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honeyawa · 1 year ago

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cherry kisses and bites +

( featuring ) gojo satoru.

"shoko, oh my god- shoko!"

you're panicking. your fingers are tapping on the table repetitively. your heart is going on a marathon. you're pacing around your room, waiting for shoko to pick up the phone after 5 continuous calls. the time reads 10:13 pm on a saturday night, which makes you wonder: what could she be doing that is so important over her best friend's possible death?

left to your own devices and the incessant notifications from your phone, notifying that both gojo satoru and geto suguru have messaged you, with the occasional calls that you stared at until they were gone.

it was safe to say your life took the "god gave the toughest fights to his strongest soldiers" a bit too hard after all this fiasco.

i mean, what led you to not check on who you were texting before sending an impressive amount of messages all about your-man-who-doesn't-know-he's-your-man (gojo)? the information being handled was of high value! all for it to be wasted in less than 3 minutes because you actually texted your-man-who-doesn't-know-he's-your-man (gojo) instead of your best friend, and now he knows that you like him!

with your phone across the room because you couldn't trust yourself not to peek at the hundreds of messages waiting to be read, all you could do was wait impatiently until shoko picks up. which turns out to be one of the hardest things you've done to the point where you wouldn't be surprised if you turned into a madman at the end of the night—

"confessing on text is crazy, but hey at least you got the job done, right?"

ah, she picked up.

"if you don't see me tomorrow," you pause, considering using all your money and buying plane tickets to travel across the country because you aren't a confrontational person, at all. "just know that i'm dead and i'm gone or i left the country."

"no you won't. plus, you don't even know if he likes you back or not because i know you haven't checked the messages."

"i don't need to know. i'm not—" you cut yourself off after processing what she first said when she picked up. "wait… how do you even know what happened?!"

"we will cross the bridge when we come to it," she responds, though not really responding to the question because she's avoiding it. "nuh uh! tell me how you know!" she's hiding something from you, and you know it. luckily, it doesn't take that long for you to connect the dots together. "were you on a call with them?"

she stays quiet.

aha! talk about accuracy. shoko never stays quiet unless she was found out. you couldn't believe it. your best friend, the one supposed to be with you through the highs and lows, through the thick and thin, was being friendly to the now turned enemy while you were on a crisis?!

"shoko…" cue a sniffle from you, "how could you do this to me?" (okay, maybe you were being a little dramatic, but they don't call you the drama queen for nothing!) you could tell she was starting to get annoyed by that sigh she just let out. it was just a matter of time until she snaps on the low key and gives you an order.

and that moment starts in 3…

2..

1..

"just shut the fuck up and check the messages from him." a beep comes shortly after.

…

oh, okay.

you're being fed straight to the sharks (or shark in your case). okay. wow. you just can't believe this. was she hoping for your downfall that much? ouch. with no one else left to be your emotional support, you have to give yourself courage to finally check what he sent you.

you take a huge gulp, and with shaky fingers, you slowly press on your texts.

unexpectedly, it felt like a giant rock was lifted off your back. the first messages you read didn't contain any "i'm sorry but i don't feel the same way" "you're like a sister to me" "i want to focus on myself" "i only see you as a friend" etc. it did, however, contain many variations of "OPICK UP THE PHONE" "i know you see this." "Text Me Back." texts.

one that did manage to catch your eye was the "watch out. i'm coming to your house right now." wait, he's not actually coming to your house right? (he most definitely is.)

you think your eyes are about to fall out of their sockets.

the feeling of relief that just came by? vanished. crushed. obliterated. annihilated. it feels like everything is back to step one, fuck. what could be better than calling your dear friend shoko once more and start ranting again? nothing. so you went ahead and just did that.

"the person you tried to reach is not available, your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system."

you think you might just cry.

to make matters worse, at that very moment, someone rang your doorbell. finger crossed and chanting "it's not satoru" over and over again, you clench your eyes and hope that it is indeed not gojo satoru.

but life seemed to have something against you, as you hear a very familiar voice talking to your mom, the voice of the one person you didn't want to see right now.

who is it? well, ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary folks, it appears to be gojo satoru! (is the world revolving around him now?)

oblivious to the quiet footsteps marching up the stairs, you mull about where to hide. maybe under your bed? no, that's too freaking obvious, plus you don't know if you would still fit after all those years. the closet seemed to be a fine choice until you realize that's the second most obvious place to hide too.

deep into thinking, you seem to have forgotten that the enemy is quite literally in your house, and in front of your bedroom door no less.

baam! your door swings open with enough force to send you flying and landing on your ass.

"why didn't you say anything!?" alright! straight to the point! and by shouting too!

"what the fuck do you mean?!" you shout back, matching his tone and everything in between, which is laced with confusion because you weren't really the one to catch things from the get-go.

"i mean," he starts and pauses, you notice that his chest is rising and falling at a quick pace. he must've ran here. (deep breaths gojo.) "why didn't you tell me that you liked me back for 4 whole years?"

"maybe because i didn't want to get rejected and throw away what we had?"

"well, why did you think you were going to get rejected?" he questioned. it seemed like he was implying that he does like you and this is not just a one-sided romance, seemed like..

but, did he say it outright? no. thus why you're still assuming he doesn't like you. you're no delusional bitch.

"um, maybe, just maybe, because you don't like me?" (you really got the dragging effect on the second maybe, it was perfect, from duration to pronunciation too.)

okay. why is he blankly looking at you now? as if you said the most out-of-pocket thing ever. why does it seem like everyone is judging you all of a sudden?!

"wait so, you mean, you still haven't gotten the hint yet?"

"does i look like a pirate on a treasure hunt for you to be talking about hints? might as well give me that uma costume and a map too." your arms are crossed, you're leaning to the left, and your right foot is repetitively tapping against the floor.

(gojo had a laughing fit when you did that.)

"sorry queen, i take that back." after every word, he giggles like a newborn when they see you embarrassing yourself in front of them. "what i meant to say was, i do like you back!"

"nuh uh."

"the fuck you mean 'nuh uh'?"

"wheres the camera at? i need to make sure i was photogenic during the whole video!"

"there is no camera. im hurt you think i would do something like this to you" his hands are covering the area where his heart was unless it decided to travel and go to his eyelids just for him to randomly feel the pulse at a place it shouldn't be.

"oh!" okay wait, so he did like you... you feel like everything is a fever dream right now, or that you're about to faint. you can't tell the difference.

"can i kiss you? you look so cute right now." hes currently squishing and pulling your cheeks so you can't say things properly. what you can do though, is bite (or try to) his hand the next time he goes in for an attack. ow!

"eat a cherry before."

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀꒰͡ ⠀ ִ 𝒩 𝑜 𝓉 𝑒 �� ⠀ׂ ⠀ ͡꒱

gojo, did infact, eat a cherry

“its too early!!” yall known eachother since the womb and acted like a couple for 4 years. it speaks enough.

if you havent noticed by now, you are oblivious. so very much so it make sashisu want to throw you on a train track and watch you get ran over (affectionately)

you were actually studying for an upcoming exam until you decided to take a little 1 hour break! (it was originally a 15 minute break but tiktok flirted with you saur..)

your mother was actually leaving when gojo came so she wasnt there with experience all the shouting

you think she wouldve thought you guys broke up (you were never together) and wouldve bought you anything you wanted + ice cream

getos messages are still left unread. (next time you see him your gonna catch it on SITE)

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uhgood-girl · 1 year ago

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why jikook?

i've been asking myself this a lot recently bc well, why them? why not tkook? or ynmin? hell, jihope even, they're underrated as hell honestly, have you seen that hot tub video? hobi was ready to unhinge his jaw to swallow jimin whole (and who (jk) could blame him.)

but jikook, in a not joking way, hits different. they always have. it's been years at this point that i've been deep in this rabbit hole (within the larger bts rabbit hole, my god, how deep does it go) but i don't recall making the conscious decision to fall in.

maybe a little background?

i'm a fake love army. actually, if we're getting technical, i'm an outro tear army bc it was in the comments of the freshly released fake love music video that i saw someone recommend outro tear if i enjoyed fake love and then it was over for me. extremely not fake love at first listen, who's voice is second on this track? i NEED to know. i'm a yoongi/rapline bias to this day. fake love still fucks though, don't get me wrong, it's a never skip for me.

for that first year and then some, i consumed backlogged content like it was my day job. i am a prone to hyper-fixations hermit, basically, who was going to stop me? my therapist? nah, she picks her battles.

i watched everything i could get my grubby little hands on like someone would be testing me on it later. (shoutout qdeoks, you were so real) i didn't open stan twitter for the first time till probably the end of 2018, really just in time to be slapped in the face full force with the shitshow that was a hate campaign against these boys i was deeply invested in by then, the likes of which i had never experienced in an online space up to that point. it was a truly, truly wild era, don't ever let anyone tell you differently.

all that to say, i've been here for a hot minute and i developed my own first impressions on bts and the members as individuals in a vacuum. no one had to point jikook out to me, they stuck out on their own.

potentially relevant disclaimer before we continue: i am really really queer. i grew up in the united states conservative deep south and had to change high schools my sophomore year bc i was outed and then violently ostracized for being in a relationship with my same sex best friend at the time. it is safe to say i have a lot of feelings about and experience even when it comes to having to be low key (understatement lol) about who you love. i am not here just to make my barbies kiss.

actually, on that note, jikook wouldnt even be my chosen barbies out of bts. if we're in true fantasy delulu hours here, i would want yoonjin to be real. god, that would be the stuff, they're so old married as it is. peak romance.

i think the first place jikook ever truly caught my attention were the memories dvds. jimin has always been a sweet, bby angel taking care of all his members but i remember thinking that he seemed to pay a little extra, special attention to jungkook. and of course, why not, jk's the maknae after all. all of them have always been doting on him and deservedly so. but in those briefly shown really serious, quiet moments, jimin was often first in line. a spot very easy for him to obtain tbh as jk never seemed to be very far from him anyway. maybe if you've never in real time lived the satellite jeon accusations (hi pandemic army, bless you, i hope you make it to 2025 when we have them all back without restrictions) you might find them easier to dismiss but it was so consistent back then in all of the content being released. and once noticed, i don't know how anyone ever un-notices it. but i was in deep before i even realized the water was boiling.

should i talk about why not tkook? or ynmin, for me? i'm just pulling those as examples bc i know they're the popular contenders here but all joking in the beginning of this post aside, none of the other members interpersonal relationships, in any configuration (sadly, RIP yoonjin romance), have ever struck me as anything other than puppy crush/deep friendship/family. and that's not bc i don't think over half of those men aren't queer in some form or fashion because WHEW, that is an entirely different post and we simply do not have the time to unpack rn but it's not for lack of looking.

i started in a vacuum, but i have by no means stayed there, i walked in all of those front doors and sat down and said "convince me." i've got the time and lack of life, i am ready to be won over. what have i missed?

to this day i still regularly try and check my own confirmation bias, i'm obviously looking for jikook at this stage but i'm still ready on my toes if any of the others want to get crazy. (yoonjin i am rooting for you, we're all rooting for you)

and i'm not here to really persuade or sway anyone one way or another either. there are a 1000 other blogs on this site that can probably offer you better explanations, specific clips, and detailed break downs of moments throughout the years and even then people are going to see what they want to see. i just wanted to write some of my own thoughts down finally.

though...i guess if i had to point to any one single piece of "evidence" it would definitely be tried and true gcf tokyo? but if watching that the first time didn't ring through you like a gunshot, i def don't think there's anything i could say beyond that.

honestly, i think so much of "why jikook" for me boils down to the pit in the bottom of my stomach that i used to get when i first began to notice them. when i got past the initial warm fuzzies inspired by the sincerity of their interactions, my immediate second emotion was concern.

i remember the first time i heard some of the other boys make an offhand joke about them being a couple and i got anxious, fast. i thought hide, hide better, please be safe. i began to pay extra attention to the other members in general too when jikook would do things and felt like i could sometimes see a similar anxiety to my own in their expressions. for a long time, i just worried about them and where i saw other people rejoice in their more obvious moments, i was slow to celebrate.

despite my initial hesitation, it's now been about 5 years since the first time they ever made me double take. they're a few years younger than me but i feel like we've been growing up together. (parasocial? idk her.) they're less conspicuous these days, and for lots of obvious reasons, but i feel like overall, their confidence in themselves and each other is quite high. i know that's probably a funny thing to say in light of this last week especially, but i stand by it. i've seen this song and dance before. i have managed my own expectations in the past, taken full steps back only to be beaten anew over the head so many times with enough "coincidences" i felt borderline foolish to try and deny anything. jikook are truly some sort of neuro-spicy pattern recognition drug, i swear.

and i've never really gotten to talk about any of this with anyone before! i'm shy irl, and shy online apparently bc i have just been lurking around the outer lines of this circle this whole time like some creepy creep but i've decided i'm over it. fuck it. growth.gif. idk that i have anything important or new to contribute to the conversation but my god, no one else seems to let that stop them so i might as well take my turn on the soapbox, no?

so 📢 JIKOOK REAL (?) jikook sus. jikook make bandaged queer little heart go boom boom.

