#And somehow became even more of a hero afterward

[hellothisisangle]

Relationship Analysis

Prefacing this by admitting I had to rewrite a good chunk of River. He’s notoriously got few quests leading up to the romance side of things. The actual relationship jump is marked with an arrow a bit below, here’s some backstory

↓

V would never willingly work with a cop. They’ve been disillusioned enough by the system and the people who enforce it to build their life on chaos and middle fingers. But the job that lead to River was backed by the kind of money that made V bite their tongue, swallow the “ACAB”, and resist the urge to spit on the guy’s polished boots. Doesn’t mean there wasn’t more than a few off-color statements thrown out here and there though. River barely rolled his eyes, didn’t instigate. He was a model lawman, like something out of a movie. Actually, too much like a movie. Because when the preliminary investigation of the Peralez’s case [I FOUGHT THE LAW] came to a close and River’s superiors told him to stop pursuing, V could tell this was another one of those NCPD cover-up situations.

“Exactly what I expect from donut munchers. Good thing my client’s an independent contractor,” V snidely remarked.

“I’ll take this to the top if I have to,” River said with conviction.

So, so virtuous. Then, another distraught call came from the Peralezes [DREAM ON]. They’d had a suspicious break in, needed a professional to look into it. V shows up, and who’s already on-site, all badge-and-honor attitude? River fucking Ward. Again. Definitely not because the NCPD told him to, so what- Out of the goodness of his heart?

“You make it sound like it’s something to be ashamed of,” River sighed.

(…) “Not something you come across in this city,” V pointed out. “And especially not in cops.”

Somehow, V is able to get more information, why River is really doing this. He’s not a stranger to home invasions, lived it first hand, lost both his parents. He doesn’t want to see another family torn apart. River is starting to seem more like a real person than a one-dimensional neon sign that reads, ‘I believe in the law’. If there’s anyone who could get V to even remotely reconsider the idea that not every badge is a pig, it just might be River.

They managed to track down the Peralez’s boogeymen together, although- the case involved more victims than just the affluent family who hired them, and somehow seemed to be related to a power with ties to the NCPD. River immediately wants to go whistleblower. He’s talking protective custody, full exposure. V raises an eyebrow. It isn’t only the Peralezes being monitored- strings all across Night City are being pulled. And if River wants to trigger a massacre just to save the few people in front of them, that blood’s on him. On the other hand, if the Peralezes fork over however much they think their lives are worth, V isn’t complaining- V could give a shit about politicians. River, ever the hero, insists he’ll take the information back to the station- see if he can’t orchestrate protection for everyone. Noble, but stupid, V thinks.

Afterwards, V gets a call from a mysterious number- a scrambled voice telling them to detour from this trail they’re following. V attempts to check in with the Peralezes- the line has gone cold. V then contacts River, who sounds a little different over the holo, kind of forced. He requests to meet in person. Chubby Buffalo’s BBQ in The Glen. V already got their pay, they wanted to wipe their hands of this whole thing, but curiosity got the better of them. And what does River have to say? He got canned. Tossed out by a system he believed in. V? They laugh. Double over. Find it darkly poetic. The guy who walked the line, booted the second it became inconvenient.

River doesn’t think it’s so funny. His parents’ murderer that was never brought to justice, the Peralezes, countless other investigations swept under the rug…

“So what’re you gonna do about it?” V asks.

“Become a PI,” River replies.

Fitting. Suits him better. He already owns the long leather trench. Some time later, V and River accomplish [THE HUNT] together. River is offered a position back on the force. To V’s surprise they turn it down.

↓

V is convinced to work a few private cases with River, split the profits, and the more they’re side by side, the more they notice the little details. A familiar broad frame. A voice too caring. A laugh a bit too loud. Awkward. Earnest. The kind of man who tries to look away when V leans close, but can’t help but blush and stiffen. V sees echos they’re not sure what to make of. They push River- how about bending a rule here and there? You ever use handcuffs for something off the books? And River gives. Slowly but surely. He thinks dipping his toe in the darkness to be with V isn’t so terrible. However, V isn’t a toe-dip. They’re a deep-dive into the black. River starts falling, answering texts too quickly, giving in too fast, can’t say “no” to V.

V teases him that his code of ethics had a weak spine. Internally, it catches them off guard. Maybe this is how people are supposed to act when they really care about another person, without expecting something in return and all that. It’s not like V would know. And the look River gives when V says something absolutely filthy with a straight face is kind of irresistible.

