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simsadventures · 4 years

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Not Me: Chapter 5: Confusion

CEO!Bucky x wife! Reader

Summary: Bucky recalls times in your marriage that were ambiguous, trying to find out where the truth is, while going carefully over the contract he signed when he got the company. And he suddenly sees things from a different perspective.

Warnings: angst (what’s new), swearing, mentions of sex, Bucky’s “POV”

Word Count: 2186

A/N: A lot of good’ol Buckaroo and his thoughts on certain issues in this chapter. Thought it might help. So what did you guys think? :) xx Oh btw, I have no idea how contracts work, so bear with me :D

Series Masterlist __ Masterlist

< Previous Chapter

Bucky was sitting on what was previously your bed, reading the letter you left behind over and over. At first, he went straight to his previous way of thinking, believing this was some kind of manipulation from you. But the longer he read it, the more he realised it was genuine. You were genuinely hurt, Bucky suddenly realised, and his heart gave a painful thud in his chest.

Was it all just some weird game somebody else was playing, destroying two innocent people along the way? But more importantly, was Bucky unknowingly destroying you all this time, when you had nothing to do with all of this?

Bucky recalled the night he “proposed” to you. At that time, he thought you were playing some sick game, trying to provoke him with your happiness. But he suddenly imagined your joyous face in front of him, the tears in your eyes giving them even glossier look just made you look prettier. But then, Bucky didn’t want to think of you as pretty or hot. You were the enemy for him and his family, and he tried to do everything in his power to forget about the way you tasted when he finally gave in to his urges.

Sex with you was the best he ever had, and every time he was with a woman ever since he imagined your face in front of him. He thought of the little noises you made when you came for him, and it never failed to make him horny. But he willed himself to forget about it, to think of it as sealing the deal. He slept with you on a few other occasions, always drunk because that was the only way he could look at you the same way he used to when you were younger.

Bucky closed his eyes and sighed heavily. Could he have been doing all that with you all this time, if somebody wasn’t playing you two like puppets?

He laughed bitterly as he realised that the only played person was most probably him. That from the drama in the kitchen and from the letter in his hand, it started to be more than obvious you had no idea what was going on. You were probably just happy to finally have a chance with him, after all those years he tried to make himself as independent as he could.

Bucky needed to talk to you as soon as possible, just to ask some general questions in case he was wrong about you right now, but he doubted he was. Things finally started to make a little more sense. He still didn’t want to think of the people or the person who was actually doing all this, because he had the feeling he wouldn’t survive it just now.

But first, he needed to consult the only other person he felt like he could trust. Steve.

Bucky gave him a short call asking him to come to his house, and Steve didn’t waste a second getting there. He could hear that something was seriously wrong by the tone of Bucky’s voice. His best friend was rarely confused or surprised, let alone upset.

When he came into the house, he called for Bucky, looking around, seeing that some things have changed, and from the weird feeling in his stomach, Steve could say that you were gone. For good. And although it should have been a good thing after the things you’ve done to Bucky and his family in the recent year and something, Steve felt that there was more to the story.

He almost ran up the stairs, finding Bucky in your room, sitting on your bed with something between his fingers. Bucky had his eyes closed, and if Steve didn’t know better, he would say Bucky was actually asleep. But from the set jaw and clenched fist and overall rigid posture, Steve knew that his best friend was just thinking.

“Hey there, bud. What happened? Where’s Y/N?”

“Gone. She’s gone, pal. And while a few days ago I would take that as a victory, I have the feeling I should be mourning and not celebrating. I told you about the little fight we had in the kitchen the night of the party, right?” Bucky asked, and Steve just nodded, beckoning Bucky to continue.

“I’ve had some doubts ever since then, but today, man. Today my father and her father vetoed me in company’s vote, which I didn’t even think was possible. But about that later. And Y/N was sick the week after the party, and then I was too busy to actually take notice of her, but that doesn’t matter. My father came barging in today, telling me that Y/N wanted a child from me or she’ll reveal some new photos that I haven’t seen yet. But, I’m telling you, man, she was too sick to even have her eyes opened, let alone to plot a fucking masterplan. And then I came home, ready to confront her, finally, and I found only this letter laying on her bed, and she is fucking gone,” Bucky sighed and handed Steve the letter to have a look on his own.

They both remained quiet while Steve read over the letter a few times to be sure he didn’t miss anything.

“This actually sounds like she just wants to be free, doesn’t it? Like she would actually be relieved if I signed the divorce papers. Or am I just seeing things?” Bucky asked, genuinely concerned.

“Look, something stinks here. Because this is really Y/N telling you that she wants to have nothing to do with you, ever again, pretty much, and from what you told me about the party, she also acted honestly. So why somebody who is trying to get away from you and whose life you made living hell, I quote here, would want a fucking kid with you? It doesn’t make any sense, Buck, none at all,” Steve mused, looking at Bucky with concern in his eyes.

“What if, all this time, it wasn’t her making all those demands, but somebody else, a third party, and the only thing I did was hurt her over and over?”

“I don’t know, Buck. And why didn’t you pick up her phone? If you have this feeling for some time, you could’ve talked to her today,” Steve added.

Bucky quickly grabbed his phone and showed Steve his missed calls. There were none.

Steve’s eyes perked up as he looked from Bucky to the phone and back to Bucky.

Bucky then went through his contacts, finding yours under simply your name, and when he clicked on the contact, it showed him that your number has been blocked in his phone.

“You blocked her in some tantrum?”

“Have I ever had a fucking tantrum, man? I had never blocked anybody, even that crazy chick that called me nonstop when we were 20. I never tried to contact Y/N, that’s on me, but I wouldn’t block her number. What if she was in danger and she’d call me? I wouldn’t be so dumb.”

Steve scoffed and raised an eyebrow at his friend. “If what you think is true, I don’t think she’d call you if she were in danger.”

Bucky sighed, knowing that Steve was right. He quickly unblocked your number and stared at the screen, musing at whether to call you or not. He didn’t even know what he’d say anymore. He was just confused, and he couldn’t grasp anything that was happening around him. And he hated to feel this helplessness inside him. But if you were really innocent, Bucky thought, you must have felt like this the whole time. And once again, Bucky’s heart hurt at the thought of it.

Bucky didn’t call you that night. He thought he would look into the contract before he made any rash decisions. Luckily, he grabbed it last night as he was leaving the office so he could have enough privacy to go through it line by line.

He was going through it, paying attention to every little detail. So far, nothing caught his attention, everything was the way it supposed to be and what he remembered from reading it the first time.

It was when he got to the almost conclusion of the contract, that he stumbled upon an interesting clause.

In case Barnes and Clark’s families connect through marriage, the company cannot be sold to anybody else, nor can any third party take over the company as such. In this case, the founding members of the company stay in leadership positions, able to veto the CEO’s decisions. Further explanation of this clause to be found in section 17, clause 198.

Bucky furiously turned the pages of the contract between his fingers, trying to get to the section mentioned. When he got to section 17, he quickly skimmed through the pages to find clause 198, but he could only find number 197 before section 18 started.

Ok, now this was more than weird. Where the hell was the fucking section and how in the fucking hell would you even be able to put such shitty clause into his contract? You’ve never even seen the fucking papers. Before this day, it was safely confined behind closed doors of his office. The only people who ever even saw the contract were… his and your fathers.

Bucky’s stomach clenched, recalling the photos of his sister splayed on different surfaces, on various men, doing God knows what. Would any of your fathers be so insane, especially his own fucking father, to use his daughter as leverage against Bucky? And what was the third party mentioned in the contract?

Bucky hoped that his confusion would dissipate after reading through it, but it only caused him to be more upset. It was now more than evident that you had no fucking idea what was happening around you. And that this whole time, you were actually trying to be a good wife to him, just trying to please him and his fucking manners.

He acted like a douche to you this whole time because he thought you were the devil’s spawn, trying to get a reaction out of you and make your life as bad as he thought his own life was, while you had no idea what was going on.

Bucky wanted to die there and then. He quickly picked up his phone and shot you a text message, hoping you two could talk for the first time since you got married, and you could find a way to be civil. He knew that hoping for anything else would be foolish. He would sign the divorce papers to free you from himself. He was obviously toxic for you, and he wanted to redeem himself, even if it meant never seeing you again.

You slumped down on your couch, totally exhausted. You tried to make your apartment liveable and comfortable, just trying to make it feel like a home. Not that you felt like that in a long time. You thought that taking stuff you bought to make yourself feel better in Bucky’s house would prove a good thing, but the more you looked at the fluffy pillows, the worse you felt.

You knew it was a good thing that you left and you had no regrets about that part. But as you were finally alone, you realised one simple thing.

Sure, Bucky made your life a living hell for no apparent reason. And you definitely weren’t forgetting nor forgiving that anytime soon. But you knew you could’ve done more. That you could’ve talked to him, could’ve made him listen to your reasoning. It might have not helped, but you should have tried more.

But that was in the past, you knew Bucky, and you had no future, and you only prayed you could be civil enough to maybe come back to work one day. You got up from the couch to have a quick shower, getting the dirt and exhaustion out of your system.

When you got up, you went to cook yourself some super unhealthy dinner, something you missed terribly in your previous life. You just wanted to check your phone to check the time so that you could cook your meal properly.

Your heart stopped when you saw there was a message waiting for you.

From: James

Hello, Y/N. I know you probably don’t ever wanna talk to me again, and I understand that. But could you find it in you, to see me, possibly one last time? I promise I’ll sign whatever divorce papers you wish me to. I just feel like I should explain certain things. You don’t own me anything, but I’m begging you to give me the chance to tell you some information, and most importantly, to apologise for everything.

Please, let me know if you would be up for this.

Bucky

Oh shit, you thought and had to grab the counter behind you not to fall from all the shock coursing your veins. What the hell just happened?

/Next Chapter >

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If you’d like to be tagged comment/message/send an ask. If you like the story, please reblog :) any comments are appreciated, even the critical ones. Always a space to get better, so let me know what you guys think.

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zhuhongs · 3 years

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Since rewatching the guardian drama after reading the novel has made me mad about how bad and good both of them are I am Obligated to write out a list of what I think the perfect merger btw both versions of canon are. This will be in list format otherwise I’ll end up writing like 6k words again.

TLDR: the genre stays as supernatural from the novel and not Sci fi, bc that was rlly not fleshed out well. Shen Wei is a ghost king, and all the dixingren are ghosts or demons like originally intended. The ghost race naturally exists and wasn't born from kunluns shoulder fire or anything. They just exist separate from humans. Not all ghosts are former humans, some people are just born as ghosts, like Shen Wei. Zhao Yunlan has the guardian whip and all the cool stuff that comes with the Guardian order. Overall, i’d keep the novel’s plot and relationship progression and ending without the backstory. Instead the backstory is a merger of both canons. From the drama I’d keep the characterization and themes as well as like half the extra cases and omit the other half.

I’ll be elaborating much further on my ideal backstory and other stuff under the cut bc the rest is 1.5k and I don’t wanna clog the dash

Okay SO In my ideal backstory there are two timelines just like the drama but the mythology of the book. The god Kunlun is actually zyl that went back in time and became a god. But the one that went back isn’t the current Zhao Yunlan. There has to be an original timeline where the god Kunlun never existed. Thus the great seal nor the separation of the three realms don’t exist either. Zhao Yunlan must go back in time to become a god, meet Shen Wei in the past, and create the current timeline where the separation exists but isn’t perfect. The current timeline is the one that the majority of the series takes place in.

In the original timeline, Zhao Yunlan is just some dude living in a world where ghosts, fairies, and all other beings just live in a giant free for all and it's kinda just a mess.

Like there’s government in modern context and all and all races live with each other but there's constant tension. ZYL works at some equivalent of the SID (same staff and side characters, but novel vers. Lin Jing is a monk, CSZ a zombie, etc) to protect people and all that and their job is rather hard. One day encounters the thousands year old ghost king Wei (who isnt shen wei yet bc zyl gave him that name in the future) who works alone as like a rouge cultivator of sorts. He lives on the surface undercover as a professor still bc he’s trying to not catch Yezun’s attention but does all the stuff he normally does as Heipaoshi. The two ally together for a case and bc they both have the same goals of getting all races to live in peace. At current, there are forces working together to decimate the human race, all lead by Yezun

As they work together they become closer and all that. Shen Wei tells him about how he was unable to prevent the great war 5 thousand years ago and neither could the gods so he’s spent the past 5 thousand years trying to make up for it. As they search for ways to stop Yezun, they gather the 4 hallows and learn how to use them to manipulate time so ZYL can go into the past and stop the great war and separate the three realms (living, dead, ghost). Shen Wei wants to go back with him but he can’t because he was alive all those years ago so if he goes back it will create a paradox. ZYL promises he’ll find Shen Wei in the past and create a timeline where they could be together in peace (that is the current timeline)

When goes back he becomes the god kunlun because there needed to be a new god born at the time to prevent the war. Also this time traveller looked promising to Nuwa, Fuxi, and Shennong. And I know in the guardian universe gods are usually born and ppl don’t become gods. EXCEPT this can happen when a god passes on smth from their body onto them bc that did happen in the novel with Kunlun making shen wei a demigod. And since fu you and ma gui are supposed to be gods Nu Wa and Fuxi I think that when they die, they should make ZYL a god and that's how this stuff happens.

So like ZYL explains to the gods the time he came from and how he wants to save everything and they make him a god and he works to save everything just like he did in the drama but this time with the novel plotline. During this time he meets young Shen Wei (he’s still like a hundred or so years old) and they get close and all the stuff from the backstory happens. He gives him his name, all that good stuff. The entire time doesn’t let him know that he’s from the future or that his real name is ZYL. He just poses as kunlun.

The two of them alongside the other gods (who still die at the times they do in the novel) work together to end the war and establish the great seal and set up the cycle of reincarnation, per the current timeline. Although the seal and cycle of reincarnation aren’t perfect. Gods can’t reincarnate, and ghosts still don’t have souls. And just like the novel, doing all of this kills ZYL bc it takes a lot of energy to create the seal even though it isn’t perfect.

Shen Wei of course doesn’t want ZYL to die and zyl says it's alright because he fixed the timeline so there must One day they will meet again and ZYL reveals the truth about the timeline to shen wei before he dies. This becomes the promise that Shen Wei mentions to meet again. Before he dies, ZYL gives him the shoulder fire as a memento ( i still like the candy wrapper necklace deal but i’ll take this too. Maybe both.. The pendant is still just rlly cool.. Gay ppl)

Shen Wei knows gods can’t enter the cycle of reincarnation and still makes the deal with Shennong to strip Kunlun of his godhood and let him reincarnate. This sets us into the novel timeline where isn’t allowed to meet any of zyl’s reincarnations before he becomes zyl otherwise he will die and also fuck up the timeline. The same 5 thousand years of pining still ensue bc Gay Ppl and i love making Shen Wei suffer but he doesn’t have the shrine room thing bc i think thats weird and yea.. Bad.

