#what? me? getting carried away with another toxic ship of ours?

[millenialfanfictionaddiction]

🏅Being Team Japan's Manager 🏅

💔Relationship Troubles with Bokuto 💗

Bokuto Kōtarō featuring Team Japan x Female Manager

Warnings: Swearing, Bokuto being a complete jerk, petname, angst to fluff, suggestive at the end 🙃

AN: Its a very Bokuto centered day 🥰This is an Anon request! I may have gotten a tiny bit carried away with this one. I also cried alot 🥲 I'm emotional when it comes to our boys 🥺 I'm really proud of this one ❤

🌠 Please Like, Reblog and/or Share to help support my writing 🌠

Oof this one is going to make me cry 😢

I already know it

And the fact that it's with our resident himbo 🥺

But it must be done and who else to deliver but yours truly 🤗

Your relationship with Bokuto has been going on for about 6 months now

You started out of friends when you joined Team Japan as their resident hotty 🔥 and manager 💅🏼

Honestly, Team Japan adores you YN

You lucky bitch 😒

But there was always something special about Bokuto

Pls he's such a bubbly Boi I just can't even 😫

Bokuto took an instant liking to you and you to him

Did he annoy you? Absolutely 💯

Did you find him attractive as all hell? Abso-FREAKING-lutely 🙌🏻

Bokuto is like what? 6'3" timeskip 👀

Lawd girl of you don't I will

N E WAYS, you two grew extremely close

Daily practices and nightly walks home

Consistent "HEY HEY HEY YN WATCH THIS!"

Giant Bear hugs and headpats

You would grab coffee or ever dinner sometimes

Of course, the other three idiots guys would accompany you occasionally as well

When Bokuto finally asked you out, it was very Bokuto-style

Super spontaneous and loud

Lile he literally walked you to your apartment door, was about to leave, turned around and shouted

"YN WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?"- Bokuto, zero chill

"Ko- we just went out..."- You, extremely confused

"No I mean, like a date"- Bokuto 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

YN of you take longer than a single second to answer this imma come there and smack you 🤚🏻

Someone summon Iwaizumi for me- 🏐

"Of course I will Kotaro"- You 🥺🤗

Good girl Yn ☺️

Please Bokuto is so excited he will pick you up and spin you around 🥰

God I love that for you 😐

Me, a jealous bish

Thus begins the ship know as BokuYN

The next few months go by quickly

Your relationship is tugging along and everything is going well

Unfortunately, the storm clouds are moving in YN 😔⛈️

And all good things can't last

It starts out small, everyone is so stressed with the Olympics coming up

Bokuto especially

Imagine all the pressure to be perfect and score points 😪 that has got to be so rough

Bokuto starts staying late for practice and heading home with you less frequently

You start eating dinner alone and he starts coming home later and later ☹️

One morning, you wake up and Bokuto isn't next to you

You try calling him but nothing

You show up to the gym and find him there with Kageyama, Atsumu and Hinata

You are confused as to what is going on 🤨

Like rightfully so

I mean what did they just sleep on the bleachers the night before?

I wouldn't put it past them honestly 😒

You approach them and ask what's going on

Atsumu is setting for Bokuto and he narrowly misses a line shot

"God dammit! Send up another one"- Bokuto, furious and sweating 😓

"Hey guys- have you been practicing all night?"- you, curious

"Nah we quit at 9 last night"- Kageyama getting a drink of water

Ok now your really confused 🤚🏻

You look at Bokuto who is setting up for another spike

"Ko you didn't come home last night"- you

He ignores you, spiking the ball

Ok then- 😐

Let's try this again shall we 🙃

"Kotaro did you hear me?"- you, now standing with your hands on your hips

Ope- someone's in trouble 😶

Atsumu, Hinata and Kags are now looking from you to Bokuto 👀

"I stayed with Hinata last night"- Bokuto, walking away from you, going to his phone and scrolling

Clearly his phone is working 😑

That's suspicious 🤨 that's weird

"And why would you do that?"- you, obviously upset

"Because I felt like it"- Bokuto

Not to be toxic here but that's not an answer dude 😒

"Ok but why- I texted you and you never got back to me. And it's clear your phone is fine since your looking at it right now"- YN, hands now in the air, just ready to go

"Maybe I just needed some fucking space YN"- Bokuto

Please now Aran, Yaku, Komori, Sakusa, Habuka,Ushijima,Hyakuzawa, amd Iwaizumi are all on the gym 🤚🏻

Silently observing 👀

"Are you serious right now? What did I do Ko?"- you, walking towards him

"YN I just need some fucking space! You're around me constantly and I can't fucking concentrate on these damn Olympics with you breathing down my neck all the time! Like all you ever do is talk talk talk and I'm so fucking sick of it! Just fucking leave me alone! If you did anything for this team besides stand around, maybe you'd understand my stress! But you always have to come first YN and Im fucking DONE!"- Bokuto, finally snapping

Oh he's pissed

Like fuming at you 😡😤

It's honestly so embarrassing he would say such things in front of everyone

You face heats and your fists tighten-

You don't even know what to do, so-

You just look up at him, tears filling your eyes

Ok everyone just breath ok

I mean, I'm crying 🥺

You know that feeling when your stomach just drops and you feel almost sick

That's what's happening now

The tears are welling up and it's about to happen

There is no stopping that crying YN and you shouldn't!

Bokuto essentially took your heart, threw it on the ground and stomped all over it

Nah he rolled over it with a steam roller and fed it through a wood chipper 😬

He broke you 😔

No matter how you try, a brave face isn't coming

So you do what you must

"Fine Bokuto. You don't want me bothering you anymore. Than consider me gone"- You, turning to walk out of the gym, tears flowing, past the other members of the team

Everyone is stunned 😲 and honestly same

Nobody expected this of Bokuto, like he's literally the last one I'd expect to do this

But the pressure was mounting and unfortunately YN, you were the catalyst

The gym is silent as Bokuto sets his water down, turning to face Atsumu

"Toss another one"- Bokuto, getting into place

Please these guys are PISSED and so confused 😕

"What the fuck was that-" Atsumu, the first to speak

As much as I bully this man, istg he's loyal as fuck

And while he loves Bokuto like a brother, he also loves you

"Bokuto that was so harsh man"- Habuka

"It needed to be said. She's been so clingy and needy. The Olympics are coming up and I need to practice"- Bokuto, starting to realize that he's the total ass in this situation but still holding face

He's a man 🙄😒

"You're an dumbass Bokuto"- Iwaizumi, turning to go and find you

"Bokuto sit down. You're done for today"- Aran

"The fuck I am-"

"The fuck you are because I said so"- Aran

Please Aran can be so fucking scary 😨

Bokuto will get right in his face

"Hey cool it you two!"- Hyakuzawa

"Bokuto- chill man"- Kageyama pulling him back

Hoshiumi finally comes in the gym

"Hey what's wrong with YN. I saw her leaving and she was crying"- Hoshiumi

It's all starting to sink in now-

"FUCK-" Bokuto, throwing his waterbottle against the wall and storming out

Everyone is just exhausted and it's showing

"Should we go after him?"- Hyakuzawa, the mediator of the group

"I think we should call Akaashi- this is over our heads"- Aran, leaving to get his phone and make the call

Meanwhile, you are now sitting on a bench, full on ugly crying

Snot down the face, tears everywhere, can't catch your breath BAWLING

🤚🏻 say less YN your heartbroken and its ok to cry 💔

Please I'm crying writing this and it's fiction 😭

"Hey YN- are you ok?"- Iwaizumi, coming to sit next to you

"No- no Hajime I'm not ok"- you, sucking in breath and trying to calm down

Spoiler alert: it's not working

"I think I need to go home Haji"- you

"You do that YN. And hey, it will be ok... I promise. I'll talk to him"- Iwaizumi

"Hajime, you heard him. He doesn't want me so give me one good reason why I should stay?"- you, hugging yourself and crying

"YN he's under a lot of stress. He shouldn't have said those things. You know he cares about you"- Iwaizumi, trying to save this

"YN please just listen-" I was our freaking savior

"Hajime, if he cared he wouldn't have said those things. If he cared, he would have avoided my texts and calls. He embarrassed me in there. You don't do that to someone you care about"- you, making an excellent point

"I'll see you later Haji. Thanks for being here"

You try and force a smile as tears stream down your face

Upon arriving at your apartment, you do nothing but mope

You say nothing more as you turn and walk away

You cry the entire way home, trying to hide your face from those around you

Honestly YN as you should 💅🏼

I'm like so mad at Bokuto right now you have no idea 🤬 you crawl into bed, covering yourself up and cry like there's no tomorrow

Back at the gym, Bokuto is sitting in the locker room with a towel hanging over his head

That bitchy voice inside your head telling you that everything was a lie and you were never good enough for Bokuto

You eventually manage to cry yourself to sleep 😔

He knows he fucked up... like MAJORLY fucked up

The stress of the Olympics had been weighing on our poor owl bby and the fact that he just can't hit his line shots

Iwaizumi comes in and sits next to him

"I fucked up bad"- Bokuto

"Yeah you fucking did asshole"- Iwaizumi not even beating around the bush

"Shit"- Bokuto, throwing his towel against the locker

"You need to chill out Bokuto. Your stress isn't helping anything right now. You said some pretty mean stuff to YN and she's really hurt"- Iwaizumi

"Did she leave?"- Bokuto

"Yeah- she went home"- Iwaizumi

"Fuck I have to talk to her-" Bokuto standing, fists clenched

"Hold up there cowboy. Give her some space man. You broke her heart dude. It's not going to be an easy fix. Wait a day, let it rest"- Iwaizumi

As much as he hated to do it, Bokuto let it rest

He went to his apartment, one he spent very little time in nowadays and tried to relax 😔

The next day, he arrived early to try and catch you

Only, you weren't there 😞

"Where's YN?"- Bokuto to Hoshiumi

"She didn't come in today. She called and told Aran she's taking personal time"

"God dammit!"- Bokuto, just about to punch the wall

Thankfully Sakusa is there to stop him

"Bo a broken hand isn't going to help man. You need to chill"- Sakusa

"Come on man, let's practice and then we can talk"- Hinata

"How can I practice without YN? Knowing I fucked up the best thing I ever had"- Bokuto, now a deflated Owl

"Well it's good to finally see you admit how much you care for YN"- Akaashi, with Kuroo at his side

"What are you doing here?"- Bokuto, genuinely confused 🤨

"Aran called me and well Kuroo heard through the grapevine"- Akaashi

Please Kuroo knows all the gossip

These boys talk more than old ladies in church

"Dude what is wrong with you? This isn't like you"- Kuroo

"I've been so stressed and I can't hit my line shots. I've been practicing day and night and nothing feels right"- Bokuto, now hunched over on the bleachers, surrounded by the peanut gallery

"Have you thought thay maybe your practicing too much Bo?"- Kageyama

Seriously he's one to talk 🙄

"I mean, what has YN said about you staying late for practice?"- Akaashi

"I haven't been around much- I've just been so stressed. And I just dont know"- Bokuto

"Well Bokuto, you have to decide what you want to do. If you want to break up with YN, I think you owe her an explanation. She at least deserves that. But if you want to make up with her-" Akaashi

"I DO! I really do! I thought alot last night and YN's been the one consistent good thing in my life. I- I think I love her"- Bokuto

Pls bby you were a jerk but you are breaking my heart 💔😫

"Well then you need to talk to her"- Kuroo

Bokuto knew this and he was so ready

Unfortunately you weren't 🙁

A knock sounded as you drag yourself to the door

The peep hole reveals Bokuto, standing there, hair deflated

You open the door and cross your arms

That's right YN! We are a powerful women and we will show it ✊🏻

"Hey YN, can we talk?"- Bokuto

"That's what we are doing-"

"YN please I'm so sorry- I was a complete asshole and jerk! I know I royally fucked up and god, YN I'm so sorry"- Bokuto

Tears are forming in this man's eyes

But also in yours 😟

"Bokuto-" you

"Ko, you call me Ko"- Bokuto

"Listen, I need time. What you said really hurt me and I'm not ready talk to you let alone see you. I just don't know if I can do this-" please the tears are rolling down your face but you're voice remains strong

"YN- please, just please"- Bokuto, full on crying

"Good night Bokuto"- You, shutting the door and breaking down

Please Bokuto hears you and it KILLS him 😭

He did that to you and he hates himself

The next few days drag

You return to your manager job but you try and steer clear of Bokuto

Unfortunately the team doesn't get that memo 😒

Please they are trying everything possible to get you to back together

You are miserable, Bokuto is EXTRA miserable

"YN can you wrap Bokuto's fingers? I have to do Komori's and Yaku's"- Iwaizumi

"I can do it Iwa" - Kageyama

Please that went right over his head

Iwaizumi is just staring at him like 👁➖️👁

You don't even say anything, just grab the tape and walk to Bokuto

The man towers over you so he is looking down at you while you wrap his fingers

"How are you?"- Bokuto, genuinely concerned

"Fine"- you, trying to just hold it together long enough to wrap those long fingers 👀

"You've lost some weight-" Bokuto

"Yeah I haven't been hungry"- You, unfortunately your voice cracks and you have to bite your lip to keep it from quivering

"YN, baby-" Bokuto, lifting your face up by your chin and looking into your watering eyes

He hates seeing you like this and knowing he caused it 🤧

"Done"- you, looking up and smiling a little, tears filling your eyes before you turn and walk out of the gym

Bokuto watches you go

And so do the others 👀

Nosey bitches 🙄💅🏼

Also side note: screw Iwa for throwing you under the bus like that 🖕🏻 imma Iwa cannon a volleyball at Iwa 😤

It's safe to say practice has been a little... well tense to say the least

Bokuto is getting blocked, missing cross court shots and liners left and right

It hurts you even more to see the man you love hurting

Wait 🤚🏻 love?

Oh hell yeah you love him YN

Just admit it 🙃

But no matter how much you love him, it doesn't take away how he treated you the past few weeks

And how much his words that day hurt

You're at a crossroads Yn and it's not an easy choice

Luckily for you, you have supportive friends

Wait, did I say supportive? I mean Atsumu and Hinata 🤣

But also Aran, Ushijima and Iwaizumi

Ok ok ill stop 😅

They stop by your place unexpectedly with food

"You need to eat"- Atsumu, pushing past you

"Don't think we haven't noticed YN"- Iwaizumi, coming in behind Atsumu

"Wow it's nice to see you too"- you 😐

"Hi YN, how are you doing?"- Aran, giving you a big hug

Please he gives amazing hugs 🥺

"Could be better"- you, now hugging Ushijima and Hinata

"YN how long are you going to do this?"- Atsumu

Aran and Iwaizumi 👉🏻🤦‍♂️🤦

"I hate to admit it YN but Atsumu is right. It's obvious you two love each other"- Ushijima

"Yeah"- you, sinking into the couch

"YN we know what he said hurt and we aren't telling you to just forget about it"- Aran

"But Bokuto is miserable YN. He's not eating, he's spending all his days at the gym and I know he's not sleeping"- Iwaizumi

"YN we know you're just as miserable so why don't you stop this"- Ushijima

"Just talk to him YN"- Hinata

Maybe, just maybe they have a point

You sigh and resign yourself to the fact that as much as Bokuto's words hurt you

You know that the stress of the Olympics and his hard training have worn on him

The next morning, you arrive at 6 am to start work

You hear the sound of balls being spiked against the floor of the gym

You know that sound, the exact sound of a Bokuto serve

You approach the door and peer in, seeing Bokuto tossing up another serve

The ball slams over, hitting right on the end line

"That was a nice shot"- you, walking into the gym

Bokuto stops and looks straight at you, mouth agape

You're talking to him- like actually conversing with him

And you PRAISED HIM 😭😭😭

"Thanks, what are you doing here?"- Bokuto

You giggle a little

Bokuto's heart swells

"Did you forget I come in early to set up?"- you

"Haha yeah I guess- I've just been doing it since- well-" - Bokuto rubbing the back of his neck

"Want me to set for you?"- You, taking a chance

Bokuto's head shots up 😳

"Really?" Please YN he's so happy he's smiling 🙂

"Yeah"- you taking position as Bokuto tosses to you and you set

Perfect cross court shot 😚🤌🏻

"Nice kill Ko!!"- you smiling and looking back at him

Please he's melting YN 😭

"First one I've gotten in all week"- Bokuto, his head down, rubbing his arms

What 😳

"Ko..."

"I'm miserable YN. I'm so fucking miserable. I can't sleep, I can't eat. Every single practice, I miss tosses, get blocked or the ball is out. I- I can't do this"- Bokuto, looking at you as tears roll down his face

"Ko come here"- you, reaching out for him as he comes to your arms for a hug 🫂

Please that man will hug you and never want to let you go

You pull back as he rests his forehead against yours

🥺 please I'm such a sap God WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME

"YN I know I don't deserve you but I need you to know that you are the best thing to ever happen to me. I know I fucked up and God I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry baby. I love you so much and I can't do this without you"- Bokuto, tears flowing

"I love you too Ko"- You, smiling with tears in your eyes

"You- you do?"- Bokuto, now smiling like a freaking idiot 😃

"Yeah I really do"- You

Please 🤚🏻 say less

This man is picking you up and swinging you in the air

"Ko, Jesus Ko calm down"- you, laughing and smiling

"I can't! The most amazing, beautiful women in the world loves me"- Bokuto, finally setting you down

"Yeah I do my ace"- You

Please his lips are on yours before you can finish that sentence 🤚🏻 💋

"Jesus christ get a room will ya"- Atsumu, walking in as you and Bokuto turn around to see the entire team watching you 😳

"Oh my god that was so sweet 🥺"- Yaku about to cry

"Well I'm finally glad to see you guys have worked it out"- Iwaizumi

"Jesus YN way to bring it down to the wire, the Olympics is a month way"- Kageyama, ever the inspiration 🙄

"Aran are you crying?"- Hinata

"No- I just got some dust in my eyes from these volleyballs"- Aran, wiping his eyes and walking away

Sure 😏 "dust from the volleyballs"

"Ok enough of this, let's get to practice"- Aran

"Ummm actually- I uh, I need YN to help me with something"- Bokuto being suspicious 🤔 and dragging you to the door

"Ko, can't it wait until after practice!"- you, being dragged

"Absolutely not"- Bokuto

Please he's on a mission 😏

Iwaizumi just rolls his eyes 🙄

"Jesus christ just be safe ok? We don't need any little Bokuto babies running around"- Iwaizumi

"I make no promises"- Bokuto, pulling you out as you laugh and wave to the team

"Jesus that's got to be some record Emo mode"- Komori

"It lasted 8 days and Bokuto missed 436 spikes"- Atsumu, nonchalantly rattling of statistics

Komori, Yaku and Aran 👉🏻👁👄👁

"You kept track of that?"- Hakuba, honestly impressed

"I'm the setter, it's my job to make sure the players are ok"- Atsumu, shrugging

"Hey now- you aren't the official setter just yet 😑"- Kageyama

"It's only a matter of time"- Atsumu 😏

"😐 the fuck it is- " Kageyama following Atsumu and yelling

"God I wish YN was here"- Aran

"She's probably getting her back blown out as we speak"- Habuka

"Jesus christ 🤦‍♂️ alright get to work"- Iwaizumi, smiling

Side note: you were in fact, getting your back completely blown to pieces 😏

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[georgieluz]

getting a few things off my chest about Gen Kill. sorry im in your inbox. but i am. you can publish this ask or keep it in the DM, both are fine.

First, actually the hardest series to watch in all three shows for me. I'm ok with the level of violence in the other two (as well as other trigger-warning content) but the level of civilian casualty in GK just really fuck with me. I find it very hard to want to rewatch GK, even tho I do like the show a lot.

Second, Both TP and GK, for me, are the anti-thesis and deconstruction of BoB. In two different ways. TP talks about another theater and how fucked up these stories are and basically pushes the audience away. Don't look, it's not a story to share (vs BoB that invite you to take part and be with the characters). GK is the modern day glory-seeking meaningless chaotic and toxic reality of the US military (vs BoB's fighting for the right thing, our officers are smart and capable). And they're both meta answers to BoB's more propagandistic story.