V thought they’d enjoy ruining him, pushing him past his limits just to say, “I told you so.” All the while, River’s still polite, still checks, asks, holds back before doing anything impulsive. Makes V want to unravel him completely, to see a raw side. But when it started happening for real, it didn’t feel as good as they imagined. Turns out River likes a grip on his wrists and V isn’t sure they’re in any position to be the one in control. The one to say “love me” when they could be gone tomorrow. Under normal circumstances, V wouldn’t mind stringing someone along. With River, he’s just too genuine. Maybe they like him because he somehow still sees something good in V, or maybe it’s because V’s scared no one else will as much as River. Not even themselves.

[totallynotashieldagent]

It starts small. After everything that happened, Mark just wanted to find someone who was so far removed from his hero life and somehow, he found you.

Bright smile, easy eyes, and completely unaware of his truth. Or even his name.

He was just a face in the crowd but god the way you smiled at him, the way you treated him so... normally. Like a human. A real person. One without responsibilities. One without the weight of the world on his shoulders. Not Omniman's son, or Mark Grayson who was always breaking promises. None of that. Just ... Mark.

Something he hadn't been since before he got his powers. Something he'd always taken for granted until afterwards. When he couldn't have that anymore.

And to you?

To you, he's just the guy who you bumped into at the bookshop and then somehow ended up seeing everywhere.

It was weeks of randomly seeing him at various location that you finally gathered the courage to approach him.

"If you're stalking me, you're doing a very bad job." You'd said with an easy laugh and gods above, devils below, Mark felt his heart skip several beats for it.

He had shaken his head and laughed nervously. Something about coincidences and how the universe works in strange ways.

But he couldn't help himself. You were so beautiful. So untouched by the cruelty he knew.

So he did what he shouldn't have done. He asked you to sit. To join him.

That little meeting turned into a day's worth of conversations. About everything. About nothing. And when you parted ways, he wanted to keep you. Or maybe have you keep him? He wasn't sure but he knew he wanted more. More than just this fleeting connection.

So... numbers got exchanged and the dates- well, no, not really, not officially- but the meetings continued. The conversations became softer, lighter.

Random texts of hope you're dry whenever a storm rolled in or did you see this? with a new clip attached.

Mark was just grateful for it all. He didn't have to save you. He didn't have to fight to be your friend. He could simply say BRB and disappear for hours before coming back and the conversation continued as if he never left.

There was a simple warmth to the way you existed that brought him to his knees, honestly. When you listened with full attention. When you talking about random things without expecting him to have a world changing opinion.

And he knew it wouldn't last forever. His secrets always threatened to claw their way out, bubble up at the back of his throat like bile. But he was selfish enough, for the first time ever, he wanted to be selfish enough to take whatever he was given and say thank you for it.

.

.

.

Drabble Masterlist.

[my-pjo-stuff]

As a fellow Luke fan, I have so many questions cuz my biggest fear is misrepresenting my favourite characters and I also have a Luke RP acc and I wanna do him justice.

1. How do you imagine Luke pre-quest for the apples vs. after the quest?

2. Do you ship Thaluke? (PRE TTC OFC)

3. Do you believe that Luke cared about the campers even after his betrayal?

(These are the only ones I can think of for right now.)

Thanks you so much for the ask! However I must remind you that I do prefer it if asks are kept to one topic for me to seperatly answer, as otherwise it often get's too much. I'll let it slide this time, but please remember to read my bio the next time ^^

Alnway let's get on with it! 1. How do you imagine Luke pre-quest for the apples vs. after the quest?

I think, personally, he got a lot less ambitious. Pre-quest Luke was openly vying for glory like most other demigods, and we can see in the way he talks about the quest afterwards that he considered it an insult to be sent on one that was already done.

Quests and victory are huge things for demigods, so I think it's reasonable for Luke to feel like Hermes was a jerk. I mean...with all the backstory of those two, for Hermes to promise him this quest, only to then not even come up with something original? I do feel like that sent a pretty clear message to Luke.

I also think that post-quest, Luke became a lot more openly scpetical and pessimistic. Like, before he wasn't exactly thrilled about demigodlife but still had a modecum of respect and joy of fighting and getting famous as a hero. But after what happened to him with Ladon? Yeah no, that disillusionment is hitting hard.

2. Do you ship Thaluke? (PRE TTC OFC)

Canon Thaluke? No. My personal Fanon Thaluke in my AUs? I used to ship it, but now I prefer it more as a tragedy.

The truth is.....Thalia as a character makes me intensly uncomfortable. No joke. It's not even that I dislike her (though I also kinda do), she makes me uncomfy.

