#and soon after that the whole city called him a villain for protecting the ghosts instead of just collaborating with the GIW

[nelkcats]

The Spiteful Ghost

Danny loved space, and loved exploring it almost as much as he loved the Realms (yes, apparently he had made a home there, and learned to love its quirkiness, who could knew right?). The problem was that over the years the halfa acquired another characteristic: He hated heroes.

It might seem ironic, considering his teenager years but he just couldn't stand the concept of heroism (he never chosed to be one), not after all he had been through. Not after losing his family and ending up with more than deep wounds, not after humanity called him a villain for protecting the ghosts, not after the world chosed to sacrifice him after all he did for them (Amity was his world, and the city handed him over on a silver platter to save itself, they forced him to take drastic measures, actions he should never have taken, but when you're alone it turns out that no one can stop you)

They say that rancor can change you, the halfa can confirm. The point is, Danny hated heroes (he hated what they had to go through, hated that adult heroes weren't there for him, hated what it took to be a hero, leaving everything for the world was absurd, why would you accept something like that?). When the ghosts told him about the DC dimension he didn't take it exactly well. Although at least those heroes had a base in space.

Clockwork forbade him to go for a few months (he understood his grudge, quite personal, but he didn't want it to destroy him, he didn't want him to destroy himself), but when he saw him lost and depressed he allowed it, probably because he knew it would cheer him up for a while. Maybe he saw some future where he reconciled with the "profession", or maybe he thought he needed it (the halfa wasn't evil, Clockwork knew he wouldn't hurt anyone).

So, Danny arrived in the hero dimension and set out to be the world's biggest nuisance: moved chairs, ate their snacks, disappeared their stuff. He wasn't doing anything exceptionally big until he overheard an argument between the Red Hood and Batman.

After that, Batman ran out of gadgets in no time and Red Hood found little desserts everywhere. By the time they called JLD, it was pretty obvious they had an invader (the invader strangely loved Young Justice, and anti-heroes, seemed to hate Batman thought).

John Constantine entered feeling that he was walking to his funeral, why the hell had the Ghost King installed himself in a hero base, if it was rumored that he hated them to death?

#dpxdc #ghost king danny #The GIW went too far #and killed everyone that Danny cared about #Amity blamed him for those deaths #They blamed the ghosts for everything #and soon after that the whole city called him a villain for protecting the ghosts instead of just collaborating with the GIW #But Danny couldn't do that #the ghosts comforted him #the ghosts gave him a home #they understood #dp x dc #dc x dp #He ended destroying the GIW and leaving Amity #After Amity betrayed him and almost got him double killed #he couldn't stand the concept of heroism after that #he began to hate everyone who called themselves a hero #everyone who abandoned family and chosed the world first #because deep inside him Danny felt that that was the wrong choice #but even if it was he didn't like killing or anything #so he did some pranks to the JL #He sabotaged their equipments and was a nuisance in general while helping teenage heroes who didn't know better #Danny hate heroes #danny is tired

[painless-innit-colourful]

After Wilbur leaves, Tommy’s legs give out, and his panic takes over, feat. the rest of the Bench Trio. TW for suicidal ideation, massive amounts of self-loathing. Also, spoilers for today’s stream.

---

"What did you do?"

He falls to his knees, and for a few minutes, the world goes blank.

What has he done? He's doomed them all, that's what he's done. He let one of the only people that believed in him get killed, he failed in his mission, and now he's almost single-handedly released one of the biggest sources of pain and misery back onto the server. Any moment he expects some righteous punishment for what he's done: a cruel hand, the final blow from a sword, the divine arrow, another damn lightning strike, because why not? Why should he get to sit and cry like a baby when the whole server will soon suffer for what he's done?

The reason they had to kill Dream was just like Ranboo had once said: 'If the villains can come back, then what's the point in winning?' Ranboo, whose presence he can feel, vibrating angrily mere metres away. It's like when you agro an enderman; Tommy expects the hit to come, he wants it, he deserves it, because Ranboo was right! They can't win. Not anymore. All Dream needs is the body, and they can welcome back all those they banished to the other side. Wilbur was supposed to be gone. That was supposed to be done with. It can't be happening again. He can't be back.

His mind whirrs, trying for any solution to this mega-problem, no matter how outlandish, but it returns nothing. Wilbur defeated himself last time. They can't conquer the prison again; besides, Sam will kill him if he goes near it again. Sam, who helped him build Jack Manifold's (his, his, his) hotel, who built him a robot that helped him gather materials and work for himself and protected him and refused to hurt him. Sam, who nearly just took his last canon life several times, who told him he should be dead, who told him he caused all the problems at the prison, on the server, hell! Why didn't he kill him? Maybe the server would be safer that way. Perhaps Wilbur isn't the first villain Dream's resurrected.

He'll never sleep again. Partly because he has to find a way to stop this, has to put an end to everything even if it kills him, especially if he can take them all out at the same time. But also partly because that look Wilbur gave him, the fire that burns nations to the scorched earth underfoot dancing behind his eyes, already haunts his dreams. He already knows which words he'll hear when he tries to rest, which crazed looks, which gestures he'll never forget; he doesn't want that. He wants to sleep in peace, without the ghost of a villain returned beckoning "Let's be the bad guys." and "Why not?" and "My hero, Dream!" The roles have reversed, the blackstone table has turned.

"You wanna be a hero Tommy?" He thinks he'd rather have died one than become... whatever monster stares back at him in the glass beneath his feet. Glass that protects the crater of a nation. A nation that he died twice for. That caused so much pain and strife. That ultimately was razed so far down that the earth will never forgive its creators for painting upon it a target so large and flammable. It was never meant to be, indeed.

And he cries. The tears make tiny 'plinck, plinck, plinck' sounds as they hit the glass, forming a small puddle as the once-proud soldier puts his head against the grave of his home, and himself, Prime knows how many times, and sobs. The ground is unforgiving, the silence carries his weeping out to sea. He shed tears like these for Wilbur once. He wants him back. He wants to go back to the Void. And with a whole server of people about to wake up to the news of the impending chaos in the form of one persuasive former president, he doesn't think it'll be long before he returns. He wants to go back to the Void, and play Competitive Solitaire with Wilbur forever, and maybe, just maybe, that'd be enough to give his friends the peace they need to build lives in the shelter of the shadows. In the runoff and the rubble, they could grow old. And maybe they'd mourn him occasionally. He doesn't see the point.

He doesn't deserve their love anymore. He's fucked up. He's fucked up, and he should pay the price. He should march up to Wilbur, and kill him, and die in the process. But if they both woke up, what then? Who knows how many canon lives zombies have anyway.

He doesn't deserve kindness, or love, or affection. He watched the sweet, innocent ghost be slaughtered because of him. A man he might've accidentally called 'father' should've killed him. Ranboo, dear Prime, patient, forgiving, compassionate Ranboo stared at him with eyes full of disappointment and betrayal and anger and stormed off. He doesn't deserve anything but his ruined city's sky, not anymore... But he wants it. Needs it. Needs it, or what is there left?

So when Tubbo stands at his side, his scarred face barely reflected in the glass, he doesn't compel him to leave. When he kneels and puts an arm around Tommy's shoulders, the younger boy does not ask for Wilbur's end. And when he is scooped up in arms that no longer tremble, he does not try to escape. He merely buries his face in his best friend's coat and waits. Waits to be let go. Waits to be thrown from the clifftop. And somewhere along the journey, he blacks out again.

---

"Would you?" "No, but-" "Exactly! He's fucked up, we can't-" "We can't just abandon him, he's my T-" "The whole server'll be out for blood within the week! We can't hide him here!" "Why not? We have basements, and secret rooms and tunnels and-" "They'll find him, Tubbo." 

Ranboo puts his hands firmly on Tubbo's shoulders, staring right into his eyes. Tubbo freezes, as people often do when eye contact is maintained. They're silhouetted in the doorway, haloed by the light spilling in through the ajar curtains. "They'll tear this place apart if they think they'll find him here. We can't do that. We can't let them do that."

"But-" "Michael. That's who you're putting at risk if you do this. People'll tear Michael's loft apart if they think we've hidden him up there, you know they would! They'd frighten the life out of him." Tubbo puts his head in his hands, quickly wiping his hair back from his face. "A life for a- a life. That's what you're saying, basically. They'll kill Tommy. No question." "They'd kill Michael too!" "Would they? Who the fuck is this 'they'?" "Literally the whole server- Look, I haven't been around here as long as you have, alright, but I know enough. They'll come for Tommy, and they won't have mercy for anyone caught in the crossfire."

Tubbo looks up at his husband for a long time, his expression becoming guarded while his posture straightens. "You're right. People don't care who they hurt around here; it's all means to an end. But-" And his eyes dart towards Tommy, Ranboo's following, and while Ranboo looks shocked and maybe a little embarrassed to see Tommy awake, lying awkwardly dumped on the guest bed, Tubbo's expression doesn't change. "-I won't leave him. I did it once, and it was the worst damn choice I ever made." He sighs, taking Ranboo's hands and staring down at them while they speak. "I don't know what to do, truth be told. I won't let anyone hurt Michael, and if they want to try then perhaps I should get back in the nuke lab. But Tommy's a part of my family as much- as much as you are." His eyes flick to Tommy, and the barest hint of a smile appears. "Looks like it's us against the world, again." 

He leads Ranboo with one hand into the room as he sits beside the mute, exhausted form of his best friend. His best friend that leans into the arm he puts around his shoulder and tries not to start crying again. "Us against the world." Tubbo repeats. "And I ain't leaving you behind."

Tommy looks up at Ranboo, who's staring at him with an impassivity that borders on scary. "Did I tell you you have mesmerising eyes? Because I actually think they're very intimidating." The enderboy's face softens. "Where did you find him." He asks Tubbo drily as he also sits on the bed, the other side of Tubbo, who smiles. "You'll have to-" He cuts himself off. "You'll have to ask Wilbur." He says softly.

"Don't sacrifice yourselves for me." Two heads snap in Tommy's direction, and Ranboo tries to answer first. "Oh, well, we weren't exactly planning on-" "I mean like, your happiness." He quietens again. "Don't lose lives, don't jeopardise Snowchester because of me." "How about you let me decide what happens in my nation." Tubbo's voice has regained some element of its smile. "You focus on surviving, alright Big Man?" "Don't- Please, don't let me ruin all this. Again."

‘I don't deserve your support. I don't deserve a place in your family. I don't deserve you.’

"You deserve another chance."

They make no promises in the half-dark. There are no agreements made over the steaming teapot. There are no settlements reached as the minutes tick by, and nothing comes of the quiet hours spent by a warm fireplace. But there are enough things said in the silences to fill the whole house. And even if Tubbo can't make his best friend fall asleep anymore, he can still hold him close somewhere that maybe, once was, once could've been something like a home.

#crim writes #dream smp #dsmp fic #tommyinnit #tubbo #ranboo #bench trio #clingyduo #i really have to go to sleep #but i couldn't not #i missed writing late night reaction fics like this #anyway if this makes sense i'll be amazed #and if you read the whole thing? thank you so much #look after yourself and have a nice evening

[fridayfirefly]

crushed petals, shattered glass, and other broken things

Read crushed petals, shattered glass, and other broken things on AO3

Masterlist

For Maribat March Day 17 - Court of Owls

Marinette was twelve years old, and she was a knife. Delicate in her looks, deceiving in her appearance, Marinette was the most dangerous weapon in the arsenal of the Court of Owls. She was an assassin. She was a spy. She was clever, cunning, versatile. Most importantly, she was a knife, a sharp tool to be used to inflict violence. It was a role that suited her well. Marinette was training to become the Talon of the Court of Owls, and she was untouchable.

-----

Marinette was thirteen years old, and she wanted to know how she came to be. Procreation was easy to understand scientifically, but part of Marinette's brain objected to the idea that she had two parents. Marinette was a knife, and knives were forged by hammer and fire, sharpened to a point by tools so that it might become a tool itself. Marinette could not have come from something as human as love. Love has no role in the creation of a knife.

To settle the conflict, Marinette did what she did best - she snooped around, gathered intel, and created the most likely version of events. From what she could tell, her Grandmother, an associate of the Court of Owls but not an actual member, betrayed the Court. As punishment, Marinette was taken away from her family to be raised by the Court. Marinette's surname, kept hidden from her for thirteen years, was Dupain-Cheng.

The very concept of a surname was blasphemous. Marinette had no family. She belonged to the Court of Owls. And yet, sometimes at night, when she was alone in the dark, Marinette mouthed the words, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Something deep within her stirred.

-----

Marinette was fourteen years old, and she was supposed to kill the whole family. The mother and father, Marinette knew she could kill, but to kill their three children felt inhumane. The youngest wasn't even a year old. Marinette had completed hundreds of missions identical to this one. Sneak in, poison the food, sneak out, wait for the obituary in the newspaper in a day or two. However, this time Marinette couldn't do it.

Marinette cut the tracking chip out of her neck, crushed it beneath her boot, and disappeared into the shadows of the city. It was entirely unplanned, the only reason that Marinette was able to escape. Marinette didn't know much about life in the outside world, but she knew that it had to be better than the alternative, spending the rest of her life as a tool of the Court of Owls.

What Marinette didn't know was that the city she was disappearing into had a certain reputation. Soon, as she learned the true nature of Gotham, Marinette would wish that she stayed with the Court.

-----

Marinette was fifteen years old, and she now knew the true depravity of man. There was so much tragedy on the streets of Gotham. Some of the tragedies Marinette was able to prevent. Knives, after all, are just as good at preventing violence as they are at inflicting it. For other tragedies, Marinette was only able to witness the aftermath. For the victims, she had nothing to give. Knives can only hurt, they cannot heal.

Marinette loathes Gotham, a hatred that burns through her down to her core. In the Court of Owls, violence was planned. On the streets of Gotham, violence was random. It was so much worse. But a safer city would be more dangerous for Marinette, who needed deep shadows to hide in.

Marinette lived on the streets. She knew that she could pickpocket enough money to rent an apartment. It would be easy, the roughest slums of Gotham, to find someone willing to rent to a child, so long as they had the money. But Marinette's fear and pain had nothing to do with the physical conditions of living on the streets. It was all psychological. The horrors that Marinette had seen haunted her like a ghost.

The worst incident was Hannah, whose death shattered Marinette to her very core. Hannah was only seventeen years old, only two years older than Marinette herself. Marinette didn't know much about the girl, other than that she was on the streets because her boyfriend had threatened to kill her and the police wouldn't do anything until there was physical proof. Except, the way Hannah explained it was that the police wouldn't get involved until she was already dead. Marinette had offered to protect the older girl, but she shooed her away. Hannah told Marinette that she wouldn't let anything happen to herself. She told Marinette that she was tough.

Evidently, Hannah wasn't tough enough for the streets of Gotham. Marinette cried over the body for thirty minutes, cried so hard for so long that she knew she wasn't a knife anymore. Knives would never cry. Knives would cut right back. But Marinette was so sick of violence, so she cried and cried. Eventually, she knocked on the door of a house down the street, asking to borrow a phone to call the police and report a murder. Hannah's body was taken away. The police were ambivalent, they didn't even ask Marinette for a statement. To the police, Hannah was another victim of Gotham and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

This world was so deeply and terribly bad that Marinette didn't know how the rest of the world could survive it. Marinette didn't know if she wanted to survive it.

-----

Marinette was sixteen years old, and she finally got herself involved in the vigilante side of Gotham. Before Red Hood entered the scene, Crime Alley was a mess of villains and vigilantes, in a constant battle between chaos and order. Marinette never got involved. She had spent many years as a weapon, long enough to learn that a weapon can only harm and can never heal.

Red Hood toed the line between villain and vigilante. His network of crime was more civilized than any other the other organizations vying for control of Gotham. He kept the streets safe by keeping the most dangerous players in line. Marinette had to admit, he did more good for Crime Alley than Gotham's actual police force.

Still, that didn't mean that Marinette wanted to get involved. She preferred to keep to herself, keep out of the way, and keep in the shadows. It was safer that way.

That November evening when Marinette met Red Hood was cold. The rain that had come in the afternoon had frozen to ice. Marinette shivered as she sat in the alleyway, back against the brick wall, arms wrapped around her knees, hugging herself into a tight little ball. Winter was fast approaching, and Marinette knew that she needed to find better shelter.

Marinette hadn't been quick enough. Marinette should have fled the alley as soon as she saw the three brutish men start walking down it, but she was so cold she wasn't sure if she would be able to get her feet to move. By the time Marinette had gotten her feet under her to stand up, the three men were surrounding her.

The man in the middle leered at her. "You look cold. Why don't you come with us? We'll keep you warm."

There wasn't a trace of a question in his voice. It was a command. However, Marinette knew what happened to the girls who took up the offer, so she vigorously shook her head. She would rather freeze to death than join him in his bed.

"That wasn't a question," he growled, reaching down to grab her and pull her to her feet.

"I wouldn't touch her if I were you," an unfamiliar voice piped up from farther down the alley. "I just might have to remove your hand if you do."

"Red Hood! I was just helping the girl to her feet. I swear I wasn't going to do anything to her." The man sounded terrified, and for good reason. The punishment that Red Hood chose for rapists was well known for its brutality.

"You should leave," snapped Red Hood. The men hurried out of the alleyway, running without looking back. Marinette watched them go, relief rushing through her.

"Do you have somewhere to stay?" Red Hood asked, offering Marinette a hand to help her to her feet.

Marinette shook her head, squeezing herself into a tighter ball.

"I can take you to the nearest homeless shelter or I can take you to the nearest of my safehouses until I set you up in something permanent."

"I'm fine here," mumbled Marinette. It was the first time she had spoken in weeks. Her own voice sounded foreign to her.

Red Hood scoffed. "You'll freeze to death out here. It's either a homeless shelter or a safehouse. I don't leave girls out on the streets. Not in Gotham. Not in Crime Alley."

Marinette shivered, feeling more than miserable. It was obvious that she wasn't going to be able to convince Red Hood to leave her. A homeless shelter might need identification, which Marinette didn't have. Going to his safehouse was her best bet. "Safehouse."

Red Hood pulled Marinette to her feet. "Alright, safehouse it is. Mind telling me your name?"

"Marinette."

"No last name?"

Marinette shook her head. She hadn't earned a surname yet.

Red Hood took her back to the safehouse and got her settled, bringing over groceries every week as he tried to tempt her into giving him more information about herself. Marinette was reticent to tell him about her past. She doubted that he would still trust her enough to leave her alone if he learned that she used to work as an assassin.

However, Marinette couldn't keep that secret for very long. Two months after meeting Red Hood, as she waited in the kitchen for him to arrive with his weekly delivery of groceries, Marinette was caught off guard as a dark figure burst through the door and attacked her. Marinette didn't want to fight the dark-haired girl, but to be honest she couldn't see any other option, considering the other girl attacked first. The girl was skilled and Marinette was out of practice, after two years away from the Court. The best she could do was hold the other girl off while she tried to figure out an escape plan.

Red Hood came in the front door, which was already ajar from the entrance of the other girl. "Black Bat, stop! Marinette is my guest here," shouted Red Hood over the commotion of the fight.

Black Bat ceased her offensive, falling back into a defensive crouch. She pointed one finger at Marinette and accused, "Talon."

Marinette cringed back. "Not anymore. Never, ever again."

Red Hood stared at Marinette in shock. "You were an assassin?"

Marinette nodded miserably, wishing she could be anywhere else. She should have escaped the safehouse when she had the chance, but her stupid brain decided that Red Hood's safehouse would be a good place as any to spend the winter months.

"Cass? Jason? Why was the door left open...?" The civilian man who walked through the open door stared at the scene in front of him in confusion.

"Aliases, Grayson!" exclaimed Red Hood, or, Jason as he had just been named. Jason took off his mask, casting it aside as he ran his hand through his hair with a groan. "Black Bat, you take Marinette back to the bedroom and help her put bruise cream on wherever you managed to hit her. Grayson, you're coming with me back to the cave so we can explain this situation to you-know-who." Jason almost reached the door before he let out a loud swear "Fuck! I cannot believe that I have to be the responsible one here."

As Jason and his friend left the safehouse, Marinette followed Black Bat - Cass - down the hallway to the bedroom. "Sit," ordered Cass, pointing towards the bed as she starting digging through the bathroom cabinet, looking for bruise cream.

Marinette stripped off her shirt so that Cass could get to the bruises. The only significant hit was a kick to the chest that knocked the breath out of Marinette. It was already turning yellow. Marinette poked it and grimaced at the twinge of pain that followed.

"Don't worry," said Cass as she started to rub the medicine onto Marinette's chest. "Jason will keep you safe."

Cass wasn't lying. Whatever Jason said or did in the hours that he was gone that day, it worked. Two days later, Marinette was moving into Wayne Manor.

Jason explained it all to her on the drive over. "Bruce - Batman - doesn't want an ex-assassin living on the streets in Crime Alley, especially not one in possession of compromising information about our identities. Given that you've already taken the first step towards reformation, Bruce is pretty confident that you're safe to live in the house. He'll help you get back on your feet, get you a new identity, an education, or anything you need."

Marinette froze for a moment, then wrapped Jason up in a hug. It was her first hug and it was better than she expected. "Thank you."

-----

Marinette was seventeen years old, and she finally had a family. The Wayne household was a chaotic place. Marinette used to think that she hated chaos, but she could now see the appeal. Coffee at midnight with Tim, practicing acrobatics with Dick, racing motorcycles with Jason, rescuing farm animals with Damian - none of it was normal, and because of that, Marinette loved it. However, when things got overwhelming and Marinette needed a break from the chaos, she always knew where to go.

Cass was one of the only quiet Waynes (the other being Alfred). In fact, she barely spoke at all. Marinette had learned that she and Cass had quite a few similarities in the nature of their childhoods. They were both taken from at least one of their parents, both raised to be assassins from a young age, both were isolated from the rest of society. Where they differed was the particulars of their education. Cass was raised without language, and she only learned how to speak after she escaped from her father's grasp.

One night, after a patrol that led to Marinette stumbling upon a body that reminded her of Hannah from all those years ago, Marinette walked through the halls of the Manor to Cass's bedroom. All anyone wanted was for Marinette to talk about it. Cass was the only person who wouldn't make that demand of Marinette.

Marinette knocked on the door, two quiet little knocks. Cass cracked open the door, then gestured for Marinette to come inside. Marinette settled down on the couch in the corner, trying to pick out the questions that she wanted to ask Cass. There were so many questions, but Marinette knew that only a few of them were worth asking. They sat in silence for a while, Marinette so lost in thought that she almost forgot that Cass was there, too. Finally, Marinette settled on the question. "Do you ever wish that you could change the past?"

Cass was silent, deep in thought for a few moments before she shook her head. "No."

"Not even if it meant that you could have had a normal childhood?"

"I had a hard childhood," Cass acknowledged. "I like where I ended up. I wouldn't be here without my childhood."

Marinette had one last question to ask. "If you're able to speak now, why do you barely talk."

"I learned to speak," agreed Cass, going silent for a moment before continuing. "I have become proficient at using words to deliver information but I lack the skill to converse with others. I find it difficult to use any more words than necessary. For that reason, people do not like talking to me. I do not talk to those who do not want to talk to me."

