#which i think DE confirmed that there isn't

[krillonthegrill]

god i love "evil" Max as a concept

a Max Caulfield who's been totally broken by the events of the first game

a Max Caulfield whose morals have basically completely degraded because consequences have no meaning to her anymore if she can just undo it

a Max Caulfield who figured out how to jump timelines WAY earlier, and jumping timelines to fuck stuff up - any other Max's be damned - because she's bored

it's like she turned on cheats. nothing means anything. she can undo anything at will and escape any consequences. she doesn't even have to confront the storms she leaves behind.

[lobselvith8]

Regarding Gaider's "Modern Elves are Partly to blame for their own oppression"

In a conversation with Christina Gonzalez and a few other people on twitter, David Gaider, the former headwriter of Dragon Age, mocked fans of the Dalish. I took issue with his statement and pointed out why people are critical of how he and the other writers handled the Dalish in Dragon Age (while Allan Schumacher of Epic Games had nothing of substance to say in response). The Dalish are nomadic as a consequence of Andrastian societies violently attacking them if they stay too long in one area. The Andrastian Chantry outlawed their religion, making them criminals as a consequence of their faith. Andrastians will threaten the Dalish with violence in an attempt to force conversion to the Andrastian faith. Templars will hunt down the Dalish, and will even torture children. Andrastian elves also suffer from Andrastian oppression as Andrastian humans can massacre all of them, down to the children in an orphanage.

Gaider postulates that one could discuss how the ancient elves were "partly to blame" for their enslavement (let's keep in mind that being slaves is what he's talking about, even though he's careful not to put that into his tweet) or how "modern elves are partly to blame for their own oppression" which is essentially what we are told throughout the whole of Inquisition and the DLCs that accompanied the game (even JoH tries to romanticize the genocidal tyrant Drakon and place all of the blame on the Dales for the elves not trusting the tyrant who was invading their neighbors, forcing conversion, and massacring the people who would not convert - like the peaceful pacifists known as the Daughters of Song).

Inquisition even rectonned previously established lore on the Dalish in order to have characters like Iron Bull denigrate the Dalish. It's a game that will side-step Celene burning thousands of elves alive in Halamshiral while it will demonize the Dalish for wanting to maintain their autonomy from what's essentially a group of colonizers who want to rule over them and force them to convert, and the white Canadian writers (who are from Canada, a place known for its long history of horrific treatment towards Indigenous people) are firmly on the side of those who think that the Dalish (who, as Gaider himself once said at the Dragon Central forums before the release of Origins, were modeled after "Northern Native Americans") are wrong not to subjugate themselves to white Andrastian rulers.

Andrastian elves similarly face hardships because of Andrastian rule. In Ferelden even the efforts of the Night Elves fighting to free the nation from Orlesian rule didn't the elves any greater freedoms once Maric came to power. The Boon of the City Elf faces a number of dire consequences unless the Warden assumes control themselves as the new Bann. Inquisition ignores the plight of the elves of the Dales entirely to focus on a white human noble as the focus of the storyline in the Dales, and you can potentially help chevalier Michel de Chevin (a white man with blonde hair who is part of the chevaliers, a group who murder innocent elves as part of their initiation rite, although this isn't properly addressed in-game) while Briala's role is marginalized in-game despite being the leader of an elven rebellion across Orlais (and she strangely became white despite her in-book description making it clear she's a woman of color, which accompanying artwork confirmed).

Whether you're talking about the slavery of ancient elves or the 'modern' oppression of Andrastian elves and Dalish elves, I don't see how you can blame either the victims of slavery or the victims of racial (and in the case of the Dalish religious) persecution for the oppression they face. And Gaider doesn't seem to understand that at all, which explains the inherent problems with how the plight of the elves is framed within Dragon Age.

[pendwelling]

TWSB Genderswap AU thoughts...

(Felt like exploring their designs while in the middle of writing my "What if TWSB Was Genderswapped? : Gender Expectations, Trope Subversion, and How Jung Eunseo's Gender Identity Affects QPB" essay/analysis (which somehow took an somewhat academic turn) 😭 Please look out for that, whenever I finish it... TvT)

I actually spent quite a bit thinking about this lmao (my thought process would make much more sense if you read my essay but it's still a WIP so 🥹👍) Have some fun silly abridged thoughts instead! :

Cédric M. Riester —> Ségolène Benz Riester

I firmly believe that female!Cédric would look a lot like her mom 🥹 Like Mother, Like Daughter! Long hair is a hassle when you're a swordsman, so she keeps it short... (until she gets jealous over Yeseo and Chris bonding over braiding hair TSK)(actually canon tho LOL)

I also gave female!Cédric the name "Ségolène" (Sieglinde) since it's the French female form of "Siegfried" (to which the author originally confirmed was supposed to be his name until it was changed to better fit the Riesterian setting)! "Céline" was also an option, but there's already a Riester ancestor with that name (Ced's grandmother and Frédérique's mom) and I didn't want them to just switch their names or make her "Céline II", and I'm already SO biased towards "Ségolène" hahaha

(As for the middle name. Well. LMAOOOOO It's self-explanatory, but if you're curious, see the screenshots of my IG story justifications later below! I also just thought it was. really funny OTL)

Christelle Olivier Rambouillet —> Christian Aude Rambouillet

A pretty-looking young man by the name of Christian... I chose "Aude" as the middle name, since that was the sister of "Olivier" in the "Chanson de Roland" where the name comes from! It works well, I find, because Aude is also the betrothed of Roland, which ties in to "Christelle/Christian's" character setting of "love interest", and how Ga-in would eventually gain agency outside of it.

I kept male!Chris' hair long because of the significance it carries for Ham Ga-in who couldn't cut it out of respect/guilt for Ollie 🥲 It's quite a small but significant aspect of Ga-in characterization that would translate well into any version of their character: the notion of "this isn't my body, so I must take care of it well in the original owner's place". (And later, the implied future cutting of hair being the resolution of these dilemmas and internal struggle! I love Ham Ga-in a lot...)

(AND YEAH LOL CHRIS IS STILL SHORTER THAN CED, tho if you want to, you can choose to believe that Chris' 19y.o. body still has room for growth xD)

Jung Yeseo:

As for Jung Yeseo... hahaha her name can remain the same! I wanted to draw her as a pretty girl-next-door unnie, who looks studious, gentle, and cute (but surprisingly fierce when angry LMAO)

Major inspiration was taken from brown-haired shoujo-romance MCs! The original body of the MC from "I Raised a Black Dragon" was especially notable for me. Her design was really cute and always reminded me in some way of Yeseo... TTvT

Anyhow, she's naturally a girl who obliviously captures the hearts of both women and men 🥹👍

(And here's my initial messy IG story thoughts!) :

(Additional thoughts from my twitter/x thread 😭) :

In the first place, CeChri in a Genderswap AU would be so funny to me bc woah... Pretty Transmigrated Duke's Son MC x Handsome Crown Princess (who is taller than him)? Revolutionary. It'd probably be a very genre-convention-defying RoFan haha (I WANT IT)

ADDITIONALLY LAUGHING bc FredAu about the engagement would be like: "Sadie, do not worry, you'll like him. Young Lord Christian is a gentle young man known for his reserved personality, who is also very beautiful (reminds a bit of Alex when we were younger...)(insert nostalgic feelings)..."

🔥, after they've finally become acquaintanced: "Not beautiful at all."

🌊 "WTF????"

🔥 "Not gentle either (TSK)."

Ségolène would probably even get pissed off seeing Chris' long hair. As a knight, she always thinks about convenience. Besides, her father could pull it off because he was very beautiful.

🌊 "WOW! Are you really calling your own fiancé ugly then???"

🔥 "And short."

🌊 "............."

Also thinking about Yeseo first transmigrating, trying futilely to remember what Ségolène looks like. According to Eunseo, the main female lead is very beautiful, so Yeseo images a gorgeous woman with long ebony hair who would look amazing in ornate ball gowns worthy of her position as Crown Princess. A cold-hearted beauty.....

Reality —> Gorgeous, tall woman, broad-shouldered and muscular, with short hair and wearing a knight's uniform.

🌷 "!!!?" (JAW DROPS)

'Wow!? Are the standards for female love interests different these days??'

Yeseo is so flustered she can't raise her eyes (Ségolène is too tall 🤭)

"In the first place, isn't the gap between the FL and the 2nd FL too large...?"

Ségolène: Tall, stunning woman in a uniform with fierce eyes. Hair as dark as the night, a figure that looks undoubtedly very reliable and strong. Great with the sword, and would definitely cut you down without hesitation if need be.

Losna: Significantly shorter, gentle-looking beauty with sly eyes. Long golden hair that curls coyly at the ends, divine-looking yet somewhat enticing like a siren. Soft hands that have never touched a blade, but whose tongue could cut deeply while delivering words in the kindest tone.

🌷, heart pounding, flustered (DENSE): (chuckles) "If I were a man, my heart would definitely be in a frenzy! Even the MC is very pretty, too... They truly are the protagonists!!"

🔥 (piercing stare)(wants yeseo so bad)(is it possible for someone to be so lovable?)(cuteness aggression is so real)

🌊 (thinking about how to make yeseo their priest partner)(very determined and having fun)(already making plans to have everyone in an arranged official sleepover that lasts a lifetime<—somewhat warped view of marriage)

Whenever people see CYC together, it's as if the Empress, Cardinal, and Prince Consort have come back from their youth.

A cold-looking and stubborn Crown Princess with a sword, a young powerful Cleric with a gentle face, a Duke's strong and pretty son with long hair.........

FredAu: (fluffy atmosphere, warm sentimentality, fond memories.....)

🌊 "...? Why are they looking at us like that?"

🔥 (knows from FredAu's gazes that she has gotten parental approval)(like mother like daughter LMAO)

🌷 (doesn't know that her fate has been sealed TSKKK)

(If you can't tell, I'm having a lot of fun with this AU LMAO. Please look forward in 19474893 years when I finally finish my What-if Genderswap AU very-serious essay about this topic TTvT👍

[nalyra-dreaming]

Be careful, it's one of a kind! - Or: the trial script.

I took a few screenshots and put them through the editor, and there are a few interesting tidbits of information that can be gleaned from the few shots we got of the final trial script:

Supposedly the trial was written by the "Vampire Santiago", and the "Vampire Samuel Barclay". With... "additions made" by the "Vampire Lestat de Lioncourt".

Now the last part is particularly interesting, because as we see in the screenshots we get, that there are quite a few "additions" that Armand makes, but he is not listed there.

We now have (additional) confirmation by Assad (at the SDCC 2024 panel) that Armand was the one who orchestrated Claudia's / their deaths, so let's keep that in mind here. Especially since he is not listed.

"Our red curtain. Our spotlight. Santiago acting as master of ceremonies. But this is the only part of the play that will mimic our normal fare. That and our finale."

There's several aspects to this.