In the meantime Shen Wei does a lot of things mostly just protecting the great seal and working for Hell to keep the peace but still does other stuff. He still watches out for ZYL’s reincarnations but doesn’t do much besides make sure they don’t die a premature death. They meet again finally at the beginning of the series and the timeline resumes like canon. And that's my master plan that merges both drama logic and novel logic while making a much better timeline. (I hope that makes some sense)

Da Qing is still Kunlun’s pet cat and important. Novel backstory applies to him. And I already mentioned him kinda but as for Yezun (Gui Mian in the novel) his deal is similar as in the drama but just a ghost. And he is a big player in the great war, he thought Shen Wei abandoned him as a kid but they were just separated. Shen Wei doesn’t know it's him till the end of the war and couldn’t stop him in the OG timeline and vows to bring him to justice and make amends. Shen Wei continuously tries to explain things to him but he just won’t listen and is imprisoned in hell bc yk… war criminal stuff and yeah he’s the main antagonist trying to break the great seal bc he’s still made about the past. Idk. Yezun wasn’t well written in the novel OR the drama so like… honestly he just needs to be completely rewritten and I don’t care enough about that. He can just be a weak villain idk

the drama characterization stays the same for everyone else bc found family go brr. However for Lao Chu i… hmm… i think he should still be a zombie but the reason he killed someone should be related to his brother. I like that addition and then shen wei realized his sentence was unjust and exempted him. i like that storyline merger. bc the brother thing and him admiring Heipaoshi was drama only. in the novel lao chu just murdered some kid for a rlly whatever reason.

uhhh in terms of the cases… id make adjustments to most of them. i think the li qian case should be like the drama bc the novel just had her as a murderer and it was boring.

For the mountain river awl one was fine… novel version was funnier and more interesting action wise tbh… rip zyl and his exorbitant flirting. uhhh the whole reveal that shen wei was the soul reaper thing was kinda… ehh in the novel but i did love the comedy of afterwards Shen Wei pretending he went into cardiac arrest when he actually just… has no pulse bc he's a ghost.

ID KEEP THE WORTH IT SCENE AND RAIN SCENE… THOSE FUCK SO HARD… I love the drama for adding those every damn day. the novel version of zyl losing his sight sucked and was sooo boring. Keep the drama version on that.

also id keep dr. cheng. i'm very pro dr. cheng and her friendship with shen wei it adds so much to his character imo. keep the fruit seller man and his wife for the merit brush..omg it adds SO MUCH the way the drama did it.. like the drams build up with the novels pace of that arc.. mwah. it felt like it dragged a bit in the drama but if it went faster and without the hospital ep and with sha ya (sorry sha ya) that would've been so good. tho keep novel version of da qings memory loss and lao li. that was rlly impactful.

id say keep some of the cases like the mirror one, the eyes doctor one, etc. just to like.. yk have more to fill in general.. novel pacing but drama characterization without the bs that wasn't fully realized. and novel ending ofc. And that’s it!!

I hope most of this makes some amount of sense but it probably doesn’t. In my head it all tracks but like ik most of u don’t know anything about the novel so this sounds like gibberish. Also I know this would literally never happen but this is MY ideal merger of the two canons that I feel compelled to expand on for some reason. Anyways, as io said,, we need to rebuild guardian. Like literally let me and the mutuals write Guardian and it will be 500 times better.

#🐌.txt #镇魂 guardian #as always... if anyone wants to ask me any questions abt this or guardian in general... pls do.. my mind goes brrrrrr #guardian meta

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tarithenurse · 3 years

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Nightingale - 19

Fandom: Naruto Pairing: Hatake Kakashi &/x Fem!OC Contents: Yeah...this gets darker with some violence, a torture-ish situation, angst, sadness. A/N: Gotten to 347 of Shippuuden, btw. What a ride! As usual, ASK or REBLOG for tag!

Ch. 19

Her restraints haven't been altered, so Uguisu sits straight in the chair – the only display of freedom being a leg daintily slung over the other, allowing a foot to tap along in the air to an unheard melody as if she's bored. There is no fear in her face, just mild curiosity as she regards the towering man who has turned to her now. Gloved fingers move nimbly to release the gag.

"How are you feeling, Minami-kun?"

If she's surprised at the question and the (relatively) kind voice, she doesn't show it. "Much better, thank you. I don't believe I've slept this well since I was a teen."

"I suppose not..." Ibiki concedes, "but how come you managed to tonight? I would expect someone with your claimed experiences would have nightmares."

"Normally, yes. I guess I was too exhausted even to dream." The interrogator has begun circling the chair where she sits so her gaze lands on Kakashi instead.

"It can be a relief to finally tell the truth."

She nods. "Might also have helped that establishing the seal burned through all my chakra."

"The seal...yes." Pausing, he lets a hand brush against her shoulder, and while Kakashi holds his breath in anticipation, the woman merely tenses. "Do you feel...different with the seal?"

Uguisu purses her lips slightly as if in deep thought. "Well, apart from the physical effect...I'm not sure. It might be psychological that I feel free...like a looming shadow has been chased away...it probably is...but it's the best metaphor."

"You mentioned a physical effect?"

"It throbs, hurts. Not the worst I've ever felt but enough to be annoying." It’s impossible to tell she’s experiencing any discomfort when looking at her.

"Last night, you told us how the Curse Mark would be triggered if you used too much of your chakra or kekkei genkai." She nods at his words. "Is that the same now?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Why not?"

The little bit Kakashi knows about the woman, he can easily imagine that she's biting a sarcastic comment back rather than the calm reply she gives: "It seemed unwise to do anything without proper approval first...and I'm afraid to try."

"Explain."

"...which part?"

"The latter," Ibiki prompts less patiently but adds, "if you'd be so kind."

"When the mark activates, it's as if Orochimaru takes over mind and body and I...don't...want that."

Kakashi fears for one short moment that the woman will be asked to continue explaining, to retell in gruelling details what exactly she has suffered through at the hands of Konoha's enemy, and maybe that was Ibiki's plan as he bends over her to scrutinize her eyes and face because to the careful observer there's a subtle change in his stance.

He signals Inoichi who brings out a backpack together with a bundle containing the gear she’d carried last night.

“Is this yours?” The man with the long ponytail lifts the backpack.

“It is.”

“What is in it?” He places it on the end of the table that’s free.

A shrug. “I suppose that depends if anything has been added or removed since last I packed it.” Undoubtedly, Uguisu doesn’t trust the men very much. “There should be some tools, weapons, and clothing of mine. You’d also find a book from the Academy’s Library, a necklace, an alarm clock, someone’s favourite cup...washed, I might add...ehm, an also-washed sock, a photograph, and a pretty stone.”

Every item mentioned is procured from the depths of the luggage and lined up on the table.

Morino takes over again: “You have stolen these things, true?”

“Is it still considered stealing if the intention from the beginning is to return them?”

“Then why take them at all?”

A grim smile dances across the woman’s face. “The note explained why I borrowed the book. The rest? Proof that I could’ve killed but chose not to. I’m not the enemy.”

A smile is tugging at Kakashi’s lips behind the black fabric of the collar as he sees the interrogator momentarily at a loss for words – the skills he has honed over the years are telling him the explanation is true or at least not detectable as a lie.

"Then tell me," he recovers, "what you can do with your skill. Why was it so important to Orochimaru?"

"Because it can force people to go against their very nature." Only silence answers her. "One order from me, worded carefully, and the person will have no choice but to follow it to their best of their abilities. They will want to. Like an obsession or addiction nagging their mind until they give in to it because it's the only thing that matters to them. Orochimaru sought to use it to gain access to restricted places or during interrogations if a prisoner refused to tell him what he wanted. At the time, it wasn't necessary for the sake of carrying out murders but I'm certain he considered that as an option too," she sighs, "and probably more."

"Show us."

The onlookers were already silent but the hush that falls in the room makes it feel as though all air has been sucked away – a feeling that's intensified when Uguisu stares at the man with open mouth.

"Show? Are you...you don't mean that," she gasps, "or are...you volunteering?"

"Hm," Kakashi knows something's brewing when the interrogator begins to smile, "not me, no. However I'd recommend you demonstrate your skill on someone who has stated their devotion to you." Yeah, that makes sense. "Kakashi."

Even before Ibiki has finished saying his name, the jōnin in question has pushed to his feet. If Asuma had been there, he’d probably look at the white-haired friend in a way which would mean something along the lines of "told you so". The only Sarutobi, the old Hokage, shifts in his seat but doesn't object, allowing the addition to the people in the arena.

"Order him to follow the first order I give him."

Just do it. Kakashi nods to the woman, hoping to banish the fear from the doe-like eyes as she shifts her attention between the two men. I got nothing to hide.

“I must be able to sign,” she protests.

Without hesitation, the tall man in charge cuts her bonds and even allows her time to rub some life into hands and fingers before he motions towards the test-bunny. Is she hesitating? Just as Kakashi begins to wonder, Uguisu’s hands flies through a series of signs.

"Kakashi..."

Everything changes. The surroundings seem to fade away along with the people in it – even the shadow that once was Ibiki is unable to take form or speak audibly as it leans closer to Uguisu. Uguisu. She's washed out too, but her voice rings clear, somehow guiding him as she speaks again and he just knows that anything she says is important. Follow the order Ibiki gives me. It's a strange thing to say, but if that's what she wants then he'll happily do it and as he nods, the man in question begins to stand out clearer in the blurred world.

"Strangle her until she passes out."

A part of Kakashi tries to object, but his body moves on its own accord until he's leaning over her because this is what she wanted. She told him to follow the order. So he does.

The skin is soft and smooth under his fingers, the little hairs in the neck obediently bend under the pressure and it tickles a memory of having touched the blue strands before but in a different way. Above his hands the usually pretty face is distorted: mouth open, eyes watering and huge. She's afraid? But she wanted me to do this. It doesn't make sense, really, but he clings on to the one thing he knows for sure. Do as told. Her eyes roll backwards and the whites contrast the flushed skin. Almost there. Almost done as you wanted. Something wet lands on her face. Drops of something unimportant. She's resisting a bit now, but it's easy to avoid the instinctual flailing. Almost. And then she stops. The haze of the world lifts as Kakashi's hands fall to his sides and he realizes what he has done.

It takes four seconds to lower her onto the floor.

It takes five before he can hear the heartbeat, sluggish and faint.

It feels like an infinity before she gasps and coughs, each intake of breath shuddering through her body. It nearly breaks his heart to feel Uguisu stiffen as he pulls her into his lap.

"Truth..." Ibiki’s standing with his arms crossed, glaring down at the woman and smiling lazily as he takes in how she reacts even in her ally's arms. "Gotta admit I'm impressed it actually worked...maybe you're not completely useless after all."

"You wanna...see...usefulness?" she wheezes, pushing off of Kakashi and onto her feet. She's shaking, whether from the underlying trauma or the near death experience itself is unclear.

The man who ordered the attack strolls around the arena. "You didn't even try to fight him."

"Why should I...an order cannot be annulled..." Slender fingers tentatively stroke the angry marks left behind on her throat, making Kakashi’s gut tighten.

"Aï...The only thing I've seen so far is a scared woman crying and snivelling."

Something ignites within Kakashi almost as if he had been the target of the insult. But if I butt in...no...He knows the senior well enough to understand that this is part of the tactic, one move of many in an elaborate game of chess between him and the blue-haired girl.

Maybe she knows it too, at least she doesn't hide a tiny smile. "Fight back." Now her smile has grown into a full grin. "Perhaps a duel? Unless it's beneath you to fight a snivelling, scared girl like me? Hmm?"

"No involvement of others."

"Hm," she agrees.

Getting the hint, her white-haired friend retreats to his seat from before, only now realizing that his mask is wet.

Below, Uguisu is equipping the gear she normally wears and meticulously checks the contents of each pouch and sheath. Her hands are shaking. The sound of her breathing still has a slight creaking to it. Maybe for that reason, the scarred man is allowing her to take her time. He wants to see how capable she is.

Ibiki squares off at one side of the sandy floor. "The opponent must yield."

Again, she hums in agreement, taking her own place opposite of him. "Before we start...you might want to have a look in the book," she sweetly offers, "first page."

"Hah! Such a low trick won't work."

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airanahhbvhh · 3 years

Text

An old google doc of my first impressions of animorphs books 1-27 :)

Rating all the Animorphs books (because i am secretly the biggest loser on the planet) *

1 - 7/10 - good start, I don't remember this one honestly

2 - 5/10 - this is the one where Rachel sneaks into Chapman’s house as a cat and we get that cool Melissa Chapman moment

3 - 8/10 - Tobias grapples with losing his humanity and comes out the other end of it deciding that he is neither entirely bird or boy (made me lowkey ship tobias and rachel) good first kinda deep resonant theme in the story

4 - 6/10 - Don’t really remember this one that well but they find Ax who is super fucking rad

5 - 6/10 - Does the entire cast deal with nightmares? The Kids get dismembered and traumatized as ants in pursuit of getting a spaceship for Ax. They get captured until internal politicking between Visser 1 and 3 get them out of it. Marco discovers his mom’s Visser 1 which sets up his character development for later, which is cool

6 - 7/10 - This one’s more about Jake handling Tom’s yeerk stuff, he gets a yeerk stuck in his head which was pretty cool, really liked seeing the actual psychology of the yeerks and how the one in his head slowly lost hope (You also think wow Tom is probably really miserable in his current situation, really puts it into perspective)

7 - 5/10 - big worldbuilding stuff, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the book; the Elemist offers them the opportunity to escape to a new planet and shows them the future, Rachel’s divorced parents drama, boring

8 - 10/10 - On an Animorphs scale immaculate and perfect in every way. Due to Andalite law, Ax doesn’t share everything with the Animorphs and this causes CHARACTER CONFLICT, my favorite thing, there's also a confrontation where everyone’s like Ax you need to tell us more, you get scenes of Ax learning about the human world which I love and it’s just the best (also a cool meeting with other andalites and he tells them about Seerow’s Kindness) (There's also an emotional throughline where Ax struggles with his responsibilities to his species and coming to terms with the way his culture contributes/ed to suffering with their inaction) (so incredibly pog)

9 - 6.5/10 - Cassie kills a termite queen which gives her an identity crisis, and she and Jake talk about the circle of life and whether or not they should abide by it (For some reason I can’t remember the Cassie books that well)

10 - 9/10 - Holy shit the cover to this one is so fucking funny, And actually a really good story Erek had to kill people and live with the memory forever because he’s a robot (and Marco’s all like “I was already forgetting as I went to sleep”) (smh flexing his human short term memory) Really fucking good

11 - 3.5/10 - Garbage, my least favorite so far, this is the time traveling rain forest one (good things never happen when you invoke time travel), boring tbh {in hindsight it wasnt that bad}

12 - 4/10 - Pretty boring, Rachel just has to do stuff with that Justin Bieber guy while dealing with what's the equivalent of genetic hiccups (his name is Jeremy Jason McCole)

