#what's the point of being strong if he isn't stronger than his brother

[worstloki]

Thor attempts mithridatism after becoming painfully aware that Loki has means to naturally counter poisons and drugs through magic while Thor does not

[daytaker]

Hii if you have time, could you do one where the brothers react to an mc who is naturally distant? Like they just prefer to be by themselves 90% of the time so it will be hard to bond with them at first?

Hope you're having a good day! :D

Oh, you mean me, unfiltered? Damn. Well, you asked for it.

Skip to the end for my actual thoughts on what would happen as a whole. But first for the individual brothers, because I think this is what Anon wanted.

Reacting to a Highly Introverted MC

Lucifer

Lucifer isn't particularly bothered by this. If anything, it's a relief, because if you're off entertaining yourself and not assisting his brothers with hijinks, that saves him a huge amount of time and stress.

Once you get to know each other a little better though, he'll probably appreciate your quiet presence simply for what it is. You're someone he can sit in comfortable silence with while he works. He probably isn't one of the brothers who connects with MC by uncovering their more open side, but it might make him a relief to spend time with, since you need that quiet time to recharge after time with Asmo and Mammon.

Mammon

Mammon doesn't get it at first. He thinks you're haughty, or you think you're better than him, maybe because you hold prejudices against demons. After a few somewhat forced encounters where you have no choice but to interact with Mammon, he starts to get to know your less reserved side, and eventually he realizes you're not an asshole, you're just quiet and spend a lot of time on your own. He's not especially good at respecting your need for alone time, as boundaries have never been his strong suit, but if you're able to be assertive with him, he'll reluctantly give you your space.

If anything, your distance from others in general makes him think that your friendship is even MORE special than he does with Vanilla MC. Because it isn't like you're going around making friends with everybody left right and center, but he's still one of the lucky few.

Leviathan

I get the feeling that you and Levi would actually get on very well if you ever took the time to actually learn anything about each other. That's the sticking point though. Unless you are interested in anime and express it in a way that Levi can easily see (a T-shirt, for example) he won't think to open up to you. After all, what's there to be gained from revealing any specifics of his interests to some normie who's just going to mock him for his interests.

Satan

Satan probably sees you as something of a kindred spirit: aloof and content to watch things from the sidelines much of the time. He won't make any attempt to connect with you over this though, so it's pretty useless. It won't be until you've made some sort of expression of interest in him as a person, or in something he's interested in (read: books or cats) that he deigns it worthwhile to approach you. From that point, though, you probably spend a fair amount of time in each others' presence, not unlike your relationship with Lucifer.

Asmodeus

When you aren't immediately drawn to Asmo and his magnetic personality and devastating good looks, he isn't sure what to think. His reaction isn't too different from Mammons, but it's maybe a little stronger. He's also more persistent in trying to get you to open up with him. He sees your distance as a challenge, and either he'll succeed in getting you to open up with his warmth and charisma, or he'll only manage to push you further away.

Beelzebub

Beelzebub isn't that bothered by your need to be alone. He's very attuned to other people and their wants and needs, so he sort of implicitly understands that you're distant because being distant serves a purpose for you and keeps you happy and healthy. Because he seems to understand you and doesn't pressure you into things you aren't comfortable with, but also doesn't show absolutely no interest in getting to know you, he's probably one of if not the first brother you open up to a bit and begin spending time with.

Belphegor

Belphie isn't too impressed by your distance. He's not the sort to put a whole ton into building a relationship, so without you putting in a large amount of the effort, that bridge isn't going to be built anytime soon. If you ever did manage to get comfortable enough around each other, though, you would probably be pretty good nap buddies.

I'll finish off with a general, plot-related train of thought I found interesting when writing this...

Generally, being distant just slows down the progression of your relationship with each of the brothers. When you aren't that interested in going out and getting to know some of them, like Levi and Satan, it's going to be a lot harder to become close to them. Not to mention that if we're going with OG Season 1 as the starting point, who knows if you ever even meet Belphie, no matter how often he sends cryptic messages and calls for help through the walls.

Not meeting Belphie will slow down the entire plot, naturally, because you have no impetus to start making pacts. It's possible that Levi is able to get you to manipulate Mammon into a pact the same way he did in the original, but beyond that, you don't really have a reason to go around making pacts with anybody.

So when it's been a year and you've only got a single pact and the entire arc with Belphie doesn't happen and your connection to Lilith is never revealed....then what? Belphie is still locked in the attic, and who knows what will happen with that. If Lucifer releases him, I see two possibilities: he tries to revolt against Diavolo, which is stupid, or he goes and wreaks havoc in the human world. Lucifer would probably see that too, and he'd just stay in the attic. Lucifer would have to come up with new reasons to explain Belphie's absence to his brothers, and Beel, given his connection with Belphie, would probably become suspicious and begin to uncover the truth purely this way. Really, now that I think of it, this kind of lays bare the plot hole that Belphie could have told his brothers about what was happening through their dreams all along, but we'll skim over that for now.

Basically, if MC is hyper-introverted, the entire house of cards that is the Obey Me Cinematic Universe collapses in on itself.

[synchodai]

for those not familiar with jacegan and fan theories, could you elaborate on what you think happened when jace and cregan met, the pact they made, the whole issue of baela and sara snow, jace’s death, black aly, etc?

Well, I did write a series about this, but time to bring back the conspiracy board...

the pact of ice and fire

Cregan and Jacaerys took a liking to each other, for the boy prince reminded the Lord of Winterfell of his own younger brother, who had died ten years before. They drank together, hunted together, trained together, and swore an oath of brotherhood, sealed in blood [...] Cregan Stark and Jacaerys Velaryon reached an accord, and signed and sealed the agreement that Grand Maester Munkun calls “the Pact of Ice and Fire” in his True Telling. - F&B

Note that Munkun is basing "the pact of ice of fire" around what he knows from Orwyle's testimony and rumors, meaning that out of the three primary sources in the book (Orwyle, Mushroom, Eustace), none of them were there to actually witness what Jace did in the Vale and the North. That being said, Cregan seemed to ally with the blacks based on three things:

The oath sworn by his late father, Rickon Stark,

A promise of marriage between his heir and Jace's firstborn daughter,

And that he just really grew a liking to Jace.

The first one suffices for a lot of readers as reason for Cregan Stark to throw his lot in with the blacks. He named his firstborn after his father, so it's a logical conclusion that he wants to honor his vows.

The second one is a bit iffy since betrothals to daughters who don't exist from a guy who isn't even married yet sounds like a bad trade-off, but some have excused this by saying that Cregan Stark really wanted dragonriding blood in his lineage for some reason.

And the third one is what the shippers latch onto to, and which I believe may have weighed more in his decision-making process than #1 and #2. The reason for that being Cregan Stark himself deciding to lead an army of men whose goal was pretty much to die in battle. He had every reason not to take up command and march south:

Winter had arrived and those days were crucial for bringing in the last harvests. Cregan amassing his host and marching as he did arguably may have partially resulted in the famine in the North that we see in Aegon III's regency.

His only heir was three-years-old at the time, so if he dies in battle, the only Stark in Winterfell would be a toddler.

And it must needs be said again, the northern army was looking to die. Cregan seemed to be on the same suicidal warpath because his plan was to recklessly go scorched earth.

Others had started this war, Lord Cregan was heard to say, but he meant to finish it, to continue south and destroy all that remained of the greens who had placed Aegon II on the Iron Throne and fought to keep him there. He would reduce Storm’s End first, then cross the Reach to take Oldtown. Once the Hightower had fallen, he would take his wolves north along the shores of the Sunset Sea to visit Casterly Rock. [...] When Kermit Tully pointed out that Storm’s End, Oldtown, and Casterly Rock were as strong as Stark’s own Winterfell (if not stronger) and would not fall easily (if at all), and young Ben Blackwood echoed him and said, “Half your men will die, Lord Stark,” the grey-eyed Wolf of Winterfell replied, “They died the day we marched, boy.”

The non-shipping interpretation here is that Cregan Stark is a paranoid opportunist who wants to thin the herd, so to speak, and trusts no one because of his own childhood trauma of being betrayed by his uncle. But this can also be read as Cregan Stark as having a deathwish himself. But for what reason? He's twenty-three with a child and a whole realm to govern. Why is he so openly hostile to the blacks like Corlys who are supposedly his allies for "failing to protect the king"? You know, the same king that Cregan was ostensibly looking to kill himself?

Unless, the king he's thinking about isn't Aegon II. Maybe it was a black king instead of a green king that Corlys failed. Cregan's actions just make more sense if they're driven by vengeance than a need to "end the war" when the war is already ending and he's the one ramping it up.

Let's look at additional evidence that supports this reading.

the sara snow question

But we turn to Mushroom to find the tales other chronicles omit, nor does he fail us now. His account introduces a young maiden, or “wolf girl” as he dubs her, with the name of Sara Snow. So smitten was Prince Jacaerys with this creature, a bastard daughter of the late Lord Rickon Stark, that he lay with her of a night. On learning that his guest had claimed the maidenhead of his bastard sister, Lord Cregan became most wroth, and only softened when Sara Snow told him that the prince had taken her for his wife. They had spoken their vows in Winterfell’s own godswood before a heart tree, and only then had she given herself to him, wrapped in furs amidst the snows as the old gods looked on.

The book itself tells us to take Mushroom's account with a giant block of salt, so most people just tend to dismiss Sara Snow entirely. The readers who do like to think that she existed do so because they like that it complicates Jace's relationship with Baela and how she could possibly have allowed Jace to explore or confront his issues with his bastardy.

However, if she did exist, it raises some questions like:

Why is she a non-entity, being only mentioned twice in the book? While not the focus of F&B, we still get updates on Cregan and the North post-Dance but Sara Snow is never mentioned in any of them. She wasn't even mentioned attending Cregan's eventual wedding to Black Aly.

Why did Cregan never bring her up during his time in King's Landing? If Jace did marry his sister and she got pregnant with his child, that would explain his zeal to secure the throne for his nephew who has a claim to it, but Cregan just never mentions the marriage at all.

Why would he still be friends and so loyal to someone who deflowered his sister under his roof? Doesn't seem like a very bro thing for Jace to do.

So we split the difference between Sara Snow existing and not existing by assuming that the person Jace slept with was actually Cregan Stark.

delaying the marriage to baela

Though Baela also announced her intent to marry Jace at once, no wedding was ever held. Munkun says the prince did not wish to wed until the war was over, whilst Mushroom claims Jacaerys was already married to Sara Snow, the mysterious bastard girl from Winterfell.

This is the second and last time Sara Snow is mentioned. Admittedly, there are plenty of practical reasons Jace and Baela's wedding was postponed — foremost being that consummating their union meant getting Baela pregnant and losing an active dragonrider.

However, we add this to the conspiracy board because GRRM didn't have to include this detail. No one reading the book would have questioned why Jace and Baela never wed, but he called attention to it anyway, so it must mean something beyond being distracted by the ongoing war. Even more interesting is how this passage specifies that Baela wanted to get married at once, heavily implying that it was specifically Jace who delayed it.

It's also interesting that what comes after this is...

the gay abandon

Their father, Prince Daemon, had made many friends in the Free City of Pentos during his visits there, so Jacaerys reached across the narrow sea to the prince of that city, who agreed to foster the two boys until Rhaenyra had secured the Iron Throne. In the waning days of 129 AC, the young princes boarded the cog Gay Abandon—Aegon with Stormcloud, Viserys clutching his egg—to set sail for Essos.

I grant you that this my farthest and most tinfoil take, but mentioning delaying Jace and Baela's wedding and following it up with Jace arranging for a ship called the Gay Abandon? Wow, to be abandoned by a gay, huh?

baela targaryen

“Not even the tears of a dragon could melt the frozen heart of Cregan Stark, men said rightly,” Mushroom tells us, “but when Lady Baela brandished a sword and declared that she would cut off the hand of any man who sought to harm the men who had saved her, the Wolf of Winterfell smiled for all to see, and allowed that if her ladyship was so fond of these dogs, he would permit her to keep them.”

This is Cregan and Baela's one interaction in the book — her threatening him and him being impressed enough to back off. Prior to this interaction, other men and women have pleaded with and threatened him, but Baela is one of two people who actually get him to spare someone from getting sentenced and executed. This could just mean that Baela is a badass, which she is, but combine that with the other person who does this feat and we may see a bit of a pattern.

black aly

“A lean tall creature was this wench,” says the dwarf, “thin as a whip and flat-chested as a boy, but long of leg and strong of arm, with a mane of thick black curls that tumbled down past her waist when loosed.” [...] Though Black Aly was no man’s queen of love and beauty, her fearlessness, stubborn strength, and bawdy tongue struck a chord for the Lord of Winterfell, who soon began to seek out her company in hall and yard. “She smells of woodsmoke, not of flowers,” Stark told Lord Cerwyn, said to be his closest friend.

This is the woman Cregan eventually marries and ends his scorched earth campaign. Now, Baela's connection to Jace is obvious — she's his cousin/step-sibling/betrothed. But I argue that Black Aly may remind Cregan of Jace even more strongly than Baela did. Here are their similarities:

They are of the same age. Black Aly is 16. Jace was 15 when he arrived at Winterfell and would jave been 16-17 by the time Cregan arrived in King's Landing.

She looks like a boy.

She has thick, black curls and dark eyes.

She is the eldest sibling who is acting as de facto head of their House.

She loves riding and smells of smoke. You know...maybe like a dragonrider.

Cregan's desire to enact "justice" seems to be quenched once he secures a marriage with her — which makes little sense if his initial motivations were to get dragonriding blood into his line, to "clean up the mess" of the war, or to kill off his men and grab the spoils of war. However, if the driving force behind all of this had been grief over a love lost too soon, then it suddenly makes sense that he calms down when someone else makes him experience love anew, yes?

Anyways, Cregan is a himbo bi-icon and Brokeback Winterfell happened — it just makes sense.

(Art by Yanh Hyung on X)

[lakeside-paradise]

Sae and Rin's relationship actually causes me so much pain. They were so happy when they were little (Mostly. See near the end for more elaboration on that).

They grew up together with soccer making them so strong as a pair. Rin was never meant to play soccer. It just so happened that he was completely fascinated by his brother's skills. He first kicked a ball when his brother was unable to score a goal after getting his scoring range cut off. After that, they were a pair. And when Sae was given that golden opportunity in Spain, they were still so happy. Rin was happy for Sae, and Sae was excited about where his soccer career would go.

The pride in Rin's eyes honestly breaks my heart, because he has that same smile when he gets to see Sae back after so long. But when he does come back, he's not the same brother that Rin recognised. He was lost, exhausted, crushed underfoot with his dream squashed and manipulated because the people in Spain were too strong, and he had to bow to them. Rin had never seen his brother like that before.