Third, ok, let's get silly lol. I have to say whatever is going with Brad and Nate is fucking homo. "Not to be homo sir, but I can kiss you right now" um what. And the eyes contact. Bro. Bruh. That being said... I ship BradRay xD Their bantering old-married-couple dynamic is more my speed, than BradNate victorian yearning dynamic xD

hello, no worries, it's all good, my inbox is always open for thoughts, insights and opinions! this got pretty long so i'm gonna put it under a read more so it doesn't annoy anyone

i published this bc i ended up adding a lot of my own thoughts about it and didn't want it to seem like i was directing them specifically at you or your opinion bc i do go off track a lot.

it was the hardest series for me to get into as well at first, for a similar few reasons. first of all, it felt like i was being dropped into a locked room with men who would hate my guts, and not just have bullied me in high school, but detest my existence too. so i think that atmosphere of over the top toxic masculinity instantly made me uneasy, but that's the point. that's the whole reason the articles, book and show exists really. to show how that mindset and atmosphere laid the groundwork for what happened. i think if they were to have made a show where we as viewers are allowed to laugh along with their jokes, enjoy their interactions, but not be forced to confront the realities of both the invasion and the people taking part, then it would defeat the message and themes that the show is trying to present to us. i think the civilian death, and basically the way the military treated civilians in general, has to make you uncomfortable, otherwise it's not doing its job as a text or piece of media. at least from the writer's perspective and what they wanted to say about what happened there, bc ultimately, everything is a construct with biases and a goal. so i 100% agree with you in that it's easily the most uncomfortable show to casually watch in that regard, but if it didn't show all of that, it wouldn't be a show with a purpose, imo.

i would personally put the pacific a bit closer to band of brothers than gen kill when it comes to discussing its propagandism actually. bc whilst it has the caveat of "this is the reality and brutality of war, it's horrific, you don't want any part of it" and "it's not all camaraderie and brothers being bonded for life", the show still has its 'heroes' who are depicted as sacrificing either their lives or their mental wellbeing for 'the cause', and it still carries the message of "yes this is terrible but it's needed". two things that propagandist themes can thrive amongst. just reading some of the more bootlickery youtube comments about the pacific shows how some of those people cling onto the brutality and harshness of that theatre of war, and the show itself, as a display of heroic bravery and badge of honour. i've seen a few commenters on reaction videos and stuff and they're basically frothing at the mouth about how it's so much more brutal than band of brothers, and they aren't saying it from a critical perspective either, which is what the show may have intended, but more from a "omg brutal war porn nice!!" kinda way. i know i'm rambling off point from what you said, but it's just some of my thoughts. i'm probably gonna ramble a bit in the rest of the post so don't see it as me disagreeing with your points bc i think we have pretty much the same opinion in most ways, but i guess your ask has prompted a lot of thinking from me so i'm just getting some of my thoughts out about the shows.

i think for me, i would say the pacific is a stepping stone between band of brothers and generation kill. i do agree in that it is pushing the viewer away from the idea of war as noble, in favour of saying "no! it's dirty and cruel and harsh and you won't survive it, even if you're alive when it's over" but it's also presented in the same way as band of brothers in regards to how we're supposed to view these men. there's many competent and intelligent guys making decisions and the humanity of those men is always on display. they're still shown as heroes, even if they're broken ones. so i think i can't fully align it with gen kill as a direct opposition to the messaging in band of brothers, but more one that says "ok, we've seen it from that perspective, now let's open up the casket up a little more and try to understand it looking through another lens".

whereas for me, gen kill sets explosives in the casket and blows that shit to pieces. there are no noble heroes competently achieving great feats, or sacrificing their lives for 'the greater good'. the people who do die, or get wounded, are seen as wasted casualties and missions gone wrong, fuck ups that we see in the corner of exterior shots to remind us that it's not all singing avril lavigne in a humvee, that there are consequences, even for the invaders. we see the destruction they inflict on civilians constantly, but the marines that get wounded/die are essentially proof of the incompetencies and fuck ups that even the most militaristic audience has to admit to.

the line of morality is non-existent, apart from a few people that we meet, but they have no power whatsoever. they can't actually do anything even if they disagree with what's happening. they stand by and they watch. we get nate who hates it, very clearly, but his whole thing is that he literally can't do anything. he has no actual power or impact on anything there. i saw a meme on here a few days ago where it was like "i'm competent at my job but i'm starting to think i'm just decorative" and it's funny and just a silly meme but it's also kind of the truth. we see him make a few decisions that go over the head of the initial orders, etc, but in the big picture, they have so little effect that it's a drop in the ocean comparatively. so the little competency we do have is ineffective. and even the more authoritative roles within the narrative that we get to see, like ferrando, are shown as not just making bad decisions, but actually not having much control over matters themselves. they're all floundering from top to bottom. there's no basilone or winters or ack ack there to make us sigh with relief as viewers bc finally, someone will make things right, make the right choice, do the right thing. instead we have these very complex people who have a lot of messed up flaws and shit within them, but some realistic relatabilities too. and sure, a good few of them want to do better and will call out certain shit they see in different ways (doc bryan, nate, espera, brad) but ultimately, they're forced to not just watch and let it happen, but a lot of the time, take part and be culpable for those actions too.. and it's not depicted as a noble sacrifice of their morality, it positions them as helpless and incapable. so the viewer doesn't get their usual hbo war heroes, which to me, feels like a direct answer to both band of brothers and the pacific in that kind of way.

i feel like walt's character shows us that (on a surface level basis but still). he's presented to us as the more appealing contrast to trombley. they're both young and in brad's team, two sides of a coin you could say bc we're shown immediately that trombley is the problem child and walt is the pretty golden boy that spends his scenes telling brad to get some rest or trying to fix the dodgy equipment they've got, or essentially is just trying to be helpful. but they both fuck up bad and kill civilians as an individual. we don't get to keep our clean innocent pretty boy. he fucks up. bad. his hands aren't clean. none of theirs are. not nate's, not even doc bryan's. he says that himself. walt clearly feels terrible afterward and that's the difference between him and trombley (though i will say i do think trombley is much more complex than we see on the surface), but walt doesn't get to escape the blood on his hands. even the most seemingly "innocent" characters never get to remain that in this show. there are no heroes.

and then the second point i mentioned above about the message of "yes was is terrible but needed sometimes" is the other thing that gen kill throws away and abandons. nothing, not a single thing, is depicted as needing to happen. yeah, they're told it's needed and honestly, a lot of those marines were brainwashed into believing it, but the whole point is that it wasn't. it was a colossal fuck up in every way and the show holds up a massive flashing neon sign showing us exactly how, but from the ground.

so absolutely fully agree with you that this show is positioned as a meta deconstruction to band of brothers themes, and even the pacific, especially when the shows are presented as a package deal, as hbo war so often is. it's all a lot more nuanced than what i've said bc i've just been rambling AGAIN, but i think there's a lot of dialogue going on between the three shows when you analyse them from further away that is really interesting to discuss.

so yup, definitely agree with what you said and thank you for dropping by my inbox to talk about this kinda stuff with me! i'm sorry if i went into too much detail or overtook this ask with my own opinions or anything but yeah. i think we all know by now that i tend to ramble when asked about anything!

NOW ONTO THE FUN PART!

it genuinely feels like bradnate have taken up residence in a very large part of my brain. i had heard a lot of people mentioning bradray on here before i watched, so i was expecting that to be the main 'ship' of the show, and kinda thought i'd probably end up getting onboard with that, but i actually only got platonic besties vibes from them. i'm always down for as much gay as possible, so i support it, but i just don't really see anything outside of platonic love between them? i do really enjoy their relationship and interactions though, and some of their scenes are my absolute favourites.

but i'm ALL about the victorian repression and yearning, so ofc bradnate is where it's at for me. as a gay man who repressed all his emotions growing up it just calls to me like a siren lmao. i think that's why i'm like a feral little gremlin about nate actually

#one day i will stop answering asks with 2k word essays but that day is very clearly not today! #once again i apologise to the people of my dash #at least i put a read more on this one #julian's inbox

[voidcatpolar]

Standing on the precipice of the void so vast it shakes my very soul

Reflecting back from the oceans smooth surface my own vacant eyes look back at me

Here we do not escape the calling of another world as stars collapse into black holes

Toxicity of the power plants that powered out social lives bleeding into our water

Each conversation taking on a new shape closer and closer to a sharp blade on which we will cut ourselves

Sharpening not our minds but our tongues like bladed whips to be lashed at those who deserve it

Amongst this violence, this slaughter i can only questions what my part was amongst such a symphony

Or perhaps better called a cacophony from such a daring menagerie that i attempt to find myself in

Casting only my certainties aside to leave me with only tattered clothes that let the rain seep in

Yet shivering from frostbite my life continues

My attention is drawn with my hollow stare at the blood glistening on the deck

It feels good to see my eyes shine in a color other than the darkness of blue

How far this ship has carried me but the crew has become restless

Misery strikes as the bell continues to toll out each passing hour while they fight amongst themselves

Even if i am the captain i must escape my crew to find somewhere safer

The void still beckons and calls out to me with the lapping of the waves

My parched throat begging for more of what once felt like ichor but i know the salt and oil filled waves will not quench my thirst

Now i sit away from the ocean deep in the belly of the beast but even here the void follows

Once it shone with a thousand stars like the wonder filled souls of a kindergarten classroom

Now these mirrors of the soul shine dead on the dagger i sharpen to gut the fish

Taking it apart to get to the bone i pick it apart meticulously

Food must be prepared to be safely consumed so that the mind does not despair as it so has already

Seasoned to perfection and made just right as to not poison oneself or any ships they may break bread with

I think once there was a chef but he has been away far too long to cook for us anymore

Edging upwards i gaze towards the stars with the knife of my words in my hand and the fish filling my stomach

Even now the winter leaves me numb and cold but still i do not miss the summers of burning flesh

Like an orchestra commanding me i turn about as the blood floods to my feet and i see my crew has been killed in this futile war

Alone i stand cold reason and memories of better time leaving only spite and anguish i turn my ship

Piercing my flesh with my dagger i set loose the fire of my blood and my soul

Cursing all who may hear my wailing cries of vengeance against those who wronged me and those who did not

Calling screaming singing the void reaches out and grabs me as the ship collapses and i fall into the ocean

Finally peace is known i had hoped buy even in my wishing for the emptiness i poison the water

What once was a fleet so grand that sailed the oceans of space set to become a new star they are dragged by my void

Selfish decisions lost in the moment and seen only by the few who cared to look

They were sharpening their minds and softening their tongues to use their words to heal

Now they are left with a mind to cut to the depths of the issues and wound others like never before

My darkness pulling them away from the limelight they deserved more than i ever did

Spark fading away drowned in the blood from the wounds of my tongue

The poison of the food wasting away in the very core of my being in such a way to know my regret pierces my heart

Leaping finally off of the precipice i will not see what my choice has done to others

Only now hoping my choice does not destroy them but send them rocketing to success

Only now do i realize that perhaps i have only added to the toxicity of the ocean of living

But too late as my time ends by my own hand, leaving for the void myself to consume its fill

#poetry #dark poetry

[muraenide]

☠♥♢⚜☀☢❀❥♒❣ drops these and rubs my hands like that one evil raccon gif, spill the tea <3

the salty af munday meme

☠ What does someone have to do for an instant unfollow from you?

Answered here!

♥ What's the WORST thing that has happened to you rp wise?

Getting to know someone, who shall not be named, blocked me and my friends and then they make a post accusing us for numerous things that I didn’t even know we did, and then threatened all their mutuals that if they interacted with us they’d be blocked 😃 

It’s all because of a ship they didn’t like. It was also my second day on that blog and I’ve legit have no idea what’s going on. It originated from this other mutual who is also shipping that ship and generally follows everyone, so when people saw that ship they started the whole witch hunt. I was sleeping at that time and when I woke up the dash turned to hell. Had to ask my friend what’s going on and turned out it was because of that ship (IM me for details!)

Apparently the same person also made an excel with all our urls + other people we don’t know and shared it around so everyone can block us. I only found out about that excel (and the whole story) through another mutual only like 6 months later and by that time I don’t care much anymore. You can call me whatever <inserts problematic label> and I’d say OK, you are absolutely right, have a nice day! 

✧ Do you agree with reblog karma or is it forced interaction?

I don’t mind not practicing reblog karma as long as someone isn’t like, rbing 10 posts off my blog at once. But that’s different from feeling like you’re outright being used as a resource blog, which in case I would just sb. So far no one has rb anything much from me though, but that might be because I don’t rb much either 🙈 It also depends on the meme... When it’s just a headcanon/munday/opinion meme then there’s no reason not to send any. If it’s IC memes then it’s understandable that you might not find one of the options that is fitting for your muse and theirs, so its ok not to send any.

⚜ How many people do you not like?

A lot. 😭 And since I hold grudges I tend to remember them forever. I usually just avoid them though. If they’ve done something toxic or evil to other people then I’ll most likely have them blocked. But if I don’t like them for petty reasons that’s just a personal thing, I don’t block them, I simply don’t interact with them.

☀ What's your rp pet peeve?

I’m running out of pet peeves that I’m willing to put on the dash 😂 Okay this only happened to me twice here, but I find it annoying when you put so much of effort into writing a long reply and your rp partner does not appreciate it. It makes me not want to write longer replies anymore and just half-assed something until we’ve established something more solid so we can be sure both sides are invested.

When you’ve been mutuals for a long time and there’s no signs of interest or interaction. I understand that people can be busy but neither of us are mind readers. An occasional like on posts or an ask or an ooc post to show that interest is still present is nice sometimes.

☢ What fads/trends are you so over?

The karma is a b1tch trend. I feel like this typically occurs with villain muses. Your muse did something bad in canon so you’re supposed to feel guilty to mine now and feel sorry and has to immediately redeem yourself! I think that’s not fair in rp, especially when we have plotted nothing, my muse hasn’t done anything to yours yet but your muse is demanding retribution without giving mine a chance or, like, ask the mun for an opinion?

❀ What has made you completely lose your chill?

asjkdhas A lot of things. I feel like I can list them down forever. I don’t consider it losing my chill, but I can get carried away with topics I have a lot of opinions on, since I hardly write anything too personal on tumblr and/or anywhere else, so that’s not losing my chill but sometimes I forget that I’m talking to someone and keeps going on and on. I should fix that about myself 😭

❥ Has someone ever ruined an FC or character for you?

>> ....... Yes. (IM for details). 

♒ Thoughts on the fandom you're currently rping in?

Answered here!

❣ How salty are you feeling right now?

From a scale of 1 - 10, 5 😂 If I’m not tired than maybe 8.

#drama cw #// freya asking all the core questions asjdhas #long post cw #𖦹 ⋆꙳ ⁄ ooc.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E123 (Feb. 2, 2021)

After last week’s thoroughly relaxing and brief episode, tonight’s guests are Sam Riegel and Liam O’Brien!

Brian, to Sam: “You look like Tim Curry moved to Nantucket to become a sommelier.”

How did Caleb and Veth approach the ally-ship with the Tombtakers? Sam: “I mean, we got some information, and I think we got a little closer to Lucien and knowing whether he has any of Mollymauk inside of him, which is I think the most important knowledge that we’re seeking right now. Is there someone to be saved inside there? We got glimpses, and we got a little hint that Mollymauk is maybe still in there? Maybe? And we got a little more insight into their plans, so that was useful.” Liam: “We know why we were having that fucking dream.” Sam: “But other than that, it was just a road trip with assholes.” Liam: “All our plans have been ripped in a new direction, and it’s just been improvisation.” Sam notes that it feels like we’re always about to rip into Caleb’s backstory, but haven’t yet followed that thread all the way through. Liam: “It’s partially frustrating, to be sure, but also I like the idea that-- his whole shit has been selfish, it’s been dealing with the trauma that he’s been through and not the greater world, and that’s been shifting somewhat.”

Does Caleb think the book was worth it, and is he still interested in reading more? Sam: “How do you ask Caleb not to read a book?” Liam: “Caleb has spent enough time with the Nein to know you shouldn’t put a hand on a hot stove. After what happened with the book, he knows it’s a terrible idea. But maybe. But it’s a really bad idea. But reserve judgment, but it’s a really terrible idea. I think that Caleb is very aware that mages and people like him very easily fall prey to their curiosity and it can lead to bad places. But there is still that amount of scientific endeavor where you think there is value in knowing and learning, and maybe we can ride that line. He was True Neutral at the start of the campaign, and maybe he’s Chaotic Good now, but part of him is hubris, even if it’s a little bit, still.”

What about Otis has drawn Veth’s focus? Sam: “I mean, he’s a little shit. She was curious about Otis because he’s a small like she is, and in talking to him, he seemed to be real creepy, but he was just creepy and distant and didn’t value his past or family or anything like that. She sees someone who’s like her, but so not like her, and maybe that scares her a little bit more.”

How does Caleb feel about Beau being on this ride with him? Liam: “The dream is another example of how Caleb had very narrow vision of the things he wanted to do. It used to seem so massive to him, but now... To have Beauregard involved feels right. If anyone in the group is going to stop him from grabbing something he shouldn’t, it is probably Beauregard. She’ll punch him in the fucking face to stop him, which I think he needs, to a certain extent. They’re two different kinds of nerds, and I kind of like that, that this group of nine philosophers, they’ve reached out and somehow grabbed the two nerds in the party.”

How do Caleb and Veth see the Somnovum? Sam: “I mean, they seem real bad. Anything that’s a quorum of powerful entities heading towards your planet to unleash an energy of any kind, typically bad? I assume they’re bad, or at least the Tombtakers wish them to do ill.” Liam: “I think they want the kind of peace that comes from snapping your fingers and turning people to dust. Caleb sees them as a cautionary tale; they’re the worst-case scenario for arcane inquisitiveness.” He sees Allura Vysoren as the antidote to that.

Why the staunch refusal to use Halfling Luck? Sam: “I don’t like Luck! I just don’t like Luck. I think it’s cheap, I think it’s a cheat, I think it’s stupid. It just feels like a do-over.” Liam: “I am your antithesis! If I ever voice a halfling, I am going to hammer that feature!” Sam: “What I love about D&D is that you don’t know what’s going to happen. If you roll bad, okay, that’s it. If you roll well, it makes the success more enjoyable to know that it’s a pure success and don’t one where you’re like well actually... it’s so stupid. If someone was about to die, I would probably use the fuckin’ Luck feature. Well. It depends who. If it was Travis, yeah, no, he’s fucked, sorry.”

Liam drops that he’s picked Sam’s character class and race again for a hypothetical campaign three. Sam: “It’s not what I was thinking for future characters, but I’m excited to explore.”

Cosplay of the Week: an amazing Mollymauk by KatofValkyrie!

What was it like to bring the Tombtakers into the tower? Liam: “It is complicated, because he does not like him. Lucien’s just a fucking dick. But Caleb also knows that Molly’s in there somewhere. That tower’s only for the M9, and Lucien’s not in the M9. Their situation with these people is shitty, it’s terrible. Caleb doesn’t feel like they have the upper hand. He doesn’t like that they’re even going on this journey per se, because life is bigger than his bullshit. He feels like they’ve been losing over and over again, so it was a gamble to try to get on equal footing.

What spurred Veth into making sure she and Yasha have some one-on-one time? Sam: “Yasha hasn’t been getting a lot of moments to shine. Now that she’s back, I just got the impression that Yasha feels out of place sometimes, or timid, or unsure of herself. When Veth was Nott, Nott certainly had her share of those moments. I think she sees a kindred spirit and wants to make sure that she’s been giving all the opportunity she can to flourish and thrive. Dani, you’re just laughing at my mustache, aren’t you?” Dani: “Yes, that’s the only thing I’m laughing at through this whole bullshit.” Sam denies all knowledge of trolling, but eventually admits, on the topic of Yasha and Beau getting together: “They’ve made me wait this long... I’m going to make them wait a little bit longer!”

What was it like to show his friends the upper floors? Liam: “I kinda expected somebody to sneak up there before that. That being part of the tower is not even a conscious choice of his, it just is. The reason Caduceus has creeped Caleb out for a long time is because he talks about how-- Caduceus is a really kind person and wants Caleb to let go of the past. And in a really simplistic way, turn that frown upside-down. And that’s just not who Caleb is, and it’s not who everybody is. There is something to be said for trying to stay open and positivity, but thinking you can shut out the past, especially a traumatic one, is just not true. When things happen to us, we carry them. But to candy-coat it and say, ah, I’m free, or everything is good, or I’ve turned the corner... life is way messier than that. It’s not flipping a switch, it’s not bad-to-good, it is such a work in progress. Even when you make strides and start to get to a better place, you can backslide a lot. So the tower is who he is, and the tower is 7/9ths love for his friends, and 1/9th hope, but there’s still a percentage of him that carries everything from the past, and knows that he should, and knows that he should not go back to where he was. And the way to do that is not to say everything is rainbows, but to remember it. The tower is just like an extension of who he is. He’s never going to forget the past, and he’s never going to be like, I’m good, or I’ve turned a corner. He should remember the past, and he should do better, always.”

Does Veth still believe it’s possible to get Molly back? Sam: “Well, she was a person trapped in another body for many years, so has some experience there, and definitely believes that the spirit and soul of Molly is in there and just needs to be unlocked somehow.”

Fan Art of the Week: an amazing group shot by HarpySN!

How are Caleb and Veth dealing with their guilt and fear about being in the middle of this? Sam: “It definitely was a deep conversation that might have repercussions going forward. The problem with all of what we’re doing now is that we don’t have time to deal with our petty problems anymore. It’s all high tension all the time!” Liam: “It’s true; they’re not in control of their situation at all anymore.” Sam: “It’s good to have these check-ins, but it’s not like we can do anything about them. We’re reactive right now.” Liam: “He’s not happy with where they are, but they wouldn’t even be this far if the goblin hadn’t pulled him out of the mud. So part of it is, you saved me from where I was and got me on my feet again, and now it’s disconcerting to see it all just get knocked sideways by something he never could’ve predicted. I think Caleb felt nostalgic for when things were simpler, in a way, for them, when we’re both troubled drifters.”

What was it like to see Gelidon’s return? Liam: “I am the least superstitious person at the table. Ashley’s dice suck.” Sam: “It was fun fighting a dragon!” Liam: “Two massive battles in one episode, neither of which came away with a victory. I guess surviving is a victory.” Sam: “I’d forgotten about the dragon, honestly.” Liam: “I loved it. I was so upset at the idea that we were going to stealth and not get into it.”Sam: “Mercer doesn’t keep a live dragon around and not do something with it. That dragon’s coming back.”

How do Caleb and Veth feel about going to see Essek? Sam: “He can be very helpful, I believe, but as Sam Riegel, a player of D&D, I’m super suspicious. What the fuck is Essek doing up there, so close, now? I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him. And I can throw him pretty far because he floats.” Liam: “I 100% agree with you. I do not understand what Essek could bring to what we are going through. I know the audience loves him, I love him too. He’s a really cool character. But he’s fucking toxic. He out of curiosity caused a war between two nations. And Caleb has been changed for the good by the M9 from months of travel with them. Essek has had none of that. Caleb has changed for the good, but not because of people like Essek. Essek is where Caleb came from. We kept the lid on the pot during the whole treaty at sea and it almost all went fucking sideways, and only because we pressed him into a corner. I hope that guy finds some sort of balance and peace for himself, but I do not see how his input here would be helpful. There’s other heavy hitters that I would try to pull in.”

Liam notes that the Cloven Crystal is in the Bag of Holding. Sam: “Do I have Fluffernutter, or is Fluffernutter gone?” Liam: “Nope. 300 pounds of fireworks? Gone. A dead mage, a threshold crest, and fireworks.” Dani: “Your basic essentials.”

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long text post

[firelxdykatara]

gods, ok, apparently i’m not done.

atla fandom? we need to have a chat.

