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number1villainstan · 9 months

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Ok, I’m Invested now so do you have any headcannons as to what the UA students think about aizawa having overhaul with him? (I guess they’d have graduated by now if your AU is set in the future but I mean the current class- ig they just kept in contact with him or something-) also does kai feel like he can relate to aizawa a bit since he lost his arms and aizawa lost a leg, both the work of Shigaraki? That’s..probably a spoiler you should probably tag…also going off that, does overhaul get protective of aizawa if they’re around shigaraki for whatever reason?

So, this is an AU where the whole final war arc never actually happened--the League was apprehended before that. There's no Tartarus prison break, no AFO taking over Shiggy's body, none of that (I'm pretty fuzzy on what happens after the Overhaul arc, never watched that far, except for the manga chapters where Nagant is Onscreen and Being Cool), so I don't think Aizawa would have lost an leg in this AU. However, if he had, he and Kai would ABSOLUTELY bond over that--phantom pains, adjusting to a different limb than what there was before, how painful putting in the prosthetic might have been. It's also possible that Aizawa would have balance issues with a prosthetic leg (source: I have an uncle with a prosthetic leg so I know some things but not everything), especially near the beginning where he's still getting used to it. This also happens about 2 years after canon, so the teens are now 3rd years.

(Don't worry about giving me spoilers, though, I Do Not Care about getting spoilers for BnHA.)

Also, you're so right, Chisaki would absolutely be protective of Aizawa while Shiggy's around, although that doesn't really happen often. (The HPSC put down a bunch of restrictive bullshit rules (because, you know, the HPSC doesn't actually want this pilot program to succeed)).

As for the first part of your ask: The HPSC gave Aizawa (and All Might with Shiggy and Endeavor with Dabi) three months to rehabilitate their respective villains, and put down a bunch of rules, including that each villain couldn't leave wherever they were staying. So legally Chisaki can't leave Aizawa's apartment, Shigaraki can't leave Might Tower (or wherever), and Dabi can't leave the Todoroki estate--except that the HPSC can't exactly put cameras in any of those locations, given how powerful All Might, Endeavor, and UA are, so they manage to get around it. (Hell, in Dabi's case, Fuyumi decides to finally up and leave and takes Dabi with her so that he's not actually in the same house as him, and Endeavor allows it as long as Fuyumi reports back to him so he's not empty-handed when the HPSC drops by.) So Nezu gives Aizawa a couple of weeks off to care for the newly-released Chisaki, who's in really bad shape, and Class 3A gets an emergency sub for a bit. Unfortunately, because the HPSC is made up of assholes, Aizawa's still expected to do his usual hero rounds, so even getting to take his teaching job off he still has to leave Chisaki alone for hours at a time, which seriously scares him at the beginning.

So, you know, it's several weeks--over a month--before Class 3A gets Aizawa back and to meet the infamous sociopath known as Overhaul. When they do meet him, though, it's kind of underwhelming. He's brought to the dorms so that Aizawa can watch over him and his class at the same time, which is technically illegal but Nezu can and will absolutely cover for him, so Chisaki's kind of just hanging out in Aizawa's office, where it's quieter and there are fewer chaotic teenagers to bother him. They knew about what Aizawa was doing and why he had to stop teaching for a bit, but they're morbidly curious about a big bad villain Chisaki was introduced to the class at the beginning of the night, but it's up to each class member to sneak past Aizawa and introduce themselves individually.

Deku's the first. He's had a couple big knocks to his confidence in the hero system (and several hundred small ones) since the Hassaikai raid, and since Mama Midoriya adopted Eri officially after she got control of her Quirk he knows a lot more about Overhaul than he ever really wanted to know. Because of all that he's less prone to snap judgements. He doesn't exactly like Overhaul, but he's less likely to attack him with very little evidence that he's actually doing something wrong, especially given the horrors he's heard about Tartarus committing, and he's in the middle of reevaluating his view of the hero system and whether or not he even wants to be a hero anymore. The encounter is super tense and leaves both of them in a bad mood, but it does give Deku valuable information and miraculously doesn't break out into a fight.

The next one is Shouto, who was at the trial where it was determined that both Pops and Eri's mother were unfit guardians, and has been in contact with Dabi directly and through Fuyumi for the past month and a half (or something like that, I don't have the timeline 100% down). (Deku also tells him and the rest of his friend group and Katsuki all about everything Eri tells him about Overhaul, so there's that too.) Shouto wants to know if Chisaki's like his older brother and why he did the things he did. He's really blunt, but he's not aggressive or judgemental, and Kai--being the exact same way--responds pretty well to him because they're both autistic af. Katsuki and Hitoshi, who are both dating Shouto as well as each other, also sneak in once they realize Shouto's in there. That conversation is less tense than the one with Deku, but it's still kind of tense because of the subject material and because Katsuki's there. At one point Kai mentions that Nemoto Shin had been interested in Hitoshi when he saw him in the Sports Festival, as a fellow 'dangerous' psychic voice-activated Quirk haver, to which Hitoshi replies that actually Nemoto Shin is Shinsou Yuuma, his long-lost uncle/second-cousin-once-removed, and his family is making a concerted effort to get him out of prison.

And of course Yaomomo gathers her courage to talk to Chisaki Kai by herself, since she's curious about the most similar Quirk to Creation she's ever heard of outside her family. She quickly becomes Kai's favorite of the class, and they get really deep into technical details and ideas for using both of their Quirks--weapons, support materials, everyday uses. Kai gives her chemical formulas for all sorts of poisons and drugs, as many as he can remember. Yaomomo quizzes him on how he used to Overhaul human bodies so well (although his prosthetics interfere with precise Quirk use). They both speculate on exactly what the fuck Midnight's sleeping gas is. They get so into it, actually, that Aizawa actually catches them, and gently reminds Yaomomo that she has far less of a legal defense than Midnight if she violates the Geneva Conventions by using poison gas on criminals before kicking her out of his office.

Legally, of course, none of these conversations ever happen, nor do the ones with any of the other morbidly curious teenagers with a deeply fucked up sense of danger (looking at Ochako, Tsuyu, Ejirou, Hanta, Fumikage, Kyouka, and probably several others), since legally Kai's not even supposed to be there. (Shouta already knew that they'd try to talk to him, because he's had 2 1/2 years to get familiar with his hell class, and he's made peace with it.)

By the end of the night, Kai's exhausted from so much conversation with strangers (although Shouta did warn him), so he ends up asleep in Shouta's office while Shouta works. Shouta takes it as a sign that, despite it all, Kai's learned to trust him. It's a good sign.

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hamliet · 3 years

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Metals and Heavenly Bodies: Why There Is So Much Metal in RWBY

So, why is RWBY so metal?

RWBY uses metallic symbolism to explore the alchemical process (the refinement of metal into gold via the creation of the philosopher’s stone). Alchemy has seven metals that are ordered in terms of refinement: three base metals, one that is the most refined of base metals, and three refined metals. RWBY has been associating each metal with certain characters. It’s also been giving these characters their ultimate focus in the precise order of refinement.

Metals in alchemy are also associated with heavenly bodies, or planets (well, plus the sun and moon, because we’re dealing with ancient astronomy here). The planets, of course, are named after Roman gods, so they too can be associated with the metals, and RWBY directly correlates them.

NB: It’s very valid to critique tropes and subtext. This isn’t intended to invalidate any criticism but rather to offer a symbolic reading of the metal motif.

So, let’s dive in.

Base Metals:

Lead-Saturn

Associated characters: Qrow Branwen, Ruby Rose, Mercury Black

While I can’t think of any specific reference to lead in RWBY, there are a ton of references to the mythical Saturn.

Saturn's father (Uranus) was a piece of work who hated Saturn’s mother and so took his son (and other children) and imprisoned them in a cave so that they could never see the sunlight. Saturn’s mother eventually persuaded Saturn to take a sickle and castrate his father. He then wasn’t a particularly great dad himself, becoming more like his father than not.

In alchemy in particular, we have images of Saturn with a prosthetic leg (see: above). This is where Mercury begins his arc. He’s abused by his father, who steals his semblance and refuses to allow Mercury to be his own person (effectively rendering him a prisoner). So, Mercury kills him, and then is taken in by Cinder and Emerald to be an assassin for them, an assassin just like his father. You can see the parallels.

Saturn’s sickle is also often drawn as a scythe, which Death holds in the above image. A scythe is of course the weapon used by Ruby and by Qrow--specifically, Qrow is the person Ruby imitates and admires. But we know (and Ruby now does to) that Qrow is a flawed human himself; Ruby is better of becoming her own person rather than continuing to stay like her father-figure in Qrow (her own dad is great, but that doesn’t mean Qrow isn’t also a dad figure to her!)

Qrow, of course, is self-destructive, believing his semblance is to bring bad luck wherever he goes. His name is “crow,” the bird symbolizing the first (black) stage of death and rotting in alchemy. His own upbringing can also be compared to Saturn’s.

But, you see, Saturn isn’t actually a sign of doom and death. It is one of the symbols of the prima materia, the lead to be transformed into gold by the end of the alchemical process. It shows where the characters can grow, and indeed all three of them are along their path towards growing.

Tin-Jupiter

Associated character(s): James Ironwood (maybe Weiss Schnee)

Well, I’m actually going to talk more about Ironwood and his arc in the next section. But in Ozpin’s circle, in which characters are based on The Wizard of Oz (a blatantly alchemical story), we have Qrow as the scarecrow, Lionheart as the Cowardly Lion, and Ironwood as the tin man. Jupiter is also associated with the Sublimation stage in the process of alchemy, which is where we are now.

