#yeah this one got away from me. i miss the space arc a lot for someone who was rly happy when it was finally over

[goodlucktai]

tmnt prompts you say….. :3 how about some 2k12 leo and mikey cos i just adore the way u write their dynamic ✨✨

x

Honeycutt isn’t always easy to understand. He’s very enthusiastic and demonstrative, and surprisingly expressive given that the only parts of his face he can emote with are the digital lenses of his eyes, but there are times when his mind works in mysterious ways that baffle even Donatello, who understands their android guardian best. 

Sometimes, like today, Honeycutt watches Leo and his siblings file onto the bridge in the light of artificial morning and he tilts his head and studies them for a long moment without speaking. 

Then he claps his hands together and brightly says something like, “Good morning my friends! I have great news! Our ship needs immediate, serious, time-critical repairs!”

“What?” Leo, Donnie and April blurt at the same time, at the same volume. 

“Doc, that’s not good news,” Casey adds, looking vaguely seasick. His claustrophobia hasn’t exactly gotten better out in the vacuum of empty space. “Are we—do you—we should get you a thesaurus.” 

“April and I just ran a system check two cycles ago and everything was fine,” Donnie says, and he’s already bringing data up on that holo-gauntlet that’s been permanently attached to his arm since the second the Professor gifted it to him. “The bulkhead shields have degraded a little but—”

“Forget all of that,” Honeycutt says, waving his hands through the holographic screen until it fizzes out. Donnie looks extremely offended. “The point is, we’ll have to stop at the nearest repair station. Lucky for us, there’s one only a parsec away! We’ll use the warp drive and be there in no time. And we might as well see the sights while we’re there. Let’s make a day of it! Chop, chop!”

Leo’s siblings scurry to their stations, all but sulky Donnie, who has to be propelled there by the implacable Professor’s deceptively strong noodle arms.

“Where are we going, Professor?” Mikey calls out. He didn’t sleep well the night before, Leo can tell. There’s a shadow of something pressed over him, like the footprint of a bad dream. He didn’t bring any sunshine onto the bridge with him. 

Raphael, sitting in the console beside Mikey, gives him a sidelong look that validates the little wriggling fish of concern swimming around in the back of Leo’s mind. 

Honeycutt’s head twists on the column of his synthetic neck to face Leo’s littlest brother and his eyes smile at Mikey kindly. It’s that kindness more than anything that makes Leo continue to trust him. It reminds him of Splinter, in a way that manages not to be painful.

“We’re going to visit an old friend of mine,” Honeycutt explains cheerfully. “We may as well make the most of our sticky situation, don’t you think? Now off we go!”

They don’t land at a repair station. They land outside of what looks like the gates of a giant theme park, if Leo absolutely had to guess. Honeycutt must have called ahead, because the guards are expecting them, and not in the usual unfortunate way guards tend to expect the fugitoid. They smile and salute Leo’s family in greeting and escort them inside. 

Apparently this place is called the Battle Nexus and it’s amazing. It’s a planet-wide arena made up of all kinds of different levels and terrains, for the purpose of a multi-cultural exchange of battle tactics and training. The master who oversees the whole thing is a wizened warrior referred to as the Daimyo, who turns out to be an old friend of the Professor’s. 

The Daimyo was happy to usher Leo and his siblings into the competition—the kid-friendly version of the competition, anyway. Honeycutt very firmly steered the six of them toward their own age bracket, far, far away from anything even remotely grudge-match-shaped. 

Raph looked a little forlornly at the blood-stained brawling pit they were marched past, but he and Casey both quickly fell in with a group of rowdy aliens around their size. Donnie wasn’t remotely interested in anything until a group of medics on stand-by caught his attention with the tricorders they were holding, and then he was hounding them within an inch of their lives. Leo watched after him anxiously, but the medics seemed reluctantly charmed by his purple-banded brother, and humored his barrage of questions. Mikey was still with Honeycutt and the Daimyo, chatting at the old master like they’d known each other for years, probably securing yet another life-long ally for his family in that easy, off-handed way he always made friends. 

“Leo, come on,” April said, tugging on his arm. Her eyes were sharp and eager, glinting with that competitive edge that shined as brightly as Raph’s did at times. “They’re doing archery over that way, let’s go!”

So—it’s fun. And it only takes Leo most of an hour, if that, to realize that their ship is more than likely just fine, and it was actually very kind of Honeycutt to bring them here. It makes him feel warm and cared-for, like when he was much younger, and the shiny responsibility of leadership was still a distant dream. 

And then a certain sixth sense pings in the back of his mind, drawing his attention from the archery targets and across the meadow to where Donnie looks like he’s one second away from causing a diplomatic incident, his face a thundercloud of pure, distilled rage. He’s shouting something at a group of humanoid aliens standing around in a scattered formation, and his body is tense and still the way it is when he’s literally about to pounce on a Footbot and tear it to pieces with his bare hands. Mikey is standing just behind him, tucked out of sight. 

“Oh, boy,” April says from Leo’s shoulder, and then they shove their bows into the hands of the people closest to them and cross the field at ninja speed. 

“—worth a hundred of you,” they get there in time to hear Donnie bite out. “So you can take your stupid game and shove it right up your—”

“Donatello,” Leo says, stunned more than scolding. Did he and Raph switch bodies somehow? Leo’s not ready to deal with that today. 

But no, Donnie whirls to face him with that particular brand of wounded frustration in his bright red eyes, a look that Leo is familiar with. It’s a look that says ‘why are these people so stupid and why is it my problem?’ and it only ever precedes Donnie losing his absolute shit in a very big way. 

Raph falls in next to Leo, grim-faced and groaning, “Nooo. God, what did they do, Don?”

“We’re not staying here,” Donnie announces in lieu of an actual answer. “We’re leaving.”

“What?” Casey asks blankly. 

His confusion is completely fair, and shared three ways between Leo, April and Raph. The Nexus is amazing and they’d all collectively been having a blast like five minutes ago. Leo glances from Donnie’s face into Mikey’s, hoping he might find a cue there—Donnie and Mikey are inseparable on a good day, like two pieces of a matching set, and Mikey understands him effortlessly—but Mikey’s expression draws him up short. 

He’s not even looking at any of them. He’s looking down, half-hiding behind Donnie’s arm, quiet and impassive in a way that spells hurt. It reminds Leo of those days immediately after Dimension X, when Mikey snuck around the lair like it was full of dangers, when he kept looking at his siblings like he was trying to find cruelty where there wasn’t any. Sometimes Dimension X still creeps up on them like that. It’s never, ever a good sign when it does. 

Alarm bells start going off in Leo’s head. They’ve been there since earlier that morning, since Mikey came up to the bridge and didn’t bring any sunshine with him, but now they’re loud. 

“Dude, we literally just got here,” Raph is saying. He doesn’t sound confrontational, just honestly bewildered, but Donnie’s mouth twists like Raph just tried picking a fight with him. 

“Fine, do what you want,” he snaps. “Have fun with these idiots.”

He grabs Mikey’s hand and starts to march off with him, back in the direction of the ship. Clearly he’s ready to get himself and Mikey the hell out of here, with or without the rest of them. Leo finally kicks himself into action. 

“Hey,” he says, circling around to stand in their way. He puts a hand on each of their shoulders and says, “Talk to me.”

“They’re being mean to him, Leo,” Donnie says, too loud, boiling over. “We’re not staying here.”

It almost doesn’t make sense at first. It wouldn’t be the first time Donnie’s started talking in a foreign language just to trip his brothers up. Leo thinks maybe that’s what’s happening right now, and a glance around at the rest of his siblings only further substantiates the idea, because they all look as baffled as he feels. 

“Mean to who?” April says, brow furrowed. “Mikey?”

“But that’s the dumbest shit I ever heard,” Casey blurts incredulously.

And the thing is, Leo thinks, it really is the dumbest shit he’s ever heard. Mikey is genuinely the most likable person in the universe. The really irritating side of him is a sibling-exclusive, a baby brother perk that these complete strangers would definitely not have had a chance to experience in less than three hours of his company. 

He grew up navigating the tempers and pitfalls of three extreme, explosive personalities, courtesy of his big brothers, so he’s capable of getting along with just about anyone. He can smooth over any uncomfortable, tense situation with a smile. He rolls with the punches. Just being around him is a breath of fresh air. 

So what the fuck?

“What the fuck?” Raph says out loud, hands tightening around the handles of his sai. 

The aliens—juveniles of their species, since they’re in the same age bracket as Leo and his brothers, taller and broader than the turtles, but with a soft, round-eyed quality that they’ve yet to grow out of that gives their youth away—look markedly uncomfortable about this whole thing. They’re shuffling and avoiding direct eye-contact. 

One of them says, “We didn’t mean anything by it. It’s tradition.”

“What, like hazing?” April asks coldly. The atmosphere around her is starting to prickle, like the build-up of energy before a big storm. 

“It’s only because he’s—” The word they use doesn’t translate directly. The universal translator they’re each equipped with does its best, spitting out young/inexperienced/stupid as the closest interpretation, and all of Mikey’s siblings go stiff with fury. 

Mikey isn’t looking at any of them. He’s got that vacant look on his face that he learned to wear after months alone in a hostile alien world, seemingly abandoned by his family, with no one to count on and no rescue coming. He had a bad night, and now he’s having a bad day, and it’s the last thing he deserves. 

Leo can’t afford this. Anything that threatens to draw his siblings away from the fold is a threat to Leo’s entire world, and he’ll neutralize that threat no matter what interplanetary consequences spring up as a result. 

It would be easy. It wouldn’t help a single thing. 

So instead he glances at Donnie, inclining his head an inch to the left. Donnie is nearly blind with anger, but he still trusts Leo—it warms Leo to the very bottom of his soul that the trust wins. He’s reluctant to let go of Mikey’s hand, but he lets it go, and that’s what finally brings Mikey to look up. 

And then Leo pounces. 

Mikey makes a startled yelping noise, driven to the ground by the weight of his eldest brother, but it quickly morphs into laughter as they go rolling shell over shell across the warm grass. It’s like being transported back into the dojo where they learned to practice ninja—muscle-memory, the way Mikey twists out from underneath him and flips over Leo’s head, landing nimbly and then diving into a forward roll to avoid his next swipe and giggling the entire time. 

To them, it’s play, in its purest form. They were learning how to jump and tumble when other babies their age were still mastering the crawl. Mikey comes alive when he’s on the move, more than any other time, and now his blue eyes are brighter than they’ve been all day. 

Leo draws him into a tight kumite bout, and each micro-sequence between the two of them is clean and precise, and each blow would be potentially lethal if it landed. That crowd of kids—the ones who hurt Donatello by hurting Michelangelo—have gone tellingly quiet. Leo splits his attention from Mikey long enough to take in their wide eyes and slack mouths, and thinks, Good. 

He can feel pride and satisfaction radiating from their siblings as he proves to this entire level of the Nexus that his baby brother is every bit the deadly assassin their father taught him to be. He can feel nothing but joy from Mikey as he’s swept up in the familiar motions, the fun, fast-paced back-and-forth.

And then Raph barrels in, and Mikey squeaks in combination terror-excitement. The others aren’t far behind. 

It becomes less about something to prove, and more about the joy of the conversation. The call and response. All of them whirling around each other in a flurry of precious Hamato clan techniques, bright-eyed and dangerous and alive. 

Alive, despite everything. Together. 

Leo doesn’t need any stupid Battle Nexus to tell him he and his siblings are champions. He knows that already. They survived the end of the world, and the end of their world, and they’re still here. 

The Daimyo finds them sprawled on the grass, breathless and vivified and poking fun at each other. The bullies have made themselves scarce, and the thundercloud on Donnie’s face has cleared into blue skies, and Mikey is laying with his head pillowed comfortably on Raph’s outstretched arm, sweet and content and unburdened for now. 

“My, my,” the Daimyo says, warm and impressed, “what a skilled group of warriors you are. I will have to give this planet of yours a visit someday soon if these are the types of people who live there.”

“We’re not typical earthlings,” Leo admits. “And it’s, um—Earth isn’t exactly—”

“Just let us know when you’re ready to swing by,” Mikey pipes up. “We’ll roll out the welcome mat.”

We’ll be there, is what he means, rolling his head to look over at Leo with a smile. We’ll all be there. We’ll do what we came here to do and then we’ll get to go home. 

“Yeah,” Leo says, feeling a little choked up. “Yes. You should see it, Daimyo-dono. It’s definitely worth the trip.”

Honeycutt comes over and settles down on the ground with the rest of them, flopping back in the dirt and starfishing his limbs in solidarity. 

“Ahh, it’s so unfortunate that we were set back a day by those repairs,” the Professor says. “But I’m glad that you children made the best of it! Your spirits give me strength, you know.”

Leo can’t help but smile at him. His whole entire world is clustered around him, bickering and throwing clumps of dirt at each other. Mikey is laughing, his own brand of sunlight putting the twin suns in the sky above them to shame. They’re so far away from where they belong it’s a joke, but somehow, right at this second, it doesn’t feel that way. 

“Thanks,” Leo says. It falls comically short. “Thank you.”

[daisybianca]

pairing: pierre gasly x femalereader

summary: your boyfriend had been away for almost a week, and once he got home, you thought that a little treatment was needed.

warnings: sexual activities, teasing, cursing words

SIX DAYS HAD gone by without you seeing your boyfriend. When he finally got home the day after a good race, you ran towards him and almost immediately crashed your lips to his.

He smiled between the kisses and dropped his back on the floor, somewhere behind you. "God, I missed your taste."

Your tongue found his and playfully teased around it. When he pulled away first, you were a tiny bit upset.

"I missed yours more." You argued.

His eyebrows arched at your desperate thirst response. "You know what else I missed the taste of?"

Pierre's colorful eyes shifted across the couch. His eyes looked in the direction of your legs, more specifically, the space between them. He slowly got up from the carpet and sat on the edge of the couch. He slipped his hand into your plain boybrief pjs, and his finger grazed your cotton underwear.

You already knew you were soaking wet, just an inch lower from where his hand rested.

Keeping his eyes glued on yours, he slowly moved his fingers until hr felt the warmth of his hand through your cotton underwear. You let out a soft moan from your throat that you couldn’t even control.

This wasn’t fair.

You wanted him too much and it had just been six freaking days.

What if he needed to travel for a month or so in the near future? You'd shove yourself in a suitcase with him?

You reached out a hand to grab a hold of his forearm. Underneath your grip, you felt the tensing of his individual muscle fibers against your skin, twitching and fighting the urge to rip off your underwear.

"Hey," he spoke and his velvet voice echoed around the empty walls of your tastefully decorated minimalistic apartment.

"Yeah," you replied as your mind was going crazy about the fact that he was really trying to tease you.

"Can you let me be a teaser for once?"

You got up from the couch and tore his hand away. "Nope. The past few days have already been too rough for me. Don't make it even harder."

He moved his body closer to yours and kissed yours cheek. "Ironic. It was supposed to get me sucking your pussy."

The way he said pussy sent chills down your spine.

You were getting ready to jump on him any moment now. "I mean technically… you can still do that,” you replied nonchalantly.

He smiled and pressed his lips against yours. Your lips went at each other like you were in high school again, trying to show off who was the better kisser.

It was sloppy, wet, messy, and there was also a lot of biting.

It was still perfect.

By the time he pulled away, you were both panting to catch your breaths. He tucked a strand of hair behind your ear and planted a sweet peck on your neck. You wrapped my arms around his neck, and he already knew the cue. His arms dug underneath your back and knees. He effortlessly got up from the couch, holding you close to his chest.

