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ruby-whistler · 4 years ago

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Why c!Dream should (and probably will be) redeemed

Hi! I’m bad with intros. You’ve read the title, so, let’s start with the definitions.

In this essay, we are considering the popularized definition of “redemption” instead of the classical one, which is, as per the Oxford Dictionary, “the act of saving or state of being saved from the power of evil; the act of redeeming.” That’s not however the way the word is used in fandom and media.

/dsmp /rp

The definition of redemption I’ll be working with in this essay is not forgiveness by the people who c!Dream has hurt, nor is it removing himself entirely from his past actions, but moreso the decision to change for the better and abandon destructive mindsets for himself and others.

A “redemption” in a narrative sense would be circumstances and a character arc that would allow that kind of healing and betterment.

I’d like to start this off by the fact that being “irredeemable”, in this sense, also doesn’t exist; redemption is a thing of conditions and choice, not of being allowed by someone else. You can’t gatekeep healing from people who seek it, just to be clear, and that even goes for people who have done terrible things.

Since I understand there is a lot of concern for c!Dream’s past actions, here is a post from people who are much more fit than me to speak on the matter, about the way in which they see a possible c!Dream redemption arc.

Another disclaimer, I am not going to be considering c!Dream only from the perspective of c!Tommy in this essay. c!Dream appears in other people’s perspectives and he himself has his own, unseen perspective. As a character, he is an individual person in his own right rather than just the antagonist of c!Tommy’s story, and so I do not have much concern for their narratives intertwining too much should this writing choice occur.

I’d also like to note that redemption is, in this sense, always a positive thing for everyone involved - someone who’s been prone to doing bad things in the past deciding not to do them anymore and try to change, or just simply heal enough to consider it, isn’t going to have a long-term negative effect in any of the characters, but rather the other way around. Healing is an unlimited resource, and the victims do not have to heal first for the person who hurt them to consider being better.

Here’s a well-written thread on Twitter that elaborates a bit to finish off this point, and let’s move on to actually talking about redemption in the context of the Dream SMP, and c!Dream specifically.

Why a c!Dream redemption arc is not only a good writing choice, but in this case the only good writing choice;

c!Dream, as we all know, has been subject to mental and physical abuse to the point of straight up torture by both c!Sam and c!Quackity (to different extents). He has been in indescribable amounts of suffering for the past 74 days at the time this essay will be published. That is six and something times the duration of the entire exile arc in canon.

Whatever the interpretation of his words in prison is, what is undeniable is first of all the fact his mental stability is absolutely crushed at this point, second that no human being could possibly ever deserve to undergo this, and third, his stay in the prison is showing off his humanity and making him out to be sympathetic.

Now, consider this; how would it feel if c!Tommy died at the end of the exile arc? Empty, there would be no catharsis to such an end, especially because of all of the hurt he’d gone through. Objectively, a bad writing choice.

Let’s compare, narratively of course, this situation to the prison arc. Even though I would never say one of them is “better” or “worse” than the other, since both are terrible and undeserved, c!Dream’s current state checks off all of the boxes that would make his death unsatisfying in the storyline; even if people want him gone, there would still be the dissatisfaction at the current build-up and why they even did it in the first place (it really wasn’t necessary to anyone else’s story to make him out as a victim, and yet they did) if they were planning to kill him off anyways. And since the prison arc is naturally meant to induce sympathy, even from an angst perspective it would simply not make sense within the themes and writing of the plot.

So, c!Dream can’t die, and he also can’t stay in the prison forever - the build-up must lead to something, which is logically a breakout. Great… what now?

Well, the Dream SMP prides itself in accurate representation of trauma and mental instability, specifically cc!Tommy and cc!Dream who have pulled it off incredibly during the exile arc.

Now, undoubtedly, after the prison, c!Dream is going to be just terribly traumatized- considering the writers’ past creative decisions, would it make sense for him to play the role of a dangerous, heartless villain in other people’s stories, while completely ignoring the logical fallout of what he’s been through?

In my mind, no. The most possible result is that cc!Dream is going to rightfully portray someone who’s been hurt so much he is broken, scared and tortured into submissions over months of agony and slowly stripping away of his agency, his dignity, his humanity. And that is… not going to be pretty, nor is he going to be in any way the same as before.

After everything, I’d be surprised if he can properly look at shears without shaking. That’s not villain behaviour, that’s the behaviour of someone who needs help.

Which leads me to another point, which is relatability. Believe me or not, there are people out there who heavily relate to c!Dream because they have been through things that allow them to see themselves in the character - abandonment, mental illness, etc. - or who have had destructive mindsets they have struggled to let go of in the past.

To them, as well as to the viewer, redeeming c!Dream could actually be a very good example, showcasing that anyone who has done bad things or has been hurt in the past can learn that it is possible to be better, to move on, to not be stuck in a loop but to actively seek help and then use that support to find the path to healing.

Making c!Dream a better person, who in a way, wins over his past, over his trauma, over the hurt he’s caused, and manages to actually get better… is inspiring, in a sense. It shows that you can abandon unhealthy mindsets, you can find a support group of people who care about you, you can make your life better simply by deciding to be better and then sticking to that, no matter how difficult the process.

This is why I believe that redeeming c!Dream would not be bad writing, but quite the opposite, and that the prison arc is an obvious set-up. Alright, but how does that work with the character? How could someone so widely hated mentally improve in such a seemingly violent and terrible environment? Would it even make sense within the context of c!Dream’s character so far? Well,

Why c!Dream has the capacity for healing and the Dream SMP the ability to provide it;

First of all, let’s remind ourselves that through c!Dream’s entire spiral he wasn’t ever directly given a chance to change. He was regarded as someone to defeat in order to accomplish a happy ending, or as someone who needed to be removed in order to achieve power on the SMP. Ever since the 16th, which is when the corruption of the character is the most obvious, there have been no attempts to reach out or to help him. I do not blame the characters for this - I am simply pointing out that since it has never happened before, we do not know how he would respond, and that, after everything he’s been through, any bit of kindness or compassion towards him will be a new concept he will have to learn to deal with somehow.

This point is especially driven home by the fact that both c!Quackity and c!Sam would often tell him he is a monster who deserves nothing but to suffer, and that what he’s going through is never going to amount to all the hurt he’s caused - basically removing any possibility for ever getting better (because by this logic, he doesn’t deserve support, and he doesn’t deserve to get better) from his line of sight.

He also hasn’t had a support system since shortly after the 16th, when his friends left him over c!George’s dethronement and made no effort to mend their relationship afterwards. c!Dream isn’t used to having allies and people on his side, but to being hated; again, wouldn’t that mean positive reinforcement could very well be all he needs to make the choice?

His bad mindsets - attachments are weakness, ends always justify the means, people will consider you a bad person no matter what you do - have been continuously proven right by his environment, even in prison. Any kind of subversion, plus an explanation as to why they are wrong, could be of great help to c!Dream.

Just another disclaimer; I do not believe c!Dream would change thanks to the treatment in prison, but rather despite it. His mental stability is non-existent at that point, and in order to get better he needs genuine emotional support from the people around him as well as to heal before he can redeem himself.

Alright, but… c!Dream has hurt a lot of people. Who would be fit to help him?

Let’s start off with the worst option and why it’s impossible the writers would even attempt this; c!Tommy.

c!Tommy has no responsibility to help or ever forgive c!Dream - not to say he could. The two, as it is, would drag each other down instead of helping in any capacity, and only make matters worse. The two of them shouldn’t even interact in the best case scenario - the best thing for both of them would be if they got enough healing and support individually that they could live around each other and not get their trauma or toxic habits triggered when interacting for whatever purpose of the plot.

So, if not c!Tommy (and c!Tubbo neither by extension), who could redeem c!Dream?

Well, he can’t do it on his own for sure. Being in nature with animals is nice, but further isolation from other people would merely help with the prison trauma, not with the state of his tendencies when interacting with others. He, once again, needs positive reinforcement from other people for him to heal properly.

There are two main options for this in my mind, and then there’s a few individuals he could also find comfort in, including people from both groups or those unaligned.

1) Kinoko Kingdom

From the people of this new country, c!Dream has never negatively interacted with c!Karl before, he has never hurt c!George and he hasn’t directly harmed c!Sapnap. Although the relationship with his old friend group could be difficult to rekindle, none of them have grudges against him that are too personal, and they have been canonically close friends since the beginning of the SMP, so it would be very much possible to rebuild burnt bridges. They’d be familiar, and with the addition of c!Karl they could be a good source of comfort for c!Dream after he either breaks out or is released from prison - just gotta convince c!Sapnap not to kill him first.

2) The Syndicate

From the Syndicate, c!Dream has never directly interacted with c!Nikki, and from what I know of her character she never seemed to be very affected by his actions - even doing his work for him when he was planning to burn down the L’Mantree. c!Techno is an ally who doesn’t have anything against him, and as for c!Ranboo, here is why I believe c!Dream being in the Syndicate could be positively influential on his character arc as well;

c!Ranboo and c!Philza have had a conversation about change, during which c!Ranboo made it clear he thinks everyone can change except for c!Dream; who, in his mind, is “too deep down the rabbit hole”. c!Philza replied that he thinks anyone can change if given enough time.

… you see what I’m getting at?

c!Dream has been implied to be an ally to c!Ranboo’s enderwalk state (or the state when he has access to his full memory), and hence would most likely not behave negatively towards him at all. While it might make it more difficult for c!Ranboo to deal with his own issues, it might also give him more motivation to get to the bottom of it as well, especially since he now has access to the person who, presumably, started this all. While this is going on, c!Dream would show himself in a much different light than c!Ranboo sees himin, which could lead to confusion, realization of the flaws in his own logic, and hence, positive character development.

Here’s a great post about why c!Techno as a character could be a great asset in c!Dream’s healing process & redemption, and why there is not much need to worry about him not knowing or finding out about c!Dream’s actions.

Of Kinoko Kingdom and the Syndicate, as far as I know, neither c!Tommy nor c!Tubbo have ever been directly involved with these groups, nor are they planning to.

Another important point to make is that, while c!Tommy needs to be kept away from c!Dream in order to heal properly, the same goes for c!Quackity and c!Sam in c!Dream’s case. While c!Quackity has high chances to interact with either Kinoko Kingdom or the Syndicate in the future, there’s an even higher chance, in that situation, that c!Dream would be offered protection, which is also important; there is no healing from trauma without the knowledge of safety, to some degree.

So, this was an essay as to why I think c!Dream’s recovery and redemption (one needs to come before the other, naturally) is not only extremely possible but also could be pulled off well and have a positive impact on both the characters, and the audience.

#dreblr #dream smp #c!dream #c!dream sympathetic #c!quackity neg #c!sam neg #dsmp analysis #tw torture #tw abuse #long post #i really should start writing longer essays #i need more material #anyways #hope y'all liked this #just joining the debate #:]

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closedmadness · 4 years ago

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𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄

summary: maybe all of the things you’ve gone through was just challenges that prepared you for a better life — you started thinking that way after sweet pea literally saved your life and made it even better. part 2 of heartbreak

pairings: sweet pea x male reader

warnings → swearing・fluff・serpent initiation・light verbal fight

a/n: since part 1 ended in heartbreak (which the title is) this one will not be. I didn’t know you guys are gonna love that one thank you for your comments🥺 check out the navigation in my profile for tagging system!

Tag: @t-a-i-l-o-r-m-a-d-e @wizard-of-yeet @akwardpikachu

“i won!” you yelled over sweet pea’s groans of defeat, jumping up and down happily as toni and fangs snickered from their place.

you’re currently playing pool with sweet pea at the serpents bar and spending your time with them. you should actually be at school in this hours, but you skipped them with a permission from your father and hang out your friends instead.

after it was revealed that your father is the serpent king, you slept at sweet pea’s trailer with meeting him in your mind. at first you didn’t know if he remembers you or even think about you, but they told you he has been telling the serpents about his son that he regrettably left alone.

you could still remember the first meeting with him.

“he talked about you a lot, (y/n).” sweet pea said, his expression soft as he looked at you.

a genuine surprise appeared on your face and you raised your brows, “he did?” sweet pea nods in confirmation. you looked down, not having expected that your father still remembered you.

you were pretty sure in your entire life that he would’ve forgotten about you, moved on with his life and started a new family. being told he has been regretting his decision and telling his serpents about his son was totally not what you expected. your mother pretty much made sure you knew that you don’t matter, that your father was so sick with the idea of having you, so you don’t know how to react after knowing that he cared about you all along.

“he’s still looking for his son.” toni told, catching your attention. “he told us he went to get his son, but wasn’t able to because his wife never allowed.”

you looked down; it was making you emotional realizing your father cared about you all this time. “sweet pea...” you called, pulling on the sleeve of his leather jacket. “take me to my father.”

sweet pea didn’t have to be told twice. he pulled you with him and exited the trailer — accompanied by his two friends — entering the whyte wyrm. there were serpents everywhere, but sweet pea paid no attention to them and swiftly pushed pass them, making sure none would pick a fight with you by holding your hand, toni and fangs keeping you close with them, following behind you.

all four of you reached the very end side of the bar and your eyes caught the sight of a dominant looking man in the center — probably in the age of 30 or 40 — sitting on a chair with few other old serpents surrounding him.

“(f/n).” sweet pea caught his attention, standing in front of him.

“what’s up, sweet pea?” his rough voice asked, averting his eyes from the serpents around him to the boy. the said male didn’t say anything, instead just moved out of the way to reveal you.

the older man, who you assume your father by what sweet pea called him, looked at you and instantly froze in his place. many emotions swirled in his eyes and expression as he looked at your face, then at your whole body, like he couldn’t believe if what he was seeing is real. he almost don’t believe it. so he slowly stood up from the chair and walked over to you, step by step carefully, as if afraid you would disappear from his sight.

you looked up at him and slightly shrunk as he was tall and practically towered over you. the two friends encouraged you by patting your back, sweet pea just squeezing your hand before going over to the side to watch the whole scene.

“(y-y/n)...?” he stuttered your name as he slowly lifted his hands, afraid that you might not have been his son that he always looked for.

you slightly flinched, but stayed in your place, knowing your father is different from your mother. “dad?” your voice called him weakly, as if you were afraid he’s not your father. before you could process anything, he pulled you in a warm and tight embrace, a light sob leaving his lips.

all the serpents present in the bar stopped what they were doing after hearing their leader’s sob to see him holding you tightly, and they focused their attention on you two.

you hugged him back before breaking down suddenly, tears escaping your eyes from the relief of finding your father and a sob leaving your lips, turning into a quiet cry of anguish afterwards. everyone who heard your quiet cries felt their heart clench at how broken you sounded, but they also heard a cry of relief in it, and they couldn’t help but frown in sadness at the reunion happening in front of them.

your hold tightens around him and he realized just then that you’re afraid he might leave you again. “i won’t leave you again, son. i promise. from the bottom of my heart.” he told you firmly as he tightened his embrace on you as well.

after you calmed down from your break down, a chuckle left your lips as you pulled away from his warm embrace to look at his face. “i missed you, dad. i- i thought you forgot about me.” you sniffled.

he wiped your tears and gave you a sad smile. “i missed you too, (y/n). i forgot about your mother, but never you. i always thought of you and regretted not taking you with me, even if it means you’re gonna have to live as a serpent.”

you sniffled, “i would rather live as a serpent than with her. it’s been really awful, she never went to rehab and continued doing drugs. she rarely ever gets home and when she does, all she do is hit me and complain about my existence. it’s really exhausting, dad.”

your father’s expression darkened at that as toni, fangs and sweet pea all winced. you furrowed your brows and looked at them quizzically after hearing their winces, only to receive a shake of head from them. they knew how (f/n) is when a family of his gets hurt, whether it’s a serpent or a real family member, and you telling him about your horrible mother made them already know what she will go through.

though, before that, (f/n) pulled you in an embrace again. “you will never have to go back to her again, (y/n). i’ll take care of her. of course, only if you want to.”

“sure, dad. only if you promise to make up for the lost times.”

he smiled happily, “i definitely will.”

you smiled at the memory and looked at sweet pea, who was pouting due to his defeat. if it weren’t for him saving you, you wouldn’t have met your father. you won’t admit out loud how thankful you are, though.

“(y/n)~” your father’s cooing voice called and you turned your head, only to have him crash you in a tight embrace. you chuckled at him and hugged back, enjoying and loving how he shows you his love with just little gestures.

sweet Pea, toni and fangs watched from the side, the raven haired boy smiling at how happy you looked in the arms of your father. toni saw his loving gaze and nudged him, “you’re making heart eyes to him again, sweets.” she teased, making fangs snicker.

sweet pea rolled his eyes, “yeah, whatever.”

“dude, we’ve only known him for like, three weeks and you’re already head over heels in love with him.” fangs deadpanned, grinning widely.

“can you blame me?” sweet pea snapped, returning his gaze on you laughing with your father. “he’s so precious, like, he isn’t like any other northsiders we encountered.”

“and he’s hot.” toni added, making him glare at her but nod in agreement nonetheless.

“isn’t this his fourth time skipping school to hang out with us, though?” fangs asked realizing.

“he only go to school if he feels like it. (f/n) gives him permission to skip and whenever he doesn’t give him permission, he goes to school.” sweet pea answered with a shrug, not really bothered by the fact that you skip school just to hang out with them.

he was rather happy that you’re choosing to be with them instead of your friends at northside. it just proved to him that even a northsider like you can choose the southsiders. besides, this way he could easily make efforts for you to date him.

you went back to sweet pea with a pout after a talk with your father. “pea~” your whine filled his ears and he quickly turned as you dive into his arms. “dad said i should go to school more instead of hanging out with you guys here.” you pouted, looking up at him.

his eyes lingered longer at your pouty lips before moving his gaze up to meet yours. “i think your dad is right, (y/n). we’re really happy that you’d rather hang out with us than your friends at northside, but you don’t go to school for nothing.” he softly said, stroking your hair.

you nuzzled your face into his chest, enjoying the way his hand stroked your hair gently. “yeah... if you say so, pea.”

“we agree with him, but thanks for asking, (y/n).” toni jokingly said and laughed, earning a snicker from fangs and a muffled apology from you.