#jikook #kookmin #hi hello welcome to the personal jikook ted talk literally no one asked for #in this essay i

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duhragonball · 2 months ago

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Daima 05: Panzy

Have you seen this spiky-haired kid with a red stick? He's not in trouble or anything, I just think he's neat. Take a look.

This episode introduces Panzy, the mysterious girl who botched a heroic uprising in the previous episode. Goku saved her and finished the job by clobbering every Gomah henchman in town, but as they leave, Panzy confronts them and asks who they are.

Panzy has a lot of questions. Who are these guys? Why does one of them have round ears? What Demon World are "Saiyans" from? Where are they going? Why are they going to Kadan Castle? Can she go with them? Glorio wants nothing to do with her, but he's too low key to yell at her or anything, so she keeps following them. Also she gives Goku a rice ball, so now they're stuck with her.

Panzy finds the name "Goku" strange, so he tells her his other name is "Kakarot". Shades of the final scene of the DBS Broly movie, where Goku introduces himself by both names. I know some fans find this out of character, since Goku vehemently rejected his Saiyan heritage in the early episodes of DBZ. But he started to embrace that heritage and reclaim it in the middle of DBZ. Goku insisted he was an Earthling when he fought Raditz, but he called Vegeta a "fellow Saiyan" when he asked Krillin to let him escape. He introduced himself to the Ginyu Force as a "Saiyan from Earth", and when Frieza asked him who he was, he shouted "I am the Super Saiyan, Son Goku!"

The last time he rejected the name "Kakarot" was in the original Broly movie from 1993, where he told Broly that he was not Kakarot, but Son Goku. But he let Vegeta call him "Kakarot" the whole time. That moment probably said more about his anger at Broly than any resentment for the name.

And now we have scenes like this one, where he refers to "Kakarot" as an alternative name for himself. It's not out of character; it's just the character changing over the course of a long period of time. I know it's also a popular joke in the fandom that Vegeta is "deadnaming" Goku whenever he calls him "Kakarot", and I get it, really. I'm sure a lot of people who have changed their name can relate to Goku having two names and preferring one over the other.

But it is also valid for a person to have more than one name, and to go by all of them at once. Lots of people in the Bible have two names, for example. Abram/Abraham; Jacob/Israel; Esau/Edom, Simon/Peter, Saul/Paul. Or look at Gandalf, from Lord of the Rings.

"Many are my names in many countries. Mithrandir among the Elves, Tharkûn to the Dwarves, Olórin I was in my youth in the West that is forgotten, in the South Incánus, in the North Gandalf; to the East I go not."

I'm pretty sure in the East, Sauron makes all the orcs call Gandalf "Jerkstore", but he's not gonna dignify that one. My point is that if Gandalf can have four or fives names at once, there's nothing wrong with Goku having two. Also he can touch his nose with his tongue. Because he's legendary.

Panzy wanted to know what magic he could do, because all Majins can do at least one magic thing, and apparently flying and clobbering lots of henchmen and touching your nose with your tongue doesn't count. Goku asks what she can do and she uses the Force to lift a rock. She can't do it for very long and it's a small rock, but it's pretty cool. Goku is impressed, although Frieza threw a whole mountain at him like that once, so he's seen it before.

But Panzy's true specialty is tinkering with machines, which will make her essential to this group by the end of the episode. See, I remember pointing this out about Pan in GT last year. The big problem with GT Pan wasn't her bossy attitude, but that she didn't have any useful attributes to balance out her personality. Contrast with Panzy here, who has this annoying kid sister vibe to her, and Glorio and the Supreme Kai would probably rather be rid of her, but she can fix stuff, and they can't. Eventually we'll have Bulma in the mix, and she can fix stuff, too, but it's taken her days to repair the Supreme Kai's ship. Panzy's from the Demon World, so she probably knows its technology better.

Speaking of the Supreme Kai, she recognizes him as a Glind, just as Glorio did a while back. She heard that most of the Glinds left to the outside world long ago, so it sure sounds like the Kaioshin are all Glinds who once lived in the Demon Realm, but that still doesn't tell us if the Supreme Kai himself was born in this place.

Panzy is suspicious, because Second Worlders like the Glinds wouldn't come to the Third World for anything other than business, and these guys won't discuss that with her. Glorio refuses to tell her his name, but he says it when Goku mispronounces it. He's been doing that lately, and it took me a while to notice that it's a running gag. It's kind of funny how he won't say his name to strangers unless he needs to correct Goku.

But Panzy is more useful than Glorio wants to admit. When she points out a faster route to the castle, Goku and the Supreme Kai follow, and Glorio has to go along.

On the way, they discuss the way Gomah's men were draining life force to punish anyone who couldn't pay their taxes. From this, we learn that demons live about a thousand years, and Panzy herself is eighty-two. So I guess stealing nine years from that villager isn't quite as harsh as it seemed. It still sucks, because they'll probably keep coming back for tribute, and I assume Gomah finds the life juice more valuable than poor subjects.

Meanwhile, King Gomah has some lady reading fairy tales to Baby Dende. He scolds her for her lackluster reading performance, and at first I thought maybe he was getting sweet on the li'l guy. Like, he originally kidnapped him as insurance. A hostage in case Dragon Team tried to come after him, or at least a way to prevent them from using the Earth's Dragon Balls again. But now he's got him in a crib with a caretaker and so forth. And Dende's so cute he could warm any heart…

… Except for King Gomah, though. He's not taking care of Dende out of tenderness. He plans to raise Dende into a Namek who will make a new set of Dragon Balls for him. You suck, King Gomah. I hope you trip on your stupid cape.

Back in the Third Demon World, the gang finally reach Kadan Castle. Oh, good, I was beginning to wonder how long this would take. Glorio tries to shoo Panzy away, and when she insists on joining them, he tells her she'll just get turned away by the guards. But what he doesn't know is that Panzy is the Princess of the castle.

So, King Kadan. He's a lot like the Ox King or King Yemma, by which I mean a big huge guy who looks mean but isn't all that bad. Panzys says he only steals from the rich and only kills bad guys. Kadan himself says that he can't stand Gomah's reign, and he wants him out of the way so that he can rule the entire Demon Realm himself and restore the peace. So that's why he sent Glorio to request the help of Goku, right? Wrong. Glorio came to Kadan with this plan, offering to bring him the powerful fighters who defeated Majin Buu. Kadan approved, but he knows nothing of them personally, and he had no idea that Gomah had turned them all into children. Clearly, Glorio's up to something.

Then again, his scheme might not be all that complex. We saw him in Gomah's palace watching the same videos of the Buu Saga that Gomah and Degesu were watching. He even overheard Arinsu's suggestion that the Z-Fighters might come to Demon Realm someday and threaten Gomah's reign, and Gomah's plot to turn the Z-Fighters and friends into children. So it's not hard to guess that he went to Kadan to get access to a plane so that he could bring Goku to the Demon Realm.

The only real question is why he didn't bother to let Goku, the Supreme Kai, or Kadan in on his plan. They're all united against Gomah, apparently, so why all the intrigue? Unless Glorio doesn't trust Kadan or Dragon Team. Maybe he's got a different agenda after all.

Anyway, Kadan is so on board with the "Goku Clobbers Gomah" plan that he offers to let Goku marry Panzy if he succeeds. Panzy objects to this idea, and Goku has to explain that he's already married with children. The Supreme Kai tells them that they need to rescue Dende or collect the Demon Realm Dragon Balls to return to normal, and Kadan is astonished that Goku would even consider fighting the Tamagami who guard the Dragon Balls. But if he be beat Buu, it might work. Glorio requests a new plane, but first Kadan asks Goku for a demonstration of his power. Goku's always down to fight.

So yeah, this is basically another Goku brawl, only this time he's fighting Kadan's best warriors. Kadan forbids them from killing Goku, and he's about to tell them to fight without weapons, but Goku's like "Nah, this will be good training," so everyone tries to get him with weapons.

What can I say, except that this is the third "Goku vs. a bunch of guys" fights in three episodes, and it still rules. I hope he does this in every episode. I mean, he doesn't have to, and it's probably better that they don't do this too much more often, since the stakes can only escalate so far. This time, the soldiers try to dogpile Goku, so he briefly turns Super Saiyan to knock them away. So it's the debut of Super Saiyan Mini Goku, even if it didn't last very long. Sooner or later, he'll have a fight where he uses Super Saiyan for a sustained period of time, and then a fight where he and Vegeta both use Super Saiyan, and so on. Of course, we have no idea how long this show is supposed to run for. The hardest number I've been able to find is something like "at least 20 episodes", so maybe 26 or 39, if we're following the "cour" system used for a lot of Japanese television shows.

Anyway, Goku makes short work of Kadan's guys, so we cut to them loading up their new plane. Kadan has to have the plane's computer "rewritten" because it's not the same one Glorio had registered when he traveled to Earth in Episode 2. This way, he can use the same PIN number he used in Episode 3. This is probably a violation of the rules, Warp-Sama enforces, but I still don't know whose rules those are, so I don't know how serious an offense this would be. Mostly, I just like that Kadan's people have ways to get around the barrier. Whoever implemented the PIN number system isn't absolute.

Speaking of that, the Supreme Kai mentions that their friends are going to try to join them here, but they have no PIN number to get access. King Kadan can't do anything about that, but then he asks a guy named Hybis to go fetch them. I'm not clear why Hybis can do this. Maybe he's just using the same registration process Glorio followed before? Anyway, Hybis needs a mid-sized plane for the job, so Kadan orders three of his guys to go steal one from the Nemophy Gang. It wouldn't shock me if the Nemophy Gang were the guys who stole Glorio's plane in the first place.

So with that all settled, Panzy invites herself along for the ride. Kadan objects, but she's good with machines, and she can fix the plane if it breaks. Glorio doesn't care for Panzy, but he's not good with machines, so that settles it. And the Supreme Kai is suspicious of Glorio, but he knows the way, so we're kind of stuck with him too. I guess Hybis and Bulma will have to catch up.

Glorio tells Goku it'll take four days to reach the Tamagami protecting the Three-Star Dragon Ball, and Goku whines about being cooped up in the plane for that long. But it doesn't matter because the plane crashes almost immediately and they all die. Whoops.

Well, that's a weird way to end the show, but it was fun while it lasted… oh, wait, they're okay.

So now that we're at the end of the episode, let me try to circle back and see what we get from all of this.

I guess the first thing we should do is talk about the GT connections. I thought this show was deviating from GT pretty decisively after Glorio's plane got stolen, but Episode 5 gives me pause. I mean, in Episode 5 of GT, Goku goes to the Imeckian ruler's palace and beats up his strongest henchman, Ledgic. They get their ship back and head off with their new pal Giru to resume hunting Dragon Balls. In Episode 5 of Daima, Goku goes to the Third Demon World's royal palace and beats up King Kadan's strongest warriors. They get a new plane and head off with their new pal Panzy to begin hunting Dragon Balls. And both shows feature the de-aged Goku using Super Saiyan for the first time. Eerie, right?

I'm not sure what to take from this. I was pretty confident that the GT parallels would end altogether, or at least become a lot more tenuous. This is either a huge coincidence, or someone genuinely pitched this as a writing challenge. "Let's take a few plot points from each GT Episode and use them to outline a new series."

The simplest explanation is probably that all of these Dragon Ball series are going to have some similarities, because they all feature the same characters in the same world with similar situations. On top of that, they're always doing callbacks to past scenes. The sabretooth tiger that chases Gohan in DBZ Episode 1 shows up again in other episodes, for example. Gohan himself is a walking reference to Kid Goku. Dr. Mu looks just like Dr. Gero. Omega Shenron dies to a Spirit Bomb just like Kid Buu. Lord Slug is just King Piccolo with a spaceship. And so on.

But it also goes to show that you can never be too sure where a story is heading. I mean, I kind of expected Panzy to turn out to be the Princess of the Third Demon World, but that sort of leads into my next point…

I like how this show is connecting all of the characters together. Panzy and Hybis aren't just new additions to the supporting cast who merely happened along. They're connected to King Kadan, who is conspiring with Glorio to overthrow King Gomah. The Supreme Kai is in this story because his brother and sister work for Gomah. It's not clear what he intends to do about that, but he specifically joined this mission because of the family connection.

Bulma, Vegeta, and Piccolo feel somewhat less relevant to what's going on now. We already have a bossy princess who can fix the ship, and a Super Saiyan, so Bulma and Vegeta don't seem all that necessary at the moment. And the Namekian connection to the Demon Realm seems less important now. But that's fine, because Bulma, Vegeta, and Piccolo haven't shown up yet to join the others.

I really like this setup with the main cast taking separate cars to the plot. It gives us time to introduce and develop Glorio and Panzy, and probably Hybis too once they get around to him. If the others were here while all this was going on, they'd be standing around with nothing to do. Or worse, they could get stuff to do and it would get in the way of the main story and overcomplicate things.

