#trying to put into words how this series is at war with itself in some interesting ways

[mononijikayu]

we can’t be friends (wait for your love) — gojo satoru.

GENRE: alternate universe - reincarnation

WARNING/S: romance, domesticity, fluff, family, break up, comfort/no comfort, angst, trauma, implied death, hurt/comfort, character death, depiction of death, depictions of loss and depression, depiction of graphic content, depiction of emotional breakdown, depiction of anxiety, mention of death, mention of grief;

WORD COUNT: 1.7k

masterlist

series masterlist

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

you were always reminded of how beautiful and sad wintertime is. when you were younger, you excitedly put on your winter boots and puffer jacket, hurriedly running out to play in the snow, your muffler trailing behind you. you had fond memories of those snowy days, and that sentiment only deepened as you grew older.

winter became even more special the night you met gojo satoru at his birthday party, when your friend had dragged you along. you were so happy then, to have been able to have this man steal your heart. since then, winter had been warmer, happier. but lately, it wasn’t the case.

that was what you hated about winter—sometimes, all it brought was bitterness and a putrid cold. the nights were frightening, and the breath you took felt like it punched the air out of your lungs. everything stayed frozen in time, suspended by the snow that seemed to crush the earth with its weight.

nowadays, you can’t remember if you ever waited eagerly for the snow to fall. you don't look forward to winter as you did when you were a child. it was too hard to smile at the falling snow. but you still try. you really want to. you think that maybe, if you smile, it would be easier. if you smile, maybe your face will remember only the warmth. maybe if you smile, you won’t feel the bitterness—you don’t want to turn into winter itself.

you tear your gaze away from the narrow echoes of the windowpane. and for a moment, winter tears itself in two, into that bitterness and warmth. sometimes, looking at him makes it easier, and some days, it makes it harder. you supposed you always knew he was like snow itself—pure as the driven snow and yet so brutal with the weight you bear for it.

gojo satoru shifts carefully on the mattress, and before you can think, you are instantly beside him. you couldn’t help but put his hand gingerly in yours, making sure not to jostle him too much. you never expected this. that he would be in such a state. he had been so healthy all his life, and now he wasn’t even able to stand up by himself anymore.

it's very hard not to worry over someone whom you've loved your entire life. satoru, whom you would gladly go to war for. satoru, the man you had called yours at one point. the very same satoru from the life before this. from all the lives before this one. you look at him and see not the previous version of him you've once held in your arms, but the young boy you first met so many years ago.

“how are you, 'toru?” you ask him tenderly.

there is hurt and pain in these isolated walls, this stupid little winter cabin of his. there is the looming knowledge of what is to come, too, and it is something you can’t face. you already knew the answer to the question. the doctor told you. but you didn’t care about what science says. you wanted to hear it from him.

at the end of the day, you are still hopeful. because he's here. satoru is still here with you. his usually warm hand is cold; it had never been cold when it touched yours. not until recently. but you think that it doesn’t matter. cold or warm, you still held his hand.

it was still yours to hold. and you were together. the world didn’t matter right now. your own husband, your career, your reality—nothing mattered. you wanted to be here. you wanted to be by his side. you wanted to be his world again, just as he was yours.

“it’s cold today, darlin’." satoru whispers to you, trying to squeeze your hand, as though to reassure you that he was still here with you.

he wasn’t as strong as he would have liked, you knew that well. but he still held you. he still held your hand and would not let go. you don’t realize too late that you’ve been holding your breath.

you squeeze his hand and you try to smile for him, to be happy for him. satoru opens his eyes to look at you, a ghost of a smile playing across his lips. he likes it when he can see you smile for him, as you always did years ago.

you don’t think it will ever sink in. this isn’t real. this isn’t happening. you could feel the bile stuck in your throat. you already knew that this isn’t how it’s supposed to go. you have experienced much worse together. you have done much worse to each other.

you have pulled each other through collapsed barricades just to find safety elsewhere. even when you weren’t together anymore, you have managed to survive it all. because you still had each other.

that was then, and this is now. here you are, huddled together for warmth, satoru’s lips chapped and blue. your ex-husband could only try and make a front for you, one that you think he could not hold for much longer. even if he wished he could, there would come a time when it would all be over.

the room is silent except for the faint sound of the wind howling outside, the winter storm a harsh reminder of the reality you are facing. you clutch satoru’s hand tighter, as if your grip alone could keep him tethered to this world.

“satoru, love.” you whisper, your voice trembling. “stay with me.”

his eyes flutter open once more, and he looks at you with a softness that breaks your heart. “i’m trying, darlin'.” he murmurs, his voice barely audible. “for you, i’m trying.”

you bite back the sob that threatens to escape, not wanting him to see you fall apart. you need to be strong, for him, for both of you. you lean closer, pressing your forehead against his, your breath mingling in the cold air.

“i know, love.” you say softly. “i know you are.”

the moments stretch on, each second feeling like an eternity. you talk to him about anything and everything, recounting memories of happier times, of your first meeting, of the countless winters you spent together. you tell him about the future you once dreamed of, the life you wanted to build together. you pour your heart out, hoping that your words can keep him here a little longer.

but as the hours pass, you can see the light in his cerulean eyes dimming, the strength in his grip weakening. he is slipping away, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. you feel a crushing weight in your chest, the pain of losing him more than you can bear.

“satoru, my love.” you say again, your voice breaking. “please don’t go. i can’t do this without you.”

he looks at you with a sad, knowing smile. “you’re stronger than you think,” he whispers. “you always have been.”

tears spill down your cheeks, and you shake your head. “not without you,” you insist. “i need you.”

his hand moves to your cheek, his touch feather-light. “i’ll always be with you." he says softly. “in here.” he taps his chest weakly, indicating his heart.

"how do i live on without you?" your tears blur everything in sight, even him. but you don't want to. you don't want it to.

"you learnt how, when we got divorced, darlin'." he smiles at you. you can tell, he was having a harder time speaking. "you'll learn again. you've always been a fighter. my darlin'. you've always been a fighter."

you nod, even though it feels like your heart is shattering into a million pieces. you lean down, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips, savoring the warmth and love you’ve shared. as you closed your eyes, you could feel it tremble with tears once again.

“i love you.” you say, your voice barely a whisper.

“i love you too.” he replies, his voice fading. “always.”

you hold him close as his breathing grows shallower, his grip on your hand loosening. you can feel his life slipping away, each moment more painful than the last. and then, with one final, shuddering breath, he is gone.

the room feels impossibly quiet, the weight of his absence suffocating. you hold onto him, your tears soaking into his shirt, your heart breaking in ways you never thought possible. the world outside is a blur of white, the snow falling relentlessly, indifferent to your pain.

winter has never felt colder than in that moment.

you stay there for what feels like hours, unable to let go. you waited for the paramedics to arrive. you call his kids, to tell him what happened. and then....nothing. emptiness. the quiet. not even the snow falling made a sound.

the memories of your life together play in your mind, a bittersweet reminder of all you’ve lost. you remember the warmth of his smile, the sound of his laughter, the way he made you feel alive. and though he is gone, those memories are yours to keep. you fall in love again. and that tears you apart. it kills you whole.

eventually, you find the strength to stand, to face the world without him. you know it won’t be easy, that the days ahead will be filled with pain and heartache. but you also know that satoru would want you to keep going, to find a way to live life as you always have.

when everyone arrived, you knew it was time to go. you didn't want to leave his body. but you have no right to be there anymore. his kids tell you that it was too dangerous out. but he was gone. you say your goodbyes, you walk over to the coat hanger. your eyes red, your heart heavy - you make your way to leave the cabin.

you could feel how cold it was when you stepped out into the echoing blizzard, this unforgiving winter. the snow crunches beneath your feet, each step a reminder of the journey ahead. you look up at the sky, the falling snow blurring your vision, and you take a deep breath.

winter will continue for a long time, you think. and perhaps, you’ll only ever breathe winter snow again, as bitterly as you could. but you hope maybe, one day—you’ll think of him and be warm again. you bit your lips, tears flowing freely.

maybe if you're lucky?

you'll be reborn again.

maybe you'll love him again.

[justthoughts1310]

If you have not watched Netflix's live action ATLA yet, let me stop you right now. It is not good and it's score on rotten tomatoes is honestly too high.

However, it's far better than the 2010 Live Action movie.

I'm on episode 6 now, and as I watch, I've been trying to find the words that best describe the series.

I've struggled, but the first thing I've noticed is how all of the actors seem to walk their parts and miss the meaning and motivations of their characters all together. The only one who comes close to embodying their character is Iroh, and the only one who looks like they came from straight out of the avatar universe is the Bounty Hunter.

However, now that I'm in episode 6, I've found the word.

The series is Rushed. It's rushed. It feels that they are trying to pack as much avatar lore into the storyline as possible and they don't care what storylines or arcs they have to mangle in order to do it. It's like a really badly written fanficition or a bad spark notes recap of the OG show. I feel comfortable saying that because I've read the Kiyoshi novels (which are like fanfics) and they are EXCELLENT.

You notice this when the show starts. Aang can fly unassisted. Let me repeat. He can fly unassisted. Only two Airbenders in all of Avatar history can fly unassisted, and one hasn't even been born yet during the time Aang was trying to stop the 100 year war. This boy can fly, but we're 6 episodes in and he has not water bent once. If he hadn't turned into Kiyoshi, I wouldn't believe that he's actually the avatar.

As to not provide any spoilers, they've taken multiple storylines and mashed them together. For example, the spirt of wisdom that we meet in the library in the arc where Appa goes missing. Yeah, we meet the guy in the forest with the Panda Bear Forest spirit and then we meet Kah shortly after. As if that's not all terrible, then we are introduced to the Mother of Faces.

The mother of freaking faces! If you don't know who she is, she is not in the show. She is introduced in the graphic novel trilogy "The Search" when Zuko and Azula try to find their long lost mother.

It is my feeling that if you want to revisit a beloved show that you should work to make it better. Deepen it. Add color to it and help the audience better understand the characters insights. Take your time with it.

Netflix tries to do a little of this by providing some additional backstories, but it does this by running rough shot through literally everything else.

It even changes the characters relational dynamics with one another. For example you know how even though Sokka is the oldest, Katara very much has adopted the place of their mother? Yeah... throw that notion right out the window. Now, instead of Katara being the practical one who keeps everything on track, she's painted as the rash kid who needs to grow up and Sokka is the father figure.

Now, Zuko is kind of the beloved child even though he's been banished and Azula is seen as a nuisance to her father. Like what??????

It's actually ironic that the show removes Sokka's misogynistic nature because the show is kind of misogynistic in and of itself.

It's 6 episodes in and has already stripped three female characters of their core tenants.

1. Azula is a prodigy. She's the pride of the fire nation. Not anymore.

2. Katara is a motherly figure who is the mother of the group. She cares for everybody and keeps them on track. Not anymore.

3. Suki is a fierce and independent warrior who is not impressed by Sokka's misogyny. Now, she's a creepy woman who follows him around the entire time he's on the island until he asks to be trained by her.

When we heard that the OG creators and Netflix went different ways because of creative differences, we should have known right then and there that the live action was going to be trash.

Also, I'm going to put it out there. Considering the fact that this should be a block buster series, Netflix did not spend anywhere enough money on it, because the graphics are so cheesy and Appa looks terrible.

[hoenn-pride]

Man do you ever just think about how.... hardenshipping was ALWAYS going to be the natural conclusion of the game from the moment they sat down and decided that the gimmick of the region was going to have two warring teams.

Like hardenshipping has some sort of pre-baked, innate canonicity with the way that Pokemon games always resolve themselves. Especially as it pertains to the way the Hoenn region was designed.

What I mean by this is,

In Pokemon, the lesson is always "working together makes us stronger." It is always about the power of friendship, it is always about found families, it is always about settling differences with love etc etc etc. Except. This is on STEROIDS in the Hoenn region because this is a theme and a message that was deliberately sought out when they designed the game.

The Hoenn region is a region of duality. It is all about opposites and counterbalance. The names of the cities are mostly two words put together as opposed to color names in the past. Team Aqua and Team Magma. Groudon and Kyogre. Plusle and Minun. Latios and Latias. Solrock and Lunatone. Zangoose and Seviper. Volbeat and Illumise. How Wurmple can evolve into either Silcoon or Cascoon. How Clamperl can evolve into either Huntail or Gorebyss, making both of those sets of Pokemon counterparts to one another.

The REGION itself is split almost evenly in physical makeup between land and water. Which is what made it seem like there was a shit ton of water because there was. There has never been as much water in a Pokemon game as there was in Hoenn, and it was because they were physically trying to balance the water and the land. There's a giant uninhabitable volcano in the center of the region perfectly counterbalanced on the map by a giant, habitable crater in the center of the ocean. Complements and counterparts color the entire region, often quite literally in red and blue. Like almost anywhere you look in Hoenn, it is ideologically (and sometimes physically) symmetrical in design.

The name of the region comes from love and relationships, for god's sake.

And so then you have the Hoenn region, named after a word that literally means love and relationships, being themed around this very concept, in a game series that ALREADY focuses on those things. As like. The core component of the franchise.

So the Hoenn region has "the power of love and friendship" on fucking STEROIDS.

And they DOUBLE and TRIPLE down on this metaphor that they already did not need to double and triple down on in the remakes with the inclusion of the "Hoenn Rangers Coexistence Force," whose sole existence seems only to be to call out Archie and Maxie specifically, as they are about promoting the peaceful coexistence of people, nature, and pokemon. Blatant passive-aggressive reference to Archie and Maxie, who are locked in some sort of odd, eco-ideological warfare with each other playing out over the large-scale arena of the entire fucking region.

And the fact that they canon used to be on a team together and clearly split due to their differences (you know. Like how a lot of these region's Pokemon have split evolutions and counterparts etc etc etc).

The Hoenn region is rife with all this fucking duality.

And so, naturally, the Pokemon plot does what Pokemon plots do, and uses like a 12 year old child to tell our bad guys that the power of love and friendship is actually all they need.

And for the most part, in most games, that would be where it would end. The villain and the evil team fades off into obscurity, after they learned their lesson.

Except, Archie and Maxie don't have that option. Because they have each other.

Team Rocket, while still technically present, disappears from the game after you beat them. Cyrus disappears. Ghetsis disappears. Colress just fucking hangs out with you, kind of. Lysander disappears. Lusamine disappears. I don't fucking know what Rose does but god in hell I'm sure he doesn't contribute anything meaningful. Turo and Sada go off to a different fucking reality altogether.

All of the other villains disappear because they have learned their lesson. What are they going to do? Be besties with the player in the post game? Colress is the only one who gets remotely close to this, and he's locked on a little ship in one area once you beat the game. These individual leaders rightfully learn their lesson, rightfully go off on their own to reflect and grow or go to prison or die, and we just assume that because we beat them, that's the end. There is nothing more for them to resolve, because they have resolved their conflict with us.

But not Archie and Maxie. Because Archie and Maxie's main point of conflict was not with you. It was with each other.

ALL of the other villains have NO ONE to amend with once you finish the main line story of the game, because they have already ended the conflict with you. Therefore, in all other iterations of them that exist (for example, in Masters) they can just be "Ho ho ho I am GenericEvilTeamLeader" who did a bad thing.

But not Archie and Maxie. Because Archie and Maxie were depicted having their main conflict with each other, and not you, any piece of media that wishes to depict them post-events of their games (aka, post their lessons-learned) MUST depict them together. In order to demonstrate that they have taken this lesson about the "true power of friendship" to heart, we must see them putting that into practice.

And due to the nature of Hoenn being about coexistence, natural complements, and duality, Archie and Maxie must then conclude to work together and harmonize with one another just as their opposing elements do, just as the entire rest of their fucking region does. They are the living embodiments of the inner conflict, the duality and complement and turmoil and harmony that the entire region of Hoenn was built upon.

And THIS is why, to this day, in the year of our good Groudon 2023, we are STILL getting new content of them being so close to one another. Why Pokemon Masters has just basically become Hardenshipping Truthers DLC. Because now, in order to demonstrate that Archie and Maxie have taken some semblance of their lesson to heart, they must be depicted working together. As they were always created to do.

Archie and Maxie were created to be at war with one another, but this was because they were also created to learn the lesson that they must work with one another, because that is the lesson of Hoenn, and that is the lesson of Pokemon as a whole.

So from the very moment the devs sat down and said "we are going to make two warring teams," Archie and Maxie's destinies were invariably linked together, and basically hardenshipping content was always going to be the natural conclusion of that.

They really invented gay people with this one. I just..,,

*slaps Hoenn region* this bad boy can fit so much fucking symbolism in it

[ricanvvas]

Hinata Hyuga Slander and why it is obnoxiously idiotic.

I actually thought the Hinata Slander was a joke or one or two people sided with it. But I am totally taken aback to realize that it’s actually real—and a little popular—it’s real?

Prepare for a run down through Naruto Series kids, because some few fellas clearly did not watch it properly. Either that, orrr…they’re filled with unreasonable hatred for a character who should be the last to be hated. By literally anybody.

I’m going to try to keep this short (I’m lying), but there are going to be topics on Hinata I’m going to go over so it’s not a messy bunch and rather organized and you can skip to which ever you find most relevant.

Before anything, a remark, I never overly cared for Hinata’s existence and she isn’t even in my top 15 Naruto characters but that does not mean I dislike her nor do I look down at her character. Now imagine a person like me going out of their way to take time and write an entire blog for her—yeah, it’s that ridiculous.

There will be that one person—and I’m saying this beforehand—who will barely skim through this and childishly reply to my blog. Catch me caring though!

All of the topics will include manga based evidence as well as a breakdown of the scene and what they portray, therefore, canon reasonings. There are plenty of other and more evidence out there, I will only provide some and main ones that back up claims. Here are topics I will be going over:

Hinata Hyuga as an anime character/character writing

Personality

Goals & Dedications

Skills & Strength

Incessant Love for Naruto Uzumaki

#1 Character Writing

While many people believe that Kishimoto is terrible at writing female characters, I’d like to disagree. Females like Temari, Konan, Ino, and Karin all pass the main checkmarks of being an exceptionally “good” character; a solid background/past, special abilities, and set personality. What I do agree with though is that he does not know how to put them to use, and it is obvious why. These females were not the only ones tossed aside—so were good characters like Lee, Neji, Jiraiya, and so on, all because of the author’s obsession with the Uchiha as well as Sasuke’s story.

Hinata is included in the “good” character checklist, and rather exceeds. The difference between her and the rest of the women is that she is the best representation of an individualistic woman and had incredible character development.

↓ How did we go from a girl so easily shaken and brought down with mere words

↓ To the girl who had the guts to charge against an Akatsuki member,

↓ And seeked frontlines during the war?

It may look like it’s only for the sake of Naruto, but it’s not entirely the reason, only partial. Everybody was set on saving Naruto anyway, instead of fighting the war themselves because they knew Naruto was their key to winning.

Hinata’s introduction may have started with her admiration for Naruto Uzumaki, and it did play a big part, but her entire existence never just revolved around romance. She had way more to her. Hinata’s character itself promotes women empowerment despite her not being the main female protagonist.

Through her writing, we learn that women don’t need to not seek love in order to be independent and a powerful female with goals and dedications that have nothing to do with romance. Hinata is a perfect example of this.

As a side-side character, Hinata excels in character writing, and is interesting enough to keep the audience invested in her existence. The next few manga pages and break-downs will explain it well.

#2 Personality

Her personality did not revolve around her undying love for Naruto only. She was her own person, too.

↓ While shy and timid, Hinata is also a pure and kind hearted soul, as we do not know any character she actually has bad blood with, making her somebody easy to be around with. She’s very gentle, making the atmosphere around her almost tranquil.