He looks completely empty here. They must have been the worst four years in his life, and despite the fact that he loves his brother so dearly, it must crush him to see Rin carrying on with his dream. Rin still wants to be a striker, but from Sae's point of view, that was a dream he could no longer have despite his skill being so much stronger than Rin's. So maybe he wanted to protect him. Maybe he wanted to encourage him in his own broken way. Maybe he didn't want Rin to look up to him anymore because he was so different to the brother than Rin knew and loved. Either way, Sae shattered their relationship that night. And Rin was crushed.

But he's not like his brother. He continued to believe that he could be the best in the world, but that's no longer because he wants to fight alongside Sae to be the best. He wants to break Sae in the same way that he broke Rin. His love for soccer turned to hatred, which is why he never looks happy while playing anymore. He played soccer just because Sae told him that he could, that he could be the second best in the world, by Sae's side forever. (Sound familiar, ReoNagi shippers?) Sae's dream changed, Rin's withered. Now they have their own separate goals.

When they see each other again for the first time in years, Rin lets his hatred show through, glaring at Sae as if trying to get his attention, to show him how much he hates him, how far he's come without his brother. But Sae doesn't even look at him. He doesn't give Rin what he wants, and that isn't because he doesn't care. At least, in my opinion. No, he just doesn't want to do anything that will stop Rin's hatred for him or make it even worse.

On the pitch, Rin has the same expression, still so angry and obsessed with beating his brother once and for all. But Sae is professional, treating Rin like he's just another opponent to beat, just another person to get through. That's why he's able to beat Rin one on one the first time around. He doesn't have any feelings for Rin on the pitch, unlike Rin's obsessive hatred.

Sae's biggest weapon against his brother is his words. It could be both a direct attack against Rin, like the day that Sae came back from Spain and used his words and his insults to break his brother's resolve and determination. Back then, Sae used any weapon he could to destroy Rin's love of soccer, making sure that Rin wouldn't look up to him ever again. And in the past, it really did work.

Now I'm not gonna lie, if someone I loved and looked up to that much said something like that to me, it would absolutely destroy me as well. For four years, Rin had dedicated his training and soccer games to be a striker who could match Sae, who could play alongside him and support him. But after seeing his brother for the first time in all those years, all he had to say to his little brother was that he was a defective product, that he wasn't needed.

This time, Rin doesn't let Sae take advantage of his mental state. He doesn't allow the insults to get to him. He knows what his abilities are and how good a player he is. And after being crushed by Sae's ego and words years ago, he isn't going to let that happen to him again. He uses that new outlook and his newfound 'Flow State' to completely dominate the field until his final block against his brother left the ball to Yoichi Isagi, allowing him to score that incredible last goal.

Now, their reactions after the game are just so interesting to me. Rin finally beat his brother, he finally got what he wanted. His brother walks over to him, speaks to him, acknowledges Rin for the first time that game with gentleness and for a second, Rin thinks for just a second that they can carry on as before. Sae will be the number one striker, and Rin will follow just behind. But once again, Sae can't keep eye contact with him. He knows he won't be able to be the player that Rin wants, so he tells him to focus on Yoichi Isagi instead, to work with him instead. But that's not what Rin wants, and once again, he feels crushed by his brother.

His ego takes over once again and he lashes out at the person who Sae told him to play alongside. From the very beginning, Blue Lock and everyone inside were just stepping stones for him to overpower and beat until he was able to play soccer with his brother and show him how much he had changed from that one day in the snow. But Sae refused to acknowledge that, he didn't want his brother to be dragged down by him, and so Rin continued to hate him, and his way of playing soccer wouldn't go back to how it was before.

Now. There were a few things that didn't make sense to me in the U20 game, such as Sae mentioning Rin's 'Flow State'. According to the manga, there was no reason that Sae should have seen this state before, especially since they only really learned what 'Flow' meant in Chapter 111 (If I'm correct). But Sae mentions being familiar with it:

I spent a long time trying to figure out what Sae meant by "You can still make that face, huh. What's with you?" I just assumed he meant that Rin could still continue with that determination even when Sae kept blocking him over and over again and Rin never being able to get past. But with Chapter 270 and 271 coming out, it sure explains a lot more. Rin had had a similar facial expression a few times before, back when he was little.

For reasons that aren't clear yet, Rin had been quite a heavy-handed child, breaking toys constantly whenever he got too excited and began to show a strong interest in death as a whole and being able to die after killing someone stronger than him. I'll talk more about that just a little bit later. But this is a clear example of a premature 'Flow State', with Rin getting far too caught up in his own actions, like during that soccer game, where he was barely aware of his own surroundings, but fully aware at the same time. Sae recognised it all too well.

Their relationship as kids were, like I said before, overwhelmingly positive, mostly. Sae had inspired Rin to play soccer, and Rin was someone who could work alongside Sae and help him in ways that other players couldn't, making them an unstoppable duo, also making it seem like they were the only other players on the entire pitch. But that wasn't just it. I'm not sure about their parents as a whole, but their father keeps ringing warning bells in my head.

The way their father is standing behind them makes me nervous, just like it does with Rin. Here, Rin doesn't seem like a guilty child who just doesn't want to tell the truth. He seems worried about what his parents might do or say, which is why he also asks Sae if he thinks they will be angry. Sae notices that Rin looks afraid and uncertain, so he steps in to reassure him and take the blame instead.

As an abuse survivor with an older sibling who took the blame for me as much as I took the blame for them growing up, I can see a similar attitude here. Rin's uncertain fidgeting, Sae instantly taking the blame and then sticking his tongue at Rin to reassure him all seems like a sibling trying to protect them from abuse or something similar. And while his father saying "Come here for a bit, Sae." could just mean Sae needing to fix the toys that 'he' broke (as we see toys fixed later), it still makes me uncomfortable.

Anyway. Like I mentioned, Sae will do anything to protect and reassure his brother, which is why he tries to comfort Rin in his own way when he got upset about being treated like he was weird. The last thing that Sae wants is for Rin to be upset, so he's always there to comfort him.

But despite how close they are and how fiercely protective Sae is when it comes to Rin, I can't help but think there are times that Rin scares Sae, especially when he mentions his new fascination with death and becoming excited at the thought of destroying someone else and then dying himself. When Sae hears that, he looks visibly worried and a little scared, and considering the fact that he's just a kid as well, it's understandable that he'd look so worried.

We also know from this chapter that Rin has hurt himself several times in order to get himself used to the feeling of being broken down and beaten. It's likely that this was the first time that Sae had heard anything like that from Rin, so it must have been worrying to him to see his little brother always coming home hurt. As much as Sae tries to protect his little brother from the world and how terrifying it could be, it must have been the first time that Sae doubted he could protect his brother from something like that.

Anyway. That concludes my long-ass essay of the Itoshi siblings. I had to cut down on a few details because I hit the image limit and I'm sure there were still some things I missed out. But here it is.

Edit because I saw an amazing post from @animentality :

I was putting a lot of heavy emphasis on Sae and the way he completely crushed Rin's dreams, but I don't think I put enough emphasis on Sae himself.

He was completely crushed by the time he came back. You put it wonderfully when you said that Sae looked like he wanted to die. He looked like he had lost everything, and in a way, he did. No, he wasn't right for what he said or did, but at the same time, he had been completely broken down, and Rin wasn't helping him. It's understandable that Rin would be excited that his brother had returned, but like you also said, Rin should have read the room and Sae's mood.

At that moment, Sae really didn't need to hear about Rin and everything that had been happening. He needed Rin to reassure him and tell him that they didn't need to talk about soccer at that moment. Their dreams could wait while Sae got the rest he needed and deserved, to recover his sense of self, to try to gain back everything that he lost.

But Rin, in all his innocence, didn't give Sae that reassurance, and considering that Sae had had his dream destroyed in Spain, why would he think that Rin's dream would be able to stay afloat, especially since he always saw himself second to Sae.

Both had a part to play in that argument, and Sae went too far. That's for certain. But Rin also went too far, and that can't be denied. Not only that, Rin started it. Both were responsible for the way their relationship shattered and not all the blame can be put on either party.

[marejuka]

Dreams that made me soaked

TW;CNC,Degraiding💛🧡🖤

Concept:older brother from bully victim makes you regrett your behavior

Following of part one

"Come in,you might like this"

his voice sounded spiteful, my heart was racing. hopefully the two of them didn't tell anyone what was going on here

The brother entered the room and immediately smiled nasty. The guy above me got up but when i tried to do the same he pressed me with one hand on his bed.

"Remember the girl i told you about? The small girl that keeps making fun of me?" His brother nodded at his Statement and got closer to the bed and me.I writhed under his hand and tried to get free but he was too strong seemed like he didnt even notice my struggle.

His hand wanders once again to my neck so his brother has free access to touch my breasts. His touche Was rougher than his little brothers. My whimpers just made him go rougher on my titts,his huge hands fit perfectly on my tits. "apparently what he told me isn't true, you seem to be as tame as a lamb" my moans got Hotter every second that he groped me. I held on to the younger man's arm, he looked down on me and watched me like a predetor.

my instinct became stronger than my understanding , the unpleasant moisture between my legs became unbearable

My hand slid down my body and between my legs. Both guys towered over me,looked down on me in Lust and desire. It made me so dizzy in my head and my body so hot. I felt pathetic fingering my pussy but it all felt so good I couldn't resist.

I saw that the younger brother Was stroking his cock trough his pants and the older grinded slightly on my tigh. I closed my eyes and felt my dress being pulled down being completely naked in front of them made my pussy even more wet.

the big brother took out his dick and rubbed it on my naked leg,his hands let go of my breats and caressed my body Till he got down to my cunt. His long Fingers played around my entrance,the Touch gave me goosebumps. It felt like a dream when he entered my pussy with his Fingers. He was much taller than his lil brother. I felt like his playtoy, after I opened my eyes I saw the face of the boy who let go of my neck and turned to his dick. He looked down at me and then again at the hairbrush.

"Do you think that shes too tight for Real fcking?"

His brother laughed and nodded,his one Finger was already really filling for me and he could tell too.I looked at them in fear of being Degraided like that. i heard the younger man talk about getting me used to a bigger size and immediately tried to convince them that this doesn't have to happen and that I can just give them both a blowjob. They didnt seem to care at all. my efforts remained in vain,I was turned onto my stomach and pulled by my hair onto all fours. My pleas and whimpers got whinier too the point the older brother spanked my ass so hard i couldnt say a word anymore.

The older guy looked at his younger and shy brother that still wasnt doing anything else but rocking his dick."Stop being such a burden here, you can do anything you want with her,if not get out and let me have a good time alone with her" his harsh words got him out of his trance and he kissed me The raspy voice between my legs sounded again "now your gonna feel a little stretched Baby" the boy kissing took my wrists and pressed them above my head without stopping sucking on my lips "please stop"my whiny voice encouraged him even more.

When the first centimetres penetrated me it felt painful like a burning sensation, i couldnt keep myself from moaning in the boys mouth.

it went deeper and deeper until i felt it in my belly,my eyes rolled into the back of my head and my moans got louder and high pitchted.

I could feel the younger man smile while kissing me. the older carassed my tummy while slowly moving the brush, the pain turned into embarrassing pleasure. i didnt care anymore how pathetic i look underneath both men, the wet sounds that comes from my pussy didnt make me nervous but a little degraided.

His thrusts got harder and harder till i couldnt contain myself from straight up whining,the brush stretched me out so hard and the rough thrusts hurt my climax. the young brother got up,still holding my wrists and looking down on my face distorted with pain and lust. He was out of breath and red in his shy face.

"please your too rough, it hurt so bad!.. im so sorry i was mean okay?" My pleading was useless, the torture continued.

"get out my way,i wanna see her face" the older rammed his brother out of the field of vision of my face. he now towered over me,knocked the hands of the younger one off my hands so that my arms were free to grip his broad shoulders. i arched my back as he rammed the brush harder in my tight pussy "ahhh it feels so big daddy aah pls ur so rough with me" my begging turned him on so much that his dick was rockhard on his tummy. The first slap that got on my face didnt really hurt or shock me.

But the second stung and third burned. I tried to hide my face, but when I did I got a slap on my lower belly,that was even worse because it made the aching worse from the thrusting. Crying was my last espace i tought and the same second i thought about the first tear rolled down my face. "Sniff please ill be good, stop beating me up pleasee" it didnt seem to affect him and his cold voice reinforced his desire to hurt me Physical "So you think crying like a btch will get you out here? fck you look so sweet and submissive.. i love girls like you"

I looked to the side, with each hit I whimpered and gave up more and more. his hand then closed around my thin neck and squeezed, harder than his brother who just sat next to us and masturbated the whole time. he rammed me even harder so that i started to press my nails into his broad upper arms. my moans had turned into agonised whimpers. despite my pain, i felt my orgasm coming, the shame coming over me. ‹ i can't come from something like this ..›

But my body didn't listen to my mind and soon afterwards I came to the end of the painful sensation. looking down i could see that i had squirted on his hand. the older brother pulled out the brush, it was soaking wet and dripping. he smiled down me and tapped me lightly on my chin.

"maybe you forget about my useless brother and come to my room when we have a party again little slut"

‹damn, i totally forgot that there was a party going on here›

the big brother had gone into the bathroom to do god knows what.

I quickly got dressed, the boy who was so brave earlier and then was pushed away by his brother was still sitting on the bed. He had climaxed at some point and now looked a bit lost

"im sorry i was so mean.. i hope you still are happy with this.." my voice was uncertain.

i gave him a quick kiss on his cheek and limped out the room, even tho my legs were still a lil shaking.

