass as high end carpeting. As they disembarked from the ship, Nabooru in step with Zarbon and Dodoria behind Frieza in his hover chair, the Gerudo was well aware that they were about to disrupt the peace these people worked to maintain.

Scouts were ordered out to scour the planet for the dragonballs or information regarding them. At Frieza's behest, Dodoria tapped the button on his scouter to scan their vicinity. "There are several clusters of readings around. One only a couple hundred meters that way," he said, pointing to the north. Nabooru could sense them, a group of varying power levels, a gratifying and dread-inducing feeling. Others dotted the periphery of her senses’ field.

"Excellent," Frieza commented. "Since they failed to offer us a warm welcome, what do you say we pay the locals a visit and teach them to respect their betters?"

Refusal weighed heavy on her tongue, but Frieza took to the sky before any of them could attempt a response. She followed with Zarbon and Dodoria, the handful of other soldiers taking up formation behind them. She tried to quell the oncoming nausea with returning to the mindset that, scarily enough, had come natural to her over the years. A soldier on duty and following orders. She thought of her people back home and protecting them. She just had a play along a little longer, until she could find an opening to hinder if not outright thwart Frieza's plans. She could not afford to consider the Namekians as any more than another enemy. She planned to avoid getting her own hands dirty as much as possible (not that standing by while her fellow generals and Frieza likely committed atrocities to these people to achieve their ends felt much better), she had little hope in being successful on that front. Thus, she prepared herself for another game of pretend. Just like playing raid and soldier as a kid. Hopefully it would be her last.

They touched down before a group of white domed buildings. The green-skinned villagers paused in their business, those working in the surrounding gardens standing to observe them better. Their ears were long and pointed and short antennae extended from the center of their heads. Their expressions ranged from curiosity to trepidation. She could already imagine them twisted in fear and pain if they couldn't provide Frieza with what he desired. It wasn't a sight she particularly wanted to see, but it would only be avoided if they played along. She didn't particularly want that either.

The Namekian that finally approached them sported wrinkles on his forehead and face and appeared far more aged than many of the others. He was tall and fairly thin. "We don't have company here often. What brings you to my village, strangers?" His eyes passed between each of them, searching their faces for a preemptive answer.

"Since you seem...rather busy with what you pass off as agriculture, I'll cut straight to the point." Frieza ignored the Namekians glower at the slight against his village and way of life. "My cohorts and I are searching for something called the dragonballs and our intel says your kind creates them. Would you be so kind as to point us in the proper direction of finding them?"

The elder Namekian's brow furrowed. "The dragonballs are sacred relics of my people. Only those deemed worthy through a series of tests--"

"Oh, no, no," Frieza interrupted with a haughty laugh. "I apologize, but my men and I have no time for such frivolity. I have immortality to secure and an empire to run. I'm on a rather tight schedule and it was difficult enough to fit this little excursion into it. It would behoove you to streamline this process and tell me what I need to know and I'll be out of your antennae before you know it."

"I apologize as well, but it is not my place to impart such knowledge to someone seeking the dragonballs for such selfish gain." His frown deepened. "Look elsewhere for your eternal life."

The emperor sighed with dramatic flair. "I should have known better than to think the denizens of a backwater planet such as this would possess enough intelligence not to cross me." He glanced over to Dodoria with the barest tilt of his head. "Dodoria here has been itching for a little action and he specializes in squashing worms like you. I'll ask again: where can we find the dragonballs?"

"Get lost. Leave this planet," the Namekian growled. Nabooru admired his guts but she knew they would prove fatal. Frieza wasn't lying about Dodoria's brutality.

"Very well. Dodoria, choose your favorite Namekian and kill them."

Frieza barely finished the order when Dodoria disappeared in a flash. He reappeared feet from the elder behind another Namekian. Pink, meaty hands grasped either side of his head and jerked before he could think to react. Neck snapped, the Namekian slumped to the ground.

"Have you changed your mind?"

The elder stared in horror at the villager whose face stared back in permanent shock and agony. "Y-you monsters!"

"I'll take that as a no. Two more Dodoria."

The next pair had a split second more warning. One tried to run only to be snagged by the neck of his robes and decapitated by Dodoria's palm slamming into the back of his head with incredible force. The second he blasted into nothing.

Nabooru bit the inside of her cheek to keep silent, fearing she would either beg Frieza to stop or implore the elder Namekian to cooperate. This was nothing new to her; she had slaughtered thousands in Frieza's employ. Why did this feel so different? Why was this harder to stomach and detach herself from?

Frieza tapped his fingers on the console of his chair, the clack of his onyx talons needling her nerves. "Still silent? Dodoria, thr--"

"No, please. No more. Spare them." He bowed his head and muttered under his breath, an apology perhaps to whoever the revered most. "I'll tell you what you need to know."

"Excellent." With a wave of his hand, he beckoned Dodoria back to his side. The general harrumphed but returned to Frieza's side, attack dog leashed once more. "Please. Continue."

The Namekian grit his teeth, and Nabooru noted his gaze slide to the fallen villagers, a glimpse of sadness and shame flashing in his eyes. "There are seven in total and they grant the wish of those who gather them. The Elders like myself are tasked with guarding them, one for each of us."

Frieza's cold chuckle sent a chill up her spine that spread throughout her body. "What luck. Then you have one here?"

"I-I, yes. There is one here."

"Very good. As thanks for your aid," Frieza's index finger rose parallel to the ground and extended toward the elder, "your death will be a quick one."

Nabooru barely saw the shot of pink energy leave the black-tipped digit and pierce the Namekian's chest. He stumbled and fell forward. Violet blood soaked the grass beneath him and spread slowly outward. Silence loomed heavy over Namekian and Frieza Force alike, though the tone between the two parties differed drastically: shocked terror for the former and cool indifference for the latter. In it, she could only think of the fact that they would likely repeat this six more times. Six more refusals from the proud people. Countless deaths to follow. Even if she did not lift a finger, her inaction to stop any of it placed the guilt just as heavily on her if she were to kill them herself.

The Gerudo. She had to think of them. Her home and the golden desert sands. Her friends, her mother, even her staunchest rivals. Had to remember that she only needed to bide her time a little longer before she could see them again and leave this life behind her.

"Search the village," Frieza commanded the soldiers at last. The wicked grin that alighted his lips made Nabooru inwardly flinch, dreading what further violence he would inflict upon these people. "Leave none left alive. These Namekians will serve as a wonderful example to their kin about what happens when you refuse to cooperate with me."

It was difficult to watch, and she did her best not to without harboring suspicion or doubt in her capabilities and willingness to serve. None of them possessed the strength or no how to fight back. They were slaughtered with ruthless abandon by the force soldiers until the last one fell to the grass in a heap. While the soldiers searched, she checked in on Vegeta's healing progress. The doctor responded swiftly: the Saiyan left hours ago in a rush. His coordinates suggested he was indeed heading to Namek.

Her hand fell back to her side as a shout from one of the larger structures arose. A soldier emerged with an orange ball the size of his head, two red stars on its surface. The first of seven dragonballs.

#fic: recruited #tw: blood #tw: violence

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pop-goes-the-sneasel · 4 years ago

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Also requesting my favourite pokemon, Lucario!

Oh DANG, it’s Lucario!!!!!!

Lucario’s HUGE. Literally the second-most-beloved pokemon in the franchise according to the Pokemon of the Year poll, Lucario represents a perfect storm of factors all coming together to result in an ASTOUNDING degree of popularity. It’s…..rly big. For comparison, Pikachu got 19th in that same poll.

It all started with a movie, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, released about a year before Gen IV’s Diamond and Pearl did, with Lucario being one of the first looks at the upcoming generation. Because Pokemon movies up to this point had featured legendaries, people had assumed Lucario, too, was a legendary, and the movie did little to disconfirm this. It could talk, it had a unique anthropomorphic design unlike most other pokemon seen thus far, and it had special powers that seemed unaffiliated with any particular type, dubbed “aura”. Already a recipe for hype!

Once Gen IV came out, it became apparent that Lucario was actually just a normal pokemon, a Fighting/Steel-type (for….some reason), even having a pre-evolution in Riolu. But it still felt special: neither it nor Riolu could be found in the wild, with a Riolu egg instead being obtained through an optional sidequest trekking through a cave on Iron Island. You would be accompanied by someone named Riley, whose design harkened to a movie character named Sir Aaron, and who himself used a Lucario. As a reward for your help, he would bestow you with an egg, that would then hatch into Riolu and you could then evolve into Lucario after raising its friendship level.

Lucario’s popularity was practically sealed. It had a massive amount of marketing through the movie and other media that built up to DP’s eventual release, and when DP finally did come out, Lucario had a perfect balance of difficulty to obtain it with how likely a player was to actually encounter it. It just felt SPECIAL, in a way no other pokemon ever quite has, before or since.

As a design, I respect Lucario. It’s certainly got some peculiar quirks to it: the anime mouth doesn’t sit right on the face with respect to the snout, the oddly-bent tail feels kinda haphazardly glued on, the aesthetic of wearing parachute shorts is kinda weird, and the only allusion to it being Steel-type seems to be its rather nonsensical spikes. But an anthropomorphic blue jackal with a clear Anubis-inspired silhouette is undeniably cool, and I feel positively toward it overall despite some odd decisions. And I actually like the dreads!

Naturally, it would later be a recipient of a Mega Evolution in XY, and a pretty alright one overall. However, one result of its popularity led to it missing part of what made it so popular in the first place: all players would receive one from a gym leader as a natural part of XY’s story. Appropriate for such an iconic pokemon to introduce Mega Evolution, sure, but it made it apparent how much of that “special” aspect Lucario had since lost. Being gifted one for free just didn’t hit right. As a design, Mega Lucario’s red markings feel a bit excessive, and I’m not as into it as I am the base design. It’s not bad, though, and the floofy tail’s an improvement.

