#*bianca & blaze | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

astral-express-family · 7 months

Text

Bennett & Bianca birthday fic yippee!! ^-^

(Shhh ik it's basically midnight this is on-brand for me)

The sun streams through the window, forcing Bennett to open his eyes. He can already hear birds chirping, so he swings himself out of bed. For once, he doesn't fall out of his bed. He glances around, a bit surprised, before he changes into his usual outfit.

When he swings open the door, there's a figure on the couch. At the creaking door, the figure turns to face him. Dark green eyes, an upturned lip, white hair pulled into a ponytail...

"Bee?" he asks, confused. It does explain why he didn't fall out of bed. For the first time ever, he has his twin sister to share his birthday with. She smiles, a genuine one, and hops up from the couch. Her ponytail wisps back and forth as she approaches him. She pulls her twin brother into a hug, and Bennett squeezes her just as tightly. They pull apart, and Bennett's eyes sweep over her. She's dressed in her usual outfit, including the heeled boots. She has ditched the feather boa, interestingly enough, drawing attention to the necklace hanging loosely around her throat. She clears her throat and says, "What do you say we get our day started?"

Bennett smiles, claps his hands, and takes off through his house.

A chorus of "Happy birthday, kiddos!"s follow the twins through the house as they approach the dining room. Several of Bennett's dads sit around the table, chatting fondly. They all greet Bennett and Bianca fondly, laughing and clapping the twins on the back and ruffle their hair. Bianca huffs, but the fond smile on her face betrays her true feelings.

The small family sits and talks for about an hour, before there's a knock at the door. Before anyone can get up, somebody walks into the room. A familiar figure dressed in knee-length boots and shades of blue. She crosses her arms and leans on the wall, clearing her throat.

"Azzy!" Bennett exclaims excitedly, rushing over to embrace his adoptive sister. Bianca is close behind, and Aslia wraps her arms around her chosen siblings. She wishes them both a happy birthday genuinely, and then greets Bennett's dad before the three of them leave.

Bennett skips ahead, dragging Bianca right behind him. Aslia walks a bit behind them, a smile on rose face.

The day is spent running through the countryside, battling hilichurls and just generally having a good time. Even the usually harsh and closed-off Bianca is light, airy, and friendly. Everything goes well for the trio, and Aslia insists that the twins keep the loot. Every time Bennett finds something, he lights up like the sun that beats down upon them. Bianca giggles at that, socking her brother in the shoulder good-naturedly. Aslia rolls her eyes, smiling so wide it practically cracks rose face in half. Grass wisps around the twins' ankles as they run through it, pure and free. It brings a smile to Aslia's face, before ro jumps when Bennett playfully calls for rose to join them. And ro does, tackling Bianca into the grass. A smudge of dirt gets on her usually-pristine dress, but she just snorts and playfully shoves Aslia off of her. This somehow turns into the three siblings wrestling in the grass, rolling in the dirt and shoving each other.

As sun starts to dip lower in the sky, Aslia hops to her feet and brushed herself off. "We've gotta get back to town. C'mon, guys," she says. She holds out her hands, and each twin accepts one. Aslia pulls them both to their feet, before reaching up to pick a blade of grass out of Bennett's hair. Bennett blinks for a moment before saying, "Oh yeah, it is kinda late. Huh."

"And I am beginning to get hungry. Let us return to Mondstadt," Bianca adds.

They rush back to Mondstadt, making it back just as the sky starts to become painted in beautiful shades of pink and orange. Cyrus is seated at the bottom of the stairs to the Cat's Tail, and Katheryne is conspicuously absent from her usual post. Aslia calls, "Dad! We lost track of time, but we're back now!"

Cyrus stands up and greets them all fondly, hugging them one by one.

Bennett follows Cyrus and Aslia into the tavern, Bianca at his side.

"Happy birthday!"

A chorus of voices ring out the moment the twins cross the threshold of the tavern. Banners and hung all around, and large cakes are thrust into the field of vision of each twin. Lumine and Aether are holding the cakes, both smiling. Paimon pops a party popper, giggling as confetti rains onto the twins.

Wiping the confetti from his eyes, Bennett looks around the tavern. Diona is seated on top of the bar, waving. Fischl and Razor light up, both smiling and blowing a kiss Bennett's way. He doesn't see much else, though, because Marjorie runs over to squeeze him and his twin sister in a bone-crushing hug. She exclaims, "Happy birthday, you two!"

Bennett gets out a thank you, and Marjorie releases them with a small chuckle.

Bianca extricates herself and vanishes into the crowd, whilst a voice calls to Bennett from over at the bar. Kaeya is leaning there, raising a glass as he calls Bennett's name. The young adventurer beelines towards the knight, pausing to give Paimon a pat on the head and the Traveler siblings each a quick hug. As he draws closer he can see Diluc behind the counter. It's strange, seeing him behind this bar rather than that of the Angel's Share.