“but didn’t your dad say something else?” fangs asked and toni nudged him strongly with her elbow, making the former wince in pain and rub the spot above his hip.

you stayed silent for a moment, but spoke nonetheless. “he asked me if i want to be a serpent.”

sweet pea gently cupped your cheek with one hand and raised your face up. “well, what did you answer him?”

“i told him i want to, and that i will participate in the initiation instead of being pardoned just because i’m his son.” you stated and closed your eyes, placing a hand just above his. “it would be unfair for me to join the serpents without doing the initiation you all have gone through.”

their hearts warmed up at your words and a satisfied smile made its way upon sweet pea’s face. “are you sure, baby? joining us have a lot of consequences.”

you smiled at the nickname. you and sweet pea had a lot going on, both of you acted like a couple but never really asked out each other. “i don’t really care as long as i have you, fangs and toni.” you said making sweet pea chuckle, while toni aweed and fangs swooned. you were so sweet.

the four of you began to play pool once again with the serpent’s initiation in your mind.

tomorrow, you’re gonna be one of the southside serpents your father leads and you couldn’t be any more happier.

“Hey, (Y/n)!” Veronica greeted you as all the corefour entered the student lounge.

You smiled and nodded at her, greeting back. “Hey, Roni.” Your eyes then darted back to your phone that you were holding, sending a text back to Sweet Pea.

As Veronica, Archie and Kevin sat on the couches, Betty and Jughead looked at each other and frowned before sitting down as well.

It has been four weeks since the extreme heartbreak and meeting the Serpents. You’ve been less hanging out with the corefour, but only when Betty and Jughead would tag along for a double date. If it isn’t a double date, you would hang out with them but pay little attention to the couple. Kevin, Archie and Veronica noticed you distancing yourself from the couple, but didn’t say anything because they knew how you felt about the news. Though, they were thankful you’re not ignoring them. They wouldn’t have handled it if you did, since you’re a kind of person who smiles at everyone and gives them attention even a little bit.

“(Y/n).” Jughead called and the three you considered as your best friends stopped their conversation to listen.

“Hmm?” You just hummed in response, raising your brows and eyes still facing the phone screen.

“What’s happening to you? The days you don’t come to school are increasing more and more.”

You rolled your eyes mentally. So now he notice. “I’ll come to school from now on, don’t you worry.” You replied with gaze still on your phone screen. “And it’s none of your business.” You added.

All of them snapped their gaze to you surprised. You never talked to anyone like that, let alone Jughead, your best friend since childhood. Well, to you he’s no longer your best friend.

“What’s up with you? You know I notice that you’re ignoring me and Betty.”

“You only notice things that are convenient to you.” Your neutral and void of emotion strung a core into his heart. It sounded so dead, like you no longer had a heart to him.

Jughead and Betty looked at you in disbelief, while the others exchanged a uneasy glance. They knew something was wrong with you, and Veronica isn’t stupid to know you no longer had a thing for Jughead, but this was not what they expected to hear from you. Clearly, you moved on.

The beanie wearing boy shakes himself out of shock and frowns. “Did I do something wrong to you?”

You looked up from your phone and his breath caught up in his throat; your face was void of all emotion. “No.” That was your only answer as you looked back at your phone.

Jughead’s frown deepened as he and Betty made an eye contact. What is wrong with you?

Today is the day of your serpent initiation.

You were feeling nervous, constantly fidgeting with your fingers and lips pouting. Your fidgeting fingers were interrupted by Sweet Pea, who took a hold of your hand after noticing you were nervous.

“You’ll do great, (Y/n). I know it. You’re strong.” He comforts with a small smile on his face.

You smiled at him, relief and calmness washing over you at his warmth. “Thanks, Pea. It really means a lot.” You said and squeezed his hand.

A comfortable silence fell on the two of you as the time of your initiation slowly comes. Sweet Pea wondered what to say in this situation — you’re going to have the initiation in a few minutes and he hasn’t told you anything encouraging yet. He was worried about you.

“Hey, uh... (Y/n)?” Sweet Pea called your name, rather nervously. You looked at him questioningly. “After your initiation, do you want to go to Pop’s together? I mean, like a date?” His tone was filled with fear of rejection.

He knew that you were in love with Jughead and didn’t want to do something that will make you remember what you had to go through while being in love with him. This is his first time having someone who cares for him deeply as he does for them, so he didn’t want to ruin whatever you two had. Asking you out on a date is the hardest thing to do, specially since you’re his best friend.

A look of surprise coated your face at first, making him prepare himself for the rejection, but what you said next surprised him. “Sure, Sweet Pea. I was wondering when you’d ask.” You giggled, a damn laugh that he always loves to hear.

Relief washes over him as he sighed, a happy smile making its way onto his lips for a moment before it was replaced by a smirk. “So you were waiting for me to ask you out, huh?” He teasingly said, letting go of your hand and wrapping his arm around your waist instead.

“Maybe, maybe not.” You grinned.

Sweet Pea chuckles and pulls you closer, cupping your cheek with his free hand as he leans in to give you a short, but sweet kiss. A laugh escaped both of your lips while still maintaining a very close distance, your noses touching and lips barely.

Someone clearing their throat interrupted your sweet moment and you turned to see your dad standing there giving Sweet Pea a look. Instantly, Sweet Pea let go of you and straightened himself. You laughed, noticing his nervousness upon getting caught by your father.

Your father gave Sweet Pea a look that says ‘we will talk about this’ before turning to you. “Son, it’s time for your initiation. Are you sure you can do this?” His concern made you smile.

“I’m good, dad. Thanks for worrying about me.”

Just like that, the three of you went outside where your initiation will be held. Luckily for the both of you, Sweet Pea wasn’t allowed to join in the initiation since he and your dad will be having a conversation. It’s an order from your dad that no one can say against.

As the initiation started, Sweet Pea stood at the side worriedly together with your father, who was looking at him rather than you. He could hear the sound of a fist colliding with your face and he didn’t want to see his son going through the initiation.

“Do you really love him?” (F/n) suddenly asked Sweet Pea, causing him to avert his eyes from you to him.

The raven haired boy nodded without hesitation, “I do. Very much. Whenever I’m around him, I get this feeling that I should protect him. You know how selfless he can get.” He stated, turning back to see you getting punched again, but standing back up nonetheless.

Sweet Pea knew how strong you are. You wouldn’t back down easily, and maybe that is why he didn’t stop you from going through the initiation even when it was painful for him to watch you getting hurt.

(F/n) nods, a whole part of him agreeing to Sweet Pea that you can be really selfless at times. He could remember the time his heart broke when he saw you still caring for your mother even after everything you’ve gone through with her.

“He really is selfless. But he won’t back down without a fight, I know that. He could beat up anyone in the Serpents if he wants to. They wouldn’t stand a chance against him.” (F/n) laughed proudly.

Sweet Pea chuckled, “I agree. He’s kinda scary when he’s mad.”

They both turned back to the initiation, only to find you still standing even after all the punches were thrown. You stood your ground, fists clenched on your sides, blood running down your face and soaking your shirt. The last punch was from a serpent who had a brass knuckle and getting punched by him hurt a lot, but you didn’t give up and still stood. A cheer of happiness came from the Serpents after the initiation was finished.

Sweet Pea’s smile was huge as he rushed over to you, gently cupping your face with his hands. “You did it, baby. You did it.” He cheered, causing a small smile to appear on your face.

He was quick to lead you inside to treat your wounds, Toni and Fangs already waiting there. “You did it! You fucking did it!!” They both cheered, jumping up and down making you chuckle.

Sweet Pea starts to tend to you, treating the wounds on your face as gently as possible with the first aid kit. “You still have one initiation left, so until then I’ll make sure you’re healed.”

“And then a date after that initiation.” You added, making him smile and nod.

Toni and Fangs gaped at your conversation. “Hold on! You’re going on a date?” Fangs asked. You and Sweet Pea didn't answer him, just looked at each other and grinned. That was an enough answer for them.

“Finally! Took you two so long.” Toni grinned teasingly, causing you and Sweet Pea to roll your eyes.

Your father entered with the biggest smile you’ve ever seen him have, holding a new serpent jacket as he approached you with open arms. “(Y/n), son, you made it!” He hugged you tightly and you hugged back, feeling safe and secure in his arms. He pulled away to give you the leather jacket and you took it, wearing it and smiling proudly at yourself.

Everyone cheered and congratulated you, including Jughead’s father FP Jones. “(Y/n), congratulations!” He gave you a short hug, to which you returned.

Despite what his son did, you never blamed FP and became friends with him. You didn’t take your anger towards Jughead on him simply because it wasn’t his fault. He’s just Jughead’s father. You like him as a person and as your older friend, what Jughead did doesn’t matter anymore.

“How does it feel to be an official member of the serpents?”

“Amazing.” You answered with a big smile.

FP smiles and nods his head, but then frowned after remembering his son. You told him about what happened between you and Jughead, he felt sorry for what his son did to you. He just feels glad that you seem fine now. “Uh... (Y/n), you want me to tell Jug about you joining the serpents?”

The mention of Jughead’s name no longer affected you, and FP showed a small smile when he noticed you didn’t even flinch at the sound of his name. “No, he doesn’t need to know. It’s not his business.” You replied.

FP nods and was about to walk away when Sweet Pea appeared behind you and wrapped his arms around your waist, hugging you from behind. “Babe, can’t you just skip the last initiation? We could just go to our date.” Sweet Pea whined.

You chuckle, “No can do, Sweets. I have to finish the entire initiation.” You turned around to face him while he still hugged you. “Can you wait for a little bit longer?” You asked while grabbing his face, but he went past your hands and nuzzled his face on your neck.

“I’ll try.” He managed to tell you, his voice muffled. You giggle and pet his hair, to which he whined approvingly.

FP blinked at the sight of them, shocked at the way they act. He always felt there was something between you and Sweet Pea since you two did a lot of PDA sometimes, but this was new since you always only held hands or hugged. FP turned to (F/n) quizzically as Toni and Fangs giggled at his reaction. “Oh, apparently, they’re together.” (F/n) said with a shrug, no longer bothered that his son is being touched by Sweet Pea.

“Since when?” FP asked.

“Before the Initiation.” You and Sweet Pea answered simultaneously without looking at him. FP gaped which caused Toni and Fangs to burst into laughter, holding their stomach as tears appears on their eyes from laughing too hard.

After a while, FP got over the shock and smiled. “Glad to know you moved on, (Y/n). You don’t deserve all the pain my son caused you.”

“Yeah, he doesn’t deserve my precious baby.” Sweet Pea stated possessively.

(F/n) whisled, “Possessive much of my boy, Pea?” That caused a laughter to erupt in the Whyte Wyrm, making Sweet Pea grumble and tighten his hold around you.

You smiled happily; at first, you wanted to end your miserable life to get an eternal peace. Your life only consisted of heart break and pain that you thought you were beyond saving. But Sweet Pea showed up and everything became better. He gave you a new life, a much more better life that you’ll always be thankful for. He did so much for you and you plan on doing the same thing.

“Sweet Pea?” You softly called, turning your head to look at him.

“Hmm?” He hummed with his eyes closed just enjoying your presence in his arms.

“Thank you. I love you.” Sweet Pea opened his eyes at that, a grin taking over his lips as his eyes sparkled in joy. If it’s possible, he would ask you to tell him that three words everyday.

“I love you too, (Y/n).” He replied, giving you a kiss.

Toni made a face, “Get a room!”

Okay, so going to school wearing your own Serpent jacket probably wasn’t the greatest idea. Wherever you go, everyone stared at you and giving you dirty looks, as if you’ve done the most shittiest thing. You could only careless though.

“Hey, guys.” You greeted the corefour plus Kevin after entering the student lounge and dropped on the couch, beside Veronica. They gaped at the sight of your jacket, emotions swirling in their eyes. You swore you could see a disgusted look in Betty and Jughead’s faces, but all you needed was Veronica, Archie and Kevin’s reactions.

“Oh my god.” Veronica breathes out and pushes your shoulder gently to look at the logo on your back. “Whose jacket is this? Is this yours?” She asked, but there was no hint of distaste in her tone.

“Yeah, I just joined them yesterday.” You shrugged nonchalantly.

Archie raised his brows, “Is that why you have some injury on your face?”

“Yep.” You replied. Their reaction was totally amusing, except for Betty and Jughead’s. They look at you like you’re the most disgusting person in the world. Eh, not my problem. You thought as you pulled out your phone.

Someone snatched your phone and you looked up to see Jughead standing, glaring at you. “So this was why you’ve been avoiding and ignoring us. Because you were planning on joining that gang.” He spat in anger. Betty stood beside him with a glare as well.

You just raised your brows at him, uninterested in whatever drama he’s trying to cause. “What the hell, (Y/n)!? Have you lost your mind? That gang doesn’t do anything right! They’re drug dealers, vicious people, living with violence!” He continued. The way he described them struck a core to you, something in the way he called them made something inside you snap.

You were up on your feet in an instant, gripping his collar and glaring at him dangerously. A gasp came from Veronica and Betty, but you ignored them and tightened your grip even more on Jughead’s collar. “Listen here, Jones. You don’t know anything about them and you have no right to judge what they do for living. They’re people — an actual, decent people who cares for a stranger. Not a drug dealer, not a violence freak, they’re humans. And say one more fucking thing about them, I won’t hesitate to give you what you deserve.” You threatened while showing your fist.

“(Y/n)... Jug probably deserves it, but slow down.” Archie says from behind you, confusing Jughead as he looked at Archie then back at you.

Hearing the ginger’s words, you reluctantly let go of Jughead’s collar with a glare still plastered on your eyes. “You know nothing, Jones. You don’t even know anything about what happened to me this past few weeks.” You spat. Hatred completely plastered your face as you moved your glare towards Betty, who flinched in surprise at how scary and intimidating you looked. The disgusted expression no longer visible on her face.

Jughead frowns, “What are you talking about?”

“See? You know nothing.” You said mockingly. “That day you informed me you and Cooper started dating was the day I was planning to die.” You admitted and they looked at you in shock, mouth opening slightly. “My mother always abused me, physically and mentally. Hell, even emotionally. And every time I tried to tell you, you ignored me and shrugged my problems off because it wasn’t ‘important’ to you. Cooper has always been your first priority, wasn’t she? That’s why you chose to abandon me when I needed you the most. I needed your help, but you ignored everything and went on and on about this girl.”

Jughead opened his mouth to come up with an excuse, but you quickly shut it down. “No excuse would be enough to explain what you did. Now, I’m just giving you the taste of your own medicine. I don’t want to see your face ever again because every time I do, I get the flashbacks of what happened. You were with a girl having the time of your life while I was suffering at the hands of my mother.” You glared at the couple with disgust. “I’m in disbelief that you even consider me as a friend, because I don’t anymore.”

The harshness of your words seemed to wake up something in Jughead as his breath trembled, feeling his eyes burn as tears starts to gather. “What- how would that explain why you joined them?” He stuttered, the disgusted look in your face making him lose any hope.

“They saved me from all the misery.” You felt a single tear roll down your cheek. “They gave me a home. I was able to start over because they were with me every step of the way. They taught me the importance of my life and loved me, cared for me more than anyone ever did. More than you did, more than my mother did. I joined them because they’re my home, and to prove that I don’t need you.” You stated coldly.

Somehow, for some reason, everyone heard Jughead’s heart breaking. The devastation on his face was enough for them to know he cared about you all along, but didn’t do enough to show it. Painful thing, though, is that you don’t care for him anymore. Your cold words and gaze told them you really had enough of him.

Veronica stands up and places her hand on your back. “(Y/n), come on. Let’s go. He’s not worth it.”

You stayed silent for a second before replying, “You’re right. They’re not worth it. He didn’t need me in his life — obviously I don’t need him in my life too. Just wanted him to know that.” You said calmly and walked away together with Veronica, leaving the others alone.

“You didn’t tell him about the heartbreak he caused you.” Veronica stated once you two were out of the lounge.

You scoffed, “He doesn’t need to know. Besides, my heartbreak doesn’t matter anymore.” Curiosity sparked in Veronica as you said that with small smile on your lips.

“Ohh.” She smirks, “Who’s the guy?” She asked teasingly which made you laugh. Veronica never failed to be your friend — she’s accepting and kind, sometimes a bitch, but that’s who she is. You’re sure she’ll always be your friend.

“He’s the one who found me contemplating my life.” You smiled at the memory. “He looks tough and scary, but he’s such a sweetheart. Cares for me the most, treats me right and gives me the love he claims I deserve.” Your face softens as you tell her about Sweet Pea, like you weren’t angry just a few moments ago.

Veronica stared at you as you talked; she could see the change. Your eyes spark more now and had a life of joy, even happiness. It had enough light. Your face seems a lot brighter and happier, no sign of heartbreak in sight. You looked as if you didn’t go through that extreme heartbreak and misery while living with your mother. You look healthier and more joyful, your smile now reached your eyes. She felt relieved — the Serpents seems to be the ones who changed you for the better and she couldn’t be more happier. They may be a gang, but she knew they’re good people.

“You seem a lot happier now, (Y/n).” She said, smiling softly.

A smile appeared on your face. “I am, Roni. I really am. No lies, no hiding, genuinely.”

“It feels as if the heartbreak didn’t happen.” She comments and you chuckled in agreement. “I’m glad he’s treating you right. You have a new life now, I’m a little sad that you might forget about me, Kevin and Archie.” She jokes.

You frowned, “Hey. I’ll never forget any of you. That’s a promise.” You held out your pinky finger and she chuckled, intertwining it with her pinky finger as well to promise. Your phone dings as Sweet Pea’s name appeared on the screen with a text; ‘I will pick you up today. Don’t go anywhere.’

Veronica peeked, seeing what was written and smirked. “Oooh, that’s the dream boy.” You laughed with her and nodded, agreeing.

There’s no need in telling Jughead you already have a new love, or prove to him that you’re better without him. He’s gonna know that either way. Maybe sooner than later, but you don’t care about that as long as he wouldn’t get in between you and Sweet Pea. Now that you found a new genuine and real love, there’s no way you’ll let anyone tear you two apart.

“(Y/n)—”

“Stop it, Jones!” You shoved Jughead away as soon as his hand grabbed your arm after the school ended and glared at him. “I told you, I don’t want to do anything with you. Why is it hard for you to understand?”

