"You must be Ra's," Tucker stated, careful to keep on a poker face while he frantically assessed the situation - tied down to a chair, in what was probably the heart of this particular fruitloop's lair.
And there was a frankly disturbing number of similarities to the OG fruitloop: the way he stood, the style of his hair, the perpetual sneer.
The way he sent a shiver down Tucker's spine like Vlad used to be able to way back when he was still intimidating.
"Gotta say," Tucker continued, shoving his emotions down like only a human-born liminal that dealt with empathic rogues on the daily could ever manage, "not that impressed. For starters, your vibes are rancid, dude. Like, what do you do, bathe in corruption all day?"
That earned him a slap on the face, "You will speak when spoken to," Ra's ordered.
Tucker witheld a smirk. This guy seemed like the type to order subordinates around to do absolutely everything. The fact that he personally slapped Tucker with his own hand? It could only mean that Tucker was already under the guy's skin.
"Well, that just means I can keep talking since you just spoke to me," Tucker retorted, unafraid of another slap. Really, compared to the abuse he put himself through helping Danny, and the way his liminality skyrocketed in the last couple of years, it was barely even a love-tap. It didn't even sting.
Ra's raised a brow, giving the distinct impression that he was absolutely livid, though that may have been the liminal empathy cluing Tucker in. He'd never been great at reading emotions until that particular ability developed.
"Who do you work for?" Ra's began the interrogation.
Tucker returned with his best affronted glare, "Frankly, I'm offended that you don't believe I could do all this entirely on my own."
"Kill him," Ra's stated as he turned to leave, sounding so unimpressed that it almost seemed bored.
Out of the shadows, an arrow flew straight at Tucker, who slipped his restraints (thank you liminality for giving him limited ghost powers) and caught the arrow before it pierced his chest, "Yeah, no. Imma veto that."
Ra's turned back around, looking almost impressed.
It made Tucker feel way slimier than Vlad could ever hope to achieve. He repressed a shudder. After all, his job here was to keep Ra's distracted while the others invisibly raided the place, destroyed the pits, and planted explosives.
Tucker, being the technopath, would normally stay behind in the chair, but the League of Assassins was well defended against cyber attacks, forcing them to pivot somewhat in order to successfully infiltrate the place. He ended up creating a digital duplicate of himself (a literal duplicate, like Danny could do, but Tucker's duplicate could only ever exist inside of a computer, by all appearances a true AI) that the others could upload to the servers once they found them.
Beyond that, there wasn't much Tucker could do beyond providing a distraction. Sure, the LoA's technology was absolutely worth drooling over, but they didn't rely on it like most of the modern world did. There was no internet connection, electronic locks, or surveillance for Tucker to hack into and make his own. This place was all stone doors and medieval fortifications.
"Impressive," Ra's complimented after a moment of silent appraisal, "perhaps you are worthy of my attention after all."
Tucker scoffed, getting the clear impression that this guy fully expected the ground he walked on to be worshipped after admitting such small praise, "You're not the first megalomaniac I've had to deal with, and you won't be the last." (Team Phantom had an entire list of fruitloops to work through once their LoA financial backing was removed, after all) "I'll give you props for the sweet ninja cult you got going on, though. Gotta say, that's a first for me."
"Assassins," Ra's corrected.
"Same diff," Tucker retorted with a handwave, knowing full well that a guy like Ra's would be miffed by such a dismissal. He further feigned disinterest by examining the arrow he was still holding. Tucker had taken a few archery lessons when he was younger and picked it back up by training a bit under Princess Dora's royal guard. He was... decent, with a bow. He could reliably hit his target as long as he had a couple of seconds to aim - or used something laced in technology that allowed his technopathy to steady it.
The arrow was expertly crafted and perfectly balanced. His heightened liminal senses smelled a substance on the arrowhead - probably a paralytic, not that it would have kept Tucker down for very long, even if it had breached his heart, which would have been a quick death for any baseline human. He tossed it from hand to hand a few times, feeling the weight, the threw it like a dart into one of the nearest shadows. A soft thud echoed through the room when the arrowhead bonked the chestplate of the assassin standing there, then a clatter when it fell to the ground.
"If I had a bow, he'd be dead," Tucker needlessly commented, thumb pointing to the hidden guard. He was somewhat surprised the dude didn't catch the arrow like Tucker had. But then again, if the shadows were meant to fully conceal him, catching the arrow would have given him away from the arrow not making noise or falling to the ground.
"You knew he was there," Ra's stated more than asked.
"And the eleven others," Tucker easily replied, "A full dozen to guard the King of the Cult. Not that it'll make any difference. I've already won."