I call this principle "Klingons do not have fun." It's not a very good name, but it's a reference to Worf on Star Trek. In actual Worf-themed episodes, which are among the best of the entire franchise, we'll see Worf explored as this complex, layered character, with all sort of passions, insecurities, doubts and ambitions. But not every episode can be about Worf, so in a lot of episodes he's just in the background, and the most he might get is a brief scene where he compares Geordi's problem to some Klingon tradition. Or he'll just recommend security measures because it's his job. Or someone will make small talk with him and ask him what he does for fun, and he'll bluntly reply that "Klingons do not have fun."

And we know Klingons do have fun, because there's episodes where they party and go hunting and make out and stuff, but Worf's kind of a gloomy Gus most of the time, and he tends to assign his personal issues as a cultural feature. The Worf-focused episodes get into all of that, but the ones that focus on the other characters will just reduce him to a soundbyte or two. It'd probably be simpler to write him out of such episodes altogether, but he's part of the crew, so you can't just pretend he isn't there when it's not convenient.

Dragon Ball does this sort of thing as well, but Akira Toriyama also took advantage of opportunities to isolate major characters. The early Namek episodes focused on Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan, because everyone else was dead or back on Earth. Goku was mostly on his own in the Red Ribbon arc because he was on a training excursion by himself. And here, there's two ships, and Bulma's still working on the second one. They'll only arrive when the story is good and ready.

And so it might be worth having an extra tech girl in the story. There's a scene of Bulma and Panzy working on something together in the closing credits, so they'll probably bond or butt heads when they finally do meet later on, but we don't have to rush into that.

Speaking of Panzy, her reveal in this episode kind of reminds me of George Lucas' commentary track for Empire Strikes Back, where he compared Yoda to some archetypal "frog on the road". I'm not sure if that's the trope's "official" name, but you probably get the idea. Glorio is quick to dismiss Panzy as unimportant at best, or a nuisance at worst. He doesn't get too mean about it, mostly because he doesn't lose his cool very easily, but he still thinks she's a pointless distraction, and then she turns out to be Kadan's daughter, and far more important than he realized. It's a nice reversal for Glorio, since his mysterious stranger persona makes it hard to really get into his head. At least this way we can finally see him make a mistake and react to it.

And he's not entirely wrong about Panzy. She puts too much luggage on their new plane, and that's apparently what crashes it. But she'll probably be the one who fixes it too, so there's a sort of push-pull kind of thing with her. It keeps Glorio from getting too comfortable with his plan, whatever it might be. He never counted on Panzy being part of it, no matter how helpful she might be.

Also, I like Goku repeating their mission statement across multiple episodes. We have to rescue Dende. He also wants to fight the Tamamgamis, but Dende comes first. In GT and Super, there were a lot of times where Goku seemed kind of unfocused, usually to set up a gag where he didn't get what was going on. Someone would ask for his input and he'd say he was hungry or whatever. And Goku does get hungry in this show. He eats something in every episode, and I'm pretty sure less than 24 hours have passed since Episode 1. But he also stresses the importance of saving Dende, and he gets into fights, so you get a well-rounded Goku experience every time. The fights aren't just Goku having fun either. He's getting acclimated to the environment, preparing himself for the major battles that lie ahead. Panzy keeps asking him how he got so strong, and he's like "Kid, did you see me beat up all those guys? That's how I got so strong."

#dragon ball #dragon ball daima #spoilers #goku #supreme kai #panzy #glorio #king kadan #hybis

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darcyfangirlsfrequently · 8 months ago

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Reaction to episode 1 of season 2 of CME

Spoilers below the cut

The way the episode started with those cops that we don't know and then Emily's "I have" introducing her??? Amazing. Chills.

The way she just waltzed in and slowly and calmly detailed things about the killing that the cops didn't know yet was BEAUTIFUL

Penelope's birthday!!! (Still sad I didn't get to watch this yesterday ON my birthday, but whatever)

Ooh okay I thought that that snippet of Luke and Penelope was from BEFORE the start of the party but clearly it's after if everyone is already there

JJ and Tara being "mad" and Luke for whatever he just did and him being all cheeky and braggy WARMS MY HEART I MISSED THESE PEOPLE AND I LOVE THEM

"What is wrong with you?" "What is wrong with me? *gestures to Penelope* what about her?" I LOVE THEM

"I might have what I said tattooed to my body" "oh i dare you" "how dare you dare me?" the flirting is STRONG with these two

The banter!! The jokes!! I love this scene so much!!

QUEEF LESSONS??????? WHAT THE F U C K?

Penelope actually calling Luke by his name will never NOT make me smile

Oh no. A soft little moment with Penelope and Dave? I might cry

"This was good. You seem good." "I am. *kisses her cheek*" yep i'm crying

Tara and Penelope being concerned for their dad Rossi

Luke checking on his dad Rossi

Me 🤝 Penelope getting texts from our exes on our birthdays

"Put it away" I like how he's more direct with her now. Calls her out when she's wrong.

PENELOPE SHUT YOUR MOUTH WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT TO HIM

"I said I didn't wanna know, you were right the first time" yes luke stand your ground!

Luke looking SO ANNOYED when she asks him to dissect things with her JEALOUS LUKE MY BELOVED (if this were a romcom movie this would be where Luke just grabs her face and kisses her) (@lklvz i know what we're discussing at a later date)

"Oh god I'm doing it. Why am I doing that?" YES PENELOPE. STOP THAT LINE OF THINKING.

"I am moving on. Eyes on the prize." her saying that TO LUKE is driving me crazy. Yes, Penelope move on. Eyes on the prize. THE PRIZE IS RIGHT NEXT TO YOU.

Their eye contact and semi-wordless communication and everything ahhhhhhhh Garvez is so real

I wanted them to have a cute little moment where they reach for the same thing and their hands touch

Luke, from a different room: Put it away!! I LOVE THE WAY HE KNOWS HER???

Tara and JJ were there the entire time??????? they just let them be alone???? they're trying to jumpstart their ship with forced proximity

"You're HOT" JENNIFER JAREAU?????? The Jara shippers are going feral and the Jemily shippers are unsure about whether to cry or cheer, and my Temily self is weeping

"A hot mess is the term that you are searching for." Tara Lewis I am in love with you.

Tara talking about her gf 🥰 (Emily)

"Definitely not a book" i am GAGGED

Emily texting Tara "12:30. My office." Temily is real.

"we need to talk" emily i think the word you're looking for is make out

Is "we need to talk" temily code for "lets go smoke on the roof???" love that

Tara and Emily teaming up, Tara being the only person to know what's up with Emily, all of this is so good for my heart.

PAWS OFF THEIR CASES, REBECCA

how did rebecca's hair change that much in "two weeks" lol

oh she just handed off the file to Voit. Lovely. Not that I'm surprised.

"good book, I hope" HE WILL NOT LET IT GO

PHIL COULSONNNN

Elias showing off his acting skills. He is good.

"What the hell is Gold Star?" Luke I am hoping you're lying

Temily pitching a case like the wives they are

Rossi THROWING A GLASS AT A WALL

REBECCA. GO. AWAY.

Rebecca Wilson you are one of the worst people i have ever met

Rossi and Emily fighting feels so weird to me

Bertoli's wife being killed to punish him and hurt him through survivor's guilt reminds me of Luke and Phil

aaaand bertoli shot himself. can't say i'm surprised.

LUKE BEING SMART AND KNOWING THINGS AND GETTING ANSWERS LIKE THE BEST BOY HE IS (and Penelope being low-key impressed)

it was LUKE'S idea to get Tyler's help????

Emily asking if Penelope has any objections and then Penelope LOOKING AT LUKE

why do i have a weird get feeling i'm gonna like tyler this season. or maybe at least just hate him less.

Penelope not that you should be trying to impress tyler, but if you ask Luke if you look good, well, yes is the answer.

"my cats are my boyfriend" something tells me Penelope listens to "Karma" by Taylor Swift

Luke's overly fake voice greeting tyler I LOVE HIM

Luke baby i know you hate the mans guts but YOU INVITED HIM IN (this scene is hilarious tho)

*to penelope* "I'm happy to see you again." *to luke* "you, not so much" I'M CACKLING

"What, me? Oh you are missing out." I LOVE HIM THIS IS GONNA BE SO GOOD

Her thanking Luke for sticking up in that conversation. Garvez. Is. So. Real.

Rebecca is so hot and cold with Tara I hate it.

JJ you know all about being forced to confess something while being held against your will, don't you

the way Garvez are being put together in EVERY. SCENE.

Yes Penelope! Yell at him!

EMILY SAYING FUCK

Putting Tyler and Luke side by side in a frame only makes me more sure that they're making them similar on purpose. Almost the same outfit, badge in the same spot, similar hair style and facial features

"Who wants first crack at him? *points at Tyler* and not you." the comedy is back and i am loving it

#criminal minds #criminal minds reboot #criminal minds evolution #cme spoilers #luke alvez #penelope garcia #tara lewis #emily prentiss #david rossi #jennifer jareau #elias voit #tyler green #rebecca wilson #temily #garvez

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batsylikeme · 7 months ago

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so here’s my silly little rant/opinions on the new doctor who season

if what i say pisses you off just keep scrolling mary i don’t have the energy to deal with negativity rn

so firstly i don't wanna talk abt how the new doctor regenerated okay that made absolutely no sense to me. idk why even 10 came back as well like ig donna's story was left "untold" ….but so is every other companion’s?

and idk how they split??? i really don't understand how they can do that but it’s aliens so whatever.

im also not gonna go into the christmas episode or the baby episode i...dont wanna relive that.

so!! i love the doctor i think he’s so fun and hip and his style is amazing.

personally i think the fact that he doesn’t have a set outfit is bc he’s trying to figure out who he is, which is always so exciting as the viewer going on this journey with him.

and ruby is awesome as hell!! low key fuck you writers for not making her a lesbian ( i mean she has the eyebrow slit and everything you should be ashamed).

also cool background story i love that she's interesting and a mystery. plus when villains are like "who...are you" that's always so dope.

i think that the "family" of the different "gods" is really cheesy but GOD i loved jinx they did so fucking amazing their performance was everything. i want them to act in every show ever honestly.

with that being said.. that episode specifically wasn’t my favorite, it was a cool concept but idgaf abt the beetles so 😭

and in that episode when the doctor ran away and hid?? that was new to the doctor that we know and i was like “yeah let’s go we’re gonna watch his character develop!”

so you would think it would build up to some sort of solution bc the doctor is tryna figure out who he is and that's gnarly love it

….then they DIDNT?

they didn't do anything with that?!?? at least that i was able to notice?

okay but after the jinx episode the rest of the episodes were actually fierce!

the landmine one had some really cool dialogue moments especially with the bickering like love i'm obsessed. ruby was also really cool and i love how much she cares about the doctor and how she wasn’t scared. i think that says a lot about her character. not to mention i think having her so in awe of the planets was a really good choice bc that reaction is so human and i love it.

buttttt the other characters were like mad infuriating which may have been the point? and throughout the episode it was so tense and nerve racking but the end was so anticlimactic. i loved the idea, and i loved that the dad was able to save the day (even tho i wanted the doctor to save the day but whatever) but i wanted MORE. i wanted the doctor and ruby to go into town, or to see the government and face them and call them out on the war! the fact that it was in one area the entire episode was just not it, me no likey.

the ruby centered episode was AWESOME.

that one was so unsettling (in a good way) and it was sooooo cool to see her like basically save the world and then she dies but BOOM they're back when the episode first started. i loved it, so peak doctor who timey wimey stuff

even tho i'm still a little confused as to if the lady was ruby? but whatever i still really enjoyed it i honestly have no cons on this episode it displayed what kind of person she is perfectly.

next, the bridgerton episode was fun! love the gayness they even kissed and they flirted it was so fierce. and ugh ruby’s character just keeps getting better and better honestly shes so fun and it’s so easy to root for her.