“I want to make it up to you!” Jughead made a move again to touch you, but you quickly smacked his hands away.

“You can’t when I don’t want you to.” You spat and walked away, only for him to grab your arm again stronger this time. The other corefours and Kevin yelled for Jughead to just let you go, but he doesn’t listen.

Just as when you were about to punch him in the face, someone pulled you away from him and felt a warmth on your back. “Get the fuck away from him!” Sweet Pea shouted angrily at Jughead, embracing you with one arm and pointing at him.

People around the school whispered and gossiped to each other as Sweet Pea continued to glare at Jughead, while you start relaxing in his arms. “Sweet Pea,” They were surprised at the softness in your voice. “Let’s just go, he’s not worth it. I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“Baby, he was touching you without your consent.” Sweet Pea clenched his jaw, still glaring at Jughead.

A look of surprise flashed across their face, except for Veronica who already knew about Sweet Pea. You glanced at the beanie-wearing boy and shook your head, gently grabbing your boyfriend’s hand. “It’s okay. You came. If something happened, dad’s gonna take care of him.” You softly say, rubbing circles on his hand with your thumb.

Sweet Pea looks at you and his eyes immediately softened, looking down at your intertwined hands, then looking up at you before back at Jughead. “You touch him again and I’ll break your face.” He threatened and pulled you with him towards a car, Fangs and Tony inside of it.

After getting into the passenger seat, you waved at Veronica, Archie and Kevin to say goodbye as Sweet Pea pulled off of the parking lot.

“That’s him? Your ex best friend?” Toni asked as she pointed outside at Jughead, while Fangs stared at the boy. You nodded with a tired sigh, having enough of dealing with that ex best friend for today. “Yikes, Sweets is much better than him.” She grimaced and earned a laughter from Fangs.

“Much, much better.” You agreed and looked over at Sweet Pea, who also looked back at you before pecking you on the lips quickly. Grinning widely, you intertwined his hand with yours as he drove the car towards the Northside.

Entering the bar, you quickly made your way towards (F/n) and pulled him in a hug to which surprised him, but hugged back nonetheless. “What’s wrong, prince?” His gentle voice asked, stroking your back. You just shook your head and continued hugging him to let him know you appreciated everything about this new life.

“What happened, Sweet Pea?” Your father asked Sweet Pea next, who came in with Toni and Fangs after you rushed towards him.

The tall serpent sighs, “That Jones boy was bothering him in school. He was really annoyed.”

“Is that true, (Y/n)?” (F/n) pulled away from you to ask and you nodded your head. “Yeah, but I’m okay, dad. I know you’d kick his ass if he annoyed me more than he already did.” You joked, earning a chuckle from him.

After that, you pulled Sweet Pea to the side to have a talk with him. “Pea, thank you for everything. Really. And I want you to know that I’m not going away.”

That made him grin widely, pulling you in a hug as he nuzzled his face in your neck. “You don’t have to thank me, (Y/n). I’m not letting you go now that I have you.” You smiled, hugging him back and closing your eyes as you enjoyed his scent.

This is your new life; happier, brighter, lovelier new life that you’d do anything to keep. You’re happy and content now — there’s nothing else you would ask for. Everything you went through was painful, but perhaps it was just a step to your happiness and you felt glad that you managed to endure it.

Having Sweet Pea with you is enough — no heartbreak, no suffering, no sadness. Just love, happiness and contentment.

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the-consortium · 2 years ago

Text

As Fabius nods and begins intently pulling selected sections of the planet closer to him, turning and muttering notes to himself, which the Chirurgeon comments on with a soft click and apparently stores in a data-recorder in one of its arms, Arrian turns to Saqqara and says quietly, "A few of my legion were on Prospero right after the destruction… well, not right after, of course. It was nothing but sand." - "I wonder why the Imperium didn't do a full job, like with Colchis ….," his Word Bearer friend returns, tiny hints of envy colouring his tone.

"What's that all about? Since when does the Empire treat planets it leaves in peace better, eh?" Fabius interjects, without turning round to face the two of them. "You can talk!" Apparently Saqqara has decided to feel disadvantaged. Fabius just growls caustically: "Oh yes, of course. Terra, the green paradise! The destruction of my birth world by Abaddon - should he ever succeed - would be no more relevant to me than its continued existence as an exploited ball of misery colonised by maggots like a dead grox!"

Arrian purses his scarred lips, tilts his head and says quietly to Saqqara: "You only have yourself to blame for that." The Word Bearer takes a deep, defiantly dramatic breath before focussing on the living map of the planet again. With a curt movement, he shoos away a small demon that has approached curiously.

Fabius ignores the two, concentrating on Zikar-Sin. "A functioning system cannot be static. It will change with the circumstances. Terra- and biosphere forming is just an acceleration of processes that are already taking place. The task here is not to find plants that cope optimally with the current level, but those that do not, and to give them the genetic possibilities to shape their environment to their advantage. Nitrogen-oxygen self-balancing and the like. The question here is - is your Primarch patient enough to allow this? Yes, he gets the constant change that is apparently so important to him - but it will be less rapid than he can achieve with his … magic can achieve." The word seems to have an unpleasant aftertaste for Fabius and he unconsciously wipes his lips and chin briefly.

He straightens, his face contorting into a pained grimace as his blight-ridden vertebrae crack. "The crucial question is - what does Magnus want from me now? It looks like he - and his helpers - have everything well on the way. I see myself more in an advisory role at the moment - I can look at how things are going and make suggestions for improvement. Going directly to the planet and seeing how the factors interact is of course essential for this. And I also have to monitor my genetic samples and prototypes for first-colonising organisms. But in principle, the desired process is still unclear to me. I want to adapt my expectations here to the circumstances. Especially because - I'm open about this - I'm suspicious when a primarch is involved in design decisions. Look, bear with me - but the experience with Fulgrim, who talked me into my work too much, left me very burnt."

[The thread was continually being quite long, so I am making a new continuation post; prior reply found here.]

@the-consortium

"Most of the human crew have not exhibited many signs of change or mutation," Zikar-Sin said as he turned to begin leading Fabius and his... allies? Friends? Did Fabius Bile have anyone he called a friend? The sorcerer couldn't tell. Regardless, he began leading them down one of the many winding halls that made the ship seem paradoxically larger than it actually was. "Many of them have been the ones helping to ferry in the psykers from elsewhere in the galaxy to safety. Though there will be substantial mutation found among the mortal populace that will eventually inhabit Tizca, I can assure you."

One of the crewmen saluted Zikar-Sin and his entourage as they went back, a smaller and bonier arm hanging over one ofhis shoulders holding a bag of tools. One of his eyes were missing, the socket now long since scarred over.

"Our first destination will be the ship's internal archive," the sorcerer proclaimed. "So that you are familiar with how to navigate it, at least. It exists as a literal extension of the libraries we keep on Sortiarius. The small library provided for you is paltry in comparison, of course. From there we will go to the observatory where I can give you a more firsthand look at the present climates of Prospero and Sortiarius, along with a look at their pasts for a point of reference. Afterwards, well... We can see what piques your interests."

#warhammer #fabius bile #the consortium #roleplay

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moontheoretist · 4 years ago

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When she and Tony Stark meet it is very clear that he was not expecting her there, “Jesus Christ, who the hell are you?” he asks, hand pressed to the space over his heart. His right arm is in a sling and that does not look good. “Is there something wrong with your arm?” she asks. It did not appear to be in a cast and she saw no bruising. His breathing was restricted though and that did not bode well either. She narrows her eyes at the thought of someone harming her King’s soul mate but she blinks, letting the anger go. Now was not the time or place. “None of your business, and you are?” he snaps, glaring at her suspiciously. “Dora Milaje,” she responds vaguely, “and I am here on the behalf of King T’Challa.” “T’Challa can fuck off,” Tony snarls viciously and her eyebrows shoot up. “Excuse me,” she says in a dangerous tone. Soul mate or not she would not allow him to insult her King. “Anyone who is involved with Steve Rogers is no use to me,” he snaps. Her eyebrows remain raised, “I understand that Steve Rogers has caused you pain, but I do not understand how that extends to King T’Challa,” she says calmly. Perhaps too calmly but Stark either does not understand the danger or he does not care. Stark rolls his eyes, “I’ve spent the last five years dealing with people who blindly follow Steve Rogers around like a bunch of fucking lap dogs, I don’t need to have one more person tell me that I can never compare. I know that. No need to have anyone else remind me,” he says bitterly, his lip curling up in disgust. That changed things. “I here because the King is not sure what to believe about you. He and the Dora Milaje agree that the information about you is too conflicting to draw a reasonable conclusion. So I am here to try and find the truth, to see what you’re really like. I must admit that I do not like you,” she says honestly. Perhaps the man would take the honesty well. He does not, instead he flinches hard but the expression is gone very quickly. “Great, then you’re just like everyone else. Go report back to your king, tell him I’m as worthless as everyone says I am,” Tony says, turning and walking towards his kitchen. “I do not like many people, that does not mean that you are not a good person. And my personal opinion of you means little when you are not meant for me,” she says. Tony’s shoulders tense at that but he turns slowly to face her. “What do you want to know?” He looks exhausted, like he hasn’t slept in days and she supposes that it is very likely that he has not. The man had chronic insomnia and she suspected it made his very obvious PTSD worse. The dismissals from everyone else around him, including his closest friends, probably did not help the situation. “Why did you support the Accords?” she asks bluntly. Cutting to the heart of the issue was what she was good at, and it saved her time and effort beating around the bush. “Steve told me that I needed to trust people, to listen to them. He was right, so when the opportunity came to listen I did, or at least I tired but apparently that wasn’t right either,” he snaps bitterly, that disgusted look back on his face. “You feel guilty for Ultron,” she says and it is not a question. He flinches at the bot’s name, he certainly felt guilty for being the creator of such chaos. “Of course I do, who the fuck wouldn’t? I nearly ended the world when I ran that program and I should have said something to someone,” he says. She finds that curious, his anger at Steve and his acceptance that Steve was right in his conclusions about his communication skills or lack thereof. “But you did talk to someone, Dr. Banner. I know that he is currently missing but surely you count your communication with him as something,” she says. Banner appeared to be the only Avenger who was not adverse to Tony. The two bonded over science and Tony’s lack of fear of him. “Lot of good that did,” Tony mumbles. “But you spoke to him and he agreed that it was a good enough idea to try,” she says. “So what if I did? Everyone blamed me for it anyways, might as well take the blame. Bruce said it could go wrong and I didn’t listen, I should have.” He leans against the counter and sighs heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Just because your team blamed only you does not mean it was fair. It is not like they are lacking in recklessness and stupidity themselves. What kind of moron releases a brainwashed assassin onto the world? Steve Rogers is very lucky that seems to have had no consequences. And his taking the word of Bucky Barnes as proof of five other Winter Soldiers was not wise either, the man hardly knows what is real and what is not, he is still partially under the control of HYDRA conditioning. Only a fool would take the man’s word at face value. I believe that your holding off until you found real proof of the Winter Soldiers’ existence made you the most intelligent and clear headed of the group, at least in that moment. The rest of the team has far too much faith in a man who is living in nostalgia. Bucky Barnes does not, nor will he ever, exist again as Rogers knew him. He should accept that,” she says bluntly. It was a harsh truth, yes, but a man would never be the same after a trauma like that. Rogers himself was more than likely not the same man he used to be so he should not expect Bucky to be. He should also accept the reality of that trauma on his friend because living in his memories was not going to help Bucky Barnes. Accepting reality, no matter how harsh, was the only way to help Barnes heal from his wounds. It would not be easy for anyone but it was the most beneficial. “You… think I’m the smartest and most clear headed of the group?” Tony asks, looking beyond shocked. “In that moment, yes. You are not without your mistakes but that was not one of them. Tell me more about why you chose to support the Accords,” she says. This time Tony pauses for a long time and she lets him gather himself. It was important to make an accurate judgment. Finally Tony looks up, “Steve was right about listening to people. Sometimes I go too fast and I don’t think things through right, I’ve done it time and time again, even when I was supporting the Accords. I’ll make a snap decision that looks good at the time but I don’t talk to the people I’m supposed to be helping, I just make a decision and assume it’s for the best when it isn’t. I had one hundred and seventeen countries telling me to slow down and stop and I didn’t think that was something I should ignore. They weren’t making unreasonable requests, they just wanted a say in how we ran things and you can’t help people if you aren’t willing to listen to what they need you to do. I’ve learned that now,” he says. “Rogers thinks the best hands are still your own, you do not agree?” she asks, curious. Tony rolls his eyes, “no, he thinks the best hands are still his own, not our own regardless of what he says. You saw what happened when someone said no, it didn’t line up with his beliefs and instead of reaching out and asking to change things, or asking why things looked the way thy did he threw the whole damn thing out. Besides, if we’re talking histories here I have a near one hundred percent fail rate. The best hands aren’t my own so I thought maybe if I had someone else vetting my decisions they might be better but if that person isn’t Steve Rogers Steve doesn’t think it’s good enough.” Harsh words, but they were mostly true. She, too, found the Captain too rigid in his values. “And the agendas he spoke of?” she asks. He was not wrong for being suspicious of the government. They were corrupt, as near all systems were outside of Wakanda and even there they had their issues. At this Tony looks down, “I put too much faith in a system I know doesn’t really work that well. But we aren’t apolitical people, we know what the UN’s agendas were, they were clearly written on paper and we could have worked with that, used it to our advantage. But the fuck if I know what their agendas are. Natasha flip-flops more than a fucking fish out of water, so does Clint, I have no idea what Wanda’s thinking, you already know what I think of Steve, and Sam… well he’s an alright guy. I think he’s an idiot for following Steve around like a lost bird but he’s a good man. I know I made mistakes but that bullshit letter Steve sent me proves he doesn’t care.” She did not read the letter so she is unsure what he is talking about, “would you care to explain?” she asks, trying to be gentle. The man was raw, in pain, and it was bound to end badly for him. She was sure she had her answers but she was curious about the letter and more information would not hurt. “Oh he’s glad I’m back on the compound, obviously I moved back out, but he doesn’t like to think of me being alone because the Avengers were more mine than his. Pretty sure the fact that they’ve all always hated me minus maybe Bruce indicates that that’s a bunch of shit but whatever. And he has faith in people, in individuals? Really? Because I didn’t see any of that faith when people, individuals, were reaching out to us to talk to them and he slapped them down because what they wanted wasn’t what he wanted. And he’s never had faith in me. Never. I find it really hard to accept that he gives a damn about hurting my feelings, especially when he’s always assumed that I didn’t have any. And his stupid ‘I wish we agreed on the Accords but we didn’t so fuck you’ at the end was a real nice touch. He might as well have wrote ‘lol everything before this was a joke because I don’t really care what you think was right, it wasn’t what I think is right so you’re wrong’. At least we can both agree that he was a selfish prick keeping my parents’ deaths to himself,” he mumbles. So Tony Stark fell somewhere in between his public image and someone she did not know. He was clearly emotional, in pain, and that was not going to go well for him but he was not a bad person. He was not what the Avengers thought he was either. “You’re parents’ deaths?” she asks. “Yeah, I mean I can’t keep secrets or so he reminded me about a million times with that Ultron bullshit, but he can keep the fact that Barnes killed my parents to himself. Guess all the shit I do is totally fine if he does the same damn thing. I don’t listen and accidentally create Ultron I’m a problem, and that’s fair, but he can ignore the whole fucking world and that’s totally A-Okay with him. I can’t keep secrets, but it’s fine if he does. I can’t be suspicious of government structures without being labeled ‘insubordinate’ and ‘arrogant’ but when he does it it’s fine!”

The Truth Never Set Me Free (I Did It Myself) by TenSpencerRiedPlease

#mcu fanfiction #oh my if that doesn't ring true #whenever I do something it's bad #but when someone else does it it's ok #tony stark #steve rogers critical #mcu steve rogers critical #tony stark critical #?#he critiqued himself here so

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snickiebear · 4 years ago

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Hello, snickiebear! Congratulations on your 200 followers! If you have the time, would you mind writing Shisui x Sakura in a nonmass au? I’m actually curious about your take on a time travel scenario with this pairing, but I also understand that a lot of works have been written on time travel already, so it’s still awesome if you don’t do the time travel part!

Congratulations again and thanks for taking the time to read this ask! Your works are really enjoyable to read. Thank you so much for writing and for doing this 200-follower event!

hello lovely anon!!! thank YOU for reading and requesting!!!! this one was so much fun to write! you ask for time travel + nonmass + shisaku? i am helpless to deliver!! this is a bit more angsty than i wanted but are we surprised? (nope, not at all lmao) this is also now on AO3 bc i really liked it!

also, apologies that this took a bit!! lifes been a real fuckin bitch and the wall of writer's block hit me like a train AHAHAHA but i hope you like this one!!! :)))

The sky is sunny and the spring beautiful when the sky splits itself in half with a brillant, blinding flash of light.

Shisui, masked and riding the after mission high, can only stare as a body plummets from that crack, limp and silent.

It is as if the heavens have spit out what they have deemed unworthy.

Or perhaps, the heavens are dropping a gift on their doorstep.

Either way, Shisui is moving before he knows what is happening, catching that body— a woman with shaven pink hair— and holding her close, head tucked under his chin.

She’s breathing, chest rising and lowering feebly.

Shisui catches his breath as the fracture within the sky closes and only then does he notice the mask.

Porcelain and painted. A combination of a snake and fox, a wolf and slug.

His ANBU team materializes next to him, Dog-taicho’s chakra going from lazy to alert at the sight of the woman. “That’s…”

“Yeah.” Shisui says hoarsely. “She- she needs medical attention. I think.” There is a lot of blood, she’s dripping in it. But he can’t see where she’s bleeding from… or if all that blood is even hers.

“Let’s go.” Dog-taicho cuts through his thoughts, voice hard and a bit panicked. Afterall, Kakashi owes his life to this woman, they all did.

Team Ro blurred out of existence in their race to Kohona, their Savior clutched within his arms.

It's funny, really. When she looks back, as she so often does now, it's laughable. The fact that Haruno Sakura, the civilian born, the nobody, the weak one of Team 7 is the only one left.

Sakura was the only one left in the war against Kaguya and she had done what she has always done; what was needed.

