#Alex and Shu

[shion-yu]

Ice Cream for Dinner

Chicken pox sucks. Some Shu and Alex father-son caretaking with a shocking lack of angst. This is pure fluff folks. To the anons who requested stories with Shu and Ryo sick, they’re in progress! But this is Alex’s turn, lol. 2,275 words, no TWs, CW sick 13 year old.

It turns out that having a kid in school for the first time means getting sick with every nasty school kid disease they bring home, and it doesn't matter if that kid isn't in preschool - middle school works just as well. In the year since Alex has come to live with Shu, Shu's been sick enough to miss work at least five times and had the sniffles on and off for the rest of the year. 

He doesn't blame Alex, who seems to find Shu’s pathetic immune system somewhat amusing as long as Shu's relatively okay. Shu would rather Alex not worry about him anyways. However it definitely doesn't soften the blow that Alex stays healthy almost no matter what. He was sick once with that upper respiratory infection but that was it - otherwise the kid's been the picture of health and Shu wonders how such a skinny kid has such an immune system of steel. 

"What did your mother feed you?" Shu asked him after he was diagnosed with yet another round of strep throat that had left him absolutely miserable for the past several days, but had somehow completely missed Alex.

"Mostly cereal," Alex said dryly. It came with a heavy undertone of 'if at all.' Shu sighed and went back to blowing his nose miserably. It seemed there was no secret there other than youth and a big attitude. 

It was annoying to be sick all of the time, but Shu just kept telling himself that at least it wasn't Alex. Plus, on the bright side, he had pretty much infinite PTO to spend on sick days since he'd barely taken a vacation in the past ten years working for the same company. His most important job was to take care of Alex and as long as he could manage that while ill, he could avoid calling his mom to take over. That had only happened twice so far, which seemed like a win all things considered.

With all of this in mind, Shu was quite eager to enjoy the days when he was neither sick nor being called into the principal's office to discuss the behavior of his unruly charge. Both had been true this week and Shu told Alex that they were going to enjoy the Fall leaves with a walk on the Hudson. Alex rolled his eyes and told him he'd rather sit at home and watch paint dry.

"Well, too bad because there's no paint to watch dry," Shu said cheerfully. "Unless you'd like to change our activity to painting your bedroom together, those walls could use it." A fresh coat of paint would hide all the plastered-over holes Alex had punched through. But Alex seemed to think a walk was less painful (or at least significantly faster) than painting a room together, so chose the walk.

It was a bit cold out and Shu bundled up in a scarf and his warm peacoat. He encouraged Alex to wear his own warm coat and a hat, but of course that meant Alex did the exact opposite and wore his light Jean jacket, no hat, and what seemed like useless fingerless gloves. Shu didn't argue though, he was just glad they managed to get out the door. 

It was a pleasant walk on the river side, despite the cool breeze. Shu was happy about all the bright orange and red leaves, something Alex wasn't that used to given he'd spent most of his childhood in California. Shu did the vast majority of the talking, but that was to be expected. However after a while he noticed Alex shivering and subtly cut their walk short by crossing the closest bridge and turning towards the direction of the car to complete their loop.

"Want my scarf?" Shu asked casually. 

"Nah," Alex said. He looked distracted and kept scratching the back of his neck. 

Shu kept an eye on Alex as they walked back and noticed Alex seemed to be dragging his feet more and more the longer they walked. "You okay buddy?" Shu asked him.

"I'm fine," Alex responded predictably and picked up the pace. Shu went back to talking about Avatar the Last Airbender, hoping Alex would relate to Shu's fondness of it since it was known to be a popular cartoon. "Will you stop? I don't know that show," Alex snapped irritably. Well, that didn't work, Shu thought. They fell quiet until Shu caught Alex trailing behind again, this time itching his head.

Suddenly the thought of lice popped into Shu’s mind. He stopped and waited for Alex to bump into him. 

"What now?" Alex scowled. 

"Anyone at school have lice? Or scabies?" Shu asked cautiously. Alex made a disgusted face, though whether it was regarding the vermin or Shu himself was unclear. Possibly both.

"I don't have lice," Alex snapped. "Those don't feel like this."

"Then what does this feel like?" Shu asked, leaping on the fact that Alex had inadvertently admitted that some discomfort was present at all.

Alex growled and started jogging towards the car. Shu tried to keep up, but the kid was way too fast for his own good. At least, usually he was, except today by the time he reached the parking lot he was panting as hard as Shu was. He looked pale - well, paler than usual - and Shu frowned, moving his hand forward to check Alex for fever. Alex yelped and dodged him, glaring. "What are you doing?! Don't touch me!"

"I wanted to see if you had a fever. Bud, do you feel okay?" Shu asked.

"No, I feel like you just forced me on a stupid walk in the cold. Let's just go home already!" Alex snapped. Shu tried not to smile at the use of the word home as it most certainly would not earn him any points right now. He relented instead and got into the driver's seat, making sure Alex buckled up (once, this was another heated point of contention) before he pulled out of the gravel parking lot. 

The drive home was about thirty minutes. Alex leaned against the door and pulled his knees close to his chest, making him look ever more childish. He was thirteen and as gangly and tall as a mung bean sprout, Shu's mom said, but he still acted like a kid. He wasn't mature and given everything he'd been through, Shu expected it might take him longer than other kids to get a handle on his emotions. That didn't mean it was easy to get through all the fighting and outbursts, but Shu told himself it was just something they’d have to work through together. Alex was already doing so much better than when he'd first come to live with Shu, after all. Progress felt slow at times, but it was there. 

Progress was Alex admitting to Shu as they pulled into the driveway, "I don't feel good." 

Shu made himself not-smile at Alex trusting him to know that and said, "Let's get you inside and in bed then." Alex went straight to his room and changed into comfortable clothes, then dove under the blankets, shivering. Shu brought in the thermometer and Tylenol and sat on the edge of Alex's bed. Alex was scratching his chest and looked flushed.

"Can we take your temp?" Shu asked. Alex grumbled but obeyed. 100.8. Shu cringed - Alex really was sick. Shu felt bad he'd forced Alex to go out for a cold walk with a fever, but he hadn't known. "Sorry bud, you're definitely sick. Now what're you itching, can you show me?"

Alex reluctantly dropped his hand. Shu delicately peered at Alex's neck and down Alex's shirt. There were a handful of red marks that looked like pimples. Shu tried to think of what they would be and came to a quick conclusion: "Alex, have you had chickenpox before?"

Alex shook his head no. Shu grimaced. "Well I think you've got them now." Alex should have been vaccinated, but Shu suddenly remembered the long list of 'religious' waivers Alex's parents had signed to get him into school with the bare minimum of requirements. He'd been meaning to get those updated but they'd just been so busy that Shu must have forgotten to reschedule that vaccine clinic visit they'd missed. Crap. If Shu remembered correctly, there wasn't much to do for chicken pox other than stop Alex from itching and keep the fever down. "I think I'll call the pediatrician. Maybe we can avoid a trip to the office for you, okay?"

That seemed to earn Shu a few points and Alex nodded. Shu called the doctor's office from his spot on Alex's bed and managed to get a nurse on the phone who went over the list of symptoms, which Shu then relayed to Alex before confirming or denying. Headache? Check. Sore throat? Check. Itchy rash that looked like little red bumps? Definitely. 

"Sounds like chicken pox, and if he does have them it's better you keep him at home away from any other kids at the office," the nurse said. "No school until the blisters are gone, about a week. Keep him from scratching. You can do Tylenol and calamine lotion and Benedryl but as long as his fever stays under 102 after meds he should be fine. Good luck." 

