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pink-november · 2 years

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moons aren’t stars and stars can’t be moons

summary: sun talks to his not-brother and gives him a gift

a short drabble for cypher taking place sometime after the angst in the Pulling Up Weeds Timeline here’s the series for anyone that stumbled here go read it it's a masterpiece

gonna stretch my rusty writing skills for a bit so sorry for any cringy bits tho i do hope this is enjoyable

everything here is purely headcanon btw

Sun cannot stay still.

After everything that happened, the hack, the deaths, the fire, it was somehow a miracle that they were all still alive.

He was okay. Moony’s fine. Eclipse’s still here. Alex survived. And along the way, their circle of friends grew and Sun found himself with a bigger family than before.

Moon would have teased him for being gushy about their new additions but he was currently under repairs, his chip temporarily separated from their body as their Starlight began to fix him back together again.

Sun terribly misses his brother and his anxiety seems to spike for every moment he cannot sense Moon in their headspace. Eclipse wasn’t even there to comfort him because he can’t turn on without Moon’s programming running beforehand.

So, he made a decision.

A probably terrible decision in hindsight but he was on the verge of a breakdown so Sun went along with it.

//Why the fuck are you here?//

“Language.” Sun chastised almost instantly, his programming slightly reeling at the profanity. “I just wanted to see how you’re doing! Being alone in a dark room seems incredibly boring after all!”

Not-Moon’s pixelated head emerged on the screen from Alex’s laptop, a digital frown on an imitation of his brother’s face and his purple eyes glowing eerily at him, glaring. The laptop’s miniature speakers glitched for a moment as Not-Moon scoffed at him. //Checking up on the troublemaker, aren’t we? How like you, Sunbeam.//

If Sun had to describe the feeling that crawled across his casing, it was something like getting goosebumps on his arms. “Don’t call me that. You’re not Moon.”

//But I am.// Not-Moon chuckled darkly. //What are you gonna do about it? Delete me? Go on. I would like to see you try.//

“Stop! You are being incredibly mean to me, Not-Moon!” Sun crossed his arms, already regretting coming here in Alex’s room to check upon his brother’s evil alter ego while he was supposed to be waiting patiently for Moon’s repairs to finish. Preferably far, far, far away from this evil glitch, as Eclipse told him earlier. “Ugh, fine! If you’re just gonna be rude to me, I’ll leave you alone then!”

//W ai t!//

Sun froze on his tracks, already on his way to slam the door close when Alex’s laptop made a worrying thudding sound. Slowly, he peeked inside the room and saw the laptop on the floor, thankfully cushioned by the rather messy sheets made by Gregory there. He sighed, metaphorically, and picked Not-Moon up and placed him back on the small desk.

“How did you even manage to do that?”

Not-Moon frowned at him and looked furious but no sound came out from the device.

Sun tilted his head, amused. “Did you… did you break the speakers?”

Not-Moon then opened an application and was forced to type out his response. //Shut up! Fix the damn thing so that I could properly yell at you idiot!//

“You know this kinda could work.” Sun said, getting a bright idea. “Your insults are less demeaning now that they're in text form!”

//If I weren’t in this shitty piece of plastic-//

“We need to do something about that potty mouth of yours, Not-Moon.”

The screen suddenly filled a bright purple, the laptop’s fans whirring noisily as Not-Moon's digital face frowned so big it bled out of his outline. //DON’T CALL ME THAT!//

Sun paused, staring nervously as Not-Moon took his sweet time calming down, and began to fiddle with the bells on his wrists. Seeing his brother angry like that, no matter how vastly different it is, was not doing any favor to his system. Sun did not know what compelled him to come here in the first place, maybe it’s some form of misplaced affection or just his system trying to locate a form of his brother, but it’s already proving not to be a good idea. He does not have happy memories with this version of his brother after all. But…

//I don’t see any problem being called as Moon. Why stop now?// Not-Moon typed out when the glitches on the screen stopped blocking the letters out. //You had no problems yelling my name when I was just doing my job.//

“But, you’re really not Moon.” Sun reasoned out, his words oddly heavy. “You’re a-”

//No need to force yourself, Sunbun. I know exactly who and what I am.// It might be actually helpful if Sun heard his voice out loud right now because watching Not-Moon’s pixelated face grin at him was disconcerting. //I am Moon and nothing you do would change that. Even if you decide to stick me inside a useless cleaning bot.//

“I can’t keep calling you that! You deserve to have a name you can call your own.”

//And I want to be referred as Moon. Go change the other me’s name then if you’re so insistent.//

Gosh, even Moony wasn’t this stubborn. But then again, this sad reflection of his brother just stopped being Moon at some point.

“We could call you other names that could still refer to a moon, you know! Humans have this entire field of science about it and they have different kinds of names to moons!”

Not-Moon stared at him quietly for a minute, making Sun nervously laugh at the silence.

//Why are you even trying this hard for me? Aren’t you angry at me… for all the things I’ve done?//

There was something familiar as Sun read the text from Not-Moon, a sense of emotion that he can hardly believe a murderous code could imitate, and despite himself placed a hand on the laptop.

“I don’t forgive you just yet.” He said, as soft as he can make his voicebox do, but he wanted to convey the warmth of his words to this cold and separate version of Moon. “But I believe that everyone deserves a second chance.”

//This is why you’re weak.// Not-Moon threw at him, the words also glitching as they appeared. //Your kindness will be your own undoing someday. I’ll make sure of it. You should know that you must never spare anyone that could potentially hurt you. They’ll bite you back.//

“But you won’t.”

Not-Moon glitched at his words, the screen flickering purple.

“You aren’t bound to do what He wants anymore. You’re free now. You’re alive now, despite your beginnings.” Sun continued, staring straight at the camera on the top of the laptop. “And Moony let you live even when you hurt him the most and prevented the others from erasing you.”

//So what? You expect me to be grateful to that weakling? To live this life you so kindly gave me atoning for my actions? Fat chance, Sun.//

Sun shook his head, “We’re not gonna tell you what you should do now. It is your choice to make now. But clinging to the past would only hurt you too in the long run.”

//What do you suggest then, oh benevolent Sun? Should I bow and kneel and apologize to everyone I’ve hurt? That’s a long list.//

If Moon was with him right now, he would have told Sun to leave Not-Moon now, seeing how closed and uncooperative he was. But Sun wanted to talk, clinging to his little belief that maybe Not-Moon had changed.

“We could start with a name.” He offered, “I have a list of all possible iterations of the name Moon we could start with.”

Not-Moon literally shrunk, his digital form fading in and out right before him. //Why can’t I be Moon too? Why do you insist on changing my name?//

Somehow, it feels accusatory.

“When Alex gathered your code and separated it from us, were you just merely Moon’s altered programming?” Sun asked, feeling like he has to coax out Not-Moon from his little corner. He metaphorically tasted his next words, feeling a new realization bloom in his mind as he spoke. “Weren’t you also some part of me and a little bit of Eclipse?”

//What are you saying…?//

Sun gave him his brightest smile as he sprung up and waved his arms excitedly. “I’m saying that you’re a completely different person! A new sentient AI, not just a carbon copy of Moon! You don’t need to continue to act like you’re some evil version of him either. You’re just you now!”

Yes, Sun understands now. Not really, just a bit. But Moon always said he was good at observing others and understanding them anyway.

//I’m not- I’m what? But, but-//

Not-Moon stuttered and the screen flickered with a variety of colors. Sun just laughed and patted the keyboard gently.

“That’s right! You can be whoever you want!”

And isn’t that such a blessing? For them, computer programs that gained a consciousness of their own breaking free from established protocols, becoming more than permutations and algorithms. It must be so for Not-Moon, who probably woke up and was forced to enjoy violence and was stuck believing that was all he was worth.

//I can’t believe I’m considering your advice now.// Not-Moon ended up saying, pouting and probably just pissed at himself. Maybe. //Fine then! If I’m gonna get a new name, I’m choosing one myself!//

“Oh! I can write the list!”

//No. Just connect me to a network and I’ll search for one.//

“... You’re been explicitly banned from connecting to the Internet, remember?”

//Eh, worth a shot.//

“My offer still stands!” Sun said, already with a paper and crayon on hand. “Oh, this is gonna be so fun!”

Not-Moon looked at him for a moment, pensive. //Can you, um… not give me a moon-related name?//

“But why?” Oh no, did Sun mess up at some point? “They all sound cool though.”

//No they’re not!// Said Not-Moon, who currently doesn’t have an existing database with the list of all the moons of their solar system to make that kind of judgment. //I thought you said I can make my own choices now? I don’t want a moon-related name!//

“Okay then.” Sun acquiesced, kinda sad his list was going to waste.

//Instead, I want a star-related name.// Not-Moon meekly followed up, the text on the screen even appearing a wee smaller than his previous ones. //Like yours, I guess.//

Oh?

Oh!

“You should have said so earlier!” Sun’s rays rotated happily, his systems working hard as he tried to scour his databases for the perfect name for his new brother. “I think I already found one that suits you well too!”

//It better not sound stupid.//

“No worries!” Sun said, smiling bright. “You’re gonna love this! How about…”

and that’s how Algol’s name came to be lol

not sure how well i did the characterization and the pacing but i just really wanted sun and algol talking. this actually sounded way better in my head and now its completely an indulgent mess

tldr: sun made a decision, almost regretted it, went all “are you tired of going ape shit? don’t you just wanna be nice?” then algol going “well maybe i don’t want to be the bad guy anymore” then they all live happily ever after the end

edit: oops forgot to tag the author hehe @cyberstatic-fox here's a lil treat hope u like it

#fnaf sb #fnaf sun #fnaf moon #fnaf algol #sunny side up #pulling up weeds #after getting his name algol is a tad soft to sun #doesnt stop him from causing trouble #besides it becomes an annoyance to moon the longer algol continues to follow them around like a toddler while being a wetfloor sign bot #algol is banned from using the internet #i dont know why i added that but i think its funny #i think algol really tried to cling to his identity as 'moon' knowing full well he isnt #because he doesn't know who or what he will be after everything is resolved #and if he had his way he would had probably take everything that was moon's and destroy them unknowingly in the process #through the power of plot sun also unknowingly saved algol from deleting himself #since i stuck algol on alex's laptop while he waits for his punishment #he actually doesnt know how to cope being alone #and since he acts like an asshole no one notices him slowly spiraling #oops that got dark quickly #dw guys algol's fine and has cress to tape a knife on his side

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thepixelelf · 3 years

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Thank you for doing this and btw this is such a cool idea!!

send me a picture of your bias (or anyone you want a drabble about) and I’ll write a blurb based on it

[hidden assurance] You bite the inside of your cheek as you place the final garnishes on top of your dish, the ticking timer that echoes throughout the set driving you absolutely insane. Each tick seems louder than the last tock, each tock louder than the last tick.

Just as you grab one last pinch of salt to sprinkle on your side dish, the buzzer goes off, and you wince.

It's over.

You step back from your cooking station, hands up to show that you're not breaking the rules and altering anything after time's run out.

A stagehand swoops in and takes your plates to the judging table.

You try to remember to breathe.

As the judges try out each competitor's dishes, you make eye contact with Josh, who stands behind the camera.

In the first two rounds, he was your trusty sous chef — just as he is at your restaurant back home — but for the third round, you were forced to work on your own. Competitive cooking shows like this always have a twist in the last episode.

You try not to look like you're panicking on camera, but when you look at Josh, you almost can't help it. He's your rock. He wouldn't have over-seasoned anything like you did in the first few minutes of the third round.

Like he can sense your distress, Josh smiles at you. He nods, assuring you that everything will be okay with that stupid charming grin.

It works.

#svt #seventeen scenarios #seventeen imagines #seventeen x reader #joshua hong x reader #svt scenarios #svt imagines #svt x reader #kpop scenarios #kpop imagines #.50

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pinkcatharsis · 4 years

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I dunno if I should legit continue this because I can’t remember where I was going with it. Read a prompt at @sloaners anon or a comment in one of their posts (fantastic art btw go check it out!) about Tsunade adopting a bb Tenzou and well. I wrote this and it’s unfinished and yeah.

I actually don’t even have a title for it. Was supposed to be an eventual YamaIru, too. Oh well!

—

Names have power, they say.

Tenzou can agree to a certain point because his experience from his missions, his targets, countless reconnaissance on high profile politicians has proven that people tend to cower from the syllables of a name if they are a threat.

Names carry prestige more than an identity.Names give history, are the pillars for legacy provided it is a name the people can accept. More often than not, it is a vessel for fear, control

They’re also a convenient excuse for people to either sing with high praise or forget because the truth is always a pill too hard to swallow.

Sometimes it lies ignored despite its great sacrifice to stop a rampaging monster, when the womb still bleeds fresh and a goodbye too soon falls from crimson lips. It is ignored because it is easier to hate someone helpless than to acknowledge a name that saved everyone.

Sometimes it is indifferent, distant, as cold as the unreadable, white irises of its clansmen.

Sometimes it lies abandoned, walls cracking, dust collecting over blood stained tatami mats where the weight of shame fueled enough strength to slice through flesh. Shame because of a choice to save one’s comrades as opposed to prioritising the mission.

Sometimes it is soaking in blood, whispers of its massacre echoing loud, and towards the end of it, the word traitor.

And sometimes, they’re just old, only remembered through history that is a core subject within the Academy walls, a prerequisite in terms of knowledge for every Konoha shinobi. They’re faded, scattered, heirless, visually only present through the carvings of stone that towers over the village.

Tenzou is conditioned to not pay any heed to something as trivial as a name. Not when he’s been conditioned, trained extremely well, that the only thing that matters is servitude to the village. That the name Konoha is the only thing of true value.

Greater people have sacrificed themselves for the good of village and now, their heir wanders Konoha’s walls shunned, sneered, hated, ignored. Their names hardly mattered in the present -- it’s like the Yellow Flash only exists as a tier to be achieved in terms of talent, hard work and mission success and nothing else. As if the man behind the legacy hardly existed.

Legacy means nothing, Tenzou realizes, in the grand scheme of things.

When you die, you just die.

It’s okay to die nameless.

Tenzou hears about Tsunade’s arrival tucked behind the cover of an open locker door. Apparently, Tsunade-hime is in the village for a visit. And like always, she has spent her first day sitting with her former sensei, having tea until she had flung the table across the room, out the window in a fit of uncontrolled, roiling rage.

“I think it’s because sandaime is asking her to stay,” one fellow ANBU says.

“No, it’s got something to do with her gambling debt for sure,” another says.

“Monkey says it has something to do with the council pressuring her to produce an heir,” a softer voice says.

“I thought she couldn’t?”

“Or she doesn’t want to?”

The conversation explodes, only coming to a sudden stop when the sound of a door opening puts a halt on the outright gossip that Tenzou shamefully has been eavesdropping on. Someone dares throw a table out the window in front of the Hokage? And the Hokage does nothing? Tenzou thinks back to Danzou an Root -- if any of them dared show such insubordination, that would mean at least half a day’s worth of lashings under the scorching sun and then dry fasting isolation for thirty-six hours. Not many tend to survive that but that would just mean they’re too weak to remain in Root, anyway.

“Don’t you guys have better things to do?” Kakashi’s voice cuts through with a drawl. It is followed by a series of locker doors shutting, rapid shuffling and then silence. “Oi, Tenzou. The Hokage needs you.”

Tenzou straightens, tugging his clean armor on and running a comb through his damp hair. He slams his locker shut and gives his senpai a wordless nod, acknowledging the summon.

A summon that suddenly renders him not so nameless anymore.

Tsunade is a towering figure, heals almost five inches high, back straight, eyebrows narrowed, hands on her hip and staring down at him like he’s a two year old.

“How old are you?”

“Fourteen,” Tenzou responds, keeping perfectly still. He isn’t intimidated by Tsunade’s persona. He’s just feeling a little too awkward because if Tsunade leaned any closer to examine him, her breasts would be ten centimeters too close to his face to be called professional, let alone proper.

“You are awfully small for a fourteen year old,” Tsunade tartly says, almost disappointed.

“I am a hundred and twenty nine and a half centimeters,” Tenzou agrees, well aware of how stunted his growth is. Danzou always factored his slow growth to the radiation and chemical exposure, a side effect to the experimentation Tenzou miraculously survived. But small doesn’t mean weak, Danzou had said, one of the few times he had been encouraging.

“Do you even eat, boy?” Tsunade scoffs.

“Yes. Five meals a day when I am in the village, continuously supplemented by calorically dense ration bars that Danzou-sama advised to--”

“Hah! Which one -- the one that tastes like sweet wet newspaper or the one that tastes like mouldy bread?” Tsunade snorts.

Tenzou finds himself stammering a little, glancing a little cluelessly at the Sandaime who is taking a very, very long drag from his pipe. Tenzou’s mouth quickly clamps shut before he can voice out his confusion. He can’t honestly say he knows what mouldy bread tastes like nor can he say he’s actually tried eating wet newspaper, let alone a sweetened one. So he goes with what he thinks is the correct response to this kind of inquiry. “The N-4150?”

“Sweet, wet newspaper. At least that old fart chose the better formula.” Tsunade rolls her eyes before taking - thank heavens - a proper step back.

Tenzou blinks once, altering between Tsunade now very put-upon expression and the Sandaime who is standing there as if he were part of the book shelf. “Hokage-sama, should I not continue consuming the N-4150?”

Sandaime rumbles an amused noise, blowing out a slow stream of tobacco smoke before he stands, rounding the table. “Why don’t you demonstrate your Mokuton skills for Tsunade, Tenzou? After all, that is the reason you were summoned here.”

It gets another eyeroll, with a bit of a scoff from Tsunade, who crosses her arms under her breasts.

“Yes, Hokage-sama,” Tenzou acknowledges.

He puts his hands together, channels just enough chakra and forms a small pot in his hands, slowly filling it with roots coiling until it sprouts green leaves, topped with large, black centered white poppies.

“Oh, white poppies,” Sandaime smiles, his face wrinkling. “An interesting choice. You see, Tsunade, Tenzou here has been studying botany for a year now. He’s a bit of an artist with his gardening. Tenzou, didn’t you recently start studying architecture as well?”

“I have only started reading some reference books three months ago, Hokage-sama,” Tenzou responds, with a bit of a nod, as his fingers tightens a little bit around the pot in his hands, not quite sure what to do with his creation-demonstration.

“Hmmm,” Sandaime hums, a touch bemused before he brings his pipe back up to his lips. “Reminds you of someone, doesn’t it, Tsunade?”

Tenzou looks at Tsunade, who in a space of a heartbeat looks far too young in a show of vulnerability, as her throat bobs when he swallows. It gets washed away when he clicks her tongue and turns to look at Tenzou, giving him a once over.

“Well, no one fucks with grandfather’s DNA, gets away with it and then keep it from me. Had it been anyone else but Danzou, Root of all places, I wouldn’t take issue! When did you discover your Mokuton skills, boy?”

“A year before I graduated from the Academy.” Tenzou swallows. “I was five years old.”

“Nine years! With that creep!” Tsuande shouts.

Sandaime’s tobacco inhale had to be the longest one Tenzou has ever seen.

