#we are going to quietly not examine what kind of fucked up relationship dynamic WE must have

[echthr0s]

ok wait no there really is a Ny'arlat situation in every universe, no matter whether the guy itself is there or not. Razikale, known engineer of they who would become Qunari, makes a weird lil Blight-spreading demi-dragon using the genetic blueprints of its dead priest to see what will happen. Emet-Selch spends 10 millennia repeatedly recreating his lost love using funky aetherology, unethical biomechanics, and whatever else he can co-opt from the civilisations of the mon-keigh flawed shards of the old world, mostly out of unending and primal-enhanced grief but a little bit out of mad curiosity. someone is always doing real fucked up eldritch science offscreen and tossing overpowered anime creations into my universes.

maybe those fucked-up mad wizard-scientists are Ny'arlat's avatars

[taetaespeaches]

“I broke your nose, and I’m sorry for that, but what you’re doing isn’t fair”

Seokjin x Reader (or oc)

Word count: 1,805

I found this prompt a while ago and thought it would be a fun concept for our Seokjinnie. 

 You swatted your best friend’s eager hand from the takeout bag you had just set on the counter. “It’s not for you.” Jin looked at you in shock, eyes big. “It’s for Guk.”

“Ah, I can’t believe you right now,” Jin said shaking his head. You had just arrived at the boys’ dorm, bringing food for Jeongguk from his favorite restaurant.

“How could you do this to me? I’m supposed to be your best friend, yet you bring JK food and nothing for me?” He put his hand on his hip as he shot you a glare, pursing his pillow lips. Those lips. You can’t count the number of times you have wanted halt his rants and sassy remarks by engulfing those lips with yours.

“Oh shush, I get you food all the time,” you told him, mimicking his pose as you placed your hand on your hip. “Also, what kind of greeting is this? A hello would be nice. Maybe an ‘I missed you’.”

“Hello, Love, I missed you,” he said sincerely.

“I missed you too,” you cocked your head adoringly before switching gears. “Now what is this I hear that you refused to cook for Kookie? What makes you think you deserve food when you’re starving your poor maknae?”

Jin rolled his eyes. “Oh, so now you’re starving me because I wouldn’t cook for him?”

You stepped closer to him, leaning against the counter, crossing your arms over your chest. “Why won’t you feed the poor boy?” His eyes met yours, only to find a devious glint in them. His lips curved into a smirk.

You and Jin had a very playful relationship. You spent countless hours bickering with each other, but it was always lighthearted and fun. Everything about your relationship was lively yet comfortable.

There was also a lot of attraction between the both of you that neither of you were brave enough to act on. Everyone, including you two, knew you weren’t “just friends”, despite you both hiding behind that label for the past year. However, you two had been inseparable over the last two weeks, finding it more and more difficult to keep up the “just friends” act.

You both wanted each other, and you were waiting to see which one of you would finally step up and make the move that would change the dynamic of your relationship forever.  

Jin’s eyes fell from yours, drifting down your body, observing your stature. As he took in your appearance, his eyes suddenly widened, realizing you were wearing his shirt. It wasn’t uncommon for you to wear his clothing, but it still affected him every time you did.

“That’s my shirt,” he deadpanned.

“It is,” you responded with a grin.

He shook his head slowly while smirking. He stepped towards you, leaving just a small gap between you as he reached out to grip the shirt between his fingers. “You’ll be the death of me, y/n.” Your eyes found his lips.

“I really did miss you,” he said as he tugged on the material of the shirt, pulling you towards him.

Just as your body started to fall into him, a loud yell sounded from behind Jin, causing him to yelp and fling his arms up dramatically before curling into himself out of fear.

Suddenly, you were groaning in pain, crouching over, as your hands shot up to cradle your nose. You heard a brief giggle from the source of the yell, followed by an, “Oh, shit”.  Jeongguk’s face was ridden with instant guilt, as his plan to scare Jin totally derailed.  

Jin’s eyes grew three sizes larger as panic set in. Panic over the fact that he just hit you. He hurt you, his favorite person.

He quickly made his way to you, placing his left hand to the small of your back as he bent over to peer at your face. You looked toward him, allowing him to see the blood running over your hands.

The panic and guilt led to him to ramble.

“Shit, y/n, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you, I would never hurt you on purpose, are you ok? Fuck, of course you’re not ok, you’re bleeding, we should go to the hospital, right? Let me take you to the hospital, right, we should go to the hospital?” He looked from you to Jeongguk, waiting for someone to say something.

“Of course she needs to go to the hospital!” Jeongguk yelled as he looked at you before wincing.

. . . . . . .

Jeongguk was sat in a chair next to you, staring at your swollen nose as he shook his head. Jin was stood in the corner, his gaze never leaving you. You were sat on the medical table, looking around the room, glancing at Jin occasionally. The air was thick with guilt and tension as you waited for the doctor to come back to finish treating you.

“I’m really sorry, y/n,” Jeongguk broke the silence, causing your eyes to meet his. You looked at him softly.

“Kookie, why are you sorry? You have no reason to apologize,” You said sincerely.

He looked down at his feet as he tapped his fingers lightly against his knee.

“Of course he should be sorry,” Jin mumbled under his breath as he observed your interaction with the younger man. You shot him a glare.

“I’m the one that scared Jin-hyung,” Jeongguk said quietly, guilt lacing his tone, bringing your attention back to him. “This is all my fault.” You leaned forward, placing your hand on top of his, halting his nervous tapping.

“It was an accident, Guk. Stop worrying. Besides, it was Jin that smacked me in the face, not you,” you said with a small smile and a light chuckle. “It’s not your fault he overreacts,” you tease. Jeongguk looked up to see your smirk and let out a giggle. You both peered over to where Jin stood, who was now glaring at the both of you.

Sensing the frustration coming from the older man, Jeongguk looked back to you and smiled before excusing himself to grab a drink from the vending machine in lobby. He looked at Jin and motioned his head towards you, silently telling Jin to talk to you.

As soon and Jeongguk made his exit, Jin approached you with a mix of guilt, sadness, and anger in his eyes. He huffed as he sat in the chair Jeongguk was previously sitting in. You looked at him for a moment before looking down at your hands as you picked at your nails. Jin sighed.

“I broke your nose, and I’m sorry for that, but what you’re doing isn’t fair,” he said to you slightly louder than you had expected.

You snapped your head to look directly at him, examining his face. His statement sounded so ridiculous it would have made you laugh if it weren’t for the mix of emotions written across his beautiful features. Is he mad? You couldn’t quite decipher what he was feeling.

“What isn’t fair?” You asked quietly, causing him to sigh and reach his hand out to lightly grip your thigh just above your knee. Your stomach leaped at his touch.

“Are you mad at me?” Your breathing hitched at the worry evident in his eyes. “You have every right to be, but I feel awful, and it sucks to see you comfort Jeongguk while you leave me out in the cold. I am so sorry that I hurt you, I mean, fuck, I never want to hurt you, and if you’re mad then I accept that, but will you please just talk to me at least before I lose my damn mind trying to figure out what’s going on in that head of yours?” He rambles all in one breath.