We know that - at least in Armand's tale - Santiago "took over". "Master of ceremonies." But only acting, not actually being. The "mimic our normal fare" both hints at this being not what they normally do, and, given the mock aspect of the trial - it acknowledges the farce it is. It is not a play, not a trial, but something in between, framed as neither, while implementing both.

Santiago's entry speech. With an interesting annotation by Armand: "You are standing half in and half out of your light."

Only, Santiago isn't actually standing in and out of the light. (At least in the version we got to see.)

Now, those who know the books know that the force of Lestat's personality is often called a "light", and not always in a wholly positive manner.

For example there is this comment by Nicolas, which refers to it:

And for every aspect of our proposed damnation you found exuberance, and there was no end to your enthusiasm and the passion coming out of you-and the light, always the light. And in exact proportion to the light coming out of you, there was the darkness in me! Every exuberance piercing me and creating its exact proportion of darkness and despair!

The lights of the stage obviously put them all into focus, too, something that was forbidden before Lestat came and destroyed the old ways. The "walking in the places of light" was one of the things the Children of Darkness accused Lestat of when he encountered them.

I think the comment there is a kind-of-meta comment, of Armand being half in shadow hand half in light. There is a choice here, for light or darkness.

Here, he chooses darkness.

Some things we haven't heard in the episode:

"If the prosecution's evidence convinces you to condemn those HERETICS for the heinous trampling of the vampire laws we will carry out our sentence before your very eyes as only we at the Théâtre des Vampires know how: slowly, inventively, gruesomely."

And then, this lovely stage direction 💀:

"Agency: If and when Claudia or Louis speak, (drive) them together, close their throats, (Santia)go will address it with the audience, as per the below:"

"I don't need to hear from you..."

That part we heard in the trial.

Apart from the stage directions and the part we didn't hear Armand's notes are also interesting once more: "Remember to comment...." and something starting with "Fi"... "Fine" - or "Find their thoughts" (could fit I think). Because this note, even largely unreadable proves once more that Armand was fully in on what they did to Louis and Claudia there. Made sure that the blows... would land.

This one. This one we didn't get to hear! (The part after "Tik Tok")

Santiago reading from her diary: "He soaks in the light from everyone around him, making it all about Lestat. This is most definitely about you and your death."

Light reference again! (See the quote above.)

And (accompanied by Armand's notes to have Santiago hand the diary to the audience):

"I know she was your favorite. I know she was your baby lu. But she had us all fooled. She's the best actor of all of us. She lies so sweetly, doesn't she. But look closer. When the mask falls away, she's a monster."

Oof. When the mask falls away... Pot to kettle.

"I can't hear you." - say it louder.... Lestat.

And then: Lestat's entrance. Being seated in an especially prepared "Bergere en cabriolet".

And here we have another "I can't hear you! Let me f...". It's the counterpart to the blend-over (below), another read from Claudia's diary there, after Lestat talks about loneliness and Louis "abandoning him". (Btw, I don't buy this shift to blame to Louis and Louis "hunting" Lestat for one second, for the record^^. I think that was all very much BS for the trial, in order to make Louis seem guilty to the audience.)

Armand's comment (on Lestat's first lines) makes it seem as if Lestat was less than enthusiastic - or weak. Now, I said before, I think there's quite enough evidence to suggest that the "real trial" might have gone a bit more like in the book, with Lestat mostly out of his mind and his mind meddled with as well (see below).

But the counterpart to the blend-over is actually the most interesting one, imho:

(This is a hard one to see, it's only seen in blend-over and Louis' hand moves across it before the scene fades to Armand scribbling down the note!)

"It This is too early for Lestat to acknowledg[e...]"

This is too early for Lestat to acknowledge. Louis and Claudia, would be my guess. This direction is proof that Armand made directions for Lestat especially as well. It's the only one (we have so far) where he actually writes the name.

Armand knew he could make this direction. And he made it.

Given Lestat and their history this, for me, is proof, that Lestat's mind has been meddled with as well, at times at least. Because there is no way that Lestat would have followed Armand's directions there, imho. Would not have done something, especially in that moment, where they set up the execution.

Yes, Sam is on record saying that Lestat played along with the play itself so he could get into the audience's heads, and therefore make it easier for him to make them shift Louis' sentence to "banishment" (that's where the "additions" come from, in all likelihood), but there, at the point of judgement and the execution being set up he does not look at Claudia (but he does look at her afterwards!), he's staring straight ahead, swaying on his feet.

Taken out of the equation, so to speak.

(That's an extra shot btw, extra shots always carry meaning.)

So.

Quite the script. -.-

Clear stage directions for Santiago, Lestat, and the other coven members should Louis and Claudia try to do something.

Now. I know there have been a lot of posts about Armand "master mind" or "villain" or victim, or what not. And I am glad that Assad has been so very clear on that just recently, though all of it is already given with what the show gave us, imho.

Armand did plan the trial. Did master-mind it. Did pretend. Did direct. Did lie.

He orchestrated their deaths.

And Lestat interfered with Louis' death. At the very least.

And.. Armand continued to betray Louis. For 77 years.

I said it before, I don't quite buy the tower scene, I expect it to get more context, at the very least.

It will be very interesting to see if they return to the trial next season, and in what capacity.

Because all the "hints" are, all the evidence is there already.

[woso-dreamzzz]

Breakfast V

Ellie Carpenter x Daniëlle van de Donk x Child!Reader

Summary: You get hurt

Ellie didn't know what could constitute picking you up from Lindsey's in the middle of date night but all she knew was one minute she was going to the bathroom and the next Daan was running in saying that they had to leave.

You're in tears when she and Daan get there, sitting on Lindsey's sofa as you sob.

You've got one hell of a black eye. It was practically swelled shut and you were cradling your right wrist, keeping it close to your body as you cry.

"Mamma," You cry, reaching out your good hand for Daan," Het doet pijn (it hurts)."

Ellie has no idea what you're saying but she gets the general gist of it as Daan inspects you.

"What the hell happened?!" She demands.

"She slipped!" Lindsey replies, throwing her arms up as if to defend herself," Down the stairs! It was an accident!"

Ellie wants to scream at Lindsey for not watching you properly but settles on bringing the first aid kit over to Daan so she could wrap your wrist.

It doesn't look too bad, just a little sensitive but Ellie still knows you'll be going straight to the doctor tomorrow morning to get it checked out properly.

She knows you're okay (at least, she knows that it's not worth a hospital visit) but it doesn't stop Ellie from shoulder checking Lindsey on the way out.

Daan sits in the back with you on the way home and you curl into her so easily that Ellie imagines that's what you used to do when you were younger and still living in London.

You're exclusively speaking Dutch as well which is something Ellie barely has a grasp on besides the basics.

Frankly, this is all freaking her out. Not your injuries, Ellie can deal with that but just how distraught and emotional you are. She's never seen you like this before, curled up on Daan's lap like the little kid you actually are.

You wipe your nose on Daan's shirt and she doesn't even blink, gently stroking your back and whispering to you in equally soft Dutch.

"Mijn oog doet pijn en mijn pols (my eye hurts and my wrist)," You say as Daan inspects you again.

Your eye is looking better now that you've gotten home and kept an ice pack pressed against it. The swelling has mostly gone down so you can open and close it again but it's still turning a purplish colour.

Your wrist didn't seem sprained or broken either, just sensitive so hopefully sleeping in the bandage tonight will stave off the worst of it and the trip to the doctors will confirm that.

"Sorry dat ik date night onderbrak (sorry for interrupting date night)."

Mamma just shakes her head, pulling you even closer to her. "Nee, verontschuldig je niet. Het was een ongeluk. Je hoeft je nergens voor te verontschuldigen (no, don't apologise. It was an accident. You have nothing to apologise for)."

You don't quite believe her but Mamma doesn't lie to you so you have to take her word for it.

Her arms around you are warm and safe and you're tucked securely under her chin where nothing bad can happen to you.

"Mamma," You say," Ik denk niet dat ik morgen naar turnen kan gaan (I don't think I can go to gymnastics tomorrow)."

Whatever you say has a little bubble of laughter exit Daan's mouth and Ellie relaxes considerably. She's been completely lost for most of the conversation but Daan doesn't seem too worried with what you're saying so she relaxes.

She stays on the edges though, hovering. She isn't quite sure what she's meant to do.

Sure, she and Daan are getting married and, sure, she's got adoption papers that are being filed after the wedding but she's never been in a situation like this.

Ellie isn't sure if she's overstepping by coming into the little bubble of comfort that you've created with Daan. She's not exactly sure of the procedure for this kind of thing.

You seem to know though.

You catch Ellie standing there from the corner of your eyes and you put a hand over Daan's shoulder to reach for her.

"Mum," You whine," Mum."

Ellie's body moves on auto-pilot, her hand capturing your own as she sits next to Daan, squished up against you both as close as she can get. Her brain doesn't even realise what you've called her.

It all seems so natural, to you and to her.

There's no reason to make a big thing about it. It was always going to happen eventually.

You move from Daan to Ellie, wiggling in her lap for a moment before going almost completely limp, like you were sleeping but Ellie knew you weren't.

You curled into Ellie like how you curled into Daan, completely relaxed and boneless.

"Mag ik bij jou en Mum in bed slapen (can I sleep in bed with you and Mum)?" You ask Mamma.

"I think that can be arranged."

[blitzwhore]

I've seen a few people over the past few days (and weeks, and months) discuss whether Stolitz is, or will be, "canon", and... I must admit, these conversations confuse me a bit.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but through the years and across various fandoms, I've always understood "canon" (with regards to a ship) to mean "are shown to be, or to have been, romantically or sexually involved in the source material".

I might be the only person who sees it this way, and if I am that's totally fair, but to me, Stolitz has always been canon. We have known that they fuck since the pilot. Episode 1 reinstates that Blitz and Stolas fuck. They have kissed on screen. Obviously, they have also pined to hell and back (ha) for one another. This is no different than, for example, Blitz x Verosika, a ship that is also canon, because the show has stated that they dated, fucked, and that Verosika loved Blitz. They are shown to have been involved romantically/sexually. An example of the opposite would be, say, Verosika x Barbie—a ship many people like, but that isn't canon (as of right now, anyway), because these characters aren't confirmed to have been involved romantically or sexually at any point.

I think a more accurate word to use in conversation to convey the "will they/won't they" arc between Stolas and Blitz is "endgame", which I understand to mean "are together by the end of the story told in the source material, and implied to stay that way indefinitely". Which, to be fair, I also see used a lot in conversations about the ship.

Again, correct me if I've understood this wrong, but as I see it, every ship that is endgame is canon, but not every ship that is canon is endgame. And once a ship is canon, you can't really de-canonise it. (I mean, you could, if you revealed it all to have been a fever dream, but you get what I mean). Stolitz has always been, and will always be canon.

More accurate words to describe what's happening between a ship such a Stolitz at different stages of their getting-together journey, I think, would be "together", "dating", "in love", "fucking", "having sex", "declaring their love to one another", "aware they love each other", or "on the same page", to name a few.

