#where they’ve been around for so long and have been so important (cyborg on a waaaay wider scale)

[starlooove]

Ppl will say fanon v canon doesn’t matter and it’s all jokes and I’m sooooo close to going sure sometimes and then I remember y’all removed a major role of one of the if not THEE most prominent black character in Bruce’s story who was created a whole decade before tim and gave it to tim based off a run where he literally handed the role back! Like IN THE COMIC Tim was CEO in name only and handed it back to Lucius relieved when he didn’t need to front anymore like.

[urimaginespimp]

How You Get The Girl (This Love Final Part)

Bucky x Reader (elemental witch)

Set on TFATWS last episode

Note: Thank you to everyone that's tuned in, gave feedbacks, and liked/reblogged. I had to so much fun writing these! After this I’ll be working on oneshots completely unrelated to this story of several prompts.

We got a new Cap!

Previous Part: Untouchable

Marvel Masterlist

--------

“I’m serious, Shuri. I am over him.” you groaned as Shuri won’t wipe off the smug, disbelieving look on her face.

“Sure, Jan.” She replied getting up to continue on what’s she’s working on.

“Hey, I know that reference!”

“I’m just saying... Seven years of pinning over the guy – which five of it was when he was practically dead, by the way – and you’re telling me it took one confrontation for you to get over him.” She shrugged.

Some of the Dora Milaje were also in the lab, and you haven’t been vocal about it, but you didn’t miss the knowing looks they’ve been exchanging every time Bucky was brought in the conversation.

“Well, it would really be nice if you’re being supportive right now.” you sulked in your seat. Yeah, who were you kidding. Maybe you’re not completely, completely over him, but now you’re sorting to the fake it ‘til you make it method and so far, you’re doing well.

“Okay, fine. Want me to set you up with someone? My brother has some contacts around the world and I think with some buttering up he’d consider setting you up to bachelor royalties.” She wiggled her brows at you.

“May I suggest the Prince of Brunei? The internet says he’s looking for a wife.” One of the ladies snickered, making the others hum in approval.

“T’Challa knows him?” this piqued your interest. “He’s pretty hot.”

“Well make up your mind. It’ll take me a few business days of persuading my brother.” She raised her brows at you.

“It wouldn’t hurt to start dating. I’ll think about it first.” you muttered, missing how Shuri winked at the other ladies in the room. Ayo had told her in private about Bucky’s little confession to Zemo, and the princess has a few tricks up her sleeve to speed up the matchmaking process.

“I’m only staying for a few days more. It’s been a few weeks and Val’s been complaining from lack of sleep.” She’s been taking over your nightly escapades, and it’s starting to irritate her to be surrounded with so much booze but not being able to indulge.

Just then, Okoye enters the lab. “Check the news. There’s a live coverage of a hostage in New York. Sam and White Wolf are on it.”

--------

Bucky was looking over proudly as Sam was talking to the Senator.

Seeing Sam now walking over to him, he straightened up and cleared his throat. “Sorry, I uh was texting and all I heard was um a black guy in stars and stripes.”

They both chuckled, now walking side by side. “Nice job, Cap.”

“Thanks.”

--------

He’s done it. He told Yori the truth. Though now that might have been the end of their friendship, he knew the old man deserves the closure for his son.

Now back in his apartment, he took the notebook Steve once owned from his pocket, and opened it to the page where his list is. Looking over it, he saw that the only name left uncrossed is yours.

Just then, his phone pinged twice. One message was from Sam, and the other one from Shuri.

Sam’s read:

I wasn’t kidding when I told you

back on the boat that I’d get the

younger ones here to give you a

crash course on romance.

Check your email.

He rolled his eyes and opened the one from Shuri.

Y/N’s explained everything to us.

We saw you save those people,

White Wolf. Wakand is proud of you.

Brother says you’re welcome to

visit anytime. Take care!

p.s.

It’s good to know Y/N and you are

are on good terms. It finally allowed me

to set her up with one of the princes

mother’s been pestering me about. One less

off of mother’s list for me.

“Damn it, Shuri.” he groaned, reading the last part over and over again. He had to move fast. Heading over to his email, he opened the one from Sam.

The subject says:

21st century romance for reformed dummies.

There was an attached 60-second video. Clicking on it, he chuckled when Sam’s voice started booming behind the camera, where it showed two young girls and one boy, all around below 10 years of age.

“Okay, I gathered you here today because a cyborg friend of mine is need of help. I already filled you in the details necessary earlier, and all you have to do now is give him quick tips. Remember, talk slow.”

The boy on the middle spoke up. “Is she an avenger?”

“Not important, but yes. It’s the one with similar powers to an avatar.” Sam answered, followed by the two girls saying they know which one, and the boy to mutter ‘damn it I always had a crush on her...’

“Okay the first step would obviously be to say sorry.” the girl on the right said directly to the camera.

“Oh! Extra points if you do it standing like a ghost outside her door and it’s about to rain.” the other girl from the left perked up.

“I said he’s a cyborg, not a weatherman.” Sam commented, still behind the camera.

“Say you were afraid to tell her what you want.” the first girl spoke again.

“Six months is a long time to be afraid, man.” the boy in the middle spoke up this time.

“Try years.” Sam muttered.

“Then you say you want her for worse or for better!” The cheery girl exclaimed once again.

“You’ve been playing too many fake weddings, but yes, that could work.” Sam told her, making her beam, showing a missing tooth.

“Tell her you could wait forever and ever.” the boy added.

“I mean he’s already old enough to be your great grandpa but go on I guess.” Sam was snickering, causing the camera to slightly shake.

“Remind her of how it used to be. That is if he was good to her.” the more mature girl was pointing out. “Saying you’ll put her heart back together could also work.” she smiled, and the other one fake swooned on where she was standing.

“She’s right!” she exclaimed, while boy nods and says “that’s how it works.” at the same time.

Now turning the camera, Sam was now in frame.

“And that’s how you get the girl, Barnes. Straight from the local’s experts. Don’t fuck it up.”

And three voices scolded him for saying a bad word as the clip ends.

--------

It didn’t take long for him to take a flight straight to Norway where New Asgard was. This time without the aid of Zemo’s jet, he had to find the means to travel from the airport, while trying to calm his nerves.

As if the universe was on his side, a couple claiming to be heading back to Asgard allowed him to hitch a ride with them.

Now on the backseat, he tried to make small talk.

“So, uh, how are you guys settling in the planet?” he asked.

The lady on the passenger seat turned to face him with a smile. “It wasn’t easy, really. But the princess went out of her way to educate us about life here on Midgard. She’s so good at it, you’d forget she hasn’t even been living here a decade.”

He smiled. They claim you as their princess despite only being adopted by Thor. He recalls how you once rambled about being scared that they’d be indifferent towards you once Thor brings you to Asgard, one of the reasons you’ve been making up excuses to go with him.

“Why, would you look at that. We’re just in time before it starts raining.” The man driving commented.

Peeking through the window, sure enough, the sky was getting darker.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” he muttered. He might just take the little girl’s advice after all.

After getting out of the couple’s car, he ran straight to where he remembers your home was, just in time when Val just got out of your house.

“Hi. I don’t think we’ve formally met. I’m Bucky.” He greeted extending his ahand to her which she took. A skeptical look on her face.

“Call me Val. I’m sorry what are you doing here?”

“I need to speak to Y/N, please.” He answered truthfully.

“Well it’s about night time so she’s getting dolled up.” She answered

“I know, I know, it’s for her date. But that’s why I’m here.”

Val raised a brow, confused about what date he was getting all bummed about when you were only getting ready to go back to looking out for people out and about at night. But then it dawned to her that maybe this was some of your friend’s doing.

“Y-yes... the date.” She decided to play along, holding back a smirk. Just then, rain started slowly pouring, along with thunder. “Well shit, I have to help some folks get their kids back inside their homes now. You’re free to knock on her door.” She excused herself.

His own clothes were starting to get drenched when he finally knocked on your door.

No answer. He knocked again, louder this time. Now footsteps were heard coming to the door, and the knob turned as you opened it.

“Damn it, Val, the door’s not even lo-” You stopped talking, surprised at the figure that greeted you.

“Bucky... are you insane? Don’t just stand there, come in it’s raining hard.” he urged him to get in and closed the door behind you.

Facing each other, he was taking you in. Val wasn’t lying when she said you were getting ready for your date. He can’t believe he was already getting jealous of a faceless punk.

“So uh... what brings you here?” You decided to break the ice, fidgeting where you stood, still barefoot as it looked like you were gonna have to stay at home if it was going to rain this hard all night.

“Don’t go on the date.” he pleaded, confusing you.

“What?”

“Please don’t go on the date.” He repeated, now walking towards you.

There is no date, but now you were wondering why he’s telling you not to.

“Why?”

“I love you.” he answered without missing a beat, now stepping closer to you. Instead of the reaction he was hoping for, you scoffed and took a step back.

“Don’t pull a Laurie on me.” you replied, a frown etched on your face. He was confused.

“A Laurie?”

“Yeah, I’ve seen enough adaptations of Little Women to know that you’re pulling a Laurie on me.” You spat as a matter of fact. “You’re being really mean, stop it.” you crossed your arms in front of your chest.

“What? I- I haven’t even thought of that reference!” he defends himself, cheeks reddening from embarrassment. “Amy was gonna get married, Y/N.”

“Oh then by all means, feel free to come back just after he proposes.”

“W- We’re getting sidetracked here, doll. I came here hoping there still an ounce of you that loves me. Please don’t tell me you’ve completely moved on from me.”

“What, like it’s hard?” you replied. It surprised you when his brows shot up from recognition of that line.

“Now you’re pulling an Elle Woods on me!” he pointed at you in an accusatory manner.

“Don’t point that finger at me, Barnes. How was I even supposed to know you’ve seen that movie?” you rolled your eyes, walking past him.

“I watched all the movies you told me about back in Wakanda.” he spoke up, making you stop in your tracks to face him again.

“Yeah, that’s right. I watched every movie, I listened to every song, read every book you recommended, and visited every internet site you once said I might like. I was always listening even when I made it seem like I wasn’t.”

You stared at him for a second looking for any indication that he was lying. Recovering from the mild shock, you pursed your lips. “I hope you know the Porn site was a joke. Sam did it to Steve once and I just thought it was hilarious.”

His mouth twitched. Walking over to you once more he stopped when he was only a step away, not breaking eye contact.

“I’m really sorry, Doll. I know it’s bold of me to even ask you, but please give me the chance to make it up to you. And I don’t care if it’s me that has to wait for you this time. Take all the time you need, just please don’t go on that date.”

“Bucky, there was never a date. I have no idea what date you were referring this entire time.” you confessed, making him bring his hands to his face and groan, muttering Damn it, Shuri.

Hearing Shuri’s name, you put two and two together. “Is this about Shuri trying to set me up with a prince?” he nodded as answer. “Well, I did tell her I was gonna think about it.”

He removed his hands away from his face. “Please say no.” He whispered. “I’d tell you what the kids told me what to say if I have to.”

“What kids?”

“Sam got a bunch of kids on video to teach me how to win you back. I’ve already stood under the rain outside your door just like what one of the girls suggested.” Judging from the grin on your face, he was now regretting even mentioning them.

“Well go on, then.” you urged. “Let me see how much you’ve learned.”

“The first time I saw you at the airport, I got so distracted looking at you just casually sitting on top if the ramps while we were preparing to fight. That wink you sent me that day is still engraved in my mind by the way. Then I was so taken back when you bluntly told me you’re attracted to me. I-”

“I don’t think the kids taught you to remind me of my attempts to flirt with you.” You cut him off, embarrassed at the memory. He chuckled at your expression.

“Okay, okay.” he took a deep breath.

“I think I started catching feelings for you the moment they woke me up from my cryosleep and you were there to be the first one to welcome me back. I didn’t think you were still gonna be there like you told me. But you were there, beaming at me like a ray of sunshine. All my years under HYDRA, every time I was woken up, I was only ever treated as an asset. But you welcomed me like I was a friend.” his eyes were starting to get glassy with tears, as he tried not to choke up.

“And then every time you were near, or even when I’d get a whiff of your perfume, I’d start feeling all warm inside and my entire body would be at ease, knowing you were an arm's reach from me. You were the last one I saw as I disintegrated from the blip, and you were the first one I sought out the moment we came back.” he was surprised when you reached forward to wipe away a tear he didn’t even realize had run down his cheek.

“I lied when I said I made a mistake kissing you. It was the first thing I wanted to do the moment I saw you again. But something inside me was always telling me that all I could ever be is someone grateful for your kindness. That it was impossible for the universe to even grant me someone like you after everything I’ve done." He let out a breath before continuing.

"But it was also you, Steve, Sam, and heck – even Zemo– that made me realize that I am worthy of a chance. And I’m sorry it had to take you telling me you were moving on, to have the courage to accept and take the chance that has been long offered to me by the world." He took your hand and gave the back of it a small kiss.

"I love you, Y/N.” Now it was him that had to wipe away your tears away. “Please don’t cry, doll. That wasn’t-”

“Just fucking kiss me already, James.” you laughed, in between sniffles.

He grinned down before you. “You’re my angel with a potty mouth, and I love you.” he whispered, leaning down.

“I love you too."

---------

You and Bucky were out with the Wilsons on their community's afternoon barbeque.

Sarah and you got along with ease, and she was telling you all about their old family business when Bucky hugged you from behind.

"Sorry to interrup, ladies, but I have to show you something Y/N." he said, kissing your cheek.

"Ew, man. I still can't believe your old ass has a girlfriend." Sam commented beside Sarah who was laughing

"You do know I'm older than him, right?" you chuckled.

"I know, but you don't look it." he replied, causing Bucky to flip him off.

Excusing yourself, both of you walked by the docs.

"What's up, old man?" you grinned at him.

"You know what, doll. Most couples would have endearing nicknames for each other."

"I'll call you something sweet once you tell me what that thing you call me when we're alone means."

"What, мое солнце?"

"Yeah, that one! Tell me or else I'll keep calling you ridiculous ones." you threatened, trying not to smile.

"Anyway, мое солнце, I just wanted to show you a text I got from Shuri."

I am yet to have any news that you

manned up and told Y/N you love her,

White Wolf. I was joking before, but now

I really might set her up on a date.

You both chuckled at Shuri's threat.

"I got this." you pulled your phone out of your pocket and dialled her number. You placed it on loud speaker once she picked up.

"Y/N! So nice of you to call."

"Hey, Shuri! Listen..." you feigned seriousness in your voice before releasing a deep breath. "I'm finally over Mr. Smokey eye. I think I'm ready to go on that date now." Bucky was playfully glaring at you for the nickname.

There was dead silence from the other side of the line for a second. "Oh! About that... uh turns out he already has a girlfriend. Planning to propose soon, I heard. Oops!"

"Well that's a bummer. How about the other bachelor royalties your family's friends with? I recently found an article with a list. I can send you one right now. Preferably ones that don't look much like blue-eyed grandpa." you grinned at him as he rolled his eyes. He knows what you were trying to get him to do.

"Uh... turns out my brother isn't that friendly after all." She let out an awkward laugh. "Hasn't Barnes contact you at all?" you could hear the frustration in her voice.

"Oh, that discount prophet, I haven-"

"It means my sun." He finally caved, rolling his eyes.

"What?" you asked him, immidiately forgetting that Shuri was still on.

"WHAT?" she screamed through the phone after a second.

"мое солнце means my sun." he grinned at you.

"Is that Barnes with you?! Hellooo?!!!"

"Talk to you later, princess." you turned off the call when she was about to protest. Facing him again, you stepped closer and put your arms around his shoulders, both of you sharing a grin.

"I love you, мое солнце."

"I love you too, minn stjarna."

"You gonna tell me what that means?"

"You wish."

fin.

--------

@eternalharry @iheartsebandchris @lizzarooni @the-ayo-lit @tanyaherondale @knowyourworth-sellyoursoul @eliwinchester-barnes @ebxny27 @just-a-littlebit-of-everything @fadingdreamersportsmaker @drama-queen-aa

[reactionimagesdaily]

I dont understand bionicles at all, so maybe a crash course into like. 1) what a bionicle is 2) general plot of the bionicle story? happy 5k btw <3 love ur page!

OH BOY OH BOY, this is a question I've been waiting for. Thank you so much for asking, and I’m glad you like my page!! <333

A couple of disclaimers, before I start: I'm going to focus mostly on the mainline plot, but let it be known that there WERE a bunch of serial stories and comics and games that added to the story overall. Bionicle was, I think, one of the first big instances of a plot that was consumed through a bunch of different mediums.

I'm also going to try and do a lot of streamlining - it's not that I DON'T want to talk about bionicle, but there's 10+ years of story to cover, so... yeah. :P

Also! Sorry in advance to anyone whose 'read more' function doesn't work, because this is gonna be a doozy

So, what is a bionicle? From a meta perspective, Bionicle is a Lego theme that ran from 2001-2010, and was briefly rebooted from 2015-2016. It's name is a mashup of biological chronicle, and it was hugely successful in its time, essentially helping to save the Lego company from bankruptcy. The idea is that you use finnicky technical pieces to build humanoid figures (and sometimes their vehicles!) and then. play with them

From a textual/lore perspective, I'm not sure Bionicle is an in-universe term lol. But the characters that we recognise as 'bionicles' are grouped into a bunch of different classifications - 'Toa', 'Matoran', 'Makuta', 'Glatorian', and so on. The characters are kinda like inverse cyborgs, where there's metal on the outside and flesh and muscle on the inside. They often function like robots (e.g. have removable and replaceable masks that they constantly wear over their faces) but are still essentially living creatures.

So, what's the general plot of the story?

...[inhales deeply] Okay

In the time before time, there's an island called Mata Nui that sits in the middle of the ocean. It's populated by these dinky lil' guys called 'Matoran' that live in six villages organised by elements - fire, water, ice, air, earth, and stone. They eke out a life as best they can, facing dangerous wild animals (collectively called 'Rahi') and worshipping the Great Spirit, who is confusingly also called Mata Nui. (They named the island after him.) The great spirit, they say, once watched over them all, but was long ago forced into an enchanted sleep by his evil brother.

(These are the matoran. Look at these cute little guys :3)

One day, six canisters wash ashore, on the island's golden beaches. And out of these canisters step six strange figures called Toa. Tall, strong, and heavily armed, there is one of these 'Toa' for each of the villages, and each of these guys have control over an element. They are the main 'heroes' of this story.

(These are the six Toa. Here's a fun game - spot the girl!)

Each of the six Toa are named characters - from left to right we have Onua (wise and grounded), Lewa (fun-loving and mischievous), Pohatu (friendly and confident), Tahu (hot-headed and impulsive), Kopaka (cold and quiet), and Gali (intelligent and compromising). Some of the Matoran are also named characters - there's Jaller, the captain of the guard at the fire village, Hahli, a sports player from the water village, Matoro, a translator from the ice village, and Takua, who's technically from the fire village but is also an 'outsider' who tends to wander the island. Takua is especially important because he becomes the Toa's 'chronicler', following them around on their adventures and writing everything down for posterity.

Without getting into too much detail, the Toa spend two real-life years getting into wacky highjinks. They hunt for masks (as aforementioned, the masks they wear can be removed and replaced) that grant them special powers, fight the Rahi, and also face up against a terrifying race of creatures with mind-control powers called the Bohrok that are determined to strip the island of all life. They also fight against a being called Makuta, a mysterious shadowy figure who claims to be the brother that forced Mata Nui into his slumber. When they first meet him, Makuta takes the form of a Matoran to throw them off, before turning into a nebulous black void and doing his best to murder them all to death.

(Makuta as he appears in 2001's 'Mata Nui Online Game'. As far as villain introductions go, marching out to meet all the heroes and then telling them "I bore you, for I am nothing. It is from nothing that you came, and it is into nothing you will go. The people of this world are builders, but look into their hearts, and you will find they also have the power to destroy. I am that power. I am destruction. And I will destroy you." is pretty fucking solid though I say so myself.)

There’s a lot of cool worldbuilding and mysterious details about the island. At one point, the earth Matoran note that they can only dig so far into the dirt before they come across some hard material - some type of metal - that they just can’t break through. Also, amidst the stars in the sky, there’s an ominous blood-red star that’s appropriately known as the Red Star. What’s it doing there? Nobody knows

Also at one point, the Toa also get mutated into new forms after falling into a liquid that's called 'energized protodermis' but should really be called 'McGuffin Sauce'. There's a lot of changing forms and characters being mutated in this series in general, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the fact that Lego always needed new figures to make into toys.

(This is how the Toa look after being mutated. In these forms, they're referred to as the Toa Nuva -and let me assure you that that distinction will soon become necessary. :P)

So, in 2003 in our world (I’m not sure about the timeline within the lore), Takua the chronicler finds a mysterious mask and brings it back to the Turaga, who are the wise old rulers of the Matoran (The most promiment of the Turaga is the Turaga of fire, who’s called Vakama. He’s an even-tempered and wise old man who’s not above hitting villains with his walking stick if they threaten his village.). It turns out that the mask is special - it’s the mask of Light, and it’s part of a prophecy that involves the arrival of a seventh Toa who’s destined to defeat Makuta. So Takua and Jaller go on an adventure to try and find the seventh Toa.

Meanwhile, Makuta isn’t just going to sit around and wait for the Toa who’s destined to defeat him to rock up: he unleashes his secret weapons, the Rahkshi, who are, in lore, suits of armour driven by slugs. Sounds corny - in practice, they’re hella intimidating.

(Look at these bad boys)

Some more adventures happen and, to make a long story short, the Rahkshi kill Jaller and Takua the chronicler puts the mask of light onto his own face, transforming into Takanuva, the Toa of Light. The audience surrogate and ‘weird’ character was the secret hero all along!! I love that honestly.

(Takua and Takanuva - before and after)

As someone with light powers, Takanuva is essentially the perfect counter to the big bad Makuta, who has shadow powers, so he finds Makuta’s lair intent on beating him. Makuta challenges him to a game that’s called ‘Kohlii’ but is basically this universe’s version of lacrosse - Takanuva accepts and proceeds to wipe the floor with him. During their fight, they fall into another conveniently-placed pool of energized protodermis and become merged, forming a new being called ‘Takutanuva’. Takutanuva doesn’t stick around very long, because he’s this weird contradictory being of both light and shadow, but before he fractures he opens a gate underneath Mata Nui and lets the Toa, the Turaga, and some named Matoran get through. Inside, they find a hidden city - a whole other world.

Takutanuva then manages to use his powers to hack the universe and bring Jaller back to life. Hooray! After that, he dies, and Takanuva is back. Makuta is nowhere to be found. [eyes emoji]

So now the Toa, the old Turaga, and a couple of Matoran are inside this whole new location, and they’re all wondering what the heck is going on. Well, not all of them are wondering. Vakama, the head Turaga, steps forward and admits that actually, the six (seven) Toa heros that we’ve come to know and love... aren’t actually the first Toa. Gasp!

The next two years of sets and story are essentially one giant flashback, as Vakama tells the current heroes about adventures past. It turns out that the hidden city they’ve found is called Metru Nui, and once upon a time, Vakama and the other Turaga were Toa themselves, fighting to keep the city and the matoran safe.

(New (old) Toa! The flying green one is Matau, who was a stunt-driving excitable madman, and then on the ground from left to right we have Whenua (nerdy chronicler), Nokama (schoolteacher-turned-superhero), Vakama (anxiety-ridden leader), Nuju (absent-minded stargazer), and Onewa (racist prick who needs (and gets) a character arc). To differentiate themselves from the Toa that we’ve come to know and love, these Toa are the Toa Metru)

They had a bunch of adventures of their own. They fought the Vahki (capture robots upholding an authoritarian police state) and the Morbuzakh (evil sentient vines), and they also had ‘arch enemies’ in the form of the Dark Hunters, who were mercenaries that hunted Toa.

Also, that story about Makuta putting Mata Nui to sleep? Not a story so much as a history lesson! Ultimately, the reason that the city of Metru Nui was abandoned was because Mata Nui WAS awake, watching over them all, but then Makuta forced him into slumber and essentially caused a cataclysm. The Matoran were rounded up and forced to sleep as well, and the Toa Metru had to flee the city. When they came back, it had been overrun with Visorak (basically giant spiders), and they had to fight hard to defeat the horde and its leaders and escape with all of the sleeping Matoran.

Once they left Metru Nui (and arrived on the island that would become Mata Nui), the Toa Metru sacrificed their powers to wake up all the Matoran - which is how they transformed into the wise old Turaga. Also, the Matoran woke up with no memories, which is how they’d never known about Metru Nui up until this point.

Anyways, after exploring Metru Nui and making plans to move back in, everyone does some digging around and discover something about Mata Nui: his spirit is fading. Whatever Makuta did to him, it not only put him to sleep, but it’s also slowly killing him. After presumably having an existential crisis, the gang come up with a solution: there’s another legendary mask, the Mask of Life, that should be able to resuscitate Mata Nui, or at the very least, keep him from kicking the bucket while he’s sleeping.

(The Mask of Life! If you look closely, you can see that the faceplate is shaped like a humanoid figure (because, yaknow, life) and if you think that’s not the tightest shit ever you can get out of my face)

So, the modern-day Toa (the Toa Nuva, if you guys remember the name) are like ‘okay, give us the location of the mask, we’ll go and find it’. So they get sent to another island, this one called Voya Nui, and they arrive and... get their asses handed to them? What?

A quick backtrack: a gang of thugs called the Piraka had already arrived on Voya Nui in search of the Mask of Life, wanting it so they can use its power to blackmail powerful organisations and generally get ahead in the criminal world. (From a Meta perspective, they’re,,, really interesting. Up until this point, the villains in Bionicle had either been wild animals, or villains with grand overarching plans. These guys are basically overpowered street thugs, complete with their own theme song - the ‘Piraka Rap’. Look it up on YouTube; it’s fucking hilarious, because the rest of Bionicle is generally timeless, but the Piraka Rap was basically dated as soon as it came out. I love it.)

(The Piraka themselves! Fun fact; in Bionicle lore, ‘Piraka’ is a slang term for ‘thief’ and ‘murderer’, and was also considered so vulgar that if a Matoran called another Matoran ‘Piraka’, war would be declared over it. These guys are really just going around calling themselves slurs. I have to respect that.)

So, yeah. The Piraka defeat and imprison the Toa Nuva when they get to the island. Now what?

Well, now it’s time for the Matoran to get involved! A group of named and previously-established Matoran set out to see if they can rescue the Toa. There’s Jaller, Hahli, and Matoro, who I’ve already mentioned, and then there’s Kongu, Nuparu, and Hewkii. And I need to take a break to say that all these characters have been with the story since 2001 (it’s now 2006), and they’ve all contributed to the plot before!! Kongu is a prominent Matoran from the air village who led a flight of giant bird-riders to save the day one time, and Nuparu is an engineer from the earth village who basically invented mechs to help the Matoran defend themselves against the Bohrok. These guys are BADASSES and I want to bring up how a really strong initial 3 years of storytelling laid a great foundation for so many small characters. It’s just neat! :D

Anyways, these Matoran travel to the island of Voya Nui in canisters (like how the original Toa landed on Mata Nui) and while they’re sailing the ocean blue, their canisters are struck by lighting from the mysterious Red Star. And that lighting, say it with me now, TRANSFORMS them! Specifically it transforms them into Toa. They end up calling themselves the Toa Inika, because they’re searching for the mask of life, which is also called the ‘Ignika’.