13 - 7/10 - Not bad at all, this is the one where they save a pair of Hork Bajir and the Elemist kinda fucks with Tobias (Tobias gets the chance to actually have a normal life and doesn’t take it) (I wonder what Marco would do?) (Also not surprising he didn’t, Tobias has a crappy homelife and for some reason is willing to sacrifice a lot)

14 - 4/10 - Now this is boring, the area 61 one, totally skippable

15 - 8/10 - Marco is really struggling with being afraid of being a shark, feels ashamed of being scared. The one with the mentally enhanced hammerheads (Really cool how he and Rachel had that moment together where she told him she saw a submarine so that he wouldn’t think his mom died) (Also why can’t people pity him?, i don’t understand) Overall pretty good (Also I think something might come up in regards to him being suceptible to his transformations, cause he seems like more so than the other animorphs)

16 - 9/10 - The first Jake book that I really liked, good character conflict between him and Cassie (she kinda a hypocrite doe for asking him to end Fenestre’s life) (Yo did Jake burn down his house?) (At what point are human lives worth less than making small amounts of progress in the war?) (they’re actually a pretty good couple) It is pretty intense to see him grapple with making the wrong choice as the leader :0

17 - 8/10 - Very insensitive to the mentally ill, like egregiously so (wtf rachel?) Rachel brushing up against always feeling like she has to be the tough one (Marco’s great for copping to the fact and proudly admitting that he’s afraid) The one with the addictive oatmeal in the Kandrona (ok kinda based lesson at the end about respecting the mentally ill and homeless but still kinda soured by the way they talk about the mentally ill) (Jake is also a hypocrite he’ll do the oatmeal things for other people but he won't do it to his brother)

18 - 9/10 - Once again incredibly pog, Ax is struggling with his identity as a friend of the humans and an Andalite. He trusts the Andalite group when he shouldn’t and his friends get mad at him for casting them out (btw this book starts with Ax raiding a Cinnabon which is just so charming) They go and do space war on the Leeran planet which sounds pretty (There is again a meetup where everyone gets mad at Ax for siding with the Andalites [ which I love btw]) More character development for Ax yay

19 - 10/10 - Best Cassie book. Holy shit, so great I loved her discussions with the yeerk and then it went in her head and all her friends mourned like holy shit this was so good. The conflict in the story was way more interesting than the Average animorph story too. (Cassie is like super wrong about whether or not she should leave the team, but like the story made me have an opinion, like what?) (Super nice part about the value of those who arent like mindlessly logical and the necessity of people who arent entirely utilitarian for creating a better world after the war is over) Like Cassie needs to continue to fight in order to maintain her morally righteous position) but there's something to be said about the loss of humanity and kindness that this war takes away from these actual children. I don’t fault Cassie at all for wanting to leave. Also the Yeerks have an ideology. Kinda? Also I love the Karen Yeerk, her redemption was actually really well paced and actually didn’t come out of nowhere (unlike other pieces of media). (Seriously amazing, this book made me like Cassie)

20-22 - 10/10 - rated individually I might give the first two books 8’s and the third a 10 but I'm doing them all together cause they're a three part series. David is such a prick oh my god. I think though the best part of the story was what happened with Rachel realizing what this war is doing to her mentally and not entirely being ok with it. And oh my god that ending, it feels like it shouldn't have to be that way (fucking hell David) but there really wasn't another way out of it, David's just too much of a liability. And Rachel STAYING AND WATCHING as his life is destroyed is honestly so dark. (Cassie has really strong emotional intelligence, I guess, to create that plan) The ending and Rachel's growth really make these books for me.

23 - 7/10 - pretty good. This is the one where Visser 3 tries to impersonate Aria and reveals Tobias’ dad to him. I guess that's why he felt connected to Elfangor. In this one Tobias is still struggling with the duality of being both human and hawk. He vows to kill and regret.

24 - 6/10 - The Helmacron one. Found it pretty boring but the Hemacrons kinda made up for it. Liked their unquenchable thirst for conquest and suicidal bravery (kinda aspirational how delusional they were) (Also kinda funny how Visser 3 was put off by being shrunk down)

25 - 7/10 -The Arctic Adventures one. Also the one where Marco gets a date. They were pretty miserable there with the constant old and endless running. They also had to eat a seal corpse. (Marco said something like he felt he deserved the scratches of the baby seals for eating their mom, really sad) Marco’s conclusion was kinda just put the traumatizing mission out of your head, and also Marian doesn’t want to date you anymore. Not the greatest book for Marco.

26 - 6/10 - The Howler-Iskoort one. Pretty good, I liked the Howlers collective consciousness and how they were all children who didn’t know about what they were doing to others. Jake has more trauma now yaaaay…. (Cassie and jake kiss in this one) (not sure how they transferred those memories but that's my fault ig)

27 - 7/10 - I am so incredibly concerned for Rachel. **

* (honestly maybe not that secretly)

**This is the one where the Drode sees Rachel’s penchant for violence and offers her the opportunity to betray Jake. She does not tell him about it. Almost attacked Cassie in squid form. Also still really reckless. Still loves fighting. Seriously, I'm concerned.

#animorphs #writing #cassie #why am i like this

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redhoodssweetheart · 4 years

Text

Amor Gignit Amorem

Genre: Fluff

Relationship: Jason Todd x Gender Neutral!Reader

Requested: Yes (REQUESTS ARE CLOSED)

Word Count: 3.3K

Warnings: Some swearing, mention of a gunshot wound (nothing graphic)

Description: You and Jason meet at a local bookshop and your relationship slowly grows into love as the two of you grow closer together.

A/N: The title is Latin for Love Begets Love. I wanted something in another language and Latin holds a dear place in my heart so it was an easy pick.

The bookshop wasn’t crowded on this particular afternoon when Jason stepped inside. He hadn’t even known this shop was here, and wouldn’t have discovered it if it hadn’t been raining so hard outside. Maybe it was Fate’s way of telling him that he needed to be in this bookshop at this particular point in time. Because today was the day he met you for the very first time. As he wandered through the stacks of used books he paused when his eyes landed on you.

You had been wandering around for the better part of thirty minutes at this point. It hadn’t been raining when you had come into the shop. You weren’t looking for a specific book, you were just curious to see what they had in stock. When it started to rain you had decided to wait it out here.

This particular bookshop was your refuge from the long days of dealing with Gotham and your job. There was always something new to be discovered and you had grown friendly with the people that worked here. So much so that they called you by name when you entered the shop.

Jason came to a stop beside you and gazed at the shelf, reading over the titles of the books, but not daring to glance at you. You on the other hand had taken notice of the man beside you. You glanced up and saw his black hair with a shock of white in the front. An interesting styling choice, but it suited him.

“Are you looking for something specific?” He finally asked after a few moments of silence.

You looked at him again and found that he had blue eyes. He was handsome, and for a moment you zoned out and completely forgot that he had asked you a question. When reality came crashing back down around you, you cleared your throat and looked away in embarrassment. “I just came in here to browse, I’m a regular. When it started raining I just decided to wait it out.” You looked back at him to see that he was still watching you, “What about you…?” You went to say his name and realized he hadn’t given you one.

“Jason Todd,” he supplied.

“Y/N Y/L/N,” you told him.

“Well I can’t say I came in here with the intent of perusing the bookshelves, in fact I had no idea this place even existed,” he confessed to you. “I came in escaping the rain.”

You hummed and moved a little ways down the stacks, “Since you’re here would you like some recommendations?” You wanted to keep talking to him, but weren’t sure how to keep the conversation flowing.

He agreed and you led him around the store showing him books which he held onto. You were surprised to see him holding onto them all, but you didn’t say anything. When the rain slowed to a drizzle the two of you made your way to the counter to pay for the books. Jeanie was behind the counter on this particular day and greeted you warmly. She eyed Jason who was standing a little bit behind you.

You paid and stepped out of the way to let Jason approach the counter. Waiting patiently he and Jeanie made small talk, you sometimes interjecting when she said something that included you. Once she was done ringing him up the two of you exited the shop together. “So how do I get in contact with you to discuss the books once I’m done?” He asked as the two of you waited on the corner for a taxi to come by.

Pulling out a piece of paper you scribbled your number down and handed it over just as he hailed a cab for you. “Have fun with those,” you said as you went to get in the cab.

A few days after meeting Jason you received a text from an unknown number.

Unknown: I just finished three out of the eight books that I bought, and I’m halfway through the second.

Unknown: This is Jason btw

You smiled and bit your lip as you contemplated what to say in response.

Y/N: How are you reading that fast?! It’s been three days!

Jason: I can’t put them down! I think you got me addicted to them

Y/N: Well I’m happy to be of service introducing you to new books like this. I have more recommendations if you want them.

Jason: Can I call?

You hesitated, but told him it was okay. A moment later your phone buzzed revealing Jason’s name. “Hello?”

“Hey, so I gotta know what happens to this assassin person. I mean this is only the first out of what? Seven books long? I only bought the first one in the series, but I am seriously considering going out and getting the rest of them tonight.”

You glanced at the clock on your bedside table and laughed, “Jason, it’s nearly midnight, I think it's going to be hard to find a book store open this late. You can always go out tomorrow and get the rest of them.”

He made a sound of despair, “I know I’m going to finish this book tonight and all I want to do is pick up the next one.” You had been exactly where Jason was before. Sometimes you bought the other books because you had a gut feeling that you were going to enjoy the series that much. “At least tell me this gets a happy ending.”

“My lips are sealed,” you told him. “I’m not going to spoil the book for you, sorry.” He growled and that made you laugh harder, “You’ll be fine, Jason. It’s only a few hours, if you can’t wait that long then you my friend have a problem.”

“It’s your fault,” he said in a sulky tone.

“My fault!” You cried out. “How is this my fault?”

“I bought the book because you recommended it and now I’m addicted!”

“Hey, I didn’t force you to buy it,” you were grinning widely at this, it was kind of fun seeing someone else in the same predicament that you found yourself in often. At least this series was released in full, you were curious to see how he would be if he had to wait an entire year for another book to be released.

“I’m glad that you’re finding my pain amusing,” you could hear a page flip and then it slapped shut. “I won’t have any sympathy for you when you find a series and call me because you can’t finish it since you don’t have the other books.”

That made you snort, “I am a seasoned reader, I can handle anything at this point.”

“Oh? Are you lying to me? Because I’m pretty sure that even the most seasoned readers still have to deal with this crushing blow when all you have is one book to read and you have to wait to get the others.”

“All right, you win,” you confessed. “I still have to deal with the pain of not being able to pick the next book up in a series.”

The two of you continued to chat for a couple more hours. Jason was constantly trying to get you to tell him spoilers, but you wouldn’t budge. You told him that he should just wait and read the book to know what happened. Around two in the morning is when you started to yawn and conversation slowed down. You didn’t want to hang up, but you knew you needed your sleep and so did Jason.

Before he hung up he asked if you wanted to meet him for coffee the following afternoon and you agreed.

From that moment on you and Jason started to form a relationship with one another, starting as friends and developing into something more. It wasn’t a shock to anyone that knew the two of you, both of you were practically attached at the hip at this point. He was either at your apartment or you were at his until you moved full time into his home.

You got to meet his family, you hadn’t realized when you met that Jason was the adoptive son of Bruce Wayne. When it did hit, you were thrown through a loop for a moment. “Wait, hold on, back up. You’re Bruce Wayne’s son?!”

Jason rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and gave a shy smile, “Well I mean, I kinda thought you knew. I don’t exactly hide it since I’m almost always in the papers whenever there’s an event going on.”

Alfred, Bruce’s butler and grandfather-like figure to Jason and his brothers, called you one afternoon to invite you to dinner. He said and you could quote this, “Master Jason will never get around to it. He’s stubborn and if I don’t do this now Master Dick will show up at your apartment unannounced.”

Jason was not happy that Alfred and the others had gone behind his back like that, but you managed to calm him down. “I’m glad he called, I want to meet your family. And maybe once I meet them, they’ll leave you alone about seeing me.”

He scoffed, “It’ll only get worse.” He leaned his forehead against yours, “Promise me you won’t go running for the hills when you meet them.”

You laughed and ruffled his hair, “I would never leave you, Jay.” You kissed his cheek and went to get ready for dinner.

That night was interesting. Bruce was much like you expected, quiet, reserved, and very observant. Dick was happy and excitable, but there was a pain in his eyes that you sometimes saw in Jason’s. Tim was a trip, he was smart and had a dry sense of humor that made you laugh. Damian appeared to be a little asshole. You had heard stories of the blood son of Bruce Wayne, but you saw through the act to the person underneath the indifference.

After dinner and thousands of questions about how you met and what Jason was like when he wasn’t grouchy, your boyfriend stole you away and showed you his childhood bedroom. “It looks like you,” you said as you moved over to a bookshelf that housed a bunch of classics on it.

Jason wrapped his arms around your shoulders and pressed a kiss to the top of your head. “So do you want to run screaming for the hills yet?”

You shook your head vehemently, “Nope. You’re stuck with me, Todd.”

“Good,” he whispered against your head as he continued to let you inspect his room.

Six months into the relationship is when you found out that Jason was Red Hood and the rest of his family was fondly known around Gotham as the “BatFam”. You had received a call from Dick telling you that you needed to get to the manor, that something had happened to Jason. Your heart had sank and you quickly gathered some things that you or Jason would need and headed there.

Never in your wildest dreams did you think that Jason was Red Hood. You knew he worked late hours some nights, but you had always assumed he was just dedicated to his job like Bruce was. When you had gotten to the manor Alfred had led you to the study, you begged Alfred to take you to Jason figuring he would be in his old bedroom.

Instead, Alfred led you below the mansion into the Batcave. You felt like you weren’t breathing and that time had stopped altogether as you took it in. “This way,” Alfred quietly prompted you.

“I told you I’m fine!” Hearing Jason’s voice broke whatever spell the Batcave had you under and your eyes flew to his figure laying on what appeared to be a hospital bed. “I’ve been shot before.”

“Jason Peter Todd!” You shouted, making his eyes go wide and snap over to you. “You were shot?!”

Dick cleared his throat and backed away giving you space to approach Jason. “Y/N, it’s not as bad as it looks, I promise.”

“Not as bad as it looks?!” You were sure you looked hysterical. “First I get a call late at night telling me that you’ve been hurt, then I come to the freaking Batcave, and now you’ve been shot?!” You pinched the bridge of your nose, “When were you planning on telling me this?”

“That I’d been shot or that I was Red Hood?”

“Either one,” you ground out.

“I’ll give you all some privacy,” Bruce said before turning and ushering the others out, there were some complaints, but they were quieted down with a single look from Bruce and Alfred both. The other men knew that you and Jason needed some private time together.

Jason took your hands in his and squeezed them, “I was planning on telling you soon, and I’m not just saying that to placate you. We’ve been together for six months now and I love you. I want you to be in my life for a long time to come. I was hoping to tell you under better circumstances than this, something less scary and stressful for you, but sometimes things work out differently than you plan them.”

