#so no need to tag me on any posts complaining about the comparisons

[opluffys]

Taken For a Ride-

this was meant to be shorter but i kinda ran with it lol. posted first to my archive, pls let me know if there are any errors or if it copied weird. pls enjoy!!!! :)

tags- jealousy, multiple orgasms, creampie, rough sex, hand jobs, vaginal sex, possessive sex/behaviour, size kink, praising, forced voyeurism, threats of violence, fem reader.

4.3k words.

-Ghost x Reader-

-nsfw/smut-

Ghost's eyes were heavy on you, on your timid figure that shied away from another man's unwanted touch. His grip on the steering wheel tightened, knuckles blanching as his stare trailed to the man's hand attached to your shoulder, blouse wrinkling due to his harshness. Ghost's leg was rapidly moving up and down, not a nervous tick, more of an angered one.

Say something.

Hell, you didn't even need to say a single phrase, just flash your hand at your oppressor. Flash that huge glittering rock on your finger and no doubt he'd shy away.

But, you didn't do any of that.

Instead, Ghost watched as you sidestepped your coworker, knees wobbling as you tried to walk away atop your stiletto heels. You quickly regained your balance, but you found yourself against the man's chest, hands at your side as he 'helped' you stand straight.

Ghost knew, though. He knew that it had been just a sorry fucking excuse to lay a single hand on you. To feel how soft you were, to see if you'd melt into his touch, but to his exultation, you recoiled away. As if the hottest flame licked at your smooth skin, burning you and leaving the ugliest of scars.

But, that touch was enough for the man. He got to feel your waist, he got to feel the flesh of your ass in that stupid fucking miniskirt that you complained to Ghost about over and over again. No, this man had gotten to feel you. Something that wasn't his, would never be his.

As nice as you were, you shrugged it off, waving him away. Ghost's stare never strayed away from you, and his grasp on the wheel loosened ever so slightly at seeing your eyes shine towards him. Your steps were giddy, walking happily to his ridiculously large vehicle and climbing in.

You looked tired, yet exuberance radiated from you. Your makeup still in pristine condition as you sighed, leaning back into the leather seat. "Hellish day, did I make you wait too long?"

You always were one to worry about others, you did make him wait too long, but you didn't need to know that. Didn't need another thing to worry about.

He only hummed lowly in response, his gaze now shifting over to the scum that had been your coworker. He climbed into his own car, smaller but just as expensive. He quickly pulled out of the large parking lot, and at this point, Ghost wasn't thinking straight, his hands shifting gears and on the steering wheel.

You hadn't noticed that Ghost was on your coworkers trail. Instead, you'd been watching out of the passenger window, blinking slowly in awe of the raw beauty that was the night sky. The glow of the stars always looked dull in comparison to you, the shine of your eyes looking like the most luxurious item.

Though, after about five minutes on an unfamiliar road, you then questioned him, about why the two of you weren't on the regular way home.

"Shortcut."

You then didn't ask anymore questions, just relaxing in your seat and watching Ghost drive.

•

To say that you were furious, a true understatement. For he knew that your true anger was resulted in silence, the argumentative status of your marriage at times reflecting this.

"What are we doing here," You started, jaw tensed at watching your coworker get out of his car and walk into his lavish looking townhome.

"Out." He left no room for a discussion. Zero room to attempt and calm him down, to reassure him and tell him it was nothing, you were plenty aware of what he'd been angered about.

You followed after Ghost, anger turning to pure distress and worry. The click of your heels echoed emptily into the void of the night. You quickly caught up to him, despite his ridiculously long legs making quick strides, leaving you to scramble behind his hulking figure.

Not a knock at his doorstep, but Ghost's fist struck at the mahogany of the door, his sleeve rolling up to reveal the dark ink that covered his veined arms. You worried your lip, looking up at him with the sweetest expression, for this scumbag, or your husband? He'd hold this against you later, no doubt about it.

"Simon, please." The crimson of your lipstick following your lips every word as your long lashes batted up at him. The way you so nicely, so cutely asked nearly made him listen to you, to turn back on his heel and drag you home with him. But the sadistic thing inside of him was telling him to stand his ground.

The two of you stood at your colleagues doorstep, awaiting for him to open up. And when he did, you couldn't hide the distressed look on your face.

His eyes lingered on your own for a moment too long, a moment in which you didn't notice, but Ghost did. He would notice for you, he would fight your battles for you, he'd do anything for you.

Ghost's stare on your coworker was harsh, and your colleague looked at him, head craning to just meet his gaze. Fear riddled his body, looking into the face of death himself.

"Come on then, love."

Your coworker clearly flinched at hearing Ghost's booming voice, eyes flickering over to you in confusion.

You stilled, unable to find your words. You were unaware of what you were supposed to say, anyway. Ghost will help you, though. That's what good husbands do, help out their little wives.

"You want her?"

You were utterly shocked at Ghost's succinct question, sounding more like a command to the shaking man.

"Excuse me?" His voice was frail, pathetic and meek sounding.

Ghost walked forward, while you followed directly behind him, cornering your colleague right in his own home. Something only Ghost was capable of, evidently.

You instinctively shut and locked the door behind you, joining Ghost at his side, unapologetic eyes meeting your coworkers harrowed ones.

"You want to fuck her? My wife?"

"What?! No, o-of course not!" His words were unconvincing to the two of you, looking powerless in a corner as he began to slide down the wall, tears in his eyes. He probably thought that Ghost was going to kill him. And oh, how he had wanted to. He'd shackle his huge hand around his thin neck and squeeze, not like how he'd squeeze you- lightly and hearing you moan and watching you writhe underneath him. He'd do it slowly, at a torturous pace while he witnessed the life drain out of him, a miasma of death surrounding your coworker while Ghost would pound into you. Proving and showing that you're his.

Ghost briefly left the room, just leaving you and your petrified coworker in the living quarters.

"What the fuck was that?" He asked, approaching with shaking steps. You had been well informed that Ghost had carried a jealous streak within him, and as ashamed and twisted as you were to admit such a thing, you somewhat enjoyed it.

You didn't even notice Ghost back next to you, grabbing your colleague by his collar, dragging him, as well as a heavy dining chair up the stairs. You were on his trail like a lost little kitten, the sound of your heels on the wooden steps deafening.

The two, rather, three of you went into the master bedroom, Ghost set the chair down and forced your coworker to sit. He grabbed a rope from whoever the hell knows where, and bound your colleague down to it. He began to shout and yell, telling Ghost to untie him, begging you to do something about it, to help him. You thought he was a man tortured from the way he'd been screaming.

"Shut your fuckin' mouth."

Immediately, his cries ceased, sitting still on the wooden chair, his tied hands stopping their attempts of escape. Your thighs squeezed against one another at his display of power, his rough tone instilling unadulterated trepidation into this man.

"You want her," Ghost slipped the small scarf from your neck, tying it around his eyes. It seemed as your perfumed and floral scent eased your coworkers edged nerves, as he relaxed under his confines slightly. Ghost noticed this, and it drove him absolutely fucking insane. "so I'll show you that you can't have her."

Ghost led you over to the neatly made bed, soft duvet covers underneath your short and revealing uniform. You kicked off your heels, hearing them clack loudly once they landed on the ground. You felt Ghost's gloved hand at your side, lifting your pencil skirt to peel off your already soaked panties. He brought you atop his lap, clearly able to feel his hard length through his jeans.

He lifted the bottom of his balaclava to expose his lips and his strong jaw, covered with stubble. He hungrily kissed you, red smearing over his own lips as teeth clacked and tongues meshed against one another. You didn't bother hiding the sweet moan that left your lips, swallowed by the man in front of you.

The two of you separated, a string of saliva still bonding you together. You leaned upwards and bit his bottom lip, planting a quick kiss against him as you continued to gyrate your hips against his erection.

"You'll never get to feel her lips against yours."

You heard the audible whine that left your coworker, being left in a room with his eyesight being temporarily taken, his hearing had been heightened. All he was able to hear was the wet smacking of lips against one another, and it was so clear to him, he could almost see the two of you together, kissing at one another desperately.

Your dainty fingers moved to toy with his belt, suckling at his neck as you slid it away from the hoops of his jeans. He leaned over to your shorter stature, lips at the shell of your ear, having you shiver against him.

"Impatient, are we?" He whispered, voice hoarse and low, such a teasing tone only for you to hear.

"So are you." You teased back, grabbing his impressive bulge through his boxers, before hurriedly taking his length out and into your hand. Hot and heavy, you stroked his thick cock, having him buck his hips against your hand while he groaned lowly.

You felt his hands begin to roam your body, following the ins and outs of your supple curves. He began to squeeze the flesh of your ass through that short skirt, hearing you whine lowly in response. He was just teasing you as you teased him. Slowly touching you as you were slowly pumping his length, thumb swiping across his engorged tip, smearing precum all over his large cock. He grunted deeply in your ear, slapping your ass harshly, your sharp moan egging him on.

"I want it, want it so bad," You broke first, feeling his hands wander at the meat of your thigh, his grip so harsh that he tore a hole in your stockings. You'd 'yell' at him later, knowing that he'd buy you a better pair.

"Go ahead and take it then."

Once you got the go ahead, you lifted your hips and lowered yourself onto his cock, splitting your pussy open due to the sheer size of him. The stretch of him inside was so good, borderline painful, but it had you bouncing atop him with fervor. Your whimpers and moans filled the room, Ghost's low grunts joining in as he felt your warm and wet heat snugly around his cock, squeezing him just perfectly.

"You'll never get to feel her tight little pussy."

The agonising scream that left your coworker had you reeling, pausing your ministrations. You attempted to turn around and see him, but Ghost took ahold of your zygoma, forcing you to turn back at him. His eyes were rough on you, look at me, only me.

Ghost then began to easily slide you atop him, slightly annoyed with your halting movements. His covered hands attached to the fat of your hip, manoeuvring you over his dick again and again, hearing you moan against his clothed pectoral muscles.

Your drooling pussy pulled his cock inside your gummy walls in desperation, his veiny cock dragging against your heat deliciously. Your mind was cloudy, filled with thoughts that were solely Ghost. Your only thoughts were just him him him.

Ghost grunted, whispering a praise out to you, hand clasping against your rear, squeezing the fat that remained there. You whined quietly, thighs beginning to burn as you rode him. He was just so fucking big, you had to lift yourself so high to get him balls-deep inside of you.

"Tired, 'm so tired, baby." You babbled nonsensically, throwing your arms over his neck, sinking down onto his cock before sitting still. The two of you feeling your essence drip down his cock and onto the both of your spread thighs.

"Got you dumb already?" His hands kneaded your cheeks now, easing the sting of his earlier slaps.

"Please, please. Need it so bad, need you to ruin me." You plead, bringing him lower to you to sloppily kiss one another. You felt his cock twitch deep inside of you, his head kissing your cervix as he stayed buried inside of you, enjoying the torturous hug of your heat.

"Can't say no to you, can I, sweet girl?" He hummed, thumb at your kiss-swollen lips. You eagerly took his covered digit into your mouth, the taste of smooth leather taking over your senses. "My good girl," He growled, having you respond with a muffled whimper due to his meaty thumb in your mouth.

"You'll never hear her beg for you."

You heard a sniffle come from behind you, and, he's crying, fuck. You began to feel sympathy eat at you, but another feeling was within you, one that you had been unaware of. Your husband, being the keen man he was, didn't miss the way you squeezed him tightly, and he wondered if you'd been enjoying this more than he was.

Ghost flipped you onto the bed, ass in the air while your head was buried in the mattress. This time, he had you facing your bound coworker, tears streaming down his face, your scarf beyond ruined. You felt so dreadful, as if you'd committed the most heinous crime. This man was just handsy with you, grabbing at your hips and ass, and Ghost just so happened to see once.

Now, he had an unfeasible debt to pay.

You felt Ghost's presence behind you. His heavy hand spreading your thighs further as you sunk down lower onto the king sized mattress. His engorged tip pressed at your slit, collecting more of your slick before pushing into you slowly. His fat cock slowly invaded your insides inch by inch, gummy walls having a vice grip on him, squeezing him just so fucking tight- just how he liked it.

"Tell me, pet," He grunted, accented voice heavy with lecherous intent, "did you like it when he touched you?" Ghost took your chin in his gloved hand, tilting your gaze to make contact with your colleague, whimpering pathetically as he sat still, shackled in his own home.

"No! No, just you Ghost, just you! Fuck, you feel so good, so deep inside," You stopped making sense long ago, brain turning to putty just due to your husbands touches and words. Yet, you still recalled to not say his real name in front of anyone else. "Such a smart and pretty girl you are." He praised, his honeyed words stroking your ego. You were pleasing him, too. You drove him mad, too. You made him come to such a length as this- to shackle your coworker just for touching you.

"Gonna give you what you want now, love."

You whimpered out to him, backing your hips against his stilled cock, throbbing steadily inside your warm walls. He chuckled at your desperation, hands attaching themselves to your hips.

His pace was wild, his hips slamming against your backside and watching your soft body recoil in response to his movements. Just in and out and in and out, your body moving accordingly to his rough thrusts. Your eyes nearly rolled to the back of your head, feeling his dick brush and drag against every sweet spot hidden within you. Only places that he had been aware of, your shorter and daintier fingers being unable to please you like he could.

Hell, he knew your own body better than you would ever. Ghost had been the most talented and brilliant musician, able to tweak and tune your body in return to hear you sing beautifully for him. Though, the best song that you played were whenever he plucked at your heartstrings, playing them as the most complex harp.

"You'll never touch her again."

A hard thrust from him behind you, knocking the air from your lungs. Your heart thrumming wildly in your thoracic, your own tears staining the duvet as he was buried so deep inside of you.

"You'll never feel how her hands are on you, so loving and careful."

His grip on your hips tightened possessively, hips continuing to slam into your wet heat haphazardly, yet with unknown precision. You cried out to him, whimpering the same 'Ghost, Ghost, Ghost,' again and again, every thrust frying your brain beyond repair.

"You'll never know her little signs, showing that she's so fuckin' close."

You whimpered against the quilted covers, drool leaving your painted lips (what remained of the lipstick, anyway), your back arching already more than it had been. You weren't the most flexible, but Ghost was able to bend you in any position he'd wanted, with minimal complaints from you.

Your etched shut eyes suddenly popped open, the loudest, most scandalous moan leaving your swollen lips, feeling Ghost's cock press tightly against your womb. You couldn't hold back anymore, toes curling, back arching, chest heaving as you finished onto his dick, a muted scream coming from you as you slumped forward and into the bed.

"You'll never get her to do, that, for you."

He leaned down to you, "You did so fuckin' good for me, love. So good." He kissed your cheek tenderly, before you turned to him and engaged in a sloppy and open mouthed kiss, all while he had shallowly thrusted into your cunt.

The two of you continued to steal each other's breath away. Swallowing one another's moans and groans as the messy kiss marched on, despite your needs of oxygen.