Questions like "Are Stolitz together now?" or "Does the latest song count as them declaring their love to one another?" are a lot more productive and interesting, in my humble opinion, than "Are they canon?"

[zoloteh-volossya]

Minthy and Trust

One of the interesting things about the evil endings from patch 7 is how surprised Minthara is if you enthrall her with the Brain or murder her as a Dark Urge who embraced Bhaal. I've talked a little bit about it before here, but a conversation with @alicelufenia that resulted from that post got me thinking.

Minthara grew up in a culture where backstabbing is pretty much de rigueur. She has spent at least two centuries living and loving in a city where she could not trust anybody, and where lovers and family alike may try and betray or murder her at any given moment. It's implied that she's survived multiple such attempts. Why, then, does she put such complete and total trust in you? Shouldn't she be more wary?

Part of it could be her faith - or rather, the gaping hole where her faith once was. She was completely devoted to Lolth until she encountered the Absolute, and while her faith in the Absolute was forced I think the habits we see - her prayer after her romance scene, for instance - are genuine. After Moonrise, she has lost two faiths in rapid succession. I think she'd done with gods for good, but still wants - almost reflexively - something or someone to believe in. Lolth's favor is described in some D&D novels as being able to feel her love, however fleetingly. I think a partner whose acceptance and affection she can actually feel goes a long way to filling that sudden void in her life. (I also feel like she does best with direction, that fundamentally to some extent she is a follower and not a leader. A partner provides the support she prefers in this sort of context; she can essentially make them her purpose. But this is more of a headcanon and not as strongly textually supported so I will not actually argue it. Feel free to disagree.)

Part of it could also be her loneliness. Minthara is clearly an introvert but all people need social contact of some sort. Back in Menzoberranzan, she would have been enmeshed in a strict social sphere that would have provided both regular opportunities for social engagement and rules for how to go about it. Minthy obviously feels very defined by her (former) social station - per her act 2 romance scene she doesn't know who she is without it - and laments the loss of the structure of her former life. On the surface, she thinks (incorrectly) that no one likes her, and she lacks the status and strict rules of behavior that once shielded her. She has nothing and no one... until the protagonist comes along. Once in a relationship with them, it feels like Minthara is almost trying to make them the entirety of her social life (which is hella unhealthy, girl). We see this the most in the evil endings, where she is fine with the loss of all the companions so long as she and the protagonist are together.

But my above two paragraphs explain why Minthy would want to trust the protagonist (a want, a burning driving need, a drowning woman grasping a rope, desperation making her overlook warning signs and red flags), not why she actually does. I think the answer to that can probably be found in her act 2 romance scene. She asks to see the protagonist's mind in their entirety and uses it to verify the protagonist's opinion of her. This is something she never was able to do in Menzoberranzan. For once in her life, she (thinks she) is able to confirm that this lover is safe, that she can completely unabashedly trust them. And so she does - she throws herself into it completely and utterly, as she does everything she sets herself to. It never occurs to her that this might be a false assurance, that her partner could change or be less devoted in their affections than she is. She checked; it's safe.

Until it isn't.

[kerubimcrepin]

LIVEBLOG: Wakfu Season 4, Episode 2 [PART 2]

Every time someone says this in this franchise, you should immediately raise 20 red flags because one of the reoccurring themes is "by thinking that you're good and that your intentions are good, so whatever you do is good, you doom yourself to doing evil" or something.

THERE IS SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT HERE....

He's standing on his toes. For some reason, he did not want to take, idk... something to stand on.

The place is still a grabage dump. He's still the good old Jojo we know.

He has a lot more books. Also, quite conspicuously, the shelf that has them shields what used to be his wall of celebrity posters and drawings. lol.

So many plushies... on one hand, it's so cute. The facade of professionalism he had before we knew him well is long gone by now. On the other hand, when coupled with the general infantilization of him by Kerubim and Atcham, it kinda.... feels bad.

He has a new ladder for his bed that doesn't have splinters and rusty nails sticking out of it. He probably bought it himself due to there being No Hope in Kerubim Crepin.

Also, his hobby of cartography is acknowledged once more, considering the parchments that are lying everywhere.

Another thing that feels Vaguely Bad is that we've come a long way from "I'M NOT A KID ANYMORE, STOP TREATING ME LIKE THIS, STOP CALLING ME JOJO!" to "I don't give a shit anymore. Call me anything you want... feels kinda nice too... :)"

The brain poisoning is so major with Joris. No hope for him.

Anyway, it's funny that they just call Ush The Sleazebag. Implies he's a thorn in their side enough of the time for them to actually have a nickname.

God, his room is so trashy. He's just like me fr....

"Let's kill Tot with Hammers" moment #3: They forgor to animate his mouth... where did they even PUT all that money they saved by reusing art made for the movie.

I'm pretty sure that there's like, some translation mistakes here.

This is what he says in French: "Is your dealings/drama/beef with the Sibllings over?" and technically this translation is correct... but, the phrasing of the translation is misleading.

There are two brotherhoods in the series: the forgotten, and of tofu. But in French the words used for both are different: La Confrérie du Tofu, and La Fratrie des Oubliés.

So I am 80% sure what Joris is actually asking is, "Are you finished with the Brotherhood of the Forgotten? Or are you here to fight me?"

When Ush responds with "it all died down" he's kinda making a joke about Oropo, and their whole group being... yeah. fdjgskdfg. And the translation of this line is also not really conveying it.

This is why Joris continues by confirming that Ush isn't involved.

If Ush is no longer a part of a doomsday cult, then he's probably not a danger or connected to this.

He gets so heated once Yugo is mentioned... I am once again reminding you, that Joris likes Yugo a lot.

In this shot, there on the shelf, we can see the woven basket cat bed that Joris slept in as a child and which migrated to be a basket for clothes in the movie after he actually got a real bed.

The Ush grindset:

Come to Joris's house to say that the guy he's parasocially besties with is sus and that his mom hurt the 12 gods. Say you won't get involved & don't give a shit. Leave.

Yeah, yeah, Ush is a bontarian, he likes being heroic and doesn't want the world to be destroyed or something, but it was also 100% some sort of a fucky-wucky mindgame against Joris.

[garagepaperback]

dandy They go to five different shops and still nothing. Ron suggests and then insists they break for food, which Harry allows because the next shop is in France and even if he pushed his fringe aside and they managed a last minute international Floo with no reservation, it still doesn’t open for another hour. 

Across the tiny bistro table at Hera’s, the posh little cafe off Diagon that both of them hate, Harry’s halfway through writing back to Pansy for the fourth time this morning. Ron, with a mouthful of his second inexcusably expensive mini breakfast roll, says, “Is it really that big of a deal?”

Harry blows out a lung and half’s worth of air, considering that response enough and folds the note up, shoving it towards the owl waiting at the open windowsill. It shouldn’t be this hot for early June. He woke up sweating, if he’s being honest, due to a couple of reasons. One of which is currently filling his stomach with lead, which reminds him of the small box in his pocket, resting against his thigh which is the reason and somehow also lead - getting the hair potion is the simpler task to focus on. 

“How about just doing a date night in a week or something?” Ron manages to sound almost like he believes it. He works innocently through another bite of sausage, bacon and egg but the smirk leaks through.

“Yeah. He’d love a quiet, no-fuss thing on his lunch break, maybe. It’s not like he’s one for details or drama or anything like that.” Harry belatedly notices the owl still there, staring at him, and bargains with a messy three-quarters of his already quite small pastel de nata, shooing it away once it accepts the bribe. Pansy’s in charge of the fireworks and she’s being a complete wanker about it.

Maybe that isn't fair - he’s very tired. Harry hadn’t actually woken up today as much as eventually conceded that it was morning after a full eight hours of staring at the back of his own eyelids. Next to him, Draco, however, had slept like the fucking minister of sleep, like an angel that was born only to dream and look really docile and soft and comfortable or whatever other kind of thing slept well - Harry doesn't know, he's too knackered for the metaphor. 

Just before bed, Draco checked the post and grumbled that the fancy hair potion he'd ordered last week hadn’t shown up and then Harry’s entire plan for today had begun its slow-motion avalanche. It’s bordering on a real disaster, at this point, though he can’t really tell if the feeling is actually big or it's the enormity of the day itself making everything feel huge. He drinks a hurried mouthful of coffee and leans over a little, staring through the window like that might summon the owl back quicker. 

“Do you think it matters that much? Like, in terms of the whole plan, d’you think he really cares about getting the shampoo he likes?”

“Not sure if you’ve met him.” Harry says, not taking his eyes off the empty street, the view from the window. It just feels like the owl could come back faster this way, and once the fireworks and the semi-legal aura-borealis-in-a-bottle are all confirmed, he can relax even just a single molecule more. “But he’s sort of like a really finicky breed of show cat. That I live with.”

Ron supplies, “And, that you shag.”

“And, that I shag.” Harry smiles.

“That you’re gonna marry.”

The smile stretches, dangerously close to huge. “That I’m going to marry.”

“I think, who cares about the shampoo, then.”

“I care.” Upending his glasses, Harry digs a knuckle into one eye, like he can push back the exhaustion and heart-obliterating anxiety and whatever other massive, wonderful, terrifying feelings linger all over, brimming just under the skin. “It’s not about the hair potion, though he is like, one Victorian petticoat thing away from going full dandy." Harry pushes a hand through his hair, looking back at Ron. "There's no way he's gonna say no, but it’s just... worth doing. Not to convince him, but. He notices stuff like this, all these little things, which makes me notice more little things, which makes the whole world feel like it's got more to it, like it's deeper or fuller or something and it's because of him that I-”

“Okay, save it for the vows, Merlin.” Ron pops in the sixth and final mini roll and stands up, chewing and thoughtful. He checks his watch, all in, Harry’s best fucking man. The best man. “Percy should be behind his very important department of transportation desk by now. We can bully him into getting the Floo authorization for bloody Paris, and still be back in time to meet Ginny at the bakery to get the cakes off to Wiltshire before your future husband even wakes up and wonders where you've gone off to.” “Future husband.” Harry repeats and Ron's grin is wildly contagious. Or maybe it's been idling in him even through the sleepless night, because he actually couldn't wait for today and today could hardly wait for him. Standing, he finishes off the coffee and runs a nervous, ready hand over his pocket. Inside, a weightless thing made enormous because it's the whole rest of his life, eager to arrive.

for day 27 of @microficmay

[somehow-a-human]

The Bullet Catch and the Final 15

DO NOT ASK NEIL ABOUT FAN THEORY

Okay, this started as a completely different post. I was writing something else and I had to abandon it because I realized I needed to be writing this instead. It was like a lightbulb moment, or rather, a headlight moment (see what I did there?)

