#though I’d still argue it could’ve been executed better | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

champagne-bucky · 4 years ago

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Rebel,Rebel

Summary: Peter doesn’t like a disobedient girl.

Warnings: Dark! Peter Parker (18+) x female reader, non-con/dub-con, knife play, face fucking, begging, humiliation kink, squirting, smut, fondling, hand job, anal play

Notes: Hehe, sooo this challenge is very very late and I’m very very sorry. I’d like to apologize to @mariessecretfantasies for being soooo late. Anyways I hope you enjoy this one!!

“WHAT YOU DID WAS INCREDIBLY STUPID. I CANNOT PUT INTO WORDS HOW CARELESS AND CHILDISH YOUR ACTIONS WERE! I SHOULD HAVE YOU SUSPENDED, NO-“

You tried your hardest to stop the growing smirk on your face as Fury yelled at you. You may or may not have almost killed yourself and others while executing a life or death mission. The key work here was almost.

Being a new recruit was no walk in the park. Other agents were constantly belittling your actions and questioning your position with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers, you showed them though. With every mission and every time you trained, you made sure to go above and beyond and prove every single one of those people wrong. As a result, a lot of agents became jealous and would do anything they could to ruin your credibility. Which brings you to Fury still yelling in your face.

It’s not like you were completely reckless, you made sure to carefully calculate everything you did so that you wouldn’t risk putting anyone in actual danger. Yes, that mission was technically very poorly executed, but it’s not your fault. Truthfully, the original plan would have cost people their lives if it wasn’t thanks to your quick thinking that saved everyone.

The only reason you were being yelled at instead of praised was because your incompetent teammates didn’t want to question the mission captain and think of a new plan. You were a hero, but those stubborn asses would never admit it.

“You really have me backed into a corner here, Agent,” Fury sighed as he rubbed his face.

“My desk is filled with complaints about your negligence to the team. Even your mission captain wants you suspended indefinitely,” you huffed.

“The only reason everyone complains about me is because they can’t be me. Everything they do, I do it ten times better than they could ever dream of. Even the lousy mission captain couldn’t think of a more brilliant plan than mine. You all should be thanking me really,” Fury raised his brows.

“Thanking you?”

“Yes, you should be thanking me because I’m the only competent one here willing to risk it all to save innocent people. Sorry you only hired people that were too afraid to get their hands dirty, what a sad sad team we have here,” Fury looked as if he wanted to chew your head off more, but for the sake of his already high blood pressure and an impending migraine, he decided against it.

“You know what I’m willing to do for you, Agent,” it didn’t take Fury long to come up with a plan.

“What, Nicholas,” you loved poking at his nerves. The vain in his forehead looked as if it were about to burst.

“I’m going to assign you to our Avengers program,” you gasped internally. The Avenger program? Does that mean-

“Don’t get it twisted. This program does not mean you’ll become an Avenger. This is a shadow program. You’ll be able to go on mission with your Avenger, go to their meetings, press conferences, you get the point,” you scoffed.

“And you’re doing all this for what?” Fury rolled his eyes.

“You may be able to get away with a lot of shit as an agent, but the Avengers are on a whole other level. One slip up and you're done. This program is gonna teach you just how we do things here at S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Fury leaned over the desk to be eye level with you.

You thought about giving him more attitude, but you didn’t want to push your luck. Even though Fury wasn’t saying it, he was pretty much saying that this program could mean a spot on the Avengers, right? Finally, you were all that hard work was giving you the recognition you deserve.

“Alright, Fury, I’ll join your little program. So, who do I get. Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, Agent Romanoff, someone who matches my intelligence and skill set?” You leaned back in your chair with a smug smirk. Fury matched yours.

“I believe a shadow program is well below their pay grade. I was thinking of assigning you to someone who was a little like yourself. I think Peter Parker would be the perfect match for you,” your eyes went wide in disbelief.

“Peter Parker? Him? Oh, Nick, you gotta be kidding me? He doesn’t even go on real missions! He just helps old ladies cross the street, scares punk teens from shoplifting, he’s not even a real Avenger!”

“Mr. Parker is way more qualified than being a neighborhood watchmen, Agent. He’s on the team because he is one of the best. You can learn a thing or two from him. He, very much like yourself, was a big rule breaker too, still is if you ask me. The only reason we haven’t kicked him off yet is because Tony Stark has a soft spot for the kid.”

You tried to argue your way out of being with Peter, but Fury insisted or you would be met with suspension. You grumbled and trudged your way out of his office. Fury mentioned before you left that Peter would be in contact with you shortly. You slammed the door before he got his last words out.

“And don’t forget, follow the rules or be faced with the consequences,” you mocked his words under your breath as you stormed back to the agent’s wing of the compound.

Peter couldn’t believe the phone call he had just gotten from Fury. More importantly he couldn’t believe who was going to be shadowing him. After all this time being in the Avengers program, no one ever wanted to pick him, but you, his crush, well his heart was just bursting at its seams.

“What’s gotten you all smiley, Spidey,” Sam took a seat next to him on the couch.

“N-Nothing, I just got off the phone with Director Fury, he says someone requested me for the shadow program,” Sam laughed.

“And that’s what’s making you get all blushing and giddy? Gee, you not getting enough attention at home?” Peter rolled his eyes at Sam.

“No, it’s, it’s just this girl that I’ve liked for some time. Apparently she wanted me to be her guide.”

“Who is she?” Once Peter said your name, Sam’s eyes lit up in fear.

“Aww no man, you don’t want to be messing around with her,” Peter’s face fell.

“Why not?”

“Well, rumor has it she’s kind of a rebel.”

“Kind of?”

“From what I hear from other agents, she’s always breaking protocol, almost always putting people in danger, risking lives, not a good look if you ask me. Come to think of it, why didn’t Fury deny her application?”

“Maybe he thinks I can be a good influence on her,” Peter smiled and nudged Sam’s arm.

“Pfft, when pigs fly,” Sam got up and walked away leaving Peter to write out an informative email to you.

“Just be careful with her is all I’m saying, kid.”

Peter ignored him as he pulled up his email and began to write to you.

Your alarm was blaring way too early in the morning for your liking. Peter insisted on starting everyday at 6 a.m. because “crime always starts early”, or something stupid like that. You two had only been with each other for a week and it was pure torture for you.

Peter on the other hand indulged in the time he got to spend with you. So far, Sam was being proven wrong about your rebel status. He always made sure you were to follow the book no matter how defiant the look in your eyes was becoming. Maybe you only followed the rules because of him, he’d like to think.

“Peterrrrrrr,” you whined.

“Whattttt,” he mimicked with a laugh.

“This shit is taking too long. Can’t we just-“

“Nope,” Peter interrupted.

“But-“

“Nada.”

“Peter-“

“I believe the correct word we are looking for is no,” you wanted to slap the stupid smirk off his face.

“Peter there is an easier way to do this,” you tried to reason with him, but he just wouldn’t listen.

“You mean there’s the wrong way to do this. I was given my instructions and now we will follow them, AS PLANNED OUT. If you don’t like how the Avengers run things, then maybe you should rethink your status in the program,” Peter stated as he kept his eyes locked on the bank.

This is what it’s been like for the entire week. You were starting to get agitated beyond belief by Peter’s smugness. What a cruel joke Fury decided to play on you. First, he makes Peter your partner, the most useless of all the Avengers when it came to missions and crime fighting. Next, his unwillingness to go off book for one measly second. If Peter could’ve known how much time he’d be saving by just bending the rules a little, he might be able to take on more serious tasks, unlike this stupid bank robbery tipoff he received earlier today.

Nevermind the other laundry list of reasons why you can’t stand Peter Parker and his dopey grin. Right now, you are thinking of good reasons why it would be impossible to get away with the murder of the most annoying person to ever walk the planet, in your opinion. While you were doing your own plotting, Peter was trying to keep his focus on the potential robbery and not the woman of his dreams next to him

The robbers made their move around 4 a.m. After countless hours of hearing Peter ramble on about Star Wars, chemistry, and his web fluid stuff you were thankful to end the night with some action. Peter made sure to take the lead while you were waiting at the back of the bank for a back up call. A stupid strategy, but supposedly Peter knew what was best and refused to go against orders.

Peter surprised the robbers by swinging himself down from the ceiling. There were four men trying to attack him and Peter fought every single one off without taking a breath. However, as things were going seemingly well they took a turn for the worst when one robber pulled out his gun and started to shoot. Peter faltered his steps and quickly dodged a bullet headed straight for his knee. During all this time you were watching from a small window, he still refused to call you for back up.

“Parker, you need my help, tap me in,” you said through your earpiece.

“No, no, uhh, I got it, thanks,” Peter responded quickly while dodging another bullet, this time to his shoulder.

“Parker, you're failing out there,” there was no response from Peter as he kept trying to tame the situation.

You huffed and decided to get to work. You really didn’t want to screw up your chances with this program, but you were left no choice. The line between Peter’s incompetence and stubbornness finally frayed and you just about had to butt in.

“I’m saving his life, I’m not breaking the rules… right?”

Peter was now tackled to the ground by two of the robbers. The one with the gun was reloading his bullets and the other was taking the money out of the machine. Somewhere along the line, they seemed to have damaged a part of his suit and he was bleeding out. That weakness alone was enough for the robbers to use all their strength and hold him down,

“It’s the end of the line for you, Spider-Man,” Peter started to freak out. Was it too late to call you?

“Hey boss, why don’t we see who’s under the mask,” one of the men holding him down said.

The “boss” agreed and began to walk his way towards Peter. He started to hyperventilate at the thought of not only his life ending, but his identity would be exposed.

The robber started to put his hands on the material of his mask, but not before he halted his actions and fell to the ground. Peter was stunned as were the rest of the men, but not for long.

“Hey, who’s that,” one man said as you came down from the ceiling where Peter had entered.

You have your few weapons at the ready and no time to waste. It had already been a long day and you were angry and exhausted. It took no time for you to wipe out the robbers and alert authorities of what went down. The men were hurt badly, but they should be okay, maybe.

Sirens were becoming louder as you quickly grabbed Peter and hauled him out of the back door and into the car. You whipped off his mask and started to check him for any injuries. When you went to touch a bruise on his face, he swatted your hand away.

“What did I tell you?” He said angrily.

“Peter I-“

“I said I would call you for backup and you defied me,” he pressed a button on his suit and it disappeared to his normal clothes.

“Peter you were choking out there! If I would’ve waited for your call you probably would’ve been dead by then! I saved your life, the least you could say is thank you,” you rolled your eyes and slumped back into your seat.

“Thank you? Y/N you blatantly went against my orders and did your own thing. Do you not have any respect for me?”

Your jaw dropped as Peter spoke those words. You cannot believe how irrational this boy was behaving. He was in trouble and you offered to help him.

“You know what Peter? No, no I don’t respect you. You were close to dying and I came in and saved your helpless ass. I have never met somebody so dimmwhitted, so stubborn, so incompetent, so STUPID, and so so SO annoying as you, Peter Parker. Come to think of it? How are you even an Avenger? Aren’t they supposed to have more than the one brain cell you seem to possess? Do they just let anybody be an Avenger or do we all have to suck up to Tony Stark just to get a spot on the team?”

“Get out,” Peter said through gritted teeth.

“What? Can’t handle the criticism?” You laughed as Peter slammed his hand on the center console, creating a dent.

“I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT,” you were surprised at Peter’s tone of voice.

“Get out, get out of this car before you make me do something I’ll regret,” your eyes went wide as you got out of the car and started to run home.

Peter cried that night after he kicked you out of the car. Nobody, not even Mr. Stark talked to him the way you had. The girl he fantasized about each night had called him stupid, annoying, and possibly more hateful words in the English language synonymous to the ones she had said in the car.

Peter needed to take the weekend to himself to process everything. His heart was crushed and his emotions were conflicted. Even after all those terrible words, he still had some feelings for you. How could someone so perfect for him be so cruel to him at the same time?

He avoided everyone at the compound for the weekend. Usually he’d spend the few days there to work on some new tech with Mr. Stark or train with Bucky and Sam, but you lived there too and he couldn’t face you at the moment.

Peter was also screening calls from Fury. At the end of every mission with you, Fury would demand a status report. Peter would always have positive things to say about you, but this time he wouldn’t even know what to tell Fury.

After a movie with MJ and Ned to clear his head, Peter walked back home to the small apartment he shared with his Aunt May. He felt a little better after seeing some friends, but his heart still had a pang in it from your words. Was he really as annoying as you said he was?

Peter didn’t dwell on his thoughts for long before he felt himself getting pulled off the sidewalk and into a sleek black car. He tried to fight off whoever pulled him in, but he stopped struggling once he heard the ring of his cell phone.

“So, it does work,” Fury ended the call and scowled at Peter. “Any reason you haven’t been answering me?”

Peter took a deep gulp as he figured out what he was supposed to say. “Director Fury, I-”

“She finally cracked you,” he simply stated as Peter nodded in agreement.

“I didn’t know what to say because I’m afraid of how you’d react.”

“And what did she say?” Fury questioned.

When Peter told him the whole story from the robbery to her hateful words in the car, Fury just about had blown a fuse.

“SHE WHAT?” Fury expected the absolute worst from you, he’ll admit that, but blatantly insulting her superior crossed a huge line for him.

“Director Fury, I have it all-”

“No, Parker, I’m in the driver’s seat now. No more Mr. Nice Guy,” Fury called for the driver of his car to take off.

“Fury, please, just let me handle this,” it took a lot of convincing, but Fury came to an agreement with Peter.

“If you don’t get rid of her attitude and I find out that she continues to talk to you the way that she did, I’m terminating her position with S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Fury had no time for further discussion as he basically pushed Peter out of the car and sped out of Queens.

Oh, Peter was going to do all he could to make her obey him. It didn’t matter how he was going to train her, but when the time is right he’ll make his dreams come true. Peter was going to make his fantasies come true.

After about a week of no Peter Parker, the Avenger was back and surprisingly better than ever. He made no mention of the car incident and you didn’t want to bring it up either. In fact, Peter seemed to be his happy, normal self while the two of you trained together for an upcoming mission. He was cracking the same jokes and still rambling your ears off about the usual stuff. It shocked you to say the least, he held no ill will for you because of that night. Maybe he finally wised up and was starting to see things your way.

It seems as if lately Peter has become more lax with you. He didn’t get mad when you were just a little late for training sessions or when you would begin your back talk with him. It was as if Peter changed overnight into a completely chill person. Not that you minded at all, you would definitely be taking advantage of his easy going personality.

However, you did notice something in his eyes that you never seen before. You couldn’t pinpoint it, but it was almost like whenever you too got a little rough during training, he would enjoy it and try to push the limit. Maybe it was all a test to see how far your strength could go? Whatever it was, it kept you curious. Peter was acting different, but not too far off from his normal self.

“We have a mission tonight at the docks. Be ready at 10 and we can take turns being watch,” was all Peter said to you before he left the gym to go off with Mr. Stark.

You weren’t used to going on a mission so late. Peter always wanted to arrive at missions early just in case he was being fooled by a criminal. Of course, he always ended up being wrong and everything would happen later at night than in broad daylight (you tried telling him that and he simply waved you off).

You quickly rushed back to your room, slamming the door and triple checking that the locks were in place. The events from tonight’s mission left you speechless, shocked, horrified. Never in your life had you gotten out of a car and booked it to your room so fast. Peter Parker, Spider-Man, New York’s favorite defender, had done an unspeakable act.

It started out like always, just sitting in the car hiding out. Peter wasn’t talking as much so you decided you wouldn’t make conversation either. It was only until the criminals came to the docks where it all went downhill.

Peter told you the same thing he always had, he’ll call you if backup is needed. Of course, Peter found himself in hot water yet again and you decided to intervene. Only this time, you were met with more than just yelling and a kick out of the car.

“You didn’t listen,” the tone in Peter’s voice changed.

“Peter, c’mon now you were in trouble,” you began to speak, but he quickly cut you off.

“You didn’t listen, and now you’re gonna have to be punished,” Peter had a dangerous look in his eyes that scared you.

“Peter, if you’re gonna throw me out again I’ll save you the trouble and just leave. You know I don’t get why you have to be so stubborn all the damn time, if you just-,” as you were going to open the door, you heard the lock click.

“You didn’t listen, you need to be punished,” Peter began to lean closer to you as you pulled harder on the door.

“Peter, PETER,” you screamed as he put his hand on the front zipper of your top.

“Take this off,” you stayed still, “NOW!”

You rushed to take your top off and avoided the tears forming in your eyes. You fumbled with the zipper towards the bottom and Peter groaned impatiently. He grabbed the top and tore it off of you only leaving you in a bra.

You tried to look away from him and cover yourself in the process, but Peter wasn’t having any of that. He grabbed you by the chin with one hand as the other made its way to your chest. You tried to fight his intentions, but he wouldn’t have it.

“Stop moving. I’ll make this worse for you,” he grabbed your chin harder and you stopped trying to move.

He dipped his fingers into one of the cups and began to fondle your chest. Once Peter found your nipple, he circled it with the tip of his thumb. Peter was moaning as soon as it hardened. He never took his eyes off of you.

“Take off the bra,” Peter gave you a look that dared you to defy him. You quickly got rid of the bra and he took it and threw it in the back seat.

Peter was in awe, you were as beautiful as he imagined. Your bare chest and the tears in your eyes made him hard as a rock. He took his hand off your chin and began to palm himself through his suit.

Peter made his suit retract back into his regular clothing. He took your hands and placed them over the palm of his jeans. He pressed your hands down as you bit back a terrified whimper.

“Why don’t you help me out, yeah?” It wasn’t a suggestion judging by the look in his eyes.

You pulled down his zipper and didn’t go any further than that. Peter chuckled at you and brought your hand into the inside of his boxers. You couldn’t form any type of sounds as he made you hand travel through his patch of hair and up his cock. Peter was impressive, but there was no room for a pleasantly shocked emotion.

“Now take him out and finish what you started,” Peter pulled down his boxers and fully exposed himself to you.

You started off slow with a shaky rhythm. Who could ever be confident and cool in a situation like yours? Peter didn’t seem to like what you were doing and put his hand on top of yours. He guided you up and down his cock and took it off once he gave you a pace.

“Don’t be shy, go faster,” you picked up the pace as you saw Peter swipe some precum off his tip and shoved his finger into your mouth.

He didn’t even have to say anything to get you to start licking his fingers. You closed your eyes and Peter didn’t seem to stop you. The faster this was over with the faster you could finally be home.

After a fast few pumps, he was ready to come undone. He slowed you down and then demanded you picked up the pace. You were told to open your eyes and look at him, but you would close them again after a short few seconds. When he finally did cum, he brought your body close to his cock and let it all spill out on your chest. You felt disgusted, humiliated, and baffled that Spider-Man would take advantage of someone like you.

You opened your eyes once you heard the beep of a phone. Peter had his phone out and was taking a video of the whole thing. He took an additional few pictures and stashed his phone away in case you tried to grab it.

“You might want to clean yourself up, won’t take long to get back home,” Peter tucked himself away and started the car.

When you arrived at the compound you darted out of the car before he could say or do anything further to you. If he wanted to talk he would have to call you now.

You shed yourself of your clothes and began to scrub your body down. No matter how hot the water and how hard you scrubbed, the feeling of Peter on you will forever remain. You took a few showers once you thought the scent and act of Peter had washed off of you. When you left your bathroom it was well past 2 a.m.

Making sure the doors were locked for the hundredth time that night, you finally settled down into bed. You tossed and turned for the next hour until you heard your phone buzz. Not thinking anything of it, you picked it up to see who could be texting you so late at night. Your heart dropped once you saw the messages.

One after another Peter was sending you the videos and pictures that he had taken. Each one made your stomach turn more and more. He was mocking you.

Don’t ever disobey me again or I’ll send these out to everyone.

It took a lot to impress Nick Fury after everything he’s seen and been through. Alien invasions, aliens, cat aliens, raccoon aliens… a lot of aliens. However, nothing could’ve impressed him more than reading your progress report from Peter this morning. It took all of Fury not to frame the report and send emails to all of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents the news of this miracle.

It’s true, over the past weeks you’ve been ever so obedient to Peter. You didn’t move unless he told you to move, didn’t speak until given permission to, he had you right where he wanted you and you couldn’t do anything about it. Even if you thought of telling someone of his mannerisms towards you he would hold out his phone and get the file containing all those pictures ready in a “Send All” email.

Fortunately, Peter never touched you like that night again. True to his word, you would only be treated that way if you ever went against him again. Needless to say, you were walking on something sharper than egg shells. He would tease you spook you relentlessly, even going as far as locking the car door just to see you jump.

Even late at night he would spam your phone with obscene text messages just to taunt you. Sometimes he would send you photos of himself and when he asked for some in return, you had no choice but to give in. Day by day, this man was messing with you and you had no way of outing him.

Peter would be hot on your trail if he saw you making your way to Fury’s office. He would stop you before you could even get to his office corridor. Peter couldn’t have this getting out, his credibility would be ruined and Mr. Stark and the rest of the Avengers would see to it.

He wasn’t happy about what he did, but he didn’t feel a lot of guilt either. What he did that night in the car set something diabolical off in him. It felt good to take what he wanted right there and then. Peter couldn't help but be a little prideful about what he did. He even hinted to Sam a few times that something might’ve happened between you and him.

While he was gloating you were scheming your way into telling Fury what happened. You can’t go anywhere near the man without Peter right beside you, and you can’t call Fury because he never seems to answer his phone. In fact, Fury has been out of the office more and more lately, perhaps keeping up with the other Avengers or being involved with more aliens.

Regardless of what it was, the next time you saw Fury in person you would say something.

You finished off your makeup and were now putting on the expensive dress your fellow agents coaxed you into buying for the party tonight. The material was tight and it was a little hard to breathe, but you’d get through it. Your body was buzzing in anticipation and nerves as you checked your hair one more time before heading off to the gala.

Every year, the Stark x S.H.I.E.L.D. Gala was held to promote and spread awareness for local and international charities across the globe. You never had an interest in going before, but this year you were bugged by the other agents to go and Peter had expressed his interest in your presence at the party. If you didn’t show you were afraid of what he might pull in your absence.

The hotel was extravagant, from the way it was decorated to the mass amounts of people in their expensive suits and elegant gowns. You scanned the room for Peter, but saw no sign of him. He was either taking photos with the Avengers or watching you from afar, and you wouldn’t put it past him to do that.

While you didn’t see him you got to work finding Fury. You went through the humongous crowd of people just to see if you could catch a glimpse of him, you even started to ask around, but no one seemed to know where he could be. It felt like forever and you were beginning to lose hope that you would never find him. If anything was going to happen it had to be tonight.

A tap on your shoulder stopped you in your hectic search. You knew who it was just by the clear of his throat. You faced Peter with a nervous smile on your face as opposed to the devilish one on his.

“I‘ve been looking for you all night,” Peter drank in your appearance, “you look beautiful.”

You squirmed under his gaze while he lingered a little too long for your liking. When he was finally done ogling you, you saw the lust in his eyes grow. You gulped as he extended his hand.

“Dance with me?” The band started to play a slow song.

You looked at his hand and then up to his eyes which dared you to say now. Reluctantly, you grabbed his hand as he led you to the dance floor. Immediately, a few wandering eyes were on yours and Peter’s figure as he led the first dance.

“You know I’ve been thinking. Since you’ve been so perfect lately, I was going to recommend you to Stark for a spot on the Avengers,” your skin formed bumps as he spun you around.

“Could you imagine that? My obedient little angel fighting alongside me. Ugh, could there be anything more perfect?”

You were about to speak, but the music had stopped and all attention was directed to the stage. Up walks Fury and Tony Stark, Fury was first to take the podium and began his long speech about the gala and what supporting these charities means to him and everyone here tonight. You kept your eyes on him the entire time and ignored the words Peter was trying to whisper in your ear. You only started listening to him when he squeezed your waist hard causing you to yelp.

“I said, why don’t we go back to my room when this is all over, huh?” You froze when he ran his hand up and down your spine.

“Peter, don’t you think that’s a little inappropriate?” He hummed in disagreement with you and he wrapped his arms around your waist.

“Nonsense, I don’t even know why I asked, it’s not like you have a choice in the matter anyways,” the fucker laughed.

Your body was shaking and your face was turning red in anger. Peter was going to hold you down forever. There was no way you could ever escape someone as evil as him. Peter had a hold on you for as long as he wanted. You only had one chance to escape it seems and Fury had to be your ticket out.

Before you could form a response Fury handed over the mic to Tony. Fury stepped off the stage and you kept your eyes on him for the entire time. He was making his way out of the gala and you needed to be fast in order to catch him. Peter seemed too distracted by what Tony was saying so you loosened yourself out of his grip and stood beside him. Peter only glared at you for doing that, but you didn’t care, tonight would be the night you take down Peter Parker.

Slowly, you slinked away into the crowd as a round of applause sounded off for whatever Tony was saying. Peter didn’t seem to notice you leave and that’s when you took off. People were giving you disgusted looks as you began to run out of the ballroom and chase Fury.