So, Sakura was the only one left and she figured out what was left of Naruto’s seals and shot herself through time to fix everything, to save everyone. To take down Danzo, Hanzo, Madara, to save Sai, the Uchihas, Kakashi.

She was the one to heal Obito, to save Rin, to make sure that Itachi’s hands would never be stained with his family’s blood.

And now, now she sits in a T&I room and she laughs, laughs herself hoarse because she succeeded, she won. And now she is in the future, her intended destination, but it is not the same.

In this future, Haruno Sakura does not exist. She is nothing and no one.

Naruto and Sasuke are alive and well and happy. They get to live the lives they could have only dreamed about.

And Sakura. She doesn’t exist.

She laughs herself hoarse, the laughs turning into broken sobs and she drops her forehead to the table, hiccuping and clenching her hands into blood inducing fists.

Alone. As she always has been.

The door creaks open and Ibiki steps in, a folder in hand.

Sakura’s head snaps up, wiping her face as she almost sighs in relief. She loved (loves?) Ibiki, he once was one of her closest friends near the end. She knows Ibiki, trusts him. Or, at least, she had.

Sakura straightens in her chair, careful of the chakra suppressing handcuffs that really do nothing for her, just acting as a hindrance. But, she does not remove them because she is not a threat to Konoha, she never has been, never intends to be.

Ibiki sits down in front of her, eyeing her carefully and it almost feels like coming home. “You say your name is Haruno Sakura.”

“Yes.” She rasps, licking her cracked and bleeding lips. “That’s right.”

Her eyes flit to the glass window, ignoring her own reflection as she narrows her eyes at whoever is behind the wall. An unknown chakra signature, wild and worried. And— and—

Kakashi.

His cool and lazy chakra, almost like a current of electricity. She would know that chakra any where, as if it is engrained deep in her bones. And right now he’s interested, almost antsy.

Swallowing, Sakura looks back to Ibiki, who had been watching her keenly. “You already had Inoichi-san do a mind walk. You know everything I do.” Shoulders back, chin tilted, spine steeled.

The dead man that sits in front of her hums and opens a folder, “We believe you—”

“It is not a matter of believing.” Sakura snaps, eyes flashing. “You know it is a fact. He saw, he showed you, you saw. How could I ever make something like that up?”

“What we know,” Ibiki says too calmly, too pleasantly, “Is that you are severely traumatized.”

And Sakura well, she laughs again. Because. Because what else is she supposed to do? She gives and gives and gives and is given nothing back.

There are no fruits for her labor, no reward for her sacrifice.

Shoulders shaking as she cries and laughs, scrubbing at her face. “We were friends, you know.” She manages. “I made you laugh twice, once after I lost my middle finger,” Sakura holds up her hand to show him, unsure of why she is even talking. “The second when you were dying in my arms.”

Silence rings out as Sakura gathers herself, swallowing harshly. Ibiki is still looking at her, but the way is no longer cynical, no longer studying.

“Haruno—”

“Just Sakura,” She says wearily.

“Sakura-san,” He continues, “When you were brought in you had a mask on. A mask that has been seen countless times saving Konoha shinobi.”

Sakura does not dare mention the fact that she has also interfered with Suna, giving Gaara the childhood he deserves. And with Mist, cutting the head off the snake quickly enough that the caste system would never truly solidify.

So, she nods. “I am aware.”

“And you claim you are the person behind the mask on every occasion.”

Sighing, she runs a hand over what is left of her hair and makes direct eye contact with her once friend, giving a curt nod, “I am the person behind the mask.”

“One last question, Sakura-san.” Ibiki murmurs, jotting something down in his folder. Sakura forces herself not to read the familiar writing. Though, she is well equipped to read upside down. “How did you come to possess the rinnegan?”

The air drops from mildly uncomfortable to freezing and Sakura does not balk at the question. “You saw it for yourself, Ibiki. It was a gift.”

“Yes, but from who?”

Her heart aches, squeezes at the thought of Naruto, of Sasuke, phantom pains. It is as if she has lost a limb, a piece of her heart when they had turned to ash between her fingers. But Sakura does not waver as she says, “It was a parting gift from Uchiha Sasuke before he died.”

The unknown chakra behind the wall erupts into a mess of emotions while Kakashi’s is mildly surprised if not wary. There is tension between the both of them though.

Which is incredibly amusing considering it wasn’t until much, much later did Kakashi ever see anything to be wary about in her.

(It took her flicking the ground and allowing it to split open and swallow any of their pursuers to convince him that she could very well tear him in half without a second thought.

She wouldn’t though. Team 7 and its members will always be a soft and deeply bruised spot for her. A wound she could never quite heal. Sakura cannot remember a time when she has ever been bruiseless. She has come to terms with being wounded.)

Ibiki closes the folder and taps it on the steel table between them, he motions over his shoulder and the door opens swiftly, revealing Kakashi and another Uchiha with curly hair.

He’s just as she remembers him, except not. Her Kakashi had slouched, had a certain energy about him.

This one, he looks the same, has the scar, the slight slouch. But it is clear that ghosts no longer beat on his back, the world's weight no longer bends him to its will.

Pain races through her heart, echoing physically throughout her body. It hurts. It shouldn’t, seeing her old sensei, her once friend, happy. But it does.

Because while she cannot live without Team 7, it is clear Team 7 can live without her.

She straightens, eyes sharp and body tense as Ibiki stands, chair scraping harshly against the floor and then takes her hands into his, calluses and scars scraping against each other.

Sakura could only imagine what Tsunade-shishou would say if she were to see her, riddled with scars and missing fingers. She could have healed them without a second thought, but chakra had been precious then. Every single ounce had been poured into keeping her precious people safe and herself alive enough to keep fighting.

Her once friend produces a key and unlocks the handcuffs, letting them drop heavily into his awaiting hands before standing up, “Sakura-san, this is Hatake Kakashi,” Her former teacher gives her a hard once over. “And Uchiha Shisui.”

Her skin itches and crawls at Kakashi’s look, cold and unfond, nothing like how she remembers him. And of course, of course he wouldn’t be the man who she had come to adore. He is someone else in this carefully constructed future of her own doing.

The blame, as always, rests upon her weakening shoulders. Sakura is crumbling, her sanity chipping away ever so slowly. It is laughable, really. She wants to throw her head back and howl, she wants to bow and allow herself to scream.

But, if she were to begin to scream, she is not sure she would be able to stop.

So, she gives a curt nod, “Hatake-san. Uchiha-san.”

“Shisui, and therefore the Uchiha, have volunteered to bring you into their custody.” Ibiki goes on, taking a step back. Sakura stays where she is, rooted.

A chill runs up her spine and she looks to Ibiki almost pleadingly. “And you can’t simply dump me into ANBU instead?”

“Mah, Sakura-san.” Kakashi drawls and Sakura’s will cracks. (That bruise will never quite heal.) “I can promise that the Uchiha aren’t as bad as they seem.”

Shisui smiles and it is unlike any smile she has seen before.

She cannot remember the last time she had seen a smile.

“Don’t listen to the old man, Sakura-san.” Shisui says and she’s caught off guard at how friendly he sounds, deep and welcoming. Sakura swallows harshly. “We’re a bunch of assholes but no harm will come to you, we can promise that.”

Uchiha men, she thinks with distaste, will always hold a knife to her heart. And they will always know how to twist the wretched blade to get her to bend for them.

But. But perhaps Sakura could bend, bend and lay and rest. Just once. And this time she'll bend for herself. Perhaps.

She finds herself nodding, hands shaking despite the steel in her spine, her shoulders still straight. “You’re going to just let me go.”

Ibiki gives her a hard look and Sakura’s lips twitch. Ah, of course not. The Uchiha compound is just a glorified prison. Then again, it is much better than anything she thought would happen.

Then again, Saura never thought this would happen.

Too desperate, too blind with the possibility of a chance to see them again, to be whole again. She, for all her brains, all her genius, had not even stopped to think of the possibility that her future would no longer exist.

It is laughable, really.

So she laughs, she clutches her stomach and laughs because what else can she do?

Sakura has done what she has always done; what was needed. And once again, like every other time, there is nothing but black at the end of the tunnel. No light exists for her.

She is to blame for her own destruction, her own crumbling.

“You can come out,” Sakura’s voice calls out and Shisui grins.

He steps from the shadows, two mugs in hand as he comes to sit next to her, offering her the drink. She takes it without hesitation but swirls it before sipping from it, Shisui watches as her eyes light up just a little bit.

Hot cocoa with peanut butter. He had noticed, the last time the clan had it, that she’d snuck four mugs worth.

If Sakura was surprised he noticed, she didn’t show it. She was like that, a one way mirror, giving nothing away even as she saw everything.

“Did you want something, Shisui-san?” She twitches as he scoots a little closer, the fireflies floating around the backyard. “Or did you just want some company?”

Shisui smiles boyishly, tilting his head back to look at her, “Heard that Minato-sama called you into the Hokage’s office again.”

“You mean you heard from Genma, who told Itachi while on their date, who then told you that the Hokage summoned me for the fourth time this week.” Sakura snorts, taking a long drink from her mug. There's a little foam on her upper lip that he fights to not wipe away. “He and his wife keep trying to convince me to let them look at the seals I used.”

Shisui pauses, eyes trained on Sakura as she looks to the sky, head leaning back. Her hair has grown out a little, more fuzz on her head than anything, she looks more alive, well fed. Deep bags under her one visible eye, three nasty scars dissect her face and the rest of her body isn’t any better.

She is the most beautiful, most terrifying, most devastating thing he has ever seen.

“The seals you used…”

“To go back and hop through time like a jack rabbit to save the entire world?” She asks, a wry smile on her face. “Yes, Shisui, those seals.”

He hums, leaning back on the heels on her hands, “Why don’t you just let them look?”

“They aren’t my seals to share.” Sakura half snaps, shoulders curling in, her body strung tight. “Naru— my friend was the one to draw them out, I just figured out the last bit of it. Plus, there is no reason why they need to see those seals.” Her tone sharp, unyielding almost pleading.

Shisui stays quiet until Sakura begins to slowly relax. She gets like this sometimes, tense and defensive. As if trying to convince herself rather than him of her deeds. He knew better than to push, he knew that she had gone through more than anyone would ever go through.

The way Ibiki and Inoichi look at her with the utmost respect can verify that. The way Kakashi and Rin and Obito have gone out of their way to greet her, to help her speaks volumes.

He takes a drink from his mug, studying the stars winking above them. “Hey Sakura,”

“Yes?” She sounds oh so weary. His very soul aches.

“Thank you, for everything.” He doesn’t dare look at her, barely hearing himself over the pounding of his heart. “You don’t talk much about what happened but I know, I can tell that it was horrible. And thank you for saving us, the world.”

She had lost everything, everyone. In that future that she had protected them from Sasuke died, Itachi died, he was dead. He could only imagine what the ruins of that world looked like. He could only imagine what Sakura had to do to survive.

Sakura’s fingers are cold, freezing as they brushes the back of his hand. Shisui fights a shiver, the trail of goosebumps, the thrill. “Oh, oh Shisui.” Her voice is heartbreaking and full of nothing but steel. “I would never allow anyone to endure that. You will never have to endure that, I made sure of it. Never. No one will. I promise.”

Her hand draws back as she brings her knees to her chest, eyes far away and breathes quick. And Shisui, he doesn’t know what comes over him as he scoots even closer and carefully wraps his arm around her strong shoulders, drawing her closer.

And. And Sakura, she allows it. She moves to his side, not quite leaning but touching.

“Are you happy here?” Shisui finds himself asking after long minutes of silence. Sakura’s breath evened out and she sits with her chin on her knees.

Her eye flits to him, weighing and heavy. She looks at him and Shisui cannot help but see the age, the ancientness that has taken root. He wants to pull out the misery within her, wants to hold her tight enough that she will never fall apart without somewhere there to catch the pieces.

He wants to love her, he wants her to let him love her.

“No.” Sakura whispers, as if her unhappiness in a world that does not know her, that has done nothing for her is such an awful, wretched thing. “I miss everyone.”

Shisui cannot say anything so he does what he does best; what he wants.

He stays with her, arm resting on her shoulders and slowly, Sakura allows herself to lean into his side.

Around them, the night settles and the crickets chirp. The heavens had nothing to do with Haruno Sakura, with their Savior, coming to them. No, Sakura is the catalyst of this, of this paradise they now all reside in.

If anything, she is the heavens themselves. And it is about time someone tells her that, shows her that.

Sakura sees them for the first time in the five months she has landed in this new future. Itachi invited her to meet his genin team. Itachi, the man who had once been a mass murderer, is now a mednin and a jounin sensei.

Shisui joins her because of course he does, he has been the one constant throughout this entire ordeal. The Uchihas are nothing like she thought they would be. The Uchihas are everything she hoped they would.

They are loving, friendly, welcoming, and thankful. Mikoto is nothing but heaven sent sunshine and cloud soft embraces, Fukago is nothing but a deep rumbling laugh and fond looks.

No one is the same, nothing is the same.

Shisui is there though, at her side, at her back. She trusts him, gods, she trusts him. Despite her better judgement, despite everything. Sakura trusts Shisui.

So, Shisui joins her as she takes to the roofs and to training field 7. She’s finally been cleared for the mission roster and given her jounin blues. Though, Sakura has yet to decide if she even would enjoy going on missions.

Maybe with Shisui.

But she does not think she has a taste for violence anymore, for killing. Maybe she'll spend her days with Kakashi's dogs and holed up in the libraries. Maybe she'll visit Gaara or Chojuro.

She had yet to meet Tsunade, who had been hunting for her since Minato (the bastard) had let it slip that Sakura was in possession of the rinnegan and the byakugan seal. Shisui is exceptionally good at playing discractor as Sakura flees to rock in a corner until he finds her. He's good at that, holding her, letting her breathe, allowing her to find solace within his arms and his space.

They step onto the training fields and Sakura freezes mid step to watch as Sasuke, Naruto, and Sai (oh, oh Sai. Sweet Sai, oh.) attack in perfect sync.

They’re fourteen if her math is correct.

They move smooth and swift, nonverbal communication as if they had been working like this for years. It's beautiful, really.

Something ugly claws at her heart, catching on an already scabbing part to rip open a new wound. Simply another reminder that Sakura is not needed. She never was.

It's laughable, really.

Shisui’s fingers massages the sides of her neck with his fingers, the spot where her skull and neck meet. “You’re tense.”

“They have beautiful teamwork.” She chokes out.

He looks at her, long and open, “We can go home, if you want.”

Shisui’s good at that t00, the open ended question, the way of making her not feel trapped. He's too perceptive for his own good, she has yet to tell him anything except what is on record. But, but. He knows. He knows of Kakashi, of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sai. It is both a relief and a terror. “No.” She manages, curling her hands. She is Haruno Sakura. She has faced the impossible her entire life. Ghosts are nothing compared to gods.

At least, that is what she tells herself.

“I’ll be fine.” Sakura glances up at him, licking her lips. He watches the movement before his eyes flit back up hers and he offers one of her favorite smiles. The one where his dimples are visible, where she can see the small chip of his front tooth and the way his top canin is a little crooked.

Itachi calls the spar minutes later, the boys slumping onto the ground and breathing heavily. Sakura offers a small smile as Itachi nears them, waving a hand in greeting.

“Ah, Sakura-chan.” He grins, then looks to Shisui, dry amusement clear in his tone, “Shisui.”

“You’ve trained them well,” Sakura praises, watching as Naruto (oh gods, Naruto with his big blue eyes and blonde, blonde hair) pulls a limp Sasuke (a Sasuke who laughs freely, who smiles, and is loved) onto his feet, Sai huffing a chuckle from the ground.

Itachi practically beams at the praise, “They are very talented. And you would like to meet them, yes?”

Shisui’s thumb traces the bumps of her spine and Sakura is reminded that she has forged herself from the ashes of her friends, that she is borne from war and steel. She can do this. Shisui is here and she can do this. “Yes, I would love to, Itachi.”

Shisui’s hand burns through her clothes as they follow Itachi, the boys immediately catching sight and freezing at the sight of them. Sakura will never admit it out loud that she has been avoiding any and all people from her past (present? future?).

One look at Ino, whole and happy and sassy, and Sakura had almost gone insane. And then Shikamaru and Chouji, all together, all smiling. Gods, Sakura had fallen to her knees at the sight. Such grief, such loneliness—

She’s better now. She is.

“Team 7.” Itachi says, “This Haruno Sakura, and you already know Shisui.”

Silence.

Sakura shifts under the wide eyed gazes of the boys, the men she loved (loves?) with her entire being. “It is a pleasure to meet you,”

Naruto recovers first because of course he does. And he smiles at her, he smiles at her and Sakura wants to claw at her skin and cry. Shisui intertwines their hands, as if sensing that urge.

“I’m Uzumaki Naruto!” He’s fourteen and he's alive and he’s happy. He isn’t out of the village, he’s here because he has a clan, he has a family. “Is it true that you’re the Savior?”

Sasuke smacks him in the back of the head with a scowl, “Be polite, dobe.” To Sakura he offers a bow, “It is pleasure to meet you, Haruno-san. I am Uchiha Sasuke.”

Sakura’s lips twitch despite herself. Never, not once, did Sasuke ever bow to anyone. He had always been arrogant, but here? Now? It's laughable, really.

She glances to Sai and he isn’t as pale as he once was, his cheeks are full of color, his eyes brimming with life. “I am Senju Sai, Haruno-san.”

And. Sakura pauses at that. Senju Sai, huh. Perhaps she'll have to face Tsunade sooner than later. The thought added to the dread filled pool in her stomach. But. But, she could do it. Maybe.

“It is very nice to meet you all,” She croaks and then offers a very brittle smile. “And Naruto-kun,” She fights a shiver at the honorific. “That information is S class, but find me when you make jounin, hm?” And for a moment she could pretend that everything was okay and she was teasing her Naruto. Just for a moment.

Much to her amusement, all three boys pout, looking to Itachi who shrugs, “You heard Sakura, now, let’s see formation Alpha but reverse.”

The boys groan and Sakura can’t help the smile, a smile with teeth.

She can feel Shisui’s eyes on her before she even turns to look at him. Her body is shaking, Sakura realizes blankly but Shisui still holds her sweating hands, squeezing ever so slightly. “Ready to go?”

