#but the interfering force is acting against them

[strange-anni]

The true nature of The Cure

As we all know Will has a burned poster of the Cure in his room but this isn't the only instance someone seeks to cure either themselves or others.

It also raises the question if it's Will who needs the curing or if he is the cure to someone else.

"I seek to cure what's deep inside Frightened of this thing that I've become"

These lyrics are playing as Steve calls himself "Bad Steve. Bad." as I have pointed out in this post. Steve in this scene is trying to cure what's deep inside as he's frightened of this thing that's he's become (a bear as pointed out by @bylerlipglances here.) How does he do that? With his relationship with Nancy.

This means his relationship with Nancy is not based on true feelings.

It's a lie. The Cure is a lie.

In S3 Max also gave El the advise to give Mike a taste of his own medicine.

Mike despite claiming the opposite and insisting on the importance of always telling the truth actually lies quite a lot and quite frequently too.

If Mikes understands the cure as a lie and El is advised to give him a taste of his own medicine then her actions at the beginning of S4 actually make perfect sense.

Have we ever considered that Will might be wrong? Maybe on some level Mike actually likes the lies and El is feeding him exactly what he wants: A perfect little fairytale.

This is of cause a lot more complicated as well as all this lying also causes a lot of pain to Mike as it does for everyone else around him.

Yet in the entire show we seem to have a consistent force always pushing for some kind of lie to cover up the truth or true feelings. A cure for the truth if you will.

The truth must be kept from spreading by whatever means necessary.

The truth is also like weeds and if you know anything about weeds you'll know that they always find a way to come back. You cannot easily get rid of weeds. Just like truth will also always find it's way back to the surface.

Another method is to use protective measures so the truth won't be discovered by the Force who is responsible for the lies and cover-ups.

As Robin says, if the message is true and sensitive it must be masked so it won't get detected. In other words it must be delivered in code.

Hence truth in ST gets delivered through symbolism and people speaking between the lines in order to protect it as much as possible.

It's also why I feel some characters are more authentic in the beginning of their arcs than at the end which for a TV series is really counter intuitive. In pretty much every other story a character goes through some kind of development and then comes out stronger/better/wiser at the end. While ST also does that to some degree, it's a lot less prevalent.

People are stuck and repeat the same story beats over and over again because whenever there is a chance for real growth something or someone always interferes.

Let me explain this to you while using stbin as an example. It's not the best example I could choose but it's the most universally agreed upon to be inauthentic to the characters. (i.e. romantic stbin is not what either Steve or Robin want. And yes I am deliberately using the older teens to proof this to make it clear that all the interfering and wrong-going isn't just tied to the Will-El-Mike dynamic although this is certainly the center of the story.)

So let us briefly walk through the way stbin could have happened and answer if this would have ever been an organic development.

Dustin tries to suggest Robin is the right one for Steve but he completely denies it as she is not even "in the ballpark" of what his type is. That's complete no and it is also the truth.

Then Robin and Steve were holding hands on the rooftop when they were both scared. It could be a romantic gesture but Robin was already a lesbian here and if it is okay for her to seek comfort with a friend in a time of need, why wouldn't it be true for Steve as well?

Then later in the elevator Dustin tries again to push Steve towards Robin. Also again, Steve tries to make Dustin stop by telling him no and asking him to give up on his "creepy dream."

It's only way later after Steve misinterpreted Robins words that he makes it sound like he's found out that Robin is now suddenly the right one for him after all. This is really strange all things considered.

I believe this only happened because of the constant pushing from Dustin which left it's marks even if Steve never wanted it to and because it really looked like Robin was actually interested in him when she was not. So Steve completely reconsidered his standpoint and was ready to try out a relationship with Robin after all. (You can also call this forced conformity)

Stbin would have never happened organically. If Dustin never would have tried to interfere (or would have listened the first time Steve told him to stop) Steve would have never even considered Robin as a possible romantic partner and even then it needed to look like she actually had a crush on him for him to change his mind.

If none of this happened, Robin and Steve would have just continued to stay friends without this false romantic mishap because their friendship is actually organic and true.

This is a pattern we see repeated quite often for the older teens. It happens to stncy in S1 (pushed by Barb) and S2 (pushed by Jonathan) albeit with a lot less success. Later in S4 it happens to stncy again but this time with a lot more consistent pushing done by Dustin, Robin and Eddie. If you believe my theory about Vickie being straight then that's another example of someone (Steve) pushing for a romantic relationship. Then if you are really open minded you can look here and here how this also applies to jncy.

At the beginning of all this is always truth and then someone or some force tries to intervene through certain other characters in order to stir everyone away from their truth to varying degrees of success. Sometimes these lies hold for a long time and sometimes they don't hold at all.

As long as this constant interfering continues not a single one of all the characters will ever be able to truly move on with their lives because for this to happen they will need to face the truth first. This is exactly what someone or the Interfering Force is trying to prevent though.

The truth is reality, authenticity and autonomy. It cannot be erased or avoided no matter how hard one might try.

It's also the real cure or rather the real medicine and as it is also always true with medicine: It's the dosage which determines if it'll actually help the body or make everything worse.

So all this fixing or false curing of everyone else will need to stop no matter how well meaning the Interfering Force actually is. I don't believe that it actually means to cause harm. I think it only wants what's best for everyone in order to make them happy and to spare them hardship. In doing so however it causes even more hardship.

In the end, the truth will need to accepted even if it's a hard pill to swallow. Sometimes boys must cry.

@greenfiend I wrote this with your theory in mind

[unknown-lab]

Saja Boys when they see you talking to some other boy band

Pairing: Saja Boys x fem!reader (Separate) Genre: angst? (They have a crush on you but you don't know it) A/N: It's been so long since I last wrote something, and my creativity is so limited after stressing about my studies. Btw I graduated high school yayy

Comments and reblogs will be appreciated 💕

You — fondly known as the “pretty mother” (you're about the same age as them) of the Saja Boys — had pulled off the impossible: securing a collaboration with a top-tier boy group that once reigned as Korea’s No.1 before the Saja Boys even debuted. It was a deal you were immensely proud of, not just because of the prestige, but because of how difficult their managing company was to deal with. The higher-ups were notoriously jealous of the Saja Boys' rising popularity, often making life miserable for their own team just to stay competitive.

But as always, you — the ever-patient, kind-hearted manager, the mother of your boys — bore the brunt of the negotiations, pushing through relentless obstacles, so your boys could have a smoother, brighter future in the cutthroat K-pop industry.

And now, here you were — standing with the rival group’s manager (who had become more of a reluctant ally), reviewing schedules for an upcoming variety show. But instead of the gratitude or excitement you'd hoped for, the Saja Boys watched from a distance, clearly... not impressed.

Jinu

Jinu couldn’t help but furrow his brows as he watched you laugh — actually laugh — while talking to them. Those so-called idols, those polished, plastic things from the rival group. You were smiling, eyes crinkling in that rare way that even the Saja Boys hardly got to see. Not because you didn’t care to show them your lovely side, but because you're too overworked every time you are with them. But of course, Jinu didn’t quite get that — all he saw was you giving them what he wished you’d give him.

Without a word, he walked over and dropped himself into the seat beside you, letting his knee brush deliberately against yours. The contact was subtle, but intentional. You, ever the cautious professional — the manager of Korea’s most beloved boy band — instinctively shifted away, just enough to keep the tabloids at bay.

Jinu caught that. His eyes narrowed for a split second, but he kept his expression in check, smiling politely at the rivals like this was just business. Professionalism, after all. But inside, it was getting harder to keep it together. Every second of that meeting dragged like a knife along glass.

He tried — more than once — to politely wrap things up, throwing in the occasional, “Well, we should get going soon,” or “Don’t want to overstay our time, right?” But every time, you waved him off, too caught up in whatever ideas you, and they were bouncing around. And all Jinu could do was sit there, smiling a lie.

"Jinu, what was that all about?" you snapped the moment you were finally out of earshot.

Two long, exhausting hours of smiling and civil talk, all undone by him acting like a sulky child the entire time. Your cheerful facade had dropped the second the meeting ended, replaced by a deep frown that made your irritation loud and clear. You stormed ahead, widening the space between you both with every step. He kept catching up easily, thanks to those unfairly long legs of his, which only made you more annoyed.

“Were they really that good-looking for you to be all smiley from start to finish?” Jinu asked, voice light, followed by a forced chuckle, trying, and failing, to mask the unease brewing beneath his cool exterior.

You stopped in your tracks. “Yes, they are,” you shot back, whirling around to face him. “So would you kindly stop interfering with everything I’m doing for your benefit?”

Then, with all the sarcasm you could summon, you flashed him your brightest, fakest smile — the kind so unnerving even Gwi-Ma would’ve taken a step back.

Jinu’s smile faltered. His lips pressed into a tight line. “No… not that smile,” he mumbled, voice quieter. “I want the one you gave them earlier.”

You blinked, surprised for half a second by the sudden softness in his voice. The leader of the Saja Boys now sounded less like a composed idol and more like a child begging for attention, or worse, a boy aching for affection he didn’t know how to ask for.

You exhaled, irritation mixing with exhaustion. “...Stop following me,” you said firmly, turning your back on him. “And go practice your choreography. I have more important things to deal with than babysitting your ego.”

And with that, you walked away, leaving Jinu standing alone in the hallway, holding onto the weight of a smile that didn’t belong to him.

Baby (He's my bias)

Baby wasn’t the type to feel things.

At least, not in the way humans did — not the wild rollercoaster of emotion they seemed to ride so easily. His expression rarely changed unless it's stage-required. His voice stayed flat, steady. Highs and lows didn’t reach him. That’s how he was built.

But ever since you entered his field of vision — whether you were laughing, scolding, or just walking past him — he felt it. Something. A subtle throb in his chest, like a warning or a pull. It didn’t matter if it was good or bad, soft or sharp — if you were there, it was there.

And right now? It was fire.

“What’s this?”

Baby’s jaw clenched ever so slightly as he caught sight of that guy — one of the members from whatever group this was — leaning in way too close to you, tossing out flirtatious lines like confetti. And there you were, smiling and nodding politely, playing along like the ever-professional manager you were.

You weren’t interested, Baby knew that much, but watching you entertain that flirting for the sake of diplomacy lit something sharp and burning in his chest.

He walked over, expression unreadable, and casually dropped himself on the couch to your right. Slouching back, he stretched his left arm across the top of the couch, just behind your shoulders, not quite touching you, but close enough to claim space around you.

“Oh! Baby Saja! It’s such an honor to meet you!” one of the rappers exclaimed, eyes sparkling with admiration. He had clearly been a fan for a long time.

Unfortunately for him, Baby didn’t even look in his direction, just gave a curt nod before grabbing a bag of chips off the table and tearing it open. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. You tried to keep your cool, and focused on business. But Baby didn’t make it easy.

“Y/N, eat some.”

“Want me to feed you?”