"Happy birthday, Benny," Kaeya chirps when Bennett draws near. Diluc echoes the sentiment, and so does a distracted Diona. She wanders off as Kaeya talks, Bennett listening intently. When arms wrap around his midsection from behind, he jumps. It's just Razor, though, so he relaxes. He continues his conversation with Kaeya, Diluc joining in as well.

Footsteps approach, and Bennett looks up. Surprisingly enough, he sees Katheryne standing before him. She offers him a small gift, and wishes him well. That explains why she wasn't at her stall. Huh, he'd never seen her outside of her little booth. Weird. Well, whatever. He thanks Katheryne warmly, and she ruffles his hair with a gentle smile.

There's talking, cake, and presents. Aslia is the last one to give a gift, claiming ro was "saving the best for last".

Ro gives each sibling an oddly-shaped wrapped package. Peeling back the paper, Bennett spots a small plush toy. Pulling it out fully, he sees it was obviously handcrafted. The stitches are messy in some places, but it was clearly made with great care. A small dog, with golden fabric and long, floppy ears. Bianca gets an owl, made with similar care.

"I hope you like them," Aslia murmurs, "I was working on them for a while."

Both twins launch themselves at her, wrapping her in the tightest hug they can.

This is the luckiest birthday of Bennett's life.

#selfship fanfiction #self ship fanfiction #familial selfship #familal self ship #familial selfshipping #familial self shipping #🔥⚔️ a blazing adventure | bennett #🍀🌑 a lucky adventure | bianca #s/i | aslia | genshin impact #not tagging everyone bc basically everyone's here lmao #💛❤️💜 brought together by fate 💜❤️💛

4 notes · View notes

rosabell14 · 2 months

Text

The hunters of Artemis, Reyna, and Asexuality in Riordan's writing

I kinda started thinking about this since Reyna became a hunter. I could never articulate why I hated this Choice. I was asexual after all. Shouldn't I be happy about this rep? We Ace people barely get any after all. Then I realized that it's because I just didn't like the hunters as ace representation. And I didn't need to be grateful for mediocrity.

You want to know why the hunters of Artemis suck in general? And as Ace rep specifically? Because Riordan did not write them with that mindset.

Like people are so busy hailing this man as the king of representation in literature(blegh) that they forgot how heteronormative and white(sometimes racist) the original series was. Y'all really think this man was thinking about writing asexuals in the year 2007? Get real. What Riordan was doing was a white man trying to write feminism and failing (there's a reason most of his female characterization of female characters boils down to tough "not like other girls" characters who are dicks to the boys around them yet also to the girls around them if they're jealous)

Now onto the hunters.

The hunters when first presented in TTC are not a group of asexuals but rather religious celibates. Fantasy Pegan nuns if you may. The first problem arises when their ages are brought up.

"Then the archers came from the woods. They were girls, about a dozen of them. The youngest was maybe ten. The oldest, about fourteen..."

Remember, before ToA gave us Emmie and Jo, the hunters WERE all young girls. Now why in the world are they so young? Especially when in the actual myths, the hunters could come from any age whatsoever? Well the reason is a doozy.

"Are you surprised by my age?" she asked.

"Uh… a little."

"I could appear as a grown woman, or a blazing fire, or anything else I want, but this is what I prefer. This is the average age of my Hunters, and all young maidens for whom I am patron, before they go astray."

"Go astray?" I asked.

"Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure. Forget themselves."

Hooo boy. What a way to phrase it. Going astray. Losing themselves. This kinda confirms that the reason why Artemis goes after young girls specifically is because she only wants girls who have yet to finish puberty. Girls have yet to discover their own sexuality. Now I'm not a representative of Asexuals everywhere, but I'm pretty sure most of us don't discover our sexuality at the age of ten. Let alone have the maturity to decide to become celibates about it. And let me reiterate: celibacy is not sexuality. Sure asexual people CAN choose to be celibates but it's not the same thing at all. In fact Zoe and Thalia are big cases for this. Both of them had liked men before(herakles and luke) but joined for their own reasons. Thalia to escape the prophecy and Zoe out of heartbreak. Hell, Bianca herself is mostly swayed by the idea of having no responsibility and a new family.

Now Rick does another thing that goes against the myths. The exclusion of make hunters. Artemis frequently hung around or taught male hunters who respected her. Daphnis, Scamandrius, freaking Hippolytus whom Artemis greatly cared about. Oh but we need to come up with bullshit reasons why Nico can't just join the hunt with his sisters so the hunters of Artemis are all: Ewww men. Also note how at no point does Riordan mention people who fall in love with women.

Now the next point is the oath itself. Artemis says this:

"What oath?" I said.

