#as a parallel to bringing together people who have only ever fought each other

[edelgarfield]

gods i haven't seen this parallel drawn before but it is something that drives me insane

everyone knows gortash was sold to raphael by his parents and one can only imagine the awful things he went through. and like i don't think it's too far of a stretch to think that abuse plays a heavy role in what led him to bane, how do you avoid being owned and used for other people's gain? by being the one with all the power and bringing them under your heel.

which is the exact same logic that drives astarion towards ascension. hells, the rite is a contract with mephistopheles, raphael's DAD.

imo gortash is a glimpse of exactly what lies in ascended astarion's future. he's the most powerful man in baldur's gate but he's completely alone. he's sold out and alienated every single person that ever cared about him, his power is the very thing that keeps him from ever being able to trust anyone else, all his allies are transactional and based on mutual gain, and one slip up means a knife in his back. durge, seemingly the one person he genuinely cared about, was taken from him because of the power they held. their affection for him put a target on both of their backs. he had all the power he could ever want and it did nothing to save the person he cared about most.

by the time you meet him, he is far far far too gone imo. i'm not even sure whether he cares about how isolated he is, or if he sees it for the weakness it is. if there was ever a time to convince him to choose another path, it is long gone, now he's too entrenched in his own schemes, that even if he WANTED to change (unlikely), it would spell his death.

if you don't ally with him, his isolation is the very thing that kills him; he believes he has no need of flesh and blood allies bc he has an army of tin soldiers to keep him safe. but once you take out the steel watch he's practically defenseless. he's the most powerful man in Baldur's gate, but you can literally just stroll up to his office and kill him on his own turf and no one comes to his aid. if you do ally with him, it's his ambition that puts the final nail in his coffin, his means to dominate the world turns on him and spells his doom.

and this is exactly what we begin to see happen with ascended astarion. his obsession with power and need for control makes him turn a genuine partnership based on love & mutual respect into one based on control. from party banter, we see pretty much all the companions immediately turn on him. these are people who genuinely cared for him & fought for his freedom, but after watching him ascend they wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire. and he doesn't even care! he's so entrenched in his own misanthropic worldview that he only sees the power he's gained & not everything it cost him. the cost of ascension isnt just 7000 souls, it's 7000 souls and the love of every single person who could have ever cared for him.

if astarion ascends how long until he bites off more than he can handle? how long until his enemies realize the best way to get to him is through you? how long until all his allies turn on him? (if you choose to control the absolute, the answer is somewhere between a few days and a few weeks). all the power in the world can't protect you from your own hubris and astarion has it in spades.

whether you view durgetash & durgestarion platonically or romantically I see it as two opposing narratives held together with Durge as the lynchpin. durgetash is abt being doomed by that narrative, two people who genuinely cared for each other but were the wrong people at the wrong time to save either of them. had they met earlier, if one of them had been slightly less entrenched in their roles, perhaps they could have been saved, they could have lived and had something real.

& durgestarion is the opposite, had they met any earlier, they would have brought each other to ruin. two doomed people, once beyond saving, meeting at the perfect time and finding the strength in each other to break their chains, to choose a path for themselves. where before durge failed to save gortash (& every person they ever cared for) they can save astarion now (& all their other companions).

& the real tragedy is by the very constraints of the narrative, you cannot save them both. if durgetash hasn't been the people they were, Astarion would never have his chance at freedom, he would've been consumed in cazador's ritual with no one to mourn him. but in order to orchestrate the events that allow astarion his chance at freedom, gortash is long past the point of no return. it takes MULTIPLE extremely unlikely events and literal divine intervention to free Durge from Bhaal's clutches. The chance of the same happening for Gortash is infinitesimally small.

it's abt the cruelty and chaos of the world, how fate, destiny, and chance intersect to either bind us or set us free. it's abt second chances, walking through the ruins of your past mistakes & choosing to build something from the rubble, it's abt how love & loss are two sides of the same coin, how sometimes the only choice available is to love, & that love won't save you, but it's there and it leaves its mark.

thank you for coming to my tedtalk.

#baldur's gate 3 #astarion #enver gortash #durgestarion #durgetash #bg3 spoilers

[daggryet]

c!quackity and c!dream’s want for power through the last two seasons have been fascinating to watch.

now, i want to start of by saying: there’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting power. 

in a sense we all crave power and more than that, we all need power. power comes in many forms: from the power to decide, the power to do, the power to demand, the power to rule, the power to stay in power - just to name a few.

both c!quackity and c!dream start off more or less morally right, but their motivations are at the complete opposite ends of a spectrum. c!quackity fights to gain power while c!dream fights to keep power.

i have to put it under the cut because it got really long

c!quackity starts by wanting power for the people, he wants the people to have the power to have a choice in the election. an election where people only have one option isn’t an election, and it isn’t about choosing who is best qualified.

 once he established himself as a viable candidate for the presidency, it was a fight to actually gain power for himself. that was his goal now, which is also why he refused to combine votes with pog2020 because they'd planned to use him purely for votes and thus wouldn’t give him any power. he piled his votes onto c!schlatt’s because he thought they’d have power together, but schlatt2020 wasn’t any different to pog2020. he was used for votes, but his opinions weren’t actually listened to. he had no real power despite being the vice president. 

when he joined pogtopia, he was joining the fight for power over manberg back; and though they won the war, that power was shortlived, and c!wilbur and c!technoblade made sure that though l’manberg still existed, it would have to re-establish not only its power but its entire foundation.

as a member of the new l’manbergian cabinet, his goal was always that l’manberg had power to resist those who threatened it. he argued against c!tommy’s exile because it meant that c!dream had power over them, that he could decide their political decisions, and that meant l’manberg wasn’t independent at all. he proposed the butcher army to defeat their enemies so they would never be in a position where they would be powerless again. where they’d be controlled by outsiders. it resulted in doomsday where c!quackity said: “the thing we feared losing the most, has been taken from us.” 

el rapids is about having the power to contest their enemies. they wanted political power, and they wanted to undermine the power of their enemies. c!quackity’s entire plan with c!eret was undermining their right to be king and their neutrality by staging that c!eret planned a terrorist attack. this was also the time that he stood up to c!dream, face to face, where he was in charge. and had it only been about political power, then c!quackity and el rapids would have won. but it wasn’t about political power at the end of the day because c!dream’s military power wiped the entire country out.

this theme of wanting power, being so close to gaining it, and then it being taken away from him is reoccuring throughout c!quackity’s story. and each time the stakes have been higher, each time it’s been more and more important to actually gain power, each time c!quackity has been at the forefront of trying to avoid another defeat; and every time c!quackity has lost. each time c!quackity has become more and more unscrupulous in what he’s willing to do in order to gain some semblance of power.

meanwhile c!dream’s character has never fought to gain power, he starts the story in a position of absolute power. everything hereafter in his story has been about keeping that power. and every time he’s lost, he’s rammed up what he wants power of, and every time he’s become more and more unscrupulous as well.

the war against l’manberg where he fought to keep power over land that was ‘rightfully’ his, as it belonged to the lands of the smp, is the first time he’s been properly challenged in our story. this is a war that he ultimately loses as l’manberg gains independence (through opening a new possibility for power) and even after c!wilbur blew it up, l’manberg stood. but not as strong as before.

the next time he tried to keep his absolute power was by figuring out that as long as you can identify what means the most to people, what they don’t want to lose - what they fear to use, then you can control those people. during this arc, he also figures out trust is fundamental to how people act. if you can make someone trust you, value you, depend on you, then you can control them. this, as well, ultimately fails.

the third attempt at keeping his power is trying to get control of life and death. if you can control whether someone lives or dies, you possess the ultimate power. and if you also have the skills to carry your threats out so they’re not just empty, no one can stand against you. but c!dream has hurt so many people at this point, he’s locked in a prison - defenseless - and his jailor hates him, so he has to escape. as he said, “if respect is the only thing keeping you from a knife in the back, respect is nothing.” if the promise of him being able to bring people back to life loses its value, then there’s nothing keeping him alive anymore.

he’s not only become more and more willing to cross moral boundaries to be able to keep some semblance of power, however abstract, but he’s also moved further and further away from his humanity. he doesn’t value people’s attachments, people’s lives; they’re merely tools for him at this point, so he can win the game he’s playing.

the biggest and most important difference in the two characters is that c!quackity has always been forced to punch above him, while c!dream has always punched down. this means that c!quackity has needed to become stronger and stronger, and because he’s bad at pvp his strengths have to come from somewhere else. he needed to become a stronger person. c!dream, on the other side, hasn’t ever been actually challenged by someone who was stronger than him, who was smarter than him.

so that’s why c!dream crumbling in the presence of c!quackity is so interesting. they’ve had parallel arcs, but because of where they started c!quackity holds the upper hand. he’s prepared for c!dream, but c!dream has never been prepared for c!quackity.

#dream smp #quackity #dreamwastaken #dsmp analysis #here's the essayyyyyyy i've just been procrastinating that's why it's only out now #aurora.txt #aurora analysis

[gtgrandom]

“Why I ship Zutara - since so many are inclined to believe it’s a Zuko fetish”

Is Zuko my favorite animated character of all time? Why yes, yes he is. Do I identify with Katara as a barrier-breaking feminist and woman of color? Yes, yes I do. Is that why I ship them together? No.

Look, when I first watched ATLA, I was 7 years old. I don’t remember shipping anyone, but I didn’t hate that Aang and Katara ended up together. They were cute! It’s whatever.

When I rewatched the show at 13, I still thought Kataang was cute, but I ended the series shipping Zutara, and as the years went by, they rose higher and higher on my list. Now they’re my #1 OTP.

So why do I ship them?

1) They’re two sides of the same coin. Both of them grew up too fast with the loss of their mothers. Both grew up under an elder’s influence. Both of them constantly fought to prove their worth to their peers, and both held resentment toward their fathers. Both spent the entire series improving their bending and incorporating each other’s bending styles into their own.

They have so much in common, and so many shared experiences and important bonding moments (defeating Azula together, Zuko saving her life, confronting Yon Rha together, the cave scene / turning point, their battle at the North Pole...)

2) They’re opposites. Fire and Ice. Sun and Moon. Passionate male energy and the soothing, healing touch of a woman (and her chilling bite). Realism and hopeful idealism. The Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady.

Zuko grew up without a healthy sibling or father relationship. Katara eventually obtained both of these. Zuko lived in an elite world surrounded by people and bending teachers, yet he felt alone. Katara grew up on an ice cube with no bending masters, but she loved her home and family.

The parallels go on and on.

3) Symbolism. They could have embodied the Cave of Two Lovers perfectly: benders separated by cultural divide, a cave to meet in secrecy where outside conflicts are put on hold, allowing them to grow closer, to love one another.

Plus, what better way to bridge two nations with seemingly irreparable tensions than a marriage between lovers? These two went from enemies to partners in crime to friends. Imagine if they’d fallen in love. Imagine a water bender as Fire Lady, and what influence she could have on the Fire Nation’s perceptions of the Water Tribe. Imagine the prejudices she could shed herself, living in this new culture, serving its people.

4) They’re good for each other. Zuko needs someone who can help him shift his nation’s perceptions of the world. He needs someone who can take on responsibilities of her own, rally a crowd, bring hope to his world, and not only become a mother to his children, but his people. He needs a woman who, like his mother, can encourage him to be the best version of himself.

Katara needs to feel useful. She needs to feel like she’s helping people and making a difference. She needs to be more than a wife or a mother. More than a traveling companion. She‘s a caretaker, but she’s also a leader, and she needs a mature man in her life who she can leave alone, unattended for a while. Someone she can speak to about harsh realities. Someone who will not judge her for feeling negative. Someone who will understand her sarcasm, and who will vent with her when she needs it.

5) I have always shipped them for their potential, not necessarily what we were fed in the show. So I understand how others don’t see it. But as a writer, I recognize that this pairing could have been an extremely valuable storytelling tool. Aaron saw that, the actors saw that, but Bryke wanted Kataang, so we got the typical “hero gets the girl” scenario. I get it. I just wish they would have gone the extra mile.

6) I don’t ship Kataang anymore

Aang is 12 years old. He’s a child (and a monk). That’s what makes the series work, why his victory is so powerful. His youthful innocence is a reoccurring theme throughout the series. And yes, he learns to accept many hard truths of the world, but in the end, he chooses mercy and idealism. As an adult, I can’t see him as anything but a child. And I don’t ship children. I definitely don’t want to see them make out with anyone 😷

Katara acts like his mother for most of the series. She’s his caretaker first and foremost. And it’s clear she loves him, but she’s not even sure how she feels about him several episodes from the finale of the series. I’m not about to act like their relationship wasn’t romantically coded, but it felt forced at the end. It felt like they set Katara up to be his mother more than his partner. It’s regressive to her feminist arc (and don’t get me started on Korra’s depiction of her!)

And yeah. I did not find 12 year olds attractive when I was looking forward to my first year of high school. If I had the choice between Aang and Zuko at her age, you bet your ass I’m swooning over the prince of the Fire Nation. 🤷🏻‍♀️

7) I really don’t ship Maiko. I love Mai as a character (gray characters are always fun). But her relationship with Zuko formed off-screen (never a good choice for a romance arc) and she was only ever regressive to Zuko’s character. She was never going to help him grow, to be a selfless leader, to consider the importance of other nations or the lower class (she jokes about ordering servants around for fun, big yikes). She couldn’t be a positive influence on Zuko until she had an enlightened journey of her own, which she didn’t get - her only arc revolved around Azula and her love for her boyfriend. She was a source of constant negativity and pessimim. That’s the last thing a leader of a war-torn nation needs.

So yeah. I’m not trying to convince anyone to ship my ship. I’m simply explaining why I love these two so much (since so many of you think it’s a bad boy fetish), and why I reject the pairings the show left us with.

I think Zutara would have created a stronger narrative for a near-perfect show, a better romance, and a more relatable protagonist, and no one will ever change my mind about that.

#zutara #atla #avatar the last airbender #zuko #katara

[courtofwingsandruin]

Does anyone else ever think how we know that originally, Lucien and Nesta were supposed to end up together, not Cassian and Nesta? And how that means that this bond between Lucien and Elain probably was a very sudden idea SJM had when writing ACOMAF out?

She decided to change it because this relationship wouldn’t work. I’m not gonna lie that this is slightly perplexing to me. Lucien, especially ACOTAR-era Lucien, probably could’ve gotten along with Nesta quite well. I know SJM knows her characters better than us, but I just can’t see why they wouldn’t work, y’know?

And now, with the whole 3 brothers/3 sisters thing...I’m wondering if that’s part of the reason why. If SJM realized she wanted Lucien to have some connection to one of the three (a mating bond, rather than a romantic relationship), but doesn’t get with them. Because in the end, she had these two Bat Bois sitting right here who would work with them just as well, if not better, than Lucien could with either of them—and it would give her a future story to tell with the three brothers/three sisters and Koschei storyline.

I feel this can be reinforced by the fact that SJM has been planning Elain’s specifically but also Nesta’s story since ACOMAF. She made a lot of decisions while writing ACOMAF and began preparing things for the future books she wanted to write. Choosing not to have Nesta and Lucien get together, instead the tension between Cassian and Nesta the moment they meet. The way Elain and Azriel seem to click and focus on each other the moment they meet, too (if you reread that first meeting I promise you’ll see it. Elain specifically looks to Azriel, not her newly-fae sister, not the High Lord, not the much louder Illyrian right next to Az—not even Nesta. She looks to Azriel every single time when she was unsure, and he’s constantly reassuring her that she’s good to speak up and try). I don’t think that was a coincidence.

Not to mention that if she was planning for Elain and Lucien to be together, she would’ve most definitely given them at least one romantic coded moment together. The closest thing I’ve seen is when Lucien is leaving once and Elain nearly steps down the stairs to say something to him but he’s already gone. And honestly, I blame that completely on the bond. We know they can feel each other’s emotions, Rhys and Feyre can feel each other’s even with their mental shields up (or are supposed to be able to at least)—and we see that Lucien had “longing and sadness” in his eyes just before he disappeared there, which was when Elain almost stepped down. Then Lucien had winnowed away, and she walked away without any other care (likely because the farther away he was the less strong the pull of the mating bond, so she couldn’t feel him as strongly then). This is chapter 34 of ACOWAR. This is the only scene we see that seems like it has slight potential of Elucien in canon.

However, we have many, many scenes to support Elain and Azriel. Their friendship started in ACOMAF, was seen throughout ACOWAR, throughout ACOFAS, and even though we don’t see them even in the same room together but three or so times in ACOSF, there is some kind of tension between them every time (Azriel’s clear protectiveness of Elain when his shadows gathered in the corners to strike, the clear liking of each other when Elain looked away from Azriel’s smile, Nesta noticing a charged look going between them). As well as the many scenes where Azriel and usually Cassian discuss Elain and Azriel’s protectiveness comes back up. As a disclaimer, I don’t like that Azriel is also supporting not allowing Elain to go on these missions and try to prove herself. But every single other couple in the books is protective of each other. Cassian didn’t want Nesta to even let go of his hand to get the harp. Rhys had multiple occasions where he was angry and protective over Feyre doing something dangerous—when instead of going to the townhouse she fought in the streets of Velaris, when she went to find the Suriel during the war. Saying “oh but they’re mates” ignores the fact that it’s said most all males are possessive and protective like this in their world, regardless if it’s a mating bond or family or love. And it also ignores the very plausible theory of Azriel being Elain’s second and/or true mate. I won’t get into that right now though.

And then, of course, the bonus chapter proved that Elain and Azriel’s feeling definitely are not just platonic, and they both have a lot going on behind the scenes. I won’t get into the chapter much because I have plenty of other posts on my blog where I or someone else dissected and discussed it. But they definitely have both romantic and sexual interest in each other.

I truly, truly don’t see why SJM would set that up over the course of three novels and one novella to suddenly not put them together. Especially knowing that she’s said she doesn’t like couples that were built up over long periods of time (4 books is a very long time) and then don’t end up together. I don’t think she introduced Gwyn to be a romantic interest—I do think she included Gwyn in his extra chapter to confuse us and cause panic and chaos, sure, SJM is like that, remember when we first met Emerie? And then Emerie turned out to have no connection to Cassian other than him being her mentor/trainer and she being Nesta’s friend? I don’t think Gwyn will have any actual potential as a romantic partner. This also parallels Cassian and Nesta’s story—with them both mentioning another girl pre-getting together and (likely) nothing actually comes of it. She does parallel things a lot, and I don’t think she did this on accident.