[khattikeri]

maybe a controversial opinion but while i really love jiang cheng as a character he is deeply self-centered as a person. and seeing people fight tooth and nail claiming he isn't, or is just misunderstood, or that he has genuine valid reasons to be selfish when plenty of other characters make the difficult choice to forego status and opportunities for what they believe is genuinely right to do (read: wei wuxian, wen ning, wen qing, lan wangji, jiang yanli, mianmian, etc.)

it's just odd to me. especially if they're talking about the novels.

mxtx didn't give jiang cheng the name "sandu shengshou" as a quirky coincidence. there's a REASON she named him & his sword after the 3 poisons of Buddhism (specifically ignorance, greed, and hatred). it's crucial to the story that jiang cheng is NOT selfless and that wei wuxian IS.

it's important to accept that wei wuxian is, by their society's standards, not morally gray; he represents several Buddhist ideals in direct contrast of jiang cheng and multiple people attest to wei wuxian's strong moral character, which is a lot of why jiang cheng even feels bitter about him to begin with.

it's crucial, because by the end of the novel jiang cheng realizes the extent of this and begins to let go!

the twin prides thing wasn't jiang cheng wanting them to 100% mirror the twin jades. he does care about wei wuxian, but he wanted wei wuxian to stay his right hand man, in part the way wei changze was for jiang fengmian.

and if there's one thing you can notice about wei changze in the novels, it's that literally nobody talks about him. he is only ever mentioned when his cool mysterious mountain sect wife cangse-sanren is mentioned, or (even more rarely) when they discuss him as a servant to jiang fengmian. regardless of jiang fengmian's own feelings, wei changze was considered lesser to him and didn't seem to outdo him, since nobody's out there years later still waxing poetry about wei changze's skills.

it may not be the only thing jiang cheng wants out of a twin pride dynamic, but it is a big part of it. regardless of his parents' intentions in taking wei wuxian in and treating him certain ways, this twin pride right-hand man thing is what jiang cheng has felt owed since childhood. he gave up his dogs for wei wuxian, people gossip about his sect heir position with wei wuxian there... jiang cheng wants the reciprocation of what he views as personal sacrifices.

he is ignorant to the depth of what wei wuxian must've suffered for over 6 years as a malnourished orphan child on the streets. he hates how wei wuxian's intelligence, witty charm, and cultivation abilities are naturally stronger than his own. he does care about wei wuxian a lot and want them to be together as sort of-brothers, sort of-friends, sort of-young master and sect servant...

...but if it's between that unclear (yet still caring) relationship and being able to save himself just a little bit more, jiang cheng nearly always manages to clam up in the face of danger and choose the latter, which ultimately benefits himself most. maybe it's a stretch to call that sort of thing greed, but it certainly isn't selfless.

there are of course plenty of justifications for this. it's his duty as sect heir. his home and sect was severely damaged by the wen attack and subsequent war; he had to protect himself, etc.

but doesn't that prove the point?

wei wuxian may be charming, but in terms of pure social standing, he is lower and far more susceptible to being punished or placed in harm's way by people who have more power and money. to protect wei wuxian, yunmeng jiang's long-term head disciple and semi-family member, even in the face of backlash and public scrutiny would've been the selfless thing to do. this is what wei wuxian does for the wen remnants in the burial mounds.

jiang cheng does not choose this. it's not even an unreasonable choice for him to make! nobody else in the great clans is doing such a thing, stepping out of line to take on a burden that could weaken them in the long-run. wei wuxian himself doesn't hate jiang cheng for it; he lets go of these things and focuses on what good he can do in the present.

jiang cheng thinks further into the future - what would happen to him if he continued vouching for wei wuxian and taking his side? what about jiang cheng's face, his sect's face? would wei wuxian even care to reciprocate somehow? everyone expects him to cut off wei wuxian for being dangerous, for threatening his position, for...

do you see what i mean? to call jiang cheng selfless for falling in line with exactly what people expected him to do after the war is not only wrong, it's foolish.

"but they faked their falling-out!" okay. why fake it to begin with, except to protect jiang cheng and the jiang sect's own face? is that selfless? who does it ultimately serve to protect? wei wuxian canonically internalizes the idea that he stains all that he touches, including lan wangji, and agrees to the fake fight because he doesn't want to cause the jiang sect harm. regardless, it eventually slides into a true falling-out, and in the end jiang cheng is more or less unscathed reputation-wise while wei wuxian falls.

that isn't selfless. it's many things! it's respecting his clan and his ancestors, it's making a good plan for the future of his sect and cultivation... but it isn't a truly selfless in the interest of what's right rather than in the interest of duty and what's good for him and his family lineage.

that brings me to my next point: even though wei wuxian hid the truth of the golden core transfer, jiang cheng spent nearly 20 years believing that the golden core "renewal" he was given was a birthright gift of wei wuxian's from baoshan-sanren, an immortal sect teacher of wei wuxian's mother's and a martial elder to wei wuxian.

of course we all know that's a big fat lie, but jiang cheng believed that wei wuxian gave up a critical emergency use gift to him for decades! he was lied to, yes, but jiang cheng immediately agreed without even needing to be convinced. the light in his dead eyes came back with hope the moment wei wuxian even said baoshan-sanren's name. he accepted wei wuxian's offer to give that up to him and take it via identity theft without missing a beat.

with how mysterious and revered baoshan-sanren is, that's obviously not a light sacrifice to just give up to anyone, no matter how close they might be to you. pretending to be wei wuxian to take the gift could even be considered dangerous. what if she found out and got offended? could wei wuxian be hurt by that?

jiang cheng doesn't even hesitate. wei wuxian is the one who mentions that if jiang cheng doesn't pretend to be him, the immortal master could get angry and they'd both be goners. and funnily enough, the day they do go to "the mountain", jiang cheng is the one worried and suspiciously wondering if wei wuxian was lying to him or had misremembered.

of course they've both been traumatized like hell prior to this point. but still: it speaks to how broken he was at the moment as well as to his character overall.

i digress: jiang cheng "gets his golden core back" via what he believed was a gift that should've been wei wuxian's to use in serious emergencies. rather than use it for himself, wei wuxian risked his own safety and gave it to jiang cheng... and jiang cheng still ends up embittered and angry, believing that wei wuxian is arrogant and selfish.

if he truly views them as 100% brothers and equals with no caveats, why would he think that way? it's not like he needs to grovel before wei wuxian for doing that, or to reciprocate... but this is what i mean when i say jiang cheng feels he is owed things by wei wuxian. wei wuxian's actions hold a very different weight in jiang cheng's mind, and jiang cheng himself doesn't ever act the same way, except once.

is it wrong for him to feel like he is owed something? it depends. many asian cultures, including my own, feel that a person owes their family in ways that may not make sense to westerners. for example, it's considered normal for a child to owe their parents for giving birth to them, or to other caretakers for feeding, clothing, sheltering, educating them, etc.

however, something like verbally saying "thank you" or "i'm sorry" to family is considered crazy- why would you owe that? you're supposed to inconvenience your family; saying thank you or sorry is the sort of thing you say to a stranger or acquaintance. i get half-seriously lectured by my elders on this a lot even now, even though they know such phrases are just considered good manners in the US.

this muddies up the idea of wei wuxian being jiang cheng's family vs his family's charge or servant even more. jiang cheng wants wei wuxian to be close... but ultimately doesn't really choose to use what power he DOES have to protect wei wuxian. he considers himself still owed something that in his mind wei wuxian flagrantly never repays.

this isn't even getting into how despite spending a majority of his time with the yiling patriarch he never once noticed that wei wuxian stopped using any spiritual power-based cultivation. even lan wangji, who met them far more rarely, realized that something was wrong and that wei wuxian had taken some sort of spiritual damage, hence the "come with me to gusu".

of course manpain is fun and i'm not immune to the juicy idea of them reconciling and talking things out... but jiang cheng is deeply mired in his own desire to be "above" wei wuxian in multiple ways, and doesn't realize the extent of wei wuxian's actions, the intentions behind them, and the consequences wei wuxian knowingly faced for them.

to not recognize this about jiang cheng, especially in the novels, is really revisionist if you ask me. i reiterate that i really do like him a lot. he's flawed, angry, traumatized and has poor coping mechanisms, an overall fascinating character... but he is not selfless nor ideal, and i seriously draw the line at people saying he is.

wen ning shoves this all into his face at lotus pier to disastrous results. it is the reason why jiang cheng's a total mess at guanyin temple, and the reason jiang cheng ultimately doesn't tell wei wuxian about the fact that he ran towards the wens on purpose.

for that one last act of his to have really been selfless, he needs to not seek anything in return. he did it purely because it was right to do to protect someone else. if that means wei wuxian never finds out about it, so be it.

that moment that ended up causing jiang cheng irreversible harm is not a debt that wei wuxian owes him. it hurts, but no matter how bitter it is, that realization is so important to him changing in the future.

[skywalkerandmarvelfan]

Favorite (Platonic Yandere Darth Vader with Starkiller's Twin Sister Reader ~~ Chapter 1)

A/n: This story isn't connected to my one short: Everything Will Be Fine (Platonic Yandere Darth Vader with Starkiller's Twin Sister Reader).

Chapter summary: After finding two Force-sensitive children Vader takes them both and plans to train the stronger one as his apprentice and kill the weaker one. When it is discovered, you were the weaker twin Vader goes to kill you.

Vader lifted the rogue Jedi up in the air in a Force choke. “I sense someone far more powerful nearby. Where is your master?”

“The Dark Side has clouded your mind; you killed my master years ago.”

“Then now you will share his fate.” Vader said, but before he could strike the Jedi down his lightsaber flew from his hand. Shocked, Vader turned to see what took his weapon, only to see a young boy holding it, a girl the same age as him standing beside him. “Children?”

"Run!" The Jedi yelled before his neck was snapped with the Force.

You and Galen flinched seeing your father’s now lifeless body being dropped.

Vader took a cautious step to you two, not wanting Galen to potentially use his lightsaber against him. When Vader reached a handout Galen stepped in front of you then pointed the lightsaber at Vader. He gave the saber a small swing trying to protect you when Vader took another cautious step forward. Galen doubted he would be able to do anything to Vader, but wanted to try to protect you, even if it was futile in the end.

"Lord Vader," an officer said, running to the Sith, three Stormtroopers following close behind.

The three Stormtroopers raised their blasters at you and your brother.

Vader looked at his troops then at you and Galen. You were both strong and untrained in the Force; it would be a shame if you were both killed when Vader could easily take one of you to train as an apprentice.

Vader turned his attention back to the troopers then quickly retrieved his lightsaber with the Force, and deflected the blaster bolts back at the Stormtroopers and Imperial Officer.

You gasped and grabbed your twin’s shoulder at the loud sounds of blaster bolts, a ‘vhoom’ of a lightsaber and painful grunts of men as they were killed. You wanted to look away from the gruesome sight and run like your father said, but found yourself frozen in fear. You tightened your grip on Galen when the bulky, tall, figure of Vader walked up to you and your brother. Galen tried to guard you with his body by straightening himself and spreading out his arms.

Vader found the actions of Galen trying to protect you humorous. Anything the young boy could do to save you would be useless in the end. If Vader wanted you dead, you would be dead.

Vader was going to kill you like he did your father, but there was a chance you were stronger in the Force. He couldn’t pinpoint which one of you was the stronger one, as the Force emitted from both of you in waves, and your Force presence appeared to merge with each other. If Vader wanted the stronger child as his apprentice he would have to take you both then kill the one who was weaker.

Finding out who was stronger took longer than Vader thought. Both of you picked up the Force easily, and when you decided to alter your combat technique to a long range or Jar'Kai style instead of charging and overpowering an opponent, you were both good in combat. However, you tended to be more stubborn in certain aspects and at times lost focus during meditation, making Galen the more appealing candidate for Vader’s apprentice. As more time passed with each of you having more one-on-one training with Vader, Galen proved to be the more powerful twin.

This outcome pleased Vader greatly. Galen was more focused, and you were far too caring with Galen, always warned him to be careful, hugged him to show comfort, tried to patch him up, and tried to calm him when he was angered. Caring wasn't a Dark Side trait, and it was these traits that added to your weakness as well as weakening Galen. Vader also liked Galen more, Vader was more distant to him than with you. Whenever your caring side showed for your brother, it reminded Vader of when Padmé would care for other people, and at rare moments Vader found himself going easier on you or spending more time on you than he should. Vader didn't know the gender of the child he would've had with Padmé, but believed the child would be a girl, and it was these two things that had Vader less distant to you. He disliked the fact he was closer to you and how you reminded him of Padmé, so it was best if you were the one to be disposed of.

In order to make it less obvious that he killed you Vader waited a few days after discovering Galen was stronger and went to your chambers during the middle of the night. If you were asleep when he killed you, you wouldn't make a disturbance through the Force and potentially wake Galen with your Force bond. Vader had learned that the two of you had a unique bond in the Force, and were more attuned to each other, having a heightened connection to the other’s feelings, were able to tell if the other was hurt or in danger from miles away, and were able to find the other from miles away just by following the other’s Force presence. Vader was unsure if this connection could wake Galen if you were scared enough or in danger, but he didn’t want to find out. It would be better if Galen didn't know or suspect Vader was the cause of your death, as that could bring problems with the boy's loyalty or behavior.

Unfortunately, when Vader reached your chambers the door swooshed open and you ran into his boot. 

Pain spread throughout your nose after hitting Vader's boot, but the sudden pain was quickly forgotten when the mechanical breathing hit your ears, and you felt a swift change in the Force. You jumped back blood running cold by Vader’s presence and the sharp chill within the Force. Out of the three years of you being trained by Vader, he had never been at your chamber door in the middle of the night, and him being here made you on edge. The worst part about this situation was the Force felt antsy and as if it was poking you with needles of ice, which served to make you more anxious. You had no idea why the Force felt like this and didn’t like it at all.

Part of you wanted to keep staring at Vader’s boots and not look at him, hoping that if you didn’t look at him you would become invisible to the Sith’s gaze. The other part of you wanted to continue heading to Galen’s chambers, hoping if you kept on going like you never ran into Vader this situation would be forgotten as if it never happened, and your nerves from your nightmare, Vader being outside your door, and whatever he planned to do would vanish by your brother’s presence. However, if you kept looking at Vader’s boots or kept walking without acknowledging him, it could be taken as disrespectful, and you’ve learned the hard way that Vader demanded respect.

You gulped down your nerves then slowly looked up, trying to hide your emotions, but doubted you did well in hiding them. You regretted looking up as the cold running blood froze when you actually saw Vader’s helmet pointed down at you. 

"Master," you whispered, mentally cursing with how your voice seemed to abandon you, and how your mouth became dry.

Vader glared at you. You shouldn’t be awake at this hour, you should be asleep, you had to be asleep for the best outcome of his plan to be achieved. You being awake only made him dislike you more, but what made him hate you was how the frightened facial expression resembled the frightened look Padmé gave him on Mustafar, and the frightened whisper of 'master' made him remember when she whispered his name when he Force choked her. Vader knew if he really wanted, he could still kill you if you were awake, but he couldn’t kill you when you resembled Padmé, even if it was just by a facial expression combined with a whisper. He would have to kill you another night.

“Is-is there anything I can do for you?” You asked, voice still quiet.

“Come with me.”

“Yes master.” You said, forcing the words out. “Can I go see Galen first?”

“No.”

“Please, I always go to him after I have a nightmare.”

“No. Now come,” Vader gripped your shoulder then pulled you from the doorway and into the hallway.