In case we didn’t get the allusion, RWBY has helpfully placed artwork of tin men on the walls in the background of Weiss’s room this season.

I’m aware that this screenshot isn’t from this season but it gets the point across. I also feel tin might well have an association with Weiss and where she was at in her arc after the fall of Beacon.

Additionally, Jupiter is actually Saturn’s son in mythology, and is saved from being eaten by his father (look Saturn really wasn’t awesome). He returns to force his father to regurgitate his siblings, and Jupiter and his rescued siblings (yes they were still alive; it’s mythology) fight to dethrone their father. They succeed with the use of lightning, among other things. Saturn was then imprisoned in tartarus. You can see the parallels.

Do note that the glowing sun above the head of the tin man on Weiss’s wall, showing Weiss is destined to become refined like gold. The golden sun is in sharp contrast to Ironwood’s allusion to the Dark Sun, but there’s a lot more to say about Ironwood in the Iron section.

Iron-Mars

Associated characters: James Ironwood, Marcus Black, Mercury Black

First, let’s continue with Ironwood. I’ve noted before that iron is associated with war:

Iron in particular is ruled by Mars, the god of war, meaning it is associated with violence. It’s not a coincidence that pretty much from the second Ironwood is introduced, the concept of war comes up, and his entire character has gone on to be the embodiment of the military and violence.

In addition to seeing himself as a sort of be-all-end-all Jupiter figure, Ironwood of course is always expecting war. His arc is one of reverse alchemy, which is a thing. It means that instead of becoming refined, he’s corroding from Iron to Tin. I don’t see good things for him.

Mars in mythology also becomes obsessed with Venus, which... you’ll have to read the next section for that ;)

Marcus Black, of course, is an assassin, hence it makes sense that his name literally means “dedicated to Mars.” Mercury (our Mercury) becomes more like him in taking over his role as an assassin. He’s so broken from his father’s abuse that he refuses to become his own person and just falls into his father’s role. It’s tragic.

So is Mercury’s arc reverse alchemy? No, I don’t think so. There’s more (of course) later on, but if we look at the stages of his development, we see he has moved from Lead to Iron. It’s progress. His leg is a focus for the early arcs of the story (he uses it, along with Emerald’s semblance, to trick everyone into turning against Yang), and only later did we learn his history with his father. Even if the events of course did not happen in succession, the story revealed the allusions one after each other. He’s also made progress in that he’s clearly emotionally attached to Emerald even if he pretends otherwise. Also... (see below)

The Most Perfectable Base Metal:

Copper-Venus

Associated character: Penny Polendina

As I also mentioned previously, Penny’s name references copper (a “copper penny”). The Summa Perfectionis, a thirteenth century alchemical text, calls copper “the most perfectable of base metals.”

Venus in alchemical imagery is almost always wearing (or surrounded by, since she’s also often, well, not wearing anything) green.

Green is in alchemy the color of the prima materia, the raw, immature material that will eventually be refined into gold, because green is of course symbolic of the earth, fertility, growth, etc.

As I wrote previously, in mythology Mars had a thing for Venus. I’m certainly not suggesting Ironwood has a thing for Penny in a romantic/sexual sense, but he does seek to control her, and like the Mars of myth, his pursuit of Penny/Venus leads to his humiliation (the Mars of myth gets caught in a trap--no literally a net--by Venus’s angry husband).

In contrast to Ironwood, Penny, who is originally made entirely of metal, becomes human, while Ironwood becomes more metal--not necessarily literally, but in his spirit. He’s lost his humanity, or rather, gave it away, while Penny found hers. It makes sense to me that a story with spiritual alchemy at its core (which focuses in the Jungian sense on individuation/self-actualization, or fully coming into an understanding of the self) would have Penny literally transform into what she has always been: a final product, a real girl, the philosopher’s stone.

Refined Metals:

Now these are going to be a bit more predictive. The allusions are clearly there, but how exactly those will play out I don’t know because if we look at these metals as steps in the process, we’re not quite there yet.

Mercury-Mercury

Associated character(s): Mercury Black, (maybe Emerald Sustrai)

I think the name says it all.

Kidding. Mercury as a metal is also known as argentvive or quicksilver. It, along with sulphur, form the basis of the alchemical process. They must be united to achieve the Philosopher’s Stone (it’s one of the reasons I am wondering if we’re going to get an important, Mercury-related event in a place named for sulphur or its other name, brimstone, in Vacuo; all the places we know of in Vacuo are named after types of stones including several that are sulfuric in nature). Mercury himself unites the two principles of the work, sun and moon (for who those are, read below). Mercury is the metal from which all other metals come from--he’s way more important to this story than we’ve seen yet. Most likely, he will eventually turn on Salem as well, and in a pivotal moment.

As a god, Mercurius is the author of alchemy. He’s the mythical author of the Emerald Tablet (which Emerald’s name alludes to; I actually don’t personally think Emerald alludes very much to Aladdin. Instead, I think her allusion is the Emerald Tablet and her Egyptian design is based on Thoth, Mercury’s Egyptian counterpart). Mercury is the spirit that gives life.

Lyndy Abraham notes that Mercury is “both destructive and creative” (oh look at the relics of Atlas and Vacuo) and that “the elusive, duplicitous Mercurius who consorts with the devil is at the same time a redeeming psychopomp” (”psychopomp” means spiritual guide) “The fact that he can freely participate in both light and dark worlds without taint makes Mercurius the perfect mediating bridge.” Jung calls Mercury “a symbol uniting all the opposites.” So yeah, Mercury should have a redemption arc that will probably be pivotal in the story.

If we follow the self-actualization endgame of spiritual alchemy, with true life and wisdom as the metaphorical philosopher’s stone here, I think it’s likely Mercury becomes more himself--going from being Lead to Iron (as he’s clearly spiraling right now, but also has a connection to Emerald) to Mercury. I would also suspect he’d get his semblance back to establish that he’s his “own person” (a major recurring theme of RWBY), and while, like with Yang and her arm, I don’t think he’ll get new legs, I think it’s pretty likely his semblance will enable him to fly (since mythical Mercury, you know, flies).

Silver-Moon

Associated character(s): Ruby Rose (also Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Oscar Pine, Jaune Arc, and Summer Rose).

The most important character here is Ruby, obviously. She’s our MC and titular character! But Weiss, Jaune, Blake, Summer, and Oscar are all addressed here. But I think it’s obvious that Ruby’s defining trait is her silver eyes. They got her noticed by Ozpin and sent to Beacon early, they’re the reason Salem is targeting her, they’re what could destroy her (turning into a Grimm) or save the world (what’s going to happen). Silver is noted to be “pure” which is what other characters constantly comment Ruby is.

Gold-Sun

Associated character(s): Oscar Pine (also Sun Wukong, Yang Xiao Long, Tai Xiao Long, Ruby Rose, Pyrrha Nikos, and maybe Jaune Arc)

The most important/obvious character here is Oscar. Oscar’s first name is a shade of gold and a type of fish that is most often brown or gold. He’s facing a similar dilemma to Ruby: the threat of merging forever with Ozpin (which clearly won’t happen; he needs to be his own person, as Ruby said).

Both Ruby’s and Oscar’s individualizations are somehow instrumental to defeating Salem.

#rwby #rwby meta #rwby vol 8 #oscar pine #mercury black #emerald sustrai #rwby theory #alchemy #james ironwood #weiss schnee #penny polendina #qrow branwen #ruby rose #ozpin #rwby volume eight

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rantingwriter · 3 years

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Accidentally in Love (Hawks x Civilian Reader) Finale

Trigger warning: strong language, long hospital stay, slight angst

A couple of months passed since that magical night out with Hawks. You noticed his visits after that became more and more infrequent. You weren’t too worried at first, he is a pro-hero he is naturally busy. Now...you just weren’t sure what to think. “Yo, [y/n], how long are you trying to make your scarf?” Hime catches your attention and you quickly realize you made a 7 foot long plaid scarf.

“Oh, shit...uh…” you start to work in reverse to shorten the scarf back up to a more reasonable length. Today was knitting day, but you managed to convince Yumi (the recreation therapist) to let you use your quirk instead of the knitting needles. “Sorry, I was lost in thought.”

“No worries, but what’s got you spacing out like this?” Ayame asks, only making a potholder with her limited (but slowly improving) range of motion.

“It’s-” you quickly check your surroundings before quietly continuing. “Hawks, he hasn’t been by in weeks…”

“He is a top ten pro hero, from my understanding that means they are notoriously busy.” Ayame tries to reassure you, but you have been telling yourself that too much to believe it. “Do you have his number? Maybe you can call him.”

“I do have his office number, but wouldn’t that be weird? What would I even say?”

“Maybe, how’s it going? Just checking in? Hadn’t heard and wanted to see if you are alright?” Hime ticks off options on her fingers, she is doing some embroidery which is a bit easier to complete one handed. “Even just a text would probably help put your mind at ease.”

You nod and finish your scarf up, folding it up onto the table for Yumi to come see. “Maybe after the group,” you continue to converse with the girls and Yumi praises your work when she gets to you. After the group wraps up, you go down to the hospital payphone, your cell is dead and you don’t have enough patience to wait for it to charge right now. You call the number Hawks gave to you. “Come on…” You hold your breath as it rings, your heart sinking when you get an answering machine. At the tone you do your damnedest to stop your voice from quivering with emotion. “Hey! It’s [y/n], I haven’t seen you around and I figured I would check in on you. I know you are probably busy, but...well...I guess I miss you.” You feel a lump form in your throat. “Just give me a call back or, uh, or a text, my number is…” you recite your cell phone number and tell him to have a good day before hanging up. You lean your forehead against the slightly warmed phone as it hangs from the receiver. Your heart is aching, “damn it, why am I so upset about this?” When your landlord kicked you out 4 weeks ago, you felt fine. You had a plan and your friends helped you out. You haven’t been making much progress since that first step, you weren’t upset, frustrated? A tad, but not the same level you got to in your first month here. Hawks ghosting you...just hit differently. You wheel your way back to your room, hoping he was waiting there, but alas it was empty. You set your scarf on the little table and get back in the familiar bed. You go against your better judgment and turn on the news, the silence in the room is just too much right now.

