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#i’m looking directly at chapter 117
haitanirindo · 3 years
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boyfriend things
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4izawas · 3 years
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[ time makes you bolder ] • a. arlert
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summary: ‘...even children get older, and i’m getting older too...’
pairings: omega!armin arlert/alpha!reader, mild one sided omega!levi ackerman/alpha!reader
wc: 13.20k.
spoiler status: not anime-only safe. spoilers for manga chapters #117-#139.
warnings: a/b/o dynamics, sub!omega armin, hints at reincarnation, reincarnation trope, unconscious reincarnation trope, reincarnated characters don’t know they’ve been reincarnated, ketamine, illegal use of ketamine, noncon drugging, attempted rape, hurt/comfort, breeding kink, femdom, marijuana, shotgunning, oral sex, fem!alpha!reader has a penis, anal sex, orgasm, belly bulge, cum swallowing, cum eating, dacryphilia, begging, lip biting, scratching, biting, mpreg, mentions of male lactation, jealousy, harassment.
major content warning: intense description of attempted rape underneath the cut. read at your own discretion.
editing note: of course my first major piece into a new fandom is not only femdom but a/b/o too😆 this is a few days late, but it’s a rather large piece, so hopefully that makes up for it!
for @sightoru’s college au collab. minors & anti dc blogs dni.
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He wished he knew where they’d disappeared to when they’d shouted that they’d be back in ten minutes, but he didn’t. It had also been over an hour and a half since they’d left him alone and he’d been parked at the bar ever since.
They’d dragged him here, and now he’d been practically abandoned.
He whines softly in distress but it’s easily drowned out by the heavy bass and loud music echoing through the room; looking around worriedly in a last ditch effort to search for his friends, he doesn’t notice the sleazy bartender pour a small spoonful of white powder into his drink that dissolved almost immediately before sending a nasty wink to an older man sitting six stools away from the small framed omega, who grins wickedly in response. Armin finally looks back to his drink and downs the entire thing at once without hesitation just so he could get out and home without wasting the money Eren had spent on it for him (even though the omega hadn’t really wanted to come to the creepy nightclub with minimum security anyway; maybe that’s why Eren had, considering the bartender had served the three of them without even ID checking them) and gags slightly at the odd taste — for some reason it was different than before, but in his discomfort he thought nothing of it — before standing up and slipping through the crowd, staggering ever so slightly as he makes his way to the exit. He’s so out of it almost immediately that he doesn’t even notice the three men trailing him or the way the bartender had whispered ‘save a piece for me’ before he’d fully left the bar area.
He finally steps outside and the cool air calms him down some; he relaxes ever so slightly at the feeling of the soft breeze blowing across his face and groans when he realizes that Eren’s beat up old Chevy from the nineties was still gone and likely wouldn’t be back until morning, the broke ass college student likely having passed out on the couch at Jean, Connie, and Sasha’s two bedroom apartment and forgotten all about how he’d left his small omega friend alone at a skeezy nightclub.
He looks over to his left and sees a black Charger and a muddled shape leaning against the wall, no doubt smoking a cigarette, with a beer bottle in their other hand; the scent of alpha rolls off the shape in waves, and Armin turns and staggers the other way. The three men from the club finally exit and look around for their young prey excitedly, glancing first at the alpha Armin had noticed before one noticed their target drifting down the sidewalk and towards a darkened alleyway. The three chuckle lowly and follow closely behind, waiting just until he was directly beside the alleyway entrance to suddenly sprint forward and yank him into it, ignoring his muffled cry of shock.
“Wait, wha-!” Armin squeals, suddenly slammed against a brick wall with a wall of flesh pressed behind him. His shirt is torn from the man handling and his eyes widen as he feels a fat warm hand roll down his body only to stop and squeeze at his hip. “No-!”
“Hush, pretty — we’re just looking for a good time,” a gravelly voice growls lowly, and he feels a wet, warm tongue run along his nape before circling one of his scent glands, which were positively dripping distress pheromones. “Turn ‘im, I wanna play with his little omega tits.”
Armin starts crying as the two other men grab him by the wrists and forcefully flip him around so his back is pressed against the bricks as told, ignoring his immediate struggles and sobs and the way he fought to escape the way the man cupped his soft, small chest through his torn shirt. “St-Stop, please!” he sobs, trying his hardest to pull his arms loose from the two men holding them and to escape from the disgusting old man who was still licking at his scent gland, “No! I - I don’t want to! Stop — get away — GET AWAY!”
“Shut up-!”
“What the fuck’s going on here?” The new voice popping up so close so suddenly and interrupting the man in front of him scares him even more and a fresh waves of tears roll down his cheeks and a heavy sob tumbles from
“Just shut up and be patient and you’ll get your own taste of the pretty little blonde omega bitch,” the older man wheezes lecherously, “right now it’s my turn.”
“I don’t fucking think so.”
A low growl breaks through the silence that was previously only punctuated by Armin’s whispered whimpers and desperate pleas for the alpha men to stop, and it makes each of them freeze in shock — including Armin. Her voice had lowered exponentially and sounded almost demonic as her eyes flared a bright red, her fangs elongate from her normal incisors and are bared, and she sauntered over to them, clearly not forcing the alpha in her to back down. One of the men growls back and squares his shoulders before jumping at her; she sees through the attack and takes him by the throat before brutally slamming his head into the brick wall three times, knocking him senseless. The other two look at her in shock before snarling angrily and pushing Armin to the ground before leaping at her as well; the young omega man clumsily crawls backwards to cower behind a large green dumpster as the new alpha tears into the two that had been touching him.
The almost deafening roars, snarls, yelps, and cries of pain echo through the alleyway and make him press his back further into the brick wall with his hands over his head; blood splashed across the ground at his feet and almost gets onto his shoes, causing Armin to jerk back with a whimper. He didn’t know whether or not it was the new alpha’s or the blood of one of the two that had dragged him here, and in his panicked worry he almost doesn’t notice the alpha that the female alpha had originally knocked senseless crawling towards him — at least, not until the man’s hand closes around one of his ankles. He lets out a panicked shriek in response to the touch and a deafening roar is let it in return before the female alpha appears out of nowhere and descends on the prone male, digging her nails (more like claws, really) into the soft skin and flesh right beneath his ribs, forcefully pulling a howl of pain from the offending alpha’s lips as blood immediately wells up where she’d dig her nails in. Armin and the stranger locks eyes for a second before her attention is directed to the other alpha that leapt into her back and began trying to rip at her neck; Armin’s eyes widen and he goes still as she lets out a pained snarl and pushes backward from him, dragged the two alpha’s with her. The three continue to fight for another ten minutes, the third alpha jumping back in after regaining consciousness, and Armin covers his ears and tries (and fails) to block out the awful noises.
Suddenly everything is quiet, and Armin trembles with pure, unadulterated fear. Soft scratching sounds as someone walks over to where he’s hiding and Armin nearly pisses himself until the female alpha comes into view; she’s bloody and torn up from the fight, but she’s clearly won the fight judging from the blood pooling behind her. Whether she’d killed them or not doesn’t matter to Armin in the moment, he just jumps at her and clings to the only facet of safety he’d had since his friends had left him alone — but were they even safe? He knew Eren — no matter how hard he’d fought — would never have won against the three alphas like this one had.
“Shh, Shh, I’ve got you, you’re safe now,” she murmurs softly, sliding one arm underneath the backs of his knees and cradling him close to her. “My name’s Y/N L/N; you can trust me, okay? I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
“O-Okay.” She stands up and that’s when Armin sees the carnage she and the other three alphas had created — there’s blood everywhere and a good few teeth, and one of the alphas heads doesn’t look like it should be facing the direction it is, but Armin decided to not question it and instead buries his face in her neck as she begins to walk through the bloodbath.
“Disgusting pigs, the lot of you,” she mumbles, kicking the lead offender in the head without hesitation; he doesn’t make any attempt to move, his left eye slowly filling with blood, “and you deserve worse than you received. Be thankful my mind is wrapped around someone more important in this situation.”
“What happened to me? Why couldn’t I fight them away?” Armin whimpers, tightening the grip he had around her neck with his arms as he moves ever so slightly and buries his face in her chest to get even closer to her core scent; her scent was comforting him immensely after she’d saved him, and he certainly didn’t mind that she smelled like roses and fresh whipped cream and the usual alpha musk. He sniffles a little and trembles as he catches a whiff of the man’s scent on his clothes when the wind’s direction changes, not noticing that she did.
“Bastards dosed you with ketamine, kid — even I likely wouldn’t have made it out of that without help, so don’t feel too disappointed in yourself,” the female alpha murmurs softly, stopping outside of a sleek black Charger and opening it with one hand before setting him down in the passenger seat. She then begins to gently tug off his clothes and he begins to shake all over again.
“N-No, I don’t want to-!”
“I’m just giving you a change of clothes, those smell like those men and you can’t be comfortable,” she says softly, “I have a change of clothes in the back for when I go to the gym tomorrow that you can wear.” His shaking eases to a stop rather quickly when he peeks over and into the backseat and sees the exact thing she’d offered him. He nods hesitantly and raises his arms to let her strip him bare of the clothes that the alphas had ruined. Following her tossing his torn, forcefully scent slicked shirt to the ground she reaches into the back over the passenger seat (revealing a weak spot to Armin when she gave him direct access to striking her in the ribs), pulling a worn sweatshirt out and rolling it up ever so slightly. “Hands in the air, kid,” she murmurs, and he sticks them up as told so she can pull the sweatshirt down to cover him; he’s positively drowned in the fabric, the collar hanging over one shoulder.
“You go to one of the major Paradis colleges?” he asks softly, looking down at the heavily worn logo on the front; his question earns him a soft chuckle as she pulls out a pair of sweatpants that he thought he could practically build an entire nest with alone.
“Mhmm,” she mumbles softly, “I’m a part of the Survey Corps end at the moment alongside a few very close friends of mine, all a bit older than you, just like me — you?” The Survey Corps of this day and age were a lot different than the ones way back when, Armin knew that — the old Survey Corps were the branch of the government of Old Paradis that were the most actively involved in direct altercations with titans, studies of them, human expansion (when they’d thought they were the last humans left), and exploration of the lands beyond the walls. Now the Survey Corps were used to fetch information and relics about the old days from various archaeological sites while doubling as some of the hardest trained soldiers; the death toll in this modern time wasn’t nearly as large as it was back before the Rumbling and the final battle when Paradisians knew nothing of Marley and other places of the outside world, but there were still plenty of death when things went wrong unexpectedly and that branch had the highest, most gruesome death toll out of them all. Luckily for all people of Paradis underage citizens becoming child soldiers was outlawed by the late (unfortunately still unable to be named by historians) Queen of Paradis from the time of the Rumbling once the final war that ended it all and settled a shaky peace over the world when it came to Eldians was over; Armin supposed that they also had the (also still unnamed) titan shifter that began the rumbling and journey for freedom and peace to thank for it all.
“Well, all of my professors are saying I can pick just about any branch next year, honestly,” he says softly, sticking his legs out and lifting his hips so she can tug down his pants to drop them next to his shirt before redressing him in her own pants; for some reason it doesn’t make him feel like a child like it would if Mikasa were doing it while he was sick or drunk, and it isn’t making him feel uncomfortable in any way — he just felt provided for. “I was thinking about joining the Military Police for access to better historical documents and artifacts so I can learn more about the past, but I don’t really know yet.”
Y/N nods thoughtfully. “Joining the Military Police makes sense, I guess — a bunch of librarians, historians, archaeologists, and lazy no goods there; you’d fit well in the first couple of categories I believe,” she chuckles, and he smiles shyly, “Honestly you have access to any documentation and textbooks you need no matter which branch you choose to pick,” she replies honestly, making him look up at her with wide eyes as she tightens the ties on the sweatpants and ties it into a little bow for him.
“What?!” he exclaims, shocked by what she’d said.
“Yeah, I’ve been able to read a few genuine original pieces from the old times documenting the Battle of Trost and the like; the names were struck out like they always are and no one who’s been alive in the last millennia and a half or so remember them to write them down, but what can you do?”
“You - You were allowed to read original documents from the Battle of Trost District?!” he whispers, eyes wide in wonder; he’d been wanting to read those exact documents for years and had always been denied access.
Y/N nods in affirmation. “Mhmm, that titan shifter stuff’s really interesting, honestly,” she replies with ease, “who’d have thought that something so fucking frightening could be controlled by a person?” She backs away from the car slightly and suddenly — despite all of their bookish talk from before — Armin is gripped brutishly tight by an unwavering feeling of fear.
“No, please, don’t leave me!” he begs, unshed tears already sprouting up in his eyes. She kneels in front of him and cups his face in one hand, calming him almost instantly as she lets out a deep rumble that echoes up from her chest.
“Not leaving, just going ‘round to the driver’s seat so we can get the hell out of here — is that okay?” she asks, voice soft, gentle, and deeply comforting. Armin thinks for a moment before nodding hesitantly.
“Promise you’ll be fast, though?” he asks hopefully, and she smiles softly before nodding.
“I promise.” He lets her go and she closes the car door behind him before swiftly walking around the front of the car and pulling open the driver’s side door and slipping in before starting the car. She starts it up and pulls out, and before long Armin is lulled to sleep by the gentle rumbling of the car beneath him and the comforting scent of the alpha swirling around him and taking over almost all of his senses.
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Armin blinks awake and is surprised to find himself in a comfortable bed fitted with all black bedding, him wearing the same clothes as the night before. He absentmindedly notices that he’d started to make a nest in his sleep, but brushes it off when he hears birds singing outside. He gets up, curling up his toes as the cold from the hardwood floor begins to seep into them, and walks over to the blackout curtains on the large floor to ceiling window to push them back. He’s almost blinded by how bright it is at first but eventually his eyes get used to it; thanks to the light he notices the messily folded clothes on a chair in the corner by a small desk. He slips over and is surprised to see that the alpha who had no doubt brought him to her home had provided him with a giant black shirt and some cotton boxer shorts that would be plenty big on his thighs but fit thanks to the elastic band.
He gets dressed and tosses his underwear into the trash, not wanting to keep anything that would remind him of the night before before quietly exiting the bedroom. A bag of food from a cafe was on the table next to the alpha from last night — Y/N — as she went through paperwork or homework, no doubt from her job as a soldier or from her classes.
“How long did I sleep?” he asks quietly.
“About forty eight hours; you were exhausted from what happened and the ketamine in your system didn’t help in the slightest. Your cellphone’s charging on the kitchen counter.”
Armin nods, choosing to not ask anything else about it and to not retrieve his phone just yet. He peers at the bag that was definitely full of food judging from the scent rolling off of it and his stomach growls. He swallows, nervous to ask for some of her food, but absolutely starving. “Can I have some of what’s in the bag? I promise I’ll pay you back,” he asks, voice small and submissive; she’d taken him into her home, the least he could do was respect that. She glanced up at him and nods quickly.
“Oh yes, definitely! I got it for you, after all — I didn’t want to cook something you wouldn’t like, so I went to a cafe you were mumbling about in your sleep and ordered a few things. On top of that, you don’t have to pay me; I’m paid for my role in the military, you know, and it felt nice to pay for someone else and provide for them rather than only myself all the time — oh, and feel free to sit wherever you’d like.” Armin blushes pink ever so slightly; of fucking course he was talking in his sleep — why couldn’t he just breathe and that be it? And he was going to pay her back somehow, he didn’t care that she said he didn’t have to. He hears her chuckle and looks up at her to see her smiling; he absentmindedly notes that he likes her smile. “Don’t be embarrassed, kid, it’s alright — some omega’s tend to talk in their sleep when they’re comfortable, so I take it as a compliment.” Armin just blushes harder and shoved a large piece of biscuit that he’d fetched from the bag into his mouth. He takes the big bag and two drinks in hand and drifts over to a big fluffy chair by another floor to ceiling window and sits there, comfortable almost immediately without knowing why or how.
“Mmm, Levi likes that spot too,” Y/N muses softly, smiling behind her own cup of coffee. Armin wants to ask her who ‘Levi’ is, but he also wants to respect her privacy and doesn’t, instead choosing to eat some more, drink his coffees, and look out the window at the busy streets below.
“Do you want me to take you for your textbooks or drop you off at your dorm or wherever you live?” Y/N asks gently, starting to put away her papers. “I have a small window of time right now; I have work in two hours and then night classes — but if you’d prefer to ride out the last traces of ketamine here, feel free,” she offers, “I’m not the only one with a key to the place, but no one is going to come over because all of my friends are on almost the exact same schedule as me.”
Armin thinks for a moment, trying to throw logic into the situation: should he really be staying in a stranger’s apartment where he knows no one and other alphas could potentially pop up? Probably not — but he felt so damn safe here that he didn’t really want to leave.
“I… Is it okay if I stay?” he asks quietly, and she quirks up an eyebrow in response; he decides to explain. “Last night my best friends left me alone at that nightclub. I live in a dorm with one of them, his name’s Eren, and I don’t really want to go back there because it doesn’t feel safe like here, and I don’t know why.”
“It’s because they weren’t there for you,” she says smartly, getting up and walking over to him until she’s several feet away before leaning against a wall with her arms crossed. “Your instincts are registering me as safe because I came to you in a severe time of need and they’re registering them as bad because their abandonment led to the… experience from last night.”
“Oh…” he whispers, looking down at his hands. He hears her sigh softly.
“Yeah, you can stay, don’t worry about that — this place can be your little haven as long as you’d like,” she says gently, causing Armin to look up at her; her eyes are warm and she’s smiling softly. He can’t fight the urge to smile back, and they just stay that way for a minute or so until Y/N’s cellphone goes off. Her eyes widen and she looks away, their moment breaking along with the eye contact. “Oh! I have to go get ready, it’ll take a bit to get to base. You’ll be alright relaxing here, right?”
Armin nods immediately, “Definitely!”
She nods at him and hurries from the room, going into the bedroom that he had woken up in and closing the door behind her. He can hear muffled manic shuffling through the wall and smiles softly at the several expletives that leave her mouth when seems to slam her shin into the black bed frame. Before he knows it she’s reappeared in her Scout Regiment uniform with two small leather backpacks over one shoulder — one a coffee color and the other black — and a wad of cash in her free hand. She immediately offers it to him, and he takes it with wide eyes. “What-?”
“For food; I’ll be gone until at least eleven tonight and I know you’ll be hungry,” she explains softly, going over to the counter and grabbing her empty coffee cup from the cafe to refill it with coffee from the coffee pot ; Armin gets up and follows her, barely glancing at his cellphone where it was laying on the kitchen counter. Once Y/N’s cup is full she slaps the top back on then rushes towards the fridge, pulling a piece of paper free from a magnetic notepad and grabbing a pen before she starts jotting something down. Armin looks over the entire series of actions curiously, tilting his head to one side in interest.
“What are you doing?” he asks softly.
“Writing down the best places around here that deliver and know the apartment,” she responds softly, “all you’ll have to do is say you want it delivered to ‘Y/N’s apartment’ and they’ll give the delivery personnel the directions themselves.”
“Oh! Thank you!” he exclaims as she slides the paper over to him; he sees a wide variety of restaurants to choose from and his stomach grumbles in interest despite having just eaten his fill of what Y/N had gotten him.
“You already know the Paradisian emergency numbers and I wrote down my own cell phone number at the top, feel free to add it to your phone, since I’ll text you when I’m coming upstairs so you can unlock the door for me. Other than that, don’t unlock it for anyone you don’t know, even if they claim to know me, okay?”
“I won’t,” Armin promises, “do you have everything that you need?”
“Yes, I’m pretty sure I do,” she replies, then sighs and places a hand over her eyes, “Sorry I seem so rushed, I took the day off yesterday to keep an eye on you in case they dosed you with more ketamine than your body could take.”
His eyes widen in shock; she’d really paused her entire life just to take care of him? He was genuinely surprised, but also flattered and appreciative. “Wow, you didn’t have to do that… thank you so much,” he whispers, but she waves him off, grabbing her coffee cup and heading towards the door.
“It was nothing, honestly — now lock the door behind me, and remember not to open it to anyone you don’t know.”
“I remember!” he calls, and with that she leaves, not waiting for Armin to rush up to the door and lock it behind her in her hurry to get to work. Armin can’t really blame her, he’d have rushed off too.
After locking the door he turns to look over the room, wondering what he should do before deciding to watch a little television for a while before maybe reading a book. Curling up on the couch, he turns on the TV and begins figuring out which channels take him where, settling on one of the many Predator movies.
He never intended to fall back asleep.
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Armin’s abruptly woken up by the ringing of his cellphone coupled with the ringtone that went with Mikasa’s number coming from the kitchen. Glancing outside he notes that it’s very dark and the only source of light are the cars way down below the apartment and all of the city building lights. He rubs the sleepy from his eyes and staggers into the kitchen clumsily after his impromptu nap before picking up the phone and accepting the call.
Mikasa immediately begins shouting into his ear, and he winces in response as she goes on and on.  “Armin?! Where the hell are you? Eren and I are at you guys’s dorm and you’re not here — and judging from how your scent’s gone a little stale you haven’t been for the last two days!”
“I’m at Y/N’s apartment right now,” he replies, pressing a hand to his stomach as it begins to rumble demandingly. He vaguely remembers the paper he’d left on the kitchen counter after Y/N and drifts over to it, looking over his options and deciding on an old diner style restaurant as Eren takes over Mikasa’s phone (and she of course lets him) and the craving for a cheeseburger hits him. He grabs the apartment phone off the hook and begins to dial the number so he can buy some food.
“Who the fuck is Y/N?!” Eren exclaims, but Armin doesn’t really hear him, having put the cellphone down to talk to the people on the other end in the restaurant. Mikasa hears and sounds shocked when she asks him about it.
“Armin, are you really ordering food right now? You’ve been missing for like two days and now we’re calling you and you’re getting food — wait, you don’t have your wallet, how are you even going to pay for it?”
“Y/N left me some money,” he says easily, as if it was the simplest thing in the world.
“DAMN IT, ARMIN, WHO THE FUCK IS Y/N?!” Eren roars, and Armin sighs.
“She’s the alpha who picked me up from the bar,” he explains softly, “I’ve been here in her apartment for the last couple of days.” There’s a stiff silence on the other end of the call in response and after a good while Armin starts to get nervous.
“We’re on our way,” is all he hears break the silence, and then they hang up. Armin’s nervousness grows once his brain registers how pissed Eren had sounded when he’d hung up. He waits for a bit pacing around the apartment in so much mild panic that he nearly pisses himself when the guy delivering his food knocks on the door. Looking out the peephole, he sees the uniform that the delivery guy was wearing and hums softly to himself before rushing over to the kitchen counter and grabbing the money. He carefully unlocks the door and gives the guy thirty seven dollars like the woman on the phone had said his total was then another ten as a tip. The guy smiles, waves, then leaves and Armin re-locks the door and sets the bag of food on the counter, taking out and sorting everything. He’d ordered some things for Y/N specifically and put those in her microwave before digging into the food he’d gotten for himself, jumping when someone began beating on the door.
“Armin? It’s Eren and Mikasa, let us in!” Eren’s voice is muffled through the door, but it’s still easily discernible as Eren’s voice, and when Armin looks through the peephole he sees that Eren and Mikasa are in fact outside. He hurries to unlock the door, still in shock.
“How did you find me?!”
“Find My iPhone,” Eren deadpans, “where’s the fucking asshole that made you come here?!”
“She’s at college, she takes night classes — what the fuck does that matter, she didn’t force me into anything!” Armin argues, “and you know what? I don’t care if you’re mad that I went with her like I know you are! You left me all alone in that terrible, awful place!” he cries, angry tears rolling down his cheeks as he remembers the feeling of their hands all over him. “I was so sc-scared and al-lone - and I don’t care that Mikasa wanted to leave the club early to see Jean because he got a little sick, either! You could have taken me with you, you knew I didn’t want to go and you made me! If you hadn’t, it never would’ve happened!”
“What wouldn’t have happened, Armin?!” Eren asks desperately, wanting so badly to understand every aspect of Armin’s anger and why he’d not at least texted them, “What the fuck happened to you?!”
“Why would I tell you when I know that you just won’t care?!” Armin shouts back, fists balled up by his sides; the omega was absolutely furious. “You left me ALONE when you EASILY could have taken me with you!” he takes a deep breath in then lets it out all at once. “I don’t think I want to talk to you guys for a while,” he says quietly, ignoring the shocked gasp from Mikasa and the no doubt wide eyed look on both of their faces. “You hurt me - no, you got me hurt, and that’s not going away any time soon.”
“But-“ Mikasa whispers, eyes shining with tears, but Armin shakes his head and continues speaking anyway, not caring that she was already talking.
“I’m safe here, and I feel that way. Y/N’s protected me more in the last two days than you two have since you entered college a few months ago,” he snaps, crossing his arms and not missing the way Eren’s eyes flash with annoyance.
“Armin!” he exclaims, “how could you say-?!”
“I think it’s time you go now,” Y/N rumbles softly from her place in the doorway; everyone jumps in shock at her sudden presence, as no one had noticed her. Eren looks at her in disbelief.
“You’re an alpha, you have to know how this feels — why would you knowingly kick us out when you know we want to help?!” he asks desperately. She just shrugs and hangs the black backpack over her shoulder up; the coffee colored one wasn’t with her, and Armin got a little worried that she’d left it somewhere on accident.
“Because frankly I think you’re a dick,” Y/N says nonchalantly; Eren bristles angrily in response, but does nothing, knowing that because he’s in her territory specifically he has no right to threaten attack. “Now get out.”
“But-!”
“Leave. Now— before I make you.” Her words are a warning, not an invitation, and Mikasa goes wide eyed before dragging an arguing Eren out. She slams the door shut behind them and locks it tightly before turning around to look at Armin. She was going to ask him if he was okay but was taken off guard by how heavily he was studying her.
“What are you thinking, kid?” she asks curiously tilting her head to the side and smiling good naturedly.
“I’m thinking that that was extremely attractive and that I want you to fuck me in front of this window so anyone looking can see,” he replies honestly, and her eyes widen exponentially before darkening with lust.
“Oh really?” she asks, voice low. He nods immediately.
“Yeah — I trust you, you’re hot, and I kind of want to piss Eren off more,” he admits, and her eyes glitter softly.
“Mhmm,” Y/N murmurs, slowly walking towards where he stood in front of the floor to ceiling window. Armin’s breathing quickens and his heart begins to race as she continues to advance towards him, stopping when she was only a few inches away. “Tell me you’re sure — after how we met-“
“I am one hundred percent sure that I want you to fuck me until I can’t walk tomorrow — make me forget that, alpha,” he whispers, and she surges towards him. Her touch is softer than he’d expected and is a far cry from what he’d experienced before, and honestly Armin didn’t know what the fuck he was doing; he’d almost been assaulted two nights ago and now he was about to fuck his savior, how cliche was that? Hell, he’d never even had sex before, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to tell her that — he didn’t want soft, slow sex right now, he wanted her to fuck him until he’d cum so many times he could barely breathe.
“Strip for me,” she purrs into his ear, pressing herself against him and nipping at the ear she’d whispered into, drawing a moan from his lips. He wiggles out of the clothes that she’d lent him, the boxer shorts puddling on the floor as he pulls the shirt of hers that he was wearing over his head. He shivers a little as her warm hands make contact with his waist and grip it tightly but pulls the shirt off the rest of the way before tossing it onto a chair. Now he’s naked in front of her and she’s completely clothed, which wouldn’t work for Armin in any way.
“Your turn, take off your clothes!” he whines, and she chuckles before taking the bottom of her shirt into her hands and pulling it over her head, allowing the cool air to cause her nipples to harden beneath the tight bra she was wearing — which Armin quickly set about unclasping. He pulls it off of her and lets it fall to the ground before locking eyes with her breasts and letting his jaw drop. She chuckles again and doubters forward, leaning down and pulling him into a kiss as he starts pulling the rest of her uniform off so he can have access to the part of her that he wanted to see the most. After getting rid of all of her straps and harnessing, it’s relatively easy to push the pants she was wearing down to the floor and for her stiff dick to Bob slightly after being freed from its confines.