(The Toa Inika. Being transformed by a bolt of lighting means that in addition to their regular elemental powers, they also have electric/lighting abilities.)

Souped-up and ready for action, the Toa Inika manage to defeat the Piraka and rescue the Toa Nuva. However, through plot shenanagins, the Mask of Life ends up being sent to the bottom of the ocean around Voya Nui, and the Toa Inika learn that under the waves is a hidden city - Mahri Nui. As they descend, the Mask of Life does something odd; it sends out a wave of energy, transforming the Toa Inika so that they can breath underwater. So now, they’re the Toa Mahri. (Because they’re headed to Mahri Nui. You get me?)

Mahri Nui is ruled by the Barraki - ancient warlords who were imprisoned under the sea many thousands of years ago after they became powerful enough to threaten Mata Nui himself. They were put in a prison called The Pit, but during the cataclysm caused by Makuta putting Mata Nui to sleep, the city of Mahri Nui sunk into the water and slammed into the Pit. Many prisoners and Matoran died, but the Barraki were freed. Uh-oh, spaghetti-ohs.

Speaking of Makuta - guess who’s back! Thought dead after no-one could find him after Takutanuva died, it turns out that his spirit is possessing a robot body that had previously been a prison guard. He spends some time hanging out with one of the Toa Mahri, Matoro, basically playing mind games with him and trying to get him to turn to the dark side. Eventually, three different characters and factions smack the shit out of him, and he slips out of the robot body to go do... something else (watch this space). 

This year of story was REALLY plot-heavy and I kinda can’t do it justice here. The important developments are that the Toa Mahri eventually manage to reclaim the Mask of Life, and Matoro yoinks it. While his teammates act as a big distraction, he swims away and puts on the mask. It basically grants him ultimate power, but it also fuckin’ kills him. His final acts are to teleport his friends to safety, and then release a massive burst of energy that burns him up and saves Mata Nui’s life. The Mask of Life, with no-one left to wear it, sinks into the ocean.

(“In his last moments, Matoro feels no fear. He know he has succeeded--the Toa Mahri are safe, able to resume their lives in Metru Nui. The Turaga and Matoran will know that they became true heroes. Matoro does not see himself as a hero. As a Matoran, a Toa Inika, and a Toa Mahri, all he ever tried to do was his duty. Now that duty has led him to his destiny.”- Bionicle Ignition 11: Death of a Hero)

[dries tears] Anyways, now that Mata Nui’s life has been saved, the only thing left to do is wake him back up. To do that, the Toa Nuva (the Toa that showed up at the very beginning of this story, if you recall) need to journey to the core of the universe, and a civilisation called Karda Nui. Three of the Toa Nuva - Lewa, Pohatu, and Kopaka - are sent to a village in the clouds, where they protect the local matoran and battle the forces of Makuta. Because, as it turns out, the big bad Makuta that we know? Makuta is actually the name of his species. The guy just wanted to feel special, apparently. The Makuta that the Toa have been fighting for over half a decade is technically called Makuta Teridax (or just Teridax), while the other Makuta have other names that I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Anyways, while those three Toa are figuring that out, the other three - Tahu, Gali, and Onua - journey to a place called the Swamp of Secrets in order to find a set of keystones that supposedly contain instructions on how to awaken Mata Nui. And it’s there that they find an unlikely ally: the Mask of Life itself.

See, the Mask of Life has always been a weird one - if you recall, it released an energy pulse for no reason that transformed the Toa Mahri and let them breath underwater. (It’s also done some other fucky stuff that I haven’t been able to mention - there’s a short story about how one time, a guy touched it, and it gave him the ability to involuntarily bring everything around him to life, which ultimately drove him mad. So. You know. That’s fun.) Well, it turns out that when the mask sank into the ocean after Matoro’s death, it ultimately ended up in the swamps of Karda Nui, and it senses the battles raging about it. More than that, but it remembers Matoro’s bravery as he donned the mask knowing it would kill him, and remembers how his final wish was to save his friends. Wanting to know what it means to be a hero, the Mask of Life creates a body for itself, and ventures out into the swamp to discover its destiny.

(The Mask of Life has a body now!! Good for him! Good for him.)

There’s some more shenanigans that I’m skipping over - at one point, Takanuva (Toa of light, remember him?) rocks up to help. Long story short, our eight heroes - Tahu, Gali, Onua, Lewa, Kopaka, Pohatu, Takanuva, and the Mask of Life - fight their way through the Makuta and into the very core of the universe - the Codrex. Inside, after yet more shenanigans, the Mask of Life figures that in order to wake Mata Nui up, it will have to sacrifice the body it’s built for itself. The moment is sad, but the mask remembers Matoro’s sacrifice, and is inspired to act. He sacrifices his dreams of becoming a hero, and in doing so, becomes a hero... ;_;

The mask flies deep into the Codrex, its body dissolving; when it reaches the bottom, it creates a massive energy storm that the other characters have to escape. (Our heroes make it out - most of the villains end up getting vaporized, big RIP.)

And just like that, the journey is over. After years of battle, the Toa Nuva have completed their purpose, and awakened the great spirit, thus bringing peace back to the land. Everyone meets back up in Metru Nui - the Toa Nuva, the Toa Mahri, the Turaga, the remaining Matoran. It’s a glorious day. And as they gather, something happens.

Deep, deep beneath the ocean, energy pulses through rock, and machines that have been dormant for millennia begin to whirr and move. The island of Mata Nui - long abandoned as the Matoran moved back down into Metru Nui - cracks open like a wallnut, each half sliding into the sea. From underneath where the island had been, a tremendous head rises out of the ocean, countless galleons of water pouring off of it. Titanic shoulders follow. Then the chest, and the limbs, and slowly, surely, Mata Nui rises.

Meta context: for years, the nature of Mata Nui has been a mystery. Is he a metaphysical being? Is he a real person? No-one was sure... but they know now. That solid material that the earth Matoran couldn’t mine through, all the way back in 2001? That was his skin. The mysterious red star that created the Toa Inika? That was a failsafe machine orbiting Mata Nui, poised to create new Toa as necessary. The island of Mata Nui was atop his head, Metru Nui was his brain, Karda Nui was deep in his guts. The Matoran were workers to keep him functioning, the Toa were basically his immune system (the canisters they arrive in are literally shaped like pills)... All this time, all these stories, all these characters, this entire world - they have all been inside a robot the size of continents.

(Fucking hell. Look at this. The clouds come up to his ankles.)

Celebrations ripple through Metru Nui as everyone realises what has happened. The great spirit is awake again! The Toa have won! But as the Turaga raise their voices to try and congratulate the Toa, a chill spreads over the spectators as the air grows cold. Everyone stops and looks around. What’s happening now? And then, from everywhere and nowhere, a voice rumbles. It’s a familiar voice. An unwelcome voice. A voice that most of the gathered heroes thought they’d never hear again.

It’s the voice of Makuta - the original Makuta. Makuta Teridax.

And what does he say?

“I AM EVERYWHERE. I AM EVERYTHING YOU SEE.”

Matoro’s sacrifice had ensured that Mata Nui’s body did not die, but before the great spirit’s consciousness could return, Makuta supplanted it with his own. After that, all he had to do was wait for the Toa Nuva to achieve their objective. And as they finished the fight and won the day, they handed victory to him on a silver platter. No longer does he need to strive to rule the universe - he is the universe.

(Meta perspective again but like: FUCK, man. I can’t emphasise enough how mind-breaking this was for the kids who were invested in the series. Think Thanos snapping his fingers in Infinity War, except probably more devastating, because there wasn’t a direct sequel lined up to give the heroes another chance, and there wasn’t a way to ‘undo’ it. This was a plot development that we all had to live with T_T)

(You can tell things are bad because his eyes changed from green to red.)

And what of Mata Nui? What about the spirit that the Toa were actually trying to wake up?

Oh, Makuta stuffed Mata Nui’s consciousness into the Mask of Life - and then blasted the Mask into space.

[inhales deeply]

man...

Okay, in all honesty, part of me wanted to end it there. But you know what? We’ve come this far. And there is more to the story. So I’m going to ignore my concern I won’t be able to do it justice and blunder on.

 Bionicle’s last chapter (2009-2010) follows Mata Nui himself - no longer an abstract spiritual concept, but rather a concrete character. A god felled from his pedestal, struggling to find a way to save his people. And it’s AWESOME. Armed with only the Mask of Life and a sentient shield named Click, he wanders the shithole deserts of the planet he crash-lands on, bringing the disparate tribes together, uncovering secrets about who made him and what his ultimate purpose is, and learning what it means to be a regular person. Also, at one point, in a move very reminiscent of the god that he once was, he turns a guy into a snake. You know. As a ‘fuck you’.

(There’s something really cool to me about a main character being someone who essentially lost all the power of the cosmos. Mata Nui might just be my fave character in this whole story honestly.)

Eventually, Mata Nui discovers some crucial pieces of information. Firstly: the planet that he’s landed on, Bara Magna, is his ‘homeworld’ in that it’s where his giant god body was built. Secondly: the two moons orbiting Bara Magna (the jungle moon of Bota Magna and the ocean moon of Aqua Magna) were once part of the planet itself, and split off during a planet-destroying cataclysm, leaving behind a desert wasteland in their wake. Third: the function he was ultimately built for (his ‘destiny’) was to reunite the three celestial bodies into one planet, bringing life back to Bara Magna’s harsh desert environments. He was on his way to complete this task when Makuta crashed his systems with a computer virus - which was what forced him into the ‘slumber’ that he was in for most of the mainline story.

His fourth, and probably most important discovery, is that he’s essentially his makers’ second attempt at a world-fixing giant robot. Before creating him, his makers (the ‘Great Builders’) constructed a giant robot that malfunctioned and exploded. Long-deactivated, the pieces of it are still scattered through the deserts of Bara Magna - in fact, many of the villages on the planet are set up in or around these giant robot pieces. Mata Nui figures that if he can reconstruct this old robot, he can use it to complete his destiny, and maybe even save his people.

It isn’t easy. He has to convince the villagers he’s come to befriend (the Agori) to give up their homes and their safety, and he has to find an experimental power source that’ll actually get the giant metal body moving again. But eventually, he figures it all out. Powered by the experimental source, the Mask of Life, and probably also friendship, he inhabits this enormous form and rises once again. Without missing a beat, he reaches out and begins to pull the moons towards the main planet. As far as he’s concerned, he’s going to fix everything, or die trying.

(The power of skybeams)

However, it won’t be that simple. Makuta senses that Mata Nui’s spirit has inhabited a new form (and I don’t mean that in a metaphysical way, I mean that in a computer/technology way), and he quickly jets over to Bara Magna. Obviously, flinging the fucker into space wasn’t good enough. It’s time for him to destroy Mata Nui, mano y mano. Giant robot y giant robot.

(Makuta and Mata Nui, facing off. God I love this picture.)

It’s the final battle - for real this time. The two giant robots begin to punch each other, and Mata Nui is up against some obvious disadvantages. For one thing, he can’t risk attacking Makuta with all his might, because he doesn’t want to hurt his people, who are still inside the giant robot. (Inside, they’re fairing... poorly. It’s like facism, but if facism was being actively enforced by God.)

In the fight, a hole gets blasted in Makuta’s body, and out pour a whole LOAD of Rahkshi. (Remember those guys?) However, Tahu and Takanuva also manage to escape, and join a ground battle that’s breaking out between the Agori (and their protectors, the Glatorians), the Skrall (a tribe of warriors native to Bara Magna who are absolute dicks - I’ve had to gloss over them, unfortunately, but believe me when I say that they’ve been major antagonists for as long as the narrative has focused on Bara Magna), and a bunch of guys who are called ‘Piraka’ but aren’t the gang of thugs from Voya Nui. (I think they’re the same... species?) Long story short: large-scale shitfight is happening at the feet of the two robots that are slugging it out. Makuta, being a dick, decides to try and literally stamp on all of Mata Nui’s friends down below, and Mata Nui has to desperately hold him off.

Around this point, the Mask of Life (which is really the MVP of this whole story) uses its convenient energy bursts to imbue Tahu with a set of golden armour that allows him to release energy blasts of its own. (Why it singles out Tahu, I’m not sure, but I’m presuming it’s because Tahu was the first face of the series and it just makes thematic sense for him to be a major player in the final battle.) Tahu uses his new golden armour to disintegrate ALL of the Rahkshi - and there were a lot of them on the field of battle, let me assure you. Makuta feels the loss of so many creations at once, and falters, and Mata Nui seizes his chance. He’d done his work well before Makuta had arrived, and the jungle moon is now in low orbit above the planet. Pouring every last ounce of his strength into one more push, he surges forward and up, pushing Makuta up and making sure that his head is right in the path of the falling planet.

Crunch.

(Kudos to Makuta Teridax for being such a persistent antagonist that the only way to get rid of him for good was to drop an entire damn planet on his head.)

Mata Nui guides the falling body carefully to the ground, letting it open and freeing his people. The remaining Skrall and Piraka surrender. The Matoran and Toa meet and mingle with the Agori and Glatorian. Mata Nui raises his hands, and completes his purpose; aided one last time by the Mask of Life, as well as his body’s innate systems, he enacts a synthesis on the now-united celestial bodies. Lush forests and large bodies of water appear in the desert. Life flourishes. Birds probably start to sing. Mata Nui has completed his purpose, and vindicated all of the heroes who fought for him for so long.

He feels himself fading. He lets his spirit withdraw into the Mask of Life. A new slumber - this one, earned, and of his own volition.

Perhaps one day, he will return.

(“We will honour Mata Nui, and all those who fought for him, in our memories. But the time has come to move on. His destiny is fulfilled, and for many of us, it has yet to be written. My friends, it is time to go.”- Tahu, The Mata Nui Saga, chapter 34.)

And there we go! Very, VERY long, but that’s the general plot of bionicle. There are an absolute tone of details I’ve missed out or skipped over, and I encourage you to search them out for yourself if you’re interested. But them’s the basics! :D

[shblackeagle]

BBRAE Week 2021

Day one: Unconventional Kiss

Garfield Logan was known to have the silliest jokes and pranks at the most stupid and unpredictable times. He was practically famous for it.

Raven knew that, actually everyone did. That's why she often didn't care if he pulled up a prank or cracked a childish joke when everyone least expected. None of those silly jokes got the team into trouble, at least most of the times, so she basically never invested so much into them. He'd always been like this ever since she knew him. It didn't even change when he became an adult. Gar's silly jokes never changed.

But his feelings somehow did.

As an empath Raven could easily feel the slightest changes in everyone. She always knew if something had changed in someone before anyone, even before the person themselves.  Such power was really helpful to the team in many ways. She could feel if someone was being dishonest or too afraid for a mission, maybe even expose a villain's lies. She basically knew things about Titans other titans didn't even have a clue. 

She knew about Dick's inner fears, Kory's homesickness no matter how much she tried to hide it, Victor's sadness about his humanity, Donna's insecurities and many more that they didn't dare to share. Despite that, she never pried more than she was allowed to. But being a very powerful empath she was, she often found herself knowing some private secrets she was not supposed to know. It was hard at first but then she learnt to keep this power more under control, not to expose what she knew and maybe even forget them.

But Gar's sudden change of feelings was not something she could easily overlook.

She knew it wasn't as sudden as she wanted to think. She had been feeling it for months now and at first thought it would disappear like many changes of feelings others went through. But not only didn't it stop but it grew stronger each time she felt it.

She knew exactly when it happened. It was long ago in the medical room. She could picture it in her head easily.

She felt his first slight change of feelings when he was badly injured in a mission and she had to spend a long time healing him. It was an ugly fight and if she wasn't quick enough, he might have died. It was a very painful process for her. Absorbing such pain wasn't as easy as she talked about it. The pain would stay with her forever, but it was worth it. Gar was worthy of it. She would always do she could to save him. Whether he knew it or not, he was important to her; more important than she wanted to admit.

When she was done, he opened his eyes and met hers, he smiled at her.

Appreciation 

Hurt

Confused 

Proud

"None of Vic's medical treatments will ever be as good as your healing touch. Thanks" He said weakly. Raven just nodded at him despite the pain she was feeling at that moment. She didn't want him to feel guilty. 

He got up from the bed and sighed.

"But as much as I appreciate it Rae, do me a favor next time will you?" He said pulling away the cover.

"What is it?"

He hesitated for a moment, "Don't heal me next time." She looked at him confused.

Hurt

Scared

Ashamed…?

"Why?"

That was the first time she felt it. A sudden strong feeling coming suddenly and almost overwhelmed her but before she could totally embrace it, it stopped. It only lasted for a very short moment and she wondered if it was from him in the first place. She had just absorbed his pain so she was probably messing up her head due to the pain?

"I can heal myself quickly and Vic's treatments also come in handy. You should use your healing powers for something more important than me."

It wasn't the first time they had this conversation. Gar always asked Raven to never use her healing powers on him and whenever she asked why he always said the same answer.  

Something more important? What could possibly be more important than his life?

But before she could ask, the door opened with a bang as Kory came to the room.

"Garfield!" The Princess flew towards the weak man and lifted him up from the ground, hugging him tightly. "I was worried!"

Gar laughed, "No need to be Kory. I'm fine." He looked down at Raven, "All thanks to Raven."

***

Raven tried to forget that strange feeling from that day and she would have been successful if it didn't come to her out of nowhere consistently when she wasn't ready. 

Next time she felt it, even stronger than before, was when the Titans decided to have a movie night. They were superheros but even superheros needed some time to be themselves, even if it was just for one night.

It was not unusual for Gar to arrange the whole thing, definitely with Victor's help but mostly himself. He even forced everyone to be in their rooms when he was preparing the movie night in the main room. Dick found it a little extra but who could stop the Changeling? He was always unstoppable when it came to their short gatherings. 

Raven was sitting on her bed that night while reading her new book when she heard someone knocking on her door. She knew it was Gar of course. She easily felt him coming to her door excited a minute ago.

Without even looking away from her book, she called. "Yes?"

"Rae it's Gar!" He was definitely too excited for it. It wasn't like they've never done this before but something obviously never changes. 

"I'm done preparing the main room for movie night. Everyone is now in the main room. Please join us! The movie I picked is amazing!"

She'd rather not think about the last time he picked a movie to watch. She was so scared that she had to meditate for hours to keep her emotions under control the next day. It was even harder when she could feel others were also scared.

"What genre?" She asked. There was no way she was going to watch another scary movie and absorb others' fear of it for a week.

"Comedy! I promise you'll laugh."

She shook her head. Was he really still into that? She was really impressed by his commitment to take any chance of making her laugh. She appreciated it of course, but found it unnecessary. 

She opened her door and found Gar in his pajamas with a grape soda in one hand, offering it to her. She took it, thanking him by a nod.

Happy

Excited 

Impatient 

He was just so easy to read. He always wore his heart on his sleeve, letting her feel anything he was feeling and since he was usually in a good happy mood, Raven always welcomed his presence.

Not that she would ever tell him that!

"Let's hope this one won't come out as silly as the last time you showed us a comedy movie. It was basically a kid show." 

Gar gasped, "How dare Rae! No one is too old for cartoons!"

Raven grinned, "So you agree it was a kid show." 

Gar opened his mouth to retort but nothing came. Raven just shrugged and started walking toward the main room with a  grin on her face. Gar quickly caught up with her from behind.

"It still made you laugh! I remember that."

"It didn't. It was just a silly cartoon."

"Do you want me to go and get the security cameras to prove my point?" He winked at her as she tried to hide her smile and the door opened to the main room.

That was the moment she felt it again. That powerful strange feeling. It hit her in every way possible as she tried to find the source. She looked at Gar but his face remained straight.

"Hey Rae! Join us. The movie is about to start." Cyborg said with bags of chips in his hands.

"Where's Wally? He said he would come." Donna asked looking around.

Suddenly Wally appeared on the couch with many bags of snacks and drinks in his arms.

"What are you talking about? I've been here for the last three seconds!" He obviously bought them from the supermarket downtown. It didn't take long for him to come and go.

"Okay then. Now that we're all here. Let's watch it." Dick said.

But Raven couldn't understand what they were saying because that was the moment the feeling faded away as quickly as it came. Was it from Gar? Roy? Donna? She wasn't sure. Gar was always so easy to read. She doubted he could feel something so strong and hide so quickly...but could he? If the feeling didn't belong to him then who was it? Who was the one that possessed this powerful confusing feeling?

She immediately looked down at Kory who was cuddling with Dick on the ground. Kory was indeed capable of that. She was also there when the first time it happened. But what was it? Kory's emotions were always loud to read for her and she usually never hid them. Raven knew it. 

Raven sat on her favorite part of the couch which was now filled with pillows and blankets and some of her favorite snacks. Thanks to a certain shapeshifter who outdid it. Despite her curiosity, when the movie started, she tried to forget about that powerful feeling. She only felt it twice and it was probably no big deal. For now maybe she would just enjoy being with her friends rather than investing in something she probably had no role in.

Raven was sitting at the end of the couch with Gar beside her. Vic and Wally were also sitting on the couch while Dick and Kory were on the ground, sharing the same blanket. Donna and Roy were on the ground as well but not as touchy as them. All the Titans knew they were a thing but apparently, they were the only ones who weren't convinced.

This time the movie was actually very funny and she found herself chuckling at some of the parts. The main room was filled with Titans laughter as they enjoyed themselves after a long busy week. 

That was all she needed. The whole room was filled with happiness. Everyone had forgotten about missions, stress and plans even if it was for just two hours. Even Boy Wonder wasn't feeling uneasy as he was laughing loudly with Kory by his side whose laughter was so beautiful to hear. 

Raven closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting in all the happy emotions around her,. Even two days of meditation would not give her such peace as this did.

Azar! How much she missed it! 

She didn't even care if she missed some parts of the movie as the Titans kept laughing. Them being happy made her happy. She was so deep in herself and in her own world as she didn't even notice she wasn't even watching the movie. 

That was the moment that once again, that feeling came to her.

She opened her eyes quickly, looking at all Titans faces to find a clue yet she found nothing strange. Everyone was busy laughing, eating and drinking exactly like how they were before she closed her eyes. 

"You okay Rae?" Gar asked as noticed her curious face, "You seem worried."

Raven looked at him, "I thought I felt something."

"Felt something?" 

"Yeah." She said looking at everyone again but she didn't spot anything unusual or something she would worry about.

"Anything dangerous?" Gar asked as he stretched his hand to get another soda from behind.

"I don't think so…" She pressed her back to the couch again, trying to let it go. She didn't want to worry Gar for nothing. "It was probably nothing."

"Well I trust your emotions detector more than anything. It saved us more than we can count." He offered her the grape soda he grabbed, "but for now, let's just not overthink things and enjoy the movie. I'm sure if it was anything alarming, you'd know it by now."

Raven took the soda from his hand, "Yeah...Yeah you're probably right." 

Gar grinned, "when wasn't I?"

"Do you want a list?"

He laughed. "Maybe I'll ask you to show me later."

Raven smiled at him as he turned his head to the TV and continued watching. He had a point. If it was anything dangerous, she'd have felt it, but it was so powerful to let it go. During the rest of the movie, she felt it come and go very quickly many times, especially the times she was laughing or chuckling. It was weird how the person could switch it on and off whenever they wanted it. Was it a sort of a red alarm? Was it really dangerous? She doubted it because whoever possessed it was in the room and there were only Titans. 

But one thing was certain, as much as the feeling didn't feel harmful, it was very powerful that she could detect it among all those happy emotions surrounding her. What could it possibly be? How could such emotion be that strong? It even beat Kory's loud emotions.

But she'd lie to herself if she said it didn't feel so good. Everytime she felt it, she was overwhelmed by it in a very good way. Whatever that was, it put her in peace and gave her warmth. She would be a big liar if she said she wouldn't welcome it the next time she felt it.

***

Even if Raven wanted to let go of that feeling, that feeling didn't seem to let her go. 

It came to her in the most unexpected places, rushing through her whole body and leaving before she knew it. She noticed that each time it came, it lasted longer than before but it was still all over the place and Raven couldn't exactly point her finger to anyone; especially because it came to her randomly.

During battles, her daily training routines, her meditations, sometimes even when she was eating lunch or just walking, even when she was reading her book on the couch and minding her own business! Each time it came, there were many of her friends around and it was hard to figure out who it was.

Mostly because a big part of her didn't want to know who it was either.

It was the truth. Raven never went deep in her investigation to realize it. Probably, if she really wanted to she would have realized it long ago, but she feared that if she knew, she wouldn't feel it again. That powerful feeling, whatever it was, put her in peace and gave her strength. She was fed from emotions and one of her friends was giving her something she didn't know how desperately she desired. 

A feeling of home, comfort and warmth. She didn't want to lose that! Raven figured if it was from one of her friends, she didn't need to worry about it. It wasn't like she suspected anything bad about it.

Azar! How selfish of her! 

She closed her book and sighed, lying on her back on her bed. She was being selfish. What if one of her friends was in trouble and it was their way of giving her a heads-up, or asking for her help? But such an act required a serious knowledge of how her powers worked and she knew none of them had something like that.

Dick and Victor were the only ones who knew how her empathic powers worked better than others but giving her a strange yet amazing feeling to ask for her help didn't match any of them. Dick would have directly said it and Vic was more into technical ways. 

She shook her head and tried to let it go. She shouldn't be using her strength over something ridiculous. No one asks for help by filling her soul with a particular strong feeling. No one even knew she was capable of feeling their deepest emotions as much as she let it show and they most of the time forgot it as well. 

She heard a gentle knock on her door when she was struggling with herself. It was Gar. She never mistake his aura.

"Hey Rae...are you there?"

It was a stupid question. Everyone knew that Beast Boy could easily pick up anyone's scent even from far away or hear their heart beats if he wanted to. His heightened powers gave him advantages that most of the time they forgot he had even; just like her.

Pulling her hood down, she walked to the door and it opened as she stood in the doorway. 

"Yes?" 

Gar was in his casual clothes. A dark jacket with a T-shirt underneath, his dark jeans and a cap. She would never tell him, but he looked very handsome in them. She quickly put that weird thought away before it got somewhere she didn't want it to get.

He was standing with one hand behind his back and his usual smile on his face.

Joyful 

Delighted

Self-conscious?

Nervous?

Shy?

"Great!" He looked around making sure no one was near. Yeah he was definitely nervous but why?

"Is everything okay?"

"Oh everything is great! I was just…" He scratched the back of his head with his other hand nervously.

"Well…?"

He sighed, "Well I was in the city to get some fresh air and I passed by your favorite bookstore...thought of something you might like to read but then I saw this." He took out a book from his back with his hand and Raven's eyes widened in surprise. "I know you've been reading the first novel of this series...I thought you want the second novel soon." He stretched his hand and gave it to her. Raven was flattered if she was honest. Gar knew what book series she was reading and bought her the second part of it! She never even thought someone like Gar, who couldn't really focus on reading books, actually cared about her hobbies so much that he knew what she wanted; even before she told him anything.

He suddenly looked scared, "Please tell me you haven't bought it already!"

Raven shook his head. "No, I haven't." 

Gar sighed in relief a bit dramatically, "Thank God that would have been awkward." 

Pressing the book on her chest, Raven said, "Thanks Gar."

He smiled, "No problem Rae."