To round this out, I’d like to bring us back to Lucien and Nesta. If she originally had them together, I think there can definitely be an implication there that she had considered them working some. And Cassian and ACOTAR-era Lucien are similar, as well as...well, Nesta and Vassa. The firebird and the silver flames. A human Queen and the Queen of Queens. Vassa has shown a great backbone, will openly bicker with people (we hear about her and Jurian fighting a lot), she’s just this woman who seems like she could be similar enough to Nesta to warrant the idea that Nesta/Lucien could’ve possibly worked if Nesta was a little more like Vassa or Lucien was a little more like Cassian.

I also want to clarify that I’m not against the Elain and Lucien ship, nor am I against Gwyn and Azriel. I actually ship Elain and Lucien—just not as much as I ship Elain and Azriel, because I’m 99.9% certain that Elriel will be endgame (always leave room for error). And once the next book is out and this whole mess has cleared up, I could definitely get behind Gwyn and Azriel as a non-canon sorta-crack ship. I read about pairings that completely disregard canon all the time (Feycien is hardcore slept on). But I can’t find myself supporting Gwyn and Azriel right now, not while this ship war is happening, because I feel right now is the time to actually look at canon and focus on what’s obviously there—not what, to me, is more of just a fun little ship that could work in theory and fanfics and that’s about it.

And that’s all. End rant. I’m so sorry if you actually read all this. This stuff has been on loop in my head for days and I had to word vomit again.

#acotar #acosf #a court of silver flames #elain archeron #a court of thorns and roses #azriel #elriel #acomaf #acowar #pro elriel #i’m not tagging this as anti anything bc i’m not anti any of the ships #the other ships are cute! i like it theory! not seeing it in canon #vassa x lucien #it’s not really about them but i am supporting it some in this? #and it seems like the only safe ship other than elriel to mention? #i don’t want to make anyone mad by tagging this wrong

[the-lady-writes-what]

Nightclub, Hero Edition

                                                 —080—

Post-break-up partying isn’t really your style, but when your friends drag you out to the nightclub, you don’t really have much of a say. You’re standing in line waiting to get in when a shiny sports car pulls up. Who should get out but Ground Zero and Mind Jack. The underground hero, Mind Jack (Hitoshi Shinsou), spots you in the crowd and keeps his eye on you all night. Evidently, so does his friend, Katsuki Bakugo. After a surprise run in with your ex, Neito Monoma, Hitoshi and Katsuki show off to Monoma how the two of them together can please you better than he ever could.

Katsuki Bakugo and Hitoshi Shinsou x Reader

All minor characters are aged up. I do not write minor x adult fiction.

                                                    —080—

Contents: public sex, voyeurism, threesome, fingering, light hair pulling, praise kink, double penetration, overstimulation

“The hell you mean, you can’t go?” Katsuki glared at his friend.

His fists clenched at his sides. One day out of the week out of the entire month. He had one night to blow off some steam, and there was nobody who could back him up. Eijiro nervously rubbed the back of his neck.

“Look, man, I’d love to, but I already made plans. Maybe you could find another wingman?”

“What’d you say? You think I’m gonna take some shitty extra with me on my one night off? I bust my balls every damn day for this freakin’ city, and I can’t even get my best wingman with me?”

Pro-hero work wasn’t what he expected it to be. Sure, he had the money, the clout, and the entourage of girls (and sometimes dudes) who fought each other for a millisecond of his time.

“Mina’s been planin’ this thing for weeks now. I can’t just back out now,” said Eijiro.

Katsuki’s eyes flitted to someone else in the group. Denki felt the immediate power of Katsuki’s anger in one glance. Denki threw his hands up in that universal sign of surrender.

“Don’t look at me, dude. I’m on duty that night. Besides, maybe if you weren’t into kinky shit—”

Katsuki slammed his palm on the table. A silent threat to blow it up. His face screwed up into that gremlin mask he wore when he was extra obnoxious. But at a closer look, one could barely see the tinge of red in his cheeks.

“When I need your opinion, Spark Plug, I’ll ask for it!” Katsuki grabbed his drink and started angrily draining it as he slouched in his chair.

“What if I called Shinsou?” Denki offered.

“Why’d I do a stupid thing like that?”

“Because you’d be surprised about how much you and Shinsou have in common?” Denki was already scrolling through his phone as if looking for something. “He doesn’t patrol on Saturdays, and he’s single. What’s the worse thing that could happen?”

Katsuki growled while Denki texted. Denki’s phone pinged every time Shinsou sent a response. Denki put his phone into Katsuki’s face.

“See? Looks like he’s down for it!”

Katsuki swatted Denki’s hand away. Chewing on his straw, he was forced to choke down his pride. He had only a few words with Shinsou, and he didn’t like the guy. He didn’t like many people either, but did he have much a choice if everybody else was bailing on him? It wasn’t as much fun all by oneself.

“J-Just, tell him to meet me at Supernova. Nine o’clock sharp, and he better not show up in a shitty outfit either.”

This outfit wasn’t your idea. Your friends put you in those skimpy little jean shorts and a pink midriff-baring top just as they put you up to come out tonight. You’d rather watch Netflix in bed wearing a comfy hoodie. Would you be stuffing your face with your favorite ice cream? Yes. Going out to nightclubs with your girlfriends and drinking away, your sorrows wasn’t usually how to get over a break-up. You are a fully grown woman and wanted to decide how best to get over a two-year-long relationship. You really should have thought of that before you got friends.

Two of the four girls dragging out into the night after dollying you up were already tipsy. Pre-game partying, they call it. You’d literally rather be anywhere but out tonight.

The five of you wait in line for fifteen minutes waiting to get in. A flashy red car pulls up and parks. You watch with scrutinizing eyes who steps out. Camera phones are flashing in the vehicle’s direction as soon as the passengers exit. You recognized the blonde by his scowl. Ground Zero. But the other one? You have no idea. He looks like the underground hero, Mind Jack, but since there were so few pictures of him on the internet, you couldn’t be sure. Fangirls screamed and pressed against the velvet ropes as the gentlemen sauntered up to the front of the line. You craned your next in time to see Bakugo flash a VIP pass, which permitted him and his friend early entrance into the nightclub. Just before they went in, Mind Jack looked down the line of those waiting before his eyes landed on you. You flush red as he glanced at you and gave you a knowing smirk. Mind Jack quickly followed behind Bakugo into the nightclub.

Your friends stared and asked incessant questions. They had less of an idea who Bakugo was bringing with him, but they all seemed to agree that he was hot. You couldn’t deny the butterflies fluttering in your stomach. There was something about his penetrating glance that made your insides warm and fuzzy.

You were to wait another twenty minutes before even getting inside to find out why you caught his attention. Half your friends went to the bar while the other half tried to drag you out onto the dance floor. You barely managed to escape and find your own secluded spot at the bar where your other friends couldn’t see you. Your only drink for the night was going to be that bottle of beer, and that was it. Exciting, no, but you planned to arrive home mostly sober enough to binge watch that new romantic comedy until daybreak and avoid going home with a complete stranger. Anonymous sex just wasn’t your type of post-break-up healing routine.

You stood against the wall watching other people have their fun. The music was something you could probably dance to, but maybe after you finished sipping your beer. As you scrolled through your social media after becoming bored with people-watching, you suddenly looked up. You could not escape the sensation of someone watching you. You glanced around the nightclub in a panic then settled on the cause of your anxiety. Indigo eyes were eating you up from across the dance floor. He was seated in a VIP lounge with Bakugo. His friend seemed more interested in talking than he was, which suited him just fine as it allowed him to stare at you.

A shiver ran down your spine. Mind Jack couldn’t want anything from you, could he? You thought about all the girls your ex-boyfriend compared you to. You were too prudish, and when you did have sex, you weren’t all that adventurous. You wanted to like sex just like everybody else did. Whether it was you or your partners, you couldn’t tell. You sipped your beer, chiding yourself.

This is a mistake. I should just check out and go home.

You almost turned to find one of your friends when Mind Jack caught your eye again. You glanced up at him to see Mind Jack whispering something to Bakugo. He had his hand cupping his mouth so you couldn’t tell what he was saying. Not that it made a difference at any rate with the club’s pulsing, beating music thrumming in your ears. To your shock, Bakugo turned his red eyes towards you.

You couldn’t help swallowing hard and downed the rest of your drink. You thought it best to sneak away and grab one of your friends before you did something silly and out of character. You tiptoed unto the dance floor, brushing past gyrating, sweating bodies. Two of your friends joined the others dancing and didn’t even hear you calling out to them. A pair of strong hands reached out and touched your waist.

“At least let me talk to you before you start running for the hills.” A voice said next to your ears.

You gulped again. You never heard this voice before but felt its timber shoot pleasure all the way down your spine. You felt the warmth of his body pressing against you.

“Um,” you licked your lips. “I’ve never done this before. I-I don’t really go out to clubs.”

“Relax. I’m not going to bite.” The stranger spun you around to face him.

You faced those indigo eyes up close and personal. This close, you could see the dark shadows beneath his eyes. He was pale beneath the strobe lights.

“Unless you’re into that sort of thing,” he chuckled.

“Are you, are you at least going to give me a name before you try to dance with me?” You stammered.

“Mind Jack, but you can call me Hitoshi.”

“Is it safe for you to give me your real name? Being an underground hero and all?” You asked.

“Let’s just say I’m very comfortable getting to you. How about you give me your name, or else I’ll start calling you kitty.”

Your face turned beet red, and it wasn’t because of the alcohol you just finished off. Shinsou pulled you close to him so that your bodies pressed together.

“Y-Y/N L/N. I’m Y/N L/N.”

“Well, L/N, can I have this dance?”

“S-Sure,” you answered.

Hitoshi lowered his hands to your hips and looked for permission. You laced your arms on his shoulders and nodded. Throughout the first song, you apologized for not knowing how to dance and stepping on his toes. Hitoshi squeezed your hips, and you couldn’t deny how his hand felt on you. Your lower belly was full of butterflies at this point. You wondered if a single bottle was all it took to make you lose all inhibitions. You were lost in your own thoughts as well as Shinsou’s burning gaze when a voice pulled you out of your reverie.

“Mind if I cut in?”

You knew that voice. It couldn’t be. Could it?

You were spun around landed in the chest of none other than Katsuki Bakugo, Ground Zero himself. Your face turned a brighter shade of red. Your body moved parallel to his as the music pulsed in your ears. Katsuki’s hands wandered to your lower back and hip as he pulled you close. He leaned his head towards your neck. His warm breath ghosted over your skin, giving rise to goosebumps. Your heart fluttered in your chest. Your nails dug into his shoulders as if begging him to stop or continue; you could no longer tell at this point.

Another set of hands pulled you away or tried to. Katsuki’s hold on you was too strong to remove you entirely away from him. Hitoshi appeared behind you. His hand reached behind the back of your neck and turned your face towards his. Katsuki kissed the juncture of where your shoulder met your neck while Hitoshi claimed your lips. You moaned at the dual sensation of two men kissing different parts of you at the same time. Your legs instantly turned into Jell-O. If not for the set of hands holding you up, it would be easy for your legs to give out from beneath you and make you collapse on the floor. Alcohol officially had nothing to do with you making out with one pro-hero while another kissed your neck. Hitoshi ran his tongue along your bottom lip, silently asking for permission for entrance. Slowly, you opened your mouth to permit him. Hands ran up and down your torso and the top of your thighs. Between them, you were gripped, groped, and caressed in ways at your ex would have never. You became lost in the flavor of Hitoshi when you heard a deriding laugh even above the pounding music.

You didn’t realize that you closed your eyes the moment Hitoshi started kissing you. When you opened them again, standing before you with a sneer on his face was your ex-boyfriend, Neito Monoma. His arms were crossed over his chest as he looked at you stuck between two men.

“It’s been less than what? A week? Couldn’t decide which one, so you decide to be a slut with both of them?” Said Neito.

“Hey, Monoma,” said Hitoshi.

“Wh—”

He stupidly fell right into Hitoshi’s trap. Neito stood there dumbly in the middle of the dance floor with that vacant stare.

“Monoma, stand there and watch us please your former girlfriend better than you could.”

Katsuki chuckled against your skin. “Yeah, ya damn extra. Stand over there with that dumb, shitty look on your face.”

Katsuki’s hand slipped into your shorts. With everyone drunk and dancing and the lights pulsating, the dimly lit nightclub gave him plenty of coverage. His fingers quickly found your clit. You shivered when Katsuki began to work you into a fit. Your back arched forward, but Hitoshi’s arm snaked around your stomach to keep you close to him. Hitoshi’s lips graced your neck, kissing and sucking at your skin. Katsuki picked up the pace of his fingers to match the fast beat of the music drumming in your ears. Your gaze fixed on Monoma, who could do nothing.

Katsuki slammed his mouth on yours while the rough pace of his fingers never faltered. You moaned against him as his tongue viciously, hungrily explored your mouth. Hitoshi secreted his hand beneath your shirt and cupped your breast through your bra. The sensations made you forget that you were in the middle of a nightclub dance floor. Your back arched like a bow. Your eyes closed and screwed tight as Katsuki brought you over the edge. You moaned into his mouth with your hands, reaching for his hair and pulling hard. Your hips bucked against him as the waves of pleasure crashed into you. When you finally came down from your high, Hitoshi helped support you against his firm chest. Katsuki slowly pulled away. He and Hitoshi quickly rearranged your clothes to make you look as inconspicuous as possible. That was a little easier said than done with your completely blissed out face and the thin sheen of sweat covering your body.

“Hey, Kitty,” said Hitoshi. He whispered next to your ear. “Wanna take this party elsewhere?”

You glanced at Monoma. He was set free from Hitoshi’s quirk, but he still stood there. His face was red. Looking down, evidence of his arousal embarrassingly stood out like a sore thumb. Monoma gave you one final sneer before running off.

Whether to hide his hard-on or take care of it, you didn’t care to know.

“Who’s place?” You asked hoarsely.

You had your arm on Hitoshi’s back, and he put his hand on your shoulder. You walked out of the club like that with Katsuki leading the way. You quickly sent a text to your friends that you met somebody. Judging by how many people were staring at your exit, it was safe to say that they would have figured out who you were going out within no time at all.

Hitoshi rode in the back with you while Katsuki drove. Five minutes into the car ride, Hitoshi worked the button off your shorts and wriggled his hand inside. He kissed you fiercely, occasionally looking into the rearview mirror to glance at Katsuki. What was he doing egging Katsuki on? Katsuki shifted in the driver’s seat with each passing glance at you and Hitoshi fooling around in the back of his car.

Hitoshi’s fingers weren’t as thick and calloused as Katsuki’s, but the slim fingers felt too damn good. You were moaning into Hitoshi’s kiss. You reached up and pulled his hair as he slipped his fingers into your panties and between your slick folds. He pumped his fingers slowly, at first, inside of your slit. One finger, then two, and as soon as you were a proper mess for him, Hitoshi added a third. He broke away from the kiss to watch you ride his fingers.

Your sensitive body jolted with every thrust of his fingers. Your hips bucked into his hand, and you rode him until you saw stars. Katsuki pulled into the driveway of his miniature mansion, opened the garage door, and pulled in. The car was secured, and the door closed. He turned off the radio. The wet squelching your cunt made taking three of Hitoshi’s fingers filled the car. You hadn’t even realized that the car had been turned off. Katsuki shifted in the driver’s seat to get a good look at you.

“Come for me.” Hitoshi kissed your ear.

You obeyed. It didn’t take much to have you coming again. Drool seeped out of the corner of your mouth as your inner walls clenched around his fingers. Hitoshi pulled out slowly. He gave his index finger a long suck, humming as he enjoyed the taste of you.

“How does she taste?” Asked Katsuki.

“So good. I can’t wait to taste the rest of her.”

Hitoshi helped you out of the car and carried you up to Katsuki’s bedroom. Even in your delirium, Katsuki’s bed appeared bigger than it needed to be. He laid you out on the pillows, hair fanning the silk and goose feathers. Your shoes were taken off but not the rest of your attire. You sat up a little as Katsuki and Hitoshi slowly pulled off their clothes. They climbed in bed with you completely naked.

Just like before, you were pressed between them. Hot hands and nimble fingers worked under your clothes, caressed your skin, and gave you goosebumps. Katsuki and Hitoshi took turns kissing your lips until you couldn’t tell whose tongue was shoved down your throat. Your outfit was simple enough and easy to remove. Piece by piece, it was all taken away and thrown into some unknown corner of the room. Your nipples were pinched until they looked more like rosebuds. On your breasts, neck, and shoulders bloomed dark bruises. You sighed into their touches, kisses, and love bites.

Hitoshi slipped his slender fingers back into you and teased your hot, wet slit. Warmth pooled inside your lower belly. He pumped his fingers slowly in and out.

“Fuck, she’s soaked down here.” Hitoshi sucked your neck. “I don’t think she can take much more of this.”

You shook your head in agreement. Your brain was fuzzy with lust and anticipation. You came twice already and just with their fingers. How much better would it feel with their cocks? Those turgid members pressed against your lower back and your stomach. You felt the ridges of each, and the hard lengths made your wall clench. This felt wrong, taking two men at once, but so, so right.

“God, please fuck me. One or the other, both, I don’t care. I can’t pick, just please somebody fuck me!” You begged.

Katsuki kissed you hard. He stole your breath away, and only when it seemed that he took more than your breath, he released you, licking your lips.

“I love a girl who knows what she wants.”

He pulled away to settle down on the pillows and leaned against the headboard. Katsuki curled his finger towards you in a ‘come hither’ motion. You crawled on the bed up to him. Katsuki’s hands seized your hips and forced you to straddle his hips. His thick, rigid member protruded against the crack of your ass. Hitoshi wasn’t far behind. The mattress dipped under his weight as he crawled behind you. His hands reached in front of you and groped your breasts.

“Ever had two cocks at the same time?” Asked Katsuki.

Your mind was too focused on Hitoshi’s experienced hands playing with your breasts and pulling your nipples taut. All you could do was shake your head. You couldn’t help but feel a little naïve with the two men who obviously had more experience than you.

“Then you’re in for a treat. Come here, princess.”

Katsuki pushed you back slightly and lifted you up. You were placed over his cock before letting you sink slowly unto it. The ridges and veins of his cock brushed against your walls to create even more slick. The entrance was painless despite his size and his length almost brushing your cervix. You straddled Katsuki’s hips with his cock buried deep. Your cunt felt so full that you were left in awe and your jaw hitting the ground. Katsuki grabbed your arms to pull you flush on top of him, your soft breasts against his hard muscles.

He kissed you again, this time distracting you from Hitoshi pressing behind you. You squeaked when felt the blunt end of Hitoshi’s cock press against your already stuffed entrance. His fingers squeezed inside and pumped. You cried out as you were slowly spread open wider. Hitoshi pushed and pushed his cock inside of your walls until there was no more room for even a pinky finger.