As soon as he lays eyes on her long fat cock a rush of slick drips down the back of his thighs, the smell of it causing her eyes to almost black completely. “Hands against the window,” she growls, and he spins to do as told almost immediately, moaning at the feeling of her pressing herself up behind him for just a moment before stepping away to admire his pale body.
“I - I - please!” he begs, slightly stepping backwards while keeping his hands on the window and pressing his ass into her pelvis, not even waiting a second before rolling his own hips back into hers he manages to pull a moan from her as her cock slots between his asscheeks and he rubs their balls together.
“O-Oh fuck-!” she whispers, hands falling to his hips to steady herself.
“Alpha please, I’ve been a good boy all day, I’ve been a really good boy!” he whines, “I promise I’ll be good now too, please fuck me!”
“What do you want me to do?” Y/N purrs breathily, running one hand up the length of his body before nestling it in his blonde hair. “Tell me.”
“W-Want you to fill me up full with your cock and use me like I’m a little cum slut,” Armin moans, trembling as she places a callused hand on the soft skin of his hip. “Want you to fuck me full of your cum ‘til I’m round and stuffed with it — want you to pump me full of your pups, want it b-b-bad!”
Her nails dig into his hips sharply and he lets out another cry and she presses a finger to his ass, jerking away from her hand and pushing back into her cock again. “I gotta stretch you out first so you can take it, otherwise I-“
“No! Don’t want your fingers, I want your cock!” he snaps, and he can practically feel her shake her head.
“Armin-“
“No! Cock, now! Want my ass to be full of your cum, not your fingers,” he says, putting a special emphasis on the word ‘cum’ that had Y/N trembling with excitement and her cock hardening further.
“It’ll hurt,” she warns, voice a mixture of soft and stern, but Armin shrugs.
“I don’t care!” he snaps, shaking his ass again, “Fuck me already!” Y/N’s irises are completely swallowed by her pupils now and she grips his hips almost too tightly — but he still doesn’t stop her in favor of relishing the feeling of her slapping her fat cock onto his positively dripping hole. “Give me, give it, stuff me full!” he moans, almost crying from how suddenly empty he felt even though he’d never had anything in his ass bigger than one of his own fingers during his most terrible heat. “Fuck my ass, alpha!” She pushes her cock head against his hole and chuckles as he begins to tremble beneath her, forcing her to tighten her grip ever so slightly as she applied a touch more pressure to his entrance, her cock just barely threatening to force itself inside — and then it popped in. Armin let’s put a desperate moan and his fingers twitch against the glass, smudging it slightly. “Hnnghaahh! O-Oh fuck — MORE!”
Y/N gives him what he’s asking for, not stopping as she slowly buries her cock into his tight ass — it’s hot and she’s groaning at the feeling of practically being sucked in deeper and deeper until she can’t anymore, her hips pressed against his perk ass and her cock completely bottomed out in his quivering hole. Both of their breathing is shaky at the feelings of filling and being filled, the sensation new for one and slightly familiar for another. The burn was everything Armin had hoped for, and it almost made his legs give out from under him as he was slowly filled up so fucking perfectly that the last inch or so almost didn’t even fit inside — but Y/N made sure he got it. His fingers press against the glass so hard that his knuckles and said finger begin to turn white from the strain. “F-Fuck!” he whispers, taking his lip between his teeth and biting down gently. He hears a soft chuckle behind him as Y/N presses closer so her breasts are mashed against his back.
“Such a dirty mouth — let me hear more of your filth,” she purrs, pulling out then thrusting all she had to offer back inside, forcing a yelp from his mouth at the feeling of sudden pleasure stemming from her thrusting directly into his prostate. “AHHAH! ALPHA! My ass, fuck my ass! Pound my boycunt hard — wanna carry your pups, wanna be big and round for you!”
“You will be, you’ll be so fucking fat with my seed, and it’ll take so fucking quick — you’ll be prancing around with a bellyful of a litter before the year’s out!” Y/N snarls. With a scream Armin cums hard, his ass tightening around Y/N’s fat cock and sending a gush of his slick over her root and balls and his cum shooting out messily all over the window. Purring softly, she rolls her hips into his ass a few more times before cumming hard deep inside him with a choked groan, the arm she’d wrapped around him tightening exponentially as she buries her nose into his shoulder and breathes in deeply. He goes limp in her hold, his body pliant and easy to maneuver thanks to her strength, and she chuckles softly as she holds the exhausted omega close; he smelled as soft and sweet as his scent usually made him, but now he also smelled of her and her cum and her saliva that had smeared over his nape. Picking him up carefully and cradling his exhausted form to her chest, she walks into the bedroom and lays him down in the blankets, ready to get in beside him until her cell phone goes off in the other room. Gently covering her omega’s nude body with the sheet and comforter, she strolls back to where she’d hung her bag up and opens it before rifling through it to find her ringing phone.
“Y/N — who’s calling? Ahhhh, yes, hello Hange — yes, I’m out of breath; no, I’m not telling you why… Yeah… I can come over tomorrow, but I’ll be bringing a guest — stop fucking screaming in my ear will you, he’s barely gone to sleep! — yes, it’s a he, and if I’m not up to the apartment right away I’ll be having him ask for you, so be nice to him, okay? Good, now let me sleep; you called at two in the fucking morning — no, you can’t ask why I’m awake. Goodnight, Hange.”
The next morning he shakes nervously as he looks down at someone glaring up at him. “Who the fuck are you and what do you want?”
Y/N had told him to come up to the third floor apartment and knock on apartment door 309 quickly and to wait until he was let inside by a beta named Hange, but he wasn’t being let inside by a beta named Hange. Instead there was an extremely handsome omega male staring at him with scrutinizing eyes. The shorter omega’s cold voice almost makes Armin tremble and back away out of intimidation; the other man was beautiful: dark haired and all angled cheekbones and sharp jawlines, well built and small and perfect — something Armin silently and genuinely believed that he was not.
“I - I - I-“ he stutters weakly, trying to think back and see whether or not Y/N had mentioned an omega waiting for them.
“Where are we going?” he asks softly, chewing on a piece of peanut butter and sliced banana covered toast, “You said that I’m going with you today — so where are we going?” Y/N just chuckles softly and pours him a small cup of coffee, her eyes glittering with affection as his widen and he reaches a hand out to make grabby motions at it.
“We’re going to a friend’s — I’m off today, and I want you to meet my little pack since you don’t plan on leaving,” Y/N explains, making him another piece of toast with peanut butter and banana. He takes it eagerly and kicks his legs slowly from his seat on a barstool.
“Okay — when are we leaving?” he asks curiously, and she laughs before grabbing two jackets.
“Right now, it’s why I laid out fresh clothes for you — hurry now, we don’t need to be late!”
“This is my den, what the fuck are you doing here?” the omega then asked, interrupting his stuttering.
“Y-Y/N told me to wait here for a beta named H-Hange,” he whispers softly, “I might have heard her wrong, I’m sorry if I have the wrong apartment-!”
“You don’t, I’m here!” A bright voice cheers out.
The sounds of crashing make themselves known behind the short man, who whips around and hisses in their direction. “You better not fucking break anything, Four Eyes!”
His snarl is met with soft giggles as a feminine looking brunette and bespectacled beta pops her head over the omega in the doorway’s. Her eyes widen in surprise. “Can it, Short Stack— Oh, so you’re the pretty little blonde thing that Y/N rescued from those dirty old men in the crusty nightclub!” Armin shifts uncomfortably as the other omega’s eyes flash with recognition then darken as they lock on him all over again. He got the feeling that this other omega really didn’t like him — which he didn’t understand, because they’d barely even spoken to each other. “Wow, Y/N told me that you were coming, but I didn’t really believe it — she’s never brought an omega over before!” He wanted to be comforted by that thought, but he was just being unsettled by the reaction of other omega when they should have naturally been pressed left hip to right hip and chattering up a storm; for some reason Armin didn’t see this happening any time soon.
Soft footsteps echo in the hallway behind him but he doesn’t really register them until a warm hand touches his shoulder; he jumps and looks back and up and relaxed at the sight of his alpha behind him. “Levi — you need to relax. Armin is with me.” Levi submits immediately, tucking his head in submission but never tearing his eyes from Y/N for long as she waltzes inside the apartment, his nose twitching as he takes in her scent and his eyes almost glowing as she passes him by, and Armin doesn’t realize why he bowed down to her so quickly—
Levi whips his head back around once Y/N disappears into the apartment and stares daggers at Armin, who jumps a little. “Let’s get one thing straight,” he hisses furiously, voice soft enough that t  alpha and beta inside couldn’t hear him but still immensely threatening, “Y/N is and always has been my alpha — I’ve courted her since I was fifteen, we’ve heatshared since I was eighteen and she was nineteen and rutshared since I was nineteen and she was twenty. She was mine before you and she will be mine after you, so back the fuck off and mind your place.”
Oh.
Oh.
The other omega, Levi, liked his alpha and was clearly even chasing her for a bondmark and had been for way sounded like almost a decade — no wonder he seemed to hate him so much; Armin had caught her attention and she’d been neglecting the omega who’d silently claimed her first.
“You’ve met Hange, I can assume,” Y/N murmurs softly, and Armin nods.
“Yeah, she’s very nice, just very exciting,” he whispers, and she chuckles.
“Yeah, Hange can be a lot… they also prefer to be referred to as they/them, you think you can keep up with that?” his alpha asks, voice gentle and warm; his eyes widen.
“Oh, definitely! I didn’t mean to insult anyone!” he exclaims apologetically, even though he’d had no way of knowing in the slightest.
“I’m not insulted, it’s fine!” Hange squeals from behind him, “you’ve never met me before and this meet up was pretty rushed, so Y/N probably didn’t have much time to think about telling you!”
Y/N rubs the back of her neck in mild embarrassment, “yeah, I didn’t really get the chance, thanks for being so understanding.”
“No problem!”
“You need to calm the fuck down,” Levi grumbles, fixing a baby blue pillow she’d kicked over on accident. She kneels down and begins to croon soft mocking apologies to the annoyed omega, who swings at her playfully.
“We will soon, shortass!” the beta purrs, ruffling his hair and ducking a swipe as a large male alpha that Armin didn’t recognize came into the room with a large messenger bag while Y/N moved away to a mini fridge underneath the kitchen island. Hange squeals again at the sight of him. “MICHE! Finally, you’re here! Levi’s just fixing a few things in our spots and then we’ll be good to go!”
“Where’s Erwin?” the alpha, Miche, asks curiously before his eyes lock on Armin, “and who the hell is that?”
“Oh, Erwin’s still on his way and that’s Y/N’s new little playmate in the bedroom,” she replies, wiggling her eyebrows and making Miche chuckles quietly.
“Shut up and help me roll,” he replies, and Hange hops to it immediately. Levi just crossed his arms and glares over at where Armin stood alone waiting for Y/N to get her beer; as she was the doorknob began to shake for a moment as it was unlocked and then the door opened, a tall blond man with blue eyes stepping in and shutting the door behind himself.
“Erwin, you’re here!” Miche says, looking up from where Armin thought he saw him rolling up a piece of brown paper. He starts to walk over to where Miche was sitting, curious to see what the alpha was doing, when his shoulder accidentally cracks into Levi’s. Already on edge, the smaller omega immediately begins to hiss angrily in Armin’s direction, making the younger man cower back slightly. Y/N rushes over and stands in front of Armin just as Levi jumps at him, Erwin’s thick arm looping around Levi’s waist being the only thing that stopped the already angry omega from ripping the newcomer apart.
“Why don’t we all just calm down and settle in?” Hange asks, trying to cut through the tension in the room as Erwin struggles to hold Levi back; after being on the receiving end of a borderline acidic look from Y/N,  Levi stops his hissing and lets them do so but still shoots poisonous glances towards Armin whenever he got the chance as he led the group of six over to the huge nest he’d only assembled a couple hours before.
“Wh-What are we doing here?” Armin whispers quietly, looking around the other omega’s comfortable looking den curiously while clinging to Y/N’s arm tightly as they all got comfortable in said nest of pillows and blankets and clothes from everyone present aside from Armin.
“You said weed didn’t bother you in the car, yeah?” she responds easily, voice soft; Armin nods in response and she smiles lazily. “I’m about to get high — and so’s everyone else you just met.”
“I - Oh,” he whispers, watching as the first blunt is lit. “C-Can I try s-some?” he asks quietly, making everyone pause — including Erwin, who was mid tug. Their eyes all lock on him and Y/N breaks the silence by shaking herself out of her surprise and looking over at Miche.
“I mean — Miche, you paid for it and brought it, what do you think?” she asks softly, showing the other alpha a steady level of respect. Miche seems to think about it for a second before shrugging.
“It’s fine with me,” he replies simply, relaxing against the side of the nest Levi had built before they’d all arrived.
Erwin blows out what little smoke he’d inhaled before speaking, “Have you ever smoked before?” he asks gently. Armin shakes his head ‘no’ in response.
“I haven’t, but some of my friends have while I’ve been around,” he offers; Levi scoffs as Hange leans forward.
“So you’ve gotten a contact high, then?” they ask curiously, their eyes widening ever so slightly when Armin shakes his head ‘no’ again.
“I didn’t really like sticking around, but even when I did I never really felt anything,” Armin explains, and Miche wrinkles his nose. The younger omega didn’t understand why until the other omega in the room spoke up.
Levi scoffs from where he was reclining on a grey furry pillow and tugs a soft black blanket over his bare knees, “Trashy pot,” he mumbles, “they didn’t have the good stuff.”
Hange nods wildly, agreeing with Levi completely, “He’s right, someone as inexperienced as you getting a few whiffs of the good stuff? Yeah, you’d be knocked the fuck out.”
Armin’s eyes widen in worry, and Y/N sends a soft warning growl to her friends, who look at her in surprise, “Shut the fuck up, all of you — can’t you see you’re scarin’ him?” She looks down towards him and draws him closer to her ever so slightly as she takes the blunt from Erwin. “Now, just do as you’re told and you’ll be fine your first time, okay?”
“Okay,” Armin nods. She grins softly and takes a tug from the blunt between her fingers.
“Good — Open your mouth, little lover,” the alpha purrs, her voice slightly strained from holding her breath to keep the smoke in her lungs. He does as told almost immediately, his instinct screaming at him to follow his alpha’s thinly veiled order (no matter how little of the overbearing tone that forced omega mates to comply with orders was in her words), even going so far as to stick out his tongue for her. He didn’t really know why she wanted him to do this, but he was willing to comply anyway — she’d never led him astray so far. “Inhale when I blow the smoke in.” The other four older college students overlooked the interaction, eyes wide and slightly hungry for more; Miche cocked his head slightly to the side and Erwin’s, the only other alpha out of the five of them, eyes glittered softly as Y/N blew a straight line of smoke into Armin’s mouth and his chest expanded as he did exactly as told and inhaled what she gave him. She cuts off the flow of smoke when around a fourth of it all is in his lungs and blows the rest into the empty air (much to Levi’s chagrin; the omega man was so used to always being the main recipient of her shotgunning — and overall affections, honestly — that he was surprised not to be for once), knowing that the small blonde couldn’t take the heavy hits that she did. “Hold it in as long as you can, then blow it out like me.” She advises softly, passing the joint over to Hange, who’s eyes lit up as they snatched it from the offered hand and stuck the proper end in their mouth.
Armin tries to hold it as long as Y/N did but isn’t able to, blowing it out and coughing as he does; the other students in the room chuckle softly (well, Levi more snickers at him being unused to smoking, but Y/N ignores him because she knows exactly what his problem is and she’s not getting into that right now) at the sight, Hange blowing out her own puff of smoke as she hands a bottle of water to Erwin who attempts to hand it to Levi, who only turns his nose up at it; Erwin’s then forced to just toss the bottle to Y/N, who catches it easily and helps Armin drink by holding the opening up to his lips in between bouts of coughing until he’s calmed down. Levi grumbles softly to himself and crosses his arms before pressing back into the mess of pillows he’d gathered and fixed into a large nest for their group of five like usual, unhappy that not only was their little sanctuary invaded by another omega clinging to the alpha he was making moves on, no less — and that Hange, Miche, and Erwin seemed to care as little as Y/N did! It stung even worse how Y/N would brush him and any efforts he made of showing her affection off in favor of coddling her new little bitch.
“This is stupid,” he mutters, standing up abruptly and brushing off his shorts of genuinely nothing before storming away; Hange, Erwin, and Miche all share a knowing look as Y/N doesn’t even react to her former partner storming off — nor does she react to the quiet sniffles he was letting out in his bedroom. Hange sighs and pushes themself to their feet before slowly following him; the two alphas not focusing on the small blond omega could hear her quietly whispering words of comfort to the omega that was quietly being upset in the other room.
For the next few hours until they leave the apartment Levi refuses to come out, too upset and hurt to even force himself to face the alpha he’d only just admitted to himself that he’d fallen in love with.
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He’s in the library three or so months later when he smells them approach before they get to him; even though it had been so long, he didn’t want to talk to them any more than he had the first night — but knowing Eren, the young alpha wasn’t going to accept no as an answer without a little fight.
“I don’t really want to talk to you guys right now,” Armin mutters, his discomfort growing by the second as he retreats further into the library; he didn’t notice the dark haired omega sitting at the corner table’s nose twitching as the scent of his distress began to permeate the air.
“Come on, Armin, it’s been months,” Eren complains, “You’ve been with that alpha woman this whole time and haven’t even stepped foot back into the apartment for a set of your clothes or your favorite books even though we said we were sorry for skipping out on you two days after it happened — just fucking talk to us already-“
“The brat said he doesn’t fucking want to talk to you, back the fuck off!” Levi growls angrily, coming out of nowhere (in their opinions, at least — in reality he had come from the corner table) shoving himself between Armin, Mikasa and Eren and balling his fists up as his eyes flash gold threateningly. Eren does a double take in his sudden shock, but suddenly balls his fists up in anger.
“Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?!” Eren snaps, Mikasa’s eyes widening as she begins to look around at other people making use of the library; people of all presentations were starting to look their way, noses catching the distress from one omega and anger from another. She wraps an arm around one of his and tugs at it worriedly, not wanting the alphas and betas eyeing the group of four sleazily to jump anyone.
“Eren, maybe we should go-!” She whispers urgently, but Eren shakes her off; she continues to look around the room in mild panic.
“I’m talking to you, you fucking knothead — get the fuck out of our faces and slither back into whatever slimy, sleazy place you crawled out of!” Levi snarls, his fingers twitching when Armin grabs his hand out of nervousness; still, he doesn’t stop the younger omega from lacing their fingers together to seek comfort. His skin was heating up — he was scared. It pissed Levi off way more than it should have considering what the other omega had taken from him, but what could he say? Armin was one of the pack now, and he’d be damned if he let anyone harass the younger omega if he could stop it; if that meant fighting an alpha who had a good several inches on him, so be it.
“Eren, we’re causing a scene, we need to go!” Mikasa hisses, tugging at him one good time and finally getting his attention. He looks around and realizes that she’s right and hesitantly backs away, Mikasa practically forcing him away from the two omegas.
“We’re not done,” he warns lowly, eyes burning with anger, “Armin’s our friend, you can’t keep us from him.”
“If he was your friend you'd respect the fact that he wants you the fuck away from him and that he wants space!” Levi retorts aggressively. “Now go away!”
“Is there going to be a problem here?” an alpha rumbles softly as he approaches the small group of four; he’s bigger than everyone in the argument combined. Mikasa tugs Eren back further and is the first to speak up.
“No, no problems, we were just leaving!” she promises; she squeezed Eren’s hand tightly as he halfheartedly fights off her attempts to leave. “Come on Eren, we’ve overstayed our welcome!” she hisses lowly, snapping him out of it. Sending one last glare Levi’s way, he follows quietly behind Mikasa and leaves the library and Armin behind.
Levi watched them go and the place they disappeared for a good two minutes or so before turning back to the omega behind him who was still clutching his hand tightly. “Are you okay?”
All he gets is a whispered, “Why did you help me?” and Levi’s eyes widen.
“You were scared, and they were making you uncomfortable. If I was in this situation you would have jumped forward too once you got your confidence back, I can tell; besides, you’re one of the group now —the youngest — so I’m supposed to take care of you,” he explains softly, tightening his grip on the younger omega’s hand and tugging him out of the library in the opposite direction that Eren and Mikasa went. “Honestly I’ve been slacking in that department; it’s about time I made up for that.”
The pair continue walking down the sidewalk, Armin still clinging to Levi’s hand, only stopping once they reach the front of an old diner. “You know, people say they serve food here made from recipes from Old Paradis,” Armin said quietly, and Levi raises an eyebrow.
“Really?” he asks softly, and Armin nods. Levi hums softly to himself before shrugging, “Well, let’s go inside and see then; if you want we can text Hange and Miche to come meet up here with us.”
Armin smiles softly.
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
Hours later, Y/N’s finally gotten home from whatever mission she and Erwin had had to go on together that weekend; Armin had missed her the whole time and was already tired of how stale her scent on him had gone that he’d not left her lap since she’d gotten home — she still had her entire black stealth suit on for night missions, she’d never gotten a chance to take it off after he’d jumped her and parked himself on her lap with one leg on either side of her hips so he could straddle her. Currently he was rubbing the scent glands on their necks together so her scent would be released and could cover him completely.
“Mmm, missed you,” he mumbles, and she chuckles softly, her hands drifting up to cover his round ass. She gives each of the perky globes a slight squeeze before responding.
“Oh really? How much?” she asks, starting to purr softly; Armin melts into her at the comforting feeling and sound of the deep rumbling in her chest.
“So much,” he whispers, the corners of his mouth quirked up into a soft smile.
“Wow, so much — that’s a lot,” she murmurs, raising a hand to run her fingers through his chin length hair. He giggles sleepily, pulling his neck away from hers to nudge his nose against her scent gland affectionately.
“Mmhmm,” he says softly, his eyes closed into thin slits. Y/N leans forward, trying to catch his lips with her own but fails when he jolts away. Her eyes widen in surprise, not expecting him to move away from her and reject her kiss — he’d never done that before in the five months they’d been fucking and sharing a bed, even through various heatshares. “Why do you want to kiss me?” he whispers softly, his voice shaking just as much as his body suddenly is. Y/N’s shock wears off almost immediately as she recognizes the insecurity in his eyes and she chuckles softly, raising a hand up to curl a blond lock of hair behind the omega’s ear.
“How could I not? You’re everything I could ever want, you know,” she murmurs softly, nuzzling his cheek affectionately; this time when she leans forward he doesn’t jerk back to get away from her.
“Me?” he whispers, sounding as shocked as she’d looked when he’d pulled away from her.
Y/N nods easily, a lazy smile on her lips. “Of course.”
“But — but why?”
“‘Cause no one could ever make me feel the way you do,” she purrs, nuzzling him again, “with how gentle you are, and how soft spoken, how kind you are to everyone, how smart you are,” she takes his earlobe between her teeth and tugs it gently before letting go to speak, “and no other omega could ever hope to make feel feel as good as you do when your pretty little white ass is stuffed full of my cock or how fucking hot you are swallowing my fucking meat down your throat until I can’t even fuckin’ see the root of it.”
He’s still shaking, but this time his eyes are full of unrestrained list rather than worry. His thighs tremble in their place on either sides of her hips and she chuckles softly as he paws at one of her tits before speaking, “Alpha please — my ass, it’s so empty! I need you to fill it with your fat cock, need you to pump me full of your cum until I’m almost bursting!” he begs weakly, “w-want your cock so bad, alpha!”
“Shhhh, my little omega slut doesn’t need to beg me for my cock,” Y/N purrs, “I’ll fill him good like always, make him scream, won’t I?”
“Yes! Yes! Alpha, please!” Armin beg, his short nails scratching at the skin of her bared shoulders in her uniform’s sleeveless undershirt as her calluses fingers gently prod at the bared skin of her midriff, “Make me cum all over your cock, I want it so bad!”
“Shh, we’re getting there,” Y/N murmurs, unbuckling her belt and shoving her pants down into a mess at her knees before wiggling a little so she could kick them off her ankles and away from them both as Armin pulled her sleeveless top off to get better access at her tits, which he immediately grabbed and began to grope while whining needily. As she fumbles with the sweatpants he’d stolen from her she finds the back of them sipping wet with slick, and she fights off the urge to chuckle.
“Want it — please!” Armin whines, wrapping his hands around her cock and jerking it a few times; her hips stuttered up into his touch at the feeling and she took a deep breath to help her refocus on getting his pants off to fuck his ass rather than his hands.
“I know lover, I know, give me one second and I’ll fill you up full, don’t worry-!” Y/N mutters, trying harder to get the damn ties undone and failing miserably.
Admin wiggles impatiently in her lap,slick leaking out of his hole in anticipation. “But I want it now!”
“I know, I understand, just gotta get these sweatpants off then you can have my cock like you want it,” she murmurs as Armin begins struggling with getting the ties on the sweatpants untied, his hands much smaller than Y/N’s in comparison, slowly getting more and more frustrated because he’d tied them way too tight and now he couldn’t get them off fast and he just wanted his alpha to fuck him and make him feel better—
Anxiety and stress caused meltdown achieved. Armin suddenly just gives up and covers his face with his hands, his body shaking as he cries softly from frustration. Y/N notices immediately and moves one hand up from where it was toying with the knotted ties to cup his face. “No no no, don’t cry love, I know you’re frustrated, but it’s almost untied, okay?” Sniffing, Armin nods softly and grabs her hand between both of his before he looks back down to watch as she gets rid of the knot in the next minute. She moved her other hand up and smiles warmly at him as he stands on his knees and pushes the pants down to them before kicking them off like Y/N had her own pants. “See? There we go.”
Not listening, Armin holds her cock steady with one hand and spreads his asscheeks with the other
“Once we go, don’t stop, don’t stop — oh God, please don’t stop!” he begs, shoving himself down onto Y/N’s cock then begging more as she takes him by the hips and forcefully moves him up and down on her thick meat. His jaw drops and his tongue lolls out with drool running down his chin in a constant thick stream as his eyes cross and roll back in his head at the feeling of being filled with her dick over and over again as she bounces him up and down on her fat cock, his hands fisted tightly around handfuls of her hair and tears popping up in his eyes at the endless stretch. “Alphaaaaaa!”
“Gonna fill that sexy boycunt up with cum, make you all nice and round for me,” she growls, thrusting up into his hot, tight heat and striking his prostate each time, “your tits’ll be so big and milky — fuck, I won’t be able to get enough, baby!”
“Baby, baby, want a baby, please!” Armin begs weakly, his voice as shaky as the rest of him. Y/N’s balls slap against his ass and her knot begins to catch at the rim of his hot, slick hole with each thrust.
“Of course, honey — Come on baby, I’ve got you; you’re almost there already, I can tell, cum for your alpha!” Y/N growls before taking one of his nipples between her teeth and biting down teasingly. With a broken scream Armin covers Y/N’s stomach and tits with cum, his ass tightening around her thick shaft as she forces her fat knot into it and cums hard, filling him up so full with her cum that it begins to force its way out around where her knot had caught. She groans heavily, her hips stuttering up into him, and buries her face into his shoulder before sinking her teeth into it; this earns her a second orgasm as Armin wails at the feeling and tighten up as he cums all over their bodies again. His own head drops to her shoulder and he bites her back, making her groan into his neck and press her face into it.
“Mine,” she mumbles softly, tightening the way she’d thrown her arms around his waist. “All mine, forever.”
“Y-Yours, alpha,” Armin murmurs, humming contently. “All yours.”
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It was an almost obvious decision, choosing the Scouts when the option came. Armin knew that Eren and Mikasa and probably everyone he’d known before were going to choose the same place, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. His mate went here and so did his closest omega friend (despite their… rocky beginning and the fact that he used to frequently heatshare and sleep with Armin’s alpha even outside heats) as well as the other two alphas and the beta that Y/N had introduced him to all those months — a year and a half, really — ago. It was a safe profession, a good one, and with his current major medical exemption he would never have to go in the field. They’d be safe always, curled up in the Scout library of his Captain mate’s office while she was away working with the other.
“ARMIN?!” The shout makes him stiffen at first, then sigh. Some people’s voices grated on his nerves these days, and this was one of them. The person in question who had shouted comes running up behind him and the muscles in his legs tense up as he instinctively throws an arm around his softer front defensively.