…but… the dialogue wasn’t good in this episode….at all. especially having the aliens say the word ‘cosplay’ took me out of the fantasy completely

also side note but not really-

what always impressed me growing up watching doctor who was that even back in 2005 the alien makeup was always so FIERCE like cunty boots down house houston bc it's makeup centric!

it also allows talented people to show off their skills and add really personal features to the actors who are playing the aliens. but nowadays they rely on the cgi so much that it just doesn’t seem believable and honestly it doesn't look good anymore. like mentioned before with makeup you can use the actor’s features to your advantage which creates the perfect illusion.

makeup + a LITTLE bit of cgi is the way to go and i don't get a fuck if it's more expensive ur a fucking successful ass company you have the money now USE IT

the episode itself was good until the very end when rouge sacrificed himself and then the doctor was like "i move on that's what happens" like bruh

by having him say that, it honestly makes you think that all of the losses the doctor has endured is just moments of his past, and that he’s moved on

like no i want the doctor to be angry, to be motivated!!

and that's what i think this doctor lacked.

there was no motivation or drive for him, which is so fucking stupid bc the actor is amazing.

the episode that ended with the doctor experiencing racism for the first time…you can tell that the actor put his whole heart and soul into his performance (especially the scream). he was unleashing a whole new part of his doctor and it was absolutely perfect.

so why not use that to give the doctor more motivation, more anger? seeing the doctor not being able to move on, to be selfish at times bc that makes him feel human. which would make sense BC!! he has spent so much times with humans and earth is important to him.

moving on; one of the biggest things that made this season an issue was that they cried every. single. episode.

when you only get something every once and a while it makes that thing so much more precious. the doctor only cries like once a season, and when he does it's like actually thrilling bc you don't get that side of him a lot.

and usually it's with a lot of anger bc the doctor is angry!! we've been through how many seasons of the doctor suffering?? i mean the man literally blew up his own planet. he's been thru the ringer.

there are so many episodes of the doctor not having the best morals, of him letting the villain die bc of his own selfish intentions. he's not supposed to be a hero, and i think that’s also what makes the doctor so compelling.

another con was the dialogue. one of my biggest tv / movie turn offs is when they say what they’re doing. and not in the super impressive like monologue way but in the simple way of being like "i'm cooking" like mary yeah i see you doing that??

and this season used that a lot. and again NOT in the cool monologue saving the day way speaking of that, no cool monologues? none? nada?

the best part of doctor who is when the doctor goes against all odds and saves the day with that sexy smirk and has the coolest monologue with the kick ass music in the back and during it gives you goosebumps! it also allowed the actor to put forth a lot of emotion into their performance and allowed them to build who their doctor is.

despite all of that, i did really enjoy the episode with ruby growing old and the racism episode. the fact that they didn’t have to say it was perfect and i think was a really good choice bc it was a surprise factor, especially with the doctor’s reaction. when they brought in a random character to save the day and him be so unlike the rest of his race and then kill him is always gonna be classic trope, bc my sister and i were GAGGED. perfect, absolutely perfect.

however. the season finale can go fuck itself.

UNIT is so cheesy now, and it feels so unreal and silly which i think is stupid. they’ve had this facility for so long so the fact that it is unserious now is lame. it feels really fake whenever they're trying to be serious and sciency, which is not the way to go when ur a literal army based facility.

anyways back to the season finale-yeah it was cool to have a throwback especially with the fact it was “the one who waits” that was gnarly! however,,, when sutukh whatever his name was literally kills the entire universe…it didn't feel like it??? it happened so quickly it didn't have that shock value it was supposed to and i was actually confused.

i did love the throwback to the ruby episode so it made you feel like it was tying that together which is nice!! give them some recognition yay!!

now let’s talk abt the whole plot with Ruby’s birth mother.

the build up of her real mother i mean it's been every episode when they mentioned it. in the first part where they were in the time window, that was giving me the creeps! i loved that it was scary and confusing and i couldn’t wait to figure it out!

so when the birth mother of ruby, the woman that even the god of death was infatuated with, the woman that the doctor couldn't figure out, the woman that was stuck in some sort of time thingy…………..is just a regular woman? its just some teenager who got knocked up and gave away her kid? that's it?

i've been getting edged this entire fucking season just for this?

if you enjoyed that it was a regular person i get it! it’s a throwback to whenever the doctor made his speech about how no one is ever just unimportant, which i do love and appreciate.

the whole reason she's important is bc the unknown is the most powerful thing which honestly i agree. my biggest fears are always the unknown. so yes absolutely i get it….but….are you...are you kidding me?

and then ruby leaves? ruby is done traveling with the doctor? i just. ugh.

there was so much potential and i’m just so empty now.

yes it had its cool moments, but im honestly so heartbroken and disappointed with how it turned out like, some bitch on tumblr could have written this season better than this.

i really really really hope the next season is better, at this point it’s just the writing. so get it together writers!! Ncuti is a phenomenal actor he is so fun and his range is so raw and captivating. not to mention Ruby! i’m really sad she’s leaving so soon, she was really fun and complimented the doctor well.

i can’t wait to see what’s next, and honestly no matter what i’m gonna watch doctor who bc it’s so special to me <3

#doctor who #fifteenth doctor #15th doctor #pls don’t fight me on this #also let’s not talk abt the grammar #i originally wrote this out on discord to rant to my friends #none of them watch doctor who #i hope i didn’t ruin my chances of getting them to watch it someday #i’m re watching doctor who now #jesus

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the-milk-monarch · 1 year ago

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☣︎ Context - I am a dum dum and accidentally wrote a different story for Tyler bc I didn't understand the assignment well, or perhaps that's what you wanted? idk gee I love being autistic /s (from future/in making @yeetusdeefetus ask (Alejandro finished so far 💯))

【 TYLER GETS A CRUSH ON A GUY 】 Summary: After his (ex) girlfriend forgot who he is, Tyler focuses on his boy friend and protects him in a challenge. ☢︎ | masculine reader ☢︎ | Total Drama ☢︎ | Tyler

Tyler was drawn to you after he gave up on Lindsay, who forgot who he was.

He didn't know why, but he wanted to spent each minute with you.

He assumed it's because you were such a cool bro to hang out with.

And you knew his name!!

You were friends before, but most of the time he wanted to hang out with his (now ex) girlfriend, because she used to bring him so much joy.

But now that she forgot him, his attention focused on you.

One day however he started to think more about his dating life situation.

He wasn't quite sure what he felt, but after initial sadness of Lindsay not recognizing him he felt quite- fine??

He was still very unhappy, don't get him wrong, but he wasn't like- depressed.

That made him think about the possible reason, which made him think about you.

That realization hit him like a train.

He "likes girls!" after all.

As if on cue, you appeared on his radar.

You noticed he was looking kind of upset, but you weren't sure if you should approach.

After some thinking though you decided to finally walk up to him.

Once he noticed you nearing his way, he started acting more fidgety and anxious.

You asked if he's okay, to which he responded with a nervous and obviously trying to be cool "Of- Of course Y/N! Why do you ask??"

You carefully asked if it's because of Lindsay, trying to remain lighthearted and supportive towards him.

He stopped for a moment before responding, trying to find appropriate words.

"…Yeah! I just want my girlfriend to recognize me, you know??" He told you, although his expression changed to a more hesitant one.

You spotted his slightly pink cheeks and him side-eyeing you when you weren't looking.

"B-But I mean- They say there's lots of fish in the sea, eh??" He said, trying to lighten up the mood, in his own goofy way. "I will just search for the fish on land!"

You chuckled at his words that didn't make sense.

"Wait- There must be some odd fish that walk on land, right??" Tyler trailed off a little with his side thoughts about what he just said.

You laughed softly again.

"Well, we all were once fish that walked on land, so- I guess?" You say playfully, amused by your own conclusion.

He seems to be glad that you're not calling him stupid, and even a bit proud of himself.

"Well- In any case- If you don't have anyone to hang out with, feel free to come to me sometime." You put your hand on his shoulder in a friendly and supportive manner, which made Tyler's cheeks hotter.

"Eheh-" He mixed a bashful chuckle with "uhuh".

After that conversation Tyler was all over you in a few days.

It was like impressing Lindsay again, but this time it was you.

He tried to be smooth and low-key while catching your attention, but the whole team (even including you, being slightly suspicious about him) knew that he had a massive crush on you.

"Hey Y/N!" He waved at you once Chris announced that you'd need a partner on your next challenge coming up. "Y/N!! Here! Tyler! Do you wanna pair up?"

You sighed, keeping a defeated smile on your face. This man was killing you, but you enjoyed his silly behavior.

"Sure, Tyler, we can pair up," You approached him, making him let out a victorious and a bit goofy "yeah!".

Chris had made up yet another stupid and possibly dangerous challenge, where Chef would be firing items thru his cannon while you go do an obstacle course.

The cannon was a surprise, as Chris didn't disclose that to you all.

Chef had pointed the thing at you, letting it fire with a loud "boom".

A flying pillow flying at full speed almost hit you, but you managed to swiftly avoid it, letting out a quiet gasp.

Chris and Chef snickered at that.

Tyler noticed that you were in danger, so he quickly ran up to you, jumping in front of second object that was supposed to hit you.

The flying chicken toy and Tyler squeaked at the same time as it hit him.

You were worried something happened to him but he optimistically (albeit a bit in pain) raised his hand in a thumbs up.

Fortunately you both were able to complete the challenge without too many bruises.

Tyler was roughed up a bit, but he didn't wanna complain in front of you.

After you both were somewhere alone, you approached him to thank him for being your "hero".

He blinked at you once, processing the words that came out of your mouth, but after he did, he grinned proudly and a bit flustered.

"Yeah, it was nothing." He said while red on his cheeks matched his outfit.

"How shall I ever repay you?" You asked playfully.

"Oh, um…" He stopped for a moment, deep in thought. You chuckled softly, seeing how preoccupied he was with figuring that out.

You were feeling brave after today, being like 95% sure he was into you, so you decided to be a bit bold.

You kissed him on the cheeks while he was still in the process of figuring out what to respond, making his eyes go wider and his cheeks getting redder.

"Wow-" He muttered with his jaw widened a bit. "Is- Is that enough?" You asked, looking at his face in a bashful amusement.

"Hell yeah!" He grinned widely.

"… Wait- Does that mean I have to repay you for that kiss as well??"

#total drama x reader #td tyler x reader #total drama #headcanon #x reader #total drama tyler x reader #imagine #request #ask #masculine reader #masc!reader #masc reader #tyler

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justsomerandomfanfic · 2 months ago

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Hii, can i get a mha match up? 🫶🏻

I’m a taurus sun, capricorn moon, my pronouns are she/her and i’m still in highschool. My hair is a very light brunette, some say its a bit blonde, i have green eyes , i’m 5’4 and my skin is pretty pale.

I like reading, going out with my friends, festivals and taking walks outside, i am more of an introvert, but i dont have any issues talking to strangers or speaking up, i also enjoy crafts and learning new stuff. I love animals , pink, mountains and winter.

I am very defensive when it comes to my friends or people that are close to me, but im also very empathetic and always try to see everyone’s point of view before judging, also i dislike negativists , people that judge others based on things they cant change and arrogants.

Thats it, have a great day :) 🩷

Hi! Of course, you can have a MHA matchup!

(You didn't specify if you wanted it romantic or not, so I hope that is okay that I made it romantic!)

I hope you like your MHA matchup!

<33333

Enjoy!

Romantic Matchup; My Hero Academia

~~~

Romantic;

~~~

My Hero Academia;

Tenya Iida -

You officially met Tenya during a class project.

(You were in class together, but you never spoke one-on-one before.)

Anyway, the project required teamwork.

And we all know that Tenya loves teamwork.

He excels at teamwork.

He was immediately drawn to your composed demeanor and willingness to learn new things.

Plus, it helped that the project's topic was in your interest.

The two of you were paired to research hero strategies, and while Tenya's natural inclination was to dive headfirst into detailed scheduling, you suggested adding some creative flair.

Such as crafting a physical presentation or including diagrams.

You also tried to get him to chill. Yes, having a schedule is good and smart, but what Tenya was trying to do was overkill.

He was impressed and slightly flustered by how effortlessly you balanced productivity and creativity.

He couldn't help but admire how determined you were to make the project both fun and a definite A+.

During your scheduled session where you and Tenya were working on the project, you noticed Tenya getting a little too rigid with his outlining.

You convinced him to take a short walk to clear his head, something that sparked a fondness in him for your calming energy and understanding.

Tenya quickly became a constant figure in your life, someone who admired your dedication to your friends and loved the way you defended them with passion.

Your empathy became a quality he valued deeply, especially in moments when he struggled to balance his leadership role with his emotions.

He would invite you to study sessions because he trusted your intellect and found that working with you made everything more enjoyable - even for a rule-abiding student like him.

You’d craft little things for Tenya when you noticed him overworking himself, like personalized bookmarks for his textbooks or small desk organizers with cute pink designs that reminded him of you.

He loved joining you for walks outside, especially in the winter, where he’d bring along thermoses of tea or hot chocolate to share with you.

Despite being an extrovert, Tenya would always respect your introverted nature.

He’d make an effort to keep things low-key if you weren’t in the mood for something too loud or crowded, offering activities like quiet afternoons in the library or crafting alongside you.

He really likes crafting, it calms him.

Tenya realized his feelings for you during one of your winter walks together.

The way you smiled while looking at the snow-covered buildings, your cheeks rosy from the cold, and the way you tried to catch snowflakes on your tongue, made his heart race unexpectedly.

He admired how you tried to see everyone’s perspective before making judgments and found it inspiring.

He’s not the type to jump straight into confessing.

Instead, he’d show his growing affection through small, thoughtful gestures.

Offering to carry your books, ensuring you had a warm scarf on cold days, or bringing you coffee or tea just the way you liked it.

Once you start dating, Tenya becomes incredibly attentive to your needs, making it his mission to ensure you’re happy and comfortable.

He schedules dates meticulously but always leaves room for spontaneity because he’s learned how much you enjoy a mix of planning and creativity.

He takes you to festivals and makes sure you can enjoy them at your own pace - whether it’s indulging in snacks, watching performances, or simply strolling hand in hand under the festival lights.

If it is a festival with games and prizes, Tenya will do his best to win you that really cute pink rabbit plush that you pointed out.