Sakura swallows, staring up at him, studying him. And oh, she is so tempted to uncover her eye, to memorize his face. “Yes. Let’s… let's go home.”

He wakes to warmth pressed against his chest, warm breaths against his neck. Their legs are tangled, her arm thrown over his side and brushes against the bare skin of his back. Both of them are missing their clothes, Sakura preferred being able to feel the skin on him, the brush of flesh between them.

What they have, it is something deeper than any type of physical act. No, what they have… well, Shisui can not put it to words. There are no words. There will never be words.

It is rare for Sakura to sleep soundlessly and through the entire night. Shisui kisses her forehead, above her seal, on one of the many scars of her face. She doesn’t stir except to shift ever so slightly, hugging him closer.

And if Shisui’s heart melts, no one else is there to see the absolute brilliant smile on his lips.

“Sakura,” He murmurs because if she doesn’t get up soon, she’ll miss her lunch with Ibiki (who gets very grumpy when his time with Sakura is cut short), “Sakura.”

She grumbles, limbs tensing for a moment, a single breath before melting once more. “Shisui,” Her voice is rough with sleep, the sound swirls and dances around his bones. “G’mornin’.”

Shisui laughs, a soft push of air, as Sakura leans back to peer at him, both eyes uncovered as she studies him, the look like a physical caress. “Good morning.” He whispers, kissing her forehead once again.

“What time is it?” She murmurs, eyes drooping closed.

“You’ve got about an hour before Ibiki comes knocking.” Shisui chuckles.

Sakura snorts, pulling away to stretch her arms above her head, arching her back in the way that Shisui can admire every muscle, every scar, every part of her. “Then I better get up,”

“Or, you could always stay,” Shisui cajools, to which Sakura only laughs. The sound is beautiful and full and makes his heart beat a little faster.

“The last time I canceled on Ibiki was when I had to help Itachi with his and Genma’s wedding plans, and he sent little Terror Ino after me for a week.”

Shisui cracks an even wider grin, “Well, at least you got some nice clothes out of it.”

Laughing again, Sakura leans down to kiss him, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Go on,” Shisui shoos, making a little gesture with his hand. “Have fun, I’ll be here when you get back.”

“Promise?”

“Always.”

She cups his face, thumbing the sharp of his cheek bone before leaning forward to kiss him again, "I love you." Then. "I am glad that my suffering brought me to you, that I landed here."

"I love you." He returns, barely a whisper as he brushes hair behind her ears. His heart beats for her, cracks and aches and swells. All for her. "There will never be a time that I will not love you. There will never be a time where I do not see you and see everything you are, everything you have done."

The sky is sunny and the spring beautiful as Sakura, the very heavens themselves, mouth splits into a brilliant, blinding smile.

(Sakura has crumbled and broken, she has fallen apart over and over. She has always known how to put herself together, until she couldn’t.

But Shisui, oh Shisui, he has always been readily available with glue and tape. He will always be there to hold her together with his bare hands, ready to bleed for her, with her.

She has given and given and given. He is willing to give everything back to her tenfold.

It is the very least she deserves, the very least the world can gift her. Shisui will always be willing to give more.)

#silly things from silly friends #i hope you like it anon!!! thank u again :'')#shisaku #a shared pen

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itsclydebitches · 5 years ago

Text

RWBY Recaps - Volume 8 “War”

Hello, everyone! Story time.

Yesterday food was delivered for my two idiot dogs (they’re thrilled about it) but, because it was delivered by Fed Ex, shenanigans were bound to ensue. These particular shenanigans involved realizing that the food had not been left at the front door like tracking said it had. Instead, it was down the very long driveway by the mailbox. Specifically, it was on a low wall beside the mailbox, currently inaccessible due to a mound of plowed snow.

Now, how the delivery guy managed to get it there I’ll never know, but given that our postal system is currently killing itself to get us our Amazon orders for Christmas, I shrugged, let it go, and resigned myself to lifting an 18 pound bag plus box over that snow without dying. Which meant that in reality I just dragged it, uncaring what bumps the bag might accumulate along the way. What are the dogs gonna do? Complain about presentation?

Snow successfully circumvented; I was home free!

… until I was lifting the box into the car, hit a patch of black ice, and was suddenly looking up at the sky, my right hip and leg screaming.

I’m fine. Bruised, but fine. It’s 2020. Did I expect to not fall? C’mon, Clyde. Be sensible.

The reason I'm telling you all this is because falling on ice at 10:00pm with an oversized bag of dog food was less painful than watching this episode.

I jest... but only a little. To be fair to RWBY, it admittedly wasn't painful in any new way. Everything that's a problem this week has been a problem for years now: confusing motivations, changing semblances, unpersuasive character beats, etc. So in some ways this episode — especially as a hiatus episode — is rather underwhelming. I expected RWBY to do something big before taking six weeks off, but this episode simply set the (unstable) stage for what's to come. With the exception of Ren, nothing changed this episode, which makes for a rather "Okay..." note to end on. It's not inherently bad, it's just a bit of a letdown after hyping ourselves up over the expectation that something even crazier than grimm soup will happen. Which, to again be fair, is on us as opposed to the writers. But that feeling of, "If this was last week, what in the world will we get right before an unpredicted hiatus?" was palpable. Turns out the answer was, "A pretty tame episode."

As always though, let's start at the beginning. This episode is titled "War" — straight to the point — and it's actually a little shorter than our last three episodes, adding to that "Okay..." feeling overall. We open on the outskirts of Atlas, amidst what appears to be a wheat field, or something similar. Upon reflection, it makes sense that the bubbled city would be able to grow things not normally growable in the tundra. This might also explain Cinder's strange beginning. Perhaps her orphanage existed on these rural outskirts and then she was brought into the city proper? We'll probably never know for sure, but at least this is a simpler answer than, "The Madame went off to an entirely different Kingdom to secure her child slave." Occam's Razor and all that.

Ironwood's army has assembled to hold off Salem's army. Wow, aren't we glad Ironwood invested in thousands of trained professionals rather than a handful of independent fighters? Seriously though, this is now a battle of numbers. May says later in the episode that Ironwood's forces are doing their best to assist Atlas, so they should go help Mantle... but that help only exists because years ago he recognized that the tiny class sizes of the Academies, this

wasn't going to be enough if grimm attacks suddenly increased. Sure enough, now they're in a situation where Ironwood needs even more men to keep up with Salem's creation magic. The fact that he has any at all is crucial to what little hope is left. How do Jaune, Yang, and Ren think they're going to get the time to look for Oscar without everyone dying while they're gone? Because Ironwood's army is keeping the attack at bay. I love how the story keeps angling for the "Military people are evil" message while actively showing us how much a military is needed in this world. If Ironwood had been a generic Good Guy who dismantled his armed forces because others wanted to ignore that they've always been at war against objectively evil creatures — both the grimm and Salem — then there would have been nothing to hold Salem off until small team rescue/bomb plans could be implemented.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. As usual. The army is on the front lines and one guy is scared enough that he's shaking. Can't say I blame him. As always, RWBY functions best when it leans towards horror, with skeletons rising alongside the normal grimm and intense music playing to convey the stakes. Ironwood watches the onslaught and immediately calls for a civilian evacuation into the subway system. Get people below ground, behind a few, defendable entrances, rather than wandering about the city where land or sky grimm can pick them off easy-peasy. Makes sense. Yet I'm already seeing fans make snide comments about how Ironwood is "still running," which just demonstrates how many viewers take the emotions of the show at face value — who is Good and who is Bad — rather than considering the situation and deciding for themselves. What's far more egregious than viewers enjoying a story however they'd like on a Saturday before the holiday though (seriously, my salt aside, no one has to enjoy RWBY any one way) is that RT again tries to paint Ironwood as crazy when he's... just not? Beyond the choice to animate him with scary expressions

once he gives the order the soldier starts to say, "But sir — " and Ironwood yells for him to obey right now. The scene makes it look like Ironwood is doing something shady again. Here's this goon balking at the order, but we're not told why. What's bad about getting the people to (relative) safety? Why is this order treated like something to question at all? We're not told and, from what we do know, it's not something that would be questioned, so unless we learn something new post-hiatus, that line exists only to make Ironwood look bad. It's a (nonsensical) excuse to have another ally turning against him (slightly) and to give Ironwood the chance to look scary and violent again. Nevermind that his city is under attack and if a subordinate started questioning a completely sensible and time-sensitive order? I might yell too.

So we're off to a great start. The above looks particularly stupid given that we immediately see the flying grimm arriving in a populated area, terrifying all the civilians there. Everyone bolts for the subway and we cut away from a man trying desperately to reach his daughter, unsure if either of them survive. But people want Ironwood to not use what few resources he has? See, this is why generic messages like, "You have to stand your ground" don't work. Sometimes there are situations where you should run and that doesn't automatically equal being a coward. It means you're smart enough to take the actions necessary to save as many lives as possible.

Later on we'll have a similar issue with the message, "You have to trust people" when my darling Oscar briefly loses his mind.

Now though, we see that the "fugitives" Yang, Jaune, and Ren have been taken into custody. Of course they have. Look, when the preview dropped yesterday I saw a number of takes along the lines of, "How dare the Ace Ops do this. They need to put aside their differences until the attack is over!" but no, they really don't, because it's no longer their responsibility to extend trust towards this group. Especially when doing so, to their mind, has a high chance of making a horrific situation that much worse. What are they going to do if, in the middle of a Salem attack, the kids they decided to trust betray them, attack them, and leave them knocked out somewhere while the world burns?

...Oh wait, they already did that.

See, the group broke trust first. Numerous times. The Ace Ops listened to Yang admit that she and Blake had betrayed Ironwood days ago. Then they watched Ruby betray him again by alerting the rest of the team, turning them against him. They swore they wouldn't attack, so Team RWBY attacked them first. They learn that Qrow had a hand in murdering their leader. They encounter the group again and Weiss gleefully asks if they want a second defeat. They watch Ruby tell the entire world to dismiss Ironwood because he’s the one who can’t be trusted. Outside of JYR not immediately attacking them when they arrived to help (something I praised them for), this group has never put their trust in the Ace Ops. So why do they — and we — expect the Ace Ops to do so now? Imagine for just a moment that it was reversed. We find out that someone betrayed the group for no good reason, set themselves against them, continued to do so as everything fell apart, told the rest of the world they’re the enemy, and then a close associate is involved in Ruby's murder. How many people would expect the group to just shrug all that off? Would they put their differences aside and embrace these people because blind trust is (supposedly) the right thing to do? Of course not! Yang would punch their lights out and everyone would cheer, but that's because they're the established heroes. Outside of that role, no one else is allowed to mistrust those who have proven themselves untrustworthy and take precautions against getting betrayed again. To say nothing of how these characters don’t have our meta perspective. Meaning, they live in a world where this trio is not a part of a protagonist group destined to remain a part of the plot because that’s how story conventions work. They’re three random teens who were promoted to huntsmen early. They’re three soldiers out of many who can, at any time, be taken out of the fight. No one on the Ace Ops is working under the belief that they “have” to be a part of this fight. From their in-world perspective, you could toss them in jail for the rest of the battle and that’s that. Outside of their fugitive status they are entirely unimportant.

So yes, Jaune, Ren, and Yang are in handcuffs. They deserve to be. Don't worry though, they get out very soon.

Yang makes a snide comment about Winter "Still just following orders" and honestly? I've lost the love I used to have for her as a character. Yang is just an exercise in frustration whenever she speaks now. Thus far she's blamed Ruby for everything that's gone wrong (ignoring her own choices there), did a 180 to yell at Ren for acknowledging how bad things are, worried nonsensically about Blake being disappointed in her even though Ruby is the one she fought with, and is now back to the "You just follow orders" shtick. Yang will label anything she personally doesn't like as evil order following, but conveniently ignores how following Ruby's orders helped get them into this mess, and how the one time she went AWOL made things even worse. These characters don't actually have beliefs they stand behind, they just say whatever is currently necessary to make themselves look good, even if that contradicts previous statements or actions.

She also gets mad at Vine for saying that grimm don't take prisoners, ignoring that she only found this out a few hours ago. No one in the group is equipped to navigate the emotional minefield that is this war because they can't even take two seconds to put themselves in another’s shoes. Weiss doesn't bother to consider Whitley's situation. Jaune points at the snow and gets frustrated that Harriet doesn't magically know there's grimm soup flowing nearby. Yang snaps at Vine for stating what she also knew to be a basic fact about grimm up until Oscar's kidnapping. It's all framed as, "How can you be this stupid?" rather than, "Oh yeah, these people haven't had the experiences I have. If I was randomly told this I'd doubt it too. I should try to explain this in a way that will make sense to them and increase my chances of being believed."

This is the group who decided it was a good idea to tell the whole world about Salem and did it just as badly as I suspected they would. The story has shoved a delicate, information-based war into the hands of punch-happy teenagers and refuses to grapple with how that's a bad thing.

Anyway, Ironwood comes on the radio to say that the whale is pretty indestructible on the outside, but it might be vulnerable from the inside, so let's get a bomb in there. Seems like a good enough plan as any, especially given that the grimm is currently on the very outskirts of the city, away from the civilians if/when it's blown up. What kind of bomb might this be though?

Could it, perhaps, end up being a now severely damaged android who is based off of Pinocchio?

Time will tell. For now, the group is quite obviously upset that Ironwood is planning a big BOOM while Oscar (and Ozpin! Tellingly, no one mentions Ozpin...) is still inside. Here's the thing: Both sides are right here. YJR are right to be worried about their friend, while the Ace Ops — who have no emotional ties to Oscar and, as just established, are questioning whether or not a grimm really kidnapped him — are right that they cannot prioritize a single life over the entirety of Atlas. They just can't! And any hero worth their salt is going to recognize this. You cannot knowingly sacrifice thousands of people (if not more) for one (admittedly awesome) farm boy. It would be a different situation if the people of Atlas volunteered to remain in danger to give Oscar a chance at escape, but that obviously isn't the situation here. If someone told me, "Sorry, Clyde, we can't get you out because the place you're in is super dangerous and attempting to extract you would likely cause the rescue party to die. Also, the longer we don't blow this location up the longer lots of other people die" I'd be like, "Fair enough. Have a nice life!" I mean, obviously anyone would be terrified and devastated by the news, but if you're still thinking straight and have even an ounce of compassion for others, you don't trade all those lives for your own. Spock does not open the door to flood the whole Enterprise with radiation!

And notably, neither does Kirk. Oscar isn't given the chance to sacrifice himself — ignoring his choice to try and undermine Salem's forces rather than escaping — so Jaune, Ren, and Yang are deciding that for him. Which, again, makes sense for them emotionally, but it's still a selfish choice. They're prioritizing their family over everyone else's. If someone ever told me they’d risked a whole city for my sake I’d be touched, but also pissed as hell. Because what were you thinking?

Which is really my biggest issue with this divide. It would have been nice if the show had done more to make me believe these three are that ride and die for Oscar. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that they are and I'll take this characterization over the apathy we had in the past, but let's be real, it kind of came out of nowhere. The group as a whole pretty much ignored Oscar up until the movie invite and two of these characters — Yang and Jaune — have actively hurt him in the name of getting at Ozpin. Now suddenly they're willing to toss aside their huntsmen duties — protect the people — in order to save him? Nice sentiment, it's just that, as always, we have very little development for it, especially given the level of emotion shown. Particularly when it comes to Ren. The prospect of someone sacrificing Nora? I 100% believe that he draws a hard line and this kick-starts a change in his semblance. Ren is shown to be thinking about how he lost his teammate Pyrrha? Totally believe it! Someone is sacrificing the kid I'm not sure he's ever had a conversation with? That's less persuasive. At the very least, it would have been nice to have the trio grapple with whether they can or should prioritize Oscar over everyone else, rather than taking such a black and white stance of, "Of course taking the time to save this one guy while everyone else dies is worth it. You're evil for thinking otherwise."

We even get a shot of Winter's hand shaking and clenching like Yang's used to, just to hammer home who the correct party is.

While they begin this argument we cut to Salem who is literally conducting her grimm in their attack against Atlas.

Very nice. I love when a villain has

Emerald watches her, clearly freaked out, and then sneaks off to where Oscar is held. In the hallway she encounters one of the jellyfish grimm, so she casually makes it not see her until it has passed.

Her semblance works on grimm, but not “real girl” androids? Okay.

We all realize how crazy powerful Emerald is though, right? The stuff that she could do in a fight is staggering and I'll be forever salty that all she managed in the Penny battle was to create a couple different Cinders. Emerald, Marrow, Salem herself... RWBY has a real problem of having the antagonists conveniently not use the power at their disposal when the heroes need to win.

So Emerald starts listening in on Ozpin's torture. We learn that Hazel was recruited when he tried to kill Salem numerous times and had to watch her keep reforming. Which, if I remember correctly, is a technique she used back when she and Ozma were playing at Gods. It worked and now Hazel believes that they "share a vision. She's going to create a new world order," one without Kingdoms or Huntsmen Academies. No, says Ozpin, she's going to divide humanity past reform, summon the Gods, and hopefully die when they take out all of Remnant.

...My god, did we finally get Salem's motivations after seven years?

Seriously though: seven years. It's way too late, especially when we now have so many questions attached to this supposed goal. If Salem always wanted to divide the world irrevocably, why didn't she attack, oh, say, a thousand years ago? Why has she kept to the sidelines until now? None of this answers why she held off until our simple soul was conveniently ready to fight her. We also have the issue of Salem's knowledge, or lack thereof. So she obviously knows about the Relics and that they'll summon the Gods, but not how to work them? How did that come about? Even Ozpin's motivations are murky now. He repeats Salem's curse word-for-word — though notably, minus the "You must learn the importance of life and death. Only then may you rest" part — yet unless Salem told him this herself when they first reunited — and we know they both hid things from the other — Ozpin could have only gotten this line from the lore episode, something he witnessed along with us just a few weeks/months back. So is he only now realizing that this is what Salem wants the Relics for? Might he be wrong? Or did he somehow figure this out lifetimes ago and we're just not told how? If this is the case, why haven’t Salem’s motivations come up before now?