“Armin, is that you?!” Eren cries, his voice just as loud as it was from across the room. Armin winces slightly as it practically assaults his ears.
“…Yes?” he replies, looking around for his only omega friend and finding them nowhere in the vicinity.
Mikasa smiles softly at him while absentmindedly adjusting her cadet’s uniform. “Wow, you look so different!” she exclaims softly, looking him up and down and quirking an eyebrow up when her eyes skin across his belly.
“How so?” Armin asks, so far completely amused by the reaction they’d had.
“I mean — look at you! You cut your hair and your cheekbones stand out way more, and your stomach…” Mikasa trails off slowly after mentioning his stomach, clearly thinking up a way to word it that somehow wouldn’t insult the omega in front of her.
Now Armin quirks up an eyebrow. “What about it?
“I mean… Armin, it looks like you’d gained a bit of weight, honestly,” Eren admits, and Mikasa’s eyes go wide.
“Eren! That’s rude!” she hisses, elbowing him in the side aggressively.
“You don’t know the half of it,” Armin mumbles softly, rubbing his thumb over the currently soft swell of his stomach. The alpha pair watch him do it, both silently fascinated by something they still didn’t completely understand.
“Anyways, this negates the point of why we ran over,” Eren says, shaking his head from side to side as if to clear it. “What the hell are you doing in Scout Headquarters?”
Armin looks at his childhood friend as if the young alpha man had grown another head. “I work here,” he replies slowly, as if speaking to a toddler; knowing Eren’s temperament, he may very well be.
“You’re a Scout?!” Eren cries, making Armin cringe at the volume.
“Yeah.”
“Why the hell did you choose the Scouts?!” Eren exclaims, now notably quieter (but still very, very loud). Armin narrows his eyes at him.
“...you picked it, why am I not allowed?” he asks, slightly annoyed.
“The Scout Regiment isn’t the place for omegas, Armin, you know that,” Mikasa says gently, as if talking to a child. For some reason this only proves to piss Armin off more than before.
“Levi’s a Scout, Mikasa, and one of the best known too. And careful, the two of you are voicing some pretty anti-omega opinions rather publically,” he snaps, eyes cold. Both of them jerk back in shock.
“What the hell does that mean — Armin, what the fuck happened?” Eren asks urgently, “Why are you so different?! Is it because of whatever happened last year that you still refuse to talk about?”
“What happened last year is none of your business even though it was your fault,” Armin hisses, “ As for me changing, I grew up, okay?! Shit happened, I found someone, they helped me get through it, and now I’m happy where I am and with what I’ve got!”
“And what’s that?” Mikasa asks quietly.
Armin scoffs in response. “A pack that fucking respects me and counts me as one of their own, a mate who loves me unconditionally no matter what and DOESN’T see me on out for my presentation, and a possible litter on the way that I will get to care for and raise properly with no help from you OR the shitty parents who pawned me off on my grandfather.”
Both pairs of eyes in front of him widen in shock at the word ‘litter’ and they try to talk to him at the same time, “Armin-!” but he just keeps talking as the friend he was looking for before quietly comes up next to the group of three.
“I have an absolutely amazing life and it doesn’t have you in it, so get the fuck over it. I’m happy bending over or getting on my knees for my fucking alpha day in and day out because she treats me like a fucking person — you two just treated me like a third wheel to my face and a pretty little prize to strangers and your friends,” Armin snarls, making sure that they knew that he knew exactly what they were doing. It doesn’t really seem to register, though, because they just gape at him in shock for a minute until Eren pulls himself together enough to whisper three words in his direction.
“Armin — you’re pregnant?”
The omega Armin had been looking for rolls his eyes and answers for him. “Is that really all you got from that?”
Eren’s eyes darken.
“You-!” he hisses, but the two omega’s ignore him as Armin turns to Levi looking relieved.
“Levi, finally, I want to go home now,” he whines, and the other omega nods instantly.
“Then let’s go,” Levi shrugs, tucking a single finger underneath a leather strap around Armin’s arm and tugging gently.
“Wait-!” Eren exclaims, jolting forward in a last ditch attempt at regaining Armin’s attention and stopping immediately when the shorter man whirls around angrily.
“No!” Armin snaps, “I have to get home and suck my alpha’s cock before I make dinner then have her fuck me after we eat because I already know how hard a day she’s had just from talk through the grapevine her at the headquarters. Grow the fuck up and get over it. I’m done.” he storms away after putting in his last word and Levi trails behind him
“Well done, Arlert,” Levi mumbles softly, eyeing him sideways with a small smirk. Armin just shrugs.
“They need to grow up — goodness knows I did.”
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Fjorester Talk in episode 117
also known as Sofía goes buckwild and overanalyzes 10 minutes of conversation and body language.
ready?
Ok, first of all, Fjord looks so worried from the get go as he asks Jester if Lucien/Cree was speaking to her directly. 
And when she confirms it he does this little grumpy sigh
He no like it. No like it at all.
Fjord: Does it seem like he’s keying in on you in particular?
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LISTEN GUYS
I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR LIKE TWO WEEKS
HOPING FJORD WOULD GET PROTECTIVE OVER JESTER CONSTANTLY GETTING SCRIED ON/MESSAGED BY LUCIEN BUT I DIDN’T THINK TRAVIS WAS ACTUALLY GOING TO DELIVER
AND HE DIIIIIID
Ok anyway he goes on about how when they see someone else scrying it’s usually just a representation of the spell and wonders if Lucien is more powerful and therefor can see the person
and then he makes a pause mid-argument
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because Jester makes this face and he realizes this is upsetting her, so he quickly backtracks trying to reassure her. 
Fjord: I’m sure it’s just coincidence but...
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and here’s where the idea comes and god how long has he been thinking about this???
Fjord: since we’re not in the sea... would you... want to wear this?
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YES HELLO DO YOU SEE THE PARALLELS TO THAT ONE TIME HE WANTED TO GIVE HER AN EXTRA POWERFUL HEALING POTION TO MAKE SURE SHE WOULD BE SAFE??? PROTECTIVE FJORD PARALLELS!!!
and then he just brushes off the fact that he’s a huge Uk’otoa beacon everytime they are on water —baby, you died once already, don’t act like it’s whatever???
Fjord: maybe it would provide some protection if we were to keep checking in on him?
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Jester: I mean... it’s worth a try. 
Of course, as she points out, Lucien has already met all of them and he could just as easily scry on any of the M9 if he wanted to, but that’s not really what Fjord is worried about, what is bothering him. Fjord knew Lucien was watching and it’s not the first time they are scried on, but he makes it clear that he’s concerned about how centered on Jester that’s been lately. 
Jester: Maybe it’ll keep me from getting seen next time I scry on him?
Fjord: I guess we’ll find out next time we try it. 
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The way he chuckles softly, trying to defuse the tension, and she smiles back even though this subject clearly has her nervous??? 11/10
Jester: Thank you. 
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SHE SAYS IT SO SOFTLY. SHE’S CLEARY SO TOUCHED THAT HE’S WATCHING OUT FOR HER AND HAVING HER BACK JUST LIKE HE ALWAYS DOES. 
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LOOK AT THOSE HEART EYES THEY BOTH HAVE WTF
THEY ARE BOTH SO SOFT 
Fjord: Yeah. Just in case it’s not... coincidence. 
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Listen there’s such a heaviness in how he says the word. 
Like the possibility of anyone —especially this very dangerous stranger with the face of a friend— purposefully targeting Jester is his worst nightmare. It probably is. 
Jester: It’s also creepy. He did say that he kind of knew me, right?
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NOTICE HOW JESTER IS STILL PLAYING WITH THE AMULET IN HER HANDS??? 
Idk why but that’s getting to me. She’s so nervous with this whole thing. 
Fjord: He did?
Jester: When we got there he said he hadn’t met anyone except for me. 
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OH FJORD DOESN’T LIKE THIS AT ALL
So of course Jester tries to defuse the tension talking about how she must look like through the scry
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AND HE’S JUST SO IN LOVE
And so he plays along
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LOOK AT THE WAY HE MAKE HER SMILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(same, Ashley, same)
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And so, more reassured by the goofiness, Jester finally puts the necklace on. 
Fjord: And of course, it’s Caleb’s...
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Jester: oh
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LISTEN SHE DID NOT LIKE THAT. She was clearly so excited to get a present like this from Fjord and you can see her face fall a little when it’s deviated towards someone else. 
Jester: should I ask him if it’s okay?
Fjord: Well, he gave it to me to use it..
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Fjord: and you seem to need it more. 
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AKA THE AMULET WAS FOR FJORD’S WELLBEING BUT THE WAY HE IS OK IS IF HE KNOWS JESTER IS PROTECTED
Jester, now that she knows this is something that he is personally choosing to transfer to her: Okay...
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LOOK AT THE WAY SHE CLUTCHES IT TO HER HEART I’M DYING
Fjord: And just be careful.
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Fjord: I don’t like the possibility of him keying in on you or using that connection between the two of you to manipulate something. His magic seems strange. 
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LISTEN GUYS LISTEN 
THIS PART HERE IS HUGE OK?
This is the part where Fjord took 18 steps forward instead of one since Rumblecusp
Whereas before he could’ve hide his concern as something tactical, something useful that made sense and could help their mission... or could’ve hidden behind group speech to disguise his concern...
here he says “I don’t like the possibility of him keying in on you.”
here he is straight up saying “I am worried about you”
(quietly hopes Lucien does exactly that to trigger more protective fjord instincts in the future and lots of angst based shippy shenaingans)
Fjord: Alright. More adventures tomorrow. 
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BECAUSE THAT’S ALL OK
THAT’S IT
HE SAID HIS PIECE, HE KEPT HER SAFE, MADE SURE SHE LAUGHED A LITTLE AND THAT’S ALL HE NEEDS... THAT AND MORE ADVENTURES BY HER SIDE
But then Jester hesitates
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AND LOOK AT THAT, THE WAY SHE PULLS BACK LIKE SHE’S AFRAID IF SHE SAYS THE WRONG THING HE’LL CLOSE OFF
THE WAY HIS FACE SCRUNCHES WITH WORRY OVER WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE TROUBLING HER THAT SHE’S HESITATING TO SAY
Fjord: What?
Jester: H- How are you?
FJORD MELTING IMMEDIATELY: 
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The way he goes from super concerned to extremely soft in 0.2 seconds.
(i am ashley and ashley is me)
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Jester: *explaining all the very valid reasons she has to be worried about Fjord too and all the crazy shit that happened to him only a few days ago*
Fjord: *bursting with feelings of love*
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seriously travis pls have some mercy of my poor yearning soul
Also I wanna talk about the way Jester brings up Avantika.
Jester: She tried to pull you into the water... you guys had a thing... it must have been weird to see her all kinda dead and stuff... was it weird? And then you killed her... again...
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The way she calls them “a thing” and the way she checks if it was “weird” for him to see her as undead really says a lot to me. I think Jester never quite got over the heartbreak during the pirate arc and part of her probably still thought that Fjord harbored some sort of feelings or attraction towards Avantika. 
I think she believes whatever they two had was far more intimate than it actually was. Or, at the very least, Jester thinks it must have meant something to Fjord. 
How could she not? The whole thing had her bursting with jealousy and pain and unresolved feelings... you can tell how anxious she is around this subject but also she needs to know if he’s alright because she cares too much
Fjord: It was weird. Yeah, it was weird, for sure. I wasn’t expecting that...
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HE DOESN’T EVEN REGISTER IT AS AN “EX” THING I SWEAR
Fjord: I’m alright. 
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And so she finally relaxes.
Fjord: It feels like I keep trying to start newer chapters in my life and leave the old stuff behind and then it just... keeps popping up. 
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Fjord: It feels like it’s hard to... pursue something new, when the past is not dealt with. 
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YOU CAN’T SEE IT IN THE SCREENSHOTS BUT JESTER STARTS NODDING VERY GENTLY WHEN HE STARTS TALKING ABOUT NEW CHAPTERS AND MOVING ON 
ALSO THIS
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(ashley knows what I’m talking about)
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Jester: Do we need to deal with the past?
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WE
SHE SAYS WE
BECAUSE AS USUAL THEY ARE A TEAM ALWAYS FIRST AND FOREMOST
AND IF THIS IS SOMETHING HE NEEDS TO DO SHE’S GOING TO HELP HIM AND BE BY HIS SIDE WITHOUT A DOUBT NO MATTER WHAT
Fjord: I think so. 
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Fjord: Yeah... I want to. 
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THE WAY HE LOOKS AT HER WHEN HE SAYS ‘I WANT TO’. HE WANTS TO HAVE A FUTURE WITH HER. HE WANTS TO LET GO OF THE PAST SO HE CAN HAVE A FUTURE WITH HER. HE’S LETTING HIMSELF ‘WANT’ THIS AND ADMITTING IT.
Fjord: I feel like I need to close all of that before...
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AND THEN HE JUST GOES THROUGH THIS BLESSED FACE JOURNEY FOR 6 ENTIRE SECONDS
LOOK AT IT
AND THE WAY SHE SLOWLY SMILES LIKE SHE MIGHT KNOW WHAT HE MEANS
LOOK AT HER OWN FACIAL JOURNEY
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ASHLEYYYYYYYYYY
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And so Jester jumps into action mode offering her help. 
and Fjord —once again— proves that he’s able and willing to open up to Jester about things that he’s keeping close to his chest... like Sabian. 
Fjord: I um... I actually... I put a bounty out for S-Sabian. 
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IDK WHY THIS FACIAL EXPRESSION AMUSES ME THIS MUCH
THIS IS FJORD’S ‘IM ABOUT TO CONFESS SOMETHING PERSONAL TO JESTER FACE’ AND WE’VE SEEN IT BEFORE AT THE KILN AND IN RUMBLECUSP
Jester: A bo- When? How?
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SHE’S SO BEWILDERED LMFAO
and a little offended that she didn’t know
and I think Fjord can tell by the way he quickly tries to excuse it as a way to keep Kotho occupied after the whole Vokodo ordeal
But Jester quickly gets back on track and starts looking for a way to help him with this. If finding Sabian is what Fjord wants —what he needs— right now, she’ll do anything to help him. 
Jester: *describing how she would be able to help Fjord*
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Fjord, who never had anyone be this ride or die for him ever and who is bursting at the seems with love for this kind and wonderful woman:
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Fjord: Sure.
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Jester: You want me to do it?
Fjord: Yeah. 
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THOSE HEART EYES SHOULD BE ILEGAL 
Jester: *uses a sixth level spell to send a message for Fjord because this is totally her number one priority now and it’s not like they are dealing with stuff that literally drained her today or like they are stuck up north for god knows how long... nope... she needs to find a way to help Fjord right now*
Fjord:
okay okay okay
so after the message
you can see how Jester is worried that the news she finally found for him are bad news and not going to cheer him up
Jester: Oops
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Fjord: No, no, no, no! No oops! That’s great! That’s great!
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I love the way he rushes to reassure her, to make sure she knows that what she just did for him is amazing and means so much and please jester do not be sad about this because this already means so much to me you have no ideaaaaaa
Fjord: That’s... totally distracting but that’s great. 
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Fjord: Thank you.
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Jester: You’re welcome! Now you know!
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Fjord, with more feeling and emotion behind it like he wants to tell her that she and everything she does for him out of love mean the entire universe to him: Thank you.
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Jester, blissfully unaware that he’s in love with him but delighted that she was able to help and that he is letting her in enough to help deal with his past: You’re welcome! I’m glad I could help!
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Fjord, still not over how good she is and how diametrically different her kindness is compared to everything else he’s known in life so far and still after these many months shook and surprised by how wonderful she is: That’s very nice of you, I-
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Jester: It’s just a (6th level) spell. Easy to do.
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SHE HAS NO IDEA THAT WHAT HE MEANS ISN’T THE MAGIC NOR THE SPELL NOR THE INFORMATION... IT’S HER HELP AND SUPPORT THAT HE IS SO SHAKEN WITH. 
Fjord: I.... will think about that all night. 
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Sure you will Fjord. We know you will. But we know it’s not about Sabien but about Jester’s kindness that you’re gonna be thinking all night. We know that’s what’s keeping you up. Not the past, the future. 
AND OF COURSE
THE OBLIGATORY AWKWARD ENDING
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Fjord: I’ll race you to the top!
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Both: UP!
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THEY ARE SO ADORABLE AND GOOFY AND PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER WTF HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE MY LIFE INSTEAD OF THINKING ABOUT THEM 24/7??
ANYWAY WHO IS READY FOR PIRATE ARC PART 2 AND MORE SHENANIGANS WITH THESE TWO WHILE FJORD GETS FINALLY READY TO MOVE FORWARD TOWARDS THE FUTURE HE WANTS WITH JESTER? I AM
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drabbledragon · 3 years
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Linktober: Graveyard
Here’s the start of Nocturne of Shadows week!
AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26749021/chapters/65839948
Summary: A few Links have something in common, and wonder why that is.
Warnings: Mentions of death but nothing too graphic
Day 7: Graveyard
It was cold and rainy when the Links arrived in Legend’s Hyrule. It was good that they ended up so close to the castle, because a majority of them were unsure if they could go another half - day’s trip to the nearest inn with how exhausted they were. As soon as the castle guards caught sight of their resident hero, the group was immediately led inside with open arms and welcoming smiles, and had no qualms about bringing the Links to this Hyrule’s Zelda.
A full - course meal was a nice surprise for them. After they had gotten the chance to check in with the princess, the staff had eagerly ushered them into the royal dining room where every food known to man stood freshly prepared on the table, the warmth radiating from the meals almost palpable in the air. The afternoon was spent with light banter and hums of satisfaction as the heroes easily chatted with each other, enjoying the taste of real food and simply being grateful that they didn’t have to spend another night sleeping in a monster - infested forest. Soon late noon had turned into early evening, and the heroes took to doing whatever they wanted to do: from writing letters to reading books to whittling to sleeping, all the Links were busy doing something.
“Hey, you see that?”
Twilight stopped in his tracks and directed curious eyes towards Wild’s direction, following the latter’s gaze to where a castle window stood. He squinted past the clear panes to get a better look at what his protege was so interested in, and finally drew his brows together when he caught sight of a lone figure sitting in the heavy rain. 
He leaned forward as he noted, “ Red tunic, blond hair … that’s Legend, isn’t it? What’s he doing out there?”
The clack of heels didn’t become evident until they were just a few steps away from the two heroes, and both of them turned just in time to catch Fable, Legend’s Zelda, looking through the window alongside them.
She scrunched up her eyes as she searched around outside, and when she finally found the person of interest, her lips pressed into a thin line.
“It’s that day already, huh,” She murmured as she drew back. “ Felt like it’d only been yesterday since he last did this.”
The two others were quiet for a second, before Twilight hesitantly spoke up.
“If you don’t mind me asking, Princess, but I’d like to know why Link is outside on a day like this.”
“That’s none of your concern, now is it?”
The both of them were taken aback by the sharp words, but her tone held no bite. She appeared solemn and serious, not a single bit of her boisterous and mischievous personality to be found.
She soon continued her steady pace down the halls again, eyes trained carefully ahead as if the harsh rain outside did nothing to faze her; but before she was able to round the corner, she paused and quietly said,
“Link is at the Royal Graveyard, mourning someone he had lost two years ago.”
Her words were weighty, and they were enough to make Twilight and Wild feel like a wave had crashed down on them. They were at a loss for words, and neither of them made any move to pry more information from the princess or even bother to stop her from disappearing from view; the two simply stood there in stunned silence, acutely aware of the little rain droplets that dribbled down the window.
It was Wild who finally broke the silence when he said, “ I’m gonna go talk to him.”
“Wait, seriously? Don’t you think he could use a little alone time? He’s usually really keen about settling things on his own, especially when it comes to people.”
“I know that but I...” The Hero of Wilds bit his lip for a moment as he glanced between his mentor and the window. “ … but I just have a feeling. Listen, I’ll hang out there for a sec, and if he really wants to be left alone, then I’ll leave, okay? Promise.”
Twilight opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it. If there was anyone that could deal with mourning and loss in the group, it was Wild, and if his instincts told him to go to Legend, Twilight wouldn’t even second - guess it. He held his breath as he watched his protege’s retreating form, hoping with all his heart that his cub was right on this one.
It didn’t take long for Wild to find the graveyard - just a left, a right, another quick left, down the stairs and he was there, the rain’s cold chill already beginning to settle in his bones. He carefully made his way through the neatly lined graves, and didn’t stop until he found Legend silently kneeling in front of a particular stone.
The Hero of Legend looked worse for wear: his blond hair was pasted haphazardly to his face and neck, and his red tunic was soaked with the rain from above and the mud from below. He looked weary from where he stood, and his shoulders were hunched forward as if the weight of the world were pressing down on them, forcing him back to the ground whenever he had an inkling of hope that he might be able to stand up and walk away. 
This was a different Legend, Wild frowned, not the gruff and testy teen they all knew and loved, but rather a young boy who had seen one too many destroyed towns, fought one too many battles, and saw one too many people die because of him. The Hero of Wilds felt his heart break at the sight.
“Go away.”
That was Legend’s voice, but his tone was low and raspy, holding none of its usual fire. Despite the other’s command, the champion tightened the grip on his cloak and took a step forward.
“Legend, you shouldn’t be alone here.”
“I want to.”
“You say that but you don’t mean it.”
“I do.”
“Look, I know what you’re going thro -”
“Hylia, Wild, just take the hint and leave!”
The outburst was enough to shut Wild up, and prevented him from taking another step. He stood quietly as he watched Legend’s head dip lower, and he had to strain his hearing in order to hear the other murmur out,
“Please, just leave.”
He could’ve sworn that it started to rain harder, like Hylia herself was crying for Legend’s loss. The graveyard became enveloped in a misty fog, and any semblance of the evening moon was covered up by gray clouds that refused to leave. The Hero of Wilds stood still for a few seconds before eventually settling himself on the muddy ground, just a row away from where Legend’s loved one resided. With a steadying breath, he began,
“I used to have a lot of friends and family, y’know. According to Zelda, I used to be one of the most loved soldiers in all of Hyrule, and the pride and joy of my family. I lived with my mom and dad and sister in a little house in Hateno, and the people there told me that I used to spend the whole day playing with the village kids until the sun setted. My dad was a knight, and the whole reason I was even discovered to be Hylia’s Chosen was because one of the visiting soldiers saw that I could wield a sword at the age of five. It’s kinda weird, right? Having a bunch of old guys watch a little kid wave a sword around.”
Wild looked up to see if his attempt at humor had worked, but Legend remained as still and silent as before.
“And Zelda said I was thrown into the army by the next night. She said she remembered me following my dad around like a lost puppy, and I barely talked to anyone, even when they were asking questions directly to me. I made friends with Mipha and Daruk really quick, and then Zelda and Urbosa and Revali; I wouldn’t talk to them no matter what, but Zelda said Daruk and Revali were doing most of the talking anyway, so it didn’t really matter. I would spend the whole day training instead of playing, and she said I almost never went home because Rhoam forced me to stay so I could protect the castle and the royal family. My dad went home to my mom and sister, and Mipha, Daruk, Urbosa, and Revali all went home to their families, and I was the only one left.”
“I was alone, and Zelda started to hate me because of how annoying I was. Soon everyone started to hate me because of how much Rhoam loved me, and I couldn’t do a single thing about it. I was told that since I was a hero chosen by the Goddess, I had to do whatever the kingdom wanted me to do, and whatever I thought didn’t matter; it was always protect Zelda and do whatever the king asked. I missed out on a lot: my childhood, my friends, my family, all because I was supposed to be some legendary hero.” He choked out a watery laugh. “ Now I can’t even remember any of that: I can’t remember my mom’s or my dad’s or my sister’s faces, I can’t remember how the soldiers used to treat me before they started to hate me, I can’t remember the places Mipha, Daruk, Urbosa, Revali, and Zelda used to take me - I can’t remember anything. I’m just some former champion that was nearly killed by the Calamity 100 years ago, and I have feelings that I can’t explain the reason of.”  
Wild’s throat grew tight with emotion, and he did his best not to let the sobs wrack his body. A small part of his brain reminded him that no, he shouldn’t be throwing himself a pity party, he should be comforting Legend, but he couldn’t help it. It was all so unfair: all the other Links could remember their friends and family even if they were long gone but Wild was the only one who couldn’t; all he could remember were fragments of his time under Rhoam and whatever his Zelda told him to be true. He was a blank and empty slate that could barely remember his friends and family but still held a myriad of emotions towards them. 
He wondered if he should just go on in life pretending that the last 117 years didn’t happen - that all the good and bad memories he had of his friends and families were all due to vivid fever dreams.
“My uncle died two years ago.”
The champion was caught off guard when Legend finally spoke, and although the former was barely holding it together, he did his best to listen to the other’s soft words.
“It was when I was on another adventure. I came back to the castle as soon as I was back in Hyrule, and the moment I stepped inside, I saw Zelda waiting there with my uncle’s sword and shield. She didn’t need to say a thing; by the way she looked at me, I knew what was up: my uncle was dead, stabbed by an Armos when he least expected it. She told me the death was quick, and that the soldiers travelling along with him made sure he died as comfortably as possible. They said his last words were ‘tell Link I’m proud of him’, but I don’t know if that’s what he actually said; maybe the soldiers were just trying to make me feel better.”
“I was locked up in my house for days, and no matter how many times the castle’s soldiers tried to break down my door and threaten me, I wouldn’t leave. I was depressed, and I didn’t want anything to do with Hyrule anymore. He was everything to me: he took me in when my parents were trapped in the Dark World, he taught me how to fight and wield a sword, and he gave me all the unconditional love I could ever ask for.” He tilted his head up to the sky, and Wild wasn’t sure if it was rain or tears falling from his face. “ I wonder if things would’ve changed if I was back home instead of out there adventuring - if I just became a regular soldier at Hyrule Castle instead of being a Goddess - forsaken hero.”
His frame was shaking, but his voice stayed strong and firm. “ I miss him more than anything in the world, but I don’t regret having any memories of him, and you shouldn’t regret having any memories of your friends and family either, no matter how little they are.”
It was ironic, the champion thought: here Legend and Wild were, two links in the same heroic chain, that were supposed to be selfless and loyal and a beacon of hope to the citizens of Hyrule, crying in a graveyard. They had been through their own set of adventures, faced their own trials and tribulations, but they both still had the same feelings as a citizen towards death. They were two broken kids who just wanted to enjoy a happy life.
Wild took in a shuddering breath and quietly asked, “ Do you think people die because we’re Chosen Heroes?”
Legend’s answer was short and simple, not an inking of hesitance in his voice, “ Yes.”
<Previous Next>
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midnightactual · 4 years
Text
Yoruichi and Co. & Kaien (Part 1)
It’s an established fact that Yoruichi grew up alongside Kisuke and Tessai in the Shihōin Manor when they were all kids. She and Kisuke entered the Onmitsukidō and Gotei 13 at roughly the same time. She became friends with Kūkaku sometime very early on as well. (This is unsurprising given the interactions of the Five Great Noble Clans: she visited the Kuchiki, thus meeting Byakuya, and Byakuya had a lot of interactions with Kaien, which you wouldn’t expect to occur on the job; you can infer she was around the Shiba a lot as well.) Kūkaku also clearly had a lot of interactions with Kisuke to trust him implicitly..
The exact nature of the history of those four would require its own post to speculate on. What we’re here to do today is to see how they were influenced by Kaien. For Kūkaku that’s obvious: he was her older brother. But I think it’s very clear that he had quite the effect on Yoruichi and Kisuke (and by proxy Tessai) as well... one that fundamentally shaped the plot going forward.
I’ve previously conjectured that the entirety of Bleach pre-timeskip, revolving around combating Aizen, was not so much the story of Aizen and Kisuke as it was the story of the maneuverings of the Hōgyoku. I stand by that. However, I would also suggest that if there was an opposite to Aizen in that time period, it wasn’t Kisuke...
... It was Kaien.
You could easily say that what the Urahara Shōten does, it does in the name of the example set by Kaien. They are, if anything, his disciples. And what they engage in with regard to Rukia and Ichigo (and other matters) only truly makes sense in my estimation when viewed from that perspective. In many ways, you might say that their efforts to build up Ichigo and Rukia are a direct effort to reconstitute Kaien.