You almost lost him in the elevators, but you took the steps and ran once you saw what floor he was heading to. You shucked off your heels and ran up the many steps to catch him. When you got to his floor, you pushed the stairwell door open and ran after him.

“Director F-,” you face planted.

Your ankles were tangled by some sort of slim rope and they wouldn’t come undone. Fury’s footsteps faded and new ones approached your struggling body. A pair of expensive shoes stopped right by your head as the body leaned down. You came eye to eye with an angry Peter Parker.

“Rebel, rebel,” he shook his head and hauled you up. You were beating on his back the entire time as tears formed in your eyes. The rope-like material was his webs which kept you trapped.

He went back in the stairwell and carried you up a few more flights until he came to his floor. The hallways were empty as everyone was still at the party. You tried to yell, but it only got you a harsh slap on your ass.

Peter stopped in front of his door and opened it. The second he closed it he threw you on the middle of the bed. He made his way to his suitcase and took out a pocket knife. You were screaming uncontrollably and he began to cut the webs loose. You knew better than to fight with a man with a knife, let alone Spider-Man with a knife.

“Rebel rebel, you’ve torn your dress,” Peter noticed the small tear towards the end of your gown and tore up the rest. “Rebel rebel, your face is a mess,” he looked at your makeup stained face. He put his thumb near your lips and began to smudge lipstick around your face.

“Rebel, rebel, what are we going to do about you?” Peter took off the rest of your dress. The only thing you were in was a lace thong. Peter licked his lips and began to trace the knife down your breast.

You were shaking, afraid that he might dig the knife deeper into your skin. Afraid that he was so mad at you he would go as far as to kill you. You started to whimper as Peter looked up. The smirk on his face grew wider and wider.

“Beg for me not to hurt you. Beg like the good little angel you are,” you were so close to not giving in, but Peter dug the tip of the blade into your skin just enough to pinch it.

“Please Peter, please, please don’t hurt me Peter,” he hummed in a way to tell you that he wasn’t convinced by the performance.

“Please Peter, I’ll do anything to please you. I’ll do anything to make you happy. Please Peter, I’m so sorry for being bad,” you were hysterical as he moved the knife further down your body. When he reached your center he chuckled and threw the knife to the other side of the room. He roughly grabbed you by your scalp and made you come face to face with him.

“Anything?” You shook your head in agreement. “Alright, I wanna fuck that naughty mouth.”

Peter pulled off his suit pants and became complete bare from the waist down. He pumped his cock a few times before grabbing your jaw and forcing your mouth open. He didn’t give you any time to get used to his size as he put all of himself in your mouth. He grabbed you scalp rougher this time and pushed your head up and down. Tears formed in your eyes again as you were forced to take him down your throat. He was a moaning and groaning mess until his thrust started to falter. Peter quickly pulled out watching in awe and the trail of saliva connected from your mouth to his cock.

Peter quickly sat you up and ripped off your underwear in the process. He started to rub his fingers along your folds where he found that you were wet. He smirked and chuckled as he continued rubbing up and down to make you become slicker than before. You tried biting back your moans, but Peter would only press down harder on your clit which caused you to cry out.

“See, I’m not so bad, princess. I could be good to you if you’re good to me,” he removed his fingers and pushed you down on the mattress.

“Peter, please,” you didn’t know if you wanted him to stop or urge you on.

“I know honey, I know. Just lay down and let me make you feel good,” Peter rid himself of the rest of his clothes and slotted himself between your legs.

His tip began to enter you and the rest of his length painfully stretched you out. You squirmed a little, but Peter reassured you it would feel better soon. Sure, he wasn’t your first, but it had been a long time since the last guy and you were a bit tight.

“Oh, angel, you really do feel like heaven,” he started to thrust a little faster.

Pretty soon, Peter was getting really rough with his thrust and making you cry out in a mix of pain and pleasure. Peter got carried away and didn’t realize how fast he was going on you. You felt an orgasm building and were trying to communicate that to Peter but couldn’t form the words. Peter felt you tighten around him just a little too hard and he took that as the signal to pull out. After all, he did want to see his crush cum, for him and only him.

You felt the rush of your orgasm after Peter pulled out. When you looked up at him, his chest was covered in the slick sheen of sweat mixed with your arousal.

“Holy shit, you squirted. That’s got to be the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen,” Peter went back inside you and hoisted himself on his knees and making you face to face with him. “I wanna see that again, and again, and a hundred more times.

He didn’t slow down no matter how many times you tried to beg and plead. Peter ripped out orgasm after orgasm from you and it only coaxed him to go harder and faster. Your bodies were covered in each other’s sweat and you were beginning to get a little tired. However, your eyes quickly shook away their tiredness when you felt fingers prodding your other hole.

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” and as Peter continued his thrusting, he pushed one finger into your tight muscle and pounded into you harder.

“Aww fuck this feels so good,” Peter cried out one last time and finally came inside you.

You both collapsed onto the bed still connected to each other. Tears formed in your eyes once the shock wore off. He had finally gotten what he wanted from you.

Only a week went by when you had finally heard from Fury again. This time, he wanted to speak with you privately in his office. Your time with the Avengers program was up and he wanted to give his final thoughts.

“Well Agent, I am shocked to be saying this, but I am thoroughly impressed by your behavior with Peter. A little rough in the beginning, but I’m glad to see you both worked through your differences,” you wanted to scoff, but you wouldn't put a damper on Fury’s mood.

After that night in the hotel, the sex became a regular thing. Peter would demand and you were forced to give in. His punishments were still ongoing as he was still mad at you for trying to snitch on him to Fury, but now that the program has ended you and Peter Parker wouldn’t be seeing each other at all.

“And because of your improving behavior I’ve decided to push through your request,” you furrowed your brows in confusion.

“Request?”

“You know, your request to join the Avengers team officially. Parker has been raving about your skills and training that we decided to recommend you for a spot on the team. You’ll have to meet with Mr. Stark for a few interviews and sessions, but seeing as Peter has talked so fondly of you there is no doubt in my mind you wouldn't be offered the spot.”

You stayed frozen in your seat as Fury went on and on about you. You only left when he dismissed you, reminding you that Tony Stark would be contacting you soon.

When you shut the door behind you, you began to freak out. Peter was planning on keeping you as his. At this point, there would be no way out unless you either die, face embarrassment and let the video get leaked, or wait around until Peter gets bored. Knowing Peter and his fatal attraction to you none of those could happen.

On your way back to your room, you heard the familiar footsteps you’ve grown too disgusted to know. You turned around to face the man who would be running you entire life for who knows how long. Just as you were about to speak he opened his mouth first.

“Rebel, rebel, there you are.”

#Dark Avengers #dark peter parker #dark spider man #dark marvel #dark!Avengers #Dark Fic #marvel smut #peter parker x reader #peter parker smut #maries500challenge #peter parker image #peter parker oneshot

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insert-cleverurl · 4 years ago

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solaine copies her dsmp meta twitter part one

preface: i wrote this on february 13th and am now archiving it over here on tumblr before i get around posting it to the actual archive (of our own). i'd like to clean it up before i go there, becuase i wrote this at like one am lying in bed and typing on my laptop that was sitting on my stomach. it's a lot of rambling. i go on a lot of tangents. it is not the cleanest nor likely most accurate meta you will ever read.

how characters (children) on the smp learn from history rather than repeat it: a thread

aka: stop liking the other one you fucks i opened the wikia so i actually know what happened now /lh

context here is that i had earlier made a much less coherent thread (not that this one is very coherent) with the caveat that i was going entirely off memory

this thread is mainly going over how tommy + tubbo both emulate and turned away from wilbur + schlatt respectively, and how i think that's going to reflect in ranboo's arc

"as long as i can't be the next jschlatt, you can't be the next wilbur." okay we all know this. it's obvious from this point on that both tubbo and tommy saw or had fears of how they were each developing into scarily familiar people - schlatt, a dictator, and wilbur, a madman.

starting with tommy, the parallels between his exile arc and wilbur's pogtopia arc are immediately, and glaringly, obvious. paranoia, trust issues, "maybe i'm actually the bad guy here", and most notably, intense loneliness. wilbur made it obvious he believed pogtopis's allies would all abandon them in the end (them being he and tommy, though how much he trusted tommy by the end is also up in the air), and he was completely prepared to kill anyone he had to in order to secure pogtopia's victory, despite also preparing himself to be the one to end it. wilbur gave up on l'manberg, at the very end. he believed tyranny was all that would ever reign, so he blew it up.

tommy, in his exile arc, was also despairingly lonely. he hallucinated tubbo, grew attached to dream, etc etc. tommy was very very close to "becoming" wilbur here (god i'm sorry this is so long already and just me summing things up we already know it's to keep my thoughts in order + satisfy my inability to shut up and use too many words)

where wilbur and tommy go their separate ways is when they were given an out. dream gave wilbur tnt + for tommy, he was. you know. gestures vaguely at logstedshire. wilbur took the out - he gave up. he gave in. we know he had moments of clarity (when niki was in danger) and Maybe this was one he could've had too, but he didn't. he took the tnt.

tommy decided enough was enough. so at a crucial moment in time, tommy turned away from being wilbur. he did not repeat history.

onto tubbo; admittedly i know much less about his arc as president so this will be less outlined. tubbo,,,, acted very similarly to schlatt. probably moreso than tommy and wilbur! strange new laws, ignoring his cabinet, execution, generally appearing to lose his care for the world and the opinions of others. i'd argue the thing that separates him from schlatt is the most important part of this thread, because it proves my point: he remembered.

i just want to clarify here: by "proves my point" i mean this is the clsoest we get to an agreement of the ideas i'm putting out here in canon?? ig?? as in like. this is the most on the nose way to say it. similarly in recent days to quackity consistently referring to his treatment of dream as torture, which seems to be a very "I Am Not In Character" move but is definitely meant for us, the viewers, rather than character dream or character quackity themselves. tubbo's is a little less like that but still it's kind of like pointing at the X on a map for us the viewers. ok tangent over

tubbo lived under schlatt's rule as one of those people he treated extremely shittily. he lived under schlatt's rule as that person he executed. and tubbo remembers all that! tubbo remembers how schlatt's rule played out, and he looks at his own uh, less than stellar time in office, and he admits this out loud (to ranboo, according to the wikia. i am getting all of this off the wikia. i did not watch any streams during this arc.) that he can See himself becoming schlatt.

and when quackity tries to execute ranboo for being a traitor, tubbo stops him.

onto dream and ranboo! dream is a special case in that we never get to see his perspective of things and are rather left to play fill in the blank, and this whole arc is special (in terms of this thread) in that it isn't over. so i will be doing a lot of extrapolating here.

dream starts out as a generally ambivalent character who has very few rules that he pretty much never bothers to enforce anyways (i think? i don't remember).

by this i mean, this is all stuff i heard secondhand in recent months and can no longer remember what it actually was because i never went back to check. i'm pretty sure, but just a disclaimer. i don't wanna get hit with an "um, actually

his villain arc starts very very early - two whole seasons before he really became one. in the war, he is the antagonist and he plays up to it! most of the war is from l'manberg's pov (or that's how we look at it now, at least) so obviously he is the Bad Guy here.

ranboo griefed a house like two days into the server. 'nuff said /lh

ranboo + dream are both heavily vilified characters from the get-go - dream's part should be fairly obvious (uh, the everything leading up the exile arc where he actually did villainous things), whereas ranboo's is most notably during the second festival's aftermath. taking the blame for blowing up the community house, wanting to "pick people not sides" (he wants all his friends to be happy - sounds familiar, right?), etc etc, and now he's with techno and phil, the former of which is Definitely considered a villain for working with dream

now many many parallels are being drawn between he and dream, especially with the whole enderwalking thing. in the aftermath of everything happening, he chooses to stay out of all conflict, until Something Happens and forces his hand. (the egg!) he wants peace for everyone, which again, sounds very familiar, right?

(slight tangent: yes, the griefing was forcing dream's hand. it's nigh impossible to construe it as anything other than a political attack - the vice president of l'manberg griefing the home of the greater dream smp's king? dream looks weak + open to attack if he lets it slide)

this was a bad way to put it but the spirit of it gets across i think. fuck character limit on twitter

that catches us up on all current lore. where do i think dream and ranboo are going to split? dream has been alone in his decision-making basically since the very first war. not once has he (successfully, we don't know if he tried) gone to fall back on his friends' support and ask for their help in making these hard decisions (of which there are many). he severs his final connections ("i don't care about anything on this server") and cements his place in history as a monster.

i think it is very likely that we are getting a ranboo "friendship and relying on other people" arc here. there are other ways they could go with it, obviously, but given his current arctic anarchist ties and what appears to be other friendships developing. hmm! i'm interested. this part is entirely speculation/extrapolation. point being. the kids on the smp do, in fact, learn from history. they still make mistakes sometimes, but past a certain point, they're always different mistakes. they learn, and they almost always get happier endings for it

i don't know if it's a coincidence that it's the three lore-relevant kids who are the ones doing this. i don't think it is, because this is a very well-written and clever story. the younger generation is the one learning and fixing past mistakes and leaving the world better off for it. that's very neat! i like it a lot. also now that purpled's becoming lore-relevant, goddamnit if i don't want to see next season being his "learning from history" arc. punz vs purpled, maybe? that'd be neat. who knows. ok i think im finally done lol ty for reading :)

caveat I forgot to add last night: obviously ranboo and dream start out in very different positions, moreso than both tommy and tubbo. but at the end of the day, all three of them are their own people who just happen to take after other people in some ways :)

again, ty for reading! here's the original thread. i'd like to add that this is probably out of date and i may come back to it some day but who knows. maybe this will just be a relic of before Now (may 25)

#solaine's dsmp meta #dsmp #dsmp meta #c!tommy #c!ranboo #c!tubbo #tommyinnit #ranboo #tubbo #schlatt #c!schlatt #c!dream #dream #c!wilbur #wilbur

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adamwatchesmovies · 4 years ago

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The Best of 2020

Better late, than never. I enjoy seeing other people’s top-10 lists and I said I’d do one for 2020, so here we go. I haven’t had the chance to watch EVERYTHING I wanted to, but you’ve got to pull the trigger at some point. When the Academy Awards took place on Sunday, I felt like I hadn’t seen ANYTHING nominated but I could remember dozens of times where I felt like I wasted my precious minutes with cinematic detritus. I assumed putting this list together would be easy. It wasn’t. I’ve got a lot of runner ups but for now, here are my Top 10 “Best” (by which I kind of mean my favorite) movies of 2020:

10. Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Never Rarely Sometimes Always gave me a lot to think about. On the surface, it's about a teenager who has to travel outside of her hometown to get an abortion, but it could've been any kind of procedure she's uncomfortable (or unable) asking her parents for. It's about the lengths she has to go to when her main source of support is cut off. You feel uneasy throughout, wondering what lengths the girls will have to resort through and whether something horrible is just around the corner. For this reason, I think many parents would find the film enriching.

9. Mank

I haven’t posted my review of Mank yet - just haven't had the time so consider my star rating for it "spoiled". If you don't know, it's about Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) and the time he wrote Citizen Kane for Orson Welles. I can’t call Citizen Kane one of my favorite films, but I do often think of it. The story, the characters, specific shots, the overall look, etc. Every time I revisit it in my memory, my appreciation for it grows and in a way, Mank helps complete my relationship with the film. For that reason, I foresee myself revisiting Mank in the future - probably as part of a double-bill. I’d love to see it enough times to memorize some of Gary Oldman’s best lines.

8. One Night in Miami

One Night in Miami addresses the present while being set in the past but something about it clicked with me more than Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. It's essentially a series of long conversations, the kinds that force you to really examine tough questions and see these legendary figures as normal people. Unlike Mank, it isn't so much the individual lines that stand out, it's more the vibes you get from the exchanges. Out of all the movies on this list, it's probably got the best ensemble cast.

7. Sound of Metal

I'm sure you've seen that clip from Un Chien Andalou where an eye gets sliced with a razor? It gives me the willies just thinking about it because if I were blind I wouldn't be able to watch movies or draw. In Sound of Metal, we're dealing with a career cut short because of deafness but the dots are easy to connect. I immediately connected with this movie, which made its ending feel like a punch in the gut.

6. Tenet

I keep telling myself that I won’t love a movie Christopher Nolan directs just because his name is attached to it. Hopefully, this doesn't make me a fanboy, despite my falling for pretty much everything he's released. I love how ambitious Tenet is. The plot is so complicated but then again it isn't because once you're able to grok the mechanics of its reverse-entropy technology, you'll probably figure out most of the plot's mysteries. For me, that was the fun part. It felt good to see my understanding of the story and theories confirmed. I'll be watching it again once groups can gather so my friends and I can discuss everything in detail.

5. Trial of the Chicago Seven

I know The Trial of the Chicago Seven fudges history in ways certain people would say is irredeemable but I never go into a film “based on true events” assuming liberties won’t be taken. At the end of the day, I care about being entertained. My enjoyment was also amplified by the fact that I didn't know what the verdicts would be - my American history is spotty, at best. It's got laughs, outrage, drama, and inspirational moments. Aside from romance, you've got pretty much all the bases covered.

4. Palm Springs

Out of all the pleasant surprises of 2020, Palm Springs was the biggest. I thought the Groundhog Day thing was played out and the 0-star-worthy Love Wedding Repeat did nothing to convince me otherwise. Then, this movie comes along and does everything you want in one of those movies, and then some. Not only did Palm Springs give me the romantic comedy I'd been craving for (feels like we haven't gotten a good one since "Crazy Rich Asians" it also examines what love and relationships mean through smartly written metaphors.

3. Possessor

No, I didn’t put this movie on the list just because it’s Canadian; Possessor is on this list because it’s the most unsettling movie of 2020. I mean that in a good way. I've already talked about how unsettling the premise is but it's also the execution. Those bizarre “dream” scenes with the different identities merging in unnatural ways is unforgettable. That mask of Tasya's face, half-melted is already creepy enough, when worn by Christopher Abbott as he re-enacts her memories is just so weird it makes you wonder if you’re actually seeing what you’re seeing, or if you’re going mad. Then, there's that shot with the fingers at the end! Makes me wince just thinking about it.

2. Soul

During the Oscars, I get a little mad at Pixar. They effortlessly churn out these masterpieces that mean no other studio has a chance of winning an Academy Award for the Best Animated Film category. It makes me wonder if the voters even bother to watch the competition but I don't think anyone could argue against Soul. It's among their best films. It’s gorgeous, profound, and modern without showcasing any issues that might flush your day down the toilet.

Runner-Ups:

Enola Holmes

I never believed Enola Holmes would end up on my "Best of the Year" list but this movie is a lot of fun. If you haven't seen it yet, you should. Just wanted to remind you.

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) I was disappointed when audiences didn’t seem interested in Birds of Prey. Seeing Margot Robbie go all-out and given a script that actually makes good use of her character was lots of fun. I also found it refreshing to see a superhero movie (not really, but kind of) that didn’t involve a plot to destroy the world, upheaval all of civilization, or shoot a giant beam into the sky. I think this is one people will discover down the line and go “why didn’t I go see this in theaters when it was playing?”

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm I’m not 100% in love with Borat 2 but boy am I looking forward to showing it to people who have no idea what’s coming. That scene with Rudy Guliani might not have the same impact down the line as it did when I first saw this sequel, but that’s ok. It’ll still have you picking your jaw off the floor.

Nomadland It’s a great movie and I might’ve put it on my list of the best… but I just don’t see myself watching this one again anytime soon. Great movie though. It deserves every accolade you see directed towards it. Chloé Zhao is shaping up to be a major talent. While before I might’ve said “Eternals who?” Now, I’m excited.

The Vast of Night Until I saw Possessor, this was my favorite horror film of 2020. I love the way this movie does so much without showing anything. It’s all about letting your imagination do the work.

Hamilton I’m still unsure how I feel about the casting in Hamilton. Everyone does a terrific job. I understand why actors of color were chosen to portray the historical figures we meet during this story. It still doesn't sit 100% comfortable with me. Then again, who can argue with those results? I’ve seen the movie twice and the songs are still playing in my head.

1. Promising Young Woman

I only had so much before this post went up. Enough for one more movie. It was a tossup between The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, and Promising Young Woman. As you can imagine, I’m pretty satisfied with the choice I made. Writer/director Emerald Fennell takes the rape-revenge genre and reshapes it into something that feels completely new. Like many of the other films on this list, it also feels relevant to what’s going on today. There are many reasons why I could’ve given it this slot. The writing, the performances, the way it puts your stomach in knots as you wonder what’s going to happen next, the pitch-perfect ending… but I’m going to pick a more personal reason. I try to look at films as snapshots of when they were made. There’s a part of me that winces when I look at Gone with the Wind but I’m also able to take a step back and say “but other than that…” and then just enjoy the movie. In Promising Young Woman, the past is confronted in a way that made me pause and think about two movies on my shelf: Wedding Crashers and American Pie. The Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy, in particular, has a lot of questionable bits of comedy, bits made even more eyebrow-raising by the fact that it isn't an "old" movie whose entire cast is now dead. Let’s just say that when a movie makes me go “This movie is replacing X”, makes me think this hard about things, and does everything else you want in a thriller… it’ll stick in your head for a long time. That's why I'm calling it the best/my favorite movie of the year.

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the-peak-of-despair · 4 years ago

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Mastermind! Chihiro Fujisaki - The Sixth Trial

This wasn’t exactly an old request, just a suggestion to write whatever I felt like. And I love mastermind AUs so fucking much, please, flood my inbox asking about them, I just wanna talk about our lord and savior mastermind chihiro - Mod Akane

“And that would mean..” Makoto begins, the realization striking him as he turns to Chihiro, staring fearfully back at him. “Y-You’re the mastermind, Chihiro!”

There’s doubt in his voice. He doesn’t want to believe it. His friend, who’d opened up to him, who shares his deepest secrets, in his most vulnerable state… he’d orchestrated all of this? From the outside, he looked like he would burst into tears if he killed a bee. Suppose that’s the trick behind it…

“C-Chihiro..? I-It was you..?” Asahina stutters, looking at him horrified.

“I-I-” Chihiro begins to stutter. He looks like he’s on the verge of bursting into tears. No one in the courtroom believes this claim, how could they? But the evidence was stacked against him..

It’s before anyone can argue that Chihiro snaps into an entirely new persona, and the tears are gone. “Yep! That’s me! I’m the mastermind!”

Everyone takes a step back. Chihiro’s face contorted in a way no one had ever imagined. In an instant, his entire personality changed. His tears evaporated into thin air and despair seemed to wash over his face, seeping down to his very core as his eyes lost all sign of true emotion.

“Gosh, you’re so smart, Makoto!” Chihiro says, clapping his hands like a child. “I can’t believe you found me out!”

“No. There’s simply no way this is possible.” Byakuya interrupts, crossing his arms. “Chihiro, stop playing games. There’s no way you are the mastermind.”

“Oh no, I really am!” Chihiro smiles. With a snap of his fingers, Monokuma shut down, almost like he was playing dead where he stood on the ground. Chihiro left his podium and approached the robot, standing next to it and humming while he examined it.

..And then, in a sudden instant, he slammed his foot into the robot, kicking it as hard as he could. Monokuma flew into a distant wall, shattering into a million black and white pieces as Chihiro didn’t even blink. Everyone in the courtroom drew back, even Byakuya and Kirigri, unable to hide their shock.

“H-Holy shit!” Yashuiro screams in fear as Chihiro turns back towards the circle of survivors. The room begins to fill with smoke, making most people cough and wave it away from their faces. In a second, it clears, revealing Chihiro in a new outfit, with a Monokuma-esq color palette to boot.

“Da-dun-dun! That’s right, the mastermind all along was Chihiro Fujisaki!” He smiles wildly, throwing his arms out in a grand gesture. Standing between Asahina and Yashuiro at his new podium, he seems so small, but he’s so.. Terrifying. The sudden switch in personalities shook everyone to the very core.

“This doesn’t make sense..” Kirigiri mutters. “How could you control Monokuma and almost never leave our sight?”

Chihiro backs up until he’s sat on top of the ‘throne’ Monokuma used to always sit on top of. He crosses his legs and leans back, getting comfortable in his seat above everyone else. “Pfffffffft! He’s an AI, come on Kirigiri, aren’t you smarter than this?” Chihiro mocks Kirigiri. “I’ve been living under your noses as the Ultimate Programmer, Monokuma wasn’t even my best work!”

“That doesn’t make sense. His movements and conversations with us.. They’re nothing like any AI I’ve ever seen.” Byakuya argues.

“Clean your glasses, Byakuya! Didn’t you see Alter Ego?” Chihiro poses the question as he sits up and leans over the arm of his chair towards Byakuya. “They’re all easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy!~ I’ve got an iron grip on the technology production from here to Towa City!”

“Speaking of Alter Ego..” Kirgiri interrupts, halting Byakuya’s personal slander. “What was the point of presenting him to us?”

Chihiro lets out a giggle. “Yeaah, Alter Ego was a bit of a mistake on my part! You weren’t supposed to find it. But since you did I thought it wouldn’t hurt to spin you in the wrong direction a bit!”

“And his execution?”