"I missed you." Pierre stated. "So fucking much."

"Yeah, I said that before."

"But I didn't."

You laughed. "You don't have to say it in particular. You must show it."

A smirk appeared, and you caught a glimpse of desire in his besutiful eyes.

Your heart wouldn't zip it.

You looked up at him speechless as he casually walked you through the hallways and kicked the bedroom door open.

It was dark here, as well, minus the moonlight filtering through your bedroom window placed on either side of the bed. He walked over to our California king bed and gently placed you down.

You bit your lip as he stood by the edge of his bed. In one quick motion, he pulled off his shirt and tossed it on the floor. His pale skin glowed. The moonlight reflected off his broad shoulders and firm chest.

Your heart wouldn’t shut up once again.

His body snaked over time and pinned you down between his legs. Each hand tightly gripped your wrists.

The heat from his body was pouring down yours. He arched his neck and placed a kiss on your forehead. Gentle and sweet.

Then, he moved over to the tip of your nose, your lips, your chin, and then down on the flesh of your neck.

"You taste like coffee." You observed between a kiss.

He stretched his neck to look at you. "You taste like heaven itself."

A smile made your lips curve, but it was already too late. His lips had found yours passionately, and his warm breath tickled you.

[howlingday]

@r3dj3st3r

---------------------------------------------------

Happy Chaos Jaune

VS Raven Arc & Mama Harley

---------------------------------------------------

"Well, well, well! Look what we have here!"

"Jaune?" Harley asked, confused by the blue man in front of her. "You do something with your hair... and your skin?"

"Mm, yes and no." He chuckled. "I didn't do this, but I can't complain."

"I don't know who you are," Raven drew Omen from her sheath, "but you're not my Jaune."

"Probably not mine, either." Dr. Quinn cupped her chin and squinted her eyes at him. "Though I wouldn't say this couldn't happen to my Jaune."

"Because of you, or because of his world?" The let the torn hoodie on his back slide to his elbows as he spread his arms with open palms. He then shut them into fists as a wide grin spread across his face. "Or maybe it's because of ol' daddy dearest?"

Harley's face almost immediately twisted into one of rage. "Watch it, bub. You may not be my Jaune-"

"But you'll give me a spanking, right?" Jaune chuckled as the woman balked. "Yeah, I've heard that one before. Or at least I think I did. One of the two."

"What the hell are you?" Raven growled.

"Me?" Jaune pointed to himself. "I thought we already went over this." He smiled wide and spread his arms again. "I'm Jaune!"

"No, you're not."

"Sure I am!"

"Not our Jaune." Harley said.

"Exactly!"

"So, what, is this some kind of... clone story or something?" Raven asked as she lowered her sword for a moment in her confusion.

"STRIKE ONE!" A broken sword aimed for her head was narrowly deflected as the duplicate of her son charged faster than she expected. She swung at him only to completely miss as he jumped away. "No clones. Clones are so pass-ay."

"No kiddin'!" Harley swung her bat at him, catching him off-guard. Or, well, mostly off-guard except for his hand that caught the cudgel. "So, is this a multiverse story, or is it something more stupid?" Harley was no stranger to multiverses, especially since Bats was practically an expert on them.

"It's pretty stupid, but yeah, multiverse sounds about right." Shoving her away, he gave a short applaud to her. "Not bad. Clearly you're the brains of the two." Ducking, he avoided being skewered by Raven, who jumped for him using her portal. "Not bad! Way to take a gamble on me being connected to your semblance!"

Batting her blade away as she swung again, he then weaved out of the way of Harley's bat. Bobbing and dodging out of harm's way, the smile on his face grew wider and wider. Then a thought came to him. He stopped and the two women stopped just inches from hitting him.

"Oh. Oh, now this is interesting."

"What?" Raven asked.

"Someone's watching us." He looked away from the two, into the empty space. Colors of every shade swirled around the barren world, like the sky was in a poorly organized washing machine. "Somebody a lot stronger than us. Probably wants me to say they're more attractive than us, too." He then clicked his tongue. "Eh, probably not. Either they're too modest or they don't think too good of themselves."

"What the hell is he talking about?" Raven looked to Harley.

"I got an idea, but..." She shrugged. "Best to just let him ramble."

"Hm... Hm hm... MHMMM~!" He spun around. "Alright! Let's team up!"

"What?" Raven was getting tired of asking these questions.

"To get home!" He turned his head. "That's what you want, right? For us to go home?"

"Please, Mr. or Mrs. Disembodied Entity!" Harley cried. "I'd like to go home to my Jauney~!"

"Who-" Raven groaned. "Whatever. So we're teaming up? Is that what's going on?"

"Yup!" Jaune beamed ear-to-ear. Suddenly, he had an arm around both Raven and Harley. "Just a kid and his two moms, off to get back to their realities! Onward!"

"Road trip~!" Harley cheered, keeping in step with the strange man who looked like her son if he was a smurf.

Raven had already slipped away and let the two walk ahead of her. Looking behind her, she saw nothing but empty wastelands for miles to the horizon. Her only other option was to follow the blue weirdo claiming to be her son. Rolling her eyes with a sigh, she began following.

"Why do I always get stuck with the nutjobs?"

[basedkikuenjoyer]

Motherlode

And here I find myself again, circling back to the same basic thoughts about this arc that really only stretched itself out to about double what I and most others predicted. You get my angle right? While the world's watching, while the fandom's watching someone not named Nico Robin give a little nuggie of Void Century lore...200 chapters after Bakura Town, 100 after Kiku's fall, in a chapter after one with a folk lore allusion title. Stussy breaks the seal. Speaking more or less the same trauma. It's even the same central idea of Wano; ensuring the Straw Hat's escape was Stella's final command. It all runs on that old school Japanese take on ideal feminity; "A woman's happiness is taking care of those she loves." Self-sacrifice to repay kindness towards you.

Bonney has so much to compare and contrast, you're a solid candidate for someone who could kinda fuse Kiku & Yamato, but Stussy? You're our Tamataebako buddy with the same eyes. A trans woman and a clone, can't say it isn't relatable and they both have a demonic facade without an ounce of action girl tomboy tropes. Stussy can nab that torch now just like Bonney could have. But you still exist in that space. Why are we doing you now, after the others? We still have cards unplayed from Wano. When their theme is subtlety one should expect waiting until the final phase.

This chapter gives me a lot that has me excited.

We have a whole theme this chapter of people responding again and doubling down on the idea these different faces we know are reacting differently to Vegapunk's speech. Things different fans are reacting to. Wano the Joyboy lore, Carrot the weaponry, but it's one of those simple tricks that fuel a big deception. None of it is really that much deeper than clarifying what we as readers sorta knew. Of course, for Wano...it isn't the full group but we see a group. It'd make perfect sense for Kiku to be smiling and holding a tray with the implication she brought the dango, she could appear any example of this cover serial...but this is how you have to look at things when strategic absence is an established motif. Oh, and I guess Shino just got to stay youthful. Rock on mature woman, enjoy it.

The world is merely learning more or less what we know. The real story is still playing out. Stussy, the escape, this time we aren't breaking away. It's almost like a good rap track where the first two verses are smooth and melodic leading into a rapid-fire third verse to really hammer the message. I think we'll stick with that as the message unfolds. But this arc has just enough gas it's the opening act not the final point in and of itself. What makes me feel confident this time? Glad you asked:

Nojiko caring more about the farm bolsters this and her alone would have me freaking the fuck out but...bruh. Miss Goldenweek? Goldie!? Marianne and her hilarious in hindsight apple hat? Peep the suitcase, they're leaving to find Cross Guild. But yeah! Miss Friggin Goldenweek and Nojiko have an interesting response to this worldwide message. I love it too. They don't really seem to care much. Nami's big sister and a mellow girl that was one of Luffy's most vexing opponents. She got a cover serial, this little lady was always an oddball waiting to surprise us. For now though this is dope. Don't let her demeanor fool you, she was clearly a top agent for a reason and the reasons really aren't that different than the archetype I see out of Kiku.

What specifically does it though is how she's paired with the reaction focusing on the common people killed as collateral damage. Now let's take it altogether. Because something else going on under the message brings us back to where this felt most powerful:

Uh-oh. The big cloud layer is under attack. The Elbaf ship is getting surrounded. What if they weren't enough? For all the talk about other stuff that could happen if the Giants are the penultimate surprise addition...is it just gonna be the Grand Fleet after all? They make so much sense big picture. Robonosuke is still hanging around at the edge of all this too. Because things are getting dire on Egghead underneath the lore dump.

All in all...I love this shit right now because it's exactly what I've been on about since Wano ended. Wall to wall this chapter. 1115 is a straight banger.

[zaptrapp]

Ea’s Bad Batch Finale Rant

Here we go, doing this as I’ve done for ep.1. Of course SPOILERS AHEAD for the last episode (sigh, it’s all done and gone isn’t it?). Warning, this is going to be chaotic and emotional... so yeah, deal with it haha.

The intro… the eerie music… chills.

Is something bad about to happen or…?

Please leave Wrecker alone.

WRECKER NO

We are not starting on a good note, why’s Wrecker so beaten up???

This is not good, I’m not good.

I mean I know why, because of last ep beast, but c'mon why Wrecker...

“Clone Force 99 ended when Tech died” fuck If I’m not crying wow….

Crosshair shaking so much… nah I’m out already what the fuck is this.

Crosshair wanting to sacrifice himself, YO CHILL?!?

Hunter please discipline your children.

Dr. Hemlock x Rampart or did I just imagine the sexual tension?

But what if...

Enemies to lovers Dr. Hemlock x Rampart lmao please someone, anyone?

Kids please beat the shit out of miss Dr. PLEASE KIDS!

Omega being so smart, her character development, the courage! SLAY GIRLIE

FREE THE ZILLO YUP

now we're talking

"Is it Omega's or Echo's handiwork?".... "Omega's." LMAO they know Echo doesn't fuck around that much hahaha

Emerie i give you one last chance.

green kid I feel you so much, I'm also afraid of heights hahah

here we go with the Incredible 4 (aka the super clones? enhanced clones? brainwashed clones? whatever....)

they give off a lot of "Avengers Unite!" vibe

ready to slay aren't we?

When I said slay I didn't mean slay the bad batch, just to be clear.

annd Hunter is a goner

Annnnd Crosshair is a goner too i guess?

WHAT THE FUCK NOT THE HAND???

Creepiest point the show has ever been what the actual fuck is this supposed to be a children show?

Yup Wrecker is done too.

Yo the scene where Emerie and Echo see his squad being taken away. I got chills, you can fucking see his reaction, the shock.

ECHO SLAY YESSSS ECHO THE OG ARC TROOPER HERE WE GO

Emerie don't fuck this up and get those kids to safety thank you.

CLONE RESCUE HAPPENING RN I'M NOT GOOD

Nala Se and Rampart too?! slay

Omg Rampart stfu for one second or just go away you're useless anyway

Not the squad being tortured

HUNTER NOOOOOOO

"We'll survive, but you won't" -> OOOOOOHHFFFFFFUUUUCK

Hunter be mine

Oh wow Nala Se I see where you're going with this.

Kamikaze?

Too bad we didn't have more Hemlock x Rampart interactions, boyfriend died, sad.

Aaaaaand 2 are down.

Bye Rampart and Nala Se, you actually were on my dead bad batch bingo list.

Rest In Peace Nala Se🙏🏻 you got redeemed.

Rest in Sass you bitching ass imperial Rampart 🖕🏻

UH Hemlock this was such a bitchy thing to do.

and here goes the chaos

Wrecker is so fucking menacing. HE IS PISSED

OK WRECKER IS MAD MAD and also scary scary now…

Hunter with that spear makes me feel things.

Uhhh he got it coming from a mile away

And Clone CX-2 is down….

So, uhhhh…. That wasn’t Tech uh……

So….

Tech was….

….Dead dead?

Like actually dead this whole time?

Fuck.

ALSO WHERE THE FUCK IS COMMANDER CODY PLEASE RELEASE HIS FROM HIS CAGE

NO ECHO fuck god

“Take a shot everytime the bad batch is on the verge of getting killed”

-> not me being absolutely wasted and with my nerves asking for mercy

Please Hunter, Crosshair, kill that bitch ass Hemlock

major disney villain vibe in the storm with the hostage secured to his wrist yada yada...

"DROP YOUR BLASTERS" well well well

Why is Hemlock’s screaming voice kinda sexy tho

I'm so sorry for what I've just said.

WET HAIR HUNTER FUCKING THANK YOU I can die now

CROSSHAIR PLEASE bciakwnfbhc I’m dying too here

You can do it YES you can do it

Crosshar leaning on Hunter like he did with Tech in the clone wars season 7 HAHAHAHA YUUUUP I've been fed.

Uh that was personal

Guys... that's enough. Yup I-I think he's dead now. Yes, definitely gone. Uh, you can stop shooting, he's cold. He also just fell off a cliff... HE DEAD DEAD!

evil space imperial boyfriends reunited in hell

The way Omega chooses to hug Crosshair first, as a DadHunter! stan I feel a bit betrayed but comprehensible… he just saved her not missing the shot.

with one hand tooo, kudos

group hug I'm so teary

Wait so they did it?

THEY’RE OFF PLANET!??

AND THEY ALL SURVIVED?

Oh wow I bet my money on Hunter and Crosshair to die but I was wrong?? This is… refreshing.

Look at them kids!! And the clone cadets, and the rescued clones!!!

EMERIE AND ECHO YESSSS

Look at them all cozy and happy

Nah Echo my man where are you going?

Rex mention pt. 2 or something...

Rex should have been there in the finale but ok i guess... a bit disappointed but still

Nah Echo should have been there for the last shot.

It’s over uh?

look at them, finally happy and free. WE DID IT.

WAIT NO IT ISNT OVER YET???

Not the flash forward I cannot handle it

Ok Pabu!?

YOUNG ADULT OMEGA fuck yesssss

oh she looks awesome

IS THAT HUNTER'S BANDANA

deceased. dead on the ground. dead like hemlock.

NOT OLD HUNTER LIKE THIS IM DEAD ON THE GROUND DECEASED IM FUCKING CRYING OH WOW

OMEGA IS SO GROWN UP

She’s a rebel pilot

"You're our kid" I'M SCREAMING

he chose to be a dad, I knew it

She chose to keep fighting

TECH'S GOGGLES THIS IS SUCH A FOUL MOVE

They should have included Wrecker and Crosshair in this where are they??

But also it’s as it began, Hunter and Omega and their father-daughter bond

“Bye dad, imma be a pilot and save the galaxy” aka “imma move out from the basement and live on my own”

Oh Hunter you’re an old man now…. My heart is aching but also it means he got to live a peaceful life until the rest of his days.

the beard, the long hair, the gray hair.... i wonder how crosshair and wrecker are doing? and echo?? and howzer? AND CODY?

like you cannot leave me like this? hello?

This is gone full circle now.

Well….

Goodbye Bad Batch! It’s been a pleasure!

(I’m still crying)

[dysfunctional-doodle]

One of my favorite scar headcanons is that 2003 Donatello got scars from the mind probe from the episode Space Invaders |||.

I have the exact same headcanon my dude.