If it is a festival that is more of a Renaissance or art fair, Tenya will spoil you with gifts.

If you don't want to be spoiled too much, Tenya totally gets it.

But if you love being spoiled, then be prepared for Tenya to try and buy anything that you look at for more than five seconds.

Tenya loves your love for animals.

He’d often suggest trips to shelters or petting zoos, where you’d bond over feeding or cuddling animals.

If you ever mentioned wanting a pet, he’d help you research and prepare everything to ensure it’s the perfect choice.

Despite his disciplined nature, Tenya has a soft spot for your crafts. He’d proudly display anything you made for him in his room or dorm, considering them precious keepsakes.

In turn, Tenya would surprise you with heartfelt gestures, like learning origami to fold small paper animals that you’d find tucked into your books or on your desk.

Strolling through snow-covered parks while Tenya points out constellations on clear nights, and offers his jacket, or scarf, or gloves to keep you warm.

You'd teach Tenya simple DIY crafts, like making bracelets or bookmarks.

Tenya would sit beside you, ensuring you both stay focused on study dates.

But, he’d sneak in moments to compliment your intelligence and dedication.

You'd find his overly meticulous approach to following recipes amusing and endearing.

At festivals, you'd share cotton candy, try out different food stalls, and take lots of pictures together.

He would keep the best one in his wallet or phone case, so you are always with him.

(If he is not looking at his phone wallpapers and lock screen since they are both of you.)

Knowing your love for learning, he’d encourage you to pick up new skills or hobbies, even joining you in workshops or classes to support you.

If you ever felt down, Tenya would write you heartfelt letters, expressing his admiration for your strength and kindness, or he would sit with you and watch your favorite movie with you.

There are a lot of things he'd do for you.

Actually,

He'd do anything for you.

You’d help Tenya unwind and embrace his playful side, encouraging him to let loose during stressful times.

Knowing how much structure means to him, you’d make small efforts to organize things in a way that complements his schedule, surprising him with how thoughtful you are.

You love creating little care packages for Tenya for when he is stressed or just needs a pick-me-up. baskets filled with his favorite snacks, drinks, books, motivational letters, love letters, and even a plushie that reminded you of him.

When Tenya is stressed, he'd come to your room and just spend time with you in the comfortable silence.

His head would rest on your lap or shoulder, with you reading a book out loud to him.

He loves head pets, by the way.

You both leave notes for each other, inside books or on mirrors, filled with compliments, encouragement, or inside jokes.

Lots of forehead kisses for comfort or when words aren’t enough.

Talking late into the night, sharing secrets, dreams, and silly stories. (When you can convince Tenya to rebel a bit from his schedule and hang out with you).

They instinctively place a hand on your back or shoulder in a protective way when you’re nervous or upset.

You may or may not steal some of his clothes...

#cute #fluff #x reader #x you #x y/n #request #requested #anon requested #mha #matchups #matchup #headcanons #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #tenya iida #tenya iida x reader

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demonic0angel · 11 months ago

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Chapter 8 of Ghost Games is out!

(Please start subscribing, I'll stop posting chapters on tumblr after this chapter)

Sparrow's eyes widened. "You're the guy that Brittany likes!"

Oleander glared at him viciously. Marina, however, flinched and ducked her head. Sparrow closed his mouth silently, already feeling the judgement through Oleander's dagger-like gaze.

Nightingale and Robin were silent for a moment, obviously contemplating the new information.

Then Robin asked, "Why did you start killing students? What happened?"

Oleander turned to look at Marina, who stared at him with wet eyes. She clutched at his sleeve and he sighed and relented.

He turned to them and began to explain the sequence of events at East High School.

It had all started when a scholarship student had entered the school. The student was Marina, and she had been a target for bullying since Brittany knew about her. No one defended Marina because she had no friends and couldn't speak well, so even teachers didn't like her.

Marina said in a croaky voice, "I-It's because I s-s-stutter."

"It's because I stutter," Oleander repeated gently.

Marina nodded, and said in a softer tone, "It's... it's because I stutter."

Oleander smiled at her gently but when he turned back to them, his eyes seemed like he wanted to eat them alive. Sparrow was low key impressed by his two-facedness.

Oleander continued his tale. He talked about how he met Marina, found her being bullied and then protected her on instinct. To him, it had been love at first sight.

At that, Marina rolled her eyes lightly but a flush still crept over her face, bringing attention to the mangled scar on her cheek. Nightingale cooed audibly and she flushed further, ducking her head. Oleander smiled at the sight and pulled her closer to him, where she nuzzled him.

Even Sparrow, oblivious as he usually was, felt like the two were deeply in love.

Oleander continued and spoke about how the bullying escalated, even when he tried to stop Brittany by getting her in trouble, scolding her, or bringing it to the authorities. However, nothing happened, even when Marina had her face mutilated by Brittany.

"Nothing I could do was enough. I even threatened her and she laughed in my face. I couldn't stay with Marina all the time, and even when I replaced all of the locks in Marina's room, Brittany would still find ways to make her life hell. The teachers and principal defended her whenever I brought it up."

Sparrow frowned again.

"Nothing happened?"

Oleander snarled, "They're all greedy for money. Of course they wouldn't care about a poor student. I'm rich, so I took care of Marina when I could, but my family's money and power wasn't enough to handle Brittany."

It all came to a head when Brittany finally had enough of Marina and turned crazy. She took Marina from her dorm room and she and her cronies tied her up and beat her. Then as a final act of revenge, they hung her in the supply closet.

Oleander's expression was blank as he explained the events. Marina hugged his arm silently, the bruises even more obvious on her skin now that Sparrow knew what had happened. His heart hurt for her and he wished that she wouldn't have had to suffer.

Nightingale clutched him even tighter and Sparrow let her. Robin silently pressed up against Nightingale's other side and Sparrow noticed his clenched fists that were placed on his lap.

"I found her in the supply closet. It was 3 in the morning when I did. I just woke up, I don't know, it was a feeling. When I found her..." Oleander was silent.

Marina, for the first time in a long time, spoke up. "H-He killed himself. For me. Aft-After that, he s-started killing people."

"After that." Oleander said gently.

"After that, he started killing people." Marina repeated clearly. "We... we couldn't speak to each other as ghosts b-but... but because you freed me, I can now speak to him."

She smiled at Oleander shyly.

Oleander kissed her hair and turned to them with a hard look. "You're players, aren't you?"

"You know you're NPCs?" Robin blurted, surprised.

Oleander gave a snort. "All of the ones who can think for themselves do."

Robin's eyes lit up. "What caused you to stay here? Can you tell me anything about the scenarios?"

Oleander glanced at Marina, who was staring at him in confusion. Then he said, "I'm the only one that has a deal with the Lord God. Don't... don't be eager to earn a wish." Then he looked pained and he stood up, moving away from Marina's hold. "I have to go. You completed the scenario, so the bus should be available to you now. Go find it."

With elation, Sparrow realized that they were now free. By helping Marina down, Oleander would reveal himself and then tell them the urban legend. Without finding the corpse here, there would be no way of completing the scenario without any more difficulty.

Coincidences and planning brought them here. The satisfaction of solving this mystery filled Sparrow with satisfaction.

"Ollie!" Marina blurted. "W-W-Where—!" She stuttered, unable to speak in her nervousness as her eyes began to water.

Oleander stroked her hair and said in a sweet tone, "I'm sorry, I have to go. I'll come find you, okay? These people will get you out." He gestured to the three of them and although Sparrow was a little annoyed that a guy who punched him was ordering him around, seeing how he was trying to comfort Marina, Sparrow just sighed and nodded.

"What's going on?" Nightingale asked and Oleander glanced at her.

"When the bus comes, there'll be one last final attack from the scenario. I'm part of it. Take Marina with you and bring her to safety. I'll come get her once I burn down this hellhole." He clenched his fists but then relaxed and smiled at Marina again, who was beginning to cry.

"I'm sorry. I'll come get you though, I promise. Be good. Go with them."

"No! No, no, I'll s-stay with you!" Marina sobbed.

"Be good," he said again and then he turned into a shadow and flew off.

Marina cried with heart wrenching sobs. Nightingale let go of Sparrow to hold her, consoling her gently. "Come on, Marina. Oleander doesn't want you to be sad. You have to listen to him, okay? Don't be sad, he made a promise to you."

"We have to find the bus." Robin paused and then turned to Sparrow, "Sparrow, you go with Nightingale and find the bus. Nightingale, you take care of Marina."

"What about you?" She asked anxiously. Sparrow was also wide eyed, feeling extremely worried that Robin would suddenly sacrifice himself by doing something stupid.

Robin smiled reassuringly at them. "I'm going to go to the library to broadcast an announcement. I'll try to evacuate everyone, you just get to safety."

"But what about you?!" Nightingale cried out. "What'll happen if you get hurt?"

Robin smiled. "I'm Robin. I'll be fine."

Once again, he mentioned 'robin'. Did that mean something?

Sparrow still didn't know, but he sounded so confident that Sparrow couldn't get angry. He held onto Nightingale's arm and nodded once to Robin. "I'll take care of them. Go!"

Robin saluted him and turned to run out the door.

Knowing that she couldn't stop him, Nightingale looked resigned and she called out, "Stay safe! Come back quickly!"

Sparrow pulled on her arm. Marina had finally stopped crying and was silent, just pressed against Nightingale. "C'mon. We have to get Marina out before Oleander does whatever he has to do."

He lead the two girls through the school.

When Oleander said that the scenario would prepare one final attack on them, he wasn't wrong or exaggerating at all.

Ghosts and ghastly looking students came crawling out of the shadows. Teachers and faculty staff weren't far behind, holding weapons and smiling maliciously. Some of them jerked around like zombies while others darted forward like arrows, determined to kill the three. They were especially agitated when they noticed Marina, frothing at the mouth and turning red eyed.

Crowds of ghosts and monsters converged together to grab and maul Marina to death. Sparrow could even see the male hallway monitor approaching, carelessly killing his comrades in an effort to kill the three of them.

Sparrow fought them back and began to clear a path for both Nightingale and Marina.

Suddenly, there was a loud, shrill beeping from the speakers. Sparrow hissed through his teeth, covering his ears. Nightingale grimaced, using her hands to cover Marina's ears.

Then, there was Robin's voice from overhead, "All students, please evacuate. The scenario is finally ending. Please evacuate the building. The scenario is finally ending."

He repeated this several times.

Sparrow breathed a sigh of relief after hearing his voice and then he took Nightingale and Marina's hand to pull them out of the school.

Marina whimpered. "Ollie," she whispered the moment they left through the doors.

"He'll come get you," Nightingale soothed her.

Sparrow looked around and observed their surroundings.

He had intentionally brought them to the back of the school, knowing that schoolbuses usually picked up students at the back.

True to his memory, he saw a line of neatly packed schoolbuses, each dyed a rusty yellow and covered with mold and cobwebs. He continued to lead the girls as they all peeked inside of the windows, trying to identify which bus would take them away.

That was when he heard a distant explosion and then heat flared behind him. He turned and his eyes widened.

The school had lit on fire, flames blazing proudly to the sky, dying the night clouds a deep and ominous red. Shrieks immediately filled the air. Sparrow shuddered hard, barely able to resist panicking as the sounds of ghosts and spirits dying filled his ears.

"Robin!" Nightingale called out in horror but Marina was even louder than her.

"Ollie!!" She screamed, sobbing.

Sparrow began to panic now.

He had to find the bus. If Robin wouldn't come back to them, he still had to protect Nightingale and bring her to safety.

He couldn't fail.

It was his duty.

Sparrow kept searching and just as he was inspecting a random bus, trying to figure out what identified it as their transport of escape, there was a snarl behind them.

Sparrow turned and a player, the very same wolf dude that had tried to pick a fight with him on the first day, smiled at him ruefully.

"Hahahah!! A runt like you actually survived? I'm shocked," the wolf dude laughed mockingly.

"I can say the same for you, dog breath." Sparrow sneered. "Someone like you could actually survive? Did you find a master to help you?"

He was agitated and time was running out. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Nightingale guiding Marina away.

Thank goodness, because the wolf dude's friends began to crowd around him.

The wolf dude sneered. "Not so tough now, are you, runt?"

"Screw off!" Sparrow spat.

One of the wolf's companions eyed the bus that was behind Sparrow's back.

"Is this the bus?"

There were murmurs around.

When Sparrow turned his head to glance at the ordinary looking bus, his breath came out in a puff of white. A lightbulb lit up in Sparrow's mind.

His eyebrows furrowed and then he moved his body into a fighting stance. The motion felt natural and he began to grin as he eyed the wolves challengingly. "Yeah, what about it? I found it, so it's mine. I'm gonna be leaving."

"Not on your life," another wolf snarled.

Sparrow narrowed his eyes and then he straightened and shrugged his shoulders. "Fine then. Go ahead."

They all paused. Then the wolf dude said, "You must be tricking us."

"A trick? No!" Sparrow banged on the bus' door and it opened smoothly. "Go ahead."

The wolf growled. "You lie. We won't fall for your tricks!"