“Oh, that was Monokuma’s decision! Spur of the moment thing. I didn’t really mind, it was collateral damage!” Chihiro shrugs. “Collateral damage.. Kinda like Mondo and Kiyotaka!” He smiles, and as he watches everyone in the room come to a full stop before looking at Chihiro with disgust.

“C-Collateral d-damage..?” Makoto stutters. “T-Those were our friends, Chihiro! What the.. What the hell!? They were your friends!”

“Huh, were they?” Chihiro asks sarcastically, tapping a finger to his chin. “Huh. If they were, I just used them!”

“Y-You what…?” Asahina stutters.

“I used them! I mean, Mondo and Taka were like a package deal! I needed Mondo to make me stronger, and Taka only played by my rules! Let me tell you, it was s-”

“S-Shut up!” Makoto interrupts Chihiro, who perks up, interested in his sudden boldness. “W-We still need to talk about what happened in the last trial!”

“Oooh, you mean where I killed Sakura and framed Toko ‘cus I got bored? What’s there to talk about?” Chihiro asks, excited. “...Aha, did I let that slip?”

“R-Repeat that.” Asahina suddenly becomes cold, her fists balled tight at her sides.

“I’m sure you heard me, Asahina!” Chihiro smiles, standing from his throne and once again approaching the podium. “I killed Sakua and framed Toko!”

Asahina begins to breathe heavy, doing everything in her power to contain her anger as Chihiro continues to talk. “I mean, really, do you think Toko could actually kill Sakura? I don’t even think her wacky double-personality could’ve taken her down! So I worked a bit of magic, aaand..!”

“SHUT THE HELL UP!” Asahina screams, slamming her hands on her podium. “Y-You- You bastard! What the fuck is wrong with you Chihiro?!” She screams, turning and grabbing him by the collar, dragging him close to her face, so close that his feet barely grazed the ground. “I- You fucking killed her! Y-You killed Sakura! I-I- I loved her, you...you..!”

Chihiro doesn’t even look phased as Asahina spits venom in his face. “Hey, Hina! You remember what happened to Junko? Right?” He grins sadistically as the fear begins to strike Asahina, who drops him and takes a step back.

There’s a familiar whirring noise, and out of nowhere there's a spear that shoots from the middle of the room towards Asahina, almost identical to what happened to Junko. Asahina flinches and draws back violently, forcing the spear to only grace her cheek before slamming into the wall behind her. She opens her eyes, breathing heavy with fear as she held her hand to her cheek. “O-Oh my god..”

“Gah, I missed!” Chihiro pouts. “I need to get better at shooting games.”

“G-Games?! Y-You could’ve killed me!” Asahina yells, still holding a hand to her cheek.

“That’s the fun in it!” Chihiro grins. Once upon a time, this was a wide, innocent grin. Now, it was nothing but evil. Full of despair and agony. And that’s probably exactly what Chihiro wanted.

Makoto could only wonder- what could possibly push this poor boy to the breaking point..?

If you looked close enough, the answer was laid out in plain sight.

“Well!” Chihiro claps his hands. “What is there to talk about now? Surely the trial won’t come to a close so easily!” Chihiro scans the room, taking in every facial expression of pure disgust and pain around him.

“Why..? Why did you do all this?” Makoto asks, basically gripping his podium for dear life. He couldn’t just take all of this in easily. One of his best friends, through this entire hellhole, a person he’d protected with his fucking life and would follow into battle blindly… he was the mastermind? Chihiro, a boy who no one would suspect, he was pulling the strings, he’d orchestrated every death, he’d warped Hope’s Peak into a place of despair..?

He recalls the moment in the bathhouse when he told Kirigiri: “I’d follow you into battle if I had to!”

And her response.. “Not such a wise choice, is it?”

Chihiro’s face falls. “Do you know what it’s like, Makoto..?” His tone changes, it’s low and unlike anything anyone had heard from Chihiro before. “To be bullied, every single day, pummeled into the fucking dirt?!” Despair overwhelms his entire face, but he starts to laugh.. “Every.. Goddamn day! Until the point where you.. Hahaa.. You’ve gotta change your whole identity, just to be safe!”

“Chihiro.. I-” Yasuhiro looks like he’s about to set a hand on his shoulder. Forgetting for just a moment that this was a boy who’d killed his friends, and possibly even thousands, just remembering that once upon a time they were friends.

Chihiro smacks his hand away with alarming strength, still laughing all as tears gather in his eyes. “NO!” He screams, almost like it was a reflex. “I don’t need.. Ahahaha.. I don’t need anyone’s help anymore! That despair..it only.. It only made me stronger! AhahaAHAHAHA! A-And I- I’ve basked this entire world in despair!” Chihiro hugs himself, breaking into boisterous, manic laughter.

“What do you mean, the entire world?” Byakuya asks, seemingly unphased by Chihiro’s manic breakdown. Of course, Byakuya wasn’t ever ‘friends’ with the boy… though part of him couldn’t help but reflect on the.. Choice words he’d used against him before.

Chihiro doesn’t even stop laughing. “Oh, ah..ahaha! I forgot all about that! While you were all locked up in here, the entire world has plunged into despair!” He claps his hands twice, before throwing his arms out wide, gesturing towards the monitors on every corner of the room. The monitors flicker, then turn on, showing a repeating news broadcast.

The broadcast was simple, a repetitive broadcast of a red sky overtop of war and destruction, all with the face of Monokuma plastered all over. It shakes everyone in the room to the core, except for Chihiro, who gleefully watches his handiwork as he wipes his tears away. “Isn’t it lovely!? Everything destroyed.. Right down to your very bloodlines!”

“No. I simply won’t believe this.” Byakuya starts again. “This is foolish. A highschool boy couldn’t just take down the world.”

“Ahaha, I didn’t work alone, silly Byakuya!” Chihiro grins. “Despair spreads like a plague! And that plague even took down your precious Togami family!”

“Wh-What..?” Fear seems to take over Byakuya, if only for a split second. “Th-The Togami family doesn’t just lay down and die! Who the hell backs you!?”

Chihiro laughs. “Despair, dummy! How many times do I gotta repeat myself!?” The words send Byakuya down a spiral, even without evidence.. The very thought shook him to the core.

“H-Hey!” Makoto argues. “This can’t be true! Last I remember, the world was just fine! We’ve been here a month, tops, there’s no way you could’ve done this in all that time!”

“Weren’t we already over this?” Chihiro asks. “You lost your memories! If I whack ya hard enough, you might get ‘em back! But we’ve all been cooped up, shielded from the outside world! And now you’ve spent your days trying to crawl out of this home we all built together! Isn’t that just a tad hypocritical?”

“W-Wait, you mean..?” Asahina catches what Chihiro means first- the world had crumbled, and they’d all been here for two years, and then they…

“W-What was the point of all of this!?” Makoto asks, cutting off any other thought processes about how they’d been gone for two whole years.

“Huh? Well, I kept you alive, hijacked the airwaves, and displayed you murdering each other for the world to see because I wanted to spread despair to the last dying shreds of hope in the world!” Chihiro explains casually. “I mean, I’ve laid this all out in plain sight for you.”

“W-” Byakuya begins to speak.

Chihiro interrupts. “Yeah, yeah, be quiet, we’ve had enough of you. Now!” He claps his hands together, excited. “Since this is a trial, I give you one last vote. You can vote for despair- vote to give me the punishment I deserve- or, vote for hope, and stay here for the rest of your golden days!”

“L-Let me get this straight..” Asahina starts. “If we just vote for hope, none of us die..?”

Chihiro hums. “Well, I suppose, but.. That doesn’t sound as fun! So how about this: vote for hope, and I’ll only execute one of you! The rest of you get to live out the rest of your lives with moi.” He folds his hands under his chin, in an oh-so familiar way. Was he mocking Celeste..?

“W-Who’ll get executed..?” Yasuhiro stutters.

“Hm..” Chihiro hums as he looks around the room. He starts pointing from person to person. “Eenie.. Meanie… minie… you!” He lands on Makoto, who exhibits a fearful look in return.

“Y-You’ll execute me…?” Makoto stutters, fearful. Somewhere inside him, this felt familiar.

“Well of course! You seem to be the obvious answer.” Chihiro smiles gleefully, as if he didn’t just imply that with ease he would slaughter his friend. “Why, you used to be my closest friend! You.. were the first person I trusted! What better despair than for you to die at my own hands?”

Makoto takes a deep breath as he turns to his friends, full of despair and pain. Their hands hovering over their levers, obvious that they would seem.. Almost willing to put Makoto’s life on the line. He looks back at Chihiro, with a devilish grin paired with despair-filled eyes. He starts to laugh, like a loud symphony, bouncing off the walls and into everyone’s ears in an inescapable manner. He laughs so hard he almost starts crying once more, laughing so much it hurt.

Laughing like someone who’d been torn up inside and out and loved every fucking minute of it.

#chihiro fujisaki #mastermind chihiro fujisaki #mastermind au #danganronpa #danganronpa spoilers #danganronpa thh #trigger happy havoc #makoto naegi #byakuya togami #kyoko kirigiri #aoi asahina #yasuhiro hagakure #mod akane

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tea-mew96 · 4 years ago

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An Analysis of Armada Starscream’s Character Arc

So after reading @baebeyza‘s answer to an ask here, I decided I wanted to make a separate post sharing my view on some of the points made there, mainly the ones taking about Starscream’s character arc. Make sure to read that original post before going through this in order for this anything below to make sense. This is all my personal interpretation btw, so feel free to agree or disagree as much as you want. Also, spoilers for Transformers Armada.

For starters, I’m of the belief that Armada is a mess in regards to writing up until the Unicron Battles act of the show, but Starscream’s arc was arguably one of the better parts of Armada IMO. Plus he’s one of my fave characters in the show. Thus, I’m going to analyze and provide my perspective on some of the things mentioned in the original post.

1.) The fight between Megatron and Starscream in “Rebellion”. If you thought the fight between these two in this episode felt contrived, that’s because in-universe it kinda was. Remember Sideways? He was manipulating both Megatron and Starscream throughout that entire episode in order to get those two to fight to the death. He was successful in getting the fight to happen, but there was no death of one of the bots like he had hoped would happen.

2.) Thrust and Megatron’s plan in “Sacrifice”. It’s true that Starscream had ownership of the Star Saber when the Decepticons finally got it their hands on it. That is, until Megatron had his Minicon Leader-1 trick him into attacking Demolisher with the sword in “Conspiracy”. The end-result was everyone agreeing that only Megatron should be allowed to wield the Star Saber, questioning Starscream’s competence. Ever since then, Megatron was the one in charge of the sword.

So why didn’t he want Starscream to have the sword? Simple: Megatron is an arrogant dick who is afraid of Starscream. Megatron sees Starscream’s confidence as a threat to his status as supreme Decepticon leader, and Starscream challenging him to that fight in “Rebellion” (despite his emotions being manipulated by Sideways in order to do it) is evidence of that fear being somewhat founded in Megatron’s eyes.

As for Thrust, he’s also quite arrogant, thinking of himself as the “best tactician”. Because of his perceived high-intelligence and ability to think of “great strategies”, Thrust believes that he’s better than any other Decepticon…including Starscream. The fact that someone so “below him” has the title of “second in command” doesn’t sit well with Thrust.

Basically, what you end up with are two arrogant people who either don’t like and/or fear Starscream.

The plan that Thrust makes is aimed to retrieve the Requiem Blaster, a powerful weapon which is currently back at the Autobot base. If they want a chance of breaking in, they’re going to have to lure as many Autobots as they can out of the base. In other words, they need a distraction. And because of their combined distaste for Starscream, Megatron and Thrust decide that he is the one that should be the distraction. I’m also guessing another reason to keep him in the dark was to keep the reaction as convincing to the Autobots as possible; sometimes being informed on the twist causes a less-convincing performance, and a convincing disguise was an important thing the plan needed in order for it to work. Thrust does imply that Megatron would have to give up the Star Saber for a time in order to ensure the retrival of the Requiem Blaster, which Megatron agrees to. Starscream only got the Star Saber in this situation because of that little tradeoff to make the plan work: distract the Autobots with the opportunity of getting the Star Saber back while the Decepticons invaded their base and grabbed the Requiem Blaster. And the mission does end up being a success.

This plan was definitely a gamble, as they could’ve easily lost the Star Saber and the chance to grab the Requiem Blaster, but it was one that worked in their favor, so all’s well that ends well. Who cares how Starscream feels about not being informed? Megatron and Thrust sure didn’t.

3.) Starscream, Alexis, and Sympathy

I’m also going to argue that while the messy writing can make it difficult to feel bad for Starscream, that doesn’t mean the potential to isn’t there. I personally have a lot of sympathy for him, even if his story wasn’t executed as well as it could’ve.

“Rebellion” and Thrust’s plan in “Sacrifice” are both driving forces for Starscream to join the Autobots, and a justifiable one IMO.

In “Rebellion”, Starscream gets beaten by Megatron for…no reason. Starscream followed Megatron’s orders exactly as he wanted. But because they lost the previous battle and Megatron can’t admit to being wrong, he blames the loss on Starscream anyway. Sideways says in-show that Megatron beating up Starscream for his own loss was absurd. And the abuse only stops when Demolisher blasts his way in and intervenes.

“Sacrifice” only furthers this mistreatment of Starscream, being used as a punching bag for the plan and getting abandoned without being informed about what was going to happen. This combined with the multiple times he’s been belittled by both Megatron and Thrust sends him over the edge, attacking everyone in the base when he gets back and eventually going to the Autobots for refuge and help to get revenge.

When Starscream arrives, the Autobots-especially Hot Shot-are reluctant to have a Decepticon join the folds so little after their dear friend Smokescreen almost dying by their hand. Hot Shot in particular is still hurt over Sideways’ betrayal. I’d argue those facts make for valid and understandable concerns, even if it results in some drama.

Regardless of their hesitance, almost everyone knows and agrees that having Starscream go back to the Decepticon base after attacking everyone there wasn’t going to end well for him. Thus, Optimus orders that they will let Starscream join their ranks (he’s a good dad).

Alexis was one of the first to suggest that Starscream join, and one of the first to attempt to get him to open up to cooperation with the team, probably because she saw potential in having him as an ally like Optimus did. Towards the end of the episode “Mars”, Alexis congratulates Starscream on a job well-done with getting the Minicon Firebot to join their side (praise ain’t something Starscream receives a lot of). Starscream scoffs and says he’s only on their side to defeat Megatron, but he leaves behind a moon rock, something that the kids had asked Jetfire and Starscream for earlier before going on a mission to Mars. I agree with Alexis in her conclusion that this is evidence of Starscream starting to change for the better. In the next episode “Crack”, the kids award Starscream for his nice gift by throwing him a surprise party and gifting him a chamois. What stands out to me about this scene is that Starscream has no idea how to react. He’s confused because he’s not used to receiving many positive words of praise from his former Decepticon peers, much less a present.

He does push away help and positivity from the Autobots and the kids (to unintentionally hilarious degrees at times), but I think that’s partly due to the kind of impact his experiences with Megatron have had on his mind. He wants approval and acceptance, but once he starts getting it he rejects it. This is merely speculation from a psychological perspective, but I think Starscream has a hard time getting used to receiving kindness because whether consciously or subconsciously, he doesn’t believe he deserves it. The belittlement and mistreatment by Megatron has made him believe otherwise, and/or that every positive acknowledgement received always comes with a catch later on.

Yes, Starscream does return to the Decepticon fold later in “Crack” when Thrust convinces him that he has a better chance to get revenge on Megatron by coming back and conspiring with Thrust. But his short time with the Autobots and kids did impact him. He was extremely hesitant to fire the Hydra Cannon at Earth in “Threaten” and “Crisis” (even though he fires the cannon anyway after said hesitation), regretted the death of Optimus in “Remorse”, saved the kids from being killed by the Requiem Blaster (now in the hands of Thrust) in “Drift”, and stays behind to help Alexis retrieve her necklace safely (made from the moon rock Starscream gave the kids) in “Portent”. Starscream shows even after leaving that he has started to learn a little bit about compassion.

During the show, Starscream becomes a person who isn’t quite sure whom he should side with, as his personal goals contradict the overall goals of both sides. And how does his story end? He gets killed by Unicron, trying to convince Megatron (technically Galvatron now, but whatever) that Unicron is a real threat and that he needs to ally with Optimus and his team to defeat him. And his final words? Telling Megatron that he was a dick to him and that Optimus treated him better in that short time period than Megatron ever did.

Look, I get it. Armada’s a mess of storytelling. I wish there was more build up to Starscream defecting to the Autobots and coming back to the Decepticon fold. But we still got a pretty descent arc in the end, even if it could’ve been done better. I can’t make anyone feel sympathy for Starscream, but I refuse to deny that his story didn’t impact me or many others.

Starscream’s arc to me is the story of an abused bot trying to find his place in the world and not truly finding it in the end. It’s the story of a bot who dedicated every fiber of his being to serving his leader and getting nothing but shit in return. I feel bad for Starscream; he deserved so, so much better than what he got.

The thing about that chamois scene is that it had a longer impact on Starscream than the episode initially implied, as I mentioned in the examples above. I’m sure exchanging of gifts probably won’t mean much to someone who is used to getting and giving them. But to a bot who’s been abused by Megatron like Starscream was? That’s a fucking revelation. That’s new. That challenges his viewpoint of the world around him. If it didn’t, he wouldn’t have had second thoughts about firing the Hydra Cannon. He wouldn’t of saved the kids, he wouldn’t have helped Alexis with the necklace. He wouldn’t of helped Optimus convince Megatron to join forces and defeat Unicron.

Alexis was a firm believer that Starscream could be a better person and by extension get onto a path of recovery by showing him small acts of compassion and kindness at a time and celebrating those small victories of improvement. She wanted to be his friend because she recognized the potential he had. She recognized that Starscream needed support, needed a friend, deserved respect. That’s something he never got much of if any during his times as a Decepticon.

TL;DR Starscream’s character arc in Armada ain’t perfect but it’s still one of the best stories in the show that can impact you and I will forever stan him.

#tf critical #tf analysis #transformers armada #unicron trilogy #starscream

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crossdressingdeath · 4 years ago

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I find it really strange how LXC has more haters than JC. Overall I do think he’s pretty well liked, but I have seen way more criticism for him than for JC, which is weird. Because I feel like you can find legitimate explanations for a lot of LXC’s choices, whereas the same can’t be said for JC. Let’s look at LXC’s supposed crimes. Trusting JGY? Well, I don’t think we can complain about that, and then at the same time 1/10

breath turn around and support LWJ for always standing up for WWX because...look, I get that it's not exactly the same thing. And it's REALLY not the same thing because it ultimately turned out that JGY couldn't be trusted, but the thing is, LXC genuinely didn't know that at the time! This guy was a very close friend of his! He believed in him! JGY had saved his life in the past! And just like LWJ always supports his loved ones without a second thought, LXC is doing the same thing. Because, 2/10

in this eyes, JGY hasn't really given him any reason not to trust him. The guy is a very good manipulator, and when you are that close to someone, you WANT to believe the best in them. LXC is not an idiot, he is the victim of someone else's manipulations, and it's not like pretty much everyone in the cultivation world suspected anything either. The only one who was actively trying to take down JGY was NHS, who KNEW that the man had murdered his brother. I have no doubt that if LXC had 3/10

been aware of it, he would never have supported him. Not only that - as soon as there is any doubt about JGY's intentions, the man takes an objective stance! He agrees to listen to the evidence! He isn't just blindly denying what's in front of him, regardless of what that would mean for his own feelings; but of course he isn't going to blindly denounce JGY with no proof because this is his closest friend. And while he obviously trusts his brother, he also knows that LWJ's priority is 4/10

WWX, who LXC really doesn't have any reason to trust at that point? We know WWX, LWJ knows WWX, but LXC and him really haven't had that many interactions, on top of his current reputation in the cultivation world. The fact that LXC is so willing to help and hide WWX, despite knowing the dangers it might cause for his sect, and all because he trusts his brother is...a very big thing. It's more than JC would EVER do for WWX. I've also seen criticism for LWJ's punishment, which I honestly 5/10

don't understand because a) the Lan clan also has elders which probably had a big say in the punishment too, and b) LWJ DID commit a crime! It wasn't just him protecting WWX, it was him injuring dozens of members of the Lan sect! Sure, we know why he did it, but just how would it look to the rest of the sect if LXC had just excused that behaviour? Or to the rest of the world? What would it do to his brother's place in the sect if he hadn't been punished for it? I really don't think LWJ 6/10

could have gotten out of that without some form of punishment, and if LXC even had the sole say over it after all (which I highly doubt he would have with no repercussions) that was probably the best alternative to banishment, or perhaps even worse. I've seen criticism (and this is so, so strange) over him blindly accepting the story about his mother, which is so stupid because...LWJ also accepted it, LXC has no way of finding out anything about his mother, and WE as readers know nothing 7/10

about his mother! For all we know, she COULD have been in the wrong, or his parents could have had a completely different relationship from how other people perceive it; we just don't know enough to make a judgement. And then finally, I see people criticizing his behaviour towards WWX. Okay, I kind of do find this annoying too - I was frustrated when he essentially blamed WWX for LWJ's actions, because honestly, LWJ is a grown man who can make his own decisions, but...I also kind of 8/10

understand this. Because this is his BROTHER, and of course he's going to be protective or resentful when he's hurt, it's just a natural reaction to have. It's only natural, and people can't be objective all the time. And also, I think a lot of his annoyance came from him thinking that WWX knew about his brother's feelings, and was essentially mocking them by pretending to flirt with him, and honestly, from an outsiders perspective it would kind of look like that. Despite his own feelings, 9/10

He still supports LWJ in all his decisions though. It’s just so weird that there is so much criticism for LXX, when you can understand his supposed mistakes a lot more than someone like JC. But then, JC pretty much gets no criticism from the fandom. I’ve actually seen people who can’t stand LXC, but then support JC at the same time, and that is so, so weird. 10/10

The thing is, LXC has just as much reason to trust JGY as LWJ does to trust WWX. We as readers know that WWX is in the right, but LWJ, in-universe, doesn’t. He himself admits that he believes and wants to help WWX because he loves him, not because he’s certain he’s in the right. There’s actually a lot less evidence against JGY than there is against WWX for a lot of the story! Evidence that LXC as an in-universe character with his level of knowledge would have access to, I mean. LXC himself points this out; LWJ believes JGY has done these terrible things because WWX said so, not because they have physical proof; at this point in the story it very much is WWX’s word against JGY’s, so doesn’t LXC have the right to give JGY the benefit of the doubt and trust him the way LWJ trusts WWX? And even saying that, the moment he has reason to distrust JGY he revokes his access to the Cloud Recesses and is clearly upset at the idea that he could have misjudged the situation so badly. And remember, JGY’s reputation was impeccable before WWX accused him (origins aside); LXC had no reason to doubt him, but he still did, because WWX said he should and LWJ trusted WWX’s judgement. Can you imagine any other character in this novel immediately searching for evidence and acting as soon as that evidence was uncovered even when that evidence proved their long-held beliefs wrong?

And re the punishment, it was punishment for attacking the elders, not necessarily for helping WWX; thirty-three lashes for thirty-three elders badly injured. LXC couldn’t have just... let LWJ get away with attacking the elders of their clan, that would’ve been a political disaster within their sect even keeping the whole thing a secret from other sects. And honestly? Between helping the cultivation world’s enemy number one and gravely injuring the clan’s elders, it wouldn’t surprise me if LWJ could’ve been executed. Any other sect leader probably would’ve executed him for aiding WWX, but LXC couldn’t do that to his brother. Instead he sent the elders who most respected LWJ to apprehend him and bring him back before anyone else realized what he was doing. Was the whipping severe? Definitely. But considering what other punishments were on the table, I’d argue LXC was downright merciful. LWJ clearly thinks it was justified, or at least understandable, and while that doesn’t necessarily mean it was okay (I mean, WWX insists JC repeatedly trying to kill him is totally fine), I do think that should be considered. LWJ knew he would be punished when he went back; a big part of the novel is accountability for one’s actions, and I’d argue this is a part of that theme.

LXC believing the story about his mother is like... what else is he supposed to do? As you say, LWJ also seems to believe it. They have no reason to doubt it! The certainty suggests that no one (not the sect’s elders, not their uncle, not even their mother) ever brought up the possibility of it being false! When all evidence suggests that something is true and you can’t find anything to disprove it, insisting it’s false anyway will only hurt you! Of course he believes the only story anyone has ever told him when not even the woman it’s about suggested it was a lie! Leave him alone!

And the whole thing with WWX is fairly explicitly him thinking WWX knew LWJ was in love with him and chose to toy with his feelings just for fun. And also making his brother miserable for 13 years, which granted wasn’t really WWX’s fault, but we can’t fault a brother for seizing upon the most obvious target to blame for his baby brother’s suffering. From the outside it really does look like WWX was just toying with LWJ, after all; we know better because we’re in WWX’s head and know that he doesn’t know LWJ’s in love with him, and WWX corrects his behaviour as soon as he realizes, but until WWX tells them he doesn’t remember LWJ’s confession LXC has no reason to believe he’s not being pointlessly cruel. And thinking someone is deliberately using your brother’s feelings to hurt him probably makes it considerably easier to believe that person is to blame for all your brother’s suffering. I do think LXC will get past his resentment of WWX given time! His hatred of WWX is an immediate reaction to the suffering of someone he loves. You know, like JC’s desire to murder all the Wens for the fall of Lotus Pier, except considerably less genocidal and considerably more likely to be gotten over.