That was the moment it hit her again; that familiar feeling. Raven looked around. No one was there except them. There was her chance. This time she had to put her selfishness aside and for once make everything clear. 

She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. With just Gar around her, she was now able to figure out who it was.

"You okay Rae? You seem...paler than usual." Gar asked worriedly.

All of the sudden, Raven opened her eyes.

"Where are the others?" She knew the answer but had to make sure.

"Oh? Well Dick and Kory are out, thinking it's a great time to have some alone time. Vic is in his room, coming up with a new technology which I still didn't understand. Don't tell him that though. Donna is on her secret date but let's be honest we all know it's Roy." He laughed and continued, "Wally is off to meet his family and said he would be back…" He took a glance at his watch, "in 45 seconds top."

Raven looked uneasy and pulled the cloak tighter around herself, looking down.

"So...it's just you and me here?"

Gar shrugged casually, "Yeah pretty much but don't worry. If anything happens, we can handle it. It's not the first time we might face a threat alone." He gave her a reassuring smile, "and others are probably heading back as well. So yeah no need to worry."

She wanted to tell him she was not worried at all. She was shocked! But she couldn't bring herself to tell him that right now because she wasn't sure about it.

"Well I'm headed to the kitchen. Do you want me to make something for you? You haven't gotten out of your room since morning. You must be hungry."

Raven tried not to look suspicious so she looked at him with a forced smile, "No thanks."

"You sure? I wouldn't make it too vegetarian for you."

"No no thanks…"

Gar simply shrugged, "Okay." 

He turned around and started walking away. Raven looked down at the book then at him for a second and before she knew it she was speaking.

"Thanks again Gar...I appreciate what you did for me."

He turned his head back to her with a smile, "Anytime Rae. If you ever feel hungry, you know where I am."

The door opened and closed and he disappeared from her sight as he went to the kitchen.

Raven stood there for a couple of moments, not believing what she just found out. It was him! That strange feeling came from Gar himself. She just couldn't believe how easy it was to figure it out. It was so obvious. He was there anytime she felt it. It made sense it was coming from him.

But it wasn't Gar who surprised her, what he was feeling shocked her more than anything. 

She suspected that she had felt that feeling before and it turned out she was right. She felt it from all titans before; especially from Kory on great levels. 

It was love. 

Of course it was love! Only love was so powerful that could give her such warm feelings from inside and put her in such a peace no meditation could ever do. Love was a powerful emotion, she knew it better than anyone. 

She held the book harder as she looked down. The realisation hit her harder than she expected. She didn't know why she regretted knowing the truth or why she wasn't happy about it. 

Gar was in love...it was a truth she wished she never knew.

***

"Have you noticed Garfield has been acting...weird recently?"

Raven asked Victor days later at the gym as he was lifting up weights and she was done meditating. After knowing the secret behind the strange feeling, Raven started to avoid Gar in a subtle way. She was ashamed of prying too much into his emotions when it was obvious he was trying to hide it; so the farther she was from him, the better.

That didn't stop her curiosity though.

"No, why?" Vic asked casually, "Did that green ass do something stupid again?"

"No…" she lowered her voice.

It was hard talking about it. She already knew something she believed she shouldn't have and now she was trying to know more. It was wrong, yet she really wanted to know.

"Then what is it?" Vic's question brought her back to the gym, "You seem worried."

"No, not worried. It's just...he seems different. He...feels different." She said the last part in more of a whisper but Victor heard her.

Shocked

Uneasy

Surprised

Scared?

Yet his face didn't show anything. He just gave her a blank look. Victor was good at not showing his emotions but not as good at not feeling them.

"What I mean is…" she felt stupid in asking, "Is he seeing someone?" Her question tasted bitter on her tongue and she felt she didn't want to know the answer.

This time Victor stopped his exercise and turned his head to her, giving her a questioning look. Raven kept her face straight, not letting him see more than she allowed it but she knew her question wasn't something to just ignore. Victor was curious to know why she would ask such things, especially about the Changling of all people.

After some intense moments, Victor turned back on exercising. "No."

His answer was way firmer than she expected. Raven was taken back on how he seemed upset about her question. 

"No, he's not seeing anyone. At least not someone I know." His words sounded angry and Raven wasn't sure why.

"Why are you angry Victor? I just asked a question." He scoffed.

"It's not you Rae…" he lowered his voice, "Stupid green bean!"

"What?"

He looked at her with an angry face. "You're the empath here. You should know it by now."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Before she could get any answer from him, the gym's door opened with a bang.

"The Animal Man is here!" Gar shouted excitedly, "Please cheer for the new gym captain!"

He was in his sports clothes with his towel on his shoulder and a big speaker in his hand. He almost seemed to be at a party rather than at the gym.

"There's no such thing, Animal Man." Dick said following Gar from behind. 

Gar put the speaker on a table and turned to the Boy Wonder with a grin, "well I guess I just invented it." His eyes landed on Raven and Victor. "Oh hi Cy! Rae!" 

Victor stood up suddenly and walked towards his best friend. Raven could feel how his anger leaving his body the moment he saw Gar. His sudden change of mood surprised her, especially because it was Victor.

"Looks like someone is here to get his ass kicked." He patted Gar's shoulder. 

"Oh you wish! I beat Richard, you're easy."

"Only once." Dick said in defense, "and only because you were lucky."

"Two out of three isn't once and it sure as hell wasn't luck."

"Well I guess there's one way to find out." Victor said. 

Raven felt her presence was not welcomed anymore. She wanted to leave the gym as soon as she could. Seeing Gar was hard especially when she knew his little secret when she was not allowed. However, the moment he stepped in the gym, his love poured over her like a waterfall. It was hard to stay and harder to leave. 

If only she didn't dig in too much! She regretted it more than anything. If she let it be the way it was, maybe she wouldn't feel uncomfortable around him anymore. So what if Gar was in love with someone? It wasn't her business. She shouldn't care! He could be in love with anyone he wanted. It wasn't like it mattered to her. It didn't matter!

She wished she could sound more convincing in her head.

"What do you say Rae?" Gar's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"I asked if you wanna judge the game, to see who's better?" 

He was close, too close and he was letting her feel everything! She wasn't sure if it was his doing or was it because she already knew his deepest emotion; as in she couldn't turn back. 

Up close, Gar looked way better than from far. When did he start to look so attractive to her? Did she always find him attractive? She knew he was good looking but now it felt different from the last times. It had changed! Something had changed about him, or maybe about her?

She should leave. She should leave as soon as she can. 

"Sorry I can't." She said quickly flying over him to the exit door.

"W-what? Raven you okay?" 

She didn't even look back, "I'm fine." And left the room with no other words, leaving the boys there confused.

Except that she wasn't. She wasn't fine at all. Something was happening with her and she knew it was all because of her nosiness from that day. Love was a powerful emotion. Something she shouldn't just mess with especially when Gar initially had kept it hidden within himself. There must have been a reason why he didn't let her feel it in the first place.

But it didn't matter how many times she told herself otherwise, she couldn't help but wonder about Gar's secret lover. 

Was she a superhero too? Was she blonde? Azar was it Cassie? No! Gar would never go after girls way younger than him. Then who? A normal citizen no Titan knew of? Someone he met online? He could do that. He just needed to take a picture of himself in those sports clothes and everyone would be all over him.

"Raven? What's with the rush?" She heard Donna's voice as she and Kory were headed to the gym as well. They were both in their sports outfits as well.

She stopped flying and landed on the ground before them. Kory got a worried face as soon as she looked up.

"Raven, are you okay?"

"Yeah...just finished meditating at the gym." She tries to sound normal, "the guys are already there." 

"Yeah we know." Donna said, "but are you okay?"

Raven raised an eyebrow, "I am. Why do you both keep asking?"

Donna and Kory exchanged some confused looks and Raven just wished she knew what it was about. She didn't want to get into another intense conversation or an awkward one like the ones she had back at the gym with them. She needed to be alone right now more than anything.

Kory stepped closer to her, "Raven... you're blushing!"

***

Life always put people in the most unexpected situations, kind of like Gar's jokes; you basically couldn't predict them.

But Raven was used to find herself in situations she didn't expect, being Trigon's child gave her that. She was herself unexpected.

It wasn't that Raven was unfamiliar with love. Maybe the time she just left Azarath she could say she was, but it was years ago. She gained more control over her powers and emotions ever since. If she could recall correctly, she always felt love from others, especially when they were younger with more unbalanced emotions.

She felt Kory and Dick's love throughout the years and the alien princess could overwhelm anyone with her emotions, let alone a powerful empath like Raven herself. She felt Donna and Roy's thing with each other, Victor and Sarah's and Gar's. 

Azar! Even her own!

So why did it feel so different this time? Why was it so powerful? Raven knew Gar's love before. She'd witnessed many of his crushes before her own eyes. But this time? This love? It was so different on considerable levels.

"Raven! Cover Flash!" Kory shouted as she tried to block the attacks from this demonic creature who seemed to just get out of hell. A gift from her father? Raven decided not think about it.

As Wally was running fast towards the creature, Raven used her soul-self to block the fires. The monster was indeed strong and possessed dark magic as she felt it. 

A green flying eagle flew above her fast and went straight to the monster. Raven saw how Gar shifted into a gorilla and attacked it with his power hands. A smile appeared on her face. His presence alone always made her smile.

She still didn't get the time she wanted to talk with him. After her awkward conversation with him at the gym, Raven couldn't get the courage to ask about his feelings; mostly because she was afraid if he was actually in love with someone.

She didn't know how to approach the subject either. For all that matter, Raven wasn't the titan with the best social skills. How was she supposed to start the conversation even? And tell him she basically invaded his mind and his privacy by accident? When she knew it wasn't an accident at all? That she knew he was in love? That she was jealous? To the point she couldn't stop thinking about him?

As if she would ever do that.

So Raven waited for the right moment. A moment she was brave enough to talk about it. It was frustrating how this right moment she was waiting for didn't come for weeks. The universe hated her. She had to endure months to finally find out about the truth and now weeks to talk about it? She knew what he felt, she knew what she felt and that was the biggest problem.

A familiar yell caught her attention as she saw Gar being thrown in the air.

"Beast Boy!"

He tried shifting to something to reduce the pain of landing hard but he was too weak for that. Gar crashed on the ground hard with a hand on his side, trying to stop the cut from bleeding.

Letting go of what she was asked to do, Raven quickly teleported herself on the ground where Gar was lying on the ground groaning in pain. 

"Oh Azar…" she whispered as she kneeled down above his head. There was a big cut on his side which he was covering. Raven put her hand on his and tried to remove it so she would heal her but Gar didn't stopped her. 

He groaned. "Don't Rae… it's not that important." His voice was weak, "Go help the others. I'm fine."

Raven frowned. "You're bleeding. If it doesn't stop soon it will get dangerous. You might even die."

And it scared her. She couldn't just leave him because of his stubbornness. She had to heal him before it caused him his death. Raven made a move with her hand and made a magical force bubble around them to prevent any attacks or interruptions.

Gar opened his eyes slightly.

"I heal quickly...you know that." He hissed for a second and continued, "Don't waste your power on me...Go!"

It all started with a similar moment didn't it? Him asking her not to heal him. It was months ago by now and Raven remembered all of his words. It all started that day, maybe she would finish it today.

She put his head on her thighs and looked at him upsidedown. Putting her hands on his cheeks, she started to caress them gently. 

Stubborn or not, Raven couldn't leave him.

Gar smiled through his pain. Weakly he put his free hand on her and leaned to her touch.

"Raven…" he whispered.

And then it hit her. Raven's heart froze as she realized how stupid she was the whole time. Gar was in love with her!

It all made sense now. How could she be so blind over something so obvious? Anyone even without her powers would have figured it out already. It was right before her eyes. There was a reason Gar's feeling was more powerful than others, that she felt it stronger than others, why he tried to hide it from her, why such a powerful feeling never left her head...and her heart.

She just looked down at him. He was so lost into his world that he didn't feel she had already started the healing process; she knew it because he would have stopped her. It was painful and she tried hard not to make any sound so he wouldn't notice what she was doing. 

"God It feels...it feels like heaven…" his words got her attention from his wound to his face. Even wounded, Gar was smiling and making her smile as well. It was what he excelled. He always managed to make her happy even though she didn't admit it. 

She was done heading him yet she didn't let go and he didn't seem to be willing to leave the situation either. He looked so in peace and it was heartwarming.

She looked down at his lips. They were slightly apart and hot breath was coming out of his mouth. Raven bent down a bit, still staring at his lips. His smile never left them and Raven realized she couldn't stop herself either.

Still caressing his cheeks, Raven closed her eyes and kissed his lips upsidedown. 

Azar she was kissing him! And how much it felt amazing! His lips were soft on hers and she felt him kissing her back shortly after. A smile appeared on her lips as she kept kissing him gently. That's what she wanted. Him with her. How much of a fool she was not to realize it sooner. It felt as if her lips were meant to be on his at that particular moment; and she figured she didn't mind if these moments become more often.

"Guys! Really?!" It was Roy, "in the middle of a battle?

Neither of them cared as they kept kissing. A battle, a mission or even an apocalypse, none of them could take away this moment from her. She had waited long for this to finally happen.

They broke the kiss slowly. She didn't open her eyes and knew Gar didn't either. She could feel his breaths on her face and his hand on hers. He was rubbing his tomb on her hand. She heard him chuckle.

"You knew it all the time, didn't you?"

Love...

For that moment, that was all he was feeling. She smiled.

"Well, you're always easy to read Gar."

@bbraeweek21

[vashti-lives]

Book of Boba Fett feels like Star Wars in the best ways and Disney in the worst ways. Pretty long rant under the cut.

TL;DR-- Leia the Huttslayer should be the reason there aren’t slaves on Tatooine anymore.

I want to like the Book of Boba Fett SO BAD. There’s so much about it that I find charming and compelling and fun. I like the fact that Boba Fett apparently loves space dogs of all shapes. I actually really like the way they’ve structured Boba’s growth so that we see the result of it and what caused it side by side. I fucking love Fennec Shand. I even like some of the dumb shit like the unruly gang of cyborg youths and the fact that Tatooine apparently just has a thriving body mod subculture. This is hilarious and interesting to me. The evil wookie makes me laugh every time he’s on screen.

Even shit that feels stupid to me like the slapstick tiny robot kitchen chase scene also feels EXTREMELY STAR WARS. Like, Star Wars is often dumb you guys! Its literally called Star Wars which is an objectively stupid name for this franchise.

But god the bad parts of this show are just SO BAD. I’m still fucking mad about the Tuskans. Like, ONCE AGAIN if they had just let some of the Tuskans live the bit where Boba killed the speeder gang would feel so much more meaningful. At that point it wouldn’t just be revenge it would be Boba doing what he can to protect whats left of his former tribe. This would have so much more impact and would literally have required no changes to this episode. It would have also made the fact that in the end the Tuskans were just a plot device to spur Boba on his quest for Found Family(tm) much less infuriating.

I also just... cannot get over the elephant in the room that is slavery. One of Tatooine’s most important defining features is that it has relied on a heavily slave based economy. Its actually a huge element of the politics of the prequel movies and their related spin offs because they go to a lot of work to establish that the republic is not invested in ridding the outer rim of slavery and the jedi are effectively a branch of the republic and also only have like 10,000 members meaning that they also cannot just go around getting rid of slavery. This eventually creates a rift between Anakin and the Jedi Order that Palpatine exploits the fucking hell out of as a means of getting him to fall to the dark side. Slavery on Tatooine is an extremely important load baring element of world building.

So like... just deleting it from the narrative is SO FUCKING DISTRACTING???? And I get it-- in 2022 fictionalized slavery is super uncomfortable and Disney does not want to be associated with it. But I feel like there were better ways to deal with it that maybe wouldn’t have been perfect but IMO still would have been better than what they did.

Like honestly a cool bit of mythologizing of the OT would have been if Leia fucking strangling Jabba the Hutt on his own thrown with her own chains in front of a shit ton of people actually incited a massive slave revolt. Like, there’s a power vacuum with Jabba dead and everyone knows a slave did it and suddenly there’s a lot more question about where all the power is. Given how weak Bib Fortuna was it makes sense to me that as power structures crumbled slavery because a much less viable resource, especially if you make the argument that the New Republic was less willing to turn a blind eye to it than the Empire was.

This would also explain why Bib Fortuna was allowed to take over in the first place and why the twins didn’t push that hard to take Jabba’s place once Boba Fett showed up. If Tatooine had a successful slave revolt it would scare the fuck out of the Hutts and possibly make them feel like if they retake Tatooine there’s a chance the rebellion of the slaves would spread to other parts of their greater territory.

This isn’t perfect but I think slipping this here and there into the exposition would make a big difference and make the story feel SO MUCH LESS AWKWARD. Plus I really like the idea that the cyborg subculture consists largely of freed slaves who delight in owning their own bodies and doing whatever the fuck they want to them as a means of gaining power and showing autonomy. It would have been really cool world building!

[lillywillow]

Skincare Party

Summary: A night in with your three best friends; one like they’ve never experienced before

 Word Count: 1495

 Square Filled: Playful Relationship

 Pairings: Bucky/F!Reader/Sam (platonic), Steve x F!Reader

 Warnings: Mild themes and lewdness, pimple popping, mild pain/ discomfort, drinking, maybe some minor swear words

Written for @star-spangled-bingo

 Ever since you first joined The Avengers, you had been inseparable from the three soldiers of the group. The others in the group had taken to calling you ‘The Four Musketeers’ and you even had an entire floor to yourselves in the tower. Once a week, assuming there wasn’t a mission any of you had to go on, you would take turns in picking an activity to do together. The four of you had completed everything from bar hoping, to karaoke, to movie marathons, to videogame night. Tonight was your turn to pick an activity and you knew it was something that none of the boys had ever done before.

Earlier in the day, you had informed Bucky, Sam and Steve, you would be spending the night in and told them the dress code was ‘comfy’. The trio arrived in the living room at the time you had specified, a little surprised to see all the bottles, jars, tubes and various other containers laid out on the coffee table.

 “Right on time, gentlemen,” you grinned.

 “Uh, Y/N... What exactly are we doing?” Bucky asked with a mild look of concern.

 “Tonight I thought we would do something a little different... with a skincare pamper party.”

 “Isn’t that kind of girly?” Sam quipped.

 “Now, now, now, my dear peregrine, the skin is the biggest organ of the human body and as such, it is just as important to take care of.”

 “Peregrine?”

 “Yeah, you know... ‘Cause you’re a falcon,” you grinned, making Sam roll his eyes. “Besides, we can drink beer and watch those Dwayne Van Schwartza-Willis shoot-em-up type films.”

 You swore you could you could practically hear Sam’s brain malfunctioning as a plethora of jokes swirling around, each one desperate to be the first one out his mouth.

 “I think you broke Sam... I like this idea already,” Bucky smirked.

 You also laughed and ushered the boys to the couch, explaining the purpose of the cleansers, toners, and other products and how to use them. Soon, the four of you settled down on the couch with a timer set for your respective face masks.

 You applied a pollution cleansing mask, Bucky had a coffee exfoliating mask, Steve had a simple hydrating tissue mask and Sam had bravely opted for the charcoal peel mask. All of you wore headbands to keep any hair from falling into the stuff you were using and Bucky had his hair pulled back in a ponytail. When the timer was up, you and Bucky went to rinse off your masks and Steve threw his out.

 “Um, Y/N... how do I get this thing off?” You went over to Sam and got the mask started by scratching a little and began pulling. Sam let out a strangled sound as the tar like substance moved off his face like a second skin. Steve and Bucky watched in morbid fascination. Finally, you managed to get the whole thing off.

 “There,” you said, handing him the stuff.

 “Ew! All that was in my face?” he grimaced, looking at the gunk which had been removed from his pores.

 “Yep... hang on a sec, you’ve still got some stuff,” you said, grabbing your special tool.

 “What is that?”

 “Relax... it won’t hurt a bit...”

 “No... I don’t like the look of it... get it away from me... Y/N! AGH!”

 Sam bolted and you gave chase. Steve and Bucky roared with laughter as you tackled him to the ground, using your knees to pin his arms. You used one hand to hold his head still while you attacked his blemishes with your pimple popper.

 “Oh, man, those are some good ones,” you muttered, moving off Sam and looking at the contents of your tool.

 “You’re sick, Y/N!”

 “Lighten up, Sam. You know what they say, pain is beauty, darling,” you said in a posh, European accent. You clean the end and picked up the tweezers before rounding on Bucky who had no chance to move.

 “Your turn...” You began on Bucky, getting all his ingrown hairs around his beard and other blemishes.

 “Alpine, help! Daddy’s being attacked!” You turned to look at the snowy white feline who had wandered into the room. She merely took one glance and the scene and promptly cleaned her paw.

 “What did you think she was going to do? Scratch me to death?”

 “Don’t knock her. She can do some serious damage when she wants to...”

 After Bucky, you went onto Steve, taking his face in your hands. Steve made no resistance as you straddled him, watching as you carefully examined his face. You had a big crush of Steve but were too afraid of saying anything to him about it in fear of losing him as your friend.

 “Actually, your face is pretty clear...” you stayed there for a moment, admiring him before shifting. “I think the next step, we’ll do pedicures...” You walked off to get buckets of water to soak your feet in. Steve sat there in a dreamy daze before getting walloped in the face by a cushion.

 “Hey!”

 “Dude, when are you gonna stop fawning over Y/N, man up and ask her out already?” Sam asked.

 “I...”

 “For once, Sam has a point, Steve...”

 “You hear that? The cyborg agrees!” Bucky glared at him. “Besides, if you don’t ask her out, I will...”

 “You wouldn’t dare...”

 “Why not? She’s cute, smart, funny and unattached...” Before Steve could respond, you came back with the buckets of water. You settled back down on the couch but were suddenly shocked as Sam pulled off his socks.

 “What the heck is up with your toes?!” Bucky remarked, referring to Sam’s long, almost dagger like nails.

 “Sam, question; is it true you are known to carry off prey in your talons?”

 “That’s how you’re playing, huh? Two falcon jokes in one night?”

 “What can I say? When you’re on a roll, you’re on a roll and I am rolling like a stone.” Sam groaned at your joke but Steve and Bucky grinned, proud for having understood the reference.

 As you soaked your feet and watched the good guy blast the crap out of the baddies, the boys asked you questions about how they should go about caring for their skin. You answered them the best you could, being completely honest, after all, they were your best friends.

 Eventually, it got to a point where the hero had a love scene and poor Steve didn’t know where to look.

 “Hey, Y/N? How do I know if a girl I’m with is really enjoying herself and not, you know, making me feel better about myself?” Sam asked.

 “Well...”

 Now poor Steve really did wish he could vanish into the sofa. Between the conversation happing beside him and the, in his opinion far too graphic action on the TV, his face was totally red. He desperately tried to tune out.

 “... Steve?”

 “Huh? What?”

 “I asked if you wanted another beer...”

 “Oh, uh... sure...”

 “Hey, can you grab me another one?” Bucky asked.

 “Me too... why don’t you go with her to help carry them back?” Sam prompted, the pair seeing a chance to get the two of you alone in the other room so Steve could confess his feelings.

 You thought it was a little strange, after all, you were more than capable of carrying four drinks back by yourself but shrugged it off as you dried off your feet, Steve following suit.

 You went to the kitchen and grabbed the beers but before you left, Steve placed his hand on your shoulder.

 “Uh, Y/N...”

 “Yes, Steve?”

 “I was wondering if... you’d like to get dinner tomorrow night...”

 “Sure. Do you want me to make reservations for the four of us, or...?”

 “No, I mean... just us two... like a date.” You couldn’t help but smile at his shyness and kissed his cheek.

 “I’d love to.”

 “R-really?”

 “Of course... I... I was actually hoping you would ask me,” you smiled, making Steve beam at you.

 By the time you came back with the drinks, Sam and Bucky were grinning impishly.

 “What?”

 “Nothing...”

 “Do you want me to get my special tool again? Because I will.”

 “No! Hell no!” They simultaneously objected.

 “It’s just, it’s good to see you both happy...” You looked at Steve who smiled shyly at you.

 “Well get used to it,” you smiled, taking your place back next to Steve on the couch. While watching the movie, Steve gently held your hand, making your heart flutter.

 As different as this was, all four of you had a lot of fun that night and more importantly, you were finally able to confess your feelings to your long time crush.

[letsunity]

Not Afraid - Chapter 1

Summery -  

The Bad Batch go to Tatooine to resupply and avoid the Empire. As per the usual, Omega gets separated from the group. Fortunately for her, Krayt's Claw just so happens to be nearby. Bossk and Embo guide her to Boba Fett, who takes interest in why the Kaminoans want her. It's a reluctant partnership, with the Bad Batch having to rely on Krayt's Claw to navigate non-military life.

Tatooine is hot, dry and bright, the opposite of Kamino. She stayed by Hunter's side, inquisitively looking at everything around her. Everything was new and interesting; she wanted to learn everything. The heat emanating from the suns above bore down, drying out her mouth and cracking her lips.

The market was bustling with aliens of all kinds, from giants to dwarves, each with their own story. Everybody had their own experiences, which fascinated Omega, as she had none. She hadn't even experienced dirt until recently.

 "I don't think credits are enough here," Echo sighed, irked by the constant rise in temperature. "Not to mention the place is infested with lowlifes."

 "Considering how Pantora went, we fit right in," Tech continued blankly, earning an eye-roll from the cyborg. "It's possible we'll have to do a job in exchange for supplies."

 "As much as I don't want to agree, it looks that way," Hunter said, nodding slightly. "It's not like we can go to Jabba the Hutt for a job, though. There aren't a lot of people who won't turn on us in a second."

Although it was important, she struggled to pay attention.

The crowd became thick like an ocean, slamming against the group. Something was going on, and whatever it was, Omega wanted to see. Wrecker picked her up, sitting her on his shoulder so she could see above the rest. From the looks of it, a man was duelling someone else, the fight brutal and lawless.

Whoever they were, they must be important, given the crowd. Several people bumped into Wrecker, betting on who'd win. One shoved him hard enough to cause Omega to fall off, angering the hulking clone. Unsurprisingly, this led to another fight, which Hunter and Echo tried dragging him away from.

She wasn't sure why, but he'd been a little more aggressive as of late. Maybe it was because they're hungry? That would make sense. Hunger made people act weird.

People from the first fight got involved in Wrecker's, creating a cacophony of chaos and excitement. As people hurried to surround them, they shoved Omega away, pushing her from side to side. Before she could try fighting back, somebody else shoved her down, sand seeping into her clothes and hair.

She pulled her hand, avoiding it being crushed by someone's boots. Anytime she tried to move, someone walked over her or into her. They didn't have a care in the world that she was in their way, so she stayed put, waiting for it to dissipate.

The moment it seemed safe enough to get up, a Rodian sneered in disgust, thinking she was some slave. Revolted by her, the Rodian kicked the humanoid thing, wanting it away from him.

 "Big mistake," hissed someone behind him.

As Omega rubbed her eye, trying to remove the sand, she could make out a hand.

Embo helped the child stand, asking if she was alright. She didn't understand him, so he helped wipe some sand from her eye, looking to Bossk.

The Trandoshan licked blood from his claws, finished with the Rodian pest. With Marrok grunting beside him, Embo requested that he talk to her.

Bossk knelt, looking over the girl. Her condition and clothing meant she wasn't from here and couldn't be more than around ten. The kick would bruise, but he didn't feel any broken bones.