Lucario’s shiny swaps the blue and yellow, albeit with the yellow now a more unnatural citrus tone. Suitably distinct from the base form, but not really an improvement. Mega Lucario keeps the general colour scheme, but shifted darker into a rather unpleasant olive shade.

Overall, I like Lucario. It’s got some weird aesthetic choices, but on the whole it’s pretty neat and VERY iconic. I don’t particularly vibe with it myself these days, but I definitely understand those who do, and I find its immense popularity both justified and unsurprising.

Also same Eng VA as Goku/10.

#pokemon #pokemon reviews #swsh #pkmn #lucario #mega lucario #riolu #fighting-type #steel-type #sinnoh #gen 4 #stormmodblog

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pocket-void · 4 years ago

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Bro I am a sucker for world building, just read any of my AU's to see that lol. But if you like questions, the the SoH AU, how do they meet each other. I can imagine they all have a common goal it seems, well most, to stop the war and bring peace. But, I can also imagine that they do NOT trust each other.

World building is my absolute JAM! I can honestly do it forever, it’s just really fun crafting societies and worlds for stories to take place in, y’know? ^///^ It’s probably one of the reasons I like D&D so much.

But anyways, yes, you are absolutely correct! Everyone is more or less on the same page, but the main conflict centers around how they interact with each other! Character interaction based stories are my absolute favorites, and the SoH AU is mostly just interpersonal conflict. Can they work together to successfully reunite the kingdoms? Will the courts crush the rebellion before they reach that agreement? Or will they perhaps inadvertently destroy each other in the process? OOooh drama, one of my favorite flavors of it no less. o///o

I’ll give you a general plot run down I guess? Focusing on when they actually meet instead of like, actual plot threads. (This story has way too many layers, but what thing I make doesn’t at this point-) I wasn’t planning on putting tons of thought into this currently, but since you’re curious I’ll tell ya what I’ve got. ^///^

If this were a comic or fic, the story would be broken up into various points of views and basically tell different parts of the story at different times. Eventually everything gets pieced together by the climax, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Please note that these notes are out of order, but here’s how each of them eventually meet up:

Janus is the first person to meet everybody in the story at least once, under various different aliases thanks to his shapeshifting ability

He doesn’t approve of a lot of them

Mostly because they either seem unsuited for their cause or completely unwilling to cooperate

He thinks Roman is dangerous

He knows Logan is powerful but untrusting

He thinks Patton is valuable but soft

He and Virgil just flat out don’t get along

Patton and Virgil don’t realize that they’ve met Janus somewhere before when he’s introduced later

Logan and Roman do notice, but don’t really mention it

Well, Roman does, but like, vaguely and ominously for the aesthetic

---

Janus and Remus met a long long time ago. They’ve known each other for years.

They met in the land of Diamonds, which was strange because Remus is a Clover.

He claims to be a runaway since he was young, though Janus finds that a little odd regardless.

They become pretty decent friends, and eventually skedaddle out of Diamond territory together once Janus gets cursed and is officially branded a traitor to the court

Eventually JOKER is formed and they’ve had eachother’s backs ever since. Though admittedly Janus doesn’t really know a whole lot about Remus in the grand scheme of things.

---

Remus kind of goes around acting like a wanted criminal very often; he has absolutely no fear

He is in fact Roman’s twin, their parents were of two suits and so they ended up being like that too

Unfortunately that causes a lot of problems when you’re a Clover in the Land of Diamonds, so he ended up being hidden away for safety a lot until he just ran off.

Remus’ core is actually unstable, which is why nobody (Not even himself) can figure out what his rank is

Patton eventually figures that out but he isn’t sure if there was a way to fix that

Honestly Remus thinks it’s super cool like that

He meets Logan by attempting to con him, but it ends up with them getting into an even larger scheme and busting some sort of underground trading ring

Logan thinks he’s insufferable, but a Clover is more bearable than a Diamond any day

---

Somewhere in the beginning in the Kingdom of Spades Logan comes to the realization of just how corrupt the higher court truly is.

He blows up at a higher ranking official for making clearly lackluster and inefficient decisions to manipulate and twist things in their favor and simultaneously quits and gets exiled for this. (Literally just “You can’t fire me, I quit”)

Well actually the court can’t just let him walk off like that, and basically try to get him assassinated

He realizes something is off and anticipates the ambush, but he’s still terribly outnumbered and gets really wounded, though he manages to escape into Hearts territory where he collapses in the snow and gets found by Patton

---

Patton’s workshop is in a really obscure alleyway, and there’s metal cuff latched onto his right wrist. He’s basically under house arrest for his history of trying to harbor fugitives.

He finds Logan during an outing and takes him in like a good Samaritan of course

Logan is still in his scholarly robes and so he’s instantly identifiable as a Spade, not that Patton wouldn’t find out regardless but still

Patton heals his wounds as best he can while Logan rests, since he was out in the snow for quite a while

Logan bolts up and almost causes a scene when he finally wakes, and Patton has to convince him he won’t turn him in to the high court

They don’t get along the best until Logan lowers his guard a little and figures out a way for Patton to escape house arrest (He fiddles with the bracelet along with Patton’s soul smithing abilities, not going in to the science of that rn)

Logan stays with Patton while he figures out his next course of action

He admittedly respects Patton’s profession and finds it very interesting, since the Spade court lacks a lot of info on the matter

---

Virgil has actually dueled Janus on a few occasions, and the main reason is mostly just because they don’t get along. He finds the man untrustworthy, which is a fair assessment ngl.

He meets Remus under better circumstances

They meet one day while Virgil is on patrol, since Remus is a Clover he’s the one in charge of doing errands in Clover territory

They get along alright and Virgil admits to him that he doesn’t think the high courts are doing what’s right for the people

Remus uses that opportunity to kind of nudge him into doing rebellion stuff, which Virgil actually declines

He does set out on a personal quest soon after though, and resigns from his position as a guard

It raises a few suspicions in the court, and a lot of people were against his choice, but Virgil was firm and he left before anyone could say anything more

He meets Logan somewhere down the line in Hearts territory with Patton, they’re pretty snippy with each other in the beginning

The three stay together at Patton’s for a while and are almost busted twice before deciding to leave

Patton stays at first but eventually he joins their plans to rebel and save the people, since he knows how much they’ve been suffering under the court’s rule

---

Roman gets a few visits sprinkled in various parts of the story

He meets Janus rather early, who visits him to ask for his assistance

It doesn’t work out very well

Janus is challenged to a duel, but because of the curse inflicted on him he was in no condition to fight a King ranked individual

He promises to find Roman a suitable opponent, to which Roman agrees to help the cause if Janus manages to do so

Virgil kind of stumbles upon his castle while travelling and gets roped into a bizarre tea party where Roman just kind of complains to him the whole time

Roman doesn’t take the Jack seriously but he enjoys company regardless

They quip a lot and kind of become friends, and Roman leaves him with some ominous words about the future and bids him farewell

Somewhere down the line Logan goes to formally challenge Roman to a duel, and they have quite possibly the most ridiculous and wild fight that ends in half of Roman’s castle in rubble and the Diamond court having a massive collective headache

Logan earns Romans respect and they settle stuff over tea

And those are my scattered and bare bone ideas written for you at 2:20 AM in the morn. o///o

#Obviously the story is better structures than that #but it's late and I'm having a t i m e #I kind of accidentally started formulating how the actual plot will be structured #but that's not gonna be touched upon because as much as I enjoy this AU #It's a really big story and probably needs a ton of polish #and better planning #but I do enjoy it a lot #there's some cool scenes and lots of developments #political drama is not my strong suit but inner turmoil is fascinating on a big scale #I love character stuff the most tho hahaha #sanders sides #sanders sides au #SoH au #jadespeedster17 #ask

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longsightmyth · 4 years ago

Text

OKAY SO. Here are my goodreads status updates from my first readthrough of ToD. These are from three years ago, some things are out of date, some aren’t fully fleshed out, and some problems I have this time around are absent from my notes the last time. I will eventually get back into this on my goodreads, but until then have these older updates to tide you over. Cut to save everybody’s dashes.

September 5, 2017 – page 12

1.82% "When will people realize that gold is an incredibly soft metal"

September 5, 2017 – page 18

2.73% ""The final blow hadn't been an act of brutality or hate" it sounds pretty brutal and hateful?"

September 5, 2017 – page 18

2.73% "Call me crazy, but attempted sneakymurder followed by screaming plunging into heart murder with the same knife, again, sounds pretty brutal and hateful to me"

September 5, 2017 – page 28

4.24% ""And then he'd ask that servant girl to comb every merchant ship for information about the attack."

First of all, the fragments are strong with this one. Second, that is a stupid idea. You don't know this servant girl, as evidenced by the fact that you don't even know her name. You don't know if she'll be good at extracting info. I mean, she could be. She could also be spying on you right now."

September 5, 2017 – page 28

4.24% "Why did Dorian send ambassadors without a retinue"

September 5, 2017 – page 28

4.24% "Why is the CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD being sent on a diplomatic mission?!"

September 5, 2017 – page 28

4.24% "Seriously how did these people not get conquered earlier? How did Adarlan stay in power all these years? How on EARTH has no one assassinated the king of Adarlan?!"

September 5, 2017 – page 48

7.27% "Okay for real though what are the responsibilities of the royal guard in this world because they seem significant in their scope and I question why a captain of the guard was commanding armies"

September 5, 2017 – page 53

8.03% "Idk man I feel like 'why did your previous king enslave and/or murder his own and various other peoples' to be a valid question"

September 5, 2017 – page 66

10.0% "I find it utterly ludicrous that a trained medical professional won't just say the word penis"

September 7, 2017 – page 85

12.88% "Okay look you've admitted that Kadja (the servant, who at last has a name)could be in the pay of someone but you're still trusting the information she gives you with no qualms whatsoever?"

