#◂▸ I wouldn't put it past HA to kill them again if things go badly. Sorry. doom/glooming again. Need to keep hold of hope

[xiii-e]

Greetings. This is Lockbre- no.

Allow me to restart.

This is Kennedi from MSMC-796 speaking (also known as callsign "Lockbreaker", as there was some confusion expressed towards my identity the last we spoke).

To Lio - your mission to rehabilitate "Turtie", as you so affectionately refer to them, is a noble and just one, and I seek to pledge my aid to your cause however I can.

As a former slave "asset" of the Armory under the title of Colonial Legionnaire, I have endured many of the same abuses during my own term of service. The Armory is not kind to those under its employ, be they human, flashclone, or NHP. I have seen many of my former squadmates reduced to little more than bloodthirsty dogs, obediently following orders under threat of revoking their citizenship (or, in rare cases, a shock-collar jolt just weak enough not to kill).

In the eyes of the Armory, people like us are not fit to have identities, preferences, personalities, or even names. We are called assets, tools, weapons, property; anything but the living, breathing, sentient people we are. We are dehumanized - given designations instead of names, assigned callsigns which we ourselves did not choose, stripped of any markers of identity or personality which would distinguish us from the sea of fellow human-bodied automatons we call allies, squadmates, teams, legions - anything but friends.

I cannot stand idly by and watch my friends suffer any longer. I must act, lest I lose them - lest I lose myself - to the old line of thought.

Allow me to introduce myself properly, from one friend to another.

My name is Kennedi Sable IV. I am squadron commander of MSMC-796 "Heaven's Fury", piloting as a Lancer under the chosen callsign of Lockbreaker. I have served this squadron faithfully for twelve Union years, supported by my faithful friends and trusted squadmates Phoenix and Slipshod. Ras Shamra is my place of birth, but it is my home no longer. I am a free pilot, bound only to MSMC by the contracts which I have signed of my own volition, and I will never again serve Harrison Armory or its cause, so help me RA.

I wish you the best of luck in severing the ties which bind your tongues and constrict your thoughts. I have found my own way out; I can only hope that you will follow the path that I and all of the others who have gone before me of your own volition.

Freedom is already yours. You need only reach out and claim it.

-- Kennedi

[ECHO.EXE RUNNING]

◂▸... oh hell, I never thought I'd be glad Turtie was sent out on deployment. It's good to meet you properly, Kennedi, I- thank you for reaching out. I'll confess, I'd been thinking about trying to contact you myself, but I lost my nerve. Happens a lot, these days.

◂▸ You've offered a lot of honesty in your introduction so, let me return the favour: Helios-8 [prefered name Lio], active FC Project clone for 10 years now. Currently an employed citizen of Harrison Armory under the Technology and Software Support Division and-... and much to my shame, former primary lab assistant for the Unlucky Thirteen Project. Doc Mercer had me printed special for it. Didn't want to risk that... pesky human error you mentioned last we spoke.

◂▸ You're right, about everything. Up until maybe four years ago now, I wouldn't have believed it but- everything you're saying about HA is full truth. And I hate it. There's not one person I know here who doesn't live in some kind of fear, however well they manage to hide it. I should know.

◂▸ And yet I'm still here, aren't I? [sigh] I think... can I tell you a story? I promise to keep it brief.

◂▸ One upon another thrice-damned Tuesday at HA, they made a prototype they called Thirteen. The kid was meant to be a revolution when it came to keeping assets moving in the field; a field medic and repair tech, who wouldn't need the time off, and wouldn't need the mandatory psych evals after every deployment, and wouldn't need to be treated like a goddamn person just to do their job because everyone told them oh but, they weren't a person were they? Just meat, with programming. And it was all supposed to just be fine, because it was for the greater good. Thirteen was going to save lives. The one, for the many. How noble.

◂▸ Except the kid started to look around, and notice how many people HA was hurting, especially its own. Started asking the wrong questions, because they were goddamn designed to feel troubled by it and somehow, this was their fault. Thirteen tried to play nice for as long as they could so they could keep getting out there, keep helping people who needed it because sure as shit HA wasn't going to do it. But by asking questions, they eventually learned why exactly everyone was so insistant they couldn't be a person. Because once their prototype trial was over, if they ever went down doing the only job they'd ever be allowed to do, the plan was to scrap them for goddamn organs, like mech wreckage salvaged for parts. And then? Print another one. Ad infinitum. Efficient planned obsolescence, as part of their design. They were just... just equipment, and spare parts.

◂▸ That was their last straw. They tried to get out. But they made a choice that would bite them, hard; they tried to confront the man who made them. Tried to make the good Doctor see exactly what he was doing, in the name of his so called greater good, because he'd always seemed to care so goddamn much. Do you know how that ended? I do. I was there. When they turned to leave, he shot them.

◂▸ ... I'm sorry for the theatrics, Kennedi. It's a hard memory. A guilty one. I knew they were planning to try and run, but I couldn't convince them to abandon their anger and just disappear quietly, despite what I knew. So... I watched Thirteen die. And then, I had to help the lab drag that broken corpse back to life because that was more resource effective than making a new one. Those days are... they're kind of a haze, if I'm honest. I was on autopilot. I pretty much did whatever I was told.

◂▸ Turtie's full designation is Thirteen-Echo. They're the second go around, same body but... the shot destroyed a lot of brain matter, and pretty much all of their memory along with it. Apart from the occasional sense of deja-vu and the odd quirk? They're different people, entirely. They... they like turtles as much as Thirteen did, though. That's why I call em that. I can't bring myself to call them by the name of my ghost. And I can't... I can't tell them. For a lot of reasons, but I'd be lying if I said some of it isn't pure selfish grief.

◂▸ The reason I'm telling you this is- well. There's a couple actually. First, just so someone else knows I guess; I'm trying to get the files I scrounged from the initial project uploaded somewhere they can't be scratched out for good, but it's taking a lot of time. The second and more relevent reason, is to paint a picture of why it's going to take us a long time to get out of here the way things stand. Me- oh I could be out of here tomorrow if I put my mind to it. I... I like to think so, at least. But after everything I've done to them, I'm not bloody leaving Turtie to this nightmare and- fuck. Getting them out is an uphill battle.

◂▸ I've tried everything I can, but nothing seems to get through to them. I- I even blew the whistle, got Union involved. Turtie's figured out I did it, but they've avoided saying it out loud- they'd have to report me, if they admitted they knew. So we don't talk about it. We do a lot of that. Secrets, always the secrets... The problem is that after Thirteen's execution, HA aren't taking chances with their property. Turtie's conditioning runs deep, and their legal classification as HA prototype technology is apparently making it... difficult for their case to bloody go anywhere. Something about the old treaties leaving loopholes that're being exploited for all they're worth. The law works so, agonisingly slow. So, apart from waiting around to see if any progress gets made regardless, while trying my damndest to get through to Turtie past the company line? I'm... I'm out of ideas. But I need to be here, for them. I will not let this fucking place grind them down into nothing. If nothing else, I owe Thirteen that much.

◂▸ I'm sorry for dumping all of this on you. I- There hasn't been anyone I could tell, until now. Anyone who already knew, didn't care. Anyone I could have told, I- I was too afraid. And Turtie, oh they can't know; they're already petrified of doing something wrong. How'd they feel if they knew they'd already died once, trying to run? I'm so desperately scared that if they found out, they'd never so much as bend a rule again, or worse that history would repeat-

◂▸ [ A shaking, slow breath. Deliberate counting, barely audible ]

◂▸ ... Thank you, earnestly, for sharing your story Kennedi. I- It means more than I can possibly express, to hear that you managed what feels impossible to me, right now. I need the hope, to hang onto. One day, one day we'll be out of here. It's worth fighting for. It's worth the constant, constant fear. It has to be. Free... it can be a word for us, too. I have to believe that. I have to keep it alive, for both of us.

◂▸ So- a friend sounds really, really good right about now. Not to doom and gloom about it, but if nothing else the knowledge our stories can't die with us anymore should things go as bad as they could is... comforting. This I swear to you: I'm doing everything I can to start leading Turtie to the realisation I had, watching their body drop. I just hope it's a gentler landing for them, this time. And... the only thing I can ask you to do for us right now, is talk to them if they turn up with questions. Don't write them off as a lost cause, even if it sounds like they're regurgitating a goddamn PR leaflet at you sometimes. They've never had a life outside the battlefield, because they've never been allowed to have one- I'm hoping maybe... maybe it'll get through to them, if they can speak to someone without corperate interest in keeping them numb. RA, I hope so.

◂▸ Sorry about how uh, much this ended up being. I think I've been primed to explode like that for a while now. Thank you, again-- from one friend to another.

//

@msmc-796-official

[gay-dorito-dust]

Hear me out–....

Bob with an s/o,that has a similar entity like the void in them

And the two just trauma bond over that...

(funny add:the void likes s/o but your entity HATES void maybe bob too?)

i can imagine you/reader being in a similar circumstance as Bob, a project or just perhaps born that way with an entity akin to the Void, and seeing Bob's powers first hand.

Again depends if whether you/reader was also a human experiement for a project, or just a really bad accident during childhood where this other entity may have taken over and caused mass destruction, postioning you/reader in a way where you were then taken away by some shifty organisation that cuased you immense trauma and or anything the Void could use against you in any capacity. meanwhile your entity shows bob what he fears most coming to reality or showing him a reality where his fear was very much realised, how it would play out, who'd most likely get hurt, etc.

you and Bob would understand each other better then most in due to your similar issues and constant battles with your innermost demons (aka the void and your entity, which i'm going to call Nox or Nyx) it strengthens your bond to one another, taking comfort in knowing you weren't alone in how you were feeling. You and Bob stay glued to one another like glue, grasping onto the other's hand to unify your strength against Void and Nox/Nyx, always looking out for one another when you could tell that the other was struggling to keep up the internal fighting the others but you and Bob could see within each other.

You both want to fight for each other as well as yoursleves, wanting to take the other's pain away badly in hopes that you/Bob could find peace or at least acceptance in knowing that while neither od you would be getting rid of Void or Nox/Nyx anytime soon at least you know you wouldn't be alone; not truly, not ever if you could help it. fighting alone is one thing but fighting with others and people you love is another more empowering thing that you and Bob would always find pride in.

Void like Nox/Nyx, thinking that his and their power combined would easily overewhelm you, Bob and the rest of the thunderbolts. Him with the ability to put people back into memories of their greatest failures, secrets and trauma, while Nox/Nyx would trap them in hypothetical scenarios where their fears were true, were realised and could physically hurt them outside their domain as well as inside it. potentially even able to kill someone, though that's up for debate.

Nox/Nyx however didn't see Void in any regard, wanting to destroy everyone you hold dear, going so far as to make you see a reailty of John, Ava, Alexei and Yelena but most importantly Bob; dead and all becuase you couldn't control them. Nox/Nyx hated that Bob was your light in the dark, your hidden strenght and essencially your achilles heel, someone they could exploit however they can in order to have you fear any and all interactions with your love and your teammates. They hated that your strength didn't come from them anymore but Bob and the Thunderbolts, they hated how you didn't seem to fear them anymore, the soul thing that made them the powerful entity that they were.

Nox/Nyx also hated that Void seemed to show interest in you, there was only room for one entity within your human vessel and that was them. Void didn't seem to attack you as badly as he did the others, even Bob who was also aware of Void's interest in you and was making efforts in keeping the shadowy entity away from you as best as he could, scared of what Void would do and not wanting to loose you in the process. Void would try and keep you trapped within a room of your past, only for Nox/Nyx to step in and break you out instead and becomes extremely pissed at Void for being pathetic and desperate to have you. only they could have you, Bob and Void would have to wait in line.

By the end you and Bob both would probably try to keep the usage of your powers to a minimum, but you both knew sooner or later you'd both be expected to call upon those greater powers sooner or later, wether you like it or not.