Shu didn't know if he liked the sound of her good luck, because that meant she thought he'd need it. Shu sighed and hung up. "Well, guess you've got all of next week off school," Shu said. "Any requests? Books? Soup?"

"I wanna sleep," Alex said grouchily. Shu had expected that. He made sure Alex took his Tylenol and gave him a bottle of calamine lotion to dot onto the pox and then left him alone to stew in his teenage misery. He was sure Alex’s friend Ryo would be getting a slew of upset texts any second now. 

Shu mostly tried to let Alex be alone like he wanted, but the problem was that Alex got bored very quickly and soon wandered out to the rest of the house, scratching and whining about anything and everything. Shu tried to remind himself that Alex probably felt like crap and wasn’t purposefully being a pain - probably. After Alex’s third pass through the living room though Shu made him sit on the couch and insisted on putting calamine lotion on Alex’s back where he couldn’t reach. He supposed it was a testament to how uncomfortable Alex really was that it didn’t become an argument.

By the next morning Alex’s spots had turned into angry looking blisters and he got upset every time Shu told him not to scratch. Shu tried to tape oven mitts on Alex’s hands like his mom suggested but Alex was too old to put up with that and nearly decked him in the face. “Alex, don’t hit me,” Shu said sternly. Alex glared but didn’t try it again. 

The fever was worse. The headache was worse. Alex could barely talk because his throat hurt so much. When Shu took a look down Alex’s throat with his phone flashlight he could see how red it was; google said he probably had chicken pox in his throat and that liquid Benadryl could help. He set Alex up on the couch and took a quick trip to the pharmacy, purchasing basically everything he could think of to get Alex to settle down and came home with two bags full of supplies. Alex was napping with the TV on, and Shu didn’t think there was any point in waking the beast before he had to so just sat next to him and let him sleep.

Alex looked particularly young with chicken pox blisters all over his skin and limp, messy hair that was damp from a tenuous fever. Shu sighed fondly as he watched him and thought to himself that this week couldn’t go by fast enough. Eventually Alex woke up, predictably grumpy, and Shu pulled out all the stops. He made vanilla pudding on the stove because that always tasted better than the pre-packaged stuff. He served Alex tea and Gatorade with a curly straw, which Alex called stupid but didn’t remove. He slathered Alex’s entire body with calamine lotion and probably gave him a bit more Benadryl than was strictly the correct dose, but he felt terrible about how miserable Alex seemed. The fever stayed manageable though, so Shu was able to keep him at home at least.

Around dinner time, Shu made Alex soup and served it on the couch. “How’re you holding up, bud?” He asked, sitting next to his miserable, blanket-covered kid.

“This sucks,” Alex croaked. “I hate chicken pox.”

Shu couldn’t help but laugh a little, which earned him a glare from Alex. “I know, it sucks a lot. But this is the worst day, it’ll get better. In the meantime, let’s have some soup.”

“I don’t want soup,” Alex grumped. 

“So what do you want?” Shu asked patiently.

Alex looked away, pulling the blanket closer around himself. “...Ice cream?” He mumbled.

“Alright,” Shu said easily.

Alex looked at him in surprise. “Really?” He asked, his voice rising one tone in excitement, although he was clearly trying not to get his hopes up.

“Sure. Ice cream for dinner it is. You get special treats when you’re sick, you know?” Alex hadn’t known, it seemed. Shu served him a large bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and Alex ate the whole thing. Then he fell asleep next to Shu as Shu ate the now cold soup, a satisfied, sugary smile on the boy’s face.

[nocturnalazure]

[celticcatgirl2]

“Emperor Pilaf is a Genius!!! They’ll NEVER see us coming if we come in this way!!!”

“Who is that lady and that dog Goku?”

“-sigh- THEM…again…It’s best to just ignore them and hope they go away…”

[lesbianmichelmishina]

so: gretl gloria clarke-schwarz, fenrir jevaun clarke-schwarz, erika chava donnerbaum, william "will" david knight, inocencio valentino espinosa rosa, alex jean myiow, kao shu-chen "sunny"

[pprodsuga]

wrong number | sunghoon

fourteen: what if i just manifested a girlfriend

summary: when a barista of the cafe sunghoon frequents gives him her phone number, he decides to try his luck and texts her. problem is, it seems as though he’s got it all wrong and texts you instead.

notes: hello tiny ppl in my phone! i’ve been so excited to write this chapter for so long 😆

*✧･ﾟ─────────── *✧･ﾟ

add yourself to my taglist !!

series masterlist

*✧･ﾟ─────────── *✧･ﾟ

taglist: @enha-stars @karinasbaby @baevsxii @lillotus17 @syzavxy @mrmld @nikilvrfvr @luvyev @notevenheretbh1 @wvnkoi @seungiesgf @kgneptun @judeduartewannabe @iheartjayke @wonsbubble @ilyjxdz @foggysfrog @oddracha @haechansbbg @tobiosbbyghorl @ryunjin0 @sharksandminhos @jungwoneez @alex-is-sleeping @minjaexvz @woninluv @hoondiors @seunnimg @erehkinnie30 @junsflow @jeongintwt @fantastichoagieuniversityhairdo @h4918ymc @justletmereadokay @makiswrld @who-tf-soddhi @en-dream @strawberrysavi @cloudyseokjinx @winuvs @2interrwonw @222.palesa @bubblytaetae @ariadores @shu-aa @Enhypensbestie @hyunjisungct @nxzz-skz @thea-herondale @eclipse-777 @kwiwin @nottkwiwin @n-eetune @jwnghyuns @soobs-things @sunghoonnsupremacy @​​eyyylesgewcleuwwt @tinie03 @spookyrule @mamuljji.

sorry to everyone tumblr couldn't tag!

[aleksanderscult]

IMO, LB tried to insert Zoya and Nikolai in the plot that was supposed to be for Alina and Aleksander. No one is gonna take that idea of my mind!!! Like she really tried to have this perfect monarchs of Ravka with a HEA for the grishas but fail at developing the idea. Unfortunately, LB had already taken away the real protagonists and had to continue the plot without them, so we were left with two characters that seem to have put there out of nowere.

This is the first time I'm hearing this theory.

I don't know if I agree or disagree but Leigh really can't seem to let Darklina go as it seems from the "Alex Stern" series. So it wouldn't surprise me if your theory is correct. It's like she loves this ship but doesn't want the real one to get together so she makes bad imitations of it to end up together (I hope this makes sense😭).

But I want to say that bringing back Aleksander was truly a huge mistake:

1) She really had to let his character rest. After all, I usually hate the whole resurrection trope in fiction. It's so dumb most of the times.

2) She had to find another antagonist for Nikolai and the others. Or better, let them handle Shu Han and Fjerda. Make a book that contains political intrigues (but Leigh doesn't know how to write that so 💀)

3) Bringing back Aleksander without having Alina on the picture was not good at all. "Darklina" was the heart and soul of the trilogy, no matter what the antis say. Their love, conflicts and bond made the books. Without it RoW "suffered".

Now if Leigh used Zoyalai as a second Darklina.... She failed like you said.

Send me your unpopular opinion

[wonolic]

My opinion on Mukami's Face Claim ! (⁠｡⁠ ŏ⁠ ﹏⁠ŏ⁠)

A/N: here's the Mukami's version of my post about the sakamaki's face claim, pt.1 and pt.2 here for y'all. Again, it's just my opinion, if you don't agree, feel free to comment and share your opinion with me.