It's her blind obedience to the gods, and how she never really questions anything she is told by them. I mean...she litteraly died because of Hades. Who targeted her for no other reason that the fact that he wanted revenge on Zeus for what happened to Maria. And somehow she STILL blames Luke for that??? Like whut???? She litteraly has round about 0 internal conflict before deciding to kill one of her oldest and bestest friends. Only to then skip off to basically a nepobaby position within the hunters of Artemis.

Notice how she very obviously disliked them that entier book over, yet suddenly was a-okay being one when Artemis offered her the position of lieutenant? Don't tell me Zoe's death did anything for her, those two were strangers and also not exactly friendly. And don't tell me Thalia deserved that position more than other Hunters who had been with Artemis for millenia.

Thing is, I really hate blindly fanatic character who remain blindly fanatic. Who are entierly incapable or unwilling to properly question stuff despite being met wit reasons to time and time again. I read a lot of history stuff, and whenever I see this exact mentallity all I can imagine is the shit it caused to go down over basically all of human civilisation.

3. Do you believe that Luke cared about the campers even after his betrayal?

Luke's explictily stated, canon motivation for joining Kronos was that Kronos "promised a Golden Age for the Demigods". Like, I think that speaks for itself, doesn't it? Luke wasn't promised glory or riches for himself, but instead a Golden Age for ALL demigods. If Luke only cared about himself or his revenge post-betrayal, the whole reason he does all this would just vaporize into thin air.

Now don't get me wrong, he was deffinitly willing to accept their deaths for his goals. But he was at literal war, and if you want to come at Luke for that you better offer up the same scrutiny for Percy, Annabeth, Chiron and co. Because they just as willingly accepted and even partook in the killing of other demigods that belonged to the other side.

This may sound bad, but morality in wars and revolutions on large scale goverment and leadership cannot be equated to morals in peace-time. Sacrifising five people in peacetime is horrible no matter for what, sacrifising five people in wartime to win an important battle are still a tragedy that deserved to be honored- but it isn't inherently morally wrong. Why else do you think that war is such an absoloutly detestable thing that should be avoided at all costs?

At this point to the larger PJO fandom - Luke was preparring for a war just like everyone else was sooner or later for most of the books (friendly reminder that he had no part in fighting the actual Second Titan War, as at that point he was already posessed by Kronos and had no longer any control whatsoever). How about we all cut the guy some slack if you aren't willing to throw the same shade equally?

[jackiequick]

—Timeline Wise For The Couples 🎞 💌🍿

-> Very similar to this post

Stevella ~ Steve Rogers & Estella Strange 🩺🇺🇸☕️

2012 — Meet Cute in NYC, bumping into each other a couple of times and eventually exchange numbers

2013 — Steve got settled into a decent rhythm, going out a bit more and living at Avengers Tower. That’s when he bumps into Stella one day at the park, yeah sure they text one another and even have some phone calls, but this was different. While chatting, Steve somehow managed to ask her out for a cup of coffee and Stella said ‘yes’ as the two went to a coffee shop afterwards.

2014 — (Captain America: The Winter Soldier Era), the two are actually going out together. Having dates, texts, calling one another and flying out to see each other. They decided to keep their relationship private. But of course, their relationship slowly comes to the surface due to their friends. Natasha spent days and weeks trying to set Steve up on a date, teasing him and everything as he kept shooting her down with each option until they were driving to New Jersey…

“Was that your first kiss since 1945?” Natasha asked him, playing with her necklace Clint bought her.

Steve was driving and answered, “That bad huh?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Well kinda sounds like you did.”

“No, I-i didn’t, I’m just wondering how much practice you had?”

“You don’t need practice.”

“Everybody needs practice.”

“It’s not my first kiss since 1945. I’m 95, I’m not dead.”

Natasha just chuckled then asked, “Nobody special though?”

He scoffed chuckling, “Believe it or not..um, there is.”

That caused Natasha to gasp and smiled, teasing him for the rest of the time being trying to figure out who it is that Steve was seeing. She was genuinely curious and wanted tidbits on who’s the lucky lady was. Steve just rolled his eyes regretting he told her anything but honestly smiled appreciating that she actually cared about this fact.

When they got to Sam Wilson’s house for shelter, Natasha wasn’t the only one curious. Since Steve used the phone to call a certain someone, as Sam was making breakfast he heard the name ‘Stella’, as he smirked. Sam has been friends with Stella Strange since 2011, he was surprised he didn’t know about this. However he stayed quiet and pretended like he didn’t hear anything as he was more focused on helping Cap and Natasha to tease his new friend.