Your overstimulated nerves cried every single time Ghost stuffed you full of his fat cock, crying deeper and deeper into the mattress. Despite this, you had known his signs, too. From the way his chest rumbled lowly with a quiet growl, to his throbbing and twitching cock nestled deep within your sweet heat. But, the largest sign of his was how he would draw the crudest of circles onto your swollen clit, trying to bring you over the edge with him one last time.

"You'll never feel her, never get her," He doubled over you, groaning loudly as he felt your velvety pussy snugly squeeze him at his words. You felt another orgasm pull at you, your clothed chest moving back and forth against the textured duvet- providing some friction against your stiffened nipples.

"Ghost," You whimpered, fluttering your long lashes closed as you felt your entire body convulse and twitch lightly. For your second orgasm had washed over you like the most pleasant tidal wave, sneaking up on you like the most elite assassin.

"You'll never get her," Ghost repeated, his pace animalistic and so rough, losing your steady rhythm of breath with every single thrust, "never get her, because she's mine."

You moaned out to him, sounding like you were trying to say something, but ultimately lost on the two of you. He had fucked you stupid, unable to form or speak coherently after just a few strokes of his dick inside of your tight heat.

"Isn't that right, pet?"

"Yours, 'm yours, Ghost." You mumbled, your body mimicking jelly as you were completely unable to move, just the back and forth motions of Ghost fucking into you roughly.

"Good answer," He hummed, sounding proud of your submission. Though, the ring on your finger should be enough of a testament to such a thing.

You felt his hands squeeze your sides harder, his thrusts becoming more and more sloppy as his fat tip continued to push right up against your womb. You couldn't handle another, no, you just couldn't.

It seems as Ghost would spare you for tonight. As you felt him drape himself over your collapsed body, grunting deeply before you felt himself spill his seed within your abused hole with a low curse. You felt so utterly full of him, his cum filling you to the absolute brim that it began pouring out of you.

Ghost hissed quietly, pulling out of your tightening cunt, almost like you didn't want him to stop. His eyes were then attached to your pussy, oozing his seed as you'd lost the only thing that kept it within you. He 'tsked', feigning disappointment before his thick and gloved fingers fucked his cum back inside of you, your puffy lips shining with his as well as your own release.

As you slowly regained your previously lost senses, you then heard the loud cries of your coworker. Sobbing and howling wildly, meek pleas to 'stop' or to 'let me go', to angered yells of 'fuck you' or 'you both are sick'. You didn't even notice that you had tuned him out completely, focused on just Ghost.

You felt Ghost's covered fingers take hold of your chin, tilting your head upwards to view your coworker. "His words deceive him," He laughed, and you gasped in horror.

He was hard.

Not only that, but his hips bucked up against his sweats, attempting to get any feeling of delicious friction while being bound to his chair.

"Was probably thinkin' of you," His voice was back in your ear, kissing your jaw before leaving a mark that would bloom into a rich and pretty violet in the morning.

"Need to get my message across,." He kissed your cheek, a quick and kind thing that had your heart palpitating like crazy. "Wait in the car for me, sweetheart." He slid the heavy keys into your palm, watching as you tiredly nodded, you had been utterly exhausted, so you didn't want to question him or his motives.

You took shaky steps towards the door, ditching your stiletto heels as you knew Ghost would get them for you. You just wanted to curl up into his car and nap while he did, whatever, it was that he was doing. Nothing good, you knew, but you couldn't find it in yourself to attempt and stop him. Besides, you heavily doubted that you were capable of getting your words through to him, he was headstrong, already set with his actions long ago.

Your knees wobbled as you walked like a newborn fawn towards Ghost's car, struggling to get into the passenger seat as you locked yourself in.

Sighing at the slight throbbing discomfort you felt in the midst of your legs, you had been alone with your thoughts. And just now and then, reality had begun to set in.

He did this for you.

He couldn't have proved his point in any other way, but Ghost had done it in the way that he had known. His way in which he'd been accustomed to, as well as knowing his method would be gifted with positive results at the end of the day.

He had your heart in his clutches, and although you didn't always understand his intentions nor his motives, you wouldn't have it any other way.

•

You stirred in your sleep, awakening and mumbling something lowly as you felt a radiating warmth next to you. You were in your shared bedroom now, in the tight hold of Ghost while he slept soundly.

You smiled, nuzzling yourself deeper into his hold of possession. But, in the corner of your eye, you noticed something. A neatly folded square of cloth, and you squinted, hiding your gasp of surprise at seeing that it had been your scarf. That same piece of silk that was secured to your coworkers face, obstructing his vision while Ghost fucked you right in front of him. Robbing his sight, and cursing him with the ability to hear the two of you.

You'd talk to him about it in the morning.

•

When you had awoken from your comfortable drowse, you groaned in annoyance when you had seen that Ghost was long gone. His side of the bed had ran cold, but you couldn't think of such a thing for too long, as you had work to attend to.

•

Your workday marched on uneventfully, but you couldn't help but notice the absence of a particular individual. Of course, you had just thought that he was avoiding you like the worst illness out there, but he wasn't here at all.

Your thoughts were plagued, negative things brewing in your head and running wildly. Was he out spreading rumours about you? Or was he going to get you fired? You felt the feeling of anxiety eat at you, opening your phone to contact your husband, in hopes of him being able to ease your edged nature. Just as he's done a near thousand times before, holding you in his strong arms while he would fix any and all problems that you had.

But, your scrolling had quickly halted when you noted how he'd already texted you hours ago. A single sentence that had ended up both calming you, and hardening your buzzed nerves even more.

'Don't worry about that fucker anymore.'

#fanfic #smut #ghost x reader #simon riley x reader #cod smut #cod x reader #cod mw2 #cod mwii #simon riley #ghost mw2 #ghost cod

[daenerysies]

To consider one character more interesting than another is not sexism. Yes, Aegon has done nothing to prove that he is worthy of the throne - no one disputes that. This does not prevent the greens from supporting him in any way, because - you know, these are imaginary characters, not real elections of the future ruler. It's not about "she's a woman" or "she's unworthy of the tone" - it's just that she's not interesting to everyone as a character. If Rhaenyra were a more interesting character for me, I would support her. No one cares who is worthy and who is unworthy, you just choose a character that you like and support him. The blacks take it all too seriously, really.

another green stan finding something to complain about, i see? what a shocker. you’re coming up with excuses that i’ve heard a million times before. nothing about my posts mentions anything to do with finding a character more interesting. nothing about my posts mentions anything about worthiness besides saying that aegon isn’t (which he HIMSELF agrees with, as you all like to butt in with). so why are you here, in my inbox, taking it so seriously? aegon isn’t real. he’s not going to smite you for not telling yet another team black member that he’s the most interesting character ever. ‘it’s never that serious’ until you can’t leave someone alone who tagged their post properly. if i wanted to deal with aegon’s questionable fanbase i wouldn’t have put the anti tag in front of anything green related.

i could not give less of a fuck if you think aegon is a more enjoyable character, or if you find team green to be the pinnacle of fiction. it’s all subjective at the end of the day. i didn’t just call the other anon (unless you’re the same, you’re delusion is making me think so) sexist (and actually, the only thing i called sexist was the talking point, so why are your panties in such a twist?) for no reason. this is a song of ice and fire, a book series that deals with very real, very serious topics that happened throughout history. rape isn’t something to make light about. gendered violence isn’t something to make light about. that og talking point is sexist, whether you want to admit it or not. one doesn’t just go around pointing out every single minuscule negative detail about a woman and turn around to praise a man for the exact same reasons and come out not being referred to in a way that they deserve.

if you view aegon as more interesting, good for you! once again, i don’t care. stop anonymously going after people for points that you’re pulling out of your ass to be mad about. really weird that THAT was the comparison needed to make all greens get up in arms. yet they still can’t properly debate over it because they continuously fall into the ‘what about- *insert an entirely different topic*.’ it’s honestly such a shame, really. i kind of enjoy telling you guys to find a hobby.

anons are off until you and your entourage of weirdos learn how to behave like normal people with basic media literacy skills.

#protecting my peace bc oh boy #do y’all love to find just about anything under the son to be pissy about #go love on your ‘fav’ characters to someone who gives a fuck #anti team green #anti team green stans #anti aegon ii targaryen #anti aegon ii stans #it’s always the same dumb bitches telling each other ‘exactlyyyyyy’

[indieyuugure]

Hi! Let me start off by saying that I absolutely adore your ROTP series. This is also one of the very few Rottmnt/2012 crossovers in existance that does justice to both verses and doesn't put a biases on any. I love this comic.

Now that aside, I need to get something off my chest. I wouldn't have gone on Anon but experience has taught me that opposing opinions will make the followers of a blog insult and harass you so I tend to err on the side of caution. You see, I Love Love Love TMNT. And I love 2012 series, it's something I relate to so much and grew up with. It's my most favorite version of TMNT.

But the thing is, ever since the Rise movie got released, I've been seeing nothing but slander against the 2012 series and it breaks my heart every time I come across it. It has escalated to an unfair point that I've seen even 2012 fans who love it just as much begin hating aspects of it. I mean, don't get me wrong, it does have its flaws but it's unfair how highlighted those select few flaws are to the point of extremely biased comparisons and blame games and general 2012 slander which half the time doesn't even comply with canon. Moreover, literally every TMNT has its flaws just the same.

And recently, I've been seeing an increase in posts on your blog that have 2012 slander undercurrents or simply blatant frustrations with it. I love the comic but keep seeing this hatred still is just... it hurts ya know. Like really actually hurts.

So if possible, can you plz tag such posts with something I can filter out? (And let us know what that tag will be?) You don't have to but I really really love your art and comics, it's just the 2012 slander again that hurts me and I don't want to see it anymore. I've been seeing it everywhere.

Again, plz don't take this the wrong way, it's just something that's been hurting me and I had to get it off my chest. And find a solution to it that doesn't involve blocking or unfollowing because I genuinely do love this fancomic

Thank you for your feedback!!💕 (seriously feedback is extremely appreciated to me!)

I sorry my posts came off as 2012 slander, I really never meant it like that. I will admit I do critique media pretty aggressively, but I never mean it in a hateful way. TMNT 2012 is one of my absolute favorite shows and I love everything about! It’s the weird quirky stuff about it that while yes, I will criticize, I still love. It wouldn’t be the same without it. Just like the weather, I will complain about it, but I don’t want it to actually change.

I will try to be more conscious of how my posts are perceived, I really never wanted there to be a bias on my blog. I love all of TMNT for all it presents, and I don’t want to ever be slanderous!

Thank you again for your kind nudge! I’m very thankful to have people like you who’ll tell me if I’m making a mistake! I truly do love TMNT 2012. I can’t fix what I’ve said, but now that I know, I can be sure to be more careful to not sound biased going forward.

Again, I’m very sorry it came off that way, I didn’t mean to be so harsh. I never want to harm a series’s reputation, especially one that I love so much!

You are truly appreciated!💕

I know this won’t fix the things I’ve said, but I’ll say 3 of my top favorite things about 2012:

I love the way they depicted characters! They do an amazing job using indirect characterization that makes the characters feel so real. The characters don’t have to tell you things about themselves, you learn about them from the way the interact with each other, the way they solve problems, the things they like and dislike, and even what they’re doing in the background! It really feels like you’re there getting to know these fun people and go on adventures with them! Truly amazing!

I love the way the turtles look! Seriously I think they look so cool, and at the same time cute. They’re visual designs inspired me so much in my art and I will watch hours on end of them because they’re just so freaking cool!

I love the way their stories are told! The episodes are so well paced that it never feels boring to watch an episode! Believe it or not, I have never once wondered how many minutes are left on an episode. It’s so good at sucking you in and addicting you, that while I was watching it for the first time, I was straight up binging it and would be forced to put it down by my parents. Several times I would stop to eat something and have that weird “wait, who am I? What is my life?” Thing you get from a really good story. The stories and arc pacing are so good that Indie TMNT, my original series is using massive inspiration from 2012.

Once again, I am truly sorry for coming off as slanderous. Thank you for being so brave and telling me what many people were probably thinking. I want to do better. Thank you! :]

#tmnt #q&a #ninja turtles #tmnt 2012 #Please guys do watch it #It’s an amazing show #thank you! #teenage mutant ninja turtles #teenage mutant ninja turtles 2012 #i will do better >:]

[takaraphoenix]

There is not a single good reason to tag a queer positive post with “q slur” and it’s honestly such a red flag if you do this.

No seriously. There is absolutely no reason to do this. Ever. At all.

If you, personally, don’t want to be called queer, that is your prerogative. If this is a word that has hurt you before and that genuinely triggers and upsets you, there are things you can do to improve your own online experience. One of them would be, oh I don’t know, not putting posts containing that word onto your own damn blog by reblogging them.

If you do not want to be included among queer people, then you shouldn’t include yourself in a group that self-identifies as queer. Which is what you do by reblogging queer positive posts; none of these posts were talking about you, personally. They are talking about queer people. And if you feel the need to reblog them, then you include yourself among these queer people. Go reblog posts with the alphabet soup acronym if that is what you, personally, feel suits you better. You could literally just not reblog a post that contains the word “queer” and talks about queers.

You don’t have to ever interact with a post discussing queer themes, queer people and queer identities. If you find the term queer so very offensive and lack context-reading skills that would help you see that queer people proudly calling themselves queer is actually in no way or shape the same as someone using it as a slur, you even have the tools to avoid ever seeing any post containing the word queer by blacklisting not just “queer” as a tag but also filter it as content, which thus will block any post that anywhere at all contains the word “queer”.

I will 100% assume you are an exclusionist or a TERF if you still end up reblogging a queer positive post and tag it as “q slur”. Because you had choices here - not reblogging a post containing the word “queer”, blacklisting the tag “queer”, filtering for post content containing the word “queer” - but you chose not to do any of that, you chose to reblog a queer positive post and then tag it as “q slur”, and at that point, exclusionism and TERF ideology are literally the only reasons left why you would do this.

And the thing is that, scrolling through those blogs, especially through the “q slur” tag, usually shows that they are, in fact, exclusionists and TERFs. It’ll start soft enough with posts complaining that they don’t want to be called queer, which is reasonable enough, isn’t it? Then the rhetoric on the posts about not wanting to personally be called queer changes and gets more aggressive. Then it’s about not calling other people queer at all because you don’t know if they want to be called that (even though, let me point at the above where you could just not include yourself in posts about queer people). It then turns more into complains about comparisons when it comes to reclaims, how it’s “totally not the same thing” to reclaim gay and lesbian as it is to reclaim queer (even though it is. It literally is the same thing as we are reclaiming our identities that have been wielded against us). At which point it just escalates into flat-out open exclusionism because uh actually there is no need to reclaim queer at all, LGBT suffices entirely because no other letters are needed and if you aren’t L, G, B or T then you can’t reclaim queer anyway.

A--and there it is, the toxic TERF and exclusionism mentality, saying what they really mean. They don’t want queer people to exist. Period. Only the nice, clean lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people (though in enough cases, if you continue scrolling, you’ll reach the part where they too will be excluded). No complicated, other identities, only the “proper” and “good” kinds, eh?

Reblogging queer positive posts and tagging them as “q slur” is just the conversation starter here. The rat-tail that follows the “q slur” tag is like a meticulously crafted conversation to turn other people away from queer and to instead turn them toward exclusionism and TERF ideology and it’s insidious.