“In other news, pro-hero Hawks has been reported missing after taking on the mission to hunt down the dangerous villain: Live Wire.” The news anchor continues to speak, but you can’t hear it. You drop the remote to the floor with a loud clatter.

Fumi suddenly bursts into your room, “[Y/n]!” Your head slowly turns to meet her gaze, her voice barely registering. “Shit, I was afraid you would see that…” She quickly turns the TV off. “Word traveled fast, Mayu is a wreck and I heard you tried to call him.”

You swallow dryly, “he can’t be missing, he just can’t be. Maybe he is laying low? Or the media is trying to throw them off the trail?” You were trying to think of any possible alternative, but Fumiko somberly shakes her head no. “He can’t be gone!”

“[Y/n], I need you to calm down, take a deep breath for me.” She tries to reach out, but you swat her away.

“There is no way! I refuse to believe it! I-I can’t believe it!!” Your voice is steadily rising in pitch, your breathing is growing too erratic for your own good. Your friend quickly calls for help and your room fills with nurses and a doctor. They have to administer a mild sedative to bring you down from your near hysteria levels of panic. It ends up knocking you out for a couple of hours, your friend returning to work with a note left on your table with the promise to return that night. When you come to, you feel numb, someone you have grown to hold quite dear is missing and you are powerless to do anything. A nurse comes in to check your vitals when your phone buzzes with a message from an unknown number. You wait for the nurse to finish up before checking to see if it was an automated message or scammer preying on the weak again. Shock overcomes you as you read the messages.

Unknown: “Hey, it’s Hawks.”

Unknown: “Don’t respond, I’m not keeping this phone or this number.”

Unknown: “I hope you didn’t see that news report, but if you have, I’m okay.”

Unknown: “This mission is going to be a long one so I won’t be able to stop by. I’m sorry if I caused you any concern, but I was told not to tell anyone about this mission.”

Unknown: “I’m going to trust you to keep this between us ;)”

Unknown: “I promise to make up for my absence…”

Unknown: “When I return, I want to take you out on a date.”

Unknown: “And yes I mean a date date, not some half assed play date or anything that’ll leave you wondering where things are going.”

Tears pepper your phone screen, you felt so much relief and joy at just a few messages. Even if this was a sick, elaborate joke meant to make you think it was him, you held onto hope it was the genuine article.

Unknown: “Just know that I haven’t forgotten about you. I miss you...and I know it is incredibly selfish of me to ask…”

Unknown: “Please, wait for me.”

You nod as if he can see you, “I’ll wait, please just be safe.” You sob, your fingers clutching the scarf you made for him.

Unknown: “I have to go now. I want you to focus on your recovery, don’t worry about me. I’ll see you as soon as I can.”

The last one was sent a few minutes ago, you bury your face in your knees and let it all out. Fumiko comes by like she promised and you have feign ignorance about his whereabouts. You do your best to follow his last request and focus on your recovery. He was working hard, so you would too.

Two more months go by, no news of his whereabouts and no more secret messages either. Mayu hasn’t been herself since the announced disappearance, but she was powering through for her patients sake. You on the other hand have made great progress, you are finally walking. Actually walking! Granted you still need support to maintain balance, but you are able to move your legs again. You still utilize your wheelchair to get around the hospital, but you are doing your best not to rely on it too much now that you are regaining mobility.

After a couple of weeks of steady improvement, they are talking about a possible discharge date. You aren’t sure how to feel, you are ready to be back out and about and get back to your life. Yet at the same time there is still so much to take care of that you can’t help but feel overwhelmed. Rika tries to help by apartment hunting in your stead, now that a release date is on the calendar, but you still need to ensure the job offer is still in place with Best Jeanist.

Before you know it, you are walking without support and you are preparing to leave the hospital that has become your home for nearly a year. Hime and Ayame are so excited for you, both are still stuck for a little while longer, but you promised them to visit as often as possible. You thank all of your therapists, the ones who have been there the whole journey and the ones who only made occasional appearances. Your bags are packed, your prosthetic is in tip top shape, and your transport is all ready to go. Tomorrow, you are going home. You feel more melancholy than joy about the occasion. Part of you hoped Hawks would be back by now to see you off or at least hear some type of news on his whereabouts. You turn on the news right before bed, a new ritual just to see if there have been sightings or anything at this point. Expecting the same old news, you leave it on as background noise and busy yourself with something else.

Breaking news! Flashes across the screen and the news anchor fervently announces, “Hawks has finally returned after being off the grid for nearly 6 months. The villain known as Live Wire now confined to the maximum security prison of Tartarus!” You feel your heart swell, he is finally back! A loud ding of your phone alerts you to a new message.

New number: “Come to the roof.”

You quickly get in your wheelchair and wheel your way to the roof. You throw the door open and you feel your heart skip a beat. It’s him! It’s really him! He turns to face you as soon as he hears the metal door. His face is beaming, “Hey there kid.” The sound of his voice washes over you like a refreshing breeze on a hot day. “You look great, how are things going with treatment?”

You smile brightly, rising up from your wheelchair, you make it look like you have simply mastered standing. When you start running towards him, his face quickly morphs to one of shock. You leap at him, throwing your arms around his neck as he effortlessly catches you. You can hear the smile in his voice as he shouts out, “Holy shit!” He tightens his hold around you. “Holy shit!!” He lets go of you and pushes you back to look at you, his hands still firmly on your shoulders. “You are walking! You-you are running!!” He is a sputtering, excited mess.

“I actually leave tomorrow, I finally did it!” You cheer with him, lightly jumping as his wings puff up and expand outwards.

“I’m so proud of you! I wish I could’ve been here to see you,” his wings start to droop, but you quickly gather him back up and just embrace him for a minute.

“You are here now,” he returns the sentiment, burying his face into your shoulder. You both stay like that for a long time, relishing in the closeness and warmth. You finally break the silence, whispering in his ear. “So, still planning to take me out on a date?”

His breath tickles your skin as he chuckles, “of course,” he leans back his arms still firmly around you. “I wanted to talk to you before this mission, but...shit happens.” He starts to caress your cheek, halting his efforts to tug the glove off with his teeth. His warm hand has a much more welcoming feeling than the rough texture of the glove. “I really like you, more than I’ve ever liked anyone. I know we had a rocky start and things haven’t been the easiest since we met, but…” He hesitates, unsure how to continue when you throw the scarf you made him around the back of his neck and yank him close enough to press your lips to his. He jerks back initially, it takes him a few seconds to register what just happened. When the lightbulb in his brain lights up, he grabs the side of your face and crashes his lips into yours. You can’t help but laugh at his actions, wrapping your arms around his neck to solidify the connection. You are first to break it to catch your breath.

“I like you too, you goof.” You affectionately rub your nose against his and he rests his forehead against yours.

“I’m glad, I was more scared of this conversation than I was facing that villain.” You both laugh as you step back to properly wrap the scarf around him. “What’s this?”

“Something I made for you...think of it as a gift to cover the holidays I missed.” He smiles as he feels the material between his fingers.

“Thank you,” he takes your hands in his and lightly swings from side to side. When this all started, you couldn’t see a future, you felt lost, alone, and just empty. Now, you’ve made new friends, you felt like you’ve regained control of your life, and now you have a boyfriend; bonus points! The fear of leaving the hospital felt so small now, you were ready to get back to living.

#reader insert #hawks x reader #keigo x reader #keigo takami #pro hero hawks #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #slight angst #fluffy fluff #long shot #part 6 of 6 #tw: hospital

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dereksmcgrath · 3 years

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That was a really good chapter, and I’m struggling to say anything deeper about why it worked. I will try to summarize why it all works at the end of this post, because before that I want to give some time for topics I haven’t discussed directly up to now--including Aizawa’s disabilities and Mineta’s sexuality. But let’s start with some specific observations about Chapter 325.

“The Bonds of One for All,” My Hero Academia Chapter 325. By Koehi Horikoshi, translation by Caleb Cook, lettering by John Hunt. Available from Viz.

Spoiler warnings for The Big O and Fire Force.

The interactions between Izuku, Kota, and the woman with the giant Quirk were handled very well, in paneling, facial expressions, and dialogue. I love how the panel of tearful Kota reaching out to Izuku is almost identical to Izuku reaching out to Bakugo way back in Chapter 1. It is such a good humorous moment for the woman with the giant Quirk to refer to Izuku as her “crybaby hero.”

And beyond how well these three interact, I also loved Aizawa from afar congratulating Iida for his handling of this entire situation. The most recent episodes of the anime have not shown much in a mentor-mentee relationship between these two, with Aizawa rushing to see Kurogiri at Tartarus and surprised Iida already finished giving the class announcements he was instructed to. The two have not had much in the way of interactions, so having this small moment showing Aizawa does pay attention to his students contradicts a lot of complaints I’ve made how Aizawa has seemed so hands-off, especially when Bakugo has been physically abusive to his classmates.