As for why people make excuses for JC but talk shit about LXC... I don’t know. How fandoms pick their favourite characters has always been something of a mystery to me.

#mdzs #cql #grapehate #lan xichen #lxc deserves better #anon #asks

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talpup · 4 years ago

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Light In the Darkness:64

So I couldn't not do an update for Yami's b.day. Also there's an update of Yami's Wedding Night on the 'Light In the Darkness One Shots'. I had planned on there only being two parts. But Yami's b.day had me wanting to do a little smutty something and since I was low on time 'Wedding Night' will now be in three parts. Hope you all enjoy.

Please remember this fic is rated mature and has warnings of violence, abuse, sexual tension, eventual sexual behavior, and other possible triggers. For a full list of story tags please check the fics AO3 (link to that at the top of my tumblrs homepage).

Part III

Chapter 64

Yami and Teris returned to the main house from an early morning sparring session with Venice and Tobin. The other couple had opted to stay behind for a further workout.

“Think they’ll actually continue on without us there?” Yami asked, eyes trained on her ass as he followed Teris up the three steps that led to the front entrance.

“Unlikely. Did you see the way Tobin was— Yami!�� Teris had turned back catching Yami just as his hand was reaching out.

“What?” Yami took the final step and closed the door she had just opened. Other arm wrapping around her, he grabbed her butt and pull her to him.

Teris smacked playfully at his arm. “Stop it. Someone might see.”

Yami didn’t let her go. “We’re home. It’s not like we’re breaking any of Julius’ rules.” He leaned in, Teris pulling back. “You know I’ll only be worse later since I’ll have to be good for the rest of the day.”

Teris raised a brow. “When have you ever been good?”

“Can you blame me? Looking the way you do.” Yami asked.

“So it’s my fault you can’t control yourself?”

“Sure. Let’s go with that.” Yami grinned.

Teris shook her head. “You’re terrible. You know that.”

“Does that mean I don’t get a kiss?”

“What do you think? Jax will get after us if we’re not waiting when he’s ready to head out.” Teris said.

“Jax will.” Jax said from the door, his own name feeling weird on his tongue.

Yami looked up. Teris pushed at Yami in truth, trying to separate. Realizing he wasn’t going to get his kiss, Yami sighed and released her

Teris turned to the Captain, smoothing her blouse. “We were just headed in to meet you.”

“I can see that.” Jax replied, fighting a smirk. Seeing Teris blush, he decided to have mercy. “Come on you two. Let’s go see if this years hopefuls contain anyone interesting.”

“Bran would really like not to be the newest member anymore.” Teris commented.

“Then by all means let’s pick someone to make Bran feel better.” Yami grumbled, still sour about the interruption. If Jax had been on the other side of the door the entire time, the least the Captain could have done was wait till he had gotten his way.

The three of them taking flight on their brooms, Jax said. “I’m hoping there’s a decent spatial mage. It’s like Bronn’s already retired with as often as he’s gone looking for and following leads. And I really hate having to get around like this.”

“Same.” Yami agreed.

“I could’ve light traveled us.” Teris said.

“No.” Yami and Jax said.

Teris scowled at Yami. “It’s been over two months. I’m fine, same as you.”

“I’d rather not show up to the Entrance Exams blind and burned.” Jax said. “Seeing what’s going on is a bit important when it comes to deciding potential candidates for my squad.” Not to mention such travel takes up a lot of mana, Jax thought. And you and Yami still can’t fill up each others mana store. He wondered if they would ever be able to do so again.

Teris hadn’t been over exaggerating when she had said she and Yami were fine. Though their mana was still too wild for them to feed off of each others mana, their magic and mana levels were as strong as they ever were. Even the wounds around both their wrists had closed. Though Yami still had faint scarring along his. Which was understandable given that his bindings had cut to the bone in some areas. The wounds on Teris’ chest had closed, though the scarring of the three symbols that had been carved into her were still clearly present leading her to still fully button the blouse she wore over the tank top. Thankfully Owen and Gilly agreed that the scars wouldn’t remain forever.

Jax couldn’t have been prouder of the two. They had made a full recovery and went about their training and duties as if none of it had ever happened. Though he had yet to send them out on a mission; he had been sure to give them plenty to do to keep them busy, saying it was in preparation for when they took over Bronn’s place as Vice Captain.

“What are you thinking of doing for Yami’s birthday this time around, Teris?” Jax asked as they flew.

“Whatever he wants.” Teris answered.

Flying between them, Yami smiled.

“Really?” Jax questioned, surprised.

Yami’s grin grew.

“That can be dangerous.” The Captain remarked, only Yami hearing.

“Don’t ruin it.” Yami hushed.

Jax laughed.

“What’s that?” Teris called.

“Nothing.” Yami said, causing Jax to laugh all the more.

They arrived at the arena. Yami and Teris hadn’t been in the building since the day they had participated in the Magic Knights Entrance Exam two years ago. It was strange seeing the place from the inside instead of the arena floor.

Jax looked over his shoulder at them wondering what they were feeling. As far as he knew this was where they had met. This place almost didn’t exist because of them and the clash of their magic. Jax still couldn’t believe that no other Captain had raised their hand for Yami. The stigma of his foreignness too great to outshine his having battled with a royal who had rare and powerful light magic.

They had been through so much. Suffered so much. And had risen above it all to stand here as Third Class Senior Magic Knights and soon enough his Vice Captains. Jax smiled a smile that he wouldn’t have been able to wipe from his face even if Sir Jorah had ordered it.

“You two head on over to the main viewing room.” Jax ordered. “I’ll see you there before the Captains head out to the balcony for the exams.”

“I hope you know where the viewing room is.” Yami told Teris, Jax gone before either could stop him and ask.

“How would I know?” Teris questioned.

“If you had joined us to watch the exams, instead of trying out like some common noble or peasant you would know exactly where it is.” Nozel said from behind.

Teris turned around smiling. “Congratulations.”

“It’s nothing.” Nozel said, unable to keep his chest from swelling a bit with pride.

“Agreed.” Yami said, slipping his hands into his pockets. “A single promotion to Fourth Class Senior isn’t much to boast about.”

“At least I didn’t almost die to earn it.” Nozel shot back, smoothly.

“Is that what you think? That the only reason we got promoted was cause we almost died?” Teris asked.

“Not you.” Nozel said.

Teris shook her head and turned away. “You never change.”

Nozel glared at Yami. Yami shook his head at Nozel as if disappointed.

Bristling, Nozel asked Teris. “Do you want to know where the viewing room is or not?”

“I’ll find it myself.” Teris said, heading off.

“Teris.” Nozel called after her.

Yami watched her go.

“What?” Nozel snipped, cold eyes fixing on Yami. “You’re not going to follow like the dog you are?”

Yami smirked at the Silver Eagle. “And let her stubbornness lead me to walking around without clue where we’re going? I’m not the weak willed fawning type. I’ll leave that sort of thing to you. It’s what you’re good at.”

Nozel’s scowl deepened.

“Those lines on your forehead are gonna stay for good if you keep doing that.” Yami warned. “Or maybe they already have. Is that why you wear that braid over your face? And here I thought it was just to hide how ugly you were.”

“I’m going to execute you one day. It’d be best if you don’t speak to me until that day, when you’re pleading for your life.” Nozel declared.

Looking Nozel in the eye, Yami shrugged. “Don’t know about that. I’m pretty difficult to kill. Just ask your father.”

Nozel’s eyes widened a fraction. Had Yami overheard the Black Bulls Vice Captain talking with someone about it? Or had Yami been the one to somehow figure it out and told Bronn? It didn’t matter. He didn’t want the foreigner thinking that he couldn’t handle his own problems.

“I had nothing to do with that. I didn’t even know about it until it was too late.” Nozel told.

“I believe you.” Yami said, having never thought Nozel had played any part in it. “You’re not that type of person. You want to look me in the eye when you do me in. Don’t you?”

Yes! Nozel thought, staring at him. I want to see the fear in your eyes right before they dim.

“But you never will.” Yami said.

“Of course I will.”

“You still think Teris is someone to be won and that you have a chance at doing so. That chance will be forever ruined if you do me in. So you never will.” Yami shrugged a shoulder. “It’s simple logic.”

Nozel couldn’t argue with that. He would have to wait until after he and Teris were wed and find a good reason to execute the foreigner. Not that Yami wasn’t highly capable of providing good reason on the regular.

Stepping closer to him, Nozel told. “Teris and I will wed shortly after her twentieth birthday. You have that long left to live. Enjoy it while you can.”

Yami waited till the royal turned and stepped away before calling. “Plan to. Teris is even letting me plan whatever I want for my birthday. I’m thinking a day alone with her. Possibly at some private beach. What do you think?”

“I thought I told you to stop instigating trouble.” Fuegoleon said, from behind Yami. “I believe you even promised that you’d try.”

Yami glanced over his shoulder at the Crimson Lion. “Trying is far different for accomplishing. Besides, the Braided Birdie makes it too easy. You said so yourself.”

“Where’s Teris? You two already run her off with this foolishness?” Fuegoleon asked.

“Nozel made her mad and she took off.” Yami tattled.

“No I didn’t.” Nozel said, over his shoulder.

“Yeah. You kinda did.” Yami said.

“What did I tell you about speaking to me?” Nozel snapped.

“Don’t know. Wasn’t paying attention.” Yami shrugged.

“Both of you, stop.” Fuegoleon commanded. “You’re worse than children.” He looked at Nozel. “What did I tell you? You’re a royal. You should be ashamed of yourself. Letting him bait you. You’re better than that.”

“That’s right.” Yami teased Nozel.

Fuegoleon turned on Yami. “Shut up. If you really are to become co-Vice Captain in the new year you can’t continue like this. You have to set an example.”

Yami eyed the Crimson Lion quizzically. “You do remember I’m a Black Bull right? Not to mention who I’ll be replacing? The bar is set pretty low.”

“Then be better.” Fuegoleon growled. “Be far better. Be a man worthy of my cousin.”

“What!” Nozel spun around to face them, mana quickly building.

Fuegoleon turned back to Nozel. “I don’t mean that he’s going to get there or have her. I only said as much so he’d try harder. He’s an embarrassment to all Magic Knights. We both agree he’s bringing Teris down. Holding her back.”

“Actually. Turns out I’m not.” Yami said.

“Shut. It.” Fuegoleon clipped. “The royals are talking.” He looked back to Nozel. “Of course she’s going to do what she told.”

“No, she’s not.” Yami said. “I thought you knew her better than that.”

Ignoring Yami, Fuegoleon continued. “And I certainly don’t approve of their current interactions which will be over and done with as soon as Teris turns twenty and is officially betrothed to you.”

“I’ve wondered something. If Teris doesn’t make Knights Commander before then and I have to fight that bastard Fyntch to free her from her family do I also have to fight and kick your ass as her supposed Intended?” Yami questioned, pointing at Nozel.

“You’ll be dueling Julius you fool. Only sorry thing about that is that he’ll be the one to kill you instead of me.” Nozel growled.

Yami shook his head. “Julius won’t fight me.”

“He won’t have a choice. Not unless he’s willing to disobey Fyntch and face banishment as well.” Fuegoleon told.

“Julius won’t fight.” Yami said, with certainty.

Nozel scoffed. “Why? Do you think he fears you because of all this primordial forces nonsense?”

“No.” Yami answered. “He won’t fight because he’ll win and kill me. Julius doesn’t want that. He likes me and wants Teris to be happy and knows being with me would make--”

Yami read Nozel’s Ki. Turning his body, he tilted his head to the side. Nozel’s moving fist swung passed, barely missing Yami’s face. Gripping the royals wrist, Yami pulled using Nozel’s momentum to force him to take a step. Yami spun in a one-eighty, stepping behind the Nozel. Still holding the Silver Eagles arm, he twisted it back and behind. With a sharp, hard push Yami bent Nozel’s hand back. There was a loud satisfying pop.

Nozel clamped his mouth shut, muffling a cry of pain.

“Yami!” Fuegoleon barked fiercely but softly, trying not to call further attention to themselves.

“I’ve been waiting for you to give me an excuse.” Yami rasped in Nozel’s ear. “And people call me impatient. This,” he pressed harder, causing another joint in Nozel’s hand to dislocate, “is for putting your pasty, thin lips on hers when she was distressed about her father.”

Nozel looked back over his shoulder at the Black Bull, surprise and hate in his icy blue eyes.

Fuegoleon felt Nozel’s mana rise. “Don’t you dare!” He commanded hoarsely, thinking Mereoleona would kill him for even being near such an incident.

“Thought I wouldn’t find out? I’ve known since the day you betrayed her trust.” Yami said, stretching the truth a bit as he pressed further, two more joints popping.

“Yami! Stop this at once!” Fuegoleon breathed, harshly.

“Try something like that again Royal Bird and you won’t know what hit you. You’ll just be breathing one moment and not the next. Understand?” When Nozel didn’t say or do anything, Yami jerk his arm up a loud echoing pop sounding as Nozel’s shoulder was wrenched out of place. “Nod if you understand me.”

Nozel’s mouth was a bloody mess from he teeth gnashing together. He refused to give the foreigner the satisfaction of making a sound of pain. As much as he hated it, he gave a single sharp nod.

“Good man.” Yami released him patting the shoulder he had dislocated. He turned to Fuegoleon. “With that out of the way I may prove better at trying not to instigate.”

“I can only hope.” Fuegoleon muttered.

Yami looked about. “You know I think Teris had the right idea after all. I’ll find my own way to the viewing room.”

Fuegoleon watched him go. Turning back to Nozel, his frown didn’t lessen. “You may have not deserved that for kissing her. But you certainly deserve it for the poor choice of timing you had in kissing her.”

“Filthy foreigner. I’m going to kill him.” Nozel seethed, holding his arm to his side.

Fuegoleon exhaled, rolling his eyes. “Sure you are. Why don’t we table that till you and Teris are wed. For now let’s get you down to the healers out on the exam field.”

64.2

There was no question about it. Teris was lost. She didn’t even think she was in the arena’s building anymore, though she had no clue how that had happened. The arena must’ve connected with another building. She should have noticed that when they’d flown overhead. Yami was never going to let her live this down. She should have never left Yami and Nozel.

It seemed that though fully recovered, her heightened temper, like her scars and still raging mana, lingered. Teris felt the urge to apologize to Nozel. While his comments had been uncalled for, she was sorry she had let it get to her so. Not the least because she now had no clue where she was.

Jax wouldn’t be pleased. The Entrance Exams having long ago begun. She had heard the horns and tried to follow the direction they had sounded from but that had seemed to only further turn her around.

“Teris?”

Teris turned, grateful for the face she saw. “Advisor Ellara. I was beginning to think I would never run into another soul.”

“Most everyone is at the arena watching the Magic Knights Entrance Exams. The other divisions may act like they have no interest in the Magic Knights, but in truth we’re all fascinated by you.” Ellara said, watching her with bright, keen eyes.

“Really? Why” Teris asked.

Careful of her answer, the Advisor said. “The dedication of the Magic Knights. Your magical capabilities.”

“Sentries, Healers, and Investigation Mages have great magical ability and require just as much dedication. Just because our work and how we go about it is different doesn’t make anyone’s effort or capacity less than.”

“You are diplomatic.” Ellara murmured to herself.

“Pardon?”

Ellara shook her head. “Nothing. Just thinking of your desire to one day fill Commander Greywright’s place and the attributes you already have that’ll get you there.”

“I’m far from ready for such a position.” Teris admitted.

“But if things are to work out the way you hope you will need to be ready sooner rather than later. Won’t you?” Ellara commented.

Teris looked away.

“Sorry. All this interest in you and Mister Sukehiro, along with Captain Julius being Sir Jorah’s favored Captain; has left me aware of some rather personal things about you. Forgive me. It’s none of my business.”

“Even if by some miraculous chance I was ready, I can’t fill a position that isn’t open.” Teris muttered, feeling suddenly hopeless.

“No. You can’t. But I wouldn’t worry about all that. I have a feeling things will work out. Call me a romantic.”

Teris looked at her remembering the time she had seen Ellara and Olsen sneaking away through the woods near the Black Bulls base. The way Olsen had held the Advisor, kissing her neck while Ellara laughed softly. She wondered if the two were still together. Considering how happy they had appeared in the moment, she hope so.

“Forgive me for staring.” Ellara apologized.

Teris blinked not having realized that the Advisor had been looking at the flat of her chest.

“It must be difficult. Having such a reminder of such an event. I honestly don’t know how you manage.” Ellara said.

“I don’t have a choice.” Teris said, stiffly.

“I suppose you don’t. I suppose none of us have a choice in the fate we’re dealt.”

“Fate had nothing to do with this.” Teris said, growing fierce.

“No?” Ellara asked.

“Crazy fanatics following a madman did this.”

“I suppose we at the top had something to do with it as well. If only we had told you what we knew.” Ellara sighed with feigned regret.

Swallowing her agreement, Teris replied. “Who knows what may or may not have helped. There’s no sense in looking back.”

“I’m just glad you and Yami made it out. And that you’ve fully recovered. Well except for that.” Ellara gestured to her chest. “Does it hurt?”

Teris shrunk back slightly, as if trying to hide the covered marks. She shook her head. “Not anymore.”

“I’m glad. And what of Yami? Have his scars fully disappeared?”

“For the most part.” Teris answered, wishing for a change in subject.

“May—may I see?” Ellara asked, unable to stop herself from reaching out to the girl she had sliced the symbols of Light, Chaos, and Darkness into.

Teris took a step back.

Ellara pulled her hand away from her. “Now I really have over stepped. I truly am sorry. It must be the Investigations Mage in me. Always seeking out new information. Have you figured out what the symbols mean?”

“I thought that was what your people were working on.” Teris said, her tone clearly telling how upset she had become.

“We are. But since the Summer Solstice only a handful of my Investigations Mages are still searching on that front. The rest as I’m sure you can understand, have been assigned to seeking out information on the Agents of Chaos, their Leader, their beliefs, and what they might be planning next.”

“Have they learned anything?” Teris asked, hungry for any new information. Jax had only recently given her back all her notes and pages Nozel had copied for her.

Ellara shook her head. “Sadly nothing of use. But you will know if we do.”

“Will we?” Teris questioned, dubiously.

“I understand why you’d be doubtful. But I assure you, Sir Jorah has changed his thought process. You will know if we find anything worth knowing.”

Teris didn’t ask who would decide what would be considered worth her and Yami knowing.

“Have you recalled anything about what the page of Chaos was communicating to you?” Ellara asked with interest.

“No.”

Impatient with the girls lacking memory, Ellara questioned sharply. “Have you tried?”

Teris blinked at the Advisor’s suddenly harsh tone.

Ellara pinched the bridge of her nose doing her best to cover her face while she composed herself. She quickly pulled herself together, thinking that she couldn’t make Julius Nova’s little sister suspect her.

Once again, Ellara apologized. “I’m sorry. It’s just that we’ve been working so hard to find something. Anything. It’s become rather frustrating. Searching for so long and have nothing to show for it.”

“I can sympathize.” Teris said, thinking of her own search for answers when information had been tightly kept from her and Yami.

“Anything you’d be able to tell us would be a help. No matter how small. It may just lead us to discovering something more.”

“I wish I remembered.” Teris said, getting upset at herself all over again. “I really do.” She looked up at the Advisor. “And yes. I’ve tried. Countless times.”

“Maybe my magic would be able to help.” Ellara suggested. Seeing Teris look uncomfortable, she went on. “I can’t blame you for being hesitant. Given what happened.” She decided it best not to mention Lord Nova by name or press the matter. It was better to dangle the possibility of Teris having a chance of remembering and assisting them in some grand way, and let the girl come to her. “You don’t have to. But know that the offer is always there. All I wish is to be of help.”

Teris nearly asked how her attempt would fair any better than Julius and Marx’s; but thought that pointing out another failure wouldn’t help the Advisor feel any better.

“Come on.” Ellara said, turning. “I’ll walk you halfway back. I’m headed that way, and will tell you how to get to the viewing room from there.”

64.3

Teris came up beside Fuegoleon who stood with Nozel, watching the final part of the exams below. “Where’s Yami?”

Mood still sour, Nozel snapped. “Where have you been?”

“Probably lost like you were.” Fuegoleon offered, giving Nozel a reproving glance.

“What’s the matter with him?” Teris asked her cousin.

Frowning, Nozel looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

Fuegoleon between them, Teris leaned forward and told the Silver Eagle. “I’ve forgiven your earlier rude idiocy. The least you can do is try not be so rude again.”

Fuegoleon placed a hand on her shoulder. “He had a bit of a—rough go of it.” At her expression, he shook his head. “Don’t ask. It’ll only make it worse.” He looked her over taking in her color and vitality. “Sorry I haven’t visited recently.”

“Out on missions trying to pull up beside me, no doubt.” Teris smirked.

“Beside you? I’ll be passing you, in no time.” Fuegoleon returned her smile before growing serious. “How are you?”

“Fine.” Teris answered. “Ready to get back out there whenever Jax decides to quit giving us busy work and lets us.”

Fuegoleon didn’t say he that hoped that wouldn’t happen for some time yet. He noticed that though her sleeves were back to being rolled up, her blouse was still buttoned up higher than she usually wore. He hadn’t seen the wounds Mereoleona said had been carved into her chest. And he had little interest in seeing the scars that were still left behind, yet to fully diminish. All he wanted was for Teris to be fully restored to what she had been before the solstice. Strangely enough, that even meant the ability her and Yami’s mana had to feed off of each others. As much as he previously hadn’t liked the connection, he now thought of it as a security. With these people wanting his cousin, Teris having a practically unlimited mana pool in an ability to feed off Yami’s mana would have made him feel a lot better.

Though Nozel was pleased, if not happy, for the change. Fuegoleon understood that it wasn’t so much that Yami and Teris’ mana no longer hungered for the other, or was incapable of doing what it had before. He knew it was the wild, near uncontrollable fierceness of their mana that stopped them from even attempting to feed off of the others. Given the destruction that the force of their blended mana had caused before they were able to control it, Fuegoleon could hardly blame them for their caution and concern. Back then, far as he knew, their mana was only as raging as they were. From what Mereoleona had told him, the state their mana now was at best as wild and fierce as a torrential storm and only got worse the more heated their emotions got. Given all that, Fuegoleon was surprised Yami and Teris could even control their mana enough to do magic and wondered at the amount of focus and determination controlling such a force took.

“You’re staring.” Teris remarked.

“Just thinking about how amazing you are.” Fuegoleon honestly told.

“Stop it. You’ll embarrass me and make Nozel jealous.” Teris played.

Nozel’s eyes slid to her. He looked back out the window. “There isn’t much of an offering this year.”

“You’re as cold and difficult as ever.” Teris tisked, focusing on the field below.

“He isn’t wrong.” Fuegoleon replied. “There number of tryout’s this year was small and even those few have left much to be desired. There’s only a handful left to battle and so far there’s not a one that I would want in the Crimson Lions.”

“You mean not a royal or noble one.” Teris said, unable to believe that there truly weren’t any worthy candidates no matter how small the showing was.

“When you’re a royal and Magic Knight of rank I suppose everyone appears unworthy. That said, I’m not lowering my expectations.” Nozel said.

“And you wonder why she calls you cold and rude.” Fuegoleon chastised.

Teris shook her head wondering why Nozel’s words still surprised. One would think that by now she’d expect, if not be accustomed to his royal arrogance.

Neyres came up beside Teris with Margery in tow. “So you finally decided to show up. What took you so long? That horrible excuse for a Magic Knight holding you back again?”

“Have no idea who you’re talking about.” Teris said, eyes trained on the field below. Maybe Nozel was right. At least about the two who were currently battling. The match had gone on far longer then it should have. Not because they were particularly good; but because they were both equally bad. Though she and the other two girls had never gotten along, Teris asked hoping Nozel and Fuegoleon were wrong. “Any interesting applicants this year?”

“Possibly one or two if the Captains are feeling generous.” Margery said. “Where were you that you have to ask?”

“Lost.” Teris answered.

“It that some kind of joke?” Margery laughed.

“No. I was quite literally.” Teris said.

Neyres scoffed. “Some supposed soon to be Vice Captain you’ll be. You can’t even get around Headquarters. Then again you clearly wouldn’t make much of a Vice Captain else why would your Captain feel the need to have you share the position?”

“And with a foreign peasant no less.” Margery added.

“Yami’s--” Teris began only to be stopped by Fuegoleon’s harsh whisper.

“Making a scene will only prove their point. Think about the kind of example you want to set?”

Teris gritted her teeth thinking that the example she wanted to set was that she wouldn’t tolerate anyone disparaging Yami, or anyone else, simply for their station in society. But Fuegoleon was right about her making a scene. Closing her eyes, she took a breath, trying to calm herself. They weren’t worth it. When she opened her eyes she saw one of the candidates sent tumbling, having run into their opponents magical attack.