"Banana, Fish, Gorilla, Shoelace, with a dash of Nutmeg." Clearly adversarial forces are capable of seeing what Crowley and Aziraphale are talking about within the bookshop from across the street. It's confirmed the zombies have gotten The Marvellous Mr. Fell's strange magic words correct at the end of the 1941 minisode. Is this foreshadowing the clear observation of the final conversation Aziraphale and Crowley share directly in front of the bookshop window, by the Metatron?

"Aim for my mouth, shoot past my ear". Well if this isn't that damn kiss I don't know what is. And the bullet, the bullet hiding in his mouth. Magicians historically have had keys passed to them through their mouths via a kiss. Crowley sure did aim for that mouth...

"You have formed a de-facto partnership with the demon Crowley." It's a threat, plain and simple. It's the same thing as Furfur showing up in the dressing room with a photograph of the two of them. And what does Aziraphale do both times? He pulls the same fearful face, is terrified for Crowley, and immediately figures out something to quash the threat. Aziraphale is so smart and so fearful for Crowley's safety, he will do whatever it takes, above his own interests to keep him safe.

"Trust me". The bullet catch. God, the stress of this trick, this insane show of trust and love. "You said trust me", "and you did". I have watched season two an unknowable number of times now, and this is still difficult to see on screen, but it's there. Aziraphale mouths, "trust me" and Crowley catches it, and more importantly, trusts him.

This angel knows he's being watched, the love of his life has been threatened, he knows he has no options and he needs to perform a massive trick to save Crowley. Good thing, he always gets it right the time it matters.

Honorable mention: I am an "Aziraphale was trying to signal for a time stop/help to Crowley" truther, here, when it looks like maybe he mimes 'timeout' and "help". I think either Crowley was too blinded by his newfound plan to confess his undying love for Aziraphale to pick up on his "something's wrong voice" or clear non-verbal communication, which we've established this season they are very good at (see Aziraphale asking Crowley to freeze Dalrymple in Edinburgh). OR he did catch the signals and he is LISTENING.

If you haven't read this post by @noneorother about the parallels between The Tales of Hoffmann and GO season 2, you need to. But to snag a small quote of theirs to highlight this one specific point:

"Stella [Aziraphale] arrives in the tavern looking for Hoffmann [Crowley], ready to run away, but now accompanied by Lindoff [Metatron] (dressed as an angelic figure) who followed her. She looks to Hoffmann to save her, but he's too blinded by the fact that he doesn't think she loves him back to pick up on the signal. He gives up, and she goes back up the stairs guided by Lindoff." - @noneorother

Okay but seriously make sure you go read that whole post.

If that isn't what happens in the final 15, what is?

Then we have the end of 1941 pt.2, wine in the backroom, and the reveal of the photograph. Crowley realizes Aziraphale saved him, he realizes how much he can trust him, and if my observed light bulb headlight moment is anything, it happened after the final 15 too. He knows. It's still devastating, it's still heartbreaking, and it doesn't invalidate all the feelings and love they couldn't quite come out and communicate right then. They are living under an Orwellian regime, this isn't really a job they can quit or even run away from. They were angels created for a purpose. Sure gabriel and Beelzebub left, but how long until someone tries to hunt them down? Plus, what's the point if Crowley and Aziraphale abandon Earth and just let armageddon part two happen? That's a pretty shit thing of them to do. They want to live on Earth, they want to protect the humans, and they want to do it together.

They didn't eat the apple, the humans did. Maybe at the end of season 3, they'll get their chance.

[chickentnders]

I Think Katsuki is Going to Give Izuku His Quirk in the End

(rewritten here)

There are only two chapters left, so who knows, I haven't seen leaks, but I think there's some compelling evidence supporting the possibility that Katsuki will end up quirkless and Izuku will be given his quirk. And I felt like talking about it. Hi.

*Manga spoilers through chapter 428, Vigilantes, and the Heroes Rising movie*

In chapter 304, Izuku finds out that he's likely the last person who will ever hold One For All, since it can only be transferred to a quirkless person now. Izuku is the 9th, and final, user of OFA.

Except, the thing is, this isn't true.

I'd been going with the understanding that OFA can't be passed on again, but that's not quite what it says in the manga. They say he might be the last wielder and that it can't go to an ordinary person anymore.

This is true, in order to hold the power of OFA, one has to be quirkless, because it eats away at one's life force to have multiple quirks added to their own (as we see with the 4th user).

And this also isn't true, because of the Heroes Rising movie.

The really crazy thing I realized is that this contradiction, doesn't actually contradict what's been established in manga canon.

So, what counts as canon?

Everything, apparently.

In Heroes Rising, there are two little kids at the center of things, Katsuma and Mahoro.

In chapter 384 of the manga, those same two little kids showed up. Then they show up again in chapter 405.

Meaning, the events of that movie… happened?

And that means that there aren't nine OFA users; there are ten.

All Might Vestige

In chapter 362, Katsuki dies. R.I.P. Kacchan, who has now also died in the anime.

But near death, the person he sees in his final moments is All Might. Not Izuku, not his family, not his friends, his teacher. And not just All Might, All Might's non-verbal glowing vestige.

Why this version of All Might, instead of the man?

I have an idea, and it has to do with Heroes Rising.

I thought Vestige-Might was just a stylistic choice on Horikoshi-sensei's part. All Might symbolizes Katsuki's dream, he's the person he idolized his whole life, and he's thinking about things he regrets in his final moments; an autograph from his hero, such a simple thing he never got to ask for.

But then Katsuki stopped being dead and all of a sudden Mahoro and Katsuma showed up in the manga, twice, and I had to reevaluate my perception of MHA canon and what qualifies.

Let's rewind a bit to chapter 254, before the PLF raid so I can make a quick point (for others like me who are used to supplementary material not being acknowledged in, or as, canon).

When Eraserhead and Present Mic are talking to Kurogiri and trying to coax Shirakumo out of him, Eraserhead talks about Shirakumo saving a cat, after Aizawa had left it behind.

For like four years I wondered why the story kept trying to make me care so much about Shirakumo and his friendship with the other two, with so little information given, only to find out not long ago that the entire backstory is covered in Vigilantes.

Which means Vigilantes is canon.

Which means, with the inclusion of movie characters in the main manga… it's all canon. Searching the subreddit and wiki also confirmed this for me.

So if Heroes Rising is canon, that drastically changes the context and potential meaning of Vestige-Might appearing to near death Katsuki.

Because in Heroes Rising, Izuku transfers OFA to Katsuki to defeat Nine.

When it's over, OFA doesn't stay with Katsuki; it goes back to Izuku and Katsuki has no memory of this ever happening. But Katsuki does hold OFA for a short time.

That means that Katsuki is the 10th OFA holder.

Like I said, there aren't nine, there are ten holders.

Like, did it bother anyone else that nine was such an awkward number for OFA holders? It feels incomplete, right?

Considering the events of the manga, this is a potentially huge deal with some interesting implications.

In the final battle in the manga, Deku passed OFA to Shigaraki, one quirk at a time. OFA, the quirk, is officially dead and gone; only the embers remain in Izuku and Izuku is quirkless again.

But like I said… since the movies are canon, then it's also possible that a small ember is also in Katsuki. He didn't hold it long enough to have his own vestige like All Might, but he was still a holder.

So, what if Katsuki was seeing Vestige-Might within the OFA vestige world and that really was All Might? Glow-Might couldn't speak, just like how we see him in Izuku's vestige space; and iirc, he can't speak, because All Might is still alive.

Now, Katuski only saw All Might, not any of the other holders, but that also makes sense. They have no emotional investment in Katsuki, he barely held the quirk, and he doesn't know who they are aside from what he read in All Might's notes. But All Might does care about him, so it makes sense that the piece of himself that exists within OFA would appear in his student's final moments, through the ember of OFA inside Katsuki.

As I was looking to find chapter numbers for this, I ended up flipping through the All Might vs. AFO fight by happenstance and realized something else:

This is from chapter 403. It looks like All Might is about to die and as he thinks this is the end for him, his life flashes before his eyes and he looks back at the path he walked and notices these balls of light on the ground. He thinks, "And what I saw… seemed so very significant."

Hey. You notice anything about this bright ball of light in the center of the panel?

At the end of the chapter, we see Katsuki and Izuku holding those balls of light, with All Might watching from the background, holding his own ball of light. I thought this represented him being their teacher, pushing them forward to become great heroes, a passing of the torch to the next generation of heroes. He never had kids, so this is how he passes on his legacy, through the aspirations of all the children who looked up to him.

Or.

Or it is a passing of the torch, but literally.

Dynamight's Final Fight

I don't know if anyone noticed this, it might not be significant, their costumes get destroyed all the time, but…

In his fight with Shigaraki, as ShigAFO tells him he'll never be anything more than Deku's hanger on, Katsuki's costume is destroyed. Going back a few chapters from 362 (R.I.P. Kacchan), visually, it feels like we're being shown his dream of becoming a pro hero get destroyed bit by bit. His arm gets crushed and twisted, his gauntlets are shattered, his mask gets torn off, he gets an upgrade to his costume and it's barely effective, and it seems from the narration that his quirk was damaging his body from the inside out (like how OFA would do to Izuku).

That fight looks like the end for him, his heart literally explodes (or gets pierced, idk), but he gets back up, saves All Might, and has a grand finale against AFO. The last thing we see him do is propel Izuku the final step to deal that last punch and end things. It's Izuku's story, so of course he lands the final blow, but the point is, Katsuki the one to support him then, because it could never be him.

When we see him in the hospital after it's all over in ch. 424, not only is he told his arm possibly never going to regain normal function, let alone enough to use his quirk like he did before, but his heart is also damaged. We already know that he uses support items to store up his sweat, and I imagine in the MHA world a prosthesis could function similarly in hero work, yet he wants to do the long and painful rehabilitation, despite possibly never regaining function. This is not to criticize his choice to keep his arm at all, I just thought it was interesting, considering how similar he's shown to be to Mirko and how he chose the opposite of what she did.

This feels like a very important choice, because of the support item aspect.

But the most interesting thing in this scene was that he mentions that Izuku never had a quirk to begin with, right before he finds out that Izuku is quirkless again.

(side note: Both Izuku and All Might fought quirkless in the final battle and I love that for them? Like Izuku was technically quirkless when he dealt that final weather changing blow, incredible.)

How Does OFA Actually Work?

Once All Might gave OFA to Izuku, he no longer had the quirk, just the embers. He couldn't pass on the ember that was left inside him and those embers couldn't be stolen. Izuku can't pass on what he has left either. The actual OFA quirk is gone from the previous holder once it's transferred.

But I think another reason that All Might or Izuku couldn't pass anything on again after giving it away, is that they were both quirkless. In the absence of the quirk-passing quirk, there's nothing left of their own quirk factors to pass on, because they never had one. And all of the other holders died/were killed so it wasn't tested as a possibility.