Because yes, queer has been and most likely still is being used as a slur in many parts of the English speaking world. And I’m sure there are many people who are genuinely traumatized by the way others have used this word against them. But if people in fandom spaces can manage to blacklist characters and ships they dislike, then people with genuine triggers or people who take genuine personal offense at as much as seeing a word - regardless of its positive context - should also be capable of blacklisting and avoiding those for them upsetting words. Because tumblr gave you the tools to not have to even see it literal years ago at this point.

So, if you’re not taking these easy measures to avoid the word? It clearly doesn’t actually bother you all that much, I’d say, because otherwise you’d take measures to avoid having to see it and you most definitely wouldn’t go out of your way to put posts containing it onto your blog.

You chose to still see these posts containing the word, you chose to interact with these posts, you chose to reblog them and put them on your blog, but you still feel the need to tag it as “q slur” by not recognizing the difference between a word used as an actual slur and people talking about their own lived experience in a positive light, and there is literally absolutely not a single good-faith read on that left for me. At which point I am going to use the tools given to me by tumblr and block you to avoid you ever interacting with my queer posts again.

Because I’m a queer woman and I take offense in you calling my identity a slur.

Happy fucking pride to all queers. Exclusionists and TERFs die mad about it. 🌈

#Queer #Queer Discourse #Q Slur Discourse #Rainbow Stuff

[bennett-mikealson]

I saw one of your mentions about Bonnie, realized I really dislike the majority of tvd fandom & why I don't bother exploring the tags outside of Bonnie centered stuff for the sole reason that she is never even discussed in detail among the majority. She's largely overlooked in these anti Delena, anti Klaroline mentions & they somehow turn it around into the same old "xyz is the real victim here". Literally saw a post were they discussed all these third tier characters like Lexi, Vicki, Rose & some other irrelevant stuff in comparison to Caroline/Elena that basically falls in line with how their plots were ignored or done terribly (even though they WEREN'T & literally had more screentime/agency than Bonnie - a main witch character who served more purpose plot wise). Its really annoying that they complain about things that are fine & don't need fixing.

They will do anything to avoid talking about anything Bonnie related other than the tired slogan "Bonnie deserved better", which always sounds like a lazy fake attempt at pretending to care. & Worse, when actual Bonnie fans discuss how to write her plots better, those said stans try to cut down any theories outside of canon & say how it's unrealistic or some other tired excuse they never give to any other characters except hers.

See that’s why I can’t stand when Stan’s say Bonnie’s a fan favorite or say she’s the most loved character bc she just started to get her hype and even then she still gets an equal amount of hate. THB looking at how ppl talk about Bonnie outside of her Stan’s to me its like looking at another version of the writers. They see her as a plot device just as much as the writers and they don’t care about her struggles nor care to understand them.

For example when Bonnie ignored Elena after her grams died everyone was all like “omg Bonnie’s such a bad friend” or would think that Bonnie was blaming Elena for Grams dying when she never said that. In the show she even told Elena that she didn’t blame her for grams death. She just wanted space from her and considering how Elena was buddy buddy with the Salvatore her distancing herself from Elena was valid. But They don’t care about how Bonnie felt seeing her friend all lovey-dovey with people who caused her pain. They say “well maybe if Bonnie didn’t beg grams to open the tomb then she wouldn’t of died” (which is not true) but if Bonnie didn’t open the tomb then the Salvatore would’ve been stuck and y’all still would’ve been hating on Bonnie.

Same thing happened when Bonnie didn’t like Damon at first. Ppl called her annoying for being rude to the Salvatore’s when Damon almost killed her and he did nothing but cause problems. But ppl wonder why Bonnie didn’t like him. Then suddenly they love her in season six when her and Damon became best friends. Then it was “oh I love this new side to Bonnie”. 🙄

Even when Bonnie didn’t deactivate the Gilbert device and Caroline became a vampire; Bonnie was distant to her and Stans acted like Bonnie’s actions were unjustified and villainized her. Even though they knew Bonnie has had nothing but negative encounters with vampires before and had suffered bc of the presence of vampires so it would make sense why she’d be guarded with Caroline. Caroline‘s mother and father reacted the same way and so did Matt when they found out she was a vampire. They say Bonnie had no right to treat Caroline rudely when she is the reason Caroline a vampire even tho Katherine is the one who killed Caroline. Yet she gets praised all the time for making Caroline a better person. They even try to use the fact that Bonnie asked Damon to give Caroline blood against her and villainize Bonnie more when her intentions in asking Damon to save Caroline were pure and Damon didn’t have to listen to her. The thing is even if Bonnie did deactivate the Gilbert device in the situation ppl still would’ve gotten hurt bc the tomb vampires were ready to attack founding family members so Bonnie still would of been hated on for not “doing her job”.

There was really no winning for Bonnie at all. They just want her to do what needed to be done to protect their faves then go in the shadows.

It even shows when some Stan’s write fanfictions. Them time travel stories of Bonnie messing up a spell and it pushes Elena or Caroline or both back in time with the Salvatore or the Mikealsons; She still a plot device to Stan’s.

These be the same Stan’s that claim Bonnie Stan’s be trying to make her the main character or that we’re trying to steal Elena and Caroline’s shine when we make suggestions on how the writers could have written Bonnie’s character better. And like you said they always make it seem like anything outside canon is unrealistic or “outside of Bonnie’s character” when in reality they’re just can’t stand the thought of Bonnie being with their favorite white men. Just like the writers. 🙄

Also, sorry for the late response. I just recently got into tumblr more than before. 😁

#bonnie bennett #kat graham #klonnie #vampire diaries #tvdu #anti tvd writers #anti tvd Stan’s #anti katherine pierce #anti damon salvatore #anti stefan salvatore

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

Do you have any tips for navigating the Ada Wong tag here, or at least, curating it? (I know there's a point where I have to just ignore things, but it can get frustrating.)

I feel like 40% of her tag is harsh criticisms of her character or general shaming of Aeon as a ship. Or both, as a justification for why the ship is bad/doesn't make sense. (But like, if it doesn't make sense, why do I rarely see these kinds of posts for ships like Chris/Wesker or Ethan/Heisenberg?) Like it's always one of the RE women. I don't even like Cleon and I see the same thing happening!

I haven't been in the RE fandom long, but have people just disliked Ada or something for a while? Is it cause like, we don't really know much about her? I know she's not one of the main characters who's outwardly good, but even Wesker gets so much love in comparison. It sucks cause I guess I wish the Resident Evil women were treated the same way as the male characters and it's kind of frustrating. You're like, the only blog I've seen that loves Ada content this much, so I'm kind of just like dang, how do you deal with it lol?

hihi!!!

maybe i've just been curating my feed for so long now, but i've only seen an uptick (of hate) since separate ways came out- but generally i don't see many posts about ada that are just harsh (hate) i'm gonna say hate cause i do allow criticisms of her character- but generally i will skim peoples blogs- see if they provide anything useful (they usually don't) and then block.

i think there's always just been more criticisms of ada because she's an east asian woman and not seen as a submissive character. she's flawed and has faults and MEN and WOMEN don't like that. people don't understand that and need female characters to be blank slates to self insert into. the way they demonize ada but uplift other female re characters because of their "innocence," is also fucking disturbing as hell (also yeah, they do mean "innocence.")

also wesker gets love cause he's a man. male characters always get special privileges when it comes to being actually bad evil characters. male characters in media are continuously "simped" over and defended on their horrible actions, but the second a woman does "ONE THING BAD" she's labeled gone girl or something like that.

analyzing media and how gender roles affect how we interpret characters is something i heavily talk about on my page! how if genders were reversed for aeon, people would NOT be having this type of discourse.

also final point but i have been on the internet for a long time and had to have a backbone lol. i got hate anons 5 days into this blog EXISTING. i was literally just here trying to vibe and got so much hate in the first week of this blog. most of it from cl*on shippers that told me that aeon sucks and that cleon was more valid. and then i've also gotten lots of racist anons and sexist anons. lots of calling ada horrible things. but if anything- it kinda shows me that i'm on the better side of things since i don't need to resort to this kind of behaviour to enjoy my time in the re fandom

i mostly only post things that i love about aeon

and that's mostly what i will try to be posting- maybe i will occasionally complain about something but yeah lol

tl;dr just block almost everyone, mute tags immediately, enjoy your time online!

#ask heart #heart answers #anon #ada wong #leon s kennedy #leon kennedy #aeon #leon x ada #leon kennedy x ada wong #leon s kennedy x ada wong

[gothra]

Do you have any butchie fic rec’s?

sorry this one took so long, it turns out that gathering links takes a bit longer than i thought it might. just a warning: I’m going wide, because I don’t know where to stop so I’m just going to be loading a bunch in here. and they are mostly smut except for a few domestic ones, and a few bits of angst.

The first and best ones I read were the ones in aishahiwatari’s repertoire. This is kind of one of the larger collection of Butchie fics that I’ve found in the tag, so it would take forever to explain the premise of all of them, if you have spare time just take a look. There’s a lot of porn (and you will soon come to realize that that’s kind of the running theme here) but the one that really fucked me up was earth or diabolical creature because FUCK Hughie and Butcher have a toddler and she’s cute and I’m losing i

I also like this series, it’s got a lot of creative and interesting choices for smut scenarios and it all ends in a dramatic and emotional fashion.

this one is slightly like the one above but I’m not complaining because it’s good and it’s cute

okay now we’re getting into the standalones. I’ll include any of the more important content warnings, but it’s a lot to type so bare with me if you click and there’s something I’ve missed im sorry

bitter skin by none_the_wiser (one-shot. short and spicy! really encapsulates the sort of rough-and-tumble, love-to-hate-you-hate-to-love-you high that butchie seems to be on. they honestly write it better than I can.)

if you wanna be my lover…, by watchthequeenconquer (spice girls!!! The comparisons are apt. if passing out, choking, mildly dubious consent, verbal humiliation, intoxication or play fighting bothers you, avoid.)

this writer has a series of other fics that are more domestic and fluffy, centered more on them raising Ryan, which I LOVE and need MORE of:

but it may be a lunatic you’re looking for by cathect (love how horny this one is and the blurb always makes me laugh)

(bad?) neighbors by motherfuckingsorcery (I love fics that exploit hughie’s obvious praise kink)

Most of the butchie fics from holyfudgemonkies 2021 kinktober collection (keep your eyes on the tags as some have some darker and dead dove stuff but overall a fun reading experience). honestly just their whole tag has some fun stuff

if you’re noticing that I’m getting less and less specific and I’m just posting full collections, it’s because I didn’t realize just how much work this was so I’m basically just posting every fic I’ve ever read. that being said…

struck by a bolt is a very sexy series by (ourdramaqueen)

one way ticket to a dead end by ezran (hot! a bit of toxic behavior in this one tho)

ask a question, get an answer by satsumasegments (I WISH this had happened instead. it’s such a hot, smoothly written fic I love it)

when I say that this next fic fucked me up, I’m not joking. I don’t know why I read it, because death bothers me a lot, even fictional deaths, but I read it and I couldn’t function properly for days after. I think I’m just sensitive but Christ it was painful.

so you should definitely read what do they know about friends by satsuma segments

the spare knife of happiness by flwrgardens (did I mention how much I LOVE Hughie and butcher being domestic with Ryan?? Because I love it. this is such a you-have-already-left-kudos-here ass fic I love it I love it)

house of stone by tylerose (more domesticity. GIVE ME MORE DOMESTICITY AND FALLING IN LOVE!! tw for drug use but it’s just Temp V)

touch me gently, it’s been too long by spacelesscass (so tender like chicken nugget. so soft.)

please note that not every fic I’ve ever read and liked is on this list, I just tried to maintain what little brevity I had left because putting this together was so exhausting?? if you want the rest let me know but i'd basically be putting the whole tag in there since 1. it's very small and 2. i read a lot of fics

#the boys #hughie campbell #billy butcher #butchie #gothra #asks #fics #fic recs

[lansplaining]

*rocks up to the fandom meme mad late with drip coffee i made in my own home even though its like 10pm*

sometimes i see posts that express some intense general feeling about my dude, lan wangji. intense like or dislike, extreme affection or disdain, you know, the usual. and – with the exception of people who are super blatant side character fans who are expressing the opinion they adopted from their fav side character – i don’t really believe any of these strong emotion claims (ppl who are actively roleplaying jiang cheng or lan jingyi i believe you i promise pls).

(beginning hyperbolic generalizations in 3,2,1-) as a group fandom just does not ponder lan wangji enough for me to believe many of them actually care the way the suggest they do, and when they do he doesn’t stay the topic of conversation for long. sure, they might start a post about his traumas and woes about his parents and his beloved but strict grumpy uncle but that post will swiftly slide to xichen and the way he approaches relationships and then it turns into 3zun and that turns into Mess lol. maybe they’ll start with how he was raised but don’t be fooled! that is actually just the opportunity to complain about the evil lan sect and all its controlling rules in a trench coat. if you find a post about his relationship with his brother then what you’ve actually found is a post about the tension between the nie bros, the trauma amongst the siblings jin, or Whatever Is Happening In Lotus Pier and the Twin Jades of Lan are actually just there as a comparison point in paragraph three of the essay. more often than any of this, if you think a post is about lan zhan, blink, and it will be wangxian before you hit the author’s note/tags.

secondly, if the fic isn’t a lwj-centric fic then lwj tends to be 1) an objective window into the story, a reliable narrator you can trust to give you the plot with no opinions, thoughts, or feelings about what’s happening 2) a Voice of Judgement an author can use to berate a character they’re mad at with the idea that hanguang-jun can get away with that with minimal fall out and is Convincingly Convicting enough to change the character’s behavior 3) a plot-hole filler – you don’t have to explain why something is true is lwj says it bc he never lies and he probably knows more than you. it’s the maple leaf in the Xuanwu cave over and over 4) a treat for wwx. you don’t have to like lwj or let him speak, just have him in the background for wwx to kiss and beg money from occasionally.

i have to say I’m not /bothered/ by this. i have enough lwj brainrot for all of us I don’t need other people’s thoughts and headcanons i have my own and a corner of fandom that supports me in these things. i know a lot of it is bc mxtx made him all ~mysterious. i just think its funny when people speak so strongly on the guy as if they think of him ever for real at all.

this is fascinating. obviously I spend my times in the JGY/xiyao corners of the fandom, but I am probably one of the people you are talking about in some ways!! i fucking love lan wangji, i experience extreme Feelings about him regularly and he's the reason i fell in love with CQL and ended up on this downward spiral into madness

but if i tried to make a post about him it would be like, 'u know when CQL wangji says 'are there rules already written for everything in the world?' and it permanently altered my brain chemistry? (hand gestures)'. my position on lan wangji is no thoughts, only internal yelling.

however, i think all the patterns you're noticing are so right, especially when it comes to fic. when it comes to meta i sort of get it-- wangji doesn't feel like he NEEDS explanations, he's the main love interest! other characters need their arcs and interests and personalities excavated, whereas his is surely just right out there. but it isn't!