︵ ︵ ︵ ︵ . . . .

𝘳𝘶𝘬𝘪 ⤸

Alex (can be found by searching Rekthman Olga).

The first pic of Alex is not actually him (I think it's another person or it's Alex but a bit edited), but I think it matched Ruki more so I left it like that.

His stare in the third pic makes me feel... things. I don't even like Ruki, I'm a cat lover and I won't forgive him, lol, but I think Ruki is one of the coolest characters in DL.

Thought about putting Chase Hudson as Ruki's face claim, but I don't think Chase's facial features were better than Alex's for Ruki.

Just like Reiji, Ruki's FC has the serious expression, but in Ruki's case, I think he has the stare that can make you feel inferior, just like a livestock.

𝘬𝘰𝘶 ⤸

George Pomogisebe.

This one was difficult for me because I had to stop and think if a white man could become a J-Idol because I'm a Kpoper and Korea is a pain in the ass when it comes to foreigners as K-Idols.

I think his soft features are what make him remember me of Kou, together with the innocent eyes.. perfect for the two faced fake vampire boy.

For me, this one, like Subaru's and Laito's face claim, is one of the best I could find. The visualization would be better if he had blue eyes, but I can perfectly see him as Kou.

Babygirl coded just like Shu, I hate Kou in Subaru MB route but I want to 💋 him now.

𝘺𝘶𝘮𝘢 ⤸

Malcom Lindberg.

Don't ask me why, but I think Yuma's FC matches Shu's FC, I love those big bro besties.

Like Kou, the visualization would be easier if he had brown eyes and a bit more tanned skin, but, I think y'all understand why I choose him.

he's just.. AWOOGA. In my honest opinion, Malcom is just the best candidate to be Yuma and I actually think that he looks like the canon version.

Non-related to his appearance, but I headcanon that Yuma sometimes dreams with his past, but because he doesn't know that it is his past, he just gets confused on why he dreams with fire so frequently.

𝘢𝘻𝘶𝘴𝘢 ⤸

Thimothée Chalamet.

I didn't want to put Thimothée as Azusa's FC, but I couldn't find any better. And to be honest, I actually like to see Thimothée as Azusa.

I think if Thimothée's face structure was kinda slimmer and had more droopy eyes, he would be the perfect face claim for Azusa.

Also I think Thimothée's rest face matches so well with Azusa's, it's like he looks lost, it's kinda cute.

Bonus headcanon: I think Azusa has some short-term memory loss, like, he has to make some effort to focus and try to remember what happened throughout the day.

A/N: I'll probably not do the Tsukinamis + Kino, but if I do, I'll say to y'all. If you came this far, thank you so much! See you in the next post! 💗

[akatsukikycommissions]

Shu Itsuki from Ensemble Stars!! (Valkyrie Trip Album ver) | Alex 3px Arm

My friend said he would like one so I made it as a gift :D making mika next (I am going to change the head and that's it, shading this was horrendous). Lyric from Strawberry Mentos by Leanna Firestone.

[shion-yu]

Day 11: Passing out

Using @medwhumpmay to finally finish this full length Shu sickfic! 5,065 words. Written for my @badthingshappenbingo space “Working Through the Cold” and inspired by this prompt by @snzzenby641 “A horrid boss with an equally horrid cold being less than careful with their germs.” CW: Contagion, mild mess, sneezing, coughing, fever, stuffy talk, ft. Shu’s 14 y/o son.

The second Shu hears his boss sneezing, he knows he’s going to catch whatever it is that’s causing it. He’s never had a very good immune system to begin with, but it was when he was in college that his body seemed to have made the decision to no longer put up a fight against any cold that passed by him. This is a particularly bad thing for Shu because even though he has enough PTO to go on vacation for a month, his boss, Harrison, often denies even more reasonable time off requests.

Harrison is the type to work through a cold, and therefore he expects everybody else to as well. Shu’s not sure what one would have to do in order to be excused for a few days off without getting guilt tripped into coming back early - perhaps a catastrophic earthquake would do. As long as the office was still standing, probably not. Harrison lacks the trait of empathy, Shu thinks, but in a competitive market this is an advantage.

“WEI!” Shu already knows he's in trouble by the way Harrison is screaming his name. He's been trying to avoid being in close contact with his boss all morning in some attempt to avoid Harrison’s very contagious sounding sneezes, but once he enters the lion's den it’ll be all over for him. Shu sighs, straightens his tie out, and knocks on the door of Harrison's office before entering.

"Yes sir?" Shu says, standing up straight.

"Took your sweedt timb," Harrison says, his normally punctuated speech blunted with heavy congestion. He looks pretty bad, Shu thinks. His hair is messy, his eyes are watery and red rimmed, and Shu questions why someone so critical can't tell that he really ought to be in bed right now. Stubbornness, probably. "Your performance review,” Harrison says. “Sit.”

Ah, yes. The dreaded quarterly one-on-one where Harrison points out everything Shu needs to do better and nothing he’s done right. Shu reluctantly sits across from Harrison’s desk, trying not to fixate on the overflowing trash can of used tissues next to him. Harrison lets out several harsh, wet coughs that he only half-covers with his hand, then pushes a small packet of papers over towards Shu with the exact same hand. Shu winces but picks it up and begins reading aloud just how much he sucks at his job, just like Harrison likes it.

Harrison is smirking as usual as Shu reads. He’s definitely a sadist. Otherwise, why would he make them read these in front of him like it’s confession? However he also seems distracted today by the beast of a head cold he has, unable to go more than thirty seconds without sneezing, coughing, or both. He snorts up what sounds like a very thick noseful of mucus up and grunts, rubbing his temple. If he wasn’t such an ass, Shu would feel bad for him. Instead he just feels doomed.

Once Shu finishes reading his review, Harrison asks him the required follow up questions that he always does. “Would you agree with your review? Whadt can I do better as your boss?” Snort. “How would you rate yourself?”

The thing is, answering any of these questions with honesty is a surefire way to be working overtime for the next several weeks. So Shu just answers pleasantly, as he’s supposed to: “It sounds good. Nothing. I’d say I could improve in the areas you mentioned in my review.”

Harrison nods in approval. Believe it or not, Harrison actually likes Shu. He’s a hard worker, he doesn’t cause problems, and he never asks for raises. Shu is the quintessential office grunt as far as Harrison is concerned: quiet and obedient. The people who aren’t? Don’t last very long around here.

Shu, on the other hand, has lasted at this company for over ten years. He’s the longest working consultant for this marketing firm’s location and he even started before Harrison. Shu only has a bachelors, though, so he’s never been promoted to anything farther than senior marketing consultant. He doesn’t supervise, he doesn’t make big decisions, and he most certainly does not make waves.

That is, until he suddenly became a single father to an unruly twelve-year-old who needs Shu’s attention constantly. Shu took unexpected parental leave for four weeks when Alex came to live with him, much to the disdain of Harrison. And when he came back, Shu was different. Work was no longer the number one thing on his mind. These days, Shu answers his personal phone during work in case he has to leave when the school calls him because Alex has caused trouble again, which happens often. He gets sick way more frequently because he’s not used to kid germs and he’s always tired, leading to little mistakes in his paperwork that he always would have caught before. His black hair is quickly turning gray and for the first time in Shu’s life, he cares more about another person than his corporate job.