Sandaime exhales, responding with a sigh, “Better late than never, hmm?”

“Fine.” Tsaunde grouches. “I’ll do it. Tenzou, you can call me okaa-san when you’re ready.”

The pot drops from Tenzou’s hands.

“Eh?”

Tenzou thinks it's a good response. Given the proverbial punch to the face he’s just received.

It’s not that Tenzou wants to say he cares much for the idea of family.

It’s more like he doesn’t quite know what to do with it.

(What does family even mean?)

So Tenzou, much like every other time he gets moved around like he’s no more than a potted plant, agrees.

Not like it really matters, right?

He thinks of it as just having another sort of… superior?

A superior that Tenzou apparently now gets to live with after all of those paperwork.

In a large, inherited estate, closed off, covered in wildly growing flora and fauna. The estate does not look like it’s been lived in for decades. There is damage from the growth of vines, some of it poking through the tatami doors, and getting to the interior of the house. There are a few soda cans littered around the gate, some old, some new. Likely the result of dares from the younger crowd of Konoha.

The once heralded Senju estate that Hashirama and Tobirama and their families once resided in is now nothing more than a shadow of its former glory. Uncared for. Outdated. Obsolete.

“Well,” Tsunade huffs. “I haven’t seen this place in, hmm, ten years maybe? Maybe twelve? Tche, what a dump.”

Tsunade toes an old, faded orange soda can by her heel, kicking it further away.

Tenzou wishes he’s no more than a spore in the ground. Should he say something? He may be a Senju by name and by experimental DNA, but that doesn’t really make him a Senju-Senju.

It’s just circumstances.

“Well? What do you think, kid? You like the house?” Tsunade holds her hand out at the once upon a time regal grounds, now overgrown with weeds and littered with random junk.

Tenzou looks at the estate again and decides to go with the most diplomatically acceptable response there is in this case.

“It’s a lot bigger than my apartment,” Tenzou politely responds, as his eyes stray towards the patch of wildly growing rosary pea and oleander growing by the gate.

Tsunade’s booming laughter echoes throughout the entire compound, bemused and real. She doubles over, slapping a hand on her knee, her laugh tapering off to a bit of a wheeze. It almost sounds nervous. A little hysterical even.

Tenzou tilts his head to the side, staring up at this woman, this new mother of his, a legendary sannin, one of the most if not the best, medic there is in the country.

Would it be rude to ask her if she is okay?

“Kid,” Tsunade snorts, shaking her head, reaching out to ruffle Tenzou’s long hair. “I like your sense of humor. You and I are going to get along just fine.”

Tsunade asks to see his apartment.

And then proceeds to wear what Tenzou can only assume is her analytical face. It’s peppered with a little judgment, too.

Tenzou’s current apartment is a shoebox in size, with enough space for a single bed, a small sectioned off wall by the door turned to a makeshift kitchen and a connecting bathroom that Tsunade, no doubt, will have to carefully manage her long limbs.

“You like it here?” Tsunade asks, her lips twisting at the sight of the old hotplate on the tiny kitchen counter.

“It serves its purpose.” Tenzou shrugs.

“That wasn’t my question,” Tsaunde prompts, turning that analytical gaze back to Tenzou.

Tenzou frowns, resisting the urge to reach up and rub the back of his head in partial confusion, partial irritation. It’s a comfortable space -- what is she on about? Having an opinion on something as trivial as a living space serves no purpose in the betterment of Tenzou’s skills in the field. It has no correlation to his successful mission counts. Liking something or anything for that matter doesn’t make missions easier or harder, either.

Unsure of how to respond, Tenzou resorts to Danzou’s advice when it comes to undercover. If you’re caught in a tight spot, the easiest thing to slip out of attention is to either blend with your surroundings or mirror the person in front of you.

Tenzou goes for the mirror, sloping his eyebrows down the same way Tsunade is, relaxing his shoulder to what looks like a wary slump, canting his head just the tiniest bit to the side, and responds with what he hopes is a conclusion to this conversation, “It’s all right.”

Tsunade goes quiet for a while, before she sighs slowly and curses under her breath.

“Let’s try this again,” Tsunade sighs, gesticulating with her hand towards the entirety of the small apartment. “What do you think would make this space better suited for you? Take into consideration that you are also currently studying botany and architecture.”

Tenzou looks at the small stack of reference books he had borrowed from the public library, how he has to do most of his reading on the bed. If he had to sketch on drawing paper, he usually does so on the ceiling given the lack of floor space and a full flat wall that isn’t lined with bulging pipes or the sil of the window, with the paper taped on the corners. Makes it easier for him to get on his knees and practice his pencil sketches.

“Then that’s something you should consider when you fix our house, hmm?”

Oh. So he’s fixing it.

Well.

Okay, then.

—

And yeah that’s all I got. 🤷🏻‍♀️

#yamato tenzo #anbu tenzo #tenzou yamato #yamairu #tsunade adopts tenzou #tsunade is wine mama #senju tenzou #please help yamato

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apenapaperandadoofus · 4 years

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Could i request MC making the RFA+V+Saeran/ray/unknown happy cry?

I love this! Absolutely! Sorry for being a bit inactive btw! I just haven’t been feeling so well emotionally ;;;;

MC making the RFA+V and Saeran (+alters) happy cry:

Zen:

When Zen saw what you did for him, he knew you were the one

When he came home, he saw you with his brother

Yes, you heard that right

Apparently, one night when Zen got super drunk, he began looking through os albums and cried, telling you how bad he actually wanted to see his family again, to try and patch things up

Well, the next day, you coincidentally met Zen’s brother!

Honestly, you wanted to kick his butt for how he made Zen feel, but you thought that maybe that was not such a good idea, so you decided to try and talk things out with him, you know, like grown ups

It turned out, that, well. Zen’s brother actually... regretted everything.

The more years that passed, the more he realized how wrong he was. How wrong his parents were, I mean, he actually had recently had a child too, and when he imagined telling them what he said to Zen...he felt so guilty

So you invited him over!

Zen looked like he was ready to faint.

You left so they could talk for a bit, and when you came back they were both smiling and talking about embarassing stories of baby Zen lmao

When it was getting late, his brother stood up, and thanked you for reuniting them, he promised to call Zen again and to go out for coffee some other day

When he left...it was quiet

You looked over at Zen, and before you could open your mouth to ask him if he was alright, he hugged you tight whispering so many thank you’s

And then he started shaking....and he was crying

“ZEN?! I’m sorry, wait did I do something wrong?! Why are you crying?!”

“It’s alright babe. They’re happy tears....thank you....”

Yoosung:

Yoosung was feeling a bit down

You didn’t know what was wrong, but he was pretty depressed

So you decided to cook for him his favorite food, and then you made a little fort so the two of you could watch his favorite movies

When he came home, you welcomed him and hugged him tight, and then you led him to the kitchen, were you had made tons of food and even some cookies!

For the first time in a while, you saw Yoosung smile. The two of you spent a great night, and while you were cuddling Yoosung held you tight and smiled

“Thank you, Y/N. I’m sorry I haven’t been myself latel.y...it’s just...sometimes I feel like I’m not enough for you.”

You shook your head and cupped his face in your hands. “Yoosung Kim, listen to me. You’re the most wonderful man I have ever met, and you always give me more than enough. Don’t think that.”

Yoosung slowly smiled and he started tearing up, and he kissed you. “I love you, Y/N.”

The both of you spent the night in each other’s arms, and you didn’t stop smiling the whole time.

Jaehee:

Everything was perfect

Zen was about to come home with Jaehee. The two of them had been out to do some shopping and they didn’t come till late at night.

You paced around the room, feeling so freaking anxious.

Then, the door opened.

“Ah Zen! Why don’t you come in, we have plenty of food from yesterday, and we’d be more than happy to have you eat with us.”

Zen laughed and shook his head, looking around the room with a little smirk on his face. “No, no, don’t worry Jaehee! I think now you should spend time with Y/N, after all, I stole you for almost the whole day! Have fun, the two of you~”

Jaehee and Zen both said their goodbyes, and when he left, Jaehee looked around the room and called your name.

“Where are they?” She thought, and as she made her way through her room, she gasped as she saw the floor was filled with rose petals, all leading to the living room

When she got there, she smiled as she saw all around the room were little pictures of the two of you, mementos of your dates and the times you spent together scattered around the room.

Then, as she turned around, she saw you kneeling down on one knee, a ring on your hand.

Before you could even ask the question though, Jaehee squealed and hugged you, screaming yes and smiling happily.

When she pulled away to kiss you, you tears falling from her eyes, and you couldn’t help but cry too.

It was absolutely amazing, and you had never seen Jaehee so happy in her life!

Jumin:

It was your wedding.

The two of you were having your first dance, and you were swaying back and forth, leaning your forehead against his.

Jumin smiled as the two of you made your way along the dance room, and he would sometimes whisper in your ear sweet words.

That night was the happiest one of your life, and at one point the two of you left for a bit to take a walk in the garden that was in the venue.

There, Jumin held your hand and hugged you tight. And then he kissed you.

Then, Jumin started shaking and you pulled away a bit worried, but you saw him smile as some small tears made their way down his face.

“I’m so happy love....that I got to meet you...that I’m with you right now. You’re my everything, and I love you so much. Thank you, for giving me happiness and a reason to wake up every morning.”

The two of you hugged under the stars, and cried happy tears as you whispered words of love to each other.

Saeyoung:

“SURPRISE!!!”

Saeyoung yelped as he saw the lights in the living room turn on, and the whole RFA cheering while confetti was being thrown around everywhere.

“W-WHA?!” He screamed, and you laughed as you made your way to him, a party hat on your hand.

“Happy birthday Saeyoung!” You said as you put the hat on him.

“W-wait, Y/N, did...did you plan this!?�� He asked.

“Mmm, sorta! Saeran was the one who gave me the idea, and then along with the RFA we all got together to throw you a surpir birthday party!”

Saeyoung smiled as he looked at all his friends and family. That afternoon the whole group had such an amazing time, and when everyone left and Saeran went to his room, Saeyoung gave you a big kiss.

“Thank you Y/N. This was the best birthday ever. But I mean...you shouldn’t have...I don’t know if I really deserve all of this...”

“Nonsense! Saeyoung, both you and your brother deserve the best of the best. And I want you to know that me and the RFA care about you so much, we all love you, and we want you to be happy.”

Saeyoung looked at you with a shocked expression on his face, and slowly smiled as tears formed on the corner of his eyes.

He hugged you and kissed your forehead, looking at you with adoration.

“I love you too, Y/N. Thank you for everything.”

You were both at home, laying on your bed and cuddling.

It had been about two years since the whole RFA fiasco, and the both of you were reminiscing about old memories.

Then, V turned around to face you, and cupped your face in his hands.

“Honestly Y/N....looking back now...I honestly don’t know where I would be if you hadn’t come to us back then...thank you.”

You smile and leaned in to V’s touch. “Jihyun. I love you so much. I’m so glad I met you. You’re the most wonderful person I have ever met, and I’m so happy everyday I get to spend time with you. I love you.”

V smiled and tears slowly formed on the corner of his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away and chuckled.

“Sorry, it’s just. Whenever you say things like that to me...I feel so happy. The happiest I’ve ever been. Thank you.”

Saeran:

Ray:

He felt like a complete failure, and he didn’t want to talk to anyone, even you.

He was hiding in the gardens, and he hadn’t talked to you the whole day, so you decided to go and check on him

You found him sitting on a bench, and as soon as he saw you, he was ready to run away, but you grabbed his arm.

He quickly pulled away from you and looked guiltily to the ground. “You shouldn’t...Why are you even here? I’m not worth it, you should be in bed right now....you’re always so kind to me, and I don’t understand it! I’m useless, I’m nothing and you-”

“Ray. Please don’t say that.” You quickly hugged him tight, making Ray gasp. And when you pulled away you gently caressed his cheeks, smiling softly.

“Ray. I like you. I really do. And it always hurts me to see you in so much pain. You’re strong Ray, you have done so much for me and for everyone, you’re the one who works the hardest. Please, never ever say that you’re useless or worthless, because those are all lies. You’re nothing like that! You’re a kind and compassionate person, you’re just...so amazing. So please....”

Ray looked at you, speechless, and he slowly buried his face on the crook of your neck, softly crying.

“Y-Y/N...thank you...you’re so...so kind....thank you...and I...I’m happy that the person I like likes me back.”

Unknown:

He was sick

He didn’t want to admit it, of course

But you spent the whole day taking care of him, no matter how many times he may have yelled or ordered you to go away.

“I’ve already told you, I’m fine so let me go and work”

“No. You’re going to stay in bed, and try to recover. You’re only going to make it worse if you go try to work! I’ll do everything today, so please rest!”

Begrudgingly, he accepted, and you spent the whole day working your ass off. Unknown didn’t know how to feel...he hadn’t been taken care of for so long.

At one point he felt so dizzy. He didn’t know if he was dreaming or not, and sometimes he would get up and anxiously look around the room, and once he saw you there he would relax and go back to sleep.

At about midnight, you woke up to Unknown stirring around, and you slowly made your way towards the bed and sat on the corner.

“Hey...are you feeling better?”

“Come here.” He ordered, and you were taken by surprise.

“Hey. Come here, next to me.”

You cautiously laid beside Unknown, and you felt his arms wrap around you.

“Mmm, I want to stay like this for a while...” he grumbled.

And then you realized. Oh shit he’s half asleep, so he’s probably saying nonsense.

You tensed up as Unknown hugged you tighter, and made you turn around to look at him. “Hey. You know, today you were pretty good. I’m sorry for being a bother.”

You shook your head. “N-no, it’s alright! I’m actually kinda happy...you’ve never depended on me before and...well...I really liked taking care of you. And I am more than happy to do your job! You deserve some rest, and you’ve been working so hard, so please, take breaks sometimes! I don’t want anything bad to happen to you!”

Unknown’s eyes widened, and you swore you could see a tiny tear make its way down before he smiled and looked the other way.

“Yeah...thank you. I guess you’re a good assistant too.” He grumbled, and then he went back to bed, a little smirk tugging on his lips.

The next day when you woke up, he wasn’t there, but he did leave you a bit of food and a note that said ‘Thank you. You fucked up the coding yesterday though by the way.’

GE! Saeran:

It was your anniversary, and the two of you were sitting outside, in Saeran’s garden, looking up at the night sky.

At one point you stood up from your chair and sat on Saeran’s lap, making him blush and smile up at you.

You both kissed, and then Saeran leaned his forehead against yours.

“Y/N. I love you. Words can’t describe how much you mean to me. You’re the best thing in my life.”

You smiled. “You’re the best thing in my life too Saeran. I want to spent the rest of my days with you.”

“Good thing you say that because....” Saeran suddenly took out a little box out of his pocket and you gasped as you saw that inside was a beautiful ring. “Y/N.” He smiled, tears slowly forming. “I...I really love you. And I want to spend my whole life with you, I want us to always be together, I want to wake up everyday with you beside me and go to sleep with you in my arms. So...will you please marry me?”

You squealed a yes and kissed him, making him laugh as the two of you cried.

“Y/N, I just...I can’t explain how happy I am right now.” He hugged you tight and the two of you spent the night in each other’s embrace.

#mystic messenger #saeyoung choi #saeran choi #jumin han #yoosung kim #jaehee kang #jihyun mysme #mysme zen #mysme #choi bois

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onthevirgeofdestruction · 3 years

Text

35 Q’s for Fanfic Writers

From this post

I’m having a shitty, rude alter-y, crap night so I’m just going to answer all of these to distract myself and focus and to not bother anybody just making my own post and putting it under the cut btw, notice to anyone not aware: since I’m moving I won’t likely be updating anything until I’m done doing so.

1. From one to five stars, how would you rate your writing? (No downplaying yourself!) 3/5? Could use more editing and description and can be weirdly paced.

2. Why do you write fanfiction? Because it’s better than focusing on pain 24/7.

3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works? I don’t seem to have a specific narrative voice that people recognize but I’m pretty proud of mostly organic dialogue.

4. Are there any writers that inspire you? as a rule i never look up to anybody for inspiration but there’s some stuff in my ao3 bookmarks I fawn over.

5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of? Right now, none of them. It changes normally, anyway. If get too proud then I’d get my ass kicked by RSD if someone didn’t like it so it’s safer this way

6. What element of writing do you find comes easily? Dialogue.

7. What element of writing do you struggle with most? Organic description, poetic language kind of stuff. I can paint a scene but I’m not so great with bring out out a feeling with description alone.

8. Which character(s) do you find easiest to write? Janus and Virgil are probably tied. They both have things I struggle with but I don’t have to go back and do much adjusting of language and tone with them. Though admittedly my Virgil is signifigantly more foul-mouthed than canon and I tend to prefer pre-AA feral asshole Virgil.

9. Which character(s) do you find most difficult to write? Patton. I write him the least, so people can probably tell. I love Patton, I really do, but it’s so hard to keep away from fanon Patton.

10. What’s your favorite genre to write for? Angst w/ H/C obviously. Or if you’re talking about regular book genres, Fantasy. I fucking love fantasy world building.

11. Who or what do you find yourself writing about most? Trauma. I blame Daeram. As if Ayri isn’t a giant Angst Demon.

12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about. Slopes. I’m really into it. I’ve got three one shots running right now. Patrons can read the first part of the unnamed cat remus one, there’s also a coffeeshop au tropey nonsense one like eglantine & lycoris, but Slopes is addiction angst. Mmmmm. Virgil is addicted to coke and alcohol and will listening to his friends even be in time? Who knows, especially not me, but there’s already over 30k.

13. First fandom you ever wrote for? InuYasha. Or was it Harry Potter? Or shit, The Blue Sword? Fuck, I’ve been writing for a long time, I really have no idea.

14. What’s your favorite fandom to write for? Sanders Sides. The characters are the perfect dynamic for writing since they exist in balance of each other and the popular, easy to project on archetypes featured are incredibly fun to do basically any scenario with.

15. What’s the weirdest fandom you’ve ever written for? Weird storywise? Kingdom Hearts? I can’t even follow the plot anymore. Weird Fandomwise? Sanders Sides. Its simultainiously the fluffiest and angstiest nonsense at the same time.

16. Any guilty pleasure trope(s)? Vampires. Gay ones. Gay Vampires. I also love calm tol and angy smol.

17. A trope you’ll never, ever write for. Any tropes that normalize incredibly toxic behaviour or tropes that are inherantly ableist, but I can’t think of any.

18. Wildest fic you’ve ever written? Incorrigible continues to be complete nonsense.

19. Do you prefer canon-compliant, AUs, or something in-between? AUs. I mean closest I even have is canon-divergence other than a single short.

20. Gen fic or shippy stuff? I like it when there is gay nonsense along with a plot that is treated as more important than the relationship the most. But I like both. There’s more shippy stuff in tss so i read more shipping action by default.

21. Favorite pairing to write for? (platonic or romantic!) Anxceit/Sleepxiety, but in general, give me darksides or give me death/j

22. Do you listen to anything while you write? Almost everything I write has a special playlist I listen to to help me write it, but otherwise I listen to my Nyan playlist, an alter is picking the tunes, or a voidfam playlist. I never have music off. When my internet is down I just listen to the songs I own or Anxiety’s theme on loop.

23. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas? I’m fine with all of them. I love working with prompts but I tend to deviate. And I’ve never done a challenge since I can’t do deadlines and bad things happen bingo never sent me a card and I applied three times.

24. One-shots or multi-chaptered works? I am generally multi-chaptered stuff, but I’ve been working on a few one-shots lately that are much longer than most one shots.

25. Have you ever daydreamed about side adventures/spin-offs from your fic? Tell us about them! I was originally thinking of doing some little 13-year-old Dreaming!Roman (y’know, the one with a job) shorts but it turns out I just had an alter of that little bastard and that’s why I inexplicably know more about him then I ever even considered. I still might do them after Dreaming is done. But that’s paced so slowly who knows when that might happen. Otherwise I put stuff in my notes and just do shorts of it if I’m like “oh you know what’s cool???” but since I can’t daydream maybe this question doesn’t apply to me.

26. Is there anything you’ve wanted to write, but you’ve been too scared to try? I want to do more autism stuff, and I’ve had it demanded a few times, but I’m scared of being that explict about it for some reason. Possibly because I might be, possibly because I’m scared of doing it wrong even though I’ve accidentally coded multiple characters autistic. I’m scared of explictly tagging them as such, too.

27. What’s the nicest comment you’ve ever received? That I can remember off the top of my head? I’m going with one from @a-genz-with-trauma-and-kins. It really helped me out and was just so kind and literally the best christmas gift I got in 2020.

28. How well do you handle criticism when it comes to your writing? I can handle it alright but Daeram is a little fucking pissbaby about it. Constructive criticism helps people get better, so I appreciate it. I can’t handle critism that is incomplete, though. “i just don’t get it” or “I don’t know I don’t like it” kind of things. If I can’t understand the why to fix it then things get out of control. And then I spiral and RSD for like four days minimum. If it came from an anon or a troll, too, It might not bother me for as long. Things that are just like “this is shit and you should feel bad” just make me laugh. Couldn’t even bother to read it long enough to insult me proper? I don’t care.

29. Have you ever gone outside of your comfort zone for a fic? How did it turn out? I have a few times. Mostly in shorts and prompts, I think. I think they turned out okay. They’re not particularly inspired or anything.

30. Tooth-rotting fluff or merciless angst? Depends on my mood. Am I triggered? give me the fluff. Am I vibin? Angst.

31. Do you have any OCs? Tell us about them! Fuck, fam, no, I can’t, I have so many. I have multiple original stories and some of them have very large casts and like holy fuck. Or do you mean in Sanders Sides fandom? Um, Morgan and Thorn in PD. The lesbian and her himbo dynamic. I love them. They’re dorks. Morgan is strong person with sharp tongue and soft romantic heart and Thorn is just so kind and so dumb and so exciteable he’s like a puppy. They were just filler characters and I got attached to them. Felton even gets redemption for being an ass later in PD, like oof i never intended to include so much OC content, especially for names I just picked randomly.

32. Summarize a random fic of yours in 10 words or less. nope I’m doing all of them because these are fun plea for my new self: 2 gay vampires, 4 humans, 1 braincell dreaming while I wake: trauma child needs therapy and so do you break: big oof, oh dragons, oh why, go virgil go rebuild: virgil is so not okay there’s more virgil to deal painful death: gay teens drink themselves into a new religion stargazing: whoops we didn’t realize people actually cared whole castle: everyone will throw down for kid!patton, even you incorrigible: found family with a shot of psychological horror and crack dangerous instincts: wholesome crime syndacite action slopes: addict gets mugged and thinks that’s just fine with him conflagration: logan avoids everything ever like a champ cat!remus: bored fae shifts gay pining from one person to another caffeine cyptids: caffinated gay panic goes faster than regular gay panic eglantine & lycoris: more tropes than you can toss a shoe at storytime: overpowered virgil also overreacts literally always

33. Is there anything you wish your audience knew about your writing or writing process? an alter and I write together and I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen, what I’m writing about, or even what year it is. I often don’t even remember what I wrote. There’s no outline. I have an idea and I pick things at random for it. There’s just notes and an evil gleam in a demon’s eye. The only reason I know more than readers is because I take a long time to edit and some of these stories have fucking alters up in my head who can tell me things. Daeram tells me nothing. The writing demon supposedly has all this knowledge but I have absolutely no clue because he does not talk to me, he just fronts and slams out 9k in a few hours or we cofront to write and I’m like “oh no she didn’t” while typing

34. Copy and paste an excerpt you’re particularly fond of. i’m fond of the entire painful death series and I tried to find something I really liked without spoilers in stargazing and I couldn’t so here’s a random thing from incorrigble: “So, what do you do with your friends?” Patton continued on with a megawatt smile. “Grand larceny,” Virgil deadpanned and glared at Patton, who was taken aback. Remy and Andy just broke out laughing while Virgil tentatively sipped his still-too-hot-cocoa.

35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want! slopes my dudes slopes i have learned so much about cocaine! like wow! I thought for a minute it was going to end with MCD around 30k but it swtiched from whump to hurt/comfort and I still don’t know if it’s going to be MCD but look at that funky little coke/alcohol addict go, it’s a medical wonder he’s alive! It’s not like there’s what seems to be a little talked about interaction between alcohol and cocaine that causes a toxic chemical to build up in the liver which can result in liver failure and sudden death at basically any moment! Which is part of why it may result in MCD but this time no ghosts! maybe it’ll be h/c with whump elements or maybe it’ll be whump with h/c elements we can’t know for sure

#ayri writes #tw drug mention

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hanniiesuckle17 · 4 years

Note

i would like to bless your followers and dash, sooo can you give me a crash course in noir 😊😊

OMG YES OFCCCCCC💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

OKAY SO HERE IS THE DEAL

NOIR is a nine-member boy group under Luk Factory

(Not really pleased with how they are promoting my boys but imma get over it one day!)

Our fan name is Lumiere (or Lumi) and we don’t have any official colors or a lightstick yet.

Noir debuted on April 9th of 2018. With the mini-album Twenty’s Noir. Their title debut song was Gansta (SUCHA GOOD VIDEO)

They also had a predebut song called As a Star and it makes me so soft.

Their next comeback is on the 27th (THIS MONDAY!!!!!!) The album is called Up the Sky and the title track is called Lucifer

IM SO FUCKING EXCITED YOU HAVE NO IDEA

MEMBERS

Shin Seunghoon

Shin Seunghoon is our precious leader!!!!

(He was what got me into Noir. I saw a video about the best leaders in kpop and I was like)

He is 27 years old. His birthday is May 30th, 1993 (He is a Gemini)

Boy is tallllllllllllllllllllll

like he’s 5′10.

but in pictures by himself he for real looks like he is 6′2

istg he is like 65% legs.

ALSO MAN AS A RIPPED CHEST SORRY BACK TO REGULARLY SCHEDULED NOIRING

He is the leader, main rapper, and also sometimes a vocalist (but the rappers in this group pretty much fo everything)

HE SPITS FIRE when he wants to.

Really good at freestyling

He makes mixtapes on youtube on Noir’s channel. (I think he has 5 out now)

He is a college-educated man!!!! (He went to Korean National Open University

He took taekwondo when he was younger

The man trained for 8 years

He and Hoyeon compose and format a lot of their songs with a team of producers from LUK

(I often think he and Chan from skz are really similar.)

Seunghoon is legit a father of 8 soft crackhead kids. istg he is so done with them most of the time

We call him our koala because he looks like one <3

Seunghoon is obsessed with accessories and wearing them to the point where stylists literally have to take them off of him. (I have never not seen picture of him not wearing jewelry. )

he is actually in the military right now and i miss him so fricking much TT

All in all hot boy on screen and soft dad in real life

Kim Yeonkuk

this boy I cant

Kim Yeonkuk. Damn.

he was on Produce 101 season 2

he was eliminated on ep.5 :(

He is the lead dancer and a vocalist

Yeonkuk is 25 years old. His birthday is February 8, 1995 (An Aquarius)

is totally the aegyo king but denies it

he seems cold at first but has a big ass bright personality its so freakin adorable

my personal favorite clip of him is and the boys dancing around on vlive to big bang and him saying fantastic baby (its sounds so cute when he says it)

He is also a 5′10 tall boy

he trained for 3 years

THIS BOY IS SO FREAKING SKINNY SOMEONE PLEASE EGIVE HIM A HAMBURGER OR SOMETHING TAKE HIM TO TACO BELL

not kidding

his waist is so fucking small its scary.

Yeonkuk=stringbean

literally a walking meme.

pause in any interview and he is pretty much gonna give you a memeable face

this boy is so loveable and goofy

also if this boy doesn't post like 8 photos of him doing something on insta im convinced he thinks that it just didn’t happen

he never posts just one photo its always like 6-8

also I was highkey afraid he was gonna go bald last comeback when they legit turned his hair into smurfs pubes

Lee Junyong

Lee Junyong. When i say i love this man with my whole heart

also 25 years old

his birthday is March 1st 1995 (Pisces)

another 5′10 king

Main vocalist.

he is a former member of INX

his brother is Seungyong from N.CUS

he trained for 4 years

THIS MAN IS TOO ATTRACTIVE FOR THIS EARTH

vocals for days. VOCALS.FOR.DAYS.

Did a cover of BTS’s The Truth Untold with Siha and literally gives me chills.

He has little crooked front teeth so when he sings he has this tiny little breath in some of the words so his voice is even more distinct

BUT LIKE JUNYONG HAS THE CUTEST SMILE EVER (I love his teeth in that's a weird thing to say but i think they are so cute)

he is 1/2 of the Highnote Belting Club

talks. all. the. freaking. time.

he goes live alot

boy is obsessed with Yunsung someone save yunsung from him

total crackhead when not doing real interviews

never fails to make me smile

he is said to be the moodmaker of the group

APPARENTLY HE WAS IN ONE EPISODE OF MY FAVORITE DRAMA AND I HAD NO IDEA

he was in episode 6 of The Liar and His Lover

overall he is just so sweet and funny and its so easy to love him

Nam Yunsung

Yunsung is the Lead vocalist and Visual

24 years old His birthday is August 29, 1996

He is a virgooo

MAN IS 6FT EVEN

lead vocalist and LOOKS IT

he is the king of intense eye contact with the camera

he looks like legit prince charming

2/2 of Highnote Belting Club

weird af

istg he is the biggest crackhead

very extra. (as you can see in gif)

he calls himself a vampire because of his super pale skin

he trained for 4 years

he raps part time

HE ACTUALLY ENJOYS EXCERCISE

he hides snack between his bed and the wall but apparently daewon and junyong steal them

I think he rooms with junyong? not sure

Someone save him from junyong. boy is going to be smothered to death

ngl their relationship is really cute

he was also in Produce 101 S2 but left bc of health issues.

cutest thing ever and then turns into a devil onstage

a literal puppy

he is big fan of ateez and he and another member actually went to the groups first concert in korea

he is just so precious and weird

Kim Siheon

oml this smol bean

Kim Siheon god damn

He is 23 years old

Birthday is December 23, 1997 (Capricorn like meeeee)

also 5′10 babyy

Vocalist but also a rapper (he rapped suga’s part in their remix of BTS Fake Love)

LIKES TO BIAS WREKC FREAKING EVERYONE

Beware the Siheon

He has a hot older sister, Hanbit, from a group called Hot Place (Their debut song is called TMI and its pretty good.)

HOTNESS RUNS IN HIS FAMILY

he trained for 5 months

he really likes drawing and does caricatures of his members

he is the eyebrow king

idk his eyesbrows are just....

stylists do things to his eyebrows anf it just fucks everyone up

high key has the best fashion sense

others boys willshow up to vlive in like hoodies and he is wearing a freakin casual suit

BOY PLAYS TO WIN’

he is like a boss at every kind of game

claims himself to be sweet like “Heonie”

“Hi! I’m siheon! Heonie Heonie Siheonie!”

he is a litter quieter than the other guys

BUT he is so funny

he doesn't like spice on his food for some reason

yeah he's crazy

he trained for 5 years

he's just precious and hot and hot and really hot

Ryu Hoyeon

THIS MAN HAS GIVEN ME SO MANY PROBLEMS

Ryu Hoyeon.

So he is my bias wrecker. Boy climbed up my bias list so freaking fast

He is the main dancer, vocalist, and a rapper (he also composes and arranges with Seunghoon)

He is 22 years old

His birthday is February 6, 1998 (Aquarius)

anontherrrrr 5′10 babbyyyy

cheekkkkkbooonnneeeessss

SHARK BOYY

He says he looks like a shark and i agree

HE HAS A NICE FUCKING TORSO

There was a predebut photo of him half shirtless it was awesome

he was also on Produce 101 S2

eliminated on ep.5 :(

he trained for 2 years

He, yeonkuk, and seunghoon were in the Japanese tour of the musical Altar Boyz with Teen top’s Niel,2PM’s Chansung, and many others

he has a semi viral video of him

when he was a trainee / on produce 101 he was dancing to nct127 cherry bomb and had an unfortunate but quite hilarious accident (just look it up its funny)

sucks ass at games. every game. ever.

he is a low-key crackhead. he is a calm crackhead lol

VERY ATTRACTIVE

he used to have a youtube channel

you can still see his insta (leaderyoo) its so freaking cute and has predebut stuff of all the boys

he made their entire remix of fake love

he choreographed their song Diamond and also their cover of Taki Taki (which was very hot)

becomes a beast when dancing

he has an original chore to WEight in Gold that is very.......(insert eyebrow wiggle here)

has that dorito torso

(tiny waist and broad shoulders)

also thighs god damn

He is also a HUGE Vixx fanboy

Alter ego is DJ Ironman

He is very close with Siha, Siheon, and Yeonkuk

they turned him into a traffic cone for the Doom Doom comeback

he speaks a little bit of English (just a little bit)

all in all I'm completely in love with this man

Yang Siha

THIS MAN IS SO FINEEEEEEE (he's my bias btw I have never been so in love with a man other than jisung)

Yang Siha is just uugghghhh god damn

22 year old babyyyy

Birthday is March 9, 1998 (Pisces)

Lil baby is 5′7″ oml i love him

MAIN VOCALIST AND DESERVES IT

he likes watching youtube videos and anime

He trained for 1 year and 1/2

looks good in every freaking hair color

his voice does NOT MATHC HIS FACE

but not like in a Felix level way

He says his most attractive features are his “feminine features” (he says his unpronounced Adams apple and his small noes and doe eyes

HE HAS SMOL EARSSSS and i lovethem

close with Hoyeon and Siheon

but like his voice though

its so freaking pretty

it gives me chills

everything about him is perfect

he has tiny lips lol

he can play guitar

legit i swear his entire closet is black he rarely wears color

legit EVERYONE LOVES HIM

if someone is hugging anyone in a vlive or something

its siha

its always siha

everyone cuddles siha

i wanna cuddle siha. fuck.

for some reason I've just noticed this

the boy likes to wear long sleeves idk why

he also always seems to wear this one necklace Idk why but its so pretty and i really love that he does idk

he says his favorite song by NOIR is Travel (its also my favorite. its on their debut album and omg his part <3)

he is just so pure oml everything he posts on insta just makes me so soft

he is just so freakin cute and makes me switch lanes so fast

Kim Minhyuk

ooooof this cutie

Kim Minhyuk is something else

i just don't know what he is lol

Lead rapper and lead dancer

22 years old

His birthday is March 18th, 1998 (Pisces)

5′11 boy yes sir

ALSO A COLLEGE EDUCATED MAN

He went to Seoul Arts College

he has an older brother

apparently he cooks in the dorms

he trained for 1 year

he likes to play basketball

he really loves taking photos on his camera

he HATES bugs. its kind of funny ngl

he also is deathly afraid of balloons (i will not apologize for laughing at this one)

He and yunsung loooove ateez. they went to their first concert.

HE SERVES LOOOOKKKSSS

I think he is the most versatile member (look wise) because sometimes its hard to recognize him with each comeback because they change his style

he has these really cute big circle glasses he wear and just uwu

he kinda looks like Simon or Theodore from Alvin in the chipmunks in the best way.

he has a thing about jumping

like whenever he gets excited or happy he just starts jumping

he smiles like sunshineeeeee

even though he is the second youngest a lot of the members say that they go to him for advice

(probably cause he has permanent hold of one of the 3 braincells noir has)

he looooves girl group dances

especially twice

TIKTOK KING

He owns Noir’s tiktok pretty much. also their insta

he's a precious chipmunk

Kim Daewon

Thhis baby oml

Kim Daewon is the cutest thing since that fluffy little dog whose name i cant remember

20 years old

Birthday is April 18th, 2000 (Aries)

Lead Dancer, vocalist, maknae

PROTEC THIS BABY BOY

In pictures he looks tall af

actually...

