#;; this is just cause you guys were the only ones who participated somewhat actively and i wanted to do smth as thanks

[navxry]

Now that I have finished the silly event because tbh I'm sick and need a tiny break, I am tempted to send some special endings in drabbles to specific people

@meimeimeirin @kopidense @fffiii y'all better be sure to have your submissions open or I WILL find a blog that has them open

(yes this is a threat /silly)

[ruby-whistler]

I feel like if we really want to take a closer look at the topic of c!Dream’s obsession with c!Tommy, we have to look into both his reasons for it, and the tactics he employs to achieve his goals concerning it.

[ /dsmp /roleplay I did not tag this that way but this entire analysis is hugely c!Dream critical and focuses on the various facets of his manipulation, so if you’re not in the mood to read that, you have been warned not to. ]

Interestingly enough, before the SMP was actual heavy roleplay, back during the original disc war, the reason c!Dream listed for keeping the discs was to use them as bargaining chips, because he knew c!Tommy wanted them back, as they were hard items to get at the time, and knew he could use them for that purpose.

He had just gotten mugged and repeatedly killed by c!Tommy, who had also participated in a conflict beforehand, and only gave a half-hearted apology in the end. He had also seen him cause problems on the server before that. The discs were meant to be something he would threaten to destroy if c!Tommy started acting out of line, because he didn’t trust him to keep his word and wanted a guarantee. That was the reason he insisted on keeping the discs after getting his armor back, which is why he originally stole them.

And I feel like c!Dream’s train of thought, while skewed and twisted with irrational mindsets, is rather straightforward in essence. Conflict is what he actively stands against and what stops him from having a united server, hence in his mind, he needs to destroy things that bring conflict, and control what he can’t or doesn’t want to destroy. He thinks c!Tommy brings conflict, so he feels like he needs to find ways to control him.

Sure, we all know about the systematic abuse and isolation he employed to make c!Tommy believe he was his friend, but one of his major tactics since the beginning has also been intimidation, or a particular type of manipulation that leads to people fearing him or thinking that he has more power than he actually does. In his mind, if people are scared of him, they’re much more likely to listen to him. And the most fascinating thing is that it works.

During the initial exile conflict, despite him being just a single person with no official political power, he assures victory by aggressively, and very intelligently, threatening his way through the negotiations. c!Tubbo is scared of him, and that is not a coincidence. It’s purposeful.

Seeing as he planned to give L’Manberg technical independence either way - he said that there was no real way for him to stop them from pursuing that anyways, so that wasn’t the intention - even the war seems like a very likely ploy to make the revolutionaries fear him enough so that they wouldn’t start conflict after seceding. c!Wilbur is careful not to start anything with the Greater Dream SMP after this, because c!Dream has shown that he can and will ruin them if they do. c!Tubbo also knows exactly the lengths c!Dream will go to if he promises war thanks to this, and that if he says he’ll build a wall and keep them from leaving it with force, he’s going to do it. When c!Tubbo is faced with an ultimatum, seeing as his goal is to keep New L’Manberg safe and peaceful, he knows he has no option but to give in.

Another variation of this tactic is making himself seem more dangerous and unpredictable than he actually is and obscuring his motivation. If people don’t know what he wants, they are less able to devise effective tactics to stop him from getting it. The element of surprise is something that he utilizes constantly throughout warfare, and psychological battling is no different. For instance, during Doomsday he begins talking about how the server will “be at peace now” thanks to L’Manberg being gone, before c!Tommy barges in, and begins implying he did this all because he hates him.

DREAM Tommy… Look. In all destruction *looks at the falling TNT* there is a new beginning.

TOMMY You- you did this…! To all of us! Not just to me, but to everyone here…!

DREAM Beautiful. You know… the unfinished symphony, right?

…

TOMMY Why…?

DREAM The server will be at peace now.

TOMMY Why, Dream…?

DREAM Because I didn’t-

TOMMY Couldn’t you just- couldn’t you just burn the discs…? Couldn’t you just do it to me? Why did you have to…?

DREAM This is much more fun.

[ credits to @dsmptranscripts on twitter ]

Although c!Dream’s motivation for destroying L’Manberg was actually that, much like with c!Tommy, he thought that it bred conflict and division, he picks up on this and switches to saying how he did indeed do this all to hurt c!Tommy because he finds it fun.

He talks very inconsistently plenty of times, but it’s rather easy to spot a pattern of him being honest about his motives with his allies but straight up lying to his enemies. This makes sense, and it is usually employed as a deliberate tactic.

Intimidation is something he also uses to manipulate people during his time in prison. Ever since he got locked up, it became a mental fight. If people fully realized that he was powerless to stop them from hurting or killing him, his life only hanging by a thin strand on the concept of the revive book, he would’ve lost the control he needed to assure his survival.

The difference is that before then, c!Dream had actual physical power, however the manipulation gets harder to pull off when he has none, even with people he finds naive enough to fall for it. He still risks it because he’s desperate, and has nothing but his own life to lose, which is something he believes to be protected by his possession of the revival book. He had never been big on self-preservation besides staying alive to reach his goals.

He first tries this on c!Sam, who, rather unpredictably, begins to get morally corrupted by the power he has over c!Dream, on top of other factors. c!Dream talks to c!Sam about exile and about c!Tommy because logically, if he’s afraid of him, he’s less likely to try to hurt or kill him. This backfires because this new, unexpected version of c!Sam begins to fiercely hate c!Dream instead, hurting him further.

The same thing happens with c!Tommy - when he realizes that he can’t influence him through repeated visits anymore, he attempts to scare him into obedience again. He establishes himself as someone dangerous who has the power to escape and hurt c!Tommy as well as his friends, which he hopes will subconsciously sway him to not do things that he would disagree with. We can see him pretending to be the one in control throughout the stream after c!Tommy first got revived.

He also tells him that he can bring back the person who he’s afraid of the most and get him on his side, which is precisely the bit that ends up backfiring, but it doesn’t really matter, and trying was still the best thing he could’ve logically done.

If he hadn’t, at some point people would realize he actually has no power at all, and pay back the fear he’d instilled in them previously. This happens with c!Quackity, who began to take advantage of c!Dream’s lack of control as soon as he realized how easy it was to strip away the last bit of power he has, which is also keeping him alive.

Getting back on track, c!Dream essentially tries to control c!Tommy first by manipulating him into believing he is his friend, then believing he is a threat to him when that fails. We can see this from the way the Finale is prepared to be somewhat of a final showdown between the two, and also by him actually revealing the tactics he used to employ during exile, for example talking about taking away the invites to the party and not actually being his friend. This also proves he knew exactly what he was doing during that time, and he could easily switch between tactics because the end goal of controlling c!Tommy was more important to him than what c!Tommy thought of him.

And that’s it.

It’s all just a ploy to control him because he finds him one of the hardest people to stop from causing conflict.

Controlling him is as important to c!Dream as destroying L’Manberg and dethroning c!George and collecting people’s attachments, because what is important to him is achieving his goals through whatever means necessary, not the means themselves.

As for people, while he has no desire to actually kill them - or feels he cannot, because they could still be useful to his plans in the future - he treats them as either tools or obstacles he needs to deal with, especially if they ever get in the way of his plans, and he isn’t particularly attached to them. He does this to himself as well, and doesn’t seem to care about his own well-being or reputation as long as he achieves what he wants. While he’s focused on the ends to his means, that is the only thing that is important to him.

You could argue this does stem from thinking of the people he wants the server to be united for as important, since cc!Dream said his goals are for “everyone to get along”, but that doesn’t change the fact that the ways in which he works towards that goal doesn’t treat others’ or his own feelings as consequential at all. In the case of people who stand against him, their entire well-being is put to the side until what needs to be done in his mind gets done.

c!Dream isn’t “scared” of c!Tommy per se, nor does he seem to be obsessed with the guy himself, but he finds him something necessary to get out of the way to accomplish his goals, and he does so, ruthlessly as ever.

And even though the goal of eradicating conflict and uniting the server is something that he is so focused on that it could definitely be called an obsession, c!Tommy really isn’t that important within the equation at all.

This wasn’t a post to excuse or downplay any of his actions, nor do I agree with the “logical” thoughts I mentioned. There is a reason why I used phrases like “he finds” “in his eyes” “he thinks” “in his mind” “he feels like” a whole lot throughout this essay.

The character has an extremely flawed worldview that I in no way agree with (and although that should probably be pretty obvious, you really don’t know with this fandom). All this post is for is to analyse certain traits that are assigned to him, and figure out through logical reasoning whether they’re a mischaracterization or not.

And as far as the evidence goes; c!Dream isn't obsessed with c!Tommy, he is obsessed with his goal, and he sees Tommy as a big obstacle to achieving it, which makes him focus on him. These feelings he puts on display are an illusion to distract people from his real goal so they don't know how to get in his way - because, just like cc!Dream said, he “likes to withhold information; withhold plans; and withhold feelings” from everyone else.

[jj-babebank]

Camp Willowdale / JJ Maybank AU / PART 5

Synopsis: Camp Willowdale is buzzing with new campers. It’s Caroline Windsor’s first year as a camp counsellor after attending the camp as a camper for ten years. Little does she know that this year Willowdale Lake is going to be a little different from what she is used to it being… Warnings: future chapters may include curse words, mentions of drugs, mentions of alcohol, mentions of sexual activities, mentions of death. Pairings: JJ Maybank x fem OC Part 1 ; Part 2 ; Part 3 ; Part 4 Masterlist

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part 5 -

53 days of camp left

The first day at Camp Willowdale was usually pretty straightforward – campers arrive, sign in, move into their designated cabins where they meet their counselors, then all gather in the Wildcat Lodge to get their schedules, maps, badges and compasses. Ever since Pricilla’s daughter left her, she ditched the idea of having a stable with horses at camp (saying it reminded her way too much of Wendy, and also cost a lot of money to maintain), and settled for scavenger hunts in full scout mode in the forest, hence the compasses and badges. Every camper was given a first badge for participation and would get the chance to earn new badges to add to their collection during their nine week stay. Pricilla made sure that there was a badge for literally everything – from successfully starting a fire to throwing out the trash. She liked to do this to make all the campers feel included and special, which on its own sounded like a wonderful thing, however her actual motives were selfish – happy kids meant happy parents, and happy parents meant money. She also liked to turn everything into a competition, so she established a scoring system that nobody but her understood, where she’d award or deduct points from different groups and the group with the most points at the end of the summer will be crowned conquerors of the camp at a made up end-of-summer event Pricilla named the “Camp Will-all-hail banquet”. Caroline always found the name to be extremely tacky, but much like mostly everything that Pricilla put her finger onto, it wasn’t surprising.

JJ and Caroline had gotten assigned to Teens 2. Unsurprisingly, everyone in their group was almost their age, which seemed like somewhat of a recipe for disaster, as Caroline feared that this could result in the teens refusing to follow orders from someone who is basically their age. She was pleasantly surprised to find out that their group of teens was actually quite well-mannered and well-behaved. John B and Sarah’s teens, however, were a whole different story.

“You sure you got T2 and not T1?” panted Sarah after finally sitting down at the counselors table beside Caroline for dinner.

Caroline smirked, “Positive,” she confirmed, not being able to hide her amusement at the sight of an already tired Sarah, “Why’d you ask?”

“Oh, no reason,” said Sarah sarcastically, “Well, besides all the girls, and I’m pretty sure one of the boys, having a massive thing for John B, and them all quite literally being the spawns of Satan, hm… no reason,”

Caroline laughed at Sarah’s words, looking over at the table where her group and Sarah’s were seated at. Two of the T1 girls were giggling while telling a story, while everyone else’s attention was on them. Caroline came to the conclusion that they would be the It Girls at this year’s camp, bossing everyone around. She couldn’t help but laugh at the irony that it was Sarah who got these two as they were literally mini versions of her.

“Heard my name being called,” John B slid onto the bench across the table from the girls. Now that everyone had been sorted, the Wildcat Lodge seating area had been rearranged so that the groups would be sat together according to their ages, and the counselors would be sat together according to their groups. The head staff had their own table at the very foot of the podium, right next to where the food was, conveniently.

JJ was quick to join their group at their respective table, “What’d I miss?”

“Oh, nothing,” Caroline said nonchalantly, “Just Sarah being jealous over her girls liking John B, no biggie,” Sarah kicked her under the table, earning an, “Ow!”

John B’s eyes immediately shot up, that familiar twinkle of excitement swimming through his honey orbs, “Jealous?”

“As if,” barked Sarah, squinting her eyes at him threateningly.

“We’ll see about that, baby cakes,” John B winked, diving into his dinner.

“So,” said JJ, lowering his voice in case any of the neighboring tables were listening, “What’s the plan, guys?”

Caroline shook her head, “I don’t even know where we could start, I mean, the only clue we’ve got so far is that message we had to scrub off the rock this morning before the campers arrived…”

John B thought for a second, “Hey, wasn’t Topper paired up with her?” he said suddenly.

Caroline’s eyes widened in realization, “John B, you’re a genius!” she said, earning a proud smile from the boy, “Last night at the counting, Topper said something about feeling guilty for not offering her his jacket!” the four of them turned to look towards Topper’s table. He was sitting quietly, barely poking at his food, while the rest of his fellow counselors were having an animated conversation around him. Caroline turned back towards her friends, “Chances are he was the one who saw her last!”

“Yeah, and judging by the look of his face, he doesn’t seem too excited about it,” remarked JJ.

“Can you blame him? I’d be pissed if I was paired with Madison, too,” muttered Sarah, scrunching her nose at the leafy salad in her plate.

“Tonight at the bonfire,” said Caroline, “Sarah’s going to offer him some help with his girls, seeing as he’s dealing with all of his kids alone,”

“Hey, why me?” Sarah frowned at the plan.

“Because you’re the one who had a massive crush on him back in the day,” Caroline whispered in Sarah’s ear, resulting in Sarah kicking her under the table again. Caroline bit back a groan as she smiled forcefully, looking at the two boys in front of her, “Okay, well, sounds like we’ve got a plan.”

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

After handing out the songbooks and marshmallows to all of their teens, Caroline, JJ, Sarah and John B took a seat at their designated log next to their groups, which had somehow bonded during dinner and were all laughing together.

“Alright, settle down kids!” Pricilla said, causing everyone’s chatter to die down, “As you have already been informed, it is a Willowdale tradition to perform our very own rendition of Bomfiara every morning and night until the end of camp. The songbooks you’ve been kindly given by your counselors contain the lyrics to all of the camp songs we’re going to be singing this summer, but I’m sure that by the end of it you won’t be needing the books anymore,” Pricilla fake-laughed at her own joke while everyone just started at her blankly, “Okay, well, let’s sing!” she gave the tone and everyone started signing.

“This is so lame,” said one of the girls Caroline proclaimed as “It Girls” earlier that evening, “We’re too old for this BS,”

“You got that right,” mumbled Sarah.

“Oh, come on, I love it, it used to be our favorite tradition!” whined John B.

The two girls squealed and started pinching each other, immediately opening their songbooks and joining in on the singing, making intense eye contact with John B with their best seductive looks. Sarah rolled her eyes at the scene.

“See?” she whispered to Caroline, “This is what I meant!”

Caroline smirked at the blonde girl, “Am I sensing… jealousy?”

Sarah scoffed at the remark, “Pf, yeah right,” she said defensively, “I’m just annoyed that they’re only listening to what he’s saying and we’re supposed to be counselors together.”

Caroline nodded slowly, pretending to be buying the story, “Yeah, sure,” she turned to look at Topper, who regardless of the fact that he was surrounded by his group and fellow counselors, still seemed down, the camp fire illuminating his distant face, “Speaking of together, when do you wanna go talk to Topper?”

Sarah followed Caroline’s gaze towards the boy, “Once this stupid song is over,”

Caroline nodded and both girls turned towards their group again, where the It Girls were still making sexy eyes at John B, who seemed totally clueless to their approach as he was belting the lyrics of the much familiar song out loud, waving JJ’s hands every so often.

Once the song was over and everyone got back to their regular chitchat, Sarah stood up and straightened her shorts and camp sweatshirt as she made her way towards Topper.

“Hey, Top, this seat taken?” she said, referring to the empty spot on the log next to him where Madison was supposed to be sat.

Topper looked at Sarah as if she’d just said a distasteful joke, “Hey, Sarah…” he muttered, “Obviously not,”

“Awesome!” Sarah smiled widely, plopping down next to the boy.

“So,” Topper started awkwardly, “What brings you here?”

“Saw you from across the pit,” she explained directly, “Couldn’t help but notice that you seem lonely,”

“Yeah, well,” Topper looked at her with a look of disapproval once again, “I sort of am,”

Sarah pretended to only just realize what he was talking about, “Riiight… So, about that,” she chirped again, “Last night you said something about a jacket?”

Topper sighed, “Yeah, Madison said she was cold when we were in our cabin and instead of offering her my jacket, I sort of felt… relieved that she was going to leave me for a second to go grab hers. I should’ve known that something was wrong when she was gone for over 10 minutes, instead I just laughed around with Kelce and the boys and then we heard the scream…”

Sarah rolled her eyes, “Oh, please, you’re not blaming yourself for it, are you?”

“I mean, I kinda am,” Topper confessed, “If I wasn’t too caught up in being annoyed that I’d been paired up with her, I’d have just given her my jacket or followed her to your cabin to get hers and none of this would’ve happened,”

Sarah tried putting on her best apologetic smile as she reached for Topper’s hand, taking him by surprise, “Look, Top, I hate Madison just as much as the next person, but I hardly think any of this was your fault. She probably just used the jacket as an excuse to ditch and got excited to see her rookie boyfriend, hence the scream,”

Topper frowned, “Don’t tell me you actually believe all that?”

Sarah shrugged, “I mean, she was a drama queen,”

Topper pulled his hands away from Sarah’s, shaking his head, “Just go, Sarah,”

Sarah looked over towards her friends across the fire pit who were all staring at her in anticipation, as she shrugged her shoulders and mouthed them a, “Sorry, I tried,” making her way back to where they were seated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Camp has finally officially begun and so has the search for truth ~~ As always, let me know what you think, I hope you are enjoying the story so far, I'm super excited to be writing this xxx

tags: @k-k0129 ; @hayleyy-l ; @marvellover04

Part 6 here

[supercantaloupe]

on Aelwyn Abernant, the Reformed Villain Squad, and redeeming teenage antagonists

an analysis on antagonist character development in Fantasy High. spoilers through sophomore year and (mildly so) the most recent roll20 oneshot. essay under the cut bc i am very long winded

the turnaround with Aelwyn in s2 is handled so well  i cant get over it. she was such a major antagonist in the first season and just. despicable. she had no pathos. we hated this bitchy older sister who tried to kill Adaine and her friends and raise an evil dragon, and when she gets knocked on her ass and thrown in jail, we cheer.

and then s2 fucking starts saying “hey she’s in jail still if you’d like to look into that” and pursuing that thread ends up being almost as comedic an idea as it is a reluctant one; it’s also quickly shunted to the background as soon as more pressing leads present themselves, to the point where we almost forget about her until Adaine is kidnapped and then the first time you see her it’s just. viscerally upsetting.

she’s bad. she did evil. she got what she deserved.

but she already got what she deserved. last season.

she got her ass handed to her by a bunch of 14 year olds including her little sister (how embarrassing!). her plans were thwarted. she got punched in the face and made fun of. she already got her punishment.

it just……immediately registers as over-the-top Wrong to be told “hey, remember that antagonist you beat last season? she’s still being punished for that, except it’s way worse than just going to mumple.”

and there’s that reminder that like…this is a teenager. a child. who has been manipulated and abused. which is a really fascinating look at this character we used to see pretty much unilaterally as a one dimensional bitchy villain.

i mean we got a more in depth look at Penelope’s and Biz’s motivations in s1 (Penelope being the popular rich girl sorceress obviously hungry for power and the alllure of the high school clout that is being prom queen, but also we know that her having to turn on her best friend Sam Nightingale as part of the scheme was something she was reluctant and not happy to do; and Biz being that predatory incel creeper type dude besides just a nerd with computers and a lack of social graces). and they were as much willingly active in the plot as Aelwyn was. yet in s1 they really never do bother to explore Aelwyn’s motivations. i remember after watching s1 but before s2 that was one of my biggest lingering questions: why tf was Aelwyn involved?

well. she was manipulated and abused. her terrible parents raised her in an awful environment that conditioned her to Listen and Obey and Behave and Be Perfect, and then Kalina helped cinch the noose around her neck with threats and coersion into the KVS Kaper and the NMK crown debacle. she doesn’t freely choose any of it; she’s coerced, manipulated, abused.

and she already got justifiably punished for her bad actions in s1. the torture is almost literal overkill. it’s just……there’s this immediate turnaround in sympathy and view of the character. on first watch, it’s viscerally upsetting to see her getting so brutally punished for actions she already faced consequences for, and on rewatch, it makes your skin crawl to know she’s being tortured for terrible things she had little choice in carrying out. and tortured by some of the very same people who coerced her to behave terribly in the first place, to add insult to injury.

and it’s still fucking frustrating when they rescue her and her memory gets reset and she goes back to her parents because it’s like “well shit, she’s evil again, and we just wasted all that effort for nothing” but it’s also sad cause we know she’s running back to her abusers and she isn’t happy about it but doesn’t feel like she has a choice. and it’s sadder still that what eventually inevitably gets her to turn to good for good (i.e. away from her parents) is just. a full dissociative mental breakdown.