Speaking of which, Denki dope-slapped Bakugo. That has been a long time coming, and I love that small background gag making its way in the middle of Hawks’s rousing narration. I also spotted Eijiro crying and I think a cameo from Oogami from Oumagadoki Zoo, so overall, the crowd scene was well illustrated.

The final bit I really enjoyed in this chapter--aside from Kurogiri’s return, but I’ll get to that--was the man from Chapter 1 defending Izuku, by invoking one of the metaphors I hate: the stage.

The Big O is one of my favorite anime--at least, until the second season started, then the show became so meta without progressing any plot in a way I enjoyed, and losing the “monster of the week” format that I thought served it better. One of its conceits was that, spoiler, the entire series is fake, just what is imagined as a stage production, or a TV production, or someone who has the power to control everything--and, no, that’s a cheap trick, worse than Dallas or Newhart playing that for a narrative reset or a legitimate series finale gag. This isn’t St. Elsewhere, and Big O is not good enough for that stunt. At its best, The Big O was like watching Cowboy Bebop’s stand-alone episodes: I’m judging it by the quality of its beginning-middle-and-end plot. (Having Steve Blum, Wendee Lee, and others from the Bebop dub with major roles in the Big O dub didn’t hurt.) So, trying to add a second-season arc to justify stuff in the first season that didn’t need to be justified felt like a waste of the stage metaphor.

And another manga, Fire Force, just recently invoked the “what if this is all a fiction, like something on the stage” plotline and, no, God no, we are not going there, we not letting “it’s all a fiction” defend how badly that misogynistic followup to Soul Eater has fallen off the rails, good Lord, no. I was way too kind to that series.

So, I cringed hearing this man defend Izuku by invoking the stage, and Horikoshi and company drawing a literal stage with theater seats. But at the end, no, that metaphor works, especially when it invokes how we first met this man and Izuku way back in Chapter 1: they were watching Woods and Mt Lady fighting that giant like they were watching a live performance of a tokusatsu. Having that man chew out we in the audience for treating this series as spectacle for fighting scenes, and by extension criticizing Izuku too and himself, adds enough humility to have this moment all be easier to approach rather than feeling hackneyed: it comes out of a problem the series has had since Chapter 1, and that any superhero story will have (as I ranted about earlier this week, where the good guy had to fight the bad guy with nothing in society really getting better).

With the good stuff out of the way, that brings me to Aizawa, and ongoing thoughts I have about how MHA portrays people with disabilities.

Over the weekend (through Sunday, September 5, at 7 PM Eastern), the US Embassy of Japan has shared for free online for United States audiences the documentary Tokyo Paralympics: Festival of Love and Glory. As I am not diagnosed with a disability, and as I do not consider myself an expert scholar in disability studies, I leave it to people more familiar with the topics to evaluate the documentary. With that said, I do think the documentary is of its time, as within the first minutes the thesis to the work seems to be that to have a disability is to be a challenge of overcoming having a disability. I do not think that is the customary way of thinking about disabilities today, that it is something to overcome: a disability is something you live with, not necessarily something you think of as overcoming--the verb being used is the problem. Granted, I’m using “overcome” based on the subtitles, not on the original Japanese of the film. But from what I have gathered in disability studies, the focus is not on the responsibility of an individual to overcome anything: it is far more about what societies can do so that, regardless what a person has in way of abilities, they are able to participate fully in that society, as the definition of having a disability has so much to do with society not making access possible regardless of the person’s abilities.

I’ve talked quite a bit about how MHA started with this bifurcated presentation: it wants to show a shiny exterior of a world where people of various abilities all get to participate in society and function within it, before revealing that exterior to be a facade, hiding forms of discrimination, some obvious from Chapter 1 where those without Quirks are maligned, and some soon after, such as a gag strip showing the damage Mt Lady’s ability causes due to her giant size. Then we saw more and more forms of discrimination on the basis of ability. We learned how Shinso, Habuko, Shigaraki, and Toga’s Quirks impede how they may participate in society. We saw how the physical appearance of Shoji, Spinner, Habuko, and now in the manga this woman with the giant Quirk leads to discrimination. We saw how the size of the individual (the woman with the giant Quirk, Mt Lady, and Kamachi in Vigilantes) requires different forms of housing that are often not easily accessible, affordable, or in convenient parts of the city. And we have seen more and more characters who lose Quirks (Ragdoll, Mirio, All Might) or have no Quirks (Melissa) as analogues to having disabilities, and more characters who have what we accept in our real world as disabilities (Ectoplasm’s pre-introduction lost legs, Aizawa and All Might’s Quirks being impeded by physical damage, Compress losing his arm and now more in the PLF Arc, Mirko losing her arm and leg, Aizawa and Nighteye losing limbs and organs in battle).

I don’t know what to make of how Aizawa’s leg prosthetic is first introduced to the audience, as the scene is staged almost the same as how we first saw Re-Destro’s leg prosthetic in the manga: we see the prosthetic clothed in a shoe and a pants’ leg, and that is how much we see to indicate its presence. I doubt the replication of this staging is telling us any similarity between Aizawa and Re-Destro--I honestly think the staging is just a coincidence. But I do think, intentional or not, Horikoshi is avoiding a fixation, an attempt to focus on the prosthetic as if something has been lost, by clothing it in the shoe and the pants’ leg to communicate that this just is his leg now, it’s not an identical substitution but it functions as a leg, it looks different, it obviously is different, but the image will not fetishize it.

I expected Aizawa would pop back up in this chapter after his appearance last time, but I in no way expected to hear references to Kurogiri, Oboro, the Nomus, and Toga--all of that are the real surprises of this chapter, and with All Might seemingly in front of UA, it’s set up for more to come. I have repeatedly complained how Kurogiri and Oboro have been handled since the reveal back in Vigilantes that they are the same body, as I took it as using Aizawa’s back story for plot setup rather than offering anything meaningful to progress Aizawa’s character. I’m not taking back my complaints. But after this chapter, I am less frustrated with those choices made, and less impatient to see where that plot is going, all because of just a few bits of exposition in this chapter to re-contextualize prior scenes to make what wasn’t working work better. It’s not clear to me yet how and when exactly Aizawa advocated for Kurogiri and other Nomus to be transferred out of prison and into medical help--and that is an entire discussion about prison reform that I do not think I can speak to adequately, but I do need to identify. While I wish this chapter or previous chapters did more to show Aizawa’s advocacy, similar to how we saw him advocate to Nezu on behalf of the class he was expelling and re-enrolling, the exposition via brief dialogue between Aizawa and Nezu hit the right beats and ended this chapter on a more positive note. All of this moment felt earned and helped make something more out of Aizawa and Kurogir compared to how I thought their plot had been so far, merely re-shuffling the characters to suit where the plot goes next.

But speaking of where the plot goes next, the invocation of Toga and the safety parameters to deal with her potential impersonation of anyone entering UA strikes me as similar to Nezu explaining the safety measures at UA: you explain the safety protocols so that, when the Villains inevitably break them, we are shocked but understand how this happened. It’s like Ghostbusters: you have to say “don’t cross the streams” so that, when it happens, you know a rule has been broken and things are that desperate. Theoretically, based on the information UA has, if you keep Toga in isolation for so long, her impersonation will wear off: that makes sense. The problems are twofold. First, no, I still don’t trust that Nezu isn’t pulling something. But that’s a conspiracy theory, so I need harder evidence. Therefore, second, UA may not know how much Toga’s Quirk evolved in the fight against the MLA and may have evolved since the PLF fight; predicting the duration of her impersonating abilities, when paired with her ninja-like ability to hide her presence, means that Toga could pop up in UA in the near future. Having All Might somehow now in front of UA instead of having a chat with Stain leads me to think Toga could just as easily have impersonated All Might to get into UA and close to Izuku, but I’ll have to wait and see.

I also have avoided discussing Mineta in these recent chapters. At the time of his reunion with Izuku, I honestly did not read a queer subtext at all: his “I love you, man”-esque reaction to Izuku struck me as homosocial rather than queer. Now that he again has been prevented from getting close to Izuku in this chapter, I can’t avoid bringing it up now.

In the immediate time when the chapter came out, I noticed to distinct interpretations of his remarks to Izuku, based on what he says in Japanese and how Caleb Cook translated it into English: the homosocial as I just said, in terms of Mineta having always been prone to using language and passionate language to express his feelings, unfortunately almost always in a perverted way to girls and women; and the queer reading, that Mineta is indeed making a love confession to Izuku.

I’m not sure which side I find more persuasive, but the latter queer reading is effective, especially in retrospect seeing how often he is near Izuku in different chapters. And it recontextualizes his reaction to seeing Ochaco giving Izuku attention back in the Classes 1A vs 1B Arc: I thought he was jealous that Izuku was getting Ochaco’s affection, whereas it may be that he was jealous of anyone else showing affection to Izuku.

However, I could just as easily take a page out of Scrubs (yes, forgive me for citing a cringey show like Scrubs) when they tried to portray the Todd’s womanizing as part of a larger pansexual identity--which is also problematic, and really is not how I want to read Mineta as being bi or pan, because it again falls into the argument that being bi or pan means you’re hedonistic or horny all the time when, no, by themselves, the terms bi and pan just refer to your emotional and sexual attraction, not at all implying anything about your sex life. This is all the more infurating to have to explain when being a pervert is not tied explicitly to any one sexuality, gender, or sex, so to have it associated with being bi or pan is offensive. Granted, I also am offended by how popular culture associates being a man with immediately being associated with being a pervert, but that’s the fault of toxic masculinity and failure to recognize broader constructions of being a man and masculinity, but that’s another topic.