(....ok that made me sound pretentious as fuck. and maybe i am, but this needs to be said, cause i’m getting....real, real tired of a Certain Corner of this fandom and as a result, this is gonna be a discourse-heavy post so feel free to scroll past if that’s not your bag. as always, my salt posts all carry the catch-all #salt for ts tag, which you’re free to blacklist/filter at your leisure. i’m Very Annoyed at the moment, which will probably come through in the following post, so just. yknow. be prepared for that. or ignore it, that’s perfectly valid too.)

under a cut bc i do care for my followers and their sanity i swear lmao

there’s a real serious issue in this fandom with not understanding what queer terminology actually means or implies, especially when applied to a fictional narrative.

i’m specifically talking about ‘coding’, here. (if i were in a more meme-y mood, i might have said ‘the atla fandom found out about the term “gay-coding” and haven’t shut up since’.)

to the people who say ‘zuko is gay-coded’, i have this to say: you keep using that word. i do not think it means what you think it means. because he isn’t. i’m sorry, but he’s not! and the fact that this is such a prevalent claim in this fandom is distressing, bc it says to me that none of y’all know what gay-coding is or when and how to apply it! please, i’m begging you, go and look up these terms and what they mean and when they should be used before actually trying to plug them into your critical analysis, because when you misuse them and then call other people delusional for disagreeing with you it casts a pall over the entire fandom and is, i think, the root of some of the worst toxicity this fandom has to offer.

and the thing is, there are cases where gay-coding would apply--for instance, a couple series that are famous for queerbaiting their audience by coding their main characters as being attracted to one another (sometimes even despite their openly stated sexualities) come to mind, but those shows bare no similarities at all to atla and how zuko was written and portrayed! (and it would be funny, if it weren’t so obnoxious and infuriatingly wide-spread throughout the fandom, because the only queer couple we actually seen on-screen in either show wasn’t even queer-coded in any respect, and they’re canonically bi! [yes, i’m shading korrasami, or more accurately i’m shading bryke for refusing to give ka the build-up and development they deserved].)

this absolutely isn’t to say that headcanoning zuko as gay is a bad thing or invalid in any respect. (although the tendency for zukka shippers to do this specifically to keep zuko away from katara and/or invalidate his canon relationship/attraction to girls is more than a little eyebrow raising. especially since sokka is usually allowed to be bi, bc fans have no problem letting sukka stay in the background bc it’s no real threat, while jetko shippers are happy to have both boys be bi. [possibly bc katara is less a threat to jetko bc jetkotara is every bit as valid as any single ship between the three, but zukka can’t exactly let katara join in, and if the potential exists for zuko to be attracted to her then canon giving them the far deeper emotional bond becomes a threat to zukka’s existence? idk for sure--you be the judge.]) i prefer to hc zuko as bi (and always have, long before the atla renaissance), bc i don’t think zuko being attracted to boys is outside the realm of possibility, and it isn’t a threat to my ship since zuko&katara had a deep and emotional bond in canon that is very easy to develop further into something that becomes explicitly romantic--but the headcanon itself isn’t really the problem (although what it’s often in service to can be).

it’s the strange insistence that this is the only way to read his character, bc he was coded that way and so anyone who doesn’t see it must be too straight to understand--and i really shouldn’t have to say why and how that is so incredibly fucking insulting. (the ‘hetero lenses’ comment wasn’t cute when it came from bryke six years ago, and the same sentiment being repackaged and delivered by zukka shippers ain’t cute now.)

calling zuko gay-coded not only demonstrates ignorance as to what the term actually means, and how to usefully apply it in critical analysis, but also validates the frankly bullshit insertion of institutionalized homophobia in the world of atla where it was neither needed, nor wanted, nor ever hinted at in canon. as a queer woman i’m still infuriated by one fucking comic panel shoving institutionalized and systemic homophobia into a world where it was entirely unnecessary (and doing this in the first installment of the franchise showcasing a queer relationship??? making korra and asami worried about ‘coming out’ when they could have just gone on to have cute adventures together and tell people ‘hey we’re dating’ and have everyone else be ‘that’s awesome =DDD’ [because it is, in fact, possible to just have a world without homophobia i promise!!!!!] double yikes, i’m still pissed at bryke about it), and i doubly hate that ‘zuko is gay coded’ has become so widespread that ‘ozai hates him bc he’s gay’ has become a staple in that part of the fandom.

not only does making zuko gay and implying (or outright stating) that ozai hated and abused him because of it completely undermine zuko’s character arc by making his abuse about his sexuality rather than ozai’s toxic pride and anger at seeing himself reflected in his ‘weak’ son, but it comes very close to outright stating that abuse and trauma are inherently gay experiences, and they aren’t!!! they really aren’t, i promise!!!

abuse and trauma narratives exist outside of ‘my dad hates me because i’m gay’. and, quite frankly, there are MORE THAN ENOUGH queer trauma narratives out in the world. we do not need to start trying to retroactively make them canon in a series where they didn’t exist! if you’re gay and see yourself in zuko and project your own experiences on him, that’s understandable and valid. that does not make zuko gay-coded. and honestly, the insistence that he is makes very little sense to me, because you’re essentially trying to give the show credit for work you put into interpreting the characters! why would you want to do that? why not own your own headcanons and take credit for them, rather than insisting they are canon and everyone else is wrong for not seeing them??? like, i’ve said before that i’ve always headcanoned zuko (and katara) as bi, and even support it with my interpretations of evidence from the show, but the difference between ‘i think zuko is bi’ and ‘zuko is definitely gay-coded’ is that i know that bi zuko is my interpretation of canon, and that it is work i’m putting into the show that wasn’t actually intended by the creators/writers, no matter how much sexual tension i read into the jetko swordfight.

and like, zuko’s character arc doesn’t actually parallel a queer one all that well to begin with. it’s easy enough to do the work and twist it sideways just enough to make the general points fit, but the fact is, zuko’s arc is not one of self-discovery. it’s not one of coming to understand something fundamental about himself that he can’t change, that he was hated for, and coming out to his father in a dramatic confrontation where he shows that he understands himself and doesn’t need his father’s acceptance to be fulfilled.

zuko’s arc is actually one of trauma and healing. and those can (and often are--like i said, there are more than enough queer trauma narratives in the world, atla really doesn’t need to be one of them) be part of queer narratives, for sure! but they aren’t uniquely queer. and zuko’s confrontation with ozai during the eclipse doesn’t read like a ‘coming out’ at all. (yes, i’ve seen that post. yes, i rolled my eyes and moved on, bc unlike some people, i’m capable of not clowning on correctly tagged posts i disagree with.) zuko is specifically confronting ozai over his abuse, because his arc wasn’t about discovering anything fundamental about himself (and therefore realizing that ozai was hating him for something he couldn’t change)--it was about realizing that he was not at fault for the way his father treated him. it was also about realizing that the fire nation was broken and corrupt at its core, and that his father was an aspect of that he needed to break away from so that he could help the world begin to heal.

he says it himself:

Zuko: No, I've learned everything! And I've had to learn it on my own! Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow, the War was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us! And we deserve it! We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness.

making this about zuko being gay and rejecting ozai’s homophobia, rather than zuko learning fundamental truths about the world and about his home and about how there was something deeply wrong with his nation that needed to be fixed in order for the world to heal (and, no, ‘homophobia’ is not the answer to ‘what is wrong with the fire nation’, i’m still fucking pissed at bryke about that), misses the entire point of his character arc. this is the culmination of zuko realizing that he should never have had to earn his father’s love, because that should have been unconditional from the start. this is zuko realizing that he was not at fault for his father’s abuse--that speaking out of turn in a war meeting in no way justified fighting a duel with a child.

is that first realization (that a parent’s love should be unconditional, and if it isn’t, then that is the parent’s fault and not the child’s) something that queer kids in homophobic households/families can relate to? of course it is. but it’s also something that every other abused kid, straight kids and even queer kids who were abused for other reasons before they even knew they were anything other than cishet, can relate to as well. in that respect, it is not a uniquely queer experience, nor is it a uniquely queer story, and zuko not being attracted to girls (which is what a lot of it seems to boil down to, at the end of the day--cutting down zuko’s potential ships so that only zukka and a few far more niche ships are left standing) is not necessary to his character arc. nor does it particularly make sense.

(and before anyone brings up his date with jin--a) he enjoyed it when she kissed him, and b) he was a traumatized, abused child going out on a first date. of course he was fucking awkward. have you ever met a teenage boy????)

anyway, uh, that was a lot of words, so have a tl;dr: zuko is not gay-coded. there is nothing uniquely gay (or even uniquely queer) about his character arc or characterization, and he was certainly not coded gay in an attempt to sneak a queer character past the censors. if anyone involved with atla was gonna try that, it would’ve been in lok, and as established, they didn’t even manage to queer-code the actual queer relationship before the last few minutes of the final episode. headcanoning zuko as gay is absolutely fine (though if it’s only done to keep him away from female characters he may otherwise be attracted to, that smells more like misogyny than anything else), but insisting that this reading is the only one that makes sense, and anyone who doesn’t agree must be straight (hello, queer woman here making this insanely long thinkpiece) is very much not.

ship what you like, but stop trying to invalidate other ships and other interpretations of characters just to make your ship seem more plausible. it’s really not a good look.

#atla #zuko #zukka salt #more like zukka shipper salt #atla fandom salt #salt for ts #zuko is not gay coded and im so so tired of seeing that argument in this fandom #it's fine as a hc but it's not canon and was never remotely intended and his arc isn't particularly evocative of a gay narrative #long post #queer things

[visenlya]

As to our conversation, I can get behind that ACOTAR Feyre and Tamlin's dynamic seems to be better than say ACOSF Feysand by miles. I'm a pretty big shipper of Neris and Nesquin myself (anyone but Cassian please).

But yeah, I have a big grudge against SJM's depiction of Soul Mate bonds. They feel.. very forced and just wrong. Both canon Feysand and Nessian have a bad dynamic, and the mate craze is very.. ew. I'm leaning on the asexual side heavily so it's a nightmare for me affdghjfgcvhh I just want meaningful characters interactions! at least some character development. The wrong book series I suppose, because we sure aren't getting that from S//JM as author.

But honestly, two characters getting to know each other, slowly befriending each other and building a strong friendship and then falling in love along the way as the cherry on top will always be better in my opinion than having two characters get "mated" (ugh) and having this shadow hanging over their relationship to one another. That well, the stars have aligned and fate has decided that they're now essentially in a arranged marriage neither of the two parties can ever get out of really. And that the other partner might otherwise not even given a single care about their partner if they didn't happen to be bound to each other. The mating bond has so many fucked up implications as well (like that they're paired with whom they make the strongest offspring and bla bla) and as much as I love both Lucien and Elain as inviduals, it turns me away from shipping them in a romantic manner. He would be a far better love interest than Rice and and Cassian combined, but unfortunately.. mhm no. A au concept: Where Elain and Lucien aren't mates, even after getting turned fae. Where bonds are as rare as S//JM once claimed they are and neither Elain nor Nesta are mated to anyone. And where they don't have the pressure on them to get together with Lucien or Cassian. Maybe Elain could leave the NC and join the BoE and go on Journeys with them (maybe falling in love along the way with Lucien, that would be more wholesome). And Nesta could do whatever she wanted. I can dream ahaha :')

I agree with everything you’ve said. honestly rhysand made me sick in the first book, and then i was kinda into him for the rest of the trilogy and that was only bc of sarah’s manipulative and inconsistent writing, she made tamlin into a complete monster in order to make rhysand seems like the best option at the moment. when i reread the trilogy once i get a bit older, i realised that both of them are just as bad as each other, rhysand is even worse in my humble opinion bc he’s much more subtle and insidious. anyway i will forever pity feyre bc now this girl is completely locked in an even more abusive and toxic codependent relationship with no way out bc she doesn’t even realise she needs to get out, she completely bought into the rhysand’s cult of personality. regarding the mating bond, yeh it’s horrid i hate it. the entirety of feysand’s relationship is carried by “sexual attraction” and sex craze caused by the bond and it just doesn’t work for me compared to what she had going on in the first book, i was not sold by feyre and rhysand’s relationship. and yup i also wish nesta, elain and lucien hook up with the band of exiles, they sound so cool, and it would’ve been so nice if elain and lucien could’ve fallen in love without the mate bond. i think nesta should just marry into Fae royalty but on another continent, away from the inner circle, and then years later the inner circle has to go to her country on a diplomatic mission and they’d all have to bow to her to show respect! I have a headcanon about the mate bond actually: that the mating bond is actually pretty common and the magic helps bond fae together to help with conception. fae that copulate outside of the bond has less chance of conceiving, while mates find it easier to conceive, that’s why high faes hold the mate bonds sacred bc it helps get around the rare fae pregnancy thing. like with the way sarah is going, everyone and their mothers are getting mates. she should just change the mating bond into something that actually makes sense lore wise.

#anti sjm

[shortnotsweet]

Bakudeku: A Non-Comprehensive Dissection of the Exploitation of Working Bodies, the Murder of Annoying Children, and a Rivals-to-Lovers Complex

I. Bakudeku in Canon, And Why Anti’s Need to Calm the Fuck Down

II. Power is Power: the Brain-Melting Process of Normalization and Toxic Masculinity

III. How to Kill Middle Schoolers, and Why We Should

IV. Parallels in Abuse, EnemiesRivals-to-Lovers, and the Necessity of Redemption ft. ATLA’s Zuko

V. Give it to Me Straight. It’s Homophobic.

VI. Love in Perspective, from the East v. West

VII. Stuck in the Sludge, the Past, and Season One

Disclaimer

It needs to be said that there is definitely a place for disagreement, discourse, debate, and analysis: that is a sign of an active fandom that’s heavily invested, and not inherently a bad thing at all. Considering the amount of source material we do have (from the manga, to the anime, to the movies, to the light novels, to the official art), there are going to be warring interpretations, and that’s inevitable.

I started watching and reading MHA pretty recently, and just got into the fandom. I was weary for a reason, and honestly, based on what I’ve seen, I’m still weary now. I’ve seen a lot of anti posts, and these are basically my thoughts. This entire thing is in no way comprehensive, and it’s my own opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. If I wanted to be thorough about this, I would’ve included manga panels, excerpts from the light novel, shots from the anime, links to other posts/essays/metas that have inspired this, etc. but I’m tired and not about that life right now, so, this is what it is. This is poorly organized, but maybe I’ll return to fix it.

Let’s begin.

Bakudeku in Canon, And Why Anti’s Need to Calm the Fuck Down

There are a lot of different reasons, that can be trivial as you like, to ship or not to ship two (or more) characters. It could be based purely off of character design, proximity, aversion to another ship, or hypotheticals. And I do think that it’s totally valid if someone dislikes the ship or can’t get on board with his character because to them, it does come across as abuse, and the implications make them uncomfortable or, or it just feels unhealthy. If that is your takeaway, and you are going to stick to your guns, the more power to you.

But Bakudeku’s relationship has canonically progressed to the point where it’s not the emotionally (or physically) abusive clusterfuck some people portray it to be, and it’s cheap to assume that it would be, based off of their characterizations as middle schoolers. Izuku intentionally opens the story as a naive little kid who views the lens of the Hero society through rose colored glasses and arguably wants nothing more than assimilation into that society; Bakugou is a privileged little snot who embodies the worst and most hypocritical beliefs of this system. Both of them are intentionally proven wrong. Both are brainwashed, as many little children are, by the propaganda and societal norms that they are exposed to. Both of their arcs include unlearning crucial aspects of the Hero ideology in order to become true heroes.

I will personally never simp for Bakugou because for the longest time, I couldn't help but think of him as a little kid on the playground screaming at the top of his lungs because someone else is on the swingset. He’s red in the face, there are probably veins popping out of his neck, he’s losing it. It’s easy to see why people would prefer Tododeku to Bakudeku.

Even now, seeing him differently, I still personally wouldn’t date Bakugou, especially if I had other options. Why? I probably wouldn’t want to date any of the guys who bullied me, especially because I think that schoolyard bullying, even in middle school, affected me largely in a negative way and created a lot of complexes I’m still trying to work through. I haven’t built a better relationship with them, and I’m not obligated to. Still, I associate them with the kind of soft trauma that they inflicted upon me, and while to them it was probably impersonal, to me, it was an intimate sort of attack that still affects me. That being said, that is me. Those are my personal experiences, and while they could undoubtedly influence how I interpret relationships, I do not want to project and hinder my own interpretation of Deku.

The reality is that Deku himself has an innate understanding of Bakugou that no one else does; I mention later that he seems to understand his language, implicitly, and I do stand by that. He understands what it is he’s actually trying to say, often why he’s saying it, and while others may see him as wimpy or unable to stand up for himself, that’s simply not true. Part of Deku’s characterization is that he is uncommonly observant and empathetic; I’m not denying that Bakugou caused harm or inflicted damage, but infantilizing Deku and preaching about trauma that’s not backed by canon and then assuming random people online excuse abuse is just...the leap of leaps, and an actual toxic thing to do. I’ve read fan works where Bakugou is a bully, and that’s all, and has caused an intimate degree of emotional, mental, and physical insecurity from their middle school years that prevents their relationship from changing, and that’s for the better. I’m not going to argue and say that it’s not an interesting take, or not valid, or has no basis, because it does. Its basis is the character that Bakugou was in middle school, and the person he was when he entered UA.

Not only is Bakugou — the current Bakugou, the one who has accumulated memories and experiences and development — not the same person he was at the beginning of the story, but Deku is not the same person, either. Maybe who they are fundamentally, at their core, stays the same, but at the beginning and end of any story, or even their arcs within the story, the point is that characters will undergo change, and that the reader will gain perspective.

“You wanna be a hero so bad? I’ve got a time-saving idea for you. If you think you’ll have a quirk in your next life...go take a swan dive off the roof!”

Yes. That is a horrible thing to tell someone, even if you are a child, even if you don’t understand the implications, even if you don’t mean what it is you are saying. Had someone told me that in middle school, especially given our history and the context of our interactions, I don’t know if I would ever have forgiven them.

Here’s the thing: I’m not Deku. Neither is anyone reading this. Deku is a fictional character, and everyone we know about him is extrapolated from source material, and his response to this event follows:

“Idiot! If I really jumped, you’d be charged with bullying me into suicide! Think before you speak!”

I think it’s unfair to apply our own projections as a universal rather than an interpersonal interpretation; that’s not to say that the interpretation of Bakudeku being abusive or having unbalanced power dynamics isn’t valid, or unfounded, but rather it’s not a universal interpretation, and it’s not canon. Deku is much more of a verbal thinker; in comparison, Bakugou is a visual one, at least in the format of the manga, and as such, we get various panels demonstrating his guilt, and how deep it runs. His dialogue and rapport with Deku has undeniably shifted, and it’s very clear that the way they treat each other has changed from when they were younger. Part of Bakugou’s growth is him gaining self awareness, and eventually, the strength to wield that. He knows what a fucked up little kid he was, and he carries the weight of that.

“At that moment, there were no thoughts in my head. My body just moved on its own.”

There’s a part of me that really, really disliked Bakugou going into it, partially because of what I’d seen and what I’d heard from a limited, outside perspective. I felt like Bakugou embodied the toxic masculinity (and to an extent, I still believe that) and if he won in some way, that felt like the patriarchy winning, so I couldn't help but want to muzzle and leash him before releasing him into the wild.

The reality, however, of his character in canon is that it isn’t very accurate to assume that he would be an abusive partner in the future, or that Midoryia has not forgiven him to some extent already, that the two do not care about each other or are singularly important, that they respect each other, or that the narrative has forgotten any of this.

Don’t mistake me for a Bakugou simp or apologist. I’m not, but while I definitely could also see Tododeku (and I have a soft spot for them, too, their dynamic is totally different and unique, and Todoroki is arguably treated as the tritagonist) and I’m ambivalent about Izuocha (which is written as cannoncially romantic) I do believe that canonically, Bakugou and Deku are framed as soulmates/character foils, Sasuke + Naruto, Kageyama + Hinata style. Their relationship is arguably the focus of the series. That’s not to undermine the importance or impact of Deku’s relationships with other characters, and theirs with him, but in terms of which one takes priority, and which one this all hinges on?

The manga is about a lot of things, yes, but if it were to be distilled into one relationship, buckle up, because it’s the Bakudeku show.

Power is Power: the Brain-Melting Process of Normalization and Toxic Masculinity

One of the ways in which the biopolitical prioritization of Quirks is exemplified within Hero society is through Quirk marriages. Endeavor partially rationalizes the abuse of his family through the creation of a child with the perfect quirk, a child who can be molded into the perfect Hero. People with powerful, or useful abilities, are ranked high on the hierarchy of power and privilege, and with a powerful ability, the more opportunities and avenues for success are available to them.

For the most part, Bakugou is a super spoiled, privileged little rich kid who is born talented but is enabled for his aggressive behavior and, as a child, cannot move past his many internalized complexes, treats his peers like shit, and gets away with it because the hero society he lives in either has this “boys will be boys” mentality, or it’s an example of the way that power, or Power, is systematically prioritized in this society. The hero system enables and fosters abusers, people who want power and publicity, and people who are genetically predisposed to have advantages over others. There are plenty of good people who believe in and participate in this system, who want to be good, and who do good, but that doesn’t change the way that the hero society is structured, the ethical ambiguity of the Hero Commission, and the way that Heroes are but pawns, idols with machine guns, used to sell merch to the public, to install faith in the government, or the current status quo, and reinforce capitalist propaganda. Even All Might, the epitome of everything a Hero should be, is drained over the years, and exists as a concept or idea, when in reality he is a hollow shell with an entire person inside, struggling to survive. Hero society is functionally dependent on illusion.

In Marxist terms: There is no truth, there is only power.

Although Bakugou does change, and I think that while he regrets his actions, what is long overdue is him verbally expressing his remorse, both to himself and Deku. One might argue that he’s tried to do it in ways that are compatible with his limited emotional range of expression, and Deku seems to understand this language implicitly.

I am of the opinion that the narrative is building up to a verbal acknowledgement, confrontation, and subsequent apology that only speaks what has gone unspoken.

That being said, Bakugou is a great example of the way that figures of authority (parents, teachers, adults) and institutions both in the real world and this fictional universe reward violent behavior while also leaving mental and emotional health — both his own and of the people Bakugou hurts — unchecked, and part of the way he lashes out at others is because he was never taught otherwise.

And by that, I’m referring to the ways that are to me, genuinely disturbing. For example, yelling at his friends is chill. But telling someone to kill themselves, even casually and without intent and then misinterpreting everything they do as a ploy to make you feel weak because you're projecting? And having no teachers stop and intervene, either because they are afraid of you or because they value the weight that your Quirk can benefit society over the safety of children? That, to me, is both real and disturbing.