 "Where's your family?" Bossk hissed, looking around for someone like her.

She wouldn't say, closing up. A wise decision, given how hostile Tatooine is to foreigners.

 "Alright. We'll give you a place to stay while we look for your family or friends. You look dehydrated, and you could get sunburnt. I'm Bossk, and that's Embo, plus his mutt Marrok."

Embo protested to the insult of his fuzzy son. Bossk rolled his eyes, not understanding his attachment to the oversized Massiff.

Omega hadn't met a Trandoshan before, although she was aware of them. She didn't know what Embo was, nor his animal companion. She didn't want to follow them, but she didn't know what else to do. Unlike the orange helmet lady, they actually helped her. Her eye hurt, but Embo's assistance made it tolerable.

They waited patiently for her to decide, their presence scaring off some people. The Trandoshan offered a hand, his arm creepily long. Though hesitant, she just wanted to go home, and they were all she had. Hesitantly, Omega took the reptile's hand. Instead of clasping back, his hand was relaxed, giving her control.

Gently, they walked beside her, Marrok walking behind them. They were purposefully slow, doing it for her sake. So far, they were nicer than the mean lady.

Embo spoke to Bossk in a language she didn't know, the Trandoshan making several expressions she didn't understand. She wanted to understand, but that would take a while.

They led her to a house-like location, opening the door for her. Embo mumbled something to Bossk and left, presumably to find her friends.

The reptilian motioned for her to sit, pointing to a large table belonging to a cantina. As Omega sat down, she examined the location, understanding it to be a home base of sorts. There were locker-like contraptions in the walls with symbols etched into each one. Bossk opened one, likely his, and tossed a bottle to her.

As Omega opened it, a funny smell ran through her nose and assaulted her tongue. Instead of waiting for her, he took one himself and drank it, a long tongue licking his scaled lips afterwards.

She took a sip, feeling cold water trickle down her oesophagus. She didn't realise how thirsty she was.

 "What's your name, kid?" Bossk asked, sitting across from her.

 "I'm Omega. Thanks for the water, mister."

 "My nephew and I have a strict code about children. If there's one in need, it'd be wrong to turn them away. Embo's adopted the same code since working with us," he said casually, looking at her clothing. "You aren't from around here. What brings your pals to the sandy rectum of the galaxy?"

 "We needed to get supplies. We were meant to get them on Pantora, but a mean lady with an orange helmet got in the way. She had red strings in her hair, too."

He nodded, aware of the woman Omega described.

"Fennec Shand. She's fairly new to the Bounty Hunting game, more of the assassin type. Someone must want you bad if they hired her. You don't have to worry about me, though; I don't do bounties with kids."

The door opened as two more entered. There was a man with cloth around his head and C-Assassination Droid. They stared at the girl, surprise on the man's face, and they slowly looked at Bossk. Apparently, this wasn't the first time he'd brought a kid back.

Bossk introduced her to Dengar and Highslinger, part of his group. Dengar sat down, shoving the Trandoshan to make more room. The reptile hissed, but Dengar waved it off, seemingly afraid of nothing.

"What is it with you lot and adopting kids, huh?" Dengar joked, getting a growl from the reptile. "Don't give me that, grumpy. Don't urate yourself or whatever you do."

The droid spoke up, essentially calling Dengar a moron. Bossk nodded in agreement, pushing Dengar off his seat. The man casually got up, used to the Trandoshan's friendliness, or lack thereof.

They reminded her of Hunter and the others.

 "Be a good moron and look for her friends. What're their names?"

 "Hunter, Echo, Wrecker and Tech. They've got an Omicron shuttle, Havoc Marauder," she named, eager to reunite with them.

 "Omicron, huh? That'll be an easy find. You don't see a lot of those hovering around these days," Dengar assured, walking back outside. Highslinger provided a robotic wave, following the tanned cyborg.

"It's a big place. In the meantime, have a nap while I make some food. You look like you could do with some."

They weren't anything like the mean 'Fennec'.

Bossk watched over the girl, pausing as she fell into a deeper sleep than either anticipated. Slowly, he lifted her, holding her against his warm body. She was underweight, having near to no muscle on her at all. Poor thing was exhausted.

Her clothes were old and tattered, having seen far better days, and her boot soles were near non-existent from wear. Not just that, but her clothes were Kaminoan, which worried Bossk.

Slowly, the Trandoshan walked out the back, stepping into the Slave-1. The smell of saltwater seared his nostrils, but it helped Bo sleep. Since Jango died, he couldn't sleep without the smell of Kaminoan oceans, even though he hated the planet. He felt her breathing changing like she was more comfortable.

That confirmed that she was from Kamino. It was good that she wasn't there anymore, but still.

Carefully, Bossk pulled out a makeshift bunk, having set it up for Jango many times. The man overworked himself, often falling asleep in the cockpit. It was something that Bo inherited, the little scamp, so much like his dad.

Every day, Bossk missed that asshole more and more. Even the grump of Cad Bane missed Jango's enthusiastic crazy, and weirdly, Jabba took it worse than Bossk, and Jango was his brother. Not even as a close friend, he was raised by Jango's adoptive parents.

He couldn't imagine how mom was doing. She struggled with Jaster died, but with Jango gone as well? He couldn't fathom it.

As Bossk placed the sleeping girl into the makeshift bunk, several questions clouded his mind. What did Fennec want with this kid? She was as normal as Bossk had ever seen, just a plain child. For the likes of Fennec to be sent after her, things were serious. Before leaving her, he made sure to tuck a blanket over her, keeping her secure.

Concerned, Bossk checked her bounty, and unsurprisingly, the Kaminoans issued it. When it came to those lunatics, he loved the idea of getting in their way. Helping her meant upsetting them, which was good.

In the meantime, they'd have to find her friends. They were probably worried sick for her.

When Bossk exited the Slave-1, he found Embo waiting for him.

 "She's asleep. She'll have a black eye, but nothing too severe. What've you found?"

 "Someone saw the kid with four men in altered clone trooper armour, all with skulls painted on. Apparently, similarly-armoured hooligans were sighted on Pantora recently. Think they're clones?"

 "We shouldn't rule it out. Get Derrown or Black Krrsantan to find their ship; I'm sure Dengar's getting pissed somewhere. Do what you do, Em."

Embo nodded, whistling for Marrok. As they set off, Bossk wondered what the Kaminoans could be up to. From Ventress' info, before she died, they were out of fresh Jango Juice. There's no telling what the hell they're thinking.

[jcmorrigan]

more Blakeworther headcanons!! i want you to go ham with em too!! :D

Go ham, huh? So...I probably went the opposite direction of what you wanted or expected. But I just read “Our Coffin Is a Twin-Sized Bed” (Blakeworth fic, REALLY ANGSTY) and I loved it but it also made me very depressed. Anyway, it put the idea of CHARACTER DEATH in my head, and so I’m like...what if you took Vincent, Victor, and Albert, and you have an AU where each one of them dies, and how would the other two react?

Except I want to have my cake and eat it too. That prompt on its own is a bit...disheartening. So I had to treat myself by saying that each time, the death was actually a fakeout, and whoever “died” turns up just fine later. Which made for extra reunion headcanons!

Get ready for: the one where each one of them “dies” and the other two grieve in their own special way, only for the “dead” to have been fine the whole time

VINCENT

·      They were setting up bombs in a facility owned by Myers, hoping to bring down one of the bigwigs – possibly Monseiur M himself – in the explosion. Albert and Victor finished their rounds, then came back outside to wait for Vincent. Vincent radioed that he was almost finished – and then the whole building went up in smoke.

·      It took Victor and Albert a few minutes to process what had happened. He…he had to have gotten out, right? There’s no way Vincent would die on this mission.

·      But he doesn’t show up.

·      Watching the conflagration, agape and wide-eyed, Victor and Albert reach out to draw each other closer, hoping it just isn’t what it looks like.

·      Eventually, there are sirens, and they have to escape back to the mansion.

·      Albert finds the nearest piece of furniture he can sit on, sinks down, and starts sobbing. It doesn’t help that this is HIS house they’re living in, this is HIS chair Albert’s crying on, and he’s not even here.

·      I’m not actually sure if Victor’s eyes have tear ducts, but he is similarly distraught. He sits down beside Albert, trying to reassure him, “We’ll be okay. He’d want us to keep going. We’ll…we’ll be fine…”

·      His voice cracks. He can’t deal with this. Now he’s holding onto Albert not only for the sake of comforting him but of getting comforted.

·      They rattle around Vincent’s house for the next few days, utterly depressed. Everywhere they go, every corner they turn, they’re reminded of the spaces where he’s not.

·      Albert is caught talking to himself – and berating himself in a bad imitation of Vincent in order to simulate their arguments. Victor can only listen for so long before he’s too emotional and has to leave.

·      “You promised me you wouldn’t do this,” Victor says as he kneads a bedsheet between his fingers.

·      Eventually, the two of them hold a small service. They construct Vincent a grave out back in the yard. Each says a few words –

·      Victor: “I still don’t regret it. Not a day.”

·      Albert: “If you think I wanted to win our rivalry this way…you were wrong. I’d give anything to have you back.”

·      When behind them they suddenly hear “If I’d’ve known you two would get this morose, I wouldn’t have bothered to plant those explosives in the first place.”

·      They turn around, and…he’s here. Vincent’s here, looking quite grumpy.

·      “I thought it would be fairly obvious that I wasn’t dead. You two really went all out on this?”

·      Albert: “You’re not an exact replica with Vincent’s memories, are you? Actually, I have no problem if you’re an exact replica with Vincent’s memories.”

·      Victor and Albert run to him, embrace him tightly. Vincent’s rolling his eyes because these idiots got themselves worked up for nothing – but he’s lying if he says he isn’t really, really touched by how much they missed him. He’ll have to be careful not to make them worry in the future.

 VICTOR

·      Assassins have the mansion surrounded. Victor urges Albert and Vincent to go on ahead without him. He’ll catch up. But first he has to buy them time.

·      Albert and Vincent head to a motel three towns over – only to hear that the mansion was cleared out, then raided by authorities, and after the cyborgs were put down, no living people remained in the house.

·      “No,” Vincent says. “He’s fine. He’s FINE.” And he won’t hear otherwise.

·      Not even after a week.

·      Albert is starting to grieve, but Vincent keeps yelling at him, “STOP! HE ISN’T GONE! YOU’RE BEING AN IDIOT!”

·      Vincent is angrier than Albert has ever seen him in his whole life. The more days go by that Victor hasn’t turned up, the edgier Vincent’s mood gets.

·      Albert has to lock himself in the bathroom if he wants to cry it out.

·      But he also knows enough about psychology that he knows Vincent has to be dying inside. “Vincent, you need to talk about what happened.”

·      “You’re not even a real psychologist. Don’t fucking tell me what to do.”

·      At one point, it gets so bad that Vincent locks Albert out of the motel room and refuses to let him in, no matter how much noise he makes.

·      That’s when the notes start showing up. The door’s definitely locked, but Vincent finds notes around the motel room that definitely weren’t there a moment ago.

·      “I love you. ~AK” “I’m worried about you! ~AK” “Vincent, talk to me. ~AK” “I know many fates worse than death. Do you want to push me that far? ~AK” “Please, Vincent, I need you. ~AK” “Fine. Die alone. ~AK” “I take back my last note. Don’t die alone. I love you. ~AK”

·      So eventually Vincent lets him back in, and Albert suggests, one final time, to have Vincent sit through a legitimate therapy session. No Dream Eaters, no tricks, no shell game. And Vincent agrees.

·      Vincent lies down on the bed. Albert sits on a chair beside him and starts asking questions – about Victor, about the memories they had, about what Victor means to them both.

·      Vincent slowly recalls their entire history – laughing, crying, smiling. And by the end of it, he’s outright sobbing.

·      “How can someone who was such a big part of our lives be gone, Albert?”

·      And in a historical first, Albert actually lies down on the bed to cuddle Vincent, stroke his hair, and tell him “I miss him too. So much. It’s okay. Just cry.”

·      Eventually, they get a message from Winston, saying he has some important information and “cargo” to trade to them if they meet at a rendez-vous point. So they agree. Albert and Vincent head to the alley around midnight to find Winston and…a man in a black hood.

·      He throws back the hood. It’s Victor, whose metal eyes are twinkling. “Miss me?”

·      All of Vincent’s psychological work is undone; he just says “I knew you weren’t dead.” Albert, on the other hand, TACKLES Victor at unprecedented speed and pins him to the street.

·      Once Albert lets him go, Victor goes up to Vincent, and the two of them hold each other’s gaze. They kiss, briefly. That’s all they need to put closure on this.

 ALBERT

·      He doesn’t come home from a walk one night. Instead, a Dream Eater shows up and hands Vincent and Victor a letter.

·      “My beloved Victor and my frustratingly wonderful Vincent, if you are receiving this letter, it means you are not likely to see me again in this lifetime. I have run afoul of enemy forces, and, well, I’ll finally get to see what murder looks like from the other side. I want to thank you for the laughter and tears you both have given me, and for the good times and the bad. I hope you’ll remember me fondly, or at least as a memorable nuisance. With all of my love, goodbye. -Dr. Albert Gerald Krueger”

·      This is a joke, right? Victor’s convinced it’s a joke, and Vincent insists this is exactly the kind of prank Albert would find funny…

·      Until a month passes and he hasn’t come back.

·      Vincent takes a stance: “We never needed him. It was always just you and me from the start, Victor. We can return to our roots. He was always just an extra.”

·      Victor: “I know you don’t want to admit you miss him, but that was heartless, Vincent.”

·      The two of them end up fighting, sleeping on opposite sides of the mansion for days.

·      Victor tries to drink the pain away. (It happens in all three of these scenarios, actually, but this one’s plot-relevant)

·      One night, he wakes up at three and decides he’s not drunk enough. So he shuffles down to the bar and…there’s Vincent? Already drinking?

·      Victor decides to bite; “What’s all this for?”

·      Vincent turns to Victor, and Victor can now see he’s been crying for a while. “I can’t keep this up much longer, Victor. The two of us were happy before he broke in…why can’t I be happy? Why do I still miss him so much? Why can’t I just function?”

·      Ah. Now Victor knows it is definitely about Vincent not wanting to admit he misses Albert or even liked him. Because here’s Vincent just distraught without Albert.

·      Victor sits down by Vincent. Pours himself a drink. “We can’t erase him, but we can dull the memories for a night.”

·      It’s a miracle they don’t die of alcohol poisoning that night. They toast Albert’s memory, and at one point, Victor, a little out of his mind already, just poured a whole bottle of brandy on the floor in his honor.

·      Then, a couple days later, they’re trying to figure out how they’re going to break this to Taylor. They’ve avoided Taylor for so long so they didn’t have to bring this up.

·      There’s a knock on the door. Vincent gets up with trepidation, gun in hand because he’s not sure who it’ll be. Victor follows, ready to throw down.

·      The door swings open…

·      Albert: “I apologize. I didn’t think I’d be gone that long.” And he’s smiling like he’s just a couple hours late, not a whole month and change in which the other two thought he was dead. “What did I miss?”

·      There’s a silence as Victor and Vincent gape. Then Victor breaks into a wide smile; “Alb – “

·      Vincent DECKS ALBERT IN THE FACE.

·      Albert, on the ground, says “I deserved that.”

·      Vincent: “How could you do that to me? How could you tear me apart? How could you make me so empty inside over someone like YOU? How could you make it hurt so badly to love you?”

·      He’s getting rather emotional, a tear or two falling, and Albert realizes that Vincent actually…missed him. And the immense potential for blackmail this will bring.

·      Victor steps forward to help him up off the ground. Pulls Albert into a too-tight hug in the process. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

·      Then they head inside because Albert kinda needs an ice pack for the eye Vincent hit now.

[deviant3lover]

‘What kind of wedding (or non-wedding) each member of the shitty teen squad would want with their SO?’

A birthday gift to @rayadraws​!

Putting this under Read More, because golly, you know me: it is long.

Garou

I think that, back when he was a child, he would’ve liked the thought of getting married. Back then, he wouldn’t have particularly deep thoughts about it, but he finds the thought of sharing your happiness and your life with someone who adores you a nice thought, and would look at other people’s weddings with wonder filling his eyes, a small smile on his face upon witnessing the jubilation of the newly wedded couple.

Nowadays, and much like before, Garou hadn’t thought much of it, if at all- until his S/O brought it up.

Unlike how he was a child however, he isn’t exactly into the idea of getting married. At least, not for the traditional ones.

Expensive restrictive clothing that he’d have to spend hundreds on? Inviting a bunch of relatives and organising them so that family drama doesn’t pop up before or during the marriage itself? Greeting and interacting with plenty of people he likely doesn’t have close relations to as they congratulate him and shake his hand, entertaining them and keeping them happy throughout the reception until they leave? The taxing and exhausting process of arranging and paying for everything: from the venue to the floral arrangements to the very napkins on each table?

Hard pass. On all of them. Even if he got a wedding planner, the diligent details down to every single thing he couldn’t care less about and needing his approval on them would annoy the hell out of him. And this is all for a ceremony that would take place for one day.

That doesn’t even get into the process of sorting through all the new legalities that comes with being a married couple. If he’s still a fugitive or wanted man, that’d make the process even harder due to his -ahem- status. Garou is a very athletic and energetic man, and odds are, while he definitely seeks some comfort in the familiarity of a domestic life and will welcome it, he’s not all that thrilled at the thought of giving up the more adventurous and exciting aspects of life.

He doesn’t believe in marriage. Especially since he’d know how much of a rip-off the marriage industry is. A genuine, heartfelt connection is a treasure all on its own that not everyone can find.

He was lucky to find you: and he doesn’t need a marriage certificate to prove that he loves you.

But if they insist and are open to still hold something similar to it…

For Garou, Destination Elopements are his bread and butter: where the two of them venture out into the world. New sights, new experiences, new food, new everything that the two likely wouldn’t usually have the time or money for.

All the money that would’ve been spent on the ceremony is instead directed towards an adventure that they’d share without worrying about having to impress or entertain anyone else. Sure, he does have to deal with all the paperwork, but if he seriously sees his partner in his future and has a stable life, he’s willing to suffer it for them.

Genos

Genos on the other hand, would not mind any of the preparations at all. In fact, you may have to stop him from going overboard with him stressing out everyone involved with helping the arrangements.

He’d request Kuseno to make him wedding arms. Some weapons are, of course, included in the engineering. Just enough to kill or throw off any threats that might come their way; be it a monster or nosy and intrusive paparazzi. But for the most part, they’re usually equipped with useful gadgets and gizmos that would cut down on potential stressors. Genos being Genos, some of them can be a little silly or embarrassing. (Installed cooler in his chest for champagne and chocolates? You can bet he has them and more. The rest would be stored into a backpack that he’d carry around if the two will be travelling for the honeymoon.)

Inspired by this fic, first, he’ll settle some legalities and potential problems that would surround him being a popular hero and a cyborg so that the wedding goes off without a hitch. That means making sure that the wedding is protected from monster attacks and making sure that his beloved fiancé(e) is safe from harassment and stalking from sleazy reporters looking to cash in on a big news story.

That means a good portion of his preparations is not only focusing on the arrangements for the wedding itself, it also means that he’d be settling and finalizing arrangements with the H.A as well so that his lover’s privacy and safety isn’t compromised. In the best case, he’d arrange security protocols so that these rights aren’t infringed or attacked, and if they’re willing, he’d arrange a room for them to move into at A-City’s building complex.

The wedding is for him, his beloved, and everyone important in their lives, and he’ll make sure it’s as close to what they envisioned as much as possible.

I’d imagine the proposal and the lead up to the actual wedding day is done in relative secrecy that’s held between a select few people who can keep quiet about the affair to avoid getting harassed too much, despite his pride and fervent passion about taking a big step in their lives. On the Big Day, by the time the news had been released (if at all) it’d be too late for the reporters or fans to arrive at the scene (if it’s held in an accessible place) to feast their eyes on anything juicy.

If there’s anything that needs publicity, such as the legalization for human-cyborg marriages, Genos would be succinct about it and doesn’t drag out the publicity anymore than what’s strictly needed.

However, if his S/O would want more attention than that, Genos would be more careful and meticulous on how it’d be executed. The popularity surrounding the event will attract a lot of attention, and that’s fertile grounds for breeding potential monster attacks and even assassination attempts. (Genos is no fool; he knows that some popular heroes have had attempts on their lives, or those on their loved ones, by commissioned assassins.) So, the security would be even tighter than before to make sure that unwanted audiences don’t get in, and threats are neutralised before they can cause too much trouble.

Genos would like a Traditional Wedding. Elegant, beautiful, and traditional. This is an important event in his life after losing everyone he had loved and lost before: a day won’t go by where he wouldn’t cherish his lover, and that won’t change when he becomes their husband.

Extra note: The ring bearer will be either Badd, Garou, or Saitama. As much as he loves them, he knows that they aren’t particularly attentive to small important details.

No matter which one it is, they manage to lose the rings at some point and will frantically look for them before they have to present the rings to Genos and his betrothed. The success of this and their fates depend on you, reader...

Badd

(It’s no secret that he has a hidden soft spot underneath all that roughness, so I always headcanoned him as a closeted romantic who’s only out to the people he loves and trusts.)

Before we start, Zenko is either the flower girl or the ring bearer. No matter what role she plays in the wedding, she will be in an important one.

Badd would be a mix between Garou’s and Genos’s extremes. Elated at the thought of becoming engaged to his lover and having the event be celebrated, surrounded by family and friends, but groaning at the planning and arrangements that come with it. This even extends to his preferences: he respects tradition and is definitely open to involving it in his weddings, but he also wants to leave a bit of room to be more creative and personalize the wedding for the two of them.

On that note, he likes Western better: Japanese weddings tend to be more private and formal, and while he values the idea of treating marriage as something to treat with reverence, Badd wants to live in the moment with the people that he loves so that this would be something that everyone can look back on with a smile on their faces.

“OI DJ! HIT IT!”

(I headcanon that he has a bunch of long-term childhood delinquent friends with Hearts of Gold that he loved hanging out with. He’d invite them, and they’d definitely get rowdy on the dance floor with the new groom and be playful with Badd’s newly made spouse, much to the endless entertainment of those watching.)

So out of the three, Badd is mostly open to all sorts of options, provided that they aren’t too restrictive, formal, and it leaves room to be rowdy and fun loving with everyone they’ve invited.

Wherever the reception will be, what Badd is set on is a place where there’s enough room to form a dance floor. Dancing and being silly with his friends and family, or having a slow dance with his spouse, Badd would want a dance floor. Ballroom style, on the flattened sands on a beach, on wooden plank flooring in the outdoors, Badd isn’t picky about where it is.

Another thing he’d love is that, though all three in the trio would hire photographers to capture the experiences and would likely keep them between themselves and their loved ones, Badd would love it the most and would want to hire a reputable one that wouldn’t mind capturing the more sillier moments at the wedding. He wants to tell these stories to those whom he holds dear to his heart.

He will cry at some point during the entire thing. Multiple times even. During the vows, he’ll struggle to keep his voice level even as some people in the audience are snickering and cooing over how emotional he’s getting. 

And he’ll make this face:

When he sees his beloved walk down the aisle.

So, for him, Badd would at least want an Outdoor Wedding, if not a wedding that at least incorporates some aspects of it.

Oh, and for his childhood delinquent friends that he invited?

[clearcorona]

nuts and bolts // cyborg!bakugou katsuki x fem mechanic!reader

Bakugou pulled his hoodie further over his head as he checked the clock on the wall for the fifth time since he had let the woman with pink hair at the front desk know he had arrived. You were an hour and a half late and he could see that the others waiting around along with him were beginning to grow annoyed as well. He tapped his metal foot against the ground, concealed by the heavy duty boots he wore constantly.

With his prosthetic arm and leg being on the opposite sides of his body, he had long since learned how to properly balance himself with the weight difference, but having them be replaced with newer models was definitely going to take some time to relearn.

He had also several more alterations done internally that didn't exactly bother him, bit you always seemed to fret over those ones the most.

The door slammed open, startling a few of those around him. He lifted his gaze, spotting a petite brunette holding a clipboard, her face flushed. He had seen her a multitude of times from when he began to see you, but still hadn't quite cared enough to learn her name. Round Face, is what he called her, not that he ever really talked to her to begin with.

"I apologize for the delay, everyone! Unfortunately, (Y/N) won't be able to see all of you today. Her schedule is free tomorrow, if you would no longer like to wait out here," she smiled, watching as almost everyone left. Everyone except for Bakugou. There was no way in hell he was waiting until tomorrow. He was already there and the trip to your little hideout was out of his way.

Round Face looked over at Bakugou, looking down at her clipboard. Her eyes widened slightly before she looked up at him. He wasn't quite able to catch the look in her eyes before she masked it, clearing her throat. "She's ready to see you now."

"About fucking time," he grumbled, standing up. He shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his khaki pants, following the brunette through the free hallways that led to your workspace. She tapped her knuckle against the door, hearing your voice from the opposite side allowing her to enter.

Stepping inside, Bakugou crinkled his nose as he looked around. Your usual clean workplace was absolutely trashed with scraps of metal and tools lying all over the place. The room wasn't the only thing that was a mess, you were, too.

"Just the guy I wanted to see," you chirped, hopping up from your chair. You thanked the brunette, gently taking the clipboard before she left the two of you alone. "You know the drill already. Take a seat."

"What the hell happened here?" he found himself asking, taking a good look at you as he pulled his hood down. He rolled his eyes when he didn't get a response, hearing the slight tinkering of tools as you went over his files. "Oi!"

"Any damages or problems with your current prosthetics?" you asked, lifting your head from the clipboard to look at him. He took notice of the bags under your eyes and the slouch of your shoulders. You definitely weren't getting enough sleep, but you still managed to keep your bubbly demeanor intact.

Bakugou shook his head, pulling off his left boot and hoodie to give you better access to the metal appendages, and sat down on the rusty chair that creaked under his weight. You set his stuff to the side, taking hold of his metal hand as you got straight to business, but he didn't miss the frown on your face at the signs of the scars on his chest and shoulders. You bent the joints, checking to see if anything had rusted or was uncomfortable. "Your new prosthetics are a lot lighter than these, but I can't have you overdo it again."

Bakugou scowled. "Wheelchairs aren't exactly my thing and why the hell did I have to come all the way out here?" He noticed the way you paused, took a breath and stepped away, kneeling to check the condition of his leg.

"They've been on my ass lately. You know what could happen if I slip up," you whispered. Bakugou leaned back in the chair, a groan of protest coming from it. He knew exactly who you were referring to. "Plus, if they found out I've been helping you, I'd be in even more trouble."

"Fucking morons...," he muttered and you smiled, shaking your head.

"You did always tell me you'd be a legend," you stood up, patting his knee, "but I never thought you'd be a fugitive."

He smirked, rolling his eyes. "I'm the best damn fugitive there is!" He flexed his metal fingers, feeling his skin grow hot at the sound of your laugh.

"Yes, you are," you replied, bending his foot every which way. "I just wish that they'd stop..."

"You fucking worried about me or something?"

"No, not at all. I'm well aware that you're able to take care of yourself, especially with my little upgrades," you winked at him before standing straight, stretching. "If our society wasn't so messed up to begin with, this never would've happened. I still can't believe what they did to you..." You reached out, brushing your finger on one of his scars the stretched across his chest and stopped almost directly above where his heart laid in his chest.