(but then she survives and it’s gonna be good!!! until Adaine dies in her fucking arms. which is. almost funny. she’s been through so much shit and that isn’t something that Brennan would have just. preplanned. like a written in plot point. no, that was just an unpredictable consequence of the battle. what a juicy fucking moment. she’s been through All That Shit™️ and has finally turned to fight for good and her sister just fully dies in front of her. yeowch)

and she turns out okay in the end. she comes out the other side alive and whole and supported by her sister and her friends, with the hope of a future and recovery. there is an acknowledgement that A) she can and will grow from her mistakes and damage, B) it’s going to be really hard, and C) the post-s2 one shots both prove that she’s doing okay now. hell, she has a whole squad now of other former-teenage-villains-turned-good-guys. she has friends now, Ragh and Zayn, with common ground, and a secret handshake and everything. they’ve all grown from the mistakes of their past into better, happier, healthier people

and about Zayn and Ragh. we’ve seen a lot of characters, protagonist and antagonist, teenage and adult, PC and NPC do some really fucked up shit and get punished for it. but why do they get happy endings? why are Aelwyn, Ragh, and Zayn the only members of the RVS and not someone else like Biz or Penelope or Dayne? 

well, the latter two are dead by then; but then again, Biz and Ragh were also killed by the Bad Kids in s1, and subsequently resurrected. (Zayn died too, but was neither killed nor revived at the Bad Kids’ hands, so i’ll get to him in a sec.) and there are plenty of adult antagonists the Bad Kids face who are killed and left that way by the Bad Kids without second thought: Johnny Spells, Coach Daybreak, Captain Wicklaw, the Abernant parents (presuming Arianwen doesn’t survive in the forest for very long, which i doubt). why do some characters get second chances while others don’t?

in the case of Zayn, his death was pretty much out of the Bad Kids’ hands, and they later found out he was manipulated by Daybreak into being bad anyway because of his sad living situation. he was a pretty minor antagonist in the scheme of things, and when we re-meet him as a ghost in the s1 epilogue, he’s pretty obviously remorseful for his actions. and dying seems like a steep enough punishment to me for the shit he did to contribute to the KVX caper; returning as a ghost, free from the trappings of his unfortunate living life, he now has the room and freedom to grow into a better person.

in the cases of Daybreak, Spells, Wicklaw, and the Abernant parents: these are bad people who should know better. these are fully grown adults who actively choose to do evil. whether they think it’s the right thing to do or not (in Daybreak’s case), whether they think it will benefit them and don’t care about anyone else (in the Abernants’ case), or whether they don’t care much at all and are just doing shit because they feel like it (in the cases of Spells and Wicklaw), these are all adults who consciously make the decision to do terrible things and hurt other people. of course Johnny Spells, who is generally a punk thief and thug, is not on the same level of bad as Angwyn, who kidnaps and tortures his own daughters for political gain, but the point remains. these fuckers should know better. they’re grown ups. they had their chances to be good and they chose not to heed them. their minds are set on bad actions and they are a continued danger to other people as long as they are alive. when they die, the Bad Kids do their damndest to make sure it stays that way.

now, in the cases of Penelope and Dayne: these are teenagers who actively chose to participate in an evil plot. Penelope, Dayne, and Biz were all fully cognizant of what they were doing trying to raise KVX back to his former power. why? well, to some extent, we can only speculate. i suspect Penelope was just one of those Regina George bitches who is rich and popular and powerful and obsessed with power and popularity within high school as if that’s the end-all-be-all of existence (which, like, when you’re currently in high school, is a somewhat understandable worldview i think). Dayne being her boyfriend and a musclehead jock probably falls into a similar line of thinking. they are actively and willingly trying to cause harm, and teenager or not, must be stopped. they’re killed, anyway, during the Climactic Battle™️ anyhow; it’s not like the Bad Kids were going to gain anything at that point by keeping them alive.

now, Biz: Biz is the creepy Nice Guy incel type, sees woman as a prize he deserves to win, yadda yadda. he does, like Penelope and Dayne, actively choose to help KVX. there might be something to be said about his motivation the Bad Kids discover after the arcade battle by detecting his thoughts (that being to upload the captured maidens from the palimpsests to “call the shots” himself) is an altered memory; whether this was his original motivation from the start or not, i’m not sure. but the Bad Kids do kill him – and then resurrect him for important, time-sensitive information. and they beat it out of him – he gets two of his fucking fingers blown off. and Riz reattaches them once they have their info, and they realize his memory is altered. of course, the Bad Kids don’t know at this point that the altered memory was something he, Penelope, and Aelwyn had planned and agreed on and done to themselves, but this points to something important in my opinion: the Bad Kids, and the narrative/show as a whole by extension, acknowledge that external manipulation affects how guilty someone is in a crime.

which brings us to Ragh. Ragh, introduced from episode 1 as the meathead jock. Ragh the archetypical one-dimensional high school bully. Ragh who works with the harvestmen in effort to (ostensibly) end the world/provoke international war. Ragh, whose low intelligence but high loyalty and internalized homophobia led him to be fully swayed and blindly led by his coach and captain, who have actively chosen to do evil. Ragh who is killed in combat by the Bad Kids and resurrected for information, not Daybreak. Ragh, who the Bad Kids realize was probably not aware of exactly what he was being made to do and how bad it really was. Ragh, who by their kindness in sparing his life and directing him on a better path, becomes a well-rounded character and an active ally to the Bad Kids during and after prom, an invaluable companion during their quest in sophomore year, and overall a really good friend and person. 

(it might also be worth considering the case of Jawbone here, too, who started out a very minor antagonist in a fight but ended up becoming a major NPC because the Bad Kids talked to him, found out he came from an unfortunate situation and set of circumstances, and showed him kindness in offering the school guidance counselor position, a kindness that isn’t really owed but given anyway and ends up changing his entire life for good.)

and then, Aelwyn, whose case is already discussed above. so, why is the RVS what it is, why them but not others?

if you’re familiar with Avatar: the Last Airbender, you’re probably familiar with Zuko’s character arc, and how it’s often lauded as a masterful example of developing a villain into a hero over the course of a narrative. what makes Zuko’s arc so well done and exceptional is that he starts out as a kid in a bad situation under the influence of bad adults seeking to do bad deeds, but he later realizes the error of those ways, actively removes himself from that situation despite the difficulty and danger in doing so, goes through a lot of shit and reflects on his past mistakes and learns from them, and then actively chooses to fight for good in the end with the help of close, trusted friends, found family. 

this, i believe, is the same in the case of Fantasy High and its treatment of the RVS. its members, like Zuko, are all teenagers who came from shitty situations and were manipulated by evil adults to do bad. they are punished for their bad actions, and they learn from their errors and mistakes. with the kindness and help of good people, friends and chosen family, they are able to escape their abusers and bad situations and grow into their own people. and they actively choose to improve themselves with that help and fight for good.

Fantasy High, through the arcs of Jawbone, Zayn, Ragh, and especially Aelwyn, asserts that it is not your fault if you come from a bad situation and are forced to behave badly as a result. it does not pretend that you are absolved of any responsibility for those actions; quite the opposite, as even though they were externally manipulated into their evil actions, all of those mentioned characters face tangible consequences for their actions and later express remorse for their mistakes. but Fantasy High also asserts that even if you have made great mistakes in your past, even if you came from a bad situation beyond your control, even if you were manipulated and abused, with care and love and support and a hell of a lot of work and effort, you can improve your situation and find good, happiness, peace, you can thrive. evil adults who should know better don’t get redeemed. teenagers who aren’t coerced but actively choose evil don’t get redeemed. but abused kids deserve another shot at happiness. with enough work, and some love and help along the way, they can get there, even from the lowest imaginable point, from rock fucking buttom. it’s possible. 

[witchvspatriarchy]

Goo Hara's story is one of the most tragic and rough in kpop history. And in light of the recent events, I'd like to share it.

It's pretty possible that most of you (ppl who weren't around for 2nd generation prime) dont know Goo Hara or her legendary group KARA. The group was among the top three girl groups nation wise, and number one in Japan.

But when KARA debuted it wasn't very popular, so when one member left, the company saw the opportunity to revamp the group and they added two new members. One of those was Goo Hara. She was introduced as main dancer and visual.

Hara's integration helped the group. Her innocent beauty in contrast to an effortless sex appeal caused men and women, children and adults, to fall in love with the idol, and this new fandom catapulted the group. Even though before debut she already had many fans, she already had antis too. A big portion of the original fandom rejected the integration of Hara. So from day one Hara had a strong individual fandom, but the group's fandom hated her.

Hara became the it girl of the moment, getting all the commercial contracts - this generated animosity from the fandom that questioned why she was the only one who was given the opportunities and why she did not participate in the commercial activities of the group. This did not weigh much on Hara at first, since she was somewhat accustomed to hate for no reason - in high school she was the victim of such extreme bullying that she had to change schools several times. She had the general public in her palms, so a portion of the fandom hating her was manageable.

But the love and support from the general public didn't last long, as netizens searched the internet to find something to destroy her and succeeded. They found Hara's teenage blog from before she was and idol, and in it they found photos of her in a hostel on her 17th birthday with her boyfriend at the time. They published them saying that Hara had had a romantic stay at the hostel and therefore she had sex while being a minor. And although the company denied it and Hara's friends said it had been a group trip, the netizens sought witnesses to support their accusations and thus began the gossip that Hara was promiscuous. This accusations gained notoriety when her relationship with Junhyun of B2ST became public. And so netizens invented her love affairs with many idols.

The situation reached a climax in Radio Star, when the MC asked KARA what topic they didn't want to talk about, to which Hara replied "dating." The three MCs started joking with Hara's promiscuity in a rather heavy way. And although it is well known that this type of image is harmful to an idol (mostly female idols) the MCs continued with the jokes. Hara tried to laugh it off but it was a comment from Kyuhyun that made her crack, being the gossip expert on the show, he said "if I said what I know, her career would be over." It was then that Hara threw him a bottle of juice playfully and then broke into tears. Hara was accused of being violent, unprofessional and disrespectful by netizens. And when one of the MCs came out in her defense and apologized for what they had done, the netizens said that "Hara's tantrums had forced him to apologize" and they hated her more.

Shortly after this, KARA disintegrated. But despite everything, Hara made a fortune as a commercial model. And there is nothing that netizens hate more than a successful, independent and wealthy woman. Especially if she achieves so despite public hate. And even more, if this successful, independent and wealthy woman is best friends with another successful, independent and wealthy woman (Sulli) that netizens also tried to destroy. And so, Goo Hara moved on with her life, even though the hate never stopped.

On September 4, 2018, Goo Hara (who is 1.64 and is so thin that she has been accused of being anorexic) was accused of beating her boyfriend. For the following week there were no signs of Hara, while the boyfriend appeared in the media several times a day giving interviews about it, and saying that she had gone crazy when he tried to end the relationship. He said he wasn't going to go public at first but when he got home he realized she had "disfigured" him and his face "is a big part of how he makes a living" (he's a hairdresser) so he decided to let everyone know the type of person she is. At some point the guy gave an interview in a hospital gown and connected to serum, despite having given interviews without these things several days before, and the hospital records shows he only had scratches. But despite being suspicious, the netizens did not need more, and cited what happened on radio star, her promiscuity and her friendship with Sulli as evidence of her violence and imbalance, and demanded jail time for Hara.

Time after that, Hara finally appeared on the media, which she had not done because she had been hospitalized due to the beating that the boyfriend (the alleged victim) gave her. Attack that damaged her internal organs to the degree of causing severe bleeding. Incidentally, there was damage to her intimate organs, so a rape is suspected, although it was never confirmed as such. And although Hara presented evidence and a witness, the netizens did not believe her, they said that she paid the witness and that, because she was promiscuous, her word had no worth. It was then that Dispatch revealed that the boyfriend had offered them the premise of the matter, then screenshots of the guy blackmailing Hara with an intimate video that he filmed against her will came to light. Just then the netizens decided to listen to her. The witness (Hara's roomie) came out to give her version of the facts: the guy had entered without permission with the access code and had woken Hara by kicking the bed. The witness and the messages proved that Hara had broke up with him and he wanted to blackmail her with the intimate video and threatened to end her career, Hara tried to take the video, and the guy beat her up. After that, he destroyed averything and anything he could find at the apartment, while Hara begged him not to publish the video. In the week that Hara was hospitalized the guy sent her threats and fragments of the video as blackmail.

For a while Hara had the empathy of the netizens, but the case was never resolved judicially, and the public eventually forgot what happened and attacked Hara again. This year Hara uploaded a photo to her social media for the first time, thanking the support she received in those difficult moments. And the netizens accused her of attention seeking, they said that if she was really hurt she shouldn't be on social media after what happened, and accused her of being unaware of the damage she caused her ex - who could no longer show his face in public. Soon she went to Japan to fulfill previous contracts and they accused her of fleeing, of indifference and said that what had happened hadn't been so serious if she was already working and she had made a big drama for nothing. Meanwhile the ex is active in social media and opened a new beauty salon, which was very successful. And as if that were not enough, the ex-boyfriend, Junghyun (B2ST) ended up entangled in the Seungri/Rising Sun scandal. And although it has been said that he was not an active participant beyond commenting on the videos that JJY sent, the netizens insisted that there were videos and intimate photos of Hara in the infamous chats.

After this, Hara uploaded a picture and netizens accused her of getting plastic surgery. Hara said that she had eyelid surgery for medical reasons and asked people to stop attacking her, but the netizens ignored and attacked her for the surgery.

May 25th 2019, Hara was found unconscious in her apartment. It was said it had been a suicide attempt. This incident, unlike others in the world of kpop, did not have a wave of positive and empathetic comments wishing her recovery, but the comments were insults, offenses and ridicule towards Hara. They even reproached her for her lack of success in committing suicide, accused her of faking it, said that the news were false to get attention and attacked her more than ever.

Soon after that Hara los her best friend.

This news were devastating but they were not a surprise, at least to me. I made a post about Sulli's passing asking people to support Hara, because I knew that she would be next. She had already tried. And she got hate for not succeeding.

A lot of the kpop fandom now wasn't around for most of the second generation mess. We had idols poisoned, attacked, and destroyed by netizens. There still are many idols victims of slave contracts and abuse but back then you saw the proof of those things regularly. With idols passing out and stuff.

Korea, specifically its treatment of celebrities is crap. Its inhuman. As international fans we should spread love for idols. And ask the companies to care for them, we should watch for their best interests as humans. What Hyuna and Edawn are doing, going on variety shows and doing photoshoots together as a couple is huge. What Mamamoo has been doing is huge. What Holland is doing is huge. Please support the idols who are actively fighting to change Koreas celebrity culture. ITS IMPORTANT.

And its important to know the stories of idols like Hara, Hangeng, T-ARA... because this idols were victims and where given nothing but hate. Hate that ended their careers or in Hara and Sulli's case, their lives. Hate kills. Haters kill. Not allowing people to live a plenty life, kills. Not allowing people to make mistakes, kills. I hope you read Hara's story and pay attention to female idols with a bad reputation, they're vulnerable in so many ways. And I hope that, in the future, when an idol survives a suicide attempt y'all wont ignore it like you did Hara.

REST IN PEACE🙏💔💔🙏

[stellar-imagines]

HEADCANONS REQUEST: ❝studious but rebellious.❞

[ Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia ] [ Characters: Bakugou Katsuki, Todoroki Shouto, Kirishima Eijirou ]

「Headcanons of Bakugou, Todoroki and Kirishima who's studious, mild-mannered, and the typical perfect student but is secretly rebellious, tomboyish, fierce and fiery.」

BAKUGOU KATSUKI

♤ This guy probably thinks that you're a shitty model student. You were the typical student who's gentle, encouraging, helpful and kind to everyone. Anyone would find it easy to talk to you given how bubbly and mild-mannered you were on a daily basis. You always arrived at school on time, dressed properly, did your homework, actively participate in class and performed well during hero training. Now we all know that Bakugou has a superiority complex and he was a bit pissed that you were so good at everything. He sees you as a rival but he has never actually said it to your face.

♤ He would compete with you without you knowing at all. For instance, after midterms when Aizawa handed back your papers, Bakugou is already looking through all his papers, satisfied with how he had performed. He would then proceed to approach you and demand you show him your scores. Gets cocky if he actually surpasses you and angry when he failed to beat you. Because of this small exchange you have with one another, you became friends. 

♤ Gets along with you better than anyone expected. You were normally studious and looked like the type of student who would be sophisticated and disciplined, someone like Iida or Yaoyorozu. He probably thought that you would be a person who prefers studying, reading books, and all that. Bakugou was kind of surprised that you were actually pretty tomboyish. He knew this from hearing you talk about your hobbies and the things you loved to do. 

♤ He wasn't sure what kind of acts were considered rebellious. Bakugou had this certain image of you as the person who would never break rules or bother other people and act like a responsible person even outside of school. You would sneak out of your room and make a midnight snack. When you're at the movie theater, you would sneak in some snacks inside your bag. 

♤ Though, you weren't the kind of rebel who's a troublemaker ― someone who doesn't like to follow instructions and causes inconvenient disruptions. You're not really everyone's typical girl who loved dressing up and pretty clothes. You were more on the tomboyish side, preferring pants over skirts and t-shirts over blouses. Make-up? You think it's better spent on food! Bakugou thinks you're absolutely right.

♤ Bakugou has no certain preference when it comes to girls. But he definitely likes someone who's too prudent and someone who would want to live their life in their own ways even though their acts are considered rebellious. It's a bonus that you're fierce because you can put him in his place if he gets out of hand. But when it comes to sparring, he won't lose. Lowkey thinks that it's hot when you show your rebellious, fierce, and fiery side. He would rather die than admit that to you.

TODOROKI SHOUTO

☆ Todoroki is not a competitive person like Bakugou and he's the type to not really care whether you're actually really smart or not. You both like to share notes with one another and study together. He really likes having you around during study sessions. Sometimes studying alone can get a bit boring. However, even with you around, it's not like you're both going to talk anyway. But you both were comfortable with the silence and can genuinely enjoy each other's presence without having to talk.

☆ He does think that you're the epitome of a model student. A student who is on the top of class due to your outstanding grades, possessing and overall charismatic feel, kind-hearted, and excels in everything you do. Despite your popularity, you're also humble, never boasting your grades, and never looked down on people. Todoroki finds himself admiring you for this. You didn't look like the type who would be reckless and tomboyish so he just assumed that you were what everyone sees you as.

☆ This boy is initially surprised that you were actually quite rebellious at times. When you both started dating and hanging out a bit more, he learned a lot of different sides that you don't normally show to everyone. Even though it was surprising, it's not like he didn't like you any less. He feels like a very special person as he's probably the very few people that knew how you actually are. Before you both even started dating, you got along very well and went out on a few dates. 

☆ Behind closed doors, you were completely different. But not different to the point that would make Todoroki question himself if you're actually the same person. You reveal to him that you might be very diligent when it comes to studying but you really hate doing housework and sometimes argue with your mother over it. At home, you would play games, watch anime, and read manga. 

☆ You're not competitive when it comes to school but you were certainly competitive when it came to games. Todoroki was a bit overwhelmed by your sudden change but he kind of likes that you're comfortable enough to let loose in front of him. Instead of dressing up like girly girls, you always wore sweaters and pants around him. If you were to ask him for one of his hoodies, he would give it to you without asking anything.

☆ Todoroki loves you so much that when you break a few rules a couple of times, he wouldn't even say anything much. You're not rebellious to the point you commit weird acts. Studious and mild-mannered but at the same time, fiery, tomboyish, and rebellious ― he thinks its an interesting combo and that you're unique.

KIRISHIMA EIJIROU

♡ You're his lifesaver. He can't say that he's smart but just like a majority of students in the world, he struggles with a few problems related to studies. Kirishima would always ask you questions and even plead that you tutor him before tests and help him with homework. You were the perfect teenage girl in his eyes. A model student who's good at everything you do, be it studies or even sports.

♡ Super proud of having you as his girlfriend. You're smart, pretty, kind, and reliable. A student that a lot of people looked up to, not only because of their outstanding grades but also because they act humble despite their popularity and smarts. Kirishima's not dating you because you're smart or anything, he's not that type of person. He enjoys spending time studying with you because you somehow make it fun and much more enjoyable.

♡ Kirishima is a bit surprised to know that your hobbies are different from a normal girl's, you preferred playing games over shopping like normal girls. You'd spend most of your money on games instead of makeup and pretty clothes that girls prefer. When going out, he wouldn't have to think about what girls normally liked and could invite you to things that he also enjoys. But of course, he would ask you where you wanted to go beforehand.

♡ Similarly to most, Kirishima didn't expect you to be the rebellious type but he isn't complaining or anything. He's actually pretty happy about it. Since you're very studious and mild-mannered at school, he expected you to be the type of person to stick to the rules. You have confessed the little rebellious acts you've done before, like sneaking out from your house to go to a friend's party.