Not only that, but his parents (at least, Mitsuki), respond to his outbursts with more outbursts, and while this is likely the culture of their home and I hesitate to call it abusive, I do think that it contributed to the way that he approaches things. Bakugou as a character is very complex, but I think that he is primarily an example of the way that the Hero System fails people.

I don’t think we can write off the things he’s done, especially using the line of reasoning that “He didn’t mean it that way”, because in real life, children who hurt others rarely mean it like that either, but that doesn’t change the effect it has on the people who are victimized, but to be absolutely fair, I don’t think that the majority of Bakudeku shippers, at least now, do use that line of reasoning. Most of them seem to have a handle on exactly how fucked up the Hero society is, and exactly why it fucks up the people embedded within that society.

The characters are positioned in this way for a reason, and the discoveries made and the development that these characters undergo are meant to reveal more about the fictional world — and, perhaps, our world — as the narrative progresses.

The world of the Hero society is dependent, to some degree, on biopolitics. I don’t think we have enough evidence to suggest that people with Quirks or Quirkless people place enough identity or placement within society to become equivalent to marginalized groups, exactly, but we can draw parallels to the way that Deku and by extent Quirkless people are viewed as weak, a deviation, or disabled in some way. Deviants, or non-productive bodies, are shunned for their inability to perform ideal labor. While it is suggested to Deku that he could become a police officer or pursue some other occupation to help people, he believes that he can do the most positive good as a Hero. In order to be a Hero, however, in the sense of a career, one needs to have Power.

Deviation from the norm will be punished or policed unless it is exploitable; in order to become integrated into society, a deviant must undergo a process of normalization and become a working, exploitable body. It is only through gaining power from All Might that Deku is allowed to assimilate from the margins and into the upper ranks of society; the manga and the anime give the reader enough perspective, context, and examples to allow us to critique and deconstruct the society that is solely reliant on power.

Through his societal privileges, interpersonal biases, internalized complexes, and his subsequent unlearning of these ideologies, Bakugou provides examples of the way that the system simultaneously fails and indoctrinates those who are targeted, neglected, enabled by, believe in, and participate within the system.

Bakudeku are two sides of the same coin. We are shown visually that the crucial turning point and fracture in their relationship is when Bakugou refuses to take Deku’s outstretched hand; the idea of Deku offering him help messes with his adolescent perspective in that Power creates a hierarchy that must be obeyed, and to be helped is to be weak is to be made a loser.

Largely, their character flaws in terms of understanding the hero society are defined and entangled within the concept of power. Bakugou has power, or privilege, but does not have the moral character to use it as a hero, and believes that Power, or winning, is the only way in which to view life. Izuku has a much better grasp on the way in which heroes wield power (their ideologies can, at first, be differentiated as winning vs. saving), and is a worthy successor because of this understanding, and of circumstance. However, in order to become a Hero, our hero must first gain the Power that he lacks, and learn to wield it.

As the characters change, they bridge the gaps of their character deficiencies, and are brought closer together through character parallelism.

Two sides of the same coin, an outstretched hand.

They are better together.

How to Kill Middle Schoolers, and Why We Should

I think it’s fitting that in the manga, a critical part of Bakugou’s arc explicitly alludes to killing the middle school version of himself in order to progress into a young adult. In the alternative covers Horikoshi released, one of them was a close up of Bakugou in his middle school uniform, being stabbed/impaled, with blood rolling out of his mouth. Clearly this references the scene in which he sacrifices himself to save Deku, on a near-instinctual level.

To me, this only cements Horikoshi’s intent that middle school Bakugou must be debunked, killed, discarded, or destroyed in order for Bakugou the hero to emerge, which is why people who do actually excuse his actions or believe that those actions define him into young adulthood don’t really understand the necessity for change, because they seem to imply that he doesn’t need/cannot reach further growth, and there doesn’t need to be a separation between the Bakugou who is, at heart, volatile and repressed the angry, and the Bakugou who sacrifices himself, a hero who saves people.

Plot twist: there does need to be a difference. Further plot twist: there is a difference.

In sacrificing himself for Deku, Bakugou himself doesn't die, but the injury is fatal in the sense that it could've killed him physically and yet symbolizes the selfish, childish part of him that refused to accept Deku, himself, and the inevitability of change. In killing those selfish remnants, he could actually become the kind of hero that we the reader understand to be the true kind.

That’s why I think that a lot of the people who stress his actions as a child without acknowledging the ways he has changed, grown, and tried to fix what he has broken don’t really get it, because it was always part of his character arc to change and purposely become something different and better. If the effects of his worst and his most childish self stick with you more, and linger despite that, that’s okay. But distilling his character down to the wrong elements doesn’t get you the bare essentials; what it gets you is a skewed and shallow version of a person. If you’re okay with that version, that is also fine.

But you can’t condemn others who aren’t fine with that incomplete version, and to become enraged that others do not see him as you do is childish.

Bakugou’s change and the emphasis on that change is canon.

Parallels in Abuse, EnemiesRivals-to-Lovers, and the Necessity of Redemption ft. ATLA’s Zuko

In real life, the idea that “oh, he must bully you because he likes you” is often used as a way to brush aside or to excuse the action of bullying itself, as if a ‘secret crush’ somehow negates the effects of bullying on the victim or the inability of the bully to properly process and manifest their emotions in certain ways. It doesn’t. It often enables young boys to hurt others, and provides figures of authority to overlook the real source of schoolyard bullying or peer review. The “secret crush”, in real life, is used to undermine abuse, justify toxic masculinity, and is essentially used as a non-solution solution.

A common accusation is that Bakudeku shippers jump on the pairing because they romanticize pairing a bully and a victim together, or believe that the only way for Bakugou to atone for his past would be to date Midoryia in the future. This may be true for some people, in which case, that’s their own preference, but based on my experience and what I’ve witnessed, that’s not the case for most.

The difference being is that as these are characters, we as readers or viewers are meant to analyze them. Not to justify them, or to excuse their actions, but we are given the advantage of the outsider perspective to piece their characters together in context, understand why they are how they are, and witness them change; maybe I just haven’t been exposed to enough of the fandom, but no one (I’ve witnessed) treats the idea that “maybe Bakugou has feelings he can’t process or understand and so they manifest in aggressive and unchecked ways'' as a solution to his inability to communicate or process in a healthy way, rather it is just part of the explanation of his character, something is needs to — and is — working through. The solution to his middle school self is not the revelation of a “teehee, secret crush”, but self-reflection, remorse, and actively working to better oneself, which I do believe is canonically reflected, especially as of recently.

In canon, they are written to be partners, better together than apart, and I genuinely believe that one can like the Bakudeku dynamic not by route of romanticization but by observation.

I do think we are meant to see parallels between him and Endeavor; Endeavor is a high profile abuser who embodies the flaws and hypocrisy of the hero system. Bakugou is a schoolyard bully who emulates and internalizes the flaws of this system as a child, likely due to the structure of the society and the way that children will absorb the propaganda they are exposed to; the idea that Quirks, or power, define the inherent value of the individual, their ability to contribute to society, and subsequently their fundamental human worth. The difference between them is the fact that Endeavor is the literal adult who is fully and knowingly active within a toxic, corrupt system who forces his family to undergo a terrifying amount of trauma and abuse while facing little to no consequences because he knows that his status and the values of their society will protect him from those consequences. In other words, Endeavor is the threat of what Bakugou could have, and would have, become without intervention or genuine change.

Comparisons between characters, as parallels or foils, are tricky in that they imply but cannot confirm sameness. Having parallels with someone does not make them the same, by the way, but can serve to illustrate contrasts, or warnings. Harry Potter, for example, is meant to have obvious parallels with Tom Riddle, with similar abilities, and tragic upbringings. That doesn’t mean Harry grows up to become Lord Voldemort, but rather he helps lead a cross-generational movement to overthrow the facist regime. Harry is offered love, compassion, and friends, and does not embrace the darkness within or around him. As far as moldy old snake men are concerned, they do not deserve a redemption arc because they do not wish for one, and the truest of change only occurs when you actively try to change.

To be frank, either way, Bakugou was probably going to become a good Hero, in the sense that Endeavor is a ‘good’ Hero. Hero capitalized, as in a pro Hero, in the sense that it is a career, an occupation, and a status. Because of his strong Quirk, determination, skill, and work ethic, Bakugou would have made a good Hero. Due to his lack of character, however, he was not on the path to become a hero; defender of the weak, someone who saves people to save people, who is willing to make sacrifices detrimental to themselves, who saves people out of love.

It is necessary for him to undergo both a redemption arc and a symbolic death and rebirth in order for him to follow the path of a hero, having been inspired and prompted by Deku.

I personally don’t really like Endeavor’s little redemption arc, not because I don’t believe that people can change or that they shouldn't at least try to atone for the atrocities they have committed, but because within any narrative, a good redemption arc is important if it matters; what also matters is the context of that arc, and whether or not it was needed. For example, in ATLA, Zuko’s redemption arc is widely regarded as one of the best arcs in television history, something incredible. And it is. That shit fucks. In a good way.

It was confirmed that Azula was also going to get a redemption arc, had Volume 4 gone on as planned, and it was tentatively approached in the comics, which are considered canon. She is an undeniably bad person (who is willing to kill, threaten, exploit, and colonize), but she is also a child, and as viewers, we witness and recognize the factors that contributed to her (debatable) sociopathy, and the way that the system she was raised in failed her. Her family failed her; even Uncle Iroh, the wise mentor who helps guide Zuko to see the light, is willing to give up on her immediately, saying that she’s “crazy” and needs to be “put down”. Yes, it’s comedic, and yes, it’s pragmatic, but Azula is fourteen years old. Her mother is banished, her father is a psychopath, and her older brother, from her perspective, betrayed and abandoned her. She doesn’t have the emotional support that Zuko does; she exploits and controls her friends because it’s all she’s been taught to do; she says herself, her “own mother thought [she] was a monster; she was right, of course, but it still [hurts]”. A parent who does not believe in you, or a parent that uses you and will hurt you, is a genuine indicator of trauma.

The writers understood that both Zuko and Azula deserved redemption arcs. One was arguably further gone than the other, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are both children, products of their environment, who have the time, motive, and reason to change.

In contrast, you know who wouldn’t have deserved a redemption arc? Ozai. That simply would not have been interesting, wouldn’t have served the narrative well, and honestly, is not needed, thematically or otherwise. Am I comparing Ozai to Endeavor? Basically, yes. Fuck those guys. I don’t see a point in Endeavor’s little “I want to be a good dad now” arc, and I think that we don’t need to sympathize with characters in order to understand them or be interested in them. I want Touya/Dabi to expose his abuse, for his career to crumble, and then for him to die.

If they are not challenging the system that we the viewer are meant to question, and there is no thematic relevance to their redemption, is it even needed?

On that note, am I saying that Bakugou is the equivalent to Zuko? No, lmao. Definitely not. They are different characters with different progressions and different pressures. What I am saying is that good redemption arcs shouldn’t be handed out like candy to babies; it is the quality, rather than the quantity, that makes a redemption arc good. In terms of the commentary of the narrative, who needs a redemption arc, who is deserving, and who does it make sense to give one to?

In this case, Bakugou checks those boxes. It was always in the cards for him to change, and he has. In fact, he’s still changing.

Give it to Me Straight. It’s Homophobic.

There does seem to be an urge to obsessively gender either Bakugou or Deku, in making Deku the ultra-feminine, stereotypically hyper-sexualized “woman” of the relationship, with Bakugou becoming similarly sexualized but depicted as the hyper-masculine bodice ripper. On some level, that feels vaguely homophobic if not straight up misogynistic, in that in a gay relationship there’s an urge to compel them to conform under heteronormative stereotypes in order to be interpreted as real or functional. On one hand, I will say that in a lot of cases it feels like more of an expression of a kink, or fetishization and subsequent expression of internalized misogyny, at least, rather than a genuine exploration of the complexity and power imbalances of gender dynamics, expression, and boundaries.

That being said, I don’t think that that problematic aspect of shipping is unique to Bakudeku, or even to the fandom in general. We’ve all read fan work or see fanart of most gay ships in a similiar manner, and I think it’s a broader issue to be addressed than blaming it on a singular ship and calling it a day.

One interpretation of Bakugou’s character is his repression and the way his character functions under toxic masculinity, in a society’s egregious disregard for mental and emotional health (much like in the real world), the horrifying ways in which rage is rationalized or excused due to the concept of masculinity, and the way that characteristics that are associated with femininity — intellect, empathy, anxiety, kindness, hesitation, softness — are seen as stereotypically “weak”, and in men, traditionally emasculating. In terms of the way that the fictional universe is largely about societal priority and power dynamics between individuals and the way that extends to institutions, it’s not a total stretch to guess that gender as a construct is a relevant topic to expand on or at least keep in mind for comparison.

I think that the way in which characters are gendered and the extent to which that is a result of invasive heteronormativity and fetishization is a really important conversation to have, but using it as a case-by-case evolution of a ship used to condemn people isn’t conductive, and at that point, it’s treated as less of a real concern but an issue narrowly weaponised.

Love in Perspective, from the East v. West

Another thing I think could be elaborated on and written about in great detail is the way that the Eastern part of the fandom and the Western part of the fandom have such different perspectives on Bakudeku in particular. I am not going to go in depth with this, and there are many other people who could go into specifics, but just as an overview:

The manga and the anime are created for and targeted at a certain audience; our take on it will differ based on cultural norms, decisions in translation, understanding of the genre, and our own region-specific socialization. This includes the way in which we interpret certain relationships, the way they resonate with us, and what we do and do not find to be acceptable. Of course, this is not a case-by-case basis, and I’m sure there are plenty of people who hold differing beliefs within one area, but speaking generally, there is a reason that Bakudeku is not regarded as nearly as problematic in the East.

Had this been written by a Western creator, marketed primarily to and within the West (for reference, while I am Chinese, but I have lived in the USA for most of my life, so my own perspective is undoubtedly westernized), I would’ve immediately jumped to make comparisons between the Hero System and the American police system, in that a corrupt, or bastardized system is made no less corrupt for the people who do legitimately want to do good and help people, when that system disproportionately values and targets others while relying on propaganda that society must be reliant on that system in order to create safe communities when in reality it perpetuates just as many issues as it appears to solve, not to mention the way it attracts and rewards violent and power-hungry people who are enabled to abuse their power. I think comparisons can still be made, but in terms of analysis, it should be kept in mind that the police system in other parts of the world do not have the same history, place, and context as it does in America, and the police system in Japan, for example, probably wasn’t the basis for the Hero System.

As much as I do believe in the Death of the Author in most cases, the intent of the author does matter when it comes to content like this, if merely on the basis that it provides context that we may be missing as foreign viewers.

As far as the intent of the author goes, Bakugou is on a route of redemption.

He deserves it. It is unavoidable. That, of course, may depend on where you’re reading this.

Stuck in the Sludge, the Past, and Season One

If there’s one thing, to me, that epitomizes middle school Bakugou, it’s him being trapped in a sludge monster, rescued by his Quirkless childhood friend, and unable to believe his eyes. He clings to the ideology he always has, that Quirkless means weak, that there’s no way that Deku could have grown to be strong, or had the capacity to be strong all along. Bakugou is wrong about this, and continuously proven wrong. It is only when he accepts that he is wrong, and that Deku is someone to follow, that he starts his real path to heroics.

If Bakudeku’s relationship does not appeal to someone for whatever reason, there’s nothing wrong with that. They can write all they want about why they don’t ship it, or why it bothers them, or why they think it’s problematic. If it is legitimately triggering to you, then by all means, avoid it, point it out, etc. but do not undermine the reality of abuse simply to point fingers, just because you don’t like a ship. People who intentionally use the anti tag knowing it’ll show up in the main tag, go after people who are literally minding their own business, and accuse people of supporting abuse are the ones looking for a fight, and they’re annoying as hell because they don’t bring anything to the table. No evidence, no analysis, just repeated projection.

To clarify, I’m referring to a specific kind of shipper, not someone who just doesn’t like a ship, but who is so aggressive about it for absolutely no reason. There are plenty of very lovely people in this fandom, who mind their own business, multipship, or just don’t care.

Calling shippers dumb or braindead or toxic (to clarify, this isn’t targeting any one person I’ve seen, but a collective) based on projections and generalizations that come entirely from your own impression of the ship rather than observation is...really biased to me, and comes across as uneducated and trigger happy, rather than constructive or helpful in any way.

I’m not saying someone has to ship anything, or like it, in order to be a ‘good’ participant. But inserting derogatory material into a main tag, and dropping buzzwords with the same tired backing behind it without seeming to understand the implications of those words or acknowledging the development, pacing, and intentional change to the characters within the plot is just...I don’t know, it comes across as redundant, to me at least, and very childish. Aggressive. Toxic. Problematic. Maybe the real toxic shippers were the ones who bitched and moaned along the way. They’re like little kids, stuck in the past, unable to visualize or recognize change, and I think that’s a real shame because it’s preventing them from appreciating the story or its characters as it is, in canon.

But that’s okay, really. To each their own. Interpretations will vary, preferences differ, perspectives are not uniform. There is no one truth. There are five seasons of the show, a feature film, and like, thirty volumes as of this year.

All I’m saying is that if you want to stay stuck in the first season of each character, then that’s what you’re going to get. That’s up to you.

This may be edited or revised.

#bakudeku #meta #my hero academia #boko no hero academia #bnha #mha #bakugou katsuki #izuku midoriya #ok these are just my general thoughts in response to the people who have hang ups about this ship #like y’all need to pls chill tf out ok #this is also not comprehensive and could definitely be elaborated on #but it’s just general thoughts #it’s just addressing general opposition I’ve seen #I never thought I’d ever write this much about this ship wtf

[zephyoongist]

warnings: depiction of toxic relationship and pregnancy.

kim taehyung had only met you a few times.

once and twice for the date. thrice for the pregnancy test which he had only a day to prepare for. and the fourth time, he’d just came over to check up on you and ended up staying over when your ex came knocking on your door at ass crack o’clock.

you’d slipped out of bed and him being him, he’d trailed after you like a groggy puppy barely able to open his eyes when he’d first heard his voice. a sort of low timbre that seems to echo off the walls.

“three months down and you get with another man? really, ___?” 

taehyung isn’t much of a fighter - nor is he a peace keeper but at times like these, his instincts tend to make the calls for him. and before he knew it, his feet are padding over to you but he couldn’t go anywhere past that because you have the chain lock on and he’s forced to stand behind you where he can directly catch the unfamiliar face of a man, flushed and contorted with a sort of ugliness from within.

“we got a divorce, daniel,” you hiss out, “you took away my house, my car and even the dog - what the hell are you doing here?!”

“mark saw you with -” it’s only then that daniel seems to notice the man standing behind you with a hand on your waist and a feral calmness to his stare, “-with him.”

he’d said it as if taehyung is a few levels too low for you - when it’s the opposite. it’s him that’s out of your league. cute and funny and everything your ex-husband wasn’t.

“and?” you huff, exasperated.

then daniel’s eyes shift to you. first, confusion flashes across his face like a firework, then dejection and finally rage. the same old face he’d make when he’s upset over you pointing out his wrongs before he’d turn the table back to you and called you names you’d never call him.

“i thought we were making this work,” he lets out a sound between a scoff and a laugh - nothing that you’ve never seen him do when he tries to make it seem like everything’s going fine until ‘you’ dropped the bomb.

“just because i treated you like a decent human being doesn’t mean i want you to be a constant part of my life again - seriously, go home,” and with that, you slam the door in your ex-husband’s face.

twirling around, taehyung catches the mixture of emotions flooding in your eyes behind a steel wall, “sorry you had to see that.”

“it’s okay,” is his instinctive response, but then he realizes, “actually, it’s not okay - you said he lives two hours from you,” then he remembers that night when you’d cried in his arms right outside of the clinic where you’d just had your doctor’s appointment - the result came a few days after but you already knew, and by god you were terrified, “does he do this all the time?”

“no - this is the first,” you’re holding back tears, “but we have mutual friends and we text sometimes - just to ask how the other is doing because we decided to stay friends - i don’t know where he got the idea that we’re working it out-”

taehyung gathers you in his arms and kisses the top of your head as you try and fail and try again to hold the tears back. 

it’s only when morning comes, when he finds you in the kitchen cooking with a smile as bright as the sun and eyes a tad bit swollen but looking as beautiful as ever, that he carefully tip toes around you.

“i think you should move in with me,” he tries to sound casual as he guides the lukewarm pancake into his mouth.

“taehyung i can’t impose on you like that,” is what you say - and that’s when he looks up, meeting your eyes that glimmer with a sign of sincerity, “i know you’re worried about me but i’m fine.”

so he puts down the fork to reach for your hand across the counter, thumb caressing your knuckles, “i know but it’s okay not to be fine because i’m here now and i wanna take care of you - i wanna take care of our kid. will you let me do that?”

and he’s not sure if it’s love or if it’s a sense of responsibility in him. but when he sees you with your pregnant belly and lame but lovable sense of humor - nine months down the line, as he whispers ‘you can do this’ and ‘push, baby’ into your ears and when he sees your smile as you hold you and his child, he realizes that his love for you has grown as vast as the ocean and as infinite as the galaxy.

five years down the road, and you’re sporting the diamond ring he proposed to you with, he kisses the top of your head and wishes you a good morning whilst you grace him with the most ethereal smile before your eyebrows knit themselves together, turning to your kids.

“jimin, jeongguk! stop running in the house!” taehyung would say you’re a pretty strict mother - but it balances out because he can never say no to his boys.

the two groan, one five and the other three.

“but mom! we’re going on a pirate ship adventure!” the eldest laments and only then does taehyung see the black cap mirroring a pirate’s hat and the banana possibly a sword.

it’s only then do you turn on the stove, turning your full attention to your two rascals, “okay, but where’s the ship?”

the two turn to each other, before the youngest asks “what’s a chip?”

“a ship! like a big tree and it floats on water!” jimin shouts, hands flailing around to emphasize on the floating tree’s size as his brother’s mouth falls to the ground.

“woah,” jeongguk gasps.