"To forswear romantic love forever," Artemis said. "To never grow up, never get married. To be a maiden eternally."

When I tell you that Emmy and Joe were retcons . Rick was freaking INSISTENT on the hunters being kids. Also note the three points: to never fall in love, to never get married, to stay a maiden.

I mean I think I don't need to explain why obsessing over the virginity of young girls is creepy. Does Riordan think girls older than fourteen can't keep it in their pants? And let me be adamant here Riordan only cares about the virginity Clause here. He mentions falling in love and marriage because he sees them inherently intertwined with sex.

Now onto the wording of the oath itself:

'I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis. I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt.'

I mean you might be able to interpret men here as mankind and therefore excluding women as well. But I have many reasons to believe that Riordan didn't even CONSIDER women as a possibility(someone inform this man that lesbians existed smh 😞). Also note that falling in love is not mentioned in the actual oath but maidenhood is.

Now onto the next big issue. Percy Jackson's Greek gods and its chapter on Artemis. It basically confirms all of my problems.

"IT’S NOT THAT ARTEMIS HATED ALL MEN, just most of them. From the moment she was born, she knew one critical fact: Guys are kinda gross."

No mention of girls. In this chapter Percy(Rick) brings up Artemis' disdain for dudes over and over again.

“Let me be a maiden forever, Father,” Artemis said, twirling her finger in Zeus’s beard. “I never want to get married.---- But you can grant me a bunch of followers: ocean nymphs, river nymphs, wood nymphs—what the heck, how about mortal girls, too? Any girls who want to join me can become my followers, as long as they remain maidens like me. They should probably make the decision when they’re about nine years old, before they get interested in boys, because after that, they’ll be all distracted and of no use to me.”

Yikes yikes yikes. Ladies and gentlemen the age has been lowered to 9. Freaking 9. Also I guess girls older than that don't need Artemis' protection then? (the real problem is that older/married girls should be out of Artemis's jurisdiction and under the protection of other gods like Hera, Hestia, and Ares. But Hestia is barely there. Hera is terrible and the Amazons also suck)

Now when I tell you that Artemis' big point was about virginity, I mean it. This actually has mythological evidence.

The myths actually DO mention what happens when female hunters fall in love. Rhodopis and Euthynicus were two hunters who offended Aphrodite by choosing a chaste life so she had Eros make them fall in love. However note that they weren't booted out of the hunters for falling in love, but rather after having sex in a cave. THAT was what Artemis took offense to.

Another myth is the story of Aura. A huntress who offended Artemis by comparing their breasts(Greek mythology am I right?). Saying that her breast were better than Artemis' because they were smaller and hey maybe that means that Artemis isn't actually a maiden. Artemis punishes her by making her lose her VIRGINITY. She goes to nemesis for revenge. Nemesis goes to Eros who makes Dionysus fall in love with Aura and when Aura refuses his advances he ties her up and... Yeah you can guess where I'm going with this.

But hey! Those myths aren't in the Greek gods book. You know which myth is? The myth of C(K)allisto. And this one angers me so much I want to chew on the drywall.

The way Riordan writes it. Zeus turns himself into Artemis, brings Kallisto's guards down with the disguise, gets close to her and then when Kallisto REJECTS Artemis' supposed advances, forces himself on her. I need to say this again. Kallisto does not fall in love, she isn't seduced, she does not break her oath. But we still need a reason for her to be yeeted out of the hunters so her lack of maidenhood it is

“You were my favorite,” Artemis said. “If you had come to me immediately, I could have helped you. I would have found you a rich, handsome husband and let you settle into a new life in the city of your choice. I would have allowed you to retire from the Hunt with honor. You could have gone in peace. Zeus’s assault was not your fault.”

Kallisto sobbed. “But I didn’t want to lose you! I wanted to stay!”

Artemis felt like her heart was breaking, but she couldn’t show it. She had rules about her followers. She couldn’t allow those rules to be broken, not even by her best friend. “Kallisto, your crime was keeping the secret from me. You dishonored me, and your sisters of the Hunt, by not being honest. You defiled our company of maidens when you were not a maiden yourself. That I cannot forgive.”

I want to slap this man so hard he flies to the opposite side of the universe. We are not here to blame victims of assault guys! Except we are! But with extra steps. If you get attacked, it's not your fault, but If you are too scared to admit the truth then you deserve to lose your only safe space and turn into a bear. Oh nooooo Kallisto DEFILED Artemis' company by being an icky non virgin. The moment you lose your virginity even if it's not your fault you get punished. But not because I'm gross but because YOU lied. How terrible! And he expects us to feel for ARTEMIS???