♡ Sometimes, you'd drag him into your antics, doing weird things in public. He knows how rebellious teens act but you weren't like those people. Driving over the speed limit, shoplifting, smoking and drinking alcohol, even blowing off homework in favor of using social media, and skipping school. Kirishima trusts you and knows that you wouldn't do anything too extreme. And if you happen to do something that might potentially harm you, he's there to stop you.

♡ Best boy to play games with but not only that, he's just super fun to hang out with. No matter what kind of things you like, he's the type of person who's very flexible and willing to get to know a person more despite having different hobbies and interests. Kirishima is very interested in learning different things and supportive so your somewhat contrasting personality doesn't really bother him.

Total: 1390 words Published: 11.09.2020

Thank you for requesting! ｡٩(ˊᗜˋ)و*｡ Honestly, this is basically me in a nutshell but I'm not that rebellious. Sorry but we don't write for Denki. Hope you liked it! ― author Lou

Thank you for requesting it! Surprised that there were a number of similar requests. But we hope you enjoyed this! ― author Natsuki

Requests areopen! Matchups are closed!

Please do not mind the grammar mistakes and typos.

[gaangadventures]

Hi! I’ve just found your blog and will you marry me?!? AANG CONTENT?!?? ! I saw the requests open and if you’re still open for them could I request a Zuko x reader? Zukos been awed by readers sheer power over and over cus he’s a sucker for strong women. And when he joins the gaang he is soo smitten with the reader and every one sees it but the oblivious reader. And he enventually asks for everyone’s help but during the ember island play she finds out cause they over dramatize his big crush?

Awww! We should probably meet before getting married lol  Sorry for taking so long with the request, life has been kicking my butt. Here you go! c: 

As a former citizen of a small village in the Earth Kingdom, you always longed for adventure and there weren’t many ways to leave your family farm. Or at least not without having to take something from them, and you had refused to. You knew they had little enough already.

But it was different one day, after meeting the avatar himself and his friends. As an earthbender, you weren’t sure where you could go but you wanted to go everywhere. And if you could beat up some Fire Nation soldiers, then you would be having the time of your life.

You had gone into the market for some feed for the lone ostrich horse, and a few of the Fire Nation soldiers had caught wind of the avatar. You were sure that he could actually take them down himself, but you weren’t exactly going to test that theory, and you trapped them in pillars of earth before helping the group out of the market and towards your family farm.

That was how you had met them anyway, and you had asked to join them that day. You hadn’t exactly expected them to say yes either, but they had, and you were overjoyed. So were they, but you assumed that Katara was more or less just glad to not be the only girl there.

Shortly after you joined however, the adventure you always wanted seemed to be a bit much at times.

First, there was the general that actively tried to get Aang into the avatar state and had put all of you in danger for it. Then there were the nomads that you had wanted to leave in the tunnels, you couldn’t believe how carefree they could be in the middle of a war. Even after all that your group had done to get into Omashu, you all found out that the Fire Nation had overtaken it and that Aang had to find an earthbending teacher himself. You offered, but you still had much to learn for it yourself.

And your least favorite place happened to be the swamp. Everyone there had visions of some person they already met and lost or in Aang’s case, were going to meet. You however, had a vision of your family. You had left them, and who knows if you would see them again, but you kept reminding yourself that it was okay, and they understood why you did.

The next place was some odd avatar-hating village, and Aang got arrested. But it was okay, because the day had ended with him out of prison, you beating up some soldiers, and some weird dough-like thing that you immediately spat out after tasting.

 In another Earth Kingdom town, your group had gone to an underground earthbending tournament which you had a blast watching. You had wanted to participate as well, but ended up following the rest of them as they looked for the Blind Bandit. The day went well, considering Aang had managed to get an earthbending teacher and so had you, despite her parents originally saying no. You had assumed that her parents never changed her mind like she said, having done the same thing with your own.

After Toph had joined, there was a strange metal contraption constantly following them by way of Appa’s fur trail. It had turned out to be the Fire Nation princess herself, and her two nonbending but still dangerous friends. You had helped Sokka and Katara with the other two that you had yet to learn the names of, while Aang was dealing with the last one. There was a fight because of course there was, you were starting to wonder just how many more fights you would have to go through in this. That was not to say you didn’t like to fight. You excelled at it.

That had also been the first time you had actually met the Prince Zuko that had literally followed them around the nations, and the first thing you wanted to know was where his ponytail had gone. Sokka had made sure to tell you all about it, but had left out the fact that he could actually be considered attractive, not that you would say that part out loud, and especially not when he was your enemy as well.

You had definitely been thrown for a loop when Azula had shot Iroh with lightning, only for Zuko to refuse help from any of you, even though Katara would have been the only one able to actually help.

Your second least favorite place was the desert, even though you thought the library had been amazing, apart from Wan Shi Tong getting upset that you guys had actually only come to learn how to defeat the Fire Nation. But Appa had gone missing, and you were absolutely convinced none of that was Toph’s fault. Another part of the desert that you didn’t like much were the buzzard wasps, but at least you had begun learning how to bend sand, which was definitely odd.

On your way to Ba Sing Se, they ended up meeting a few old friends of theirs, the Kyoshi Warriors and you had been quick to introduce yourself as well. Mostly since you had grown up hearing about them, and how amazing they would be, you really aspired to be more like them. 

Of course, the ticket lady wouldn’t let any of you get onto the ferry without passports, and Toph had managed to get all of you, only for the group to go the other route to Ba Sing Se when a pregnant lady and her husband had mentioned that their things were stolen. The Serpent’s Pass, you thought was aptly named when going through it. The serpent was terrifying, and you severely hoped that you wouldn’t have to go that way again. 

But at least you had made it through before Ying had her baby, which you thought was surprising considering she was quite far along. She asked you if you wanted to hold her, and you declined, having held more babies in your life than you probably would have liked, not to mention you hadn’t particularly wanted to hold any more. At least for now.

The new family had separated from you and your own group when you finally reached Ba Sing Se, only to find out that the Fire Nation trio was back again and they were trying to take down the wall with another metal thing. You had been helping Toph and Katara bend the awful rock and water combination and successfully kept a few of them back that way.

Ba Sing Se was a horrible city in your opinion, the Dai Li only being a part of it, but you were having a big issue with how the poor had less opportunities and the like.

You were partially glad when you left with the group, but heavily concerned for the avatar you’d come to think of as a younger brother. He had been shot with lightning and actually died, it was a miracle when Katara had healed him.

The weeks passing seemed to grow longer and longer, and nobody said it but everyone could tell that there was a lot of concern and worry for Aang when he hadn’t woke up. You spent your days learning how to bend metal like Toph, and it had taken you a while to even start.

Once he was awake however, you had to leave the boats you’d grown somewhat accustomed to and wait for the solar eclipse to grow nearer.

Unfortunately where you had to wait happened to be in the Fire Nation itself, and you hadn’t exactly wanted for more red in your wardrobe but it couldn’t be helped.

The next month or so, you weren’t sure how long it actually had been and couldn’t be bothered to remember, Katara had helped a coast village with its sick by posing as a river spirit and had even blown up a Fire Nation factory with Aang and finally scared the soldiers away from the town by continuing the ruse. Sokka had acquired a master of his own and made his own sword out of a piece of rock that fell from the sky. Toph had been scamming people in town, occasionally with your help but you ended up stopping when you thought that it would be too obvious. Katara had ended up finding another Southern Water Tribe bender, but unfortunately due to decades of being in prison had gone mad and had been kidnapping innocent people and trapping them under a mountain.

Hama had actually terrified you more than anything else had, but you couldn’t help but pity her at first. Your empathy had been shut off when you saw how Katara had to bloodbend her that night, and how upset she was.

The day of the invasion had been off to a good start, but it had been cut short when everyone learned that the Fire Nation already knew of the solar eclipse and had planned for it.

All of you had regrouped, apart from the adults that had gotten arrested for being a part of the invasion, and had gone to the Western Air Temple. Having never gone to any of the air temples yourself, you had quite a bit of fun exploring this one.

When the prince himself appeared and offered to be Aang’s firebending teacher, you wanted to throw a rock in his face and probably would’ve, had anyone else started a fight. It had been his choice to join his sister in Ba Sing Se, and now he wanted to join the group that he’d been chasing this entire time? Needless to say, you held a grudge against him, and you wouldn’t hesitate to earthbend him to the edge of the cliff if he tried anything.

The next day however, Toph returned with burned feet and Zuko had come back yet again. After his apologies, Aang had accepted him as his firebending teacher shortly after that.

It seemed like everyone but the ones that could earthbend had gone on a field trip with him, oddly enough, when Aang and Zuko had gone to learn real firebending, then it was Sokka and Zuko apparently breaking Hakoda and Suki out of prison but they also brought back a prisoner named Chit Sang too. Then it was Katara’s turn, and she went with him to confront the man who killed her mother. Thankfully, she hadn’t killed him.

Instead of camping out, Zuko had offered up a new place to sleep at, and it was a house that apparently no one goes anymore. You were a little weirded out at the thought of it, and Katara thought so too.

“Doesn’t it seem weird that we’re living in the Fire Lord’s own house?

“I told you, my father hasn’t come here since our family was actually happy. And that was a long time ago. It’s the last place anyone would think to look for us.”

“True, but still weird.” You piped up, doing your own stretches as the two firebenders had finished with their training.

“You guys are not gonna believe this. There’s a play about us.” Sokka said, walking out onto the courtyard with Suki, holding a rolled up poster, looking awfully smug.

“We were just in town, and we found this poster.” Suki continued, while Sokka rolled out the poster and held it up so all of you could see it.

“What? How is that possible?”

“Listen to this.” Sokka started, before beginning to read off the poster itself. “The boy in the iceberg is a new production from acclaimed playwright Puan Tin who scoured the globe, gathering information on the avatar from the icy South Pole to the heart of Ba Sing Se. His sources include singing nomads, pirates, prisoners of war, and a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage.”

“Brought to you by the critically acclaimed Ember Island players.” Suki finished, before Zuko began to groan.

“Ugh. My mother used to take us to see them. They butchered “Love Amongst the Dragons” every year.”

“Sokka, do you really think it’s a good idea for us to attend a play about ourselves?”

“Come on, a day at the theater? This is the kind of wacky, time-wasting nonsense I;ve been missing.” And with that answer, you all headed out to the theater to see whatever play this would end up being.

Upon arriving, you all settled down into the seats, Katara sitting next to Toph and you sitting next to her, much to Aang’s disappointment, you were sure. You expected Aang to just sit down next to you, but no, Zuko had.

“Why are we sitting in the nosebleed section? My feet can’t see a thing from up here.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll tell your feet what’s happening.” Katara answered to Toph, while your gaze was awaiting on the curtains.

They opened to show what was supposed to Katara and Sokka on a boat in the sea, back in the South Pole you assumed. You almost laughed at Sokka’s excitement to notice the two when he grabbed his sister’s shoulder and pointed from each other back and forth.

“Sokka, my only brother.” The fake Katara let out a sigh, dramatically gesturing to the painted “ice glaciers” on her side. “We constantly roam these icy south pole seas, and yet, never do we find anything fulfilling.”

“All I want is a full feeling in my stomach. I’m starving.” ‘Sokka’ responded, making the real Katara and Sokka give each other a look as the audience burst into laughter.

“Is food the only thing that’s on your mind?”

“Well, I’m trying to get it out of my mind and in my mouth. I’m starving.”

“Is that all that guy says?” You grimaced, starting to dread when your character showed up.

“This is pathetic. My jokes are way funnier than this.” Sokka exclaimed, while Toph laughed at him.

“I think he’s got you pegged.” With that, the rest of you turned back to the play.

“Every day, the world awaits a beacon to guide us, yet none appears. Still, we cannot give up hope, for hope is all we have and we must never relinquish it, even. . . Even to our dying breath.” Fake Katara began to sob, and you drew in a breath through your teeth when Katara crossed her arms.

“Well, that’s just silly. I don’t sound like that.”

“You have your moments.” You admitted, but even you would agree that this was an exaggeration for sure.

“Oh man, this writer’s a genius.” At least Toph was having fun.

“It appears to be someone frozen in ice, perhaps for 100 years.” ‘Katara’ said, when a light shone down onto a floating iceberg.

“But who? Who is the boy in the iceberg?” Fake Sokka asked, the two climbing up the iceberg.

“Waterbend, hi-ya!” Fake Katara cried out, drawing her hand down as if to actually crack the ‘iceberg’ herself, only for it to break and reveal fake Aang, whose actor was a girl apparently.

“Who are you, frozen boy?

“I’m the avatar, silly, here to spread joy and fun.” ‘Aang’ giggled, and you looked to the avatar himself, only to see him frowning deeply.

“Wait, is that a woman playing me?” He asked, right as a fake Appa showed up and went around the iceberg in a circle while fake Katara gasped.

“An airbender. My heart is so full of hope that it’s making me tear-bend.” She began to fake sob, falling to her knees and grabbing onto fake Aang’s leg. 

“My stomach is so empty that it’s making me tear-bend.” Fake Sokka cried out, falling to his knees as well and grabbing onto ‘Aang’s’ other leg. “I need meat.” With that, you really couldn’t help but laugh, even when both Katara and Sokka were beginning to glare at you.

“But wait! Is that a platter of meaty dumplings?” The actress for Aang mentioned, pointing up at nothing in particular.

“Ooh, where, where?” ‘Sokka’ quickly asked, only for ‘Aang’ to start laughing.

“Did I mention that I’m an incurable prankster?”

“I don’t do that. That’s not what i’m like. And I’m not a woman.”

“Oh they nailed you, Twinkletoes.” Toph joked, laughing at the play as she basically had been this entire time.

A new boat showed up on the stage, this time carrying Zuko and his uncle.

“Prince Zuko, you must try this cake.” ‘Iroh’ offered, while fake Zuko was looking out at sea with a telescope.

“I don’t have time to stuff my face. I must capture the avatar to regain my honor.”

“Well, while you do that, maybe I’ll capture another slice.” Fake Iroh said, before literally shoving the cake into his face and eating.

“You sicken me.” ‘Zuko’ said, with a disgusted look on his face, and you let out a laugh.

“They make me look totally stiff and humorless.”

“Actually, I think that actor’s pretty spot-on.” Katara joked, and Zuko had been quick to turn to her.

“How could you say that?

“Let’s forget about the avatar and get massages.” 

“How could you say that?” Fake Zuko cried out at Iroh’s suggestion, only for you to laugh when you saw the look on Zuko’s face.

The scene panned out to show Aang the actress at the Southern Air Temple, with a tail sticking out of the fake bushes.

“Hey, look! I think I found something.” Fake Aang kept digging into the bushes, only to come back out with a fake puppet of Momo on his shoulder and a fake arm hanging from his side. “A flying rabbit-monkey! I think I’ll name him Momo.” He laughed, before moving the puppet so it would look like it was talking.

“Hi, everybody. I love you.” At the sight of it, both you and Aang let out a low groan. Momo did not deserve this slander.

With another scene, it showed a Kyoshi Warrior, which you assumed was supposed to be Suki before ‘Sokka’ came out, dressed in the same Kyoshi Warrior ensemble.

“Does this dress make my butt look fat?” He said, making the real Suki laugh, as you turned to look at the couple.

“So nobody told me you were a Kyoshi Warrior? I do have a question though. Did you look as good as Suki does?” You couldn’t help but tease him, although this was definitely bringing up some topics that you had missed out on.

The scene changed yet again, but this time was showing what was supposed to be King Bumi. Was he really that buff?

“Riddles and challenges must you face if you are ever to leave this place.” It showed fake Aang pushing a boulder, fake Sokka running from a gorilla rabbit, and fake Katara groaning as she was trapped in crystals.

It cut to a different part of the play, showing a pirate boat and pirates began to surround the trio. The pirates continued to fight each other as the trio actually got out quite safely.

“Why did you have to steal that waterbending scroll?” Fake Sokka asked as they crept away from the pirates.

“It just gave me so much hope.” Fake Katara answered, sobbing yet again.

“I really hope my character isn’t as bad.” You added, wearing a grimace, since you knew Katara didn’t cry nearly as many times as this one made her out to be like.

“The avatar is mine!” Fake Zuko cried out, while fake Aang was chained to a wall with soldiers surrounding him. “Wait, who’s coming?” He pointed to a different part of the stage where a person with a large blue demon-like mask held dao swords.

“I am the blue spirit, the scourge of the Fire Nation, here to save the avatar.” He exclaimed, before the soldiers began to drop to the ground dramatically and he somehow defeated fake Zuko as well as simultaneously untying fake Aang.

“My hero.” ‘Aang’ said, before leaving the stage with the blue spirit.

The scene changed, and it showed a sobbing ‘Katara’ with a fake Jet, hanging from a rope.

“Don’t cry, baby. Jet will wipe out that nasty town for you.” 

“Oh, Jet. You’re so bad.” Toph laughed, while Katara tried to hide her face, and you just lightly patted her shoulder with a slight look of pity.

“Look! It’s the Great Divide. The biggest canyon in the Earth Kingdom.” Aang mentioned, standing atop fake Appa.

“Eh, let’s keep flying.” Fake Sokka shrugged, while you only leaned back into your seat.

“Don’t go, Yue. You’re the only woman who’s ever taken my mind off of food.” The two actors dramatically kiss, before fake Sokka turns away with a gag. “Wait, did you have pickled fish for dinner?”

“Goodbye, Sokka. I have important moon duties to take care of. And yes, I did have pickled fish.” Fake Yue said, going up into the sky with the moon.

“You never told me you made out with the moon spirit.” Suki chuckled, and you glanced at the couple to see tears in Sokka’s eyes as he shushed her.

“Shh, I’m trying to watch.” Turning back to look at the stage, you saw the actress for Aang in a fish spirit costume, crushing fake fire Nation ships.

“The avatar is back to save the day! Yay!” He said, kicking and stomping on the rest of the fake ships before falling onto the floor as the curtains closed.

“So far, this intermission is the best part of the play.” Zuko mentioned when all of you sat on the steps outside of the theater.

“Apparently, the playwright thinks I’m an idiot who tells bad jokes about meat all the time.” Sokka angrily shoved jerky into his mouth, as Suki teased him.

“Yeah, you tell bad jokes about plenty of other topics.”

“I know!”

“At least the Sokka actor kind of looks like you. That woman playing the avatar doesn’t resemble at all.” Aang lamented, putting his hands over his head, as Toph shrugged.

“I don’t know. You are more in touch with your feminine side than most guys.” With that, Aang groaned and Katara interrupted when he stood up.

“Relax, Aang. They’re not accurate portrayals. It’s not like I’m a preachy crybaby who can’t resist giving over-emotional speeches about hope all the time.” Everyone had clearly been looking at her but nobody said a word, until she asked. “What?”

“Yeah, that’s not you at all.” Aang backed her up, sitting back down and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Listen, friends. It’s obvious that the playwright did his research. I know it must hurt, but what you’re seeing up there on that stage is the truth.” Toph offered, and you tilted your head.

“Not quite I don’t think, this is definitely exaggerated.”

As the group went back into the theater, the scene was apparently when you had met the group, seeing as it looked like your hometown.

“Well, here we are in the Earth Kingdom.” 

“I’d better have a look around to see if I can find an earthbending teacher.”

“Hey, is that the avatar? Get him!” A Fire Nation soldier exclaimed, pointing at fake Aang, when fake you appeared on the stage.

“No, don’t take him! I need to leave this town and abandon my family forever!” ‘You’ cried out, fake earthbending the soldiers out before running with the group. “I don’t want to live on this farm anymore! I want to beat up people!”

You grimaced at their portrayal of you, but at least the actress looked somewhat like you, even if the personality was quite a bit off.

“That’s not. . Quite true.” You added, seeing fake you leave with the rest of them. 

The scene was changed into another Earth Kingdom town, and you assumed this was where Toph showed up.

“Well, here we are in the Earth Kingdom again. So we can find an actual earthbending teacher.” Fake Katara repeated, the four of them standing next to a suspiciously large rock.

“This must be where I come in.” Toph whispered as fake Aang ‘flew’ around the audience with a rope.

“I flew all over town, but I couldn’t find a single earthbending master.”

“Here it comes.” Toph said, leaning forward in her seat.

“You can’t find an earthbending master in the sky. You have to look underground.” Fake Toph was apparently a very large and buff man, throwing the fake rock off stage. Which only caused everyone but Toph to start laughing, yourself included.

“Who are you?” Fake Aang asked, as fake Toph spat away from him, before proudly pointing to himself before beginning to flex his arms.

“My name’s Toph, because it sounds like tough, and that’s just what I am.”

“Wait a minute. I sound like a guy. A really buff guy.” Toph said, already starting to smile when Katara turned to her.

“Well Toph, what you hear up there is the truth. It hurts, doesn’t it?”

“Are you kidding me? I wouldn’t have cast it any other way. At least it’s not a flying bald lady.” Toph answered, making Aang frown as you bit back a snicker.

“So you’re blind?” ‘Aang’ asked, waving his hand in front of ‘Toph’.