“I’m not mad at you,” you quickly respond. He looks at you with big eyes, full of surprise. “It was an accident, Jin, how could I possibly be mad at you?” His eyes softened as he felt a little bit of relief. “I just like messing with you,” you smirk. His lips curved into a smile as well.

You both sat in silence, staring into each other’s eyes before yours fell to his lips briefly.

“Were you going to kiss me earlier? In the kitchen?”

“Hm?” A lump lodged itself in his throat as he looked at you, stunned by your sudden forwardness. He quickly recovered, feigning offense that you would even suggest such a thing. “No. Never. Of course not.”

“Oh really? I could have sworn you were. You know, before you broke my nose,” you playfully jab with a smirk.

“Oh come on…” He shook his head as he stood up, placing himself in front of you and reached to grab your thighs just above your knees.  Your breath quickened as he lightly pulled your legs apart and nudge his body between them. “How long are you going to hold this over my head, love?”

Jin leaned towards you as your eyes fell to his lips, again. He noticed the movement in your eyes and smirked a little.

“Not sure. How long does it take for a broken nose to heal?” He let out a breathy laugh, that slightly resembled windshield wipers.

“Hey Jin?”

“Hm?” he hums in response.

“Will you just kiss me already?” His eyes dropped to your lips.

“Love,” your eyes meet again. “Your nose is broken.”

“But you did this to me,” you pouted, teasing him. “Shouldn’t you try to make up for it?”

“Ah, you’re so unfair.” Jin laughed again as you set your hand on his abdomen and gripped his shirt, pulling him towards you. As his body fell further into you, he gently placed his hands on your jawline. Your hands reached up to secure around his wrists.

As he gently lowered his head to yours, he glanced from your eyes to your lips a few times before stopping to look at your nose. You looked into his eyes, waiting, biting your lower lip.

He hesitated before tilting your head to the left as he overexaggerated the lean of his head to the right to avoid bumping your noses together. Slowly, you both leaned in, pressing your lips together as your eyes closed. The feeling of his plump lips massaging over your own was so much better than you ever imagined.

He pulled away slightly and looked at you as your slightly blackened eyes fluttered open.

“I can’t believe I waited so long to do that,” he whispered, lips still hovering over yours.

“Wow,” you blushed.

Jin let out a small giggle. “You’re so cute.”  

“Even with a broken nose?”

Laughing lightly, he leaned back into you. “Even with a broken nose,” he whispered against your mouth before pressing his lips to yours again.

[farmhandler]

In Your Veins - CH2

Rating: E

Relationship: Shiro/Sendak

Additional Tags: Werewolf AU, Mpreg

Chapter: 2/4 | WC 3.6K

Read on AO3 | Read CH1

Chapter summary: Shiro shivers, and Allura’s eyes flick to him. He’s not sure what she sees, but it’s enough that her lip twitches, and she turns to Sendak again, her gaze somehow still resting on Shiro without looking at him. 

“You are aware that Shiro is not a natural born wolf,” she says. It’s not a question. 

“Yes.”

A/N: We learn how this happened to Shiro! This is potentially squicky for some people so proceed with caution. I’ll put the warning in the tag so you can be surprised if you’d like. 

Shiro feels like a teenager sitting next to his boyfriend, having been caught doing something inappropriate.

The way the rest of his pack is staring at him, the comparison feels apt.

After the initial shock of his condition being announced so blatantly, they moved into the pack living room, where the entirety of Shiro’s pack attempted to wrangle him into a protective pile, only to have Sendak yank him to his side before he’d been given the chance to give his own say in the matter.

He decides to stick with Sendak, if only to give him a little bit of support, what with how he’d been jumped by the news.

Shiro can’t get the look on his face out of head; he’d been shocked, then appalled, then he’d turned to Shiro and stared at him unseeing, like he couldn’t quite grasp what was being said to him.

Shiro can’t blame him. It wasn’t a kind way to do it, and Allura is being generous enough by allowing Sendak on their territory and allowing Shiro to stand on his side instead of with the pack. Even if she looks angered by it.

Still, he can’t help but feel guilty about the looks of betrayal written on their faces. It isn’t as if he planned for this happen, but now that they’re here, all he really wants to do is cling to Sendak and bury himself in his firm embrace.

Sendak’s arm tightens around his waist, and Shiro resists instinct telling him to turn his head and take a whiff. Sendak is sitting next to him, but he’s pulled so tightly against his side that Shiro may as well crawl into his lap and get it over with.

It’s what he wants to do, but it’s not what he should do, and it’s not what he does. The closest Shiro allowed himself is to lay his hand on Sendak’s knee, squeezing gently.

“You’re certain,” Sendak says, for the fifth time since the conversation started.

“There is no doubt,” Allura replies. She’s looking between Shiro and Sendak seated opposite to them, and Shiro can’t tell if the disgust on her face is because of Sendak and everything he represents, or because of his strong scent. Sendak smells incredibly tantalizing to Shiro, but maybe that’s because his body is preparing to have his pups.

His litter.

Shiro shivers, and Allura’s eyes flick to him. He’s not sure what she sees, but it’s enough that her lip twitches, and she turns to Sendak again, her gaze somehow still resting on Shiro without looking at him.

“You are aware that Shiro is not a natural born wolf,” she says. It’s not a question.

“Yes.”

“You are aware that due to certain circumstances, his wolf is not male.”

A pause. Then: “Yes.”

‘Certain circumstances’ being that Shiro was turned by Allura, but in order to save his life, she had to give him some of her life energy. Magic isn’t strong with wolves, but the Alteans have always had a knack for it, and when he was turned, his wolf didn’t come with the same parts.

It’s never really bothered him—what’s his is his, even if it’s a little different, and to a wolf it doesn’t mean squat—but he didn’t actually think it would be possible for him to get pregnant.

Until now.

Allura folds her hands in front of her, staring Sendak down.

“The only way that this could have happened is if the two of you engaged in…well, reckless behavior.”

“You mean banging when they’re wolves, right?” Hunk asks, only to be greeted with silence from the rest of the room, alongside a few dirty looks. “What, I’m just making sure we’re all on the same page here!”

“I think we’re all on the same page here, Hunk,” Lance says. “I don’t think we could be any more on the same page!”

“God,” Shiro whispers, covering his face with his hand.

The night is burned in Shiro’s memory. How could he forget?

He was at Sendak’s. They weren’t planning on having sex, and then they…ended up having sex.

Shiro underestimated the effect of the near-full moon while he was around Sendak. What had always seemed arousing was now irresistible, and once Sendak was fucking him on his bed, the urge to shift had hit Shiro like a tidal wave. That coupled with the surrounding scent of an alpha that he wanted so badly, and with the lack of any reason not to, he just...let it happen.