#ask answered

[gurugirl]

okay that anon made me really sad

what you're doing is enough!!!!!! i have no idea how to say this but that is really enough!!!!

92k words a month is INSANE! people have literally no idea the time it takes to write stuff! creating the story, writing the plot, writing the whole thing, proofreading it and then posting it takes time as well because you have to put tags, links and all

people who complain about almost 92,000 words not being enough SHOULD sit down and write. just, like write even 1k words on your own without any help, without any source anything.

and don't even get me started about the way wrists and fingers ache.

i just think they needed to cancel, and when it asked the reason, most of them would have lousily put that you weren't as active as expected! choosing that option takes nothing from that person but that effects the person who will see that as feedback! i highly doubt that even more than 2 people would have thinking like that and complain. please be mature.

to the anon, i hope the 5$ you saved gets you somewhere you desperately wanted and you don't deserve to read all that stuff for one whole month and talk shit about it later

Aww, P! 🥰 I feel like I don't deserve all this kindness 🥹

I know that it's a good amount of writing based on my comparison to other Harry fic writers on Patreon but honestly if someone feels like it's not enough, that's fine. I haven't been bothered by the handful that felt that way except for the anon saying that I barely post 😭 That stung a little. I can't figure out why they feel like I barely post or why they felt like they wanted to tell me that.

I think that some who choose that as their option to cancel have a good reason for it and I'm fine with it because perhaps they had different expectations and $5 every month is a lot for many people (even me).

Love you so much!!!

xoxo

#ask

[regallibellbright]

fashion dreamer was never marketed as another style savvy installment, so idk why you're complaining that it's not like those games. it's its own thing. that's like saying zelda sucks bc it's not a side scrolling game like mario, just because they're both from nintendo.

I’ll take further effort to try and avoid namedropping so it doesn’t turn up in the search, but given there have been talks about concern for this game in the main tag since it was announced, there are likely going to be some criticisms/mixed reviews until the people who don’t like the gameplay and conceits bounce off.

I will also note:

1) My critiques so far have mostly been focused on the gender-lock on fashion, and how the historical lack of depth in the men’s fashion - from Style Savvy, I’ll note, and I was dragging that series a WHOLE lot harder than Fashion Dreamer whose men’s fashion seems to be better by default - makes the gender-lock even more of a problem. Playing a bit more in offline mode, I AM seeing a bit more variety in the menswear aesthetics, which is great. Still would have preferred no gender locks on clothes, especially since I still don’t trust that the men’s fashion got anywhere near as much focus as the women’s. Still baffled why SOCKS are gender-locked. Again, the situation’s worse in Style Savvy, but there’s still a lot of room to improve.

2) There is a very clear through-line from Syn Sophia’s earlier fashion games to this one. There’s a reason why everyone’s first response when it was announced was “wait is that a Style Savvy?!” The artstyle is very similar. The clothes menuing has a clear resemblance. Further, this game is in the same extremely niche subgenre. The spiritual successor/sister game energy is extremely strong.

Which isn’t a bad thing in its own right! My comparison to Happy Home Designer vs a mainline Animal Crossing is because I actually really liked HHD for what it was. Pretty sure I even replayed it at some point. But because every design gave you unlimited creative freedom, you’d eventually hit a point where you unlocked most of the furniture, you’d done all the really cool requests, and then you’d hit a rut using the same basic layouts and items because there was no reason not to and eventually you decided you didn’t want to make a house devoted to the number 7 and dropped it. That’s my concern for Fashion Dreamer in terms of staying power, for precisely the same reasons. I’d like to be proven wrong, but since I HAVE seen a lack of structure and incentivizing in a companion game to a series that has more of it work against said companion game, there is a genuine cause for concern here.

I am genuinely enjoying the game and will definitely be posting some positive thoughts on it as well. The improvements to the character creator are solid. But there clearly are some things that won’t work for everyone, and the sense I got from the community as a whole even pre-release was excitement mixed with trepidation. That’s probably going to be a thing for a while. Feel free to block and move on if you need to, since I can already tell my opinions here are going to be mixed. What it does well it does genuinely well! But there are some pretty basic choices in things like ‘menu design’ that are not working for me. That has nothing to do with comparing it to any other fashion game, it’s just awkward.

#long post #regalli plays fd #just going to change my play tag now #I’m taking this as a good faith ask and answering in good faith in return #but at the same time: EXTREMELY NICHE SUBGENRE. #comparisons are going to be inevitable and there are legitimate problems to have with it regardless of competition. #to me this is a Story of Seasons vs Rune Factory situation. Clear companion games. meaningful differences. equally meaningful similarities #I have come to love and cherish both series. Doesn’t mean I think either one is perfect

[maoam]

WHY HINATA IS NOT A GOOD CHARACTER

INTRODUCTION

I wanted to take a deeper look at Hinata’s character, considering there are a lot of claims about her out there, that she’s strong, that she’s kind, that she’s complex and relatable, that she’s the perfect woman and that she’s at least better than Sakura. I don’t really think so, and I’ll explain why. I’ll be focusing on canon, so no fillers or novels will be included in this post. I’ll say this as a warning, if you’re a fan of her character this probably won’t be something you’ll like. This will be tagged with the anti tags and put under read more so please do not complain if tumblr somehow puts this in the normal tags, it is not intentional. Also Sakura stans please don’t write lengthy comments about Sakura under this, I’m not a fan of her either and I’ll write about her later. Make your own post instead.

”HINATA IS STRONG AND THE BEST KUNOICHI”

Hinata is generally really bad as a shinobi and I’m not sure where the claims that she is strong come from. Hinata's entire character revolves around her being weak. This could have been fine if she actually developed, or if she found some other area for herself, yet she's mediocre at best and a waste of panels at worst, because she never becomes good or strong at anything. She’s not only physically weak from start to finish, but she’s also the equivalent of a damsel in distress. Everytime Hinata attempts to do something, she ends up failing, getting beaten up and having to be saved. She lost to her sister who is five years younger than her, which is what marked her as a failure in her clan. She tried to fight Neji in the chunin exams and ended up coughing up blood and losing her consciousness, and Naruto had to beat Neji for her. After Kabuto heals her fully, she spends the rest of part 1 either sleeping or missing in action. Very underwhelming.

If this had been only the beginning, it would have maybe been fine, but it’s a reoccuring pattern with her character. She throws herself in front of Pain, managing to do nothing but get one-paneled and almost killed. Even at the start of the war she had to be saved by Naruto. She tried to run to Naruto and tripped over a rock. Actually, she’s so weak she got Neji killed, when he had to jump in front of her so she wouldn’t get impaled. Why is she even in the front lines when she can’t fight? Even in Naruto the Last movie she had to be saved multiple times. In Boruto the movie she is still useless and reckless, leaving her daughter’s side to help Naruto, ending up defeated and having to be healed by Sakura once again.

I can’t say she’s mentally strong either. She has the personality of someone who hates conflict and tries to avoid it as best as they can, to the point of agreeing with others on everything, as Neji pointed out. Even without him saying it out loud, most of Hinata’s moments that aren’t her thinking about Naruto are her doing exactly this. This is not the personality of someone who is strong mentally. It’s the personality of someone who is too weak to have their own mind, someone who will go with the flow and is easily led and convinced. It can be dangerous the more you think about it. Hinata is also the bystander who never stands up for Naruto despite liking and admiring him. If she’s a compassionate girl, why isn’t she showing this by reaching out to Naruto and befriending him? Why doesn’t she show he’s not alone? Why is she only drawing inspiration from him? I don’t normally watch fillers, but there was one filler scene unrelated to Hinata where this girl says if you only look at the loser and do nothing, you aren’t much better than the oppressors, which probably wasn’t meant to be a call out for Hinata, but ended up being so anyway. Another thing that’s annoying is how she is berating herself often, yet doing nothing, it comes off as self-pity. Even in the Last movie, she is talking about how she must be a bad sister for knitting a scarf when her sister is in danger. Then why are you doing it and not stopping? Of course everytime this happens Naruto must cheer her up because she just can’t stop moping around and doing something herself.

Aside from all this, from the very beginning Hinata’s honor needed to be defended by Naruto because she couldn’t stand up for herself. Of course, after Naruto’s words she did stood up for a moment, and that was good, but it should have been a wake up call which altered her course. Instead, she kept doing the same she always did. If we take the Last movie into consideration, she’s still not strong enough to do anything even about her crush on Naruto. She needs genjutsu and Sakura to do the work for her. So even when it comes to the only thing she cares about 90 % of the time, which is Naruto-kun, she can’t do anything about it. That’s really sad.

”HINATA IS KIND AND SELFLESS”

There’s one mistake I see people make often, and that’s assuming characters that are quiet and shy are automatically kind. I wouldn’t say Hinata is as kind as the fandom makes her out to be. She simply comes off that way because you don’t really see her have her own opinions or disagree with the other characters. Hinata’s shyness on the other hand is most of the time a fetishized quirk to appeal to certain subset of fans. Her shyness doesn’t stop her from taking exams or hanging around Shino and Kiba, or talking to characters other than Naruto. She also has enough attitude to rub Neji’s status as a house slave in his face during their match, but because she stutters Naruto-kun every five minutes she’s supposedly kind. Kindness is shown through actions, not through standing around and stuttering. For comparison, we see Ino befriend an unpopular kid like Sakura, and give her confidence. That’s an act of kindness. Did Hinata ever cared about helping the branch members in any way? No.

She's supposedly "kind" but like I mentioned before she never shows this kindness by standing up for Naruto, or reaching out to him. She simply stares at him behind a tree and draws inspiration from his suffering. The only time she can actually stand up is to selfishly confess her love and die. She even said she felt like being selfish, and like I said she knew there was nothing she could do, she was told she’d only be in the way. She came there only to confess and commit suicide. This actually reminds me of another anime where this female character, after being unable to receive a male character’s love killed herself in front of him and said ”now you’ll never forget me”.

In the end, she cares about nothing but her own hormonal urges. Hinata tried to help Naruto cheat to pass an exam at the risk of disqualifying her whole team. This is the first individual action we see her character take. Did she consider Shino and Kiba during that moment? No, she didn’t even have an inner conflict on whether she should do this, whether it’s right towards her teammates. Even Naruto considers he might get Hinata, Sasuke and Sakura all in trouble if he accepts Hinata’s offer, which is why he doesn’t do it. Then when Hinata wonders if she can cheer for Naruto during his and Kiba’s match, she thinks Kiba might get mad. It’s more about how Kiba views her rather than whether she should cheer for Kiba because they are in the same team and should support each other. During the Pain attack, she left an injured shinobi, who couldn’t move, to go to Naruto, even when said shinobi told her she would only be in Naruto’s way. She didn’t try to save people, she simply wanted to confess and act in front of Naruto. This is about a threat to the entire village, which includes her comrades and her sister and she’s thinking only about her romantic feelings towards a guy she had maybe two conversations with and who barely remembers she exists. How is she better than Sakura? War arc really was the icing on the cake that Hinata’s character is only about Naruto. We should not forget the infamous ”Naruto-kun’s hand is so big… so manly...” is that really the right time to be thirsty? When Neji just died? Shikamaru mentions that he could help out Naruto as a right-hand man and then Hinata thinks “I-I want to be by Naruto-kun’s side too.” Then there’s of course the scene where she starts running to Naruto, leaving her post and teammates, even when Naruto is a mile away and already in the hands of medical ninjas, and even that ends up her pathetically tripping over a rock. Kiba has to remind her to use her byakugan because she is too busy gushing about Naruto. Eventually her only last line is “Naruto-kun”, when everyone is put into IT. It’s like a parody by this point. She doesn’t have any concern for her sister, her father, her teammates, Kurenai or her baby. It’s just “Naruto-kun” like it always is. Even in the Last movie, she is knitting a scarf for Naruto during the mission where they’re supposed to save her sister. Who brings a scarf on a mission? Why is she thinking about her romantic gift to Naruto so much she has to take it with her on a mission which focus is saving her sister? She even looks more devastated when Toneri tores the scarf apart than she ever does for Hanabi’s sake. It’s just silly and selfish.

”HINATA IS A COMPLEX CHARACTER”

Is she complex though? Her development goes from standing behind a tree looking at her crush she never talks to, to committing suicide for feelings that could never be reciprocated, to… waiting that a genjutsu and Sakura guilt trip Naruto enough for him to be with her? Like I already mentioned her character revolves entirely around Naruto, she has no hobbies or interests we know of aside from him. She has no motivations aside from being by Naruto’s side. She once had an interesting goal and backstory, but that was never fully explored, and it turned into her wanting Naruto’s attention and thinking about him. Her clan plot was irrelevant, she showed no interest in wanting to be a leader or even wanting to make things better for the branch members. It’s funny because immediately after the ending, no one cared about the Hyuuga branch and how the storyline was dropped and had no resolution. It was only when Hinata was being attacked for not showing to care did her fans start to over-analyze all the panels looking for the tiniest little clue that might hint at some changes.

It’s possible to be both shy, anxious and quiet and also to be strong, motivated and have interests and dreams. Hinata is never strong for herself, she’s only strong to be with Naruto, to die for Naruto, to motivate Naruto, to have Naruto look at her even for a moment. All the while Naruto doesn’t pay much attention to her unless she’s literally dying in front of him or she slapped him. Even when a big climax is happening, what’s on her mind is always her romantic feelings and her crush. I saw someone say if she were a male character, and she pulled this pointless sacrifice and theatrical confession in the final fight of an arc, she would’ve been universally mocked. Actually, I think even if it was Sakura who did this instead of Hinata the former would have been mocked, because their stans are unable to see the same flaws in their own fave as they see in the other girl. Naruto is a battle manga, characters are supposed to contribute to the defeat of the villain in some material way. The only reason people praise Hinata for what she did in the Pain arc is because they either pity her or because they’re men who think women killing themselves for a man is great because it boosts their ego.

I also notice many Hinata fans don’t notice the vanity in their own fandom. They call Hinata “princess”, ”heiress”, ”Konoha’s first lady” and draw fanart glorifying these concepts and how it makes Hinata good, because they like the superficial status, what they don’t care is the titles are unearned. I thought Hinata’s appeal was that she’s the underdog and a loser? Or maybe her real appeal is the idea of getting everything you want without doing much in order to get it?  Another claim is that Hinata is the perfect woman, which you might see from men. This is what I might dislike the most. Men judge Hinata’s worth and whether she’s a good character based on what kind of woman they want and think is the right kind of woman. Hinata has big breasts, she’s submissive, she has no other interests than the man she likes, and she’s the only girl in her class who didn’t go for the popular guy. Many men hate Sakura, Ino and Karin for being fangirls but praise Hinata for being a fangirl. Basically to them if a character is a fangirl of the wrong guy, she’s a stupid slut. If she fangirls their self insert, she’s wife material and the ideal woman. If Sakura has to be saved, she’s useless. If Hinata tries to kill herself for Naruto, she’s ”so kind”. Rin is a one-dimensional character, but Hinata saying Naruto-kun for the 50th time is depth. Hinata is also claimed to be better than the other girls because she had more kids and thus is more ”fertile”. It’s like feminism never happened and we are back to the 16th century. Why are we judging women’s worth on how many kids they have and how much they can please a man?