You sniffled, not realizing that you were crying some, “I love you too. I was so scared that something had happened, that you were dying.”

“Yeah I already did that and I don’t plan on doing it again any time soon,” he said and then cringed when he saw the look on your face. “That’s harder to explain, can it wait for another time?” You nodded your head, you figured that would be a touchy subject for him to broach and would respect his wishes.

“Will you be all right then? I mean, getting shot isn’t fun but nothing major went wrong right?” You saw the bandage on his left shoulder, and saw a dime sized red spot in the center. He must have been in some pain.

He kissed the back of your hand, “I’ll be fine, I promise.”

You pulled a chair over to the bed and listened to him talk about how Bruce had adopted him and how he had become the next Robin after Dick had given it up. He talked briefly about how he died saying that it had been his end as Robin before coming back as Red Hood. As he talked Bruce watched the two of them sitting there, lost in his own thoughts about his son. He watched you cling to Jason and how at ease Jason was in your presence.

“It’s not nice to spy, Master Bruce,” Alfred whispered as he stepped up next to the boy he had raised.

Bruce glanced at Alfred, “I just wanted to make sure they were both all right. I know that this can’t be easy for Y/N, and Jason must be stressed. I just needed to be here in case they needed something.”

Alfred smiled and patted Bruce on the shoulder before turning and going back to the three men waiting in the study to see what was happening between you and Jason.

A year and a half had passed since you had met Jason at the bookshop and you couldn’t have been happier. Sure you and Jason had issues like any other couple, but you could honestly say that you loved him just as much as you did earlier on in your relationship. You even grew closer to his family and would sometimes come over and sit with Damian or Tim when the others were out patrolling.

It worried you when Jason came home bruised and bloodied, but he would kiss you and promise that it was nothing serious. You trusted Jason and you loved that he was out there protecting innocent people.

Tonight was a gala event for Wayne Enterprises. They were raising money for hospitals and various charities. You had been to several of these before and this one was no different. You talked with other big wigs that worked with Bruce while Jason made small talk with big donors. Damian tended to stick by you when Jason was pulled away for business related matters. You didn’t mind the parties, but they did get tedious after a while.

“I think I’m going to go to the kitchen for a reprieve,” you told Damian. “Wanna come with me?”

He shrugged and the two of you made your way to the kitchen together. The caterers greeted you with friendly smiles and a few hellos. You felt more at ease back here where it wasn’t expected of you to actually make small talk with anyone. Damian seemed to relax a little as well.

Not ten minutes after the two of you had snuck away Jason found you and loosened his tie, “Damian, Bruce is looking for you. There are some people that want to meet you.”

Damian rolled his eyes and reluctantly left the safety of the kitchen. “He seems thrilled,” you said as you watched the youngest Wayne leave.

“Eh, he’ll live,” Jason took your hand and tugged you from the kitchen. He led you out into the gardens where there were lights set up but no one around to enjoy them. “I thought you might want some fresh air,” he pulled you in his arms and the two of you swayed to the music drifting out through the open windows of the room where the party was going on.

“To be honest I hate coming to these things,” you admitted. “They were fun at first, but now the conversations are just the same thing over and over again.”

Jason spun you around and then carefully pulled you back into his arms, “Welcome to the life of one of the Wayne kids. I think Tim and Dick are really the only ones that tolerate them. Tim because he was born into this lifestyle and Dick because he’s just good with people.”

“And why do you hate them? You seem to navigate them very well,” you looked at him with a smirk on your face.

He narrowed his eyes at you and gently pinched your side, “I hate the small talk. I learned how to fake it for Bruce’s sake.” The song changed and Jason pulled you over to a stone bench for a little break and to give you some time off your feet. “Y/N, there’s something I want to ask you.” You looked over at Jason expectantly, he was fidgeting nervously, “I was thinking about us and how far we’ve come since we met in that bookshop on that rainy day. I’m glad I met you, I’m glad it was raining cats and dogs because it led me to you.”

You smiled and kissed his cheek, “I’m glad it was raining that day too because I got the pleasure of seeing you whine about a book you were reading.”

“Hardy har-har,” he said. “But in all seriousness, I love you, Y/N. I didn’t ever really think I would have this, or get a chance to have this when I died and even when I came back. I like who I am with you and I never want to go a day without seeing your beautiful face.” He slipped on the stone bench onto one knee and your breath caught in your throat. “So Y/N Y/L/N, will you do me the honors of marrying me?”

Tears filled your eyes and you nodded your head, “Yes, yes I’ll marry you!”

Jason picked you up and spun you around. There was cheering behind you as the boys rushed out and joined in on the hug. Bruce and the others following suit and congratulating the two of you on your engagement.

News spread quickly that you and Jason were now engaged. It was all anyone in Gotham could talk about for a while. When you and Jason did get married it was a small service filled with friends and family.

Jason slowly stopped going out on patrols as much because he wanted to be with you more and the two of you even opened up your own little bookstore like the one where you had met. Life with Jason was like a dream and you woke up each day glad that you had met him and got to spend the rest of your life with him.

#Jason Todd x Reader #Jason Todd x Reader fluff #Jason Todd #Jason Todd fanfic #Jason Todd fanfiction #Jason Todd Fluff #DC Comics #DC Comics fluff #DC Comics fanfic #DC Comics fanfiction #Requested

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chandelierslayer · 4 years

Text

There are 9 games in the Legend of Zelda series where you play in the place most people would think of when you say the name “Hyrule”. I won’t count FS and WW because there’s not much to go on, honestly. Plus ALBW Hyrule is pretty much the same as ALttP Hyrule, so I really only work with 8: LoZ, AoL, ALttP, OoT, FSA, TMC, TP, and SS. FSA is also similar to ALttP’s map, but there are enough differences that I’d like to think of what happened between the two timelines to make those differences. Now I’ve mentioned map theories here before, but never shared any images of my own maps. The main reason for that being, they’re always sloppy beyond recognition, sadly. But I went and made a proper one (it’ll do, anyway), and even labeled a few areas. Now... I’m not gonna go into everything today. I’m just here to talk about the Malon Wind Tribe thing. Figured it’s been long enough since I made that random post without elaboration. XD

A. Sealed Grounds/Sealed Temple - SS Hyrule Castle area/Sealed Temple (not shown in-game) - TMC Hyrule Castle area/Temple of Time - OoT Sacred Grove/ToT - TP / Lost Woods/Master Sword grove - ALttP Wooded mountain area North of the giant graveyard - LoZ

B. ...East part of the Faron Woods I guess? Maybe even Lake Floria - SS West part of the Lost Woods - OoT ...Not on the map - TP / Hyrule Castle area - ALttP (oof) Western half of the two-square lake (Lizard labyrinth) - LoZ

C. Not on the map - SS Wind Ruins - TMC Lon Lon Ranch area - OoT Ordon Ranch (overlapped on East side) - TP / Kakariko (overlapped on West side) - ALttP Giant graveyard - LoZ

So, yeah, that’s pretty much the result of my almost-entire-life’s worth of theorizing over Hyrulean geography. Enjoy. I might make the rest of the key later but I think a lot of it might speak for itself or at least be easy to put the pieces together. Anyway, back to Malon.

So yeah, I believe not only Lon Lon Ranch, but Kakariko (ALttP), specifically the big weathervane that the Flute Boy’s bird broke out of, were built where the Wind Ruins used to be. Why? Honestly I have no idea, maybe the Hylians and the Wind Tribe lost touch with each other and since the Wind Tribe no longer lived there, the Hylians were like “Well... They ain’t using it!” Maybe a natural disaster struck and the ruins weren’t really... there. Anymore. Maybe the giant wall jutting out of Hyrule Field in OoT that I’ve ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW WTF IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE??? is part of what was left over. Who knows? Moving on!

What if the Lon family, part of the Wind Tribe who stayed behind when the rest of their people were moving to the Cloud Tops, saw an opportunity and was like “This is my land now, I’m moving my ranch btw, kthxbai~”? ‘Cause if you remember, the first Lon Lon Ranch (that we know of, but probably the first one, yeah) was just East of Hyrule Town, North of some tiny puddle they had then called Lake Hylia (before they saw what a real lake looked like and were like IT’S SO MUCH WATER!, I’m guessing. People who’ve been living in the sky for centuries have to be blown away by the simplest things on the surface, there’s no way they wouldn’t be). It could’ve been destroyed between TMC and OoT what with all the stupid wars going on because of stupid people being stupid, but regardless of whether it did, they definitely moved it from a little shack in a field, to inside a massive stone wall that’s obviously been there for a while. Which could definitely be the Wind Ruins. I’m just saying.

As for the connection to ALttP Kakariko, this might sound like a reach, but what if the Ocarina of Winds is the same ocarina the Flute Boy used to play in ALttP? His pet bird breaks out of a weathercock? A small birb with the strength to pick up a person and fly them across the country?? Just like Zeffa, the blue bird you could summon with the Ocarina of Winds? Which you get in the Fortress of Winds, located within the Wind Ruins??? Sounds like it matches up, personally. I... still don’t know why a living bird was inside a weathervane, but let’s stick to the matter at hand for now.

Maybe the Flute Boy was descended from the Wind Tribe as well. Maybe that flute is an heirloom that’s been in his family for ages. Maybe he’s even Malon’s great-great-great-however-many-greats-grandson? Hm... a kid who wears all green... plays an ocarina in a forest grove... able to attract or call animals with his music... Where have I seen all these things before...?

I think that’s about it. Granted, a lot of this hypothesis is dependent on my map theory, which rests a lot on the Temple of Time NOT moving throughout the years, aka the resting place of the Master Sword not changing, and if you don’t agree with that concept, that’s fine, but I hope I’ve at least entertained you with my ideas. I’m... not gonna say Malon’s red hair proves she could be connected to the Wind Tribe, because... hair color doesn’t prove anything. And it’s the same excuse used by people who go around saying she’s half-Gerudo for some damn reason. Personally, I like my idea better, but it is what it is.

Thanks so much for reading, maybe give me a like or a reblog if you like my ideas, and feel free to scroll through my other posts if you want to see more ideas or just me talking, though it’s mostly reactions to games as I play them, but yeah, should be a good time either way. PACE~

#The Legend of Zelda #map theory #Malon #Wind Tribe #can I have your tots?

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pants-jones · 3 years

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Bioshock

The title of this is simple because Bioshock is a game I almost forgot that I played, but as soon as I remembered it a truckload of Bioshock stuff came flowing into my mind, and I decided to write about it here so I can finally seal all the stuff about these games in my brain vault forever. The Bioshock series consists of three games, Bioshock, Bioshock 2, and Bioshock Infinite. Around when Infinite came out, I heard a lotta talk about how amazing it was, but I was like 10 at the time so I never got to play it until it was free on PsPlus a couple months ago, along with the other two. The first two Bioshock games are fairly simple, in story and in gameplay. But Bioshock Infinite took the entirely new level that thinking about it now, almost a year after playing it, still blows me away. I feel like Bioshock doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, the way that games like Portal and Half Life do. But when I say that Bioshock blew my expectations out of the water (that is a pun) is a huge understatement.

So first, let’s start with the first Bioshock. This game came out in 2007, and it really shows with very dated mechanics. The game feels old, and for me that made it way more difficult than it needed to be. Bioshock 2 on the other hand, came out in 2010, and while the story isn’t nearly as good, it’s definitely way more streamlined. I could definitely see myself going back and playing it again. Let’s start with the first game.

Bioshock

Bioshock starts with you on a plane, examining a letter, when the plane suddenly crashes in the middle of the ocean. You’re the only survivor, and the closest thing you can see besides the burning plane parts, is this strange lighthouse.

This lighthouse is made of stone, and it’s tall and menacing but you enter since you have no other option. The door closes behind you and the first thing you see is this.

As you go down the stairs behind it, you enter a pod with the door open, and pull the lever inside. The pod takes you deep, deep underwater, while playing you a small video from a projector. This is 1960, so it’s very old styled. This is the first time you hear the voice of Andrew Ryan, while he tells you his philosophy and why he hates the world as it is. His initial speech is the rule he will live by for the entirety of the game. He hates government, and religion, because as he says in the speech, they all believe “a man isn’t entitled to the sweat of his brow”. I’m probably phrasing it poorly, but he means the mans hard work. You then get the first view of his creation- Rapture, the city on the bottom of the ocean.

When the pod lands, you are met with the main enemy of this game- Splicers. I think this goes without saying but Rapture has some pretty advanced technology. They’ve learned to manipulate peoples DNA to extreme levels, giving them pyrokinesis and other things. These abilities are distributed in really cool looking bottles and are called Plasmids. There are many different types of Plasmids, but you’ll start with lighting in the beginning of the game

Splicers are the results of splicing your genes way too much; they’re like crackheads, but instead of cocaine they was gene splicing. Their faces are usually cutup and they’re usually absolutely insane. But after escaping the first one you meet, you get in contact with a man named Atlas. He tells you he wants to get the hell out of Rapture, and that Andrew Ryan is the reason it’s gone to shit. He tells you that he needs to get his wife and child out with him, but when you get so close to rescuing them, Ryan bombs the submarine they were going to escape on.

Throughout your gameplay you will hear about the way Rapture used to be, before it was a warzone. You would hear about the power struggle between Ryan and someone named Fontaine, and you will learn about how Ryan killed his mistress who was pregnant with his child. This game is full of information explaining how things went down before your arrival. Unfortunately, I’m not the best with this kind of exposition. This is a personal thing but I always mess up the story when it comes to this form of story telling.

Now I’m gonna try my best to explain something a bit weird. If you’ve ever seen anything bioshock, you probably know about their mascot, the Big Daddy.

This right here is a Big Daddy. They’re not robots, more like giant brainwashed people in bit suits. Their voices are altered so they sound deep and menacing, and they’re by far the strongest enemy in the game. They’re made to protect the Little Sisters- the little girl next to the Big Daddy. Little Sisters are practically little blood suckers, they can sense where a dead body with some Atom (the substance they use in plasmids) and call them Angels. They’re children turned into indestructible mosnters that are just there to get Atom. They always travel together. You can kill the Big Daddy and either free the sister, or take the Atom from her body which would kill her. There’s a limited amount of Big Daddies and the game marks how many are left in each section. Obviously killing or saving these girls changes the ending you get. You team up with some german(i think) doctor that pretty much sees these girls as her daughters to stop Ryan and Fontaine, who wants to use them for more Atom.