“I can’t stop it,” he’d sobbed, sinking his claws into Sendak’s pillow. “Don’t want to stop it. Wanna shift so bad.”

“Then do it,” Sendak growled into his ear. He buried himself deep, then stilled with a long, painful groan. Shiro felt his body growing larger; expanding, getting bigger and bigger until he was almost entirely shifted.

“Pull out,” Shiro warned him, knowing what was coming as he felt his body shift and his insides rearrange themselves. He barely stopped from shifting fully so he could keep some of his human awareness, but he may as well have been for all that it had changed about him.

Spreading his thighs, Shiro leaned further into Sendak’s pillow, exposing himself with a plaintive whine.

Sendak lifted his snout, surprised.

“Is this okay?” Shiro asked, his words coming out growly, nearly incomprehensible due to the close shift.

Sendak’s reply was to nose his way in between Shiro’s thighs to sniff at his newly formed anatomy for a moment. Then he gave his vulva a flat, hungry lick, and Shiro jolted, reacting by kicking him in the side with his hind leg.

Neither of them had shifted fully, and since Sendak was in the same boat as Shiro, his name came out a deep rumble while he lined up his cock with Shiro’s cunt.

Sendak fucked and then knotted him like that, grinding his gargantuan knot up inside Shiro until he was a sobbing mess. He’d never had sex as a wolf—let alone been knotted by one—and by the time he finished and pulled out, Shiro was so exhausted from both that he immediately went to sleep.

As a wolf.

Shiro didn’t even think about the possibility until it had been revealed to him now.

“I thought only natural born wolves could get pregnant,” he says, quietly enough that what conversation is happening stalls. “Even if…”

“It’s different when magic is involved,” Allura says gently. “There is a lot to your form specifically that I should have considered. If I’m being honest, I didn’t think it was possible. But I should have said something.”

Allura is the same age as Shiro, so he can’t blame her for their ignorance. It’s no one’s fault.

“I just wanna know, why him?” Keith mutters, quiet enough that a human wouldn’t be able to hear it.

Why?

Shiro can’t answer that. Not without admitting that pack means something different to him than it does to the others. He’s not natural born—he doesn’t get it like most of them do.

Shiro stares down at his lap, hands fisted, nausea roiling hot in his gut. He hasn’t felt well since coming back, and the anxiety of their current situation and his post-shift haze is only making that worse.

The arm around his waist moves, and Shiro twitches when a hand lays over top his tight fist.

Sendak isn’t looking at him, but rather facing his pack. The fingers around his squeeze, once, and then he speaks.

“What do you require of me?”

There’s a pause, then Allura says, “What?”

“What is required of me? What does he need?”

Allura blinks, her confusion slowly transforming into understanding. When she speaks, her voice is far less gentle than it was a moment ago.

“Support, to put it simply. In whatever way Shiro might need. But I think you should be asking Shiro that, and not me.”

This isn’t a conversation that should involve pack. At least, that’s what it feels like to Shiro, but pack dynamics are something he’s always struggled to fully understand.

Sitting here, discussing the ramifications of his relationship with Sendak is embarrassing, but no one else seems to feel the same way.

Sendak certainly isn’t embarrassed, and when he turns to looks at Shiro, there’s an openness to his expression; a readiness to accept whatever Shiro decides.

Shiro stares into his face, trying to figure out what the hell that is.

“I don’t…know,” he admits. “I don’t know what I need. This is all so new to me.”

“That’s an understatement,” Lance mutters.

“Very well,” Allura says smugly, “then I suppose it’s up to me.”

Shiro feels Sendak’s tense. He has the feeling that whatever Allura is about to say is not going to bode well for either of them.

“You will join our pack,” she starts, startling Shiro. A gasp goes around the room.

"No," Sendak says, without hesitation.

Allura’s eyes narrow.

“On a temporary basis, of course,” she finishes, as if he hadn’t spoken. “I wouldn’t allow another alpha on my territory if it weren’t absolutely necessary. But I care for Shiro, and it’s clear that he cares for you. Whether you feel the same remains to be seen.”

Sendak bristles, and Shiro lays his hand over his arm.

“You will stay long enough for Shiro to make whatever decisions he needs. It’s that, or you may leave.” She examines her nails for a moment, and when she glances up, her gaze is hard as steel. “For good.”

“Allura—” Keith starts, but she growls low in her throat, and it’s all the warning Keith needs to fade back into silence.

“You have no other options, and you will not be welcome here otherwise. I won’t have another wolf running in and out, deigning to show up whenever he likes. Either you commit to this, or you do not.”

It’s not fair. Shiro knows it’s not a fair deal, not after Sendak just learned about the pregnancy, and so does Allura. But he’s not surprised. Sendak is a rival alpha and giving him an impossible ultimatum is a surefire way to see how he feels about Shiro.

“We will give you time to discuss it further,” she says, standing, “but these are my terms.”

The others don’t move at first, but once Allura walks away, the silence in the room becomes unbearably loud.

“Guess we should…” Lance trails off, rubbing his arm with one hand, unsure.

“Want me to make us a snack?” Hunk asks. “I think we could all use a snack.”

“We just had dinner an hour ago,” Pidge points out.

“I’m hungry,” Keith says. “And I’m sure that Sendak,” he pauses, like it’s the most painful word he’s ever uttered, “could use something to eat.”

It’s almost approval, and Shiro smiles weakly at Keith.

“I guess I could eat.”

“Then I’ll make some food!” Hunk says, far too loudly. “Come on, Lance.”

“Wait, you’re not making me help, are you? I had to chop that onion earlier and it sucked.”

“Come on, Lance.”

Hunk pulls Lance up and around the couch, using strength he rarely displays. Keith slowly gets up to follow after them, and Pidge types on her pad for a moment before she, too, leaves, casting one final glance behind her at Shiro.

Then it’s just the two of them sitting close together in a room with warring smells.

Shiro really is feeling exhausted, so instead of doing anything rational and sane like taking a step back and talking about what just happened, he leans his head on Sendak’s shoulder and closes his eyes.

“I’m so tired,” he says quietly. Then, “I can’t believe you actually came.”

Sendak just strokes his hand down the length of Shiro’s side. Shiro turns his head to better inhale his strong scent, letting it block out everything else in the room until it’s all he can smell.

“You don’t have to do this.”

The words fall out of his mouth unbidden, but he doesn’t try to stop them.

“I know this wasn’t a part of your plan. It wasn’t a part of mine, either. I think I’m going to keep the pups—” He feels Sendak stiffen at the admission, “—but you’re not obligated to stick around.”

Shiro feels Sendak shift, his shoulders falling out from under Shiro. Sendak turns to face him, and the brush of his hand on Shiro’s cheek is all the warning Shiro gets before he’s being kissed.

Sendak’s hand curls over the back of his head, slowly guiding him down until Sendak is lying on top of him, pressing kisses against his open mouth.