"I like talking to you," said Marinette, squeezing Cass's hand. "I can talk enough for the both of us. You don't mind my talking, do you?"

Cass shook her head. "I find your words tolerable. Sometimes even pleasant."

It was a high compliment from Cass. Marinette smiled. "May I hug you?"

Cass nodded, and Marinette wrapped her dearest friend up in a hug.

-----

Marinette was eighteen years old, and it was time for her to create a new identity for herself.

"Do you want a surname?" asked Bruce.

Marinette stared at the screen. There were three options in front of here. The first, to remain nameless. The second, to take on the name she was born with, Dupain-Cheng in remembrance of her parents and the childhood she never got to have. The third, to move on entirely from her past and embrace the future. "Wayne. Marinette Wayne."

@maribatmarch-2k21

#maribat #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #jason todd #cassandra cain #MaribatMarch2021 #miraculous ladybug fic #assassin marinette #my work

[voidsentprinces]

Every bit of Shadowbringers is the Scions it corresponds with.

Amh Araeng Prt 1 is very Alisaie. Mirroring her decision in A Realm Reborn, Alisaie wanders off to the outskirts of civilization. Choosing to observe the powers of the world and figure out a way to stop coming tragedies. We’re introduced to the threat and aggressively fight against it but in mirror the loss of Ga Bu and Louisoix. Alisaie loses someone dear to her by Tempering. Louisoix became a Primal and Ga Bu was tempered by Titan. (Though honestly I wish Alisaie would stop losing people dear to her cause after Requiem for Heroes it feels like the story likes to kick her while she’s down at this point)

Kholusia Prt 1 is very Alphinaud. There is a semblance civilization, a rule of law in the area, there is even a function in which the society works. Mirroring Alphinaud remaining well within spitting distance and very much in the middle of the comings and goings. He uses his diplomatic maturity, which once was made for personal gain with clever wit and scheme. He has learned from the Crystal Brave betrayal, corruption of Ishgards, the result of those who choose might means right and what it results in from his time in Ala Mhigo, Hingashi, and Doma respectively. Applying himself to better comes to grips with the peoples plight. Upon seeing how Eulmore treats those chosen but then thrown away and then coming face to face with Vauthry. Rather than turning a blind eye and just being, “That’s just how it is.” as he was with the Monetarists and Refugees of Ul’dah. He pushes back against the system, damn the consequences, leaving an easily position to effect the politics of Eulmore and even gets a bullseye placed on the back of his head.

Lakeland is very much the Crystal Exarch’s Domain. It is the place of mystery, where life heavily clings on and every time we venture out to it. We come into conflict with either Eulmore or the Sineaters, Vauthry is controlling. It is in Lakeland, we fight through the Holminster Switch. Come face to face with our first Lightwarden and see where there was once furtile farm land, peace, and people. Now chaos reigns and an apocalyptic wave of disaster has struck. Mirror the world, G’raha had woken up to after the Eighth Umbral Calamity. This is where our foot hold is. Where we first bring night back to the First and his plan for saving the Source is put in motion. There is also a sense of myth about the place, Bismarck, a fae being in this shard slumbers in the Lake aptly named the Source. And it is only by bringing together to allies we made that we allowed to travel to the Tempest when he is spirited away. Just as G’raha gathered allies and people to himself to build the Crystarium.

Il Mheg is Urianger’s realm and reflects the game, he has agreed to play with the Warrior of Light at the behest of the Exarch. It is full of beings, who make deals out of innocent furvor at the determent of all who are around them. Pixies trick travels and fellow fae a like. The Nou Mou live to serve mortal kind just as Urianger serves the realm as a whole, no matter what light history might cast him in. And the Amaro dream of comrades lost, wishing to feel the comfort the adventurers and merchants they once wandered with. Grieving in their own way just as Urianger did after Moenbryda’s passing. Il Mheg is the land of faeries, it is steeped in myth and legend just as Urianger always had his nose in a book. Titania lays at the center of the realm. Once the pinnacle of the fae, forever corrupted by the Lightwarden’s energy. A horrific mirror of what should happen is G’raha’s plan should fail and the paragon of heroism, his friend: The Warrior of Light. Could also become a monster wearing the skin of a kingly figure should his mask slip. Yet when we enter his abode in the middle of Il Mheg, the Waking Sands/Rising Stones music plays. Reminding us of home and the Scions, he calls family and he welcomes us as he ever did, cryptically.

“Unto a hero weary of heroes, a heroes wends [their] way...”

Rak’tika is Y’shtola of course. She has turned away from her light magics of conjury to the dark magics of thaumaturge. The great boughs rise up and block out the sun light of the Great Wood. Reflecting the living style of her mentor: Master Matoya. A person who prefers their solitude, away from the dealings of the world, but with great knowledge to progress the plot forward. Thancred and Y’shtola get into an argument on how each other has changed. The two of them stood side by side after the Bloody Banquet and were both flung into Aetherstream by her Flow spell. While Y’shtola adapted to her blindness and halfened life force. Thancred had to push against the constrains of no longer having access to his aether and briefly losing sight in one eye. His last moments were the thought of protecting Minfilia. Only to wake up in Dravania and find out that Minfilia is no more. Y’shtola rejects Master Matoya and Thancred’s choice of solitude. Making friends with the Night’s Blessed. Even though, she knows she might have to leave them behind all too soon. She becomes a pinnacle of the Night’s Blessed community. While Thancred wanders hither and tither unfocused with Ryne at his side. Slipping easily into her role as a Scion, she researches the clues left behind by the Ronka Empire and makes allies with a civilization who has also closed themselves off from the world. Y’shtola is the first one to recognize the faults in G’raha’s plan and is immediately suspicious of the Exarch’s intentions. We see Y’shtola never truly changed however as when it comes time to get the item that will save the world and protect her friends. She readily uses Flow once more. Damn the consequences. Her sacrifice for the greater good is, as always, her charge which she never hesitates to grant. She even bonds with Runar seeing him as a little brother despite his obvious want for something more, just as she has a sister back in Gridania with whom she has a friendly relationship with. Just as Y’shtola’s connection to Matoya opened up the path to Azys Lla. Her run in with Emet-Selch opens up the path to learn of the Ancients and Amaurot and the true nature of Hydaelyn and Zodiark.

Amh Araeng Prt 2 is Thancred. Its tedious, its nearly empty, full of the smallest hopes. Each challenge is made to be tougher than it should be and despite us being able to compliment Thancred when finding a Voebrite coin. He shrugs it off as he is wont to do at this point. We get Ryne’s inner turmoil deepening. Thancred comes face to face with another individual wallowing in their own grief for those he loss and suddenly after coming face-to-face with Ran’jit again. Thancred throws away his misgivings and brings Ryne into the fold as shoe horned and bad written as possible. So lets just skip this area and never talk of it ever again okay? Cause the story never really does save for the Fatebreaker Eden section

Kholusia Prt 2 is Ardbert’s story or what it once was. We gather our group together and besiege Eulmore only for the villain to escape our grasps. But we triumph in liberating Eulmore from Vauthry’s tyranny for a moment. Alphinaud gets his heroic speech, Alisaie gets to combat the threats of the Lightwardens, Y’shtola and Urianger work together to make a massive Talos, Thancred and Ryne keeping tabs on Vauthry and Mt. Gulg. We meet face to face with G’raha. For all intents and purposes our Cylva. A person with a schism coming to a head. We come together as a team for the first time since coming to the First and each shows their worth in their connections to the realm. Mirroring Ardbert’s journey, we are faced with multiple seemingly insurmontible odds and come out on top. Vauthry’s Sineater Guard fall, he himself becomes the last one. The night returns to the First. And. We. Fail. We fail due to the machinations of Ascians just as Ardbert’s group did. The Warrior of Light is brought low by the combined aetheric energies of all Lightwardens. G’raha’s plan fails when Emet-Selch appears and leaves us for dead. Sure the enemy was vanquished, Vauthry and Ran’jit for us, Loghrif and Mitron for Ardbert’s group, but the First still falls to a Flood of Light as the eternal day returns and we are left on the cusp of despair. For all our triumphs. For all the schemes. For all the fighting. We fail. And just as Ardbert learns to protect his world with the aid of the Word of the Mother. The Warrior of Light only survives due to the aid of Ryne. An Oracle of Light who has come into her own and not died on the battlefield. We wander the Crystarium afterwards listening to the tales of the people and what they think of the Exarch. Then immediately find our courage to plunge into the depths. Ardbert giving us the strength to move forward, that he didn’t have when he met Elidibus. No more desperation. Just courage in the face of oblivion.

The Tempest is Emet-Selch. We are bridged there by the mythical Bismarck and find a dwindling but prospering Sahagin alternative. Living and getting by the ruins of those who stood before. The one part of the world far, far, far way from the light of the First. From the people and things, he used to care for. We find he made a city out of nostalgia and even the ghosts become almost too real. He is at the depths of his grief in a world, he cannot forget and will not forsake. It is here, the one clinging to the past the most falls to those who look to the future they yet have. He covets the Exarch’s use of rift travel because he knows if he can harness it, he has a chance to go back and save EVERYONE! But, he can’t and he won’t. He can no longer go home and knowing Elidibus’s memory and personality has been slipping since he left Zodiark’s breast. He asks us:

“Remember us...remember that we once lived.”

The Crystal Tower is Elidibus. It is the shining beacon of hope, he wished to become as Emissary. From the day, he chose to become the heart of Zodiark. To every motion to move for or against his breathren. The Allaghan Empire’s greatest achievement. But ruled by an Emperor whose death dropped him into Nihilism. Conquest was nothing but ashes in the mouth of Xande and he wish to consume the Source in Void. Elidibus wishes the return of Zodiark. For it is his duty, there is no solace in memories he can no longer recall. A being frozen in time just as Amon had the Crystal Tower’s previous inhabitence. Telling us repeatedly that no matter what our Echo shows us of his past. It will not avail us to his present. So he takes on the image of the Warrior of Light, playing pretend at the role of the hero having possessed Ardbert’s body before. He speeds up the Heroes Journey. Has us actively fight against our own memories and in the end, his own brother reappears amidst the clash to grant the last Unsundered Peace in his fall. G’raha sealing away his essence in the Crystal Tower to become part of the beacon of hope and light. Though perhaps in his final moments, his true duty was that he was waiting for someone to return to him. Someone he looked up to in his younger years. A shadow in his memories he has clung to and taken into being the example off in their absence.

“The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day. But you are not here to see it.”

#{ words from beyond }

[ghostlycreatoruniverse]

This is not Dabi’s end yet: Touya and Anakin Skywalker

In last days I read that Dabi is basically over: he’s narrative purpose is fulfilled and now he could even go out with a bang in a blaze of glory.

I partially agree with this: we finally got to see part of his backstory and who he really is and now that Dabi considers himself satisfied he hasn’t much left to do. So he might as well... die here.

On the other hand this would reduce consistently Todorokis drama. In fact the role of an hero is to save and to win; as things are now, Dabi is ready to kill and thus Shoto hasn’t much choice in the matter.

Instead if Dabi were to survive Shoto will have to face the brutal dilemma with his own family. Dabi is a villain and has to be put down somehow, but they are brothers after all; can he really kill his own brother despite it all? Or maybe it’s worthy trying to incapacitate and save him?

Because this is the very core of being an hero. Doing the right choice. Being an icon. As matter of fact this ideology is brought up by Stain into the extreme: many heroes during this arc went for a kill, while All Might despite how he felt hadn’t even tried to kill All for One nor he demanded it. he even felt guilty towards Shigaraki and was desperate about him.

Having Dabi dying now would mean that Shoto has no choice in the process (Dabi has the upper hand, if he wants to kill he can as he likes; and he will) and the only reasonable outcome would be for him to go all along. That would mean legitimate defence and the Todorokis will end their purpose. Instead having him sticking around would mean for Shoto to go and face his family in the try of choose what to do when he will meet up with Dabi again.

This is something that was already seen in a very known franchise: Star Wars.

It’s common knowledge that Horikoshi loves Star Wars and in general and My hero academia contains lots of reference to it.

Even Touya’s old jumpsuit had a logo that resemble Rebel Alliance’s one. So I started to think about it, being a huge nerd of Star Wars myself.

All for One’s helmet greatly remind of Darth Vader’s; however his role is much closer to Senator Palpatin aka the Emperor. In fact Palestine sired many heirs like Darth Maul (The Phantom’s Menace), count Dooku/ Darth Tyranus (Attack of the clones) and the most known Anakin Skywalker, later known as Darth Vader.

I don’t think a precise parallel can be done, but it was specified that Darth Maul was kind of adopted and groomed by Darth Sidious/ Palpatine from a very young age. And we can even see that Palpatine baptise someone with their Sith name. So we can expect that Shigaraki Tomura’s birth wasn’t that different than Darth Maul’s.

Back to Dabi instead, his Star Wars parallel is tied to one of the most iconic identity revelation in the cinema history: Dart Vader telling Luke he is his father.

As I mentioned, you can see the Rebel alliance’s symbol on Touya jumpsuit; and in fact the Rebel Alliance was founded by three senators, Padmè being one of them. From day one, Skywalker’s family was a disaster, with a father who tried to killed the mother feeling betrayed by her and the two twins being separated for many years, until they grew up. Much like Todorokis family, Skywalkers are really messed up .

However maybe many of you might not know that Darth Vader’s identity wasn’t defined as Anakin from day one. In fact after the huge success of Star Wars (later renamed “A new Hope”)Lucas decided to write a sequel. For this purpose he hired a novelist, Brackett, and thus the second movie , The empire strikes back back, was written. Brackett chose ti described Anakin as a good father and a phantom who could aid and teach his son Luke. However she died before speaking to Lucas about this and he, without a script , had to do it all alone. This is the firsttime the concept of Darth Vader and Anakin being the same person was introduced.

This means that in the first movie, Darth Vader and Anakin were two totally different characters. Then suddenly they merged into one in the second movie.

This was a smart choice but it was brought by fate and thus created a great plot hole on how Anakin turned into Darth Vader, while he had already been described as a just and honourable Jedi.

Star Wars fans finally had an answer with the third movie , the Return of the Jedi, thanks to Obi Wan Kenobi’s ghost.

Later on, a complete story was given on-screen with the three following movies (The Phantom’s menace, Attack of the clones and The revenge of the Sith) in which the all story of Anakin was told from A to Z.

The point is.... Star Wars fandom was fine with being told Darth Vader was Luke’s father all along without any further explanation and totally out of the blue.

And this went on for many years until the Regenge of the Sith (2005).

Dabi’s revelation is similar to Darth Vader’s. Both the villains were towering above the hero, while the other were weakened. Both reveals were welcomed with total shock and denial by the hero. And in both cases Endeavor and Luke went numb and weren’t able to react anymore. Even Dabi’s clothing resembles Vader’s dark clothes, and beware Dabi and Tomura are the only villains who dress mainly in black (Toga and Spinner have colourful outfits, Magne was very casual, Compress is still very colourful and his black is rather an elegantblack and not a I’m-so-evil-black, while Twice has an half black half grey costume).

Another similarity both Touya and Anakin shared is how they died and how they alias were born: in fact while Touya’s death is still surrounded by mystery but overall is linked to Endeavor; Anakin was defeated and horribly mutilated by Obi Wan. More specifically Obi Wan cut off Anakin’s legs and one arm but more interesting, they were near a magma river in a vulcanic planet called Mustafar, the same name Horikoshi used for My Hero Academia’s main city. Being near such a burning river, Anakin’s body took fire and he basically burnt alive.

The last dialogue between Obi Wan and Anakin is very important too.

Obi Wan is almost crying, yelling that Anaking was supposed to be the chosen one, the one who would heave ended siths, not joining them, and who would have put balance in the Force. While fighting Obi Wan even said Anakin he was “his greatest failure”.

Obi Wan is a much beloved Jedi, but it’s obvious that, like Endeavor, he poured onto Anakin all of his hope for a legacy he couldnt conquer. Much like Enji, Obi Wan was a father figure for Anakin and a great mentor he respect a lot. It was Palpatine the one who put distance between Obi Wan and Skywalker with the intent of conquering the boy and never make him fulfill the prophecy.

In the same comparison, Touya is clearly Anakin. In the same dialogue he tells Obi Wan he will die and that to him Sith aren’t pure evil... Jedis are. Finally when Obi Wan beart him he yells murderous scream; “I hate you!”. With a murderous light in his eyes, much like Touya was totally crazy about the idea of killing Endeavor.

Many other traits of Sith and villain could be compared randomly, especially because Darth Vader was one of the main villain and most iconic character in Star Wars whole Dabi is and will be important but not as Tomura will be.

However if this comparison stand strong then few things might be speculated about Dabi.

The first is that we miss an important part of his background and we might have all of it much later then we could expect, quite like it happened with Darth Vader. And Star Wars fans got his full backstory after he died, so wether Dabi survive or not , this might be completely irrelevant. His story can go on.

The second one, Darth Vader was corrupted by the Emperor. He has a darkness inside of him, but Palpatine definitely broke him for good. Similarly, he was the one who cured Vader. I aspect someone at least cured Touya creating Dabi at the very least.

The third one is... that Darth Vader redeemed himself. At the very last, when the emperor is torturing Luke, finally Anakin makes his come back and kills the Sith to protect his son. While doing this, his armour is compromise and he will soon die. Later on we have the certainty of his redemption because Anakin take part to the feast for the fall of the empire as a ghost in Obi Wan’s and Yoda’s company. If Dabi will follow a similar path the only way out/ redemption for him probably will be similar and maybe he could save Shoto in one last change of heart before his own death.

Before anyone would comment about Dabi being a psychopath who never will do this, I’ll remind you that Darth Vader was a solid tyrant for approximately 20 years, he systematically killed all his fellow Jedis and Padawans, he cut Luke’s hand off, capture his own daughter Leia, killed his own beloved mentor and friend Obi Wan, he was about to smothering his beloved wife Padmé, he annihilated a planet or two and was building a massive weapon of destruction called “Black Death”. Twice. I’m confident Vader killed much more people than what Dabi could possibly had and eventually will do. And he was way more messed than Dabi was, still he got his redemption.

If he could make it, even Dabi eventually can.

#bnha dabi #Dabi #my hero acadamy #boku no hero #chapter 290 #chapter 291 #chapter 292 #spoiler #spoiler 292 #dabi character study #character comparison #Star Wars #sorry for the format I don’t know why it’s so weird #ask me if you wanna discuss more about it #boku no hero academia #bnha chapter 292

[plasmacandle]

May I ask, if Afterimage ever became canon, and got his own episode, how would that go?

this is such a cool question, thank you!! i'm SO glad there's interest in him

i don't have a full script, but i have several key points in mind for how an episode with him would go! it got very long, so i'm putting it under a read more

i'm imagining it as another halloween special, only more lighthearted in nature because of who the villain is. highlights include a scooby doo-esque chase through krei tech. please enjoy

i imagine his intro ep taking place about a week before halloween. the team would catch a glimpse of a strange figure during night patrol on a foggy, spooky evening - but he seems to disappear before they can get a good look! but there WAS definitely something there, right?

fred is convinced they just saw a ghost; hiro of course is skeptical and looks for answers. based on the footage they have, the most baymax and/or basemax can come up with are a bunch of strange blurry "ghost images" that people have taken all over the city recently. hiro figures it's some sort of viral halloween prank, but the team decides to keep an eye out just in case

hardlight has also recently escaped, so they've got bigger things to worry about, anyway

one night during a battle with hardlight, bh6 manages to knock his glove several feet away from him but then it starts... floating? moving on its own? and somehow tosses ITSELF back to hardlight, in a series of motions that leaves the team very confused. they're even more confused when things start hitting them out of nowhere - gogo is tripped on something invisible and crashes into fred, wasabi's hit with lasers from thin air, honey's suddenly ensared by a net. hardlight gets away, for the time being, and the team is left wondering about all these new tricks he's got up his sleeve...