But rosabell! This is how things go in the myths. What was uncle Rick (bleghhhh) supposed to do? I don't know... Choose a different version of the story? There are versions were Zeus/Hera are the ones who transform Kallisto into a bear. There are versions where Kallisto actively CHOOSES to sleep with Artemis. Granted it's still assault because she's being lied to but at least then, she'd have a degree of autonomy in the events. At least Artemis could rightfully accuse her of breaking her oath. But noooo, Riordan doesn't know lesbians exist. He actively makes Zeus into a canonical Ra*ist. Why is he on the throne again?

(the fact that this book came out AFTER HoH y'all 😭)

Once again, Riordan sees maidenhood(virginity)/love/marriage as intertwined. This is NOT what being on the aroace spectrum means. You can fall in love but not have sex. You can have sex but not fall in love. You can have sex AND still be an asexual. You can be married and still be a "maiden". Riordan doesn't get to claim to be such a progressive ally for retconning the hunters in 2017, TEN years after he first introduced the hunters because he suddenly remembered that lesbians exist.

Or more like because he doesn't know what to do with his female characters. The hunters more than anything are Riordan's heroine dumping ground. If you don't want it put them in relationships, either kill them(Bianca whose main purpose is to die) or make them eternal virgins(the hunters, Rachel). The fact that some people genuinely think that Calypso should have joined the hunters astound me. Girl suffered for years because of the gods and you all think that the best thing outside of Leo for her(not that I like Caleo) is to become a servant to the gods? Because you can't perceive a female character doing anything else if she's not in a relationship. Like with Thalia, this at least made sense on a strategic level because she didn't want to reach sixteen. Oh but we also don't know what else to do with her so she needs to want to be a hunter after the war is over so we give her a half-assed argument with Luke and now she can be all: wah wah Zoe you were totally right about boys. And the cherry on the cake is that she doesn't even get to be in the final confrontation with Luke or say goodbye to him because of a freaking STATUE. And after pjo her personality becomes Zoe 2.0 and her and Jason get ONE measly meeting.

When I first spoke of not liking Renya joining the hunters this is what I mean. Riordan had so many options with Reyna. Why did she have to leave her esteemed position which she worked so hard for? Two boys rejected her? Why couldn't she go reconnect with her sister more then? She could have joined the Amazons. But nooo Riordan was so allergic to the fans asking him wether she could be Bi or a lesbian. For the stupidest reasons too? Oh Reyna being a lesbian would come off as stereotypical because she got rejected by two guys beforehand! My dude, do you think people don't say the same thing about us who are on the aroace spectrum? That we say we are aro/ace because we got rejected before? Come up with a better excuse next time.

My brother in Christ couldn't even allow Reyna to talk about her sexuality and whatnot. It couldn't even be fully about her. No. He had to turn Reyna into his own mouthpiece admonishing the EVILLLL fans who may have shipped Thalia and Renya. He literally had her say the word "shipping". How cringe can you get? And then he had the audacity to admonish the fans by saying: Why does a strong friendship always have to progress to romance?

It's a sentiment I agree with but coming from this man, it's extremely hypocritical? I don't know Richard maybe because YOU are obsessed with shipping? No character can escape your shipping hands unless they're eternal virgins or dead. You literally turned the Argo2 into Noah's ark2. So much attention focused on shipping that the seven barely felt like friends.

Why does Reyna need to join the hunters? She can choose to not relationship without having to become a servant to female Peter pan.

This is actually a really adequate metaphor when you consider that Emmie and Jo say that they have not met Artemis in YEARS and Apollo mentions that the two of them were lucky she let them LIVE. god can you imagine joining Artemis when you are 9? At an age when you have still not finished maturimg cognitively and therefore shouldn't be trusted on taking a freaking celibacy vow(were you even given the talk yet that age) and after 70 years you decide you want to leave? If you're lucky Artemis will part with you on good terms but SIKES every person you probably knew before joining is now dead. Where is THAT angsty Bianca fic?

Speaking of Bianca. How she was handled also angers me. In another post, I've already talked about how the hunters barely gave her adequate information before letting her join.

How Zoe was the main reason for her death. Zoe KNEW that at least 2 people might die in the quest she was given and yet she decided to bring the least experienced girl to the quest and couldn't even watch her properly.

But you know what else pisses me off? The fact that THEY should have been the one to tell Nico about his sister's death. I've always hated how Chiron made Percy the CHILD tell Nico the other CHILD about his sister dying. But more than anyone, it should have been the hunters' responsibility. Bianca was THEIR responsibility. She died in a quest to save Artemis. The least they could do was tell her remaining family of her fate. The Doylist reason of course is that we need to kickstart Nico and Percy's complicated relationship and have Percy discover that Nico is a son of Hades. But in universe, the fact that they immediately fuck off from the camp upon regrouping makes them come off as extremely selfish. We don't even know if Bianca was given a funeral by them or not. We see Artemis being upset about Zoe but we never see her react to the news of losing Bianca.