The intimacy after the stress of confronting his pack nearly brings tears to Shiro’s eyes. He wants so badly to beg, to plead with Sendak to stay here with his pack, even knowing it’s never what Sendak wanted.

“Talk to me,” Shiro rasps.

“A litter,” Sendak breathes into his mouth. The wraps an arm around Shiro’s waist, pulling him flush. Encased in Sendak’s embrace, he has nowhere to go, and he kisses him again. “How many did she say?”

“Don’t know yet. Have to go to the doctor.” Shiro buries his face in Sendak’s throat, aching to ask, are you staying? Will you stay, for me?

“You don’t have to stay,” is what he says instead.

“I know.”

Sendak’s reply feels like being struck. Reading into it would be dangerous, but Shiro can’t help the way his breath catches when he looks up into Sendak’s face and sees his unreadable expression.

Lips press against his one final time, and then Sendak sits up, still holding onto Shiro. His mouth moves to Shiro’s throat, warm, sliding up to his jaw. One hand reaches around and squeezes his ass.

“Really?” Shiro asks, but he’s chuckling. The chuckling goes on, pulling a smile from Sendak, and then Shiro starts laughing, and giggling, and he can’t stop, until suddenly the bubbles of laughter catch in his throat and the tears that have been clinging to his eyelashes spill over, and then he’s crying.

“Shiro.” Sendak sounds alarmed, and Shiro just shakes his head and sobs into his fists, biting down on the knuckle.

“Shiro,” Sendak says, more insistently, tilting his chin up to look at him.

“Sorry,” Shiro rasps, reaching up to wipe at his eyes.

“You have nothing to apologize for.” Sendak kisses the left side of his face. “Do not apologize as though you planned this from the beginning. I was the one that lured you away from your pack.”

“No.” Shiro shakes his head. “I didn’t have to keep seeing you. I should have—shifting during sex is such a stupid idea, I don’t know why I did it.”

“I enjoyed it, as did you. And the full moon would have been no different, had you been mine then as well.”

Shiro flushes, which is funny—they got here because he had a lot of sex with Sendak in unsafe ways, but sometimes it’s the little things like that that embarrass him.

“Don’t say that so loudly,” Shiro says, lowering his voice, despite how useless his warning will prove, knowing his pack. They may as well have their ear to the door for all that space will do for either of them. Werewolf hearing is no joke.

Sendak cocks his head. For a while he just stares at Shiro, who’s still sniffling and crying openly, but eventually he leans forward and kisses Shiro’s forehead once, with firm and even pressure.

“Wait here,” he says against his skin.

“Here?” Shiro blinks through his tears, using the heel of his hand to brush them away. “As in the couch?”

Sendak pulls back, rolling his eyes, as though Shiro is the dense one.

“Here, with your pack. Stay with them.”

“I’m…not planning on leaving.”

“Good.” Sendak’s chest puffs out, his ears flickering against his head. Shiro wants to ask what the hell he’s talking about, but he’s about had it with being confused, so he just accepts how bizarre and cagey Sendak is being and decides he’ll be concerned over the future another day.

Eventually, he gets a handle on his emotions and the tears cease. His lips won’t stop trembling every so often, and he knows his eyes are probably red-rimmed, but the way Sendak keeps nosing at his throat and kissing his jaw makes him feel marginally better.

The attention from another alpha feels good, and he wonders for a brief moment if he really has fucked everything over, confusing even his wolf that wants to be near Sendak more than his own pack.

They stay like that for another half hour, not talking like they should be and exchanging scents. The pack is suspiciously absent, but he knows they’re probably listening in another room.

“I’m going to leave now,” Sendak tells him. He brushes his palm along Shiro’s waist, then gives it a firm pat. “Wait here.”

“You said that.” Shiro smiles and lays his hand over Sendak’s. “But okay. I’ll…see you later, right? I know this was a lot. I can’t promise Allura will let you come back, but I’ll do my best.”

Sendak nods, his eyes looking past Shiro, something on his mind that doesn’t involve him. He tries not to feel hurt by it, because for all the time that they’ve spent together, he doesn’t actually know Sendak all that well.

Shiro walks him to the door, arms wrapped around himself, and Sendak leaves.

The next day, nobody talks about it. As in, the pack doesn’t interrogate him about anything that went on, and they all try to act like everything is normal. The only time that they acknowledge what’s going on is when Hunk informs him that he’s booked Shiro an appointment with their usual doctor.

“He’s always pretty busy, but I told him it was an emergency and he managed to fit us in during a cancellation. You’re not working Monday, right?”

Shiro shakes his head. Monday was one of the days he would go to see Sendak.

“No, I’m off. Monday’s fine.”

“Cool,” Hunk says, casually, like his eyes aren’t straying towards Shiro’s stomach every few seconds.

A few days pass, and there’s still no word from Sendak.

Shiro tries not to panic.

Then a few days turns into a week, and the panic starts to set in.

Shiro tells himself to wait, to give Sendak time to do whatever he needs to do and process the information, but Shiro’s pregnant, and Sendak told him to stay, and Shiro doesn’t know what that means.

He’s never felt so anxious about another person before. He’s not sure if it’s because of the pregnancy or because Sendak feels a lot like his alpha when he’s not a part of his pack, but over the course of the weeks his emotions go from vague concern to outright terror.

To be frank, he’s scared, even with his pack behind him. He told Sendak it didn’t matter, that he didn’t have to stay, but the longer that he’s gone, the more Shiro regrets not begging him to stay.

As his alpha, Allura is protective and angry enough for ten of them, which somehow makes it worse.

“I expected he would disappear,” she says angrily. She’s peeking out the living room window, as if she might spot him running through the trees to reach them. “A lone alpha, suddenly saddled with the weight of what he’s done. What do you expect?” She turns back to Shiro, who looks like he’s just swallowed a lemon. Sighing, she walks over to brush her hand over the hollow of his throat. “I know you cared for him, but I can’t say I’m surprised by this development.”

“I still care, you know. And he’s—look, maybe we just have to wait a little longer.” Shiro sits down on the couch and glances at the clock: it’s 2pm. “Even if he’s not staying, he’ll at least come to tell me that.”

Humming doubtfully, Allura moves away from the window and into another room. Shiro can smell her anger pouring off of her, and swallows down the impulse to whine and roll at her feet.

Through the miracle of self-control and willpower, Shiro doesn’t visit Sendak’s place to demand he show up, no matter how much he’d like to. Although he may not know him well, he trusts Sendak to come through eventually, even if it’s taking…longer than expected.

Plus, with work and pack events always at the forefront, it’s easier to distract himself, though those distractions may not last long.

Shiro makes it another day before he finally pays Sendak a visit.

He promised himself he would give him time, but then he rationalizes that it can’t hurt, right? Sendak is certainly busy, but at least he’s around, and Shiro’s just going to get groceries.