If you think about it… didn't Nana still have Float once she passed OFA onto All Might? All Might never unlocked the other users' quirks (he never had Float) so there's no test he could have done for this either. As far as all the other holders knew, OFA was just lifetimes of built up strength passed on, none of them made true contact with the vestiges to learn about its true power. There would have been no reason to assume that their quirk was forfeit once OFA was passed on, because they didn't know that the actual unique quirk factor was stored.

But if she still had Float after transfer, I would imagine that means that only a copy of the quirk, a small piece, is what's passed on in OFA and that the original stays with the person. One For All isn't eight quirks, it's a single quirk with the abilities of the predecessors. Otherwise, if Shinomori died of old age at a very young age, All Might living as long as he did while holding onto it for longer makes no sense.

If OFA gives, while AFO takes, it also makes sense that OFA doesn't take the person's original quirk.

So what does that mean for canon right now?

If Katsuki is the 10th OFA holder and if a small bit of OFA lives inside him, it was unused, and therefore undiminished, because he never knew it was there—he doesn't remember the events of the movie. He hasn't been using OFA like All Might used it until it was barely a flicker, so the piece that could be inside him is still burning brightly.

He can't pass on OFA anymore, just like All Might and Izuku; the actual OFA quirk is gone.

But Katsuki isn't quirkless.

OFA is a quirk meant to pass power from one person to another. If Izuku and All Might could still make use of OFA's strength, who's to say that it's transfer ability couldn't also be used via the embers? Remember, they didn't have their own quirks to try this out and everyone before them had died early.

Katsuki would be the only person left who could possibly use it pass on a quirk again, because he actually has his own quirk. And while Izuku was the last person who could hold it as a quirkless person (a rarity in his generation), as a quirkless person once more, he's also the perfect vessel to receive a quirk using the last remaining bits of OFA.

So how does this not contradict manga canon?

Well, like I mentioned, the vestiges tell him that he might be the last wielder of OFA, because now it can only go to someone quirkless, and there are fewer and fewer quirkless people born in the world.

Yet, in Heroes Rising, Izuku transfers it to Katsuki, who is not a quirkless individual.

At the end of the movie, once Nine is defeated, Katsuki can't hold onto it and it goes back to Izuku. This aligns exactly with what the vestiges told him. Katsuki just got a taste of the super strength aspect of the quirk, but it didn't stay with him. All Might posits that it's because he passed out before the transfer finished, but changes his mind into thinking it was a miracle granted by the predecessors (since OFA has been shown to have a will).

But what if he was wrong, and it went back to Izuku, because Katsuki literally couldn't hold onto it, as it was too much for his body?

In Heroes Rising, Nine (whose name feels very significant now), was given the ability to hold nine quirks and use eight, and it was too much for him, he had to be genetically modified by Garaki. And even then, he was trying to steal Katsuma's Cell Activation quirk, because his body was breaking down the more he used them. I could be mistaken of course, but I think we're given a villain like this to show what multiple quirks do to the body and the movie ended the way it did, not breaking canon rules for OFA, because we're seeing that it was always impossible for Katsuki to hold onto it. Nobody but Izuku, a quirkless person, can.

We already know Izuku was the 9th holder, but I actually just realized, Izuku was holding onto and could use eight quirks. But if Katsuki was the 10th user, that means he was also possibly holding onto nine while being able to use eight, just like Nine. If I'm mistaken, someone please correct me, but look:

Yoichi's original quirk to pass on power

Power Stocking Quirk gifted by AFO

Gear Shift

Fa Jin

Danger Sense

Black Whip

Smokescreen

Float

(and a copy of Katsuki's Explosion could have been in there, never unlocked or known about since he doesn't have a vestige)

Possible coincidence? Absolutely. But, I mean—

And as for how Katsuki would even know that he has OFA if he doesn't remember: He saw Vestige-Might specifically and All Might was there after the battle with Nine.

Katsuki knows about the vestiges from Izuku. He figured out that All Might was the one who gave Izuku his quirk, despite having no reason to believe that quirk transfer was possible aside from Izuku telling him he got his quirk from someone else. Katsuki is smart enough to figure out that Vestige-Might appearing to him could possibly mean something OFA related.

As For Why Katsuki Might (Possibly) (Probably) (Maybe?) Give Up His Quirk

Because he didn't get the prosthesis. And because of his final fight.

I already mentioned this, but to me, it feels like he's resigning himself to a decision. As if he wants to keep both of his hands as a reminder of what he used to be able to do with them and there's no need for a support item like prosthesis, if he's not going to be using his quirk anymore. If he's giving it up.

Of course, he doesn't yet know that Izuku is quirkless at that point, but the author knows and that's who controls the character's actions.

We've learned a lot about Katsuki throughout the story. We know Katsuki has changed from the punk he was at the beginning. We know he's been paying as much attention to Izuku as Izuku has to him. We know he's sorry and wants to make things up to him. He apologized in front of their entire class and didn't expect forgiveness or for things to change between them. He can't undo years of bullying, there's no way to take that back, the past can't be undone, but he's trying to atone. He wants to atone.

We know he cares about Izuku, we know he would literally die for Izuku, and we also know that Katsuki was devastated at the news that Izuku is quirkless again. He's actually cried a lot in the story, but I think that was the first time he cried for someone else's sake. They were his first tears that weren't from frustration, and his thoughts in that moment were "what did I do to you?"

We also know that Katsuki wanted to be the strongest hero, and honestly… he kind of already achieved his goal.

From chapter one he's gotten a ton of media attention—the sludge villain, winning the sports festival, the kidnapping and rescue (coinciding with All Might's end), defeating a villain with Shouto after they got their provisional licenses. He's literally famous. People have taken notice of him with everything he's done the entire story, for good and bad, and then the entire world saw him defeat AFO and help Deku make it to Shigaraki to land that final punch. After a rocky start and being painted as villainous, he showed he could be a great hero and it was acknowledged by the entire world. There isn't really anywhere else for his story to naturally go as a hero.

It's literally physically impossible for a single human to surpass All Might without OFA, which was Katsuki's goal at the beginning. And at the end, he just wanted him and Izuku to keep chasing after each other, always trying to catch up forever, but now they can't.

It's also why Endeavor's story is so tragic. Can you imagine being Endeavor when he found out about OFA and that the game had been rigged against him from the start? He spent his entire life trying to be the strongest, not number one, but the strongest. He put all his energy into surpassing All Might, abused and neglected his family in pursuit of that goal, cast aside everything else, and then he finds out his entire life had been pointless, because All Might was using a cheat code. Endeavor never stood a chance to begin with. He could have spent that time getting to know his kids, or marrying someone out of love, or making one (1) single friend, but instead he was the number two hero for twenty-six straight years and went nowhere. His ambition meant nothing.

It's been reiterated time and again in the story that Katsuki and Endeavor are parallels. Shigaraki was right that Katsuki would never catch up to Deku, it's impossible. He would have lived his entire life like Endeavor in a meaningless pursuit. And if we look at Endeavor's conclusion, well...

Endeavor had planned to give up hero work and spend the rest of his life looking at Touya and atoning to his family. He ended up being forced to by his injuries, but he had still planned to give up the thing in his life that had given him the most meaning and pride (when it should have been his family). Hero work was the thing he valued most, and so Endeavor gave it up for what really mattered.

For Katsuki, the thing that gave him the most meaning and pride in his life was his quirk. And striving to be the best, just like Endeavor. He valued that over his friendship with Izuku, the thing that really mattered. It's kind of undeniable at this point, leaving shipping completely out of the equation, that Izuku is Katsuki's most important person.

So with Endeavor's conclusion, and how the manga is currently going… I can't help but wonder if that final fight against OFA was supposed to be Katsuki's big send off. A huge spectacle with everyone in the world watching, because that was the end of the road for him; his last big battle, not just in the story, but ever.

What if that was the end of his journey to becoming a pro hero?

What if we got to see his quirk evolve one last time and take down the baddest bad guy, because it was the last time he was ever going to be physically able to use his quirk?

Is the logical conclusion to his story for him to give up that thing he valued over what was important to him, just like Endeavor did in the end? Would him giving that up symbolize him not following in Endeavor's footsteps of obsessive drive that eclipses everything else in his life?

Is Katsuki is going to give Izuku his Explosion quirk, using that last bit of OFA?

And what if Katsuki is going to end the story quirkless and was always intended to from the very beginning?

And here's where I get back to those lights.

Because I think it (possibly) confirms what I was saying in the beginning.

There are nine One For All users, according to the manga. We've established that that's not actually true if the movies are canon, and they are. There are ten OFA users.

These are the full two panels previously mentioned of what All Might was thinking at the start of 403 when he looked back at his path.

He thinks, "As for what I've done? I just happened to glance back at my path. And what I saw… seemed so very significant."

Let's see how many lights there are as he looks back at his path:

There are ten (10) lights [insert TNG joke here], not nine. And the big one, smack dab in the center, is shown with Katsuki's explosions around it.

I thought for a moment that these were possibly just the stored quirk factors, but Izuku and All Might are quirkless, so there wouldn't be ten lights if that were the case.

I think it's showing us that these lights represent the holders of OFA.

Katsuki is that tenth center light, confirming that he's the 10th OFA user.

This panel right here of the child Katsuki and Izuku with their balls of light? This is on the last page before Izuku sees Katsuki alive again after finding him dead and losing his mind. Please note All Might in the background, also holding his own ball of light.

And remember this from chapter 362 (R.I.P. Kacchan)?

It's the same image as Katsuki's final thoughts. The balls of light are the trading cards they got that day, but wait for it—

In 403, right before the panel of them as children holding the balls of light, we see that same center ball of light on the ground of All Might's path again, then a panel of Katsuki holding his All Might trading card beneath it. Almost as if the story is trying to tell us something about what that trading card represents and what Katsuki holding it really means.

Right before we see their expressions as they lock eyes, as Izuku realizes Katsuki isn't dead, it shows the two of them as little kids, happy to have both gotten All Might trading cards.

I don't think the trading cards we see here are really trading cards.

This whole chapter, the last two pages especially, was completely re-contextualized for me after noticing there are ten lights.

Like I said earlier, All Might didn't just pass the torch metaphorically, I think he passed it literally.

OFA is always represented as flame, as embers, etc... Those trading cards don't just symbolize their friendship, or their dreams, or their admiration, I think Horikoshi-sensei is showing us that they both have the same trading card, because they both have the same thing inside of them. Something passed onto them from All Might, because All Might is also shown with his own ball of light.

Why would All Might have his own All Might trading card…?

The trading cards aren't trading cards, they're One For All. Katsuki and Izuku hold the embers that All Might passed down to both of them.

Remember, the scene in 362 and 403 are exactly the same. They're Katsuki's memories. How is All Might's near death vision showing him memories that aren't his? Well, if they're connected through One For All, it makes sense that he sees that, because that's literally impossible otherwise. He could see them as high schoolers, as middle schoolers when he first me them, but not as small children in a very real scene that actually happened.