“I can see you doing that. I see everything that you see, except I don’t see like you do. I release a sonic wave from my mouth.” Fake Toph explained before beginning to scream, causing everyone in the audience to flinch, apart from the actual Toph of course, who only grinned. “There. I got a pretty good look at you.”

The scene changed to show Iroh and Zuko who apparently had long hair now.

“Zuko, it’s time we had a talk about your hair. It’s gone too far.”

“Maybe it’s best if we split up.” Fake Zuko dramatically flipped his long hair as the two actors walked off the stage, only for everyone to come back with fake Azula as well.

“Azula, my sister, what are you doing here?”

“You caught me. Wait, what’s that? I think it’s your honor.” She said, pointing up and everyone in the cast looked away from her as she slipped away.

“Where?”

“She escaped. But how?” Fake Katara asked, and it switched to show Azula and Aang at the wall of Ba Sing Se with the drill.

“If she continues drilling, this wall will come down for sure.” Fake Aang said, throwing a fake rock at her.

“Yes, continue drilling. The city of Ba Sing Se can hide no longer.” Fake Azula said as ‘Aang’ continued throwing rocks, but it never showed how it ended as the scene changed to show a mind-controlled Jet.

“No, Jet, what did they do to you? Fake Aang cried out, dodging as fake Jet swung out with his hooks.

“Must serve Earth King. Must destroy!” He exclaimed as a fake rock fell onto him, before curling up underneath it so his body wouldn’t be showing.

“Did Jet just die?” Zuko asked, as Sokka answered, gesturing with his hands.

“You know, it was really unclear.” 

“I have to admit, Prince Zuko, I really find you attractive.” Fake Katara said, now seemingly in the crystal caves of Ba Sing Se as fake you was looking for a way out, hardly paying any attention to the two.

“You don’t have to make fun of me.” The actor said, turning away and then turning back when fake Katara sat down onto the same rock as him.

“But I mean it. I’ve had eyes for you since the day you first captured me.” With that, you noticed the real Zuko and Katara briefly glance at each other with mildly disgusted looks as Aang frowned at the stage.

“Wait. I thought you were the avatar’s girl. And besides I’m in love with someone else.” Fake Zuko then said, beginning to walk away and very obviously looked towards fake you. ‘Katara’ laughed, before starting to say.

“The avatar? Why, he’s like a little brother to me. I certainly don’t think of him in a romantic way. Besides, how could he ever find out about this?” She hugged him, and you looked at the stage in confusion.

“There’s no way you two would do that.” You said, knowing for a fact that Katara was crushing on Aang, and she had already divulged that he kissed her the day of the invasion. “But what I don’t get is why the actor looks at me when he says he’s in love with someone else. What’s up with that?” You questioned, only to get radio silence from everyone there. You shrugged, figuring that you would weasel the answer out of someone later.

“Oh, you’re getting up? Can you get me some fire flakes?” Sokka asked Aang when he walked out of the theater after that debacle. “Oh, and fire gummies.”

“Well, my brother, what’s it going to be? Your nation or a life of treachery?” Fake Azula said, only for fake Zuko to contemplate things.

“Choose treachery. It’s more fun.” Fake Iroh said, drinking some tea as ‘Zuko’ walked over to him and paused.

“No way!” ‘Azula’ yelled before he pushed ‘Iroh’ over onto the ground and headed towards his sister’s side.

“I hate you, Uncle. You smell, and I hate you for all time!” As he left the stage with ‘Azula’, the Earth Kingdom flag fell onto the actor for Iroh.

“You didn’t really say that, did you?” Katara asked, and you frowned when Zuko answered.

“I might as well have.”

The next scene was Ty Lee and Mai taking over Ba Sing Se, only for Aang to appear out from behind the throne.

“Avatar state, yip-yip!” Fake Aang proceeded to be brought up from the stage by a rope as fake Azula appeared.

“Not if my lightning can help it.” A ribbon was thrown at the fake avatar who pretended to be electrocuted and fell to the floor. “The avatar is no more.” At that, the whole audience seemed to cheer, apart from your group.

You stretched during the intermission, thankful to be out of the seat.

“It seems like every time there’s a big battle, you guys barely make it out alive. I mean, you guys lose a lot.” Suki mentioned, only for her boyfriend to quickly respond.

“You’re one to talk, Suki, didn’t Azula take you captive? That’s right, she did.”

“Are you trying to get on my bad side?”

“I’m just saying.”

“Does anyone know where Aang is?” Katara interrupted the couple, and you hoped that the two might finally talk about how they feel.

“He left to get me fire gummies like ten minutes ago, and I’m still waiting.” Sokka complained, only for his sister to turn away from him.

“I’m gonna check outside.” She said, walking out of the theater, as a child dressed up as Aang pretended to fly around.

“Suki, what are the chances you can get me backstage? I got some jokes I want to give to the actor me.”

“I’m an elite warrior who’s trained for many years in the art of stealth. I think I could get you backstage.” And the two walk off, leaving you with Zuko and Toph.

“Well, I think I’m going to go check out how bad Sokka’s jokes are. Maybe you can tell her now.” Toph suggested, before following Suki and Sokka.

“Wait-” But you had cut Zuko off before he could continue.

“Tell me what?” Would someone finally tell you about why fake Zuko looked at you when he said he was in love with someone else?

“I-uh.. The actor wasn’t entirely wrong.” He partially confessed, only leaving you with more questions.

“Wrong about which part?” You simply couldn’t understand any bit of it.

“I’ve kind of been in love with you for a while.” He quickly answered, glancing at you to see your reaction before looking away.

“Wait what-” You said, only momentarily confused before shaking your head. You didn’t exactly understand why, and that’s exactly what you said. “Why? I don’t get it. There’s nothing special or anything about me.”

“You are far from ordinary, Y/N. You’re so strong and-”

“So what you’re telling me, you’re attracted to strong women?” You teased, oddly satisfied upon seeing the light pink of his cheeks as he groaned before letting out a sigh.

“Yeah.” He admitted, before continuing. “I even asked everyone for help with this.”

“Wait, is that why you had told me I was pretty the other day? And why I found flowers in front of my door the next morning?”

“Yeah.” 

“Well, I thought you were hot when we first met, so we’re even.” You shrugged, looking at him from the corner of your eye.

“Do you still think that?”

“What do you think?” You answered his question with a question, leaning closer to him until your faces were merely inches apart. “Y’know, I started training to get my mind off you.”

Just as your lips were almost touching, you had closed your eyes only to quickly open them and pull away when you heard a wolf-whistle.

“It’s about time!”

[yami-writes]

Autumn Leaves

(🏷️) paring(s):  Todoroki x reader (🔮) summary:  Class 1-A’s Halloween day, how exciting! (⚠️) warning(s): just sum fluff (🔖) word count: 2.1k (💌) note from Yami: ending off our Seasonal Love Event with somewhat of a bang ;)

Season: Autumn/Fall words: Halloween, Harvested, Cobweb

A gust feathered atop your hair, making it dance in the breeze. You moved your small bag to your left hand to use your right index finger to remove a small strand of hair from your face. You took a quick look around you, admiring the scenery. It looks quite lovely outside. The sky looked as if it was raining leaves of all autumn colours. Yellow, orange, red, brown… it all looked so pleasing. You could practically smell the sweet sap in the oak trees, ready to be harvested. While the breath-taking view in front of you was georges, something- no, someone even better was walking right beside you. You looked up at him, being greeted once again by his seemingly perfect appearance. His red and white hair mashed together as the wind trickled through it, creating a non-symmetrical pattern that was surprisingly pleasing to the eye. His heteomocratic eyes seemed to be admiring the view in front of him as well, as they glicinded with a slight tint of the autumn leaves dancing in the wind. He seemed to be just as mesmerized by the sight as you were.

‘God- why does he have to be so kissable?’

The two of you continued walking, soon to be met with your destination. You both crossed onto a street the two of you knew all too well and, before you knew it, you were in front of a tall building you’ve been living in for the past 3 years, this year surprisingly being your last. The building full of memories to be remembered forever. The classmates you trained with, and will become pro heroes with, Heights Alliance. You excitedly skipped in, your boyfriend following close behind

“Careful, y/n. Remember your carrying a bag.” he warned, closing the door behind him. “It's fine! I won't break the pumpkins, have some trust in me, Shouto!” you replied, carefully setting the delicate bag on a table. “That's not what i meant, i just don't want you to break them-” 

“says the guy he almost didn't even let me hold the bag in the first place” it took you almost 10 minutes to convince him to hold the bag and even after, you felt his missed-matched eyes glance at you every now and then

“Whatever. lets just go do this before you get the chance to destroy one.” “hey!!” Before you were able to contest, you felt his lips line up beautifly with yours. 

Admittedly, this was his sweet way of shutting you up, an overpowered weapon used too often.

The two of you went up to your dorm and prepared for an event class A’s  been planning for what seemed like months. Halloween day! Not the most creative name, sure, but the name wasn't the important part. It consisted of a Jack O'Lantern contest before taking a quick trip to an Amusement park. Simple, yes, but you were looking forward to it non the less. 

“How do we do this?” Your boyfriend asked, as he placed a small, bright pumpkin on the floor in front of him. You reached into your bag and grabbed a small knife you had bought. You then got out your phone and opened a screenshot you had taken of the steps on how to make a jack o lantern “okay, first step is to scrape out the insides of the pumpkin” you read out, as you handed him a knife. You placed your phone down beside you and started slicing around the stem of the pumpkin, and surely enough, todoroki followed your lead. 

Not before long, the room filled with the sweet scent of pumpkin. As if the two of you were baking a pie and just took it out of a steamy oven. You finished slicing the top of your soon to be Jack o’lantern and picked the top off by the stem, chunks of pumpkin coming out along with it. “Oh….” your boyfriend mumbled upon seeing the overwhelming amount of pumpkin coming out “don't worry, just take them off and place them in the bag” you dragged the plastic bag you had been using to carry your stuff beside the two of you before using your knife to cut and rip off the access pumpkin. “Here, do the same to yours” you said, picking up a pair of gloves you had previously put to the side. 

The two of you continued scraping out the insides of your pumpkins. It had been about 10 minutes but you finally scooped out your final piece and placed it in the bag with the rest “done!” you exclaimed, wiping a drop of sweat from your forehead with the back of your hand. You could hear classmates downstairs already debating who was going to have the best jack o’lantern, with a few mentions of the haunted house trip. It was clear they were excited. You glanced over at your boyfriend’s pumpkin. Empty. “I was waiting for you to finish yours.” he said, his usual stoic expression on his face, impossible to read. Not even his eyes would give any hints this time. “Why? You could’ve asked me for the next step! My phone is right there!” you pointed towards your phone, it being right in front the two of you, facing upwards and unlocked. “I wanted to do this with you…” you couldn't help but hold back a giggle at his cute answer, but it was no surprise, considering its the most used reason he has for anything.

You picked up your phone and looked for the next step, “okay, now we need to choose our design” you searched through your gallery for some pictures you had previously saved as inspiration. “Ah here they are! Look!” you nudged you boyfriend, somehow catching more of his attention. You slowly scrolled through the photos, all of them being amazingly good. The orange glow coming from inside of the jack O’lantern, lighting up the bitch black atmosphere. For some of them, you could partly see the candle on the inside, lighting up the picture even more. There were bats, faces, ghosts, words, and everything in between. 

It felt like the two of you were scrolling for a while before you came to the end of the photos of inspiration you saved. “Oh, I have an idea!” you said, putting your phone down where it was before “i'm gonna make a cobweb!” your boyfriend looked down at you, looking slightly confused “i didn't see any cobwebs, y/n,” he said. You only now remember who you're doing this with. He’s never celebrated any holidays, let alone participated in Halloween activities, now it's your job to teach and help him enjoy himself. “You don't have to do one of the jack o’lanterns I showed you, those were just for inspiration! You can do whatever you like! Just try to make it Halloween themed.” you watched as the gears turned in his head, despite seeing so many examples he could just copy from, considering he’s so new to this. 

“Can i do a cobweb too?” his heterochromatic eyes met yours in an instant, matched with his usual unreadable expression, but you can usually tell when he’s joking. 

“Why a cobweb? Did I not show you enough examples to choose from? I can find more-” 

“no. i wanna do what you're doing. i already told you this, y/n.” you laughed at his somewhat child-like answer, but there's no denying his answer made your heart flutter. “Okay okay! We can do the cobweb design together!” you watched as todoroki’s usual stoic expression disappeared and was replaced by a sweet smile, something you wished you got to see more often, no matter how many times you've seen it. You did a quick search for cobweb reference, placing your phone back down when you found a simple one to copy from. “Okay, now use this to draw out that shape in your pumpkin.” you handed todoroki a black sharpie before taking out your own, already beginning to start drawing on your own pumpkin. 

The next 30 minutes went by in a blur, filled with silence to the point of being able to hear each other's heartbeat, creating a soothing melody able to lull anybody to sleep. You finished up the last details of your pumpkin before snapping out of what seems to be a dream fuelled by concentration. “Does this look good, y/n?” your boyfriend asks, seemingly in desperate need of your validation. You look over at Todoroki’s pumpkin, only to be met with a masterpiece. His pumpkin looked incredibly similar to the photo and would definitely make a very pleasing jack O’lantern. You stared at the pumpkin in awe, ‘how is he so good at everything?’

“y/n?” your boyfriend gave you a gentile shake, bringing your attention back to his slightly saddened features “does it really look that bad? I thought it was okay...” 

“w-wait no! It looks really good! I just didn't think it would be that good, ‘cause, you know, this is your first time,” every word that came out of your mouth sounded like you mashed it all into a single one, making it slightly difficult to understand, but your boyfriend understood very well. 

He let out a small chuckle, something you were not mentally prepared for, before looking back down at his pumpkin “thank you, y/n.” 

You swear your heart skipped more than a single beat, in fact your entire pulse was gone a second. ‘He-he’s so perfect…’

You grabbed a pack of candles from beside you, ripping open and allowing all the small candles inside to fall to the floor. “I don't think we got any matches,” your boyfriend reminds upon seeing the candles that would need to be lit. “We don't need them, we have you.” you replied, taking out two candles and holding them in front of him with pleading eyes, he couldn't refuse. You watched carefully as he set his index finger ablaze, lighting the two candles in your hand. The flames fluttered, causing the lighting around you to flutter along with it. You placed both the candles inside your pumpkins, now the two of you had your Jack O’lanterns.

You got up to turn off the lights, wanting to get the full Jack O’lantern experience. Your room went dark, black even. The Jack O’lanterns glowed, tinting the area around them a bright orange, just like the flames burning inside. Quite the beautiful sight to see. You heard your phone vibrate before the screen turned on with a message. You picked up your phone, the bright screen slightly blinding you; 

⚡denki⚡: “hey y/n! Come down now! Were gonna see who has the best Jack O'Lantern!!”

You put your phone in your pocket before picking up your newly made Jack’ O lantern “it's time to judge the other Jack O’ Lanterns now, lets go!” Todoroki got up from the floor, taking his Jack O’ Lantern with him and the two of you made your way down.

“Ah, y/n! Todoroki! Come put your Jack O’Lanterns over here!” Mina joyfully gestured to a table that had been previously set up, everyone else's Jack O’Lanterns sitting on top. You and Todoroki placed your Jack O’Lanterns on the table “okay, now c’mon! We're gonna go to the amusement park now! Don't be slow!!” Mina skipped out the door and you followed close behind.

Half the class was already waiting outside.

The next 3 hours went by~ you and the rest of class A enjoying your time. You dragged your boyfriend across the park, making stops at the rides, food stalls, and finally, the Halloween Haunted house. The wait was long, almost 30 minutes. It was cold, the Autumn breezes coming often. Todoroki used his quirk to keep you warm while you wait, allowing you to borrow his sweater since he didn't need it. He kept his arms around you, resting his head on your shoulder. 

He “protected” you from the feared attractions in the Haunted house, as you were hiding behind him as you hear the screams of everyone in front of you. Lights flickered and noises were loud, but after about 10 minutes of walking, you met the end of the haunted house. The winds outside were even more violent than before, yet your boyfriend's sweater battled it off.

You and the rest of class gathered around a big tree behind the Amusement Park. you were able to see everything. The festival lights illuminated the sky, bright yellow, red and orange lights spread everywhere. You lean your head on your boyfriend's shoulder, drowsiness starting to consume you. You could hear Uraraka and Mina’s loud conversation about the Haunted House, pointing out the scariest part of it. 

You made yourself comfy underneath your boyfriend’s arm, feeling the warmth emit from his left side. Before he knew it, you had fallen asleep by his side. He pulled you closer, resting his head on yours

“Thank you, y/n...Happy Halloween.”

[girlmagnetic-xx]

INARIZAKI’S DIALECT ~EXPLAINED~ *

*as the way it's been translated into english by viz lol

I’ve seen a lot of people struggle with understanding/writing the inarizaki boys’ accents, especially for people who’s first language isn’t english, so I tried my best to explain, as someone who talks close to this irl, some of the more difficult nuances of it!

(this was originally posted to my twt, but figured that tumblr might be easier for people to bookmark it/read it. i also added a few more examples and things i missed the first time around!)

so lets goooo 

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ‘YER’ AND ‘YA’ 

 Generally speaking, ‘yer’ and ‘ya’ aren’t interchangeable, but they both are used when the speaker is referring to the person their actively talking to

‘you’re / your’ is what becomes ‘yer’ 

you’re a dumbass = yer a dumbass

your toss was perfect = yer toss was perfect

‘you’ is what becomes ‘ya’

you really like that = ya really like that

can you hand me that = can ya hand me that

there's sometimes exceptions where you can use 'ya' instead of 'yer' 

 yer crazy / ya crazy 

 they both mean the same thing, but i might personally argue that they're not in the same dialect.

DOUBLE NEGATIVES 

these are a bit hard to nail down sometimes because it’s grammatically incorrect. two negatives cancel each other out. when someone’s using a double negative in a sentence, it’s not about what the sentence technically means, but  what’s being emphasized.

“I didn’t eat none of yours” TECHNICALLY means “I did eat yours” since ‘didn’t’ and ‘none’ would cancel each other out, but that isn’t what atsumu WANTS to say (tho we all know he’s lying of course in this instance.)

the grammatically sentence would be “I didn’t eat yours” or “I didn’t eat any of yours” Atsumu adding ‘none’ here is him emphasizing that he ate NONE of Osamu’s ice cream.

“I don’t need no in-between participation prize” would technically mean “I need an in-between participation prize” but again, that isn’t what Atsumu WANTS to say.

The grammatically correct sentence would be “I don’t need an in-between participation prize” but the ‘no’ in the original is emphasizing the fact that he doesn’t want a participation prize.

and again in this panel, “That ain’t no faith” would also technically mean “that’s faith” but the ‘no’ is emphasizing that it isn’t faith at all. 

USING DON’T IN PLACE OF DOESNT

This one is also a bit weird since it’s also technically considered grammatically incorrect, but it’s basically replacing ‘doesn’t’ with ‘don’t’ 

i personally tend to lean more towards this when i’m really heated about something and speaking faster than normal

this doesn’t add up = this don’t add up

do you guys think this doesn’t matter = do y’all think that this don’t matter

THIS HERE / THAT THERE 

 Usually you wouldn’t need ‘here / there’ after ‘this / that’ since ‘this / that’ already implies the subject’s location relative to the speaker and using ‘here / there’ would be redundant.

there's only these instances of older folk using it, but i still think it's relevant enough to mention. also there's probably a historical reason for this structure to exist in country-like dialects, but /shrug

REAL (ADJECTIVE)

because this dialect is relatively “simple” people tend to go for simpler adjectives with an adverb attached to it, but instead of using ‘really’ it gets shortened to ‘real’

INFORMAL CONTRACTIONS 

 so when people are speaking, there's sometimes the tendency to drop whole words or letters, and combining them. 

here's a bunch of different examples i yoinked from here, not ALL of these will work for everything, but i say just play around and see what you think works best for your writing or whatever

DROPPED LETTERS 

 there's some words where the syllables get somewhat mushed together/not fully enunciated on/dropped 

 'probably' becomes 'prolly' 

‘because’ becomes ‘ ‘cause’ or ‘ ‘cuz’ (entirely your preference on spelling imo)

‘little’ becomes ‘l’il’

 there's also words like 'suppose' where if someone were to say it out loud, it would become 's’pose' 

it’s also super common to drop the ‘g’ off of -ing verbs (feelin’, thinkin’), as well as dropping the ‘h’ off the beginning of words (here becomes ‘ere, them become ‘em)

something that i frequently do when i talk is slur together the word ‘its’ with the next word

it’s okay = s’okay

its not that bad = s’not that bad

you’re supposed to eat it = yer s'posed to eat it

it’s because it’s a little weird = s’cause issa l’il weird

it’s not supposed to be that cold out here yet = s’not s’posed to be that cold out ‘ere yet

DROPPED WORDS 

 in addition to dropped letters, they also tend to drop words where it might be obvious on what the subject is in the conversation. 

 "(what) the heck..."

 "(do you) think we oughta..."