For Shu, this change is good. Raising Alex is tough, sure, but it’s rewarding and an experience he never would have had otherwise. He loves Alex and doesn’t mind that his relationship with work is changing.

Others don’t agree. Namely, Harrison.

So when Shu comes the following week sniffling and sneezing every few minutes just like Harrison was, all he gets in response is annoyance. In fact, Harrison seems to have complete amnesia about the part where he undoubtedly gave Shu this hell of a cold with his less than stellar public health habits and actually seems to be punishing Shu with more work. He tosses a large folder of paperwork on Shu’s desk and says, “I need this before you leave today.”

Shu has his nose buried in an over-used tissue, the rough ones that the office provides that were the cheapest money could buy. “Yes sir,” he mutters into it. His nose is chapped and bright red from blowing it into the sandpaper-quality tissues all morning.

Mathias comes up shortly after with a bottle of DayQuil and a look of abject pity. “You shouldn’t have even come in,” he says matter of factly.

“Too late,” Shu croaks. His voice is going already and speaking causes him to fall into a fit of harsh coughing. He doubles over, pushing his wheeled office chair backwards from the desk and coughing, and coughing. He’s not sure he can stop.

He feels Mathias’ hand on his back and a bottle of water is shoved into his grasp. “Drink,” Mathias orders.

Shu does. The cool liquid burns as it goes down his raw throat, but it’s also soothing and he finally manages to stop coughing. Mathias cringes just observing him - darker than usual circles under the eyes and greasy hair is not a good look for Shu. “Dude. Go home.”

Shu shakes his head, motioning to the stack of papers on his desk. “Can’t,” he rasps. “I’ll probably have to stay late finishing this stuff.” At least Alex is fourteen now and Shu trusts him enough to stay at home by himself for a few extra hours. When Alex had first come to live with him, nearly two years ago now, Shu had been terrified to leave him alone for even a second.

“Give me half, I’ll help,” Mathias says. He doesn’t wait for Shu to deny him - which he knows Shu will - and snatches the two top binder clips full of paperwork off Shu’s stack of many. Shu nods, unable to bring himself to fight back when he’s feeling this lousy.

By the end of the regular work day, Shu’s sure he won’t get out of here until at least seven, maybe eight PM. He’s working slower than usual thanks to how much his head aches and how many breaks he’s had to take to sneeze and cough himself into seeing black spots in front of him. His arms and even his fingers hurt, the hair on his own head prickling uncomfortably as if affected by static electricity. He’s also freezing and has resorted to swearing his jacket over his usual business attire, but he doesn’t think it’s done much to warm him up.

“You definitely have a fever,” Mathias tells him. “Harrison can find someone else to do this shit.”

“I’m already on thin ice,” Shu says weakly.

“So? He gave you this plague,” Mathias says. But Harrison is his boss too, and he knows just as well as Shu that that’s not how it works around here. He himself only stays at this job for the health insurance, and because he has twin baby girls and a wife at home to make a living for.

“Wei,” a sharp voice makes them both jump in their office chairs. Shu resists letting out an exhausted sigh.

“Yes sir?” Harrison is standing a few feet away from him, coat on and ready to go right on time as usual. What he has to rush off to, no one knows given the man’s perpetually single and lives alone.

“I still expect that paperwork on my desk by the time I come in tomorrow,” Harrison says. “And remember we have the board meeting tomorrow at nine, so don’t be late.”

Shu forgot about the board meeting. He also wants to throw up at the idea of presenting his numbers in front of his seniors when he feels like even standing up is a bad idea right now. He swallows and nods numbly.

Mathias attempts to defend him. “Sir, I don’t think Shu will be able to come in tomorrow, he’s sick as a dog,” he says. Shu feels a rush of emotion that Mathias still defends him like this, even though he’s younger and has no reason to stick his neck out for Shu when he also needs this job.

“I expect a hospital note if he’s that sick,” Harrison says sharply. He glares at both of his underlings who don’t respond again. Then he stalks out of the office to enjoy his night beginning on time without any kids to take care of at home.

Mathias shakes his head, muttering profanities under his breath. Shu just coughs, whispers, “Thank you,” and goes back to his work.

It turns out that thanks to various errors in the data, Shu stays in the office until past nine that night. Mathias leaves around seven, apologizing profusely but Shu brushes him off and says he’s done more than enough to help. Mathias has a family waiting for him at home and a wife who won’t be very happy if he’s any later than he already is. Then Shu’s left alone in the office space, which feels even colder at night and the only sounds to listen to are the clicks of his keyboard and his own miserable sniffling.

He calls Alex to let him know he won’t be able to come home until later, apologizing and telling him to order whatever he wants for delivery food. Alex seems annoyed and just says, “Fine,” before hanging up. Shu rubs his painful sinuses in exasperation and hopes Alex isn’t too angry.

Once he’s sure the numbers are to perfection, Shu finally slaps the pile of completed paperwork on Harrison’s desk and drags himself home. When he leaves the office building it’s dark. The cool night air hits his skin and makes him shiver, then cough. He stumbles a little in the doorway and presses his now burning face into the entryway, letting a self indulgent groan escape from his lips. He feels like shit, he has an angry teenager to go home to, and he has to be back here in less than ten hours to prepare for that board meeting. He lets himself think, ‘I’m not sure I can do this,’ for another thirty seconds before standing up, slapping his hot cheeks and shaking it off. It’s just a cold. His kid and work come first.

Shu drives home without incident, although by the time he pulls into the driveway the flow of undeterred snot has made its way all down his chin. He’s disgusting. He wipes his face with his suit jacket sleeve - which he immediately regrets because now he needs to get it dry cleaned before he can wear it again - and stumbles into the house.

The first stop he makes is Alex’s bedroom to make sure his son is fed and safe. He knocks and cracks the door, peaking in to see the teenager sprawled on his stomach in bed reading a book. Just a bit of the tension he’s held in his shoulders all afternoon dissipates.

“Sorry I’mb so late,” Shu says. His voice is barely there and it hurts to speak. He feels as if he’s gargled rocks. “Did you eat?”

“Yeah,” Alex says, not looking up. Shu knows he’s mad about his being late.

“What’d you get?” Shu asks, leaning against the doorframe because his legs are starting to feel like jello and his head is spinning.

“Pizza,” Alex answers. “I left some for you.”

“Thanks bud,” Shu says. His face suddenly scrunches up and he lets out two very loud, very wet sneezes into his suit jacket sleeve, since it’s already a lost cause. “Excuse mbe.”

Alex does look up finally, a punctuated frown on his face. “You shouldn’t have stayed late if you’re already sick,” he points out accusingly.

“I know,” Shu sighs. But it’s not like he had any choice. Alex doesn’t quite understand that though - Shu never tells him about his job, or his boss, or how much Harrison’s grown to dislike him ever since Shu decided Alex was his priority over his desk job. The kid has enough things to worry about without being made to feel like a burden. “Im’b gonna stick to mby room, don’t want you to catch this alright? Do you need adnything though?”

“No,” Alex says. Shu takes this as his cue to leave the surly teen alone, but Alex adds when he’s halfway out the door, “You gonna stay home tomorrow?”

Shu shakes his head no, coughing meanwhile. “Meeting, but if I can come home early I will,” he says when he manages to catch his breath again. Alex doesn’t say anything else, but his mouth is set in a thin, disapproving line. “Goodnighdt,” Shu says, then shuffles off to his bedroom where he is finally able to let out the torrent of violent sneezes he’s been holding back since he got home. He feels dizzy with the release and blows his nose with blessedly softer tissues than the ones he was forced to use at the office, barely possessing the energy to get into sleep clothes before collapsing on bed.