“why don’t you go show jeongguk a ship, jimin?” taehyung suggests, picking up on your hint, “you know, that peter pan book i brought home for you guys yesterday - captain hook’s a pirate and he’s got a ship.”

“a ship! a ship!” jeongguk claps at the mere mention of it.

“come on!” jimin beckons before the two of them start zooming to their room and you yelling after them to “slow down, you two!”

“you’ve got some tension built up right here, darling,” he starts massaging your shoulders, sneaking in a kiss which you gladly accept before announcing.

“two,” you hold up two digits in his face, “two kids and i’m done - i told you.”

“yeah,” taehyung agrees.

it’s probably the lack of protest or the way he’s kissing your temple gently - but either way, it’s you that’s murmuring the opposite proposition, “would be nice if we had a girl though.”

“you want me to call my parents?” he beams, “ask if it’s okay send the kids there for the weekend.”

“yes!” you clap once and he’s reminded of his youngest and his habit of clapping at everything that excites him.

“okay,” he manages to slip a kiss on your forehead before two pairs of footsteps comes thundering into the kitchen, screaming “mommy! daddy! can you read us the story?”

you shake your head at the two’s antics, smile curling on your lips, “come on then.”

you make yourself to the room, jimin holding your hand while jeongguk goes on about captain ‘ook’ as taehyung carries him behind you.

meeting you was possibly the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

#bts fic #taehyung fic #bts fanfic #taehyung fanfic #bts scenarios #taehyung scenarios #bts smut #taehyung smut #taehyung fluff #bts fluff #taehyung x reader #bts x reader #bts taehyung #shortings

[undercoverwizardfanfiction]

Fantasy ROTTMNT Fanfiction:Do Not Go Gentle:Prolouge

Summary: We were beaten by Draxum, the   Unbreakable Baron. He took our Donnie from us. Now there’s nothing in the Hidden Kingdom that will stop us from getting him back. Sequel to the Broken Butterfly

Characters: Leo, Donnie, Raph, Mikey

Rating: Currently E

  Overall: T (for later chapters] (note I’ll be sure to rate each chapter individually and give each one trigger warnings pertaining to that chapter for people who want to read the story but want to avoid the angst and violence coming up )

Pairings: Oh? You want to read the story and ship everything  including the trees? Go right ahead you just have to get past my ““ship guard” *points to dragon lying in front of entrance to story wearing a bib that says ““shippers only diet”

Take a step back, before Draxum stole Donnie from his brothers, before their adventure began. Before their adventure, after all everything has a beginning

                                                         (#)(#)\/(#)(#)

Prince Leonardo Pumpington Cuddle Wuddle Baby the Twenty-Fifth awoke as he always does. With a minor headache and more tired than when he laid down twelve hours ago despite sleeping on a triple sized king bed under the fluffiest blankets made from only the finest endangered species. He pushes up his eye mask and waves off the Choir standing by his side that acted as his personal alarm before sinking once again into his soft warm bed. Staring at the ceiling and mural of himself winking. Leo made sure to wink back with finger guns, as was his usual morning ritual. He was content to lay in bed for the rest of the day (which wouldn’t be unusual) when the large ornate double doors swung open. A familiar octopus stepped in with a wide smile but eyes that were forever nervous ,”Go-good Morning my Prince! Are you ready to wake up? Where would you like your breakfast?”

The prince stretched his overly privileged arms. He could always have breakfast in bed again, that thought was always appealing, “I‘ll eat in Dining Hall Three today.” He claps his hands together loudly. Two of the more muscular choir members quickly moved lift him out of bed, holding him over their heads like a religious object and carry him out of the room. The hallways are covered in beautiful rare oil paintings, but none of them held his attention until they pass by a large mirror. “Holdup,” he says waving his hand, the two attendants back up to the mirror again. Leo made sure to give his reflected self the self-appointed wink before snapping his fingers at an attendant who had doted alongside, “You go get my make up team and my manicure team. I refuse to look anything less than spectacular.”

“Yes of course my prince.” She she curtseys before hurrying off.  The attendants carrying him finally arrived in the large dining hall with a table longer than most roads. He was lowered onto a soft throne-like dining room chair before he clapped his hands together and another attendant, with a tray with an ornate tea pot came over with several ornate china teacups on the tray to see which one he’d want to go with his breakfast. He sipped one, “Too cold” he tosses the cup over his shoulder where it shatters on the ground. “Too hot” he tosses that one. “Too sour.” He tosses another, ”Too perfect...” he tosses again before letting out a large irritated sigh. “Go try again,” he snaps as that attendant runs off as well (trying their best not to step on broken pieces of fine china).

The prince leans back in his seat before a chef hustles out with a tray. “For you, your excellence!” he says lifting the lid off the tray and sets it in front of him, despite his already irritated attitude, he can’t help but smile at the delicious selection, the chef bows. ”Caviar Benedict, with a maple syrup glaze, a side of cinnamon churro asparagus and a glass of,” he sighs, “le Choccy Milk.”

“Aw perfect!” Leo waves off the tired chef.  It’s not long after he’s finally given a good pot of tea and he’s leaning back in his seat. He has two attendants giving him a manicure, with a third applying his make-up and a fourth  lifting his tea to his mouth while a fifth one is leaning precariously around everyone else to try cut his food for him. “Taki!” he snaps to the octopus servant, “I have a headache so clear my schedule.”

‘I-oh-uh.” Taki let out a tremble. “My Prince what about your Aetherwave show? You told your fans you would take a dive into a pool of diamonds today.”

Leo scoffed. “And I told you my diamonds are dirty, throw them out and buy me new ones,” he says, turning his head towards an attendant who snapped his fan open and began to fan him off, “Did you replace my ring yet?”

“You mean the one of a kind diamond sapphire ring made for you by the master craftsman Jair-Red? I-I was trying to tell you that he recently passed-“

The Prince snaps his head in Taki’s direction with such intensity the octopus squeaks out in fear “Then get the necromancer and tell her to make him make me a new one.” He thought for a moment to make sure he had said that right. “And make sure this one is clean. Unlike that last one,” he scoffs as he remembers how disgusted he was when he found that smudge on his seventy third favorite ring. So disgusted in fact he had wasted no time in yanking it off and throwing it out the nearest window.

“Um, yes my Prince, I’m sure NecroNancy won’t mind coming into work on her birthday.” Ending in a tone that implied NecroNancy would not only mind coming into work but would also be very cross about it.

Leo let out a loud scoff, his throat was actually starting to hurt from making that noise so much “That’s not my problem is it!?” he demands as though daring Taki to imply otherwise.

“Yes, right, sorry My Prince.” Taki moves down his list. “Um, that was all you really had. Other than your concert tonight-“

Leo levels the octopus with a angry look, waving off the attendant who had just finished his eyeliner. “ I just told you cancel everything.”

“No-now I would your majesty.” Taki avoids his burning yellow eyes by looking at his paper, “Your mother was the one who requested the concert. And-“ the octopus gulps,” I do not think you want to disappoint her, do you?”

Leo’s hand bumps lightly against his teacup. Though barely noticeable to anyone else, Leo was painfully aware of his mistake. He flexes his trembling hand before regaining his composure, “Well if Mummy wants it then who am I to say no. I don’t suppose she’ll be at this one either?” he asks.

“No, My Prince, I'm sorry.”

Leo hides his disappointment by inspecting his new manicure, looking for a flaw to point out. Unfortunately, they were done to perfection. With a surge of irritation, he claps his hands together. “Leave me be!” he commands, “Go get my preparations ready.”

The staff bowed as they left, bumping into each-other as they hurried away to do their assigned tasks. When they were gone from sight, Leo sighed and leaned back as much as he could in his high back seat with a cup of tea in his hand before drinking from it.

He had gone three years without seeing his mother

What was another three to her?

                                                               (#)(#)\/(#)(#)

Leo spent the rest of the day in preparation for his concert relaxing in a gold water bath which took all the tension out of his body. Investing all that money to invent gold water was the best small fortune he had ever spent, (even if it was highly toxic to drink). A day of pampering and relaxation nearly killed off his sour mood. But before he knew it, while being fed diamond-grade gold grapes, Taki was reminding him of his recital.

He knew his mother had probably already picked out a recital outfit for him, but until then at least  he had a choice in what he would wear to the event. And for him it was his favorite aqua formal coat over a his white button up shirt and two toned pants with spats. He needed help from Jabot to put on his ruffle tie and pendant but other then that he was fine. The attendants loaded up any excess jewelry he would need between the recital and the parties afterwards.

Unfortunately, the platinum diamond carriage was being re-diamonded so he was stuck with the gold diamond studded carriage. He tapped his foot boredly  before flipping out his mystic mirror, twist a flash, he knew it was connected to the Aetherwave, which was at its strongest at the castles. “Hello my fibbly fabulous subjects, it’s your beloved and beautiful Prince, Leonardo Snuggly Wuggly the Twenty-Fifth, here to tell you of an upcoming recital featuring,” Leo made sure to tilt his head to catch the mystic sun on his cheek, “Yours truly, I hope you can all make it, though I doubt it. I’ll be sure to pay someone to describe it in full detail when I return.” Leo blew a kiss at the mirror before hanging up.

“Um,” Taki tapped his tentacles together. “My prince, please we talked about you broadcasting just before you leave. It's very dangerous you don’t want your enemies –“

Leo squeezes his eyes shut snapping his fan shut with such intensity that it interrupts Taki with a small squeak as though he understood how close he was to getting on the Princes last nerve. Leo turns to Taki with a large smile. “Taki, Taki, it’s Taki right? I’ve known you foorrrr…” Leo trails off in a way that leads to Taki to add, “E-ever since Big Mama brought you home.” His nervous face half hidden behind his clipboard as though it could somehow protect him.

“Right, right. A while, and maybe in this time I may have made you feel.” Leo danced his fan as though trying to conjure the word he was thinking of, “Comfortable? So as a Pirnce, it's my job to remind you.” He taps his fan on Taki’s forehead, “What does it mean to be a prince?”

“It-it means you’re one of a kind.” Taki stutters, “a a gift.” Leo gestures for him to continue, “a superbly burbly light from the stars.”

“That’s RIGHT Taki, very good.” Leo clapped his hands like one would clap at a dog on its hind legs, “I’m a a gift, you’re lucky enough to be able to be graced in my presence every day. And you.” Again, Leo’s fan taps him between the eyes, this time with enough force to make Taki step back with a tremble, “Well, there are millions like you. So, while I'm irreplaceable, that means there are millions of yokai who could do your job in your sleep, so you are….” Leo again trails off, gesturing for him to continue. Taki’s eyes filled with a sadness that Leo barely notices, as the octopus lowered his tear-filled eyes, “replaceable.”

“Very good Taki! Such a smart man!” with a final tap of his fan on Taki’s head, Leo climbed up into the carriage, a guard pulled the door open for him. He gave finger guns to the guards who sat in the drivers spot and on the back. Leo was about to swing in when he saw a massive brown dog sitting across from his would be spot.  Ugh,” he groaned, “Gus what are you doing?”

“Heya Prince!” Gus said happily, either oblivious to Leo’s disgust or just not caring. “Big Queen sent me here as extra muscle but you’re cool with that, right bro? Course you are!” The dog tore open a tin of bone shaped cookies he had brought along and began to tear into them without any dignity or manners. Leo scrunched up his beak before pulling himself in. Snapping open his fan to try and get the smell of “peasant” off him.

It wasn’t his fault they were all poor.

                                                                (#)(#)\/(#)(#)

Thanks to the best magic available the inside of the carriage kept the interior at a perfect temperature, judging by the shivering peasants working out in the fields, but thankfully that’s what curtains were for. Leo spent most of the journey looking through the dance recital choreography his mother had picked out for him. Why she bothered to do that he didn’t know. Tapping his foot in rhythm and trying to visualize what illusion would go best with the moves. He’d have a little time to practice before the event but he often did his best work on the fly. So eventually he gave up. At that point there was a heavy shadow against the curtain telling him they were passing a forest now. Leo was half asleep when the smooth ride was interrupted by a jarring hit and they came to a stop. He grabs the door to keep from flying forward as his anger swells back. “What is the glimbering meaning of this?!” he demands scooting towards the window. ”I swear if you make me late I'm throwing you all into the Battle-“  he goes to throw the curtain open when suddenly something heavy slams against the door. Leo drew back in shock as the carriage rocks heavily. He grabs at the framework to keep from falling on the ground. Before he could say anything, Gus was scrambling for the door. ”Don’t worry, your highness!  I’ll protect-“ But a moment later the door was thrown open and his bodyguard suddenly was yanked from view and thrown aside.

A cry of surprise escapes Leo, he scrambles for the door he was presses against and after a few frantic seconds manages to get the door open and fall out the other side just as he felt a hand grab at the back of his shirt. The prince rolls on the ground for a moment, surrounded by the sounds of combat and shouts. The neat clean purple guard of the Matriatch locked in a struggle against several larger dirty looking thugs that Leo could only assume were bandits when one of them turns and points at him, “There’s the Prince!”

No!

Kidnappers.

For a moment Leo hoped they were referring to another devilishly handsome prince when all eyes fell on him. Leo looks to his fallen guards in hopes that are just pretending to be horribly injured but judging by the pained groan of one of them lets out when one of the kidnappers steps over him he knows it’s a pipe dream. “Thanks for the Aetherwave video, kid,” one of the bandits with a crooked jaw says. “We had just about given up on getting you before you posted that. Now how about you be a good boy and don’t put up a fight.”

Leo would like to think he would have been brave if he had ever been in a life or death situation, but his trembling body betrays that dream as well.  But if he knows how to do anything, its talk. He musters a chuckle that he hopes is more humor then fear. ”Really? You geniuses thought coming after me was a good idea?” He puts on a wide grin as easy as a mask, “I am Prince Leonardo Snuggly Wubbly Baby the Twenty-fifth and I –“

“Um.” One of the bands looks off to his friends in confusion. “Wait that’s your name? For real? That’s just tragic.”

Despite himself, when the bandits start off laughing (he’s even sure he can hear one of the guards chuckling weakly into the ground) he blushes angrily, “Excuse me, you are criminals! I don’t except any of you to crimdididly criminals to understand a name of high society. Or someone of my power.” He snaps his fan out hard which suddenly fills the air with bright sparks with such intensity one of the bandits stumbles back in shock. He couldn’t help but feel satisfied at their awe and fear. “I am a master Mystician. I have trained with warlocks and wizards whose very power could turn the world inside out.  And you honestly think you have any chance of challenging me!?” He threw his free hand upward as a light explodes from his fingertips licking the air like a mighty firework that makes the bandits stumble back in shock in order not to be touched by the magic.

They are so enamored by the display, it takes them a moment to notice that Leo is, in fact, running away as fast as he can in a manner that not only raised the question if he had ever run a day in his life or even walked (like a deer that not only just realized they had legs but were on backwards).

Leo’s hands fumble for his panic broach at his throat while looking at the bandits who were just noticing his disappearance when his graceful toe caught on a large root and sent him hard onto the ground. The broach flying from his fingertips and sinking into a mud puddle. “Who put all this nature here?!” he shrieks in panic. He can already hear the bandits running after him, Leo hurries to his feet and turns towards where he had come from. Despite his panic he summons bright silver lights to his finger tips that he swipes through the air, creating a crystal web across the trees in the path. But not wanting to wait to see how long they would last Leo ran again, before he hears the crystal shatter behind him and sends. Before he can react a rock hits him hard in the shell, knocking him forward snd rolling across the hard ground, his only saving grace was the hard tree in front of him that stops him but sends pain shooting down his shoulder, causing him to cry out and hold the injured appendage. He turns to press his shell against the tree as the bandits are now far too close to his liking.

“You know what, your highness?” The square chinned bandit says. “That was a good try. Probably not the best escape attempt I’ve ever seen but definately the funniest.” The other bandits chuckle around him as he raises up the muddy remains of Leo’s Panic Pendant. “Maybe if you were actually as great as you think you are, then you might have stood a chance.”  His rough hands crushes Leo’s only hope before dropping the pieces to the ground and stepping froward, reaching towards him with the same sinfully dirty hand.

Leo turns his head away, anything to spare him the sight of the hand coming closer to grabbing him-

Something whistles through the air followed by the sound of impact and something hitting the ground hard.  Leo lowers his arm in time to see something jump over his head and land hard against the bandit in front of him with both feet, sending the Yokai flying. The interloper ducks underneath a bandit directly to his front that tries to punch him and plants his staff hard in the ground, vaulting over and sending a bandit flying back into a tree. The interloper swung his staff up into a defensive position. The impenetrable shadow of his raised dark plum hood stole his features from Leo sending a shiver down his shell , but he could assume that when he jabbed his staff at the  bandits it was a warning to go on. One of the bandits go to grab the leader when the interloper aims his staff at the unconscious bandit leader. Before he uses his toe to kick his money pouch up into his hands, before nodding at him. The bandits grab their leader by the ankles and run off into the forest after his friends.  After that, the interloper opened up the drawstring pouch and began to poke around inside.

It took Leo a moment to realize his life was no longer in danger, and that relief was swapped by a rage, “What took you so long?! I thought that Uncles Rangers were the best warriors in the kingdom,” he snaps. The interloper head tipped in his direction for a moment before going back to count the money in his bag. It takes Leo a moment to realize he’s being ignored and swells up his chest as he stomps in the interloper’s direction, “Don’t you ignore me! I thought I was dimbly done for!!! I am the Prince; my safety is your only priority.”

For the first time since he arrived, the interloper looked fully in his direction, his face cast in shadow by   his hood as though finally acknowledging his presence. He almost seems frozen at the sight of him, a fact Leo took to mean he understood his failings. “Thats right, when we get back to the castle I'm going to make sure you are thrown in a dungeon-“ Leo didn’t have a chance to finish his threat before the hooked staff appeared again and caught him around the ankle.

The moment his head hit the ground his world went black.

                                                              (#)(#)\/(#)(#)

It feels like a life time before Leo opens his eyes again and when he does he’s welcomed by a splitting headache. He instinctually tries to rub his head only to find his arms have been bound with his wrists behind him. Not painfully but it is enough to make him glare at the figure sitting against a tree several feet in font of him. Now Leo can see this figure lacks the fine, if plain, tunic of a Ranger. He’s wearing poor peasant clothing that seems to hang off him, wrapped in a dark plum cloak, the only indication of his skin came from his bare two-toed green feet and fingerless gloves. He’s watching Leo from his spot with his arms over his chest. If Leo hadn’t known better, he would have thought that he had fallen asleep. Except, even though Leo can't see his face, he feel his eyes on him which only adds to his anger and irruption. He can’t actually tell how much time has passed only that they are not in the same clearing as they had been a moment ago but a more secluded spot, where the mushroom trees where much closer together.  “Excuse me?!” he snaps. ”What is the meaning of this?!” he demands. “You're not a ranger, are you?! You’re just some- some, weirdo living in the woods huh?!? Huh!? Do you want a ransom too!!??” he demands. A part of him is almost desperate for a response at his point.

“I don’t like to waste my words.”

Leo blinks. He had thought the figure might have been close to his age, but to hear his actual voice still shocks him. The thief falls silent again, drinking from a tin cup that smells like cheap old coffee that Leo can smell from here.  The thief stands up and-spins his staff around his hand again lazily. “The truth is, I haven’t decided what to do with you yet. Ransoming you out won't do me any good, I'd live the rest of my life with a target on my back. Which isn’t ideal. I could rob you I guess, but I'm not sure I want it brother myself with stuff that smells so flowery. But that’s if I wanted to be professional” The thief dumps his cup out by his side. “I could just take everything you have and dump you in the deepest darkest part to the woods.“

At first Leo wonders if it's possible to have a heart attack from fear alone.  But at the moment his heart seems determined to try. Kidnappers were one thing; he had been warned about them his whole life. But this person didn’t sound like they were all too interested int that. This sounded more like—

Leo blinks, his eyes going to the hooked staff that hasn’t left the thief’s side. Though the twisting hooked wood is nothing special to him, other than a dark gray handle at the end that seemed to summon the weapon, he sees a dark crystal hovering inside the hooked circle at the tip. The purple with a hint of pink is achingly familiar and the moment he recognizes he had owned it he can't’ help but let out a full-on laugh. It brings him no small amount of satisfaction to see the Thief look in his direction again. “I get it, you’re one of the orphans Mummy threw out before me,” he sneers. “Awwww you poor thing. Jealous that Mummy saw you for the worthless unlovable, pieces of trash you are? Is that it, little boy-“

The figure is in front of him in half a blink, lifting him up by the front and slamming him hard into the tree behind with such speed that Leo cries out in panic as dark pink eyes burn into him with such intensity Leo could feel the red hot rage about to be unleashed on him, “You know, you’re right?” the Thief says in a way that almost makes Leo think he’s sneering, “Since i’m  a no one.” He twists the shirt up tighter in his hands, “Then I got nothing to lose-“

Before Leo could see his life flash before his eyes, there's a flash of red energy and the Thief jumps away in in time to avoid a giant fist red of energy swiping at him. In the time it takes Leo to hit the ground, the Thief summersaults underneath another giant hand and snatches up his hooked staff and roll to his feet. A giant bulking figure jumps out from the tree line, sliding across the ground before coming to a stop.

“Comet Farts!” the Thief gasps.

Not that Leo could blame him, the figure now standing between him and the Thief was more muscular then any of his guards, a large snagle tooth hanging from he mouth and  with a thick  that would put a tree to shame, Leo had seen snapping turtles before but none that big. He was wrapped in a black cloak and grey traveling gear, his head is marked off by a red bandana that’s fixated on the Thief.  “In the name of Captain Jupiter James Guild, you are under-arrest for kidnapping and grand larceny and-“ The giant snapping turtle looks to his hand, Leo could just see a list of crimes the bounty hunter hand written up his arm, “And-and just a lot of other things-“ but the bandit had already turned and fled into the forest, “HEY!” The turtle shouts, “No, you're under arrest! That means stop running!” the giant runs after him, before calling, ”Mikey make sure the Prince is ok.”