Talking about 2003 alone (I describe this in Too Many Turtles but I’ll give a summary here) then my personal headcanons is that Donny actually has very little scars, only the mind probe ones, the cut on his leg that got him infected with the Outbreak, and a few chemical and burn scars on his hands from all the tinkering he does. He’s the most careful out of all the brothers, as seen in the show, and I can imagine the other brothers try to take hits for him in fights and generally are the most protective of him (especially after he tells them about the events of SAINW). Everyone also is protective of Mikey too, but Don is a special case. Mikey has the most natural skill and they know this, it’s actually very hard to get a hit on Mikey in a fight and is a formidable opponent (who is much more willing to use lethal violence than Donny, I mean the guy ran away giggling after pulling the pin of a grenade on a Triceraton). Donny, on the other hand, is less skilled at them in fighting (shown in the show, though trust me he’s still a very skilled ninja). I feel like all of his brothers have a priority to protect him the most in a fight, even if it’s subconscious.

Naturally Leo and Raph have the most scars, but they’re all pretty beat up. I headcanon:

Leo still has a chunk of his shell missing (I don’t care they removed it for an easier design later, fight me). He has numerous scars, mostly from his fight with the Shredder that lead to him getting thrown through a window. The glass left some pretty faint slashes on the backs of his arms and legs.

Raph has the most. I noticed in the show he is constantly throwing himself in front of his bros in a fight, and so I now have the headcanon that he has so many from doing this. He also has a burn scar on one side of his face, where an explosion was a little too close for comfort (inspired from an arc in the comics where half his face was literally blasted off).

Mikey also has quite a lot, mostly due to his reckless nature rather than fights. Like I said, he’s hard to actually hit but as a kid he would constantly end up with scrapes and scars from doing dumb shit. Most of these are very faded. And yeah, he’s got lots of scarring around his missing arm that also caught his face. I’ve already written about him initially losing his arm in my fic, All I Ever Wanted, but this is only the aftermath really. Donny was the only one that saw what happened, but it was basically torn off, poor guy. I’m keeping it mysteriously vague so I don’t spoil things, y’all gotta wait ;)

Mikey also has (as mentioned in Too Many Turtles) a lot of plastron scarring from Kluh in Grudge Match. His plastron, in my headcanon world, actually cracked under the beating he received, and now there are faint cracks webbing across the top area. He likes to cover these by painting on them, kind of like watercolour tattoos (Leo lets him do this to his shell too).

Anyway ramble over

[bloodpen-to-paper]

Qsmp Lore Rant Chain

Given the Qsmp ending, I think its safe to say that the lore is over. This was a server we poured a year's worth of love into when it came to the stories these creators told with their characters, and through various retcons, cutoffs and the server overall ending, there were a lot of story elements we never got to see to completion. Therefore, I am summoning Qsmp loreheads to be part of this chain of ranting about story stuff they wish they got to see through, along with other hopes had for the server (cw: as a former fan of the ex-communicated members, there will be a portion under the cut all about their lore because fuck you I've been holding it in for months and I need this. Up to you if you wanna read it). Feel free to give your own rants cause god knows this community needs the space, so get to ranting and I'll start first!

-Maxo lore. He was the first to have their story cut and I'm still upset about it (granted he went out on his own terms but it was sad and we never got the original conclusion to the SOFIA arc). I also miss Casualonas.

-speaking of ^, the other members never fucking learned about Maxo's death. Do you have any idea how long I waited. Pierre never got to hold a funeral, Bad never got to reveal he was the one who took Maxo to the other side, the other spanish speakers like Vegetta and Roier who were close with him never learned, we never got a Maxo funeral. Yeah, still mad.

-Felps Square (anditsrelationshipwiththetubhole)

-The original resolution to the eggs' arcs (Tallulah's mental anguish never fully being addressed, Chayanne's trauma from being a child soldier, Ramón getting closer with Pac and Fit getting closer with Richas, Sunny learning to respect poor people, the Egg Island eggs' backstories getting revealed cause I know there was some shit happening there, etc)

- Felps. In general. I wanted more Felps

-Players getting to play more with inactive members (Foolish and Vegetta [we did get one final interaction :'], Roier and Rivers, Charlie and Mariana, Fit and Mariana [Fit would always reference Mariana to manifest him logging in], Quackity and Luzu, Philza and Luzu, the french and Kameto, the Brasilians and Felps, Bad and Mariana for some reason, Rubius and Foolish, others)

-Bagi and El Quackity beating the shit out of each other (their beef/frenemyship meant everything to me it was so funny)

-Fit and Madagio resolution. And it getting more time and the intended ending before they had to make one for the server closing. People learning about Fit's origins on 2b2t. Just Fit lore in general. I miss Fit

-Whatever the deal was with Antoine (he had so many secrets...)

-I wasn't really a lore ghostie but Bad started like two separate corruption arcs (the soul vultures and Purgatory radiation) and neither of them got resolved. Like they both happened and then they just went away. Lmao

-Whatever they were planning with the evil Cucurucho lore (I was dying to know if they were a Cucurucho clone who had been taken over with dark matter, and what their relationship to the Eye was. I grieve.)

-Whether Cucurucho and the Eye were fucking or not

-El Quackity's lore and what would come of him. Pretty sure it was implied he was a Federation spy who deals in disguises, and when the Eye recruited him we got some buildup to his return as a worker of Egg Island but it never happened

-The truth of what the Federation did to Quackity with all the brainwashing

-The retconned lore we were gonna have early on about english-speaking Quackity and Mexican Quackity being two different beings with potentially other cultural Quackities being added (the clone implications would've fit into this)

-Whatever was going on with Doied. I didn't keep up with that lore a lot but Roier's style of rp is very fascinating to me and I would've liked to see where it went (+potential Cellbit and Doied confrontation)

-BAGI AND CELLBIT REUNION BAGI AND CELLBIT ANGST AND THEIR BACKSTORY AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP AND CELLBIT ACCEPTING BAGI AS A SISTER I AM CLAWING MY FUCKING WALLS

-The truth behind how Dan and Spreen died (they canonically died cause the CCs weren't on the server anymore but this was a lore server so I know there was a canon reason for it that we never got to learn about)

-Jaiden meeting Empanada. Pol, Lenay and Charlie getting more time with Sunny. Rivers, Mariana and Carre getting more time with Pepito. Roier and Pepito in general

-Cellbit step-father arc with Pepito, and more big brother Richas mirroring Bobby

-We didn't get much time with them but I was so looking forward to Acau and Jungryeok being parents to Chunsik, all of them were so funny and the Koreans joining were a great addition

-The islanders being able to enact righteous vengeance upon Cucurucho and the Federation

-All the Qnpc arcs. Walter Bob's fate, Elena being imprisoned, Agent 18's crush on Foolish, fucking Fred

-The story behind the Capybaras, and why they were beefing with the Federation (and the potential for Foolish to start a holy war on the side of the capybaras. It would've been the funniest shit like imagine him going full Paul Atreides Dune but with capybaras)

-Whatever they were cooking with the bunnies. Ronnie you've only existed for a short time but you've stolen my heart (seriously I felt like there was gonna be a big moment of no Fed workers and only the bunnies before we get a dramatic reunion with Fred and Elena and whatnot, I was excited for it)

-CinePol lore (I really wanted CinePol lore)

-Tina lore. Tina lore. Her revealing more and more that she's a demon. Mouse helping her come to terms. Her telling Bad and Foolish and Cellbit outright that she's a demon. Her telling Bagi. God.

-The Ordo Theoritas. It wasn't really used after Purgatory. The medbay. Cellbit leading the charge. Philza becoming a Head. The meetings and post-lore group breakdowns. I miss it.

-Whatever the hell the deal with the Codes was (their existence, their relationship to the Federation and the Resistance, whether the Federation was experimenting with cloning and if the same science and tech behind the eggs was used for the Codes)

-Whatever the hell the deal with Luzu's computers was

-Whatever the hell was going on with the fucking dragon (I'm like 90% sure the eggs were created by the Federation but then WHAT THE HELL WERE THE DRAGON NOISES WE KEPT HEARING)

-The truth behind how all the islanders arrived on Quesadilla Island (and if the Qsmp really was a Danganronpa style simulation)

-Just how much of everyone's memories were wiped, and when. Why.

-Why Jaiden (and possibly Bad) were so special to the Fed. Why Philza, Baghera and Quackity weren't. The birds. The birds.

-The Bolas return from Purgatory. Dear god do I grieve this one. We had Foolish and Charlie awkwardly returning on their own and then the mother of all buildups with Baghera and Cellbit's Purg 2 cameo and rescue plan and absolutely delicious angst around them thinking their kids are dead while being used as pawns by the Eye... only for the server to reset and they just kind of ended up back on the island. I didn't get my Pac and Cellbit angst (ft. an angry Fit and probably confused Mike), or Cell and Baghera having to painstakingly reacclimate after being traumatized to the point of literal insanity, or a heartfelt reunion where they realize their kids are still alive, or the Roier and Cellbit reunion with Roier dealing with the fact that his husband who he thought killed himself is still alive and crazy, or Philza dealing with the burden of being their leader and having his heart break at what happened to his team, and him taking it upon himself (along with the other Bolas) to try and help Cell and Baghera heal and stop killing people. Goddamn did we miss some juicy stuff (I take solace in how fucking awesome the Purg 2 cameo was, I still think about it to this day)

-Honestly the Purgatory returns in general, I get not wanting to force CCs to lore their way into a return but god imagine how cool it could've been if each member who didn't make it onto the boat had to do a whole thing to explain how they survived the nuke, maybe even have a rescue mission for the players who were "asleep" during the final day. In my heart I am still in Purgatory.

-Who the Resistance was, why they contacted Maxo all those ages ago and what would've happened if the lore could've continues with Etoiles, Bagi, Pac and Fit being Resistance members (and potentially Philza being recruited)

-The secrets behind Egg Island. How the dark matter works. Who the Eye is and how dangerous they can really be. Luffy.