“could it be GHOSTS?” “we know for a fact hardlight is not a ghost” “but DO WE?”

the next day, bh6 receives a report from alistair krei that there's been a strange figure showing up outside krei tech for the past few nights. nothing's been stolen - yet - but it's worth looking into. plus, a rumor's been spreading that krei tech is HAUNTED, and that's not good for publicity!

using security cam footage, they recognize the figure as the "ghost image" that's been popping up around san fransokyo. they're also able to determine that the subject is wearing some kind of robotic armor, which they recognize as the buddy guard technology - and it's confirmed even more when the figure disappears on tape! everyone wonders what this "ghost’s” goal could be, and why they'd be using the decommissioned tech. bh6 asks for a list of everyone who worked on developing the buddy guards, which krei gives them (mel meyer, notably, is NOT on that list).

in the next days, people begin to report sightings of afterimage more frequently, usually with blurry distorted photo evidence if they catch him mid-vanish. he tends to show up at big gatherings and events and sabotage them, usually by cutting the power and sending everyone into a state of confused panic. strangely, it seems to affect personal devices too, and happens too often to just be a coincidence...

big hero 6 makes note of the fact that afterimage's appearances seem to line up with hardlight's - they tend to strike on the same day, sometimes even the same place. the same is true for the photos people have been reporting; they line up with hardlight sightings. however, hardlight hasn’t been near krei tech, so that seems to be the outlier

so the next time they face hardlight, the team are prepared to confront afterimage as well. luckily for them, hardlight's on the same page. there's a line like "allow me to introduce... my player two!!!" and afterimage makes himself seen, in a dramatic, but silent, flourish. he and hardlight do a cool pose together, and there's probably some fun sparkle effects

wasabi would say something like "...does he not talk?" and hardlight would reply that the two of them agreed it was more mysterious and threatening that way

and so the battle continues. with afterimage switching in and out of visibility so fast, hardlight's menagerie of light weapons, and the two of them protecting each other, it's difficult to get a hit on either of them! and the duo escape again, much to the frustration of the team

the heroes probably do a little pondering on how the two of them can be so in-sync. even if we don't see them react to it, i'm assuming bh6 knows that hardlight = ian, so they start looking for potential connections of his. they'd probably check out retired villain dark volt (who i headcanon as ian's father), olivia (who i hc as his half-sister), and even judy (under the assumption that them being co-workers means they might have co-conspired), but of course those are all dead ends

soon enough, it's halloween eve, and bh6 figures something big is likely to go down the next night, so they try reaching out to krei again for any more information. but they can't get through to him. uh-oh... the power seems to have been cut at krei tech!!

they rush over to check on krei, and find the building encased in one of hardlight's force fields. hardlight tells them that afterimage has been in tutorial mode, and now he's on his first big solo quest - the one he's been gathering XP for all this time!! and hardlight's NOT gonna let them sabotage it, so he'll just have to dominate them in single-player >:]

so of course they have to take hardlight down first. which they do, because all they have to do is get his glove and i can't think of a cool detailed way that they do that right now

with the light shields gone, they get into krei tech and - since baymax is scan-jammed - they have to search for krei and afterimage in the dark facility. on the way, they run into a few employees who have been trapped in the building, many believing the intruder is an actual ghost! hiro is still patiently trying to convince people it's not, but the others, to his frustration, seem to be getting more open to the idea

they finally reach krei's office and find him pleading with this mysterious invisible force to leave his company, and his face, alone. he doesn't deserve to have his company haunted, he says! is this a vengeful spirit come to throw his past mistakes at him, in the form of his own obsolete decommissioned tech?? :’(

a modulated voice finally speaks, to everyone's surprise. "oh, like you decommissioned ME??" afterimage is now visible, in the moonlight coming through the large window

"i thought you weren't speaking," gogo quips, to which afterimage stammers and replies something like "ugh, i totally messed that up. but anyway-"

he proceeds to let his lasers do the talking and battles it out with big hero 6 once again!! until honey lemon jams his blaster with a chem ball. and he realizes that while he may still be able to disappear, he doesn't have the advantage of open space in krei's office. so, amidst the chaos, he manages to slip out the door

the team proceeds to chase him down the halls of krei tech, each taking different paths (this part could be a little haunted house montage where they run in and out of different doors, if you wanted a little comic relief) and fred beats him to the door. as afterimage runs toward the exit, fred finally decides on the most effective way to fight invisible with invisible, and simply sticks out his tail to trip him

AND HE TRIPS!!

the team catches up as afterimage tries to collect himself. fred and wasabi quickly grab him. hiro, excited at the opportunity to prove once and for all this is not a ghost, removes his helmet, exposing him as none other than.....

former krei tech employee mel meyer!!!! cue GASPS from everyone. "sur...prise," he manages, still a little dizzy from all that

krei is, of course, extremely upset (and pretty embarrassed and trying to brush off having ever been afraid), and demands to know what's been going on

mel explains that ever since A Certain Someone convinced him that sometimes villainy is empowering and lets one do the things they can’t as a civilian, he'd been wanting to teach krei a lesson about how he treats people. you can't keep getting away with using others!! and that's why he became the ghostly apparation, because the REAL monster looming over san fransokyo is YOU, alistair krei!!! and he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for these meddling kids and their robot!!! >:[

“you really think THIS is what would have stopped him? trust us, he’s seen worse.” krei stubbornly nods

and, frankly, mel's a little hurt that krei never even suspected it was him. to which krei responds that he forgot about mel entirely after getting him arrested, and so did everyone else, probably. big hero 6 nods sheepishly

...well, not everyone. cut to hardlight, who is Still standing outside, long after being subdued by bh6 - he’d had the opportunity to escape when they raced off to save krei, but clearly didn’t. he calls mel's name (and would be waving if he weren't handcuffed and surrounded by the SFPD at that very moment). mel is pleasantly surprised, and a little confused. "wait, you stayed and kept watch for my WHOLE mission? you didn't even try to get away?" he asks

to which ian replies, "of course not! i wasn't gonna let anyone break up our co-op, and i wanted to make sure you got out alright. after all, you're my... player two :)" they smile at each other, seemingly unaffected by the fact that they failed and are both getting arrested again, and it's a nice moment

cut back to krei and the gang. everyone is quite confused

so, the double damage duo is in custody (for now), and it's still the night before halloween. cue some jokey banter amongst the team about what they should do to celebrate - DEFINITELY no haunted houses, and no movies about ghosts. fred accuses hiro of being disappointed that it wasn't a real ghost, and by now the whole team is in on that joke, so he begrudgingly admits that, yes, maybe it WOULD have been cool if ghosts had been real this whole time :/ so there.

The End!

(but hopefully not the end of hardlight and afterimage - ideally there'd be more in store for them, even if they just got cameos!!! 😌)

#big hero 6 #big hero 6 the series #afterimage #mel meyer #ian hardlight #alistair krei #bh6 #double damage au #melian #at the end a little bit :)

[silvormoon]

My Hero

A little vignette set in my superhero universe. Juudai’s been giving his all to being a good hero. Sometimes, he just needs someone to give a little something back.

It wasn’t easy, being the most powerful super in the world.

That sounded trite. Worse, it sounded self-congratulatory, a way of boasting that he, Yuuki Juudai, had much grander and more important problems than the humdrum things mere mortals had to deal with. It conjured up images of some movie star or millionaire lounging on their sofa sipping champagne while they talked about how stressful their life was.

And the point was that it wasn’t easy for Juudai, and he didn’t even get the champagne to make up for it. Granted, his life did tend to involve a lot of sofas, but mainly in the, “Can I crash here tonight?” kind of way. The hardest part was that he knew he could change that if he wanted to. He could make himself famous overnight. He could have as much money as he wanted. People would line up for miles to get the kind of treatment he could provide. He could make the world his oyster, if he wanted to, or crush it under his heel, and no one would be able to stop him. That was the whole reason why he worked in the dark, kept his name out of the papers, and slept in a tent or on friends’ sofas and spare beds, earned money doing odd jobs when he had any money at all, and spent a lot of time second-guessing himself.

But he wasn’t doing any second-guessing tonight. Tonight, he had found the hideout of a gang of criminals who had been peddling a bogus drug they claimed would give people temporary superpowers. What it did was to give the user a sense of euphoria, a feeling that they were all-powerful and omniscient. Several people had died from jumping off buildings or doing other equally risky things under the influence of the drug, and Juudai had decided someone needed to put a stop to it.

Just now, he was waiting near the front door of the lab. Yubel was standing over the collection of about a dozen men they’d captured together and was giving them all vicious glares if any of them so much as breathed too loudly. Juudai was aware of a few more who had fled out the back door, but he and Yubel had managed to capture the three ringleaders, so he doubted the operation would be starting up again any time soon. They had been using some specific know-how blended with the application of some unique superpowers to synthesize the drug, and those powers were gone now. It was a shame, really. A power to synthesize chemicals like that would have been invaluable to the medical community. Perhaps if this man learned his lesson, Juudai would let him have it back someday.

For now, he watched as a number of police officers warily approached the building.

“It’s okay!” Juudai called out to them. “My partner and I have things pretty well nailed down here.”

The lead officer edged a little closer. He was eyeing Juudai warily, and Juudai didn’t blame him. Most supers at least tried to look like superheroes when they were on the job. Juudai was wearing ragged jeans, hiking boots, a fleece-lined brown leather jacket that had obviously seen a great deal of life, and a T-shirt advertising a band called Sugar Snow. He looked more like a college student out for a beer than a superhero.

“Doing a little spur-of-the-moment heroing, are you?” asked the officer suspiciously. “Care to show me your license?”

Juudai produced his ID card and flicked it towards the officer, who caught it neatly out of the air.

“Thank you, sir,” he said, and ran it through a scanner at his waist. He looked at the results. His eyebrows rose. He scrolled rapidly through the rest of the file, then looked back at Juudai.

“You’re the Haou?” he asked.

Juudai shrugged. “Apparently. I mean, I didn’t come up with the name, but it’s sort of stuck to me now so I figured I might as well own it.”

“If you’ll excuse me, I didn’t think you were real,” said the officer, handing his card back.

Juudai shoved the ID back in his pocket. “Yeah, well, I like to keep a low profile.”

“I can certainly understand that, sir,” said the officer, a bit more respectfully. “But I would like to see some proof, if you don’t mind. May I...?”

“Huh? Oh, sure,” said Juudai, who had been through this song and dance before. There were ways that a villain could disguise themselves as a hero, many of them quite hard to detect. S-levels, though, tended to stay stable, so one way of proving a person was who they said they were was to test their blood and see if their S-levels matched what was printed on their ID card. It wasn’t foolproof, since it was possible for two people to have the same S-levels, even if the odds of any two people matching were one in several hundred. Nobody, however, had levels like Juudai. He offered his finger to be pricked, and watched as the numbers on the little scanner lit up. It showed 9999, just as it always did.

“You are him,” said the officer. He was visibly impressed now.

“Yeah, that’s me,” said Juudai uneasily. “Look, we’ve got these guys all tied up in the back, so if you wanna...?”

“Oh, yes, of course,” said the officer.

Uniformed men poured into the building and started doing official things. Juudai watched a little while to make sure everything was going as it should, then quietly slipped away when no one was looking.

“I wish they wouldn’t always do that,” he complained, woefully regarding his finger. “Just because I’m famous doesn’t give people the right to punch me full of holes.”

“You don’t have to let them do it,” said Yubel.

“I know,” he said. “It’s just not fair. If I had a normal power like flying or punching holes in walls or laser vision, no one would ever ask if I am who I say I am. They’d just go, ‘oh, you’re Wonder Guy, can I have your autograph?’”

Yubel gave him a knowing look. “And you’d want that, would you?”

“Not really,” Juudai admitted. “Well, maybe a little.”

“Do you know what your problem is?”

Juudai smirked. “I’m sure you have a list.

Through all he’d done in the years since he’d left school, Yubel had been his constant companion. Juudai had promised, after all, that they would stay together once they had found each other, and Yubel took him at his word. Through rain and snow, through train delays and cancelled flights, through cheap motels and leaky tents, gang wars and monster battles and helping lost children find their parents, whatever Juudai did, Yubel did too. Even on those days when everything went wrong and they were both feeling thoroughly sick of each other, Juudai was always thankful that he didn’t have to do all this alone.

“I think,” said Yubel, “that you’re burned out.”

“What do you mean, burned out?” said Juudai. “It’s not like I do very much. Mostly we just travel.”

“That still counts as doing things,” Yubel pointed out. “Anyway, you know what I mean. I’ve been watching you. You’re all give and no get. You do all these wonderful things but you don’t stick around to enjoy the thanks, because you’re afraid it will go to your head. Sooner or later, you’re bound to run out of give.”

Juudai scowled. “You know...”

“I know why you do things the way you do. You don’t want the whole world beating a path to your door demanding you give them all godlike superpowers, or take the powers away from people you don’t like,” said Yubel. “I’m just saying, it might be time for a vacation.”

Juudai knew his laugh sounded forced. “I don’t exactly have money for a tropical vacation.”

“Then ask one of your friends. Any one of them would let you stay with them for a while.” Yubel smiled. “It wouldn’t hurt to relive your school days for a while. Do you remember all the fun we had? The annual snowball fight, staying up late telling ghost stories, eating popcorn and watching movies in the common room...”

“Yeah, I remember,” said Juudai. He smiled a little. “Those were the good old days. Man, I’d give a lot to have another go at some of those games we used to play in Chronos’s class. Remember the time you got tangled up in that net so bad they had to cut you loose?”

Yubel huffed. “I could have gotten out if I’d wanted to.”

“I know,” said Juudai. He took out his phone and poked at it for a moment. “Hey, you know, there’s a gym close by that has those reinforced training rooms for playing capture the flag and stuff. We could see if we could scrape up a team. And then we could, I dunno, grab a pizza or some ramen or something, and then maybe catch a movie? And tomorrow I’ll call around and see if any of our friends mind having a couple of house guests for a few days.”

Yubel grinned. “Now you’ve got the idea.”

Juudai grinned back. “Knew there was a reason I kept you around.”

Yubel reached for his hand. “You keep me around for a lot of reasons.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” said Juudai. “Come on. Mission ‘Have Some Fun For A Change’ is officially under way.”

They began making their way towards their destination. Somewhere in the distance, Juudai could hear sirens. There was always something going on in a big city like this, and a part of him itched to be part of the action, but he knew Yubel was right. Sometimes, the person he needed to protect was himself. He was lucky he had someone by his side to remind him of that.

It doesn’t matter how strong I am, he thought. Sometimes I still need a hero, too. He was glad he’d found one.

“So, Yubel, what movie do you want to see?”

“I don’t know. What’s playing?”

“Well, there’s one about this secret agent who...”

“I am not sitting through another movie full of cars exploding. Pick something else!”

“I didn’t say I wanted to see that one!”

“No, but you were thinking it.”

Laughing and bantering with each other, they walked away, hand in hand.

#soulshipping week #soulshipping #yugioh gx #yuuki juudai #yubel

[guessimjoiningthespidermanfandom]

Blessing in Disguise

Peter Parker x bisexual!reader

Peter Parker x fem!reader

Peter Parker x black!reader

Peter Parker x villain!reader

Warnings: Hospitals, Explosions, depictions of pain, allusions to mania and depression, self harm/unhealthy coping mechanisms, mentions of death and the dead, gambling, potential underage drinking, theft, guns, gun violence, depictions of bullet wounds, and drunk people. 

Word Count: 3.4k

Songs: All the kids are depressed- Jeremy Zucker, Everywhere- Chloe x Halle, Middle Child- J. Cole, She Knows- J. Cole, Breezeblocks- alt-J, Pussycat Doll-Flo Milli, It’s Been So Long- The Living Tombstone, Take me to Church- Hozier, Good Kid- Kendrick Lamar, Death of a Bachelor- Panic! At the Disco, Them Changes- Thundercat, Detention- Melanie Martinez, Recess- Melanie Martinez, Something for your M.I.N.D- Superorganism 

A/N: I actually hate this chapter because I feel like the writing doesn’t flow. I feel like it’s to jampacked with things that don’t do anything to push the story forward. Anyway I hope you still read it anyways. 

Series Masterlist   Previous Part   Next Part

I did the hand sign stating I’d stand. I knew I won for sure this time because I had a perfect hand of 21. The two other people playing against groaned as I was declared the winner yet again. 

Swiping the chips for the 3rd time since I’d been at the casino. I decided to take my wins and make my way to the bar that our “target” was residing. 

I had a hunch on where Carmen was but had no actual idea. I’d just text her. In the meantime I had this grown ass man to make a move on. 

I was like 97% sure I had the right guy anyway. I looked much older than usual tonight due to Carmen being a makeup goddess and I gotta say flirting can get you a long way. 

“Hey,” I spoke, sitting on the bar stool next to the man.

He looked up at me mumbling a quick hey.

“You expecting someone?” 

“Nope,” He popped the ‘p’ “What about you?”

“Same as you,”

“Now I don’t believe someone as beautiful as you is here alone,” He moved his arm that much closer to mine. I pushed out a smile and giggled. 

“I could say the same about you,” We made eye contact for a second “But no seriously, I’m just here with a girlfriend. It was my birthday yesterday but she wasn’t free so we came out today,” I lied. 

“How old did you turn?”

“Twenty Two,” He nodded seemingly content with the answer. 

“So you’re not around here are you?”

“Either you’re a genius or I’m just very bad at blending in, no I’m from New York,” 

“Ah, I have some friends in New York, which part?” 

“Harlem actually but I recently moved to Queens,” I lied again. 

“Oh I don’t many from those cities,”

“If we're being honest I don’t know many people from Queens either my life’s been more hectic ever since I moved,”

“I hear you,” He informed me, leaning on the small backing the stools had. 

We talked for about 15 more minutes, him explaining the switch between New York to Nevada. Then Carmen walked up to me and feigned drunkenness signaling she was done with her job. I made my way back. To the man who’s name I still hadn’t learned. 

“As much fun as I was having talking to you, my friend is way too drunk to be out in public so we should probably head back to the hotel.” I sat back on the barstool turning my legs towards the man batting my eyes 

“Could I possibly use your phone to call an Uber mine is dead?” 

“Yeah of course you can…” His sentence fizzed off at the end in place of where my name would be.

“Ciara,” I filled in “And you are?” 

“Jim” He started handing me the phone.

I used his phone for an entirely different reason than I’d claimed. The project Carmen had been working on was melting the wires together to fix the flash drive that works inside of phones. It hadn’t worked in years.

It took about a minute to duplicate the phone's data. I stuck the flash drive in my bra before going to give the phone back. 

Just as I started moving a loud argument broke out, by the drunk accents I could tell it would soon get violent. Seeing as I had many experiences with an aggressive drunk. I wasn’t going to take my chances and began turning towards the main exit.

 I heard the first shot echo followed by another. Soon everyone was shooting. Including Carmen who I think just wanted an excuse to shoot at people passing it off as “protecting her friends”. 

She was closer to the exit than I was so she slid me the gun and I was able to ward off anyone shooting in our general direction. Not for long though. A bullet lightly grazed my dominant arm’s shoulder; it still dug in enough to do some sweet damage. 

Fuck

What’s up with me? I haven’t been on my A game lately. 

We were also out of bullets. Mostly because we weren’t actually expecting to have to fucking shoot at people. I ducked back down behind the bar trying not to get caught on the broken glassware. 

“I think it would be a good time to do that thing?” I asked. 

She rolled her eyes 

“You know I hate doing it,”

“Well I’m literally bleeding out,” I dramatized pointing to my shoulder. “So if you want to get out of here not in body bags, do the thing,” 

“Alright, just this one time,” She begrudgingly made her way out from behind the bar and away from me. 

I covered my ears and closed my eyes as the glass around me rained down and the bar shook. I could slightly hear the cries from beneath my hands. Once she moved back over to me 

“See that wasn’t so bad, birdy,” I scrambled up to my feet ignoring the pull in my shoulder. 

I made my rounds grabbing Jim’s phone, cash, wallets, watches, and anything else that looked expensive from pockets and the ground. 

I stood awkwardly staring at my feet as I slid from side to side with my butt planted on my skateboard. 

“Hi,” I heard squinting my eyes looking up revealing a equally nervous looking Peter

“Hey,” I nodded at him. 

The conversation wasn’t as awkward as I thought it’d be he’d apparently asked Liz to prom and he said yes. Which I was definitely super happy about because why wouldn’t I be? 

Anyway who cares about that anyway. Props to Peter for not bringing up the whole ghosting everyone thing for like a week thing. Because if he didn’t bring it up I was going to act like it never happened. 

We talked about everything and anything. From favorite candies or colors to our beliefs about life after death. I’d found out his favorite candy were skittles, favorite color: red and that he was Jewish but not necessarily religious and didn’t believe in heaven or hell but he believed in the eternity of a soul. 

I’d told him that my favorite candy was F/C, my favorite color being pink and that I didn’t know what I believed in. I believed in a higher power but not that they were inherently good because of all the suffering on earth. I’d told him if they weren’t good and had abandoned us while alive. Why would they care or have any plan for us into the afterlife? I think that part is up to us, and what we believe. I’m trying not to think about death.

Then like clockwork he had to leave before 9 which is funny because it’s like he wasn’t even trying to hide his secret identity. He’d told me he lost the internship and normally his excuse to leave was the internship. 

I just guess that means he no longer has Stark’s backup. He only had it for a while anyway he’d be fine without it again. Actually when I think about it,  from his behavior he’d exhibited as Spiderman in the short few months I’d had the displeasure of knowing him as ‘Thorn’ he’d be weak. He was unconfident, relied on his tools far too much. Couldn’t see himself without the suit. So maybe he was really just going home. So he’d be fine. 

I’d also be fine. No matter how much it didn’t look like it at the moment. I’d be fine. I was always fine. I was fine without my mom, without Rose, without my dad, without Olivia and any one else I’d ever been stupid enough to get attached to. I’d bounce back. I always did. 

It’d taken Carmen much convincing to not sit around and babysit me 24/7 because of my shoulder. She was sure that I’d do something dumb and it would get infected. 

 I was sitting on MJ’s bed getting ready for homecoming. My neck jerked again as Bri attempted to detangle and braid my hair. 

If I hadn’t spiraled into the Vulture, Kingpin and SHIELD, rabbit hole I probably would have taken better care of myself and my hair. 

“Stop moving,” She tsked.

“Stop trying to rip my head off my neck,” I hissed back. 

Bri did my nails back when we were still at her house waiting for MJ to pick us up. She actually did pretty good. I think she would do great at a cosmetology school. She's pretty much into everything: hair, nails, makeup the whole nine yards. She did all of that for me. 

The make up was very simple, but I was still able to get my signature winged eyeliner. Winged eyeliner is something very dear to me mostly because Rose was the first to put me on it and I wore it everyday since. It kinda felt disrespectful to stop at this point.

The only thing left was the dress MJ had gifted me. Her mom bought her a dress but she still refused to wear dresses so she returned it for this one, she opted for a very nice pantsuit she already had. Then Bri's outfit of course matched her boyfriend’s. 

I’ve never really liked school dances they’re always so overhyped, but I go to them all anyways, because then I get in on all the drama. It helped me build up my arsenal of knowledge about everyone. 

I was sitting at one of the round tables near the entrance with MJ, Bri, and Olivia. We had a bottle of “Gatorade” open and out for anybody who wanted to drink it. I was about to drink from it when I saw Liz enter alone. 

I made my way over to her.

“Where’s Peter? I thought he asked you?” 

“I don’t even know he just ditched me,” She let out a deep breath. 

“Aw I’m sorry,” I wrapped my good arm around her shoulder.

 “Well don’t think about that asshole, you’re way out of his league anyway,” I assured her to which she let out a weak laugh. 

“Come sit with me and my friends,” 

 A girl with knockers dancing all along her head came up to before speaking 

“Why are you crying?” 

I sniffed pulling my head from my arms. 

“I miss my mom,” 

“I miss my mom sometimes but I like my grandma too,”

“Where’s your mom?” I asked.

“I don’t know my grandma says she’s sick,” She shrugged. “Where’s your mom?”

“Well my grandma says she’s in a better place now but I know that just means dead,” 

“Yeah my dad is dead too so I know what you mean, I’m Rose. What’s your name?”

“Y/N,” 

“Y/N, that's a pretty name,” She smiled. “You wanna come sit with me and my friends Y/N?”

“Y/N!”

I jumped a bit at the voice before matching it to MJ

“What?” I asked in a harsher tone then necessary.  

“Jeez sorry,” She reeled back “Someone is asking for you named Carmen. They said it’s important,” She waved her phone around. 

My face dropped and I hoped no one caught it. 

I grabbed the phone exiting the auditorium.

“Okay what’s up?” 

“You know Liz’s dad whatever her name is but yeah, He’s gonna rob that plane that’s moving everything from the Avengers tower,” She rushed

“What!?”

Holy shit 

That must be where Peter’s went. So he figured it out too. Kid’s smarter than I give him credit for.

“I’ll send you the location on your phone,”

“Why didn’t you just call me from there?”

“Because you never answer it,”

“True,” 

“Y/N?” She whispered.

“Yeah?” 

“Be careful,” 

“Always,” I smiled. 

I rushed out of the building not thinking about how I could get caught. Near the buses there was the new Shocker lying unconscious. 

I took the webshooter I found next to him. Then made a run for it. Stopping to hot wire the nearest car, I sped to one of the locations that I knew Vulture’s team kept their weapons at. I was throwing everything in the same pile. Getting ready to destroy them. 

Then the door creaked open.

I felt the bed dip as my brother sat next to me. 

“Are you coming?”

I pulled the cover off my face 

“Why should I?”

“Because you’ll regret it if you don’t,” 

“No I won’t leave me alone,” I pulled the cover back over my head. 

“You gotta eat something,” 

“No I don’t leave me alone,” 

“Y/N…”

I knew what he was going to say and I didn’t wanna hear it. 

“She would want you to eat something,”

“Fuck you! How would you ever know what she would've wanted? No one here knew her and now one will ever get the chance to again so just leave me alone,” 

“Y/N-“

“Don’t Y/N me, get the fuck out of my room,” He sat there for a second, stunned “NOW!” 

As soon as the door closed and I flipped back over

I was shaken back into the present only to find that I was pinned under the man who’d entered the room before I zoned out. He reached for the nearest weapon. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was. Which is rare. I have a whole weapons catalog in my brain. Unfortunately for him he couldn’t grab it without giving me leeway to get from underneath them. 