A bold claim, but what evidence is there for this? Well, buckle up, because it’s a long ride...
Yoruichi & Kaien
In chapter 62, Yoruichi is starting to train Chad and Orihime. She says:
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Cut to chapter 268, where Rukia is reflecting on Kaien during the Aaroniero fight:
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Going back to Yoruichi in chapters 62 and 70:
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I personally think that this congruence in philosophy is too exacting to be dismissed as mere coincidence, whether it’s the focusing on protecting or on ‘the heart’. While protecting might be the dogma of the Gotei 13, the emphasis on ‘the heart’ is Kaien’s alone. Where did Yoruichi get it from? Given she was good friends with Kūkaku, and the Princess and later Clan Head of the Shihōin, the obvious answer is... from Kaien, the Clan Head of the Shiba. Yoruichi has most likely adopted and internalized Kaien’s ethos. 
Doesn’t Kaien seem oddly practiced at this speech too, when he gives it to Rukia? Almost like he’s done it before... You can thus imagine a much younger and vulnerable Yoruichi getting more or less the same speech as Rukia did. (In my own personal headcanons, this would be part of what grounded Yoruichi against the influence of her father. I think it also fits neatly into @saranel​‘s thoughts on Yoruichi at one time having confidence issues, as she notes here and here, but that too should probably be its own post.) 
Okay, so let’s take it for granted that Yoruichi knew Kaien and was personally greatly influenced by him. What sort of knock-on effects does this have?
Ichigo & Kaien 1
Well, let’s go to Ichigo for a moment. We know that others see Kaien in Ichigo. Byakuya (and Rukia) do in chapter 56, in the fight in Karakura:
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 Rukia does in chapter 117 on the Senzaikyū bridge : 
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Immediately thereafter Jūshirō (and Byakuya) do too, also in chapter 117:
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And, most concretely, Byakuya does in chapter 167, but we’ll come back to that later because it’s rather important for other reasons.
Yoruichi & Ichigo, Rukia, and Jūshirō
Instead, let’s focus on chapter 117 (and 118) for a moment. Who else shows up there right as everyone is suddenly thinking of Kaien? Yoruichi. And she is none too happy:
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She is cold, calm, and on a mission, which is very unlike her demeanor throughout the rest of the Soul Society arc, whether it be before this (more on that in a bit) or later when she’s training Ichigo and fighting Soifon (where she is much more emotive). We see it come to an end once she’s successfully knocked Ichigo out:
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She still looks resolved, but there’s a different kind of determination in her eyes... like she’s crossed a threshold. Until she hears Jūshirō. And then her expression becomes rather different again: almost wistful or sad? Why? Because, as Kaien told us earlier, and as Jūshirō told us himself in chapter 135:
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@saranel, in her post PSA: Urahara Kisuke and Shihōin Yoruichi are NOT nice people, notes that:
Ichigo expressly told her he doesn’t want the help, but Yoruichi knows the fool is about to die a painful death, so she drugs him, violently incapacitates him and carries him away, despite his wishes. There were also a million different things Yoruichi could’ve done here, but as she herself explains to Ichigo later, none of the rest were real options, so damn his pride.
One of the (lesser) reasons I believe people never took offense to this scene, but did in Kisuke and Yoruichi’s case, is that Yoruichi has a mentor/student relationship with Ichigo.  And I get that, but let me remind you that calling each other out on their bullshit is a cornerstone of Kisuke and Yoruichi’s dynamic:
True friends don’t shy away from calling their friends out when they’re being idiots. And when they’re about to make massive, life-threatening mistakes, then you can damn well bet consent flies out the window. Especially when it comes to war; don’t forget that Kisuke and Yoruichi are soldiers.
Bold emphasis is mine. Yoruichi does on the Senzaikyū bridge to Ichigo what Rukia will later wish she’d done in Metastacia’s lair to Kaien: she saves him from his own pride. Rukia, previously in chapter 135, had declared to Jūshirō:
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And as that post intones, Yoruichi doesn’t just advance the same argument as Rukia, she acts on it, as she goes on to explain in chapter 120:
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Yoruichi’s look to Jūshirō on the Senzaikyū bridge signifies exactly two things, in my estimation: 1. “Your philosophy was wrong,” and 2. “I’m not letting another Shiba die for no good goddamn reason.” The fact that she seems to be calling him just “Ukitake,” and not “Ukitake-senpai,” or “Ukitake-san,” or “Jūshirō,” as well as the way she describes him to Ichigo, also seems significant to me: she does not hold him as especially close, or with all that much respect given his age and station, and their past history, presumably exactly because she still holds him somewhat responsible for Kaien’s death. We’ll come back to Jūshirō later, however.
Ichigo & Kaien 2
Would you believe me if I told you that Rukia, Byakuya, and Jūshirō weren’t the only people to recognize Ichigo’s similarities with Kaien? Let’s start with Yoruichi, since her narrative feeds directly into the points just addressed. But first we have to rewind a little. When the Ryoka are leaving for Soul Society, in chapter 70, just after her reminder about heart, Yoruichi gets a small monologue:
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There’s a lot to unpack here. First, Yoruichi’s words of “Do not stop. Do not look back. Do not think of those you are leaving behind. Just... go forward. Those who can do that, follow me,” tell you that she is capable of doing exactly that, and that should be read as a guide for understanding her departure from the Urahara Shōten for a long time: she was on a mission to go forward in her own way (but that’s a topic for a different post).
Second, notice Ichigo is the one who first steps forward (quite far forward, although they all clearly move around and advance in his wake). This isn’t surprising, but notice that Yoruichi focuses in on and addresses him specifically. This won’t be the last time this happens. That he speaks for all of them makes him the leader, and unsurprisingly Yoruichi goes to him after his fight with Kenpachi to retrieve him in particular. He is already, as of this moment, special within her consideration.
So, to return to just before the events on the Senzaikyū bridge, in chapter 116:
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Byakuya’s reiatsu flares when he uses his shikai on Ganju. Notice how pissed Yoruichi looks at it. But once Ichigo explains himself, her expression completely transforms. This is a look of recognition and it is, I think, Yoruichi seeing two things: 1. Seeing Kaien in Ichigo’s behavior, and 2. seeing herself in Ichigo’s behavior. This was exactly the logic she used when rescuing Kisuke and Tessai (and the future Vizard) a hundred years earlier. Ichigo is living up to her model, which we already established was founded on Kaien’s. The moment is short-lived as:
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She runs after him and shows off one of the most frustrated and annoyed expressions she has in the manga, because she knows he’s running off to his doom and they’ll lose yet another Shiba for no good reason. This is why she shows up at the Senzaikyū bridge acting like a cold killer: because she’s on a mission to save his dumb ass after she’s truly recognized him as being Kaien-esque.
Kūkaku’s recognition of Ichigo is similar to that of Jūshirō, and occurs in chapter 78:
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That we have a sudden close-up of her eye, and then a panel focused in on Ichigo even as she says “these kids,” tells you that she’s looking at him in particular. This isn’t a coincidence. The resemblance hasn’t escaped her, and she likely knew from the moment they’d entered that room.
Kisuke’s recognition of Ichigo is a little harder to pin down, given he knows exactly what’s going on with Isshin, but I think that we see it during the battle alongside Don Kanonji at the abandoned hospital, in chapters 30 and 31:
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Ichigo and Don Kanonji are confronting the Hollow in front of the crowd that’s there to watch the filming, putting everyone in danger; Ichigo then hauls Don Kanonji (who’s refusing to retreat) into the hospital, drawing the Hollow away from everyone else and minimizing the number of people at risk. Kisuke isn’t surprised by this action, and seems to have entirely expected it... as though it reminds him of someone.
And finally, we come back to Byakuya in chapter 167:
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Not only does Byakuya compare Ichigo to Kaien here, he seems to imply that Kaien has bested him in combat before. That Byakuya makes special note of the duties of the Four Great Noble Clans to provide an “example” for all Shinigami is probably itself a continuing dig at the Shiba, the demoted Fifth Great Noble Clan, who did not do such a thing, in his estimation (thus his animosity toward Ganju, a Shiba, on the Senzaikyū bridge).
But he also tells us that Ichigo, like Kaien, had made an enemy out of “the laws of Soul Society.” Do you know of any other member of the Four Great Noble Clans who not only didn’t uphold the law of Soul Society, but made an enemy of the laws themselves? I do: Yoruichi Shihōin! We see, yet again, the parallelism established not just between Ichigo & Kaien, and Yoruichi & Ichigo, but Yoruichi & Kaien as well.
Jūshirō & Kaien, Yoruichi, Ichigo, and Rukia
To return to Jūshirō, he will, fairly soon after the incident on the Senzaikyū bridge, confront Byakuya over Rukia’s execution date being moved up,in chapter 134. Byakuya will taunt him, leaving him fuming:
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Do you think that Jūshirō’s remembrance of Kaien here is based purely upon having seen Ichigo? I don’t. I think it was partially if not largely based upon having seen what Yoruichi did with Ichigo. I think it was seeing Yoruichi’s example of, in Ichigo’s later words to Byakuya, “fight[ing] the law,” in Kaien’s image, which put this thought in his head. (Especially as, at this time, no one knew of Ichigo’s shared lineage with Kaien.)
And when Jūshirō decides to fight the law himself (along with Shunsui) after his request to Central 46 (being run by Aizen) is turned down, what does he somehow have in his possession in chapter 149?
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A Shihōin artifact. Isn’t that curious? How do you suppose he got hold of such a thing? Do you imagine it just randomly happened to be in his possession? That’d be a very fortuitous coincidence. I don’t believe in it after everything else that’s been pointed out.
(This is an aside, but isn’t the timing of Jūshirō’s plan to use Fullbringers and Ginjō in particular kind of odd? It only happened some 20 or so years at most before the start of the series. He and the Gotei 13 has been around for at least 2,000 years, and this is the first time it occurred to him? Isn’t it suspicious... that it came so comparatively soon after Kaien’s death, and that the plan seems to have rather resembled that of Sōken Ishida?)
...
But I’ve hit the image limit, so read on for Part 2!
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misofirebird · 3 years
Text
A Commander’s Contempt: Chapter Two
Summary: You only had hatred for him, that Mandalorian. His victory against Moff Gideon inspired vengeance, but not everything goes as planned...
Pairing: Female reader x Din Djarin
Word count: 5.3k
Warning: Swearing, violence, reader starts off as an antagonist, murder, explicit, no minors please
A/N: And so the saga continues! I was slowly dying a little inside trying to finish this chapter because well...I read too much into everything! Got any questions, comments, concerns or just want to say hello? Come on by! I’m not too shy!
You felt a terrible ache pounding from your forehead and jaw. That was the first thing you remember before your eyes slowly fluttered open. There was a lingering, coppery taste of blood on your tongue, and you wondered how hard he hit your face. Strangely, you didn’t feel any tingling pain on the side of it associated with a punch. It was even swelling up, but no feeling of outward bruising.  
Every limb ached as they tried to move. Stiffness and pain shot through your system every time something so much as twitched. All you could do was crawl on your belly while struggling to understand the situation. There was a struggle...an unexpected retaliation from the barbaric Mandalorian. You weren’t able to see anything else because the bastard blocked your vision and head-butted you with his helmet. You suspected he had done a lot more and left you...which was odd. Naturally if the roles were reversed, he’d immediately get a blaster bolt to the head.
Speaking of which, where was he? Where was your unit?
From feeling the floor, you were still in the drop ship. The ramp was open as the night still carried on. Everything was too dark and quiet.  
Thinking about the abnormally silent atmosphere made you force your body to climb up to the seat as a foothold to steady yourself. That’s when your hand smoothed over a leg...a very stiff leg. It startled the hell outta you since you expected the seat to be empty. Trying to adjust to the darkness, your anxiety rises instantly as you realize this was once MH-0113. He died still clutching his weapon. You felt around his front for injuries, and brushed against a burnt hole in the center of his chest. Way too small for blaster bolts. Plus, he didn’t have a weapon on him that you knew of. That’s when you recalled the whistling sound.
“That filth,” you muttered with growing rage. It had been those vambraces he adorned. Had you been more perceptive instead of assuming he was completely disarmed, maybe your men would still be alive. You would not forgive the Mandalorian scum for this.
Grabbing the cycler rifle from MH-0113's now cold hands, you stumbled your way to the cockpit. Unfortunately going past the bodies of your fellow comrades along the way. MH-0056, MH-1000, MH-224; they were at least mercifully put down in a quick manner. However, you wouldn’t show the same courtesy. You were going to beat him within an inch of his life with the cycler rifle, and then kill him. Though at this point, you wondered if this would be the last thing you’d do.
Vengeance suddenly seemed way over your head now that your men had been killed. You wouldn’t be surprised if the captain shot you on sight after recklessly wasting resources for a doomed crusade. You weren’t even sure if he’d knew of your disappearance by now, or if there would be a scouting party on your whereabouts, but leaving the thought up to chance was a foolish decision. So, you made pressed forward; opening the sliding door to the cockpit. Revealing a staggering scene.
The three chairs in the front were all occupied. Two of them had MH-125 and unfortunately, MH-117. They were purposely swiveled forward to face you. MH-125 had a blaster wound where his heart was, but MH-117 had a fatal injury that you couldn’t place. A thin, burned line swiped upward on his chest.
And the third chair?
“You’re finally awake,”
That filtered voice seeping out of his coder came to infuriate you. Especially when the owner of that voice sat so casually in your seat. Even though the moonlight had put a dull shine on the armor, he still looked very intimidating. However, you forced yourself to keep a neutral expression.
“You killed my unit, Mandalorian. I hope you know I won’t spare any mercy,”  
“I don’t expect any,”
At least he knows where you stand.  
But instead of rising from the chair like you thought, he continued to sit there. Holding a small object between his thumb and index finger. Rolling it around the two rather playfully. You had a difficult time making it out.  
“Get up from the command chair, scum. I don’t want your soon-to-be filthy carcass tainting it any further,” you stated robotically. Raising the weapon towards him and inching forward. He still didn’t budge. Not even when you towered over him to butt the muzzle of the rifle against his helmet. Perhaps he was tired and wished to die by your hand. Or did he have something up his sleeve?
“Commanders are worth a considerable sum in the New Republic. That’s the only reason why you’re not a corpse laying on the ground,” he responded; not bothering to come up with any semblance of remorse. Even boldly declaring his hint of intentions.
You scoffed. The New Republic? That disorderly bunch of weak, emotional cowards? Even you recognized how odd it would be for a Mandalorian to be in a prim, soft environment like that; let alone be involved with any dealings with them. To think he acted like he could gain the upper hand anyway was very stupid.  
“I said get up. I don’t want your blood in my seat. It’ll look better in the refresher when I’m bathing in it,”
He didn’t, and you had enough of his blatant disregard of authority. You squeezed the trigger on the cycler rifle aimed directly at his head.
The bolt flashing red pinged against his helmet, as it pushed his head back in the chair. Then it was over. A cruel smile started growing as the smoke lightly wisped off the spot where you shot hi-
“What in the name of the gods-“
And it dropped in the next moment.
You practically choked on your words, as you suddenly realized that instead of a visible, charred hole in his cranium, there were only scorch marks where the bolt should’ve been. There wasn’t so much as a dent in his helmet, and suddenly, a flood of memories came back to you. A particular snippet of when you trained in the imperial academy. When the captain wasn’t your captain, but a lieutenant, who implored you to study harder.  
It was the time you sat alone reading books on armor integrity. About the different metals and crafting techniques. Mostly skimming through the book when your eyes only glanced at the word ‘beskar'. A nearly indestructible metal that was difficult to forge without the proper blacksmiths. Blaster, shock-proof and was once touted to be immune to the old legend of the space sorcerers’ ‘laser swords’. It was the kind of information that you deemed useless since it had next to nothing else on the subject; like where it came from, or how it could be useful for spacecraft travel. And since it was rare, it's not like it could be mass produced to benefit the Empire.  
So, you could hardly believe the terrible gut feeling until you fired several more shots at him just to make sure. Unfortunately, they were all with same result.  
And if it wasn’t enough to try your sanity, the Mandalorian slowly raised his head back up like nothing happened. That’s when the full gravity of the situation hit you and turned the weapon on yourself. Terminating your life would be better than the thought of how a savage would treat you. However, you didn’t get the chance to pull back the trigger.
The barbaric Mandalorian leaned forward and ripped the firearm from your grasp faster than your eyes followed. It startled you to a point that your trembled arms in growing fear. Thankfully, you still had your termination molar-
Wait a minute.
Your tongue desperately felt the back of your teeth and realized there was nothing but mottled flesh where a modified tooth used to be. The painful swelling and taste of blood without any signs of being hit...how could you be so stupid not to figure it out?
And then your eyes fearfully trailed down to the tiny object being played with between his fingers. With closer inspection, the mystery object was in fact, in a distinct shape of a tooth. Just to add more insult to the injury, he dropped it and crushed your last chance of an out promptly under his heavy boot.
That’s when he rose from the chair; casting a darker shadow over you like the harbinger of death he was. Tossing the weapon he took from you aside, his other hand produced a pair of shackles. These were the same ones that had been put on him only hours ago. He must’ve been eager for you to endure the irony. Something you wanted to avoid at all costs.
The next few seconds felt like you were on auto-pilot when you immediately turned tail and ran. Trying your best to run past your fallen men without stepping on or tripping over them while you escaped. Never in your short life had you experienced such terror from a single humanoid. You had been thoroughly trained to deal with Rebel and Republic filth who at least showed an array of emotions that could be understood. They were passionate, loud, brash. Something you could destroy with order, isolation and manipulation. Things that were made to be broken. He was different: Colder, more calculating and patient than the usual foe. You didn’t care if you had to sweet-talk someone into getting you off this planet; it was light years better than the alternative.  
Wait, where were you?
Yes, you were still on the dustbowl of Tatooine. But...this wasn’t where the ship had been parked before. MH-117 had made the wise decision of suggesting the underside of a cliff to avoid easy detection and thieving jawas. But this place, the opening of the ramp revealed an ominous path leading to the gods know where. The path’s ground had you ankle-deep in sand with the walls of red, brown rock. Where the darkened trail led to was a mystery you were hesitant to find out about, but it was either that or-
Thunk...thunk...thunk...
At the sound of those heavy boots making noise in the ship behind you, the decision to go forward became a lot more appealing. He was deliberately slow; like he anticipated how easy of a target you’d be. It was an offense that made a deep anger burn inside you, but your cowardice prevented you from fighting back.  
You struggled to run across the sand with all the power born from adrenaline. Stepping through the stuff felt like wading ankle-deep in water.  
Maybe going down the dark passage that snaked to some place that would probably kill you. There was an odd intuition that it led into a labyrinth. Somehow, that idea appealed to you in the name of self-preservation. Get so lost, that you wouldn’t even find yourself...or at least he wouldn’t.
Each breath you took burned with your lungs screaming. Every few feet, your head would occasionally bang against rock or sandstone from blindly moving forward. But you weren't gonna rest or slow down; not while that menace lurked around. Even if you could barely see anything in front of you, it was at least comforting that he was in the same position. Not unless he had night vision gear or found yours; and you doubt he figured out navigating the ship that quickly.
That aside, everything was still too quiet. No late-night croaking or chirping of any kind. Even if this was the middle of nowhere, there had to be at least one animal breaking the uncomfortable silence. It was bothersome that the only sounds came from your own frantic breathing. Maybe it was only in this area.  The spot he’d chosen specifically to torture you. Understanding this added onto the paranoia that squeezed your chest.  
It was thoughts like that, that nearly got you killed.
Seemingly out of thin air, something whizzed just below your throat in front of you and embedded into the wall. You swore your heart would’ve leaped out of your mouth if it hadn’t been attached. And it couldn’t stop pounding so feverently from the brush with death. Yes, you had no problems with killing yourself just moments ago, but it was on your terms and a lot quicker. Whatever you were almost hit with would’ve made death too slow and painful. Choking on air and blood in an unhurried pace was never pleasant. But back to the matter at hand of what almost impaled you.
Reaching carefully out, your gloved touch felt the metal end of a pole. You instantly recognized the object as the strange spear the Mandalorian savage carried. Which meant that he was near. Meaning that he was doing what had been suggested in the back of your head: Fucking with you for the thrill of it. Something inside reasoned that it had something to do with beating that hillbilly Marshal at Mos Pelgos. Though a small part of you wondered if it was because he expected you to do something with that knowledge. Especially when he ripped out your termination molar (an action that you hated him more for) and barred you from taking a blaster bolt to the face.
However, the uncertainty cleared up the moment a glowing black blade suddenly materialized in front of you and the spear. Partially illuminating the wall, the spear and the Mandalorian’s form. Wait...that hilt. So, it had been a weapon after all; just one that you couldn’t recognize. It looked like a sword coated in energy. Although that would be ridiculous since the energy output needed to do that would be enormous. Not to mention the metal would be instantly melted. And there was no metal stemming from the hilt in the first place. A sword made from pure energy? How would that be possi-
Suddenly, the memory of MH-117's injury flashed briefly in your brain. The thin line of burnt flesh slashed across his chest. Yet another bitter reminder of your second-in-command lost forever.
“This belonged to Moff Gideon once,” he said as-a-matter-of-factly. Holding it out as if to show off. “He didn’t know how to use it properly,”  
Though you’re sure with that statement, he did it just to get a rise out of you. He purposely wanted to provoke you into pulling out to the spear so you can rail him with it. Maybe you should if you can get away with it. Maybe you can and come back with some face to save. You can certainly take on this uncultured barbarian, kill him and re-claim Moff Gideon’s energy sword. Even if you’ve never trained with anything other than blasters before.
Thus, giving into the temptation felt justified.
Your eager hand reached out for the pole of the spear to pull it out of the earth. It was unfortunately a more difficult feat to do than you estimated. With the barbarian watching the failed attempt, your feelings of embarrassment doubled.
He must’ve felt the same way, because after the third attempt of failing, he unceremoniously kicked you in the chest to send you tumbling on the ground. The force of it knocking the wind out of you before hitting the sand. He retracted the strange energy sword that left you in the dark trying to pull yourself together.  The inexperience of dealing with combatants in the dark left you full of confusion, but still vigilant for any sounds of movement. However, it felt useless since there wasn’t any other noise made than the slight shifting of your legs in the sand. Thus, it was bad fortune when you felt your hands being roughly seized together before the heavy sensation of durasteel cuffs restrained your wrists.    
“Let go of me, savage!” you spat venomously as he then unceremoniously picked you up and then slung you over his shoulder before taking out the spear with minimal effort. Being handled casually like a bag of goods didn’t sit well with the sting of defeat and humiliation in your chest, so you tried to pound against his spine. Unknowingly beating your fists against a back plate of beskar. The result was as expected; fists full of pain and instant regret. You wanted to kick him to at least sate your anger, but the end result would be less effective since he took ahold of your thigh. It was too close to the curve of your ass with his thick fingers curling over your flesh. Even with the cargo pants you could feel him.  It was something that the more you stopped to think about, the less you struggled against him. But you could simply be exhausted.  
All the while, the Mandalorian himself felt strangely satisfied. That initial drive to kill him earlier in the evening had gotten his blood running. Although your survival skills proved to be dismal, his spark of excitement and the trap he baited them with had earned him an imperial ship and supplies in good condition. He never expected more remnants from the empire to come looking for him; much less attempt to hold Cobb Vanth hostage. But from the moment he stepped into the bar filled with chaos, it had been a stroke of much needed luck. You were just the perk to be traded in for fuel credits when he handed you over to the New Republic Marshal on Nevarro. Still, it was a disappointment seeing your pitiful performance. Maybe if you tried using the blaster on him more creatively instead of giving up and attempting to exterminate yourself with it, the scenario might’ve gone a little differently. It was thoughts like this that had made his grip tighter around the back of your thigh while balancing you on his shoulder. Unknowingly sending a tingling pleasure through you; flushing your face red and choking on a bothered moan. A high-pitched, feminine-like sound paused his trek to the ship. You immediately stilled in realization of what came out of you, but recovered quickly enough to distract him with a complaint.
“D-Damn you, Mandalorian! Don’t you know how to treat someone with some dignity?! I’m not some...TOY you can just play around with!”
You forced every ounce of hatred into the rhetorical question. Praying to the gods that he didn’t understand the reaction for what it really was. That piece of barbaric trash doesn’t need to know about any buttons he could press; this situation was already demeaning enough.  
After half a minute of stillness, he FINALLY carried on without acknowledging your gripe. Continuing to be silent; although, with a small inkling of a new thought entering his mind…
   ---------------------------
You felt achy and stiff waking up the next morning. The vile Mandalorian made no qualms about cuffing you to one of the pipes in the corner of the ship. Being forced to sleep sitting up with your arms practically feeling numb. Not to mention the aches you sustained from the scuffle. The night was cold and you anticipated his lack of courtesy in at least offering you something cover yourself with. Well, the only thing that resembled common courtesy were the removal of all the bodies on the ship. When you had wearily opened your eyes, it was discovered that the corpses no longer littered the seats and floor. Thinking about how they were wasted in a simple trap instead of dying for a more worthy cause sickened you.    
Where was that bastard, anyway?
As if thoughts alone could summon him, the mechanical noise of the ramp suddenly filled your ears and you strained turn your head to see it drop. Revealing the animal himself and the backwater Marshal in the forefront of the rising Tatooine binary suns. Fantastic.
Upon noticing you, there was already a small grin forming on his face. It was more teasing than arrogant, but it still humiliated you nonetheless. So you returned the gesture with a bitter scowl.
“Well I’ll be,” he started up while walking up the ramp. Briefly going down to squat to your level. The Mandalorian silently followed. “Kinda of a shame it didn’t work out last night. Even if you are an imp, I’m never impartial to giving a lady a good time,”
“You’re not even good enough to breathe the same air as me, hillbilly,”
“Right...I suppose that’s why you’re here on a desert planet. Breathin’ all the good stuff,”
The Marshal had you stamped on your insult with a comeback that you were unable to respond to. But instead of driving home the obvious, he chuckled and shook his head before standing up. Turning to do a quick scan of the ship before talking with the barbarian. Swiping his thumb across his lower lip in thought.
“Welp, you weren’t lying about the ship. But I think you’re gonna have a tough time with it. Most people here aren’t gonna give you close to what it’s worth. Not to mention the blasters and gear. Hell, you’d have an easier time selling it scuffed, because this kind of beaut’ is a little too rich for a planet like this. Maybe if the Hutts were still around-”
“DON’T!”
The both of them looked back to you and observed a very furious expression. You would’ve lunged at them if the cuffs weren’t holding you back.
“Don’t even try it! This is my ship, Mandalorian! I’ll slit your throat while you sleep and then raze the buyer’s place to the dust!”
Your bristled threat really took the Marshal back, but the barbarian remained calm as usual. Full knowing how impossible it would be to make good on such a grisly promise. In fact, he stared right at you when he replied to Cobb Vanth:
“That’s fine. I know someone who might be interested; just in case,”
You wanted to spit at his feet in defiance. Doing so though would dirty the floor of your ship, and he would find your self-destructive behavior amusing.
“You can keep the blasters, Vanth. I don’t need the extra scrap metal weighing me down,”
  ---------------------------
After the Mos Pelgo Marshal left with a few townsfolk, hauling away the cache of standard issued blaster rifles and pistols, the bastard savage ignored the murderous glare while sitting down in your chair in the cockpit. Originally, he was going to negotiate a selling price for them in Mos Espa, but dwelling on the idea of getting a rise from you proved to be too burdensome of a temptation. And he was right. Just watching you explode, threaten and seethe had been one of the most entertaining things he’d witness. You got so angry while they walked away with your things. As much as you wanted to rip out their throats with your teeth, being stopped by the cuffs linked around the pipe took away that ability. The only thing you could do, was yell and boil until it fizzled into a dull pain. It had been that way from the time the hillbilly Marshal left to now, traveling across the vast desert with the Mandalorian at the controls. At least he knew how to handle a simple drop ship.