This sudden, "Oh yeah, she's always wanted to die" feels pretty tacked on. Like RT had Salem arrive last Volume because that's ~cool~ and then suddenly realized that they have to deal with her motivations now, so they hastily cobbled this together. But, as said at the start, this is entirely expected for RWBY nowadays. A problem to be sure, though one we've been putting up with for a couple of years now.

During all this, Hazel shouts that this is what Ozpin deserves and the first word out of his mouth is, "Yes."

But Oscar and the rest of Remnant don't deserve it, so make the right choice for them. How did RT think they were going to make this guy an antagonist? Ozpin has so much self-hatred and yet is still trying SO HARD that he makes Ruby Drinking Tea While The World Burns Rose look laughable.

Oh yeah, we'll be getting to that scene in just a second, but for now I just want us all to appreciate Ozpin as a character, even if the story won't.

....

.......

..............

...Okay, moment done lol. Sorry, Oz, there's a lot to cover this episode.

We cut to a semi-conscious Nora who asks Weiss, "Now what am I good for?" So that’s a double serving of oof. That's when Ruby arrives with fine china steaming with tea. Or coffee. Or hot chocolate. Whatever it is these girls are drinking. What comes next is accompanied by a strange kind of vindication for me. I mean, the fandom dragged me so hard for taking issue with their snuggly smiles during Ruby's message, yet now we literally have the girls sitting back in a mansion as everything goes to shit around them. I know the knee jerk reaction to this will be, "They have to watch over Nora" and “They deserve a break” but really? All three of them need to watch her? And a break during the height of the action? Blake says she hopes everyone else is okay, but who is actually out looking for information about the rest of their team? May. Who's going to do something to get Nora help? Whitley. These characters are so good at telling us they're the heroes while rarely ever displaying those traits. They all (somehow) saw the attack on Atlas and have the ability to get out there and defend people — the job they wanted — yet Ruby looks out the window and asks, "What can we even do?" while taking a long sip of tea. The people of Mantle are (supposedly) freezing to death, yet one of the few with aura, Weiss, sits by a roaring fire going, "Do we just wait for someone to come? If they even come.” I'm sorry, you didn't consider this before you told the whole world about Salem? No one questioned whether asking for potentially non-existent help was worth the risk and what they'd do if it never came? Or even just what they’d do in the meantime? I’m not saying the girls can’t have basic necessities like drinks, or that it can’t be done in style when that’s conveniently available. I’m saying them enjoying the food, warmth, and relative safety of the Schnee household (built on racism) while casually talking about what, if anything, they should do for the people dying outside looks a bit Not Good. "Should we wait for the fire department?" Asks the character as their kitchen burns, sitting beside a number of water buckets that could help slow things down. "If they even come," they sigh, taking another sip of tea. This is ridiculous! The city is currently under attack by the series' Big Bad and half our heroes are just sitting around, watching the evil lightning, wondering if they should try to do anything about it.

"How did it all get like this?" Ruby asks her cup, ignoring the many steps she took to make things this bad. It continually boggles my mind that Ironwood is out here trying to keep people safe in the subway, coming up with a plan to blow up this whale, sending out an army to kill countless grimm... yet "What can we even do?" Ruby is supposed to be the hero here. You know, the one who has silver eyes and could one-shot huge numbers of Salem's army if she actually went out there and tried to help.

Ironwood is taking action... and so is May. As said, she's the one out looking for info on their teammates and when she returns says that they should all get back down to Mantle. Why? Because, as mentioned earlier, Atlas at least has an army to help with things. Mantle only has them.

Yet suddenly, Weiss doesn't want to leave.

Where did this come from? They succeeded in their preferred plan of telling the world what's going on over Ren and Yang's plan of helping what people they could, and now they're looking for something to do. Why wouldn't they head back to help? (Especially now that the shields are down.) Weiss yells that there are people dying in Atlas too but, as established, Atlas has the army. And where was this concern when they refused to let Atlas leave? After a Volume and a half of pro-Mantle content, this seems to come out of nowhere. Worse, Weiss tries to guilt May by asking if she has family in Atlas, which leads to the reveal that she's trans. Her family rejected their daughter.

I want to be clear that I'm very happy RT made this canon. For what she is — a side character we know incredibly little about — I really like May and the fact that they were clear in her identity rather than keeping it to twitter deserves recognition. Yet I'm not going to pretend that the reveal didn't leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, simply because we have this incredibly privileged cis girl, who knows a great deal about shitty families, hearing how horrible May's was and still trying to tell her she needs to suck it up and help Atlas over Mantle. When May angrily asks whose side she's on, Blake makes a comment about hearing that before, comparing her to Ironwood. May is painted as the misguided one here, but can you imagine if someone told Weiss to go help Jacques over her found family, Team RWBY, regardless of what he's done to her? The fandom would explode, and rightly so. There's something to be said for realism here, showing us Weiss and Blake's inability to see where May is coming from... but it doesn't feel like a commentary on that. It feels like another Penny situation: May is put in her place for being inconsiderate, even though this time it's her choosing to help people who are ALSO in danger over the people who represent family she's broken with.

I wanted conflict this Volume and I absolutely got it, but damn if it isn’t badly thought out at times.

Because rather than grappling with these personal motivations, Ruby brushes them aside by yelling, "There are no sides! We want to help everyone."

Does that extend to Ironwood? Ruby's speeches started falling flat when she betrayed Ozpin, attacked Cordovin, betrayed Ironwood, attacked the Ace Ops... This girl does not want to "help everyone." She wants to help those who agree with her.

Yet her rock solid optimism generates the question, “So how exactly do we get out of it?” which, as expected, Ruby has no answer to. The story keeps showing us how bad a leader Ruby has become, yet no one is actively responding to that. They kinda disagree about lying to Ironwood, but still go along with it. Yang kinda criticizes her sister, but that's then lost to general worry as they split (on Ruby's end, anyway). They want to know how she'll lead them next and are seemingly fine when Ruby continually says, "I don't know." At this point I'd be like, "Well... you didn't like May's plan of going back to Mantle, but apparently can't come up with a plan yourself... so I'm going to go with her."

This is the same conflict we had last Volume: Ruby spoke optimistically about saving everyone, yet was unable to come up with a way to do that. Ironwood had a plan that, while horrific, might save a lot of lives. Yet Ruby is presented as the one to back. Now here she is, hours later, still unable to figure out a way to achieve her perfect outcome. Ruby wanting things to be a certain way is not going to make them so and I’m wondering when someone within the group is going to recognize and act on that.

As Ruby fails to answer this crucial question, we pull back to see Whitley listening in at the door.

Cutting back to Ozpin and Oscar, Hazel has listened to all this craziness about Gods, immortality, the destruction of Remnant... and literally goes, "Cool story, bro."

Okay, he says "Nice story" but the emotion is the same. Which I'm really happy about! I mentioned in a recent post that, as far as we know, Hazel hasn't been told anything about the Gods up until now. What Ozpin is telling him sounds like gibberish at worst, incredibly hard to believe craziness at best. Now chuck in Mercury's point that as a tortured prisoner he'll say anything to get free, as well as the fact that this is Ozpin talking to Hazel... and I'm really glad Hazel just ignored his speech (for now at least). It wouldn't make sense otherwise. Granted, this means that the plan literally amounted to, “Let’s info dump a bunch of nonsense-sounding lore on our enemy in the hope that he’ll believe us and betray Salem.” It’s something to try, certainly, and it admittedly is a much better plan than what Oscar is about to cook up.

So since Hazel won't listen to Ozpin, Oscar wants to try instead. Why did you two switch in the first place? It's really obvious that RT is having the characters do weird things in order to stretch out the plot.

Either way, our farm boy is in control again. What new strategy will he try?

"Her name is Jinn."

This is BEYOND stupid. No, none of this "You have to trust people" nonsense. This is not “people,” this is Hazel. There is a Grand Canyon's width of difference between learning to trust your allies and blindly trusting an active villain who just rejected your "Please defect :(" speech. Even if we remove Hazel from the equation, this is still a monumentally foolish move. I mean, has Oscar considered where he is? This isn't some random warehouse he's been taken to, this is a semi-sentient grimm, a creature creating other creatures out of its ceiling

and whose doors automatically open when people need them to (Mercury). This is a living being created by and connected to Salem herself. How does Oscar know Salem can't hear everything he says? Or that the whale can't relay information to her? That the grimm in the walls won't pop out and run to their master? Or even that a normal person isn't listening in at the door — like Emerald is. If that had been Tyrian instead, that's it. They're done. Game over.

Someone: "Wow. Salem got the Lamp and managed to ask where the Beacon Relic is. Since the school is still overrun by her army, she snatched it up quick, finished destroying Atlas, and is now on her way to Vacuo. She's nearly completed her plan in days! How did all this happen?

Oscar: I, um... told her what she wanted to know?

Someone: You what?

Oscar: But not Salem! I just told Hazel! ... and then the information somehow got back to her.

Someone: "Somehow?" You deliberately told one of Salem's henchmen this crucial piece of information, in a place where there was a good chance you would be overheard by conventional or magical means, and you're surprised that she "somehow" learned it and used that information to doom us all?

Oscar: ...Yes?

This is so staggeringly stupid it... well, it could only have been done by a kid. So at least that fits lol. Oscar, I love you, but Ozpin should have been screaming in horror the second those words left your mouth. Generations of precautions undone because a kid wants to believe the best of the guy currently pummeling him. Sweet, but stupid. I’m all for optimistic characters, they just can’t risk the whole world on that optimism. Oscar risking himself on the seemingly doomed plan to turn Hazel is one thing, Oscar risking all of Remnant on the seemingly doomed plan to turn Hazel is another thing entirely.

Even though you know this is precisely how the story will go. Oscar willingly hands over Jinn's name to Salem's forces, but happily none of the THREE who hear about it will tell her. The story's unwillingness to follow through on consequences doesn't change what a bad move this was. I mean, Oscar himself accused Ironwood of playing into Salem's hands by disagreeing with them about how to not die, yet a few hours later he will willingly give Hazel the one piece of information Salem needs to move closer to world-wide destruction? That's uh... well, that's something.

They should have just had the poor boy be tortured, spill the beans to make it stop, and start an arc of self-forgiveness. Oscar can be awesome without coming up with world-dooming plans.

So yeah, Oscar is hoping that Hazel will use the Lamp himself and find out the truth. He wants Hazel to trust him and the man he despises most in the world enough to go against the immortal woman he's terrified of, get the Lamp away from her somehow to use for himself, wasting a once in a generation question to confirm all this, so that Salem will lose a guy with muscle who, to be frank, is absolute insignificant in the grand scheme of her power. Fantastic.

As said, Emerald overhears all this and immediately runs to Mercury, who is less than convinced by her "Salem wants to destroy the world" talk. Just as he's expressing doubt, Tyrian appears to confirm that this is exactly what she wants to do — and he's loving it.

“Of course she is! You’re surprised? Salem is destruction incarnate!”

It's a legit point. Are our villains so dense they never considered that Salem might do something to the world they didn't like? It's like the group not thinking about how Salem is still around if Ozpin has been fighting her for a thousand years. RWBY continually gives the impression that these characters don't think about their situation past what they're doing at any given moment.

Tyrian maintains his title as best villain though, simply because I understand what he's doing, why he's doing it, and he's so damn good at it.

Also, can we appreciate Mercury's face here?

Amazing. This is the kind of humor we should be getting in such a tragedy-laden Volume.

The two of them, Tyrian and Mercury, head off to Vacuo for the Secret Mission, despite Mercury's newfound hesitation. I quite liked these quiet moments between him and Emerald. It has a very "Do what you've gotta do" vibe while showcasing their care for one another, something we haven't seen in a while.

Back with the airship group. YJR are still horrified that Ironwood would blow up Oscar (even though he has no idea Oscar is there), begging the Ace Ops to give them "a chance to try to rescue him first.” Ren goes pretty hard on the "no one is replaceable" bit, which is frustrating not being what he’s saying is inaccurate (it’s not), but because that's not the issue here. The writing has Harriet start yelling about Marrow replacing her old teammate and Winter replacing Clover, but the question is not whether you'll just forget a teammate and move on with someone new, but whether you're willing to sacrifice them for the greater good. That's the stance: Should we sacrifice one life to save thousands? Will you, as a protector of the people, put those people before your own found family? Yet what RT has Harriet say is: Oscar is replaceable. Which obviously makes her come across as an ass. Like the random soldier questioning Ironwood — or making Elm about to punch a defenseless Ren in her anger — it exists solely to show how bad these character are... even as they say pretty persuasive things.

The writing also continues to be confused about whether the Ace Ops are friends or not. Yang certainly didn't think so... up until she asks (rhetorically) whether Marrow would sacrifice himself for Elm, Harriet, and Vine. Since their introduction, the story has loudly insisted that the Ace Ops aren't friends... up until it's revealed ("revealed") that Harriet is actually gutted about Clover. So which is it? Are we supposed to believe that these are cold soldiers who only work together out of duty, or that they're a team who clearly love one another? I'd say that show has shown us the latter, but it doesn't seem to understand what point it's trying to make. Does this look like a soldier who doesn’t care?

It’s especially weird when Ren again makes the claim that this is why they lost to Team RWBY. Because they're not a team.

...So is this why they did such a fantastic job fighting the geist, demonstrating such perfect teamwork that the group was open-mouthed impressed? Is this why they nearly took down a Maiden together? Is this why Ren, while furious at Yang and Jaune, was still able to work seamlessly with them to try and rescue Oscar? Do we think if Yang was suddenly beside Ruby again that the two would fail spectacularly in a fight because they had a minor disagreement?

This is now the third time RT has tried to excuse nerfing the Ace Ops with, "They disagree about things and are thus not friends and thus can't fight well together" — despite all evidence to the contrary — and it's getting really old.

At one point Harriet tells Ren, "I had you pegged as the most level-headed of the bunch, but I guess you’re just as naïve" which, ignoring her then random claim that people are replaceable, is correct. I also pegged Ren as the most level-headed of the bunch considering he was just yelling at Yang for how much damage they've caused, all the mistakes they've made, and that maybe — just maybe — they should have tried harder to work with Ironwood. Yet now here he is, in a position to start that process, and the Ren we got in the snow is simply gone. He's fully Team Yang and Jaune again, facing off against the evil Ace Ops.

I knew this was going to happen, but it's still disappointing. The story gave Ren a great speech to appease those of us frustrated with the direction the story has taken... and now we’re back to ignoring that. Ren was told off for daring to question how great the group is, apparently thought it over in the snow, and is now of the opinion that yes, they are that great. People are going to die because of us? Who cares about that anymore! We will absolutely, single-handedly rescue Oscar and there's no reason why this might be a questionable choice when an entire city is on the line. Again, emotionally understandable (if we buy into the group suddenly loving Oscar this much), but it rings hollow right after making Ren the one person who was willing to look at the big picture.

Good news though: Jaune got the braincell this week! He suggests that they go in to try and rescue Oscar/provide intel, but won't stop the Ace Ops from launching the bomb when necessary.

See, this is heroic. This is what the group should have done during the Mantle conflict: Volunteering to take the personal risk of facing off against Salem while letting Atlas try to escape. Basically, not forcing everyone else to risk their lives for their pipe dream, which is what Ren and Yang want by rejecting the bomb entirely. Jaune recognizes here that they can't prioritize Oscar over an entire city, but also that they may still be able to save him before the bomb is complete and ready to go. So they compromise, with JYR the only ones at risk.

Good job, Jaune!

Winter agrees to this plan with a firm, "I outrank you" to Harriet. People are going to love that.

Oh, but in his anger Ren's semblance suddenly changes. So we're back to the ridiculous.

Truthfully, I like this direction. Granted, I would have liked some buildup to it, especially since this is the second time this Volume that RWBY has dropped a major semblance change on us, but the idea itself is really cool. Ren can now see emotions! Awesome! And I don't mean that sarcastically. I actually think that’s a neat extension of his original semblance.

Too bad the story seems to think he's a mind reader.

Seriously, take a look back at the dialogue. What Ren sees are confetti-like petals floating around a person, their color seeming to determine their emotional state. Red means Harriet is mad, blue is sadness for Marrow, etc. But what Ren ends up saying is a great deal closer to mind reading. Harriet is angry about Clover and is gutted at his loss. Marrow is questioning his place here and wants to leave. These aren't base emotions, they're targeted thoughts and feelings about situations not immediately apparent from the verbal conversation. “In fact, you don’t want to be a part of it at all anymore." How does Ren know that? They just gave him telepathy instead of the cool power with firm limitations that the imagery suggests.

There are also some, uh... iffy implications in all this. For example, Ren allows Yang privacy by not reading her mind emotional state, but has no qualms about reading every one of the Ace Ops’. So privacy is only for the people you care about, huh?

We could also say something about RT perpetuating unfortunate racial stereotypes: the two women of color are pure anger, the marginalized man is pure sadness, the Asian coded character is pure calm... and the white woman set to turn against the others gets a mix of all emotions. AKA, human complexity.

To be clear, I don't think RT is doing this deliberately. Rather, they’re writers who have demonstrated time and time again that they don't have a good handle on depicting the sort of sensitive material that RWBY is infused with, and that extends to the mild, but still unfortunate, implications in scenes like this. Even if we ignore the iffy details — a benefit of the doubt that, at this point, many fans aren’t willing to grant — we're still left with the continuity errors. Visually, we're presented with a woman who is experiencing multiple emotions at once and is, therefore, torn. Yet Ren reads Winter definitively: "I know you [don't want this] either." It's yet another moment that makes me wonder how much communication there is between the writers and the animators, because too often the two seem to be at odds with each other.

As the group prepares to go into the belly of the beast (literally!) we return to Ruby who is, once again, failing to make me believe she's this super compassionate person.

“Wait! What about Qrow and Robyn? Maybe if we get them out of wherever they’re held—”

Please tell me I'm not the only one who took issue with this? Ruby doesn't express an ounce of worry for her uncle, not even when she learns he's been arrested, and the one time she brings him up it's in the context of what he can do for them in this fight? Ruby doesn't grapple with whether to rescue her uncle (personal desire), or get the message to the world (her version of the heroic action) and then realize that, now that her duty is done, she can finally turn to the more selfish act of helping her immediate family. Instead, Ruby seems perfectly happy to let Qrow stay in prison up until she's unsure what to do next and thinks that maybe he has the answer. Heaven forbid Ruby think about rescuing him because she loves him.