Unfortunately for me I put too much pressure on my arm in the seconds I took to grip my shoulder recuperating myself. The man had fired the weapon he had at the pile of weapons that I stumbled back towards. 

The weapons then emitted purple light before exploding leaving me caught under some wood and concrete as the ringing in my ears only got louder and louder.

The fire around me crackled loudly and I bit my lip.

The smoke was only getting more plentiful.

I started coughing which only got more and more painful.

When I came to myself, I wasn’t choking anymore and the fire around me had died down. I was able to push myself from underneath the rubble holding me down. Not without lots of pain though.

The dress I was wearing was torn completely, holes big enough to see what I was wearing underneath it already. 

So I just took it off.

It wasn’t like I was completely naked I was wearing boxers. Not like I haven’t left the house in a bra and shorts before. Also who gives a fuck I just almost died. 

It was like 35° but I wasn’t cold in the slightest. I was actually kind of hot.

If my phone was accurate the plane had already made it near the edge of Queens and Staten Island. Rushing there I was seconds late as I saw the plane crash after I saw two figures fighting along it. 

There was fire everywhere but I wasn’t thinking. I was just running because I couldn’t make out Peter’s shape and if he was dead- 

I swear to fucking God if he was dead. Not again. I couldn’t handle another death.

Peter was saying something. No, pleading as the Vulture stood tall with his wings still intact. He was talking about how it was a nice try and he doesn’t know what he’s messing with.

Peter might not but I knew what this was. I also knew I wasn’t letting him get away with it. 

The wings started producing visible waves of heat. Then it hit me, what Peter was trying to say. The wings were gonna blow.  I got a head start and lunged towards the man. The element of surprise was on my side. That was until he used the wings to lift himself off the ground. 

Now I was fine with parkour and other activities, but being lifted off the ground by someone else, someone who’d never interacted with me ever, is where I draw the line. Then Peter was shooting a web at the wings. To which Vulture dropped me to go after him.

Oh hell no.

“Give it up Peter,” He continued to get closer and closer as the webs were continuously cut through. 

You know how people say they see in red when they get angry? Well the opposite of that happens to me I just see black. Remembering very little to nothing.

Last thing I remembered was fire just fire. From my fingertips, arms, head. It destroyed the wings in seconds, before they had a chance to blow up on their own. 

Peter webbed up the man before moving out of my sight. 

How the fuck do you get fire coming from your body. 

 Literally what the actual fuck. 

I couldn’t breathe. 

That’s what it was, I was dying, I was probably in some coma and this was a weird hallucination my brain pushed out in its final moments.

Okay this is it. I was dying suffocating in some coma.

Or even worse this wasn’t a coma and I was going to die with my body lit on fire literally.

“Oh my God,” I gasped trying to get air into my lungs. 

I closed my eyes and when I opened them Peter was in front of me in a torn up ripoff suit. 

“Y/N,” He moved trying to catch my eye.

“Y/N, Y/N breathe…”

I couldn’t really process his words. My mind was clouded with fear, fear and anger. 

Before I knew it I was hitting my head so I wouldn’t hit anyone or anything else. It’d been a coping mechanism I used ever since I was 3. 

Peter reached for my arms reeling back after his hands came into contact with my boiling skin. 

“Y/N you have to calm down,” He moved in front of me.

I stopped moving my hands but it was still difficult to breathe.

The monitors beeped all around me and if I closed my eyes  and concentrated hard enough. I could convince myself they were birds. 

I could tell from the patter of the knock on the door that it was Rose. 

“Come in!” I called out.

She picked up the clipboard examining it. As she did every time she visited. Luckily for everyone there was no nurse she could bombard with questions and criticism. 

“How are you feeling?” She asked. 

“Itchy, like my guts are on fire,” 

To which she replied by singing the chorus to Girl on Fire. 

“Anyway,” she brought us back after our laughter. “I got you pizza today since I’m sure you’re tired of McDonald’s,”

“I don’t mind McDonald’s actually, anything is better than hospital food. Well actually, their chicken strips aren’t that bad,” 

She placed the box down on my lap. I lifted up the lid and was hit with the smell of the many herbs. I pat by my legs signaling she could sit down. She wiggled into the spot that the bar of the bed allowed. 

“What are we watching today?” 

“Uh…” I clicked on the TV “Vampire Diaries?,”

“That show is still going?

“Yeah, I don’t think it’ll ever end,” 

Somehow the show turned into us dancing around the cramped hospital room.

We spun like the ballerinas in the broken jewelry box I got from my mom. Arms flailing around. The air conditioner made a rattling noise and a half eaten pizza on the bed. The situation was probably extremely weird or unpleasant from any other perspective, but because it was her it was perfect. 

It was like the moment in rom coms where the camera zooms into the main characters dancing as the rest of the characters are put out of focus and they stare into each other’s eyes. I closed my eyes. 

When I opened them I saw Peter’s eyes above mine. 

His hands were immediately on my face making my look straight at him. 

“Are you okay?” He breathed out. 

I sat up feeling a pounding in my head and a pull in my lungs. I was met with the fact that I was definitely not on the ground. I was actually very far from the ground on some ride on the pier. My mouth was dry so it took me a minute to get the words out and when I did it hurt my throat.

“Yeah ’m okay jus’ tired,”

“Okay, well don’t go back to sleep because I think you have a concussion,” 

“You’re acting like I died or something, how long was I out dang,” I joked I always hated when things got too serious. 

“Uh probably...30 minutes? I don’t know I don’t have a watch,” He sniffed and that's when I realized he’d be crying. 

“Were you crying? I knew you cared about me,” I smiled “It was only a matter of time before you fell in love with me, I’m irresistible” 

He laughed weakly wiping his eyes “This isn’t funny,” 

I looked up at him and started uncontrollably giggling. Soon Peter was laughing too.

The moment was interrupted by a squad of police cars pulling up. I absolutely did not want to get down but my tired muscles betrayed me. I was extremely exhausted.  I literally could not move. I just had to go wherever Peter decided to take me. I honestly think I might have a few broken ribs. Nothing I haven’t dealt with before though. We stood off to the side watching as Vulture was stuffed into the back of one of the cars. 

“So Spiderman?” I smirked.

“Uh.. no?” He said as if he’s questioning himself. 

“It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone I’ve known for a while now,” I twisted my body to face him hissing as a sharp sting shot through my body “You're not very good at hiding it,”

“Hey!” He cried out “But seriously you can’t tell anyone,”

“I already said I wouldn’t, but if it makes you feel better I’ll pinky promise you, and everyone knows you can’t break a pinky promise,”

“Alright,” He sighed.

I tried to move closer again and was stopped by the pain in my sides. 

“Okay well, the offer still stands, you’re just gonna have to come over here,”

Taglist:

@tomdiddlyumptious

#peter parker #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker x reader #reader x peter parker #Peter Parker x Vigilante!Reader #peter parker x fem!reader #peter parker x poc reader #peter parker x you #peter parker imagine #peter parker x black!reader #peter parker x bi!reader #peter parker x bisexual!reader #peter parker x villian!reader #spiderman x villian #spiderman x thorn #Thorn Series #thorns prick #peter parker x thorn #mcu x reader #mcu series #mcu x y/n

[knifeonmars]

Capsule Reviews, February 2021

Here's some things I've been reading.

The Curse of Brimstone 

DC's New Age of Heroes books, emerging from the beginning of Scott Snyder's creative-flameout-as-crossover-event Metal, mostly constituted riffs on Marvel heroes like the Fantastic Four (in The Terrifics) or the Hulk (in Damage). The Curse of Brimstone is a riff on Ghost Rider. It's... uneven. The first volume is generally pretty good, and when Phillip Tan is drawing it, as he does the first three and a half issues, it's gorgeous and unique, when he departs though, the quality takes a nose dive. None of the replacement artists, including the great Denis Cowan, can quite fill his shoes, and the story gets old fast. Guy makes a deal with the devil (or rather, a devil-like inhabitant of the "Dark Multiverse" as a not horribly handled tie-in to the conceits of Metal), realizes it's a raw deal, and rebels. The characters are flat, lots of time is spent with the main character's sister haranguing him to not use his powers (it is, in my humble opinion, something of a cardinal sin to have a character whose primary role is telling other characters to stop doing interesting things), too many potboiler "I know you're still in there!/I can feel this power consuming me!" exchanges, a couple of underwhelming guest spots (including a genuinely pointless appearance by the old, white, boring Doctor Fate) too many flashbacks, and not enough of the action. There's potential in the classic demonic hero rebelling plotline and its link to the liminal spaces of the DC universe, forgotten towns and economic depression, but the wheels come off this series pretty much as soon as Tan leaves. The really disappointing this is that the series is clearly built as an artistic showcase, so after Tan's shockingly early departure, the main appeal of the series is gone and there's nothing left but the playing out of an obviously threadbare story.

Star Wars - Boba Fett: Death, Lies, and Treachery

I don't care much about Star Wars these days, and I think that most of the old Expanded Universe was, as evidenced by Crimson Empire, pretty bad. Death, Lies, and Treachery, is that rare Star Wars EU comic which is actually good. John Wagner writes and he's in full-on 2000 AD mode, writing Boba Fett as a slightly more unpleasant Johnny Alpha (who is like a mercenary Judge Dredd, for those unfamiliar) right on down to the appearance of a funny alien sidekick for one of the characters. The main attraction is Cam Kennedy's art though, along with his inimitable colors: this might be the best looking Star Wars comic ever. The designs are all weird and chunky, with an almost kitbashed feeling that captures the lived in aesthetic of classic Star Wars, and the colors are one of a kind. Natural, neutral white light does not exist in this comic, everything is always bathed at all times in lurid greens or yellows, occasionally reds, and it looks incredible. In terms of "Expanded Universe" material for Star Wars, this hits the sweet spot of looking and feeling of a piece, but exploring the edges of the concept with a unique voice. It's great. I read this digitally, but I'd consider it a must-buy in print if I ever get the chance at a deal.

Zaroff

Zaroff is a French comic (novel? novella?). It's like 90 pages and it delivers exactly on its premise of "Die Hard starring the bad guy from The Most Dangerous Game." It's pretty good. Count Zaroff, he of the habitual hunting of humans, turns out to have killed a mafia don at some point, and after miraculously escaping his own seeming death at the end of the original story, finds himself hunted by the irate associates of this gangster, who have brought along Zaroff's sister and her kids to spice things up. Zaroff not only finds himself the hunt, but he also has to protect his estranged family as they struggle to survive. Nothing about this book or its twists and turns is likely to surprise you, but I don't think being surprised is always necessary for quality. Zaroff delivers on pulpy, early-20th century jungle action, is gorgeously rendered, and the fact that Zaroff himself is an unrepentant villain adds just enough of an unexpected element to the proceedings and character dynamics that it doesn't feel rote. There's a couple of points, ones typical of Eurocomics, which spark a slight sour note, such as some "period appropriate" racism and flashes of the male gaze, but for the most part these are relatively contained. It's good.

Batman: Gothic

Long before Grant Morrison did their Bat-epic, they wrote Batman: Gothic, an entirely different, but then again maybe not so different, kind of thing. It starts off with what must be called a riff on Fritz Lang's film, M, only where that story ends with a crew of gangsters deciding they cannot pass moral judgment on a deranged child-murderer, in Morrison's story they go ahead and kill him, only for the killer to return years later to rather horribly murder all of them as a warmup for a grandiose scheme involving unleashing a weaponized form of the bubonic plague on Gotham City as an offering to Satan. Along the way it turns out that said villain, one Mr. Whisper, is a former schoolmaster of Bruce Wayne's, who terrified the young Batman in the days before his parent's deaths. It's an earlier Morrison story and it shows. Certain elements presage their later Batman work; Mr. Whisper as a satanic enemy recalls the later Doctor Hurt, and the cathedral Mr. Whisper built to harvest souls recalls what writers like Morrison, Milligan, and Snyder would do concerning Gotham as a whole years later.The art, by Klaus Janson, is spectacular. If you're familiar at all with his work collaborating with Frank Miller you'll see him continuing in a similar vein and it's all quite good, even when he stretches beyond the street milieu which most readers might know him from. There's one particular sequence where Janson renders a needlessly complicated Rube Goldberg machine in motion that manages to work despite being static images. The writing by Morrison though, is not their finest. The M riff doesn't last as long as it could, and Mr. Whisper's turn in the latter half of the story from delicious creepy wraith to a cackling mass murderer who puts Batman in an easily escaped death trap feels like something of a letdown from the promise of the first half of the book. Gothic is good, but not, in my opinion, great. It's certainly worth checking out for Morrison fans however, and I imagine that someone well-versed in his latter Batman stuff might be able to find some real resonance between the two.

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters

For a long, long time, Longbow Hunters was THE Green Arrow story. It is to Green Arrow as TDKR is to Batman, deliberately so. Mike Grell wrote and drew the reinvention of the character from his role as the Justice League's resident limousine liberal to a gritty urban vigilante operating in Seattle over the course of these three issues, which he'd follow up with a subsequent ongoing. Going back to it, it certainly merits its reputation, but its far from timeless. Grell's art is unimpeachable absolutely incredible, with great splashes and spreads, subtle colors, and really great figure work. The narrative is almost so 80's it hurts though, revolving around West Coast serial killers, cocaine, the CIA and the Iran-Contra scandal, and the Yakuza, and it's hard to look back at some of this stuff without smirking. The story begins with a teenager strung out on tainted coke sprinting through a window in a scene that's right out of Reefer Madness. In the cold light of a day 30+ years later, parts of it look more than a little silly. The 80's-ness of it all doesn't stop with that stuff though, even the superhero elements smack of it. Green Arrow realizes that he's lost a step and has be to be shown a way forward by an Asian woman skilled in the martial arts (recalling Vic Sage's reinvention in the pages of The Question), and Black Canary gets captured and torture off-panel for the sake of showing that this is real crime now, not the superhero silliness they've dealt with before. The treatment of Black Canary here is pretty markedly heinous, it's a classic fridging and Grell's claims that he didn't intentionally imply sexual assault in his depiction of her torture is probably true, but still feels more than a little weak considering how he chose to render it.The final analysis is that this book is good, but it exists strictly in the frame of the 1980's. If you're a fan of Green Arrow, there are worse books to pick up, or if you're interested in that era of DC Comics it's more than worth it, but as a matter of general interest I wouldn't recommend it very highly.

SHIELD by Steranko

Jim Steranko is sort of the prodigy of the early Marvel years, a young guy who came up through the system, blossomed into an incredible talent, and then left the company, and by and large the industry, behind. He would go on to dabble in publishing, work in other mediums, and generally kick around as the prodigal son of Marvel Comics. This collection, of both his Nick Fury shorts in the pages of Strange Tales and the four issues he drew of the original Nick Fury solo series, charts Steranko's growth as an artist. The book starts off with Steranko working from Jack Kirby's layouts with Stan Lee's dialogue and writing, and Steranko might be the one guy in history for whom working off of Kirby's blueprints is clearly holding him back. The first third or so of this collection really isn't much to write home about, as Steranko is obviously constrained by someone else's style, and at the end of the day those early stories still read as somewhat uninspired pulp compared to the highlights of early Marvel. There are flashes though, of techniques and ideas, which foreshadow what Steranko is capable of, and when he finally takes over as solo writer/artist it's like he's been unleashed. He immediately has Nick Fury tear off his shirt and start throwing guys around over psychedelic effects. He writes out most of Kirby and Lee's frankly uninspired boys' club supporting cast, he makes Fury visibly older, wearier, but also so much cooler. It's the birth of Nick Fury as a distinctly comic book super spy.By the time he finishes wrapping up the previous writers' plotline with Hydra and Baron von Strucker, Steranko is firing on all cylinders. By the time it gets to Steranko's Fury solo series, he's somehow surpassed himself, turning in effects, panel structures, and weird stories which make the earlier installment about a suit-wearing Man from UNCLE knockoff and its strict six-panel layouts look absolutely fossilized.I can't recommend this collection highly enough for any fan of the artform, even if the stories themselves might not be everyone's cup of tear. It's truly incredible to watch Steranko emerge as an artist over the course of this single collection. The book itself has a few problems, it's not the most elegantly designed in its supporting materials and index, but the content of it more than outweighs that. It's great stuff.

#capsule reviews #comics

[sapphireknight30]

Takakutou's Entrance Exam

------

When Takakutou Shakou was five, she was told by her parents that not all men were equal. That some are just better than others. That some, like her, have powers, and some unlucky souls don't, and need protection. When Shakou was five, she learned about heroes. When Shakou was ten, she knew that she wanted to be a hero, and with the way her school supported her, she knew she had made the right decision. And when Shakou was fifteen? That was when she was going to finally start her path on being a hero.

    Shakou blearily opened her eyes. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and stretched. Ugh, what time was it? She grabbed her phone off the bedside table. 7:03 am, and it was a Saturday. She blinked a few times. Wasn't there something important going on today?

    As she glanced around her room, looking at her various hero posters, she almost shot out of bed when she remembered. That was right! The entrance exams for Taiyuu were today! She'd already done the written portion earlier this week, but now she'd be able to actually show off the skills she'd been training for a few years!

    Quickly getting dressed in a tank-top, and some shorts, Shakou ran out of her room, and into the kitchen, and to her surprise, her mom was there, cooking breakfast.

    "Hey Mom!" she said, grabbing a cup, and opening the fridge to get herself some orange juice. "Are you not going to work today?"

    Her mom just laughed. "And miss the day of your entrance exam, Shakou? No way!"

    Shakou smiled. "So is Dad going to work instead, or are you both staying home?"

    Shakou's mother put some seasoning on the meal, and dished some out on a plate, before handing it to Shakou. "Oh, your father is staying home too! He's just sleeping in, as he does when he gets the chance." Shakou nodded, and started eating. She smiled.

    "Your cooking is as good as ever Mom! Thanks!"

    "Wouldn't want you to go hungry on such an important day!" 

    Soon enough, Shakou had cleaned off her plate, and put it in the sink. "Alright Mom, I'm gonna be in my room planning out this thing. Don't interrupt me!"

    Her mom just smiled. "Okay Shakou, I'll be sure not to."

    Once she had gotten back to her room, Shakou sat down. She'd want to bring some paper, and a pencil at the bare minimum - There was a good chance she'd need it. Maybe some gloves would be good? But then they could impair her drawing…

    Before she even knew it, it was 11, and she was ready to set out for the train to the Taiyuu Island.

Shakou sat in the waiting room for the exam, bouncing her leg. The exam would be in a half hour from now, and every second that ticked by felt like hours. There were a lot of people in the room chatting - maybe she could try joining in?

There was a group of 3 applicants chatting near her, one a boy with green hair, and odd looking freckles, one a girl with bunny clips, and hair pulled to the side, and the other a scared purple-haired boy, clearly not prepared for the exam.

“-my quirk, ghost… side effect from when I got it, I guess.” The scaredy-cat was talking, saying something about his quirk.

“So, does that mean you’re like Danny Phantom?” Freckles started to hum, and even sing some american theme song.

Bunny girl chimed in. “Eh? That’s a really useful quirk.”

“So the scaredy-cat’s a death boy, huh? Didn’t expect that.” Shakou said, with barely even a second thought. 

The 3 stopped talking, and turned to her. None of them looked that strong, so they probably hadn’t done as much training, Shakou noted. She’d probably have the exam in the bag if the rest of the examinees trained as well as these 3 seemed to have. 

Oh, bunny girl was saying something. Shakou just shrugged in response. “I mean, his quirk sounds pretty cool, but he’s not gonna get anywhere in the hero world if he’s gonna be a coward like that.” Bunny girl and Freckles looked outraged, but Scaredy-cat just looked desolate. Just proving her point. But then, he stood up.

“I’m sick of people, people like you doubting me! Saying I’m nothing, when I’m not! I will be a hero… You’ll see.”

Shakou smiled. So maybe the death boy did have some heroic potential after all.

“Hello, hello? Is this thing on?” a voice came through the speakers, interrupting the conversation before the tension could get any higher. The voice continued. "I'm just going to assume it is. Hi everyone! I'm Lackadaisy, the maker of this island that we're standing on, and the principal of this school you're trying to get into! Nice to meet you all, even though I can't hear you. So, you're all here to take the entrance exam. Or you're incredibly lost, but I won't judge. If you're one of the former, then I have great news for you! The exam will be starting right after I finish my spiel. If you're one of the latter, I believe the exit door should be…" There was a pause, as the sound of rustling papers came through the speaker "On the north wall?" A few students snorted in response to that. "Anyways! The entrance exam's gonna be a race through an obstacle course. It's divided into three sections, each separated by a pathway in-between. Some of you curious souls might be asking. 'Well, Lackadaisy, the greatest principal to ever exist, what are those obstacles?' The answer is, I don't know either! Or, more accurately, you guys are gonna find out. You guys can fight each-other, if you want, but try to avoid spilling blood? It's a pain to clean this whole place. Uhh, I think that's about it. You guys can go now!"

There's a pause, as everyone takes in Lackadaisy's words. The speaker starts up again "Uhh, m'dudes, the doors are unlocked. I said you could go. Your exam's started."

One more moment of silence

Then chaos, as everyone started running for the doors, opening to reveal a long stretch of path, and at the end, a gateway made of metal. Shakou ended up being one of the last to get onto the track thanks to the buildup of people.

    A girl with green hair suddenly jumped up in the crowd, and yelled "LUCK OF THE DRAW!" Before throwing something, in the direction of the crowd ahead? It was hard for Shakou to tell. Then, suddenly, one by one, examinees started lagging behind the crowd. A lot of them had tripped, and a few even looked like they might have gotten themselves injured. 

    The green-haired girl was laughing as she rushed ahead, only to trip up after being grabbed by another girl, with short silver hair, and multicolored eyes, who looked like she just came out of a circus. Judging by the way her quirk seemed to completely mess up the green-haired girl's movements, Shakou thought it would probably be smart to avoid her. A gray skinned girl grabbed onto Circus girl, and they both vanished, before appearing again, further ahead along the path.

    Ahead of the path they were on, a large metal gateway stood, and judging by the way it was set up, that was the real start of the obstacle course.

"OBSTACLE ONE, QUICKSAND TRAPS!" A pre-recorded message blared from speakers on the gate as students ran in.

The path widened to a giant field. “The objective is to make it through without getting stuck in one of the traps all around the field. Keep a keen eye, and don’t fall in!”, the recording continued. Shakou cursed as she almost fell into one of the traps. Her quirk wouldn't be any use here, so she'd just have to try and be careful and fast. She didn't want to fall behind more than she ready was

As she was walking dodging around a second section of quicksand that she could barely see, she heard a loud cry

    Shakou looked back to see the group of examinees she met in the entrance exam. Freckles was stuck up to his waist in the quicksand, and occasionally even coughing some out, while the two other examinees in the group, Bunny girl and Death boy, were trying to help him out.

Shakou rolled her eyes, and continued rushing ahead. If the Freckles wasn't smart enough to pay attention to the recording, or use his quirk, to avoid the traps, she wasn't going to take the fall for that. She had a race that she needed to win.