You moaned into Katsuki’s chest. Unceasingly, your cries filled the room—pain mixed with the pleasure which made you drool. Hitoshi tried to pull out, but you groped behind you and found his hand.

“Gimme, gimme a minute. It feels…so good,” you whined.

Both of them allowed you several minutes to adjust to their cocks being inside of your cunt at the same time. Somewhere in the middle of waiting for you, one of them started petting your head like you were a cat. You couldn’t but mewl like one as you tried to move your hips stuffed full.

“You ready, princess? You sure about that? Because once I start, I’m not fucking finishing until I’ve got my cum spilling out of you.”

Katsuki bucked his hips upwards. You gasped, and your eyes flew wide open. Hitoshi moved forward. The tight fit of those two made you sit up slightly and grab the headboard. Your knuckles turned bone-white with how hard you gripped the carved wood. Hitoshi and Katsuki moved in tandem with each other. Katsuki’s rough hands palmed your breasts. His groping was harsher than Hitoshi’s, but you liked the feel of being so nicely abused like this. His teeth grated your stiff nipples. Katsuki pulled one into his mouth and sucked hard.

You tossed your head back. Hitoshi’s hands ran up and down your sides and all the way down your thighs. He grunted against your shoulder, murmuring how tight and wet you were for them. Grabbing some part of you, they began moving faster within you. Tears and sweat comingled on your face as you rode them both. Your ships could barely keep up with their powerful thrusts sending you into heaven. You clung to the headboard for dear life.

The sound of wet flesh slamming together resounded in your ears along with their compliments. Never had you heard such lewd things whispered or shouted at you in the heat of passion.

“There you go, Y/N. Just like that. Taking it like a pro,” said Hitoshi as he nibbled your ear. “Your first time too, I’m honored, kitty.”

Katsuki stopped suckling on your breasts long enough to groan himself. He played with your tits some more and pumped himself harder into you. His hot length reaches your cervix, making you scream.

“Oh, fuck, yeah. I love all those pretty sounds you make,” Katsuki grunted.

You couldn’t speak. At least, nothing that would be comprehensible. Words came out as a garbled mess. Your vocal cords were more preoccupied with moaning and screaming as you were rammed in both directions. Your hips moved faster. You were no longer in control of your own body, but it moved towards one goal without you. Hitoshi and Katsuki matched your speed then surpassed it. They both gripped your hips to pin them down and take full control.

“Be a good girl and let us finish you off, okay?” Said Hitoshi, and he pecked your cheek.

“Let us take care of you like a good slutty princess that you are,” said Katsuki, bruising your hips while Hitoshi grabbed your thighs.

You didn’t move but allowed them to do what they pleased. You were pressed, squeezed, and bounced on their cocks with more enthusiasm than you thought they could muster. An erratic pace was set until both of their cockheads brushed against that secret spot inside your body. You couldn’t tell which one came first, but the result was the same. As ropes of cum filled your insides, you basked the warmth of it. Searing white-hot pleasure speared down your back, reached down into your lower belly, and exploded. You could bare scream as your walls clenched around the two cocks.

Hitoshi kissed your shoulders as he pulled out with all gentleness in mind. “Very good. Yeah, just like that. Good job,” he praised.

Katsuki carefully did the same. You hissed at the emptiness after having been stretched so wide that your womb might burst. Slick cum seeped out of your cunt just like Katsuki promised. Hitoshi fetched a glass of water, and he and Katsuki helped you drink it without spilling it all over your front.

“Drink slowly, dumbass. You don’t want to make yourself sick, do you?” Katsuki griped.

After such rigorous activities, it was no wonder that all three of you landed in a sweaty yet sated pile on Katsuki’s enormous bed. Silken covers were pulled over you, while your eyelids drooped closed. Two sets of arms snaked around your waist. You were too tired to tell the boys to share. There was plenty of you to go around.

“In other news, pro-hero Ground Zero is once again under fire for yet another controversy. He was seen at the nightclub Supernova, arriving with underground hero Mind Jack. Ground Zero and Mind Jack were seen by witnesses dancing with a young woman. Some witnesses state that Ground Zero put his hand inside the woman’s clothing and performed an explicit act with her in the middle of the dance floor…”

Retired UA professor, Shouta Aizawa, stopped listening to the news report. He pinched the bridge of his nose while he wondered what he had done in a former life to deserve this.

“Goddamit,” he sighed.

                                                  —080—

EDIT: I realized just before posting there is one small continuity problem. Bakugo told Kaminari to tell Shinsou to meet him at the nightclub, but I wrote that they arrive together in Bakugo’s car. It’s going to stay like that because I’ve been trying to write this thing for hours and I’m too lazy to worry about something like that. Forgive me. Let’s just pretend that Shinsou has a car break down or something.Also, I wouldn’t necessarily label this as Bakugo x Reader x Shinsou, as that implies Bakugo x Shinsou. Not that there’s anything wrong with that ship, but I feel like they’re both Dom’s in the fan fiction canon. I’d have to see or write more interactions with them before labeling an entire chapter as previously stated. That being said, you can interpret it as polyamory anyway. I’m not going to be mad if you do.

Original found here

#my hero academia #my hero academia fanfiction #my hero academia smut #mha #mha fanfiction #mha smut #reader fic #Katsuki bakugo #Bakugo #Hero name Ground Zero headcanon #Bakugo katsuki #hitoshi #Hitoshi shinsou #shinsou #hero name Mind Jack headcanon #Bakugo x reader #Shinsou x reader #reader smut #aged up characters #minors begone

[cienie-isengardu]

Luffy and Zoro, equality presented by Wano Arc...?

The feeling of equality between Luffy & Zoro has been sitting on my mind a lot lately, so I finally decided to write down my chaotic thoughts on that matter. 

First, to be precise: I’m not talking about power levels between Straw Hats because One Piece proved on many occasions that power alone is not a good measure how one character will fare in a fight or that beating X does not automatically guarantee beating Y. In Thriller Bark Perona took down Luffy, Sanji, Zoro and Franky without a problem, but lost to Usopp out of all people. At the same time, Luffy, Zoro and Sanji will always be the main fighters of Straw Hats no matter the gap of power between them. Everyone is powerful on their own, but they may fare better in different fighting settings. I personally tend to think that Luffy and Zoro are closer to each other in terms of power, raw strength and will, but this is not exactly the matter of equality I wish to talk about. What I wish to talk about is how the Wano arc set Luffy and Zoro apart from the rest of the crew in a more tangible (visual) way.

Even before Wano Arc, Luffy and Zoro were singled out by narrative on various occasions. The most memorable is: the first meeting with Shichibukai (and Mihawk acknowledging them both), taking a beating in Mock Town to Nami’s dismay and Bellamy Pirates’ amusement, earning the title of Supernova and with that becoming part of the Worst Generation, independently attacking Charlos/Tenryūbito (though sadly, Zoro was stopped by Bonney) or killing together a dragon on Punk Hazard. In all cases, Luffy and Zoro were set apart from the rest of the crew and even other pirates, sharing unspoken understanding of other actions and needs or becoming a part of something bigger and more dangerous. 

Luffy will always be the captain (leader) and as the main character, the hero saving the day at the end of the arc. At the same time, Zoro may never be officially called the vice captain by other crew members (which is fair, Straw Hats Pirates don’t care nor have any need for ranks) but narrative puts him as the protector of crew (i.e. Kuma), the leader in the absence of Luffy what consistently is marked by narrative boxes (i.e. “Zoro team”,”Zoro side”) and the layout of frames (Zoro taking the central position that normally belongs to Luffy) or even having some confrontation with the final boss (Arlong, Hody). Zoro is also treated like the voice of reason; even if his words are harsh and emotionless, he will speak what must be said for the Luffy and crew’s sake (Alabasta, Davy Back Fight Arc, Water 7, Enies Lobby, Zou). He is also the one that provides Luffy comfort and support in dire situations (Usopp leaving the crew). 

Luffy cares equally about his nakama, yet the narrative likes to single out Zoro as someone usually standing by him but also as someone taking Luffy’s position of captain very seriously. Further details adding to the feeling of equality set up by narrative include the visuality of their most notable scars (under left eye/left eye and middle of chest), the running joke of people mistaking Zoro for an actual captain of Straw Hats Pirates or acknowledging him as a dangerous “beast”, Luffy and Zoro’s very similar mindset and attitude towards fighting powerful enemies and all the parallels in which both captain and first mate* did the same things on various points in the manga or color spreads/covers (x)(x)(x)(x)(x)(x).

In general, the story established how despite their different nature of extrovert and introvert,  Luffy and Zoro are similar when it comes to the serious and trivial matters about whose I could talk for days. What is vital though, for years such treatment of Zoro created the feeling of equality between him and Luffy. Not in the power sense per se because narrative has never been objective about that, but how they progress from rookies to men getting closer and closer to fulfilling their dreams.

And now the Wano Arc seems to single them out in ever more visible ways.

For one, anime dropped the individual eye catchers for the whole crew, except for Luffy and Zoro. At the end of each, all Straw Hats are showed standing together:

In both cases, Zoro is on Luffy’s right and both carry similar looking katanas: Kitetsu II and Sandal Kitetsu III. The swords may have different colors, but their tsuba have the same patterns, which double the feeling of equality between those two. 

Manga provides similar moments, starting with chapter 912

and cover of volume 91 (which was used for Luffy’s eye catcher apparently) and inside illustration included in volume 92

Then from all the crew, only Luffy and Zoro were pretending to be ronin (the masterless samurai), seen in box info

while the rest Straw Hats played the role of ninja (Chopper), kunoichi (Nami), ghost (Brook), geisha (Robin), toad oil salesman (Usopp), carpenter (Franky) and soba cook (Sanji). Even Law, another Supernova and equal to Luffy, hid his identity pretending to be some sort of wandering monk. And thinking logically, Law would be better ronin because unlike Luffy, he knows how to use sword in fight. 

Another visually prominent detail - Zoro and Luffy are the only one Straw Hats who have kimonos with ornaments resembling the sun that may be a symbol of the coming dawn, foretold by Lady Toki. A dawn that will end Kaido and Orochi’s reign on Wano.

Luffy’s ornament is straight taken from the crest of the Kozuki clan (and resembling the symbol Alabasta Kingdom). I have much more to tell about Zoro’s design but that will need wait for another time. For now, though it looks much sharper is no less reminiscent of the same solar symbol. Adding to the sign their status of ronin and we may call Luffy and Zoro, figuratively speaking, the samurai bringing sun (hope, new era, peace) to a country plunged in darkness, most likely in nearest future fulfilling late Kozuki Oden’s desire to defeat Kaido and open Wano  to world.

Of course, all Straw Hats, Heart Pirates, Minks and people of Wano are working together to defeat Kaido but Luffy and Zoro were visually set apart from everyone from the beginning of the arc. There is also their personal, strong connection to Oden’s children: Momonosuke and Hiyori who both were very impressed and protected by Luffy (Momonsuke) and Zoro (Hiyori).

Another detail binding Luffy and Zoro more to Oden and setting them apart from the rest of characters are new things they have acquired through the course of the arc. Namely, the better understanding & advanced techniques of Busoshoku Haki (Luffy) and late Oden’s great sword Enma (Zoro). Both things are capable of hurting Kaido.

Usually, during the arc, Luffy gets separated from the crew for the longest part of the story. And indeed, he gets struck first in prison (where he managed to win over imprisoned there samurais) and now, during battle, is running to face Kaido escorted only by Jimbei and Sanji (who wandered away in chapter 997). Surprisingly, Zoro too was separated by quite a long period of time, in which he met and befriended Yasue, Hiyori and Toko before he rejoined the crew for the final battle. Luffy and Zoro are the Straw Hats that openly admit they want to face Kaido in fight.

Another detail setting them apart from the rest of the crew: interacting with (and in case of Zoro, beating down) other Supernovas. They met Hawkins at the beginning of arc and fought him (Sanji too, met Hawkins and Drake once in public baths but ran away, securing Nami, Robin and Shinobi well being), then Killer and Kid before and during battle, Apoo and Drake which whom they had small crash, but now Drake were working with Roronoa against Apoo. Ironically, Drake is a friend with Coby who is a friend of both Luffy and Zoro. Coby literally met those two before Nami debuted. Also, the Supernovas allied with Luffy are learning in hard way that dealing with Zoro is not less stressing that working with Luffy.

How the Wano arc will turn out will show the upcoming chapters, for now though, not only Straw Hat has a strong connection to people of this land. For one, there is Tama, that both Luffy and Zoro came to like very much and literally started wreaking havoc in enemy territory because of her. Twice. Then there is mentioned connection to Oden - symbolic samurais of dawn and carrying Momonosuke and Hiyori’s wish to defeat Kaido and save the country but also Zoro’s personal connection to Shimotsuki clan that was hinted time after time and briefly explained in SBS that may or may not play bigger role, especially since Shimotsuki clan support Kozuki family. Which only adds to the whole connection between Luffy and Zoro and (good) people of Wano.

I feel like Wano arc was set up to establish the equality of Luffy and Zoro, not in the power sense that so many fans love to argue about, but as the relationship between them. Not just as captain and (powerful) subordinate but more like partners, the way Roger and Rayleigh or Kid and Killer are seen. The manga put a lot effort in creating parallels and the visual similarity between those two characters to dismiss the potential hints of Luffy and Zoro slowly falling apart from the crew in the sense of the role they will play in this and maybe future arcs.

#one piece #monkey d. luffy #roronoa zoro #wano arc #my analyze #my ramblings #maybe it is just me but wano feels like setting luffy and zoro in more visual way apart from the rest of crew #maybe it is because they are already set apart as supernovas? #yeah i think they both will face kaido at some point and will work together #to defeat him #but the sun symbol on their kimono? #while no other straw hats have anything close similar? #that both are named ronin (samurai)? #that both have so personal and deep connection to oden and toki's children? #to tama who most likely is gonna help a lot in the fight against gifters? #the use of sandai kitetsu second and third? #yeah #there is something #about all the little details that makes me wonder what author planned for them #zoro & luffy #luffy & zoro #my meta

[wibble-wobbegong]

OKAY SO IM GONNA TALK ABOUT: a quackity and Tommy team-up AU

So there’s like a shit ton of reasoning but first I’d like to suggest you read my post on their parallels along with this because it helps showcase how close these two really kinda are: https://live-action-beastars.tumblr.com/post/644497988203462656/dude-the-parallels-between-tommy-and-quackity-are

- Starts off with Tommy starting to boost his hotel again, using business as a way to distract himself a little sometimes you know

- Quackity sees all of his promotion and views it as a great business opportunity to work with one of the most popular hotels in the area PLUS him and Tommy are great friends anyway

- Quackity takes the opportunity to go and visit Tommy, rents a room at the hotel and plans out a business meeting

- It’s actually just them catching up and having a good time dressed up in suits and stuff at the top of the hotel with Sam Nook acting as their waiter

- Quackity talks about his new city, “Las Vegas” where he’s planning to command an economy built off of expensive hotels and apartments and restaurants

- They’d stay at these over-priced places for the main attraction of the city: it’s a gambler’s dreamland

- Quackity offers Tommy some space in his city to add some of his own hotels in exchange for some of the profit

- They negotiate back and forth for a while, and Quackity notes that Tommy has potential to be a good business man with his scamming experience and he’s already soft for the kid

- Tommy is now a CEO in training under Quackity, and they move to Las Vegas together

- They’ve got massive suits in the same complex as a holiday home type thing

- Like, Tommy still stays in his dirt home sometimes but he returns to Las Vegas very often to do business with Quackity

- Same goes for Quackity, who eventually moved into a shared house with his fiancés, but he’s also a workaholic who spends a lot of time in Las Vegas

- Quackity hang out a lot after meetings and stuff to talk and complain about random stuff

- During this, Big Q has been teaching Tommy how to gamble properly

- they get a lot of bonding time and grow a sort of brotherly bond

- It’s one that reminds Tommy of Wilbur, which scares him

- Big Q is probably one of the only adults who has never actively tried to hurt Tommy in some way, and definitely the one he would be closest to

- the more they talk and realize they have in common, the stronger of a duo they become

- Okay so, imagine: Tommy and Quackity in matching suits where Tommy wears red and white while Quackity wears blue and white

- The difference between all of Tommy’s close relationships with older people(Techno & Wilbur) and his relationship with Quackity is that he doesn’t feel like he’s on lower ground. He and Quackity are equal, they’re partners who make sure to talk to each other about decisions because they value each other’s opinions on that kinda stuff a lot. Even when Big Q calls him ‘kid’ and reaches up to mess with his hair, it doesn’t feel degrading.

- Quackity feels a similar closeness to Tommy, considering that he was not only his first friend, but also one of the people who had always been his friend. Throughout all the wars and trauma, they never really fought or actively went against each other. When Tommy trusted him with his legacy he felt pride and when he found out Tommy survived the prison he was ecstatic. He and Tommy, Tommy and him. A duo no one really expected but one that would take the world by storm.

- The only thing they ever legitimately argued about was the Egg. Tommy wanted to bring it to Las Vegas and utilize it as a way to bring the Badlands in as customers, but Quackity had refused. Big Q would explain how the Egg affected him and how he didn’t wanna become like the people he hated

- Tommy didn’t argue much more after he said that, seeing yet even more of himself in his friend’s eyes

- funny thing to lighten the mood, I’d like to think Tommy would start calling Quackity Big Bro Q as a way to show brotherly affection until Quackity laughs his ass off because the acronym for it is BBQ

- Tommy calls Quackity BBQ now alongside his other nicknames

I’ve got an idea for how their first real gamble against each other would go, but it would make this post hella long. but if people are interested in this stuff I might write it out maybe

#quackity #tommyinnit #dream smp #Las Vegas arc #dsmp #LISTEN ITS JUST #ITS THEM DUDE #SO MUCH POTENTIAL THERE #and they just have a really good dynamic

[abimee]

hi im a newer follower, do u have somewhere where u talk abt what you/me is and the basics for the story there? ur ocs all seem so cool and interesting

NOPE lets EXPLAIN IT ALL AGAIN, different verse same as the first

YOU/ME (tagged as You (Me) as it was previously called) is a video game I started making on August 2nd, 2016.

it starts on a land called the Fjallo Island, many years before. The old lore went that two child gods were at the front of creating the world: one wanted peace and happiness, and gave uo their existence to create the people of the Fjallo; the other one threatened chaos and destruction for being left behind, and gave up their existence to enter into the world to cause havoc.

To save the people, a system called the Morality System was put in ace that helped dictate how the world should operate so chaos and peace are perfectly balanced. To uphold this system, two queens were made:

- Konsanus, who was molded out of seafoam and sand

- Disonus, who was molded out of soil and smoke

They embodied opposing sides in hopes that their joined love will rule the kingdom in balance. Konsanus was known to be strict and a user of force, while Disonus was pacifist and caring, and the two wrote the laws and dictated the people of the land in an assumed equal of power.