There’s a store just a few blocks away, he thinks, walking along the familiar roads. It’s not like we don’t live in the same city.

The first sign that something is off is the stale taste of Sendak’s scent.

Based on the scent—or lack thereof—he hasn’t been around for days. Shiro buzzes into his complex a few times, waiting, but there’s no answer. Too far in to give up now, he waits until someone enters the apartment and slips in past, making his way up to Sendak’s room. The scent is less stale, but he hasn’t been there in last 48 hours at least.

Stopping short of his door, Shiro takes a deep, solidifying breath. He tries the handle on the door. It’s open.

Surprise and concern pulls Shiro inside, and when he looks around the room, his throat closes.

It’s empty.

[seashellrosekitty]

Shielded | Derek Hale x Reader (Part 3)

Read Part 2

Shielded Masterlist

Pairing: Derek Hale x Female Reader

Plot: You’re driving to Beacon Hills to help Deaton with something. You meet Derek Hale, who is deeply wounded and is paralyzed.

Word Count: 4,024 (15-minute read)

Warnings: A little smut, fluff, profanity, and gory details.

A/N: Welcome to my first Imagine! This isn’t requested and is purely inspired by other imagines here on Tumblr. Enjoy! :)

Morning breaks and you wake up before Derek does. You wake up facing him. His calm breathing brings you to close your eyes again to savor the moment. Then you open your eyes again to watch him sleep. He’s on the right side of the bed so his right arm is resting on the side of your stomach. You think of what happened the day before, and you’re surprised you only slept for three, maybe four hours. You know you need more than that. You notice the sun outside is making its way to light the foggy town of Beacon Hills. As you stare at Derek’s face and notice the smallest of his pores, the lines of his lips, and those closed eyes you know you love when they’re opened.

You are not entirely surprised that you and Derek have gone from strangers to lovers in less than twenty-four hours. Derek was not hard to like even though he’s grumpy around Stiles and the rest of the pack. His smiles must be a rare sight for most people. Maybe you don’t need to be empathic to understand the dynamics of his personality. Your family guardian always told you not to judge people by their looks. And so as young as six years old, you’ve learned to trust your gut and feeling towards people than how they appear to be. This helped you a lot to be an Empath, ensuring a close working relationship with Druids to supernatural creatures. Deaton for one is a close friend of your family’s.

You now slowly get out of bed to get the pajamas you wore the night before, and your shirt that was left on the couch. Then you, go to your room to get your yoga mat. Meditating is the first thing you do so you could get your focus on the day’s objectives, and so you remind yourself to be careful with hostile energies you might fail to spot. You ground yourself in meditation and start to bring forth a bright energy from your heart. Sitting Indian style, you keep your hands resting on the side of your knees. With your back aligned to the sky, you keep your eyes closed and commence your shielding.

Derek wakes up and quietly peers at you from the doorway of his bedroom. You don’t notice this, but Derek lets his eyes glow as he watches you. He then notices the surge of energy coming from your chest, making a circular movement around you. He has never seen anything like it before. His lips part as he continues watching you perform your morning ritual. The bright light has ribbons of it, surrounding you in circling motion, getting brighter each time. This goes on a moment longer. The ribbons of energy gradually disappear, making a balanced color of a ball around you and when they stop circling, you open your eyes. You now notice Derek’s presence behind you and you turn around to look at him. You meet his green-eyed gaze and give him a sweet smile.

“Hey,” You say and stand up from the mat.

“Hi.” Derek walks towards and you meet halfway in the room. He leans in for a kiss and brushes your cheek softly. “Why did you put on your shield before I woke up? I wanted to smell your scent first thing today,” He whispers while locking his gaze on you, his forehead resting on the top of your head. You bring both your arms around his neck and kiss him again, this time more sensually.

“I can let you in on my shield if you really want to smell my scent so bad. All you need is ask.” You say and kiss him again. You and Derek couldn’t stop kissing each other. It would be nice to just stay home and laze the day away, but you remember you’re in Beacon Hills for a bigger reason.

“Let me in on it, Y/N. I can’t get enough of it. Of you.” Derek pulls you up to cling on his stomach so he could kiss you without leaning over. He puts you down and he devours your neck while caressing your back. This warms your chest so you carry yourself against him, letting him kiss you more. You embrace him tightly and let him in on your shield. Derek has his eyes closed when he grasps your scent. And when he does, he opens his Alpha eyes and notices he’s inside your shield with you. He looks around him and notices the drops of yellow light hovering you both.

“Is this how it looks like all the time?”

“Yes. But I can only see it with my eyes closed,” You tell him. You kiss him again. “Get all the scent you want, because eventually, I’ll need you to get back out of my shield.” Derek exhales sharply, disagreeing to this, but respects your decision anyway. He brings himself to your neck again, and then smells your hair, tracing the berry shampoo you used last night, and then he trails his way to your chest, tracing his own sweat that dispersed in your skin. He loves it that you still have his scent. He loves how his own scent blends with yours. He grabs your hands and runs his nose and lips on your forearms, ending it on the back of your hands, and he finally lets you cup his face and kiss your palms. You’re not used to this kind of physical gesture – a man smothering his mouth and nose all over your skin to inhale your scent.

He leans to kiss you and inhales deeply when he does, giving you a deep kiss while ingesting the smell of your nose, your mouth, and your breath. His deep kiss turns you on all of a sudden. He grins menacingly at you, smelling your arousal.

“Ignore it, you big bad wolf.” You grin back at him when you say this. “You know we have work to do.” You really want him to take you again, but you can see the kitchen table still piled with your files and books and remember you barely got to work on anything last night. He groans, refusing to return to reality. You want to do the same. You stay in his gaze and you share a comfortable silence for a few seconds.

“I’m gonna regret it if I let you get away with that arousal,” Derek says and this builds the tension between the two of you even stronger, his hands reach your ass and squeeze them gently but firmly. But before you could go on, Derek’s phone rings and ruins the moment. Derek grunts and sighs sharply. You keep your face close to him, still holding him.

“It must be important,” you point your fingers to his bedroom for him to pick up his phone and then he goes inside his bedroom to answer it. You then go back to your yoga mat to put it away and then head to the kitchen to prepare some coffee. You prefer keeping Derek’s phone conversation to himself but you hear him responding vaguely.

“Yeah…she’s fine…No, I didn’t remember anything…okay, we’ll be right over.” Sounds like a plan, you think to yourself. “Y/N…” Derek calls you from his bedroom and then you see him come out. “That was Scott.There was a killing last night.” This draws a grimace on your face. The both of you start getting ready for the day. You were arranged to meet the pack back in Deaton’s clinic. Before that, Derek asks you to pick up one of his betas, Isaac Lahey. You pull over at the Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital and see a tall, dirty blonde teenager with a glare that you could feel is examining you. He looks at Derek who’s seated beside you in the front. He opens the door and you turn your head to watch him come in.