“This tastes good.”

One interruption after another — a childish war waged in crunches and commentary — all aimed at pulling your attention away from them.

You shot him a sharp glare, your lips tightening in a forced smile as you continued your pitch. You wanted to yell at him. God, you wanted to tell him to read the damn room. But you couldn’t — that would be breaking your professionalism, too.

So instead, you endured the battle of chips echoing beside you like a passive-aggressive soundtrack.

The moment the rival group left the room and the door shut behind them, you turned to him — no more filters, no more smiles.

“For fxxk’s sake, Baby, next time just leave me alone when I’m working.” The words hit like a slap. His hand froze halfway to the chip bag, his mouth hanging open slightly.

“I just wanted to share some with you…” he muttered, suddenly small. The fire inside him — that rage, that jealousy — all shrank down into confusion. He didn’t know what this feeling was. He didn’t understand why seeing someone else near you made his chest feel like it was being crushed.

In the demon realm, feelings like this weren’t taught — only how to survive.

“Go share with whatever, whoever you want, Abby, Mystery, I don’t care. I hate chips.”

You rolled your eyes, snatched the last sip of your green tea with more force than necessary, and stormed out of the meeting room, slamming the door on whatever childish stunt he thought this was.

And Baby sat there, chip bag forgotten in his lap, staring at the closed door like he’d just lost something he didn’t even know he had.

Mystery

You’ve barely heard him speak — at least, not to you. Mystery only ever opened his mouth when it was work-related, usually with Jinu or the others. Around you? He was silent. Polite. Distant. Sometimes, you wondered if he actually hated you.

So when he walked into the meeting room that day, casual and unreadable as always, it was nothing new. The others greeted him with the usual mix of respect and camaraderie — all he did was nod.

And then he sat. Right beside you. Quietly. Like some perfectly trained dog who knew how to behave when guests were around.

But the problem wasn’t him. Not yet. The problem was the guy sitting on your other side — one of the new members from the guest group, who had been inching closer to you every five minutes like it was some sort of stealth mission. You didn’t pay him much mind, too focused on keeping the discussion flowing with their leader. You didn’t even notice the way his shoulder leaned in, or the glance he gave your neckline.

But Mystery noticed.

And the moment that man’s hand reached up and casually brushed a loose strand of your hair — that was the last straw.

Smack.

The sound of Mystery slapping the guy’s hand away echoed louder than it should have. The whole room fell silent. You froze mid-sentence. Everyone stared.

Mystery, still expressionless, muttered: “There was a mosquito.”

You turned your glare on him so sharp it could've sliced through stone. Your eyes told him this is an important meeting, and you’re ruining it. His brain finally caught on, and he sat stiffly in place.

But it didn’t end there. Oh no. Throughout the meeting, he kept jumping into conversations, interrupting at the worst times, and making sarcastic remarks under his breath. And the worst part? He genuinely thought he was helping. He thought you were annoyed at them.

Meanwhile, all you wanted… was for him to just leave the damn room.

When the meeting finally wrapped up, you sent off the group with your brightest, most painfully fake smile. Then you turned on him the second the door shut.

“Mystery, what the fuck?” you snapped, slamming your clipboard onto the table. “Aren’t you usually quiet? Why are you making my life harder today?”

He blinked at you. Processing. Silently. Inside, his mind was spiraling.

She hates when I talk? Wait—so if I stay quiet, she won’t be mad...?

Romance had told him once, “Girls like it when you’re protective. Jump in when some guy gets too close. Be the cold, mysterious type, then bam, heroic move.” But Romance didn’t mention anything about the girl turning into a raging storm after.

Maybe Romance was wrong. Or perhaps he was just bad at it.

Either way, he decided then and there — maybe it's better to go back to the version of himself you never noticed. The quiet one. The unreadable one. The Mystery. Because apparently, the moment he opened his mouth... he just became a nuisance to you.

Abby

"Abby, no. I don't want to touch your abs. And I'm definitely not looking at them."

You didn’t even try to mask your irritation anymore. Abby was clinging to you again, draped over your arm like an overgrown child.

You were exhausted. Weeks of prepping for this crucial meeting with the rival group had you barely functioning — sleepless nights, caffeine-fueled days, and more stress than your body could reasonably handle.

And Abby… wasn’t helping. At all. If anything, he made things worse.

The other Saja Boys, at least, knew to give you space. They could tell just from looking at you — the dark circles under your eyes, the tightness in your voice, the way you snapped at anything that moved too fast. But not Abby.

He’d been in your room nearly every night these past few weeks, hovering, lounging, existing — claiming the foot of your bed or slumping over your desk like a cat. No reason. No invitation. You told him to leave. You tried to push him out. He never listened. Eventually, you just… gave up and let him be.

From his side, things looked different. Romance had told him once: "When a girl is stressed, she just needs someone to talk to. Be there for her. Don’t leave her alone."

And Abby — sweet, literal Abby — had taken those words as gospel. So when you raised your voice? He thought you were venting. When you kicked him out? He thought it meant stay. He thought maybe… you needed him.

But now?

After a grueling meeting, after you’d smiled through clenched teeth and juggled chaos for hours, the last thing you needed was him joking around. The moment the guests left, you turned to him, expression blank, voice flat.

"Abby, has anyone ever told you that you’re fucking annoying?" You stared him down, the exhaustion in your eyes cutting deeper than your words.

He froze, stunned like someone just pulled the ground out from under him. It took a few seconds for the words to land, to make sense.

'I’m… annoying?'

But by the time he opened his mouth to respond, you were already gone — marching out with your clipboard and files in hand, your back turned, your patience snapped.

And Abby just stood there, alone in the quiet room, his arms falling to his sides, staring at your back that turned to him without regret.

Romance

"That’s a lovely hairstyle,” Romance said coolly, resting his chin on his palm. “But I think she likes mine more than yours.”

His eyes locked onto the guy sitting a little too close to you, not that it was actually close, but for Romance, even a few inches felt like a threat. His voice was laced with teasing, but that sharp glare beneath his lashes gave him away.

He wasn’t jealous.

…Okay, maybe a little.

…Okay, he was jealous.

You hadn’t even noticed the so-called offense. You were busy, focused, managing things like you always did — and Romance was supposed to be quiet like he promised. But now he was nudging your arm, voice honey-sweet:

“Oh, it’s almost time for our date, darling. Don’t you want to go get ready now?” You turned sharply and shoved his arm off yours, glaring daggers at him.

“What do you want?” you hissed under your breath, leaning in close while the others kept talking with their manager. Your tone was low and deadly, your eyes demanding an answer.

“You.” He winked. And that? That was the spark that lit the fuse. You sucked in a sharp breath, gripping your clipboard like a weapon.

“Shut the fuck up. I’ll deal with you later.” You turned away before you said something worse, forcing a smile back onto your face and jumping right back into the conversation with the rival group.

Later, when the guests had finally left, you started tidying the room — roughly. Slamming down documents, yanking off power cords, wiping the table down like it had insulted your ancestors.

“Leave your flirting skills to your fans,” you snapped, flipping the light switch off with too much force. You didn’t even look at him as you stormed out of the room, hoping your exit would finally shake him off.

“But—”

“No buts! Just leave me alone!” you exploded, spinning around to face him. “I have a boyfriend, Romance.”

It came out in a rush. A lie. A sharp, stupid, panicked lie you threw out like a smoke bomb, just to make him back off.And for once… it worked. You left. He didn’t follow. Romance stood there, frozen, your words replaying over and over in his head.

I have a boyfriend, Romance.

He wasn’t sure what hurt more — the fact that you didn’t trust him to be serious, or the idea that maybe… just maybe… someone else had already taken the place he desperately wanted to stand in.

Mwah thank you so much for reading <3 Took me quite some time cuz I movie didn't give us enough character development... I literally had to make scenarios in my head to fall asleep every night just to get ideas AAHHHHHHH. Aight gotta start writing all of your requests ^^

[internetskiff]

The Knight is very clearly a direct foil to us but I think it actually goes much deeper than it simply being an antagonistic force. I think it might be acting as a vessel or vehicle to an entity thats a direct mirror to our soul.

There seems to be a lot of visual emphasis on an object resting within the Knight's torso specifically as it roars and performs its final attack in Chapter 3. I don't think it's been put there for no reason. I believe this Eye may be a direct narrative mirror to us, serving a similar role to Flowey in Undertale - it might represent a player that's been through this story so many times its grown bored, and is now repeatedly doing nothing but running its own "Weird Route". It seems to be manipulating townsfolk into doing its bidding, having little to no care for dialogue and resolving things through overwhelming and swift force. In that way, I believe when we embark on the Weird Route we actually begin to play the game by the Knight's own playbook, beginning to manipulate others to serve our own purposes and focusing on increasing our strength. If the Eye is really a seperate entity and not simply a piece of the Knight's body, it would also introduce a very interesting theme between the two "Vessels" that sort of connects them. Both of them are depicted as knightly, with obscured eyes - they don't need them to see, they've got someone in the sky (or, perhaps in the Knight's case, down below?) watching over them. Its not entirely unlikely that this Eye, much like Flowey, was the one in control of the save file system prior to our arrival, and its somewhat cocky demeanor may come from the fact its succeeded many times before. Even with you interfering, it might think the world continues to revolve around it. Despite it losing control over the save file system, its actually got the odds stacked against us - its got the town under its thumb, and it seems to be much more effective at converting key Darkners to its cause, meanwhile we end up having to do some serious convincing. At this point in the story at least, we're quite outgunned and outnumbered.

[fuckyesbrucewayne]

I was debating on whether to make this post or not, but then I realized that if I cannot be annoying about Bruce Wayne in my Bruce Wayne Sideblog™ then what's the point. So here are basically my thoughts on why Bruce's characterization on Batman and Robin: Year One doesn't work for me, especially on this last issue.

So without further ado, let's begin!

First things first, I'm going to show the panels that are the whole reason I am making this post first, and then analyze what is happening and why I think it doesn't work for a young Bruce that is just beginning. And yes, I will be using as a basis Golden and Silver age Bruce, because he's the blueprint whether Mark likes it ot not.

(To give some context Robin got himself kidnapped, but he saved himself. Alone, I might add.)

This scene begins... with not much promise. This whole comic makes it a point that Bruce is not only clueless about raising Dick (an idea I'm not entirely against) but also makes it seem like he's kind of forced to take care of the kid? For some reason?? The comic treats it like it's a chore he has to do, and that it falls more on Alfred's shoulders than anything... and Alfred is also not very good at it, but that's another story (I'm not completely against that as a characterization choice on Alfred's side).

My whole problem with this basis is that if Bruce is not only clueless but also kind of not interested in raising Dick... Then why did he even take him in in the first place? Like, what was he thinking, and more importantly, what am I supposed to get from this? Because I'm going to assume that the reason he took him in was because he saw himself in him, right? So... it was just a selfish act?? On a whim?? That's it??? You'll understand why I feel that idea is kind of shallow, at the very least.