He knows he should eat and probably take medicine, but he’s one hundred percent spent. He doesn’t think he can even get to the bathroom to brush his teeth, he just needs to sleep immediately. He passes out with the lights still on and his blankets clutched tightly around him, shivering.

What feels like ten minutes later, his six AM alarm goes off. Shu cannot fathom how this is possibly correct, but the clock on his bedside table states otherwise. The sharp tone of his alarm feels like it’s stabbing him in the head with every beep and Shu turns it off with a loud groan - which turns into a series of miserable coughs that sound even more congested than yesterday. He can feel all the nighttime mucus in the back of his throat crackling and breaking up as he coughs, which hurts like someone slapping rubber bands against his throat.

Still, Shu drags himself upright, throws on the first suit he can find that isn’t covered in snot, and half heartedly fixes himself up in the bathroom. He catches a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror and cringes because he looks absolutely awful. His face is pale white and he needs a shave and a shower badly. The energy required to complete these tasks is nowhere to be found though, so he settles for splashing some sink water on his face and calls it good enough. When he blows his nose, it seems there is no end to the thick, greenish snot that comes out.

Alex isn’t awake yet, but the high school is three blocks away so he walks. Besides his suspensions, Alex has good attendance and Shu doesn’t worry about him skipping school. He’s a good kid, despite what some of the guidance counselors believe. Shu fixes Alex his lunch as always, although he forgoes preparing anything with his bare hands and just throws in an accumulation of pre-packaged goods and gives it a spritz of Clorox spray too. Alex rarely gets sick, but Shu doesn’t want to take any chances.

By seven Shu’s out the door, stumbling over his own feet to the garage and praying he makes it to work safely. He feels miserably sick, he can’t even pretend to deny it. But he also feels like he has no other choice but to show up after Harrison made such a point about coming to the meeting yesterday.

When he gets to his desk, Mathias is already at his and his expression leaves nothing to the imagination when he sees Shu. “Jesus Christ, get out of here,” he says.

Shu sneezes in response. “I’d love to,” he croaks. He practically collapses into his office chair, head spinning.

Mathias strides over to him and slaps a hand on Shu’s forehead, unfazed by the way Shu startles. It’s this behavior that made Shu first fall in love with the guy, Shu thinks hopelessly. It’s an unrequited, decade-long crush that will never, ever go anywhere. Shu was the best man at Mathias’ wedding for goodness sake. Best friends is good enough. “You’ve got a hell of a fever,” Mathias says disapprovingly. “Maybe you should go make a show of being a plague rat in Harrison’s office. He might kick you out.”

Shu forces a weak smile at him, closing his eyes and just letting himself enjoy the touch of a cool hand for a few indulgent seconds. Mathias lets go all too soon and hands him a bag of cough drops. “Thought you could use these, I brought them from home.”

“What would I do without you?” Shu murmurs tiredly. Mathias pats his shoulder and goes back to his desk. The cough drops are lemon and honey flavored, which are Shu’s favorite. There was a time several years ago, long before Mathias had a wife and kids, when he and Shu lived together. Mathias must have remembered from back then.

The first hour of the day is spent preparing for the board meeting, during which Shu becomes increasingly uncomfortable. He tugs at his tie and even unbuttons the top two bottoms of his shirt, something that’s unlike him. His coughing is impossible to ignore by anyone in the office, as are his wet sneezes that now come in twos and threes. Yesterday at least they were clearing his sinuses temporarily, but now they just hurt and yet do nothing to fix the blockage in his nose. He’s fully aware that he sounds dreadfully contagious and doesn’t blame anyone for avoiding his desk completely.

Ten minutes before nine, Harrison breezes by Shu’s desk and clears his throat loudly to get Shu’s attention. “Go to the bathroom and pull yourself together,” he orders. “Can’t have you looking like you’re going to die in front of the board.”

“Maybe we’d get a sympathy vote if I do,” Shu jokes weakly, but Harrison’s already across the room. For a short, fat man, he’s awful speedy when he wants to be. Shu pushes himself into a standing position, his arms quivering with effort against his desk. He feels terribly dizzy and keeps one hand on the wall as he finds his way to the bathroom. There he washes his face and tries to tell himself he can do this. He’ll present his brief, hopefully without too much trouble with his voice, and then he just has to wait for the rest of his colleagues to finish. By lunch, he’ll be able to go home and crawl into bed, Harrison be damned.

That’s the plan, anyways. But Shu’s plans rarely work out. The meeting has a lot of important people, including Harrison’s boss and the boss of Harrison’s boss. That’s Shu’s great-grandboss, right? He can’t help but giggle under his breath when he thinks of this ridiculous title. Mathias nudges his from under the desk, a concerned look on his face. ‘Hang in there,’ he mouths. Shu blinks himself back to reality where no jokes are allowed at the board meeting.

When it’s his turn, Shu’s stands up and tries not to sway as his vision blurs. “Ahem. Excuse mbe in advance… I’mb getting over a touch of a cold,” he prefaces, as if he’s not right in the trenches of battle with whatever this hell virus is. “This quarter our numbers have been… impacted greatly by…” He’s interrupted by two sneezes that make the world spin. He reaches for the tissues in his jacket pocket and tries to wipe away the mess without blowing the rest out, which is hard to resist when he can’t breathe through his nose and talk at the same time.

“Egsguse mbe,” he mutters. He knows his voice is cracking and between that and the congestion, he’s not entirely sure his colleagues can actually understand what he’s saying. Does anyone really care, though? Probably not. As he goes on, it gets harder and harder to maintain a natural flow of speech. He’s trying to breathe normally, but instead he feels like it sounds absurdly loud in his ears. Actually, everything is too loud, even though nobody except him is talking.

“Mr. Wei? Are you quite alright?”

Shu blinks hard, trying to focus on whoever just said that. He thinks is Harrison’s boss. Or grandboss, now he can’t remember. He catches Mathias staring at him worriedly and clears his throat. “Perfectly fine. Now… we’ve seen a marked increase in… um, sorry, an increase in sales for products that were… talked about… I mean advertised using our new model of… uh…” Suddenly he can’t remember what that model is. He invented the damn model.

“Mr. Wei.” The voice is more stern this time. Then increases to a shout: “Mr. Wei!”

Shu doesn’t know why the old guy is yelling, or why he suddenly feels like he’s suffocating on hot air. “Just…” He grits his teeth in annoyance. “Just give me a…” He doesn’t finish the sentence, because then suddenly everything goes dark and when he opens his eyes, everybody is yelling. So annoying, Shu thinks to himself. If only they’d just shut up. It’s just sales. It’s really not that exciting.

“Shu, hey pal. Are you with me?”

He recognizes that voice, the one closest to him now. His eyes flutter open and he realizes he’s lying on the floor on his back, Mathias above him with his expression full of concern. “There you are. You’re okay. Take a big breath for me.”

“Ugh… Matty, I don’t feel good,” Shu groans. “Think I’m gonna…” Someone shoves a bin under his chin just in time for him to vomit. There’s not much in his stomach, given he hasn’t eaten a meal since lunch yesterday, but the loud noises that come from his throat and stomach don’t sound so little. Shu whimpers, the board room spinning around him. What was he doing here again? He can’t remember. Was he at work?

“It’s okay, we’re gonna get you taken care of,” Mathias soothes him.