GENERAL VOCABULARY

i think this part of writing dialects is a bit more trial and error than anything since it's not so much grammar structures as it's just. using different words in place of more common ones (think of soda vs pop, they’re the same thing just used in different regions)

everyone's called hinata shorty but aran uses squirt instead

 "socked in the gut" instead of "punched in the stomach" 

 "buttered up" instead of "flattered" 

‘everyone/people’ become ‘folks’

there’s not really a ~masterlist~ i can give y’all to use for comparisons, it’s kinda just. trial n error i think.

alright!! i think that covers most of a general southern/country accent as it’s spoken in english. 

i think the only other thing to keep in mind if you’re trying to write is stuff like accents becoming heavier when talking to someone who speaks with the same accent vs someone who doesn’t, or accents getting heavier the more excited/angry someone it. also going really heavy on writing like this might be a bit hard to read/understand so you dont have to do ALL of these things to make it realistic.

if there’s anything i missed, or if y’all need me to explain anything further in depth, please feel free to drop an ask or somethin!! i’ll try my best to help :)

[whattheheehaw]

I’m not good at explaining my thoughts, but can you debunked the whole Jet and Zuko are bad boys claims? People always say this to keep others from shipping jetara and/or zutara or when they want to trash talk Zuko and Jet characters.

Thanks for the ask and I’m sorry it’s taken me a while to answer it! To be completely honest, I’m not great at articulating my thoughts too 😅. However, I’ll try to answer this question as best as I can (given it’s 1am and I get rambly at this hour).

Before we get into the Jet/Zuko discussion, we need to define what a “bad boy” is, because there’s many different interpretations of the term. For this ask, I’ll be using the definition of the bad boy archetype from this site:

The Bad Boy is someone who hides. Something has happened to them in the past or currently is affecting them and they deal with it by putting up an armor around themselves. This armor protects them for those around them who might be able to see who the real them is. The Bad Boy wants to hide away but he must open up to reveal himself... the Bad Boy doesn’t purposely hurt people to make them feel his pain. He rebels instead of living the life he once did. But unlike the Rebel, he doesn’t truly have a cause for his rebellion. He wants to be heard through his rough exterior without being seen.

So I’m going to start off with Zuko, because I’m much more comfortable talking about his character. And this is primarily because Zuko was one of the main characters of the show and didn’t die at the tail end of season 2.

Honestly, I can never understand how Zuko is perceived as a “bad boy” by so many people. I mean, the only time when I can agree that Zuko’s character could somewhat be interpreted as a “bad boy” is during the first half of season 3. Yes, you read that correctly. Season 1 Ponytail Zuko was not a bad boy; he was a homesick, abused 13 year old child trapped in the body of an angsty 16 year old. Season 1 Zuko might have been angsty and broody, but have you ever met a teenage boy? He never even really rebelled. I mean, sure, he did some things that Iroh frowned upon but in Zuko’s mind, he’s still a prince of his nation—banished or not—and he still holds himself to the standards of a prince. The only time that I think he truly rebels is by becoming the Blue Spirit, but even then, he had a cause for donning that mask.

The only episode that I think shows Zuko in a “bad boy” light is the 5th episode of season 3, The Beach. This is when his angst and broodiness reached an all-time high, and he constantly lashed out at Mai, Ty Lee, and Azula for no reason. The episode eventually culminated in a confrontation reminiscent of The Breakfast Club, Zuko’s honesty with himself, and a dramatic “I’m angry at myself!” line, which are all hallmarks of a bad boy character arc. However, this is just one episode out of 61 and solely focusing on one episode to analyze this guy’s character is an insult to Zuko’s redemption arc that spanned the entirety of 3 seasons.

Another reason why Zuko isn’t a bad boy is that he doesn’t do bad things to get attention. Nothing that he does is a plea for help. The “bad” things that he does aren’t bad in his mind. Capturing the Avatar is just something that he needs to do in order to get his father to love him and welcome him back home. If anything, Zuko is just a misguided person with messed up morals that were instilled in him from a very young age. Zuko has a purpose for everything that he does, and usually this purpose is his sense of righteous anger. Both times Zuko confronted Ozai and rebelled against him, Zuko knew that what his father was doing was wrong. Zuko rebelled against those Earth Kingdom soldiers in Zuko Alone because he felt like he needed to stand-up for Lee and his family. And Zuko didn’t pick a fight with Zhao just because he felt like it. He fought Zhao because that guy had personally insulted Zuko, a prince, and his honor. And Zuko could have burned Zhao at the end of that fight, but he didn’t. He already proved himself to Zhao. Zuko has compassion, and shows it to people that don’t deserve it (e.g. in the Siege of the North, Zuko tried saving Zhao from the Ocean Spirit).

And the most important reason why Zuko isn’t a bad boy is because of his redemption arc. By the end of the show, he’s developed many strong friendships and makes an effort to be open and socialize with others. He’s not afraid to share his thoughts and emotions with others. He trusts people. He’s less broody and smiles more often. He acknowledges that he’s done bad things in the past and asks for forgiveness and makes amends. Are these qualities of a bad boy? I think not.

As for Jet, I think he fits the description of a bad boy pretty well. He’s aloof, hot, and angsty. He’s quite dangerous with a pair of hook swords in his hands. He smokes cigarettes He chews on a piece of wheat to be “edgy”. He’s done questionable things like drown a village full of innocent people. He deceives people to get what he wants. He has all of the traits of any popular male protagonist from a published Wattpad “novel”.

However, I don’t consider Jet a “bad boy” because he has a specific cause for his rebellion. Most bad boys participate in petty crimes like shoplifting or vandalism just because they can. Jet? Jet rebels against the Fire Nation because he’s witnessed their destruction first-hand. He lost his parents from an attack by the Rough Rhinos, and he saw his village burn to ashes right in front of him. He actively tries to destroy a system that he thinks can only inflict pain on others. And what does he do with the people (mostly young children) that have lost their homes because of Fire Nation attacks? He takes them in and acts as a surrogate-father-of-sorts. He forms a community with these people, bonds with them, shares meals together, and secures supplies for them. He’s in charge of their well-being and makes sure that everyone is ok. And these people look up to him as a leader and a central part of their family. So Jet? A bad boy? I don’t think so.

Calling Zuko and Jet “bad boys” are terrible misrepresentations of their characters, and if you think they fall under the bad boy archetype, I would suggest a deeper look into their respective character arcs.

As a final note, I’d like to address the shipping aspect of this ask. After being in this fandom for about 3 years, I’ve seen my fair share of Zutara and Jetara fics that have played off of this bad boy/good girl dynamic. And to be completely honest, I don’t think there’s an inherent problem with liking a dynamic like that. I mean, it’s not an accurate portrayal of the characters, but I won’t discourage people from shipping something or creating fan content because they like a certain trope.

[multifics-canary]

Random nanowrimo daminette fic

A/n: this is my random pitch to nanowrimo. And it also includes the adventures of ruby culpa so ye ye. Uhhhh enjoy!

Dupont decided to hold a fashion for all school in the area to participate. A certain class sat around an Italian girl with sausage looking hair, who was the center of attention.

"I would love to join the school event, but my arm hurts really bad from pulling a lot of boxes for charity with Prince Ali. The most I can do is take notes." Lila says sheepishly, looking at her classmates.

"No worries, girl! At least can you watch with us?" Alya says excitedly, leaning forward to her best friend. Lila smiled, her eyes narrowing a little.

"Of course! We can can meet up before the viewing starts."

With that the rest of the class talked, mostly hearing what Lila had to say about something. Adrian ignored his class, focusing on the person he was texting instead.

°•°•°•°•°

The night of the event, Dupont was crowded. Lila and her possy lingered around, commenting in each outfit shown.

There was one display that had a cover over it, with the initials on the sign of MDC. No one in Mme. Bustier's class knew why the name sounded familiar, and Lila took advantage of the mystery designer. All she knew MDC was a famous aspiring designer working for Jagged Stone.

"MDC is such a darling," she starts, grabbing their attention. "He's in love with me, but I'm with Damian Wayne. But I gave him the design for tonight's event!" She says, looking at everyone's excited face. Alya frowns a bit, unsure why the name sounded so familiar.

Lila looks to Adrian, only to see him waiting by the front doors. She scowls, even after 3 years, he doesn't fall into her web.

Just as she's about to spin another lie, people begin to crowd around the doors at the front.

The class was curious to the gathering. Lila heads first, managing to squeeze through and nearly shrieked at what she saw.

Adrian was smiling cheekily at a very familiar person, holding her hand after placing a kiss on it. Next to her, a very handsome young man, glaring playfully at Adrian. The infamous Kagami stood next to them, smiling at them as juleka's older brother held her.

The familiar blue eyes shined brightly, causing Lila to sneer.

"How's the lovely couple doing? Am I going to be the best man at your wedding?"

"You wish, Agreste. You'll have to beat my brothers." The black haired man said. Lila was vaguely aware that the class finally pushed their way to the front. Chloe was among them, holding an unknown blonde in her arms.

"Guys come on. As much as I want to talk about when the wedding is, we have to get our grade for this first." Marinette was different, confident, not the clumsy girl that Lila bullied. A group was gathered. Much larger than Lila's as people took pictures of them.

"Is that--?"

"Oh my God it is!"

"Chloe?!" Various reactions were given to the group. The main ones were aimed at Marinette. Alya stared as her former friend laughed lightly, going over to where the MDC display was.

"Marinette, what are you doing?" Lila says, and the group freezes upon hearing her voice. She tries to look innocent, but got a bit unnerved at everyone's gaze on her.

Alya watches as Marinette's face lost all emotion, as did everyone else, including Adrian. She noticed Adrian look actually a little angry at Lila.

"I'm competing. It is a fashion event. This is also a grade for me to graduate." Marinette replied, and Alya flinched . Her voice held nothing. There was no warmth in her eyes. She looked at her best friend, and saw anger, of what, she didn't know.

"I meant what are you doing near my friend's display. MDC worked so hard and you're going to claim his work?" Lila supplies, everyone's eyes on them. There's tension growing, students from other school's looking between the students of Dupont and the students of the private school of arts.

The unknown blonde in Chloe's arms cracks first, covering her mouth to laugh, only to fail when Chloe joined in as well. Marinette and the others looked at them in amusement, as Lila and her group stared offended.

"Oh man. Last time I heard something this ridiculous was when I told uncle Gabriel I was bisexual." The blonde said, and Chloe laughed harder, this time Adrian joining.

"Father's look when that happened was the best. Rubes you really went for it. " Adrian states happily and his classmates look at him like he grew a second head.

"Chloe??" Everyone turned to the the meek voice of Sabrina, who was staring at the two blonde's. Lila stared Marinette, angry that she wasn't getting the attention.

"Who is this?"

"Really, Sabrina? I've gossiped and ranted about this girl since we were younger and you're basically telling you pretended to listen to me?" Chloe states, glaring at the orange haired girl, who flinched severely.

"Love, relax. Remember we're here for marinette and that grade. But mostly Marinette." The blonde says calmly, and Chloe visibly relaxes under her voice.

"Of course, my rose."

"Ok, what is going on?!" Alya yells out. Everyone turns to her, and Lila is somewhat grateful for her 'best friend'. "Marinette, they said you were expelled after bullying Lila, with no chance of rejoining any school." At the words, students looked to see Marinette stare unimpressed at her former friend.

"Honestly Alya, this shows you aren't the reporter I thought you were." Everyone turned to Adrian who had said that, his eyes an unusual cold green. Marinette just sighed and pulled the cover back.

The crowd gasped at the hero themed dress. It wasn't a Ladybug OR Chat Noir theme, but a Robin themed dress. One of the heroes of Gotham.

"MDC did so well with my des--"

"Say one more word about my fiance like you know her, I will personally see to it that you lose everything. " Damian spoke dangerously low, glaring at Lila as she paled drastically.

"I-I don't know--"

"Who do you think you are?!" Alya spoke up, standing between Lila and the group. The look on the man's face grew colder.

"Be glad I am not sueing you for using my name. Not yet anyways."

"Name? What name? Lila isn't lying!" Alya insisted.

"Damian, love, just forget it. We're here for the grade, not drama." Lila pales considerably at the the name.

"Damian?? As in the Damian Wayne!?" Alix spoke up, looking at all of them. The short girl turned to Marinette, showing nothing but excitement and shock. "You're engaged to Damian freaking Wayne!!"

Everyone whispers amongst themselves, Lila's group slowly paling at the realization. "MDC... m-marinette was the one who made Jagged's glasses." Mylene said softly, holding herself.

Alya stares at the dress intensely, as if trying to find something. Which she was, because Lila had to be telling the truth. Her best friend wouldn't lie about Damian and knowing MDC. But what--

Around the collar of the dress, a gold pattern sewed on. Normally, it looks like a beautifully crafted design that contrasts well with the colors of the dress. Alya titled her head a little and gasped, dread and horror creeping in her stomach.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

"Marinette, I'm so glad you've joined us today." Principal Damocles stated, walking through the group of students. You could see how nervous he was to see the former student, and miserably tried to hide his shame. After all, Marinette was one of the brightest students in the school and they wrongly accused her.

"I'm here for my grade. Nothing else."

"O-of course. Mlle. Bourgeois, I believe that your mother is a judge, correct?" He turned his attention to the blonde, flinching a little at her stare.

Lila looked around and saw her possy pale considerably at something on the dress when Alya pointed out to them. It was bad enough damian Wayne was here, but now something bout the dress? How she prayed hawkmoth was still active.

The italian felt eyes on her and turned to see the unnamed blonde, staring at right her. "You know, when my brother told me some girl had tried to ruin marigold's life by lying, I thought she would at least be pretty."

"Mlle. Culpa!" Damocles yelled, Lila practically seeing red as Chloe laughed and the lied group stared in horror.

"Can it, Damocles. The girl can Express how she feels, especially if it involves this cheaply dressed model." Everyone turned and saw Chloe's mother-- fashion queen Audrey-- walk up as the sea of students parted like the red sea.

She looked at the dress and inspected it, writing down things on a paper she had. It only took a few more minutes before she turned to Marinette. "Well Mari dear, you surpass my expectations as always. Your grade will be given to your school. Chloe and chloe's rose, I want you both tomorrow with this childs information." And with she walked off, leaving the gaping class.

"Culpa? As in Felix Culpa? Adrian's cousin?" Rose stepped forward, staring excitedly at the couple. "You helped prince Ali with one of his many children's hospital!"

"C-children hosptial?" Lila didn't know that. Especially the fact that Felix Culpa's little sister was apart of it.

"Oh, Lila. I thought you had some little random boy toy to pretend was in love with you. Like my brother, my cousin, Damian-- oh wait, they never talked to you." Ruby glared at the Italian, smiling viciously at her.

Slowly, Alya turned to Lila, seeing her trying to struggle to come up with another lie. "Let's not forget how you've willingly worked with a powered terrorist, and use that to try and murder Jagged Stone's honorary niece."

Gasps were heard when Ruby said that out loud. Everyone could see Lila turn sickly green as she began to back away.

"You lied about everything!" Alya snapped first, followed by everyone else. Marinette just stared, shaking her head before turning and walking out with her friends in tow.

"Its over, angel. Its over." Damian whispers to her, holding her close when they were outside. After years of the torment of Lila, and the threat of Hawkmoth as well, it was all over.

Finally. Paris is safe.

General tags: @the-wlw-cafe @natu123 @mcgrathandwives @imagine-lcorp @baked-bean-bekah @miraculous-of-salt

[cpd5021]

Crossing Lines - Chapter Two

Thank you to everyone on the positive feedback for this new story line, I look forward to sharing the rest of it with you! Also, a special thanks to the Let’s Talk About Upstead group chat for giving me ideas, inspiration, and always tolerating my random questions. 

Note: Also, I thought I should mention, the only episode I have seen of FBI is Hailey’s so I’m just kind of winging it on writing OA and his story line...

It was Friday. I was officially done with my first week here in New York. Under different circumstances, this little stint might not have been so bad. I might have even found the change of pace momentarily enjoyable. But this wasn’t a vacation, this was a punishment and that much was painfully obvious every day that passed. Although, to be fair, maybe that was just my interpretation because the entire unit here had been nothing but welcoming and helped me to settle in quickly. My partner, OA, was a stark contrast to Jay. Much of New York was a stark contrast to what I was used to. Here, at least in the task force, it was more pant suits and policies over the knitty gritty police work I was used to back home. Home, Chicago....every single time it popped into my head I found myself swallowing down the now all too familiar burn in my throat. The first two days here had been a whirlwind of activity, we caught a case immediately and I was thankful for the distraction. I was met with late nights and early mornings as we worked to wrap up the case. One thing that was nice was the nearly unlimited resources the FBI had to gain information on their targets, it sped up the process greatly. Unfortunately, it made it a little too quick and my source of distraction was quickly resolved. My third day had been painfully slow. OA had walked me through filling out the necessary paperwork after we wrapped up the case and that had taken me all of two hours in the morning, leaving the rest of the afternoon to drag on. OA, bless him, had tried to break the lull by lingering by my borrowed desk, making a valid attempt at small talk. But my less than enthusiastic participation had finally led him to give up. He left me to my own devices yesterday, save for the necessary communication needed to aid in our next task, helping a local department with a small sex trafficking ring located in the Bronx. Today, he had gotten more pushy and quite frankly, called me out on my bullshit. I felt a small hint of a smirk tug at my mouth as I recalled this morning's events. 

“Here is a coffee, cream and sugar on the side because I’m not sure how you take it. Yet. Note the yet, because I fully intend on learning how you take your coffee as that’s what good partners do. I take mine with two creams, jot that down.”

My new partner finished his speech, nodding to the pad of paper on my desk before handing me the second cup of coffee. I looked up at him, eyebrows slightly raised, trying to figure out if this was his form of teasing or if he was just a pompous jerk. The smile in his eyes told me my first impression was correct. I returned his smile and nodded my thanks as I took the coffee from him. He sipped his, glancing at me from the corner of his eyes and looking satisfied with himself that I had at least taken the coffee. We headed to roll call then, another slightly unfamiliar habit of the task force. We didn’t do morning meetings in Intelligence unless there was something to, well, meet over. Although the hustle and bustle of New York kept them plenty busy and they always had something to go over. After roll call, we were sent down to the district courthouse to subpoena some records for a case we had picked up. 

“Don’t you guys have people for this?” 

I tried to break the silence that had lingered over us on our way to the courthouse. I knew I had been harsh the first few days as I was trying to come to terms with everything, but I also realized that it wasn’t in any way his fault I was here. 

“And here I thought cops did most of the leg work. You’re telling me you have people for this?”

He challenged, glancing over at me with a smirk on his face. I returned his look, happy to have somewhat broken the tension between us. 

“No, but you’re the FBI. Aren’t you supposed to have someone for everything?” 

He laughed wholeheartedly then, a sound I hadn’t yet heard. It was loud, booming out of his large build, but it was also slightly contagious and I found myself chuckling along beside him. 

“As a matter of fact, we do have people for this. But I asked if we could do it, get out of the office for a bit to give you a breather. It seems like it's been a rough week for you.”

His straightforwardness threw me off a bit as it was usually me being the one to be so blunt. I tilted my head a little as I looked out the window, considering how to proceed with the conversation. Straightforward as I may be, tiptoeing around my own thoughts and feelings was something I was a little too good at. 

“It was a bit of a surprise coming here to be honest with you.”

I looked over at him, trying to get a read, but he was still too new to me to be confident in my assessment. He nodded in understanding and I found myself wondering what this task force had been told about me beforehand. 

“So you didn’t sign up for this detail?” 

OA asked after a minute, coming to the conclusion I wasn’t going to elaborate further without being pushed. 

“No. My boss just picked me to come.” 

It wasn’t a total lie, he had been the one to pick me. I was just leaving out a few crucial details. 

“What did you do?” 

His question had my defenses rising up at a rapid pace, his words unknowingly echoing what Jay had said to me the night before I left. The thought had me swallowing hard as once again my throat burned. I felt a pang of pain at the thought of Jay, the way he had ended our conversation, how he had just walked away from me without so much as a second look. I had considered reaching out to him, my first night here all I wanted to do was meet him for a beer and do ‘our thing’ but that wasn’t an option as I was hundreds of miles away. To be honest, I’m not sure that will ever be an option again. I snapped out of it, realizing I had been lost in thought and he was waiting for me to reply. 

“What makes you think I did anything?”

I shot him a look, trying to keep myself composed. I knew he didn’t mean any harm with his question, he seemed like the type who just liked to know about his partner, what made them tick, and currently, that was me. 

“In my experience, one doesn’t get sent out of an elite unit without asking...without there being a cause. Unless your sergeant was trying to show off by sending his best detective. But from what I know about Hank Voight, he doesn’t seem like one to boast.”

He continued to throw me off each time he spoke and before I could stop myself I was rambling off my response.

“What do you know about Voight? Or why do you know about Voight? And I’m definitely not the best in the unit...”

I tacked on the end, feeling suddenly self conscious at his assumption. I felt another pang in my chest as I considered who I would list as the best in the unit. 

“I do my homework. When they told me I was getting a partner from Chicago, I wanted to see what I was up against. And you didn’t answer my first question...what did you do that got you sent here?”

Again with the straightforwardness. I was rarely on the receiving end of it and it was making me up my game. 