↓ Her conflict with Neji was very one-sided, and despite his harsh treatments, she still used honorifics and respected him.

↓ Yes, she might be a soft human being, but not to the point she is unable to pick out flaws in other people.

She seems more warmed up in Shippuden than she was in Classic, and it’s fair to say that ever since Chunin exams, she had gained confidence with the help of Naruto’s cheering. Confidence in herself and her skills. (Panels above may help)

Something to keep in mind is that Neji was known to be more cold, arrogant, and stronger than Sasuke during this time, by Kakashi’s words.

↓ Yet Hinata did not back away even after being told to, multiple times I believe, even by Kiba himself.

↓ This was the beginning of her journey of trying to be more assertive about herself, as she believes she could keep on going without chickening out.

↓ And she didn't back away when someone from the Hyuga Clan told her to do so--she was persistent.

Hinata was never meant to be somebody with great leadership skills; she has always been a follower, almost, who takes a lot of inspiration from people she looks up to. The obvious person, Naruto, and Neji were mentioned.

#3 Goals & Dedications

Her goal had never been only to be a wife and a lover to Naruto. It was one of her goals, the hope to get Naruto to acknowledge her, which he did several times. But that was not it, there was more.

Hinata did not seem so close with her family, so she had no certain goals regarding the Hyuga Clan. She was almost avoiding them and was deemed to be a shinobi, which she probably preferred, participated, and found likeness to, rather than the next heir to the Hyuga Clan, simply because her father did not believe her feather-like personality was fit for it, nor did Hinata seem too interested to lead a clan with such twisted rules and laws.

Despite her father's harsh, degrading words (and Neji's), she did not let it effect her because she continued to get stronger later on.

Hinata always wanted to be self-assured, and wanted to be as confident as Naruto always has been. She wanted to be of use, somehow. Refer to #2, second last image.

↓ Here, too, we see her admitting that she never believed in herself, until she did.

"I stared liking myself a little more..." shows she had very little fondness for herself.

Hinata wanted to change herself for a very long time. She did not ever want to stay the way she used to be--scared.

Another admittance,

But then...

All of these images show that Hinata had something she was thriving for, something she was dedicated to achieve that was not just romance. So, props to Hinata (and Tenten, but that's another story) for actually having a goal/objective.

#4 Skills & Strength

All powers Hinata has been shown to use/possess:

Byakugan (Kekkei Genkai)

Gentle Fist (Specific Taijutsu)

The Eight Trigrams (Air Palm, Palm Rotation, 64-Palms)

The Gentle Step; Twin Lion Fist

The Eight Trigram; Twin Lions Surging Shots (Utilizes Hagoromo's Chakra)

Hamura Otsutsuki's Chakra

And some others I might’ve missed

I'm not going to make this section breaking down each ability, but I'm going to use this information to factually prove that Hinata has more amounts of known and used abilities than probably all female characters, as well as like 90% of overall Naruto characters or something. And she's definitely stronger than a lot of characters, logically, despite her not having been in fights very often.

During younger years, Hinata Hyuga was put against Neji Hyuga—once again, claimed to be possibly stronger than Sasuke at that time—and Hinata was actually able to put up with Neji. For a bit, or a while, it doesn't matter. For a young, scared girl who has never been in a fight before to be able to do so speaks for her skills.

Inexperienced against the nearly strongest genin, one filled with hatred, among her generation, Hinata exceeded enough.

↓ In Shippuden, we even get a scene where she protects Neji!

There's a very few people Hinata actually canonically fought, but when she did, she did plenty well for being a side-side character.

↓...And that same side-side character, Hinata Hyuga, was the only kunoichi in the entire show to actually land a hit on Pain, during Pain Arc. The inevitable praise.

Here comes the cries of, “but she was flung LOL” “hinata didn’t achieve shit from this” “he threw her like she was nothing”

Frankly, those are most ignorant things you can say regarding her actions. To stand up against an Akatsuki member? That takes a lot of balls, considering that nobody was standing up for Naruto, and practically gave up, giving into Pain’s near-victory.

The entire point was not even to defeat Pain—it was to defend Naruto. And in doing so, she stalled for a bit, preventing him from immediately killing Naruto. In that amount of time, the few who remained could’ve backed her up, they could’ve offered some sense of rescue, but because of twist of fate, and the expected, Hinata was unable to keep Pain off of Naruto. It brought her to near-death, triggering Naruto Uzumaki’s 9-Tail-Fox.

Hinata was the fiercest woman. She wasn’t stupid, she accepted she was weaker and couldn't win before she even got onto the battle field. But she tried.

The scene was never about physical strength to begin with; it was her strong mindset and dedication. She was aware of the consequences and still stepped in, demonstrating her everlasting commitment for Naruto. This entirely proves that she not only had great self-development, she had the audacity to stand against the strongest Akatsuki member (excluding Obito), who killed a Legendary Sannin.

#5 Incessant Love for Naruto Uzumaki

In the entirety of Naruto Anime existence (excluding Boruto), only one of its movies have been considered canon, that being Naruto: The Last.

While I hoped it would show us Naruto promoting to Hokage, all of it was focused on Hinata and Naruto's relationship, and we found out a lot through it. Like, a lot.

There are very few couple/characters in Naruto that actually have past together/some story and strong reasoning to start liking their love interest. Such characters being Kushina, Karin, Konan (the K's lol), and of course, Hinata.

There are filler episodes that go before The Last, but I wouldn't count them (even if they add on to the actual story), but in The Last, we figure out that Hinata and Naruto first met when he protected her from getting bullied due to her Byakugan, and he gets beaten up for it.

"Never go back on my word" was one of Naruto's internal rules that he stuck by and it made up his entire personality, almost. Hinata really seemed to respect it and use it for herself.

She tend to turn his imperfections into motivations,

Those feelings seem to get more bold in Shippuden and more confronting. So much so she did not hesitate to put her life on the line for the boy. Not "just because." Hinata gave a list of unavoidable reasonings, that we were able to point out, too.

And vice-versa, she did make a difference in Naruto's life pre-marriage. She gave him courage, motivation, and a reason to keep going. Refer to the fourth image in this section, too.

Then, our closure, he finally realized that Hinata has been there for him since the beginning of the times (also in The Last).

“…but…but…! Hinata is a stalker! She was always watching Naruto! She’s so creepy!”

Okay, but her canonically shown watching Naruto was like, twice in 700 episodes… ↓

And...honestly...it's not really...that...deep...lol? Old Japanese humor. And don't act like girls nowadays don't stalk the shit out of the boy they like--let's get real here. Just get over it. It's an exaggerated cartoon.

People have different views when it comes to love. But one thing I heavily disagree with are weak or false reasonings to fall in love with somebody. You’ll screw yourself over. Seeing a guy walk through the door and finding him physically attractive should not be your reason to “fall in love” and keeping that reason forever; you’re falling in love with his body, not him. It could be the start of your interest. Taking your time to get to know what kind of individual they are, and then accepting their personality, and falling in love with that person is guaranteed success. Reasons are important.

And Hinata understood that well, unlike someone who didn’t (I’m throwing shade!)

(A very quick addition and counter-argument I might get is that Hinata was the cause of Neji's death. I didn't want to put this into an entire section because it'll involve mentioning Neji's own character. But to be frank, Neji chose to protect Hinata and died that way. And I idiotically love Neji far more than Hinata. You don't need somebody's permission to protect them, nor did Neji do it just because he was the lower branch of the Hyuga Clan. Neji and Hinata’s relationship was beyond that. Way beyond. Reread the manga, or even rewatch the anime, and listen and figure out why he did what he did. It had nothing to do with Hinata being a higher rank than him, at least not entirely at all.)

__________________________________________

I was going to add another section titled, "Comparison", but because of image restrictions and as well as the thought that this blog is only about Hinata, I scratched it out.

I don't even praise Hinata. She isn't my favorite Naruto female, either. Personally, for me, she just existed as a character. But I'd be damned if I threw any dirt on her for any reason.

If anything, I believe Hinata Hyuga's character is underappreciated in the way she should be appreciated. She's not just some...loyal, attractive girl (hell, Kishimoto never canonically even drew her with tight/exposing clothing, they were always baggy. So, screw the anime studio.) She was a figure of a powerful woman, better written than any other female in Naruto, and a strong individual, with more story than several, several other characters.

So when I heard "Hinata Slander" was a real thing, truly, I was baffled. I'll admit my blog was quite messy despite my effort to keep it organized with main claims and obvious evidence, but there are still multiple more panels that back up everything I've mentioned that make up Hinata's character.

After all this, I really don't think there's anything that can be said against her in the context (and lie) of "she is a horrible character." And there aren't a lot of characters she can fairly be compared to, anyway. She's just awesome.

As a person, and a side-side anime character, Hinata Hyuga undeniably exceeded.

"Hinata Slander" is fake. Find something better to do than embarrassing yourself.

[saintsenara]

the war of the roses - a snippet

sirius black/severus snape explicit

here’s a wee look at the next chapter of the war of the roses to tide you over before the weekend...

featuring tonks being a bonafide baddie with a terrible taste in men, sirius moping [as per], and me shoehorning in my "everything in the series connects to contemporary anglo-irish history" agenda....

Tonks has a black eye (courtesy of Augustus Rookwood) and a grey complexion (courtesy of being dragged back to work weeks earlier than she should have been). She looks exhausted. She’s lost weight. She has dark circles under her eyes and hollows under her cheekbones and he finds it almost terrifying to look directly at her.

Not because growing thinner has made it all the clearer how much she looks like Bella - he knew that; he can handle that - but because her specific brand of wan and worn-out looks so much like the one he remembers his mother putting on during his childhood - a cloak of pale skin and mourning robes and staring at the woven roses on the rug and not leaving the house - and never taking off.

Only the fact that her hair is electric blue and her aura opalescent and her appetite undiminished quells the shiver working its way down his spine, stopping him from panicking that there’s been some rip in time and the old bitch isn’t dead anymore.

‘- started quacking like a duck,’ she says, cheeks bulging out like a hamster’s with pasta bake, her luminescence - a gemstone sheen that no Death Eater’s curse could rob from her - so magnificent that even Molly smiles indulgently at her lack of table manners.

(Sirius wonders how long it took Andy - she was hardly as much of a prig as Cissy, but she’d nonetheless never gone in for eating like she lived in a pig-sty - to give up on trying to drum some decorum into her.)

‘The Muggles all thought he’d lost his gobstones - obviously - but the portrait in the PM’s office alerted the Accidents and Catastrophes lot just before they could cart him off to see one of their - oh bollocks, what do they call them? Y’know - the healers for the mind?’

‘Sike-trists,’ says Kingsley.

‘That’s the word I was looking for!’ she squeals, waving her fork in his direction with transparent glee. ‘I was going to say “suck-tits”, but I knew that wasn’t right…’

Kingsley chuckles. Moony chokes on his beer.

And Tonks stares at him, her dark eyes - Bella’s eyes; his mother’s eyes - gleaming, the dancing flames from the fireplace reflected within them. She looks thrilled, triumphant. Like making Moony shed his stiffness - the meek and restrained act he’s been perfecting since he was eleven - and reveal himself to be capable of spontaneity, of looking dishevelled and coming undone, was her goal.

Moony blushes. Tonks waggles her eyebrows extravagantly at him and then collapses into giggles.

(Sirius wonders what Andy would say. There’s no way she hasn’t warned her daughter to beware the hungry glint which lurks in wolfish eyes, betraying the monster which coils beneath an affable, moderate veneer, ready to strike. After all, she’d seen a similar heart-shaped face staring rapt and worshipping.)

‘It’s no laughing matter, Tonks,’ says Arthur, sternly, gamely diving into the fire which seems to have sprung up around her and Moony. ‘We’re very lucky that Herbert Chorley had a bad reaction to the Imperius Curse… If it had taken, the Prime Minister would be dead.’

Tonks doesn’t look remotely chagrined.

(Sirius wonders if Andy would say that passion’s flame - no matter how dangerous; no matter how quickly it burns itself out - is better than the alternative. He remembers his mother and father, drifting past each other on the stairs like ships in the night. He remembers Bella sitting awkwardly beside her new husband at her wedding breakfast, and how he and Reg had spent the next seven years - until he’d fled, for Godric’s Hollow and its fields of golden wheat - convinced that Rodolphus was genuinely incapable of smiling.)

But Kingsley is possessed by the spirit of irritation at government incompetence which all civil servants must indulge. ‘The worst thing is,’ he spits, ‘we didn’t have a fucking clue the Prime Minister was at risk until this Imperius was buggered up. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone that they might not confine their attacks on Muggles to this shit with the giants… Scrimgeour told me that I’m going to be the first ever liaison we’ve had in the Muggle government. The fucking first! Voldemort probably has dozens!’

‘Why would he bother with all that, though?’ asks Tonks, still shovelling food into her mouth. ‘He wouldn’t get any credit for offing the PM. The Muggles would just blame it on their own terrorists.’

‘Exactly,’ says Arthur. ‘The Muggles would blame their own terrorists, which would give You-Know-Who the cover to keep attacking them on the pretence that the terror threat was escalating, which would involve him doing more and more magic in plain sight, which would keep the Ministry busy scrambling to cover everything up.’

‘And it hurts the Ministry’s standing with the Muggles,’ says Kingsley. ‘The relationship between the Minister and the PM is sold to them on the basis that we don’t affect their affairs in any way. We’re on thin ice with them as it is - the PM took a lot of shit about rising crime rates in February, after the breakout from Azkaban; it’s hit his polling hard - and I guarantee Voldemort knows it. It’s why he’s going after Muggle targets in the way he is. If the PM stops talking to the Minister, because he’s pissed off that he’s having to look unpopular for things which are our fault, then the Death Eaters have a clear run at creating chaos in the Muggle world.’ He picks up his fork again, jabs it with an irritated stab into a piece of pasta. ‘D’you remember in the last war, Arthur, that massacre in Belfast -’

‘- where he had all the Death Eaters dress up like Muggle soldiers. Of course I do. The Prime Minister was furious. There were genuinely worries he was going to renege on the terms of the Statute of Secrecy. We were working overtime for months to sort it all out.’

‘It killed Eugenia Jenkins’ career.’

‘I remember that Mad-Eye used to be convinced that it was Voldemort who got Mountbatten,’ says Moony, his gaze still fixed on Tonks.

‘I’m pretty sure Mad-Eye’s still convinced of that,’ mutters Kingsley.

‘Yeah,’ says Tonks, with a roll of her eyes, ‘but since Mad-Eye’s also convinced that You-Know-Who stopped the Kestrels winning the league in ‘79, I take everything he says with a pinch of salt.’

Everyone laughs, dragged back to levity by her refusal to take anything too seriously. She’s basking in it - their adulation - being cocky and cheeky, so sure that nothing truly evil hides in the lengthening shadows on the other side of the walls that they can almost believe she might be onto something, and let themselves forget the slog which grinds them down and makes exhausted bodies - horses fit for the knacker’s yard - out of young men.

She doesn’t realise that her swagger makes her susceptible, Sirius thinks. She hasn’t noticed that her eyes are glassy with something which could be fever, as she watches Moony watching her, neither of them pretending he isn’t. Sirius has never seen him so overt in his desire, so unwilling to merely pine from afar.

He wonders if something lupine in him has caught the scent of easy prey.

She takes a swig of beer, lips lingering for just a little longer than necessary around the bottle-top when she draws it away.

‘Scrimgeour’s putting liaisons everywhere,’ she says. ‘Ankunda’s going to be guarding Tony Blair. I asked if I could get the gig protecting Princess Diana.’

‘And did you?’ Moony asks. A purr has come into his voice, something low and sultry, like the embers of a fire.

Tonks chuckles. ‘Nah. Scrimgeour thinks that it wouldn’t do to have me pictured near her.’ She gestures at her hair. ‘Says it might ruin her mystique… It’s gone to Savage. He reckons he’s going to have a crack at her.’

‘Poor woman.’

‘Oh, I dunno.’ She winks at him. ‘She’s done worse.’

[magnusbae]

13 books

What’s up readers?! How about a little show and tell? Answer these 13 questions, tag 13 lucky readers and if you’re feeling extra bookish add a shelfie! Let’s Go!

Tagged by @cuubism Thank you!! 💖 Heads up: if you're tagged, you don't need to read it alllll even if you do want to participate 😌

1) The Last book I read:

I'm pretty sure it was Tress of the Emerald Sea, what a delight!

2) A book I recommend:

.... The Way of Kings... (The Stormlight Archive)

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

The second book of The Stormlight Archive, Words of Radiance had me by my throat like nothing else. wow. 👏🏻

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more):

Listen. I'll list something other than The Stormlight Archive just because this is getting embarrassing. The books I used to regularly reread were: HP, Eragon and Assassin's Apprentice. (full series rereads, crossing the 10 each) 😌

5) A book on my TBR:

I have a hefty amount of books I bought and never read. Ranging from classics to cheap fantasy-- but alas, my brain is fixated on the other author who doesn't disappoint me and so I just stick to his books XD

Some of the books sitting on my ineffective 'shame you into reading' shelf are: Captive Prince, the rest of the Wolfsong series, the.... shadowhunters books... the new trilogy about Fitz which I have in hardcovers yet never read. And some... others...

6) A book I’ve put down:

One of the reasons I am avoidant of taking on new books at all is because I have a very hard time putting down books I started. I'll suffer through entire series just for the few grains of gratification in the end. Or to... spitefullfy and confidently say it sucked balls.

However... three series managed to break me.

First being GoT, I just didn't manage to get through, not even 10 chapters. A true oddedity for me, but I just couldn't.

Second being The Witcher. I managed to power through like 4-5 books? And then I just couldn't do this to myself anymore. It was so, so, so not my vibe. (even while the pc game is about my most favorite game ever.) 🤷🏻‍♀️

And lastly, although I think I did finish the entire series before deciding that if ever a new book came out, I'll never read it, was the-- god what's the name of it... the First Law Trilogy – The Blade Itself etc from joe abercrombie. What a bleak series! Oh my god!

7) A book on my wish list:

My honest wishlist is just to keep on reading Brando Sando in my slow and enjoying-it phase... Although I admit that there's a large amount of those new spicy fantasy books apparently being released that shorts recommend and older folk rant about, so I naturally do want to check it out to see what's up with that but.... in truth... I just want to keep on enjoying Brando Sando XD

8) A favorite book from childhood:

I genuinely really loved Eragon. Oh and Artemis Fowl was all fun. I also really loved Tunnel in the Sky, like really.

9) A book you would give to a friend:

ngl it'll be an unapologetic The Way of Kings with big and passionate begging session of 'please give it a try' like for real.

In case any one of you is actually interested--- (you don't have to read this part) -inhales deeply-

The Way of Kings is a truly misleading book, that might leave you with the impression that the book is all about wars and kings but that is the furthest from the truth a description and a cover and a name can go.

It has fantasy, it has deep and rich world building, elaborate magic system that is deeply embedded into the story, culture and literal every single stone of the world. There's politics, culture, introspection, deep and varied characters, each reading like the main character of the story, having unique and vibrant personality and motivations.

It is not just a book, it is a work of true and deep love for the genre and writing in general. Beautifully done, enriching and enticing.

And what's most important for people who read too many books?

Hard to predict. It managed to pull the rug from underneath my feet in the most surprising and pleasing ways. Brandon writes in a way that is not 'shock just to shock' nor 'drama just for drama'. Every single scene is true, and forward. You always have everything right in front of you, the key is that you do not know how to put it all together just yet.

That can finally give that refreshing 'I don't know where it's heading but I'm enjoying the experience" I feel I had lost over the years, being able to recognize patterns too easily and predict writing intentions.