“That was painful.” Neyres commented.

“He’ll be fine.” Margery belittled.

“I meant the match.” Neyres told her friend. “It’s too bad. There’s only two more duels and neither of the four contenders were capable of much during the other portions.”

“You look like they’ve offended you personally.” Teris smirked, instantly regretting the quip. She should have just stayed quiet. The less she engaged the better.

Neyres focused her. “With the continued heightened infringement from the Spade and Diamond kingdoms, along with the zealots that we’re told we must protect you and that foreigner from.”

“We don’t need your--”

“It’s only natural that I and the rest of us would have hopes for this years exams.” Neyres continued over Teris. “We need more Magic Knights to assist in defending the kingdom and its people from the trouble you and your peasant foreigner have stirred up.”

“Hold up there!” Fuegoleon snapped, stepping closer.

Nozel scowled at his comrades.

Undeterred Neyres went on. “But we need capable recruits. Not fodder like that.” She gestured to the field below. “Which will only endanger us and get in the way.”

“None of what’s going on is Teris or Yami’s fault.” Fuegoleon stated, fiercely.

“I agree with Fuegoleon.” William said, stepping over from where he had been. “I doubt Yami or Teris payed some fringe group a visit and asked to be their obsession.”

Teris stared between Neyres and Margery, wondering who else felt the way they did but were too kind or afraid to say so.

Seeing the angry, vengeful look in Nozel’s eyes, Margery stepped back, distancing herself from Neyres.

Neyres looked about the room of ranking Magic Knights. “I know I’m not the only one. We all know that it’s because of them that--”

“Because of us that what!” Teris demanded, her sudden flare of temper surprising even her. “That everyone’s still alive? That the world wasn’t burned to a crisp? Cause that could have happened you know. If Yami hadn’t been there to call me back. If I hadn’t been looking up when-- That force could have been directed anywhere. You think that doesn’t scare the hell out of me? You think I wanted to be tied up? Carved into. Be a part of some sick lunatics wild, crazy ceremony?” Teris pulled open her blouse, the buttons snapping off as she bore her scarred chest to the other royal. “This is only a small piece! A remnant of what they did!”

The two female Silver Eagles averted their eyes.

“Look at it!” Teris demanded.

Though Margery was unable to bring herself to; Neyres looked back, eyes fixing on the still visible symbols that had been carved into Teris’ chest.

“Teris.” Fuegoleon croaked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Teris released her blouse, sneering at the two girls. “I’m sorry if you find all this an upsetting inconvenience. But you know nothing. Have been through nothing. Complain all you like about the trouble we’ve caused you. But never do so in my presence again unless you want to put you down.”

Though her face paled, Neyres was able to keep her voice stern. “Don’t threaten me.”

“Leave. Now.” Nozel commanded, his controlled tone belying the fury he felt.

Neyres looked at her fellow. Of course Nozel would have Teris’ back, she thought. As much as she wanted to called him out on it, Nozel would one day be Captain of the Silver Eagles. More than that, he was a Silva and the Houses heir.

With a growl, Neyres spun on a heel, Margery rushing out behind her.

Nozel took Teris’ hand, looking hatefully after the fellow Silver Eagles.

Trying to anchor herself Teris returned his hold, gripping his hand tightly. She wanted to cry. Wanted to kill. Was that really what everyone thought?

Nozel felt her tremble with emotion. His frown deepened. Neyres and Margery would pay for upsetting his Intended like this. Looking at Teris, he attempted to soothe her. “No one of import thinks that.”

Seeing the way everyone kept looking at her scars, William unclasped the pin he wore at the shoulder of his cloak and held it out to Teris. He found it somewhat poetic that Julius had been the one who gave him the mask he wore, which shielded his own scar from unwanted attention and stares; and now, here he was doing the same for his mentors sister.

“Thank you.” Fuegoleon said, taking the clasp when Teris didn’t move. “Teris.” He said, softly taking up her other hand and putting the golden sun in her palm.

Teris was angry for letting Neyres get to her. She hated herself for the outburst. And after the care she had taken to shield the marks from view; to just show them off like that. To demand that girls to look at them… She had always had a bit of trouble reigning in her temper, but never to this extent. Ever since the solstice she had felt like a nail that had been cut to the quick, where the slightest bump, word, or action would set her off and often did. Her fingers slowly unfurled from around Nozel’s hand, wondering which of them had taken the others hand and when.

Nozel placed his hand on her arm.

Teris tugged her blouse closed, fastening the clasp in place.

“What’d I miss?” Yami asked, joining the group. His eyes hardened when he saw Nozel’s hand on Teris’ arm and the tension in Teris’ body.

Nozel met Yami’s gaze with a daggered one of his own, the two men refusing to blink.

Fuegoleon stepped between their line of sight. “You managed to miss the entirety of the exams. Is that the kind of Captain you’ll eventually become?”

“Who said he’d make it to Captain?” Nozel questioned, thumb rubbing along Teris’ arm before dropping. Since when had Fuegoleon started siding with the foreigner?

“I didn’t miss it all on purpose if that’s what you’re getting at” Yami told Fuegoleon. “The place is bigger than I thought.”

“Why didn’t you just follow your sense of Teris’ mana? That gone along with your capability to cheat by stealing hers?” Danior derided.

Yami didn’t address the fact that that wasn’t how it work. Instead he smirked at the Silver Eagle. “Still sore I beat your royal Braided Bird during the Squad Challenge?”

“You cheated.” Nozel snapped.

“Enough.” Fuegoleon commanded. “And you.” He turned to Yami. “You had just said you would prove better at not baiting. What happened to that?”

“It’s not my fault you royals and nobles have no sense of humor and are easily riled.” Yami shrugged.

The Magic Knights Captains filed in.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a disappointing group of candidates in my life.” Jamie said.

“Or in the record of Magic Knights Entrance Exams.” Heath put in.

“More than that. There were so few applicants this year.” Danise said.

“Can you blame them?” Win asked. “With all that’s going on I’ve considered taking an extended leave myself.”

“You wouldn’t.” Breigha said.

“Of course not.” Win said. “I couldn’t stand to be away from your beauty for so long.”

“Watch it.” Jamie warned. “That’s my wife you’re talking to.”

“As if you tell her she’s beautiful.” Win shot back.

“It doesn’t matter what I tell her.” Jamie said. “It certainly isn’t any of your concern. She’s my wife and I’ll--”

“Shut up.” Breigha ordered, her impatient ire made evident when she pushed passed her husband. “Nobody’s paying attention to your little measuring match. Not that you should be entering any seeing how you’d measure up.”

“Love you too, Dearest.” Jamie called sarcastically. He glared at Mereoleona who pushed passed him as well.

“You’re not gonna challenge such a statement?” Win asked.

The Golden Dawns Captain turned to the Green Mantis’ and shrugged. “Why? I know the truth as does Breigha. And I’ll remind her of all twelve inches of it later this evening.”

“Twelve?” Jax scoffed.

“Twelve or not, the fact the he has to remind her is telling.” The Purple Orcas Captain said.

Julius smirked at Heath’s comment as he passed the fellow Captain's.

Jamie shook his head rolling his eyes as he walked away. Fools like Jax, Heath, and Win weren’t worth arguing with when all of them had come away without a single new recruit and there was so much to do. “Alecdora. Hamon. William.” He called to the squad members he had brought. “We’re leaving this disappointing spectacle.”

“Bet Breigha says that each time she leaves your bed.” Win snarked.

“Hush!” Pyter silenced, thinking of the young ladies present. He frowned seeing Nozel and Danior but not Neyres or Margery.

“I’ll get this back to you as soon as I can.” Teris told William, touching the pen.

“No rush.” William said.

“Thank you.” Teris said, realizing this was her first time thanking him for the kindness and feeling bad.

William gave her a nod before turning to follow his Captain and comrades, the Golden Dawns Vice Captain, Tyrn, pulling up the rear.

Yami noticed the golden pin Teris wore holding her blouse together; but didn’t ask certain he wouldn’t like the answer. He had finally gotten his chance to teach Nozel his lesson for stealing a kiss with Teris. That was enough to satisfy him for the day. He’d learn what happened later and deal with it accordingly if he needed to.

“Where were you two?” Jax questioned, coming to stand in front of Yami and Teris.

“Sounds like we didn’t miss much.” Yami said.

The Black Bulls Captain crossed his arms and stared. “That’s beside the point. I told you two to come up here. I expect you to be here.”

“I got lost.” Teris told.

Jax raised an eye brow. “Lost?”

“So did I.” Yami said. “Then I made the mistake of following Teris’ mana which only turned me around even more.” He looked at her and remarked. “Your sense of direction sucks.”

“And your sense of when to stay quiet sucks.” Teris snipped. She looked away, cursing her still heightened temper.

Julius turned to look at Teris and scolded. “Language.”

“Don’t rebuke or tell my people what to do.” Jax told Julius.

“Children.” Greywright silenced. “Everyone’s disappointed over the poor offerings this year. Why don’t you all head back to your respective bases and get some work done.” When all the Captains moved to comply, the Commander called. “Not you, Julius.”

Win looked back over his shoulder. “Ooo, someone’s in trouble.”

“Hush, Win. Off with you.” Greywright commanded.

“Leon. Randall.” Mereoleona called the Crimson Lions, her Vice Captain already at her side.

“See you.” Fuegoleon told his cousin.

“Bye.” Teris smiled back.

Jax waved Yami and Teris along after him. “Sadly, we’ll be flying home. Come on you two. You can tell all about getting lost on the way back.”

Thank you to those who have left hearts. And a special THANK YOU to those who have recently left comments or re-blogged. They really mean a lot.

Next chapter snippet:

“I hope so.” The King said. “Bring you son and stand before me.”

Nathyn and Nozel did as they were told, Nozel staying a step behind his father. Teris watched with a sense of foreboding. She glanced over at Fuegoleon on the other side of the aisle, seeing a look of concern in his violet eyes.

#yami sukehiro #fuegoleon vermillion #nozel silva #julius novachrono #Black Clover #light in the darkness

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shadowheartwife · 5 years ago

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The Morality of Sansa vs. Dany

In the world of GOT/ASOIAF - yes they are different - each character is gray. We have to look into the motives of a character, not only their actions, to determine their moral standing (although sometimes, it’s just bad writing, wink wink D&D).

The fandom has perpetually pitted Sansa and Dany against each other, and I wanted to look more closely at their actions and motivations for the key events that people usually discuss. I’ll be rating these events from -3 (horrendous, selfish, destructive) to +3 (altruistic, selfless, benefit to the greater good).

Basic example: holding the door open for someone is a +1 because it’s nice, but it’s not a beacon of a deep well of altruism. But good on you, nonetheless.

I want to mention beforehand that I won’t be rating Sansa and Dany’s assassinations of Viserys and Ramsay, respectively, because even though it was murder it’s not like it wasn’t justified. Obviously in this world it would be a bit more complicated of a matter, but for GOT/ASOIAF? I get it.

I’ll first go over Sansa’s moral accomplishments and, for lack of a better word, “sins”, as well as my -3 to +3 rating.

Sansa’s Moral Accomplishments:

- Defended the will of the North to remain independent (+1)

- Showed good leadership in ensuring that her people would have provisions come the winter and long short night (+1)

I give both of these a +1 because yeah, these are good, but there are other motives here, too. Sansa wants to protect her family’s legacy as well and ensure her own rise to power. It’s clear that she desires to be Queen in the North. However, I think she would be - and will be, in the show universe - a good queen.

Overall, Sansa’s moral accomplishments are few and far between, not to her own fault, but because of the reactive nature of her story line. She gets a +2 on morality.

Sansa’s “Sins”:

- Very early on people didn’t like Sansa because of the incident with Joffrey, Arya, and the boy (R.I.P.). She lied to save face for Joffrey. I’d give this a -1. Also, she was a child, so it’s hard to be super pissed at her for that. Like yeah it sucked, but she was a bb.

- The biggest issue that most people have with Sansa is that she betrayed Jon in season 8 by revealing his parentage after swearing to keep in secret. This was done to get the political results she wanted, even though she knew it would cause drama and that Jon didn’t want it. At least, I assume Jon said he didn’t want it... it’s not like we got to see that scene on screen... This betrayal of trust gets a -3

- Sansa was willing to let Rickon die when she learned what Ramsay was doing. She didn’t even try to save him, or show remorse that she couldn’t. Yikes. At least shed a tear? -2.

- Finally, Sansa was plain rude to Dany when she arrived to Winterfell. I thought that after learning so much about “the game” that Sansa would’ve been more eloquent, but she created a rocky start to the relationship between the two of them. She could’ve worked with Dany to allow some degree of Northern independence. Sansa could’ve been Warden of the North or a governess, something along those lines, but she closed herself off. (Dany isn’t innocent of this either, however, it’s the throne or nothing in her eyes; but I’ll get to her next). Anyway, the rudeness is a -1.

Sansa’s “sins” tally to -7, bringing Sansa’s “morality score” to -5. Now, onto Dany.

Dany’s Moral Accomplishments:

- Dany made sacrifices to help Jon, the North, and all of Westeros - she delayed her quest for the throne in order to fight the White Walkers, and even lost Viserion in the midst of it. I’d give this a +3, as she could have easily said “nah” and gone on to King’s Landing to roast Cersei.

- Speaking of sacrifice, she locked up her dragons - her children - after they killed an innocent child. However, this was also done to ensure that people didn’t see her as a tyrant, some may say, tempting me to give her a lower score. However, the more I think of it, again she didn’t have to do this. +3.

- Even though her efforts weren’t long-lasting in all situations, she liberated countless slaves. Part of it was political, however, and some see it as a white savior complex; still, she could have easily chosen another path, and chose the harder one in order to save lives. +3 again.

- She freed the Unsullied. Of course, this also gave her an army, so it wasn’t entirely selfless. I’ll give it a +1, totaling +10.

Dany’s “Sins”:

- Okay, this first one doesn’t need parentheses around “sins”: she obliterated King’s Landing. Mostly a result of bad writing, but it happened, so I have to count it. Clearly a -3. You know what? It’s my scale. So many people died needlessly. It’s a -4.

- Dany brutally killed/scorched dissenters and traitors in what I would argue is an inhumane way (the Tarly’s, for example). However, it’s war, it’s Game of Thrones, and many people execute others in times of war. So it’s a -1.

- Towards the end of season 8, prior to the annihilation of King’s Landing, others were suggesting that she wait before going for the throne, to allow her soldiers to rest and time to strategize (maybe Rhaegal wouldn’t have died). She became selfish and too focused on the end goal, putting up blinders. The ramifications of this choice were pretty catastrophic in the end, but her motivations weren’t overtly cruel. -1. This brings her “sin” tally to -6, and a total morality score of +4.

The Final Scores:

Sansa’s final score was -5. Again, this is partially due to her situation, in that she didn’t have the same opportunities as Dany to create her own path. Still, once she did have the opportunity, she was selfish.

Dany ended up selfish in the end as well, but overall her story was focused more on achieving justice and freedom, her score ending at a +4.

There aren’t huge differences between Sansa and Dany, in my eyes. Like I said, a lot of it is situational. What if Sansa had ended up with dragons instead? What if Dany had been Cersei’s prisoner? It’s hard to say.

Ultimately, Dany has the moral high ground. It’ll be interesting to see the differences in the books (may George finish them, I BEG!). If Dany doesn’t destroy King’s Landing in the end (I hope not... please oh please...) she’ll definitively be the more moral character.

Final Thoughts:

I adore both of these characters and, as a survivor of abuse, I see elements of myself in each of them. I was happy for show!Sansa but hope for a much, much better ending for book!Dany.

Please comment your thoughts, I’d love some dialogue! :)

#got #sansa stark #daenerys targaryen #daenerys defense squad #house stark

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odanurr87 · 5 years ago

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My thoughts on... Mirror’s Edge

Released by EA in 2008 for PS3 and Xbox 360, and 2009 for PC, Mirror's Edge tells the story of Faith, a Runner who relies on her honed parkour skills to run errands for her clients, people who'd rather keep their deals hidden from the preying eyes of the ruling elite of this totalitarian world. The City Protection Force (CPF), the city’s equivalent to a police force, tends to ignore these Runners as the two parties have an unspoken agreement to stay out of each other's way, but everything changes when Faith's sister and one of CPF’s own, Kate, is framed for the murder of Robert Pope, a friend of their father's and running candidate against the current Mayor Callaghan. So starts an adrenaline-packed ride to find out who framed Kate and why, with CPF and other private security firms hot on Faith's tail.

While a fairly standard setup, so much so you’ve probably already figured out all the twists and turns of the plot from my short description, it could’ve been executed better, or tighter, than it was. By the time you finish playing and look back on it, the plot's many inconsistencies become apparent, in particular its single-minded obsession with framing Kate, going so far as to keep her alive throughout the entire game. I get it, Faith needs a motivation, you need a motivation, and a dead sister is probably not a very good one, but it makes little sense that the bad guys wouldn't have gotten rid of her as soon as she served her purpose. The first thing that occurred to me the moment Faith met up with her sister at the beginning was, "This is an ideal situation to set up Faith as the fall gal and accuse Kate of trying to help Faith through her connections in the CPF." Indeed, given the "evil master plan" revealed later in the game, it would've been the better plan. Alas, the bad guys are not as good as Faith at improvising, nor are the writers apparently. The introduction of the Pursuit Cops later in the game also doesn't add up plot-wise, to my mind, for unless they trained in the field, and by field I mean on the city's rooftops, like Faith and the other Runners (and if they had I'm certain the Runner community would've known about it), there's no way in hell they'd be nearly as good as Faith, yet they are, what leads me to gameplay.

youtube

This is what Mirror’s Edge is really all about.

You could easily make the case that I suck at melee combat, in this game anyway, because Faith was made out of glass (ironically) every time I encountered an enemy. I remember having an easier time of it in Catalyst; Faith was certainly not a tank but she could pull more moves to neutralize her opponents and far more smoothly. Maybe it helped that you didn't have people wearing full body armor firing machine guns at you. I never used a gun in Catalyst, but I practically turned this game into Battlefield: Faith, what's not easy seeing as shooting, while functional, is as bare-bones as can be. This at least makes sense from a narrative standpoint, as Faith is a Runner, not a soldier, but what a fine soldier did I turn her into! Perhaps combat's worst sin for me was how it interrupted the flow.

As in Catalyst, the sensation you get from running and jumping and parkouring is the franchise's strongest selling point, especially when you nail every jump, roll smoothly every time, and find the fastest route to your destination. The usual appearance of enemies coupled with the linearity of the levels hindered the flow more often than not. Catalyst fixed this, in my opinion, by making the world larger and Faith a better fighter. However, its open-world nature ironically amplified the "beautiful emptiness" of the original, highlighting the absence of people, both Runners and others, in their day to day life. While I noticed this during my playthrough, the levels are usually short enough that you don't give it a lot of thought. Indeed, it took me around 8 hours to complete, though I'm missing around half the Runners’ bags.

youtube

Another strength of the franchise that I have failed to mention is how damned gorgeous the game looks, and it's more than a decade old! You could argue it looks as good or even better than Catalyst at times, and Catalyst looks fantastic! Everything from the architecture, through the colours and textures, to the lighting, feels real, hyper-real perhaps, according to the above video that explains how and why Mirror's Edge is able to retain its good looks, comparing it to similar games released in that year, as well as Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and Mirror's Edge: Catalyst. I thoroughly recommend you give it a watch. Some character models, like Faith and Kate, could've been better, while others, like Celeste, actually look pretty great. In this context, the choice to complement the game's hyper-realistic visuals with animated cutscenes may seem odd or even wrong for some, but I think it was the right one given the limitations at the time and I enjoyed the animation style. It’s a shame they didn't follow it up with a short animated movie.

If I didn't mention at this point the franchise's great soundtrack by Solar Fields, I'd be doing them a disservice, as it complements the game's aesthetic to great effect, and these guys doubled down with Catalyst, releasing a soundtrack that's over 5 hours long! "Still Alive," the game's main theme, sang by Lisa Miskovsky, is just perfect, and it's still number one in my heart above CHVRCHES' "Warning Call." I mean, just listen to the bloody thing...

youtube

I tend to favour story over gameplay in most of my games, meaning I can get through some bad or just plain gameplay loop if the story's captivating enough. However, Mirror's Edge is one of those rare games where I appreciated the core gameplay loop in spite of a rather lackluster story. When you're running and jumping through the city's rooftops, pushing the boundaries of your freedom, becoming one with the flow and the music, that's when Mirror's Edge truly shines. But those moments exist, as Faith puts it, "on the edge between the gloss and the reality - The Mirror's Edge." Maybe that's the way it should be.

#mirror's edge #faith connors #dice #mirrors edge #gaming #review

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years ago

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Fantastic 4 2099 #1 Thoughts

Again, I ask, who is this for???????????????????

Let’s put aside for a moment how the cover poorly reflects upon the story, both in terms of what the story will be about and even how most of the characters in question look.

The premise of this book is that HERBIE on the orders of his mother is seeking out his ‘family’, which we’re supposed to interpret as meaning the F4 obviously. But the actual protagonist of this title is in fact a new version o Venture.

Venture was arguably the very first super villain of the 2099 line. A cyborg cowboy bounty hunter sent by Alchemax to track down Miguel O’Hara not long after he first got his powers.

The new rebooted Venture is a decidedly nicer cyborg cowgirl (cowwoman? Cowwoman?) bounty hunter who is helping HERBIE find his ‘family’ after HERBIE promised her something ‘better than money’ back in 2099 Alpha.

What that was we don’t know, if it was anything at all. It seems like Venture sort of took this weird outdated little robot on faith when it said it had something better than money. Which at best leans against the impression she’s clearly intended to give off in this issue and 2099 Alpha, and at worst makes her look like an idiot.

I will talk briefly regarding the mere fact Venture got a reboot like this.

It’s a double edged sword.

On the one hand nostalgic fans like me are unlikely to take to this character because we prefer and are more invested in the original Venture, who is also one of the more stand out 2099 villains in general. On the other hand if you HAVE to reboot this line then at least it is something decidedly different. Venture has a different personality, a different gender even a different (albeit more stereotypical) speech pattern.

The wider problem isn’t so much with Venture as a character (though a bounty hunter out of a futuristic Western in a Disney product shortly after the Mandalorian TV show debuts, what a coincidence) but rather her placement in the story.

Why on Earth would you launch a comic book about a futuristic version of the Fantastic 4 and make the main character anyone who isn’t the F4!

It’s like if the original F4 were introduced through following our protagonist Willie Lumpkin!

The personalities of the F4 themselves are fairly bland though I will say this.

Karla Pacheco does a great job applying the ‘methodology’ behind the 2099 reimaginings of the other Marvel characters to the F4.

This is in fact (to my knowledge) the very first time there has ever been a true blue (no pun intended) 2099 spin on Marvel’s first family. Though there was a Fantastic 4 2099 back in the 1990s it merely starred that universe’s versions of the original team.

Whilst I do believe Peter David could’ve come up with something better, Pacheco here essentially swaps and remixes traits from the original F4 in a way which on paper could’ve made for a compelling team.

Instead of 3 men and an Invisible Girl, we’ve got 3 women and an Invisible Boy, who’s abilities are mostly used for thievery and smaller scale stuff like that. It fits well in the barbaric environment of the Thorites encampment.

Instead of a hotheaded youth as the Human Torch, we have an adult woman...now let’s get a little controversial. If I’m not mistaken the woman in question was Hispanic/Latin American (I don’t know the difference sorry, not American) so that probably does play into a negative stereotype. But she’s also a mechanic (like Johnny used to be), and also kind of the rouch street level brawler type (like Ben tends to be) and also the person in a romantic relationship (like Reed/Sue). What spices this up too is that she’s not in a relationship with anyone actually on the team. I guess that makes her a little like Ben, with her wife the equivalent of Alicia Masters. But I still think it’s more of a remix of Reed and Sue because no one else on the team is romantically involved with anyone else.

Instead of an inventor who happens to also be able to stretch, we’ve got an inventor who uses her inventions to mimic stretchy powers among other things. It’s essentially taking Reed’s real strength as a character, his brain, and making it directly the result of his super powers themselves. A consolidation if you will.

Finally instead of a monsters looking craggy rock creature who’s feared by some people and regards themselves as ugly, we have a beautiful diamond creature who’s regarded as a freak due to her parentage, not what she looks like exactly. She’s even referred to as a golem, which is clearly the inspiration for the Thing too. She’s also the youngster (which makes her like Johnny but I’d also argue like Franklin or Valeria too) and she has a direct blood relationship with one of the four (like Sue and Johnny) but a parent/child relationship not a older sibling/younger sibling dynamic.

Also most of the characters are poc and/or queer and/or children of same sex relationships, or at least relationships different to a cis man and a cis woman hooking up.