I could also talk about how Studio Pierrot turned Hinata into a hentai bait for otakus, which also plays a part in her popularity, but I don’t think it’s necessary, so I will just offer this picture which speaks for itself.

END NOTE

Hinata is simply just a sexist stereotype, a shadow of a real woman, with not much depth, and who is certainly not better than Sakura either. Both of them are fangirls whose characters revolve around men. It’s wild to me how there are women who genuinely act like one must be a misogynist if they reject Hinata’s superficial, one-dimensional and boy crazy character. Her character itself is misogynist for crying out loud. And honestly, what does it say when even the creator himself assumes that Hinata is someone’s favorite character because he must like big boobs?

#anti hinata #anti hinata hyuga #mp #I'm not sure if I'm satisfied with this #but there's just not much to talk about when it comes to her character #it would just become repetitive

[theladyofdeath]

Life As We Know It {Chapter 14}

Summary: After the sudden deaths of Nesta’s sister and Cassian’s best friend, they gain guardianship of their nephew, Nyx.

Based on Life As We Know It (2010) and a prompt sent in by anonymous for our Nessian fanfic contest. This is a modern au.

Instead of doing a tag list for this story, we have decided to have a set posting schedule. Chapters will be posted weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Occasional surprise chapters could be posted at miscellaneous times. Chapters will be posted on both my and Shelby’s blogs! >>@snelbz​

Life As We Know It Masterlist

Shelby’s Masterlist

Tara’s Masterlist

Cassian was up far before Nesta, but that was to be expected.

He had worn her out, after all.

In all honesty, though, she had worn him out, too. And he sure as hell wasn’t complaining.

It had taken him a while to fall asleep the night before, to fully digest everything that had happened between the two of them. He didn’t regret it, not for a second, but it was…strange. Nesta Archeron was the last woman he thought he’d find himself in such a situation with.

It had been a pleasant surprise, to say the least. Even when he had finally fallen asleep, it was all he dreamt about.

His hands on her body.

The little sounds that fell from her lips.

The feeling of his mouth against hers.

The feeling of being inside of her.

Dressing, he crept downstairs, not wanting to wake her, and made a pot of coffee. Sitting at the kitchen table, he ran a hand through his messy hair.

Cassian had no idea what was going to come this morning. Was she going to pretend it never happened? Was she going to be mad or say that it was a mistake?

He sure as hell hadn’t thought it was a mistake. He’d loved every minute of the night they’d shared, but he knew that a line had been crossed between them.

He was going to let her decide what would come next.

It wasn’t two minutes after Cassian pulled a pan of crispy bacon out of the oven, he heard a door open at the top of the stairs. He smirked, but felt a sense of dread as footsteps slowly descended towards the kitchen.

Nesta appeared, dressed in long-sleeved flannel pajamas. She stopped in the doorway and cleared her throat.

“I made breakfast,” Cassian said, gesturing to the display on the countertop.

“Thanks,” Nesta said, scratching the back of her head.

“Care to join me at the table?” he asked.

Nesta hesitated, then nodded. “Sure. Thanks.”

Cassian said nothing more as he made her a plate, then himself one, and carried them to the table. He was already popping a piece of bacon into his mouth when Nesta sat.

“So,” Cassian began. “How are you?”

“Good,” Nesta answered, a little too quickly. “You?”

“Good,” Cassian said, nodding.

Silence ensued.

They ate quietly. Cassian glanced at Nesta from time to time. Nesta did the same. Eventually, Cassian dropped his fork on his plate and ran a hand through his hair.

“Alright, this is ridiculous,” he said.

Nesta raised a brow. “What is?”

“This awkwardness,” Cassian said, laughing quietly. “I mean, we fucked, right?”

Nesta nearly choked on a piece of bacon. “We….”

“Had sex,” Cassian finished. “We did, and you know what? It was good. But when we went to bed, it was awkward. And this morning? Still awkward. Why is it awkward?”

“Because we had drunk sex,” she said, laughing, despite herself. “We got drunk and we hooked up, like horny teenagers and…” She shook her head, and looked up at him. And she burst out laughing.

“And we’re adults,” he said, laughing along with her. “We made that choice. I liked that choice. I’d make that choice again.”

Nesta’s laughter quieted. “I know. I don’t either, but…”

Cassian took a drink of his coffee, smirking. “Was it not the best sex of your life?”

Nesta began blushing, and she bit her lip as she moved the eggs around her plate. “I plead the fifth.”

“That’s a cop-out answer,” Cassian said, his mouth full.

Nesta laughed. “So what?”

Cassian’s grin said plenty. “Fair enough. I mean, it was a one time thing, right?”

“Right,” Nesta said, without any hesitation. “So, there’s no need to feel awkward, right?”

“Right,” Cassian agreed. “We were letting off some steam, some stress, and now we’re fine.”

“Exactly,” Nesta said, scooping up a mouthful of eggs.

That silence resumed.

A few minutes later, Nesta said, “It was pretty good, though.”

Cassian chuckled. “Oh, I know.”

She kicked his shin beneath the table.

His grin widened.

“What do you have going on today?” Cassian asked, at last.

“Work,” Nesta answered, simply. “You’ll pick Nyx up?”

“I will,” he promised.

“Great,” she said, taking a drink of her coffee. She glanced at the clock and jumped to her feet. “Shit, I need to go get ready.”

“Go,” he chuckled, shooing her off. “I’ll handle the kitchen.”

She glanced around at the room, which was still a wreck from the night before. Her bikini top was looped over one of the drawer pulls and she blushed.

She couldn’t believe it.

She had sex with Cassian, her sworn enemy for years.

And the most surprising thing of all? She had liked it.

A lot.

He hadn’t been lying when he said it would be the best sex of her life. There was no comparison, whatsoever.

Even waking up after a fantastic night of sleep, Nesta still felt amazing. She was relaxed, albeit a bit sore. Nearly giddy.

And all because of Cassian.

*

Since the accident, Nesta hadn’t spent nearly as much time at the restaurant as she usually did. And not nearly as often as she liked. Her staff had absolutely understood that she needed to get accustomed to her new life and how things worked, but as she hurried between the dining room and the kitchen, she couldn’t help but feel like she was in a bit over her head.

Granted, her mind kept trailing back to the activities she’d had the night before, which flustered her to no end every time she thought about them. She was staring at an open laptop in front of her, the PDF of the new menu staring back, when she heard a throat clearing from the doorway of her office.

She glanced up and found Helion standing there. He was her general manager and made sure everything ran smoothly when she wasn’t there, and he was a blessing in her life.

“What’s up?”

He looked around before slipping into the chair across the desk from her. “You going to tell me what’s got you spacing out so badly today that you mixed fresh salmon into the chicken salad base?”

Nesta cringed, but tried not to show it. “I wanted to try a new recipe. If it bombs, it bombs.”

Helion lifted a brow, not believing her lie for a second.

“What?” Nesta asked.

“Did the walk of shame this morning, did you?” He asked, a familiar mischievous glint in his eye.

Nesta hesitated. “Is it still a walk of shame if you never leave your house?”

Helion’s brows furrowed but then the dots connected. His mouth fell open as his eyes widened. “You fucked the hot uncle?”

Nesta groaned, her face falling into her hands.

Helion had no sympathy. He asked, “Is he the one that’s sitting at the bar asking for you?”

Nesta’s hands fell and she met Helion’s eye.

Helion shrugged. “Didn’t think I just came back here to chat, did you?”

“I…” Nesta was up before she could even think through what she might say to him, rounding her desk and hurrying towards the front of the restaurant.

She wasn’t sure if Cassian’s mid-day appearance was a good thing or not. On one hand, he may have stopped by with Nyx after picking him up from Elain’s. On the other, what if something was wrong? What if Nyx had had a bad night or something had happened? Her steps slowed and she paused before she left the kitchens, taking a deep breath.

Nothing was wrong. She wouldn’t accept any other answer. Tucking her loose hair behind an ear, she pushed through the door.

But she didn’t find Cassian sitting at the bar.

It was Balthazar, whose brown eyes she met and her smile faltered, but only a little. She had it back in place before he had time to notice.

“Figured out how I recognized you,” he said, as she approached from the other side of the bar.

“I see that,” she laughed, softly.

“Turns out I come here often,” he continued, his smile growing. “Turns out, so do you.”

“I would say I make an appearance here from time to time,” she agreed. “So, stop in for lunch?”

“I had the day off,” he explained, shrugging. “Errand day.”

She was just now noticing the designer sweatpants and hoodie he wore. His sneakers alone probably cost a couple hundred dollars.

Apparently the rumors were true…

Doctors made good money.

“And this was on your list?” Nesta asked.

Bal chuckled. “Well, last night I got to thinking that I’ve seen you here once or twice. It just clicked. So, I googled the restaurant, and, believe it or not, the owner’s picture is on the website.”

“Huh,” Nesta chimed. “Funny.”

“Mhmm,” Balthazar crooned. “I thought so. So, I thought I’d come visit and, yeah, maybe stay for lunch.”

“Well, lucky for you, the lunch special of the day is the prime dip, and I must say that it’s absolutely delicious,” Nesta said.

He closed the menu on the bar top in front of him. “Sounds perfect.”

“Give me just a minute to get that for you, and I’ll be right back. Can I get you something to drink?” She asked, sliding the menu below the bar.

“Drink drink or just to drink?” He asked and his smile did strange things to her stomach.

“Oh, I don’t have a liquor license,” she said, scrunching her nose. Too many hoops to jump through, but she would have loved to serve wine with her food. The pairings she would come up with were tempting. “Water, your everyday sodas, and homemade fruit teas.”

“Fruit tea, huh?” He tapped a contemplative finger against his chin.

She couldn’t have stopped the grin if she tried. “Has that piqued your interest?”

“Depends on what flavors you have,” he said, folding his arms across the bar. “I’m very choosy about my fruit tea.”

She laughed, quietly. “Mango, raspberry, strawberry, and passion fruit.”

“Passion fruit,” he repeated. “I like the sound of that.”

“Okay,” Nesta said, quietly with a little smile she couldn’t stop, and hurried back to the kitchen.

Helion was waiting for her behind the swinging door, grinning from ear to ear.

“Not him,” Nesta said, sweeping past him.

“Still handsome!” Helion called after her.

Nesta ignored him, not wanting to give him too much information on her current man-drama, even though she could tell he was far too invested in her private life.

After putting his order in, Nesta was heading back into her office and shutting herself inside, if only to shut out Helion.

When she had rounded the corner and saw it wasn’t Cassian, there was the tiniest bit of disappointment that she had to quickly push away. Then again, it also meant that everything had apparently gone okay with Nyx, which Nesta was happy about.

She and Cassian had been a one time thing.

Yes, they had called a truce, but it didn’t mean anything more than them being civil with one another. It meant co-parenting. Maybe even one day becoming something that resembled friends…but nothing more.

She tried to focus on the proof of the menu she was editing, tried to pay attention to the descriptions she typed out and the pictures she selected as focal points. But after she ended up choosing the wrong picture three times in a row, she closed her laptop and sighed, letting her face fall into her hands. She was distracted and she genuinely couldn’t tell if it was due to the man sitting out at the bar or if it was thanks to the one at home.

Balthazar’s order was up, and Nesta was delighted to find that someone, most likely Helion, had brought him his tea. When she set his plate down in front of him, his tongue swept across his bottom lip, and Nesta couldn’t help but notice.

“This looks amazing,” he said.

“And your tea?” Nesta asked.

“Pretty good,” he grinned.

Damn his smile. Every time he smiled, Nesta couldn’t help but smile back.

“Well, it was great seeing you,” Nesta said, and she meant it. “I should get back to work, though, I’m pretty booked.”

“Of course,” he said, understandingly. “I get it. I did want to ask you, though, if you were free on Saturday night?”

It was only a few nights away, and at first, Nesta hesitated, but then she thought it was ridiculous that she was hesitating, so she said, “Yeah, I’m free.”

“Good,” Bal said, cocking his head to the side. “How about that date, then?”

“I’ll have to check with Cassian,” she said, and when his eyebrows raised, she added hastily, “To make sure he doesn’t already have plans. It’s- We alternate who gets weekends off, and I made a deal with him last weekend.”

Balthazar nodded, and he took another sip of his tea. “Well, then you just let me know if Saturday will work and if not, we’ll figure out another day.”

She smiled and nodded. “Okay.” Nesta turned and was almost back to the door leading to the kitchen when she turned and said, “Lunch is on me today, by the way.”

His own smile was dazzling when he said, “My compliments to the chef.”

With a shy wave, though Nesta wasn’t sure she had a timid bone in her body, she was through the door and headed back to her office. Helion was on her heels a second later, trailing her through the doorway.

“One minute, you’re banging the hot uncle and the next, a Greek god asks you out on a date?” He said, his brows flicking up. “You apparently have fate on speed dial and I need you to give me her number.”

“Shut up,” she groaned, collapsing into her chair. “Don’t you have orders to help cook?”

He hummed quietly as he left her to her thoughts, but did as she said, finding his way back onto the grill line.

Nesta glanced over at the clock. Only two in the afternoon. It was going to be a long day.

*

Nyx blew a raspberry, landing a spray of sweet potato directly on Cassian’s face. His body stilled, but when Nyx started giggling, Cassian’s body quickly relaxed.

“Very funny,” he said, ruffling Nyx’s hair as he stood and went to the sink. After tearing a paper-towel off the roll, he held it under the faucet and wiped off his face.

The front door opened and closed.

“Hello?” Nesta called.

“Kitchen!” Cassian replied. “Nyx is making a mess!”

Nesta was in the kitchen in no time, hurrying to Nyx and kissing his chubby cheeks. “Hi, my love. I missed you. Yes, I did.”

Nyx babbled incoherently in response.

“How was your day?” Cassian asked, wiping off the last bit of potato from his eyebrow.

“Long,” she admitted. “Right before I was about to leave, a shipment of fresh ingredients came in that I needed to get stocked and inventoried.” She dumped a few of the strawberry-banana puffs into her hand and popped one of them into her mouth. “If I have to count another head of lettuce today, my head might explode.”

“Well, fortunately,” Cassian chuckled. “There are no heads of lettuce here for you to count.”

“Have you eaten yet?” She asked, heading for the fridge. “I’m starving.”

“There’s pizza on the way,” he said, attempting to get another spoonful of sweet potatoes into Nyx’s mouth. “I wasn’t sure when you’d be home, or if you’d feel like cooking.”

“You’re a blessing,” she sighed, and sat down at the kitchen table. She watched as Nyx continued to spray food into his face and chuckled quietly. “You want me to take over?”

“Nah,” he said, leaving the splattered sweet potato where it stuck to his face. “No need for both of us to get covered.”

“How gallant of you,” Nesta chuckled, opening the fridge and pulling out a can of Coca-Cola. She rarely did caffeine, but after the day she had, it was necessary. “I, um, did have a question for you.”

Cassian looked over his shoulder, brow raised.

Nesta couldn’t help but smile at the specks of sweet potato that covered his face.