-The Federation lore. Who were they, why were they doing this, what happened 20 years ago and what led up to the current moment. Cucurucho. The duck. The fed workers. All of it. The real story behind Quesadilla Island and the Qsmp.

~~~~~~~

There you have it, my lore rants~ Thank you for reading and being part of the chain, and more than anything thank you for being on this journey with me. Its been an absolute honor to have been part of this community, and to know that I was capable of loving a story as much as this. Love y'all, and keep lore-ing <3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

------------Part with the ex-communicated members' lore-------------

K y'all know the drill, my heart died the day q!Forever did and I would unironically sell my soul to be in an alternate universe where that shit never went down so here's my unresolved frustration with this character (and q!Wilbur)

-Dear god where to begin. I know people said it was a blessing that the CC got booted during his hiatus but like... dude... do you have any idea what it feels like to have your 7 month long hyperfixation be left on the cliffhanger of the century being trapped in a prison after being taken over by an eldritch monster with teaser trailers hinting at a return? Do you know what that feels like? Cause I do. I know what that feels like. I want to go into the world of the Qsmp just so I can jump off the wall.

-He was gonna have a whole potential arc around breaking out of prison and then who know what could've happened. We could've had an unwilling Forever being forced to share his body with Eve while on the run from the Feds. I've thought about for months. The potential. The potential. I could've won

-All the buildings that got purged cause of their relation to Forever. The president's office, his base. I haven't seen the favelas since the reset and it still hurts so damn bad that our cultural area on the server is gone

-No seriously we could've had it all. Forever on the run, clashing with islanders and Fed workers alike. Reunions. Political espionage. Interactions with the Eye. The moment when he finally separates himself from Eve. A healing arc.

-Just President Forever in general. I was so goddamn over the moon (house) when the guy I voted for won like there was still so much that could've been done there and I will never stop being disappointed over it

-God truly is cruel cause we still never got that damn Nether talk. Or the promised flying session once Philza's wings healed

-The N.I.N.H.O.

-We can't even talk about the Happy/Risus Pills arc anymore and it was such a damn good arc for everyone involved, like that shit was peak

-Edit cause my dumbass forgot: speaking of, god the Happy Pills arc had so many loose ends. No one ever learned that Forever was forced to take the pills. No one knows the reason he was forced to was because he went so crazy after the eggs disappeared that he nuked the entire island and forced the Feds to do a server rollback. The server rollback plotline was so juicy in giving us context on the Federation's abilities and limitations and we never got fucking answers.

-Not lore related but... none of the CCs talk about the IRL meetups much these days cause he was in all of them. I get why, I support them in it, just sucks to think about yknow?

-Forever x El Quackity crackship rest in piss

-And rip to my Qsmp Mafia AU that I deleted in the drafts after the news hit cause you-know-who was the don of the Brasilian faction and I lost motivation when it all went down

-Eve/Evil Cucurucho was hugely scrapped cause of how much their lore was tied to Forever's, I really wanted to know what their relationship to Cucurucho was

-I also wanted to know the details of how it all went down in the Nether (the fucking Nether talk would've given us that) What did Eve do to Forever during that time to torment him? How did Forever and Walter Bob survive? What the hell even happened to Walter Bob???

-Also the Judas plotline. I know things just didn't work out but holy shit we were hyping it up so hard with Judas by Lady Gaga and the looming threat of the book during Purgatory could've had such a cool payoff. Ah well

-The dynamic between Eve and Forever. We never really got to see them interact much, and I feel like we could've gotten that with them being trapped in the same body after escaping the prison. The possession arc of all time.

-Forever being able to enact vengeance against Cucurucho

-Forever and Pac. Family through heritage, brothers through struggle. No one knew that Pac went into the Nether after Forever. Pac never got to know for sure that Forever was safe because something new always came in and took him away. Just. Those two.

-Forever and Tallulah. God this one hurts me. He wanted to adopt her. We could've had such good angst regarding her being traumatized by what Eve did while wearing Forever's face. Them having to reconcile. Them healing together. Forever seeing the darkness in Tallulah and Tallulah seeing the darkness in Forever. Him helping Philza co-parent. Tallulah having someone to help fill the void left by Wilbur. The mushroom hat.

-Forever and Chayanne. Them starting off on the wrong foot but Forever proving himself to Chayanne and them bonding until Chay is running up to him for hugs every time they meet. Chayanne having a moment where he could finally give Forever a hug after so long of Forever being compromised and unable to hug back. The president with the weight of the world on his shoulders and the little warrior who's too young to be burdened with all this responsibility. The parallels. The bonding.

-Forever getting to reunite with Baghera and Bad. Him reuniting with Cellbit. Whatever the hell would've come of that, good or bad. Forever getting to learn that Maximus fucking died

-Forever in a coma part 2 electric boogaloo💯

-I hated how Tallulah's whole lore had to be retconned cause of Wilbur. She had such a beautifully crafted arc around feeling neglected and out of place in a server where the kids mirror their parents and the parent she resembled down to a T was never around. God it sucked

-I also hated how they changed her hair to like... fit Missa's? She was adopted by Philza, and her hair was her own, I didn't feel it necessary and I was so sad seeing her beautiful curly brown hair being changed

-I loved what they did with Lovejoy canonically funding the Federation. It was very clever on the admins' part and good lore should be recognized

-Forever and Richarlyson. I can't even put into words how incredibly crafted their story was, and how heartbreaking it was that we lost that. I know we don't wanna give props to bad people, but within the firm understanding of where we all morally stand in this community, I'm putting it out there... the story of Forever and Richarlyson was one for the ages

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[offsidekineticist]

New breakup arc chapter!

CW: aftermath of torture, description of injuries, gore, monster, dark and cluttered claustrophobic space.

Brastlewark's Official Dinosaur Skeleton Day

You really hate Qweck right now.

She hasn't done anything wrong, of course, which is the problem. For once, she was a complete badass. Two people went into that room, and only one came out covered in blood and viscera to toss a signifer's mask at Thay's feet and reassure him he was safe for the first time in weeks. She was perfect, except that you had wanted to rescue Thay like a fucking white knight from a fairytale and sweep him off his feet and–

Which is fucking stupid, of course–first thing the guy says to you is "are you happy now, Gilly?" Last time you saw him he said he'd fucking kill you if he ever saw you again. But somehow you thought he'd be happy to see you? That he'd see you as his hero sweeping in to save the day? That he'd, what, apologize for treating you that way, for misjudging you somehow? Fuck no. Thay fucking hates you now. Of course it's his fucking daughter that saves the day. And you're a piece of shit for being jealous of his fucking daughter. 

Neither of them say a word to you. You're a third fucking wheel in the middle of what was supposed to be your operation. But your plan nearly got you all killed, so it's probably fair that they're ignoring you. 

The three of you make it to the top of the stairs, and Qweck opens the door. You all squint in the suddenly overwhelmingly bright light, but your eyes adjust quickly, and now, finally able to see him properly, you're struck by how terrible Thay looks. At some point they must have taken his shirt–you suspect you'll find his back covered in lashmarks–which makes it impossible to miss how thin he is. He's lost weight–a lot of weight, which is concerning because there was never much of him to begin with. You can tell from how his veins protrude from his skin that he's dehydrated. His face is gaunt, his eyes sunken in. On his right cheek you see slashed flesh that's healed oddly, like it was never treated, and has stitched itself back together as best it can into what will soon be a mess of jagged scars. You suppress a shudder at the thought of how many times screaming must have reopened those wounds. He's grown a sad, patchy, not-worthy-of-the-name beard on his chin, which explains why he was always so careful to keep himself clean shaven. 

"Giliys!" Qweck hisses, interrupting your assessment of Thay's appearance. "What now?"

"Why the fuck would I know?" You demand.

"You're the subject matter expert here!"

"Yeah, and my subject matter expertise are telling me that we're trapped in a fucking hellknight citadel with no weapons, no getaway driver, no idea how this fucking place is even laid out, so we're fucking screwed. So why don't you see if your path to perfection doesn't have a detour through a secret tunnel or some shit?" you snap.

"Shhhh!" Thay hisses, waving his hands. He struggles to get more words out, but you already hear what he hears–someone's coming. You push him down the corridor away from the sound, careful not to touch his wounds, barely able to keep from shivering because your hand is on his back with nothing between his skin and yours.

"Where are you going?!" Qweck demands, half jogging after you.

"Away from here!" You snap, and then abruptly stop, putting your arm in front of Thay to stop him. He hunches over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath–of course he does, they haven't been feeding him. "Shit," you say.

Right in front of you, the left wall of the corridor disappears, granting you full view of the training grounds–and, if you continue, granting the knights in the training grounds full view of you.

You frantically look for a solution. To the right–there's a door to your right. You try the knob. It's locked. You take out your set of lockpicks.

"Where were you hiding those?" Qweck demands.

"Shut up and keep watch!" It's a tricky lock. There's magic involved, much to your chagrin. You can break it, but that would mean using–

"Halt!" Your pursuers are finally within sight. With a primal growl, you summon hellfire and burn away the magic holding the door shut, wincing as it burns through the wrappings protecting your hands, still healing from the last time you used it. Before it can consume anything else you call back the hellfire. It settles in your chest, uncomfortably warm. 

That's the trouble with hellfire. It won't return to hell empty handed. You'll have to damn a soul before the day is out.

You ignore the questioning look Qweck gives you as you open the door. She pulls Thay's arm over her shoulder and half drags him through the door, managing to give you a side eye as she passes. Again, you ignore her as you follow and slam the door behind you.

You are almost too eager to escape your pursuers to be dismayed when you realize the door leads to another set of stairs spiraling deeper into the earth. You hear Thay desperately trying to catch his breath, see his feet stumble and skip steps, Qweck's iron grip the only thing keeping him from tumbling down the stairs. You hear the knights behind you shouting.

At the bottom of the stairs is some kind of storeroom. It reminds you of Thay's attic, but huge. Aisles of shelves turned into tunnels of clutter, so narrow that surely tallfolk weren't expected to traverse them, magical lights casting pale blue light as far as they could before the shadows cast by the clutter snuffed out the light. And the clutter itself–

Mummified body parts. Cursed looking wands. Books with covers made of tanned human faces.

"What the fuck," Qweck breathes, even her composure breaking at the miasma of cursed magic she could surely sense.

"Less horror, more hiding! And don't touch anything!" You exclaim, pushing Qweck forward. She says a quick prayer, and a mote of light appears in her left hand. You're almost able to run through the tunnels of stuff, being careful not to touch any of the obviously cursed artifacts, eventually pulling your charges into a nook made by stacks of books and crates next to a shelf where the ambient magic felt less dangerous.

"Cover the light but keep it handy in case we have to run," you whisper to Qweck. "And for the love of the gods, don't touch–"

"Qweck!" Thay interrupts excitedly with more energy than you'd expect given how much he's been gasping. You turn to see him taking something off the shelf behind you.

"Thay–no–!"

"It's the biggenlil bag!" he whispers gleefully, holding up his mother's bag. It's an old and faded canvas satchel, lovingly mended with little happy little embroidered bees and spiders and beetles. "I thought–you can't track it, see–anti-scrying charms because mother–well, mother was a monster hunter, you see, and–" he stops suddenly, looking at the stack of books you had taken shelter by. "My books! Not all of them–I mean, I think all my books are here but–so many books–new books!"

And then he opens the bag and starts pulling it upside down over a stack of books. Because half-starved, bloodied, wheezing and running for his life through a vault of extremely cursed shit, obviously Thay's top priority would be getting new books.  

Qweck starts desperately trying to convince him to stop, but your mind has begun turning. If you've stumbled across Thay's things, that means this isn't a mere vault of cursed things. You've discovered the evidence rooms of the Order of the Rack. This is where they hide the shit too scary to leave in public but too important to burn on the pyre. Like Thay's books, apparently.

Gods, these assholes' priorities are fucked.

But if the shit down here is evidence, there is probably something you could use. Something that could perform violence on the scale of killing the half dozen hellknights you can hear carefully clanking through the aisles, but that could do that without also unleashing a small apocalypse. Something that's cursed, but only a little cursed. Or maybe just enchanted, like Thay's bag.

You let some of the fire in your chest flow into your right hand–not so much that it burns, but enough that your hand glows as you ignore the pain of burning fire under your skin. You inspect the shelf behind you, reaching out with your sense of magic as you visually inspect the contents. You recognize some of it–uniforms almost certainly taken from the corpses of Reclamationists; holy weapons and armor blessed by Iomedae; letters and books of ciphers and maps. It seems that there is some sort of system to how this mess is organized after all, and the idiots think Thay's in league with those jumped up altar boys. And of course none of the fuckers they took this shit from used daggers or hand crossbows or anything you'd find fucking useful. 

You're going to have to venture farther afield, back into that cloud of cursed magic, away from the oasis of holy magic the Reclamation armor created. Pressing your lips together you turn to Qweck, still trying to convince Thay to stop gleefully collecting new books.

"Stay here. I need to check something."

"No–don't split up! That's a terrible idea!" You hear her whisper loudly as you ignore her and continue your search. Away from the Iomedaean collection, the magic is heavier, like a cloud of thick smoke. So much potent magic you don't dare touch because you don't know what it will do to you. You search for something weaker– something that might let you figure out what it is before it eats your soul.

You stop at a small crate, locked with magic. The magic is potent, the arcane equivalent of wrapping chains around a chest, but you don't sense anything inside. You reach out with your glowing right hand and let your fire burn away the arcane lock. You ignore the wrath of hell roiling inside you, demanding satisfaction, and open the crate.

It looks like a small model of a dinosaur skeleton. It barely comes up to half your height, bones and skull made of what looks like clay, hooked together with little metal wires that seem to have been baked into the clay bones. It's the kind of thing you'd expect to see on Thay's desk in the library right before he explains matter-of-factly that it is Brastlewark's Official Dinosaur Skeleton Day and that, yes, that is a real holiday celebrated in Brastlewark for the past three hours because one of his kids adores dinosaurs and another loves bones and another loves sculptures. But there is something peculiar about it. It doesn't feel magical, but it doesn't quite feel mundane, either.

It's only one you see tiny ribbons of flame trying to escape through your fingers towards the skeleton that you realize what it is. This is a golem, or the skeleton of one, currently dormant, but very hungry. When activated, it would call nearby magical artifacts to itself and use them as flesh and fuel. You're not entirely sure why someone would want a golem that indiscriminately eats any nearby magic items, but you do know that such a device activated here, in a vault of cursed magic, would be pure chaos. 

Right now you could use a little chaos.

You take the skeleton out of the crate with your left hand, careful to keep the burning hellfire of your right hand away until you're ready. You briefly think of Thay, so happy to be reunited with his mother's bag. The anti-scrying enchantments Thay had mentioned should protect it from the golem's notice and, therefore, its appetite. If it doesn't, well, hopefully it will at least buy you time to get him somewhere he can mourn its loss in safety.

You take a deep breath and then let it have the hellfire it has been trying to drink from your fingers. Fire begins to swirl in its ribs and its skull like you imagine a soul might, and the skeleton begins to move. You hear the crates around you begin to rattle, and you cut off the flow of hellfire and run.

You rush back to the nook as quickly as you can. "Run!" You shout. A swarm of holy longswords flies off the shelves above your heads, missing you only because of your small stature.

"What did you do?!" Qweck demands.

"No time, just run!" You grab both gnomes by the shoulder with either hand, pushing them down the aisle as fast as you can as the shelves and boxes begin rattling. You hear the breaking of glass and cracking of wood as crates and trunks and cases cannot contain the magic within. Enchanted stones, cursed jewelry, blessed weapons–all manner of magical items–burst from containment towards the strange skeleton you activated. You are barely able to escape from the aisle in time for the shelves to crash down as its contents explode towards the rapidly self-assembling monstrosity you've unleashed. 