“Don’t just lea-“ There’s a rustling to Leo’s right that makes him shriek out in surprise before, what could only be described as, another turtle slightly younger than himself pokes his head out to the bushes, “Don’t worry your highness! I’m a fan! Me and Raph are here to rescue you!” before climbing out of the bushes, revealing his dirty mud-covered body and old patchwork orange clothes.

Leo shrieks again.

This time for different reasons.

“No don’t you dare touch me! You’re filthy and you smell like a bird-“ There's another crashing sound, the thief almost crashes into Leo (who gave out his, what felt like, hundredth shriek and leapt out of the way.) The Thief hits the mushroom tree before falling into a crouch position. When he drags his hand across his face, Leo could see blood stain his sleeve.

The one who had called himself Raph stepped out of the forest, cracking his neck from side to side. “I’m sorry I hit you. I don’t want to fight some kid,” he starts, “If you turn yourself in maybe they’ll go easy on you-“

The Thief visibly grips his staff tighter, he reaches into his pocket and tosses a small brown bundle in the air that he smacks with his staff in Raph’s face which explodes into red dust. The bounty hunter cries out as he stumbled back, scrubbing at his face with his forearm before the Thief was on him jumping up and planting his feet hard against him like he had before with the bandit. Raph, though blinded, twists away and brings his elbow up to knock the Thief hard in the head.

The impact makes the Thief hit the ground before Raph’s foot found its place on his arm that held the hooked staff. The Thief squirmed trying to free him arm, “I’m trying to help you here. I was trained by the greatest hero of the Hidden-“

The hooked staff in the Thief’s trapped hand suddenly flashes and shrinks into the handle, with a limited room the Thief manages to toss it his other hand where it reforms and he swings hard, knocking Raph in the face.  The Thief rocks back to his feet. His closed stance shifting to a wide one as he swings his staff around, Raph’s arms came up and crossed over his face as red energy covers him again flaring under the hits as the Thief spins around and rains a few smacks on his sides before swinging his leg up with a side kick to the stomach. Blindly, Raph swings his arm around and knocks him hard in the head.

The Thief flew back hard against a mushroom tree, his hood fallen back to reveal a dark jade green complexion wrapped in a purple bandana, blood running from where his nose would be as he snarled angrily at the Bounty Hunter before jumping at him again.

The turtle that had been called Mikey let out a small whine, “Raph, the Prince won't let me untie him because he thinks I smell.”

Raph had somehow pinned the Thief around his chest, but judging by the strained look on his face he wasn’t going to keep it for long as the two struggle around. ”Don’t distract me, I'm working,” before pausing “And when was the last time you had a bath that wasn’t just you standing in the rain?”

Mikey opened his mouth to respond before lifting his arm and smelling his armpit, judging by the grimace on his face he had just answered his own question. Leo squirmed away from the filthy turtle, in fact he was so determined to get away from the filthy turtle that he didn’t see the Thief slam his head back against Raph’s face, forcing the bounty hunter to drop him and the two opposite turtles collapsing against the other.

Then.

A breath.

The one known as Raph ran forward with his hand held out probably to pull the Thief off him, but as he took a step closer a small wave pulsed from him. Like a gust of wind, ceasing the chaos and shouting and bringing silence. An invisible force catches him by the front of the chest and pulls him upward into the air, causing him to cry out in panic. He looks around and sees the same thing happening to those around them. Even the scattered leaves and stones are caught in the air as though reality in that moment had taken a break. Each of them caught in some sort of invisible suspension.  A heat started at the back of Leo’s eyes and burned forward like an inferno. He squeezes his eyes shut in order to try and stop it but his eyelids are forced open, revealing golden eyes with white flecks radiating from his eyes as the world suddenly turned white. He lashes his arms and legs out around him stupidly to try and grab something when he notices a person standing in front of him, outlined in a green flame with yellow eyes staring right at him, though there aren’t any real characteristics, Leo can tell it’s a human of sorts with a large pompadour. It reaches up to touch him but he can't’ help but flinch away, whether out of fear the fire would burn him or the stranger itself he doesn’t know. But then the figure tilts his head to the side as though saying ‘I understand’.

Before Leo could say anything, he’s not even sure he could in this state, the figure suddenly twists into itself and takes the shape of a five-petal lotus flower before burning away. Then he hears a man's voice behind him, as though something is whispering to him

“Come find me.”

As quick as it all starts, it ends. Leo hits the ground hard and gasps loudly, rubbing at his tear-filled eyes as he looks around him. Too shocked to yell, but he can tell he’s not the only one confused. Raph had already pulled himself up next to Mikey to check on him, who’s now rubbing ineffectively at  eyes streaming with tears. The Thief is several steps away, as though eh had thrown himself as far them as possible, and is checking his trembling hands as though making sure they weren’t about to explode on him. But after a few glances at each other, as though reassuring themselves they had all experienced the same thing. They had one question for each other:

“Who are you?”

Part 2=>>

#rottmnt #Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt fanfiction #fantasy au #donnie #leo #raph #mikey #angst #hurt/comfort #do not go gentle #rottmnt fantasy au

[heavens-crown]

The Invasion

               They came out of nowhere. Huge hulking ships sinking from the sky, they were chrome and looked like something out of Star Wars. Humans had one of two reactions to the invaders. Panic and aw. People with tin foil hats screamed their joy about being right in their theories, masses huddled in churches convinced this was the end of times, and some people simply carried on about the new addition to earth. It took two hours until the invaders sent a simple message out the world.

               “We have come to learn what your planet offers, and if it deserves a spot within our alliance.”

               The message was extremely vague, however it calmed people down somewhat, They didn’t wish humans harm right?

               We were wrong. Over the course of a month they were shown humanities history, the countless battles, rise and fall of countries and religions, and all of our advancements. They were horrified with what humans had done. Mass genocides, religious executions, and general violence. So it was a shock when their second message was sent to every human, no remorse being even hinted at.

               “We have seen what you have done, while your advancements are impressive and you are a resilient species you are destructive to everyone and everything around you. We, the Xenom, have decided that you do not deserve a spot within the alliance and as such mass sterilization of the Earth will begin.”

               And before anyone could even wrap their minds around the message the ships opened up and mass troops of these Xenom poured out and began hunting the humans. They were tall and bulked up from the suits they wore, apparently the atmosphere was toxic to them. The weapons they carried nothing like anything we had ever seen. And that’s when the attacks started. The troops landed all across the world and began wiping out humans. Horrified humans fought back, but they didn’t truly unite until a video emerged out of Canada. A mother cradled her baby while a Xenom soldier shot her in the leg before killing her and her baby while she cried out for mercy. Similar videos emerged soon after of the brutalization caused at the hands of these things.

               Humans decided enough was enough. Groups across the world formed and they began hunting the soldiers trying to wipe humans out. Countries banded together in complete unity for the first and possibly only time. It also seemed that Mother Nature had begun her own hunt of these soldiers. Stories leaked out of troops that were chased down and eaten by prides of lions in Africa, Xenom in the jungles hunted by orange cats that appeared out of thin air and disappeared just as suddenly, alligators in Florida dragging soldiers into the swamp lands. But it wasn’t just the wild animals who sought their revenge.

               K9 dogs were used in the hunt of the Xenom. Other humans followed the governments lead and began using their own pets to hunt the invaders down. Hunters across the world gathered in mass with their hunting dogs and used them to sniff them out, giving them an advantage. The Xenom weren’t expecting these canines to be predators but they were. It turned out canine saliva was as close to poison as one could get. Shelters across the nation emptied out as people began adopting animals in mass. Even the most even tempered animals recognized the threat they posed and didn’t hesitate in defending their owners.

               The Xenom leaders were in shock. In less than half an Earth year humans had wiped out over eighty percent of their military. What really baffled them was that it was all humans, not just their militaries. High school students formed their own militias and hunted them alongside their local authorities. Across the world soccer and football players teamed up to take out scouting parties, using soccer balls as the main weapons, and if that didn’t work they would send the football players in using them to tackle them and crush them. Surprisingly enough it only took a few pounds of pressure to crush their skulls. Humans are remarkably resilient, the Xenom leaders mused. They tried calling in their allies but one look at the carnage caused by the humans had the others backing away. They didn’t want to lose their military force and risk making an enemy of these savage beings. Then one day a troop came back to the main ship, four soldiers of the original thirty. But they had a human with them.

               “Tell us why we shouldn’t kill you as a message to the other humans to show that their death is inevitable.” General Iatok asked. Tall and lithe like the others of his race he was well known for his ruthlessness in guarding his people. He had never seen a race like the humans before. He wanted them gone. The human laughed and bared his teeth at the general.

               “You kill me and you’ll just incite a deeper fury into the others. The moment you began this war you were destined to lose. Especially when you killed mothers and their children. So go ahead General. Kill me and watch what happens.” The human said softly.

               “But why will you not surrender?’ Iatok asked, genuinely curious.

               “Because if there’s one thing humans hate more than one another, is they hate to lose. And this is one fight we won’t lose.”

#humans are space orcs #one shot #alien invasion

[no-worshiped-roads]

Ignite the Water

warning a head of time for injuries related to burns

I won’t get too graphic, but it will have some people getting badly burned

anyway this is for @sammywolfgirl siren au

this is just a random idea of something that could happen, just a fic bug that wouldn’t leave me alone

and maybe a way for Neon J and his boys to earn the trust of some more of the pod

I also need to stop picking on my May, but she’s one of my fave characters so 😔

--------------------------------

Mayday had learned her lesson a long time ago that not all humans can be trusted. And yet she couldn’t help her curiosity, though she was at least more cautious now; observing first and then trying to find out if they’re friendly.

It’s worked so far, given that Neon J and his boys were perfectly fine. Just stranded till they could all their parts for their.. radio was it? May had no clue what a radio was but it was clearly important enough to get them un-stranded. So while certain sirenfolk still avoided them, they did at least keep an eye for the missing pieces.

If only to get them out of here faster.

‘Well to each their own I suppose.’ Mayday though to herself as she swam towards the island the humans were on.

They were a fun group to talk to, and besides, she had found some human things. She had them wrapped in a bag she had found. She had no idea if it was any of the parts they needed, but might as well check. Getting close she decided to peak her head over the water to make sure no other humans were nearby. Upon seeing the coast was clear, she headed to the shore where she could see two of the boys, Eloni and Haym, wandering around.

Resurfacing once again with a small splash she called out to them. “Hey guys!”

The two turned around as got as close to the shore as she could. “I found these things. No idea if it’s any of the stuff you need but”

Haym took the bag from her outstretched hand and started rummaging through it. “Hmm, I’m not sure, a lot of this is so covered in algae it’s hard to tell what it is. I’ll take it to the captain so he can see.”

Haym walked off further into the island, leaving Mayday alone with Eloni. He was the more quiet one of the group. But May though he was fun once you got to know him.

“So any luck finding any of the pieces yourself?”

“Not really.” Eloni shrugged. “We did find some scraps of our ship we might be able to use on the radio, though the Captain isn’t sure yet.”

“Hmm.” Mayday couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for them.

She couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to be separated from pretty much everyone you knew like this, to the point where you couldn’t even call for help, much less them.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll get that radio thing of yours fixed in no time.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Hey Eloni! Get over here the captain needs our help!” one of the brothers called from far away.

“Oh. Uh, sorry May I gotta go.”

“It’s fine! I’ll keep an eye for more parts.”

May backflipped into deeper waters and swam off under the sea. She had no desire to go home to Zuke yet, as she was quite restless and wanted to do some exploring. As she swam further out into the ocean, she kept looking for any pieces that may have drifted out this far. So far, no luck. As she swam further and further out, she began to doubt even more that she would find pieces. After all, they didn’t start having problems out this far.

Mayday was beginning to get ready to head back when a sudden sound caught her attention. Glancing around the ocean and straining her ears, she listened. again she heard the sound, and felt the vibrations. Straight ahead. She swam a ways out trying to see what the commotion was. There. A large shape was sitting on top of the water and, upon surfacing, May saw that it was a very large ship.

Keeping only half hear head above water to make her hard to spot she checked out the ship. She saw no fishing nets on this ship, so they weren’t fishers. No weapons like harpoons either so that’s good. A lot of boxes though, and the lower part of the ship itself was huge. Much bigger than a normal ship.

‘I wonder what’s in that part?’ May thought to herself.

“What are you doing out here?”

May startled at the voice and almost jumped out of the water. Glancing behind her she could see part of Sayu’s group behind her, Tila and Dodo, as well as Sayu herself.

“You have got to stop doing that.” May muttered. “And I was looking for more of their parts.” She gestured at the island behind her.

“Out here?” Dodo asked tilting his head.

“I got restless” May shrugged her shoulders “I was going to turn around when I heard something and found that ship over there.”

Seeing the looks are their faces, May had to bite back a retort. She couldn’t blame after what happened last time she was being reckless.

“I'm not going near it, besides I think they’re just carrying human stuff to others. I don’t see any nets or weapons so... What did Subatomic call them?”

“Cargo ships I think?” Tila supplied.

“Yeah I think that was it...but....” Mayday trailed off. “Should we tell the guys on the island? I mean if they can get those humans’ attention then they wouldn’t need to fix their radio right?”

“That is true but wouldn’t that be dangerous for us?” Dodo asked.

“Maybe if we just stayed really low under water they won’t see us?” Tilas suggested.

“I can go tell everyone underneath to stay down low. I’ll swing by the island first and tell that captain though.” Sayu said, and was off in a splash.

Sayu, like May, was one of the fastest swimmers around here. She’d have the word spread in just a few minutes.

“I guess we should leave too” May started to follow Tila and Dodo when some movement caught the corner of her eye.

Turning around she saw another boat this one much smaller.

“What is it?”

Mayday answered Tila “There’s another boat now.”

Tila and Dodo glanced over her shoulder to see the small boat moving along the waters towards the larger boat.

“Huh. Where’d they come from?” Dodo questioned.

“And what are they doing?” May asked.

This boat was odd to say the least. It was moving around slowly, staying behind rocks, and using the deep fog bank that had rolled in to stay fairly hidden. If it weren’t for that fact siren’s had good hearing and could feel vibrations in the water, they probably wouldn’t have noticed it. It putted around till it finally started to get much closer to the ship.

“....you two head back home. I’m gonna spy and see if I can’t figure out what they’re up to.”

May then dove into the waters with a quiet splash and began to move closer to the two vessels. Keeping enough of a distance she watched from below to find a safe place to surface. She was able to find a bunch of rocks that would fully conceal her, but still let her see. Peeking just above the water, she could now see the small boat better. It was just a basic boat, though it had a strange large container on the back of it.

She watched as the two humans on the boat pulled on a hose attached to the container and lifted it up to the big ship. The end had a sharp bit on the end. Mayday tilted her head in confusion.

“What are they doing?”

Again May found herself jumping at Tila’s sudden appearance. The young siren had a terrible habit of sneaking up on others. Not that May was better mind you, at least according to Zuke.

“I told you to go home!”

“No.” was Dodo’s only reply.

May raised a brow at him and sighed. “then stay down and be quiet, I don’t know if they can hear us from here.”

“Get that thing ready, and be quiet! We don’t need them up there seeing us.”

“You got it boss.”

The human then heaved the hose thing up to the side of the ship, and the sharp bit began to spin. He pressed into the side of the larger ship, until it sunk completely in. It was hard to see what he did next, but whatever it was kept the hose of the side of the ship without having to be held there.

“We need to tell someone I think.”

May nodded to Dodo. “How fast do you two think you can get to hat island to tell Neon J and the others?”

“What about you?” Tila asked.

“I’m gonna keep an eye on them, would rather have you two away from here though.”

The two hesitated, before reluctantly giving in and sinking below the waters.  Mayday turned her attention back to the two suspicious humans, still confused on what they were doing. She could see something moving from the hose to the containers but hose wasn’t sure what.

--------------------------------------------------------

Tila swam with Dodo as fast as she could to the island, hoping Mayday would stay out of sight. The two swam so quickly they didn’t notice the blur that swished past them, nor did they notice it stop and turn back around. The two surfaced near the shore of the island and saw Neon J with all five boys.

“NEON J!”

Said man turned at Dodo’s shout “Yes...um Dodo was it?”

“Yeah but that’s not important, it’s about the ship.”

“Ah yes! Sayu  already told me, we’re working on a flare to get their attention.”

“That’s not we want to talk to you about.” Tila inputted.

“What are you two talking about, I though you all would have gone home.” Sayu swam up behind them, having turned around when she saw them going to the island.

“We saw another boat out there, and spied on it.’

“Tila, Dodo.” there was a worried tone in Sayu’s voice.

“Mayday might have told us to go back, and we might of...not listened?” Dodo sheepishly shrugged his shoulders.

“Anyway she’s still out there watching them, but they snuck up to the big boat and stuck something to the side of it.” Tila continued.

This had Neon’s attention. “What did they do next? What was it they attached?”

“Like, some kind of hose, and it was also connected to a containers. I think it was pulling something out of the ship but I don’t know what.”

Neon J seemed to think for a moment before answering “Oil thieves.”

“Oil?” Sayu asked with a head tilt.

“It’s a human fuel source. Listen one of you definitely needs to warn the sirens to stay low, and another needs to tell Mayday to get out of there. If they mess up and spill that oil, it would be very toxic to you.”

Sayu turned to Tila and Dodo “You go home, and warn the pod. I’ll get Mayday, and this time you do need to listen, do you understand?”

Tila and Dodo nodded, and dived down towards their home. Sayu quickly swam back to where May was to warn her.

Rin turned to Neon J “Captain? what do we do now?”

“Play it by ear soldier. If Sayu and May can get out of there in time we’ll be fine to alert them, but we also don’t want to startle those thieves into spilling the oil.”

Rin simply nodded, while the others exchanged worried glances.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mayday watched as more of whatever was in the ship was moved to their boat.

“We should be done soon. Make sure you have that patch ready, we don’t need them to know we were here.”

“Understood.”

“Mayday!”

The whispered shout got May to spin around, and she found herself face to face with Sayu.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were going to warn the pod.”

“I was when Tila and Dodo told me and the humans what was going on. So I sent them in my place, and I’m here to get you.”

The two sirens were so focused on their conversation, they didn’t notice the human getting ready to remove the hose.

“Get me?” Mayday asked, confused. “What do you mean?”

The hose slipped out of the human’s hands, as a black substance spilled in the water. They two didn’t notice when the other started berating the other’s mistake.

“Neon J says they’re...oil thieves? And that if it spills in the water we’ll be in trouble we need to get away from here!”

The human that dropped the hose fell back, knocking the lantern they had on the boat into the water.

“YOU IDIOT!”

This had the sirens’ attention, and they turned back just i time to see the lantern hit the now black water. It happened in seconds.

“FIRE!” Sayu screeched, as the ocean surface was set ablaze. The two quickly let their rocky alcove to try and run, only to find the oil had spread all over, and so had the fire.

“Oh what do we do?” Sayu asked panicked.

“We gotta find a safe way out! Do you see anywhere where there’s no fire?”

The two looked around desperately, the heat of the fire making their scales out of the water dry up.

“There!”

May looked to where Sayu pointed, where there was a thing, but fire free path out to the ocean. Unfortunately it was only one siren wide and also unfortunately, those humans had drifted over trying to escape the blaze themselves. the two looked at each other, knowing they were going to have to be cutting this close to not only escape the fire, but remain undetected.

“Let’s go”

Sayu nodded and the two dove forward. It wasn’t safe to go underwater nay more, there was so much oil underneath, and May could feel it coating her scales. She pushed Sayu in front, wanting her to get to safety first. The two had to go under briefly to avoid being seen by the humans. The water was thick and murky, breathing it in hurt her gills and eyes, but she pressed forward. Peeking over the water she could see not only were they on the other side of the boat now, but the humans were too focused on the blaze to notice them.

She tapped Sayu and motioned her forward, and the two went to keep moving. but something went wrong. May has no idea what happened, it went so quickly but oil suddenly spilt out from the humans’ boat and soaked her.

May grimaced at the feeling of the thick gross substance, and it was likely why she didn’t notice the fire creeping closer. At least not till her body was in agonizing pain, the oil on her body letting the fire travel up it with ease. She thinks she screamed, not caring if the humans heard her. It hurt. It hurt so bad. The ocean had to much oil in it to put her out.

The next thing May knew she was away from the fire on the water, she thinks Sayu pulled her out before she was shoved under the surface. It took several times before the fire was out, she thinks. It felt lie she was still on fire though, so much of her body burned.

Mayday shook and found her body locking up form the pain, and once again Sayu had to tug her forward. She doesn’t know how long Sayu dragged her. Her eyes and gills stung from the oil, her back and tail hurt so much that the water brushing over it sent spikes of pain along her body.

“WHAT IN THE OCEAN HAPPENED TO YOU TWO?!”

That voice sounded familiar, and May weakly lifted her head to try and see who was approaching. But the oil in her eyes made everything too blurry, and she was just trying not to pass out. She felt hands on her face, and squinting she could vaguely make out Yinu’s mother. The child was no where to be seen as much and Mayday could tell, but it was probably best she didn’t see them like this.

Glancing over she could see Sayu covered in just as much oil, her eyes red and black from the substance. Her gills were black too, and May wondered if that’s what she looked like. A sudden brush against her raw back and her jolt back and writhe in pain.

“I’m sorry but you need to hold still so I can look at you.”

“c-can’t, don’t touch, h-hurts.” May thinks she might have been crying but with so much oil in her eyes it was hard to do.

“What happened here?!”

Oh. That was Tatiana. She had been more or less avoiding the pod after what happened with.... So this was awkward. Or at least it would be if she wasn’t just trying to stay awake.

“T-there was a ship, we went to tell the people on the island so maybe they could go home.” Sayu gagged and coughed. “The-there were bad humans though, tr-tried to steal the oil? its what Neon J called it? I-i went to get May so we could leave, and it go into the water and then there was a fire.”

“and when we were swimming away, Mayday got oil spilled on her, and then the fire touched her and”

A coughing fit, she thinks she could hear Tila and Dodo talking now, likely filling in on the details that Sayu missed. Black filled the edges of her vision, though not from the oil this time. Her head grew heavy and she thinks someone was shouting for her to stay awake, but everything just hurt too much.

--------------------------------------------

“Hey! Hey don’t pass out on me!” Yinu’s mother felt May’s body go completely limp in her arms.