“Please master, I must see him. I must see that he is alive.” 

“He is fine. Do you not sense him through the Force?”

“I do, but I have to see him to be sure.” You said, desperate to see him.

If you had any other nightmare you would deal with not going to Galen, not wanting to anger Vader, especially with the Force’s sharp chill, but after the nightmare of him being killed you had to make sure he was still alive. You always checked on Galen whenever you had the dream of him dying. You knew it was a dream, but it never failed to scare you to the very core. It felt so real, regardless if he looked way older than he was now, but you couldn’t get the image of his lifeless body laying on the ground. 

“The Force is enough confirmation,” Vader said. 

“But-” you paused when Vader gave a firm squeeze to your shoulder, a warning you knew, but you couldn’t bring yourself to heed it, “it eases me to see him. If I don’t see him all I can picture and think about is him lying dead on the floor like he does in my dream.” You clasped your hands together. “Please let me check on him, I will be able to focus so much more on whatever you have me do master.”

Vader felt something tightening in his chest at your pleading face, and the knowledge you had a dream of someone you loved dying. The fear you had reminded him of the fear he felt when he had visions of his mother and Padmé dying. The difference though was your fear was from dreams and his were visions. 

At least Vader believed your fear was from a dream. He couldn’t imagine a child like yourself having Force visions of the future. However, you were strong in the Force, even if you weren’t as strong as your brother, and the Force did work in mysterious ways, so it could be possible your dreams of Galen dying were visions. If your dreams were visions Vader felt a sense of sadness that you were experiencing this, knowing how painful it could be.

Vader clenched his fist, angered at how he felt a bit closer to you with the revelation of your dreams of your twin dying. Worse than that he was angered at how you reminded him of himself, and how his first thought was pity, instead of anger and an urge to kill you. 

“No. Use your fear in your training, it will give you power.” Vader said, before dragging you down the hallway by your shoulder.

Vader would give you a harder training session for giving him these feelings and memories of his past.

You gulped, having a feeling you made a mistake, and that you should’ve heeded the warning to stop talking.

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

Sometime during a pacifist run and while the human was in the later areas of the underground, Skeletons brother goes missing and after months of monsters being on the surface, they are presumed dead.

Cue sometime around 7 months after reaching the surface a knock on their door. There stands their bother. Half their face and ribs are covered in cracks and an arm is missing and they're blind on the side with the cracks. But that's their brother right there. Alive.

They don't say anything and just hug their brother. They don't talk to them about it. Some skeletons cry (by some I mean the ones that would in this situation). They don't say anything to anyone when the situation is brought up. The cracks never leave and their half their vision and arm never return obviously. But hey, they're alive. And they recover.

Undertale Sans - Sans is in complete shock. He buried his brother, and he never completely recovered, forced to live with Toriel who patiently tried to make him talk about his feelings and take care of his needs in the hard days. He doesn't care about the scars. He thought he lost his baby brother forever. As they both recover, Sans gets worried for him. Papyrus is abnormally silent, and he clearly doesn't want to talk about what happened. Sans doesn't push, he knows his brother will open up when he'll be ready. He's just glad they're alive.

Undertale Papyrus - That's such a Sans thing to do that Papyrus is not that surprised. Just coming back after months. But when he sees his state, Papyrus gets really worried. Sans is not ok, he's clearly even worse than Underground. Even if Papyrus is glad his brother is back, he's powerless to help him as Sans won't talk. Sans never talks. He hopes he can at least convince him to talk with Toriel. Papyrus knows Sans doesn't want to worry him, so maybe Toriel can help with that. He just wants his brother to feel better.

Underswap Sans - Blue can't believe his eyes. He thought the kid killed him, and kinda bullied them for months to get the truth, and now he feels terrible. He's also shocked about the missing arm and all the cracks. As Honey breaks down in his arms, all Blue can think is that he gave up on his brother once again and wasn't there when he obviously needed him the most. Blue feels horrible and like a failure. Why does it keep happening? Is he that terrible as a big brother? It's going to be a hard time for both of them, but they'll be fine in the end. They always find a way out.

Underswap Papyrus - Honey breaks down. Because of his hyper-empathy, he knew his brother wasn't dead but ended up believing he was just in denial because everyone convinced him to give up and let his brother go. He feels horrible for trusting them and giving up on his brother, even more with how bad his state is now. Honey can never let go of that guilt, even after many years. The fact that his brother has become distant and doesn't tell him anything anymore definitely doesn't help.

Underfell Sans - He screams at his brother for being so stupid and tells him that he warned him this shit would happen someday and that everything that happened is his own fault. Edge isn't mad at him. Red was just so worried but refused to believe he was dead. Edge suddenly hugged him and shut him up for good. Red is shaking.

Underfell Papyrus - Edge stays silent for a long moment, before hugging his brother. He doesn't care what happened. He was so scared. He thought he was ready to lose his brother, it could happen at any point Underground, but he was so wrong. He could never act like it's a thing that just happened. He's so relieved. And a bit horrified too. But that's ok, Red is strong, a lot stronger than he thought, he's going to be fine eventually.

Horrortale Sans - He freeze in shock. Willow was already not that great when he disappeared, but now it's even worse. Oak is a bit confused, and not sure what happened. Was his brother even gone? Toriel explained later Oak was in a strong denial and refused to believe he was gone despite how Toriel explained to him several times. Oak couldn't accept his brother was dead and eventually everyone let him be. Now she feels guilty for not believing him, and despite Willow promising she couldn't have done anything for him, she still feels deeply guilty. At least Oak is not too traumatized about this, which is a relief. Willow still suspects a part of him knew because he won't leave his side more than a few minutes.

Horrortale Papyrus - Willow has to hold to something because of the shock. He thought his brother got caught by Undyne before they reached the castle, but even after killing her and digging through the whole Underground, he couldn't find him. Willow is horrified, and heartbroken because his brother didn't deserve to suffer more after what happened to his head. Oak is back to a lethargic state, not talking, and barely eating, and Willow is scared he won't be able to help him this time. Oak saw things, it's pretty clear, but he won't talk about any of what happened.

Swapfell Sans - Nox thought his brother just left to live his life. They were not on really good terms Underground and even if it seemed to get better in the end, Nox thought maybe it was just temporary and that his brother didn't want anything to do with him. Nox is in shock seeing him on his door looking like he went through literal war and he just doesn't know what to do? He feels terribly guilty he didn't go after him to make sure he was ok and now it seems like their relationship will not heal before a long time as Rus clearly realized Nox just abandoned him to die, not even looking after him. Nox is so lost.

Swapfell Papyrus - Nox receives a very cold welcome. Rus is wary, asking him what he wants. Like Nox, Rus thought that his brother simply went back to be the Queen's puppy and didn't give a hell about letting him behind. So yeah, his tears and little act of begging for help don't work with him. Rus thinks his brother got jumped in the neighborhood and since the Queen would rather let him die than help him, he got desperate and went looking for his help instead. Eventually, Rus let him in out of pity. He heals him and let him rest, but as soon as he's back on his legs, either Nox tells him everything or he throws him out. Rus is done being used.

Fellswap Gold Sans - Wine searched the Underground again and again, desperately searching for his baby brother, but never managed to find him. He killed a lot of people these last seven months, as he never gave up on at least find the murderers of his brother and getting his revenge. It's a true shock when Coffee just shows up one morning at his door, with a missing arm and horrible scars, immediately breaking down in his arms. Wine is so relieved, but also enraged. Coffee won't talk, he's clearly traumatized, so he doesn't speak about what happened to him anymore, so he can heal. But in the background, Wine continues to look for who did this, and they better pray he never finds them.

Fellswap Gold Papyrus - Coffee never really lost hope. That's not the first time Wine gets into trouble and disappears, so he just assumed he would come back eventually. Ok, maybe not seven months later and with a missing arm. Coffee is just relieved Wine is finally home and just sits with him to try and heal what can be healed. It's no use talking about what happened, Wine will never talk about it and he knows it very well. He's just happy his brother is home. Now they just have to forget and move on.

[hysteriaww]

Hi ! It's going to sound weird but....

How do you think Kai would have influenced Luke's personality if Luke actually won during the merge ?

I know Kai was stronger, but let's say Luke wins.

He was already pretty strong since he was able to break Liv out of the spell she was trying to do. He was stronger than his sister. He would have won if they were to do the merge. I don't exactly remember how powerful he was but I suppose he was fairly quite good with magic.

And magical powers aside, he has quite a strong personality. He's fed up with the Mystic Falls gang bullshit. He was not even that scared of Kai. I mean, he knew his brother was a freaking threat, but he did not hesitate to go on his own and do the merge with Kai. Even when Kai didn't want to do it Luke was like "Hey bitch, you scared I could win ?"

I don't think Luke really thought he could win or maybe he did, anyway he just wanted it to end. He wanted to project his sisters.

So, with Kai's personality inside of him, what would he be like ? I think that guy would at least find a way to end that Gemini tradition crap about the merge, and the lives of the whole coven linked to the leader.

Apart from that I don't know.

That would not be as fun as seeing Kai struggle with new emotions 🤣 but I want to see Luke being even more badass you know.

Yup, really long question sorry not sorry. X)

This is a very interesting question! Tho I have wondered what Jo would be like if she merged w Kai & won, I've never wondered about Luke until now... I think it could be a very compelling arc for him & the gemini coven. Here's what I think would happen! (I wrote a whole ass mini-fanfic in my answer lmfao):

Fresh after the merge: Luke would initially act & feel almost exactly like same old Luke, except maybe he'd rightfully be a bit more grim, traumatized and world-weary after defeating Kai. Liv & Jo would be concerned but he'd tell them not to worry bc he just needs some time to recover & leading the coven rn is more important than his mental health anyway (aka the FIRST Red Flag). Liv & Jo would disagree but let it go for now to avoid stressing him out.

First few months as leader: I think Luke's first order of business would be to undo the damage Joshua did as a terrible coven leader. That might mean overturning fucked up coven laws, etc. but Joshua doesn't like this, so he gets his supporters in the coven to back him & veto Luke's changes. Meanwhile, Luke's own coven support is growing bc I do believe he'd be a MUCH better leader than Joshua, so old man's resentment grows more. Eventually, it reaches a point where Luke feels boxed in like he can't make any real GOOD change bc of Joshua's puppets & THAT is when... the whispers of Kai's voice begin to awaken in Luke's mind. Uh-oh...

Conflict resolution 101: The part of Luke that's in control tries to be diplomatic about getting rid of Joshua's supporters but it just. doesn't. work. The assholes are FLUENT in gemini bureaucracy bc they've been around longer so they outmaneuver Luke constantly. That's when Kai begins suggesting some... less diplomatic solutions, including the idea that Joshua's supporters wouldn't be such a problem if JOSHUA was gone. Luke spends a long time rejecting this & literally warring with himself, so Liv & Jo are like "dude are u ok" and in a moment of weakness he admits his idea about taking joshua out. They're shocked, but after a sec, they're like "wait this is the same man who tried to off his own kids more than once. Uk what? yes lets do it." And suddenly all 3 (ahem, 4) Parker kids are plotting to put dad in a magical coma (hmm does that sound familiar? I wonder which sibling's idea this was...) so he can't influence his supporters anymore. And the siblings succeed! Joshua's out! but it becomes their lil secret, hidden from the coven...

A Good Ol' Frame Job: Lo and behold, Joshua's supporters still stay loyal to the man in a coma instead of Luke! Liv & Jo are like "it's fine luke, dad isn't gonna wake up so eventually they'll have no choice but to listen to you" but KAI isn't convinced... and neither is Luke. Diplomacy didn't work, sleeping beauty-ing joshua didn't work, so now he needs to play dirty. He doesn't jump to violence or anything - he simply frames a few of them for crimes they didn't commit. Snakey, but simple. Only problem is... Luke can't recall if this idea was his own, or Kai's...... bc they're both equally likely to have thought of it. Kai's influence is growing... So when Jo & Liv come to him like "wow crazy how those supporters got revealed as criminals right? That worked out conveniently," Luke goes w the safest option & says "haaa yea what a coincidence! no idea how that happened" ......and now he's lying to his sisters (Big Red Flag #2)

Calm before the storm: Now that joshua's remaining supporters (who haven't been framed) are very few, Luke doesn't face much resistance anymore & he actually succeeds at reforming a lot of fucked up gemini practices & making positive change. Maybe he even succeeds at eliminating the merge altogether! Luke's flying high, believing he's a true protector of the geminis & the best leader and savior (which, to be fair, he rly is better than the shitty leaders before him)! Kai's influence here is very sneaky bc some of Luke's old sense of humor comes back to him, with some new hints of cockiness that weren't there before. Luke's golden boy charm & Kai's cockiness creates the perfect politician cocktail & liv and jo appreciate the good he's done for geminis but also lowkey resent the big-headed self-important persona he's growing.

But THEN there's trouble in paradise: joshua's leftover supporters find a piece of evidence that proves Luke framed the others & they threaten Luke w it, deducing that he also had smthg to do w Joshua's coma. They order him to step down but he can't do that. Not now, when he's finally *this* close to changing the coven for good! These pricks will wake joshua & bring the old laws back! No, he can't let that happen, he can't let it- ....Luke snaps. He blacks out, then wakes up in horror to realize he violently killed. them. all. He panics, calling Jo & Liv for help BUT to cover his ass, he lies & says he had to kill them bc they found out about "all 3 of them" cursing Joshua... while choosing not to mention how they also discovered his frame jobs. Liv & Jo are horrified yet they help him cover this up bc he's falsely led them to believe their asses are also on the line for cursing joshua... but then Jo notices some of them were killed in very "Kai" ways (bled to death from their spleens getting cut out, etc.) & Liv finds the piece of evidence they had that links Luke to the frame jobs...... the 2 of them realize Luke is not in control anymore.