5′7″ but looks like 5′4″

the cutest thing everrrrr

HIS CHEEEKS

the biggest fluffiest cutest cheeks

everything about him is smol except for them thighssss

trained for 1 year

he has one older sister

THE BOY NEEDS MORE LINESSSS LUK FACTORY GIVE HIM MORE LINESSSSSS

he goes off in the chorus of their b-side track “Between” though like fuuuuuuucccckkkk (lowkey one of my favorite songs by them)

literally one of the funniest people you will ever see

extra crackhead energy

makes all the boys laugh

he loves chicken and snacks (gotta keep those cheeks in top shape)

literally the softest boy

he's good at everything i swear

he likes to shimmy.

has a cute butt lol

he talks in tiny

literally the cutest maknae ever oml

I hope this helped guys!!!!! I really hope you can stan noir and support them in their comeback this Monday! I hope this helped @distrikt9 if you need videos or anything feel free to ask! I love sharing my boys. They really are so underrated. I did this so fast ngl. I've never typed so fast

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secret-engima · 4 years

Note

I really like that the outcome for the Pretty Song!daemons is becoming their own creatures, bc that means Lucis will have to work out how to deal with a bunch of semi-sapient magical beings that are no longer hostile. Also, on that note, it occurs to me that bad ppl will become much more hesitant to hurt kids in rural Lucis after stories of various assholes scaring kids and getting curbstomped by a FRICKING IRON GIANT, or tackled by a swarm of angry tonberries (1/?, sorry this might be LONG

lark1537 said: (2/?) bc the daemons know Pretty Song; and know that humans hurt her, even if she never said (they see how she stiffens when she hears humans, or they're near towns, and most of them have little enough Thirst now that they don't need to eat humans and the only reason they try is bc HOW DARE YOU SCARE PRETTY SONG, but Pretty Song doesn't want that so they listen to her); and this small human isn't Pretty Song but they are small and scared like she was when they first met her before she knew them

lark1537 said: (3/?) And they will not let anyone hurt another small-human, even if they don't sing. This also leads to me thinking abt children being the first humans to befriend no-longer-Thirsty daemons, bc they're young enough not to have learned to always be scared of daemon-looking creatures, even if they seem nice (bc no parent thought a daemon would seem nice, or could come out in the light); and bc the daemons are already predisposed to like small-humans, bc of Pretty Song

lark1537 said: (4/?) And THAT led to me imagining a parent somewhere in rural Lucis having their toddler come tell them abt the "big puppy" Big Sib is playing with outside, and said parent nearly having a heart attack when they come check it out and find their 10 yr old using a basketball to play fetch with a Cerberus, who is being very careful not to knock over a tree with how hard their tail is wagging, and occasionally tries to catch it with all three heads at once. And THAT image led to me thinking abt all

lark1537 said: (5/?) The daemons that are self-aware/sapient, or at least implied to be (Melusine, that talking Naga, Iedolas-the-Foras) and the ones that seem humanlike enough that it's tough to believe they don't have enough of their humanity left to talk (Arachne, Ronin) being freed from the Thirst that clouded their thoughts and made them more animalistic and essentially being nocturnal, magical, maybe-immortal people.

lark1537 said: (6/?) How would Lucis even deal with having a new group of self aware residents that previously didn't exist? Would Thirst-healed sapient daemons be counted as citizens? Does killing them count as murder? What abt daemons who were turned recently enough that they can still remember some of what they were, like Ravus? Would some of them go back to their old families? I hope so, bc that opens up the possibility of a kid hitching a ride on a half-spider lady and telling concerned

lark1537 said: (7/?) onlookers not to worry, this is her big sister, yeah she looks scary but as long as you don't wake her up before noon and don't complain abt the cobwebs she's really nice! And she's great at knitting! And just think abt how awesome an integrated daemon-human civilization could be! Chocobo ranchers having tonberries watch their flock at night & paying them in new materials to stab, or asking them to help with cooking. Iron giants helping out friendly farmers with the heavy lifting, or being

lark1537 said: (8/?) rescue ppl from a cave in. A kid with a pet/friend bomb who lights up at night to help them not be afraid of the dark, like a sentient nightlight. Mindflayers working at vet offices to calm unruly/dangerous patients with their gas. PEOPLE RIDING MICTLANTECIHUATL. On that note, would half-daemonic creatures like the bloodhorn or mictlantecihuatl who are just daemonized enough to be dangerous be altered by the lack of Thirst? They'd probably be

lark1537 said: (9/9) similar to Ardyn or Titus, who are both calmed by music, and are something more than just human, at this point. Maybe they'd be just aware enough that they could be interacted with more easily, like the intelligence of a dog or crow, rather than a human. Sorry this got so long, I started thinking and I think my latent childhood dreams of having a talking dragon took over. I just really love the idea of nonhuman people interacting with humans peacefully, and the resulting worldbuilding.

Me:

Okay so- WOW this is a long ask XDD. This was a blast to read. You rolled with this SO MUCH FARTHER than I anticipated/had thought of my self but all of this is GLORIOUS and I’m just gonna- bask in it for a few minutes. I have no idea if this is canon for Pretty Song verse but it PROBABLY IS because it’s glorious. Okay so-

It’s definitely an ... adjustment period for people and daemons a like, with semi-sapient (or fully sapient if in some cases) new neighbors being a Thing. The kiddos are totally the first to figure these facts out and take advantage because they find three headed fire dogs of death to be cool rather than terrifying.

Daemons are totally instinctive protectors of kiddos. That’s a new thing now. They do it on behalf of Pretty Song.

From there you have researchers like Sania who are FASCINATED by the sudden change and want to know the catalyst and how smart are these new daemons and ohhhhh you like MUSIC okay (Sania ends up spending like- a month in the wilds following this one lone Ronin who gets INCREASINGLY EXASPERATED over this human’s lack of self-preservation until he’s like “screw it this is my human now”.)

Pffffft I love the mental imagery of this. Just- “I found a puppy! Can I keep it?” Said puppy wags its tail as all three heads happily drool lava on the lawn.

I ADORE THIS??? Just- not all daemons were people once, a LOT were animals, but some of the ones that were people wake up with like- patchy memories and they’ve been daemons so long they can’t remember to be distressed that they aren’t HUMAN but- but they remember families and loved ones and so they tentatively trickle back.

And oh boy picture the REVELATION that rocks the world when this starts happening. The realization that some daemons used to be PEOPLE and now they’re coming back. And I’m sure I could make that super angsty but I won’t. Instead we shall all enjoy the mental picture of a little boy who wished on a star for his missing dad to come back one day opening the door to find a Yojimbo crouched there, shyly holding a poorly wrapped present that he promised his son years ago and the kid is like “MOM DAD’S BACK!” And there is much hugging and crying and the happily wearing of his dad’s giant daemon hat.

It’s a really, really good thing that Regis is the king and Pretty Song is his best friend’s daughter, because as soon as this becomes a Thing Regis is there running damage control, passing laws on daemon protections and rights and how to go about properly dealing with them if they actually perform a crime that isn’t straight murder of every daemon in the area, how to test if these are sentient daemons or the semi-sapient kind etc, etc. He knows it will take a while for society to acclimate to the changes, but curse it all he is GOING to have the groundwork already laid out.

The rest of the world thinks Lucis is crazy at first, but then there’s Weskham, happily hiring several Master Tonberry to work as chefs under him in Altissia and it’s WORKING and more and more daemons are waking up from the Thirst even though no one knows HOW at this point so the rest of the world had better get with the program man.

I think the half-turned ones actually revert? Like- they only stay daemon if they’ve been fully converted, otherwise they slowly revert back to their original state as the Scourge loses more and more of its potency. Ardyn is technically a “full daemon” even if he kept his human shape thanks to his healing magic so he doesn’t revert, but he is fascinated when he and the rest of the daemons all seem to take a collective chill pill.

Cor totally gives Noctis a Cerberi puppy as a present btw. He just- he SO DOES. Regis is Not Best Pleased.

I love the idea of nonhuman/human integrated society too! It’s really cool. Tonberry chefs and various aids/adjustments for beings with extra limbs/odd body shapes. Ronin and Yojimbo who work with the Hunter corps, Bombs that patrol towns at night like the neighborhood watchdogs, goblins getting to work in their mines rather than just be bored in them, Naga nannies (or daemon nannies in general because all the reformed daemons in this verse are MAJORLY protective of kiddos)- it’s a fun thought!

Pretty Song has no idea just how big of a revolution she spawned with just some pretty music and a lot of courage XDD.

#SE asks #lark1537 asks #Secret Engima Rambles #Pretty Song verse

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onceuponaloonatic · 4 years

Text

twice railgun au

because i’m bored

they are in uni btw because maybe i will put nsfw in this if u guys want also nobody actually has the ability to manipulate elctristiy but it’s set in the railgun world you get me?

minatozaki sana

sana can displace matter and move it to wherever she chooses

basically she can teleport herself and other objects, momentarily appearing invisible before reappearing somewhere else

she’s a level five, one of only seven in the city, of the seven sana is ranked sixth

she is roommates with momo, and is a first year at seoul girls university for espers, a private all girls school for level three’s and up

she is very clingy with momo, but momo tends to reject her advances

she is a part of an organization called judgement and works with dahyun to protect they city and bring criminals to judgement

acts like a softie, but is actually a badass when she wants to be

with her partnership with dahyun she’s more the the brawns than the brains

runs headfirst into danger, but is usually good enough to get herself out of trouble, and when she isn’t momo can always save her ass

hirai momo

momo has the ability to change people perceptions of her movement

the most common use is it would appear like she has super speed but she can also do stuff like deviate people’s attacks by changing their perception of where she is

she is a level four

she’s not actually a part of judgement but tends to get herself wrapped up in it without meaning too

acts like she hates sana, but really sana’s her best friend

she’s a second year at seoul girls university for espers like sana

gets herself into fights a lot without really meaning too

looks like she could kill you but is actually a softie

even though she’s a softie she’s ready to fight anyone who hurts her friends

is dating tzuyu in secret

keeps snacks hidden under her bed, but one time she looked under sana’s bed by accident since their beds looked the same at the time, she hasn’t been the same since

myoui mina

mina has the ability to implant impulses in people’s brains that cause them to want to do one thing or another

basically hypnosis

she’s a level three, but is close to reaching level four

is also a member of judgement and is partners with jihyo, they are in the same unit as dahyun and sana

she’s a second year at seoul girls school for espers, like momo

even though she’s technically older than sana, sana likes to think of herself as mina’s unnie, though at the end of the day mina is the one who has to patch sana up when she gets hurt on a mission and is the one to comfort sana when momo is bullying her

usually just lets sana hang off of her without really rejecting her, she’s used to sana’s habits

she’s known sana since elementary school, so she’s used to her being acting like a clingy child

had a crush on jihyo, but is afraid of acting because they are judgement partners

she’s roommates with jeongyeon, and they live down the hall from samo, and they are the much quieter room comparatively

im nayeon

has the ability to temporarily alter the flow of time and control it

basically it is the ability to slow down and alter time as she wills, theoretically

since she’s only a level two she doesn’t full much control of her ability so sometimes things blow up in her face and she looses control of time flow and accidentally temporarily messes up the flow of time without the ability to fix it

she didn’t react well when she found out sana was a level five, she spent weeks hating her because she thought sana veiwed her as inferior, but after confrontation sana reassured her she doesn’t think of anyone as inferior, despite her level

(now she secretly admires sana, and wants to be like her one day)

gets teased a lot by jeongyeon and tzuyu

she is a third year at yousei university, a school that doesn’t have any connection to esper abilities, all levels are welcome

has a crush on jeongyeon

she’s roommates with jihyo

yoo jeongyeon

similar to nayeon her ability also deals with time, except she had more of the ability to stop time whereas nayeon messes with the flow of it

basically jeongyeon can stop time

she’s a level four, and always teases nayeon about being a higher level, but jihyo always tells them to quiet down

jihyo nayeon and jeongyeon went to high school together, so they have known each other for a while

a third year at seoul girls school for espers

a dorm monitor for her floor

she is always getting sana and momo into trouble for being noisy and using their abilities in the dorm

she has a crush on nayeon

mom of the seoul girls school friend group, but is still weak when it comes to samo’s puppy eyes

jeongyeon is the reason misamo met nahyodubchaengtzu

park jihyo

jihyo has the ability to temporarily enhance her vision

she can see through anything when she focus

she’s a level two like nayeon, but unlike nayeon is a lot more content with her level and isn’t as concerned with leveling up

she does want to level up, but she’s also not completely driven by it like nayeon is

a judgement member who is partnered with mina, they are saida’s superiors

a third year at yousei university

has a crush on mina, but also afraid of ruining their partnership

is roommates with nayeon, and is constantly having to remind nayeon to stop practicing and take a rest

she cares a lot about her friends, and will do anything to support them, the real mom of the overall group

kim dahyun

has the ability to temporarily clone herself

she has control over her clones and they disappear when she wants them too, even if they get hurt it doesn’t hurt dahyun

however, since she is only a level one, she can only create one clone and only for a small amount of time

like nayeon she used to hate sana, when they were first partnered up dahyun hated the idea of working with a level five

but then she met sana

she expected sana to look down on her, but sana proved to her she doesn’t care about dahyun’s level, she cares about who she is as a person

sana even helps dahyun develop her ability

now dahyun has a huge crush on sana

is in judgement working as sana’s partner, since she works well with computers she mainly runs backup for sana to make sure she isn’t running into a trap or anything

is the brains in the partnership, always trying to keep sana from doing fun things

dahyun is a first year at yousei university

dahyun is roommates with chaeyoung and tzuyu

son chaeyoung

chaeyoung has the ability to psychically control ojbects and control where they go

basically telepathy

like dahyun, she’s only a level one, but chaeyoung is determined to level up, and samo both think she’s close

she uses sana and momo as target practice because both of them are practically unable to hit

sana and momo both love chaeyoung and they will do anything to help her

has always admired sana for her level, but when she saw sana’s ability in the flesh, she couldn’t believe who powerful she really was

chaeyoung also has a crush on sana

dahyun and chaeyoung have known each other since middle school, and met tzuyu in high school

a first year at yousei university

roommates with dahyun and tzuyu

samochaeng really are the reckless three in the friendship, they all run into danger recklessly without much thought of the consequences

chou tzuyu

tzuyu has the ability to manipulate the weight of certain objects and make them feel more light reactive to her

(i’m just trying to come up with a scientific way to say super strength)

tzuyu is a level three, same as mina

since tzuyu is the highest level among the school meal club everyone expects her to be the one to protect them when they get into trouble

but truthfully chaeyoung is a lot more recklessness and bravdo and always tries to protect them first

but tzuyu always bails her out of trouble when she gets in over her head

tzuyu took martial arts lessons as a child, and she helps chaeyoung work on her self defense because she knows she can’t stop chaeyoung from doing dumb things so she might as well help her protect herself in any way she can

teams up with jeongyeon to tease nayeon

is secretly dating momo, she’s the one who wants to keep it secret

a first year at yousei university

roommates with chaeyoung and dahyun

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exitableunderpants · 5 years

Text

mark me as your favorite memory

A/N: This is another rewrite from my old blog @editableunderpants. I wrote this after buying some Hawkeye socks and realizing there just ain’t enough Clint online. That is still true online. I need hella more Clint fics, btw. So, if anyone knows of some good ones, please send them my way. More rewrites are coming and some new stories as well. Are there any from my old blog you want to see me rewrite? I plan on doing them all, but have no idea of the order ATM.

Pairing: Clint Barton & Reader

Rating: Hella M for smut and my potty mouth.

She was thankful for the empty room, giving her a chance to escape from the rest of the group. She loved most of them dearly but needed a break from them. The only noise around her was the cracking from the fire she had started. She watched the flames dance around as she sipped on vodka from the blue painted mug, the one he had picked up for her from one of the missions he was assigned to go on without her. She wondered how she got here, the turns in her life leaving her confused as ever, which she hated. Her life spiraled and everything shifted and was now spinning around, making her dizzy. Life for her was once simple, but all of that changed.

Because of him.

She had her share of ghosts that haunted her, and she was used to trying to outrun the ghosts, demons and skeletons that were hidden deep in her closet. Although she didn’t like to admit it to anyone, especially herself, there was a lot in her life that she was running from. She didn’t stay in the same place for long, and the people in her life often changed frequently, one face being swapped for another. She didn’t trust and was weary of leaning on anyone else. She had her own back, and didn’t really let her guard down enough to let anyone else in. Life was cruel and she knew that she could only count on herself, and that anyone could betray her.

Everything in her life was her own fucked kind of normal, until that asshole with his bow and arrows came to talk to her about joining Shield. Sometimes she wondered what it would be like if that never happened. Her life would have remained the same, which was neither a good nor a bad thing, but she knew it was preferable then the bullshit she was dealing with now. Her life had been turned inside out, and it left her confused, dizzy and dealing with all these warm and fuzzy feelings for the first time in her life.

Somehow, her dumb ass managed to fall in love.

Maybe she’d feel better if she cursed the moon or sucked screamed about how love sucked. Everyone already knew that though. Love was a losing game that you just played forever on repeat. There was no real winner in the game of love, just slow losers. It was quite the game though, she realized, because everyone kept lining up for another turn.

And in the end, she got a taste of it. She’d probably be foolish enough to line up for it all over again too.

That fucking asshole and his stupid bow and stupid arrows.

It had happened all too quickly, so fast that she never had the chance to realize what was going on. It started like it so often did, with the two of them as just friends. It took some time, but she found a new comfort with him and in time she learned how to trust him and to lean on him. In her first months as a new agent, the two of them had bonded and while friendship didn’t quite come naturally to her, but Clint was patient with her, letting her know it was okay to let him in at her own pace. He eased her into the idea of letting him in, and in time she let her walls come down around him. He took that and ran with it, introducing her to the rest of the team. Slowly, she was learning how to let them in too.

Like fools, they played with fire one night, both of them with an itch that needed scratched. While she maybe had imagined sleeping with him, there was no fantasy that would ever live up to the reality. She wasn’t scared to admit that he had straight up rocked her world that night, and though it was only supposed to be one night, they both ended up coming back for more. Neither of them had been in a hurry to put any kind of label on it though. Which, she was thankful for. Hooking up with him was one thing she was able to process and accept but coming to terms with it being anything else was another story. Instead, they continued in secret, keeping whatever this was behind closed doors. It was enough for her.

It was more than enough.

That was until her heart got in the way.

She never expected to fall in love with Clint Barton. She’d grown to care for him, and that was one thing. Loving him was completely another. It had hit her like a ton of bricks, leaving her breathless. She never really loved anyone else before, and suddenly her heart and her life had become entangled with the mighty Hawkeye. She had tried to keep her feelings to herself, not eager to rush off and ruin the little bubble they had created. She was happy with things as they were and didn’t want her heart to go and ruin that for her.

Only she had managed to open her big fucking mouth and tell him that she loved him, just before he left for a dangerous mission.

He had just started at her in shock before she quickly backed away before she took off running, leaving him to call after her. She didn’t want to hear whatever words came next from him. All she could think of was the upcoming pain and heartbreak that was headed her way. She never meant to put her heart on the line and was on the verge of her first real heartbreak. Clint Barton was a lot of things to her, she just didn’t expect him to be the man that broke her heart.

So, she sat here by the crackling fire, drinking vodka from her favorite mug.

It wasn’t a cure, but at least it had helped some.

His mission had ended, and he was on his way home now. She usually looked forward to those times, because it meant celebrating the return in bed, with his head between her thighs. She personally loved the way he celebrated, but her excitement had dimmed this time. Dread had filled her, and she hated it. Her heart was the source of the entire mess, and she hated it. She felt all over the place, and damn near unstable. This wasn’t like her. In the presence of Clint, she altered from the trained fighter and sniper she was to some lovesick fool.

She had become so lame; she just wanted to roll her eyes and mock herself.

“Hey, Babe.” His voice was low, and the dread that had filled her multiplied. She didn’t look to him though, avoiding him for as long as she could. Seeing him would make this even harder.

“Welcome home.” She tried to keep her voice even for as long as she possibly could. She could only hope that whatever came next was over quickly, a mercy killing on his behalf. She knew that this was supposed to be just sex, without her pesky feelings becoming involved. Although, she didn’t really need him to tell her that. She already knew how much of a mess everything was.

“I missed you.” He said sitting next to her on the couch. He said that after each mission, and she returned those words wholeheartedly. It wasn’t until late that she realized how much she did miss him when he was gone. It felt like a part of her was missing. She chalked it up to nothing more than worry and stress, but she knew there was a lot more underneath that she just wasn’t admitting.

“I missed you too, Clint.” She slowly spoke before turning to face him. He had a nasty purple bruise on his eye, under his face from someone that had gotten just a little too close. She reached over, the pad of her thumb gently tracing over the bruise. “Does it hurt?” She asked as his hand fell over herd, holding it for a moment before bringing it to her mouth and placing a soft kiss to back of her hand.

“Not anymore.” There was a grin playing on his lips and she was reminded on how honest he was with her. She had a history of being with men that tended to feel the need to boost their ego and say there was no pain at all. She’d been hit before and knew that no pain was a fucking lie. She knew it had to hurt to be hit as hard as it was to leave a bruise like that.

“You make it pay for him?” He laughed at her question before nodding.