“We need to get her help now.” Tatiana spoke.

The siren’s body was in bad condition, her gills were black with this oil substance, that also completely coated her underside and her eyes. Her back was burned red, with hardly any scales left, and some still flaking off.

“I don’t know what this oil stuff is though, it wont come off!”

She swiped a hand on the gunk and hardly got any off, as the rest clung stubbornly to the young siren’s scales.

“M-maybe Neon J could help?”

Yinu’s mother couldn’t help but growl at the name of the human.

Tila flinched but continued “I know you don’t trust him, but please. He knows what this stuff is, so maybe he could get it off of them?”

She looked to Tatiana who looked just as conflicted as her. The woman let out a sigh and flicked her tail in irritation.

“Very well. but someone needs to go up with them to watch over them.”

“I’ll go” Yinu’s mother volunteered, and hse then turned to Tila and Dodo. “One of you should go tell Zuke.”

Dodo’s eyes widened “oh, shoot!” And he swam off to where the young siren lived with Mayday.

The larger siren cradled May to her with one arm, and took Sayu in the other, swimming to the island. She surfaced after checking it was safe, and could see the humans on the island. They startled at her appearance, as she was a good sized siren and they hadn’t seen her yet.

Good. She could use their unease to ensure the two sirens weren’t hurt.

The oldest of the group, who she assumed was Neon J, spoke first. “He-hello? I don’t think we’ve met yet, can we help you?”

She lifted herself out of the water more, showing the two injured sirens.

“OH MY GOODNESS! QUICK BRING THEM HERE!” RIN AND ZIMELU GO GET THE RAGS AND SOAP WE HAVE, PURL HEW GET THE MED KIT!”

She watched as the three boys ran off further onto the land. She hesitated before heading over to the shire, she set them in the shallows, Mayday whimpering as she was put down. At least she wasn’t completely out cold anymore, but she definitely wasn’t out of danger yet.

“I will be staying here and watching you.” Her voice was low and sharp. “Don’t try any funny business.”

Neon J simply nodded at her as his boys came back with his supplies. “I will do everything I can.”

A splash caught her attention, and the next thing she Knew Zuke was by her side.

“Wh- MAY! SAYU!” Zuke’s voice was frantic. “What happened?!”

“I need to know that as well.” Neon J asked as he had some of those rags with a foamy substance on them in his hand. She watched as he began to gently wipe off the oil from May’s scales with the young green haired one, while some of his other boys worked on Sayu.

“According to Sayu those humans that were stealing this.. oil stuff, spilled it into he water and it caught fire. When they were running away, Mayday got oil spilt on her before she was set on fire.”

The human winced “Yes, that would explain these horrible burns.”

“Will they be okay?” Zuke asked him.

“Right now we need to get this oil off them, this soap should help, and then well need flush out their systems with some water to get it out of their gills and eyes.”

“...and....her burns?”

The man paused and sighed. “I need to know if you all have anything that you use to treat burns, or something that could keep it in place so the water doesn’t wash it off.”

“uh yeah?”

“Then can you please get it?”

Zuke hesitated for a minute before she spoke up “I will stay with them, please. Go to our pod and get the supplies.”

He hesitated once more before diving away, and she turned back to him with a questioning look.

he glance at her before speaking. “I will treat her burns as much as I can, but you need to prepare her for the fact that some of these burns will never go away, and that it is likely some of her scales won’t grow back.”

She sighed “I was afraid of that.”

It was sometime later that they managed to clean the girls completely of oil,  and Zuke had returned with medicine. He spread it carefully over Mayday’s back and tail, before wrapping them up.

“They’re going to be weak for a couple of days, if they start coughing up oil bring them back to the surface so we can flush their system again.”

By this time May had woken up, wincing every time he put the medicine on her and as she was being wrapped up. The girls looked exhausted, especially May.

“They should be good to go back now. They’ll need to take it easy for a while.”

“What about the humans?” Zuke asked.

“The people are mostly gone, and now there’s only a clean up crew. But we won’t be trying to signal them, too risky that they’ll find you all. The two criminals have likely been arrested.”

“But you won’t be able to go home now?” Zuke had Mayday leaning on him, while Yinu’s mother held Sayu.

“It’s not worth the risk to you all.”

As they left to return home, she turned back and gave Neon J a nod of thanks. He proved himself helpful in treating the girls and wasn’t willing to risk their safety just to leave. She may not fully trust him, but he was shaping up to not be a bad human after all.

#nsr #no straight roads #nsr au #no straight roads au #nsr siren au #sammywolfgirl #tw injury #nsr mayday #nsr sayu

[yetanotherhoeforpedro]

Sinfully Armored

Chapter 3 - What happens on Kashyyyk… 

Chapter 2

A dull bump ended your slumber abruptly. You scrambled out of your cot and reached for your lightsaber out of reflex, though it was highly questionable as to how your weapon could help your ship. Another impact hit you and almost threw you to the ground, but you quickly steadied yourself and headed for the cockpit.

“Shit,” you exclaimed as you stared out of the cockpit and looked upon an asteroid field. R2 was already doing his best, steering you clear of the worst. Not daring to waste another second, you climbed into the pilot’s seat. The Force is with you, it will guide you, you tried to reassure yourself. Another hit. You cussed. While you were a decent pilot, you never had to maneuver through an asteroid field as tight as this one. You took a deep breath. “Let’s do this, R2,” you said with the bravado you had left and began to steer the ship deeper into the floating rocks.

The door to the cockpit slid open and while you didn’t dare to avert your attention from your task, you didn’t have to turn around to know it was the Mandalorian. “A bit more to the right,” a modulated voice commanded you. “I know what I am doing,” you gritted through your teeth, just as you felt a small impact from the left. For some reason, he didn’t rub it in, instead, he simply sat down into the copilot’s seat and looked ahead. “Down,” he warned you and this time, you listened to him, barely avoiding another hit.

It went on like that for the next minutes until you were clear again. You were about to say something to him, perhaps words of praise, but your mysterious passenger simply got up and left. You shrugged and decided to get a little more rest as it was still quite early and you were a Jedi, not a droid.

---------------------

When you awoke the next time, it was to a deep voice. “We’re there, Jedi,” it said and your eyes fluttered open. “Morning, Chatterbox,” you yawned, not thinking too much about your words. “Huh, Chatterbox. I like that nickname. It fits you perfectly,” you added and gave him a sleepy smile. He looked down at you, apparently not as pleased by the nickname. “Just give me a second,” you sighed and he left you alone, thank the Maker. You rose slowly, went to the fresher and gathered some supplies in your backpack afterwards. Apparently, you would have to eat breakfast on the go.

He was already waiting at the hangar with Grogu strapped to his chest in a pouch and R2 next to him. Why did he always have to look like a statue? He seriously needed to get this stick out of his butt. Without acknowledging him any further, you headed for the droid. “Morning, Artoo. What have you got for us?” R2 beeped and produced a map of the planet’s surface, you were on Kashyyyk. The map showed the path to a hut high up in the characteristic trees of the planet. Afterwards, he displayed the youngling and her name. A little Wookie, barely 20, which was young by the standard of the species. R2-D2 closed the image again.

“Thanks, Artoo.” You patted his head and turned to leave. Artoo beeped offendedly. “Oh, come on. You know we need you to stay on the ship. I’ll contact you if things go awry,” you promised and he ceased his protests.

Stepping out of your ship’s hangar, you took a moment to appreciate the stunning setting. Kashyyyk was one of the most idyllic planets in the galaxy and as you had visited it on a diplomatic mission with Luke and Chewie once, you came to fall in love with its enormous Wroshyr trees, tropical beaches and scenic mountains. You did have an unpleasant encounter with some Wyyyschokk spiders on that trip, but shit happens.

You focused back on reality and noticed the Mandalorian was staring at you. Avoiding his eyes, you opened the map and took a few steps towards the edge of the clearing your ship landed on. You turned around to your strange companion. “Are you coming or what?” Instead of replying, he just followed you, Grogu safely confided in his makeshift bag. The view was quite precious, you had to admit.

You spent the next few hours hiking through the forest mostly in silence, the only conversation prompts originating from you. You had no idea why you were still trying with him. At least Grogu seemed animated, marveling at the rich greens of the forest and trying to snatch some bugs from the trees around him.

At one point, you decided to sit down for a moment. The Mandalorian set Grogu free and he immediately waddled to one of those toxic Wyyyschokk spiders you were mildly traumatized by. You reached out with the Force to move it out of his grasp. Grogu shot you an offended look and tried to implement his own Force to pull it closer to him. “Grogu, no!” You sighed in exasperation. He didn’t comply. The Mandalorian was silently watching your exchange, as per usual. Grogu picked the spider up while staring at you innocently. “Put it away.” He halted his movement. “Good. Now let it go,” you said firmly. He hesitated. “It’s toxic, Grogu.”

The Mandalorian sprung to his feet and whipped his head towards you. “What? You let him near a toxic spider?!” You rolled your eyes. “Relax, Chatterbox.” But he was having none of that. Before Grogu could come to a decision, a blaster shot went off and the dead spider fell from his hands. “You idiot!” you yelled at him. “Now all of Kashyyyk knows we’re here!” He shrugged and settled back down. “Our rest is over,” you proclaimed, picked the little one up and put him into your backpack carefully before and slinging it over your shoulders. Not waiting for your companion – you knew he would follow if you carried the child, you continued making your way through the forest.

---------------------------------

The sun was at its highest as you finally arrived at the beach. A couple of small Wookies who had been playing in the water stopped dead as they spotted you. You raised your arms and carefully took a step towards them. In the little words you knew of their language, you explained to them that you had come in peace. They seemed to relax slightly, though they still shot wary glances at the warrior behind you.

You asked them whether another stranger had come to their village recently and they exchanged looks that told you they had no idea what you were saying, so you inquired where their guardians were instead. They pointed to a hut in the trees and you quickly thanked them before turning back to your companion.  

“We have to get to the hut up there.” You gave a sharp nod up to the tree, squinting against the blinding sun. The Mandalorian simply nodded and pulled you to his chest without an explanation. You had to crook your neck to look at him and before you could question his behavior, he embraced you even tighter and took off. Suddenly in the air, you held on to him just as closely, too shocked to react in any other way. Before you knew it, you felt the ground underneath your feet again. For a moment, neither one of you moved, both of you clinging to the other like your lives depended on it. Well, yours did a moment ago.

Once you regained your wits, you quickly tried to move out of his grip and he loosened it slightly. You broke free, took a step back and shot him a furious glare. “Don’t ever do that again,” you spat while angrily jabbing your index finger into his beskared chest. He didn’t respond, only moved his visor down to you in a deliberate movement. You held his stare, hoping he saw the boiling rage in your eyes.

The tension was snapped by a growl behind you. You spun around, facing a gigantic Wookie with slightly greying hair. “I am sorry,” you said in their language, quickly recovering from the shock. “I did not mean to disturb you. I am a Jedi.” You pointed to your lightsaber. “One of your children is in danger,” you added, trying to give at least a rough explanation for your sudden appearance. At least you hoped that’s what you said, your use of their language was pretty rusty. The Wookie hesitated to respond, their eyes wandering from the silent warrior to you and back. “He is no danger to you,” you tried to calm the Wookie. At last, they signaled you to follow them inside and you gladly obeyed. However, they kept the Mandalorian from entering and you gave him a half-hearted apologetic shrug.

Once inside, the Wookie guided you to a high table where a few other grown ones were already seated. You swiftly climbed up to the bench on the opposite side and took a seat, pulling your backpack with Grogu onto your lap. The Wookie briefly repeated what you told them and the others looked at you expectantly. In broken language, you tried to explain to them that a sort of Imperial bounty hunter – at that point you are glad the Mandalorian wasn’t allowed to enter because you had to explain that word rather embarrassingly in wild gestures – was trying to steal one of their children. You produced the image of the young one from your device and for once wished Threepio were with you as an incomprehensible discussion broke out between the Wookies.

After a while, one of them turned back to you. “What do you want here?” he asked you. “Are you here to steal her away as well?” This question threw you off guard a little. “Wha- no. I am here to protect her from the Empire,” you replied tensely. The Wookies exchanged wary glances and you couldn’t really blame them.

“We will not harm your child; we will only stay until the threat from the Empire is eliminated. The young one can decide whether she wants to become a Jedi later on,” a modulated voice interfered in perfect Shyriiwook. You turn your head to see the Mandalorian entering the hut. “So to get you to talk to me, I need to speak Wookie?” you teased him, but he ignored you, staring straight at the assembled Wookies. “What’s it to you, bounty hunter?” another Wookie asked him. While you sucked at speaking their language, you had come to understand it pretty well from all the time spent with Chewie, Han, Luke and Leia. “I am here because of my child.” He pointed to Grogu and the Wookies seemed to be even more confused. They began to chatter loudly once more.

“You can stay here, but we are watching you”, the first Wookie finally told you. “If there is truly an Imperial spy trying to steal our child, we will not be foolish and turn down your help. I will lead you to your hut.” You got up and bowed slightly. “Thank you. You will not regret it.”

Your hut was strategically placed with a view of the child’s hut. You wandered around the main room, taking in the exquisitely carved wood furniture and running your hand over it to fully appreciate the skilled carvings. “How do you know their language so well?” you queried with your back turned to the Mandalorian. He remained silent for so long that it surprised you when he did reply. “I - I have come around in the galaxy and if I learned one thing, it’s the more languages you know, the higher your chances of survival are.” At that, you faced him and crooked an eyebrow. “Didn’t assume you had to worry about surviving too much, what with the shiny armor and everything.” – “You’d be surprised,” was all he said in response.

“Well…thank you for saving my ass back there,” you attempted to lighten the mood. “I didn’t do it for you,” he retorted immediately. You scoffed. “Why is it that every time I try to show you a little kindness or gratitude, you push me away? Are you afraid that you’ll actually come to like me or what?” you confronted him, not willing to let it go this time. “I…I’ll look for some…some food for Grogu,” he said and went around you to pick the little one up from the bed you had placed him on earlier. “What are you running from?” you mumbled softly as he passed you again to leave the hut. He halted in his tracks and turned his head to you for a moment, as if he was contemplating something. Instead, he jerked his head back to the front and took off with Grogu in his arms.

-----------------------

It was late when he returned, the sun was almost setting. He was a fool. A fool who was not used to spending this much time with another human being, much less one who managed to get under his armor like you did. He didn’t know what it was about you that had this effect on him, but he had been trying to avoid you at all cost ever since he first met you. He knew then you’d be trouble for him, crouching in front of him with your laser sword drawn out, ready to attack. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been turned on by it. And that was exactly why he had to keep his distance.

Still, the sight of the empty hut sent a pang of disappointment through him, but what did he expect? That you’d be waiting for him all day, just sitting on your ass? It was a blessing really, that you were not here right now. The Maker knows what he would have said to you otherwise. Would he have apologized? Admitted that you were driving him crazy? Pushed you away again? He let out a heavy sigh and set Grogu down on the bed again. He was in some deep shit and for the first time in his life, he had no idea how to get out of it.

----------------------------

“Stop that!” you ordered, trying to fill your voice with the little authority you had left, but it came out amused above all. The Wookie youngling kept reaching out for your lightsaber with the Force, but you held it back. You sighed while suppressing your smile. How did you end up with two younglings to train when you weren’t even interested in instructing one?

“She likes you,” the mother of the force-sensitive child said and you looked up at her in wonder. “You think so? Right now, it seems like she’s trying to get on my nerves.” You gave her a small grin and she responded with a genuine smile.

Your wholesome exchange was interrupted by the sudden entrance of another Wookie. “Dinner is ready,” he said while eyeing you with suspicion. Understandably, most of the Wookies had not been too thrilled by your arrival. “Alright,” the female Wookie responded and turned to you: “Would you like to join us?” – “I don’t want to intrude,” you replied with a shrug. “You are not intruding. Come along.” Her tone left no room for discussion, so you followed her over the wooden planks connecting the trees after she picked up her child.

Dinner was a festive occasion, there was a variety of mouth-watering food spread out across a huge table in the main treehouse. As you took in the feast, you noticed how hungry you truly were. You let the Wookies go to the buffet first so you wouldn’t eat up their food and picked out a few delicious snacks afterwards. You took a seat next to the mother of the youngling and she tried to include you in the conversation as well as she could. You got to know the Wookies a little better and they seemed to warm to you a bit more. During the discussion, you managed to form a battle plan in case of an attack with them.

As dinner went on, you couldn’t help but wonder where your companion was. Had he even returned yet? Was he in danger? Was Grogu alright? For some reason, you couldn’t stop yourself from caring about this strange man who had been nothing but rude to you so far. Your focus kept slipping from the conversation until you excused yourself as politely as you could and went back to your hut.

The sight that greeted you was not what you expected. The Mandalorian lay, still fully armored, in the bed with Grogu next to him. He seemed to be asleep. A wave of pity overcame you. What a life he must lead, always separated from the rest of the world by a thick layer of beskar. Never allowing himself to be vulnerable in any way. He didn’t even seem to care about his own discomfort, sleeping in an awkward angle so that Grogu could rest as comfortably as possible. He probably hadn’t even eaten himself all day and had only fed the little one.

Before you knew what you were doing, you went back to the main hut. There were still plenty of leftovers on the table, so you picked up as many different delicacies as you could carry in your arms and went back to the sleeping warrior. You carefully placed the edible goods on a side table and went outside to take the first watch.

----------------------

Mando jolted up when he awoke. Shit, he hadn’t meant to fall asleep, how long had he been out? He stretched a bit, as much as his beskar armor allowed, and got up, trying not to disturb the child. There was a bunch of food on the side table, he noticed with a grumbling stomach. He could think of only one person who could have put it there and he felt an overwhelming wave of affection at the sweet gesture. How had you even known that he hadn’t eaten yet?

-----------------------

The huts had been silent for the majority of the night, so the soft crunching sound alerted you immediately. You listened more intently and realized that it originated from inside of your hut. As you figured out what the sound must be, a soft smile formed on your lips. He was really feasting in there, your suspicions about his eating habits must have been correct. You continued your vigilance, satisfied that he had accepted your gesture.

After a while, you heard him approach. For a moment, neither of you said anything. To your surprise, it was him who broke the silence this time. “I…thank you.” You didn’t quite know how to respond to his sudden kindness, so you simply nodded, even though your back was turned to him. “How – how long have you been out here?” he continued. You looked up at the stars. “Probably a few hours.” – “I’m sorry I fell asleep, I – you should have woken me up so you could get some rest as well.” He took a step closer to you and you could sense the coldness his beskar radiated, sending shivers through you.  

“Why do you wear that helmet all the time?” The question was out before you could stop it, his proximity completely disheveling your thoughts. You felt him still behind you. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t –,“ you began, but he interrupted you. “It’s the Way of the Mandalore,” he disclosed and you slowly turned around to face him. “But it seems awfully restricting,” you blurted out, once again not considering your words. He met your glance and cocked his head to the side. “It is not a restriction; it is an honor to live by our codex.” His words were not filled with much conviction and sounded recited above all.

“How did you become a Mandalorian?” you pressed on; curiosity having gotten the better of you. “You sure ask a lot of questions today,” he responded coldly. “I would have asked earlier, but I knew you wouldn’t have answered any of them,” you admitted bluntly and earned a small chuckle from him. “I suppose that’s true,” he answered thoughtfully after a while and his helmet turned away from you. You raised an eyebrow at his honest reply. “Why are you talking to me now?” you inquired, not caring anymore that you were clearly overstepping the line.

“I’m not sure,” he breathed out quietly after a moment of silence. “Well, whatever reason, I’m…glad you are.” His gaze turned back down to you and you showed him a friendly smile. His visor shifted into the distance again abruptly and you silently cursed yourself. Had you been too offensive? You shouldn’t have made yourself that vulnerable.

“Our guests have arrived, Jedi,” he noted, sounding mildly displeased and as you followed his glance, your eyes widened. All of your banal previous thoughts vanished as you took in the four Imperial ships that were descending to the surface of Kashyyyk. “We have to get to – ,“ you inducted, but he was one step ahead of you. Grabbing you by the waist, the Mandalorian took off into the air and landed swiftly in front of the small Wookie’s home. “I told you to stop doing that,” you snapped at him, but without much force as you could still feel his firm grip on your waist. As he loosened it, you regained your focus and remembered your mission. You quickly turned your back to him and knocked on the wooden door.

The Wookie mother answered and her sleepy eyes snapped open widely as she took the both of you in. “They’re here,” you informed her gravely and she let out a roar to alert the rest of the villagers. They quickly rose and took their positions, some as snipers high up in the treetops and some ready to defend the huts in direct combat. All of them were hidden from plain sight and you could only spot them because of your training – and because you knew they were there.

In the meantime, the Imperial ships had landed on the beach. You stared at them intently, hoping to make anything out from the distance. The hangars of the ships opened in unison and you heard the Mandalorian take in a sharp breath. Out of each ship stepped rows upon rows of droids in mechanical movements. There were only two people among them, one of them a man from the meeting you witnessed earlier and the other a (insert species). You were surprised at the open display of their forces; you had thought this would rather be an incognito mission than an open battle. Did they know you were ready to fight? Were they just not taking chances? Either way, this was going to be a lot harder than you anticipated.

Someone called your name and ripped you out of your spiraling thoughts. You were even more amazed to realize that it had been your companion. He had never addressed you with your real name before. “We have to get to Grogu,” he breathed out, the worry audible in his voice. “Shit, you’re right,” you responded in horror. He was about to fly over again, but you held him back. “Wait. You can’t move, they’ll notice you and know we have something to hide. It has to be me,” you reasoned. He seemed reluctant. “Do you trust me?” you asked him, looking where you believed his eyes to be. When he didn’t react, you scoffed. “Seriously, Mando? Good to know.” Without another word, you left for Grogu. What was the deal with the Mandalorian? Why was he being kind to you one moment and cold as ice in the next?

You swiftly moved across the trees, careful to not make any noise. As you looked down, you saw the droids beginning to scramble up the barks of the trees to reach the huts. You whistled, almost having forgotten about the sign you were supposed to give and blastershots went off quickly.

Very few droids fell, the rest of them continued to ascend, seemingly not even taking notice of the attack. They were more resilient than you thought. You needed to get to your apprentice quickly, so you began to move with less caution.