God, what a book! It does however have a rough learning curve, being such a massive world, it takes time to ease you in. Say about at least 5 chapters in at the minimum. On a personal note, I recommend the audiobooks read by kate reading and michael kramer, literally the best experience I've ever had, listening to those two bring to life every character and accent and scene, wow!

10) A book of poetry or lyrics that you own:

Come to think of it, I don't actually own any. Ha.

11) A nonfiction book you own:

I don't haha! Looking back, it's a lie, I have a few phycology books gathering dust in various hiding spots.

12) What are you currently reading:

........The Way of Kings....

13) What are you planning on reading next?

.....Words of Radiance.... haha. 😋

Y'all don't need to read all them answers in case you just want to answer it for yourself, or you can skip, too 😊😊😊

@mayhemspreadingguy, @pollyp, @nonbinary-nicolo, @msmongoose, @hardly-an-escape,

@ladymatt, @underacalicosky, @grapenehifics, @your-lordsherlockholmes-posts

@acedragontype, @palfriendpatine66, @heretolurkandnothingmore , @virahaus, @wallsinmyhead

@kittttycakes, @elcaballerodragon, @justsuffilike, @pumpkinkingsalem, @handahbear

@willameena

I am certain this is 13, I am certain. Cheers 💖💖💖

[queer-geordie-nerd]

I talk about Mira a lot, and I’m doing so again 🤷🏻‍♀️

She was a beautiful woman, and a powerful and talented actor and writer, no doubt, but much more importantly, I feel, she was also a woman of vast and deep integrity - she fought against injustice and nationalism/racism all of her life and her principled and public stance against the war and ethnic divisions in Yugoslavia cost her dearly and yet, it was a position she never ever moved away from and believed in profoundly. It is very easy to have principles when they are not being tested, and another thing entirely to stake your very life on those principles.

Even when her stance cost her her home, her career, and her friendships, and the enormous amount of threats against her life forced her to leave her country, she never once backed down from her belief in unity and cooperation.

The anti war essay she wrote and published as she fled is still one of the most powerful pieces of writing I’ve ever read and I am going to post it here in its entirety because it is fierce and amazing:

Letter to my co-citizens

I hereby wish to thank my co-citizens who have joined so unreservedly in this small, marginal, and apparently not particularly significant campaign against me. Although marginal, it will change and mark my whole life. Which is, of course, totally irrelevant in the context of the death, destruction, devastation, and blood-chilling crimes within which our life now goes on.

This is happening, however, to the one and only life I have. It seems that I’ve been chosen for some reason to be the filthy rag everyone uses to wipe the mud off their shoes. I am far too desperate to embark on a series of public polemics in the papers. I do, however, feel that I owe myself and my city at least a few words. Like at the end of some clumsy, painful love story, when you keep wanting, wrongly, to explain something more, even though you know at the bottom of your heart that words are wasted; there is no one left to hear them. It is over.

Listening to my answering machine, to the incredible quantities of indescribably disgusting messages from my co-citizens, I longed to hear at least one message from a friend. Or not even a friend, a mere acquaintance, a colleague. But there was none. Not a single familiar voice, not a single friend. Nevertheless, I am grateful to them, to those noble patriots who kindly promise me a “massacre the Serbian way”; and to those colleagues, friends, and acquaintances who, by remaining silent, are letting me know that I cannot count on them any more.

I am grateful also to all my colleagues in the theatre with whom I played Drzic, Moliere, Turgenev, and Shaw, I am grateful to them for their silence, I am grateful to them for not even trying to understand, let alone attempting to vindicate, my statement concerning my appearance at the BITEF Festival in Belgrade, the statement in which I tried to explain that taking part in that production at that moment was for me a defense of our profession which must not and cannot put itself in the service of any political or national ideas, which must not and cannot be bound by political or national limits because it is simply against its nature, which must, even at the worst of times, establish bridges and ties. In its very essence it is a vocation which knows no boundaries.

I know that all this talk about the cosmopolitanism of art seems inappropriate at a moment like this. I know that it may seem out of place to swear to pacifism, to swear to love and to the brotherhood of all peoples while people are dying, while children are dying, while young men are returning home crippled and mangled forever.

How can I say anything which won’t sound like an ill-fitted nonsense at the moment when, for absolutely unfathomable reasons, Dubrovnik is being threatened, the city where I played my favorite role, Gloria?

But I have no other way of thinking. I cannot accept war as the only solution, I cannot force myself to hate, I cannot believe that weapons, killing, revenge, hatred, that such an accumulation of evil will ever solve anything. Each individual who personally accepts the war is in fact an accessory to the crime; must he not then take a part of the guilt for the war, a part of the responsibility?

In any case, I think, I know and I feel that it is my duty, the duty of our profession, to build bridges. To never give up on cooperation and community. Not the national community. The professional community.

The human community. And even when things are at their very worst, as they are now, we must insist to our last breath on building and sustaining bonds between people. This is how we pledge to the future.

And one day it will come. For my part, until recently I was willing to endure all manner of problems in transportation, communication, and finances to trek the 20 hours across Austria and Hungary between Zagreb and Belgrade. I was willing to use risky, even dangerous modes of travel, just to keep holding my performances in the two warring cities, to appear at precisely 7:30 on stage with my Zagreb or Belgrade colleagues and to alternate Corneille and Turgenev for the sake of professional continuity, for the sake of something that would outlive this war and this hatred which is so foreign to me. Time and time again I was willing to make my life a symbol of a pledge to the future which must be waiting for us, until that day when some ardent patriot finally does slaughter me as so many have promised to do.

I was willing and I would still be willing to undertake all and any efforts, if the hatred hadn’t suddenly overwhelmed me with its horrendous ferocity, hatred welling from the city I was born in. I am appalled by the force and magnitude of that hatred, by its perfect unanimity, by the fact that there was absolutely nobody who could see my gesture as my defense of the integrity of the profession, as my attempt to defend at least one excellent theatre performance. I had no intention of acting further in performances outside the BITEF Festival, as I stated in my letter. BITEF as an international theatre event attended by the English, Russians, French, Belgians, and even one Slovene seemed to me worth participating in, especially because any decision not to participate would have meant betraying a performance I had worked on under the most difficult circumstances during the March 9th Belgrade tanks, daily threats of a military coup, etc., etc.

It is terribly sad when one is forced to justification without having done anything wrong. There is nothing but despair, nausea, and horror.

I no longer have any decisions to make. Others have decided for me.

They have decided I must shut up, give up, vanish; they have abolished my right to do my job the way I feel it should be done, they have abolished my right to come home to my own city, they have abolished my right to return to my theatre and act in my performances. Someone decided that I should be fired from my job. Thank you, Croatian National Theatre; thank you, my colleague Dragan Milivojevic, who signed my dismissal slip. I know that lots of people are losing jobs, that I am just one of many, simply part of a surplus work force. I constantly ask myself whether I have any right, at this moment of communal horror, to make any demands of my own. One thing seems certain: I plan for quite some time (how long?) not to perform on any stage in this crumbling, mangled land. Perhaps they needn’t have hurried so in firing me. Perhaps this would have simply taken care of itself. With more decency. And dignity. Not so crudely. Of course, this is not a moment for tenderness. But won’t someone out there have to be ashamed of this? And will this someone necessarily be me, as my fellow actors try to convince me in their orthodox interviews? Can the horror of war be used as a justification for every single nasty bit of filth we commit against our fellow man? Are we allowed to remain silent in the face of injustice done to a friend or a colleague and justify our silence by the importance of the great bright national objective? I ask my friends in Zagreb, who are now silent, while at the same time they condemn Belgrade for its silence.

It is hard to write without bitterness. I would like to be able to do that, because we should “Love Our Enemy.” I wish we all could. Herein perhaps lies the solution for all of us. But I fear that we are very far from the ways of the Lord. His is the way of love. Not hatred.

To whom am I addressing this letter? Who will read it? Who will even care to read it? Everyone is so caught up by the great cause that small personal fates are not important any more. How many friends do you have to betray to keep from committing the only socially acknowledged betrayal, the betrayal of the nation? How many petty treacheries, how many pathetic little dirty tricks must one do to remain “clean in the eyes of the nation?”

I am sorry, my system of values is different. For me there have always existed, and always will exist, only human beings, individual people, and those human beings (God, how few of them there are !) will always be excepted from generalizations of any kind, regardless of events, however catastrophic. I, unfortunately, shall never be able to “hate all Serbs,” nor even understand what that really means. I shall always, perhaps until the moment the kind threats on the phone are finally carried out, hold my hand out to an anonymous person on the “other side,” a person who is as desperate and lost as I am, who is as sad, bewildered, and frightened. There are such people in this city where I write my letter, the city my love took me to, a feeling it seems almost indecent to mention these days. Nothing can provide an excuse any more, everything that does not directly serve the great objective has been trampled upon and appears despicable, and with it what love, what marriage, what friendship, what theatre performances!

I reject, I refuse to accept such a crippling of myself and my own life. I played those last performances in Belgrade for those anguished people who were not “Serbs”; but human beings, human beings like me, human beings who recoil before this monstrous Grand Guignol farce in which dead heads are flying. It is to these people, both here and there, that I am addressing my words. Perhaps someone will hear me.

The punishment meted me by my city, my only city and my theatre, my only theatre, the only theatre I felt was mine, is a punishment I feel I do not deserve. I was working in the way I have always felt I had to work, believing in people and our vocation which is supposed to bring people together, not tear them apart. I will never “give up my Belgrade friends”; as some of my colleagues have, because I do not feel that these friends have in any way brought about this catastrophe which has afflicted us, just as I will not turn my back on my Zagreb friends, not even those who have turned their backs on me. I will try in every way possible to understand their panic, their fear, their bitterness, even their hatred, but I plead for the same dose of understanding for me, that is, for a story which is different than many others, for a life which has deviated, due to the so-called destiny, from the expected and customary. Why must everything be the same, so frighteningly uniform, leveled, standardized? Haven’t we had enough of that? I know this is the time of uniforms and they are all the same, but I am no soldier and cannot be one. I haven’t got it in me to be a soldier, soldiering just isn’t my calling.

Regardless of whether we will be living in one, or five, or fifty states, let us not forget the people, each individual, regardless of which side of this Wall of ours the person happens to be on. We were born here by accident, we are this or that by accident, so there must be more than that, mustn’t there?

I am sending this letter into a void, into darkness, without an inkling of who will read it and how, or in how many different ways it will be misused or abused. Chances are it will serve as food for the eternally hungry propaganda beast. Perhaps someone with a pure heart will read it after all.

I will be grateful to that someone.

Mira Furlan,

From Belgrade and Zagreb, November 1, 1991.

[sokkastyles]

Hi, what do you think about the whole "Zuko never felt sorry for burning down Suki's village" argument? Because it didn't feel to me like the place was destroyed at all, no more than Aaag, Katara and Sokka destroyed Omashu.

Well, we are shown the damage that Zuko's bending caused and Suki does confront Zuko with it later, so we are supposed to treat this as damage Zuko caused that he should feel sorry for that is distinct from the gaang accidentally destroying things with cartoon shenanigans. Zuko came to Kyoshi to capture Aang and he didn't care about the damage he caused to the village as long as he got what he wanted. He's the bad guy there.

That said, there is a limit to how much the show can take this seriously and that's why they don't, and it is absolutely ridiculous how some people will demand that Zuko needs to further atone in some way or that he doesn't care or that what he did was worse than it was.

It's not like Zuko went there and razed the village, which is an intentional war crime. He only cared about capturing Aang and the fires were caused by reckless bending. It's still bad, and fits in very nicely with the responsibility of firebending that is part of both Zuko and Aang's storyline, plus Zuko's arc of learning personal accountability and having a more balanced perspective on things vs only thinking about himself at the beginning of the story. But it's not akin to knowingly destroying an entire village - something which Jet tried to do, in contrast - and I've even seen people insist that Zuko burned down "multiple" villages and like...lol where?

It also can't be treated like it's similar to razing villages in the real world because the fire gets put out by Aang riding a giant sea monster. Like in the Omashu situation you mentioned, there's an extent to how seriously you can take this when the show itself treats it like cartoon shenanigans. And if you DID want to hold these characters accountable in that way, then you have to treat every instance of the gaang destroying something like it's serious business. And that's completely ignoring that ATLA is a fantasy comedy action cartoon created for children. It is not a serious drama about war, even if it deals with those topics at times.

That's why Suki herself doesn't bring up what Zuko did to her village beyond that one humorous exchange. The other reason is because he's clearly changed by the time he meets her again. It would be really strange for her to constantly hold this against him when he's currently trying to break her out of prison. And I don't know where people are getting that he "never felt sorry." Zuko has shown enough regret for his past actions that he doesn't need to speak about every single one to prove he's sorry. What, you think Zuko is sorry for all the things he explicitly apologized for in the series, like trying to capture Aang, hunting the gaang, attacking the Water Tribe, hiring Combustion man, and betraying Katara and Iroh in Ba Sing Se, but he's not sorry for attacking Suki's village because he didn't explicitly say those words onscreen? Be serious. Accountability is not about constantly self-flagellating, and if risking his life to rescue her from the most secure Fire Nation prison is good enough for Suki to forgive and trust Zuko and think he is genuinely sorry, it's good enough for me.

[quitefair]

From Sea to Shore: A Josephine Montilyet lore/meta project

Start reading here!

Hi, hello. I suppose introductions are in order.  

My name is Meera and I am a fan (derogatory) of Dragon Age. Have been since 2014, the moment my ears heard the Dragon Age Inquisition theme. (I’m a sucker for soundtracks, I can count on my hand the number of interests I’ve dived into solely because of the soundtrack.)

The reason I’m so fascinated with Dragon Age, as with many people on this site and beyond are, is because of the rich and complex lore that is contained within the world of Thedas. Whether it be within the games themselves, or the massive catalogue of supplemental media – books, comics, short stories published online, the massive hardcover bible of The World of Thedas, etc.

I think you can see where I’m going with this.

Dragon Age is known for… well. Not putting shit into their game. Which is arguably, the most important part of Dragon Age. Yknow. The games? Couple this with the fact that the writers are known to retcon things left right and centre… leaving fans with a, if you don’t mind my language, piss poor understanding of anything beyond surface level.

Now I’m not going to argue semantics about topics that I am clearly not qualified to talk about. I’m still learning things. So while I do read some absolutely delightful discussions on the Mage-Templar war, Tranquility, the Dalish, the Qun… I’m not qualified enough to write proper discussions on these serious and interesting topics.

Instead, I’m armed with having read too many books and watched too many shows. So, what I can do is to look at characters within Dragon Age that I have an unhealthy obsession with, and try to make sense of their stories.

And guess who I’ve decided to start talking about first?

[source]

I’m gonna start off by mentioning that I haven’t done anything like this before. My only credentials are having been unhealthily obsessed with this game franchise for coming onto 9 years now, and owning The World of Thedas 2. Which I haven’t read in its entirety. (Bioware please… put your motherfucking lore in your games, im beggin…) But I have been researching a lot of things recently while planning a frankly quite complicated Dragon Age fic, and after reading a lot of very well written meta on tumblr, and also realizing I enjoy writing my own, I thought I’d take a stab at it myself.

One of the main things I’ve been researching is Josephine and her backstory. On a surface level, it is easy to love her. She’s kind and sweet and absolutely adorable. Her romance fuels my entire existence. She is my Wife and I love her character to the ends of the earth.

But as with a lot of the characters newly introduced in Inquisition, she suffers from a scattered plot, a very superficial stance in the political scheme of things (despite being the political ambassador of Inquisition??? hello???), and is often reduced to several one-dimensional tropes that grate on my nerves.

I’m not discrediting people who enjoy her character as it is. Hell, I spent years loving her story as it is. But I am doing this as an aspiring writer and lover of stories, and a lover of complex, nuanced characters. I see Josephine as a character, much like many others in Dragon Age, who has so much potential to be more. I also see her story in the base game as being quite solid in itself, but is presented in a very scattered, messy way, that you as a player character, might not understand the full impact of.

This series is going to be equal parts laying down the lore of Josephine and the Montilyet family, in a way that people can easily understand and build their own meta and headcanons off, and also for me to speculate and build on my own meta that I’ve been working on. I’m not sure how many parts it’s going to be, we’ll take things as they come.

If you’ve made it this far, kudos for listening to this dude ramble for a thousand words. The real shit comes in a bit. Hope you enjoy.

(Josie in this picture is so me coded when I’m ranting in my Word document so I had to leave this here.)

[disgruntledexplainer]

AI

i think a lot of people really misunderstand what the actual threat that "AI" poses is. AI is not going to try to wipe us out for any reason intrinsic to it, because AI is not capable of having intrinsic motivation (thankfully). rather, AI is a problem because it increases the power of those already powerful, and further marginalizes anyone who isn't powerful. In other words, the problem with AI isn't AI itself, the problem is those who use it, who are altogether too human.

Two major threats come to mind, both of them incredibly obvious when you think about it.

First, corporations will naturally favor any innovation which cuts costs or gives them an edge over their competition, regardless of the consequences to both their workers and their customers. Those in charge of the corporation will always seek to automate any part of the company that isn't them to cut costs, even if it is significantly less efficient or more infuriating to work with. This means that, as with the agricultural revolution and the various periods of automation during the industrial revolution, we are on the cusp of a massive loss of employment across all sectors as humans are replaced with machines.

however, this will be worse than previous periods, because while in previous centuries the removal of some jobs would introduce new jobs to replace them, such will likely not be the case for jobs replaced by AI. Further, certain occupations which we had assumed would be safe have turned out to not be safe from automation at all. Nobody seemed to care about how automation will destroy jobs until "AI art" became a thing, and do you know why? because everyone assumed that creative work was safe. and while algorithms cannot truly match an actual gifted artist in skill and creativity, it doesn't need to, because it's just more convenient, and much more cost-efficient to generate an image procedurally rather than commission it.

maybe next time the art community will take the threats posed to the working class by automation more seriously smh. But i guess it's too late now.

And when I say that corporations will replace humans regardless as to it's efficiency, I mean it. Have you noticed that almost no major company has an actually useful customer support system any more? it's all automated, and it's all useless. Some companies are flat out just not hiring humans for customer support any more, instead relying on a series of generic automated response trees that do nothing to solve the problem and just make the customer angry. What's to stop them from doing the same thing, but with everything from marketing to janitorial work?

AI will continue to replace jobs over and over again until the only jobs left will be the ones that are actually doing the replacement themselves. In other words, at a certain point we will reach a point where the only jobs are government jobs, high-level corporate jobs, and the engineers who are designing the AIs. And if any engineer is stupid enough to design an AI that can design other AIs, that job may be gone too.

the other major problem with AI is what happens when it gets into the hands of government agencies. Which it already has, to an extent. We have been using simple, dumb AI in drone targeting systems for quite awhile now. Despite the fact that it doesn't really work and gets civilians killed more often than not, governments still use this software because it doesn't put their own men at risk. Likewise, the government will almost certainly begin employing robotic soldiers as soon as they become available, even if they don't work very well, because it means they aren't putting their own people at risk. But often in war you need people to be there, in order to make judgement calls. What if a lazy commander tells the machines to "kill everyone in that bunker", but the bunker turns out to be a civilian residence and now dozens of civilians have been killed? The issue here is that AI WILL obey whoever orders it to do something, regardless as to if the order makes any sense or has been negated by unforeseen circumstances.

all this to say that if AI destroys civilization as we know it, it will be because humans told it to. in order to survive, we must restructure society, remove the focus from profit and place it on human dignity. We must deliberately employ people even if it would be cheaper not to do so, because not doing so will have horrific repercussions. Also because it's the right thing to do.

while we're at it, it would probably be best to decentralize government and corporations so they don't get the chance to do something like this. *cough distributism cough principle of subsidiarity cough*

[mwolf0epsilon]

The Umbaran Pathogen - Day 17: Hypothermia

Summary: Fives, Kix and Rex arrive at the medical facility first, which doesn't help them all that much considering they have no idea what they are looking for.