“He just thought it would be a good experience for me.”

I told the half truth again. Those hadn’t been Voight’s exact words, but I knew the intention was there. 

“Okay then, I’ll just have to guess. Did you blow a UC operation? Lose a stash of drugs? Oh, forbidden office romance gone wrong?”

His tone was teasing but his last option struck a nerve within me. I stared out the window as he continued to drive, taking in the towering structures surrounding us. 

“I’m very good at UC work, too organized to lose drugs, and nothing good comes from workplace romances so I avoid those at all costs.”

I glanced over to him and saw that this time my words had struck a chord in him, his grip on the steering wheel tightened and he nodded before we both fell into another silence. We returned to the office, dropping off the records we had picked up and returning to our respective desks. I pulled out my phone, letting out a sigh when I saw that it was once again empty from any messages or missed calls. I opened up my texting app, scrolling down to Jay’s feed and let my thumb hover over his name, wondering if I should reach out. I desperately wanted to talk to him, even if it was just some small talk. I wanted to know that Jay, my partner, my best friend, would be there when I got back and that I hadn’t inadvertently destroyed our relationship. Before I could muster up the courage to type out a message, OA was walking past my desk informing me we needed to roll on something. We spent the rest of the day working the case before handing it off to another unit within the force. 

Now, I sat in my hotel room, having freshly showered and changed into some baggy sweats. I was laying on the bed, propped up against my headboard and debating what to order for dinner when my phone buzzed from it’s spot on the nightstand. I snatched it up and felt my pulse increase when I saw who the text was from. 

“How’s New York?” 

I couldn’t get a read on Jay’s tone from his three word question, it was probably pointless to try through text anyways, but at least he had text. I scrambled to come up with a reply, my mind drawing a blank as all I could picture was our last meeting before I left. 

“It’s...not bad. I guess. Busy?”

I let out a breath, waiting for his reply. I just wanted to hear his voice. 

“Not really.” 

Came his quick reply. I took a deep breath before hitting the call button on my phone and hoping this wasn’t an awful idea. 

“Yo.” 

My heart stopped for a second when I heard his voice float through the phone, despite his short greeting. 

“Hey Jay...”

I all but whispered into the phone, my throat suddenly burning more than ever. I wished I was back home and could be standing in front of him, but for now this would have to do. 

“How are you?” 

I let out an emotionless chuckle at his question, unsure if he was just making small talk or if he wanted a deeper answer. I decided to play it lightly at first, test the waters. 

“Okay. You?”

I returned his question, hating the way my voice broke slightly with pent up emotion.

“Okay.”

His tone was cool, not quite standoffish, but certainly not the warm calm one I was used to. 

“That’s good.”

I could feel my heart breaking with each exchange of this conversation. He had changed, or rather his response to me had changed. Our close knit bond, the thing that works between us, felt more distant than ever. 

“Yep. Did you need something Hailey?”

His coldness shattered me and I found myself blinking back tears. 

“No...I’ll let you go. Sorry.” I breathed out my response, knowing my voice would give me away if I spoke any louder. Before he could reply I hung up the phone, tossing it onto the bed beside me as the tears began to flow freely down my face. I decided on skipping dinner and reached to shut the lamp off beside me, blinking into the darkness as I fought back the waves of emotion threatening to overcome me. 

I spent all of Saturday and most of Sunday in bed. I ignored the knocks from housekeeping and my only venture out was to raid the vending machine down the hall. I had been trying to tell myself to stay positive the first week, just keep my head down, stay within the lines, and get through this as quickly as possible. Now, as my alarm sounded beside me, I had lost all motivation to do much of anything. I forced myself out of bed, dragging myself into the bathroom to get ready for the day, only picking up my pace when I noticed that I was on the verge of being late. I walked into the office, forcing myself to return the smiles sent my way but knowing the smile never reached my eyes. I was once again numb and I was fully content with that fact. I was done with the anger and the pain that life had sent my way so I found the numbness a gentle relief from all of it. I had turned myself on autopilot, giving the appropriate responses when needed, contributing to conversations when it was unavoidable and just going about my tasks, staying between the lines as if my life depended on it. In a way, it kind of did. On the other hand, I wasn’t sure I had much of a life to return to once I was done.

Halfway through my second week, I got a text from Voight, asking me to call him when I was available. I delayed as much as possible, but once my day at work was done I found myself once again locked away in my hotel room with no good excuse to avoid him any longer. With a sigh, I dialed his number, my heart stuttering with each ring. 

“Upton.”

His gravelly voice saying my name brought a shiver to my skin as our last conversation flashed into my mind. 

“Sarge..” I replied quietly, fighting to control my voice. 

“How are things?” 

The question tripped me up a little bit, he hadn’t said work or New York even, but things, which lead me to believe he was asking about more than my stint here. 

“Work is good. Lines are clear.”

I knew my added statement was probably pushing it, but I had found a newfound boldness knowing he was miles away. I was met with momentary silence and I felt my bravery falter slightly as I awaited his reply. 

“Mmm, good to hear.” 

His short reply left me unable to get a read on him. I decided to wait for him to continue the conversation, letting the silence linger between us. 

“I talked to your boss there, heard you’re doing very well with everything. They were a little concerned though, mentioned how you seemed to be functioning on autopilot.”

His words caused me to stiffen, it was true that I had been running on autopilot but I didn’t think it had been that noticeable, given that I was basically a stranger to these people. I didn’t know how to respond to him, I knew he wouldn’t buy it if I tried to lie or blow it off. But I didn’t want to open up to him either, the wounds from our last conversation still fresh. 

“I’m fine sir.” 

I tried my best to keep my tone even and calm, hoping that by some miracle he would accept my reply without question. 

“Hailey, I sent you there to get your head on straight. But I still want the same Upton back when you return, the Upton that could set all of us straight, the one who could keep her sides clear. The Upton that I wanted in my unit the first time I met you. Just keep that in mind kid..”

I couldn’t speak, I knew my voice would break if I tried. I blinked away the tears that had formed, a few escaping down my cheeks. Another silence fell between us as I struggled to compose myself. 

“I’m gonna let you go now, good night Hailey.”

I heard the click of his end disconnecting and set my phone on the nightstand beside me. I let out a deep breath, wiping at my face and rubbing the wetness out of my eyes. After I had somewhat pulled myself back together, I ordered myself some dinner and then showered. Climbing back into bed, I pulled the covers close and willed sleep to come. Promising myself that tomorrow would be a better day. 

My alarm went off and for the first time in a few days, I jumped out of bed on time and went right into the bathroom to get ready for my day. On my way into work, I stopped by the coffee shop I knew OA got his coffee from in the morning, placing my order and then heading into the office. I made my way to his desk, happy that he didn’t yet have a cup and happily handed the second cup over to him. My gesture was met with a confused smile as he took the drink. 

“I take mine black, for the record.” 

I smiled at him, hoping I could clear the air between us. This was someone I barely knew and I was sure I hadn’t made the best impression so far. My goal for today was to change that. 

“I’ll jot that down.” 

He sipped at his coffee, nodding in satisfaction that I had gotten his order correct. I made my way over to my desk, setting my things down before we headed to roll call. It started like any other day, until of course, it wasn’t. We ended up with a case on a major drug lord, a higher up in the Cartel that had managed to escape arrest time and time again. They had been following him for a while, tracking his movements every time he was in New York, but they hadn’t managed to get him cornered yet. This particular time was different though, as this batch of heroin he was dolling out proved to be laced with something that had its users dropping like flies. We spent all day chasing ghosts, always two steps behind him and I knew it was going to be a long night. With all the resources the FBI had to offer, we managed to set up an undercover op and have it fully ready to execute in a matter of hours. Now, under the cover of the New York night sky, we rolled out to put our plan into action. We had two officers, posed as buyers and a meet set up with our suspect. Our job was going to be to come in for the arrest once the exchange was made. Surprisingly, everything fell into place exactly as we had planned. Our buy went through and we took him down, even managing to get a few bricks off one of his runners while we were there. It felt good to have a success, one secured by the books, and I found myself back in the office, helping OA log away the drugs we had seized. Our conversation flowed easily, both of us riding the high of our win. The good mood was short lived when OA received a phone call, the caller relaying some information that had him instantly pacing in anger. I waited in silence for him to end the call, sending him a questioning look when he hung up. 

“He’s walking. Somehow, we don’t have enough to charge him.”

I inhaled sharply as his words settled in. It had seemed like an open and closed case, we had played everything right and had managed to take him down without problem. 

“How?” 

I asked, my heart sinking with the news. My mind shifted back to the case with Gael, how it was eerily similar to this one. Major drug lord manages to escape the law once again. I swallowed hard at the thought and focused on OA’s pacing. 

“Because we didn’t bust him with the drugs, he was there but they weren’t in his car. They don’t think they can prove it’s his product.”

His pacing paused as he leaned against the table, clearly fuming with anger over the whole situation. I felt my own temper flare, knowing that was a bs excuse and it should have been enough to charge him, there was no doubt the product was his. 

“That’s bullshit.”

I voiced my irritation and he nodded in agreement. 

“I needed this win.”

His voice was low and the anger had shifted to disappointment. 

“I can understand that. Why don’t you head out, I can finish this up.”

He looked up at me, debating if I was bluffing but nodded when he saw my confidant gaze. He let out a sigh, moving to gather his things from his desk and then left for the night without saying another word. Now I was alone in the office, surrounded by bricks of drugs that had yet to be accounted for, with the knowledge that another criminal was going to walk. I glanced over to my computer where I knew there was a file containing all of the information on this guys known addresses and vehicles. A thought entered my mind, one I had no business thinking. One almost mirroring the events that had led me to New York in the first place. I looked around the empty office, before returning my stare to the stack of drugs before me. With a sigh, I scooted my chair over to be in front of my computer and jiggled the mouse to power it on. As my screen lit up, illuminating the space around me, I easily located the file on my computer and clicked it open. I let out another breath I didn’t realize I was holding as I pulled up the information I was looking for, quickly reaching for my notepad and jotting a few things down. I closed out of the file and shut my computer down. I grabbed the bag that we had transported the drugs in, loading them into the bag and zipping it closed, figuring I would drop them off on my way out. As I made my way out of the office, drugs in hand, I felt my shoulders stiffening with the weight of what I was doing. And suddenly the lines were blurring again.

[ohmrlove]

Hello! I’ve been asking a bunch of people to do this request because I want to see everyone’s different headcanons. How would the MLQC boys react to MC being a single mother? She never told them she has a 7yr son because they never thought to ask and we’ll call him Liam instead of “her son”. So they found out when Liam ran to her. MC is still young since Liam was born from unfortunate events like rape (she loves her son to death). How would the guys try to bond with Liam?

Trigger warning: ask centers around rape

🍷 Victor 🍷

He never would have imagined you were a single mother, let alone to a seven-year old. You were really good at hiding it!

It’s likely he overheard a snippet of a phone call when trying to approach you about work. A tiny little ‘love you mommy!’ on the phone during a break he didn’t know you were taking

Is kind of blown away you can strike the work-life balance and avoid being so consumed. Victor, himself, is bad at balancing intimate relationships outside of work so you mystify him

Gets super curious about this kid and slyly devises some work event that it’d be okay to bring them to

Realizes it’s a bad idea when he’s overwhelmed with the sheer amount of people--and kids--he has to greet, but likes that your kid was pretty quiet (shy) and sat at a table with you

He was playing with the big, fancy cloth napkins and Victor decided to fold one up in a semi-complicated design next to his

You introduce the two and it starts as Victor showing him how to fold napkins and teaching him about food

Casually drops Souvenir having a ‘Little Chefs day’ and encourages you to bring him

Victor can’t be the one running the class (obviously) so Mr. Mills does it and he helps grab all the stuff to make mac n’ cheese

Your son follows along, gets messy, and corrects Victor on how much cheese mac n’ cheese ACTUALLY needs. (“You want it to be really good! The best, like angels singing in your mouth, and that means lots of cheese!”)

Victor’s stomach hurts from all the cheese, but the whole thing was amusing

He’s suddenly ‘in the neighborhood’ a lot, and comes to sit with you and your son

When you have to collaborate with him on work, Victor insists you bring him so you don’t waste money on a babysitter. (”There’s two of us and one of him, it can’t be that hard.”)

Eventually learns the truth after the two of you have grown much closer and takes a deep, personal interest in making sure Liam never has that awful person for a father figure

“Just because” trips to places the three of you would like

Is basically your boyfriend/the dad figure but won’t own up to it unless super pissed off or being challenged in public. Will admit to it more when you’re married.

📢 Gavin 📢

Kind of dense about it. Had suspicions but no proof, and when he saw you two side by side, you picking him up to hug him, the similarities were PRETTY OBVIOUS

Birdcop felt kinda dumb

Becomes hyperfocused after that. When did this happen? A SEVEN YEAR OLD?! He never would’ve guessed!

Is worried the kid will be the total opposite of him--not super active, hates loud noises, etc--but is glad he can break the ice by showing him a cop car or his motorcycle

Answers all the typically excited job questions as best he can

Conveniently shows up at a school fitness day as a supervisor or some safety tie-in with the police department

Is happy to see him being nice to the other students and participates a little but mostly watches with you on the sidelines

Doesn’t ask you some of his questions since there’s other people nearby, but invites you two to ‘a little place’ he was going to afterwards

One dinner date turns into a few more, and Gavin is grasping at straws trying to invite you to stuff just to hang out. He’s got a soft spot for the kid and he sees his eyes light up and Gavin just can’t.

They turn into weekend buddies--fun at the park, movies, the whole nine yards!

He realizes this dynamic is getting pretty serious when your kid invites him to an award night at school. It’s just you two and Gavin is embarrassed but soooo proud! His heart is fluttering!

You tell him the truth about Liam’s conception and Gavin can only HOPE the guy is already dead. Boy is MAD. The news reported some wind issues for the next few hours, even into the next day.

Probably has a dark circle of people and MAKES SURE the guy doesn’t cause you any problems and stays FAR AWAY.

Focuses on being a good figure in Liam’s life.

The type to go ‘I know that kid’ and cheer him on at school functions. He’s got a distant older brother/aloof but warm personality so the transition to dad is going to be natural and hard to see.

🔬 Lucien 🔬

Probably figured it out before you ever told him. Considered that he’s a cousin/nephew or the kid happens to look somewhat like you (features can be common, etc.) but his gut says otherwise

Now that he thinks about it, he’s seen the kid off in the background when he dropped by your house sometimes. He just assumed you were babysitting a neighbor child.

When the two of you come to see him, holding hands, he knows. You’d run back to Lucien’s house and picked something up for him while he was stuck in a lecture.

Is too nosy for his own good--no matter how subtle--and offers to treat you for the errand. Whatever your kid wanted, he picked.

Lucien’s a people-watcher and found your kid’s table manners pretty interesting and he was pleased to note he wasn’t overly loud.

Their interests didn’t perfectly line up but Lucien’s absolutely voracious when it comes to learning and reading, so he had SOMETHING to say about Liam’s likes. Didn’t mind learning more from your excited, scatterbrained kid. It’s always funny to see people so passionate.

If he likes to sketch, Lucien could probably turn a sketch into a tiny robot or something. That puts him high on Liam’s list!

If he’s a more active/outdoor child, Lucien will invite the two of you along on a less-serious version of field research

Lucien can somehow always find the most interesting but less public city events, so it makes it fun and mysterious to tag along

Volunteers to babysit him when you’re super busy

They swap books and Lucien seems to have extra movie tickets lately

You guys drive to the Research Center to check on him one night when his experiment runs late and Lucien knows that this is a thing. You guys are a thing now. You’ve shown him that dedication and he’ll give it back two-fold (at least).

When he realizes no father figure’s coming in to make a fuss, Lucien has several theories. Finally inquires over a cup of tea, late at night when Liam’s asleep.

“Although certainly not ideal, Liam’s proof that good things can come out of a bad situation.”

He’s pretty vigilant about renewing any court-based paperwork that involves keeping the father away. Would probably kill him to really get him out of the picture, but has too many ideas and would rather not bother. The ultimate victory would be yours and Liam’s success, and he’ll invest in that instead.

🎤 Kiro 🎤

You and Liam were out buying groceries and running errands on your day off. Kiro was out (in disguise) trying to follow the diet his nutritionist set up...plus a few bag of chips

The two of you ran into each other at a booth giving away free samples. Kiro ABSOLUTELY can never turn down samples because they’re too small to matter and they’re usually junk food.

He says hello vaguely, as always, but when the kid says ‘Mommy, who’s that?’ Kiro absolutely loses it with disbelief and excitement

You rush him back to your house before he can blow his cover and the media gets the wrong idea

Kiro’s naturally a big kid at heart, and with his charming Evol, it won’t be hard for him to connect. Not that he’d use it.

If he gets too excited, it’ll happen accidentally.

He’s used to kids being excited to meet him so it’s a pretty easy introduction.

They talk superheroes, food, and all kinds of things!

If your kid’s not a big singer or dancer, Kiro’s more than happy to show him how to play the guitar or drums the next time you hang out. Kind of regrets that last one. But hey, he’s happy! That counts for something!

These two TOTALLY have a system where Liam brings him ‘contraband’ food when you visit and he HAS to take it because it would be rude to refuse a fan’s gift. Savin is not pleased.

Liam starts to understand that Kiro’s really busy or can’t go outside a lot/has to be private, so when the three of you hang out you usually bingewatch stuff or play video games. There’s always waaay too much takeout, but it’s delicious!

If you go to Kiro’s place, he probably installs a little fake sports hoop so they can play indoor games

Sometimes drops little coded messages in live vids (”And a special hello to my main man L!”) he loves it because it drives the internet absolutely nuts with trying to figure out who it is

He’ll casually arrange phone calls/voice messages from any of your son’s favorite TV characters/actors and make it seem like a ‘no biggie’ kind of thing. Kid super loves him then!

Not 100% what Kiro was aiming for--just trying to do something nice--but he’ll take it!

When he bothers to share any good news with Kiro, that’s when he knows he’s in the circle. You guys are close now.

When Kiro’s out supporting bands of designing a new stage line up, he likes your son’s input and will probably add a few of his favorite bands just so he has a reason to come.

It’s an unlikely family, but it’s a happy one. A happy one that is guarded to the teeth and Kiro has no qualms about bulldozing that disgusting excuse of a human in court.

May or may not put out a hit as Key. He’s a master hacker and could get rid of traces pretty easily 

[ericsonclan]

A Memorable Winter Solstice

Summary: The knights of Ericson along with the others begin their celebration of the Winter Solstice.

Word Count: 3861

Read on AO3:

“Snowmen?” Clementine glanced at her fellow knights with confusion.

“Yeah, it’s easier to show than explain but it's really fun,” Brody moved to grab her shield. “Unfortunately this year we have to make them outside the walls.”

“Why’s that?” Clementine asked, having a vague memory of what she was told a few days ago when Marlon had made the announcement.

“It’s because the wall in the northern district is in need of some repair and Louis wanted to give them the rest of the day off. We’re just there until some guards can cover for us.”

“We don’t have to play in the snow today,” Violet mumbled, her eyes focused on her task of checking the sharpness of her blade. “It’s just that Louis wants to do it on the winter solstice.”

“Come on, it’s tradition.” Sophie’s voice appeared in the doorway, a huge grin on her lips. “Or have you already forgotten all the fun you had last year? Especially with Prisha.”

Violet’s face grew bright red at her best friend’s teasing. The blonde knight sheathed her blade and strolled forward. “Let’s go.”

“Alright, alright,” Sophie moved aside, giving a friendly smile to her friend. 

Brody and Clementine soon followed and the four knights were walking towards the northern district. Their feet crunched under the freshly fallen snow as they strolled among the white-covered houses.

“So, the winter solstice,” Clementine spoke up, causing her friends to glance over her way. “What is it?”

“Well, it's basically the shortest day of the year where there are the longest hours of darkness in the year. Today’s the day we celebrate the changing of seasons.” Brody explained as she led the way. “There was also something to do with astronomy, right, Vi?”

“Yeah, it's the start of astronomical winter.” Violet’s focus wasn’t on the conversation much, her eyes too busy looking at the beautiful falling snow.

“But the most important thing is how we celebrate!” Sophie jumped into the conversation. “We make snowmen, drink apple cider,” The redhead knight counted the items on her fingers, “Oh! And all the food!” Sophie clutched her stomach with a dreamy smile. “The goose, nuts, berries and potatoes!”

“You can see that Soph is already more than excited about Omar’s special meal.” Brody had a playful smile on her face as she looked back at her friend. Clementine gave a small chuckle at that.

“Hey! This is only the second year that we get great food like since the world fell to the living dead,” Sophie shot back. Clementine was about to ask another question when Brody paused in her tracks.

“We’re here,” The auburn knight pointed at the gates where a guard stood and asked for their reasoning for leaving the kingdom.

“To protect the hole in the wall over there,” Violet pointed at the spot with a somewhat grumpy tone.