The golem's reach extends outward, tremors spreading through the library and the ground itself begins to shake under the sheer force of hundreds of magical artifacts dragging themselves across the room to sate the beast's hunger. You push your gnomes under a table pressed against the wall that seems unaffected by the madness–just an old table holding some old books and a crate of mundane items–sheltering there while the creature takes shape and the knights begin to shout.

"What did you do?!" Qweck repeats, shielding Thay with her body and straining to be heard over the roar of a hundred cursed objects joining themselves into one.

"Watch!" You shout back, pointing at the scene unfolding: shelves falling, crates cracking, things breaking, hellknights screaming, and a dark figure taking shape at the center of it all. The creature roars, standing on two legs, a tail sweeping out and crashing into hellknights unfortunate enough to find themselves in its path.

"And this accomplishes what, exactly?!" Qweck demands. The golem snaps its jaws at a hellknight. Its teeth, an array of magical daggers and shortswords, punch through the knight's armor like foil as it shakes its head like a dog with a ragdoll before tossing its toy aside and snapping at another knight. This one jumps back quickly enough that the golem's teeth only slice her neck. Her body falls while the golem keeps her head.

Blood running from between its teeth and down its jaw made of amulets and jewels, the golem freezes, as if it has heard a distant sound. It stands a moment like a prairie dog tasting the wind before letting out a terrifying roar and charging, magic items still chasing it like a comet's tail. It lowers its armor-laden head and hits the wall with an earth shattering crash. The wall cracks and the rock behind it splits as the golem crashes through the earth leaving a tunnel in its wake.

You smirk at Qweck. "After you, princess."

"You want us to follow that thing?! Did you see what it did to those hellknights?"

"Would you rather stay here?"

She almost says yes, but just before she can you both hear the sound of clanking armor and concerned shouts as more hellknights rush down the stairs. She growls in frustration. "You are the worst subject matter expert!" she hisses at you as she hurries into the tunnel. You just help Thay to his feet and chuckle, still smirking–until Thay roughly brushes your grip off his shoulder.

Right. He still hates you. A cursed chaos golem won't change that.

He almost trips rushing to catch up with Qweck–rushing to get away from you. She puts an arm over his shoulder and leads him forward into the dark as he leans into her, accepting her support without a second thought.

You know you're only proving him right, but you can't help it–you really hate Qweck right now.

[aprillikesthings]

okay one more tonight

Which according to netflix is s3 ep1 but ehhhhh it's really a continuation of s2 imho

The Price of Power

(ominous)

I told myself I'd make this post shorter than the last few and I'm 99% I completely failed lol but this one had a LOT of lore and shit

AAAUGH

Angella's protectiveness is usually annoying but tbh I would feel the same way here in her situation, anyway Glimmer got it from somewhere lol

low blow, Shadow Weaver

I couldn't figure out why she woke up gasping so hard even though I just watched the last episode like three hours ago lol (Hordak had cut off her air until she passed out, and this is where she woke up, poor thing)

Catra: "It doesn't matter what I do. I don't get to win." :( but also "winning" should not be the objective of your life and you will spend the next season and a half being forced to learn that

Once again Scorpia's obvious one-sided love is painful to watch.

I hate that she's not entirely wrong!!! Like given her life up to this point of course she'd come to this conclusion. D:

Glimmer: The Horde is evil, and EVIL PEOPLE DON'T CHANGE Adora: I'm standing right here. Like you're literally talking to me.

(Okay but it's often true in the case of abusers, especially in romantic relationships. If you haven't read "Why Does He Do That" you should. Majority of abusers don't change for long--he talks about the circumstances under which they do, but repeatedly notes that it's very very rare and that a lot of them are good at faking improvement just for the amount of time it takes to get you under their control again. In any case that's why if people believe your partner is abusing you, the universal advice is "you need to leave.")

uggggh and the worst part is, she's actually right about a number of people in the Horde! I always knew it was a matter of time before Scorpia left the Horde, for instance.

But Shadow Weaver? Adora wants to believe this because Shadow Weaver was her mom, basically.

that's not how it works!!!

NOT REALLY.

I know I'm going to end up referencing this post again later, but it's worth a read:

"You think Shadow Weaver should have had a redemption arc? From her perspective, she DID." It also compares her arc to Catra's.

(spoilers for the rest of the show obv)

Anyway Bow and Glimmer offer to go with her, which is a good thing to do if you're ever going to try to talk things out with your abuser, because 1. they behave better in front of witnesses, generally speaking 2. other people are more likely to spot manipulative bullshit

yeeeurgh the way she says it is so icky

seriously she lays it on thick "oh I've missed you my child" eat dirt. Even after Adora's like "lol nice try" she's still like "oooh, so clever, I always knew you were smarter than everyone else" like you're still doing it.

"I was special only as long as I obeyed you" damn right

Compassionate to a fault as always, but also, I know there's still that bit of hope in there, the same one Catra had, of making her happy and finally getting loved. Adora has a huge advantage Catra didn't, though; which is that she has a great deal of love in her life from other sources. :(

Hordak: I am Evil and Scary!!! And I want Catra GONE. Entrapta: Yeah, okay. So anyway like I was saying, Catra's improved everything, but also, we need her to get us this thing!!! Hordak: No. Go away. Entrapta: :( k but I'll leave the info here for you to read on your own

The sad thing is, Shadow Weaver can be a good teacher.

ngl that's cool

also ugh. Shadow Weaver is in fact honest here: she's got nowhere to go, she wants revenge, helping Adora's the best way to do that.

plotty stuff I want to remember later: Hordak's goal is opening a portal into space to get Horde's armies through and defeat Etheria forever--and this is the first time a bunch of characters find out the Horde is bigger than one army on Etheria, and the reason he's close to getting that portal now is that Entrapta is helping him, and that once upon a time Hordak did succeed in opening a portal for a moment, and Adora was the result--she wasn't born on Etheria.

Glimmer: you're a fuckin' liar Shadow Weaver: I mean usually yeah lol. But like, why would I bother this time, what would I get out of it?

has anyone written an essay/post/paper about Adora as a bit of a Jesus figure

(I mean a LOT of people treat She-Ra like she's a messiah equivalent? But uhhhh that's also just how The Chosen One trope tends to go. Plus Jesus didn't resurrect himself so he could kiss a girl--though he did choose to show himself post-resurrection to Mary Magdalene first, so interpret that as you will.)

Anyway Adora kinda flips out at this information (she knows in her bones that Shadow Weaver is telling the truth) and bolts from the room

airbrush THAT on the side of a van lol

The way she screams "answer me!" at Light Hope is so good

Adora: babies don't remember shit????? Light Hope: oh.

There's a "vaginas are portals to another dimension bc childbirth" joke in there somewhere.

plot plot the First Ones came from beyond the stars, the sword is made to only respond to "one of their own kind," congrats Adora you're literally a different kind of person than every other person on Etheria.

(the timelines on this are confusing to me, I can't remember if Mara taking Etheria into another dimension also fucked with time passing, OH HEY I FOUND A FAN-MADE TIMELINE no idea how accurate it is tho especially considering the number of typos/misspellings, also elsewhere someone said each season of the show is apparently meant to be a whole YEAR?? I was thinking a few months at most??? I need to find if that's Word of God anywhere)

Theoretically yes but Netflix doesn't have the rights to any of the He-Man stuff, sorry

When Mara cut Etheria off from the rest of the universe she destroyed the portal capabilities. If you open a portal now bad shit will go down

(uh oh)

Adora: omg Mara's from the same place as me???

LIAR

Light Hope: being She-Ra is an honor!

Oh look it's one of the major themes of the show! Being The Chosen One sucks, actually!!

GEE, REALLY??? you think maybe people like getting to fuckin' cHOOSE

Adora: man I am tired of people not telling me shit!! Fuck this I'm gonna see what I can actually figure out on my own

She wants to know why Mara stranded Etheria. Remember that constellation being over part of the Crimson Waste that was in the whole "Mara portal Serenia" message bullshit? That's where she's going

Glimmer and Bow: road trip! road trip!

i'd be pissing myself in fear ngl

Hordak: this bitch is a failure!!! Catra: no u

everyone's reaction to that is priceless omg

LOL SHE'S RIGHT THO does Hordak want to spend his day looking at files listing how many bits of armor they need

I was gonna make an Entrapta joke but the next line is "and that's why you can't defeat a group of teenagers" and damn she's got a POINT

BAAAHAHAHAH

"My girlfriend doesn't want to do stacks of paperwork and shit either, it turns out; anyway you're going to get us some old spare parts First Ones' tech from the Pick-n-Pull Crimson Waste"

(I just realized people might not know what a Pick-n-Pull is--it's like a junkyard of cars where you can go and just take parts off of things for cheap. You have to find and take the parts off yourself.)

Catra: dude nothing lives in the Crimson Waste??? Hordak: heh heh I know :)

AAAND END OF EPISODE

Sadly I have the energy for another one but my headphones are killing me and I can't do it in the bedroom without headphones because Daci is trying to sleep. Which is a shame because the next episode is Huntara!!

ALSO y'know that timeline I linked way earlier in the post? parts of it are kinda iffy but I'm lol'ing because good lord as bananas as the lore can sometimes be, I'm still thinking that one for Steven Universe would be even wilder (and we know Rebecca Sugar actually had one, written out on paper, with a ton of color-coding). But also this summary of Adora's first convo with Light Hope is WILD because IT'S NOT WRONG (hardcore spoilers ahoy? but also if that's an issue you shouldn't be reading these posts lol):

Adora encounters Light Hope and is given the quest to "balance the planet". Light Hope attempts to isolate Adora from her friends my saying that balancing the planet requires her to let go of her attachments to her friends. This bears remarkable similarity to cult-psychology isolation tactics. It is especially worrying once you know that Light Hope is a Paperclip Maximizer and "Balance the Planet" is a euphemism for "rebuild and rearm the Weapon of Universal Genocide".

And if you've never heard of "paperclip maximizers" the wikipedia page about them is awesome but also I once wrote a post about the gems from Steven Universe also being paperclip maximizers. Here's a quote from the wikipedia page:

Suppose we have an AI whose only goal is to make as many paper clips as possible. The AI will realize quickly that it would be much better if there were no humans because humans might decide to switch it off. Because if humans do so, there would be fewer paper clips. Also, human bodies contain a lot of atoms that could be made into paper clips. The future that the AI would be trying to gear towards would be one in which there were a lot of paper clips but no humans. (Nick Bostrom, “Ethical Issues in Advanced Artificial Intelligence”, 2003)

[chacusha]

Legend of Mana: The Teardrop Crystal

I'm late but I finally watched this. Some thoughts:

My partner after watching the first episode: "Like, it's not just me -- nothing the characters were saying made any sense??" Me: "Yep, that's just how the game is. 😎"

The opening is a bit meh but I love the ending credits (both the music and the visuals).

Aww they missed the opportunity to have Inspector Boyd demand that "Sandra" take that hat off. In general, Boyd seems quite a bit toned down/more serious in this anime.

My partner in the second episode: *pauses it and points to Rubens in his first appearance* "Okay, but that is a SUPER Jumi-ass-looking guy..."

My partner responding to Shiloh doing nothing to intervene in Sandra and Rubens' conversation: "I don't get it. She's a petite lady with a tiny knife and he's got abs made of concrete."

My partner: "Inspector Boyd's right to wear that hat is revoked because he was so surprised the guy named 'Basket Fish' turned out to be the basket fish guy they met earlier."

Me and my partner: "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I ship Sapphor and a literal basket fish??? 😭"

Me whenever my partner complains about how useless Pearl is: "She is. ☺️"

My partner: "Elazul is kinda a little bitch." Me: "He is. ☺️"

I like seeing Esmeralda and co. wandering around the world together. The anime really cut/downplayed the whole "Elazul/the protagonist is Esmeralda's knight!" aspect of the game, which I don't mind because I never really liked it.

More thoughts about the finale/ending because this got long:

Grudgingly, I accept the "pick Elazul" version of the end of the Jumi arc (but I think the "pick Blackpearl" path is canon/makes more sense in a lot of ways).

I'm not sure how I feel about the Shiloh/Seraphina plotline. As a player of the game, it feels kind of selfcestuous but then is not played that way at all in the anime itself. IDK, it just feels like a weird choice!

I like the extra backstory for Sapphor, being the leader of the Guardians in the Bejeweled City. I wonder if he's gotten any new fic from it? Hm... doesn't look like it, on AO3 at least. Sad. 😭

I'm not sure if the Jumi arc climax really works without the space whale fight. The reason is that I thought it was important that the protagonist (and Elazul or Blackpearl) make the opposite choice of Sandra and choose to ruin the ability of the Lord of Jewels to form a teardrop crystal in order to get back the cores of their former comrades. Like, I thought they essentially punched all the Jumi cores out of him, but then of course this makes no one happy because the Jumi are near-extinct. Hence why the protagonist weeps for them.

My partner: "Yeah, I didn't get what was up with the Lord of Jewels. Like, was he just a scam artist? 'Oh no, just one more core... Seriously this time!'" Me: "I don't think that was the intended read of him in the game, but I see where you're getting that..."

(Seriously, why did they change it from exactly 1000 cores to just approximately that?)

The Sword of Fate(?) gets a little more narrative significance here... but not much. I always wondered what is the point of having it in the story at all. I guess no one knows. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My partner: "Omg, Sandra walked away from Omelas!"

Okay yeah, the ending here is a bit wonky. I think at least the director's cut did the ending better (I think it's important that you have the scene of the Jumi on-screen coming together in order to try to form a teardrop crystal to heal Shiloh and co. in order for the ending scene to have tension. And then the fakeout "bad news" delivery). But there were still the issues of (1) no space whale, and (2) the weird Shiloh/Seraphina scene -- I think this subplot muddies up the point of the Jumi arc, which is about the distrustful relationship between Jumi and non-Jumi. Having Shiloh be already mortally injured when he turns to stone diminishes the sacrifice he makes by shedding tears for/feeling sorry for the Jumi. Making Shiloh and Seraphina both sad at Seraphina's betrayal and wishing they had more time together also introduces a source of emotional sadness that, again, isn't about the Jumi. Both of these things super undermine the emotional weight of the Jumi arc, which is ultimately about being willing to open your heart to the troubles of outsiders, even if this exposes you to harm. The way they handled incorporating two protagonists into the anime was overall interesting throughout the rest of the episodes, but here is where it really fell apart.

Anyway, overall, I enjoyed it. The Jumi arc is my favorite plotline in Legend of Mana and I think it translated pretty well to a self-contained anime series like this.

By the way, would anyone like some LOM anime icons? I would like to make some, now that we have like a treasure trove of high-quality anime screencaps. Let me know!

[assbutt-writes]

A Heart Of Iron Chapter 7

Chapter below cut

TONY

The rest of the fight was a blur. The Ancient One teleported Thanos back to Titan, Thor used his hammer as a defibrillator to try and stabilize Tony, Loki teleported them to the med bay of Avengers Tower, they got Tony on a bed, and through all of it, Loki held Tony's hand in a death grip, the very thought of letting go and being separated from this mortal that somehow understands him too much to bear.

He only came back to the present somewhat when he heard Dr. Strange– when did he get there?– say that the arc reactor had failed, and they were going to have to remove it and the shrapnel entirely.

Eventually Thor managed to have Loki settle for staying in the room with Tony at all times instead of holding his hand because Strange couldn't operate on Tony with Loki holding his hand, but even then, Loki didn't sleep for fear of waking up and Tony being gone. Finally, the operation was complete, and Loki could go back to holding Tony's hand.

Days passed, Loki never leaving Tony, and then Loki felt a squeeze on his hand. His head shot up to find Tony looking at him, an almost fond expression on his face.

"Hey, Loki," Tony said weakly, voice hoarse from lack of use.

“Tony?" Loki said, voice breaking.

He pushed the alert button that Strange had given him to alert the others that Tony was awake.

“Never do that to me again!" Loki said, letting out a broken laugh.

"I'll try," Tony said, smiling weakly.

“I missed you," Loki whispered, barely audible.

"Tony?" A voice came from the doorway, and Loki turned towards it to see Pepper. "What the fuck were you thinking?!"

"Geez, Pep, no need to yell!" Tony joked.

"You took on Thanos alone!" Pepper said furiously.

"I didn't know he would be there!" Tony protested.

"Give the man some space, Pepper," Steve said, stepping into the room.

"Yeah, Pepper, give me some space," Tony said.

"Tony, why didn't you at least tell us before you went? We could've helped," Bruce asked quietly.

"What should I have said, 'Hey, guys, I know we just got done with a war against a god, but there's this giant grape that has an unhealthy obsession with these 6 magic rocks that he can use to wipe out half of all life in the universe. Oh, and 3 of said rocks are currently on Earth, so we're probably gonna be his first stop.'?" Tony asked, getting irritated.