The rest of the story is a bit fuzzy for me, so I’m just gonna briefly explain it here. Fontaine wasn’t a good guy, and he faked his own death and turned out to be Atlas. He and a doctor (whos name I don’t remember but she was important) pretty much took you and wiped your memory, brainwashing you so that you’d always listen to the trigger ‘would you kindly.” This twist was the biggest mind fuck, because you realize that Atlas (now Fontaine) would say those words all the time. They planted fake memories of a family in your mind and sent you to the surface, and even the letter you were examining in the start had the trigger in it. You kill Andrew Ryan before this (forgot to mention it), and you move on to get rid of this brainwashing and kill Fontaine. And to fight you Fontaine fills himself with Plasmids and Atom and obviously this doesn’t work because video games. You end the game, saving all the little sisters and bringing them to the surface, and live out your life sort of as a father figure for them. Or if you didn't save them, you just bring a bunch of splicers with you, but I don’t think this is a canon ending. This game is a solid 6/10 for me, only because of how dated it is.

Bioshock 2

Bioshock 2′s story is pretty much the same but with a twist this time- You get to play as a Big Daddy. Unfortunately this games story felt a bit too much like the first one so I don’t remember anything big about it. You play as a Big Daddy looking for his Little Sister. The game starts with a cutscene, showing you protecting her from splicers until you get murdered by Raptures new dictator- Sofia Lamb. She takes your Little Sister and turns her into a normal girl again, raising her up to be Eleanor Lamb. You revive yourself years later (i don’t remember how) and go off to find her. The biggest difference between Andrew Ryan and Sofia Lamb is that the splicers seem to worship her. But at the same time Sofia uses Eleanor as some sorta messiah figure, so they could be worshipping her I don’t know. In this game you get to go through newer parts of Rapture, and even get to see the new variant of Big Daddy- Big Sisters. These aren’t like Big Daddies and I’m not even sure what their purpose is, but they’re just as difficult to fight against. I’m pretty sure they’re supposed to steal Little Sisters from their male counterparts and bring them to Lamb. Towards the end of the game, I’m pretty sure Lamb ends up destroying Rapture, and you escape with Eleanor, a bunch of Little Sisters, and depending on your ending you also save Sofia from drowning. This game was a 7/10, because the gameplay was much better but the story was sorta lackluster. I’m not even sure if this game is canon in the story.

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite is the most different out of the three. I get the feeling that the devs got sick of the underwater aesthetic, so they said fuck it lets make a city in the sky.

This is Columbia. A city in the sky. It’s the literal opposite of Rapture. It’s bright, it’s colorful, and it’s gorgeous. This was my favorite setting in the whole series. Plasmids are now Vigors, and it takes place in 1912 (I know, surprising). This games story is extremely complex, so if I get lost explaining it I’ll link a video explaining it clearly. In this game you play as Booker Dewitt.

Booker Dewitt is a former member of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, scarred from the events of the Battle of Wounded Knee. When his debts from gambling start climbing too high, he is sent to Columbia to rescue a young woman named Elizabeth, who’s been trapped there since childhood. She’s kept in a giant statue protected by the Songbird, a giant bird with similar looks to the Big Daddies of Rapture.

(This is Elizabeth btw. We never see Booker’s face except for some official art.)

All of Columbia is run by one man, Zachary Hale Comstock, He’s revered as some “Prophet”, and he seems to know everything about Booker. He’s turned the people of Columbia into a sort of cult reminiscent of the KKK, based on Christianity and white power. Which makes him and all the enemies very easy to hate. Which is good.

This cult is opposed by the Vox Poppuli, led by Daisy Fitzroy. She was originally the housemaid of Comstock’s home, but she fled when she was accused of murdering Comstock’s wife. She took her never ending hatred of Comstock and formed the Vox, a symbol of hatred for all of Columbia and men like Comstock.

The story begins in July 1912, when Booker is taken to a lighthouse off the coast of Maine by two very odd twins, Robert and Rosalind Lutece (they are important later), being told “bring the girl and wipe away the debt.” This lighthouse is very reminiscent of the old stone lighthouse from previous games. But this lighthouse doubles as a rocket silo, and Dewitt is sent to Columbia from here.

The first thing that I personally noticed is Booker’s disdain for religion, because when he’s forced to be baptized to enter Columbia he’s extremely uncomfortable. Soon he’s chased down by the authorities, since all of Columbia has been told by Comstock that any man with a scar on his hand in the shape AD is the devil, just like the scar on Booker’s left hand.

After evading a lot of cops, we finally meet Elizabeth. She’s never really known anyone besides Comstock and the Songbird, and she’s missing a pinky. Besides that, she has a strange ability to create these tears in space time. The first time we see this is when she creates one to 1980′s Paris, a place she's always been desperate to go to. So they make a deal- She leaves Columbia with him and he takes her to Paris.

After multiple shenanigans, Elizabeth ends up taking Booker and herself to a reality where Booker was the martyr of the Vox Populi. Booker sacrificed himself for Daisy here, and this started an all out war between the two factions. Fitzroy believes that the Booker we play as is either an imposter, or a ghost, and she sets her forces on him. With Bookers help, Elizabeth kills Daisy, and they try to escape via airship before Songbird forces them to crash.

At this point they learn a few things about Comstock; Comstock had the Luteces build a siphon device into the tower Elizabeth lived in to inhibit her powers, and he killed his wife and then the Luteces to hide the truth. Plus, Elizabeth is actually Comstocks adopted daughter.

Elizabeth is kidnapped by Songbird. When Booker pursues, he needs to cross a bridge that happens to have a cloud passing through it. In the brief moment that clouds pass over the bridge, it goes from a bright sunset to a cold, windy dark snowstorm. You fight through an old building filled with Comstock’s men, and learn that Elizabeth has already been tortured and corrupted by Comstock. She believes you left her there to die. And then, you learn that Comstock’s been dead for years now. Then you finally meet Elizabeth, she shows you that you’ve been brought to 1984, and that she is using Columbia to attack New York.

In that cloud over the bridge, you were running for what felt like a short time, but was really 72 years. Elizabeth sends you back, because she still doesn’t view you as an enemy, and she tells you how to save herself from Comstock, by controlling the Songbird.

After freeing young Elizabeth, the pair assault Comstock’s airship, where Comstock and Booker argue about Booker’s knowledge of Elizabeth’s missing pinkie. This ends in Booker slamming the back of Comstock’s skull onto a baptismal font, right before drowning and killing him. They move on from the conversation, they use the Songbird to destroy the tower Elizabeth was held captive in, therefore destroying the siphon on her powers.

Songbird turns on them again, but with the siphon gone, Elizabeth uses her powers to transport herself, Booker, and even Songbird to Rapture. Booker and Elizabeth are inside, where they watch Songbird sink and die, being crushed by water pressure.

At this point Elizabeth understands everything about her powers, and understands everything about whatever mystery there is left to this story. She takes Booker up the stone lighthouse, the very same one we saw in Bioshock 1, and basically explains multiverse theory to him. She explains that there are an infinite amount of lighthouses just like this.

At this point, she knows Bookers history. She knows the truth, but Booker’s so traumatized that his brain legitimately erased the memory. The rest of this is about Booker’s past, and how this all began.

Booker was there for Wounded Knee. It traumatized him, made him resent himself, so some day he went to repent, to be baptized. But Booker couldn’t go through with it. he gained a massive debt, and in 1893, Robert Lutece approached Booker on behalf of Comstock, requesting that he “bring us the girl and wipe away the debt”, referring to Booker’s daughter, Anna Dewitt (hence, the AD on Booker’s hand.) Booker reluctantly agreed to hand off his daughter to wipe away his debt, but when he changed his mind, he chased Robert and Comstock down. Comstock tries escaping through a portal (the same portal Elizabeth can make btw) and the two struggle for the baby. Eventually, the portal closes, and Comstock snatches her away while the closing portal leaves her severed pinky in Booker’s hands.

She explains that the Lutece’s have tried to recruit many Booker’s to stop Comstock, but all versions of Comstock will live on unless they try to stop his birth. So she takes Booker back to the baptism- but from another perspective. Booker changing his mind last minute at his own baptism sparked to life a universe where Booker went through with it, and was reborn from that moment onwards as Zachary Hale Comstock. After overusing the Lutece’s multiverse machine, he became sterile, and stole Anna to provide a biological heir for Columbia.

We cut back to Elizabeth and Booker at the baptism pond, where multiple versions of her are appearing in front of him. The only way to stop Comstock is to kill Booker, so he allows them to drown him. And one by one, all the versions of Elizabeth disappear.

This is the canon ending for the game. There are some more things in DLC, like Elizabeth going to Rapture to tie some loose ends connected to Comstock and Ryan’s abuse of the Little Sister’s. And it’s confirmed that Rapture scientists got the idea for Big Daddies from Songbird, and Columbia’s scientists came up with vigors from Rapture’s plasmids. The writers went as far to explain how everything in Rapture or Columbia came to fruition, and connected them all.

I’ve never gotten such an “It all makes sense now feeling” than when playing this game. They didn’t even have to connect it to the first two games but they did and they made it work way too well. Bioshock Infinite is the best out of the three, and thanks to this review I’ve finally gotten all that stuff out of my mind. This game is a 9/10 for me. I’d definitely play it again.

#Bioshock #Bioshock Infinite #Gaming #review

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duocreatix · 5 years

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Ok, can I talk a little thing (or two) about Good Omens impressions?

Or actually, can I talk a little about the development of their love story as shown in the (glorious) third episode?

I was re-watching the series with my husband and, when it came to this specific episode, some things came to my mind while watching the marvelous half an hour of it that I’d like to put into words for a better understanding, for me and for y’all that maybe agree with me.

First of all, I’m gonna start from the idea that Crowley wasn’t primarily in love with him since the Garden of Eden, but acquired a heavy interest, almost an obsession, towards Aziraphale (the first angel that treated him as an equal) that slowly translated into pure affection (and eventual love) throughout 6000 years together. Where this transition occurred is not clear during the scenes, since the whole flashback is told from the angel’s point of view… except the 1967 scene, and this is important.

Secondly, I’ve already seen many people discussing that, in the 1941 church scene, Aziraphale didn’t found out he was in love with Crowley, but that he was being loved back, and I personally agree with this thinking line. This is also very important.

Why? Let’s go back a little bit…

(This is gonna be long, please bear with me…)

So, based on what’s written in the book, Aziraphale and Crowley agreed on sealing the Arrangement in 1020 AD, and the series showed very well the changes in their dynamics between 537 AD (before the Arrangement) and 1601 (after the Arrangement), where I’ll start.

Aziraphale leaves this marvelously obvious when he basically smiles at the sight of Crowley (even though he also smiled when saw him at Rome in 41 AD) and, well, asking for extra favors with that puppy eyes of him…

(and Crowley accepting, which is adorable in my opinion)

They’re doing favors to each other for almost 600 years by then, seeing each other more frequently than ever, so yes, they’re already seeing each other as friends (or at least kind of coworkers). Is Crowley spoiling the angel and said angel is starting to take advantage of this demon’s tendency? Absolutely. But romance…? Maybe not yet.

And then, well, comes French Revolution and Aziraphale is locked in the Bastille in the verge of being discorporated and Crowley comes to the rescue. Maybe the angel hadn’t fallen in love yet with the demon, but I’m in favor of the theory that, being the bastard that we already noticed he can be, Aziraphale walked into France aware he wasn’t appropriately suited for the historical moment (and with a miracle restraint) hoping to run into Crowley. So, yeah, that would justify the literal stars that shone in his eyes when he listened to his demon’s voice:

I could screenshot this entire scene piece by piece to prove my point, but I won’t, ok? The entire development leaves clear their mutual pining and how used to Crowley being always there Aziraphale became in those 770 years of Arrangement, to the point of risking his human form in the name of gluttony, almost in a leap of faith because he was sure Crowley would save him at the end.

(Aaaand he does all this not so little selfish things conscious that they could bring problems to Crowley, as he mentioned during the Globe Theatre scene, but the demon keeps doing anyway just to please his angel… Is Crowley already in love? Probably yes)

And then we arrive in 1862, and that for me was the breaking point in their relationship. Up to now, as I mentioned, Aziraphale always had the certainty that Crowley would be there for him, but this drastically changes here. I have my own thoughts about the holy water situation, and what amazes me the most is the fact that, instead of reading Crowley’s request as “I want holy water so I have a weapon to use against other demons if they ever come to me”, he read like “I want holy water to end my own life in case everything goes wrong”.

You can see, right here, his change of posture:

What does it mean? Simply that, for the first time in 5840 years, Aziraphale felt the fear of really losing Crowley, forever, no coming back, and panicked. The panic was big enough to label their relationship as other thing than friendship (probably as a defense mechanism against the fear of losing, even what they have done all those millenia is, indeed, fraternizing), which enrages Crowley: So what you’re saying is that I’ve been fooling myself all these centuries thinking of you as a friend, as someone I could trust my fucking demon life???

Thinking about it while writing, the whole “I-don’t-need-you-And-the-feeling-is-mutual-obviously” sounds like pure bickering from both sides trying to hurt the other. Do they succeed into it? Marvelously: they stop talking to each other, Crowley probably goes to his century-long nap (while hating himself for the fact that he knows he loves the angel, otherwise he wouldn’t be so angry with the fraternizing thing), and Aziraphale starts attending Gentlemen’s Clubs to forget his sorrows and try to detach from Crowley (any ficwriter can insert Oscar Wilde right here in Azi’s life). Their relationship ruins from here, and they’ll never be the same.

So, we arrive at 1941, both angel and demon living their lives fully apart from each other… but Crowley is unable to refrain himself from worrying about his angel. And then, that pathetic excuse of a demon, aware that Aziraphale was manipulated by the Nazis to hand over his precious books and was about to be discorporated again, enters a church, steps on consecrated ground and diverges a whole enemy attack to save the angel he loves.

Meanwhile, Aziraphale really considers he’s totally alone this time (i.e. without the guarantee of Crowley being around, because he barely knows if he still exists), doomed, forced to being discorporated and having to deal with celestial paperwork… Look at the despair in his eyes:

Thankfully, things go well and the two escape miraculously from the explosion, and Aziraphale can breathe again, like things can almost go back to how they were before. Almost.

And then comes The Scene:

And that’s here, the exact moment, when Crowley, more than saving his life (which, btw, he had no obligation to do), also saved his books, that Aziraphale actually feels Crowley’s love for him emanating for the first time, and it leaves the angel absolutely astonished. His feelings are being returned for real, and he honestly doesn’t know what to do about it.

Look at him, look at his eyes and dare to tell me this isn’t pure love??? He thought he lost his friend, but in the end he came back in his aid, like some sort of knight in a shining armor… and also saves everything he cares about!! (bonus points for the romantic soundtrack, Mr. Arnold)

Poor Aziraphale. (evil laugh)

Finally, we arrive at 1967, where this whole consideration came from. As I said, this is the only scene from Crowley’s POV, and there’s a reason to it: up to this point, Aziraphale is finally certain of his own feelings and that he’s actually being reciprocated, but the other side isn’t. So, while Crowley keeps going with his plan, the angel decided to pay back the gesture from 1941 by providing the Holy Water he needs so much.