“Oh, right! Of course!” The guard scurried off to open the gate, soon revealing blood-stained snow where walker corpses lay. It seemed they weren’t the first to appear outside the walls. As they rounded the corner to get to their destination they were surprised to see they were actually last to arrive. Mitch was in the middle of a heated snowball fight with AJ and Willy who seemed more than willing to use every advantage they had on the blacksmith. AJ used his short height to attack Mitch’s legs while Willy jumped high in the air and dunked a pile of snow on his older brother. Mitch shook off the snow and began to chase the two younger boys who laughed with glee as they dodged his snowball attacks. The trio ran past Omar who was in the middle of making a snow angel beside Tenn who was working on one of his own. The pair talked casually here and there as they enjoyed their winter fun.

“Hey, careful!” Aasim warned as a stray snowball from Mitch nearly hit him.

“Shit, sorry!” Mitch called back before laughing as he caught up with his younger brother and started to attack him with snow. Aasim shook his head and returned to his conversation with Ruby about his favorite aspects of the winter celebration. By the walls were Marlon and Minnie who were watching for any living dead that may creep upon and ruin the rare fun that their friends were enjoying. Their hands hovered over their blades as they scanned the white-dusted area around them.

Minnie struggled to focus, however, because Renata stood beside her, flirting and stealing kisses here and there. Next to the pair of the knights were Prisha and Louis who seemed to be mapping out the best spots for some sort of activity when Louis paused and looked up as he heard the four knights making their way over. His eyes instantly brightened when he saw Clementine and he made his way over immediately, followed closely behind by Prisha.

“You guys are finally here!” he exclaimed happily. “And just in time.”

“In time for what?” Clementine looked intrigued by all the events that were happening around her. A small smile was on her lips as she watched AJ having fun with the others.

“For the newly annual snowman building contest!” Louis smiled brightly.

“Yes!” Sophie pumped her fist. “We’re not too late!”

“Better watch out though, I’m known as quite the snowman building master.” Louis pulled proudly on the sides of his winter outfit. Violet gave a short snort.

“By whom?”

“I’ll have you know that I won the competition last year.” Louis replied with a confident grin.

“Barely,” Violet crossed her arms. “Prisha and I almost won.”

But you didn’t,” Louis had a smug smile on his face.

“So how does this work?” Clementine’s question stopped the two friends from continuing to banter. They looked over her way.

“The rules are simple: We split up into teams of two and each team builds a snowman. Omar will judge,” Louis motioned over to the young cook who gave a short nod and smile. “And winners will get an extra serving of Omar’s dessert.”

“Oh yes!” Sophie’s eyes danced with excitement. “Just watch me and-”

“But this year,” The young king interrupted the knight. “We’ll make it interesting.”

“You mean it’s not already interesting having it outside the wall?” Prisha countered, her eyes occasionally looking out onto the snow-covered land surrounding the castle.

“No, because we’re all equipped with weapons,” Louis patted his royal sword at his hip. “And if we’re lucky we won’t even need to use them. Anyway, to make it interesting we will pair up randomly.”

“Alright,” Violet gave a shrug.

“Sounds fun,” Brody added with a smile when she caught sight of Mitch who locked eyes with her and ran over to join her.

“Hey, Brody,” Mitch smiled at his lover before capturing her lips in a quick, gentle kiss. The couple seemed lost in it for a moment when all of a sudden the blacksmith’s younger brother continued to attack him with snow. “Willy, AJ cut it out for a minute will ya!” Mitch bellowed.

The two younger boys stopped for a moment, looking sad, but that quickly passed as they started up a new game of their own.

It took a few minutes for the king to get his friends to stop their various winter activities and listen to his announcement. “Alrighty, so we’re gonna do a snowman building contest while Omar, Ruby, Willy, Tenn and AJ stay close to the wall and have their own special winter celebration.” Louis began.

“What kind of winter fun?” Willy looked over at Omar and Ruby with a curious expression.

“We’re gonna build our own snow castle,” Ruby gave a warm smile that grew when she saw that the younger kids seemed excited by it.

“Can we build snow knights around them?” AJ asked, the excitement clear in his eyes.

“Sure,” Omar nodded. “As long as we stay by the wall.” Everyone knew that they couldn’t have excluded the younger kids from the winter solstice celebration but with this year including having to guard a part of the wall they were especially nervous. So they would take every necessary precaution so that they could still have fun with Willy, Tenn and AJ who seemed happy to be hanging out with their siblings and loved ones.

“Can Clem join us?” AJ spoke up once more.

“Sure, I can for a bit.” Clementine offered a smile.

“Okay, Clem will just join a team later on. Now that that’s cleared up, it’s time to pair off!”

It was a rather simple pairing system and soon all of the participants were paired off. There were five teams in total: Marlon and Louis, Violet and Sophie, Prisha and Renata, Minnie and Mitch and lastly Brody and Aasim. Some of the pairs immediately hit it off while others didn’t. Marlon and Louis worked well together, giving each other encouragement as they worked to roll the first large snowball.

“Better watch out, Soph.” Marlon huffed as he worked to place the second snowball on the base of the snowman. “Looks like me and Lou are taking it this year.”

“Ha!” Sophie flashed a confident smile. “Don’t count me and Vi out just yet.”

Violet nodded in agreement as she worked to push the base of her snowman into place with Sophie.

“It does seem like it will be close, but don’t forget who won last year.” Louis worked to start on the next part of the snowman with Marlon.

“Yeah, whatever,” Violet replied, picking up sticks for the arms of the snowman.

“Well, either way I think we’re doing better than most,” Marlon nodded over to Prisha and Renata who seemed to be doing more arguing than teamwork.

“No, don’t you see that this part should be smaller than the base?” Prisha sighed in annoyance.

“There’s nothing wrong with a curvy snowman,” Renata placed her hands on her hips as she stood beside their snow man that had a much larger middle section than the base.

“I’m not-” Prisha pinched the bridge of her nose. “My point is that a snowman has certain basic steps to it that will make it look correct and remain physically stable.”

“Are you saying Sir Snowington is ugly?” Renata gave a playful smile, her hands busily starting on the final section of the snowman.

“No, I… never mind.” Prisha decided it was best not to argue and rather continue the work on the snowman. Her eyes wandered over to Violet for a moment, completely captured by her beauty. The alchemist was so caught up in it she failed to notice as she held up a pile of snow and dropped it on the court jester.

“Gaaah!” Renata exclaimed as she writhed on the ground.

“Oh, my apologies!” Prisha looked down in shock at her mistake.

“Is this punishment for liking curvy snowmen?” Renata shook her legs, hoping to get the snow off of them.

“What? No! I would never do something like this for a simple reason like that.” Prisha added defensively.

“It’s okay - we can still win.” The court jester gave a bright smile. “We just gotta make sure ours is better than the others!”

“I don’t know how we’ll do that, but maybe we’ll not place last.” Prisha glanced over at Minnie and Mitch’s snowman that looked like it had just gotten out of a fight. What in the world had those two been doing with their time?

“I gotta say our snowman is looking pretty badass!” Mitch grunted as he threw another huge pile of snow to his side of the snowman. Minnie took a couple seconds to respond, giving only a simple nod. She was rather distracted by Renata who was in the middle of debating with Prisha whether or not to add the jester hat on the snowman. Snowflakes were scattered around in the court jester’s hair that made the redheaded knight’s heart flutter.

“Minnie, you better watch that side. It looks like shit,” Mitch’s voice snapped the knight back into reality.

“Oh fuck,” Minnie caught part of the face that was in the process of falling onto the ground. With some effort she was able to push it back into place but it made the snowman look like it had one puffy cheek. Minnie was expecting her partner to say something but then she caught Mitch too entranced by Brody. The auburn knight was in the middle of placing some pebbles in place on the three sections of her snowman. The young blacksmith was so caught up that he ended up putting one of the sticks right where the eye should.

“Mitch, you missed.” Minnie’s statement made Mitch look back at the snowman and let out an annoyed groan.

“Shit,” Mitch grumbled before a smile appeared on his lips. “Maybe we can make it work. Make our snowman stick out.”

Minnie studied their snowman carefully, seeing all the odd lumps and mistakes. The knight glanced over at her twin who was having the time of her life as she ran around gathering up a few sticks and such to place on her snowman. Sophie was more excited about the prize of dessert than she was. Minnie gave a shrug. “Works for me.” With that the pair started on their own snowman once more.

“Just a little to the right,” Brody instructed, causing Aasim to shift his feet as he moved the top section of the snowman an inch over. “Perfect.”

Aasim let out a shaky breath and stood back to look at his and Brody’s craftsmanship. “I have to say it is looking quite nice.” He looked over and shared a smile with the auburn knight.

“It’s lovely,” Brody strolled forward along with Aasim who readjusted the bow on his own back, handing over the sticks for her to place. They just needed to add a few more finishing touches and their snowman would be complete.

“I must say, it has been really nice working with you,” Aasim spoke up as he placed one of the eyes. His statement made a warm smile appear on Brody’s lips.

“It has been nice. Seems we’re doing better than some of the others too,” Brody nodded over to Mitch and Minnie who were struggling to sell their odd snowman. Beside them were Prisha and Renata and a snowman with half of its face melted for some odd reason. Bits and pieces of the argument between the alchemist and court fool carried over the wind.

“Why would… acid… face.” Prisha’s annoyance was clear in her voice.

“It’s fine...hat.. fix everything.” Renata gave a reassuring smile that didn’t ease the alchemist’s annoyance.

Aasim gave a chuckle when he heard the words of the argument. “True.” He looked over towards Ruby and Omar, a kind smile appearing on his lips. “Looks like they’re having fun.”

Brody looked over and saw Tenn working hard on decorating the snow castle as Willy ran this way and that to get stuff for the snow knight. Omar and AJ were in the middle of working on one of the walls while Ruby used the snow gathered by Willy to finish up the snow knight’s base. Both Omar and Ruby kept a close eye out for any danger. But both of them seemed happy with their time with the younger kids. The pair had gentle smiles on their faces as they moved around to help the young trio.

“I’m glad,” Brody turned back to place a stick in place for one of the arms. “Looks like we’re almost done.”

Aasim gave a short nod in response and the pair started their work up once more.

After about twenty minutes had passed the teams were nearly done, when all of the sudden Omar’s deep voice spoke up. “Watch out. Walkers incoming.” The young cook’s statement made all the knights immediately stop what they were doing and unsheathe their weapons. Ruby moved to guide the three younger boys behind the shelter of their snow castle while the others dealt with the living dead.

Ten walkers were making their way forward, a small cluster that would be manageable with everyone here. Prisha undid the clip on her satchel and brought out a bottle that held a liquid with a magenta tint. Mitch held his blacksmith hammer in his hand and prepared to strike. As the first two walkers strolled toward them, Sophie and Minnie ran forward. The twins worked in unison. Sophie made quick work of the one on the left, her blade slicing through its head and spraying one of the snowmen with brain matter. Minnie gritted her teeth as she impaled her sword though her walker’s skull, making the walker go limp before she tossed it aside.

An unearthly groan made her eyes shoot over to realize that one of the living dead had gotten too close for her comfort. Minnie stepped back in preparation when a knife flew through the air and hit the fragile skull of the undead with a wet thunk. Any semblance of life faded from the walker as it fell to the floor. Looking back Minnie saw that it was Renata who had thrown the knife.

Violet and Brody moved forward and worked together, taking out another pair of walkers. Brody smashed its face in with a shield then ended its misery with the sharp edge of her heel. Violet’s sword sliced through the walker’s legs that were desperately trying to reach her, causing it to fall to the ground. With a sharp downward motion the blonde knight took down the threat. An arrow moved through the air with a faint yet sharp sound, hitting its target true as another walker fell. Aasim notched another arrow and looked for his next target. Prisha strode forward and threw her bottle in the air, hitting one of the furthest walkers that was struggling to catch up with its brethren. The bottle collided with the walker’s skull and caused its flesh to slowly melt before the liquid seeped into its brain and ended its life.

They had already dealt with more than half of the cluster of the living dead but it was never safe until all were vanquished. Louis and Marlon moved forward together. Marlon sliced off the walker’s hands that tried to reach for his best friend. The hands fell to the ground with a squelching sound and with the opportunity now open Louis swung his sword and sliced through the walker’s skull. He took a deep breath and glanced over to see that Clementine and Omar were working together to take out another member of the living dead. Clementine dodged its attack and quickly knocked out its knee before Omar dug his dagger into the skull of the walker with a little too much force and caused it to collide and become stuck in the snowknight.

That was nine down; they only needed to deal with one more. Mitch ran forward to claim the final walker and with a heavy hit from his blacksmith hammer the walker fell down onto the snow, staining it red. It still struggled to get back up until Mitch kneeled down and sunk his dagger into its skull. He pulled out his dagger and with a flick of his wrist cleaned off the blood from the last of the cluster of walkers. Everyone gathered around to make sure that they hadn’t received any bites or injuries when Louis spoke up.

“That sure was something,” He looked around, his smile fading for a moment when he noticed that the fight had ruined the snowmen. All of them were stained red with blood while some had the misfortune of guts and brain matter splattered on to them. An intestine was wrapped around one’s neck, closely resembling a scarf around Minnie and Mitch’s oddly shaped snowman. “Looks like the walkers sure did a number on our work.” His words made the others glance around at the mess.

“Well, I can still pick the best one,” Omar offered. “Once I do we can all go back to the castle for some apple cider.” That made many in the group chatter with excitement. With everyone in agreement, Omar walked around studying the snowmen intently even though they were covered by the blood, guts and smell of the dead. After many minutes of careful consideration, the judge finally came to his consensus.

“The winners of this year's winter solstice snowman challenge is…” Omar paused for dramatic effect, mainly to enjoy the impatience expressed by the others. It was largely Sophie, Mitch, Renata, Louis and Aasim who seemed hyper invested, although the advisor tried his best to hide it. “Aasim and Brody’s snowman.”

“Yes!” Aasim exclaimed and high fived Brody who seemed just as happy about the victory. Sophie and Renata let out sad groans at the same time while Louis and Mitch seemed busy trying to convince Omar that their snowmen were the best.

“I’ve made my choice. Besides, the guards are here.” Omar gestured over to the set of guards that had moved in front of the unfinished wall, ready to guard it with their lives. “So let’s go inside.” Omar strolled forward, leading the way back to the gate. Willy, AJ and Tenn were following him close behind, all three of them excited for apple cider. The rest soon joined the walk back. Sophie ran forward and walked beside Omar.

“So, ever gonna share your secret to the apple cider?” The redheaded knight asked with excitement.

“Nope.” Omar stated simply, a small smile appearing on his lips when he saw the pout on Sophie’s lips. “But I’ll keep making it each year.”

“Yes!” Sophie practically jumped with happiness. “Man, you’re the best, Omar!”

Omar smiled at the compliment then looked back at the street ahead of him.

“I can’t wait for the feast tonight!” Willy bounced excitedly as he walked forward.

“Well, the goose should be done in an hour or two.” Omar replied, causing a groan to leave AJ’s lips as well as Sophie’s.

“You can’t rush perfection,” Omar gave one final smile before he continued down the street as the rest of his friends talked.

Louis ran forward to catch up with Clem and flashed a big grin. “So, did you like your first winter solstice? I know it was a bit more extreme than last year, but...” Louis scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“Yeah, I’m enjoying it so far. It looks like AJ is too,” Clementine’s smile grew as she watched AJ talking animatedly with Willy and Tenn.

“Just wait for the feast. That’s sure to put an even bigger smile on the little dude’s face.” Louis smiled over at Clementine.

“I’m sure.” Clementine’s words made Louis’ grin grow. He looked away from her for a moment and watched as his friends made their way back to the castle. All of them were happy even after the battle they had been forced to participate in. The young king felt his heart grow warm at the sight. It really was a good winter solstice celebration so far and things were sure to only go uphill from here.

[thetakenpokemon]

Act 2 - The Sister’s Decision

[Time: 1 Week From Present Time] [Location: Unknown Isle] [PoV: ???]

I take a big bite out of the giant Pecha Berry in my claws, its juices running down my chin as I lounge lazily on the branch of said fruit tree

So far today hasn’t really stood out to me very much, but then again it’s kinda like this everyday. The only time something interesting happens is when some of the Sisters come back after sneaking out into society - and most importantly, returning with all sorts of things they’ve managed to obtain.

Other than that? Pretty boring. The only thing that’s really different right now is the fact that Zenoclio has been sensing some weird stuff somewhere. She hasn’t come back yet after heading to speak with Xiomara, so I can only assume that it’s actually very important.

...Or Xio was in one of her moods when Zenoclio visited, which could also explain why she’s still not back.

I take another bite into the fruit, my gaze lazily scanning the surrounding peaceful forest.

A forest that is a little too peaceful...

...I want to fight something.

Finishing the berry, I sit up on the branch, a fanged grin forming on my mouth.

I should go find one of the Sisters and start something with them... Maybe Iniko? She definitely gets riled up really easily, so I’m sure I can get into a fight that way~

My long ears twitch as I hear the faint sound of rustling below me, the feat only possible due to the fact that Lopunnies have fairly good hearing. I feel my grin widen even further, since hearing something like that only means that someone is approaching~

Change of plans, looks like there’s someone conveniently right here.

I pull my feet onto the branch and crouch down, preparing to pounce the moment the person comes into view.

“Don’t even try it, Miyako.” The voice of the individual speaks up, their tone betraying who they are.

My grin quickly vanishes upon hearing them. “Of course it’s Seikani...” I mutter to myself.

Stepping out of the brush below is the Delphox herself, her head turned up to look at me as I continue to lay crouched on the branch above.

“Hey, if you’re just passing by, don’t blow my cover.” I say to her in an irritated tone, sitting back down onto the branch. “Just move along-” A mischievous smile works its way onto my face as a thought occurs to me. “Actually? If you can do me a solid, could you go find someone and tell them to come right here?” My claws flex, blue lightning dancing between my fingers as the result of my powers inherited from Zekrom.

Seikani lets out a snort. “Even if I wasn’t already looking for you, I would still say no.”

This makes me raise an eyebrow. “What, you were looking for me?”

Realization soon hits me, in which I immediately jump to my feet and scowl at her. “Hey! I’m not participating in any of your experiments again! ESPECIALLY not after last time!”

The Delphox-Xerneas hybrid smirks. “Relax, Miyako. I’m not here for you for one of my experiments this time. There’s a meeting that’s happening right now and your presence is requested.”

Relief floods me, but also does confusion. “Meeting? That’s new.” I leap down from the branch, landing onto the ground with an audible thud. “I assume this involves Zenoclio’s talk with Xiomara?”

Seikani’s smirk fades, replaced with a serious expression. “You would be correct. Come, they’re waiting for you.”

I cross my arms behind my head, letting out a huff. “Alright alright. Lead the way.” My eyes narrow at her. “But if you’re actually lying and trying to lure me into another one of your experiments, you have another thing coming.”

Her eyes twinkle, the way she’s looking at me with her X-shaped pupils actually makes me shudder. “I wouldn’t lie to you if I were to have you involved in my experiments, Miyako.” She says a little too sweetly. “Because if I were to need you, you wouldn’t have a choice~”

“R-Right.” I stutter nervously. “L-Lead the way.”

---

Apparently this so called meeting place wasn’t as far as I initially believed. Then again, this island isn’t THAT big, but it would still take a fairly long trek if it were to be on a beach that’s on the complete opposite of our initial location.

Seeing the collection of large willow trees ahead, it confirms the location in mind. Although there are several places where we hang out or conduct ‘meetings’, this place is definitely a somewhat more popular one - especially since the low-hanging vines from the willows give a more secluded feeling.

As Seikani and I brush the vines aside, I quickly see that there are four people already here once I step in.

Xiomara isn’t one of them, go figure. At the same time I’m not really surprised, since she almost never leaves the temple that’s at the center of the island.

From the looks of it? The ones who are here first are Zenoclio, Orabelle, Yinomi, and Iniko.

“Here so soon, Miyako? Did you actually want to come this time?.” Zenoclio sarcastically chuckles, said Primarina lounging on a large rock that’s located in the center of this willow-surrounded clearing.

“Up yours, Clio.” I shoot right back, immediately becoming irritated. “You guys dragged me all the way here for a meeting, so let’s get this shit started already. What’s the news and why does it concern me?”

Seikani immediately flicks my cheek with a finger, the action causing me to flinch and growl. “Quiet, Miyako. They’ll explain it to you.” She says to me with a click of her tongue before turning to the rest of the group. “Do you need me for anything else? If not, I will take my leave.”

Yinomi is the one to speak up, the Hatterene giving a bemused chuckle. “That is all, Seikani. We won’t hold you here any longer.”

Not needing to be told twice, the Delphox grins before sauntering away, disappearing past the willow vines.

“Alright...” Zenoclio starts, the gaze of her slitted pupils fixating on me. “Orabelle, Yinomi, and Iniko have already been mostly informed while we were waiting, so that leaves just you to explain things to.”

I shrug my shoulders as I approach them. “Not my fault that you bunch were hosting a meeting until just now,.” Stopping next to them all, I look up at Zenoclio dryly. “So, what’s the deal?”

She holds her gaze on me for a while before ultimately sighing. “I’ve spoken with Xiomara about what I’ve been sensing as of lately. Due to the possibility of something very dire happening, she used her power to help enhance and amplify my own...”

I raise an eyebrow. “And...?”