“Hey,” The young man greets you both and you smile awkwardly at him and turn your head back straight. “Who’s the broad?” Derek growls at him while giving him a cold glare. It startles Isaac and shuts him up. This makes you smile but you do your best to hide it and instead, you offer Isaac a warmer smile to break the ice.

“I’m Y/N. I’m here to help.” Isaac smiles back at you as he glances at Derek, making sure he hasn’t crossed over barriers between you two. You then put your car in reverse to get back on the driveway. “Is there anyone else we need to pick up?” You ask Derek and he doesn’t say anything but he shakes his head, looking at you again with those kind eyes that weren’t there seconds ago. You nod at him and start driving.

***

You now arrive at Deaton’s clinic. The rest of the pack are already there. As you walk inside with Derek and Isaac, the look that Scott gives you and Derek bothers you.  Scott’s eyebrows meet as he glances at you and Derek two more times. No words need to be exchanged between the three of you. Scott knows. Scott fucking knows that something happened between you and Derek last night. This heats your cheeks but you choose to ignore it. Ignore and deny, if you’re ever confronted. You don’t have time to play kiss and tell. You take a quick glance at Derek to see his reaction at Scott’s look. It’s amazing how this guy could pull up a flat affect when an hour ago he was smelling your skin, being all levels of romantic and sexy. You think about this, but you realize you could do the same. Looks like you and Derek are on the same page on this.

Inside the clinic, you see an unconscious man lying on the metal table. Shirtless, exposing how badly wounded he is. Even worse than Derek’s wounds the first time you saw him in the same position. You could already feel the wrath he was in. As you slowly walk towards the body, you could already feel the fear the man had before his last breath of life. It’s unbearable and your heart starts to pound inside your chest. You are nearing a break of tears because what this man went through, how he died, he did not deserve it. Derek, Scott, and Isaac all look at you as you fight back your tears and start having sharp breaths. You know they could hear your heartbeat.

“Hey, what’s going on with her?” Isaac asks. Derek moves closer to you and motions to touch your back.

“Are you okay?” Derek whispers at you. Your brows meet as you catch your breath.  “Please don’t touch me.” This startles Derek. “Don’t take it the wrong way. This is part of my job. Just let me be. We’ll figure out what happened to him.” Derek steps back.  You turn your focus on the unconscious man. You take deep breaths to normalize your pulse so that you could tune in to your empathic trance. 

“I’ll be okay, you guys.” You turn around to face the group. You give them a warning of what could happen in a few moments. “You might see me cry, or scream. But don’t worry. It happens all the time. If anyone feels uncomfortable with that, you can leave the room for a while. But I’ll need someone here to listen to what I’ll say because I might not remember it.” The room is dead silent but you know everyone heard you loud and clear; and nobody has the intention to stay away. Instead, you eye each of them and they all nod once at you, letting you know they’re here to stay. You nod back at them and turn to the body. 

You take a heavy breath and hold the man’s hand, just like you did with Derek. This time you won’t hesitate to touch the wounds if you need to.

The man’s palm is cold, but nevertheless still reminiscent of terror from the numbness of his veins and nerves. You feel all of his uncontainable fear. You unknowingly close your eyes and, in an instant, you reach your empathic trance.  The man was jogging in the woods late at night, running his frustrations off. He had just lost his job and he doesn’t know how to get through the rest of the month to pay bills and feed himself and his daughter. Deep concern draws on your face. The pack surrounds you and the man in a circle as they watch you work.

You start to hear what the man heard as your trance deepens. Whatever you see now, you narrate to the group. He ran two miles into woods, maybe feeling like he was going around it. He heard someone follow him but was moving swiftly. This scared the hell out of him and ran faster. Out of nowhere, that dark creature appeared in front him, roaring at him to scare him and basically put him off his feet. On two feet, the monster stood like a grizzly bear would, but then put down his claws and walked towards the man as he continued to roar at him. The creature was hairy. It had teeth more than a bear might have, and fangs like a snake have. Its eyes glowed a bright yellow. It wounded the man to death with its big, long, sharp claws. Not even giving him a chance to be paralyzed at least. The creature wanted him dead. 

The man screamed in agony for his life. For the pain in his chest; his organs being torn apart, his ribs, broken into pieces. The unbearable pain the creature has caused him sent him desperate cries for help. He lost so much blood and was practically left half-dead. He didn’t endure the pain. He lost his life feeling the worst pain his body has ever had.

You open your eyes and notice your face is warm and cold at the same time. Cold from the tears that hadn’t stopped falling from your eyes. You find your breath when you see Derek in front of you, looking at you a little worriedly. You see your hand resting over the dead man’s wounds that are much larger than your own fingers. This is why you’ve seen, heard, and felt all of the man’s last moments. The wounds always tell you where they came from. 

Your heart starts to sink as you feel this is all your fault. The room has remained quiet, everyone awaiting your words. But no one rushes you to speak. They watched your tears stream down your face as you described what you saw, heard, and felt in detail. You drew them quite the perfect picture. Your eyes remain in the dead man. Your heart is breaking again, seeing the dead man in brand new eyes.

If you had done the same thing to Derek yesterday, then maybe they could’ve stopped this creature from killing an innocent man. Derek was lucky to be alive because he’s a werewolf, but this man wasn’t. This man was perfectly human and unable to fight back. What about his daughter? Who would take care of her? These thoughts ramble on your mind as you remove your hands from the man’s body and walk to the sink to wash up. The group discusses this case. Why did it kill the man? Why did it seem like it knew the man? It may be more in control now than it was the night before. These questions fill the conversation inside the clinic and you remain silent, still trying to remove the memory of the killing. You thought you’d forget about it, but it’s all you could think of.

You get out of the clinic to gather yourself. You could use some Beacon Hills air. The view before you helps you ground yourself. There are countless trees and bushes. Some trees with thick trunks, some thin. You’re not sure if the woods you see is part of the preserve that the Hales own. But it doesn’t matter. That man probably ran the trails you see from where you stand. You shake your head and look down. You want to stop thinking about what happened to him.

After a few minutes, Derek goes outside to join you.  You greet him only with a dry look. It’s clear you haven’t recovered completely from your trance just yet. “You know, sometimes I wish my shields work like metal,” You start off, trying to slowly get yourself off of those horrific memories from a while ago. Derek’s breath creates a vapor out of his mouth. Your hands are in your jacket’s pockets, and you keep your eyes locked on the sight of the woods.

“Remember when I said sometimes what I do kills me?” You pause to look at Derek in the eyes. “This is one of those times. And I can’t help but feel helpless. And guilty.” Derek remains silent, just letting you talk. The pack gets out of the clinic to see you and Derek. They catch you still in your train of thought and words.

“The world around you just crumbles and you’re either wasting time trying to figure things out, like solving this fucking mystery…” you trail off. Your throat starts to feel tight as you feel like tears are about to come out of your eyes again. “While evil lurks right below your nose.” You say as you shake your head. You breathe deeply and realize you’re mentally back on your feet, and you face all of them. You wipe your eyes and smile weakly at the pack.