"And how we found out was better? Tony, we found you unconscious with the only thing between you and said 'giant grape' was Loki, who was barely able to keep him away from you," Natasha cut in.

"I'm too tired for this conversation right now," Tony sighed, "I'm gonna get back to sleep, and Loki, you should probably do the same."

After Tony went back to sleep, everyone except for Steve and Loki left.

"He's right. You need both sleep and food. Clint recently took up cooking, so we have a lot of extra food!" Steve offered.

"I'm fine," Loki said.

"When was the last time you slept? Or ate?" Steve asked pointedly.

"I said, I'm fine." Loki said forcefully. He wasn't going to leave this room until Tony was better.

"If you'd like, I could get you a cot and bring the food up here?" Steve offered.

Loki hesitated. What if something happened while he was asleep?

"You passing out from exhaustion isn't going to help him," Steve said.

"You're really not going to take no for an answer, are you?" Loki asked.

Steve shook his head. "Nope!"

"Fine," Loki said, letting out a small laugh.

Steve left to get the food and cot, so Loki turned back to Tony, left alone with his thoughts, which kept going to the fact that this was all his fault. If he had gotten there earlier, if he had insisted on going with him, if he had told the rest of the Avengers what was going on, then Tony would be okay. All he ever does is hurt the people who he cares about.

Suddenly, he's back to that day on the Bifrost, except this time, instead of Kosto falling, it's Tony. He reaches out for Tony, calls his name, but he can't get there in time, can't save him, and then the frost giant is charging at him, about to kill him, and-

"Loki? What's wrong?" Steve asked, snapping him back to reality.

"N-Nothing. I was just thinking, that's all," Loki stutters, forcing a smile.

They fell back into silence, Loki's thoughts drifting back to that day on the Bifrost, when Steve spoke up again.

"Are you sure? That couldn't have been easy," Steve asked gently.

"What do you mean?" Loki asked worriedly. He couldn't know. Thor wouldn't have told him, not this soon. Right?

"It's only been a week since you saw a man nearly die," Steve reminded him, concerned.

Oh. Right.

"Yeah. I just– never mind. It's fine. I'm fine," Loki said. Steve wouldn't understand. He couldn't understand.

"Loki–" Steve started, only to cut himself off.

"I told you, I'm fine. Now, do you want me to sleep or not?" Loki said, lying down on the cot that Steve had brought.

"Okay. Goodnight, Loki," Steve said quietly.

Loki was lying in the cot for only a few minutes before, for the first time in over 2 weeks, he fell asleep.

[not-your-fucking-kacchan]

hi! I read your hiei fic the other day it was really good ^_^!

Could I req a fem!former delinquent!sweetheart!reader with Kurama and Hiei (together is preferred but seperate is fine) thank youu!

also to go in detail - yusuke and kuwabara knew her and feared her (without knowing that she was a girl and actually pretty caring unless you wronged her) then yusuke wanted to fight her and they met up. eventually became a part of team urameshi!

thank you again!

.. reimi

Aw thank you! I'm always glad to see some yyh lovers on here <3

Also since this was like the 80s-90s, I think the 'never hit a woman' thing was even more relevant to them lol

If y'all want part two lemme know! <3

𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 <3

Check out my kinktober!

𝐊𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐚 𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐦!𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐱 𝐇𝐢𝐞𝐢 - 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐭

Bastards.

Can a girl not just be minding her business on the rooftop on her own, without being bothered? This had become your safe space, somewhere you could just forget about these losers that were just looking for a fight.

"Hey! Yuuri!"

That's not your name anymore, but okay.

"'s not my name, asshole."

Somehow people had never connected the dots that you weren't a man. It's a fucking mystery where that little gold nugget of gossip even came from. It's not like you were uniquely masculine looking, you were just very androgynous, and it's not your fault that men's clothes are smarter, more comfortable and made to last longer. Fuck women's clothes, seriously.

You have long hair, but you suppose that people just think you're a cute femboy, like that Shuichi kid from the next school over.

Thus, you had been dubbed "Yuuri", since the general public apparently couldn't be bothered to remember your real name.

Finally, long legs hidden by baggy men's suit pants in a deep black stretch out, knees cracking when you stand. Yusuke doesn't even flinch. Boy, what a trooper.

One would have to be living under a rock, under the ocean, and under another rock to not know who this infamous troublemaker is. This day was bound to come, this guy's probably been in bare-knuckle fist fights with grizzly bears, at this point.

Oh boy, you never know how they'll take the news you're about to break.

"You know, I'm not Yuuri anymore, right?"...

"Meet me in the parking lot in ten!"

"I have class in five minutes"

Your words are lost on him, and you sigh, knowing you're about to stand the poor guy up on what's probably his first date. Poor thing. There's no way in hell you're gonna meet that asshole. He just can't take a hint for the life of him. Just how long has Keiko had that crush on him for?

"Listen, I'm not "meeting up" with you. I'm not in the business of hurting people anymore-"

Let me have my character development arc, asshole.

Nothing more can be said as you walk straight past the little delinquent. Though, he does bristle in offence at your casual dismissal. Maybe you should've rejected him slowly... 'it's not you, it's me...'

Yeah, right.

-

The two of you do end up meeting anyway, curse you and your curiosity, and you now stand in front of Yusuke with the most unimpressed, 'look, you've got the wrong idea' expression.

Meanwhile, Yusuke is looking aweful proud of himself, and it seems he rolled up with the whole pussy patrol. Of course Shuichi is here, whom you know about because of various contacts that keep tabs on suspicious people for you. And oh, boy, is this redhead suspicious after he caught every single contact of yours with ease, and even more so now that he's groupied with Yusuke, of all people.

Kuwabara obviously wouldn't have missed this for the world, but the fourth guy is simply a mystery to you. Mystery short stack wears only black, like you even despite the school dress code, and as soon as you tilt your head in curiosity at him he immediately looks away. Wierd.

The matter at hand is that Yusuke Urameshi wants to fight you, yet you're not willing to go back to starting shit for no reason. It was just too much hassle, and the second your friends and family got dragged into it was when you called it quits.

"Look, whatever dick measuring contest you think this is, I'm not into it, man."

"Yeah, whatever, man! Come on over here and get your ass-kickin', that smug face a' yours says 'kick me' all over it!"

"You know I'm a woman, right?"

The shocked silence that follows is comical, really.

Yusuke and Kazuma had known of you for a while now, and heard of your feats through others that they had left as pulp on the ground, and were genuinely curious about you. Of course, they never knew the were picking a fight with a woman. As much as they like to promote equality, part of them still cringe at the thought of going against the one rule in the book. Never hit a woman.

Everywhere you look, eyes are wide like dinner plates. Everyone seems genuinely caught off guard, even Hiei and Kurama weren't expecting this. They had just come to see Yusuke get his ass handed to him.

"Why is this such a shock to you people?! Do I really look like a man to you?! Am I ugly?!"

"No- no! You- uh- well..."

Kuwabara steps in to save him, and fails miserably.

"We just thought you were one of those really pretty boys- l-like Kur- I mean- Shuichi..."

This is starting to fuck with you now. At the sight of what Yusuke now knows to be an upset woman in front of him, he cringes. Kuwabara's going on about how rude he is for making a girl cry, even though you're not crying, and like he didn't assume you were a man as well, but he's just background noise.

Somewhere in his head he connects the dots, thinking of every woman he knows and how unexpectedly violent they get when they're angry.

"Actually, that makes sense, you know."

-

After this turn of events you had actually forgiven this particular group, and the memory of when they all thought you were a man is now a long running joke between the four of you.

At some point, you'd pointed out to 'Useless Urameshi', as you had dubbed him, that he should talk to Keiko because she likes him, and it was getting a little painful to watch them dance around eachother like idiots.

You had grown especially close with Hiei and Kurama after being sucked into one of their demon-hunting escapades, and although the short tempered fire demon had been especially cold at first, it was nothing you hadn't dealt with before. He was just having trouble opening up to you. Kurama warned that it might take a while to get through to him.

Nonetheless, you had patience, or at least more than you did before you had stopped being a delinquent.

In reality, the group thought you were an absolute sweetheart, and even a bit of a doormat at times, but the second you lost your patience it took a while for them to convince you not to commit murder in the first degree. Even Hiei was genuinely surprised at how unnecessarily angry you could get for just an otherwise ordinary human girl, even despite your slight spiritual awareness.

Despite your temper, the group adored you, and you adored them. Kurama often joked that you were his favourite human because of the behemoth strength behind "such pretty eyes". Butterflies invaded your stomach when he said that and they never left.

The two demons especially took a liking to you, since you treated them so well, and it was obvious to everyone except you, that they were competing for you, ironically. It's like Yusuke and Keiko all over again. He's still haunted by the name you gave him. 'Useless Urameshi- What an ass.' he would think.

[tonguetiedraven]

Hi hi! I was just thinking about something and I realized we never really got a scene of Rin apologizing for hitting Bon that one time during the Kyoto arc did we? If we did I seemed to have missed it, but if we didn't do you think you could write a little scene of Rin apologizing and maybe Rin explaining why he reacted the way he did?

I don’t think I’ve ever actually had Rin explain this scene. So all the kudos on finding a moment I haven’t written about, and I hope this fits what you were wanting. I made it friendship because BonRin wasn’t requested, but if you wanted something different, let me know :)

——｡･ﾟ･(ﾉД)"ヽ( ‵_´ ) ——

“Suguro?” 

Ryuuji looked over to see Rin standing a meter or so away. He hadn’t heard the halfling approaching over the sound of the crashing waves and the wind. The ocean seemed to be settling after the Kraken’s passing, but it was still tumultuous and loud.

“Hey,” he shifted on his spot, drawing his legs closer and settling his hands on his ankles. Rin jolted a little at the motion, and that made Ryuuji look closer. The other teen wasn’t exactly subtle at the best of times, and right now he looked tense as hell. 

It had Ryuuji frowning. “What’s up?” 

Rin swallowed and seemed to gather his courage. “Can I sit with you?”

Ryuuji shifted over to make space on the towel as an answer. Rin stared at it until Ryuuji patted it and nodded. “Go ahead.”

Rin plopped down in a gangly pile of limbs and promptly mirrored Ryuuji’s pose, but turned a bit to face him instead of the water. Ryuuji mirrored the pose, once again resting his hands on his ankles. It felt like there was going to be a serious sort of conversation, and he was a bit worried about the ‘why’ of it. He kind of thought they’d figured their shit out in the Impure King fight (and if he closed his eyes he could still the burn of rot in his lungs and the pain of exhaustion in every inch of his body) and anything else had been resolved on their sight seeing. Rin had even sat next to him on the bus ride out here. They’d talked and joked and it had felt like before, but… better? Looser at least. He’d felt easy, and Rin had looked comfortable too.

But it wouldn’t be the first time he’d missed something with Rin.

“Something on your mind?” He asked after a few seconds of awkward silence. Ryuuji was comfortable enough with silence, but Rin’s tail was flicking nervously against the towel, and it was already covered in sand. They’d have to remember to rinse it off along with Rin’s feet before they got back on the bus for True Cross. He’d flick it all over the place otherwise.

Shrugging that off, he fixed his gaze on Rin’s face. The halfling had his lip between his fangs, and finally blurted out: “I’m sorry!”

He did it much too loud for public, and in a sort of desperate, frightened way. Ryuuji reared back a little from the unexpected volume, and blinked a few times. 

“Okay… what for?”

He’d accept the apology, but he’d kind of like to know the wrong first.

Rin sucked in a big breath and gripped his knee. “I punched you. Hard. Kinda tried to do it more than once.”

And just like that, Ryuuji was once again aware of the ache in his face. It wasn’t the first time he’d been punched. Hell, it wasn’t even the first time he’d been punched in the face. Shima and Konekomaru always did everything they could to keep him from getting those kind of hits, but they still happened and Ryuuji went hard to stop any kind of bullying which meant he was always pushing past them and tackling more people than was always wise.

Still, he’d never been hit like that. It had made him a bit dizzy for a bit and the second attack had made him fly. He was big. People didn’t send him flying back. Not since he was in elementary school. There was still a sizable lump on his face, and his split lip was going to be around for at least a few more days.

“Yeah. You did.” 

Ryuuji blinked, fighting the urge to work his jaw a bit and see if the movements were still stiff. He’d already spoken a lot today and knew they were a lot better than they had been. The action would just make Rin feel guiltier. 

“Can I ask why you did it? What got you so pissed?” He knew it was something with his dad, but he’d been so angry and hurt, and he hadn’t really listened to anything else in that moment. Just the broken hearted fury that always rose when his dad failed him again. And that had seemed like the biggest of betrayals. He knew it wasn’t now, but it had hurt more than the punch had. 

Rin blew out a breath and scrunched his face up in consideration. “I guess I kinda owe you that, don’t I?”

He didn’t know the reason, so he couldn’t really say. He hadn’t explained why Rin had pissed him off so much in those first weeks, and it had upset him when he found out the others had told Rin about it all. (Well, not all. “They called us the cursed temple” didn’t come close to relaying how much they’d been bullied and belittled and ostracized from everything.)

He wanted to know what had caused it, because it seemed like a really big sort of thing, but he also… he didn’t want Rin to have to tell him. He wanted Rin to want to tell him.

He finally settled on a simple: “I’m just asking.”

“I, uh, wasn’t always like this?” Rin made a vague motion to himself that Ryuuji didn’t understand. “I was human most of my life. Or at least I thought I was? Anyway. I got into a fight a few days before classes started. Tried to stop some bastards from torturing some birds.” 

“Birds?” What the hell?

Rin nodded. “He was shooting them and pulling their feathers out. Think he broke the wings on a few.”

He didn’t make a response, but he could feel his face contorting in anger. He’d have run in there too. Who the hell got off on torturing a bird like that? That was serial killer shit.

“Uh, it got kinda out of hand? I didn’t know the guy was possessed. He tried to stab me and that’s when my old man came in and started speaking weird verses — the aria stuff you do — and the demons died and this dark shit came out of Shiratori and he grabbed me and got me out of there. I didn’t get it, but he was trying to explain all of this—” Rin motioned to all of himself again “—and keep me safe. We, uh…” he trailed off, brows drawing together in obvious pain. 

Rin didn’t exactly hide when he was upset, he hadn’t been quick enough to do that yet, but he also didn’t let the emotion linger. He always covered it with another one as quickly as he could. Like the Kyoto Tower insistence. He was terrified but instead of acknowledging and working through that fear, he’d covered it with bravado.

Funny enough, that punch was the only time he’d really seen Rin linger in the upsetness.

“You?” He enquired as gently as he knew how. As gentle as he’d be for Konekomaru, and gentler than he’d be for Shima.

Rin sucked in a big breath, and then just blurted a long sentence without taking another breath.

“He got me the koma sword and told me I was Satan’s kid and I’d always been an orphan and he’d never explained anything about it but I didn’t believe him and I told him he had to stop acting like my father because it was obvious he just wanted to get rid of me and then he doubled over and it all went wrong and there was blood everywhere and fire and Satan opened a gate right in the nave and they couldn’t stop him and I was stuck in that shit and couldn’t get away and I wasn’t supposed to open the sword but da—Shirou was dying and he stabbed himself to get rid of Satan and—I it’s my fault he died and I couldn’t—I didn’t— it was my fault, and I can’t let that happen again and I never—he died, and—”

Ryuuji, heart pounding in utter horror and breath locked in his throat in shock, shot forward and grabbed Rin’s shoulders, giving him a hard shake and stopping the overflow of words he’d just been hit with. 

“Woah, woah! Hey, slow down. Just breathe, okay?” He wasn’t sure where he’d gotten his own breath, and his pulse was thundering in his ears as he ducked his head enough to get in Rin’s frantic eyeline. “Hey, I’m serious, just breathe for a second, man. It’s not gonna help you if you pass out.”

Rin gulped in a breath, eyes huge and watery and looking about two seconds from bolting. Ryuuji firmed his grip, determined that Rin would have to shove him again if he wanted to escape. 

“Yeah. Good, just like that. Can you manage another?”

Rin did and relaxed the slightest bit. He’d poked holes in the towel with his nails, though they looked a bit more like claws now. 

“Okay, good.” Holy shit. 

That explained so much. It explained the tension between the twins, it explained the immediate rage at implying he wasn’t in this to win it, it explained the immense shame whenever his demon side was brought up, it explained the friendship between their fathers, and most of all…

It explained that punch.