September 7, 2017 – page 90

13.64% ""It will totes be a weakness if I mention that I'm looking for THE ONLY OTHER MEMBER OF MY DIPLOMATIC GROUP who has gone missing because it will reveal that I care about her"

I don't know what to do with these people I really don't"

September 7, 2017 – page 91

13.79% "I take back whatever points Chaol earned for bothering to learn Kadja's name. Stop yelling at Nesryn for unreasonable things. It's stupid, first of all, and weird, second"

September 16, 2017 – page 91

13.79% "I seem to have misplaced my copy but rest assured I will be back"

September 23, 2017 – page 30

4.55% "On the one hand I can understand a grieving sibling not thinking about every possibility, but on the other, "no one within our lands would be stupid enough to [murder a princess and make it look like a suicide]"

First, if they have successfully fooled everyone into thinking it was suicide, that argues for cleverness, no matter what nationality."

September 23, 2017 – page 30

4.55% "Second, this is a nation where apparently siblings are supposed to duke it out for the throne and murder the offspring of their less skilled or less lucky siblings. Why wouldn't you murder your siblings at that point? Look at the princess who's married and pregnant - maybe she doesn't like her odds if things proceeded on the up and up. Maybe her spouse doesn't. Maybe they just don't want to risk it."

September 23, 2017 – page 30

4.55% "Even if it wasn't a sibling directly, any of their supporters could have done it, or even somebody who just had a grudge and was particularly clever."

September 23, 2017 – page 30

4.55% "Third, someone trying to destabilize the current royal family could be murdering folks. It's not like you guys seem to actually DO anything about possible traitors."

September 23, 2017 – page 30

4.55% "All of these things Chaol, as the former captain of the royal guard, should be considering. Instead he takes Kashin's word for it, because no one in these books has the sense of a turnip."

September 23, 2017 – page 30

4.55% "Also, in case you couldn't tell, I found my book."

September 23, 2017 – page 30

4.55% "But seriously why are the leading suspects not her siblings"

September 25, 2017 – page 37

5.61% "These fragments keep getting weirder. I'm starting to truly believe this book was just never proofread. Example:

"There were two such vials on the desk now, clear orbs atop silver feet fashioned after ibis legs. Being purified by the endless sunshine within the tower."

Does that not read like someone accidentally hit the space bar twice while typing on an iPhone?"

October 5, 2017 – page 106

16.06% "I can't quite put my finger on why the new and strange veneration of Dorian's father bothers me as much as it does. Maybe the utter lack of foreshadowing? It could be that the man made more evil decisions pre-possession, or at least early possession when he ostensibly had enough control to try to make an eight year old..."

October 5, 2017 – page 106

16.06% "...lose control and burn him up, thus causing major political unrest and war. The eight year old was an awful child, true, but that's no reason to trick or trap a child into murder and causing a war."

October 5, 2017 – page 106

16.06% "Honestly he was a much more effective villain before the series started if you count extreme selfishness as a villainous trait.

Which I do."

October 5, 2017 – page 107

16.21% "Why is everyone STILL fawning of Celaena she isn't even supposed to be in this book GIVE IT A REST"

October 5, 2017 – page 107

16.21% "Do we have to have every single POV character independently explain to us who Silba is? Is this a requirement? Is this author being paid by the word?"

October 5, 2017 – page 108

16.36% ""In that court of vipers" [footage not found] you can't tell me CONSTANTLY that a court is pretty and valid and useless and only show us the court once (where they are dancing and Dorian is thinking about how his mother and her court are pretty and vapid and useless) and then try to tell me that they were all Evil Politicians working to drag Dorian down. You just can't."

October 5, 2017 – page 109

16.52% "More Celaena worship. Should I stop noting this? I probably won't."

October 5, 2017 – page 109

16.52% ""I told you what happened," he simply said.

I will go to my grave saying that if you add dialogue tags to something you want to be plain and simple you are doing it wrong. MY GRAVE."

October 5, 2017 – page 110

16.67% "Are these glass bells magical this seems like a bad plan to me"

October 5, 2017 – page 111

16.82% "Are only women healers? Why? Is it a magic thing or a cultural thing? Would a man be allowed to be a healer or would he be laughed out, magical healing ability or no? Would he be allowed but looked down on? Do men even get healing magic? Is there a stigma? TELL ME."

October 5, 2017 – page 111

16.82% "How does no one in this book have an ex they can just kinda nod at in the street why is it all Tragically Dead or evil past loves"

October 5, 2017 – page 117

17.73% ""How many times had he laid into his men for slouching, for chattering amongst themselves, and reassigned them to lesser watches?"

I mean going by the way you dealt with two guard who literally just peaced out and went to hang out at a party (ie, ah well, this happens, try not to do it again, come back tomorrow) not that many times."

October 5, 2017 – page 123

18.64% "Baast cats. Sure, why not, I guess."

October 5, 2017 – page 125

18.94% "I guess we do have printing presses in this world somehow"

October 5, 2017 – page 126

19.09% "Wait she named one of the Valg kings Orcus? I'm going to laugh my way to my dnd group this weekend"

October 5, 2017 – page 128

19.39% "This MADWOMAN is stuffing scrolls that are CENTURIES OLD into her CLOAK POCKETS. I feel faint."

October 5, 2017 – page 130

19.7% "Why do so few people get names in this series? Why does nobody think about the fact that they don't know people's names?!"

October 5, 2017 – page 132

20.0% "The bell alarm would be super clever if you discount the fact that anyone who watched the library for any length of time would know it never closed, and would therefore know that there was no bell toll to signal the library closing, and would THEREFORE know that the jig, she is up"

October 5, 2017 – page 135

20.45% "This isn't quite as bad as Dorian letting Sorscha take the blame for the damage caused by his magical temper tantrum, but come on, Yrene. You want a servant to leave so you can talk to Chaol in private so you straight up say that she HARMED him?"

October 5, 2017 – page 135

20.45% "That is quite frankly despicable, even if we ignore the possible consequences to Kadja. You just told the woman she hurt somebody! You put that on her shoulders! You have officially become awful."

October 5, 2017 – page 136

20.61% "Wait wait wait Yrene KNOWS that she has made Kadja worry about her position and wellbeing by literally saying that she hurt Chaol, and Yrene doesn't even care? What the everloving FUCK."

October 5, 2017 – page 138

20.91% "Why would bodiless shadow entities care about what bodies they inhabited? Is there a reason they only take dude bodies? Did they study humans for a while and decide they should be aesthetically pleasing men to be most effective? WHY"

October 5, 2017 – page 145

21.97% ""Either your lack of consciousness during that initial healing kept you from feeling this sort of pain, or perhaps whatever this is had not... settled."

Aka, I needed a wordy way to explain this particular asspull plot device.

Sorry, true love device."

October 5, 2017 – page 148

22.42% "Are the ruks basically the eagles. Are they. (In fairness I was thinking of the seanchan flying lizard things whose name escapes me from Wheel of Time until this point)"

October 5, 2017 – page 150

22.73% "How are they having this conversation up in the air with the wind"

October 5, 2017 – page 151

22.88% ""[Celaena] and Dorian both possess considerable magic. But I would say it is their intelligence that is the stronger weapon."

Celaena and Dorian's intelligence: [footage not found]"

October 5, 2017 – page 153

23.18% "Does nobody suspect Yrene? She found the body, she sounded the alarm for something nobody else found, she has all those weird books about death magic and stuff, she has access to the royal family..."

October 5, 2017 – page 159

24.09% "You just told Kadja to add lots of honey Yrene don't fucking complain like it's her fault the tea is too sweet now. What the hell. Why are we hating on Kadja so much. She's doing her job as stated by the book.

It's because this is when the author decided that Yrene was going to be Chaol's new love interest isn't it"

October 5, 2017 – page 160

24.24% "Of course Chaol instinctively puts the right amount of honey into the tea. Because why not I guess."

October 5, 2017 – page 165

25.0% "WHY DOES THE GRAND EMPRESS NOT HAVE A NAME"

October 5, 2017 – page 175

26.52% "I'm not saying the idea with the horse is impossible or even ill-conceived, but did you train the horse to answer only to rein? Because it doesn't matter how patient the horse is, if Chaol doesn't have control over his legs they'll either swing a bit, giving the horse commands it has been trained to obey, or keep constant hard pressure, which would confuse the horse if it was trained traditionally."

October 5, 2017 – page 175

26.52% "In other words, this is actually a considerate idea. Unfortunately it lacks the knowledge of someone who knows about horses. And I'm not saying all horses are trained the same way, but that's another factor - is this horse trained to ignore legs, one of the main forms of signaling for riders - in favor of rein? Never mentioned."

October 5, 2017 – page 178

26.97% ""You have a good seat" he says, at which point Yrene promptly flails everywhere and slides back and forth in her saddle. That means she does not have a good seat. Do a teensy bit of research on horses and riding please"

October 5, 2017 – page 178

26.97% "Here's the thing. "No lady, beautiful or plain, young or old, deserved to be gawked at."

It's a great sentiment. It's a sentiment I applaud. It's a sentiment that is completely undermine by this appearing to happen only to Yrene as a tool to tell us how desirable she is, and don't try to tell me it's not."

October 5, 2017 – page 179

27.12% ""You encounter that [harassment] here?"

Chaol. Literally one page ago you were commenting on people ogling her creepily. Keep up."

October 5, 2017 – page 180

27.27% ""Dorian has long studied and admired the khaganate."

Uh-huh. That's why it was never mentioned before the beginning of this book as anything other than the mysterious southern continent where Nesryn was from. Makes total sense."

October 5, 2017 – page 185

28.03% "Look I'm no fan of Chaol these days but it doesn't matter - you're shouting about the man's disability that he is clearly insecure about to a crowd while he sits there after having agreed to help you with something entirely different. You don't have his permission. He didn't ask you to talk to other healers. Why are you being a dick?"

October 5, 2017 – page 185

28.03% "Also, the medical professionals still refuse to say the word penis. I don't know why manhood is better, but apparently euphemisms rule the day in this world."

October 5, 2017 – page 185

28.03% "Also, the medical professionals still refuse to say the word penis. I don't know why manhood is better, but apparently euphemisms rule the day in this world."