But going back to the page at hand, we can see that Alfred is making a point of not interfering and letting Bruce figure himself out, but also letting it be known that he... Kind of doesn't like Dick either (which is surprisingly in character with Dixon's Robin origin story, so I guess there's some basis there).

Robin's first question when they're left alone is that if he's going to get fired, which I find "fascinating" that so many modern retellings focus on, because the idea of firing was not that important in the original stories. Like, the fear of being fired was less important than the fear of being abandoned by Bruce or being replaced, that last one was very common... But firing in and of itself wasn't necessarily that big of a deal, and it never was until that infamous story of Nightwing's second origin (which I think you can guess it's not my favorite, not when the first one was so good already... But also because Max wrote himself into a corner with that one. So you're telling me Bruce fires Dick because he doesn't want a young partner and then immediately accepts 12-year-old Jason. As his partner. What.). Anyways, Bruce's answer to that loaded question is "not yet", which is. A choice. Because what are we doing here, why is Bruce taking in an orphan who has lost every semblance of family he had but is also making his position in his household so... flimsy. There was a time when it was literally only the two of them against the world, and I understand we cannot do that anymore because of Alfred, but even then writers have made it a point to write about how these two were a set, a "do not separate" team. They're the dynamic duo for fuck's sake, why is Mark making a point to write Bruce reaffirming Dick's fears about his position being temporary, what am I supposed to understand here about Bruce's character as a caregiver. And also why is he making Bruce separate himself from Dick by saying that he is rich, that the money is his, not theirs. Why are we giving the 12-year-old or however old he is supposed to be here financial insecurity.

I know you will be surprised to know this, but Bruce has always been kind of a workaholic... but not surprisingly, and contrary to what everyone wants you to believe, in his earlier years it was not so exaggerated. He used to do a lot of fun activities with Dick! If Dick wanted something he would cave like a house of cards because that was his little boy.

They went fishing a lot, they had pillow fights, they went to the lake, to the beach, camping, they had fun a lot of the time, HE USED TO TELL DICK TO TAKE IT EASY!!!! Hell, they didn't even go looking for cases most of the time, they would go to a museum or try to relax and a bomb would fucking explode.

So... why are we making a point to show Bruce IN HIS FIRST YEAR WITH DICK telling him that "yeah actually every day matters and if you are not doing something productive you deserve to suffer or whatever". What is going on here. I'm not saying that Dick's workaholic tendencies don't come partly from Bruce, but we all forget that Dick has been a child star athlete since he was five at the very least.

Hell, this comic literally goes into a tangent in the next page about this.

And here we arrive to my last straw with this comic. I'm going to kill someone I fear. In what universe, in what fucking universe, is Bruce Thomas Wayne telling Richard John "Dick" Grayson that he made a mistake in taking him in. Why are we accepting and even praising this characterization. I'm not even going to say anything I'm just going to leave comic panels here.

But yeah this was the page, the panel, that ended it for me. We're not coming back from this. And if you think next page fixes it because Bruce is known to be very autistic blunt and say the first thing his brain is thinking without realizing it can be misinterpreted... Just look at this.

What is this, what is this supposed to be. What the fuck. In other circumstances the idea of "we're here to help each other" is something I wouldn't be against, but it's just the whole conversation before it that ruins it. So basically, after Bruce threatens to throw him out, reaffirms Dick's fears that his position is temporary and that Bruce has all the power in this dynamic, THEN he's like "we're here to help each other yippieeeee help me child" are we stupid. Are we stupid.

Basically I think I've made my point clear. But if not, my biggest problem is this: if Bruce has been a cold-hearted paranoid jackass since the beginning... then what's the point.

What's the point of Jason's death, of the accidentally good storytelling of Bruce going through traumatic event after traumatic event (Jason's death, Knightfall, No Man's Land, Fugitive, Identity Crisis, etc., ETC.) and coming out of them more cynical, more changed, more broken. If he's always been cold and callous, if there was never any fun, any whimsy, any love... then how did Dick become so devoted to him.

Why do they both miss the good old days if there is nothing to miss.

What am I supposed to be understanding here, about the dynamic duo's relationship. And most important of all... What's the point. If this relationship is based on abuse, if this relationship has nothing good going for it, if Bruce has been always an abusive monster and Dick a poor victim that didn't know any better, then what's the point. What is the point of Batman and Robin, if this is all there has always been. Is this all Bruce is allowed to be using this toxic view of masculinity as his basis. Is he not allowed to be fun, to be loving, to feel anything outside of anger or annoyance.

Why does he barely smile at Dick in this comic, even when they're out of the suit, if he is supposed to be in his first few years? Where's the tragedy then, in knowing he used to make him laugh.

Why does he suddenly not seem to like Dick for who he is? Because that's the thing, it just seems like he doesn't like him, like there's no reason he took him in other than a sudden whim, like they are not the fucking dynamic duo, like they are not the blueprint. They just feel like two people that don't even like each other and are forced to live together. And how is this dynamic more interesting, how is this supposed to be better than what we had. What's the point, man.

What's the point.

[ilovetoxicfictionalmen]

SO MUCH FOR A BREAKUP

Pairing - Jackson Rippner x fem!reader

Summary - You broke up with Jackson because you felt like you didn't know him, thinking he took it well was a mistake.

Warnings - 18+, noncon, smut.

Word Count - 1.3k

Break ups were shit. You’ve been through a couple, but this one was different. Because this time it was you breaking up with your boyfriend. It’s not that you fell out of love, or anything dramatic (you still loved him very much). You just felt like you didn’t know who Jackson really was. Nevertheless, Jackson was dreamy. He was obliging, supportive and protective of you. But you just didn’t know as much as you wanted to know about him, his story didn’t seem to add up at times, tampering with your trust with him. You wanted to believe him, more than anything, because you were in love with him, but he wasn’t honest with you. It became a dealbreaker, you gave him a couple of chances but he just seemed to go unphased by them. 

The break up however, went unusually good from a third party perspective. If anything, you were the one in shock. He just politely smiled, nodded and wished you all the best. Was he even upset by this? Did he even love you like he claimed? A lot came into your mind, but after your final apology, the last thing he said to you was eerie, “sure”. 

Anyways, your few days of misery must end. You’ll have a nice warm shower, have a blissful sleep and then tomorrow you’ll take your life off hold. Maybe even message Jackson during the week to see how he is doing, no, scratch that, it’s better if you don’t. 

You turn on the hot water and strip till you’re completely naked. Staring at yourself in the flogging mirror, you let out a loud sigh, you’ve been feeling so insecure with yourself recently. 

“God, I’ve missed this view,” Jackson grinned, appearing against the doorframe.

You shrieked as you spun around and covered your body from him with your arms. When you realised it was your ex, it lowered your horror only to a fraction of an extent. “Wh-what are you doing here!” You cried as you backed into the corner. Shivers ran down your spine as you pressed yourself against the cold counter.  

“Baby, I’ve seen you naked countless of times, why hide yourself now?” he chuckled as he slowly walked towards you. 

“H-how did you get in?” you stuttered, unable to keep eye contact. 

A shrug of the shoulders, “never asked me for the key back”.

“And why are you here?” You gulped, arms still covering your body. 

He stood right in front of you, grabbed onto your arms and forced them to your sides. “Because I had time to think” he sighed, caressing your tits. You felt your body submit to his touch, you missed him. Maybe he’s finally reconsidered how he’s acted, regardless, this isn’t the action you’d take. 

But then you cried out as your lower back was pushed against the counter, his hand tightened around your throat. You tried to break the hold, but it was no use. 

“Fuck baby, why did you have to break my heart?” Jackson pouted, watching you gasp for air. “I really liked playing house with you. It was such a stress reliever from work. But you just wanted to try to fuck that up for me, huh?” Jackson exhaled as he dragged you by the throat to the shower. “Maybe we can clean the brattiness off!” he exclaimed.

Forced into the shower, you gasped for air as you curled up against the cold tiles. Jackson quickly stripped down his suit and jumped into the shower with you. You’re pulled into Jackson as he grinned down at you. 

“Why did you have to hurt me like that?” he asked softly, kissing your neck. 

“I-I told you-” you sobbed, hands pressed against his chest, the water hiding your tears. 

“Yeah, kinda selfish, I don’t get how my work life interfered with us. Fuck, you didn’t think I was out fucking whores did you?” Jackson laughed. That thought did cross your mind more than once. He’s always on business trips, what else were you meant to think. 

You’re flipped around and chest pressed into the tiles. Stroking himself a couple of times, he allied his tip with your entrance. Usually he’d give a bit of foreplay to warm you up, but the water will just have to do as lube tonight. With one forceful push, Jackson groaned in relief, you didn’t react the same. 

“How could you possibly want to break up with my cock? You love my big, fat, fucking cock” he said smugly, thrusting in and out as you wailed. Jackson smirked as he felt you squeeze against him, “your pussy wraps around my dick perfectly, we both know this!” Jackson chortled.

It was terrifying, this wasn’t the Jackson you knew. The sweet, caring, charismatic man you fell in love with was gone. This was the sinister reality he wanted to protect you from. The vague words, rough touch and lack of respect. He didn’t care that he was hurting you, he didn’t care that he was physically assaulting you. 

The grip on your hips will leave a bruise. Shower sex could be difficult, it was hard to hold onto anything. So you really had to depend on your balance by how hard Jackson was pounding into you. With every pound, his balls smacked against your clit. You could only hold out for so much longer. Whimpering like crazy, you tried to hold in your tears as Jackson grunted and mumbled under his breath with your walls pulsing like crazy around him. 

Fear and dignity made you not want to come for him. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough, you clenched around him, back arched, seeing stars, moaning loud as you came hard. Jackson lent forward and wrapped his arm around your upper body to pull you back. “Did I say you could come? You filthy slut” Jackson spat by your ear, still inside of you as you’re still feeling the after waves of your orgasm. “Next time, ask for my permission” he threatened as you’re forced down to your knees. 

He slapped your face with his cock, gesturing for you to open wide. Hesitantly, you did so. Jackson echoed a slow groan as he pushed his full length down your throat. It was hard not to gag on him, but that just made him moan in return. 

“Have you told anyone of our so-called break up?” Jackson questioned in a mocking tone, as if he didn’t already know the answer and as if you could reply. He held onto the back of your head as you gently shook your head around his cock. You just wanted to spend this time alone to grieve. “Aw, see? You didn’t even want us to break up. Just some typical female hormones right?” he condescended, pushing so deep that his balls pressed against your chin. 

You nails dug into the back of his thighs as he fucked your mouth. His breathing got heavy and cock twitched in your mouth. You knew he was going to explode at any moment. “I should be coming in your cunt, getting you all pregnant and shit so you can never think about leaving me again” Jackson grunted, his fingers yanking at your hair roots as he thrusted in your mouth. 