    As Shakou carefully made her way through the sandy area, she saw a few more interesting cases. There was a (rather plain looking, in her opinion) girl, stuck in a pit, who seemed to be… was she singing? It was hard to tell, as 2 other examinees helped her, with dazed expressions on their faces.

    Then there was the applicant ahead of Shakou, a girl with gray skin that faded to black around her hands, and long blonde hair with red tips. She just melted the sand she was running on into glass, and seemed to be dripping… was that lava? But, as Shakou realized, when she was reaching the end, the lava girl was rather slow.

    Shakou passed through the gate, and in the stretch between obstacles, she pulled ahead of lava girl. Ahead of the path, she could see something. It seemed to be… fake skyscrapers? She made it to the gate, and skidded through as the announcement played, "OBSTACLE NUMBER TWO! RESCUE RELAY!"

    Seems this school had a love for showing off, as ahead of her was a false city.

    The announcement continued, "Make it through the city and out the other gate- But don't forget to try and rescue 'helpless citizens'! You need to bring at least 3 to the safety zone besides the gate to go through!" 

    At a second glance now, the city area seemed to be wrecked, like as if villain attacked. Fitting theme, for a hero school. Shakou ran down the streets, trying to find one of these so called "helpless citizens".

    Soon enough, she did see one. It was a metal dummy, approximately human shaped, and with a red label on it's back reading "Rescue me!" It was gonna be annoying, and heavy, but she had no choice other than to pick it up, and carry it around.

    Off to the side, she saw a girl with white hair in a ponytail, happily walking along, with 3 dummies, who were also walking. Must be her quirk then, since, from what Shakou could tell, there was no way to make them walk like that.

    Shakou walked inside one of the false skyscrapers to try and look for a second dummy, and she found one, hiding behind a desk. There was a trio of examinees in here as well, one a guy with blond hair, and large indigo eyes, one a person with floating white hair, most of it tied into a large braid, and the other a pink-haired boy. They all seemed to be working together to get a dummy out of the rubble.

    She rolled her eyes as she walked out of the building. Shakou really didn't see the point in teamwork on the exam, since it was a race to win after all. She ran down the streets, trying to find a third dummy, but she was starting to tire out. From the looks of it, a fair amount of the robots were taken already.

    Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one. Right by an applicant, with a mask-like face, who was currently kneeling by another one, a girl with yellow, half-shaved hair. Was he... setting her on fire? Whatever it was, he clearly didn't care about the dummy by him, so…

    "Finders keepers, losers weepers!" Shakou shouted as she ran by, grabbing the dummy. She could hear a distant shout from Mask boy, but she didn't care. She was sprinting towards the gate. Once she had made it, she shrugged off the bots into the designated area, where a scruffy looking examinee in a purple hoodie was dropping off a bot of their own.

    Shakou charged through the end gates, with no time to waste.

    The last obstacle became apparent rather quickly, before she even reached the gates signifying the start. A giant wall, that seems to stretch as far as the eye could see. Or, at least until the end of the island.

    "OBSTACLE NUMBER 3!" the overhead voice called out as Shakou ran through the gates. "THE GREAT WALL! Behind this wall is the final stretch to the end of the race! Now all you have to do is get there.

    They weren't exaggerating when they said great wall. As she was running towards the wall, Shakou could see a few other applicants, getting over the wall in different ways. There was one, dressed in black colors, using some kind of glowing rope to scale the wall, while a pair of applicants, one with black hair, the other with white, & orange, seemed to be using floating fruit? Meanwhile a girl with dark blue hair seemed to be focused on burning handholds into the wall.

    Shakou grinned as she made it to the wall. Now was her time to shine. She grabbed one of her papers, and held held on the wall with her right hand. She took the pencil from behind her ear, and with a swoop of her arm, quickly drew a circle. Tucking her pencil back behind her ear, she took a deep breath, pulled back her arm, and…

    "BANG!" she shouted, right as she punched through her circle outline, and the 10 feet of steel behind it. Her hand hurt like hell, but thanks to the training she'd done, and the additional boost provided by her quirk, she managed it.

    With no time to waste, Shakou crawled through the hole she made, and started sprinting. Since she had basically just made a passage for every examinee behind her, she needed to run for the final stretch, as fast as she could. And run Shakou did. She ran as fast as she could, she ran until she saw the gates signifying the end of the exam, and then she ran more, when she came through another gate - the last one?

    "Aaaand in first place for our first year and our first Taiyuu entrance exam, we have TAKAKUTOU SHAKOU!"

    Shakou smiled, before dropping to the floor, out of breath. Another announcement played, not that she was paying attention to it, and an examinee with colorful wings dropped down next to her, saying something about only getting second place.

    Shakou didn't care about anything else

    She won

    She would get into Taiyuu.

-----

@taiyuu-high-oct

#taiyuu oct #oc #bnha oc #bnha #Takakutou Shakou #wtf tumblr #this is the second time ive had to rewrite tags #im annoyed #i tried to include as many characters as i could #this is like my second time posting writing online #ever #this is also about my 3rd time finishing a writing ever #of my own will that is

[dukereviewsxtra]

Duke Reviews Xtra: A Kid In King Arthur's Court

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Xtra Where We Continue Our Look At Disney...

And Last Sunday, I Reviewed The Sword And The Stone, So, Since There's No Direct To DVD Sequel Or Remake To This...Yet..., I'm Reviewing The Only Other King Arthur Film Made By Disney That Wasn't Made By Jerry Bruckheimer, A Kid In King Arthur's Court...

This Film Sees Merlin's Ghost Sending A Dude From The 90's To Camelot To Save It From King Arthur's Evil Advisor Who Wants To Marry Rose From Titanic...

And Believe Me When I Say Billy Zane Was The Better Suitor Compared To This Guy...

Will Calvin Be Able To Save Camelot And Get Arthur Back To His Heroic Self?

Let's Find Out As We Watch A Kid In King Arthur's Court..

The Film Starts With Merlin's Ghost (Played By Fagin From Oliver) Summoning A Great Knight Which Is When We Cut To The 90's Where We Meet Calvin Fuller, A Nerdy Young Boy Who Plays For A Baseball Team Called The Knights...

But As We See He's Not Quite The Best Player On The Team...

However, An Earthquake Happens Causing Calvin To Fall Down...

(Singing)

Down...

Deep Below...

To The Late...1800s....

Landing On A Black Knight, Calvin Scares Him Off And Gives Back The Money The Guy Stole To Some Of Arthur's Knights As He Runs...

Arthur (Played By DeNomolos From Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey) Wishes To Thank The Boy So He Sends The Knights To Find Him, Eventually Finding Calvin In The City They Bring Him Before Arthur And His 2 Daughters, Katie And Sarah (Played By Winslet)...

Who Invite Him To Have Dinner With Them, But Arthur's Aide (And Our Villain For This Movie) Lord Belasco Believes Calvin To Be In League With The Black Knight, So Giving Calvin A Chance To Defend His Honor By Combat...

But While Belasco Chooses A Sword, Calvin (Realizing He's Not Good With Weapons) Uses The Only Thing He Does Like, Rock And Roll And Wins...

Dubing Him Calvin Fuller Of Reseda, He Discovers The Round Table Is Non Existant As Sarah Asks Her Father To Let Sir Kane (Played By James Bond)...

Which One?

Daniel Craig

Oh...

Train Calvin In Fighting, And He Agrees, And Let's Calvin Stay In Their Castle...

But He Doesn't Exactly Get Any Rest As When He Goes Exploring The Castle, Belasco Nearly Kills Him, So He Practices His Karate Only To Catch Arthur's Daughter, Katie Watching Him...

They Get To Know Each Other Through A Bunch Of Exposition...

Before Katie Takes Calvin To Merlin's Quarters In An Effort To Get Him Home...

Hearing A Noise, Katie Leaves With Calvin And Has Him Escort Her Back To Her Room, But He Returns To Merlin's Quarters Afterwards And Merlin's Ghost, Who Believes He's Made A Mistake When He Looks At Calvin..

But Realizing That He's The Knight He Summoned, He Tells Him That Arthur Is In Trouble With His Kingdom Being Shattered By The Fist Of Lord Belasco, Who Intends To Steal Camelot From Arthur And It's Now Up To Calvin To Stop Him...

I Bet He Wishes He Was Obi Wan Kenobi...

With Calvin Believing Merlin Has The Wrong Person, Merlin Makes A Deal With Him That If He Helps Arthur He'll Send Him Home...

The Next Morning, Calvin Begins Training With Sir Kane By Starting Out With Attacking On Horseback, (Where He Throws An Axe Out Of A Window) Before Moving On To Archery Where...

Well, Let's Just Say Calvin Won't Be As Good As Oliver Queen Any Time Soon...

Meanwhile, Lord Belasco Talks With Sarah To Try To Seduce Her In An Effort To Drop The Tournament And Marry Him, But Sarah Refuses, Stating That The Tournament Will Decide For Her...

Visiting A Blacksmith, Calvin Asks If He Can Make Him A Pair Of Roller Skates For Katie, And In Doing So, She Absolutely Loves Them...

Meanwhile At The New "Round Table" Belasco Talks With Arthur To Make Him Cancel The Tournament And Let Sarah Be His Wife, As Katie And Calvin Arrive To His Displeasure...

Later At Training With Kane And Katie, They Are Interrupted By Belasco Who Is Tired Of Calvin And Decides To Fight Him Again, But When Calvin Is Basically Beat, He Kicks Belasco In The Jewels...

Giving Him A Grand Supper For Winning, Calvin Says Fine As Long As He Does The Cooking...

Yeah, Even I Admit That Pork Head Can Get Tiring After A While..

So, He Makes Them 2 Big Macs...

Meanwhile, In The Throne Room, The King Tells Katie That She Will Marry Lord Belasco, However Sarah Is Determined To Let The Tournament Decide But The Next Day It Is Revealed That Katie Is In Love With Sir Kane...

I Don't See James Bond As Your Type, Sarah, But I Can Suggest An Artist Named Dawson For You...

With Katie And Calvin Seeing The Entire Thing, She Makes Calvin Swear Not To Say A Word To Anyone On Her Honor...

With Kane Believing That Calvin Is Ready To Joust, Calvin Isn't So Sure, So He Places Super Glue? On His Saddle And When He Hits The Target, The Saddle Falls Off The Horse...

Katie Goes To Check Calvin Who Looks Injured Only For Calvin To Slip Her A Kiss, To Her Displeasure...

Realizing He Might Have Made Katie Mad...

No, Really?

Calvin Visits The Blacksmith Again, Only This Time Calvin Wants Him To Make A Bike For Katie...

While Katie Talks With Sarah Who Figures Out That She's In Love With Calvin Even Though She Doesn't Realize It...

(Start At 9:52, End At 10:33)

Really, Man, They're Sisters! Get A Grip!

Anyway, The Next Day, After Calvin Teaches Arthur How To Eat Bubble Gum, He Tells Belasco That The Tournament Is Still On And That If He Wants To Win Her He Must Do It There, But Not Wanting To, He Moves To Plan B...

But Before I Go On To That, Let's Check On Calvin And Katie...

Seeing Calvin In The Garden, He Gives Her The Bike So They Can Go On A Picnic Together...

On Their Way Back To The Castle Calvin And Katie Discover That The Black Knight Is Actually One Of The Good Guys, When He Gives The Townspeople A Cart Filled With Food...

Taking Katie Back To Her Room, We Meet Belasco's Plan B: Kidnap Katie As A Barter For Sarah To Marry Him...

After Telling Sarah About Katie, Belasco Visits Calvin And Frames Him For Kidnapping Katie (Oh, Sorry Murder), But When Calvin Gets Away, He Runs Into Sarah Who Tells Him What Happened To Katie And What Belasco Wants...

Eventually Going To Arthur's Chambers, Calvin Tells Him Everything But He Still Believes That Belasco Wouldn't Hurt A Fly However, When Calvin Shows Arthur Something That Sarah Gave Him, He Buys The Story And Protects Calvin From Belasco...

Escaping With Calvin Into The City, They Go Undercover, As Arthur Discovers That He's Not As Loved Throughout The Kingdom As He Thought As Belasco Has Been Stealing From Them For Years...

Vowing To Be A Better King, Arthur And Calvin Go To Save Katie From Belasco's Dungeon, But Before Going In Calvin Renews Arthur's Will To Fight By Giving Him Excalibur (Which Was Given To Him By Merlin)

However, When They Release Katie, She Gets Kidnapped Again By Belasco's Second In Command And Is Held Hostage Over A Moat, This Leads Calvin To Use The Laser On His CD Player To Blind The Guard And Cause Him To Fall To His Death...

Now, I Hate To Say This But I Got To Agree With The Nostalgia Critic When He Said That A Laser On A CD Player Doesn't Work Like That...

Escaping The Castle, Arthur Knights Calvin As A Knight Of The Round Table, Before Returning To The Castle And..,Letting Belasco Go?

Yeah, Even I Kind Of Think Letting Him Is Kind Of Stupid...

However, Arthur Has A Point, With The Guards Loyal To Belasco And The People Believing Arthur To Be An Idiot, The Best Thing To Do Is To Bide Their Time So When The Time Is Right They Can Nail Him...

Later At The Tournament, Arthur Makes A Speech That He Never Betray His People Again And Declares That The Tournament Shall Be Open To All Free Men (Mainly So Kane Can Enter The Competition)...

Defeating Every Opponent That Comes His Way, Kane Ends Up Facing Off Against Belasco In The Final Battle, But Using The Crystal On His Armor, Belasco Blinds Kane And Knocks Him Out...

But Seeing How Kane Did Not Fall Off His Horse, He Is Still In The Competition, However, When Kane Returns The Joust Continues....

But Everyone Soon Gets A Scare, When Belasco Hits Kane In The Head And Discovers He Has No Head...

Well, How's He Going To Have His Vodka Martini Now?

With A Now Headless Kane Continuing, He Ends Up Winning And Knocking Belasco Off Of His Horse...

Which Leads To It Being Revealed That It Wasn't Kane, But Calvin All Along. Pissed Off At His Defeat, Belasco Attempts To Kill Calvin, But Luckily, Calvin Is Saved By The Black Knight Who Is Revealed To Have Been Sarah This Whole Time..

So, With Calvin Forfeiting His Victory To Sarah, Arthur Grants Her The Right To Choose Whoever She Wants To Marry And Banishes Belasco From His Kingdom Forever As Merlin Keeps His Word And Sends Calvin Back To His Time, Saying Farewell To Arthur And Katie..

Arriving Before The Earthquake, Calvin Goes Up To The Plate And Hits A Home Run. Arriving Back On Home Plate, He Is Greeted By His Teammates, Including A Girl Who Looks Like Katie, As A Spectator Who Looks Like Arthur Watches In The Crowd As Our Movie Ends..,

And That's A Kid In King Arthur's Court, And While It Does Have It's Stupid Moments, It Is A Decent Movie...

The Story Is Good, The Comedy Can Be Funny At Times, And I Liked The Fighting Scenes In It, So, Yeah, I'm Going To Say See It...

Tune In To Duke Reviews Next Week As We Look At The Jungle Book, But Then, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

#A Kid In King Arthurs Court #thomas ian nicholas #Kate Winslet #daniel craig #Joss Ackland #art malik #Ron Moody #disney #disney + #disnerd

[cruzrogue]

You’ll have to trust me

explicit#Fictober19 @fictober-event

————————————————————————

for fanfiction:

Prompt number: 10 “Listen, I can’t explain it, you’ll have to trust me.”

Fandom (AU if applicable): #arrow fanfiction #olicity

Rating:PG13

Off: P.S. Hong Kong: Was it Real?!?

Warnings/Tags: none for this prompt but explicit for the whole story.

Summary: Oliver is getting ready to train with Talia al Ghul, he wants his wife safe which includes that she not be her bubbling, cheerful smart self. He doesn’t want her even in the mix or radar of these Shadow People.