Now that you thought about it, you couldn’t help but notice the way his gloved hands smoothly ran over the small switches just above him in ease. Or how he knew how much force to put into the levers for the thrusters. You wondered for a moment of he had formerly been a part of the Empire once. Although, that would be utterly ridiculous. Nobody within their sanity would betray an organization so adept at keeping structure, order and civility to proper systems. He could’ve merely spent part of his lifetime studying, adapting…just watching every single movement.
For a second, your mind drifted into a very strange place: Those leather gloved fingers tracing down your heated skin. Touching every sensitive place that would wring a soft desperate noise from you. A noise that would constantly echo off the walls of-
“This is Djarin to Alkhara’s Tower. Respond,”
His coded voice gratefully interrupted your deluded fantasy, and you quickly hit your head against the pipe in response. Letting the pain vibrate from your skull to the rest of your body.  
What kind of weakling were you?! It hadn’t been a full fourth-eight hours, and you were already falling for him like a weak damsel! He must be some sort of expert charmer, because half of the stars in the galaxy would blink out of existence before you allowed yourself to be willingly enamored by a stranger who slaughtered your ENTIRE unit! You were supposed to be festering in hatred!
That said, you weren’t able to muster up the same anger from before; and it didn’t annoy you enough.
“This is Alkhara’s Tower, what is the nature of your arrival?”
“Business,”
“...copy that. Proceed,”
Even before he finished his transmission, you saw the two structures that rose from the endless sea of bleak yellow sand. One was a rounder, more flatter shape while the other was thinner easily exceeded the other in height. They both looked old and could use many cosmetic improvements.  
You thought that’s where the shuttle would be taken, but then it entered a crevice that turned into a dark tunnel, leading to an enormous metal gate. The drop ship stood idle for a moment before a sound of the heavy metal squeaking away could be heard. It ‘lightly' reverberated from the outside, to the inside of the craft. Although, it went doubly for you because of the cuffs and pipe being attached to you. It was an unpleasant sensation that made your teeth chatter, forcing your body to half curl up to brace itself until the fucking things fully opened. You didn’t want to put up with his indignant treatment any longer.
You promptly stood to protest the inhumane imprisonment, but then the ship suddenly moved toward and knocked you back on your ass. Feeling it collide with the floor made it sting all the way to the deepest circles of hell. Moff Gideon must’ve endured the same scrutiny all the way to the New Republic. Just imagining your fate locked in a cell with your brain being prodded yielded many ideas to desperately get out of these bonds. Maybe you'd end up chewing your hands off if the situation became desperate, but ANYTHING to not end up a prisoner!
And as your mind kept turning, the drop ship entered a vast hanger with many other vessels; many of which easily dwarfed the one you both rode in on. They were all neatly lined up in rows, and you began to suspect with all the different types: This was the collection or port of some local warlord. You had seen many before while on missions. They did nothing to impress you. There were a few times where temptations of bribes had been shamelessly flaunted in your face. Not only was it illogical to get away with one, but your view on imperial based designs were biased, for good reason. Nothing else in the galaxy had been superior than the technology of the Empire.
…except for beskar.
A flicker of hate stirred up briefly as a traitorous thought had dared to take a foothold in your mind. It lasted seconds maybe, but it was filthy and demented like brothels stormtroopers flock to on shore leave. You didn’t like the growing patterns presenting themselves. If things kept up, you were sure you’d be begging that barbaric Mandalorian to fuck you with the binders on.
Thank the gods however, when the ship eventually parked, so you could focus on berating the savage for your mistreatment. From your point of view, you saw him unbuckle from his seat and grab his spear. Then, he reached for a shiny, beskar jetpack in the co-pilot's chair and attach it on his back. And when he finished, the Mandalorian strode over to you with the device you used to deactivate the cuffs. Wisely, he made sure to box you in first.  
As he came closer, you instantly shot up on guard. Already planning ways to maneuver around him to escape.  
There was a pause as his head slightly tilted downward to observe your hands. Clearly there was nothing in them, and the only oddity present were the reddened imprints around your wrists from having them restrained by the durasteel.
“I’m going to release you, and you’re going to stay still when I re-cuff you. Understand?”  
“...Fine,”
You held your wrists up as he held the small remote closer and pressed the little button with his thumb. There was a clicking sound, and the restraints came off. True to your word, you didn’t move; even as they fell to the ground with a clang. He stared at your now neutral features with suspicion while you massaged your slightly bruised wrists. The Mandalorian knew he the second he took his gaze off you, that you’d attempt to make a break for it. Although, you insisted that the effort would be futile.
“I don’t have anywhere to run to,” you stated with a small gesture.
“Then pick up the cuffs,”
“No,”
There was an unmistakable sound of a haggard grunt slipping past his coder. He could’ve easily pulled his blaster out and threatened you to obey him, but some strange intrigue in seeing how you’d behave while he did it himself. So the bounty hunter, while keeping his visor trained on you, bent down slowly to retrieve the cuffs. Stretching his hand out for the pair.  
But as he was about the touch the metal, your boot came down on his hand with every intention of breaking it. And while the bones in his fingers were still intact, he wasn’t immune to the pain that came from the force of impact. It traveled right up his arm and spread throughout his body.
With him temporarily distracted, you used one hand to push down on his helmet as the other reached for his holster. Unfortunately for you, his free hand was on the same side as yours, so he immediately seized your forearm and yanked you down.  
Try as you could, there was no stopping your back from hitting the plastoid seats before plopping onto the floor in audible agony. You had instinctively tensed the back muscles from letting every fiber of your being feel the fallout while scrambling to your feet. Unfortunately, you weren’t quick enough, and the distinct feeling of a blaster pistol muzzle was roughly jabbed into your rib cage. You had only been halfway upright when he finally drew his weapon. For what felt like a long time, the two of you stared at each other for an inkling of a next move. Only you though, were the one who sustained the worst of the scuffle.  
“Get the cuffs,”
“No,”
He didn’t indulge this time and simply pressed his blaster harder into your chest. It was an arrangement difficult to resist. Begrudgingly, you stood up to-
“Not that way,” he stopped you with another butt of the muzzle. “Reach over. Slowly,”
Your lips curled into an indecent snarl. He wanted to make sure you would experience every second of the injuries you sustained by having you in this position; you were certain of it. Especially when you had to arch your back to outstretch your arm past his legs for the irritable restraints. And once you get them and toss them in his lap, the savage immediately seizes your jaw and pulls your face close towards his visor. Your neck strained from the feeling of your face still half swollen with affliction. It must’ve been your imagination, but you could’ve sworn his thumb was gently rubbing against the skin of your jaw.
“Next time, try harder,”
Tags for the People: @auty-ren​
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Text
The Girl Out of Time
Pairing: Bucky x Reader and Sam x Reader
Background: Willow Roffe was born and raised in Brooklyn. She lived her life as happily as she could with her two childhood best friends Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers. When they both left her to join the military she tried to continue with life but that didn't get to happen for her for the simple fact that she meant something to James Buchanan Barnes.
Rating: Story will be overall MATURE but not every chapter. There will be strong language, talk of both mental and physical abuse, some good ole angst, and smut. There will be a warning at the beginning of the chapter when it includes smut.
Chapter 25
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I stayed in my seat next to Steve. He was flipping threw the accords now. Sam has gotten up to stand behind us next to Rhodey. Then he had to make a smart comment sending Rhodey into a tangent.
"Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honor which is one more than you have." Rhodey snapped at him.
"So let's say we agree to this thing. How long is it gonna be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?" Sam asked harshly.
I turned in my seat to watch the two. Rhodey sighed as he rubbed his eyes.
"117 countries want to sign this. 117, Sam, and you're just like, 'No, that's cool. We got it.'" Rhodey said sarcastically.
"How long are you going to play both sides?" Sam asked narrowing his eyes at the other man.
"I have an equation." Vision spoke up.
"Oh, this will clear it up." Sam said rolling his eyes.
I turned to face the once AI who was sitting next to Wanda.
"In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. During the same period the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate." Vision explained.
"Are you saying it's our fault?" Steve asked as he looked up from the page he was reading.
"I'm saying there may be a causality. Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge invites conflict. And conflict breeds catastrophe. Oversight, oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand." Vision said slowly.
"Boom" Rhodey whispered towards Sam.
"Tony. You're being uncharacteristically non-hyper verbal." Nat said.
I looked over to Tony who was slouched in his seat on the couch rubbing his head.
"It's because he's already made up his mind." Steve said as he flipped a page.
"Boy, you know me so well." Tony groaned as he got up.
"Actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache. That's what's going on, Cap. It's just pain. It's discomfort." Tony said as he walked into the kitchen.
"Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?" He asked harshly.
He turned away from the sink then tossed something onto the counter. A holographic picture of a young boy came up. Tony took a deep breath.
"Oh, that's Charles Spencer, by the way. He's a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA, had a floor level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul before he parked it behind a desk. See the world. Maybe be of service. Charlie didn't want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where. Sokovia. He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. We won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass." Tony took another deep breath.
Even though I wasn't even close to Sokovia I still felt partly at fault. I felt guilty for everything that had happened even if I wasn't apart of it.
"There's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check! Whatever form it takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less we're no better than the bad guys." Tony's voice fell into a soft and exhausted tone.
"Tony, someone dies on your watch, you don't give up." Steve said sternly.
"Who said we're giving up?" Tony asked raising a brow at Steve.
"We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blame." Steve said as he tossed the papers back onto the table.
"I'm sorry, Steve. That is dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not Shield, it's not Hydra." Rhodey explained.
"No, but it's run by people with agendas, and agendas change." Steve said simply.
"That's good. That's why I'm here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands I shut it down and stopped manufacturing." Tony told him as he walked around the counter.
“Tony, you chose to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don’t think we should go? What if there’s somewhere we need to go and they don’t let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own.” Steve tried to explain.
“If we don’t do this now, it’s gonna be done to us later. That’s the fact. That won’t be pretty.” Tony said simply.
“You’re saying they’ll come for me.” Wanda said softly.
“We would protect you.” Vision told her.
“Maybe Tony’s right. If we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off-“ Nat started to explain.
“Aren’t you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?” Sam asked.”
I glanced over to Steve who looked absolutely exhausted. I knew he didn’t want this. He looked like he was wracking his brain for anything to say to convince the others.
“I’m just reading the terrain. We have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back.” Nat told Sam.
“Focus up. I’m sorry. Did I just mishear you or did you agree with me?” Tony asked in his normal sarcasm.
“I want to take it back now.” Nat practically groaned.
“No, you can’t retract it. Thank you. Unprecedented. Okay. Case closed. I win.” Tony shrugged happily.
A soft buzzing had me looking down at Steve’s lap. He pulled his phone out then read over the words on the screen. His entire demeanor changed.
“I have to go.” He said then immediately left the room without another word.
“What?” Tony asked after he was already gone.
I looked back to see Sam already watching me. I’m sure he could tell something was up as well. We both made our way out of the room to try to find Steve. He hadn’t gotten that far. By the time we got out to the sidewalk he was standing there with red puffy eyes. I ran straight to him pulling him into me for a hug.
“She’s gone. Peggy’s gone.” He said softly.
Sam and I both decided to join Steve for the funeral. Neither of us wanted him to be alone. The three of us sat in the front pew. Steve was squeezed between us. I watched as Sharon, the “nurse” that lived down the hall from Steve and I, stepped up to the podium.
“Margret Carter was known to most as a founder of Shield but I just knew her as Aunt Peggy.” She started.
I glanced at Steve who looked completely surprised by her statement.
“She has a photograph in her office. Aunt Peggy standing next to JFK. As a kid, that was pretty cool. But it was a lot to live up to. Which is why I never told anyone we were related.” Sharon glanced at Steve as if she was talking directly to him.
“I asked her once how she managed to master diplomacy and espionage in a time when no one wanted to see a woman succeed at either. She said, compromise where you can. But where you can’t, don’t. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree look them in the eye and say no, you move.” Sharon said with as much passion as Steve.
She was one hell of a speech giver. If that speech effected me I can only imagine what it did to Steve. I had a feeling Sharon’s words just concreted everything Steve had been thinking about. When the service was over Sam and I stood outside to give Steve his moment alone. Nat came jogging up to church steps toward us.
“So?” I asked.
“It’s done.” She nodded.
“He’s inside” Sam told her.
She nodded then walked in to find Steve.
“What now?” I asked Sam.
“I have a feeling we’re just getting started.” He huffed as he shoved his hands in his pockets.
I had the same feeling. After all this I’m sure Steve wasn’t going to back down.
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makiema · 4 years
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Continued from here 
2. I think Levi’s face in Chapter 105 wasn’t expressive of his being tired of Eren rather, it was the face of disappointment, sadness and even, betrayal. Levi has always associated Eren with hope like I said before, Eren gave purpose to his strength. He saw Eren as a determined kid whose “fire”, i.e. his unwavering spirit needs to be nurtured and protected at all costs. After four years, we can say that he had build a certain amount of trust in Eren, something that he couldn’t let go of even in the moment of judgement as is evident from Chapter 112. Levi would rather wage war against Marley than give up on Eren. 
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Coming back to 105, his pained face directly parallels Mikasa’s 
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and I think that’s enough canon evidence right there, to show his immense agony. He’s hurt, really hurt, just as much as Mikasa is, whose whole life and light has been Eren. Now I know a lot of antis think Levi kicking Eren again in this chapter was another act of blatant sadism but, thing is his face says otherwise. He didn’t enjoy the act and it wasn’t meant to show his dominance or anything; he’s disappointed, he feels betrayed, and that’s why he kicked him. The stress lines coupled with his over all expression clearly shows how grieved he is 
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 This is just my opinion but I think there’s another motive behind Levi’s kicking Eren. The way he uses the words: “ this brings me back” is suggestive of Levi making a reference to the past, a nostalgic one at that. I think, this can be interpreted as Levi’s failed attempt at trying to make Eren recall his older self, the older Eren who Levi believed in so much and whose spirit Levi always admired. 
But, Eren’s eyes look lifeless now and he even throws shade at Levi by mocking his ability to understand letters. I think this moment marks the beginning of Eren distancing himself from everyone he held dear. Levi had just said that he wanted to have a talk with him after he’s restrained however, Eren coldly rejects his attempt at conversation by a cutting remark. The same thing would happen later with Hange, Armin and Mikasa, where Eren would deliberately hurt them with his words so that they give up on him. But now, without further digression, let’s come to the context of Levi’s expressions. He’s aggravated by Eren’s snide remark and appalled by  his obvious disinterestedness in talking with him. Eren looks so devoid of any feeling and his idc attitude breaks Levi to the point where he feels absolutely betrayed and he goes on to compare Eren with people in the underground who were rotten, obviously devoid of any sign of life or empathy. The pain of disillusionment, the feeling of betrayal is clear in his words “I cannot believe this”.
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Yeah so, I don’t think he was tired or anything and more than Eren making a mess I think what really hurt him was that how radically Eren had changed. He isn’t the Eren Levi knew; the Eren that revered Levi and looked up to him for advice, the Eren whose eyes used to be full of life. The Eren of now likes to be left on his own, remains unbothered, and is indeed the monster, that in Levi’s own words, “cannot be controlled even by love.” (VN/Burning Bright in the Forests of the Night) 
3. The answer to whether Eren really still cares for Levi is obviously going to be a biased YES. I’ll try to attach as many canon evidences as I can but most of it is just speculation.
• Continuing from the second answer, right after Levi expressed his utter disbelief, we see an intriguing look in Eren’s eyes. 
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Just a moment before, his eyes were lifeless but, now, he looks up at Levi and suddenly, it seems like he understands something?? or maybe he’s surprised that Levi actually cares so much ?? or maybe he realises that Levi had more trust in him than he could imagine?? even i don’t know for sure why that particular expression but let’s just say Levi’s words had some effect on him and assumably a positive one; something that strikes a chord somewhere deep inside him. I mean, let’s face it, unless we really care about someone, there’s no way what they say will affect us to the point where it’s almost as if his eyes returned to life (and when I say we, I’m talking about a 19 y/o adult who has to bear the burden of the whole world on his shoulders alone and who has only 4 years left of his life that justifies his the lifelessness in his eyes)
• The next possible proof that Eren cares about Levi is here in the end panel of Chapter 117. 
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I know that the fandom has arrived at a variety of conclusions explaining Eren’s expression, and initially, I was more for the idea that it is a look of relief at seeing Zeke. But now, after the happenings of Chapter 121, (like Eren’s snarky attitude towards Zeke and his betrayal) I’m more for the theory that Eren’s expression in 117 is one of concern. He doesn’t care much about Zeke; he had only used him to achieve his ultimate goal, or what he calls “the scenery”. Anyway coming back to 117, Eren was aware that Levi was watching over Zeke. So the fact that Zeke had broken free and made it to where Eren is, instead of it being the other way round, must have worried him. Hence, the expression. • The final and the most relevant canon proof that Eren still cares about Levi is in Chapter 122, where Eren Jaeger will become God the most powerful being in the whole Universe. Eren’s powerful speech that’ll ultimately make Ymir open her eyes and bring about a whole transformation in her draw heavily from what Levi had said to him previously in the Female Titan Arc. 
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Those moving words are, in parts, derived from his mentor so now, can we really say that Eren doesn’t care about Levi? Of course, the bit about Ymir being free and that she is just a human being is inspired from Eren’s own philosophy of life and freedom but the bit in his speech about choices, the freedom of making a choice, and the importance of making a decision by yourself and owning up to it- I think, that is taken from Levi’s advice. To support this claim, let me also refer to the memory panel in Chapter 120. Eren’s best memory of Levi is that exact moment when Levi had said those words to him, words that had influenced him to such an extent that he used the same to comfort Armin (like I said before) and now, to comfort Ymir. When we repeat someone’s words to us, it is a given that that person is in the back of our minds. So, it is pretty evident that Eren still thinks about Levi otherwise, what can explain this connection to Levi when it comes to consoling or validating someone? 
Also, in previous chapters, Eren has been shown to repeat quotes from people who had left a huge impact on him like his own child self as in here:
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Carla’s: 
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and then, Kruger’s: 
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So now that Eren throws light again on Levi’s advice, I think it’s suggestive of how important Levi’s role is in his life. And that the fact that the speech inspired from Levi would become the key for Eren to achieve the Founder’s power, is like a tribute to Levi’s encouragement and his overall faith in Eren that went a long way in making Eren the confident, responsible man he is presently. 
I hope this answers all your queries anon. I’m really, really sorry that it became so long. Forgive me for using your ask to rant endlessly and no, you’re the cute one. <333
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darkshadow90 · 4 years
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His Obsession Chapter 4
A/N: Hey, guys. I’m really happy to see people liked Chapter three, so here’s chapter four. I posted Chapter 21 on Archive Of Our Own, and I’m so happy I’m up to 117 kudos. That’s the most I’ve gotten on any story I’ve been writing. It means so much! Things are about to get really intense, especially in the next chapter, so I hope you’ll keep reading and let me know what you think. Also, feel free to message me and say hi! My inbox is open and I’m always up for talking to you :)
Chapter 4
Arthur slept more peacefully that night than the last few weeks. It was so refreshing for him. He had forgotten what it felt like to wake up feeling energized. He figured it was because he had someone who brought joy to his life. As great as he felt, it was foreign to him because until now he wasn’t happy at any point during his life. Part of him felt bad. He did something to scare Ashe and made her cry. He wasn’t sure what he did wrong. He hated seeing her cry. In his mind, she was always happy to be with him. She wasn’t scared. He thought about how terrified she was when she heard about the possibility of the killer being a clown. When he thought about it, he was relieved he no longer worked as a clown at Ha-Ha’s. She wouldn’t have to know he was a clown. It would have scared her even more. He didn’t want to result to other measures to subdue her if he could help it. He was prepared. While he was in the hospital with his mother, he stole several sedatives. At the time, he was planning on using them to help with his insomnia. He didn’t need to worry about getting caught. He was very discrete. Even if someone noticed, it was a hospital in Gotham. They would have looked the other way. ‘Hopefully I won’t have to use them on her. I’ll keep them around just in case.’ He also thought about how odd it was that the people of Gotham seemed to care three Wall Street guys were killed, but they didn’t care that drugs were stolen by people at the bottom of the ladder like him. He put it out of his mind. ‘It doesn’t matter. I killed those guys because they were assholes. They were harassing a girl and she needed my help. I could see it in her eyes. It was the only time I was grateful for another uncontrollable fit of laughter. That girl was able to get to safety, even though the men’s attention was then focused on me. They got what they deserved. They got what they deserved, and I know that girl was grateful I helped her.’ Arthur was proud of himself. The best thing was there was nothing directly linking him to the murders. Ashe stirred in her sleep. She murmured, but Arthur couldn’t make out what she said. He gently stroked her face and was careful not to wake her. He decided to get dressed and make breakfast.
Ashe woke up and still felt exhausted. She felt stiff, too. How could she possibly be well-rested in this situation? She had nightmares all night. She dreamed about a clown. He killed six people, and then he was chasing after her. She was scared he was going to kill her because he killed those people right in front of her, and he thought she would tell the police. He eventually caught her. She expected him to shoot her, or choke her to death, but he didn’t. Instead, he tenderly cupped her face in both hands and kissed her. She was crying and trying to push him away from her, screaming at him not to touch her, and to leave her alone. That was when she woke up. She was very anxious. ‘God, I hate clowns. Of all things, why did the killer have to be a clown? No way in hell will I let one get close enough to me.’ When she finished waking up, she took a bath and went to the living room. It was a gloomy day. She could tell from the light blue that was peeking in. It was probably going to rain most of the day. Arthur made oatmeal and sat at the table. He put Ashe’s oatmeal across from him. “Oh, good you’re awake. I made oatmeal for breakfast. I hope that’s okay.” Ashe still couldn’t look at him. She looked at the floor and nodded. “Did you sleep okay?” Ashe was still looking at the floor and shook her head. “No, not really.” Her voice was still quiet, barely above a whisper. “Did you have a bad dream?” Ashe nodded. “Was it about the clown?” Ashe didn’t say anything. “I told you. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Besides, he’s probably long gone by now. He probably had a reason to kill those guys. They were probably awful like a lot of people in this city.” Ashe felt sick by what Arthur said. She couldn’t believe Arthur was trying to make excuses for the clown’s actions. She was afraid to tell him it’s never okay for people to kill others. She was worried it would upset him for some reason, so she let it go.
They finished eating and turned on the TV. The news came on and there were a few updates. The reporter said police have begun questioning employees at Ha-Ha’s. Police said most of them had an alibi. They had a few more suspects to question in the hope to gain more information to catch the killer. They knew for sure the killer was a clown, and it was likely one of the remaining suspects works at Ha-Ha’s. Ashe was relieved to hear the new bits of information. It meant police were that much closer to catching the killer. ‘At least that’s one less thing to worry about. Once they catch that crazy clown, I won’t have to worry about him being on the streets, and I’ll finally be able to focus on getting out of here. As fucked up as it sounds, Arthur hasn’t really done anything bad to me. It’s better than being killed by an insane clown. At least I’m safe here. And even though both are shitty choices, I’d rather be stuck with an insane, overprotective neighbor than a clown that wants to butcher me or God knows what else. They’ll catch him soon. I just need to hang in there a little longer.’ Ashe saw Arthur stand up and clench his fists. She was scared. She saw his eyes go dark. Something must have upset him. It was uncomfortably quiet. She was too afraid to say anything.
Arthur was furious. He didn’t like what he heard on the news one bit. He knew it was most likely only him and Randall the police needed to question. ‘I’ve got to do something. I can’t really trust any of the guys to not mention me, except Gary, maybe. He’s one of the only people who’s ever been nice to me. But Randall, no. I sure as fuck can’t trust him. He got me fired from my job. He gave me that gun for protection and then fucked me over. Shit, what do I do? He better not show his stupid fucking face here. If he does, I’ll...’ “Arthur?” Ashe’s soft voice brought him out of his rage. He looked over and saw Ashe. She looked worried. “It’s okay. I’m fine now. I just need a smoke.” He grabbed the last cigarette from the pack and sighed. “I need to get more cigarettes. I won’t be gone long.” He put on his tan hoodie, zipped it up, and locked the door behind him as he left. Ashe heard thunder and it began to rain. Since she had nothing to do, she figured she would read Arthur’s notebook while he was gone.
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nadziejastar · 4 years
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Holidays in 358/2 Days
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Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days takes place over a full year. It kinda reminded me of Persona, so I decided to look and see what dates the days took place on.
Day 255 (The Longest Day) - The Summer Solstice
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Day 255 is called “The Longest Day,” which would make it the summer solstice. The solstices are important days in pagan religion. The summer solstice celebrates the vivacity and passion of the sun and of the energy it ignites. Midsummer (Litha) is all about celebrating action. On this date–usually June 21–the sun reaches its zenith in the sky. It is the longest day of the year, and the point at which the sun seems to just hang there without moving. In fact, the word “solstice” is from the Latin word solstitium, which literally translates to “sun stands still.”
The summer solstice is often associated with change, nature and new beginnings. There is a focus on the Element of Fire in honor of the Sun God. The power of the sun at Midsummer is at its most potent, and the earth is fertile with the bounty of growing life. In some traditions, Litha is a time at which there is a battle between light and dark. In addition, Litha is a time to find a balance between fire and water. This time of year was also sacred to Vesta, goddess of the hearth. This might be why Saïx has two weapons (Moonrise and Moonset) shaped like the astrological symbol for the goddess Vesta.
Day 71 (Reunion) - New Year’s
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Day 71 is called “Reunion” and is the day Axel returned from Castle Oblivion. In the manga, the mini chapter 5.5 is called  “It’s New Year’s! Organization XIII’s (Unauthorized) Winter Break”. The very next chapter is the one where Axel comes back from Castle Oblivion. This chapter was first released in Japan on June 22, 2010. So, it was not written to coincide with New Year’s in real life. 
It strongly suggests that the story was written with the various dates in mind. In pagan religion, January 1 is the final day of Yule. It is a time to say goodbye to the old, and welcome the new. And of course, this is a big day because of how much Axel started to change after returning from Castle Oblivion. 
Day 117 (Secrets) - Valentine’s Day
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Sweetheart
1. a person with whom someone is having a romantic relationship.
2. a particularly lovable or pleasing person or thing.
Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate love and a reminder to show appreciation to loved ones. In Japan, it is only the women who give presents to men. This is done because women are considered to be too shy to express their love. Whether romantic or platonic, all relationships are shown gratitude and recognition. Chocolate is given to lovers or friends as ‘a debt of gratitude’, or the pursuit of the other person’s happiness. I think there was a good reason Day 117 was chosen as Valentine's Day.
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“You made it so we could go on a mission together this morning, didn’t you?” said Xion, and Axel looked away. When I’m smiled at with such a happy look… I feel uncomfortable.
“Maybe Xion wouldn’t have been able to make her Keyblade come back, if it weren’t for you, Axel,” Roxas added.
“Thank you, Axel,” they said, in unison. This is why… this feeling is so hazy. Scratching his head unconsciously, Axel looked away from the two of them.
“Then how about a sea salt ice cream?” Axel asked, his back still turned.
“Huh?” Roxas asked.
This was Axel compromising, grudgingly. Don’t think I can take any more of those thank-yous.
“Then we call it even,” replied Axel. Roxas and Xion looked at each other.
“I’ll go buy it!” Xion dashed away.
After getting her Keyblade back, Xion was extremely grateful to Axel, which made him sad. He didn’t want to be thanked, he he just wanted a sea-salt ice cream. In the manga, Xion revealed her motivation, which was was the thought of her, Roxas, and Axel living together forever. Axel joked that it sounded like a marriage proposal. The chapter was called “Sweet Heart”. I think Isa’s motivation was the same as Xion’s. 
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“Xion, fight fight fight~” Axel clapped, as she turned around.
“What are you doing?”
“What am I doing… I’m praising you, you know.”
“You’re weird,” said Xion, laughing.
Just then, Axel suddenly felt like Xion’s face had blurred, and he rubbed his eyes.
“Is something wrong, Axel?”
“Nah…” For a second, the Xion I saw there had the face of… Naminé.
On Day 117, Axel and Xion had a mission together for the first time and Xion was very motivated, fighting even better than Roxas. After the mission, Xion told Axel that the sunset and the sound of the waves felt familiar. She left shells for Roxas when she was worried about him, which he did for her later, too. The shell was the symbol of the special bond between Roxas and Xion.