“Of course.” He spoke before reaching for her mug, his nose wrinkling at the scent. “Babe, it’s still pretty early.” His eyebrow was raised, and it was so typical of him to worry and want to take care of her. He’d been like that since she finally agreed to join Shield. He was protective and had her back from the very start. It wasn’t something that was easily forgotten.

“It’s happy hour somewhere in the world.” She mumbled as he stared at her for a moment, she knew he was trying to process just how worried he should be. He reached over before tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear, his eyes never leaving her.

“I think we should talk about when I left.” He started, and she felt all the air leave her lungs. She thought she had a grip on this and tried to brace herself. Those words were going to break her heart, and she wasn’t sure if that was something she was going to be able to manage.

She was still beyond pissed that she had to go and fall in love. No good ever came from that.

“Oh.” She took a big chug from her mug and he just raised his eyebrow again. She didn’t know what to say next.

“You love me.” His voice was calm and even, with no trace of anger and disgust in his words. She was thankful for that, at least.

“Look, I know the timing was terrible. I didn’t mean for it to slip out and I have just been sitting here for days.” She sighed, fingers playing with the fabric on the couch to distract herself from him. “I just—I tried Clint.” She was rambling, not even sure what it was that she was trying to say. She created a huge mess, and she wasn’t sure to go about tidying it up.

“I love you too, Babe.” His words shut her up. She just blinked as she stared at him, trying to process if she had heard him correctly.

“Oh.” It was all she could really muster. “Oh.”

“Babe,” his voice was soft as his fingers were under her chin, raising her head to look at him. Their eyes locked and she took the moment to memorize the color of his eyes. “I love you, you goof.” Those words caused a smile to spread across her face, reality sinking in. His hand now cupped her face, his thumb stroking her cheek. “Say it again.” He urged and she didn’t need a prompt of what he wanted repeated; she knew what he wanted to hear.

“I love you, Clint Barton.” The words barely left her mouth and his lips were firmly pressed against hers in a kiss that left her head spinning. One hand of his was resting on the side of her neck, the other now tangled in her hair. She let her hands roam down his chest, feeling each toned muscle under her fingertips.

“I really like hearing that.” He whispered in her ear after he broke the kiss. She let out a shaky laugh as his mouth moved down her jaw and to her neck. She now liked saying it, now that the fear was gone and this wonderful knowledge of him loving her back had washed over her. She had no idea why he loved her, but she was not about to start questioning it. The fear of her words on top of worrying about him while he was gone had left her on edge for days, all she wanted was to just in lost in the man she loved for a moment.

The man who loved her back.

“I love you.” She repeated, now aware that he liked hearing it. He hummed his approval against her throat, the vibration pulsing through her and causing her to shit her eyes in the pleasure. His teeth grazed and nipped against her skin, a soft moan leaving her at the sensation as his tongue darted across the skin he had nibbled at with his teeth. While he was careful to never leave any marks, she wasn’t too sure she cared in this moment if any evidence was peppered across her skin.

She reached for the hem of his shirt, pulling it up as far as she could before his hands grabbed both of her wrists gently. “Easy, Babe.” He pressed his lips back to hers, holding her hands still as she tried to fight to reach for his shirt once more. “We are in a public area. We may be alone for now, but this is still an easily accessible and popular room.” She wasn’t sure why her little hideaway was as popular as it was, it was just one of the little corners in the tower she found and liked well enough.

“You are no fun.” She huffed, causing him to laugh.

“You are aware of just how fun I can be.” He placed a soft kiss to her forehead, standing up and offering his hand to her. “I just am not goanna share you. Besides, if they don’t know, then we don’t have to deal with any of the dumb jokes Tony is bound to come up with.” She immediately thought of Wanda and Vision, who after months were still hearing jokes about the two of them being together.

“It will be worse if we don’t tell them and they manage to find out on their own.” She warned, placing her hand in his. He helped her to her feet, his arms around her waist letting his hands grab at her ass. It seemed to be his favorite spot for his hands to rest.

“You’re right.” He admitted, a grin on his face. “So, let’s make sure that doesn’t happen by not getting caught in here.” Standing on her toes, she brushed her lips against his.

“Well, you might want to get me upstairs soon then, because I have these wicked thoughts about how blowing you in this room could be fun.” His laughter filled the room as he gently tugged on her arm, leading her out of the common room and to the bedroom that he usually stayed in. The moment the door closed behind them, she was pressed against it and his mouth was once again connected to hers. This kiss was rougher, and full of heat. She loved it.

“This is about useless.” He lifted her tee over her head, leaving her in only her black bra. He cupped her through the fabric, causing her to bite down on her bottom lip. He loved the fact that her breasts were very sensitive, and often used it against her to drive her wild.

“So is yours, Barton.” Her fingers played with the hem of his shirt once more. This time he didn’t stop her as she pulled it up his body, exposing his toned stomach. She bit down on her bottom lip again as he helped her get the shirt over his head, letting it fall to the floor next to hers. His stomach was covered in deep purple marks and she sighed heavily as her fingers lightly traced over the bruises, noting when he winced as her fingers brushed against his bruised and possibly broken ribs. “Clint, you look like shit.”

“Too bad you never got the chance to see the other guy.” He snorted at his own joke, cupping her face in his hands.

“If you say so.” Her eyes didn’t leave his bruises, and she felt worry pit and bubble in her stomach. She knew the job and the life they led, but she hated the times he returned to her all battered and beaten up. He wasn’t invincible, and that fact scared her to her core sometimes.

“Instead of sassing me, Babe, why don’t you put that mouth to better use?” His voice was low and commands, and she just gulped as a wave of heat washed over her. She nodded her head, not sure if she trusted herself to speak yet. No words were really needed as she dropped to her knees, her fingers unbuttoning his jeans. He was already semi hard, and that was no surprise really. Wrapping fingers around him, she pumped a few times and earned a groan from him before she replaced her fingers with her lips.

“Mmm.” She mumbled, with a mouth full of him. It was a common scene between the two of them, with her on her knees. She loved it. It was a power play and Clint held most of the power behind their closed door, something she didn’t mind in the slightest and loved the way he took control. It made her heart flutter and heat pool between her legs with each command from him. This was the one time that she was able to hold some of the power, while still handing it over to him. She loved as he unraveled in her mouth.

“Fuck, Babe.” He groaned, his hips jerking to their own rhythm as she hummed around him. Looking up at him, she saw him gripping the wall with his eyes shit and his mouth hanging open slightly. “I love that pretty little mouth of yours.” He remarked and she hummed her approval as his hips jerked once again. She loved watching the mighty Hawkeye become a moaning mess in her mouth. Though he rarely finished in her mouth, always stating he’d rather wait. She liked the times he had spilled in her mouth, because she liked watching him lose control under her touch. He always had her moaning and crying for more, so it was a nice change of pace sometimes. As his fingers gripped her hair, she knew that it wasn’t going to be the case. He pulled her up and crashed his lips against hers, turning them so she was firmly pressed against the wall. His hands undid her pants, before sliding under her underwear, two fingers parting her before stroking her.

“Damn,” she whimpered under his skillful touch. He just chuckled before connecting their mouths again, his fingers stroking at a pace so slow it was almost maddening. She tried to protest, but his mouth swallowed the sounds. He finally broke the kiss, pulling her pants and underwear down and tossing them aside to be forgotten. He kicked his own jeans off, before lifting her in his arms and grinning as her long legs wrapped around his waist.

“I love you, Babe.” He repeated once again with a soft kiss to her forehead as he laid her down on the bed. She grinned at those words, there was no way she could ever be tired of hearing them. They were to music to her ears now, and they played her favorite melody.

“I love you too, Clint.” She reached for his face, fingers tracing over the bruise again before he closed the distance between them, kissing her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck, fingers playing with his soft hair. The kiss only lasted a moment before he trailed his lips against her body, leaving soft kisses.

“It’s been awhile since I’ve seen some of these body parts…” he trailed on, a soft kiss against her stomach. “There is one area I missed quite a bit, and I plan on taking my time getting reacquainted.” She gasped at his words as he spread her thighs, placing gently kisses to her inner thighs before his tongue came in contact with her aching center.

“Oh fuck, baby.” She whimpered as she arched her back and rocked her hips forward. She heard his chuckle as he pushed her hips back down to the mattress, his hands remaining there to steady her.

“Patience.” He said, and she just snorted.

“Fat chance, Barton.” He chuckled against her, the vibrations flying through her, causing a loud moan to leave her mouth. There was something sinful about the way he made her feel when his head was between her thighs. His tongue swirled over her, keeping on a steady pace as she started to feel herself lose her control. She could feel the hot build up in the pit of her stomach, but he backed off just as she approached her edge.

“You taste fantastic, Babe.” He mumbled as he pulled his mouth away from her, whines of protest leaving her. He soothed her with a soft kiss to her inner thigh.

“Stop teasing me, asshole.” She grumbled, and he laughed before biting down gently on the skin of her inner thigh that he just kissed.

“You’re a handful, aren’t you?”

“You love it.” She said as she opened her eyes, looking at him.

“Yeah, I do.” She watched as he took himself in his hand, pumping himself a few times. Her mouth watered at the sight, trying to be patient for what she knew came next. He aligned himself wat her entrance, and she pushed her hips forward, causing a groan to leave him as he entered her. His hands gripped at her hips as he gave her a moment to adjust, which she was always thankful for. After several moments, he started to rock his hips at a pace that left her gripping the sheets of the bed, her eyes closed in pleasure. “You are so fucking beautiful, Babe.” He whispered as he lifted her leg slightly, allowing him to hit her at a new angle.

“Oh fuck.” She whimpered as she back arched off the mattress. She was already so fucking close. He knew it, because he increased the pace before reaching between her thighs, this thumb circling her clit.

“Come for me, Baby.” He whispered, and she was powerless against his command.

She cried out as her orgasm washed over her, leaving her gasping for breath and wildly bucking underneath him.

“Fuck.” He grunted as his speed increased as he hit his own climax, coming inside of her. He rolled off her before covering his eyes with his forearm, heavily breathing. Once both of them were able to catch their breath, he pulled her against him, and wrapped his arms around her.

“We are going to have to tell everyone eventually.” She said after a moment, looking up at him. “I mean, right? Is this something to tell, because I know we are just fuck buddies—”

“Is that really all you think this is?” She wasn’t expecting the confused and hurt look on his face.

“Well, not really. We just called it that, and never actually discussed anything else.” He sighed, placing a soft kiss against her temple.

“Babe, you never were just a fuck buddy to me. I don’t mix sex and friends—this was always something more for me.” He said, and it was her turn to look confused.

“You never said!”

“You always liked the idea of no-strings.” He pointed out, causing her to sigh.

“You were always different though, Clint. I don’t want you as just some fuck buddy.”

“Babe, are you asking me to go steady?” He had a stupid grin on his face as he mocked her, and she just playfully jabbed his arm.

“Oh, shut up.” She mumbled as he leaned down to kiss her.

“I like the idea of being more than your fuck buddy, Babe.”

“Good.”

“It’s settled then.” He hugged her closed to him, his eyes closing. It was typical of Clint to doze off after sex, not that she was any different. She could feel sleep trying to claim her as her own eyes got heavy.

“Clint?” She asked with a yawn. “It was never just fuck buddies for me either.” She admitted before closing her eyes, falling asleep in his arms. After all, this was her favorite place to be.

#clint barton fanfiction #clint barton smut #clint barton drabble #clint barton x reader #clint barton imagine #hawkeye x reader #hawkeye drabble #hawkeye imagine #hawkeye smut #hawkeye fanfiction #avengers x reader #avengers drabble request #avengers smut #avengers drabble #avengers fanfiction #avengers imagine

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tigerkirby215 · 4 years

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5e Frank West build (Dead Rising)

(Screenshot of Dead Rising 4 - Game by Capcom)

“I’ve covered wars ya know.”

In an attempt to branch out my builds beyond D&D I had a look through my Steam library for other games with interesting characters. While most of the games I play have pretty broad characters (Killing Floor, XCOM, Void Bastards... btw play Void Bastards it’s good) I eventually came across Dead Rising and all I could think is... “Yes.”

Frank West! Forever charismatic journalist, amateur craftsman, minor wrestling star, major anti-government conspirator, and part-time zombie. For “just a normal dude” Frank is capable of some pretty extraordinary feats, going up against countless zombie hoards with nothing but his wits and the products you’d find at your local shopping center... Helps that he can drop kick all day long without getting tired.

GOALS

Anything’s a Weapon - The core appeal of Dead Rising is the ability to use anything you find as a weapon, which Frank obviously needs to do.

Duct Tape it or Die - While it was more of Chuck’s thing Frank borrowed the ability to craft Combo Weapons and does it quite well. And obviously the only reason he survived a day in Willamette was his ability to weaponize golf clubs, sandwich plates, and cartons of orange juice.

I am the Ultimate Best - Frank is no pushover in his own right with some WWE superstar smack-downs and the endurance to run a marathon without getting tired. Because the original Dead Rising was made before stamina meters were a thing.

RACE

Frank is amazingly just human, and while the ending of DR4 says otherwise we’ll stick with Variant Human for now. You get an increase in two ability scores of your choice: increase your Constitution and Intelligence. You also get a Skill of your choice and you should take Athletics to run through the entire mall all night long. You finally get a Feat: take Tavern Brawler for proficiency in Improvised weapons and some unarmed damage and increase your Constitution again. And take whatever language it really doesn’t matter.

ABILITY SCORES

15; STRENGTH - You need to be able to fight off a zombie trying to bite your face; being able to chuck them 10 yards is an added bonus.

14; CONSTITUTION - Frank takes a lot of damage in the Dead Rising games. Getting shot, run over, sliced up with a chainsaw, and receiving countless claw and teeth marks and still being able to march on takes a lot of hardiness.

13; INTELLIGENCE - Knowing how to attach chainsaws to a kayak paddle “safely” takes a certain degree of know-how, and you helped Isabella create a cure for zombism! But above all it’s a requirement to multiclass so...

12; DEXTERITY - Shrugging off a hoard of zombies trying to grab at you takes some evasive ability.

10; CHARISMA - Not extremely in-character (feel free to swap DEX and CHA if you want better roleplay but worse AC) but we unfortunately don’t need it for this build.

8; WISDOM - Jumping off a helicopter into a mall full of zombies wasn’t exactly the best choice, and I doubt I could call anyone who walks into a hardware store full of decapitated bodies “wise.”

BACKGROUND

Unfortunately there’s no Reporter background for 5e but thankfully Celebrity Adventurer’s Scion from Acquisitions Incorporated is pretty close to what we need. The main feature of Name Dropping will let everyone know that you’re Frank West, and that you’ve covered wars you know.

Replace the Performance proficiency with Insight but keep Perception to find the perfect shot. You also get two languages of your choice (pick whatever) and proficiency with a Disguise Kit to try on all sorts of clothes while surviving the zombie apocalypse.

(Artwork from Project X Zone - Owned by Capcom)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - ARTIFICER 1

We’re going to start this build off as an Artificer to get the ability to craft things as soon as possible. You get two skills from the Artificer list: take Investigation for some investigative journalism and Medicine to know what brand of orange juice to drink to cure all that ails ya. You also get an artisan’s tool of your choice and Smith’s Tools would be what you use to make most of your Combo Weapons.

You also get Magical Tinkering which lets you pick up a grab bag of random stuff from various stores. You can touch a tiny, non-magical object with your tools as an action to give it a variety of effects that are listed in the ability’s description. The effect last indefinably but you can have a number of them equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Speaking of Intelligence modifier that’s what we use for our Spellcasting. You get two cantrips of your choice and while you’ll get the ability to swap them out later on start with Mending to duct tape any of your weapons if they’re going to break and Light to turn your camera’s light on. But feel free to choose whatever cantrips you think will help and since Artificer’s get a lot of choice with their spellcasting I’ll just list all the cantrips and how I’d reflavor them for Frank:

Acid Splash could be you throwing a bottle of something nasty at the zombies.

Create Bonfire could be a Molotov.

Dancing Lights could be a toy helicopter or something similar providing the light.

Firebolt is a gun.

Frostbite or Ray of Frost could be a combo weapon with a toy gun and a fire extinguisher, chilling your foes.

Guidance or Resistance is a fatherly mentor slap on the back for good luck. <3

Mage Hand could be a drone, or alternatively one of those grabbing-claw toys that Nintendo used to make. Similar idea with Thorn Whip.

Magic Stone... chuck some shit at the enemy like you do in MvC.

Message could be a walkie-talkie or a cell phone.

Poison Spray is bad don’t use it.

Prestidigitation is your grab bag of stuff from the toy store.

Shocking Grasp or Thunderclap could be you weaponizing your camera flash.

Spare the Dying is emergency medical care.

Can you tell I like Artificer? Because I really like Artificer. Anyways you also get two spells of your choice: Cure Wounds will let you or an ally guzzle some life-giving OJ and Catapult will let you grab something heavy and chuck it at a hoard! But much like with the cantrips Artificers are prepared spellcasters so you can choose your spells at the end of every long rest, giving you the ability to choose what weapons you want at the start of the day.

LEVEL 2 - BARBARIAN 1

Quickly bouncing over to Barbarian for two reasons. The first is to get Unarmored Defense equal to 10 + your Dexterity and your Constitution. We can still use Medium Armor (and I’d argue you probably should use that currently) but while the knight armor is a post-game unlock and you usually wear a leather jacket (leather armor) you can skip the padding and let your muscles protect you. The other reason however is for Martial weapon proficiency - you need to use everything you can find and Frank swings a katana as well as a baseball bat.

But you also get Rage which lets you scream up at the heavens about the government and get some work done. While raging you have advantage on Strength checks and saving throws (both of which are needed for grapples), do extra damage with strength weapons (including your fists from Tavern Brawler!), and resist bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. It lasts for 1 minute but ends early if you end a turn without attacking someone or getting hit. You can also end it as a bonus action which you might need to do because you can’t cast spells while it’s active, so no OJ while you smash faces. You can Rage twice before having to take a long rest.

LEVEL 3 - ARTIFICER 2

Back on the Artificer train we finally get our Combo Weapons, or rather our Artificer Infusions. You know 4 infusions and can have 2 active at a time. You can choose which infusions you want at the end of a long rest so pick-and-choose what you need to fight the local psychopath.

For your Known Infusions pick the following:

Enhanced Weapon lets you stick some knives on the end of a broom to make it do more damage.

An Enhanced Arcane Focus meanwhile lets you improve whatever fire-spitter someone might be using to make it spit a little more fire.

An Alchemy Jug lets you carry around a variety of drinks (or mayonnaise) to mix in a blender for some juices and cocktails.

And the Pole of Collapsing from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything can actually be used by you as a weapon effectively since you have improvised weapon proficiency from Tavern Brawler. A 10 foot quarter staff is nothing to scoff at, and you can do a good Zero impression!

Truthfully though Artificers have a huge list of items they can choose from and I’d suggest taking whatever infusions your team asks for that would help them. The strength of Artificer lies in its versatility, and while Frank’s mostly alone in Dead Rising don’t let the Survivors in your party go unarmed.