And if OFA is still alive inside Katsuki, I think that means he can transfer Explosion, because he has his own quirk factor.

If Izuku and All Might could still use everything that made OFA what it was, despite not having it anymore, there is nothing saying that the transfer ability wouldn't also work.

The only thing stopping them from trying is having nothing to pass on, because they were quirkless. Katsuki does have something he can pass on, though.

And who better to receive Katsuki's Explosion quirk, than the person who'd spent his entire life watching him?? Izuku is the perfect person, and I imagine the only person Katsuki would deem worthy of receiving it. He knows Katsuki's moves almost as well as Katsuki himself.

At USJ when the Shigaraki attacks, Izuku puts on a brave face and fights just like Kacchan. When he learns from Gran Torino, he realizes that he has to be more loose and fluids with his movements, just like Kacchan. In [training exercise I can't remember] Katsuki notices that Izuku copied his moves. He knows how Katsuki's moves work without him even telling him.

What if the story came full circle and Izuku was constantly emulating Katsuki in the beginning, because it was foreshadowing that he was always supposed to end up with his Explosoin quirk?

Can you imagine how good that payoff could be?

All that paying attention to Kacchan, admiring him, copying his moves, trying to be like him, having him as his image of victory, knowing a frankly alarming amount about it, what if that was all 430 chapters of foreshadowing? This is why I asked if maybe Katsuki was always intended to end up quirkless.

What if the thing that caused the rift in their friendship is going to be the thing that heals it, as Bakugou's ultimate acknowledgement that quirkless nerd Izuku was always a hero and deserves to be one more than anyone else?

What if giving his quirk to Izuku, who is once again quirkless, is his ultimate atonement and the thing that Horikoshi-sensei said back in like 2022 (paraphrasing because I don't remember, please don't quote me) that he hoped would make Bakugou fans and haters alike both happy? Because I thought it was killing him (R.I.P. Kacchan), but this feels like it makes more sense.

I think swapping places from where they started would be the perfect conclusion for their friendship and Katsuki's journey. I don't know about the whole story, and I don't care to speculate about that, but for the two of them, this feels right to me.

That said, I am aware there are some

Potential Issues With This

1. Would Izuku accept the quirk? Probably not, but as we saw with Yoichi and Kudou, the recipient doesn't have to be aware in order to receive OFA; it's on the giver to will it to them. The recipient does not have to consent, all Katsuki has to do is spit in his food, really.

2. There's the issue of Izuku trying to give it right back. But All Might only managed to hold onto OFA's embers for a few months after nurturing it for 40 years. Izuku only held OFA for a little over a year, he probably won't have the embers very long and it's already been a while since the final battle. All Katsuki would have to do is wait a few weeks for the last embers of it to fade from Izuku before transferring it, ensuring he couldn't pass it back. Since Katsuki only held OFA for less than a day, that would probably use up the last embers of OFA for good.

3. The lack of acknowledgement of the events of Heroes Rising in the main manga is a MASSIVE writing issue. For me, this is the thing that makes the scenario most unlikely, because as of July 24, 2024, there are only two (2) chapters left to go and that's not much time to explain movie events in order to not have a quirk transfer seem like it came out of nowhere or breaks established canon.

3a. But, like I mentioned before, this was already done this with Vigilantes concerning Shirakumo's backstory. We're supposed to feel empathy and compassion for their long dead friend, but no real work was put into the main manga to establish how close their relationship was, we're just told that they were friends and classmates. We get some hints to the events in Vigilantes in the main manga, but they don't carry as much weight without the full context.

Meanwhile in Vigilantes, Shirakumo and Aizawa are very close and they're all friends, but tbh, Mic is basically a third wheel. The entire arc reads like a tragic story of lost love, Shirakumo's death changed everything for Aizawa. After Shirakumo's death, Aizawa goes off on his own, works himself to the bone, doesn't sleep because he's training all night (the origin story of the sleeping bag), is depressed, stops trying in classes, he's told his quirk is suited for working with others (which is true) yet he goes independent, basically abandons Mic and the plans the three of them had to start an agency together (he says they were going to be a duo or a trio and let me tell you, Mic was not included in the duo)—it's depressing.

No wonder Aizawa was the one who got so worked up at seeing Kurogiri; Shirakumo meant a lot to him, his entire world shifted when he died. And no wonder Mic was so uncharacteristically reserved and pissed about the whole situation; he'd had to watch Aizawa retreat into himself for years after Shirakumo died, and then his ghost showed back up as a villain. Aizawa's arc is pretty long in Vigilantes, I think it's an entire volume, so it would bring the plot to a grinding halt if it were all included in the main manga, but unfortunately, none of this information feels effectively communicated through subtext in the main manga.

In my opinion, Vigilantes is a necessary read to understand several things the main manga. I loved it, and I highly recommend it (despite some very questionable scenes); imo, Number 6 vs. The Crawler felt like it did a better job at what at least two final fights in MHA were going for. But I'm not a fan of writing that requires you to have read outside material to fill in gaps. That said, I've also seen this happen before in American comic books, so I think it kind of makes sense that that influence would carry over and he'd rely on supplementary material like Vigilantes and the movies.

So getting back to my point, if Katsuki does have OFA, like those lights and Vestige-Might seem to imply, I'm kind of thinking it will be the same sort of situation, where it's expected the reader will have watched Heroes Rising. Especially since Horikoshi-sensei drew so many illustrations with Mahoro and Katsuma.

The ten lights, the fact that Nana still had Float (afaik), Vestige-Might, the fact that Heroes Rising was acknowledged at least twice in the main manga, Endeavor's ending, the trading cards, etc… all make me think that this is the conclusion for Katsuki that Horikoshi-sensei was working towards: quirkless Katsuki and Izuku with Explosion. But I also know that just because something is set up and foreshadowed, doesn't mean that the author will actually go through with it, especially in a weekly manga where anything can interfere with the story at any moment. Maybe I'm close to right and maybe I'll be so far off it's not even funny.

But who knows. There are only two chapters left and some writing choices have been confusing to say the least. I just hope we get a satisfactory ending, no matter what it is. Thank you, Horikoshi-sensei for all your hard work.

What do you think?

Do you think Katsuki will give Explosion to Izuku?

Do you think Izuku will become the first quirkless pro hero instead?

Do you think Katsuki could become the first quirkless pro hero? How wild would that be!

Do you think they'll go to a fair and share a crepe and we'll finally get that holding hands scene and the quirk will be transferred via saliva and Izuku will have an oh shit bakudeku canon moment thinking back to his words to Toga? Unlikely with how many chapters are left, but I would scream.

I haven't seen anyone talk about this before, I really only look at ship tags, but this feels pretty bkdk and I'd imagine I would have seen it at some point if so, especially around the time 362 (R.I.P. Kacchan) and 424 dropped. I don't really read theories, as I generally don't care where the story goes and am just along for the ride, but if someone has said all this before me, sorry for being redundant!

I hope this wasn't too repetitive, thanks for reading ✌️Don't mind my blank blog, this is just a side blog on a side account, feel free to let me know if I've made any mistakes, I'm not an expert on the story by any means and welcome correction.

I haven't looked at leaks (if they're out, I don't check for that) so that would be wild if anything I mentioned here was in them, but tbh I doubt it, haha.

[axtivaqe]

Life is strange Double Exposure is NOT canon

So its been getting around that Chloe isn't gonna be in Lis DE and I have never been more devastated in my life. Deck nine said they were going to respect the 2 decisions that players could've made, yet they practically said "fuck you" and took Chloe out of the picture. I just don't understand why though, like 50% of the fanbase picked sacrifice Arcadia bay and it was mainly because we are huge pricefield shippers (idk about y'all but I am). And their not stupid, they know about the pricefield ship and how much people wanted to see Chloe and Max in another game. They literally said they were going to follow through with the original games and the 2 decisions at the end, but then they completely scrap the idea of Chloe and Max being together, and they didn't even want to tell us. People had been asking about Chloes role in DE since the game first got announced, so why would they leave our questions unanswered for so long? It makes no sense on their behalf and its js overall bad marketing, They made it out that Chloe left Max because she didn't want to do long distance, but thats not Chloe at all. Chloe is the girl who dedicated her WHOLE journal to letters for/to Max in before the storm, Chloe is the girl who wrote "and she probably has all new friends up in fucking Seattle, i still miss her. if she came back tomorrow and said "hey Chloe, want to dress up like pirates and be stupid together?" i would take her back in a heartbeat." after she hadn't seen or spoken to her for 3 years, Chloe is the girl who told max that they would last forever and that she would never leave her. They completely mischaracterised her and made the whole sacrifice Arcadia bay option pointless, they spent 10 years together and Chloe throws it away because she cant do temporary long distance? Thats not like her at all. I see people saying "its realistic though, a relationship built from trauma isn't healthy" and it really annoys me, like yes their right, but thats in the real world, its a game about a girl who can jump between realities which isn't realistic at all. And don't even get me started on the rumour about Chloe flirting with VICTORIA.

But the game still isn't out yet, I mean we only have the first 2 episodes and I'm not sure if all of this is confirmed (if it is how do we know when we only have the 2 episodes?) or if people are just taking the 2 episodes and their story line, and then putting the pieces together. I was having a convo with someone in the comments under a yt video by Cucu on Games about how Chloe will be in DE (the video was made 3 weeks ago before all this info came out) and we both thought that maybe Chloe will come back into max's life in one of the last episodes, maybe she misses Max and hears about what happened with her friend Safi and comes to see her and reconnect with her, because surely Deck nine, a huge game company who know what their fanbase wants, wouldn't use false advertising by making us think Chloe is gonna be in the game only to scrap that idea after saying they wanted to respect and follow the two choices players could have made.

Its a really controversial opinion and I've seen a few people say it makes sense and its part of Max's character development, but Id say most of the fanbase isn't happy about this whole thing. I mean of course I'm happy to be able to see Max in another game, and we're lucky to even be getting another lis game. But to make us think we're going to see Chloe and then let us find out that we aren't is just bad marketing. If they never intended to have Chloe in the game then why wouldn't they answer everyones question, 'Is Chloe going to make a physical appearance?' (they would've 100% seen people asking because their social media pages are flooded with the one question about Chloe) Lmk what you think tho, and if you made it all the way through this then thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this long ass rant 😭

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Just read your eridan essay. I left a lot of words in the tags (sorry about that btw. I'm @kitkat-not-karkat, those were my tags) and I just. Holy fucking shit man.

THANK YOU FOR PUTTING IT INTO WORDS. Like. Genuinely. Thank you.

That said, do you have any ideas on why Eridan might specifically flirt as a sort of default response sometimes? (I really hope I'm not misremembering that, the fandom bastardizes the poor guy to be Cronus 2.0-)

I have my own personal speculation here, but I'd love to see your take on it!

I think it's a few things all working in tandem, and I think you definitely nailed at least most of it! I do agree that a huge part of his fixation on romance is the fact that a romantic partner is "supposed" to stick around, and Eridan is simply desperate for attention and friendship.