At the end of the film, as Steve was in the hospital recovering from the damage he suffered during the fight. He woke up to music softly playing and Sam smiling at him saying “On your left.” Steve tiredly cracked a little smile. A few seconds later, Sam said he called her. That’s when Stella walked in two fresh cups of coffee, giving them both a soft smile.

2015 — The two were now living in New York. Stella mainly worked at the hospital meanwhile Steve was being an Avenger with his teammates and Young Avengers. He often picked her up from work and took them to her apartment to rest, if not he invited her to stay at The Tower. Yes, he finally let most of his teammates and friends met his girlfriend! It was about damn time too, as a few people got more curious about things and became a little family oriented group. Hell, Steve was trying to afford a place in Brooklyn too!

The two were pretty much spotted together at restaurants, the park, Avengers Tower and other locations. Hell, according to Tony, he was surprised Captain America scored such a lovely women to keep him on his toes as Steve lightly glared at him. Stella just told her boyfriend to not mind Stark’s remarks, he’s just annoyed Pepper won’t let him buy a new car or something.

Things went on (Age Of Ultron hit), as Stella spent her time more often at Avengers Tower and even help patch up the heroes every once in a while. She was honestly pretty skilled and tech with a gun too! Which came in handy the night of The Party, things were going well of course. But Ultron struck hard, as everyone was fighting bots and protecting one another. Some got a little hurt too, mainly upset with Tony.

Later on, at Clint’s house, everyone was a little out of it. Whatever Wanda showed them had a couple of them beaten and bruised. Clint called in Stella and a few others to help everyone out. Tension was still in the air through, as Steve seemed a little off and unable to talk about it, until he found his girlfriend holding up a cup of warm tea for him on the front porch…

“What you doing up? It’s late.” Steve said, sipping the tea and wrapped an arm around her.

“I couldn’t sleep…are you okay?” She asked, rubbing her hands.

“I will be..uh, Wanda showed me something back there..”

“You wanna talk about it?”

“Only if you tell me what she showed you..”

It was only fair. She nodded and went on to explain the horrors Wanda showed her, how helpless and vulnerable she felt as she remained stuck in a hopeless position at the hospital after her very brutal accident. Even if she looked at her physical scars and condition, it haunts her. Steve listened providing comfort to her. He then went on to share his own thoughts and feelings onto Wanda showed him, feeling scared and anxious about it all as he was thrown out into another era, the life was gone and a part of him stayed stuck there. Stella provided him comfort as she listened.

Everything went on kinda crazy after that as The Avengers, Young Avengers, SHIELD and whatever others assets helped to fight off Ultron and his bots. To save and protect as many people as they can. They won but lost a few things along the way.

The Avengers moved their location upstate. Steve and Tony talked about their life choices before going their separate ways. Steve said that family, stability and whatnot post-war times, that man died when he went into the ice 75 years ago. Someone else came out, feeling a sense of mourning and comfort that his life has changed forever. He had The Avengers to watch out for, a girlfriend now who he cared deeply and unlikely friendships. But the idea of having a wife and children stayed stuck in the back of his mind.

2016 — Things changed for the couple once again living in a new location. Stella was starting to take up magic, having been resistant to being a magic-user, as her brothers were more into that kind of stuff. She knew magic and spells, but she wasn’t one to really used that very often. But she decided it would be helpful. Steve was becoming more of a team leader, busy with meetings, creating a new team alongside the one he already had and making sure everyone was able to handle themselves. When neither of them were working, the couple was hanging out a lot more and wanted to take a larger step into their relationship such as officially moving in together.

Steve also had big plans in mind, he knew he wanted to one day marry his girlfriend. He wanted to put a ring on her finger and have her become a bigger part of the family. Hell, he hadn’t picked out a ring yet but he knew.

One morning, he suddenly found himself popping the question. Saying ‘Marry me?’ As Stella was looking for a new set of cups, she heard the words come out of his mouth and accidentally bumped her head on the kitchen cabinet. He winced asking if she was alright as she nodded turning around wanting to clear what he said clearly, he repeated his question and she just smiled. That’s all Steve needed to see to know her answer was ‘Yes.’ That, and the fact that she pressed a kiss to his lips and nodded softly.

As we know Civil War happened, which caused a major disruption to the team and family. It caused a rift between Steve and Stella, a mixture of screams, cries, tears and anger ran through them. Despite it all, they still managed to deeply love one another. However Steve had to leave with Sam and Natasha, not having much contact with her for over a year!

