#just the mental image of this giant getting his ass beat by someone who’s like less than half his height is too hilarious LMAO | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

apocalypticgargoyle · 3 years

Note

Gene... My baby mama... I need... More alt!dream... Whatever you got fr. I just need more I'm.. I love him (probs not as much as you) but I love him

You're in luck bc I'm running on rip fuel for him. [ALSO I WROTE THIS BEFORE EVERYONE DID THE TECHWEAR STUFF FOR HIM I'M SORRY. I'LL GET IT IN NEXT TIME. I PINKY SWEAR.]

𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐄𝐃. ♘ 𝐚𝐥𝐭!𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 (𝟏𝟖+)

pairing: alt!Dreamwastaken x fm!reader

warnings: smut (18+), language, semi-public sex, light mentions of needles, domination

previous part ♘ fanart that i can't stop crying over

recommended listening: Hi Frequency by Vague002

The bus swayed slightly, your grip on the cool bar tightening to keep you from knocking into Clay as it turned. The dark city outside the windows bustled with sparkling lights, catching your eye every few seconds. As more people filed into the cramped space, Clay grabbed your hand, looping your arms around his waist and smugly grinning as you fought not to blush. He brushed a strand of hair behind your ear. “Will this be your first time in a parlor?” He asked, voice low and raspy as he whispered to you, not wanting to disturb the other members of society who just wanted to get home after a long day of work.

You nodded your head, making him chuckle. You knew it would be a different experience, mainly because it was taking place during the tattoo shops “after hours,” which Clay had only briefly explained the benefits of attending. “What are you getting done again?” You asked, moving so your hands were holding onto his arm instead, fingers brushing against the exposed skin peeking from beneath the cut-up shirt under his dark jacket.

He shrugged. “I couldn’t decide. Why don’t you pick?” He joshed, smirking at the way your eyebrows raised.

“I don’t want to be responsible for a mark on you,” you murmured, making him snort.

He hooked his fingers into the neckline of his shirt, stretching it down enough to reveal the litter of hickeys peppering his skin that you had left the night before. Your eyes widened as you swatted away his hand, looking around carefully in hopes that no one had seen them. He looped an arm around your shoulders, loving the fact that you were so worried about the crowd when all he wanted to do was fluster you.

He pressed his lips to your cheek, the warmth of his body encompassing you. “I love it when you get all blushy,” he teased. “Seriously though, you should pick. I won’t look at it if I don’t like it,” he snarked.

You groaned lightly. “Clay, come on.” He brushed his lips against yours.

“I trust you, sweetheart,” he cooed almost mockingly, his nose moving to press into your hair.

You chewed on the inside of your cheek, trying your best to remember what was already on his body. You thought about the impending reality that whenever he saw the new tattoo, his mind would linger on you, and for some reason, heat traveled to your ears at that thought. “Um… what about a bird?” You asked, voice uneasy as if on eggshells.

His face twisted into a pleased smile. “A bird?” He repeated. You shrugged beneath his arm, making him chuckle. “I like that. George likes doing bird tattoos too, so you might just make his night,” he added, his praise and approval making your stomach fill with confidence. He pulled you closer, his lips brushing against your shoulder. Your mind began to forget what the two of you probably looked like to the other people as his scent invaded your senses. “Will you hold my hand while I’m in the chair?” He joked.

You scoffed. “Are you gonna cry?” You teased, making him chuckle.

“No, I’m just clingy,” he answered without skipping a beat. Your grin was hidden in the soft corduroy of his jacket.

The tattoo parlor was nothing like you had expected. The door was locked behind you after a bouncer let the two of you in, the man leading you two up a staircase and into a dimly lit room. The sound of heavy metal music and the buzz of tattoo guns swirled together, echoing off the dark brick walls. You slipped your hand into Clay’s as he talked to the receptionist, your eyes attempting to focus on one detail instead of letting the atmosphere overwhelm you.

The thick layer of smoke above your heads made you scoff, realizing it was coming from the opposite corner of the shop, a hookah lamp sitting on a coffee table like an outstretched octopus. The people around it seemed to be discussing something rather intense, their haircuts sharp and defining almost as if they stepped out of some kind of alternative fashion magazine. There were three tattoo artists, each with a white lamp focusing on their work as they carried on to the beat of the music.

Clay’s description of the place flashed into your mind, making you realize just how off the cards the parlor actually was. Clay took a toothpick from the receptionist’s desk, taking it between his white teeth before being waved down by a shorter man with dark hair across the floor. You followed closely behind him as Clay greeted the man; you quickly realizing that this was the famous George.

As Clay shrugged out of his jacket, George pulled out a binder, standing beside you as he flipped to a page with scattered drawings of different flight poses of birds. Your eyes drifted away from the page as Clay’s arms came into view. His old t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off was doing wonders for his biceps. Before you knew it, the two of you agreed on a mix of a few designs resembling a crow and Clay was laying on his back with his hand tucked behind his head. The spot he was filling was in the dead center of the flesh of his upper arm; a spot that George had grumbled about being awkward to reach, especially on someone as large as Clay.

You watched closely with curious eyes as George began to tattoo the design on Clay’s arm. Clay’s other hand was wrapped around the back of your elbow as you leaned on the chair at Clay’s side. His finger pads drew circles into your skin as you asked George about how he got into tattooing, making small talk here and there.

You liked George, mainly because he was quiet until he conjured up some kind of relentless backhanded comment. His tattoos revolved around a giant tree stretching from his back and down his arms. You wondered how long he had to sit for it and what the healing process was like. As he worked, his teeth played at his snake bite piercings, his dark eyes focused intently on the work in front of him.

Clay switched his toothpick to the other side of his mouth, his hand tightening around your arm with a small groan as George reached a sensitive spot. “Don’t be such a pussy,” he grumbled, continuing his work. He stopped, cleaning off some of the sprayed ink and filling a new cap with grey. “You have any work, pretty girl?” He asked you, voice low and charming.

You shook your head, earning a small tsk from him. “This is the closest she’s been to a tattoo gun,” Clay prided, making George sarcastically raise his eyes.

“A total virgin, huh?” He joked, winking at you. “Dream’s not corrupting you, is he?”

You chewed the inside of your cheek trying not to blush. “I’m trying,” Clay leered, smirking at you with his smug ego hinting at his lips.

George bit back a laugh. “Don’t get horny in my chair,” he muttered, eyes trained on the lines he was scaring into Clay. “Speaking of, I heard you got busted up by Punz, and by the looks of it… seems right,” he commented, gesturing to Clay’s eye that seemed to have started fading finally.

Clay let out a dry laugh. “His ribs are still healing,” you added, making George smirk with a shake of his head.

“You know what all that’s about right?” George asked you, taking his foot off the pedal to grab more paper towels from his desk. You looked up at Clay whose jaw tense as he chewed on the toothpick. After you shook your head, George continued. “Punz’s sister is stupidly in love with Dream,” he plopped back in his seat, swiveling his chair, and drawing a hand through his locks, revealing the bleached undersection. You had the fleeting mental image of him tying his hair back to reveal it.

He pulled on a new glove. “Madly in love, huh?” You pried, twisting your chair closer to Clay’s shoulder. Clay rolled his eyes at the fact as if he had been bugged about it for years. “You didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend, Clay,” you teased, and he looked up at you with a tired expression, making you bite back a giggle.

After George finished, you followed Clay through the door, breathing in the fresh air; or as fresh as it could be in the midst of the city’s industrial square. Clay’s fingers knitted together with yours as he led you down an alleyway, flicking aside the toothpick. You chewed on your lip in anticipation before he pinned you against one of the walls. His devious grin sent shivers down your spine as you looked up at him.

You swallowed. “Shouldn’t you take it easy? Let your arm heal a bit?” You asked, voice coming out in a soft whisper as his lips pressed against your neck. “Won’t it hurt a bit with your ribs, too?” Your heart hammered in your chest at the fact that someone could turn the corner and catch the two of you.

He chuckled against your skin, slipping his hands beneath your skirt to grip your ass. “I like the pain,” he mused, tongue grazing against your skin as he pulled your hips against his. He kissed you hungrily as if not being able to press his body against yours for that hour was too much for him. His hand dropped to wrap around the back of your knee, moving his own leg to prop your thigh up against his hip as your hands dug into his hair.

The friction from his jeans made you moan into his mouth as his hand moved beneath your shirt, fingers fitting beneath your bra to palm your breast. He mumbled praises against your lips at how good you made him feel and how beautiful you were.

He turned you, your hands planting against the coarse brick as he ground his hips against you. You bit your lip, trying not to be loud enough to draw attention to the two of you, which seemed to be the last thing on Clay’s mind as you heard him unbuckle his belt behind you. You could practically picture his cocky grin, controlling eyes set as his hand gripped onto your hips, shoving your underwear to the side. “You were so much fun to show off tonight,” he chided darkly, lips brushing against your shoulder. “Such a good girl.”

As he pushed into you, one of his hands moved to knot into your hair. He moaned at the feeling of you clenching around him, tugging on your hair as he pulled your hips back against his. A low grunt tumbled from his lips as he set his rhythm, basking in the fact that you were secretly ready for him to ruin you as soon as you stepped into the parlor.

His fingers moved to wrap around your neck, the thought of his tattooed hand tightening around your pristine skin sent shivers through your body and heat flushing your cheeks, the tension in your body tightening. As he pressed you closer against the wall, you thought about the power he had over you; his height and build would make it easy for him to break you if he wanted, yet even as he pounded into you like he wanted you to forget your own name, the restraint he showed was enough to send you over the edge if you let yourself divulge in the thought.

Clay pulled out of you, only to turn you, your shoulders hitting the wall again with a soft thump as he hoisted you up ever so slightly, thrusting up into you as his hand dig into your thigh, the other resting against the brick beside your head. Your arms looped beneath his jacket, raking down his skin as you held onto him.

He groaned as your thighs tightened around him, making his hips stutter as if he were trying not to let himself finish too early. He dug is face into the crook of your neck, burying his teeth in your neck to stifle his grunts of your name. Your head tilted back against the brick, hand moving to tighten around the wrist that was beside your head for some kind of anchor.

His hand wrapped around your waist, driving himself deeper into you, brushing the part of you that needed him the most. You moaned, carding your fingers into his hair as he pressed his lips to yours roughly, wanting to taste your pleasure as it washed over you from his movements.

You tugged on his hair, making his cock throb inside of you, him finishing inside you with a low groan, his hips snapping against yours to stimulate a reaction from you. The feeling of his sloppy pleasure as his movements lost their rhythm sent your hips grinding against his, his teeth marking your shoulders as a reminder of his work on you.

Your toes curled, finally reaching your orgasm as he murmured dirty expressions of him ruining your pretty clothes against the wall. As he pulled out of you, your knees felt weak, threatening to buckle beneath you. You tried not to give off how much he had trashed you, but the warmth snaking down your thighs and your bliss-ridden mind proved otherwise.

Long story short, the bus ride home was rather interesting.

Dream Taglist: (follow this link to be added :))

@karlkitten @pluto-dizzz @more-like-reyna @honk-izzie-was-taken @marrymetheonott @froggyy06 @ghoulandghost @savingpluto @marshmallow-babe @drunkpumpkincake @unstableye @tinyegg @behzzyboo @darphobic @twist3dtinkerbell @sparkletash @lindsayhunz @shroomieissmall @mintmochiii @clubfairy @aroyaldarknessblr @camerondiaz48104 @madsbbg @victory-is-here @rat-poisin

#dream x fem!reader #dream x reader #alt!dream #alt!dreamwastaken #dreamwastaken imagine #dreamwastaken smut #dreamwastaken fanfic #dream smut #dream imagine #dream x you #mcyt fanfiction #mcyt x y/n #mcyt x reader #mcyt smut

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soulmate-game · 3 years

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Not related to the other two Bio!mom Harley AUs that I did. Just... similar. I wrote this instead of sleeping, as per the usual.

—*—*—*—*—*

“I need your help.”

No accent, no threats of violence, no beating around the bush (figurative or otherwise). No fighting or unconscious bodies.

Just Harley Quinn with her hair down, no makeup, and completely serious, in the center of the Bat Cave. Even though her usual exaggerated Brooklynn accent (circa 1950s) had become a pretty inseparable part of her personality over the years, every now and then she forcibly stuffed it down and used her mostly unaccented voice. The one reminiscent of days with less colors on her face, a high bun, and a pristine white lab coat.

Every single one of the Bats and Birds present, fresh from an interrupted patrol thanks to her, could count the number of times they had seen Harley like this on one hand. Bruce would have the most recollections, but everyone else would have plenty of fingers left on said hand. So they all knew, especially when Bruce willingly pulled down his cowl so he could look Harley in the eye, that this was the start of something they were not likely to forget. And maybe their chances of survival were slim too.

“Harley,” Bruce’s voice was still gruff, seeing as he was still mostly Batman at the moment, but his eyes were soft. “Maybe you should tell us what you need help with first. And sit down. You look exhausted.”

Sure enough, there were dark circles under Harley’s eyes. She let Bruce-man lead her over to one of their debriefing tables and sit her down. She let out a huge sigh, her fingers tangling in her loose blond locks.

“I have a confession, and it isn’t gonna leave this cave, capiche?” The slight return of her accent relieved a little of the tension, but not much. Taking this as their cue, the rest of the bats spread out into their usual seats at the table. Bruce stayed near Harley, keeping a hand on her shoulder in silent support. Harley didn’t continue talking until he gave her a solemn nod in agreement. She gulped— an action that immediately returned the tension.

“... fifteen years ago, back when I was still with Joker, I disappeared off the Gotham scene for a few months. I’m sure a few of you remember,” she looked up, and a couple of the older vigilantes nodded. Really, Jason has still been Robin back then. But the memory stuck out in his head now that he was thinking about it.

“Yeah, you were breaking away from him a little bit, which was weird at the time,” Red Hood mused aloud, arms crossed. “I think you helped us out a couple times and did some of your first team ups with Ivy before you vanished. Then a few months go by and you were back in action with Joker, so we mostly ignored it as you just being you.”

Harley nodded. “Ah, my Ivy’s a lifesaver, even back then. She helped cover up the timeline by keeping me in action for longer than I should’a been without putting me at too much risk.”

“Timeline…” Red Robin spoke up, eyes huge even behind his mask. “You don’t mean—“

“Harley,” Bruce breathed, having also caught on. “You were pregnant?”

The air went still. Harley sniffed, eyes watering even as she smiled.

“Oh yeah. Shouldn’t have been possible, ya know? Me ‘n Joker being dumped in that damn acid should have made us both more sterile than an operatin’ room. But I knew I couldn’t raise a kid, so after she was born—“

“You kept her?” Damian interrupted, earning a gentle cuff over the head from Dick. Harley just snorted.

“Yeah. Not gonna lie, I thought about abortion. But the baby didn’t do nothin’ wrong, and I was still in love with Joker back then so I was ecstatic that I was able to make something new with part ‘a him in it. Still, I knew a baby didn’t deserve to be raised in Gotham. Especially not my baby, not with my enemies and history. Not with who her father was. I knew he’d never want her, never let me keep her. So I spent the last five months of my pregnancy lookin’ around for the best possible family to take her in. And I found them in Paris, France. A sweet couple, both of them bakers. Sabine, she’s both adorably sweet and super kickass. Comes from a Chinese family that is crazy about teachin’ their women martial arts. But nothing shady about it, I triple checked. Just bonding through kicking people in the face. Which is perfect, I wanted my baby to know how to defend herself. I knew she’d need those skills eventually. And Tom, that’s Sabine’s wife, he’s a gentle giant. Same size as Bane, but as harmless as a puppy and makes the best croissants ever. Seriously, the best.”

“Harley,” Bruce gently prodded, but there was a tiny grin on his face. Seeing her behaving so… so normally, so proud and reminiscent, was a rare treat. Bruce would be lying if he said he wasn’t proud of how far the woman had come. How she had freed herself and become a better person, mostly on her own.

“Right, right. The point,” Harley took a breath, rubbing her forehead. “I came clean to Tom and Sabine, but apparently they knew who I was the whole time. They just didn’t care— did I mention they are perfect? Anyway, once I explained everything, they agreed immediately to adopting my baby. They’d been wanting kids, but it would’a been too risky for Sabine’s health. That’s how I found them anyway, they were in the market to adopt. We named her Marinette. She took Tom and Sabine’s last names, hyphenated. We decided Quinn would be her middle name. And after that, I came back to Gotham and told myself that she was in good hands and I needed to forget about her. Cuz I was no good for her. I knew that. I went back to my old tricks. And then…” Harley chuckled, but it was self-depreciating.

“Then a few years passed, and I started breaking away from Joker for real. Then we broke up, I blew up Ace Chemicals while you guys were outta town doing Justice League and Young Justice shit. I started dating Ivy. And—“ she smiled softly at the table, clearly seeing something the rest of them couldn’t. “Then Ivy convinced me to go see her. Visit my baby, see how she’s been. And I did. Marinette was seven years old, but damn it to hell she was gorgeous. And say whatever you want about me and Joker— most of it will even be true— but neither of us are stupid. And she inherited all of our intelligence. All of it. She got my blue eyes. But she got his hair, which meant Sabine teased me relentlessly about ‘are you sure she isn’t that Wayne’s kid?’ And don’t make that face Bruce, you’d be lucky to have a kid half as beautiful as my Mari-pie. No offense, Damian. Anyway. Anyway, this is the important part. Or part of it.

“She sat there and listened to everything I had to say. Everything. A little seven year old, who could barely understand English at the time, and she listened without interrupting once. She never threw a fit, she wasn’t angry or confused. I told her about the things I’d done in the past— well, G rated versions— and she didn’t care. She called me Momma Harley right away, said she wanted to meet Aunt Ivy sometime soon, and started telling me everything about her that I’d missed. From that day on, she became my sunshine. The light of my life, and I still call her at least once a week every week. When I disappear for a few days out of the city? I’m visiting her—“

“You’re banned from international travel, Harley,” Dick scolded, but he sounded way too amused for it to work. He knew she had her ways, anyway. Nobody could actually stop Harley damn Quinn from doing whatever she wanted.

“—Ugh, she tells me the same thing every time! Disappointed glare and everything. I don’t know how I gave birth to such a goodie goodie, but somehow I did. Not important though! The important thing is, I’m always the first to hear when something new happens in her life. And we had decided that she wouldn’t visit me in Gotham until she was at least eighteen, but apparently she disobeyed me— which I should have expected honestly— and entered you guys’ WE international scholastic competition.”

“Oh no,” Bruce pinched the bridge of her nose. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng? The contest winner?” He finally pulled out a chair and sat down. “The winner gets an all-expense paid trip to Gotham for them and their whole class.”

“Exactly!” Harley threw up her hands. “Mari told me last week, and I’ve been trying to talk her out of coming ever since. But she’s inherited both of our stubbornness too, and she isn’t budgin’ a bit. ‘Momma Harley, I wanna see you and Auntie Ivy though!’ And ‘Momma, Gotham’s nothing I can’t handle,’ or my favorite, ‘Maybe you’ll finally get to see me dropkick someone three times my size then, and I’ll prove it.’”

“So that’s what you meant by you need our help,” Tim said as he leaned forward over the table. “Joker just broke out of Arkham yesterday. You want us to protect her.”

“I’d prefer if one of you was with her outside of the mask too, as often as possible,” Harley confirmed. “I can’t stop her from coming here anymore, but I also don’t trust Joker for a second. As soon as he sees her, I’m afraid he’ll make the connection.”

“She looks like him?” Damian asked, scrunching up his nose at the ugly mental image of Joker as a teenage girl. Harley shook her head, solemn.

“She looks like a dark-haired mini-me,” she corrected. “She even keeps her hair in pigtails as her way of showing support for me. And I know Marinette can kick ass, Sabine’s trained her well. But Marinette inherited more than I’d like from me,” Harley ran a hand through her hair. “I didn’t notice it until she was thirteen. She got a crush on a classmate, and it was almost like watching videos of me back during the early days of— well, of Harley Quinn. Just without the crime and insanity. She didn’t even realize that she was almost stalking the poor kid until I pointed it out, and luckily I was able to put my doctorate to good use and we nipped that right in the bud ASAP. She never meant it that way, anyway. As soon as I explained things to her, she was horrified and immediately asked me to help her learn how to have a healthy relationship. That was a fun discussion,” Harley grimaced. “But she still gets attached to people really, really easily. Once she grew out of her crush on that boy, she adopted him as her unofficial brother. She already calls Selina “Auntie,” even though I’ve barely mentioned her to Marinette. She gets attached fast, and deeply. And I’m afraid that even after all the warning I’ve done, all the stories I’ve told her—“

“You’re afraid she’ll get attached to Joker just like you did,” Bruce finished for her, closing his eyes. “Because she knows he’s her father.”

“Yes,” Tears were slowly dripping down her face already, her hands curled into fists so tightly that her knuckles were paper white. “You know how he is. If he finds out she’s his biological daughter, he’ll immediately try to take advantage of that. And he’s far too good with his words for people like me and Mari. I’m worried outta my mind. Please. Help keep my baby safe from him.”

“We will,” Jason no longer had his helmet on, or the domino mask that he usually wore underneath it. All of them knew masks were merely formality with Harley nowadays. And he needed to look her directly in the eye so she could see how serious he was. “I can sign up as a bodyguard for the class. It won’t be weird, seeing as they’re tourists and this is Gotham. They also have several rich kids in their group if I remember right.”

Bruce nodded, agreeing with Jason. “That’s a good idea. I can lead the class on their tours of WE personally. That’ll serve the purpose of keeping an eye on her and shutting up the investors that keep begging me to make more public appearances for the sake of the company. Marinette’s name is already released to the news as the winner of the contest, so we can’t keep her out of the spotlight long. Tim, you’ll have to keep an eye on any and all pictures of the class. Try to erase or doctor the images with her in it well enough that connections between her and Harley can’t be easily made. Dick, you and Damian will be in charge of keeping an eye out for any activity from Joker. The slightest hint, and you notify all of us. We’ll decide on a case-by-case basis who is necessary to stick with the class and who goes after the clown.”

“She’s gonna sneak out of her hotel to stay with me and Ivy,” Harley admitted, bringing the (now slightly judgemental) attention back to her. She raised her hands up in surrender. “She didn’t tell me that, and I didn’t approve or suggest it! I just know my baby too well to not realize that that’s her plan. Could ya provide an escort?”

Bruce sighed. “This is gonna be an eventful month.”

#maribat #ml x dc #mlb x dc #soulmate-game #bio!dad au #bio!mom harley quinn #bio!dad joker #maribat fanfic #maribat fic #platonic Harley x Marinette #platonic Ivy x Marinette #platonic brucinette

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irenespring · 2 years

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@lorata I made your Victors pokemon trainer cards. Forgive the not-entirely-accurate-to-character sprites as there were not that many options.

Victors. + explanations:

Lyme:

Pokemon (left to right, starting with top row): Garchomp, Banette, Gigalith, Nidoqueen, Steelix, Tyranitar

Justification: Absolutely resents the “women must have cute/pretty pokemon” trend and goes for giant fuck-you dragons and monsters... except for banette (second pokemon going clockwise from the upper left). Because she learned banettes were just cast away toys by stupid kids who didn’t want them anymore and fuck that bullshit she’ll train a banette and kick everyone’s ass and that will show them, won’t it?

Brutus (forgive the sprite there were no better options, I swear):

Pokemon: Primeape, Machamp, Golem, Bastiodon, Rhyperior, Tyrantrum

Justification: What’s wrong with good, solid rock and fighting types that look like they’re here to fight and then just do that? Absolutely fucking nothing. Why people feel the need to get all creative about it is beyond him.

Misha:

Pokemon: Gorebyss, Goodra, Mightyena, Salazzle, Mawile, Gyarados

Justification: She thought it would be funny to train pokemon that could be very strong but didn’t look “scary” in the traditional sense and then kick everyone’s ass. Then she found a guy selling magikarp and decided what would be even funnier would be to kick everyone’s ass with some useless gaping fish on her team and she would be so strong it would be okay to have a dud. When magikarp evolved into gyarados aka a giant dragon she found that even more hilarious because oh fuck she’s going to beat up so many people.

Devon:

Pokemon: Alakazam, Slaking, Ampharos, Jigglypuff, Morelull, Swablu

Justification: Once he got a few very strong, very poweful pokemon, he decided he was entitled to a few fluffy and sweet pokemon if that’s what made him happy. The trick is that secretly each of his smaller pokemon have powerful abillities to manipulate an opponent’s mental state.

Enobaria:

Pokemon: Crobat, Sharpedo, Seviper, Absol, Toxicroak, Gliscor

Justification: She likes Devon, she does, but she doesn’t understand his emotional pokemon decisions. She’ll bond with her pokemon after she makes sure they can split someone in half.

Emory:

Pokemon: Arcanine, Dewgong, Ursaring, Dragonite, Manectric, Lilligant

Justification: She tried to type-balance her team with simple enough pokemon that she understood. Then she invested her energy and grew attached to them. When they started actually winning against the flashier trainers she secretly felt very vindicated.

Claudius:

Pokemon: Ninetales, Arbok, Dusknoir, Cherrim, Vileplume, Golurk

Justification: He actually managed to catch two pokemon before he went to residential and got some more “respectable” pokemon to fit his image. He found ninetales when it was a vulpix and he followed it around because fire type=warm and eventually he realized it would stay of its own volition if he gave it some of the food he stole. He is very tired of the “such a beautiful pokemon for such an ugly boy” because fuck off, honestly. The other story is even more embarrassing: he found cherrim as a cherubi because from behind it looked like food. It turns out it was not food, and he got a facefull of paralysis dust. He regrets telling Misha this.

Petra:

Pokemon: Rapidash, Talonflame, Infernape, Magmortar, Chandelure, Typhlosion

Justification: Her entire life people have been telling her to “type-balance” but honestly that seems like a waste of time. And in a life or death situation, her current team works pretty well. Can people do treason while on fire? In her experience, no.

Nero:

Pokemon: Clefairy, Eevee, Chatot, Flabebe, Sandshrew, Jumpluff

Justification: He can do enough damage by himself, he will keep his harmless, fluffy pokemon thank you very much. At least this way, he gets regular hugs.

Ronan:

Pokemon: Houndoom, Boltund

Justification: He has his hounds and is just fine with that now. You kids have fun.

Adessa (my sprite options were extremely limited on this one):

Pokemon: Roserade, Gardevoir, Scizor, Aggron, Corviknight, Froslass

Justification: If it is stately and capable of terrifying the general populace, Adessa will train it to greatness.

Callista:

Pokemon: Purugly, Persian, Delcatty, Meowstic, Luxray, Pyroar

Justification: If it is a cat she will have seven, please and thank you.

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quirkwizard · 3 years

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Spoiled Sushi

For a while, a certain article has been vexing me. One that seems to have a great misunderstanding of the series it was writing about, missing obvious points and core parts of the worldbuilding. No, it wasn’t by CBR, nor was it by Screenrant. But it was by Cruchyroll of all places. They decided to make an article about the Top 5 Misused Quirks in My Hero Academia. It was not good and has been bugging me. So I decided to give them a taste of their own medicine. I mean they try to shut down whoever even attempts to do what they do, so why not make fun of them for trying to do what I do? Plus you guys seem to like it when I’m snarky, so this could be fun for everyone.

For clarity’s sake, this was written at the beginning of 2019, when the most recent chapter was Chapter 214 and the the anime had only reached Season 3. I’m keeping that in mind as I write. I will also be skipping around some of the parts of the article as I am talking about it. If its not worth mentioning, I won’t bring it up, simple as that. For instance, I’m skipping the intro because it is completely superfluous and would only serve to make a completely different fanbase mad. Might as well, most of what I am passing up are just dumb jokes. But if you are curious... don’t waste your time reading this. Your time is valuable and you have better things to do then read this article.

5. Kurogiri Can Create Free, Renewable Energy

“In all seriousness, though, Kurogiri is probably one of the most powerful characters in the anime, with their being virtually no limit to how far he can extend his Warp Gate portals.”

I mean there are certainly limits for his Quirk. Besides the need to know the coordinates or see where he is moving, there’s obviously a limit to how much he can spread out his body.

“Why then doesn’t he use them to create near-infinite energy? Open two portals one above another, throw in a heavy object inside and watch it fall endlessly. Devise a way to hook a dynamo or something to it and, bam, you have free power that would make Kurogiri a billionaire overnight and a hero to the entire planet.”

This idea has so many problems that I don’t even know where to begin.

One, if this could work, it likely wouldn’t make a lot of energy. Besides the various physics problems involved in this, Kurogiri would just be one guy doing this, meaning that it’s unlikely he’d be able to make enough power to matter.

Two, Kurogiri would still need rest as he is a living being, meaning he wouldn’t to keep up this theoretical contraption forever and you’d get even less energy relying on him. At most, it would work best in a small bunker as a last resort.

Three, that sounds like it would be a lot more dangerous then it would be worth for the energy made. If Kurogiri would to lose focus for a moment, the portals fall apart and there would just be a lot of damage from this heavy object moving at high speeds.

“Even if Kurogiri only cares about taking down All Might, it would still be much easier to do if he had a literal mountain of money/public goodwill at his side.”

What kind of bizzaro universe are you living in where the guy who makes energy could possibly turn public option about the very well liked Number 1 Hero that saves lives every day? That’s literally what Lex Luthor does and people hate him for it.

4. Koji Koda Could Help Feed Billions Of People

“Koji is the resident Class 1-A stoner (get it? he's made of rock? come on) with the power to control ANY creature in the animal kingdom. This would logically also include spiders, meaning that Koji could literally end all street crime in, like, 5 minutes tops by swallowing all the criminals up in a giant arachno-tsunami.”

While this article is infuriating in many ways, it did give us the mental image of an “arachno-tsunami”. Which is totally worth sitting through this jumbled mess of words and ignorance.

“But, you see, Koji is just too shy and nice to be an effective hero. He wants to do good but he just doesn’t have that fighter instinct in him. Which is why he should instead use his Anivoice Quirk to revolutionize agriculture all around the world.”

You can be an effective hero and not beat people up. Sure, it certainly can come up in the job description, but that isn’t all of what a hero is meant to do. Koda’s Quirk makes him great at information gathering and rescue work, two very important aspects of hero work that suit his personality perfectly.

“Give him a megaphone and fly him over American fields, telling feral pigs to stop causing $1.5 billion worth of damage a year in destroyed crops. Fly him to Australia to tell the invasive cane toads and rabbits to kindly lemming themselves off a cliff. Have him tell the aggressive lionfish the get the hell out of the Atlantic. FORCE HIM TO GET OVER HIS FEAR OF BUGS AND MAKE AGRICULTURAL PESTS A THING OF THE PAST. “

There is no possible way Koda could be everywhere at once to pull that off. And considering that the average human voice can only carry for about a mile, IE, about the average size of a single farm. You know, because animals need to hear his voice in order to receive his commands. So even if it was limited to a single farm, its unlikely to do much to help. But by far the biggest issue with this entire plan is that what Koda does to an animal is not permanent. The second his control is interrupted, the animals return to normal, bound to just go back to whatever they were doing before.

So if Koda tries to change anything, its just going to end up undone by the time he leaves, just delaying the inevitable problem that comes from these animals. So even if Koda told the pigs to go away, they’d likely be back by the next day, destroying farmland like nothing happened. Even then, because of the previous limitations, he’d still have to go farm by farm to pull it off. That’s not even mentioning all of the other suggestions. Honestly, if you wanted to do something with Quirk, you should just convince all the animals to line up during hunting season. Dark, yes, but it least it would offer a more permanent solution then what the writer is suggesting.

“If Koji was utilized properly, he could travel the world undoing mankind’s mistakes and creating organic, pesticide-free crops instead of doing what he does now, which is largely sitting around on his ass roleplaying Snow White.”

Which, in spite of many fans joking about his Quirk, has shown to be very helpful quite a few times.

3. Inko Midoriya Would Have Made A Great Nurse

“Izuku’s mother in My Hero Academia has mainly done two things so far: jack and squat.”

I mean she did design Izuku’s costume, even if it got replaced, its is still a corner stone of his design, and she offered a good amount of drama after the fight with All Might and All For One.

“She did try to be a good mother but kind of failed at that when she tearfully apologized to her son because he was born without a Quirk, essentially telling him: “I’m so sorry I gave birth to such a loser.””