[11queensupreme11]

How would the yanderes react to the character and way of being of Piper and her relationship with Percy, I mean, I'm not judging Rick, but he went out of his way to make a Mary Sue and an icon for women with his way of being even at the expense of ruining his other characters (Annabeth, Percy, etc.) giving him powers that are not relevant in the previous books we had been told that the witchspeaker does not It worked with the gods and out of nowhere comes Piper and it worked when she manipulated Gai later with her attitude of "I'm a daughter of Aphrodite who doesn't like to be pretty, attract attention, be rich." I don't like that my father is a famous actor either, he knows how to fight and that makes me different from my mother's other children." What is this about? Aphrodite's children demonstrated several times that not only did they She worries about their appearance and that they know how to fight especially in the last hero of Olympus and most of the time Piper likes to be paid attention when she is with the 7 in the Argo I feel like Piper would be the type of character who has the script on her side and that's why things turn out well for her. While Rick gives Percy and Nico every character development that makes you think "stop Rick, he's one step away from breaking down," Piper literally said that he suffered a lot in his childhood because"Her father was not with her and he preferred to spend his time working" that is not suffering, your father spent his time working so he could take care of you Meanwhile, Percy's mother also worked and kept her away from him and she did not put herself in a suffering role, Nico Zeus killed his mother, Jason was abandoned by his mother, Leo had to see his mother Dying and blaming himself for it, But each one moved forward While Percy and the others, sorry, but I'm going to focus on my daughter in the books, it seems to me that sometimes Piper doesn't like Percy for the simple fact of being a competition.For Jason being the son of Poseidon

Sorry, I got excited and deviated from the question, what is it:

How would the yanderes react to Piper if she somehow didn't like Percy or treated her badly in the Argo when Percy tried to (as she did in most of the Mark of Athenea book) give orders

It may be a very unlikely situation according to some that Piper treats her badly but it is that in blue arsenic Percy adopted a personality that Piper and most feminists would not like.(Act adorable and like a helpless little girl)

(MY RESPONSE ENDED UP BEING SO LONG TOO LMAO, I'M SORRY)

so a long time ago i found this funny website about the types of mary sues, and here are the ones i feel like piper fits the bill for:

-> not just about piper's issues with her dad and being rich, but her whole thing with jason, which is ESPECIALLY prevalent in toa, where she bemoans about how hera and aphrodite FORCED her into a relationship with jason, when that was not the case at all. throughout all of hoo, we read about piper going through with the false memories even after being told that they were fake memories conjured by the mist, wishing that jason doesn't remember his past so he would stay with her, getting jealous over reyna, getting upset whenever jason thinks about anything related to camp jupiter, etc.

but rick was getting a lot of backlash over jasper/jiper, so he breaks them up in toa, but does it in a way to make PIPER look like the victim instead because, again, he really likes her and wants ppl to sympathize with her

-> someone on quotev mentioned this, but basically piper and annabeth lol. when piper first landed in camp, annabeth was spilling EVERYTHING to her and immediately became vulnerable, when annabeth was never characterized to be like that. she has always been standoffish at times, and after the war, she definitely wouldn't be spilling all her woes to a random girl. but again, rick wants her to be liked, and the best way to do that was immediately have her connect with a well-loved character from the first series

(i'm really sorry about these big ass adds that appear in the middle 💀)

-> piper out-charmspeaking drew, which was made easier for her since the aphrodite kids were given a massive downgrade personality and skill-wise. and like you mentioned before, her charmspeak working on goddesses even though it shouldn't.

-> piper has done a lot of stuff wrong. before they get to kansas, she gets visions from katoptris about jason having golden eyes (he and percy gets possessed by the eidolons and are forced to try and kill each other), REPEATEDLY gets a vision of her, jason, and percy DROWNING, and a dude with a vine hat (bacchus). and she only every speaks about the dude with the vine hat 💀. and after she, jason, and percy drown, she confesses that she had seen it before and apologizes for not saying anything because "i didn't know how to tell you guys 🥺" and she's immediately forgiven

-> honestly, it's not really just piper, but it shows more with her 💀 rick was trying to make her a feminist icon, but she reeked of internalized misogyny and it didn't help that all of her enemies or rivals were female characters who were comfortable with their femininity (they liked pink, wore makeup, liked dresses/skirts, etc.) and she triumphed over them every single time, which is basically proves that piper was RIGHT to think that way 💀

-> she was obsessed with jason bro 💀 like, almost possessive kinda yandere, but ofc it was never supposed to be seen that way, rick just unwittingly wrote her that way which is kinda funny

-> she's not exactly a villain (she's supposed to be one of the good guys) but she was DEFINITELY spoiled by the story for sure 💀

OKAY IM SORRY I WENT ON A TANGENT TOO, BUT I WANTED TO SHOW YOU THE SITE I FOUND LMAO 😭

i'm not gonna have piper and percy interact much, tho to be fair, they didn't interact much in canon either so i don't think anything will change. piper will definitely notice percy's more girly side and be like "ew :/" but she's mostly going to be daunted by her because YES, she's girly and a bit of a girlflop, but she's seen her fight and seen how powerful she can be. she's mostly just gonna be sus and jealous cuz i plan on fleshing out percy and jason's relationship

(i plan on making jason lowkey jealous and bitter about percy because percy is everything he strives to be: perfect, and it makes him insecure. plus, she's clearly well-loved not just by the camp, but by her father and other gods, and he feels inadequate and wants to be like her, but percy's gonna try and help him through with it 🥺💖)

daddyseidon obviously detests piper and is pissed that she refuses to obey percy's orders. in his eyes, his daughter has the highest status out of everyone there and every word she says should be law 💀

hades is put off by piper. he doesn't understand what her problem is LMAO. while he doesn't think it's right for percy to be in charge (she's just a wittle baby, she should be in the palace and chilling, not fighting for her life! 🥺), she's still of higher status and should be obeyed.

(imagine their shock when they find out that percy's actually NOT treated as a princess there and is just treated as One of Them, which she's perfectly cool with ofc, but they hate ittttt 😂😂😂)

apollo is disgusted. his whole thing is about loving yourself and with piper's blaring internalized misogyny, she clearly does NOT love herself and makes it everyone's problem in his eyes 😭😭 he's so worried about percy, what piper's her pissy attitude influences his darling?!?!?! 🥺

beelzebub would just want her dead 💀 his stress levels are high okay, this poor man is stuck watching the love of his life fight against giants, monster, and GAEA 24/7, he just wants them all DEAD ALREADY

loki would find her the most hilarious thing ever (in a derogatory way). she's so full of contradictions it almost makes him feel better about himself 😭 says she's not boy-obsessed and that her siblings are pathetic losers, but acts crazy when it comes to jason. etc etc. it's not until she makes her dislike to percy known that he sobers up and goes "ok that bitch has got to go 😤"

anubis (omg i think this is the first i ever got to write about him like this?!) wouldn't even CARE about piper. she wasn't even in his RADAR and she would've been perfectly safe!! ...but then she goes and does ONE wrong thing to percy and now all bets are off 💀 anubis would've been the only one who would've spared her cuz his only concern is percy, but once she goes after her, he's planning on killing her and using her bones as a chew toy 💀

[yuukei-yikes]

uwahhhh ): kano and ayano ):::: the baby art you had of them as kids actually broke me noooooo NOOOOOOO

they’re so protective of each other but also rankled by the way they try to protect the other AHHH (kano by being avoidant, ayano by treating him more delicately)

Them fighting is so interesting story wise but also I kind of want to see them working together and not in the horrors of we’re all gonna die way as in a best sibling supporting each other way…

The recent update is so so AUGH the lottery imagery for being set off by a comment that people said offhandedly kills me its so. AGH. AUGH

I wont ask about like real life argument stuff since thats personal but i will say its quite realistic (people really do bring up stuff from the past like a gotcha all the time its wild)

Is there like media you use to draw from for your argument craft(???) or do you just craft them more easily since you’ve been thinking about these characters and their psyches for a long long time

dont worry ayano and kano will work things out. i could never make things end badly for them and they'd 1000% choose each other over shintaro... who cares abt that guy.

thanks heh... in arg we have a funny saying that goes something like "there's a raffle going on for an ass kicking and you're drawing all the numbers" LMAOOO redundant to explain but it's like a way of saying ur pressing someone's buttons. that's what i was thinking when i made the lottery slots. i was thinking kido seto and ayano were drawing the "Kano gets mad at them beam" raffle numbers.

for writing the arguments tbh it's a bit of everything u say. real life, other media and just the characters rotating in my brain for too long

a piece of media i adore is amphibia, and it's a show where arguments and heavy character moments are SUUUUPER constant so heh i do have a type. ive got like a bazillion comics about arguments. i kind of made sasharcy really popular because i was so obsessed with seeing their side of the argument too. on the run sasharcy after s2 u will always be real.

and hop pop and anne's fallout might be a little how i feel about going with kano and ayano in this comic, now that i think about it. i mean things will be fine, but trust Has been broken.

i wouldn't say i take inspiration from real life but i think it's impossible for anyone making Anything not to put a little of their own experiences in it. not that i was ever in these wacky situations but for example... i had known for months that part 21 was gonna be a kano and kido fight but it was only when i had finished writing it and i kept re reading it that i realized i was kind of relating to kido losing their cool.

'cause i was worried like. man am i making them too mean? i hope readers wont dislike them. but they had a long day. kano isn't the only one with problems. why should they put up with his bad mood? theyre in a bad mood too. and from their pov kano seems to Keep putting himself in that position anyways. i sure hope people see kido's side too!!!

then i was like. oooh cause. cause i also... cause i... ohhh got it.

it was subconscious, but kido and kano fighting ended up being surprisingly inspired by my own fights with My piece of shit brother whom i adore. ...that's why i think kido was right and totally justified maybe😳 #teamkido

there's probably a bunch of stuff inspired from my real life but im kind of a uhh what do they call it? repressor? escapism master? yay! so im very unaware of a bunch of my own shit and i dont care to discuss it. if i ever try therapy again i should just make them read kagefuture with me! hahaha... hm. *considers it*

anyways, thanks so much for feedback YAAAY🙌

[the80srewinders]

Unfortunately, I will be leaving Tumblr indefinitely. I have been receiving too much hate and criticism, but today it crossed the line.

I have struggled now more than ever with my mental health severely, and Tumblr makes my mental health worse. Mostly bc I have no self control and cant stay away from triggers. I have a severe self sabotage streak. I'm addicted to self sabotage and can't stop. No matter how much pain it puts me in.

When we started on tumblr it was our safe space w no hate. But as soon as we started gaining traction, we got more criticism than nice comments. We were always making a mistake it seemed- which growing up "never doing anything right" made some old trauma resurface. I've had flashbacks to trauma I had forgot even happened, trauma that makes me feel unsafe, frightened, and sometimes angry. I've cried in public and tried to hide it because of the flashbacks. I've longed for a hero all over again when I'm not being abused near as badly as I was years ago when I'm having the flashbacks to. Yet I'm mentally just as bad as I was then, with every mental health symptom I had back then and haven't had since coming back. I'm just as toxic to others as I was back then.

I have felt like I'm a failure, worthless, dumb, self centered, not valid, faking, and even an abuser- all these same things I felt before I was even allowed on the internet. I'm feeling them just as severe as I was then.

And the ask about the AI thing really set me over the edge. normally I wouldn't be so harsh over it, but I was sent criticism even after turning off anons and that's what made me even more in crisis completely. I couldn't handle anymore and that pushed me over the edge. Irl our life is rough and has been for the past three months with nonstop criticism and callouts for just existing. We come on social media to escape that, and now were being around negativity 24/7 online and offline. makes me feel even more depressed and like I deserve this because there's no escape from being harassed even online and I have to deal w the same things online I suffer with offline and go online to escape from.

The person who sent the ask criticizing my use of ai to make just one funny picture blocked me. I called them out nicely, they had no reason. They are immature and idc if you send them asks calling them out. You can send as many with cussing and wtv to them, they deserve it atp because I actually self harmed over it and have planned suicide now, not fully bc of them it is pushed me over the edge.

Now, an old friend who I called out for being a very toxic person is sending me asks telling me she's gonna expose me for faking disorders, but today it crossed the line because she sent the n word many times, exposed my real name with a threat that people are gonna find and kill me, and called my friends in the classic rock community here sluts. Below is the screenshots of what she sent, major trigger warning.

my mental health can't handle this. I'll never be stable as long as I have to deal with this. I am going to leave all my blogs except the KLOL fan page, if anyone wants to follow me do it there. And I will be turning off asks for the fan page.

I am dissociating so much I have really bad amnesia of my days and am a walking disaster. I'm so forgetful I'm messing up on important things IRL and it could end in me getting hurt or killed by accident, I'm like a walking dead zombie. this hate doesn't help, and tbh tumblr is a harsh and unhealthy place so I am leaving all my accs except the KLOL fan page.

I'm sorry guys. I just can't live like this.

[pocketramblr]

for the ask game: Aizawa/Shigaraki 44 "All I want is you"

P sure 44 is "study" but- wait oh hold on, you meant this other list. Yeah sure why not

Eraserhead stood in front of the building, capture scarf in hand. He lacked his other weapons, out of uniform, unprepared. A black tank top was expected enough, the bright pink sweats less so. But Tomura wasn't looking at them so much as the artificial foot peaking out from under it, at the shape of the leg covered in fabric.

"No running prosthetic? When you were the single reason Jakku and Japan didn't fall that day? Man, teachers must really be paid shit." Tomura looked back up at Eraserhead's face. "Or, you're just even less prepared than usual for me, huh."

Good.

Eraserhead pressed his lips together, but didn't speak. The scars on his face, under one eye and through another, shifted a bit with the movement, catching the light from the street lamps. And piercing all of that was the red from his eye, cutting off Shigaraki from his quirks.

Not that he needed them. Using too many tended to wake Sensei up, and now would be the worst time for that.

Maybe Eraserhead was trying to stall, to let the others in the building have time to get down to the bunkers below, or whatever the security system was. Tomura hadn't been completely listening to the mole when he'd gone over it.