October 5, 2017 – page 186

28.18% "No nope nuh-uh this is actually nausea inducing my blind eye isn't even that big a deal but somebody shouting about it and giving my medical particulars to a giant crowd of people I wasn't even told about and pointing out (loudly) that it was rolling off to the side or something would be SO AWFUL. Jesus Christ, I didn't even know I could have this kind of reaction."

October 5, 2017 – page 186

28.18% "Fuck this book."

October 5, 2017 – page 186

28.18% "Fuck Yrene."

October 5, 2017 – page 186

28.18% "This is the WORST."

October 5, 2017 – page 186

28.18% "He's literally either strapped to a horse or being carried by these so called healers he can't even just LEAVE. Fuck."

October 5, 2017 – page 187

28.33% ""She means well, my Yrene."

Don't.

Care."

October 6, 2017 – page 187

28.33% "Still not over it (she literally goes, as if it's a treat, "who would like to assist lord westfall from his mount to his chair?" Could that have even been PHRASED more insultingly?) but let's see what horrors come next."

October 6, 2017 – page 188

28.48% "It's a small thing but he keeps referring to them in his brain as 'these ladies' like way to be patronizing Chaol I'm trying to give you a pass because of the EXTREME AMOUNT OF DICKISHNESS that has recently been visited upon you but come on"

October 6, 2017 – page 188

28.48% "Stop with beheld.

Also, not to harp on this, but can YA in general get its facts straight in regards to self defense? Chaol has never trained non-soldiers. Chaol has never been trained BY non-soldiers. Chaol has never studied or considered the types of self-defense necessary for, say, a twelve year old girl who ha otherwise had no martial arts training and will probably not have other martial arts training."

October 6, 2017 – page 188

28.48% "The techniques involved are ENTIRELY DIFFERENT."

October 6, 2017 – page 190

28.79% "I ask again, what duties went with captain of the royal guard?!"

October 6, 2017 – page 195

29.55% "She gets mad at him when he makes a jibe about her getting the apprentices to haul him off his horse without asking him. She literally just walks away from him while he's still strapped to the horse. Now she's demanding if she DID something to him"

October 6, 2017 – page 195

29.55% ""Your piss-poor attitude helps no one and nothing"

Go fuck yourself Yrene"

October 6, 2017 – page 196

29.7% "But it's NESRYN who's the bad guy for expressing surprise that Chaol rode somewhere?!"

October 6, 2017 – page 199

30.15% "Okay, at least she apologized. Sorta? "I'm sorry. I should have considered your feelings on the matter."

Yeah. You should have. Or maybe, like, ASKED."

October 6, 2017 – page 203

30.76% "In my quest for fairness, that passage about Chaol feeling guilty for shit that went down in his past was significantly better done than most of the whole book. Unfortunately we've seen no sign of these things in Chaol's POV before, so it still comes out of left field."

October 6, 2017 – page 217

32.88% "Of course the princess' favorite story is about Celaena even if she doesn't know it's about Celaena"

October 6, 2017 – page 223

33.79% "It's possible I just like badass queer ladies, but Hassar is sounding cooler and cooler outside the weird jealousy thing with Renia. It's also possible that it's because the narrative doesn't try to tell me she's Good and Pure while she's talking about beheading folks."

October 6, 2017 – page 224

33.94% "I take it back. Why is everyone awful."

October 6, 2017 – page 233

35.3% "All of a sudden they're so attracted to each other that him saying her name 'made her toes curl'. It's not that I didn't see this coming, it just feels super abrupt."

October 6, 2017 – page 247

37.42% ""He hadn't quite realized how slim her waist was, how her hips flared beneath it. How her other assets swelled above."

I leave this for y'all without further comment."

October 6, 2017 – page 254

38.48% "Where are all the question marks?"

October 6, 2017 – page 256

38.79% "Apparently because Chaol is not cave-man jealous that Nesryn is talking to another dude, he and Nesryn aren't meant to be. Wow."

October 6, 2017 – page 271

41.06% ""But the scroll... it was too precious. Too ancient to treat so callously. Even flattening it out might harm the integrity of the paper, the ink."

Didn't stop you from SHOVING IT INTO YOUR POCKET EARLIER, YRENE"

October 25, 2017 – page 282

42.73% "I'm back to ask where all the question marks went"

January 5, 2018 – page 285

43.18% "That was a paragraph made almost entirely of fragments."

January 5, 2018 – page 293

44.39% ""The scent of lemon and lavender [from the Torre]" that is my perfume how did I never notice it before I AM SO MAD"

January 5, 2018 – page 299

45.3% "More retconning to make Dorian's still unnamed father a sort of antihero making hard decisions by murdering everybody who could maybe use magic."

January 5, 2018 – page 299

45.3% "I hate everything about this idea, and everything about how all evil men are redeemed or found to have not been under their own power while women who do something 'wrong' (like doubting Celaena) are given grisly punishments even when they are revealed to be misguided or whatever in the case of Kaltain."

January 5, 2018 – page 299

January 5, 2018 – page 308

46.67% "I actually do appreciate this. The handling of Chaol's disability has been pretty crappy, but this guard (with a name!) has a prosthetic arm and he uses it and goes about his life. Props."

January 6, 2018 – page 317

48.03% "I actually do like this part. If Yrene were always like this I'd like this book, but the book can't seem to just let Yrene be this person who always wants to help people. I can't put my finger on why she seems so inconsistent to me. It could be the many mentions of Celaena are off-putting, or it could be that we rarely ever see Yrene helping the poor."

January 6, 2018 – page 317

48.03% "I won't say never because we have at least two examples. As always though, these books rely too heavily on telling while they show us something else."

January 6, 2018 – page 319

48.33% "This is part of the reason these books frustrate me so much. Every once no a while a line or a paragraph comes that makes me think that maybe the author Gets It, but then it's lost in a miasma of Celaena worship and males and females and all that nonsense."

January 6, 2018 – page 324

49.09% "Then we get "don't you waste one heartbeat being afraid of a coward who hunts women in the darkness."

First of all, that could be polished up to be a better line. Second, it's literally a demon hunting her. Third, she has the bare basics of self defense. Fourth, YES WE ARE AFRAID OF PEIPLE HUNTING WOMEN IN THE DARK, YOU DICK. That doesn't mean we can't do something about it. Fuck off."

January 6, 2018 – page 328

49.7% "Men are "silky, Court-trained liars" a la Black Jewels, but women are apparently "smooth, pretty" liars. Make of that what you will."

January 6, 2018 – page 338

51.21% "Nope we have spent five books and multiple short stories in Celaena's mind we never see any of this planning I will not be convinced by this toadying"

January 6, 2018 – page 340

51.52% "Why does no one seem to understand that being good at using a weapon does not immediately equate to being a good tactician or a good leader?!"

January 6, 2018 – page 347

52.58% ""But what is more unusual: that a Balruhni woman is their captain, or that a captain of Adarlan has ventured so far?"

Idk she's supposed to be running the military body responsible for the protection of a king so I'd think it would be unusual for her to leave said king but what do I know"

January 6, 2018 – page 347

52.58% ""The real question is... does she come as emissary or bride?"

That would not be my real question I have to admit. Also it's a stupid question. These books are written with a juvenile humor and juvenile character interactions while trying to give graphic adult content and I hate everything."

January 6, 2018 – page 349

52.88% ""Made sure he notes that the grace with which she moved was not some feminine gift"

Sorry do you think women just naturally move gracefully?"

January 6, 2018 – page 371

56.21% "Apparently the sentient southern spiders are not as civilized as the northern sentient spiders idk y'all"

January 6, 2018 – page 378

57.27% "Of course the fae brought 'civilizations to the southern continent of course they did"

January 6, 2018 – page 405

61.36% "Hang on can the giant birds talk now?"

January 6, 2018 – page 405

61.36% "Nope, sorry, pronoun confusion. All good."

January 6, 2018 – page 421

63.79% "I mean we all know my stance on Celaena, re: her supposed brilliance and/or that of her advisors, so it should surprise no one that it seems like all the royalty here are talking sense when it comes to not helping her."

January 6, 2018 – page 453

68.64% "Apparently love can make you walk again after a spine injury. I guess that's good to know. (What the hell)"

January 6, 2018 – page 470

71.21% "Remember girls if you win anything it's only because the boys you're competing with are worried you'll hurt your fragile feminine selves and let you win (unless you are Celaena Sardothien, in which case sometimes you are allowed to win on your own in the most obnoxious way possible)"

January 6, 2018 – page 471

71.36% "I think I'm supposed to find this cute but frankly everything about this fucking stinks, a dude had his father declare he was betrothed to a woman and she didn't know it was going to happen and because she hasn't outright told the dude to jump off a cliff everybody's like 'ah yes she really does want him' even as they talk about how the marriage might help a strained and grouchy alliance"

January 6, 2018 – page 481

72.88% "It's not a chestnut if it has a black mane it is a bay I swear to god it will be trivial horse details in YA lit that make me lose it in the end"

January 6, 2018 – page 483

73.18% "MY KINGDOM FOR A GELDING"

January 6, 2018 – page 486

73.64% "I'm getting the feeling that people don't understand how much leg muscle it takes to ride a horse successfully even if you don't use your legs to guide them. Is Chaol's tricked-out saddle being used and I missed it?"

January 6, 2018 – page 498

75.45% "Everything good is apparently fae, even healing magic. Watch Yrene turn out to be the long lost heir to the Magical Healing Fae Dynasty or something."

January 6, 2018 – page 498

75.45% "Still no word on why only women are healers"

January 6, 2018 – page 509

77.12% "Of course the gay princess is the high tempered murder-y brat princess. Of course."

January 6, 2018 – page 520

78.79% "It should be impossible to glorify Celaena without even knowing who she is AND YET"

January 6, 2018 – page 530

80.3% "I call bullshit. No foreshadowing, no nothing. This is yet another goddamn asspull for shock value and I am TIRED OF IT"

January 7, 2018 – page 563

85.3% "Once again there are parts of this that would be good if they made any sense at all in the narrative or had anything leading up to them or didn't DIRECTLY CONTRADICT other parts of the book"

January 7, 2018 – page 565

85.61% "Once again, abusive asshole dude given benefit of the doubt and apparently was actually trying to save his son I swear to god how many of these can there BE."