The Climax: Liv & Jo confront Luke, asking him to step down but warning him that they'll MAKE him if he doesn't agree. He doesn't agree. A fight ensues & Luke is pretty OP despite the 2 v. 1. Luke gets *this* close to killing them (while Kai cheers him on), but then says SIKE and kills JOSHUA's comatose body instead, shocking everyone. Jo, Liv AND Kai are like "wha- why?!" & Luke the politician diabolically reveals that he can't bring himself to kill them - but he can frame them for Joshua's death & turn the coven against them.... OR he can frame the dead supporters for Joshua's death & save his sisters, IF Liv & Jo stay loyal to his cause. At this ultimatum, Jo & Liv finally give up, saying they'd rather get framed or killed than let him rule the coven like this. The Kai in Luke gets triggered by their abandonment bc he's a gOoD LEADER can't u SEE?! Kai's increased presence & Luke's increased lack of control make his SIPHONING manifest for the first time & he unintentionally starts siphoning the sisters. And Luke gets triggered by them trying to overthrow him bc he's the OnLy one who can PROTECT the coven!! Just like he protected Jo & Liv from Kai!! At this point the sisters' resentment RLY comes out like "WE DIDNT ASK YOU TO!! YOU chose to merge to protect us WITHOUT ASKING what WE wanted!! U literally knocked out Jo when she was ABOUT to merge! You protected us bc that's what U wanted, not US. And now the coven doesn't need to be protected BY you anymore, it needs to be protected FROM you!!" Like a bucket of ice water, Luke realizes he's siphoning his sisters rn. He has become Kai. They're right. He is not in control anymore. He steps away & realizes the whole coven itself is broken. The best way to save it is to take the ruling family nonsense out of it & free everyone. He agrees to step down & Jo & Liv help him break the coven link altogether and they free the coven! For a moment, it seems like Kai is going to stop them, but then even the Kai in his mind realizes the coven fucked him over his whole life & he'd much rather see it gone. So all 4 kids unite in Sibling Solidarity and liberate the coven!

Epilogue: Luke gets therapy & that means Kai begrudgingly gets it too bc he's stuck in luke's head. They both start healing & finding a medium ground of how to share space in luke's head. Kai even uses Luke to apologize to Liv & Jo for his own crimes. I'd like to think he'd even get Luke to go to Bonnie and apologize on his behalf & maybe help her out whenever he can, tho i don't think it would be sexual, bc in canon the merge didn't change kai's sexuality so i doubt it would change luke's. But yea I think bonnie would still at least have a new ally in luke thanks to the Kai in him xD

THE END lol I hope my impromptu mini-fanfic here answered your question ahaahaha thank you for asking!!!

[candyskiez]

so important to me that ritsu is the weakest natural psychic we see outside of the awakening lab. that whether by inexperience or simply not having as much raw power (solid evidence for both but i like him not having raw power), he simply doesn’t have the same strength that the others in the main cast have! and that it’s enough, because he wanted psychic powers so he wouldn’t be afraid of ???%, and then realizes he doesn’t have to be. even at full strength, he’s not strong enough to stand against shigeo for more than a moment, but it DOESNT MATTER. bc he has enough to help people. to protect the body improvement club from getting hurt. enough to use his wits and the power he can use to hold his own, and keep up with the likes of shou and teru through his resourcefulness. how the talents he cared so little about turned into something he could be proud of! and how he did all that with basically just telekinesis and barriers, none of teru’s cool techniques or mob’s raw power! and how despite being outclassed on paper, ritsu can hold his own against serious threats! catch shou’s attention! and most importantly of all, he can help his big brother!

(sorry. sucker for characters with relatively little raw power who make up for it in other ways)

POINTS AT THIS!!!! POINTS AT THIS SO HARD!!!!

Ritsu thought for so long that the only way he could be safe was to be more dangerous than his brother. All his worth was on his physical strength as a literal trauma response, because in his mind that was the only way to be safe. But once he finds his safety he can actually exit survival mode and care about other things. Him being a weaker esper does not make him a Lesser one. Yk. Physical strength ≠ worth. People are not defined by their talents. Y'know how you talked about how for so long he was defined solely by his achievements and being normal (the lack of what he wanted, of having psychic powers), and even once he finally got powers they weren't like Mob. How much he judged the awakening lab kids for not being as strong as Mob. How much he judged himself for not being as strong as Mob. Thinking about how he tried to self destruct to make himself stronger. How people will do that with sacrificing their mental health to advance in school or work so much, that probably carried over from how he became such a good student to how he viewed training at All. How he awakened his powers from feeling horrible about himself but gained CONTROL over them by being honest with himself and letting himself feel. By being able to see the good in himself and Mob. By admitting what it is. It was trauma. They weren't monsters. They weren't enemies. They were just traumatized as fuck. And this scary part of Mob wasn't actually just something scary. This was just trauma and fucked up emotions. It wasn't about becoming stronger it was about FINALLY stopping trying to be like his brother. He stops trying to be Dangerous, he stops being a doormat, he doesn't sit still and let ???% "hurt" (I really don't believe ???% was going to hurt him, at least not on purpose, he might've accidentally hurt him though with how bad his powers were going haywire, yikes) him to snap him out of it, he takes control over his own life. He wanted agency so so bad for so long and how he gets it isn't by becoming dangerous or becoming like Mob, it's by finally reflecting on the source of all his anger and pain and feelings of helplessness and letting himself SEE his brother and do you HEAR ME. He tried to get agency with physical strength but strength wasn't what would fix the problem!!! Do you GET ME. This is so scattered sorry. I barely slept last night. But like. Do you get me.

[the-cookie-of-doom]

Hiii

I remember when you were posting about your Kim/Wik Twins AU and I was so hooked! There’s so much potential for angst in this AU😩🤌 I always wondered if there was anything new going on with this WIP.

PS: I’ve been following your blog for a little while (I don’t interact bc im shyy) and I love all your Kimchay WIPS and little excerpts you’ve blessed us with (they make my day everytime I see one). So I want to personally thank your brain for all these wonderful ideas and just thank you for being you 😊

send me an ask and I'll tell you about one of these WIPs!

Oh anon, you're a darling! This was so nice to wake up to <3 I actually haven't worked much on that AU since originally posting it, but you're right, there is so much angst potential in this AU between Wik and Kim. One of the inspirations from it actually came from World of Warcraft, and how the character Varian was split into two people, the other one being Lo'Gosh. I really loved how it wasn't just "this is the good side vs. the bad/feral side." Varian was polite and charming and good at socializing, but he was also vain and easy to manipulate (which was the point of splitting him), whereas Lo'Gosh was definitely a barbarian, but he was also all of Varian's strong will and ambition/motivation, and passion. I hadn't seen that kind of character splitting before, because it's usually an easy shorthand for doing a good/evil thing.

So for the purposes of this fic, Kim isn't just all the evil mafia while Wik is the sweetheart singer. Wik is very driven and tbh a little selfish, he's kind to his fans but ultimately very cold, because he grew up in a world where anything he cared about could be used against him. Both of them are still calculating in clever, but it's Wik that begins investigating Chay, intentionally using his stardom as an in, and purposefully manipulating him to get more information. He takes it to a stronger degree than we actually see from Kim in the show.

Whereas Kim is the quieter, more contained side. They both love music but Kim prefers guitar/piano over singing because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself the way Wik does, although he does write a lot of poetry/lyrics. One of the betrayals from Wik leaving is that he stole Kim's songs. The other is that he left Kim behind. He loves his brother more than anything, and Wik leaving him without so much as a goodbye was devastating for him.

Here's your slightly less than 500 words!

“You left me!” “Would you have even come with me?” Kim’s voice breaks on a desperate, “Yes!” He wants to take it back as soon as the word leaves his mouth, too honest in the heat of his moment, chest heaving with the weight of it. The only good thing about the admission is that his brother is too stunned to reply; Kim takes satisfaction in that, in the implication of it, as Wik realizes the depth of his own selfishness.  “Kim…” “I would…” Kim swallows. Days of captivity have left his throat dry. It hurts, speaking these words aloud, tearing them out of his chest to release them after all these years. “I would have. If you asked me to, I would have.”  He would have followed his brother anywhere. They were always meant to be together. Kim and Wik, two halves of the same whole, mirror images down to their names. Until Wik decided he couldn’t bear his own reflection anymore.  “Kim, I’m sorry, I didn’t know—” “How could you? You only ever think about yourself.” Kim laughs. It’s wet. It hurts, like everything else about this damned conversation. Maybe Wik was right; they were better off alone. “I thought you knew me better than anyone, but you don’t know me at all.” Maybe Wik never did. What a horrible time to realize how truly alone he really is.  Wik doesn’t speak for a long time. Neither does Kim, keeping his head bowed and his breaths measured, cracked ribs aching with every rise and fall of his chest. What a cruel joke that the first time they’re sharing a space in years, something Kim has longed for since the day Wik left, and it’s only because someone else has forced them together.  “I don’t think you would ever leave the family,” Wik eventually says, his voice quieter than Kim has ever heard it. “You’re not like me, Kim, you never wanted to leave.” Of course he didn’t. Why would Kim ever want to leave his brothers? But at least if he had, Kinn and Tankhun would have had each other. They wouldn’t have been alone, not like Wik is now. Not like Kim is, forever missing his other half. Neither of them were meant to be alone. "It doesn't matter anymore." "Yes it does. Kim. I never meant to hurt you. I—" But there's no more time to talk because their captors are walking in, and Wik is throwing himself in front of Kim, both of them bound and unable to put of any kind of fight. Not that it would have mattered; Wik already got himself kidnapped. Too nosy to stay out of the family completely, but apparently the idealistic fool didn't bother to keep up with his martial arts. Still. Despite blaming him for the current predicament, Kim is a little bit touched that Wik is trying to protect him now. Too late to matter, maybe, but it's something.

[incesthemes]

the thing that drives me most insane about dean's violation via michael (rape) is exactly that sam has already experienced that same violation over and over again. meg, lucifer, gadreel, crowley, all lined up to possess him (and this isn't even counting all the other ways a person can be violated insofar as a rape metaphor goes—see angels fondling sam's soul in season 11 or lack thereof, in season 6, or perhaps going so far back as azazel's assault on baby sam). it's an intimate and vulnerable experience that sam has largely shouldered on his own, repressed and ignored and "dealt with" by not dealing with it for somewhere well over a decade or even his whole life. it's not discussed openly because neither sam nor dean have the emotional intelligence to work through this trauma, together or alone, and so it becomes an elephant in the room: unspoken and unavoidable, but something sam can't even begin to heal from because it's always there and the pain is always being refreshed and renewed.

that violation is something that has made sam uniquely isolated and vulnerable across the years. as a consequence, it's something that separates sam from dean: they have fundamentally different experiences which shapes their actions and reactions and keeps a wedge, a point of conflict, between them.

but as of season 14, this is no longer the case. dean still hasn't experienced living his whole life feeling unclean and impure, but he's "gotten a taste" of it all, so to speak. he spent weeks drowning, and he's finally in a position to truly empathize with his brother regarding this heinous violation. the wedge has been driven free, and sam recognizes this. they can merge ever closer because they've both been victims of rape, they both understand how it feels, how it destroys you, how it never really leaves you and how you will have to carry that with you forever.

what's particularly interesting about the whole thing is how dean shuts down and refuses to talk to sam about it. it's indicative of his need to both maintain control over his life and sam's, but it's also indicative of his need to remain sam's protector. he can't do that if he's weak or vulnerable, and he can't do that if he's equal to sam. regardless of the efforts they've both made to become equals in their relationship over the years, dean's instinctual reaction is that he needs to be stronger than sam because that's how he was raised, that's what he was conditioned to believe. the strong protect the weak, and sam is weak so he has to be strong. this comes up occasionally as a conflict, but it's especially interesting to see it so prominently displayed as a natural reaction to being raped. it shows how much he's taken his strength for granted, and it shows that he can't actually cope with his own weakness.

he scrambles for purchase, for literally anything he can use to feel secure again, and he refuses to talk to sam about it because talking would be admitting to his vulnerability. he can't do that, especially not in front of sam, because he's supposed to be the protector. and if he's vulnerable, then he needs protecting, and that means he can't fulfill his obligation to his father, to sam, to himself. if he's genuinely sam's equal, if they're both victims of rape, then there is no one to protect either one of them from further violations. this is the realization dean can't admit because it drops the floor out from under him and destroys his entire worldview. when kaia tells him that he's weak, dean has to push the acknowledgment out by force because it's admitting something he desperately doesn't want to—and he has to do it in front of sam. he has to verbally recognize, in front of the guy he's spent his whole life protecting, that he's not as strong as his rapist, that he couldn't protect himself, that he's a victim. that there are things in this world he can't keep sam or himself safe from. it's the worst-case scenario.

it's the whole reason he was so desperate to find kaia's weapon in the first place. because he thinks if he can just get his hands on that spear, he'll be able to escape his fear and vulnerability and become strong again. he needs to become strong again. he can't cope with the feelings inside of him, the residue of grace left over in his bloodstream defiling him, making him unclean. he's been beaten and broken and killed, but he's never been raped. he's never been made to feel that humiliating powerlessness, the invisible scar that reminds you viscerally how weak you really are. the same one that sam has carried with him forever. they're connected now through their rape, a bond of trauma they have to shoulder together. it brings them closer in the worst way, and it makes them true equals again (dean can't handle this). it melds them together because they empathize. they understand how it feels, mutually, together. it's an intimacy they've lacked before and can now share, to merge their souls further through their experiences.

dean can never return to a state of purity, and that rot that will forever be inside him brings him closer to sam. may they rot together <3

[draceempressa]

People claimed Aspros is merely cheap copy of Saga.

nah, they are different fundamentally, despite some elements . Degel also have events that mirror Hyoga but no one says he^s hyoga copy( even in writing) how I respect fate fandom for never mistaking nero claudius for altria pendragon, coomers they are. the amount aspros got mistaken for saga? disgusting.

Even when you compare Aspros in his worst day and Saga's evil side-whatever it is, lemur , ares, or if he legit have DID, it's still kinda different. Evil Saga is a masculine bastard, when Aspros is usually somehow femme. His speech pattern isn't feminine, but his body language, oftentimes, is quite feminine.

But if you push him further (which isn't hard since he's not the patient twin, defteros is) , at his most wrathful state, Aspros is even more animalistic than Dohko or Regulus, who have canon animal motif, and ironically proves that he is indeed Defteros' twin (Aspros' fangs is even bigger than Dohko and Regulus, though slightly smaller than Defteros'. But point is, those fangs are not only proves he's Defteros' twin, but also clearly something Saga doesn't have.) Not only violent, he's also more prone to swear words once he decided acting refined his useless.

Saga defines himself as a public/athena's servant, and his mental issues from his insecurity of his inability to kill his emotions to be a dutiful knight and NOT be his own person,.as if for him, to be himself is a sin, and we know it is imposible to un-person yourself, so he breaks. And he didn't learn better from that, considering what we see in both episode g and saintia sho.

You know who actually resemble Saga in personality? Shoichiro, Shoichiro is what Saga would become if he decides to take ibuprofen and fights his anxiety and depression, who decided he did have the right to be happy and be himself, the right of his own person while fulfilling his duty, but you people would ignore this similiarity because Shoichiro is wyvern. smh.