Would you believe that this one line was what really prompted me to talk about this? Because that is probably one of the worst takes I have ever in relation to this series. If you honestly believed that is what Inko was doing, the woman who practically raised her child by herself and constantly talks about much she cares for him, you must be watching the wrong series. That’s the only way I could explain why that is.

“So, she doesn’t really have much going on in her life. That’s why she should try nursing instead. I realize that becoming a nurse takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but Inko would be a natural fit for it. Despite her initial shortcomings, she is a very caring person with loads of empathy.”

Inko’s empathic? Could have fooled me. I mean she did feel the need to apologize to her son for giving birth to a loser. No, I am not over that, how could you have possibly gotten that from the scene?!

“She also has the power of limited telekinesis. Inko can move small objects over short distances, and while that would not be helpful for stopping crime, it would be great for, say, removing kidney stones. Or things stuck in people’s throats. Or coins from children’s stomachs.”

Trying to use a Quirk like this in any kind of medical procedure is laughable at best and dangerous at worst. Imagine if Inko had to remove a bullet from someone. From what we see, the process of her moving objects is slow and need several pulls from her to attract the object to her. So if she’s going to try to pull it out and its going to get caught on something, causing more damage to the person she is trying to save. She’s basically going to be keying the insides of whoever she is trying to operate on.

The entire reasons doctors, especially surgeons, train for so long is because the human body can be extremely delicate. It needs a lot of care and time so the doctors don’t make things worse for the patients. It’s why surgeons need to have such steady hands and a lot of time even to due minor procedures. But trying to do that with a Quirk is just going to cause more problems then it can solve. Doing that with a Quirk like Inko’s just lacks a lot of the precision and dexterity necessary to pull this off.

2. Uraraka Should Go Work For A Shipping Company

“Ochaco Uraraka has one of the most well-rounded Quirks out of all the main characters: Zero Gravity. With it, she can make objects and people float, which is great for offense, defense, and rescue operations. As a superheroine, she is doing everything right with her Quirk.”

I mean “Zero Gravity” can kind of be used offensively, but not effectively as other Quirks. Its why she did all of that training with Gun Head to make up for her lack of an offensive presence. Eh, two of three ain’t bad. I’ll take what I can get.

“I just think Uraraka should never have become a superheroine in the first place. Uraraka has actually always been honest about her motivation: she wants dem YEN YEN BILLS YO (for her struggling family.)”

That’s because hero work is an extremely frugal business even super minor heroes can still seem to make a decent living out of it.

“But regular jobs also exist in that world, and that must include shipping companies that would instantly hire Uraraka to Zero-G their freighters, trucks, and planes. Even if she cannot make them float, she can still remove enough gravity from them to save the company tons of fuel. Company profit margins are razor thin.”

First off, its mentioned several times that if you want to use a Quirk for a job, you need to have a hero license. Its to make sure you know how to use your Quirk properly so you don’t end up hurting someone with your powers. So for her to even try this, she needs to go through hero school anyway. Might as well get the most out of it. Second, Uraraka cannot lower the gravity of her target. Either the object is floating or it isn’t floating. There is no in between for Uraraka.

Third, given what we’ve seen from Uraraka, there is no possible way that she could ever lift that much. She’s barely able to lift three lower numbered robots and that was only for a few seconds. So, at the most, she can lift a few tons. How exactly do you expect her to work with something like a cargo plane, which, on its own, can weight over forty five tons, not including fuel or any extra cargo?

Which is another thing I noticed throughout the article: the writer seems to severely overestimate how effective Quirks actually are. The range and scope of Quirks is much smaller then other power systems, even when compared to similar “low level” series like HunterxHunter. Like every kind of application listed goes far beyond what most Quirks are capable of, such as forgetting certain drawbacks. And that is most notable with the last suggestion.

1. Momo Could Solve Literally All The World’s Problems

I bet Kohei Horikoshi was really proud of himself when he came up with Momo Yaoyorozu’s design: No, see, she HAS to dress scantily because her Quirk is Creation, i.e. the ability to create any object she wants through her skin, which must be constantly exposed. Peachy.”

Oh boy, it wouldn’t be any sort of discussion about Momo without beating that long dead horse. What’s next? Bakugou angry? Izuku cry?

“Momo can apparently create anything as long as she understands its composition, and seeing as she’s made an ethanol spray can, infrared goggles, a lighter, and a tracker, it seems like there’s nothing she cannot make.”

Oh boy, it wouldn’t be any sort of discussion about Momo without a grievous misunderstanding of how her Quirk works either. Maybe they are in the fandom. As I have mentioned in my Momo Misconceptions post, Momo needs fat to make what she does. She’s not an alchemist where she can just clap her hands and make whatever she wants. If she doesn’t have enough fat, she cannot make items. By those very rules, some things are just out of her reach because it would just take too much fat. It’s why she limits herself to simpler items.

“Cool. MAKE US SOME HELIUM THEN. The world is running out of the gas and we need it for MRI scanners and the like. Momo could make more of it.”

Actually, we don’t even know for sure if Momo is capable of making gases. All we have seen her make is solids and a few liquids. There is the lighter she made, but that could easily run on lighter fluid.

“Or thorium. She could make thorium that we could use to make thorium-based reactors that are apparently way safer than uranium ones.”

Thorium isn’t even that rare, just as about as common as lead and three times as common as uranium. Even if it was a problem, it would likely kill her, either from burning through all of her fat or from the exposure to radiation.

“Medicine, fresh water, cheap electronics that we could send to developing countries: Momo could crank all of those out in an afternoon.“

Yes, in theory, Momo could do that, but not the extent that she would make a major difference in the world like they are suggesting. There are just more practical and better long term solutions then trying to force a single person to do all of that. It’s almost as if Momo is a regular human being who has limitations you need to keep in mind when making these ill informed suggestions.

“And while spending your life as a walking Everything Faucet might not seem that glamorous, it actually has the potential to change the entire planet for the better.”

Given the kind of set up and effort that would be required to even attempt that, I think “horrific” would be a more appropriate descriptor since it would be done to a living, thinking person.

Honestly, I think that most of these people are doing more with their Quirks now then with any of these suggestions. At least, when you actually think about the rules and limits of the characters. Sure, Inko isn’t doing much, but she is a civilian with a fairly weak Quirk. Kurogiri acts as a major player within the League, getting them around quickly and evading capture. I mean he is using his power to help out a bunch of villains, but my point still stands that he is not “misusing” his Quirk.

In fact, a majority of the people on this list are doing more to help people and save lives by being heroes. Given the limitations of their abilities, using them to stop superpowered criminals who risking damaging the people around and helping victims of these crimes is doing then any of those roles in spite of the fact that the article tries its best to downplay that these people are already saving lives. So, in reality, they are doing far more to help people then doing any of these ideas, you damp sock of a writer.

#My Hero Academia #Quirks

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scribeofmorpheus · 4 years

Text

As Fate Would Have It (part 21)

Paring: WinterSoldier!Bucky x Spy!Reader

Catch Up here | Masterlist | AO3

Taglist is open. Send an ask.

Warnings: Themes of mental illness, violence... eh, some other stuff.

Note: tripple post! | Vocabulary: Snezhinka is russian for ‘Snowflake’ and Vot der'mo roughly translates to ‘Shit’. Also, Voroshilov is a tank named after a military general.

Your white tactical gear was washed out by the snowy terrain. Alexei held two unconscious guards under his shoulders by the necks. He dropped them with a loud thud.

You checked your guns clips and silencer twice before kneeling next to the facility’s baulky doors. Your knife working to remove a panel to reveal intricate wiring. You wanted to square away any doubts before charging headfirst into trouble. Unlike the last time you did something risky, you didn’t want there to be any doubt.

“Alexei,” you said, stripping wires. “I need to know something.”

Alexei sighed, his big chest deflating more than you thought possible. He knew what was coming. It was obvious. “You need to know what, Snezhinka?”

“When I was a spider—” your saliva went dry. “When I was a Blackwidow…I did things.”

Alexei huffed, warm breath mixing with the crisp air. He sniffled, “We’ve all done things.”

The wires sparked and your fingers gained a burn mark, “I know. But I did something and I think I’m responsible for…your eye. And I think you’ve known this since before we met.”

The door opened and you stood to face Alexei. Guards on the other end of the corridor raised their weapons. You fired two precise shots. The silencer as quiet as a mouse. The guards dropped to the floor not as quietly.

“I gave them the research. For their super soldier project. Kathy said—”

“She wasn’t delusional,” Alexei said in confirmation. “It is as you think. The boy she spoke of was me.”

You narrowed your eyes to focus on his facial twitches, “And you don’t blame me? I gave them what they needed to experiment on you. I’m resp—”

“You’re not responsible,” he moved into the warmth of the facility, dragging the guards that were at his feet with him. “We are products of our makers. But that does not mean that is all we can ever be. You made choices. Those choices affected my choices. And now they will affect someone else’s. We are all dominoes falling blindly.”

“Why did you lie?” You worked on the inner-door, trying to keep a poker face.

“Because I know you,” Alexi began setting the C4 charges. “If I told you the truth, you’d blame yourself.” He took a long and deep inhale. “Truth is, I requested to be your recruiter. I wanted to meet the woman who…” His jaw worked over and he exhaled. “You were not what I expected. I realised, in that bar in Moldova, that we are all lost children looking for direction.”

The door began cranking open, slower than the first one.

“How do you not hate me?” You were confounded.

Alexei shrugged, “This Voroshilov you are risking your life to save, he has done terrible things…unspeakable things, no?”

You hesitated to answer and Alexei took that to mean you didn’t have the heart to.

“But you still want to save him?” Alexei cocked his head to the side. You nodded. He smiled, “It’s the same for me. You are my partner. I go where you go, Snezhinka. ”

Except you can’t go where I go , you thought. You turned to look at your ageless face reflected in a reflective surface.

The door ground to a halt once it opened fully. Your fingers reached for anything to fumble with. In that moment you felt an ache for the photograph Bucky—the Winter Soldier—had taken from you in Paris. You wanted to look at Sal’s young face. At Steve’s big, goofy grin and terrible posture. At Annie’s flirtatious wink and Hal’s perpetual scowl. At you and Bucky immortalised in a simpler time.

You let out a breath and were surprised to hear the shudder in your voice. “Promise me something, big guy.” You held your chin high to look over Alexei’s face one more time. To memorise every edge and curve, dip and line, spot and wrinkle. “If I don’t make it to the extraction point—”

“Don’t speak nonsense!” Alexei frowned.

You patted his chest affectionately, like a big sister reassuring her younger brother there were no spiders under his bed anymore.

“If I don’t make it…Don’t come back for me.” You waited to see if he’d argue against your order.

Alexei’s eyes fogged over as he let his chin fall, “The plan is to get the two of you somewhere secure until you can knock his bell straight.”

You chuckled at his improper use of the phrase, “Swear to me, Alexei. Swear you will find another partner. Swear to me that you will give them an annoyingly on-the-nose nickname and buy them two bottles of vodka on the first day.” You moved your hand from his chest to his cheek, patting it twice. “Swear to me you will shave more often.”

He laughed weakly, “I won’t have to. You’ll be there to set my ass straight. Now, let’s go save your boyfriend, da?”

You stepped away from the giant Russian, “No, Alexei. I’m going in alone this time. You’ve set the charges. I can handle the rest. Just hand me the detonator. Wait by the snowmobiles. If I don’t make it out, you’ll know.”

He started swearing in the mother tongue.

You yanked his jacket and shouted, “It’s best it stays this way!”

Alexei grumbled, but he could see the conviction in your eyes. He couldn’t fight against you this time. He conceded and handed you the detonator. Then he unloaded his clip and handed it to you.

“Just in case.” He pulled the hammer and the bullet in the chamber popped out. He caught it and took your much smaller hand in his. Placing the bullet on your palm as if it were a treasure. “I don’t own anything except this jacket and it’s too big for you, will only slow you down.” He feigned a laugh. “There is a saying where I come from, ‘there is no first and the is no last bullet.’” He scratched his eyebrow with his free hand. “No, that’s—Nevermind that. I’m trying to say this isn’t goodbye.”

You balled your fist around the bullet. “I’ll keep this safe.”

“Keep it until you don’t need to anymore, da?”

You nodded and walked into the elevator. As you pushed the button for basement, Alexei shouted: “Carter!”

“What?” Your heart started racing as the doors of the heavy elevator started retracting.

“In the bar, you asked me who we were. I never met them all. But I know who signed our checks—” Alexei had to squat and tilt his head so you could see his face is the small crack between the doors. “Her name is Carter.”

“Carter,” you whispered. You’d seen that name at the museum. It had been attached to an image of a beautiful woman’s newspaper cut-out on Steve’s compass flashed in your mind. “Oh…That Carter.”

The doors closed. The elevator started heading down. You had the strangest sense of Déjà vu. And then you remembered the heist to steal the serum from the military compound.

“Right,” you checked and rechecked your gun again. The doors opened to show several tactically clad men pointing submachine guns at the elevators entrance. “Showtime.”

The two gunshot wounds in your back stung, but not nearly as hot as the flamethrower burn on your arm. You had barricaded the door into the cryo-lab. The banging of soldiers going unheard due to the rapid pulse of your heart.

Bucky was in one of these pods, you could feel it. Home wasn’t a hopeless dream anymore. It was becoming real—tangible.

You felt hopeful for the first time in a long time. Granted the situation wasn’t ideal, but you didn’t fucking care anymore. Hope was hope.

Your feet dragged slower than your body wanted to move, the blood loss made your stomach swirl. It was like being seasick on land.

A flutter of air left your mouth. Your heart skipped what felt like a hundred beats. Everything went quiet and for a moment you wondered if you were actually alive or if all this was some elaborate lie. Then your heart knocked against your chest harder than it had in a long time and you knew it was real.

There he was, cold and unmoving and trapped behind glass, but alive. You laughed, hobbling to get to the cryo-pods.

You disengaged the cryo sequence and waited. When the cold air turned to moisture on the chamber’s glass, Bucky screamed awake. Startled, you took two steps back.

“Gaaahhh,” Bucky fell out of the chamber. You tried to break his fall but you were too weak. You fell together. He shuddered over you, scrambling for purchase.

“Bucky,” You reached out to him and he recoiled. His mind as in a state of confusion and panic. This wasn’t the soft Bucky you’ resurrected in the safe house in Paris and it wasn’t the trained killer you’d fought bloody. This was the man in-between. Half broken and half patchwork. “Hey, Bucky listen to me! We don’t have much time, I have to get us out of here.”

“N—no!” He swung his arms like he was fighting ghosts. “Whe—where…Hhnnnggg!” He braced his head.

You held out your hand, “Come with me and I’ll explain everything.”

His head craned up and then down, fingers holding onto his ears till they turned red. “Arrrghhh! Don’t. Make. Me…Kill them…arggghh!”

You rushed to his side and forced him to look at you, “Soldier! I need you to snap out of this. There’s men coming for us on the other side of that door.” You yanked him hard, ignoring the fact that his breathing was wild and erratic. “I don’t care which version of you I’m dealing with, I just need you to get your shit in order long enough for us to get out of here!”

He removed his fingers from his ears and reached out to trace the outline of your jaw, “S—safe…harbour.”

You gasped, choking on air. You looked into his thunderous eyes, too frantic to tell which version of him had said those words.

Hope was blooming brighter and you whispered like a prayer, “Bucky?”

He dropped to his knees and groaned. “Make it stop!”

“I will. I promise baby, I promise I will. But first,” You slinked your smaller frame under his shoulder and heaved. You held back a whimper as you felt blood rush out of your back. “Get up, baby.”

Bucky steeled his legs, his weight not as heavy on your frame. He eyed you in strangely, with a glint of disconnect. The looked was wiped away by another grunt of pain. His eyes squeezed shut as you directed him towards the door that led to the secondary elevator.

You pressed the call button but nothing happened. “No, no, no.” You slammed the button three times and kicked it once for good measure.

“Lockdown,” Bucky answered. His voice cold one moment then shivering when he stammered: “H—how do I know that? What is happening to me?”

“I don’t know,” you answered truthfully. “But we can’t go back the way I came.” You hitched him higher onto your shoulder to take a second to stretch. “You must know another way.”

“I—I don’t…”

“Think!” You snapped at him.

“I don’t know!” He shouted back. Louder than you’d ever heard him shout before. Your instinct told you to move away from him, your heart was tired of this game of ‘is he or isn’t he the man you love?’

His eyes went large, as if he wanted to apologise and then he said: “Below. There’s an abandoned storage facility.”

You were about to question how he knew that when the door you’d barricaded indented, “How do we access it?”

“Maintenance access,” he nudged towards a grate with a turn wheel.

You set him down and pried it open.

The lower level smelled of damp and what could only be wet rat. Bucky had quieted down now. You moved slower due to the poor lighting from the flare.

Bucky suddenly flinched and you set him down.

“Hold on, I’’ll try and find the exit hatch,” you tucked a loose strand of long, sweaty hair behind his ear. “All the years I dreamed of you, you never had long hair. Now I’ll probably only ever dream about you with long hair.”

Bucky’s eye twitched, a slight discomfort from how intimate you were being. You were hurt by his reaction. You swallowed and apologised then turned to look for the door hatch he’d told you about.

“Do you know what this place is?” You asked as you scanned the room.

He replied clearly, “Old cryo storage.”

“Any others like you down here?” You jigged something you thought was a lever. It budged and let out a putrid gas. You quickly sealed it back up as you gaged.

“We don’t keep them here.”

“We?” You froze. The flare slipped from your fingers. You knew. Somehow, the entire time, you knew it had been too easy.

You pressed your lips tightly, sniffling back disappointment; heartbreak. “You’re not him, are you?”

There was no reply. You back was tingling from exposure. Self-preservation dictated you look your enemy in the eye. Defeat killed any last morsel of fight in you.

You pulled the detonator out from your pocket, “This was a trap.” It wasn’t a question, but he answered anyway.

“Da.”

You turned around slowly to face him. One last question left to ask. “Do you know me?” Tears splattered on the metal floor.

The Winter Soldier’s eyes went small and then impartial, a thought working its way in his brain. He reached for something that you couldn’t see. It looked like the edge of a paper. When his hand dropped back to his side, his head was lifted higher. “No.”

“Then…” you licked your lips. “If I can’t save you, we’ll just have to burn together.”

You pressed the detonator. The sound of explosions going off above you. Dust shaking from old pipes. Water burst out of the stone wall, a blown pipe undoubtedly. Then parts of the ceiling began to cave in. A metal beam came crashing down above your head. A flicker of emotion ghosted Bucky’s face and he lunged to pull you back.

The two of you collided on the floor. You head hitting it hard. Fake stars blotted out your vision. And then you saw them again. Pink petals raining down in the dark. The smell of peach blossoms in the air.

Your muscles were numb. Like you’d left them under a running tap in the middle of winter. Your jaw felt frozen shut, pent up energy screaming for release against unresponsive muscles.

“Jesus Christ,” a man said in disbelief. “She hasn’t aged a day.”

“Neither have we,” a darker voice said, gruff and afraid.

“How long has she been on ice?” The sound of machines filled the room. When there was no answer to the man’s question, he asked again, “How long, Buck?”

The other man’s voice went softer, “Almost forty years.”

Bucky? You wondered. Who’s Bucky?

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes imagine #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #mcu #marvel #black widow #the winter soldier

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normal-thoughts-official · 4 years

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UWU I'm in the mood for some Raphael talk, I love the headcanon you've talked about in the chat about Raphael tolerating Alec only because he makes his dad happy (which is so damn valid of him), and it's one of my most fave things do you have more slightly silly headcanons about it?

you really want me to be beaten up huh may. you want them to come for me again. you want to ruin my life

okay disclaimer Alec stans pwease dont hate me uwu I'm not saying i hate Alec I'm saying that i dont think Raphael would vibe with him. especially after the whole punch which I'll never get over cuz like i KNOW rationally that alec didnt have the full story and if izzy was hurt and sitting beside a white shadowhunter he would go there and beat them up all the same cuz alec's like this, but I'm still upset eidndidjdid my boy doesnt deserve this okay

anyway with that being said

i dont think its Raphael like, genuinely hating him as much as them having nothing in common besides their mutual love for Magnus and desire to see him happy. so Raphael can tolerate him fine, but he's not exactly dying to be best friends. besides, alec's like, all of the most annoying things about shadowhunters (all serious, never fucking relaxes, must have a weapon close at all times, doesn't understand food, doesn't listen to music, doesnt-) that arent like straight up nazist bigotry. so hes just like. ugh. whatever. I'm here for Magnus. leave pls

i can absolutely see that tbh Raphael just goes to their house and is all like "Alec leave i want to talk to Magnus" and alec's like "this is my house?" and raphael's like "and?" and alec's like "Fine, ill take a walk. Magnus, Raphael is here." but he also kisses Magnus goodbye in front of Raphael because he can, in fact, be an ass

also i know i told u about that already but Raphael lowkey challenges him every time like. he'll come by Magnus' and bring food, and of course theres food for 3 because Raphael is not gonna be that rude and he doesn't want to make Magnus feel like Raphael wants him to choose between Raphael and Alec. Alec makes Magnus happy and Raphael would never want to make Magnus feel like his love or presence in his life is conditional. Plus, he doesn't actually hate him. Just a little.

anyway so he brings the food and he's like (clearly judgemental tone) "i brought hot sauce because i figured Alec doesn't usually eat spicy food" and he's obviously correct, Alec had never eaten anything with season in his life before he met Magnus, much less pepper. he's the kind of ultimate, boss-level gringo who puts salt on his food when he's feeling adventurous

so Raphael sits down and puts the food on his plate and he pours hot sauce into his plate while making unwavering eye contact with Alec (yeah raphael can eat in this because he deserves it and i said so) and it's an obvious challenge and it evidently works because Alec 1- is competitive, and 2- actually wants Raphael's respect because he knows how important he is to Magnus. so he takes the salsa from Raphael and starts pouring it too while maintaining eye contact right back, jaw clenched in challenge, looking all serious and Magnus is like "children, please" and raphael's all like "oh no no no, let him" but Alec considers that a win because Raphael is clearly trying to contain a smile and thats the first step to winning him over

so anyway Alec sweats and grimaces through the whole meal, cuz like, look yes he may have pain tolerance because he's a shadowhunter but he's also the bitch who reacted to taking a sip of beer like someone had farted on his face. he can't hide his reactions for shit, but fuck if he doesn't lick the plate clean (not literally like gross) and doesn't shed a single tear, even as he clearly can't keep his eyes open with the effort

Magnus is like "Alexander, you dont have to do this" and alec's like "(eyes squeezed shut, grimacing, drenched in sweat) do what? this is very good" and Raphael is smiling into his plate even as Magnus shoots him dirty looks

then Alec is like "i won. i ate it all" and Raphael is like "(looking at his red sweaty face and puffy eyes) really?"

also look ill always love the hc that Raphael resents Alec for his height and Alec doesnt even notice. Raphael is not short, god damn it, hes 175! thats TEN whole centimeters above the mexican average! he was the tallest boy in Guadalajara! RAPHAEL IS TALL, OKAY

EXCEPT everyone in the goddamn shadow world is apparently a god damn giant. Its humiliating enough that Magnus is 180. but Magnus is his dad, so whatever. but Alec is FUCKING 190. no one needs that much tall. no one! Raphael went from being the tallest boy in the neighborhood to the shortest, and boy he is so not pleased about it

but Alec has no idea because who cares? (Raphael. Raphael cares. deeply. he cares so much) it's not even good to be that tall, he keeps banging his head on things. so there will be moments like. Raphael is standing in front of the bookshelf, seeming very focused. Alec shrugs, figures he's looking for something, and puts the book he was going to put there up. Raphael shoots him a dirty look that might as well be a stab, and Alec's like ???????? did i disrupt you? sorry? and Raphael just crosses his arms like "you didnt do anything, i dont know what you're talking about"

in reality the shelf was too high up because Magnus adjusted his shelves to his and Alec's height, and Raphael refused to stand on his tiptoes or god forbid, a stool, to grab his book, so he was just glaring at the shelf until the book came to him or something. and when Alec put the book up he was mad cuz Alec could reach it fjdndid

later Alec tells Magnus about it like "i dont get what i did. is he just that private?" and Magnus is like "hmm. i have no idea, darling" but next time Raphael comes, the shelves have been spelled to adjust to the book picker's height

also this always makes me think of that scene in hsm where zeke tries to talk to sharpay and she goes "evaporate, tall person!" and leaves and i love that mental image tbh

also like. eventually Alec apologizes for the punching thing (look. look. Im still salty and Raphael deserves it okay) and Raphael is like. moved because something deep inside of him still believed it was his fault and he was a monster, and it's. nice. and Alec kind of extends his arms and Raphael is like "dont think so" and crosses his arms and Alec kind of very very slowly lifts his arm and pats Raphael's head once and Raphael wants to scream and Alec looks very awkward and sheepish and Magnus bursts out laughing

(Raphael doesnt mind, though, because Magnus is genuinely so happy all day that they had a good interaction. so happy. and Raphael thinks, okay, this is okay. it's good if it makes Magnus happy.)

(Magnus also pats his head and plays with his hair, but its okay because Magnus has always done that and Raphael doesnt mind. only from him though. and raphael's partners. but anyway)

plus whenever Magnus is like, upset, or sick or something, theyre like. an unit. because for all they have no common interests they do think very alike (autistic solidarity i guess) and are very practical when it comes to taking care of others, and they both just. adore Magnus, okay. so Raphael will arrive, make Magnus soup. while he makes soup, Alec stays with him and takes his temperature. once Raphael is back with the soup, Alec goes out to buy medicine, and Raphael stays with him to make him company. and so on. at some point Alec is almost falling asleep by Magnus' side and Raphael taps his shoulder and points to the chair nearby, and Alec nods and dozes off for a while. then its the other way around. Magnus isnt seriously sick, of course, but he doesn't usually get sick so it's an event, plus they're both Like This. and for all the grief they give each other, they trust each other to take care of Magnus. theres no argument about that

(Magnus was resting, but he did see some of these moments, and smiled a bit to himself before dozing off again)

also Raphael and Ragnor gave Alec the ultimate shovel talk (Ragnor doesn't trust anyone after Camille, and while neither do cat and dot, they were more chill), but it lowkey backfired because they were like "if you ever hurt him, we'll remove your kneecaps" and Alec was like "(nodding seriously) thats fair"

also i know we've talked about this already but i also love the idea that Raphael goes to their house and is all absentmindedly like "hm can i have some coffee" and alec's like "sure, ill make it :) you stay here and talk to Magnus" and when Alec comes back he hands Raphael his coffee in a "best. bonus son. ever" mug and then he leans back against the wall, sipping his own coffee from his "world's #1 stepdad" mug that he bought himself, trying to hide his shit eating grin, and Raphael scowls and deliberately holds it so his hand covers the words, and Magnus laughs and his eyes shine as he sips his tea.

(later, Raphael is like. guess me and lightwood have a dynamic now. gross. but he still rolls with it)

in short Raphael and Alec being little shits to each other but still building something of a relationship for Magnus and always taking care of him..... ultimate trope

#ask #cosmicnovia #luxxmagnus #sh #shadowhunters #raphael santiago #magnus bane #alec lightwood #brotp: i'll do whatever it takes to protect them #long post #autistic alec lightwood #autistic raphael santiago #brief but still there #crack #sh crack #malec

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iwantutobehapppier · 5 years

Text

Tear You Apart

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Summary: Steve wants you bad, but will he say anything to get what he truly wants?

Warnings: Unprotected Sex, oral and I think cursing. 18 an older only, do not read if under the age of 18. This isn’t for everyone, if any of these situations bother you please read no further.

Word Count: 6,117

A/N: Essentially 6k words of just enough plot to get to smut inspired by the song Tear You Apart by She Wants Revenge and the mental image of Steve Rogers eating a chick out from behind. Shout out to @judiakino and her husband @munnin234 for helping me fall down this smut hole. Feedback and reblogs always welcomed. Enjoy!

He wanted you. He wanted you in every possible way, in every possible position and you had no idea. You sat there innocently chewing the pen end in your mouth staring down at your report.

He had to hold back a groan when your lips pursed around the pen. He could only imagine the way your plump lips felt around the tip of his cock. Maybe you’d even whimper when he pushed his cock down your throat? You shifted in your seat next to him at the giant table in the meeting room you both sat working on latest mission report.

The two of you were the only ones who preferred to hand write then type up reports. Though honestly you typed up his too, neither of you told anyone he was truly that inept at modern technology. It wouldn’t be a surprise but he did not want anyone knowing and you respected his privacy.

When you shifted again your skirt hiked up your thigh a little more and Steve could not control himself from ogling the exposed skin. He tried to will you to move more, just bring that skirt up a bit more and he’d be satisfied.

That wasn’t true though, there’s only one thing that would satisfy him. You beneath him a blubbering mess as he forced his cock into your waiting tight pussy.

“Hey what are you saying for how we handled the base entry?” You turned yourself in the chair towards him and raised your eyebrow when he jerked his head back to his paper, face flushed.

“Uuh” Steve could barely think, the blood had been making its way down to his pants so quickly that there was barely any above to help him think. “I think I used something like tactical force?”

You frowned, “Tactical force? Really?” He looked at you from the corner of his eyes. He couldn’t look at you directly, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle seeing your legs opening. The skirt pressed up so high, surely your panties were viewable at this point right? He tried to swallow down the suddenly thick feeling in his throat.

“I said I think,” he responded and you huffed.

“Let me see!” You stood up and walked to him, leaning over his shoulder to view his papers causing your breast to press against this back. He could practically feel your bra between the two shirts. He felt dizzy, empowered, scared and too many more conflicting emotions.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Steve muttered when you leaned further across him trying to read his handwriting. Your breast pushed up towards his shoulders. He could see the cleavage straining against the bra and pressure of your body against his from the corner of his eyes.

One of his hands subtly reached down adjusting his pants, his hardening cock desperately needing relief.

You ignored his muttering completely, eyes trained on his report skimming through not noticing the effect your closeness had on him. Certainly you felt his muscles twitch under you and it was always nice to feel his strength but nothing about it was arousing you, at least you kept telling yourself so. He was your friend, just your friend.

“Ah! I see what you did. Okay thank you!” You quickly stood up straight pulling your skirt back down you sit in your chair returning to your work.

He wanted to curse out loud when you straightened the skirt. Now he had to wait for it to bunch back up again before he’d be able to see those beautiful thighs that led to one of the best asses he’d ever seen. An ass that begged to be groped, smacked and even bruised at the pounding he desired to give your backside.

You looked over feeling something off to find Steve staring at you, his body turned towards you and his hands sitting on the desk chairs armrests. He looked like a giant in the chair and had it not been your sweet Captain Rogers he may have even seemed intimidating. You smiled at him brightly when his eyes made contact with yours but he didn’t return it. Instead his face flushed and he turned back to his report once again.

He had been acting rather odd lately when it was just the two of you, not always speaking in full sentences and often trailing off thought. You were starting to worry he had suffered too much blunt force trauma to the head. When you talked to Tony about your suspicion he laughed right in your face and said a crush has nothing to do with blunt force trauma but maybe some force in his pants would help.

A crush? Who did he have a crush on? Wanda? No too young. Natasha? You felt yourself get jealous at the thought of him with Natasha. That girl Sharon Natasha told you about once? Oh no, that didn’t sit well at all with you. Somehow she was worse than Natasha.

You had wanted to ask Steve about his dating life but somehow every time you went to ask it seemed highly inappropriate. What business was it yours? And for that matter if he wanted to share that with you wouldn’t he had already told you? You two told each other everything anyway so if he withheld this he had to have good reasons.

“Are you dating anyone?” You tried to sound casual as possible but the weird high inflection at the beginning of your question was anything but. You wanted to die.

Steve turned his head towards you in shock at your question.

“Well I-”

“It’s okay you don’t have to tell me anything,” You tried to recover but your fast paced talking served no assistance in that endeavor. “You’re my friend and you’ve been, you know acting weird and at first I thought it was possibly head trauma. You know too many hits to the head thing.”

Steve was staring at you like you were crazed, your voice increasing in tempo. He was barely catching some of the words.

“Then I talked to Tony and he said it’s just a crush so I was like who could Steve have a crush on?” Steve did pick up on that last part, his palms feeling sweaty at the direction this was going. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to keep his feelings for you to himself it’s just he wasn’t ready to tell you. At least that’s what he told himself.