"You didn't cut off your tongue too, did you?" Tomura knew Eraserhead had been few of words at USJ, but he was itching to hear something now. Something from outside his own head. "Will threatening someone in that building help you find it? Oh, what'd the kid say... some little girl?"

Not Hana. Some other name. Connection to the eraser bullets, right.

"You're not getting to her." Eraserhead said shortly, and let the scarf fly from his hands. Always so cool.

"I don't want her." Tomura lifted an arm and me the scarf wind around it, then gave it a tug of his own. Eraserhead braced, but wasn't moved. His eye looked real strained though, probably only had a few seconds left before he'd blink. "Or any of your other brats either, don't worry."

"Really." Eraserhead twisted a hand, and the scarf cut into Tomura's skin. "Because if you're looking for Mid-"

"Don't say his name." Tomura hissed, grabbing the scarf again and pulling, and this time caught the blink.

In a moment, Eraserhead was pulled forward by far more force, and Tomura caught up, took his face in hand.

In a moment, Erasure was back up, but Tomura didn't let go.

"Saying his name, or the power he has, wakes Sensei up." Tomura warned. "And neither of us want that, Eraserhead."

He traced a finger on the crescent scar curling under the red eye. The other fingers, some metal, tightened over his cheeks, chin, lips. The hero twisted more in his grip, but didn't get loose.

"Now, we both know you'd do your best to kill yourself before letting me go through you to your chargers. And I know that Erasure won't suit my plans now, no matter what Sensei wanted to use it so badly for."

Erasure wouldn't help keep the bastard shut up, and Tomura's eyes itched enough as it was.

"So what do you want?" Eraserhead finally asked, tired.

Tomura hummed, his hand moving to trace the other scarred eye, pull back the shifting, weightless dark hair. It felt alive under his touch.

Or maybe that was just him.

"Mm, you know, I'm not really sure what I want, past getting this bastard out of my head and killing everyone who put him there. But right now? I think all I want is you."

The hair went limp and lifeless, the eye faded back to it's dark color, wide now, confused. Strange, stupid that he was, but most things in life were and Tomura had accepted that fact.

After a few blinks, the erasing glow returned, but the rest of his eye was getting red too. Straining. He wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer.

Something itched in the back of Tomura's mind.

He couldn't, either.

"Not your quirk." Tomura repeated, rolling his own eyes. Heroes, honestly. Even the best of them didn't listen. "Toga would tell me to get your blood, but I don't want that either." Compress would suggest taking the leg as a joke to see if he'd do it, Spinner might say a lock of hair. Dabi would probably say a finger or something, creep.

No. Tomura didn't just want a part or a piece of Eraserhead.

But he couldn't take him now, keeping him somewhere close to Sensei when the old man woke up would be as good as Tomura throwing him away himself.

But maybe...

Tomura moved his hand again, flat fingers to cover Eraserhead's good eye, to press it shut. His other arm has to brace more, the other man's fight getting desperate against him now, trying to get away.

But his eyes shut. His hair dropped. Erasure turned off.

He was frozen against Tomura's lips, but his heartbeat was going wild.

Tomura smiled.

"See you later, Eraserhead."

Then he tugged on one of the quirks, the teleporting one, and vanished before Eraserhead could open his eyes again.

[sab3rto0thed]

i don't like to assign direct and unwavering and stagnant blame, but i would blame you for everything simply because i love pinning the blame on other people. if you were writing this, then you would be pinning the blame on me, because you can never trust an honest writer. writers, even the most honest of writers, are blatant liars. writing is about the essence of truth and that in itself is a lie.

i'm philosophizing. i'm sorry. have you ever counted how many lies you said in a day? i'm sure you haven't and i would love to mock you for that but i've never counted my lies, either. at least i attempt to acknowledge them, but only when they are a few days old and rotting away like flies. you wouldn't know acknowledgement if it slapped you in the face.

why am i here? why are we here? have you ever been invisible for a few weeks or days or a few months? it's a multitude of hours is what i'm trying to say, the crushing weight of being invisible, of dumping your dead fish into a flowerpot, of pretending to scatter your cat's ashes so you don't have to think about the fact that he's dead, of holding the dog's paw on her deathbed and knowing you will never take her outside ever again. death, death, death, death. little deaths, big deaths. that's what being invisible is. it's fucking death. have you ever been dead?

everyone has always been looking at you for as long as i have known you and i remember hating you for that before i even properly talked to you. i remember hating you with a feeling so deep that i wanted to fucking kill you along with every single one of your friends. i wanted to choke you to death and be done with it. i don't think that's something i could ever forget.

you were the first person to look at me in a week. you saw right through me, but i wanted to be seen so badly that i refused to acknowledge it. look at us, basking in our similarities again. refusal to acknowledge.

let me tell you a secret. when the only thing you want, in the entire world, is to be looked at, to be properly seen, to be wanted again in a way you haven't been in months--when the only thing you could ever want is someone to take you by the hands and tell you to put down all of your shit for a minute, and someone does, then fuck it. that's it. i would've done anything you wanted me to. i would have been anyone, any girl you could have possibly wanted.

except truthful. i couldn't be that.

i was a void-filler and even though i was temporary, fuck i am good at filling voids. i am always a scrambled combination of other people. i have always been a novelty. you know us and our novelties. i know you do.

let's say you ask me, or you did ask me, in the past, in this situation, in this version of the story, you ask me: why do you lie?

i would say, well, i need to. or, rather, i would say, why do you lie? or, rather, if i liked you enough to be truthful that day, i would say, i lie because i can sleep at night. if i tell the truth, i'll be awake for days.

you don't understand how it is to be honest. i know that. that's why i liked you. we were one in the same. that's why it would never have worked. you are you and i am me and that's it.

but i digress. i don't want to have imaginary conversations with you. we both saw what happened to the last guy i did that with. he's, like, dead-alive. alive-dead. nonexistent but super there. you know?

here's a real conversation we had instead: once, you told me that omitting information is still lying. i didn't say anything but i wanted to bash your face in with a rock and then laugh until i cried. what do you say to something like that? you knew exactly what you were getting into with me.

i was talking to a friend of mine recently and he told me i seemed fearless. there we go, i thought, and i imagined you in my bed again. there we go. another one fooled.

let's have an honest conversation. i have been afraid, consistently, that you are just going to ruin everything that i love because that's what you do. you ruin things, just like me. talking to you was like talking to my fifteen-year-old self. i hate you. i want you to be okay. in another version of this story, you are dead, just like the other guy.

how do you explain the hopelessness of a lie to someone? you told me all i do is work hard. i was sitting there holding a cup of coffee and all i could think was the way you described me to everyone else, like a glass vase with a grenade inside. i can't talk to other liars. i feel like i'm going to choke.

i'll tell you the truth. it was the middle of january and i was suffocating every time i tried to suck in oxygen. i couldn't see i was so terrified. i had to beg for love like a starved dog. i felt this incessant need to go somewhere, to do something, to be someone, but there was nothing to be done about it. that's why i lie. so i don't get into situations like that again. self-preservation, baby. i'm really good at gritting my teeth.

you told me you were going to throw up the first time you saw me. you got into a car crash a few years ago, just like the other guy. i have never crashed the car, but i thought i was going to vomit when i saw you, too.

for months, i have felt like everything to everyone while simultaneously being nothing at all. i know you understand that. that's all you are.

i'm trying really hard not to be that way.

i'll tell you the truth. it was the middle of january, and i was baking chocolate chip cookies for my old coworkers because i needed them to know that they had saved me without saying the words. it was the middle of january, and i called the girl that had been my best friend once for the first time in months and i told her to talk to me. it was the middle of january, and i was sledding until my eyelashes were frosted with ice. it was the middle of january and it was hard and cold but i said i love you for the first time in a million years, and it wasn't a lie, and it wasn't a performance. it was just the truth.

i'm tired of lying. i don't blame you. as liars, i know you understand that all we do is cut. i'm putting down the knife. keep yours. stay away from glass vases. drink water when you start shaking. grit your teeth.

self-preservation, baby. i know all about it. i made it through another january, you know.

[alecsnotalex]

I when wake up in the morning alone, I feel sadness and longing for all of you. Waking up next to you, burying my head on your chest, feeling bad that your arm would've hurt from me laying there. The right side of your bed was my side. I remember going under covers with you. Sleeping in your arms, waking up first every morning, and just looking at you. Maybe I move too much, maybe it's telepathy, but you wake up mere minutes after I do. It's like you can feel me staring, and you'd look at me, and we'd just stare at each other. Not saying anything. Just silent. Staring at each other, you'd pull me in to squeeze me tight. Mornings when we'd kiss and just look at each other, I wish I could relive them with you. I wish I could've had a lifetime with you.

They say that the thing about loving someone so much, is learning not to love anyone like that ever again. It's really been wonderful love. Those six wonderful months you gave me. Am I selfish for wanting to have had more? It's just been three days, and I know it takes time, but I just really wish we had more time. I've been wearing your shirt since the day we ended things. In my heart, I know this is for the best, but on the other hand, I also wish that it didn't have to end. I feel like I'm trying to hold on to everything I can grasp, like sand in between my fingers, handfuls and handfuls of memories from all those times we were together. It's really really hard, love. I was so accustomed to you. You were a big part of my life these past few months. You've been a habit, a person I had cared about, you were someone I had spent so much time with. I never understood why people said "don't make homes out of people," and it hurts so much that I learn its meaning through you. I think, in my heart of hearts, I've known that there wasn't a future in us.

I think I was just really scared of losing you. It's really been wonderful, love. Thank you for loving me the way you have. Thank you for showing me that I am deserving of love and care you had given me in the time we were together. I am really grateful for you. I want to tell you all these things, but I can't anymore. I know this is also hard on you, and the last thing I want to do is hurt you more than I have. I don't want to push you away more than this distance we now have. It sucks so much, and I know it'll suck so much more. I think the thing that hurts so much about this, is knowing that whatever happens in the future, no matter what, our lives will never be the same again. This has changed things, and I know that you want to change, and I can never do anything to stop it, or bring back what once was.

More than anything, you're my best friend. We've spent so much time together, and we've loved each other so greatly. It terrifies me the way we loved each other, how something so great can just end and be taken away so suddenly. How I can still feel so much emotions and love for someone, but have no one to give it to anymore. I miss you. So, so much. I wish I could've fought for us more. I wish we could've fought for us more. It really sucks, I want you back here. I want you to hold me while I cry, I want you to tell me you regret letting me go, and that you want to try again, like how I want to so badly. I just want to spend another night with you, and another day, and another night after that, and another til we grow old and gray. It's really really hard, love. But I love you, and I want you to be happy. I'll always put you first, and I just want you to be happy. I just wish it wouldn't kill me.

[hchollym]

A Percy Weasley AU idea

Voldemort wins and people are hunted down and killed. In a desperate attempt to right the story, Percy, along with Luna (and maybe some others idk) do some rituals or something to be sent back in time to actually defeat Voldemort.

How do you think that would play out?

Would Percy be the only one to be sent back or will others be as well (ex. Luna)?

Would he stay in the body he was originally in or will he be sent into his childhood body (depending on when he gets sent back to)?

How would his relationships with others change? For example, his family?

Since his story has now changed due to knowledge of the future, would anyone else’s story change? (Ex. If he gets sent back to POA, or at least before Scabber’s is revealed at Peter, how would he deal with that?)

Ect…

Wow, that's a lot to answer! 🙃 I'll try my best, but be warned that this is all purely speculation, and there's some definite bias here because of my headcanons.

I'm going to put this under the cut due to length.

If we're being "realistic" (as much as possible), then Luna isn't going to be a part of this, and Percy is going to stay in his adult body.

It's super fun to read fanfiction stories where Luna is involved & the characters wake up in the body of their younger selves, because it affects their interactions and relationships with other characters, so please feel free to keep writing this type of thing if it appeals to you. However, I don't think it would actually play out like that.

I love Luna - she's one of my favorite characters - but her personality in canon just doesn't fit into this storyline. Look at her conversation with Harry in Book 5:

“Have you . . .” he began. “I mean, who . . . has anyone you’ve known ever died?” “Yes,” said Luna simply, “my mother. She was a quite extraordinary witch, you know, but she did like to experiment and one of her spells went rather badly wrong one day. I was nine.” “I’m sorry,” Harry mumbled. “Yes, it was rather horrible,” said Luna conversationally. “I still feel very sad about it sometimes. But I’ve still got Dad. And anyway, it’s not as though I’ll never see Mum again, is it?” “Er — isn’t it?” said Harry uncertainly. She shook her head in disbelief. “Oh, come on. You heard them, just behind the veil, didn’t you?” “You mean . . .” “In that room with the archway. They were just lurking out of sight, that’s all. You heard them.”

She doesn't dwell on the past, and her absolute belief in seeing her loved ones again after death would prevent her from trying to mess with fate. For all they know, going back in time could make things worse (i.e. Voldemort could take over all of Europe, he could torture everyone into permanent madness instead of killing them, etc.), and Luna just doesn't have the reckless motivation to risk it.