247 notes · View notes

asolareclipses · 5 months

Text

Previous Part

As the large school loomed ominously above him, Nico rethought all of his previous decisions that led him to this point. The building seemed to emanate pure death, but something wasn’t adding up. And the longer Nico stood there motionless, the worse this feeling became.

“So…do we go in or?” Leo said, completely unaware of Nico’s hesitance.

“Yeah…” Nico took a deep breath before pushing open the large castle like doors. He expected to immediately be met with death or something horrifying, instead what lay before him was nothing but empty abandoned halls.

“Wow, this place needs some TLC,” Leo commented as he walked forward, his head swiveling around to take in the large building.

“I guess they abandoned the school.” Nico replied, he couldn’t decide if that was upsetting or not. On one hand, it had been one of the last times he’d really been with Bianca, but on the other it held so much darkness and pain within its walls.

“Any idea where we go from here?” Leo asked, his hands were now blazing with a soft light that illuminated the dark hallways.

Nico paused, trying to determine where the source of his dread was coming from, but it felt all surrounding. “No clue,” He sighed.

“Okay well maybe-“ Suddenly the fire lit in Leo’s hand extinguished into nothing and the room was thrust into darkness.

Nico felt his heart drop, something was here, but unlike that sense of overpowering darkness Nyx emitted, it was something different. Rather than darkness it was more heavy, more emotional.

Suddenly the room brightened, a blueish green haze illuminating what looked to be trees, but Nico knew better.

“We need to get out of here right now,” Nico said as he felt his chest tighten.

Before Leo could speak a dark figure appeared, followed by several more of the same shape. “Oh but it is too late young one, we have already come to play.” The figure spoke as its features became clear. While it resembled a fury with sharp talons and wings, Nico knew better. Once before he faced monsters like this, and now it was too late as he and Leo were surrounded.

“What is that?” Leo asked, his hands bursting into flames once more.

“They’re arai,” Nico glanced nervously at Leo’s flames, “Leo if you attack them they’ll-”

Clearly the arai didn’t like what Nico was about to say as one dashed towards Leo and was greeted by a ball of fire. As the monster exploded into dust Leo yelled out, clutching his chest as he fell to the ground.

“Leo!” Nico called out as he rushed to his side.

“Holy hades what was that,” Leo said as he shakily tried to stand, his hair was sticking up as if he had been electrocuted.

“I tried to tell you, when you kill an arai they release a curse that someone or something has sent towards you.”

“A curse? What would’ve-“ Leo cut himself off as his eyes widened. “Oh. Those gods damned Eidolons! I fried them so of course they wanted to fry me too.”

Nico pretended he understood what that meant, before turning back to the arai who seemed to be eyeing them like prey. “We have to run, we can’t fight.” He forced his voice to remain steady.

“Where do we run?” Leo asked.

Nico looked around, they were surrounded by misty trees and the swampy fog. There was nowhere to run. “I don’t…” Panic filled his chest as he realized the lack of options.

“Your only choice is to fight, or you could let us kill you?” The arai spoke in a low gravely voice.

“Yeah right.” Leo snapped, his hands alight once more.

Nico had no real weapon (no the hatchet thing doesn’t count), no place to run, but the fear within him ran deeper than that. He wondered how many curses had been spoke against him, how many old wounds were about to be ripped open. Still, he had no choice. He had to fight.

And so fight he did.

The first arai swooped forward, its talons and wings moving swiftly. It dove downwards, but Nico had anticipated that and quickly rolled out of the way, bringing the hatchet down on the arias feathered back. Immediately Nico was met with a searing pain in his arm. Gashes resembling claws had appeared etched into his skin, similar to the scar that lay beneath them. Lycaon. It was no surprise the werewolf was a sore loser.

Next to Nico Leo gasped at the site of the wound, before promptly dodging an arai attack.

Nico tried to shrug it off, it was a familiar pain, he could manage. He readied the hatchet, ignoring the fact that he now had to fight with both of his arms injured. Another flash of black and Nico ducked, rolling against the ground while narrowly missing the sharp talons brought against him. He tried to go on the defense like Leo, but without fire it was nearly impossible.

The harsh sounds of wings roared behind him and he spun around almost too late, his hatchet swung and all he saw was a rain shower of dust. In that moment something shifted, everything seemed to go quiet as the hatchet dropped to the ground with the hollow echo of metal.

Leo turned, his fire flickering as his eyes widened in pure horror.

When Nico looked down, his hands were nothing but smoke, swirling around in the familiar way he’d seen many times from spirit roaming the underworld. Finally, one of his darkest moments had come back around to face him. The name, that face burned into Nico’s memory forever. Bryce Lawrence.

A guy who deserved nothing but death, yet every time Nico looked back at what he’d done he was consumed with guilt. Now it was his turn, to be erased into nothing.