Bakugou caught your hand in his, turning your hand gently so your palm was facing upward. He traced a familiar pattern onto your skin with his metal hand, a code the two of you had made as kids. Relax, he had said.

You managed to smile, pulling your hand away slightly. He knew from experience that your own heart couldn't take much stress and he only wished you would worry about yourself more than others.

"You've been overworking yourself again, haven't you?" He raised an eyebrow, watching as you turned your back to him to grab his new prosthetics.

"Maybe a little...," you admitted. "But I'm okay, I swear! I haven't slept in a few days, but that's nothing I can't handle."

The sound of your stomach growling filled his ears. Bakugou rolled his eyes, turning his head to avoid seeing the blush on your cheeks.

"Dumbass... You haven't been eating again, have you?" He stood up, adjusting his weight before he pulled the prosthetics out of your hands and setting them aside. You pouted, about to grab them when Bakugou tossed you over his shoulder.

Your shirt slid up, causing his metal shoulder to come into contact with your bare abdomen. "Bakugou, put me down, that's cold!" you shrieked, squirming in his hold.

"Should've thought about that before you decided to starve yourself!"

"I didn't starve myself! Put me down!" You huffed when Bakugou didn't answer, knowing he had made up his mind already, so there was no way you were getting down until he decided to put you down. "You weren't supposed to come here to take care of me... I'm supposed to take care of you."

"You're only in this mess because you're a dumbass and decided not to take care of yourself."

You knew he had a point, but with everything going on with Bakugou, you figured he was much more important than you were.

"I need to do x-rays when your new prosthetics are on," you muttered, switching topics.

"Whatever." Bakugou set you down in the middle of the kitchen. Your hideout was like a second home, with how often you'd stay late to work on prosthetics and make sure they were made to everyone's liking, even if you could be severely punished if they found out you were helping cyborgs. "What do you want to eat?"

"Ooh, you're gonna cook for me? Maybe I should work like this more-" you cut yourself off once you saw the glare he gave you, a soft laugh leaving your lips. "I'm only joking, relax. You worry about me too much."

"I do not. You're the one who worries about me," Bakugou replied and you shrugged, hopping up onto one of the counters as you watched him open the fridge. "What the hell?! There isn't anything in here!"

You pouted, crossing your arms over your chest. "Yes, there is!" Bakugou slammed the fridge shut, tugging at his hair.

"Nothing edible! Why the hell do you keep your equipment in the fridge?"

"One, because no one would think to look there, and two, because the cold metal keeps me awake." You smiled. Bakugou rolled his eyes.

"Why the hell do I keep coming here again?" he muttered.

"Because I'm the best mechanic in all of Japan!" You threw your hands up in the air, laughing. "And you only accept the best. That's why you're still here. You probably would've left a long time ago if I wasn't. I work so hard because I want to be the best for you."

Bakugou's eyes widened slightly and he looked away, running the back of his neck. Is that what you truly thought? He could never leave you. No when you stole his heart without even realizing it.

Not while your own was so fragile.

"(Y/N), it's time!" he heard someone call out, matching the voice to the pink haired girl at the front desk. You frowned, getting down from the counter.

"Coming!" you called back before looking at him. "How about takeout? There are a bunch of menus inside of that drawer there. Order whatever you think is best. I trust your judgement."

Bakugou opened the drawer as he heard you leave the kitchen, looking through them all. It seemed like you had ordered from every restaurant in a twenty mile radius. He hadn't even heard of half of them.

"She speaks highly of you, you know."

The blonde jumped, whipping his head around and meeting the apologetic brown eyes of Round Face. "Don't do that, you fucking creep!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to. Has she always been like this?" Round Face asked, watching as Bakugou read through the pamphlets.

"Had already been what? Stubborn, immature and cares way too much about others than herself? Yes," he replied bluntly, looking up when he heard her laugh.

"I'm sorry, it's just that you two seem like good friends. She hasn't always been this sick, has she?"

Bakugou wasn't sure why he felt compelled to answer this strange girl, but he couldn't talk about you to anyone else in case they decided to report you, so he decided to do it anyway.

"Not this bad, no, but she's always had a bad immune system. She was in and out of hospitals constantly. It happened even more often when she began tinkering around. She wanted to help people, even if it was illegal. Even if she was putting herself at risk." He clenched and unclenched his metal hand, frustrated. "When I... When I lost my arm and leg, I was told she would visit me every day for hours before she went home to work on prosthetics for me. She even read a lot of medical books so she could install them and take care of me herself."

There was a silence that passed between them and Bakugou looked back at the menus.

"But?" she finally asked.

"But what?"

"I don't know. I feel like you have more to say."

"It's not important..."

"Well, it's obvious that you care about her. I'm glad she has someone like you looking out for her. She won't listen to us when we tell her to take care of herself."

Bakugou sighed, looking over a Chinese takeout menu before looking up at the brunette.

"She never listens. She's too kind, too naive. She tries to help everyone even if she kills herself in the process," he muttered, feeling his heart ache in his chest. Why was he even still talking to her?

"You like her, don't you?"

Bakugou froze for a moment. No, he didn't like you. It was much more than that. His feelings were even stronger than love itself.

"(Y/N), stop running! You're going to get worked up again!" Both him and the brunette turned towards the sound of the other woman's voice. He could hear your footsteps, rolling his eyes as you nearly collided with Round Face.

"Relax! I feel fine, Mina!" you called out, bounding over to Bakugou with the energy of an excited puppy. If he didn't know you so well, he would've never known that you hadn't slept in days all because you wanted to finish his prosthetics. You walked over to your client/childhood friend. "Did you order something?"

"Not yet," he glanced at the two women standing in the doorway. You followed his gaze, smiling at them.

"Are you two hungry?" you asked, completely oblivious to how Bakugou rolled his eyes and turned away, pulling out his phone. He heard Round Face laugh.

"No, it's alright. Thank you, though. I actually think we should get home. You seem to be in good hands," she replied. Bakugou turned to look at her, his eyes narrowing slightly. He only relaxed once they were out of sight. "Well, I guess it's just you and me."

Bakugou pushed the menu over to you as he dialed the number, waiting for you to reply with what you wanted before he called.

Once the food was ordered, Bakugou let out a sigh.

"Do you really think I'll leave you if you aren't the best mechanic?" He looked over at you, noticing how vulnerable you seemed as you tried to wrack your brain for a proper answer.

"Well," you began after a moment of silence had passed, "you always did say you couldn't accept anything less than the best. I couldn't have a little heart condition stop me from being the best for you, Katsu."

The sound of his childhood nickname surprised him, having not heard it in years. He furrowed his eyebrows, crossing his arms over his chest. "Why'd you stop calling me that?"

"Huh?"

"Katsu. You used to call me that all the time when we were kids."

You seemed a bit startled, shifting nervously in your seat. "I didn't mean to call you that. I remember saying how much you hated when I called you Katsu and Deku called you-"

"(Y/N)," he interrupted, eyeing you. Your shoulders sagged, finally letting your exhaustion show. "We're not here to talk about him. Don't change the subject."

There was a bite to his voice and you knew why. He didn't like when you brought him up. Not when he was partially responsible for what happened to Bakugou and your slowly deteriorating health.

"I'm sorry," you whispered and he panicked when he saw tears well up in your eyes. He had never seen you cry in all the years he had known you. You were so strong, much stronger than he was. It seemed almost unreal that you were breaking down right in front of him.

He turned towards you, taking you in his arms. You were so warm, so fragile. He would do anything in his power to protect you. "Please don't cry...," he whispered as he watched you hide your face and hold onto him tightly. "I'm not going anywhere."

He knew you missed Deku. Hell, he'd be lying if he said he didn't miss that bastard. Well, before he decided to abandon the two of you, at least.

Bakugou held you, watching you carefully. You didn't seem to be crying and the small watch on your wrist indicated that your heart rate was normal. You suddenly ripped yourself away from him, startling him. He missed your soft body, your warmth.

"Let's get those prosthetics done," you said, a steady determination in your eyes.

-

Bakugou felt weightless as you disconnected the heavy metal prosthetics from his body, staring up at the ceiling. He was currently waiting for you to run some final tests to see if there were no issues with his new appendages.

"What would you be doing if you decided to not be a mechanic?" he suddenly asked, hearing you laugh from the opposite side of the room.

"That's a bit of an odd question, but I never really thought about it. I just wanted to help you and other people who are in similar situations," you replied and Bakugou clenched his jaw. He sat up and you could feel the heat of his glare from where he sat.

"You should care more about yourself, dammit!" he yelled. You didn't respond, the tinkering of tools stopping as you completed your tests. You stood and crossed the room to stand in front of him, setting the new prosthetics beside where he sat on the small cot.

"My life doesn't matter." The blunt way you said it made his blood boil.

"What the hell are you saying?!"

"I'll say it once and I'll say it again. My life doesn't matter." Your tone was much more firm this time, your eyes narrowing as you spoke.

"And what the hell kind of reason do you have for thinking like that?!"

"I can't make a difference like you can, alright?!" you shouted back at him, startling him. Your body was tense, your face screwing up in irritation. Bakugou wasn't having any of it.

"What the hell have you been doing then, huh? All the other fucking mechanics that were helping cyborgs have been put out of business! You're helping them! You're helping me!"

You didn't seem to be listening to him anymore. How in the hell did you not realize your own worth? It went far beyond just you being a mechanic, it was several other things. "Are you not taking care of yourself on purpose?"

"I just get caught up in work. It's no big deal."

"Are you waiting for this fucking disease to just kill you?! Is that why you aren't taking care of yourself?!"

"Enough, already!" That shut him up easily, letting you connect the wires from the man-made joint in his arm to the prosthetic piece. "There's no need to see me after this. With this, only minor repairs are needed that you can figure out yourself."

"Wait a damn-"

"You have a whole country looking up to you. They only go along with what the government says out of fear. You and I both know the real Deku would never go along with what they say."

"Don't fucking say his name!"

"Or what, Bakugou?!"

Bakugou recoiled, clenching his fists. "Don't you understand? He's the one who did this to us! The fact that you even want him back in our lives is some messed up bullshit."

You didn't answer, connecting the last of the wires. You gave it time to connect to his nerves, noticing the way Bakugou's body tensed up.

"Try it now," you ordered, already getting started on his leg. The sooner he left, the better, in your opinion. Bakugou rolled his eyes, looking over at his new metal arm. It was sleek and definitely much lighter than his last one. Giving himself time to think for a moment, his eyes narrowed.

"You like that fucking traitor, don't you?" he asked, gripping on to the thin sheet that laid beneath him on the cot. He hoped you couldn't hear the disappointment in his voice, the hurt.

"What's it to you?" you replied, your hands moving quickly to attach the wires. Usually you made small talk, joking around with him until you had your next appointment. Your words were clipped this time, an edge to them that could cut him if that was what you wanted.

Turns out, you had already begun, the edge of your words cutting deep in his heart.

"After everything he did? Why?" Bakugou could feel a lump in his throat and an ache in his chest, but he wasn't going to cry.

"Love is complicated. You wouldn't understand." You finished connecting his leg to the rest of his body, turning your back to him.

Your words twisted, hurting him more and more.

He knew what love was. He felt it so deeply for you. It was a lovely, but awful feeling, one that could tear a person apart.

"If there are no issues with the prosthetics, you're free to leave."

"Not gonna get on my ass about overdoing it?" he asked, narrowing his eyes once he didn't get an answer. "Fine, whatever," he snarled, bending his ankle this way and that to see if it calibrated to his nerves correctly. He pulled his hoodie back on over his head and pulled his boot on to cover his mechanical leg.

He spared you one last glance before he left, slamming the door shut behind him.

This was the exact reason why he didn't trust anyone, why he barely ever opened up.

Why would he ever want to get his heart broken?

-

Bakugou tossed his keys onto the rickety wooden table by the front door. He lived in a poorly built apartment complex, but it was all he could afford as a fugitive and the landlady was in her 70s and could barely see.

A sigh left his lips as he collapsed into the couch, still not used to the weight of his new and improved appendages. He brought his forearm to his eyes, smiling softly at your handiwork. Everything was carefully manufactured and put together, not a single screw out of place. Above all, you had always been a bit of a perfectionist.

As he ran his fingers along the smooth metal, his nail caught on a small hatch. He smirked and shook his head. Of course you'd make a hidden compartment. Opening it up, he saw a folded piece of paper. Bakugou sat up, pulling out the note and unfolding it. He immediately recognized your swirly handwriting, leaning back against the couch cushions as he read.

You found it! Pretty neat, huh? Anyway, I hope you like it. I dunno what you fugitives would need to hide other than yourselves, but now you have this really cool hiding spot! Thank you for being patient with me, I wanted it to be perfect. You better not damage my work! >:( - Yours Truly, (Y/N)

Bakugou traced the letters you had written, realizing you probably hated him and these were the last few things he had of you. Just the thought of losing you caused an ache in his chest, but should he go back? Should he leave you be? There was no way in hell he was apologizing, though. He wanted you to know the worth you didn't seem to realize you had.

But would you hate him more if he showed up at your door again? He didn't even have a chance to say the three words that had been on the tip of his tongue for years now.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket, opening up your contact in his phone. He rarely ever texted you, but what could he possibly say? His thoughts were all jumbled, so there was no way he'd be able to get it in a text.

After several tries, Bakugou decided to just go for something simple, carefully crafting his words so he wouldn't upset you further.

You're an amazing person, (Y/N). One day, I hope you see yourself the way I see you.

He sighed, getting himself ready for bed. He highly doubted that you'd respond, but he kept his phone close by just in case you did as he showered.

Bakugou let the hot water run off his body, a memory coming back to him that he had almost forgotten, but it came so vividly, as if it had only happened yesterday.

"Deku! Deku, they're burning!" you shouted, alerting the two boys, who came running into the kitchen. Smoke was coming off from the pan on the stove, filling the room. You ran to open a window. How had they not smelled it burning earlier?

"How the hell did you manage to burn eggs? They're not that hard to make!" Bakugou yelled, quickly turning off the stove. They were too late to stop the fire alarm from going off, though.

"I lost track of time!" Deku called back, trying to assure you that the house wouldn't burn down.

Bakugou tossed the pan into the sink, running water over it. He then cursed as the sprinklers went off, soaking the three of you. "Damn it, Deku!"

"I'm sorry!"

They both froze when they heard your laughter, not expecting you to be laughing when Deku had almost burned your whole house down. They exchanged glances before they found themselves laughing along with you.

"Let's leave the cooking to Katsu next time, okay?" you had suggested, earning a nod in response.

Bakugou tugged at his hair, wondering why he suddenly remembered such a thing. Was it because that was the night that he realized he had feelings for you? Or was it because that was the day Deku simply vanished into thin air?

He stood under the water long enough for it to grow cold, and even then, he stayed there. He shut off the water and got out, drying himself off before throwing on a pair of sweats and an old t-shirt. He checked his phone to see if you had responded, frowning when he saw you hadn't even read it yet.

His whole body tensed once he heard someone banging on the door, quickly checking the time.

10:43 p.m.

Who the hell would be at his door at that hour?

"Katsu," he heard a familiar voice cry out. It was strained and hoarse, but he would recognize it anywhere. He rushed to the door, his eyes widening as he took in your appearance.

"What the hell happened?" he asked, his heart pounding in his chest. Blood stained your clothes along your abdomen, nasty bruises along your cheek and arms. He also noticed a deep gash on your left calf. He scooped you up in his arms as he noticed how unsteady you were on your own feet, closing the door behind him as he brought you to his bedroom.

You clung to him and Bakugou didn't care about the blood. He cared about you being safe.

"They found out...," you whispered, your voice shaking. "H-He came and-"

"Damn it..." Bakugou sat you down on the bed, quickly reaching for the first aid kit. He wiped away your tears gently, tracing figures along your palm to help calm you down. He wasn't sure how you made it all the way to his place in that state, but he was going to do everything he could to protect you. "Look at me. I'm going to fix you up, okay?"

Bakugou didn't wait for an answer before he got to work, cutting away your clothes from your abdomen. There was so much blood that he was surprised you hadn't passed out yet, but he could always blame that on your stubbornness.

"Get it off!" you suddenly screeched, startling him. You thrashed about, nearly causing Bakugou to stab you with the pair of scissors.

"(Y/N)! (Y/N), I need you to calm down!" He cradled your face in his hands after quickly setting down the scissors, making you look into his eyes. He could see sheer terror in your own eyes, tears welling up again, but your body stilled. He could tell how exhausted you were, yet you still fought the urge the close your eyes. "That's my girl."

He got to work on patching you up, talking to you every so often to keep you awake. He wasn't a great doctor, but he sure as hell wasn't going to lose you.

He began pulling your clothes off gently once he had finished, washing his hands before grabbing extra clothes for him and a shirt of his for you to wear. He quickly covered your body, moving out of the room to change his own clothes.

Stepping back into the room, Bakugou noticed two things. You had finally allowed yourself to rest, making Bakugou check to see if you were still breathing, and a small slip of paper on the floor. He clenched his jaw as he read what was written on there.

Turn yourself in before it gets worse, Kacchan.

[semi-imaginary-place]

rewatching decadence part 2 because part 1 got too long

ep7: Getting to see the game Deca-Dence as a new player would with the opening cutscene, skipping the TOS, character creation and all was a good touch. Also the fact that Kaburagi could look like anything, but he wants to look like mid 40′s dad both times. I wonder who it was that decided Minato should vape. The conversation on the top of Deca-Dence is real interesting because its like only 20% of the actual conversation is spoken out loud and the other 80% left unsaid, so we have to guess what was left unsaid. Minato tells Kaburagi to not make things worse for himself, condoning his actions, but also vows to himself to help Kabu even though it is very dangerous for him. Kaburagi leaves after regretfully saying he doesn’t want to cause Minato more trouble, and yet his current and future actions are and will be doing just that. The obscuring fog in this scene adds to the sense of distance or disconnect between these two. Somewhere over the past 7 years they have fallen off the same page.

This episode again highlights how while for the Tankers this is life and death situation, for the cyborgs Deca-Dence is a game. We get a shot of some Gears lightheartedly discussing how fun the latest game event was, followed right after with what that event meant for the Tankers as we see a makeshift medbay in the streets filled with the dead and dying to really drive home the gap of compassion between the two groups. Minato is one of the few cyborgs we really see besides Kaburagi and the show uses him to show how cyborgs don’t think of humans as people. Humans to the cyborgs are just npcs in a game. Now anime and manga about videogames have been around a long time and were especially popular in the mid 2000s (mmorpgs especially) after which the genre dropped the “in a game” part but kept everything else which were today know as the isekai genre. Hot takes like “the videogame characters are actually people all along” aren’t new either, but Deca-Dence is one of the most successful in generating sympathy and compassion for the Other by flipping the script. Most of those series come from the perspective of the player and show the player coming to care about the npcs. This often isn’t done very well or comes off as patronizing, like the other characters act in service of making the mc look like a good guy instead of actually acting like fully realized people in their own right. (*cough* sao *cough*). In contrast to this, Deca-Dence initially starts from the perspective of Natsume who is human just like us the audience, and thus predisposing us to feeling with and feeling for her. So later when its revealed the humans of this world aren’t seen as people by the cyborgs or the the corporation that rules all their lives, it is granted greater weight in the context of all of us who have played videogames before and met npcs and maybe not cared all that much about them. Decadence places the viewer in the position of the npc, the Other.

Episode 7 is also the beginning of several letters exchanged between Kaburagi and Natsume. Its a presence that lingers long after the person has left and also acts as a contrast to the call/social networking apps of the cyborgs. In episode 5 we saw Kaburagi choose Natsume over following the orders of Solid Quake, but through to episode 7 he still believed in its system. Look even at episode 6 where he still believed that if he worked hard and played by the rules, the system would reward him and everything would be ok and compare that calm assurance in episode 6 to his mountain frustration in episode 7. He’s starting to see how thing are run in Deca-Dence makes life really hard and kind of terrible for the Tankers. This frustration at the system culminates at the end of the episode when he realizes the real human cost of perpetuating this system of oppression in how it hurts Natsume. I mean “Late stage capitalism made my adopted daughter Natsume cry, so I'm going to dismantle it.“ is a joke and pretty funny, but like, that’s what actually what happens. Both Kaburagi and Natsume further the theme of pushing the limits. Kaburagi realizes the limits of his society and why its time to break them down, while of Natsume’s side we see her struggle in the face of things much larger than her. Much like how the cyborgs are stuck in their lifestyles of working for Solid Quake, earning oxyone, and playing Deca-Dence, the Tankers are stuck in their role in society to leave their fates to the Gears and Deca-Dence. So Natsume asking everyone to take charge of their own lives and close that the hole is them stepping out of the comfort of what they’ve always done, which is leave it to someone else (deca-dence administration, gears, etc.). Natsume asks the Tankers to push their limits, the step outside of what they’ve always done and to believe in things they thought were impossible to do. We see Fei representing the belief a lot of Tankers that nothing needs to change, thus nothing should change and they will not act to bring change to their own lives. The Tankers live lives that are decided for them. The Deca-Dence administration controls their population, and the system eliminates any who would disrupt it. They don’t have a lot of control and are resigned to live like that, until Natsume comes along. This episode we see her do what she does the entire series, inspire people to be more. Natsume’s doing alright, she might not be where she wants to be but she’s taken steps in that direction. Where Nstsume is psychologically contrast Kaburagi who’s a bit of a mess realizing he can no longer live under the thumb of Solid Quake’s Deca-Dence system and is kind of floundering about. When kaburagi meets Natsume again... he is so awkward, I’m getting second hand embarressmen. and again the assault jokes have got to stop. The shot of the empty chair calls back to the first episode and another talk between Natsume and Kaburagi. I always love it when an anime plays the credits early.

ep8: again the importance of the individual over the group with kaburagi’s lines at the beginning on why he’s taking down the gadoll factory. I’m just thinking about how kaburagi is certain minato kept his avatar. and everyone just agreeing that minato has that vibe. I really love the avatar retrieval part of the first episode. Its a heist sequence. I love heists!. They also did a good job with pacing and tension in that part. Still can’t believe the creators put a sex toy in this show but at least this joke is actually funny. Oh Minato pulled strings to get Kaburagi out of the poor jail. I missed that part. but now the two of them are not only on different pages, but on different books. Minato doesn’t see the tankers as people and follows the Deca-Dence system on what is good and what is bad, so he can’t comprehend why Kaburagi is throwing away everything the Deca-Dence system values for something the system has deems less than worthless. While Kaburagi has formed a moral compass independent of this system, he sucks at communication and doesn’t explain anything to Minato. Interesting how Minato views bugs as bad but has made an exception for kaburagi and probably did some mental gymnastics to do so. It reminds of those homophobic family members that make an exception for their gay family member. Minato never wanted anything but to be by Kaburagi’s side so he prioritizes Kaburagi above pretty much everything else which is why while he defends the establishment, he also breaks rules for Kaburagi. Their little convo continues the same dialectic, Kaburagi’s been inspired by Natsume to push the limits of himself and society, to choose how he lives instead of letting the Deca-Dence system tell him. Kaburagi underwent character development when Minato wasn’t looking and he can’t recognize him anymore but desperately wants to. Kaburagi moving forwards without him and him realizing that he was never as much a priority to Kaburagi as Kaburagi was to him, means that Minato’s really hurting by the end of the scene, and he doesn’t take it out on Kaburagi, he just leaves. ...if it isn’t obvious by now, minato is my favorite character. gotta love the gay robot having a mid life crisis. (i mean his feeling aren;t necessarily romantic, but you know the joke I’m referencing). Turkey just wakes up and chooses evil every day huh. I predict someone on tumblr with a history of unhealthy relationships is horny for turkey.

ep9: why does the reactor look like a cyborg core? Again. WHYYY does Donatello have a gun??? idiots let him keep a working gun. I love the contrast of the actual pretty gritty situation of the prison riot being represented with super cartoony slapstick animations. This probably saves on frames as well as keep the series from getting too dark, because if you think about it the labor camp conditions are pretty horrifying but its disguised with cartoony designs and wacky characters. Kaburagi and Natsume are doing very important plot things, but the core of episode 9 are Sark and Turkey. Through them we see the same conversation that has been repeated through out the series of conforming to society and staying in line, that things won’t ever change so you should just duck your head and follow order, or the “I’m comfortable how things are” versus you should make your own choices with live life how to want to, to push your limits. Turkey sees the Deca-Dence system as absolute and eternal and thus tries to play by the system and help it continue by selling out everyone else. Sark is passive and doesn't really have an opinion of his own, just following whatever the others are doing whether its Kaburagi stealing his avatar or Turkey in betraying everyone. Sark unlike Turkey isn’t malicious, he wants the best for everyone but also isn’t quite willing to put himself at risk for others. After seeing everyone be destroyed as a consequence of following Turkey however, his new resolve and subsequent suicide bombing is the only reason the plan ends up succeeding. For total destruction of the gadoll factory two things were needed: flipping the kill switch on all the gadoll in the dome, and destroying the reactor powering the factory. We aren’t told how Jill and Kaburagi originally planned to destroy the reactor (like was he just suppose to wander around until they bumped into it?), but Sark’s explosion is what allowed Kaburagi and Natsume to get away from Hugin. Without Sark, Hugin would have totally caught them. So it was Sark taking charge of his own life and pushing his limits that saved them all. That said, if the explosion was powerful enough to reach all the way up the giant tube and destroy the reactor, why didn’t it break the tube and why didn’t it destroy everyone left in the prison? ah well it makes thematic sense so I’ll let this pass.