To summarize, I pause at any notion that Mineta’s characterization is anything beyond just a pervert to his girl and woman colleagues, or any notion whether he was just exaggerating his chauvinism and attraction to girls and women in order to cover up for being gay, bi, or pan, because either case has unfortunate implications. At best, this portrayal suggests is the victim of toxic heteronormativity--which, if that was the case, that doesn’t work because we just had to sit through his groping of Tsuyu, Momo, and others, and no, the story doesn’t get to excuse that bullshit behavior by saying he is young and influenced by the toxicity around him. At worst, this portrayal suggests that being bi or pan just means you are one big pervert and will grope anything that moves--and, again, no, that is not at all what being bi or pan is. That’s like saying “apples are red, therefore this red Stapler is an apple so I’m going to eat it.”

God, this is why I really wish Horikoshi would take the cue I’ve seen from more fanfic writers and just headcanon someone’s sexuality and making it apparent in the fiction: it’s not that hard to show someone’s attractive to someone else in ways that defy our heteornormative assumptions, it’s just that much harder to commit to it beyond some authorial-intent JK Rowling footnote. (And since I invoked her by name: fuck Rowling; trans rights now.)

But I want to wrap up this review on a positive note, even if that means I’m again invoking another cringey TV show. How I Met Your Mother (I warned you this would get cringey) built its symbolism around umbrellas. Having the umbrella scenes around Izuku in the rain, after this manga already invoked Kenji Miyazawa's “Be Not Defeated by the Rain,” coupled with Hawks’s narration--that is all really well-done. Umbrellas are that shield against the elements. It even ties back into Aizawa and Oboro: we first meet these two in Vigilantes when Aizawa couldn’t stand to bring a stray kitten out of the rain while Oboro, whose power is literally clouds, had no hesitation about shielding the cat. Shielding Izuku like this with the umbrellas as a metaphor for how the older man all the way back in Chapter 1 wants to shield Izuku, and how UA can shield Izuku, is a really good way of visualizing what is offered to Izuku. UA is not his home, but like an umbrella, this is a temporary fix against the elements awaiting out there. I’m not as convinced by Izuku saying he can bring things back to how they were before: that’s nonsense, because for society to progress, you can’t just go back to how things were, you have to take what worked and improve it and fix what was broken. I know Izuku knows this, especially after his talk with Nagant, but it is an awkward line for this chapter. But like how we’re dealing with COVID, like how we need to mask up just like we would hold an umbrella against the rain, just as we need to work together (even if, paradoxically, we do that by social distancing, not gathering in crowds like the UA people are), we need to get through this awfulness, and I appreciate that this series again communicates the value of collaboration and not persisting with the “I alone can fix this” approach All Might, for all his good intentions, unfortunately propped up that led to Shigaraki, this mess the characters now face--and, yeah, being political, is why we’re in this mess in a post-2016 atmosphere.

#my hero academia #mha spoilers #shota aizawa #minoru mineta #kurogiri #long post

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rex101111 · 5 years

Text

Closure (and how to move on)

AND HERE’S A SPECIAL LITTLE STORY FOR MY GIRL WHOSE BIRTHDAY IT IS!!!

Enjoy!

The shadow of Tartarus loomed heavy and dark above her, the midday sun unable to shine from behind the concrete and metal. The very presence of the place seemed to suck away the light around it, the dread and terror within chilling all who gazed upon it.

Or at least…that's what the stories online had to say about the place.

Eri stared up at the building, a strange sense of peace building up in her heart. This place always seemed so much…taller, when she was younger. It was just…a place, a building, a prison. That's it.

"Remind me again," Dad said from the driver's seat, at a loss, "why you wanted to go here for your birthday?"

Eri smiled softly and looked back to her dad, his face twisted slightly in apprehension. She didn't blame him for it, he had his own history with the place, but she made up her mind a year ago, she would do this.

"Because I need to speak to him." She answered easily, reaching down to squeeze his hand. "I need to…face that chapter in my past." She looked back at the building, the calm in her heart thrumming under her skin. "I've ran away from his my whole life…about time I stopped."

He shook his head and squeezed back, "Eri you don't need-"

"I want to." She uttered, looking him straight in the eyes, making him pause of a sudden. "I want to do this, I want the nightmares to end…I want to live." She laughed breathlessly, "maybe this won't change anything, maybe it'll make everything worse…but I want to try."

Izuku deflated slightly, the concern in his eyes dimming and mixing with pride, "…alright, if this is what you want, I won't stop you." His faced hardened again as he looked at the prison behind her, "just remember, everyone in there knows me, so if he tries anything just say the word and they'll-"

"Papa!" She groans in dismay and God has it been ages since she has called him that. It brings her all the way back to the early days, to times of hanging around in the dorm room with her family on all sides while she glued herself to him and Mama.

It had the same effect on him it seemed, his face melting completely at the sound.

She took her chance, leaning over the gearshift to drag him into a hug, "thank you so much for worrying…but this is something I have to do myself." She feels him wrap his arms around her in turn and the warmth in her chest grows. "You and Mama and everyone else…you protected me long enough."

"And now it's time for you to protect yourself huh?" He finished for her with a weak chuckle, "you're making your old man cry here…"

"Oh stop that Papa." She smacks his shoulder lightly without getting out of the hug, "you're starting to sound like grandpa Toshi."

He laughed at that and loosened his hold on her to look at her again, hands on her shoulders. "If you need me, I'll be right out here." His smile grew sad but proud, "take your time in there; I'll wait as long as you need."

She nodded with a grin, unbuckling her seat belt and opening the door, "thanks Papa."

"Just say the word and I'll bust through the wall!"

She laughed loudly as her feet hit the pavement, grinning doubly wide at him as she held the door to close it, "and now you're sounding like Kouta!" She closed the door and started walking towards the building, waving over her shoulder. "Later Papa!"

"Wait a minute!" He shouts, rolling down the window to stare at her, "don't you mean Kouta-kun? Since when was he just Kouta?!"

"One thing at a time Papa!"

She ran full tilt to the gate, stopping to show her I.D and permission to enter and visit.

"Alright." The guard nodded briskly, "everything looks in order." He looked at her. "Who are you here to visit ma'am?"

She swallowed the sudden lump in her throat, "Chisaki Kai, please."

He nodded again and pressed a button, a short buzz followed by the entrance slowly grinding itself open for her. She felt her pulse picking up with every step she took inside, the seed that this might not be such a good idea budding in her gut.

----

The first thing that struck her about his cell was that it was…clean. Too clean. She swore the stink of bleach breached the bulletproof glass dividing her from him. Or maybe that was just the PTSD talking, memories of being stuck in a room so sterilized you could preserve a blood sample on the floor.

The second thing that stood out to her was his arms…or the fact that he had any arms. She heard from news stories and hushed whispers from her family when they thought she couldn't hear about how he lost both arms.

Back in the day she felt some sick knot of satisfaction tie up in her heart (serves you right serves you RIGHT), a twisted sense of justice for all the pain those hands wrought upon her. She shared this sentiment with Mama one day, and the look she gave her stopped her dead.

"When someone else is in pain it's never a good thing…he deserved it Eri-chan, for how he hurt you, her deserves far worse if you ask me…but you should never feel happy when someone else gets hurt. Only villains think like that."

She nodded back then, even if she didn't completely agree, but as she grew older she began to see what she meant by that. Him sitting in a jail cell, him missing his arms, him ruined and forever robbed of the chance to fulfill his twisted goals, him paying for all the wrongs he committed…it didn't fix anything, didn't make the nightmares any easier to bare.

And seeing him now, hunched over a chair with crude metal prosthetics attached at the elbows, only good enough for grasping food and tools, didn't give her any joy either.

The third thing she managed to notice before he looked at her was…he was so…small.

He towered over her in her nightmares, some bird faced shadow who blocked out the sun made her feel like she was back in that place that smelled of bleach and death, some tiny and scared little girl curled up on her bed with no one to turn to.

Now?

He looked like he had not eaten properly in ages, emaciated limbs barely filling his prison slacks. He sat heavily in the chair, leaning back and starring at her with sunken in eyes.

The sharp stab of fear she expected never came, the shear lack of anything left her at a loss of what to say. Not that she had any solid idea of what she wanted to say to him anyway, but this didn't help matters.

"Eri." He rasped out, making her jump at the sound of it (he sounded like thunder in her head, outside of it he was barely a pebble on a window), and he leaned towards the glass to get a better look at her. "They didn't tell me who was coming to visit me. I was expecting another one of those upstart "gangsters" looking for a leg up, or maybe another reporter…but, I'm glad it was you, it's been too long."

"I'll say." She murmured, a bit stunned at his appearance and how stark a difference between the one in her dreams and the one before her. "I'm a bit surprised you recognized me actually, it's been 12 years after all."

She could hardly believe this was the same man who tore her to pieces on a weekly basis, the one who haunted her dreams for years after she escaped.

"I spent far too long examining you far too closely to ever forget you Eri."

Ah, never mind, she can believe it. A quiet shiver of dread started at the base of her spine but went no higher, quickly dying down before she could think too heavily on it. "I guess that makes sense." She mumbles quietly, shrugging her shoulders and crossing her arms. "So…"

"So…what?" Over-Chisaki raised an eyebrow at her, spreading his prosthetics in a expectant gesture. "You came all this way, after all this time, what did you want to talk about?" Something sharp and acidic shone in his eyes, "are you here to see what I've been reduced to? To rub pity in my face?"

Eri opened her mouth to refute, but closed it when she couldn't quite find the words and settled for shaking her head.