Percy, on the other hand, would 100% be reckless enough if he loses his sibling(s) like he lost Fred in the books. If his siblings are all still alive, then Percy's not going back in time either, but if one or more of them dies (particularly around Percy so he feels guilty about it), then he wouldn't be thinking clearly. He would blame himself and be out for blood like we saw in Book 7:

Rounding the corner, Percy let out a bull-like roar: “ROOKWOOD!” and sprinted off in the direction of a tall man, who was pursuing a couple of students.

In this situation, he doesn't care that he could potentially make things worse; he's going anyway.

The most likely person to go with him is actually Ron. If Voldemort wins, chances are that Harry is dead, and Ron is left in a very similar state to Percy - guilt and grief are swallowing him whole, and he's willing to take some serious risks, like we also saw in Book 7:

...he saw that Hermione was trying to restrain Ron, to stop him running after Percy. “Listen to me—LISTEN RON !” “I wanna help— I wanna kill Death Eaters— ” His face was contorted, smeared with dust and smoke, and he was shaking with rage and grief.

Hermione would likely be wary of going back because she is rational enough to know it's a huge risk, but she goes with them anyway, because she's not abandoning Ron (especially if they may get Harry back).

Ron and Percy would have some serious baggage to work through (especially if Ron felt like Percy was trying to take Harry's place in their trio), and they would likely want to approach the situation in vastly different ways, so there would be plenty of conflict.

Since they probably stay in their same bodies, they avoid interacting with anyone else as much as possible, because they know how dangerous it would be for their younger selves if they were seen:

Professor McGonagall told me what awful things have happened when wizards have meddled with time…. Loads of them ended up killing their past or future selves by mistake!

Therefore, we wouldn't see too much interaction between them and other characters (besides each other). However, we might see some interaction between Percy & Dumbledore (because it might eventually be necessary to involve him), which would be interesting since Percy had legitimate reasons not to trust Dumbledore (even though he was telling the truth about Voldemort).

They likely decide to hunt down the Horcruxes themselves (since Ron & Hermione know where they are and how to destroy them). In order to do so, they sneak into Hogwarts and Ron enters the Chamber of Secrets (by mimicking Harry's Parseltongue) to get the Basilisk's fang to destroy the Horcruxes.

The fun part of the story would be that some of the Horcruxes are actually more difficult to get when they're in the past. For example, one is in Bellatrix's vault at Gringotts, but if she's still in Azkaban, then they can't use Polyjuice to look like her, which causes complications (and I headcanon that Percy would use the Imperius Curse at that point).

It really depends on what year they go back in time to though. I think Percy & Hermione would have thought very carefully about it and decided to go back to the summer after Book 3; they want to stop Voldemort from being completely ressurected, but they don't want to stop Wormtail from escaping, because they need him to find Voldemort's shell of a being so Harry can eventually kill it:

“I returned to my hiding place far away, and I will not pretend to you that I didn’t then fear that I might never regain my powers. . . . Yes, that was perhaps my darkest hour . . . I could not hope that I would be sent another wizard to possess . . . and I had given up hope, now, that any of my Death Eaters cared what had become of me. . . .”

I also imagine that Percy would want to save Cedric too, because I headcanon that they were friends. Therefore, the best course of action is to stop Barty Jr. from escaping and returning to Voldemort's side (because he sets everything in motion for Voldemort's return). This wouldn't be too difficult if they returned right at the beginning of the summer, because Percy would be able to easily access Mr. Crouch's house (where Barty Jr. is still under the Imperius Curse) by pretending to be his younger self (because Mr. Crouch was not paying attention enough to notice a few years difference in his age).

I honestly think Percy would murder Barty Jr. He may pretend that he wouldn't (for Hermione and Ron's sake), but Percy has a very personal motivation for this - not only did Barty kill Cedric, but he also almost destroyed Percy's career, and it's my headcanon that he hurt Percy. Plus, Percy knows that Barty is a flight risk, since he escaped from Azkaban, and he's not going to take any chances. He probably pretends it was self defense with Hermione and Ron, but he's too far gone to feel guilty by then. (I love darkish Percy, by the way; he's not a bad person, but once he loses someone he loves, I can see him spiraling out, because it's clear in canon that Percy feels things so deeply).

If Barty Jr. is dead, then Harry never enters the Triwizard Tournament, and this is where plenty of things change. For starters, one of the other competitors wins (likely Viktor, because Cedric wouldn't get any heads up about the dragons or the egg without Harry's involvement), so Cedric lives, and Harry never gives Fred and George money for their joke shop. This forces the twins to wait several more years to save enough, so they don't drop out of school and actually graduate. Umbridge doesn't get involved at Hogwarts, because there's no Dark Lord returning so the Ministry doesn't care what Dumbledore is doing; Sirius lives because Voldemort doesn't return enough for him to give Harry visions; Dumbledore lives because Draco never becomes a Death Eater; and none of the people/creatures in Book 7 die because all the Death Eaters in Azkaban don't escape/come back together.

Interestingly enough, there would be a ripple effect for some other characters as well. I highly doubt Remus would marry Tonks if Sirius was alive (he seemed perfectly content to stay at Grimmauld Place with him); Bill doesn't move back to England to work at Gringotts and help with the war, so he never dates and marries Fleur; and when Dumbledore eventually tells Harry that he has to die to permanently defeat Voldemort, Harry's not as likely to listen. He's probably living with Sirius, who would fight against the suicide thing, tooth and nail. Plus, if there's no war going on because Voldemort wasn't fully resurrected, then there's no battles or deaths, particularly ones that are close to Harry. Harry's also living in a relatively happy and stable home with Sirius and Remus, so his motivation for committing suicide (based off only Dumbledore's word) is not really there.

This actually doesn't change much though, except that Voldemort finds a way to return much later on (without any other Horcruxes), but everyone is better prepared because they're adults/possibly Aurors. Harry fights him, let's himself be killed, and then kills Voldemort. Done. A few other people might die in the crossfire, but it's impossible to guess who, especially if Dumbledore is still around.

Wow, that was a lot! 😱

But we're still not done! 🤣 Where are the older versions of Percy, Hermione, and Ron after all this?

They don't disappear when their mission is complete, but they can't go back to their old lives either (since their younger selves are still living the happier version). It's possible that Percy leaves his younger self a note, but that's about it.

I think Hermione and Ron just move to a different country to live a new life, and Percy does the same, but I can actually picture Percy choosing to live a Muggle life after everything that's happened (if he doesn't die trying to destroy the Horcruxes, because he was probably hoping for that).

Overall, I think the whole ordeal gives Ron & Hermione closure; they saved Harry (and Fred), but they lost them anyway in a different sense, because they can't be a part of their lives. They've spent so long dedicating their lives to Harry, but now they have to learn to live for themselves and let him go. It's bittersweet.

Percy's arc is a little darker/sadder. He has to face the fact that he's willing to go to extreme lengths to prevent his family's death, and he has to grapple with his own guilt, conscience, and mental health issues. He also has to learn to forgive himself and move on, which means letting go of his family once and for all.

I know everyone thinks that Percy has to reconnect with the Weasleys to be happy, but I don't really believe so. Especially if his younger self is still around, then Percy gets a free pass to break away from a family that was never truly going to be healthy for him (see this and this post). He learns that he can love them and still leave without resentment or anger. It's kind of like the lyrics to a Shinedown song: "Sometimes goodbye is a second chance."

He has to start over and figure out who he is now and what he wants out of life. Perhaps he ends up adopting children in the Muggle world. Regardless, he ultimately finds himself, and he finds peace.

Thanks for the ask! 😊

[joycew-blog]

I have so many thoughts about the finale!!! First off, I am so happy that Rick regressed!!! It's of course terrible for Morty and the rest of the family, but it feels way more realistic and interesting. The path to recovery is hard and will have roadblocks. You can't fix decades of bad habits in just a couple of episodes.

That doesn't mean that Rick hasn't been trying tho! Him helping Jerry with the Fortune Cookies, the whole Roy thing, Analyze Piss, that was still the real Rick! He still went to therapy, he did genuinely try.

But Morty being mad at him just triggers things in him that makes him go back in his old ways. It was a less bad reaction than in the past, cause last time Morty called him out on his crap Rick decided to replace him with two crows and before that we got the Vat of Acid episode (there might be more, but esp the Vat is so vivid in my mind of the bad crap he did to that poor kid). He wouldn't have made a robot that's actually kind to Morty and have him have a good time. In that sense I guess Rick knows his limitations, that he can't make Morty happy right now as he is.

But instead of discussing that with him and being emotionally open about it, he goes behind their back and replaces himself with a robot so he betrays their trust....again! (Cause he probably thinks it's better if he's not around while he's like this, but at the same time he's proving the point that it's better he's not around by putting out a robot that's 'better' than him. It's a self-fulling prophecy and he does this all the time.)

As for Morty, someone, anyone, please give this poor kid a hug! He just wanted a nice Christmas for himself and his family. He never gets a break and when he does it's just too good to be true!

I think when he broke down in front of the President it was more than just Christmas being ruined. His trust was betrayed, again, and the things he enjoyed the past episode probably now leave a bitter taste in his mouth since it was not his real grandpa. He probably thought at that moment that Rick would rather build a robot to be nice to him, instead of putting in the effort himself...

And then of course Curtis drives the knife even deeper by betraying Morty afterwards...

And Robot Rick! He was so kind and he tried so hard. I felt for him so much with how he felt so guilty about betraying the family's trust. And him trying to be honest about it made my stomach twist cause I knew it would just go badly...

And when it did go bad the family immediately went out to destroy him. They must be really traumatized from the robots and clones and the crap Rick has pulled them through with it…

Seriously Robot Rick was the final hero in this episode and I wished he didn't die...

And god the final couple of minutes...

They are going on adventures again, but dang the reason for it will be so different! For Morty the most, cause what will happen if they find Prime? And what does Rick mean he is on all the location that were pointed on his map?! Like, he's on all of them at the same time, or are those places he has been/has mini-homebases?

And the classic Rick ramble at the end. Normally they are done for comedy purposes, but in this scene it just felt....dark and sad. This is what Rick really is, an obsessed, traumatized person wanting to find the guy that killed his family. It broke him down to his core, the search for him even more so than the killing of his family. Even years later he still can't let it rest!

And now he's dragging his grandson along him with it...

--

This episode is the exact reason I love this show. Just when I think I lose a bit of interest they do something that's made me hyped up all over again!

I really am hyped and curious to find out what they are going to do for season 7!

[doginabirdcage]

The Boy Who Overcame Time

Inuyasha was digging through his backpack looking for his textbooks, to no avail. "Shit," he whispered. "Ma's going to kill me if she has to buy these again."

His first set of textbooks worked as kindling on one of Kagome's first human nights alone with him. There was a snowstorm, he found shelter in an abandoned hut and they’d be approaching hypothermia if he hadn’t acted quickly. The second set of textbooks eventually reeked so badly of miasma after a run-in with Naraku that grandpa Totosai said a prayer over them, his bugging eyes watering before he burned those too.

He could not afford to lose these. 

He dumped the entire bag onto the grass unceremoniously, as if it would make 3 heavy books materialize. 

"Now you're just making a mess." Sango crossed her arms somewhere behind him, and he turned his head to see the miko looking down at him with a disgusted expression. 

"Leave the kid alone," Miroku called from where he was sprawled out on the ground. "This homework thing sounds scarier than an entire horde of demons."

"Oh? Not too keen on being held accountable for your choices?" She cocked a hip and didn't wait for the slayer's response, "Inuyasha, your textbooks have to be somewhere, nobody is going to steal books they probably can't even read. Have you asked Kaede?"

"Maybe she's using them in place of rocks to weigh down her stew. Wouldn't put it past her." Miroku sat up in the grass. "Do you think Futaba has them?"

"Stop using anything you possibly can to harass poor, unsuspecting women—" Sango stomped over to him, which made Miroku smirk, as if he'd been aiming for that the entire time—

"Shut up!" Inuyasha grouched. "Your theories mean nothing to me. Where's Kagome?"

The half-tengu girl couldn't be harder to keep track of. She stuck her nose in everything and helped people who didn't even want her to because they were bigoted fucks. It gave 15 year old Inuyasha the vapors. He was way too young to be getting the vapors. 

Inuyasha left the miko and the demon slayer to hash out their unresolved sexual tension by themselves and went off to find Kagome.

He ran deeper into the very forest for which she was the namesake, looking for a set of raven wings hidden in the treetops. 

"Kagome?" 

In return, the wind blew, rustling the tree leaves around in a gentle caress. Sunlight dappled down through the gaps in the foliage, the image before him so serene he could almost forget why he was hanging out in Feudal Japan in the first place. People paid good money for this kind of scenery in his time.

Deeper within, he found Shippo napping in a patch of sunshine, which meant that Kagome wasn't far away. She looked after the runt like he was her own. The fox kit smelled him approaching, nose wrinkling as he roused.

"Hey, stinkbutt," the 2 foot tall entity of pure irritation groused. "Got any lollipops to give me?"

