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cosmicjoke · 3 years

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Alright, so onto chapter 2 of “No Regrets”.

I want to talk a little about these opening panels, when Levi, Furlan and Isabel are being driven to HQ by carriage. They seem unimportant, but I think they’re actually really important in understanding Levi’s psychology going into this new situation they’re all in.

We see the interior of the carriage, with Levi and the other two, along with an escort from the SC. Furlan and Isabel are both looking out the window of the carriage, and in particular, Isabel seems incredibly excited and in awe of the passing view. She’s stood up, with her face pressed to the window. And in the next panel, we see her looking at a little girl with her mother, dressed nicely and holding a doll. This really encapsulates everything Isabel herself has probably never had. A reliable mother to take care of her, fancy clothes and toys to play with. Essentially, an actual childhood. We see Isabel’s face in the window, and her mouth is open in wonder, her eyes wide. Like she can’t believe what she’s seeing. It emphasizes the depravation and lack of privilege she’s endured all her life. Meanwhile, by contrast, Levi sits there with his head bowed down, ignoring the passing scenery, looking deeply unhappy, even depressed. When he does look up though, he sees Isabel looking out the window, and on the close up shot of him, he’s got an almost thoughtful expression, if still extremely dour. No doubt, Levi is feeling uneasy and uncertain about the situation they’ve all gotten themselves into here, but I’m also sure that he’s unable to ignore the bubbling over excitement of Isabel, her obvious joy in being, at last, on the surface. I’ll get more into this later in the post, when we see Levi really considering his friends and their dreams, and how it influences and dictates his own decisions.

But first lets talk a little about Erwin and his role in all of this.

Now at the time this series came out, Erwin’s actual, motivating reasons for doing what he does weren’t yet known, so it’s interesting to read into his actions in this story with that context. I have no doubt that Erwin really DOES care about humanity, and wants to fight for it, and its salvation. But as we come to learn from the main series, he places his own dream of proving his father right about the existence of human’s beyond the walls above what’s best for humanity, and it puts his actions in this story into an interesting, if harsher light.

No doubt, Erwin is a master manipulator. He plays both sides expertly against the middle in this story, and I’ll get more into it by the end, when his actual plan is revealed to Levi. But what I don’t see often discussed is how, exactly, Erwin got all the parts moving in the direction he wanted, to obtain a specific outcome, and how he pretty ruthlessly uses so many people as pawns to do so. It’s obvious from the context of what we later learn in the story that Erwin first spread a rumor about having evidence against Lovof stealing funds in order to force him into tipping his hand by trying to make a preemptive move. What I see people miss all the time, or at least, fail to discuss, is how Erwin also, at the same time, made it public knowledge within the Capital, that he would be going after a group of thugs in the Underground who had shown exceptional skill using ODM gear, and that he would be making contact with them as soon as possible to try and enlist them into military service, and how Erwin made these plans public specifically to encourage Lobov into seeking out Levi and his friends for the exact purpose of both implicating Lobov in a crime, and gaining Levi’s and his friends strength for the SC. One, by hiring a group of criminals to steal from Erwin and attempt to assassinate him, so he could use that as leverage in case he wasn’t able to obtain proof of Lobov’s further criminal activities, thus having two means of getting rid of one of the SC’s biggest threats, and at the same time, also manage to score for the SC the exceptional skill of Levi and his friends through forced enlistment. He even says to Zackely at one point “I intend to make use of anyone who has even the smallest potential during this expedition.”. Erwin manipulated and had control of this entire scenario from the start, and from behind these scenes moved all of these people exactly how he wanted to, to achieve his goals. That’s pretty impressive, but also pretty scary. Well, I’ll talk more about all of that when we get to it later on.

Back to Levi and his friends though.

We see them arrive at the SC HQ, and a really important conversation happens between Levi and Furlan.

Furlan seems like he’s almost bitten off more than he can chew here, beginning to express his concern to Levi about what joining the SC actually means, before Levi cuts him off, telling him he’s got no intention of enlisting, and that he only agreed to come along so that he could get closer to Erwin and then kill him. I think Levi genuinely felt murderous towards Erwin at this point, and really means what he says here, at least about killing him. Though given the end of chapter 1, with the significant look shared between Levi and Furlan, and Levi’s begrudging acceptance of Erwin’s offer, it’s obvious that Levi also agreed to come because that’s what Furlan wanted him to do, to give them the opportunity they needed. Levi’s just feeling incredibly emotional here, I think, with the way Erwin treated all of them hot on his mind. Furlan tries to implore Levi to forget about killing Erwin, that it isn’t necessary anymore because of his own plan, and the almost certainty that Lobov and his people won’t ever try to make contact with them again. He tells Levi, if he just listens to him and follows his plan, “I know it’ll work. Trust me, Levi.” Furlan asking him to trust him pulls a meaningful look from Levi, seeming to break through Levi’s angry insistence on killing Erwin. This is where the manga improved on Levi’s characterization and motivation by leaps and bounds over the visual novel, because in the next few panels, we see Levi walking away, with Furlan calling after him, concerned, but we get to see Levi’s inner thoughts, and he’s remembering specifically Furlan insisting to him that “one day, we’ll get outta this trash heap and live up above.” We see Levi thinking about Furlan’s hopes and dreams in these panels, and he has a saddened, and guilt-ridden look on his face, like he feels bad about having dismissed Furlan’s plans back there in favor of his own plans for revenge. We didn’t get any of this in the visual novel, instead the text there making Levi look like he refused to consider anyones position but his own in this whole situation. But here, Levi is clearly concerned with and considering Furlan’s desires.

We go into a flashback then, with Furlan explaining to Levi his plans, telling him that “nothing’s gone according to plan... But with you here we’ll really be able to raise hell.” Furlan’s trying to explain to Levi that since he now has Levi’s strength to rely on, they can actually get something done once they get into the Survey Corps. It almost seems like Furlan’s been planning on trying something like this, or at least, had some sort of loose plan about getting to the surface, even before he met Levi. It’s obviously something he’s been dreaming about for a long time.

Then Isabel comes back, and she’s been roughed up and assaulted, and we learn from Furlan asking her if she went to see those “low-life scumbags again?” that this has obviously happened to her before, that she’s been associating with some bad people and it’s gotten her hurt. She denies it and lies about having just tripped, but clearly neither Levi or Furlan are buying that. Levi asks Isabel what happened to her hair, and Isabel reacts badly, running away and hiding in her room. We get a close up of Levi holding a knife in his hands, foreshadowing his own intentions. Later that night, Furlan hears Isabel crying in her room, and her chanting to herself over and over that she’s going to “kill you”, presumably meaning the men that hurt her earlier. Furlan stands there lamenting that he thinks both Levi and Isabel are going “mad”, and that all they can think about is dragging everyone else down to where they are. He’s obviously terrified that he’s going to lose both his friends to the savagery and ruthlessness of the Underground, that both of them are going to end up becoming lost to their own anger and pain. He starts to say “That’s why I...” before Levi suddenly comes back in, holding a bloody knife, clearly having returned from exacting revenge on the men who hurt Isabel. Furlan asks Levi “Did you kill them...?”, and Levi doesn’t answer, but we see a completely resigned, even sad look on his face. This of course is the world Levi comes from. It’s the world he was raised in. A world of kill or be killed. Levi must have figured, if he didn’t go out and kill those men that had hurt Isabel now, then someday, they would end up going too far with her, and kill her instead. But Furlan clearly doesn’t understand, and doesn’t relate to that kind of mindset, despite coming from the Underground too. Of course, Furlan wasn’t raised by Kenny the Ripper either. This is how Levi was taught to deal with his problems, and Furlan can only see him spiraling into an abyss from which he fears Levi won’t return.

We cut back to the present then, and Levi is sitting up on the roof of the SC HQ, again remembering Furlan’s words about “This is our chance. Trust me.”. Getting to the surface and finding better lives for themselves is Furlan’s dream. The fact that Levi keeps remembering it, keeps remembering Furlan insisting and pushing the idea of the possibility of living on the surface, shows that this is probably something he would talk about all the time with Levi, trying to get him to agree to it, to believe in it. Once again, Levi is contemplating the hopes and dreams of his friends. We get another close up of him holding a knife, and it represents, I think, his struggle between his desire for revenge against Erwin, and his desire to help Furlan realize what, to Levi, is probably an unrealistic goal.

We then get Furlan and Isabel joining Levi, commenting on how beautiful the night sky is, and asking Levi how he could keep it to himself. Levi snips testily at Furlan that him and Isabel are so loud, that he’d be too irritated to get any killing done, and then Furlan looking clearly unsettled by the remark. But it’s obvious, given the context of the previous panels of Levi’s thinking about Furlan’s dream, that Levi is just being peevish and saying things out of frustration and confusion. He doesn’t really mean what he says here. He’s taking his frustration out on Furlan by saying what he knows will upset him the most. What this also tells us is that Levi is very much aware of how bothered Furlan is by Levi’s willingness to kill. He isn’t at all oblivious to it, and given his resigned, saddened expression after coming back from killing the men who assaulted Isabel, I would say Levi even understands Furlan’s dismay. That’s a glimpse at Levi’s famous compassion.

The next panels show the three of them bonding, sitting together and admiring the night sky. Isabel asks Levi if the stars are as pretty as where he used to live. I’m just going to chalk the mistake in continuity here up to this manga coming out before, I believe, Levi’s backstory of being born in a brothel in the Underground was established by Isayama. Regardless of this mistake, this is an important moment between the three of them. You can see the awe and wonder they all feel, looking up and seeing the sky fully for what has to be the first time in all their lives. Remember, all three of them have lived literally underground their entire lives, with little to no sunlight, stagnant, stale air, hideously unclean living conditions, etc... It must be overwhelming to them , just to see nature in all its splendor like that. It’s after sharing this moment together that Levi tells Furlan that he’s decided he won’t kill Erwin for now. He looks at him and says “I’m going to trust you.”. And Furlan smiles at him, clearly happy and relieved. This scene is really important, because we’re seeing Levi choose Furlan’s dream over his own desire for revenge. We see Levi place Furlan’s desires over his own, which is totally in line with how Levi is in the main AoT storyline. He decides his revenge can wait, that it’s not as important as helping Furlan achieve his goals. What’s particularly remarkable about this, I think, is that it doesn’t appear that Levi ever dreamed of going to the surface himself, and likely that he never even considered it a possibility. So just like Levi fights, later on, for a world without fear and violence, for humanity’s salvation, even as all his life experiences tell him it likely isn’t possible, we see the Levi doing the same here, deciding to fight for his friend’s dream, even as to him, it seems unrealistic. It’s obviously a pivotal moment too, when Levi tells him he’s going to trust him, because this ties in hugely with the theme which applies so much to Levi throughout the whole series, of never knowing if it’s better to rely on himself solely, to trust himself, or to trust and rely on his friends and their capabilities. Levi chooses, here, to trust in his friends, and that will obviously have it’s own ramifications down the line. Again, this is an area in which the manga improves radically over the visual novel, which had no instances whatsoever of Levi struggling with the question of the choices we make, which is absurd, since it’s one of the driving factors behind who Levi is, and how he ultimately came to see the world as he does. It was precisely this struggle between choices, between trying to choose correctly, giving so much thought and effort to our choices, and still sometimes coming out wrong, that shaped Levi into being able to accept his lack of control and instead of regretting it, using it to keep fighting.

Anyway, I’ll get to chapter 3 tomorrow.

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #No Regrets #acwnr #Levi Ackerman #isabel magnolia #furlan church #Erwin Smith #meta #snk analysis

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noemibalbii · 3 years

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Six of Crows duology quotes

“Many boys will bring you flowers. But someday you’ll meet a boy who will learn your favorite flower, your favorite song, your favorite sweet. And even if he is too poor to give you any of them, it won’t matter because he will have taken the time to know you as no one else does. Only that boy earns your heart.”

“Kaz leaned back. “What’s the easiest way to steal a man’s wallet?” “Knife to the throat?” asked Inej. “Gun to the back?” said Jesper. “Poison in his cup?” suggested Nina. “You’re all horrible,” said Matthias.

“No mourners. No funerals. Among them, it passed for ‘good luck’.”

“The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true.”

“When someone knows you’re a monster, you needn’t waste time doing every monstrous thing.”

“She’d laughed, and if he could have bottled the sound and gotten drunk on it every night, he would have. It terrified him.”

“He needed to tell her… what? That she was lovely and brave and better than anything he deserved. That he was twisted, crooked, wrong, but not so broken that he couldn’t pull himself together into some semblance of a man for her. That without meaning to, he’d begun to lean on her, to look for her, to need her near. He needed to thank her for his new hat.”

“I have been made to protect you. Only in death will I be kept from this oath.”

“Please, my darling Inej, treasure of my heart, won’t you do me the honor of acquiring me a new hat?”

“What do you want then?” The old answers came easily to mind. Money. Vengeance. Jordie’s voice in my head silenced forever. But a different reply roared inside him, loud, insistent, and unwelcome, You, Inej, you.

“Greed is your god, Kaz.” He almost laughed at that. “No, Inej. Greed bows to me. It is my servant and my lever.”

“The easiest way to steal a man’s wallet is to tell him you’re going to steal his watch. You take his attention and direct it where you want it to go.”

“Better terrible truths than kind lies.”

“You’ll get what’s coming to you some day, Brekker.” “I will,” said Kaz, “if there’s any justice in the world. And we all know how likely that is.”

“You can’t spend his money if you’re dead.” “I’ll acquire expensive habits in the afterlife.” “There’s a difference between confidence and arrogance.”

“Stay,” he said, his voice rough stone. “Stay in Ketterdam. Stay with me.” She looked down at his gloved hand clutching hers. Everything in her wanted to say yes, but she would not settle for so little, not after all she’d been through. “What would be the point?” He took a breath. “I want you to stay, I want you to… I want you.” “You want me.” She turned the words over. Gently, she squeezed his hand. “And how will you have me, Kaz?” He looked at her then, eyes fierce, mouth set, It was the face he wore when he was fighting. “How will you have me?” she repeated. “Fully clothed, gloves on, your head turned away so our lips can never touch?” He released her hand, his shoulders bunching, his gaze angry and ashamed as he turned his face to the sea. Maybe it was because his back was to her that she could finally speak the words. “I will have you without armor, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all.”

“Some people see a magic trick and say, “Impossible!” They clap their hands, turn over their money, and forget about it ten minutes later. Other people ask how it worked. They go home, get into bed, toss and turn, wondering how it was done. It takes them a good night’s sleep to forget all about it. And then there are the ones who stay awake, running through the trick again and again, looking for that skip in perception, the crack in the illusion that will explain how their eyes got duped; they’re the kind who won’t rest until they’ve mastered that little bit of mystery for themselves. I’m that kind.”

“He’d broken his leg dropping down from the rooftop. The bone didn’t set right, and he’d limped ever after. So he’d found himself a Fabrikator and had his cane made. It became a declaration. There was no part of him that was not broken, that had not healed wrong, and there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken.”