Sadly, this Ruby is long gone.

In recent years she's expressed no gratitude for him saving her life, no respect for him as her teacher, demonstrated incredibly little compassion for his own struggles, and outright told him that if he wasn't going to listen to her then he doesn't need to be part of the team. Then he's arrested and she doesn't care until she deems him useful again. Like the fandom wondering where the sisterly bond between Ruby and Yang went, I'm likewise wondering where the bond between Ruby and Qrow went.

May outright rejects this though, yelling that they still don't get it. “This is not a situation where everyone wins!"

She tells the trio they have to choose for once: Are you going to help Mantle, or Atlas?

...which means there's immediately a knock at the door, interrupting the moment where they have to decide.

See, this is just like Ren. The story keeps giving us moments where characters speak absolute truth, dangling the potential for the group to grow from these realizations... only to pull back before it goes anywhere. Ren is once again aligned with Yang and Jaune in their desire to save Oscar. May's demand is interrupted by the plot. If means nothing to give us these moments unless the story acts on them.

It's Klein at the door. Whitley called him to help with Nora because I guess he's a doctor now, as well as a butler? Fine. Let’s run with it. Weiss is super pleased to see him and hugs Whitley for the good deed.

Why so shocked that Whitley would look out for another, Weiss? Could it be because he's had so little reason to be kind when everyone, including you, has treated him horribly? If Klein always had these medical skills — if you’ve grown up with a doctor — why didn’t you talk to your brother and ask if he knew how to contact him? And of course, she apologizes to Klein for her father’s actions, but not to Whitley for her own. Whitley's surprise isn't cute to me.

Weiss stuck a weapon in his face, insulted him, sent him to his room like a toddler... and now is randomly hugging him because he did something she liked. The context of this scene doesn't paint Weiss in a good light. Like the rest of her friends, she only extends basic respect and kindness towards others when they're assisting her. Whitley was nothing to her until he suddenly proved himself useful. That's not cute sibling love, it's a love that's going to run out the moment Whitley puts a toe out of line, according to Weiss' unspoken list of what behavior keeps him in her good graces.

I believe that Klein cares for Whitley because he greets him kindly and gives him that shoulder pat on the way up. Whitley didn't need to first prove himself to Klein somehow and Klein didn't start this interaction by shoving a gun in Whitley's face, just in case he wouldn't let him through the door. They feel more like family than this hug does.

So yeah, Whitley and May have done more good this episode than our entire main cast. How about we just make this story about the side characters instead?

We then hear a massive boom and the group runs out to find a crater. Penny has landed in front of the manor, which is pretty convenient considering we saw her pass out as she fell.

She's somehow still in control despite the hack and apologizes to Ruby, then falls unconscious (again).

And that's where we end! Definitely a cliffhanger, though a rather underwhelming one considering we already knew Penny was in serious trouble. As said at the start, this episode felt rather underwhelming to me, especially as a halfway point before a hiatus, and compared to some of the stuff we've seen previously. It's not bad per-se — especially if we ignore the issues that have been around for an age now, which is most of what this recap deals with — it's just not terribly exciting either. Everything of importance — Salem's attack, Oscar's rescue, Penny's demise, subordinates turning, Nora's condition, etc. — had already been established in previous episodes and very little of it moved forward. Ren's semblance is the only thing the episode gave us that we couldn't have (generically) guessed for ourselves between last Saturday and now.

So yeah, underwhelmed is the mood of the day, with a hefty dose of salt for everything that continues to be a story-breaking problem in this show. I will say though that, as has become the trend for this Volume, all the establishing shots are gorgeous. RWBY is, at the very least, pretty to look at.

As a final note, in lieu of the Bingo board (since, again, not a whole happens plot-wise) I want to point out something mentioned by a friend: how absolutely bonkers our timeline is now. We began the second day last episode with the sun rising (recall that Jaune had tried to sleep that night at the outpost. So it’s definitely sunrise as opposed to sunset).

And we re-confirm that it’s sunrise at the start of this episode.

Yet throughout the episode many of our shots take place at night (note the stars behind the trio).

These moments with Ruby can't take place in the past because they're talking about the attack, an attack that only happened after Jaune's group met up with the Ace Ops and the geyser attacked — during early morning. I doubt I'm supposed to believe that it has been another full day of Salem starting an attack, a full day for the group to fly to the whale, a full day for Penny to fall, a full day which would put us at the end of the Volume’s timeline at only the halfway point... so I think RT is just going for the aesthetic of night shots without thinking about what that does to the continuity. It's a mess.

Not the highest praise to end on, but I’m working with what I’ve got lol. I feel as naïve as Oscar when I say that maybe Part II will be better.

I will, of course, see you all in six weeks. Until then, I'll do my best to catch up on asks. Another doomed endeavor, but one can try!

A very Happy Holidays to all of you who celebrate and, as always, thanks so much for reading! 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby recaps #rwby war #mymetas

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heyheyloki · 5 years ago

Text

Slow Down

Summary: After a case, the survivor throws a party in honor of the BAU team that saved his life.

Aaron Hotchner x M!Reader

Word Count: 3014

It was supposed to any old case. Catch the bad guy, save the next victim and or victims, then go home to do it all over again. That’s what it was supposed to be. Everyone should be home, sleeping, or even taking another case and sleeping in the jet while it takes everyone to the next state that’s got a killer. None of you, not even Reid thought everyone would be stuck here in California for a party. A party that celebrated the team, nonetheless.

The potential victim was young, a millionaire, and a bit of a playboy. It was obvious how much of a jackass he was, and all of you were ready to get him out of your hairs. Especially when he kept on being flirty with you around everyone on your team. The dude was an all around narcissist.

When he suggested the idea of a party only Morgan was really for it, but Hotchner tried to shut down the idea right away. He knew everyone had to go home, and honestly, he rather not allow this guy to make you anymore uncomfortable than he had for the entire three days you’ve all been here. Long story short though, the guy didn’t listen. It was like the words went one ear and out the other, it was like talking to a wall.

You all couldn’t get out of it without being rude, and everyone knew that the FBI couldn’t be seen as rude to the public. The FBI need the public. They need that trust and respect. Still, even though you knew you couldn’t get out of it, Hotchner still asked if you were okay with going. Everyone knew you lied when you said you’d be fine, but they also knew you were one of the most logically people on the team besides Reid.

You were currently in your hotel room. One was given to every member of your team to rest up after work, but instead of your sleeping body draped over your bed in a messy way, you were in front of the mirror. Your hair was neatly combed and done instead of the mess you usually leave it in, your body hugged by an expensive tux you only rented this afternoon for the event tonight.

Your tux was exquisitely cut and a perfect match for your suave manners. It was something that brought out your handsome features more than before, if anything, you looked like you weren’t a guest, but hosting the party.

As you began to fix anything that needed to be fixed, a knock was heard at your door. Your hand weaved through your hair once more before your shined shoes began to travel over towards the door. When you opened it, you noticed Penelope there. She was dressed up in a red dress, her makeup did, and her blond hair straightened down. It took you a moment to register that it was actually her and not someone else, especially since you’ve never seen her dress up like this before.

“And here I thought an angel was at my door.” You teased, a charming smile inching up to your face as you watched the ends of her lips curl upward.

“Thank you, handsome.” She said with a cheeky tone. “Ready to go?”

You nodded your head. With a swift movement you grabbed your key card and phone before heading out to the party for your team and yourself.

When you arrived with Penelope, your eyes traveled around the large rented out hall you stood in. The people that you saw weren’t anyone you knew personally, but, there were way more souls that existed in this one room than you’ve meet in your lifetime. It was almost like all of San Francisco decided to attend, at least, the high-end members of society. Yanno, the people that have jobs as CEOs, lawyers, doctors, and probably other millionaires like the host tonight.

That wasn’t even the end of them since more people began to walk past you, pouring in by the dozens. Everyone here wore newly bought suits, dresses, and had this aura around them that made them seem so uptight in this environment. Competitive to the point where you noticed some eyeing others with disgusted glares as they talked sinful and hatred filled words to their company that laughed in reply.

Even so, you didn’t mind all that much. You just wanted this night to be over with as soon as possible, even if the music was good and the drinks were only better, those things were probably the only thing that were keeping you from walking out the door. Well, that and the fact that you can’t disobey orders.

“I’m going to go find the others.” Penelope said, the hand that brushed your upper arm the only thing pulling you out of your own mind.

You nodded in response as you watched her leave your side and into the large dance floor that was flooded with unknown souls, eventually losing sight of your only company. You knew it wouldn’t be good if one of the honored guests just stood around the entrance, so, you went towards the food stands instead. Though, you did grab a glass of champagne on the way.

Your ears were filled with a sweet melody that filled the busy air as you watched some couples and complete strangers dance hand in hand with another. You found this the only sweet thing here, and it actually let a soft smile dance across your soft lips. That was only for a second though before a scowl regained it’s control over your mouth when you noticed a familiar face.

The man that strolled up to you was none other than the host of this occasion. He wore a classic black and white suit, his hands clasped in the other behind his back with an all-to-obvious happy smile across his pale skin. He straight blond locks that were pushed to the side, his hues that of a dark forest. He wasn’t the most unattractive guy, sure, he was handsome, but he had an ego. You knew that having one of those wasn’t the worst thing in the world, everyone had one to some extend, but you could only handle so much before it got tiring.

“I’m happy you came,” he said with a calm expression, “Though, I didn’t expect you to be alone.”

“My team is here as well, just not with me at the moment.” You explained. You didn’t mind being by yourself, but you wished that you went with Penelope to find the others right now.

The man stepped closer, his distance easy for him to pull you into for a hug if he wished. You normally would back up at times like these, but with the food table pressing against your lower back, you that wasn’t going to work this time.

“Well, I guess I’m lucky, then.” He chuckled softly, his shining white teeth showing off to the world around him.

“I guess,” You hummed before your lips gently pressed onto the glass rim of your drink as you took a few sips, all watched by the man in front of you.

The two of you sat in silence for a few seconds, and even if it was that, it was the most awful and uncomfortable seconds of your life. It was awkward, the kind of silence that makes you just want to walk out of so you could breath fresh air. But, he broke the silence first when his hands came up from his back, palms up as he looked around the hall before saying, “Do you like it? I mean, it only cost a few thousand dollars. Plus, I mean, wine, woman, and dancing? What else could a party need?”

Your eyes moved to the floor for a moment as you mumbled under your breath, “some men.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.” He said with a chipper smile.

You mirrored his expression quickly, expect, unlike him, your smile didn’t reach your eyes. You shook your head in a dismissive manner when you spit out, “Oh, I was just thinking of how nice you clean up.”

You caught some heat spread about his face, his eyes taking its sight off of you for a split moment as his smile turned bashful. “Thank you, I try my best when I know I’ll be seeing men like you here.”

You let out a dry chuckle that you tried to come off across as shy, but you knew weren’t a very good liar off the job than on it. You took another sip of your champagne, your eyes breaking contact with him.

Your gaze moved around to the many faces before falling on one, a very familiar one. It was your boss, Aaron Hotchner. Your brows furrowed a bit as you noticed his frantic eyes, almost like he was searching for something. It made something in your stomach churn uncomfortably seeing him like that, but when he turned and laid his chestnut brown hues directly on you, your chest felt like a 100-pound weight was suddenly crushing your ribs. The next thing you knew he was jogging up to you, his pace getting slower as he got closer before standing firmly at your side.

His gaze was hard, cold almost on the man in front of you. To normal people, this was Hotch’s usual face. You were one of the only people that could actually tell the difference, and right now, he seemed almost protective to you.

“Sir, may I borrow my agent?” Hotch asked in a neutral tone.

The man in front of you both moved his gaze quickly between the two figures in front of him, a small frown on his features as he said in a disembodied tone, “Of course.”

“Thank you,” Hotch said as he placed a hand against your shoulder. The light hand began to press against you as he began to walk, beckoning you to follow. You obeyed him willingly, your eyes trying not to travel down his body that was encased in a tailored suit. You saw him in one almost everyday, but for some reason it was different now, but you just blamed the atmosphere and booze in your system.

Neither of you spoke until you were both a comfortable distance from the shameless playboy flirt. On Hotch’s call, both of your bodies stopped. He didn’t speak at first, but instead looked over into the crowd. Curious, you looked in the direction his eyes traveled only to notice the man before watching both of you carefully with envy filled eyes.

“Are you okay?” He suddenly asked, his voice full of concern. “Penelope told us you were alone, Reid and Morgan got worried when they noticed our victim leave the area we were in.”

“I’m fine, I can handle a few flirty guys.” You uttered, though, your natural playful nature came out soon after. A small smirk rest on your features as you looked up at Hotchner and cooed out, “And you were worried about me, huh?”

“I was.” He admitted, the mischievous film in your eyes burning away as you felt your heart stammer against your chest.

“Thanks,” you muttered under your breath.

Hotch nodded his head, his eyes moving across the room once more before saying, “He’s probably going to keep trying to talk to you for the rest of the night.”

“Yeah,” you huffed out.

The words between Hotch and you soon fell, the only noise entering your sense of hearing was the music changing into another soft melody. A idea that may be the solution to your little problem popping into your mind quickly. When you called for Hotchner’s attention he gave it to you in an instant. Your gaze was serious, your expression not one that could be seen as joking when you said in a flat tone, “Dance with me.”

“What?” He quickly questioned.

“If he thinks I’m into you, or you’re into me, then maybe he’ll stop. It’s a gamble, but I think the chances of this working is pretty good.” You said, your mind praying that your voice didn’t go higher or crack. It would be a lie to say you weren’t a bit excited to dance with him if he agreed, though, the thought of his hands on your body made your heart want to explode like a bomb.

Hotch stayed silent for a moment, studying you to make sure you weren’t tricking him in any manner. When he was sure, he didn’t say a word but instead take a step back and extend his hand forward, palm up. An offering.

A soft smile stretched over your lips as you took his hand in your own, following his lead as he lead you to the dance floor. Both of you didn’t need to look at the flirty playboy, when you heard stomping footsteps fade away, you knew it already worked. Though, neither of you acknowledged that fact, both basically having it their minds that it didn’t happen as an excuse to continue.

“I’ll follow your lead.” You said as you placed your left hand against his upper arm, close to his shoulder while your right held his, his left ghosting your upper back under your left arm. The way he didn’t fully touch you sent a small shiver down your back that made you beg for more.

Aaron nodded before he started, you following like you stated. It was calming, peaceful even as the both of you danced against and with one another. It felt like you were the only two people on the floor, the others that circled around you both fading away into nothing.

“I’m surprised you can dance with well,” Aaron said with a soft smile that threatened to grow wider. You weren’t a fool, and you felt everything his hand that rested on your back did. As he spoke, it began to pressed harder against you, bringing you closer to his body. You weren’t mad, but you couldn’t help but feel a bit offended that just his smooth and charming voice was enough to distract you.

In an attempt to get him back, you began to move your hand that rested in the middle of his upper arm and shoulder down towards his bicep when you said in a charming and low voice, “I learned from my parents, but I never put it to use before until now.”

Aaron nodded, his chestnut brown hues almost going rouge from their normally cool and collective manner. Instead, you saw something that could match to affection, desire. You knew that couldn’t be it though. No, the stare that went right through your soul couldn’t have possibly been real. You were sure that you were just imagining things, your normal daydreams that were so wrong in your mind. Not cause Aaron was a guy, no, it was cause he was your boss.

You went about it like you didn’t even notice, not even trying to search for it. It was bad enough the fantasy made your heart pound loudly in your ears and make your palms sweaty. Afraid Aaron would start to notice you quickly asked, “Anyone catch your eye tonight?”

You watched as Aaron cocked his head to the side, his brows furrowing i confusion upon the said question that bursted out of your mouth before you could think. It was a dumb question, and frankly one you didn’t want answered. But, it was too late to take back anything now. All you could do was pray that he said no.

“One.” He simply put. In one single word you felt something in your chest crack just as easy as a piece of glass. It was an odd, painful feeling. You weren’t physically hurt, and you knew logically that a heart can’t actually crack. But when you heard that, it was like your brain just shot your heart with all the pain you’ve felt over the years and burst it around your nerves all at once.

You knew you had to play it off. “Oh?” You asked in a teasing manner as you cocked you head back a bit with a smirk. “Who is she?”

“Well, he’s a good dancer.” Hotch suddenly corrected, your breath quickly getting caught in your lungs.

“Oh, yeah?” You asked gently, more casual this time around. “Point him out to me, I wanna see who caught the Aaron Hotchner’s attention.”

It was painful to watch as Aaron’s eyes scanned the room in a reaching manner like you saw before.You prayed hard that the guy that got Aaron’s fondness wouldn’t be in sight. You weren’t in the mood to see someone who you would compare yourself with in more ways than one. But, when his eyes landed back into yours, you froze. You knew it was coming.

His thin lips parted, the way your brain started to slow everything down as your anxiety raised was something that made you want to run out the door. But it was all over in less than a few seconds contrary to your belief.

“He’s right in front of me.” Aaron said directly, his tone flat yet some underline shakiness was found if one was looking hard enough.

You didn’t notice it. Instead all you could do was stare into space as you repeated those words over and over again in your head like you were watching your favorite movie. When it finally registered with you, your lips couldn’t help but stretch upward, the ends of your eyes crinkling. A bashful chuckle left your throat before saying, “you took my lines.”

As soon as you spoke those words a sigh full of fear past Aaron’s lips, his face now fully relaxing as he got more daring that he knew you reciprocated his feelings. He pulled you closer with force yet gentle at once, getting only inches from one another’s faces.

“Maybe this whole thing wasn’t so bad after all,” you uttered uncontrollably, truly, you felt like you were on a different planet all together.

“Guess not.” Aaron hummed softly with a smile. His gaze kept locked with yours as the two of your danced in each others arms for the remainder of the song and the next few after.

#aaron hotchner #aaron hotch x reader #aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotchner x male reader #criminal minds fluff #criminal minds x male reader #criminal minds x reader #aaron hotchner fluff #x male reader #male reader

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mclegibilist · 4 years ago

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Inadequate Definientia

I'd like to attempt to clear-up the bundle of "anti-inductive", "inadequate equilibria", and the implied "adequate equilibria" all at once. I think they're all part of the same confusing knot, for which specific kinds of teleological blindnesses are to blame.