The kingdom saw a rise in citizens and assimilators from the Greater Continent just North, and the kingdom of the Comicals begged for refuge after being exiled from the continent due to war. The court jester for the Fjallos, Comica, told the queen of the Comicals that they can live in the puddles out in the Valley, and they've lived parallel to the Fjallos since.

A fan favorite is Maliia, the court jester of the Comicals. Court Jesters are high ranking individuals that are the only ones known to use magic, and both Maliia and Comica are well established magic users who often put on plays and shows for the kingdoms. During the height of relations between the two, the Comicals were invited to a grand party where the jesters were to perform together ---- but on that fatal day something went horribly wrong, and Maliia ripped Comica's face clean off in front of both the kingdoms.

Konsanus, disturbed and outraged at the betrayal, yelled and threatened that the Comicals never return to their land lest they want to be killed one by one, and the Comical Queen was rushed back down into the puddles. Maliia was set for execution the next morning, but disappeared in the night, and now all connection between the kingdoms were severed until the clown gets found and killed for her aggressions.

The Fjallo island tried to recoup from the loss of their court jester and the fear of retaliation by the Comicals, as they are a weaponized kingdom that is skilled in FIGHTING where the Fjallo island cultivated a passive no-violence system under Disonus. Konsanus became worried about being unarmed, and their people grew restless; but Disonus promised that there would be no such fight, and that it was best to not get worked up in a frenzy.

To bring back hope in the kingdom after the rulers favor began to fall, The Queens had decided to finally have a child ---- here, they believed coning together would birth the ultimate balanced child, one that could rule the throne alone and keep the peace themself. Disonus offered to carry the child, and once the news broke of a successful pregnancy the kingdom began to get excited for a new era, the coming of a new generation!

The day the child was born was full of excitement in the land, and many celebrated in the streets or by visiting the queens, who were happy to show off the healthy baby. The success of the birth brought a renewed hope to the world, and was the rise of the oncoming fall.

Just below the kingdom, strange things began to occur in the Comical kingdom. The Queens daughter, IIIIIIII, has taken the throne not long ago, and had begun to grow in size until she was almost as big as her castle. She had slowly become reclusive, aggressive, and not like herself; the people had become fearful that something was terribly wrong, but nobody knew what, and they began to hide from their Queen; when the castle lights were on, the city went dark and the Comicals travelled in small groups by lamplight only a few feet, lest they signal the queen their existence and be killed. Nobody goes near the castle anymore, and those stuck inside are forced servitude to a parasitic husk of their rulers former self, with nobody to help them.

The night of the celebrations above ground in the Fjallo islands also proved to be very temporary joy ---- because when Disonus awoke the next day to wake her child, she had found that it had died in the night.

The news raked Disonus with guilt so extreme she couldnt even cry, and when her maid came to find her she immediately bolted, grabbing nothing but the sword that hung above the throne, and fleed. Upon the news that the child had died and Disonus had fled the castle, Konsanus called for a search guard to bring her home before the island awoke, but the search proved useless and the hundreds of guards came back with nothing to show of.

It wasnt long until word spread; the child wss dead, and the Queen has ran off and killed herself. The entire island went into uproar, and no matter how much Konsanus demanded more searches be done nothing ever was found, no sign of a body or where she could have gone.

Hell broke out in the coming days; strains amongst the citizens politically, the call to bring Disonus in and execute her for abandoning her people in a time of need, or the call to let her come home safely so that she may appear again. What were the people going to do, could they trust a one sided queen to rule them? Should Konsanus be dethroned? Many began to turn on each other and on Konsanus, and for three straight days the island fought amongst each other, taking lives and injuring many more.

Konsanus, distressed and pressured to do something, called for something unseen: an "Unrule".

In the Unrule, Konsanus exclaimed that whoever wished to continue under the ruling of only Konsanus until Disonus returned, they can enter into the inner city and live behind the castle walls; whoever wishes to live under no jurdistiction and fend for themselves must exit and live out in the rest of the land.

People began to pack up and flee into the city while others entered into the castle innercity, and the wall was permanently closed off between the two, leaving everyone outside to live purely by their own internal laws; anything was legal, nothing was illegal.

Even still, there was a divide; many Konsanus or neutral supporters stayed in the central city, while Disonus supporters moved to the valley seperated by the mountains. Despite the lack of laws, the people seemingly conducted themselves accordingly, and live slowly returned to normal, though times were tough and tensions were still high

During this time, a group of children were sent off to school in the valley: Lilly, an anxious frog; Capra-Marie, a bullheaded goat; Drew, brother of local doctor Mimi; and [mumbled], known as First Victim in her medical records.

Gods also began appearing, namely Sarah the Chaos god and Stopper the time god.

Mimi, a skeleton doctor, came to the island from the greater continent after there being whispers of a slowly rising sickness affecting the island, dubbed The Decay by the people. However, Mimi only has so long of time here before he winds up killing his girlfriend, Darcie, and mysteriously disappears, not too long after the death of three school children and the shut down of the only school on the island.

Years have passed, and Konsanus has begun getting anxious; Disonus cant be found in any shape, and nothing is working to bring her out of where shes hiding, if shes alive at all.

She decides, as bait, a last ditch attempt, to have a child of her own in hopes itll lure Disonus to come home

She successfully has the child, but in fear of it being tainted with bias she locks them away in a room to never be interacted with until Disonus comes home and they can raise the child in balance.

But Disonus never appears, and 11 years later, Konsanus falls gravely ill with The Decay.

Theres no other option.

The child must be sent out to find Disonus. If they can't, they must never return home.

You, 11 years old, is let out of the pitch black room for the first time, and is thrusted into the world.

And theres all sorts of things waiting for them out there!

#you (me) #original #ocs

[retroyousei]

Some Retro Shojo Couples That Ended Up With Someone Else But Should’ve Ended Up Together Instead

•Jeudi/Alicia and Leonard (Alpen Rose)

In Alpen Rose, Jeudi searches for her parent’s whereabouts from Switzerland to France. Along her journey she makes many friends who help her. The one who helps her the most is Leonard Aschenbach, a famous genius musician who in fact was a family friend and knew her when they were little, before her amnesia. Their first encounter is interesting. Jeudi looks for a musician named “Aschenbach” and finding his adress, she break into his house, without him knowing. There she sees a young man who’s angry and ready to shot her she asks to see Mr. Aschenbach but he claims that he’s dead. After that, she immediately realises that he’s in fact him and that he was hiding his music from the Nazis. After saving her from the a French nobleman, they become friends. It’s true that Lundi is her sweetheart and he’s worth it too, but both in anime and in manga Jeudi passes the majority of the story with Leonard, having many adventures and helping other people too, so you get more attached with the idea of their ending up together. Also, it’s clearly that he’s in love with her and there are some hints that she likes him too. Their chemistry and their simultaneity is undeniable. Too bad that they missed out their chance.

•Usagi and Seiya (Sailor Moon)

In “Stars”, the fifth and the final arc of Sailor Moon, Mamoru goes to America for one year to study. Usagi feels very lonely that her future husband is away, but as the first year of high school starts, things are going to change, as popular idol band of three musicians called “Starlights” transferred in their school. The girls are all excited of getting to know them, but Usagi doesn’t pay them much attention. That’s until she accidentally meets with Seiya, the leader of the band and her first Impression is certainly negative, as she finds him annoying, while he fell in love before they even meet properly. Eventually they grow closer and their chemistry is (also) undeniable. He understands her feelings (or tries to) and she likes him very much too, but she already has a boyfriend, so she can’t do anything. Later it’s revealed that Starlights are Sailor Senshis and in fact...women, at least in the manga. In the anime they are guys in their human forms and become women only in their Sailor Senshi forms. At the end Usagi ends up of course with her soulmate Mamoru. The problem is that in the anime, after the two first seasons, Usagi and Mamoru’s relationship becomes boring, as nothing much happens and it feels that Mamoru is insignificant and feels as if it’s his duty to love Usagi, while Usagi is an annoying girlfriend who constantly gets jealous. With Seiya, their relationship is much more interesting because he tries to bring the best out of her and they have much more things in common because they are in the same age. If things were different and everyone were normal teenagers, it could have worked out.

•Oscar and Fersen (The Rose of Versailles)

Just from where to start with these two? Oscar is the youngest daughter of the Jerjeyes family and is raised as a man, to be the commander of the Royal Guard. Fersen is the son a very important noble family from Sweden. Their first encounter was in a masquerade ball where Marie Antoinette went and Oscar had to followed her, as she was responsible for her safety. Fersen and Marie Antoinette met in a balcony and he took off her mask to see her face. Seeing this, Oscar became furious and she demanded his name and state, revealing that the one that he was talking to was the young dauphine, soon to be the queen of France. He was shocked. After a little while he visited Versailles chateau to meet Marie Antoinette and after an accident with a horse, causing the king to nearly kill Oscar and Andre, Fersen took the responsibility and demanded that if Oscar was to killed, he was to be killed too. Oscar admired his sense of justice. Later that day, he visited wounded Oscar and that was when he learned that she was in a fact a woman. After that he deeply admired her courage and stating that she is braver than most of men. Oscar and Fersen became good friends and shared many interests and opinions on many subjects. It didn’t take long for Oscar to realise that she was in love with him, just in time he had left for the American Revolution. After some years he returned and continued hanging out with Oscar, but he was in love with Marrie Antoinette. Oscar, being a good friend with both of them, agreed to help them contact each other, but as her love for Fersen grew more and more, so did her sorrow that her love was unrequited. There was even a ball, where she decided that she was going to attend it as a woman, being more beautiful than ever with a gorgeous dress and haircut. As soon as Fersen saw her, he so very charmed by her, that he forgot about Marie Antoinette and asked to dance with her. As they danced, he asked her where she was from and told her that she reminded him of a friend of him named Oscar, who dresses as a man, but she is in fact a beautiful woman. Oscar leaves the ball determined that she was ready to give him up. Later, Fersen realises Oscar’s feelings for him and said that his heart was aldready set on Marie Antoinette. After that, they rarely saw each other. It’s such a shame because they could’ve been a handsome and sensible couple of two great families. In the manga even Fersen’s sister Sofia stated that he could’ve been truly happy with Oscar and knew well that she had feelings for him. Eventually Oscar endes up with her childhood friend Andre. The problem is that, while in the manga they were romantic and persuasive as a couple, in the anime it seemed forced and compromised from Oscar’s perspective; as if the one she loved didn’t loved her back, so that was why she gave up and decided to stay with someone who loved her.

•Meiko and Satoshi (Marmalade Boy)

I know that repeating the same words is tiring, but I truly mean what I’m saying; Marmalade Boy is a great example of having many many supporting characters that are all very interesting and that their stories evolve in parallel with the main characters’. Meiko is Miki’s best friend, who’s mysterious and refined, while Satoshi is Yuu’s best friend who’s the president of the student council and a charmer. Meiko had an affair with Namora, a young teacher and believed that Satoshi like guys in her age are immature. After the scandal reveal of the romantic relationship between a student and a teacher, Namora quits his job and moves to Hiroshima. Meiko is very sad, believing that Namora is her soulmate. Satoshi has a crush on her that grows more and more and he constantly decides to win her over, first by flirting with her with hilarious ways. At some point, he pretended that he cut his hair because she said that he doesn’t like long hair in men. As the time went by he realises that she’s not buying anything he says, as she dislikes his playboy attitude, so he decided to let her show that he’s serious about her. Seeing that she enjoys reading, she encourages her to start writing and by trying to pursuade her to take place in a writing competition, she realises that she wants to become a writer. He even publish her story without her knowing because he had such a great faith in her that she was going to win and he was right. What’s more he always was there for her and he always made her laugh and bought out the best of her. And every time that she was sad or in trouble, he was the first person that she thought. Not to mention that they look great together. “The elegant and mysterious Meiko who teaches him to be more considerate” and “the happy go lucky and charmer Satoshi that teaches her to be more relaxed and open”. She just was more happy and at peace than ever. Eventually Namora contacted with Meiko again and Meiko went all the way to Hiroshima to make up with him. Satoshi chased after her and fought till the end, but Meiko chose Namora. Satoshi finally gave up because he loved her so and wanted for her to be happy. Meiko and Namora got married as soon as Meiko graduated from school and instead of going to college, she became a working young wife, who did some writing. Her character is such a wasted potential because she was very pretty, smart and refined. Satoshi helped her evolve as a person and was there for her, when Namora wasn’t. Had she ended up with Satoshi, she would have lead a much more wealthier life, she would have acted more her age, she would have studied more and generally she would’ve been happier.

#retro shojo #shojo manga #Alpen Rose #Sailor Moon #the rose of versailles #marmalade boy #Shōjo #anime ships

[its-chelisey-stuff]

“A feeling you want to protect”

Yep. It’s me, again writing about this drama. Nope. I don’t think I’m gonna stop soon. I’m obsessed lmao I ship these two so hard it’s not even funny.  Their chemistry is sooo good, their story is great, and if that wasn’t enough reason to ship them (because I know for some people, it’s not lol), I present to you my arguments (and this was only from ep 6):

1.- The way she just knows when something happened to him and knows what to say/do: 

A nice parallel where, in the flashback, is Wooyeon who notices a very upset Lee Soo on the street after seeing his parents act like bff’s again. On present day, is Lee Soo the one that goes straight to Wooyeon’s house and tells her he was reminded of her. She doesn’t force anything out of him. She knows not to. If he wanted to say it, he would. She just keeps him company.

I feel like there a lot more flashbacks to come and I like it because they show us their dynamic hasn't changed. My dude has just realized many things too late.

2.- The way they talk honestly and straightforward:

Is Lee Soo the one to bring out the topic, but Wooyeon tells him CEO confessed to her. She tells him because he is her friend, even after everything that’s happened, they’re friends. But also, she establishes boundaries, and tells him they cannot meet like that anymore, at night, alone and ouch! you can almost feel the shock and pain of Lee Soo. Seongwu you’re doing amazing

3.- The way he tells her how he feels (even if he doesn’t know the word for it):

“But I realized today. Whenever I was alone, you're there. You were there. That's why i feel like I'll really be alone if you dissapear for good. Yes, I understand why you don't want to see me ever again. I do. But I have to see you."😭💔 

I really liked that you can feel his sincerity, his fear of losing her and his desperation to stop it from happening. It’t hard not to get moved by it. And Wooyeon has mixed emotions about it, of course. From her POV, this guy has messed up with her way too many times. Any person would get tired of that.

But you can also see how his words affect her, because his words wake up all those hopes and dreams she’s had about him for a decade.

4.- The way he knows when she’s upset and how to put a smile on her face:

Lee Soo’s idea to make her happy and make her forget she’s upset (at him), is to play games at the arcade with her lmao. could it be that he lets her win? i mean it’s hilarious if he’s this bad, but now I wonder if he’s doing it on purpose  This is such a contrast to CEO last ep, when he took her to dinner and noticed she was distracted and had to asked her what she liked. Can you imagine CEO, all rich and dignified, playing games at the arcade or doing any silly and childish thing with her just to make her smile?

5.- The way they complement each other at work:

6.- When Lee Soo took her photo, accepted it and kept going:

He's in love! BRING OUT THE WINE! LET’S CELEBRATE!!

I think we will have lots of pics of Wooyeon by the end of the drama lol a book full of her.

7.- The way he makes sure of his feelings by hugging her:

I liked that he asked for permission. Sure, she didn't know what he was going to do, but he didn't act until she said yes. I liked that little detail.

She goes to buy him medicine, drives him home and he remembers that time she fought at school with her bullies and bought her medicine. He’s in shock! He knows it’s been ten years feeling this way for her. But he was such an idiot! 

8.- The way he asks her out because he knows he has no time to lose: 

“I'd wait until you come.” I mean, this is true, but Lee Soo has no idea what kind of waiting he’s in for. And how much work is gonna take.

Hahahaha this dude outright wanted her to stood CEO up and he was the one to stood her up not his fault 😂😂😂 Fate is a funny thing, my dude. Also, how much are we betting that they are going to Namsan before the drama ends? 

I like that he realized he had liked Wooyeon for a decade. It was obvious, but it’s nice to get confirmation. Also, he obviously liked her first. She only liked him because of the things he kept on doing for her, which is now confirmed had a special meaning behind (Lee soo just didn't know). Jijoo was right, too. Her friends were right: he liked her since highschool.

If their work date day proved something, is that he knows how to make her happy when she's upset, even with him. I know he has gotten it wrong so many times, and he was an stupid but damaged man running away from feelings and emotions that he didn't know what he felt for her; like I said before, he acted on instinct. And he's gonna pay for that. For not knowing his true feelings. But our heroine is most herself when she’s with him. And he's gonna be his best version to deserve her. I know it. So it’s okay if she goes out with CEO for the next 2, or 4, or even 6 eps (oooff that’d be a hell of an angst journey for Lee Soo). Because our hero needs to learn some things first and unlearn some others. He also needs to go to therapy. There’s a whole journey he needs to go on alone, before he gets together with Wooyeon.

#more than friends #ong seongwu #shin ye eun #kdrama #i'm ready for the angst journey #well not really #but it's what's coming #so it's better to be ready

[bioticgoddess]

Destiny One-Shot: Schrodinger’s Warlock

I read the lore about Praedyth and the first VOG Fire Team. I had a brain wave. I’m not sorry.

Generic Warning: Didn’t proof read. No beta reader. I’m sorry if there’s typos and stuff. I wrote this mostly in one go late at night.

Shroedinger’s Warlock

He knew time in the Vault didn’t follow the rules as time in hundreds of timelines simulated by the Vex. Here, it all happened at once, in simultaneous play. Out there, while that remained true, they were discrete and different and he had kept track of them for Traveler only knew how long. Why or how the Vex had kept him alive without his Ghost and kept him from a similar fate to Kabr...well he didn’t want to try and contemplate that. Not now. Not when his salvation and escape from this hell was so close.

Something about this Fireteam, these six guardians who stole into the Vault and had fought their way to one of his thousand skeletons, was different. They’d taken refuge in the small room while the Gorgon Harpies patrolled the maze. Quietly studying the records and maps of the countless other excursions who’d come to slay Atheon. They passed cantees between them, water and food carefully rationed to ensure they could make it through. 

He could have killed for a bit of one of those terrible hardtacks but dared not approach. 

Parallelling his thoughts, one of the Warlocks - an Awoken Woman - sighed, “I’d kill for caffeine.” 

The shorter of the two Titans elbowed her, “When we get out of here, more than coffee is on me.”