“Do you have a different name for killing when you wear a uniform to do it?”

“Facts are for the unimaginative.”

“When we get our money, you can burn kruge to keep you warm.” “I’m going to pay someone to burn my kruge for me.” “Why don’t you pay someone else to pay someone to burn your kruge for you? That’s what the big players do.”

“How do you get your information, Mister Brekker?” “You might say I’m a lockpick.” “You must be a very gifted one.” “I am indeed.” Kaz leaned back slightly. “You see, every man is a safe, a vault of secrets and longings. Now, there are those who take the brute’s way, but I prefer a gentler approach - the right pressure applied at the right moment, in the right place. It’s a delicate thing.” “Do you always speak in metaphors, Mister Brekker?” Kaz smiled. “It’s not a metaphor.” He was out of his chair before his chains hit the ground.”

“A liar, a thief, and utterly without conscience. But he’ll keep to any deal you strike with him.”

“You couldn’t train a falcon, then expect it not to hunt.”

“The life you live, the hate you feel - it’s poison. I can drink it no longer.”

Jesper: “If Pekka Rollins kills us all, I’m going to get Wylan’s ghost to teach my ghost how to play the flute just so that I can annoy the hell out of your ghost.” Kaz: “I’ll just hire Matthias’s ghost to kick your ghost’s ass.” Matthias: “My ghost won’t associate with your ghost.”

“But all he could think of was Inej. She had to live. She had to have made it out of the Ice Court. And if she hadn’t, then he had to live to rescue her.”

“He was going to break my legs,” she said, her chin held high, the barest quaver in her voice. “Would you have come for me then, Kaz? When i couldn’t scale a wall or walk a tightrope? When I wasn’t the Wraith anymore?” Dirtyhands would not. The boy who could get them through this, get their money, keep them alive, would do her the courtesy of putting her out of her out of her misery, then cut his losses and move on. “I would have come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together - knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.”

“Fear is a phoenix. You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return.”

“Maybe there were people who lived those lives. Maybe this girl was one of them. But what about the rest of us? What about the nobodies and the nothings, the invisible girls? We learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns. We learn to write magic from the ordinary. That was how you survived when you weren’t chosen, when there was no royal blood in your veins. When the world owed you nothing, you demanded something of it anyway.”

“Crows remember human faces. They remember the people who feed them, who are kind to them. And the people who wrong them too. They don’t forget. They tell each other who to look after and who to watch out for.”

“Has anyone noticed this whole city is looking for us, mad at us, or want to kill us?” “So?” said Kaz. “Well, usually it’s just half the city.”

“She smiled then, her cheeks red, her cheeks scattered with some kind of dust. It was a smile he thought he might die to earn again.”

“No mourners. No funerals. Another way of saying good luck. But it was something more. A dark wink to the fact that there would be no expensive burials for people like them, no marble markers to remember their names, no wreaths of myrtle and rose.”

“Have any of you wondered what I did with all the cash Pekka Rollins gave us?” “Guns?” asked Jesper. “Ships?” queried Inej. “Bombs?” suggested Wylan. “Political bribes?” offered Nina. They all looked at Matthias. “This is where you tell us how awful we are,” she whispered.

“We meet fear. We greet the unexpected visitor and listen to what he has to tell us. When fear arrives, something is about to happen.”

“You don’t look like a monster.” “I’ll tell you a secret, Hannah. The really bad monsters never look like monsters.”

Until this moment, Wylan hadn’t quite understood how much they meant to him. His father would have sneered at these thugs and thieves. a disgraced soldier, a gambler who couldn’t keep out of the red. But they were his first friends, his only friends, and Wylan knew that even if he’d had his pick of a thousand companions, these would have been the people he chose.”

“They were twin souls, soldiers destined to fight for different sides, to find each other and lose each other too quickly. She would not keep him here. Not like this.”

“At some point, Jesper realized Kaz was gone. “Not one for goodbyes, is he?” he muttered. “He doesn’t say goodbye,” Inej said. She kept her eyes on the lights of the canal. Somewhere in the garden, a night bird began to sing. “He just lets go.”

“I’ve been nothing but kind to you. I’m not some sort of a monster.” “No, you’re the man who sits idly by, congratulating yourself on your decency, while the monster eats his fill. At least a monster has teeth and a spine.”

“But if you couldn’t open a door, you just had to make a new one.”

“You’re not weak because you can’t read. You’re weak because you’re afraid of people seeing your weakness. You’re letting shame decide who you are. […] It’s shame that lines my pockets, shame that keeps the Barrel teeming with fools ready to put on a mask just so they can have what they want with none the wiser about it. We can endure all kinds of pain. It’s shame that eats men whole.”

“She could feel the press of Kaz’s fingers against her skin, feel the bird’s wing brush of his mouth against her neck, see his dilated eyes. Two of the deadliest people the Barrel had to offer and they could barely touch each other without both of them keeling over. But they’d tried. He’d tried. Maybe they could try again. A foolish wish, the sentimental hope of a girl who hadn’t had the firsts of her life stolen, who hadn’t ever felt Tante Heleen’s lash, who wasn’t covered in wounds and wanted by the law. Kaz would have laughed at her optimism.”

“No matter the height of the mountain, the climbing is the same.”

“But when someone does wrong, when we make mistakes, we don’t say we’re sorry. We promise to make amends.” “I will.” “Mati en sheva yelu. This action will have no echo. It means we won’t repeat the same mistakes, that we won’t continue to do harm.”

“Van Eck promised us thirty million kruge,” said Kaz. “That’s exactly what we’re going to take. With another one million for interest, expenses, and just because we can.” Wylan broke a cracker in two. “My father doesn’t have thirty million kruge lying around. Even if you took all his assets together.” “You should leave, then,” said Jesper. “We only associate with the disgraced heirs of the very finest fortunes.”

“You’re better than waffles, Matthias Helvar.” A small smile curled the Fjerdan’s lips. “Let’s not say things we don’t mean, my love.”

“A proper thief is like a proper poison, merchling. He leaves no trace.”

“She took a shaky breath. The words came like a string of gunshots, rapid-fire, as if she resented the very act of speaking them. “I didn’t know if you would come.” Kaz couldn’t blame Van Eck for that. Kaz had built that doubt in her with every cold word and small cruelty. “We’re your crew, Inej. We don’t leave our own at the mercy of merch scum.” It wasn’t the answer he wanted to give. It wasn’t the answer she wanted.

“I just don’t get it. I’ve spent my whole life hiding the things I can’t do. Why run from the amazing things you can do?”

“She felt his knuckles slide against hers. Then his hand was in her hand, his palm was pressed against her own. A tremor moved through him. Slowly, he let their fingers entwine. For a long while, they stood there, hands clasped, looking out at the gray expanse of the sea.”

“Matthias knew monsters, and one glance at Kaz Brekker had told him this was a creature who had spent too long in the dark - he’d brought something back with him when he’d crawled into the light.”

“She wouldn’t wish love on anyone. It was the guest you welcomed and then couldn’t be rid of.”

“Brick by brick. Brick by brick. I will destroy you.” It was the promise that let him sleep at night, that drove him every day, that kept Jordie’s ghost at bay. Because a quick death was too good for Pekka Rollins.”

“Kaz narrowed his eyes. “I’m not some character out of a children’s story who plays harmless pranks and steals from the rich to give to the poor.”

“Inej had once offered to teach him how to fall. “The trick is not getting knocked down,” he’d told her with a laugh. “No, Kaz,” she’d said, “the trick is in getting back up.”

“It was because she was listening so closely the she knew the exact moment when Kaz Brekker, Dirtyhands, the bastard of the Barrel and deadliest boy in Ketterdam, fainted.”

“Our hopes rest with you, Mister Brekker. If you fail, all the world will suffer for it.” “Oh, it’s worse than that, Van Eck. If I fail, I don’t get paid.”

“This isn’t… it isn’t a trick, is it?” Her voice was smaller than she wanted it to be. The shadow of something dark moved across Kaz’s face. “If it were a trick, I’d promise you safety. I’d offer you happiness. I don’t know if that exists in the Barrel, but you’ll find none of it with me.” For some reason, those words had comforted her. Better terrible truths than kind lies. “All right,” she said. “How do we begin?” “Let’s start by getting out of here and finding you some proper clothes. Oh, and Inej,” he said as he led her out of the salon, “don’t ever sneak up on me again.”

“They fear you as I once feared you,” he said. “As you once feared me. We are all someone’s monster, Nina.”

“You still may die in the Dregs.” Inej’s dark eyes had glinted. “I may. But I’ll die on my feet with a knife in my hand.”

“Shame holds more value than coin ever can.”

“None of us move on without a backward look. We move on always carrying with us those we have lost.”

“You came back for me.” “I protect my investments.” Investments. “I’m glad I’m bleeding all over your shirt.”

“Why do you wear gloves, Mister Brekker?” Kaz raised a brow. “I’m sure you’ve heard the stories.” “Each more grotesque than the last.” Kaz had heard them, too. Brekker’s hands were stained with blood. Brekker’s hands were covered in scars. Brekker had claws and not fingers because he was part demon. Brekker’s touch burned like brimstone - a single brush of his bare skin caused your flesh to wither and die. “Pick one,” Kaz said as he vanished into the night, thoughts already turning to thirty million kruge and the crew he’d need to help him get it. “They’re all true enough.”

“You have no finesse,” a gambler at the Silver Garter once said to him. “No technique.” “Sure I do,” Kaz had responded. “I practice the art of ‘pull his shirt over his head and punch till you see blood’.”

“A gambler, a convict, a wayward son, a lost Grisha, a Suli girl who had become a killer, a boy from the Barrel who had become something worse.” [...] “What bound them together? Greed? Desperation? Was it just the knowledge that if one or all of them disappeared tonight, no one would come looking?”

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dalekofchaos · 3 years

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I know you don't like Chloe Price anymore. But since you like to change things about your favorite things like Star Wars, DC, Marvel and Horror, how would you change how DONTNOD/Deck Nine handled Chloe?

A lot. I will start with BTS and then LIS. But to be fair, I’ve grown to like Chloe again. My big problem is how she treats Max, the fact that we cannot choose who Max focuses on(again I’d choose Warren and Kate if I could) and well the hateful and toxic Pricefield fans ruined Chloe for me. But here’s how I would change Chloe if I could

BTS

First of all, hire someone who actually understands how teenagers talk(especially teenage girls) and make the dialogue less cringey(this goes for both games)

Give Chloe more of a character arc. I don’t feel that Deck Nine did Chloe justice. The writers attempt to evoke empathy with Chloe feeling grief which is done via exactly one emotion- which is a very childish understanding of how loss and coping works. She had no character arc, considering she was the exact same character that we already knew in LiS Episode 1 (A bitter disaffected teenage youth with no regard for authority) so we didn’t get to see Chloe evolve into the character we loved in the first game. She just already was it. The gameplay undid the narrative we were given about Chloe being a loner in that you can talk to and make friends with pretty much anybody and they all acted like they liked and were genuinely happy to see Chloe. Very rarely were there interactions with Blackwell students that ended with Chloe’s presence not being welcomed, only Wells, Victoria and Nathan showed contempt for Chloe(even with Nathan that goes away when he claps for her at the play) The reason this is done is because the game wouldn’t be fun if Chloe actually was a loner. The core mechanic of Life is Strange is being able to talk to people and experiment with your surroundings. A game where nobody wanted to talk to Chloe works against the core mechanic. But in making her the main character it undoes the weight of the narrative of Chloe being alone until Rachel/Max. I just strongly feel that Deck Nine did not understand Chloe as a character and did not do her justice. We should’ve gotten Chloe at her lowest, evolving from Max’s best friend to the character we know in the first game and Rachel helping lift Chloe through the worse point of her life. Chloe and Rachel together having fun rocking out and Chloe starting to live again and show that Chloe Price loves Rachel Amber and Rachel loves Chloe. Chloe losing Rachel and showing how Chloe has to deal with Rachel missing, how she became in debt to Frank and how she got involved with Nathan and how Chloe ends up in the bathroom.

The game should have 5 episodes. The first 2 episodes focus on Chloe and Rachel’s first year together. Episode 3 focuses on 2011. 4 focuses on 2012 and the final episode focuses on 2013 and Chloe’s breakdown over Rachel’s disappearance. A bonus episode “Firewalk with me” to show us Rachel’s final days and the choices that led her to the Dark Room. Needless to say, those fans who were against LIS 2 would have something to look forward to cause Deck Nine would take their time with BTS in this scenario.

Make it very clear that David is abusive. The problem with their dynamic in BTS is that they go out of their way to make Chloe irrational for not giving David a chance. In BTS Chloe says she hates David because he calls her “girly” and the game practically implies Chloe is at fault for the conflict between Chloe and David for not accepting David’s photo...what kind of abuse apologetic bullshit is that? Okay so start off by saying in her journal that “Joyce really remarried the first asshole she saw in Two Whales.” because by the time of 2010 in the canon of the first game, they are already married. Have it implied in her entry about David that it’s like “living Full Metal Jacket” that alone implies emotional and mental abuse if you’ve seen the Bootcamp scenes. Chloe in the entry would continue to say, life’s been a living hell ever since David entered the picture and Joyce takes his side every time. We would get the impression that David does not understand nor does he care about Chloe's depression and grief for losing William and Max moving away. When fighting with Joyce about David, say “he keeps hitting me and you keep defending him, how do you expect me to get over dad by letting some abusive asshole take his place?” Joyce would respond with “you keep pushing him, what did you think was gonna happen” And worse, David just started the Security Officer job at Blackwell. Needless to say Chloe is not taking any of this well. So when David and Chloe go to Blackhell, he’s basically ordering her around, talking down to her. Telling her “You’ve had two years free of having a father figure in your life. I am your father now. I’ve been showing you what a stable home is like, yet you keep pushing me.” Chloe back talks him and it results in David smacking her. David would then say “Look what you made me do.” Later in the game, Chloe would get herself expelled just to get away from David and David would berate her and call her a loser. Near the end of Episode 3 or 4, Rachel would have dinner with Chloe, Joyce and David. Rachel would see the way David treats Chloe and stands up for her girlfriend. Threatens to call the cops on David if he ever hurts her girlfriend ever again. This of course would spark down David’s obsession with surveillance and his investigation into stalking Rachel, all because he wanted to save his pathetic fucking ass.

Actually give Chloe a transformation. The problem with BTS, is that Chloe is the same character from the first game. We don’t get to see how the innocent and happy Chloe becomes the Chloe from the first game. She’s just like this immediately. We should get a Batman Returns Catwoman like transformation for Chloe. Chloe’s had it with David, Joyce, Blackhell and now Rachel for leaving. So Chloe would basically be destroying her room and tossing everything away that belonged to the old Chloe.