“I mean you should have a crush right?” Your last question sounded more directed at yourself than him. “You’re a healthy grown adult male. You’re allowed to like women. So just you know um…” you finally saw the way Steve was looking at you.

“Oh god how crazy did I just sound?” Steve chuckled at you which just made it all the more embarrassing.

“Only a little.” He put his hand up using his thumb and pointer to demonstrate a large space. Chuckling again at your look of defeat he stood up and walked towards the door desperately needing to get out of the room after this conversation. He patted your shoulder in passing.

“It’s just a crush and I’m sure it will go away.” Steve finished trying to convince himself, more than you.

It never went away though; in fact it only got worse for Steve. Currently he was fighting an oncoming erection as you pulled at the back of your dress in the elevator. It kept riding up that ass he wanted to grab and bury his face in to eat you out from behind. To say the crush didn’t go away was an understatement.

He became worse and better at the same time. He was able to have full conversations with you again but you had started to touch him more. Or maybe you always touched him he just didn’t notice until your touch sent a jolt to his pants every damn time. He was obsessing about it, obsessing about seeing you sprawled out on his bed, or up against a wall chanting his name.

Shaking his head to clear the thought he offered his arm as you entered Tony’s latest party together. You were both running late after returning from a mission that morning. The time crunch truly came because you both desperately needed a nap that lasted too long. A nap he happily took with you on his living room couch. It took him awhile to fall asleep having you curled up to his chest. While he loved it he had to fight his libido from becoming too noticeable.

When you both entered Bucky looked right at Steve and raised his eyebrows at your entry together but Steve’s pensive face told him all he needed to know. Bucky shook his head at Steve’s inability to just tell you how he felt, instead he’d rather suffer.

Without missing a beat Bucky walked over taking your attention from Steve carrying you away to the bar for a drink and a laugh.

“He likes you,” Bucky whispered in your ear as you two made it to the bar. You turned your head up towards him with an incredulous look.

“Right,” You ordered your drink from the bartender before continuing. “Golden Boy Rogers likes me.” You rolled your eyes at the absurdity of it. Steve had been one of our closest friends within this super hero life followed closely by Bucky. Steve however always held a special place in your heart, having always confined in each other. This is why you couldn’t help but find it ridiculous that Steve would like you let alone not tell you.

“He already has a crush on someone, at least Tony said so.” You went to take a sip of your drink when Bucky slapped your back laughing boisterously causing your drink to spill on the bar top and dribble down your chin. You looked at him pissed for the spill and even more so at his laughing.

“Yeah,” Bucky looked at the mess he caused only making him chuckle more “You!”

You stared at him with a deadpan look, unable to believe what he said. It didn’t make any sense, surely if Steve liked you there would have been obvious signs right? You looked for him amongst the party goers seeing him caught up talking with some Veterans. You smiled warmly at him. Steve looked towards you a moment later and when your eyes locked something felt different to you.

His eyes were hooded looking you up and down. He always looked at you like that though? When he licked his lips and made eye contact again a small blush grew on his cheeks having realized what he was doing.

“Oh,” you voiced to yourself feeling something starts to click. “OH!” Steve looked back towards his current conversation partners and you turned back to look at Bucky with his know it all grin.

Steve watched you all night chatting with others, keeping your spirits high and refusing drinks after your second one for the night. Every now and then you would look for Steve. His gaze was predatory and each time your breath hitched as you subconsciously rubbed your thighs together. He saw it though, and it spurred him on.

No matter whom you spoke to your thoughts kept returning to Steve. He had seemed to be returning to normal in the past weeks but the way he had started to look at you – though maybe he always looked at you this way – was bothersome at first. Now however it made you flush and need to take colder showers frequently. The first sex dream you had about him last week was a culmination of his recent looks and the fact you hadn’t been laid in so long you could barely remember. At least that’s what you told yourself; you certainly weren’t lusting after Captain America, your dear friend. No it could not be that.

You had idly thought about proposing the idea of casual sex between the two of you. That idea was squashed though as Steve had previously expressed he wasn’t someone who could be casual. Though you desperately wanted to see what he could do between the sheets.

However if he had a crush on you then maybe proposing such a tryst wouldn’t seem so unwelcomed by him. Before you could think further on it he was behind you his arms slipping around your waist and turning you to face him with one good spin from his superhuman strength.

“I need to talk to you,” The evenness of his voice seemed force and you looked at him concerned nodding your head in agreement.

“Of course, Steve, what’s wrong?” Your brow furrowed in concern. He smiled at your worry over him; you were without a doubt perfect to him. He took your hand into his and led you away from the party and out to the empty balcony.

“I have to tell you how I feel.” He spoke facing you with his hands stiff at his sides. You smiled warmly up at him, taking one of his hands into yours.

“You can tell me anything Steve” He couldn’t help the way his body relaxed at your touch and words.

“I want you” His words were rough as if he wasn’t sure they’d make their way out. You knew without a doubt you wanted him back now and you weren’t going to hide it like he did.

“I want you too” That caught him off guard, he had assumed that you would be hesitant towards him but with your confession he felt his confidence grow.

“I thought maybe we could agree to some kind of friends with benefits situation,” He looked down at you, his gaze hardening at your offer.

“I don’t share.”

“I wasn’t saying we would have multiple partners we could be casual about it but exclusive. You know sexually.” You wiggled your eyebrows suggestively trying to lighten the mood but the underlying rage behind his eyes made you uncomfortable.

“There’s nothing casual about how I feel.” His hands wrapped around your waist pulling you tight against him. You could feel his hardening cock against your stomach.

“Steve,” Your voice calm trying to bring his intensity down but unsuccessful.

“If you don’t want to go down this path with me, that is fine. I won’t force you, at least not without your consent first.” Your eyes widened and you subconsciously clench your thighs together. Steve caught the barely perceivable movement; he would remember that reaction for later.

“What is it that you want Steve?”

“You, in every way I can.” He took one arm from around your waist and gently trailed his hand down the side of your head. He was watching his own hand in disbelief he had you in his grasps finally. “Your mind,” his hand slid down to hold the side of your face, the callused pad of his thumb caressing your check gently. “Your soul.”

His thumb trailed against your bottom lip pulling your lips apart you started to breathe heavily through your mouth. He tilted your head up as he bent his down. You could feel the heat of his breath against your mouth. “Your heart,” his hand on your back trailed to grip your backside pushing you up on the tip of your heels and against him “And your body.”

His lips crashed against yours, his hand tangled in your hair now, the other kneading your ass. He couldn’t get enough of your mouth; tongue swiping along your teeth. Your eyes were pressed closed tightly the sensations he was causing leaving you desperate for more. He would intermittently pull his lips away causing you to make the most delightful mewls that drove him right back to you. He pulled back and watched as your eyes slowly opened. Your eyes pure black now like his. You reached for his mouth once more. You pouted at him, wanting nothing more than to make out with him all night.

“I’m going to tear you apart.” His husky voice sent shivers down your spine and you could feel yourself become wet. This was escalating faster than you thought it would. You placed your hands against his chest started to press needing space and he seemed to understand pulling away from you but wrapping one around your waist as he led you back into the party.

Before you could say anything to your fellow party goers Steve was directing you both towards the exit. Steve looked at Bucky nodding as the two of you made your way out of the party and back to his apartment within the Avenger building.

Your mind was racing with thoughts of desire, what would you two to do tonight? Were you going to see him naked? The thought sent a jolt through you causing you to bite your lower lip. Steve saw your look when you two entered the elevator. He smirked at you pulling you to face him, he hit the needed floor button and gripped the back of your head with one hand, your ass once again with the other but the hand trailed down to your upper thigh pulling your leg up to wrap around him.

He looked down at you with an utter sinful smile as he rubbed his cock against your stomach. You couldn’t stop the moan that left your mouth, feeling yourself start to shut down and focus only on him. He took advantage of your open mouth and swallowed your moan to continue kissing. He shivered as the bottom of your dress fell back on the long slit, he reached his hand underneath and gripped your bare thigh.

“Hng,” the strangled groan that he emitted made you crazy. Your hands that had remained idle snaked up his arms towards the sides of head and threaded into his always perfectly shaped hair.

You pulled his hair back causing him to leave your mouth. He glared down at you at not letting him have what he wanted.

“Do you want me Captain?” You teased him, it was a dangerous game you were playing here but you needed to feel a sense of control as he forced all these sensations through your body.

His grip on your thigh tightened and eyes narrowed at your sudden change in attitude.

“Yes,” He words clipped wanting to get back to his previous actions.

“What would you do for me Captain?” you popped the p of Captain enjoying the way his eyes were trained on your lips as you did so.

“Would you fight for me?” You felt his hand slip from your thigh further under your dress to grip your ass. The recognition that lit up in his eyes followed by the partially closed predatory look at feeling your bare ass made you whimper. He knew you had forgone underwear and it was killing him. He could feel himself throb in his slacks. Trying to regain his attention you pulled at his hair again but he was too far gone at this knowledge and captured your lips once more, slipping out of your grip with ease.

Your hands hung off his shoulders you were lost to his kisses. He had months of solitary pleasure to make up for and he would not hold back. When the elevator announced its arrival Steve peeled himself from you. Looking you dead in the eyes a smirk played on his before he spoke.

“I’d kill for you.” When the doors to the elevator opened he threw you over his shoulder ignoring your holler of protest.

“Steve put me down!” you began to beat on his back but stopped abruptly when he slapped your ass. You went almost limp but in response slapped his ass back.

He chuckled at your antics and gave you two quick slaps to your ass. They were faster but harder this time, you felt yourself clench in response. Opening the door to his apartment he put you down inside and the smirk he wore annoyed you. Herding you past the door he turned around and closed it.

You wanted to speak up and say slow down but the look in his eyes after his closed the door ceased all thoughts. He looked hungry as he began to pull his suit jacket off and tossing it in the chair adjacent followed by unbuttoning his shirt, leaving him in slacks and undershirt. You started to back away when he slipped his shoes off but he took long strides narrowing the space between the two of you.

You took one more step back and before you knew it were falling onto the couch you two had shared a nap together that very morning. Steve advanced trapping you on the couch his hands resting against the back.

He stood up and took one of your hands placing it against his trousers on his obvious hard cock. He curled his fingers around yours causing you to grip him. You stared up at him in shock at the feel of his girth. He smiled and caressed your cheek with his other hand.

“I’ve wanted you for a while now,” He began to lean down but paused when you started rubbing him gently through his slacks. His eyes closed with a furrowed brow, his lips partly opened his breathing became labored from your attention. You smiled in triumph at his reaction and gripping the collar of his shirt you pulled him further down to kiss you.

Steve growled into your mouth when you tighten your grip on his clothed cock. Wrapping an arm around your waist he flipped the two of you. Your dress hiked up your hips when his hands slipped under the material pressing your core against him. You braced your hands on his shoulders as you ground your hips against him, he could feel your wetness seep into the fabric of his pants.

He let out a groan as he tightened his grip on your hips stilling your movement. “Behave yourself.” He let out a small grow as a hand reached up and grabbed the back of your neck and pulled you in for an intense kiss. Sliding his hand down the back of your neck he reached the zipper on your dress pulling down until the straps began to sag on your shoulders.

With ease he pulled the dress down exposing your strapless bra covered breasts. He licked his lips staring at the plump flesh pushed together so perfectly. While he was staring you reached behind yourself unclasping the bra letting it fall into your lap. A strained breath left his lips at the sight; his hands trailed down your arms and cupped each breast into his hands gently at first. Kneading the flesh and running his thumbs across the puckering nipples you whimpered at the sensation feeling yourself rock against him again.

His gaze jerked up to your face at your actions giving you warning glare. You didn’t want to stop desperately needing the friction against your definitely engorged clit. However, not knowing how far you should push him you did still but not without a pathetic whine.

“Please,” you whispered, his gaze fell on your mouth and he licked his lips. One of his hands trailed back under the skirt of your dress. He gripped your breast tightly as his head dipped back to groan at the wetness that coated his hand as he pressed his hand against your pussy. Your fingers dug into his shoulders while the trailed his middle finger through your wetness and circled your clit once.

You cried out his name throwing your own head back pushing yourself down onto his hand desperate for more. Steve equally desperate to see you fall part started running tight circles around your clit then dipping back down into your hot depths to only trail back up to your clit.

“Steve,” you panted out, chest heaving at you labored breath, he pulled you forward, pushing two fingers into your heat curling to reach that sweet spot. You fell against his chest looking up at him, your hands on his shoulders only thing keeping you barely upright. His head bent down eyes hooded looking into your eyes as you moved your hips against his hand. A dark smile you had never seen before took over his face as he began thrusting his fingers into you faster.

Right as you felt a tightening sensation he pulled his fingers out. You couldn’t stop the cry that fell from your lips at the loss of his fingers. However when he put his two fingers in his mouth sucking them clean your cry turned into a deep groan. He was filthy and it was killing you.

He sat you both up, your dress falling to the floor before he picked you up by your waist wrapping his arms under your upper thighs causing you to wrap your legs around him. Your slick juices wetting the bottom of his shirt he captured your lips at the feeling. You closed your eyes as he kept his open walking towards his bedroom.

Setting you down at the end of his bed he turned you around causing a squeak to come from your lips when he pushed you to all fours on the bed. He licked his lips loudly, you could practically hear the saliva spreading across his lips.

“Look at me,” his voice deep and commanding you turned your head back watching him unbuckle his pants and as they fell to the floor he pulled his undershirt off leaving him in grey boxer briefs. You whimpered and closed your eyes. He smacked your ass in response and you jerked up opening your eyes looking at him once more.

“There’s something I’ve wanted to do since I saw you in that dress.” Both his hands caressed your ass cheeks; gripping and rubbing then slapping both he smirked as your body jumped. Pulling your cheeks apart he took in a deep breath through his teeth. The desire to plunge right into you was almost impossible to resist.

Taking a deep breath he watching the glistening pool down your lips as gravity pulled it out of you. How many times had he imagined you like this? He wasn’t even sure but now that you were here he didn’t even know where to begin.

“Stay up right for me,” he fell to his knees and wrapped an arm around the front of your thighs pulling your ass straight towards his face. The feel of his tongue licking up from your clit to your asshole was too much. Your arms trembled and when he started to suck on your clit wrapping his lips tightly around, you fell face forward into the bed. The only thing keeping your legs up was his arm. His free hand spanked your ass and you couldn’t help but ground your hips back into his face.

He groaned against you incited on by your force he pushed his tongue inside you now, trying to reach as far as possible shoving his face into you. You cried out turning your head to the side and gripping the duvet of the made bed pulling it down towards you.

His tongue laved your lips then back to your clit suckling only for a moment before returning to dive deep inside of you. Tracing along your walls trying to bring out all your juices, from the moment his fingers touched his tongue after they had been inside you he was starved to taste more. The sensations were making your head spin crying out nonsense, his driven actions sending you straight to an orgasm.

You pushed your hips back again and began rotating into his face. He groaned again taking your clit into his mouth once more, rolling his tongue around it before sucking gently and steadily increasing intensity of suction.

Your hips stilled and you moaned out his name, the rolling sensation of pleasure pushing through you causing you to buck forward but he held you in place against his face never once letting up pressure. Drinking up the hot juices you provided him like a man thirsty from weeks of dehydration.

When you started to come down he smacked your ass again while pulling his face from you and rolled you over your legs splayed open lazily. Looking up at your flushed face as you tried to compose yourself after such a mind blowing orgasm he smiled. This is just how he wanted you.

“Another.” He commanded and you whined in response.

“I – I can’t,” he paid no heed to your words one hand sliding up your body to cradle your breast, gently rolling your puckered nipple between his fingers. You looked down at him, his chin resting on your spread thigh smiling up at you.

“Please, for me.” He begged you kissing your thigh trialing his way back up to your pussy. You wanted to say no but knew it would be pointless. You were at his mercy and you loved every minute. Noticing your change in demeanor he slid two fingers into you, the wet noises that he produced moving in and out would have embarrassed you if you weren’t blissed out on Steve’s attention.

He dipped down loving your clit once more, this time there was no lead up. He sucked and flicked his tongue aggressively sending you quickly towards another orgasm. He smiled against your flesh enjoying the sight of you throwing your head back, hands gripping pulling the sheets down once more. Turning back towards this delicious body you offered him and continued to pull from you everything he could.

It wasn’t long until tears were running down the sides of your eyes into your hair as he sent you into your fourth orgasm in a row. You felt raw down there, even the feeling of his breath too much stimulation. He stood up licking your juices off his lips with a wicked smile as you rolled over to your side showing the slightly flush hand prints on your ass. You pressed your thighs together and whimpering out at the sensation.

He enjoyed watching you fall apart each time but nothing could compare to what he was about to do. He pulled his boxer briefs down to the floor and crawled up the bed upright on his knees at your ass. He leaned over you and pulled you face to him.

Your closed eyes slowly opened to him, a lazy smile playing at your lips as your hands rose up to cup his face.

“Hey there beautiful,” You blushed at his words and he chuckled at your modesty. As your mind started to reboot from all the stimulation you feel his warm cock pressing into the back of your thighs. You reached back and grabbed hold of it smearing pre-cum around the tip. His head dipped to his chest groaned at your touch.

“Is this for me?” You coo teasingly as a smile touches your lips. You slowly start rubbing up and down his length.

“Yes” he hissed and jerked into your touch. You could feel how engorged he was, having spent the entire time seeing to your pleasure and ignoring his own.

“Give it to me,” He needed no further encouragement. He straddled your lower leg while pinning the other to his side. He teased your slick pussy with his tip. The juices that he had already coaxed out of you glistened on your thighs and ass.

As he eased his tip in you moaned and wiggled your hips back. He immediately pulled back placing one hand on your side and the other on your ass.

“Do I have to remind you to behave?” he growled feeling you tense at the sudden withdrawal. He spread your ass so he could watch as he pushed all the way into you. You cried out as you felt him stretch the already overworked flesh. It felt so good but the sensation was bordering on too much.

He let go of your ass cheek holding you at your hip with both hands sliding torturously slow into you. He threw his head back savoring the feeling of you taking all of him. All the fantasies he had could never compare to how it truly felt to be with you. Pulling out just as slow your gasp turned into a moan when he pushed in faster and pulled out even faster. He gripped your hip and ass ramming into you, a cry erupted from you before you could stop it. When he rammed in again you placed a hand over your mouth.

He pulled your hand away, your gaze catching his disgruntled face.

“Don’t hide yourself from me, not even a noise.” Meekly you nodded your head as he entwined his fingers between yours squeezing your hand tightly. Steve grunted as he rammed back into you setting a punishing pace, you couldn’t help but cry at the pleasure he sent through you.

He straightened his back increasing the tempo as your cries became louder. He knew you were close and wanted nothing more than to feel you cum around his cock. The fluttering of your muscles around him caused his pace to falter.

“Does it feel good doll?” You could barely gasp out a yes when he slammed into you and rotated his hips.

“You’ve got to speak up,” he chuckled as you became flustered when he slowly pulled out.

“Yes!” He smiled down at you pushing in to your scorching heat and pulling out slowly. You whimpered at the sudden change in pace, the friction felt wonderful but the pace was not what you needed, what you wanted from him.

“Do you know how many times I’ve thought about having you here,” he pushed back in slowly ignoring your soft please of encouragement to go faster. “On my bed, crying out for me, needing me, wanting me.” He shuddered as he pulled himself almost all the way out of you. You wiggled your hips trying to get him back in but his hand on your hip increased pressure stilling you.

“No,” you mewled at his denial. “What do you want?” his voice carried a sense of desperation.

“You, only you,” He groaned at you words and shoved himself into you, skin slapping against each other at the force. He pulled your ass cheek up watching as he slid into you at a brutal pace. Your juices sliding down your pussy as he shoved himself into you over and over.

“You can hear how wet you are,” he couldn’t help himself anymore, bracing his hands on the bed his hips thrusting into you at almost painful force. His superhuman strength leading strength to the most mind blowing pleasure you’ve ever felt.

The staccato of your moans let him know you were close. He snaked one hand between your legs flicking your clit as you reached for his him, digging your fingers into him as the pleasure began to sweep through you at an alarming rate.

“Steve!” You cried out his name as you whole body convulsed and gripped his cock tightly inside of you spamming around him. He groaned and grips the headboard with one hand moving his hips a sporadic pounding pace chasing his pleasure in the feeling of you coming around him.

With one last hard thrust you felt warmth spread inside of you, he groaned out as you whimpered going lax, completely exhausted. He leaned over you, resting his head on your shoulder breathing heavily against your skin.

When you both finally regained sense of consciousness he pulled out of you and groaned watching his cum slide down your ass cheek. He almost wanted to push it back in, keeping it in you. The desire to have a part of him in you so primal, but he shook his head and went to the bathroom.

You whimpered as he began to clean you, gently wiping away the remnants of both of your arousals with a wet warm washcloth. He wiped himself down haphazardly, caring more about you than his own mess, tossing the washcloth in his clothes bin. He crawled behind you in the bed pulling you to his chest cocooning you in his arms. You sighed blissfully when he leaned down and pulled the sheet you nearly removed completely over the two of you.

“Just a crush huh?” you chuckled at him intertwining your fingers between his and looking back at him. He huffed sending pieces of your hair flying in front of your face.

“Behave.” He kissed the side of your face then buried his flushed face in your hair inhaling deep.

#steve rogers x female #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers #Steve Rogers smut #captain America #captain America smut #marvel #marvel smut #tear you apart #she wants revenge #Steve Rogers eat me out from behind k thnx #fanfic

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neighborhoodmoonchild · 5 years

Text

Sweet Serendipity (Jimin x Faerie!Reader)

Genre: Supernatural Au, Fluff, Angst

Warnings: Explicit language, brief mention of assault (very brief), POV switching

Word Count: 6K

“I swear to God,” Jimin mumbles to himself, grabbing the giant textbook Namjoon had left when he spent the night and smacks it repeatedly against the wall, “if they don’t shut up, I’m going to kill someone.”

This wasn’t the first time he had thrown empty threats into the air when his neighbors got too rowdy. In fact, this was a normal occurrence for him.

Neighbors start being assholes, Jimin finds anything he can to beat the shit out of his walls with in hopes they’ll get the message, surprise-surprise, they don’t, and the cycle starts all over again.

Oh, how he wished he hadn’t signed a long-ass lease so he could just move away and forget those idiots ever existed, but fate had other plans for him, plans that included him being miserable for the next year with no way out of it.

Huffing back to the couch, the incessant noise plaguing his every sense, Jimin pulls out his phone and brings up a text conversation.

-Kook, you busy? Assholes next door are at it again, could really use a break.

He sends the text and tucks his phone back into his pocket, opting to plug his headphones in and turn the volume on his laptop up so loud, either he won’t be able to hear them over the movie, or he’ll blow his eardrums. At this point, it’s a win-win.

A few hours pass, his movie long forgotten, and Jimin may or may not be trying to smother himself with a pillow as he lays sprawled across his bed. He checks his phone for the 10th time in the last hour, and decides Jungkook is definitely not getting back to him, and he’ll have to suffer alone.

As if it’s not bad enough he has to deal with mind-numbing noise all day every day, but add on his best friend never. fucking. answering him? What did he ever do to deserve this? And what if it was an emergency, and Jungkook was the only thing between life and death for Jimin? Well, he hopes it never comes down to that, because he honestly has little-to-no faith left in the kid.

Day slowly fades to night and Jimin thinks he’s actually, truly going insane. He wants more than anything to find the courage to march next door, slam the door open, and tell them to shut the fuck up.

He would not find it today, though, and goes through his normal night routine before putting his headphones on as he crawls into bed. Soft melodies drown out the noise as he slowly succumbs to his exhaustion.

Maybe tomorrow would be a new day.

—

Jimin was still waiting for that ‘new day’ a week later. The past few days had been so bad he’d decided to hang out with Namjoon in his dorm, which he never did. Another thing on his list of hates: Joon’s dorm. It was loud, but not as loud as his apartment complex, so he was thankful for that. The worst part about it was Joon’s annoying roommate.

He’d tried to get a single, but was put in a double last minute, no chance to pick a roommate. So, he was stuck with some annoying ass guy who left his shit all over the room and constantly had people coming in and out.

Namjoon usually escaped to Jimin’s place when he couldn’t take it anymore, but at this point, it was a double ended blade.

So, they would suffer together in the lesser of the two evils.

“I wish we could just get a place together. Then we wouldn’t have to deal with all these idiots.” Jimin ends his rant with a loud huff, even though he knew there was no use. Rent anywhere close to campus was way too expensive for both of their budgets, and then there was the whole lease thing still looming over Jimin’s head like a freaking noose.

Namjoon gives his friend a small sympathetic smile before turning back to his textbook.

Midterms were coming fast and he wanted to be 100% prepped and ready. He wouldn’t tell Jimin that he really needed to study and that they could hang another time. Just by looking at him, Joon could tell he was at his wits end.

“Why don’t you go down to the manager and complain again?” Namjoon knows he’s just grasping straws here, but he had to try something.

He didn’t like seeing Jimin slinking around all sad and wallowing. He missed the upbeat, bright spark that made his friend the spitfire he truly is. That complex was trying to snuff him out, but Namjoon wouldn’t have it.

“I’ve filed multiple complaints and they don’t do shit.” Jimin crosses his arms, growing more infuriated at the situation by the second.

“Maybe this time will be different?” Jimin just rolls his eyes and grabs his stuff.

“If you wanted me to leave, you could’ve just said so.” He doesn’t wait for Namjoon to react, slamming the door behind him and heading home. Ha, ‘home.’

That place would never be a home to Jimin.

Despite his reluctance at putting any more faith in the poor management of his complex, he figures it can’t hurt to stop in and let them know the noise hasn’t stopped.

“We are aware. We are looking into it.”

That was it, that was always it. He couldn’t even bother being angry, it just wasn’t worth it anymore. Instead of taking the elevator, he opts for the stairs to give himself time to mentally prepare.

By the time he gets to his floor, he’s a little out of breath, but in the distance he can hear the noise already wafting through the halls. It sucks every remaining drop of energy from his body, and he all but drags himself to his door, cringing at how loud the noise is when right next to it.

After locking the door and abandoning his stuff on the floor he throws himself onto his bed, covers his head with a pillow and falls asleep.

His dreams are filled with glorious images of moving out, living in a peaceful place, and never having to see or hear his neighbors ever again.

—

Jimin decides the next few weeks are a good time to pull a Jungkook and ghost everyone.

He doesn’t answer Namjoon when he texts and asks him if he’s alright.

He doesn’t answer Hoseok’s calls about dance class.

He doesn’t even answer the door when Jungkook finally does show up.

“Come on Chim, I just want to make sure you’re still alive.” Kook raps on the door a few more times, pressing his ear to the wood when he hears footsteps.

“Like you care, I could’ve been dead for days and you wouldn’t have noticed.” Jimin doesn’t open the door, instead yells through the wall while he makes himself a cup of coffee.

Staying in bed every day was actually making him more tired than being up, which he didn’t think was possible.

Kook just laughs, twisting the locked handle a few times, “Chim, I’m sorry, just let me innnnnnn.” He drags it out in hopes Jimin will get annoyed and open the door.

It doesn’t happen though, Jimin just goes back to his bed, cuddling up in the blankets before yelling back, “Nope, go find someone else to bother.”

At least now Jungkook could let the others know Jimin is indeed still alive, just throwing himself a pity party. Jimin can be dramatic sometimes, so it’s not really a surprise when he pulls out the theatrics.

“Alright, I’ll leave you to your misery.” Kook is disappointed his friend doesn’t want his help right now, but he knows that sometimes Jimin just needs to be alone for a while to get over things.

After Jungkook leaves, Jimin decides he can at least text everyone that he is in fact alive so they won’t show up at his door again. Once it’s sent, he unpauses the movie he was watching and continues his wallow fest.

It’s the next day when he notices that there hasn’t been a noise, not even a peep from his neighbors.

He’s getting dressed after a long shower, heading into the kitchen to grab some breakfast before he forces himself to go see the boys, when he realizes, ‘I haven’t heard anything from next door this whole week.’

It’s enough to sufficiently freak him out and question his sanity. They have been loud as hell since Jimin moved in, no quiet since then, so what the hell was going on?

Deciding to skip breakfast, he grabs his keys and jacket, heading out the door when he takes a quick glance at the next door over. It looked exactly the same, the only change being a cute little doormat at the door.

While it was a little odd, considering he’s pretty sure there are a bunch of guys living next door, and that doormat screams ‘girl,’ it’s not enough to make him think anything drastic has happened.

‘Maybe one of them got a girlfriend,’ he thinks to himself, even though he’s not sure how that could be possible with how awful they are.

Jimin doesn’t want to waste any more time thinking about his neighbors, heading to the elevator and out to meet the guys to hang for the day.

“Ah, the Great Park Jimin, he lives!” Jin yells, causing Yoongi and Namjoon to shake their heads in embarrassment as the other three whoop and holler like it was Jimin’s homecoming.

Needless to say, it was nice to be around his favorite people after walling himself away for over a week.

He needed to let himself let loose and have some fun or he was sure he was going to actually lose it.

They ended up spending the whole day just walking around, doing a little shopping, and enjoying each others company. The boys are a family, so they couldn’t go very long without getting together.

They all part ways a block away from Jimin’s building, Jungkook heading with Jimin after promising to spend the night if Jimin helps him beat a new level in one of his favorite video games.

The walk back is full of laughs and the two of them play fighting each other, until they see one of Jimin’s neighbors in a moving truck parked outside the building. Jimin nudges Jungkook, pointing at the truck and Kook just watches on, confused.

Another one of his neighbors exits the building with a box, hefting it into the back of the truck and promptly hops in the passenger side, the truck taking off.

“Did I just see that right?” Jimin asks out loud, to no one particular, maybe Kook or maybe the universe. They climb the steps and enter the lobby, Jimin quickly heading over to the front desk to ask about the situation.

“Yeah, they’ve been in the process of leaving for a few weeks now, finally got the rest of their stuff out today.”

“That’s amazing-“ Jimin didn’t mean to sound as excited as he was at the neighbors leaving, but he couldn’t help himself.

“There’s already a new tenant, she moved her stuff in fast.”

Jimin’s ears started to turn red at the tips; he’d never lived next door to a girl before.

“A girl?” Jungkook butts into the conversation all too excitedly, causing the woman at the desk to roll her eyes.

“She’s kind of weird though,” the woman mutters to herself, loud enough for the boys to hear her.

Jimin doesn’t care if she’s weird, at least his awful neighbors were finally gone and he’d have some peace and quiet. Jungkook doesn’t care if she’s weird, because it’s a girl; his best friend lives next to a girl.

Jimin has to hold Kook by his collar, almost like he was on a leash, just to reign him in and stop him from running up to your door.

Jimin unlocks his own door, shoving Jungkook inside before pausing in the doorway to glance over to the door next to him.

A girl, huh?

That night, Jungkook gets bored after wasting an hour trying to hear anything from your side of the wall and settles on getting his game on. Jimin makes them some popcorn for the long quest ahead, but finds himself drawn out onto the terrace before he sits down to join Kook.

As he slides open the door, he looks over to your terrace to see a flash of hair as your door promptly shuts, curtains drawing to hide you from the world.

Jimin just stares at your door, watching the curtain sway back and forth, hoping that maybe you’d come back out and he’d get to see you.

After a few minutes, Jungkook is yelling at him to get his butt inside and help him beat some boss, and Jimin can’t help but let his curiosity grow as he wonders what the girl next door is like.

—

Jimin is the first to wake up the next morning, promptly shoving Jungkook away from, even though he’s pretty sure he told him to sleep on the couch. Rubbing his eyes, he makes his way out to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of juice when he notices the corner of a paper sticking out from under his door.

The closer he gets, he smells the scent of freshly baked goods floating from the hallway. As he opens the door, he looks down to see a little basket with a pink napkin over the top.

Jimin’s never gotten anything at his door before, so he’s rightfully confused, looking up and down the hallway for a sign of who might’ve left this for him.

Kneeling down to look in the basket, he moves the napkin to find a few little sweet buns, each with their own little decoration.

They’re cute and they smell absolutely delicious, but he’s paranoid that he doesn’t know who left them. It’s when he picks the basket up he notices the paper sat underneath it.

It’s a small note, ‘From your new neighbor.’ You even signed it with a little heart, but no name.

Jimin looks from the note to your door, no sign of life from behind it and decides it would be rude to leave them out in the hall.