“We made it this far,” yawned a hunter, he stretched until his spine popped. 

The others murmured in agreement - another warlock, titan, and hunter respectively. He could just hear the hum of their Ghosts as they unfolded from Transmat to heal their wounds. He missed his ghost, her questions about his research and motherly nagging about his health and safety.  One of the little Traveler born drones announced, “The temporal markers are all still synced up. Everything is in the green.”

“Good,” the taller Titan nodded. “Five minutes everyone, then we move out.”

Another round of agreeing murmurs. The female Hunter put her hand over what had been his in another timeline. She whispered, pulling her helmet on, “Eyes up Praedyth.” 

They knew! He didn’t know what but he knew! None of the other Fireteams over the uncountable years here had ever said his name over any of his bones. Not one! He was an unacknowledged ghost wandering this purgatory. 

Something had changed, it was different and the Vex hadn’t been able to predict it! He could have laughed, sang even if he hadn’t been so terrified that doing more than watch would result in this Fireteam’s deaths. That it wouldn’t result in someone else being trapped here with him - a fate he wished on no one. Perhaps more so than he wished none of them to face Kabr’s fate. At least Pahanin had gotten out. He was free.  

So long down here, he knew the route. Stay close to the right hand wall. Spiral down. Don't look at the Gorgons and keep as much distance as possible from them. Careful to go down into the dark, the deep, across the cavern and to the central chamber where the Gatekeeper and then Atheon lay in wait. Stay outside the door til after the Six Guardians enter. Then up the right hand side of the wall along what looked like little more than pock marks in the way. Grips he’d carved as he’d tried desperately to sneak past the vex and out to freedom. 

Up along the door, just shy of where the ceiling dropped down, there was a crack in the stone that he’d be able to squeeze through, to hide where he’d be out of sight. Time’s Conflux wouldn’t send him to what he’d heard others call Mars or Venus; though which Mars and Venus was up for intense debate. 

For a moment, as grenades flew and ammo bricks were passed between teammates, he could see the others, his old team. The shorter Titan leapt up on what was the Martian control Plate and threw his barricade up. A rift went down a few seconds later and the warlock, back to back with him, dropped an arc grenade into the sea of grounded Harpies. The thunder cracked and each of the little pseudo-robots shattered and broke across the stone.  

Then he saw it. The moment when a half dozen Guardians launched their most powerful attacks - Lightborne and weapon based - at Atheon. The giant Minotaur roared. It’s body groaned and crashed to his knees. The frame shuddered and the chamber holding its radiolarian fluid pooled around the metal. It crackled with the ghost of electricity. He hadn seen the giant beaten before but never like this. 

The Vex had not predicted these Guardians. 

Carefully, the six collected what weapons and gear they could find in the room as the gateway out of the Vault opened and the warm air of Venus filled the chamber. The grin on the shorter Titan’s face carried to his voice, “And, we are synced!”

“Wolf, we have a full count,” the second warlock, also a woman, was surprised. It was that giddy surprise that he recognized, like she hadn’t expected it to happen. 

“Full count. Seven by seven!”

The warlock whooped. Both hunters began searching the cavernous room more intently, careful to avoid the remaining pools of radiolarian fluid.

Seven? He’d only seen these six enter the Vault. Only seen their six Ghosts flit in and out of sight and safety. It couldn’t be Pahanin, no matter how badly he wanted to see his old friend again. He’d seen him fall to Dredgen Yor just like he’d seen Toland and Eris and all the others fall on the Moon. The Vex used their deaths as yet another way to torment him. Another way to study and learn from his reactions so they could better combat the Guardians. 

“He’s up here,” the tiny voice of a Ghost chirped. 

Swallowing, Praedyth pointed to himself. 

“Yes you, we came here to bring you home,” The little drone’s voice was filled with smiles. He bobbed and his shell spun with excitement. “Oh! You made it too! Excellent!” 

Praedyth looked to the left, following the Ghost’s shifting gaze. 

Just shy of where his hand would be if he expected his Ghost to appear. He could feel the familiar buzz of transmat. Reaching out, hand tingling,  and he felt the weight of a Ghost on his shoulders. It was a snap, the pop where she materialized in his full. A steel and amber painted shell and her bright blue iris, blinking as only a Ghost could. 

“I found you,” she cried, elated and overwhelmed and it sounded like she’d cry if she could. 

Hand wrapping around her shell gently, he pulled his Ghost to his chest. Not now. They could cry together later. They’d been lost together and now, not anymore. Of all the things he’d hoped for, finding her hadn’t been something he’d dared dream about any more than getting out of this hellscape. His lost little Spectre, she’d come back.

“Well, come on,” the other Ghost bobbed, nodding back down to the others. “It’s time to go.”

Afraid a Harpy would come for him, the Vault’s longest non-Vex resident pushed off from his perch, slowing his fall with a late jump. Once his feet hit the floor, he scrambled across the stone and metal floor. Stopping only when he was surrounded by the Fire Team, Spectre still clutched in his hand, pressed to his war torn breastplate. She hummed and he knew this was real. He knew this was real because it smelled real; the gun oil, the burned ozone, the charred metal, even the sweat. Then, like a pre-Golden Age freight train, the strange mix of smells that were the desert, jungle,  and beach that wafted through the open door and hit him. 

He whispered, “This is real.” 

Three hundred more steps and the sun warmed his bare face. Helmet long ago cannibalized for parts. Another fifty and the drop ship grabbed them up in transmat, all seven of them. His ghost hummed against his chest, she didn’t believe it either. Likely wouldn’t really believe it until they stood beneath the Traveler again. 

---

The apartment the Warlock Vanguard, Ikora, had ushered him to was quiet. It looked out over the city and the gardens that were several levels below and for the first time, he didn’t feel trapped. 

There were half a dozen people he’d need to speak with in the coming days, most of them current and former Vanguard. That would be a problem for tomorrow, today he was going to rest and catch up with his Ghost. Tomorrow, Praedyth the Timelost, would decide what his future held. 

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

Notes: I named his Ghost Spectre since YW is technically on this Fireteam and I can only keep Ghost’s named Ghost straight when I’m dealing with Drifter and YW.

#destiny fanfiction #praedyth #vault of glass #vog fanfic #destiny 2

[gffa]

I HAVE STRUGGLED WITH THIS CHARACTER SO MUCH, but I think rereading The Rise of Kylo Ren all at once, as well as the final issue, plus the Age of Resistance - Supreme Leader Snoke and Age of Resistance - Kylo Ren issues (and a bit of the TLJ novelization), have at least somewhat coalesced this character for me. The burning question with Ben Solo has always been:  Why?  Why did he not tell anyone about Snoke talking to him in this comic?  Why didn’t he go to his mother, whom he knew still loved him?  Why did he embrace the dark side? None of this had ever really been addressed in the canon itself, it was all down to speculation, but nothing I felt I could connect to what we were actually being given with any real solidity in the canon.  And issue #4 definitely still feels a little wobbly to me, but I think it at least strung up some connective tissue for me. In rereading the first issue, I was back to:  Why doesn’t Ben go to his mother?  If he didn’t attack the school (which I’m not sure how clear it is what he did/didn’t have to do with it, if it truly was Snoke who did it, how much Ben was aware of it, how much of a hand he played in all of this, certainly it makes the timing of the destruction of the Temple INCREDIBLY coincidental if it was Snoke’s plan AND it was the night Luke and Ben fought), if he knows his parents love him (which Age of Resistance - Supreme Leader Snoke [x][x] shows that he does, he literally goes into the same cave as Luke did to show him his fears, the only thing in there is what he brought with him and he sees Luke saying he doesn’t want to fight, which means Ben knows this is true even if he doesn’t want to admit it[x], as well as the TLJ novelization has him knowing that his mother still loves him and he’s angry about it, as well as TFA itself has him not at all surprised that Han’s there to help him and bring him home, even in TLJ he’s snarling about how, oh, is Luke here to save his soul, say Luke forgives him?, which shows that he knows that Luke regrets it and cared about him)--anyway, I’m getting distracted, there’s a lot to go over! If he didn’t attack the school, if he didn’t want this, why did he run from Leia as much as anyone?  In rereading the issue, there’s an interesting flashback that’s place right in the middle of the droid asking Ben where he wants to go, where he’s thinking about his mother and he hesitates.  I didn’t really pay attention to the timing the first time because it felt like just a cool dramatic moment to show further flashbacks.  But looking for the trends I know Soule is capable of and so often puts in his writing, it struck me that the flashback was specifically set on Luke yelling, “Ben, no!” and Luke in the ruins of the Temple and Ben saying, “I didn’t want this!”  [x][x][x] Thus, I’m left to conclude that he didn’t go to her because he himself couldn’t face her, couldn’t look at all of this storm inside him and find a way out of it.  And I think that’s the thing--in reading this issue all at once, it really jumped out at me that the central theme of this comic was about the path people choose in their lives.  That there’s an undercurrent of a legacy to live up to, but that that’s just window dressing for a deeper issue--in that Ben Solo doesn’t know what his path is. On one side, he has a huge legacy to live up--the man he was named for, this larger than life great Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi, he never even met him, he hates the name he was given, Ben.  He hates the name Solo as well, because it’s a made up name, it’s not real, it’s a lie.  [x][x] This contradiction is fascinating, because he’s named through two different aspects--one, a legacy, and two, a chosen name.  Ben Solo hates the legacy name just as much as he hates the name Han Solo created for himself!  So the idea that he’s creating his real persona for himself, when he stops being a Jedi and goes to Snoke, is directly contradicted by how much he hates the chosen name, that he says it’s a lie.  As if Kylo Ren isn’t a lie he’s hurtling himself towards, too. Neither of these really seem to be the true problem, for all that they’re genuine things that anger Ben.  In the final issue, he does tell Tai, "Even my name isn't a choice.  The dark side and the light side both claimed me for their own the moment I was born.  Do you know how that feels?  Whether it's Luke Skywalker or Snoke, neither one sees me as a person.  I'm just a... legacy.  Just a set of expectations." The thing is, Ben Solo is not a reliable narrator.  He talks one minute about how the light and the dark are warring over him, even Ren comments on how he’s been fighting this every step of the way, you don’t really want to live in the shadow.  “I am the shadow,” Ben replies.[x]  He is trying so hard to shove himself onto some path, any path that he thinks will soothe him. The most emotional part of the issue (or at least one of them) is Tai’s pleading speech to him, the conversation that’s been threaded throughout the entire issue about how you choose your path.  Choice is arguably the most important theme of Star Wars, and we see that very clearly in Tai’s conversations with him.  Even in the previous issue, he tells Ben that he keeps himself locked up too tight, he’s not really being himself.[x]  Ben’s recounting of who Voe is (the other important foil for Ben’s character in this comic) is woven together with how he thinks she never really learned to be herself, rather than measuring herself again him.[x] Ren, in their very first meeting, says, hey, you know there are other paths, right? [x]  On Elphrona, Voe says he must face justice, and Ben shouts back, “You think I’m a murderer, Voe?  Is that what you want me to be!?”[x]  Tai’s big speech to him in the previous episode is all about, be who you are, which is another way of saying, “Find the path you’re supposed to be on.”[x]  Tai’s words to Voe on Elphrona are also, “[Ben] thinks [the Knights of Ren] can help him find his true path.”[x] And of course, all of the above.  Paths and choices and being who you truly are, that Ben Solo couldn’t figure out any of these things for himself.  That he didn’t really want to be a Jedi (and that’s fine, it’s not the path for everyone) and we see, we see that he could have chosen otherwise, that Tai offers him a chance to actually walk away from all of it and just go help people, we see the hesitation there before Ren kills Tai and Ben makes his choice.  Because he may not feel like he had any choices, but Tai showed that he absolutely did. Even when he truly falls into the dark--so completely that a multitude of people feel it, Leia, Snoke, Rey, Palpatine, they all sense it--it’s framed around the idea of, “I’m not anyone special, so I can do what I want.”

All of this coalesced for me into two things, especially once I added in other Ben Solo appearances in canon--this is someone who has no strong sense of self or the path he’s meant to be on, so he just sort of careens wildly from one bad choice to the next, each time hoping that it’ll feel like the right path, rather than doing the really hard work of looking inside himself and not just locking everything up into a little box. And, two, he is further trying to gain that sense of self through others.  Even when he’s not fully aware of it, he keeps walking the same paths they do--like on Dagobah, when he goes into the same cave Luke did, to face his inner fears,  he’s walking the same path his uncle did.[x] When he’s offered a choice, when Tai asks him to come back, if you want, you can absolutely read that glowy red backdrop as being similar to Anakin’s fight with Obi-Wan on Mustafar. And certainly, given that Soule was the one to write Darth Vader bleeding his kyber crystal, we can draw parallels between that and Kylo Ren bleeding his:

And that’s one of the things that the character keeps coming back to--and it’s a huge theme for Ben Solo, that he’s constantly being compared to Vader, by others and by himself.  Sure, part of it is that I assume that’s just how bleeding a kyber crystal goes, but the parallels between Kylo and Vader (and thus between Anakin and Ben) do a lot to highlight the issues between them both, that we see TROKR’s visuals are echoing Dark Lord of the Sith’s scene, as Kylo is very defined by Vader in an out-of-universe meta way. But also within the universe, he keeps comparing himself to Vader and is compared to Vader by others, because that’s kind of the point, that it’s not just too much power in an unstable person (though, that, too) or that they were born evil (no, they weren’t), but that they both couldn’t really look at themselves or the choices set before them, to either actually commit to the path they were on or to find another one.  That they both were still loved even after their fall.  That they both had people pleading with them to make a better choice. "Leave [the mask].  I said leave it!  You cannot hide behind a mask here.  You cannot pretend to be Vader in this place,” Snoke says is Age of Resistance - Supreme Leader Snoke [x] “This is where I will succeed.  ...where Vader failed,” says Kylo Ren in Age of Resistance - Kylo Ren. [x] “There’s too much Vader in him,” Han says in The Force Awakens. “A new Vader. Now I fear... I was mistaken.  Take that ridiculous [mask] off,” Snoke says, not long before Kylo smashes the mask to pieces, in The Last Jedi. It’s contradicted by Kylo’s theme of, “Let the past die.  Kill it, if you have to.” in TLJ, but it’s pretty par for the course with him, where he careens back and forth between one decision one moment and another the next, that he still has no idea what his true path is meant to be. So much of his character was patterned off of Darth Vader, both in universe and out of universe, it seems only fitting that he, like his grandfather before him, has no real sense of self or the willingness to look within himself to find what that path really is, whether it means actually committing to the Jedi path and understanding yourself and working to let go of your fears, or whether it’s finding a path away from the Jedi. And both of them felt like their power must be used for something.  "[We're going to] some planet called Elphrona.  All this way to find some old junk Master Luke will lock away in his temple and never use.  [....]  He's an amazing teacher, very strong.  I've learned so much from him... but he never seems to want to let me use any of it."[x] Ultimately, at the end of it, it seems like Ben Solo was someone who didn’t really know what he wanted out of his life and so he kept looking for the thing that would finally make him feel like it was the right path, except he kept looking to those outside himself to figure that out, whether to reject what he thought they were making him into or to use them as a measuring stick to define himself, and the only sliver of it that he ever seemed to find was when he finally stopped trying to force everything to make sense and focused on someone else for what he could do for them, instead of himself.

#ben solo #comics #meta #reading comics: the rise of kylo ren #wednesday spoilers #long post

[musical-chick-13]

And Theon bc I love him

WHAT A COINCIDENCE I LOVE HIM TOO (this answer is gonna be a combination of books and show)

Send me a character and I’ll tell you the following:

• Did they live up to their potential? / In what ways was their potential unachieved?

-I would say yes. The only negative I have about his general arc is his death (which, see below). But Theon from the very beginning was, though not a particularly nice person, still relatable. Feeling othered, wanting to be accepted by an immediate environment that doesn’t accept you, isolated from and ostracized by your family, and the tension that comes between serving the different types of familial relationships in your life. Theon has no idea who he is, tossed aside by his blood family for not growing up with them and being “soft,” aka sort-of moral and having emotions that aren’t selfish rage or smugness (which, yep, that second part is a mood, see: my entire childhood and how no one wanted to be around an “emotional” “soft” child). And from there, he spirals out of control in a way that, while certainly not admirable by any stretch of the imagination, is still understandable in the context of the narrative and his characterization. And from there, after going through hell and quite literally losing himself (even to the point of straight-up denying rescue), he builds himself back up gradually, to the point where he expressed extreme regret for what he’s done, helps an innocent woman escape a truly horrifying situation, acknowledges that his family is generally garbage, and (in-show b/c again books aren’t finished), helping to restore his sister to power, rescuing her after his PTSD relapses while confronting Euron, and ultimately opting to protect the Starks come hell or high water in order to genuinely atone for what he’s done. He is no longer conflicted because he wants to do the right thing, and that right thing is defending the kingdom from the White Walkers and making sure Sansa and Bran are safe. And it’s no longer about fulfilling a duty or finding a family to fill the void. Because now he has found himself. I will contend that Theon has one of the best, most nuanced, most organic redemption arcs of all time. I will forever be grateful that I got to see that piece of storytelling unfold.

Although, I would love to know what he thought of Dany. A missed opportunity, that.

• How they negatively and positively affected the story.

-Positive: His arc of identity and finding where your loyalties lie ties into the overall theme of “How do you find yourself in a world where goodness, authenticity, and honesty are often punished and increasingly rare?” And it proves that governmental politics aren’t the only defining factors in decisions: familial politics can be just as difficult and dangerous, which adds yet another rich, complicated layer to the overall story. He has a genuine, honest-to-Drowned-God redemption arc, which is...not really present anywhere else in the story (no, Jaime is not on a Redemption Quest, I will die on this hill). But I think the biggest draw of Theon’s presence is that it deconstructs the whole “Character Revenge Fantasy” idea. He does bad things. We want him to be punished. But not like that. No one deserves that. How far is too far? What does retribution really look like? Given how easily that idea can be abused and go off the rails, is retribution even something to strive for? What is the point of using extreme violence/torture/mutilation/breaking someone’s psyche when it doesn’t really accomplish anything? Isn’t atonement and genuine justice a better option? It certainly was for Theon. He could only piece himself back together and do anything meaningful once he was out of his abusive environment. All of these are imporant questions that are posed by his existence in the narrative.

-Negative: Idk if I have much to say here. My biggest problem is his death (see below), but that’s not really a negative story effect so much as...being disappointing and narratively irrelevant. I gotta say, his introduction via his sister was...really weird. I genuinely have no idea why GRRM wrote that. It never came up again or had any kind of narrative ramifications and kind of cast a strange, uncomfortable light on his relationship with Asha/Yara for the remainder of the story. I can ignore and enjoy their later relationship it if I don’t think about it too hard, though, so I guess I’ll chalk it up to GRRM having a Bad Idea.