Make the game about Rachel helping Chloe down the worst moment of her life. Chloe’s “Rachel was my angel” comment showed a lot to how Chloe loved Rachel and how much she meant to her. Chloe tells Max that Rachel entered her life when was at her absolute lowest and that it was she who helped her deal with the grief of having lost her father but the entire game is centered around Chloe being the one who is supporting Rachel as she deals with a serious family drama of her own. What Before The Storm should have been. Rachel helping lift Chloe through the worse point of her life. If Rachel had stopped Chloe from committing suicide… as was the commonly believed interpretation to what happened between Chloe and Rachel up until BtS, then Chloe’s ”“she was my angel” would have meant it was truly special and real. But instead they bump into each other at an illegal concert and Rachel distracted some thug who works for Damon and we spend the game finding out who Sera is in a reveal we all saw it coming and only to have Rachel taken out of the third episode where Rachel never talks to her and makes the whole thing feel pointless. What the game should have been was Chloe and Rachel together having fun rocking out, becoming girlfriends and Chloe starting to live again and show that Chloe Price loves Rachel Amber and Rachel loves Chloe.

Do Chloe’s past with Victoria better. A minor change, but they kind of make Chloe and Rachel look like jerks in the Victoria drugging in part 2. If you let Rachel drop out the play, you drug Victoria or back talk her out of doing the play that she was given. Also it lines up with the first game better this way. In LIS, if you choose to take the picture with Victoria in paint, when seeing said picture, Chloe will say “Boo-Yah skank! Karma’s a bitch!” So I guess we can have Victoria bullying Chloe with her mean girl bullshit, Chloe fights back, Victoria gets scared, so Victoria helps get Chloe expelled by reporting her graffiti(as is the reason she was expelled from Blackwell)

When Rachel goes missing, we spend the final episode looking for her. It’s a very sad and tragic episode. We all know there is no hope in finding Rachel, but we still try anyway, in some hope that Rachel is still out there. So Chloe leaves up the posters, is in debt to Frank and tries to steal money from Nathan. Which leads Chloe to that faithful day in the bathroom.

LIS

Chloe does not park in the handicapped space(I don’t even have to tell you why this was a bad idea to begin with)

Chloe stops guilt tripping Max after the first truck ride

If you chose not to come out of the closet or not take the blame, after lashing out at Max, Chloe will apologize for lashing out at us. Same for if we chose not to fire the gun.

Does not get pissy if we take Kate’s call, in fact prior to Chloe’s test, Max would explain the situation with Kate and Chloe would be understanding as she understands being depressed herself and would even help Max out in finding evidence to implicate Nathan and David.

It’s not the handicapped fund, it’s the “Prescott Donation”(aka Sean’s bribery money) this way we can feel less guilty about not stealing from the handicapped fund and Chloe doesn’t look like an ableist

If Chloe does snap after finding about Rachel and says the same things she did about Kate as she did in canon. Max can then lose her shit and stand up to Chloe. Basically says the way she treats her is not okay and if she wants to help her find Rachel and seek justice for Kate, then things are gonna have to change or they are finished. Then Max leaves Chloe behind with Chloe realizing that she needs to change. Ideally something like Bojack Horseman “You can't keep doing this! You can't keep doing shitty things and then feel bad about yourself as if that makes it okay! You need to be better! Chloe, stop. It's not alcohol, drugs, or your parents, David, Rachel or all the bad things that happened to you before. It's you. It's you. I want to find Rachel and get justice for Kate, but if this is how you’re gonna keep treating me...Fuck, man... What else is there to say?“ I know LIS came out way before BJHM or that particular episode, but it’s the perfect example of how Max could’ve stood up to Chloe’s toxic behavior

After the returning from her time jump, Max returns to her dorm and goes to Chloe. Chloe properly apologizes for how she’s been acting since they got back together and agree to put everything in the past so they can work together to find Rachel and give Kate justice

Max is given the option to enter the Everyday Hero’s Contest. If you saved Kate, Max with Kate’s permission, Kate would let Max take a photo of her in the hospital. And Max enters her photo at the last minute when she returns to Blackwell. If you did not save Kate, then Chloe would give up the Butterfly photo so Max can enter the photo. Either way Max will win the contest. Max wins the Everyday Hero Contest. Max gives an inspiring speech about how everyone can be a hero and that Kate has always inspired her, how much she loves Kate and that she hopes that Kate knows that she is loved by everyone in Blackwell and everyone, especially Chloe, Warren, Victoria would cheer Max on. This would also give Jefferson the means and opportunity to drug Max without killing Chloe at the Junkyard. Chloe doesn’t die because it’s a public place and Jefferson has Max where he wants her. It honestly works better than Jefferson magically appearing at the Junkyard with no explanation(and it never being brought up).

What could happen in Episode 5 is basically the same thing, only in an act of desperation, Chloe goes to David to help save Max. They put their differences aside to save the person Chloe loves the most and David gets to stop Jefferson. Chloe could not be there to save Rachel, but she can be there for Max. Chloe saves Max and Jefferson goes to jail. Together Max and Chloe goes directly into the eye of the storm to save everyone at the diner. However instead of using Warren’s photo to save Chloe, Max uses it to warn David about Jefferson and to reach the Lighthouse. The same choice is given to us and instead of a copout ending, Max actually uses the photo to save Chloe and the town. Warns David and David barges in and catches Nathan redhanded with the gun and uncovers the truth of Rachel, Kate and Jefferson. Max warns the town of the storm. Everyone listens. After Jefferson’s arrest, the police clears the bunker of Jefferson’s predatory display and the town hides in the bunker. The town is rebuilt. A town can be rebuilt, but you can’t build another Chloe. Jefferson and Sean are rotting in prison and Nathan is getting the help he desperately needed. Chloe finally moves on from her hatred of David and the Price family gets to start over. A montage of Max and Chloe together either romantic or platonic and if you chose to romance Warren, a little clip of Going Ape, if just friends, then we see Warren, Kate, Max and Chloe Going Ape! It ends on Rachel’s funeral and the final scene shows the Doe spirit as both Max and Chloe smile as Rachel’s spirit finally rests.

Chloe’s arc is lashing out at a cruel world, learning to let the right people in, healing and letting go of her hate and starting over. It just doesn’t work if she has to die to actually learn this and also that character arc goes out the window of you choose the save Chloe ending (and makes max look like an awful person for killing all her friends and Joyce). Chloe gets to live, she’s at peace knowing that Rachel was brought to justice, she’s willing to start over with David, she has her best friend and mother in her life. If you chose the Pricefield route, then Chloe is at peace with Rachel passing on and she starts anew with Max. If not, then Chloe still has her best friend and knows she will always be there and she will always be there for Max in return.

Also, I like the idea of Max and Chloe road tripping together as was demonstrated in LIS 2, but I also like the idea of Warren, Victoria and Kate joining them as well and they live in their own commune. Maybe Max, Warren and Chloe are in a poly relationship, while Kate and Victoria are together!!!

#Life Is Strange #Chloe Price #Amberprice #Pricefield #Anonymous #Asks

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fyregrayfong · 4 years

Text

Under Pressure 8|15

FryeArcana

Chapter 8

Explosive

You’re watching Detective Lu and Gang arrest some thugs as you notice Lin walking out to the docks to welcome Team Avatar. “take them to get booked and processed boys. We’ll meet you back at the station” you order them as they nod and get into the squad car. You turn to walk down the dock as you hear Korra raise her voice at Lin, “I didn’t start a war! Well, I did, but it’s more complicated than you’re making it seem.” You stand besides Lin as you cross your arms and let out a disbelief laugh “Korra, I was really hoping to greet you back without some sort of damage or danger to the city. Your little stunt down south has caused waves here.”

You frown a bit while you wave at Mako “Welcome back, Mako” Lin looks over at him “Mako, I want you back on the beat. There’s going to be a Southern Water Tribe peace march tonight. I need you there to make sure things don’t get out of hand.” She orders him. Mako straightens himself ready for the call “I’m all yours” Korra quickly jumps in “I’ll go too”. You’re about to say something before she keeps talking “the people of the south need to see that the avatar is on their side in the fight against the northern invaders.” You ball your fists as you look down resting your forehead on your fist. That is literally the worst thing you can do. “Great. That should calm them down.” Lin deadpans as she rolls her eyes turning around and starts walking away from the group. You watch her go before you hear Mako telling Korra it would be best for her to sit the march out. “what?!” she turns to Mako “uhh… I agree with Mako” you cut in “you too?!” Korra looks at you “I just think having you there blatantly supporting one side will only make things worse.” Mako explains his reasonings and you stand by him to agree “You can assist, but it would be best for you to not participate. You can supervise and make sure everything is running smoothly along with Chief Beifong but make it clear that you’re not favoring either side. I understand that you are from the Southern Water Tribe you want to take their side but you’re the Avatar. As the Avatar you must stay neutral.” You advise her trying to calmly explain the situation to her. Korra shakes her head and raises her arms out “no, I’m not neutral. The north invaded my home. The only reason I’m here is to get the Republic to send troops to help the South.” You sigh while you rub the back of your neck then see Asami “Welcome back, Sami. Glad you made it back safely.” Varrick steps into the conversation “Look, Zhu Li’s already scheduled a meeting for us with President Raiko tomorrow. We’ll get him on board.” He smiles confidently Mako shrugs feeling done with the conversation “whatever. I gotta go to work.” You follow Mako’s lead “yeah, same here. You can ride with me Mako.”

“I better go check on my factory” Asami follows “I’m going to find out about this peace march” Korra angrily calls out as she starts walking down the dock as well.

You and Mako jump in the car as you wave Asami goodbye as she gets in her car that she has sent for her when she arrived. “So things didn’t go well since Tenzin left?” you ask while you drive. “I mean it was okay, Korra opened the Southern spirit portal it seemed to be a step in the right direction, but then Unalaq put a blockade, and began a revolt from Varrick.” You turned quickly to Mako “Varrick?!” you turn your attention back to the road to which Mako nods “yeah, apparently Varrick got the rebels riled up and abducted Unalaq. Korra stopped them. There was a trial but Korra found out that it was all a ploy Unalaq set up. He wanted to make Korra and the tribe believe the trial was fair. Spared Korra’s mom and change the death sentence to life in prison on Tonraq and the rebels so he could get Korra on his side and Tonraq out of his way. Unalaq was responsible for Tonraq’s banishment from the tribe. He hired barbarians to attack their tribe so he could become chief. This whole thing was just a giant setup for Unalaq to gain power. We helped Korra break the rebels and her father out of prison, which basically initialize the civil war.” You pull up to the station and park the car as you process all the information, “The North has more resources and power than the South. So that’s why Korra is going to try and get the Republic to send troops” you hold your chin. “it’s not going to work. I’ve met Raiko and he doesn’t want to get the Republic involved in any of the other nation’s fights, but hopefully they can convince him at their meeting though.” you say as you both head inside the station and walk Mako to his desk “I’m actually glad you’re back by the way, beats having to deal with Lu and Gang” you tilt your head over to their direction. “I’m glad to be back” Mako takes a seat at his desk as you nod “alright, well I’m gonna figure out the security for this peace march tonight” you wave as you head to your office.

You’re standing in front of the Southern Water Tribe cultural center with Mako as you’re going over the security detail. “Hey Mako, can you do a sweep over on the right side of the center. The march is about to reach the center and we don’t want any surprises to happen.” You look over at him “yeah, you got it” he turns and walks over to that direction as you stand beside Lin. “so far, everything seems to be peaceful. All things considered” You put your arms behind your back while you look out at the crowd. “Hopefully it stays like that. Doesn’t help that Korra is leading the march.” She groans with her arms crossed on her chest. You grimace as you watch the northerners throwing exclamations out at the southerners as they make their way down the street peacefully, then your eyes land on Korra on Naga and you sigh. You understood where Korra is coming from. She’s a Southern Water Tribe citizen, if you were in her place you would support the tribe too. Your mother was part of the Southern tribe before she left when she married you dad. But, she’s the Avatar, the image of peace and neutrality. She can’t be showing favoritism to one side, especially when a war is breaking out. You just hope her actions tonight doesn’t cause any more trouble. you look down and start to turn around “I’m going to assist Mako on his sweep.” Lin nods but has her focus on the march as you walk over towards the right side of the center. You’re about to turn the corner when you hear explosions go off down the corner then put your arm to cover your face from the pressure coming from the explosions going off in the upper floors. You prop yourself up and stand as you watch the explosions go off your jaw dropping, “What…” your eyes widen not believe what you’re seeing. You remember Mako and run down the empty street along the side of the building, “Mako!” you call out and see him at the back of the cultural center. You sprint over to him and put your hand on his shoulder “you okay?!” he turns over to you and nods “yeah, I’m fine” you look back at the building “can’t believe the northerners would do this” you walk Mako back to the front of the center. “I don’t think it was them…” he spoke out “of course it was them, who else could it be. This is a north and south problem” you reasoned with him then turned your direction as you both walked towards Korra who has started to personally try to put out the flames “The Northern Water Tribe is out of control.” She irritated “I saw a firebender running away from the blast. The north might not be responsible for this.” Mako explains of what he saw during the explosions. “of course they’re responsible. Who else would it be?” she spat out as she turns around to help the water brigade to put out the fires. You turn to Mako “The Northerners have been kind of hostile. Maybe one of them got the firebender to start the fire, Mako” you turn to him. He looks down to think about it then looks back at you “Maybe, but I don’t know. Something doesn’t sit right.” You analyze him then back at the building “maybe you’re overthinking it” you pat him on the shoulder before walking away.

After last night’s explosion the tensions between the water tribes have gone to an all-time high. You’ve been working all morning trying to find the person’s responsible a task President Raiko wants done as fast as possible. You groan as you have little to no leads as you go over what little evidence you gathered that night from your detectives. You’re pacing in your office while looking at your white board, How did the northerners get a handle on explosives. There was evidence of gunpowder at the scene. Mako mentioned he saw a firebender, but there is no way one firebender could set off all those explosives consecutively. You slam your hand on your desk frustrated damn, I’ve been going over this every possible way. I’m keep coming back blank. The obvious fault is the northerners. They are the only ones who could benefit from this bombing on the Southern cultural center. “I need a break” you murmur as you step out your office maybe some coffee and a couple minutes of stepping away from the problem can help clear your mind and try again. You open the door of your office and notice Mako at his desk you think about asking him about the case, but you decide not to. You grab some coffee and Mako looks up and sees you getting up from his desk and walks over to you “hey, y/n, can we talk?” you look over at him without turning your body “uh, sure. Let’s go back to my office.” you glance over to Lu and Gang just lounging around at their desk “don’t you two got something to do than waste up space?!” you bark at them “uh yeah lieutenant, sure thing” they get up and walk away. You open the door to let Mako in before closing it after you then take a seat at your desk, “I’m guess you want to talk about the bombing” you take a breath before you sip your coffee looking down at your papers. “have you found anything?” he asks you to which you slowly shake your head “there was traces of gun powder but no fuses other than that there was little evidence of what’s left from the scene.” You mutter “I ID’ed the man I saw last night, I gave the picture to Lu and Gang. They just stashed it in their desk” he states and you groan pinching the tip of your nose “hold on” you get up and walk out your office only to come back a few minutes later “this the one?” you hand it to him he looks at the image then he gives it back to you and you look at the face “that’s the guy I saw sneaking out of the building right before the explosions. He’s a member of the Agni Kais. Someone must have hired him to make it look like northerners attacked the cultural center.” He explains as you look at the image of the man then over at your reports then sighs. You look at him as you set the image down. “well did you learn anything about that remote control I found at the scene? That’s gotta be the key to finding out who’s really responsible.” “no, that remote is useless. We analyzed it but nothing seemed to happen when we tested it out. Whatever its function is we don’t know what it controls.”