There are a lot of people who idealize relationships and believe that they're the "fix" or "solution" to their emotional problems, and Eridan's obsession with blackrom in particular (where the caligulas part of his trolltag comes from) definitely has shades of that. A kismesistude is an outlet for violent urges, as well as a romantic interest who ideally doesn't ghost you or leave you alone (cough Vriska cough), and one of the two concupiscent quadrants that needs to be filled so you don't get culled.

An interesting thing is constantly being implied within the comic, which is that moirallegiance is actually kind of the most important quadrant for trolls, but their culture has de-emphasized it in favor of the two breeding-related quads. After all, since adult trolls don't have to raise their own young, what Karkat calls "mating fondness" is biologically much less imperative to their species compared to the quadrant that keeps volatile trolls from going berserk and killing people.

Moirallegiance is always treated with a sort of mysticism - it's called "magical" by the narration in relation to Kanaya and Vriska's moirallegiance while that's still extant, it's the only quadrant described as "soul mates," and in contrast to "mating fondness," Karkat mentions the "mystical forces governing moirallegiance." Moirails - Equius and Nepeta being confirmed, but I genuinely believe that that's what Feferi and Sollux would have resolved to in that hypothetical golden ending - are also the quad that spends the most time together, rather than the two concupiscents. The initial description of the pale quadrant even outright says that the attraction is "instinctive." There's something magical and destiny-laden in a moirallegiance that just isn't there to the same extent in the other three quads.

But in Alternian society, kindness, guilt, and the other kinds of things you'd share with a moirail are considered weakness, especially for highbloods. When Feferi is breaking up with him, Eridan flips out the hardest at the implication that she felt the need to take care of him, insisting that he was perfectly fine. I think this is the reason, in addition to the painful breakup, that Eridan never pursues pale relationships, even though a moirail is what he desperately needs. Instead, he pursues the much more societally acceptible pitch quadrant, which can serve a similar purpose of discharging some of his pent-up aggression.

Moreover, his flirting isn't nearly as relentless as people think it is, although he IS both really stubborn AND really socially inept, which makes it difficult both to get a "no" through his brain, AND to make it stick. Another part of it is that he's operating at very little self-awareness, which means he'll often be doing something without consciously realizing it. Also, he's desperate as hell, and has basically no ability to differentiate good and bad attention. This leads to a pretty messy cocktail that basically means:

He'll hit on anyone at least once (desperation), with the exception of people it would be really weird to hit on, for example, their dancestors, who are way older than them.

If a rejection is not made excruciatingly clear, he probably won't register it as a rejection (dumbassery).

Nearly any attention he gets might be misinterpreted as flirting, even after a rejection is made (desperation, also, can't differentiate between good and bad attention).

Even after a rejection is made and he logically understands it and outright says he respects it, he might still act in a flirtatious way unconsciously (zero self awareness).

Because he will hit on anyone at least once, and is constantly making things weird and leaping to "romance?" even when there's no flirtatious intent, people kind of assume he's always hitting on them, even when he isn't.

His emotions always running at a fever pitch, and the lack of self-awareness he cultivates in order to help deal with his horrible cognitive dissonance, mean that even HE'S not sure about his real feelings. He's always feeling SOMETHING very, very intensely (it's the trauma and anxiety), which he mistakes for true caliginous hatred, or fevered flushed intent. Unlike Cronus, who's basically just trying to get some action, Eridan genuinely feels something for people, and his extreme lack of emotional intelligence means he has no idea how to parse his own tempestuous emotions. He always leaps to feverish concupiscent attraction because that's just how intense his emotions run at any given moment.

#4 is happening to Feferi and Sollux, IMO, while Rose never properly rejected him, so he still thinks they have a chance, and the same happened with Vriska when she started ghosting him post-kismesistude. #5 can be seen in his last memo with Karkat, where Karkat starts to wonder if past!Eridan was redflirting with him by inviting him to LOWAA, even as Eridan himself has no idea what the fuck Karkat is talking about.

Thing is, he DOES actually accept rejections once he gets them through his thick skull, which sets him apart from Cronus, who gets rejected, knows it, and keeps going. It's just... Eridan's messy. His emotions are all over the place, and too big for his stupid body, so he's always making things weird and intense.

I blame his lusus, personally. In a previous post, I talk about how a huge factor in his inability to identify negative attention is because he's basically being emotionally neglected. This has also led to his desperation for attention in general. When combined with the trauma from all the murdering and the pressure society puts on him to fit into a certain mold, it leads to some pretty explosive emotional ourbursts, of which his intense, insistent, and downright uncomfortable flirting is a major facet, but also, only a facet.

[originalaccountname]

Fun BSD French translation details and choices - Episode 60 (by someone who does not understand Japanese but thinks the differences with the English translation/subtitles are fun)

General notes:

I can confirm that, yes, Fyodor still uses the formal 'you' (vous) for Chuuya while ordering him around.

The French subtitles had Dazai say chiottes (basically "(the) crapper/shitter") when his attempt to make Chuuya punch him failed, but the dubbed version cuts after "chi-". What he yells after being shot in the shoulder though is "bordel" (lit. brothel) which is the equivalent of him yelling shit/fuck.

Today's quotes:

VF: Moi devient fort? (Me become strong?) <- like a caveman ENG SUBS: Strong?

VF: Mais qui sait? Je pourrais tenter un dernier acte désespéré en prononçant un discours poignant faisant l'éloge du pouvoir de l'amitié pour ramener ce brave Chuuya à la raison... (Who knows? I could make one last desperate attempt by delivering a moving speech about the power of friendship to bring this brave Chuuya back to his senses...) ENG SUBS: Who knows? I might say something absolutely profound and moving, and Chuuya might come back to his senses by the miraculous power of friendship?

VF: Chuuya... Reviens à toi, je t'en prie. Notre chemin ne peut pas s'arrêter ici, nous avons encore tant de choses à accomplir, parce que toi et moi- (Chuuya... come back to your senses, I beg of you. Our path cannot stop here, we have too much left to accomplish, because you and I-) ENG SUBS: Chuuya... Wake up. Our fate isn't to be done here. For our-

[slecnaztemnot]

Representatives of factions in Veilguard

Apart from our companions, it seems that each faction in the Veilguard will be represented by a pair (or more?) of main NPCs. Some of them already appeared in the trailer!

Antivan Crows

Viago de Riva and Andarateia Cantori (Teia)

Fifth and Seventh Talon of the Antivan Crows, respectively. We met them both in Tevinter Nights and in the comics (Deception, The Missing). Viago is bastard son of Antivan King and master poisoner. Teia is an elven thief and seductress. Her raise in ranks was considered controversial, since she had no connections and is not of noble blood.

They are dating (kinda sorta?)

Grey Wardens

Evka Ivo and Antoine

Evka is a formerly Orzammar dwarf who was saved by a Grey warden and joined their ranks. Antoine is an elf from Orlais, who was tainted and saved by Joining. We met them in Tevinter Nights, protecting a village from a very non-Darkspawn threat, in short stories on Bioware website and in comics The Missing.

Shot from the trailer:

They got engaged in the short story, its seriously cute!

Veil Jumpers

Irelin and Strife

Irelin is a Dalish elf from clan Morlyn. She is a shapeshifter mage. Strife is a former city elf from Starkhaven who joined Dalish as adult. He is a capable archer (and older, at least 50-60). We meet them in Tevinter Nights, short story on Bioware website and in comics The Missing.

They were both confirmed to appear in GameInformer article, which I sadly can't link due to GI being shut down. Irelin also appears in the shot of the trailer.

Images from comics

Mourn Watch

From now on, this is speculation, nothing confirmed in trailer or other media. For Mourn Watch, I think the representative NPCs will be:

Audric Felhausen and Myrna

Audric is a formerly city watch member who now works for Mourn watch and guards/catalogues library. We learn something interesting about him in Tevinter Nights! Myrna is a mage who we meet in the same story he appears in.

Possibly in this shot next to door, as spotted by a friendly redditor!

Lords of Fortune

Again, no confirmation. We meet one Lord of Fortune in Absolution, though Bioware said the cartoon is its own thing and not connected to Veilguard.

In Tevinter Nights, we meet two possible candidates:

Hollix, nonbinary Lord of Fortune, who is expert at disguise. We might have already met them, but we wouldn't be able to tell! Probably human, but its unclear?

Bharv is a dwarf and experienced Lord of Fortune from Rivain.

No pics here either!

Shadow Dragons

This group is most enigmatic, as its completely new to us! It was never mentioned in any of the Dragon Age media before Veilguard. We do meet Neve in Tevinter Nights, though she isn't a member there yet (or she doesn't mention it).

Of course, one has to wonder if we weren't shown any NPC members bcs they will be some of the returning companions. Options include:

Dorian, our beloved companion from DA:I, who returned to Tevinter to fight injustice. He has the advantage of being always alive (unlike other companions, like Iron Bull).

Maevaris Tilani is a character from comics and also appeared in Tevinter Nights (and was mentioned in War Table mission). She is a Tevinter Magister, trans woman and also kin to Varric through marriage. She kicks ass and I sincerely hope we meet her!

Fenris, our beloved companion from DA2! He is a former elven slave and recently appeared in comics as someone who helps others escape slavery, which aligns with Shadow Dragons missions. He can die in DA2, but only in a very specific case - so I wonder if Bioware will pull Leliana with him and just say his lyrium tattoos saved him from death.

What do you think? Any opinions? Who are you most excited to meet?

[whumpsday]

Kane & Jim AU: Human Bellamy

Kane & Jim AUs masterlist

content: vampire whumpee, whumper turned whumpee, whumpee turned caretaker, rescue, recovery, begging, starvation, starvation-induced weight loss

you guys can blame @anomalys-taxonomy for this one as they gave me this idea which then instantly rooted itself into my brain.

this is an AU where Kane took a human Bellamy instead of taking Jim (who is a vampire in this AU and helped Bellamy escape but otherwise isn't that important here). Bellamy is a very cooperative whumpee, unlike the defiant Jim, and made efforts to "get on Kane's good side". as such, Kane was a much less severe whumper in this AU, not hurting Bellamy outside of bites. they had a much lighter / less-whumpy dynamic than Kane & Jim do in canon, due to Bellamy's general diplomatic nature and Kane's incredible weakness to shallow flattery.

-

Kane looked up through teary eyes after the hunter left. There he was, Bellamy.

He used to be embarrassed of how much he missed the human after he ran away, but not anymore. All his pride had been washed away, and he just couldn't bring himself to feel embarrassed anymore. All he could feel was a deep despair that Bellamy would be the one hurting him now. He never should have gotten so attached.

He could still see the bite-marks etched into Bellamy's neck, a reminder of all the pain he'd caused.

Bellamy cupped his face, and Kane squeezed his eyes shut with a whimper, expecting pain that didn't come.