Neither I, nor do I think the author, are trying to float some kind of weird ass message about heterosexual relationships or white people becoming a thing of the past (though there are weirdos who do claim such things). But if stats are to be believed such people and such relationships are undeniably going to become more common in the future. Thus the traditional nuclear family, whilst unlikely to ever truly disappear, is nevertheless not going to become the default state of family units.

But the concept was let down by the execution.

First of all we see the F4 briefly in action (with Venture, again our protagonist) nowhere in sight) at the very start of the comic. Then we begin the laborious task of going to each member to establish them as people and finally get right back to the action scene at the start of the story.

Sometimes this structure works, but not when we’re literally following a whole other character, and not when we’re gradually unveiling each character’s abilities and looks, it just turns the comic into a chore.

It is particularly a chore considering that Pacheco seemed to overuse characters saying ‘Ha’.

But possibly the absolute worst thing about this story was the ending.

So as it turns out HERBIE has a few screws loose and this whole time he hasn’t actually been searching for his family, but rather trying to recreate it by recreating the F4.

He’s been exposing random people to cosmic rays of his own design and whenever it invariably doesn’t work, changing the rays and trying again. Sometimes the rays just murder and mutate his targets, sometimes they do manage to get together but then something goes wrong and they die.

This is what happened to 3/4 of our new F4 2099, when they get close enough they contort and die in horrible ways.

HERBIE is then so angry about failing once again he unleashes his weapons on Venture and Invisible Boy.

Basically HERBIE is a FUCKING PSYCHOPATH!

Which isn’t an unamusing premise, nor even an unamusing twist in concept.

But again in execution (no pun intended) it’s awful because not only did we soldier our way through this chore of a comic book that wasn’t even following the F4 themselves, but when we FINALLY unite the team and FINALLY deliver an F4 for the 2099 universe...we immediately kill them...and even the character we were following just in case you might’ve liked her even a little.

So the whole comic is fucking pointless.

Exempting Conan 2099, this was the ONE title that might’ve really appealed to older 2099 fans as there was an untapped niche in the pre-existing iterations of the 2099 universe for the F4 to fill. It was one of the few instances in which this event wouldn’t have to compete too much (if at all) with the older iteration of the 2099 universe and where something new and different didn’t have to come at the expense of something old and beloved.

But instead we got $5 worth of our time wasted.

And that applies to hypothetical NEW fans too. This is an issue #1 so if anyone had been inclined to check out this title or if this was introducing them to the 2099 line as a whole they got royally screwed because there is literally no story left to go after this.

So I ask again of this whole event.

Who.

Is.

This.

For?

Don’t read this trash.

#marvel 2099 #2099 #Fantastic Four #Fantastic 4 #Fantastic 4 2099 #Fantastic Four 2099

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ficclique · 5 years ago

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In addition to our own personal top fics (which you can view here), we asked you all to send us your choices for your fics of the decade and why you loved them. We received so many wonderful submissions, and now want to share them with everybody! In an effort to not make this post too long we’ve edited down the comments that people left us, but everyone had some really lovely things to say, so if anything catches your eye here we really encourage you to take a look at the complete list of comments here.

Without further ado, please enjoy the top fics of the decade as chosen by you, our listeners:

Submitted by: Cricket

Fic 1: pilgrimage by wolfsupremacist

Info: EXO RPF, Baekhyun/Sehun

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18411497/chapters/43607615

Cricket’s comment: I can't get over all the building in this fic -- the world building, the character building, the relationship building. The main character’s development was like watching a child grow: it's hard to see it happening, but once you reflect on who he became versus who he was, it's so obvious how he changed.

Fic 2: the eye of providence by minhyukwithagun

Info: NCT RPF, Jaehyun/Taeyong

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14981330

Cricket’s comment: I have genuinely never laughed so hard while reading a fic.There were so many little details that the author added that were unnecessary to the overall plot but just made the characters so much more real. You get to learn so much about everyone in such a (relatively) short amount of time.

Fic 3: so collect your scars and wear them well by addandsubtract

Info: Hockey RPF, Connor McDavid/Dylan Strome

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5075128

Cricket’s comment: I feel like this fic changed me as a writer. It touches on such a relatable subject: that feeling of being completely unsure of what you should do with your life when Plan A doesn't work out, and discovering who you are without the thing that you previously thought defined you.

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Submitted by: Claire

Fic 1: The Baffled King and The Idiot Hero by Ellarose C

Info: Hetalia, ?

Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5819880/1/

Claire’s comment: This fic launched 3 of my high school friendships that continue to this day. It's cute and Hallmark levels of unrealistic, and I LOVE it. The overwhelming nostalgia and gratefulness I feel towards this fic (and all of Carrie's work, honestly) still blows me away.

Fic 2: Embers by Vathara

Info: Avatar: The Last Airbender, gen

Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5398503/1/

Claire’s comment: The best, wildest, most comprehensively worldbuilt ATLA fic I have ever read. Tea, dragons, realistic motivations, that ending... perfect. *chef kiss*

Fic 3: Of A Linear Circle (series) by flamethrower

Info: HP, various

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/755028

Claire’s comment: I linked the whole series because I simply cannot pick a favorite installment. OaLC focuses on fixing the glaring plot holes in the Wizarding education system, accurately depicting the Founders' Era thanks to copious research, and showing that no one is truly irredeemable (except Voldemort himself, who more than earns it).

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Submitted by: Threepwillow

Fic 1: All the Other Ghosts by rainjoys

Info: Glee, Kurt/Blaine

Link: https://rainjoyswriting.livejournal.com/146587.html

Threepwillow’s comment: All The Other Ghosts and its direct sequel, Grey, are some of the most incredibly original and simultaneously incredibly transformative works of fanfiction I have ever read. The way they masterfully twist elements of canon to fit into the lore of their AU is second only to the profound, revelatory character studies that they've executed. This shit is extraordinary.

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Submitted by: Segs

Fic 1: Hemostuck (series) by roachpatrol and urbanAnchorite

Info: Homestuck, various

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/8470

Seg’s comment: THE WORLDBUILDING. THE ARTWORK. THE NARRATIVE VOICE(S). THE INCREDIBLE GRASP ON CHARACTERIZATION. DID I MENTION THE WORLDBUILDING.

Fic 2: transistor by fishcola

Info: Polygon RPF, Brian/Pat

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18760093/chapters/44503969

Seg’s comment: Rips my heart to shreds piece-by-piece and then gently puts it back together in the end. It's another put-these-characters-in-a-darker-setting sort of thing. It is brilliant and beautiful and I love it dearly.

Fic 3: any sign of spring by bluecarrot

Info: Hamilton, Hamilton/Burr

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7523227/chapters/17100376

Seg’s comment: This fic is so dang atmospheric. It feels very physical -- the temperature, the environment, the drawing. It's bittersweet, but ends on the sweet, and I think the sweetness is all the more emphasized for it. Rereading it feels like coming back to a familiar place.

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Submitted by: Ang

Fic 1: Anarchy In The U.K. by Yahtzee

Info: X-Men First Class, Erik/Charles

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673552/chapters/1232410

Ang’s comment: the writing of this one made it so easy to get completely lost in the au while still knowing the characters so well from the source material! super engaging, totally consumed my life for a week

Fic 2: blackjacks running down by back by dangerbears

Info: 1D, Harry/Louis

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/499474

Ang’s comment: this is like my comfort blanket fic! every time i reread it (even though i'm not in that fandom anymore), it's still just as funny and cute as it was the very first time i read it - again the au is so easily believable because the characterizations are so familiar.

Fic 3: this city bleeds its aching heart by renne

Info: MCU, Steve/Bucky

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/835829

Ang’s comment: unsurprisingly, it's another au that is so easy to fall into! this is another one that i've been consistently rereading since i first read it (in 2015, for this one) because it's my absolute favorite trope with a ship that i'm still very much into!

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Submitted by: Scout

Fic 1: she called it a void by vans88

Info: Star Wars, Finn/Poe/Rey

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5493500

Scout’s comment: Short and powerful and essential to anyone's viewing of the new Star Wars trilogy. Seriously one of the most careful, tender, and graceful queer addendums to a piece of pop culture this decade.

Fic 2: The Love Song of The North American Douchebag by gyzym

Info: Star Trek RPF, Chris/Zach

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/852395

Scout’s comment: JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, I HOPE I CAN SWEAR. I'm not even in this fandom. The world building is just THAT good. It's one of my highlights *because* of its power to draw me in as a standalone. So much fucking talent in the transformative work community. The banter, characterization, sardonic-ness of this – international impact baby!

Fic 3: all this learning here is by you by decinq, nighimpossible

Info: Hockey RPF, Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5105441

Scout’s comment: Revolutionized – and I would argue – drove the GROWTH AND SURVIVAL of hockey fandom. One of the best known works in the fandom, and a masterclass in how to build a set of characters that you're genuinely envious you don't get to see or know. Two incredible authors and a plethora of personality. Fun and sexy and lighthearted but poignant. Chef kiss.

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Submitted by: Em

Fic 1: the subtle science and exact art of chess-boxing, by fishcola

Info: Polygon RPF, Brian/Pat

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18931885/chapters/44945971

Em’s comment: fishcola is definitely one of the top reasons i actually started reading/writing polygon rpf. this fic!!!!! i sWEAR its so /so/ good oh my GOSH. yes, full disclosure im fish's beta for chessboxing but also i am enthusiastic simply because it is a very beautiful and powerful narrative on trauma, healing, and how the people we choose to interact with affect our emotions.

Fic 2: the old men call me by my mother’s name by theviolonist

Info: HP, Hermione/Ron

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1044467

Em’s comment: as a certified Trans(TM) im always pursuing and consuming trans content. the old men call me by my mother's name is an hp fic that i still cherish years after first reading it. trans!ron is a concept not often explored in hp fic, much less trans /girl/ ron. massive gender feels, folks.

Fic 3: national hot dad alliance is now calling… by dicaeopolis, owlinaminor

Info: Haikyuu! , various

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5663683/chapters/13045579

Em’s comment: national hot dad alliance really is the perfect evolution of a groupchat fic. i laughed, i cried, i fell in love with the characters all over again as these captains from different teams bond over graduating. and also being Dads(TM). in some cases-- pining over their fellow volleyball players-- plus star wars, the x-files, and memes. overall its is very good and i will stan it eternally

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Submitted by: Staci

Fic 1: No Homo, by orphan account

Info: Teen Wolf, Stiles/Derek

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1148039/chapters/2326073

Staci’s comment: Literally my favorite AU ever written. The characterization is SO on point and it truly is a super fun read. It’s also a super long which helps with painting such a detailed picture of these two dummies who are-totally-just-bros-with-added-benefits. I’d recommend this to anyone, even if they’re unaware of Teen Wolf, but if you’re a Teen Wolf fan then it’s even better.

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Submitted by: Nadine

Fic 1: Too Long, Too Close (series) by callmejude

Info: MCU RPF, Chris/Sebastian

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/253528

Nadine’s comment: kink exploration and bdsm done well.... and so thoroughly. but there's more! theres FEELINGSSSSSS uhhhhhhh it made me CRY it's so good.

Fic 2: On a Clear Day by Saras_Girl

Info: HP, Harry/Draco

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/879841

Nadine’s comment: I could've put a few other fics by this author because they write the best drarry but uhhhhh. I had to choose and it was either gonna be TURN or this one. Idk why but this one makes me so unbelievably emotional bc it was Harry who's Going Through Stuff and I just loved it a lot.

Fic 3: around the world in eighty thousand days, by fallfreely

Info: 1D, Liam/Harry

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/856935

Nadine’s comment: It was hard to pick a 1D fave but I think that this fic always had a v special place in my heart & I can't even explain why. I love the dynamic of this pairing (even though it's not even my OTP, wtf. I'm a Gryles and Narry truther... *eye emoji*) and the whole FEEL of this fic and it's slow burn tour fic, soo.

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Submitted by: Frecklebomb

Fic 1: Shalbatana

Info: Mars Trilogy, Gen

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6629

Frecklebomb’s comment: A beautifully-written gen fic (with an incredibly gorgeous podfic by Luzula) in the near-future-scifi Mars Trilogy fandom but very easy to enjoy without canon knowledge. I revisit this story over and over and always marvel at the presence of the landscape and alien planet in it, the way it feels like a character. Bonus Mars rover feelings (I cry every time about the robot).

Fic 2: Through a Glass Darkly, by susiecarter

Info: DCU, Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19395793/chapters/46155535

Frecklebomb’s comment: Sprawling post-apocalyptic epic, so rich and cinematic that it feels like a movie I somehow read. The worldbuilding and tension of the focal ship are what sucked me into this fic, but what stayed with me was the richness of the ensemble characters. I find myself just thinking about their character arcs, and imagining what they'd be doing post-story. I want fic of this fic.

Fic 3: Too Far Down The Road, by SoniaVice

Info: Hockey, OMC/OMC

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13208136/chapters/30212907

Frecklebomb’s comment: An amnesia trope origfic set in handwavey hockey fandom (author said they 'set it free' to be OMC/OMC when the dynamic needed to be different from the RPF ship it started out as). It gives me so many good feelings about family (of choice and otherwise) and ageing and self-acceptance and sexuality, and the way you can choose to be changed by the people you spend your life with.

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Submitted by: Em (Springsteen)

Fic 1: Pull Me Under, by zarah5

Info: 1D, Harry/Louis

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/870766

Em’s comment: first of all zarah5 is a fandom legend. second, this is like the pinnacle of fake relationship fics to me it's 140k and so much of it is pining and like truly, who among us doesn't love harry styles with their whole heart. I can't think about the '10s without thinking about one direction and when this fic came out I remember a lot of people fully losing their minds.

Fic 2: Door to Door, by Ferritin4

Info: Hockey RPF, Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3478298

Em’s comment: this is one of the first hockey fics I ever read and I still come back to it so often. The relationship builds so well, Tyler's dogs are in it, it's just so sweet, and plus it's a very readable 10k.

Fic 3: Darling It Is No Joke, by thehoyden

Info: Teen Wolf, Stiles/Derek

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/399194

Em’s comment: look I can't be retrospective about this decade and /not/ include a sterek fic. the first half of this decade for me was all 1d and teen wolf and full disclosure, it's been a while since I've reread this fic, but I remember the banter being really stellar and thehoyden is another one of those authors who I just. Adore.

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Submitted by: Dan

Fic 1: The Heart Rate of a Mouse (series) by Anna (arctic_grey)

Info: Bandom, Ryan Ross/Brendan Urie

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/712953

Dan’s comment: This fic is incredibly iconic. It’s definitely one of my favorites of all time—the way the story is told is just heart wrenching, and it manages to always keep you on edge about what’s going to happen. The portrayal of self discovery, love, jealousy, down to the settings and all the social issues of the time period (the 70s), is amazingly done.

Fic 2: The Cat’s Miaow by Pennyplainknits

Info: Bandom, Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930529

Dan’s comment: This fic is unlike anything else I’ve read. First off, I LOVE historical AUs, and the noir setting is everything I could have wanted and more. The author has managed to create such a delicate and profound romance along with an interesting plot that borders on thriller without ever going too far with either side of the story.

Fic 3: Get Real Get Right (Fuckin Right) by sophiahelix

Info: Riveyonce Cuoknowles, Sufjan Stevens/Drake

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9029020

Dan’s comment: Honestly? This is just art.

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Submitted by: Carina

Fic 1: Bite Marks by provocative_envy

Info: HP, Hermione/Draco

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3580953/chapters/7894464

Carina’s comment: i've shied away from aus in harry potter fic for years, especially american college aus but this fic in my opinion kept the best of the characters and modernized them in a way that felt true to who they are.

Fic 2: old jokes from a wild youth, by knightspur

Info: SEVENTEEN RPF, Mingyu/Minghao

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18127073

Carina’s comment: mingyu and minghao are in love, but they're not soulmates. i love the dynamics and the quiet intimacy between them, and also how they work through wanting to be together despite them not having a bond in the way soulmates have.

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Submitted by: Katy

Fic 1: The River and The Deep Green Bend by liquidmeasure

Info: 1D, Harry/Niall

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6005275

Katy’s comment: this fic honestly surpasses the genre of fic. it is a genre all its own. it is the pinnacle in catharsis and heartbreak and having a satisfying end that is completely unsatisfying as well. I will never recover from this fic.

Fic 2: Out of the Dead Land by Orphan Account

Info: MCU, Steve/Bucky

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1871955

Katy’s comment: there is a specific phrase in this fic that has and will continue to stay with me. I will never hear the phrase "up or down" without feeling immense heartbreak. an amazing blend of source material to create something altogether its own - but could still take place in either canon

Fic 3: Up We Go by Oh_Hey_Tae

Info: BTS, Taehyung/Jimin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12297168

Katy’s comment: this fic is one that I found more recently, but I can already tell that it is one that is going to stick with me for a long long time. it is another fic that I feel transcends the genre of fic entirely

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Submitted by: Corie

Fic 1: Build A Temple In Me by Authoress

Info: Haikyuu!, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3716002

Corie’s comment: A wonderful and moving fanfic with fantasy akin to studio ghibli. If I have to recommend Haikyuu fanfiction this is it.

Fic 2: Close to the Chest by darkmagicalgirl

Info: Haikyuu!, Kyoutani Kentarou/Yahaba Shigeru

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3898771/chapters/8721568

Corie’s comment: Another haikyuu!! Fic! I remember reccing this to my friend and she said it was more akin to a novel then any fanfiction she has read. High praise IMO

Fic 3: Fake Sugar by minverse

Info: BTS, Jungkook/Seokjin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14707098/chapters/33987549

Corie’s comment: Oh sweet god I love minverse’s writing and this fic has it all. Romance, smut, and a nice dollop of humor.

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Submitted by: Abby

Fic 1: an awful curse by blinkiesays

Info: Teen Wolf, Stiles/Derek

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/604092

Abby’s comment: Non-linear timeline, au within the story, "every me loves every you," domesticity but also heavy angst, and it's so beautifully written it makes me want to cry reading it. also it harkens back to the time of when the show was still good.

Fic 2: dance this silence down (the emergency room remix) by Fahye

Info: Les Miserables, Enjorlas/Grantaire

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/994140/chapters/1966093

Abby’s comment: It's such a great, understandable ensemble fic for a dense canon, with such a great modern day au setting, but the whole time it really deals with the main character's depression and alcoholism and the complete overwhelming love that he has for the guy he's shipped with. it's so gritty and real but the ending brings so much hope I love it.

Fic 3: comment fic by anon

Info: iCarly, Sam/Spencer

Link: https://author-abz.livejournal.com/35003.html

Abby’s comment: this is an ANONYMOUS comment fic someone wrote me when I was feeling down on LJ and it's so short but so complete, and it says everything it needs to about it being okay to mess up and just be messed up together. also: "glitter emergency" (technically a cheat, it's from 2008; I forgot it was so old)

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Submitted by: Kassie

Fic 1: An Exercise in ‘Worthless’ by beastofthesky

Info: Supernatural, Dean/Castiel

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/535676

Kassie’s comment: an exercise in worthless introduced me (indirectly) to my favorite musician and (directly) to the subject i almost minored in during undergrad, so honestly i would put it as a fic of the decade even if it wasn’t one of the best fics i read in the supernatural fandom.

Fic 2: Superstition (series) by Superstition_hockey

Info: Hockey, OMC/OMC

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/413233

Kassie’s comment: superstition started out as a tropey, fun, lighthearted short fic, and grew into a big thing that deals with a lot of serious topics incredibly well while also being still very funny and emotional and having honestly some of my favorite fictional characters i’ve read in years

Fic 3: United States v. Barnes

Info: MCU, Steve/Bucky

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2304905/chapters/5071058

Kassie’s comment: united states v barnes is the multimedia fic of my DREAMS. this is what i want to show people to explain why i love fanfic so much. it does so much with the medium its working in and the presentation of the fic, and fits that perfect fanfic niche of exploring the kind of background that will never appear in canon but that everyone wonders about.

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Submitted by: Kat

Fic 1: I’ve felt and I’ve Been by autotunedd

Info: Big Bang RPF, Seunghyun/Jiyong

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15349758/chapters/35616516

Kat’s comment: Possibly the fic that marked my entire decade. The characters are so human and real, the plot is heavy and winding and the twists sometimes seem life ending. It is heavy, it is painful, it is sad, it is angsty, it is maybe even a smidge too real and dangerous at times, but it makes a solid read, a long, relatable novel about real people with real fears and problems.

Fic 2: Eversion by thespectaclesofthor

Info: Detroit: Become Human, Hank Anderson/Connor

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15754140/chapters/36638253

Kat’s comment: Beautiful, long, detailed, well written, hard hitting, serious, sweet, painful, kinky, all in one! The characters have so much depth, their issues and inner workings seem so real and the plot is so carefully crafted and detailed, every chapter keeps you at the edge of your seat. All in all, beautifully crafted, passionate, hard hitting piece that I couldn't help falling in love with.

Fic 3: Eggshell Landscapes and the Burden of Love by NoContractTermination

Info: NCT RPF, Taeil/Johnny

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10446438

Kat’s comment: Short, sweet, angsty and charming! I loved the intimate look into their relationship this fic brings, the trials and tribulations and the struggle to communicate. It all seemed so raw and real and coupled with the author's beautiful writing, it all came together in a perfect read, with bounds of re-read potential.

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Submitted by: Wen

Fic 1: the bellwether by highoctane

Info: Polygon RPF, Brian/Pat

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18634426

Wen’s comment: Feelings!!! It's really refreshing to read a character who, as an established adult, is reconfiguring an understanding of himself without it being either a whole crisis or a sudden seamless lightbulb moment. It's very fair to both characters' emotions, letting them both react in a way that feels wonderfully human and real rather than idealistic.

Fic 2: Five Times the Potion Seller Refused to Sell a Potion (and One Time He Didn’t) by misura

Info: Potion Seller (Justin Kuritzkes Short Film), Knight/Potion Seller

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5441447

Wen’s comment: It's based on a 3 minute meme video and if it was just a tweet or post with the title alone it would be a great joke but... someone went and wrote the dang thing! And it could have been ridiculous crackfic, and while it certainly toes that line it's also got a really fun flow of dialogue that leaves a lot to the imagination without it getting confusing.

Fic 3: I Am The Horrible Goose That Lives In The Town by Daniel Lavery

Info: The Untitled Goose Game, gen

Link: https://www.shatnerchatner.com/p/i-am-the-horrible-goose-that-lives

Wen’s comment: the writing is tremendous and sits beautifully in that razor's edge space where english is used just strangely enough to create a fantastic character voice without going too far and falling into some kind of awkward english language uncanny valley. it's so hard to pick out the best line because every line is the best line. "Here I am coming, with the good news of me, and you hate it. You can think only of the bell and how much I have it, and you are never the goose."

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Submitted by: Mage

Fic 1: Fog, Sheets and Thunder by theopteryx

Info: My Chemical Romance RPF, Frank/Gerard

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/351396

Mage’s comment: i have literally thought about this fic at least once a week since i read it in 2012. do not ask me why. i have no answers.

Fic 2: Flowers in Bones by fringecity (indiachick)

Info: BTS, Taehyung/Yoongi

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16256390

Mage’s comment: sometimes i just wanna be a careful selection of small animal bones that yoongi gently unearths and meticulously crafts into an altar of pressed flowers and ink

Fic 3: It Happened Quiet by hobimo

Info: BTS, Taehyung/Yoongi

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15070646/chapters/34939646

Mage’s comment: haunted woods :) cryptids :) that deeply unsettling feeling that there are greater, mysterious forces at work and there's nothing you can do about it :)

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Submitted by: BirdieLeonie

Fic 1: Reprise (series) by Elfpen

Info: Star Wars, various (Obi-Wan centric)

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/454408

BirdieLeonie’s comment: I spent about seven months of my life reading nothing but Star Wars time-travel fix-it fics. (I am not exaggerating; there are enough of them to last that long or longer.) This is my favorite.

Fic 2: Friday Night Arrives Without a Suitcase by marycontraire

Info: Hockey RPF, Danny Briere/Claude Giroux

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/534247

BirdieLeonie’s comment: This is a fic I have kept coming back to again and again in the years since I first read it. It's domestic and sweet and still adult. It's like curtainfic, inverted; the leads live together and parent their kids and go grocery shopping before they have a romantic or sexual relationship.

Fic 3: The Hero’s Journey; or: What Jasper Sitwell Did Last Summer (podfic), by artzbots, blackglass, daroos, girlwithabubblegun, kalakirya, Opalsong, reena_jenkins, RsCreighton, sabinelagrande

Info: MCU & Welcome to Night Vale, Jemma Simmons/Jasper Sitwell

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6462223

BirdieLeonie’s comment: I love podfic, I love crossovers, and I love this fic. Again, I picked this because of all the thousands of MCU fics I've read, this is the one I find myself coming back to repeatedly. This crossover is creative, fun, and plays with one of my favorite tropes: what was happening to a minor character in the background of the story we saw?

#fic clique #fic recs #multifandom #minisode #top fics of the decade #fics of the decade

6 notes · View notes

pseudinymous · 6 years ago

Text

Doing Math on the River Styx - 1

Phic Phight / Team Ghost / word count not final

Prompt by Zainymusings:

In an effort to keep Danny from failing out of Casper High and becoming Dan, the ghosts band together to tutor Danny in various subjects (Technus in math, Ghostwriter in Language Arts, etc.) Shenanigans ensue.