LEVEL 4 - ARTIFICER 3

3rd level Artificers get their Artificer Specialty and Alchemist is perfect for someone who makes combo cocktails as well as combo weapons.

Truthfully though the reason we’re going for Alchemist is because it’s the only one that doesn’t have a summon. The new Armorer subclass also works but that serves more for if you want to play as Exo-Suit Frank.

As an Alchemist you can craft an Experimental Elixir after a long rest with a set of Alchemist’s Supplies (which you also gain proficiency with.) You’ve got six possible cocktails to make: Healing is self-explanatory, Swiftness lets them run faster, Resilience makes them harder to hit, Boldness lets them hit a little harder, Flight lets them... fly (talk about fizzy lifting drinks!), and Transformation lets you get your zombie on with the Alter Self spell.

You get one after a long rest but you can craft another one by spending a spell slot of first level of higher. It’s up to DM’s interpretation if you can do this while raging but since it’s described that you make the elixir “magically” I’d argue against it. That, and you need some time with the blender to make juice.

Also on subject of spells you get Healing Word to shout some words of encouragement to your allies and Ray of Sickness to shoot them with the B.F.G and make them puke their guts out. You also get another spell slot and Grease lets you throw a bottle of shampoo on the floor to make your enemies slip and fall.

You also get The Right Tool for the Job which lets you quickly pull together any Artisan’s tools you might need. You need an hour to make the tools (which can be done over a rest) and they last until you use this feature again. Can’t find a maintenance closet? Just make the stuff on the fly!

LEVEL 5 - ARTIFICER 4

Grabbing an Ability Score Improvement or rather a Feat since that uneven Strength score is bugging me: take the Athlete feat with an increase to Strength so you can run after the truth or away from a hoard.

You can also prepare another spell like Identify, so you can now exactly what you’re taking pictures of.

LEVEL 6 - BARBARIAN 2

Now that we’ve got our combo weapons and our cocktails it’s time to learn some wrestling moves. Level 2 Barbarians get Reckless Attack, giving yourself Advantage on attacks with Strength weapons but giving the enemy Advantage to hit you. A piledriver might get the job done but it does leave you wide open.

You also get Danger Sense, giving you advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects you can see. Makes sense since you can dodge bullets if you see them coming but can still get outplayed by your protegee.

LEVEL 7 - BARBARIAN 3

3rd level Barbarians get their Primal Path and Path of the Totem Warrior is perfect for anyone who wants to bear hug their enemies. You get Spirit Seeker to cast the Beast Sense and Speak with Animals spells as rituals because this is meant to be the “naturalist” Barbarian but what we’re really here for is the Totem Spirit. You’re more than welcome to choose Bear like I know most people will but the most in-character option would be the spirit of the Eagle. Zombies have disadvantage to hit you if you run past them while raging and you can also Dash as a bonus action while raging, letting you run through a hoard of zombies and only suffer minimal damage. You can also Rage one more time before needing a long rest, adding up to 3 times total.

LEVEL 8 - BARBARIAN 4

4th level Barbarians get an Ability Score Improvement, and how about we finally get those wrestling moves? The Grappler feat gives you Advantage on attacks against enemies you grapple and lets you use your action to try to pin your opponent. If you do both you and the creature you’re grappling are restrained until the grapple ends.

LEVEL 9 - BARBARIAN 5

5th level Barbarians get an Extra Attack so you can combo two hits instead of one. You also get Fast Movement which increases your movement speed by 10 as long as you aren’t wearing Heavy Armor. The Megaman suit isn’t exactly aerodynamic...

LEVEL 10 - BARBARIAN 6

At level 6 Totem Warriors get Aspect of the Beast and the aspect of the Bear is perfect for anyone who wants to lift a zombie over their head and swing them around. Your carrying capacity for combo weapons is doubled and you have Advantage on Strength checks to push, pull, lift, or break objects. Technically this doesn’t include grappling and technically you can’t pick up people that you’ve grappled, but if you have a cool DM this would totally be the feature to let you chuck a zombie at another zombie. And an extra use of Rage (adding up to 4 times total) will definitely help with that zombie chucking.

(Artwork by Capcom)

LEVEL 11 - ARTIFICER 5

Now that we’ve got all the WWE we need it’s time to improve our combo weapons. 5th level Alchemists get Alchemical Savant which lets you add your Intelligence modifier to any spell that heals or does acid, fire, necrotic, or poison damage. Speaking of which you now get access to second level spells, and the Alchemist list gives you Flaming Sphere which lets you kick a burning trash can at your enemies, and Melf’s Acid Arrow lets you chuck a Queen at an enemy’s face and have them sting them a bunch.

LEVEL 12 - ARTIFICER 6

6th level Artificers get Tool Expertise, letting you double your proficiency bonus with any tools you know how to use. You can also prepare another spell like Pyrotechnics, letting you pop firecrackers in a zombie’s face to either blind them or use the smoke to cover your escape from a psychopath. You can also make two Experimental Elixirs are the start of the day instead of one.

But most importantly you learn two new Infusions and the number of Infusions you can have up at a time increases by one: Radiant Weapon finally lets you weaponize your camera flash and use your reaction to try to blind someone that hits you. Cloak of Elvenkind meanwhile makes it easier for you to sneak around and take pictures of military men talking about covering up the zombie outbreak. The government; it’s always the government...

LEVEL 13 - ARTIFICER 7

7th level Artificers get Flash of Genius. If you or one of your journalism students are in a jam you can use your reaction to add your Intelligence modifier to an ability check or saving throw, and can do this a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier. Speaking of which...

LEVEL 14 - ARTIFICER 8

8th level Artificers get another Ability Score Improvement and we’re not getting Intelligence and are instead getting Constitution for more health and better unarmored defense.

You can also prepare another spell and you can’t go wrong with Heat Metal. Get a barbecue lighter and stick it in a zombie’s face!

LEVEL 15 - ARTIFICER 9

At 9th level Alchemists get Restorative Reagents. You buff your juice mixing power so the drinks give temporary hitpoints equal to 2d6 + your intelligence modifier, and you also carry some Zombrex with you to cast Lesser Restoration a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier. Lesser Restoration won’t cure a zombie infection but I’m sure it can delay it for 24 hours.

You also get 3rd level spell slots now and as an Alchemist you always have Gaseous Form and Mass Healing Word prepared... I have no reason why Frank can turn into a cloud of gas: is he a vampire? Is it nanomachines? Are we giving a regular guy the ability to cast spells? Yes.

LEVEL 16 - ARTIFICER 10

10th level Artificers get Magic Item Adept, letting them attune to 4 magic items at once and letting you craft common and uncommon magic items in a quarter of the time using a quarter of the gold.

But more importantly you get two more known Infusions (and one more prepared infusion) and it’s finally time to fix that Intelligence! The Headband of Intellect sets your Intelligence score to 19, and the Gauntlets of Ogre Power do the same to your Strength. It’s not perfect but you’ve always been rough around the edges.

You get another cantrip so I’d suggest grabbing Firebolt for a backup pistol, but with the Headband of Intellect on your head you can prepare three more spells!

Elemental Weapon will let you turn a weapon into a +1 weapon and make it deal an extra d4 acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage.

Haste lets you speed up your combos with some X-Factor.

And bouncing back to level 2: Rope Trick will let you open up a bathroom so you can save and take a break.

Note: If you’re starting at level 16 (for some reason) and want to give your character a better stat array an updated stat distribution will be posted after this build goes live.

(UMvC3 screenshot compilation by kiraDaidohji on DeviantArt)

LEVEL 17 - ARTIFICER 11

At level 11 with Artificer you get access to a Spell Storing Item. When you finish a Long Rest you can touch a weapon or one of your infusions to put a spell of first or second level into it as long as it takes an action to cast, even if you don’t have the spell prepared. Whoever’s holding it can use their action to cast the spell using your spellcasting modifier, and if it requires concentration they concentrate on it instead of you. They can cast the spell a number of times equal to twice your Intelligence modifier (so 8 times if you’re wearing the Headband of Intellect.)

I’m not going to tell you what spell to put in the Spell Storing Item - look through the spell list yourself or search online for the best spell for the job. An Artificer’s strength is versatility and I can only do so much themeing without playing your character for you. (Pro tip though: Blur is god tier if you can give it to a Fighter or someone else with high AC who can concentrate on it.)

LEVEL 18 - ARTIFICER 12

12th level Artificers get another Ability Score improvement: cap off your Constitution for maximum hardiness, AC, and Constitution saves. Last thing you want is to lose concentration on a spell and then lose your liquor afterwards.

You can also prepare another spell such as Revivify to quickly stick a hot dog in someone’s mouth and bring them back from the dead.

LEVEL 19 - ARTIFICER 13

13th level Artificers get 4th level spell slots and Alchemists get Blight and Death Ward always prepared. Zombify an area, or alternatively stop an ally from going down to zombies. Or yourself: you going down to zombies would suck too.

LEVEL 20 - ARTIFICER 14

Our capstone is the 14th level of Artificer for Magic Item Savant, allowing you to attune to up to 5 magic items and use them regardless of any restrictions the item might have.

But most importantly you get more Infusions and it should be mentioned that you can replace old known Infusions when you level up: replace your Gauntlets of Ogre Power with a Belt of Hill Giant’s Strength which is objectively better in every way. You can also make Bracers of Defense to further increase your AC and... hell, why not a Ring of Protection too? But once again I have to recommend you listen to your party for what they want you to make: don’t hoard your Infusions or the OJ.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Won’t Stop until I’m Dead - For my first tank build on this blog Frank is a remarkably good tank. Maxed out Constitution with Barbarian levels means your health will easily go over 200, and Unarmored Defense combined with Bracers of Protection and a Ring of Protection can put your AC close to 20, and you can still wield a two-handed weapon.

You think you’re better than me? - You’re not the only one on the team who can be awesome with this build. You have a lot of utility spells and can help the team survive with your elixirs. Just remember the crafting recipes for juice.

Crislip's Home Saloon - You can use any weapon you get your hands on, including the kitchen sink. No matter the class or race restriction you can use a weapon. Even if you’re unarmed Tavern Brawler lets you grab whatever you find and make use of it, or resort to your fists if it comes to it.

CONS

Wrestling is Fake - Grappling isn’t exactly practical; neither are improvised weapons. A lot of the features that we grab are done entirely for the sake of roleplay, and you’d be far better off taking more practical Feats or more ASIs.

PP - This build is subpar until level 16 and only really reaches its true potential at level 20. While it’s great to theorycraft these types of builds I know that most campaigns don’t reach level 20.

Grrrrrrr - Rage is nice but it’s tough to use it in this build. Not only does it stop you from casting spells or concentrating but you’ll lose your rage if you don’t get hit or don’t hit someone else.

But we all start out somewhere kid. Fight the good fight, save the civilians, take good pictures, and maybe someday you’ll be in a war someone else covers. And be sure to drink healthy orange juice and pass up on the whisky - the last thing you want is to puke in the middle of a combo.

(Minecraft skin found on superminecraftskins.com)

#DnD 5e #dnd build #dnd guide #dead rising #dead rising frank west #frank west #dnd multiclass #dnd artificer #dnd barbarian

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astrologista · 4 years

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jl dark 3 or whatever it’s called fun review

i am extremely extremely bored which is what possessed me to put this on in the background while performing other tasks

spoilers under the cut if you care, but pro tip don’t watch this movie. you may as well be spoiled.

this movie is... how shall i put this... hard to get through. it was really the kind of thing with these new dc movies where i think ‘well, i’ll give it a chance. maybe they got a good writer this time, maybe there are some good moments buried in here’. in this case i was wrong. this movie wasted my time. this movie mocked the fact that i even bothered to watch it all the way through.

let us first mention the fact that dc stories have always, fundamentally, been about hope. the idea that something or someone is always worth saving, even the villains. this is fundamental to the dcu in almost every dc story that you will read spanning 80 years of content. many people enjoy dc entertainment for this property.

i find it difficult to classify this story as taking place within the dc multiverse. why so? at the end of this movie the basic takeaway is that the timeline has just been too fucked up to continue to live in. and, that is true. by the end of this movie they have killed lois, killed john stewart, killed cyborg, killed like a bunch of other people i kind of forgot, there was just a lot of killing. like a lot a lot.

now this neceSSARILY would not be enough to completely turn me off the premise of the movie, because we’ve seen similar elseworlds before, it’s not an original idea to create a crappy future. never mind that the killing is done in the most graphically gruesome ways possible... but, there is more than that. there is apocalyptic destruction of the earth, much of earth’s population, people are tortured, altered, incapacitated. most of the movie seems to be dedicated to showing bad things that can happen.

there is also 5 minutes dedicated to a ring fight between lois and harley which, what? i guess that’s the light moment? whoop de doo? oh yeah absolutely cannot forget gratuitous harley everywhere of course. and KING SHARK IS A SHARK whoooooooo oh my god so funny! best running joke EVER hahahahahahhaHAHAHAHAHA

but getting back to what i was saying, about hope. when the battle is won, when our heroes escape back to earth, what do they do? do they regroup and soldier on despite losing so much? yes, superman says that they should. they shouldn’t just give up. they should have hope in rebuilding a better future while mourning their losses.

at the end of this constantine be like “hey flash this world is shit. pls do flashpoint and fix everything. kthx”

i mean, ok. fine. fair enough. i want to see them all get a happy ending as much as anyone. and the future was pretty fucked, it’s true. but this is the final note that the movie leaves you on. what was the theme?

world is a fuck, just reset everything once you’re done torturing the characters.

some of the core elements of dc stories have involved survival. surviving trauma. life after violence, hope in the face of hopelessness. both superman and batman, the central heroes of the dc “mythos” EMBODY these traits.

but, no. justice league dark. remake the world, this one is beyond saving. roll credits. IT’S DARK LIKE REAL LIFE GUYS OHOOOHOOHo.

and honestly, i call bullshit. i could have kind of KIND OF respected it if this had ended with batman and/or superman giving a speech like “yes things are super fucked but we are going to rebuild and survive” and then just go to credits. that could’ve almost worked and it seemed like they were going there.

but, constantine. oh my god. stop wanting the supernatural / dr who audience please. please. this is not dr. house. stop. ssssstop.

other fun points: like i honestly thought batman was gonna be the sleeper agent. i really thought he had already broken mind control a long time ago and was just waiting for a good opportunity to strike, but, no. just bullshit really.

oh yeah and after seeing his son damian horrifically BURNED to DEATH right in FRONT OF HIM, and i do mean like burned to a fucking crisp extremely graphic and then dying in his arms kind of shit, he gets to have one (1) manly tear. but that’s it. just the one. what in god’s name.

btw raven’s tears resurrecting damian? lol. you know what, if i was a teen i would have kind of enjoyed that cliche so you know what, fine. fair enough. i’ll buy it.

but one thing i wouldn’t do again is buy this movie. the plot’s shit, the writing’s shit, the themes of the story are beyond shit and it’s a big waste of time. i cut some of these new dc movies in this universe a little slack because some of them do have genuinely good moments in them. but every year, they get more and more shock value driven and worse. and this one was probably the worst one yet in my mind because, it didn’t seem like a dc story. and that’s what i thought i was getting, so i’m disappointed. what i got was a super-edgy, xXcrawlinginmyskinXx fan fic by someone with a mutilation fetish or something. everything it is tries to be as edgy reminding you that this isn’t your grandpa’s justice league this is justice league DARK and they won’t let you fucking forget it. i almost forgot about the raven and damian plot being like the core of the movie because. yeah, nah. not for me.

and i can understand if there is actually a market for this kind of movie, i mean there is. i guess people enjoy this, as an elseworlds. it did try too hard to be thanos and the avengers by having it basically be age of ultron where all of the heroes team up to fight darkseid before it’s too late and a lot of people sacrifice their self but hey, they really just want that audience. and while it may be something i do not care for, maybe people like this. critics seem to think it’s pretty good. i don’t want to minimize the animators, artists, va’s and other people who worked on this because from a technical standpoint it’s a big achievement, as any animated feature is. a lot of work goes into these. seriously, though. i will never rewatch this, ever, just like i basically never rewatch any of the other movies in this universe. you want a good dc animated movie that’s violent? watch utrh. watch the batman beyond movie. watch mask of the phantasm or sub-zero. watch the year one adaptation. watch something, but please. for the love of god. don’t watch this.

will there ever again be a good dc animated film? probably. but not today. maybe next time. that’s all. geeze

#i want my hour and fifteen minutes back #or whatever it was

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roominthecastle · 5 years

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Ok so since you’re a believer/supporter of Agnes Gate I have this question. Lizzy’s memories were wiped, but how do you explain Red? What does he know/suspect? How do you explain his behavior? Where does he stand in all this? Hope you got my point because I’m sick and I’ve lost my ability to think clearly and transform thoughts into words 🤒😂

*cracks knuckles*

Yes, you’re coming across clearly, anon, these are all valid points/questions, and I hope you’re feeling better.

Now “believer” is a strong word but I do believe there’s enough wiggle room in current show canon to accommodate this theory. In other words (bc I really don’t want anyone to misunderstand me here): there’s still enough story space for this idea to emerge but there is no direct, overt proof that it is there or that it will.

So consider what follows NOT a proof post but a simple, albeit long AF - thought experiment that presupposes two things:

Liz and Red slept together while on the run (canonically that’s the period when Agnes was conceived)

Liz’s memory of this has been either altered or removed by Dr. Krilov

Now, behavior was, in fact, the one thing that initially put me off this theory bc I didn’t think Red would be willing to just step aside if he suspected he might be the baby’s father. BUT the following seasons revealed a couple of good reasons why he would not speak up (Kirk and the never-ending list of other hostiles, Liz’s “I hate your guts” phase, Liz clinging to Tom, Liz’s selective memory - courtesy of Krilov, fake-DG & the issue of the suitcase, an illness).

They also continued to show just how apt both Red and Liz are to not deal with stuff that’s not an immediate threat (e.g. Liz’s ‘I love you’ which they both willingly continue to just not address), and the thing is: despite not contesting paternity in any overt way, Red never actually stepped aside.

I think this paternity issue and its various complications - from Red’s perspective - can be separated into 4 major time blocks:

S3B

S5A

S5B–present

Even if there’s a reason for Red to think he might be Agnes’ father, I don’t believe he works off anything more than mild suspicions in the S3B–S5A period.

During this time, his relationship with Liz is rapidly unraveling and several other roadblocks and threats emerge that likely discourage him from openly broaching this issue. Then he gets to raise Agnes for 10 months, which provides the perfect opportunity to safely run a paternity test and maybe even another genetic screening (they made a point of telling us that baby Agnes was getting a standard one back in S3 + it was emphasized how having the correct info about her parents’ medical history is crucial for accurate testing - info Tom couldn’t provide). The beginning of Red’s collaboration with Dr. Stark roughly dates back to the time period when he had Agnes with him. If Red has a hereditary (late-onset) illness, he could have been driven to seek a cure once the tests confirmed his suspicions, and he’s now testing it on himself to make sure it works and is safe before giving it to Agnes.

IF.