• What my favorite arc for them is.

-All of it?? Theon’s journey is kind of...one big arc, which is why I think it works so well. He has this overarching redemption plot which spans the entire series and informs every decision he makes (for good or for bad, depending on where in the aforementioned journey he is). The redemption arc isn’t bogged down with side plots or other pieces of narrative clutter, meaning it has time to grow and, thus, be gradual and realistic. If I had to choose a specific point, it’s probably when he tries to reintegrate back into society via supporting Yara. Gaining the Iron Islands’ support for her ruling, spiriting away with Euron’s fleet, and ultimately rescuing his sister after her capture. He can’t just go back into society. He’s scared. He has really bad PTSD. But he recognizes that putting his home in good hands is something bigger than just him because it’s Yara’s home, too. I just...I really love family relationships, y’all.

• What I think of their ending.

-I’m not really sure how I feel about this one. I get that the series is GrimDark™ and that people who make the right choice and fight for good die all the time, but Theon dying just felt...wrong. To me.

And, like...I get it. It makes sense to parallel his original descent into villainy (cemented by executing those two boys and pretending they were Bran and Rickon) with him dying to protect Bran himself. It ties into the whole very common trope of completing a full redemption arc by committing a completely selfless act at great personal cost. It’s kind of like the whole Missy thing in Doctor Who (which...hoo boy, that post is coming, make no mistake), where selfishness is directly opposed by making the ultimate sacrifice with no motivation for personal gain. And the fact that the last words he ever heard were “You’re a good man?” I cannot even begin to describe how much that makes me sob. But...honestly, I’m really tired of this idea that redemption has to end in death in order to be achieved or “complete.” I think it’s much more poignant to have a redeemed character live to help build a better world. Because what’s the point of telling people to be better if the “reward” is death? No one’s going to want to reform themselves if they think that’ll be the result.

I think the thing that Bugs Me™ the most is that Theon never really got to have a moment of peace when he was alive. Sansa gained the North’s love and at least had a secure childhood. Ned and Cat were happily married for years. Arya had parents who loved her and a good relationship with Jon. Jon fell in love with Ygritte and found his Night Watch Bros, and Robb (in show verse) had some very happy moments with Talisa. Davos put great stock in what he considered fulfilling friendships with Stannis and Shireen; Brienne was treated respectfully by Renly, Catelyn, and Sansa; Missandei and Grey Worm had each other and their friendship with Dany, who herself had many personal successes in her quest for the Iron Throne and saw the death of her abusive brother. Cersei even had moments with Jaime (who himself had several notable military victories and at least some time with Myrcella, as well as being gladly and deeply in love, however dysfunctional that love was), times when she successfully fought off enemies (including her dad), and some sweet moments with Tommen, as well as a huge victory via blown-up sept at the end of season 6. Theon was treated as a second-class family member by the Starks his whole life by being “traded” to them as a condition of war resolution AS A BABY, is immediately disparaged and mistreated by his immediate family when he tries to return to them, makes terrible decisions that almost cost him his conscience completely, is brutally tortured by Ramsay, is on the run with his sister from Euron almost immediately after, and has a PTSD attack that ultimatly results in him having to launch a rescue mission. And then he fights ice zombies. And then he dies. He never really...got to be happy at all? There was never any kind of “win” for him. Not even survival. The narrative couldn’t even give him that.

TLDR: Theon’s death seemed less shock-value-y than others (like, for example, Shireen or Missandei or, heck, Melisandre even), and it isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen. It’s narratively-informed and it makes sense as an emotional through-line, but, ultimately, Redemption Cemented By Selfless Death is a tired trope, and I honestly thought this story (which...you know...serves as a deconstruction of common fantasy tropes/book tropes in general) was better than that.

• When I wish they had died. / If I think they should’ve died.

-So here’s where we get personal™ kids.

So, it’s no secret that I am...severely mentally ill. I’ve talked about expression/presentation of mental illness in regard to Cersei a lot on this blog, and how that (as paradoxical as it may seem) helped bring a sense of comfort and emotional resonance to me. Theon, post-Ramsay, has, I think, a very clear case of PTSD. Theon is one of the few characters I’ve seen where his mental illness isn’t the cause of the bad, violent, dangerous choices he makes. It only takes root after he has made the decision and conscious effort to better himself, and it, rather than demonizing him, serve to humanize him. His trauma didn’t define him. And although a PTSD attack led to him unintentionally losing Yara to Euron’s capture, he makes every effort to rescue her, a goal he does end up achieving. It is so rare I get to see a character who goes through these things, successfully fight them and come out with positive qualities at the end. Like...switching topics a bit here, Jaime going back to King’s Landing to (try to) escape and ultimately die with Cersei made sense to me because, as Jaime says, he is a hateful man. He never made much of an honest effort to be anything else. And he never truly wanted to be good; he just wanted to be liked. He wanted to adopt some personality that would make him feel less disconnected from the rest of the world. But Theon...genuinely feels remorse for everything he’s done. He makes a concerted effort to do everything in his power to improve the lives of people he believes are good and deserve to be safe. So, just...killing him off in a Completely Selfless Sacrifice (like...you know how a lot of mentally ill people put themselves through suffering-like OCD rituals, bottling feelings, self-harm, even suicide-in a misplaced attempt to “help” or “protect other people”) seemed antithetical to everything we saw of his arc.

Ultimately, with such a humanizing, empathetic portrayal of trauma and mental health struggles, seeing Theon be killed off just...pissed me off. I am so tired of seeing mentally ill characters die. I really want to believe that I can live through and thrive in spite of the things that afflict me, and I get example after example of characters not being allowed to do that. It feels awful, quite frankly. And it makes hope that much harder. 

I also just feel like...there was nothing the story gained from his death? I get the thematic parallels as mentioned earlier, but it didn’t really move the story forward in any significant way. It didn’t motivate other characters to do anything, it had no political ramifications, it didn’t serve to contribute to any kind of happy ending or commentary on society, it just...was sad. Again, I thought this story was better than that.

#theon greyjoy #got #my son #mental illness in media #meta #redemption arcs #tw: self harm mention #tw: suicide mention

[cat-scarr]

Ben Is Too Good For His Own Good

Aka a "cinnamon roll", if you will. Yes, I'm writing an essay on this. 

So it's nothing new that Ben has this "second chances" philosophy, but that is indicative of the possibility that he would let himself be in damaging relationships in hopes that the other person would change or improve. 

There have been various instances of Ben kind of just brushing off being treated poorly. I wouldn't say that this makes him a push over or anything like that, but I never see any of these things being pointed out. They're just kind of laughed off.

Just the other day, in fact, I had someone privately DM me saying that they don't believe Ben ever had any trauma or side effects from his lifestyle, even questioning “what nightmares” I was even referring to. 

On top of that, it's a very common thing in this fandom to state things like "the girls deserved better than Ben." I'll always be of the opinion that Ben is the one that deserved better, and I have plenty (logical) reasons why, but that’s besides the point. 

Even though Ben is so forgiving and cooperative, giving everyone a second chance to change, it just doesn't sit right with me that we should just be okay with some of the horrible things that are being justified here. That doesn't mean you should hate these characters. I mean, Ben clearly doesn't. But it honestly says more about him than any of them. 

It says a lot to me when I see Ben seeing the best in someone, even when they've done horrible things in the past or are in the midst of doing something bad to him. 

One example, which I keep bringing up on this blog, is the episode "Vilgax Must Croak." Besides everything else that Vilgax had done to him in the past, in addition to throughout the episode up until this point, Ben was still shown believing that Vilgax could have tried to save him by jumping in front of Ben to shield him from a (seemingly extremely destructive) blast from Attea. 

Things like this also explain why I don’t support shipping Ben with Attea, but that’s besides the point too...

Of course, even if he did save Ben by doing this, Vilgax was only manipulating the situation to make it look like he was trying to save Ben when he was really taking the chance to break himself free of the handcuffs. 

But, even so, this seems to mean that Ben believes that Vilgax does have it in him to do something good. Ben was admittedly shocked by what had happened at first, but by the next scene where he turns back to human, he's got his guard down enough for Vilgax to take advantage of the situation again and shoot him in the back. Because, please realize, if Vilgax didn’t “save” him, he wouldn’t be able to shoot him in the back. 

But anyway, in conclusion, as the title states, he's too good for his own good. 

The next unfair circumstance which displays the same thing happens in the episode "No Honor Among Bros." I am aware that the following is uncharacteristic of Rook and had only happened because Rook was under the influence of a substance, so I want to acknowledge that, but I am mostly focusing on Ben's actions here.

Ben and Rook eventually are set up against each other in the tournament, and, besides the fact that Ben already doesn't want to fight anyone needlessly, as shown by his previous match against Malice where he was BEAT UP FOR THREE HOURS...

...he clearly holds back while fighting Rook in this match, too. 

The one time he actually hits Rook with a decent shot, which knocks Rook out temporarily, not only does he immediately go check on him to make sure he's not badly hurt, but also turns back to human, leaving him somewhat more vulnerable then he would be as Upchuck. 

This seems to mean that he trusted Rook wouldn't take that chance to hit him right back. And unnecessarily hard too, at that. 

This knocks Ben down, making him lose the fight. The important thing to take away from this is that, regardless if he just chalked it up to Rook not being himself, he still didn't seem to hold it against him, besides just being slightly annoyed. 

So, basically, he got his ass beat multiple times only because he was holding back for the other person's sake. He's too good for his own good. 

Then there's also Kevin and Tetrax. Both are former "criminals", albeit for different reasons, and Ben still had it in him to befriend both of them. This is probably due to the fact that they've built trust over time, and fought evil together to protect others, including each other. 

I don't like to look past the fact that Kevin, while admittedly not entirely in control of his powers at the time, has tried to kill Ben on multiple occasions. But, like I said, Ben has grown to trust him and they have each other's back, so there’s no need to really expand on those two all that much. 

Then there's the sad story of Elena. 

You could argue that the reason it's difficult for me to look past Elena's “mistakes” is because she was given little to no chances to redeem herself. And perhaps there is some truth to that. 

However, there has been a scene which seems to be what is considered "redeeming" - when she attempts to sacrifice herself to save Ben. 

And while Ben himself seemed extremely moved by this at the time, clearly not holding any hard feelings towards what she had just done to him throughout "Revenge of the Swarm", I can't say that I feel the same. 

I can't say that I feel the same because Ben's life would not even be in danger at this point if she didn't attempt to suffocate him. Should I see her as a “hero” for saving Ben from herself? 

Especially when it’s evident that she had enough self control to attempt to commit suicide, but somehow not enough to not attempt to kill Ben again once she realized that her suicide attempt failed. 

Ben: “Elena! They’ve been controlling you! You’ve got to fight them!”

Elena: “They’re not controlling me, they are me! And I am them!”

Another thing about her predicament that I don't understand is whether or not her choices are voluntary. The other characters say outwardly that "the chips are controlling her", while she, in response, claims that they are not controlling her and instead, that they "are her." 

Elena: “They give me what I want! They fulfil my deepest desires! Even the ones I don’t know I have!”

She also claims that the chips want what she wants, and because they “are her” they give her the ability to get everything she might want. By that logic, she would want everything that had happened up until this point, which is crazy and inexcusable. 

If she is the chips, implying there is no other Elena inside that is the “true” Elena, and she genuinely wants to do things like stalk Ben and attempt to kill him, then I don’t see a way to excuse or justify that.  

But then, in the midst of choking Ben to death, Julie tells her that she couldn't seriously want Ben to die, which Elena responds to seemingly confused or unsure for the first time, and only states it must be what she wants, before claiming that she really did care about Ben. 

I’m sure Ben would agree that she could still be redeemed at this point. He would probably still agree she could be redeemed after all that I’m about to go over as well.

And, while this is evident since he did state the following, believing, once again, that there is still good in someone who had done horrible things:

Ben: “There was enough of my friend left to save my life.”

She still came back to make the situation worse instead of taking the chance to redeem herself. 

Unfortunately, unlike I suggested earlier, and instead of leaving it at that after surviving her suicide attempt and traumatizing everyone in the process, she returns in "The Perfect Girlfriend" impersonating Julie, being the cause of Gwen suffering a pretty significant injury, and, let’s not forget, attempting to kill Ben once again. 

It’s even worse that she chose to do so at such a vulnerable point in Ben and Julie’s relationship, considering that they had been arguing lately, even in the beginning of that very episode. I’ve actually had someone claim that this episode proves that Ben’s idea of the “perfect” girlfriend is someone who does everything he says and may as well have no individual personality. And, because someone I think is credible enough to speak on Ben’s behalf believes that to some extent, it just shows me that it’s possible many other people in this fandom might believe the same thing.

To me, it simply seemed as if he believed that his relationship with his girlfriend was finally improving, which is a good thing. It doesn’t seem all that unreasonable for him to not question why they were suddenly getting along much more than before. Why would anyone question their relationship with their significant other going well, especially after going through a rough patch? 

Regardless, after realizing the reason why this was the case, he must have also felt horrible about not noticing sooner, which sucks. He’d be seen as a jerk for questioning why his girlfriend was being so nice to him had he done so, but he’d be seen as a jerk for not noticing that it wasn’t really her all this time anyway.

I hate to keep flaming her, but Elena chose to put him in that position since the chips allow her to fulfil “all her deepest desires”, apparently. Because that's what you do to someone you "love." 

While Elena's story wasn't continued past Ultimate Alien, the Ben 10: Omniverse comic "Parallel Paradox" did attempt to tie up loose ends. 

Before I continue, I have to state that the comics are not technically "canon.” However they are official source material and therefore should be accurate to canon. So, for clarity, and for those who haven't read this comic, Elena here is basically presented as if she is voluntarily a criminal. She's apparently stealing tech for money, working for some other higher level bad guy, and clearly has a grudge against Ben after what had happened. 

I’ll provide the relevant pages below, but Elena states that Ben was “rude” to her the last time they saw each other...when, in the moment she is reffering to, she had impersonated her way into Ben’s living room and had the nerve to get into an argument with him when she was clearly in the wrong. 

But Ben himself wasn’t even being rude to her in that particular scene, either. He was trying to explain why what she was doing was wrong. He only resorted to using the Ultimatrix once Elena resorted to violence herself.

At the end of "Parallel Paradox", it's revealed that Ben feels like Elena hates him, despite all that she's done to him. Which is interesting, since it doesn't seem to me like he's done anything to her to give her a reason to hate him. Not even supposedly being “rude.” It seems like it should be the other way around, really. 

I know that I wouldn't hesitate considering filing a restraining order against someone who stalked me, attacked my friends, kidnapped my significant other, lied to me, and then attempted to kill me twice. 

But Ben? No, AFTER ALL THAT...he actually wants to help her and wishes she didn't hate him for no reason. 

Or maybe she doesn't have a grudge against him for what he did do, but rather what he didn't do, in her view. The irony is that Ben clearly would do anything he could to help her, she just isn't accepting that help. She just wants what she wants and will stop at nothing to get what she wants. 

She seems to constantly be putting the blame on everyone but herself. And the first step to changing for the better starts with changing oneself by changing old habits and actively working to do better. It's even more sad that she doesn't seem to realize just how much faith Ben does have in her, despite the horrific stuff in Ultimate Alien. 

If she really loved him, she shouldn't let him down. But at this point, I don't know if that's the case anymore. 

Anyway, at the end of the day, what astounds me the most is that Ben isn't mad at her. I mean, he should at least have serious trust issues by now! It really puts things into perspective and explains why there even is an alternate future where a pairing like Benkai can happen. 

If someone like Kevin, who hated Ben as a kid and actively tried to kill him, can become his best friend, and if someone like Elena can also get away with causing so much unnecessary harm to Ben without so much as a displeased glance, why wouldn't he give a girl who just likes to bully and pick on him another chance? 

I still don't believe he deserves that, but I fear that is it is extremely likely, even if it comes from a good place.

And because he gives everyone 764845786448578 chances. 

#so if you agree with the point I'm making here about Ben #why would you think that he deserves to be shipped with characters who don't treat him like he treats them? #namely girls like Attea or Elena...or Kai... #or FistRook lol #I say lol but it infuriates me everytime I watch that scene where he remorslessly beats Ben's ass #all of these characters have beat his ass and he's still out here believing in the good in people #like...sorry Benpai I'm different #but I need to point this out even though it's obvious #justice 4 Benpai #ben 10 #ben 10 ultimate alien #ben 10 omniverse #ben tennyson #vilgax #rook blonko #fistrook #attea ben 10 #elena validus #kevin levin #tetrax ben 10 #kai green #julie yamamoto #essay files

[whiteheartlight]

OKAY that is IT I am going OFF here’s my hot take:

Vakama should not have been the leader of the Toa Metru.

Now hold up hold up don’t get me wrong: Vakama?? A lil angel. Did he commit some sins?? Yes, many. Was he a little evil there for a hot minute?? For sure. We know this. But I have nothing in my heart but forgiveness and affection for him he’s perfect don’t @ me

But should he have been the leader of the Toa Metru?

Perhaps not.

Why?? Okay let me ramble a little.

1.     From the beginning, Vakama demonstrated serious anxiety, insecurity, and stress at the idea of being the leader of the Toa Metru. Now I am all for “greatness thrust upon them” and “rising to your destiny” sort of things, but this is not what that was. Vakama voiced self-hatred, insecurity, and sometimes outright panic every time he failed to be the leader the others were expecting him to be. In the movies, his siblings pile the Great Disks that failed to impress “Turaga Dume” into his arms, symbolizing the weight he carries as their leader.

Okay maybe that’s me reading too much into it but oh my goodness his sad lil face.

From the beginning he was having breakdowns about his inability to lead – “I’m just a cross-wired freak wasting everyone’s time” – and here’s the thing: he never really stopped doing that. His anxiety began to turn into rage and ferocity, causing him to bitterly embrace the weight his siblings put on him by giving brash, stupid orders, which again got them into trouble, causing another breakdown – “I’m sorry I failed you all” – and then another – you know, that whole Visorak thing?

We got to see Vakama realize that his siblings still wanted him around despite his failures because of Matau’s forgiveness, but that doesn’t automatically erase the fact that Vakama never really seemed to find a way to cope with the weight of leadership.

Compare Vakama with a natural (if REALLY AGGRESSIVE AND LOUD AND BRASH) leader like Tahu, who sometimes expresses anxiety or fear over the thought of failing his brothers, but doesn’t tear himself completely apart or break down after failures such as the Toa Nuva’s defeat at the hands of the Skakdi. That particular defeat just gives him a clearer perspective on the situation and allowed him to make better leadership choices, like sending Jaller’s team to Mahri Nui instead of his own, while Vakama seems to make worse and worse choices the longer he’s pressured to lead.