He sets the basket down on the counter, fishing around one of the kitchen drawers until he finds a pen and a pad of sticky notes.

‘Thank you for the treats. -Jimin’ It was short and simple, just to let you know he appreciated it. Returning to the hall, he sticks the note to your door, letting his fingers linger on the wood before he turns back to his own place.

Jungkook could apparently smell them from Jimin’s room, walking out wide-eyed as he surveyed the basket.

“You have a secret admirer or something I don’t know about Chim?” Jimin can feel his cheeks heat up the slightest at Kook’s comment, but brushes it off.

“Just a gift from the new neighbor.” As soon as he hears ‘neighbor’, Jungkook starts making faces at Jimin, teasing him that they’d meet and fall in love and all that romantic mushy crap.

Jimin just promptly shoves one of the buns in Kooks face, to which he happily takes in his mouth.

The best way to get Jungkook to shut up? Give him food.

A few hours go by and Jungkook decides he’s gonna head home, so Jimin walks him out, mostly to be a good friend, but also to check your door and see if you had gotten his note.

When he comes back up from the lobby, the note is gone and a new one lies on his door.

‘You’re welcome, I hope you liked them,’ scrawled neatly across the pink stationary, a little bee and heart in the corner. It was so cute, everything regarding you so far was cute. Your door mat, your baked goods, your handwriting, Jimin could only wonder how cute you were.

He again grabs his paper and writes another note, sticking it to your door in the same place.

As he touches the paper to the door, he hears shuffling in your apartment. It takes every ounce of self control he has not to stick his ear up to the door to listen for you. Instead he waits to make sure you won’t come out while he’s standing there like a weirdo, and then turns back to his apartment, escaping inside.

Jimin hears your door open and close, a part of him kicking himself for not staying to see you in person. He just had a feeling, though, that you’d meet face to face when the moment was right, and this wasn’t it. So, he’d push away the nagging thoughts and opt for some quiet time in front of the TV for a while instead.

The hope that he’d get to see your face someday soon was enough to keep him awake almost all night.

—

‘Why were you screaming at your TV?’ Was all the note said, besides a little laughing emoji in the bottom corner. Jimin just chuckles a bit to himself before grabbing another note from his door to write you a new one.

‘Because, the characters in my show are the worst!’ Up it goes in the same place, just like the many that came before.

It’d been a few weeks since the note passing had started, and you and Jimin were closer than every, well, in theory.

It started with little gifts you’d leave in front of each others doors, along with little notes. Then it was a note every day, sometimes even multiple a day. The more notes shared between the two of you, the bolder you were getting.

You’d play your music a little louder after Jimin praised your taste, watch the same movie at the same time so it was like you were watching it with him. Sometimes he’d even whisper goodnight to you through the wall, which you always replied back to.

The giddiness in his heart had grown tenfold, and the anticipation of seeing you in person was growing.

He’d left a note for you a week and a half ago asking when he could see you, actually see you, to which you only replied, ‘soon.’

Hoseok called early this morning to ask Jimin if he could come in and help with classes all day, to which Jimin was happy to do. He was happier to do a lot of things, now that his living situation had done a complete 180. The boys all noticed the extra pep in his step once you two had started leaving notes for each other, and while Namjoon was wary that it could all be too good to be true, the rest were just glad he wasn’t a mope anymore.

The day was exhausting considering Jimin hadn’t formally been back to the studio for a week or two, but it felt good to move and stretch his muscles again. He was remembering how fun life can be when he’s not miserable all the time.

Hanging with Hoseok while teaching some youth dancers a new routine was exactly what Jimin needed right now, just mindless fun and some time to be a leader. He liked having the young dancers look up to him and enjoy learning with him.

When the day finally came to a close, Hoseok offers to get Jimin a ride, but Jimin decides he rather likes the cool air on his sweaty skin and tells him he’ll just walk home. The studio isn’t too far from his place and he likes to watch the cars pass by illuminated by the streetlights.

Jimin gets lost in his thoughts; about class, about the next scheduled outing with the boys, even about you.

He doesn’t even realize it, but he’s smiling to himself just thinking about what note you could possibly have left him tonight. Maybe tonight would be the night he’d get to meet you properly.

All of his thoughts, though, get set aside when he sees a girl, roughly his age, being harassed by some sleazy guy outside of his building.

—

You hadn’t planned on going out this evening, figuring there was enough to do inside to keep you occupied. It was when you realized you were out of sugar for the cookies you wanted to bake for Jimin that you decided it couldn’t hurt to take a quick trip to the supermarket down the street.

You pull on your sweatshirt, hiking the hood up over your head, grabbing your bag and keys, and head out. You take a quick peek at your door to see the note Jimin left behind.

You smile as you read it, stuffing it in your pocket and heading out.

The walk to the market and buying the sugar was easy. It was still kind of light out when you left, and nobody had approached you while you scoured the market for the sugar.

It was the walk home that ruined everything.

Sometimes you cursed yourself for how you always seemed to draw in the worst people. While you also could attract the nicest of people, it seemed that the bad ones were easier and in abundance.

On your way back, bag of sugar in one hand, your keys in the other, you could feel the sensation of someone watching you. You didn’t want to seem paranoid, so you just picked up pace and kept your eyes locked ahead.

It was when you could finally see the steps of the building in your vision that you felt a hand wrap around your forearm, yanking you backwards.

Stupidly enough, you couldn’t force yourself to scream, you just yelped at the searing force the figure used and tried to rip yourself from him.

“A pretty girl like you shouldn’t be out so late by yourself.” You didn’t want to look at the man, his voice sending chills down your spine and the air thickening so much around you, you felt like you were suffocating.

For some reason, people lost their sense of boundaries when around you, which you didn’t understand at all. It’s like people felt like they owned you almost, like the air you put off gave them the right to act like you owed them something.

Your mother always credited it to your blind generosity and kindness, but sometimes things just went too far.

“Leave me alone, please.” Your voice was soft and tight, holding back your tears as best you could. You didn’t want to seem like you were utterly defenseless.

As your grip on your keys tightened, enough to, with the right movement, hit the guy to get away, a voice cuts through the air.

“Hey, she said leave her alone.” Your head shoots to the side, a boy with brown hair and a black sweatshirt coming into your vision. His features were soft and delicate, but the look on his face showed stone-cold seriousness.

He slowly approached, looking at how the man’s hand was coiled tightly around your arm. Lifting one hand up in defense, he looks from you to the man, “Look, just let go and get out of here, there’s a security guard right in the building, so just let it go man.”

The sleaze looks from the boy, to you, to the building. It’s then that he sees the security cameras trained on him that he promptly lets go of you, shoving you to the ground and taking off.

The boy rushes over to you, calmly as not to startle you more than you already were and grabs your hands, helping you to your feet.

You look down at the busted bag of sugar on the sidewalk and sigh, letting a few tears slip out on accident.

You were frustrated to say the least, why could people be so awful?

The boy picks up the bag, trying not to spill too much more out of it and turns to you.

“Are you okay?” He watches a single tear slip down your cheek and his heart clenches in his chest. How dare some asshole hurt someone, especially an innocent girl like you.

You shake yourself to bring yourself back to reality and attempt a pathetic smile, “I’m fine. Thank you for that. You didn’t have to.” You go to take the bag from his hands but he pulls it closer to him.

“Yes I did, no one deserves to be attacked like that.”

He looks in your eyes for a moment, assuring you that he wouldn’t have acted any other way than helping you. It was what any good person would do; what any decent person would do.

“Well, thank you, again. I can take that,” you say, pointing to the bag settled in his arms.

He shakes it a bit, forgetting the split and sending more sugar to the concrete. You can’t help but let out a little giggle at how his face drops when he realizes what he’d done.

“I can carry it for you, then you won’t have to walk alone.” He smiles, bright and it’s contagious, spreading a smile to your lips.

You shift your body and point to the building ahead, “That’s okay, I live right here anyways.”

His eyes beam wide, “Wait, you live here?” He asks excitedly.

“Yeah, why?”

“So do I!” He exclaims, following you as you ascend the steps into the lobby. He follows you to the elevator, stepping in behind you. He goes to push the button to his floor after you push yours, but he realizes you just pushed the same button.

“You live on the fourth floor too?” You turn to look at him, shock present on both of your faces.

You’re wondering who this mystery guy might be, both nervous and excited about all these crazy coincidences. It’s when he follows you to your door, which resides right next to his, that you both stare at each other, it finally hitting you.

“Jimin?” You ask, and he nods. You can’t help the butterflies erupting in your stomach, finally face to face with the boy next door.

Jimin was about to pass out, his inner self jumping up and down, screaming, everything to celebrate finally meeting his neighbor, but on the outside, he tries to play it cool.

“You never actually told me your name,” he says, looking at you expectantly.

Slowly bringing your hand out to him, you hold it out, “Y/N.”

He grasps your hand in a light shake, fingers lingering a bit longer than they should have.

He clears his throat, lifting the bag to point to your door, “Maybe we should take this inside?”

You turn and unlock your door, mentally preparing yourself for the fact that you were letting someone into your home for the first time. How crazy that the first person you’d invite inside would be the mystery neighbor you were dying to meet?

Jimin sets the sad sack of sugar on your counter, cringing when it spills out onto the surface, but you just shake your head and tell him it’s fine.

“So, you're the girl who saved me from the awful people that used to live here?”

He’s standing awkwardly by the door, unsure if it’s alright to come in and make himself at home or not. You’re not sure how to interact with strangers in your home, but Jimin at least wasn’t a total stranger.

“Guilty as charged, I guess.” He smiles when you let another giggle escape.

“Do you want to,” you gesture to the tea kettle on the stove, “stay for tea?”

Jimin spots the time on your oven and realizes how late it is. He promised Namjoon he’d meet him at the library early tomorrow morning, and he also just now realizes how gross and sweaty he is from class.

“It’s actually pretty late, I should probably head to bed.” He hates himself, more than he ever has at any other moment in his life.

He’d finally come face to face with the girl whose been occupying his every thought, and he’s turning down time to spend with her?

When he looks at your face, you’re not upset with him like he expects you to be.

“Another time then, it’s not like it’s a far walk from your place to mine.” Another giggle that sends shivers up and down his spine, red tinging the tips of his ears.

“Right, absolutely.” You smile at each other, not sure where to go from there. Jimin turns around, grabbing the edge of your door, looking at you over his shoulder.

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

Your cheeks flush pink, warmed by the amount of concern lacing every word.

“Yes, Jimin, I’m fine, thanks to you.” He can feel his entire face heat up and he wants to turn away so you won’t see.

“Goodnight Y/N,” he says quickly, walking forward, pulling the door with him.

“Goodnight Jimin.” And then the door shuts.

You hear him open and close his door, huff loudly into most likely a pillow and you presume he must have went to take a shower.

The walls weren’t the thickest in this complex, so it didn’t leave much to the imagination.

Lifting the bag off the counter, you set it in the sink to take care of tomorrow.

You can just make Jimin cookies and take them to him tomorrow as well.

—

The more time you spent actually hanging around Jimin, the more you found yourself opening up. You’d always been quite introverted, hiding yourself away in your home.

Jimin made opening up fun. You would go over to his place, watch him play video games or make him dinner after you’d found out he basically lived off of take-out.

He’d come over to your place and insist on watching you bake, even helping out when you told him you’d teach him how to make those sweet buns you'd left for him the first day.

Notes were replaced with actual words, whether that be you or him barging into each other’s places to rant about something stupid on TV or yelling playfully at each other through the walls.

It was like having a roommate you didn’t really share the living space with.

You’d both grown so comfortable with each other over time, it was like you’d been best friends for years.

You’d show up in your pajamas to watch movies and sometimes he’d barge in to your place dripping wet wrapped only in a towel to steal your shampoo because his had ‘run out.’ In actuality, he just liked the smell of yours better.

He introduced you to his friend group rather quickly, and you’d found yourself sucked in immediately.

Taehyung would chase Jungkook around Jimin’s place to avenge the food he’d steal from your plate, while Namjoon would come up with clever ways you could get rid of both of them without anyone knowing.

You’d even let Yoongi sleep on your couch a few times after he’d fall asleep during a movie you’d all be watching.

They were like family to you in an instant and you felt so at home with them, more than you’d ever had with anyone in your life before.

Jimin loved having you as his best friend and he loved that you’d become his friends’ friend as well.

The only issue came up when Jimin realized he had non-platonic feelings for you. Of course he had a crush on you when you first met, but as you grew closer, you’d become such good friends that the crush sort of fizzled out. Suddenly, watching you show Jungkook how to ice a cookie, he realized he didn’t like you just as a friend. He liked you.

Every time he’d try to flirt with you or subtly drop hints of his affection for you, you’d never picked up on it. He was friend zoned again and again and again.

Jimin was too worried about ruining your friendship, so he decided he’d just keep it to himself and move on. You were too important to him to jeopardize what you already had.

—

Fast forward a few months and bring in Jiwoo, Namjoon’s friend from school, and Jimin thinks he’s finally over his hopeless crush on you.

Jimin started making plans with Jiwoo, spending more time with just her and leaving you behind.

You were happy he found someone, especially someone as sweet as Jiwoo. She was everything he needed, she’d be good for him, so you weren’t going to get in the way.

While you grew lonely the less and less you saw Jimin, you couldn’t blame him for enjoying himself. He deserved to love and be loved.

Luckily, the boys knew that there was something more between you and Jimin, you both were just ‘too dumb,’ in Yoongi’s opinion, to see it.

While Jimin was off with Jiwoo pretending he was over you, the boys decided it was their duty to watch over you and keep you occupied.

They could tell you were hurting more than you were letting on, especially when Jin stopped in to ask you if you wanted to go get coffee and found you on the couch crying over a romantic movie.

Of course, not knowing what to do, he told the rest of the guys and ‘Plan: Get the Dummies Together’ (named through the joint effort of Jungkook and Taehyung’s last brain cells) commenced.

Namjoon didn’t want to interfere at first, but when he saw how sad you looked as you watched Jimin take Jiwoo over to his place, he knew something had to be done, and the other boys couldn’t be trusted to do it right.

According to the plan, Namjoon and Hoseok would occupy Jimin to get him away from Jiwoo as much as possible. During this time, they’d talk mostly about you.

The rest of the boys were tasked with keeping you happy. Cooking, walks, shopping, it didn’t matter as long as you were smiling and not crying.

After a few days of initiating the plan, Jimin pulled Namjoon aside to ask him what was going on. They weren’t the best at being subtle, so it didn’t take long for him to catch on.

“You know you’re a literal idiot, right?” Namjoon sighs, Hobi nodding.

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Jimin didn’t think his best friends would attack him so openly like this, but he’s more concerned what brought it on than their attitude.

“Y/N.” Hobi says, the both of them just looking at him like he’d kicked a puppy or something.

There’s a tinge of guilt swirling around in the pit of his stomach, but he forces himself to ignore it, “What about her?”

“Do I have to spell it out for you? You L-O-V-E her and she L-O-V-E-S you dipshit.”

That takes Jimin by complete surprise. He thought he had been careful about hiding his feelings for you, even developing feelings for someone else to keep them at bay.

Was there any chance you had felt the same way?

“No I don’t, and no she doesn’t. I’m with Jiwoo.”

“Exactly. You’re with Jiwoo, but you don’t love her. You love Y/N.” Namjoon is getting more impatient with Jimin the longer he dodges it.

“Of course I don’t,” is all Jimin can get out, too caught up in everything happening at once. Did he really love you? Were his feelings for Jiwoo not real? Did you love him back? Why hadn’t you said or done anything to clue him in on how you felt? He thought he’d been kind of obvious before.

“Then say it, say ‘I love Jiwoo, I don’t love Y/N.’” Joon knows exactly how this will play out, but Jimin needs to hear it from himself.

“Fine,” Jimin huffs, “I love Y/N, I don’t love Jiwoo-“ he wants to cover his mouth, but Hobi is already jumping around yelling ‘We knew it!,’ and Joon’s just smirking matter-of-factly.

“And that is why you are an idiot.” Jimin knows what he has to do now, the realization that his heart belongs to someone else weighing heavily.

Even the spark of hope that you might love him back can’t shield him from the hurt he’s about to cause.

—

There were a lot of tears, but Jiwoo only said she had a feeling this was going to happen. Apparently Jimin was really bad at hiding his feelings for you, so it was only a matter of time before things had to come to an end.

In the end, Jiwoo even wished him luck, knowing how much you both meant to each other. She couldn’t be too mad at true love after all.

Jimin was a freaking wreck on the other hand. He wasn’t good at breaking people’s hearts, and it took a toll on him.

He no longer had a girlfriend to make him happy and he didn’t know where you and him stood.

Since the break-up, he’d noticed how much time you were spending with Jungkook and the others. He didn’t like feeling jealous of his friends, but he couldn’t help it.

He was too much of a coward to confront you and tell you how he feels, though.

After letting himself be miserable over the break-up for a few days, he comes up with the best way he knows how to talk to you.

Grabbing the pad of paper, abandoned months ago, he writes up a quick note to leave on your door. He walks out, and just as he is about to put the paper up, your door swings open.

Your alone for the first time in a while, the boys coming up with excuses to let you and Jimin have your own time.

You had planned on going on a walk to get some fresh air when you come face to face with Jimin at your door.

He looks like a mess, hair disheveled, face stained with tears, and in the same crinkled sweats he’d lived in all week.

You couldn’t help the pang of sadness twist through your heart. He looked broken.

“Hey,” was all you manage to get out, in fear you’d crack and make a fool out of yourself.

“Hey.” Jimin’s voice is rough and dry after crying for so long. He hated how pathetic he looked and sounded in front of you.

How could you possibly love someone like him?

“Are you okay? Where’s Jiwoo?” You hated yourself for the nasty taste you got in your mouth from saying her name, it wasn’t her fault you waited too long.

“We actually broke up.” He doesn’t cry this time, he just searches your face for a reaction.

While you are sad your friend is hurting, you can’t help the hope blossoming in your chest.

“I’m sorry, you want to talk?” He just nods and rushes forward into your arms. You both missed the feeling of holding each other close, snuggling into one another and letting yourselves be vulnerable.

You let out a relieved gasp when he clutches tight to you, as if he was afraid you’d dissipate into the air.

“I should’ve just told you,” he whispers into your shoulder.

“Tell me what?” You pull your face back from his chest to look at him confused. He just lifts his hand, still clutching the note tightly, and shows it to you.

‘I love you.’

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Yes, I know it’s up later than the others, me being late to upload is just going to be a theme for the rest of the week. Anyways, cue the softest, cutest Jimin fanfic have ever written. Not to sound like a broken record, but, I really freaking love this one. Hope all you Chim gals eat your heart out, I hope I did your boy justice. 2 more to go. Stay Spooky!💜

-Moonie🌙

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yaboylevi · 5 years

Note

Hello! I find your theories very appealing. I would like to ask you what do you think about bond between Levi and Eren from the perspective of recent informations? Eren said that Ackermans form that kind of relationship "in order to protect Eldia`s king" on subconsscious lvl. Do you think that Levi dismissing the idea of killing Eren almost immidiately while having a hedache means that he is influenced like that? Thank you for your time!

Hello everyone, I was surprised to receive so many questions about this topic. This meta has become massive, as I analyzed some interactions throughout the whole manga. Feel free to add your thoughts on it.

Disclaimer:

I’ve seen people argue that Mikasa’s actions make sense even if she wasn’t controlled by her blood, and I agree (112!Eren was probably exaggerating, anyway). And it certainly stands for Levi’s actions as well.

The chances of Levi being bonded to Eren are very slim, in my opinion, and I don’t want him to be, if I had to be honest, but for the sake of answering these questions, and because the most recent chapter is purposely asking us to consider it, I will now ramble about it.

More under the cut.

My experience with ch112 has been me reading the Japanese script first. I was crushed by the EMA talk, then I expected the worst even from Levi’s part, as the page that first leaked seemingly had Levi losing faith in Eren. So I read the soldiers announcing that the plan was to feed Eren to someone, then Levi starting wondering if it even had been worth it to protect Eren, considering all the sacrifices humanity had made. Then it shifted to Levi completely shutting down the idea. No, he said, he would have none of it. He didn’t even care if Eren was controlled or not, he would not kill him. He would kill someone else, feed it to a random person and then titanize Historia. I was blown away. Because I thought Levi to be very opposed to this titan-Historia plan. And I always knew Levi cared about Eren, but it was crazy to read Levi so explicitly confirm it.

Then the chapters images dropped. Mikasa held her head because of a headache, just when Eren was challenging her about it. And right after that, when Levi was debating if he would allow Eren to be killed, he held his head in seemingly (emotional) pain and/or frustration. An Ackerman holding his head just when Eren has just finished talking about Ackerman’s headachesーWait what?!

Images of Mikasa softly placing her hand to the side of the head came immediately to mind. I think it was intentional on Isayama’s part. The coincidence was too obvious to ignore.

So I started thinking about all those times I made fun of Levi for being overprotective of Eren, starting with one of the most recent examples, with Yelena. There is, of course, a logical reason for it, but…But.

What about that time in the Forest of Giant Trees, when Levi was way too much in synch with Eren, just like Mikasa.

This one always felt weird. I loved this parallel. I always attributed Mikasa’s reaction to her overbearing protectiveness, plus she had actually heard Eren’s roar once, in Trost. But Levi had never heard it, as far as we know, he had barely known Eren for a month. It just looked weird and funny in my eyes, and I often joked around with my friends about it, like “Levi, you fool, you’ve known him for like 10 minutes, why are you acting like Mikasa”. But now…I’m reconsidering every interaction Eren and Levi had, from the very start.

Curiously enough, Levi’s first thought when thinking about Eren in 112 is also the very first time he saw him. Eren, so vulnerable. It’s a sweet memory. Levi had found EMA at just the right moment and saved them. When hearing about Eren’s most recent deed, Levi thinks of Eren’s face in a moment of weakness and confusion, instead of, like, this other panel below. Once, the first thing Levi thought about when talking about Eren was this:

Now it’s this.

I feel like Levi’s opinion of Eren has subtly changed over the years, from someone who inspires power and fear, to someone who inspires protection.

The panel above could be attributed to Levi’s next line of thoughts about all the times he had to save Eren, but that time in Trost is the exception because no one had ordered Levi to save Eren. Yet, he still somehow found him. Mikasa says her bond “wasn’t born by chance”. It’s because it was Eren. Now I wonder if it wasn’t fated that the two Ackermans would find Eren.

This put aside, their next meeting is the famous one, in the courtroom prisons. It’s the first time we see one of the most stoic character, as stoic as Mikasa, show such a strong, impressed reaction to someone. Even before Eren proclaims his intent, his vision we could say, Levi is shaken.

He decides he will protect him. Erwin probably had already decided this, but I feel Levi was kinda opposed to it before this moment. Levi chose to do so only when hearing such strong-willed words from Eren’s mouth. Words that seem to match Levi’s own vision, as he had just proclaimed as much just hours before on the battlefield.

I’ve always liked this interaction, but I’ve never really thought about the meaning it had in the story. It could simply be a means, like in any other shonen, to show the protagonist’s efforts and value be acknowledged by a not-so-easily impressionable character. Here, Levi’s decision is based simply on Eren’s will, which is Eren’s main trait. But there could be more. Every panel seems to always convey something specific in this manga, and as time progresses and more info are revealed, the meaning of certain panels changes.

Particular focus was put on Levi’s reaction in the anime, too. Could be a strategic move to stir female fans, but the manga focuses on it, as well.

Then, some other interactions have a kind of weird feel when it comes to Levi’s behavior in regards to Eren.

Levi stands in the middle between people who might decide to kill Eren (Zackley, and in 112, it parallels to Pixis, who is in Zackley’s place now) and Eren himself. No need to mention that Levi’s beating was merely a farce, due to Erwin’s orders with the goal to save Eren. Levi, in the visual novel, says he didn’t like it, but it was necessary to save his life. In this occasion, Eren screams “Bet on me!” and I idly wonder if this could be the order an Ackerman needs.

Currently, Levi is totally betting on Eren still being their only hope for freedom.

After that, a totally unjustified gut feeling tells Levi to protect Eren, even if he was absolutely pissed just mere seconds before and he has no reason to trust Eren with his titan.

Then, in the forest, again for no reason at all, he jeopardizes Erwin’s plans when he gives free choice to Eren. If Eren had decided to fight the Female Titan, it would have never reached the point where Erwin and the other soldiers were waiting for it. Levi has always given precise orders to his subordinates. But he left free choice to Eren.

The same happened in the Reiss cave. They were about to die, and instead of thinking about a solution himself, or giving some orders, he recognized Eren’s will and left him a choice. They could’ve died, but he decided to trust Eren. These could simply be ways for Isayama to let the protagonist grow and gain experiences that will shape him in the future, but usually, the characters act for very specific reasons. I’ve always believed it was because Eren and Levi are fundamentally really similar and Levi understood this and respected and accepted Eren because of it. It could still be it. But now I am reconsidering Levi’s reasons for trusting Eren so much in the first place, since the very beginning.

Now, when it comes to Erwin’s orders conflicting with protecting Eren…

In Stohess, Levi, upon Erwin’s orders, couldn’t participate in the battle, and, when hearing Eren’s roar again, he looks like this.

In the Forest of Giant Trees, when Erwin prevents Levi to get to his squad and to Eren, it very much looks like Levi wants to oppose it, but he trusts Erwin, his current liege.

In Shiganshina, the same happens.

Towards the end of that battle, when Levi sees Eren again, he looks distraught.

Then he recomposes himself and comes up with a half-assed plan that would cause his own demise and that of everyone else, but Erwin and Eren would survive, and that’s all that matters because they are the hope of humanity for Levi. Sounds familiar? Yeah, it sounds like the plan in chapter 112, a pretty bold plan that goes directly against orders ー its faults clearly pointed out by othersー and is based on sacrificing important people in order to protect “hope”.

The timing of Levi clutching his head in the latest chapter was suspicious. It might not be a headache, but I think Isayama wants to make us wonder, of course.

I…honestly don’t want Levi to be ackerbonded to Eren and he probably isn’t, as I said before. I want every one of their interactions to be nothing but genuine, between two people who understand and trust each other on a basic, instinctual level, without even an ounce of magical and/or scientific stuff in the middle.

But Eren has the Founder and it looks like Ackermans were made to protect it. I wouldn’t find it farfetched if fate, or “Paths”, whatever, brought all the Ackermans to be around Eren. Mikasa and Levi specifically, both with the self-appointed mission to protect Eren. Levi’s has never made us suspect anything because it was also his official mission in the SC. But both Ackermans are making the same pained expression when finally confronting Eren in Marley, and it can’t be a coincidence.

The images are so painfully similar, they overlap (my friend checked lol).

I am aware Ackermans can still have independent feelings for their host. If Kenny’s granddad’s story taught us anything, it would be that the Ackermans can ideologically oppose their host’s decisions. I am unsure if they can, physically, but I bet they can. Eren seems to think the bond works both mentally and physically, like a twilight imprint, minus the romantic aspect of it. But I don’t think the Ackermans’ most inner feelings are influenced, albeit the bond possibly forming during an “extreme situation” when the Ackerman (or the Liege?) is in life-threatening danger is certainly worrying. You know, trauma and bad coping mechanisms.

About those knee-jerk reactions Eren called Mikasa out on, I’d like to point out Levi’s punch to Eren in Shiganshina (possibly in response to the instinct to protect Erwin) and Mikasa’s subsequent violent reaction to Levi (possibly in response to her instinct to protect Eren).

But there’s another instance, in Levi’s visual novel “Burning Bright in the Forest of the Night”, that happens when Levi hears Eren’s roar.

“Facing that conclusion head on [that Eren is in danger], he flies like a released arrow. His heart - it is as cold as ice.”

I have no idea what will happen next, if Levi will survive or how he’ll react to Eren’s new…personality. But not even Eren using the SC to attack an entire nation could make Levi lose faith in him, not even knowing that Eren is working with Zeke and most probably asked Levi not to kill his brother, not even hearing Eren has escaped from prison and he’s leading a coup. Just like when Levi found out Erwin’s dream was more important than humanity’s survival, even if shocked, Levi has decided to accept and trust the man.

I can’t wait to see Eren and Levi meeting again. A mentor-mentee relationship surely calls for more, even if Levi’s headache in 112 isn’t really a headache. I don’t think the story requires a new Ackerbond with Eren when there’s Mikasa’s already, but it would be interesting to see Levi protecting Eren once more, in spite of everything. It might be the last time, too.

#snk spoilers #snk 112 #snk meta #snk theories #platonic ereri #Anonymous #shingeki asks

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thehivemindwrites · 4 years

Text

A Series of Disconnected Thoughts, Cast into the Void in No Particular Order

1. I’ve been finding myself thinking more and more about Kill Six Billion Demons recently. Not just because it’s absolutely gorgeous artwork and Moebius-meets-prog-metal stylings are extremely my shit (KSBD is responsible for adding Gojira to my rotation of workout music, and that alone has me in its debt), but because I can really appreciate a main character who is a walking disaster coming to some kind of enlightenment through a combination of getting her ass handed to her repeatedly, making questionable decisions, and basically just deciding to struggle forwards because I don’t know, what the fuck else is there to do? It’s hardly original (see: basically any shounen about The Power of Friendship and Not Giving Up) but damn if the presentation of it in this particular case isn’t particularly delightful. Plus it gave us the image of a giant hulking demon wearing a jacket that says KILL BOSS and that’s rad.The creator of KSBD is also co-creator, as it happens, of the newly released Lancer TTRPG, which I backed on Kickstarter and will, one day, get a rad fucking hardcover copy of (but for now I’m reading through the pdf and swearing oaths that one day I will play it). Anyway, as someone who also got where he is through a series of questionable decisions and getting his ass handed to him by life in general (oh, and an enormous amount of luck), I can relate. Plus the phrase “Reach heaven through violence,” while kind of terrible on the surface, feels good to shout at yourself while you’re off for a run.

2. Part of this whole exercise thing - a side-effect of it, if you wanna call it that - is that generally I feel better about myself like in general. I’ve mentioned that before. What it doesn’t do, of course, is magically mean that I’m now 100% good and not still dogged by a persistent sense of self-loathing that I’ve just had to accept will never really go away. Like for example: I’ve lost 35 kg since starting this whole gym thing, except you might remember the goal was 40. I still haven’t hit that goal, and frankly I’ve spent the last like three months bouncing around the same like, 3 kg zone because I’ve been traveling a lot and that basically fucks up my workout and eating routine. It’s frustrating, and it sure does let the part of me that knows deep down that I’m a fat fucker and always will be no matter what I do run wild from time to time. Which is, I’m coming to understand, just gonna always be there. This stuff doesn’t go away! Ever!

Which doesn’t mean it’s right, even a little. You tune it out and throw yourself into battle with it over and over again. You get bloodied and broken and claw back and then you get bloodied and broken some more. Insert that gif from Princess Bride of Westly saying LIFE IS PAIN, HIGHNESS here. Thing is, there’s something about the struggle that’s nice. I am not sure how motivated I’d be to do anything if part of it wasn’t motivated by the desire to prove my dumb brain wrong about, uh, me. If I wasn’t fighting the various little demons that plague me every so often, I doubt I’d be so well-adjusted. I certainly wouldn’t be mentally healthy. None of this makes sense as I read it back, of course - it sounds like I’m saying “boy it’s nice to be miserable,” which isn’t true. Being miserable sucks shit! I don’t recommend it! But it is nice to see misery coming and punch it in the face (metaphorically speaking). Sometimes I think the thing that makes me go to the gym and work so hard (this sounds like I’m bragging, but I can assure you I’m not - “work so hard” means “not collapse and fall off the elliptical after five minutes because oh god I don’t want to be here”) is out of some desire for self-annihilation through pushing myself past my physical limits. Reach heaven through violence (see, I told you it sounded cool).

3. The world has gotten really fucking bad for a lot of people, and I don’t know that it will get better for them any time soon. In fact, given the latest talk from the ol’ UN Climate Change report, it’s gonna get even worse. I would very much prefer that were not the case! It’s motivation enough to get out and vote and shit, at least for me - and as someone who is, you know, ridiculously privileged, that’s the absolute least I can do. Which is why I try to do more, mostly involving donating money to causes that seem like they’re able to cause the sort of trouble that needs to be caused. Or just use expertise to protect the people I don’t know how to protect, because I’m a lot of things, and one of them happens to be smart enough to know that I don’t know shit. So I make sure people that do know shit have the money they need. Pretty straightforward, I think.