Leo seemed to panic, the arai now uninterested with Nico. He called out but the words seemed to pass over Nico as if he weren’t really there.

Nico didn’t feel any pain anymore, he felt nothing. He saw Bryce’s face, over and over, until it slowly became his own. Then the sound of a scream pulled him away from being swallowed whole by the memories.

Leo had fallen to the ground again, his arms shaking in pain. The scattered remains of dust revealed he’d been met with another curse.

Nico wanted to cry, his body was worthless in that he couldn’t fight. He could only stand in watch. The sense of helplessness flooded through his veins as another arai rushed towards Leo.

But it never reached him, instead the ground rumbled and each arai was frozen in place. Somehow Nico stepped forward, his feet solid as black smoke curled off of his body.

“This is over.” He said, his form flickering in and out of a spirit like state. The arai began to back away. “You come from darkness right?” His fists clenched as shadows began to surround the arai, “Looks like it’s time to go back.”

A tidal wave of darkness washed over the arai as they screeched, their voices worse than nails against a chalkboard. Slowly they faded into nothingness and the wave washed away, revealing once more the dusty halls of west over.

Nico stood there emotionless for a moment, until a bout of pain racked his body. He felt like he was swimming in the phlegethon, it was as if pure lava were coursing through his veins,

Once again he heard Nyx’s taunting voice whisper to him, “Strike two.”

—

Watching Nico absolutely obliterate the arai was nothing short of impressive, however the immediate consequences were not. Whatever curses the arai bestowed had seemed to dissolve, but still something remained with Nico.

The previous cursed claw marks had only half healed, seeming to fight back against whatever was healing them. Along with that Nico’s other arm still bared the mark of his previous scorpion battle, now it had bled through its fourth round of bandages. His body was refusing to heal itself, and now that he’d used all of his energy to banish the arai, the pain had completely taken over.

The old wooden floor around Nico cracked and steamed as he fell to his knees. The room seemed to darken as the shadows reacted to his pain, swirling in harsh patterns. Leo practically sprinted to Nico side, knowing of how little he could do to help.

“Nico, oh gods. What do I do?” Leo’s voice cracked as he watched Nicos body shudder in pain.

“I’m..” Nico winced, taking a shaky breath, “I’m fine.” He clenched his hands against the ground, his face had gone so pale it reminded Leo of the time he’d first seen him. That memory only made Leo feel worse, he’d never gotten over the guilt he carried from how he had first treated Nico.

“You’re not fine,” Leo choked out as he scoured his brain for something, anything, to he could do to help.

Nico’s breathing only became more unsteady, “Leo, I’m sorry. You should go back to camp.” His voice was quiet and raspy as he spoke, “I shouldn’t have tried to go on my own, you were right. I’m sorry.”

Leo felt tears build up in his eyes, “Shut up. It’s okay and you’re okay.” His hands began to shake as the panic grew from deep within, he couldn’t lose another friend.

Nico opened his mouth to speak but it was as if a switch were flipped, and he suddenly collapsed to the ground. Smoke curling from his arms as he lay there motionless.

Leo froze for a moment, he felt like his heart had stopped beating. “Nico?” His voice echoed through the empty halls. Quickly Leo checked his pulse, receiving the faintest of heartbeats, “Nico. Wake up dude, please.” His voice sounded like a child’s ringing in his ears, scared and alone.

The dark empty halls only seemed to stretch farther and wider as Leo sat there helplessly. Seconds or maybe minutes had passed before a scuffling sound began to fill the silence. Leo shot up, his hands bursting into flames as he stood defensively in front of Nico’s almost lifeless body. Despite their shakiness, the flames burned bright in his hands.

Whatever the sound was it only grew closer, Leo feared the worst. Perhaps the arai had come back, or a worse monster was there to greet him. A cold rush of wind extinguished his flames as a soft haunting voice bounced off the walls around him. “How sad.” The voice spoke, it was the voice of a woman but it sounded empty and full of despair. “How miserable.”

“Who are you?!” Leo yelled out into the darkness, his flames flickering back to life.

“Your misery is charming young one, such sadness and pain. The loss of another friend would break your heart, how wonderful.” The voice seemed to hesitate, “It’s unfortunate to lose this soul though. His misery was so perfect, never have I met a more tortured child.”

Leo wanted to set whatever this thing was on fire, “WHO ARE YOU?!”

“I fear it is not my place to say,” The voice sounded almost happy with their ambiguousness. “I shall leave you to the darkness, there’s not much I can do here after all.” As she spoke the last word the halls went quiet for a moment, then a louder scuffling sound rung out from behind Leo.

He snapped towards the sound, a harsh flame burnt into his palm. He was ready to turn whatever was approaching into ash, when he was met with a familiar face. A guy with short blond hair, and a small scar that lightly grazed his lip.