"Inadequate Equilibria" is a termed coined by Eliezer Yudkowsky in the book of the same name. It describes situations in which a certain part of a system has reached an "equilibrium"—used casually to specify a stationary state that is difficult to escape from under certain assumptions, similar to a stable equilibrium—that EY feels are "inadequate". I think the definition of inadequate here is very vague, and digging hard to pretend that it's coherent seems a bit silly. However, what I think EY is pointing at is that the games certain people claim to be playing, e.g. the Bank of Japan claiming to try to be regulating Japan's economy for maximum profit and health, are often not the games they're actually playing. This is an extremely broad set of phenomena, but EY restricts himself to games where the players are kinda sort playing the game you think they're playing but with some caveats/extra rules/unexpected incentives.

I enjoyed the book and I think it's a decent intro to spotting "the games people are actually playing and when you should trust their claims", but the main issue is that EY doesn't seem to have any criteria for what makes the equilibria inadequate vs. the people telling you the rules just straight-up lying. Clearly both happen.

To make this worse, EY conflates the fact that certain games don't have the incentives you would want them to have (if you really wanted them to complete their stated goal) with the fact that certain games don't have the right conditions to make solution finding highly efficient, e.g. because one party has a monopoly.

Let's clear this up.

The latter case, when a game is currently blocked by something within the game that could be changed without breaking the rules or changing the game is the definition of market inefficiency. Let's just call it "inefficiency" because people get fussy about what counts as a market.

The former case, where you could redistribute or inject resources into the game, but the game isn't setup to incentivize what you—the protagonist of Reality—want from it is the definition of surrogation, i.e. "you're optimizing one thing and dreaming that it correlates with another".

Easy peasy.

If you think "surrogation" is often subjective, because not everyone will agree on what a game is "for" you're right! But if you think "efficiency" is objective, you're wrong: real systems are way more complex than most toy examples of efficient markets and we never really know "how good this game is at finding solutions" in comparison to the best possible game. Thus, "adequate equilibria" are judgement calls.

Sidenote: Despite my immense respect for LessWrong and the Rationalist community more broadly for incentivizing open, critical discourse and the construction of new and useful vocabulary, a lot of this vocabulary ends-up secretly being about "what I think system X should be/claims to be/is about vs. what it really is". There's often lots of interrogation of "what it really is" but relatively little of "maybe it's complicated how to define what something is for and most names/descriptions are just short-hand or for convenience?" I call this "the teleological lens". Everybody tends to fall into it, because communication is naturally about what you want from people, but literalists tend to think themselves immune because they define things so clearly. Most rationalists have at least a literalist streak, because it is what starting from first principles demands. Literalists are always in danger of taking other people's words too much at face value and completely missing the point, a complementary error to most people's inability to see literal meaning.

Finally, we reach "anti-inductive" which, in the article people tend to point to, seems to be something along the lines of "games where common knowledge is priced in". While this is a perfectly reasonable definition to inspire discussion, I think it's difficult to assess for many reasons, two of which are: (i) how do we agree what's common knowledge at time T? (ii) how the hell do we know it's priced in?

I propose the following definition for anti-inductive play:

anti-inductive (adj) — describing a property of certain kinds of game play where moves, on average, (i) leak information about your strategy and (ii) knowing such leaked information allows for the creation of counter-strategies.

In other words, anti-inductive plays are "scoopable", not just because effective counter-strategies exist (ii) but because their construction is a function of observing other strategies at play (i). Without both stipulations, pure randomness might be the winning strategy, in order to ensure eventually hitting on an effective counter-strategy.

Usually equilibria are sustained by anti-inductive play, in which different parties are constantly developing counter strategies and counter counter strategies, keeping the system locked onto some other fundamental factor, e.g. the actual overhead of a service during a price war. Adequate equilibria are ones where the byproduct of the game matches the in-game score well enough and is optimized quickly enough that the person saying "adequate" is happy with it. This is usually a result of anti-inductive play (e.g. web browser features that are useful spreading to all browsers) but not always (e.g. playing the cooperative game Hanabi when everyone is invested in doing well). Inadequate equilibria simply describe situations in which the system is "stuck" from the point of view of the speaker.

This might seem like "ruining the magic" of the term: "What do you mean it's all just about whether people like stuff?" I remember being struck by the "aha!" feeling of EY's description of inefficient and misaligned systems, and I don't think this at all changes his guide to spotting inefficiencies and misalignments from one's own point of view. It does require use to ask "inadequate to what?" and to answer with how you imagine the current system could be (i) more efficient (ii) better aligned. This seems like a low-bar, and it's one EY certainly passes, but which a lot of people referencing the concept eschew. Real systems are complex and we can almost only make relative judgements, efficiency and alignment give us axes to make these relative judgements comparable to each other. Anti-inductivity gives a sketch of the most common mechanism used for keeping efficiency and alignment stable.

The video game industry is at an equilibria where it is inadequate to create as many story rich games as I would like, since investing more in narrative design doesn't yield linear (or even predictable) returns. Anti-inductive play forces us to ask: why hasn't someone scooped up the free energy from my willingness to buy such games?

#inadequate equilibria #anti-inductivity

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silvokrent · 5 years ago

Text

RWBY Character Analysis: Pietro and Penny Polendina

Up until now I’ve been keeping quiet about my opinions on the newest volume, in no small part because my personal life has been one absurd setback after another, and I haven’t had the energy to engage in fandom meta. If you do want to know what my current opinion of RWBY is, go over to @itsclydebitches blog, search through her #rwby-recaps tag, and read every single one. At this point, her metas are basically an itemized list of all my grievances with the show. I highly recommend you check ’em out.

Or, if you don’t feel like reading several hours’ worth of recaps, then go find a sheet of paper, give yourself a papercut, and then squeeze a lemon into it. That should give you an accurate impression of my feelings.

In truth, I have a lot to say about the show, particularly how I think CRWBY has mishandled the plot, characters, tone, and intended message of their series. And while I enjoy dissecting RWBY with what amounts to mad scientist levels of glee, I think plenty of other folks have already discussed V7′s and V8′s various issues in greater depth and with far more eloquence. Any contribution I could theoretically make at this point would be somewhat redundant.

That being said, I’d like to talk about something that’s been bothering me for a while, which (to my knowledge) no one else in the fandom has brought up. (And feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.)

Today’s topic of concern is Pietro Polendina, and his relationship with Penny.

And because I’m absolutely certain this post is going to be controversial and summon anonymous armchair critics to fill my inbox with sweary claptrap, I may as well just come out and say it:

Pietro Polendina, as he’s currently portrayed in the show, is an inherently abusive parental figure.

Let me take a second to clarify that I don’t think it was RWBY’s intention to portray Pietro that way. Much like other aspects of the show, a lot of nuance is often lost when discussing the difference between intention versus implementation, or telling versus showing. It’s what happens when a writer tries to characterize a person one way, but in execution portrays them in an entirely different light. Compounding this problem is what feels like a series of rather myopic writing decisions that started as early as Volume 2, concerning Penny’s sense of agency, and how the canon would bear out the implications of an autonomous being grappling with her identity. It’s infuriating that the show has spent seven seasons staunchly refusing to ask any sort of ethical questions surrounding her existence, only to then—with minimal setup—give us Pietro’s “heartfelt” emotional breakdown when he has to choose between “saving” Penny or “sacrificing” her for the greater good.

Yeah, no thanks.

If we want to talk about why this moment read as hollow and insincere, we need to first make sure everyone’s on the same page.

Spoilers for V8.E5 - “Amity.” Let’s not waste any time.

In light of the newest episode and its—shall we say—questionable implications, I figured now was the best time to bring it up while the thoughts were still fresh in my mind. (Because nothing generates momentum quite like frothing-at-the-mouth rage.)

The first time we’re told anything about Pietro, it comes from an exchange between Penny and Ruby. From V2.E2 - “A Minor Hiccup.”

Penny: I've never been to another kingdom before. My father asked me not to venture out too far, but... You have to understand, my father loves me very much. He just worries a lot.

Ruby: Believe me, I know the feeling. But why not let us know you were okay?

Penny: I…was asked not to talk to you. Or Weiss. Or Blake. Or Yang. Anybody, really.

Ruby: Was your dad that upset?

Penny: No, it wasn’t my father.

The scene immediately diverts our attention to a public unveiling of the AK-200. A hologram of James Ironwood is presenting this newest model of Atlesian Knight to a crowd of enthusiastic spectators, along with the Atlesian Paladin, a piloted mech. During the demonstration, James informs his audience that Atlas’ military created them with the intent of removing people from the battlefield and mitigating casualties (presumably against Grimm).

Penny is quickly spotted by several soldiers, and flees. Ruby follows, and in the process the two are nearly hit by a truck. Penny’s display of strength draws a crowd and prompts her to retreat into an alley, where Ruby learns that Penny isn’t “a real girl.”

This scene continues in the next episode, “Painting the Town…”

Penny: Most girls are born, but I was made. I’m the world’s first synthetic person capable of generating an Aura. [Averts her gaze.] I’m not real…

After Ruby assures her that no, you don’t have to be organic in order to have personhood, Penny proceeds to hug her with slightly more force than necessary.

Ruby: [Muffled noise of pain.] I can see why your father would want to protect such a delicate flower!

Penny: [Releases Ruby.] Oh, he’s very sweet! My father’s the one that built me! I’m sure you would love him.

Ruby: Wow. He built you all by himself?

Penny: Well, almost! He had some help from Mr. Ironwood.

Ruby: The general? Wait, is that why those soldiers were after you?

Penny: They like to protect me, too!

Ruby: They don't think you can protect yourself?

Penny: They're not sure if I'm ready yet. One day, it will be my job to save the world, but I still have a lot left to learn. That's why my father let me come to the Vytal Festival. I want to see what it's like in the rest of the world, and test myself in the Tournament.

Their conversation is interrupted by the sound of the approaching soldiers from earlier. Despite Ruby’s protests, Penny proceeds to yeet her into the nearby dumpster, all while reassuring her that it’s to keep Ruby out of trouble, not her. When the soldiers arrive, they ask her if she’s okay, then proceed to lightly scold her for causing a scene. Penny’s told that her father “isn’t going to be happy about this,” and is then politely asked (not ordered; asked) to let them escort her back.

Let’s take a second to break down these events.

When these two episodes first aired, the wording and visuals (“No, it wasn’t my father,” followed by the cutaway to James unveiling the automatons) implied that James was the one forbidding her from interacting with other people. It’s supposed to make you think that James is being restrictive and harsh, while Pietro is meant as a foil—the sweet, but cautious father figure. But here’s the thing: both of these depictions are inaccurate, and frankly, Penny’s the one at fault here. Penny blew her cover within minutes of interacting with Ruby—a scenario that Penny was responsible for because she was sneaking off without permission. Penny is a classified, top-secret military project, as made clear by the fact that she begs Ruby to not say anything to anyone. Penny is in full acknowledgement that her existence, if made public, could cause massive issues for her (something that she’s clearly experienced before, if her line, “You’re taking this extraordinarily well,” is anything to go by).

But here’s the thing—keeping Penny on a short leash wasn’t a unilateral decision made by James. That was Pietro’s choice as well. “My father asked me not to venture out too far,” “Your father isn’t going to be happy about this”—as much as this scene is desperately trying to put the onus on James for Penny’s truant behavior, Pietro canonically shares that blame. And Penny (to some extent) is in recognition of the fact that she did something wrong.

Back in Volumes 1 – 3, before the series butchered James’ characterization, these moments were meant as pretty clever examples of foreshadowing and subverting the controlling-military-general trope. This scene is meant to illustrate that yes, Penny is craving social interaction outside of military personnel as a consequence of being hidden, but that hiding her is also a necessity. It’s a complicated situation with no easy answer, but it’s also something of a necessary evil (as Penny’s close call with the truck and her disclosing that intel to Ruby are anything to go by).

Let’s skip ahead to Volume 7, shortly after Watts tampered with the drone footage and framed her for several deaths. In V7.E7 - “Worst Case Scenario,” a newscaster informs us that people in Atlas and Mantle want Penny to be deactivated, despite James’ insistence that the footage was doctored and Penny didn’t go on a killing spree. The public’s unfavorable opinion of Penny—a sentiment that Jacques of all people embodies when he brings it up in V7.E8—reinforces V2’s assessment of why keeping her secret was necessary. Not only is her existence controversial because Aura research is still taboo, but people are afraid that a mechanical person with military-grade hardware could be hacked and weaponized against them. (Something which Volume 8 actually validates when James has Watts take control of her in the most recent episode.)

But I digress.

We’re taken to Pietro’s lab, where Penny is hooked up to some sort of recharge/docking station. Ruby, Weiss, and Maria look on in concern while the machine is uploading the visual data from her systems. There’s one part of their conversation I want to focus on in particular:

Pietro: When the general first challenged us to find the next breakthrough in defense technology, most of my colleagues pursued more obvious choices. I was one of the few who believed in looking inward for inspiration.

Ruby: You wanted a protector with a soul.

Pietro: I did. And when General Ironwood saw her, he did too. Much to my surprise, the Penny Project was chosen over all the other proposals.

Allow me to break down their conversation so we can fully appreciate what he’s actually saying.

The Penny Project was picked as the candidate for the next breakthrough in defense technology.

Pietro wanted a protector with a SOUL.

In RWBY, Aura and souls are one of the defining characteristics of personhood. Personhood is central to Penny’s identity and internal conflict (particularly when we consider that she’s based on Pinocchio). That’s why Penny accepts Ruby’s reassurances that she’s a real person. That’s why she wants to have emotional connections with others.

What makes that revelation disturbing is when you realize that Pietro knowingly created a child soldier.

Look, there’s no getting around this. Pietro fully admits that he wanted to create a person—a human being—a fucking child—as a "defense technology” to throw at the Grimm (and by extension, Salem). Everything, from the language he uses, to the mere fact that he entered Penny in the Vytal Tournament as a proving ground where she could “test [her]self,” tells us that he either didn’t consider or didn’t care about the implications behind his proposal.

When you break it all down, this is what we end up with:

“Hey, I have an idea: Why don’t we make a person, cram as many weapons as we can fit into that person, and then inform her every day for the rest of her life that she was built for the sole purpose of fighting monsters, just so we don’t have to risk the lives of others. Let’s then take away anything remotely resembling autonomy, minimize her interactions with people, and basically indoctrinate her into thinking that this is something she wants for herself. Oh, and in case she starts to raise objections, remind her that I donated part of my soul to her. If we make her feel guilty about this generous sacrifice I made so she could have the privilege of existing, she won’t question our motives. Next, let’s give her a taste of freedom by having her fight in a gladiatorial blood sport so that we can prove our child soldier is an effective killer. And then, after she’s brutally murdered on international television, we can rebuild her and assign her to protecting an entire city that’s inherently prejudiced against her, all while I brood in my lab about how sad I am.”

Holy fuck. Watts might be a morally bankrupt asshole, but at least his proposal didn’t hinge on manufacturing state-of-the-art living weapons. They should have just gone with his idea.

(Which, hilariously enough, they did. Watts is the inventor of the Paladins—Paladins which, I’ll remind you, were invented so the army could remove people from the battlefield. You know, people. Kind of like what Penny is.)

Do you see why this entire scene might have pissed me off? Even if the show didn’t intend for any of this to be the case, when you think critically about the circumstances there’s no denying the tacit implications.

To reiterate, V8.E5 is the episode where Pietro says, and I quote:

“I don’t care about the big picture! I care about my daughter! I lost you before. Are you asking me to go through that again? No. I want the chance to watch you live your life.”

Oh, yeah? And what life is that? The one where she’s supposed to kill Grimm and literally nothing else? You do realize that she died specifically because you made her for the purpose of fighting, right?

No one, literally no one, was holding a gun to Pietro’s head and telling him that he had to build a living weapon. That was his idea. He chose to do that.

Remember when Cinder said, “I don’t serve anyone! And you wouldn’t either, if you weren’t built that way.” She…basically has a point. Penny has never been given the option to explore the world in a capacity where she wasn’t charged with defending it by her father. We know she doesn’t have many friends, courtesy of Ironwood dissuading her against it in V7. But I’m left with the troubling realization that the show (and the fandom), in their crusade to vilify James, are ignoring the fact that Pietro is also complicit in this behavior by virtue of being her creator. If we condemn the man that prevents Penny from having relationships, then what will we do to the man who forced her into that existence in the first place?

Being her “father” has given him a free pass to overlook the ethics of having a child who was created with a pre-planned purpose. How the hell did the show intend for Pietro to reconcile “I want you to live your life” with “I created you so you’d spend your life defending the world”? It viscerally reminds me of the sort of narcissistic parents who have kids because they want to pass on the family name, or continue their bloodline, or have live-in caregivers when they get older, only on a larger and much more horrific scale. And that’s fucked up.

Now, I’m not saying I’m against having a conflict like this in the show. In fact, I’d love to have a character who has to grapple with her own humanity while questioning the environment she grew up in. Penny is a character who is extremely fascinating because of all the potential she represents—a young woman who through a chance encounter befriends a group of strangers, and over time, is exposed to freedoms and friendships she was previously denied. Slowly, she begins to unlearn the mindset she was indoctrinated with, and starts to petition for agency and autonomy. Pietro is forced to confront the fact that what he did was traumatic and cruel, and that his love for her doesn’t erase the harm he unintentionally subjected her to, nor does it change the fact that he knowingly burdened a person with a responsibility she never consented to. There’s a wealth of character growth and narrative payoff buried here, but like most things in RWBY, it was either underdeveloped or not thought through all the way.

The wholesome father-daughter relationship the show wants Pietro and Penny to have is fundamentally contradicted by the nature of her existence, and the fact that no one (besides the villains) calls attention to it. I’d love for them to have that sort of dynamic, but the show had to do more to earn it. Instead, it’ll forever be another item on RWBY’s ever-growing list of disappointments—

Because Pietro’s remorse is more artificial than Penny could ever hope to be.

#rwby #rwby volume 8 #rwby spoilers #rwby thought dump #my posts #i speak #rwby meta #pietro polendina #penny polendina #james ironwood #arthur watts #ruby rose #rwby worldbuilding #rwde

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