Notes: Off of what is being written for those moments before heading to Russia and after Lian Yu’s time with Baron Reiter.

~~~~~~****~~~~~~~~sp@ce~~~~~~****~~~~~~~~

You’ll have to trust me (on A03)

 “Wait! Aren’t you the one who always says it’s too dangerous?”

He knows she’s right in her usual assumption of him being way overprotective at times, “Listen, I can’t explain it, you’ll have to trust me.”

“As if there has ever been any doubt.”

“Usually I’d rebuttal that statement and tell you not to trust anyone.”

“Yes, that is basically what you said early on in our marriage.”

“I am going to meet with a woman who can teach me to hone my skill I don’t want you in any shape or form to be in her radar.”

“Oliver, I’m your wife. I think I’m already on her radar.”

He shuts his eyes that isn’t what he really means he stops to think of the right words that won’t offend his wife but make sure she knows how important it is that she listens.

“I don’t want her to know how intelligent you are. How tech savvy you are. I want you to play a cookie-cutter housewife in the next few weeks.”

“Oliver! You’re asking me not to be myself.”

“Exactly!” Oliver takes a deep breath before continuing, “This woman is even more dangerous than Waller. We both know Amanda Waller took to you for some unforsaken reason but she also used us to her extreme endeavors.”

“Okay, I know how much you detest her but this Talia woman lives secluded teaching some sort of weaponized art.”

“When you were digging dirt for me and I told you to stop when you started talking about Shadow People. There is a reason for that.”

“Okay Oliver? What gives?”

He sighs he really didn’t want to get into the hearsays and folklore of the legendary league of assassins but this is his wife and her safety is the foremost important thing in his life so far. He’d throw all these ambitions out even if she’s is so on par with him doing all this.

“I don’t know as much, only what has been mentioned of an organized group that keeps to the shadows but they’re powerful and Talia is known to associate with them and I want… no need to know that your skills won’t be found out. Felicity we are commodities to these people. I need some more training and with Tommy coming to live in Japan with us soon I’d like to show him some moves before you both go back to Starling.”

“I thought you wanted me to go to Russia with you?”

“I do and I don’t. I haven’t made up my resolve in which life is safer for you and our unborn child.”

“I can’t believe I gave you that control. I must have been high on something.”

“It was a promise to me that you’d do anything to protect not just yourself but our baby.”

“If I knew I was pregnant I would have kept my mouth shut.”

He huffs, “Glad you didn’t than.”

“Ha, ha. I just hate the feeling of not having control over my own life.”

“Felicity? Since when do you actually not put in your two cents? Actually listen to me?”

“I do plenty of times. Like…”

“Like when you went to Lian Yu knowing exactly I would be against you putting yourself in harm’s way?”

“You don’t actually think I’d just hope and pray for your safety an ocean away? That isn’t me. Especially knowing Amanda Waller kidnapped you in the middle of one of your recons while we were living in Coast City.”

“No, even though I hope you’d keep from danger it wouldn’t be you if you did. Especially if you had an inkling that you could try to save those you love.”

“I knew I married a smart man.”

“Yea, we both know you just woke up to the most absurd marriage proposal under the sun.” She goes to his now outstretched arms and happily sighs as he wraps her deeper into his embrace. “I’m so glad that there were those weddings taking place at the park.”

Their just comfortably now in each other’s arms. Oliver knows that his training will have him on edge and this certain comfort will be a weakness so he’ll keep from coming home while she’ll be awake. They’ll be like passing sailboats in the night. He doesn’t want Felicity to worry for him but he is going to be welcoming darkness into his world. The League of Assassins are not known for the pleasantries.

Felicity can feel her husband is pulling away emotionally. He is intentionally doing it so she knows whatever he is planning is serious. A part of her wants to ask but Oliver already indicated that this would be happening. He at first, tried to sugar coat it but as realization dawned on him that he didn’t want to lie to the woman he is calling his always. She isn’t a fool she understands people like Waller are opportunists. She can only assume an organization that works behind shadows and ghosts must be intense and her husband wants to ultimately keep her safe. She gets it. Now that she’s carrying a piece of their future she wants to protect she won’t put that important little mix of them in danger.

She’ll try this meek version and play dotting wife on the outside. Let the world think she is a sweet sacrificial lamb. If it will help him feel more confident with his ever increasing skills, she’ll try to sit down and think of building a world for them. She has her own template of skills. Not everything needs to be done online. Maybe creating designs and planning an arsenal for their outlandish hobby. Her mind is her ultimate weapon. Its time she utilizes it.

“Okay, I’ll keep to myself. The less conversations I have is for the best. We both know I can overstep in those.”

“I love your babbles but you’re right. My need to keep you close but yet a world away is a lot to ask for. I’m sorry, you truly deserve more.”

“What I deserve is to know my husband is with me. Thick or thin we are in this together.” He nods. “I know exactly whom I’m married to and yes I may be overeager and try to pry into your training because it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t but know that emotions aren’t a weakness. Being in love isn’t a feeble pursuit.”

“Felicity?”

“No, you listen! I can tell by your demeanor that is what your pushing on yourself. You are strongest when you fight to live. Otherwise you let yourself realm in doubts.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Says who?”

“Because I’ve seen and done things. I’ve been the one who…” He shakes his head. She doesn’t get it. He had to do things to survive. He was the one at first getting the short end of the stick. He’s lost a lot. He understands pain.

“Who what? Seen your father kill a man and then himself? That you’ve gotten those scars and people along the way that you’ve come to care have died?”

“It’s not that simple. There are evil people in the world with nothing but power as their goal. These people see love as a weakness.”

“Yea, that makes them villains.”

He’s just flabbergasted by her outlook into this, “Felicity!”

“You forget that I’ve been reading those books from Baron Reiter. Shadowspire had an interesting library. I still hold some magic. Understanding it is a paradox in itself but I know one of the greatest powers is love. Not the cutesy true love blah blah… I mean love.”

Oliver doesn’t know where she going with this. She’s never talked about her reading other than making cute little sighs as she would flip a page after mumbling some complex gibberish. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying you chose who you want to be. Allowing darkness in isn’t a death sentence. We all have the capability on each very action we create daily. Making mistakes is vital not that you should in your endeavor with Talia but what I’m saying.” She makes sure to look at him and hold her stance in this belief if he is to understand. “You don’t have to have your heart on your sleeve. You working with them is to improve yourself it is a worthy cause. Allowing yourself to forget who you are is the mistake you shouldn’t make.”

“I still don’t want them to know how important you are to me.”

“I get that. I don’t want to be that damsel-in-distress either. Though I’m your wife. I’m not going to make anything harder for you but don’t think you’re going to hide how you feel from me.”

“I don’t want to burden you either.”

“That is ridicules.” She wants to whack him. “The whole point of marriage is for us to lean on each other. I’ve got you, those vows to you weren’t empty. I meant every word. I love you and we may be entering the unknown. I need you to know as long as I am breathing I’m with you.”

“Okay, I get it. I’m not alone in all this. I may need a pep talk here and there.”

“Don’t worry I know what to do when you have your head so up your ass that...”

“I get it. Sometimes I’m hard to live with.”

“Awe baby, you are my pain in the ass and I love you for it.”

-The end for now. This is the taste what lies ahead as Oliver trains before they meet up with Tommy.

#fictober19 #olicity #felicity smoak #oliver queen

[welllpthisishappening]

All Was Golden in the Sky (4/27)

Magic is dying.

Emma knows it. She can feel it, the emptiness rattling around in her, like it’s trying to make sure she disappears as well. What she doesn’t know is what to do about it, because, suddenly, there is a man in Storybrooke claiming she’s the Savior and a seeress certain a prophecy promises the same and the last thing she expects is for her minimal amount of lingering power to pull her away.

To New York City.

And another oddly familiar man with blue eyes and a smile that sinks under her skin and makes magic bloom in the air around her. Things are about to get interesting.

—-

Rating: Mature AN: I really appreciate if you guys are clicking and reading and continuing to be into this. There are a lot of words here and a lot of plot and, possibly, some more answers here. As always, a very loud thank you to @resident-of-storybrooke @distant-rose and @bmbbcs4evr for being wonderful. 

|| Also on Ao3 if that’s your jam ||

“Rise and shine, time to save the goddamn universe!” Emma grumbles, burrowing further into the small mountain of blankets she’s accumulated throughout the course of the night. It’s not easy to move. There’s an arm around her waist again. And she can’t help the smile that inspires, a fluttering in her stomach that might be butterflies or more magic and she gasps when the first pillow collides with the side of her head. 

“Oh my God, Rubes, what the hell?” 

Another pillow hits her shoulder. 

“She’s insane,” Killian mumbles, not bothering to move his head up and Emma can’t help her laugh. Ruby growls, low in her throat and decidedly un-menacing. Particularly when the third pillow misses its mark entirely. 

It hits Emma in the thigh. 

“That wasn’t even close,” she says, jerking forward to grab the latest weapon and toss it back. It barely makes it a few feet, landing with a soft thud on the linoleum floor with an exceptionally unfortunate pattern Emma can’t imagine Belle appreciates. 

Ruby arches an eyebrow. “Wow, you have no upper body strength at all, huh? How is it that I became a werewolf against my will yesterday and I’m still better at this than you?” “I did put together some fairly intense magic. You know...if we’re keeping score or whatever.”

“Forty-seven points,” Killian adds. Emma genuinely can not stop laughing – mostly because she’s kind of charmed and she doesn’t remember actually falling asleep, staring at another unfamiliar ceiling with Killian’s quiet breathing next to her and she knows he was right. 

It had been them. 

In the dream. Or vision. Whatever. 

It doesn’t make any sense. Her laughter may be insanity-induced. That’s incredibly disappointing. 

“Is there a conversion system to these points?” Ruby asks. She’s leaning against the wall with her arms crossed lightly. “Or is this just...a thing you guys are doing? Again.” Killian lifts his head. “Again?” “Again, Jones. This is...this is goddamn, fucking weird, we’re all agreed on that, right?” “I don’t think that was ever up for debate.” “And you’ve got no memory of any of it? Nothing that the sea witch was saying? She was very certain you were the villain of the story.” “Ruby,” Emma cries, only to be brushed off quickly. 

Killian licks his lips, the tip of his tongue moving to the inside of his cheek and the whole look is a little ridiculous, but that pinch between his eyebrows is back and Emma figures she got somewhere in the realm of thirty-two minutes of actual, restful sleep. 

“I don’t know,” he admits softly, fingers toying with the edge of a blanket. The charms around his neck have fallen over the front of his shirt, and Emma’s eyes flit towards them, not sure why they feel important, just that they are and she can dimly hear the clack of laptop keys coming from the living room. 

That’s probably where Ruby got the pillows from. 

“Well,” Ruby says pointedly, “that’s not great news for us, honestly. If you’re secretly some kind of dick this is going to be exceptionally problematic.” “I’m not going to turn on you if that’s what you’re worried about.” “I mean, that’s exactly what I’m worried about, but it’s all very confusing because you’re staring longingly at Em and crazed dog ladies are referring to her as a princess and the whole thing is really messing with my mind.” “Just your mind, huh?” Emma asks, and she knows there’s an acid to her voice that doesn’t belong there. Ruby still looks far too pale to be entirely encouraging, a bruise on her left leg that is not a color skin should be, but Emma’s eyes feel like they’re going to fall out of her head and her head feels like it’s going to crack in two. 

She’s so absolutely terrified she’s positive she’s shaking with it. 

Ruby sighs. “No, not just my mind. God, obviously. I’m--ok, full disclosure, I am freaking the fuck out. We’ve been here for almost two weeks now and there’s no actual Dark One to be seen and--” “--What exactly is a Dark One?” Killian interrupts, flashing a supremely sarcastic grin when Ruby growls again. “Consider it a byproduct of my professional curiosity.” “God, you are annoying. How does Emma keep flirting with you?” “Must be the dashing good looks.” “Yeah, that’s definitely what it is,” Emma grumbles. “The Dark One is a fairy tale. He’s...when we were kids, he was the bad guy in every story. The threat if you ever did something wrong. Don’t do that or the Dark One will get you. It was never real.” “But?” “But, it’s like I told you. A man walked across the Storybrooke town line nearly two weeks ago, demanding...well, me and my magic. He kept calling me the Savior. And Regina--remember her, the mayor?” Killian nods, only slightly placating as his fingers ghost over the back of Emma’s wrist. Ruby gags. “I listen to your stories, Swan. Keep going.” Emma ignores the flush she can feel in her cheeks. “Anyway, Regina thinks that this guy, a man who just showed up and we’re pretty positive has magic, is actually the Dark One. Coming for...me. But that opens up a whole new can of absolutely disgusting worms because as far as we knew the only people in the entire world who had magic existed in Storybrooke.”

The pinch between Killian’s eyebrows hasn’t disappeared yet. 

If anything, it gets deeper, more determined and even more confused. 

“Does everyone in Storybrooke have magic?” he asks, and Emma’s not sure what she thought he’d ask, but it’s certainly not that. She blinks. Six times in a row. 

“No,” Ruby answers. “Not...not everyone, but it’s--rare that someone doesn’t, actually. And it’s even stranger that someone with magic would just be...out in the world like that.” “Do you think that’s possible?” “Fuck if I know. I’m just the protection for the Savior.” “That might be selling yourself short.” “Ah, that’s actually kind of nice. Maybe you can stick around some more.” Emma scoffs. “Benevolent.” She twists, only to nearly choke herself with several different blankets in the process, and Ruby’s eyes have a very specific type of teasing glint to them. “Ok, can we just...is Belle already looking things up?” “Since possibly dawn,” Ruby nods, and Will shouts something that sound suspiciously like earlier from the other side of the apartment. “I think it may be time to make a list, Em. And possibly throw out every preconceived notion we’ve got.” “That makes this very difficult.” “Yeah, well, it hasn’t been exactly easy so far, has it? And if we’re going to be worried about other magical beings out there, we’ve got to figure out what we’re dealing with.” “We don’t know what we’re dealing with,” Emma points out, doing her best not to sound like the pessimist she absolutely is. “Your eyes are going to get stuck midroll.” “That wouldn’t be a problem if you weren’t trashing every idea I’ve got. Listen, Belle is like...breaking into research servers I didn’t even know existed, trying to find some information about the Dark One and possible things we can be doing and we’re totally going to save the world. We just have to make a to do list first.” “Yeah, that’s all we were missing,” Killian mumbles. It earns him his own eye roll. And glare. 

“I retract whatever compliment I gave you two seconds ago.” He grins. 

“You get two more seconds to figure out how to disentangle yourselves from that pretzel you became,” Ruby continues, nodding at the twist of limbs belonging to both Emma and Killian, “and then you have to get out of this kitchen so I can caffeinate. Or I will bite you. Got it?” Killian hums. “I think you’ve made your point.” “Good.” She turns on her heels – but only after she tosses the pillow Emma barely threw back across the kitchen. It hits Emma in the knee. 

Emma squeezes her eyes shut, gritting her teeth and willing the scene to change. It doesn't. She knew it wouldn’t, but she can’t shake this lingering bit of hope in the pit of her stomach and halfway down her spine and she’s got no idea where to start. 

“If you think any harder, love, the steam pouring out of your ears will probably help brew that coffee Ruby was demanding.”

Whatever noise she makes isn’t a laugh. It’s depressing. It’s scared. But Emma makes it anyway, head lolling to her side with half-opened eyes and she’s met with that one, specific look she was hoping for – a slight quirk of lips and the pinch is gone, just a few strands of hair drifting towards his eyebrows and a far-too-blue gaze that seems more than content to stare directly at her for the foreseeable future.

“That’s pointed,” she mumbles, leaning her cheek into Killian’s hand as soon as he moves it. The whole thing is oddly personal, and Emma detests the word intimate, particularly when it’s being used in someone else’s kitchen with threats of werewolf bites lingering over them, but it’s also the only thing that really makes sense and she’s going to fund a scientific study on Killian’s thumb as soon as this is all over. 

He keeps moving it, quick movements and brushes over skin, ghosting over her jaw and the side of her neck until he moves his fingers into her hair. He doesn’t kiss her. She doesn’t really want him to, honestly, just wants to exist in this, calm and easy and something drifting closer to supportive than she’d ever admit to. 

Or ever admit to wanting. 

“Round,” Killian argues, voice dropping low when his forehead rests against hers. “Decidedly round opinions and spherical concerns.” “That doesn’t make any sense.” “This is charming, Swan, you’re ruining it.” “It’s less charming when you say that.” He chuckles, letting her hair fall between his fingers. “That’s fair. C’mon, tell me what you’re thinking. It can’t possibly be that bad.” “No? How could it be anything except horrendous?” “Well, as you were very quick to point out to Ruby, and rightfully so, you did some fairly incredible magic last night. The freezing things was a favorite.” Those words in that specific order should not make Emma’s pulse stutter or her heart swell, but neither of those things care about should and the flush in her cheeks grows. She’s very warm. She’s fairly certain it doesn’t have anything to do with the blankets. 

“Not to mention teleporting us to a place you’ve never been before,” Killian adds. “How does that--how did that work, exactly?”

Emma shrugs. “I just..I thought about somewhere safe and somewhere that wouldn’t freak everyone out and here we are.” “That’s incredible, you know that?” “Be serious.” “I am,” Killian says, no room for argument in the tone of his voice. “Deathly even. If I could come up with another word than incredible, I would. I’m going to go ahead and blame that on several other things, but I’m decidedly impressed and only a little worried.” “Worried? What about?” “All signs would point to you. And, uh...me. In regards to whatever we saw.” Emma’s teeth find her lower lip, biting down so she doesn’t make anymore ridiculous and less-than-helpful noises. Killian’s eyes fall back down, as if holding her gaze is a challenge he can’t possibly contend with anymore and it only takes her a moment to realize that’s not what it is at all – he’s ashamed. 

“Hey,” Emma mutters, twisting her legs to crowd into his space and there wasn’t that much space between them to begin with. “This isn’t...we don’t know that what she said was true. None of it. It could--” She cuts herself off, annoyed by the sudden tears in her eyes. “--What else do you remember? From whatever you saw.” Killian’s eyes flicker back up towards her, wary and a little guarded. “It wasn’t much,” he says. “But I knew it was me. It was almost as if I was reliving it, as if I’d just closed my eyes and woken up as this person.” “Could you see anything?” “Could you?” “The repeating thing has got to stop,” Emma grumbles, poking her finger into his chest. The bounce between serious and flirting is almost starting to feel normal. Less so when Killian grabs her hand, tugging it up to his mouth so he can kiss across the bend of her knuckles. 

Then it’s just flirting. 

And, maybe, swooning a little. God, Ruby is seriously going to kill her. 

“And that’s not an answer, Swan.” She shakes her head. “I don’t think so. It was more like a feeling? Does that make sense?” “None of this makes sense, but that’s neither here nor there. And I think I could. That might be wishful thinking, though.” “How?”

He clicks his tongue, grimacing so his nose scrunches and his free hand finds the hair that curls behind his right ear. “I thought I saw something. I felt it--like you said, knew it was me and knew it was you even more, but that was...that was the weird part. It was like...getting yanked back into something.” “Yeah, I’ve got some theories on that?” “That so?” Emma nods. “I think that’s because it’s my magic. I’m kind of broadcasting and including you in that. Shit, that’s a terrible explanation.” She pinches the bridge of her nose, stomach churning and she really, really needs Killian to blink. “Ok, what I’m trying to say is--” “--I could feel that.”

Emma bites her tongue. Not on purpose. The taste of blood rushes into her mouth, eyes going wide and all but yanking air in through her nose. And if her heartbeat had stuttered before, it stops entirely now, stalling completely like she’s been frozen or stunned, hearing words she’d never believed possible while sitting on a genuinely horribly-designed linoleum floor. 

She shakes her head quickly – not sure why she’s objecting to something she knows is true, but Emma is a pessimist and lonely and she still can’t remember how she got to Storybrooke. And that may be the crux of her problem. 

“Don’t do that, Swan,” Killian says, but there’s a note of amusement in his voice that does not fit the situation at all. He ducks into her eye line, one side of his mouth tugged up and the caution in his gaze has turned to a near-blistering optimism. “Emma, love, look at me.” She shakes her head again. So, she’s like...five years old. Magic is definitely safe in her hands. 

“Emma.” “Stop,” she whispers, hating how much she’s pleading with him. “Please that’s---it’s not possible. You don’t have magic. That’s not--” “--Like coming home,” Killian interrupts, and it would probably be easier if Emma just got rid of her tongue entirely at this point. She’d stop biting it then. 

“What?” He smiles at her, the pads of his fingers brushing away tears she didn’t realize had started to fall. And it’s been so easy. In a never-ending stream of the exact opposite, this, them and several other collective phrases, has been as easy as breathing and inadvertently biting her tongue. 

“Like coming home,” Killian repeats. “That’s what it felt like. In the library and when we got back to your apartment and as soon as Ursula said you’d leave. I know--I know you wouldn’t do that, Swan. Because it...it felt like, ok, when I was a kid, it snowed once and it was...well, it was bad, but I was a kid and I went outside. For hours. And I came in and I was freezing, teeth chattering and icicles on my eyelashes and--” 

She laughs. She doesn’t mean too, but that’s the theme of this whole, goddamn thing, and Killian’s answering smile makes her magic jump. He absolutely notices. “You’re a distraction,” he accuses, mumbling the words against her lips. “Anyway, I came in and we lived in this tiny apartment, so there was no fireplace or anything, just this rickety old space heater. We didn’t use it that often, it wrecked the electric bill, but I couldn’t stop shivering and Liam sat me in front of it and told me enjoy it, little brother and it was...I don’t think I’ve ever been that warm.”

“I was home,” Killian continues, and Emma is still crying. It’s absurd. “And I was...I could sit there and be warm and I wasn’t worried. I wasn't scared. There was no imminent threat of frostbite.” He lets his hand cup her jaw again, thumb moving to trace across her lower lip. “I was just home. And that was enough. That’s what it felt like.”

Emma sniffles. It’s also absurd. And Killian’s laugh works its way into her, lingering under her skin and mixing with the magic in her veins, a contained inferno blazing in the very center of her. 

“What did you think you saw?” she asks, well aware that it’s not the exact response he’s hoping for, but her tongue feels far too big for her mouth and it’s a miracle she even got that out. 

Killian blinks. “Liam had a ring. I don’t...it might have been our dad’s, but I never really knew. He always had it though, for as long as we could remember. Said it was good luck, gave it to me when I enlisted. It was always--” He reaches down, grabbing the charms around his neck and Emma’s fingers dart out on instinct. “--There. Hanging with the rest of them, but it’s...I can’t remember what happened to it.”

She doesn’t actually fall over, she’s still sitting down and Killian’s hand is still doing whatever, but it’s far too close for any sense of comfort and Emma can’t rationalize the sense of dread that lands in the pit of her stomach. 

It sounds like a pillow. 

“And you think I had it?” Emma asks. “In this...wherever we were?” “Talking. And holding a sword.” “Yeah, that’s weird, right?” “Swan, I think we’ve got to put out a blanket agreement that every single part of this is incredibly weird,” Killian grins, but there’s still a nervous tinge to it. “And I don’t know. The whole thing happened so quickly, I’m not sure. But we were there and I wasn’t--I wasn’t me.” “I don’t think that’s true.” “Emma.” “No, no, come on. Ok, just...I trust you,” she says, and it’s a miracle she doesn’t actually shout the words in his face. It’s very close. She’s not great at emotions. “Just...I do. Completely. And I don’t know if that’s because you can feel my magic or whatever, but it’s true and I’m...whatever past Ursula claimed you had with her, I don’t care.” “You can’t mean that.” “Why?” Emma challenges. He catches her around the wrist before she can stab her finger into his chest again. “You want a blanket agreement that every single part of this is incredible weird? Fine. It’s the weirdest fucking thing in the world, but the only part that has made any sense so far is...you. I am not…” Her eyes drop, biting on her lip again if only to distract herself from the flutter of magic in the air around her. “No one’s ever been able to feel my magic,” she breathes. “And, I have no goddamn idea what is happening, but it’s almost been normal, right?”

Killian nods slowly, eyes not leaving her face. He honestly hasn’t blinked in days. “Drifting back into a memory.” “Yeah?” “Yeah. A good one.”

Emma takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly and they’ve got to get off the floor. Her back is killing her. “I have no idea what’s right and what’s true or if this is all just one great, big sign that I’m losing my mind completely, but I’m...I was alone. In Storybrooke. It was never--” She wishes the words would stop getting caught in her throat. Honestly, emotions are the worst. “I have a tendency to expect the worst of people, mostly so I don’t get let down and--”

“--I don’t intend to let you down, Swan.”

There’s a conviction to his words, a steady confidence that leaves her a little breathless. “I know,” Emma promises. “So, we’ll figure it out. And no matter what is actually going on here, I’m going to choose to see the best in you.”

She barely hears whatever he says next, is fairly sure it’s and I with you, which is actually fairly romantic, all things considered, but Emma can’t bother with romance when Killian’s tongue is in her mouth. She moans. Honestly. On the floor. Of Belle’s kitchen. With that absolutely horrendous pattern. 

And the whole thing is a little heady and a little desperate and, really, kind of a dick move because there are other people in that apartment who deserve coffee and a copious amount of alcohol. Emma still doesn’t care. She shifts onto her knees, bracketing Killian’s hips with her legs so she can get some leverage and her fingers back in his hair and that makes him growl against her, a sound that shoots straight to her core and sparks that inferno into a blaze that could probably take down several large and impressive forests. 