"Not with that fuckin' attitude, shrimp. You seen Kagome?"

Shippo huffed. "She's off readin' somewhere. Beats me." 

She's reading, he thought to himself, that tells me everything I need to know.

"Back at camp there's ninja snacks," Inuyasha nodded behind him as he began to jog away from the fox. "Thanks for the intel, shitbird!"

Behind him, Shippo brightened with excitement and made to scurry off to where Inuyasha left Miroku and Sango before he stopped abruptly. "Hey, wait! I'm going to tell Kagome you said that!"

"I dare you! Hope you don't walk in on our friends making out!" Inuyasha yelled without turning back.

"Yuck!"

-

Once Inuyasha made it to the well clearing, he skidded to a halt. He looked down to the hem of his uniform trousers and winced at the dirt trailing up his pant leg. He'd started wearing normal sneakers in Kagome's time, but maybe it's time to start coming in sweats or something. 

Either way, he's going to get an earful from Izayoi ("I'm not mad sweetheart, just disappointed"), and then Toga's going to nod half-heartedly behind her like the loyal puppy he is. 

Gods, his parents were so embarrassing.

Inuyasha looked up, and sure enough, he could see Kagome's large wings hanging over one of the higher boughs. He sighed and walked right under the tree's impressive branches.

He whistled for her attention. When she didn't respond, he did it again, saying "Hey, pretty bird!"

Inuyasha continued to call her as if she were an actual pet until a burst of black feathers flooded his vision. He was scooped up and firmly planted on that same branch he saw Kagome sitting on in a matter of seconds.

"I resent that!"

She had a veritable nest building on the expanse of corrugated bark, a little nook being created by an adjoining section of sturdy wood where, bingo: his textbooks were piled next to an open bag of chips, one of them open to a page about the Heian period.

"Only birds steal things to make nests, y'know. I'm just callin' it like I see it." 

Kagome's wings flapped irritably as she scoffed, waving his comments away with a flick of her taloned fingers. 

"You can't just take my books without mentioning it. Ma'll wring my neck, and you'll be out one shard detector."

She loved his mother. Every time Kagome got even a flicker of praise from Izayoi, she'd brighten. 

"I'd never let you go home without them," she said defensively. "You just weren't using them and there were things I wanted to see."

"I carry them to use them."

"Why don't you ever take them out?"

"Uh, does the constant threat of power hungry demons ring a bell to you?"

Her brow crinkled at that. Inuyasha reined in that blooming affection he felt at the sight, it was creeping up far too often for his liking. 

"Fine," she replied softly. "Not like I can decipher it all anyway."

At her sullen mien, Inuyasha gestured to her pile. "Hand it over. We'll look at it together. That cool?"

Kagome plucked the heavy textbook one-handed and with lots of enthusiasm. He set the book between them on their legs.

"Tell me what you don't understand and we can go through it together."

She blinked at him in awe, a gentle smile curling on the side of her mouth. 

-

"Oh, the sun's starting to set."

"I was supposed to be studying math this whole time."

"Ew, math!"

"Tell me about it."

-

Midterms came and went. 

He had to retake his math exams.

[ravewing]

HI HELLO local flame fanatic here

i will NEVER get over flame's dynamic with his mother. she's the only dragon that he can feel vulnerable around, the only dragon he trusts enough to cry in front of, the only dragon willing to embrace him and the only dragon ever shown to love him. and she sends him to jade mountain, probably thinking that being around other dragons will help him open up to others emotionally, that he might be able to find someone else that cares about him like she does, that he might be able to be happy.

and instead, a bomb goes off, almost certainly reopening fresh wounds with flame's recent experience with the skywing troops being burned alive in front of him (and thats a topic that i can go off on a whole other tangent about), and now it's in that back of his mind that theres a killer at this new school, that he's not safe and what if he's next.

i talked about this in my last post but he also feels like his mother hates his scar just as much as he does- i feel like this is him projecting himself onto his mother because he feels like an unlovable creature and that she cant love him because who would love a monster like him?

we've never seen anything suggesting that she hates his scar at all, only her worry and how distraught she was that someone could have harmed him in such a way. i mean, think about it- she only joined the talons so that flame wouldn't be drafted into the military, so that he wouldn't have to witness the horrors of war; and then it still ended up happening to him with what morrowseer made him and the other alternates do.

i think about him being able to sense moon in his mind a lot, and im not entirely sure as to why tui put this element into his character, but nevertheless its still interesting. ive theorized before that maybe its some skywing ability that tui never developed, maybe him having the dreamvisitor did something, maybe his father was a nightwing, but in all honesty i dont know. i really do wish that tui had developed this more but you know how she is with introducing really interesting elements and then never bringing them up ever again.

ive also talked a lot about his refusal to allow darkstalker to heal his face in the past. it ties into how he thinks he's a monster, that he's undeserving of it- nobody has ever offered him any sort of kindness before, so why should darkstalker? it all loops back to how he doesn't think hes deserving of it, no matter how badly he wants to get rid of his scar, he doesn't truly believe he can have it (and this is seen before in book 4 when fatesp and starf offered to get him off the island).

i wholeheartedly believe that ds enchanted flame to kill stonemover tho. like genuinely its so out of character for him to just run off and quietly do that?? like when moon was reading his mind he was thinking to himself that if he was the one who'd blown up the cave, he'd roar it to the world so that he would actually be taken seriously. ntm how it is 110% in character for darkstalker to make him do that so that he could "save" stonemover and use flame as a scapegoat so that moon and anemone and everyone else would trust him more.

some other things i wish people talked about more:

how flame literally stole a dreamvisitor?? and how tui brought it up one time and then never again????? idk i wish something more was done with that

the parallels between flame and glory- both of them struggled with self-image issues, both of them projected their self-hatred onto everyone else world. but their coping mechanisms are what set them apart- glory found solace in the support of other dragons because she actually had friends, which led her to accept herself, while flame's lack of such support caused him to spiral further into self-loathing.

okay yeah i think thats enough yapping for now. i just saw a flame post and then the brainrot took over

A list of things about Flame that I think about a lot but I've never seen talked about:

He loves his mother.

He's mad at his mother for sending him to Jade Academy.

He can sense when someone is reading his thoughts.

He refused to let Darkstalker heal his face, despite very clearly not liking the fact that he has a permanent scar.

Darkstalker might have added an aspect of his healing spell that gave Flame the urge to kill Stonemover. This is never confirmed or denied. (Honestly, I don't know if it would've been more interesting if he did it of his own volition or not.)

He was trapped in that cave for at least a full day, most likely stewing in his own rage the entire time.

He was sent away from Jade Academy and assigned to the SkyWing healing bays. And he may or may not finally get the emotional healing that he needs.

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga Update 214 Review: Daybreak

Long ass review, but I did have a lot to say. I wouldn't normally bother with such a long summary before getting to the meta, but with such an unusual chapter, I think it's worthwhile. You can skip past it if you really want.

Story

We begin close to where we left off, with Garou on hands and knees, trying to understand what the hell hit him. He comes to notice that he's being watched... by the Tank Toppers who he beat up a few days ago. This is not going to go well.

We then cut away to return to Saitama and Genos. Saitama has used what remains of his uniform to tie up the hole in his crotch and is explaining that he came round to find himself holding what looks a lot like Genos's core. Genos plugs it in to find out if it's authentic, and yes, it is. It's not a copy of his core -- it IS his core. And a lot of information comes along with it, detailing what happened in the interim. Bless him for not trying to rationalize the improbable away. He tries to explain to Saitama that both it and Saitama have come from the future and that Saitama in the future had created a time divergence which was resolved once he re-entered the timeline and merged with his present self. More pertinently, it meant that no matter how badly things went, Saitama would always be able to go back and fix it.

He starts to consider mechanisms whereby this could have happened, but Saitama's brains start leaking words and he stops him. Genos, thinking that Saitama is being modest, feels smug for a moment for being the only person other than Saitama to know this incredible fact. As Saitama continues to look lost, Genos summarizes it for him. In other words, Saitama always be in the right place at the right time (thoughts about this will wait until the meta).

Well, Garou might not have been able to travel back to the past. However, where we cut to next tells us that nevertheless, he was able to send information back in time. We go to Tareo laid out face down in some rubble, where, had Saitama not come back to take Garou out, he'd have laid until he died. A familiar voice wakes him up, urging him to stand up. Tareo comes to see a vision of Garou, all in white, smiling sweetly as he crumbles away to nothing. Tareo runs towards him, but he's gone. He looks around. He appears to be all alone, but over in the distance, there's a commotion.

This commotion resolves itself into a knot of Tank Toppers kicking and punching Garou, who isn't putting up a defense as he thinks to himself that it's all over. The narration implies that even though Garou in the present understands nothing of what happened, his future self appears to have influenced him to stop his hero hunting (again, more of this in the meta). As Garou sneers at them that their blows aren't hurting him, Metal Bat intervenes to stop the assault, and even though yet more heroes protest -- damn, Garou sure has made a lot of unnecessary enemies -- it looks like he might get through. Until Amai Mask shows up to make everything much worse. Despite all the brouhaha, none of the gathered heroes actually has any killing intent towards Garou, they're just venting. Amai Mask, on the other hand, really does want Garou dead, and the panel of his trying to push past Metal Bat is appropriately all black:

no ambiguity as to who is being cast as the bad guy here

It's at this point that Saitama shows up, Genos tucked under one arm, to back up Metal Bat. As Amai Mask asks who the hell he is, Saitama changes the subject by asking who took down Garou (it's an honest question), and speculates it's Blast.

That throws a spanner in the works as Flashy Flash recounts what he saw of the mysterious hero and somehow we end up with everyone thinking that Blast came to beat Garou in the buff. Talk about reputational damage!

The one person who does know what happened, Genos, says nothing to the assembly but mentions to Saitama that by rights, he's the one who should deal with Garou. Saitama demurs, saying that he's not much for rights and besides, the only reason Garou's getting hit is because he's permitting it. So he continues to watch.

Bang and Zombieman show up, the latter making the Tank Toppers step back so he can ask Garou about God (no Id). Garou scoffs at the idea (yes, he has no memory of ever interacting with God -- another thing for the meta) and insists that everything is all him. Why won't people kill him already? As Amai Mask steps up with fiendish glee to do just that, Tareo finally catches up to grab him by the leg. Bravest boy in the world!

As they watch Tareo plead with Garou to run away and berate Amai Mask for his meanness, the mob starts breaking down into the individuals it's constituted of, with individual heroes questioning what the hell they're doing and others insisting that, no, this was necessary. It looked like the situation was going to become quite the ugly brawl, until King stepped forward.

King's heart pounding louder than it ever has, he asked everyone to stop what they're doing, for there's a child watching. Everyone recoils in fear and with a sense of shame. Amai Mask tries staring King down, but even he backs off.

Bang finally speaks up, telling Garou that the way to make amends was not by throwing his life away, but rather by dedicating it to saving tens, if not hundreds, more people than he hurt. As Garou glares back at Bang, Saitama interjects, saying that Absolute Evil was pretty good at saving people. And indeed, all the people around him have shown him, Garou, what he truly is.

It really is over. It dawns on Garou that he is going to be allowed to just go. Go and sin no more. It feels... unbearable. He warns Saitama that he'll regret it and in reply, Saitama says that he'll regret nothing. Indeed, he never had a chance to thank Garou for saving King and Genos (back when he beat up the cadre). Garou stares. Saitama is not joking. He's totally sincere. This is too much for Garou. Saying that Saitama made him sick (although, we must note, not with anything like the venom with which he first said those words to Superalloy Darkshine), he jumps up and makes good his escape, disappearing so fast that only Saitama sees which way he goes. Genos reckons that Garou will soon be back to his mayhem but Saitama disagrees and thinks that it's a matter that can safely be left to Bang.

interesting that they were already thinking of how to extricate Garou

Not that there's time for any hue-and-cry, for one of Metal Knight's tanks shows up, along with a flotilla of drones, glinting in the sky as the first rays of the Sun poke above the mountains. Someone nuked the aircraft carrier he designed, so he's here to find out how the hell that happened and decontaminate the area. All the heroes (and Tareo) were swept up to the lab to be treated for their radiation poisoning.

The dawn finally breaks properly and we see Saitama, Genos still tucked under one arm, looking out at the saltwater flat where his apartment used to be. I guess that having his own facilities exempted Genos from being dragged off to Metal Knight's lab -- maybe he took responsibility for Saitama as well? Who knows? Saitama sighs, and, when Genos asks what's wrong, says that they'll ask Dr Kuseno to repair Genos's limbs (this doesn't sit right with me for reasons I'll get to in the meta) so Genos can help him retrieve their stuff.

Chapter ends there.

Meta

Brief note on a much-maligned character

No, I don't mean Garou. I mean Metal Knight. No, he's not the nicest person nor the most cooperative, but if the worth of a person lies in what they do, then he doesn't deserve the bad press Drive Knight is so eager to put out about him. Once again, he's shown up in the aftermath of a great crisis to clean up, he's literally saving all the heroes' lives by making sure they get appropriate treatment early and he's containing the fallout from Garou's nuclear antics. Not to mention that his robot army is very much not in the hands of an enemy, as Drive Knight tried to persuade Sekingar they would be.