“And here I thought I was the impatient one.” Orabelle chuckles, said Gothitelle currently leaning against one of the various willows.

“Not now, Orabelle.” Yinomi hisses before I could form a retort, the sudden sharpness of the Hatterene’s tone causing Orabelle to immediately shut up - not without giving a dirty look that is.

“As I was saying...” Zenoclio continues with annoyance, pinching the bridge of her snout with a clawed hand. “With the help of Xiomara, I managed to get more information on what’s going on right now.” Her eyes narrow. “From what I’ve both felt and seen? There’s been numerous breaches into our reality.”

This makes me blink. “Breaches? As in portals?”

She nods her head. “Correct. However unlike the wormholes created between our world and Ultra-Space, these breaches are different. They lead to a far and  completely unknown reality instead of a parallel one.”

Now this interests me. “So... Are these just normal portals or did something come through them?”

Her eyes narrow. “Multiple things came through. From what I’ve felt, there are a total of two breaches, with a third one threatening to breach as well.” She sits up from the rock, straightening her form as her tone becomes more grave. “However even with Xiomara’s assistance, I’m unable to locate one of the active gates nor the one that’s threatening to open. However due to oldest breach being somewhat closer to us in proximity, I’ve managed to at least get a vague notion on that one’s location.”

“Alright, so...interesting stuff...kinda.” I respond before letting out a loud yawn. “Why am I being informed about this?”

“Simple,  we’re having you, Yinomi, and Iniko investigate it.” The Primarina responds.

“Oh really? Coo-” I start to answer before pausing. “W-Wait, you want ME to investigate??”

Orabelle speaks up this time. “You got that right, Miko~” The Gothitelle-Hoopa hybrid snickers. One of the golden hoops on her form floats off before spinning in the air, the few rays of sunlight piercing through the canopy bounces off its golden metallic surface.

“W-Why?!” I start, unable to contain my surprise. “I don’t know anything about portals! Why send me?” I turn to Iniko and Yinomi, my expression becoming accusatory. “And why are THEY going?!”

Iniko is the one to speak up now, said Medicham-Tapu Fini hybrid having been silent for the most of the discussion. “We were the initial choices, Miyako.” She growls, her normally calm demeanor replaced with anger in a flash. “I have plenty of experience when it comes to the outside world, and Yinomi is very good at sensing emotions, fallacies, and lies.”

“Oh yeah, Miss ‘You Can Only Tell The Truth Around Me ‘Cus I’m A Walking Lie Detector’.” I mutter, glaring at the Hatterene in question.

Said Hatterene-Reshiram hybrid scowls at me. “I am no less happy to accompany you than you are.” She growls in response. The long hair-like limb behind her head flexes and curves to face me, the end of it opening to reveal a toothy maw.

“Settle down!” Zenoclio shouts, turning our attention back to her.

“Okay, okay, fine!” I grumble, crossing my arms. “So you have the reason for Yinomi and Iniko, but why me? My power is mostly lightning with the occasional good eye for ideals, what’s that meant to contribute?”

“Extra security.” Zenoclio responds swiftly, making me blink again. “Although both Yinomi and Iniko are more than capable to deal with the outside world, having you along with them would guarantee that nothing can cause you any problems.” The next sentence she mutters more quietly. “...Currently Renaetta and Kazashi are too preoccupied, unlike you.”

Pretending to not hear the last bit, I puff my chest a little bit before grinning. “In that case? I’m fine with that~” I pause, realizing something. “But...why aren’t you going?” I then point at Orabelle. “And why isn’t she?”

The Primarina sighs. “If I were to leave this island, I won’t be able to have Xiomara’s assistance in locating these breaches. Keep in mind that our power also diminishes when we leave the proximity of this place.” Her gaze turns to Orabelle. “As for her, she will be transporting you both there as well as keeping you all informed when I find any important info.”

“Yup, I’m just a glorified taxi and messenger.” Said Gothitelle yawns before grabbing the hoop that’s floating beside her, donning it again. “Definitely would’ve been more fun if I were to actually explore for a change.”

“We all know that you will only cause trouble.” Zenoclio responds dryly before narrowing her eyes. “We still remember what happened last time you left to ‘explore’, and you’re lucky that we haven’t informed Xio that you’re still stealing random objects from the outside world with the use of your rings.”

This makes me smirk. Zenoclio definitely has a point, and it’s hard to NOT notice the increasing number of random trinkets that’s in Orabelle’s possession. She’d be absolutely fucked if Xiomara were to actually leave the temple for once and see the mountain of junk.

I still feel bad for the owner of that gaming device, it was apparently well-loved after Orabelle told me how many hours were played on it.

“Hey! that’s a lie!” Orabelle shouts indignantly, standing up angrily. “Everything I have was given to me by Quintoria during her times outside! Since she had them, they’re legitimately bought!”

The air suddenly grows tense. I feel my gaze slowly turn to Yinomi - said Hatterene’s own blue eyes are shining like tiny stars.

Looks like I’m not the only one to be nervous, seeing everyone else’s current reaction.

“Orabelle.” She says in a sweet tone, yet the sheer power and danger coming from her gives her voice a way more terrifying feeling. “You shouldn’t lie, ESPECIALLY when I’m here~”

Immediately the Gothitelle-Hoopa hybrid starts backpedaling, her face sweating bullets. “I-I mean, I mayyybe took a few things, but-”

Yinomi takes a step towards Orabelle, purple fire leaking out of the maw at the end of her hair. “Cease with the lying.” She growls, her smile growing wider and her eyes narrowing further. “And you’re stealing? Out of all the things to do, stealing is an extremely dishonest action to make.”

“UHHH-” Orabelle starts rapidly slinking away, her expression becoming one of panic. “Heh heh, uhh- YEAH I’M GONNA GO BYE!” In an instant she pulls out one of her golden rings, causes said ring to grow in size, dive through the ring, and then have the ring shrink before ultimately vanishing.

Iniko quickly takes a step away from Yinomi before nervously looking at Zenoclio. “I...don’t think we decided on the time. W-When are we leaving?”

To her credit, Zenoclio actually manages to keep a mostly straight face, however even I can tell that she’s definitely a little freaked out due to Yinomi doing Yinomi things. “Initially, I would’ve said that you will leave tomorrow...” Her gaze drifts to the spot where Orabelle used to be. “But after this? Probably a week, assuming that we’re lucky enough to find Orabelle within that time.”

“She knows better than to lie around the Sister of Reshiram.” Yinomi huffs, crossing her arms.

“You should still show some restraint at least, Yino.” Iniko quietly whispers.

The Hatterene lets out a sharp laugh. “Restraint? HA! All of you should know that those who have the audacity to lie near me will receive the appropriate reaction~”

“Anyways...” Zenoclio speaks up, rubbing her cheek with a hand. Her attention turns to me. “Anything else that you have to add? Any more objections...?”

I open my mouth, but no words come out.

Wait...

I’m going outside. Outside as in the outside world. Outside world as in OUTSIDE this island.

Wait wait wait...

I’ve...actually really been wanting to go out for a long time now. I’ve always been envious when Quintoria and Iniko could slip out without Xiomara’s notice.

So since I really do want to go out...

...why the FUCK am I even objecting and questioning this decision?? This is the damn opportunity of a lifetime!

“Nope!” I respond quickly after a short pause, giving a grin that’s a little too wide. “No more objections! Can’t wait to leave!”

My energetic outburst silences the Primarina, who then looks at Yinomi for confirmation. Said Hatterene-Reshiram hybrid merely shrugs in response, looking just as confused as her.

“Well...glad to hear that...” Zenoclio eventually sighs. “You leave as soon as we find Orobelle.” Her eyes harden into a gaze as she looks at Yinomi. “You will be the one primarily searching for her.”

Yinomi merely huffs in response.

[softsweetsuffering]

OC LIST (New)

Trey:

Has an ability to mimic or amplify abilities/powers of others, as well as telekinesis

Was previously part of a group of people who also had abilities, however after mistreatment and other issues within the group, he left.

He's got a good wealth behind him.

Extremely gentle

Handsome ;)

Loves photography

Has lavender hair

Respects all

'Secretly' Plays violin

Lowkey a sugardaddy

Hamrish Benat:

Has four eyes!

Pink and blonde hair

He loves parkour (as in climbing buildings and leaping around in gyms)

Has PTSD (There are two AUS of which I default as to how he obtained it)

Ready to deck a bitch

Trained nurse

Loves teddy bears and fuzzy pink socks.

Also goes by Hami/Hayden

Andy peters:

Strong, kind.

The quiet Big Type, doesn't always talk, but his heart is in good places.

Wishes he could do more

Buff + Tall

Wears a pair of dogtags.

Has red streaks in his hair for the fun of it

Is extremely brotherly to Adrian

is friends with Hami

Adrian Géarán:

Nervous Malnutritioned anxiety filled tired mess

Has emotionally linked fire abilities (does not like having them)

likes to make little robots!

Easily bullied

Missing an arm

Struggles with normal life

Blames himself for Andys death

Looks unintentionally vaguely like Fry from Futurama

Chris:

Leader of a summer camp for kiddos

Huge fan of the outdoors

Loves to garden

Red head with freckles

Healthy!

Good build, a little on the below-average male height

Likes to hike

Loves kids

Strong but pacifistic

Great smile

Surprisingly a little shy around other adults

Bisexual

Himbo energy

Douglas Connelly:

Just a regular chubby guy

His chub is only important because this man gives some of the best hugs, he's like a marshmallow

He is outwardly confident about his size, even if it sometimes worries him internally

He loves music, loves to groove in the kitchen while making snacks

Always open for roommates and new friends (one of his roommates is a hot bartender called Donovan)

A bit awkward but he tries his best.

Tucker:

Badass

Bunny hybrid (ears :3)

White hair

Likes to wear denim jackets

Fast runner

Has had experience working in the force

Izekiel Iris:

Bruised and abused in a facility

Was turned from human into A being of made of Paint (Useful? no. Fun? yes. Rainbow blood anyone?)

Loves painting

Wallflower

Easily anxious

Loves to draw on his own arms

Matthew Libelle:

Aka Matty Very delayed development wise as well as Autistic

Very much a texture lad, soft blankets are his thing.

Doesn't like loud sounds ( who does honestly).

Tries his hardest to function normally but it's hard.

Watermelon colours are his fav. Green hoodie is his fav.

Has watermelon pink hair.

Gale:

Eldritch bab

Was cursed by a group of guys who were messing with magics they didn't understand

Did in fact murder said group of guys and is traumatised by the idea he has become a monster

hears voices

Has Tendrils that have burst out of his back

Has the ability to move from this realm to the Eldritch planes and back. (is terrified of said planes)

Doesn't have a home

Black curly hair- frizzy- shimmers like Slick oil

Shy type kinda, tall Pale. cold.

Kinda wishes he could just go back to normal.

Would really like to eat some fresh warm bread.

Rowan maverick

Was abandoned as a teen

Also known as Rogue/Red.

Lost some of their tongues making them mute

Trained Assassin.

Previously part of a cult

Addict to painkillers (Caused by the mental issues from the cult and the loss of tongue.)

Bad with Physical affection

Could use a friend

Jace

Cop/Ex Cop.

Laid off after an incident

Has a pubby called Otis

Likes the occasional beer

Dad energy

Issac Merewen

Was previously a Teacher - grade 11/12s

Kidnapped and kept Drugged the hell up.

Was given the new name: Jess/Jack. AKA The Jester

Now has Amnesia problems .(Anomic aphasia)

Was stored Cramped in box.

Needs glasses. (Long sighted. Cant see Infront of him for shit without glasses. He specifically likes round ones :3)

Natrually Blonde

He was very inspired by the Chitty Chitty bang bang scene, “Doll on a music box”.

- He naturally has two different coloured eyes :D

-He likes podcast n occasionally audiobooks. Its good for learning/remembering words, and way easier than straining his eyes. Although it is upsetting occasionally when he can remember more of a book/podcast he’s into more than real words or real-life things.

Tyrone Li

Incubus.

Wise, Patient, caring.

Brown tattoos wind up his hips and torso, curling around his chest around his heart, and around his back, flaring at his neck.

Glasses.

Loves plants and flora

Sex lost meaning when he was younger. He wants true intimacy again but he wants to find the right person..

Glamors hide the following features:

Tail, brown that gradients into Green, Leaf like tip.

Horns, curled. (green tipped :0)

Glamors break usually after a certain period of time regardless of feeding, however, during bad situations/fight the body may unglamour to reserve the last of its energy.

Caspian:

Basically immortal but can die (Reincarnations)

Not a pacifist, but not instantly into violence

He was blessed by the Heart of the Ocean (Shes wonderful <3)

Can control water, can do minor healing with water

Can make water bubble/ boil when angry

Glowy veins when powers are active

He has had many many lives

Soft..caring..Doesnt remember alot of his past..

Doesn't know how many times hes died

Doesn't have alot of family or friends

Goes on many adventures

Elio Solren.

Nickname: Sunshine

Good lad.

Is a shapeshifter Dealt with being told he was happy and always upbeat. People leaving or ignoring him whenever he wasn't started building this sense of need to be happy all the time for others.

Lots of struggles with self image. Being perfect. Appeasing everyone. Poor self body love/self body image.

Is scared about The hate from humans about shifters. The jealousy and fear about them being able to hide behind other faces.

Smiles to hide the pain

Punk/hipster vibes

Intricate golden tattoos

Doesn't open up easily

Doesn't like to admit to being in pain

Kotori

AKA Corey

Owl lad!

Bright yellow piercing eyes. But is totally blind. (Face scars)

Loves music.

Plays the uke.. hums..sings sometimes.

Big wings- like barn owl.

Likes to perch in trees

Jeremey Caulfield

Winter baby

Was left bleeding in the snow at some point

Father Lovely old man (John)

Mother died (Ellie)

Birthday December 23h

Blue eyes

Black hair

Russel

Box boy

Glasses

Red hair

Real sweetheart

Really needs more dev ; ;

Jules

Loves tofu n chicken

Touchstarved

Stubborn af

Kicks ass!

Has Sass

Wears binders/sports bras for Lotsa running n such

Black hair big messy pigtails

Dark brown eyes.

Has a navy bear sleeps with it ‘doesn't care’ about it but does

Gymnast/kickboxing. Bandages around hands

Loved swinging bars since being a kiddo

Trampolines!!

Participates in Underground fight ring to make easy money

Sleeps on just a mattress

Has a laptop for study work but she's slowly giving up on bothering.

(She's not one originally but Werewolf Jules is one of my fav things)

Miles

Part mole, part orphan

Lives underground

Very light-sensitive

Is colourblind

Absolute nerd

loves tinkering with things

is scared of humans

very foggy memories of his parents.

Leilah/ Lei

Can make/control shadows.

Owns a Magic skull(Speaks to it)

Lives in the woods

Wears a skull to spook off people from her woods

Has Tattoos that are shadow/absorb shadows

Kinda bad at maintaining friendships

Emotionally Distant

Wears a cloak.

Bao Ketsuyki

Blood magic bab

Short

East Asian.

Pink/red medium length hair

Big pretty red flower scar from blood magic use on her shoulder/ back.

Little bit foolish, little bit reckless.

Has almost died a few times from her magic use.

Oran Audun

Pale

Punk

Irish

Plays Guitar

Writes in journal, occasionally song lyrics, occasionally little messy ink drawings.

Easy to aggravate (On edge) however is trying to learn how to meditate and be calmer

Covered head to toe in scars but still tries to find confidence in himself. He doesn't find it unattractive, but he feels like others have no need to witness his scars.

loves wearing leather/fabric wrist bracelets

Unwelcome hands have used his body as a research object

Very very against physical contact, needs to break into it.

Ray

Social worker works mainly with kids.

Has a Shy guy tattoo.

His family consists of a Good ma, younger sister, and super baby brother

Dad died but dad was good.

Dirty blonde hair, kinda messy

Short, 5’

Socks the pupper is his helpful lil buddy (hes so round and white and fluffy)

Super dad vibes.

Owen

a hockey player n gymnast.

His mother died when he was about 9.

has an older brother who is a bit of a big jock type

quite protective and caring of his two much younger siblings.

ended up in a nasty scuffle though at some point during his more competitive years in Hockey

This leads to following his passion for Gym

Pole vault, the rings, trampoline.

Still plays hockey among mates or strangers on the weekends in the cold months tho

Ends up taking a position as a gym teacher for kids after taking a childhood course since he was so good at it.

actually a really sweet guy

Soft but likes his sport and jokes.

He can hold his own somewhat more than he appears.

has blue tips/stripes in his blonde hair.

He often wears varsity jackets or baseball tees. As well as a couple other sport wear shirts. (A. Good few are from his bro ofc. Free merch)

He's short but he's got a fairly decent build on him.

He's got a surprisingly good tackle if you aren't careful. And a good grip strength.

Nohea

but everyone calls him Noah.

Works at a Boba tea cafe..

likes to surf.

has an Epic board.

Back and shoulders all littered with lines and tic tac toe-like scars.

he's the type to brush off any questions and change topic while smiling. But not super bubbly. Just. Go lucky.

has a few friends who like to hang out at the cafe

Was in a surfing accident that involved a lot of rocks.

Ila

4’8 Soft. Short.

Ready to protect.

Loves to bake!!!

Smells like a vanilla cupcake most of the time

Isn't afraid to fight although isn't trained

likes Yoga ( and yoga pants)

Needs glasses but doesn't wear them (tsk tsk, unless tryign to read recipes)

Dyes hair silver/white

Jake

Homeless

Snake hybrid can transform his lower half from human legs to tail

Also has fangs, and therefore venom

He's got a lot of sass

Can be a bit of an asshole but soft around the right people

Isn't used to kindness

doesn't cry easily

Steals food

Mac Hiato

Also known as Caf

5’6

Very Grumpy.

Very often has bags under his eyes.

Hoodie is life

Insomnia has serious trouble sleeping.

Has nightmares of strangulation

Occasionally sufferers sleep paralysis

Scared of dark- night lights

Owns a mouse called Bean

Does freelancing webdesgisn/coding as job.

Sits like a gay.

Lives on coffee

Minorly Lactose intolerant

Has One bad eye

Neema

Egyptian

Mechanic

Her dad's a mechanic and used to bring her to work all the time

dead mum: which affected her ability to emote.

Works part time at the garage

Dad likes to bring gifts on their small catch-ups that happen every once in a while.

Sheeee. Suffers a bit of resting bitch face.

she's kinda stunted emotionally because she was raised by her dad, who, isn't great with emotions himself being a man's man and all.

She's very much a tomboy gal. Doesn't exactly get dressed up. because she finds it tiresome and not "her".

Also if she did/does have friends the nickname Nemo 100% crops up because it's sadly alll too fitting but also kinda sweet.

She's actually really into cars and mechanics. Which is one of the few good reasons her dad and her are close.

She's hard to get to know, very quiet. And if you're someone who dominates the conversation she won't speak up much, but you'll be surprised to how much she's listened.

Just because she looks tired and done doesn't actually mean she feels that way.

Samson (Lemonade boi)

His name is Samson, but he prefers Sun/Sunny. (Other more affectionate nicknames include Lemondrop and Sunflower.)

He really likes going out to markets and stuff like that, little stalls or knick knack shops to find the odd kinda items.

He also really likes wandering big forests. (Hes got some o that fae energy) He collects various cool stones/rocks/plants from some of them. He also has some small vials from waterfalls and ponds he’s encountered)

He wants to practice magic to become a witch! He loves the candles and rocks and other cool things that come with the craft. (He inherited things from his father)

He really likes loose fitting shirts too, like flowy things, ones with sleeves that drape past your fingers, or has extra fabric on the bottom that dangle down past hips. (Sometimes they come from the ladies section just because they’re softer and have more variety. Others from op shops and other niche little stores.)

He bought a cologne from a witch that looks cursed but the only curse is that it makes the one who puts it on smell like citrus..so not much of curse. (The bottle looks fuckin neato tho)

He looves fizzy drinks. Doesn’t mind his alcohol either, however it takes a surprising amount to get him on his ass despite looking like a serious lightweight.

He’s pretty average in build, bit of muscle in his arms, some fat on his thighs. Slight pouch of a tum (cause no ones flat and thats unrealistic :<)

He’s about 5′4. So not tall, but not the shortest of the short.

He kinda likes to backpack about. Not staying in places long if they get boring. Which means he is kinda jack of all trades when it comes to work, offering to fix things for pay, lots of casual work doing various things.(One of his favorites was helping a little old lady run a paint shop.)

He occasionally snorts when he laughs and tries not to.

He has his ears pierced, and he has a little yellow gemed stud in his nose.

The ring around his neck he found in the middle of a patch of mushrooms.

He has a couple other tattoos. One of them is of bubbles up his wrist :3 He also has some stars on his ankle, and a sunflower on one of his fingers on his left hand.

He’s not super in to gardening but he does have his lemon tree. He also wants to grow some mandarins

His eyes look silver in a lot of lights, but occasionally there’s some strange hints of yellow, and other times blue.

He has freckles!!!! that look alot like bubbles ;)

He has a twin brother called Fraser.

Scrunches his nose

Hides his laughter behind his hand