The other thing I try to do, because giving money isn’t really something I think about much at all (I’m stupidly fucking fortunate to have a job that pays well, remember), is occasionally go out and actually be present at protests and the like - there are a lot of climate protests and they’re all a good time. Occasionally it’s worth overcoming one’s intense social anxiety to do so. Lord knows it’s significantly less of a risk for me to be out shouting at cops than most.

4. She-Ra might be one of the best shows out there. There’s something nice about a show that both does and does not present a simple world. Yes, the Horde is bad. Like, objectively bad! They do a lot of looting and subjugating and are generally just deeply not chill people.On the other hand, the people who make up the Horde are still people, and I have a lot of time for a show that can manage to humanize its Big Bad Villain whilst still making it very clear they are still, you know, not good. It’s messy, and complicated, and sad, because sometimes you have to fight people you used to be friends with! Sometimes you have to make the call that hey, we can’t be friends anymore, because I can’t support the things you’re doing anymore. I’ve made that call before - I bet everyone has, at some point (if you haven’t, I’m sure you’ll have to eventually). Fortunately for me, it’s never been that difficult of a choice, if only because the people I had to go against weren’t people I’d known for very long.

Anyway, that’s part of it - you gotta just cut people out sometimes. There’s more to it though, because the other thing the show believes is that everyone - even the real shitty people - can change. It doesn’t mean everything’s forgiven, and it doesn’t erase all the bad shit, but they can still change. It’s worth changing, even if it isn’t a cure-all.

So yeah, I like She-Ra a lot. It’s also just well-written, and funny, and it’s a real good time to see a bunch of diverse characters running around having adventures and being fuckin’ rad. Plus, they’ve shown an incredible willingness to completely change the stakes from season to season - the end of season four in particular is the equivalent of detonating all the things you thought were important. It pulls a bait and switch so ruthless that I might have applauded if I wasn’t so self-conscious about making noise that my neighbors might hear. The combination of season 3 and 4 was a masterclass on raising the stakes and then explaining that actually, you were playing for stakes even higher than you could’ve thought possible. Oh, and the people you thought you could trust were just using you, and hey, what if we got rid of the thing that you’ve more or less defined yourself by for the entire show? Good luck in season five, motherfucker! I’m a fan, is what I’m saying.

6. Work on Vanquisher 2103 continues apace. I mentioned this before, but we’re doing a once-a-month schedule while the holidays and work beat my ass into the ground, and as it turns out I really enjoy taking a full month to write a chapter. It’s a comically slow pace, but it’s working for me and hopefully the fact that the chapters have tended to be a little longer (and allowed me to expand on ideas a little more, and do a little more research here and there) makes it worth the longer wait. I’d like this thing to be good! There’s a part of my brain, again, that will always insist that nobody reads this and it’s bad and I’m fucking up, constantly - that point, at least, is probably accurate. I am writing characters who in theory have life experiences that are very much Not Mine, which involves a lot of reading things from people who would know better than I do. It’s nerve-wracking, and the only thing I am bone-deep certain of is that I’ll fuck up and hopefully y’all will forgive me for fucking up when that happens. I’ll keep reading and refining and eventually maybe it’ll be okay. Hopefully, anyway.

7. I went to Ireland and guys, Ireland is bullshit. I am offended by its gorgeous cliff-sides and open grasslands and heart-rending beauty. The immense friendliness of the people I met and the fact that you can’t sit in a pub without hearing some dude play a jaunty reel on a tin whistle or accordion or something is a personal insult. I was Arthur Dent angrily demanding to know why this bloody fish is so good the whole time.

I cultivated an immense drinking habit while there. I was also approached by a random German tourist who somehow clocked that I could speak German and we shouted about socialism for an hour auf Deutsch. I met some woman from Louisiana and we ended up having drinks a couple nights in a row to talk about traveling in general and Germany in particular, because her ex-husband is German. There were some Swedish retirees who were both very pleased by their country’s social safety net and also depressingly sour about the fact that refugees got cheap dental care - we might have had some harsh words exchanged before more drinks helped smooth over our frank discussion of differing viewpoints. I had to explain American health care to some people from the UK who were surprisingly gung-ho about the idea of privatized medicine until they talked to me (one of them talked about how the UK used to be an Empire and could be again in such a way that made me want to throw things. We did not talk for very long because I couldn’t fuckin’ handle it). These were strangers that I willingly engaged, because I was having an adventure, and I guarantee none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been going to the gym and committed to the idea of proving the voice in my head that tells me I’m an awkward mess that nobody would ever want to talk to in their life wrong (also, let’s be honest, if I hadn’t had several pints of cider at the time).

By the end of the trip if I heard one more pub singer’s version of Whisky in the Jar though, that I was gonna produce my pistol and fucking shoot myself in the head.

Go to Ireland if you can. If you live there, fuck you how dare you live somewhere that rad.

8. I didn’t have an eighth thing but I’m committed to this “each thing is numbered” bit which means that even the end of this thing has to follow the trope. This is the end of the post where I say “okay bye I’ll be back the next time I get the urge to throw a bunch of highly unpolished ideas out.”

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preserving-ferretbrain · 5 years

Text

One Man's Burning Hatred for Anime

by Rude Cyrus

Friday, 10 July 2009

Cyrus displays something that looks suspiciously like masochism.

Uh-oh! This is in the Axis of Awful...~

Dear god in heaven. I’m not prepared for this, but the rage and hatred have built to a point where I must let it out. There are some things I hate in this world, but none more so than pretension, especially pretension that is accepted by the masses as tortured genius. It’s frustrating to point out that something is obviously a dog turd wrapped in shiny foil, only to be met with derision, defensive bootlicking, and cries of “WELL, THAT’S JUST YOUR OPINION.”

The subject I’ll be talking about today is a well-known anime (if you don’t know what anime is, go look it up on Wikipedia or something). A fair warning: there’s going to be a gratuitous amount of cussing and spoilers – that is, if you consider a dead fly in the middle of a feces lollipop to be a spoiler.

A bit of background first, so I can delay this thing as long as possible: when I was an innocent, starry-eyed larva, I was exposed to anime by way of Speed Racer. The show is about racing and cars, or some such shit; frankly, it’s a poorly animated mess that’s interesting only as an experiment to see how much footage the animators recycled. I was left with the impression that all anime was shit, at least until a few years later when I discovered Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon– the former catered to my violent fantasies of burly dudes beating the crap out of each other, while the latter indulged my masturbatory dreams of teenage girls in short skirts. Look, I was 13 at the time, okay? Oh, and I got caught up in something called Pokemon, although I don’t think too many people watched that show.

Eventually I matured (kinda sorta) and began yearning for something that appealed to my awesome intellect. My first taste of a “real” anime was Akira, a fun little jaunt into a post-apocalyptic Japan inhabited by shriveled, psychic children and motorcycle gangs. The film fell apart at the end and generally felt slipshod; it wasn’t until years later that I found out that it was an adaptation of a manga, and quite a bit of content had to be cut.

Then I watched Ghost in the Shell, another movie that takes place in the Future! This time, it’s about 100 times more confusing and talky, with characters standing around, pondering what it is to be human, blah blah blah. Interspersed throughout are scenes of the lead character, Makoto, running around bare-ass naked and kicking butt. The thing that stuck me is that Makoto has no genitalia – no pubic hair, no vulva, just a blank area of flesh. It disturbs me to this day.

I think I caught a few episodes of Gundam Wing, but the only thing I remember is how two of the characters confused the enemy by kissing. I thought it odd.

After that, I went through what I call my Hayao Miyazaki period: Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro – if Miyazaki made it, I watched it. This was followed up with Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (which I found to be superior to the film). Finally, I stumbled upon a series called Neon Genesis Evangelion, something considered by the anime community to be a complex, profound examination of human nature, combined with awesome giant mech action.

This series is the subject of this article.

A brief synopsis: in the year 2015, Earth’s population has decreased dramatically, thanks to a cataclysmic event called “Second Impact” that occurred at the turn of the century. To make things worse, monstrosities called Angels are threatening to destroy the remnants of humanity – the only things that stand in the way are giant, biomechanical creatures called Evangelions (or EVAs for short), piloted by three 14-year-old teenagers. The main characters are:

Shinji Ikari – a shy, introverted boy that was abandoned by his father after his mother died (said father being the commander of the organization that created the EVAs), Shinji wants nothing more than to be liked by his deadbeat dad. He’s a coward as well, something that puts him at odds with the enormous responsibility of piloting an EVA. He becomes a bit braver and more self-assured as the series goes on, before collapsing into a whiny, spineless piece of shit.

Rei Ayanami – this strange girl is almost emotionless and wholly dedicated to Shinji’s father, which is somewhat creepy when you realize that he’s twice her age; we later find out that she’s a partial clone of Shinji’s mother. Her interactions with Shinji lead her to become more in touch with her emotions and thus more “human”, at least until she starts fostering a death wish.

Asuka Langley Soryu – a half-German/half-Japanese redheaded girl that serves as the show’s LOUD WESTERN STEREOTYPE. Asuka is opinionated, bossy, overconfident, and thinks poorly of Shinji. She softens towards him a bit after he fishes her out of a volcano and the two are forced to train in unison (don’t ask). She becomes an emotionally shattered shell after being forced to relive childhood memories of her insane mother’s suicide.

Whee.

To be fair, it doesn’t start out too bad. The best parts of the series dealt with the interactions between the three main characters (when they were three-dimensional human beings and not cardboard cutouts, that is). As time went on, the tone became darker, the characters became suicidally depressed, and a somewhat coherent storyline devolved into madness. Episode 24 (out of 26) introduced Kaworu Nagisa, an Angel in human form that became insanely popular due to his homoerotic interactions with Shinji, and ended with a two-minute static shot of an EVA holding Kaworu’s body in its hand while music played in the background – no speech, no movement, just this single shot. Go stare at a picture for several minutes and you’ll get the same effect: mind-numbing boredom.

The final two episodes were bullshit from start to finish. In them, an unseen party questioned every major character on their motivations, which the characters responded to, all with bowed heads so the animators didn’t have to draw mouths. In between these interrogations, we were assaulted with still images and words and nonsense. The ending had all the characters standing around, clapping their hands and saying “Congratulations!” As if they were praising the viewers for making it through this festering garbage.

I would’ve purged this crap from my head and moved on, but then I learned that the creator, Hideaki Anno, was forced to give the fans that shameful ending due to time and budgetary constraints, and there was a film called The End of Evangelion that acts as the true ending to the series. So, I hunted down a copy and watched it.

Let me tell you something: the movie makes the series ending look like fucking Citizen Kane in comparison. I have never, ever seen such a bloated, pompous, insulting, nasty, manipulative, incoherent pile of monkey shit like End of Evangelion. I hear that Anno received death threats over the series ending, and after seeing the kind of petty drivel this man is capable of, I can understand why. Not that I’m condoning death threats or anything.

How bad is this film? Here’s a scene from the opening moments: Shinji is in a hospital room, standing over Asuka, who has been sedated following the mental trauma she endured at the hands of an Angel. Shinji, desperate to get her to respond, pulls at her and accidentally rips open her gown, revealing her breasts. Shinji, naturally, takes action by masturbating over her comatose body and ejaculates into his hand.

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

This is sick! What’s the fucking point of this scene, to establish Shinji as a future serial rapist? It’s disgusting, vile, inexcusable, and every other synonym for “bad”. Why? I have about a dozen other questions, like “Who thought this was a good idea?” and “What the fuck is wrong with Hideaki Anno?” but the best query right now is: why?

Later, Shinji spends about three-quarters of his screen time –

I’m sorry, I can’t get over this. WHY?! I’ve heard fans say that this is an example of Shinji hitting rock bottom, and besides, he expresses his contempt for himself immediately afterwards. Look, I’ve been clinically depressed at times too, but I don’t jerk off over unconscious girls. Know why not? Because that would make me a SEX OFFENDER.

Fuck.

Shinji spends about three-quarters of his screen time cowering in a ball in the corner, alternating between screaming and sobbing. Asuka is revived, but she and her EVA are literally ripped to pieces. Rei becomes a sort of god-monster and dies. Whee.

The second half of the movie is filled the same mind-fuckery and nonsense imagery that ruined the series ending, only it’s a billion times worse here. There’s also some well-written dialogue on display too:

SHINJI: Where is my dream?

REI: It is where your reality ends.

SHINJI: Then where is my reality?

REI: It is at the end of your dream.

That’s not a 100% accurate quote, but it’s pretty damn close. It’s deep, man.

And if you don’t hate Shinji enough, here he comes to bitch endlessly about how everyone hates him and he hates everyone. Gee, with that sunny disposition, I can’t imagine why he’s so miserable. Then Asuka steps in and tells him he’s a worthless turd, so he chokes her. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to kill a fictional character so badly in my life.

Then there’s some live-action footage of people getting on a train while Rei and Shinji continue to babble about human nature, all for our benefit, of course. After what seems like fucking days, the movie ends with Shinji and Asuka on a beach, the only two humans left on the planet. Shinji starts choking Asuka AGAIN, but is stopped when she caresses his cheek. Her oxygen-deprived brain must’ve mistaken him for someone else. Shinji stops choking her and, what else, starts crying. Asuka looks at him and utters a most appropriate line: “Disgusting.”

In case you don’t get it, let me spell it out: I HATE THIS MOVIE. I hate it to a degree I didn’t think was possible. Most of my anger is directed towards Hideaki Anno, who was the writer and director for the series and the movie. He strikes me as a pretentious, antisocial, petty person, and everything he does oozes contempt for his fans. From creating this giant middle-finger of celluloid to stating “Too bad” in English when a fan said he was dissatisfied with the original ending, he’s a man who has no idea how to relate to people.

*deep breath*

Here’s why I can’t stand him: he created characters that I related to, characters that had nuanced personalities (even though they would be pigeonholed at times), characters that I wanted to see happy, characters that I sympathized with…and then he slowly, gleefully tore them apart. He forced them to go through absolute hell, and they all came out as broken individuals, and that’s how they stayed to the end – alone and unloved. Whenever there was a glimmer of light, Anno snuffed it out. I have no idea why he was so cruel to his own characters, but I have some theories:

1. He started out liking what he did, but ended up hating it, so he tried to make it so no one else would be able to revive the series (this one appears to have been disproven – see below).

2. He planned this from the beginning, making him a sadist as well as a hack.

3. Something in his life caused him to become extremely depressed, so his work reflects that.

I’ve heard a lot of evidence (and by evidence I mean conjecture) to support C, but if that’s the case, why not just put things on hold until he got better? On the other hand, his “too bad” comment indicates that he didn’t really give a shit about the whole thing, so who knows?

The fans deserve a tongue-lashing as well. If I had a dollar for every comment that called him a “genius”, a “visionary”, or any of the things that he isn’t…I’d be able to buy out Microsoft. I suspect that because much of the series and movie is inexplicable, the fans have deluded themselves into thinking this balderdash is somehow insightful.

Hilariously, Anno has decided his masterpice wasn’t good enough, or something, because he’s now remaking the series into four movies with witty titles like You Can (Not) Advance and You Are (Not) Alone and You Can (Not) Go Fuck Yourself. The ending to all of this is supposed to be totally new, which means it’s probably going to be even more frustrating and ambiguous. From the pictures I’ve seen and the reviews I’ve heard, it looks awful. Asuka’s last name has been changed to Shikinami, for some nebulous reason, and the body suit she wears is now translucent – she wears a bra underneath, but there are only a few inches of opaque fabric covering her cooch, so I’m guessing the design was built around fanservice. Which is always a great consideration, right? Plus, she’s supposed to wear an eyepatch in the third film, like a goddamn pirate.

On top of that, Anno has shoehorned in the loathsome Kaworu from the beginning, and added a new character named Mari, who is from the UK, I think. He’s packed 100 tons of shit into a 10-ton bag, in other words. Naturally, the fans are eager to fall all over themselves defending their messiah, bleating variations of “IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN” or “WE JUST NEED TO WAIT UNTIL THE END”. I don’t need to poke myself in the eye to know that it hurts, and I don’t need to watch these films to know that they’ll end just like the original series: no resolution, no closure, no catharsis, no satisfaction. The whole experience has left a bad taste in my mouth, and no amount of brushing will get it out. The only way these movies could be more insulting is if they consisted entirely of Hideaki Anno flipping off the audience with both hands, pausing occasionally to grab his crotch and sneer.

Actually, that would be less insulting.Themes:

TV & Movies

Sci-fi / Fantasy

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Wardog

at 12:26 on 2009-07-10Oh good God.

I don't know what to say. My knowledge of anime is pretty much restricted to shows in which princesses turn into ducks and do ballet (or is that the other way round). I guess we need to get Jen along here as she's the closest thing we have to an anime expert.

Shinji, naturally, takes action by masturbating over her comatose body and ejaculates into his hand.

Well ... at least he didn't do it over her unconscious body? Right?

I feel generally a bit ambivalent about a creator's attitude to fans. I mean, I don't think he's under obligation to be "nice" or, even, to provide a text that "satisfies" his fans - since what satisfies fans isn't necessarily the same as what's actually good. In fact, the more consciousness of fandom there is, the worse texts seem to get. Although this seems like a really confused amalgamation of fan service and fan contempt. Weird.

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Arthur B

at 13:23 on 2009-07-10I'm personally quite fond of

Evangelion

the series, at least the first 24 episodes. There is, as you point out, character development, gradual growing of a backbone on the part of Shinji and Rei, an interesting mystery revealed at a reasonable pace, and so on. I even like the way Episode 24 ended, with Shinji poised in a choice between killing a friend and letting the Angels get away with whatever it is they're trying to do, although to be fair I've only seen the expanded/tidied up version of the episode where they put in extra scenes and the last shot might not be so ridiculously long.

Then, as you point out, you have the different endings, neither of which fits what's gone before. I did enjoy

End of Evangelion

for the sheer trippy sadism of it all, but at the same time I couldn't really relate the characters we see in it to the characters from the TV show; there's this weird sort of inconsistency about it. Asuka is psychotic, Rei is even more autistic than she's ever been, and Shinji loses the balls he's been carefully growing over the course of the series; it's as if the TV show never happened. At a guess, I'd say the film is more about Anno's thoughts on the end of the series, and the experience of making the show, than it is about actually ending the story; the characters seem to be spoofing the fan conceptions of who they are rather than continuing the development shown throughout the series.

It's a fun ride, but it's fun partially because I think it's hilarious how Anno's trolled anime fans for years over this, and because I enjoy watching characters get raked over the coals and suffer for their most irritating personality traits. I'm interested in seeing the new movies because they're promising a proper ending this time, and even if they break that promise the results will probably be mad enough to be worth a look. I even think it makes sense to put Kaworu in from the beginning; the one thing I dislike about Episode 24 is that they insert Kaworu, have Shinji make friends with him really surprisingly quickly (exacerbating the homoerotic angle), and then have him betray everyone and have to get taken down. It would make far more sense if he were in it from the start. Even if the ending resembles David Lynch directing

Final Fantasy VII

again, I'd still watch it.

That said, my attitude to

Evangelion

probably stems from how I was introduced to it: at an SF all-nighter thrown by a local cinema, which incorporated a preview showing of

28 Days Later

(which is a

much

more effective movie if you go into it genuinely not knowing that it's a zombie film, as we did), hopped up on soda, watching

The Death of Evangelion

on the big screen. Watching 8 hours of TV series crammed into 90 minutes is hilarious, to the point where I could never take the show seriously after that.

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Rude Cyrus

at 19:51 on 2009-07-10

I mean, I don't think he's under obligation to be "nice" or, even, to provide a text that "satisfies" his fans

From what I've read, his fans are satisfied enough to try to unravel the mess he's made. I'm not asking him to be all happy-go-lucky, but his attitude comes off as spiteful.

I guess I'm just overreacting, but I still have an intense dislike for the man; he's my own JK Rowling.

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Wardog

at 22:38 on 2009-07-10He sounds like a worthy target of your bile :)

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Rude Cyrus

at 23:20 on 2009-07-10This may sound silly, but I still like the general idea behind the show and the characters (when they aren't being emo or one-note).

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Guy

at 04:42 on 2009-07-11I only watched a bit of Evangelion, but my impressions were coloured by the lengthy scenes displaying static scenery with loud cicada noises in the background. At first I thought they might be in there for atmospheric reasons I didn't quite understand, then decided they were in there for financial reasons (animation ain't cheap) and shortly thereafter gave up on the show. I love Miyazaki's films and would like to see more anime of that quality which isn't exclusively about plucky young heroines growing up and discovering their strength and independence... but I guess I'll take what I can get. :)

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Robinson L

at 18:00 on 2009-07-14I used to be a fan of

Dragon Ball Z

and

Sailor Moon

because for an early (and even not-so early) teenager, they seemed pretty cool. Then I noticed how stupid and repetitive they were and kinda lost interest.

At this point, I'm struggling to think of any Anime I know of that I actually think was any good. Well, the first season of

Digimon

, and at least one episode from the second. And Miyazaki's version of

Howl's Moving Castle

. And I suppose

Princess Monoke

, although it never particularly appealed to me.

Anyway, I've been hearing a lot about

Neon Genesis Evangelion

for a while, but nothing that's really excited me after the series. This review, I think, clinches my decision not to subject myself to it.

Personally, I tend to empathize with main characters even if most people dislike them. Apart from Mal, I can't think of any main characters I know of who I think I'd enjoy seeing put through that kind of torture. Maybe not even him.

I suspect that because much of the series and movie is inexplicable, the fans have deluded themselves into thinking this balderdash is somehow insightful.

This may be just me fishing for an excuse to pull out my own pet hate, but it seems to me from the description that an alternate or complementary explanations might be that

because it's so dark and depressing, fans (and critics) have deluded themselves into thinking this is somehow insightful.

This is a trend in popular entertainment I've noted and lamented for a couple years now.

Last night my younger sister and I were discussing the contemporary

Battlestar Gallactica

(of which I've seen a couple episodes, they've seen the first three seasons). At one point, one of them said that "if the character only lost about twenty pounds of emo they'd be all right."

While this may be true, I suspect it's the current vogue for death, despair, doom and gloom which made the 2004

Galactica

so popular. To take an even more contemporary example (and borrow a metaphor from my sister's upcoming review) witness Kirk's and Spock's and Nero's Inigo Montoya Syndrome in the latest

Star Trek

movie.

For a while,

House

did a pretty good job of balancing its angst, but it seems like circa Season Four the writers began seriously to crank it up. After the one-two-punch finale (Amber dies and right afterward Thirteen discovers she does indeed have Huntingdon's) I was asking "Geez, you think you could lay it on any thicker? Maybe find a way to reveal that Cameron really did contract HIV in Season Two after all?"

I've yet to see Season Five, but from what I've heard of the spoilers (don't read this if you haven't seen it and mind spoilers), Wilson is broken up over Amber's death for a long period of time, which means House is going to be even more miserable than usual; Cuddy goes through a whole lot of crap before finally getting a baby of her own, and that only when the mother ups and dies; and Kutner commits suicide/gets murdered/somehow ends up shot dead. What fun.

The new

Doctor Who

started out pretty emo, but it feels like Davies and the rest of the team take every possible opportunity to twist it in just that little bit more.

And being the Star Wars fan that I am, I have to say the stuff that the Expanded Universe went through during and especially after the prequels ... let's just say most of it is not pretty. Not in the slightest.

There's probably more, I just don't pay much attention to what's popular at the moment. Anyway, my point is that I suspect anything as depressing as

Evangelion

is by all accounts in the current tragedy-obsessed atmosphere is bound to be considered deep and meaningful and insightful and all that simply because it puts its characters through so much crap.

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Cressida

at 04:16 on 2009-11-18

I love Miyazaki's films and would like to see more anime of that quality which isn't exclusively about plucky young heroines growing up and discovering their strength and independence...

Guy:

Try

Porco Rosso!

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http://orionsnebula.blogspot.com/

at 23:05 on 2009-12-18

I suspect that because much of the series and movie is inexplicable, the fans have deluded themselves into thinking this balderdash is somehow insightful.

I think you're onto something here, but as someone who enjoyed Evangelion, let me propose a more charitable version of the psychology.

I'm a student of ethical philosophy and religious history at college, so I spend a lot of time thinking about the "deep" issues that fans will tell you Evangelion (, Donnie Darko, The matrix, ...) addresses--Destiny, choice, purpose, hope, knowledge, or whatever the hell.

Let me be clear and say up front that I don't think Evangelion makes a coherent statement about any of these issues. I'm not going to claim that you're "not getting it" if you don't see any "there" there, and I'm not saying that Hideaki Anno is some kind of visionary genius.

BUT

I'm a very visual, fictionalizing person. I do a lot of free association, and try on ideas by putting them in the mouths of imagined characters. Something like Evangelion is, for me, excellent raw material. It gives me a *context* to think about these issues. the incoherence of the actual show forces me to go to a lot of effort to try to figure out "what is this show trying to say?" and since that question is, I think, largely unanswerable, this also becomes an exploration of what *I* have to say.

Something similar happens because I write fiction. I'll eat up many stories--Evangelion, The Matrix, Harry Potter, even some of Star Wars--that have, in my opinion, glaring flaws, because they *make reference to* ideas I find interesting, even if they don't do them justice. Frequently, while watching the show even for the first time, my mind drifts to possibilities and alternate timeliness, with the result that I am actually watching a movie that exists only in my head, that (I like to think) *does* say something coherent. for this reason I consider Revenge of the Sith, for instance, to have been worth the price of the ticket even though it was (IMO) absolute shit, because by about a third of the way in I had stopped watching what's on the screen and started watching the movie *I* would have directed.

I mention this because before I became really conscious of what I was doing, I would frequently walk away with the impression that a movie was in fact "deep" when is fact it was just thought-provoking, and then only for people with preexisting interest in the issue who are prone to free association. I don't know how many people like me there are, but there's a strong tendency in all humans to assume that they're "normal," and that may be where some of the "you just don't get it" responses are coming from.

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http://luna-glass-wall.livejournal.com/

at 23:31 on 2010-10-12//I think I caught a few episodes of Gundam Wing, but the only thing I remember is how two of the characters confused the enemy by kissing.//

...What? o.O There's no kissing in Gundam Wing. There are barely any established romances.

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http://cammalot.livejournal.com/

at 19:02 on 2010-10-13That was Macross/Robotech. Similar giant-robot-thingies-piloted-by-superteens plot -- possibly the originator of the entire trope. The giant-size humanoid enemies of Earth didn't have sex to reproduce, or something, and so this display of humanity was too much for them and made them stop fighting. Until one or two of them discovered that they liked it.

Aw, that was my very first anime. I'm all verklempt now.

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Gamer_2k4 at 22:41 on 2010-10-13Neon Genesis Evangelion is actually my favorite anime series, but I think that's more because of the concept and because of what it did to me personally than anything else. I mean, I've taken a look at some of the episodes recently and they look OLD. A lot of the content is boring or unnecessary filler, the animation switches between "pretty alright" and "did they not pay you or something?", and overall, there's a lot not to like.

However.

I've had a very limited exposure to media (besides the some of the popular stuff), and NGE completely changed the way I looked at storytelling. I had never seen a character like Rei before, and I loved her. The idea that the mechs were actually giant feral humanoids barely restrained by their armor blew me away. The fact that the Hallelujah Chorus was played as an Angel mind-raped Asuka, and it WORKED, stunned me. The cast and plot are both remarkably tight; EVERYONE is involved, somehow. But finally, the thing that struck me the hardest, was the idea that a big giant robot action show DIDN'T HAVE TO HAVE A HAPPY ENDING.

Consider Asuka. She's this hotshot pilot, showing up a third of the way into the series reading to kick some butt. Her first appearance is quite dramatic as she handily and elegantly dispatches an Angel. However, her next victory requires the complete support of Shinji, and she barely plays a part from that point on. Battle after battle happens with this pilot, the one who was literally genetically engineered (in the manga, anyway) to be perfect, just failing with every attempt. Nothing goes right for her.

Rei's an interesting character, too. Generally you'd think the stoic, silent character would play the support role, ending up as the person the others always rely on. But she's not that great of a pilot! If memory serves, her Eva spends half the show out of commission, and in the other battles Rei plays a very minimal role. For as much popularity as she has among fans, you'd think that she had done a lot more in the series than she actually did.

And let's not forget Shinji. Here's a kid whose dad runs an organization that sends out giant robots to fight the bad guys, and HE gets a chance to be a pilot! In any other show, Shinji would've jumped in and started owning face for the rest of the series. But you know what? He acts like a kid could be reasonably expected to act: he's scared, and doesn't want to do it at all. But more than that, he wants love from his father, and realizes this might be his only chance to get that.

Right away it's clear that these aren't cookie-cutter stereotypes, but real characters with real problems. I personally found it refreshing that someone decided to make something where the good guys don't necessarily win. I was so familiar with "happily ever after" stories that I was shocked when this wasn't one of them. I like NGE, not because "true art is angsty," but because "holy balls, this is what a show can actually be like!"

Anyway, that's the anime series; let's get to End of Evangelion (you know, the subject matter of this article). It really did feel like some tacked-on supplement to the real thing. Furthermore, Shinji was infuriating, and the battle scene was just the opposite of what I'd come to expect from NGE: rather than an original conflict, it was just a beat-em-up royal rumble.

The second half of the movie left me in shock, and I went away from it thinking that was a good thing. I had never been exposed to the stream-of-conscious approach before, and I wasn't sure what to make of it. I think Anno was trying to convey just what Instrumentality (the merging of all souls and minds) would feel like, and it SEEMED like he did a good job. I didn't understand it, so I assumed it was beyond my understanding, so I assumed it was good. That's probably not the right mindset, though.

Oh. In the first scene, Shinji sneezed into his hand. He just didn't have a tissue. Never mind that you can't hear the sneeze. He's allergic to nudity. Yeah. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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Melissa G.

at 22:53 on 2010-10-13*Shameless self plug alert!*

A certain Ferretbrainer debuted with her first article by

defending Evangelion

. It was written late at night and not researched (by which I mean I hadn't seen the series in a while) or proofread much, but an article in favor of Eva does exist on this site! ^_^

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Fin

at 19:02 on 2010-10-14Ooh, I remember reading that article a while ago. It made me really interested in checking Eva out, which given my general scepticism of animé is pretty cool. If I like it I'll have to remember to thank you. :D

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Melissa G.

at 19:29 on 2010-10-14

Ooh, I remember reading that article a while ago. It made me really interested in checking Eva out, which given my general scepticism of animé is pretty cool. If I like it I'll have to remember to thank you. :D

:-D

They are actually remaking the series as a bunch of movies. The first two (?) have come out already. I've only seen the first one, but I liked it a lot. I just don't know how much one would like them without having seen the series first. But the animation quality is way better so you could always try watching the first new movie (You are (not) alone, I think it's called) as a taste test type of thing.

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Gamer_2k4 at 22:51 on 2010-10-14I agree that the first movie was pretty much spot on. They left out the stuff that could be left out, played up the stuff that could be played up (most notably the battle against the third Angel), and everything just felt right. (My only complaint, actually, is that in the English dub, Rei is played by a new voice actor. I thought her old one was perfect, and it was a real shame for that voice to be missing.)

However, the second movie just seemed a little...off. It was darn COOL, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was watching Evangelion without all the stuff that made Evangelion special. Maybe it was just that I was so familiar with the story that there wasn't quite that sense of wonder. You know, the sort of "sure it looks nice, but it's been done already" feeling. Yes, that's ridiculous, because the only reason it's been done before is that it's a freaking remake. I don't know.

Perhaps the thing that really did it was all the seemingly unnecessary changes they made. New pilot, changed surnames, different (and missing) Angels, a LOT of new scenes...It's possible I just felt that the makers were trying to do more and ended up with less.

Anyway, Melissa, you should still check out Rebuild 2. Remember when they had to catch that falling Angel? The weirdly shaped flat brown one with all the eyes? IT'S FREAKING AMAZING IN REBUILD 2. Like I said, the movie is still very, very cool, and the ending actually has traces of EoE in it. It's nuts. Watch it.