Warning: N/A

Prev / Next

[In which the events on Umbara are worsened by an unknown pathogen taking hold of both the 501st and 212th. These series of drabbles will follow a non-linear timeline based on the AI-less Whumptober prompt list for 2023.]

THIS STORY IS ALSO ON AO3

---

"It's freezing in here..." Rex hissed between chattering teeth, immediately regretting having taken off his bucket as soon as they entered the Umbaran medical facility.

The Captain was right too. The quick preliminary scans that Fives had done upon the trio sneaking in, revealed that the entire building was at almost sub-zero levels of cold. For what reason, he couldn't be sure, but it probably had something to do about storing bacterial culture samples or whatever the hell it was that natborn doctors did with the stuff they collected off their patients during tests.

He had already lived through a lifetime of medical tests performed by plenty of Long-Necks and Droids, that didn't particularly care about his or his vode's comfort during said procedures. He didn't really need to know what the nattie docs got up to outside of the war efforts.

"Put your helmet back on." Kix ordered as he uneasily looked around the hall they'd ended up in, after climbing out of the dusty ventilation system. "Your armor's thermal regulation system should keep you from freezing your shebs off."

"Tell me something I don't know..." The blond grumbled as he put his bucket back on, sighing in relief as the bitter cold was chased away in mere instants. "Much better... But moving on, we need to find a floor plan for this place..."

A wise idea, as they couldn't waste time running around blindly. If they got their hands on a map of the facility's various floors, they'd be able to find what they were looking for much faster, rather than risk getting lost in a maze of recovery areas, operation theaters, or even storage closets.

There was no telling how long they'd have before General Kenobi and the 212th could no longer stall for them, and with no word from Coric's group things were starting to look a little grim.

Getting to the facility itself had been a struggle. Between hiding from the Umbaran scouting parties, avoiding the aggressive wildlife, and keeping an eye out for the infected, the journey had been a constant uphill battle where they couldn't even resort to using their blasters. Unwilling to bring unwanted attention to their positions.

Given that they hadn't encountered the other medics, they assumed the others were struggling just as terribly. If not worse. They had no idea if they'd escaped from the base unscathed. For all they knew, Coric, Pitch, Twitch and Sponge had already been caught. Or worse...

And with only a vague idea that they needed to access a database to seek out some critical (but not very explicitly elaborated upon) information, the trio really wasn't all that prepared for this sort of excursion.

One medic would definitely not be enough, should they find a cure. That much they figured, considering the number of infected troopers in the 501st alone. Kix wouldn't be able to tackle the issue on his own.

"You think the others are ok?" Fives asked as he looked around, somewhat unsure if the way they'd chosen to go first would get them anywhere of use. He was walking slowly, steps as light as the bulk of his armor would allow, keeping an ear out for trouble.

"They're tough." Rex nodded slowly. Trying to be optimistic, considering he knew how frighteningly stubborn the medics could be, but still coming off as somewhat unsure in the end. The circumstances weren't easy ones after all. "They're probably just being careful, like we were..."

"Yeah... Yeah probably." The ARC nodded back, before motioning for the other two to stop near a corner where the hallway turned. He had a very quick look, and then gave them the all clear. Moving just a bit quicker now that he had a goal in sight.

Down the hall was a flight of emergency stairs. Besides it, attached to the wall as per standard safety regulations, was the digital emergency floor plan. The three rushed forward to have a look, barely containing their elation as they realized the interactive floor plan had pages that displayed the other floor layouts.

Thumbing through the available information, they saw exactly what they were looking for. The main datahub, which would contain all kinds of data-banks stock full of useful medical information.

"Basement floor." Fives groaned. "Of course the dang thing is in the creepy basement..."

"Not so much creepy, as probably absolutely frozen over..." Kix shook his head in disbelief. Sounding somewhat put-off at the possibility of facing even lower temperatures. "The entire basement of this huge building is dedicated to computers and the server banks. The amount of heat generated would need to be mitigated by considerably frigid mini-climate..."

"Kix, it's already pretty cold out here. I doubt the basement will be much worse..." Rex pointed out. "That said, if it IS worse, we should be as quick as possible. Even if our armor will protect us from the bitter cold, it won't do us any good if we stall and end up overworking the thermo regulation system. We'd freeze on the spot."

"Wouldn't want a case of frostbitten tootsies." Fives nodded, sounding morbidly amused at the idea. "Or hypothermia."

"If there ever was a place to catch your death, I suppose a hospital isn't the worst of options..." The medic responded with his own amusement.

They carried on, hoping their fellow troopers would meet with them soon. They could really use some help looking for the correct data at least... Hopefully the cause for their delay was indeed caution.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

What if the Tails Polycule managed to stop nine from enacting his plan at the end of the series and Nine joining the polycule.

Interesting...👀👀👀

Okay so, just to warn you before you begin reading, I have some things I need to unpack and talk about first before I can answer this question. With that, the post itself will probably be long, so I'm putting my answer/thoughts under the cut

ㅤ

So given that the au as it is doesn't stray too far from Sonic Prime canon, the "polycule" at that time would just Mangey and Sails (who wouldn't officially be together yet in the actual au) as Tails is where the rest of the og cast is.

To answer this ask, there are two things I need to tackle

Nine's plan at the end of Sonic Prime. What was that exactly?

How would the story of Sonic Prime need to change for there to be a focus on Mangey and Sails specifically "stopping" Nine? (As this au takes place post canon and is largely compliant with the og series before that point, more drastic divergences from canon are like a spin off concept for this au)

ㅤ

Starting with Nine's plan, I think there's an important distinction to make between "Nine's plan" and "how things became exacerbated by the war"

Nine's original plan as of Season 1 was to spend his time crafting the Grim into a home with Sonic. In episode 6 of that season, he expresses that he doesn't care about what's going on in the other shatterspaces like New Yoke. He says he wants to create a perfect world, but we see that he'd only ever wanted to exert control over the Grim (not New Yoke, not the whole shatterverse). Given that he never seeks out any other shards aside from the two he already had until after the chaos council captures him and a shard, and also given the speech he gave to Sonic in ep 6, Sonic was the last component to his plan. Had Sonic chosen to stay with him in Episode 6 in the Grim, the two (under his plan) would merely have used the two prism shards to shape the world into a home and live there alone together.

After being captured by the Chaos Council in Episode 6, Nine had to alter his plan. One of the main reasons he and Sonic had partnered up to gather the shards at this time was to keep them out of the hands of the Chaos Council. The Chaos Council having an ounce of shard energy and access to the whole shatterverse was a very dangerous prospect, and with all the ways they fucked up the shatterspaces and contributed to reality beginning to fall apart (after their portal stunt), the show shows us exactly what Sonic and Nine had to fear in regards to the Council having any shards (much less the completed prism). Now, as we can see from Nine's words during episode 7 to Sonic and during the season finale, he'd assumed that after getting all the shards, the two of them would return to the Grim to build their new world. I think it's safe to say Nine's plan by Season 2 was to gather all of the shards to keep them out of the Chaos Council's hands (and keep them from exerting control over the whole shatterverse), complete the prism so he could fix the damage to the shatterverse's reality, and then use prism energy so he and Sonic could continue the original plan of crafting their new world/home. The end goal is the same as the original plan, Nine is home and closed off from the rest of the shatterverse, and Sonic is there with him.

His plan changes again after the Season 2 finale. Remember that in that finale, Nine also feels as if it's Sonic who betrayed him. He thought Sonic was just using him as a replacement for Tails and just using him to get to the paradox prism, which he'd then use to try to bring back Green Hill and his original friends without any regard for how that would impact Nine's existence. For Nine this is a moment of finding out someone he cares deeply about wasn’t the kind of guy he thought he was, and perhaps never liked him exactly for who he was. The first thing Nine does after completing the prism is not to get ready to exert control over the shatterverse though. Instead, he builds himself a citadel to stay in with the prism, and he sets up a large force field immediately afterwards. The first thing he does is take the first step into turning the Grim into a home, and he puts up walls/sets up defenses so no one can intrude on it. The only thing that changes from his original plan is that he takes Sonic out of it. And his setting up of defenses immediately speaks to two things. The first is him literally walling himself off from anyone as a reaction to opening his heart up to one person (Sonic) only to get betrayed (from his pov), a physical representation of him closing his heart off again. The second is because he's not an idiot. He knows that even if he's the only one with a source of prism energy, Sonic could come after him and try to get the prism. After all, Sonic expressed that he and Shadow had their own plan for using it (one that could potentially result in his erasure). So immediately at the start of S3 after the S2 finale, Nine's plan is literally: "Secure my safety so no one can take the prism, create my home, fix the reality issues, live here alone."

His plan shifts again when the Grim starts to decay, to which he seems frustrated that this is happening, since he was sure the prism was completed (perhaps implying that he'd assumed the decay of reality would cease when the paradox prism was complete). A major shift in his plan has to occur here, as he can't have his home intact (much less keep his defenses up) if the entirety of reality shatters/collapses/what have you. And so Sonic re-enters the plan when Nine realizes how he can fix reality. Keep in mind, this is a moment where emotions are already high. The "betrayal" happened not too long ago, he doesn't feel great about Sonic, he was already afraid his world would be taken from him, and now he needs to fix reality as fast as possible so anything can continue to exist. So, here's his new plan by the end of episode 1 of season 3: capture sonic, drain Sonic's energy to fix reality and the Grim, use the paradox prism to keep up his force field, continue to use the prism to build his new world, be alone (aside from the robots he created as "friends"). At this point he is still not planning on exerting control over the shatterverse or messing with the other shatterspaces. He's sticking to his original plan and prioritizing his existence.

And then the plan from there undergoes impromptu changes as the situation in season 3 continues to worsen, which leads us into "how things became exacerbated by the war".

First, Shadow throws Sonic out of the Grim, so Nine takes the first step to extend his plan outside the Grim (Which, again, he hadn’t done since the s2 finale and hadn’t planned to do). Keeping himself in the safety of his defenses, he sends Alpha Grim Birdie and the Grim Birdies to retrieve Sonic. At this time it's worth mentioning that no one knows what Nine's actual plans are (the ones he's had the whole series), despite Nine telling them to Sonic's face in Episode 6 of the series, and Sonic won't figure out his plans until the series finale. So although Sonic spends season 3 not having given up on Nine's ability to change his mind, pretty much everyone is under the assumption that Nine is in it for the power to bend the shatterverse to his will (despite signs the audience can see that this is not the case). This is why Sonic himself refuses to give his energy to Nine, because he cannot trust blindly (or without a deal) that Nine will choose to preserve the other shatterspaces and won't put people in danger for his goals.

So, when Sonic escapes to New Yoke to get help, Nine has to extend his plan from the void (where there is no one else to bother with but Sonic) to New Yoke. Part of his goal is to drain Sonic's energy to restabilize the shattervserse, so naturally he extends his gaze there for the purpose of getting Sonic specifically. It's also telling here that when Nine first makes use of his giant floating head, he uses it to talk to Sonic alone and directly. When Sonic asks if Nine was causing all the destruction, Nine takes a shot at Sonic, saying that Sonic’s concern for the shatterspaces is odd considering he only seems to care about his own home. Then, he clarifies that the breaking down of the shatterspaces had already begun due to all that the chaos council had done. Essentially, everything was already breaking down, so he was merely sapping what energy he needed from the other shatterspaces to keep the Grim from collapsing (which, while the action proves he doesn't really care about others, it's worth mentioning that it shows off just how he's prioritizing his well-being and his literal home in the face of losing his entire existence, and also isn't a conscious choice to hurt people so much as a potential result. Which...still would happen without his interferance). So, Sonic expresses "You'll have to catch me first"

Of course, with Sonic choosing to run, Nine decides to flex his power. He doesn't give Sonic ultimatums, nor does the camera focus on people Sonic cares about so Nine can strategically offer up their lives in a deal/put them in danger. Up to this point in Episode 2, the only non robot entities we've seen in New Yoke are Sonic and Nine, so Nine specifically talks up his power and makes a show of it (messing with gravity) specifically so he can convince Sonic to surrender to him (to convince Sonic that he's too poweful to oppose, so he should give up soon). Nine is quite literally acting to mess with the other shatterspaces the bare minimum he feels like he needs to to keep his home intact and to capture Sonic for his plan.

But then, Nine's show of power happens to put an innocent bystander in visible danger.

(Yes. Nine makes this EXACT face in s3 e2 when he realizes that an innocent was caught during that show of power. He is surprised, here. Like he didn't expect it or didn't realize his deed would have hurt someone. And it is worth noting that while Nine is pretty much always fine keeping to himself and not bothering with other people's problems as long as he keeps himself isolated, he does have a reaction when he can see his actions potentially put a person in danger)

So, Nine realizes has to shift his plan (since he's accidentally involved others he can see), and Sonic saves that innocent. This is where Nine consciously decides to involve other people in his plan, and he only does this for a couple main reasons. The first is that he's already put someone in danger (and while trying to build up how powerful he is image wise he can't afford to look like he can't handle the power or that he did something accidentally) and knows that Sonic will try to save innocent people in front of him. The second is specifically because he can trust that Sonic is fast enough to save anyone here. Essentially, Nine's plan here is quite literally to either tire Sonic out or put enough people in danger that it convinces Sonic to give himself up for their sake. He is resting on the fact that Sonic will save them all, and the moment that he can't is the moment Sonic gives himself over. He does not have to deal with the moral dilemma of possibly harming an innocent person, because under this plan no innocents can possibly meet their doom. It is still all about getting Sonic by involving the outside world to the bare minimum to achieve this.

And this new plan fails to force Sonic to give up for the sake of the innocents because the other variants show up to help, meaning that Nine has to shift his plan once again. His hold over the prism energy also fails for a moment. So this does stop him from messing with gravity during this portion, but I should mention that once he regains control over the prism energy again, he never again tries that exact same stunt (messing with gravity and putting people in danger). Nine sends the Grim Birdies into New Yoke after Sonic specifically (to bring him back alive). Sonic flees into the city so as to not put others in danger, and, as commanded, the Grim Birdies go after Sonic specifically. They (and Nine by extension) do not go out of their way to attack or pursue anyone who is not Sonic.

But of course chasing Sonic down with Grim Birdies isn't working. He just keeps running and getting back up, so Nine flexes his power once more (with the intent on forcing Sonic to surrender). Nine commands Alpha Grim Birdie to go for the Yoke. Which, despite still not having commanded it to attack/seek anything other than Sonic, it is a clear signal from Nine. "Surrender, or everyone else is put in danger. Can you really save them all?" It does not matter if Nine is bluffing or not. But, Nine is still doing the bare minimum. After all, despite the threat, the moment Sonic reaches the Yoke, the Grim Birdies surround him (and target only him) once more. Nine employs more language, trying to make Sonic feel powerless and alone so he'll give in. He still is not involving others outside of Sonic if he isn't required to. Heck, the Grim Birdies still haven't even attacked anyone other than Sonic, despite the fact that other people have entered Nine's view.

And what happens when the chaos council enters the arena? The Grim Birdies all pause, and they look just as surprised at this turn of events as Sonic does. They don't go to immediately attack the council either. In fact, their first moves upon being blasted at by Dr. Don't are to defend themsleves, and it's a long period before they decide to fight the council. But, again, only because the council are fighting them. They're defending themselves so they can go back to retrieving Sonic. They aren't going out of their way to fight innocents. And while Dr. Deep so confidently states that New Yoke city will fall apart if they don’t stop Nine, it's still worth mentioning just how much Nine has avoided messing with anyone outside of Sonic, how he's still only been drawing as much power from the other shatterspaces required to keep his home from falling apart, and that everything is already falling apart without Nine's interference because of the Chaos Council.

And Nine's only interference here is to again use his words to try to convince Sonic to give up, that it's not worth him continuing to try to stop him. We know later in the series that Nine could have made a multitude of grim robots to overwhelm Sonic and everyone else, but he's still doing the bare minimum with 3 grim birdies. He doesn't even give commands to the birds to do anything other than what they're already doing, which is defending themselves so they can fulfill the command to go after Sonic.

And then, Nine loses control of the prism, visibly loses control over his image, and beholds the decay of his home once more as his protective wall flickers in and out of existence. His Grim Birdies are down, the situation is getting worse, and Sonic is in the middle of a large building. So, Nine shifts his plan once more, starting to get more desperate. He puts on a great image. For the first time, he purposely appears for the whole shatterspace to see, bringing dark storm clouds with him to bolster his image. And he strikes the Yoke with one great blast of lighting. But then, after the council makes it clear that they'll all be in great great danger if Nine strikes them with another blast (the building collapsing), Nine chooses instead to make a speech. Though we can see the storm clouds produce lighting (which pointedly doesn't strike anything in particular) he doesn't finish the job. He specifically announces that nothing will stop him from getting to Sonic, and he sends the repaired Grim Birdies after the Yoke (presumably to retrieve Sonic and only retrieve him). In fact, pointedly, despite having all the time in the world to charge up a devastating lighting strike, Nine waits with gritted teeth for his Birdies to infiltrate the Yoke to get Sonic, and he only releases another lightning strike (which isn't presented as a huge moment like before) upon the force field with intent to make an opening. He continues to only focus on Sonic, only put people as in danger (but not actually harmed) as needed to get to Sonic, and presents himself as a powerful being to intimidate everyone into giving up. And Nine desperately tries to take down that force field.

So, Nine is forced to switch plans again after the barrier is put up and it's clear that he can't pierce it. Now, the end of Episode 2 seems to imply that Nine's plan is to put the citizens of No Place in jeapoardy so Sonic will leave his precious dome to come save them, but this is not exactly the case. Nine does not actually intend on putting the No Place gang in danger and forcing Sonic to come to the decaying No Place to save them. As No Place and the Grim are decaying (again showing us why Nine would grow more desperate, towards the beginning of Season 3 Episode 3, he asks the Grim Birdies to bring the pirates in No Place to him. This scene presents it as Nine finally becoming desperate enough to outright use people as an ultimatum but as prisoners. He was never intending on attacking them in No Place to draw Sonic in. In other words, Nine's new plan to draw Sonic to him was to save the No Place citizens, bring them alive to the Grim, and for Nine to force Sonic to come to him to get them. Nine explicitly was going to save the pirates and use them just as much as needed to get Sonic.

And what does Nine do when Sonic and the others go to No Place while Nine is already intending on capturing the pirates alive?

He calls them fools. This was not the preferred turn of events I would say.

Of course, Sonic being there in No Place forces Nine to change his plans again. This is the first time during the whole season Nine has explicitly directed his Grim Birdies to attack innocents rather than either to attack Sonic or to make Sonic afraid that they would attack innocents. Nine was planning on saving them before, but now that his previous plans are dashed (and everything is rapidly decaying everywhere), he truly shows that he's willing to do anything to get to Sonic or to get Sonic to surrender.

Although, of course, once the pirates are "safely" inside the Kracken and Sonic is outside, the Grim Birdies go back to prime directive 1 of trying to get Sonic.

In any case, with desperation rising, Nine laser focuses in on getting Sonic no matter the cost. He literally announces that he won't let Sonic escape no matter what, because he needs him to "finish the Grim". Despite the fact that he's opened up his plans to purposesly put people in danger if it means getting Sonic (no matter the cost), he is still only focused on fixing reality and finishing his world. His plans may be shifting, but his original plan to finish the Grim still remains. As tensions rise, he still is only interacting with the other shatterspaces and messing with other people as needed to get Sonic specifically, and has not announced any plan to take the whole shatterverse for himself. Also, as we can see with the scene where Sonic almost falls off the Kracken, the Grim Birdies still take any chance they can (where Sonic is alone or vulnerable) to take him away rather than attack anyone else.