Shu smiles despite himself, his head lolling to the side as if he has no control over it. “You’re always so nice to me,” he mumbles. “I think… my sugar feels low.” Shu doesn’t have diabetes, but he is prone to low blood sugar when he doesn’t eat. He remembers that time, almost eight years ago now, when he fainted at the office. He was sick then, but also had a markedly low blood sugar. Wait…

“Oh shit. Did I faint at the office?” Shu asks wearily, only now realizing he’s still in his work clothes. Now it’s coming back to him. The board meeting… Shu groans. “Oh god. Did I faint in front of everybody?” At least last time nobody had been looking at him when it happened. Especially not an entire room full of all of his bosses.

“Afraid so,” Mathias said. “But I just kicked them out and someone’s waiting for the ambulance. They’ll be here soon.”

“Kill me,” Shu said. He’d fainted and then puked in front of the entire board. That was it, his career was over. He had to quit. “I’m serious, shoot me now.”

Mathias shakes his head, shushing him. “Don’t be so dramatic, you’re probably just dehydrated. You feel like you’re a million degrees, you know that? I told you you should’ve gone home.”

“Yeah, you’re always right,” Shu mutters. He rests his head back down in Mathias’ lap where he’d woken up. “Ugh, my ambulance copay is like, three hundred bucks, too.”

Mathias smoothes Shu’s sweaty hair off his forehead. “Now’s not the time to worry about that, okay?”

Shu closes his eyes. They feel hot and pulsing inside of his skull. “If I’m not out by three, will you make sure Alex is okay? I don’t wanna worry him while he’s at school.”

“Of course,” Mathias says.

The EMTs arrive a few minutes later, Harrison leading them to Shu’s spot on the floor. He’s shivering by then, Mathias’ suit jacket covering him not sufficient to ward off the chills from the fever he’s sporting. They load Shu onto a stretcher after taking his less than stellar vitals and Shu gazes blearily at the office as they walk through it to the elevators, because he’s sure he can never show his face in here again.

“I could probably just sleep it off at home, I don’t think I really need the hospital,” Shu tries to tell them, but they stick an IV in his hand and bring him anyway. There Shu gets Tylenol, a couple liters of fluids that apparently have some electrolytes and sugar, and a dose of IV solumedrol to work on his awful cough. They say it’s probably a viral infection but they’ll send him home on antibiotics anyways, just in case, plus oral steroids. Shu’s still waiting for discharge paperwork when Mathias calls with an update on Alex. He wants to know if Shu’s staying overnight because Alex keeps saying he’s going to leave to sleep at Ryo’s.

“They’re discharging me now, can you guys come get me?” Shu asks. If Alex wants to sleep at Ryo’s that’s fine - Shu knows it’s where he goes as soon as he feels overwhelmed, and Shu being this sick is sure to stress him out - but he’d like to see his son is okay with his own two eyes before then.

Mathias shows up half an hour later, by which time Shu’s dressed, IV removed and scripts in hand. “Alex is in the car,” he tells Shu. “He wants us to drop him off at Ryo’s on the way back.”

“That’s fine,” Shu says. He walks out of the ER on his own two feet this time, still feverish but feeling far better than he did this morning. Whatever “D5NS with KCL” is, he wishes he could keep some handy for all the times he’s feeling weak because he’s pretty sure that’s what helped the most. As they approach the car, Shu can see Alex in the backseat. He’s listening to music with earbuds in, but he pulls one out when Mathias helps Shu into the passenger seat.

“Hey buddy,” Shu says. His voice is still pretty rough sounding, but not talking for most of the hours in the ER helped. “You okay?”

Alex snorts, shaking his head. “I’m not the one who passed out at work.”

“Touché,” Shu says. He’s not sure that’s how the word is supposed to be used, but he’s too tired to care right now. “I’m sorry I worried you.”

“I wasn’t worried,” Alex says quickly, but Shu knows he’s lying. Not that he plans on pointing that out, but he’s aware that Alex cares about everything far more than he likes to pretend. School, Ryo, the fact that Shu still makes him go to therapy once a month even though he says his parents’ death doesn’t bother him anymore. It’s just another reason why Shu feels so fiercely that he has to protect him now.

Alex clears his throat uncomfortably. “Can I sleep at Ryo’s? His dad said it’s fine.”

“Yeah. That’s fine,” Shu says. He’s not sure he would’ve had the energy to argue if for some reason it hadn’t been fine. Thank god for Ryo’s parents and their constant willingness to have Alex over since the beginning. Thank god for Ryo and his calming presence he always seems to have over Alex, despite being the most hyperactive teenage boy Shu’s ever met.

Alex directs Mathias to Ryo’s house and hops out, his backpack for school tomorrow over his shoulder. Alex doesn't look at him, just mutters an uncomfortable, “Feel better,” before disappearing into Ryo’s house. Shu sighs in relief. As long as he knows Alex is fine, he’d rather the kid not be there stressing about him anyways. Mathias brings him home and takes him inside, setting him up in bed with tea, tissues, meds and anything else he could possibly need within reach.

“Thanks Matty,” Shu says tiredly. “I don't know what I'd do without you.”

“I don't either,” Mathias says, eyeing Shu worriedly. “You sure you’ll be okay by yourself?”

“I’ll make it,” Shu says. “Don't worry. I’ll be back at work soon.”

Mathias rolls his eyes. “Not too soon,” he says strictly. “Get some rest.” Then he leaves Shu to his own devices and Shu relaxes, finally in his own bed - where he should've stayed this morning. Oh well. He can't believe how humiliating he is - to pass out at work twice in the span of a few years - but hey, at least no one's going to accuse him of faking. Harrison will guiltily go easy on him for a week, at least. Thank goodness he made it home.

[wordsmithwhumpsandfluff]

I saw @wussifer and @shion-yu both do this, so I'mma do it too. Basically, here are my fav whump blog recomendations:

@secretobsessionstuff Love all of their characters-- their Madix and Riley fics are so sweet and fun to read.

@whumpdom Not many fics yet, but so far they have a few super good ones. Plus, just a lil bit angsty cuz we love that😘

@shion-yu Love Alex and Shu's son+father relationship

@wussifer Fonzo and Vic! So sweet!

@justmeandmysickies Nick and Joe! Sungjin and Soyong! I love everything she writes!

@bellysoupset So, do I even need to say it? Soup is the queen of the whump-blog society!!! Also, Leo and Jon have my WHOLE freaking heart!!

@writing-whump Arnie = sweet baby. Hector and Isaiah = divorced parents (jkjk, if you've never read their stuff, these three are actually brothers)

Last but not least, @angstyaches! Love all of their Swallow the World fics. Shayne and Charile are perfection. Elliot and Felix and adorable. This was probably the first whump blog I ever found.

[celticcatgirl2]

“So you’re probably wondering how I got into this situation….”

[your-old-sins-tournament]

OC NAVAL WARFARE BRACKETS

Rules:

Tie sweeps given to polls with a 0.2% percentage. Also I'm allowed to come up with the most messed up name possible for future polls

Propaganda is encouraged! I will reblog propaganda reblogs, as well as any propaganda that @s me. However, for the polls themselves, I will be using the propaganda submitted to me through the google form. If a ship was submitted twice with different propaganda, I will use both pieces of propaganda

Fandom ships will not be tagged with the fandom tag

Please be nice to each other. Do not tear down other ships. I will not reblog any propaganda remotely like that.

All polls are one week!