So I’ve talked before about how Deca-Dence’s ending could be improved to build on some of the themes established in the first couple episodes. The problem is that this show isn’t pushing a narrative of collaboration and the power of collective bargaining, its pushing an individualist narrative about how each and every person can reach out and better themself. Now I don’t think these two themes are mutually exclusive, but it would take a very delicate touch as well as an attentive and thoughtful audience to successfully weave these two theme together into a nuanced whole. And if a rewrite were to happen with the minimal amount of changes, I think ep 10 is a good divergence point. The final little arc is about the rogue gadoll outside of the Deca-Dence system and the threat of total annihilation by solid quake, and while big kaiju fights look cool, they don’t quite deal with dismantling systems of oppression at the hands of your corporate overlords. So, I would have preferred something like the cyborgs and Tankers coming together to seize the means of production, destroy Solid Quake, and take its assets for themselves. The ideal rewrite situation though would for this all to be 24 episodes and the big gadoll to be the episode 12 climax while taking down Solid Quake happen in ep 23-24. And since we’re doing a rewrite, Natsume kinda drops off as the main character after episode 5 and I’d like to see her back at the forefront of the show.

ep10: If this show had leaned more into the futility of Natsume seeking to improve herself within a system that rendered it meaningless, it would have ended up much darker, but I also think it would have been richer. Ah poor Natsume, she’s at a low point since the context of what she has been doing has wildly changed, afterall, what’s the point of improving yourself if nothing else ever changes and what you do doesn’t matter. The letter writing continues and it is good. So I’m not going to question how the exit tunnel is still intact, but watching into robot kaburagi angrily drive a car and swear is really funny. I’ve been wondering for a while, the humans literally live in a fuel tank, how is there enough light to grow plants in there? Like as part of the post-apocalyptic aesthetic, a lot of Tankers have little house plants which in addition to being inside the fuel tank, are also inside their houses. oh yeah for any who didn’t get it. The reason as a child Natsume went into cardiac arrest and her chip was read as dead wasn’t because of the severity of her injuries, Deca-Dence’s system had deemed her too dangerous to live and flipped her kill switch.

ep11: on a thematic level I might be meh, but the writing and execution are what really pull the ending through. Everything is nicely set up from the mutated gadoll the victim of animal abuse several episodes earlier to fighting hugin in the factory being how hugin finds out about natsume. I think about Jill’s lines here, that no matter how hard you try to keep things from changing, you’re just fighting the inevitable. Also Natsume took Kaburagi’s switching bodies really well like seeing someone you care about die in front of you but then surprise they just got another body would give most people such whiplash. “our bodies are under the system’s control, but our core’s are independent of it” I’m still thinking about this. It makes sense given how the first generation of cyborgs where humans with mechanical implants, but cyborg’s cores are still such a mystery. The things you can’t control are a part of life too. In Deca-Dence bugs are uncertainties that the master control system doesn’t know what to do with. More than just individualism good, here we get a little more nuance to Deca-Dence (the show)’s theme. Jill was one of the creators of the Deca-Dence game (giant mech, control system, and all), and they tried to create perfect system where everything was under its control and order could be maintained forever, and this inevitably failed (the show tells us). Trying to perfectly order everything is to attempt the impossible, disorder will always creep in and those little individual differences should be celebrated. and is to the backdrop of an old Deca-Denca(robot) part that is rusting away, plants and animals overtaking it much like how the Deca-Dence’s currently enforced status quo of the game will fall away in the face of those it deems bugs. wait did we ever figure out what the bug was that jill left in deca-dence? mmmm I’m still thinking about Minato logging out because the system told him to but unwilling to let things end this way so physically going back down to earth in his real body. Facing the possibility of truly losing Kaburagi forever is what pushes Minato to question following the Deca-Dence master control system. He totally became a bug for Kaburagi. I doubt Kaburagi had any idea how much Minato wanted to hear the words “let’s fight together to the end”, but offered the thing he truly desires, Minato probably would have done anything. mmm he’s got it bad. there’s also that linking Kaburagi and Deca-Dence’s core takes two people and yet, Kaburagi didn’t bring anyone with him. Which is terrible planning, but allowed for this really great scene. that he knew Minato would come after him. And then the last thing me sees in Minato. Minato truly is ride or die. literally. He could have gone back to the spaceship so that he’d survive no matter what, but he choose to stay. If the plan succeeds then he will see it through with/right beside/literally inside of Kaburagi, and if it fails and Kaburagi is annihilated when Solid Quake wipes the dome, Minato will also be annihilated along side Kaburagi.

ep12: so kaburagi just straight up demands admin privileges and the governing sys is like “sure”. Yeah pretty sure the governing system convo was a season 2 hook to show the big wigs. The independent all governing system tells Kaburagi that all this, him and bugs are a part of the system’s learning process, to which Kaburagi responds that all that doesn’t matter since he’s going to do what he wants independent/regardless of the governing system. the context in which you do things doesn’t matter. Also I never pointed it out since its like the 4th wall of scifi, everyone is just trained to suspend their disbelief, but oxyone is total bullshit. A non toxic liquid energy dense fuel that can be concentrated into orbit range lasers. The tankers all helping Natsume push the spare part is a feel good moment seeing everyone working together. Its an unnecessarily scene for the purpose of including the tankers in the action, since the part wasn’t ever really needed and the writers didn’t have to have it severed by the laser to begin with. the Natsume montage overlayed with the music is very good. wait. i just realized, limiter release can be reversed. Afterall, Kaburagi released his limiters with his first avatar, and if he had still been fully connected to it when hugin killed that avatar, cyborg Kaburagi should have died too but he didn’t and just immediately logged in on a different account. Kabu-Dence releasing his limits here and literally giving all of himself to destroy omega is fulfilling both for his character arc and on an emotional level. This entire show has been about pushing one’s limits and making your own choices, and it culminates here’s in Kaburagi literally releasing his limiter, thus putting him in mortal danger, and then giving every last ounce of himself to the path he has decided. The destruction of the mech fortress Deca-Dence is also symbolic of the end of the game of the Deca-Dence mmorpg as we know it. wait wait did Kaburagi hold on just long enough to hear Natsume thank him. aaaaahhh and then the ed song plays!! and then the play the new mmo intro scene. Still real weird that they’re using a cyborg brain as a ball.

[purplehairedwonder]

Hearts With(out) Chains Chapter 7

Fandom: One Piece Rating: PG-13 Pairings: Gen (eventual Lawlu) Words: 3324 Characters: Trafalgar Law, Monkey D. Luffy, Nico Robin, Usopp, Franky, Zoro, Chopper, Nami, Sanji, Smoker, Tashigi, Vergo Note: I’m taking my turn at the Corazon!Law AU because my brain won’t leave me alone until this is written down. Tags will be updated as the chapters come out.

The story title is based on the Ellie Goulding song “Hearts Without Chains.”

Summary: Law is reclaimed by the Family when he’s 17 and, with Doflamingo holding the lives of his crew as collateral for his good behavior, eventually becomes the third Corazon. Years later, trapped by his impossible situation, Law can’t help but resent Monkey D. Luffy for offering a glimpse of something he’s repeatedly had ripped away from him: hope.

Previous chapters: Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Read also at AO3 / FF.N

“Oi!” Straw Hat called. “What’s going on?”

“Luffy!” the cat burglar and tanuki cried in relief.

“Straw Hat,” the mangled parts of the G-5 soldiers groaned.

“Luffy, look,” the long-nosed one said. “It’s the guy from Sabaody.”

“Corazon,” Nico Robin said, immediately taking a defensive posture. “This must be one of Donquixote Doflamingo’s operations if his second is here.”

Straw Hat blinked at Law then smiled widely. “It’s you.”

Law inclined his head. “Straw Hat-ya. I see you made it.”

“He saved me at Marineford,” Straw Hat, still smiling, said to his crew, who exchanged glances.

“Things change, Luffy,” Pirate Hunter Zoro said, hand going to the blades at his hip. “I don’t think he’s here to help us now. He already got the love cook.”

Straw Hat’s gaze went to where Black Leg had fallen, and his expression darkened. “Sanji!”

“He’s alive,” Law said. “For now. I’m afraid I can’t let any of you leave.” This would be more complicated with all of his targets in one place; part of him thought that he should have brought backup after all, but he quickly dismissed it.

“Chopper,” Straw Hat called. “Come look at Sanji.”

The tanuki started to move, and Law lifted Kikoku but suddenly had three swords to parry as Zoro charged him. A distraction. No matter.

Law and Zoro traded blows with their blades until Law lifted a hand and switched Zoro with a snowflake among the amputated parts of the G-5 soldiers. The pirate hunter yelped in surprise before gaping at the moving and talking body parts.

“What the hell kind of power is this?!” he demanded.

“Super freaky, right?” the cyborg asked. “As long as we’re in this circle, he can do what he wants.”

Law’s lips twitched, but his haki flared and he dodged a shot from the sniper’s slingshot. Law swung Kikoku in his direction, but arms sprouted around the sniper and pulled him out of the slice’s path. Boulders in the distance split in two, and Long Nose gaped like a fish.

Law Shambled out of the way of another blast from the cyborg and had just enough time when saw the skeleton approaching to swap him with a rock on the other side of his Room. The skeleton sputtered in surprise, but Law ignored him, turning his attention back to the people in front of him. He tried to raise Kikoku again but couldn’t move her. He frowned and looked down to see hands sprouting from the blade. When he looked back up, he met Nico Robin’s gaze. He smirked and Shambled away once more. She was startled enough by the motion to drop her powers.

With a bit of distance between them now, Law surveyed the scene. He was on the defensive and couldn’t keep Shambling around to just avoid the Straw Hats’ attacks; it was taking a toll on his stamina. He was already starting to feel the effects of prolonged and consistent use of his abilities. He needed to get on the offensive and end this.

But the Straw Hats weren’t going to make it that easy for him.

He was casting around for something he could use to his advantage when his haki prickled once more. He side-stepped just in time to see a fist fly by his head then return to its owner. When Law looked backed, Straw Hat was eyeing him with a frown.

“I don’t want to fight someone who saved my life,” he said.

“I have orders to get rid of all trespassers,” Law replied. “You and your crew are trespassing, Straw Hat-ya.”

“Shishishi, that’s what pirates do,” Straw Hat replied with a laugh.

“I’m a pirate, too,” Law reminded him. “And pirates also protect what’s theirs.” Or their boss’s, who controlled the fate of his crew. Whichever.

“So, this is Doflamingo’s operation,” Nico Robin mused. “What is he doing here in a place that is supposed to be off-limits to everyone?”

“None of your concern.”

“Luffy,” the cat burglar called. Straw Hat glanced over at her. “They’ve taken kids,” she said, gesturing toward the group behind her and Kin’emon. “We have to help them!”

Straw Hat’s expression darkened, and Nico Robin’s lips quirked. “I think we just made it our concern, Corazon.”

Law shrugged. “So be it.”

He turned toward the G-5 ship that had anchored just in front of the lab—and inside Law’s Room—and lifted a finger. With Takt, the ground began to shake as the ship rose out of the water.

The cat burglar looked around, alarmed. “What’s that noise?”

“Why is everything shaking? Earthquake?” cried the G-5 soldiers.

“T-the ship!” Long Nose yelped.

“Woah, cool!” Straw Hat declared, delighted.

Once the ship was high enough, Law sliced Kikoku through the air, and the ship split into quarters, debris raining down from the sky. Law flicked his fingers, and the debris started flying toward the others. Zoro and Kin’emon jumped in front of the children to cut down boxes and boulders while the cyborg bolted to the tanuki and Black Leg, using his huge body to cover them as the tanuki treated a woozy Black Leg. Straw Hat blew himself up like a bubble—Law raised an eyebrow at that—and bounced the threats off to protect Nico Robin and Long Nose. The skeleton dodged as he made his way back toward his crew, and the G-5 soldiers tried to use one another to shield themselves.

As the debris fell, Law slammed the pieces of the ship against the various rock formations in the area, fusing them together. There would be no escape via ship for the Marines now.

With the ship out of commission, Law turned his attention back to his targets. He planned to use the chaos of the debris to disguise his attack, but when he made to jump into motion, he couldn’t move. He looked down to see hands sprouting of the ground, wrapped around his ankles. When he glanced back up, Nico Robin had her arms crossed in front of her and a knowing smile on her lips.

Then she said something to Straw Hat, and he looked over at the immobile Law. Before Law could think about switching with a piece of debris, Straw Hat had deflated and thrown his arms out directly at Law. He hissed as Straw Hat’s rubber arms wrapped around his chest multiple times, and Kikoku fell from his grip as his own arms were restrained.

“Gotcha!”

His hands were still free, though, so he prepared to Shamble out of Straw Hat’s and Nico Robin’s grips—

His eyes widened and he grunted in pain and surprise as something slammed into his back. The strength leeched from his body and his Room fell around him. The pieces of ship and ocean debris that were still swirling in the air were no longer being directed so crashed into the ground, forcing people to dodge. He glanced behind him and saw Smoker, Seastone-tipped jitte driven into his back above Straw Hat’s rubbery limbs. The vice admiral’s gaze was sharp.

“I want my heart back, pirate,” he growled.

“Zoro!”

Law’s gaze flew back in front of him to see Zoro rushing toward him, and Law was completely helpless. Shit.

“Don’t kill him!” Straw Hat called as the pirate hunter neared.

Law tensed as Zoro raised his sword and swung down. There was blinding pain in his temple and then nothing.

-----

Vergo watched from his hidden perch as the pirate hunter swung his sword and Corazon—no, he would always be little Trafalgar Law, traitor to the Donquixote Family—crumpled. Straw Hat Luffy released his hold on Law, easing him surprisingly gently to the ground. Smoker reached down and searched through Law’s pockets until he found his heart. He straightened and slid it back into his chest. Too bad; that would have been a good way to get rid of Smoker for good. Oh well. There were plenty of hazards on this island Vergo could take advantage of.

With Law’s Room down, the G-5 soldiers started piecing themselves back together with varying degrees of anatomical correctness (they truly were the Marines’ most inept). Captain Tashigi collected herself and joined Vice Admiral Smoker as they looked at the gathering Straw Hats. The tanuki had gotten Black Leg back to his feet, though he was moving with some deliberation. An argument between Smoker and Luffy ensued, seemingly over Law as they both gestured at his unconscious form.

The cat burglar then spoke up, gesturing toward the children behind her. This caught Captain Tashigi’s attention, and she turned an impassioned plea to Smoker, undoubtedly to help the brats. Vergo frowned; he’d gone to a lot of trouble to get Caesar those subjects, so it wouldn’t do for them to be taken away now. Caesar was doing important work for Joker, and those test subjects were necessary.

After some further arguments and discussion, the pirates and Marines split into two groups, with Smoker, Tashigi, and G-5 following the cat burglar, samurai, cyborg, pirate hunter, tanuki, and skeleton inside—likely because Law had taken out the Marine ship so there was no way to get them out without calling for backup. That was something Vergo could work with as the base commander for G-5.

Before she started walking off, Tashigi offered something to Straw Hat Luffy, though the long-nosed sniper ended up taking it. He then bent over and—ah, they were Seastone cuffs. He fastened them around Law’s wrists. So, they weren’t as dumb as they looked after all.

Straw Hat then picked up Law and threw him over his shoulder. The pirate hunter handed Law’s blade over to his captain before joining the group going inside the lab. Nico Robin, Black Leg, and the sniper followed Straw Hat in the opposite direction, likely to their ship.

Vergo found his lips curling upward as he watched Straw Hat Luffy carry an unconscious and powerless Law back toward his ship. Perhaps it was finally time to put the brat in his place.

-----

The first thing Law felt as consciousness returned was the throbbing in his head. The second was the telltale weakness in his body that came from Seastone. Memories flooded back in, and his eyes flew open. He was staring up at a wooden ceiling rather than a gray, snowy sky. Confused, he glanced down to see he was on a bed, and his wrists were shackled in Seastone cuffs.

That… was not good.

“You’re awake.”

Law started at the voice and looked over to see Nico Robin sitting on a stool across the room. She had a book in hand, but she marked her page and set it on the desk. Law’s gaze slid past her and took in the rest of the room—an infirmary, not a brig.

Nico Robin let him take in his surroundings and waited until his gaze turned back to her.

“Welcome to the Thousand Sunny,” she said.

Law frowned, but when she made no other move, he sat up slowly, careful of his aching head, and scooted back to lean against the wall. They both knew he was a minimal threat to her in these cuffs.

“Your ship?” Law finally asked when his companion (no, guard) remained silent. He wasn’t sure if this was better or worse than a Marine brig—though he supposed with no little satisfaction the Marine brig was fused to a rock somewhere outside. Either way, his capture was a complication in his mission, which meant it was a danger to his nakama back in Dressrosa. The sooner he took back control of the situation, the sooner he could finish his mission and assure their safety.

She hummed in agreement. “Smoker wanted to arrest you, but Luffy wouldn’t let him.”

Law blinked at that. “Why?”

Not that Law was worried about being arrested; Doffy would never let Smoker take Law in. But it would have been yet another complication in his operation, and Doffy hated complications.

Nico Robin studied him for a long moment, her gaze unsettling—as though she could see through Law. “Isn’t that the question going around today?”

Law narrowed his eyes. What was that supposed to mean?

He opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by the infirmary door slamming open. Straw Hat stood in the doorway, and Law’s breath caught, that tug in his chest returning stronger than ever, as if it refused to be ignored. Straw Hat’s eyes traveled around the room, brightening when they landed on Law.

“You’re awake!”

“And apparently a prisoner,” Law replied dryly, gesturing with the cuffs.

Straw Hat’s expression fell. “That’s not—” He stuck his lips out in a pout. “I just wanted to talk. Would you stay if we took them off?”

“Long enough to kill you, then I’d be gone.” Law was here on a mission, after all. He briefly wondered where Kikoku was but decided it didn’t matter; once he got these cuffs off, he’d open a Room and find her.

“Why would you want to kill me?” Straw Hat asked. He didn’t sound worried about Law’s threat, just confused. Nico Robin had risen to her feet during the exchange. Nothing in her posture said she was poised to attack, but Law had a feeling she’d act in an instant if Law showed any sign of threat to her captain. “You saved me two years ago.”

“You know who I work for,” Law replied with a shrug, aiming for casual and in control despite his predicament. “I’m here on his orders.”

“And you’re a loyal soldier, aren’t you, Corazon?” Nico Robin said. “You follow your captain’s orders without question.”

There was enough give in the shackles for Law to cross his arms. He said nothing in reply, though. His actions at Marineford sat heavily on the air among them.

“I heard about your exploits over the last two years,” she continued. “You’ve made quite a name for yourself, Surgeon of Death.”

Law remained silent. He didn’t care about the Demon Child’s judgment or her use of the epithet he had earned. He did what he had to do. Besides, he was a pirate, and he acted like one.

Nico Robin walked over to the door and put a gentle hand on her captain’s shoulder, a softness to her tone that had not been there moments before. “Be careful.”

Straw Hat nodded, and she smiled at him before leaving. She closed the door behind her, leaving Law and Straw Hat alone. Law would have been annoyed at being underestimated like that, but the Seastone rendered him essentially useless.

This boy, Law thought as they regarded one another, was the reason he had made a selfish choice that resulted in Shachi losing his arm. Why had he done that?

What was it about him that tugged on Law’s chest, drawing him into the boy’s orbit?

It couldn’t just be that initial that they shared, a mysterious legacy Cora-san had sacrificed everything to protect Law over. But what was it?

Straw Hat crossed his arms. “I don’t think you want to kill me. Or my crew.”

Law raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” he said. “You might want to ask Black Leg his opinion on that.”

Straw Hat frowned. “Sanji’s okay, though. You didn’t kill him.”

“Only because you interrupted me,” Law drawled.

Straw Hat made a frustrated sound. “No.”

Law blinked. “No?”

“No,” Straw Hat confirmed. “I don’t believe you.” He started pacing, and Law followed his back-and-forth movements with his eyes. “I wanted to thank you. For saving me that time,” Straw Hat said.

“You don’t need to thank me,” Law replied, the same lie falling from his lips that he’d repeated over the last two years: “I acted on a whim, nothing more.”

Straw Hat shook his head. “Jimbei said that you’d be in trouble with that Mingo guy for helping us, and I was worried.” He paused and looked at Law. “Were you? In trouble?”

Law suppressed the urge to touch his throat. “I fail to see how that matters.”

Straw Hat stared at him, seeming to read something in Law’s non-response. “But you helped me anyway. And I’m grateful!” He nodded, as if confirming something to himself. “So, you’re a good guy. No matter what anyone says.”

Law flinched. “No, I’m really not. You should listen to Nico-ya.” His hands were soaked with blood, including that of his own nakama. And if he didn’t complete this cleanup mission, there would be more blood on his hands.

“Nope,” Straw Hat stubbornly decided, as though he knew Law. But if he actually knew him, he wouldn’t want anything to do with Law. He shouldn’t want anything to do with Law. “I can feel it. Right here,” he said, touching his chest.

Law’s breath caught, his protest dying on his tongue. He was touching the same place Law felt the tug in his own chest when Straw Hat came up. Did he…? Did he feel it too? Whatever it was?

Straw Hat suddenly flopped down onto the end of the mattress, bouncing Law slightly. Law grimaced as his head protested.

Straw Hat looked over at Law curiously. “What kind of name is Coradone anyway?”

“Corazon,” Law snapped, still feeling a bit off kilter. “And it’s not my name. It’s a title.”

Straw Hat perked up. “Really? Then what’s your real name?”

Law looked away. “It doesn’t matter. I haven’t gone by my name in years. No one uses it.”

Though Law wasn’t looking at him, he could hear the frown in Straw Hat’s voice. “That sounds lonely.”

Law blinked in surprise. There was something to what Straw Hat was saying. Though the Family treated becoming an executive and earning the title as the highest honor one could achieve, Law had learned over the last six years that it also acted to dehumanize the wearer of the title. Law was no longer Law; he was Corazon, the second in command of the Donquixote Pirates. He was defined entirely by his station in the Family. Though Law had been with the Family for over a decade, he didn’t know the real names of the other three executives—their identities were their titles.

(The irony of Law continuing to remember Rosinante as Cora-san, a diminutive of his title when he’d been undercover, was not lost on him.)

“Anyway!” Straw Hat said cheerfully, letting Law’s silence be response enough, “Smokey wanted to arrest you, but I wouldn’t let him. But while the Marines are here, you should probably stay out of sight, especially after what you did to their ship. That was so cool, by the way! Sanji’ll get you food,” he added, as if that was the most important detail.

Law looked back at him and raised an eyebrow. “So, I’m your prisoner, Straw Hat-ya?”

Straw Hat shrugged apologetically. “I mean, I’d take the cuffs off, but—”

Law smirked. “You don’t want me to kill your crew.”

“Not that I’d let you,” he said, smile turning cheeky.

Law couldn’t help a small laugh. “You think you’re stronger than me?”

“I did beat you,” Straw Hat pointed out.

“That was four-on-one,” Law reminded him. And Law had only gone down when Smoker had surprised him with the Seastone.

Straw Hat’s smile widened. “Let’s find out sometime.” He jumped up off the mattress. “I need to check on my nakama, but I’ll be back.” He crossed the small room and opened the infirmary door.

“Trafalgar.” Straw Hat paused and looked back at him curiously. Law hadn’t realized he’d spoken until Straw Hat had frozen. “Trafalgar Law,” he said again, unsure of why he was telling Straw Hat. “That’s my name.”

Straw Hat’s face lit up into a blinding grin, and Law’s chest tightened. “I like it. Trafal— Tragal— Torao! I like it, Torao!” he beamed before heading out and shutting the door behind him.

Law was in so much trouble.

Next chapter

[gofancyninjaworld]

What does the Organization want, anyway?

Measure Twice. Destroy Once.

Metal Bat may be no one’s idea of a genius, but he’s asked the most important question yet -- where does the money come from?

We kind of suspect that the Neo Heroes has either been set up by The Organization, or that they at least have a big hand in it.  Ah, The Organization, that most mysterious of villainy.   They showed up early on in the story, being the third group of no-gooders to show up after the House of Evolution and the Paradisers. Unlike the former two, they’re still going.

They’ve got cyborgs, they use robots, they’re willing to work with even monsters when there’s something in it for them, but enough about their make up and modus operandi.  What do they want? And why do they seem to be taking aim at heroes?

I’m going to speculate seriously here! :)

They probably don’t want the heroes all dead.  They couldn’t kill them all if they tried -- there’s heroes too strong.  And people become heroes when their hearts move them.

But they can discredit the idea of heroes.  That they can do handily.

Why?

Calamity in a tailored suit

I think that OPM is going to look at a third aspect of heroes, one many western comics run from.  So we’ve seen heroes as the brave people attacking evil beasts.  We’ve seen heroes as the protectors and saviors of people, comforting and helping even when there’s little they can do.  There’s a third thing heroes do: challenge power structures.  No matter how feted, heroes exist ever so slightly outside the law -- they have their moral compass and they’ll take on anyone, even entrenched and powerful interests, if they feel it’s in the greater good.  And heroes have a bad habit of pulling people along with them.

I’m looking again at The Organization.  They have money: can’t do high tech stuff without it.  They have weapons and are always making more. They have some contacts with wealthy people.  When I see something like that, you know what that smells like to me?

Coup d’etat.  Or if you prefer German, putsch.  To take over the apparatus of government by force. And since there’s only one nation left, to do so is to rule the world of men.  Give people a sense of security, which in this world means crushing monsters and powerful organised crime gangs. The Organization is well set up to do both.  Also crush any actual opposition, which The Organization is also well set up to do.   Their wealthy backers? They’ll do very well too -- and they know how to forge consent and bend laws to establish a cod sense of legitimacy.  Call it an emergency.  Promise elections, eventually.  And it’s done.

evil doesn’t have to cackle or froth at the mouth. It doesn’t have to promise the Apocalypse, knock down buildings, or eat people. It can be well-dressed, well-spoken and even reasonable, for a given value of reasonable. Sometimes, that’s the most dangerous kind of evil.

You and what army?

Literally the only thing that can stop them are heroes.  Heroes may be law abiding, but they’re not of the law.  Heroes have a troublesome habit of looking at actual harms, not what the law claims to be crimes.  They have an irritating habit of standing up for the downtrodden, even if those stepping on them are considered respectable.  And they have a lethal habit of serving as nucleating crystals around which mass movements can grow.  It only takes a single hero to stand up and say ‘no, this is wrong.’  And as long as the symbolism of a hero stands for something, even cutting down that annoying hero won’t prevent a mass revolt that will mean the coup will fail. Under the right circumstances, Mumen Rider could foil them. Not to mention that if heroes of this world are working together, they’re a formidable fighting force of their own.  Despite all the studying they’ve done, there still exist heroes who are just too damn strong for anything The Organization can engineer.

One-Punch Man heroes stand for a lot.  None of them appear to be politically-savvy, but they all have a lot of moral power, if only they cared to use it.  If one wants to take over the world, it’s necessary to make the word ‘hero’ about as positive as ‘drunken crack addict’.   No easy task when they’re seen to be doing real good at all times.   

Set the Neo Heroes against the Hero Association, split the membership of heroes, set them to interfere with each other, and with very little work, they’ll discredit the entire institution and reduce public trust.   And when everything looks hopeless, then they can swan in and take over.

Or in other words: how to take over the world, intelligently.

 It’s going to be interesting to see how they get stopped.

[mychemicalficrecs]

long fics with gerard/frank and mikey/ray?

Try these!

Frank/Gerard and Ray/Mikey Longfics

Catching Pieces of a Fallen Sky by snarkydame, 21k, Mature. Ray and Frank are the only survivors of the Jersey Queen, an independent freighter hit by (space!) pirates. In the chaos, the doomed ship took a blind jump through the hyperways, leaving them stranded in a dark and lonely quadrant of space. Mikey and Gerard are the last remaining crew of a legendary "ghost" ship, the Ravenkroft, which has been lost for the fifty years since the War that Broke the Stations. They've been avoiding inhabited space due to emotional scarring from the loss of their crew, and a feeling of isolation due to the fact that they are in fact cyborgs. They pick up Ray and Frank's escape pod, and promise to help them. In the process, old feeling of guilt are assuaged, new emotional ties are wrought, and the legendary ship comes home.

Unholyverse by Bexless, 187k, Mature, Explicit. Religion! Horror! Exorcisms! Piercings! And Gerard is a priest.

Time Travel 'verse by ladyfoxxx, 79k, Explicit. In which 2005!Frank and Fun Ghoul get it on. Then Frank accidentally winds up in 2019.

L For Lucky (M for Mine) by orphan_account, 42k, Explicit. “Yeah, look.” Mikey turns his head to peer at the crowd over his shoulder. “This is going to seem weird, but.” He stares behind him and seems, for a moment, at a loss for words. “Well, there’s no tasteful way to say it.” Mikey looks Ray in the eye and just shrugs. “This is a highly organized sexual gathering for very specifically kinky people.” Ray feels a bit of spittle lodge in his throat and tries his best not to sputter when he disagrees, “That’s actually a pretty tasteful description of an orgy.”