(Side note: I wish we could have seen more of Jaller’s reaction to Matoro’s death, because I think he may have shared many parallels with Vakama after the death of Lhikan. But that’s another essay.)

In my opinion, even at the end of their arc, Vakama seemed sad more than accepting and maybe even lonely. He embraced his leadership in a very quiet, tired way, speaking to Norik in soft tones in the scene where they prepare to leave Metru Nui and then giving up his Toa powers without speaking a single word to his siblings, just accepting his fate.

2.     And that’s especially bad and dangerous because guess what? Vakama was traumatized as hell at the end of their arc!!!!!!! He was!! So traumatized!! Get this boy to a therapist!! How do we know this? Well, not only was Vakama already an anxious, shy Matoran, but he was also in a deep grief over Lhikan’s death, which was clearly traumatic on its own because of his serious mood swings and personality changes. We could guess that the incident with the Visorak would be a second trauma even without confirmation, but we know for a fact that it is because, years and years and years later, he still can’t even fully tell the story to the Toa Nuva because of how deeply it affected him.

Vakama’s trauma was deeply intertwined with his duty as a leader – not only did Roodaka convince him to join her with the promise that leadership would come easy to him if he lead the Visorak instead of the Toa, but every time something went wrong in his time as a Toa, he blamed himself for it for failing Lhikan, failing his siblings, and failing the Matoran. This is not a Toa who should have been forced back into the position of leadership just because Matau was able to reassure him that they still wanted him around. It would have taken pressure off his shoulders and allowed him space to heal without being isolated from his siblings by his responsibility if he could have had a chance to recover without that pressure. Shoving him back into the situation that caused him so much stress in the first place would not be helpful even if the others all admitted they should have been more understanding about what he was going through. That still doesn’t solve the problem that Vakama never seemed to know how to deal with some of his siblings, command the team in general, or bring everyone’s ideas together into one cohesive whole instead of just all of them throwing themselves into situations and hoping for the best. That doesn’t solve the problem that he blames himself for small mistakes and lets them eat him alive. He didn’t need a fourth chance at figuring this shit out on his own – he needed collaboration with his team and time to process his recent and past trauma!

I wish we could have seen more of how Vakama recovered from what happened!! Like I got my Matau and Vakama moment, but I would have loved to see him and Onewa make up too since they fought so much. Honestly?? I would have loved to see him form loving relationships with… well, really anyone. It was clear that Nokama and Matau both loved him and were willing to show him that, and I really believe from the way the Turaga all became friends in the end that the others would be his friend and help him heal too, but we never really got to see that. Like what would Vakama’s relationships with the others even look like if he ever got a chance to not be the leader or the visionary, but to just be their brother? I’m getting off track. Cause here’s the third thing:

3.     Vakama never really demonstrated that many leadership skills.

I’m SORRY, okay, really I am!! But seriously. At the beginning, he only lead because he was a visionary and that is no way to choose a leader, especially since he so badly wanted to not be the leader at that point! Before the personality changes I associate with his grief over Lhikan, he showed himself to be nervous, insecure, shy, soft-spoken, unwilling to take control, not particularly communicative, reserved… these aren’t bad things, but they’re not necessarily shaped for leadership. He lacks confidence and a willingness to lead.

To be fair, he does have a lot of good leadership qualities too. He listens well to others, he’s intelligent and kind, and he’s very quick on his feet and good at putting puzzles together and figuring out how to destroy things like talking demon plants. This makes him a very good boy and also someone very good to have in a fight. But that’s a strategist, not necessarily a leader. He takes failures much too harshly, doesn’t command the others well, never shows any real interest of his own in leadership imo, and needs to be coaxed and comforted into making many real decisions.

The exception, of course, is that angry, hurting Vakama who snaps at all of his siblings and makes bad choices to try and convince himself that he’s a good leader. Remind me why we put that much of a burden on this lil dude?

(I actually have thought about that some – did the others see Vakama as the leader because they perceived Lhikan as seeing Vakama as the leader? Or, as I suspect, was it more tied to the apparent tradition of fire-spitters being expected to be the leaders? If Vakama was expected to lead because of his nationality, this could contribute to his anxiety over being expected to lead – is he a bad Toa of Fire just because he struggles with leadership? Did he know from the beginning that everyone would expect that of him? Even as a Matoran, did he feel less like a Ta-Matoran because he never met the stereotype of a commanding, confident, charismatic fire-spitter? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I love thinking about them because Vakama is 11/10 and other Fire Toa like Jaller and Tahu have struggled with similar insecurities and the struggle of trying to be good leaders and Fire Toa, reflecting on the expectations placed upon them, like when Jaller feared that he was fighting with Matoro because of their elements and when Vakama asked Tahu to admit that he was afraid of failing the others and leading them into harm.)

Okay, and yes, Vakama did seem to be a better leader by the time he was a Turaga. But honestly, from what we saw of them in meetings and moments, Vakama doesn’t particularly stand out as the leader. They all redirect each other when they’re getting off-topic, they all coax each other into telling stories or doing what needs to be done, they all go “NOKAMA tell me you did NOT show Gali that cave” and things like that lol. And that’s great!! Because they learned to be equals!! Incredible!! But in that case, there was no reason for Vakama to lead them as a Turaga, and if they had continued to be Toa, I really think they would have needed another leader.

 Here’s my proposition: Vakama should have been given space to heal. The others welcomed him back and accepted his leadership during the battle with Roodaka, but he didn’t actually do much beyond the obvious, which was “shoot her, guys!” And it was great. But it doesn’t make him a good leader necessarily. I think it would have been good for him to be able to step back from the expectations and the stereotype and to just spend some time adjusting to what happened and learning to rely on his siblings as his support system and family instead of the people always tearing him down for not being what they need him to be. He wouldn’t have had to abandon the leadership skills that he was beginning to develop because he would still have been the Turaga of Ta-Koro. He could have had some time just to learn his own leadership style: not shy or timid, not aggressive and brash, but rather embodying the things he does do well, like giving others chances to use their talents, listening patiently to their concerns, and then working to reign them in when things go wrong or certain Av-Matoran wander into danger too many times in one day. Managing Takua would be enough leadership responsibilities for any Turaga, that’s all I’m saying!

 Who do I think would have been a better leader for the Toa Metru? Easy. Obvious. Nokama.

She always should have been.

I don’t believe that Vakama would ever have become the leader of the Toa Metru if he wasn’t a Fire Toa and a visionary. Ever. He would have backed up, said no thank you, and I think it would have been better for him. Nokama would have been a great commander for him, cause guys?? She fucking loves her brothers. She loves Vakama when he’s breaking down, when he hates himself, when he fucks up, and she tells him that. She puts a hand on his shoulder and whispers encouragement and she defends him when the others turn on him. She protects him. She loves him. She fucking loves her brothers. She loves Matau when he’s annoying her, when he’s being goofy, when he’s fucking up too. She loves Nuju, trusting him with her secrets and being warm to him no matter his aloofness. She loves Onewa, seeing past his anger and flaws. She loves Whenua. Okay I can’t think of any examples on that one right at this moment cause I don’t have my books out but here’s my source: dude trust me.

She always sees the best in them, always supports them, always gives her heart to them. She is supportive, caring, kind, considerate. She’s Nokama. She’s really, really, really good.

But of course that doesn’t make her a leader. That could even make her a pushover. But honestly if you know anything about Nokama, you know that word could never be used to describer her.

This is a Toa who commands respect. Nokama is powerful, gaining swift control of her powers and later showing an interest in sparring with Nuju and improving on her fighting, trashing her fair share of enemies along the way and surviving serious injuries without complaint. When she does, you can see how much her bickering brothers are willing to come together to look after her, all of them pretty much shutting up and working together to protect her, all of them united in their worry for her. Nuju respects her independence enough to let her go jumping off the ship to explore the water in Voyage of Fear without telling anyone, and this isn’t the only time in her life Nokama makes a decision about what needs to be done and what should be done and then does it. She shows Gali the carvings in the cave without asking for permission. She goes to Jaller and tells him about the disappearance of the Great Spirit against the others’ wishes because she knows what’s right and she’s going to do it no matter whatever anybody else says. That’s taking command. That’s strong decision-making. That’s accepting responsibility and being able to deal with it. I love her.

Additionally, she’s rarely flustered and replies coolly to both flirtation (“And I thought Vakama had strange visions…”) and sniped comments from grumpy siblings (“Save the lessons for your class, teacher!” “Look, we’re here for a reason”) and she asserts herself when she thinks something needs to be said (“This is not Vakama’s fault!”) What’s more, the others actually listen to her.

That may not sound like a big deal. But this is the Toa Metru we’re talking about. So let me say that again: THE OTHERS ACTUALLY LISTEN TO HER OH MY GOSH WHY DIDN’T YOU GUYS ELECT HER QUEEN LIKE IMMEDIATELY? Her brothers are always fighting – she’s even fighting, sometimes! – but you think Nuju’s really going to ignore Nokama? You think Matau’s not going to put in the effort to work with her? You think Onewa’s going to throw a fit at her and that the others are going to let him get away with it? You think Vakama’s not going to feel calmer letting her take control? Why do I keep leaving out Whenua I’m so sorry I love him too but anyway –

Guys she just would have been such a good leader. She just really would have. She really, really would have. Like you look at that conversation where everybody’s like “well maybe I should be leader instead of Vakama!!” and you just… you have to laugh. Are you guys joking. Let’s look at the other options.

1.     Onewa: Don’t even start. His temper… oh my goodness. And Tahu has a temper too, but Tahu is not like Onewa. While Tahu seems to take pride in the chances he gets to lead his team and command the others effectively, Onewa is like this bitter little porcupine always fluffing his quills up at the others. Honestly, he would have HATED being leader. That would have required him to deal with his horrible family all day!!! Onewa I love you never change but you need a lot of alone time and very few people annoying you you little angel. He would have gotten really stressed and frustrated and lashed out at everybody. Also, you remember that time he didn’t feel like he had time to explain a plan, so he just mind-controlled Whenua to make him do it for him? His whole leadership would have been like that. He would try to do everything for himself because honestly, he’s really independent and proud and would be just a tiny bit evil with that mask of his <3

2.     Whenua: Okay mostly a nice boy. But he’s just really stuck in his head a lot of the time. That’s his and Nuju’s whole thing, right? He’s stuck in the past and he’s a really deep thinker. Nobody has time for that in an emergency. What’s more, Whenua’s people skills are not particularly strong. Like Vakama, he isn’t a very commanding presence, or at least once you get past the deep, booming voice he isn’t. Also he isn’t really a compromiser. He’s stubborn and I don’t think he would have done well at incorporating other people’s viewpoints into his own – especially Nuju’s!

3.     Nuju: this is a joke right. He would literally be so annoyed if he had to lead. He has less than zero interest in leading. Everyone would be like “what should we do, Nuju?” and he would just be so uninterested in explaining his thought process to these idiots or, worse, having to listen to their dumb-ass ideas and arguing and then having to work with those dumb-ass ideas. Don’t be confused, this isn’t the same as Kopaka. Kopaka is “you’re all so dumb I have to eventually step up and do something about it” which is why this poor sucker ends up as Tahu’s deputy despite his best efforts at being a loner. Nuju is “you’re all so dumb I’m going to go over here and do my own thing and if you need something, I’d rather you just trust me to handle it.” Literally this man is so disinterested in communication that he speaks a random-ass bird language just so nobody can talk to him without having to go through a translator. He is trying so hard to make his whole existence a “fuck you” to his siblings. I adore him. And, as a side note, Nokama could always handle him despite that. She was never even daunted by it.

4.     Matua: you know what?? I don’t think he would have been all that terrible if he was given time to mature and explore the role a little and stuff like that. There’s a reason the Le-Matoran adore him!!! But also, you know he can be goofy and sometimes too flippant and fun-loving, and I don’t think most of his siblings would fall into line for him… at all hahaha. Nuju taking orders from Matau?? Onewa?? Even Vakama, I think, would dismiss Matau as a joke. I think he really proves himself as a mature and capable young hero the moment he risks his life just to make sure that Vakama knows that he’s sorry and he still wants him as a brother. I think Matau would be a good deputy. But at the beginning of the story, seriously I think Nokama would have been so much more functional as a leader than any of the others.

Geez they’re just such a disaster team. I’m filled with so much love for them. Maybe nobody should be their leader. I think they found the best compromise in the end – that equality we see in books like Tales of the Masks. Teasing each other, holding each other accountable, pushing each other to be better versions of themselves, equals in their story circle. They just went through so much and it was so hard but I think really the strength of that team, in the end, is the intimacy with which they come to know each other’s weaknesses… and then learn to love each other despite them. They told the Toa Nuva stories that made them look like such assholes sometimes, haha, but you know they were all sitting together in that circle, making even laughing about something mean Nuju said or about how much they fought, though they always go quiet and somber for the moments of real grief, taking the time to sit with the truth of each other… To know each other’s flaws. To love each other anyway. To see each other temperamental, headstrong, goofy, cold, stuck in the clouds, and maybe just a little bit cross-wired, and then to see, even more clearly, all the ways that that makes them just, determined, joyful, protective, wise, and truly and earnestly good.

I don’t know. I guess I’m just thinking about the things I love about the Toa Metru, and I think Nokama was the one who saw those things first. She loved them. She supported them. Maybe she was never officially their leader, but I will always think that she could have played that role the best because she was someone who helped to show her brothers that all the parts of their team that they thought made them broken were really the parts that made them so wonderful and worthwhile.

And maybe Matau as her deputy, just for the moments where you need someone to shout at you about just how important and valuable and loved you are. And then you rescue him with this wicked spider-web bungee-cord and it’s SICK, FUCK YEAH.

Thank you for reading my complete ramblings (I didn’t double-check my facts and haven’t read the stories in a long time, so go easy on me if there’s small inaccuracies or things that you disagree with! But hey I’m always down to talk about just how great the Toa Metru are :)).

#toa metru #white light posts

[bssaz97]

“Call Me Back” Finale

* Patch Maternity Ward *

Ruby always knew that labor and delivery was going to be one of, if not, the hardest and most excruciating part of her pregnancy. She vividly remembered the tired faces of when Winter, Weiss, Blake, and Nora had delivered their babies and how happy they were after they got to hold onto their babies for the first time. But Ruby also remembered the seemingly endless amount of screaming and curses she heard from down the hallway of the maturity ward each time one of her friends went into the second stage of labor. When Ruby tried to ask for any ideas for how she could make the delivery stage easier for herself (that was the time when she learned she was carrying twins). However, all four girls just looked at her and collectively said one statement.

Past Winter/Weiss/Blake/Nora: “Practice breathing and pray.”

Ruby had greatly underestimated the counsel of her close friends and was convinced that they were trying to spare her the terrible truth about childbirth. The truth being that no matter what, childbirth is the most intense and painful experience that a woman can experience. How Mrs. Arc was willing to go through this experience five times (two of those resulting in twins) was truly a mystery to Ruby. But if Mrs. Arc could make it through all that amount of pain and struggle, then so could world savior Ruby Rose right? Oh poor, poor sweet past Ruby, how foolish she was to think that optimistically about the stages of childbirth.

Ruby: “GAAAA-HAAAHHHHhhhh!!!” *she screamed in utter agony, sweating profusely*

Taiyang: “It’s ok sweetie you’re doing great. You just need to wait until the head starts popping out. And by then it’ll be- Gah!” *feels his hand crushing under the pressure of Ruby’s grip on it.*

Ruby: “‘huff!’ If you say... it’ll be a piece of cake. ‘Huff!’ Or any other stupid birthday pun. ‘Huff!’ I’m going to kill you Dad!”

Taiyang: “Yeeep! Read you loud and clear sweetie!” *groaned as his grip was once again under the pressure of a mother birthing her offspring*

Doctor: “Ok Miss Rose you’re doing great, just keep breathing and PUSH!”

Ruby: “AAAAAAAHHHH!!!”

* Waiting Room Area *

Yang waits anxiously in her seat along with the other members of her team, their husbands, and Ren and Nora. Yang was trying to find something to focus on but came up blank. She was gripping tightly on chairs arms and ponders about how her baby sister is doing... well for lack of a better term ‘birthing babies’. She tries to calm herself through any means, but when a family member is expected to wait until the end of more or less a twelve-hour process is done, then calm is the last thing she wants to be right now. Yang has spent a good portion of her life fighting monsters and many groups hellbent on the destruction of humanity as a whole along with other things. However, if there was any situation that she dreaded the most was the feeling of helplessness when someone she cherishes is in pain or hurting. But then again, this isn’t normally like any of those cases, this was supposed to be a special day for both Ruby and...

Yang: ‘God damnit.’ *internally trying not to start any waterworks*

This was supposed to be a good day for the two of them, where they would start a new chapter of their lives together. Now there’s only her sister, who’s now all alone on this supposedly special day. Yang felt something in her boiling, a rage she had felt only a few times before in her life. She felt hatred, hatred towards whoever deemed it fit to take away not only her baby sister’s fiancé, but her happy future as well. A future that everyone worked and fought so hard for was taken away from Ruby without her knowledge.

The parallels between her own childhood and right felt so unbearably similar that all Yang wanted to do was hit something. A happy family who was robbed of someone who was so loved and admired by everyone that was close to them, only to never see them alive again. To that was the most painful part, he-Jaune did not deserve to be taken away from his family, friends or his soon to be mother of his children. But someone sought it fit to do just that, and now his parents lost their son, they lost a friend or brother, and Ruby lost the love of her life, the father of her soon to be born children. Just like Summer and so many others were taken away from them, a tragic repeat of history in their family.

Yang: ‘why...? Why?...WHY DID WHENEVER SOMETHING GOOD WAS GOING TO HAPPEN TO RUBY DID SOMEONE HAVE TO TAKE IT AWAY?!’ *She didn’t notice when tears started to trail down her face before shaking her head*

Yang had come to terms with the fact that Jaune was gone, they did have a body after all but that didn’t make it any less painful to know. She tried to remain strong for her sister who was no doubt going through the darkest part of her life, and she knew that it would only persist if not addressed. But Yang felt that she lost a friend and a brother many months ago, the saddest part was that it wasn’t something she’s not used to feeling. The sad cycle of their family was supposed to end with Ruby and Jaune’s union but maybe they had placed too much hope in their happily ever after. But whatever the result was, there was nothing that could be done to change it. That to her was perhaps the most painful thing about it.

Blake: “ Yang are you ok?” *places her hand on her friend’s shoulder*

Yang: “Hmm? Oh sorry, guess I was lost in thought. Got a lot on my mind I guess. Hehehe... ‘sigh.’”