“I’m sorry. I just never understand why power has to come from killing the innocent.” You look at each of them with conviction. They return your look with acknowledgment. Scott steps toward you and taps your shoulder.

“Hey. We all feel the same, Y/N. What happens to these innocent people is never fair. But we do what we can. We always try to save everyone.” Scott assures you.

“Even if sometimes what we need to do is completely impossible. But we do them,” Lydia adds, pressing her red lips together.

“Hell, we risk our lives for these people all the time,” Allison steps in.

“And risk our family in the process,” Stiles says.

“Or even lose them,” Isaac says; his voice breaking.

“These kids are braver than they look, Y/N,” Derek finally says. “Sometimes stupid but…” he trails off and gives them that rare smile. “They’re tough enough to face the consequences.” You finally smile. Derek now stands beside you. “Hey. You were awesome back there. Don’t ever think that you weren’t any help, or that it was your fault that that man died.”

Scott, Stiles, Isaac, Allison, and Lydia glance at each other awkwardly, noticing the warm atmosphere you and Derek share. Derek notices that and shoots a glare at them. They pretend to forget what they just thought of.

You inhale deeply to refresh yourself. “You guys save the day all the time and still do homework,” You say, now smiling at them.

“And play lacrosse, and take care of our single parents, by the way,” Stiles adds. Derek’s eyes dart at him, warning him not to add more sarcasm to what he just said.

“Yeah, you do.” You commend them with a proud look.

“How ‘bout you kids get to school now, and Y/N and will look on this creature today? You can still make it to the second period,” Derek suggests.

“I thought all of us were gonna do this together?” Stiles asks, totally disregarding that it’s actually a Monday.

“Dude, we have a Chemistry test today.” Scott slaps Stiles on the back.

“Aww shit,” Stiles says and rushes to his Jeep to start the engine. Isaac follows them and rides to school with them. Lydia and Allison bid you farewell and head to school in Allison’s car.

“Derek, call us if you find anything,” Scott shouts from the Jeep with his head out the window. Derek nods at him and waves him farewell once. That leaves you both in the parking lot. You let Deaton know your plans to research at Derek’s loft and maybe find clues in the woods.

You and Derek start walking towards the woods.  He’s leading when you reach the entrance, but he stops and looks at you. You stop as well to look at him and then find him offering his hand for you to hold. Those kind green eyes show up again, sending unexplainable sensations to your chest. You can’t help but draw a small smile and take his hand. Once your hands touch, the world around you changes a little. Okay, maybe it’s just your mood. But everything instantly feels better now. You’re about to overthink things and before you could, you stop yourself. The smile on your face hasn’t disappeared yet. When you glance over to look at Derek’s profile, he’s already smiling. He lets you look at him a second longer, and glances back at you, tightening his grip on your hand. Both of you walk the woods never breaking contact. He helps you climb and jump steep slopes. This walk begins to feel like a date than an actual search.

“What are we looking for exactly?” He asks you.

“Anything unusual. Not another dead body, I hope. That creature is probably hiding out here somewhere,” You say to him. You start to think it may be a bad idea.

“Then maybe we shouldn’t be out here,” Derek says and halts. “Maybe we should just head back to my place and we could look on your books instead. Not here. I don’t know yet if I could protect you from that thing.” He grabs your other hand. Now it really feels like you two are a couple. You shake your head and refocus your mind. You consider what he says and look at the distance behind him to gather your words. But you notice something.

“Do you see that?” You ask him. Your eyes are glued to that white thing you see on the ground about 5 feet away from where you and Derek stand. Derek turns around to look and is perplexed by the sight. The two of you rush towards it.

“It’s a snake skin.” You confirm what you saw. You immediately bring out your phone to call Deaton. Derek remains silent, probably trying to smell off the scent of the snake. “Doc, we found a snakeskin here. We would’ve left it alone but, it’s in the shape of a human.” You end the call. Deaton told you he’ll come over to check it out. When he does, he’s already bringing a plastic bag to contain the shed skin. The three of you head back to the animal clinic.

“It must’ve shed its skin here last night,” Deaton says as he examines the skin. “But it’s not like a Kanima’s. When Jackson was about to transform, he covered himself inside a cocoon. And this creature didn’t. This creature shed its skin like most snakes do.”

“Wait, isn’t it that snakes shed their skin to allow growth of the body?” You ask him.

“That’s right. And it makes sense. This creature could be young. Younger snakes tend to shed their skin more frequently than older ones,” Deaton says.

“How frequently are you saying?” Derek asks.

“Once in two weeks. Sometimes even once a week,” Deaton answers him. You and Derek look at each other. “This may be its first shedding since it was bitten.”

“Can you tell if it’s not actually a Kanima?” You ask.

“It can’t be,” Derek says. “It didn’t have the eyes of a Kanima, remember? No slits on its eyes.”

“You’re right. I forgot,” You say, bringing your fingers to your forehead. “Maybe we should go home. I’ll see what I can find in my books.” You turn to Deaton. He tells you that he’ll examine the skin closely and will let you know whatever comes up.

*End of Part 3*

Thanks for reading! Please let me know if you want to be tagged! Please leave me feedback! I wanna know what you think! 

Read Part 4

Tag list:

@spxderbarnes @bojabee  @jurrasicpork

[gay-jesus-probably]

Pls talk about your Tron & Rinzler are different personalities headcanon because that's a headcanon of mine too & I saw your post in the tron legacy tag && got rly excited that someone else has that headcanon ahaa

Anon, I will gladly talk about this FOREVER.

Okay so first of all, let me just address the fact that yeah. I know. There is literally no evidence whatsoever in canon for this. But yknow. Rinzler says about nine words total, so whatever’s going on in his head is not going to be shared in a movie. If Legacy was done on a written medium (book or comic) Rinzler probably would have gotten at least one or two scenes from his perspective. But it’s a movie, and we don’t even have facial expressions, so we need to fill in the blanks ourselves of how he gets from ‘loyal enforcer’ to ‘I FIGHT FOR THE USERS’.

And for the record, I’d like to just say that the entire reason I have this headcanon at all is the fic Domestic by tehkittykat on Ao3, the plot of it being that Alan finds what he thinks is Tron dying in the Grid after the events of the movie, repairs him, brings him out into the real world, but upon waking up we find that surprise Tron’s long dead it’s literally just Rinzler, and the plot follows him settling in to the User world, and dealing with the aftermath of like everything from Clu. If you haven’t read it, go read it.

So preamble done with, let’s get into the real meta.