"Or maybe you're here to demand an apology?" He chuckled bitterly, a dry and tattered sound from the bottom of his throat, "are you here for your long deserved retribution?" He got up and walked to the glass, slamming a metal fist against it, "well? Speak girl!" He slammed again, maybe hoping for a reaction, though his voice remained level, "why are you here?"

"How are you?"

Silence stretched long and odd between them, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she could properly articulate them, Chisaki slamming the glass not so much making her flinch as just flustering her out of her musings.

"…excuse me?"

"Well I mean besides the obvious." She gestured to the room on his side of the divider, barreling forward with her outburst to try and make the most of this, "you know, are you eating? Sleeping okay?"

Chisaki narrowed his glare at her, peering into her red eyes to pry some hidden meaning behind her words, "are you serious?"

Eri crosses her arms again and shrugs, the thought that she might have just undercut some dramatic moment he was building up makes a thrum of amusement pass through where the dread was a minute ago. "Yeah, I'm serious."

Chisaki scoffs and shakes his head, "as well as you would expect after over a decade in a prison." He spits the sentence on the glass, again hoping for a flinch, and only getting an embarrassed chuckle. "Why would you care about how any of that?"

"Because you look kinda…" She struggles for the words, looks closely at him, at how he wobbles slightly as he stands, at how she could see his cheek bones more clearly, something rises in her gut as she looks at him…but it's far from pity. "…tired, I guess."

"Tired?"

"You look like I used to." She says quietly, whatever menace he tries to exhude falling flat. "All those years ago, when you-" The memory of it makes the lump come back, and she swallows it thickly, shaking her head.

He barked out a harsh laugh falling back on the chair with a piercing glare, "so, you are here to pity me."

"No-"

"The monster who tore away at you is brought low and made to feel the same crushing pain you suffered at his hands, it that it?"

"Don’t you dare compare this," she gestures to his room again, to the books, the newspapers, the food cooling on a table, the damn window, her voice gaining an edge she didn't expect when she came here. "Any of this to what you put me through." Her voice is an echo of steel, bouncing off the walls and crashing against the glass, and Chisaki is the one who flinches. "None of it comes close."

It lights a fire that causes her to take a step towards him, her nose an inch away from the glass. He leans away.

She doesn't expect that flare of indignation at the bottom of her gut, but she is glad for it as it burns away that seed of doubt that's been gnawing a hole down there since she's stepped foot in this place.

Soon though, she sees the sudden apprehension in his eyes, the dread he bites and chokes down so he could glare at her again, and the fire simmers down as the feeling from before floats back up, and this time she recognizes it.

Not pity, but sympathy, understanding. No forgiveness or mercy, just simple empathy for someone in a bad place, deserved or not. Whatever history they have is put aside and all she can see is a sick man who probably hasn't been sleeping or eating properly for a week.

Granny Chiyo would approve, she thinks.

Chisaki growls in frustration and stands up again, shaking her out of thoughts again, "would you stop going and circles then and just tell me why in the hell you're here?"

Eri sighs, shaking her head, before reaching for her pocket, digging through it for what she wanted to show him, eyebrows pinches as she searched. Finally she smiled as she found it and pulled it out, "to show you this."

It was a plastic card, with several details printed on the face along with her picture. The two details that caught the eye were the first two:

Name: Midoriya Eri.

Hero Name: Lady Q

"Hero…?" He mumbled looking between her and the picture on the card, "you…you're a-"

"Just graduated a short while ago." She said with a gentle smile, flipping the card so she could look at her picture, "I start as a side kick at the Ryukyu office in a month or so." She smiled a bit wider at that, remembering the looks of mock betrayal on her parent's faces when she said she wasn't going to start in their offices, not wanting to seem like she got leg up from her direct personal connection with them.

Great auntie Ryukyu was always the most down to earth of her family, she would treat her fairly as she started out.

Another bitter chuckle bubbles out of Chisaki as he shook his head. "So, that's what you're here to do." He turned away to pace back and forth with a manic sort of malice, "you're here to prove me wrong, to prove you're not some curse on everyone you find yourself with, that's it isn't it?"

"No." She said easily, heart light and calm, "I came here to prove myself right." She looked up at him as he froze. "I came to prove that I could be more, than what you said, to keep the promise I made to myself and the people I cared about."

"What promise?" He spat out, venom and bleach dripping from every word, "what asinine promise could make you come here?"

"That I would move on." She said, smile unflinching in the face of his disdain, "that I would move pass what happened to me, what you did to me, and simply…be." She grinning fully now, uncaring of how ridiculous she sounded, "That I would be whatever I wanted to be."

Chisaki stood there, stunned by her and how easily she spoke these things to him, seeing nothing of the scared child he held under his thumb, "you-"

"And the only way I could do that," she continued on, barreling through what he tried to say, "is to face you, be here in front of you after all these years." She stopped smiling, sighing deeply and looking at the ceiling, "to stop running away for the first time, to turn around and actually look and see what and who I was running from all this time…and to see how I felt."

Chisaki had nothing, no words to speak, no venom to spit, all he could do was stand there, and hear her.

"And now?" She went on, voice considering, "seeing you here? Finally speaking with you after all this time, do you know what I feel?" She waited a long moment, for a guess or a call for her to leave, but all he did was stand there and gape, so she sighed again with a shrug of her shoulders, "honestly…nothing."

That woke him up, eyes widening in outrage, "…nothing?"

"Nothing." She confirmed. "For years you were this…nightmare stuck in my head, you just wouldn’t go away, no matter how hard I tried." She played with the card in her hands. "I lost sleep, some days I wouldn't eat or refuse to leave my bed because I was so scared you would be around the next corner, ready to take away everything and everyone I loved."

Chisaki's eyes grew furious, still stuck on her answer. "Nothing?"

"But as time went on…I thought about you less." She smiled again, chuckling, "less nightmares, fewer days where I was too scared to get out of bed, and soon enough you became a rarity…but you never really left." She looked at him at last, locking her gaze with his. "…until last year, a little while before my birthday."

Chisaki slammed a metal hand on the window, "you insolent-"

"You just…stopped appearing in my dreams." She ignored him, smile small but stubborn. "I had other things to worry about, my future, my friends' future, the world around me." She chuckled, "and a few months ago, it suddenly hit me that all my thoughts of the future…lacked your presence, there wasn't any tiny terror in the back of my mind that you would come back and ruin it for me."

He slammed his hands again, the bang of the glass echoing all the way to the guard station, she could hear footsteps getting closer to inspect the noise. "You dare-"

"You weren't a nightmare anymore." She muttered quietly, just loud enough to hear, "not some monster from my past, or even just…my abuser." She shrugged her shoulders one more time with a mirthless chuckle, her voice matter of fact, "now…now you're just…nothing."

Chisaki banged the glass like a mad man, "arrogant brat!" His eyes went blood shoot, spit flying from his mouth as he shouted, "nothing!? ME!? NOTHING!?" He kicked the glass hard enough that she was sure he broke a bone, and yet he went on. "I HAD YOUR MISERABLE LITTLE LIFE IN THE PALM OF MY HAND! I GAVE YOU A DESTINY! WITHOUT ME YOU'RE NOTHING! NOTHING BUT ANOTHER CARRIER OF A DISAESE THAT WILL KILL THE WORLD!"

"You should stop Chisaki-san." She shook her head calmly as she looked at him, already turning a foot away from him as the guards approached to subdue and calm him. "You'll over exert yourself if you go on like this."

"DON'T YOU DARE PITY ME YOU MISRABLE CURSED CHILD! I WON'T STAND FOR IT!"

"HOLD HIM DOWN!"

A dozen men in white coats swarmed into his cell, holding him down as he howled and scratched at them, soon he was immobile long enough for one of the men to plunge a syringe into his arm full of clear liquid, the effect almost immediate as his words began to slur and slow.

Eri let a shaky sigh, as they started to strap him to a gurney to take to the prison clinic, she stepped to the glass one last time, tapping on it to get the barely conscious Chisaki to look at her, "one last thing!" She shouted, face a bit more sympathetic, "grandpa says…he says you're forgiven, for everything you did to him."

Chisaki tried to keep awake, the anesthetic slowly dragging him down, "b-boss?"

"He said he's sorry he couldn't gather the courage to come here himself before…" She trailed off as Chisaki's head lolled to the side, fully under the effect of the drug, "…before he passed away."

The men wheeled the man away out of sight, one of them coming to the glass, "you alright miss Midoriya?" His face was filled with concern, "he didn't scare you too much did he? He's been a bit…out of it lately, refusing to eat and such so-"

"It's okay." She calmed him, shaking her head with a smile. "He...I'm okay." She let out another shaky, slightly wet, sigh, "for the first time in a while…I'm…really…really okay."

She turned away, her steps echoing in the hall as she slowly put more and more distance between her and her once-nightmare…as she did many times before.

This time though, she did it with no fear nipping at her heels.

Before she knew it, she was out of the building, the sun peaking over the top of the building.

(She didn't notice she was crying until she came back to her dad, Izuku wiping the wetness on her cheeks, before hugging her tightly.

She laughed and calming him down, the tears were only from relief…she was free.)

#My hero academia #Eri (bnha)#Midoriya Izuku #Chisaki Kai #stuff rex wrote #closup #literally waited for the second it turned midnight to post this #my daughter deserves an instant birthday present #HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!!!

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secretlystephaniebrown · 7 years

Text

Interlude: Hotel

Summary: The Reds and Blues; and their respective Freelancers, find themselves stranded on a strange planet named Chorus. Secrets, lies, and the unexpected seem to lie around every corner, and there might be even larger threats looming over the horizon.

They’re possibly even less ready for Chorus than Chorus is for them.