What does it mean? It means for Aziraphale an opportunity to stop Crowley from hurting himself again or being caught by Heaven’s lot during the robery (even if providing said water causes trouble to himself), but mostly is another leap of faith to both sides: Aziraphale is willing to trust that Crowley won’t kill himself with Holy water while asking Crowley to trust his word and keep the fucking tartan thermos closed until it’s needed (which he actually does).

So, what I really, really wanted to reach is this specific point:

Tbh, their interpretation was crucial to me here because, let’s be real, the dialogue in this scene is very subtle in its real meaning. This moment is Crowley’s time to realize and understand what’s going on with Aziraphale through the last hundred years, and it hits him like a rock: his angel loves him enough to go against his own principles to attend his request, sacrificing his rationality and risking being discovered. He’s right there, by his side, raw and truly open like he wasn’t for centuries, letting the demon sense his own feelings for the very first time. So yes, after everything he said, Crowley, he loves you back.

And, interesting enough, what’s his first reaction after acknowledging this fact? Offer a ride, wanting to spend some time with his beloved angel and, who knows, make up for lost time. But Aziraphale feels too fragile, too uneasy, about the fact that he opened himself for Crowley and now the demon truly knows his feelings, and needs time to rebuild his walls and create a convincing facade that’ll deceive his lot he has nothing to do with his hereditary enemy. He wants to reciprocate Crowley, but now like that, it’s too early for him yet: Don’t expect me to accept your advances right away, I’m feeling too vulnerable right now and I’m afraid that I’ll let you consume me completely if I surrender in my current state, so please respect my time.

Interesting enough, Crowley actually kept his cool facade in 1941, when he let the angel see his true feelings, something that seemed impossible to Aziraphale when he did the same. He’s an angel, after all, he’s unable to lie!

This way, he’ll probably only understand Aziraphale’s insecurities when he goes through the same situation, or at least the closest he’ll get: while the angel feared losing the demon, the demon really lost the angel, and with him his stability, his other half, his world:

And suddenly, running away from the Apocalypse didn’t matter anymore, to the point the sunny ballad of “You’re My Best Friend” turns into the anguished prayer of “Somebody to Love”.

#GoodOmens #Aziraphale #Crowley #ineffable husbands #my interpretation #please let me know if you liked it #never done this before #also forgive my english

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popcultureoverdosed · 4 years

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Rokka no yuusha- The mysterious fantasy

There exists a powerful demon god that must be slain by six powerful warriors blessed by the seal of brave. The only problem is that there's an impostor among them. Rokka no yuusha bills itself as a fantasy mystery anime, quite the rare combination. Mystery is a genre usually assigned to historical, contemporary, or sci-fi settings. Even when fantasy series has elements of mystery, it usually won't be the main theme.

Our story centers itself in Adlet Mayer, a loud and arrogant redhead who constantly proclaims to be the strongest man in the world. His strength comes from his wits rather than brawn. He and the other braves assemble inside a mountain cave only to find a seventh brave. The conflict quickly breaks out and each one of them becomes a potential traitor.BIt was fun seeing the mystery on the 7th brave unravel but it quite honestly dragged out for too long. RNY only has 12 episodes so the entirety of the show is spent searching for the traitor rather than killing the demon god. The anime feels like a prologue to a story that never was. I don't know how faithfully this anime adapts the novel but having the narrative get sidetracked so early on is a bad way to write a series.

Two characters I particularly disliked were Fremy and Mora, the former more so because she's a karma houdini. Mora is supposed to be the wise one of the group but adamant belief Adlet is the traitor based in her leap in logic. Her reasoning made little sense and there's no reason for her to accuse solely him when there's an assassin and serial killer on the team.

Fremy is my most hated type of character. She does horrific actions and faces no consequences for them. She's responsible for killing multiple innocent braves in her past but Adlet protects her because " she's one of us". That piss poor reasoning really dampened the respect I had for Adlet but he's still the best character here. Fremy feels no remorse for what she did and said plot point quickly gets brushed aside. It's ludicrous how the cast could be so comfortable hanging around a serial killer. The narrative seems to think her tragic backstory if having an abusive mother can excuse her actions but that kind of logic is beyond childish. Tired of watching shows that don't know how heavy murder is.

The others are mostly meh. There's an assassin and little girl who's in the teams but they don't really stand out and their character designs are so bland. Nashetania wins my love with her perfect bunny girl character design and her loyal knight Goldof brings in fan service with his gender-bent black rock shooter attire. The two make a nice pair of eye candy and their interactions were always fun. Nashetania is the upbeat princess who's a bit ignorant of how the world works and Goldof is Mr muscle who loves his princess and his answer to everything is usually violence.

Rokka No Yuusha had the unfortunate fate of being animated by a low budget small name studio, leading to hideous CGI monsters amidst some shoddy animation. I've seen PSP games with better graphics and the terrible CG messed up Nashetania since her sword attacks are always horribly rendered. Would animating actual swords cost too much money and effort as opposed to weird silver spikes?

Another glaring flaw is how utterly underutilized it's Meso-American setting is. Fantasy series are European based 99.99 percent of the time and Japanese or Chinese based if its anime, completely ignoring the other cultures of the world. The Meso-American setting is really only apparent in the first episode and the cast are ridiculously pale-skinned European looking. We could've of finally gotten a Mayan based fantasy but any meso lore to be found here is simply superficial icing on the not so well done cake. This flaw doesn't influence my rating but it certainly shows japan has its head stuck up its homogeneous ass.

SPOILERS!!! SKIP THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH AND SKIP TO THE LAST ONE IF DESIRED

After several episodes of our heroes fighting over whodunit, Adlet reveals in the impostor is none other than Nashetania! Certainly didn't see that one coming and I don't mean that in a " Wow you got me!" type of way. There were no hints or clues to this reveal besides Nashetania briefly acting psycho in one episode. We find out her motive to create harmony between the human and demons by reviving the demon god, even if it sacrificing thousands of people. A villain who's so innocent and pure-hearted they can't see their own vileness is an interesting concept but we barely get know about her before the show ends. The anime has the audacity to end things off by having a cow costumed girl show up at the last minute to join the heroes on their journey to kill the demon god. The cast barely even react to it and accept it as they head off. All that struggle and conflict over who was the seventh brave turned out to be for nothing.

Overall, I'm gonna have to give this a 6.5/10. There were definitely some good concepts and characters to keep me interested but not enough to genuinely make me excited. I recommend it if you're in the mood for a mystery with a unique setting but don't expect much from this. BTW, I love Robbie Daymond’s performance as Adlet. He really captured his confidence and playful personality.

#rokka #review #blog #anime #miss Margaret #Shounen Passion #Adlet #Fremy

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undeadmanbun · 5 years

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Hi @nanyallen13 ! Thanks so much for the asks and blog compliments and sorry for the delay in replying. To make it easier to reply in one post I’ve screenshot the asks and anyone reading will need to go from bottom to top (they’re numbered).

I’m so glad you got in touch, it’s really great to get other opinions and takes because the nature of our ship and theories (and people’s knee-jerk reactions to them) means we’re often in our own corner of fandom, so non-jonsa opinions and input is great to hear. I hope all the jonsa meta people see this, they’ll be please to hear you enjoy their posts. And your English is amazing btw!

We never, ever ask that anyone ships it, all we really are out here doing is saying to folks “look, look at this foreshadowing, look at this evidence! we’re not crazy like you say we are!” and mostly we get crickets or yelled at, so it’s really nice to hear from a "neutral” that you think it could happen. Ok, this might be a bit messy because I’m out of practice, but to answer your questions...

What did I think of Dany before season 7?

I agree with what you said, but I began to take issue with her a little ahead of season 7, maybe season 5. I was still thrilled when she left for Westeros in season 6 because this is what we’d been waiting for all this time, but season 7 really sealed the deal for her arc taking a darker trajectory. I didn’t have especially strong opinions on Dany after season 1, I actually found her non-Westerosi arc kind of uninteresting for a long while and cheered on her “badass” moments, but, in hindsight, I think that’s because on first/second/third viewing I hadn’t realised where this was going.

I think I started to question some of her actions in season 5, when she burns the guy using the dragons, when her dragons are out of control and burn the child, when the teacher tells her it’s not a black and white situation (I’m writing this quickly, haven’t gone back to check names etc) but didn’t think too much about it until she was on the doorstep of characters I care for. That’s when it really hit home. Suddenly she was a threat to the characters I love. I wasn’t convinced of her being a full blown antagonist for a long while, but I’m more and more convinced she is as time goes on. A recent rewatch solidified this for me because when you go back in looking for it it’s kind of obvious (season one is FULL of foreshadowing, it’s amazing).

And you’re right. Perfect hero Dany is absolutely not an interesting character, she’s bland, unrealistic. But beautiful, dangerous, complex, flawed villain origin story Dany? Well, she’s a different matter. Dangerous and unpredictable “dark!dany” is a far more interesting character, and one that will go down in the history of female characters. We’re getting to see how a Cersei comes to be, and that’s fascinating stuff.

The stans have sadly created some power fantasy projection of the character wherein they want her to not only get everything in the story, but to be everything all at once to them, and she simply cannot do/be that, she’ll be human, she’ll be flawed, she’ll fail, she’ll die (and I agree, definitely not in childbirth, which is a dreadful ending for her, she deserves much better).

What did I think of J*nerys before Jonsa/Season 7?

Hmmm, let’s just say nothing good lol. I started to take issue with Dany around season 5 and I also had finished reading the books around the same time so I expected the ship to sail in some form. It was the obvious ship, too obvious in my opinion. It seemed like the dreadful, predictable male hero + female hero ship that I expected from a lesser series. So I expected it, but my hope was that the likely Chekhov’s gun of all these sycophantic men surrounding her that want to serve and love her (which is terrible, tedious storytelling unless there’s a twist) would go off, and that it would be a Jon-shaped pistol hanging on the wall.

When season 6 happened I was blindsided. I never, ever expected to be here now loudly shipping Jon with his “sister” Sansa (bear in mind I shipped nothing in this show really, but was aware of Brienne and Jaime being a slow burn, it’s hard to miss). I obviously had a clue they could reunite because season 5 had Sansa escaping Ramsay and she knows where Jon is. But when they reunited I assumed it would be platonic and it just didn’t have the sister brother platonic vibe it should have had. Suddenly Jonsa was doing all these tropes and by episode 10 of season 6 I’d jumped on board as a fully fledged jonsa shipper, and then down the theory/book/show evidence rabbit hole I went for another 2.5 years (jesus fjfdjfhkdjf). So by the time season 7 came around I was convinced of another endgame that wasn’t J*nerys.

On the topic of season 7, I totally agree with you regarding Political Jon, and my hope is obviously that it’s true, but if it isn’t, well, I will be very frustrated with Jon (because I love that dumbass). Fortunately there’s a lot pointing towards it so I’m hopeful. If he’s legitimately in love then it’s just a truly awful love story and an insult to “the north remembers” narrative (and to Jon’s character).

As you said, it seems like it is very intentional on the part of the show runners that all of these things are happening at once. They’re not mutually exclusive theories, but they are incredibly complimentary. You have to believe that a lot of people are crazy to be able to rule this “theory dissent” out, and I just don’t believe we are as “delusional” as we’re accused of being.

So, in summary, I never expected a) dark!dany or b) jonsa, but much analysis later I’m convinced of both, there’s just too much evidence for these theories for me not to expect them in some form. Maybe me and everyone else here will look like clowns in a few weeks, but I’m quietly optimistic. And absolutely nothing in the promo season has convinced me otherwise, only 22 days to go!

#dark!dany #jonsa #anti-daenerys #just in case #it's not really anti

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annabethfuckingchase · 5 years

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26: what are the most underrated books?

Good fucking question, anon, let’s start

Covenant Series by Jennifer L. ArmentroutThis is definitely my favorite on this list, it’s like Percy Jackson meets Vampire Academy (which is also on this list). The link will take you to the Goodreads for the first book but there is a novella prequel and a novella after the third one, both are kind of important.The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi pure bloods have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals–well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she’s crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn’t her biggest problem–staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is.If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

The Testing Trilogy by Joelle CharbonneauAnother great one with no fandom, please read it and come talk to me about it, I have a lot of feelings and nowhere to put them.Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Isn’t that what they say? But how close is too close when they may be one and the same? The Seven Stages War left much of the planet a charred wasteland. The future belongs to the next generation’s chosen few who must rebuild it. But to enter this elite group, candidates must first pass The Testing—their one chance at a college education and a rewarding career. Cia Vale is honoured to be chosen as a Testing candidate; eager to prove her worthiness as a University student and future leader of the United Commonwealth. But on the eve of her departure, her father’s advice hints at a darker side to her upcoming studies–trust no one. But surely she can trust Tomas, her handsome childhood friend who offers an alliance? Tomas, who seems to care more about her with the passing of every gruelling (and deadly) day of the Testing. To survive, Cia must choose: love without truth or life without trust.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny HanI know it’s gotten a lot more attention since the movie came out but I still feel like it deserves to be on here because a lot of people still don’t know it was a book.To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

Vampire Academy by Richelle MeadI’ve loved these books since like middle school and it has a fandom but it’s still pretty small.Only a true best friend can protect you from your immortal enemies … Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth’s magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires - the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa’s best friend, makes her a dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir’s Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger … and the Strigoi are always close by.Rose and Lissa must navigate their dangerous world, confront the temptations of forbidden love, and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever …

Bloodlines by Richelle MeadThis is a spin off of Vampire Academy and I definitely like this series more than the first one (mostly because Adrian) but it also has a very small fandom.I wasn’t free of my past, not yet.Sydney’s blood is special. That’s because she’s an alchemist - one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives. But the last encounter Sydney had with vampires got her in deep trouble with the other alchemists. And now with her allegiences in question, her future is on the line.When Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, at first she thinks she’s still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. But what unfolds is far worse. Jill Dragomir - the sister of Moroi Queen Lissa Dragomir - is in mortal danger, and the Moroi must send her into hiding. To avoid a civil war, Sydney is called upon to act as Jill’s guardian and protector, posing as her roommate in the unlikeliest of places: a human boarding school in Palm Springs, California. The last thing Sydney wants is to be accused of sympathizing with vampires. And now she has to live with one.The Moroi court believe Jill and Sydney will be safe at Amberwood Prep, but threats, distractions, and forbidden romance lurk both outside - and within - the school grounds. Now that they’re in hiding, the drama is only just beginning.

The Nightworld Series by LJ SmithThis series has been one of my favorites since middle school, which is exactly how long I’ve been waiting for the last one to come out. There are nine books, you will likely find them in 3-in-1 books so each physical copy has three of them in it. It has pretty much no fandom and I’d love it if someone could please come talk to me about Ash Redfern.Vampires, werewolves, witches, shapeshifters – they live among us without our knowledge. Night World is their secret society, a secret society with very strict rules. And falling in love breaks all the laws of the Night World.