Her head swims, not enough oxygen to her lungs or her brain when her nose is pressed against Killian’s cheek. Emma doesn’t move. She pulls herself closer to him instead, trying to occupy the same space or the same magically-charged air and neither one of them notice the footsteps at first. 

Honestly, it is supremely dick move. She’ll have to apologize to Ruby later. 

“Scarlet, what the hell,” Killian mumbles, not bothering to try and move Emma and his eyes widen meaningfully when he laughs. She’s basically straddling him at this point. 

Will shrugs, dumping coffee into the machine. “Belle offered to draw straws, but I figured eventually you two had to come up for air and Ruby was certain if we just got the scent of coffee, Emma would be more apt to research some shit.”

“Research some shit,” Emma echoes. 

“Ruby’s words, not mine.” “And you had no qualms about walking in here when were--” “--Trying to decide if it’d be cool if you guys could just...rip each other’s clothes off? Spoiler, it’s not cool. This isn’t your apartment.” “That’s not an answer.” “I know,” Will smiles, Killian sighing despondently. “And that’s really more fun for me at this point. But also, no, I did not because I know Killian and I know there’s something big going on here.” “Did the magic yesterday give that away?” Killian asks archly.

“You’re hysterical, you know that? An absolute riot. Yes, Jones, it did help a bit, actually. But also you’ve been going cross-eyed since Belle and I got engaged and as much as I’d like to believe you’re simply happy for me and the suit you’ll have to eventually get, I’m fairly certain it’s because you’ve tripped right over your own feet.” “And landed where, exactly?” “Trying to figure out if you can get your girlfriend’s clothes off on the kitchen floor of an apartment that, again, does not belong to you.”

“Ok, that’s not what was happening.” Emma and Will make nearly identical noises. Killian looks vaguely scandalized. “Hey, jinx,” Will cries, a picture of amused happiness and Emma’s not sure why that’s quite as calming as it is. She’s going to claim it as another victory, though. “Now you owe me a drink and a soda.” “Maybe you should be making a list,” Emma says. “Just of all these things I owe you.” Will winks. And Killian curses under his breath, head falling to Emma’s shoulder. He kisses the skin he finds there. “So, uh,” Will continues, jumping onto the counter and letting his legs swing out, “Are we going to talk about this? Neither one of you were very quick to object to the tripping joke.” “That’s because it wasn’t funny,” Killian says. 

“Incorrect. It was very funny. And, strictly speaking, should be held in the highest accord since I’m fairly positive I’m the only one doing my job around here.”

“Where are you going with this?” “Are you prepared to be stunned?” “Oh my God.” “Ok, that’s not an answer though.” “He thinks he’s the court jester,” Belle answers, padding into the kitchen with her laptop in hand and a blanket wrapped around her waist. “Are we just going to do this in here? I thought we were going to move so we could use the couch.” “Aw, babe,” Will groans. “You ruined the punchline.” “Get better at your job, then,” Killian hisses, and Emma has no idea where to look. Ruby’s mumbling under her breath when she joins the fray, dropping onto one of the pillows from earlier with an ease that almost makes Emma confident. 

“He’s got a point,” Ruby agrees. “You can’t use whatever title you’re claiming as a joke, that’s just lazy writing.”

Will flips her off – and it’s all almost, kind of domestic in a strangers agreeing to fight the physical embodiment of evil with some, possible, fate thrown in kind of way. Ruby’s laugh likely does damage to the veneer on the cabinets. 

Belle has an impressive amount of cabinet space. 

“This has stopped being fun,” Will announces. 

“Was it ever?” “Maybe not with the crazy dogs. Or the crazy dog lady. Or the almost drowning. Or ruining by bar--” “--This is not a great list,” Emma points out, but Will barely acknowledges her. Killian loops an arm around her middle. 

“Or suggesting that some of us don’t know who we actually are. That was, admittedly, kind of freaky. And, oh, yeah, yeah, don’t forget the werewolf thing. How painful is it to turn into a werewolf when you don’t want to?” “It’s not fun,” Ruby answers, fingers drifting to the amulet that’s back around her neck almost unconsciously. “And I think that’s kind of where we’ve got to start this if we’re doing it. Are we doing this?”

“I’m not getting up,” Killian says. “And I doubt Scarlet can actually get off the counter now that he’s up there.” Will sneers. “Ah, fuck off, Jones. I almost died for you and your girlfriend.” That’s two girlfriends. And no objections. Emma isn’t counting. She’s the worst liar. 

“And I brought my laptop in here,” Belle adds, pointing at the screen like they aren’t all aware of it, “so, really, that should take precedent. The list is on here, anyway.” “There’s a list?” Emma asks. 

“I don’t know you very well, but I’m admittedly a little insulted that you think there wouldn’t be a list.”

“Fair.”

Belle hums, Will snickering softly and that might be the loudest coffee maker in the world. “Ok,” Belle starts. “So, first thing. The magic ladies showed up in the building yesterday, knew that Ruby is a werewolf and were also fairly determined to bring both me and Will with them. Because they weren’t looking for just Emma. It had to do with Killian too.” “Which is the part we can’t understand,” Will says. “Because that seems to suggest that Killian’s as much a part of this as Emma, right?”

Ruby nods. “Keep going.”

“I don’t know that I’ve got anywhere else to go with it, honestly. Mostly just that I wasn’t lying before. He’s been tripping over himself feeling things for her since he met her.” He nods in Emma’s direction, lips twitching and she’s not sure she appreciates being teased at the moment. “I’ve never...nothing’s ever been like that.” “You’ve got another thought,” Killian accuses. “Share it.” Will scowls, eyes no more than slits, but Emma knows Killian is right and she’s got her own theories about that. “Ok. I believe in the magic. I saw it. I felt it. I got bitten by that lady’s crazy dogs. What I’m not sure I can wrap my mind around is the idea that those magic people, one, showed up here, because, like, where do the magical people come from? And two, those same magical people believe that you’re part of the problem.” “And yet?” “Shit, you’re annoying, you know that?” “Right?” Ruby asks, and Belle can’t actually make her laugh sound like a noise that isn't that. She’s typing something again. 

“What I’m asking is...whether or not it’s possible,” Will says, and his knuckles have gone white from gripping the counter. “Emma’s got magic. Fine, cool. Great, even. But can the rest of it be legit? I mean--you’re you, right?”

For half a second Emma wonders if she inadvertently cast a spell. It’d be impressive if she had – mostly because the entire kitchen looks as if it’s frozen, a sudden tension to the air that’s actually more like palpable fear and the feeling that Will Scarlet may be absolutely right. 

“She said this realm,” Emma whispers. “Ursula, I mean. She said that when she took Killian to Nostos, she did something, made him forget--” “--You,” Ruby supplies. “She said he forgot you. And his sword.” “You think the sword thing is important?” “Em, you’ve got to stop asking me all these questions I don’t know the answer to. As far as I knew, we lived in one world where the Dark One was the scary thing who hung out under the staircases and lurked in the basement.” “God, you lot really have horrendous bedtime stories, don’t you?” Killian asks. Ruby rolls here eyes. Again. 

“And you’re still super frustrating. Ok, ok, backtrack. I need to be sure of something. Tell me something we one-hundred percent for sure know.”

“We have magic,” Emma says, focusing on the clack of Belle’s keyboard like that will make it easier to regulate her breathing. Killian’s fingers tightening around hers helps too. “And we’ve grown up with it. In a town where that was normal.” “But also had non-magical people,” Killian adds. 

“Seriously, if you interrupt me again, I’m going to turn you into a frog.” “I think that just means you have to kiss me to fix it, right?”

“This is disgusting,” Will says evenly, and the coffee maker dings. He nearly falls off the counter trying to open the cabinet behind him. 

Seriously, so many cabinets. 

Emma closes her eyes, trying not to burst into flames. It’s getting increasingly difficult, what with the magic and the hand holding and the magic inspired by the hand holding. She’s going to start drinking the coffee out of the pot soon. “Ok, ok,” she mutters. “Magic started disappearing. We couldn’t do things. A seeress showed up, said I could save magic, but then a man also showed up at the town line and we ran.” “Em,” Ruby sighs, but Emma shakes her head again. Her neck aches. “We ran. We ended up here. I’ve got no fucking idea why and--wait.” Her eyes snap open, neck objecting to whatever she does to it that time and Ruby doesn’t blink. She curses loudly. 

“Oh, God, we’re idiots, aren’t we?” “What?” Will fumes, sliding off the counter with more than one mug of coffee in his hand. He glances meaningfully at Killian. 

“We were so worried about the Dark One, shit that’s still so weird--” “--Focus, Lucas,” Killian mutters. 

“I’m going to kill you,” she snarls. “And you’re obviously just as stupid as the rest of us because our court jester was the one who almost figured it out. We were ignoring it.”

Will drops one of the mugs. “What?” he cries. “Me?” “You.” “Kind of,” Emma amends, waving her free hand and the mug is a mug again. There’s no coffee stains on the linoleum. 

Belle lets out a whistle. “Wow. You can come back now. Even if you and Killian were doing unspeakable things in here before.” “Can we focus?” Killian snaps, but the tips of his ears have gone red and Emma’s counting that too. She’s willing to be a little selfish on that one. 

“That’s literally all I want,” Ruby says. “The point I am trying to make and what I’m fairly certain Will stumbled on is that we never wondered where the Dark One came from. We were all so freaked out that our childhood nightmare had shown up, not to mention the seeress and our magic being all fucked up, that none of us even questioned it. But he had to get here somehow, didn’t he? That’s...I mean, he may be some kind of evil-fueled demon, but that makes sense. Doesn’t it?” “Double checking doesn’t really inspire a ton of confidence,” Emma murmurs, Ruby sighing dramatically enough that her whole body slumps forward with the force of it. “Although it does bring us back around to this whole other realm thing.” “That gives me goosebumps.” “That’s putting it lightly,” Will says, dropping onto the floor as well, with both his hands wrapped around his now-fixed mug. “So, what you guys are saying is you think these people came from...not here?” Ruby lifts both her hands in the air. “I’ve never seen Ursula or--what did she say the dog lady’s name was?” “Cruella,” Belle answers, not pulling her eyes away from whatever she’s reading on the laptop. “Also, you’re forgetting that she called this The Land Without Magic. And was very quick to point out that Killian was--” “--A pirate,” Will cuts in, and there’s an almost understandable skepticism to his voice. “She called Emma a princess too.” “Yes, to both of those things, but that’s not what I was going to say. Emma’s magic. Ruby’s a werewolf. Ursula tried to drown us with a soda gun and I’m pretty sure that music had a point.” “And yours is?” Killian prods. He’s sitting straighter than he was a moment before, jaw clenched again and eyes boring straight ahead like that will guard him from whatever Belle is about to suggest. Emma squeezes his hand. 

And she knows she doesn’t imagine the way his shoulders drop just a bit. 

“That she said you didn’t have magic,” Belle says. Her voice shakes. That’s also not particularly encouraging. 

“And?”

Belle opens her mouth – eyes looking a hint glossier than they had a few seconds before – but the only sound she makes is a gasp and, well, that’s fair. 

Because there’s another woman standing in her kitchen. 

She doesn’t look any different than she did in Storybrooke, which, well, Emma isn’t sure she expected her to because it hasn’t really been that much time since she had the weight of the magical word dropped squarely on her shoulders, but it’s...more than that. The seeress looks exactly the same, as if she’d merely stepped from that moment to this. 

Her hands are still covering her eyes, head bowed slightly and the bramble in that one section of hair is exactly where it was weeks ago. She inhales deeply, shaking strands of hair on to her back. The bramble falls on the floor. 

It’s impossibly loud when it lands. 

“This is happening, right?” Will whispers. It’s not really a whisper. 

Ruby nods slowly, fingers curling around the back of her neck. “Definitely happening. This is the same woman who showed up to tell Emma she had to save us all.”

“And she wasn’t in your town? That wasn’t like...a massive announcement about these different, magical realms?” “Babe,” Belle groans at the same time Killian growls “shut up, Scarlet.” “Realms do not matter to my kind,” the seeress says, and Emma’s stomach flies into the back of her throat. It hurts. “We have no concept of space or time. We go where we please, when we please to maintain the balance in the universe.” “Oh, that’s foreboding,” Emma mutters. Killian laughs softly next to her, a kiss pressed to her cheek that’s more grounding than anything else they’ve done that morning. 

Even the making out. They might have been trying to take each other’s clothes off. 

They both freeze as soon as the seeress turns, pulling her hands away to reveal a face with a distinct lack of eyes. There’s nothing except twisted scar tissue, a jagged line that runs across her forehead and the painted eyes on her hands are the brightest colors Emma’s ever seen. 

The blue there matches up with the shade of Killian’s eyes. 

So, honestly, she’s gone insane. 

It’s lame that she didn’t get to drink more coffee before coming to that particular realization.

“You’re wasting time, Savior,” the seeress says, clearly unaffected by Emma’s less-than-polite reaction. “And making the same mistakes as before.” Despite her musings regarding fish and the possibility of gills the day before, Emma is still fairly certain she’s neither fish nor amphibian so the phrase blood runs cold doesn’t really make sense, but she’s having a difficult time remembering to breathe, so she figures that’s kind of a legitimate excuse. 

And Killian’s grip on her hand is going to leave bruises. 

“Captain,” the seeress continues, and Will is mumbling curses Emma has never heard before. “I’m glad you made it.” “Talk about foreboding,” Belle mutters. “Add that to the list, Ruby.” Ruby hums noncommittally, a jerky nod and teeth digging into her lower lip.  “Yeah, yeah, what the hell is this lady talking about?”

The seeress’ lips twitch, and Emma’s not sure what to do with that. She admittedly hasn’t had much experience with people who can see every molecule of time, but she assumes they wouldn’t have much of a sense of humor. “I’m here to help, protector. And to ensure that history does not repeat itself. That will only end in darkness.”

“That’s not helping,” Ruby barks. “And we’re trying to do some stuff about the darkness, but it’s not exactly an easy task you’ve presented us with.” “And what meaningful thing ever is?” There is not enough metaphorical disgust in however many realms there may be for Emma to infuse in her groan. She tries anyway, rolling her whole head in the process and she doesn’t have to look to know Killian is smiling. 

It probably has something to do with the burst of magic sitting in the bend of her left elbow. 

“Ok, but that’s not really an answer either,” Emma says. “You told me that I was destined to save magic. But my magic pulled both me and Ruby here. We weren’t aiming for New York.” It’s definitely a smile. The seeress is smiling. And it’s far too knowing. Emma assumes that’s pretty par for the course. “Yes,” she agrees. “You were aiming for him.”

She points a finger towards Killian, the body behind Emma flinching slightly at what can only be described as...foreboding. Damn. She needs to buy a thesaurus. 

“Me?” Killian asks, suspicion practically dripping from both letters. “How is that possible? I’ve never--” He stops talking abruptly, Emma jerking her head around and she’s not entirely ready for the pained look on his face. She has no idea how she moves so quickly, a mess of limbs and rushing magic that makes the ends of her hair feel like they’re illuminated. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that she does, twisting and turning, a hand on his cheek and quiet promises pressed to any bit of skin she can reach. 

“It’s ok, it’s ok,” Emma breathes, dragging her lips across the bridge of his nose and cheekbones that she has spent a questionably amount of time thinking about when everything else is going to shit. He’s screwed his eyes shut, every one of his teeth visible when he winces in pain. 

Emma’s eyes snap towards Ruby – that same bit of fear etched onto every inch of her face. She swallows, trying to push away the worries and the questions and there had to be a reason they landed in New York. 

In that apartment building. 

He can feel her magic. 

“Babe,” Emma whispers, an endearment that doesn’t sit perfectly on the tip of her tongue, but feels like another almost. She licks her lips. “Babe, it’s ok. Whatever you’re seeing. Whatever you think you’re remembering, just...you’ve got to open your eyes and look at me. Please.”

He doesn’t move. He’s barely breathing. The seeress is still in the goddamn kitchen, hands back over her eyes and magic pulsing out of her and-- “God, stop it,” Emma yells, and she’s going to dislocate her neck if she keeps going at this pace. “Leave him alone! Please! This isn’t...this…” “That’s not true, your highness,” the seeress says, a quiet disappointment that echoes between Emma’s ears. “And that’s why I’m here. Because I can’t allow you to ignore that again.” “Again,” Belle repeats. “That’s...you keep saying that. Emma and Killian met when we kicked him out of his apartment.”

The seeress drops her hand, Killian’s gasp of air making it sound like he’s only recently discovered oxygen and all the great things it can do for a human body. His head lands on Emma’s shoulder again, bouncing slightly until it settles in the crook of her neck, lips pressed against skin and she can feel tears there as well. 

“Still with me?” she whispers, feeling him nod slightly. 

“Aye.”

She blinks at that – although it’s not surprise, it’s...God, she doesn’t have time. There’s a fucking seeress making sweeping judgements behind her. 

Emma presses a kiss to the top of Killian’s hair, shifting slightly to support his weight when she tries to move both of them. The seeress won’t meet her gaze. “What do you mean?” Emma demands. “Again. I’ve never seen the Dark One before. How can I make the same mistakes in a situation that’s brand-new?” “And awful,” Ruby mumbles. 

“Yeah, that too!” The seeress flips her hands up, a dull snap to her wrists and every single light in Belle’s apartment flares to life, timing up with the magic that rushes through Emma. “I don’t have that power, Savior,” the seeress says, and Emma wishes she’d settle on one title. “You’re the only one who can do that, but we are running out of time. There are decisions that must be made, events that have to take place and you--” “--Oh, you’re breaking the rules,” Killian says. The seeress tenses. And her hands waver. “That’s what it is, isn’t it? You told Emma what she had to do, but now...something else is going on and you’re overstepping, aren’t you? Wouldn’t this count as influencing fate?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Will asks, and Belle looks almost overjoyed. Killian’s grin is enormous. It’s probably a library thing. “Any sort of seer, shouldn’t influence anything,” Belle says. “That’s how all the old legends work. They’re simply the monitors of fate. They don’t influence. Unless--”

“--Something happened,” Killian finishes. “What was it?”

The seeress doesn’t answer immediately and Emma wonders if they’ve somehow managed to offend a mythical being, but then she notices the way Killian’s jaw continues to tick and the tension between Ruby’s shoulders and she genuinely could not care less. 

She’s practically vibrating with magic. 

“It should not have been like this,” the seeress responds, taking care on each letter. “It should have been decided earlier. But changes were made and missteps and now there is more magic in this realm than any of us can prepare for. It’s unnatural.” “That all seems to kind of make sense for some guy called the Dark One, huh?” Will mutters, and Emma’s smile shakes its way across her face. “Just a generic asshole, ruining everything. So then we were right. Right? The Dark One and the minions came from...somewhere else.” “Probably wherever these mistakes were already made,” Belle adds. 

Emma’s brain can’t keep up with the speed of her thoughts. “Wait, wait, hold on! What mistakes? How can I mess up instructions I haven’t actually been given? I don’t--I don’t know how to fix magic or--” “--Em,” Ruby cuts in, looking like it pains her to do so. “Your magic was...off the charts yesterday. And Mary Margaret did say there was that surge a couple of days ago. It’s what got the Dark One here.” Will sounds like he’s choking. “Just failed to mention that, didn’t we?” “Scarlet,” Killian chides, and the noises stop almost immediately. “Alright, say we agree with that. Emma’s magic got stronger once she got to New York.” “To you, Captain,” the seeress corrects. “Only to you.” Killian’s eyebrows jump, tongue pressed to the inside of his cheek again. “How does she makes sure the Dark One stops being a threat?” “By not repeating past mistakes.” “Yeah, we got that,” Emma yells. “Strangely enough that doesn’t help me right now. What do I have to do?”

The seeress stares at her – as much as that’s possible for someone distinctly lacking eyes – pulling her hands up slowly and Emma holds her breath. Not on purpose. The air shifts slightly, a low breeze that brushes Emma’s hair and makes the ends of the blankets she’s still inexplicably wrapped in flutter. And it takes forever, a small eternity of impatience and power and the seeress rocks forward with a steady rhythm that sets Emma’s teeth on edge. 

“Where time is no more, below the surface, a blade that is sure--” “--Holy shit, it’s in verse,” Will mutters, disbelief coloring his laugh. 

Emma shrugs. “That’s how it always seems to work.” “Able to cut, erase the past, ensure that we are but, instruments of a future in light.” “That was more slant rhyme than anything really,” Killian muses, Belle making a noise of agreement. Ruby’s shoulders shake trying not to laugh.

So, they’re really all coping with this well. 

“Did anyone understand any of that?” Ruby asks. She’s met with four identical head shakes and the seeress drops her arms back to her side. “So, just more questions and a distinct lack of answers. Super. That’s super.” “The blade,” the seeress says, any mysticism gone when the words turn hard and Belle has started researching again. “You need it. It’s the only way.”

Emma’s mouth drops – a million and two questions, so naturally she doesn’t ask any of them because the lights flare again and Killian’s hand flexes at his side, reaching for something that isn’t there and--

“Fucking hell,” Emma groans. The seeress is gone. “The sword. What Ursula was talking about. Shit, goddamn, fuck it all to hell.” “That was creative,” Will says approvingly. “Should we make another list?” Ruby holds up one finger. “We may be right about other realms, the Dark One is recruiting people, the seeress is kind of an asshole who made Jones see some shit he really did not want to and, uh...she called him Captain again.” “Yeah, that’s admittedly kind of freaking me out,” Belle says. 

“Me too,” Killian agrees, the smile he flashes Emma direction almost a little insulting in how bad it actually is. 

“We don’t know what that meant,” she argues. It’s empty. He used the word aye. And she didn’t think that was weird. “Although the sword thing does give me pause. Do we know of any mythical swords just hanging out in New York?” She turns towards Belle, hoping the answer will be obvious, but that seems like too much to ask and all Emma gets is another quick head shake. “I can name some very impressive swords from a variety of fantasy series if that helps.” “What, like, Sting?” Will asks. “That’s a lame one.” “Didn’t that one glow?” Emma counters, and maybe they’re all only capable of coping with this if they mock it. That might not be the worst thing in the world. 

“It did. When Orcs were around. Are we also fighting Orcs? Because I feel like I seriously draw the line at that.”

“That’s what does it, huh?” Ruby asks, hopping onto the counter and refilling her mug. “Not the suddenly appearing creepy lady of fate.” “Good name, honestly.” “And if this all comes down to finding Frodo’s sword, then I’m going to be really disappointed,” Killian says. He pulls Emma’s back against his chest, hooking his chin over his shoulder, a move that’s equal parts decidedly relationship and even more comforting. Will arches an eyebrow. “Anduril or nothing.” “Are you kidding me?” “You don’t think I could pull off that sword?” “I think you’re insane to even begin to suggest that you are remotely in the realm of being anywhere close Aragorn.” Emma clicks her tongue. “Oh, yeah, that’s kind of rough.” “Swan!” “I mean…” She shrugs. “I think it’s a very close second.” “She’s lying to you,” Will promises. “It’s not even a close seventy-second.” “Can we get out of the realm of Tolkien here?” Ruby pleads. “It’s so boring. So many trees.” “Ents.” “Trees. And if we’re going to fly with this Ursula was telling the truth about Jones having some kind of magical sword that Emma, maybe, enchanted in a reality that none of us actually remember, maybe we should make a few more assumptions.”

Belle stops typing. “Like?” “Like when I found Emma and Killian outside the apartment the other day, I made, what I thought, was a very funny joke. Only it wasn’t apparently all that funny and--” “--Captain,” Emma breathes. “They keep calling you captain.” “They keep calling you princess,” Will points out. She waves him off, staring intently at Killian and the pinch between his brows is a cavern. 

His eyes are impossibly blue. 

Like the goddamn ocean. 

She can’t believe she thought that. 

“So did you, love,” he whispers. “In the library. You were...well, you were making jokes as well, but that was the first thing you thought.” “And you think that’s my latent knowledge of you? And your history with the ocean?” “I have no idea. I’m grasping at straws, but maybe?” “It’s kind of romantic,” Will reasons, Emma gaping at him. He shrugs. “What? It is. Tripping, Emma. Straight up tripping over himself, all week.”

“So,” Ruby says. “Anyone know any famous sailor swords? Harpoons, maybe?” Emma sighs. “You’re not nearly as funny as you think you are.”

“I disagree. C’mon, name a sailor. John Paul Jones. Horatio Hornblower?” “I don’t think he had a specific sword,” Belle mutters, a quick when smile when Killian mutters I am not Horatio Hornblower under his breath. And Emma is almost disappointed it takes her so long to figure it out, but it’s also been a morning and a night and she needs an IV of coffee. 

“A knight,” she says. “Ursula said that too and--that’s what the prophecy was. Rubes, Rubes, that’s...you remember that, right?” Ruby nods slowly. “But I made the sailor joke.” “And I’m not disagreeing with that, I'm just...we’re running with this Ursula might have been telling the truth thing. And if Killian was right and the seeress is breaking the rules, picking a side to make sure that we can do something right here, then...I don’t know, maybe we shouldn’t ignore prophecy.” “I’ve got it,” Belle announces, and she’s incredibly efficient. “It’s um...well, she said below the surface. I think this is it. Track 61.” “I’ve never heard of that,” Will says. 

Killian closes his eyes. “I have.” “It’s an old storage track,” Belle explains. “Pretty much right underneath the Waldorf Astoria. It hasn’t been used in forever, but it’s never been demolished because it’s underground. It’s part of the Grand Central complex, this old thing, hidden in plain sight. It’s connected to a couple other lines, and is right next to a private platform from Metro North.” “And you think there’s some kind of mythical sword hidden there?” “Yeah, I do. It was used. Years ago. By major political figures. FDR. Douglas MacArthur. Andy Warhol.” “Are we calling Andy Warhol a political figure?” Will asks lightly, snapping his mouth closed when Belle glares at him. 

“What I’m getting at is big-name people were here and, uh...there’s a rumor about this place.”

Killian sighs. Emma resists the urge to do the same. “What?” he asks. “Haunted by ghosts? An army only Aragorn can summon and control?” Belle’s eyes are no more than slits when she slams her laptop shut, an aura of something around her that certainly isn’t magic, but might just be determination. It’s impressive, whatever it is. The power of the librarian, maybe.

“No,” she snaps, expression softening slightly when she meets Killian’s gaze. “It’s said that there are marks there similar to those spotted in England. The most popular rumor is that it was once inhabited by the descendants of one of the knights of the round table. They say that’s where Excalibur is.”