Tucker didn't have any misconcieved notion that his liminality would give him an edge over a dozen trained assassins. It doesn't really matter how good your senses are or how fast your reflexes when you have to dodge a dozen attacks simultaneously. But what he could do was turn intangible during those first few seconds of adrenaline-fueled panic, more than long enough for either of the Phantoms, neither of which were currently more than a few hundred yards distant, to reach him and drag him away from immediate danger.
So Tucker latched onto that confidence borne of complete trust in his team, and radiated it as much as he could, daring Ra's to call his bluff with nothing more than a knowing smirk.
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Hi all. Here's my take on why Stolas doesn't need a whole rebound relationship with the Better Than Blitzo guy or Vassago or anyone.
It baffles me when people frame his lack of sexual and romantic experience as a problem that needs to be solved through relationships with other people.
I get the idea that he's a sheltered, neurodivergent, and until recently, closeted, gay man going through a second adolescence- and that causes him to have expectations for relationships that are based more on fiction than reality. I really do. And I think the way out of that problem is to truly understand the person he's trying to have a relationship with. Not to learn about relationships in general by dating around in order to practice for the person he actually has feelings for.
I also find it pretty narrow-minded to assume there's some amount of experience (in terms of number of partners) that's necessary for someone to understand relationships. A lot of queer and/or neurospicy folks come to relationships late, and for some that means a lot of different partners, and for others that means falling in love with just one, and both are fine.
A certain number of partners doesn't make you more or less of an adult, and frankly I find it a little infantilizing to assume that Stolas doesn't know who he wants as a 36? year old man just because he hasn't met some threshold for what a "normal" sexual/romantic development is. He might be going through a period of self-discovery where he's overly excited and wrong about things and makes mistakes, but that doesn't mean he's an actual teenager.
Shit, I've had some shorter relationships that I would skip if I could go back in time. Did I learn from them? Sure. Could I have learned those same lessons without them and saved myself some time and frustration? Absolutely.
I don't mind that he made out with some guy at a party. I don't mind that he might hook up with that person. A little experimenting likely won't hurt. It doesn't mean that he needs to go through a whole other relationship in order to discover that he actually loves the person who he knows he loves.
Never mind that Blitz actually does hold the key to Stolas discovering a lot of his shortcomings. And figuring those out is Stolas's whole character arc.
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Part 5 of the Linked Universe Winged Au! In the last poll you guys all voted for him so here he is, Wild!
<<< Previous Next >>>
As always, there has to be a silly little bird fact to start off with so did you know that the American Kestrel is the smallest falcon in North America and only weighs about 3-6 ounces which is the equivalent of 34 pennies? This fact isn't actually important lore wise for this headcanon, but it did remind me of the one post where someone discovered that BoTW Link weighs approximately 8.5 apples.
Anyways, as you may have guessed, Wild is heavily based on the American Kestrel because of their beautiful plumage and their unique behaviors and characteristics.
An example of one of these behaviors is that American Kestrels are known for capitalizing on favorable soaring conditions, such as mountain updrafts and thermals while traveling. In this headcanon, Wild shows this characteristic primarily through his use of Revali's Gale and his tendency to make fires in order to more easily take flight. While his methods are incredibly effective, they do also tend to scare the rest of the group the first time he does them. After all, it's not everyday you see someone make a fire and then run headfirst into it just to take off.
While this specific habit of his may appear to just be a funny little quirk that he just does because he's WILD, it's actually a result of his near death experience with Guardians. The scars on his face and body may be clearly visible to everyone around him, but the damage done to his wings is actually far less noticeable. His various injuries and scars actually have a major impact on his ability to take off and effect his stamina needed to maintain flight for long periods of time. Because of this, he tends to use the aforementioned methods to aid his flight or oftentimes simply chooses to leap off high surfaces and glide rather than attempt to take flight.
However, despite having difficulties with the initial takeoff and his struggles to maintain flight for long periods of time, he's actually very adept and capable of fighting in the air. The way he fights allows him to deliver sharp, agile, and accurate killing blows to his enemies in a way that others describe as, "Witnessing time seemingly slowing down for everyone but him." In other words, he's a real force to be reckoned in once he's finally airborne.
Anyways, there's more I could explain but that's all for now folks! As always, kudos to all those who read all that lore dump and thank you again for always being so kind and supportive! All your words of encouragement always inspire me to worker harder! Thank you all and please feel free to reach out with any questions or requests for who or what you would like to see next!
P.S. After much encouragement I did recently make a TikTok account where I'll try to be posting regularly! Feel free to check it and my Twitter out at sass_squat3! Thank you all again for your support! :D
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Extremely slightly obsessed with the implications of TIES not being in 3rd Life-
Like literally ALL of them were in Dogwarts at one point or another, and I feel like the fact that there were so many of them was kinda what elevated Dogwarts to be as powerful as it was. So either people who weren't part of Dogwarts initially were a part of it in dbhc or they weren't NEARLY as much of a threat to the other factions as they were in canon.