Pizza 'verse by ladyfoxxx, 29k, Explicit. The AU where they all work at Brian's pizza store.

Should we kill him? by rarepairqueen, 56k, Explicit. Gerard, Mikey, Ray and Bob have been thrown into the lives of hitmen. Killing people for profit at the hands of a higher power. With no way out of contract killings, what'll happen when they have to kill a misunderstood school boy by the name of Frank?

The Fall and Rise of The Black Parade by wordslinging, 53k, Mature. “I used to think this was Hell. I mean, I always figured that’s where I was headed, if there was any afterlife. And then when I got here…there were no lakes of fire, or anything, but I was stuck on my own in a place where nothing grows or changes, so I figured, okay, Hell’s just a little different than I always thought it would be. But then, after a while…it wasn’t so bad. I found a place where I could kind of belong, and I met Toro and Brian and Bob and Mikey…and you. And I figure…if I was in Hell, falling in love shouldn’t really be in the cards, should it? So after that, I started thinking—okay, maybe this place isn’t anything I ever heard about in school or church. But then again, maybe it is. Maybe this is Purgatory. And I always had the idea that Purgatory was kind of like prison, y’know, you gotta serve your sentence and the only thing that’s gonna get you out quicker is good behavior or having friends in high places. But maybe—maybe you don’t have to just sit around waiting for someone to tell you your sentence is up. Maybe Purgatory ends when you get yourself out of it.”

Tattered And Torn by partyghoul, 131k, Explicit. Known as the scapegoat to the majority of the school, Gerard was always the loner. He was the kid who never got invited to parties, the one no one ever talked to, the one who was never given the chance to socialize. Between sneering peers and a malicious teacher, he learned to blend into the background and accept his fate as an outsider. He had given up hope on ever finding a friend... until Frank came along, changing both their lives, forever.

Across The Lines by iamdali, 67k, Mature. A summer to change everything. Frank Iero is just trying to get out of high school alive when a boy from across the lines makes him question himself, his beliefs and test just how far he’s willing to go in order to be who he wants to be. Gerard Way is home for the most important summer of his life. He’s going to build bridges with his younger brother, help out an elderly neighbour and meet a boy from across the lines.

Pan Verse by Roxy_palace, 42k, Explicit. "Second street on the left, and straight on till Mornington Crescent. Tell them Pete sent you."

Desecrated Kids by wellthisisprettyrisque (collettephinz), 144k, Explicit. Everyone moves into a new town and thinks it's strange. Stepping out of the car with a weird feeling tingling down the back of your neck isn't actually that unheard of, but finding that unmarked grave in the woods behind your house is. Frank Iero wonders if his mother moved him here so he'd disappear off the face of the planet, or if she actually wants the body to be found. All he knows is that this town has some horrible things happening to it, and no one seems to care enough to lift their heads and actually see. He has no idea what's going on, and is one of the few people that wants to find out. Luckily, Gerard is a few steps ahead of him.

We Are Literally the Kids From Yesterday by romanticizingchemicals, 21k, Mature. Frank Iero's the new kid at school, and basically, we have some pretty awesome relationships going on. You want Rikey? You got Rikey. You want Peterick? You go for it, you animal.

When Both Our Cars Collide by SeraphStarshine, 95k, Mature. Gerard is barely surviving until a new neighbor moves in next door, and for the first time in ages, Gerard finds himself with a friend that isn't his little brother. Gerard never imagined that one beautiful boy could change everything for him, but he can't ignore the way Frank makes him feel, or the improvements he has seen in himself. Gerard is aware that he is falling in love with Frank even though he knows it is wrong...he is seventeen while Frank is only thirteen. But he can't deny his feelings no matter the consequences.

As Fun as Homework Can Be by gerardwaytops, 62k, Explicit. Gerard is fresh out of university and is plunged straight into the world of work as a teacher at his brother's high school. He loves his job, but can he resist the temptation of the hot student that he sees most days?

You’re The Only Hope For Me by rc0ncan, 40k, Mature. "You can't imprint on a human!" "Watch me" In Frank's simple world, things like werewolves and vampires only existed in high budget Hollywood films using overpaid actors. Living in the small Jersey town of Belleville, Frank lived a comfortable life. He manages the small diner left to him from his grandparents and attends church every Sunday. He is constantly dodging set up attempts from the little old ladies that frequent his diner or in his congregation. Frank thought the craziest thing he would ever see in this sleepy town was Mrs. Yamaguchi throwing her husbands clothes out the second story window when she caught him cheating. But that would all change when he meets the gorgeous and mysterious Gerard Way.

I didn't want this... until I met you. by Nixy_x, 90k, Explicit. Gerard hated being the most wanted Omega at school, he was fed up with it all. There was nothing special about him he just wanted the Alphas to leave him alone. He didn't want this... But when a new Alpha starts school and turns his whole world upside down he starts thinking that maybe he does want it after all...

A Series Of Hauntings by Anonymous, 89k, Teen And Up Audiences. Gerard lives in a lighthouse by Dead Man's Point. He spends his time talking to the seagulls, and painting his prophetic visions. He's seen his fair share of strange things, but when Frank Iero jumps off the cliff's edge, Gerard will do anything just to bring him back. Anything.

The Lights You Make by Honestmouse, 172k, Teen And Up Audiences. It's been a year since Ghoul literally stumbled onto Kobra and Party's door step. The trio have become close in that time though just recently having begun to call themselves a crew. Ghoul and Party are helplessly attracted to each other, though for some reason denying it. And Kobra? Well he's just himself. A little lonely but soon he has something, or someone, to take his mind off of it. That person however is not exactly in the best uh shape to help Kobra as he watches his brother and best friend ignore their feelings towards each other. Also: who the hell decided it’d be a good idea to give them a baby?

[crystalldragon]

activating plan B: physical contact

"Genji wants to regain his joyful and affectionate side. Zenyatta helps him. Through physical touch.”

oneshot (2,158 words)

ao3 link | or read it down below ↓

The first thing Genji had learned about Zenyatta was that he was a welcoming presence to everyone in the monastery, at all times. It had puzzled him to the point where he'd thought of Zenyatta as some otherworldly creature, something beyond human understanding that was sent to earth to bless them. But as time went on, this figment made way for the small, but intense reason behind this phenomenon: Zenyatta loved and was loved with an unbelievable intensity. The fact that Genji watched an omnic give the most care and love ever seen in his life made it even weirder and more unusual.

He felt weak in comparison. Empty. Devoid of love, of trust, of empathy. The complete opposite of everything Zenyatta embodied.

At the monastery, he was confronted with this every day. Or more accurately, every day he spent with Zenyatta. The monk would greet his fellow monks with such warmth in his voice, while most times Genji could not utter more than a small noise or a quiet mumble that resembled a “Hey". The way they managed conversations were worlds apart. Zenyatta was an outspoken person, curious and sincere. Genji would struggle to find interest in anything, much less what the others had to say, and then he would remember how easy Zenyatta made keeping a conversation seem and feel like a complete loser. It hadn't been always like this for him. How could he sink from the cheeky young boy he was, to the bottom, where he was right now?

―

"How do you do it?" Genji asks Zenyatta after the two monks they've talked to left the room they were currently in. They had helped prepare a vegetable soup for Genji and the other humans in the village.

"Do what?" the monk asks with curiosity in his voice.

"Be like... that. I mean, how affectionate you are towards other people. I wish I could be like that too." Genji takes a spoonful of the soup and feels the warmth of it enter his body. He isn't as sensitive to the cold as a normal human being. Nonetheless he still appreciates the warmth of a freshly made meal or a thick blanket. Or the warmth of Zenyatta's nature. If only I could be that warm, he thinks.

"You will learn to be like that, in time," Zenyatta replies.

Genji stops in his eating to look at him in earnest. "But I don't want it to take so long."

"Patience, Genji. Healing take its time." Zenyatta has said those words so often. Genji understands the importance of them by now and yet he can't grasp why it takes so much time for him to get better at pretty much everything that doesn't involve killing.

"You would not tell a growing plant or a grub in a cocoon to hurry up with their development. Every new stage of life is preceded by a stage of slow and agonizing growth. And for you, Genji, that stage is exceptionally long, since you have been through so much."

Genji knows, he knows, Zenyatta will believe in his recovery, no matter how long it takes. But even with this tremendous amount of support, it's hard to see his own progress when everything's so hard. "I just want... to feel. Anything. To get out of this emptiness. If I just could feel deeply joyous for longer than a day... Then I could show others the same warmth you do. That's all that I ask for."

"If that is what you ask for, then we will focus on just that. Starting tomorrow."

"Eh? How?" Genji stares at him in confusion.

Zenyatta, instead, nods towards his meal. "Eat up before it gets cold. You will see, everything will be alright." He places his hand near Genji's, not touching him but undoubtedly in his vision, assuring him he's not alone.

―

After Genji finished his meal, they parted ways, him going to sleep and Zenyatta going to the edge of the village to meditate. In the end, he gives up on meditating and thinks about Genji instead. How can he help him more efficiently? He obviously hasn't tried good enough. Iris, he thinks, his impatience may has rubbed off on me. Or why am I getting so frustrated about his slow progress?

He can't remember ever being so involved in a student. Sure, he cared about his other students and fellow monks and their wellbeing deeply. But with Genji, something else in him woke up. A deep desire to see him get better, to leave this hole in which he is currently behind and embrace the beautiful man he is beneath that mask. He's already been close to losing him several times now, and he will not under any circumstances let anything like that happen to Genji again. Recovery has its ups and downs. He has learned that through students who were in similar situations. But none of them were quite like Genji. Maybe... Zenyatta thinks, I should be more honest to him and myself. Maybe I have not shown him enough how much he is loved and cherished. That will be it. He finishes his train of thought and goes to his room in the sanctum.

Zenyatta always encourages Genji, talks him through his fears and helps him find clearness. He also accompanies him to his meals; they often meditate together and help the villagers together. But through all that, the monk has been physically distant to Genji. With him learning to accept his new body and all that, he fears it would do more harm than good. Besides, he is his student and he knows he shouldn't coddle him like a baby when he's a fully grown man. He hasn't felt the need to do so before, so there wasn't any problem. Until he and Genji got to know each other better. Over time, it happened more often that Zenyatta wished nothing more than to hug Genji to hopefully make his problems disappear even if just for a moment. It wasn't anything the omnic had felt before - he used to do fine with just his teachings. The people before didn't have a new body to get used to, so Genji was new territory, sort of. And whoever it is, maybe his "brain", his "heart" or some part of his soul, it is telling him to be more affectionate to Genji. So, he'll try just that.

―

"Good morning, Genji," the omnic says as they meet the morning after that on their way to the village. The sun has already risen, and a blueish clear sky stretches out above them. "Do you mind if I hug you?" He asks.

"I, uh... no," Genji answers. He's startled at first, but once he sees Zenyatta's hesitation he nods again and moves closer to put his arms around him. It feels... nice. Which is unexpected.

He has avoided touch for so long, since the thought of anyone touching his... body, or rather Overwatch's gruesome idea of a body, made him want to throw up the remainder of his organic insides. He isn't what he used to be, nothing of him is what it used to be. He didn't trust his body to do anything besides killing. Affection, let alone love wasn't possible in this body. Or so he thought.

Zenyatta had changed something in him. The warmth and openness he radiated - he wanted to be like that too. If not for himself, then for his master. Not many things made him happy at first but doing or saying something that made Zenyatta proud or happy always made him happy, too.

―

They said nothing more after that and walked side by side to the village, their arms and hands brushing against each other every now and then. No one said anything about their displays of affection, but the villagers surely took notice. Amongst their people, the... bond Zenyatta and Genji shared didn't go unnoticed. Some found it cute, some even went so far as to make bets on how long it would take for them to enter a relationship.

"It would take veeery long," said Asha, one of the younger villagers. She was a specialist in gossip, though she would never spread anything that would seriously harm someone. But Genji and Zenyatta's love for each other was just that obvious. To everyone. Except to themselves. "They are both oblivious. And scared. Genji's been through a lot. He needs time."

In the end, nothing changed around them except for a few more sly smiles from the community.

"I'm happy you are finally getting better," one of the elder villagers once said to Genji, while he and Zenyatta were holding hands and passing him by. Genji had said nothing, only nodding in acknowledgement, but under his mask, he was blushing.

―

As time went one, their physical affections were pretty much ingrained into their daily routine. A hug every morning, holding hands while walking to the village or to the monastery, a hand on ones back when they were not feeling well, a pad on the shoulder when they had accomplished something, their knees touching during meditation and so on.

A hand on Genji's scarred but warm cheek, after he had shown Zenyatta his face for the first time.

His forehead pressed against the omnics glowing dots, feeling each other’s warmth.

Zenyatta holding Genji after one of his nightmares and letting his orbs chime around them in a soft glow until he falls asleep again.

And one day, something they both didn't expect.

It was after their weekly sparring session. Once they'd arrived at Genji's room, he took off his mask, steam puffing out of his valves at its release. They were both worn out but happy. Sparring was not only about staying fit but also a form of entertainment for them. It was about getting to know their bodies, its limits and capabilities. Oftentimes, their sparring sessions ended with one of them pulling the other one down and them falling down into the snow, fully exhausted but still laughing.

"You okay?" Genji asks Zenyatta with a slight smile on his face. Usually, he would be the one to be asked if he's okay. But now it's not just his fight anymore. It's about them supporting each other. Genji already knows that Zenyatta sometimes gets into fights with his fellow monks. It's never anything big, but they had some disagreements which saddened the monk. He had trusted Genji with this because they were equals now. Zenyatta wasn't just the perfect, calm monk that helped Genji. Genji wasn't just the depressed, angry cyborg that needed help. The more Genji became emotionally stable, the more they became like close friends and less like student and master. And so, more often they would just talk about their thoughts and feeling about various topics while watching the clouds pass them by.

Zenyatta nods and for a few moments they just sit there, side by side, looking at each other.

Maybe it's the adrenaline, maybe it's the sensations of their bodies falling onto each other at the end of their sparring session, but when Zenyatta looks at Genji and says, voice full of adoration, "You are so beautiful, Genji." He couldn't help but lean onto the omnic and kiss him softly on what would be his cheek.

Upon realizing what he just did, Genji blushes and turns his head away from him to look outside. He opens his mouth to apologize but Zenyatta wouldn't let him finish, instead touching his cheeks with his metallic fingers, the cyborgs warmth sipping through his cold fingers. And now, Zenyatta, the one who otherwise has something to say about everything, now feels like he's at a loss of words.

"Genji, I..." he starts, not sure what he even wants to say. He takes a deep artificial breath in. "Please... do not ever have any doubts of my feelings for you. I promise you, I adore you more than anything else in my life."

A small sound of happiness escapes Genji and he feels his eyes burning with tears. Wanting to hide this vulnerability, he buries his face in Zenyatta's neck and hugs him tightly. He feels the warmth beneath the metal plates and hears the quiet hum of machinery.

Zenyatta pats his back, quietly repeating phrases like "It's okay" and "I'm here for you". Genji maneuvers himself so his head rests in the monks’ lap and smiles up at him through his still wet eyes. Zenyatta brushes his messy hair out of his face and hums happily, continuing to stroke his head. Genji feels his eyes get heavy from exhaustion and his breath slowing down.

"Thank you... for everything," he whispers before he closes his eyes and soon enough, falling asleep. Behind them, the sun has already set, dipping the room in a faint pinkish hue. Zenyatta steals one last glance at the cyborg before going into hibernating mode himself, feeling happier than ever before.

[jeaniegreysummers]

war feeds itself || jean & erik

SUMMARY: jean’s grief and anger causes her to seek out a fight with enforcers. she is arrested and brought to the raft. luckily, she has friends in high places, and erik lehnsherr is extremely resourceful when it comes to prison breaks. (the phoenix, for one, is intrigued, and decides to take a little dive into magneto to test the waters.)

WHEN: a few days after the funeral of scott summers

TRIGGER WARNINGS: violence, murder (a lot of it), death, grief, suicide mention

FEATURING: erik lehnsherr

JEAN: Scott was dead.

Her parents seen the news. While authorities hadn’t managed to pin down the woman flinging Enforcers into trees and turning people into dust, at least not yet, the Greys recognised her almost immediately. They’d been in touch. Jean hung up when they started to say that ‘maybe this was for the be-’

Scott was dead.

Her boss called her into the office, asking if ‘her kind’ were involved in the incident in Central Park. Jean responded by asking what, exactly, the other woman meant by her kind. Her boss suggested she took a few days off, because Jean seemed to be getting a little hot under the collar. Jean very strongly considered throwing her out a window, and catching her only a millisecond before she hit the ground.

Scott was dead.

Everyone kept dancing around her. The X-Men circled her like a concerned mother should. No one let her go for a walk alone, or sit at the kitchen island eating ice cream. Everyone always had to be talking about something that didn’t involve the obviously missing person in the room, even though Jean knew everything came back to him eventually, no matter how far people tried to run.

Scott was dead.

Jean didn’t hesitate before getting involved when she came across Enforcers cornering a couple of kids. The kids were being reckless with their powers, a brave move considering the way the Accords had shifted, but they were children. They needed training, encouragement, support, rather than being shipped off to the Raft.

Jean assumed that was where she was going now.

Scott was dead. The thought kept running through her mind, making Jean wonder if there was a point to any of this. When she died, Scott stood up. He led the X-Men as he always did. He suffered, but he persevered. She couldn’t even maintain focus long enough to prevent an Enforcer (a cyborg, hence the ability to sneak up on her, but still not an excuse) slapping power dampening cuffs around her wrist, and then a collar on her neck.

If she tried, she could get them both off. She could hear the whispers in the back of her mind, the whispers that made everyone at Xavier’s look at her sideways as if they could hear them too. Maybe they could just see it on her face. Maybe they always knew Scott was the best part of her.

“Come on,” one of the men said as the convoy pulled to a halt. Despite the lack of windows in the back of the van, she was wearing a blindfold that was removed just as she stepped out of the vehicle, right into the belly of the beast.

There wasn’t much known about the Raft. Barely anything, in fact. But as she looked around, she knew instinctively that was where she’d ended up.

Good. (Scott was dead.)

ERIK: Scott was dead, and Jean Grey was falling apart.

Erik hadn't seen her since that day, but he didn't have to see her to know. Because he knew, knew better than many, better than most, better than anyone what it was like to watch someone you love with every fibre of your being die and not be able to stop it.

Death is an old friend, even if it hasn't come knocking on his door, yet, despite his best efforts, just as it is for Jean. He doesn't need to talk to his daughter, who feels even more deeply than he himself does thanks to her gift, doesn't need to see her face or hear her talk to him about it to know the crippling cold that's no doubt settled in her chest. The way that the whole world seems to go hazy and grey and frigid. It is one thing to know that the object of your love ( and neither of them can love simply, can they? Always all-consuming, the burning, fierce love that tore apart the  countries and kingdoms and institutes of old ) is mortal, another to accept it, to reconcile it.

Love raises people up to be more than what they are, and the crash is all the more painful for it.

Pain like that makes you stupid, makes you reckless, makes you decide to curl up at people's graves in the frigid Ukrainian air like a stray cat pawing at the door and demanding to be let through to the other side.

So though it hurts, sends a fiery flash of fear through his veins when Toad informs him that Jean's been captured by Enforcers and brought to the Raft, he isn't surprised. Not at all.

So he goes to Raven, and tells her it's time and lays down on his side under a knife and lets it slice through the skin at the back of his neck, lets her slide the thin piece of bendable glass between his skin and his spine.

They've tested it in the abstract, but never in person, never with someone under the physical collar of an Enforcer, ever-evolving technology that's more and more dangerous to their kind.

But it will work. It has to.

There is nothing in this world or the next that he will not do for his children, and if that means trusting his life and freedom to a piece of human-made glass a fraction of a millimetre thick under his skin, well, that's just what it took.

Even so, forcing his knees to bend when the Enforcers come to stop him making chaos in the subway, forcing himself to yield to those who would like nothing more than to see him wounded and begging or dead, requires nearly all his willpower. A collar is closed around his neck like he's a dog, cuffs are wrapped around his wrists and tightened to the point of pain, and they roughly drag him to his feet only to deliver a blow to the stomach with the back of a rifle that's plastic but feels heavier, and the only thing that keeps the humans alive is Jean.

In the van, he sends out a flare of thought to Charles while he ignores the taunts of the guards--offers a warning of what might go wrong if he's miscalculated, though at present he can still feel his powers responding,

And then he's at the Raft, being dragged out into the halls, and he knew this was coming but it still stings his pride to be paraded in front of the other mutants like a taunt. The prize they've wanted their hands on for years, and Erik focuses on how delightful it will be to see their faces when they realize the tables have turned.

He can't look at them now, though, can't see the disappointment (however brief it will be), and so he nearly misses that Jean is near. Would have, if it weren't for the voice that calls out when one of the guards who isn't frog-marching him out brings his baton down against Erik's side with enough force to earn a hiss of pain as something cracks, feet briefly going out from under him and leaving him supported in the human's arms.

Okay. That one dies first.

JEAN: She wasn’t sure what she expected of the Raft. There were horror stories, of course, rumours that spread quickly through the mutant underground and made their way past the lips of the teenagers that found themselves on Jean’s couch — onto their couch. Jean was the one who picked them up from the emergency room and deposited them in the middle of their lives, but it was Scott who had those kids thinking that mutants could be strong, and respected, and that they could be a part of something important even if right now, they had to run to keep themselves safe.

He’d always been good with kids. He would’ve been better with Rachel than Jean was, staring at the younger girl with wide eyes because she bore a striking resemblance to a ghost. Jean always hated when people looked at her like that. She always hated when people left her, too, and that was exactly what she’d done to the girl — exactly what she’d done to Charles, and Remy, and Rogue, and Logan.

She wasn’t sure what she expected when she found herself within the walls of the prison. For the first few hours, it almost felt surreal, like she was sitting in the middle of a nightmare and at any moment she would wake up in a cold sweat and Kurt would be at the end of her bed, telling her that the house was shaking again. Being told when to eat, when to sleep, feeling the low hum in her head that told her she wasn’t at her peak abilities, the whispers that said you could burn them, you could do it, just let go ever present and ever ignored.

Crying was a pipe dream. She couldn’t scream, couldn’t distract herself with only four walls around her. Jean contemplated what, exactly, she was going to spend her life doing with this collar around her neck, and was interrupted when three guards arrived at her cell door. “We’re going for a walk,” they said, and Jean thought about arguing, thought about fighting back — but what else could they do to her worse than had already been done?

She didn’t drag her feet as she moved through the hallways, keeping her focus solely on the back of the guard walking in front. The other two were holding onto her arms, despite the cuffs still around her wrists, and briefly she wondered where, exactly, they were taking her that required this level of supervision — and then she saw him.

Erik.

Her mind screamed it, and immediately she felt the collar around her neck burn, reminding her of all she shouldn’t do. But he was there, and there were guards holding onto him too. How the hell had they managed to bring him in? Erik was many things, but Jean knew he would never give up a fight. He would never again be put into chains. He would rather die than allow humans to use him as an example.

That meant he was here for a reason.

There was a panel of glass between them, a separation between adjoining hallways, but Jean could still hear the force of the baton against Erik’s legs. Instinctively, she pulled against the guards, feeling their grip tighten to bruising on her skin. “Stop!” she called out, and she didn’t need telepathy to know the guards were enjoying it, were revelling in the reaction.

Jean wasn’t sure if that infuriated her, or if, when she finally met Erik’s eyes through the glass, that was enough to encourage it. Either way, things seemed to grind to slow motion, a split second turning into a minute as the glass between them shattered before fading into thin air.

The grins faded immediately from the guards’ faces. They went for their weapons. A shock ran through the collar and cuffs, and Jean felt as if her head was going to explode, energy building up and curling inside her like it had in the shuttle, that first day. The very first time she realised she was a part of something bigger.

ERIK: He saw Jean, and the world narrowed. In a moment, every little bit of his awareness was focused on his daughter, on the resignation in her posture and the hands digging bruises into her arms, and a curl of fury cut through the pain shooting through his side. Her gaze locked on his, and for an eternity that passed in a heartbeat, they simply stared at each other through the glass. A father and a daughter who both would burn down the world to protect the ones they care about.

The glass shattered, and Erik snarled. The men thought they were smart, thought that wearing clothes with velcro in lieu of metal snaps or buttons, thought that shoes without bolts or guns made of plastic rendered him ineffective even if the collar didn't do its job.

Humans.

Fools. All of them.

While iron-laden blood sat in their veins, while calcium  composed their bones, while their brains still fired off electric signals between neurons, Erik had ways.

He reached out with the powers that had been buzzzing under his skin since the humans had dared lay a hand on him, sent the men holding him and the men holding Jean flying back into the wall. He'd be run down on power sooner rather than later, if he didn't get a hold of some metal, but for now it would do the job.

The man with the baton blanched and moved to raise the baton again, and Erik reached out the tendrils of his powers.

Thus far, he'd kept the fact that he can manipulate electricity a secret from the government--it's a relatively new skill, to him, exceptionally draining, and he's only practiced a handful of times.

But his powers had always responded better to anger, had lashed out and made themselves known always when he needed them most (except, of course, that time). Scarcely did the thought cross his mind before the man was convulsing on the floor, an arc of crackling electricity lashing out from the fluorescents above them while the man screamed.

Erik smiles, something positively icy, and the lights around them go dark. Moments later, emergency strips light their way, and Erik is crossing to Jean and wrapping her in his arms, pressing his face to her hair and squeezing so she can't slip away again.

"I'm so sorry Jean."

JEAN: The men were wrenched from where they’d been gripping on tightly to her arms, as if the prisoner they’d been escorting was nothing more than an anchor or a human shield (no, a mutant shield. If she was human, things would be different. They might not be easier, but they would always be simpler, something that she refused to concede on). She knew why they’d brought her here the second she caught Erik’s gaze, the second she felt her heart leap up into her throat. This was their attempt to mock. To goad her into something that acted as justification to throw her into an even deeper hole.

Energy exploded in the air, and even through blurry vision Jean knew Erik was the cause. He always had a way of pulling through, of coming back to her, making it impossible for her to be as angry as she wanted to be when he left all those years ago. Her mind was running through those memories, spiralling as she looked at him, as she thought of walking in as a kid and finding someone who not only allowed her to say what she felt but accepted what she said as fact, who stood for her and fought for her before she even knew what that meant.

Her knees weakened, but he was there, arms around her like they’d been in that restaurant, holding her on her feet.

For a moment, Jean allowed herself to take that strength, to melt into him, to feel the familiarity around her, to pretend for even a split second that this meant everything was fine, that the last few days had been a nightmare. She imagined herself smaller, screaming as the mansion shook around her, and how Erik had come into her room and sat on the end of the bed, talking to her about where they would go to eat tomorrow, or what lessons they’d run through in the morning.

He always made the next day sound like a certainty. Even with all that she’d seen in his mind, all the pain she’d felt, he still managed that.

Jean choked back a sob, and that was enough to make her push him back, hands going to wipe the tears furiously from her eyes. “What are you doing here, Erik?” The collar weighed heavy around her neck, even as the cuffs loosened around her wrists. “You didn’t come here for me.”

He did. Why else would he be here, looking at her, apologising?

Apologising. He was apologising. Scott was dead. In the split second where that baton met his side, Jean almost forgot. Her anger almost let her forget the worst thing that had happened to her, worse than even her own death.