Nine would be forced to change his plan once more after Sonic and the rest escape from No Place, but it's actually Sonic who calls Nine to appear in New Yoke again. No Grim Birdies flying around, no storm clouds and lightning, no smiles and the maintaining of a huge powerful image. When Nine appears to Sonic, it's just Nine's giant head appearing where he can look Sonic eye to eye, and he accepts every condition Sonic throws at him without question. Because in the end, all he wants is to get Sonic and to live safely in his new home. He allows Sonic to come to him, in the safety of his dome, face to face (very very vulnerable for Nine at this moment), and he no longer focuses on the other shatterspaces or trying to purposely put other people in danger. To Nine in this moment, his plan has finally succeeded. He has Sonic, so he no longer has to concern himself with anything other than stabilizing the shatterverse and finishing his home.

Although he does stalls for time despite them pointedly being close to running out of it, trying to speak to Sonic more even after Sonic suggests they get this over with and Nine drain him.

In fact, Nine makes this explicitly clear. Once Sonic takes a second to ask how he knows he can trust Nine will keep his promise, Nine says he'll have the power to restore everything with Sonic’s energy, and that as long as everyone else leaves him alone, everyone else can have their "silly lives in their silly spaces". He has no reason, as long as they don't intrude on his home, to attack them or endanger their existences.

But then everyone else quite literally intrudes on Nine's space. They breach his protective walls in a moment of great vulnerability (emotional and literal) for Nine, and he begins to visibly start panicking.

And the situation gets exponentially worse from here. The fact that existence is collapsing and the Grim is tearing apart (with it eventually being all that's left of the shatterverse), added with the fact that both parties know there's very little time before everyone loses and existence as they know it is gone, tensions just grow worse and worse.

The war at the end of Sonic Prime is not a war about beating the bad guy to restore reality. It's a war about who gets to preserve their existence.

Sonic aside, the variants don't trust Nine. They have reason to fear that if Nine drains Sonic's energy, he'll use his power to retaliate against them all after fixing reality. I'm sure their best case scenario is that Nine torments them with the prism energy, and their worst case scenario is that Nine erases them, leaving only himself and the Grim in the entire shatterverse.

Likewise, Nine has no reason to trust them either. We can visibly see as tensions get worse over the war, just how willing multiple characters are to wail on Nine the moment they get a chance, who want to destroy him, who would enjoy a chance to torture him or "make him pay". And to Nine, on top of everything in existence rapidly collapsing, the entire war is happening in his safe space, behind the walls he tried to put up to keep everyone out, becoming smaller and smaller. As he becomes more and more cornered, how can Nine trust losing the war means his existence will be preserved either? At best, after restoring the shatterverse completely, the variants will likely imprison him and keep him from ever having the chance to really live again, much less in the home he desired from the beginning. At worst, they'll torture him to take out their anger (retributive justice) and/or erase his existence.

The ending of Sonic Prime does not present Nine's plan at its most pure, nor does it show his true colors. It presents a large portion of the cast at their worst, at their most angry or frustrated or afraid, with Nine and Sonic specifically being at their most exhausted. At some point it becomes a no holds barred battle to live, forgetting anything else but the desperation to survive.

And if Sonic hadn't intervened at the series finale, existence would have collapsed before anyone could have won. After all, by then, the only "existence" there was even was just a small patch of the Grim that contained the citadel and just a bit outside it. Sonic himself bids everyone to recognize it.

ㅤ

So, with all that being said, what's the tldr? What are the common threads? What is Nine's plan?

Nine's plan always involved creating a home for himself in The Grim, away from everyone else. Even as his plan changes and shifts, that he wants to live and to control only the Grim while everyone else lives as they are (leaving him alone) is a constant. The other common thread is that he only opens up his plans and lightens up on his morals in his desperation. At his most clear in the head, he doesn't like to put others in danger or to mess with other shatterspaces without reason. And multiple other characters are willing to give into their worst emotions and be just as desperate as Nine is when their very existence is at stake.

ㅤ

I think it's clear that in an au where Mangey and Sails wanted to stop Nine and save him, they wouldn't be wanting to stop his actual plan. Just like Sonic, if any of them knew his actual plan, they would take a different approach. They wouldn't want Nine to lose his home, and they'd want Nine to be able to have one for himself.

And this leads me to the second point I set out to tackle.

ㅤ

How would the story of Sonic Prime need to change for there to be a focus on Mangey and Sails specifically "stopping" Nine?

Okay, so for starters, the two would need to care about Nine. While Mangey and Sails aren't initially antagonistic towards Nine when they first see him in Prime S2, the fact that they don't really interact with him before S3 occurs is a big catalyst as to why there aren't mutual positive feelings to start out with. If they were neutral to him before, it's understandable why they'd dislike him during the events of S3.

For them to care about Nine, they'll most likely need to spend some time with him. We've seen with the other variants (especially the Roses), that prolonged contact with each other and the ability to interact in a more positive manner gives them the chance to care about each other, even if they had bad first impressions to start out with. Given that Sails and Mangey don't go outside of their shatterspaces before S3 and don't really meet each other, the best way to do this would have to have Nine meet them.

Perhaps the simplest way I'd achieve this within canon would be by making Nine have some misadventures in the shatterspaces, preferably after he leaves New Yoke for the first time. The idea is that instead of coming across the Grim first, he at least hits Boscage Maze and No Place before reaching it. Here, for some reason or another, Nine would be stuck for a period of time before he can exit the shatterspace, and would end up interacting with Mangey and Sails in particular on this journey. No matter the first impressions, the prolonged contact and chance to get to know and care about each other would serve to get Mangey and Sails to baseline see Nine as an acquaintance or friend.

But the real hurdle is Nine caring about them. Even if the two can interact with Nine in such a way where they like him to any extent, this doesn't guarantee that Nine will like them enough to deeply care about or trust them.

So, how do you make Nine care for someone's well-being in specific? Well, there really is only one example we can look to. While there are people that Nine are neutral to, and plenty of people he doesn't like as well, he's a pretty closed off guy. The only person that he's ever let into his heart is...

Sonic.

And Sonic is also the only person, even up til the series finale, who was willing to believe in Nine in any capacity, and who advocated for Nine to be able to live the life he wants alone.

So here's what it comes down to. Let's say that Mangey and Sails have spent enough time with Nine that they like him a lot and wouldn't easily believe that he's just some evil fox. Let's say Nine lets them into his heart.

Well, for Nine to be able to care that much about them, here's the main thing that have to change. Bonding moments would have to occur that would allow Nine to be willing to let them into his heart and willing to believe in them (as he did Sonic). And honestly, if this did happen before the ending of Season 1, I'd almost guarantee you that Nine would also ask the two of them to join them in the Grim as he did with Sonic. Nine wants to be alone in his new home save the only people he likes and trusts not to hurt him. But again keeping in mind that Sonic is the only person, even through to Season 3, who Nine can be vulnerable around, they would have to be on the same level of care he has for Sonic. He would have to be able to be vulnerable around them as well.

So, in the interest of not delving too deep into it, this is the concensus. For Mangey and Sails not simply just want to stop Nine's perceived plan to exert control over the shatterverse (not his actual plan to save his home for himself), but also want to save Nine, they have to interact with Nine more and grow to care about and trust him. For them to succeed in stopping the fighting, convince both parties to stop fighting, and save Nine from a terrible fate, they either need to replace Sonic's role, or to share Sonic's role in relation to Nine. While there's a chance of the variants listening to Mangey and Sails, especially if they put themselves physically in the way as Sonic did in the last episode and mandate it, Nine would not also listen to them the same as he eventually does for Sonic if he doesn't hold them in his heart the same/a similar way as he does Sonic.

ㅤ

So, finally, the original question. Apologies for taking so long to get here.

"What if the Tails polycule managed to stop Nine from enacting his plan at the end of the series and Nine joining the polycule."

Well, sadly I must admit that there aren't many options. Even if they managed to convince everyone (Nine and all the variants) to play nice early on, there are only two options going forward until everyone is able to replicate intershatterspace travel again.

Mangey and Sails choose to stay with Nine in the Grim (unlikely. Even if they care deeply for Nine, just as Sonic they already have homes and friends that they wouldn't just want to leave)

Mangey, Sails, and Nine bittersweetly part ways, each returning to their own shatterspace home of choice. (More likely. Again, like with Sonic, Nine wouldn't be able to expect them to leave their homes and friends to live in an empty world with just Nine)

In the end, no matter what, when the paradox prism is completed, reality restored, and the shatterspaces rebuilt, without shard energy, no one will be able to move between shatterspaces for a time.

Not all is lost though. If the three of them really did manage to build a polycule by then and Nine had spent sufficient time working on such a thing, I'd say that in such an au Nine could potentially craft communication devices that would allow them to talk or send messages despite being worlds apart. So, while bittersweet, in an au such as this, at least the three would be able to converse with each other despite being separated for a time.

And then, given this au of an au would inevitably go a similar route as the actual au, they would be able to meet again someday! I'm sure that in this au of an au it would be very heartfelt

[sparrow-in-boots]

this is my Bill Miles rant.

this is it. this is what you're about to read, yipee hurray! i'm about to rawdog this pustule of a man on a table, and i'm dissecting why he's such a tentative yet counterproductive evolutionary reaction to a shitty situation that ends up causing more problems than it fixes. yknow, like a pustule.

this is gonna be long and rough (honestly the innuendos just write themselves don't they), about 3.7k words long to be precise. this thing needed headings ffs. so take your time with it is what i’m saying xvx

also if you haven't already, I'd recommend checking out my previous Daniel and Lucy posts for further context as i'll bring back stuff from them in here. call it a series what the heck.

now, onto the Billiam

I could do a whole thing here where i explain and contextualize where he's coming from, and how the way he's worked for the brotherhood and later raised his son ultimately made sense from his point of view, etc etc. but i think we're all familiar with that exercise. 'Understandable' doesn't make it right or even smart, and anyone with some understanding of generational trauma and dealing with an emotionally stunted parent already knows the drill here. I'm not gonna break any new ground delving into it so i won't bother. We got bigger fish to fry here.

I will establish though, Bill is a man of action, few words and even fewer expression of emotions. I can draw a direct parallel to the Levantine brotherhood and their strict hierarchy and the ultimate authority of their grandmaster. Not mentor mind you, that's a title for later in the brotherhood's history. Al Mualim is the master, the leader, the head of the order, and his word is law and the tenets and maxim are sacred. If he tells you you should die for his will, then you will do it and gladly, because you're serving the brotherhood's higher purpose. I'm not here to argue the morals and ethics of that, just saying it like it is.

Bill may not be as strict as all that, in fact he's very much not and he couldn't if he tried (and i gotta say, i don't think he would try), but he certainly reflects that resolute certainty in the brotherhood's beliefs and what is needed to face their enemy. The templars are everywhere, they have their grasp in everything, and so you must be willing to give everything to push them back.

In his eyes, all the hardships that he put Desmond through in his youth were necessities. For the brotherhood, they are at war, and as such he saw it as an act of love and care to prepare Desmond for the worst. But he was so lost in a world of casualties and soldiers that he forgets all too often that people are, people.

Soldiers are human beings first and foremost, and to strip them of humanity may be argued as a necessity of war but it strips the brotherhood of its most fundamental goals. Human lives, human worth, humanity itself, are worth preserving and protecting in all its forms, that's the freedom they fight for. It's messy and complicated but it's beautiful and it's to be celebrated, not suppressed. To deny humanity for the sake of neat and clean order and hierarchy is what the templars want, and you can't fight that by becoming it. You fight it by opposing it. That's why Al Mualim turned, and that's why Altair had to kill him and rework the brotherhood from the ground up, even if he hadn't been twisted by the Apple. And that's why I wanna draw out the parallel between Al Mualim to Bill first.

BILL HAD A FARM EEAH EEAH YOH

In AC1 we're served a narrative that the templars and the brotherhood are not so different and they both want the same thing, "peace, in all things", but they have opposing views on how to achieve it and that's where their conflcit lies. Simple enough premise, and they do a pretty good job of showing how those two militaristic orders view the world and how to achieve their goals, and in what form those orders now exist in the modern world. Back then it made sense for the Farm to be an isolationist cult, it was a perfect mirror for the isolated Masyaf fortress and their secretive nature, but as the narrative developed in the next games, that contextualization just grew more and more flawed. The brotherhood had grown, branched out, coexisted in various time periods and cultural contexts, and it no longer made sense for them to be a remote cultish commune in the middle of nowhere.

Which leads me to believe that it was pretty much Bill's idea from the start. If you'll allow me to extrapolate some character beats, it's no secret that he's got a deep respect for the brotherhood, and I'd assume that includes Altair and Ezio given how their mentorship stirred the entire brotherhood into new eras. They are legendary figures in their history, they got statues of them in the brotherhood headquarters, it's really not subtle.

As such, one can see him trying his best to lean on their teachings, if not try to emulate them a bit. He's secretive, resolute, stubborn, all qualities we see of Altair and Ezio in the Animus and were likely exagerated over the centuries. In The Fall (comic), we see that the brotherhood had a whole secret library worth of knowledge before it was ransacked during the Great Purge, and it's not too far to assume that Bill spent some time digging through those archives in his youth. He was born in the brotherhood after all.

Grueling training, blind trust in your betters and the creed, secretiveness, emotional distance. All things we see in both the Farm and the Levantine brotherhood, a holdover from the smaller scope of AC1 that leads me to think this was a bit of Bill's bout of hero worshipping to maybe recreate the conditions that created the assassins of old. We don't know what the rest of the brotherhood thought of the Farm exactly, i can't find or recall any particular bit of lore that addresses it except from an outside perspective; all we get is Desmond's own comments on his experience based on his memories in ACR. Even when he speaks of it to others, they give no opinion of their own on the matter.

Bill might be so focused on the environment that created an assassin like Altair, that he forgets that the man then went over to rework the brotherhood to keep what happened to him from happening again. He fostered curiosity and understanding in his order, leading to many changes that carried on through the ages to the modern day. It was Altair learning to question and doubt his master, the man he'd follow blindly and without question once, that led to the survival and growth of the order. In fact, Altair puts his trust blindly in his assassins to protect him when he goes to confront Abbas, to keep him safe and help restore the order once again. Not the other way around. And when he saw that same curiosity and doubts in his son, he sought to stamp it out instead of seeing it for what it was.

Desmond left not just because he was terrified (his words not mine) of the training, the harshness, and the bland food. If we're being honest, he's found that in spades in the outside world too. No, he left because the Farm asked for blind trust and respect that was not shown to him in return. When he asked questions, they ignored or waved him away, and so as they dismissed his interest in truly understanding what was being taught, he gave them the same.

I'll give credit where it's due, he does apologize and offers a truce to Desmond. Grated, he doesn't get much of a chance to show how much he's changed exactly, especially in the minutiae of daily life with the team, and it's a rather wishy-washy apology overall. But it's something and more than most people get in real life. Desmond is gracious enough to take it and even does his best to give him a chance, which is more than most anyone would, and that says more about him than Bill.

Regardless, I want to chalk up this apology as rushed writing rather than Bill being actively manipulative by saying what Desmond would like to hear. I don't want to give the writers credit for writing some 4D chess mind game powers onto him. I'm not even a fan of the "two Bills on Lucy's emails" thing, that's just poor retcon to fit the "Lucy is a templar" plotline.

the tangent - YOU GOT MAIL

Speaking of, i wanna get into that for a moment. As far as i could dig up, we had no confirmation of why Lucy had to die besides fan theories, and then the ACR dlc dropped. It was further commented on AC3 and most importantly, several retcons that included Lucy being a sneaky templar were released in the Initiates web project. That included much of the Project Siren lore, reactions to her death among the templars, her leaving the memory core for Vidic's goons to find, and of course the retcon that she was in contact with two separate Williams. All this to say, we can't say for sure if the writers knew how they wanted to handle her cliffhanger death in ACB even when ACB itself came out. So this?

That was meant to be our introduction to Bill's character. Those are the words of a man who sent a 16yo girl into the world to fully fend for herself on her own against a corporation so powerful it's almost impossible to comprehend. And now that she's back among the community that dropped her into such a grueling situation, this is his reaction to her showing care and concern for another human being, who by the way is his own son?? Holding up all that she's suffered through over her head like compassion would invalidate all that?? I sincerely lack the words.

Well, actually Desmond said it best.

Right then, Bill really isn't better than them. He's just another cold calculating asshole who's so set on a nebulous future victory that he refuses to see the lives he's trampling on to get there. He's done it to Lucy, to Clay, to Desmond, and even to Shaun and Rebecca to an extent, and they are just the ones we know of. The Great Purge is no excuse for this behavior, that's not the time to grow apart, but closer and show sympathy and kindness to his fellow assassins. Some distant war general figure moving faceless pieces on the board is the last thing they want right then, or might even need.

We can see in this one email just how dire the situation is with how Rebecca even refuses to put a subject on the email. Opening up and being vulnerable is something to be done in quiet and secret, almost like it's a burden to show how much things are affecting you, and that's so messed up. Even in the army, you can see gallows humor and dark jokes to cope with the horrors soldiers go through, but we don't even get that amongst the team. When you approach Lucy as Desmond, it's often him showing her kindness and comfort and reassuring her through her doubts and fears, and she doesn't hesitate to share them with him and I think it has a lot to do with how they are both apart from Bill's influence. Lucy has her own cans of worms to deal with, but between her and Desmond, there's a measure of closeness and trust you don't see with the others.

I know, your boss is not exactly the person you might want to pour your heart out to, but come on! How powerful and rallying would it be to see your leader across the room and feel comfortable and safe enough to just sit together and talk?? It can't be overstated how much it matters that any movement that places itself against the current system must prove itself as... different from that system. It's the literal bare minimum here. If you say you care about humanity but you won't care for the humanity of your members, then... what are you even doing?

tangent done - BACK TO THE BIG PICTURE

I wanna take a quick step back for a bit. AC3 portrays Bill as a man who sees his actions as justified, who sees that his ends justify the means. It leads us down a doomed horseshoe theory that coupled with the deeply complicated historical time in the ancestral plotline, makes for a very murky and confusing narrative. The more you look at it, the less clear or discernible the themes get. It raises a lot of complex points but never closes or even shows where they are going with them.

Now, horseshoe theory is an erroneous concept that has been critiqued to hell and back, and to use it as a way to tie the modern and ancestral timelines in an attempt to create a "'we're all the same" theme is... the worst possible way to go about it. Doubly so when it’s often appropriated by right-wing pundits to vilify their political opponents. You can't make the protagonists ponder on how to hold hands and sing kumbaya with a death cult to avoid Armageddon while the writers are going "bUt ThEy ArE bAd ToO" because of one guy (who you're also attempting to redeem) who deems the inherent human need for connection as "being too weak". Even that is enough of a mess, but add to it the whole deconstruction of the war of independence and the sheer horror that the colonies were for the indigenous people back then and all the way up to this day... Where are the writers even going here??

We get more conversations about how allying with the templars is not a possibility than any proper address on Lucy or the entire situation that led to her turning, much less who's to blame, how can they avoid this in the future, how the protagonists even feel about all this. Just excuses for why it had to happen, there was no other way, let’s move along now, nothing to see here. In AC2 and ACB we got some neat and tidy convos that made sense to be bite-sized, concise little bits of characterization and presenting themes and concepts for the worldbuilding. But in AC3, we get convos that could have been entire cutscenes, whole dialogues amongst the characters to reckon with all that's been happening. Instead we waste cutscene time with fucking Juno and the Isu failed attempts that don't fucking matter to the story they should be focused on telling.