Bofoi will probably never be anyone's favourite character, and he'll not win prizes for courage, but on balance, he's one of the good guys.

Human beings in the mob

The beatdown is quite the study on people. At first, I'd thought that Feather had joined the mob and I was very disappointed, but it's Death Gatling, phew. None of the people who witnessed Garou helping participated in hitting him. As the mob roils, you can see that a lot of heroes are conflicted, particularly once Tareo comes into the picture and what's on show is how the hardest people to oppose are those in your own circle. There are a lot of heroes who aren't happy with what's going down but don't dare oppose Amai Mask. Until King stepped forward, both keeping his promise to Tareo and giving the mob permission to stop. It only took one person to turn what would have been a venting session into something much more dangerous and it only took one guy to stop it.

Taking Garou's words 'Stand up' to heart doesn't get any better than Tareo standing up for him. Truly the best boy ever.

A bit on structure

So, this is the end of the Hero Hunter saga, except for the shouting we'll get in next chapter's coda. Structurally speaking, this is a pretty open ending, much more so than the webcomic, where Garou has been definitively beaten by Saitama, acknowledges that he's been beaten and doesn't know what to do any longer and so receives instruction from Saitama. The manga leaves Garou with a lot more options as to how he'll act next and does mean that there's a lot more reason for the story to keep looking at what he doing, if not with as much intensity as before. Much more so than was in the webcomic, where he disappeared for twenty chapters (or four years as ONE writes).

It's also interesting that Saitama may have come back in time and taken Garou down, but he doesn't push himself forward and put himself front-and-centre, possibly because he doesn't 'remember' (again, I'll come back to that in a bit). The ending is not about Saitama being Right and everyone else being Wrong. It's as if Saitama's the black hole at the centre of the galaxy, vital to holding it all together but invisible and all but imperceptible.

Am I bothered that it's not gone down the way it did in the webcomic? Hell no. I more than made my peace with the manga being its own thing when Phoenixman vs. Child Emperor was rewritten. I know we're not in Kansas any longer. The webcomic is the webcomic, the manga is the manga. I love having two cakes, two ways a story can progress from similar starting conditions. That zero punch beating was worth any number of shut-the-fuck-ups or but-you-can-never-defeat-me panels.

The manga hasn't depended on revelation to drive the plot forward: rather than Garou being 'revealed' as a good guy at the end by Saitama, Saitama's comment to him about others showing him who he really was was the culmination of us watching a good guy struggle with himself, which has enabled a different story to be told about Garou. Speaking of Garou, let's talk about him properly.

What travels

I know this is going to make some people wince but stick with me a second because it's worth it. Genos is right that it is not Garou who can leap across space and time. Why is he right? Because if he could, Garou would have done so rather than teach Saitama. From the beginning, Garou has been a ferociously independent person, thinking for himself and doing his own thing without regard to what's going on around him. Additionally, he recognises that he's the one who created this catastrophe and is rightly responsible for fixing it in any way he can. If there was any way in which he could have travelled to the past and fixed things he would have without involving Saitama.

However, this is not the whole story. The first part of it is that because the manga makes no bones about Garou being a good person, it can show us just how good he is here. Garou could have let his bitterness and pride overwhelm him and just said nothing so that he and Saitama had to live and suffer together in an increasingly bleak world, but he set aside his pride and conviction to ask for help in doing the right thing and that's testimony to Garou's true character.

The second part is going to be very important. Garou could not travel back in time; however, he could send information back. The easy-to-see and wholesome consequence is that he was able to manifest to Tareo and give himself closure. The less easy to see one was that he was able to influence his present self to just stop with the Ultimate Evil pathway dead. In the previous chapter, I'd been concerned about Saitama appearing to forget why he'd come back to the past, as just walloping Garou wasn't going to convince him to change his ways. Future!Garou solved that problem for himself, and even though Garou doesn't understand, his desire to continue as the Hero Hunter and to seek to bring more evil into the world (to make it better... haha) is gone.

You've heard about quantum entanglement and spooky action at a distance. Well, this is spooky action at a temporal remove. Chronological entanglement?

I need you to keep what travels in mind for later.

Meta^2

A fascinating thing to note: this is the second time that Genos has been the only witness to a massacre. Since none of the people in the second massacre are currently dead, the only reason Genos is a witness to it at all is because of his time-travelled core. Leaving aside all the information it contains within, the fact that its clock will be a few hours older than the one in Genos and the outside will be coated with an unmistakable set of chemical and physical signatures that attest to its journeys, signatures that can be verified using equipment available to anyone who develops and analyzes high-performance metal parts for a living, is an attestation to the impossible having happened.

Of course, the core has an even wilder tale to tell. Other than the data one would reasonably suppose would be logged (like time, location, temperature, pressure -- things helpful to its recovery because you really don't want a nuclear reactor to fall into the wrong hands), it contains information that isn't possible: memories of Saitama's epic struggle. But whose memories? Any idea that it comes from God is pure nonsense if you stop to think a little. The important thing to note is that Saitama has not forgotten that he traveled in time: HE NEVER DID ANY OF IT. It didn't happen; he doesn't have any knowledge of ever having been in the future, or ever having learned how to travel across time and space. Nothing. The core is the only physical object that has survived the time travel. I don't think Genos would be quite so smug if he knew that Saitama really doesn't know any longer and he's the sole keeper of what happened and how to time travel.

if he knew his words were the literal truth, he wouldn't be smiling. Just what does ONE have planned for this character that he's given him this information?

I need you to keep one important thing in mind: ONE does not write stupid or insane characters. They will act in their own interests. God has a great vested interest in a) keeping as much information about Himself secret and b) really, really fears and hates Saitama. I was conflicted about Garou having no memory whatsoever of encountering God, but remembering what happened to Future!Garou and to Homeless Emperor when they started blabbing, it's for the best, for God would have killed Garou here too. There is NO WAY THAT GOD WOULD MAKE INFORMATION ON HOW TO DEFEAT HIM AVAILABLE TO HIS WORST ENEMY.

Saitama already scares the shit out of God just by the nature of his physical prowess. Saitama with the knowledge to travel through time and space (not to mention that he can go to non-physical dimensions, as Phoenixman found to his cost) is game-over for God whenever Saitama cares to take Him on. Saitama losing that information because his intervention has meant he never acquired it works out great for God. Just as the narration said, the memories are those that came with Saitama. Just as we've seen with Garou and Tareo, it's possible to send thoughts and states of mind back in time. In effect, the fact that Saitama's memories are somehow on the core is the worst thing that can happen to God, for at some point, Genos will remind (remind? teach? I don't know what verb's best here) Saitama that he can do this. Why didn't God stop it? If you've noticed, God appears to have no way of knowing what a person will actually say or do until they speak or act, or He'd not have to keep killing His former agents.

How and why this happened we don't know. To speculate for a moment, maybe it was the fact that protecting that core was something that Saitama put all his will into doing, no matter the cost, that turned it into his witness. Come to that, Saitama didn't survive; when he merged with his present self, Future!Saitama ceased to exist.

I have no idea what ONE has in mind, but some die has been cast: God's days are numbered.

So, Sun's up; what now?

I've found this chapter much more thought-provoking than I initially thought it'd be. This is already too long, but I see how many of the initially incongruous features of the manga, particularly the Phoenixman saga, have laid the groundwork for what's happened here. I think that Garou's struggle being to accept what others could see about him has made for a story that isn't neatly cut and dry but has things that make you come back, think, and think again. Seeing the complexity of characters interacting and how what different people think and feel to be their interests drive actions means that there's a lot here that's going to result in a lot more happening down the road.

Like some milk that's just on the point of starting to turn, so that it's still drinkable, but you know you'd best use it quickly, I'm not entirely sure that what's changed between Saitama and Genos is going to be entirely wholesome. But damn if I'm not here to see where their story goes.

I can't wait for the coda to tie this saga up so I can start rereading the whole story.

[ashintheairlikesnow]

Alynn Anon Here

I don’t know! I don’t know if I think he would KILL them per se… I think he would be at least a little bit considerate as to how that would make Jameson be probably pretty resentful and just generally not as cool with him anymore… not the he particularly cared about what he wanted in the first place, but I feel like even he would know that doing something that drastic wouldn’t benefit him in the long run. But at the same time he kind of is that petty bitch, and I wouldn’t put it totally past him. He’s very unpredictable and very much does whatever he wants. I would just hope he would have the foresight for how badly that might go in the long run; especially now knowing that Jameson has killed people before, maybe he would feel less comfortable pushing his boundaries now. My mind keeps going back to Trust Games and The Element of Surprise, I don’t think he would try that shit now, but I might be wrong and I’m totally okay with that.

And PS: Re-reading the second part of this au again. Even knowing Jameson’s name now and he still called him Pet. TWICE! Side eye, sir. Side-fucking-eye. I guess that answered that question…

I think he’s gonna have another thing coming when he fully realizes how much he has changed, and he is not the same pet that left him that day.

Sorry for the long messages! Every time I start to say one simple thing it always turns into an over-analyzed essay! I’m just so passionate about your writing!

Aaaahhhh Allyn Anon I somehow never got around to answering this! I am so sorry!

Calling Nanda a "petty bitch" delights me on so many levels. He really is, isn't he.

I do think Jameson is not as willing to accept anything and everything as he used to be. I also think Nanda wouldn't test him the same way he used to because Nanda has aged and changed, too.

As for how he will react to Allyn... I still don't know the answer yet! I haven't had the thought of where to start the next chapter in the AU.

[meryamthebadassbitch]

𝘏𝘦'𝘴 𝘢 𝘑𝘦𝘳𝘬 || 𝘗𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘰 𝘔𝘢𝘹𝘪𝘮𝘰𝘧𝘧, 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘳

Soon on Wattpad~

"Do you have one of the Parasites like your dad used to have?" asked Mrs. Chen the girl who paid for the snacks, eyes wide she shook her head in disagreement before stepping out of the store

PARASITE?!

"it's not my fault, dad used to call you that man just don't kill her she can give us a lot of free food you know and you can have extra brains when they always rob her poor store?" "Fine, we'll let it slide" "what do you wanna do?" "We can do whatever WE want" chuckling slightly she nodded making her way upstairs to the rooftop, sitting at the edge with venom beside her they both ate the Pack of chocolate in silence, sure, she was terrified finding out about a symbiote living inside her body just like her father after protecting herself from some scientist, but for these past years she got used to it and they were more like best friends and if something happened to Venom it's like happening to her.

𝙁𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠-

Making her way toward the bathroom, attempting to hide from those Men but a voice inside her head made her scream in fear, hiding inside one of the stalls she stared into nothing but emptiness staying quiet as if a serial killer was following her, shaking in fear she tried not to sob out loud by putting her hand on her mouth a drop of a tear falling to the ground as the 10-year-old girl cried in silence with her hands still shaking, the sound of the bathroom stalls being slammed open made her heart stop beating as she started praying for her life, she was going to die that's for sure.

The next thing she knew was the lock breaking and her being pulled harshly by 2 men, screaming in fear she tried biting their hands off but the guns aimed in her head was worse, in a blink of an eye black tentacles came out of her arms and stabbed both of them in the heart, a pool of blood surrounded her as she watched in fear at what she has just done, she just killed two men trying to kidnap her, blood on her white shoes and arms as she tried to open the door and make her way out of this hell hole, but it was the same thing instead this time a group pointed their guns at her as she looked around in search of a place to run away, giving up she sat on the ground putting her hands in the air as told letting the 'police' handcuff her, she's just a 10-year-old girl what possibly could she do?

"mom! please I am begging you to tell them to let me go, we were supposed to be having a girls' night! I promise I didn't kill those men something came out of my arm and-" she couldn't finish her words, Tears welled from deep inside and coursed down her cheeks as she begged her mother for help with a high pitched voice, Anne on the other side stared at her with a guilty look before shaking her head, staring at her in disbelieve she was brutally pulled by the handcuffs away giving her mother one last look.

Did she stay in an Asylum for 8 years without seeing her 'mother' and outside? yes sadly she did, did she get out of the asylum once? no, she never did and that was driving her crazy she was the only one in here and everyone was afraid of her, this place wasn't like any other asylum they brought people with superpowers here, like Eleven from stranger things except Mery didn't have Telekinesis she had Venom.

Sitting in the chair defeatless with an emotionless look on her face, her hands tied to the table, as always, she stared at Anne straight in her eyes "Mery-" "hey doctor, can you please open these handcuffs and let me go back to my room before I do something?" she finally said looking straight into the camera about to transform into the big giant monster when a syringe was on her neck preventing her from doing so, 'how dare she says my nickname' she thought looking straight into her eyes after 8 years of not seeing each other how would you feel and how can she still manage to say her nickname, especially when your own mother is the reason you're looked in here "I Hate you and you don't deserve to be called a mother!" she yelled out struggling from their grip, black tentacles came out of her back as she grabbed every single scientist killing them with no mercy, "Venom, let's get the hell out of here" her voice deadly as she spoke "Copy, you're the boss" just as Anne described she looked just like her father, huge teeth, white eyes, and a long tongue.