She understood Erik more than ever, now.

“I should’ve been there,” she whispered, voice so low he wouldn’t have heard her if he was looking anywhere else. “I’m a doctor. I’m a … I have this thing inside me, and I still couldn’t-”

Someone was coming. A lot of someones were coming. Jean’s gaze went over Erik’s shoulder, and she could feel the collar humming lowly around her neck. “I can hear guards,” she said. “You need to go. Please.”

ERIK: Jean melted against him, briefly, and Erik takes a moment to relish it--to enjoy having his daughter wrapped up in his arms, safe, where she should be, because the world could catch fire and he would let himself get burned to a cinder before he'd let the fire touch a hair on her head.

He'd lost so many children (and despite their differences, he'd counted Scott as one, too). He would not lose another if he could prevent it, and he would move mountains to keep that promise.

"Of course I'm here for you, Jean. Always." If it were someone else saying it, under different circumstances, it might sound sappy, but here and now, it sounds like the dangerous sort of promise it is.

Dangerous for everyone else, that is.

"Hey, no, listen to me. It's not your fault. You can't possibly be everywhere at once, Jean--"

Her gaze changed focus over his shoulder, and he cut himself off midsentence, listening before switching his own focus.

Right. Scott later. Jean et al, now.

"Go? No. Not without you. And not without them, too," Erik said, inclining his head at the cells. "What kind of radical mutant agitator would I be if I didn't free my kinsmen after breaking in?" He drops his hand down to squeeze Jean's hand. "We'll get out of here all together. I swear it."

The lock mechanisms in the cell aren't metal, but that doesn't mean he can't get in anyway. It'll just require a bit of doing.

More pressing problems for now, though, as guards advance from behind, and Erik turns, yanking the wiring out of the lights above to coil into something thicker and meaner.

There was always metal somewhere. And for their troubles, the first three men to round the corner get their feet knocked from under them and a cable wrapped around their throats.

JEAN: Charles’ voice is in her head, memories of previous conversations in front of the fire, together in missing the man before her while the rest of the X-Men got the privilege of hating him, of something solid to fight against, a figurehead that they could battle against without hesitation. Remy’s voice is there too, even louder, the look of surprise on his face when Jean said she knew him, the disbelief that Erik could have something to do with the woman she’d become today. (Little did he know, little did she know, then, the extent of those similarities — how much Erik had impacted her, how heavy his grief sat in his bones, how she knew now why he wished to burn the world down behind him.)

“I don’t need you to protect me.” This time, her voice was stronger. The point might have been more believable if she didn’t feel so exhausted, if tears weren’t still burning in her eyes, if she didn’t have a collar around her neck and cuffs on her wrists. “I know what I’m doing. If they think they can hold me, maybe they should.”

He wasn’t there when she died on the lawn at the Institute. She could feel his pain after the fact, knew he’d suffered, but he didn’t know the fear she still tasted at the edge of her friends’ thoughts, how they looked at her with love and regret and terror all mixed into one. If the Phoenix didn’t allow her to save Scott — if she wasn’t capable of that — then the only thing she (it) was good for was destruction.

Jean shook her head as he started to speak, their words blurring into each other. “He was the man I loved, he would’ve done better for me, he—” . There was no benefit in dying here today. (At least, there was no way Jean was going to let Erik be hurt again. The bruise that was sure to have formed on his skin was more than she deserved, more than she would’ve allowed under normal circumstances. If it was just her, she would think about the White Hot Room. She would consider going to meet Scott there. They would both come back, again. But it wasn’t just her.)

“Them?” Jean repeated, and then she followed Erik’s gesture, realising what he was saying. A flare of anger moved through her. “Did you come for me, or to further your—”

The guards moved around, and Jean’s suspicions were confirmed as a simple raise of Erik’s hand caused electricity to spark as the cables were ripped from the ceiling. The sound of them choking should’ve sickened her, should’ve made her want to help (to do no harm) but instead she found herself blinking, watching like she did when Logan tore through that Enforcer.

Turning someone to atoms wasn’t enough. It was a momentary burst of pain, then it was over. Jean wanted these people to suffer.

She lifted her hands, still trapped in the cuffs, and closed her eyes. There was a curling in her gut, static energy building under her skin, but she focused on Erik’s teachings. She forced herself to think of the molecules within the structures, picking them apart piece by piece, until finally she heard the clatter of metal to the ground.

One down. Only the collar to go.

Jean immediately reached out, then, pressing her hand to the wall to steady herself. “The people in this wing are … scared,” she said, a frown forming on her forehead. “They— there’s kids. Teenagers. Three cells down.” Youth was always easy to pick out, always encouraged the burn of anger in Jean’s veins.

Belatedly, she realised she shouldn’t be indulging this. The X-Men weren’t criminals. They didn’t act against the government … unless they hit first.

They hit Scott. Jean would make sure each and every one of them felt even a fraction of what she was going through.

She turned back to Erik, instinctively reaching for his arm only to have her hand fade halfway there. “How are you doing this?” Jean asked, eyes searching across his face. The collar was enough to stifle her at least for a short period, even with the flames burning inside her.

ERIK: She'd always been so strong. He knew perfectly well that she didn't believe that, thought that she was weak for not having perfect control over the fire that ran in her blood, Phoenix and otherwise. But fire was innately unpredictable, was loathe to be restrained and constrained. Erik knew well what it was like to have powers with a mind of their own, powers so strong that you felt the pull in your bones to simply give in, to turn off and tune out and let them consume you.

He'd never yielded over completely, never checked out and let them take over, but in those bursts of pure, blinding fury, he'd been capable of more damage than he'd ever been while in that proverbial sweet spot between rage and serenity.

He had vaunted control over his magnetic powers, over the call of metal that always pulled at him, but his control of other things was still foreign: constraining electricity was different than constraining metal. And he still didn't understand quite why he always felt the pull in his chest as if there was something else he was missing.

He wasn't sure he wanted to.

At any rate, he knew full well that Jean didn't need him to protect her, despite appearances--knew that if she wanted to, she could hand the reins over to the Phoenix and sear her way out of her bonds, her cell, this world if she were so inclined.

"I know you don't, Jeannie. But that doesn't mean I don't want to. Or that you don't deserve to be protected. There is no reason the humans should ever lay a finger on you, let alone a collar. Scott wouldn't have wanted this for you any more than I do, or Charles does."

He was used to dealing with volatility, but he was still taken aback by the sudden shift in tone when he laid out his plans to free the other inmates, genuine confusion crossing his features. "Of course I came here for you, Jean. Would you rather I leave them in their cells?" he asked, already knowing the answer, which made her question all the more bewildering.

While he was taking care of the guards, watching their faces shift from red to sickening purple before he let them drop to the floor, his Jean (so powerful) managed to force the cuffs from her wrist with pure force of will.

The metal of the cuffs and collars, whatever it was, still didn't respond to his powers, but the Phoenix, it seemed, could help with that.

"Glass, embedded under the skin. Raven broke out by sliding glass between her neck and the collar, disrupting the current. I had her put a piece under my skin where they wouldn't notice." Which reminded him--he grimaced, but focused on the pull, dug the thin piece of smooth-edged glass from beneath the skin of his forearm by the little piece of metal they'd affixed to the end. He ignored the blood from his arm, focusing all his attention on pulling what little has clung to the glass off into a little droplet in the air before letting it drop onto his clothes. He would be damned if he would leave the government a sample of his blood to do god knows what with.

"We suspected they might try to take my clothes, this was the only way we could be sure it'd get in. It's clean, now, and you needn't put it under your skin, just between the collar and your neck," he explained, offering her the little piece of glass. She needed to get her powers back, if they were to make it out of here with their kinsmen--Erik couldn't get their collars off with his powers, but she could.

Speaking of the others. "Stand away from your doors!" he called in warning, before the sparking cables begin dragging along cell doors. It took effort, Erik focusing on both the cable itself and the electricity inside to make sure the current is enough to shatter the extra-reinforced glass of each door, and oh, he might end up fatigued a little sooner than he was planning.

No time for worrying yet.

Four cell doors were left in glittering shards on the floor before he needed a break, but the teenagers were free. More footsteps down the hall, and he had more children to keep safe, now, too.

"I need to focus on gathering what metal they have on this level. Charles is listening in with Cerebro if you need help, too, but they've buried the metal well, and it'll be much easier for us to get out if I have something with some heft to manipulate." He smiled at Jean, and it was confident and bloodthirsty.

"Make them pay. For you. For them. For Scott."

JEAN: She didn’t know what she was feeling.

That in itself was hardly a surprise. Jean couldn’t think of a day in her life when she had genuinely allowed herself to feel whatever the hell she wanted to. There had been moments, of course, moments where she looked across the room and felt her heart pounding out of her chest as she saw Ororo kneel down to talk to the younger kids who were playing Scrabble in front of the fire, or she glanced towards Scott at a party and even with the visor over his eyes she knew he had been watching already, or she went to sit beside Charles at the fireplace and was immediately passed a bowl of her favorite ice cream, belonging settling over her like warmth.

It was always easy to allow herself to feel those things. It fit in with what everyone thought of her, what she’d screamed at Logan that she could never live up to. Perfect Jean. Strong Jean. Innocent Jean. Girl next door Jean. Dead Jean. Poor, sad Jean. Now, she was a widow without the husband, a woman who lost the man she loved mere moments after she failed to say yes when he asked her the question she’d been waiting her entire life for, or so it seemed.

She didn’t know what to feel.

Erik was here for her, she knew that. But there was a brief, scorching moment where she thought he was here to further an agenda, here as the leader of the Brotherhood that took him from her in the first place.

It wasn’t fair, to go back to being a kid standing in the middle of the Institute wondering where he went. It wasn’t fair, because Jean knew that Erik couldn’t stay any more than Charles could go. But Jean wasn’t fair. She wasn’t good. She wasn’t perfect.

“Scott-” She cut herself off, the word, the name, catching in her throat. Would she ever be able to talk about him like he deserved? She doubted it. Erik shifted, and for a brief moment Jean saw the disappointment, the confusion on his face. “No, of course not. We get as many as we can.”

Did he understand that even being here was putting himself, his cause, at risk? Jean knew Erik was never the kind of leader to sit up on the throne and let his people do the dirty work, but if it was in her name … Jean couldn’t live with that any more than she could live with failing Scott now.

The glass began to protrude from his skin and immediately Jean wanted to reach out, wanted to manipulate the wound like she did in her work to prevent it from pulling, but delicate procedures were a pipe dream at that moment in time. Erik was precise as always, pulling the glass out and holding it towards her, clean and clear, shining under the lights.

“Impressive,” Jean muttered, because it was. She trusted Mystique as far as she could throw her, but she had to admit the woman had ingenuity. Jean hovered her hand over the collar, feeling the molecules shift and turn, telekinesis sensitive as she moved across the device. A few moments later, she found the weak point, and she pushed the glass under.

As she did, the humming stopped. She flicked her wrist and the collar snapped in half, dropping unceremoniously to the floor.

Jean knew she should feel victorious at the symbol of hatred lying broken, but instead she just turned to the next task. She took a breath, closing her eyes and focusing on the curve of material around Erik’s neck until she knew it was shifting, too. The crack echoed out, just before Erik turned to the doors, and Jean slumped back against the wall, feeling the ghost of the collar around her neck when she used her powers.

Muscle memory was the strongest of all. Train someone to feel pain, and they felt it even when the source was removed. The Panel, the government, the agents and Enforcers … they wanted mutants to learn how to hold themselves back, how to deny the part humans were always afraid of.

Feet crunched against the glass shattered on the ground. The second Jean got her breath back, she looked up and met the eyes of four kids, all of them glinting and staring at her with open mouths.

“You’re Jean Grey,” one of them said, and their neighbor nudged them in the side.

“He’s Magneto,” he whispered, looking after Erik in awe. It was what Jean needed to push herself to her feet and move to stand by his side once more.

“Charles knows about this?” Jean asked, searching Erik’s face, her powers naturally curving around the outside of his mind. She looked back at the children, expecting to have to calm them, but they looked as confident as Erik did.

He had that effect.

“I’ll buy you some time,” Jean said, reaching for Erik’s hand first this time, a finger brushing against his. He turned to her, a smile on his face that made her blood run cold but the fire within her spark, and just in time for more guards to turn the corner, armed with riot gear and shouting directions.

No tactics would help them here.

“You want to fear us?” Jean asked, clenching her hands into fists. Her feet left the ground, hovering inches above the sparkling glass, the remnants of their cages. “I can give you something to fear.”

Make them pay. That’s what Erik said. That’s what he meant, revenge always in the forefront of his mind, always burning, never enough. But what Jean heard echoed in her mind, screaming from every cell, was something else.

Let go, Jean.

Jean closed her eyes, feeling the call of the molecules in the walls around her, in the floors, the atoms that made up the guards advancing towards her. She didn’t need to move her hand. She didn’t even need to think. The world started to shake around her, those molecules simplifying. Ten people turned to eight, and then six. The walls broke down around her. The floor curled until her feet could touch against it again.

And then came the fire, curling around her neck, burning so hot that she opened her mouth and eyes in a scream.

For a moment, Jean could imagine she was in Scott’s mind again. The world always did look more beautiful in red.

ERIK: He was a great many things, but he was not a fool.

This was dangerous, walking right into the proverbial belly of the beast--the bruise blossoming at against his ribs was proof enough of that. If this didn't work, if it left him captive or killed, it wouldn't just be him who paid the price.

But he could not, would not, stand by and let Jean be taken, nor would he trust any but himself to retrieve her. Not Jean.

Jean clearly recognized it, seemed almost chagrined as she conceded to rescuing the others, and Erik wasn't sure what that had been all about, but he was long used to being mystified by certain aspects of those he held dear. Nothing was ever easy. Especially women.

Or Charles.

Jean slid the glass easily into the collar mechanisms, the device falling to the floor, and his own collar came off moments later as she regained her powers and immediately moved to release him from the restraint that didn't bind his powers but had set his teeth on edge regardless, both for its symbolism and the eerie dead feeling to the metal.

Just in time for the kids, too. Erik didn't fight the smile when two of the teenagers pointed them out, recognizing them immediately from the television. If nothing else, he could be proud that mutantkind had figures worth looking up to, like Jean.

He tried to be worth it, at any rate. Whether he was succeeding was a matter of some debate, but clearly this one fell with the Brotherhood.

Jean reached out to brush his hand as he started to redirect, and warmth spread up his arm from the point of contact, settling in his stomach. Jean was alive, and in one piece, and for once, they found themselves on the same side of a proper battle and she was reaching for him like she used to do when she was a child.

They would manage this. Together.

Erik closed his eyes, reached out with his powers to feel beneath the deck, feel into the structure of the prison. Destroying the Raft was not the goal, not while prisoners were on board. He had to find metal that was usable. But they'd been smart, had built this with him in mind.

But then Jean screams.

He isn't entirely sure what happens, then, but suddenly the fatigue from using the electricity fades away entirely, and he can feel every bit of metal on the ship, even the ones that had been buried deep, jumps to his consciousness as if he's everywhere in the prison at once.

Make them pay. Make them pay for hurting your children. Oh, yes.

Every cell door shattered in the face of an electric pulse he didn't realize he was creating until it was over, and now he's looking for the humans who made this happen. Felt their blood calling to him, all at once, all over the ship, and though it normally exhausted him entirely to manipulate it in even one person, he felt full to the brim of energy. Jean must be projecting--best to take advantage while it lasted.

So he started with the guards, the most active threat, going up floor by floor to still their blood in their veins before yanking the iron from their bodies and leaving them bleeding from a million miniscule holes on the floor.

JEAN:  The X-Men were never regarded as heroes, not by the public at large. Mutants like these kids, they were a different story altogether, desperately searching for people just like them to look up to, names to put to stories, proof that sometimes mutants could fight for the world at large that they were supposed to be a part of and that it could end happily. Outside of that, and despite fighting as a soldier since she was fifteen years old, Jean was rarely recognised on the street. At work, she maintained a don’t ask, don’t tell policy that she knew went against Charles’ dream, but she’d long ago discovered made things significantly easier on a daily basis. She didn’t have blue skin, or wings coming from her shoulder blades, or a ruby quartz visor covering her eyes. For the most part, despite her mutation touching every facet of her life, Jean could remain relatively undetected, relatively normal, even though she never would be.

The recognition gives her pause, making her turn to Erik more famed for his acts against humanity than his acts for mutantkind. Everything he has done, everything he will do, was out of a single-minded focus. One ultimate goal, and that was for mutants to get the respect they deserved, for other people to feel even a fraction of the pain Erik suffered at the hands of humans in the camps, or in the years since.

Jean used to believe that violence only begets violence. She used to believe that there was another way, a way she couldn’t think of in that moment but would, eventually, that she could use to bring the two worlds together. She used to believe in a lot of things.

Then they killed Scott Summers.

The Phoenix tore through lies. It tore through self deception. It burned down masks and facades, forced people to show their true faces, because when it came down to it, there was one thing that people, X-gene or not, feared. The unknown. The end of the line. The end of their souls, the end of life, the end of petty arguments and grand battles.

As the scream tore from her, recognised only as her own voice courtesy of the burning in her throat, Jean knew this was the worst thing that could’ve happened. People were vanishing before her eyes, her surroundings were curling and morphing, the floors groaning almost in pain as they moved to meet her feet. Everything was so easy, a quick flick of the wrist and the guards were forced back, the cameras were smashed, the speakers were located and crumpled like aluminium cans. It was easy, but it stuck in her gut and her throat and made Jean want to scream even more, because she didn’t want to hurt people.

No do harm. That’s what she promised. Above all else, she said she would preserve life. She would not become what the Phoenix tried to make her. She would not be the dictator over who lived, and who died.

But she was doing it now, and it felt good.

Minds flickered from her readings, and when she looked at Erik, she knew he was responsible. Floors up, she could hear screaming, guards running down to the lower decks with pounding hearts and thoughts of families they didn’t deserve running through.

The men she’d been dealing with were gone. Nothing, not even their clothes, remained to say that they’d been there, their guns turned into ash that rested in a thin layer on the ground before her. Jean turned, and with a quick wave of two fingers the collars around the teenagers’ necks broke free. The same movement, and the prisoners who made their way through the doors Erik destroyed were released, flexing their limbs as their powers slowly returned to them.

Go to him. There was one thing that Jean had always been able to do, one thing that Warren pinpointed when she was sitting on the bottom steps of the Institute’s grand staircase, cheeks stained with tears because she felt as if the guys in the original team all had their purpose on lockdown, and she was still desperately searching. He said, then, that Jean was there because she made people better. She boosted them. Her powers led to that, but there was something within her, too. The Phoenix magnified that.

The bird was both sides of the coin. Revenge and mercy. Good and bad. Truth and deception. Pleasure and pain. Both sides.

Jean reached for Erik, the energy burning in her palm but knowing, instinctively, that it wouldn’t leave a mark on his shoulder. “You can do it,” she said, and his mind, always so open to her, came through bright and clear, familiar in its pain, familiar in its anger. “Let go. It’ll protect you. It’ll make you better. Let go, Erik.”

After all, he could feel it. She knew he could. Everything else was fading out, life and death and friends and family, burning down to this one, single moment. He was glowing, not in a way that the others could see, not in any way her eyes could perceive, but there was a power there that she hadn’t seen before.

Erik would set them free. Jean would make sure they’d never been there in the first place. After all, they were one and the same — they were good at making things better, even if they were destruction incarnate themselves.

ERIK: Omega-class.

He knew what it meant, knew why the goverment had classed him and Jean and Charles and a handful of others as such. The most powerful mutants of their class. No apparent upper limit. He knew, but until now, he hadn't properly understood.

His powers had always been strong, stronger than he knew what to do with. There was a reason, after all, that Schmidt had run him through all those tests, all those torturous hours strapped down or wired up and forced to play puppet, to move things and open things and cater to the doctor's ideas of what he could do. There was a reason that Vinnitsa had lost nearly a third of their population in a single moment of anger all those years ago. He could drag submarines out of the sea, could end lives with a few moments in one's bloodstream, could drag electricity out of the grid that ran everywhere these days and turn it into a weapon.

This was so much more.

The gentle whisper in his mind, that sounded almost like Jean but not quite, showed him that he'd barely brushed the surface. His brain felt sharper, his powers, often described as a sixth sense, more attuned than ever.

When he opened his eyes, he could see more. Ghosts of bioelectricity surrounded each person on the deck and below it, a halo of phantom energy that he could feel, now, without trying. Spectrums of light beyond normal human perception expanded before him, and the ever-present, faint pull he'd always felt even far away from metal was no longer faint.

With dizzying clarity, he realized its source, miles beneath their feet: the moving magma beneath the earth, laden rich with metal, and even further beneath, the solid metal core of the earth, casting out its gravitational lines that he could feel ghosting against him.

Too much. There was more, much more, he could feel prodding at his mind, but he didn't want it. Magnetism, metal, electricity, that was all enough, wasn't it?

And then Jean, and it was her, this time, he could tell, was in his mind, and he was in hers, feeding into each other and communicating in the way that'd always been so intuitive, shared anger and shared fear and shared possessiveness making them far more alike than different. And she told him, with utter confidence, utter trust, and the most insistent care, that he could let go. Let go. It'll protect you. It'll make you better.

Let go. Let go. Let go.

He could count on one hand the people he would trust his life to, truly, if the cards were down, and Jean... he trusted her implicitly.

Let go. That was Jean, and not-Jean, and the command circled round and round in his head, fighting what small vestige of his mind protested against yielding to something in his mind that isn't him.

Let go.

He trusted her.

And he let go.

The Raft shuddered around them, and Erik could see everything.

Omega-class. No upper limit. He felt that, now. Felt power crackling in his veins, in his fingertips, in his mind. He thought that he had stopped being afraid of his powers after Anya, but he saw now that he'd still been holding back.

Anya. Magda. Jean. Charles. Anna. Raven.

The humans had taken some, corrupted some, killed others, and they would pay. He had lost enough children, enough partners, enough friends.

Make them safe. Make them all safe. Make the humans pay for those you've lost, make the world safe for those you have left.

Yes. Yes.

Safe.

He would free them all.

The freed mutants come to him, and those on the lower decks, those too far to make good time, he pulls to him instead--force fields, magnetic, so simple, how had he missed it before?--wrapping them in a gentle cocoon of power and pulling them up, through the floors that open up beneath his and Jean's onslaughts.

This many people, this many individual instances of levitation, might normally strain his concentration, but Erik felt more focused than ever before, the power searing through him making everything seem facile.

They're all around him, now, his people, staring with wide eyes and slack jaws, but Erik simply turned to Jean, though even that was unnecessary--he could still feel their minds entwined, wrapped in this new, addicting thread of power.

"Time to go?"

Safety first, the protective side of him asserted, and then retribution. But he would not deny Jean the opportunity, if she wanted to drag this prison apart around them, turn it to nothing more than dust on the sea.

He could keep his people safe, enveloped in the bubble of security around them.

All he'd ever wanted was himself and his family to be safe.

JEAN: It was a feeling she thought she’d forgotten, that first time it came to her among the stars —  the first time she reached out to Bobby to say goodbye in what she believed was her last moments, only to be rewarded with endless life instead. There was no death, with the Phoenix. There was no end to the story, happy or otherwise. Life kept insistently rolling on, in different incarnations perhaps, but still fundamentally the same.

Some might look at her now and fail to recognise her. Others, the ones who truly knew her, wouldn’t be surprised. Scott knew who she was. He knew what she was capable of, what she could become. He loved her anyway.

This was Jean Grey. This was the Phoenix. This was what she was meant to be.

Years passed, and she thought she’d forgotten what that first overwhelming rush of power felt like. She thought she forgot the burning in her cells, how each bone in her body became even more prevalent than it did when she spent hours of the early morning lamenting over anatomy textbooks, trying to pinpoint what made up the human body. Everyone had the same, at the end of the day. No one was particularly special.

No one but her. That’s why it chose her, why it came to her — and why Erik was here, too. Something about Jean made people want to come closer, made them willing to walk into the fire.

Logan, whispering that he was willing to get burned, that he craved it, charging headfirst into the explosion that was one of Jean’s moments of great weakness, of great anger. Kitty looking at this woman who scorched the lawn of the Institute that used to be a home, a place of safety, and asking her to grow apple trees in the garden, something long lasting, something that ensured she would be around for a significant period of time, something to tie her to the earth that wasn’t a coffin. Scott goddamn Summers, stepping up to the Phoenix as if to say kill me, take me, do whatever you want, just don’t hurt her. I know she’s in there. Please don’t hurt her.

She didn’t deserve to be that special. She didn’t deserve any of this — but the teengaers on the Raft didn’t deserve their fate, either.

She thought she forgot it. She tried to ignore it, the intoxicating rush of power, that feeling better than drugs or alcohol, even too close to the rush of a hand brushing against hers for comfort. She tried to think of other things, to rationalise, to focus on the shifting ground and walls (though that made no sense, did it, reality and matter combining and disintegrating and rebuilding all over again). She tried to look at Erik.

But she knew where his mind was. She knew there was no coming back. Once you’d seen it, once you understood, there was no getting rid of the bird. There was no life that was worth living without it.

She thought she forgot it, but she didn’t. That flash of light, that moment of impact, when the last of the walls Charles implanted in her subconscious for protection fell down around her, crumbling to ash like the radiation cloud that came to them. Nothing was impossible. Matter she’d been feeling since she was a child, an instinctual connection to the earth and the coffee cup on her desk and the TV on the wall, suddenly broke apart into atoms that she couldn’t help but twist her hand to pull apart, just to see what would happen.

And the minds. She heard everything. She came back down to Earth and the whispers that had followed her since childhood, the screams and torture that she’d been through, was elevated to a level she scarcely managed to swallow, but did. She did because there was strength there, too. She could read a city if she wanted. She could put an entire continent to sleep. She could rip someone’s psyche apart in a matter of moments, could reduce them to their most traumatic moments, could make them relive their moments of weakness over, and over, and over again.

She could make people hurt, but she didn’t. She didn’t, and that’s why she was more powerful than she’d ever been before.

Things had changed. She was seeing through Erik’s eyes, now, feeling his thoughts, the hum of the metal beneath them, the curve of the world that could so easily split right in half and they would be the last two standing. What was the point in saving this world if Scott wasn’t on it? If Enforcers were just going to kill her people, her love, her family, in the middle of Central Park in broad daylight, kill him for defending children?

No. Charles’ mind was there. Charles was there. He could hear everything, she knew it. And his name, those three words from Erik, had Jean removing her hand from the man’s shoulder, meeting his gaze for a long moment before nodding.

“Time to go,” she confirmed. There was a shimmering shield around them, one that she focused on reinforcing, the kids bundled together, nerves and excitement and relief and justice rolling off them in equal measure. Jean took a breath, and with one final concedence to the power within her, she thrust her arms from her sides and ripped the section door, providing them with a clear point of exit.

They would be back, she knew. Alarms blared and sirens echoed from the helicopters circling, but none of their weapons could get through. Magneto and Jean Grey and the Phoenix, combined for the first time, would not fall to human intervention. There may be no guards left alive to tell the tale of the escape, but they would know.

Humans would know, finally, that they were right to fear. They would know that they were only alive thanks to mutant kindness — thanks to the good will of Scott Summers' X-Men.