“I was wondering if I could go out Saturday night,” Nesta said. “I mean, I know last weekend I went out, and I don’t want to take advantage of your kindness-.”

“With the doctor?” Cassian interrupted. His tone wasn’t hard, but it did seem uncertain, or another emotion that Nesta couldn’t quite place.

“Yeah,” Nesta began, cracking open her can. “He came by the restaurant today and asked me to dinner on Saturday night. I told him I’d have to talk to you about it first, since I said I’d have Nyx.”

“I see,” Cassian said, turning back to Nyx.

“If it’s an issue, if you have plans, I don’t mind telling him no-.”

“You should go,” Cassian said, shrugging. “I have no plans. I can stay here.”

She blinked, watching him. “You’re sure?”

“You sound like you don’t want me to be sure,” he said, glancing at her over his shoulder. “Are you looking for a reason to say no?”

“No,” she replied, quickly. “It’s just… After last night-.”

“We hooked up,” he shrugged. “We blew off some steam, in a very physical way. But that was that, and, like we said this morning, it was a one time thing, yeah?” She nodded. “Alright, then if you want to say yes, say yes. I can watch Nyx.”

She hesitated for a second, but her smile grew. “Okay.”

“Okay,” he repeated, and gave her a smile of his own. “Go relax for a bit, I’ll let you know when the pizza is here.”

She nodded and was about to head up the stairs, but she turned around, wiping the smeared baby food off his face and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Thanks, Cass.”

He mumbled something and waved her off, and she grabbed her phone from her purse before she hurried up to her room.

After changing out of her work clothes and into something far more comfier, she fell back on her bed and unlocked her phone.

Balthazar’s messages were soon pulled up, and Nesta was sending him a text.

Saturday sounds great. Pick me up at 7?

She didn’t wait for his response before tossing her phone aside and going through her nightly routine. She figured she would eat and call it a day.

She was beat.

After washing her face and pulling up her hair, Nesta walked back into her room just as her phone lit up on top of her comforter.

Balthazar.

I won’t be a second late.

#nessian #nesta #cassian #acotar #acomaf #acowar #acosf #fanfic #fanfiction #nesta x cassian #cassian x nesta #shacmc lawki #collab #snelbz x tacmc #sjm

[simplysummers]

Breaking down Hunter and Omega’s relationship: Pt 3.

Hi everybody, I’m back with this weeks post on our favourite father-daughter-space-duo, the third instalment of the series! Thank you all so much for your positive feedback and discussions that have taken place over the last couple of posts, it means a lot to me to see my insights so neatly examined! I don’t really think the post itself needs much of an introduction, in of itself, it’s quite self explanatory! And I hope you enjoy!

(Pasted paragraphs: I would just like to add a disclaimer here. I am, in no way whatsoever, slating the other batchers for having differing relationships with Omega. I absolutely adore everything single one of the boys, and I think they all have wonderful and unique interrelations with her. Although I may point out these different approaches in comparison to Hunter’s, I am not stating these engages are wrong, just different is all!

I’m going to separate this into a little series- covering each episode in a separate post, which I’ll have tagged as the series progresses. Once I’ve tackled these two, as they’re my favourites, I’m going to move on to each individual Batcher and perhaps a few other dynamics such and Hunter and Crosshair, or Wrecker and Omega! Let me know what you guys would like to see!)

(Thank you to this weeks proof-reader: @treasureofmy-heart 💛)

Replacements: S1/E3

The opening scene in this episode is everything for these two. This is Omega behaving like an authentic child, a child in the midst of winding down with her datapad, leaning against Gonky, just…existing. She isn’t expected to be on hand for medical assistance, she isn’t studying, she isn’t working, she’s just living within herself, enjoying herself. Hunter makes a light comment, observing she doesn’t look too comfortable, allowing Omega the option to respond, she can either agree and ask to sit upfront, or she can stay if she’s happy to do so, but it already opens the door to a certain amount of communication between them. Of course, she insists she is fine and accepts her ration bar, yet before she can return to her seat on the floor Wrecker joins them, allowing their brief ordeal over the ration shortage to occur. I love both Omega’s immediate selflessness as she offers Wrecker her food, and Hunter’s sudden interruption in this little sequence. He doesn’t even allow room to consider her proposal, instead his immediate thought is to ensure this little girl can eat, especially considering she doesn’t even have anywhere to sleep (as we see this has been weighing on his mind by the mention of its necessity)

Omega’s response to Wrecker’s denial to accept her food- “Okay 😇.” Bless her little heart, she projects so much innocence with every word, and we can see from Hunter’s endeared little smile that he absolutely adores this about her. Upon Wrecker admitting that he hasn’t quite gotten use to Omega’s presence (which he looks very upset about, poor Wrecks 😔), Hunter insists that none of them have, but Omega isn’t making much fuss or complaining. This suggests that their brief conversation after leaving Saleucami is still heavily weighing on Hunter’s mind, he has taken his promise to both her and Cut quite seriously, and although both he and the rest of the batch are all still educating themselves in regards to Omega, she isn’t holding any resentment, and trusts them to make correct decisions in regards to her best interest.

I only want to briefly address the crash scene as their interaction are minimal, but I absolutely love how despite the fact that Wrecker is a lot closer to Omega, and ultimately does help her strap in, it is Hunter who takes presidency when addressing the situation. Although, as the leader, he has a lot of orders to cover to ensure they land without too much damage and every member of the squad is safe, his first priority is to ensure Omega is secure before he can move on to his secondary concerns. This relates back to the parental relationship of putting the guardian’s life second to the child’s. (To quote Shelby from ‘Glee’ “parenthood is about accepting the fact that your feelings and that your life and your body, that they all come second to making sure the child is happy and safe” which Hunter demonstrates perfectly here.)

I love how both Omega and Hunter look to Gonky as he slides past her and into the cockpit where Hunter is seated and is easily able to stabilise the unit once they finally land, (thanks to Tech’s amazing manoeuvring of course). I immediately noticed that when addressing the squad, Hunter’s head is veered more so towards Omega rather than Wrecker, where he asks her “are you alright?” with extreme emphasis on the “you”. This ties back into the previous point that Hunter’s new priority is her, as out of the entire squad she is in need of the most protection and reassurance. Alongside this, I discerned Omega’s body language as primarily Hunter-centric, she hangs her head in his direction throughout the entire crash, despite the fact Wrecker is much closer to her. She still finds the need to seek out Hunter specifically. This also mirrors their heavily pronounced relationship, which we see much more of throughout the season.

“I-Is…it…over?” Oh Bless. I love how she looks between both Hunter and Wrecker, unsure of where to direct her scattered and fraying attention.

Swiftly shifting towards the power capacitor hunt and Omega accidentally dropping Crosshair’s weapon kit, we see the entire batch deflate at the awkwardness of their sudden situation. Unknowingly, she has just resurrected a resented emotion for them, something they haven’t learnt to completely handle in the short amount of time they have been separated from their brother, and yet although his face falls harsh for a mere moment, Hunter is the first to immediately soften and approach Omega’s ‘mistake’ with a gentle tone, kindly explaining the device and its origin to her. And while everybody else completely avoids eye contact with the child, Hunter tries his best to meet her eye, most likely to add reassurance and strength to his explanation, for her sake.

I won’t delve too deep into this, but I’d also like to note that throughout the explanation in regards to Crosshair’s actions, Hunter seems to be the most…tense, this supports the later revelation that he has taken his own actions very personally, and is deeply frustrated with himself for leaving his brother behind, and bringing Crosshair up revives these feelings, which he has no doubt been trying to suppress. Omega immediately notices this, as she watches him retreat into the cockpit, with a clear sense of curiosity and concern for him. I love the effort by the animators to mirror the looks these two share behind one another’s back.

Maybe this is me potentially entering headcanon territory, but I speculate Hunter was the one to allow Omega to play with the oxygen masks. It isn’t uncommon for guardians of children who have come out of a traumatic experience to allow said child to play with a positive association to their ‘safe person/people’, in which case Omega’s safe people would be the batch, and therefore their association to the use of the oxygen masks would help her calm down after an upsetting crash landing and a tense conversation in regards to Crosshair.

Omega’s little lip tremble when the lights cut out….this poor kid isn’t use to pitch black :( no matter the dreary atmosphere of Kamino’s torrential storms, Omega was always kept inside the brightly lit walls of Tipoca City, and although Nala Se’s lab isn’t particularly well lit, it isn’t plunged into complete darkness like the Marauder was, sparing the emergency dim lighting which barely cast a shadow.

Her explanation of the Ordo Moon Dragon is so juvenilised with a small sense of dramatics- “it was THIS big, with a LONG tail!” This gives a gentle hint back to Omega’s childlike immaturity and her true age, both physically and mentally, which we see Hunter truly consider throughout the rest of the episode.

When Omega insists she wants to go with Hunter to retrieve their missing part, Hunter doesn’t even have to think twice before he denies her request, and his sole reasoning is because, “that thing could be dangerous.” and as we know his top priority is keeping her safe. But, of course Omega being Omega, she gives Hunter a pretty decent response, she is a part of their squad, and should be allowed the chance to prove her place amongst clone force 99, especially for something as quaint as a retrieval mission. Instead of outright denying her once again, Hunter ponders her reply for a moment, before agreeing, with the additional gentle reminder that she MUST stay close. Her excited little smile as she jumps from her standing position on the co-pilot’s seat to the floor, rushing past Hunter and straight for the exit, highlights her excitement to finally participate and assist Hunter on a mission of their own, which we see perplexes, yet intrigues him.

While exploring the moon’s surface, I immediately notice that sparing a brief moment of watching the floor, Omega’s eyes never leave Hunter, not even for a moment. She is completely complacent in regards to his rule to stick close to him, which is further continued throughout their second chat over Crosshair.

Without surprise, Omega copies Hunter’s actions a few times too, especially when tracing his hand throughout the dust. This is where she asks, “could I learn to track like you?” and here I’d like to specifically focus on the “like you” segment of her sentence. It shows a clear connotation between Omega’s desire to be just like Hunter, which we’ve seen she already had in episode one, and the natural desire to be considered a soldier amongst their ranks. Equally, I love how Hunter doesn’t outrightly reject her request, he simply says “it’s an enhanced skill,” which suggests he probably couldn’t exactly teach her how, but he appreciates her enthusiasm and finds her request almost quite cute.

Moving right along to their secondary Crosshair conversation, I absolutely love Hunter’s facial expressions throughout this passage. He isn’t harsh or crude, instead he is quite sullen, yet in a sympathetic tone. His entire demeanour is taken down slightly, and I believe this is to shield Omega from Hunter’s true self-hatred and deprecating emotions towards their situation. He is careful to explain himself to her, without adding too much honesty in hopes that he won’t unnecessarily worry her. Once again, this ending furthers the blatant protective connection between them. Furthermore, Omega’s reaction is so pure, yet extremely wise for her age and knowledge level. There is still a sense of juvenility to her widened eyes and the movement of her hand snaking it’s way around Hunter’s forearm comfortingly, and yet she still does her best to comfort him in the same way that he has done for her on multiple occasions in their scarce time together, sparing the Nexu event. We see this immediately makes Hunter smile, which is a pleasant thing to notice after the intensity of their conversation. In short, she makes him smile, she helps him, and vice versa.

After Hunter is attacked by the dragon, I can’t help but notice Omega’s worried little face as his mask is knocked aside and he begins to gasp for air. Even after he falls unconscious and she rushes to fix his mask, she still manages to push aside her anxieties to secure his safety and design a brief plan in her mind after backup becomes unavailable, I personally see this as a matter of Omega taking Hunter’s initiative to complete the mission, after assuring herself he is once again breathing and safe for the time being. I also love her little double take, one final look at her guardian before she takes off into the dragon’s nest, she’s so sweet.

Skipping ahead slightly as there isn’t much to cover in regards to Omega’s little lone adventure into the cave, upon Hunter’s return to consciousness I absolutely LOVE how after sucking in a few puffs of necessary air, his first, almost immediate, thought is Omega. He doesn’t even notice his blaster is missing (which we see later on when Omega returns it to him), his instant reaction is to call her name and start tracking her. And his worried expression as the realisation that she’s gone after the dragon dawns on him :( this man cares SO much.

THEIR. REUNION. IS. EVERYTHING. As her little head pops up out of the nests opening , he immediately scoops her up, crouches down to her level, pats her shoulders, rubs her triceps, and the first thing he says to her is “are you okay?” None of this angry shouting from the previous episode, no reprimanding for running off or disobeying orders, instead he makes sure she’s unharmed, and he’s so caring about it. This is character development at its finest. After assuring that she isn’t injured he, very tenderly, asks what she was thinking, insisting he was extremely worried about her. I’d also like to note Omega’s reaction to this, she doesn’t shy away from Hunter like she does in the second episode of the season, instead she excitedly explains that she completed their mission, even going far enough to say that she “tracked the dragon, like you did.” Further complimenting their close and confident bond with one another, she truly looks up to him. The realisation on his face that although small and somewhat dependable, she is no liability and can support herself and the others if needs be. The look is so…parental.

Upon their return to the ship, I love the way Hunter automatically lifts his arm to allow her little blonde head to rush past him and make way for a seat in the cockpit. Kiddo knows the rules, strap in before we take off, Hunter doesn’t even have to tell her.😇

I absolutely adore Hunter’s curious smirk as Wrecker leads Omega to her surprise, alongside the fact he is the first to follow them to see whatever their injured batch member has planned for the little one. I’d also like to note that he actually stares at Omega as they approach the gunners nest, only briefly breaking to take a look at Wrecker, but primarily his sight falls to her.

Her face…when she discovers her room, his face when he watches her jump up and giggle as she turns to thank Wrecker, these two absolutely melt my heart, I swear. He’s admiring her happiness, that splash of childlike innocence he and the batchers never got to have, exactly what he’s seen Cut give to his children, what he wants to give to her. It’s absolutely beautiful.

“I’ve never had my own room before.” Hunter’s split moment of realisation here, before he steps forwards and reassures her that she is “a part of their squad” their family, it’s just so charming to his character and role as her custodian. Omega’s equally gentle smile as she looks back to him, head resting against Lula’s ears shows her clear sense of peace in her new environment. I also think it’s absolutely adorable that while the other batchers share glances between themselves to silently thank Wrecker for his sweet act of kindness, Hunter only partakes for a moment, before he continues to watch Omega settle in, her head now falling against the wall, staring out into the inky black of space, with the new addition of her comforting fairy lights, which I’d like to specify are a warm yellow, in comparison to the bright white of the Kaminoan facilities. This contrast provides a nice device between Omega’s new comfort with her family on the marauder, and her cruel upbringing on Kamino. She is happier here, and Hunter and the others will do whatever they can to ensure she is always happy with them, as we can see from his consistent looks of admiration for her.

I hope you liked my analysis of Hunter and Omega’s relationship in episode three of The Bad Batch! Of course, I’d love to discuss these two with anybody who might be interested, so please feel free to drop me an ask or a DM, and if you’re captivated enough I’d totally recommend looking out for my future posts on the topic!