“I don’t know Mako…if what you’re saying has some truth then who would want to blow up a building. No one is to benefit from this other than the northerners.” Mako groans in frustration as he looks down “I know how this all looks but trust me. Someone else is responsible. It’s not the Northerners!” You stand up from your desk and walk around started to get frustrated “okay, fine let’s say it is someone else. Who would do such a thing? Whose to benefit?” you ask him to which he doesn’t come with an answer “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out, trust me.” He looks up at you and you sigh “we’re trying everything we can to find the persons responsible. There’s even more pressure now with Raiko down our backs.” You resolve as you walk back to your desk before asking him “how’s Korra handling all this? I wonder how her meeting with the president went." Mako starts to frown looking away “she’s furious at President Raiko, like you said he’s refusing to send troops to aid the south. She’s planning to go over Raiko’s head and ask General Iroh for assistance but I….” he trails off and you look up “you what?” he looks conflicted as he looks down at the floor “I told Raiko of Korra’s plans, he’s heading over to the Republic forces to stop General Iroh.” You frown a bit as you inhale deeply “that’s…. unfortunate.” you draw out before clearing your throat “look, I’m all about helping the little guy, I understand President Raiko’s reasonings. This war has nothing to do with the Republic. It’s between the North and Southern water tribes. So why should we have to send our resources and soldiers.” Mako crosses his arms getting upset as what you’re saying sounds familiar “believe me, I basically told Korra the same thing.” He huffs “How did she react?” you leaned back in your seat “she got mad for me “taking his side”. She has this thing with sides. Called me some beat cop who just wants to work against her.” You shake your head in response “she’s too emotional… she’s being irrational. She still has more ways to learn about how the world works, especially with this whole diplomacy thing. I’m not a fan of politics but this is how the world works.” You state before you stand up and finish this meeting “If I find anything else. I’ll let you know. Hopefully you’ll do the same thing” you open the door for him “y/n, I know we’re not partners and I’m a rookie cop but as a friend…. trust me when I say that I have a strong feeling about this.” He looks you in the eyes and you notice the confidence in his voice before nodding “I hear you, Mako”. He walks out and returns to his desk as you close the door left with your thoughts. Can I trust Mako and believe his theory?

You hear a door slammed open outside; you wave it off thinking it’s just Lin whose been stressed after her meeting with Raiko. if you don’t get me results soon. I’m going to find someone who can. The nerve of that guy, I get he wants to find whoever is responsible, but you know all he wants is his reputation in good standing with the city with his constant photo ops. Your ears perk up when you hear a desk being thrown across the room and you get up opening your door and see Korra and Mako in a middle of a lover’s quarrel. “I can’t constantly be worrying about keeping you from making another huge mistake.” Mako shouts at Korra angry at her for coming at him at his job. “well I have a job to do too, only it seems like you’re always standing in the way of me getting it done!” Korra sending back just enough heat that she is receiving. Mako gets riled up and starts to spat back “well, I guess if we’re both putting out jobs first, maybe there’s no room for our relationship!” there’s a sudden silence in the room before Korra talks again sadden at Mako’s remark “so what? Are you breaking up with me?” she asks him, and you see the look at Mako’s face as he doesn’t look back at her at first “yeah. I guess I am.” He resolves as he rests his glance at her. Korra starts to tear up and runs out of the station you frown watching the scene go down and contemplate going after her, you take a step until you notice Lin walking out of her office and stop. Her eyes widen as she sees the mess in front of her “what the flamey-o happened here?” she crosses her arms confused. Mako sighs and looks back at the Chief “I broke up with the Avatar.” Lin huffs “you got off easy. You should have seen Air Temple island after Tenzin broke up with me.” she says smugly then finishes with a smirk then glances over at you. Your eyes widen a bit hearing what she said, and a slight blush creeps up on your cheeks as you run your hand up to the back of your neck before you clear your throat “just clean up this mess and take the day off if you need to, Mako.” You look over at him. He walks over to the desk and starts picking up the desk “nah, I’m fine. Better to focus on something productive than wallow”

Absentmindedly you’re running circles on Lin’s waist and give her small kisses on her shoulder as you’re embracing her in bed. The past few days have been stressful so you’re glad you and Lin had time to spend any time alone even if it was just to go to sleep. “Sucks what happened to Mako and Korra” you commented of the scene from the other day. “Mako got off lucky” Lin shrugged. “Do I really want to find out about what happened on Air Temple Island? You hesitantly ask and you hear an amused chuckle from Lin and sighs contently reminiscing, “Let’s just say it wasn’t always an island”. Your jaw drops, you find that surprisingly hot by the power her bending has but terrified of that same reason, I better not fuck up. You close your mouth and clear your throat changing the subject “Have I told you now much I’ve missed you” you mumble against her neck then plant a peck on her shoulder. Lin sighs contently in your arms “no, you haven’t” she said out flatly. You bring your lips up behind her ear and whisper “Well I have. Missed you so much, Ms. Beifong” your voice causes a tickle in her ear and sends a shiver down her back, but she bites her lip and turns to look at you “Don’t call me, y/n” she laughs. A smile creeps on your lips hearing her laughter as you caress her body looking at her. “I can call you other names if you would like. What about baby?” you lean down and kiss her jaw. Lin groans out “no, I’m not an infant” a small chuckle escapes your lips “so that leaves babe out then” Lin side eyes you “definitely” you lift your head up and smile looking at her taking in the beauty in her face “we think of names later, right now I’m just.” Lin looks at you slightly confused as you’re just staring at her face “what are you doing?”

“I’m just mentally recording this moment. Taking it all in. I’m incredibly lucky and thank the spirits I found you, honey” Lin feels the air sucked out of her as she listens to your words. Her eyes slightly getting emotional as she puts her hand on your neck and pulls you down and presses her lips on yours. A whisper escapes her lips as in between the kiss “honey is fine” and you nod slightly before continuing the sweet loving exchange of another’s lips.

You’re standing beside Mako as you watch the interrogation unfold behind the one way glass, “Asami knew it was a risk to do a shipment, but shit I was hoping this wouldn’t happen,” you cross your arms then glance over at Mako who is staring at a picture of him and Korra. You sigh looking down “have you talked to her?” you keep looking at Lin as she, Lu and Gang question the captain of the ship about the theft of Asami’s shipment of Future Industries mecha-tanks bound for the Southern rebels. “no, haven’t seen her” he sighs as he puts the picture back in his pocket then the door swings open Asami storming in “is it true?” you look over “Asami…”

“I’m so sorry. Your entire shipment was stolen.” Mako turns towards her direction.

“without that sale, I don’t know how much longer I can keep my company going. What am I going to do” she looks down worryingly. “I’m sure there is something you and I can think up. You’re smart and innovative, Sami” you put your hand on her shoulder “I’m..” Mako starts you cut in “—we’re” you glare at him and Mako sighs “We’re gonna find whoever’s responsible.”

“yeah…Chief Beifong is about to question the captain of the ship” you look at Asami then turn your attention back to the interrogation room as Mako turns on the speaker to hear in the room.

“I know it’s been a long day but walk me through what happened.” Lin begins the questioning

“we were ambushed about 30 clicks outside the harbor. We never heard them coming…” the captain laments as he retells what he experienced. “this is the third attack this week at about the same location.”

Lu gruffs as he crosses his arms “yep, and smack-dab in Republic City’s jurisdiction, which means another problem for us. All this stress is gonna turn old black beauty gray.” You roll your eyes as you hear Lu talk thankfully they can’t see you. Gang proceeds to go on “it’s gotta be northern water tribe. They’re trying to stop supply lines to the south.”

Lin puts her palms on the table and slightly leans in “I agree. Is there anything else about the attack you remember? Anything unusual?” she questions the captain and he looks back at her as he thinks back to the scene “there is one thing. The bombs exploded in a way I’ve never seen before. They didn’t have fuses. It was like they were being detonated remotely.” Your eyes widen “wait, that sounds like..” “—like the bombs at the cultural center.” Mako darts out to the door “wait, where are you going?” Asami calls out to him as he starts running out the room “I gotta grab some evidence”. You look down to the ground the cultural center had the same bombing as this attack, but the attackers were waterbenders. Could there be some truth from Mako?

“Asami I heard the news. I can’t believe they took my fifth favorite ship in the Varrick industries fleet! Named her after my mom. Rest in peace, Rocky Bottom.” He puts his palms together and you listen to him… he’s surprisingly taking this well. I mean sure he’s rich, but I would be furious if I lost my ship.

“without the money from that shipment, Future Industries is almost broke.” Asami sadly states

The speaker statics as Mako busts into the interrogation room and you look up “Chief, I think there’s a link between this attack and the attack at the cultural center.” Lin looks pissed at Mako for once again busting in without permission. “what do you think you’re doing?!”

“Shit, we should head over there. It’s not going to be good” you say and the three of you walk out of the room and start walking to the interrogation room.

“Mako. Leave. Now” you hear Lin order Mako as you three walk into the room. Varrick surprisingly bright “Great work, everybody. Another open and shut case for the dynamic mustachioed duo!” you suspiciously glance over at Varrick, open and shut case?!

“wait, I think Mako might be onto something.” Asami jumps to which gives Mako the courage to turn to Lin “Chief, I know it’s a long shot, but I have an idea how we can catch these guys!”

Lu and Gang smirk slightly amused to Mako's attempts to help solve the case once again and were thoroughly amused to see Lin being pissed at Mako. “oh yeah, let’s just all listen to the rookie” Asami starts to get mad and comes to his defense “he’s doing a better job than you.”

You don’t really know what to say or what to believe instead you rather watch this whole scene play out while you take in the information. “who’s hungry?” Varrick pops up from under the table. “ENOUGH!” Lin yells in the room. “I don’t want to hear your lame-brain rookie ideas. You’re a best cop, not a detective. Now hit the street and do your job!” She orders Mako out the room point to the door. Lu and Gang start laughing, and you eye them you start to ball your fist “Lieutenant y/n, escort Ms. Sato and Varrick out of the station. Now.” She orders at you giving you a glare. You nod as put your arms down to your side “yes, chief”

you calmly start to walk them out the room and meet up with Mako who is sulking outside. He looks up and groans out loudly “Lu and Gang are idiots. I hate them and their stupid mustaches.”

“you’re right, they are.” You slide your hands in your pockets while you roll your eyes. “Forget them. What’s this idea of yours?” Asami asks Mako and he looks over at you “are you going to rat me out to the Chief?” he glares at you, you sigh deeply looking back at him “no Mako, quite frankly I’m interested in this idea of yours. I agree, the attack on the ship and the one at the center are practically identical. Whoever attacked the center are probably the same ones that attacked Varrick’s ship. I want to solve this case just as much as you do, so whatever idea you have that might bring this case closer to being solved, bring it.” you look back and forth from Asami to Mako. Mako gives you a nod “Alright, a sting operation” you take a step back “you want to pull a sting operation?” you raise your eyebrow listening to his idea “yeah, I was thinking we’d set up a bait ship, take it out into the open ocean, and capture whoever attacks it.” Asami gets excited “let’s do it.” You wave your hand stopping her “it’s not that easy, Sami. Without the power from the police force, this plan won’t work.” Mako groans as he agrees “and Beifong already said no” he slightly kicks the metal column.

“We can make it work, the three of us.” Asami looks at the two of you as you think about a plan. “I don’t know. I don’t want to go behind Beifong’s back.” Mako responds “and if this plan fails… imagine how much it will damage Future Industries’ reputation. You’ve been working so hard to build it back up. Another stunt and it’ll bring you to the ground, Asami. If we do this, it should be Mako and I, you should head back to your company and find a plan or think of ideas to get Future some cash flow” you look at her trying to reason at her. Mako joins you “if Beifong finds out, we could get suspended or worse we could get kicked off the force.” Mako and you look at each other before looking down thinking whether this plan is worth it. Asami steps forward and puts a hand on each of your shoulders bringing your attention up to meet her gaze “Guys, I need your help. My mom is gone. My dad is in jail. Future Industries is all I have left of my family.” You sigh deeply “I get it Sami, I really do” Mako looks down “I want to help, but this is more than we might be able to handle.” You jump in “where would we even get a ship from?”

“You guys need a ship? I got a ship!” Varrick pops up behind you causing the three of you to jump. “I want in on whatever you’re talking about. I love being in on plans.”

You look around between everyone “um, no offense, but why would you offer a ship when you just had one stolen? Don’t you have any sort of reservations?” you ask him crossing your arms. He frowns at you before smirking “I got plenty of ships, so you guys wanna clue me in?” he looks at all three of you “the less you know, the better.” Asami tells Varrick. “Perfect! I love not knowing things.” You rub your temple conflicted should I really put my job on the line just to see whether or not Mako is making sense on his theory or play it safe and let Asami join Mako instead. You hear Mako’s voice and it knocks you out of your thoughts “alright, I’m in. Let’s get these guys.” Asami turns to you “y/n? You are joining Mako, right?” she looks at you, her eyes pleading for help. You gulp as you glance at Mako then back at Asami and sigh “I told Mako I would try to trust him. So that’s what I’m going to do…” you look at them determined.

“alright, so we’re doing this. Let’s get these guys” He looks at you to which you nod back. There is no going back. As much as you'd hate to do it, now you have to hide this from Lin. Great.

#linbeifong #lin x reader #lin beifong #tlok #fanfic #TLOK2UnderPressure #fyrefics #linxreader #linbeifongxreader #linbeifong x reader

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ekaterinakostrova · 6 years

Text

She felt it all—too keenly, too sharply.

Nesta is accused of ill-treatment of her younger sister (abuse and violence against Feyre), but Nesta has many reasons for this behavior - and Nesta's cruel words do not mean that she does not like her younger sister. Otherwise, Nesta would never risk her life for her sister and other people. Nesta's current condition - her rudeness, her cold behavior, alienation from the outside world (after ACOFAS’s events she’s totally cut off from the outside world) - is the only way to keep her emotions, to keep her inner rage under control. And in fact, Nesta is in deep depression. The core of depression is sadness, especially when this depression is combined with despondency, shame and hostility. And Nesta experiences each of these terrible feelings.

In the life of the whole family there have been global changes.

Firstly, the irreplaceable loss of a loved one – the unspeakable loss of the mother. For a person like Nesta, it was a real tragedy. A person needs to try to get through this and begin to live an ordinary life. They adapt quickly to hide their true feelings.