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Melissa G.

at 05:06 on 2010-10-15I definitely want to see the second remake movie, I've just been lazy and haven't gotten around to it. I saw the first one in theaters in Japan because I happened to be living there when it came out. Seeing it on the big screen was something special. ^^

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TheMerryMustelid

at 18:37 on 2012-04-21I am a terrible animation snob. When it comes to anime, there isn't much I like outside of Miyazaki, save the studio that did

Tokyo Godfathers

What puts me off most anime is it's obsession with mecha, robot girls, and post apocolyptic premises. Yes, Miyazaki sounds the environmental apocalypse gong in practically all of his films, but at least he puts Nature above the usual anime love affair with all things machine and keeps the damn robots to a minimum. How I hate this obsession with the ensouled machine.

On the American side, that includes

Transformers

up to

Wall-E

. I just find it sad that the idea of emoting robots is considered more 'cool' or even more

realistic

than emoting animals.

Say what?!

So teens 'outgrow' cartoons with talking animals while anything with a chrome surface is just friggin' AHW-some, man.

(what's that? what's that I hear in the background? Is it my axe grinding? Why yes, it is!)

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http://kitsune9tailed.livejournal.com/

at 02:57 on 2015-07-28@TheMerryMustelid

Unfortunately, it sounds like you have had a very slim experience with anime and are using it to make a blanket assumption of the whole medium. Remember, animation is just a storytelling method, it's not a story in and of itself. Mecha and machine anime are actually a very small slice of the whole. Unfortunately, this is the slice that is made especially for 6-12 year old boys, and as such, is the primary genre exported to the US (since the American public feels cartoons are generally only for young boys, they freak out over any anime that doesn't settle nicely into that demographic).

But, you can still seek out other genres. You've already seen Miyazaki (almost a genre in and of itself), but you have high-school romance, film noir action/mystery, artsy (you might like Paprika if you haven't seen already, it's from the same studio as Tokyo Godfathers), magical girl, drama, slice-of-life, comedy, etc.

So, I'd definitely sample the waters a bit and find anime in a genre more to your tastes before swearing off altogether :)

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Orion

at 08:03 on 2015-07-28I think you've been mislead by the headline, which really should be "one man's burning hatred for an anime." It's pretty clear from the text that he likes a decent amount of anime and is open to more.

#Ferretbrain #Rude Cyrus #Neon Genesis Evangelion #The End of Evangelion #Anime #Axis of Awful

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imagine-loki · 6 years

Text

Long And Lost

TITLE: Long And Lost

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 15

AUTHOR: FadingCoast

PROMT/ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine being Loki’s old friend/Lover in Asgard, but you left for Earth a long time ago. For all he knows, you might be dead, but you’re still alive and you’ve been working with SHIELD and/or the Avengers.

PAIRING: Loki/Sigyn RATING: Mature.

NOTES/WARNINGS: Sexual innuendos (no explicit sex) / mentions of torture and brainwashing. The prologue is set right before Avengers. The first chapters are set after Civil War. Chapter 4 and on, are all during Ragnarok.

Also on Ao3 Tumblr masterlist Feedback is always appreciated

Ch. 15: What Kind Of Man?

“Are you really giving me the silent treatment?” Sigyn asked, sitting across Bucky on the cafeteria and summoning a tea.

Bucky looked at her and huffed. “You left me.”

Sigyn sighed. “I’m sorry… It was an emergency.”

“Uh huh.” He said with a nod.

“Don’t give me that look, Bucky! Two days ago I was leaving for good, and I stayed because you asked me to!” She said. “And I got into quite a situation because of it.” Bucky rolled his eyes. “Besides, I came back just in time for your surgery and to help you get it running.” Sigyn said, pointing at his new vibranium arm. “With Steve gone, you’re stuck training with me.”

Bucky groaned loudly. “I’d take Steve’s training any day!” He said, attacking his breakfast.

“Look at the bright side: you’re allowed to take it out on me.”

Bucky nearly choked on his scrambled eggs. “What? I don’t want to hurt you!” He said. “That’s your husband’s job.” He added in a little mutter of disgust.

“Now you’re just being ridiculous.” She said, slightly exasperated. “You do realize you have no room to get mad at me for it.”

“I know.” He growled.

“Good. Now finish up, you need to get that arm working.”

A while later, they were in the training room and Sigyn was giving Bucky one hell of a time. It was necessary, though. Bucky had spent quite a while without an arm. And before that, he had been using Hydra’s, which for all its tech, wasn’t nearly as advanced as this Wakandan one. His former arm was heavy and bulky, it restricted some of his moves. He couldn’t fail to see the similarities with his own treatment from Hydra. This new arm, however, was light and fast. It responded to his every command immediately. It felt more like a giant silver glove over a real arm. He had to get used to its weight and speed. There were some stumbles and some falls. And a lot of sweat and swearing.

After a fast somersault, Bucky got thrown out of balance again. He lost his footing and cursed as he realized he was going for the floor, face first. Out of nowhere, Sigyn was there breaking his fall, and he landed on her heavily. Metal and flesh arms on her shoulders.

“How did you do that?” He asked a bit out of breath.

“What? Catch you?” She said amused.

Bucky shook his head. He already knew Sigyn was a lot stronger than she looked, being an asgardian and all. He straightened up. “Thank you.” He said with a little smile that faltered quickly. “Your shoulder…”

“What?” Sigyn looked at her shoulder, where the metal arm had hit her.

“You’re bleeding!” Bucky said.

“Ow, it’s okay.” She said dismissively. “Not your fault.”

I should’ve healed that one too.

So it’s my fault now?

You bit me!

You liked it!

“But, you’re bleeding!” He said again, trying to get close to her, feeling instantly guilty. “My arm–”

“Told you! Not your fault! It’s not a fresh wound.” Sigyn got rid of her sweater and looked at the bite mark.

“Did he physically hurt you now?” His voice was low and somber. Assuming that Loki had mistreated her in any form was enough to get him fuming.

Before Sigyn could answer, Loki was there. Bucky charged at him, but went right through.

“If you were here, I’d smash your head for hurting her!” Bucky was furious.

“As if…” Loki said crossing his arms.

“He didn’t hurt me.” Sigyn said, having healed the wound. “Loki, why are you here?”

“I’ve had enough of this kid pining over you! He needs to know his place!” Loki snarled.

“She’s my friend and you’re hurting her!”

“She’s my wife and you need to get that in your head!”

“I don’t care that she’s your wife if you hurt her!”

“I would never–”

“She nearly died because of you! She was punished for something you did! You’re not even here and still manage to make things worse!”

“You have the gall to think that if I wasn’t in the picture she’d take an interest in you? That you’d do better? Please! You’re not even whole! You pathetic little mortal couldn’t possibly make her happy!”

“I know I’d do better. I know I’d make her happy!”

“You’re delusional if you’re thinking she’d even consider it!”

“Says the god who considered and FAILED to take over a planet of pathetic little mortals! Bet that made your dad real proud!”

“At least I have all my limbs! What else have you lost, I wonder?”

Loki and Bucky kept going at each other. Sigyn leaned on a wall just to watch them spew testosterone and petty insults back and forth. She was relieved that they weren’t on the same physical space, otherwise they would’ve probably beat each other to a pulp.

“… or decide to find out who has the biggest dick.” She muttered. “Are you done?” Both looked at her. “Please, I was about to summon some popcorn and watch you both talk about me like I’m not even here.” She said.

“What’s pop-?” Loki said and shook his head. “Nevermind. Why are you taking his side again?”

“I’m not taking anyone’s side.” She said, walking up to them. “You both are childish and stupid and have no say in what I feel… or don’t.” A slightly ashamed Sigyn took Bucky’s arm. “It was a bite mark.”

Bucky’s face went blank. That and Loki’s smug smile… It wasn’t that hard to put two and two together. “Oh…” He said, getting an extremely uncomfortable mental image. “Good to know the true reason why you left, then.” He muttered.

Loki was about to say something, but Sigyn snapped her fingers and the illusion disappeared.

Hey!

If you project again I will cut your bellir.

“It was a surprise, okay? I didn’t know he was there until I got–” Suddenly Sigyn shook her head. “Why am I even explaining myself?” She said. “Bucky, I’m sorry, but you need to snap out of it.”

Bucky took a step back, his face showing the sudden hurt.

“I tried to protect you from this as much as I could. Still now, I don’t wanna break your heart.” Sigyn took a deep breath. “I do care about you, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.” She said. “But what you want from me is never going to happen.”

“I know.” Bucky muttered, staring at the ground. His feet were restless and his metal hand was nearly crushing his flesh one.

“Stop doing that.” Sigyn put a hand on Bucky’s chest and got him to calm down. “You know, and yet you haven’t accepted it.”

“You can’t get rid of it for me, then?” He said, looking at her.

“I wish.” She said. “You know there are things I cannot fix for you.”

“I’m sorry.” Bucky took her hands and pulled her close.

I’m sorry too.

Sigyn closed her eyes for a brief moment. “Now, let’s get back to work. Princess Shuri will be here this afternoon to help with anything technical about your arm.”

Bucky let out a groan of resignation.

Later, on Sakaar, Loki was speed walking down a corridor, muttering curses to himself. He had managed to calm down and was beginning to enjoy a nice evening on the lounge. But he should have known someone would ruin it for him.

“You are really an ass.” Sigyn startled him off his wits.

“Shit! You cannot be here now!” He said, making her projection disappear. As soon as he got to his cubicle and magically checked for intruders and other forms of eavesdropping, Loki let Sigyn cast her illusion to him.

“Loki, what’s wrong?” She asked, really concerned.

“You were right.”

“I’m always right.” She said with a smirk, but it faded fast. Loki was too nervous. “About what?”

“Thor is here.”

#Loki #Lover #God of Mischief #Submitted fic #submission #chapter 15 #fading coast #Long And Lost #friend #love #asgard #dead #alive #S.H.I.E.L.D.#avengers #relationship #midgardian #ecstatic

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aion-rsa · 3 years

Text

50 Best Fighting Game Final Bosses from Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, and More

https://ift.tt/2N1eIZQ

When it isn’t about rage-quitting against your best buddy sitting next to you on the couch, or some guy playing against you across the country, fighting games are all about beating the arcade mode. Doing so means defeating the pesky final boss.

We’ve fought so many final bosses over the last 30+ years. Whether they’re godly megalomaniacs or bloodthirsty loners out to prove they’re the best, there are pleny of cheap-ass villains standing in the way of character-specific epilogue cutscenes.

So I’ve decided to rank the 50 best final bosses in fighting game history. This ranking includes both default final bosses and special secret bosses, but they have to be the last guy you fight. That means characters like Goro, Cervantes, Apocalypse, Vega, and Antonov don’t count. I’m also not counting games like Street Fighter Alpha and Vampire Savior where there’s no real set boss and different people have different final opponents, which is why Jedah isn’t on the list.

Now let’s face it straight!

50. JINPACHI MISHIMA

Tekken 5

I think this is the moment when Tekken’s story started going off the rails. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the lore of the series, but after doing a game about Heihachi vs. Kazuya vs. Jin, they decided to go further and bring in Heihachi’s dad. And he’s possessed by a demon because why the hell not.

But really, the reason he’s possessed is because otherwise he’s the one member of the bloodline who isn’t a jerk. That doesn’t make for a good boss design. In Tekken 5, he takes over the Mishima Zaibatsu and sets up a new King of the Iron Fist tournament ASAP just so somebody strong might be able to kill him before he completely loses control and wipes out all life on the planet. His ending cutscene even has him cry blood over this because he’s that hardcore.

The tragedy is that, in the end, he was killed by his great-grandson Jin, but Jin came out of it learning the wrong lesson. Jin, suffering from his own possession problems, went and took over the Mishima Zaibatsu and started a world war as part of an elaborate plan to commit suicide by putting a giant target on his back. It took two more games for him to finally get his head on straight.

49. SILBER

Buriki One

SNK shamelessly ripped off Akuma, but at least the studio did it with style. Coming from the lesser-known fighter Buriki One, Silber is a Victor Creed-looking urban legend who is obsessed with increasing his power and challenging worthy opponents. At the end of the game’s big MMA tournament, when the player is ready to face his fellow finalist, your opponents’s busted carcass is instead knocked through the entranceway like a punted football. The mysterious Silber takes their spot.

Win or lose, Silber’s response is to just quietly jump off and exit the arena. The endings are mainly about the winners being asked by the press what the hell that was even about. And if you unlock Silber and beat the game with him, he just leaves the press hanging by jumping off into the distance.

Silber also appeared as a hidden mid-boss in King of Fighters XI, but his fighting style lacks anything really bombastic. No fireballs or energy explosions or anything like that. Just brutal karate with his flashiest move being a flipping legdrop.

I do really get a kick out of how one of his King of Fighters intros has him throw a non-descript martial artist to the ground before jumping into the fight, like it’s his regular thing to kick some schmuck’s ass and take their spot in a tournament.

48. SHANG TSUNG

Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat’s attract mode sold the game by going, “Yo, check out this huge claymation beast with his four arms and topknot! He will break you in half if you even blink!” But this unstoppable monster was actually second to some floating geezer. Surely, that at least had to mean that Shang Tsung was a special kind of threat in his own way.

Indeed he was. A shape-shifter was a fantastic gimmick for a final boss, especially since it jibed with his tendency to eat souls. Even though he was turning into other playable characters, the insinuation was that you were more or less fighting all the dead warriors from the years that he had absorbed into his being. Then Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa played the HELL out of him in the movie and his legendary status was solidified.

While lesser on the totem pole in later games, Shang Tsung regaining his youth made for a good trade. It’s just too bad that once games were on discs and had loading times, Shang’s tendency to morph mid-match took a powder. As one of the final bosses in Deadly Alliance, it just didn’t feel the same. He was just some guy.

47. SOUL EDGE/INFERNO

The Soul Series

As far as I’m concerned, the Inferno concept peaked in the first game. Cervantes was an evil dude, but he was still just a pawn. As shown at the end of that fantastic CGI intro that still holds up to this day, the swords were really running the show. So after taking down Cervantes, the swords came to life to fight you as a more powerful version of Cervantes with a flaming skull head.

The development of Siegfried wielding the Soul Edge and being transformed into Nightmare was a wonderful twist and selling point for the sequel’s storyline, but it made Inferno look a little redundant. The flame body was neat, but he was just Nightmare with a weaker design. Inferno never really had a personality of its own. Then Bandai Namco started having Inferno adopt random movesets, but there are like a dozen characters like that in SoulCalibur.

The concept of Inferno did translate well in SoulCalibur V where they showed that the Soul Calibur sword has its own counterpart in Elysium. It appeared in the form of a scantily-clad Sophitia in order to manipulate Sophitia’s son, Patroklos. Man, Inferno may be evil personified, but at least it didn’t try to seduce Siegfried by turning into his dad in a speedo.

46. MISS X

SNK Gal Fighters

The Neo Geo Pocket Color game SNK Gal Fighters features an all-female roster in a comedic story about a mysterious Miss X putting together a Queen of Fighters tournament, with some kind of wish-granting talisman up for grabs. When you reach the end of the game, you discover that Miss X looks an awful lot like Iori Yagami wearing a mask and a dress. While many of her opponents aren’t fooled, nobody outright says Iori’s name, and Miss X insists she isn’t who they think.

But also, please don’t tell Kyo about this.

Of course, she still fights exactly like Iori Yagami and is flanked by Iori’s former King of Fighters partners Vice, Mature, Billy Kane, and Eiji Kisaragi. Miss X is REALLY committed to the act, but it’s never really explained why she’s created this whole disguise.

Miss X made a few more appearances too, including when Dimitri performs his Midnight Bliss attack on Iori in SNK vs. Capcom: Chaos and as a DLC character in SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy.

45. SAGAT

Street Fighter

As the boss of the first Street Fighter game – which nobody really cares about – Sagat being on this list is more of a courtesy. While a difficult opponent, Sagat’s position as a final boss isn’t really that memorable. If anything, he’s defined by his defeat here. It’s why he has that cool scar on his chest, why he suddenly has a Dragon Punch knockoff in the sequel, and it’s the crux for his redemption story and frenemy relationship with Ryu.

Sagat’s spot as the original Street Fighter boss actually helps build up M. Bison and Shadaloo in general. He returns in Street Fighter II, scarred both physically and mentally, while physically stronger and more driven. Yet he is still only the penultimate boss, showing that this time he’s outranked by a big-chinned dictator.

44. ZEUS

World Heroes 2 Jet

World Heroes 2 Jet doesn’t have any character-specific endings. Instead, the endings are based around Zeus, a jacked behemoth who watches your penultimate victory from a balcony, acts jazzed about finding a worthy opponent, then makes the grandest of entrances by flexing off his suit (revealing body armor underneath), walking down some stairs, and kicking the doors off the entranceway.

A regular old pain in the ass, Zeus’ reaction to his defeat is decided by how much health the player has left. If it’s a close match, he’ll berate you until realizing that it was a fun fight. If the player has half a life bar left, he’ll threaten to kill them the next time they meet. If the player has almost all of their health, Zeus will mope as his henchman Jack tries to cheer him up. He insults the player, then cartoonishly cheeses it across the image of a map.

What makes this so golden is the iffy English translations. Here are some of Zeus’ lines from his endings:

“Why you, you, YOU… YOU CRAZY FUNSTER! To think that you were this strong!”

“YOU FILTH, YOU SLIME, YOU LAWYER! To think you had such power… But, heh, heh, heh…it was a crazy, hip time!”

“Hey, you. Still can’t walk and chew bubblegum at the same time? Oh, nooooooo!”

Classic.

43. DARK KAHN

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe felt like a joke someone made about Marvel vs. Capcom that someone else took as a serious suggestion. Quality of the game aside, the two worlds meshed well together, which is why we’ve seen the two parties meet up again a few more times. Mortal Kombat and DC, for the most part, didn’t so much match up as they complemented each other.

One pairing in particular matched up perfectly. Darkseid and Shao Kahn were both evil overlords, two peas in a pod. Rather than fight each other or team up, they did one better: they merged.

Dark Kahn isn’t exactly better than the individual characters but this modern Amalgam design still kicks ass. Darkseid’s stony flesh mixed with Shao Kahn’s skull face to create a lava beast who lives to blow up the multiverse.

Dark Kahn IS…OUTSTANDING.

42. MISTER KARATE

Art of Fighting

Just because someone is designed as comic relief doesn’t mean they can’t have their moments of serious competence. See also: Deadpool, Mankind.

Mr. Karate started as the original Akuma type. In Art of Fighting, Mr. Karate was a mysterious mob enforcer who happened to look and fight just like protagonist Ryo Sakazaki, but with a different head and more damaging attacks. In another light, Mr. Karate’s tengu mask could be seen as silly, but considering how brutal he was, it was easy to see it as a threatening symbol of martial arts dominance.

After that game, where it was established that Mr. Karate was Ryo’s father, Takuma Sakazaki, who’d forced to work for the mob, he became a secondary character. He showed up in King of Fighters regularly as just Takuma, but became something of a joke. When he appeared in the Mr. Karate mask, he acted like a total goof and everyone rolled their eyes at his lack of self-awareness. But comedic or not, there were still moments here and there that made him look tougher than the rest of his family combined.

But it was SNK vs. Capcom: Chaos that revitalized him. Depicted as Akuma’s SNK counterpart, Mr. Karate was given both a silly base version and his “serious” boss alter-ego, who reminded the world of what kind of force he was in his Art of Fighting days. Right on.

41. ASMODEUS

Mace: The Dark Age

The Nintendo 64 was lousy when it came to compiling a fighting game library, so we had to do the best with what we had. Mixed in the shallow pile was Mace: The Dark Age, which was like if the guys who made Mortal Kombat were tasked with making a SoulCalibur game. The basic story was roughly the same: an insidious, medieval weapon of ultimate power falls into the hands of evil and everyone wants a piece. The difference was that while the Soul Edge brought demonic chaos in its wake, with its wielders just wandering around destroying stuff, the Mace of Tanis brought demonic order, as its wielder used it to rule Eurasia and its corrupt council.

This created a conflict where everyone wanted a shot at holding the Mace. Not just the heroes, but also conniving members of the Council of Seven because they’re evil and power hungry. And wielding the Mace of Tanis? None other than Asmodeus. His name popped up in exposition dumps but he didn’t even have a pre-fight profile image. You didn’t get to see him until you actually faced him in the final battle and, all in all, he met the hype.

For all of the limitations of the Nintendo 64’s graphics, Asmodeus looked amazing. He appeared as a gigantic, reptilian demon so big that only his upper half was peaking out of a portal. His offense wasn’t much to talk about, as it was mostly just swiping attacks and pounding at his prey, but damn if he didn’t look like how a final boss should look.

40. MUKAI

King of Fighters 2003

The 10th and 11th King of Fighters games released in the final days of the franchise’s classic art style, and included some great designs, like Oswald. But while the bosses in these games looked and moved exceptionally, they were mostly really lame otherwise.

Mukai from King of Fighters 2003 provided a great balance, though. He didn’t have much going on besides being the harbinger for lesser villains, but he looked totally sweet and his stone-based motif led to a fun boss fight that wasn’t too hard to figure out. Admittedly, I’m a sucker for the glowing lava design usually reserved for rock creatures, but making that classic design monochrome feels fresh and absolutely badass.

Too bad he died like a punk in a random cutscene several games later.

39. KULL THE DESPOILER

Way of the Warrior

It’s disappointing to me when a ridiculous and/or stupid fighting game doesn’t have that final boss that just pushes it further into hilarity. I’d love to discuss ClayFighter here, but it’s not like N. Boss or Dr. Kiln were anything to write home about. Tattoo Assassins is a total trip, but there’s not much to say about its big bad Koldan. Death from Time Killers is just lame and ugly to look at.

Way of the Warrior is an extreme piece of garbage and sweet Jesus does that translate to its final boss, Kull the Despoiler.

This 3DO classic is one of several Mortal Kombat knockoffs that tried to cash in on digitized graphics and bloody violence. Other features included a White Zombie soundtrack, hideous backgrounds, a character who just a regular guy’s sprite but enlarged to look like a giant, and a couple boss characters brought to life by mid-‘90s CGI.

After the player has gone through the main cast and a CGI dinosaur named High Abbott (with another CGI dinosaur watching from a throne in the background), we take a trip to the citadel graveyard stage. There’s a memorial statue of the great warrior Kull that suddenly breaks apart to reveal that his living, 8-foot-tall skeleton is inside.

“Not even death shall keep my name from the Book of Warriors!”

You must fight this silly skeleton warrior, who is armed with a bloody hammer and iffy voice-acting, all while the guy who made Devil’s Rejects is singing. A fitting finale for such a game.

38. HEIHACHI MISHIMA

Tekken Series

In terms of pure power, Heihachi is one of the weakest boss characters in relation to his series. He’s played the final boss a few times in the Tekken series, but these fights are always less about him being the ultimate force of destructive evil and more about his importance to the story as a scheming bastard with the occasional redeemable moment as a human being.

It’s also about how he measures up to his son, Kazuya, the would-be protagonist who is ultimately more evil than Heihachi. The first game’s plot focuses on Kazuya as a vindictive monster who smiles at his father’s assumed murder, and Tekken 4 finally brings the three-way generational conflict between Heihachi, Kazuya, and Jin to a head for the first time. Then in Tekken 7’s story mode, Heihachi gets his final battle with Kazuya in a war that’s been ravaging the whole world.

Despite being hilariously unkillable in the past, Heihachi appears to be dead for real now and it’s solidified his true purpose as a final boss: to pass the torch to his son, who is both stronger and straight-up worse as a human being.

37. ATHENA

SNK vs. Capcom: Chaos

If there’s anything resembling a story in SNK vs. Capcom: Chaos (not counting the completely bonkers Hong Kong comic adaptation), it’s that all the street fighting going on in the world has caused havoc on time and space. Beings from the past and future have ended up in the present. By the end, it gets so out of control that by defeating Shin Akuma or Serious Mr. Karate, you create a rift that sends your character to Heaven or Hell.

(Let’s rock!)

If you’re in Hell, you fight Capcom representative Red Arremer from Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins. If you go to Heaven, it’s SNK’s Athena, but not the annoying pop star from the Psycho Soldiers team in King of Fighters. It’s the original SNK Athena from the sidescroller where she’s a bikini-clad goddess. Funny enough, despite there being pre-fight dialogue specific to each pairing, none of the King of Fighters crew pay any lip service to this.

Rather than annoying you with constant screams of, “PSYCHO BAAAWWWWW!!!” this Athena uses lots of summoning and shapeshifting powers to get the better of you. If King of Fighters Athena brought out a giant baby chick to destroy her opponents, I’d probably choose her more often.

If you lose the fight, she transforms you into an animal specific to the fighter. If you win, you get to meet God. Either way, it’s a pretty eventful day.

36. ABYSS

SoulCalibur III

I was thinking of putting Algol on this list before realizing that I have absolutely nothing to say about the guy. He was fine. Nothing especially memorable about him.

In terms of end bosses wielding both the Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, Zasalamel’s final form, Abyss, is where it’s at. Mainly because Zasalamel is one of the last great SoulCalibur characters (along with Grizzled Owl and Harley Quinn Gollum). He’s a fantastic neutral warrior who ironically uses a Grim Reaper scythe despite being cursed with immortality and wanting a permanent death.

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After Zasalamel is transformed into Abyss, you actually begin rooting for Zasalamel to come through. This is his chance to put a stop to his endless cycle of resurrection, but it’s unfortunately turned him into an uncontrollable demon.

In the end, Zasalamel comes out of it better. During the experience, he sees a vision of the future (our present), and after reverting to his normal self, he goes from, “I must use the two swords to kill myself for good!” to “I have to prevent the two swords from ever killing me because the future looks fun as hell!”

Which reminds me, where’s my Zasalamel in Tekken, Harada?!

35. ONAGA THE DRAGON KING

Mortal Kombat: Deception

After Shinnok disappointed Mortal Kombat fans, Midway decided to introduce a new final boss who was a Shao Kahnier Shao Kahn. Fortunately, Onaga worked.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance made an effort to clean the slate and start fresh, removing Liu Kang, Shao Kahn, and Goro from the board. Having Shang Tsung and Quan Chi share the final boss spot went against that attempt for freshness, but Midway made up for it by planting the seeds for the sequel.

The whole plot was about introducing the Dragon King – the most Mortal Kombat villain name possible – who ruled Outworld before Shao Kahn. They built up anticipation through the game’s lore without showing him or even outright naming him, and we just knew the heroes were on a collision course with something monstrous. Reptile’s ending, in which his body was possessed and mutated by the Dragon King’s soul, made it definite.

Deception revealed that Shang Tsung and Quan Chi defeated the heroes, but it didn’t matter. Onaga was back and he made the two look like jokes. Things were already dire after the good guys lost, but now there was also this 10-foot-tall tank covered in scales with gigantic dragon wings just sauntering around.

Unfortunately, he got stuck being archenemies with Shujinko and that dude straight-up SUUUUUCKS!

34. NECROSAN

Primal Rage 2

The holy trinity of almost-to-completely-finished fighting games that didn’t get released are Thrill Kill, Tattoo Assassins, and Primal Rage 2. Primal Rage 2 is a fascinating unreleased game that not only had action figures, but a novelization that I would love to read one of these days. It’s always crazy expensive on eBay, though.

The first Primal Rage didn’t have a final boss, but legend has it that Atari Games originally planned to introduce Necrosan in an updated version. Instead, the studio saved him for the sequel, and while the game never saw the light of day, he simply rules too much for me to ignore. Much like King Ghidorah, Necrosan is an alien invader in a world of Terran kaiju. An extremely well-animated winged dragon skeleton coated with muscle tissue, Necrosan looks metal as hell. His backstory complements his look too: he singlehandedly kicked the asses of all the beasts from the first game.

Also cool is the twist that the big meteor that caused the first game’s post-apocalyptic origin was actually an egg housing Necrosan who planned to conquer the planet for his race.

33. KRIZALID

King of Fighters ’99

After spending several years doing the Orochi storyline, King of Fighters finally moved on to something different: mad scientists. The NESTS Cartel was a neat idea in theory, but the further the story went, the more they revealed themselves as dorks. In other words, don’t expect to see Zero or Ignis on this list.

Krizalid had a great look…er, well, his first look. That coat with the fur top covering his jaw was great. The more flexible S&M garb from when he burns it away, not so much. He made for a great first threat in this new story, especially due to how the endings painted him as a tragic figure and made NESTS look like bigger dicks because of it.

For all his posturing, he’s just a deranged clone, pitied by the heroes and exterminated by his bosses at the first opportunity. Then again, maybe they were also annoyed that he got rid of the coat.

32. SHINNOSUKE KAGAMI

Last Blade

The Last Blade games are some of the most underrated titles in the SNK library. Despite only having two installments, the series features plenty of interesting moments, including a redemption arc for its initial villain, Kagami. Originally guard of a portal to evil and darkness, the high-and-mighty Kagami lost his faith in humanity and decided to use that portal to wipe out life on Earth and purge mankind completely. Using his refined swordsman skill and ability to wield flame, he killed a lot of people to help pull off his scheme.

In the end, he was defeated by the hero character Kaede and banished himself into the portal to be tormented. But was resurrected to fulfill his original role as guard of the portal as well as help take down Kouryu, a former victim of his whose reanimated body was possessed by evil from within the portal. This made Kagami second guess his role in the initial adventure, deciding that humans aren’t bound to evil after all and may even be good.

I always liked how he’d have a normal stance in the first round, but after taking a loss, he’d levitate half a foot off the ground. It’s just ominous enough without having to completely change his style.

31. SUPERMAN

Injustice: Gods Among Us

“Evil Superman” has been done to death. It can be used well, but a lot of the time you just end up with Brightburn. Injustice: Gods Among Us did a decent enough job by taking an interesting episode of the Justice League cartoon and leaning harder into it. The main difference between the two Supermen was that, while the animated version was driven, he wasn’t as mentally cracked as his video game self.

The animated Superman still had Metropolis and Lois, but Injustice Superman lost them both at the hands of the Joker. As shown in the better-than-it-has-any-right-to-be comic book tie-in, Superman began his reign of terror by killing the Joker in a fit of anger, and bitterness, time, and betrayals caused him to become obsessed with order and a world where there was no war because he said so. It didn’t help that so many of his superfriends sided with him.

Superman is so regularly pushed as the top guy at DC that it’s not that surprising he’s the final boss in a DC fighting game. In fact, the only way to beat him was to get the good version of Superman to do the job.

30. NU-13

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger

When I played through BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger’s arcade mode, I made sure to use Ragna the Bloodedge last. The fact that he was the protagonist, yet very rarely appeared as an opponent for everyone else’s arcade mode path made him seem special. This ended up being the right way to play the game as his dialogue with Nu-13 hit me like a train.

BlazBlue’s plot of, “Wait, I think I understand, but… No, you lost me,” means I can’t fully explain what Nu-13’s story is but the gist of it is that she’s some kind of experiment gone wrong and she’s showing up around a portal that’s messing with the time-space continuum. Everyone comes across her in arcade mode and she usually greets them with extremely dry robot talk throughout the boss fight. When she meets with Ragna, she suddenly acts like an excited schoolgirl who has been pining for this guy and writing his initials in her diary. It’s extremely off-putting and unexpected.

As a boss, she’s a great fit for the game, which takes place about 200 years into the future, but Nu-13 is the only one truly diving headfirst into the futuristic look. Even the game’s resident cyborg Tager comes off lacking compared to all the crazy sci-fi shit Nu-13 has going for her.

29. KARNOV

Fighter’s History Series

There is a holy trinity of ’80s video game asskickers who are remembered fondly due to a mix of genuine nostalgia and internet irony: Abobo, Mike Haggar, and Karnov. The latter fighter is a fascinating bloke. Not only did he star in his self-titled platformer game, but developer Data East also decided that this dadbod adventurer should just show up in several of their games like a mascot. This is why Fighter’s History is treated as a sequel to the original Karnov game in which the bored treasure hunter holds a fighting tournament with lots of his money on the line.

Fighter’s History is such an obvious Street Fighter II clone that Capcom tried suing Data East. The game’s only real saving grace is the use of Karnov as the carrot to lead you to the end. And while the sequel/update of the game is just the same cast with the bosses playable, Karnov looks completely different. In the first game, he’s completely jacked, albeit extremely short. In the next game, he’s taller and fat with a nasty stomach scar and has moves that allow him to morph his body like Jake from Adventure Time.

I suppose if it wasn’t weird, it wouldn’t be Karnov.

28. PYRON

Darkstalkers Series

When the gimmick of your game is that all your characters are Japanese takes on classic monsters, it’s only logical that the biggest threat is extraterrestrial. Pyron is far from the best alien in a video game, but he does the job here as both Silver Surfer and Galactus wrapped in one.