– more on all this behind the cut – (apologies, mobile users)

- [ S3B ] -

Confirmation of the pregnancy is a wedge between Liz and Red, and it’s Red who screws up first when he rejects the baby right off the bat and tries to bury himself in work. It understandably hurts Liz and the tense tone of their interactions begins to snowball. The main issue concerning Red’s behavior in S3B, right after Liz tells him that she’s pregnant and he bounces back from his initial rejection, is that he becomes “suffocating” and more committed than ever to keep her and the baby in his orbit (which also alarms and later sets off Mr. Kaplan). Red has little sense of boundary, he starts isolating Liz, and he barely tolerates Tom’s presence. When he makes an effort to tolerate him, that’s bc he is trying his best to respect Liz’s choices/wishes (just like in “Ruin”) regardless of his own feelings, but it doesn’t prevent him from repeatedly trying to push Tom out of the picture. He saves him from going to prison but he still has a hard time dealing with Liz having a close relationship with him. This also echoes his original plans for Tom: being there for her but also keeping his distance. This, in turn, echoes his original “invisible benefactor” role he cast himself in (and both of them clearly crossed these lines as the years went by – more on this later).

Despite telling her that he’s known about the pregnancy for some time, Red does not act out until after Liz doesn’t deny that Tom is the father. Red knew about the pregnancy already, he had weeks to vent and get used to the idea, so his spiraling is kind of puzzling unless it’s not the pregnancy itself that sets him off. The only thing he wasn’t sure about was paternity (why?), so the only emotionally logical reason for his weird spiral is that part of him was still hoping that the baby was not Tom’s (tho, in theory, nobody else was in proximity other than the two of them + a more closer look at the timeline reveals that Tom was, in fact, nowhere near Liz when the baby was conceived).

But when Liz didn’t deny it, that’s when it became too much for Red: he didn’t want to have a child (for several reasons) but what he wanted even less was Tom to be confirmed as the father. Then his entire outlook on this subject changes by the end of the episode (after reminding himself how Katarina, too, dreaded having a baby but changed her mind completely). This also brings that Samar/Aram conversation to mind where she tells Aram how being around him changed her attitude towards having children, but now she cannot raise one bc of her condition.

But back to 312 and the “I’m pregnant” moment:

This whole conversation is just weird. Red is tense from the moment he sees Liz at the Post Office, then feeds her the answer to his own question, presenting it as a statement: “I assume Tom is the father.” Why not just give her the opportunity to name him? What this feels like is him giving her an out instead, and his closed-off, prickly, I-am-being-very-inconvenienced-by-this behavior (and Tom’s enthusiasm) is practically willing Liz to take it. And she hesitates for a moment, then instead of saying “yes” she just says, “I haven’t told him yet.” And this is where Red’s barely civil behavior veers into total assholery rejection, then he does a 180 at the end of the episode. By then Liz is sufficiently pissed off and is already pushing him away and sliding back into Tom’s arms. So in many ways ep 312 is where things truly turn and then get worse, and it all happens over Tom, essentially.

After this fallout, we get the episode where Red is thinking back to Josephine who was maneuvered into marrying an abusive scumbag for strategic reasons (as usual, we have parallels too). It was all arranged by a third party, which reminds me of Mr. Kaplan referring to Tom as her “confidant”, which makes me wonder about the extent of their off-screen interaction. Mr. Kaplan was doing everything to tear Red and Liz apart bc she saw that bond as fatal to both and a danger to the baby. Maybe she arranged that 2nd session w/ Krilov (who might have planted images that switched Red and Tom like he did w/ the fire memory where the roles were switched around), then she tipped Tom off, urging him to rekindle his relationship w/ Liz (his proposal was so out of the blue, I still don’t know what to do w/ that).

When Liz wants to give up the baby for adoption, she is told that she has to discuss this with the father, too, as his consent is also needed. Liz says the father is busy with work, then she has 0 conversation about this w/ Tom and goes to Red who, now being very pro having the baby, tries to talk her out of it. He also sabotages Tom’s teacher job and, at the same time, swoops in and presents Liz with a trust fund he set up for the baby, insisting that it’s for the child. As far as symbolic actions go, this one is screaming “I am the provider, not him”. And if it’s not clear enough, he also spells it out by telling her Tom’s not worthy of being her husband and of raising the baby. But it’s too late. Liz rejects him and clings to Tom. She even re-watches the video of Tom being interviewed as a potential adoptive father, which we saw in S1. Liz has been show to chat with potential adoptive parents, so her watching Tom’s adoption agency interview kinda makes it look like she picks Tom to “adopt” Agnes.

S3B is the time period when the threat from Kirk starts emerging. Mr. Kaplan also begins to view Red and Liz’s bond as sth to sever and Red himself as a threat to Agnes, saying that the baby hasn’t even been born yet but is “already paying the price for her association” with him. Then Liz kicks Red out when he asks to see the newborn baby, and soon after Liz’s “death”, Tom tells him that Agnes would only need protection if Red remained in her life. The three of them manage to gaslight Red to such an extent that he completely breaks down. He begins to contemplate ending it all and wanders around, cataloging the reasons.

And that episode-long contemplation is where we get to see (his version of) Katarina in this exact position, her pain at losing the man she loved at a time when there was so much anger and tension btw them, at not being able to raise her daughter, and all her reasoning for committing suicide (all paralleling Red’s). We can also glimpse Red’s innermost thoughts/feelings regarding Liz, Agnes, and Tom. He says “her mother is dead. All she has is the father.” Somehow he cannot bring himself to call Tom “her father” and this is reflected in future real-life interactions w/ Tom as well, when he switches between calling Agnes “Elizabeth’s child” and “your daughter” in his presence. Liz similarly switches btw calling Agnes “my” and “our” around Tom, and initially she refuses to refer to Agnes as anything but “my baby” even after Tom corrects her. It’s almost like both she and Red need some time to adjust. She does. Red? not so much.

Dom further adds to Red’s crushing guilt by reminding him how his choices doomed Liz like they doomed Katarina before. But then he also reminds him that he still has a reason to live as there are others out there who depend on him (“God help them.” - I LOVE Dom). So Red returns to make sure Agnes is safe and to exact vengeance for Liz’s death, two goals which are tied in his mind as he claims that the only way to protect Agnes is by killing Kirk who’s responsible for Liz’s death. He makes a deal with Tom: he lets him participate in the hunt in exchange for being allowed to spend time with Agnes. Again, this whole exchange has a vibe of negotiating visitation rights.

And Red’s interactions w/ Scottie give us a feel for why he will not argue much in the future when Liz decides to pick her to look after Agnes: Red calls Scottie “a brilliant strategist” who - despite Red’s visceral dislike of her - is a suitable “guard” as long as she believes Agnes to be her granddaughter. So not giving any reason to undermine that belief is in the little girl’s best interest (for now).

- [ S4 ] -

This is a period dedicatedto the overarching theme of “truth vs. appearances”, and we have afew interesting ideas and info snippets introduced that can help furtherexplain Red’s behavior if (he suspects that) Agnes is his.

First of all, we meet Kirkand gain some insight into the relationship dynamics of the past - dynamicswhich reflect those in the present.

Mirroring is a curiousfeature that’s utilized right at the beginning, in 401. It’s briefly touchedupon (here) but what makes the Red-Kirk-Liz scene especially interesting isthat the mirroring btw this exchange and the Red-Tom-Agnes one in “CapeMay” is not merely visual but also verbal, giving some weight to thesuspicion that they are linked by design. In both scenes we have the“designated dad” in a room with his daughter while the real father(Red is not Liz’s father but in 401 he “stands in” for real Reddington) is separated and looking in from the outside. On top of that, the dialogues are verysimilar, too:

Red (401): Are you okay? || Red (319): She’ll need protection.Kirk (401): Unlike you, I’d never hurt my own daughter. || Tom (319): Only ifyou are in her life.

And to push it even further,Kirk’s words (“What I desire is to raise my child. To watch hergrow.”) reflect Red’s innermost wish he voices in 319: “ I’d giveanything to be a part of that child’s life […] see her, hold her, watch hergrow.” And this also echoes Liz’s fantasy she shares with Red when theyare on the run. And Red’s retort to Kirk in 401 (“She was never yours toraise.”) also matches Red’s dance around the issue of Agnes’ paternity in319 where he refuses to directly call Tom her father, paralleling Katarina’s pain that she feels due to being separated from her daughter.

So I think what we can statewith certainty here is that there is confusion around paternity inboth scenes.

As the season unfolds, we dolearn that Kirk was a “cover dad”, designated as such by Katarina formultiple reasons (that happen to match Liz’s reasons for wanting to“escape” Red in S3 and be with Tom instead):

best chance at a normal life: Kirk did not work as an agent or any kind ofoperative, he had a (relatively) stable life in Russia. Katarina wasmarried to him and they lived together until real Reddington, believing Mashato be his daughter, took their daughter back to the US.

safety: asRed put it, “Your safety was guaranteed because Kirk believed you to behis daughter.” This belief was cemented in by a fake DNA report andentries in Katarina’s journal where she writes about their relief that Mashawon’t be exposed to the genetic illness that plagues Kirk’s family as it canonly be inherited by sons.

“no other path”: despite loving Reddington, Katarina accepted that she was never gonna endup with him. The circumstances were forever against them. This is why she began distancing herself from him and this is why she didn’t want to know ifhe was Masha’s father.

If Katarina had written apro/con list for her baby, I bet it would have looked a lot like the one Liz wrote, exceptit would have said “Kirk????” instead of “Tom????” But, as Redtold Liz, being Katarina’s husband didn’t make Kirk her father, which is apotentially relevant observation given how Liz kept trying to marry Tom at allcosts to force a “normal family” into existence that was never more than anillusion + how she was trying to distance herself from Red.

Those three main reasons abovealso provided the motivation for a cover-up that Kirk refused to acceptas the truth until multiple tests confirmed it when he fell ill and needed agenetic donation from a blood relative. As Red pointed out, “You saw whatKatarina wanted you to see.” This also echoes Mr. Kaplan’s words to Red atthe end of S3: “You saw what we needed you to see.” which might godeeper than “merely” faking Liz’s death and could be a hint at Kaplan’srole in arranging the 2nd memory manip session with Krilov.

In this season, Red alsostruggles with appearance vs. truth, with the cost/benefit ratio of deceptionsand false assumptions. This happens indirectly when he “auditions” hisnew cleaners in a pristine white apartment where one of his friends wasmurdered. He is both upset and marvels at how clean everything looks –“your cleaners removed even the memory of his blood”.

This practicality takes on asymbolic meaning as it carries over into Red’s relationship with Mr. Kaplanwhom he calls his confessor: “every trespass I committed, expunged.Cleansed as if it never happened.” Mr. Kaplan claims that Red betrayed Lizand held her “emotionally hostage”. These are rather extreme accusations… unless Red and Liz slept together while on the run and Redconfessed this to Mr. Kaplan. Now that act could be easily and understandablyconsidered trespassing by her, a crossing of a line that never should have beencrossed (= a betrayal). Red felt rage when he learned that Tom had become intimate with Liz. He considered this a betrayal, too, and Tom an immediate threat. He went about correcting the situation the same way Mr. Kaplan goes about correcting Red’s behavior in S3B-S4. Perhaps the trigger was the same type of trespassing too.

Mr. Kaplan makes it her mission to separate Liz and Red,and it all begins back in S3, around the time somebody hired Dr. Krilov to takecertain memories from Liz. Red is very close to directly confessing his feelings for Liz in 302. If he ended up confessing that he’s in love with her and they ended up in bed, that can be considered “a truth” about him that Liz uncovered – a truth that someone who doesn’t want them to be together would definitely object to.

Mr. Kaplan urges Liz to “do what yourmother never had the courage to do: walk away from Raymond.” IF Red and Liz slepttogether and Agnes was the result, then Dr. Krilov’s 2nd memory manipulationdid what Red’s cleaner(s) did in the white apartment: the “trespass” got “expunged”. Even the memory of it.Truth became elusive and assumptions took its place (like “I assume Tom is thefather.”).

Red is trying to complete a white puzzle in the white apartment,which takes on potential relevance after we can hear him compare memory toa jigsaw puzzle in 514. The possible relevance? Maybe he’s wondering (puzzled, if you will ;) why Lizacts as if nothing happened between them on the run, as if her memory of it were wiped clean. And while it is undoubtedly simpler and safer thisway, and it’s best to leave that topic alone, it is hard for him to accept, esp with Tomin the picture and taking on roles Red wishes to be able to fill, roles Liz now rejects him in.

In this episode we can also hear Gale make a pointed, suggestive remarkto Liz about her time with Red in S3A: “What was it like on the run withhim? Did he charm you?” And all this happens while Mr. Kaplan is hell-benton tearing Red and Liz apart for the sake of all of their safety, claiming thatRed’s presence in their lives is a threat to Agnes, Liz, and also to himself.

Memory manipulation - or the presence of holes in one’s memory - has itsown “footprint” in the show. It usually manifests as images drifting outof focus and echoing voices. There are two instances where this happens to Liz with no apparent reason. One is in 308 when she is in a gas stationbathroom - already pregnant - staring at her reflection in the dirty mirror. The other is in 317when Red marches towards her in the church, calling out her name and interrupting her and Tom’s wedding -both are situations where her baby’s father and her husband are likely on her mind. In317 she even connects the two by saying she wants to build a life with thefather of her child and Red keeps pleading with her to not marry Tom.

We are periodically reminded that Red is a Proust fan, and Proustjust happens to be the author of À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) - a monumentalexploration of the various connections that web reality, perception, and memorytogether. The concept of involuntary memory originates from this novel series,and we can see this in action on The Blacklist, too, when Liz’sburied memory of the night of the fire gets triggered in 222. It’s also possible that she was close to being triggered in those twoscenes mentioned above, and maybe she won’t even need Krilov’s help in regaining the memories she’s lost the 2nd time as they could also be triggered unexpectedly by the smallest, most random thing - a smell, a taste, a voice, a gesture.

The white apartment incidentalso coincides with Liz, Agnes, and Tom moving to a new apartment. Redhas a hard time adjusting to this change, to no longer being able to see Agneswhenever he wants (and he was visiting her regularly while they were in his safe house, always showing up w/ the request to see her in particular), which brings the downside of deception into focus: separation. And Redstruggles with this despite understanding the safety that lies in it and inhiding truths - something Katarina knew a lot about, as well.

It’s not surprising that he soon starts musingabout the importance of truth (in 412):

“You said something before. The truth doesn’t matter, that the only thing in this world that matters is just the appearance of truth. I fear you might be right about that. Lately I find that the truth has become… so elusive. Often imaginary. But in the end, it’s all that we’re left with, isn’t it? What is real, what you can taste and touch and feel. The words that pass between us as we look each other in the eye are… all we have to hold on to. The truth. I hold it dear.”

then he proceeds to make a cuckoo clock forAgnes in the following episode (x, x). His first remark on how he is no longercomfortable with the idea of dying at any second also pops up in 412, and itgets reaffirmed in 415, in the same episode where the bad guy of the weekexpresses the same sentiment: his reason for clinging to his miserable life is fatherhood andhe wants a family even if he is barred from being physically present in their lives.

Red faces this issue, too. Tom remains Agnes’ (designated)dad and Liz’s husband while he is now kept away. He stillkeeps prodding that family unit, though, keeps teasing Tom about his pastand keeps involving him in missions to strip away his thin veneer of “normaland safe” to prove to Liz that she is mistaken about him. (sidenote: Tom also“takes over” the sentiment of Liz - and Agnes - being his future; thisis Red’s “thing”, has been since S1)

Meanwhile, Red keepsflip-flopping between accepting Mr. Kaplan’s accusations and rejecting them (“Maybe I am the person you need protection from.” vs “She was wrong to think Elizabeth and Agnes were safer without me in their lives.”). Hecannot seem to make up his mind as others join the chorus of blaming him forhow badly things turned out.

This is also the seasonwhere Red has an awkward and out-of-the-blue exchange with Cooper about thelatter’s sick daughter (414), and in another ep (404) - one featuring a parentand child sharing the same disorder - Red is asked point blank if he has achild with special needs but he doesn’t answer.

His personal struggle with appearancevs truth, however, is temporarily suspended when Liz blindsides him with the DNA test in 422. Despite his visible discomfort, Reddoesn’t correct Liz’s false assumption because it happens to provide theperfect cover he so desperately needs to find the skeleton Mr. Kaplan unearthed.But this strategic move comes with the price of having to keep his silenceabout Agnes for the foreseeable future. Thanks to Mr. Kaplan’s parting gift andCooper’s (accidental?) “antidote” of running that DNA test and providing cover, Red is now backed into a corner where the only way topreserve his secret is by not challenging appearances.

- [ S5A ] -

this block is nestledbetween two high-impact turning points: the DNA test and Tom’s death. The DNAtest locks Red into a false role, that of Liz’s father, which holds throughoutS5 and to a lesser extent in S6. The only reprieve is the 10-month period duringwhich he gets to take on the role of father in Agnes’ life (=inhabiting thetruth). Liz spends this time unconscious, which I find quite symbolic, as well (her being not conscious of his true role).

The DNA test is both a curseand a blessing. Red undoubtedly enjoys the sudden warming of his relationship with Lizbut he clearly does not enjoy her referring to him as “father”. Everytime it happens, we can see him wince, cringe, or glare in silence. But it happensto be the perfect cover for him to keep searching for the skeleton since it preventsLiz from asking the very questions he doesn’t want her to wonder about.

So Liz confrontinghim with the DNA test closes the window of opportunity Red still had in S3B andS4 to contest paternity. This turn of events also forces him to prioritizepreserving his secret over almost everything else (he is only ready to give it up when he thinks Liz’s life is at stake), so the struggle we can see him having in S4 - the onebtw appearances and the truth - promptly takes a back seat as keeping upappearances becomes the #1 strategic necessity.

That being said, Red still onlydoes the bare minimum (= not denying it outright) to play father to Liz. And this time block brings some interesting remarks about geneticsand secrets, which may have more significance than simply serving as empty redherrings until the impostor reveal hits at the end of the season.

Smokeydrops some comments about being “just like daddy” and having “noway to avoid the family curse” because “DNA is what it is.” Onthe surface this ties into the (beyond grating) tendency of some characters to blame-shiftand refuse to take any responsibility for their shitty life choices. But what makesthis exchange stand out is the wording “family curse” becauseKatarina uses a similar phrase (“this accursed disease that has afflicted his family for generations”) to describe Kirk’s condition.In 506, Tom also remarks to Red that “family secrets” always comeout. And now Red is sick and is in need of a pioneering geneticist’s help to find a cure. Somehow I don’t believe this is all just coincidence. + judging from those (brief) (glimpses) we get at Agnes, she is already a lot like her dad. ;)

Ep 504 in particularhas some curious details because they don’t line up with Red and Liz’s pretendrelationship but they do line up with the idea of Red having “a familycurse” that puts Agnes at risk. In this episode, asoldier gives up her child to get him out of harm’s way, but when the child presentswith an incurable disorder, she takes him from his adoptive parents, thencommits suicide to provide the donor heart needed to save his life. Witnessing this,Red remarks that “given the same circumstances, I’d like to think I’d beas brave as her. I know I’d wanna be.”