January 7, 2018 – page 567

85.91% "For the love of god how much more veneration of Celaena can one woman be expected to stand"

January 7, 2018 – page 570

86.36% ""He did not deserve to serve such a man. Such a king."

I am of the opinion that there are few people terrible enough to DESERVE serving Dorian, but here we are."

January 7, 2018 – page 575

87.12% "Of course he's fully healed of course he is love apparently heals spinal injuries so well it's as if they never were aside from an easily overlooked scar much like Celaena's three parallel whip scar marks on her back I swear to god"

January 7, 2018 – page 576

87.27% ""Then Sartaq clasped arms with Yeran, whine Borte pointedly ignored, which Nesryn supposed was an improvement on outright hostility"

Nah man dude decided he and Borte were engaged without even letting her know and made a FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT IT and she seems to feel that telling him to fuck off would endanger a precarious alliance"

January 7, 2018 – page 579

87.73% "Sorry the Borte quote was supposed to be 579"

January 7, 2018 – page 579

87.73% "Either way, why is everyone treating this like it's cute?"

January 7, 2018 – page 579

87.73% "It's creepy in the extreme and manipulative AT BEST"

January 7, 2018 – page 580

87.88% ""Yet as she left, Nesryn could have sworn Borte gave Yeran a secret, small smile"

No. Stop it. This isn't cute. This is creepy as fuck. Stop telling people that all you have to do is make the girl yours and she'll love you eventually. That's some Stockholm bullshit. I hate everything."

January 7, 2018 – page 580

87.88% ""She set a date. That's how she got my hearth-mother to approve."

Cool so Borte BARTERED HERSELF OFF to save her hearth-brother dude but we're just going to pretend this is cute I hate EVERYTHING"

January 7, 2018 – page 591

89.55% ""It would have been like Aelin, to shift the battle between her and Maeve to the shore. To minimize casualties, so she could unleash her full power without hesitation."

FOOTAGE NOT FUCKING FOUND Celaena has never given any sort of shits about innocent bystanders aside from useless lip service and has in fact BURNED ENTIRE SHIPS OF HER ALLIES ALIVE and been irritated that people were upset with her about it"

January 7, 2018 – page 591

89.55% "I am SO ANGRY"

January 7, 2018 – page 601

91.06% "Once again, no foreshadowing whatsoever."

January 7, 2018 – page 609

92.27% "No fucks given about Duva, it's all about the fetus now apparently"

January 7, 2018 – page 639

96.82% "I fail to see why the gender of a demon makes any difference at all. Why is this an OMG BIG REVEAL?"

January 7, 2018 – page 640

96.97% "God the book is trying it's trying SO HARD to make not all women terrible people unless they bow to Celaena but like. This is a complete reversal of Hassar. We've never seen her care about anybody but Renia."

January 7, 2018 – page 654

99.09% ""No longer Yrene Towers - but Yrene Westfall"

The Towers women have kept their last name through at least ten generations this is BULLSHIT it's a healer thing why can't she be Yrene Towers, Lady Westfall it's not without precedent irl and all it would do would keep character consistency and not immediately behold her to a man oh wait"

January 7, 2018 – page 656

99.39% "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MORE CELAENA VENERATION"

January 7, 2018 – page 659

99.85% ""A coffin built by an ancient queen to keep the sun inside"

The sun is Celaena/Aelin, in case you were curious."

January 7, 2018 – Shelved as: 1-5-stars

#myth rags on throne of glass #myth reads #myth reads tower of dawn

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thorne93 · 4 years ago

Text

The Softest Fire (Part 2)

Prompt: Rosaline Vaughan had it all: fame, money, power, glory, a high status job. Until, one day, she woke up, and realized something was missing from her life.

Word Count: 5413

Warnings: dealing with animals(??)

Notes: First Fantastic Beast fic! I could NOT have done this at all without @arrow-guy. They have created a counterpart to this fic, writing it from Nora Vaughan’s perspective (Rosaline’s cousin/adopted sister). Fic aesthetic done by @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo.

Newt had dropped by my flat less than twenty-four hours after my imposed visited.

“Rosaline,” he had begun, “my work is… well in some ways similar to what you do and in other ways it is quite opposite.”

“You mean how you deal with animals?”

“Yes and no,” he responded, his head dipping in that shy, insecure way. “In your line of work, you deal with uncertain circumstances that must be dealt with quickly. The same is true for mine. But in your line of work, the target of your attacks are defending themselves against the law. My targets are defending themselves against us. You’ll have to learn the difference. The creatures I find, help, and study are just living in their habitat, trying to live, mate, eat… They don’t pose a threat to you, until you pose a threat to them.”

I nodded. “Of course, Newt. I’d never hurt any creature.”

“No, of course, I know that. I just want you to have an idea of what you’ll be dealing with before I offer you the job. Also, your um, ensemble?” He eyed me up and down. I wore a blush pink satin dress with a dress over coat.

“What’s wrong with my dress?” I wondered.

“Nothing. If you’re sitting in an office. In the wild though, where we will be most of the time, or taking care of the creatures, it might be a bit more sensible if you dressed in trousers.”

“Trousers?” I questioned, nearly as if I were offended. I couldn’t help it. I’d never worn trousers a day in my life.

“If that’s a problem, Rosaline, I understand--”

“No, I don’t mind. Anything to get this job.”

He gave you a twitch of a smile before telling me, “Then I’m pleased to say you have the job. I just hope it doesn’t bore you.”

“I’m sure nothing we do together will bore me, Newt. Thank you so much for this opportunity.”

------------------------

“I’m sorry… You’re what?” Mr. Briggs, my immediate boss asked, confusion and surprise on his face.

With a polite, confident grin, I reiterated, “I’m leaving. Two weeks notice should be enough, correct?”

“Well… I… I suppose we can fill your spot in that time and have you train another recruit but--but why? Would you like to be put up for head of auror office?”

I laughed at the offer. Not because it wasn’t a good one, but the fact that they were trying desperately to keep me was rather amusing. I shook my head and quietly replied, “No, thank you. That’s Theseus Scamander’s department, isn’t it?”

My boss shuffled awkwardly in his seat. I could practically sense the sweat soaking through his black and white pinstripe suit. “Well yes, but, we could relocate him.”

I waved my hand, dismissing him. “No, no, that won’t be necessary. I wish to leave the Ministry altogether,” I clarified.

“But… you’re campaigning to become Minister… What ever changed?”

“I… I don’t know,” I stated. This wasn’t a lie. I don’t know what changed. I just knew my heart no longer lied there.

“Well I can’t say I’m not sad to see you leave… But I support your decision, Rosaline. You have been nothing but an asset and a friend since you got here. I wish you all the best and you can expect a glowing reference from me, should you need one. I’ll start looking for a candidate to take your position, if you don’t mind helping to train them.”

“Not at all. I’d be delighted to help someone out.”

--------------

Just like that, my time at the Ministry was over. In two weeks, I had trained another recruit who was still green, but promising. Newt was going to leave a week after my interview, but seeing as I needed time to exit my career gracefully, he agreed to staying behind until I was ready.

It was odd. I thought it’d feel bittersweet, or that I may even have felt guilty for leaving, but somehow… it felt perfectly right. The transition felt natural, like a stepping stone. Most would say going from a Hit Witch to a magizoologist’s assistant might be a step in the wrong direction, but not for me.

Life, as I knew it, would be different. No more heels, no more skirts, no more hair pinned neatly into a fitted hat. I would have to learn how to style myself to chase down and follow mysterious creatures all over the globe.

My next step after finishing my last day on the job was to see Newt for my first day of work. For the first time ever in my life, I was nervous. I had no idea what to expect, what I might see, what I might work with. My love for animals runs deep, but I was still worried that I may encounter some creature I’d never seen or didn’t know how to handle.

I arrived at Newt’s flat, knocked twice, and heard nothing. I knocked again, still nothing. I checked the door, it was open. Slowly opening the door, I peeked my head in. “Newt? Newt? It’s Rosaline,” I called.

I heard nothing back, so I eased inside his quaint dwelling a bit more. I heard nothing, saw nothing, but I didn’t feel worried. I went into the front room, calling out again.

Finally, I heard a noise coming out of the kitchen, so I followed my ears. This led me to a door half open that seemed to lead down some stairs. My feet carried me down, and my eyes beheld something absolutely wonderful. Creatures of all kinds in their natural habitats, seemingly eating or frolocking.

“Newt?” I said, a little curious as I watched him run back and forth between his suitcase and some of the creatures’ areas.

“Ah!” He looked up at me, a smile on his face. “You’re here! Just in time.”

“Yes, sorry, I knocked but--”

“We have no time to waste. Alright. I’m taking the nifflers, the murtlap, the demiguise…”

“You’re packing your animals with you?” I questioned, a bit of knowing in my voice. It was mostly rhetorical.

“Of course,” he stated. “I need you to join me to help study and rescue them. We can’t leave them here, no one could care for them.”

“Nora?” I suggested.

“She’s much too busy. Besides, we only have thirty or so creatures,” he stated. “They’ll all fit nicely in here. Now, could you help me with murtlap? I need to catch the little bugger and he’s in this pond here. He’s fast, and he bites so... be careful, hmm?”

I peered at him, worry on my face. “Um, alright.” I took a deep breath. I’ve fought some of the most vicious wizards and most powerful beings out there. I could handle a little murtlap.

I bent over the edge of a small pond and reached my arms down into the cold waters, soaking my coat sleeves. Suddenly, something soft, almost squishy, slithered around my fingers. I gasped at the sensation and tried to grab it gently. I lift the fat little thing out of the water. “Here you go,” I said to Newt, holding it out for him to sort it into his suitcase.