Aspros defines himself as " big brother" , that is, both the good and the bad of being firstborn coded, at first, he was the knightly kind of big brother, think of ichigo kurosaki's quote " big brothers born first to protect the younger ones who born later" which is what base Aspros live for, he lived to protect Defteros. He already has his doubts before Youma corrupted him, that is, once Defteros grow stronger, he ask himself , " if Defteros become stronger, that he can protect himself, will I still be needed? what would become of my identity? " Then after Youma corrupted him he become the negative kind of big brother, that is, the entitled/ bully one, who thinks " i am born first so it's natural if I own you/ stronger than you" .but point is, no matter how Youma tried to corrupt him, from "good" to "evil", Aspros will continue to identify himself as the "big brother". Youma couldn't take out the firstborn identity from Aspros, led him to think he's only child coded, nope, he is firstborn coded first before anything else, even before he' the Gemini Saint, before he's human even.

Saga's bond with Kanon is nearly inexistent, it's barely there. Kanon does love Saga, yes, he have this yearning expression when he's thinking about Saga, but Saga doesn't love him back the way he does. when for Aspros and Defteros, it's their entire story, the entire world be damned, only each other matters. Their relationship can be twisted into toxic relationship, but they still have strong bond regardless, never that bond be severed, no matter how badly Youma wished what he did to Pandora works on Aspros ( it doesn't ) .

For Aspros, it matters greatly that he's the older twin, it's literally his reason to live, to be Defteros' big brother. For Shoichiro, he does love Sojiro as his twin, but he's not as concerned about the fact he's the older brother unlike Aspros, as much he still have life outside sojiro. But Saga, his bond with Kanon hardly matters, going back to the whole un-self to fill a duty.

Just no way Saga ever say anything like this about or to Kanon

Even if he's not corrupted , Aspros will want power not for the heck of it, but as means to protect Defteros, that he even spelled it " I will be strong for both of us so no one can mistreat you ever again" .

Defteros may not be some kind of little sister younger than 17 and smaller than 160 cm,( he's 27 yo who is 190 cm instead) but it doesn't change the idea he has vibe similar to those little girls, that is, adored big brother, and with cunning big brothers who is willing to get their hands dirty, or even destroy the ugly world so little sister can stay " pure" in a gilded cage, isolated from the ugliness of the world. ( think lelouch or ayato) . while Shun is " damsel little sibling" , Defteros is " ISOLATED damsel little sibling " ( think rapunzel). Think Akio Ohtori or Kaname Kuran. Aspros is THOSE kind of big brothers, yes, THAT implication included.

Sure, later he learned power is not what he, or Defteros wanted, Defteros reminded him what they truly wanted, isolated from the world, away from prejudiced people.

Just like Aspros strongly identify himself as the firstborn, Defteros also strongly identify himself as the secondborn, even after Aspros's death, along with the obedience of the secondborn to the older one.

To be fair, he strongly believed they will be reunited so he prepare everything for Aspros's return, ( ironically of all people he parallels Hypnos here, but that's another discussion for later) Lost in translation, but Defteros only refer to the corrupted Aspros by name, he consistently talked about the original Aspros whom he loved and loved him back by brother, not by name. It also goes both ways with Aspros, once he got corrupted, he refer to Defteros by name, not calling him brother.

If he want to, Defteros could've claimed the Gemini seat proper, let him be known for it. If he want to. The thing is, he does not want to, continue to identify himself as the second, continue to pretend as the demon of kanon island, not letting people know he's the gemini saint, even developing memory erasing skill because he wanted to return the Gemini seat/cloth to Aspros.

In contrast to Aspros' refined femme image hides his real animalistic, violent and crude, oddly masculine real self, Defteros' animalistic facade hides what he really feel , a somewhat maiden-like yearning to Aspros, a more sensitive, melancholic side that complements Aspros' violent tendency and lack of empathy

Kanon is an afterthought, as Kurumada meant to display the duality of gemini with Saga alone, with his split personality, when Aspros is written with Defteros as complementing contrast. Academical intelligence and emotional intelligence. The beautiful snow white' evil queen who did not get what she wants and the dirty cinderella who got the respect she deserved at the end, despite the initial short time to be princess . the metaphorical rose thorns who is looking for the best soil to support it and the literal lava who cools down into fertile soil for the rose to grow on, knight who have seen the world vs isolated damsel, the explicitly sexy shirtless defteros and aspros's sensual, lowkey effeminate body language, etc..

To further emphasize the way they are mutually influenced by each other, they both met another set of siblings in their gaidens. Power hungry Ursula who killed her own father, and the brainwashed but once loving Kokkalo are both parallels to Aspros, when the timid, yet surprisingly powerful Chris, who refused the call, rejecting everything she could get had she accepted her role as the Cetus Specter-immortality, power of both combat and social influence, that all she wanted is to get along with Ursula, to forgive her and loved her always, and the insanely devoted Ema, who would throw away his own life for Kokkalo, yearning for the Kokkalo in his memory, is another parallel to Defteros. The way Chris says she wants nothing but to mend her relationship with Ursula? Aspros know Defteros have the same sentiment. And in his eyes, Defteros is as small , frail and timid as Chris. In turn, Defteros always know Ema's insane devotion is what himself would've done , but like Ema, Defteros knows better it's not the real Aspros, that there is another force that controlled his brother that he could destory, to save his big brother from. The parallels are to let them say what they would say to each other with all the projection, without actually saying it to the real person.

As seen with how oddly supportive he is to Chris, it's heavily implied that Aspros sends Ema and Kokkalo to test Defteros, can he finally stand for himself or not the way Chris did. The way Aspros is glad that Chris is trying her best to stay as sisters with Ursula shows deep, deep down, in subconcious level, he wanted the same with himself and Defteros. Not only seen from both twins gaiden, but the bangaihen makes it clearer, that Aspros even have small piece of his soul in Defteros, who's proud of Defteros' growth. note that Aspros is in fact does not only test Defteros in Defteros' gaiden, he's also testing the Gemini Cloth itself, which twin it has chosen. it proves to us, that at least in LC, that being the representative of the constellation of twins, it chose both twins from the beginning

. The moment Aspros become the new Gemini saint, that very moment actually can Defteros also summon the Gemini Cloth, but he's hindered by his own inferiority complex. Their whole narrative deny the idea either twin are spares, instead, they repeatedly mentions they are each other's halves, incomplete without the other, the forementined Gemini Cloth itself admit both twins as its user, then Defteros insist to stay at Aspros' side as he fights Youma, even as a spirit posessing the gemini cloth.

Their beginning , downfall, rise, climax, ending of them all have to do with each other. In universe, it starts with them no older than 5 side by side. Their downfall was enabling each other's toxic traiit. Their rise is finally doing something in the memory of the other twin. Their climax is fighting each other, and then their ending is heavily implied to be finally together in death, as seen with the cloth and surplice floating side by side.

Saga and Kanon both mind their own business, when aspros and defteros actively stalks each other,

manipulates others in order to reach each other (other than entirety of defteros gaiden happens because of Aspros, remember that Defteros did this to Dohko in mainline LC) Defteros ultimately is the better one on one manipulator, and selfish he was, unlike kanon, his goal is much less destructive and grandiose , that he would minimize damage if he can.

and are defined by each other, molded, defined, and motivated by each other, and they are happy by that, to stick with each other, that ant the end, they are together and that's what they wanted. Saga and Kanon both wanted to change the world and that's exactly why they don't get it, Aspros/Defteros only want each other and that's why they get it, even if after they're both dead.

Both are also showing disdain to Sisyphus' decision to fight for the people of the future. Aspros calling Sisyphus useless to his face, when Defteros backtalks him at his very death . Like saying "this is what you get for fighting for the insignifact weaklings instead of your family, you fool! not even goldies can save everyone, so focus to your inner circle!". Sisyphus was once greatly adored Ilias like Defteros did, the difference is that eventually Sisyphus let gof of Ilias when Defteros continue to cling to Aspros. And that's unfathomable to the twins, with how mutually obsessed they are to each other, the idea of giving up your brother is incomprehensible to them . It's as if Sisyphus had hanahaki for Ilias, the twins would rather see him die because of it, not because they hate him they wanted him to die, but they wanted him to cling to Ilias they way they did to each other. The way Sisyphus isn't as obsessed as them, the way Sisyphus is willing to let go of Ilias, is seen as a form of stupidity or something repulsive to the twins.

Hasgard and Sisyphus both consider Aspros their inner circle, but Aspros was the one who rejects them. He refuse to understand the strength of the bond between Hasgard and his kids are genuine without blood ties, as much he refuses to accept why Sisyphus let Ilias go.

They're already that apathetic even as children, mind you.

Aspros make it clear he'd throw people under the bus for Defteros, he HAS to be a gold saint proper to get the power he needs to protecr Defteros and willing to do so at the cost of innocent lives since he's prepubescent boy. He expects Sisyphus to have the same obedience and passiveness Defteros had, and it pisses him so Sisyphus doesn't have it.

Another good thing that other than he's determined, that forget losing limbs, even death won't stop him, unlike saga who is suicidal and give in to his weakest moment and have a lot of angsting . Aspros also is a hard worker , a perfectionist, and looking down on those who are not.

Aspros/Defteros are the Gemini twins with the most blatant physical differences, not only there's the skin tone, but also, Defteros is larger (190 cm/90kg when Aspros is 188 cm/83 kg)

yet, they are the one who keep saying they are each other's mirror images, other halves of one full being. Aspros did think so at first, saying they are one,

but then after being corrupted, his mind was thinking he's the "original" when Defteros is his "replica", two separate beings, made separately, when Defteros thinks they're two halves of one entity instead. Clearly, the narrative shows Defteros is the one proved right with that. Aspros literally means white. And Defteros' technique literally is BLACK eruption. I was thinking of Pokemon Black White here, but inverted. Aspros is the ideal that with enough hard work, they can finally be together undisturbed, Defteros is the bitter truth that only beyond the grave they can be together.

When zodiacs is compared/ connected with tarot, Gemini corresponds with The Lovers. Aspros/ Defteros are written with this fact in mind, that they display both upright and reversed meaning of the card. The upright meaning is mutual love, harmony, correct choices, trials overcomed, values aligned, soulmates/unions, deep trust. reversed meanings is disharmony, misaligned values, bad choices resulted from recklessness and indecisiveness alike, conflict, detachment, distrust,

At first, they truly care about each other, trusting each other, with mutual goal of overcoming the idea of gemini cannot be together. Then Aspros is corrupted and changed his values, his views, and growing more detached . Defteros knows something is wrong , he keeps distrusting Aspros even if lowkey. As Asmita puts it, things happened not only because Aspros is too impatient and reckless , but also because Defteros is too indecisive to stop him. After Asmita's calls out, Defteros realizes that he is Aspros' demsel no longer and it's time for him to act, that is, to be the one who saved Aspros after Aspros saved him in the years before. he's literally that "i can fix him " character stereotype towards Aspros. Except he actually succeed. Then after their fight they literally become one, and Aspros gloating they really are soulmates.

Look at these images to see how suggestive they are/how bad they desire each other. ( in case it's not clear, Aspros is stepping on Defteros's head here, effectively pegging him, as you can see Awakening repeat the scene without the sitting part but you get it )

tldr: Saga would die for the world itself. Aspros , even in his best day, would destroy the world so that people can not shittalk defteros anymore. alternatively, you can talk about saga without kanon but you can't talk about aspros without defteros

here's some more if u wanna read more about aspros defteros https://at.tumblr.com/draceempressa/we-know-in-universe-aspros-treat-defteros-as-if/arj2fjdghkwn

also you when reading this essay probably:

[pocketramblr]

AU! Inko having a sugar baby arrangement with Giran that accidently resulted in Izuku. Izuku has no idea who his father is, and Giran doesn't find out he has a son until later when the League captures Izuku instead of Bakugo.

oh good the antidote to Nao in Situations... Giran Simping!

1- I think Inko kept the sugar baby arrangement up with several others since, runs an OF, wrote some steamy novels under her OF name, that sort of thing. got an little online boutique she's started more recently with her designs for plus size clothes and underthings. Izuku is generally aware of his mother's career and is fine with it, and is also fine with Inko working to keep most of it out of his sight. just another one of those potentially awkward things they're accustomed to but don't talk about. like his mysterious father. or his seeming lack of a quirk.

2- seeming, as he lacks the toe-joint that says he's quirkless for sure, but nothing obvious has ever shown up. he's smart, but not unnaturally so. none of the mental quirk tests led anywhere. he isn't officially recorded as quirkless, but he assumes that by now he's got to be. Huh anyway weird that he is able to specifically remember instances of quirk use with perfect clarity because he's interested in it, able to analyze what he saw even if it was only once, and also, the weird ofa memory stuff- but we'll get to that

3- so izuku's got a fairly normal life, gets bullied, sludge villain, etc etc etc. And then he gets OfA. and then UA gets attacked. And then UA throws a sports festival anyway. and then he gets brainwashed. And then he sees weird ghostly figures behind All Might! But All Might says he's seen them before too, and they can't interact. just glimpses of the people who used to wield the quirk. Izuku's seen them earlier than he did, probably either the quirk being stronger or an effect of brainwashing. Ok, cool, normal. Iida tries to kill a serial killer, less normal. The next night, Izuku has a vivid dream of scolding some child named Kotaro for drawing on his teacher's desk in permanent marker. not normal at all. He has no idea where it came from. but it keeps happening. Strange dreams- not every night, maybe a few times a month, but each time vivid and unlike anyone he knows. It isn't until he's patching up a shirt in a dream, when a man opens the door and says "Bruce! We got a lead on All For One- and his brother!" that he realizes what he might be seeing. Nervously, he brings it up to All Might, who agrees it sounds like flashes of the past users he can see, but not interact with. after all, the dreams just play out as memories with him unable to change anything. But its probably just because of how strong OfA is now, with Izuku's practice charging it up more! "It's a wonderful sign, young Midoriya, and I hope you have good memory dreams tonight. You're going to the mall with all your classmates tomorrow, right? and camp is next week! Who knows what you'll pull out of that quirk next, incredible."

4- the mall... happens. And so does camp... and Dabi ends up with Izuku instead. Shigaraki complains loudly about not getting the one on the take list. Dabi complains loudly about how he didn't see Shigaraki doing any work on that mission. Izuku- well he doesn't complain, but he does ask pretty loudly why Kacchan was on the list, and Shigaraki goes "oh, friend of yours? i guess we can keep you alive long enough to lure him here." and Izuku has just enough preservation to point out he's pretty sure that won't happen. He does, however, end up chained to a chair, still in horrible pain due to his broken bones, listening to Shigaraki on the phone asking some guy for intel on him and Kacchan.