Rin must have… shit, Ryuuji couldn’t remember exactly what Rin had said during the fight. He remembered a lot of “say your sorry!” and “you’ll regret it!” but it was all a hazy sort of blank out of that. A roar of tangled emotions and hurt as he lashed out at his father for the last failure he could stomach.

But the implications…

“I…” Fuck. What the hell could he say to all this? What wouldn’t sound like some shitty platitude? 

“Anyway,” Rin interjected before Ryuuji could come up with anything more than it wasn’t your fault, “I got kinda scared when you guys were fighting. I didn’t want you… well. You know.”

“Well, I coulda done without the punch,” he said, speaking slowly and hoping this didn’t make it worse. He hadn’t had enough time to really learn how to read Rin, how to asses his moods and help in the best way possible, but he was pretty sure this would work, but it was a risk…

“But, I get that I’m hard headed and sometimes you gotta beat a message home.” 

Rin snorted a bit, looking slightly less like he was inclined to run.

“We’re still gonna do it, you know.”

“Do it?” Rin asked, lifting his gaze from the towel for the first time. The bright blue of them looked more like fire every time Ryuuji looked, but now the sorrow in them was so damn obvious he just wanted to pull the other teen into a hug. 

“Beat him. Together. We’re gonna kick his ass for all he took. He’s the damn monster, Okumura. Not you. That shit wasn’t your fault, and you know it. He’s a monster and we’re gonna make sure he’ll never do that shit again.” 

It was obvious Rin didn’t believe him, but that damn mask was coming back. There was a fake kind of cheer covering Rin’s features. He’d fallen for that false bravado before, but the cracks in the mask were all he could see now. 

“And, don’t let it go to your head or anything, but you were right.”

Rin perked up a bit, tail thumping a little as he did. “Yeah?”

Ryuuji rolled his eyes playfully, marveling out how little his face seemed to hurt now. He didn’t… the information wasn’t exactly welcome, not with how horrible it was, but this was a big thing. This was trust and understanding, and he’d return it as well as he could.

“I would have regretted it if things had ended like that. If you’d… If I’d just left it like that. But again, don’t go getting a bigger ego or anything.” 

“Ah, come on, Princess. You can’t tell me I was right and then—”

“Don’t call me that,” he snapped and gave Rin a playful shove into the sand.

His tail whipped out of the way, whacking into the sand and sending some up at Ryuuji’s face. He spluttered in shock, and a handful of seconds later they were in a full wrestling match in the sand. The sand was entirely covered in the stuff, and it was everywhere. In Ryuuji’s hair, mouth, eyes, nose, hands, nails, on Rin’s tail and hair and nose and teeth. They laughed as they broke apart, trying to dust themselves off and fling more sand at each other, and when the others asked them what the hell had happened, Ryuuji just shook some sand on them.

[stxleslyds]

Also, the writers' failure to understand, every crime Jason committed had a motive. Attack other criminals? Holy warrior destined to purify the world of evil. Attack Bruce? Joker's still alive. (Oh, Jason, it's much worse than that.) Attack Tim? A parody of what he once was. He wasn't just a "bad boy". He was dangerously insane.

Hi, Anon! Yup, there seems to be a lot of things that writers have gotten confused about Jason Todd/Red Hood and the biggest one is his motivations to kill certain criminals.

Let’s be honest, Judd Winick set a golden path for the upcoming Red Hood writers. But each and every writer that used Red Hood in their stories completely missed the point of Jason’s character. All of them. It’s so incredibly wild to me that every other writer read UtRH and came up with whichever version of Jason they came up with.

Let’s list the writers that completely missed the point.

Geoff Johns in Teen Titans vol.3 #29.

Geoff Johns was one of the first to completely mischaracterize Jason, why on earth would Jason go to the Titans Tower to beat up Tim? This is not me saying that Jason would never do that because Jason thinks of Tim as his brother or a friend or the person that he can trust the most from the Bat-Clan (can you believe Lobdell tried to sell us that one?), this is me saying that Jason wouldn’t have done that because he couldn’t have given less of a fuck about Tim’s existence.

When Jason found out that Bruce had another Robin he wasn’t bothered by his “replacement” he was mad at Bruce for having another child playing hero after he lost his life as a fifteen-year-old. Jason didn’t even think of Tim as his replacement as fandom likes to make us believe, Jason called Tim “pretender”. And that was that, but to go from minimal recognition to go out of his way to beat him up at Titans Tower is a massive mischaracterization.

Paul Dini in Countdown (to Final Crisis).

Paul Dini in Countdown did absolutely nothing with Jason, I am sorry but that’s all he did. Him writing Jason was like watching a dog trying to catch their own tail. He started with a pretty basic take on UtRH Jason, then he added a bit of Jason being an annoying man with Donna, then we had the jealousy arc because apparently, Jason had the hots for Donna but she didn’t want anything to do with him and he was all angsty when she paid attention to Kyle instead of him, and then, later on, he had that whole Red Robin bullshit (I am sorry about this, but I absolutely hated that, it was so dumb, I am so glad it didn’t last long because it was just too bad), and after all that mix of just not interesting stuff he went right back to the Jason that he had at the very start. It was a waste of time, but I guess that he had to be there because he was an anomaly and all that. I just think that was DC’s first try at making Jason Todd/Red Hood something more than just a street-level vigilante and they failed miserably.

Tony S. Daniel in Batman: Battle for the Cowl.

Even though the first two did make mistakes with Jason’s characterizations, this man was the first to just throw UtRH out of the window and make up his very own version of Jason Todd. And his version was horrendous, that Jason had no problem with attempting to kill children and innocent people, he also really wanted to be Batman because Gotham needed a Batman and he wanted to be the person to wear the Cowl and he was looking for a Robin for himself.

I know, the whole concept is the perfect opposite of what Jason Todd and Red Hood were in UtRH. Every aspect of BftC Jason is based on nothing.

Jason wanting to be Batman because Gotham needed Batman is just the beginning of what’s wrong in this book. Jason became the Red Hood (in part) because he believed that Batman and his ways weren’t what Gotham needed so he made a better version of Batman with Red Hood (according to him) because Red Hood did what Batman refused to do. Another thing that is just wrong is Jason wanting, Damian, Tim or Dick to be his Robin, there is just so much wrong with this, first of all, Jason wanted Batman to stop having Robin because child soldiers ran the risk of dying at a very young age and that’s exactly how he saw the whole thing because that was what had happened to him. Second, if Jason was mad at Bruce for getting another Robin why would he now want one of his own to team up with his Batman? Damian was a child, Tim was someone that apparently Jason hated (because Jason beating Tim was mentioned in this event), and then Jason actually asked Dick Grayson, Nightwing, to be his Robin? Listen, there is no way that was Jason, nothing about him makes sense, even taking into account that Jason had beaten Tim already in this event Jason actually tried to kill both Tim and Damian (it might have been just one of them but yeah, it still doesn’t make sense).

I just don’t think that Tony S. Daniel knew who Jason Todd was, maybe he got confused but the thing is, his “villainous” and deranged version of Jason Todd allowed a villainous and deranged version of Red Hood to happen with the next writer that I will be talking about.

Grant Morrison in Batman and Robin vol.1 #3-6.

This was the birth of the villainous, deranged and bloodthirsty Red Hood. There is absolutely no trace of UtRH Jason here, not even if we are looking at the opposite of things like we could do with Daniel’s Jason. Grant Morrison wanted Dick and Damian to have a villain to match their Batman and Robin and they decided to give us a red-haired-pill-headed-red hood. Everything from Morrison’s characterization of Jason is crazy, from the red hair (hello pre-crisis) to the awful Joker’s Red Hood looking suit, everything was just weird.

I still don’t believe that was Jason, to be honest, I would rather think that version of Jason was actually a rouge Skrull that came all the way from the Marvel Universe and lost his way in Gotham City. Maybe when he made the jump between universes, he got too much information and got confused and took the form of the wonkiest Jason Todd he could come up with.

This Jason was absolutely deranged, he knew exactly what he was doing and he didn’t care if innocents died. This Jason was the one that got locked up in Arkham. This is the Jason that Dick put in Arkham for Jason and everybody else’s safety.

Dick putting that Jason in Arkham wasn’t a bad thing or something that anyone can use to shit on Dick Grayson (not on this house). This Arkham was reformed and that Jason knew that if he stayed in that new Arkham he would stay away from trouble, but here is the thing, that Jason loved trouble, so he took all the tests to prove he wasn’t insane and asked to be transferred to Blackgate (where all the Red Hood’s enemies were). That Jason didn’t ask to be sent to Blackgate because the Joker was a cell away from his in Arkham, he did it so he could go on a killing spree in Blackgate (which he did when he got there).

Skrull Jason was just bloodthirsty and nothing like UtRH Jason, he had no motive other than just killing for fun or whatever. He didn’t want to protect Gotham and he couldn’t have cared less about the drug trade in Gotham. In Batman and Robin vol.1. Jason Todd was unrecognizable. And luckily, we never saw him again.

Scott Lobdell in Everything that he ever wrote about Red Hood.

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Lobdell was the king of overpowering Jason, he was the one that drove Red Hood farther and farther away from his street-level vigilante status. He continuously added more to him, he was a big deal because he was meant to take down Ra’s al Ghul, he was a big deal because he was the only human to train in the All-Castle and learned to summon the All-Blades.

This Red Hood’s morals and ideals were kind of gone, there just wasn’t any kind of interest in Jason to get rid of drugs or try to control its trade in Gotham, he just had no interest in street-level threats, everything was extraordinary in both New 52 and Rebirth. If he wasn’t in space he was in some mystical land. His friends and allies became even more and more powerful, his level of power was completely off compared to the others. His personality was ever-changing and quite honestly you could barely see the Jason that he once was.

This Jason also was very inconsistent in the way that he felt towards people (obviously because Lobdell is a shitty writer), he wanted to follow Batman’s rules and was shown as someone that still had fond memories of his life with Bruce before he died but was also willing to let those memories go, to move on? Maybe? I don’t know. But he changed his mind about Bruce and following his rules or not for a very long time. Jason was also a little bitch about Dick, and he was a little bitch because he (Lobdell) never gave the reader or anyone a concrete reason as to why he hated him so much and then in Rebirth he decided that Dick wasn’t that bad. Also, Jason went from “Willis Todd, abusive husband and father that deserved to die” to “Willis Todd abusive husband and father but he sent me letters when he was in prison and Penguin had him killed so now, I really want to avenge him”. Yeah, I don’t really know why that happened and like most of Lobdell’s arcs and stuff it was never really completed or well thought out.

Lobdell’s Jason characterization was a mess for ten years and that’s the prime reason why Jason is a character with no solid background, story or future.

James Tynion IV in Red Hood and the Outlaws.

Tynion’s Jason Todd was a hero, he was like a mini Tom King Batman. Everything he did was right and there was just no way that you could bamboozle him. This Jason was able to hold to Blades that drained his soul as well as hosting the Untitled in his body (that were able to drain his soul too) and on top of all that he completed his journey of the Chosen One by making those ancient martial arts moves that he learned before he was Robin even though Talia hadn’t been able to master it yet.

Scott Snyder, Tim Seeley in Batman Eternal and Batman and Robin Eternal.

A mess, this was pure New 52 levels of bullshit and they all just wanted to push the “Batfamily” and while Dick was gone, they were trying to make Jason fill the void that Dick left in Batman events. It didn’t work at all and all they did was mess around with Jason’s characterization more.

Geoff Johns in Three Jokers.

I have talked enough about Johns’ takes on Jason Todd and Red Hood, but let me tell you something real quick, if a writer thinks that the best they can do with a character is make them give up their morals/ideals for an unrequited love interest, then they can keep that idea for themselves. Geoff Johns wrote a book that was absolutely not needed and then proceeded to butcher every characterization that he could, Three Jokers was three issues long and he managed to add more trauma to Jason’s torture, push the narrative of Jason being at fault for his own murder and make Jason’s motivations to be the Red Hood weak enough to make him want to give up his work for a woman that he barely knows (and doesn’t like him at all).

Joshua Williamson in Future State: Red Hood and Robin #5.

Now, with Williamson I have issues only when he writes Jason, not because his stories are bad, don’t get me wrong, I would have completely enjoyed FS: Red Hood if it weren’t for the completely unnecessary Rose/Jason side plot he had going on. Jason was clearly working undercover for some people that he hated working with. He had to arrest or kill “masks” (vigilantes, just like he “used” to be) for the Magistrate.

His ideas were pretty solid, Jason did the job but he never killed the masks and actively didn’t trust the Magistrate but he was working there to tear them apart from within, and that’s amazing if Williamson had given us Jason Todd/Red Hood working undercover to dismantle an organization I would have been really happy.

But that’s not all he gave us, even if I just forget about his failed attempt at giving Jason a relationship, I can still see that Williamson is the kind of writer that wants (or is just following DC) to make the “Batfamily” happen no matter how dumb and out of place it looks in comics’ canon. So, I am a little bit weary, any writer that leans too much towards making Jason and Bruce work together and become a family makes me want to scream, but I do understand that is just me, many people want those two to be buddy-buddy, I, personally, would love to see Jason kick Bruce in the balls and tell him to lose his number.

Chip Zdarsky in Urban Legends: Cheer.

Ah, yes, I remember the days in which I thought that this could have been something good. Well, I was utterly wrong and I suffered all the way through this mini. I feel like now I can safely say that Zdarsky only wanted to write a Batman book but DC told him, “Hey you can write Batman but it has to be within a Red Hood story, but don’t worry, you don’t have to know much about the Hood guy, just come up with something and write Batman around that”.

I know that’s what happened because I read that story and all we got from it was horrible characterizations for pre-Robin Jason, Robin Jason, Jason Todd and Red Hood. I don’t know how he did it but yes, he managed to mess it all up.

From Jason not really wanting to be Robin and acting recklessly every step of the way, to secret desires of a perfect family with Bruce and so many other people that he couldn’t care about, Urban Legends: Cheer is the perfect book to avoid at all costs if you believe that the concept of “Batfamily” is the biggest lie, DC is trying to profit off this time around.

Zdarsky also nerfed Jason in ways that I thought DC only wanted to nerf Dick Grayson. But I was able to see that I was wrong. Zdarsky’s run also pushed some of the most disastrous narratives that DC really wants readers to believe like: Robin Jason wasn’t good at his job, he was too reckless and ultimately his death was his own fault. Yay! I want to cry!

I will give Zdarsky two points for at the very least showing that Red Hood wants to protect children and that he has a huge issue with how the drug trade is controlled and abused in Gotham City, it had been a while since we had seen that aspect of Jason’s Red Hood make an appearance.

-

It’s just too many writers completely missing the point of Red Hood’s character or simply writers agreeing to destroy Jason’s uniqueness in the DC Universe so DC (as the publisher) can further push the abomination that is the “Batfamily” in comics’ canon.

I do agree with you Anon when you say that Jason isn’t just a “bad boy” but I also don’t think that we can call UtRH Jason “dangerously insane”. Personally, I will only use that last description for BftC and Batman and Robin Jason, those two were dangerously insane indeed.

UtRH Jason was very meticulous in who he wanted dead and who got to live. He entered Gotham’s most dangerous world and he had to make a big entrance, he invited the eight most prosperous street dealers to a meeting, showed up with the decapitated heads of each of their right-hand men and an AK-47 and said:

“I am offering you a deal. I will be running the drug trade from now on. You will go about your business as usual. You will kick up forty percent to me. That is a much better deal than the Black Mask will give you. In return, you will have total protection from both the Black Mask and Batman. The catch? You stay away from kids and schoolyards. No dealing to children, got it? If you do, you’re dead.”

This was Red Hood! Red Hood wanted to control the drug trade in Gotham because he knew that Gotham is far too corrupt and filled with drug lords for him to just want to eradicate drugs from Gotham. If he had tried that he would have been a dumbass, but he wasn’t. He didn’t want to start a gang war and get innocent people killed because of it, he wanted to set the rules of his new Empire and he had to start with the street-level drug dealers, from there he grew until he became a major pain in Black Mask’s ass.

We went from Jason wanting to control the drug trade and take over Gotham’s underworld so people like Black mask couldn’t have people work for him (or being dependent on him) when they were still in high school or were in a vulnerable position, to Jason fighting a war for a mystic land because he was their “Chosen One”. DC really wanted to do something grand (yet boring) with Jason instead of sticking to a street-level vigilante that could have become a Drug Lord to control the drug trade of a city that is so filled with crime and corruption that it can’t be saved by anyone.