Your moans and cries only sent sweet sensations down his cock. Your nails drew blood and it was so hard to keep your mouth open for him. If his dick wasn’t so far down your throat, he’d be able to make out your pleads and sobs. It was only a wonder if your jaw or cunt would be aching more in the morning. With a harsh moan, his seed spurted out down your throat, he held your head still with his cock buried down your throat. Eyes squinted shut, you tried your hardest to breathe through your nose. 

Eventually, Jackson let go of your head and slowly pulled himself out of your mouth. Turning off the shower, he sighed and gently helped you to stand up. Still being a crying mess, you whimpered against his touch and refused to make eye contact. 

Jackson placed his fingers underneath your chin and directed you to look at him, “well, I suppose it’s time for you to get to know the real me”.

[lexirosewrites]

with the amount of heat/rut leaves constantly happening in the omegaverse, I imagine there has to be a special firefighter position where they just pick up open shifts at stations needing coverage

what if alpha Eddie only works at the 118 when someone is on leave?

unmated omegas and alphas take a week every few months, but mated ones and those on suppressants are more stable. they might only need leave once a year

swing firefighters aren’t utilized often, so they switch stations a lot. Eddie has been doing the job for a while before he ever meets the 118

the first few times he works at the 118’s station, he’s actually covering for Buck’s heats. they’re erratic and more frequent than usual since an injury forced him to wean off his suppressants, throwing his cycle into an unpredictable whack

it means he’s missing far more work than usual and Eddie Diaz is his assigned coverage

every time Buck returns from leave, he hears the entire station talk about how amazing Eddie is. they say he’s fearless and incredible under pressure, a natural born hero

Buck hides his hurt by getting petty. he complains that Eddie used his locker and he left food in the fridge

everyone else laughs it off as Buck being dramatic. they tease him, pretend to call him the wrong name, “Diaz,” and act like they forgot he’s even returned from his leave

by the time his field partner, Ravi, goes on his annual heat leave, Buck doesn’t welcome Eddie in kindly

instead, Buck finds every possible opportunity to inconvenience and annoy Eddie as payback

it’s never done at the cost of hurting anyone or interfering with their jobs, but Buck shuts down any small talk and purposely pretends not to hear Eddie ask him to pass the salt at meals

after a full week of covering Ravi’s shifts, Buck can tell his behavior is taking a toll on Eddie and he thinks he’s won. Eddie won’t cover any of his future heat shifts now that he thinks Buck is an asshole

the 118 won’t be able to compare them if Eddie isn’t around anymore

at the end of the last of Ravi’s heat shifts, Buck walks to his Jeep triumphantly, head held high and proud of his work

he’s so lost in his victory that he doesn’t notice Eddie following right behind him until he gets pinned against the car and caged in by the strong alpha

“you wanted my attention, Buck. now you have it. what the actual fuck is your problem, man?” Eddie nearly growls in his face

Buck hasn’t seen the guy lose his cool all week, no matter what he did or said. it’s a bit shocking to see Eddie finally snap

“you are, Diaz,” he hisses

Eddie rears back as if he’s been slapped, putting some space between them

“you don’t even know me. I’ve been working with your crew for months without any issues and suddenly I’m being treated as if I did something wrong. what did I ever do to you?”

Buck deflates at the directness of the question

because the truth is that he knows Eddie hasn’t actually done anything wrong. his only real “crime” is being good at the job and making Buck feel inferior

his presence in the station has been like a constant reminder to Buck that he’s not good enough, even at his life’s purpose

Buck admits in a shamed whisper, “you came here with your stupid alpha heroics and your damn silver star. you made my whole team wish I wasn’t working here because they like you more. you wanna know what you did to piss me off, Diaz?”

Eddie takes the bait

“what did I do, Buck?”

“you didn’t just fill my shifts, you replaced me,” he tells the alpha, holding back angry tears at his confession

the look of sympathy on Eddie’s face doesn’t make him feel better, especially when he knows that logically his issue isn’t even with the swing firefighter himself

“if you heard the way they all talked about you when you’re on leave, you’d never say that, Buck”

huh?

he sniffs, wiping at his eyes to hide the evidence of his breakdown

“what do you mean by that?”

Eddie gives him a soft smile, tentatively squeezing the omega’s shoulder

“the entire station adores you. whenever I cover your shifts, the crew complains about missing your baking or say how they wish they could get your opinion on their new haircut. it’s nonstop,” Eddie chuckles. “I was actually really looking forward to finally meeting you this week”

Buck feels his cheeks heating up as he mulls over Eddie’s seemingly honest words

and the embarrassment starts to creep in too

he’s spent all week being a playground bully to Eddie in order to solve some nonexistent problem and the alpha apparently wanted to be his friend

“I’m so sorry,” Buck mumbles his apology to his shoes

“you should be”

Buck’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise at the quick response, but he sees Eddie smiling at him now

the mixed signals are confusing to say the least

Eddie continues, “you’ve been driving me crazy for months”

and he’s lost now

“how could I drive you crazy? I’ve not even been here!”

Buck realizes how hypocritical that sounds considering Eddie’s been the bane of his existence without ever meeting him, but Buck can’t think what he could’ve done in return to annoy Eddie prior to this week

the alpha chuckles at his confusion before offering up an explanation

“your locker… your gear. everything you touch. you usually work right up until your heat, so all your things are drenched in your scent and it makes me feel a little insane. this is my job, I’m used to being around heat scents, but your scent is the best thing I’ve ever experienced in my life”

oh. that’s definitely not what Buck was expecting to hear

of course he noticed how attractive Eddie was the day they met (and he’d heard stories before that too), but his distaste for the alpha overshadowed his base attraction

until now

“m-my scent?” Buck squeaks out breathily

Eddie’s back in his space, leaving no room between their bodies as he speaks directly into the omega’s ear

Buck is immediately grateful they were the last to leave for the night

“the first time I got fully hit in the face with it, I almost needed to get coverage for my own spontaneous rut”

he wants to call Eddie’s bluff, skeptical that anyone would be that affected by his scent, but then he can feel the bulge in the alpha’s pants pressing insistently against his thigh and he reconsiders

“why did you wait so long to say anything? I’ve been here all week with you”

Eddie chuckles low in his ear, hot breath on Buck’s neck causing him to shiver and his thighs to clench as he feels slick starting to run down his leg

“because, sweetheart… I’m not employed by the LAFD. I work on short term contracts, but as of 10 minutes ago, I’m a free man again and I can do this”

and then Eddie’s got both hands cupping Buck’s face while he locks their mouths together in what is the most intense kiss of Buck’s entire life

they finally break apart after a long minute, panting for air, lips still brushing

“I have a roomy backseat,” Buck offers

Eddie pulls them both inside

they don’t leave the parking lot that night until Buck’s been fingered open, eaten out until he’s squirting all over Eddie’s face, and gushing around the alpha’s knot with promises of pups

by the next week, Buck’s convinced Bobby to offer Eddie a full time position with the team

[fenrysmoonbeamswife]

Masterpost #1

Topic: Cassian is an abusive bastard

- Told Nesta everyone hates her

- Told her he couldn't understand why her sisters loved her

- Harassed her even when she continuously told him to leave her alone

- Followed her home

- Locked her up and acted as her jailer. Forced her to train as a warrior because she was using sex as a coping mechanism and proceeded to abuse that coping mechanism and have sex with her when she was at her most emotionally vulnerable

- Had sex with her at a time he had so much authority over her he dictated what she ate

- Purposely had Azriel pack a heavy bag so she would physically suffer on the hike

- Didn't stand up for her or even blink when Rhysand threatened to kill her

- Realized she was suicidal and continued to force her on a hike with lethal drops and didn't bother to look back at her for hours and days until she fainted

- Didn't tell her that Feyre wasn't angry with her anymore, leaving her in mental agony for days

- Forced her to physically exert herself while simultaneously using mental abuse until she collapsed physically and had a complete mental breakdown

- Had sex with her after her mental breakdown as some sort of reward for finally breaking for him

- Sexualized her and focused on her boobs after pointing out that she was emaciated from not eating because she was so depressed

- Used her fathers death against her because she *checks notes* wouldn't eat her plain oatmeal

- Put hands on her directly after finding out about Tomas and wouldn't let go until she physically hurt him the only way she could

- Planned for 10 minutes how to rile her up and argue with her and then villainized her

- He has built their entire relationship on spite, he treats her like an obligation something broken he needs to fix but never with understanding or empathy. Something that was forced on him pursued her against her will while ignoring her boundaries. Their entire relationship is based on power plays and asserting dominance over her

- Borderline violent and degrading sex with no aftercare while she is at her lowest

- Using her body to calm his own frustrations while blatantly ignoring her emotional state

- Emotional manipulation. He consistently uses her vulnerability against her, pushes her to get better on his terms while simultaneously throwing her failures in her face, making her feel unworthy, abusing her coping mechanisms, laughing at her pain. Perpetuating that she is only worthy if she falls in line with what he and the IC want from her. He consistently attempts to mold her into being someone more palatable (Feyre) rather than accepting who she is and helping her for who she is

- He contributes directly to her ultimate breakdown. He does nothing to help when she's quite literally begging for support and even goes so far as to worsen her situation repeatedly

- Villainizing her even when she's being perfectly placid. Eg. During the solstice scene she is pleasant, she wishes Feyre HB, thanks Elain for her gifts profusely, speaks nicely with Azriel, sits back and allows them to exchange gifts without interfering (though they forced her to be there and got her nothing), kisses Elain fondly before leaving, she mostly just sits their the entire time and Cassians POV afterwards?? "He'd had enough of the coldness, the sharpness. Enough of the sword straight spine and sharp stare." Not that she was blackmailed into coming, ignored all night and had gifts flaunted in front of her and was STILL pleasant

- Agreed with Mor when she equated Nesta with her borderline evil abusers. AND thought about how he was blown away by Mor's beauty while she sat there saying that Nesta should be tortured in a dungeon

- Affirmed her insecurities every chance he could

- Heard about how she was groomed and preyed on at 14 and made it about himself

- Judged her for being a child and not parenting another child the first second he met her even though she allowed him into her home

- Sees how strong her emotions are for others and then later claims that "she barely seems to care about anyone other than Elain"

- Laughs when she falls down the stairs, she has bruises and a black eye from this fall

- Doesn't correct her when she voices her feeling that she isn't good enough for him and doesn't deserve him

- Laughs behind her back that Rhysand is happy she will hate the hike

- She collapses every day on the hike and never speaks and all he says is "at least remove the pack so I can cook myself dinner"

- Works her to the point of literally fainting face first and he yells at her

- When she breaks down finally and tells him how much she hates herself, he tells her how much he loves Rhysand

- Claims there is nothing broken to be fixed yet he forces her to obey him and change everything about herself and behave in the way he approves of

- When she attempts to be open and communicative with him and explains how mate doesn't mean to her what it means to him because she's still human at heart he dismisses her and says it's bullshit

- When she calls in her bargain he doesn't respect it and immediately thinks of a way to get around it. He does not respect her or the boundaries she attempts to set. She says she wants a week alone yet he shows up the very next day and acts like she just wasn't clever enough to evade him

- While she is terrified and hoping he will come rescue her from the blood rite he says he even if he could he wouldn't

- He never says I love you NOT ONCE

- When Rhysand yells at and threatens Nesta for helping Bryce, Cassian does not defend her and even joins in and snarls at her

- Says he can take whatever she throws at him and then literally two seconds later he fucks her out of it for saying something mildly rude about Rhysand

The fact that I could keep going and going but I'm just too angry. Cassian sucks and anyone who likes him is perpetuating the forgiveness of abusive men. I don't care if he is a fictional character, he is a carbon copy of real life abusive men and the support of him and blatant ignoring of his abuse is disgusting and harmful. I'm sorry but anyone who claims to love Nesta but loves Cassian?? Uh YA LYING. If your best friend or your mother was being treated the way Cassian treats Nesta would you be happy with their relationship? I don't think so.