Chapter Index: 1 / 2

“I, TECHNUS, GHOST MASTER OF ALL THINGS ELECTRONIC AND BEEPING, COMMAND THE GHOST CHILD TO FIND THE VALUE OF X!”

The Ghostwriter looked vacantly at Technus as if his brains were about to leak out of his ears, and for the first time in his life Danny felt as if he might agree. The three of them had been locked away in this library for all of fifteen minutes and they were already getting on each other’s nerves, but anything to prevent Danny from turning into the dreaded Dan Phantom was worth it. So here they were.

“You can’t just command him to find the value of x, Technus. You actually have to teach,” said the Ghostwriter, somehow keeping his patience. “Not everyone has a way with numbers, you know. He can’t just magic the answer out of thin air.”

Technus stared at him, dumbstruck. “Really? Human children can’t do that?”

“Most people can’t do that,” the Ghostwriter lamented, head within his hands. “Look at him, he’s just staring into that piece of paper as if the world itself is coming to an end. That’s not the look of someone who has clarity on a topic, Nicolai.”

“Fine then, you teach him!”

“Me? Teach math? In what universe? Christ, I’d pass out.”

“Will the both of you just shut up?!” Danny finally yelled, his voice shuddering the non-existent library foundations and sending them both silent. “Maybe I can do this! But we’re never going to find out if you just keep arguing with each other!”

Both ghosts suddenly realised their position in all of this — namely having gotten out of their chairs in the heat of that mildly passionate debate — and retook their seats quickly in their own embarrassment. “Sorry,” muttered the Ghostwriter, quietly. Technus didn’t apologise. What a surprise.

“… So, what part of this equation do you not understand?” said Technus, eventually.

“X,” said Danny, and Writer let out a smirk from the background. “I mean where are you even supposed to get the x from?”

Technus was feeling confident.

“You start with the first part of the equation, then you do the equation in your head, and then you only have x leftover.”

Danny’s head hit the desk. “Are you joking? That doesn’t make any sense at all!”

“He’s right, it doesn’t,” said the Ghostwriter, matter-of-factly. Technus glared at him. “If it’s any consolation, I’d like to use my keyboard to bend reality such that he would learn everything he ever needed to know in an instant, but unfortunately he destroyed it last Christmas.”

“Don’t remind me,” Danny moaned. “I can’t take much more of this, I gotta go home.”

Technus wasn’t having a bar of this. “The value of x is 16! 16!” he yelled, as if that would make his point clearer. “See! Now you can do this type of problem! Now you can find the next value of x!!”

Danny stood up from his chair about as calmly as he could manage. “Thanks, but I think I’d rather just learn the normal way from Lancer. I’m—”

“—What about literature?” the Ghostwriter cut in desperately, after watching his afterlife flash before his eyes. “Math might not be your strong point, but there’s more than just one subject.”

Danny looked at Ghostwriter as if he, too, had as much of a hole in his head as Technus. “Really? And are you gonna be any better at this than the Lord of Electricity over here?”

“I’m legitimately qualified to teach. Unlike the Lord of Electricity over there, as you so aptly put it.”

“… What? Seriously?”

“You don’t honestly think I made any money writing novels, do you?” asked the writer, looking a bit too wry for Danny’s liking. “No one does. I would’ve starved without a side job.”

Technus suddenly stood up. “ACTUALLY HE NEVER PUBLISHED ANY NOVELS, HE��”

A book came out of nowhere and smashed heavily into the back of Technus’s head. Danny watched him arc gracefully through the air, face aghast and twisting as he went, before he was gracelessly plastered all over the wooden library floor. The Ghostwriter’s brow was raised. “Oh,” he said. “How did that ever happen?”

“TELEKINESIS ISN’T FAIR GHOSTWRITER.”

“And why not? You’re perfectly capable yourself.”

“YOU KNOW IT’S ONLY ON TECHNOLOGY! BUT WE’RE STUCK IN THIS PLACE WITH ALL OF YOUR THINGS, YOU—”

A book mysteriously slid off its shelf and landed on straight on top of Technus, striking his head a second time. “Oh, it seems after three decades I’m still having accidents, I’m very sorry about this Nicolai.”

“LIKE HELL YOU ARE!” Technus screeched back. Another book struck him. The Ghostwriter grinned in delight.

“Dude, you’re enjoying that way too much,” said Danny eventually, his eyes wide open. “I thought you didn’t like to fight.” “A series of unfortunate events is not a fight,” said the Ghostwriter. He was far too happy about this situation, and he showed it with two long rows of very sharp serrated teeth. “Shall we say, it’s been a long time coming.”

“But can’t he… I dunno, kill you or something?”

The ghost shrugged. “I don’t know. Can he? Or did he accidentally become part of a pact in which he agreed I wouldn’t come to harm, then act like a monumental prat such that I might like to make every book in this god-forsaken library slide off its shelf and hit him? I suppose we’ll never know.”

… Danny refused to unpack any of that. Technus remained unmoving on the floor as if this might be the best course of action while the Ghostwriter simply stood there, apparently contemplating homicide. This was beyond messed up. But what the heck had he expected when he’d agreed to tutoring sessions in the Ghost Zone?

… Ghostwriter kind of had a point about Technus’s math teaching skills, though.

“Now that we have some peace and quiet,” said Writer, whose teeth were clenched on each of those final descriptors and whose gaze was also fixed precisely on Technus, “Perhaps you could enlighten me as to what you need to study in English class.”

Danny breathed. Maybe they could do this. Maybe it was still possible. “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” he said, staring at the sheet of paper in front him, covered in mathematics so poorly executed it was a wonder it didn’t shift the fabric of space on its own. He swapped it quickly for his English book. “I got to sort of skim it at home, but ghosts kept attacking during Lancer’s lectures.”

The ghost sat down again, slowly. “… Orwell? Very well… A bit dry, but that’s fine. They’re after an analysis essay, I’m guessing?”

“Yeah.”

“Well,” the Ghostwriter began, “Those are reasonably straightforward. All you really have to do is read the question, make something up, and argue it.”

Danny’s eyes narrowed. “Lancer said we shouldn’t make stuff up.”

“Funny how in an analysis on fiction, the writing of which is the very act of making stuff up, you’re asked not to make anything up at all. No, that’s a misconception. What you actually need to do is pretend you’re the author and lie.”

“Lie?”

“About everything,” said the Ghostwriter sagely, tapping his finger on the desk. “You can’t know for sure what was in the author’s head unless they tell you, which is fine, because it means the English teachers don’t know the difference either.”

The little cogs and gears inside Danny’s brain started to fall into place, but it wasn’t a place they’d ever fallen into before. He felt attacked, almost as if stuck in some kind of weird trap, like his fight or flight reflex should be going off. “… That seems pretty suss, why should I even listen to advice like that?”

Ghostwriter seemed almost bored. “You do realise I have a vested interest in not seeing you going insane and killing everyone?”

“Yeah, that seems kind of bad,” Technus chimed in from the floor.

“Even I’m not vindictive enough the jeopardise my own existence.”

Danny turned from his paper and looked from one ghost to the other. Were they... suddenly more tired? “… So…” he began, slowly. “Did Clockwork put you both up to this?”

Technus finally managed to peel himself away from the floorboards. “Came knocking on both our doors. Said we had to do something so that That Future didn’t happen. It’s like, as if you failing classes is tied up in the cosmos to you becoming a mass murderer or something.”

Great. Fantastic. Passing his classes was the one thing Danny didn’t seem able to do, and that was apparently the tightrope that stopped him from becoming an evil megalomaniac who murders his family members and god knows who else. Perfect. Would’ve been nice if Clockwork could’ve given him a heads up about that one before his grades started slipping into the D- range. He stared at his empty English book page and groaned.

“God,” Danny muttered. “We’ve gotta make this work…”

Chapter Index: 1 / 2

#Phic Phight #Danny Phantom #Technus #Ghostwriter #fanfiction #I had so much fun with this prompt #I'm looking forward to writing it to like 5-10k or something #Apparently I have a thing about continually making Nineteen Eighty-Four references #Even though there are much better books out there than Nineteen Eighty-Four #lol

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zdbztumble · 5 years ago

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“Kingdom Hearts II” revisited, Part V

Having only ever played XIII out of the Final Fantasy series, I only know characters like Cloud, Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith through their roles in Kingdom Hearts. In that capacity, I like them quite a bit, and I was upset along with all the FF fans that they were left out of KH III, for spurious reasons. “We didn’t need them because we have original characters to fill those roles” basically amounted to handing off the job of exposition dumps to Ienzo, as if it were simply a matter of trading out corporate spokesmen. From KH I to II, Leon, Yuffie, Sid, Merlin, and Aerith establish themselves as a group, each with a distinct personality, notable interplay among themselves, and each with a unique relationship to Sora and friends. Cloud, on his own, did the same. To toss them aside in favor of a character with no personality, and no connection to Sora, makes the exposition dumps in KH III far more tedious to get through, not helped by the fact that the exposition itself is so much more ridiculous by then. The character dynamics lost are hardly worth the promotion of one unremarkable figure just on account of his being “original.”

But KH II has the opposite problem with its FF guest stars: at a pivotal moment in the story, an excessive number of cameos make unavoidable appearances, creating a painful drag on the pace of the game and distracting from the main story just when major events get underway.

This is unfortunately evident as soon as Sora arrives back in Hollow Bastion after his first pass at the Disney worlds and runs into Cloud. I have absolutely no objection to Cloud being included in this game, and I love that he’s in Hollow Bastion with the others. But Cloud’s history with Sephiroth - and with Aerith, and with Tifa - have nothing to do with the main KH II story, and when the game is building toward King Mickey’s reintroduction, the twist with Ansem, and a shift in power among the villains, being forced to take time out for cutscenes teasing conflicts and relationships from a different series is most unwelcome. The scenes of Tifa rifling through the castle are, if anything, even more of a distraction - one could at least argue that Cloud’s conversation with Aerith has some thematic connection to Sora and Kairi, and that his relationship to Sephiroth has some thematic relevance to Riku and “Ansem.”

A far better reintroduction for Cloud, and a first introduction for Tifa, would have been to have them with the others when Sora first comes to Hollow Bastion. Cloud could be aloof, if that was desired, and Sora could have been surprised to see him there. Tifa could have been introduced as another member of the Restoration Committee, with a line from Aerith or Yuffie or somebody about how “it’s not just us, y’know.” Their first appearances would thus have come at an appropriate moment in the game, and they would have already been established as part of the Hollow Bastion world before Sora returns after completing the first pass at the Disney worlds. If Sephiroth, Tifa’s desire for Cloud, and Aerith’s relationship with him were all things the staff dearly wanted in the game, that all could have come in the form of completely optional material unlocked after the big Heartless battle, just the way that Sephiroth was an optional fight in KH I. There was no reason to make this material mandatory.

Worst of all are the appearances by the Gullwings. My understanding is that Final Fantasy X-2 is a controversial title in the series, and all I know of it comes from this game and a comedic “review,” but I can still wholly understand if any fan of that game had a problem with their cameo here. Besides the pixie makeover, they are, more than any other FF characters, completely irrelevant to what’s going on. A gift of a Keyblade after the fact does not a justification make, and I really can’t believe that they were included, just for the sake of Nomura’s notion of doing “not human yet human” versions of the characters.

(I hate to say this, but Stitch’s introduction is pretty appalling too. He’s just there, no rhyme or reason, and there’s no relationship established between him and any other character before he jumps down. At the very least, Merlin could’ve introduced him a “a stray I picked up along my travels” or something.)

But, I’ve gotten ahead of myself - and while this issue is a substantial one, it’s my only major gripe with this middle portion of the game. There’s a medium-sized one as well...but we’ll get to that.

Since I tend to play “in character” as Sora, I can sometimes find myself reacting to certain things in unusual ways. In the case of the first return to Twilight Town, I started to get excited at the thought of seeing Kairi again even as I knew how the story plays out, which makes me very grateful that I was alone at home while playing the game. Kairi’s brief interaction with the Twilight Town trio is nice, though having been introduced to the KH II manga, it’s hard to watch her being taken by Axel and not wish she showed the sort of fight she puts up in that adaptation.

Twilight Town is also the first time in quite a while that signs of Roxas appear, as he asserts himself from within Sora with the blue stone. At first, I found this moment a little jarring - Sora has just been learned that Kairi was kidnapped, after all - but given that it’s a moment for Roxas to briefly take control, I made peace with it.

Out of all the Disney titles used for Kingdom Hearts worlds, Tron is the one I have the least amount of experience with; I’ve only seen it once, I didn’t care for it very much, and I never bothered with the sequel. Here in KH II, the level is fun and colorful, it isn’t too stiff a recap of the movie from what I remember, and it represents a clever way to tie Disney material in with the original elements of the KH universe. Though I do wonder if Tron was only selected as a world because it offered Nomura and company a platform to indulge in nonsensical techno-speak dialogue.

Tron is also the catalyst for that medium-sized complaint I mentioned before: I see no good reason why Sora’s talk with King Mickey about Ansem had to wait until after Sora goes back into Space Paranoids. There’s no clear ticking clock demanding that he go back right away, and all this does is undercut the reunion with King Mickey and the sense of revelation in the air over the true identity of “Ansem.” When we do finally arrive at that moment, however...it’s not bad. It has to be admitted that there is no real set-up for this twist. You can’t even go back to KH I and find lines equivalent to “there’s too much of his father in him” in Star Wars to retroactively make into foreshadowing. Nothing from KH I, or CoM, is negated by the revelation that “Ansem,” Seeker of Darkness was really Xehanort the apprentice, however. For a twist that exists just for the sake of having one, it’s innocuous, and well-placed within the narrative to give an appropriate jolt to the proceedings. Certainly it’s better-handled, and more benign conceptually, than later “twists” in the series.

This leads us into the long battle with the Heartless, and there’s a lot to recommend this whole sequence. As clumsy as Cloud’s reintroduction was in this game, the moment of him and Leon fighting back-to-back was fantastic; I imagine that scene is an even bigger thrill fro FF fans. What’s more, it’s appropriately placed to be both cool and relevant. The run down the hill that sees Sora fighting alongside one FF character after another is just as delightful. I’d completely forgotten about this part of the game, so it was a pleasant surprise...and a painful reminder at the lack of effort put into giving the other Keyblade wielders some time with Sora in KH III. I will note, however, that Aerith’s absence from the line-up in this run is a problem, and that by rights Merlin should be there too.

The villain material in this section isn’t bad, though it would have been more powerful if their respective plots hadn’t been in such a long lull in the back half of the Disney worlds. Maleficent battling the Nobodies, and ultimately confronting Saix to buy Sora time, is a wonderful idea, and helps to illustrate her story as one of a long and ultimately fruitless climb back towards the top of the villain totem pole, but a larger presence for her in some of those Disney worlds would’ve helped build to that more. Some appearances by the Organization would’ve done the same for the battle with Demyx. It’s not a bad fight, for the first serious boss battle with a member. The shorter time trials got pretty aggravating, though.

There are also some character beats in this section that are on the whole nice additions, if imperfect in execution. Sora being conflicted over whether to help Leon like he promised or to go search for Kairi and Riku is fine - it’s a conflict Sora’s faced, in various guises and degrees, since the beginning of the series, and he’s well-established at this point in the story as someone who goes where the greatest need is over his own desires. But the scene is just a little overdone. I’d say the same about Goofy’s fake-out death, which is cleared up just a little too soon. On the other hand, it’s in the midst of all that that the 1000 Heartless fight takes place, and that’s just as much fun as I remember.

(While I’m on this section of the game, I want to air a nitpick with the gameplay that pops up before, during, and after this section. What is the point of these “runs” where you take about two seconds’ worth of steps after one cutscene just to trigger another? Just go straight to the next scene!)

This section also reveals that Kairi managed to get away from Axel. As an idea, that’s fine. But why isn’t it a scene? Give me one reason why that wasn’t a serious enough story beat to warrant a cutscene. Of course I’m advocating for more material for Kairi, but - and I can’t believe I’m saying this - such a cutscene might have even given Axel some development. I’ll be talking more about the additions to Final Mix in a later post, but the fact that a long-ass walk down hallways was a priority over expanding on this plot point tells you something about the warped priorities the creative team developed in the years after KH II’s release.

We leave this section of the story with Sora, Donald, and Goofy on the retreat, guided out of darkness by Riku and guided by the Keyblade to some unknown destination. But when that lane opens, Sora declares “not yet! I have to look for Kairi!” thus setting up the second pass at the Disney worlds. How often in this series does Sora voice an urge to follow his own desires over the call of duty? I thought it was an impressive moment for his character.

EDIT: corrections made (thank you @khtrinityftw.)

#z's crits #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 2 #critique #commentary

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thesportssoundoff · 6 years ago

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“No but seriously, he has one eye” The Brawl For All Combatants Ordered Out!

So a few weeks ago, I presented you with a beginning outline of what I'm aiming to do here. A chance to take a long look at the Brawl For All; a concept so insiduous that I imagine even Vince McMahon has aimed to bury it in the deepest recesses of his mind. The first time out we looked at its genesis, the concepts and the back stories beyond the concepts:

http://thesportssoundoff.tumblr.com/post/183395306465/what-happens-when-you-take-a-bad-idea-and-make-it

NOW let's take a long look at who participated, who didn't participate and the fallacy behind the entire project IF rumors are to be believed.

A Hot Take To Lead Us Off

This is something I long theorized but a long look at the people involved in the Brawl For All confirmed it for me. So by and large, the Brawl For All was a stupid dumb concept. Agreed, right? Well what if it could've worked elsewhere? Now again the rules are dumb, the genesis behind it was dumb, everything about it from stem to stern is full of stupidity. Allow me to argue that it COULD have worked; just not in the WWF. When you see the roster the WWF was working with here, it's not going to blow you away on paper and we obviously have a mighty fine idea of how the execution went. What about a different Brawl For All roster? Saaay (in 1998 when this happened):

Rick or Scott Steiner- Decorated All American wrestlers for the University of Michigan Scott Norton- Legitimate tough guy bad ass professional arm wrestler, former bodyguard of Prince Jerry Flynn- Taekwando practitioner, former mixed martial artist Earnest Miller- Three time karate champion Glacier- Professional karate man dude prior to pro wrestling Brian Knobbs/Jerry Saggs- The JBL's of WCW in more ways than one seemingly Meng- All time legendary tough guy and bar room savage Barbarian- Genuine tough guy El Dandy- Jam Up Guy Serious Professional All Around Good Man

Plus the other litany of guys who were noted shooters or tough guys on the undercard. Let's also be fair and note that the South was a touch more receptive to the UFC at this point in time than say the East Coast as well. Perhaps it could've worked with a better roster and perhaps WCW, with its glut of shooters and tough guys respected in the industry, would've been better suited for a Brawl For All.

Or maybe it's just a stupid fucking idea with no merit. That too.

So who DIDN'T participate?

Well let's start with the very beginning and work our way back. Let's talk about some of the guys who just opted NOT to participate. For starters, the big stars were obviously not going to partake in this. Right off the jump you have to assume Undertaker, Austin, DX, The Rock, Kane, Mankind, Vader and the like are not going to be participating. This was about giving a bunch of guys they kind of didn't give a shit about something to do so that meant no sacrificing top stars. It was filler programming and obviously everybody doing important shit was busy doing important shit. Also of note was that the WWF did not want originally the likes of Dan Severn, Steve Blackman and Ken Shamrock in it. Ken apparently wasn't interested and made the argument that it didn't benefit him given the fact that he was a genuine UFC star still to take a pit stop in pro wrestling. At the same time, Dan Severn was asked not to participate at first and then had to be coerced into taking a spot when injuries happened. The same goes for Steve Blackman who was signed up after a few drop outs occurred, primarily due to the promise of Blackman being allowed to throw kicks in the tournament. The dropouts are hard to pinpoint but Tiger Ali Singh is one of the more notorious ones per Bob Holly. I've also read around that Ahmed Johnson was at one point supposed to be in it but I've never been able to confirm that (or remember the shoot interview that it was mentioned in). The point is that on its face, the Brawl For All was going to be a shoot fighting tournament without the two genuine proven shoot fighters in case you're curious about the true idea behind it.

Also as an MMA fan, I can't help but notice the # of "I was a last minute addition" stories these guys have. Lord knows that has to be a common thing said by guys like Sean Shelby and Mick Maynerd to get some of these fights done. I'd imagine that "We need a guy and you're going to help us out!" sweet talk happens to this day. My immediate thought is that they were either a) having a tough time filling spots in the Brawl For All and started telling people they were in need of last minute additions or b) most of these guys regret doing it and figure saying they were last minute replacements helps take the edge off.

So who WAS in?

We got sixteen names so buckle up and pour a drink or two.

8-Ball- Ron Harris aka 1/2 of The Blu Brothers aka Vince Russo's Creative Control. Vince Russo has never been a master of subtlety and so I suppose it's no surprise that one of his top angles was "Gang Warz" pitting an all white stable (The DOA) vs an all Puerto Rican tag team (Los Boricuas) vs a mostly all black tag team (the Nation Of Domination). Needless to say, Vince Russo makes it hard to defend him sometimes. To my knowledge neither Ron nor brother Don have any sort of proven fighting experience and the less said about them (and their tattoos), the better off we'll be. Ron (and Don) were rumored to have threatened Shawn Michaels on their last night in the WWF in the 90s, a rumor that seems to be corroborated by at least a few folks.

Steve Blackman- Most of the dudes who talk about the Brawl For All admit that this guy probably wins it all things being equal. Blackman had a legit karate background with some muay thai and amateur wrestling mixed in. Besides Blackman somehow overcame being bedridden for two years with malaria to become a legitimate pro wrestler so needless to say if it's a "Who wants it more?" shoot type deal, he's going to cover the grit and grind department well. Blackman is also rumored to have once taken down The Big Show and held him down until Show begged him to let him up which is akin to Bob Backlund apparently getting the Iron Sheik down and sitting on him until he either lost interest or was asked to let him up. Steve Blackman is by all intents and purposes a badass.

Bradshaw- Apparently the inspiration behind this atrocity depending upon who you ask. Bradshaw's reputation is marred now with incidents of bullying (real or fabricated), pro wrasslin' racism (goosestepping in Germany to get heat, some other old school heel shenanigans) and borderline dangerous behavior like blindsiding the Blue Meanie and beating the shit out of him when Meanie thought it was a working brawl. At this point though, none of that is really widespread and Bradshaw is just a fake Stan Hansen who looks tough and stiffs the hell out of people. He's about to eventually turn into a mute member of the Undertaker's industry before he comes a heel mercenary for hire before they turn into FUN beer drinking cigar smoking mercenaries for hire before turning into a Wall Street rich Texan chasing Mexicans "at the border" to get heat for a feud with Eddie Guerrero. I suppose you cant say Bradshaw didn't earn it at least.

Brakkus- Wooof. Brakkus was a massive German bodybuilder who apparently didn't quite understand that the Brawl For All wasn't worked. The WWF had big plans for Brakkus (if they send you to Memphis to work for Lawler in the USWA, it probably means they had a long term vision for him) but he sucked and no matter where they sent him, he continued to suck. He was bad in Memphis, was bad in ECW and ultimately this feels like an attempt to just do something with him. Again though, how good you are as a pro wrestler doesn't matter in the Brawl For All. It was about legit fighting----and Brakkus apparently according to Savio Vega had no idea he was in a real fight. Keep that in mind.

Mark Canterbury- I have NO idea why Henry O. Godwinn is listed on wikipedia by his real name but fuck it, here he is! So full blindspot up front, I LOVED Henry O' Godwinn as a kid. He carried around a slop bucket, poured what looked like puke on people, wrestled in overalls which helped him stand out and it sort of gets lost in the fact that he was given a dumb gimmick (In the mid 90s, it felt like the WWE was acknowledging how big of a slide it was in because every human being had a side hustle) that Godwinn could absolutely work. Here's Godwinn vs Bret Hart in a killer match btw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9vihPkNmLM. This was before Vince Russo and company turned them from a fun midcard act into a gross-ish play on Vince McMahon's distaste for southerners. Oh and also! Henry Godwin PROBABLY is doing this with a still kinda broken neck. He broke it in 1997, was told to take three months or more off (Godwinn gives numbers ranging from ten weeks to sixteen weeks) and he just showed back up in less than two months to work through it. Keep that in mind.

Droz- A tragic story all in all which we'll get to eventually. Droz at this point is basically coming out of a dead angle with the LOD where he was written in storyline to be feeding drugs (and whatever else) to Road Warrior Hawk in an attempt to take his place in the Legion Of Doom. If it sounds awful it's because it was and while MAYBE a good writer can make that work, we're talking about the WWF in 1998 trying to soap opera a drug pusher/drug abuse victim angle. It ultimately ended with Droz shoving Road Warrior Hawk off the titantron while Hawk was attempting to commit suicide. Again, it's as bad as you'd believe. Droz had a college football background but that's about it unless I missed some boxing or kickboxing background.