Weiss: “Yang Xiao-Long. If you think for a moment that we’re going to believe that poor excuse, then you clearly do not realize who you are speaking to.”

Yang: “Heh. Yeah I should’ve figured that wasn’t gonna go pass through you Weiss-Cream. Well... I guess I’m just thinking about how Ruby’s doing right now.” *she leans back into her seat*

Neptune: “Yeah, by the way. How has she doing? Before right now I mean!” *adds in quickly*

Yang: “Honestly, not too good. Ok that’s an understatement, she was a mess, had to keep my eyes on her almost all the time. I’ve... never seen her look so defeated before. There’s been bad times before but now... it just brings back some bad memories.” *drags her prosthetic hand over her face*

Blake: “Yang...” *Looks at her old partner sympathetically*

Sun: “Sorry to hear.”

Neptune: “How’ve you been holding up?”

Yang: “What do you mean?”

Neptune: “Well you’ve been there for Ruby all during this time, but I can’t imagine it will be easy for you when you have to... well go back to doing your ‘other’ job.”

Yang: “Wha-? Do you actually think I would leave Ruby all alone during this time!” *eyes briefly flash red*

Weiss: “We’re not suggesting that Yang. But we do need to address this matter, because we have noticed that you haven’t been to Mistral since this... we found out what happened. That’s why we need to talk about it.”

Yang couldn’t deny what Weiss was saying and she had to admit that she has been slacking in a duty she’s neglecting for sometime. Although she would prefer not to do this today if all days. But rarely did they ever have time to hang out with one another.

Yang: “‘sigh’ Okay. Let’s talk.”

Weiss: “Well from what we remember you telling us, you spent most of your looking after Ruby. Even as a child back then you placed yourself with a lot of responsibility. So now after everything that has happened, you may not notice but we see how you are reverting back to the position of a helicopter sibling. However, as you know, you’re also in a position where you have to uphold a duty to the people of Mistral, so you cannot be in two places at once.”

Yang: “So what’s your point Weiss.”

Weiss: “The point that WE want to make is... we want to help easing up the burden you’ve been holding for so long.”

Yang: “...What?” *her face displaying confusion*

Ren: “It’s true Yang. While you are Ruby’s sister, the responsibility of helping her shouldn’t be on your shoulders alone. Nora and I are the godparents of these coming children, so it’s our responsibility to be there for them and Ruby as well.”

Nora: “That’s right.”

Blake: “You and Ruby are one of the best friends I have, who have fought many personal battles alongside me. So let Sun and I return the favor.”

Sun: “Yep.”

Weiss: “Yang, do you remember what I told my father when he tried to force me back home all those years ago. Your not just friends to me, you’re family. So as part of my family, I want to be able to help out as best as I can. Plus I refuse to not help with expenses she may need.”

Neptune: “‘laughs’ What she says.”

Weiss: “So what do you think.” *gives a small smile*

Yang: “..... Y-You guys would really be willing to do all this... for us? *moving her gaze to look at all of them*

Weiss: “Of course. Did you really expect to go any other way?”

Yang: “I-I don’t know what to say.”

Nora: “There ain’t nothing to say, you can’t get rid of us that easily!”

Yang: “Guys..... ‘sniff, sniff’ ....thank you.” *bows her head a little, mostly to hid the fact that she couldn’t hold the tears she had built up earlier at bay any longer*

Blake, Weiss, and Nora group around Yang so that the girls could have group hug around their blonde friend. Soon enough the husbands of the group also formed another layer of hugging to show their support as well. Yang felt as if a large load was taken off her shoulders that she had no idea she was carrying but was just happy to have friends and family such as these. Maybe with them around, she wouldn’t have to worry as much to care for her sister. Even if one of them was gone, there were still others there to help carry the load alongside her, as one big happy family.

Female Doctor: “*Cough, cough*”

Everyone: ‘⁉️’ *They all look up to see a doctor standing in front of them in scrubs*

Female Doctor: “Sorry to interrupt this special moment but I wanted to inform Miss Xiao-Long that her sister has completeld her delivery.”

Yang: “‘gasp!’ Oh my gods, is Ruby ok! Did everything go ok! Please tell me everything is ok!” *she knocked everyone off of her to get up close to the doctor pleadingly, hands clasped together*

Female Doctor: “*laughs* Yes Miss Xiao-Long, everything went off without any problems. Would you like to meet your niece and nephew?”

Yang: “Do I?!”

Weiss: “Ahem!”

Yang: “Eh?” * turns around to see the others picking themselves up after Yang unceremoniously pushed them off after a such touching moment*

Yang: “Oops. Sorry guys, got a little too excited there. Hehe...” *raises hands in a defensive manner*

Weiss: “‘Hmph’ I will forgive you right now but only because it’s a special occasion.”

Yang: “*laughs* Thanks.”

. . . . .

Nora: *sprints past the two of them* “FIRSTONETHEREGETSTOSEETHEBABIESFIRST!”

Female Doctor: “Mam, please no running in-!”

Yang: “Ohhh Hell No Lie-Valkyrie! Those kids are my blood so I get first dibs!” *follows hot on Nora’s trail*

Female Doctor: “Miss Schnee could you please-!”

Weiss: “Damn Brutes, you get there before me I will have words!” *uses Glyphs to boost her speed*

Blake: *Uses Shadow to follow after*

Female Doctor: “NO RUNNING IN THE HOSPITAL!”

Ren/Neptune/Sun: “So sorry about this.” *starts lightly jogging to catch up to their respective wife*

Female Doctor: “...... ‘sigh’ It’s always like this with Huntresses.” *shakes her head*

*Few Minutes Later*

Nora/Weiss/Blake: *sulking in defeat*

Nora: *pouting* “Using special powers in the last lap is cheating Yang!” *forms an X with her arms*

Yang: “Hey, you got a good five seconds head start on all of us so I don’t wanna hear it.”

Ren: “Nora, you can still see the babies today. You’ll just have to wait your turn.” *he says but internally is just as upset that he can’t see his godchildren first*

Yang: *looks at the door* “Ok. *breathes* Here we go Yang.”

*Door Opens then closes*

Yang enters the room and hears a small tune playing that sounds almost like a lullaby. Just as she does she sees her father standing on the right Ruby, with what seemed to be the biggest smile on his face she’s ever seen. Her dad turns to look to see that Yang had entered and signaled her to come over quietly. She gently walks over to the opposite side of Ruby’s hospital bed and after moving the curtain that was blocking her view Yang stood still, holding her breath. There she saw Ruby, her baby sis, holding two bundles of white blankets in both arms that only showed two tiny, squishy, baby faces. Ruby’s hair was damp with sweat and seemed very tired but was awake enough to soothe her newborns with a lullaby.

Ruby: *stops humming and looks up to see Yang, then smiles* “Hi Yang.”

Yang: “Ruby... They look... I mean just look at them.” *says with a hushed quivering voice, barely able to contain her smile*

Ruby: “*giggles* Yeah. Aren’t they just perfect. Took awhile getting them out but... they look so beautiful don’t they.” *she smiles tiredly*

Yang: “I-Is it ok if I...?” *hold both hands out*

Ruby: “Sure. Dad, could you?”

Taiyang: “Sure sweetie.” *he grabs onto one baby with blonde hair*

Ruby: “Here you go Sis.” *gently holds her other baby with reddish hair*

Yang gently takes one baby into her arms from Ruby and takes the other from her Dad. She looks at both of the babies up close and her lips were trembling with tears threatening to spill out.

Yang: “They’re so precious! Did you decide on names yet?” *says quietly so as to not disturb the tiny babies*

Ruby: “Yep. If one was a girl Me and Jaune wanted to giver her both Mom’s and Pyrrha’s name. Then if we wanted a boy we would name him Rowan... named after Jaune’s favorite fairytale character as a kid, ‘Rowan the Red.’”

Yang: “... Wasn’t that story about a squirrel?” *starts to giggle*

Ruby: “Yeah. But it was so cute that I couldn’t think of anything better than that. Plus I actually like the sound of it. My little Rowan.”

Yang: “Wow. Summer *kissed the redhead* and Rowan *kissed the blonde*”

Taiyang/Ruby: “....*holds in laughter*”

Yang: “What?” *face becomes confused*

Taiyang: “Yang, Rowan’s the one with red hair and Summer’s the blonde one.”

Yang: *eyes widen drastically and looks down at the two babies she just mixed up* “Whoops. Rowan *kisses redhead* and Summer *kisses blonde*”

Ruby: “That’s better, almost thought you were gonna check just to be sure.”

Yang: “To be fair if I wasn’t holding two bundles of joy in my arms, I would have tried that.”

Ruby: *shakes head while giggling*

Yang: *Looks fondly at both babies once more* “They’re amazing Ruby. How’re you holding up?”

Ruby: “Well the Doctor gave me some painkillers to dull the pain so right now I am doing greeeaaaat~”

Yang: “That’s good to hear.”

. . . . .

Ruby/Yang: “There’s something-.” *both laughs*

Ruby: “Sorry you go first.”

Yang: “Nah it can wait, there something on your mind?”

Ruby: “Ok... So I’ve been thinking for a bit while I have been here, thinking about what happens after I get out of this hospital with my children.”

Yang: “Oh?”

Ruby: “Well you’ve been helping me a lot since what happened to.... after the incident. I reminded me a lot of how things were when we were kids. Then I thought about how these two are going to be living once there back home with me.”

Yang: “Right.”

Ruby: “So with that thinking in mind I realized something that I hadn’t thought of before. How do I wanna raise my kids. Sure I’ve thought about it a lot since I had.... Jaune with me. But now he’s gone, and these little ones only have their mother left in the world. Their mother who is a sworn protector of Remnant...”

Yang: “...Where are you going with this Rubes.”

Ruby: “It’s come to my realization Yang that with Jaune no longer here with me, I’m all my babies have to rely on to care for and nurture them as a parent. But I can’t do that as a Huntress sworn to protect others. So it’s with that I’ve decided...”

Yang: *starts moving closer to Ruby with the babies in tow* “Ruby wait please, before you say anything else-!”

Yang was having a bad feeling about what her sister was going to say next. She hoped, no, prayed that Ruby wasn’t going to do a Raven and give up her kids. Sure these babies had Ren and Nora as godparents but Yang’s seen how that road ends with Raven and she didn’t want Ruby to-!

Ruby: “I’ve decided to retire being a huntress.”

Yang: “.......what?” *her face is one of disbelief and shock*

Ruby: “Yang I love being a huntress. It’s all I ever wanted to be when I was little, it’s what I’ve worked towards my whole life. *holds a hand out playing with Rowan’s hair* But in the short time that these two came into my life, these wonderful things of purity and innocence, I’ve discovered something that’s worth more than all those years spent slaying monsters and stopping the bad guys.”

Ruby: *moves up slowly to retrieve both of her little ones from Yang, who let them go gently* “That’s being these two’s mommy. I don’t want to miss a single moment of either of their lives, I want to see them grow, learn to walk, say their first words and be normal kids with a mom they can come home to who will be there. So that’s my decision, I choose to be my children’s mother..... my little blessings.”

Yang: “...And you’re sure this is what you want Rubes?”

Ruby: *nods* “I know I can’t prevent every hardship they will face, but I at least want them to have a better childhood than what we had.... No offense Daddy.” *turns to look at her father*

Taiyang: “*sniff* There’s no need to apologize sweetie. I’m just so proud of you right now.” *he says as small tears fall from his eyes*

Yang: “Yeah. *sniff* So am I sis.”

Ruby: “Thanks... so what is it you wanted to talk about?”

After much time spent having each and every member of her team and friends see her little blessings they all took time to explain and establish what would be their plan of action to move forward. Nobody could change what happened, Life is filled with hardships and struggles but together they could rise above it. They all had done so many times before and together they would do so again. Ruby was touched that everyone wanted to help so much with caring for her babies, she almost wanted to cry again. She was so happy to have friends and family such as these, a true blessing in her life.

*Knock! Knock!*

Female Doctor: “Miss Rose you have more visitors. They said they’re family to the newborns.”

Ruby: “Were we expectanting anyone else?”

Yang: “Weeeell I might’ve sent a late invitation to one family.”

Saphron: “For the love of- Move out of the way! I want to see my darling niece and nephew!” *pushes by the Doctor*

Female Doctor: “GAH!” *almost trips*

Saphron: *looks around and sees the four couples in the room* “Oh come on! You all got here before me!”

Terra: *entering holding up a five year old Adrian* “Well we would’ve gotten here sooner had someone NOT send us a notice at the very last minute. Then we would’ve been here sooner.”

Adrian: “Hi Everyone!” *while waving*

Ruby: “Hehehe. Sorry it happened so suddenly that well we kinda forgot make a big announcement about it.”

Saphron: “*snort* Ok I guess that’s fair. Now where’s those darling little angels!”

Ruby: “Well they’re right here but they’re sleeping so I would be- *Saphron swiftly takes them* careful with them!”

Saphron: “Oh my gods! Terra look at them! They’re so cute! Rowan has blonde hair like an Arc and Summer has the her mommy’s hair~ Oh could just eat them up!~” *says in a hushed tone*

Terra: “....Saphron. The red haired ones a boy and the blonde is a girl.” *smiles at her wife*

Saphron: *eyes widen and looks at both babies, who she just mixed up* “.... I knew that. I totally knew that I was just saying that to test you.”

Terra: “Sure. Look Adrian, it’s your new cousins. Don’t be like your other mommy and get their genders confused, ok~”

Adrian: “Sum-Sum and Rowen.” *pokes Summer’s cheek*

Summer: “pfff-! Hehehehehe!~”

Everyone: “Awwww~”

Yep. Everything was starting to feel right in the world again.

*One Year Later; Unknown Destination*

Dark Figure 1: “Is he awake?”

Dark Figure 2: “Not yet, but he should awaken soon.”

Dark Figure 1: “I still can’t believe the Master wants to keep this one alive, it took a lot of effort to take him down and we lost too many of our own. We even had to sacrifice brother Nil in order to make a convincing corpse of this one for the Huntsmen to believe.”

Dark Figure 2: “Brother Nil chose to make that sacrifice, his shapeshifting semblance allows him to become the perfect copy of one’s body and blood. Without him we would never had been able to make those heretics believe that £^%3 ^~< was dead.”

Dark Figure 1: “You maybe willing to follow his bold ideas but I do not. I serve only the command of the True Queen, not him.”

Dark Figure 2: “Patience Brother, we will have justice for Nil soon enough. This only serves as a means to fufill the Queen’s Will. Once we have all the pieces of the puzzle, then we can awaken her from her eternal slumber.”

Dark Figure 3: “Quiet! He awakens...”

A man’s eyes open from his deep slumber, he brings one hand up to rub his temple so ease his piercing headache. He tries to raise himself but feels that he is still too weak. What was he sleeping on? He looks around and sees three distinct figures wearing dark robes and were looking at him from different spots of where he was laying. Alarmed by them he tries to get up but the one closest to him places his hand on his shoulders to keep him in place so not for him to go thrashing around.

Dark Figure 3: “My brother, you must not push yourself. You’ve been asleep for a long time, and your body is still too disoriented to move around freely.” *a scraggly male voice*

Awaken Man: “What’s happening? Who are all of you?!”

Dark Figure 2: “Brother, you have been greatly injured in your last mission. You need to be put in a temporary deep sleep in order to heal your wounds. It has been a little over a year ago. As to who we are, we are your companions.” *voice reveals to be a females, who’s sounds like silk*

Awaken Man: “... So I know you all?”

Dark Figure 2: “Yes my friend, you know us all very well. We’ve fought together for many years.”

Awaken Man: “Years...? I... do not recall.”

Dark Figure 3: “Yes. A side effect of the deep sleep treatment I’m afraid. You were dealt a rather heavy injury from the warrior you faced last.”

Awaken Man: “I was fighting someone?”

Dark Figure 3: “Yes, you were fighting against one huntsman named ‘Jaune Arc.’ He was a formidable enemy who had slain over thirty of your own men.”

Awaken Man: “He... killed my men? That bastard! Where is he?!”

Dark Figure 1: “Dead. Slain by your own sword.” *the last member with them stepped in, his voice sounded deep but calm and cold*

Dark Figure 2: “It’s true brother, you had defeated your adversary but soon afterwards you succumbed to your wounds. We had to take you back to our home in order to help you survive.”

Awaken Man: “Yes, I think I’m starting to recall now. I was fighting against a strong warrior, he... had others with him...” *holds his head in an attempt to remember*

Dark Figure 3: “No you are mistaken brother, he was alone when you fought him. But his battle power was vast.”

Awaken Man: “Was he truly? I could’ve sworn...”

Dark Figure 1: “What’s done in the past is done, there is no changing it. You fought Arc, you prevailed and he died. Now come, the Master will be expecting you to fully recover within the next two days.”

Awaken Man: “The Master...?”

Dark Figure 1: “Yes he will be expecting you to come see him, he will want a full report on your mission, Abel.”

Awaken Man: “Abel?”

Dark Figure 1: “Yes, that is your name, Abel Gris. Do you not remember at least that much?”

Abel: “My memory is still not too clear right now, I must have been more injured than I thought.”

Dark Figure 2: “Have no fear brother. We will help you fill in the gaps.” *she runs her hand through his blonde hair*

Abel: “I... thank you my sister.” *it felt odd for him to say that for some reason*

Dark Figure 1: “Well I hope for your sake that you at least remember the events that occurred to you last year before the week is done. The Master is not as understanding as we are and he will expect the full report soon.”

Abel: “Of course... brother.” *why did it feel like there was a spike in his throat to say that*

With that all three of his companions left the healing room. Soon when he felt he was able, he stepped off whatever he was laying on. It looks like a opened metal egg with dark purple crystals sticking out on the sides. He walks forward to wear he sees a mirror at the left side of the room. Slowly he walks over, holding onto what he looks to be injured side that presented the most pain. As he walks up to the mirror he takes a look at himself.

His appearance looks to be young, lean physique despite being in bed for over a year, and what looked to be more than a long horizontal scar to the left of where he supposed his heart is located. A nearly fatal wound indeed. The last thing he looks at is his face. Abel looks at himself as he sees his unkept blonde hair, his pale complexion and his what looked to be dark purple eyes that seemed to have a glow to them. He places his hand ver his reflection in the mirror and narrowed his eyes.

This was the face of Abel Gris. The man who killed Jaune Arc.

- Fin -

#rwby #ruby rose #yang xiao long #rwby lancaster #lie ren #nora valkyrie #weiss schnee #neptune vasilias #blake bellodona #sun wukong #new ocs #taiyang xiao long #rwby rowan rose #rwby summer phyrra rose #call me back #finale