Tag List: @kmomof4 @shireness-says @profdanglaisstuff @captainsjedi @thejollyroger-writer@winterbaby89 @melsbels @tiganasummertree @jennjenn615 @idristardis @cssns

#cs ff #captain swan #captain swan fic #captain swan ff #cs fic #that stup #all was golden in the sky #here's a fun fact #when justin and i first started dating #i told him that i was really interested in learning elvish #as you do when flirting #and in response #he'd send me messages in elvish and then i had to translate them #so i also have a lot of thoughts about lotr

[darkdevasofdestruction]

Hi I’m back at it again requesting bc Oof! That Kayn one shot was good! Can I get preferences or your choice of kayn, yasuo, sona and jinx waking up to their fem! S/o in the morning for the first time? Just lots of fluff please?

Aww I’m so happy that you liked it!! Thank you!!

Yasuo

Yasuo is an innocent fugitive haunted by his past and literally hunted by his own city of Ionia for a crime he never committed -

The crime of killing his own master.

Therefore, he only had training, getting stronger and finding the villain who framed him, to get revenge, clearly never even thinking of having a proper relationship.

That is, until he met his angelic girlfriend who came into his life like an innocent sunshine, brightening up his heart completely and filling it with love and affection.And for that, he is eternally grateful and he respects and protects her with his own life.

To be fair, he seems like the classic, traditional kind of man who goes by the rules so he’d take things VERY slow, not wanting to drive her away, but when she suggests having a sleepover, a movie marathon, he blushes slightly, eyes wide but nods nonetheless, the idea of a cuddle session being very much awaited.

That night was the best night he’s ever had, and his S/O was extremely giddy that she managed to make him laugh, which for him, is an extremely rare feat.They mostly just cuddled and watched whatever movies they decided, eating snacks and laughing at the jokes and side comments she kept saying, making him sometimes join in, much to her excitement and proceed to roast annoying characters here and there.

Thing is, he is used to staying up for a long time due to his old-warrior times and even now, with training and missions, but it was obvious that his girlfriend wasn’t used to staying up too much past her bed-time, especially after having had a stressful week, so she fell asleep in his arms with a smile on her face.

This lovely display made the man smile gently at the love of his life, brushing the hair from her face and planting a soft kiss of the top of her head, holding her close to his heart, thanking whatever Gods exist for this gift.

The next day he woke up to a soft kiss on his nose and an unusual tickle on his cheeks, which he found out was her hair brushing on his face.Seeing the bright grin and the sweet “Good morning, love” she greeted him with, he only closed his eyes and hugged her again, wanting to indulge in a lazy, warm morning with her, much to her amusement.

Sure, maybe it wasn’t so conventionally traditional for a young couple to spend their nights like that, but the love and happiness he felt during those house spent together with her, and even now, in the morning, made him realise that he truly wants to spend the rest of his life waking up to her, needing her like the world needs the sun rays.

Kayn

It wasn’t that this guy was too busy for a relationship, but like, “Who cares about relationships anyways when I have an annoying darkin weapon trying to take over my mind and I have so much work to do for Master Zed?”

Well, clearly, that changed when he met her, the only one who could ever change his mind and life views about love and people in general.Maybe they were all trash and he wanted to kill them all, but for that, she was definitely an exception.

However, it was difficult for him to actually learn how to be affectionate and overall the amazing boyfriend that he has the potential to be.Please bear with him, he’s learning and trying his best, poor soul.

With time, he learnt how to be comfortable with holding hands with her and even appreciate the warmth and emotion behind long hugs which, despite not wanting to admit, he absolutely adores.

One day, she called him over for a dinner date at her home (consisting of pizza, soda and lots of sweets), playing video games and binge-watching horror TV series, which are apparently his favourite.

Of course, after such a long time, on the floor carpet, leaning back on the couch with a warm blanket around them, she fell asleep with her head leaning on his shoulder, which he only realised a bit later, when he saw something really cool on TV and tried to tell her about it, really excited, only to find her sleeping peacefully.

With an amused breathe and a side-smile, he picked up up bridal style and put her on her bed, letting her rest for the night. The problem was…Before he could leave, she gripped his shirt, not letting him go, despite being asleep as it was.This only amused him further but accepted nonetheless, getting in bed next to her and holding her, being the big spoon. He loved hugging his girlfriend so much…So soft and warm.

The next day, as soon as he tried to fluttered his eyes open, he felt something on his face, which made him wrinkle his nose in annoyance, earning a soft, sweet giggle from the one who could only be his S/O, which brought him back to reality.

She was caressing his face and smiling up at him, her eyes twinkling with glee like stars in the sky.With the ghost of a sleepy smile on his face, he held her hand, kissing her knuckles then pulling her close in yet another cuddle, finally happy and content with the wise decision he made, to allow himself the arrogance to feel once again.

Jinx

Mhhhhhhhboyyyyyy she’s a hard one to deal with, mostly because out causing mayhem so much that she forgets about literally everything - Including the need to eat, for example.

But girl, let me tell you this, if you’re her type and you’re okay, accepting all her quirks, then she’s NEVER gonna leave you alone (even if you want her to).Nope.She’s like one of those affection leeches who jumps on you and latches on you with her arms and legs, not letting go and showering you with kisses and compliments.

Actually…I can’t see any downside, to be fair.

If you indulge in her mischief and help her out here and there, painting stuff, pulling pranks and whatever, your bond would sky rocket even more, since she’ll feel like you’re more than 10000% trustworthy and she’ll honestly tell you anything, especially all the juicy gossips from around - Yes, she knows them all.

So that’s how she and her girlfriend bonded, more or less, both of them having similar interests and accepting the other, no matter what weird things they’d do.

Getting Jinx to stay still isn’t an easy task, but if her girlfriend challenges her to some video games and she’ll go full-competitive on girlfriend, not letting her win. (Unless her girlfriend is like a Video Game boss, then she’ll get frustrated with her losing and will try even harder, until she beats her)

Which is exactly what happened one night when Jinx’s girlfriend asked her if she wanted to have a Mortal Kombat tournament and of course, she was up for the challenge!

The only this is…Jinx couldn’t win a single game for HOURS.Her girlfriend was just that amazing at Mortal Kombat!As she couldn’t even praise her skills because she was much too focused on beating her to even think about anything else.

Seeing how worked up Jinx got over not winning, her girlfriend grinned and let her win, trying not to make it obvious.Fortunately, Jinx was already jumping in the air of happiness to even consider the possibility of having been let to win - Nah, she was too excited to think.

Thing is…It only took her 5 minutes of partying to make her fall on the ground, dead asleep, which in turn, made her girlfriend blink in confusion and poke her face, only for her to lightly snore.

Trying not to die of laughter, she dragged Jinx on the carpet, got many pillows and blankets and set up a nice place for the both of them to sleep, all warm and comfy.

The next day, S/O woke up to the sound of a mischievous giggle and some boops on the nose and cheeks. S/O only opened one eye and grinned at Jinx, then pulled the blanket over both their heads and kissed her passionately on her lips.

Of course, this too turned into a kissing contest, getting Jinx to giggle like a maniac and pepper her girlfriend’s face with tons of kisses and playful lip bites.For some reason, Jinx was much happier than ever, and then she realised that it’s because she woke up next to her girlfriend, which had a huge positive impact on her.

10000% Would definitely do that again.

Maybe with less game defeats though.

Sona

Sweet, soft, mute girl deserves the best, please treat her well and she will play you any song you want with her etwahl.She’s generally rather she but very loving and affectionate towards girlfriend, going on board with most of her hobbies and passions that she has.

She likes gardening? Sona will be right next to her in the cutest gardening get-up, trying to take care of a little blue flower.She likes music? They can play together anything she wants, Sona learns songs really well and absolutely L O V E S hearing her girlfriend sing or play an instrument, no matter which it is.She likes video games?Sona will do her best to play with her if she needs a Player 2, and if she doesn’t and it’s a single-player one, she’d be happy to cuddle her and watch her play and beat the game.She likes reading? She will always gift her girlfriend books she says she wishes for or thinks she’d like, telepathically suggesting that they go out in a nice and quiet park or a little vintage cafe where they can enjoy reading together.

The first time Sona’s girlfriend spent the night at hers was for her birthday and damn, was it adorable.They spent the whole day together, nobody else disturbing them and her girlfriend even did her best to bake her a cute blueberry cake with some musical notes drawn on it and “Happy Birthday, Sona Sona was touched to tears and hugged her girlfriend tightly, not wanting to let her go, but hey, they had to eat cake!During the day, they talked about how her life with the League is, if she’s okay, about books and movies and everything they had in common, ending with them cuddled in bed, scented candles lit, low ambiental music in the background, hot beverages and a nice book that they both loved very much.

It didn’t take much for Sona to fall asleep in her girlfriend’s warm embrace with a sweet smile on her face, happy that she can actually feel so much love in her life after so many things happened to make her upset in the past.

The next day, Sona woke up to some light hair tugging which confused her, but turning around, she noticed her girlfriend greeting her good morning and trying to braid her hair.With a close-eyed smile, the bluenette went into a sitting position, telling her girlfriend to do what she wants with her hair.Hearing that, she only grinned and went behind her, making her lean back on her chest, hugging her and kissing her cheek, getting her slightly flush, but in glee nonetheless.

Sona’s hair is the best to braid and after S/O is done with it, Sona will look like one of those gorgeous fantasy elves or nymphs from their favourite books, and in turn, the bluenette loves doing the same with her girlfriend’s hair, pretending to be the Ultimate Ethereal Elf Couple.

Sona’s heart was close to bursting from happiness when she woke up and the first thing she saw was her girlfriend’s smile and honestly, she totally lives for it.She’d sooner or later suggest to move in together, just to get the opportunity to also see their peaceful sleeping face.

#League of Legends #LoL #Sona #buvelle #sona buvelle #yasuo #kayn shieda #shadow assassin kayn #rhaast #darkin #jinx #piltover #ionia #michelle zauner #demacia #caitlyn #vi #garen #lux #Luxanna Crownguard #ekko league of legends #nami #zyra #syndra #shen #talon #malzahar #vladimir league of legends #draven #darius

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

It’s Frahn-ken-shteen... [a Season 3 thought experiment]

As we near the finale of S3, I've been focusing more and more on what the season has done well, and what I've noticed is that they've introduced a lot of really cool and interesting ideas-- they just weren’t executed particularly well. 

It’s like they threw all these ideas at the wall of the writers room and just said “okay go”. As ideas, none of them are completely horrendous. With a little more care, they could have been crafted into a really strong season serving Kara's narrative and give it both weight and direction. 

So I gave myself a challenge-- if I dissected the season into it’s main story plots, and stitched them back together to create a more coherent narrative, what would the season have looked like?

Here's what I came up with:

(warning: it’s a long one, complete with gifs)

For me, the load-bearing arcs of the season should have been the Kryptonian cult and Argo City. With those two as the stanchions of the main story plot, everything else would work to support them. 

Coville’s cult would be the main villain of Season 3a. Instead of the sporadic all or nothing that cropped up here and there, they'd be running in the background the entire front half. They don't have to be the focus for every episode, but we as the audience would know that the DEO knows they're dangerous, and knows they're up to something.

Rather than being schooled by Coville in her own religion, Kara knows about Worldkillers-- they’re what people on Earth call urban legends. Spooky stories meant to teach Kryptonian children the value of trusting in Rao and obeying his doctrine.They’re ghost stories, and here the human idiot Coville is trying to worship them (and perverting Rao’s word-- let’s not forget that). This flips their dynamic so that Kara is more secure in her knowledge of Krypton than Coville is in his, and also sets the stage for the cult threat to segue into the Reign threat in 3b.

What Coville does do is spark Kara’s search for fragments of Krypton that might have survived and made it to Earth. We could have one bottle episode where she’s traveling the world hunting for another probe, and maybe that’s how she finds the Legion’s ship. She also finds some troubling records/notes in Coville’s cult that leads to some uncharted area of space that should be empty, so why is there a note? That’s how they find Argo (and Alura) for the midseason cliffhanger.

In 3b, we would take our time exploring Argo and seeing Kara really struggle with all the awesome/awfulness of finding her people again, and being torn between two worlds. She would get a chance to face and address the nasty and complicated emotions that comes with being unbelievably happy her mother is alive but also how could you send me away? Don’t you know I would’ve rather died with you? How could you use me to lure Alura in for arrest? How could you let our planet die??

And while we spend a few episodes on Argo, we’d spend some time seeing what life is like on Earth without Supergirl. This is where we’d see the really powerful arc of J’onn and M’yrnn, Alex slowly coming to terms with losing Maggie and Kara back to back-- and her slowly looking into the idea of adoption, with lots of hesitation and uncertainty. 

We see her feeling like her friends were really just Kara’s friends, and her loneliness just comes crashing down until Lena and Sam come knocking for girl’s night. James runs into his identity reveal crisis, Winn runs into his mom, and we see the final stages of Sam’s transformation. 

Kara starts sensing something is wrong when she starts seeing elements of Coville’s cult on Argo (the priestesses have been in direct contact with Coville for some time). Her suspicions are confirmed when she receives a distress call from Alex at the DEO-- there’s a new Kryptonian in town, and her name is Reign.

Because the nebulous use of “dark magic” to explain anything Worldkiller is anathema to me as a storyteller, the trinity’s origin/purpose would be the biggest actual change I make to this season. The “witches” may still create Reign, but with science rather than magic and it would tie back into the lore because they created her to embody the boogeyman-figure of Kryptonian legend. 

Once her premise is firmed up, Reign’s purpose would come out of that-- either she’s judge/jury/executioner for National City’s criminal element, or she’s a planet-killer. Maybe she’s both: if humans refuse to be ruled in fear, they can perish with the rest of their planet. But it’ll be more clearly developed, and not a sporadic “oh she can tunnel through the earth now just because” (also: Julia wouldn’t die. That was a shitty, unnecessary development)

The season would end with Alura and some choice friends from Argo coming to Earth’s aid alongside Supergirl. Once Reign is defeated, Kara now faces her choice of Argo or Earth. She chooses Earth. It’s her home now. She has family here, and a duty to protect the people who gave her a planet to call home. Alura wishes she too could choose to remain, but she has her own duty on Argo. She failed them once-- she can’t do it again. But they can still visit each other, and communicate via hologram: no more programmed “I do not have sufficient data...” responses from Alura. It’ll be the real thing, whevever Kara needs her.

Now, some addendums:

The Legion of Superheroes - 

As soon as Kara finds them, they’re featured heavily for about 3 episodes in the penultimate climax of the midseason finale, and then they’re sent on their way. Mon-el is happily married and devoted to his wife. Seeing him happy, with serious purpose, is what Kara needs to move on. Yes, it sucks to still lose him, but he’s alive and doing well, and that allows her to start healing.

Sam & Ruby - 

I am 100% okay for Sam’s arc to remain relatively the same. I’ve loved getting to know her and Ruby, and I’m really attached to both of them now. The only thing I’d change is on the back end of stuff-- maybe tailor the promotional material/interviews to keep some of Reign’s development secret. I would have loved to meet Sam without already knowing that she’s going to become Reign. 

I would also maybe tone down the whole Alex-Ruby dynamic. It’d still be there, but not quite so in your face. The perfect fix would be Alex and Sam getting involved, but I would be very mindful of the timing so as not to do any discredit to how important Maggie was in Alex’s development and growth as a person.

Morgan Edge -

Since Morgan Edge didn’t end up affecting Kara’s arc at any point in this season, I would have left him to act as Lena’s foil throughout the entire season. They’re evenly matched in resources and ambition, and I would have loved to see Lena play more against him in their battle of wits. 

For me, her battle with Edge would be a more interesting exploration of her Luthorness than the Great Kryptonite Rift. How would the shifting dynamic between her, Supergirl, and Kara have influenced Lena’s strategy against Edge? Would she become more ruthless as Supergirl’s faith in her waned? Would she rise above, and take some sort of high road in Kara’s absence? Not to mention, what would have happened if Lillian came back into her life AFTER Supergirl bites her head off over the Kryptonite?

In summary, I would just reorganize the season to slow the big ideas down and really take the proper time delving into the heart of the characters. Especially with Kara and her search for a connection to Krypton in 3a and dealing with actually finding it in 3b. And then we’d be able to clearly see and understand her personal revelation in the finale: Supergirl is neither wholly Kara Zor-el, nor Kara Danvers. 

She’s both, and all the stronger for it. 

#supergirl #wall of text #gifs #commentary #presumptuous i would have rathers #kara danvers #krypton #argo #kara zor el #season 3 #rewrite #this is literally everything I want in a season #just structured better and paced more evenly #lena luthor #alex danvers #sam arias #reign #worldkillers #alura

[perditaalottachocolate-blog]

“I Am Alive” - 1. Discovery

Adrien Appreciation Week @wearemiraculous , Day 4: Fashion

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

AO3 / fanfiction

Summary: Adrien’s life took an unexpected turn on the day he learned Gabriel’s greatest secret. It seemed like the end of the world, but it soon turned out that knowing Hawkmoth’s identity was the least of his problems. In fact it might have been a stroke of luck just when he needed it the most. Adrien Appreciation Week connected story. Inspired by the song “I am alive” by JJ Lin feat. Jason Mraz,

On the day his life took an unexpected turn Adrien caught sight of his father heading to the underground levels of the mansion with a disturbingly dull look in his eyes. It was exactly three years since Adrien’s mother disappeared and as each anniversary rolled by he observed Gabriel going through the same cycle. Isolating himself even more than usual, shutting everything and everyone including Adrien out, and wallowing in grief all by himself. The anniversary marked the apex of this process when his father disappeared for a whole day, rescheduling or cancelling the world. That was the one day of the year when Gabriel openly declared there were more important things than fashion.

But this year Adrien had been more concerned than before. The annual depression hit earlier than ever, with Gabriel slowly withdrawing from all activities, which as the boy suspected included eating. His father gradually started to resemble a ghost, with paper skin, bags under his eyes and sunken cheeks. His usual ensemble of red pants and cream jackets had been replaced by greys and blacks at least a size smaller, which increased the impression of Gabriel turning into a living dead.

Funny thing, Adrien thought to himself after his discovery. He had described his father as a living dead while the term turned out to better fit another member of his family, someone he had lost hopes of seeing ever again. And he could swear his own heart stopped for a moment too, when he glimpsed the scene in whatever this place under his house was.

Adrien followed his father only because he didn’t like the anguish and desolation he saw in the man’s eyes. He slipped into the basement without making a sound and tiptoed to the metal door that was usually secured with bars and padlocks. Not this time. The air had a metallic and humid taste to it when he peeked inside the dark corridor. There was water at the other end; he could not only smell it, but hear the soft hum of waves splashing against the walls.

Fascinated, he entered the passage. And then he heard his father’s voice.

‘Nothing makes sense anymore,’ Gabriel whispered, but the space he occupied must have acted as a giant amplifier because Adrien could hear him as if he was standing next to the man. ‘I can’t design. I think I’ve finally lost the little joy fashion brought me.’

In the pause the boy heard a sigh, a sniff and an unfamiliar sound of something rubbing against glass.

‘I’m doing everything I can, dear, but it’s not enough. It’s never enough,’ Gabriel continued. ‘Everytime I’m close, the miraculous slip out of my reach and I have to start again.’

Adrien shook his head. Did he hear “miraculous”? He felt Plagg stirring in his pocket. The kwami poked his head out and pointed his ears in the direction of the sound, focusing on Gabriel’s voice. The kwami shot him a worried look. Apparently he hadn’t misheard after all.

‘But I will get them, dear, I promise,’ now his father’s voice broke and a sob escaped him. ‘I’ve learned more about the powers of Ladybug and Black Cat’s miraculouses, and I’ve managed to decode some of the Moth miraculous pages, too. I am getting closer.’

Adrien felt the sudden rush of blood going straight into his head. He leaned on the brick wall of the corridor to steady himself. Plagg flew out of his hideout and to the exit of the passage, leaving the boy alone. This must have been important.

‘I will get you back, love,’ Gabriel babbled, his speech now peppered with sniffs and sighs. ‘I just need a bit more time. Those new powers will help, I’m sure. I just…’ he paused again, ‘I just miss you so much, Emilie! I keep coming here though it’s a torture to see you like this, but I have to. I would probably have gone crazy without seeing you all this time.’

There was a sound of body slipping to the ground, clothes scrubbing over the bricks. Adrien realised it was him. His knees wobbled and bent, unable to sustain his weight. He saw Plagg turning to him and he made a calming gesture, showing that he was fine, or as fine as he could considering the circumstances. He got to all fours and slowly started to move towards the kwami and the end of the corridor, doing his best to focus on here and now.

‘I don’t care if I have to akumatize the whole city, dear,’ his father mumbled as the boy advanced in his crawl, ‘as long as I can fix this mistake, it doesn’t matter.’

There would be time to digest everything he just heard and was about to see. Now he needed to stay calm, needed to gain as much knowledge as possible. He wasn’t stupid, the most important facts had already registered and Plagg’s behavior clearly indicated this wasn’t a dream or illusion. As one half of the superduo protecting Paris, Adrien had his responsibilities. But there was also a sort of sick fascination at the back of his head, urging him to see with his own eyes, that his ears hadn’t lied to him. So he edged to the mouth of the passage and with a nod of agreement from Plagg, risked a look outside.

The space was huge, much larger than he expected based on the echo. Metal platforms ran from wall to wall and in the middle, with greenish water sloshing underneath. The opposite end of this underground cavern was covered in plants, lit by the fading sunlight coming from a huge butterfly-shaped window near the top of the chamber.

His father was standing by a human-sized glass cylinder, his hands and forehead pressed to the surface. He was shaking and whispering things Adrien couldn’t make out without the funnelling effect of the passageway. His breathing hitched when Gabriel finally moved away from the glass and wiped it with a cloth.

It was ridiculous, but Adrien immediately thought about Snow White and her coffin. That’s how pale his mother’s skin seemed under the glass. Blonde ringlets reached her the waist - they were much longer than he remembered. She looked as if she’d been sleeping, with eyes closed, features relaxed and hands crossed over her chest. His gaze travelled to the cylinder and various tubes connected to it and disappearing among the leaves. What the hell was this place? A mausoleum? A crypt? A repository?

He couldn’t muse over this much longer as he heard his father’s steps over the metal platform. Plagg tugged at his shirt urging him to retreat. Adrien jumped to his feet and withdrew from the corridor as fast as he could, leaving the door closed as he had found it. He sneaked out of the basement level and then ran to his room. He didn’t even stop to call his transformation. Adrien entered the room and few seconds later Chat left via bathroom window and vaulted himself over the rooftops and into the falling darkness of the Parisian evening.

Only when he finally got to the top of the Palais de Chaillot he let out a shaky breath and sagged to his knees. He knew he should release his transformation and speak to Plagg about what they had just witnessed. He knew he should get to Ladybug or Master Fu and tell them everything. But right now he needed some time to compose himself, to be left alone and think. To mourn the loss of his obliviousness and innocence.

His head was reeling. He felt as if someone suckerpunched him and then kicked for a better measure. In the span of just a few minutes he lost his family all over again. But somehow this was a hundred times worse. The mother he missed and had been trying to let go of for so long was apparently still alive. The father who had made himself scarce in fact had abandoned him to pursue an insane plan of acquiring magical artifacts in order to fix an unknown mistake. Adrien suddenly felt as if the last three years of his life had been a mistake too.

Three years ago he had a family, a home, a normal life. Now he was a part time superhero fighting a super villain who turned out to be his own kin. He shared a house and last name with his enemy. This thought seemed to be too big to fit into his head. He felt angry, despaired, scared and abandoned. How did one deal with something like that? It was utterly ridiculous. Like some sort of sick joke, like a fantasy story. Like a freaking Star Wars episode.

Finally giving up on reigning in his thoughts, Chat Noir scooted to the edge of the roof, pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. Home was the last place he wanted to be right now, so he just sat there like a cat-themed gargoyle and watched the sunset, doing his best to clear his mind and brace himself for whatever the next day held.

He didn’t notice the light stomp of feet landing on the roof behind him, nor the soft voice calling his name, until a hand squeezed his shoulder.

‘Chat Noir?’ Ladybug asked, taking a seat next to him. ‘Are you alright?’

All it took was one look and she was already pulling him into a warm embrace. He shivered and melted into her with a quiet whimper. Nothing was ever going to be alright, he thought, but in her arms he could pretend for a while that it would be.

#Adrien Appreciation Week #We Are Miraculous #Day 4: Fashion #perdita writes #I Am Alive #Adrien Agreste #Chat Noir #Plagg #Gabriel Agreste #Hawkmoth #Emilie Agreste #hurt/comfort #romance #reveal