Pairings: Lots of friendships, Suckington, Yorkalina, Chex, eventual Yorkimbalina, possible others.

Start

Ao3

The Tartarus was a rather dull place, Aiden Price found. The ins and outs of the day were predictable down to the second. Aiden found himself working on individual inmates to pass the time more often than not. There were some fascinating characters on the ship. It was a pity the most use he’d have for them was starting prison fights.

Every single person on the Tartarus was here for life. No matter what their crimes; white collar, murder, treason, and war crimes all existed side by side.

It helped Aiden that he had been convicted in a quiet affair, off to the side. The spectacular events that had been the Freelancers exposing the project overshadowed his own trial. No one on the Tartarus knew who he was. Aiden preferred it that way. It gave him a certain amount of freedom.

But the daily life was not very stimulating, even with Aiden’s personal projects. So he was very surprised when the alarms began to blare and everything changed.

Aiden had once walked into a room and met a man with bright green eyes and theories unlike anything that Aiden had ever heard of. Leonard Church had changed Aiden’s life in every way, and from the first handshake, Aiden had felt it in his bones that this was it. A moment that changed everything.

And so when the mercenaries began to speak over the loudspeaker and Aiden began to feel the same thing, he quietly tied his sheets together. He knew a test when he heard one. He’d devised enough of them over the years.

And when Felix mentioned Freelancers, Aiden found himself smiling to himself.

It seemed like he would not be spending his days becoming the prison chess champion after all.

Aiden Price was as small man, but Felix didn’t like him. But he might be useful.

“Did you know Agent Washington refuses Artificial Intelligence access to his neural implants?” Price challenged. “Or that Agent Carolina’s 57% more likely to neglect her teammates when presented with a competitive scenario?” Felix was fascinated despite himself. This was useful. The things he could do with this… but Price was still talking. “No? Then I also doubt you realize there is another inmate aboard this ship that shares a history with the Freelancers. One who would undoubtedly prove useful to you if he were properly guided.”

Felix snorts. “If you’re talking about Sharkface, Counselor, we already know about him. One of our friends is already collecting him.”

“I wasn’t, actually,” Price said mildly. “If you’ll follow me…”

The man who he led them to was the tallest person Felix had ever seen, even out of armor. His neck was a mess of scars and tattoos, his head perfectly bald. His biceps were about as big as Felix’s head, and he radiated danger. He turned towards them slowly, revealing that the front of his throat was just as torn up as the back of his neck. Old, ragged scars betrayed serious injury that had happened there.

He grunted at them, watery blue eyes narrowing.

“Gentlemen,” Price said blandly, hands clasped behind his back, “I would like to introduce you to the Meta.”

Felix felt himself grinning widely behind his helmet.

“Oh, this should be fun,” he whispered.

Thatcher pushed open the cell door, and Sharkface looked at him.

“You?”

“Me,” Thatcher said. “The boss needs you.”

Sharkface bristled at that. “I’ve been here how long, and you think—”

“Freelancers, Terry.” Thatcher said. “Carolina, Washington, Texas.”

“All three of them?”

“Locus has a claim to Washington and Texas is mine,” Thatcher said. His back spasmed as he remembered what the bitch had done to him when she’d left him in the desert to die. “But Carolina’s all yours.”

Sharkface rolled his eyes and got to his feet. “I’ll kill whichever of them I find first,” he said darkly.

“I’ll be sure to tell Locus that,” Thatcher said smoothly. “But Texas is mine, Terrance. She killed Connie. She nearly killed me.”

“She dropped a building on me, CT,” Sharkface snarled. “Don’t think I’ll let her live just because she killed your traitor girlfriend.”

“Don’t talk about her that way!” Thatcher snapped.

Sharkface laughed again, the noise dark and dangerous. This is why Control had let him rot in prison. He was too unstable. “What?” He mocked. “Are you in charge?”

“Yes,” Thatcher said simply. “Felix and Locus have had some… trouble. I’m damage control.”

Sharkface let out another one of those laughs. “Bet they love that,” he said.

Thatcher said nothing.

“We’ve got an incoming ship, sir!” One of the pirates reported.

“Good,” Thatcher said simply, turning around and walking towards the dock. “He’s late.”

“You’re late,” was all Felix said as the pelican doors swung open. Locus said nothing, just stood behind him in the shadows, watching the scene play out.

“No, I’m early,” the voice corrected as the familiar figure stepped out of the ship. The shoulders of the armor were the broad ones meant for a sniper, a variant of the traditional Mjonlir model. The armor itself was purple on grey, and familiar as Felix or Locus’s own, and he walked with the faint stiffness of a man with a prosthetic leg.

“Siris,” Locus said, nodding once

“Locus.” There was a pinched quality to Siris’s voice as he glanced between the two of them. “You called in a lot of favors to get me here. What is it that’s so important?”

“Foxtrot,” Felix said.

Siris snorted. “Are you telling me you two can’t take care of Seven-Tens?”

“Not Sevens,” Felix corrected. He was practically vibrating in place. “Twelve.”

Siris went perfectly still for a very long time. “Twelve is dead,” he finally said.

“Faked it,” Felix said. “He goes by Agent York now. He’s working for the enemy. We thought you might be interested in a reunion.”

Siris hesitated for a moment. “You’ve got a picture?”

Felix must have expected this, because he produced a datapad and showed Siris the image. One blind eye, grey streaking through the hair, lines on the face that had never been there before, but it was clearly Foxtrot-12. Dust colored armor, classic build with no modifications to it. Bland and easy enough to fade into the background. If it weren’t for Foxtrot’s personality, at least.

Siris stared at the photograph for a long time. “What’s the job?” He said, finally.

“Clean up,” Felix said easily. “Everyone’s armed, dangerous, and killers. Foxy joined up with some shady people after he ditched us. You heard of Project Freelancer?”

“Rumors only,” Siris mused. “Why am I not surprised?”

“The boss says no survivors,” Felix said, reaching out and touching Sirs on the arm. “Are you sure you can handle that?”

Siris scoffed. “It will be fine.”

“It won’t be easy,” Locus offered, finally speaking up. There was no hesitation in Siris’s voice. The man had hardened, over the years.

“Killing an old friend never is,” Felix sighed dramatically.

Siris flat out laughed this time. “Friend. Right.” He passed Felix the datapad back.

“How’s Megan and the kids?” Felix asked cheerfully.

Siris looked away. “I wouldn’t know. We split up not long after…”

Locus couldn’t help but find himself pause in surprise at that news.

Felix was thrown as well. “Mace! You should have called!” His hand curled around Siris’s arm. “Times like these partners should stick together.”

Siris shrugged. “I managed.” He tilted his helmet at Locus. “Normal fees?”

Felix laughed. “Oh no. Way better.”

Siris paused when Felix gave the number. “You’re kidding.”

“No survivors, guaranteed silence, we were never here,” Felix said. “And no questions.”

Siris shook his head again. “You two could never stay small, could you?” He sighed and turned around to examine the distant glow of Chorus.

“Where do we start?”

#Steph Writes #The BFF Verse #Time's Running Out #Aiden Price #Felix #Locus

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thewingedwolf · 7 years

Note

Top 5 disabled characters (headcanon or explicitly canon or both w/e)

I'm deliriously tired and not sure if u want physical disability or mental illness headcanons or what so this is a hodgepodge of all of that and also addi is my only real friend know this site the rest of u r fakesTOP 5 PHYSICALLY DISABLED/CHRONICALLY ILL CHARACTERS THAT ARE CANON 1. Eugenides from The Queens Thief (missing right hand)2. Bran Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire (paralyzed from waist down)3. Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars (quadruple amputee, respiratory problems)4. Elia Martell from A Song of Ice and Fire (described as being a very sickly woman, eventually so sick she can no longer have children)5. Jem Carstairs from the The Infernal Devices (addict, drugs cause him extreme weakness and sickness and various organ systems failures that eventually lead to his death)6. Bc fuck u I couldn't choose Emma Coolidge from Heroes (she is deaf).TOP 5 DISABLED HEADCANONS 1. Helo Agathon from Battlestar Galactica - listen he got shot in the same leg like four times and I'm glad he was walking around with the cane in the finale but tbh he should have been walking with a limp long before that2. Charlotte from The Infernal Devices has dwarfism this is canon and I will deck u if u say otherwise3. Matt Murdock in addition to being blind is also autistic and has chronic pain and both of those cause MASSIVE sensory issues for him that he has to learn to work around.4. U cannot tell me Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase don't have a million aches and pains and sores ESPECIALLY after Tartarus nope, Annabeth comes back missing a hand, Percy loses a few toes, and they both have some p awful chronic pain that causes them to skip practice and just roll around in bed groaning over who hurts worse5. Wolfgang Bogdanow has a prosthetic arm or he should have anyways and I have no reasoning for this beyond LISTEN DISABLED THIEF WHO BRINGS ALL THE GANG'S IN HIS AREA TO THEIR KNEES IS JUST A GREAT CONCEPT Shout out to Peeta, Clint Barton, and Katniss who are disabled /in canon/ but aren't given those disabilities in the movies lmaoTOP 5 CANON MENTALLY ILL CHARACTERS1. Max Rockatansky from the Mad Max series (c-ptsd, selective mutism, also has a fucked up leg)2. Lady Fire from Fire (depression, general trauma problems, also is missing a few fingers)3. John Crichton (just sorta ~crazy~ altho that's a purposeful 'he grew up in the south and learned how to act neurotypical and now that they've thrown ptsd into the mix he stopped giving a fuck about passing' thing, but he is canonly mentally ill. Most likely ptsd, depression, I think possibly bipolar disorder).4. Penelope Alvarez from One Day at a Time (she has ptsd and a wonderful arc about it).5. Michael Scofield from Prison Break (Suicidal tendencies, ptsd, probably other stuff but due to his suicidal tendencies he never really gets himself checked out properly)TOP 5 MENTAL ILLNESS HEADCANONS 1. Listen to me all the Eights from BSG are borderline don't fight me on this 2. Jace Lightwood is also borderline fuck u3. Bellamy Blake is mentally ill I don't care what they confirm it as just so long as it's fucking confirmed (I see borderline personality disorder personally but we all know I'm impartial lmao)4. Martha Jones has ptsd fucking fight me5. Harry and Ginny's first order as a couple after the war ends is to check into therapy to deal with all their problems. They have marriage counseling fairly often as they get older, not bc they're having problems but bc their mental illness starts acting up and they decide to go for help before it affects their marriage.