“My mother. Imperious and cold with her children, joyous and dazzling among the peerage who frequented our former estate, doting on my father—the one person whom she truly loved and respected. But she also had truly loved parties—so much so that she didn’t have time to do anything with me at all save contemplate how my budding abilities to sketch and paint might secure me a future husband. Had she lived long enough to see our wealth crumble, she would have been shattered by it—more so than my father. Perhaps it was a merciful thing that she died”.

It seems that right after the death of her mother Nesta had to build her inner walls to save and to protect herself in order to continue to live on, because most people after following shock and helplessness, have the strongest awareness of their profoundly personal rejection. Finally, there are accusations, disappointing attempts to escape from the realization of the guilt. These people are trying to shift responsibility for the loved one’s death onto anybody else. This person needs a "scapegoat". Nesta’s father became her own scapegoat. Nesta believes that her father is responsible for the death of her mother. Then she started having these irrational bursts of anger at him- she believed that he could save their mother, or he was the cause of the death of their mother and directed her rage toward him.

“I wanted to see if he would ever try to do it himself, instead of carving those bits of wood. If he would actually go out and fight for us. I couldn’t take care of us, not the way you did. I hated you for that. But I hated him more. I still do.”

“Does he know?”

“He’s always known I hate him, even before we became poor. He let Mother die—he had a fleet of ships at his disposal to sail across the world for a cure, or he could have hired men to go into Prythian and beg them for help. But he let her waste away.”

“He loved her—he grieved for her.” I didn’t know what the truth was—perhaps both.

“He let her die. You would have gone to the ends of the earth to save your High Lord.”

And that’s quite interesting, because here Feyre admits «I didn’t know what the truth was—perhaps both», so Nesta's true tragedy lies in the secret of her mother's death. What was happening in the family at that moment? Where was their father and what did he do when their mother was dying?

“Her cowardice, selfishness. The rage that had consumed her, so that she wanted them all to starve, just to see if their useless father would bother to save them. And then little Feyre had stepped in, and Nesta had hated her for it, too—that Feyre had done the unthinkable and kept them alive”.

In fact, such emotional walls that Nesta built up are a very well-known psychological state, and these “walls” protect people from painful feelings and thoughts. But they also cause the appearance of their changed forms of behavior. Thus, we can say that such emotional walls have their pros and cons.

In the case of searching for a "scapegoat", the feeling of anger does not disappear. This feeling is simply hidden. Anger remains with a person, deeply hidden, and exudes its poison. If this person spends the remaining days chasing scapegoats, then most of their life will be useless: they will experience constant bitterness, which will cripple their personality. In addition, such emotional walls prevent people from feeling the positive side of their existence: to get acquainted with new people, to enjoy life by itself.

One of the factors contributing to the growth of depression is rapid social change.

Nesta was not just from a wealthy family, she was almost a noblewoman, and the Archeron’s family had a real mansion. Feyre did not have time to get proper education, while older sisters had lessons of etiquette, music, and dance.

Surely Nesta already had her own idea and vision of her future, she repeatedly emphasizes the bad manners and lack of manners from other people, not only when they lived in the village among beggars, but also when she got to the Night Court. Nesta said that members of the Inner Circle knew nothing about real manners.

“Nesta had taken the loss of our fortune the hardest. She had quietly resented my father from the moment we’d fled our manor, even after that awful day one of the creditors had come to show just how displeased he was at the loss of his investment”.

“I looked at my sister, really looked at her, at this woman who couldn’t stomach the sycophants who now surrounded her, who had never spent a day in the forest but had gone into wolf territory … Who had shrouded the loss of our mother, then our downfall, in icy rage and bitterness, because the anger had been a lifeline, the cruelty a release. But she had cared—beneath it, she had cared, and perhaps loved more fiercely than I could comprehend, more deeply and loyally”.

It might sound strange, but when a person finds himself/herself in an unfamiliar environment for them - it's extremely difficult to get used to it. This is a real stressful situation. Of course, Nesta and Elain, in some ways, were born with silver spoons in their mouths - they had expensive clothes, shoes, they never thought about what it would take to think about food. For them it was not a problem, and in one day everything collapsed.

“I’d been too young to learn more than the basics of manners and reading and writing when our family had fallen into misfortune, and she’d never let me forget it”.

I have a friend, who has experienced great stress after the death of her father. In addition to the death of a loved one, she experienced severe changes in her life - she and her mother lost their fortune. And she admitted that she had never used public transport until she was thirteen or fourteen years old. I understand it may be difficult to believe something like this is possible, especially in the modern world, but everything happens. They always got everywhere by car. Conditions of life changed, something had to be sold, you need to say goodbye to your property. But when a person has never used public transport, and then suddenly it is necessary to get used to new conditions - it's really difficult. Everyone is nervous when they first come to the university or to a new job - this is a new and unfamiliar situation, new environment. So, partially, I understand Nesta, and what she had to endure. From a rich mansion to move to a collapsing house, to lose all property. Hunger, despair and destruction - all were in a state of the endless stress.

It is not excluded that the Archeron’s family spent their free time surrounded by other noble families, and when you lose your fortune, property, influence, money - you feel a sense of shame.

“As usual, Nesta was complaining about the villagers—they had no manners, they had no social graces, they had no idea just how shoddy the fabric of their clothes was, even though they pretended that it was as fine as silk or chiffon. Since we had lost our fortune, their former friends dutifully ignored them, so my sisters paraded about as though the young peasants of the town made up a second-rate social circle”.

“He could find work if he wasn’t so ashamed, Nesta always said when I hissed about it. She hated him for the injury, too—for not fighting back when that creditor and his thugs had burst into the cottage and smashed his knee again and again. Nesta and Elain had fled into the bedroom, barricading the door. I had stayed, begging and weeping through every scream of my father, every crunch of bone. I’d soiled myself—and then vomited right on the stones before the hearth. Only then did the men leave. We never saw them again”.

Angry creditors broke their father’s leg and never returned. To be honest, in real life it's difficult for me to imagine, so I have a feeling that Neste had to sell something or do something meaningful so that they would not return to their house anymore. Everyone knows that the collectors are seeking the return of any debts, they will not go until they get their money back.

Nesta is from a noble family, so she cannot bear Feyre's dirty clothes. It is possible that someone will find such words an insult to Feera, but for me Nesta feels unhappier with the fact that Feyre allowed herself to look like that. And she also disgusted with the whole situation in which they were, she did not like the fact that her sister had to go to the dense forest.

“You stink like a pig covered in its own filth. Can’t you at least try to pretend that you’re not an ignorant peasant?”

Nesta still considers herself and the rest of her family as the members of the nobility, so she is frightened by the very thought that her sister looks like a beggar.

She stepped back to run a finger over the braided coils of her gold-brown hair. “Take those disgusting clothes off.”

Everyone accuses Nesta of letting little girl go to the forest, but the real culprit was her father. Despite the fact that Nesta and Feyre are sisters, they are completely different. While Feyre is a survivor, Nesta is a fighter. Feyre wants to survive, so she goes to the forest for food, she was not forced to go to the forest - it was her way of survival, and Nesta is ready to die if it helped her father to get out of oblivion. There is another reason - neither Elaine nor Nesta would ever really have gone into the forest, at least because of the fear. Nesta chose the path of perdition in order to prove her point of view, and Feyre wanted to survive, and for this Nesta hated her.

Even in human life there are situations where people stood in fear. For example, to jump into a whirlpool, save a drowning person, or climb down the cliff, ready to extend a helping hand to those in need or in any other emergency, in which the chances of dying to save another person are very high - it's difficult. A person in ordinary life and a person who falls into a stressful situation are two completely different people and the reaction to stress is different for all of us. Someone can’t move, someone reacts with a hysteria, and someone in a state of affect does something that they would never have done in the ordinary state. Stress for them is a start for immediate action. All of these are psychological factors that need to be considered. We must admit that all people are completely different. If someone could cope with a difficult life situation, this does not mean that another person can go through a hard and thorny path with the same circumstances.

In addition, Nesta is actually looking for the Feyre’s company. Her younger sister does not understand this. Nesta does not act directly.

“How is my sister?”

So he merely said, “Busy.”

A flicker of her throat. “So busy she cannot deign to visit, it seems.”

Tomas Mandray

“Tomas Mandray?” I interrupted. “The woodcutter’s second son?”

“You can’t chop wood for us, but you want to marry a woodcutter’s son?”

Thomas is from a poor family. And for me this person in Nesta's life remains a real mystery. Why Nesta wanted to connect her life with him? What was the reason? If Thomas had money, then I would understand Nesta's decision to choose him as her future spouse. Nesta really could not help her family as Feyre did, but Nesta could get married and get some money from her husband to help her family. It is possible that Nesta hoped that her younger sister would stop going into the woods.

“Tomas had wanted to, and she … some part of her had known no future lay with him. Knew about his hateful father, and that he did nothing to prevent the man from beating his mother. She had barely let Tomas kiss her, and that day when she had ended it, he’d …”

She swallowed, shutting out the memory of what he’d said and done. The sound of her tearing dress. No—it hadn’t gone that far, but … The blind terror in those moments he’d tried, before she’d screamed and clawed her way free. And never told anyone”.

Nesta has never told anyone about Thomas, what he did. But it is also not easy to be a victim of violence - this is also a trauma that remains for the whole life. She was not raped, but traces of the sense of fear remain with person "blind terror in those moments". Some are ashamed of what happened, and do not want to share with someone, what happened, others have an inferiority complex. Sometimes there is a feeling that rape has placed a certain mark that distinguishes a person from others. Sometimes people are locked in themselves, not letting anyone into their inner world, not revealing their feelings and secrets. Mental trauma finds a way out in angry emotions. In psychology, there is such a phenomenon as "visible adaptation" - a person returns to the usual way of life, however depression, bouts of anxiety periodically arise.

Nesta went through a lot, and as a sensitive person, for her everything was much more complicated than for Feyre. She must take her bitter experience as something unchanging. This important moment relates to the desire to move forward and the realization that not everything is lost. Of course, throughout the whole life there can be flashbacks of memories, nightmares, but this is more of an exception.

“She didn’t know what to do with it, that rage. It still burned and hunted her, still made her want to rip and roar and rend the world into pieces. She felt it all—too keenly, too sharply. Hated and cared and loved and dreaded, more than other people, she sometimes thought. Could sift between them all in a matter of moments, like she was trying on different sets of clothes, and no one could tell or care”.

Nesta must let go of her emotions. Letting others see themselves as they are, and not be afraid to be rejected that is the real strength.

#nesta archeron #nesta #JusticeForNesta #cassian #nessian #acofas #acotar #acowar #acomaf #postacofas #a court of frost and starlight #a court of thorns and roses #a court of mist and fury #a court of wings and ruin #sarah j maas

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caspian-see · 6 years

Text

Villain name: Persona (Karzon Gideon Fli)

Face claim: Josh Hutcherson

Age: 19 years old

Species: Human

Powers & Abilities/Specialties: Power mimicry---

Persona’s ability entirely relies on the individual he is fighting to have a power themselves. Through the use of skin to skin contact he is able to mimic a person’s ability to an extent. The strength at which he produces said ability is determined by how much he understands the control and workings of the power. While there is technically no limit to which power’s he can mimic, any ability that changes the body physically or molecularly takes a damaging toll. There is no time limit to his mimicry, but, if he brushes his own skin together (usually done by swiping his hands) it cancels out the effects of his power. His ability does not steal the other person’s power from them it is simply copying what they have, and unlike Spectrum who is able to store abilities Persona cannot recall powers he once used.

Backstory: Karzon never had a semblance of a normal life but from the hushed stories his older brother told him their family hadn’t always been that way. He yearned for the days his mother would return his love and affection with anything but harsh words and scowls. His wish came true when their father had died on the water during an excavation for the navy, without the protection of his father’s weary looks his mother’s tongue lashings gradually turned into beatings. Being plagued with regular illnesses he could do little to protect himself having to rely entirely on his older brother who could only take so much.

At the age of eight he discovered his unique ability to borrow other’s strengths, but like most happy moments in his life his mother twisted the discovery into something horrible. With a wicked smile she berated the young child saying he had been cursed with the power to steal from everyone he touched, and because of the lie he lived in fear of his gift. Only when Spectrum appeared a few years later did he realize how special what he had was, but his mother didn’t appreciate the uplift in her youngest child’s mood and turned once again to beating. In what Karzon originally viewed as a stroke of luck the small family won a meet and greet with the famed hero, so he devised a plan to ask the super to save him and his brother from their evil mother. The plan ultimately failed, Spectrum was too busy to pay attention to the child’s cryptic signs and at the end of the day Karzon was sent back home to an abusive environment with a grudge against the only person he thought could save them.

At the age of eleven his mother remarried to a man with little interest in children, especially his own. The family grew substantially in size, three growing to six with the introduction of a caring stepbrother and stepsister and another on the way. With his mother and ‘father’ being too invested in themselves to pay attention to their children the four were left in peace and created a close bond. Though, at the age of thirteen it was revealed that his mother had a sister who had caught wind of the situation the now five were in and brought the adults to court to fight for custody. She won, but received only four children. Karzon was left in the home. Being the only child once again all attention was on him.

At the age of sixteen he learned that the only person he could trust and rely on was himself. In the dead of night he set fire to the house and escaped, leaving the mother and father to get out through their own means. Being young and alone he looked for a way to make a quick buck, he joined the ranks of the BO$$ and lied his way up until gaining the title of info broker. Although he didn’t entirely know what the job entailed at first, he was fucking great at it. It wasn’t long before he broke away from the gang leader and begun his own lucrative business learning secrets and selling them for high prices. His name spread fast amongst the world of thugs as the guy to go to if you want the information of how and when to kill, and the thugs learned quickly that working with the kid meant giving up your own secrets as well. No one was safe from the eyes of Persona.

Now nineteen he is a business of three, using his lackeys for quick access to strong abilities and outs during sticky situations. While he still sells secrets of other thugs to, well, thugs, his main focus is on the vigilantes. His cocky nature is not unknown to the nighttime heroes as he is known to appear during uncompromising situations and disappear before he is caught. His name is whispered with an unease from every individual he has come into contact with.

Moral Alignment: Neutral Evil

Criminal MO: Since he and the general thug population consider him to be a villain for hire he doesn’t have one particular way of committing crimes that he’s comfortable with. He’s a jack of all trades and prides himself in being such. Absolutely anyone can be his target, it entirely depends on what his client’s wishes are. While he says he deals strictly in providing information he isn’t against harming an individual if the price is right, though he is against killing others. He is not a hired hitman and he’d rather not face prison time for murder if he eventually gets caught. With that being said he is careful enough to rarely have his crimes traced back to him, and even if they are he has changed his appearance enough that the evidence doesn’t match. Leaving the police to make the decision that catching this villain is entirely up to the vigilantes.