Newt was preoccupied with giant dung beetles before the last one went in and he looked up and a look of utter shock befell his face. “You...you’re just holding him?”

I shrugged. “Am I not supposed to be?”

“They’re… usually rather wild.”

I looked around, unsure what to say. “Maybe he’s tired?”

He nodded, not exactly satisfied with that answer but he grabbed him by the tail and lowered him into the suitcase.

“Alright. I think that’s the last of them. Well, shall we go then?” he asked once he shut the lid on his suitcase and snapped it shut.

“Yes, my suitcase is all packed and ready to go,” I informed, politely. “Where is our first stop?”

“Moscow,” he responded.

“What’s there?” I questioned.

“I have it on good authority there are some mooncalves there.”

“Mooncalves, hmm?”

“Yes, I’ll tell you all about them on the train. We should get going.”

“Right, yes, lead the way, sir.”

Newt stopped in his tracks to turn to me and laugh slightly. “Rosaline, we were at school together. We practically grew up together. Don’t call me sir, please. Theseus is a sir, I’m merely… Newt.”

I nodded, a small grin touching my lips. “Yes… Newt.” I bobbed my head, trying to wrap my mind around not being so formal. For Nora I’m sure this came as easy as breathing but for me, my straight laced, straight arrow life. I was by the book, I practically wrote the book on rules. The idea of working informally, with anyone, went against my very nature.

But, if I wanted to leave behind the life of idle, boring, strict, repetitiveness, I needed to embrace this way of life. I only hoped Newt would be patient with me, and help me with that.

------------------------------

“So what is our mission?” I asked sitting on the train.

“Our mission?” Newt questioned with a slight frown. “Oh, you mean, why are we doing this?”

“Mhm.”

“I’ve been commissioned to write a book about beasts all over the world.”

“I see… Why?”

“Because some people, myself included, believe that creatures should be protected and are merely misunderstood. It’s my job, well, now it’s our job, to find these creatures, study them, and learn everything we can about them. If we’re more informed, then we maybe we can save some, and the people in the wizarding world won’t be as quick to exterminate innocent animals.”

“I like that idea. Have you already started writing?”

He shook his head, pressing his lips together. “No, no, not yet. But I have many notes. I would really like us to explore all of the world before compiling the book. That comes at the end, after I’ve seen everything I can.”

“Sounds like quite the adventure. I’m glad you have this opportunity, Newt,” I state happily, reaching across the car and squeezing his hand quickly.

“As am I. It will help to have you here, too.”

The journey went rather peacefully. Newt informed me that he would like me to take notes on our discoveries and that we may come across creatures that may need to be rescued. Those who we rescued may need more help than others. It would partly be my responsibility to clean, feed, and care for them.

Newt’s informant ended up being correct. We did find mooncalves.

“Go ahead and approach them,” Newt encouraged as we stood several feet away, watching the small herd huddle in an open field.

I spun to face him, bewilderment on my face. “You want me to walk up to them? I thought I was only here to dictate notes and only assist when needed!” Panic began to settle over my body. Loving animals and interacting with them in the wild were two different things.

“Rosaline, you’ll be perfectly fine,” he assured. “Mooncalves are very docile. I really need you to be comfortable with animals. Many times they may end up being your responsibility so I’d like you to gain their trust early on.”

I nodded in understanding. That was fair. I wasn’t sure why I assumed I wouldn’t ever need to interact with them this way.

Tentatively, I stepped forward, my hand up and outstretched as I moved closer to the herd. At first, they didn’t notice me, but when I closed half the distance between us, they glanced up, startled and started to back away. I immediately withdrew my hand and took a step back so they would know I wasn’t trying to hurt them.

I looked back to Newt who was observing diligently. He bobbed his head a few times for encouragement. Taking a breath, I tried again, crouching ever so slightly, moving closer again, but again the herd backed away. I screwed my mouth to the side and remained planted, hoping they would come to me.

But they merely stood there, watching me. It was a stalemate. I wasn’t moving closer and neither were they. We sat watching each other for thirty seconds or so before Newt approached me from behind, a satchel on his side and he pulled out something.

“Here, try this.” He poured the food in my hand and then placed his hand under mine, crouching even lower to the ground to where we were walking along in a crouch. The mooncalves must’ve gotten a whiff of whatever was in my hands because they slowly stepped towards us. “There we go. That’s it. See, these are babies… I wonder where their mother is…”

Then suddenly, they were right before us, eating out of my hand as Newt stayed beside me, assuring me that it was okay.

“See? They’re perfectly safe. They’re kind creatures. You stay here and feed them, I’ll look for the mother.”

In the end, their mother was nowhere to be found, so Newt brought them along with us. We cared for them and studied them. Soon they were old enough and strong enough to be released back into the wild.

--------------------------------

Our next time catching a creature, I merely watched. The creature was known to be more tempestuous than others, so Newt felt it was best he tried to call it over. And he was quite right. Watching him work was a treat. He not only knew exactly what to do, he also enjoyed it. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen.

Back at the ministry, I worked with people who were good at their job day in and day out, it was nothing new. But with Newt, he got nothing but pure joy from it and displayed nothing but absolute compassion for these creatures. This wasn’t work for him, it was so much more. It was what he loved doing, he just happened to get paid for it. And paid for it, he should be, because he was the most dedicated person for the job.

He was absolutely brilliant. His knowledge of creatures was boundless and he taught me everything he knew. When he taught, it didn’t even feel like I was forced to sit and listen to something I didn’t want to know. He made it incredibly interesting. I’d been taught by some world renowned masters in wizardry, and their lessons paled in comparison to his. I looked forward to waking up and getting out in the field every day.

We fell into a pattern. We set out for a new location, and he spent most of the journey explaining everything about the creature to me. What they ate, if they were typically skittish, if they were harmful or poisonous or venomous in any way. I kept detailed notes and reviewed them at night when he’d fallen asleep.

Before either of us really knew it, I was becoming a natural. By my third trip, we were in Venice, Italy where we ran into a small cluster of bowtruckles. Sweet, little creatures, and I took to them instantly. Of course, creatures like these aren’t threatening or hard in the slightest, but I was falling into an easy regiment of helping these animals.

In fact, Newt and I took turns all the time feeding all of the creatures in his suitcase, and often took turns in nature approaching them.

Watching Newt work had to be the most enchanting thing I’d ever witnessed. He made a complete ass of himself, but it was for the greater good. Maybe he did roll around to get Graphorns to trust him, or he made himself look and sound like a bird so that a Fwooper would come near him, or he would jump into freezing waters to take notes or rescue an animal tangled in seaweed. He truly was magical, and not in the sense of being a wizard. There was this purity, this innocence about him that I’d never seen in anyone before.

I believe it was when we got Frank that I really understood just how deep his love for creatures ran. We were looking for something entirely different, when we ran into some shady people who said they had a Thunderbird. Newt, being the genius he is, knew that Thunderbirds were native to the United States, Arizona mainly…

“I’ll give you one-hundred galleons for this bird,” Newt offered frantically to a group of five wizards as we sat in a sand filled shack outside of Egypt.

“This bird is very rare, very rare indeed… One-hundred is a joke,” the man leading the negotiation stated.

“Three-hundred,” he proposed.

I watched intensely. The other four wizards seemed… on edge. I had a strong feeling no matter how much gold we gave these cretins, they weren’t handing this bird over, ever. Maybe it was my time as a Hit Witch, but I could smell something dirty going on.

“Eight, and we may have a deal, and I may let you walk out of here alive,” the man stated darkly, his eyes only on Newt.

“Newt,” I calmly said from behind him, “get the bird.”

He started to object. “I--”

“Get…the bird,” I repeated, staring the traffickers down.

“You don’t touch that bird!” the man shouted, jumping to his feet as the four wizards behind him drew their wands. “Expelliarmus!” he yelled, pointing at my wand, already drawn, but I was waiting for the attack, deflecting it easily.

“Stupefy!” I retaliated to two men in the back, throwing a Petrificus Totalus spell on the other two. Lastly, pointing my wand at the man who tried the expelliarmus curse on us. “Forget us, forget that we ever came, and I’ll let you live a meaningless existence.”

“Why don’t you just obliviate me?” he challenged, his body shaking with anger. “Wouldn’t that be easier?”

“No, because if I hear that you’re still trafficking, then I want you to remember my face. Because if you see it again, you will know your life is about to become a living hell. Do I make myself clear?”

He gulped and nodded, fear in his eyes.

“Now, my friend is going to take this Thunderbird, and you’re going to stay right where you are, unless you want to spend the next hour under crucio.”

His eyes watched as Newt unchained the creature, before coaxing him into his suitcase.

“So lovely doing business with you,” I said mockingly before I grabbed Newt’s arm and apparated away. We ended up on top of one of the pyramids of Giza.

Newt sat his suitcase down and looked at me for a moment before wrapping me in an embrace.

“How… That was very impressive, Rosaline.”

I tucked my wand back into my sleeve. “Well I’m nothing if not a good bodyguard.”

“I can handle myself.”

I nodded. “I know you can. But you needed to focus on freeing that poor creature. Leave the head-cracking to me.” I winked.

“That was incredible. Why did you do that? Why didn’t you just let me pay them?”

“You shouldn’t have to pay for an animal that’s illegally being sold. That poor bird doesn’t deserve that. Animal cruelty really irritates me. If crucio weren’t illegal, I’d not bat an eye at using it on miserable souls like him.”

“That’s oddly comforting,” he said with a smile. “Well, shall we get some dinner?”

“Yes,” I responded, grinning, holding out my arm for him to take it.

After that, it seemed as though being around each other was as easy as breathing. Before that, there was almost this invisible force keeping us divided. Nora practically treated Newt like a little brother. The two of them always working, joking, teasing each other. But I felt as though with him, for the first few months of working together, we were disconnected. A boss - employee relationship, or barely- more-than-acquaintances relationship.

But that… the moment we rescued Frank together… I knew we were a great team, and Newt seemed to finally trust that I really was in this for the long haul. It didn’t take long at all to see why Nora had become very close to him.