5- About an hour later, a guy walks in with a file of papers and shoves the top one at Shigaraki. Shigraki reads the paper. Looks at the new guy. reads the paper again. Looks at Izuku. Decays the paper. Tells the new guy he's got ten minutes, and orders everyone out. Izuku notes that Kurogiri is still there. New guy, who smells like cigarettes when he gets close to Izuku, stares at him. Izuku isn't sure what he's looking for, but he glares back. New guy huffs. "Well, you're certainly Inko's, at least." That gets a reaction from Izuku. Shoulders tense. Eyebrows narrow. "How do you know my mom?" "Well, kid, I'm an intel broker. That give you any ideas?" "My mom wouldn't go to a crook like you for information." He's right. "Right. Now come on, be smart kid. If we weren't meeting on account of my job, then...?" Izuku blinks. His mother's? but- no. Absolutely not. "Mhm. If i can remember my old password to get into this account i can show you the old messages we had... dated about seventeen years ago. You're just sixteen now, aren't ya?" New guy, who Izuku strongly hopes is lying, fiddles with his phone, typing something. "And I trust Inko to be professional, loyal. So there's an eighty percent chance, at least." "Eighty percent chance of what?" "What's your quirk, kid?" It takes Izuku too long to say "Superpower." New guy laughs. "Now if I knew Inko well, and I did, then 'superpower' is not the name she would have given the name of a quirk that powered her toddler's bones... but you didn't have that quirk back then. What's your real quirk, not the one you just got this year?" Izuku is pretty sure that Shigaraki's teacher is AfO. He knows about OFA, obviously, though Shigaraki doesn't. This guy may or may not. So instead of answering, he just shrugs. "Let me guess. You didn't have one, or, something about remembering? Maybe forgetting? Attracting memories, that'd be a fun combo, hah. Or, quirkless, like I was before, you know... we each found an in." Izuku tries to glare again, but... well, the memories in ofa are a new thing... and quirks can have strange activators... "Ah! Here we go!" New guy, who Izuku would rather not think of as 'eighty percent chance of being his father', moves around the chair and angles his phone down in front of Izuku so he can see the screen. Instead of old messages, there's a notepad. He scrolls slowly so Izuku can read. The writing on it says "look. we both know AfO wants your quirk. But he isn't going to try and get it until Shigaraki's done with you, so play along, maybe some info here and there to 'lure' the bakugou kid to you. even odds the heroes get here first and you're fine. if they don't, i can get afo to spare your life. not your quirk, but he'll let me keep my son. you can't fight out of here, i'm the only out. but you can't tell anyone about this deal. Not the heroes, not the other villains. got it?" Izuku stares at the note. "Do you get it, kid?" The broker asks, quietly. Izuku is pretty sure he's going to fight a way out anyway, but for now... "Got it." "Good." The broker stands up and walks back in front of him, "Izuku, right? Open up." Izuku starts to ask why and gets a cotton swab in his mouth for it, then before he can bite on it to break it it's out again, tucked into a bag then a pocket. "What was that for?" He snaps. "Well, gotta make sure, right? eighty percent isn't one hundred." "And if i'm not?" "Then Inko will owe me one hell of a favor." "... And if I am?" "Then you will." The broker shrugs, turns to go. "Wait-" Izuku starts, then isn't sure where to keep going. The broker looks at him. "What's your name?" The broker laughs a little. "Ah, good question. What'd Inko call me?" Izuku tries to remember. She didn't usually, but he thinks there was one time when it was someone else asking... "Hisashi?" "Hisashi." The broker repeats. "Ah, see, that's poetic! Much more the kind of name Inko would come up with. She's a great writer, you know." Izuku glares so hard that the broker who's definitely not actually named Hisashi makes his way out of the room without another word.

+1- when Shigaraki comes back, he orders Kurogiri give him something strong enough to wipe that mental image from his mind, and then starts asking Izuku about his friend. And his friend's weaknesses. Izuku is unimpressed and he almost forgets his maybe-dad's plan- "Kacchan is really strong, he doesn't have many weaknesses, since he's so practiced with his quirk that-", but only almost, "I don't know, i scared him with a spider once. but we were like, seven. and i guess i wanted to send him a whole box of spiders after he stole my all might-"..... Shigaraki latches on to the 'wait, he stole things from you? potential for crime? i knew it' thing, Toga latches onto the spiders box thing, and so does Dabi but he does it in the opposite direction, complaining that spiders is so basic, and by the time he was seven, he had already tried to murder his baby brother. Magne then asks "wait, you tried to kill a baby? not succeeded? you failed to kill a baby?" which Dabi then responds by reminding her of her less than stellar ratio of successful kills. Compress asks for one of whatever Shigaraki is having, and swipes his' drink too. Spinner keeps trying to sneak closer to Izuku to ask him questions about Stain, and Izuku is slowly starting to feel like he might actually survive long enough to escape or be rescued before he is either turned to dust or tortured for his quirk.

[electrikworm]

Helping Hands

Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Wrecker

Tags: Back Pain, Massage, Fluff, Established Relationship

Summary:

Once again, Wrecker is plagued by back pain. Padmé isn't just going to let him suffer and has found a way to potentially aid her partner.

Word count: 4,174

Read on Ao3

Sighing, Padmé slips off her boots before she tracks dirt into the Marauder. Whilst some mess is constant with this squad, Padmé knows Tech won't hesitate to berate even her when it comes to making the ships floor unnecessarily muddy.

Padmé's not someone who enjoys being inactive, so if there's a mission that she's got information on, she won't hesitate to join. This mission had come from intel she'd gained from a fellow member of the senate, so of course Padmé had to get involved.

She'd been on the Marauder with Clone Force 99 for almost a week now, though it's far from the first mission she's had with them. She'd long since been on enough missions with the squad for them to actively include her in their crazy plans, which suits Padmé very well.

True to the Bad Batch's 100% success rate, this mission had been a success too.

Though that is far from the only reason this squad is Padmé's first choice for missions. Padmé knows plenty of competent and strong fighters, many other clones that could do just as good of a job. But since the first time she'd fought along this batch, she'd stayed in contact with them, grown attached to them.

The preference naturally grew stronger when Padmé ended up spending more and more time exchanging calls and messages with the squads demolitions expert, Wrecker. A fondness grew between them, resulting in them officially beginning to date a couple months ago now.

Of course, this isn't information they share freely. Clones barely classify as living beings by law, something Padmé's been trying to change with the help of a few other members of the senate, so dating one isn't exactly encouraged. They are first and foremost property of the republic. Padmé was horrified to hear all the ways they're reminded of this in day to day life.

Wrecker luckily has good brothers, none of which will disclose information on what's happening between him and Padmé. They've over all been very welcoming towards her in that regard too, minus some quips from Crosshair.

Just as Padmé's about to look around for her partner, Wrecker's large hand is placed on her shoulder. Smiling softly, he leans down to catch her lips in a kiss. The slight bump in Wrecker's lip from the scar on his face is familiar, the stubble an indication that he hadn't had time to shave that morning. After breaking the contact, Wrecker lingers close to Padmé, forehead rested against hers, breathing a little heavier then he usually does.

The way Wrecker winces when he straightens the way he stands doesn't go unnoticed. Discomfort has been radiating off of him all day, and since Padmé's certain Wrecker's baring no injury worse than bruising, it has to be his back causing him issues again.

She's about to point that out, when Hunter exits the refresher, freeing it for someone else to shower. As much as Padmé insists Wrecker use to sonic first, she still ends up doing so before him. Sonic showers are fast, but Padmé tries to hurry the process further.

As soon as she's out and in fresh clothes, Padmé tries to talk with Wrecker again, only to be interrupted by Hunter wanting to discuss the mission briefly. Once they're done, Wrecker is the one showering. With sight, Padmé sits down on a chair at the navcomputer.

She's been thinking of ways to help Wrecker with the aches and cramps he gets, and has been meaning to try something out. It took ages for Padmé to even learn of the muscle pain that torments her boyfriend, that not being a fact about himself Wrecker likes to share or admit to.

Padmé spent a considerable amount of her free time looking up and asking around about back pain relief, picking up a couple promising sounding massage techniques. In combination with the heat patches the batch stock for these instances, Padmé hopes to get Wrecker feeling a bit more comfortable.

Wrecker exits the refresher dressed in lose civilian clothes, fabric looking soft from usage. Padmé enjoys what Wrecker looks like in his armor, but this is better. The harsh look of his armor conveys the strength housed in his large body well, but this outfit mirrors the softer parts of Wrecker's personality. The fact that Padmé can sometimes catch glimpses of Wrecker's stomach or lower back when he stretches only factor into that preference slightly.

Getting up, Padmé strides to Wrecker's side, taking hold of his hand. She makes sure not to stand too close to Wrecker, so she doesn't have to look up at a bad angle. “How's your back?” she asks, leaving no room for Wrecker to distract from the problem at hand.

He shrugs. “S'fine,” Wrecker says, looking anywhere but at Padmé. He's a terrible liar.

“Doesn't look fine,” Padmé says firmly. Wrecker hunches as his lie is pointed out, shrugging again. “There's something that might help that I'd like to try.”

Wrecker meets her eyes at that, lifting his free hand to wave her off. “No, no, you don't have to do that. I'll sleep it off,” Wrecker protests.

Padmé uses her free hand to cup Wrecker's cheek and he leans into it immediately, just like he always does. A barely audible sigh escapes his lips, soft expression making Padmé's heart clench.

“I won't make you do anything you don't want to, Wrecker.” Padmé trails her thumb across his cheek bone and the scars that line it. How much Wrecker trusts her on his blind side moves Padmé every time she experiences it. “However, all I want to try is a massage and I really think it could help. I promise I won't do anything without letting you know about it first.”

There's a chance Wrecker's declining Padmé's offer due to the fear of unfamiliar medical procedures he'd picked up on Kamino. Padmé's barely heard a fraction of the stories, and she can already see why Wrecker distrusts medical situations.

Wrecker shakes his head. “S'not that, I trust you,” he says, placing a hand over Padmé's one resting on his face. “But we're all tired, and I don't want to keep you from resting.”

“Would have been silly of me to offer if I didn't intend to do what I said I would,” Padmé says, smiling up at Wrecker.

Rubbing a thumb over Padmé's knuckles, Wrecker nods. “Alright, but only if you really don't mind.”

“I don't,” Padmé reassures him, just able to press a kiss to the side of Wrecker's jaw if she stretches upwards. Using the hand she still has in Wrecker's, she starts pulling him towards the batch's sleeping area.

The sleeping racks the Marauder has to offer aren't much for comfort, nor are they particularly wide. When Padmé joins the batch on missions nowadays, her and Wrecker usually opt to sleep on the floor. There's a lot more space to spread out and it's just as comfortable as the rack.

Reluctantly letting go of Wrecker's hand, Padmé gets the blanket they sleep on, as well as the one use to cover themselves, out of storage. They'll only need the first for what Padmé's planing, but she doesn't want to do a lot more before they sleep anyway, so she might as well prepare.

In the time Padmé takes to arrange the first blanket on the floor, Wrecker's gotten the pillows. They're flat and on the hard side, but do their job well enough. They're the same gray so many GAR issued pieces of equipment are. It's easy to tell that the squad must have picked most of these blankets up along the way somewhere, their varying colours contrasting to the pillows bland gray tone.

Padmé's glad. She's seen the GAR issue blankets before and they feel horrible.

Voicing a quick thanks to Wrecker, Padmé gestures for him to sit on the blanket. “Take your shirt off,” she says, not waiting to watch if Wrecker does so.

It doesn't take a lot of searching for Padmé to find the green glass bottle she'd stowed in her personal belongings, after all, she'd hardly packed much.

“What's that?” Wrecker asks as Padmé sits next to him, tilting his head slightly. He has his arms crossed in front of his chest as he sits there shirtless. Despite running hot, the slight chill on the Marauder must be affecting him.

“Massage oil,” Padmé answers as she unscrews the bottle's lid. She holds it out to Wrecker. “Tell me if you like the smell. If you don't, I'll find something else to use.”

Wrecker takes it from her carefully, leaning forwards to smell the contents. Padmé purposefully picked a subtle scent, a blend of citrus with a faint herbal note. Hunter and Tech react badly to intense perfumes, and Wrecker doesn't particularly like them either.

Thankfully, Padmé seems to have made a good choice, as Wrecker smiles and nods. She really doesn't know what she would have replaced it with if he didn't like it. Tech's got plenty of oil for work on the Marauder's engines and his contraptions, but it smells bad and leaves stains. Padmé also isn't all too keen on smearing cooking oil on her boyfriend's back.

“Lay down then,” Padmé says, putting a hand on Wrecker's bicep. Before doing as asked, Wrecker leans over far enough to lightly bump his head against Padmé's, making a smile cross her face.

Wrecker settles on his front, head cushioned on one of the pillows and his arms. He pushes himself up briefly to look back at Padmé, smile on his lips.

To better reach the broad expanse of Wrecker's back, Padmé decides to place herself with a knee on either side of Wrecker, sitting on his butt. That gets a laugh out of Wrecker.

“Is this okay?” Padmé asks.

“Completely fine,” Wrecker answers, hints of his amusement still present in his voice.

Padmé allows the oil to pool in her palm, hoping to warm it somewhat before spreading it across Wrecker's back.

The multitude of scars stick out against the warm tone of his skin, a wide variety of them littering Wrecker's back. Padmé's heard the story behind a good amount of them. Some Wrecker tells gladly, usually tales of the missions they've been on. Others, Wrecker is less proud of, most of those being small, circular puncture marks and neat, regular incisions.

Padmé's never pushed Wrecker to share the story behind those, but he'd divulge bits and pieces of their origin ever so often, usually when he isn't feeling particularly well. They come from his time on Kamino, and all of the batch share similar scars. No member of the squad sees them as honourable, the marks acting as a source of shame and disgust.

The scar on Wrecker's face continues down his neck and shoulder, enveloping most of his left shoulder and spreading down his arm and across his shoulder blade. The skin looks twisted by the injury, alternating between being raised and grooved. The scar tissue is thick and knotted. Padmé knows from experience that it's harder to the touch than the surrounding skin.

Wrecker had laughed when he told Padmé that the explosion tore such a large chunk out of his shoulder, that you likely could have seen bone. If it hadn't been for all the blood, that is. Padmé was horrified by the information, and Wrecker's brother's didn't quite share his enthusiasm either. Looks of fear, guilt and shame ghosted across their expressions as they listened to Wrecker tell the tale.

The more time Padmé spends observing Wrecker move and lift things, the more obvious it gets that he favours his left arm, never putting quite as much weight on it as his right.

Padmé makes a note to pay special attention to that spot when she gets to it.