And then Tom dies, Liz endsup in a coma, and Red is left to take care of Agnes. If she is his, this 10-month period gives Red the perfect opportunity to finally confirm it and, asI mentioned above, have her tested for whatever disorder he knows he - and thus she too -carries. The timeline is always tricky on this show but by my rough estimateRed invested in Dr. Stark’s gene hacking research around the time he still had Agnes or not long after.

- [ S5B–present ] -

In this period, Red shouldalready have confirmation about paternity, about whether or not Agnes is atrisk, and Dr. Stark is already working on the cure for both. However, theskeleton and all the threats attached are still out there, circling them, and Liz is stillunder the impression that he is her father, which Red cannot push back againstif he is to keep his main secret secret.

We’ve seen how far he is willing to go tokeep his identity hidden, so letting Liz believe he is her father is really notall that out there for this guy. Only life-and-death situations can push him to reveal certain things, so it might be unruly genetics that will end up forcing his hand this time around. If Agnes needs treatment, that’s gonna be tricky to administer w/o somebody eventually noticing.

Red is still in a false role for now but its confines have weakened since he realized that Liz now knows he used to be someoneelse.

WhenLiz decides to go away for a while and entrusts Agnes to Scottie, Red questionsbut eventually goes along with her decision. “It was what youwanted,” he tells her later on. Even locked in his assumed role hecould have dug his heels in and claimed that he had a say in this matter, but he letLiz make the decisions and respected them. It carried way more risk to let her disappear alone than to let Scottie take Agnes, yet Red did not argue and did notrepeat the mistakes he made in S3B when things got so out of hand, Liz began toresent him and he was genuinely worried he was suffocating her. So he did what everybody toldhim to do in S4: he let her - and Agnes - go. And then she came back to him.

But for now, it is best if Agneshas safe distance from both him and Liz. In 520, Red told Jennifer that she was notabandoned but protected. That’s Agnes, too. Red may detest Scottie but he doesacknowledge that she is an excellent strategist with the skills, insight,motivation, and resources to keep the little girl safe. Shebelieves her to be her granddaughter, which - imo - in Red’s book ensures her loyaltyno matter how he feels about her otherwise. And in ep 512, we can see that Redknows exactly where Agnes is and, knowing him, he has his own invisiblemultilayered security web in place, monitoring everyone in Agnes’ life 24/7 and sendingdaily reports to him.

Whenhe and Liz observe Agnes from a distance at the end of the episode, the topic oftruth once again emerges, making it the third time that Agnes and talk of“the truth” co-occur: one is earlier in this episode (“If I misseven one more day with [Agnes] than is absolutely necessarybecause you’re not being completely honest…”)and the other is the cuckoo clock scene in S4. Red tells Liz heknows how hard this separation is and that they want the same thing here, whichechoes his remark in S4 about how they are in lockstep where Agnesis concerned. It also reminds me ofhis stunned reaction when Liz shares her fantasy with him in S3 (“I’mwalking in a park with my husband. Inbetween usis our little girl. I’mholding her hand in mine… and Inever let go.”). They do want the same thing and they are on the same page about Agnes, but everything else is still in disarray. For now, there is safetyin separation and keeping up appearances, even uncomfortable and painful ones.

In 514, Red gives us and Liz areminder when he points out that in the criminal underworld you can neverreveal how important someone is to you without making them an instant target. Theshow continues to provide examples of this specific danger, and the cases thatdirectly touch upon this topic “borrow” elements from Red’s situation: in518, Mosadek’s son is abducted by business associates because they suspect himof being an informant, and in 610, criminals attempt to extort money from a fatherwhose daughter was born premature with a condition to which there was no cureat the time, so the father came up with one.

Ep605 is extra curious because it features the story of a guy who never knew hisfather and only learned about his identity when he was unexpectedly summoned to the readingof his will. Van Ness was fighting an illness, too, and decided to change hiswill to include his only son that nobody even knew about. His last written message to himwas: “I loved your mother but didn’t have the courage to stay withher.” Van Ness’ seat and vote in an international criminal syndicate are also automaticallytransferred to his heir, making him a target for various reasons. It’s also a reminder of what kind of dangerous entanglements thechildren of international criminals have to deal with once their family ties arerevealed. In this episode, we also get a reminder from Aram that “in arelationship, the truth always comes out.” and Dembe continues toplead with Red to be honest with Liz, tell her the truth and leave the rest to fate. Red, however, stubbornly keeps his silence.

Theparallels btw Red/Liz and Samar/Aram also continue in S6, and what Samar tells Aram in 613has potential relevance to deciphering Red’s perspective and reasons for not speaking up about Agnes. Samar says that she made peace with the idea that she was never gonna havechildren (back in S3, she told Liz she picked career over family) but meeting Aram changed everything. After that, she wanted nothingmore than to try and balance the two, to build a family with him. But now that she knows she has anirreversible condition, she cannot raise a child, and she feels he deservesmore than what she can give.

Ifeel all these sentiments also play a role in how Red evaluates the possibilities of hisrelationship with Liz (even if Agnes is not his). His initial reaction to the baby was rejection,remarking that a child would make their difficult work infinitely harder. But then he changed his mind. In 319, he confessed that hewould give anything to be able to raise Agnes but he was also painfully aware of the factors preventing him from realizing this wish.“Your baby deserves more than we can provide,”Mr. Kaplan told Liz right at the moment she decided to separate her from Redfor good. This idea also emerges in 614, when Red notices Liz staring at thephoto of herself with Katarina, and tells her that the photo represented everythingKatarina wanted but couldn’t have after she became a hunted woman. Being a fugitive himself, Red facesthe exact same problem. And now he alsohas an illness to overcome, so him having the same attitude as Samar - i.e. writing himself off as notbeing a suitable match and accepting not being with “the one” - feels right on the mark, imo. Katarina also shared in this heartbreak where realReddington and their daughter were concerned. She, too, had to let go of what she really wanted.

bottom line (bc it’s time to wrap this up): everything that’s happened since Liz confronted Red with the pregnancynews has been discouraging him from “coming out” as Agnes’ father:

initial uncertainty regarding paternity

Liz’s growing resentment towards him that culminated in a faked death

Tom + Liz choosing him over and over again coupled w/ Red starting to accept that Tom somehow makes Liz happy while he only manages to bring pain and hardship into her life

the constant threats and Red’s growing worry that he might indeed be athreat to Agnes and Liz

the unexpected DNA report that was also the perfect cover

Red’s emerging health issues

Liz’s missing memories (without which how would he even begin to explain it or have any hope she will not freak completely or worse?)

But we are in a period now where there is tangible improvement regarding these main issues. Red now knows whether or not he’s Agnes’ father, so that uncertainty is gone. Tom is dead. Liz’s resentment subsided and she knows Red is an imposter yet loves him anyway and told him so. He also knows about Krilov’s 2nd interference that explains some of Liz’s behavior. His illnessis being treated, too. But the risks and threats in their lives still remain. For now they are mitigating this by staying away from Agnes, but if theimprovements hold, hopefully the time will come when this issue of paternity - along with some other questions - can be broughtforth and sorted between the two of them.

#anonymous #tbl spec #long post

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takerfoxx · 5 years

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You know, I'm curious now. Seeing as I have a major writing project coming up myself, could you give us a little more insight into how you write? Do you just tend to write up scenes in no particular order or whatever interests you most first, and then link it all together later? Typically I just start at the beginning and work my way through to the end. Nobody ever told me that I could just write in whatever heck order I wanted and tie it all together afterwards.

Everyone has their own method that works best for them, and no one method is objectively superior to the other. I tend to use the GRRM method: start off with an idea, come up with a very vague outline of how I want the story to go, daydream a bunch of major points and character beats to hit, and sort of wing it in between. I don’t necessarily jump around from point A to point F or whatever, and do tend to write more-or-less from the beginning to the end. However, if any part gives me trouble, I just skip it, go on to the next, while leaving three question marks and maybe a handful of notes to go back to later. If a long dialogue piece isn’t popping, I write it out in script form and go back to add in the action beats and other narrative parts later. So it’s part preplanning, part improvising, and part doing whatever it takes to get the words on the page.

For example: the current WN arc came about when I had the idle thought, “Hmmm, what if Hitomi suddenly showed up out of nowhere and ran into Gretchen and Homulilly? How would they react? How would she react? How would the other react...okay, I’m doing this.”

So I came up with the hallway scene. From there came the interview scene, Gretchen and Hitomi sitting together in the field scene, I whipped up the finale and the aftermath, I came up with a handful of situational details to justify everything that was going on (such as the graduation), and I figured I might as well flesh out Gretchen and Homulilly’s first few hours in the afterlife while I’m at it, and that’s pretty much the framework I had in mind when I started.

Okay, now we’re off to the races. For the first installment, I wrote out the first scene in one go, skipped the actual graduation ceremony, wrote out a few segments of the restaurant scene while leaving out certain parts for later, and did the whole dorm/hallway scene in one go. Then I knuckled down and tackled the graduation scene and put the restaurant scene together piece by piece. After that I run it through spellcheck to catch any minor mistakes, rest on it a bit, and then read through the whole document in detail to catch any other errors and see if filling in the details in the previously unfinished scenes means I have to alter anything in the already finished scenes and stuff I like that.

Great! Now it’s time to start winging it. What happens immediately after that one scene that I had preplanned years ago? Who needs to react to what? What interaction do we need to see? Has anyone been left out? Any good jokes I can get out of this? These parts are usually written a little bit at a time, and I spend a lot of time at work just daydreaming the details.

All right, now we’ve reached another preplanned scene. Okay, we need to make sure we hit points A, B, C, D, and E. However, point F doesn’t really work anymore, so we can go ahead and scrap it. But due to things that popped up during the improvised section, we need to alter this, this, and that. Oh, and we decided we were going to do that other thing too, so make sure add these two details to set it up!

Oh, what’s this? We just had lightning strike for an entirely new highpoint scene that was nowhere in the original planning? Well, I guess we’re doing this! It’s mad scientist writing time! Let the juices flow! (this is how the whole chapter from Hitomi’s point of view came about, BTW. Originally it was going to go straight from her escaping to meeting Gretchen in the field, but I decided to slow it down at the last minute).

Okay, now we’re back at the preplanned highpoint. Again, here’s the main areas I need to hit, here’s the parts that need to be altered in light of some new improvised details, and let’s do this!

Wait, this little improvised bit just gave me an idea to give this particular character an entire development arc that wasn’t in the original framework, but to make it work I’m going to need to change this, that, and that thing over there to accommodate it, and I may have to change some major details about the ending to make it work.

Ah, what the hell. I like the new idea better anyway. Let’s do this!

Okay, now we’re done with that scene, but while I know what happens in the next, it isn’t really popping. So l’ll go wash my car or go to the store or something, and by the time I’m done, the knots have usually worked themselves out in my head.

...and pretty much wash, rinse, repeat until the whole thing is done.

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robobrainmurdermysterytheatre · 5 years

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RE: This post (sort of) because I feel like I derailed the OPs post and I literally don’t know them and I feel awkward posting on it more lol

BTW if y’all are sick of talking to me about this no worries, nobody owes me a reply, I just like talking about the game and I have learned a lot from what other people have to say so here we are.

Fuck this got really long so I’m cutting it but it’s about Elder Maxson. Again. Sort of. And Synths. And I want to preface by saying I’m all about love what characters you want, you do you. I’m not trying to hate on anyone for liking or disliking fictional characters or organizations. But I have a lot of feelings.

So I’ve been thinking about a few things and a few things have been brought to my attention that I haven’t seen brought up before. So the quest for Teagan, with the crops and stuff, I know this is a sticking point and possibly could be disregarded because it’s an optional quest, but if Teagan knew Maxson wouldn’t approve of strong arming settlers for crops, why would he tell *you* to do it? I know you can complete the quest other ways, but looking at his voice lines he’s pretty gung-ho on the strong-arming part. He has zero reason to think you wouldn’t march on up to Maxson and tell him Teagan’s trying to put you up to strong-arming settlers, which would lead me to believe he doesn’t have a problem with Teagan putting you up to strong-arming settlers at all.

Also I just... I don’t know if I can believe that Maxson feels bad for killing or trying to kill Danse (depending on how you choose to do it). Like I *want* to believe he does, but Jesus, he’s just so cruel about the whole thing, even if you convince him to spare Danse. And afterward, when you get promoted to Paladin if you clapback at him when he says all of Danse’s stuff is yours now he says “To the victor go the spoils. Being a part of the Brotherhood, you should learn to appreciate that sentiment.” and he is sinister about it, it literally says in the dialogue direction ‘sinister smile’ I feel like there is A LOT loaded into that sentence, knowing that real, actual armies IRL historically and even now operate like this, especially armies who are allowed to operate at will without or with very little government oversight, their whole agenda is to win, take shit and expand and be more formidable. Maxson and the BoS won’t outright say it ever in the game, but looking at their actions and their sentiment, it seems, to me, like that is kind of part of their agenda. Which, I mean, you could argue is fine because they’d be keeping order and killing super mutants but they’d be running things their way, uncontested. Eventually they’d weed out all the synths and kill them - so bye Danse, bye Curie, bye Nick, don’t forget Magnolia and Sturges also - of course they would kill Strong so bye Strong too. They probably wouldn’t let me keep my cool robot workbench or my badass enormous sentrybots with skull faces and minigun hands because that kind of technology isn’t fit for civilians so I’d guess I have to say bye to Ragnarok and Lilith and Lucifer and Azrael (please do not judge my precious children by their sinister names) and Jezebel and Ada too. Oh, and Synth Shaun. They would definitely kill Synth Shaun too.

The thing I learned today which is part of the reason I’m back on this bullshit besides that thread ☝ is after Blind Betrayal Maxson has Danse’s records in the BoS stripped. I just got done in Fallout 3 doing the beginning of the Brotherhood stuff there and I have to go talk to that wizard-looking scribe lady (god I love their stupid outfits in 3, but I digress) and she makes A REALLY BIG DEAL about how their records are so important, every member has a record of the stuff they’ve done and how they’ve died and that’s their legacy. It’s mean, like vindictive. Like, synth or not, he did all of whatever he did. Aside from that, Maxson has literally altered the historical truth - there’s not even record that says “we accidentally a synth, this is what he did and we killed him because synths are bad” Again, like, thinking about real-world historical examples of people intentionally altering pieces of history to erase people or groups of people or what people have done - the reason behind actions like that have never been good.

And I’ve been thinking a lot about the whole, the people of the Commonwealth are bigots thing a lot. Yes, they are scared of synths because of the wrath The Institute has brought down on the people. They’re also scared of Raiders and Gunners. They’re scared of anything that stands between them and being safe and fed. Like, listen, they understand the difference between a human dude walking up into their settlement and a Raider, I feel like if someone bothered to take a second to explain to them Not All Synths(tm) work for The Institute and a lot of them are actually really nice and might brew you a stimpack or help you solve a noir mystery or take care of your feral infestation down the road they would be receptive to it. They would be especially receptive of it if the person telling them that was the head of the organization keeping them safe and fed >.> Would they be perfectly accepting? Probably not, but they would probably let them live for two seconds without throwing a fit. They would probably not shoot-to-kill on sight. Even the people in Diamond City who talk shit about Nick aren’t out there trying to murder him.

Kind of in that same vein, let’s talk about Desdemona and the Minutemen for a second. Because I feel like, and maybe I’m wrong about the intention, my girl got slandered into making it look like she doesn’t support The Minutemen. If you fail your covert op any number of ways, she literally says you can use them to forcibly liberate the Synths. Hell, if you haven’t met Preston yet, she’ll tell you where he is and to go find him because she thinks The Minutemen can help. She’ll only go off on you if you don’t sound the evacuation alarm. If you destroy The Institute with The Minutemen and you sound the alarm, like Preston tells you on no uncertain terms to do, she’ll call you “The destroyer of the Institute. Liberator of the synths.” and say “My only regret is we couldn't have been there when you did it.“ When you talk with her about the people trying to hurt the Synths that made it out of the destruction of The Institute and she says “ They're vigilantes and bigots. They don't recognize anyone's laws. Not even yours.” I don’t think she’s talking about ALL the people, she’s talking about people who are vigilantes and bigots which, if you do the quests to go rescue the Synths, usually bring you to Raider dens, who aren’t your people and you’re working against anyway. The gangs that hunt Synths that she has you clear out after The Institute is destroyed are Raider gangs. John the Farmer in buttfuck egypt out by the glowing sea isn’t slaughtering Synths, he’s busy with his farm and his water purifier that doesn’t work and Gunners attacking him weekly. When it comes down to it, how many people like John the Farmer are going to bite the hand that feeds them and fixes his water purifier and fucks up the Gunners if that hand is The Minutemen and they say Synths are OK (because they are, generally)?

and RE: danger synths and Acadia and stuff... so I’m trying to unpack the whole, weird Acadia lore that magically allows for DiMA to insert memories that he didn’t have in the first place into synth replacements (e.g. you kill Tektus, stuff his body in a wall, but DiMA can make a “perfect replica” of him with nothing to go on?) I’m assuming when it was said that synths pose a unique danger that humans don’t, this is what was being referenced - that Synths can be messed around with to replace humans in order to manipulate whatever. Putting Acadia aside for juuuuuuust a second - because of the weird magic lore contradiction - there’s a couple of points about this. We see very few people in the game who have the resources, the technology and the know how to actually mess with a Synth’s brain. Even the people supposedly the best at replacing people with “perfect copies”, The Institute, are still kind of shit at it. Every single infiltrator that we see in the game knows what they are and gets called out by someone who figures out what they are. The “perfect copy” idea is hysteria - possibly even propaganda from The Institute itself. The only contradiction to that is what DiMA did in Acadia and honestly, I have no idea how to explain that. That’s all aside from the fact that, technically, in this universe humans have the ability to do the same thing. We know humans can be face changed. Deacon says he was both a girl and a ghoul (the ghoul incident is legit and backed up by terminal entries in the Railroad) and to be either of those from being human dude Deacon, you would have to get a voice change so that has to be a thing, right? Take a human who knows enough about another human, physically turn that human into the other human, and you have someone replaced, no Synths needed. And even Far Harbor, who will, with certain choices, go destroy Acadia don’t destroy them just because they’re synths, they destroy Acadia because Acadia murdered and replaced Avery.

Which brings me to the final thought I had because holy crap I just wrote for like two hours and I’m tired and out of steam now. I keep really, really wanting to like the BoS and Maxson because they have the neat stuff and a lot of their people are cool and my friends like them but I just, like, can’t as long as they’re a faction that advocates for the genocide of Synths. That’s the one sticking point I have. I could maybe even tolerate them hanging around the Commonwealth where they maybe shouldn’t be, I could maybe see them through a nefarious lens than I do if I knew they wouldn’t come to Sanctuary and wipe out a third of my population because of how they were made - if they weren’t trying to kill my friends and my synth son. Honestly, I love a lot of fanon stuff about Maxson and the BoS because it changes that but canon, in the game, that’s what they would do.

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