From there, our work together didn’t feel anything like work.

How could it when we saw the sun set in Paris together, watching it, eating, making sure Pickett, the most dependent bowtruckle got some food too. Or how could I possibly feel as though it was any sort of work that went into observing mermaids in the Black Sea? Wicked creatures, they were, but they had their purpose. For six months, we traveled all over Asia, Europe, and Africa. Each stop as stunning as the last, each new creature just as interesting as the first.

Frank had a special place in my heart, and Newt said he would make plans to go to America to get him to his natural habitat.

For now though, we had to return to Newt’s home, and setup a habitat for every one of the creatures to live in, while we studied them for a bit. Some of them had been wounded, some of them had been abandoned. These were the ones we would heal, rehabilitate, and send back out. In the meantime, study and record every detail we could on them.

Six months in, Newt felt the need to suddenly ask me something that I wasn’t entirely prepared for.

While we stood in his basement, he cleared his throat and gathered my attention. “Um, Rosaline… I must ask you something,” he began.

“Hmm?” I hummed, turning towards him, a book in hand.

“This job is far beneath you... It's laughable... So why do you work here? The pay is poor, and the hours are unpredictable… Your life is your job. You haven’t seen your own flat in over six months…”

I closed my book and peered at him, softly responding, “No job is beneath me if I'm helping a living thing, Newt.” My eyes were tender on his adorable face.

He bobbed his head slightly to the side with a peculiar grin. “Yes, but you're one of the most powerful witches, both politically and in magical prowess... So why give all that up to help me feed and find some creatures?"

“I told you before, I had a change of heart. This experience has been… beyond anything I ever dreamed of, and I have you to thank for that. Doing what we do, watching you do what you do, is the most rewarding job I’ve ever had. Chasing down criminals it’s… it’s all very black and white in the Ministry, do you know what I mean?” I questioned, rhetorically. He nodded, slightly pressing his lips together. “The guilty are guilty, and that’s that. It got hard to stomach watching small infractions get the worst sentences. I wanted something where I bring joy to someone or something’s life.”

“Sounds very noble,” he remarked.

I laughed and shook my head. “There’s nothing noble about me, I promise you that. And besides,” I said, lifting my delicate, slender fingers to rest against his cheek, “Contrary to popular belief I haven’t given up anything. I’ve gained something far greater.”

Newt smiled and nodded before blushing deeply. I dropped my hand from his face.

-----------------------

“Rosaline,” Newt gasped from his desk. I was sitting nearby organizing a feeding regiment and making a list for Diagon Alley shopping.

“Yes?” I asked, looking up, worried he was upset with me.

“Your notes are exquisite,” he complimented. “Thorough, accurate, this is the best I think I’ve seen.”

I beamed at him. “Really?”

“Yes. This will be very helpful in the book.”

“Oh, good, I’m so glad I can be of some use to you.”

He softly laughed. “You’re more than useful. This is like gold to me. Thank you for being diligent.”

I bobbed my head. “Well, that’s my job. I’m happy to do it for you.”

--------------------------

It was the middle of the night when Newt appeared in the floo of my bedroom.

“Rosaline, I really need your help,” he stated as soon as I picked up the call.

“Okay, I’ll be right there.”

I dressed within thirty seconds and apparated to Newt’s home, calling out for him. He shouted up from the basement. I dashed down there, careful not to slip on the stairs. “What’s going on?” I inquired, calm but ready for whatever emergency had arisen.

“The Graphorn has gone into labor,” he announced evenly, kneeling beside the pregnant beast as the father stood by, worried.

“Okay, what do you need me to do?” I asked, instantly all business.

“Towels, lots of them, a bowl of warm water, and uh, baby oil.”

Without a second thought, I ran up the stairs to grab the items as quickly as possible, and raced back down, working to not spill the water.

“Is this alright?”

“Yes. Now, graphorns struggle to birth on their own so I may need your help.”

“Just tell me what you need done,” I assured.

In that instant, the mother graphorn roared, assumably out of pain from the labor and the father began to dig his hoof-like foot in the ground.

“Uh, you may have to birth it. The father needs to be held back. He doesn’t know what’s wrong with her and he may charge us if one of us doesn’t keep him back.”

“Why don’t you birth and I hold him back?”

“You’re a woman, your pheromones will calm her more than mine will,” Newt explained quickly before pulling out his wand, ready to either calm the beast or keep him at bay.

“Alright,” I uneasily said as I knelt beside her, stroking her, trying to get her to remain calm and trust me. “So, when do I start? I mean, how do I know she’s ready?”

“She’ll most likely--” a sudden, loud roar took over the area, forcing Newt and I to cover our ears “--do that.”

The father got even more anxious, snorting, or what I assumed was the equivalent of a snort.

“Okay, get behind her, she should be rather dilated, just reach in, feel for feet and pull.”

“You make this sound incredibly easy.”

“It is incredibly easy.... If you pay absolutely no mind to what you’re doing,” he noted, his back to me as he stood before the creature.

I took a deep breath, keeping my hand on the creature so she knew where I was, where I was moving to, and what I was going to do. “Alright, girl, now this may be uncomfortable, but we have to do this to get your baby out,” I stated, talking to her.

“When you’re ready, spread the baby oil on your arms and… dive in,” Newt tried, sounding uneasy.

I nodded. This was absolutely mental, but this was my job, and this creature needed help. I needed to overcome my squeamishness to help her. I quickly lathered my arms making sure I was coated up to the elbow and then slowly put one arm in, squeezing my eyes shut as I did so, ignoring the heat and sensation wrapping around my arm.

“You will probably need both hands,” he urged, looking back at me.

I merely nodded and dug the other arm in.

“Newt, I don’t feel any-- oh my gosh, I think that’s it. I think I feel the legs. Two fat, little limbs?” I wondered, peering over her body, hoping to hell she didn’t kick me.

“Sounds right. Make sure you get a good hold on them, and tug, slowly, we don’t want her to tear inside.”

Again, I nodded before making sure my fingers were wrapped around the baby’s legs tightly. “I think I have it!” Slowly, surely, I started pulling, the little legs coming with me. It seemed to be agonizingly slow, but before long, a little head appeared. “Newt! Newt! What do I do?” I questioned hurriedly.

“Go ahead and pull! He needs oxygen and to walk around.”

At his command, I tugged, and the baby graphorn was pulled from his mother, half onto my lap, soaking me in blood and amniotic fluid. Newt left the father who seemed calmer now, now that his mate and baby were okay. He rushed to my side, helping to get the baby up.

“Help me check for breathing,” he instructed as he leaned down, listening for a heartbeat. “I have a heartbeat.”

Holding my hand in front of his mouth, I confirmed, “He’s breathing.”

“Good. Get the towels and warm water, help me wash him, please, quickly.”

I grabbed them, only a few feet away, and we set to work wiping the excess fluid off of him. Once all the mess was cleared away from his eyes, face, mouth, and feet, we stood up and stepped back, letting the bonding process start. The baby took a few shaky steps before stumbling right into his mother, earning a small response before she turned and finally nuzzled him.

Overjoyed, I turned to Newt and wrapped my arms around him, smiling and laughing from pure joy. Something unlike me to do. Surprise overtook Newt before he finally returned the gesture and I let him go, staring back at the new family.

“You did amazing. Good job.”

“Thank you,” I stated, nodding.

I was still watching the family of graphorns when I sensed his eyes on my profile.

“Is everything alright?”

He nodded, making me turn to him.

“So, why are you staring?” I wondered, bemused.

“You’re just… different. That’s all.”

“Different from what? Different from school?”

He shook his head. “No, no. Not that. You aren’t the cold, hypocritical bureaucrat I took you for.”

I threw my head back, laughing at his boldly honest statement. Another one of his amazing qualities was that he didn’t cloud everything to be nice or polite, but he wasn’t rude either. He was just honest, no matter the cost. So when he complimented someone, everyone knew he meant it. “Cold bureaucrat, eh?” I smiled, nodding. “And when did you come to this conclusion? I rather thought we were good friends at Hogwarts.”

“We were friends but that was before you had the Ministry and a political campaign.”

“So you do think I changed.”

“I suppose I thought you fell in line with what your career demanded of you.”

“So I wasn’t cold at Hogwarts?” I questioned.

“Not in the same sense. Your distance came from the fact that you couldn’t favor anyone and I think you felt more comfortable with the faculty, than the students. But as an adult… well for one, you and I hardly ever saw each other after graduation, even though Nora came around a lot.”

This information somehow stung. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. I did let my career consume my life, didn’t I? But you have too. The only difference is you’re actually making a difference, helping something…” I gazed at the graphorns as I spoke. “I think it’s easier to let my work take precedence, easier than to allow myself a potential heartbreak.”

“So you’d rather live in fear of a heartbreak you might never have, than to pursue one?”

I turned to face him. “Newt, one way or another, my heart will break, if I allow people outside my family to be close to me. Whether I become a widow, leave a husband a widower, or any myriad of other reasons, relationships can go wrong. I simply don’t see a point of tracking that down for myself.” It was true. It was why I was so standoffish with people. I liked people. I always wanted to fall in love, be loved for who I was, but the truth of the matter was, heartbreak was inevitable. I dove head first into studies as a child because I loved it, and I suppose I unconsciously did the same as an adult, for fear that someone could never love me for me. Who could love a cold, orphaned girl?

“Is that really such a healthy way to live? Never letting anyone in? Keeping everyone at arm’s length?”

“It’s protected me this long,” I murmured.

“I think I understand where you’re coming from. For me, as…. socially inept as I can sometimes be, it’s much easier to interact with animals, than it is to try to communicate with humans.”

A soft laugh trilled from me. “I understand. Perhaps we will figure out humans together,” I offered with a side glance and coy smile, to which he nodded and grinned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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#the softest fire #next scamander x oc #newt scamander #newt scamander fic

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miss-spooky-eyes · 4 years ago

Text

OC Inspirations: Devinahl & Indy

I was (delightfully) tagged by @vespertine-legacy a while ago and I’ve hesitated to do this because I knew I was going to talk WAY too much - but it was weighing on me, so I decided to open up about the sources from which I stole, that is, drew inspiration for Devinahl and Indirae.