“Jason?”

Part Eight

70 notes · View notes

runawaycarouselhorse · 7 months

Text

Our pure-hearted, all-loving hero... he can be a little brat (especially back in OS/early in his journey, when he was much more of a hot-blooded boy hero), but his heart's worth its weight in solid gold and he grows into such a kind, patient character with strong ideals, which is why Hero of Ideals suits him best (even the movie manga opted to adapt that version of the movie, rather than the one where Ash is Hero of Truth, and expanded on it!)

[I hope you have "long post" and "image heavy" muted if you need to, because this post's a doozy and given tumblr, if my blog's ever deleted, posts with read mores will be rendered inaccessible forever, so I don't like to make them!]

A lot of people complained about how young Ash looked in BW! (and complained even more about Sun & Moon's very divisive art style... and we wound up seeing great growth for his love of a whole region, and achieved a goal integral to achieving his dreams), but from the first episode of BW!, my first impression was of how mature and calm Ash is with Iris and Trip in regards to their initially abrasive and varingly aloof personalities.

Iris was friendlier and more excitable, more childlike, but Ash took her barbs in stride and patiently waited for her to open up about her dreams (she keeps it secret in the first episode, using that cute, childish word "naisho" instead of saying it's a secret "himitsu"--the same childish word she uses when asked about what Kairyuu/Dragonite told her in their reunion episode) and background (we don't know she ran away from the academy or what her hometown was like until season 2!)

The way Ash handled Tory (who was a traumatized, younger child--and Ash wanted to fight him at first, before understanding him!), Lucario (also traumatized, insulted Ash and Pikachu's bond--Ash fought him and fell off a hill, wrestling with him, before he saw Lucario's memory of being "abandoned" and broke down in tears, apologizing for what he said when he didn't know anything...), Chimchar (a traumatized Pokemon, Ash was patient, kind, and loving to him, even when he lashed out while out of control due to Blaze, which he previously could only use to save his life...), etc., is very different from how he handled Iris (who was bullied subtly by being completely ostracized, no one would sit or eat or play with her at the academy, she was so depressed, she stopped eating--this is canon and not lingered on, but she plainly says it and that her dorm mother making her food that would remind her of home, just berries skewered on a stick, "saved her") and even Trip.

(By the way, Ash apologizing to Lucario, in tears of regret over what he said to Lucario when he didn't understand him is when I first started to truly love and respect Ash's character and growth! Before that, I really was only a big fan of the TRio.)

By contrast to those rockier beginnings with other kids, Ash was patient and encouraging with Trip, even while Trip purposefully kept him and everyone else (even his Pokemon who loved him, as Alder said...) at bay and rejected all his attempts at friendship, before he got the answers he needed from Alder and slowly stopped shutting others out. He had every right to lash out at Trip for making fun of him, but kept trying to befriend him and showed interest in his journey and growth.

(Trip was also his youngest main rival at that point, even if he is a very book-smart child prodigy type who was an excellent battler from the start, he still fell apart in front of unexpected, unorthodox techniques like Bell/Bianca and Satoshi/Ash's out-of-the-box strategies.)

Naturally, there's also his very patient and encouraging bond with Lillie, who also had her trauma-induced fear of Pokemon (much like Tory!) and dissociative amnesia, the early loss of her father in infancy, and the distance between her and her mother (too wrapped-up in work and her obsession with Ultra Beasts to notice her own child's trauma and falling behind her peers...) to overcome, but the focus of this post is BW! I already write a lot about Lillie, she's another favourite of mine. <3

It's worth noting, too, that Pikachu was Ash's first "problem Pokemon"... even if it's usually the Fire types who are traumatized, Pikachu has abandonment issues like Chimchar and Tepig did. Pikachu famously hates being inside a pokeball and Ash always repesects this boundary and becomes very, very upset in XY when he believed Pikachu was forced into a pokeball... the pokeball factory episode was, otherwise, a very light-hearted episode, but Pikachu's boundaries and possible trauma is taken seriously.

This scene mirrors a similar breakdown Alain has when he finds out all he's done, under the impression he was protecting his loved ones, was aiding Lysandre's genocidal plans... both smash their fists into hard surfaces, blaming themselves for failing to protect loved ones.

In a very early Kanto episode, Sparks Fly for Magnemite, we learn Pikachu has abandonment issues so bad, he doesn't want to be separated from Ash for even an overnight stay in the Pokemon Center. It seems Pikachu (fortunately) quickly become much more secure in his bond with Ash and no longer fears being separated for medical treatment, but this is very, very sad and telling!

Although we never delve very deeply into that for most of the series... (an early magazine scan has Ookido-hakase/Professor Oak theorize Pikachu's previous trainer abandoned it), we were finally given some answers late in series!