Seriously, look at his ending. If he can turn as big as the sun, he probably could have saved time by leading with that. But what do I know? I’m just a human who hasn’t been murdered by a vampire with stupid hair.

Pyron gets by with his design, which looks absolutely beautiful in that mid-‘90s Capcom arcade animation. The rippling energy waves of cosmic flame almost make you forgive him for what he was like on that terrible Saturday morning cartoon show.

27. MASTER HAND

Super Smash Bros. Series

Chucking a bunch of Nintendo icons into a game and trying to make a narrative out of it is a fool’s errand. Luckily, Nintendo didn’t overthink it too much and just decided, “They’re figurines or something having an imaginary battle.” It’s Lego Movie meets Secret Wars.

And after so many dream fights like Mario vs. Link and Kirby vs. Yoshi, who would be at the top of the ladder to threaten the heroes? Bowser? Ganon? Andross? King Slender?

No. It’s a hand. Just a big, disembodied glove dead set on crushing the player. I suppose Nintendo didn’t need to have a recognizable final foe. The four-way Nintendo slugfest was enough. So why not have a big hand that can do silly big hand attacks? It’s just the bizarro icing on the cake at this point.

I love how random Master Hand is. It’s a boss fight version of the Toy Story toys revolting against Sid the bully. With every new game, Nintendo had tried to add needless context, and this has caused Master Hand to expand into transcendent final boss concepts like Crazy Hand and Tabuu. That’s just a special kind of weird. Imagine creating a giant hand as your villain and then in each sequel thinking to yourself, “How do we build on that?”

26. KRONIKA

Mortal Kombat 11

Despite rebooting the series’ winding and convoluted storyline, Mortal Kombat 9 ended on a low note. Sure, Shao Kahn was dead, but so were most of the heroes just as Shinnok was preparing to make his own move. Meanwhile, Mortal Kombat X, while not having the happiest ending, culminated with most of the major threats taken off the board. Kahn was still dead, Quan Chi was dead, Shinnok was just a head, and Onaga’s resurrection was prevented. Things were looking up for once!

But in Moral Kombat 11, a cosmic Tilda Swinton appeared as not just Shinnok’s mother, but as a meta representation of video game designers at odds with the story. Kronika wants good and evil to war with each other on equal enough footing forever. The status quo doesn’t allow enough juice for what she wants, so her plans include bringing back dead characters with a hand wave, reverting characters who have developed farther than she cares for, and even rebooting the franchise itself.

Even her kind, the Titans (higher up on the chain than the Elder Gods), play into this. Scorpion’s ending shows that reality simply won’t exist without the backstory that his wife and child were killed, all because the Titans deemed it so. These games are getting dangerously close to the fourth wall.

Meta or not, Kronika is a fantastic addition to the Mortal Kombat mythos. That endless time-reverse Fatality of hers is one of the highlights of that game’s many kills.

25. ULTRON SIGMA

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite

Despite its huge roster, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 didn’t have much in terms of Capcom-based villains. Plus, the big boss was Galactus. Where do you even go from Galactus in a sequel? For Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, bringing Galactus back was a no-no due to Disney being stingy with the Fantastic Four property at the time.

But Capcom had a pretty good solution. First, introduce Sigma from Mega Man X into the world of fighters. Second, bring in box office superstar (at the time) Ultron. Third, take a page out of Dark Kahn’s book and merge the two into one being. They’re robots. Robots love that shit.

For the record, the most hyped I got for this game was the stinger on the announcement trailer where they showed a shadowy Ultron sitting on a throne with Sigma’s glowing eyes appearing on his torso.

Not only do you get each meatbag-hating robot on their own and in merged form, but then there’s the over-the-top design of their final form. Transforming into a nightmarish and gaudy final form is Sigma’s MO, so it’s nice to see Ultron just go with it.

Yeah, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite didn’t have staying power, but it did have a giant Sigma head with Ultron’s body sticking out…as well as that head-scratching plot point where Thanos made a gauntlet powered by Ryu’s inner evil for the sake of throwing fireballs at Death. See, that’s why you need arcade mode endings in games like these. Let your crossover freak flag fly.

24. VICTOR ORTEGA

Ring of Destruction

Saturday Night Slam Masters is remembered well enough, partially due to its SNES port, but few talk about its sequel Ring of Destruction, which had more of an emphasis on fighting game mechanics. Players of only the first game would still recognize Victor Ortega, as he’s the Billy Graham/Hulk Hogan guy in the intro, tearing his shirt off. Though not part of the game’s roster, his identity is revealed if you’re able to beat the game without losing a single match.

This mountain of muscle was a previous CWA champion who was so dominant in the ring that he left out of boredom. Getting the first game’s best ending has Ortega return to challenge your wrestler, ending in a cliffhanger.

The sequel is about the Capcom Wrestling Association being invaded by heels representing the Blood Wrestling Association. This situation piques Ortega’s interest, as hewants the last man standing to challenge him for the title. He proves to be a pain in the ass to take on — not only can he uppercut so hard that fireballs fly out but he was busting out jumping Yoshi Tonics all the way back in 1994!

23. ZANKURO MINAZUKI

Samurai Shodown Series

In fighting games, having a katana means getting some extra range and damage. In a series like Samurai Shodown, what does one do for an extra range advantage when everyone is armed with a sword? Easy. Create an 8-foot-tall Brock Samson samurai guy with a katana befitting of his size.

Zankuro is one of the rare examples of a character who talks about “the demon within” but isn’t actually possessed by one. Ryu is a good person despite having a magical dark force inside him threatening to turn him into a rage zombie. Zankuro is just an asshole. He slaughtered villages of people because killing people is his vice. And really, who’s got the skill to get in his way and tell him to stop?

But the outcome is inevitable. He has to die. In Samurai Shodown III, Zankuro had a fake-out death followed by a real death, just as he lamented his horrible acts. He was be sorry about his sins, but sidestepped having to live with them.

Except…he keeps getting resurrected.

22. DIO BRANDO

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

It’s kind of crazy how popular Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure has become in the US in the past few years, especially when you look back at how niche it was in the late ‘90s when Capcom’s Jojo fighter hit the arcade, Dreamcast, and PlayStation. Back then, the best you could do was find some low-quality manga scans and hope that someone online could translate them. All Capcom had was the manga and a few episodes of an anime, but they still managed to turn those into a kickass video game adaptation.

Dio was a major part of this. His moves and animation set him up as someone who could be cold and collected one moment and a slinking psychopath the next. The way he’d jump off-screen, return with a steamroller, and smash you with it while laughingly clawing at the vehicle defined what kind of series-carrying villain he really was.

The biggest mark against him is that regular boss Dio is not nearly as cool as his faceless counterpart Shadow Dio, based on the stretch of the manga when nobody knew what Dio’s powers actually were but understood that he was scary as hell.

21. WOLFGANG KRAUSER

Fatal Fury Series

SNK did Krauser dirty. His appearances in Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury Special made him the most epic boss fight of the era. First off, the dude was so jacked that he was able to burst out of his chest armor with a mere flex. Second, he got this epic line:“I’ll chisel your gravestone! Sleep well!” Most importantly, his background music was only a version of “Dies Irae” but it was played by own personal orchestra during that fight!

Dude wasn’t even up to no good. He was just an intense man who wanted a good fight. Even in defeat, he stood back up to dramatically yell, “You were perfect! I have met…my match…” before collapsing. Legendary presentation.

Unfortunately, then we got the second Fatal Fury anime, where SNK inexplicably got rid of Krauser’s amazing purple mustache. Why would you do such a thing? That mustache never did anything wrong.

He was almost completely forgotten by the time King of Fighters rolled around. He appeared in King of Fighters ’96 with a lanky redesign that made it look like he had a swimmer build, but everyone knows that Krauser needs to look like 2003 Triple H.

Oh, well. At least they didn’t get Ray Park to play him in a movie.

20. FERNANDEZ

Waku Waku 7

Waku Waku 7 is one of the liveliest and enjoyable fighting games that nobody has ever heard of. With one installment to its name, this Sunsoft creation has a handful of anime archetypes and knockoffs fight to free a magical fairy and earn a wish. In order to release the fairy, they have to grow into a giant and take on the kaiju known as Fernandez.

Known as Fernandeath in Japan, Fernandez is a large, black ball with a smiley face, bat wings, ball-shaped limbs, and a glowing aura. The giggling beast seems cute at first, but the more time you spend with it, the creepier and more malevolent it becomes. Its eyes turn red, it sometimes has pointy teeth, and at times it’ll turn full-on demonic.

There are some silly move animations thrown in there, but getting devoured and then shot out of its butt like a cannon can’t be the most enjoyable experience out there.

19. JUSTICE

Guilty Gear

Guilty Gear gets a lot of flack for its confusing plot and ridiculous titles, but the gist of the story is unique and surprisingly simple: Once upon a time, humanity took part in a devastating war called the Crusades, where they fought against robo-mutants (a cross between SkyNet and the Age of Apocalypse) and barely survived. Now, with the world reaching borderline utopia, it’s constantly threatened by the possibility of going back to the bad old days. In other words, we missed out on seeing the exciting, explosive, action-packed era of this fictional world, but we absolutely have to prevent that from happening again.

Adding to the terror is that Justice was never fully destroyed in that war. She was simply sealed away for all eternity, which never lasts in fiction. In the first Guilty Gear, losing to this lizard mech meant endless death and destruction. But through her defeat at the hands of Sol Badguy, we not only got a tragic origin story for our main hero that explained what the hell a “Guilty Gear” is, but Justice opened up this world to the possibility that the Crusades could return in various ways despite her death.

18. BRAINIAC

Injustice 2

When your first game is all about Batman taking down an evil Superman, where do you go for the sequel? Easy. You figure out a threat so huge that both Batman and Superman have to put their feud on hold in order to save Earth. The logical choice is Darkseid, but NetherRealm went in a smarter direction with Brainiac. Even though he’s an established character in other continuities, Brainiac had yet to show up in any form in Injustice canon, so the studio could treat him as a brand new threat.

He was the perfect fit, too. Since he was the one responsible for blowing up Krypton, the game used this backstory to also introduce Supergirl and gave us a villain that Superman would hate just as much as the Joker. Even in defeat, Brainiac’s plan created another violent moral argument between Batman and the murderous Superman.

Above all else, Brainiac felt like a big deal. His moves during the boss fight made him seem like an even more advanced take on Doc Ock. The inside of his space ship added to his cyber nightmare aesthetic, too. Last but not least, he was voiced by Jeffrey Combs, whose chilling delivery made him sound like the most menacing threat in the universe.

Sorry, Darkseid.

17. THE GENERAL

Kaiser Knuckle

Kaiser Knuckle is your average Street Fighter II knockoff from the early days of fighting games, and there’s only one reason anyone remembers it at all. That reason is the General.

At first glance, he’s little more than a blatant ripoff of M. Bison. Then you fight him. Without a doubt, the General is the absolute hardest boss in fighting game history. He’s unbelievable. Not only are his attacks unfair variations of Bison’s offense, but he has a move where he releases Green Lantern construct projections of himself in various directions.

He’s an afront to God and when he wins the round and calls himself a perfect soldier, it’s hard to argue.

16. RYO SAKAZAKI

Fatal Fury Special

Some time after Mortal Kombat gave us Reptile and mere months before Street Fighter gave us Akuma, Fatal Fury Special introduced a very special hidden boss: Ryo Sakazaki. Sure, King of Fighters ’94 would be released within a year, but this was our first time seeing a major SNK fighting game crossover. This was the first Terry vs. Ryo matchup.

One of the reasons this debut hits so hard for me is that Ryo and the Art of Fighting crew never seemed to be too prominent in the King of Fighters games. There are two main continuities when it comes to SNK’s fighters. King of Fighters puts everything together and says it all coexists in the same era. Meanwhile, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, Buriki One, and Savage Reign are on a staggered timeline. With Art of Fighting taking place in the ‘70s, it means that the Ryo in Fatal Fury games and Buriki One is a hardened, middle-aged legend and not just another young upstart like he is in King of Fighters.

In other words, Ryo showing up in Fatal Fury Special isn’t just an early crossover, but a passing of the torch.

15. EYEDOL

Killer Instinct

Killer Instinct always valued character designs first and everything after. Ninja, robot, dinosaur, T&A secret agent, boxer, Native American, skeleton, werewolf, ice creature, and fire guy. Then came the story.

To that effect, Eyedol, much like Spinal, is a tribute to the stop-motion fantasy movie monsters of the old days. Specifically, he’s a two-headed version of the cyclops from the 7th Voyage of Sinbad. He made for a memorable final battle, thanks in part to the cheap-ass healing ability that he’d spam while the other fighter recovered in between rounds.

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Eyedol was the last classic character released for the Killer Instinct reboot, and they redesigned the HELL out of him. Depicted as a holy chosen champion turned demonic and ogre-like due to his own ego, Eyedol’s two-headed cyclops look was explained as the result of having his head cleaved in half down the middle, then being resurrected. The wound is healed, but not undone, resulting in some gnarly body horror.

Much respect to his old ending, which was not only a parody of Blanka’s Street Fighter II ending, but by having his would-be mother refer to him as “Billy,” it becomes both a sly reference to Double Dragon (Billy and Jimmy) and musician Billy Idol.

Get it?

14. GILL

Street Fighter III

Following up on M. Bison was never going to be easy. For a long time, he was the poster boy for fighting game final bosses. For the third major installment, Capcom needed to introduce someone who felt different but also as big a threat as his predecessor. Rather than introducing “M. Bison’s boss” or “M. Bison’s dad,” the studio instead went in a completely original direction with Gill. Was he powerful? Yes. Did he use street fighting tournaments as a front for some kind of maniacal scheme? Yes again. Was he the ultimate evil? Well…I guess that depends on your thoughts on organized religion.

Rather than a villain delusional enough to call himself a god, Gill might as well BE a god. And he both wants to be virtuous, but he’s also an egomaniac about it. It’s definitely a fresh take on the mustache-twirling monsters in these games. Even Alex, the main character of Street Fighter III, only wants to fight him to get revenge after for his mentor, who Gill beat so bad in a street fight they had to send him to the hospital. Alex doesn’t seem to really care about the whole new world order cult gimmick.

With Street Fighter III being such a beautiful-looking sequel, Gill also brought the novelty of an asymmetric 2D character who wasn’t just mirrored when he looked in the opposite direction (i.e. Sagat’s eyepatch switching eyes depending on where he’s facing). That fit well with Gill’s mastery over fire and ice.

Screw him for that cheap resurrection power, though.

13. KING LEO/TRUE KING LION

Savage Reign

A lot of times in fiction, futuristic designs are based on the decade when they were conceived. That’s how we got King Leo, a villainous champion in the future of the Fatal Fury/Art of Fighting timeline, who looks hilariously try-hard ‘90s. The angular mask/boots/codpiece combo, the boxing gloves with sword, the ridiculous flat-top mullet, the cap, the ab window, etc. He has it all. He is pure extreme.

In both Savage Reign and its sequel Kizuna Encounter, he’s playable but not really. King Lion is selectable from the beginning, but it becomes apparent that he and the final boss are two different entities. Playable King Lion is an impostor meant to test the challengers, while King Leo is the far more powerful real deal.

Even when Jyazu appears in Kizuna Encounter as the actual final boss by impaling King Leo with his giant sword, King Leo is still able to later shrug off that major wound in a post-credits sequence. God, I wish that game had a follow-up.

12. GALACTUS

Marvel vs. Capcom 3

I’m surprised it took Capcom so long to bring in Galactus. The studio had the giant boss thing going in its Marvel games with Apocalypse, Onslaught, and whatever the hell Abyss was, and probably should have gone with Galactus for Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but I guess Capcom wanted to do multiple forms for the battle and that’s what Abyss brought to the table. Fortunately, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 finally brought in the Eater of Worlds.

Galactus isn’t the kind of guy who is supposed to get taken down by Ryu and Wolverine, but considering Capcom made a Marvel fighter where Spider-Man can take down an omnipotent Thanos, and that there’s an in-story reason that Galactus isn’t at 100%, one can give this story a pass. He still fights like Galactus should with cosmic energy beams flying all over the place.

Probably the best thing about him is his silly appearances in various endings, like being put on trial with Phoenix Wright as his defense lawyer or an annoyed Wolverine telling X-23 to get Galactus’ defeated body off his lawn.

11. MARIE KORBEL

Skullgirls

The Skull Heart from Skullgirls is terrifying and interesting enough to build a fighting game story around. It’s a demonic relic powerful enough to grant you any wish you’d like, but it will possess you in time. How fast it possesses you depends on how selfish your wish is, but the sad fact is that no matter how altruistic or heroic your actions are, every wish is selfish on some level. To use the Skull Heart is to damn yourself and doom everyone else.

That’s the tragedy of Bloody Marie. She grew up an orphan, abused and treated as a slave. Her thirst for vengeance was justified, but it didn’t make a difference. As the all-powerful Skullgirl, it was only a matter of time before she lost herself completely and slaughtered everyone. This struggle translated to her appearance, which seemed normal enough…until you notice the glowing, bare ribs peeking out the side.

Marie has several forms, and each one depicts her as being less in control until she’s just scraps of bone being manipulated by the Skull Heart. Defeating her not only means wiping out a young girl who really doesn’t deserve it, but for some of her challengers, it means they’re walking towards their own tragedy with the Skull Heart.

10. ONSLAUGHT

Marvel vs. Capcom

Capcom pulled off a miracle when it made Onslaught cool.

In general, Onslaught is like the Star Wars prequels. A solid idea in bullet points, but terrible in practice. The idea of an insane Xavier/Magneto/Juggernaut hybrid commandeering all the Sentinels and becoming such a threat to the Marvel heroes that the only way to stop him is to send a purified version of the Hulk after him sounds so awesome, but…well, ‘90s comics are ‘90s comics.

Marvel vs. Capcom’s Onslaught makes for such a sweet boss fight and is a big improvement over Apocalypse, who bypassed the normal-sized battle for the sake of immediately turning giant. Onslaught is Magneto on steroids, who turns into Apocalypse on steroids, and works because ‘90s Capcom was so damn untouchable.

We’re at a point in pop culture where War Machine is a mainstream superhero and “Lethal Protector” Venom made more in the box office than the Justice League. Onslaught is still considered a very specific time capsule that’s yet to be redeemed, which makes Capcom’s use of him here that much more impressive.

9. OGRE

Tekken 3

Tekken is like WWE where it’s so much better when isn’t focusing on the old man running things and his shitty family. When the bosses aren’t part of the Mishima bloodline, they’re usually some kind of unearthly being. You have your Egyptian demigod, you have your goth lady wearing sludge overalls, and you have your Aztec God of Fighting.

Ogre is the one Tekken boss who doesn’t directly tie into the Mishima family. It’s refreshing and makes the whole world feel bigger. He’s a completely unrelated force who reveals himself by beating the crap out of different mainstays in between Tekken 2 and 3. Granted, it was more impressive early on because Ogre got credit for wiping out so much of the early cast. But those guys returned in later games, and it seems Ogre only really killed the first King and MAYBE Jun, who sucks so good for Ogre.

Outside of non-canon stuff, Ogre didn’t last long in the Tekken series, but his death brought forth the rivalry between Heihachi and Jin, springboarding the Mishima war into a new direction. It was also explained that the Ancient Ogre form was defeated by Paul Phoenix, which is sadly one of the last times that character was treated like an actual threat.

8. OROCHI

King of Fighters ’97

Nailing the landing on a long-running story isn’t easy, and it’s truly impressive when a franchise pulls it off. Fans of Avengers: Endgame know that feeling well.

While the first King of Fighters game was all about Rugal, his return in King of Fighters ’95 built on the idea that he was tapped into a greater power that dwarfed him. Then King of Fighters ’96 continued that by showing us Goenitz, who was also a player in Orochi’s game. Even Iori Yagami – an antihero who wanted nothing to do with the evil god – was powerless to be anything but its bloodthirsty pawn.

King of Fighters ’97 not only acted as the climax to this whole saga, but it really felt like the peak of the whole franchise. There were great King of Fighters games afterwards, but this was where everything really felt like it lined up. And so, after all this build up, we got a team of Orochi worshippers, two insane pawns slaughtering in his name, and one guy so insane and bloodthirsty to start with that he shrugged off the magical need to go feral. Then by the time you got to Orochi, he felt like a true final boss that they spent several years building towards. He was the right level of malevolent celestial being and, while challenging, was never too hard compared to other SNK bosses.

As the exclamation point, most endings in the game warned that he’d be back someday. The only way to truly do away with him was to beat the game with a very specific trio of fighters, which happened to trigger one of the coolest endings in the series. The following arcs of King of Fighters would try to build towards other masterminds, but none of them held a candle to Orochi.

7. DIZZY

Guilty Gear X

As I said earlier, the true conflict of the Guilty Gear series is that shit was bad long ago, and the heroes have to keep the world from unwinding back into that chaos. When it came to the villainous Justice, things were pretty cut and dry. Justice had been released from her prison, cloned, and even resurrected at times. But Dizzy was a deeper take on the idea. She is the daughter of Sol Badguy and/or Justice and is an omega-level threat who could very well relaunch the war between humans and Gears.

It just so happens that she’s also an innocent, young woman who just wants a peaceful existence, someone who just wants to be left alone where she can’t hurt anyone. Despite being possibly the most powerful character in the series (give her Instant Kill attack in Guilty Gear Xrd a look), Dizzy is left alone in the end. She ends up finding friends, love, and even has a son.

6. THANOS

Marvel Super Heroes

Marvel Super Heroes is a very loose adaptation of Infinity Gauntlet, and that’s part of the reason the final battle with Thanos work so well. You spend all game accumulating Infinity Gems, adding more power-up options to each fight. Then Thanos steals them away and you have to take on a fully-Gauntleted Mad Titan in front of a backdrop very reminiscent of the big heroes vs. Thanos fight from Infinity Gauntlet.

Now, for those of you who haven’t read the comic that inspired Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos got the Infinity Gauntlet and became omnipotent. A bunch of heroes dogpiled him, and Thanos even gave himself a handicap to make it the slightest bit challenging, but the heroes still lost BADLY.

So here you are, playing as Spider-Man or Iron Man or whoever, having to have a kickass one-on-one brawl with Thanos and having to do alone what almost 20 superheroes couldn’t do in the comics. But because fighting games exist in a reality where everyone can win (and not just Jim Starlin’s Jim darlings), everyone — from Psylocke to Juggernaut — stands a chance at dethroning Thanos and truly earning the Infinity Gauntlet.

5. RUGAL BERNSTEIN

King of Fighters Series

I’m a huge fan of this character despite his tendency to be a bullshit SNK boss. Fighting him in King of Fighters ’94 should be banned by the Geneva Convention. It’s just that…man, the dude has so much swagger and radiates such coolness that I can’t hate him. He’s Rugal Goddamn Bernstein and we’re better for knowing him.

As with most early villains of fighting games, Rugal is overshadowed by his replacements. Shang Tsung works for Shao Kahn. Sagat works for M. Bison. Heihachi is the son of Jinpachi. Eyedol is the rival of Gargos. Geese is the weaker brother to Krauser. Rugal got the ball rolling in his own way as a way to build to the Orochi storyline, which practically defined all the following King of Fighters storylines. Yet in the end, despite being the first step in the saga and being killed for good during the second entry, Rugal has solidified himself as THE villain of King of Fighters. Dream match games and non-canon adventures tend to just go with Rugal as the final boss by default, usually with some extra bell and whistle, my favorite being God Rugal from Capcom vs. SNK 2. A coked up Rugal with Akuma gimmicks is my kind of boss battle.

Rugal is mostly a collection of awesome motifs and special attacks, but I also love that he’s just as defined by his number one weakness. Yes, he’s good enough to crush a team of three like nobody’s business, but he has his physical limits and his downfall is that he doesn’t see that. In canon and as God Rugal, he loses because he absorbs and uses up too much power for his body to handle. It’s nice when a villain is done in by their inability to leave well enough alone.

4. SHAO KAHN

Mortal Kombat Series

The worst thing I can say about Shao Kahn is that, while I dig the way his latter appearances lean into his “painted on the side of your van” metal design, he will never be as completely rad as he was in Mortal Kombat 2 and 3. Probably because loud growling doesn’t hold a candle to his eerie whisper and proud laughter.

Kahn is more intimidating than most bosses. The attract sequence in Mortal Kombat 2 showed a silhouette of Kahn reading Shang Tsung the riot act followed by a more direct look at his appearance, and it was immediately clear that this guy was absolute trouble. The first game tried to make Goro seem terrifying, but we knew that he was still second to Shang Tsung. Shao Kahn was THE boss, and we knew that, even if we climbed up that ladder (with Kahn STANDING ON TOP A MOUNTAIN), Kahn would be the end of us.

And a lot of the time he was. He would beat you with a war hammer, kick you across the room, and taunt you and you’d love him for it. He was so perfect as a boss that Midway simply had to bring him back for the next game.

Even after taking a backseat in the subsequent games, Mortal Kombat Armageddon’s story revitalized him by making him the winner of what was essentially the Mortal Kombat Royal Rumble. It was such a tragic turn of events that Raiden had to go back in time to stop it. Even with nearly all the good guys dead, it was all deemed worth it just because Kahn was killed. At least for a few years.

3. M. BISON

Street Fighter Series

As a kid, I was always confused about why this bus driver was running his own fighting tournament, but that feeling was replaced by my rage at his damn slide kick and arm-hook throw combo. You have fire-hand powers. You don’t need to be that smooth, dude.

Bison isn’t as deep a character as Sagat or as hardcore as Akuma or as naked as Gill, but he is possibly the hammiest final boss in the history of fighting games. All the various actors who have portrayed the character seem to be taken by the infectious fun that comes with playing him, whether it’s Raul Julia in the first live-action movie, Gerald C. Rivers and Kenji Utsumi in the games, Richard Newman on the cartoon, and, hell, even Neal McDonough had his moments in that crappy Chun-Li movie.

As the first final boss that anyone ever cared about, Bison is a wonderful pile of escalating craziness. Over time, he’s become a comedically-jacked guy with a constant smile whose plots involve Buddha statues with laser faces, running over Ryu with a bigass truck, shoving his soul into gender-swapped clones, and dropping satellites onto civilization for the sake of causing chaos. Capcom can try to write him out of the series, but he’s just too iconic to destroy for good.

2. AKUMA

Street Fighter Series

It’s crazy to think how Electronic Gaming Monthly did an April Fools’ joke about there being an enhanced version of Ryu as a secret final boss in Street Fighter II and Capcom decided, yes, that’ll do. That’s how one of the most iconic fighting game characters ever was born.

“Ryu but darker and more powerful” could have ended badly, but Akuma’s always shined as the X-factor of Street Fighter’s roster. He’s more than just an evil final boss. He’s a malevolent force that is somehow neither good nor evil…which is for the best, considering Capcom eventually labeled M. Bison as literal pure evil.

What’s funny to me is how Mortal Kombat introduced the idea of the hidden boss fight with Reptile, then gradually turned him into the biggest jobber in Mortal Kombat lore. Akuma showed up, wiped out M. Bison with his so-powerful-we-can’t-even-show-you super move, gave you a nigh-impossible boss fight, and then Capcom made sure to keep him going as the guy who will make you shit your pants every time he shows up. When SNK made its SNK vs. Capcom crossover game, the team even put an ending in there where a bored Akuma challenged God to a fight.

1. GEESE HOWARD

Fatal Fury Series

As fighting games are ensemble pieces, so are their storylines most of the time. Fatal Fury, not so much. Fatal Fury is really the story of Terry Bogard vs. Geese Howard with a bunch of supporting characters. Even Andy Bogard, who has just as much a reason to be the protagonist as Terry, is relegated to being “the guy who is reluctant to sleep with his hot girlfriend.” Fatal Fury is really about Terry and Geese and everyone else is, at best, an extension of the two of them.

Geese is everything you could ever want in a final boss, unless you’re looking for a giant shooting lasers out his eyes. He’s slick as oil and tougher than brick, with a moveset that’s based around throwing you like a ragdoll or blasting you into the stratosphere. He’s the right balance of difficult enough to make you curse, but not cheap enough to make you throw the controller through your screen.

Not only is he unique in battle, but he just has so much personality. His cockiness is on another level. His every gesture makes him look like he knows he’s superior to everyone else in every way, but kicking their ass is a better use of his time than whatever else he has planned. Even his counter moves (“PREDICTABLE!”) make him seem untouchable.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

His canon death scene in the Fatal Fury games is also second to none. Hanging off a tower rooftop, he sees Terry reach his hand out. Rather than be saved and maybe even forgiven by Terry, Geese chooses to smack it away, let go, and fall to his death while looking up at the winner and laughing maniacally at him. What a boss way to go.

The post 50 Best Fighting Game Final Bosses from Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, and More appeared first on Den of Geek.

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throughtheglassdarkly · 5 years

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Roadblocks, part 5.1

Welcome back. When last you were here, we whacked Aurora and made some s’mores. Onward.

Suffice it to say, after dealing with Aurora for the final time, all of us wanted to just head off our separate ways. I had the most uneventful evening, babysitting Gershwin and sitting at my table with a bunch of notes in front of me, trying to make connections with what Amberleigh was, what the pledge she’d made the other changelings in her service take meant, and if there was anything we could do to help clear it up. I didn’t make much progress – my head was still swimming from everything that had happened earlier.

Pam did end up staying at Brenda’s, watching Turner Classic Movies and exchanging home decorating tips. She told Brenda that she thought her house was charming and Brenda was over the moon because none of her friends liked her house. “You know, I’m kind of glad Day didn’t show up, because I’d never hear the end of it if he saw this place,” she said.

While they were in the middle of watching The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Pam felt a needling sensation at the back of her head, similar to how her Fetch occasionally send a message. She let the feeling in and before she realized it, she wasn’t in Brenda’s living room anymore: she was back in her own living room in Minnesota, her husband’s arm around her, two of the kids there. They were having a family movie night. She looked over at Sierra, who wasn’t watching the movie as much as looking over the program for the camp Yova recommended for her. She was going off about how excited she was and showing all the cool programs and activities and all the visiting actors. Pam heard her own voice, but not quite her own voice, in the back of her head: “I thought you’d appreciate this.” The Fetch had heard somehow through the grapevine that something had happened to Aurora and thanked Pam for it.

Pam tried to think hard to send a message about how her Fetch didn’t have to worry any more about Aurora showing up and tearing everything apart. She got a flash of someone sitting in a bed in a very plain, white room with a flower vase next to her. It was very dark; all Pam could see was moonlight coming through the window and the silhouette of the person. But as the figured turned over and started to lie down, Pam got an image of Yova’s old face. Another thought came through to her: “This one might not be so okay. Be careful.” She snapped back into Brenda’s living room right in the middle of the Mexican standoff scene.

Yova herself wasn’t entirely all right, either. She headed over to Marigold’s place, not in the best headspace and still clad in the bloody clothes she was wearing. It was her first time going to Marigold’s apartment, which she said was absolutely precious, including the giant autumn wreath on the door. Marigold was in a plaid nightgown and her hair was down around her shoulders in thick waves. She was delighted to see Yova, but clearly concerned about the bloodstains. “You’re just in time, I made some cocoa, if you want some!” she said. “That sounds lovely, darling,” Yova said. Marigold asked if she wanted whipped cream and Yova just managed a nod.

Marigold poured her a lovely glass of whipped cream with a few tablespoons of cocoa, and as Yova sat down, she realized her shirt was still covered with blood. She kicked herself mentally. Marigold seemed to realize what was on her mind and asked if Yova wanted to throw it in the laundry. They had some nauseatingly sweet banter about how Marigold’s nightgowns would be about the size of one of Yova’s shirts, then Yova kissed her forehead and took off the shirt, having a tank top underneath.

“So is this something I can ask about or is it not good?” Marigold asked hesitantly after a second. Yova leaned back, sighed, and said, “I’ve mentioned to you briefly the changeling who coaxed me beyond the Hedge? Well, she didn’t just coax me. She dealt with me directly, but either directly or indirectly, she was responsible for my entire motley being sent into Arcadia. And we confronted her tonight.” “Oh. So the blood is…” “Hers. I, uh, I suppose you could say I struck the killing blow. A Summer courtier took care of the body. One less loyalist we have to worry about. I’m glad we got to her when we did. She was in the process of making another Fetch. She was planning to take someone else soon.”