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The ocean… seashells. Only one thing comes to mind. They must be Sora’s memories. I know as much as I could find out about the memories that Naminé scattered in Castle Oblivion. At Sora’s home—Destiny Islands—a blue ocean spreads out to the horizon. And, the charm Sora carried to remember the promise he made to Kairi was made out of seashells, wasn’t it…?
At the same time, there were memories of the Princess—Kairi. It’s only natural that Kairi is very strong in those memories, if Xion and Naminé are connected. Because Naminé is Kairi’s Nobody. No, it’s possible to think that that Xion is the one directly connected to Kairi. Who’s Nobody is Xion? Now that I think about it, it wasn’t an illusion when I saw Xion and Naminé during our mission. It feels like there must be a reason.
“You have memories, don’t you, Axel?”
“Generally, yeah. They’re not much use for anything, anyway,” Axel replied, looking at Xion. Her expression seemed lost somehow.
Xion then asked Axel about his memories and he seemed depressed. Xion’s shell was like the WINNER ice cream stick, which Isa probably gave him as a gift. 
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Xigbar, standing and watching their exchange with his arms folded, opened his mouth. “You’ve been working really well lately haven’t you, Poppet.”
“…Thank you,” Xion replied in a small voice.
“Thank you? Why do you have to say thanks?
“Well, you were praising me, weren’t you? Was I wrong?”
“Haha… Yeah, I guess you could see it like that.” He pressed his hand to his mouth and snickered.
“Did I say something funny?”
“No, no. You’re fine.”
Xion looked up at Xigbar, anxiously. Beside them, Saïx didn’t show any notable reaction. He just watched.
When Axel returned from Castle Oblivion, he was disappointed that Saïx didn’t have any words of appreciation for him. 
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Apparently Isa expressed his gratitude to Lea and this is why Axel was so uncomfortable when Roxas and Xion thanked him so much on Day 96. It made him sad because it reminded him of the past.
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Every time he tried to wake up, all Axel could think was how badly he wanted to go back to sleep—although he was getting enough rest. He just wished he could have a day to himself and do nothing but relax and sleep. It was probably some remnant of his human memories.
The next day was the vacation and Axel was depressed. In the manga, he was even looking at his ice cream stick while thinking about his dark secrets. 
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“Thank you… Axel,” said Xion, still lying on the bed. Axel scratched his head, seeming a little self-conscious.
“Are you okay now?”
Xion nodded, seeing Roxas’ worried state. “Just a little dizzy. I’m sorry for worrying you,” she replied.
“Don’t scare us like that, yeah?” Axel said, sounding tired.
“Okay,” Xion replied.
“Just take it easy for today,” Axel continued.
“Got it,” Xion said, obeying mildly.
“…The two of you, thank you.” A smile was on her lips. Axel and Roxas exchanged glances. Surely—in this condition, she may take a while yet to recover, but it will be okay.
I think Isa wanted to show his gratitude to Lea by giving him a chance to rest. I don’t think it was a coincidence that on the day off, when Axel got a whole day to himself to relax and sleep, he said how much Saïx had changed. 
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If the three of us didn’t eat ice cream here like this, then by today I definitely would have been turned into a Dusk, and disappeared from this world, wouldn’t I? It was thanks to Roxas that I became able to use the Keyblade again, and also because Axel talked to Saïx for me. And when I fainted not so long ago, the two of them saved me.
Xion took a small breath, and said, “You and Axel are always saving me, aren’t you?”
“I haven’t done a thing. Axel’s the one who’s said all those things to Saïx for us,” Roxas said.
Xion went to say, that’s not true, but she held her tongue. If I say it, I know he’s just going to deny it. Instead, Xion said, “…I’m so glad you two are in the Organization for me.”
Like Kairi, I think Isa wanted to be helpful to Lea, but he just wound up getting in the way. The WINNER stick wasn’t a “useful” gift, but it was given with a lot of love and affection, like the thalassa shell charm. So, it meant a lot to Axel.
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Why did the Organization make me and Xion fight? When I think about it, my mind fills with so many doubts and worries, but it was Axel that stopped it, and I don’t know what I’d do without him. When I think about that, I think I can forgive him.
Axel has his own thoughts. Xion said it, too; if Axel didn’t do what he did, she wouldn’t have been able to come back to the Organization. I thought there were other ways to bring her back, but maybe at the time there really weren’t.
“Oh hey, did you guys know that some of these ice creams are winners?” said Axel, letting his foot swing.
“Winner?” Xion asked.
“Apparently, winner can be written on the finished ice cream stick. I’ve never seen one, though.”
Axel mentioned the WINNER stick on the last day they all spent watching the sunset together. Roxas wanted to give the ice cream stick to Axel that day because he was grateful to Axel for saving them. I think the WINNER stick represented Isa’s gratitude to Lea for everything he did.
Day 152 (The Wrong Buttons) - Ostara
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Ostara is a festival that celebrates the season’s change from dark winter to brightening spring. Similar to those observed at Easter, symbols for Ostara include eggs, rabbits, flowers and seeds. The spring equinox is a time for fertility and sowing seeds, and so nature’s fertility goes a little crazy.
In medieval societies in Europe, the March hare was viewed as a major fertility symbol. This is a species of rabbit that is nocturnal most of the year, but in March when mating season begins, there are bunnies everywhere all day long. The female of the species is superfecund and can conceive a second litter while still pregnant with a first. As if that wasn’t enough, the males tend to get frustrated when rebuffed by their mates, and bounce around erratically when discouraged.
Day 194 (Like It Should Be) - Beltane
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May 1st is Beltane. Derived from a Celtic word that means “bright fire,” Beltane is the time when the dark half of the year transitions fully into the light. Beltane was the festival of the Flower Goddess Flora and the flowering of Springtime. The weather is warm again, signs of life have completely returned to the Earth, and it’s time to party. It celebrates the height of Spring and the flowering of life.
At twilight, on Beltane Eve, fairy folk and magic abound, the veil between realms is thinnest now because the seasons are changing, the energies of nature are rising and with them the mysteries of new life approaching. Music, dancing, revelry and time out in nature are all part of regular Beltane celebrations. The same is true at Samhain on October 31, but instead of spirits of the deceased coming to visit we have magickal beings from the land of fae – faeries, elves, gnomes, leprechauns, etc. October 31 actually happens on Day 10, where Zexion explains what Kingdom Hearts is to Roxas.
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ghostmartyr · 5 years
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SnK 117 Thoughts
Action scenes!
All the wrong people achieving minor victories!
Fist fights that are Eren’s only means of honest communication anymore!
Brotherhood.
All this and more in another edition of Eren coming closest to checking himself while he wrecks himself.
-tosses confetti-
To be honest, the most worrying thing about this chapter to me is that Zeke shows up at the end. I figured that’s how this battle kept going, but I thought that would be the last ‘surprise’ of the volume. A next month thing.
If he’s already here, signs point to the handshake that breaks the world happening at the end of next chapter.
Even having no idea what Eren’s up to, but full confidence that he’s not a hundred percent on board with Zeke’s ideas for what they should be up to... Do Not Want. Zeke and Eren are like bulls in china shops (disregarding what Mythbusters says about that). Whatever’s coming, it isn’t going to be a tiny thing like brainwashing an entire island into forgetting their history. These are young men of vision.
That’s next month’s problem, though.
This month, we get another chapter that makes me think I’m going to go back to my Return to Shiganshina motto of wondering how pretty the anime is going to make all of this.
When we’re once again in Shiganshina. And Eren and Reiner are once again brawling.
This is not a critique, it’s just me pointing out that action scenes in this series are not the fastest way to any of the ongoing trauma elsewhere in the series being resolved. ...And my natural reaction to action-heavy chapters when I’m writing these posts is to kind of gesture at the chapter and be all, “you saw it, didn’t you?”
But that’s, of course, underselling all the emotional drama we still have to sort through. Starting with Eren’s upgrade to not just confusing his friends and the audience at large, now even Yelena is probably wanting to put her head in her hands and just wonder why the fuck.
With the answer apparently being that Eren feels like beating up Reiner.
Let’s put all that in the Later tab, because Eren and his problems of being Eren deserve a little more pondering before I say anything. ...Besides one reminder remark that Eren’s inherited the Attack Titan, and we haven’t yet really delved into hat it means that Titans seem to have their own outlines of a personality. With Paths moving to the forefront, that might be changing.
Or Eren just feels like beating up Reiner.
Moving on, it’s time for everyone’s favorite topic!
Fuck Marley.
This is one of those story elements I will be much less hissy at once the story is over. Unless the story does something stupid. But for now, every single time we focus on the non-Warrior conflicts of Marley, my only regret is that Zeke and Eren’s massacre in their country was so limited.
Hyperbole obviously in effect, but
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Let me try to start somewhere that isn’t mindless screaming about how Marley can just go fuck right off, and how being relieved that a child soldier you’ve crafted has made it back to safety doesn’t actually make you a better person, you absolute fuckwit.
As the narrative stands, the people from Marley are the only ones with power who aren’t fucking over their personal allegiances. Zeke’s screwed over everyone. Eren has actively damaged his friends. The 104th is powerless unless they want Armin to start really making things explode.
The Warriors and Magath have a very straightforward mission, and they’ve kept to it. This is their military operation, and there’s a plan. It makes sense that they��re kind of rolled into the protagonist role of this battle. Eren’s being fucking Eren, the Warriors have legitimate grief, they’re trying to save a child behind enemy lines...
Here, as ever, is the problem.
Fuck Marley.
Just... just to try and find some words to my indignation that only this particular set of characters can capture so well, Helos. Helos the hero. The untainted, hollow hero.
The hero who secretly made a pact with both sides to end the violence and spend a century lying about how they found peace, leaving an immeasurable mark on the state of Eldians until Willy strolls up one fine day and decides, you know what, maybe we can cool it with all this lying, but we absolutely need to go after the same targets all that lying created.
Willy was willing to die for his beliefs.
His belief was that throwing Paradis under the bus was perfectly acceptable.
Marley is full of stubborn people determined to see their missions out, but every single time we approach their point of view, it drives me nuts that we are spending any time humanizing the desire for Marley to come out the winner here.
Galliard, you have a legit beef with Eren. He uses you to kill someone you could have counted among your comrades, and the trauma alone would make any desire for vengeance immediately acceptable.
But ah yes, your home town.
I know Marley keeps their people in ignorance. I know Eldians considering that their grandest aspiration in life is to die is possibly more dangerous than simply living that fate out. I know Galliard’s mostly been involved in wars that are about fighting people they’re at war with, and protecting his people.
Unless I’ve been paying even less attention than I think, they’re in Shiganshina.
Marley cracked the walls open like a nut. They used children to do it. They committed genocide without once getting their hands dirty in order to maybe drag out the Founding Titan.
All of this built on the backs of Eldians. Having the Founding Titan means having a compliant Eldian. Having Titans at all means having Eldians.
Eren’s assault on Liberio is awful. It mirrors the horror of Shiganshina, and nothing about how the plot progresses is going to make me okay with what he and Zeke went for there.
But in terms of the devastation caused?
Eren’s willingness to kill children to accomplish his goal of wiping out the top brass is disturbing, and can’t match Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie’s naive willingness to kick down a door when they’re 10-12.
Liberio is still only one town.
Opening up the walls kills a lot more than one town. Some of it through Paradis’ own tactics, but as much as I like Galliard, and understand how much he’s lost...
Marley destroys a third of Paradis because it can.
No declaration of war, no warning. They treat Paradis the way they treat all Eldians: As a resource Marley is so entitled to they have no need to recognize them as anything more.
What Eren does is appalling and wrong.
But Galliard’s continued focus on that is its own kind of sickening. These people have never been confronted with the horrors they’ve participated in. Your home town, Galliard? Your brother?
How about your home town, your mother, your friends, a third of your country, and watching your own government send out a further 20% of the remaining population on a suicide mission so the rest of them survive.
All from a completely unprovoked attack.
Eren at least waits to hear Willy’s declaration of war.
Galliard’s motives are honestly very understandable, but compared to the history we’ve lived through with the Paradis side, it’s nothing. It’s a whining child who hasn’t realized that a world beyond him and his exists.
Then there’s Magath, and his line about putting an end to a hundred years of resentment.
What, resenting the island? Thanks to a lie your hero agreed to?
Resenting titans? After using them as your primary military force since the second you were given back your autonomy?
You people fucked up your own world! Marley policy has kept the fear of titans alive. Marley’s current strategy is bringing the hatred focused on them back to an island that, as far as they know, hasn’t had any interaction with the outside world for a hundred years.
Paradis isn’t perfect. Entire essays written solely about how fucked up Paradis is would be very easy to write. Armin’s probably written about thirty, in-universe.
What they’ve done is still not comparable to what Marley’s done.
The characters might feel the emotional weight similarly, but the crimes are not anywhere close to the same.
So having these guys arguing that they’ll claim the Founding Titan and save the world? The world they didn’t think twice about breaking whenever it was convenient for them? The world they only now care about because the strength of titans is turning obsolete?
Fuck Marley.
Reiner’s honestly my favorite part of this chapter, even if he continues to cling to the wrong theme. He’s upset over Gabi and Falco, but he looks at Eren, and he actually sees Eren. Reiner is someone who has stopped trying to find a moral high ground in this fight. He has his mission, he has his people, and trying to work out the rest is insanity.
They’ll all be dead soon.
They’re all miserable.
“What do you get... from living any longer?! Eren... I’ll end this for you.”
I said a few chapters back that this is a series about suicide. It’s Zeke’s entire motivation; getting the rest of the world to the place he is. It’s time for them all to end. Here, Reiner, despite theoretically being on the anti-Zeke side, is expressing the exact same sentiment.
They’re all going to die anyway. They’ve all suffered enough. It can be over. Ending it can be an act of kindness.
Eren agreed with that once, too.
“At the very least… I want you to end it all for me.” --65
The answer he got then was very simple.
“When I see someone crying, saying… no one needs them… I want to tell them… It’s not true.”
What do you get from living any longer?
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Whatever you want. It’s your fucking life. No one else has the right to decide when it should end.
Now we get to the fun stuff, because that look Eren has comes directly after Reiner spouts his big brother’s entire philosophy. Mentally, but this is a story. Eren’s most furious look comes from something he once asked for. Reiner trying to bring him to a peaceful end.
That thing Zeke wants for all Eldians.
That’s what comes before Eren’s emotions rise back to the surface.
Yelena and her merry crew don’t understand why Eren goes ahead and starts this fight, and really, neither do I. As a beacon for Zeke to follow, it’s a seriously dangerous one, and Marley knowing exactly where Eren is means they don’t have to worry about accidentally killing other human-sized bodies on the ground. Hiding and recollecting probably would have worked out better.
But we’re far enough into this arc that I’m really mostly fine with Eren doing things that don’t make sense. If the answer is just that he’s emotionally fragile enough that seeing Reiner meant he had to fight Reiner, I’d accept that.
Then Zeke shows up, and. Siiiigh.
I don’t know what happens next, but Eren looks so young when his big brother steps in to help. Eren’s been fighting alone this entire time. He doesn’t seem to like Yelena or Floch. He’s taken steps to make sure his friends stay away from him. He accepts the assistance freely offered, but his mission is his own.
My personal opinion is that Eren has very different plans for the Founding Titan’s powers than what the narrative has told us. His furious fight for life in this very chapter is a point in favor of that.
But whatever it’s used for, there’s one other person in the world who’s trying just as hard to reach him.
Zeke and Eren are doing, and will do, horrible things. Eren’s motives might not line up with Zeke’s, but Zeke is still his partner in this. Zeke knows what it’s like to cut off everything else except their mission. He knows what it’s like to be alone without an ally he can fully trust with his vision for the world.
They might have different visions, but Zeke understands everything Eren has gone through, and in Eren’s most desperate moment, he shows up.
Until the end of whatever happens, his big brother is fighting to make it to his side. He’s here to protect Eren and change the world with him.
Eren’s a disaster, but the look on his face sells how hard all of this has been. Since he was fifteen, he’s been shouldering the fate of humanity alone. Now, he has someone in his corner who’s held that burden for even longer.
It probably won’t go well. Even this bond might fall to pieces if their philosophical differences come out.
But for right now, Eren has his big brother.
.
Oh and in other news, Gabi paying attention to all the wrong things means that Marley knows the requirements for making the Founding Titan go zoom.
Next chapter is just going to end with Eren and Zeke’s hands finally meeting. The last page is a blank white one that says ‘the heart’.
...I do kinda love that while this is going on, everyone in the cells just assumes that the Wall Titans are now walking around. SURPRISE! you’re at war. That’s going to be fun to cope with when your building inevitably suffers a hole.
Next month is going to be... a lot.
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ink-asunder · 5 years
Text
A list of things I learned from the Doctor Strange novelization
Or: Reasons why I should’ve read the novelization before publishing my Doctor Strange fanfic.
(This is a commentary on the Doctor Strange Junior Novelization by Steve Behling. You can buy it online.)
1. TAO’s name is spelled “The Ancient One”, where every word is capitalized instead of it being spelled “the Ancient One.” (Page 3)
2. The robes at Kamar-Taj are indicative of rank. Grey is for novice, red is for apprentice, and blue is for disciple. (I know a lot of people have said this already, but I’m putting this as a confirmation and I thought the blue robes and red robes were both just acolyte robes. Just for variety. Like on Wednesdays we wear red.)
3. The car crash is detailed in chapter 4 and chapter 6. (thought I’d mention it, since I know enough people who are seriously upset by car crashes)
4. When Pangborn told Stephen why he didn’t stay at Kamar-Taj, he mentions there are lessons and obligations that came with learning the secrets of the mystical world on top of the secrets themselves. (This is important to note more on a personal level, since it becomes a big point of contention in several parts of my fanfic.) (70)
5. Also, Pangborn closes the conversation saying he’s already told Strange more than he should have. I don’t remember that in the movie, and it implies that Kamar-Taj is supposed to be kept a big secret and they’re supposed to contact you directly if you’re meant to go there I guess? (Why did Mordo approach Kaecilius then?? Can someone explain this to me?) (71)
6. When looking for Kamar-Taj, Stephen is helped by a begging child who pretends to not speak any English, the after taking some of Stephen’s money, tells him to go to Patan Durbar Square. (81-83).
7. Said Square is full of palaces and temples. (My question is are they all phony? Is there another totally legit school of magic around here that’s just not cut from the same cloth as Kamar-Taj? Do the masters of this imaginary legit school of magic gather on the corner to have rap battles with the masters of Kamar-Taj? I don’t know, it’s a stupid headcanon, but it’s good fanfic fodder, so go wild I guess.) (83)
8. When looking for Kamar-Taj, Stephen actually notices Mordo following him, but Mordo disappears before Stephen can approach him. (84)
9. They included the (deleted) dog scene in the novel, but the dog doesn’t shake, and they didn’t put in the insurance joke, (probably because this book is for fourth graders). (84-85)
10. When Mordo saves Stephen from the thugs, he calls Stephen’s watch a bracelet because, since it’s broken, it’s not a watch anymore. (89)
11. They included the (deleted) courtyard scene as well. I wish the scene was more detailed, but I’m willing to admit that it would be literally insane to describe every activity by every person in the courtyard. (97)
13. When Stephen first gets an audience with The Ancient One, it’s explicitly stated that all the people who take his coat and serve him tea are women. This might have some cultural significance or it might mean nothing at all, but I thought it was a nice detail. (99)
14. The Ancient One is literally described as follows: “She seemed ageless, young and old at the same time. She had no hair on her head, and she was scarred, not unlike the man in the green robe.” (100)
15. The dialogue in all the scenes isn’t exactly as it is in the movie, but it’s most noticeable during the “meeting TAO” scene. Here, Stephen says Pangborn made a spontaneous recovery and that TAO took credit (and that this whole thing is a scam and a cult and I know I’m going way into detail here but I just love this scene), and TAO actually tells Stephen calmly about the Multiverse and the mirror dimension right then and there. (They also cut out the part where Stephen is kicked out at first.) (100-113)
16. Stephen and Mordo chat a bit while heading to Stephen’s room. (117)
17. In Stephen’s room, the laptop on the desk is hidden inside one of those fake book-box things. (118)
18. Kamar-Taj is commonly referred to as a compound. I know Wong called it a compound in the movie, but I didn’t think about it much at the time.
19. Page 120 is one of my favorite scenes because it details Stephen donning the novice robes and accepting that he’s a student again and walking under the blue flowered tree and UGH I LOVE THIS PAGE
20. When meeting with Strange a second time, TAO actually paints a rune on paper while she’s explaining magic, (another favorite scene), and performs the motions of casting a spell without actually conjuring any energy at first. It’s a simplified step-by-step version of how to do the magic, and I thought it was a nice demonstration. (121-125)
21. The library of Kamar-Taj is called the Narthex, and it doesn’t contain anything except ancient magic books. (129)
22. The master’s wing of the Narthex is actually described as for “disciples and masters only” instead of just masters. (131)
23. The Book of Cagliostro is spelled and formatted like The Book of Cagliostro, so... that answers one of my most glaring questions about the MCU.
24. Hamir accompanies The Ancient One often. (140)
25. They did not include Tilda Swinton’s “that’ll do, babe,” after Stephen conjured a portal from Everest, so don’t get your hopes up.
26. Okay, my third favorite scene in the book is when Mordo and Stephen are training one-on-one and gossiping talking about TAO. Mordo tells Stephen TAO was born from a tree or that she was a hiker that came to Kamar-Taj 10 years ago and never left, and Stephen actually believes him for a second before Mordo teases him for believing everything he hears now. They also talk about TAO’s true name and say she either looks like an Elizabeth or a Catherine. Mordo says no one knows TAO’s age, where she came from, or when she inherited her title, just that she’s Celtic and “from traditions remembered now only by her. She simply is, and we are all the better for it.” (Go hog wild, TAO fandom). (149-150)
27. The globe in the globe room is replaced by a map on the ceiling, and the features of the map are characterized by lines and differently-colored dots. (162-163)
28. There’s an old man that Stephen runs into when he first arrives outside of the New York Sanctum, and I imagine this old man as Stan Lee. (3)
29. They cut out the part where Stephen borrows the Eye and does a ritual with the apple. Probably because this book is for fourth graders, and they don’t want a morally ambivalent protagonist.
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duhragonball · 4 years
Text
[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (117/?)
Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.
Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.
Previous chapters conveniently available here.
[13 March, 233 Before Age.   Hexill VI.]
The Hexillians had turned down multiple invitations to join the Federation.    Lying just beyond the Federation border, their solar system was a valued trading partner.    There was a strong pro-Federation movement in the planet's political arena, but it was hamstrung by conflicting opinions over the details.    Even the most isolationist voices in the Hexillian government could not deny that their world was growing closer and closer to the Federation each day, and had prospered for it.  
But the fact remained that Hexill VI was not a Federation member, and so when the Saiyan invader appeared on their world, and began to attack it, they had no mutual defense pact to invoke, nor any reason to expect aid.   Instead, they relied upon their own military, and while much of their arsenal had been acquired from the Federation, they were unprepared for the power that the Saiyan possessed.  
"Know that you serve an abomination!" she would say whenever she would attack one of their cities.  "Know that Trismegistus is the true answer, the reagent that will change the universe!   Rejoice, for I bring you a gift!    He has sent his prophet into your wilderness, that you may turn away from the abomination, and be cleansed!"
Then the Hexillians would launch a counterattack, and she would always withdraw.    The civilian leaders took this as a hopeful sign.   If they could just corner the Saiyan "prophet", then they could surely defeat her.   Those who opposed Federation membership used this talking point to argue that they didn't need an alliance for protection.    Those who supported Federation membership claimed that victory would be much swifter with a starfleet backing them up.   In either case, they painted a very rosy picture for their constituents.    Lives had been lost and infrastructure had been destroyed, but the invasion would be repelled, and soon they could rebuild.   That was what the politicians said.
The military leaders had a less optimistic appraisal.    They believed the Saiyan woman was merely playing for time, and that she had the power to overwhelm their defenses if she chose to do so.    Their weapons were supposed to be strong enough to repel a typical Saiyan intruder, but there was nothing normal about her.   Sensor data indicated that she was much faster than she seemed to be letting on.    Her battlefield sermons bore little resemblance to the usual low-brow banter used by most Saiyan pirates.   And her burgundy costume   made it difficult to tell that she was a Saiyan at all.   If the woman had a tail, it was hidden beneath the chlamys gown handing from her shoulders.    Her black hair was dyed with streaks of crimson, and bound with an elaborate series of red bands.  
"The fated day approaches!" she cried as she attacked a hydroponics complex less than a hundred miles from a defense base.    "Your bellies will go empty, that you might fill your spirits with the truth!"
Much of the complex was staffed by robotic workers, but the Hexillian technicians who maintained them were forced to flee.    Most Saiyans were content to fire blasts of  ki energy at their targets, but this one was different.   She would light fires wherever she could, then destroy various installations that tied in with whatever "topic" she happened to be raving about.    In this case, she burned the crops, blasted large food processing units to pieces, and then targeted the Hexillian workers who had remained behind to see that the others evacuated safely.  
"Ah, so you volunteer for the culling!" she said as she plucked a Hexillian shift manager from the ground.   "Your blood will write the history of the future!"
"Lemme go!" the man pleaded.   "I gotta family!"   Specifically, he had a wife and two sons, with an egg that was due to hatch any day now.   He didn't honestly expect the Saiyan to care, but as he struggled in her grip, he didn't know what else to say, and in his panic, his loved ones were the first thing to come to mind.
"Excellent!" she replied.   "Blood is always more valuable when taken from one who would be mourned!"   With that, she flew to a spot on the facility that she had cleared of wreckage, and dumped him into a small group of other captives.    Surrounding them was a circular pattern drawn in the ground, adorned with mystic inscriptions she had learned from worlds no Hexillian had ever known.
"The thrice-blessed is merciful," the Saiyan  announced as she drew a short spear from behind her back.   "The price of his transformative power is great, but he will ask only a small toll from your world.   Know that your lives will be taken so that your people will be permitted to witness his glorious triumph!"
In her hand, the weapon extended, growing into a long lance which she then leveled at her captives like a rifle.  The blade at the tip began to glow with a blue light, her eyes closed, and she spoke in tongues as she hovered over them, preparing to slaughter them all.  
"Nice boots."
The prophetess had sensed a powerful ki nearby, but in the moment between sensing the power and opening her eyes to search for it, the source of the ki had already closed the distance between them.  
"Who dares--?" she asked, but then she saw the interloper's black shirt and yellow pants, and she recognized her immediately.   "Ah, the abomination herself.    My master said you would come, though he did not expect you quite so early.    I should have known that you would defy his holy timetable."  
"Not big on the color," Luffa said.    "Lot of people think red's a good look for Saiyans, since we get bloodied up so much, but they never think about how it'll look when it dries.    Besides, there's other colors of blood out there.   Green, purple.   You name it."
The prophet pointed her spear at Luffa, who was floating directly above the captive Hexillians.    "You speak in riddles, heretic!" she said.   "Be warned that your idle chatter will avail you nothing here, for I have seen the truth, and the truth has enslaved me completely."
"What riddles?" Luffa said.    "I said I like your boots.    Not sure I could wear that style, though.   I'm not big on heels myself.   They make me look taller, but I feel kind of awkward when I wear them.    But on other people, I think they look pretty cool.    You look like you could stab someone with one of those.     Are they comfortable?   They don't look it, but you seem pretty used to wearing them."  
"We are both heralds, you and I," the prophet said.    "You, the abomination Luffa, and I, his humble servant, the prophetess Aonorry.    Fate has ordained this meeting, to mark the advent of his temple upon this world--!"
"I'm not wild about the cut," Luffa said as she stared at Aonorry's legs and rubbed her chin.    "Thigh-highs?   I guess the material is flexible enough, but I'm more into below-the-knee.    Just my preference though.   Oh, wait, I just noticed they match your gloves.   Okay, well that adds up then.   Now I'm trying to picture shorter boots with shorter gloves."
"Enough!" Aonorry screamed.    "This is my moment!   The culmination of my sacred training, of my life!    I will not stand at the gates of death and be mocked in this way!"    