Which is why I want to talk about Haytham.

THE HUMAN PROBLEM

I bring him up because AC3 clearly wants to parallel his and Connor's relationship with Bill's and Desmond's. Which, personally i think it gives off the feeling that it's supposed to be a "hey it could be worse" at Desmond. I think we can agree that's a sucky attitude to have towards anyone who's suffered family trauma like Desmond did, and it also kind of diminishes the weight of the colonial era storyline. But since the game wants to talk about it, then let's talk about it.

Haytham is one more indoctrinated assassin-to-templar character, which is it's own mirror to Daniel and Lucy, but this is not about them. Haytham is cold, pragmatic, relentless and so calculating. He was warmer and kinder when he was younger, even a rather gray character, but all that is lost the longer he spends as the templar grandmaster. He did care for Connor in his own way and wanted to bring him to their side if only so that he wouldn't have to kill him, but if it came to it, he would have as we see in the game multiple times.

And as far as the game is concerned, that's also Bill. They are both two men who got worn down into their respective roles and lost sight of what's truly important. Except, we don't know that. We see it with Haytham plain as day in the prologue, but we don't know how Bill was in his younger years. We know about a few missions he took that involved the Animus project, but besides that we don't know what kind of man or even child he was. We don't even know what his dynamic with other people is, how he is with his wife, does he have family? Siblings, parents, cousins, anything? Does he even care? What about friends and colleagues? Hell, we don't even know what he's like in action, the Cairo mission happens off-screen and Desmond handles their escape with the Apple. All we see of him in AC3 is how he's an emotionally stunted bossy guy, and anything else is told, never shown.

Haytham however, gets a prologue and several missions in-game, and even a whole side novel from his point of view.

As such, I'm reluctant to extrapolate the kind of man Bill is based off of Haytham alone, because again they not only exist in very different times and contexts, but there's a severe imbalance in screentime. What I can do however, is compare their "ending" as it were.

Haytham dies by the hands of his own son. He had the chance to put his ego aside and listen to his son, maybe put his cards on the table and explain the misunderstanding about the attack on Connor's village, but he didn't. He decided to hold that information until it was the most convenient to him, and then try to use it to manipulate Connor into switching sides. He refused to put aside the grandmaster role and step up as a father, or even as a man who cared about someone else's feelings. Whatever his feelings for Ziio and his son, they came second to the templars and their goals, and that was his death sentence. To his dying breath, he held true to that mentality.

Bill however, despite apologizing, hasn't shown much of the work to change. He and the brotherhood remains stagnant and withering, and in the face of the person he's hurt the most and is still alive to make amends to, he remains distant and reticent. All the efforts to connect and deepen whatever there is between them needs to come from Desmond, and every attempt to reach out to the outside gets shut down. It's Desmond refusing to give up on him that saves his ass even! Given the state of their relationship, that fucking SUCKS.

It shouldn't be up to Desmond to fix what Bill wrecked back at the Farm, and portraying otherwise, like Desmond is the one who messed everything up, is ass backwards. The brotherhood and Bill should be bending into knots to convince him to stay and that things aren't as they were once, but Desmond decided to stay long before. Because one the templars suck, two Desmond got the proof he always had asked for as a child and three, Lucy showed him kindness and understanding. One might even go so far as to say that it was living Altair's own rebirth period is what reassured those questions he had and gave him true understanding, but Lucy gave him hope in a hopeless situation.

That's powerful not just as a narrative point but as a theme for the assassins as a whole. The games continue to portray the brotherhood as a beacon of hope against the oppression and tyranny of the templars (even for the modern days through the glyph puzzles in AC2 and ACB) but Bill, the face of the brotherhood as the de-facto mentor, is himself as a tyrant.

One would expect AC3 to show him either follow Haytham's fate or change himself to avoid it, but we're denied that kind of development. Even in the Initiates web project and subsequent games, Bill's change is kind of handwaved. He lost the will to fight and vanished but then he saw the desecration of his son he barely showed to give much of a shit for, and now he's back and Mentor again? He's awkward and trying to be approachable in Origins but he's still rather overconfident and posturing too much for his own good.

(I mean, sitting within range of Layla's blade before she's even out of the Animus? Bold fucker.)

If they truly wanted to grapple with Bill and his place and role in the story they spun us, which I assume they do since he's the one who does the intro to the AC3 game, then they should have DONE THAT. Make him face the consequences of his choices and actions, and make the team hold him responsible for it. Make him soften and change, not just give us a pitiable hug and a meek little "Son..." just before Desmond sacrifices himself. Seriously, what gives?

One of the biggest failures in AC3 is their horrid sense of narrative prioritizing with the modern timeline. They tried to close too many threads at once with not nearly enough screentime, and wasted time on needless fluff. But most importantly, I think that the games after ACB have a human problem, in that they refuse to acknowledge the humanity in the modern timeline.

Bill could have been an incredible display of change, that the templars aren't the superior mentality that can turn anyone who spends long enough around them like some brain-corroding virus. Show that the brotherhood still has a chance and that no one is above humbling themselves or beyond bettering themselves, and most of all that the brotherhood can indeed bring hope in a hopeless situation, and community and understanding can make a difference. And since they are so touchy about murder all of a sudden, also show that the assassins are capable of doing more than just killing people.

But we don’t. We don’t get any of that. We’re once again denied of any development that would make any kind of statement that would shift the status quo and make them pay attention to the modern timeline and what they’re doing with it. And worst of all, we're denied any development that would bring us closer emotionally to these characters and make us ponder our place in the world and in history. Cus god forbid the series that has “history as its playground” learn anything from it.

[misshoneyimhomeagain]

Chapter 14 - Part II

Summary: William and Julia, after months of nurturing a deep bond and close friendship, finally reignite their physical intimacy, sealing their renewed connection with a passionate encounter;

Tags; William NylanderxOfc; “We never go out of style”

Warnings;  18+ content; Oral sex (f and m reciveing); unprotected sex (p in v);

Author's Note: Although this chapter mostly contains smut, it marks the conclusion of the series; However, there might be additional follow-ups planned, delving into the aftermath, as I do have some ideas for what comes next; nontheless, as always, please enjoy ;) 

Word count: 4.3K

_

"The road that was broken, brought us together"

It was nothing short of perfection.

The ambiance. The companionship. Everything.

Fireworks were loud outside, while inside Julia and William found themselves in a tender moment, sharing romantic closeness after their very first New Year's kiss.

It embodied everything they'd built up for months; and finally, they were here - wholeheartedly cherishing each other and acknowledging what had been simmering beneath the surface.

However, despite the tender and affectionate moment, the New Year's party continued, and naturally, there was only one sure fire way this group knew how to celebrate best.

"Alright! Who's ready for some karaoke?" Mitch exclaimed, obviously eliciting enthusiastic applause from the team and their partners.

It had been one of the minor requests the girls had made when coordinating the event with the banquet team – a small stage for karaoke.

And amidst the buzzing excitement in the venue, Mitch was the first to take the stage. A lively rendition of ‘Wonderwall’ filled the air from the speakers, and the crowd eagerly joined in singing along – perhaps mostly to drown out Mitch's somewhat brassy voice. Nevertheless, it infused a great deal of joy and a festive atmosphere.

Shortly after, Auston made his entrance, passionately belting out his persistant favourite Queen song, swiftly followed by the duo's performance of "Living On a Prayer" by John Bon Jovi.

Amid chuckles and hearty laughter, Julia couldn't resist leaning into Charlie.

"I swear, there might be a murder tonight if they butcher any more iconic songs," she joked, trying to make herself heard over the loud music.

"Don't worry, I have a way to silence him," Charlie offered a playful wink, sporting a huge smirk, which made Julia burst into laughter.

"Charlie! Get down girl,” she teased her friend. “But shit, I hope the walls here are soundproofed, because this hotel is going to be echoing with a lot of sex tonight."

"Count yourself lucky that you and Willy have your own suite."

"Oh, I definitely am."

And just as the girls had recovered from their laughter and banter, their names were announced for the next song.

"What?" They both exclaimed in surprise.

"Come on, you didn't think you could escape without showcasing another one of your ABBA performances?" Auston cheekily shouted across the room.

The girls simply shook their heads, grinning, and made their way to the small stage.

Naturally, they had to put on a show. And as the music began and the lyrics flashed on the screen, there was no holding back.

My, my At Waterloo, Napoleon did surrender Oh, yeah And I have met my destiny in quite a similar way The history book on the shelf Is always repeating itself

The crowd erupted in cheers and joined in singing along enthusiastically.

Waterloo I was defeated, you won the war Waterloo Promise to love you forevermore Waterloo Couldn't escape if I wanted to Waterloo Knowing my fate is to be with you Wa-Wa-Wa-Wa-Waterloo Finally facing my Waterloo

William couldn’t help but smile as he watched his newfound love confidently singing her heart out alongside her friend in front of his team and closest friends.

The way she shone and sparkled like a star mesmerised him, reinforcing his belief that she could potentially be the one for him. Which was a feeling he never imagined he'd experience quite like this.

My, my I tried to hold you back, but you were stronger Oh, yeah And now it seems my only chance is giving up the fight And how could I ever refuse I feel like I win when I lose

Nobody had ever evoked the emotions she did in him; that was one thing he was certain of. He wasn't just deeply in love with her; she had also become his closest friend over time, which made her someone he could confide in, relax with, and be completely himself around. With Julia, he didn’t need to pretend or put on any facades, ever.

Waterloo I was defeated, you won the war Waterloo Promise to love you for ever more Waterloo Couldn't escape if I wanted to Waterloo Knowing my fate is to be with you Wa-Wa-Wa-Wa-Waterloo Finally facing my Waterloo

Applause filled the room as the girls stood proudly in their New Year's attire, delivering the final lyrics in perfect harmony. Nothing could have been more fitting to conclude the evening than a hearty song among friends.

And as Julia descended from the stage, she was greeted with a smug William on the other side of the room. However, just as she was about to wrap her arms around him, another Swedish voice interrupted. 

"Wow, JJ – you're getting quite good at that, huh?" Rasmus chimed in as he came to join them.

Julia couldn’t help but smile. "Well, I've been practising, just to impress you, Sandin," she chuckled in response, followed by teasing remarks from the rest of the Swedes.

"It’s good to see that you’re already embracing the Swedish culture," Calle added with a smile. “It might just be your near future.” 

"Easy lads, let’s just slow it down a tad,” she laughed. "I mean, I'm Danish, so I can't just go against my roots, right?" She flashed them all a sweet smile and a playful wink, earning great chuckles from them all. 

And amidst the friendly banter, William couldn’t help but add in his own remark. 

“Don’t’ worry guys, I think there's plenty of time to change her mind.” 

The banter carried on for a little longer while more players took turns on the stage, belting out their best renditions of classic karaoke hits.

However, as the room gradually began to clear out, William held onto Julia tightly, leaning in to softly whisper into her ear.

"So, want to get out of here?" he said in a rather seductive tone of voice, sending a shiver down her spine.

His warm breath against her delicate earlobe and his hand resting on her waist stirred a sense of eagerness within her, making her curious to discover what he had in mind. Lightly biting her lower lip, she glanced up at him and nodded gently.

"I've got a room," she smirked, satisfaction evident in her expression, and with that cue, he grabbed her hand tightly, swiftly leading her out of the hotel venue and towards the lift across the lobby.

As they pressed the round button, illuminating it, both waited with anticipation for the bell to ring. And William, gripping Julia's waist firmly, couldn't contain his excitement.

However, just as they stepped into the lift, about to embrace each other in another passionate kiss, more people entered, joining them for the upward journey. And Julia couldn't help but chuckle at the slight disappointment on William's face.

"Don't worry, just a few more minutes, love," she whispered as she nestled closer to him.

And with a smirk appearing on his lips, he leaned down to her ear once again.

"Baby, I've been waiting for four months already - can’t do much more.”

Another shiver coursed down Julia’s spine as impatience also began to build within her. It had been far too long since she'd been intimate with a man, but what made it better was that she was now with someone she truly desired.

Feeling a bit playful, she subtly slid her hand to lightly brush against the crotch of William’s dress trousers, only to be surprised by the larger bulge she encountered compared to how his suit typically fit in that area.

"So, I can tell," she whispered seductively. 

_

By the third ring of the bell, both of them released deep sighs as they promptly exited the lift and hurried down the hall towards Julia’s room. And with a click following the key card swipe, they entered the room and were immediately ensnared in a passionate kiss, shedding William’s blazer. 

Yet, in that brief moment, Julia sensed a hint of nervousness. For months, she and William had exchanged banter, jokes, flirtatious moments, and shared both soft and vulnerable times. And now here they were, back where it all began, engaged in an intimate kiss, on the verge of undressing each other and sharing their most private and intimate selves.

Sensing Julia’s slight hesitance, William tenderly ended the kiss and cradled her face in his hands, resting his forehead against hers.

"You alright?" he whispered, and she simply nodded.

Because there was really no doubt in her mind that this was what she desired. What she yearned for.

Breaking away for a brief moment, William gently took her hand and led her to stand in front of the bed.

In the soft glow of the dimmed room, he carefully gathered all her hair to one side before planting delicate kisses along the exposed skin of her neck. His soft, pouty lips against her, trailing over her neck, and further over her shoulder, where he with one finger, gently removed the fabric of her dress. 

Julia couldn't help but release soft moans, surrendering herself to his touch.

Mirroring his actions on the other side, he used his other hand to remove her dress from her remaining shoulder, still continuing to place delicate kisses as he let the black fabric cascade down and settle on her hips.

Then returning his lips to hers, he passionately engaged in a deep kiss, intertwining their tongues, sharing their breath. Meanwhile, his gentle fingers made their way to her back, swiftly unfastening the clasp of her strapless bra. And as the undergarment fell to the ground, exposing her bare breasts, his hands tenderly cupped them, offering a gentle massage while he continued to kiss her fervently.

Breaking the kiss, both panting for air, William couldn’t help but offer a faint smile as he softly whispered, “So fucking stunning.”

With a smile of her own, Julia released a light breath as he continued to massage her breasts, delicately pinching her nipple.

William’s lips departed from her neck, embarking on a journey downward. He traced a trail from her neck to her collarbone, gradually moving southwards to focus first on one breast and nipple, then bestowing gentle attention on the other.

Ensuring equal devotion to each, he then slowly traced his path down her body while kneeling, planting kisses along the way. His lips descended to her belly button, halting just before the fabric of her dress.

Sinking to his knees, he gazed up at her with a smug expression, while she bit her lip in anticipation.

Simultaneously, he delicately hooked his fingers on her dress, gradually pulling it down until it gathered by her heels, revealing her black, alluring thong. And after a brief pause, during which they shared an intimate moment, he tenderly kissed the thin fabric covering her heat, prompting a soft moan to escape her lips as her hands found their way into his hair.

Very gently he bit his teeth through the fabric, before his fingers once again found a hem, and pulling down her last piece of clothing, leaving her completely bare in front of him. While holding his hands onto her hips, William’s mouth found its way back to her core, and paid attention to her soft folds, licking her up between the lips before he began to gently suck on her pulsating clit. 

“Fuck, Willy,” Julia moaned, as the man kneeled in front of her, passionately sucked and licked her needy cunt. She couldn’t help but lean a little forward as deep breaths came from her mouth, her head completely hazed by pleasure. 

With a smirk William hummed into her core, earning yet another moan, as he could tell she’d shut her eyes closed, and her legs starting to tremble in his palms. Her grip on his hair signalled that she was getting close, and he had every intention of pushing her over the edge. 

And he didn’t need to do all that much.

“Willy I-“ she could barely finish the sentence, as the work of William’s mouth, finally send those intense vibrations through body, causing her muscles to tightened and her legs to lightly squirm under his touch, as she arched her body, threw her head back, and reached an intense orgasm. 

Offering a few gentle licks, he helped Julia through her rush.

And after placing a final delicate kiss on her centre, William, with a contented grin, stood up from his position and positioned himself in front of her. "You taste so good, baby," he murmured softly, before drawing her closer with a hand on her head, indulging her in a kiss that allowed her to taste her own juices.

As they parted from the kiss, Julia couldn't help but smile.

"It's not fair; I'm the only one undressed here," she whispered affectionately.

And with a smile appearing on his lips, William took a small step back and began to loosen his tie and unbutton his shirt. Simultaneously, Julia skilfully undid his belt and unzipped his trousers. She then delicately caressed his hard member through the fabric of his boxers, prompting a slight moan to escape from his lips.

Left only in his boxers, she fixed him with a penetrating gaze, casting a glance at his noticeable bulge before meeting his eyes again, sensually running her tongue over her lips. However, William simply shook his head faintly.

"I want to feel you around me," he murmured, running his fingers through her blonde hair, lightly caressing her soft cheek.

And with a gentle smile on her face, she opted instead to gracefully position herself on the bed, lying on her back while maintaining eye contact with William. Still wearing a smirk, he then knelt between her legs, delicately cradling one of her feet in his hands, skilfully removing her stiletto, and tenderly kissing her ankle before gently placing it down on the mattress. He then repeated the same gesture with her other foot and ankle.

His hands glided smoothly up her legs, past her thighs, with one hand gently caressing her tattoo, before, he positioned himself over her, assuming the missionary position. Leaning in for a kiss, he used his right hand to guide the tip of his throbbing cock to her entrance, initiating a gentle push into her warm, deep core. And as her walls enveloped his full length, both of them couldn't help but emit loud moans of pleasure.

And when he was balls deep inside her heat, William let out a light breath.

"Fuck... I forgot how tight you feel," he murmured softly, relishing the tightness around his cock.

Julia tenderly cupped his face, her fingers once again entwined in his hair, drawing him down for a passionate kiss.

William then slowly pulled out and pushed back in, gently rocking his hips to find a satisfying rhythm. Sensing him deeply within her, Julia raised her legs slightly, experiencing the tip of his member stimulating that highly sensitive spot, as her heels lightly pressing into his lower back.

The intensity of the moment was overwhelming, a mix of romance and sensuality.

It was like all the memories of their first night came flooding back, however, this time, it was much better. This time, it wasn’t just about the satisfaction of sex. This time, it was also about that intimate, vulnerable and shared connection they’d found between each other. 

With every thrust, every deep breath, every moan, and every kiss, it was sharing the deep feelings they both held inside of them. The love and care they had for each other, and the desire to be together for the future. 

William maintained a steady rhythm with his hips, that had them both feel the build up to their climaxes. His cock began to twitch within her, sensing her gentle clenching as she started to experience the familiar wave of pleasure building in her lower abdomen.

"Harder, Willy," Julia moaned, her fingers gripping his hair tighter, urging him on. Responding to her plea, William intensified his movements, strengthening every muscle in his arms, the pendant around his neck swinging against his chest. His thrusts grew more forceful, the sound of their skin meeting echoed in the room, accompanied by louder moans that filled the air, both hoping that there was no one in the neighbouring room. Because they were not holding back.

Then with his right hand, he moved it to rub her sensitive bud of nerves, helping her to reach that much needed climax, as he could feel himself coming closer to his own. 

Sweat glistering from his skin, as he increased his speed once more, and Julia’s hands moved to the back of his shoulders, uncontrollably digging her nails into his skin in mere pleasure.

“Yes, I’m gonna,” she moaned out louder than before, feeling the sense of rush flooding through her veins. “Willy, I’m gonna come.” 

“Fuck, baby come for me…” his hips slammed harder into her, passionately and roughly fucking her through her orgasm, as she tightly clenched his twitching cock. “Fuck baby! Yes!” William groaned as he withdrew his hand away from her clit, and grabbed onto the headboard of the bed, as he forcefully thrusted a few more times; and with loud grunt, he reached his orgasm, intensely releasing himself into her core, painting her walls white with his liquids. 