Batman doesn’t eradicate crime, he “controls” it, puts a blank it over it, lets it nap up until it wakes up once more to make more mess.

Red Hood had other plans, certain criminals didn’t get to nap, or, better said, they would get to nap forever.

So, no. I wouldn’t call that “dangerously insane”, I will call that “vigilante that believes himself judge, jury and executioner” of a city that is drowning in crime and corruption.

Anyway, I hope you have a really nice week Anon and thank you so much for sending me this ask!

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 318: On Your Left

Previously on BnHA: The Hawksquad+Lurkers were all “well this sucks” and sat around a bit talking about how maybe they should actually come up with a new plan that is actually good, but then in the end they were like “nah.” Deku was all, “THERE’S SOMETHING INSIDE ME THAT PULLS BENEATH THE SURFACE!! CONSUMING, CONFUSING!! THIS LACK OF SELF CONTROL I FEAR IS NEVERENDING. IT’S HAUNTING HOW I CANT SEEM TO FIND MYSELF AGAIN. MY WALLS ARE CLOSING IN.” Just, literally that whole entire song. All Might was all “Deku you should take care of yourself, try eating a thing,” and Deku was all “BYE, ALL MIGHT,” and just LEFT. He left!!! What the fuck!!!

Today on BnHA: Endeavor is all, “maybe if Deku didn’t listen to All Might he’ll listen to me instead.” Deku is all, “[doesn’t listen to Endeavor]” because, well, yeah. The Vestiges are all, “surprisingly, even we are a little concerned -- maybe you should get some rest, kid.” Deku is all, “((Ò ‸ Ó)).” The Vestiges are all, “holy shit.” Deku is all, “[wanders the ruined city streets terrifying the populace on account of him looking like Shelob had a baby with one of the Nazgul].” Some shriveled-up puppeteer villain asshole is all, “HORIKOSHI SAID IT’S MY TURN TO ATTACK DEKU TODAY SO I AM GOING TO SUMMON MY FRIGHTENED HELPLESS ATTACK MOB!!” Kacchan is all “WHADDYA MEAN THEY FOUND THE NERD!!! -- oh wait, that’s me, I found him. I found the nerd, you guys.” And just in time, too. I was about to owe a whole lot of people a whole lot of dollars.

so I have been super good about spoilers this week as always, but let me tell you guys, for the past 36 hours my dash filters have basically been nonstop “manga spoilers” this and “bnha 318” that, and so I’m coming in with a fair amount of hype here. your move, Horikoshi

oh, good! they got Endeavor to call Deku to try to talk him out of it. what a great and wonderful plan

“listen up kid, you haven’t slept since March and you are basically a walking biohazard right now, I’m just telling it like it is. didn’t you get shot like three times?? and there was a whole thing about how you urgently needed medical attention?? and supposedly we gave it to you, but I mean you haven’t even changed your clothes and don’t seem to have any fresh bandages or anything, so did we?? did we, really?? and also we all got blown up yesterday, so yeah.” hmm he’s making some reasonable points here you guys, but you sure do go on and on, Endeavor

oh he says foreign aid is finally on its way! I’m sure they’ll be very helpful. I mean in fairness they can hardly be worse than the home-grown heroes at this point

hey Enji, could you maybe try appealing to Deku the sixteen-year-old human boy, as opposed to Deku The World’s Last Hope? he does have value beyond his quirk. I know that’s always been an incredibly difficult concept for you to grasp, but could you maybe TRY, jesus

and also we’re worried about you as a person?? you’re just a kid and you’re pushing yourself way too hard?? you were going to say that part next, right. why the hell didn’t Hawks make this call instead

“don’t worry about me... I’m completely fine” Deku you do understand that saying it over and over again doesn’t actually make it true

and again with the rush!! all the rush rush rush!! we’re running out of time, we can’t let AFO and Tomura keep getting stronger, I have to end this now, there’s no time to rest, etc. etc. etc. just the constant pressure of this whole big countdown on top of everything else

holy shit, you KNOW it’s bad when even the Vestiges are telling him to chill

these guys are basically the walking talking embodiments of self-sacrifice; if even they’re telling him he needs to take five, then he must seriously be like half a step away from death’s door

OH SHIT LMAO

DIDN’T EVEN LET HIM FINISH HIS SENTENCE BEFORE HE SENT HIM INTO THE FUCKING SHADOW REALM WITH THAT FUCKING LOOK. HOLY FUCK. DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IT WAS POSSIBLE TO DIE TWICE. SHIT

(ETA: so I’m pretty sure this was just Danger Sense activating and so he cut them off to go do more hero stuff, but I’m gonna go ahead and stick to my original interpretation anyway lol.)

anyway so how’s everybody doing. we all good? En, you good? Banjou? Shino? I’m imagining you guys all curled up in a little ball on the floor right now lol. can’t say I blame you though, no shame

lmaoooooooooooo

“SHEESH.” sheesh indeed, lmao. “what in the FUCK was that”

see, this is why y’all need Kacchan. you need someone who’s not going to back down from him no matter what. if it’s a matter of out-stubborning Midoriya fucking Izuku, then there’s only one other person on the planet capable of that, and we all know it. don’t pretend like you don’t. I am not going to shut up about this! we’ve had our hurt so now what about SOME COMFORT, DAMMIT

“I’m afraid that he’s becoming influenced by my conscience” nah are you kidding Nana this is all 100% made-in-Japan pure original Deku right here

see, Banjou gets it. “that kid, he’s totally going on his own.” exactly. this was so inevitable it was basically scientific law

“well I for one don’t see the problem with Deku being so obsessed with saving everyone else that he pushes himself until his body and soul literally fall apart” okay, whose speech bubbles are these?? we’re about to have words

lol of course

well you always did prefer the direct route didn’t you. but even you can’t possibly think this is okay lol

dark AU!Kacchan please tell us more about your badass doomed timeline in which everything went to shit and you apparently had the same character arc that Deku is having right now except it somehow made you sexier instead of turning you into a rabid t-rex. I have so many questions

oh so now you want to help??? well -- good, actually. sorry if that sounded offended just now lol

(ETA: so at first when I got to the end of this chapter I was wondering if Katsuki B. had somehow summoned his alternate-universe counterpart through trippy OFA space telepathy lol. but in the original Japanese there’s no reference to “we”, so this appears to be a mistranslation. this line should probably read more like “if there’s something/someone out there that would be able to complement/complete the current Midoriya Izuku [it would be]…” which, oh hello, is that Horikoshi once again reaffirming that Deku and Bakugou complete each other lol. “guess what guys, the Vestiges ship it too" heck yeah. they know what’s up!)

look how admiring his boyfriends are. HORIKOSHI GIVE US THE REST OF THIS BACKSTORY ALREADY GODDAMMIT

“meanwhile somewhere in the depths of the ruined city, Deku was having a dance-off with the villains”

I like how the villains all have this “AHH WHAT THE FUCK” kind of body language to them lol. I mean if it were me, and an eldritch horror suddenly clawed its way from the shadows with its writhing glowy tentacles and pants-shitting nuclear death stare, I would probably just die on the spot. no need to stick around. only pain awaits

lol for a minute I thought this was Can’t Ya See-kun and I was like “WHAT A FASCINATING CROSSING OF PATHS” but it’s just some random girl

he seems genuinely confused lol

Deku it’s because you look like something that crawled out of a sewer drain, sweetheart

lol they just took his word for it?

so trusting. even though they’re immediately hauling ass anyway just to be safe lmao

“my appearance is frightening to others” no shit Deku it’s because you look like a fucking alien exorcism. you look like a Lich that got caught up in an oil spill my dude

NO NOT THE CHOSEN ONE ANGST AGAIN

I RAN OUT OF ESSAY JUICE FOR THIS ALREADY HORIKOSHI!! I’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT IT FOR MONTHS NOW WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG!! BUT ANYWAYS, GOOD!! I MEAN, BAD, THOUGH, OBVIOUSLY. BUT YES

“ENJOY THIS MONTAGE OF DEKU BATTLING A RANDOM KAIJU AND WANDERING THE WOODS LIKE A DERANGED GREEN BABA YAGA” okay yes but sir, exactly how much longer is this going to go on. if it’s a matter of you wanting to make sure we get it, let me assure you that aside from a few stray chuunis who think that Deku embracing the Darkness is the coolest thing he’s ever done, all of us here in fandom fully comprehend that this is Not Good

-- OH SO IT’S LIKE THAT

really. with the flashbacks to his loved ones’ smiling faces and everything. not even gonna try to aim above the belt, huh

AND NO KACCHAN??! NO CLASSMATES?!?! IS HE PURPOSELY NOT THINKING OF THEM??? OR ARE THEY BEING SAVED FOR THE NEXT PAGE??? SO HELP ME, IF THE NEXT PART OF THIS SENTENCE IS “CAN PROTECT THEM”, OR EVEN WORSE, “CAN SEE THEIR SMILING FACES AGAIN”, I...

WHAT DID I JUST SAY

(ETA: my man did Sero and Kaminari fucking dirty lmao. I miss their smiling faces too omg.)

the sheer, unparalleled irony of him saying this while he stands there looking like the gargoyle demon from Fantasia got crossed with an umbrella that got struck by lightning. Deku :(

oi who the fuck is this clown

is he controlling this mob with his evil hair. “what if I made an exhausted, running-on-fumes Deku battle a brainwashed mob at Ground Zero.” Horikoshi do you just have like a checklist of horrible things you want to do to your protagonist

easy there Sasori

well joke’s on you buddy because he’s apparently “completely fine”, so

“here’s to hoping that you know more about AFO’s location than the others” jesus christ Deku you really have hung your mercy out to dry huh

now he’s forcing his mob of terrified prisoners to attack Deku ahhhh. sucks to be them. at least they’re not being controlled by bees

so Deku is saying that Sasori’s control can be broken with “physical trauma.” similar to Shinsou’s quirk I guess. but so does that mean he’s gonna have to hurt them? ( •﹏•)

NO NOT MORE SAD EYES

“DEATH BY EMPATHY!!!” HORIKOSHI NO

fuck. he looks like he’s on the verge of passing out

this is what happens when you nerf a character’s self-preservation stats in favor of spamming their bone-breaking stats instead. NOW ACCEPTING BRAIN CELL DONATIONS FOR A BOY IN NEED!! with your loving generosity we can hopefully help him live to the ripe old age of seventeen

OMGFGGG

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[grabs your hands] ლ(*꒪ヮ꒪*)ლ [swings you in a circle] へ(ﾟ◇ﾟへ)

THASSSSSSSS WHATSSSSSSS UPPPPPPPPPP

HORIKOSHI REALLY SAID FUCK THAT MASK (ノ°ο°)ノ YOU FINALLY LEARNED!! IT’S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!!

JUST FOR YOU KACCHAN, HORIKOSHI LEFT THIS ONE BAD GUY WHO’S STILL WEAK TO FIRE. GOD BLESS

IT’S YOUR COUNTERPART, KATSUKI B!!!! HOW WE DOIN OVER THERE IN THE TRIPPY COSMIC OFA SPACE REALM LOL. DO WE BELIEVE YET, FANDOM???

LIGHTS!!!!

INSTANT RESULTS!!! IT’S SUPER EFFECTIVE!!!

(ETA: imagine what this must look like to Deku though. he’s been caught up in this dark cloud of despair and exhaustion that’s been building up over... I’m gonna go ahead and say “weeks”, because yeah. and now he finds himself here, in the place where All Might’s legacy ended and the torch was passed to him. and the world is in ruins, and he’s surrounded by frightened people who are all trying to hurt him -- because who isn’t trying to hurt him, these days -- and he’s scrambling to figure this all out, but meanwhile the weariness is finally starting to catch up to him, and so he’s basically just standing there in a fog of complete and utter misery.

and then all of a sudden through that haze, he hears the one voice that’s more familiar than any other that he knows. like, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he thought he was just imagining it at first. Kacchan showing up to save him right when he’s at his most desperate and feeling the most alone. Kacchan, showing up to save him.

this is the person he always looked up to as a child (to be fair he was quite a strange child lmao). the person who was even closer to him than All Might. the person he always thought was amazing. and bam, here he is now. appearing in the sky out of nowhere to one-shot the bad guy with a single blast (which, btw, that was his armor-piercing attack too lmao dslkjlk take it easy there kiddo). like, that must have felt absolutely surreal to him, especially coming at a time when he’s already half-delirious and barely hanging on to reality. he must have really thought that he was losing it there for a second.

but he’s really there. it really is him. and for this brief moment -- before the rest of the situation catches up to him, and he remembers about all of the fucked-up AFO stuff, and remembers why he was so afraid and why he was pushing everyone away -- for just this one brief moment, he’s too exhausted and stunned to do anything except to just react. just stands there, looking up at him in awe.

and you know, it almost reminds me of...

just. you guys. the character development. the freaking character development. someone who brings reassurance. someone who shows up and makes you think, “oh, it’s all going to be okay now, because [person] is here.” the role reversals. the growth. the payoff!! because who is the one person who always had faith that Kacchan would one day grow up to become an amazing hero like that. WHO IS IT. YOU ALREADY KNOW.

omg. anyways, bless you Horikoshi, my feels which have been on backorder since fucking September have finally arrived lmao. yes, good, thank you. worth the wait. it is always, always worth the wait. fuck yeah.)

“LOWFRIES” SO YOU’RE TELLING ME THE WHOLE GANG IS HERE, AHHHHHHHH (º̩̩́⌣º̩̩̀ )

BEAUTIFUL. WONDERFUL. SENSATIONAL. I DON’T EVEN CARE THAT JUMP IS ON BREAK NEXT WEEK. THIS RIGHT HERE WILL SUSTAIN ME

[holdmecloser-gandydancer]

@taznovembercelebration day 21: cinnamon, brimstone

Taako rifles through his cabinets, searching every single nook and cranny he can. There’s a moment of fleeting, delicious triumph when he finds a canister squirreled away in his dry storage, though the mood sours when a cursory shake reveals it to be empty. He tosses it in a long, lazy arc as he aims for his kitchen trashcan. The canister clatters noisily on the floor next to the trash. Taako rolls his eyes and returns his attention to his cabinets. He swears he stocked up on everything two weeks ago.

The wind rattles his windows and he shudders a little; last thing he wants to do is venture out in the maelstrom pounding his home but he’s missing a vital ingredient. He drums his fingers on the cabinet door before he’s struck by an idea.

He begins methodically twisting his rings; you’d think he’d manage to remember which one does the trick but he has a very particular aesthetic and can’t be bothered to remember which rings hold deep power and which ones turn his fingers green. He fiddles for another moment before his thumb flicks across a band on his middle finger, sending it spinning.

In an instant, Taako’s kitchen becomes a personal pyrotechnics show, smoke and light filling up the space and billowing out before it can choke the air from his lungs.

“Ogie, my dude, can you help cha’boy out? Because I’m –“ Taako cuts himself off as he realizes the scene in his kitchen isn’t one he’s seen before. Normally his patron appears with far less fanfare and theatrics. Half the time he just shows up as an owl or imbues one of Taako’s books with sentience.

The figure standing in his kitchen looms large and looks entirely out of place; tendrils of smoke emanate from his dark skin and his dark eyes burn like coals. He has dark, gnarled horns as thick as Taako’s wrist. The thick stench of brimstone permeates from the singed circle he’s left on the floor.

“Well.” Taako blinks, looking him up and down. “You’re not Oghma.”

“Decidedly not, mortal.” His voice rumbles, deep and primordial.

Taako should probably be a little freaked out that this pseudo-fiend is hanging out near his stove, but he has more pressing concerns. He crosses his arms and frowns. “Is he busy or something? Is he outsourcing my shit now? Because that was absolutely notin our pact!”

“His matters are of no concern to you at this moment. He sent me in his stead.”

Taako’s frown deepens and he rolls his eyes. “Well since you’re here, could you get me cinnamon?” Taako walks over to the discarded canister and shakes it in front of his substitute patron.

He seems to be taken aback. His stony façade drops for a minute, furrowing his eyebrows instead. “Sorry you were trying to summon your patron for a spice?” His voice is now a couple tones higher. He just sounds like some guy.

Taako shrugs. “I mean listen if you lived in the middle of nowhere, you’d exhaust all your options before going to the market too. Also the weather sucks right now.”

Not-Oghma blinks once, twice, then three times. It looks to be more out of shock than necessity. “So let me get this straight. You have a warlock pact with Oghma, the Lord of Knowledge, and you use to run errands?”

Taako rolls his eyes at the absurdity of this statement. “My man. Fiend. Thing-that-scorched-my-kitchen-floor-and-don’t-think-we-won’t-be-discussing-that-later. Of course I don’t use the pact to run errands. Oghma needs a scribe to record all his big ideas, I was in a pinch when I was a lot younger, so we made the pact. The whole magic thing has seriously saved my bacon a few times but he’s mainly offered some sense of like, I dunno, security? Someone big’s got a vested interest in me. Probably wouldn’t be too keen on me biting it randomly so I get to relax a little. And yeah, okay, sometimes he’ll do me a less major solid like getting me spices.”

Not-Oghma tilts his head. “That’s it? No threats if you break the pact? No intimidation? Fear mongering?”

“From Oghma? Nah, man. He’s cool. So what’s your deal? Why’d he send you?”

“Um. Well, it feels silly now. Basically, I’m meant to learn how to manage a pact? I’ve been working in close conjunction with the Raven Queen for a number of years but she wanted me to get a feel for all the possibilities of what a pact can look like. Apparently she and Oghma go way back and he has far fewer warlocks to deal with than she does.”

Taako squints at him and fights a smile threatening to paint his face. “So you’re like an intern?”

“No!” He protests, perhaps a bit too emphatically.

“Well, Mister Not-Intern, do you have a name? And how long’s this Warlock’s Apprentice thing going on?”

“My name is Kravitz. And apparently until it’s agreed that I’m capable. I’m not replacing Oghma in the long-term. I’m just meant to deal with small warlock needs and report back about what’s going right and what’s going wrong.” Kravitz looks a little unsure of himself.

Taako grins easily at Kravitz. “Well, bud, lucky for you, I’m Oghma’s neediest warlock.” He delights in seeing Kravitz's confusion as Taako sends him a wink. “I’m also his best." He pauses and tilts his head like he’s thinking hard about something. "And I think at this point maybe his only? Anyway, you’re going to get a crash course in pact management. Now, about that cinnamon.”