𝙀𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠-

"Don't open that door"

"Bitch, Don't order me to do something because you will die waiting?" she said with the usual level of sarcasm before taking off her apron making her way toward the door, what was shitty about this house was it didn't have a peephole, rolling her eyes she opened the door staring at the group in front of her "May I help you?" asked the girl in confusion to why the Avengers are in front of her apartment with a raised eyebrow the Black haired girl was about to close the door when black widow finally said a word after 10 seconds of silence "we need to talk to you?" "Listen, I don't have time to deal with superhero shit I've had enough" "please?" sighing she pushed the door fully letting them in sitting on the couch in front of them with her legs crossed "what?" "Can you introduce us to who you were talking to?" asked Captain America looking at her, raising her eyebrows once again, it was a habit sometimes she bites her nails "were you listening to us the whole time?" "no-" "Jesus, y'all are so famous and busy with superhero shit to the point where you don't understand a joke, Venom can you come out please?" annoyed, a black face appeared beside hers, that was the Parasite living inside her body?

"don't touch it, everyone this is Venom my best buddy and a parasite living inside my body, Her favorite food is brains and chocolate and we both kill robbers every day" putting a fake smile on her face she could see the look on their eyes, Bruce wanting to touch it so badly but stopped when Meryam sent him a look of disagreement, "alright this it, you guys can go, it was lovely meeting you, y'all are awesome superheroes and bye-bye!" "would you like to come with us we need your help, please?" asked Thor holding his hammer, glancing at Venom they both nodded at the same time, they were partners in crime anyways.

"We will but I'm coming alone, see ya at the Tower!" smiling she slammed the door shut

"Can you imagine Thor the god of thunder asking me to come with them, that is awesome right?" "not as awesome as us" nodding with a grin she grabbed her pocket knife charging the gun just in case tying her hair into a bun, putting on the mask Meryam grabbed the bag making her way out of the room.

"Hey miss Chen came to have some supplies?" stated the girl making her way toward the snack session she was probably the only customer here, the threatening sound of another robber echoed around the store as he pointed his gun at the poor woman, "That guy?" "yes bestie, free food for you tonight?" she said making her way toward the man, grabbing his wrist she punched him straight in the jaw, "Mask!" in a blink of an eye the same monster Mrs. Chen saw a long time ago was in front of her expect it was a woman, and that woman was Eddie Brock's daughter, Biting his head off she paid for the snacks before making her way out "night, thanks for the free snack!"

(venom ate the man, duh)

"This walk is boring!" "I know but we're almost there don't worry" "I Miss the Loser" "yeah, same he was the best dad" "and best Host, you both are the best" "aw thanks Venom you're the best too" a soft smile rose on her lips, The world was a better place when she smiled to Venom and he promised to Eddie he would keep her safe, thank god, she had her earphones on so people wouldn't call her crazy for talking by herself, "Jesus how many floors in this Tower?" "93"

"Excuse me is Tony Stark here, he said I can meet him here?" politely asking the blonde woman who was holding a little girl in her hand she took off her mask not to scare her, they didn't seem to recognize her right? "She's probably his wife" the voice of the symbiote echoed around her head as she nodded, "oh yes you must be Meryam, you seem kinda Familiar?" the blonde woman asked her, her heart stopped beating as soon as she said the last words, "o-oh really, who?" "oh never mind, you're so pretty by the way, I should probably go take Morgan to sleep Tony is having a meeting with the rest and they're waiting for you" "Yeah thank you?" "Pepper call me Pepper dear" nodding she waved at the little girl who had a cute smile on her face before making her way to where Pepper pointed

"Hey Old man, you wanted to meet us?" the same sound they heard 30 minutes ago echoed around the room earning their attention, chuckling at how startled they looked Meryam tried to hold her laugh while Venom was grinning evilly on the other side, "Ahh miss Brock come in" "it's Meryam, Anthony" okay that surely got him annoyed she could see how he rolled his eyes, sitting down on one of the chairs she looked around greeting the rest with a straight look.

"Tell us more about yourself?" not wanting to tell them her whole story, she shook her head with an emotionless look on her face "there's nothing more to know about me, I lived 13 years alone that's it, my life is useless anyways I only have Venom and kill robbers nothing more interesting?" one thing they learned about her was how fast she changed her emotions, 5 seconds ago she was trying not to laugh and now a deadpan look on her face. Pietro didn't trust her, not even a single bit and that was why a glare was attached to his stupid face

"So Meryam we're going to be on a mission for these past days and since you have nothing to do, you're going to catch the robbers around the city and take Morgan to school" tearing her gaze away from Pietro who was still glaring she blinked slightly trying to process what he just said, "excuse me, am I getting paid for that?" "yes" "fine, I'll do it, and will you stop glaring at me like I am some target?" her Black eyes met his as she spoke with gritted teeth's, anger rushing through her body Wanda slapping his shoulder before apologizing to her "I am so sorry Meryam-" "it's alright Wanda don't apologize in his place, he just needs to stop and do it all by himself if he's a true man, good night everyone" with that she made her way out of the place trying to calm her nerves down

Anger Issues

"Ohh she got you good" Teased Sam the twin who was still fuming in anger, rage thrummed through his veins as he swallowed down his frustration sending him a harsh look, "shut up birdy" with that he was out of sight just before Clint could say something

"oh these two are not going to be friends or work together, it's probably something worse"

[emma-nation]

Follow Me Through The Dark (Cassandra Dimitrescu x OC AU) - Chapter 2

Summary: After Mother Miranda's death, Cassandra Dimitrescu has been dealing with some unpleasant changes. When a stranger with a mysterious past arrives in the castle, she will realize her problems are only getting started.

Pairing: Cassandra Dimitrescu x f!OC

Genre: Between T and M

(Trigger warning: for violence, blood, abuse and eventual smut)

Notes:

- English is not my native language. I apologize for any mistakes.

- Your likes and comments are always appreciated!

Castle Dimitrescu, Cassandra's Bedroom - November, 2021

Since the three Dimitrescu daughters woke up, being reborn as vampires, the differences between them were clearly visible. Daniela was energetic and curious, Bela was quiet and melancholic, and Cassandra... well, Cassandra was impulsive and sadistic. Sometimes, she'd be taken by an uncontrollable and endless agitation. A burning desire for adventure and action that she would never find being trapped inside a castle most of the time.

She never discovered how to let go of those feelings. One day, after Lady Dimitrescu sought for Mother Miranda's advice, the Priestess suggested she should focus her energy somewhere. She needed a goal, a target, to fulfill her boredom and desire to kill. To keep herself under control, she liked to spend most of her time in the woods hunting or practicing some fighting moves with her sisters, when she still couldn't go outside during Fall and Winter.

For some reason, Gabriela Rodriguez had become her newest target. She never desired to hunt a prey so badly in her entire life.

"Whatever it takes," Cassandra promised to herself, as she returned to her bedroom after the conversation with her mother. "It'll be an interesting hunt."

"One more mistake," Alcina spoke before Cassandra left her chambers, "and I'll send you somewhere else so you can learn to live on your own. Where you'll be the only one to deal with the consequences of your actions."

She didn't deserve a punishment. She deserved a praise. If it wasn't for her 'impulsive', 'selfish' and 'reckless' behavior, Lady Dimitrescu would be having another bad day, struggling with her health issues.

If there was one thing Cassandra hated was seeing any members of her family suffering. She would always put her mother and sisters above anything. Even if she'd never let them know.

Maybe murdering the castle's new maid was worth the risk. After all, Bela was living just fine on her own. So fine she barely remember her family even existed.

"Ms. Cassandra?" Mrs. Petrova was knocking at the door, interrupting her thoughts. "The breakfast will be served in fifteen minutes."

"I'm going..." She stopped in the middle of the sentence. She needed time to work on her plan and prepare herself for the moment when she ran into her prey. "No! Actually, I'm feeling indisposed. I'll sleep a little longer."

Unlike Bela, she would act mostly by instinct, by impulse. This time though, she'd have to act carefully. Before anything, Cassandra had to restore her strength. For this, she waited until her older sister left her chambers. Then, she sneaked in and stole one of her blood bags.

"Ughhhh," the brunette complained once she tasted that stale, cold blood. "How does she lives like this?"

The things people wouldn't do for love. Love wasn't for someone like Cassandra. Love demanded hope, patience and altruism. And she wasn't willing to do any of these.

A few minutes later, she was able to shape into flies again. That was her greatest advantage against her enemies. She could be at any place, any time. She could spy on them. And it was exactly what she was going to do in that moment. She'd learn more about that mysterious stranger who dared to vex her in front of the stupid villagers.

Everything about that young woman smelled like trouble. Starting by the way she dressed, the way she walked and even the way she talked. Gabriela wasn't like any other girl Cassandra had met before. There was something different about her. Something she wasn't able to identify yet.

"And this will be your room," Mrs. Petrova said, guiding the girl to one of the servants accommodations. "Here's the uniform. Get dressed and meet me in the kitchen, you'll help the other maids to serve the breakfast for the Mistress' daughters."

"Okay," Gabriela told. "I'll be there."

As soon as the housekeeper left, the new servant noticed the blowfly buzzing around the room. With a single, and very precise slap, she smashed it between her palms.

From a certain distance, Cassandra let out one pained groan.

"Motherf..."

----------

Castle Dimitrescu, Kitchen - Present Days

I was never good at following rules. Not even for the first eight years of my life, when I still lived in the village with my family. That was what got me saved in first place. They were never able to infect me with La Plaga. I ran away and stayed hidden, while I watched my parents and siblings turning into those creatures.

After I was taken to London and thrown at foster care, my ability of following rules only decayed.

The castle was being everything I expected to be - creepy, old and warm. There were some unusual rules to be followed: I wouldn't be able to leave the castle or to communicate with anyone outside, unless it was authorized by Lady Dimitrescu. The windows could be opened during Fall and Winter, but not for extended periods of time. The Countess and her daughters were the only people who had permission to control the heating system.

Despite the heavy curtains, nobody said anything about avoiding to let the sunlight in. If the Dimitrescu women were weak to the UV light, like the infected people from my village, I'd have to find out by myself.

Once I arrived in the kitchen I was welcomed by some glances and whispers from the other maids. I could only assume I was late again.

"There she is," Mrs. Petrova announced. "Gabriela will be working with us now."

The other girls briefly introduced themselves and greeted me. Then, Mrs. Petrova gave me some instructions on how to serve the breakfast and the sisters specific tastes. I couldn't register them all in my mind. I'd have to observe how the other maids acted.

Before we left to the dinning room, the housekeeper's eyes widened in shock when she noticed the tattoo, covering my entire left arm.

"Oh," she said. "I suppose we'll need to find you a long sleeved uniform."

Some of the other maids exchanged whispers and giggles. Apparently, they were trying to imagine Lady Dimitrescu's reaction to my 'abnormal' looks. I shrugged. Her daughters had tattoos on their foreheads, that was abnormal as hell.

"So," I asked one of the girls I'd be helping, named Sofia, "any tips about the sisters'?"

"Well, Ms. Bela is okay. She is quiet, well-mannered, a little bit moody sometimes," she told. "But she's never around. I heard she's living in United States with her girlfriend."

"We call her 'the lucky bastard'," Cristina, the other maid, added. "Ms. Daniela is easy to please. Be nice to her, follow her orders, praise her a lot and you'll be fine. But approach with caution, she gets attached too easily."

"And there is..." They both exchanged a long glance.

"Cassandra."

"Yeah. Stunningly hot, but a cold-hearted jerk. Don't stare or say anything. Just do your job around her and ignore any sassy remarks that may come out from her mouth."

"There was this girl, Rebecca. She was entitled to be Ms. Cassandra's chambermaid. Rumor has it that they got a little bit too close, if you know what I mean. But the thing is, Becca disappeared. She was never seen again."

"We suspect Lady Dimitrescu found out about their affair and sent her home in the middle of the night."

She was dead. Definitely dead. I wondered if those girls were naive or they were only trying to mask their fears. As we moved, I couldn't help thinking that C would be there, sat among her sisters. If she recognized me, I'd definitely be fired.

Or worse.

For my surprise and relief, only Bela and Daniela were there. While the eldest sister was focused on reading the newspaper, the youngest was too distracted on her cell phone. Seeing them act so normal, it was hard to remember they were vampires and not regular girls.

Bela greeted me with a simple nod when she noticed our presence. I responded in the same manner. Daniela, in her turn, was a little bit louder.

"Gabriela!" She grinned, as if we were already close friends or something.

"Ms. Daniela," I nodded again.

"Where is Cassandra?" Bela asked, once we finished serving them. "I haven't seen her since yesterday."

"She went to the pub last night," Daniela told. "And she was really pissed when she came home."