In the AU movie, Pikachu says* his reason for not going into the pokeball: "It's because I always want to be with you." ;O;

... unless this is a dream or hallucination, given Ash is on the verge of unconsciousness when it happens--but if we really want to believe it happened, maybe his latent Aura post-cognition abailities kicked in and he understood Pikachu's feelings, like when Victini slept in his lap, crying, and Ash saw Victini's dream of his past.

As for the main series canon, in the first episode of Pocket Monsters 2019 (Pokemon Journeys), we learn Ash's Pikachu was a lone, possibly orphaned, Pichu, who was briefly raised by a Kangaskhan, carried in her pouch with her child, until he grew too heavy and quietly left at night (without saying goodbye) to live by his own strength, evolving into Pikachu as he did so.

If Lusamine not taking Lillie's (because they're irrational or not logical) feelings seriously gave her a complex where she always needed to claim her stances are "logical" even when they're based in emotion... I wonder what it tells us that "child prodigy" Trip defaulting to blaming his loss to Alder on him doing something wrong or being inherently lacking ("What did I do wrong? What do I lack?"), because he doesn't ever consider a simple difference in experience is all it is... that Alder's many years of wisdom and Pokemon training give him an advantage over rookie trainer Trip, who's shown to be averse to being called a "child" (Iris ropes him into battling Ash twice by calling him a kid), because he always has to prove he's an adult. He thinks there's something inherently "lacking" in him or "wrong" about his method if he doesn't achieve.

All of that is canon, but if you further analyze his character, Trip has a superiority complex, which is very often a defense mechanism to mask feelings of inferiority. He canonically places a lot of worth in the image he projects and constantly puts down others. Add that to being a child prodigy and his preoccupation with proving he's an adult (but doesn't bat an eyelid at someone calling him "unjust" for his violent methods in the Venipede episode, like he's already accepted being a terrible person, because he thinks striving for peace like idealistic Ash is "naive"--Trip has a very cynical view of adults, yet thinks of himself as such...)

Trip only cares to be seen as strong and mature, not good (he's not even surprised to be called bad, he's already accepted it, he doesn't care), and if he fails, he blames his lack of knowledge or his inherent nature as lacking.

Because his self-worth is in being a genius and being better than the rest, so he seeks outside validation, namely Alder's, who Trip behaves so jealously about, Alder canonically compares him to a fickle-hearted woman (well, he messes up the phrase 'Onna-gokoro to haru no sora.' "A woman's heart is as fickle as the sky of spring" because he was hitting on Junsa-san/Officer Jenny earlier, so he says "fickle as Junsa-san"... Freudian slip. ^^;;;;)

Trip, when asked what he was battling for, what he wanted to prove... he said it was to prove his strength to Alder.

That's all he wanted! To prove his strength and be acknowledged by his hero. Alder even asks him if he likes him. Adeku frankly asks it in the Japanese version, but the dub dances around with "do you have any admiration for a man such as myself"--which Trip doesn't answer verbally, although he really doesn't have to, because the scene makes it clear and is a lens that clarifies all his past behaviour.

That's all Trip wants: love and acknowledgement. Which he believed he could only get by becoming stronger, smarter, and more mature as fast as possible, likely taking Alder's to be some stronger and grow up quickly too literally, as head animator Iwane said, Shootie was just "a little too grown-up."

It takes a long, long time for Trip to unlearn prioritizing battles over anything else and to embrace childhood (which hey, is one of the main themes of BW!), because it's a precious time which we can never return to... so, Alder's current idealogy is to enjoy life, make friends, love Pokemon, and not dwell on the past. Ash's approach to being a Pokemon Champion and Master is the same.

Alder's introductory episode made it very clear he and Ash are very, very similar characters... and we see this again in Journeys, in the kind of advice Champion Ash gives younger kids. Ash and Alder have a similar wisdom they'd like to impart, I know, it's funny calling Ash wise, but he has high emotional intelligence and is incredibly wise in that respect for his age... it took Alder many, many long years to arrive at the same conclusion Ash reached.

Ash's Japanese name, Satoshi, means "Wisdom." (Another cute detail: Ash's little brother, Lei, whose Hawaiian name means a "Garland of Flowers-- in Japanese, would be pronounced as Rei, which also means "Wisdom." Lei likely has a name chosen to have meaning in both Hawaiian and Japanese. ^^)

Bonus shout-out to Ash, Iris, and Cilan all protecting Keldeo until he finds the courage to face his fears, correct his mistakes, and save his friends...

Ash is a very good friend, AG, DP, and BW! are all part of his development into the kinder character he became today. Some people might miss how rude he was to his friends in OS, but he can still playfully dish it out, he's just calmer and more sure of himself, so less likely to sweat the small stuff and recognizes when someone, whether Pokemon or trainer, just needs time and patience.

109 notes · View notes