While panting, and trying their best to catch their breaths, they both slowly came down from their highs, and out of euphoria. Still remaining in the position, they shared smiles and light kisses, as they gathered strength to gently untangle from each other. With care, William pulled himself out of Julia, and came to rest next to her, propping an arm behind his head as he lay on his back. 

Their faces lit up with smiles as they gazed into the empty space of the room, then turned to each other, sharing light chuckles. Not because it was funny, but rather the sheer joy of having finally surrendered to their mutual desires and long-craved intimacy.

"Four months, huh... worth the wait," Julia quipped, breaking the silence, eliciting another chuckle from William.

"Maybe, but let's not wait that long for the next round," he remarked, his racing heartbeat gradually calming as his breathing returned to a steady rhythm.

"Agreed," Julia replied with a simple smile. She then shifted onto her side, resting her head on her arm and leaning in to plant a gentle kiss on William's lips.

Once again, they shared a tender moment, with William delicately caressing Julia's cheek while locking eyes with her.

The room was enveloped in silence, filled with the lingering scent of passionate lovemaking and sweaty bodies. Only the faint sounds from the hallway penetrated the air, as they both lay there, gazing intensely at each other. Several minutes passed before William then broke the comfortable silence.

“Why did we wait so long?” he timidly asked, prompting Julia to take in a deep breath before speaking softly. 

“Because we weren’t ready,” she offered him a sweet smile. “You weren’t considering a relationship, and I… was just a mess.”

William nodded gently feeling satisfied with her heartfelt, honest response, before he spoke again. 

"Want to join me for a shower?" he inquired with a faint smirk, and Julia merely responded with a sweet smile and a nod. 

“You just go ahead, I’ll join you in a minute,” she spoke with a timid voice, and after he placed a gentle kiss on her lips, William got up from the bed and made his way to the bathroom, while Julia lay still for a short moment, as she felt like she had to collect her thoughts. It had been much like their first night together, but just way better. 

They’d shared their mutual feelings, a New Year’s kiss, followed by a heated round of passionate sex filled with genuine intimacy and a deep connection. 

Letting out a satisfied sigh, she then rose from the sheets and walked to join William who was already enjoying the warmth if the water. 

Julia stood still for a moment, just taking in the man before her. His gorgeous muscular body, the hair covering his chest, as the water cascaded down his almost, slightly tanned skin. 

“Are you joining me, or just enjoying the view?” he chuckled as he saw Julia’s intense stare, prompting her to shake her head. 

“What wrong with enjoying the view?” she chuckled as she stepped in to join him under the warm water, standing closely to his body, as he wrapped his hands around her waist, and she rested hers on his chest. 

“There’s nothing wrong with it, but you’ll have plenty of chances to see this handsome body and face,” William smirked, cocking an eyebrow. 

"Is that so?" Julia chuckled in response. "Well, I do have four months of catching up to do."

She embraced his neck, leaning up on her toes to share another kiss before returning to her heels.

“Hm, that’s not entirely true - I believe I saw you ogling me a few times,” William teased. 

“Perhaps, but you did the same with me.”

“Oh, I definitely did.”

_

As the morning light filtered in, Julia stirred awake to the persistent ringing of her alarm. Suspecting William might forget to set his, she had set it herself before the champagne and countdown last night. 

And after taking a few moments to admire the naked figure beside her, she then quietly slipped out of bed and made her way to the bathroom for a quick refresh.

Knowing they had to check out of the hotel soon, most of the ladies were planning to have breakfast together – provided they could coax their partners out of bed.

However, like the ever-sleepy Swede he was, William seemed firmly lost in dreamland, and Julia couldn't help but stifle a light chuckle upon returning to the room. William lay half-covered by the sheets, with half of his bum peeking out, and so, she paused for a moment, taking in how the sport he played definitely helped sculpturing his physique.

"That ass," she thought, appreciating the view before gently made her way to the bed.

Seated beside him, she gently caressed the side of his face, eliciting a loud grunt as he shifted in his sleep, rolling onto his back, revealing a noticeable morning wood.

Julia couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the sight before her. Lightly biting her lip, she mused on the thoughts that often come to mind when one sees their attractive partner in such a state.

And so, she decided to give into temptations.

Placing herself with a knee on each side on his leg, she started to kiss up his inner thigh very gently stroking his member with her hand. Carefully, she then began to place small kiss on his swollen testicles offering firmer strokes. 

William started to shift in his sleep, small grunting noises escaping his lips, and Julia couldn’t help but smirk into his skin, as his leg started lightly trembling underneath her. 

With confident, she then slowly made her way further up, starting ti gently lick the tip of his cock prompting him to moan a little in his sleep. Yet, she could sense that he was slowly come awake by her touch, only urging her to continue. 

Gently, she wrapped her lips around his throbbing cock, and slowly she began to take him further in and down her throat, coating his length with saliva, as she moved her head up and down. 

William felt a deep sense of pleasure, as he slowly drifted out if his deep sleep, and arousal was filling his body, prompting him to open his eyes, blinking a few times. 

Looking slightly down his body, he saw the beautiful woman he’d fallen asleep next to during the night, seductively taking his cock into her mouth, while looking lustfully up at him. 

With a smirk adorning her face, Julia kept bopping her head, swallowing William’s length as much as she could while working the rest with her hand. The moans that escaped his sweet, pink lips, only urged her to keep going and speed up. 

“Yes, baby, keep going,” he managed to speak in between moans as he could feel a climax building up. 

Julia understood the message and increased the intensity of her work. Feeling his thigh muscles twitching, she knew it wouldn’t take much longer, and so she eagerly strived to give him what she thought he deserved the most right now, his release.

Bopping her head, a little more, feeling her saliva drooling down his length, she could feel his hips lightly moving along to her rhythm.  And with heavy breaths coming from the man above her, she tasted the sweet pre-cum before his moans became louder, forming into deep grunts, as came to his climax and spilled his seed deep down a throat. 

“Fuck….” William groaned, as he once again had reached a high accompanied by Julia and her skilfully mouth. “Shit, baby, that was amazing,” he breathed out, as Julia seductively licked her lips and came to rest on his chest, a satisfied smile creeping on to her lips. 

“You enjoyed that?” 

“Enjoyed it?” William chuckled. “I could fucking get used to being woken up like this.”

The two of them shared a hearty moment of laughter, as William slowly came down from his high, and looked a Julia with lovingly eyes. 

“Let’s just agree that it’s for special occasions,” she smiled, leaning up to place a gentle kiss on his lips, locking their eyes, as they melted into another soft moment of intimacy. 

“I’ll look forward to it,” he chuckled lightly.

A few seconds passed as they lay there feeling the rush of lust for each other, embracing the love between them, and sharing every intimate part of themselves. 

“Godt nytår, Willy.” (Happy New Year, Willy) Julia spoke in a soft tone of voice. 

“Gott nytt år, JJ.” (Happy New Year, JJ)

[the-s1lly-corner]

I wish to hear about the knd oc

>:3c

Give us the lore Silly!!!!

Sososo sorry for taking so long to get to this! Admittedly I was putting this off simply because theres so much lore! I'll be adding a cut to this because with me summarizing stuff, it's still a lot! I'll try to break it up in sections, since there are different.. chapters... for lack of a better word.. this ocs entire life is plotted out! From early childhood to present day when the show takes place! That's a lot of lore considering the character is well into adulthood by the time the main series happens!

Apologies if it's all over the place and some points are.. whack.. this is my first time putting everything into writing! I'll also need to talk about other ocs so this main one can make sense, mostly it'll be talking about their sector, in regards to other ocs! Also its 3am at the time of writing this + my stomach is being MEAN

With all that said, let's hope this doesnt turn into a novel!

Also also** lore may contradict what's in canon, maybe.. I'm not sure! I'm still not done reading the comics and I havent touched anything GKND so I'm unsure if theres any extra info that in unaware of that would complicate things

Feel free to send any questions about the oc!! Lore stuff, interactions with canon characters, ect!

cws: mentions of controlling/toxic parents but i dont go too in depth about it but just know that this is a part of her story. mentions of sexism as well, obligatory its there because "admin uses his ocs to process his experience with his gender as well as being afab and other stuff" but i dont go toooooo deep into it

Name; Rose Wood

Pronouns; she/her

Age; obviously since we're sliding around all over her time line I'll let you know based in the section... but shes in the same age group as Benedict and Monty

Appearance, present day; short, rocking a chubby mom bod! Red hair that's a little faded with a prominent streak of grey. Green eyes. Very curly and fluffy hair! Not sold on a length, but currently it's just last her shoulders! Often wears cardigans or sweaters, though I'm yet to make an "official" outfit for her... her default outfit! Short :( she stopped growing in her early/mid teens height wise, about 5'5

Appearance, KND era; assuming this is in the later half of her time as a KND operative shes tall by kid standards (assuming like. 4'6 is the average for girls as google is telling me). Lanky!! Very long hair, hair is more vibrant but that's really just a design choice rather than an in universe thing. Hair changes length, it starts at mid back but she cuts it to her jaw a few months before shes decommissioned. No default outfit but she swaps between her school uniform and baseball uniform (sports kid before her dad made her stop!!)

Personality; very sweet and kind, patient.. however shes no nonsense, though that develops slowly over time and really roots and shows itself in her young adult years. Lots of internalized feelings, as a child and teen, she feels she had to suck it up and put on a happy face because to do anything else would be "unbecoming", at least according to her parents. As an adult shes oblivious to the whole child vs adult war and doesnt realize how serious it is, shes just vibing

Occupations, past and current; knd operative (decommissioned), teacher (current)

Family; she doesnt talk to her parents all that much however she keeps in touch with her grandfather (very old, think 80s, rose was an oops baby + so was her dad LMAO), and 2 younger sisters. She does have other family members however they're not very fleshed out currently. She does have a son who is a teen by the time the main series takes place! Maybe I'll make a short follow up post on him!

Former Sector teammates, numbers and names; Numbuh 246 (Rose Wood), Numbuh 165 (Jamie Robinson), Numbuh 162 (Kimberly "Kimmy" Wilson), Numbuh 527 ("Sammy" Jones), Numbuh 129 (Davis Peterson) (the leader of the sector)

i'll probably make a separate post for her teammates, this post is already pretty long LMAO

KND days;

she joined within the very early days of the KND, after monty started it. i would go further and say shes a "first generation" knd operative, being there when they fought and overthrew grandfather. she didnt actually join a sector until the last year or two of her time as an operative, working solo prior on missions and helping built up the operation. thanks to her experience, she was sent to go basically work and "pass off her knowledge" before shes decommissioned.

a actually wrote in parallels between her sector and sector v for thematic reasons but i wont get into that here; but if i had to make a comparison shes like the numbuh 5 of the group. fairly level headed and in tune with whats going on as well as being able to step up when it counts to push through on a mission

"if she was sent to basically pass her experience, why wasnt she made the leader?". tight schedule on her part, parents cared a lot about keeping up appearances and they worked rose like a horse by having her sign up to a bunch of extra curriculars + her having her share of chores as well as her parents being strict. she just did not have a lot of time to spare. a lot of her ark is her slowly becoming more and more independent as time passes, but as of now shes pulling herself between being this model student to appease her parents and fighting for the knd's cause. ironic given the whole fighting against adult tyranny thing

there was some friction in the beginning when she first joined the sector, shes the second newest member the newest being 527 (Sammy). a lot of coming from 165 (Jamie), actually throws her failures in her face if they ever fumble a mission because of her whole history. they do eventually become buddies though, but its a slow burn!

she does get what she was sent to do done before she turns 13, her decommissioning is your standard decommissioning albeit with some pizzazz; she was a first gen operative but she was one of the last remaining ones at that time so its like. a whole chapter ending in their history with only a handful of others remaining. she doesnt get to be a secret operative

Teenager;

probably the most underdeveloped part of her story, i mostly focused on her childhood as well as the present day.. so this section and early adulthood is a little under baked. a lot of the themes as before are still here, overbearing and controlling strict parents completely dominate her time so she doesnt have much time to just. be. she does end up reconnecting with some of her old teammates, but theyre all of course decommissioned at this point in time. the only one who is still an operative is sammy, but thats due to them being so young in comparison to the rest of the sector and even then theyre at the end of their time as an operative. due to the whole "operatives arent to mess with the lives of ex operatives" rule thats mentioned, sammy doesnt interact much with rose or the others unless they approach them first.

main thing to note is that rose and davis have a short fling that quickly burns out due to teens being dumb: short explanation davis was insecure and jealous and rose did not want to deal with that on top of everything else going on with her. good for her for looking out for her health

she was not an evil teen, though, far too deep in her studies to really do anything rebellious as well as being afraid of falling behind and disappointing her parents

around this time, not long after her and davis break up her and her family moves out of town

Young adult;

she went NC with her parents not long after she turned 18, moving out soon after. she does keep in touch with her younger siblings, though. the breaking point was really her parents confirming that theyre disappointed with her existence. literally all but saying they wish they had a son instead of a daughter as a first born, lots of old values/views there that finally pushes rose over the edge. noting now that rose did have some feelings about her gender but never really explored it due to feeling the need to conform + this takes place pre 2000s so... but moving forward she does start to embrace herself and slowly take the time to get to know herself now that shes got the time and space to do so. i do like the idea of her experimenting between now and present day, and while she does eventually lean more towards presenting feminine there are instances where shes presenting more masc/feels more masc

while at college she meets someone, obligatory "i havent given him a name yet", they get together. everythings good, they have a kid. they break up. im still cooking up a reasoning for why they split but for now its just "they changed because they got married young, and now theyre older"

Present day;

a few years before the events of the show she moves back to town, i was going to say she moves in during the current events but i decided to be nice and give her a chance to get accustomed to being back in her hometown. i havent decided how it happens but she ends up getting in with the villains but like. not in the way that shes a villain too, in the "shes like the nice lady from down the street who makes some killer brownies so we all vibe with her". kind of just started as a joke that i turned into the canon for her because i can... kind of see that happening... this leads to her meeting benedict, blah blah she vaguely remembers him, they catch up and it leads to them getting together

i actually didnt originally ship them because "ooooooooouuugh father kinda...." actually it was because "the delightfuls need a decent parent figure because GOD!! i love father and my take on him does soften him a bit with time but GOOD LORD" and then it mixed with that and the "ooooooough hes kinda..." LMAO

not much to say other than shes the cool mom at the PTA meetings and just gets along with everyone, probably thinks the delightfuls and sector v are friends. which drives both of them up the wall they HATE it LMAO

Post series finale;

Dead/j

Okay well, that's just a concept. Admittedly I dont know what to do with her after the series finale takes place. Logically one can assume she just continues on with her day to day because shes not really involved in the fight against children, shes quite literally. Vibing and staying in her own lane asides from when she gets dragged into things by the people around her; even then shes still.. oblivious.. not much different than how Monty reacts to the knd stuff, when hes not recommissioned. Simply thinking it's this elaborate game of sorts, ESPECIALLY if she were to get dragged in through the delightfuls (who are. You know, effectively her step children thanks to her relationship with father)

[m1ckeyb3rry]

Hurricanes / Hummingbirds: X

Series Synopsis: As the years go by, you find that it is incredibly difficult to survive wars and fight storms, especially when the only thing you have by way of a cursed technique is the blessing of a tiny bird.

Chapter Synopsis: Kashimo takes you to meet a person that might be able to help you in your battle against Ten.

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Hajime Kashimo x Female Reader; slight Kento Nanami x Female Reader; slight Satoru Gojo × Female Reader

Chapter Word Count: 5.4k

Content Warnings: swearing, enemies/rivals to lovers, character death, canon-typical violence, angst, gore, original characters included

A/N: kashimo stans how are we doing...😔

You and Kashimo were exact opposites. He was the god of lightning. You were blessed by the hummingbird. There was no universe in which you and he could coexist. Perhaps this was where his drive came from, his natural determination to see the end of your existence: you were not meant to live at the same time. There could only be one of you, and yet for so many years it had been both of you, taking up space and jousting for dominance over a sky that hated you both equally.

The truth — and this was a secret that you had never told anyone — was that you wanted to fight him as badly as he wanted to fight you. It was the most thrilling, illicit thing you could imagine, your guiltiest pleasure, picturing a battle that you fought for no other reason than because you wanted to, a battle that you might not win, one where your life was truly on the line instead of a routine exorcism that meant nothing in the long run. It would be a break from the monotony of your life, and an escape from the crushing obligation of having to defeat Ten in exchange for the power the hummingbird had lent you. Maybe that was what you fantasized about the most; not the clash itself but the freedom that it would bring you.

At night, you had been dreaming of him. Hisashi could never know this, but ever since you had intruded upon Ten’s domain, your nightmares about your parents had vanished. Now, it was Kashimo you saw. The visions varied: sometimes, your sword would drive into his heart, his hot blood spurting out and covering you in red, and on other nights, his lightning would dance through your veins until you blacked out from the pain, the most sensation you had ever felt in your life. The commonality between the dreams was him, always him, only him. You could not close your eyes without seeing his cold expression, and after two weeks, you resolved to seek him out once more and demand him to leave your mind.

There were dark shadows under his eyes when you happened upon him, bruises like roses blooming on the face of the invincible man. Who could’ve caused such wounds? Was it your imagination, or had he been easier to find this time? As if he knew what you must be thinking, his fingers flitted to his face, tracing the outline of the purpling.

“I’ve come to see you,” you said finally, when it became clear that he was not going to say anything. He dug his nails into his skin, though lightly, not hard enough to draw blood.

“Have you, now?” he said. “I know you have not defeated Ten yet, so there must be some other motivation for you to be here. Is it to torture me?”

“It seems there is no need for my intervention in that regard,” you said. “Seeing as someone else has beat me to it.”

He raised his eyebrows, his hands falling to his sides again, his shoulders slumping. You had never seen him in such a way, his weapon-like body faded into a shadowed copy of itself, frail and trembling and easily breakable.

“No one else could ever beat you to it,” he said. “No one else could ever beat me.”

“But I have not even seen you in so long,” you said. “How, then, can you put this recent turn of events upon me?”

“I am sick,” he said.

“Is it a fever?” you said.

“No,” he said.

“Your stomach?” you said again, narrowing your eyes, trying to discern what ailment he had.

“It is not that,��� he said.

“Then a cough, perhaps?” you said.

“It is you,” he said.

“I am no disease,” you said.

“You might as well be,” he said icily. “I find no joy in anything but the thought of killing you. I want it more than I have ever wanted anything in my life. But — but what if it is not me? I cannot stop thinking about it. What if someone else does it first?”

He paused, looked up at the sky. The clouds covered the stars, and you frowned slightly. Perhaps it was strange, but you found you missed them. It was hard to believe that they were there when you could not so much as see them.

“I don’t want that,” he said. “I don’t want another person to be the one that gets that right. It should only be me.”

“No one will get that right,” you said carefully. “It will not be you, nor Ten, nor anyone else.”

He reached out for you, and to your surprise, you let him. His grip was strong enough to crush a weaker person’s wrists, but it did nothing to yours, despite his best efforts. You gazed at him steadily, waiting for him to speak.

“Draw your sword,” he said. “Please, draw your sword.”

“No,” you said.

“Kill me,” he insisted. “If I cannot kill you, then I want you to kill me. I want to know what it’s like to triumph — but if I cannot have that, then at least once I would like to lose.”

“I dream about it sometimes,” you said, then paused. “No. All of the time. I promise — I promise that in the end it will be us two. You will have to wait until such a time comes to pass, however.”

“Ten,” he said, dropping your wrists and exhaling. This time when he looked up at the sky you understood what he meant by it.