Inspired by @kataraavatara because she slays

[ripplestitchskein]

I find the general idea of Stolitz being “toxic” to be fucking hilarious. It’s thrown around so easily like it should be accepted that they fit this definition and….they really, really don’t lol. Like they have a pretty chill and common miscommunication and personal issues interfering with wants and desires conflict. Like I cannot stress how fucking chill it is. They don’t actively hurt one another intentionally, neither are trying to murder the other directly or indirectly, they are not on opposing sides of a larger external conflict save for inherent world class dynamics, they don’t manipulate each other or work against each other, etc. They say hurtful things and argue and are oblivious to the other’s issues but like, in a fairly normal neurodivergence and historical trauma driven way.

They do begin with a mutually agreed upon transactional sexual dynamic, which is often the crux of these “Stolitz is soooo toxic” arguments to the point the really intense anti’s cry SA. A transactional sexual dynamic Blitz was so okay with when it is no longer agreeable to the other party, and they communicate that and change the parameters in a way that gives him full autonomy, he spends half an episode trying to return to that dynamic. Much trauma. Very coerced. 🙄

There is a power imbalance but it only exists in the sense that one person is societally more powerful by nature of his birth and ignorant to it by nature of his upbringing. Stolas does not force Blitz into said transactional sex dynamic by exerting his power or influence so it’s largely irrelevant save for how it impacts Blitz’s personal self worth issues and it is never from a place of malicious intent. Which is what matters in media? Character intent and decisions are literally the crux of the narrative?? Stolas figures out it’s a problem for the type of relationship he really wants to have and corrects it and even goes above and beyond to ensure that Blitz will suffer no fall out from his choice if he decides to not pursue their romantic relationship further. Like, toxic WHOMST? Just, don’t talk to me about toxic until they get hot and bothered about how well the other tried to actively murder them. We have had zero poisonings or major betrayals in this ship and ya’ll throwing around toxic like words have no meaning.

“But he called Blitz his impish little plaything! He thinks of Blitz as a toy! As a sub-species!” Or maybe, just maaaaybe the sexually inexperienced character who is making shit up as he goes along based on his canonically identified incorrect perceptions of what the other wants/likes as well as ignorance of his own power and position thought he was just being sexy and cute? Just maybe? Like can we apply a smidgeon of deductive reasoning based on the sum rather than the parts? As a treat.

It just speaks to what I have observed as probable immaturity/lack of life experience driving a lot of the criticism or straight up vitriol regarding the show’s major conflicts. A very black and white application of moral purity that deems anything not rainbows and sunshine as toxic and where the ultimate goal is some nebulous and frankly hella ableist concept of “healthy”.

A similar thing plays out with regards to Octavia and the classification of Stolas as a “bad parent” because he is pursuing a relationship and has issues of his own to deal with on top of parenting. Heaven forbid a closeted gay man raised in isolation going through some late in life awakenings is not perfectly navigating an ill defined relationship and a divorce and raising a child on top of his myriad of mental health issues. What gets me the most is she’s not even a young child, she’s 17 possibly even 18 at this point in the timeline but the way people act he abandoned an infant at a flophouse to get his rocks off with someone who fears he will smite them down with his incredible Goetian might and if they refuse they’ll be living out of a gutter eating dirt because they wouldn’t perform sexually for him. Instead of the in-universe reality where the most egregious thing Stolas has done is fail to consider his daughters perspective and how this impacts her, made some inappropriate sexual comments really early on in front of her when he was still excited, and forgot, during a major life upheaval, a promise to watch a meteor shower he made to her like a decade ago. He didn’t even forget the promise itself, he just forgot what day it was. Like I forget shit I promised my kids last week much less when they were like 5.

Like there is such a huge disconnect between actual toxic behavior portrayals in media with regards to relationships and parenting, or hell toxic relationships and parents in real life, and what is going on in Helluva Boss. This is ignoring the fact that the actual universe of the show, which is what should be the metric when examining character dynamics not reality, has established real toxicity in both relationships and behavior, and has shown us time and time again how that toxicity contrasts with our characters and their relationships, be it Stolitz or Fizzmodeous or Moxxie/Millie or the parenting dynamics of Blitz & Loona and Stolas & Octavia. We have examples of toxic relationships, and we have examples of toxic parents in this world and we’ve been shown that the relationships of the main characters is in opposition to them.

But even if you were to take the, imo incorrect, position of applying real world considerations to fictional worlds it still doesn’t track as toxic.

Do you realize how many sexual transactions and power imbalances occur in relationships everyday as just a matter of course?

Like “I’ll wear that outfit you like if you do this for me?” Normal, Transactional. Accepted straight couple in a sitcom premise. I would wager “I’ll preform this sex act if you do X” is said in one way or another without anyone batting an eye a hundred times a day. And that’s ignoring the implication that transactional sex is inherently problematic. It isn’t, it’s the coercive aspect that is an issue and even then we get real handwavey about it in reality when the situation isn’t explicitly coercive.

“I’m a police officer/government agent/politician/media influencer/sole household income earner that has the ability to fuck up your entire life/reputation/financial stability just by nature of my job and how well we are getting along” is perfectly fine and normal. No one would suggest that a police office or government agent can only be involved with someone of equal systemic or social power in reality. Do my partner and I have a toxic power imbalance because I am the sole working person in our household and they are a stay at home parent and I hold all the financial power? No, that’s fucking silly.

Not to be all “sweet summer children I grew up in the trenches of toxic” about it but it’s the most baffling part of this fandom that a pretty low key conflict and relationship dynamic, where neither party is actively trying to hurt the other and has approached the entire thing from a place of earnest confusion and ignorance and is working through it in a pretty normal way is classified as “toxic”. Get back to me when they are poisoning each other, have killed several of each other’s loved ones and there is necromancy involved.

[shizunitis]

your og idea of binghe just avoiding sqq after the abyss after time traveling is rotting my brain. all I can think is sqq growing increasingly agitated when he realizes binghe won't be coming after him after all. that he might just never see binghe again. that binghe doesn't even care enough to hate him anymore? and this is how he ends up orchestrating sqq's downfall event 2.0 to get binghe's attention because HE DESERVES HIS REVENGE OKAY!!! while binghe wonders what the fuck is going on now where did he go wrong why is this all happening

EXACTLY! YES!

and binghe can’t even act panicked about it! he’s a good actor, he knows the stakes! he can’t just run away with his tail between his legs; he has to prove shen qingqiu right, and then everything will be fine!

they arrest shen qingqiu and binghe fucking sprints over realms to get there in time and distract everyone with a half-assed and ultimately failed assassination plot against the old palace master. when no one manages to catch him, he finally does the worst thing possible. a crime unforgivable in shen qingqiu’s eyes.

he monologues.

for a good chunk of time, luo binghe goes on and on and on about his monstrous, evil, deliberate plans of destroying the cultivation world. and what better way to do that than to attack the wealthiest sect in a time of such importance as a cang qiong peak lord’s trial? hah! fine! you’ve backed him into a corner!

(he is freely walking around and no one is trying to stop him. shen qingqiu’s eyebrow twitches.)

he’ll explain! the truth is—

(shen qingqiu winces.)

—he manipulated the peak lord’s memories! he’s the reason shen qingqiu’s qi deviation altered his personality so badly!

(shen qingqiu’s brain makes the “?” zelda sound. binghe! this master is a transmigrator! at least lie better!)

he was born evil! and so he will wreak havoc upon the human realm! simply because of his evil nature! that he has! that. natural evil. he— he surely knows how to sow chaos simply for the fuck of it and for no end whatsoever! …certainly.

shen qingqiu finally tries to intervene and binghe just talks over him. he goes, “and you! my so-called…” he winces, hides it under a pitying gaze, and apologises in his mind. “my so-called shizun! you were my pawn for so many years! this lord had use of you still, but alas! my plans were thwarted by these heartless, cunning cultivators! damn you!”

he does not shake his fist, but only just. he harrumphs and leaves in a flurry of sleeves and demonic qi. very evil-like, yes.

the cultivators gathered for the trial are, to put it mildly, very confused. the old palace master is forced to apologise, but nothing else comes of it, which gets binghe thinking: finally! a reason to torment someone! time to plot evil things!

his evil plots, over the next however many years, leave almost no victims. everyone is starting to catch on. finally the whole su xiyan thing is revealed and the cultivators ask him (after another… evil… plan) if that’s why he hunted down the old palace master and interfered with huan hua palace’s missions so much.

“uh.” he takes a moment. “sure. yeah! sure, let’s go with that.”

“then why’d you fight tianlang-jun? it, like. levelled a mountain. zhao hua spent three months treating him and he still tilts to the side when he’s running.”

luo binghe does not answer. shen qingqiu and shang qinghua look at each other like this

and liu qingge finally starts suspecting something is amiss here.

meng mo is very, very tired. he’d thought for a second his not-disciple would finally act his lineage. he should’ve known. this useless kid only knows three things and two of them are shen qingqiu related.

[flamigoat]

THE BRIGHT KNIGHT AU 🗡️❄️✨

- A DELTARUNE Weird Route AU

AU where Berdly’s soul is split between the Dark and Light worlds due to the nature of his coma.

Berdly has two forms, his soul in the Lightworld, and The Bright Knight in the Darkworld whenever a new fountain emerges.

I want to include him in a gameplay perspective and a story perspective, so, I’ll explore that in the thread below! 👇🧵✨

Ideas and feedback are very welcome, of course. I think it’s an interesting idea in a Hard Mode kind of way.

Let’s begin with Light world Berdly, the one I don’t have much to say about yet.

He’s a somber spirit, following Noelle from the Library to protect her. He serves as her guardian angel in a way. Once in the Holiday home, he hides in her vents, like the soul does in CH 4.

This causes a twist on the vent stealth mission in chapter 4. YOU are there, but Berdly’s soul is also there. He chases you to prevent you from getting close to her room’s vent.