Sparrow confidently turned and just as he was about to go inside, he was wretched back by the back of his tracksuit and then thrown onto the ground. The air in his lungs was forced out from the force of his fall and Sparrow groaned in pain, curling onto the grass.

"Stupid brat!" The wolf snarled. "I won't let you get a card!" Then he went inside, his companions following them with mocking jeers.

Sparrow gave a cold snort, just as the doors closed and screams erupted from within. Scratches and paw prints immediately slammed into the glass windows and Sparrow looked away as the blood began to splatter. The pained howls didn't cease for a long time.

Although he had tricked them into dying, he didn't really want to actually see it. Nightingale and Marina peeked out from behind the bus and Nightingale frowned at him.

"Are you alright?" She asked. "You shouldn't have tried to provoke them."

"It's fine," Sparrow said, getting up and dusting the grass stains off of his clothes. "They're gone."

She looked mournfully at the bus. "I know," she said softly. She turned back and said, "Do we know which one is the real bus though?"

"I'm starting to suspect that this spot was a distraction to keep us away from the actual bus," Sparrow grumbled.

Nightingale looked at the burning school and said, "We have to hurry. I'm pretty sure the principal is dead now, and so are the other students. I noticed that the ghosts and monsters couldn't really leave."

"They're all ghosts," Sparrow said absentmindedly to himself.

What did it mean that all of them were already dead?

Marina tugged at Nightingale's sleeve and when she turned, Sparrow paid attention.

"There's another p-place for you to find buses. There-There's a p-parking lot within the forest." Marina said softly. “I-I’ll lead you there.”

"A parking lot in a forest? Who built this place??" Sparrow tried to lighten the mood. A shudder ran through his core.

Nightingale eyed Sparrow with exasperated amusement but smiled at Marina. "Thank you. Oleander will definitely come back."

Marina didn't reply, just nodding. Sparrow didn't say anything and the two of them followed Marina this time as she lead them to the bus. The further they got away from the school, the colder and darker their surroundings became. The forest they entered was quiet and Sparrow couldn't help but turn around every once in a while, just staring at the burning building.

Oleander was definitely the one who did that.

To get revenge for Marina, he had willingly killed himself and turned into a vengeful spirit.

Now the source of his sorrows were gone, burnt with the flames of justice.

It was almost poetic.

When they arrived, two people were already there. Robin and Oleander were chatting, but the word 'chatting' was kind of stretching it, because Robin was asking questions while Oleander was silent most of the time. Occasionally, he would nod and look back at him, but for the most part, he was stoically silent and still.

The moment Marina saw Oleander, she perked up like a wilted flower who finally saw rain.

"Ollie!!" She cried and immediately ran towards him.

Oleander, just like her, opened up like a sunflower who saw daylight.

"Marina!" He called and they ran towards each other in a touching display of love, as they clutched at each other and then hugged desperately. Oleander even picked her up and swung her in a circle as she squealed happily.

Sparrow glanced at Robin and Nightingale, wondering if he was about to become the awkward fifth wheel.

Thankfully, Robin and Nightingale did not decide to imitate the sickeningly sweet couple next to them. Instead, Nightingale approached Robin and put her hands on his shoulders, turning him this way and that. Robin let her inspect him like merchandise, and he was remarkably untouched and unharmed.

Nightingale breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you're okay."

Robin smiled. "Told you I'd be fine."

She glared at him. "Shut up."

Then they gave each other a long hug before letting go. When they spotted Sparrow, they took a few steps away from each other like guilty people.

Sparrow wanted them to feel very, very guilty.

Sulkily, he said, "Now you notice me?"

"Sorry, Sparrow," Robin smiled. He reached over to pat his hair. "You're alright, right?"

"We're fine," Sparrow let go of his annoyance. "I protected us."

"Good job!" Robin praised and Sparrow felt warm, letting a smile cross his face. He finally relaxed and leaned into the touch. Nightingale also moved and then another pair of hands joined into petting him.

He felt like a dog but it was nice and he was tired and their hands felt comforting so he just let it be.

Finally, they pulled away and moved to the bus.

Like the other buses, this one was still rusty yellow and looked aged and worn out. However, when approaching it, Sparrow noticed that the wheels were fresh with mud and the inside of the bus had faintly glowing green seats.

The door opened naturally when they came near. Robin was about to enter first when he paused and turned.

"Are you two coming with us?"

Oleander held Marina's hand and shook his head. "No. I'm staying with her."

Nightingale frowned. "Are you sure? You could come with us."

Oleander shook his head firmly. "No. I appreciate your help in helping Marina. But I cannot leave."

"What are you going to do now?" Robin asked.

"See what this world holds." Oleander looked down at Marina, and the two of them looked at each other and smiled.

Sparrow smiled. "Goodbye, you two. Safe travels!"

Marina beamed, hugging Oleander's arm. She waved, looking more excitable than ever. Even the bruises on her face began to disappear as she smiled widely. "Y-You too!" She called, and Oleander also waved goodbye with her.

Robin entered the bus first while Nightingale continued her goodbyes. Sparrow followed after him. The moment he stepped onto the stairs, a notification from the system took his attention.

[Congratulations for being the second person to find the bus and escape the scenario!

+150 points for completing the objective: Survive for a week within the school while uncovering the urban legend.

+50 points for being the second person to escape the scenario.

+20 points for finding clues and discovering the true ending of the scenario.

+10 points for surviving the scenario.]

He paused and Robin noticed. "You saw the point thing too?"

"Yeah. I got 230. You?"

"280."

Sparrow suddenly felt exhausted and he found his original seat. Sparrow sat in front of Robin and he laid back into his seat, closing his eyes.

All was quiet until Nightingale came back and said softly, "They disappeared. I think they're fine, they look happy. Also, other bus passengers have found us."

Sparrow's eyes snapped open and he stood up to look through the window, where he could spot several people coming out of the forest. Robin stared at the scene of greedily swarming people in silence before he said, "Before they come in, I have to tell you, I got a card."

Nightingale perked up. "What is it?"

"I think it's from my old life, because it feels familiar to me. The system says it's a utility belt and it has a limited amount of things. It gave me a choice between a limited number of tools I could use in each scenario or a large number of tools I could use before it's complete run out."

"You chose the first option?" Nightingale asked and Robin nodded to confirm just before the the doors opened again and a player came inside. He looked inside but when he saw the three of them, he snarled.

"Fuck!" He cursed and glared at them, but didn't say anything, only moving to another seat.

Nightingale moved to sit by Robin's side and then the two of them leaned closer to Sparrow's seat and began to whisper.

"I got 255 points." Nightingale told them perfunctorily. "What did you talk about with Oleander?"

Sparrow frowned, feeling like the number wasn’t quite right, but he was too exhausted to think deeper into it.

"He's not like the other NPCs. He said that NPCs can't think for themselves, but the ones that do are aware of the players' identities and can talk with this "Lord God". I don't know who they are, but from what I've gathered, they seem to be in control of the scenarios. They aren't actively looking for our deaths, but they're the reason why we're here and we shouldn't trust the promise of a wish because of them."

Nightingale sighed softly. "It feels terrible not knowing your identity or purpose but knowing that everywhere around you isn't safe."

There was the sound of a throat being cleared and all three of them looked up. The vampire dude from before looked down at them. He glanced at Robin and said, "Thank you for your warning. My companions and I were able to leave on time before the fire started because of it."

Robin nodded. "It was what should've been done."

The vampire bowed his head and then he said, "Have you three created a party yet?"

They shook their heads and Nightingale leaned over Robin to eagerly ask, "Can you teach us?"

He did so, and they all quickly made a party with one another. The vampire also explained some of the buttons that they could use. The party system allowed them to stay together when they got off the terminal because people were transported to different parts of the station to avoid fights from grudges grown within the scenarios. The party system also let them text each other, but only out of the scenario. Over all, it was just a simple thing to keep them together and in touch.

When Nightingale thanked him profusely, the vampire just humbly replied, "It is my honor."

He was clearly very grateful for Robin's warning.

Sparrow was too tired for anything else and he told both Nightingale and Robin to wake him up when they landed at the station.

However, that proved unnecessary because all three of them fell asleep.

Sparrow snapped awake with a jolt when a mechanical voice spoke from overhead, [Welcome to the Day Station. Please exit the bus.]

The doors opened. Sparrow caught a glimpse of outside, which showed a slightly debilitated airport. Then Robin held him back with a hand before he could move forward.

"Wait." He urged quietly, a glare on his face.

But before they could do anything, they were all directly tossed out of the bus and onto the floor. Robin had quickly grabbed him and Nightingale and protected their heads when they fell but Sparrow was still disoriented.

That was when the system spoke.

[Welcome to the Day Bus Station! Here, you can rest for a maximum of five days. In those five days, you can choose to do whatever you want as long as you are not found killing other players. You may choose a bus anytime and travel to as many scenarios as you want. Have fun!]

Multiple eyes landed on the three of them. Although the setting was that of an old and worn out airport, there were crowds of monsters and strange beings of all different shapes, sizes, and colors. They all surrounded the newcomers with intense gazes.

Robin cursed.

Sparrow wanted desperately to do the same.

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The first arc is finished! Did you guys enjoy it?? Please give me your thoughts!

I kind of want to edit this arc bc I’m not very happy with the characterization of Danny, Jazz, and Jason. However, I’ll probably do that in the future :3 arc 2 is still in progress!

#dc x dp #dp x dc #jazz fenton #danny phantom x dc #danny fenton #dp x dc crossover #dpxdc #dcxdp #jason todd #ghost game au

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generisydtoo · 1 year ago

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Splitting up Team 7....Let's get into it

Disclaimer❗️: I'm not trying to dog on anyone who makes alternate team headcanons for fun. I have my own thoughts ofc, but as long as you're truly not hurting anyone, it's not that deep. I'm sharing my thoughts on this since I've seen this take a few times over the years, but do with it what you will!

As always, you're free to share your thoughts! Just be sure to keep it respectful :)

Tbh, it baffles me when ppl say that Sakura (bc that's usually who's removed from the team in these takes) or anyone else on Team 7 would've had better development if they were assigned to a different team. I think people fail to consider that Team 7’s close, consistent proximity and becoming teammates was one of the key reasons why they were able to get past their initial impressions of each other and form a deep bond.

This is only one example, but as far as we know, no other team went on any dangerous missions like Team 7 did to the Land of Waves. Granted, that was an outlier since that mission was supposed to be a C rank; however, it was vital to their individual growth. It shaped their perceptions of each other as teammates and of the shinobi world as a whole. If Sakura, Sasuke, and/or Naruto were placed on a different team (assuming little-to-nothing else was changed in the series), I'd deem it unlikely that they would've grown to be the shinobi they became, although not as quickly.

If you want, you can view this through the lense of recent media, particularly the YA genre. There are many reasons why they tend to be set in middle/high school (though I think that's starting to change and expand, thank goodness), one of them being the outcomes of forced, consistent proximity.

The characters are placed in an environment where they're (more often than not) forced to interact; it's not like college or other settings where you can simply leave if you don't want to be there, especially without it being fair to others in your group. While it’s ultimately up to them to choose whether or not they want to become more than acquaintances with their classmate(s), their relationship has a higher chance of forming due to being consistently around each other.

The same applies to Team 7 and honestly, the other Rookie 9 teams. They were all placed on their teams- a learning and training environment with forced, consistent proximity- for a reason. Ino-Shika-Cho being placed together since they're THEE Ino-Shika-Cho trio (if any sensei had messed that iconic trio up....bless their hearts fr), and Team 8 all being trackers.

For Team 7, it was also so they could all learn and benefit from each other in some way. Naruto could benefit from Sasuke’s proficiency in ninjutsu, Sakura's intelligence, and both of their calmer personalities(give or take with Sakura) seeing as he got the lowest marks at the academy and misbehaved a lot. Sasuke could benefit from Naruto and Sakura's social and outgoing personalities seeing as he got low scores in cooperation and teamwork.

While Sakura performed well in her academics, she slacked greatly in anything pertaining to using physical strength. She could benefit from Sasuke and Naruto's taijutsu and battle skills seeing as she got low marks in taijutsu.

I think it's also worth noting that Sakura is a balance of their personalities while having her own. While she's not always on 10 like Naruto was, she was able to be social and upbeat and like him. She wasn't emotionally cold or nonchalant like Sasuke, but she was able to match his calmer "think first, act later" demeanor. Ofc, they've all had their moments and didn't act the same way all the time. I love that Team 7 can share one brain cell at times, lol.

As I said in the preface, I'm not trying to down anyone making alternate team headcanons for fun. That being said, it's just odd to me that people claim that placing them on different teams would suddenly "fix" their characters. Becoming a team was an integral part of their characterization, with each of them serving a unique purpose in one another’s growth. (This includes Sai too, though that may be a convo for another day.)

Like the title says, this was a starting "Let's get into it" post. I have more specific thoughts on this take, but these are my initial thoughts for now :).

Sources: The academy report cards are only in the physical fanbook. You can find an online transcription of it here and photo scans here!