Suddenly a blast of energy fired from the point of the lance, bathing Luffa in its destructive radiance.   Below, the Hexillians cried out in horror at the apparent destruction of their rescuer.    When the light faded from Aonorry's attack, there was no trace of Luffa.
"I'll not be fooled by your trickery!" Aonorry said.   She quickly spun around, scanning the immediate area with all of her senses to locate her enemy.     "I lack the power to defeat you so easily.   But you betray yourself by hiding from me.   If your power were true, you would have nothing to fear from me, and no cause to... run?"
It was the sound that gave it away.    Aonorry could sense flashes of ki all around her, but none of them lasted long enough for her to get a fix on Luffa's location.   Then she realized that she was hearing buzzes in the air, the sound of her enemy zipping past her so quickly that her eyes couldn't follow the movements.    Aonorry had expected power, for this was the core feature of Luffa's reputation.    What she hadn't anticipated was the depth of skill that Luffa now displayed.    Her ki control was so great that she was using it for only brief instants, flinging herself back and forth at amazing speeds, just to keep Aonorry off-balance.
And then, just when she realized that this was meant to throw her off-balance, she felt Luffa's fingers wrapping around her ankle, and in the next moment she found herself slamming into the ground.    In spite of the pain, in spite of the blood Aonorry felt tricking from her nose and mouth, she tried to get up and recover.   Before she could even roll over, she felt a tremendous weight pressing against her back.    Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Luffa standing over her, using one foot to pin Aonorry to the ground.  At some point, Luffa had transformed into her Super Saiyan form.   Aonorry couldn't see it, pinned to the ground face-down as she was, but she could certainly feel the increased power.
"On second thought," Luffa said, "your boots kind of suck.   If they were black, or knee length, or if they came in flats, any one of those, then yeah, I could overlook the other two, but no.     Three strikes."
As she spoke, Luffa raised Aonorry's lance in her hand, and began to twirl it around like a baton.   "You came here alone, as far as I can tell," she said.   The intel I received shows you're the only Saiyan involved in every battle, and I can't sense any others coming out of hiding to save you.    But you must have picked this planet because you know I'd have to show up and deal with you personally.  The Federation starfleet can't come out this far unless the Hexillian government asks, but I can come and go as I please.   So you knew I'd be coming alone, and you knew you couldn't stop me by yourself.    So this is a trap, and you're just the bait, right?"
She applied more pressure to Aonorry's back, and Aonorry's shriek surprised even herself.      She hadn't expected anything quite like this.   It was supposed to be majestic.    The abomination was supposed to recoil in terror as Aonorry revealed the true nature of her lord.   Instead, she lay face down a puddle of dirt mixed with her own blood.    
"Or is it a diversion?" Luffa asked.    "You lured me all the way out here to keep me away from something else?     Normally, I'd read your mind to find out for myself, but I know you Jindan-users have psychic booby traps inside your heads."
She pointed the tip of Aonorry's weapon at the base of Aonorry's skull.   "You sure got quiet all of a sudden," Luffa said.    "You said you were a prophet, right?    Had plenty to say a minute ago.   Well, go on and preach. I'm listening."
"He... he's not coming," Aonorry said.   "He said he would save me if I faced you alone.    But you've already beaten me, and he... he isn't here."
"Who?" Luffa asked.  
"T-Trismegistus," Aonorry said, choking back tears.    "He anointed me as one of the Orichalcum Order.   He told me that I would overcome any adversity and prepare this planet for his arrival.     But you're killing me and he isn't here!"  
"Well, I haven't actually started killing you yet," Luffa said.  "Let's give him a few more minutes.   Maybe he overslept."
"He... he used me," Aonorry gasped.   "I did everything he said, and now he's abandoned me to die here!    After all those things he said to me in his bedroom.   Was that all it was to him?"
"Men, right?" Luffa asked, thought not as mockingly as before.    "I guess this guy isn't as 'thrice-blessed' as you thought, huh?"
"That bastard," Aonorry shouted.    "I literally worshiped him, cut off my own tail for him, and he won't even lift a finger for me!    How could I have been so stupid?"
"Hey, it's not too late to turn things around," Luffa said.   "Tell me what you know, and I'll see to it that he'll regret the day he ever met you."
Aonorry hesitated at this offer.    "What will become of me?" she asked.   "You won't simply let me go."
"Hell no," Luffa said.   "You killed a lot of people here, and you'll have to answer for that.    Legally, I'm not even supposed to be here, so helping you escape would just make a bad situation worse.   But, if you help us put these Jindan clowns out of business... well, maybe we can work something out."  
She pressed the tip of the spear against Aonorry's neck, but gently enough that it didn't break the skin.  "Or you can die here and now," Luffa added.   "Your call, but for what it's worth, I know what it's like to be betrayed.   If I were you, I'd want to do anything I could to make the bastard pay."
Aonorry balled her fists and pounded them into the dirt.    "You... you actually care, don't you?" she said.   "You came here to save these people.   He told me you were the devil, evil incarnate... and here you are, actually sympathizing with me."
"I get that a lot," Luffa said.   "People tell me I'm not so scary once they get to know me.   Like it's so hard to give a crap."  
"All right, then.   I'll tell you all that I know.    Just  give me your word that you'll destroy hi--... Destroy h--... hhurk!"
Luffa was about to ask her what was wrong, when suddenly Aonorry vomited blood onto the ground.   She began to convulse wildly, and Luffa stepped away from her.  
Aonorry rose to a kneeling position, then grabbed at her throat, as if trying to strangle herself.    Her eyes, once proud and righteous, now looked to Luffa with a silent plea for help.   The blood--or whatever it actually was--continued to stream from her mouth.  
Unsure how to deal with Aonorry, Luffa aimed her hand in the opposite direction and fired a ki blast, which cleared a path through the flames that surrounded them.     "All of you!" she called to the Hexillians.   "Get out of here now!   Your soldiers are heading this way.   Find them and get them to take you as far away as you can.   Go!"
Though confused, they did as she said, leaving Luffa alone to witness whatever was happening to Aonorry.    By now, Luffa was convinced that the red fluid flowing from the other Saiyan's mouth wasn't mere blood.   The sheer volume of it defied Saiyan anatomy.   Within minutes, the former "prophetess" was kneeling in a shallow pool nearly ten feet in diameter.    Luffa's first instinct was to kill her now and put an end to this, but she doubted that killing Aonorry would actually solve anything.   Still, with no other obvious course of action, she pointed her finger at Aonorry's head, and charged her ki just in case.    
Then the ground began to shake, and Luffa knew that the problem was bigger than Aonorry.   The "blood"-soaked soil began to expand and grow all around Aonorry, and Luffa could sense a presence within it.     In seconds, a large hill had formed before Luffa's eyes.   Soon after that, it grew into a mesa, and then it began to reshape itself, like wet clay being sculpted by giant, invisible hands.     At last, the two-hundred-foot-tall formation stood revealed as a humanoid figure.    Gleaming purple eyes opened on its head, and it stared down at Luffa as it continued to refine its shape.    Gradually, the face of the creature sharpened and resolved, until at last she could see the features of someone she recognized.    
"Rehval..." Luffa muttered.  
"Welcome, Luffa," said the rock-creature who wore Rehval's likeness.    "I understand you've been looking for me.     Was there something you wanted to say?"
*******
"Vengeance Cannon," Luffa replied, and she fired a thin beam of red light through the forehead of the creature.  
However, the Rehval-thing suffered no ill effects from this, aside from the four-inch-wide hole she had bored through it.  
"As passionate as ever, I see.    You truly are a magnificent woman.   It's a shame we couldn't come to terms--"
Luffa fired a much wider blast of energy, this time blasting the rock-creatures entire head and neck into pebbles.   It stumbled forward, and just as she flew to avoid it, the creature managed to stop itself from falling over.    Instead, it stepped back, straightened its posture, then slowly regrew its head.    
"I trust that you're beginning to understand why I arranged to speak to you this way,"  he said after his mouth had been restored.   "I would have preferred a face-to-face meeting, but you're much too volatile, and I'm too important to jeopardize my safety that way."
"You're late, aren't you?" Luffa scoffed.   "Your lapdog Aonorry had given up on you.   She was all set to betray you to me, and then suddenly you showed yourself.    It's enough to make a girl think you were afraid."
"Don't flatter yourself, Luffa," Rehval said.   "The fact is that I was counting on young Aonorry to have a crisis of faith.    As part of my flock, she devoted herself to me completely, allowing me to learn her every strength and weakness.   Hers was a brittle sort of belief.   I knew that if I disappointed her, even slightly, that she would turn against me in anger.  So I had her drink a potion that would use her disillusionment as a catalyst.   Once activated, she would infuse it into the soil, and bring about the form you see before you."
He reached for his shoulder, and gently picked up the prone form of Aonorry, who had been laying motionless upon him.  
"So that's it," Luffa said.    "You've decided that being a self-righteous king wasn't good enough, so now you've become some sort of sorcerer with his own cult.     Trismegistus, that's what they all call you now."  
"The thrice-blessed one," he explained.   "It was the title of a great alchemist from many thousands of years ago.    So great, in fact, that he was eventually defied by his people.   I chose to usurp his title, since I consider myself to be just as blessed as he was.    First: King of the Saiyans.   Second: Master of the Jindan Cult.  Third: Savior of the Galaxy."
"Now it all makes sense," Luffa said.   "You went into hiding after our last encounter, then you packed up your kingdom and left before I could find you.    You knew you'd lose support among your idiot subjects, so you whipped up this scam of yours and promised to make Saiyans stronger in exchange for their loyalty.    I had heard 'Trismegistus' sent his cult to invade 'Rehval's' kingdom, but I guess that was all just a ruse to cover your tracks."
"You don't sound very impressed with that," Rehval said.  
Luffa turned her head and spat on the ground.   "You really do have no pride at all do you?   A true Saiyan wouldn't resort to potions and magic to make themselves stronger!    It wasn't enough for you to pollute your own body with that sort of filth.   Now you've tricked others into making the same mistake!"  
"Tricked them?" Rehval asked with a laugh.   "They all came to me.    Many of them despised my rule, but they sought me out anyway, all because they craved greater power. "   He held up Aonorry in his palm.    "This one, for example.    She was like you, once.   She hated the monarchy that my grandfather started.   She wanted nothing to do with King Rehval.    Ah, but once she heard about the miracle of Jindan, and how its creator, Trismegistus, led an attack on King Rehval's stronghold, she became fascinated.    She did everything she could to find it.    I didn't make the trail easy to find, Luffa.   It was a test of determination.    But my beloved Aonorry passed."
"And what does she think now?" Luffa asked.    "Now that she knows she's bound herself to the same king she opposed?"
"Let's find out," Rehval suggested.    Without warning, he dropped his prophet, allowing her to fall hundreds of feet to the ground.    
"Bastard!" Luffa snarled as she flew up to catch her.     As she did, Rehval pointed his enormous earthen hand down at them and fired a beam of energy.    
"You're so predictable, Luffa," he said.    "For all your talk of warrior pride, you can be so soft that it's pitiful.   Was it really worth dying just now so that you could save an enemy?"
When the light from his attack faded, he saw  no trace of the Saiyan women.    Then he noticed something on his mountainous shoulder, and he looked over to find Luffa standing there, holding Aonorry's unconscious form in her arms.    Before he could react, Luffa opened her mouth and a stream of golden ki energy blasted him in the face.  
"Predict this!" she shouted when she was finished.    Then she stamped her foot down onto Rehval's rocky shoulder.   The force was so great that a crack formed, and slowly expanded.    As Luffa jumped away, Rehval's right arm began to break loose from his body, and then it fell off completely.  
*******
Luffa flew until she reached a lake, then hovered just inches above it.    Satisfied that Rehval wasn't chasing her, she dunked Aonorry's head into the water.    
"Wake up, idiot!" Luffa shouted.   "Your precious master finally showed up.   Any ideas on what his plan is?"
"Whuh-what?" Aonorry sputtered as the cold water brought her around.  "Trismegistus is here?"
"Yeah, well most people know him as 'King Rehval', though I've heard that's not his real name either," Luffa said.   She tossed Aonorry onto the lakeshore and waited for her to get her bearings.   "He's been playing you for a fool this whole time.   You and everyone else in the Jindan cult."  
"He really did come for me," Aonorry said, now holding her hands over her cheeks.     "And... after I was ready to betray him.    Oh... oh my..."
"He was counting on you to betray him," Luffa said.   "The bastard's been toying with you, and he lied to you the whole time!    Loyalty means nothing to him!"
Luffa had more unkind words to say about King Rehval, but before she could speak them, the ground began to shake beneath them, and then another column of earth and rock began to rise up and shape itself into a humanoid form.  
"Luffa, Luffa, Luffa," Rehval's voice boomed.   "When will you ever learn?"
Luffa left Aonorry where she was and charged her ki before leaping headlong into Rehval's stone belly.  She made a crater on the surface, and knocked him off balance.    Without pausing, she flew around him, peppering his body with golden energy blasts as she went.   To an outside observer, it might have looked like a man being pestered by some glowing yellow hummingbird.  
She blasted his face again, and when he tried to reshape it from the remaining rock, she kept blasting it.    At the same time, she focused on his legs, damaging them enough that he had trouble staying upright.    
"You can't defeat him!" Aonorry cried out.   The unfettered joy in her voice made Luffa sick, but she pressed on in spite of it.    He's become one with the very earth itself!   You would have to destroy the entire planet, and you still wouldn't win!"  
"She's right, you know," Rehval boasted.   "I'm not actually here, as I said before.   You need the atmosphere to breathe, but I don't.    And as long as the planet is in tact--"
Luffa finally put enough cracks in his body that it crumbled into pieces.   A short distance away, she could already hear another rock-body assembling itself.  
"He rises!" Aonorry wailed.   "His glory rises, now and forever!"
"As I was saying," Rehval said as his third body sprouted its new mouth.   "As long as the planet is in tact, I can fight you like this indefinitely."
"Gosh, I'd better surrender then," Luffa grumbled.    "Is that what you want me to say?"
"Actually, no," Rehval said.    He clenched his fists, and suddenly a ball of violet light appeared in front of his rocky chest.    Before Luffa could dodge, he unleashed its power in her direction, and she had to catch the front of the energy wave in her hands.    
"Our confrontation on Pflaume was an experiment, Luffa," Rehval explained while she struggled to hold back the blast.   "I thought that if I stranded you on an ice giant, you would be neutralized completely.   No air to breathe, no surface to stand upon, no ships to rescue you.     That last one was the flaw in my plan.   I was sure your wife would abandon you, but not so."
Luffa was pushed back by the energy beam until she felt her boots press into the ground.   This gave her something to brace against for support, but it also reminded her that she had very little margin for error.   She set her jaw and screwed her eyes shut as she summoned up more power to halt the beam's advance.
"I had to evacuate Planet Saiya," Rehval went on.   "I knew that if you escaped Pflaume, the planet would never survive your counterattack.   Fortunately, I had a redoubt prepared on a planet in a secret location, just in case of emergency.   And while I was there, it occurred to me how dependent I am on planets and atmospheres.   So are you, but you can just fly from place to place in your ship, like a mercenary.    Very romantic, but a king needs a kingdom, and a kingdom needs earth to stand upon."
Luffa finally mustered the strength to deflect the attack, and with a mighty yell, she flung it up into the sky, where it exploded harmlessly in the upper atmosphere.    But this left her wide open to a punch from the rock creature that spoke with Rehval's voice.    The impact cratered the ground, and the Rehval-monster ground his fist into the center, like a child killing a beetle.  
"A foundation, Luffa," he continued.    "Without a solid rock to build upon, the builder is helpless.   That was when I realized the error in my thinking.    On Pflaume, I left you to fall into sinking sand, when what I needed to be doing was securing myself upon a solid rock.   That realization led me to realize how much we owe the ground beneath us, and how powerful it truly is.    I knew that if I made that power my own,  I could defeat anyone, even the Legendary Super Saiyan."
Nearby, Aonorry was chanting some a prayer in support of Trismegistus.     The earthen creature smiled as it sensed a victory, and then a tremendous explosion went off at his fist.   The giant figure toppled backwards, and when Rehval looked at his arm, it was simply... gone.
Luffa emerged from the smoke of the blast, already preparing her next move.   "Rehval," she said.   "You talk too much."    
What followed was a rapid-fire barrage.   Dozens of golden blobs of energy launched out of Luffa's fingertips, and embedded themselves onto Rehval's avatar.   He expected them to explode on contact, but instead, she swung her left hand upward, and he found himself being dragged upwards.     The ki she had affixed to his body was pulling him into the air.
"I don't know how you pulled this off, Rehval," Luffa said, "but I'm curious to see what your limits are with this monster body you've got.    "Can you attack me with two of them at once?   Because so far I've only seen you make a new body after the old one gets wrecked."
"Your... nnf!   Your overconfidence is your weakness," Rehval said as he struggled against the force pulling him towards the sky.
"Look who's talking," Luffa replied.    "You sprang this trap and gloated about it the whole time you were fighting, and where's it gotten you?   You probably never even considered that I was studying your power the entire time, did you?"
He managed to spin around and point his remaining arm at Luffa, but she  squeezed her hand into a fist, and the energy blobs on that arm suddenly exploded, blasting it into dust.  
"What now?" she asked.    "You've got to make a new body now, since you can't do much with that one."
"You underestimate me... Luffa!" Rehval said.   His body began to shift and reshape itself, until it finally sprouted a new pair of arms.   But unlike before, this caused the main body to become smaller than it had been before.
Luffa responded by squeezing her fist again, and blasting off his legs.   The remainder of his body began to fall, but she caught it by enveloping the bulk of his form in a sheath of golden light.    
"I think I'm getting the idea," Luffa said.   "You can't absorb more mass unless you're in direct contact with the planet.    And cutting off an arm or a leg doesn't help you, because those pieces aren't 'alive' on their own, so much as they're controlled by the main body.   Or maybe just the head. "
"Well done, Luffa," Rehval said.   "You're as magnificent as ever, and just as dangerous.    I can still use you in my plans, but I can't afford to trust you, not after you spurned my offer before."  
"Trust?   Trust?!" Luffa shouted.   "You honorless jackal!  You don't even know the meaning of the word!   Using that idiot Aonorry as your pawn!   Sending this... this proxy to fight me in your place!   When I find you--the real you-- I'll--"
Her threat was suddenly cut off by Aonorry herself, who had managed to sneak up on Luffa while she was busy restraining Rehval in midair.   The point of her short spear nearly connected with Luffa's neck, but she sensed her approach just in the nick of time, and caught her in a choke hold.    
"Your 'master' is more desperate than I thought," Luffa snarled.    Without hesitation, she broke Aonorry's neck to prevent any further distractions.   But in the moment it took her to do this, Rehval built up his power again, and this time turned it in on himself.    Before Luffa could react, before Aonorry's corpse could even fall to the surface, his rock-body exploded in midair, and only moments later, a new rock-Rehval was rising up from the ground.    
"You killed my prophetess," Rehval said, sounding only mildly annoyed.   "I'll miss her."
"This game is getting tiresome, Rehval," Luffa said.   "I've already figured out how to defeat you, so unless this next body can do something new, there's really no point in going on."
"You may be powerful, Luffa," Rehval said, "but you still think like a low-level mercenary.    Do you think one battlefield means anything to me?   I'm not even here.   I could destroy this entire planet right now, and lose nothing.    But I won't do that, because I have loftier goals in mind.    I mean to change the universe, and that won't be achieved through mere destruction.   Hexill VI has a place in my kingdom, like all worlds."
Luffa dove down and attacked one of Rehval's legs.    As he swung his arms to catch her, she dodged and attacked those as well.    But since he was touching the ground, he was able to repair this damage easily.    
"Think about it, Luffa," he continued.    "If I can send my avatar here, across hundreds of light years, then I can do the same on any number of planets.    Without warning, a graven image of me rises up from the ground, powerful enough  to defeat almost anything, powerful enough to impose my will, or destroy the planet entirely.   And by the time you arrive in your ship to stop me, I'm already gone."
Luffa formed a razor-thin disc of ki and launched it at the neck of Rehval.   It only carved a small section away, but when she followed up with a Gallick Gun, this was enough to blast the head off of the body.   She then snared it in an energy sheath and pulled it up into the sky.    Below, the headless body didn't move.    Luffa fired another ki blast to destroy it, but never stopped her flight.    
"You think you can sever my connection to the planet with distance, is that it?" Rehval asked.    "Well, so what if you can?    I only chose Hexill VI to make a point, Luffa.   I wanted you to see exactly what I can do.    What I've become."  
"Tell me where you're hiding, Rehval," Luffa said.   "I'll only ask you once."
"And why should I tell you that?" Rehval asked.    
"Because I'm going to kill you either way," she said.   "Painfully, if I can.    You're going to die, but if you tell me where to find you, I can get it over with.    Save you some sleepless nights."
"That's very kind of you," Rehval said.   "But no.   Come and find me, if you can.  I'll be waiting.   And if you can't find me, don't worry.   You'll be hearing from me sooner than you think."
Luffa suddenly raised her arms, and with a loud grunt, she swung the net of energy around the head, flinging it up into space.    She watched it shrink into the distance, then flew back down to the ground to make certain Rehval had not rebuilt his avatar.   She only found the broken remains of the last body that she had decapitated.   She incinerated it with a  ki blast.    Satisfied that her business here was concluded, she flew back to inform the planet's leaders about what had happened.  
*******
An hour later, Luffa was sitting in the cockpit of the light cruiser she had borrowed from the Federation Starfleet to get here.    She had orbited the planet a few times, just in case there was any chance of Rehval somehow returning, but at last she decided it was safe to depart.    She would have to contact the Federation and alert them of the situation, but first she removed her boot and examined the injury on her left foot.   Dr. Topsas had treated the wound days ago, but it would take some time to heal properly, and she was doing it no favors by constantly heading out into battle.   Somewhat painfully, she applied an ointment he had given her.    It was supposed to help promote healing and prevent infection, but at times she thought it hurt worse than the attack that had made the wound in the first place.    
She was weary, not so much from her wounds or physical exhaustion, but from the lack of a decisive victory.   Up to now, this had been a war of attrition, and Luffa's hope was that if she steadily chipped away at the lackeys, it would force the leaders out of hiding.    But if Rehval could strike remotely, with no risk to his own person, then... what?
Luffa leaned back the pilot's chair as far as it would go and began rubbing her temples.    There was a solution to this puzzle--there always was-- but she was too frustrated to find it.    For now, the best she could do was to report in with her allies, set the ship to autopilot, and take a nap during the flight home.   With any luck, the next cultist attack would be on the opposite side of the Federation, giving her more time to rest--
Then she saw the red light blinking on the comm system, and she realized that someone was trying to contact her.   Some small part of her wanted to ignore the light, to pretend she hadn't seen it, but she cursed that part of herself and opened the channel just to spite her own weakness.    
There was no audio or video, just a text message that had been encrypted with a code used by the Saiyan Free Company, led by Princess Seltiss.   The girl had formed the company to fill the power vacuum left behind when her father had disappeared, and she had allied herself with the Federation because she saw Trismegistus and his cult as a threat to Saiyan-kind.   As Luffa entered her password to decrypt the code, she wondered how the princess would react to the news that Rehval and Trismegistus were the same man.    
Those thoughts vanished as Luffa read the message: "ALL AVAILABLE FORCES TO FEDENDER SYSTEM.   URGENT.    SURPRISE ATTACK.   ENEMY STRENGTH UNKNOWN.   UNIDENTIFIED ALIEN COMBATANTS LED BY A LARGE CREATURE MADE OF ROCK.   EOM."
The terse statement was like a punch to Luffa's gut.    She had just rescued the Fedender System before rushing off to help Hexill, and Fedender was already under attack again?     And Rehval... he had told Luffa that she would hear from him sooner than she expected.    
"Well, that's a first, you miserable bastard," Luffa seethed as she set course for Fedender.    "You actually told the truth for once."
NEXT: Doublethink
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lilacmoon83 · 4 years
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Dreaming Out Loud
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Chapter 117: The Tower
"Wait...so you were looking for this golden flower, which can trap someone in a place, and encountered a princess in a tower with long hair?" Emma asked, as they ate, while Killian explained how Alice came to be. It was pretty obvious to all of them that Hook had definitely changed, though it wasn't too surprising. Parenthood was the one thing that could create such drastic change in a person. It was one of the few things that could become more important than anything, even revenge.
"Aye...why is that amusing?" he asked.
"It's just...was her name Rapunzel?" Emma asked. He looked surprised.
"Yes...or at least that's what she told me. How did you know that name?" he asked.
"Rapunzel...it's a pretty well known fairy tale," she replied.
"Ah that...well, somehow I doubt they got this one right either, because the next morning, Rapunzel was no more. In her place was a witch named Gothel and my child in her arms," he explained.
"That's quite an acceleration in pregnancy, but I guess we all know that magic can do just about anything," Persephone mentioned.
"Gothel is dangerous...I'm not sure I like the idea that she might come here after you. We have enough trouble with Queen Ravenna and her vendetta against our daughter," Hades said sternly.
"Papa Hades...we can't turn him away, especially if his child is in danger," Snow chided. He sighed.
"And I don't intend to, snowdrop...but Gothel is powerful and she hates humanity," Hades said.
"Wait...are you saying she isn't human?" David asked.
"She appears human, but she is really a part of a dead race of tree nymphs that were the first children of Mother Earth herself, Gaia," Persephone replied.
"Gaia was once benevolent and they lived in peace, secretly concealed away from an early race of humans. But she became very dissatisfied with humans and their mistreatment of the Earth. She and her eldest daughter, Gothel, grew very angry and bitter," he explained, as he paused for a beat.
She wanted them to pay, so with her husband Uranus...the Titans were born. But while the Titans raged against humans and nearly drove them to extinction, the Earth suffered their wrath as well. So when Uranus refused to stop his onslaught upon the Earth, Gaia implored her son Cronus to slay his father, which he did. In the process, Cronus and Rhea gave birth to the Olympians. I was their oldest son," Hades stated.
"Then you much of the rest of the story," Persephone added. He nodded.
"Yes...Zeus killed Cronus with Rhea's help to preserve humanity, but in the process, this world was stripped of its magic, thanks to Gothel. She fought us and nearly even toppled Zeus for control of Olympus. But he banished her to another realm. Before she was swept away, she cursed this land and took the magic with her," Hades explained. Realization dawned in Snow's eyes.
"That's why this land became the Land Without Magic," she said, putting it together. He nodded.
"Yes...exactly. Once Gothel was gone...Gaia was distraught and faded into the wind to become apart of the earth she once loved. The Olympians sealed the Titans away in Tartarus. Zeus was awarded control of the skies, Poseidon the seas, and me the Underworld," he continued.
"And now that the realms are United...this Mother Gothel is back?" David asked.
"My suspicion is that she resides in that magical forest that we don't know much about, as confirmed by the Captain," Persephone answered.
"I guess I did not realize the threat she was or that she could be that powerful. I had no idea she was descended from Mother Earth herself," Killian said.
"It's okay...we will not turn you and your daughter away from a better life. If Gothel is here, then it would not have mattered if you came here or not. In fact, it's better that we know of her now than let her lurk in the shadows and catch us by surprise," Persephone assured.
"I just can't believe she had a child for the soul purpose of getting free and just abandoned her," Snow said, as she cuddled her baby daughter close.
"Unfortunately...Gothel has no humanity. But if she comes here...she will meet an opposition unlike what she has faced in the past," Hades said, as he looked at Persephone.
"He's right...and I won't just banish her like Zeus did. That was the answer to problems he couldn't defeat or destroy," she added, as they watched Alice playing with Alexander nearby, while Tallie, Gideon, and Iris sat with their respective mothers.
"We wouldn't have known Gothel was free if not for you, Killian...so we owe you that. We can now make sure she doesn't get away with whatever she may be plotting," Persephone said.
"Now that she is free...you think she may try something?" Snow asked her mother.
"It wouldn't surprise me. But we'll be ready for her now that we know," Persephone answered, as the hour grew late and they soon returned home to their respective castles for the evening.