If i need to change anything, please send me a ask. I will change it I swear.

The main tag will be: #oc ship tournament

LIST OF SHIPS BELOW;

ROUND 1

Valley Ghost (Felix Tawfic/Griffith) vs. Aurel * Kiki (critical)

Solshuu (Solaria Aoi/Shu Kurenai) vs. Elitheocecily (Elijah Scott * Theodore Churchill * Cecily Churchill, @failboyfriend)

HG^2 (Charlie "Chuck" Beaumont/Octavian "Tavi Osborne, @the-random-phan + @cabincryptid51) vs. Geheneres (Teneres/"Gehenna", @i-hear-a-sound)

LuNal (Luca/Petra/Nails, Tass) vs. Maisther (Esther/Maidy, @cafe-au-tism)

[TIE; ships will go on under the name of LuNal-Maisther!]

SpicyFlowerSnakeNoodles (Red Son/Lotus/Nyrel/MK, Fan + Hue) vs. Dexereign (Dex/Sovereign, @caekhoi)

Eraser (Ezra/Ace, Ren) vs. Anthony Mitchetti/Emily Valentino (@sing-the-beginning-of-moana)

Pruett Pennbum/Remedy Espina (Harvey Millipedia) vs. Vargas (Edgar Vargas * Scriabin, @zarla-s)

Jax * Elin (@sypersweet) vs. Amariya (Amaya/Mariya, @what-if-i-just-did-this + anon)

Ravery (Raven Scofflaw/Avery Fracas, @what-if-i-just-did-this) vs. Dairyun (Darian/Daiyu)

Acid Dragon (VSB * ESB, @silviaflowers) vs. Pip the Jackal/Agent 27 (@squidthechaotickid)

Watercolor Dreams (Oliver Fernsby & Princess Guinevere, @hermannsprecursors) vs. Graveyards (Olly Graves * Susan Yards, @thatonegaybastard)

Golden Fleece (Yang Xiao Long/Eirian Esna, @dragynkeep) vs. Blade of Justice (Jasper Jones/Ikeda Saigo, @hermannsprecursors)

Lavender (Lavon + Devion Taillien, @mx-yippeee) vs. Featherfluff (Virtue Courtenlock/Comet Mhorlborne, @timetokrill)

Archangel (Gabriel Trinh/Raphael Madsen, @gelatinous-jellyfish) vs. Ginatré/Žydrūnas (@the-land-of-eternal-winter-novel)

Marleksei (Marlowe * Aleksei, @cowboymkb) vs. Montcia (Alex Garcia * Jules Montgomery, @gelatinous-jellyfish)

Icefang/Greatness (vox) vs. Luna * Jade * Ciela * Them (@iwillstealyourjawbone)

ROUND 2

Dairyun (Darian/Daiyu) vs. Acid Dragon (VSB * ESB, @silviaflowers)

Watercolor Dreams (Oliver Fernsby & Princess Guinevere, @hermannsprecursors) and Graveyards (Olly Graves * Susan Yards, @thatonegaybastard) vs. Golden Fleece (Yang Xiao Long/Eirian Esna, @dragynkeep)

Lavender (Lavon + Devion Taillien, @mx-yippeee) vs. Archangel (Gabriel Trinh/Raphael Madsen, @gelatinous-jellyfish)

Montcia (Alex Garcia * Jules Montgomery, @gelatinous-jellyfish) vs. Luna * Jade * Ciela * Them (@iwillstealyourjawbone)

Aurel * Kiki (critical) vs. Elitheocecily (Elijah Scott * Theodore Churchill * Cecily Churchill, @failboyfriend)

HG^2 (Charlie "Chuck" Beaumont/Octavian "Tavi Osborne, @the-random-phan + @cabincryptid51) vs. LuNal (Luca/Petra/Nails, Tass) and Maisther (Esther/Maidy, @cafe-au-tism)

Dexereign (Dex/Sovereign, @caekhoi) vs. Eraser (Ezra/Ace, Ren)

Pruett Pennbum/Remedy Espina (Harvey Millipedia) vs. Jax * Elin (@sypersweet)

ROUND 3

Dairyun (Darian/Daiyu, @vwnz and @bowie556) vs. Golden Fleece (Yang Xiao Long/Eirian Esna, @dragynkeep)

Lavender (Lavon + Devion Taillien, @mx-yippeee) vs. Montcia (Alex Garcia * Jules Montgomery, @gelatinous-jellyfish)

Elitheocecily (Elijah Scott * Theodore Churchill * Cecily Churchill, @failboyfriend) vs. HG^2 (Charlie "Chuck" Beaumont/Octavian "Tavi Osborne, @the-random-phan + @cabincryptid51)

Eraser (Ezra/Ace, Ren) vs. Jax * Elin (@sypersweet)

For some reason tumblr wont let me put the rest of the results here so here's the link to Round 4 and beyond

[i-eat-worlds]

♟️ for the ask game? (I can't find the right emoji, it's the last prompt) (no pressure!)

thanks for the ask! cw: hospital setting

Alex picked at INSUPA’s less than stellar hospital food, glad she would be out before the end of the week. Her hip was still healing, which made getting comfortable a chore, but otherwise she was doing fine.

The real problem was boredom. After she’d filled out all her many reports, she was left with nothing to do. One could only watch the ekg for so long before it stopped being entertaining.

Needless to say, it was a pleasant surprise when Joseph came in holding a box of Uno cards. “Figured you needed something to do,” he said, setting the cards down on the table.

“Yes please,” she said. It was still a little odd that they’d all stuck around, but she supposed that she was technically on his team now.

How did that even work?

The cards slapped against each other as he shued them, arcing across the deck. Alex laughed. “You’re one of the fancy types.”

“You’ve a problem with that?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Not at all. Just think its funny.”

He scoffed a little. “Cut the deck.”

She split it two thirds to the bottom, and then he dealt it.

“Uno’s a weird game with two people,” she lamented. “Skips and ips do the same thing.”

“Is this a way of saying you’re gonna kick my ass?”

“Yes.”

And she did. Four times.

[raymondshields]

Reading your meta about Gregory and his actions in Inherited Turnabout makes me want to hear more of your thoughts on that. He's presented in AAI2 as a shining paragon of justice, and he's genuinely livid at Von Karma for resorting to torture and forgery to get the verdict he wants. And my own impression is that what made Gregory such a great lawyer was the simple fact that he gave a shit about his clients and their loved ones; he got genuinely teary-eyed listening to the story of how Jeff adopted Kate, and he fought like hell for an entire year because he refused to let their lives be ruined for the sake of Von Karma's ego. Even if he did resort to arguably dirty tactics, it came from a place of caring about others, while Manfred and Blaise only cared about themselves. If they went low, he'd kick them in the face.

(Actually, typing that reminded me of Phoenix's monologue at the end of BttT; "What makes us human is that we fight for others.")

Pretty much! The key part here that we have to remember is that literally none of this is legal IRL. MvK could not have interrogated Jeff like that, whatsoever. There are three ways, legally, that it could have ever happened:

the police interrogate him, because police do illegal shit all the time. Gregory would point out in court that confessions made under pressure like that are illegal, it would have been struck from the record, and then Gregory would've sued the shit out of the LAPD on a breach of human rights because you can't just torture people! How well what would've gone would depend on racism mostly, talk to an actual lawyer, but it's still super illegal.