Everything, Everything by Nicola YoonAnother one that got a movie so it’s a little more popular now but I still don’t see much of a fandom here on Tumblr. I rarely like stand alone books but this is a definite exception. The book is way better than the movie by the way, as it always is. Btw I’m totally in love with Olly.My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

Thank you so much for asking, this was a really fun question!

#ask #anon

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amitds · 6 years

Photo

Someone’s mad?

Actually I blocked you because you’re the one who can’t accept facts and why should I waste my time repeating what the manga and databooks (Kishi) state and promote? Why should I keep having to repeat myself? Are you that special?

I already gave you canon proof and you keep talking about what you think catch up means and what the fandom thinks power means. So again, what is the point? We’re just going to go on forever and I don’t need to say the same things, see you say the same things and get notifications about it.

I posted facts like the character and the databook written by the author both stating that Sakura caught up to them and I mentioned the fact that they are called a new three way deadlock and a paralleled to the legendary sannin and still you kept talking about Sasuke and Naruto as if EMS Sasuke and KCM Naruto are equal feat wise.

As if we didn’t see KCM Naruto summon Kurama, use rasenshuriken, shadow clones, minato-like speed, tailed beast bombs vs. EMS Sasuke’s incomplete susanoo and amaterasu feats.

I posted canon, factual data and you reply talking about who you think would beat the other based on what exactly? You talked about this fandom not considering healing and chakra reserves as powers when I said it was part of Sakura and Tsunade’s power and boosted their fighting prowess too.

I literally posted Japanese raws with literal translations as well as VIZ versions of what Sakura and Databook 4 stated and what was your reply?

“The sannin are not equal”

“I haven’t seen anything in 700 chapters to prove that Sakura surpassed Tsunade.”

“Sakura said she wouldn’t stay back after they were Gods so do you think she was equal to them there too?”

“Databooks are merely supplementary.”

“Sakura’s healing, regeneration and chakra reserves don’t count, only fighting power counts.”

“Sakura saying she caught up doesn’t mean she is on par with them.”

“You can only be equal if you can beat exactly the same enemies.”

“Type advantages don’t exist so saying Orochimaru and Jiraiya are equal despite Jiraiya’s sage mode making him better suited against Pein is wrong.”

“Manda is stronger than Katsuyu and Gamabunta.”

“Sakura fans are the most biased.”

“Tsunade could barely beat Kabuto so she isn’t on par with the others.”

“The new three way deadlock only refers to the animal summonings.”

“Sasuke and Naruto surpassed their masters with sage mode and mangekyo sharingan and Sakura didn’t get a power up then so she needs to get a power up in the Pein arc and then another in the war to be equal to them.”

“ When Boruto and the kage went after momoshiki Shikamaru said it’s the strongest fighters and that’s false just like Sakura saying she was equal to them.”

Oh yeah and for the final time. Since Sakura is stronger than the sannin and has more chakra than Tsunade, more strength than Tsunade and Ai, Katsuyu, the power to heal and army and charge its chakra and the ability to regenerate her body like Hashirama and Tsunade AND Sakura and Kishi in DB 4 and the last’s guidebook state that she was on par with EMS Sasuke and KCM Naruto when she said it then guess what?

ACCORDING TO KISHI AND THE MANGA SHE WAS AS POWERFUL AS THEM WHEN SHE SAID IT. THEREFORE SHE WOULD BE ABLE TO STAND BY THEIR SIDES WHEN THEY FOUGHT SOMEONE WITH HER STRENGTH AND REGENERATION OR EVEN IF IT’S IN A SUPPORT ROLE (GIVING CHAKRA, HEALING THEM BOTH).

And if we really want to get into feats...

EMS Sasuke’s feats without Jugo or Naruto’s help includes his chidori and its variants, amaterasu, sharingan genjutsu, Aoda, an incomplete susanoo and controlling his amaterasu to form Enton: Susanoo Kagutsuchi.

Sakura in canon has reserves beyond Tsunade, is resistant to genjutsu, has strength beyond Tsunade and Ai who were beating incomplete susanoo formed by Madara, regeneration, Katsuyu and evasion that could avoid Kaguya’s instant chakra arms which God leveled Naruto and Sasuke feared as super fast and thus would be faster than Enton: Susanoo Kagutsuchi based weapons.

So yes I can conclude that if Sakura were to fight EMS Sasuke without emotions involved, based on Kishi hyping them as equals like Tsunade and Orochimaru, that she’d put up a good fight.

This is specially likely since Danzo reacted to amaterasu burning him, Pein pushed it away with force of an almighty push (Sakura can make an explosion with a punch or stomp), it took a while to burn through Karin’s clothing and Sakura can easily discard clothing or flesh (to regenerate) in a battle, which btw would be close ranged and involve Sakura constantly moving, punching the ground making explosions and punching Sasuke’s susanoo so amaterasu isn’t even a one shot in theory.

Furthermore as I said and as the manga promotes, you can be as powerful as someone even if you can’t beat them in a fight since advantages of fighting styles and strengths and weaknesses arise for example: Jiraiya vs Pein and Orochimaru vs. Pein. One has sage mode which would help against a rinnegan user while the other does not yet they are both equals and rivals.

Offensively Sakura can be just as powerful as EMS Sasuke with his Enton: Susanoo Kagutsuchi with her own power; her full strength which was never shown in can i.e. a full powered cherry blossom impact (a portion of her full strength took out Juubi clones and only a portion broke Kaguya’s horn) with her seal released, despite probably not being able to fight him and win one vs one.

I cannot say for sure how a fight would go because unlike you all I don’t ignore the fact that Sakura and all the girls were treated like shit and since they are hyped as equals it’s not as easy to call like Hinata vs. Sakura or Sasuke vs. Gaara. Regardless two main facts remain:

She was as powerful as the boys when she said it.

Fighting power is not the only aspect of ‘ninja’ power i.e. defensive powers can supplement your attack i.e. Sakura’s strength with her regeneration and reserves.

Additionally since Sakura herself said that they were ahead of her in the end and we know this since we saw their God powers and the Indra/Ashura parallel replaced the sannin parallel I don’t see what is your Sasuke loving issue? lol

Again posting the facts you seem to ignore:

“A lonely blossom that flowered in Konoha! Tsunade is the strongest Kunoichi in Konoha history, every bit a match for Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Her whereabouts – indeed, her survival – are currently a mystery, but her name blossoms in the noble inclusion of the shinobi.”

- The Naruto Secret: Scroll of Soldiers Official Fanbook by Masashi Kishimoto

“…Are the only ones who can fight against the Sannin the Sannin themselves?” - DATABOOK 2- THE SANNIN

“This time, we’re [or “I’m”] going back to back” and thinks “Tsunade-sama… I… it looks like I was finally able to catch up with those two!!”

The verb is 追いつく, ‘to catch up with’ or ‘to overtake’, and it’s conjugated at the past potential form (‘was able to’). The ‘looks like’ part is expressed by that mitai at the end.

Caught up to is precisely what oitsuku means if you look up in a Japanese-English dictionary. According to Japanese dictionary, regarding oitsuku, its definitions are:

1 – when a person who was behind is lined up with a person who was ahead.

2 – when you get at the same level with someone who had superior skills

A New Three-Way Deadlock (新たなる三竦み, Aratanaru Sansukumi) , Volume 66 cover:

And what is a SUPER SAKURA FAN?

I’m sorry I like a character and read up about them without acquiring your permission LMAO!

Once again:

CHARACTER QUOTES + KISHI’S DATABOOK STATEMENTS

OUR OPINIONS

I also asked someone to prove to me and sadly, you didn’t. So that ‘challenge’ was still not met. Maybe you think you did but you didn’t. As I said prior, it wasn’t up for debate in the first place and you can’t debate with me because Kishi, the creator already showed and wrote it.

SAKURA CAUGHT UP TO THEM AND EMS SASUKE, KCM NARUTO AND YIN SEAL SAKURA CREATED A NEW THREE-WAY DEADLOCK LIKE THE SANNIN BEFORE THEM.

I look forward to Sarada, Mitsuki and Boruto doing the same in these filler series just to prove my point more.

And notice you mentioned my name on your blog after I ended it and blocked you so I am well within my rights to post this now.

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goforwardgreenwriter-blog · 6 years

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The Worm Reads: Empire of Storms, Ch 28 - 29

I honestly don’t know how it can get worse from here.

So they start the real official meeting that Rowan called in Rolfe’s office, and Aelin wastes no time making me want to rip my eyes out.

[Rowan’s] face—oh, gods, [Aelin]’d missed that harsh, unyielding face

Back to Ratlin (that’s what I’m calling it from now on) splooging I see. Great. Can’t wait for multiple paragraphs of Aelin busting a nut at the thought of Rowan’s peen while SJM insists these books have a plot.

Aelin decided she didn’t particularly give a shit who was watching and rose up on her toes to brush her mouth against [Rowan’s].

UHHH WHAT THE FUCK AELIN. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT MEETINGS THAT’LL DETERMINE IF ROLFE JOINS YOUR WAR EFFORT OR NOT YOU CAN’T JUST - oh forget it, I’ll just sound like a broken record.

[Aelin] just prayed she’d be able to warn Aedion before he ran into his father - who was now sitting two seats down from her, gawking at her as if she had ten heads. Gods, even the expression was like Aedion’s. How hadn’t she noticed that this spring in Wendlyn?

My monkey brain is having feels because I’m sucker for the “child is spitting image of their parent” trope..... bad monkey brain.

“And who would verify the word of a nineteen-year-old princess?” [Aelin] jerked her chin at the wax-sealed tube. “Murtaugh Allsbrook would. He wrote you a nice, long letter about it.” Rolfe picked up the tube, studied it, and chucked it in a neat arc—right into his rubbish bin. The thud echoed through the office.

LMAOOOOOO YOU GO ROLFE!!! SLAY THAT BITCH!!!! I mean considering all the shit Aelin put him through I don’t blame him not wanting to align with her.

Rolfe let out a low laugh. “The talk of young idealists and dreamers.” “The world,” Aelin said, “will be saved and remade by the dreamers, Rolfe.”

See, this is the kind of shit I would be getting excited about if this was a good series. Sounds like something straight of Les Mis. SJM can come up with some good quotes, but if I don’t care about the horrible characters and there’s no plot, why should I give a shit?

Aelin purred, “Do you want gold, Rolfe? Do you want a title? Do you want glory or women or land? Or is it just the bloodlust that drives you?”

Oh my god, SJM is a furry!

Looks like you bid on the wrong horse [Rowan],” Rolfe crooned. He flicked his eyes to Dorian. “What news did you receive?” But that wrong horse [Rowan] cut in smoothly, “There was none. But you’ll be glad to know your spies at the Ocean Rose are certainly doing their job. And that His Majesty is quite an accomplished actor.”

Jesus Christ this writing

Dorian said coldly, “For a petty grudge, you’d refuse to consider allying with us?” Aelin snorted. “I’d hardly call wrecking his shit-poor city and ships a ‘petty grudge.’”

T-this... this can’t be. I am reading Empire of Storms by SJM, right? Aelin? Having self awareness? In my SJM book? Well, it’s more likely... to never appear again.

Rolfe tells Aelin to go fuck herself and that scene ends, permanently establishing Rolfe as one of the few Well Written Characters. I want him, Darrow, Manon, and Gav to leave this shitty series and go forth to a better one.

Aelin hit the narrow hallway, a wall of muscle at her back and by her side, and faced another dilemma: Aedion.

I smell Aedion daddy issues angst over the horizon. Also, are the ‘walls of muscle’ supposed to be Rowan and... the other Fae??? God SJM stop jerking off to your own characters for 5 minutes please.

Aelin made it all of three steps down the hall when Gavriel said behind her, “Where is he?” Slowly, she looked back. The warrior’s tan face was tight, his eyes full of sorrow and steel.

Damn, I just feel really bad for Gav. Keep in mind I don’t remember why he left Aedion (if it was revealed previously) but I’m hoping SJM actually uses him and makes him a good father, this series is severely lacking in good parental figures.

But Aelin sucked on a tooth

“You don’t get to decide when and where and how you meet him,” Aelin said. “He’s my gods-damned son. I think I do.”

Nooo SJM I’m begging you I like Gav please don’t make him a toxic fuckboi pleeeeeease

Aelin just tells Gav not to order her around and that scene ends...? Okay. I hope SJM is implying Gav calmed down and respected his son’s boundaries. I just want one character to stay good and pure and to be a good father is that too much to ask.

Later Aelin goes to have a chat with Dorian.

“It seems you and I are currently without crowns, thanks to a few bullshit pieces of paper.” Dorian didn’t return her smile. The stairs groaned beneath them as they headed for the second floor. They were almost to the room Dorian had indicated when he said, “Maybe that’s a good thing.”

I mean, Dorian, you seem like a good king who would fight to defend his people. You deserve to be king. But Aelin? Yeah if she was queen her kingdom would be already burnt to the ground, so you’re half right.

They have another meeting where Rowan/Dorian share more information about the witches.

“Manon Blackbeak,” Aedion mused, “would be a valuable ally, if we can get her to turn.”

NO NONO NO NO KEEP MANON’S BEAUTIFUL SELF AWAY FROM AELIN’S CRUSTY ASS I’M BEGGING

It was never-ending, [Aelin] supposed while they dined that night on peppered crab and spiced rice.

Reading this as a Cape Bretoner was a mistake. Now I’m hungry for some good seafood..... mmmm, battered fish and chips.....

And [Aelin] was to be given nothing more than obscure commands by long-dead royals to find a way to stop it, nothing more than gods-damned months to rally a force against him.

Gods-damned is a stupid word and SJM should feel bad for abusing it. Aelin decides to make sure Rolfe’s hand maps work and the chapter ends. Next!

Too many animals loitering about the streets at this hour would attract the wrong sort of attention. But Aedion still wished that the shifter was wearing fur or feathers compared to … this.

Greaaat are we gonna get Aedion slut shaming Lysandra? Just what I wanted....

He glanced at the delicate gold chain dangling around Lysandra’s pale throat, tracing its length down the front of her bodice, to where the Amulet of Orynth was now hidden beneath. “Admiring the view?” Aedion snapped his eyes up from the generous swells of her breasts. “Sorry.”

The only reason Lysandra is wearing the Amulet is so Aedion can drool over her boobies. I’m right and you all know it.

“Rowan claimed Rolfe would find the amulet interesting enough to go after it.” “Rowan and Aelin have a tendency to say one thing and mean something else entirely.” Aedion heaved a breath through his nose.

Aedion actually criticizing Aelin?? What the fuck is going on??

Lysandra gets pissy when Aedion points out she’s tired. Not even to condescend towards her, he’s actually concerned, so calm down, Lysandra. We get an ““““explanation”“““ for Lysandra’s shifting powers.

Each shift took something out of Lysandra. The bigger the change, the bigger the animal, the steeper the cost. Aedion had witnessed her morph from butterfly to bumblebee to hummingbird to bat within the span of a few minutes. But going from human to ghost leopard to bear or elk or horse, she’d once demonstrated, took longer between shifts, the magic having to draw up the strength to become that size, to fill the body with all its inherent power.