"Oh, dear," Bellamy breathed. His hand was gentle, stroking along Kane's cheek, and Kane couldn't help but lean into the first kind touch he'd felt in years.

Bellamy's soft fingers hooked around the muzzle. "Let's get this off you then, shall we? I don't believe you require all this fuss, do you, Mr. de Sang?"

It was odd to hear a human use such a formal title for him after all this time. He shook his head in confirmation. No, I'll be good.

Bellamy lifted the muzzle off his face, wincing at the sight of burnt skin. His voice lost that calm, measured tone he nearly always had, pitching up a bit in barely-contained distress. "Oh my."

Kane wasted no time. He knelt, pressing his forehead to the ground. "I'm s-so sorry, Bellamy, sir," he sobbed, overwhelmed with fear of the unknown. "I'm sorry, p-please have mercy, I'm so sorry, please-"

"Shush. That's enough."

Kane snapped his mouth shut immediately at the proclamation, tears running into the ground. Bellamy didn't even want to hear his apologies.

Bellamy crouched and reached a hand toward Kane's chin, then seemed to think better of it and rested it on his back instead. "There will be time enough for that later, when you're not so out of sorts. Could you look up at me, dear?"

He'd never called Kane dear before. Back then, Bellamy had always called him either Mr. de Sang or my good sir, in what almost seemed a jovial mockery of the title Kane required of him, but too good-natured and generally respectful for Kane to really take as an insult.

Kane looked up, as ordered. "Y-yes, sir."

Bellamy gave him a smile that Kane might describe as soft if it were not so obviously forced. "I will indeed grant you mercy. I am not the violent sort, and you are in such poor shape that I could not fathom anything else. You may relax."

He couldn't possibly relax. Kane remained tense, wondering what exactly Bellamy meant by mercy. "Thank you, sir," he whispered.

"You're very welcome. Come now, then." Bellamy stood, motioning for him to do the same.

Kane followed suit and followed Bellamy to his car. It looked luxurious, even more so than his own car. Humans did rely on them to get around, after all. He fretted about dirtying the seat as Bellamy ushered him into the passenger's side, but Bellamy didn't seem to mind, strapping him in with some sort of fabric restraint. His confusion only grew when Bellamy strapped himself in with the same restraint.

"This is a seatbelt," Bellamy explained, noticing his confusion. "Simply an invention designed to protect the fragile human body. You may undo yours, if you like."

Protect. Why would Bellamy want to protect him?

"I'll keep it on," Kane decided. "Thank you, sir."

Bellamy hummed at that, starting to drive. "I think I'll refer to you as Kane from now on. We're on a first-name basis by now, are we not?"

"Yes, sir." No one had called him by name in years. It made him feel warm, like he was almost a person again.

"You may call me Bellamy, if you wish. Though I don't mind if you continue with the 'sir' business."

"Yes, sir." Safer to stick with the more respectful title.

"I suppose you wouldn't be the most talkative tonight. Why don't I put this on for us?" Bellamy turned on the car radio, which immediately started blasting catchy pop music. Kane perked up at that- he hadn't listened to music in so long. His excitement only grew further when Bellamy switched the station and soft classical music began playing instead.

"Thank you," Kane said emphatically, starting to tear up again.

-

It was a long drive home, and Bellamy was about one millimeter away from losing his absolute marbles.

He hadn't been sure what to expect when he went to visit his former captor, but it certainly wasn't this. He certainly hadn't expected to be taking Kane home. There would be no catching up through cell bars now that his freedom could no longer be stolen away. Kane was not merely a prisoner. Bellamy didn't want to know all of what had happened to him: he wasn't sure his heart could take it.

Of course, Kane had been horrible to him. He'd stolen two years of his life away, bitten him nightly, and was terribly rude nearly the entire time, especially in the beginning. But this? This was too far, by miles and miles. Honestly, with how sensitive Kane's ego was, there mere act of being bested by humans would have already wounded him enough to teach him a lesson. This was monstrous. He couldn't even bring himself to feel intimidated by the vampire, especially after ten years and ample therapy.

He was good at keeping calm under pressure. He could handle a vampire so weak he could barely stand.

Bellamy parked- too much driving for his taste, tonight- and went around to get Kane out of the car. Still looking up at him with those big, desperate eyes, like he was ready to burst into another fit of pleading for mercy. He looked so utterly weak and terrified, it was a wonder anyone could think to hurt him.

"Alright, then. Inside we go." Bellamy took the executive decision of scooping Kane into his arms, given the man looked like a light breeze could knock him over. He weighed so little that if he were human, he would surely be dead.

Kane rested in his arms without protest. "Yes, sir."

Bellamy had a feeling he wouldn't stop hearing that phrase anytime soon.

"What'cha got there, Mr. Verta?" Hayward asked as he approached, eyebrow raised.

Kane tensed in his arms, bright-red eyes focused squarely on the hunting gear on Hayward's belt. "Sir?" he squeaked, voice full of new terror.

"Oh, this is Kane de Sang!" Bellamy introduced. "Kane, this is Hayward. He stands guard at night just to make sure I stay safe." Hiring a retired hunter to this position was still one of the best ideas Bellamy's ever had, in his own opinion. His presence has helped dramatically with his anxieties.

The situation seemed to be taking the opposite effect on Kane, who began to pull in short, panicked breaths, clinging to Bellamy's shirt.

Hayward also seemed to not be a fan of the situation. "You sure this is a good idea? You need help?"

"Please," Kane whimpered, starting to cry again. "I'll be good, p-please, please no more, I promise I can be good."

"No more," Bellamy agreed, holding the trembling vampire close. "Thank you for the concern, darling, but I believe if my guest spends much more time in the presence of vampire hunters, he'll perish from fright alone. He's been through an awful lot, you see."

Hayward nodded skeptically. "Uh-huh. And what's the plan here?"

"I am winging it," Bellamy announced with a wink.

Hayward sighed. "I'll be here if you need me. Be safe."

"Oh, the safest," Bellamy assured. "Worry not, worry not. That goes for you too, you know," he added, looking down at Kane. "Hayward is here to ensure my protection. So long as you do not intend to attack me or whisk me away, you needn't be afraid, and it's quite obvious you intend neither."

Kane nodded frantically. "I don't, I would never, sir."

"Of course you wouldn't. Well, let's be off, then." Bellamy mouthed a thank you to Hayward before carrying Kane into the house, setting him down on the nice, soft couch. Kane seemed to melt into it, some of his tension disappearing. Bellamy wasn't sure whether it was due to being out of the hunter's presence, or the couch itself.

"I'm sorry if I dirty your furniture," Kane said sheepishly.

"Oh, pish posh. Don't worry about that of all things." Bellamy could see that Kane was in obvious need of a bath, but there were other things that must be prioritized. He'd been thinking about it the whole drive home, and determined he was ready. Hayward was outside if things went south, though he was reasonably sure he could handle things himself, what with Kane's current state. "You look positively famished. Would you like a drink, for old times' sake?"

-

That certainly got Kane's mind off the fact that a hunter was stationed outside. He'd been expecting Bellamy to take revenge on him for what he'd done, but instead, he'd offered blood. Blood. Kane hadn't fed in so long, he'd forgotten what it felt like to not be hungry.

"You would let me feed?" he asked, eyes practically sparkling with hope.

"What else am I meant to do? Force you to starve? Invite you to feast on fruits and veggies as I do?" Bellamy shook his head at the ludicrous idea.

"Thank you, sir!" Kane exclaimed, suddenly overwhelmed with joy. When it did eventually come time for Bellamy's revenge, he would be okay with anything if he could have blood after the hurting. "Thank you so much, I can't believe this is really happening!"

Bellamy sat down next to him. "It is indeed. Though, I must be clear, this will not be a permanent arrangement. I shall not serve as a source of blood for any large portion of my life," he said firmly, suddenly serious. "Do you understand?"

Kane wanted to ask so many questions. How long would he be allowed food? What happens after? Would he be forced to wither in starvation again, or would Bellamy find another human to provide blood for him?

But he was too afraid to question the generosity that is any blood at all. "Yes, sir. I understand."

Bellamy smiled, his brief seriousness gone. "Wonderful." He rolled up his sleeve, extending his arm. "The neck is a bit cliché, don't you think?"

"I can bite?" Kane asked with bated breath.

Bellamy reclined back on the couch, arm still extended. "You may."

Kane wasted no time. He was being given permission. He bit into Bellamy's forearm- slowly, gently, trying to cause the least pain possible.

It was like a rich, flavorful explosion in his mouth. He had never tasted anything so wonderful, so delicious. All other thoughts slipped from his mind, replaced only with the desperate need to get as much blood in him as possible, as fast as possible.

He was distantly aware that Bellamy was saying something to him, but he was too entranced to process it. He needed blood. There was nothing more important than getting blood, it was the only thing in the world that mattered-

Bellamy tugged firmly at his hair, though slowly enough to avoid a sharp yank. He pulled Kane out of his arm, blood gushing out after.

His voice wavered a bit as he spoke, a hint of anxiety breaking through. "I've asked you to stop."

A wave of horror crashed over Kane as he snapped back to reality, realizing what he'd just done.

"I'm sorry!" he yelped, terror seizing his heart. "I'm so s-sorry, sir, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to! I don't know what came over me, I was just so hungry I didn't realize what I was doing!"

It was a horrible excuse. Kane was the monster the hunters always said he was, trying to drain his old victim even after Bellamy was kind enough to feed him. He wept brokenly, knowing that it would be the last time. He'd be lucky if his only punishment was getting food taken away forever. He'd easily earned being put in the sun, or even being sent right back to his cell. No more comfortable couches, being gently held, listening to the radio. His reprieve over in a matter of hours.

He couldn't stop crying, mourning the soft life he'd never get to earn. "I'm sorry," he whimpered. "Please, mercy, please, I can be better! I-"

"Kane," Bellamy interrupted softly. "I am not going to penalize you for drifting off a bit. It's clear that you are trying your very best." He extended his bleeding arm. "If you wouldn't mind, dear?"

"Oh!" Kane swiped his tongue over the wound, stopping the bleeding and licking up the excess blood as the relief settled in. "S-sorry. Thank you, sir, thank you so much for your kindness."

"Yes, I do believe you're in need of a little kindness after your ordeal," Bellamy said. "Now, why don't we get you cleaned up and into some proper clothing?" He smiled. "I will admit, I've always wanted to dress you up. You always wore such plain things back in the day."

Clothes. Bellamy was going to allow him clothes, like a reward even after he'd earned a punishment.

Kane nodded, finally letting himself give in to the hope that maybe things could be okay. "I would like that very much."

-

kane and bellamy do end up developing feelings for each other and getting together romantically as their relationship progresses, despite their troubled past. all of bellamy's friends share the sentiment of "bellamy, you are well-known for your bad taste in men, but this is a little far even for you." bellamy tells them it's just like beauty and the beast! :) to which they respond "no."

taglist in reblog!