It does damage when bumping into your soul. After solving a puzzle to distract him, you may proceed.

The Bright Knight is a meddling force that shows up in the weird route only. An enemy ally meant to make the game more difficult for the player specifically.

Battles can be interfered at random by The Bright Knight. His attacks and special moves prolonging the length of battles.

As of now, he’d appear in Chapter 3’s board game battle segments.

He can damage the soul in combat using attacks similar to Berdly’s, but harder to dodge.

However, if one of these attacks his the soul, it only does damage to Kris. They are the only one he is targeting, after all.

If he ever found out that the player was forcing Kris’s hand like some sick puppet, like a video game character, he’d treat the player with the same things that torment him as an ultimate gamer.

Becoming an absolute NIGHTMARE to any speed runners.

The Bright Knight prolongs battles, randomizes puzzles by interfering with them before the gang even reaches them, ruining speed running guides to cheat puzzles.

He acts as an annoying pest to the player who’s just trying to get to the next segment of their game.

When the player hits a certain story beat in the video game boards in Chapter 3, they’ll have the option to face him in battle within the video game world as a secret boss.

After defeating his video game form, the gang is given an automatic T-Rank on the board he appears in.

After this battle, he will not bother the player for the rest of the chapter. Needing time to recover.

When coming up with his Dark World persona, the name, “The Bright Knight”, clicked for me.

At first, bright knight was a play on words for the term, “white knight”, but there’s more to it—

Bright also refers to how he thinks of himself and Noelle, the brightest, or smartest students in the class.

The name nods to his role in the AU’s plot, becoming a rival against Kris, whom he perceives as Noelle’s abuser.

A hero fighting against the player’s actions.

Kris is being controlled by the soul, but Berdly doesn’t know that (yet), so his main goal is to take down Kris before they harm Noelle further.

He wants to protect his friend. His only friend. The only person that cared for him.

If it means defeating Kris, then so be it.

[saixria]

I’m not usually opposed to hcs but this “Ares used dark quick thought to help Odysseus in 600 strike” and other divine intervention theories are getting OUT OF HAND ITS THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE (TLDR at the end)

To start, Vengeance saga hit as hard as it did because Odysseus is all alone. Just listen to the intro of dangerous, the pause where the crew should’ve sung in response like in Full Speed Ahead. Because of all the choices he’s made, he’s fully alone now, and this is the first time he’s ever had to fight without his crew. Charybdis being a mortal facing up against a huge unsurvivable monster AND WINNING is what makes it so POWERFUL, and same goes with GITW/ 600 Strike. It’s the most impactful as a 1v1, Odysseus facing the cause of all his grief throughout the musical, he himself delivering every blow onto Poseidon on behalf of his dead crew. It’s CATHARTIC for him, and for us as the audience, because it’s a perfect ending to what Poseidon started in Ruthlessness when he taught Odysseus to be ruthless.

Dark Quick Thought also just kinda. Cheapens his character development. Dark quick thought inherently causes rage according to Jorge, basically making them more ruthless. If we relegate the reason Odysseus was so enraged and ruthless in straight up torturing Poseidon to Ares’ Dark Quick Thought, that just makes all the build up of Odysseus learning to use ruthlessness and to be a monster worthless. Dark QT isn’t why he’s acting so cold and ruthless; it’s all that he’s endured, forcing him to transform into a monster that disregards all morals just to get home, just to survive. It was Odysseus’ own decision to become a monster, like he literally said “I’m gonna use ruthlessness” in the song Dangerous, not because of any Dark QT influence. The fact that all his rage is coming only from himself, from his grief and exhaustion, and not Dark QT makes this moment all the more haunting.

The fact that this is the climax of his transformation is, and I’m not joking when I say this, illustrated by the line “next to my wife”. The whole musical “sleeplessness” (lol) has always been an indicator of guilt. E.g. “until it is said I cannot rest” “I no longer dream only nightmares of those who died” “I could sleep at night” etc. Even in LiP he was still haunted by guilt, since he’s trapped in Ogygia it feels like all he’s sacrificed has been completely worthless — he killed his whole crew for nothing. His response to Poseidon asking him how he’d sleep at night was “next to my wife”, showing he’s truly “thrown his guilt away” all to get home to see his wife — the only thing he cares about now.

Last thing, the gods just don’t like directly interfering in each others business. Hermes gave Odysseus a windbag and advice but that was it, hes still on his own at the end of the day. There’s a reason for why Athena didn’t ask Zeus to tell Poseidon to chill, why Hermes didn’t directly beat Zeus up for Odysseus. That helps make God Games MORE IMPACTFUL, because here are the gods, stubborn and set in their ways against directly helping mortals, and here’s Athena going through the trouble to request divine intervention ANYWAY, all for her friend. It makes no sense for any other god to randomly come and help Odysseus when they don’t even know the man.

I have no problem with people having fun imagining what would happen if the gods had helped Odysseus fight Poseidon, I’m just really frustrated bc I see so many people say this is “what actually happened” or “what should’ve happened” instead of being a fun hypothetical. There is no proof at all that any other gods came to help Odysseus in 600 Strike; the red eyes in the animatic is literally just symbolic and acts as contrast to Poseidon’s blue glowing gills on his shirt during the darkened torture scene.

TLDR: Direct divine intervention in 600 strike makes Odysseus’ isolation less impactful, cheapens his transformation into a ruthless monster and is just not realistic for the gods to do since they don’t interfere with each others business much.

[cauli-is-awake]

life series theorising (spoilers ahead beware)

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

i like lore and was bored so i compiled this neat lil theory about the life series'.

the main thought in this is, what if it was meant to end with secret life?

and that's why it was so different from the other series before? it was meant to be a big dramatic finale from the watchers and it got fucked up by the players still, and that's why we have wild life -where the watchers are angry and have completely let loose- .

think about it, the really obvious watcher reference in the secret keeper, no more mystery and controlling the games ominously from the shadows, they were directly "we are in control and doing this to you". the tasks getting harder and building up to the final "win secret life" it's so much an order than any other finale:

third life "there can only be one winner" -grian desperately wants to remain in his desert peacefully with scar but is forced to give it up to make it so there is only one winner as the watchers intended. even his jump of the cliff is an act of defiance, killing himself on his terms.

last life "i've spent all season being honourable, im not about to stop now" -scott isn't in a bloodlust like many other players, he is defying the watchers, not by living on peacefully (for he knows that isn't possible) but by having a fair match, being honest and never betraying allies and ending it in a similar fashion, the watchers are furious and strike him down for defying them, vowing to end this treachery.

double life "tilly death do us part" -pearl is given the win by scott. in lore you cant tell me that wasn't purposeful a pairing, and after sessions and sessions of fighting it all comes to an end with scott's sacrifice (already going against the watchers in not going with his soulmate and again by killing himself). the watchers are hoping, WAITING for this full scale fight that never happened. and the worst part is, PEARL FORGAVE HIM. they made up. the watchers are fucking pissedddd.

limited life "this is a death match for a reason" -martyn in the watchers grasps is common is lim life fics, and it leans into that build up of wanting control and watching players thwart it every time, so they full on possess a player and make him win the way they want, with betrayal and violence (even better the players were trying to organise another "fair fight" between the final three). They brought back the boogie, maybe that was there anger festering and they had to cause more chaos and bloodshed and on such short notice just borrowed from Last life? Even the life gimmick of lim life kinda feels like a hint at the near end, time is counting down like the watchers patience and willingness to play, once the countdown (limlife) is over, the finale begins. This time the game ends as the watchers want BECAUSE they interfered, proving to themselves they still control the games.

then we get to secret life and everything is meant to end:

jimmy isn't the first to die (canary curse)

scotts alliance breaks apart (his loyalty is finally tested)

a substantial amount of murder from non reds (boogey apocalypse)

in secret life everything changes

BUT IT DIDNT (dun dun dun)

LIZZIE DIED FIRST BUT WAS STUCK IN THE VOID, CANARY CURSE CONTINUES

GEM AND THE SCOTTS FALL APART IN THE BOOGEY APOCALYPSE BUT SCOTT IS STILL LOYAL AND LAYS DOWN HIS LIFE FOR GEM

AND PEOPLE SURVIVE THE BOOGEY APOCALYPSE, SO THE TASK FAILS

(i could draw more differences but this is enough example for me)

so their big dramatic finale failed

maybe that's why scar lived?

the watchers forgot him in the secret life world in their rage

UNTIL WILDLIFE:

when they are throwing everything at them possible (WILDNESS)

(atleast this time it seems to be working if mumbo's death is anything to go by)

thanks for listening to my yapping ^-^

i love drawing silly conclusions from the series

[egirlkelly69]

Guys I've had this idea for so long it's been driving me absolutely insane.

shigaraki X fem¡Villain reader

The club pulsed with heavy bass, the air thick with sweat, perfume, and alcohol. Neon lights flickered across the dance floor, casting erratic shadows over grinding bodies and groups of drunks swaying to the music.

Shigaraki stood near the bar, arms crossed, gaze flickering between the target, just some low-level underworld informant, and you. More specifically, your dress.

It wasn’t like you dressed modestly all the time, but this? This was different. The little black dress clung to your curves, riding dangerously high on your thighs, and the way the dim lights caught the sheen of your skin. It was too much. He hated it. Hated that it was working.

He had already snapped at Twice and Toga before they left the hideout, telling them to shut up when they teased about how 'dolled up' you looked. But the real problem was the way he couldn’t stop looking at you now. Every time his eyes traced the length of your legs or the curve of your hips, he clenched his fists, forcing himself to glare elsewhere. This was a mission. Not some fucked-up test of his self-control.

The target sat in a VIP booth, a fat glass of whiskey in his hand and a disgusting smirk on his face as he whispered something to the woman beside him. Shigaraki was trying to figure out how to grab him without the bouncers interfering when you suddenly leaned in close.

“I have an idea.”

He turned his head sharply, wary of the smugness in your tone.

You gestured toward the target, brushing a loose strand of hair behind your ear. “Give me a few minutes. Wait for me outside.”

His eyes narrowed. “The hell are you-”

You were already walking away, hips swaying as you moved toward the booth. Shigaraki’s whole body tensed as he watched you approach the man, your expression shifting seamlessly; eyes softening, lips quirking up just right.

He knew you were acting. He knew that. But watching you drop into that seat beside the guy, brushing his arm, leaning in close enough for the idiot to get ideas. It burned.

His fingers twitched, and he had to physically stop himself from marching over there and snapping the guy’s neck.

He forced himself to stay put. Grinding his teeth, he watched as the man, fucking delighted, grabbed his drink and slung an arm around you, practically drooling at the attention. You laughed at something he said, and Shigaraki’s stomach twisted into knots.

This was fucking stupid.

Still, you were good. Too good. It didn’t take long before the guy was nodding like a dog, downing the rest of his drink and letting you take his hand.