Marigold’s eyes went wide, then she squinted. Yova could see a few tears starting to form. She kicked herself again, apologized and went in to hug her. Marigold hugged back as tight as she possibly could and mumbled something into Yova’s shirt, though Yova couldn’t make it out since it was muffled to hell and back. Yova rocked her gently, humming to calm her down. After a minute or so, Marigold looked up, apologizing and saying, “You shouldn’t have to do things like that. None of us should have to do things like that.” Yova looked at her dead serious and said, “If it means keeping you safe, keeping the rest of the Courts safe, keeping my friend’s family safe, I don’t mind doing it.”

She wiped away a few more of Marigold’s tears and said that she didn’t want to be alone. “No. No, you shouldn’t be alone,” Marigold said, extracting herself and showing the cocoa at Yova. “You’re going to drink that and then I’m going to put something on the TV that’s a little funnier than what I was watching.” Yova put her arm around Marigold and said, “I came here because I wanted to be with you.” Marigold turned the color of an overripe tomato. Yova suggested that they just get caught up on whatever Marigold was watching and Marigold launched into a full explanation of Outlander. They settled in for a lovely evening of snuggling and watching fine period costume dramas.

Day had been spending most of his time staking out Bella’s family’s hotel. He’d gotten a tip that Aurora had been checking them out, so he was hanging out in the lobby, ensuring she didn’t show up. After a full night of nothing happening, he made his way back to his apartment to see a very sulky Bella sitting on his doorstep. When he approached, she looked up and said, “I brought wings and beer so you won’t kick me out right away.” “Okay. Wanted, hunted, or pregnant?” he asked. “None of the above,” she said. “Good, otherwise I’d say no. Come in.” His apartment was a sophisticated blend of dirty, messy, and filthy, though the kitchen was at least fit for sitting in.

Day took one of the beers and gave Bella a bottle of water, then told her to spill it. She told him the story of going to Aurora’s Hollow, finding the Fetch of her brother, and how she felt like she deserved to kill Aurora instead of Yova. “I wanted to beat the shit out of Yova for no reason. So I came here,” she said. Day stared at her for a good minute before he said, “Okay, so you went a little crazy. So you decided to lash out. So what? I know you care about all of us. I mean, that hasn’t changed, right?” Bella said that she felt like crap and Day told her that’s good, because the feelings she had before weren’t real. “If they were, you wouldn’t feel like that. So count your blessings and know that regardless of whatever you do, you’ll be forgiven. ‘Cause that’s what that whole motley bullshit means,” he said.

“So you’ll forgive me even if I clean up this shithole you call an apartment? And I put things in bags and places with labels and designated spots so you know where things are?” she asked, beaming up at him. “I’ll ask forgiveness over your corpse,” he said. They debated going to one of Day’s favorite classy joints, Beef, for Legs and Kegs and Eggs, but Bella said she just wanted to die. They agreed to just watch an old movie, eat those disgusting wings, and hang out.

And so a few days passed. Some of us had work, others needed to decompress, but we were all avoiding each other for the most part. It was Pam who sent out a group text, telling us we should meet to have brunch. The conversation went like follows:

Day: “Brunch?”

Me: “There’s alcohol at brunch.”

Day: “I’m in!”

We ended up meeting at Pam’s suggestion at a lovely little spot by the capitol building called the Iron Gate Café. The entrance was in an alley between two larger buildings with an iron gate in front of it and a beautiful little courtyard with outdoor seating. It was definitely too cold for that, so we went inside. Pam was the first one there and she got a table. Bella was hanging off Day’s arm and they were talking and laughing. Day ordered a beer and was completely dumbfounded. When Yova and I got there, he looked at us and said, “I don’t know how I never heard about this brunch thing.” He looked around and said, “Let’s see, gay, gay, lesbian, gay… did you guys know about this?”

Yova and I shared a look that clearly agreed we could not break the sacrosanct Gay Pact About Brunch. “You know, there are some things that are just lost to the sands of time,” I said. “It’s a mystery,” Yova said. “We’ve been gone two years…” “Things have changed…” Thankfully, we had a different waitress than the one we’d had the week prior. When he looked over the menu and saw all the different booze and breakfast items, Day was completely delighted. “Damn, brunch kicks ass!” he said.

After we got our drinks in and were looking over the menu, Day looked at us and asked, “So, anybody here pissed at Bella?” I downed an entire champagne-and-cranberry juice and Yova drank a colossal beer, because we were both way too sober for that conversation. After she let out a satisfying but very ladylike belch, Yova said, “I was just giving space where I thought space was warranted. Emotions were running high, there were a lot of conflicting feelings. I didn’t want to insert myself where I wasn’t wanted.”

Bella put down her menu and said that she didn’t know what came over her, that she felt horrible, and that she’d been spending the last few days cleaning Day’s house as penance. Yova topped off both our glasses and knocked hers back. “My concern isn’t your actions, Bella. My concern is that you’ve been out of sorts for a while and it seems like…” she trailed off. “You’re not yourself,” I chimed in. “You’re not yourself and you’re not doing anything about it. That’s my concern. I can take being lashed out at. I’m concerned this is a sign about something else going on that you’re not willing to admit,” Yova said.

Bella sighed and admitted that she knew something was wrong. “But I can’t exactly go to a therapist about it,” she said. “Well, there’s got to be at least somebody in the freehold who has a psych degree,” I said. When I said that, Pam’s eyes lit up, then Yova’s did a moment later. They looked at each other and Pam piped up, saying that from talking to people in the freehold, she’d heard that there was at least one therapist in the freehold in the Autumn Court. Yova asked if I could text Evain, and I pulled out my phone. Our messages are recorded below for posterity.

“JJ! She looks like a beagle!” I said triumphantly. A few people turned to look at me, but I had another drink to celebrate.

After we put our food orders in, Yova asked Pam if there was a reason she wanted to get together. Pam cleared her throat and said, “Actually, it’s about something you’ll want to know.” Yova flagged down the waitress and ordered a few more pitchers. Pam told us about how her Fetch let her know that Yova’s Fetch wasn’t doing well. “I know that. I’ve been calling and pretending to be her sister,” Yova said. “Did you actually talk to her?” Pam asked. “Oh, yes, once. It went dreadfully. She’s – how do I put this…” she trailed off again. “Bonkers?” I asked helpfully. “That’s the word,” Yova said.

After the pitchers came, Yova told us about how her Fetch got thrown into an extremely high-pressure situation and clearly couldn’t handle it. “I think when Aurora took me, she took all of my anxiety and put it into that person,” she said. She told us she checked in about once a week, trying to figure out how her Fetch was doing, and ensuring that she was still in one piece. With that, she looked to Pam and asked if she thought something else had happened to Yova’s Fetch.

“I’m just worried, because my Fetch seemed concerned about her,” Pam said. “Can they communicate?” Day asked. “I saw a vision of her, sitting in her room for now. She turned and looked over. There wasn’t too much to it, but it has me nervous,” Pam said. Yova poured herself another glass, but drank this one a bit more slowly and thoughtfully. Finally, she said, “I have thought to put in an anonymous call to my parents to see if they would come and do anything about her. But I don’t know if that would do anything, or if they would even respond or care or if they’re even in the same place they were when I last saw them.”

Between sips, Yova told us that when she first found out what her Fetch was like, she had a wild idea that they could go on their separate ways, but admitted she probably went about it too directly. “You can say that again,” Day said. I kicked him under the table. “Ow!” he said. Yova asked Pam what she thought she should do. “Do you want me to go and talk with her?” Pam asked. “I have to admit that she isn’t pleasant and probably has the worst parts of me all wrapped into one,” Yova said. Pam said that she thought she would visit, just to try and figure out what was going on and make sure there wasn’t anything that might come back to hurt Yova.

I could see that Yova was actually a little teary-eyed at that, though she did her best to blink them back. “If that’s the case, I can at least drive you up there,” she said. She wasn’t in any condition to do that at the moment because she and Day were completely blitzed. Pam ensured we all paid the bill and got on our way safely.

Neither Yova nor Day were in any condition to do anything that day, so we decided to hold off on any action. A couple of days passed, during which I was being a petty bastard messaging Yova about going to check on her Fetch. She stopped deigning to respond after I sent a message saying, “Hey, Nurse Ratched called, she said we should go check in.” So I realized it was time to bring in the big guns. I called Pam and told her I thought Yova needed a little encouragement to go check on her Fetch.

Click here for part two of this recap.

#Changeling: The Lost #changeling #ctl #ic #recap #click the link ya dingus

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lesbrarians · 7 years

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Junkrat/Roadhog:: Origins Ch. 17

This is it, everyone, the final chapter of the fic! I’m posting this on my lunch break at work bc I’m so excited to share it with you all, aha. I hope you enjoy it! (Also, a reference image for that first paragraph: http://jabberwockyx.tumblr.com/post/153064161387/i-love-all-of-junkrats-drawings-and-his-awful)

Title: Origins

Characters: Junkrat, Roadhog

Rating: R

Summary: The origins of Junkrat and Roadhog. Junkrat finds a mysterious treasure in the nuclear wasteland of the Australian Outback and quickly finds himself a target. When a hitman is sent to kill him, he convinces the man to become his personal bodyguard in exchange for half the spoils. Their ensuing crime spree could be legendary – if they can get over the initial bad blood between them. Can also be found on AO3 if you prefer reading it there!

Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Final Chapter

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Junkrat drew a dotted line on the map Thatcher had helped him sketch several weeks ago, punctuated with a giant circle around the word “FREEDUM!” He flipped the paper towel over and wrote a message that, the occasional spelling error aside, explained the essence of the strategy. “Okay, so that’s you in the lounge,” he said, referring to the several circles that formed a crude depiction of Roadhog’s pig mask, topped with a tuft of hair. “And me by the door,” he added, in reference to the inverted triangle of his face and the three spikes that represented his hair. “Do whatcha gotta do and get the bloody hell over to me, okay?”

Roadhog’s response was a drawing of his own, a simple thumbs up. Junkrat grinned at the picture. He’d made the right choice in picking Roadhog for his bodyguard.

Junkrat pocketed the note and finished assembling the last of his bombs, hooking two electrical wires to a tube filled with flammable match head powder on one end and a D-sized battery on the other. In order to properly execute the plan, he needed to steal one last thing from Thatcher, and he waited until the last second possible to do so out of sheer self-preservation.

Once Thatcher left the cell for their recreational hour, Junkrat lunged for one of his books, a sizeable hardcover. He pulled out a razor blade that he had welded to the end of a plastic comb. Prisoners were only allowed to shave in the presence of a guard, but Roadhog had managed to slip out some blades undetected. He was endlessly grateful that he had the man on his side, because he had no personal way to acquire a razor, given his radiation-induced hair growth issues. The COs were stingy about granting razor access to maximum-security prisoners, but Roadhog was given special permission, as facial hair prevented his gas mask from sealing properly.

Junkrat hollowed out the book, using the razor to slice a hole in the pages, and planted his largest and greatest bomb in the center of it. He attached a pair of wires to the cover of the book, rigging it so that it would detonate upon opening. As much as he liked being the one to blow someone to kingdom come, there was something to be said for the power of a victim actuated device.

Satisfied with its construction, he stuffed his pockets full of the rest of his innovated weapons, clutched the book to his chest, and left the cell.

Across the room, he could see Roadhog in position in the living area, stationed by the TV. Junkrat nodded at him and made his way to his spot several feet away from the door that linked their wing to the rest of the prison.

Junkrat didn’t know how, exactly, Roadhog disturbed the peace and instigated the riot, but there was a sudden explosion of activity. A booming voice came on over the loudspeaker, ordering all the inmates to quiet down and return to their cells, but the pandemonium was in full force and no one obeyed.

A team of officers stormed into the block, clad in flak jackets and helmets. Junkrat inched closer to the door, book held tight in front of him. One of the guards slowed down and eyed him.

“What’ve you got there, Fawkes?”

Junkrat jumped at being directly addressed. “N-Nothin’!” he said, just a little too quickly to be honest. “Just a book, that’s all.” His natural twitchiness helped make his feigned nervousness more convincing. Who’s incapable of keeping up an act now? he thought, making a mental note to throw the savage comment in Roadhog’s face later.

“Oh yeah? Then you won’t mind handing it over so I can take a look at it.”

“No!”

The officer reached for his hip. “Hand it over now, Fawkes.”

Junkrat begrudgingly held out the book and glanced over to the commotion of inmates and officers. Roadhog had side-skirted the whole mess and was heading his way. The CO snatched the book away from him, and Junkrat skittered to Roadhog’s side as he opened the book.

The bomb detonated with a glorious bang, and the guard screamed, the sound lost in the din of shouting and fighting that filled the block. One second his hand was there, holding the cover of the book, and the next second it wasn’t. He stumbled back and fell flat on his ass, unable to take his eyes off the bloody stump of his hand. It filled Junkrat with a vindictive kind of glee to know that he wasn’t the only poor asshole with a missing hand in the room.

Junkrat snatched his identification card from where it was clipped to his belt. “I’ll be takin’ that! Roadhog, why dontcha… give him a hand?” He couldn’t stop himself from picking up the severed hand and waving it.

“Stop that.” Roadhog’s idea of giving the man a hand was to reach down and snap his neck before he tried to detain them from leaving, hand or no hand.

Junkrat used the identification card to buzz them out of the room before the rest of the officers who were struggling to contain the rioting prisoners noticed that they were down a man. He pulled out one of the pipes he had acquired from Belmont and filled with powdered coffee creamer.

They took off down the hall. “Hold this a sec,” he told Roadhog, passing him the pipe and plunging his hand back into his pocket in search of his matchbook.

“Oi!” came a shout as they rounded the corner, two guards coming their way. Junkrat had anticipated their presence, thanks to the map he had drawn with Thatcher’s help and marked with angry faces. He’d spent hours poring over his sketchy layout, trying to find an alternative route where their paths wouldn’t cross with stationed guards, but there was none. He decided it didn’t matter; as long as they had the appropriate weapons, they could plow their way through the defenses.

Junkrat struck a match and took the pipe back from Roadhog. He held the flame at the the pipe’s entrance and tipped it horizontally so the contents slowly trickled out. As soon as the powder touched the burning match, it ignited, and pulling the match away created a long stream of fire aimed directly at the security guards that were rushing towards them.

“If ya can’t stand the heat, stay outta my face!” he shouted over the screams of the burned. He was economical with his use of the coffee creamer, making his macgyvered flamethrower last as long as possible before dropping the spent device.

They weren’t out of the proverbial woods yet. Roadhog shanked anyone who got too close to them with the improvised weapons he’d made out of stolen razor blades and sharpened toothbrushes while Junkrat caused as much destruction as possible to slow down anyone who had the guts to come after them.

“Incoming!” He lit his last bomb and tossed it to clear a path to the main doors.

They burst outside, the doors to the prison slamming against the brick wall, and bolted for the exit. The correctional officers may not have carried guns on their person, but the guards in the watchtowers outside sure as hell did. Junkrat’s nerves got the best of him, his unhinged laughter a product of alarm as they swerved to avoid being shot. A spasmodically moving target was much harder to hit than a predictable one, and Junkrat was the master of erratic behavior. Roadhog stuck directly behind him as they ran, a living human shield in case any errant bullets got too close.

Much to their relief, Roadhog’s bike was idling outside the prison, Ava lounging in the familiar beat-up yellow sidecar. At least, Junkrat assumed it was Ava, as the woman was wearing a full face, tinted visor helmet that covered her distinguishing mass of dense curls.

She straightened up once she saw the two of them barreling straight towards her, giving Junkrat the space he needed to leap into the sidecar next to her. “Long time no see!” she said as Roadhog mounted the bike and they tore away from the prison. She raised her voice to be heard of the revving motor. “Junkrat, Roadhog, you’re looking good. I’ll admit, I had my doubts – how the bloody hell did you escape a maximum security prison?”

“Bombs and fire!”

“Ah, I see, the usual way, then.”

“We’ll explain back at your house,” Roadhog said, accelerating just a little faster. Junkrat’s eyes watered; he was suddenly jealous of Ava’s helmet and Roadhog’s mask, both of which protected their eyes from the sting of air whooshing by.

“Wait!” he shouted over the loud rush of wind. “We gotta go to the impound lot first!”

“Are you kidding me?” Ava yelled back. “After I broke in there and nicked the bike – no way!”

“Please,” Junkrat begged. He glanced over at Roadhog, eyes pleading. “Come on, Roadhog, I need my tire!”

Roadhog shifted gears. “Which way, Ava?”

Ava groaned, but she directed them to the lot and handed over a pair of bolt cutters. “I had planned on cutting through the fence, but it was easier to just scale it.”

It wasn’t quite as easy for Junkrat to climb the fence, as his peg leg poked through the holes in the chain link, so he cut his way through while Roadhog and Ava stood lookout.

There was a guard tower in the impound lot, and Junkrat hid as he tried to figure out how best to navigate to the large storage container. He was close to just giving up and making a run for it, because all the routes he saw seemed to be in clear view of the tower. Just as he was about to head back to the motorcycle to regroup and figure out another strategy, he heard the clanging of a gate on the far end of the impound loud and a very convincing barking noise.

Ava. Junkrat grinned. He waited for the guard to leave the tower to investigate the source of the disturbance before dashing towards the evidence locker. He used the bolt cutters to break the heavy duty padlock (stupid, he thought to himself, they really needed to get with the times and beef up their security – but then again, it wasn’t a particularly high crime town) and slipped inside, swinging the door shut behind him.

After a moment’s thought, he opened it again, just a crack. He needed the light to figure out what the hell belonged to him. It wasn’t that he had scruples about not stealing the belongings of other criminals; it was more a matter of being economical, and his and Roadhog’s loot was top priority.

Luckily, their stuff wasn’t exactly easy to miss. Subtlety was not their strong point. He caught sight of a familiar looking spike and the bright yellow of Roadhog’s shoulder pad, and he made a beeline for the boxes of evidence labeled “Fawkes & Rutledge,” with their case number below it.

Junkrat pulled out his RIP-tire first. He cackled and planted a smooch on the rubber, heedless of the dirt caked onto it. The joy was overwhelming, and not just because of the treasure the tire contained. It had been a staple of his arsenal of weapons for so long, and he had felt naked without it on his person. He wrapped his arms between the spikes to hug it tight to his chest. “I’ve gotcha!”

He strapped the tire to his back and grabbed everything else he could carry – Roadhog’s harness, which threatened to slip off his shoulders, it was so comically large on him; the piggy-faced duffle bag that carried Roadhog’s hogdrogen, Junkrat’s mines, and what remained of their hard-earned cash; his own harness and its grenade cans slung over his other arm. After a moment’s thought, he searched the container until he pulled out a handful of rings, the ones Roadhog had retrieved from Riptide all those months ago. He stashed them in the deepest corner of the duffle bag.

“Junkrat!” Ava’s voice, high and piercing, called out. Junkrat’s head whipped up. If Ava was yelling, there was no point in pretending to be unobtrusive. He hiked up everything he was carrying and charged out the door, slamming it open. The security guard had been dangerously close to the evidence locker and took off after him, hot on his heels and cursing him out.

Junkrat plunged his hand into the pink duffle bag and fished out one of his mines and the detonator. He jumbled things around so he could properly access the detonator and dropped the mine. He jumped and pressed the button, the force of the explosion catapulting him through the air and knocking the guard off his feet.

“‘Hog, look, I’m flying!” he shouted as he soared through the air. He landed on the ground hard, stumbling a little, and finished the mad dash to the motorcycle.

Ava grabbed his hand and swung him onboard, and they peeled off with a victory cry.

“Is there hogdrogen in there?” Roadhog asked, sparing a glance at the duffle bag.

“You know it,” Junkrat answered. “Need a can?” He pulled one out and passed it over to Roadhog, who huffed it and tossed it to the ground.

“Oh, good,” Ava said. “You can add littering to your list of crimes now too!”

—

It was dusk by the time they arrived at Ava’s house.

“You can’t stay here long,” Ava said after they covered Roadhog’s bike with a black tarp. “They’re bound to realize who your little accomplice was, the glorious me, and they’ll come knocking. But you can stay here the night at least.

Rosa fussed over all of them like a mother hen, clucking about how they had

to get out of the prison stripes before they left. There was the pressing matter of where they would acquire replacement clothes, but she promised to go into town and look for something on their behalf first thing in the morning.

“Hang on, Roadhog,” she said suddenly, standing on her tiptoes and balancing against him to inspect his arm. “You’re bleeding… is that a bullet?”

Junkrat’s blood ran cold. “Wait, wait, what? Roadhog – y-yer shot?” His mind ran a mile a minute. People died from being shot, no matter how big and tough they were, and Roadhog had gone untreated for several hours, that couldn’t possibly be good. His traitorous brain supplied him with an image of Roadhog, dead, and the panic began to set in. “No, no, that can’t be a fucking bullet–” He crossed over to Roadhog’s other side to examine for himself and – nope, nope, that was definitely a bullet wound. “Shit, why the fuck didn’t ya say something?”

He should have known. He shouldn’t have needed to been told. He should’ve seen how Roadhog was favoring his left arm, paid more attention to why he immediately reached for the hogdrogen. Guilt wasn’t an emotion he was accustomed to feeling, but it was sinking in heavily.

“Junkrat,” Roadhog said, voice gentle. “I’m fine.”

“Yer not fuckin’ fine, there’s a bloody bullet in yer arm, don’t talk to me about bein’ fine!” Junkrat’s hands twisted in his hair, upset and frustrated and utterly shaken.

“I’m still standing.”

Junkrat slowly unclenched his fists. “Well, yeah, but that’s just – adrenaline is a helluva motivator.”

“Adrenaline and sheer determination to live,” Ava amended. “I’ve seen men half Roadhog’s size get shot and still remain a threat. It’ll take more than a bullet to incapacitate our man over here.” She located a handheld x-ray and examined him while Rosa and Junkrat fretted.

“Well?” Junkrat demanded. He drummed his fingers against his thigh, taut with nervous energy. “You gonna get it out or what?” He peeked over Ava’s shoulder, trying to gauge for himself how bad it was.

“Oi, give me a minute, stickybeak, I’m assessing.” Ava pushed him away, peering at the wound through her device. “You’re lucky,” she finally said. “It didn’t hit any major arteries and is pretty firmly lodged in there. Honestly? I say leave it in.”

Junkrat did not like the sound of a bullet remaining in his bodyguard. “Whoa, whoa, doc, y’sure that’s a good idea?”

“Hey, who’s the one with a medical degree here? You might be Dr. Boom, but I’m Dr. Bones, and I know my shit. Removing a foreign object like that would just do more harm than good and could cause localized nerve damage. If it’s not going to migrate – and I don’t think it will – or impede your range of motion, then it’s not worth removing. It’s not a radioactive slug or anything. You’ll be fine,” she reassured Roadhog, but Junkrat felt like he needed the reassurance more, since Roadhog was acting remarkably unperturbed. “Just let me dress it for you and get you some antibiotics and painkillers, and you tell me if anything shifts or starts acting funky, ‘kay?”

Junkrat hovered around Roadhog and Ava as she sterilized the wound and patched him up. He only left when Ava, clearly fed up by his constant presence and incessant questioning of everything she did, sent him to get some water for Roadhog’s painkillers.

He waited until they were alone to properly address Roadhog again.

“Hey… I’m sorry,” he said, doing his best to sound as contrite as he felt. Ava and Rosa had gone to bed, having set them up with their sleeping bags on the living room floor once more. With all the blackout curtains drawn, he couldn’t see anything, and he was glad that Roadhog couldn’t see him clearly either, as he fidgeted with his fingers. That moment where he had seen a future without Roadhog in it had put his feelings for him in stark relief.

He heard the pillow sigh as Roadhog shifted his head to look at him. “For what?”

“For lettin’ ya get shot. You wouldn’t’ve if you hadn’t been bein’ my shield.”

“It’s my job.”

“Well, I don’t like this job anymore if it’s gettin’ ya hurt!” Junkrat said, voice heated. Roadhog shushed him, and he remembered that Ava and Rosa were sleeping nearby. “Y’don’t have to be my bodyguard anymore. It was a stupid idea anyway.”

“I want to be,” Roadhog answered simply. “You need the protection.”

“I can take care of meself! I did it before you came along, I can keep on doing it.”

“You weren’t as big of a target before you hired me,” Roadhog reminded him. “And I meant it: I want to.”

Junkrat sighed. “Yeah, yeah. Yer too good to me, y’know that?”

Roadhog blindly reached out in the darkness and clumsily patted his hand. “Go to sleep.”

“Ahh, okay. G’night.” Junkrat tried, but he couldn’t fall asleep, brain still far too active. He just kept thinking about who he was laying next to.

He hadn’t understood how much he’d missed sleeping next to Roadhog until he was by his side once more. He’d missed the soothing sound of his deep breathing, the way he could feel his body heat radiating off of him, the tingling sensation he felt when he held his arm a hair’s breadth away from Roadhog’s. It was comforting, natural, just plain right.

It made him realize just how much he wanted to keep on sleeping next to him for the rest of his life, or better yet, on him.

Junkrat rolled over onto his side. He could barely make out the outline of the massive form next to him. “Roadhog? Roadhog, mate, I got somethin’ to tell ya. You awake?”

Roadhog grunted. “Yeah?”

Junkrat wet his lips. He was in the thick of it now, there was no backing out. “Listen, we’ve been havin’ a good thing together, yeah? And I was just wonderin’, maybe it’s time we, ah…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Shit, I dunno how to say this without making an arse of myself.”

“Call it off,” Roadhog supplied.

Junkrat startled. “What? Why wouldya even say that?”

“People can outlive their usefulness.”

“No no no, y’ve got it all backwards, mate. I want whatever the opposite of that is! I like you, ya big lug! I mean, I’d kiss ya if you weren’t wearing that stupid mask.”

There was a long moment of silence, and Junkrat was beginning to regret voicing his thoughts at all. “Y’don’t have to say anythin’ if ya don’t feel the same, just thought I’d–”

He broke off mid-sentence when Roadhog suddenly sat up. There was a rustling sound, then he jolted as lips pressed against his own. Junkrat pulled away to look at Roadhog, surprised and overjoyed, but it was hard to make out much of anything in the pitch black room.

“Did… didya mean to just kiss me like that?” he asked, needing the clarification before he let the giddiness consume him entirely.

“No,” Roadhog deadpanned. “I accidentally pushed up my mask and accidentally punched you in the mouth with my lips. What do you think?”

“That no one’s ever just kissed me like that before! Can’t blame me for wantin’ to make sure.”

Roadhog’s thumb brushed against his cheek. “You wanted it,” he answered simply.

“Yeah, yeah I did!” He was about to steal another kiss when a thought occurred to him, and he shoved a hand in Roadhog’s face. “Wait just a tick. Y'didn’t kiss me just ‘cause I wanted it, roight? Y-ya wanted it too?”

Roadhog snorted and pushed his hand away. “I’ve wanted it for a while.”

Junkrat knew he had to look goofy with the dazzling grin plastered across his face, but he couldn’t help himself. He was happy in a way he wasn’t sure he had ever felt before. “Cheers, mate!” He leaned up and kissed Roadhog greedily, grubby hands snaking up to clutch his face.

Junkrat relished in the touch, the stubble of Roadhog’s five o’clock shadow bristling beneath his fingertips. Delicious goosebumps shot up what remained of his biological arms, and he let his hands wander further up, wanting to know what other delectable sensations Roadhog had been hiding from him. His fingers bumped against the bottom of his gas mask. With no hesitation whatsoever (because really, he rarely questioned his impulses), he slipped beneath the mask.

Roadhog tensed up and grabbed his wrist.

“What, no? Bad idea?” Junkrat mumbled against his lips. “S’dark, not like I’m gonna see anythin’ ya don’t want me to see.”

After a moment’s contemplation, Roadhog released his hand. Emboldened at the indirect permission, Junkrat slid the gas mask off of Roadhog’s head. It tumbled to the ground behind them. True to his word, he couldn’t make out anything under the cover of absolute darkness. He let his hands do the seeing for him, skimming up over his face.

He stilled when he reached the upper right side. The pads of his fingertips traced over twisted flesh, finding all the whorls and trenches of the scars left behind after a nasty burn.

Suddenly Roadhog’s violent reaction in the bottle shop made a lot more sense, as did his health reasons for wearing the mask. Smoke inhalation coupled with irradiation could do some serious lung damage.

He was going to say something about it, something stupid and senseless probably, but then Roadhog was pinning his hands to the floor and kissing him deeper, and the question flew out of his head entirely. There’d be time to prod for answers later. They had all the time in the world.

The nonverbal encouragement just made him all the more eager, and he strained against the weight of Roadhog’s hands. Unable to budge an inch, he tried to work his tongue between Roadhog’s lips and, upon gaining entry, lapped up into his mouth.

Roadhog pulled away from him. “We have to work on that.”

Junkrat laughed, high-pitched and gleeful. “If that means we get to practice until I get it down, then I’m game!” Another giggle slipped out as he positively squirmed with delight beneath Roadhog. It occurred to him that this was how they’d started their relationship, on the ground with Roadhog looming over him in the dead of night.

“Mmm.” In the inky black of nighttime, he couldn’t be sure, but he thought he could make out Roadhog’s large thumb brushing across his lips before he reached for the fallen gas mask and pulled it back on, obscuring his face once more. Shame, Junkrat thought. Burns or no burns, he thought that Roadhog’s face would be a national treasure.

Treasure. “Hey,” he said, the words coming out more breathless than intended. “Wanna see me treasure?”

A wheeze of amusement emitted from the filters of Roadhog’s gas mask. “Sure.”

Junkrat threw off the covers of his sleeping bag and retrieved his tire from where it lay a mere few feet away. “We’ll need light,” he said, hefting it in his arms and lugging it onto the kitchen table. Roadhog turned on the light above the table, the retro bulb that dangled from the ceiling swinging on its string.

He was about to dismantle the tire when something clicked in his rusty memory. “Wait. I got somethin’ else to show ya first.” He dragged the pink duffle bag over and dug around until he found the rings he had stashed inside. “Forget my treasure for a second. Thought ya might want to have yers back too.” He held the rings out to Roadhog, nestled in his palm.

Roadhog stared at them for a long moment before accepting the offered gift. “You got these back for me?”

Junkrat fidgeted, suddenly unsure about whether or not he’d done the right thing. “Well, yeah – they’re important to ya, ain’t they?”

“Yes,” Roadhog answered. He slipped the rings on his fingers. “They’re all I have left of my family.” He didn’t go into further detail.

For perhaps the first time in his life, Junkrat didn’t know what to say. “Oh–” Whatever was going to come out of his mouth came to a halt when Roadhog placed a heavy hand on his shoulder and drew him close.

“Thank you,” Roadhog said, the snout of his gas mask pressed against Junkrat’s head.

A glow of contentment flooded Junkrat, a warm and fuzzy feeling that radiated out from his heart. “Ain’t nothin’ worth thankin’,” he said, unnaturally modest at Roadhog’s approval. “It was the roight thing to do.” He didn’t want Roadhog to let him go, but when he finally did, Junkrat turned his attention back to the matter at hand. He wanted to share the knowledge of his treasure with Roadhog, after all this time.

“So. Time for my treasure.” Junkrat disassembled the tire and rummaged around until he uncovered the mine strapped inside. “Aha!” he said triumphantly, holding it above his head.

“…Your treasure is one of your homemade mines?” Roadhog said. “I’ve been protecting you all this time for this?”

“No, no! It’s what’s inside that’s the treasure, see! It’s a second hidin’ place. Double the security.”

“I don’t think you can call it 'secure’ if the first hiding place is inside a tire bomb.”

“That’s a matter of opinion. And yer opinion is wrong.” Junkrat unscrewed the mine and pulled it apart. He emptied out the packing to find the USB safe and secure in its protective bubble. “This is me treasure.” He held up the tiny USB. “Kajura.”

“Kajura,” Roadhog repeated. “The Rainbow Serpent. What about it?”

Junkrat’s face cracked into a smirk. “God program. I could put all the omnics, every last piece of mechanical junk under my control. Imagine that – me!”

Roadhog started laughing, a low chuckle that swelled into a guffaw. “You’re a god.”

Junkrat grinned and handed him the USB. “Naw, mate. We’re gods.”

#junkrat #roadhog #roadrat #origins #nanowrimo 2016 #my fanfiction

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