As always, much love to our ‘Megs and Hunter, thank you for reading! 💛

Part One: Aftermath

Part Two: Cut and Run

#star wars #the bad batch #tbb #star wars animated series #star wars tv show #the clone wars #clone troopers #clone force 99 #bad batch #father daughter space duo #hunter and omega’s relationship #omega and hunter #hunter dad supremacy #omega tbb #hunter tbb #echo tbb #crosshair tbb #tech tbb #wrecker tbb #arc trooper echo #sergeant hunter #clones #Kamino #parental relationships #omega bad batch #Hunter bad batch #Crosshair bad batch

[ruiniel]

Fandom: Castlevania Series (2017-2021)

Rating: Mature

Relationships: Alucard/Trevor Belmont/Sypha Belnades

Characters: Alucard, Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades (for now)

Additional Tags: Post-Castlevania (Cartoon) Season 2, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Trephacard, Grief/Mourning, Mental Anguish, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, Other Tags to Be Added

V.

“Hold on to me, Belmont, not my shirt.”

Trevor does, or tries, grunting with his arm slung around Alucard’s neck as he stands to his wobbling feet. He can’t even feel irked by Alucard’s tone, eager to be moving and, if he’s being honest, too grateful to complain. “I really could try this on my own, you know,” Trevor says anyway, receiving no reply.

Alucard’s support never falters, his arm steady around Trevor’s ribs. “I appreciate the care for my time,” he says as they take a few steps together, “but I do have an inordinate supply of it.”

Well, he’s right about that. Again, Trevor lets it slide. Maybe he’s getting soft here, or maybe he’s become more used to Alucard’s cold-shoulder retorts. He’s warm against Trevor’s side, and the hunter is absolutely not focused on that more than the important task of putting one foot in front of the other.

This is not awkward.

He recalls Alucard’s words to Sypha, to them, the honesty in his voice with the admission that he wanted them here and despite Trevor’s own previous misgivings, those moments stayed with the hunter ever since and now live free in his head to mull over.

This is not awkward.

They pass through a tall entrance to an adjoined chamber, and from there onto a long terrace overlooking the wooded pathlands. It is here Alucard eases the hunter down on a padded, upholstered bench, set in the shade and heaped with cushions.

Trevor squints, uses his hand as a shield until his eyes stop hurting from the sudden change. He blinks as the wilderness appears in tints of green and fading blue the farther it spreads, climbing up the knees of solemn mountains rising jagged in the distance. Getting some fresh air was the goal here, and the hunter takes full breaths of it.

Alucard busies himself with some bottles and flasks, then sits beside Trevor on the bench. It’s quiet up here, comes the thought, but not as silent as the stifling four walls of a chamber, and days passed since Trevor was reacquainted with lucidity — a state he’s apparently taken shamelessly for granted before the onset of his illness. It’s strange to him to be left so weakened as to need help in this manner, stranger still to actually receive it; something Trevor remembers happening but once before in his life, a kindness he clung to through the latter years when his defaced hope in humanity was finally about to give. “Thanks,” he says, shaking off the memory, because not everything must be ghosts and regret.

Alucard looks his way, an eyebrow raised; waiting patiently.

“For this,” Trevor sighs, pointing at himself. “For helping me heal.” He rubs the back of his head, furrows his brows.

Alucard picks a tome with a dusted blue cover from a sheltered table in the corner. He looks down at the damn thing, and there is that fucking sadness again; it's on his face, in the way he moves, in everything he does.

This is awkward.

But he’s Trevor fucking Belmont, afraid of no man or beast et cetera, et cetera, and if he was unhinged enough to punch Dracula in the face he won’t quail before talking about his feelings to his son.

“Neither Sypha nor I could have done any different,” Alucard says, meeting his eyes and he’s… he’s smiling. Brief and pale, but it’s there, like it was those first moments of clarity when Alucard was leaning over him, looking like something priceless had just dropped in his lap. A silly comparison, maybe, but Trevor’s never been a poet, and it’s Alucard’s expression he still sees in those states between wakefulness and sleep.

“Still,” Trevor looks back ahead, sliding lower against the bench, “I’m not dead, probably would be if it weren’t for you, again, and… and, yeah.” He sighs, “What I’m trying to say is,” he throws Alucard a brief glance to see him staring at his feet, elbows propped on his knees, “I’ve lived on lucky chances for the latter half of my life. I’m surprised I’m still alive, to be frank.”

“Agreed.”

“Shut up and let me say this. I was used to being treated like shit by people, and after a while, it’s easy to become what everyone makes of you.” He feels Alucard's gaze on him, finds it easier to stare at the clouds smeared like white pastry across the sky. “From the beginning — ever since your weird entrance into our lives you both always treated me like I’m worth something, and that’s… I’m thankful for that. Yeah? Wanted to get this out of the way. Wanted you to know.” He falls silent, observing two eagles as they circle each other in strong, graceful sweeps against a backdrop of blue.

Alucard rests with his head on the backrest, hands clasped together over his chest, finally looking like he’s got no stake up his arse. But he understands, he must. After all, his own life did a complete flip, making way for… for whatever this is. Maybe Alucard isn’t sure either. But he no longer avoids their company for most of the time, no longer slinks away at night to hunt until he returns bloody and worn. Instead, he stood by Trevor and Sypha since that morning, kept feeding Trevor that horrible tasting medicine and if he left, many times they would wake late into the night and find him there, either reading or dozing in an armchair close to the bed.

And that, too, is what Trevor is grateful for — all of them taking a direly needed breath together. No heavy topics. No talk of sieges. No questions apart from practical matters of the present. He rubs at his chest where it still hurts to breathe and a persistent fatigue renders him incapable of doing much, for most of the time, but the air is clean, they’re not running for their lives, and Alucard is here.

“So, we’re staying for a while,” Trevor speaks gruffly against his own fear. For how long? They haven’t discussed that, either. And how much does it really matter now, anyway? “You’ll need a lot of help with this place, by the looks of it.”

Alucard reaches for the water pitcher, pours and offers out a glass. His hand is pale and bony beneath the brush of Trevor’s fingers, his eyes sunken in, and he still looks like something heavy and nasty constantly drags him down by the shoulders. Trevor makes an effort and doesn’t comment. Nobody likes having their pain called out at every turn; they know it’s there, after all.

“First, regain your strength. Then we’ll see to the rest.”

Trevor can't argue with that, and a few steps forward are usually better than none.

Above them, the eagles cry.

~

“There is… so much more preserved food here than I thought!” comes Sypha’s voice, a little muffled, from the other side of the door leading to the pantries from the kitchen.

“All right.” Trevor looks back at the list of quantities he’s been writing, seated at the long kitchen table. He feels better with each passing day, and now can even help with some tasks without running out of breath in the first thirty minutes. Still, he wouldn’t mind it if things sped up a little, either.

“Oh! And there’s a room here for cold storage!” Sypha dutifully notifies him.

“So, what am I adding here?”

“At least another twenty pieces of dried meat,” comes Alucard’s voice, “and another ten sacks of flour.”

“Christ,” mutters Trevor, “was he feeding an army in there?”

Alucard’s tall figure slips through the door, with a look on his face that says ‘have you lived under a rock’ and with his dark coat flecked with flour at the lapels and chest. There’s some in his hair, too, and Trevor bites the inside of his cheek because it’s a shit move to tease someone who looks like they might drop dead at any moment, but he also has a hard time associating the sight with the memory of Alucard’s edgy, dramatic appearance in that Keep under Greșit.

Different sides to everyone, aren’t there. He wonders idly what else there is to discover about each of them, and how well or poorly they will handle it. Together, together for now.

Alucard glides over and peeks down at the list over Trevor’s shoulder. “Goodness, your handwriting is atrocious. I can barely discern parts of this.”

“Next time you do it,” mutters Trevor, but he leans back in his chair, glad for the proximity because he is that kind of fool. “My foremost skills, as you know, lie in other areas.”

Alucard tuts — another thing that throws Trevor off balance. “This is a long list,” he states as Sypha emerges from the pantries, arms full of bags with spices.

“Where on earth did you get cinnamon? It’s so difficult to find, and—”

“We traveled the world quite a bit with the castle,” Alucard answers, eyes still on the list as Sypha sniffs at one bag, a brief, elated smile on her face. “I think between all of this and whatever foraging we’ll need to do, we should be fine for a while.”

“Good, that’s settled,” Trevor adds as Sypha reaches them, leaning over Trevor’s other shoulder to glance at the notes. She smells of mint and sage, and that odd spicy-sweet scent of that cin-uh-mun that has her so pleased.

“Trevor, is this a P or an R?”

“Ugh, you know what…”

Sypha giggles — how he missed it — and sets a placating hand on his shoulder. Having them both at his back in a situation that doesn’t boil down to live-or-die dwindles the hunter’s annoyance to nothing. He thinks of how siloed they were, each struggling with their own thoughts and feelings only a week ago. It’s not a sudden change but a subtle one, and it’s enough to matter, for now.

A breath together, indeed.

~

Trevor scratches his head as the three of them stand before the once-entrance-now-gaping hole leading to the Hold. It’s the first time they’re returning to assess the damage and get an idea of what can be done in the short term to protect the knowledge and artifacts in the Vault. Sypha knows quite a few warding spells to help in that direction, but the fighting left the place in shambles and thus in need of their attention, not to mention proper isolation from humidity and other environmental wear.

“Hm,” Trevor points at the remains of staircases hanging off the walls, “We can’t go down there the usual way, that’s one. Sypha, could you make up some… ice stairs, or something?”

“That won’t be necessary,” says Alucard, turning to look at both of them. He extends a hand which Sypha takes without hesitation, realizing what he’s offering.

Trevor blinks. “No way. I am not being carried down like some—”

He doesn’t get to finish as Alucard takes a plunge with Sypha held securely to him, and Trevor hears a brief sigh, sees her robes fluttering like the wings of a great blue bird before she and Alucard land gracefully in front of the door to the Vault. He looks back up at Trevor, and it’s too far for the hunter to make out his expression, but hell, he reckons this wouldn’t be the first time Alucard had to haul him around like a sack of onions, anyway. He’s also decidedly not fond of falling from great heights no matter the support, but they don’t need to know that. Trevor sighs and makes a gesture that concedes defeat, calling Alucard back up.

~

“Sypha, a little light please.”

“Since you asked so nicely,” Sypha rubs her palms together, then spreads her arms out wide. The lamps of the vault come alive, revealing levels upon levels of shelves and chasing away the shadows in the immense hall.

Everything is as they left it, including the damage incurred by Trevor fighting the intruding creatures. Sypha makes her way towards a lectern, followed by Alucard.

“I’ll do a quick round,” Trevor tells them, a hand on the whip curled neatly at his belt as he disappears among the rows of ancient furniture.

“Look at that!” Sypha points at the giant skeleton of a creature hanging in chains from the ceiling. “Have you ever seen anything like it?” she asks Alucard, who’s regarding the bones in silence; the enormous jaws, the huge teeth like spikes — the stuff of nightmares.

“I doubt it’s the supernatural, in this case. To me, it looks like one of many creatures which apparently walked the Earth eons before humankind took over.” He looks back at the large, dusty book Sypha’s opened. “This place may have an index but it’s…” he turns to a shelf, retrieving a wooden object made of pipes of various lengths and frowning as he stares at it, “... nonetheless a mess.”

“You’ve already so helpfully pointed that out before, thank you very much,” they hear Trevor’s voice from far away.

“That looks like a pan flute,” comes Sypha’s observation, and Alucard lifts the object he’s holding for a closer inspection.

“A nai, to be more exact,” adds Trevor, emerging from a row of shelves and nearing them.

He takes the pan flute from Alucard, thoughtfully running his fingers over the wooden tubes of varying diameters. They’re fit in a curved array, arranged by order of length from right to left. “You’d hear these at special occasions, during celebrations or on bonfire nights, what have you. The pitch of each pipe is adjusted with beeswax.” He turns the instrument over in his hands, speaking as though he’s reciting a forgotten lesson.

“I’ve heard it played before. It sounds beautiful, haunting even, if the musician is skilled enough for it,” Sypha tells Alucard. “Not something one would find in a collection of monster hunting resources, though. Unless… ” She seeks Trevor’s gaze, “you know how to play this, Trevor?”

Trevor inspects the nai, blows some dust off the polished wood. He shrugs. “I used to. We all learned something or other to pass the time between studies and training,” he says, then tucks the thing inside a pack he brought down, avoiding her eyes.

Sypha smiles. “I see,” she murmurs, throwing Alucard an indulgent, knowing look as the hunter turns away.

“So, are we done here?” asks Trevor. “I think we know what we want to plan next. First, we need the ability to get down here without resorting to either of you, so…”

He freezes at the clang of objects falling from their place, striking the floors and sending loud, lonesome echoes through the cavernous enclosure. They all exchange looks of silent understanding, and Alucard’s already tensed, his claws halfway out. His eyes close as he listens. “Wait... it’s nothing, it’s—”

Trevor’s already walking towards the source of the sound, hand on his whip at the ready. “... just a cat,” the hunter says, mild disbelief on his face at the movement of something dark beneath one of the stacked shelves.

It’s fully grown from the looks of it, tail swishing and eyes gleaming. Its coat is black all over, and it looks rather shaggy, but from what Trevor can tell, the animal isn’t wounded. It’s also decidedly not shy or afraid as it languidly advances towards them.

Sypha’s snickering behind him. “Our intruder! My, what a shiny coat you have there!”

The cat mews, and Alucard watches it padding closer, inspecting them with intelligent eyes. “Considering the superstitions alive and well in the area, I doubt finding a household was an option for him.”

“How can you already know it’s a ‘he’?” asks Trevor, but Alucard’s right, which is weird. Maybe to do with his shapeshifting-creature-sensing abilities or whatnot. He really should read up more on dhampir, or there's a thought, actually speak to Alucard about it, maybe. Either way, his own curiosity can wait now.

“We can safely assume there’s no shortage of nourishment for him here,” Alucard glances at the vastness of the Vault.

“Do we… leave him down here?” asks Sypha, picking up a few tomes that caught her interest in the meantime.

“Well, you can’t really force a cat to do anything, so, I don’t know,” Trevor drops down, balanced on the balls of his feet. “Hey, you. Want a ride out of here with the three big lugs?” he asks the cat over Sypha’s amused expression, and they all watch as the animal saunters over when Trevor rises to stand, fluidly wandering between his ankles, purring loudly with its tail curled upward.

“I think that’s a ‘yes’?” Alucard ventures as he picks up their pack and Sypha wraps an arm around his neck, preparing to rise back to the surface.

Trevor takes a leap of trust and lifts the cat up, who settles with zero fuss on his arm. Seems like a deal. He looks down at the stray animal, “A word of warning though: we might be more trouble than it’s worth.”

~~

Chapter VI

A/N:

This just in, Trevor talks about (some of) his feelings.

The Țepeș family went on many trips around the world with the castle [HC activated in this part].

Trio being catfinders is the result of the author's obsession with the ol’ Trevor Belmont vs cats HC. Trevor likes cats. Cats like Trevor. They look at him and they see catnip. I just think it's neat.