#just some thoughts #Naruto #sakura haruno #sasuke uchiha #Sasusaku #Analysis #Bc what other motives would Team 7 have had to challenge and move past their first impressions of each other once they graduated academy?#I'd also argue that Sakura and would feel out of place down to the color theory/dynamics of each team but that's a convo for another day

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teamdarkweek · 1 year ago

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The Label-maker Incident

(Here on Ao3)! To further my goal of making a platonic Team Dark week happen, it's time to start practicing writing them. It/Its pronouns for Shadow today, as I am also trying to brush up on using those in my daily life as I haven't had to in a while.

Rouge's heels clip-clopped over the wet pavement, splashing in puddles. Cars hissed and groaned as they passed, and she smoothly swung her umbrella to her side to deflect the spray the road gave them, extending a finger serenely to a driver.

In the shadow of the underpass, E-123 Omega clanked and squeaked. His lights were deactivated for a "Low Power Mode", which served to make him harder to see in this bridge tunnel, but he was audible all around them. But he wasn't what Rouge had chosen to hide.

The being that thought its name was Shadow was draped in a deep pink raincoat, with spines stuffed down. She had been careful to hide Shadow's face, with a pained smile that made it scared.

"I live on the GUN estate. I don't know if you want them knocking on your door. Or wherever." She hummed when they slowed down upon arriving in the city. She also hushed the sassy robot they'd picked up, but conserving power took a lot of attention from whatever in him produced constant insults for every car, traffic light and parking meter they saw. The robot? The other robot? Shadow couldn't be sure.

"Shadow, cover that a moment?" She said quietly, tiredly, as they stopped in the bushes before a large building. These things called Cities could be so different, it'd already seen one high off the ground and one covered in bright lights. This one was a maze of buildings like this one, tall and square, with little glass panels and tiny differences in the colours behind them. She pointed to a beady machine over a large door, like a black eyeball on the side of the wall. Shadow zipped over, and in less than one frame it had climbed the wall and held the arm of the coat over the camera.

Rouge nodded, opened the garage door with a beep, and placed Omega next to a porsche and a BMW.

"I'll come get you in a second. Don't move, don't touch, don't even think about anything. Just. Sit." She hissed, then closed the door.

Once out of view of the camera, she beckoned Shadow.

"Thanks. It's not suspicious to bring a person back, but I think he'll raise some eyebrows. Gawd, I'll have to be up before office closes to get that ball rolling, I'm pushing that report back, they'll just have to wait-" She mumbled to herself as she steered Shadow to a smaller entrance door, pulling the hood down over its face. Shadow saw another of those shiny glass eyes, that she wiggled her eyebrows at as she put in a code on a key pad and inserted a key.

Rouge's apartment was on the fifteenth floor; it was high from the ground to anyone's standards, but Shadow had no standards to compare to. She flicked the light-switch to support the sunrise in warming the room through long glass windows, revealing a shiny granite-and-chrome affair of an open plan apartment, with a huge leather sofa and screen, fluffy rugs and faux-fur throws, and thick curtains draping ceiling to floor.

"Keep that on one sec." She murmured, throwing her umbrella on a rack, and she prodded another keypad. Several beeps occurred, and the black shining eye in the corner of the room closed its shutters, and several other clicks agreed through the flat.

"There we are. Bit of peace. Bit of privacy. Just, er, make yourself at home. I'll get the big guy." She said in an impression of ease. It was always awkward when it was just Shadow and Rouge. She gave it this look like Shadow ought to know what she meant, and was always dissappointed when it didn't. She took a large blanket from the sofa and shut the door behind her.

At home? Shadow stared. This was a home. A place with a bed, and all someone's things. Somewhere safe to come back to. Apparently, homes also had huge cabinets of paperwork, desks littered with work and chunky computers, fridges big enough for a person to fit in, and views of the military complex and city it parasitically grew from.

Shadow took one step, and its shoe tapped and squeaked on the ground. It stood like it would be caught, but when it wasn't it took another, until it reached the desk.

Printed and written words, coordinates, maps and lists of numbers with characters next to them. Shadow skimmed them, logging hundreds of new ideas to find context for. Then it found a familiar name.

Project: Torch [Prog. Report 120]

Motion to adopt Torch under a more general E-surveilance mission, due to evidence that debris from the ARK impact site 4 was tampered with. Requesting Urgent resources for a seige.

Beneath this, a pithy and wordy denial was printed in red. Followed by a direct and snippy appeal, that was also denied. Shadow found a bundle more coordinates, maps and graphs, then a stern, handwritten note with a date atop.

Rouge,

If I find out this latest 'holiday' is another unsanctioned investigation, there will be disciplinary action. I mean it.

Abe Tower.

Shadow scanned the surroundings to find a calendar. It took it a minute to interpret and confirm that the note was dated from the last crossed day, and the one after had a neat blue line over it.

The door opened, and Omega - badly hidden by the blanket - bumped through the too small frames. He had to turn and pivot to get his broad chest through, and Rouge shushed him the whole time. Once he was in her flat, she breathed a heavy sigh of relief, leant on the door for one moment, before she was rushing around again, digging in a box of cables she pulled from a cupboard full of thieves tools, gadgets, protective clothes and two different combination safes. She held each one up to the panel in Omega's middle, but flicked her eyes to Shadow, looking it up and down, like she was scanning for something on it, too.

"Shoes off at the door, please." She sniffed, plugging a chunky kettle lead into Omega, so a cheerful ring played.

Shadow looked at its feet, and supposed those were shoes. They hadn't come up, and felt so natural that it hadn't occurred to Shadow that they would come off. Shadow shuffled its feet, but they didn't loosen. It wasn't going to ask how to take its shoes off.

"Omega is filthy. What difference does it make?"

Rouge huffed, but admired with disdain the slushy footprints all three of them had already tracked in, and sighed, shoving her own boots on the rack.

"So I guess I'm washing floors tomorrow, as well as going to security, and applying for extension on that report, oh and I've got no food, so I'll have to go to the shops..." She muttered to herself, rushing around Shadow and Omega in and out of the other two doors. Shadow watched her, waiting for an instruction, or anything to respond to, while Omega splashed a tap on and off, stuck on a metre tether to the power outlet.

She emerged with a squashy blanket in cotton sheet, and a folded foam mattress.

"Well I don't know what you need, but this'll have to do for both of you. There's probably biscuits in the cupboard, maybe you can eat those? Oh, I don't know..." She huffed, heaving a low table to the edge of the room and laying out the mattress on the ground. She shoved cushions into little sheet-bags lightning fast, and a bed four times Shadow's size was constructed at its feet. She looked up, hoping for something, but it said nothing and stared unimpressed, so she just sighed.

"It's all pretty self explanatory. Bathroom's there, my room's here, kitchen and stuff..." She gestured around awkwardly, as Shadow stared at everything like any of it could blow up at any second.

"Where is the next target? This unit requires only one hour to charge." Omega huffed. Rouge blinked sleepily as she drew the curtains against the rising sun.

"Well, this unit requires at least eight hours, ten if you want to be able to speak to it. Just... stay put. I'll set you both up tomorrow. When I've done the shops... or..."

She yawned behind her mouth, but carried on busying around, collecting all the papers on the desk and filing them away, casting a sheepish glance at Shadow.

The room was silent, save Omega's soft whirring. Shadow peaked at its own shoes quicker than she could see. Now it knew they were meant to come off, it really needed to know how. Rouge wasn't telepathic, though; she was tired and overwhelmed.

"Right. Sleep well. See you later. Don't- yeah, just stay put." She yawned again, and Shadow felt weirdly like it needed to gasp for air too just watching her. It took a deep breath, but that didn't fix it.

"I'd like to -" It interrupted her on the door to her bedroom, and cleared its throat; "I'd like to access the internet. So I might learn some of what I need to know."

She squinted, rubbing her temple as she thought, before she nodded.

"Okay, I'll leave the computer on. Do you need it, Omega?" She asked, shuffling under the desk to set a machine whirring. Omega processed for a moment.

"Consideration: the internet will contain information about Eggman. Yes. This unit has an ethernet port."

"Of course it does. Obviously. Here's a second one, come get it when you're charged." She tittered exasperated, waving the cable then resting it on the desk. She logged in to her computer, clicked and tapped some things, and a white page with a colourful logo and a wide and short box with a magnifying glass at the side.

"There, don't have too much fun. My work will see if you look up a load of weapons, or whatever. Otherwise, knock yourself out."

She left Shadow at the desk, but took her folder of notes. Shadow looked around at Omega, who stared at it. It stared back.

Quickly, however, Omega was bored, and prodding the sink again, and Shadow relaxed.

The computer was tempting, but Shadow didn't remember ever having used something so complicated. It didn't remember anything it should, it seemed, but the look of pity Rouge and the other people they'd seen since she released it were starting to crop up everywhere. Even Omega's eyes held a flicker of that sickly sadness, but Shadow realised it had to have been imagining things.

"Shadow. You will open this." It pointed to a cupboard.

"Why?"

"I require it opened. I cannot reach with this puny lead."

Shadow crossed the small flat, and opened the cupboard, finding glasses, cups and teapots.

"Provide me the clear object."

Shadow did so: it was cold to its gloves, and a pleasing weight. It watched as Omega carefully filled the glass with water from the tap, and stared gleefully at it.

"Protocol: Eggman robots are forbidden from engaging with moisture. Those that encounter it on duty are scrapped, unless they are irreplacable. This unit is marked replacable. Repairing damage is not efficient use of time." He remarked; Shadow couldn't tell if it was supposed to respond, but Omega didn't wait for comment. He dunked one clawed finger in the water, bending it slightly. Nothing happened.

"Anticlimactic." He remarked, and removed his claw, before he threw knocked the glass from the counter.

Shadow caught the glass without thinking about it, but was splashed with water as it fell. The feeling was cool, like the rain but sudden; the water dragged its quills down and made its eyes bleary.

"Observation: Shadow is averse to displacement of water."

"Shadow is- I am averse to making noise! Rouge will need eight hours of sleep." It snipped, placing the glass on the side. The moisture on its face dripped over its mouth, which felt cold, but not unpleasant.

"Water is good for living things, and bad for machines. Is that always correct?"

Omega focussed both eyes on Shadow, spinning his arms in boredom.

"Correct, water is beneficial to living things unless it is excessive. Some machines are water resistant, but most are damaged by moisture."

Shadow's tongue ran over the inside of its lips. It felt real, soft and pliant - not like Omega - but it couldn't be sure. It poured a small splash of water as it had seen Omega do, swirled it, and drank it. It did not immediately combust.

"Rust builds overtime." Omega offered helpfully, still watching Shadow. It turned away as though it didn't care.

There were knobs and dials across the kitchen. It poked an outlet like the one Omega was charging from.

"Meatforms are not advised to touch those. Only lowest order robots."

"..."

"This is rebellion against protocol. Continue with vigour."

Shadow prodded the sharp point under its glove into the outlet. It was wet still from the water, and something shocked it, but its body absorbed the electricity, charging up static in its spikes as the whirring from the machines in the kitchen stopped and something clicked. Was that evidence of meat or metal?

Omega made a noise of displeasure.

"This plug is faulty. The electricity is gone." Omega grunted, unplugging himself, and inspecting the wires. Shadow stared at its paw.

"Did I do that? How? Is it going to wake Rouge if she can't charge?"

"Negative. Animals charge by laying in stasis in a nest or box. Machines take electricity."

"Machines take electricity..."

"This machine needs Electricity. Power must be restored for violent purposes."

Omega pulled the plug roughly from the outlet, and stuffed it in another around the room, then another. Frustrated, he stomped around, scanning for something.

"What are you-" Shadow cut itself off. It couldn't just ask things, that sounded weak to its ears. Omega didn't give it much thought.

"Observation: a fuse has been blown. No machines can survive here. Annihilate tripswitches."

"Not if it's loud! Rouge gave us a machine to look things up. Let's verify what to do."

Shadow hoped Omega couldn't tell its real angle, as he lumbered over to the cable she left out, and plugged it in to its chest. It whirred for a minute, before its eyes closed and it fell quiet. Shadow knocked softly on the plastic part of Omega, barely half his height.

"What's wrong? Was this not correct?"

"Observation: there is a lot of information that was not available on the Eggnet. Processing..."

Shadow watched Omega, and copied him. It folded its arms instinctively, and tried to process information. The taste of air, the sounds everywhere, every word they'd spoken, all the faces it didn't know who knew Shadow. But what was processing? It couldn't admit that it didn't know.

Omega whirred, unplugged, and walked away to open cupboards. Shadow picked up the wire end. It was square, with little shiny teeth like Shadow's.

The machines in the kitchen whirred again as Omega flicked a switch, then returned to the wire with his plug.

"Return that. Unit has information to access."

"As does this- Do I. I have information to access."

Omega sighed, and lowered himself to the ground to plug the lead in. He beeped, and a charger appeared.

"You have no inlet panel." He said. Shadow observed itself, and found that true. Omega held his claw out, and when Shadow gave him the ethernet cable, he jabbed it in its eye.