Shigaraki’s jaw locked as you led him toward the back exit, disappearing into the alley.

He followed.

The moment he stepped outside, he saw you pressed against the brick wall, the man hovering far too close. You were smirking, but Shigaraki hated how satisfied the bastard looked.

“Hey,” you said sweetly, “do me a favor and close your eyes.”

The drunk asshole chuckled, stumbling slightly as he slurred, “Damn, you’re eager, huh?”

Shigaraki moved.

Faster than either of you expected, he grabbed the guy by the back of his collar and yanked him away from you, throwing him against the wall with a heavy thud.

The man barely had time to gasp before Shigaraki’s fingers wrapped around his throat, one shy of complete decay.

“You had your fun,” he growled, voice low, dangerous. “Now we’re doing this my way.”

The informant let out a garbled, terrified noise, his earlier drunken bravado fading instantly.

You exhaled, shaking your head. “Well, that’s one way to do it.”

Shigaraki didn’t answer. His grip tightened briefly before he released the man; just enough to keep him conscious, to keep him afraid. His attention flickered back to you, and the fire in his chest flared when he caught the smug tilt of your lips.

“Oh?” you mused, stepping closer, voice teasing. “What’s with that look, boss? Jealous?”

He scowled, shoving the informant forward so he stumbled. “Shut the hell up and move.”

But the way he kept his death grip on the guy's collar, the way his fingers twitched when he glanced at your dress again...

Yeah. He was jealous. And you both knew it.

[fandom-go-round]

Hmm, I'm pretty sure this would work as Angst prompt, but I'm not sure. So how about Shuten douji and Tamamo no mae with a Male S/O.

Thing is the S/O is NOT a master though he does participate with Rayshifts and lost belts. The thing is, since he's not a master said girls are more inclined to go into her bad habits and not care about whether you like it or not. So shuten has a habit of being overly rough, possessive and being sexualy affectionate whether you like it or not cause to her you're her property.

With Tamamo, she's very controlling and forceful about her wants and advances. She isn't afraid to put a curse on you either to get her way. They're minor, of course, but inconvenient. She's your wife, no if ands or buts, so you will do what she's wants cause she knows best. A good example of how she's acting us Fate/extella Tamamo when she's acting all antihero like.

So the S/O is gradually feeling the Despair of having a loved one do this to them, but also being unwilling to truly do anything to stop it cause he loves them to much to see the master get rid of them so they resign themselves to this fate.

Warnings: Angst, Unhealthy Relationships, Physical Violence, Sexual Violence, Curses, Implied Dubcon,

Shuten Douji:

Being with Shuten is fun and you enjoy every second of it. She likes to party and have a good time and honestly, its nice to cut loose. You tend to be stressed with all the missions and relaxing with Shuten is a highlight. Things go from casual to more serious quickly, mostly without you noticing. That’s when things start to change and get weird.

She’s more insistent about you spending time with her, which is great until it starts interfering with your job. When you try to talk to her it doesn’t work, Shuten just smiling and giggling. She stops taking ‘no’ for an answer and something begins to curl in the bottom of your gut. She forces you to stay with her, fingers like iron around your wrists. You try to pull back when she kisses you and she just laughs, shoving you against the floor.

It’s better to pretend that everything’s ok, smile and nod and keep going. You love Shuten, you do and she loves you too! It just looks different, feels different because she’s an oni. Because she’s a Servant and you’re human. That doesn’t mean the bruises don’t hurt, that it doesn’t string when she calls you her cute little toy. You don’t mention anything, why would you? Better to love this way than not at all.

Tamamo no Mae:

Tamamo is beautiful and every time you’re with her, you feel like you’re on top of the world. She always wants to hang out with you, go on dates and just spend quality time together. It’s flattering, the attention, mostly because Master is normally the person who gets people. It makes you feel good, having this wonderful woman spend time with you. Once you accept your role and want to accept your role as husband, Tamamo begins to put her foot down.

She’s controlling about everything; where you go, who you talk to, what you do for fun. Your life starts to have an agenda, and the more you follow it, the longer it gets. If you push back or try to do something else, you get a stomach bug or start falling asleep standing up. Tamamo is eager to take care of you and while you appreciate her care, something in the back of your screams there’s a reason you don’t feel well.

Your heart screams as Tamamo gets more demanding, more controlling. You love her, of course you do, and you don’t want to lose her. It’s easier to lose your autonomy than lose Tamamo. Eventually, the curses make you feel good. She cares, why else would she cruse you? If your clothing starts to feel loose or you lose time well, that’s just the price of love.

[corpseri]

ᝰ.ᐟ serenity | 005

⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆ novel: twtptflob/roxana

⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆ databank: here

⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆ word count: 2.6k

⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆ tags: @evaxmisu, @00hellohello00, @welpthisisboring, @hsrvl264, @flyingpansaurus, @semi-wife, @elvinapandra

◄ PREVIOUS CHAPTER NEXT CHAPTER ►

a week later:

it has been a week since that shit—colored hair asshole tried to assault you, though you’ve lost count of the days, each one blending into the next in an endless cycle. now, you find yourself seated in a carriage, headed off to yggdrasil. the rhythmic clatter of wheels against uneven terrain does little to ease your discomfort. you shift awkwardly in your seat, glancing across at roxana, dion, and griselda. unlike you, they seem composed, practiced in this environment. meanwhile, you are forced to sit beside lante, his presence a heavy weight pressing against you.

he leans in slightly, his voice smooth yet laced with underlying menace. “keep your guard up and look pretty,” he instructs, his lips curling into a smirk. “i want them to focus on you. my new doll.” doll. ew.

the words, much to your dismay, send a shiver down your spine, but you suppress the urge to flinch. lante watches you closely, his sharp eyes scanning your face for any sign of defiance. “if you screw up,” he continues, his voice lowering, “you’ll be punished.” i already know that. you don’t have to remind me. you’ll send me to the punishment room — or worse.

you nod stiffly, your hands clenching into fists in your lap. the threat lingers in the air, heavy and suffocating. he’s not one to bluff, and you have no desire to find out what the punishment entails, though you can probably guess based on his… history.

out of the corner of your eye, you glance at dion. he’s as composed as ever, his expression cold. your thoughts drift to the previous week — to fontaine, his hands grabbing at you, the suffocating fear that had clawed at your throat. and then to dion, stepping in between, his voice cold and steady as he metaphorically pried fontaine away from you.

why did he… he stopped to see if i was okay. he never did that before. you remembered the way fontaime sneered at you, as if blaming you for dion’s interference. maybe it was just convenience. he didn’t like fontaime that much, so he interfered. but still, something about the way he had stepped in so swiftly, so decisively, made you wonder. there had been no hesitation, no calculation. just action. or maybe he was acting on lante’s orders.

lante leans back, seemingly satisfied, before shifting the conversation. “have you attended events like this in your old world?”

you hesitate for a brief moment before shaking your head. “no,” you answer carefully. “these things were for the wealthy. not for someone like me.”

he acknowledges you for a moment before letting the topic drop. “your world,” he mentions. “tell me more about it.”

“it’s very modern,” you reply, grasping onto a safe topic. “the clothes are different. the buildings, the people — everything feels different compared to here.” i’m used to the modern atmosphere, so much so that i miss it. but this historical aesthetic isn’t so bad.

lante listens, though his interest seems fleeting. suddenly, a sharp jolt shoots through your head, sudden and intense, making you wince as you instinctively press your fingers against your temples. the pain lingers, a dull ache spreading through your skull.

“what was that?” you ask, your voice strained.

“it’s the sorcerers watching over the land. this is neutral territory, after all,” griselda explains calmly, as if used to the throbbing pain.

roxana chimes in, her tone edged with knowledge. “five hundred years ago, someone from the fipellion of white used the power to control evil beasts, unleashing destruction upon yggdrasil. after that, a powerful group of sorcerers was formed to guard the place.”

you let out a groan, the aftershocks of the pain still lingering. “thanks for the history lesson,” you mutter, rubbing your head.

soon enough, the carriage slows, signaling your arrival. you step outside, inhaling deeply to steady yourself. the towering grandeur of yggdrasil stands before you, its looming presence both awe—inspiring and terrifying.

roxana steps closer, her voice low as she reminds you, “remember griselda’s lessons.”

“i know,” you say, straightening your posture, perfecting your mannerisms. this isn’t your world, but you’ve had to adapt quickly. any misstep could mean consequences far worse than embarrassment.

as you step inside, the lavish hall is alive with conversation and movement, filled with figures both familiar and distant. the air hums with an air of grandeur, chandeliers casting a golden glow over the scene. your eyes sweep across the room, scanning the sea of faces — until they land on three in particular.

noel. luzark. dante.

recognition hits instantly, a jolt of familiarity cutting through the overwhelming atmosphere.

noel, the youngest leader of the veritiun house, sits idly, his expression one of lazy indifference. yet you know better. behind that flippant demeanor lies something much darker, something unhinged. he is detached in a way that makes your stomach churn. the memories of what he has done, what he is capable of, are vivid in your mind. the way he once lured roxana to his mansion, calling her his luna — it speaks volumes of his delusions. how can someone so terrifying look so nonchalant and bored?your gaze shifts to luzark, a man who carries an unspoken fear of women, a phobia never truly explained in the story you remember. his past is riddled with shadows — an absent father who exploited their wealth on drugs, a mother who drowns her burdens in alcohol, trying and failing to keep it from him. he stands rigid, his body tense despite the grandeur surrounding him. i wonder if he even notices how much he’s unraveling before everyone.

and then there is dante. a presence that feels almost spectral despite his solid form. you know what fate awaits him. the tragic ending written into his story, a thread interwoven with death. it’s almost as if he senses it.

before you can dwell further, lante’s hand presses against the small of your back, ushering you forward. keep your filthy hands off me. your breath catches as you are led toward the pedelian family, and your eyes meet those of cassis pedelian.

the male lead.

he is as handsome as you remember — soft silver hair, sharp yet warm eyes, a natural charm radiating from him. unlike the others in this hall, there’s an innocence to him, a gentleness in the way he regards you. he’s surprisingly cute… for a sixteen—year—old. he makes me want to stuff him in my pocket.

with perfect grace, he takes your hand in his and brings it to his lips, pressing a polite kiss against your knuckles. “it is a pleasure to meet you,” he says, his voice smooth and genuine. “i don’t believe we’ve met.”

you blink, momentarily thrown by the sincerity in his tone. what a gentleman.

your heart pounds as cassis’s gaze lingers on you, curiosity flickering in his expression. there is no hidden malice, no veiled threat — only polite interest.

lante speaks first, exchanging pleasantries, his grip on your back a silent warning to behave. you offer a polite nod, careful not to meet cassis’s eyes for too long. there is a tension here, an unspoken game of control and power, and you are just another pawn in their world.

he smiles and introduces himself. you force yourself to stay composed, reminding yourself that cassis pedelian is nothing like lante. he is charming, polite — innocent even.