“Tell me if anything makes you uncomfortable or hurts,” Padmé says as she places her hands flat on Wrecker's lower back. He nods in response.

With even strokes, Padmé spreads the oil across Wrecker's back. He hums appreciatively, almost trying to arch off the floor to lean into Padmé's touch.

“Feels good,” Wrecker comments as Padmé runs her hands across his skin.

A short laugh escapes her. “Love, I haven't even done anything yet.”

“Still feels good,” he sighs. As endearing as Wrecker's appreciation of close contact with Padmé is, how surprised and overly grateful he reacts to it doesn't speak well of his past partners and interactions with people other than his brothers.

Once the oil is evenly spread, Padmé brings her hands to Wrecker's upper back, placing her palm flat to his skin and her other hand on top of the first. Increasing the pressure slightly, Padmé begins moving her hands in a circular motion.

Wrecker releases a low groan almost immediately, making Padmé smile.

“Good like this or can I go harder?” Padmé asks, trying to see Wrecker's expression from where she's sitting. All she can tell is that his eyes are closed.

“Kark,” Wrecker groans, “you can absolutely go harder.” Padmé laughs softly, doing as asked.

Just then, someone clicking their tongue in annoyance behind , makes Padmé jump. She whips her head in the direction of the noise, somehow managing to not interrupt the circles she's rubbing into Wrecker's skin.

Crosshair's standing there, resting a hand on his tilted hip and lazily holding a toothpick in the other. “You know, this is only marginally better than what I thought you were up to based on the noises you're making.”

Padmé scoffs, amused by the attempt to get a rise out of her. It's far from the worst innuendo she's heard in the years she's spent in the public eye. “Can't have been that misleading if you felt comfortable walking in on us,” Padmé responds.

“Yeah,” Wrecker agrees, “shut up, Cross.” He starts sitting up a little, only to quit halfway, clearly deciding to prioritise leaning into Padmé's touch over getting back at his brother.

Crosshair sighs loudly, rolling his eyes, but doesn't make any further comment as he disappears back into the cockpit.

Padmé continues the circles down Wrecker's back, along the right side first, then switching to the left. Reaching the lower back, she eases the pressure to keep it from getting uncomfortable across areas not protected by ribs. Padmé spends a little more time focusing on areas near Wrecker's hips, knowing it's a problem spot for him as well.

Wrecker's positive response is consistent, a mix of soft, pleased noises and thanks. She's careful not to put too much pressure on Wrecker's scarred shoulder with this move, paying close attention to how Wrecker reacts.

When she's done with both sides of his back, Wrecker tries to sit up. Padmé places her palm flat on his back to stop him. Of course he could easily push past her, but Wrecker doesn't, halting his attempt to get up at the touch.

“I have other things I could try, if you like,” Padmé suggests, trailing her thumb along a scar originating from a blaster bolt.

“Really?” Wrecker asks, twisting to look at Padmé, almost making her fall from her place sitting on Wrecker.

Padmé nods, delighting in the sweet smile that spreads across Wrecker's face. He settles back down, resting his head on his forearms. He mutters something Padmé doesn't quite hear, followed by him thanking her again.

She begins circling her thumb along Wrecker's back, slow steady movements. A content sigh comes from Wrecker, clearly enjoying this just as much as the first move.

Padmé's half way up the right side of his back when Wrecker's posture changes suddenly as he tenses, hissing under his breath. Drawing her hands back quickly, Padmé leans forwards.

“Everything alright?” she asks, hoping for a honest answer. It's clear something she did caused Wrecker pain.

Wrecker is quiet for a moment. Padmé expects him to try and argue that everything is fine. After another few seconds of nothing, Wrecker finally answers.

“That spot just hurts,” Wrecker answers, “but you don't ha-”

“Then I'll be more careful around it,” Padmé interrupts Wrecker, cutting him off before he ends up trying to apologize to her for experiencing pain.

Padmé goes over the spot again, much gentler this time. She spends some time trying to ease the tension causing that particular knot, unsure if it actually works.

“Better like this?” she checks in, Wrecker not having reacted at all to the second attempt at tackling that soreness.

He nods, humming affirmatively.

Wrecker points out a few more trouble spots as Padmé continues, each being carefully focused on. Padmé's unsure if the previous technique hadn't sparked the discomfort or if Wrecker simply hadn't voiced it, but she's glad he's doing so now.

By the time Padmé moves to the next step, Wrecker's practically melted beneath her. His breathings evened out, having become deep and slow, and his shoulders lack their usual tension. The only reason Padmé's sure Wrecker hasn't fallen asleep is the occasional groans and sighs he releases.

Padmé's nearly overwhelmed by the need to lean forward and press a kiss to the back of Wrecker's neck ever so often, only stopping herself because she'd get massage oil all over herself and it would interrupt her work.

“You seem extraordinarily good at this.”

For the second time that day, Padmé is scared by one of Wrecker's brothers, this time Tech, who apparently didn't feel like announcing himself. Clearly he spooked Wrecker too, who's up on his elbows, glaring back at his brother.

“Tech,” Padmé exclaims, “don't sneak up on us like that.”

“Apologies,” he says, looking a lot like he isn't sorry, and in fact, had done so on purpose. In the corner of her eye, Padmé catches Wrecker rolling his eyes before laying back down.

“Do you need something?” Padmé asks.

“Ah, no, I do not,” Tech answers, “I merely wanted to check in on you. It's a good idea, what you're doing. I believe it has the potential to really help.” He gestures at Padmé's hands on Wrecker's back as he speaks.

“Already is helping,” Wrecker mumbles into his forearms, finishing off with a content sigh. Padmé can't help but smile.

“Oh, and I brought you this,” Tech continues, holding out two of the heat patches Wrecker usually uses for his back pain.

Padmé thanks Tech before returning to tending to Wrecker's back.

Balling her hands into fists, she runs them along Wrecker's back, away from his spine and down towards his hips. Tech comes back a little later, depositing a towel next to where Padmé's placed the heat patches. It'll be useful to have that when she's trying to stick the patches to Wrecker's skin. The oil would likely hinder their adhesion.

When she's thanked Tech again, he's off, just as silently as he'd appeared the first time.

To finish off, Padmé rubs her hands across Wrecker's back firmly for a couple minutes, enjoying how completely at ease he seems. His body is almost entirely slack beneath Padmé.

When Padmé gets off of Wrecker, he seems almost disappointed at the loss of her weight on him. Before Wrecker can try moving or look what she's doing, Padmé shuffles closer to his head. From her new position, she has much better access to Wrecker's scarred shoulder.

Warming up a little more oil in her hands, Padmé takes a moment to just look at Wrecker. He's tilted his head so he can look up at Padmé, eyes half lidded, soft, relaxed smile on his lips. She takes this opportunity to lean down and kiss Wrecker's temple.

“Feeling alright?” Padmé checks in.

“Feelin' great,” Wrecker sighs, laughing softly. Padmé's heart aches with fondness for him.

With the utmost care, Padmé starts massaging Wrecker's shoulder. With the way he's laying now, Wrecker has his blind eye and deaf ear up, yet he's still completely relaxed as Padmé works her fingers across the thick scar tissue lining his left side. She's honoured he trusts her so much.

Sitting like this would have been ineffective for working on Wrecker's back, but Padmé really enjoys the immediate feedback of not only hearing the noises Wrecker makes, but his facial expressions too. There's next to no tension remaining in his expression, a lot like when he's sleeping peacefully. Padmé ends up having to disturb the way Wrecker lays to gain proper access to Wrecker's upper arm. He doesn't seem to mind, easily allowing Padmé to take hold of the limb. Seeing as Wrecker tends to get his fists involved in combat and their enemies are more often than not droids, his knuckles take a lot of punishment on the daily as well. Like so often, dark bruises are spread across them. Padmé plans to pay some attention to Wrecker's hands as well, but she'll wait until her hands aren't covered in oil any more. Before finishing off, Padmé lets her fingers trail up the scarred side of Wrecker's neck, kneading the skin. Wrecker leans into her touch as much as he can, consequently making his neck a little harder to reach. Padmé doesn't want to correct him, finding it sweet. Wiping her hands on the towel, Padmé cleans most of the oil off two spots on Wrecker's back, one on the lower half, the other on the upper. Placing the towel aside, Padmé unpacks the heat patches, applying both to Wrecker's skin.

“There,” Padmé says, smoothing the patches down, “done.”

She's about to offer to look at Wrecker's hands next, when, as soon as the words have left her mouth, Wrecker's arms are wrapped around her. Releasing a surprised yelp, Padmé is pulled into Wrecker's embrace, ending up laying next to him, with his arm and shoulder draped across her.

Before Padmé can make a point of telling Wrecker that she wasn't entirely done, Wrecker's started pressing kisses to her face. Along her nose, forehead, cheeks, no part is spared in Wrecker's demonstration of affection. Padmé is overcome by laughter at the soft sensation of Wrecker's warm lips on her face.

“Wrecker!” Padmé exclaims. “I still want to look at your hands.”

“Said you were done,” Wrecker says, wide grin on his face as he's propped on his elbow above her.

“Please?” Padmé's already turning in Wrecker's grip, holding her hand out in preparation to receive his. There's a smile in the sound of Wrecker's voice as he sighs dramatically and agrees.

He settles on his side, draping the second blanket across both of them before doing so. Padmé takes Wrecker's large hand in hers, inspecting it carefully.

Years of scar tissue cover the knuckles, smaller burns and cuts having left marks on the rest of his hand as well. The bruising is still fresh and will likely darken even further over night. Padmé starts rubbing her thumbs across Wrecker's palm.

She doesn't get far before Wrecker kisses the top of her head, distracting her. Padmé tries to ignore it, but Wrecker keeps shifting his hold on her, leaning his head on top of hers or kissing any spot he can reach. It's making progress very slow.

“Wrecker,” she sighs fondly, “you're being very distracting.”

“Then it's working,” Wrecker says with a small laugh.

Padmé shakes her head, suppressing laughter as she turns to give Wrecker a look. “Come on.”

“You've done enough,” Wrecker says, resting his forehead against the top of Padmé's head, “can't we just sleep?”

Padmé sighs, but Wrecker's hands can wait. She is feeling rather tired, especially this close to her furnace of a boyfriend. “Alright, later then.”

She takes the opportunity of Wrecker shifting to embrace her better to connect her lips with his in a slow kiss. She presses close to Wrecker, allowing their legs to tangle. Padmé absent-mindedly runs a hand across the arm draped across her chest, feeling very comfortable. She has to push away the thought of having to sleep alone soon again.

“Thanks Padmé,” Wrecker sighs, “I'll make it up to you soon.”

“You don't have to, my love,” Padmé smiles. She's been trying very hard to make it clear that she isn't going to hold anything she does for Wrecker against him or demand compensation. That hasn't quite gotten through to him yet.

“Want to though. You need to relax more too.” Wrecker runs his fingers through her hair gently as he talks.

“Some other time, Wrecker,” Padmé says. “Just sleep now.”

She can feel Wrecker nod as she closes her eyes, letting her body go slack against Wrecker's. Padmé wakes far more rested when she sleeps next to Wrecker, and knowing that makes falling asleep just that bit easier. Wrecker's shared with Padmé that he feels the same.

There continues to be barely an tension in Wrecker's body, seemingly entirely at ease. It makes Padmé feel quite pleased with herself, knowing she managed to help at least a little with Wrecker's recurring back pain. In the face of that achievement and the comfortable position Padmé's in, all her other worries are far away as she falls asleep.

[colourful-void]

Of the popular Carmine interpretations (and carmine and kieran relationship interpretations) ive seen, none of them vibe quiteee right with me, so here's mine.

carmine is not a good sister to Kieran but she’s also not a bad person. not because she's not trying to be a good sis or because she doesn't like him, etc etc, but because they're at a point rn where they dont mesh right, and no one is stepping in to mediate or help them. Like the fact is Carmine Is an angry and abrasive person, who truly does care about her village and the people she cares about. She does love Kieran and Kieran does love her, and I think they both know that. But the way she treated Kieran Did contribute to his self doubt issues. Carmine and Kieran’s relationship Isn’t Healthy! But fuck, it’s not beyond repair. There’s still love there, there’s a future they can have. Being around a person who constantly and consistently gets angry, esp if that person is someone in power over u (like ur older sister) fucks a guy up! Even when you know that person loves you especially if you know they love you!

Carmine is an angry person and you know what sometimes people are like that! But look at them… I think they reached a point where Carmine shooing Kieran off was seen as just… Fine with everyone involved, because “(she) didn’t hit him or anything”. She's not lashing out at him trying to be awful she's not trying to hurt him.

Who’s giving Carmine a proper outlet? She’s got battle, is that helping anything? Her primary Pokémon is Morpeko, the Pokemon that switches between angry and happy. Does that make one side any less real than the other? Does being angry mean she’s not really loving? Does being loving mean she’s not really angry? Does loving Kieran mean she didn’t hurt him?

You’re a teen, and you’re angry. Over all sorts of things, some little and some large, but it doesn’t really matter as much as the fact that She’s Angry. It doesn’t matter why. It's not something you can help, you can put on a nice face, but you're still upset about things, and you should be! What do you do about it? You can't bottle it up. You’ll break, and you're bad at it anyway. Get mad at your teachers? Get in trouble. Get mad at your grandparents? Get in trouble. There’s no place safe to Feel Angry, but you Have to FEEL you can’t help it! You can’t help it. So you let yourself get a little angry at your brother, cause he doesn’t mind. You're still holding back, anyhow. He knows you still love him. He knows. He has to know right? It’s not that you dislike him, he just gets you so mad sometimes and- you still love him. You’re just bad at showing it, but he’s always stood up for you, you hear it even though he tries to keep it quiet. And maybe your brother's a little quiet and a little nervous, but he's always like that. it's fine. Things are fine.

You're a teen, and your sister keeps getting angry at you. And you hardly did anything wrong, but you're never quite enough. Not with her, not with school, not with any kind of "friends" (which you don't have). Cause your sister is so so strong and you really do look up to her, so much, even if she gets mad at you, cause you know she cares you know that. But maybe if you were stronger, she wouldn’t get so upset with you… Part of you knows that isn't true. Part of you starts to believe it anyway. You're used to this, and it's not awful so... it must be fine. It's fine.

And you're brother and sister, outcasts in your own town, so if you squabble a bit, it’s normal right? That’s fine. It’s not broken enough to fix, and everything wears away and away till it breaks. But they were outcasts anyway, troublemakers anyway, it was inevitable anyway, so there's no point doing anything. It's not really a problem, not to anyone Outside their bubble so.

Things are fine.