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rebaobsessivelywrites · 6 years

Text

A Story of Shadows (ch 3)

You can find this entire fic here on AO3. (and fanfiction.net here)

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) and Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Books)

Entire Fic Description:

Nico flees the Camp Half-blood infirmary and into a shadow. He's aiming for San Francisco (specifically his sister in Camp Jupiter), but ends up in Los Angeles. In a warehouse. Filled with vampires. Like, honest to goodness VAMPIRES-- not empousai. And who in Hades is this "Angel" guy?

Aka: Nico stumbles into a world radically different, but just as dangerous as his own.

Entire Fic Warnings: cannon-typical violence, uh… not much. I’ll add as I go…

Chapter word count: 1,511

Chapter warnings: cannon typical violence, let me know if there’s more

Summary: A few facts come to light, and Cordelia is very much in denial.

Please read the fic! First chapter, previous chapter, next chapter, master list. And let me know if you want to be tagged.

Cordelia felt found herself gaping at the strange kid in front of her. While he looked like an ordinary teenager, dressed in dark goth-like jeans and t-shirt, he was very much not one. He didn’t make any sense. He had turned an obscene number of vampires to dust—wielding that mysterious black sword like it was a part of him—only to promptly… fade? And what the hell was up with that? Bodies did not do that. Period. And then there was also the worrying fact that he kept… zoning out. He just stood there like some kind of ghost when Wesley was helping Gunn, and then it was like he was in some sort of slow-motion time warp digging around in that bag of his when Cordelia was ripping Angel a new one. He was so out of touch with the world, and whenever he did display some semblance of awareness it was to glare at someone (usually whoever was the closest).

Alright, maybe she was being a little unfair. Mr Mini-Dark-and-Mysterious did seem a little better now that he’d eaten that weird sugar cube thing. His hand was still gone though. And he had graduated to muttering strange things under his breath. A large portion of which was definitely not English.

After the boy’s dramatic declaration of not being lost, but having missed, Cordelia was temporarily dumbstruck. This gave Fred the opportunity to lean forward, from where she still knelt next to the boy and his pack, and ask gently, “What do you mean you missed?”

“I’m not human,” he shrugged as though that was a suitable explanation, even though they’d already established that little tidbit. (That was another big thing about this strange boy that Cordelia was decidedly not ok with, but she was ignoring that for now. Along with the fact that he somehow knew Mr Dark-and-Mysterious Sr was dead.)

Fred seemed as taken aback as Cordelia because she simply looked over her shoulder at Angel with a lost expression on her face.

Angel frowned and took a small step closer to the boy, “So you have… magic, then?”

The boy snorted, “That’s one way to put it.”

“What’s the other way?” Gunn asked curiously from somewhere behind Cordelia.

The boy hesitated and looked down at his hands—rather, his hand holding his flask and the arm that would normally be attached to his other hand. After a moment he shrugged, as though going ‘what the hell’. He looked up at the motley group that surrounded him and gave them a strange smile that was a cross between a nervous flash of teeth and a mischievous smirk, “I’m the son of Hades, Lord of the Underworld, and I’ve inherited a fair number of his powers.” Something primal and terrifying lit up in the boy’s eyes, and for a moment Cordelia forgot that he was fading from existence. “They call me the King of Ghosts.”

“That’s a, uh,” Wesley’s voice took a step up in pitch, “interesting title.”

The kid shrugged and took another swig from his flask. He seemed absolutely unconcerned.

“How’d you get it?” Fred asked curiously.

He gave her a very unimpressed look, “How do you think?”

“But,” Cordelia ventured, “Wouldn’t, um, Hades be the King of Ghosts?”

“No,” he snorted, “My dad is the King of the Underworld.”

For a moment, they all stared in silence as the strange boy drank from his flask. Cordelia, for one, was absolutely befuddled and was still trying to process everything she’d heard so far. Just… what? He was the son of a god? How was that possible? A god??

The only person who didn’t seem to be affected was Angel. Because, you know, it was Angel. Said vampire was the one to break the silence, “Alright, kid. I’m still not sure how or why you’re here but you clearly need help and we can’t stay here. I’m Angel,” the vampire started gesturing to each occupant of the warehouse, “This is my team; Gunn, Wes—“

“Wesley, Cordelia, and Fred,” the boy finished a little impatiently, gesturing just like Angel had. “I’m perfectly capable of listening, even when I’m fading from existence,” he snarked, “But since you’re finally sharing, maybe you can tell me what in the name of Hades those,” he gestured to the piles of dust, “things are. Because, whatever they were, they were like you, Angel. Dead, but… not like one of my zombies. And they… they felt empty. You feel more complete, like an actual ghost.”

Cordelia was speechless. She noticed Fred’s jaw was hanging a little loose and Wesley looked like someone had slapped him. Gunn looked suspicious. Angel himself, however, looked taken aback… and rather intrigued as well. “You’ve never seen a vampire before?”

“Vampires?” he nearly hissed, “Seriously? I was sure I was mistaken…”

“Nope,” Cordelia jumped in, popping the ‘p’, “They were your average, soulless, bloodsucking undead. Angel here, though, he’s fully ensouled. Still quite dead, but at least he has a conscience.”

“I’ve only ever seen empousai before…” the boy murmured, “I’m going to have to swear on the Styx to get everyone to believe me.”

“What are empousai?” Fred forgot her shock in favor of curiousity.

The boy shrugged, “They’re daughters of Hecate, and are hybrids of a sort. Human, donkey, and mechanics. They drink the blood of men they seduce. ”

“Donkey?” Wesley asked incredulously.

Gunn, however, shook his head at his friend, “No… that I can get… but mechanics? What does that even mean?”

“They only have one leg, a donkey’s leg, so they’re given a celestial bronze prosthetic. I’ve heard that they’re melded together with black magic.”

“Celestial bronze,” Wesley murmured quietly, but Cordelia was fairly certain that only she had heard it.

Gunn frowned deeply, “And you mistook them for vampires?” Unlike Wesley’s musing, his incredulous question was heard by everyone.

The son of Hades (and Cordelia was still very much not ok with that) gave the experienced demon hunter a murderous look, “They basically are vampires—they drink blood! I’m sorry that I’ve never seen your type of vampire before.”

Gunn scowled back at the feisty not-quite-human, and opened his mouth to say something that would no doubt inflame the situation. The boy obviously knew this too, because his expression was darkening rapidly and he hadn’t even heard what Gunn was about to say.

Cordelia felt obligated to jump in before anyone exchanged blows, “Whoa there, cowboys. Take it easy. We already know the world is a big scary place; so what if it’s a little scarier?” Once both boys redirected their glares to her she addressed the kid, “You know ours’, bucko, so what’s your name?”

His glare subsided to a heavy smolder, and he looked down at his hands. Well, hand-with-flask and arm-without-hand. (Another thing Cordelia was still very much not ok with.) “Nico,” he muttered reluctantly.

“Alright, Nico,” Cordelia continued, “Like Angel said, we can’t stay here. Why don’t we relocate to our command center, and then you can tell us how exactly we can help you.”

Around her, Cordelia’s teammates murmured agreement and began to efficiently gather weapons and medical supplies and pack them away. The boy—Nico—watched for a moment before giving a disgusted huff and shoving his own supplies back into his pack (one-handed).

“You could help by getting me to San Francisco,” he muttered, swinging his pack over his shoulders and sliding his sword into its sheaf, still seated. He took a deep breath and braced his working hand against the floor. Cordelia had a flash of anxiety a moment before the son of Hades heaved himself to his feet. For a precarious moment, he swayed forward, and everyone started towards him but Fred, who was still the closest, reached out hurriedly to steady him. He, in return, glared at her and continued his griping, “I would’ve thought that’d be obvious since I said I was headed there.”

It took Cordelia a long moment to remember what he had been talking about. As such, Angel beat her to the punch.

“You’re not going anywhere until you can walk straight,” Dark-and-Mysterious (original trademarked edition) scolded the teenager severely.

“And your hand stops pulling a Houdini on us,” Cordelia added, mimicking Angel’s ‘I-am-not-kidding’ face perfectly.

Nico huffed at them, “You know, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” They all gave him incredulous looks, so he scowled and murmured, probably to himself, “It’s not like I saved the world, or survived Tartarus, or visit the Underworld for kicks or anything. No… I’m obviously completely helpless. That horde of vampires nearly massacred me.”

“Try not to drown us in your sarcasm,” Wesley told Nico wisely as he passed him, still supported by Fred. “You wouldn’t want to kill the kind souls that are trying to help you.”

Hanging back as everyone filed out of the dank warehouse towards the cars, Cordelia rolled her eyes. This was going to be a very very long day. And that wasn’t even counting the nest of vampires they’d just killed!

#reba's fanfic #story of shadows #tag more later

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