~*~
Queen Ravenna huffed in annoyance, as they disembarked from the small ocean liner. She hadn't dared to take one of the royal ships, as all those vessels had to formally log and record their voyages and she wanted this trip strictly off the books.
"I can't believe I had to be subjected to that...how disgusting," she complained, referring to the conditions on board the modest ship.
"It was a perfectly modernized cruise ship, Your Majesty," Frollo reminded.
"The silverware wasn't even real silver!" she complained and he rolled his eyes. The woman was beyond spoiled and ridiculous. He hated that he was enslaved to her and constantly had to put up with this kind of nonsense.
It wasn't hard to hire a carriage to take them from there. It seemed that this land, since they had not made contact with other realms, was still not modernized. It was all perfectly mysterious and though the driver had no inkling about the object they were seeking, Frollo's research told him it was east of the Harbor.
"It will be a few hours until we come to the place you described," the coachman called to them. Ravenna growled, as she looked out the window in boredom.
"You better be right about this," she hissed, as the carriage continued on its journey.
~*~
David opened the door to the loft and showed Hook in, as he carried one meager bag and his daughter in his arms.
"Are you sure, mate?" he asked. He nodded.
"The loft was and is a special place for us. It was our first home together with Emma, besides the dreamscape," he replied. They had struggled with the decision on whether or not to sell it in the last three years and decided not to. They had kept it furnished and hired someone to keep it clean until they could let go of it. But now that Hook had come back with his own family to raise, they knew why they had hung onto it for so long and Snow felt this exactly what the reformed pirate and his little girl needed.
"That's what I mean...this place has a lot of memories for you and your lot," Hook mentioned.
"It does...and we have been reluctant to let it go. I think we've been waiting for the right person and tonight, he came along," David said. Hook looked truly touched by that.
"This will be a good start for you and Alice," he said, as he handed him the keys.
"We'll take care of it and enjoy it, I promise you that," Killian assured. David nodded.
"Oh and since I'm sure you need a job, come by the castle tomorrow. I'm sure I have something," he said. Hook nodded.
"And Alice?" he asked. David smiled.
"I'm sure my parents will happily watch one more," David said, as he left them.
"Well starfish...welcome home," he said, as he ventured upstairs, only to find that the loft was ready for a little girl to live in and he was touched again. It seemed that Snow had arranged it all in a very short amount of time, though she was Queen and had the power to do such now.
"Papa look!" Alice called, as she pointed to the chess set on the table.
"Well, I suppose we have time for a game before bedtime," he said, as he carried her into the room.
~*~
Flashback
Three Years Ago
"Magic…" she growled, as they suddenly watched the entire palace disappear. Next, the clock tower disappeared, then Granny's, and everything on Main Street. The magic swept around them and when it was gone, there was nothing but woods around them, like there had never been a town there in the first place.
"What the hell just happened?" Channing asked. But even Circe had no answers. Storybrooke was gone, without a trace or explanation to offer. And with it, gone was her revenge, leaving her with nothing.
Strangely, just as quickly as the town had disappeared, it started to reappear again.
"What's happening now?" Channing asked, even more confused now, as they watched a bright cloud of magic sweep around them again. This time though, the clock tower reappeared, then Granny's, and everything on Main Street. The magic continued to rebuild the town with the Sheriff's station, the school, and the Toll bridge. Storybrooke was back.
"They're back," Circe observed, as Cronus' palace reappeared. It was as if they had never been gone, but she knew better. She had a feeling whatever had happened was going to have serious ramifications; to what extent, she did not know.
"Madam Circe...something is very different…" Channing called, as she saw what he was looking at. In her very long life, she had seen many things and not much surprised her anymore. But this did.
"By the Gods...what have they done?" she uttered, as there was a poof of magic and her father, Mushu, stood before her.
"Father…" she greeted evenly.
"You must leave here, my daughter," he implored.
"I'm not going anywhere...not until they pay and I destroy magic. If I can't have it...then neither can they," she hissed.
"You cannot win this. Zeus is dead and Persephone reigns supreme. Not even Cronus or the Chernabog will openly and directly challenge her," the dragon warned.
"It figures you would want me to run...it is what you do best," she snapped.
"Please, my dear daughter...they will imprison you if you do not leave and your mother has refused to help me hide you. I do not know how long I can keep them off your trail," Mushu warned.
"We will take our chances," Circe refuted.
~*~
It was the next day and business as usual resumed in the United Realms, which meant Emma and Neal resumed their daily duties at the Storybrooke Sheriff's station. But today, they were sequestered in the bug on a stakeout, because of a tip about suspicious activity at the cannery.
Emma sighed in boredom, as they were six hours in already and Neal returned with a tray of coffee and cocoa.
"Are you sure about that tip?" she asked, as she sipped at her cocoa.
"Yes...I'm sure. This is the hotspot, which makes sense. The cannery is close to the harbor," he replied. She sighed.
"I just...magical smuggling? Really?" she asked skeptically.
"Merida swears that there is a witch in her Kingdom that's fond out that selling her magical goods and items in the United Realms is even more profitable than when she was limited to Dunbroch," he replied.
"Yeah I get that...but why is she so hung up on finding this helm? And if we know this witch has it, then why don't we just go all swat team on her hovel in Dunbroch?" Emma asked. He looked at her skeptically.
"Because she's a witch and invading her turf just means we'd be dodging a bunch of magical traps I'm sure she has bugged all over the woods around her hut," he reminded. She couldn't argue with that.
"As for the helm...no idea what's so special about it other than it once belonged to her dad," he replied, as they saw movement out back of the building.
"Oh...here we go. There's the old hag now," Emma said, as they witnessed the old witch appear in a puff of smoke. But to their surprise, her customer was wearing the armor of a Knight and not just any armor.
"That's Camelot armor," Neal said.
"You think his King sent him?" Emma asked.
"My father does get quiet when Arthur is mentioned," Neal replied, which they both found peculiar.
"There it is...the helm!" Emma hissed, as they slowly got out of the car.
"Yeah...there's something else in her hand too," Neal replied, as he used his binoculars.
"Can you tell what?" she asked.
"No...it's a vial of some sort," he replied.
"Well, the helm is stolen so that's good enough. Let's move in," she said, as he pulled his sword and she moved in with her gun.
~*~
"Just give them to me, you old hag," Sir Percival hissed.
"Mind your tongue boy...or I'll relieve you of," the witch warned in her thick accent.
"Listen...you will get your payment when I get the items I require," he said.
"You mean that your King requires," she said, as she held them up.
"The magical helm of King Fergus and this…" she hissed, as she held up the vial of glittery red sand.
"Say those words, witch and I will cut out your tongue," he warned.
"No one is cutting out anyone's tongues. Hands up," Emma ordered.
"This is none of your concern, Sheriff," Percival hissed.
"This is Storybrooke, so it's exactly our business. Hands up," she ordered. But Percival lashed out with his blade and Neal stepped in to duel him.
"Hands up witch," Emma warned, but the old hag smirked and launched a blast of magic at her. Emma dodged and countered with her own.
"Ahh...the magic of the Savior. How exhilarating! But I have been practicing magic long before you were born...long before your parents were born even," she boasted, as she volleyed magical blasts at her. But Emma countered with one big one and broke through her defenses.
"Give the advantage to youth then," she quipped, as she placed a pair of magical dampening cuffs on her and picked up the helm, along with the small vial of red, glittering dust.
"What is this?" she asked, as Neal brought back a cuffed and disarmed Percival, who gave the witch a hard glare.
"I have no idea," the witch feigned ignorance.
"Yeah right...but it doesn't matter. I'm pretty sure my grandmother and step-grandfather will know what it is," she said.
"And if for some reason they don't, my dad probably will," Neal added, as they put their prisoners in the back of the bug, before getting in and taking back to the station.
~*~
After several hours, they finally came upon the garden that Frollo was looking for and it happened to be at the foot of an old tower.
"This is it...this is where the map the cauldron provided showed," he said, as they got out of the carriage.
"It better be...I'm tired of waiting!" Ravenna complained, as she stomped into the garden.
"You have about as much finesse as a raging bull," Frollo commented. She turned and glared at him, as she extracted a pouched from her dress pocket. It glowed red, reminding him once again that she held the only object that could control him. Not that he needed reminding.
"Watch your tongue and find this flower you keep telling me about," she ordered.
"May I ask how you plan to use it against your enemy?" he requested. She smirked.
"Shouldn't that be obvious? I plan to use it to trap Snow White in some incredibly horrible place. I don't know where yet...perhaps Bald Mountain. Wouldn't that be poetic? I could trap her in the place her parents created to trap you," Ravenna answered.
"An interesting plan, but you don't think the heroes will find someone less desirable to take Snow White's place and rescue her from your captivity?" he questioned.
"You're going to figure that part out for me," she snapped and he rolled his eyes.
"Of course I am…" he muttered, as he didn't notice the vine slither out and wrap around his leg. He cried out and quickly took his monstrous form and snapped the vine. Ravenna watched with trepidation, as the vines slowly gathered and formed a cocoon of sorts. It glowed briefly and became the shape of a woman that soon revealed herself.
"Easy there beastie…" the woman with blonde matted hair cooed.
"Who are you?" Ravenna demanded to know. The woman smirked.
"I am the answer to your revenge…" she said softly.
"Are you the keeper of this garden?" Ravenna questioned.
"I am…" she answered.
"Then you have the golden flower I need," the Queen said.
"I do...but the flower isn't what you want," she responded. Ravenna frowned.
"And why not?" she demanded to know.
"The flower will hold your enemies for a time, but inevitably she will escape. However, I can offer you a solution to your Snow White problem if you help me," she tempted.
"And just who are you?" Frollo questioned, as he took his human form again.
"Mmm...you have been bonded to the black God and you possess Prometheus' flame," the woman surmised.
"How do you know that?" Ravenna questioned.
"Because I was there when the Titans were born. In a way, we are related, Chernabog. We have the same mother," she revealed.
"Gaia was your mother?" Frollo asked. She nodded.
"I was her first born, during the times of peace on this planet, long before she had the need to breed the Titans. But we all fell to those deceitful, treacherous Olympians," she replied.
"I am Gothel…" she revealed.
"You would help me get revenge on Snow White?" Ravenna questioned. She nodded.
"If you free me from the confines of this place. I cannot go beyond this tower or this garden thanks to those golden flowers you seek," she responded.
"Then we need someone to take your place," Frollo surmised.
"Correct," Gothel confirmed.
"But why help us? What could you have against my wretched former step-daughter?" Ravenna questioned.
"You mean what do I have against Demeter's beloved granddaughter? Hades' adored step-daughter? Persephone's perfect little snowdrop?" Gothel questioned. Frollo smirked.
"Of course...Persephone sits on the Throne that should be rightfully yours as Gaia's first born," he said.
"What is your plan for her?" Ravenna asked eagerly. Gothel smirked and a vial of potion appeared in her hand.
"If Snow White ingests this poison...it will cripple her heart. It will ruin it beyond repair. Not even her mother can revive her from this," Gothel revealed. Ravenna's eyes gleamed with an evil glint and desire.
"You're sure?" she asked with bated breath.
"Quite," Gothel replied.
"And true love's kiss? It cannot save her either?" Ravenna questioned.
"Not even true love's kiss can overcome this poison. It's the last of my mother's own concoction. She planned to use it on Zeus...but she died before she could. Then I was saving it for a pirate...but I feel it is better used on that demi-Goddess spawn," Gothel responded.
"And any soul to take your place in that tower will do?" Ravenna questioned. Gothel smirked.
"Absolutely," she replied. Ravenna looked at Frollo and the Promethean flame glowed.
"Find me some little waif to trap in that tower," she ordered. He sighed and transformed back into his monster form, as he flew off to do her bidding.
"So, as soon as you are free...I can have that potion?" she questioned. Gothel smirked.
"I cannot reveal my presence too soon. Persephone and Hades will suspect me now that a certain pirate has absconded to Storybrooke. But the potion is yours if I can hide...or rather grow in your garden," Gothel answered.
"Done," Ravenna agreed, as their devious deal was made...
~*~
Flashback
Three years ago
Circe ran toward the Harbor at Longbourne. Her father had been right and in the weeks that followed the reappearance of Storybrooke and subsequently, the United Realms, newly minted Supreme Sheriff and King David made it his personal mission to arrest her and all her followers. She had hoped for sanctuary in Cronus' Kingdom, but he had chosen to shun her in an attempt to make it seem like he was conforming to Persephone's rule. She knew better, but for whatever reason, she no longer fit into his plans and she was on her own. Not even her traitor of a mother, Hecate, would support her and she soon realized, begrudgingly, that she should have listened to her father.
"End of the line, Circe…" David called, as he and his Knights, including Lancelot, cornered her.
"You really think I'm letting some insignificant mortal like yourself take me down?" she challenged, as she fired several plasma blasts at his Knights. One was hit, while the others dodged. She cackled, as the Knight that had been hit was now struggling to stay alive and she fired her blasts at David. But she became truly shocked when he swatted her blasts away harmlessly, as the steel of his blade blocked and absorbed her blasts effortlessly.
"How...is that possible?" she questioned in disbelief. David smirked.
"Hephaestus reforged my blade. It has a few added advantages and strengths now. Hades was specific in the modifications and your weapons are useless against mine," David replied. She seethed. So that was how he and his Knights had easily captured and arrested all her followers. She growled and fired at him wildly, as he advanced on her, blocking every blast, until she was unwillingly disarmed. Lancelot cuffed her and Hades appeared, looking at her with a smug smirk.
"You really think this is over?" she questioned.
"All your lackeys, including Calypso and your blind sheep are behind bars and you're about to join them. I'd say over is an understatement," he retorted.
"If you think that we're all that there is to this...you're sadly mistaken. This isn't over...not by a long shot," Circe warned. But Hades didn't seem concerned.
"Whoever you still have out in the Land Without Magic can't get to us here and we have no plans to venture out there," he said. But Circe's face was marred with a smirk.
"I've waited centuries for my revenge...a few more years is nothing. You'll soon know how wrong you are," she hissed under her breath.
~*~
The United Realms prison was actually a very humane place. They had three meals a day, visitation twice a week, and even a bit of free time outside. But Circe and her followers didn't really get visitors these days, with the exception of an occasional call from her father. Upon her capture, Mushu had escaped the United Realms and faded into the obscurity of the Land Without Magic. And only Circe truly knew the reason why.
Her father, dissatisfied with the rule of the Gods, had taken up her leadership of what remained of the Home Office. Unfortunately, there was some opposition they were facing outside Storybrooke and he had not been able to regain access to the United Realms as a result. But Circe continued to wait patiently. She and her father both were very good at playing the long game and she wholeheartedly believed that someday, she would be free and wage war on Olympus, as well as all the Kingdoms. She would rule or she vowed to die trying.
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TRC Translation notes Volume 18 (Chapters 133 - 140)
Even more incredible translation notes from the wonderful @giniroangou? I got you covered!
Highlights include: acid punk chapter cover mysteries finally solved, soul/body separation foreshadowing, oaths!, Lantis and co. actually becoming competent, character motivations making sense, intentional ambiguities, fun chess vibes, and Sakura’s heart breaking in slow motion.
Chapter 133
Cover page - Per the art book commentary, the panels in this picture were intended to be things the characters either threw away or decided they no longer want.
p.8 - The word “kokoro” comes back here, this time translated as “mind.” The description of Sakura’s body as a “vessel” is from the original text. There’s definitely been a theme of the mind/heart/soul being a separate (though not necessarily unconnected) entity from the body running through both the plotline and the language the characters use.
p.10 - As in previous scenes, the original text preserves the distinction between the two Syaorans by only placing Lava Lamp’s name in quotation marks.
p.14-15 - There were no exclamation points in these lines originally, which I feel implies more of a defeated tone.
p.19 - Yuuko’s line here isn’t necessarily about creation, though it could be interpreted that way. In the original text it’s, “For the sake of two futures.”
p.20 - Yuuko says that it is both the price Lava Lamp and the others paid, as well as their hearts (“kokoro” again) that will ensure Watanuki doesn’t vanish.
p.24 - The wording in the translation was a little confusing, but I think the concept got across. Just in case, Yuuko explains here that worlds are able to endure precisely because everything maintains a balance. If a world loses that balance, it will fall apart.
Chapter 134
p.35 - Sakura’s lines have been mistranslated here. She’s asking if Fai is hiding what he really wants to do because she said she was going to go. Essentially she’s worried that Fai is prioritizing her desires over his own, that he would have made a different choice without her influence.
p.36 - The original nuance is a little different in a couple of Fai’s lines. He says to Sakura, “I’m a wizard who can’t even heal your wounds, but will you allow me to stay with you?” As a side note: the English “wizard” is the actual word Fai uses to refer to himself - it’s written in katakana as the reading above the kanji for “majutsushi”/“mage.” (I feel like this has come up before, but… it’s been a while.)
p.37 - Just to clarify how this line appears in Japanese, “My only Princess” is written in kanji in a much more formal manner than Fai would normally use (我が唯一の姫君) with the reading above in katakana as “Vi la princia” (ヴイ・ラ・プリンシア). Additionally, the entire phrase is in quotation marks, enhancing the impression that it is an established oath of some sort.
p.38 - Kurogane could be referring to one thing or to multiple things that have changed - the word in Japanese is non-specific.
p.39 - I’m not sure why there’s a “But” in front of Kurogane’s line in this translation, since this follows directly off of his line from the previous page. It should be more along the lines of, “I guess it’s okay to make more than one promise.”
Chapter 135
p.51 - Sakura’s thank you feels super extreme in the official translation, but originally all she said here was, “Thank you.”
p.53 - The promise Fuuma mentions is presented in contrast/in addition to the jobs he does for Yuuko - after describing his payment process to her he says, “Well, I made another promise too, though.”
I interpreted Fuuma’s last line here not as a reference to the needs of the group, but to the fact that they’re probably going to have a hard time getting Sakura’s feather back from Seishirou.
p.62 - Yuuko says she’s going to purify the egg before she passes it on.
p.65 - Yuuko isn’t talking about a single unchanging feeling here, but saying that people’s true feelings cannot be changed.
Chapter 136
p.74-76 - Fun fact: The “READY…. GO!!” on these pages was originally written in English.
p.79 - Eagle remarks that BOTH Sakura and her pieces are incredible. The word for piece is written with the kanji used for shougi and chess pieces and the like (駒) but the reading is given in katakana as the English word “piece” (ピース).
p.81 - The point Geo’s making here should be that all three “pieces” DON’T seem to be amateurs.
p.82 - After pointing out Fai’s defensive technique, I’m fairly certain Lantis is saying that it seems unlikely Fai has always fought in that style.
P.84 - Lantis doesn’t describe them as “useful,” but as “masters” (of fighting).
Chapter 137
p.97 - The translation covers this up a bit, but Fai’s first line here is expositional - he’s just saying that they know there’s a feather in this world, not really asking about it. He is also still referring to Syaoran as “Syaoran-kun,” they just missed the honorific in the English version.
p.110 - I just want to drop another quick reminder here about Lava Lamp’s speech style, because the translation doesn’t do it justice at all. What’s been translated as “You too. Please get some sleep yourself,” was not actually a polite request. Lava Lamp refers to Kurogane directly as “you” (“anata”) and ends his sentence in a casual imperative (“yasundekure”). Despite the father/son vibe in the preceding scene, he speaks to Kurogane as an equal.
p.111 - Once again, there are quotation marks around Kurogane’s name when Fai says it, so it’s even more in-your-face in the Japanese version than the italics of the official translation.
Chapter 138
p.115 - Fai’s line is a bit less clear-cut in the original text. This is another case where there are no pronouns used, so from the line itself you can’t tell whether he’s speaking for himself alone or not and you also can’t tell whether he’s vowing to keep the whole group from getting hurt vs, say, just Sakura. However you choose to take this line is up to the context of the scene and how you view Fai as a character in this moment.
p.116 - Clow doesn’t ask if Sakura is looking at the ruins - she offers that information herself.
p.117 - Sakura’s description of the ruins is a little different in her original line - she says that there may be precious items from the country’s past buried there. (The word she uses for what might be buried is “mono,” which could be either singular or plural, but plural seems the most logical in this situation.)
p.118 - The word that’s been translated as “that special someone” is “daisuki na hito” in Japanese, which can mean, “The person you love,” but also alternatively, “Someone you love.” It doesn’t necessarily imply a romantic partner.
p.121 - A couple little tweaks here: The word “eye” has quotation marks around it in the original text. It could potentially be plural or singular, but given the context and the quotes singular seems more appropriate. Clow doesn’t specifically say anything about a message, just an inability to reach (so this could refer to a message, but also to feelings, to someone reaching out for something, etc.) He speaks only of a desire to protect, rather than a need or the actual act occurring: “But even so, you want to protect (insert missing pronoun here).” Basically, Japanese is the ideal language for a scene like this, because its ambiguity gives many of these lines a versatility they don’t have in English and allows them to apply to multiple situations at once, as you discussed in your liveblog.
p.123 - Again, the implication that protection is an obligation wasn’t in the original text. Lava Lamp is stating what it is he’d decided: To protect no matter what.
p.124 - Another punctuation tonal shift here: instead of “Sakura!” this was originally “.... Sakura.”
p.127 - Fai’s original line is a bit less flippant than the translated version, just, “Those look like they’d be painful if you hit them.”
Chapter 139
p.141 - “Becoming lost” is one way to translate this line, but it might be more natural to say that Sakura is hesitating or wavering.
Chapter 140
p.161 - Just for fun: the original text on this page is kind of wild aesthetically. “Checkmate” is written in katakana, what’s been translated as “black team” is just the word “black” written in kanji with katakana above it giving the reading as “black” in English, and then “WIN!” entirely in English.
p.162 - Fai’s lines on this page are spoken with more certainty - he’s not supposing, just stating facts. He describes Lava Lamp’s experiences as, “He’s lived through the same days as Syaoran-kun.”
p.169 - Significantly (maybe?) there shouldn’t be any quotation marks when Mokona says “Syaoran” here. It feels less alienating this way.
p.170 - Kurogane actually asks if Mokona is planning to drink the whole thing, bottle and all. I-is she trying to send it to Yuuko?
p.171 - Sakura’s line here isn’t, “I know!” but “.... I know.” (Once again, I’m not mentioning nearly all of these punctuation differences, but when they seem to drastically change the tone I can’t help pointing them out.)
p.172 - A couple of Sakura’s lines were changed in the translation. She originally says that even if Lava Lamp served as Syaoran’s basis, she knows that “just like those we’ve met in various worlds up until now, his appearance is the same but he’s a different person.”
p.173-174 - Since this was apparently confusing (and partially mistranslated) Sakura says here that each time she sees similarities between Lava Lamp and Syaoran (and there are many) she can’t handle it. Each time she notices these things she can’t help lamenting that the person in front of her isn’t her Syaoran.
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punkbakugo · 6 years
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Does Bakugou actually say fuck? Does he swear at all? If so how much?
this is kind of a tricky question and one i get somewhat often so i’m gonna try to explain this the best that i can.
first off i’m gonna quote a really good article about localization and japanese to english translation i’ve read recently:
Basically, Japanese doesn’t use “swearing” as we do. Instead, Japanese consists of multiple politeness levels, and depending on your social standing between you and the speaker, your intent, and such stuff, you pick from the appropriate politeness level. You talk up to your teachers for example, while a department head at a company will talk down to his subordinates. There are different levels, and one of the lowest levels to talk to someone is the closest equivalent to our swearing.
A quick example of “eat”. Here are a bunch of different levels of telling someone to eat.
Omeshiagari kudasaimase
Omeshiagatte kudasai
Tabete kudasai
Tabete kure
Tabete
Tabero
Kue
The proper word to use depends on who’s talking, who’s being spoken to, what their relationship is, what the intent is, and other context things. By going against what’s proper, you can talk rudely, which is what swearing accomplishes in our language (and other similar languages).
Even words like “kuso” have multiple translations, you could call it the “shit” in one case, while in other case it could be as harmless as “dang it!”. You’d even hear “kuso” in Pokemon anime I’m sure, for example. I know I heard it in Beyblade often enough.
Because all of this is so subjective, swearing in translation can vary pretty crazily depending on the translator. Generally, the more experience, the better the swearing turns out. That’s why with fan translations (particularly anime and manga) you tend to see tons of swearing in what would seem to be kids’ shows or what have you.
Also, because of all this, I really doubt the Japanese rating system takes this politeness level stuff into account, since it occurs everywhere in Japanese entertainment. It’s also not taboo. You don’t want to talk in everyday situations the way they do in entertainment, but you’re not going to go to hell or get your mouth soaped if you use the wrong level.
(and if you have any interest in this kind of thing i’d really recommend reading the whole article sometime. it’s on the localization process of the fan translation of the game Mother 3 and the guy clearly put a lot of thought and care into it which i really appreciate. also i can empathize w/ the level of nitpicking lol. spoiler warning for the first chapter of Mother 3 tho)
so to answer your questions in order: not in a literal sense since there’s no real direct japanese equivalent (other than the actual english word fuck which, no, he doesn’t use lol) so it depends on the translator, he does but i have an issue with how much some translators have him swear, and it once again depends on the translator
to elaborate: bakugou uses ‘kuso’ pretty liberally in ways that i would definitely consider swearing (tho the intensity of it greatly varies) but a lot of what has been translated as swearing isn’t actually that, it’s the way he talks. honestly speaking, i think defaulting to swearing is a lazy way to get across coarse speech patterns but on a theoretical level i don’t have issue with some of bakugou’s coarser speech patterns being translated as him swearing and in fact there are times i myself would translate lines as him swearing if i were localizing instead of directly translating. but it has to be done thoughtfully. so what i have an issue with is how liberal and careless fan translators tend to be about it.
and what i mean by that is they don’t look at the context of what he’s saying, who he’s saying it to, his tone, and how it compares to how he speaks at “baseline”. he’s got different levels. and bakugou’s baseline is impolite, yes, but you also have to keep in mind that that’s kind of the default for a lot of guys in shounen manga (and i’ve said this before but characters in japanese entertainment don’t talk like real people). my friend @tobjo made a post about this the other day that i wholeheartedly agree w/ and like she said, todoroki also speaks pretty impolitely but he’s never translated as saying fuck every two words.
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an example of something that sometimes gets translated as swearing is the use of ‘てめェ/temee’ which is literally just a rude way to say ‘you.’ the thing is, bakugou uses it pretty casually so whether or not i find it a valid translation choice to have him swear in the sentence is entirely based on context
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this translation, for instance, i think is perfect. it shows that he’s speaking gruffly without being explicit. (well, if i were the one localizing it i would’ve gone with “Hey, kid. You too, go participate.” but y’know. details.) now, this is mangastream which is pretty hit or miss w/ the bakugou localization and there are definitelyparts where i think they overdo it but nothing is as bad as FA which added so much unnecessary bs that i feel like they were just actively trying to be edgy (let’s not forget the time they had shigaraki call magne a transphobic slur for no fucking reason! real cool!)
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classy. another casual use of temee where i wouldn’t even put light swearing.
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left is FA, right is viz. the original is “てめェらの’個性’知らねぇ 何だ!?” which, if you were to ask me to localize rather than just directly translate, i would translate to something like “I don’t even know what your quirks are! The hell!?” because that’s what feels organic to me here. (and the goal of any good localization should be to a) get the feeling of the original text across accurately and b) make sure dialogue feels organic)
but go through FA translations and you’ll see 394843985 instances of ott swearing and nastiness where bakugou’s not even using coarser language in the original text like the panel where “fuckwipe” came from in the above mentioned ch.117 title where bakugou literally just said “oi” lmao
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and some translations like the one mentioned in the above linked post still carry on this tradition of excessive swearing bc FA ingrained it so deeply into the fandom
basically my point is you can absolutely choose to translate bakugou as casually swearing and to what extent is dependent on the person’s taste (and skill level) but translations that are too liberal and excessive with it tend to push an image of him being overly volatile and juvenile rather than just a teen w/ a sailor’s mouth or something of that ilk. it warps his character. no thought or care is put into it and i get the feeling they don’t realize that there are ways to be gruff or even abrasive other than swearing and insults and ways to swear other than saying ‘fuck’ all the time lol (and some people really just do not know what a person that swears a lot actually sounds like)
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