“I have challenged him,” you said. “It will not be long. Even now I can feel it, feel his restlessness, how he wonders if I will make good on my promise and kill him or not. He will come for me soon.”

“Then you will need a better weapon than that sword of yours,” he said.

“What do you mean?” you said.

“That Gojo clan trash,” he said, wrinkling his nose. “It’d snap in an instant if you put any actual amount of cursed energy into it. Most cursed tools aren’t strong enough to withstand the amount of power needed for sorcerers like us to go all out, the way you indubitably would need to against Ten. You should forge your own sword; it’s what I did with my staff to ensure that it could handle my lightning.”

“I haven’t the faintest clue how to forge a sword,” you said. The sword you currently used was one that Hisashi had gifted you, a plain, workmanlike tool that did what you needed it to do. Sometimes you dreamt of a blade more suited to you, one that shone with the power of the hummingbird, but for your current purposes, Hisashi’s sword served well enough.

“You needn’t forge it yourself,” he said. “Your purpose is to imbue your cursed technique into it as it is created.”

“You act like such things are commonplace. The forgers of cursed weapons have never been ubiquitous, and in recent times have grown rarer than ever — largely in part to people like you,” you said, to which Kashimo only smiled slightly.

“I suppose you believe the rumor that I murdered the man who made my staff so that no one could ever have a weapon equal to mine,” he said.

“It wouldn’t be out of character for you to do such a thing,” you said.

“Perhaps, but in truth I did not,” he said. “I left him alive in case I ever needed him again. What good fortune that I did, as that hour has finally come.”

“You don’t need him,” you pointed out. He actually laughed.

“Perhaps I don’t,” he said. “However, don’t you?”

“I suppose that is the case. How long will it take?” you said.

“Maybe months. Maybe Ten will not be patient for that long,” he said. “You ought to begin as soon as possible, lest you keep your lord waiting.”

“He is not my lord,” you said. “He is my parent’s killer. He is the one I was born to defeat.”

“Yet he rules over your life regardless, and so cannot be called anything but,” Kashimo said. It was that same wry humor that he employed whenever speaking of yours and Ten's eventual clash, that half-disdain, half-envy, as if he found your devotion ridiculous and, at the same time, wished you were that devoted to him instead.

“He is the lord of the sky,” you said. “If anything, he is your lord, o god of lightning.”

Kashimo’s face grew strangely pale, as if you had something particularly blasphemous, something that offended his sensibilities to the max. Well, to be fair, you certainly had — he was the independent deity who hated to think of anyone as above him, and yet here you were implying that he was nothing more than a pawn in Ten’s game.

“Never say such a thing again,” he said. “No matter who they are, I will never fall to my knees for another person.”

“Hm,” you said. “Maybe that’s true. Though it doesn’t matter; I know you hardly even believe in Ten. How could you kneel to something that does not exist?”

Kashimo frowned. “Of course I do not believe in him. But you do.”

“And so?” you said. He extended his hand, palm facing the moon. You stared at it for a moment before setting your own atop his, suppressing a flinch when sparks pinpricked your skin.

“And so he must definitely exist. Somewhere, somehow, he is real, or I will make him be so. This waiting, this torture you force upon me…if Ten does not exist, then it isn’t worth it. Then this entire charade is worthless on your part. Therefore, I have to have faith that he is an actual being,” he said. “Because you are many things, Y/N L/N, but I find that the one thing I cannot think of you is worthless.”

Then his fingers closed over yours and he took off at an impossible speed, one you could only hope to match with the Hummingbird’s Blessing active. But you did not even need to run, his hurtling momentum carrying you along behind him effortlessly, so that your feet were pushing at air instead of striking against the ground.

Almost as soon as it had begun, the breathless flight was over, Kashimo skidding to a stop in front of a large camphor tree. You slammed into his broad back, which he took no heed of, his glittering eyes trained on the camphor’s boughs, mouth tugging upwards into a smile.

“You can come out now,” he said. “I haven’t come to kill you. In fact, I’ve brought someone I need you to help.”

It was the kindest you’d ever heard him say anything — a request, not a demand. There was a shuffling sound and then a ripple in the air in front of us before a sharply-dressed, dark-haired man blinked into existence, scowling at Kashimo, who fairly beamed at him.

“Hajime Kashimo,” the man said. “To what do I owe the honor of the so-proclaimed god of lightning paying a visit to my humble abode?”

“I told you already. I have someone who needs your help,” he said.

“And since when has it been in your nature to try and help others?” the man said, arching a neat brow at Kashimo.

“It’s self-serving either way,” you interjected. “He only wants me to have a better weapon so that I may defeat Ten and then fight him. Don’t think that altruism is a virtue he’s suddenly gained.”

“Who might you be?” he said before pausing. “No, wait. If Hajime wants to fight you, then there’s only one person you can be: the Hummingbird.”

“At least, I am blessed by such a creature,” you said, as graciously as you could.

“Of course,” he said. “Y/N L/N. The sorcerer who’s received the Hummingbird’s Blessing. Ah, forgive me for my lack of manners; my name is Daisuke Hinode.”

“Daisuke Hinode!” you repeated in surprise, for the name was one you recognized. “You don’t mean to say you’re —”

“Yes,” he said, interrupting me before you could finish. “That Daisuke Hinode.”

Daisuke Hinode was a man that had been erased from the history books, or at least Kichiro Kamo had been doing his very best to ensure that that was the case. His sly technique and deadly weapons made him Kichiro’s bitterest rival, an enmity only matched by the one Kashimo held for you. But unlike you and Kashimo, there was no equality between Kichiro and Daisuke; in fact, in any match the two had, Daisuke would come out the winner. So, instead, Kichiro endeavored to destroy Daisuke in another way, the way that really mattered: from the memories of posterity.

How sad it was, you thought to yourself as you scrutinized Daisuke — who you found to have a sort of unassuming charm about him — that in a few decades, he would be forgotten completely. Would he ever have descendants? Would there ever be anyone else who carried on his name? And what of his technique, that secretive, elusive thing? Would it be lost to the ages?

“I hid him,” Kashimo said proudly. He was strange around Daisuke. Gentler. As if Daisuke was someone he could genuinely consider a friend instead of just another person he had to fight.

“He did not,” Daisuke said. “I hid myself with my technique. He just suggested a place that would work the best. Will you tell Kichiro Kamo?”

“I shan’t,” you said. “Not if you can help me the way Kashimo is convinced you can.”

Daisuke hummed. “I have no reason to trust you, you know.”

“Of course not,” you agreed readily, though you were altogether put out by the development. Your association with the Big Three Sorcerer Families was generally helpful due to the respect the clans commanded, but in times like this, it was actually a hindrance.

“Bar one,” he continued. “If Hajime brought you here…”

Kashimo himself shrugged. “Her trustworthiness was of little concern to me when I did so. She needs a sword, Daisuke.”

“A hummingbird’s sword,” Daisuke said. “I wonder what such a weapon could be called. It would be such a magnificent thing…and so I demand payment.”

“Payment!” you said. Kashimo snickered.

“Of course you do,” he said. “How do you aim to collect, Daisuke?”

“It is twofold,” Daisuke said, holding up two fingers. You frowned, wondering what absurd requests he would make of you.

“Go on,” you said warily.

“There is a girl,” he said. “The daughter of a prostitute and a European tradesman. We were friends in our youth, and I wish — I wish to meet her again. If you can find that girl and bring her to me, then I will consider the first request fulfilled.”

“Very well,” you said, though in truth such bastards were not exactly a rarity, and there was no guarantee that the girl whom Daisuke spoke of even remembered him. “And the second?”

“Aid Kichiro in his quest,” he said. “Erase me from the pages of history. Make it so that Hinode is a name no one knows of; I wish to vanish as verily as if I had used my technique.”

“Why is that?” you said. “Isn’t the aim of every man to be remembered?”

“Being remembered and being loved are not the same, Y/N L/N,” he said. “I would take the latter over the former any day. If Kichiro cannot wipe all evidence of my existence, he will surely slander me in every story that is told. I wish to spare my descendants the humiliation that bearing my name will hold if such an event is to occur, and so I repeat: make it so that I disappear, so that there was never a man named Daisuke Hinode. If you can do that, then I will give you a sword that can shatter the heavens.”

“Fine,” you said. “I will do my best.”

“I will help,” Kashimo said imperiously.

“What help would you be?” you said, raising a critical eyebrow at the warlike man, who you had never known to offer help to anyone. He shrugged as if it was something he did everyday, like he was a regular patron of the needy.

“Do you know the girl Daisuke speaks of?” he said. You scowled, because of course you did not, so you found that it was altogether rude of Kashimo to tease you for it.

“No,” you said.

“I do,” he said. “When we were young, the three of us…spent some time together.”

You realized you knew frighteningly little about him. You supposed he was aware of that, which was why he was dangling the information in front of you, frustratingly out of your grasp but close enough that you kept reaching for it like a fool.

“Well, won’t Daisuke tell me who she is?” you said.

“No, he wouldn’t,” Kashimo said. “What sort of payment would it be if there is no difficulty to it? And you have been blessed by the Hummingbird, so if you know her identity, it would be so easy for you to find her that Daisuke could never feel sufficiently reimbursed.”

“Wouldn’t it be the same if you tell me who she is?” you pointed out.

“As if I would just tell you!” Kashimo said, like that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. You pouted, though it was a childish gesture. You had been hoping he would just tell you who she was, so that you could get it out of the way, obtain your sword, and then get your fight with Ten over and done with.

“You’re right,” Daisuke said. “I was actually planning on telling her, but if she is as strong as the rumors say, then it wouldn’t make sense. Surely she can figure it out with her supposed power!”

“Kashimo,” you hissed. “If I did not know that threatening to murder you would only excite you further, I would do so right now.”

“I promise I won’t even try to fight you until Daisuke has forged your sword,” he said, every word sparkling with the utmost of sincerity, ignoring your threat completely. You snorted.

“We already agreed that we would not fight until I defeat Ten, or have you forgotten already?” you said. He opened his mouth and then closed it, repeating the process a few times before exhaling in defeat.

“I suppose that that’s true,” he said.

“So it’s not some great concession the way you’re making it out to be,” you said. “In fact, this is all for your benefit. The sooner I can get my sword and defeat Ten, the sooner I can fight you. Don’t act as if you’re going out of your way to aid me.”

You had figured out during the course of the conversation Kashimo’s true motives in wanting to help you find the woman. There was no affection nor empathy in it; it was the same reason he had taken you to meet Daisuke in the first place. He wanted to fight you. He would do anything to fight you. But before you would fight him, you had to defeat Ten, which meant that for the moment, you both were temporarily aligned in your goals.

The only thing that you couldn’t understand was why he wouldn’t tell you who the girl was, but you decided to attribute this to a mischievous streak you had not known about until now.

“Whether or not it’s a concession on my part, the fact remains that you need my help if you want a sword from Daisuke. Unless you feel confident about your current weapon of choice?” he said, nodding at the sheathed sword which hung from your hip.

“Fine,” you said, though you were loath to do so and knew Hisashi, if he ever heard of it, would be furious. “Then we shall help each other.”

“How will you help me?” he said.

“I will forge the sword,” you said. “And I will defeat Ten. Then, I will defeat you.”

“You are a vain woman, to think yourself capable of defeating our very own god of lightning,” Daisuke said, before squinting and looking at you. “Well. Maybe not. I wish you luck, Hummingbird.”

With that, he turned and walked into a ripple, which formed in the air like it was fabric. In an instant, he was gone, a phantom that left behind nothing but a soft wind whistling through the branches of the camphor tree.

It took an entire day for you to gather the courage to tell Hisashi your plans. Even then, it was a doctored version, with Kashimo’s and Daisuke’s involvements edited entirely out of your recounting.

You pretended like the woman was someone who knew a sword forger — naturally, this was true, but that was not exactly why you were seeking her out — and could point you in their direction so that you could have a suitable cursed tool to face off against Ten. You thought that he might be averse to it and ask you to instead continue using his sword, but he did no such thing. He only nodded and agreed that it would be best for you to have something that you could use to channel your cursed technique, and that was the end of it.

“I am surprised the white-haired one did not come with you,” Kashimo observed when you reined your horse to a stop by where he leaned against a fencepost. You bristled at the insult to Hisashi, though it was barely even an insult.

“He would’ve,” you said. “If I had asked. He would go anywhere if I asked.”

Kashimo considered this before untying his own horse and swinging atop its back, kicking it forward and gesturing for you to follow him. You did so reluctantly, though every step the mare took away from your home with Hisashi felt like a betrayal to the man you were meant to marry.

“He wants your technique,” he said.

“His father coveted it, yes,” you said. You knew the reason why you had been engaged to Hisashi: the power of the Hummingbird, which the Gojo clan believed could smooth over the Six Eyes’ disappearance in recent years.

“How long have you known him?” Kashimo said. It was idle small talk, but there was a deeper purpose. In asking these questions, he was learning you in a way that you could never learn him. Perhaps it should’ve been a frightening proposition, the thought of Kashimo knowing you so intrinsically, but you found it to be more soothing than anything.

“Since I was a child,” you said. “Very young. I was promised to him the night that my parents were killed, right before the man with the stitch-scarred forehead came to meet me.”

For a little girl, the kind prone to romantic flights of fancy, a boy such as Hisashi Gojo was akin to a dream come true. The heir to a clan and possessing lovely, fine features, you had believed him to be a hero come to sweep you off of your feet.

Of course, such heroes did not exist, and so the early years of your engagement were devoid of much happiness. Hisashi did not hate you, but neither did he love you; he was a boy three years your elder, and so for the most part he thought of you as a child come to bother him, following behind him when he would rather be playing with Kichiro and Naoki.

When you two grew to be teenagers, he began to tease you incessantly, and so the roles were reversed in that you were the one frequently irritated by his presence. Naturally you did not realize that he was doing this because he had, in some way, grown to be fond of you, but that was the truth of it. He was becoming a man, and you a woman, and unlike you he was at the same time growing aware of this development. You believe it made him uncomfortable, the entire concept of the girl he had once known wearing the pretty face of an unrecognizable stranger, and so he lashed out at you in the only way he knew how.

He was never cruel. Hisashi at his heart has always been gentle, and even at his worst he didn’t know how to hurt you. You always thought his father might detest him for it, at least a little, that in such a violent existence he was still kind, but even if that was the case, it did not stop him from his softness. Maybe it was his own form of rebellion against the world.

You kissed Hisashi for the first time when you were —

“Alright, that’s enough,” Kashimo said. You snickered at his disgruntled expression, which he took no heed of. “I don’t need to hear about that part.”

“You asked,” you said.

“I distinctly did not,” he said haughtily. “It was a question that did not necessitate an entire story being told to explain its answer.”

“What else do we fill the time with?” you said. “Unless you’d like to tell me about your life.”

“No,” he said. An awkward silence stretched over the two of you. You gave Kashimo a telling look, and he frowned. “Fine. Tell me another story from your life. But — but not one with Hisashi Gojo in it. I care little for him and his gentleness.”

“Certainly, you only respect strength, so the value of a kind person would be lost on you,” you said. “Alright, what if I tell you about the man with the stitches on his forehead?”

Kashimo hummed contemplatively. “Fine.”

The night your parents died was the same night you met that man, the one who would define your existence forevermore. He had no great demands; indeed, he was overly generous to the point of suspicion. When you asked him the reason for his kindness, he told you that it was because your father had offered him something in return, made a Binding Vow to ensure your protection. And what authority did you have to question him? You were alone. Your parents had left you and you did not know where they had gone or why they had done it.

He was a handsome person, with an angular face and dark hair tied neatly back, as was customary for the time. The single blemish on what was an otherwise artistically perfect image was the row of stitches engraved into his forehead, standing out angry and red against the pale skin. You remembered this the best about him; even so many years later, when the shade of his eyes and the pursing of his lips had faded into the recesses of your memory, the stitches stood out as clearly as they had on the day you had met him.

That man — and he refused to tell you his name, claimed ‘names had power for creatures such as hummingbirds’ — was the one who gave you the book Tales of the Hummingbird. He also told you what it meant for you to be blessed in the way that you were.

The eternal conflict with the lord of the sky. He was the one who told you about it, who told you about Ten. Perhaps if it had not been for him, you never would’ve known that you had to fight that great being. Well, that’s likely not true; if you were born to do it, then you would’ve found out eventually regardless. The man only sped along the process, made it so that you knew your life’s purpose from the moment you could think deeply enough about your existence to begin wondering what it might be.

You asked him what your father’s Binding Vow had been, but he never told you. He only patted his lap, bade you to sit upon it and then stroked your hair as he spoke. You remembered that there was a warmth lacking from the gesture, though this could be put down to your fascination with the grotesque appearance of his brow leading to a lack of appreciation for the comfort you were sure he was trying to provide you.

He told you that the day would come when you, too, would make a Binding Vow with him. You said you would not, that you were not in the business of making Binding Vows with just about anyone, but he only chuckled and told you that things would change in the future and one day you’d beg him to do it, beg him to give you the chance to get what you most terribly wanted.

Even now you didn’t understand what he meant by that — after all, how could a Binding Vow with a mere man grant your deepest wishes? The only theory you had ever come up with was that somehow the nature of his technique was as such, but it felt a flimsy explanation.

When you asked Hisashi and Kichiro and even Naoki if they knew the man of whom you spoke, they shook their heads and told you that they had never seen a person like that. So he remained a mystery, one you never again encountered but thought of frequently.

“That was a little anticlimactic,” Kashimo said.

“Whatever do you mean?” you said. He shrugged, reaching up to hold a tree branch out of his way and then letting go so that it sprung back and would’ve slammed into your face if you had not ducked in time.

“So a man made a vow with your father and gave you a book. I don’t understand why you’re so impressed by that. If I give you a book, will you think of me frequently?” he said. You rolled your eyes.

“No,” you said. “And you cannot make a vow with my father, as he is dead, so think of some other way to occupy my mind.”

“Really, though, he was probably just some relative of yours or another that took the chance to mold you into the perfect, powerful little sorcerer that would do as he asked in the wake of your parents’ death. He was probably lying about all of it,” Kashimo, ever the practical one, said. You let out a heavy exhale.

“It’s possible. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that there was something odd about the entire situation,” you said. “After all, why did he have that book? Until that point, it was not even certain if I had a cursed technique or not.”

“If you look for fantastical explanations, then they will manifest. Conversely, if you look for the reasonable methods, then they will surely make themselves apparent,” he said.

“That’s true,” you said hesitantly. Kashimo blew out a huff of air.

“You tell boring stories. I suppose that’s that, then; I’ll have to tell you one about myself,” he said.

“Will you, now? Which one?” you said. There was so little you knew about Kashimo that you could not help how his statement piqued your interest. He grinned, a smug, self-satisfied expression that was so at home on his face it was a wonder he did not wear it more often.

“I’m sure there is much you’d like to know, and before I kill you, I will tell you it all and tell you it well, but in the meantime, we should begin with a more innocuous story,” he began.

“Get to the point, Kashimo,” you said. “What are you going to tell me?”

“You won’t indulge my theatrical desires when I am going so far out of my way to help you? Cruel woman that you are, I guess it isn’t too much out of character for you to do such a thing,” he said.

“As I said earlier, you are not going out of your way. You all but forced your way into helping me, when I would’ve been able to find this woman perfectly easily without your interference and your egging on of Daisuke,” you said.

“Well, you wouldn’t have even found Daisuke without me…but that’s beside the point!” He hastily cut himself off when he saw you open your mouth to argue. “The story I’m going to tell you is actually related to both the woman and Daisuke. In fact, it is the story of my childhood and how it is that an orphan, one who was born with nothing to his name, came to be known as the god of lightning, making up for his lack of blessings by becoming a deity in his own right.”