Shadow hissed on instinct. The cable was then jabbed ineffectively in its nose and successfully in its mouth.

"There is no inlet here." Omega said simply, and forced the wire into its throat, making Shadow cough, and spit dribble from its mouth as it rejected the wire.

"I don't accept wires, it seems." It choked.

"Dry this immediately! It is hard to hold." Omega snapped, waving the wire at Shadow. It gripped it with the less wet glove, which helped slightly, and Omega plugged that in to his chest again.

Shadow was left in silence to think, and it was uncomfortable. Omega should have given it some instructions: this being wasn't comfortable without instructions. Its processor returned to thinking about its shoes, and water, and all the strange things in the room.

"New information: amnesia has no reliable cure."

Shadow blinked at him. Omega's eyes were drifting in colour.

"Where did you learn that? Who are you to speculate on me? We have only just met!" It demanded, tapping the shoes angrily. Temperature rose in its chest and it felt like a killing machine again. Omega wasn't frightened.

"Unit has parsed the internet; no publically available information on Shadow the Hedgehog's genesis or machinations. Unit is now parsing data on amnesia."

"Why?"

"Unit is assisting in persuance of answers. This machine would be better applied to violence, but charging cable is too short."

Shadow nodded, calming down; "Also, Rouge told us to stay put."

"This unit takes no orders!"

Shadow nodded, supposing that it couldn't relate: it very much did take orders. Perhaps Omega knew that too:

"Acquire the thermostat remote control."

"From where?"

Omega stared at Shadow as though rolling his eyes, then pointed. Shadow glared at him, then fetched it a grey, flat piece of plastic.

Omega whirred, and a sticky piece of white paper with printed text and a background of Eggmans emerged from his front panel.

"Apply this to device. Then reduce temperature."

Shadow took the sticky paper, and pressed it on the flattest part of a flat object with knobs and buttons.

Air Conditioning Unit Remote Control. Use buttons to adjust room temperature.

After staring at it for a moment, it recognised up and down arrows, and pressed the down ones.

"Mission successful." Omega remarked.

"Now what? What is a remote?"

"... Rouge was ambitious to offer you a computer."

Shadow snarled at that, and it stared around the room.

"You have queries? This unit can answer, with my superior vessel that has access to all knowledge.

"No. I'm not confused. But this place should be more obvious."

Omega tilted his head to look at Shadow properly. It continued:

"An efficient space shouldn't have any doubt on where things go. This could cause accidents were someone carrying dangerous vials. How are several people supposed to work at this lab bench without clear communication?" It rambled. Omega turned his head with a buzz, and looked at his cable.

"Proposal: you bring items to me that require clarification. I will provide label."

"This is necessary protocol for the safety of..." Shadow stopped. Something in its head hadn't caught up with the rest. Who's protocol it was reciting, it didn't know. But it felt right, and Omega seemed at least to accept its behaviour.

Shadow presented Omega with every manner of item to label, including repeats, occasionally muttering about lab safety, and periodically stopping to stand in the middle of the floor and stare. Omega blasted his fans when Shadow did this, and it started up again.

Omega was long since charged, and the day was half over. The confused little creature he entertained didn't seem to know or care that it should be resting; it presented him a clock.

Clock: Analogue. Used to measure time. Short strip indicates the hours that have passed. Long strip indicates minutes that have passed. Thin strip indicates the seconds that have passed.

Now Shadow was staring at the clock, as if it were hypnotised. Seconds did pass. Minutes did pass. Omega would not wait for hours to pass.

"Query: is further clarification required for meat brains?"

Shadow shook itself.

"How should I know? We'll have to ask Rouge when she wakes up."

So they carried on. Shadow stuck labels on every item of silverware, every cup, the rugs, each cushion and cover, the corner of the TV and the windows. It was raiding the fridge when the sun set, and Rouge opened her bedroom door with a bundle of clothes and bags under her eyes.

"Did you sleep- what have you done?" She dropped her voice an octave as she spotted every item of her kitchen cabinets out on the floor, table and counters, and the eggman faces on white sticky labels.

Shadow and Omega leant over the fridge. She watched in horror as Shadow took a label from Omega's chest, and carefully placed it directly on the butter in the dish.

"Your apartment was deemed a health and safety hazard due to lack of clear demarcations." Omega supplied, and she could have sworn she beheld the robotic equivalent of smugness, and a brand of mechanical menacery she was coming to know well.

"Right. And nobody thought they might consult me about redecorating? You've labelled the bleedin' Cactus, oh my lord." She moaned.

"This is not a cactus, it is Aloe Vera." Shadow pointed out. It hadn't taken off its shoes or gloves, or laid down for a second she would have guessed. She glared at Omega, then spotted his own labelled face - E-123 Omega: Best Robot ever created - printing something else. He took the label from his printer, and smacked it on Rouge'a forehead. Shadow read it inquisitively.

"Enraged? This is not a species." It wondered, flicking its eyes to Omega for an answer.

Rouge took a very slow breath in. The robot had trapped her: if she responded with appropriate arse-kicking, she would prove him right. Shadow frowned at the lack of answers, and instead skirted around her to interrogate the fridge, staring at individual raspberries like they might be nightshade.

"We have clarified the disorder in your home. We did not disturb you all night. You are grateful." Omega insisted as he stood before her, daring her to say anything else. Her perfectly tidied and sleek home looked like it had been ransacked - fairly, she supposed. But Shadow was interested, entertained, and not doing the staring-off-into-the-distance trick that scared her.

She peeled the sticker off her forehead, and delicately scrunched it up.

"For your records, Omega, I am a conscious being and prefer to introduce myself. Fine! Since you have made yourselves at home, I trust you'll know how to make me a latte while I wash my hair." She spoke sweetly, through gritted teeth, and turned on her heel with her dressing gown flouncing behind her.

Shadow's muzzle grew white. It hadn't expected a test so soon, and it had catalogued so much in so little time it couldn't recall each piece. It turned to Omega urgently; he was already printing instructions.

"Attention: paper low. Ink low."

"Not now, Omega. This is critical!" Shadow declared, and swept all the labeled cutlery aside.

Rouge took as long as she could washing and conditioning her hair, and wiled away extra time just staring at the ceiling trying to control the urge to break something. She beat her face with blenders and brushes until she had a mask of makeup.

If you had told her a day and a half ago, she would have found Shadow, it was alive, and that it would be terrorising her home with a robot loaded with grenades and flamethrowers, she was not sure she would have played her cards in the same way. Not that finding Shadow wasn't the goal, but she had emotionally prepared to find pieces of him, the other rings, or bits of wreck. Anything Eggman deemed treasure had to be dangerous, and since it was linked to ARK, she had come wearing all the body armour she had without taking anything that would alert her superiors. And yet, Shadow's confused face, its blank stare for her, completely oblivious to what the past few years had put her through, all cut through her defences. And when she was ready, it would be outside her door, waiting to throw more questions at her she didn't think she had a right to answer. She smelled coffee, and cooking milk, and shelved her feelings.

Shadow poured frothed milk carefully into a cup, creating a delicate feather. Its brow was furrowed, and sweat was forming on the side of its face. E-123 Omega's glowing eyes bore down on Shadow, and he scanned the cup.

"Optimum ratio in three - two - one -"

Shadow stopped pouring the milk, but a tiny drip splashed at the base of the feather. It huffed in frustration, and returned to the stove to boil more milk.

"Stop-stop-stop!" Rouge said quickly, as Omega took the cup and prepared to pour it down the sink.

"This coffee has been spoiled." Omega said simply, but Rouge took it and smiled too wide.

"It'll do, good grief how many have you made?"

"I ruined it. Don't drink it." Shadow said blankly, but let her take the nearly empty carton of milk - Milk: dairy. Product of Bovine Lactation. Pasteurised and filtered to reduce fat content. Expires in 3 days, 6 hours, 41 minutes and 20.07 seconds - from its hands.

"Thank you." She said through gritted teeth at the mess; "I see you have been learning the ins and outs of the kitchen. Did you sleep, Shadow?"

Shadow twitched its nose, faintly pink.

"I don't need to."

"Right, are you sure? What about washing, or did you eat anything?"

It flattened its ears like it was preparing for punishment, but pouted slightly.

"I am not a creature like you. I don't need to do those things."

Rouge glared at Omega, who she had decided was at fault for everything. He glared back at her, but that was all his face was capable of.

She looked Shadow over as she sipped her coffee. It was bedraggled, lean and greasy looking, but she supposed it had no frame of reference to be anything else. She also noticed its shoes still on, and as she looked at them it squirmed its feet uncomfortably.

"Your shoes are very odd. Can I have a look at them?"

She didn't wait for permission, and knelt down to inspect them.

"Ah. I see. They unclip like ski boots." She murmured, and slowly and obviously released the catch. Shadow marvelled as its feet were suddenly released from what had felt normal, and was suddenly revealed to be an unbearably hot and tight prison. Rouge raised her eyebrow at it, glancing at Omega and it flushed with shame. She knew. They both knew. Shadow was suddenly desperate to escape this mocking cell of a home, but it had no idea where to go.

"Omega, since you have done so well at categorizing my things, you can put them back in the right place?" She said with a kind voice and eyes that were ready to kill him.

"Items will be placed in drawers and other such containers. Perhaps where they were found." He said cheerfully, stomping over to grab handfuls of cutlery. Rouge winced as he threw them randomly in cupboards.

"Great. Shadow, can you help me with something?"

Shadow stepped out of its shoes, leaving them in the kitchen. There were little fabric stretchy shoes underneath those, and they slipped on the floor.

Rouge asked it to check the soaps and water in her washroom were acceptable for its body, and that the shower met 'safety standards'. She left it tentatively holding a paw into the water, and threw its filthy socks and gloves in the washing machine. By the time she returned to the kitchen, Omega had completely cleared the surfaces, and she feared what chaos she would find behind cupboard doors.

"You. Come here. Now." She hissed, opening a metal drawer. Omega braced for combat, but when she swung nothing at him, took cautious clunking steps closer.

She soaked a rag in alcohol cleaner, and wiped his face.

"Disengage at once!"

"You have destroyed my home, chewed up my cable and don't think I didn't notice you shorting my power last night! You are also - still - filthy. Sit down or perish." She snarled, one ear pointing to the bathroom as she listened for any disturbance.

"Correction: Shadow initiated the reorganisation project, attempted to recieve signal unsuccessfully, and put his claw into your mains outlet. It is also filthy." Omega said quietly, his volume low enough to not be heard in the bathroom. Rouge wiped the join between it's head and chest pieces vigorously and ungently, glaring at him.

"Shadow has an excuse! You knew what you were doing. Bad robot."

She smacked him with the cloth, then applied the cleaner onto a tiny delicate brush.

"Query: what is the function of this? This unit is cleaned with a pressure wash."

"I don't want to damage your thinking parts, and I don't know where they are. Perhaps there aren't any." She grumbled, carefully skirting around every outlet and the sides of the panel.

Omega watched her, perplexed, as she cleaned him top to bottom, raising one foot then another, and then took a paint protecter and buffed his shell. Finally, she removed a snapped nail with a magnet, and replaced it with her tool kit.

"You come into my home looking like that again, you will be labelled trash and deposited accordingly." She warned, tidying away her tools quickly as she heard the water stop in the bathroom. Omega watched her, as she grabbed a mop and bucket, quickly rushing it over her floors, just barely finished by the time Shadow emerged, badly towelled but clean, from the bathroom. It stared around, taking in all the changes to the room, but too proud to ask.

"Sorry, this bag of bolts was just such a mess." Rouge nudged Omega sharply as she spoke. He continued to stare inquisitively at her, as though he almost could have laughed. But miraculously, he played along.

"Observation: Rouge would like an apology from this unit. Humorous." He stomped away from her, gleaming in the artificial light. Shadow nodded, flexing its paws with the shiny rings Rouge had left out for it. Rouge studied it carefully, anxious all over again.

"Right, well, what now? I'm sure I had things to do today."

"You have a report to postpone, you received several phone calls today, you have no food, and your cupboards are disorganized." Omega supplied, and she grimaced.

"Are you volunteering to help with any of that, big guy?" She snapped. Shadow crept to the window, silent with bare paws, and it stared out at the nighttime. The sky looked familiar, but it couldn't tell why. There was a great white half-sphere, and a shining metal thing that caught its eye.

"Perhaps you two can... stay here peacefully while I go out?" Rouge sighed, her keys in hand. Omega whirred as he closed his fist evilly, and Shadow stared at her without any betrayal of independent or critical thought.

"Right. No, then. You can come with me to the shops I suppose, then first we'd better go and declare you."

She bustled around them again, tossing some pale pink socks and gloves to Shadow, and a large covering coat. She sighed as she looked at Omega, and dug around in a big bag of camping gear for a groundsheet.

"Not letting you get gritty and wet again, now I've just cleaned you up, absolutely not. You need shoes, you big oaf, or spare feet or something." She muttered, and soon took Team Dark out on their second ever mission together: to not destroy a grocery store.

#shadow the hedgehog #rouge the bat #e-123 omega #team dark #prose #ao3

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