Better than nothing, but... how does shifting into bigger animals exhaust her but shifting into smaller animals doesn't? Each time the mass of her body is changing, so shouldn’t shifting in general exhaust her? Btw, read Animorphs, it’s a great gritty series that deals with shifting powers way better.

Aedion, however, stiffened slightly as those steps grew closer, and he found himself staring at the son of his great enemy. King, now.

This is confusing as fuck. Stop referring to Dorian as king and use his name so we can understand who Aedion is staring at, thank you.

[Aedion] reined in his scowl as he said to the king, “So, you and Whitethorn didn’t kill each other.” Dorian’s brows scrunched. “He saved my life, nearly got himself burned out to do it. Why should I be anything but grateful?”

Great, now we have to add Rowan splooging that isn’t from Aelin to the list.

He did not resent what she had been, what she portrayed now, only the monsters who had seen the beauty the child would grow into and taken her into that brothel. Aelin had told him what Arobynn had done to the man she’d loved. It was a miracle the shifter could smile at all.

What the fuuuuck why is Aedion portrayed as ~noble and amazing~ for not judging Lysandra based on her past? It’s common human decency to not judge people for things out of their control!! Does SJM not understand how humans operate?

Aedion tells Dorian to fuck off and he leaves, and Lysandra gets understandably irritated by Aedion being a dick.

“He stabbed Aelin. If you knew him as I have, you wouldn’t be so willing to fawn over—”

1. Dorian was, to my memory, being controlled by a demon thing when he stabbed Aelin. He was not in his right mind, and did not have control over himself. Stop holding that over his head, you prick.

2. Aedion you were an asshole too! You tripped Dorian and sent him falling into a thorn bush when you two were walking in HOF. You fucking judgemental asshole, I cannot believe I ever liked you.

Aedion’s like “b-but he was an arrogant kid” and Lysandra, being voice of reason, is like “Um, we all were as kids Aedion, including Aelin” and we litERALLY GET THIS

“I don’t care if he was as arrogant and vain as Aelin, I don’t care if he was enslaved to a demon that took his mind. I look at him and see my family butchered, see those tracks to the river, and hear Quinn tell me that Aelin was drowned and dead.” His breathing was uneven, and his throat burned, but he ignored it.

JESUS TAP DANCING CHRIST. Okay, I’m not saying Aedion isn’t wrong to be weary of Dorian after what happened to his family at the hands of Dorian’s father but this is literally Aedion going “It’s only okay to be a dick if it’s Aelin! Everyone else is a bad ruler and should bow down to her uwu”

FUCKING HELL. I’m willing to bet if it had been Aelin mind controlled, Aedion would be jumping through hoops to justify her actions and convince everyone she couldn’t help herself. Assdion has no character outside of being a dick and kissing up Aelin’s ass. I fucking hat this character almost as much as I hate Aelin.

Aedion braced his palm against the wall again and leaned in to glower in [Lysandra’s] face. She did not yield an inch. “There is an order and rank in our court, lady, and last I checked, you were not number three. You don’t give me commands.”

(...) And the last I checked…” She poked his chest, right between his pectorals, and he could have sworn the tip of a claw pierced the skin beneath his clothes. “You weren’t pathetic enough to enforce rank to hide from being in the wrong.“

*Mortal Kombat voice* FINISH HIM

His blood sparked and thrummed. Aedion found himself taking in the sensuous curves of her mouth, now pressed thin with anger.

W.....

YOU TWO ARE ARGUING AND ASSDION SUDDENLY HAS A BONER OVER HER MOUTH. HOW THE FUCK IS THIS HEALTHY IN ANY SHAPE OR FORM. This is nearly as bad as the “kissing a spouse during an argument instead of solving the problem” trope.

By the way, Aedion is demoted to Assdion. Aelin to Alien, and Rowan to Rowboat. I hate these characters so much.

Lysandra backed away a step, too casual to be anything but a calculated move. But Aedion tried—for her sake, he tried to stop thinking about her mouth—

WHAT THE FUCK DOES SJM THINK ALL MEN ARE HORNDOGS WHO WANNA FUCK 24/7?? This is an incredibly upsetting and inaccurate stereotype! It’s not goddamn hard to not think with your dick for five seconds jfc

Too soon—she wouldn’t want a man’s touch for a long time. Maybe forever. And he’d be damned if he pushed her into it before she wanted to.

Are you sure about that? Because a minute ago you were nearly cumming at the thought of her mouth.

Subject changes and Assdion asks if his father wanted to see him.

“[Gav] nearly bit Aelin’s head off when she refused to tell him where and who you are.” Ice filled [Aedion’s] veins. If his father had been rude to her—“But I got the sense,” Lysandra quickly clarified as he tensed, “that he is the sort of male who would respect your wishes if you chose not to see him.

*sniffles* Gav deserves to be a good father.

“What would you do?” “I can’t answer that question. My own father…” She shook her head. He knew about that—the shifter-father who had either abandoned her mother or not even known she was pregnant. And then the mother who had thrown Lysandra into the street when she discovered her heritage. “Aedion, what do you want to do? Not for us, not for Terrasen, but for you.”

I would be having feels and starting to ship them had we not had a whole scene dedicated to Assdion being a dick and nearly kissing Lysandra without her consent sooooo

[Aedion] bowed his head a bit, glancing sidelong at the quiet street again. “My whole life has been … not about what I want. I don’t know how to choose those things.”

A little late there to make me feel sympathetic towards Assdion, SJM. You CANNOT have Assdion act as an Aelin worshiping prick and then turn around and expect me to feel bad for him.

Assdion asks Lysandra to come with him to meet his father the next day and then splooges about how much he apparently cares about Lysandra. I don’t care.

From the shadows of his hood, he monitored the alley ahead, the shadows and shafts of moonlight, bracing himself. They’d picked the dead-end alley for a reason. The girl realized her mistake a step too late. “Oh.”

The girl is Rolfe’s barmaid. She immediately leaves and they suspect she’s Rolfe’s spy. Finally, I am free from this god awful chapter.

#the worm talks #the worm reads: eos #anti sjm #anti tog #anti eos

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smilingperformer · 6 years

Text

SM073 - Thoughts

I think I’ve calmed down from Friday enough to write this now... let’s see. I’m not sure you guys even need me talking about this episode. It was so good!

It is finally time for Rocket Gang to go get themselves their very own Z-Ring! I’ve been waiting for this ever since I started watching this series almost a year ago now, and I was so god damn happy to finally see it happening. This also marks the start of Ula’Ula Island Arc, and I found it brilliant to start with Rocket Gang instead of Satoshi. Who, btw, is absent until the very last 10 seconds of the episode! This hasn’t happened since Diamond & Pearl’s first episode, if I remember correctly.

(This post is getting so god damn long because there’s lots to discuss so, I’m actually gonna put a cut here! To save your dashboards from this freaking long post! I hope it works for mobile people as well, if not, I apologize. I think I’ll continue on doing this in the future as well!)

Anyway, they head to Ula’Ula Island in search of Island King/Kahuna Kuchinashi/Nanu, who appears to be old acquitances with Rocket Gang Boss Sakaki/Giovanni. This is a detail I didn’t expect to be canon in Pokeani until the news hit, and I’m looking forward to learning more about this! Sakaki told the Trio (and Sonansu :D C’mon, it’s how Narrator said it) that they might be able to get a Z-ring from him, which prompted them to go on the Air Balloon ride. Which hasn’t appeared in Sun & Moon after it’s very early appearance in episode SM005! Great to see them still having it! (They did reference it in last episode so I guess it was expected!)

We then cut to a local Island Library to get us introduced to the character a lot of people had been waiting for to appear: Meet Acerola! She’s shown to be working at the said Library, and starts reading a book about the Greedy Lapoo to two young kids, who, according to VA cast list, are called Nene and Piko.

I must say, I love the designs of these two, and even if they seem to end up being CotD types, I’ll most likely be enjoying whatever screentime they’ll give us of them.

But, this scene also serves as a plot element teller as well, in addition to introducing these three characters to the story. In short, it’s a story about a ghost that stole people’s items, who then ended up being hated by people, because of it’s greedy nature. Thus, the name the Greedy Lapoo. It was then sealed away by a local Island King, and was never heard of again.

Anyway, we cut back to Rocket Gang, who are preparing to make good first impression with the Island King with some Malasadas. They get their disguises on because of the place they’re heading to being a Police Station, and when they get inside, oooooh boooyy. It’s what we’d expect from Ula’Ula Police Station.

It’s filled with dozens of Alolan Nyarths! Talk about over-kill. And they all get their eyes on one thing: the Malasada. Poor Rocket Gang.

That’s when we get to see the Island King thou! Meet Kuchinashi/Nanu! Or well. We know he’s the guy, but our dear buffoons don’t. So when they ask to see the Island King, well... you know what happens. I made a huge screencap post on it, but to put it short: he outright lied to them that Island King is away and may not be coming back for possibly a year! What a jackass! But I already fell in love with his characterisation at this point, so full points on perfect introduction. He clearly likes to avoid his Island King/Kahuna duties, which fits the game profile as well.

So, Rocket Gang loses all hope and head off. We then cut back to Acerola and co., who have finished reading the book, and decide to head to the tomb stone that is said to be the fairy tale’s Greedy Lapoo’s. However, Rocket Gang has decided to mourn their bad luck at the very same place, and when Musashi loses her temper and breaks the tomb...

Meet The Greedy Lapoo the Gengar! The fairy tale turned out to be true, and the Island King’s seal on the ghost is now broken. Way to go Musashi! Thou, tbf, she had no idea of such tale. I originally though it’d be a Totem Gengar, but then I realised that there’s no such thing in the games, so it’s probably something else that makes it so much bigger. Pokeani can do some interesting stuff with the Pokemon Universe anyway!

Anyway, Gengar steals Rocket Gang’s Dark Z-crystal, and then heads to Acerola and co, who had just arrived to the place. While the two kids are scared as hell, Acerola shows that she’s not.

I just noticed I’m rambling about all episode details again, but it’s hard not to. New characters were introduced, and as a huge fan of Acerola, I was stoked when this episode had so much focus on her! it’s great! Anyway, she gets kidnapped by the Gengar, who then proceeds to go steal stuff from random people around the Island. Acerola’s Mimikyu, who she calls Mimi-tan, tries to rescue her, but to no avail.

Mimi-tan gets thrown into air by Gengar, and while falling, Acerola jumps to catch it. Why thou?! I haven’t said it yet, because it’s actually revealed at the end of the episode, but Acerola’s Mimi-tan is an actual Ghost of a Mimikyu. So it wouldn’t really get hurt, would it? Then again, this is the first time Pokeani explores actual ghost pokemon, so there’s much we don’t know. We might learn more during this arc thou! I certainly hope so!

But y’know, this is where we start to see the good side of the Greedy Lapoo Gengar. It shows to be worried about Acerola after her fall, and when Acerola shows it she’s fine, he’s quite happy! Turns out, Gengar very much likes Acerola, and when Acerola tries to tell him to take her back home, he selfishly refuses, and tries to convince her to stay. When Acerola keeps on denying it thou, even when gengar shows the Dark Z-crystal that it stole from Rocket Gang, Gengar loses it. This is where I’m actually kinda spooked.

WHAT IS IT DOING??? Trying to put Acerola inside it? How rude is that??? Mimi-tan is unable to do anything, oh boy am I proud of the following moment:

Musashi came in and actually saved Acerola! Considering her dialogue earlier about how she can’t stand Gengar being so selfish with his liking to Acerola, I want to believe she actually did this to both save Acerola, and get the Z-crystal back. And it was really well done! Kinda reminded me of Satoshi and Pikachu thou lol. The pararrels between Satoshi and Musashi are increasing! They then mock the poor Gengar in hilarious ways, seriously, Rocket Gang’s writing in this episode is top notch and I have never loved them more in an episode.

Gengar then starts chasing after fleeing Rocket Gang (which actually seems like a lure plan???) and when Nyarth tries to counter-attack, Gengar possesses him. Spooky stuff. Musashi quickly orders Mimikyu to do something, who uses Wood Hammer on Nyarth. Ouch. Musashi cares for Nyarth, but she’s always been rough on rescue plans.

But then Gengar posseses her! And this honestly looks sort of scary at this screenshot. It kinda reminds me of a certain ghosts from Sonic Adventure 2 thou... : D Kojiro is shown shook, and he definitely doesn’t do hasty moves when it comes to rescuing Musashi. This is definitely something Satoshi’d do as well, and god damn it. Kojiro does come up with a perfect plan, and it shows how good of a trainer he is: Hidoide’s newly learned Dark-move Knock-Off is perfect counter for Ghost type, so he orders Hidoide to hit Musashi with it, gently. Musashi only gets a headbump from this so, all good. Except Gengar is mad as hell now. XD GG!

Then the best scene starts! Kuchinashi comes to see the situtation with Acerola, tells the Rocket Gang Trio that they’re actually better than he initally thought, so he throws them a Z-Power Ring! And then we get to see the god damn gorgeus Dark Z-move! it’s darn powerful looking, and man, the faces Musashi, Kojiro and Nyarth have while seeing Gengar get sucked into the Blackhole Eclipse is very, very well done. It shows both amaze and spookyness in them. This is the first time they’ve done the Z-move now, and oh am I glad they actually did it together. Even if Kojiro was the one to wear it, the energy def came from all three of them. This is the best outcome I could have hoped for the Z-move and I’m pleased. Very pleased.

Acerola then realises that Gengar was actually lonely instead of being greedy, so she decides to be friends with it. A happy end and all! Judging from Kuchinashi’s dialogue, this seems to be a norm to Acerola. Acerola also spills the beans about this old man being the Island King Kuchinashi to Rocket Gang, who aren’t very pleased with his trick. But Rocket gang also spills beans on being from the criminal organisation, where we realise Kuchinashi does indeed know Sakaki. And yet, he lets Rocket Gang keep the Z-Power Ring. Fits him.

In the end, Acerola’s Mimi-tan rewards Musashi with the Mimikkyu-Z crystal, which I bet is because Mimi-tan is greatful for Musashi saving Acerola earlier. It makes sense in my head at least. And imo, she deserves it. So, Rocket Gang ends up with a double-prize this episode: Z-Power Ring, and a new Z-crystal! Ii Kanjii indeed!

At the end of the episode, we finally have our appearance of the real main character of the show, who’s finally heading to Ula’Ula Island himself as well! It’s time for his third island adventures!

I’ll cya all next week, when Satoshi gets to battle Kuchinashi (all thanks to Acerola convincing him), Kuchinashi gets a call from Sakaki himself, and Lugarugan’s Red eyed Beast mode returns! Until then!

#aleira watches sumo #pokemon #pokeani #pokemon sumo #ula ula arc #sm073 #long post

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