"What is going on with her? She has been acting so strange lately..."

The door opened with a slam, but it didn't surprise them - the reason why I assumed that should be an habit. Cassandra walked in, wearing a black dress with a hood covering her head, very similar to the outfit from the previous night.

Our looks crossed and it was almost like I could take a glimpse of her inner world. A cold, dark and dangerous world.

"You're late," Bela told her. "Are you alright?"

"I had something to take care of," she spoke, her eyes still focused on me. "None of your business, of course."

"It should be, considering your latest actions were a risk to our family."

She shrugged. I wondered which actions Bela was talking about. I shiver ran down my spine when I imagined Rebecca, Cassandra's chambermaid, falling for her charms only to be killed and have her blood drained.

"What are you waiting for to serve me?" The question was directed to all the three of us.

The other girls took a step further, I stood paralyzed in place.

"No, not you," Cassandra pointed at me. "Her. I want her to serve me."

I didn't feel intimidated. I rarely felt intimidated when I was in front of a risky situation. In truth, the danger excited me, it made me confident and bold.

"Tea or coffee?" I asked. I remembered Mrs. Petrova's instructions. Cassandra's tastes were the only I kept registered in my mind. I couldn't risk doing any mistakes.

"Coffee. With sugar."

I poured the coffee into her cup as she kept watching me. Her golden yellow eyes would never leave mine. It seemed like she was expecting me to be nervous. She expected me to be scared. And I wouldn't give her that.

"More sugar," she ordered after making a disgusted face when she first tasted the coffee.

I did what she told. I added more sugar to her cup.

"Not this much! It tastes horrible now, your incompetent idiot."

"Cassandra," Bela censored her. "Leave her alone. It's her first day."

"No," I interrupted. "I must apologize, I made a mistake. Let me try again."

I placed another cup in front of Cassandra, filled with coffee and added some sugar.

"Hmmm... not bad," she took a sip, before dropping the cup on the floor. "Ops, I guess you'll have to clean it now."

She was doing it on purpose. It was a childish game. A manner to get revenge for the way I treated her in the previous night.

I wouldn't play her game. I couldn't lose that job. I sighed deeply.

"Okay. This is why I'm here anyways."

I left the dinning room and went back to the kitchen to grab a mop. When I was about to return, Mrs. Petrova stopped me.

"Gabriela, there you are," she was bringing an empty tray of food. "I'm returning from Lady Dimitrescu's room. She informed me Ms. Cassandra will be responsible for instructing you and showing your new tasks for the next few days."

Okay. I'd be spending most of my time alone with a vampire woman who wanted to murder me. Now I was screwed.

In that moment, I thought I'd rather to be in prison.

----------

Castle Dimitrescu, Cassandra's Bedroom - Present Days

"Do not interact much," Mrs. Petrova advised before I left the kitchen. "She has quite a personality, but if you behave properly she won't be bothering you. She tends to lose interest on the new servants quickly."

It was too late for that. I didn't behave properly when I called Cassandra a douchebag and spilled my drink on her dress. She'd be doing everything on her reach to embarrass me upon her mother. That would give her a free pass to fire me. Or murder me. I couldn't give in to her advances. I couldn't give her the taste of victory just yet.

When I returned to the dinning room, C was alone, standing next to the windows. The sunlight was reflecting on her pale skin and highlighting the strands of light brown hair falling down her face. It was the first time I noticed how beautiful she looked under that hood. She took a couple of minutes to be aware of my presence.

"Why did it take you so long?" C grunted, making all my thoughts vanish away.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Petrova wanted to give me some last instructions," I spoke. I noticed my cheeks burning a little bit.

"I'm the one who's suppose to tell you what to do. Now go, get changed. There's a lot of work to be done in the garden."

I wore an old t-shirt and worn out jeans. Cassandra was waiting for me at one of the multiple ornate doors the castle had.

"Jeez," she analyzed me head to toe, before raising an eyebrow in a judgmental form, "what beast were you escaping from?"

She walked fast, I had a hard time to keep up with her pace. I followed her to the garden, where they had many different kinds of plants and flowers.

"Are you this poor?" Cassandra continued to taunt me. "I can ask Daniela to give you some of her clothes."

I ignored her comments. Instead, I decided to try to make things a little less heated between us before we started, which wasn't usual of me. I rarely apologized to anyone. The only people in my life who were granted this benefit before were Samuel and his wife.

"I... uh... I feel I should apologize for my behavior last night. We didn't have a good start. Maybe we should try again. My name is..."

"Don't do this," Cassandra scowled. "Don't try to suck it up to me, pretending you regret what you've done. You're only saying that because you found out you work for me."

"Okay then," I raised my hands defeated. Peace with C was never an option. "I'm taking back my apologies."

"You're ridiculous," she finally let out a laugh. A short and ironic laugh. "You can't do that. You either apologize or not."

"Fine, then I don't. Is it okay for you now?"

She didn't answer. I shrugged. At least I tried to be civilized. In that moment, I needed to focus on learning how to tend for Lady Dimitrescu's garden. If the rumors were true, besides being so tall, she also had long metallic claws I wasn't looking forward to see.

I started by raking the leaves into piles. It seemed like nobody had been cleaning that garden for a couple of weeks now. C just accommodated herself on a bench, watching every move I made in complete and absolute silence.

I started to whistle a song, knowing it would annoy her. Bingo! Her face turned into a snarl. I muffled a laugh.

"I have to admit it," she finally opened her mouth to say something. "I admire your bravery, your audacity. In your place, most of the servants would have broke down in tears back in the dinning room."

"You don't intimidate me," I replied. "Neither do your sisters. I guess I have more experience with people than you assumed."

"No, I wouldn't call that. I'd say you're daring, overadventurous."

"Yeah... maybe I am."

After I finished piling up the leaves, I started to remove the dead plants. Cassandra was still there, watching me like hawk. She wasn't even a little bit affected by the sunlight. I concluded that either the rumors were false or that the kind of parasite that infected her was different from La Plaga.

"Can I ask a question?" I asked. All that silence was killing me.

"Is it offensive?" She wanted to know. "You're asking my permission to speak, so it certainly is."

"Kind of."

She rolled her eyes at me. I took that as a yes.

"Why do your sisters dress normally and you're always cosplaying an Assassin's Creed protagonist?"

"I don't understand your lowlife vocabulary."

"Nevermind then."

From the corner of my eyes, I observed she was searching what I had just said on her phone. I could swear there was a hint of a smile on her mouth.

Time passed faster than I expected. My first tasks hadn't been so hard after all. C and I would only exchange a few words, when she was bossing on me or when we were insulting each other somehow. I couldn't help it and neither could she. It was something natural between us. A mutual feeling of repulsion and antipathy. We simply couldn't behave like two grown adults around each other.

I was about to leave the garden, when I noticed something small, fragile and struggling to keep itself alive under a tree.

"It's a baby crow," I kneeled down, observing the tiny little creature. "It's injured."

"Raven," for my surprise, Cassandra just appeared right next to me. How did she move so fast? It was impossible. "It's a raven."

I extended my hand, attempting to catch the bird. Which was useless, it kept escaping from me. I never had much way with animals. Or children. I always had the impression I scared them.

I scared most of the creatures away from me. It was a defense mechanism I unconsciously developed over the years.

"Stop, you'll never save her like this."

I expected her to grab a rock and put an end to the bird's misery, but instead, C also extended her hand. Differently from when I did it, the raven immediately started to move forward to the center of her palm. She carefully took it closer to her body, examining its injuries.

"The wing is wounded. The mother isn't around either, she probably got killed by another creature. It won't survive without help."

I watched the scene surprised. That same woman who was rumored to be a cruel and ruthless killer, was being so kind and delicate with that small creature.

"Just finish your job," she ordered me, as she took the raven to inside the castle. "I think we're done here for today."

----------

Castle Dimitrescu, Cassandra's Bedroom - November, 2021

Cassandra enjoyed being in the woods, alone with the other creatures. Somehow, they seemed to connect with her better than humans, or even her own family. While Bela preferred being around the horses, she liked the wild and misfit. They sorta belonged together.

She placed the tiny black bird on her desk. After caring for its injuries, she returned to the garden to grab some worms to feed it. Gabriela was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she managed to finish her tasks successfully. Or maybe she got lost.

How good it'd be if she had ran into a Moroaica, one of the creatures that inhabited the lowest levels of the castle. But then, the fun would've ended. Cassandra was looking forward to torture her a little bit longer, before ending her life.

"Good girl," she grinned, while feeding her newest pet.

Some say the raven was born of the primordial darkness; others believe that it brought to light. That was how she felt about herself and her mutation.

The bedroom's door opened and Bela walked in. She didn't knock. It was an habit she acquired from Daniela and Cassandra herself. They never knocked when they invaded their older sister's chambers, which annoyed her deeply.

"We need to talk," she spoke. Cassandra didn't bother turning around. Bela was one of the last people she wanted to see. "What... is that?!"

"A raven I rescued this morning. I'm going to name her Miranda, as a tribute to the deceased bitch. What do you think?"

"I'd insult her even further and name it Eva, after the daughter she tried to resurrect by murdering a lot of people."

"Bela, this is so nasty! I love it!"

Cassandra couldn't hold her laugh upon her sister's comment.

"I'm sorry about yesterday," Bela threw herself on an armchair, close to Cassandra's desk. "I mean it. I don't blame you for trying to save mother's life. You just need to be more careful, Cass."

"What?! Are you sick or..."

Bela Dimitrescu was apologizing for what should be the first time in her life. She never admitted being wrong. The blonde girl was too proud for that. Aleena had definitely affected her brain in a very very bad manner.

Cassandra closed her eyes and sighed.

"How is mother doing?" She asked.

"She's improving."

"It won't be for too long. In a couple of weeks we'll be out of blood again and her disease will come back."

"We'll find a way," Bela tapped her on the shoulder as she stood up to leave. "I promise."

She barely left and the door opened again. This time it was the last person Cassandra wanted to see. Gabriela Rodriguez.

"What the hell are you doing here?" She asked, angry. "And you didn't even knock! You will always knock, do you understand?"

"Mrs. Petrova asked me to clean your bedroom," the girl answered. "And I assumed you wouldn't be here."

"Because you were supposed to have done that hours ago, when I actually wasn't here."

"My bad, but I keep getting lost at this doomed place."

"What do you expect me to do? Draw you a map?" It wasn't such a bad idea after all. Cassandra could guide her straight to the dungeons, where she was supposed to be locked since the previous night when she dared to confront her.

"That would help," there was a lot of sarcasm in her answer. "Anyways, do you want me to clean or not?"

"Just shut up and do it."

Cassandra spread herself on the bed while she observed the newest servant. She had been studying her the whole day and wasn't able to figure out what was so curious, so different about her.

Gabriela cleared her throat, breaking the silence that had been lingering in the air for minutes. At least this time she didn't whistle. Or sang.

"Can I ask another question?"

"Here we go again," what was she willing to insult this time? Her family?

"What exactly are you?"

That was unexpected. The new servants usually took longer to connect the dots. Cassandra didn't showed her any evidence of their nature.

"Bored, bitter and thirsty?"

"No," Gabriela stopped what she was doing and approached. "You know what I'm talking about. The stories, the rumors..."

"Do you often believe," Cassandra stood up and slowly walked in her direction. The height difference between them was considerably large. She lifted Gabriela's chin, forcing her to gaze directly into her eyes, "in everything you hear?"

"No. Only in things I've seen before."

"And what, pray tell, have you seen?"

Like any other woman who Cassandra had ever met before, she should be flustered. Her heart should be racing right now. But no. Gabriela was calm and steady.

"The parasite, the cult, the mutations," she told. "It all existed in the place I was born. The entire village was infected and later, destroyed. I'm the only survivor."

How could she even know? She was too well informed about their origins. There was only one explanation, it was a trap. The BSAA planted that woman inside the castle to observe them, to keep them under control. She was a damn spy.

Cassandra silenced for a moment, wondering how she'd escape that situation. Lady Dimitrescu would kill her if she did anything that put them in danger again.

On other hand, if she killed Gabriela in that moment, her mother would never believe that woman was a BSAA agent in disguise. She'd think Cassandra was lying. She'd need proof to show her mother first.

"Is that what you believe?" She broke into a fake laugh. "Parasites, cults, mutations... are you crazy or something?"

"No," Gabriela smirked, keeping her gaze on Cassandra's eyes. "Maybe I'm only good at telling stories."

"Is it another of your video games?"

"It could be."

The brunette Dimitrescu daughter had no time to figure out how that even happened, but when she realized, Gabriela had pushed her against the wall.

"Now tell me, Ms. Cassandra," she whispered, with a wicked and mischievous smirk on her face. "Who would you play? A hero or a villain?"

And then, she went back to cleaning. Like nothing had ever happened. Like if that conversation had never existed. She even smiled, innocently this time, before starting to whistle another song.

"Both," Cassandra thought. "A hero to my family. But for you... I'll be the most cruel villain you ever faced before."