So in the post Anon’s referencing (this one) I mention that I think Tron and Rinzler are separate personalities, and basically different people, due to them having vastly different fighting styles and behaviour. And I believe that for a variety of reasons. I mean for a start, Rinzler can’t possibly be basically just a really fancy black guard. He’s not a standard re-purposed program. First of all, there’s the glaring problem. Tron wasn’t coded by Kevin Flynn. He was made by Alan Bradley. Kevin Flynn is the kind of man who spontaneously wanders out into the wastelands and makes the most important program on the Grid with a fucking mirror or whatever. He’s got all the raw talent and creativity, but not the focus and drive. Wheras on the flip side, it’s canon somewhere that Tron started being programmed two years before the events of the movie. And that the entire thing was Alan’s very slow ultimate gambit to take out the MCP, with plan A being Tron is completed and deletes MCP for being dangerous, and plan B being Tron is deleted by MCP, and the MCP going after independent security gives Alan all the proof he needs to pull the plug from the outside. Heads I win, tails you lose. And he spent two years working on it, apparently covering his ass with a paper trail (”Yes Mr. Dillinger I sent you a memo on my Tron project”), and also got in good with Gibbs to stop him from getting fired without reason. My point is, Alan Bradley is damn meticulous, and Tron’s coding definitely reflects that. So when it comes to repurposing, the standard work we see in Uprising wouldn’t be enough. Clu probably had to manually overwrite Tron’s code, and it probably was a long and frustrating process. Flynn’s coding probably has holes. Alan’s, not so much.

So, that’s the first reason. Rinzler would have to be much more complex than any black guard, because Tron’s coding would be deeply confusing and borderline alien to Clu, and much more meticulously written than any other program on the Grid, including Clu. I’d imagine if an ISO or User was ever repurposed, it would be the same story, on account of them being fundamentally different from anything Clu is used to.

Second of all, as I’ve mentioned, the biggest clue (no pun intended) is the fighting style. Just look at Tron fighting in the original, Uprising, and the flashback in Legacy. He stays planted on the ground. He’s not flipping around, either with an audience or without. Wheras Rinzler, as we all know, might as well be flying for all he stays on the ground. The man is made of unnecessary acrobatics, and let’s all be honest here it’s fucking awesome. But it’s about as far removed from Tron’s style as you can get. I mean obviously, both are getting the same badassery ranking, but Tron’s more of a ‘straightforwards brute strength’ style, while Rinzler is a ‘momentum and using opponents own actions against them’ kind of fighter. Both damn good, but very different. Rinzler’s ridiculously dynamic. And he’s like that the entire movie. A few meta posts suggest that he was programmed by Clu to drag out arena fights with his acrobatic style, but that’s only really taking in mind the arena fight against Sam. We do see him fight again, against Quorra on the Recitifier, and against Sam and Quorra on the Throneship. There’s no audience for those fights, and more importantly, there’s no Clu. If Rinzler was going to switch back to Tron’s sharp, efficient style, that would be the time. But instead, he sticks with the flipping, and handles things in the same style. Sure, he does it a lot faster, but that’s probably because Sam in the arena was being approached as ‘goddamn idiot walked right into this, might as well fuck with him first’, while Sam and Quorra later on are both taken as ‘this is serious lets get this shit over with quickly’. I feel like if it was just a badly corrupted Tron in there, he’d switch back to his normal fighting style the second Clu wasn’t watching. Muscle memory and all, or whatever the program equivalent is. But he doesn’t, because that was never Rinzler’s style to begin with.

And overall, just. Experience. I think it’s unanimously agreed that Rinzler does not have access to Tron’s memories, and is not supposed to, because you really don’t want your brainwashed enforcer to remember how much he hates you. That’s just common sense. So, even if Rinzler started out as just a brainwashed and corrupted Tron, he’s around for roughly 20 years, give or take however long Uprising lasts. And time moves slower in the Grid, so it’s more like over a thousand years by their standards I think. My point is, Tron’s around for about nine human years, Rinzler’s around for about twenty. Even if they’re not a split personality, Tron’s going to come out of the whole experience more Rinzler than Tron (AND WE ARE NOT EVEN CONSIDERING HIM DYING AT THE END OF THE MOVIE THEY DON’T SPECIFICALLY SHOW HIM DEREZZING SO HE’S ALIVE AS FAR AS I CARE FUCK YOU). And really, Clu is Clu. There’s no fucking way Rinzler had a safe and supportive enviroment during that 20-ish years. The man tortured and brainwashed him, and as we see, has some stunning anger issues. I think it’s a unanimous fandom agreement that Clu was majorly abusive towards Rinzler, because there’s no risk of retaliation, nobody to stop him, and Clu’s already got Issues over Tron. I mean, just re-watch Legacy (it’s on Netflix), and pay close attention to Rinzler’s body language. His posture becomes hunched over and submissive whenever Clu’s in the scene with him. He looks like he wants to bolt sometimes. It’s subtle, but the staging and body language definitely implies some very not good things happening to Rinzler during pretty much his entire life. So even if there’s no split personality to start with, Tron was used to either loyally serving a caring higher power (Alan, Flynn, and pre-coup Clu) or fighting against a tyrannical oppressor (MCP and post-coup Clu). His relationship with figures of authority was either something positive, or something openly antagonistic that he openly fought against. And on the flip side, Rinzler only ever served under Clu. He didn’t have the option to leave the abusive situation, or even openly resist it. His only options would have been to endure, and to quietly manipulate events and people to protect himself. Like, during the scene where he’s dragging Quorra off to what is implied to be some very fucking horrifying things? Rinzler doesn’t show any hesitation at all, and I’m willing to bet that his thought process is something along the lines of ‘if Clu’s focusing on her, he’s not paying attention to me’, because that’s what abusive situations do to your head. Everything comes down to survival, and protecting yourself. Your priorities shift dramatically, because they have to, or you’re not going to make it. Ironically, the best way to survive abuse is to pick up abusive traits to defend yourself, and there’s nothing wrong with protecting yourself from your abuser, the real struggle is trying to get rid of the abusive traits once you get out. Rinzler’s likely about as far away from Tron’s ‘holy paladin’ type as possible. They may not have been a split personality at first, but they would inevitably get there just from the vastly different lives and experiences. It’s nature vs. nurture.

As for Rinzler not talking, it’s kind of annoying that we never get a canon explanation for that. Personally, I figure that it’s either ‘severe damage to the talking parts makes speech painful and difficult’, or ‘Clu has ordered Rinzler to only speak when absolutely necessary’. Or possibly some combination of the two. Either way, it means we just don’t get Rinzler’s view on the matter, which deeply upsets me. Because, as I’ve mentioned, Legacy treats Rinzler like shit, a writer deserves to be slapped for the line “Tron, what have you become”, and my husband needs to be saved.

In summary, read Domestic, fuck the Legacy writers, Rinzler and Tron are different personalities, and if anyone wants to know my full opinions on what the fuck was up between Rinzler and Clu just ask because a full examination of that one is going to need it’s own post and a nice assortment of trigger warnings.

and I meant to go to bed and answer this in the morning but i kept writing this in my head so i gave up and got up to write this. i’m going to bed now. ur welcome everybody.