Gregory would have had to be there, the interrogator would have been a third party agreed upon between him, MvK, and the judge, and there would have been a full transcript that Gregory would have been given as a matter of course. You can't keep shit from the other side, any evidence has to be in the hands of both defense and prosecutor before anything goes to court. Remember the Alex Jones case with his cellphone? The prosecution had to wait two weeks and get confirmation from the defense that it wasn't given to them accidentally, and that they could use it, because of confidentiality between lawyer and client.

Or, most realistically, they would have put Jeff on the witness stand in court, and the court reporter would have transcribed. This is how it would actually go. You can't just threaten the defendant as a prosecutor. You can if you're their defense attorney and tell them how to plead, but the prosecution can't do that.

So with that in mind, you have to look at how AA's legal system works - it's fucked, by the way, and is less satire of the Japanese legal system and more the product of a guy who doesn't know how law works, seriously, Shu Takumi admitted he wasn't trying to make satire and was just bending the rules for the game to make sense - and then look at the position Gregory's in.

I'm not saying he's flawed for this, because a defense attorney in the AA system who only ever does things by-the-book and lets their hands be tied is a defense attorney who lets the system fuck them over. Yes, Miles got a lot of his ability to undercut the law from MvK, but Gregory also undercut the law when he needed to, because as AAI2's entire thesis states, the law as it stands fails people. Simon would not have gone to jail for anything he did right up until he dropped a hot air balloon on some guy. Nothing he did was illegal.

Gregory is presented as a paragon of justice, and the thing is... he is. In this situation, under IS-7, where AA law states they do not need Gregory there to torture and interrogate his client nor do they apparently need to inform him that this happened, undercutting them and getting a copy of the transcript was in fact the moral move. Illegal? I think so, probably, it's hard to say given that it's presented as a dirty trick to us when doing anything else is wildly illegal in real life. The literal best option? Yes, of course.

Gregory gave a shit enough that when MvK set the bar at actual torture and human rights violation, he played dirty. You see it all the time, where honourable people lose majorly because they're not willing to play dirty. Look at the USA's idea of politics. The Democrats would get a lot farther if they were willing to gerrymander right back, but they insist on playing 'fairly' even when no one else is, so they lose quite a bit.

When your opponent isn't playing fair, being honourable makes you a dead man, not a winning man. Gregory understood that, and he went for the option that wasn't legal, but was ethical, and actually in the name of justice.

Gregory understood that yes, sometimes the ends do justify the means, so long as you never forget that the means do still matter regardless of the ends. He was fully prepared to get Badd fired over this, and when his attempts failed, he was going to appeal it. (How that works in AA is never expanded upon, and I'm not gonna theorize, because trying to make AA's legal system make sense gives me more of a headache than reading actual case law.)

Gregory and Phoenix are pretty different characters. A lot of people think that Phoenix is Gregory's true successor, and I can't agree, because Phoenix is a wildly different type of lawyer than Gregory was. Raymond's a lot more like Gregory was, from what I can tell, because Gregory is presented more as like "your average lawyer, who unfortunately got shot in a case involving the chocolate guy" and Phoenix is more "that fucker who keeps stumbling into 15-year unsolved mystery cases on his quest to fuck a boy". Gregory's more down-to-earth about it, although I admit it could very well be because we only got to see him handle One Fucking Case, where's his prequel game, Capcom?

So there's some more thoughts on that? I can elaborate more if you prompt me into a direction about him, this is more a general ramble and analysis. I have way more thoughts (I love him, no one loves him more than I do save for maybe my systemmate Edgeworth, three guesses why) but not super sure what you're hoping for here, so prompt me and I shall answer. :p

[fyeahcompetentwomen]

Round 1 Roundup!

or, one post to find them all...

All four groups of Round 1 are now live! Find each group's masterpost with all respective links here:

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Plus, all 64 individual polls are linked below the readmore.

Group 1

Sarah Jane Smith vs. Leia Organa

Deanna Troi vs. Florence (Gunpowder Milkshake)

Jody Mills vs. Andromache the Scythian

Kim Wexler vs. Villanelle

Paris Geller vs. Dr. Maura Isles

Delenn of the Religious Cast and Chosen of Dukat vs. Sister Beatrice

Lisa Cuddy vs. Seven of Nine

Ziva David vs. Michael Burnham

Una Chin-Riley (Number One) vs. Evelyn Wang

Nyota Uhura vs. Moana

Alex Danvers vs. Olivier Armstrong

Barbara Howard vs. Joan Watson

Barbara Gordon vs. Dr. Helen Magnus

B'Elanna Torres vs. Esmeralda "Granny" Weatherwax

Raelle Collar vs. Parker

Lwaxana Troi vs. Sidney Fox

Group 2

Xena vs. Bad Wolf

Lindsey Boxer vs. Anna May

Siuan Sanche vs. Jules Callaghan

Ally McBeal vs. Eve Baird

Sidney Prescott vs. Kira Nerys

Jill Valentine vs. Susan Ivanova

Chrisjen Avasarala vs. Cameron Howe

Hermione Granger vs. Henrietta Wilson

Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman vs. Susan Sto Helit

Fujiko Mine vs. Naomi Nagata

Yu Shu Lien vs. Melinda May

Jane Rizzoli vs. Dr. Bernie Wolfe

Dana Scully vs. Death of the Endless

Erza Scarlet vs. Rhaenys Targaryen

Root vs. Anissa Pierce aka Thunder

Kara Thrace vs. Dr. Addison Montgomery

Group 3

Buffy Summers vs. Jocelyn "Joss" Carter

Scarlet (Gunpowder Milkshake) vs. Modesty Blaise

Moiraine Damodred vs. Margaret Houlihan

Elizabeth Swann vs. Laris (Star Trek)

Aeryn Sun vs. River Song

Dr. Beverly Crusher vs. Kathryn Janeway

Gabrielle of Poteidaea vs. Breanna Casey

Phryne Fisher vs. Shauna Sadecki

Ava Silva vs. Miranda Priestly

Galadriel vs. Yalena "Dutch" Yardeen

Regina Mills vs. Abigail Carmichael

Sara Lance vs. Nomi Marks

Mulan vs. Hera Syndulla

Myka Bering vs. Donna Noble

Philippa Georgiou (Mirror) vs. Éowyn

Cosima Niehaus vs. Violet Baudelaire

Group 4

Jenny Calendar vs. 13th Doctor

Madeleine (Gunpowder Milkshake) vs. Helena "H.G." Wells

Camina Drummer vs. Philippa Georgiou (Prime)

Raffaela "Raffi" Musiker vs. Jane Doe

Eda Clawthorne vs. Olivia Dunham

Daisy Johnson vs. Anne Lister

Anna Mill vs. Sophie Devereaux

Dr. Temperance Brennan vs. Ahsoka Tano

Catherine Willows vs. Lara Croft

Holga Kilgore vs. Sameen Shaw

Inej Ghafa vs. Evie Frye

Jadzia Dax vs. Lena Luthor

Annabeth Chase vs. Mildred Ratched

Laura Roslin vs. Shuri

Jo Lupo vs. Samantha "Sam" Carter

Claudia Donovan vs. Willow Rosenberg

[mrsbsmooth]

my boy Alex is giving Eddie BTW IS EDDIE REALLY COMING BACK? MAYBE WITH AN OG GIRL?

SHHHHHHHHH SHU SHUTTS SHUT SUTHT SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!

Don’t manifest it oh my god NO don’t do that!!!!!!!!

I don’t need lil hidey mcsneakface gossip sneezing everywhere honestly fuck that guy fr