The nai is a traditional pan flute used in the region.

#ruiniel:fanfiction

[kittyprincessofcats]

I finished RWBY Volume 5!!

Loved it!! After volume 4 was (understandably) a bit slower-paced, I didn’t expect things to get intense and serious this quickly, but I’m glad they did! I have so many thoughts I wanted to write down, so here we go:

[There will be spoilers for RWBY up to Volume 5 in this post (duh). Please don’t leave spoilers for anything after Volume 5 on this post, otherwise I will block you.]

- I have to say, I definitely liked Cinder more when she wasn’t talking. During Volume 4, I kind of started feeling bad for her on some level, but then she got better and started being her old condescending, power-hungry self and I was like… nevermind, I hate you again.

- Qrow being super drunk when he first brings Oscar home was absolutely hilarious.

- Yang is SO COOL. Have I mentioned that she’s so cool? Like wow, I wish I was that cool! The bike, the new (amazing) outfit, the way she just punched that creepy guy and walked right up to her mom’s bandit camp making demands of her – she’s so cool and I’m here for it.

- Yang and Weiss’ reunion was so sweet! 😭 I was waiting for literally any of Team RWBY’s members to reunite and that got me right in the feels! (Also, I loved the whole “Wait, your mom kidnapped me?” “Wait, you kidnapped her?” exchange - brilliant 😂.)

- Ruby’s reunion with Yang and Weiss was so sweet, too! 😭 Tears were definitely shed over reunions in this volume! And it was so nice to finally have most of Team RWBY and what’s left of Team JNPR back together and see them bond and catch up with each other 😭. Found family back together! It’s what they deserve!

- Yang being so angry at Blake for leaving makes perfect sense, imo, especially considering her own abandonment issues. And even more so considering that she lost that arm while protecting Blake. Also, I don’t think it’s reading too much into it to say that Yang and Blake’s interactions and their storyline together have had romantic undertones since volume 2. (And no, I’m not just saying that because I ship Bumbleby; it’s the other way around – I ship Bumbleby because those romantic undertones were there in the first place.) So yeah, Yang always tried to help and support Blake, lost an arm protecting her from her abusive ex, and then Blake just left – I get why Yang’s hurt and angry. And that moment where she goes from complaining about how she just wants to be there for Blake, before finally admitting “What if I needed her there for me?” - that’s a really good moment for Yang, even beyond the romantic subtext. It’s nice to see Yang admit that she also wants someone else to be there for her, that she wants to receive that same love and care in return.

- I also want to point out that it’s nice to see how far Weiss has come since volume one. She really took a level in kindness and became a lot more mature, to the point where she’s now giving Yang relationship advice. It’s really nice to see.

- Ruby’s talk with Oscar about Penny and Pyrrha really got me teary eyed.

- I wasn’t that fond of Sun at first, but he had some really great moments in this volume, so he’s starting to grow on me now. I still don’t ship him with Blake, but their friendship is sweet.

- And now, let’s talk about THE standout character of the whole volume for me: ILIA!! Holy hell, I love everything about her! You know how some characters grow on you over time, and then there are those characters that you see one episode with and they just become instant favourites? That second one was Ilia for me. I watched Blake’s character short before Volume 5 and the moment I heard her backstory she jumped right to the top of my favourite character list without question AND I started shipping her and Blake right away. (Yes, I love Bumbleby and all, but I’m a multishipper. I’m perfectly capable of equally loving two ships that contradict each other.)

- It’s just – Ilia and Blake’s dynamic got me hooked! Not to compare everything to my OTP (Catra and Adora from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power), but let me quickly make this comparison: Two girls who grew up together, were both members of a certain evil organization until one of them left it and the other didn’t, now they’re on opposing sides and have to fight each other, but they still clearly care about each other. Plus, there are confirmed romantic feelings from at least one side there. I know many people (including myself) have compared Bumbleby to Catradora before – because you’ve got one blonde jock and one catgirl – but when it comes to the dynamic and the backstory, Blake and Ilia (what’s that ship called? Catmeleon, I think?) resemble Catradora even more. And it’s just the kind of dynamic I’m weak for.

(Honestly, it’s kind of funny how predictable I am both when it comes to favourite characters and favourite ships. My sister, who got me into both She-Ra and RWBY, took one look at Catra years ago and immediately predicted that I would love her. And when she first saw Ilia, she also immediately knew she’d be one of my favourites. Basically, my sister once described my “type” of favourite characters as “troubled, cute and gay” and that pretty much sums it up.)

- Speaking of troubled, cute, and gay: I’m glad RWBY finally has some CANON LGBT representation! Hell yes for that! Honestly, I interpreted Ilia’s feelings for Blake as romantic right away, but I wondered if it was just bait or my usual tendency to see romantic undertones in any interaction between two girls. But then that “I wanted you to look at me that way” line happened and… WOW. Yes. Amazing, talented, brilliant, never been done before, showstopping, incredible. I’m 100% sold on both the ship and Ilia as a character.

(One more thing before I change topics: I try to keep these posts positive and not get into discourse too much (since I’ve heard there was (is?) a lot of discourse in the RWBY fandom – but I took just one look into the tag for Volume 5 and immediately saw people arguing that Ilia’s not good representation because she’s a villain. And I just want to quickly address why that’s nonsense, in my opinion (and before you ask, yes I am a lesbian myself): First of all, she’s not even a full-blown villain. She’s clearly shown as confused and misguided from the beginning. And her feelings for Blake are never portrayed as a negative thing. She also has a redemption literally two episodes after being revealed to be queer. And in general, I don’t think queer villains are necessarily a bad thing and I’m tired of queer characters not being allowed to be flawed. How come straight characters get to just exist, but any queer character better be a shining beacon of morality or else they’re bad representation? I agree that RWBY should introduce more queer characters to balance things out a bit, but I wouldn’t say Ilia was bad representation by herself, since she’s a character I think we’re meant to have sympathy for.

- Now I just hope that future volumes of RWBY don’t pull a Bury Your Gays and kill Ilia off... I’d really hate that. (No spoilers on this post, please!)

- The entire fight at the Belladonnas’ house had me so on edge the whole time. I thought someone (most likely one or both of Blake’s parents) was going to die any second. Basically, the ending of volume 3 burned me and now I constantly expect characters to die. I’m glad it all (mostly) turned out well!

- Blake’s speech to the Faunus might have made me a bit emotional. That was a really great moment for her.

- And then there were those final episodes… WOW. Like I said, I really didn’t expect everything to go down so quickly (or for the ending to be that happy – like I said, volume 3 burned me.)

- Jaune unlocking his semblance was nice! And I’m proud of myself for having correctly predicted that he’d have some sort of healing powers. (I was waiting for him to unlock some healing semblance back when Qrow got injured in Volume 4 – I’m glad it finally happened!)

- I was worried about Weiss for a second, then I realized there’s no way she can die since I’ve already seen pictures of her outfit in later volumes. (Plus, I’m pretty sure if a main character had died, I’d have been unable to completely avoid spoilers about it. So those 4 are pretty much the only ones I’m not that worried about.)

- Raven is a really cool and interesting character, but an awful person. (I got so angry at her when she blasted Ruby after Ruby was just so nice to her*. How dare you, lady?) I love her design, though!

[*EDIT: I just rewatched it and realized that it was Cinder who blasted Ruby, Raven just created the portal. Point still stands, tough.]

- The plot twist of who the Spring Maiden really is was EPIC. Really loved that reveal! (And I honestly didn’t see it coming.) Though I have to say, I feel really bad for Vernal, and for the previous Spring Maiden.

- The Cinder VS Raven fight was absolutely epic and just stunning to watch visually. I was wondering if we’d ever get a maiden vs maiden battle, and that scene more than delivered! And while I don’t particularly like either of them, I was definitely rooting for Raven in that fight.

- I’m not sure if Cinder really died there. If so, I’m honestly not too sad about it, but I would be disappointed because I kind of expected her to become a more interesting character later on. After Volume 4, I expected at least a bit of growth there or something that would make her more interesting. And I’m not talking about a redemption, just to be clear! I just think the potential to make her more interesting as a villain was there, and if they just killed her off it’s kind of wasted now and she stayed a very flat character until the end. But I guess we’ll see.

- Raven and Yang’s confrontation was pretty intense. I liked that Raven finally had to admit that she’s afraid and doing all of this just to protect herself, and the contrast to Yang, who is also scared but still does what she thinks is right. And the fact that Raven was willing to let Yang have the relic despite the danger that would put her in – mom of the year indeed 🙄.

- Blake and the other Faunus are the real MVPs of the battle, tbh. The fact that they just completely stopped Adam and the White Fang by sheer numbers and didn’t even give them the chance to attack anyone? God tier stuff. And when Blake’s mom came in with the police? 10/10, we stan.

- Also, Blake telling Adam she’s not there for him? Hell yes, girl! I love how she’s taking power away from her abuser by showing she isn’t doing any of this for him. Really nice.

- Yang and Blake’s reunion in the last episode was super nice. I like how there was so much attention on that reunion in particular. And while I’m glad Yang wasn’t too angry at Blake and it makes for a nice happy ending, I still hope there’s a scene next volume where Blake properly apologizes to Yang for leaving and explains her side of things. And then, they should get together and live happily ever after and have lots of kittens. I mean, what?

- And finally, all of Team RWBY is back together! And they’ll have a lot to catch each other up on. Blake doesn’t even know about the maidens, the relics and Salem yet, while the rest didn’t even know about the White Fang attack. Also, I want Blake to introduce the others to Ilia and to her parents.

I really loved this volume. Lots of action, lots of really sweet moments, lots of epic fights and cool plot twists. I find it hard to rank them, but this might have been my favourite volume yet (volume 3 was also really good, though).

#RWBY #RWBY v5 #RWBY Volume 5 #RWBY vol 5 #Ilia Amitola #Yang Xiao Long #Blake Belladonna #Weiss Schnee #Ruby Rose #Catmeleon #Bumbleby #Cinder Fall #Qrow Branwen #Raven Branwen #Oscar Pine #Sun Wokung #Jaune Arc #Vernal #RWBY v5 spoilers #long post #wow this really got long #I started rambling about my new favourite chameleon girl and just couldn't stop

[chicoriii]

Miraculous World: Shanghai, the Legend of Lady Dragon

Again my random, not well-arranged thoughts about a new Miraculous TV movie. I'm surprised that my posts like these are getting some likes, mostly from people who even don't follow me (by the way, I wonder how you find them if they are reblogged by no more than two persons, through tags like "miraculous ladybug" or what?). I very thank you all for reading them. I'm not a good at analysis like many others, so every single person who likes read about my opinions and thoughts makes me really happy.

Personally I have never been overly excited about the specials in general, I'm more interested in the main show, how its plot is going to progress, besides I'm not a big fan of the New York TV movie, so I feel really astonished by the Shangai one. I really, really love it, more than any of already released S4 episodes (well, no wonder if I found both Furious Fu and Truth rather mediocre) and very well-received by the fandom NY special. I guess my opinion is not popular one, as I know some people have been generally negative biased towards it for some reason.

To begin with, I'm gonna explain why I don't see New York special being an amazing episode of Miraculous. I generally liked it but it, but I have some issues with it. One of them is pacing, the first part in Paris and on the plane is too long in comparison to actual action in New York (so it feels so rushed) and it's too much focused on shipping content (and remember I'm a big Adrienette fan), so American superheroes haven't gotten enough screentime. Every character other than Aeon and Jess were portrayed very shallow. Of course I don't think that every character should have been deep, but Olympia and Barbara were just disappointing. I have expected more from women who are Majestia and Knight Owl. But my the biggest problem is how much overly dramatic it is, to the point in which it's just tiring. I especially dislike the scene in which Marinette is chasing Adrien and screams she loves him after the falling off a bike, it feels like taken from very corny romance.

Shanghai was different, much more enjoyable to me. It has better pacing, no over-the-top melodrama, fewer but more interesting characters, more exciting plot. I even like the music more, because I really enjoy oriental sound.

I've seen people complaining about Marinette chasing Adrien instead of just wanting to spend time with her uncle on his birthday and learning more about her roots, that it's "bad writing". It's not new that Marinette is crazy about Adrien and it's not uncommon that people are not interested in learning language and culture of one (or even both) of their parents if they live in a completely different country the whole life. I actually liked that Tom and Sabine haven't been forcing her to that and they have been waiting for the moment in which Marinette would be ready. It also shows how good and understanding her parents are. Of course her motivation to go to Shanghai was bad and shallow, but she was punished for it by getting lost and robbed in a big Chinese city without chance to speak to people. And I find it funny that her future husband wants to learn her Chinese despite of not having Chinese roots (but maybe he has, who knows?).

I never would have thought that I would like Wang Cheng as much as I liked him the special. Especially his scenes with Adrien. I should not have been that much attached to fictional character, but seeing how happy my boy was during his time in Cheng's restaurant melted my heart. I don't remember him laughing out loud that often before (I know only about the umbrella scene). He really fits to the Dupain-Cheng family. It's sad when you think about terrible parenting of Gabriel, but his future with Marinette is going to make him happy, also because of her lovable family. I miss Adrien so much, because we have barely seen him in only one of two released S4 episodes till now, so I really treasured those moments with him we've gotten in this special.

I also loved Bastille, the adorable grey parrot (I'm not sure, but Miraculous Wiki agrees with me) and I want to draw him as well. He reminds me character designs in Dreamworks animations. That's funny than he immediately noticed that Adrien loves Marinette.

I need to say that I love Fei so much. I'm happy that she's the main character of the special (along with Marinette, I think both girl got more or less the same screentime), it made me really care about her, unlike the New York characters. I liked some of them like Jess, but not that much to make me want to see them again so badly. Fei is a cool, but still a flawed character, her story is both sad and thrilling. We've seen her good and bad sides and I think she's well-balanced. I see her a very good protagonist material for a series. Besides, I love her design as well and I'm gonna draw her one day.

Renren and Renlings concept is also interesting and fresh, I like all magical creatures in Miraculous so they are not exceptions.

But my favourite creature design is Mei Shi in his Kwami-like form. I really, really need to draw this thing.

I want to write something about the merchant of pawnshop, because I find him interesting character as well.The bad guy from the New York special was bland as hell, but Cash was really intimidating. The man obsessed with money, but very intelligent and smart. I also like his style of speaking,  I think he was more dangerous as a normal human than as an akuma villain.

I've noticed that Tikki has some sort of pinkish vision, so I wonder if Plagg sees in green. ;)

I also enjoyed the atmosphere in this. Shanghai looks beautiful and the oriental music adds more soul to it. I'm surprised how serious and brutal it was for a kid's show in few moments . I would never have expected that they would show three adults who are chasing two teens with a stick (civilian, not superheroes, there's a difference). We haven't seen of them hitting any of the girls or boys, but still. It has some dramatic moments, but they are better balanced and more subtle than in the New York special.

I'm sure I forget about something I wanted to write about, like always, but I can't see it in that moment, so I'm keeping it the way it is. This post is already way too long. ;)

#miraculous ladybug #ml shanghai special #ml spoilers #ml spoiler #chicoriii #original post