The Godfather- By all accounts the Godfather is a badass. He was hip to MMA before the UFC really caught on, was a freakishly devoted bodybuilder and he just looks like the sort of guy who would take very little shit from anybody. The Godfather is about to become THE Godfather as he's transitioning from Kama Mustafa and the Nation Of Domination's actually good muscle enforcer (Mark Henry is bad around this time and would continue to be such until about 2009 or so) but at this point I'd imagine the writing is on the wall for most of the NOD guys that the Rock is about to leave them in the dust and this group is going to theoretically die a death. The Godfather is about to take a seriously big turn but FIRST, the Brawl For All!

Bart Gunn- At this point, Bart Gunn is doing nothing. Basically nothing. One could even say less than nothing. Bart Gunn is in The New Midnight Express, an angle that Vince Russo has claimed was apparently a way to shut up Jim Cornette and prove to him that old style wrestling couldn't work in 1998. Bart Gunn was apart of the Smoking Gunns and according to him, he had toughman contest experience. Apparently Bart Gunn got brought into the Brawl For All because Kevin Kelly had seen him wear out big guys in Tampa and per Billy Gunn, Bart was the sort of dude who could wipe out a bar room full of people if need be. That said it's not like Bart had any boxing experience or what have you.

Hawk- Another noted tough dude and one of pro wrestling's weirdest mysteries. Every old school dude be it Kevin Sullivan, Jim Cornette or Paul Heyman raves about Hawk as a talent and claims he could've been a major marquee attraction as a singles wrestler. Kevin Sullivan in particular claims that had he had the opportunity to work with Hawk and freshen him up as a singles wrestler, he could've been an Undertaker-esque attraction who drew money across multiple character iterations. Hawk is coming off his personal demons storyline which I mentioned before that sucked. At this point, he and Animal have broken down and are in serious need of repairs from a physical and character standpoint.

Bob Holly- Bradshaw and Bob Holly in the same tournament and somehow they didn't face off? In 2019, I imagine people would be rooting for a double KO (although Bob's image has softened with fans since leaving the WWE) but at this point Bob Holly is just trying to figure shit out in his career. He's teaming with Bart Gunn in the New Midnight Express after sputtering out (HA HA) as a race car driver. Bob Holly is another dude who by in large is just known as a tough guy with a bit of a bully streak tendency behind that reputation. Owner of the wrestling world famous "YOU GOT TWENTY FOUR HOURS TO LEARN HOW TO FIGHT, BITCH!" threat to Rene Dupree before he kicked the shit out of him over parking tickets.

Marc Mero- The story of Marc Mero is a rough one with a happy ending. Marc Mero was really over in WCW as Johnny B. Badd, a Little Richard knock off with a Badd Blaster that shot confetti. Johnny B. Badd was so over that Vince paid him big money to be Johnny B. Badd----only for someone to smarten him up that Johnny B. Badd was a WCW trademark so he had paid for a guy who was trained from jump to do ONE role his whole career. Marc Mero was pretty over and underrated as a wrestler (I SWEAR BY THIS) before his knees gave in. Making matters worse for him was that his wife, Rena, was the women's face of the Attitude Era as Sable. According to Jim Cornette, Marc Mero was trying to be a good husband and help get his super over wife even MORE over---so he took a powerbomb from her on TV. Mero's future big money opponent was Stone Cold who happened to be watching the show at the time from home. Apparently Austin called up Vince McMahon and immediately asked who he would be working with on next week's Raw since he wasn't going to do any business with Mero after eating a powerbomb on TV from his wife. I don't know if this was before or after the Brawl For All though so take that for what it's worth. Either way, Mero is doing a boxing gimmick now (he is apparently a reputable legit golden gloves champion) and so it makes sense he'd be in the Brawl For All.

Pierre- This is a real shootfight tournament. Actual punches are being thrown and takedowns are implemented. This is, again, a legitimate shoot fight----and so of course one of the dudes involved in the shoot fight is missing an eye. Quebeccer Pierre/Pierre Carl Oulette/Jon Pierre Lefitte is missing an eye and was competing in a shoot tournament WITH one eye. We're not talking Michael Bisping fighting with a damaged eye for years on end, we're talking about an actual lack of an eye. This happened, people. We'll talk more about Pierre (and his amazing story in 2019) but right now in 1998, he's JAG who is bouncing between WCW and WWF looking for something to do. He's also at this point known as the guy who refused to put Kevin Nash over in 1995 despite Nash being the face of the company. PCO is the original Bret Hart, refusing to job in Canada.

Scorpio- I gotta admit I have no idea what Scorpio is doing here. I bet he doesn't know either if we're being truthful. Scorpio is one of those guys who was ahead of his time but seemed incapable of staying on the right path (whatever that means in wrestling) to get what he was due. He had come into the WWF in 1997 as Flash Funk and so I imagine Flash Funk was over and he's just killing time until the Job Squad angle. Scorpio is apparently a legit tough guy (or madman depending on who you ask) and held a 1-0 unofficial record over Hawk after he beat the shit out of him in WCW.

Dan Severn- Dan Severn was told he wouldn't even be allowed to participate and then was told the day OF the taping that he was needed to take a spot. Severn is not too far removed from being a UFC everything (champion, tournament winner etc etc) and so he's for the most part a prospective favorite. That's probably why he wasn't asked to compete at first I'd imagine since the plan was PERHAPS to get somebody else over. Another rumor is that Severn is such a boring plain dude with a boring plain style (Severn admits his plan was to never throw a punch and just grapple people) that if he had won, there would've been no payoff in it.

Savio Vega- I have NO idea if Savio Vegas has a professional sports background or what the deal was. Apparently Savio Vegas asked to be in it and was also the unofficial official matchmaker (he drew the names out of a hat) and he's Puerto Rican so he's got my rooting interest right away. I think Los Boricuas at this point were in full swing and Savio was obviously the head of said stable. Gang Warz was dumb as hell.

Steve Williams- And we reach the FINAL name. "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. Steve Williams was a former football player at the University of Oklahoma and one of the more decorated wrestlers in Oklahoma history. He had carved out a niche in Japan by this point after establishing himself as a star in Mid South with the occasional stop off in the NWA/Jim Crockett Promotions/various regional feds and start ups. Williams didn't have any official fighting background but he was a crazy good wrestler and by all accounts a ridiculous bad ass. Jim Cornette tells stories of Dr. Death fighting fans and laying bodies to waste with little to no effort. He was also extremely popular with people in the WWF office, namely Jim Ross and Jim Cornette. Bruce Prichard doesn't QUITE say that the WWF thought Dr. Death would win the Brawl For All but he does a damn good enough impression of Jim Ross advocating for Steve Williams that I have to believe it. Vince Russo has spoken in the past about Steve Williams being Jim Ross' "boy" and how this was basically his way of seeing whether Jim Ross was right. Bob Holly has said that they were already doing vignettes with Barry Switzer and interviews as if Dr. Death won the Brawl For All. Dr. Death claims that the Triple H push of 1999 was the one Vince had promised him before the Brawl For All.

All of this brings me to my final point.....

Dr. Death was never going to be a big star in the WWF

I truly hate to speak ill of the dead and I'm trying hard no to either. Let's just speak from a more realistic pragmatic grounded stance. The kind of talent that was getting over in 1999 falls into three distinct categories. The first were talkers, guys and gals who could rap so to speak and had tremendous presence. Promo guys could carry the day and even IF you gave Dr. Death a Jim Ross to do the talking for him, let's not forget that by 1998 at this point in July there's basically just one manager actually doing anything as a talker and that's Paul Bearer. "Dr. Death" Steve Williams was not a talker and even if he was, he's certainly not the kind of talker who would fit in Vince McMahon's WWF. The second were guys who were big with "the look" according to Vince McMahon. Pull up a picture of every top star in 1998 for the WWF and then slide Dr. Death in there and ask if he fits the mold. He's unique for sure and there's the Mick Foley outlier----but imagine how long it took Mick Foley to be seen as legitimate by Vince McMahon. Even if Dr. Death is the definition of a Jim Ross style Hoss, he looks woefully out of date by 1998 standards. He in many ways, like a lot of guys who frequently toured Japan and basically were behind on the times, looked like he had been left in 1988. Lastly there were the gimmick guys; the Undertaker, Kane, The Rock, DX, Austin etc etc. Dr. Death's gimmick was that he was an ass kicker which is great but AGAIN we are to believe every human being in the WWF at this time is an ass kicker. Maybe Vince and company would've found a way to get something out of him but the chances are that Dr. Death would've never been a big star. Could he have feuded with Stone Cold? Surely! A big money draw? A multi million dollar hit? I just don't see it. Can't imagine it. Also let's be fair here, how toned down would his style have been for the WWF at the time as well? Is he going to suplex Steve Austin around after Stone Cold broke his neck? I'm not quite buying that either.

So there's your sixteen. You got a few amateur wrestlers ten years beyond their competitive days, a boxer or two, a toughman contest guy, a few dudes who dabbled in kickboxing and a man with legitimately one eye. You've got the guy who the company thinks SHOULD win it. So who won the fuckin' thing? How did they win it?

That's for next time.

#WWF #WWE #Brawl For All #Scorpio #Dr. Death #Steve Williams #Bart Gunn #Bob Holly

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katana-no-neko · 6 years ago

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You Idiot

"I'm not being out of line by telling you not to be so damn stupid!" "You are telling me not to be stupid!? Now that has got to be the dumbest thing I've heard all day, and I've spent the day with you, Gray, and Happy! You do stupid reckless things all the freaking time, you idiot!"

Also on my ff.net account at https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13108229/1/

Genre: Romance/Hurt/Comfort Rated: T Nalu

A/N: I know this is pretty done to death, but I just felt like writing one of these. Besides, you can never have enough of them, right? But yeah, finally got this one done. Started it a good long while ago...

As the dust settled and Team Natsu looked to the huge monster they'd just been fighting, whoops of excitement left their mouths as they saw it defeated. Everyone was grinning except for one person. As a certain someone looked to his best friend to see red lines and multicolored bruises painting her skin, he frowned.

"Yes! We stopped the beast and I've got a paycheck!" Lucy shouted. "C'mon guys, let's go get our reward before Natsu and Gray decide to destroy more!" Erza and Happy acknowledged their agreement while Gray groaned in response, saying something about how "Flame Brain" always started it. Lucy was surprised not to hear similar excuses from the closest of her teammates and friends and turned to the Flame Brain himself to give him another quip until she saw his tense form. His arms were crossed, his jaw was clenched, and his eyes were firmly shut.

"Nats-"

"What the hell was that!?" He suddenly shouted, his arms dropping and his eyes bursting open. The rest of the team turned to him in hearing his outburst, but they went unnoticed as he stared Lucy down.

"Natsu, what? What's wrong?" Lucy questioned as her own arms crossed in confusion.

"You! In the battle! What the hell were you thinking!? You could've gotten hurt! Or worse, killed!"

"Natsu, you need to settle down," Erza stated.

"Yeah, she's fine! Stop being dumb!" Gray offered. Happy gave his own words in line with Gray's.

"I'm not being dumb!" Natsu argued, frustrated that no one else seemed to get it. "That monster had her for a few moments, remember!? Something could've happened!"

"But Natsu, something didn't happen. I'm not hurt!"

"But you could have! You-" Lucy and Natsu realized that Erza and Gray were staring at them in stunned silence.

"Natsu, I'd really prefer if we didn't have this conversation with an audience."

"Fine." Natsu gestured to the other three. "Get out of here. Go get our reward."

"Natsu, that's not what I meant," Lucy remarked firmly, beginning to look angry at her partner.

"I don't care. We need to talk, whether these guys are here or not."

"Natsu-" Erza began.

"No, Erza, it's fine. You guys go. If he wants to talk, we'll... talk." The three all shared an uncertain look before sighing and leaving Natsu and Lucy on the battlefield. "Now, are you going to tell me what the hell your problem is, idiot!?"

Natsu looked stunned for a few seconds at her outburst before he gave another shout. "My problem!? Your idiocy!"

"My idiocy!? How am I the idiot between us!?"

"Were you even paying attention in that battle!? You were standing right next to the stupid lion thing!"

Lucy scoffed. "It's called a manticore and when someone is fighting a monster, they typically have to stand by it! You were standing by it!"

"Because I use my fists when I fight! You use your spirits and there's no reason for you to stand so close to the monster!" Natsu reasoned as he continued shouting.

"Well, maybe you're right about that," Lucy admitted, "but you're being way out of line!"

"I'm not being out of line by telling you not to be so damn stupid!" The two were standing so close that they were literally screaming in each other's faces.

"You are telling me not to be stupid!? Now that has got to be the dumbest thing I've heard all day, and I've spent the day with you, Gray, and Happy! You do stupid reckless things all the freaking time, you idiot!"

"But I- It's just different for me!"

"Why!? Why is it different!?" Lucy clenched her fists as her face flushed in her anger.

"Because! I! I don't know! I just- I know how to get out of the dangerous things better than you!" Natsu's arms waved wildly in the air.

"Oh, is that it!? You're better than me!?"

Natsu shook his head quickly. "No, that's not what I meant! You're plenty strong, I know that, you're just- I'm just-"

"Listen, Natsu, I know I'm not near as experienced in battle as you are or as skilled, but I can still handle myself!"

"Lucy, you could've been poisoned! You would've been if I hadn't grabbed you out of the way of its tail in time!" Natsu had grabbed Lucy's shoulders as he spoke much in the same way he'd gripped her wrist to protect her earlier."And look at your stomach! It scratched you, you're bleeding! If it had gone any deeper, the wound would've been way more serious! And you have nasty bruises everywhere!" A hand came off her shoulder to gesture to some of her worst bruises.

Lucy slapped his gesturing hand away. "So do you! And don't forget about me bailing you out from a poisoning, as well!"

"That's beside the point! If this had been a solo mission, you'd've probably died!"

"Except it wasn't a solo mission! We all came as a team! We have each other's backs! It's part of being in a fucking guild, knowing that we can count on one another!" Lucy had angry tears in her eyes at this point.

"I know that! But that doesn't mean you can be stupid!"

"And I know that! I already admitted that I was kind of dumb standing so close to the manticore in that battle! But you are hardly the one to lecture anybody on not being dumb! You go off and do stupid things all the fucking time! Because of your stupidity, I've almost had to watch you die!" The tears fell in near streams.

"And I've had to watch you die! Not just almost, completely! I watched the life drain from you right in front of my eyes!"

"But I'm fine! That wasn't me you watched die, that was Future Lucy!"

"It doesn't matter that it was Future Lucy! She was still you and she still died even though I was right fucking there!"

"I know it was sad and horrifying and terrible to see, but you didn't have to deal with seeing your best friend injured to the brink of death, wondering if he would make it and if your best friend would ever see you or your stupid radiant grin ever again because of you doing another stupid, idiotic thing!"

"Except I have seen you injured and almost dead because of other idiots! Did you forget about Phantom!? And how Edolas was gonna execute you!? And when you decided to stay when the big dude was fighting us on the island!? And when you fought the bitchy lady at the Grand Magic Games!? I've seen you almost die plenty of times and seeing Future You's death just made me realize how fucking scared I am of losing you for real!"

"Just about everyone in the guild has been injured horribly at some point! Erza, Gray, Levy, the list could go on forever! So why are you so worried about me compared to them!? Why!? Huh, Natsu!? Why are you so worried about me specifically!? Why aren't you yelling at the others!? Why are you taking the time to lecture me!? Why!? Why!? Why!?"

"Because I love you!"

"Oh yeah, well I love you, too!"

"Oh yeah!?"

"Yeah!"

And with that, they both pulled the other into a heated and fiery kiss, Lucy grabbing Natsu's scarf, and Natsu's hands immediately going to her hip and around her back. As their mouths moved against one another, they couldn't help but grip their hands tighter, Lucy pulling Natsu harder against her with the scarf and moaning as she felt the tiny pricks of pain underneath Natsu's hands from his possessive hold. Lucy's tears were still falling, and Natsu dragged his mouth from her lips in order to kiss them away before going right back to pecking her lips frantically.

"Na... tsu..." Lucy gasped out before she was silenced by his tongue pushing its way in her mouth, desperately, as if this one act decided his entire fate. Lucy responded eagerly, letting him explore every bit of her mouth and appreciate the taste like it was the first drink he'd had after a thousand year long drought. It was sloppy and it was uncoordinated, and it certainly wasn't the 'first kiss' Lucy had always imagined and dreamed of, but they both savored the kiss, the feeling of having each other at their lips.

"Lucy..." Natsu murmured against her mouth as they separated for breath, gasping. "I love you so goddamn much... I can't stand seeing you hurt..."

"Shut up and kiss me," Lucy urged before devouring his lips again, this time taking his surprise to do exploring of her own. It didn't last long, Natsu quickly dominating her, but Lucy loved it. Craved more of it. She wanted to give him all she could offer and let him take it with that raw power he possessed. Oh God, when did I become such a pervert? Lucy thought as a surge of heat went racing through her veins, right to her core, and threatened to force her knees to buckle.

Natsu had to pause, his lips still resting against Lucy's, in order to let himself appreciate the sudden arousal he could just feel and, oh God, smell radiating from her. After taking his moment, Natsu growled as he felt his own arousal spike higher than it had been before. He dragged away from Lucy for just a second to glance around the environment. When he saw a rock face not far away, Natsu knew where he was going.

Lucy whimpered when Natsu stopped kissing her and then again when he moved his oh so wondrous lips away. And then suddenly, she was being lifted up, Natsu's arms wrapped under her butt and around her back. Instinctively, Lucy gave a small shriek and pressed herself closer to Natsu. Then she felt it and suddenly wasn't scared anymore, merely more aroused. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, basically sitting directly on his hardening shaft. Heat surged through the both of them once again and they both groaned as Natsu pressed Lucy against the rock and started kissing her fiercely again. Lucy started grinding against his arousal, feeling the evidence of her own soak into her panties. "Oh God, Natsu," Lucy moaned, moving her hands up and down his hard, muscular back, eliciting groans from Natsu every time her fingernails scratched against him, his skin hot and sensitive.

They didn't know how long they'd been kissing for but neither wanted to stop. Neither wanted it to ever end. Everything was so heated and fiery and oh so fucking perfect. They didn't have enough sense through their delirium to fully rationalize where they were going, but they knew they were headed there, and fast. "Fucking hell, I love you, Lucy."

"Godddd," she groaned as he found a sensitive spot under her jaw and immediately began sucking at it at her reaction. "Oh my God, I love you too..."

"Whoa, called it," Natsu and Lucy suddenly heard cut through their heat. Their eyes widened as they realized who it was and jumped away from each other. Natsu started scratching at the back of his neck while Lucy started fixing and fidgeting with her clothing (when had her bra been unhooked!?), both faces painted with fierce blushes. In front of them was Gray, who'd said the words that interrupted them, as well as Erza and Happy.

"Heh heh heh... you liiiiiiiiiikkkkeeeee each other!" Happy called.

"We got worried when you never came back to the hotel," Erza commented with her own blush, definitely not expecting to find them like that despite Gray's speculation.

"No, Erza and Happy got worried," Gray corrected. "I said we should just let you guys bang it out,"

"Gray!" Lucy shrieked, her blush only growing.

Gray shrugged. "I mean, you can't deny that that's what was going to happen if we hadn't come when we did. You were making out like the world was coming to an end, Natsu's lost both his scarf and his vest already, and Lucy's shirt was up to her shoulders. You might wanna buckle your belt, too, Lucy."

Lucy flushed as she fixed the belt on her skirt while Natsu put his arm in front of her defensively and yelled at Gray to stop looking at her. "Well!" Lucy tried to come up with a counter quickly to Gray's accusations. "We- No- We di- I nev- He s- Oh, just shut up!"

"Yeah! Shut up, Gray! You're just jealous!"

Gray rolled his eyes. "Uh huh. Now, as glad as I am -we are- that you two have finally figured shit out, I never wanna see that again." Erza and Happy nodded in consensus.

"We are still, technically, on the job," Erza pointed out, "so I trust that you'll be acting professionally from here until we get back home." She punctuated her 'request' with a glare.

"Yes, Erza!" Natsu and Lucy confirmed quickly.

When they arrived back at the hotel and after everyone's wounds had been taken care of, Erza, Happy, and Gray were begrudgingly convinced to share one of their two rooms and let Natsu and Lucy share the other. The new couple were forced to promise that there would be no "fraternizing", but they did need to talk, and it couldn't really wait until they were back in Magnolia. They had stuff to figure out together.

They said goodnight to their companions before Natsu pulled her into their room and gave her a quick but passionate kiss. Lucy smiled as he moved back, even just the simple kiss on the lips making her dizzy with happiness. "Okay, we've gotta talk now," Lucy insisted as she lead him to sit down on one of the beds. "Two things, how long have you kept that pent up and how long have you kept your fear for my safety pent up?"

"The kiss?" Natsu started, even as he tried to goad her into another one. "I don't even know. I just knew that I fucking loved you and that that meant I should kiss you. And now that I have, I know how great it is," he pecked her cheek. "And now I don't ever wanna stop."

"Natsuuu..." she crooned as he moved down to kiss a sensitive spot on her neck. "Yeah, kissing's great, but I want to talk. How long have you been this concerned about me?"

Natsu sighed and reluctantly moved his lips away from Lucy's face. "Fine fine, I'll stop. And I still don't really know. I mean, I've always been a little worried for you. I don't know when it escalated into this."

"Okay, how about this? When did you realize this was love?"

Natsu chuckled. "Ah... that would be a few months ago."

"What happened a few months ago?"

"Nothing, really. We were just sitting in the guild and you were talking to Levy when she made you laugh about something, and as I watched you smile and giggle, it just hit me. I suddenly realized why I cared so much about you."

"That's odd," Lucy started. "I never would've thought you'd figure out something like that through the mundane..."

"Huh?"

Lucy waved him off. "No, don't worry about it. Just talking to myself."

"No, I wanna know!" he urged.

"Okay, fine! It's just weird to me that you figured out you were in love because of something so normal."

"What's that supposed to mean!?" he teased.

"You know very well that neither of us are normal so shut up!" Lucy teased right back as she whacked him with a pillow. The two collapsed backwards on the bed, laughing and grinning.

"So how about you?" Natsu asked.

"Hm?" she responded, acting oblivious.

"You know what I'm asking about. When did you know you'd fallen for me?" Natsu asked genuinely.

Lucy sighed. "I... I just woke up one morning and I knew. You had your arms wrapped around me because you'd snuck in again and it just dawned on me. It was just a few months ago, as well."

"Oh," Natsu replied simply, although he had a grin on his face and was thinking of wrapping his arms around her much like he'd often done when sneaking into her bed.

"Natsu?" Lucy started quietly.

"Yeah?"

"You know I've loved you for far longer, right? I don't know how long it's been, but-" Natsu finally did turn and pull her into a hug.

"Yeah, I get it. I'm the same way, y'know? I've loved you for a long time, I just didn't figure it out very quickly." They laid there in silence for a good while, Lucy on top of him, listening to his slowly steadying heartbeat.

"So..." Lucy started again. "Are we officially dating, then? I'm your girlfriend and you're my boyfriend?"

Natsu shrugged. "Yeah, sure." He didn't really care about labels, but as he let the words swirl around in his head, he grinned widely. "Yeah. My girlfriend. You're my girlfriend."

Lucy smiled, too. She could tell Natsu was going to be a bit possessive of her, but she loved it. It just showed her how much he cherished her. She gripped onto his scarf and propped her head up to look at him. "And you're my boyfriend." Natsu grinned at that.

"I love you," they declared again, simultaneously. They started giggling again.

"Do you wanna... pick up where we left off? From the battlefield?" Natsu suggested with a cheeky smirk that Lucy thought made him look oh so sexy.

Lucy smiled. "I do, but Erza would kill us, remember?"

Natsu groaned. "So we'll just be quiet," he whispered, nuzzling his nose against Lucy's ear.

"Oh yeah, like we can be quiet," Lucy halfheartedly argued as she leaned into his caresses. Lucy moaned as his hand came up to start rubbing along her side, as he sensed that she did want to continue. "Yeah..." Lucy gasped as he nibbled at a sensitive spot on her neck.

"No! None of that!" They suddenly heard Erza shout through the door. "Lucy, I thought better of you!"

Natsu groaned in frustration while Lucy gasped in annoyance. "Were you eavesdropping!?" she shouted in disdain.

"No..." Gray's quiet denial leaked through the door.

"You were! Knock it off and leave us alone!"

"Yeah, what she said!" Natsu shouted. "Leave me and my girlfriend alone!" Even through their irritation, Natsu and Lucy couldn't help but grin at each other at the titles again.

"So... we'll continue in Magnolia?" Lucy laughed.

"Continue in Magnolia," Natsu agreed, however much he'd have liked to continue then and there. But for now, they'd have to suffice with cuddling in bed.

A/N: Who knows, maybe I'll eventually write a smut for it. No promises, though.

Thank you for reading!

#fanfiction #nalu #natsu x lucy #lucy x natsu #fairy tail #anime #anime and manga #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #katana-no-neko

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