The Crastle Alliance as well involved Impulse and Tango, so they're also cut in half in dbhc (which kinda makes me ponder a world in which Dogwarts and the Crastle fused into a single faction 👀)
Jimmy wouldn't have lost his life in Dare to Flare but honestly he'd've prolly lost it anyways to something else so that's not too much of a difference XD
There's probably also more butterfly effect stuff that I've missed by not watching TIES' povs but I am very interested in seeing what you have in mind (if you ever choose to expand on it in the future). I'm very curious how the clock plays into it...
(Also as an added ponderance, I can't help but wonder if Etho Hopper Clocks have another name in this universe since Etho wasn't alive to make them (or, for the funny route, if Etho was named after the clock instead of the other way around XD)
HM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s crazy that you would say all of those things in that order (i’m making really big eyes at you and nodding furiously. You’re following the exact train of thought that started this immensely deep rabbit hole)
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if we should protect children because they are vunerable, this means you would protect cruel children who bullies people who different than them then. the children who responsible to trauma for someone else's entire years
You're assuming that "protecting" children is the same as absolving them of responsibility and that's not what I said. All children are vulnerable, because all children are children; they don't come out of the womb with a perfectly working moral compass anymore than they come out of it waiting to hurt people--they're vulnerable because their understanding of the world is entirely at the mercy of what we, as adults, consistently tell them and show them. Children behaving cruelly aren't exempt from that--they learn that cruelty from somewhere, or someone. Your job, as the adult, is to make sure they understand that it's unacceptable so it will not happen again--but your job is also to ask why someone that young is behaving this way to begin with, so you can ensure they become better.
"Protecting" kids is not ignoring when they hurt or torment others, it's not refusing to teach them consequences or right from wrong, it's not "zero tolerance" policies in schools that treat a child being bullied and the child bullying them as equal instigators, and it's certainly not protecting them from recognizing, and atoning for, the pain they have caused someone else. You don't have to make peace with the now-adults who hurt you when you both were kids, but you cannot let the horrors of your own childhood impact how you treat or respond to the children living theirs around you right now, either.
You don't protect kids so they can get a free pass for bullying or tormenting another child. You protect them because kids are impulsive, emotionally reactive, and profoundly social (which means deeply impressionable) human beings who are still learning & processing insane amounts of information every day about what it means to be alive, to be alive as yourself, to be alive as yourself with other people. Protecting them is realising that you can't isolate the responsibility of a 10 year old from the bigger responsibility of the literal grown adults around them, adults who are in charge of teaching them about the world and how to behave in it. Whether you have children of your own in the future or not is completely irrelevant to this; we all become those adults eventually--no matter what happened to us as kids.
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Some instances that I feel show how some messages in MHA are detrimental, especially on how victims react to their abuser, can be gauged by responses that tend to be highly prevalent in the fandom.
(Definitely not every fan, but a great majority).
Endeavor is a great example. Whenever you post criticizing his approach to atonement (and ultimately criticizing Horikoshi’s writing), you get BOMBARDED by people either belittling you for not liking his character or essentially forcing you to like his character by frantically writing “at least he tried” arguments.
If I have the CHOICE whether to forgive his character or not, especially given he goes through an atonement arc and not a redemption arc, why is any form of criticism about his abusive behavior and essentially his abuse of power practically ignored by the story unacceptable?
The message was detrimental because people operate on the notion that for victims to be good people, they must forgive and even help their abusers. MHA presents people who choose not to forgive him as either a monster (Toya) or inconvenient (Natsuo). And if they are still unforgiving, they must admire the abuser for doing the bare minimum (taking responsibility; this is also about Natsuo).
Essentially, they are considered "imperfect victims" because they weren't merciful in their approach to their abuser.
The majority of the fandom tends to ignore the lack of actual consequences for Endeavor's actions because he vows to talk to Toya every day. Insisting that doing the bare minimum, which is recognizing his son's existence and suffering, became his "hell" is a wildly fucked up message, in my opinion.
It harps on the issue mentioned above that if a victim isn't receptive to forgiveness or doesn't act "demure," they are seen as an inconvenience—which is how the Todoroki family ultimately views Toya.
On a less critical note, I'll vent, so if you don't like this, just ignore it.
I'm so fucking tired of stories depicting imperfect victims as people who deserve death and torture. Plus, having to be on the brunt of so many people acting like you're morally fucked because you're not impressed with how a writer handled abuse. Horikoshi is not the first writer to try to atone a character who is an abuser (and he isn't the first to fail at that, either).
I'm not about to dick-ride every decision every author makes. Especially if the message convinces some audience members that victims are inherently broken if they can't bring themselves to forgive and/or admire someone who hurt them.
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