lante, ever the showman, places a hand on your back and pushes you slightly forward. "this woman was found by one of my children. she wore unfamiliar clothes and spoke in an unfamiliar fashion. so we took her in out of the kindness of our hearts," he announces grandly, loud enough for all nearby to hear. "she is from another world. the only one of her kind."

gasps ripple through the gathered nobles, their eyes widening as they murmur amongst themselves. your breath catches in your throat, your body stiffening at the unwanted attention. what, someone announces that a person is from another world and you just believe him? you instinctively lower your head, attempting to shrink away from their piercing stares. the weight of so many eyes on you is almost suffocating.

roussel, cassis’s father, scoffs, arms crossed as he eyes lante with disdain. "you expect us to believe such nonsense? this is just another one of your ploys,"

before lante can retort, a smooth voice cuts in. "actually..." an unfamiliar man muses, stepping forward. his eyes gleam with interest, the smirk on his face unsettling. "i did sense a disruption in the area. something unexplained,"

“is this true, orca?” your stomach twists at the name — orca. so this is orca? the fancy little creep obsessed with magical creatures. you remember his character well. prideful, delusional, and completely incapable of seeing people as anything other than rare collectibles to be possessed. his fascination is never genuine affection; it is ownership wrapped in silk and smiles. he tilts his head and his gaze sharpens as it settles on you. "when did you arrive here?"

you swallow, steadying your voice. "two weeks ago."

his expression flickers — satisfaction, intrigue. "ah. that was when the disruption occurred." he nods to himself as if confirming an internal theory. "it has since stabilized, so it is not an issue now. but fascinating..."

murmurs spread among the guests. the skepticism lingers, but with orca's confirmation, belief starts to take hold. your presence here is now almost undeniable.

lante, clearly pleased with himself, dismisses the matter with a wave of his hand. "now this has been settled," he instructs, his voice laced with an unspoken threat. "don’t embarrass me." okay?

you exhale slowly, forcing a neutral expression onto your face. just survive this. the moment he lets you go, you turn on your heel, scanning the crowd desperately. it doesn’t take long to find roxana — her striking presence makes her easy to spot. you glide through the sea of nobles as gracefully as possible, keeping your head high despite the anxious knot in your stomach.

as soon as you reach her, you mumble under your breath, "i wanted to keep a low profile."

roxana smirks, sipping her drink leisurely. "no one here can have a low profile," she muses, eyes twinkling with amusement. "you might as well embrace it." easy for you to say.

your eyes drift across the room, cataloguing every face. some are mere background figures, npcs that barely warranted a mention in the novel. others, however, stand out — characters whose futures you know all too well. pandora, you assume, as she’s seen berating the long—haired man, orca, and—

your gaze lands on dion.

he stands near lante and roussel, his expression unreadable as his father speaks to him. his eyes, however, are sharp and alert, betraying none of his thoughts. he always looks like that — like he’s watching everything and nothing at the same time.

then, you notice another pair of eyes locked onto you.

dante.

he stands beside noel, silent yet unwavering. the moment your eyes meet, a cold sensation runs down your spine. he isn’t simply looking at you — he is watching you. analyzing, measuring, waiting. why?

you whisper to roxana, your voice barely above a breath. "dante. he’s staring."

she tilts her head, feigning confusion until her gaze lands on him. her amusement fades. "strange."

strange? that’s not reassuring. you glance back at dante, but his expression remains unreadable. your mind races, trying to recall every detail about him from the novel. he’s always been loyal to noel, never stepping out of line. so why is he looking at me like that?

roxana takes another sip of her wine, her gaze calculating. "perhaps you’ve caught his interest."

you want to believe that’s all it is — curiosity. but something about his unwavering stare makes your skin prickle with unease. because deep down, you have a feeling that it isn’t interest at all.

it’s something else entirely.

your thoughts drift unwillingly to dion. his face is the only thing that breaks through the fog of your growing anxiety. you remember his stoic expression as he stood over fontaime. no hesitation. no fury. just cold resolve. that night, dion saved you from something horrible, and you thank him for that.

you remember the way fontaime's sneer turned into hidden terror, the moment he realized dion wasn't backing down. you remember how you stood frozen, unable to do anything but watch, barely comprehending that you had just been saved.

"you���re thinking about something unpleasant." roxana's voice pulls you back to the present. her eyes flicker with understanding. "you tend to do that when you space out."

“i do?” you force a smile, shaking off the thoughts. "it’s nothing."

she doesn’t believe you. she doesn’t press either.

the rest of the evening blurs into a haze of polite conversation and scrutinizing gazes. nobles drift in and out of your presence, each more eager than the last to interrogate you about your origins. you answer carefully, maintaining the perfect balance between mystery and diplomacy.

but through it all, you feel it — dante’s gaze, never wavering. and the thoughts of dion, lingering like a shadow at the back of your mind. you wonder which one unsettles you more.

                                    ⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆

later, after the event’s chaos has settled somewhat, you spot luzark standing off to the side, alone.

he’s a strange one — known for his unexplained phobia of women. and yet, something about him draws your attention. i wonder if his reaction to me would be different since i’m not from this world. i don’t expect it would though. after all, i am still a woman.

why does he act this way? what could have caused such a reaction? the thought lingers in your mind as you take a step forward. a shame we never got a reason.

curiosity wins. you approach him, watching the way his shoulders tense slightly as you near. his purple eyes flicker to you, reminding you of a certain… eccentric, widening just a fraction before he quickly masks his expression. still, he doesn’t retreat.

that’s interesting. he’s not immediately excusing himself. does that mean he’s willing to tolerate me? or maybe… he’s just good at hiding it.

"luzark, right?" you say gently.

he hesitates, then to your surprise, he smiles. it’s small, barely there, but undeniably genuine. "yes. and you must be… the one from another world."

you nod. before you can say anything else, he takes your hand and, with the grace of a practiced noble, presses a kiss to your knuckles. the warmth of his lips against your skin sends a small shiver down your spine.

wait. luzark is willingly touching me? no, more than that — he kissed my hand? i expected cassis, but luzark? no way. the thought scrambles your logic for a moment, but you manage to keep your face neutral, fighting to keep your composure.

his grip lingers just a moment longer than necessary before he releases you. "it’s a pleasure to meet you." the moment feels oddly delicate — like glass balanced on a ledge. luzark, despite his phobia, is composed. and yet, for the briefest moment, you see something flicker in his eyes. uncertainty. a quiet, hidden struggle. is he fighting against his own instincts right now? he clears his throat, "i hope you’re finding our world… accommodating."

you allow a small smile. "it has its moments."

a fleeting snirk tugs at his lips. that reaction — there it is again. he’s not completely uncomfortable.

the air between you hums with an unspoken tension, fragile yet undeniable. you realize then that luzark intrigues you in a way few others do. you decide you’d like to see more of that.

[mara-defense-squad]

I think the thing that really appeals me to catradora is the fact that they weren't supposed to make it.

Think about it for a second. Their whole lives they were pitted against each other, because Shadow Weaver wanted Adora and Catra only ever interfered with that. But they still built up their friendship. They made The Promise. They had each other, throughout their time in the Horde, despite Shadow Weaver desperately trying to drive a wedge in between them. They were never supposed to last, but they did.

And then when Adora finds the sword, becomes She-Ra and joins the rebellion - well they definitely weren't supposed to make it then. They were enemies, on opposite sides of the war. Yet, in early season 1 (pre-Promise) Catra still defends Adora in her absence. She lies to Shadow Weaver, lies to everyone about Adora being She-Ra and when SW finds out, she says "She's just confused". Still protecting Adora, despite her leaving. And Adora doesn't stop trying to convince Catra to join the rebellion, even though the rebellion would likely prefer it if she did. They weren't supposed to be fighting for each other - but they did.

And then Promise happens. Like Shadow Weaver, Light Hope sees Adora's friendship to Catra as a threat. So, she takes that wedge SW jammed inbetween them and drives it all the way home. She convinces Catra to cut Adora off, and convinces Adora to let go of her. And Light Hope succeeds where Shadow Weaver failed - they are now enemies. And they stay that way. This is how it was always supposed to be.

Then Catra opens the Portal. They get each other back for a second, but it only serves to prove they were never meant to last. Catra completely turns on Adora, and when it's over, Adora completely gives up on Catra. Any hope of reconciliation is shredded.

Catra continues on her downward spiral. Adora moves on. The war rages on, and they keep walking their separate paths. This was how it was supposed to end.

But then - then, in the rubble after the Heart of Etheria, at the moment Adora expects it the least, Catra saves Glimmer, and she apologises. She does this with no hope of seeing Adora again, and Adora doesn't know how to deal with it at first. If she was following the path laid out for her her entire life, she would have left Catra to die on Horde Prime's ship, grateful for her sacrifice, and grieving what could have been. That was how it was supposed to go, and it was exactly what Catra expected from her. But she defies it. She puts aside the greater good, and she storms Horde Prime's ship, for no other reason than that she wanted to. This is not what's supposed to happen.

In Save the Cat, Catra was supposed to serve Horde Prime. She's completely stripped of her autonomy, forced to fight Adora. She's supposed to break her. When she manages to break through - just a little bit - she is supposed to die. She falls off that platform, into the abyss, no hope left for her. Adora is supposed to let her. Instead, she summons She-Ra, and brings Catra back to life. They were never supposed to make it this far.

And it doesn't get easier. For a while, in Taking Control, they still don't really know how to act around each other. They have to learn it again. But they keep trying, against all odds. Catra starts to heal. Adora watches. They get to rekindle what they lost.

But then Shadow Weaver comes back, and the Failsafe happens. All their old wounds are raw again. SW is pressing all of Adora's old buttons, desperately reinforcing that wedge between them, so that Adora will take the Failsafe. At first, Catra resists this - she eavesdrops on Adora and SW conversation, and she seas her manipulation for what it is - and she tries to convince Adora to do the same. Ultimately she fails when Adora accepts the Failsafe. Catra knows that Adora is going to die being the hero, and she can't face that so she leaves. They are separated once again, and it doesn't look like there's any way back. It could have ended here too.

But in Heart, Catra sets down her hurt and her fear and she goes back to warn Adora of the new danger as Horde Prime hacks the planet. She finds Adora fighting for her life, and losing. Catra saves her, and allows SW to take Adora on to the Heart. She tries to sacrifice herself again. They both should have died there.

Only Adora comes back for her, once again. She rejects her destiny to save Catra. SW dies instead.

They've reached the final hurdle, the Heart itself. Adora can't transform into She-Ra, so she's doomed to die saving the world. Catra is supposed to let her.

But against all odds, they confess their love and it works. They both get to live.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go. At every turn the cards were stacked against them but they still won. They still made it. And I love that for them.

(sidenote but this is also why i love catra as a character and her whole arc. She was supposed to live a miserable life and die a miserable death but she got to live and change and grow as a person. Ugh I love this show)