You were only two huts away from Grogu when the world went white with an ear-splitting bang. The next thing you felt was your back hitting the bark of a tree and then the ground, your ears still ringing from the detonation. “Fuck!” you exclaimed, trying to get up and failing miserably. Your entire body was aching. This was not the time to be hurting, you needed to fight. You took a few deep breaths and slowly rose, testing your limbs. There didn’t seem to be any serious fractures, much to your relief.

You needed to get to Grogu immediately. Looking up at the tree, you saw a droid already halfway up. Fuck. You really had to hurry. As you took a step towards the tree, you doubled over in agony, spitting a patch of blood onto the ground. Okay, maybe you did have a few broken ribs. You straightened yourself and took another step, wincing at the stabbing pain in your side but moving forward nonetheless. If you could only get to that tree…

You yelled out in pain and surprise as your muscles quivered with electricity and you went down again. You quickly scrambled around and looked at your attacker. It was one of the droids, wielding an electrostaff.  You clutched your lightsaber just in time to deflect the next blow. You rolled aside as the droid took another swing, ignoring your aching side and scrambling to your feet.

The droid didn’t hesitate to strike again, but this time, you were prepared. Even in your injured state, it was no match for you. After circling it for a few moments in a defensive crouch, you picked out a weak spot and drove your blade home, separating it in the middle. Not taking any chances, you hacked its remains apart.

You let out a heavy sigh of relief and grimaced in pain as your lungs expanded against your fractured ribcage. Grogu, you thought in horror and spun to face the tree again. The droid that had climbed it before was nowhere to be seen, which was not a good sign at all. You considered the height you would have to pass to get to the hut. It was too far for a Force jump; you really would have to climb. Not wasting another precious moment, you dug your fingers into the bark and pulled yourself up.

You were only halfway up when your strength faltered and you slid down the entirety of the bark you had only just climbed. You yelled out in frustration. The battle in the trees was slowly subsiding, you noticed and you took your last chance. With all the muscle power you had left in your legs, you bolted for the ships on the beach while cutting down a few simpler droids in your path.  

As you got closer, you saw that the first ship was already taking off. Had they been defeated or did they get what they came for? You enhanced your speed as much as possible, but it was all in vain. You arrived at the beach soon enough to see the Imperial scum entering his ship with Grogu, but too late to stop his escape. All you could do was watch as he took off into the sky as well.

You sunk down onto your knees, not having it in you to react in any way or form. You had failed everyone. Luke, who provided you with a home and a purpose even after you had given up on yourself; Grogu, who trusted you to be a good Jedi Master to him; Yoda, who had saved you from certain doom all those years ago; your parents, who had given their lives for yours and Mando, who had trusted you with his child. Possibly you had even failed the Wookies in your quest to protect the youngling. You were absolutely worthless. A complete waste of life and resources. What was being one of the most powerful warriors in the galaxy worth if you couldn’t even protect those dear to you? You slumped down into the sand, embracing the stabbing pain in your rib as it made contact with the uneven, hard ground. It wasn’t enough to suppress the guilt and the self-hatred you felt though. Not even close.

In the back of your mind, you heard the other ships departing, but you were beyond the physical realm now. You couldn’t help getting sucked into the cruel depths of your mind, almost welcoming the voices that screamed at you in fury and reminded you of everything that was wrong with you.

Somehow, you felt your physical form vibrating, but it took you a few moments to return to it and notice the Mandalorian that was violently shaking your shoulders. You blinked up at him in confusion. “Where is he?” he demanded, over and over again. “Gone,” you responded, though your voice seemed to come from afar. “How could you let them take him? I trusted you to protect him!” His voice was so full of hate that your mind focused back on him. You didn’t answer this time, only stared at him intently and let him interpret it any way he would. It was good that he despised you now, you deserved nothing less.

Whatever he saw in your eyes, he didn’t say anything else. He simply let his grip on your shoulders go, resulting in you crashing back into your damaged ribs. Your lips drew blood from how hard you had to bite down to suppress your wince of pain. The last thing you wanted right now was for him to pity you and regret his harsh words.

As you dropped back down and the adrenaline from the fight began to leave your bloodstream, the pain worsened and you felt weariness overcome you. Your desperate attempts to stay conscious were completely futile and you realized you were slowly slipping away from reality. “I’m sorry,” you mumbled as everything went black.

Chapter 4

Masterlist

#din dijarin x reader #dindjarjn #the mandalorian #the mandalorian/reader #star wars #fanfic #enemies to lovers

[lordmartiya]

lord Martiya’s Lilanette Week 2021, part 3: Science Fiction

@lilanette-week

@lilanette

One thing she had been grateful to Lila for was her talking Chloe out of her mother’s toxic influence. She hadn’t succeeded in time to prevent the whole Miracle Queen debacle, but now she was back trying to become a good person, and even taking therapy (something Lila also sorely needed, but even if she could be talked into it there was the problem of how it would reflect on her mother’s image in the weird diplomatic circles). As an addendum, now Sabrina was in their friends group, something Marinette was usually happy for… But not right now.

“How did Sabrina guess I’m Multimouse?!” Marinette complained to Lila after they were alone.

“Her father is a police officer, one trusted with commanding groups during important operations – she’s grown around secrets just like me, she was bound to get suspicious. That, or she saw the Mirage you used to divert Chat Noir’s suspicions, and kept the secret because, well, she’s a cop’s daughter. Still, I would have expected her not to tell the others when Juleka asked about your break-up…”

That was when the Ladyblog signaled that a perfectly normal-looking punk biker had been caught trying to find the heroic Volpina and then sent flying the police officer that had confronted him about it.

“Didn’t think Alya would hesitate calling him an Akuma.” Lila said.

“After that monster in London?” Marinette asked.

“Well, let’s see what we have.”

___________________

“Let’s see… He followed the Mirage me in the Bièvre and swam back to the surface, then shrugged off impact from five rakes, a brick to the head, and even an anvil… What can we say?” Volpina asked the two other heroes as she put away the piano at their insistence.

“That you carry the weirdest things in your Miraculous?” Ladybug asked back.

“That Rena Rouge could have done a lot more had she known about what you put in there?” Chat Noir deadpanned.

“I liked the Loony Toons, so what? But aside for that?”

“It’s most likely an Akuma.” Ladybug admitted. “Though we need to talk about what else you may have in there…”

Then Mr. Pigeon arrived on a swarm of pigeons and started carrying away the not-Akuma, ranting of how he had squashed a pigeon when throwing away the anvil, while the surprisingly resilient biker tried to fight back.

“I stand corrected. Now what-Volpina?”

Volpina had pulled out a binocular and started cussing like only a Roman of Rome and few others could. Then she pulled out another thing.

“What the-an RPG-7?!” Chat Noir shouted.

“Of course not, it’s an AirTronic PSRL-1, it’s made of better steel and has better optics, though it can use the same ammunition.” came Volpina’s reply as she removed the rocket and replaced it with a larger one.

“Put that thing down!” was Ladybug’s demand.

“You’re right, Mr. Pigeon and his flying rats don’t deserve this, and I need to interrogate that overgrown mushroom before killing it. Though I really wanted to finally use the thermobaric rocket…”

With that Volpina put the weapon back in her flute and cast the illusion of a tower of peregrine falcons, scattering the pigeons and making both Mr. Pigeon and his would-be victim fall down – the latter making a metallic noise when hitting the ground. Then, as Paris’ heroes dealt with the Akumatized villain, she grabbed the biker’s weird medallion and punched through his chest, revealing him as a metallic exoskeleton for a much slimmer individual, that looked perfectly human aside for the green skin and hot pink hands.

“You’re not an Evree!” Volpina accused the green man.

“Am I really that ugly?” he replied.

“No, but I couldn’t see your face – only the Evree tracker medallion and that you just wouldn’t give up.”

“Had the owner in my escape pod, before I could eject him in space.”

“Did you finish it off?”

“I fired my thrusters in his face.

“What are you talking about?”

Volpina and the green man looked at the two other heroes and the now free Mr Ramier, the latter of which had made the question while the former two were appalled at just how the Vixen and the green man were talking of killing someone, that and the apparent overkill.

“Nothing you should worry about, Mr Ramier.” Volpina replied. “Though my colleagues may be interested.”

_______________________________________

The talk had been moved at Gustave Eiffel’s apartment over the Tower, of which Ladybug and Chat Noir had the keys. And there they learned that the Evrees that had been fought by the United Heroez and Volpina weren’t just some alien pirates but a full alien invasion of planet-looting emotion-eating fungal lifeforms that moved around the cosmo with a mothership the size of a small moon. The ones that had repeatedly raided New York had been vanguards, trying to establish a beachhead and sabotage US defenses to allow a full-scale invasion without facing the US nuclear arsenal – that they could have weathered had they not decided to try and avoid the losses that would have caused, and that they had been stopped right as their emperor had been about to deploy their full force.

“And that is why I came here to talk with you, the broadcast I intercepted spoke of your role in defeating the invaders.” the alien – whose world had been conquered by the Evrees – explained. “My world fell, we lowered our orbital defenses for a few minutes as a sign of peace after signing the commercial treaty, and before we could reactivate them they had already overran the capital.”

“My role was small.” Volpina admitted. “Yes, I beat up a few of them, and was in the strike team, but I was the distraction, Doorman got us in and out, Feniks and the Russian soldiers were the ones that deployed the hundred megaton bomb – didn’t think the Russians were crazy enough to rebuild that monstrosity, or generous enough to provide it free of charge – and Jade Turtle saved everyone more times I can count with his shields, and wrecked his back doing so.”

“Master Fu did what?!” Chat Noir shouted.

“Considering the situation, I’m more surprised he didn’t Cataclysm everything.” Ladybug stated.

“He did that, and before he could leave my uncle decided to retire me and gave him my Miraculous.” Volpina confirmed. “Found out he was the Guardian only then…”

“I don’t know what happened, but from what I found out it was you to talk the surviving commanders into turning on each other.” the alien pointed out.

“Honestly, I just helped preserving our nukes, they were weakened enough humanity’s combined missiles would have done the job. Anyway, happy to have given justice to your people.”

“They conquered my world 36 of your days ago.”

“Cosa?”

“They had another planet spaceship and emperor, and it was them who invaded my world. We had an evacuation plan in place just in case, three colony ships – the Xabra they got in orbit, the Xenia escaped but I don’t know where, and my ship, the Antra… We were coming here to warn you and give you our technology, we knew you were better warriors than us, but they had an infiltrator on board and got us near Saturn. I’m the only one who escaped, with a full database… And-”

“And I can get you in contact with those who can actually make use of it.”

____________________

It had been quick – a call to the Italian embassy in Paris, and they had been able to bring the alien (who, when someone finally asked his name, had identified himself as doctor Xarion, First Counselor for Energy for the planet Xerba) to the Élysée directly to the French president. Even after his stunt in New York, Papillon didn’t rate that high. Then the three heroes had gone back to what they had been doing before Xarion’s arrival… Or at least tried, as Lila was on the verge of a panic attack.

“Lila, what is it?”

“The Evrees!”

“What about them? You and the United Heroez already beat them once, and-”

“And next time they won’t toy with us! They’ll get serious from the start! And then they’ll-”

“A time traveler told me we’re going to win.”

There. She had said it. Marinette hadn’t wanted to reveal Bunnyx’ existence, but she just couldn’t bear to see Lila in that state. Also, she totally had to snap her out of it before she got Akumatized. And that was the most important part. Seriously.

“It… Is it true?” Lila asked.

“The Rabbit Miraculous has the power of time travel, and the Holder, Bunnyx, arrived chasing a villain created by a future Papillon and told us a few things. Including that we’re going to defeat an alien invasion.”

Lila looked Marinette for a few moments, processing what she had just been told. Then, surprising both of them, she grabbed Marinette jacked and pulled her so she could stamp a kiss on her lips.

“Oh…” the Italian said as what she had done dawned on her. “See you tomorrow, OK?”

With that, Lila bolted, leaving Marinette to stand for about half a minute before she realized what had just happened.

#lilanette #lilabug #ladypina #volpinette #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #miraculousladybug #miraculous lb #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #lila rossi

[sweet-sammy-kisses]

Stars In Your Eyes Chapter 1

For the @jaytimweek  Day 1: Space Pairing: JayTim Rating: Mature Notes: I had hoped to have this done completely but health and my muse wanting to make it longer derailed those plans but I love JayTim in space to much to quit. Warnings: One scene of suicide and talk of victim blaming. Summary: Tim along with his friends take to the stars for a "short" break and mission only to decide to stay. When the Outlaws begin looking for them it becomes a chase among the stars as Jason and Tim take on an interesting and unique way of flirting. You can also read it on AO3

After a fallout between him, Dick, Bruce and the others Tim had set out to prove that he could fly on his own only there were those who wouldn't let him, his true family vowed to be with him every step he took.

Staring out the window there were days that Tim could hardly believe that this was his life now. To see the stars and planets up close. To see nebulas colours twisting and twirling around one another creating sights to behold.

"These are the voyages of Young Justice, seeking out those who would harm the innocent and basically just be jerks. To kick some ass and save the day while looking awesome as we do it."

A long-drawn-out sigh escaped Tim as he heard Bart start to narrate their day again, "I should have never let you watch Star Trek." Tim muttered into his hand.

Conner let out a laugh at Tim's comment, "Dude, you made us sit through and watch Star Trek and Star Wars so we could see how epic they were and get our opinions on which franchise is better." Tim's so-called best friend reminded him.

And okay Conner was right about that once Tim learned that neither Bart nor Conner had seen either Star Wars or Star Trek he had made it his mission to change that and now he was regretting it so much.

Tim had hoped when he found Bruce that things would change, that Dick would take apologize for his actions, would want him back as his little brother. Would stand beside him and speak to the Justice League that he was wrong as were they for turning their backs on a teenager who had lost everyone he loved.

But none of that happened.

Tim knew that Dick had a lot on his plate, stepping up to be Batman as well as raise the demon brat but he thought that Dick had missed him as much as he had missed his big brother but he had hardly spoken to him.

That added salt to the open wounds Tim was still carrying. So when a Raven suggested that Tim take a much-needed break one that would do Kon and Bart good as well, coming back from the dead could mess a person up and it was best that they take some time to heal.

Plus no one was brave enough to say no to Raven, if she wanted you to take a break you would even if that break ended up being in a demon demission.

Bart still had his hidden space ship and Tim had seen how much Jason enjoyed being out here and it had truly helped him to control his pit madness.

It was supposed to be a two-week trip then they ended up helping stop kidnapping and then they saved a planet from being enslaved and then something else came up and now they had been in space for six months and none of them were in a hurry to head home.  

Somehow they had managed to become Space Vigilantes.

And as Tim glanced around looking at Bart, Conner, Cassie, Cass and Helena looking at home on the ship and then done to Dex-Starr that was purring away on his lap Tim realized that it had been years since he felt this at peace.

Jason had always thought that he was going to remain the black sheep of the Wayne family he never thought that his perfect replacement would tell Bruce and Dick to go screw themselves, give up his claim to the Wayne name and take off with his best friends into parts unknown.

Of course, that didn't mean that just because Tim was done with them it didn't mean they were done with Tim of course it had taken three months Tim returning to take Cass and Helena with him before it sunk in their "family" thick heads that Tim was serious he wasn't coming back. So when Oracle failed in hiding them they turned to their last resort.

A loud laugh escaped Jason as he stared at the face of his so-called brother, "You want me to help you find the kid that you tossed aside for the demon child who tried to kill him more than I did? Who from the moment he arrived used Timmy as his verbal, emotional and physical punching bag and to this day still does. You have got to be kidding me Dickface. Tim did the smart thing and the healthy thing to get away from that toxic and I ain't dragging the kid back to it."

Jason couldn't understand Dick when it had been him riding the pit madness and Talia's poisons whispers in his ear trying to kill Tim Dick had been protective and willing to go one on one with Jason but when it was Damian he was basically victim-shaming Tim into not being okay with Damian's treatment of him.

A sigh escaped a tired-looking Dick and Jason would have felt sorry for him if this wasn't of his own making. And if he hadn't seen the damage Damian's treatment and Dick, Bruce and even Alfred's lack of setting boundaries first hand.

Jason had been searching for Tim for a while. He wanted to make amends with the younger man. He had heard about the fallout between Replacement and the rest of the Bats but the last thing he expected was to see Tim standing on top of Wayne Enterprise's arms spread out wide as he took a step off of the ledge and let himself fall.

Jason could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he forced himself to go faster, he couldn't be late he had to catch Tim. Too much blood had been spilt and he wouldn't let another Robin die.

Once he had Tim in his arms did Jason remember how to breathe. Landing on the nearby roof Jason ripped off his helmet, "What the hell was that replacement?"

Haunted blue eyes looked up at him, "Why did you save me, Jason?"

At that moment Jason felt like he was back in his coffin.

The look in Tim's eyes and the lack of emotions still haunted Jason to this day and he might not be able to do much but he can keep Tim safe.

"Look Jason, I get that things haven't been easy for Tim but it is time that he got past his tantrum and returned home." Dick couldn't understand why Tim was acting like this and to make matter worse Raven and Gar were refusing to talk to him about Tim and about allowing Damian onto the team.

Frustrated that they were just going around in circles Jason ran a hand through his hair, "Look Dickie I  know firsthand what training with the league was right and I know the demon brat had it rough but until you set boundaries for him, ones that include not trying to kill his brother, or using him as an emotional and physical punching bag I ain't helping you find Timbit."

Dick fell to his automatic defence, "Damian has changed and Tim is older." He winced at the look not only Jason gave him but also Roy and Kory. "Look I know Damian can be a little much but he has changed so much."

"No one is denying that you haven't worked wonders with the brat but you are still blind to how he treats Tim and that isn't healthy." Jason countered.

"Also have you gotten around to fixing Tim's standing in the hero community or is he still called the insane Robin?" Roy spoke up he had experienced firsthand what it was like to be the black sheep of the hero community, to hear the whispers and judgemental eyes watching your every move waiting for you to screw up and he refused to let Tim go through that as well.

The wince that crossed Dick's face was answer enough.

A soft sigh escaped Kory as she looked at her one-time love, "Dick, there is no denying that you had much to handle when we thought Bruce was lost from wearing the cowl to raising an abused boy that you let Tim slip through the cracks. Tim had lost so many in his life in a short time that losing Robin, his place in the community and his big brother all at once has left deep scars that have yet to heal."

Jason and Roy saw the effect that Kory's words had on Dick as he looked ashamed, "He had me." Dick whispered.

"Did he?" Jason demanded. "Because I remember he had a big brother that told him a neglected and abused teen that he needed to take the kill attempts, the verbal and emotional abuse from Damian because he was older. Because Damian's horrible upbringing somehow made Tim invalid. That he as the victim should just take it because how dare he wants to feel safe in a place he once thought of as home with the people he thought of as family. Only to be tossed aside and ignored as he was repeatedly attacked. Until you can look me in the eye and tell me that you have talked to Damian and the rest of the heroes I won't be helping you find Tim." With that, Jason cut the communication with Dick.

Letting out a sigh Jason relaxed back into his chair.

"So what are we doing?" Roy asked.

They had heard rumours of a bunch of teens, teens that happened to match the description of a certain team of young heroes who had taken off for a mission only once it was completed they sent back a message that they were staying in space helping out others and they weren't that far away.

Opening his eyes Jason's lips curved up into a smile as he purred out, "We have a bird and his flock to hunt."

#jaytimweek #jaytimweek2021 #jaytim #otp: be my robin #sherri writes #my fics

[mcsqueeneys]

Massacre Girl's Guide to Holiday Doorbusters

By Massacre Girl

Look, I love a good deal as much as the next Rakdos, and there’s nothing that puts me in the holiday spirit quite like waiting outside someone’s door, busting in at midnight, and hearing the screams all around me.

Still, it’s important to not get carried away by the last-minute madness, and to shop smart this holiday season.

Luckily for you, your girl's here to help you get the most for your zib.

For example, let’s examine these “deals”:

Wursthof Gore-met 5-Piece Riteknife Set – 79.99 zibs @ Blood Bath & Beyond

A high-quality riteknife always makes a good gift – every Rakdos kitchen/torture dungeon needs one. But don’t be fooled by a famous brand – the Gore-met version is Wursthof’s budget line, and the compromises in quality are apparent. A 10-inch riteknife is the shortest length I recommend, but the model included with this set is a 7-inch weakling. Just try cutting through a femur with that! The only other cutlery is a 5-inch boning knife (no such unitaskers allowed in my torture dungeon, thank you very much!) and a pair of dishwasher-safe shears.

“But, Massacre Girl, where are the fourth and fifth pieces in this ‘5-piece set?’” you may well be asking. Well, apparently Blood Bath & Beyond counts both the block and the sharpening steel towards the total! So stay away from this so-called "deal" – the only thing this riteknife set will be murdering is your budget.

Black Apron 90-Day Trial – 49.99 zibs/month @ BlackApron.com

Meal kits may be all the rage, but color me skeptical of the trend. Black Apron recently made a splash with their celebrity endorsement by a certain well-known necromancer, and I can understand the appeal of raising your own undead without having to trek to the store. But, take away the famous name, and what you’re really paying for month after month are corpses and corpse dirt in a cardboard box. Now, if I need corpses, I’ll make my own corpses – and don’t get me started on the environmental costs of shipping dirt across the multiverse in a box!

Plus, read the fine print – once the introductory trial expires, you’ll be locked into a monthly contract which seems like it would be absolute murder to break.

Howl of Duty 666: Red/Black Ops – 39.99 zibs (with coupon) @ Maul-Mart

Sure, every Rakdos kid wants the new Howl of Duty, but there’s more to this “deal” than meets the eye. First of all, this coupon is only good for the X-Spell Box version – owners of SwitchBlade or SlayStation consoles are out of luck. And, besides, I’m worried about the effect these violent games are having on our youth. For starters, the online communities in these fandoms are just toxic. And, for another thing, I don’t want our kids sitting on the sofa all day, joining virtual clans, and pretending to murder virtual Azorius.

They should be playing outside, joining real gangs, and murdering actual Azorius.

#mtg #fanfic #mtglore