When dealing with heroes he prefers not to launch into combat and would rather avoid an unnecessary tussle. He utilizes the fear factor first, revealing secrets that the vigilantes would rather the world and their partners not know. If that doesn’t work he uses guilt, hoping his young age will tug at the heroes heartstrings and prevent any major harm from coming his way. If, in an odd turn of events, both of those routes fail he will take an offensive fighting position to ward them off.

Extra Info:

His line of work prevents him from having an ‘arch nemesis’ since he is continuously jumping around. He has run into every vigilante for varying amounts of time but has picked up an almost unhealthy obsession with both Legacy and Watcher. Legacy’s fame has created a beautiful gold mine of secrets that is never-ending, and his ability to attract other vigilantes supplies useful data. Watcher, on the other hand, is a bit different, Persona is attracted to his age and lack of abilities. A very small part of him believes they could be friends if the circumstances were different.

He has a base of operations where he can be contacted at by phone but the line is seemingly untraceable so the base’s whereabouts are still unknown.

He has a burning hatred towards Mainframe, not that the villain has done anything to spite him. He simply doesn’t agree with Mainframe’s reason for becoming evil: “You’re not special. You became a villain to throw a fit like a spoiled child.”

((Because of the hatred he doesn’t particularly like either Blue bolt or Shutdown.))

While he has no opinions about heroes and vigilantes in general, he isn’t entirely fond of Spectrum. He yearns for the day when he can stare the god-like man in the eyes and tell him “I’m what becomes of the children you do not save.”

He doesn’t have a costume since that would make it easier to identify him and his entire being must stay amongst the whispers. Though he does have what could be considered a sigil but is thought to be more of a marking. A simple graffitied picture of a forget-me-not.

Although he doesn’t like to see people die, he enjoys seeing others suffer. He believes that is the best way to experience human nature, through suffering.

Only a select few know his actual name, since he believes that names hold power. He goes by Persona in both the thug and villain realm.

He thinks of everything as a game, and he needs to be continuously winning. He understands that the best way to conquer a foe such as himself is to manipulate the rules of the game, so he pays careful attention to make sure that is never possible.

Character song: https://youtu.be/wzKTtoMC-uY

#~Persona: Your secrets safe with me~#talkvig #task006 #abusetw

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lombax-lombardi · 6 years

Text

Promise~

Summary: He made a promise. And he damn well sure was going to keep it. Nothing was going to happen to her while he was here.

Genre: fluff, slight angst, self insert x canon

ship: Joey/Maddi

hey, hey @xeensbin this is the sequel to the other fic I wrote. HNNNNNN

He did make a promise. He was going to keep it damn it.

Joey Wheeler had become something of a bodyguard to her while the custody battle still wages on between her sister and her Aunt. That night woke something in him, it was something akin to him wanting to protect his little sister Serenity.

But on a much deeper scale.

He didn’t really know how deep it did run but he knew it was there.

The past couple of days proved to be something of a test to him, every time Madilyn had to go somewhere he was about four or fives paces behind her, much to the chagrin of Tea.

“Joey you don’t have to keep following us” The other brunette barked as she noticed a tuft of his blonde hair whizz past them, he was in front of them in an instant.

“Tea you don’t get it-”

“No Joey I do get it” she folded her arms across her chest while Madilyn looked between her best female friend and her best guy friend. I really hope this doesn’t end up into a fight, she thought as Tea stared Joey down.

“Joey she will be fine. If anything happens I will give you a call alright?” her tone was calm, as to not derail him from his purpose but to just give her friend the space she needs.

Tea knew how stubborn he could be. Can be. She just didn’t want him to do something stupid over her, which knowing him would be something he would do. She noticed his shoulders slump in defeat.

“...I don’t like dis but if anything happens Tea, make sure to call me”

“Yes yes I will Joey. Now go. Maddi will be fine” She gave him a reassuring smile which seemed to be all he needed. “Alright. Be safe” he pressed a hand on the other brunette’s shoulder, she gave him a quick nod.

She then watched him fade from her vision.

“It’ll be alright Maddi” Tea brought her friends attention back to her, giving her a small smile to calm her nerves. “Trust me”

It seemed a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. “Okay Tea. Let’s get moving then”

The duo spent the Sunday shopping, meeting Mai along the way. The tall blonde was appraised of all that had happened recently, causing her lovely smile to turn into a frown.

“You serious?” she spoke up, taking a sip from her drink she brought. Tea nods. “Yep. According to Maddi, her Aunt, Maribeth, is not one to be trifled with. I am just surprised she hasn’t done anything yet”

Her words evoked a glare from Mai. “Tea, don’t say stuff like that. The poor girl is probably scared outta her mind, honestly she doesn’t need your negative thinking” those words struck a cord in Tea, who sighed. “Yeah....”

She reached over and grabbed Maddi’s hand, who looked up at her with her big brown eyes. “Sorry...”

She shakes her head. “No it’s okay Tea. There is that looming threat but I think I’ll be okay”

That still didn’t sit well with Tea or Mai. Maddi may look like a strong girl, but when the pressure mounts she can easily crack. How she never manages to crack during her Duels is still a mystery to the girls as well as the rest of the group.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in sullen silence as the trio sit and figure things out, when Mai saw something move across from them. Someone in a big dark suit with a newspaper had been watching them for a while.

Mai knew something was up. “Come on girls. Let’s get going” with no further instructions the blonde stood up from her chair, standing right in front of Madilyn, so Tea could see over her. Tea gave Mai a knowing nod as the two of them gently pulled Maddi from her chair, trying to not spook her.

It was a while before Maddi spoke up. “Okay you two what’s going on?”

“I saw someone. Watching us. Watching you” The blonde said coolly as the shorter brunette clinged to Tea more tightly. Tea could feel her friend trembling so she pulled out her phone as they continued to walk.

“Hey Joey...it’s Tea...something’s come up. Get here as quick as you can. Don’t worry Mai’s here with us. Okay, see you soon” the call ended and she put her phone back in her bag.

“Maybe my Aunt is finally trying something...she can’t....” Her anxiety was building again, Tea could sense it. “Hey Maddi it’s going to be okay, I promise”

That seemed to calm her nerves somewhat when Mai stopped. “Hold it...”

“Give us the girl” a voice, no a bunch of voices called out Mai lifted her arm in front of the two younger females. “Like hell I will” Mai was not having any of this today.

She needed to by time for Joey and the others to get here.

“Listen you big suits you aren’t taking her on MY watch understand?” the group of men stepped into the light, Madilyn’s eyes grew wide. These were people hired by her Aunt to take her by any means necessary. She’d seen them before.

“If you don’t give her too us we will just take her from you. Miss Maribeth is none too happy about the custody war, she wants to end things peacefully” That was a bunch of lies.

“No she doesn’t!” Madilyn cried out, Tea’s eyes widened in surprise. “Maddi don’t provoke them. Please.”

“That’s right listen to your friend. Besides Miss Maribeth is paying us to take you home unharmed.” One of the bigger brutes cracked his knuckles, Mai stood tall however. “I am sure this Maribeth knows about Duel Monsters right?”

“Yes?”

“Well I’ll take you on in a Duel. You win against me and my Harpies, I’ll hand her over” Maddi was about to voice an opinion when Mai continued; “If you lose however, you crawl BACK to your Master and tell her to back off!”

It seems Mai’s plan had worked as a Duel commenced. While Mai had the suits distracted, there was a loud THUMP and THWACK! and two of the tall, muscled men fell to the ground.

Their boss was about to move when Mai called him out. “I don’t think so hun, if you leave, you forfeit the duel and you don’t take our friend”

“I’m going to take her regardless. Look” Mai turned her head to see both Maddi and Tea being held by two other guys. “Put me down you coward!” Tea was not having any of this and Maddi?

Well she was scared out of her mind. She was looking into the darkness to figure out what happened to those other two guys when the weight that held her seemed to fall.

“Whoa!” she landed on her rear, turning to see well a familiar face. “Tristan? Why are you here?”

“There’s no time to explain. Tea come on!”

“Right. Good luck Mai!” she called behind her as the blonde smirked. “Looks like it’s you and me hun, unfortunately I have a ride to catch” Dismissing her monsters she jumped on her motorcycle, leaving the rest of the suits behind as her back wheel kicked up gravel in their faces.

“After them! Split up!” the boss called as the rest of his tiny force spread out to find the small group.

The trio stopped in an alleyway, catching their breath. “I called...Joey where is he?” Tea questioned Tristan in between breaths.

“He should...be here soon. Those big lugs never heard me coming.” Tristan had faced thugs in his day before, so he had no problem facing danger. But Maddi was shaking, the only danger she faced was a Duel Monsters game.

Nothing like this.

She lifted her head at the sound of someone approaching, instinct kicked in and she hid behind Tristan. “Ey now what’s with da hidin’?” she peered over her friends shoulder at the sound of the new voice.

“Joey? Joey!” she ran over to him and wrapped her arms around him. He looked down and gave her a small, warm smile. She was safe.

For now.

“Come on we have to keep moving, I saw those freaks headin’ this way. Tristan you go with Tea”

The other male nods, grabbing her wrist and heading off in the other direction. Joey placed a hand against her arm, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Come on, let’s get ya outta here and someplace safe”

Madilyn didn’t know what this feeling was but she felt safe around him. Like he’d do anything to protect her, then she remembered a few nights ago. They made a promise.

Denied any more thought by the situation, Joey grabbed her hand as they headed out of the alley and into the streets. Usually Domino was a safe place, according to Joey it wasn’t most of the time.

Madilyn was inclined to believe him.

After what seemed like an hour of running , the duo managed to find a place to hide, an old warehouse. Closing the door behind them the sounds of footsteps alerted Joey that they are still looking for them. He pressed himself right up against her.

Right in her personal space, as if to shield her with his own body. Oh Joey.... she thought.

“You don’t have to do this you know Joey....” she muttered, realising just how close he was to her.

“Listen Mads, I made a promise to ya dat day. I never break my promises” the tone of his voice changed, as did the feeling of the whole room. It was...comforting.

Warm.

Safe.

That’s when she realised. She had to tell him. About how she felt. It was now of never. “Joey...” the sound of her voice drew his attention as the sounds of footsteps faded away. He never really noticed how pretty her eyes were until now.

“Yeah?”

“There is something I need to say and I know this isn’t the right time...or place even but..I...” she gripped the fabric of her pants tighter. Her breath was caught in her throat when she looked up at him again. His eyes gleamed with knowing.

They were always warm, really warm and now they have a longing to them?

She felt her cheeks heat up but the way he was looking at her, he wanted her to continue. Let it all out.

“What I have to say is...I..I think I love you...no I don’t think...I know....”

Silence.

More silence.

She thought it was all for naught when she felt herself being pressed against warm fabric. It was one of those hugs, a hug that had so much emotion in them that your heart could almost shatter. Joey sighs, content obviously, pressing his lips against her forehead so gently. “I love ya too...”

It was some time before they felt it safe the head home. He kept an arm around her protectively, always looking behind him to make sure they weren’t followed. “Let’s hope your sister wins. There is no way I’m letting your Aunt take ya away”

“I hope so too” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “Thank you for being there Joey. I wouldn’t know what I would have done if you didn’t show up. I have to say thanks to Mai and Tristan as well”

He felt his heart swell with pride. :I promised I’d protect ya. And I’ll keep that promise for as long as I live. Don’t you worry bout dat” there was that smile.

And she smiled back.

And the long trek home didn’t seem so perilous now that her knight in shining armor had come.

#Maddi writes #asdfghlsgjlljs #i did it #it is probably longer then the last one buT I DID IT #I WROTE IT #ASDHKSDHSKFS #this was to fite the feels #AND A CONFESSION TOO BOOTJLAHDLDAAJDL

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midnighttick · 7 years

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In My Time of Need — Siding With the Alik’r

The Bard sang a song worthy to remember. The Whiterun's inn enjoyed a good day, their members cozy near the eternal fire pit and their tankards full of mead. The song was sang only by the Bard and the rest followed along with their typical and loose dances. Drunk men laughed and Jenassa, the Dunmer, sat by them, annoyed as Ellerete had left her to interrogate Saadia. Their smell was foul and the Dunmer hated every second that passed by.

Ellerete had a wicked smile painted on her lips once approaching her. Saadia, contrarily had a shocked expression, a mix of fear and anger.

"How do you know?!"

The Redguard's voice yelled in whispers. She was heard tense suddenly.

"It doesn't matter how I know, but your crimes are nothing to shrug about."

"They're lying—!"

Saadia saw no way to convince. Then the Redguard gestured her to follow.

"Come..."

At this point, Ellerete had seen the blade tied by her hip, but what danger would she face? The knight decided to follow along. Her armor clanging with each step to upstairs, and Saadia's steps were light. She was only wearing her common dress and some pretty decorations around her neck and wrists.

The room was tidy, painted walls with traditional Redguard arts and candles that colored the room in a comfortable yellow shade. Once Saadia had turned around to meet the Breton lady face-to-face, a blade of eight inches was pulled out of her hip sheath to terrorize Ellerete.

"Have they paid you? Have you gone mad? Do you think you can take me? Step forward and you will regret every second..."

To her surprise, the Redguard's attempt to scare Ellerete were inexistent. She was slightly amused as her smug painted the expression of a confident woman. Her response was an unexpected chuckle.

"Put that away."

"I... I mean it...!"

Her commanding voice made Saadia struggle. Her grip shaked and that blade was never held with courage again. She was lost at words, clueless. She murmured and then let go of that silly idea.

"I apologize... but you must believe me. Look, I know you aren't... one of them. You can't help them. Hear me out, the men who are looking for me are the Alik'r. Assassins under the Aldmeri Dominion. They desire to have my blood for gold. They're only led by a men named Kematu, the leader of this crew. Get rid of him, quick. I dare not show my face outside anymore. Even the guards might be bought at this point!"

The end of her ranting was pleasing to her ears. Ellerete exhaled through her nostrils. She couldn't murder her here for being a criminal. The blood on wood would have been an obvious hint of what had happened between them if so. The screaming, even worse. There was no other choice than giving the Alik'r what they desired: Information.

"Stay put."

"One of them assassins is rotting behind bars, he was trying to sneak into the city for some reason. If he's still there, breathing, get some information on where the Alik'r is..."

"Do not leave until I arrive again."

Then she left the room, slamming the door shut behind her long and flowing furred cape. The armored lady could still hear her ranting. She brought Jenassa away from the maddening of drunk men with their tankards empty.

"We must side with the Alik'r. She's not saying the truth in any way. Only a disgusting criminal would pull a weapon to me for holding the truth. Tomorrow morning, we're going to Rorikstead to inform Kematu's men."

"Kematu?"

"Yes, Kematu is the leader of this group that we had encountered by the gates. She says that he's the one that's being bought to murder her. For gold. Not only she's lying but also calling them cowards for doing the good deed of detaining subhumans like her."

Her companion could smell the disgust whenever she would talk about Saadia. It shortly amused her, for the thought of purity and the intense dislike for criminals.