What three fictional characters is your OC a combination of?

This doesn’t apply to every OC - not even mine - but its certainly true for a few : Many of our characters are, to an extent, inspired by characters we see in movies, books, games, TV shows, etc.

Does this apply to any of your OCs? Was it a conscious decision on your part or not? Is your OC a combination of three (or more) fictional characters?

If so - post some GIFs / pics and tell us about them! What does your OC draw from other characters?

Too much Devinahl & Indy chat after the cut.

DEVINAHL

The truth is that when I came to creating my Imperial Agent Devinahl, and in particular fleshing out her backstory in far, far too much detail, there were some sources that I went to extremely explicitly and deliberately. And chief among them was ...

1. Garak, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

That’s right. Garak from Deep Space Nine. Plain, simple Garak. Outcast. Exile. Spy. Addict. Perennial liar. Patriot. Terrorist. Would-be genocider. Very good tailor.

(If you haven’t seen DS9, then you need to. It’s like Star Trek, but if it was actually good? And Garak is a big part of what elevates it.)

Is it weird to compare my ancient video game Barbie/gorgeous sex bomb badass assassin and seductress to a cold-blooded space lizard who spends his days hemming pants? Possibly. But there are aspects of Garak’s character that, consciously and unconsciously, I made parts of Devinahl’s DNA.

Firstly, Garak is a patriot. He loves Cardassia so much that despite seeing its flaws with absolute clarity, despite having been exiled and reviled by it, he would die without question to serve it (of course, he’d much rather make someone else die). And while seeing that as a weakness, despite knowing that the Cardassia he has committed to serving is disappearing before his eyes, there is still a part of him that believes that that commitment - that neverending sacrifice - is noble. The only noble part of him. That’s central to Devinahl’s character (which is, in turn, the way I made sense of the IA storyline). That while hating and despising the Sith, she would nevertheless believe in the Empire - not so much believe that it is good (at best, I think she sees it as order and stability where the Republic is corruption and chaos) as believe that her commitment to it is the only redeeming thing available to her.

Secondly, the way that Garak will take his needs, vulnerabilities, sincere emotions and package them in ways which gets him what he has to have to keep going, without ever giving up full control? Particularly in the extraordinary episode The Wire, in which a dying Garak tells Dr Bashir a series of lies about himself in order to elicit Bashir’s forgiveness, because he needs to be sincerely forgiven but without ever telling the truth?

Out of all the stories you told me, which ones were true and which ones weren’t? My dear doctor, they’re all true. Even the lies?

That is everything I tried to do with Dev, particularly in my fic about her and SCORPIO, particularly when it comes to her and Arcann. To know what she needs, as Garak needs absolution from Bashir, and tell just enough truth - put herself into just vulnerable enough a position - to get it, but never without reserving something, holding something back, whether it’s the knowledge that she can maneouvre herself out of SCORPIO’s clutches at any time or her real name? That’s a fucking survivor.

Thirdly, the relationship between Devinahl and Sifter (the spymaster who finds her as a traumatised child and grooms her for Intelligence) and specifically, the deathbed scene I wrote in Riddle was directly inspired by Garak’s relationship with Enabran Tain and that death scene.

Yes, Devinahl was not Sifter’s actual daughter, but in every real sense she was formed by Sifter - and had Sifter had just one day with Dev like Tain had with Garak, Dev would have been lost. She would have turned herself into a carbon copy of Sifter, and she would have died. But the bittersweetness? The acknowledgement that the parental figure you love will never, not even now that they’re dying, love you as you want them to?

‘I should have killed your mother before you were born. You have always been a weakness I can't afford.’ ‘So you've told me. Many times. ...’ ‘Elim, remember that day…in the country. You must've been almost five.’ ‘How can I forget it? It was the only day.’

(The love and infinite sadness with which Andrew Robinson says that line, ‘It was the only day’? I’m crying just thinking about it. Anyway, it was everything I was thinking about and wanted to achieve in that scene.)

Oh ... and Devinahl’s ambiguous relationship with her implants? Well, Garak also has an implant in his head. And that’s all I’m saying about that.

2. Oryx from Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood

A novel character rather than from TV or movies, I hope that’s OK. And I know that there are ... very problematic elements to the way Atwood writes about Oryx, her family, her culture, her background. But she was one of the strongest elements that went into creating Devinahl and her backstory.

There were specific aspects of the story Oryx tells to Jimmie - particularly the parts about being told to scream and make a fuss if a man tries to take you away to a hotel room, and then being told not to make a fuss when a man tries to take you away to a hotel room - that became part of Dev’s story. But there was also a general attitude and way of looking at life I wanted to capture and incorporate. Oryx’s philosophy of value?

Of course (said Oryx), having a money value was no substitute for love. Every child should have love, every person should have it. . . . but love was undependable, it came and then it went, so it was good to have a money value, because then at least those who wanted to make a profit from you would make sure you were fed enough and not damaged too much. Also there were many who had neither love nor a money value, and having one of these things was better than having nothing.

I wanted to create a character who could look at life and suffering and abuse, even her own, and view it in that dispassionate way which horrifies someone from my middle-class Western background - and then I wanted to test that idea, to bring it up against SCORPIO and have SCORPIO try to break it down with torture, to see if it was just a cool facade/necessary illusion. I wimped out of really testing that belief, instead having Dev always know that she could get out of her situation/having her find a way to be loved without truly having to sacrifice her protective patterns ... but if I was a little braver and better, I’d have tested it to breaking point. How far can a character go who thinks like that while still remaining, on some level, compassionate/human/likeable?

3. Saffron (Firefly)

I could have gone Black Widow (definitely the inspiration for Dev’s aesthetic in terms of outfit etc). But the plain truth is that I thought more about Saffron while dreaming up Devinahl/writing her backstory than I did about Black Widow (yes, Widow turned her weakness into strength in a manipulative fashion all the time, but Garak did it better, and other than that she mainly looked after boys in a way that I did not want Dev to be limited to).

Firefly, for a show that had - what - 13 episodes? - exercises far too much of a hold on my imagination and Saffron, especially in the first episode in which she appeared, was such a tremendous character. The way that she found exactly the triggers to turn each member of the crew inside out? (And if she’d had more time, it absolutely would have worked on Wash and Inara, too - it only didn’t because she had to hurry.) Dev has that. I can’t write it, because I suck, but she has it.

Oh, and nobody will ever know Devinahl’s real name (apart from you, if you read my fic about her backstory) and she’d die before letting you know it. That’s straight from Saffron. As is, I suppose, the man who would accept her just as she is without needing to push to know her secrets, except it worked out a little better for Dev and Arcann than it did for Yolanda and Durran Haymer because Dev and Arcann will always have pegging.

INDIRAE

(This will be a lot shorter than the section on Devinahl, I promise.)

1. Steve Rogers, Captain America (and whatever else)

I have never been super into the MCU, but the key reference I used to find a way into Indy’s character, back when she was nothing more than a cool-looking Cathar Bounty Hunter, was Steve Rogers. (November can attest to this)

Indy’s physical size - she’s six foot if she’s an inch, and big - is key to her personality, but equally key is the idea that she would always experience that size as uncomfortable and slightly alien to her. Like Steve Rogers, she started out as the scrawny kid always getting beat up by everybody ... And when she got her strength (with a hefty assist from the toxic waste run-off into what was her family’s only source of water) and suddenly got TALL and STRONG? She did not like bullies - which was what led her to help Coda out of a jam at the spacesport and started them on their road.

(If there’s a better way to play the BH storyline than as a stone-cold mercenary with an utterly unwilling heart of gold ... then I don’t know about it.)

2. Xena, Xena Warrior Princess

I’ll be completely fucking straight with anybody about this (so to speak): I love Xena, I had an obsession with it as a teenager I’m still unpacking, and the show tends to feed into my characters in an ... odd way.

Indy is physically imposing like Xena, is the main thing; and her dynamic with Coda owes a lot to Xena’s with Gabrielle (although Coda is as big and tough as Indy, she is the fast talker/smooth operator to Indy’s laconic strongman). I wanted Indy to dominate action scenes the way that Xena does, be that kind of a force of nature; and watch her struggle to find ways to channel that charisma, to need Coda’s help to understand how to do it.

3. Dottie Henson, A League of Their Own

OK, first of all, I do not want to hear any kind of mockery. This is, unironically, one of my favourite films of all time.

Again, we come back to the core theme of a character struggling with her own greatness/potential. That’s what is the most fascinating through-line of A League of Their Own: Dottie, this unbelievable baseball player/physical presence (yes, she’s very tall, just like Indy) who is so terrified to admit that she wants anything more than her smalltown life and dreadful husband, even while the evidence of her talent and passion for the game is burning up these ... fields? Diamonds? I don’t know baseball apart from this film.

Indy certainly hides behind not wanting to be a bounty hunter. She doesn’t believe in any Mandalorian nonsense about romanticising what is an unglamorous job. She’s just doing it for credits and afterwards, once she’s secured her family’s future, she’s totally going to go home and settle down in some acceptable, domestic way. Being on the Mantis with Coda, it’s absolutely just a means to an end. She doesn’t want to be there, she doesn’t care about it, it’s not who she is, she doesn’t need it. This life, the adventure, the freedom, the fighting for survival, it’s certainly not what gets inside her and what lights her up, no, not at all.

Oh, and Dottie is also a reluctant leader. She doesn’t see why her talent should put her in the position of telling other people what to do - but then, on the other hand, she sees so clearly what they need to be doing, and when she says to do it, they listen. She doesn’t want to carry this team, but they’re only a team so long as she carries them.

(Don’t worry, Coda’s not going to let her lie to herself for too long.)

#swtor #excessively long answers to memes #oc: devinahl #oc: indirae

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