Her armor clanged louder with each step as her mind progressed more and more hatred. Their night was a calm one, thankfully. The next day was going to be interesting for the two. A Sun lit their path, and they went past the gates to Rorikstead. The Jarl wondered about them, but it was all too late.

The route to Rorikstead was light, but a fight was imminent. Thugs and assassins that only charged and desired a good death by her hand and her companion's hand. Their bloody afternoon was met with a good night once seeing the horizon lighting up with the few buildings of the quiet Rorikstead. They were at a couple of steps of a tankard filled with mead and a chat with the Alik'r warriors.

A heavily armored lady and a light feet mercenary stepped into Rorikstead's inn. Their faces were lit after a long path across the many routes of Skyrim. They were bored of rocky grounds and the dry grass.

"Welcome to Rorikstead."

The man behind the counter saluted with a hand up, waving for the two's attention.

"What can I do for you both?"

The balding man asked. His face showed a bit of concern when facing a tall lady in her iron armor, wrapped with clothes and clean fur. A helmet that did not display her face at all, making things much weirder for the man.

"I see rooms occupied. Is the Alik'r here?"

Ellerete spoke under that great helmet. The man stood surprised at her feminine voice. He then nodded and pointed to the door to his left.

She met with her gaze to the signaled door, and then nodded once. Jenassa had already sat down by the corner of an empty bench, away from men that were already starting to get drunk and lonesome. The bard of the inn was arguing with his father about personal topics...

"Come on in."

The man in the room suggested her to open. They had met before and Ellerete's face lit up a little when recognizing him, not that he would realize from the full helmet. Her iron armor rattled with each clear step and her long great sword was cleaned and sheathed, pocking out of her armored back.

"I have information about Saadia."

"Do you?! Speak. This is very valuable for us."

His voice had raised a whole level, as the magnitude of such information was very valuable right now for the two. The other Alik'r warrior was sitting by a table, distancing himself from the two, but he paid attention with wide eyes like the questioning man.

"The woman you're looking for is in Whiterun indeed. A very brave lady. She lives in a cozy place, by the only inn in the city."

Then, the Alik'r men looked at each other before one withdrew a sigh of frustration. The other brought an idea to this issue.

"We cannot go after her if she's in the city—"

"I know. One of your men was arrested from trying to sneak into the city to see if the criminal was there, right? Justified but unacceptable. You're a man of truth and I see that well. I can take her out of the city to the stables."

The two looked at the fully covered lady in heavy armor with astonishment.

"We'll wait for you there in daylight, by the Whiterun stables."

Then they left the room, the Alik'r moved from Rorikstead's inn to wherever they really lived. Ellerete and Jenassa rested in different rooms. Then, the day once again warmed the two with the Sun greeting.

"So?"

Jenassa moved, sitting beside her in front of fences from Rorikstead's large farms. The Dunmer's curiosity really didn't disturb her. The Breton then smiled. Her voice, friendly and not like when seeing the Redguard criminal face-to-face.

"Saadia had drawn her blade to my presence when I told her about that she's being hunted. Her reaction was sudden— she did not hold back until being told to put that dagger down. Her hand shaked. Her voice did not meet the same confidence of seconds ago that time. She explained with lies that these men were hired with gold for her blood by a group outside of Skyrim. Kematu's men had to sacrifice one to attempt and breach the walls of Whiterun. Foolish but justified. A crime is a crime, the Alik'r warrior is rotting in prison perhaps, but so will Saadia."

"What are you going to do? Kill her?"

"No, my hands will not be dirty when they're not my business. We're taking her out of town, tell her that everything is fine and that the planned assassination from Kematu's men was delayed with our help."

Jenassa darted her eyes to little kids playing around the only path that was linked to Rorikstead. Ellerete shortly stated after.

"Lying is sinful, but to lie to a sinner to commit a good deed is something justified as good."

As always, leave a comment, criticize my writing so I can improve!

#ellerete #skyrim #tesv #knight #heavy armor #landscape #dunmer #redguard #saadia #story #storytelling

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valiantbionicrope · 7 years

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My old rpg story about lesbians and detecting fire.

Ok, this is me waffling about old RPG story. Thanks to @please-reboot-the-universe for reminding me of it. THIS IS A LONG ONE.

SO, the other day my friend and “please reboot universe” were talking about our new Star Wars characters (for Edge of the Empire) and how I have a tendency to play lesbian or bisexual characters.

We got onto the topic of my old character from my Rogue Trader (Warhammer 40,000 RPG that is more peaceful, focusing on exploring and making a mini planetary empire) days when I was a teenager and I realised I never told the story on Tumblr.

Now I can’t remember a lot and it was a long time ago.

We were playing Rogue Trader.

Our party was made up of a rogue trader, think explorer/pirate/rich noble who was also the GM; a Missionary, Lady Puck (priest who fights demons and has a VERY big chainsword); her NPC companion Hobble (lost a leg because of Puck, got a replacement); 2 Kroot (bird people mercenary’s that eat everything including humans); and MY character, a seneschal (think James Bond crossed with an accountant) Liara T’soni. No, she was a human. I was just into mass effect at the time and very unimaginative.

Also, my character may have been gender fluid. I said she was a woman but the running joke that she such as master of disguise even she didn’t know what gender she was (at the time I didn’t know gender non-binary genders existed).

OK, waffling over. To the story.

We were on a planet owned by our rogue trader. We were after information after a failed mutiny on the rogue trader's space ship.

The party went to a bar/brothel where the local gang leader was and so we could try to persuade him to give us information. Puck stayed outside to preach to the crowd as a loyal priest she would not enter such a den of inequity.

The Kroot stayed outside as well (in Warhammer humans are VERY racist, we had to get papers just so the Kroot didn’t get shot on site). So, the rogue trader, Hobble and Liara went in.

Now as good a friend as the GM was, he was also very new and very much had his story to tell. SO, whilst the rogue trader went off to do plot stuff my character (remember female James bond) found a lovely lady of business (prostitute) and hired her services and a room upstairs.

Now as Liara was upstairs shit went bad down stairs and the gang leader turned on the rogue trader. The players outside came rushing in bad blood was spilt.

But because Liara was upstairs very busy she had to roll to see if she heard the fighting.

She failed BADLY (rules for this game complicated so I won’t say results) although she was very much enjoying herself.

Downstairs the fight got worse and somehow an energy weapon missed its target and set part of the building on fire. The fire spread quickly across the silk curtains. Spreading up the stairwell

Back upstairs I got a chance to roll again to see if I noticed that the BUILDING WAS ON FIRE!

I failed.

Not only did I fail so did the NPC my character was with.

Downstairs more fighting.

Eventually, Liara FINALLY noticed the building as on fire.

Quickly gathering her things (those clothes were expensive) she put her trousers and linen shirt on as the lady ran out building.

Running down to join her rogue trader Liara enters the fight. What was happening? Well, The building was on fire. Gang members lied scattered over the floor except for one corner. The priest had just carved her way through a group of thugs, the Kroot are making horrific screeches as they rip and chew their way into the thugs surrounding their boss. The rogue trader is engaged in a duel with the thugs boss. Energy blades clashing in sparks of blue. And most importantly the bar where all the expensive wine was unguarded.

Liara not being a fighter and seeing that the others have this well under control vaults over the bar. She grabs a bottle and some glasses and starts pouring drinks. After all, her boss would be thirsty and he would need a good drink befitting of his noble status. (aka sorry I missed the fight here’s some expensive booze).

The GM annoyed that I was ignoring the fight. Had one of the thugs ignore the SCREAMING alien in front of him and shoot at Liara.

The shot misses, just. But hits the bottle of Amasec (red wine) splashing it over her WHITE linen shirt.

…..

She was NOT pleased. Using her free hand to pull out her weapon she aims it at his head

“DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG THIS TAKES TO CLEAN!!” she cried as she pulled the trigger.

She hit the thug, square in the head. In fact I rolled so well that the energy shot went through him and hit the leader behind him knocking him unconscious.

And so, to wrap things up seeing their boss drop the thugs scatter and the other players grab the leader and drag him outside.

Where they see Liara standing outside in my ruined shirt with a fine silver tray of freshly poured Amasec. After all, they were fighting inside a burning building. They need a refresher.

And that is all I can remember.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much more from here after that, the campaign fell apart due to exams and personal fractures. But yeah. I thought this story deserved to be written down and remembered.

I hope it was mildly entertaining.

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symbolofheart · 7 years

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From Sparkle to Shine

With a confident strut, Kisa walked towards the main counter, her ears and the curls at the ends of her hair bouncing with every proud step.

"Measuring tape." She looked dead in the eyes of the person behind the counter. Without hesitation, they reached in a drawer, providing the Lapin with what she demanded. With a smile she turned towards Jack, stretching out the tape with both her hands. "Ready?"

Jack took his time following behind, gawking at the outfits as he saw styles he'd never imagined before. It made him look at himself a bit and his ratty scraped together outfit. "Tape?" He blinked and wondered what she was going to be doing with tape, until he saw it. It looked nothing like duct tape that's for sure. "Yeah, I'm ready as I'll ever be." He said heading over.

"That's what I like to hear!" Kisa smiled as she outstretched Jack's arms and aligned his right arm with her tape. "Something tells me you've never gotten your measurements taken. Well, most men don't anyway, unless they want a suit." She laughed, moving to the left arm and measuring it. "Judging from what you've told me of your world, I doubt a suit would have been a priority of yours."

He went along without complaint as he followed Kisa's lead. "Hardly knew what a measurement was back home. Used to think a foot was supposed to be the size of someone's foot! I never understood how that was supposed to work." Jack chuckled as he tried to keep still for her. "Never had a suit though, unless I found one while scavenging."

"It probably wouldn't have fit you well. Most fine suits are customs." Kisa went behind Jack, one end of the tape at his left shoulder and stretching out to the right. "Measurements are pretty standard when it comes to finding the right fit for everything. With most people, I only need to look at them to know what fits best, but to be perfect, I choose to measure." From the right shoulder, Kisa stretched the tape down to Jack's waist. "I've been wanting to work on you for a while now."

"Makes sense, suits are supposed to be expensive right? Hate to waste money on something that doesn't fit." He said while going along with her, shifting a bit in place as he hadn't had to stand still for something like this before. It made him feel a bit weird, "Why would you want to work on me? I guess my outfit is kinda...very...completely tossed together."

"It's exciting. A new body to get to know, so many new secrets to uncover. Things you yourself might have never known." Kisa walked around and faced Jack with a smile, wrapping the tape around his waist, getting a close tight measure before moving it up to his chest. "To create art, I first need to know and understand my canvas... I enjoy bringing out in people what I see is their true beauty. Taking that spark and turning it into a dazzling shine, it's what I live for."

"Well, you'll have plenty of time to get to know this body." He tried to fight back a laugh as a stupid smile crossed his face. She had quite the choice of words. "Creating art? I wish I had time for something like that back home..." Jack paused a bit as he looked at her work, "So, what is your home like? I've seen a lot of different places on Cherish. Slums kinda remind me of home, at least the rubble does. Our old castle in the forest...the forest" He cringes a bit thinking about the butterfly and toxic vines.

"My world? Well, it's more advanced than here I'll tell you that much." Kisa unwrapped the tape from Jack's chest and crouched down to measure his legs. "My father leads the technological and cooperate world with his company and my world depends on it. So he's practically the most powerful man in the world. Even so, my world is peaceful, conflict is something we've come to settle with compromise and agreements instead of weapons and war." Kisa measured Jack's foot before wrapping the tape around his thigh and moving down. "We've embraced technology as something that will lead us closer towards understanding and sophistication. It's not something that should be used to hold back progress or harm others."

"Sounds like a fairy tale, is it really all that nice?" He couldn't help but chuckle as he listened, looking down at Kisa and then to the outfits around the room. "Sounds really nice, even if it was half as good as what you're saying. My home...I don't actually know what happened, but I was told people blew it up." Jack rubbed the back of his head, realizing how little he knew of his world, besides his day to day life.

"....I'm guessing if your world was in as much ruin as you say, it would be hard to find any written record of what actually happened." Kisa's ears lowered as she measured Jack's other leg as she did the first. "Just because my world is peaceful doesn't mean it doesn't have it's bullies..... I definitely did."

He blinked as he saw her ears go down, reaching down to ruffle her head. "You had bullies? That's a surprise, who would want to pick on you?" Jack thought about it, "Then again...It would hard not to be jealous of you. After all you've got talent." He smiled to encourage her.

"It wasn't jealousy. Not many of my kind look like me." Kisa stood up and looked into Jack's eyes. "Skin, white like porcelain, hair like snow and eyes the color of blood. I was called ugly, a freak void of color. My eyes were a target for them to hit." A small smile came to her lips, betrayed by a hint of sadness. "All my family's power could do was pull me away from it, but everywhere they put me it was the same, until they decided to simple take me out of it, and most of my life I was alone." Kisa looked at the tape in her hands, rolling up the tape and putting it on a nearby stand. "My mother told me, they just couldn't see my true beauty, they didn't understand, that one day, they'll be able to see it. So I dedicated myself towards that goal and maybe, help those who at one point felt the same."

Jack was silent as he listened, looking into her eyes as he took note of her features. He didn't think about it much before, but he came from a world where being born normal was stranger than not. "Well...I'm inclined to agree. I mean, you're beautiful. It may have been easy for them to take a shot at you for being different, but I think it makes your good looks stand out even more." He would reach up to pat her head, "Those bullies have nothing on you. Brave, talented, pretty, proud. Not many girls like you."

Kisa looked at Jack, blinking as her smile showed a bit more confidence. "Of course not! I took what I had, embraced it and showed them all how beautiful I am!" She twirled and struck a pose, returning to her usual radiant confidence. "That's why I am who I am now, because I've allowed myself to shine and I only plan to shine brighter!" Kisa strutted her way to a rack of clothes, shuffling through and letting them consume her as she delved deeper. "And I plan to bring out the shine in others too, including you."

Jack smirked a bit as she spun, it was such a bounce back he couldn't stop himself from smiling. "It's energy like that, that's going to save the world. If only I could do that." He paused, "I only sparkle, literally." He chuckled lightly at his poor joke, following behind her as he got distracted by a hat rack. He couldn't resist as he reached for a goofy looking hat.

"Everyone has a shine. I'll be sure to bring out yours Jack, I just need you to trust me." Kisa looked back and giggled as she saw Jack reach for a hat. She looked back at the rack of clothes and pulled out what looked like a jacket. "I've told you a lot about me, but what about you? You said you grew up in the streets with only survival instincts."

Jack tried on the hat and felt along it, the hat having an absurdly long brim. After a bit of amusement trying on a few more he put them all back. "I trust you with my life, I think I can trust you with my outfit..." He looked over at her, "Not only with survival instincts. When I was a little street rat I had my big sister. She taught me how to pick pockets, scavenge, put on a cute face, beg... The basic tricks."

"But you learned more along the way right? You said you became a killer for hire, but people also told many lies about you." Kisa held the jacket up to Jack's chest before putting it back and grabbing another, along with a pair of pants. "Everyday was a matter of life or death for you, I couldn't even begin to understand what that's like."

"Yeah, how to threaten people, hurt them. I was a thug for a bit, until I managed to move up in the world." He scratched his head at the memories. "It was like that for everyone. We all got used to it, some in really scary ways." Jack sighed as his smile faded, "I didn't like a lot of the jobs I had to do. This saving the world thing? It is easier to get behind. Like making sure the Dusk people had water to drink. Reminded me of the nicer jobs back at home."

"It's what you had to do at the time though. So it doesn't speak for who you are." Kisa held the pants up to Jack's legs before throwing them over her arm. "I imagine it must have been painful, or did you numb yourself to it?"

"Maybe. I can't lie though, I do like fighting." He forced his smile back with a vengeance. "A little of both. Of course, there were times I liked it...Like with Pride."

Kisa looked at Jack, puzzled with a slight tilt to her head. "What is it about fighting that you enjoy so much? Is it the adrenaline? Does it give you some sort of satisfaction?"

"You know...I never thought about it that hard. Maybe it's the rush, I guess..." He scratched his cheek thinking about it. "Back home, it was the only way I had one up on someone. In a fight, it didn't matter how important you were. It was fight or die, and I like to think I'm pretty good at the fighting part."

"Would you be alright giving that up then?" Kisa looked down at the various clothes hanging off her arms. "You can't really return to your world, and you showed some interest in returning with me to mine, but... do you think you'd be happy there?" Her ears drooped as she ran her hand through the fabrics. "I'd understand if the idea made you want to reconsider. You have that right."

"I think... I'd be okay with that. I've never tried to give up fighting, I don't know how I'd feel about it." He said with a sheepish look on his face. "I can't do that until we're done saving the world though, and even after that... I don't know what will happen next. What do you think?"

"Mmmm." Kisa continued to stare at the fabrics, her ears twitching as she hummed deep in thought. "It's true, right now, we don't have much of a choice, we have to fight. Even after all this is said and done, we could just be thrown into a whole new battle." She sighed deeply, lifting her head to look at Jack. "Just thinking about all that, it feels like too much to bear... but at the same time, I don't want to give up. It would be wrong to."

He reached a hand up on her shoulder. "There is always a choice, you could step aside and let things happen. It never sits well though, right? Just remember when its too much, I've got your back. When this is all over, I hope you'll have my back too. I don't have a clue what its like when things are peaceful."

Kisa chuckled, "You'll probably find it very boring at first, too still and stagnant." Kisa turned around and continued going further between the racks of clothing, her ears perking up. "But who knows? You might discover something new that catches your interest. Something you can see yourself doing and enjoying. Something you can dedicate yourself too. Kind of like what I'm doing right now."

"I guess I will. Promise you'll help me find out what that thing is?" He asked with a chuckle, heading back to the hat rack to try a few more on. "I think I'd like to find something like that, if it exists."

"I have no doubts about it! This world is full of so many things and this universe is full of many worlds!" Kisa took a couple more garments and walked over to Jack, giggling at his interesting choices for hats. "The possibilities are boundless and infinite. We'll certainly find something that truly calls out to you, that fits just right." Holding out the clothes to Jack, she gives him a big confident smile. "And if it brings out your true brilliant shine, I'll be more than happy to help you!"

"For now though, let's see how these clothes fit, yeah? We can't just shop all day." He blinked and looked around, "And we need to find Mordecai, wherever he went."

"That is true, something tells me he hasn't gone too far though. I doubt he would wander and get lost in the wonders of a clothing shop." Kisa looked around the store and giggled, pointing off towards Mordecai, a distance away. "I know those clothes will fit you like a dream, that's why I did all that measuring in the beginning. Now that I've found the proper tools and decor for you, my canvas, you need to be refreshed and renewed before the true works begins."

"Like a dream huh? Just like how your clothes light you up?" He snickered at his bad joke. "Alright... I've made my peace, I'm ready to be.... purified, that was what you said right?" Jack smiled as he looked over the clothes, "I'm putting my life in your hands, take good care of me."

#HeartsRP texts #Jack Hearts #Kisa Leporidae

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mylincolncole-blog · 7 years

Text

Fragment 4 - Recruited

Chapter 4

“You aren’t going to do anything?” Corinne asked.

“What did you expect?”

“These people need help. They can’t fight what’s happening to them, but they would if they could. And you can do something, but you won’t.”

“We don’t know the full situation,” Jayson replied.

“Yes we do. He’s controlling these people by rationing water.”

“You can’t prove that,” Jayson asserted.

“Look around you. People are dying."

"He recognized my armor. He thinks I'm here to check in on him for someone. I can use that to my advantage if he's willing to get me off planet without question."

"Are you such a coward that you would rather accept an olive branch from an abuser than stand up for the weak? He thinks you serve Darius Gray and that you are a part of the plan to hurt these people. Who knows? Maybe you are. You seem more than willing to let them suffer.”

Jayson felt his neck prickle. “That’s enough.”

Corinne fell silent for a few minutes, but he could hear the telltale whir of computer processors loading information. She was searching for something.

“Turn left here,” Corinne said suddenly. Jayson hesitated, and then obeyed. Her words were clipped in anger. “Now make a right, and enter the bar at the end of the road.”

“Where are you taking me?” Jayson asked, but he followed her directions.

“That man in the booth at the back. He was mayor of this city years ago; before Warren violently murdered his family to take control. Now he leads an underground resistance group trying to fight back.” Images flashed across Jayson’s screen, verifying everything Corinne said, including pictures of a dead family. “His name is Quinton. Go ask him about his daughter and what they did to her before they killed her.”

Jayson winced as the last images were displayed. A little girl sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood. She couldn’t have been over five…who could do that to a child…

“Do you even have a plan? You're playing with fire,” Jayson said.

“I’m asking you to help. You can’t just sit back and let this continue.”

“I arrived yesterday, and before that this planet didn’t even exist to me. It’s not my fight.”

“Then make it your fight. At least hear the man out.”

There was no reply, and after debating with himself Jayson walked to the booth. The man didn’t move as he sat down.

“I’m not looking for company,” Quinton muttered gruffly. He was drinking a whisky sour, light on the sour.

“I don’t care. Tell me what’s happening here. On this world,” Jayson said, taking his helmet off and setting it on the table. The man looked up this time. He was old, especially around the eyes. His skin resembled shoe leather. Had to be late fifties, and he carried the signs of declining health.

“Direct. I appreciate that. You’re an outsider, so I’ll tell you one time. Leave it alone.”

“Why aren’t the water purifiers being used?”

“If you don’t already know, then it’s not worth saying.”

“I want to hear you say it.”

The man stared at him. “Why?”

“Humor me.”

“Why do you need to hear anything, if you already know how bad things are?”

Jayson didn’t reply. There was a long pause, then the man sighed: “You’ve made a mistake coming here. Warren will know we spoke, so no matter what happens next you need protection.” He hesitated. “Warren Smith uses the water generators to force everyone under his control. Twelve thousand died in the last four months, so everyone is scared.”

Quinton leaned in, conspiratorial. “I have a plan, though. You look competent. If you help us in capturing and defending a warehouse, I can sneak the equipment out and back into the city. We’ll weaken Warren’s regime and show his lies. In a few years, the resistance will be strong enough to force Smith out of power.”

“Twelve thousand dead in four months?” Jayson echoed softly. “How many men are in Warren’s regime?”

Quinton misunderstood. “That’s the best part. Not many are still loyal to him. He uses brutality and a heavy fist to keep them in line.”

“So if he dies the people will get water.”

“Yes. But we can’t touch him. He has over thirty guards with him at all times…”

Jayson sighed and rubbed his temples.

“…if we can get at least some of the equipment on the street for people—”

“And he kills children?”

Quinton hesitated at the reference. “What happened to Aliza is my burden to bear. I messed up. Trusted the wrong people. That is not why I formed the resistance. We need to stand up to him. With you, we might stand a chance of taking a warehouse. Will you help us?”

Jayson shook his head. “No.”

The man’s countenance fell, and he seemed to age thirty years in those few seconds. “You won’t help us.”

“Oh, I’ll help,” Jayson corrected. “I just can’t afford months.” He stood from the table. “Which men in Smith’s regime are completely loyal?”

The man’s face shifted from confusion to fear. “You aren’t serious…?”

“Which men?”

“The ones with blue arm bands. They are also the only ones in powered armor, to keep others in check. The rest are in it to feed their families.”

Jayson nodded and patted the man on the shoulder as he passed. “I’m coming with you. This is my fight,” Quinton said.

Jayson stopped in the doorway and put his helmet back on. He turned to face the old man.

“If you try to follow me, you will be the first person I shoot,” he said, then disappeared into the street.

***

He started down the road, backtracking to the administrative building.

A frail woman sang softly as she hung her clothes in an alley.

A mangy cat hissed at him from a window.

“You don’t have a gun. How were you going to shoot Quinton exactly?”

“He isn’t following, is he?”

“Nope…so…uh…what are we doing?” Corrine asked, her tone mildly accusatory.

“What do you think?”

“I was just hoping you’d join the resistance…maybe write a petition. Start a committee. This seems kind of reckless.”

“You pushed me to this.”

“But I didn’t think you’d actually do it! Shouldn’t you take a little time and think this through?”

Jayson fell silent as he walked. He thought over the details of the building. Ralph led him inside, but left Jayson’s rifle in the Jeep parked out front. The six guards in armor would pose a threat, but he doubted they had real combat training. They were thugs hired to seem intimidating, not real soldiers. None of them understood how dangerous their jobs really were.

Jayson knew surprise would be on his side. Warren wasn’t used to anyone challenging his authority. He maintained control through fear and intimidation: he would never see this coming.

Jayson didn’t slow as he neared the front door. One of the guards moved to intercept, but Jayson ignored him and continued to the Jeep.

“Stop…wait…hey, wait!” the man said, holding a hand out. Jayson waited in front of him, holding his hands up calmly. His voice came out of the speakers on the side of the helmet, modulated and baritone:

“In the next few minutes, people will die. How many depends on how willing they are to die for their jobs. I’m a trained killer capable of mass murder, and you’re a glorified doorman with a pistol. I’ll kill whoever stands in my way. So ask yourself what is more important: putting your life on the line for a minimum wage job or going home to see your wife and kids.”

The guard hesitated, and Jayson calmly reached into the backseat of the Jeep and removed his rifle. The guard made no move to stop him. The bullet counter on the side showed a full clip.

He looked back at the guard. The man’s hand was shaking on the gun holstered at his hip. “Made up your mind?”

The guard stepped out of Jayson’s way. Jayson nodded at the man and walked past. “Don’t let anyone else come inside.”

Jayson took a steadying breath and went into the building.

The training for Warren’s guards was even less than Jayson expected. There were at least thirty people in the lobby, and all eyes popped up as he entered. He still got six shots off before anyone reacted. Four power armored guards fell to the floor and the other two stumbled against the walls, clipped.

Someone clicked the alarm and he heard bleating from the ceiling. The other eleven guards without armbands scrambled for cover or weapons. The civilians hit the ground screaming. Jayson sprinted across the room, waiting until the last second before activating his cloak.

The armor shimmered and disappeared. Jayson dove to the ground in a roll, coming to his feet several meters ahead and to the left. He stayed crouched and rushed for the stairs as the guards opened fire. Confused, they shot randomly, nowhere close to hitting their target.

Jayson reached the stairs and bounded up the first five steps before his cloak wore off. The shooting redirected to chase him up to the second level, and he felt his armor nicked in the left leg, but nothing passed through. He rounded the corner to the next stairway and rushed up, snapping open a compartment by his waist and grabbing out two flash bang grenades.

They wouldn’t affect armored guards. The dampening systems were too good on even entry level armor. But they would wreak havoc on unarmored soldiers and civilians.

Still in stride up the second set of stairs he activated the grenades and flung them behind him. They bounced off the wall and down to the ground level. He heard shouts and screams, followed by the concussion of grenades, and then nothing except for the bleating alarms.

This was turning out to be easier than expected. He rushed down the twenty meter hallway to Warren’s office. The door was closed, but he’d have no trouble barreling his way through:

“Watch out!” Corinne screamed in his helmet at the last second, only steps away.

The door flung open in front of him and he heard the whirring sound of a mini-gun cranking. Ralph stood there in the opening with Jayson in his sights, lips cocked in a half smile.

Damn it.

Jayson was less than three meters from the barrel of the gun, still in mid-stride. As his foot landed he threw himself forward and left. He was aiming for the wall beside Ralph to get out of line of sight.

But it wouldn’t be enough. The gun was prepped to fire, and he’d have at least half a second exposed to its point-blank brutality.

He cursed his carelessness and closed his eyes, certain he would be hit by at least a few rounds.

The hydraulic powered leg pushed off the ground with more force than it should have. Jayson realized Corinne was assisting his jump. He hit the wall by the office door—hard—just before the mini-gun went off. He collapsed to his side on the floor. The high caliber bullets ripped the flimsy wall above him to shreds and he rolled away from Warren's office.

Flimsy pieces of wall showered down on him as he crawled. The staccato concussion of shots became his reality. He couldn’t use his cloak again yet. He needed to get out of sight before Warren stepped into the hallway.

He rolled to his feet and ducked into another office two doors farther down.

Jayson stepped inside the room just as Ralph rounded the corner. No target in sight, the heavy gun ceased firing. Jayson put his back against the wall beside the door and held perfectly still, panting lightly into his helmet. His heart was racing and the world was spinning.

He needed perfect silence. If he couldn’t hear Ralph’s footsteps he would die. He refused to breath, listening to the amplified sounds passing through his helmet speakers.

There was nothing at first, then the slightest creak as a board bent under his pursuer’s footstep from just outside.

Jayson timed his movement until Ralph was stepping into the office. He exploded into motion, catching a barrel of the heavy gun with his left hand and pushing it away from his body. With his right hand he raised his own rifle and twisted his body, aiming directly into Ralph’s face.

They faced off for several seconds, Ralph a look of shock and terror on his face and Jayson hesitating to take the shot. “What the…?” Ralph muttered.

Jayson waited a second longer, then pulled the trigger. Ralph’s body collapsed to the ground, and the heavy gun fell next to him.

“That would have been the perfect time to say something cool,” Corinne whispered.

“I couldn’t think of anything,” he replied.

“Don’t worry, I’ll think of something clever to edit in before I post this to the intranet.”

“Before what?”

“Nothing. We’ll talk about it later,” Corinne replied.

Jayson shook his head and walked back to Warren’s office. The door was demolished, along with half the wall. Warren stood by the back of the room, staring out the bay window at the city below. “What do you want? I have money. I can get anything. Do anything. Just name it.”

“Anything?”

Warren turned to face him, the slightest hint of relief evident. “Anything.”

Jayson took his helmet off, walking alongside Warren and staring out the window. “How good are you at flying?”

#Fragments

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