2017–2018 — Just rough time in general for the couple. They had limited access to talking or texting, however still managed to communicate and spend mail to one another. But it just hurt. It wasn’t easy! Stella was heartbroken and Steve wasn’t exactly feeling happy about this either. He was devastated and hurt that he left his fiancé.

When Thanos made his appearance, it wasn’t pretty. As Stella followed Bruce and a few others to The Avengers Compound, to talk to Rhodey and that’s when Steve, Nat and the rest of the crew appeared. To say Stella had a million thoughts running through her mind the moment she saw Steve was an understatement, but it didn’t all make sense to start bickering with him.

Especially after he pulled her into a thigh embrace the moment he saw her and kissed her face apologizing for everything he did, saying how she had ready right to be upset with him. She just wrapped her arms around him and cried a little, apologizing for not calling earlier as she was fighting Thanos children in New York.

He just chuckled and nodded, knowing they had bigger things at stake.

You know what happened, Thanos kicked ass despite everything the teams gave. They still lost.

2019–2023 — Post Thanos things went quiet. But they tried to make the best of it, just luck neither one of dusted. Steve thanked the heavens he didn’t have to watch his fiancé dust away. The two just spent a couple of days making up for the lost time, catching up and apologizing for everything. When they realize they couldn’t afford to fix the damage due to Thanos destroying the damn stones. Steve and half of the team returned to earth silently. It pained everyone.

But like I said, they tried to make the best of things, try to move on. In 2022, Steve decided to not wait any longer than he should’ve and asked Stella to actually marry him. He waited so long to make her his wife and he wasn’t even going to waste any longer, as Stella grinned that morning agreeing to the idea. A private little day for the two of them, as the couple went to the court house and filed for a marriage certificate, getting married right then and there. They knew one day they would have a grand ol’ wedding but a quiet little day to themselves is all they needed.

They were married, had an apartment together and were doing their best to help others feel comfortable in the world. Hosting support groups, going to food drives, heading out on smaller projects and making sure their friends were alright. Stella often visited Pepper meanwhile Steve went to Natasha.

But in 2023, Scott Lang showed up to change things for the better. You know what happened time heist, get back the gang together and fix things. And no, Steve didn’t leave his wife, Sam or Bucky for Peggy Carter when he returned the damn stones! He returned the stones to where they belong, saw Peggy happily with her spouse and family, went back to his old apartment in Brooklyn where he found a certain item then returned back to 2023. The item you may ask was an old leather brown jacket that he lost during The Battle a few days earlier that held a ring looped around his dog tags.

Phase 4 (2023–2024) — Steve and Stella were living in a different household in a similar neighborhood, helping to rebuild The Avengers Compound after it was destroyed and supporting families with the new changes. The two even considered on finally having a family of their own, the pair already had a dog. Might as well have a kid or two!

Which they did! Having adopted two beautiful children, a young teenager who has been in their radar for a while now as they foster and develop a relationship before two years prior. And another one, being a gorgeous little girl.

And I know what you’re asking, did Steve retire? Yes, yes he did. Steve knew for a while that he did not want to be Captain America forever, wanting to stay put and start a new project in his life. Of course he gave the opportunity to Sam Wilson to become Captain America and when he saw that John Walker was holding his shield and not Sam, the man was already to to pick a bone with his friends. Hell, he was ready to try and take down Walker himself after having gone through the five stages of grief watching the news.

“Honey! Have you seen my navy blue jacket and guns? That ones with the faded red stripe around the handle. ” Steve yelled from the closet as he went searching for his things.

“I think so! In the—wait why do you need your guns?!” Stella yelled from upstairs, as she untangled her curls.

“Just asking!”

“Steve what are you planning?!”

“Don’t worry about it!”

It took Stella to hold him down and hide his stuff in the basement, getting Kendall and their youngest to keep things in order or else Steve would’ve driven to get his hands on the man.

His wife had to distract him and take his mind off things to stop him from going to find his friends and get shit done himself. Luckily with two kids, a dog, housework to be done, groceries to buy and activities to do Steve was very much occupied. Thanks to Sam and Bucky they were able to get updates on how things were going, and finally once they got The Shield back, that’s when Stella gave Steve the opportunity to help out.

However thankfully Sam, Jason, Bucky and Liz handled the situation better than expected. Hell, Steve was able to sneak off in the background in his dark navy blue stealth suit to help and support them in the fight. He was even standing in the background when Sam appeared in the Captain America suit and shield, along with a pair of sleek wings to match grinning like an idiot.

Everyone and their mothers were watching on television when Sam Wilson made his flying debut in the Stars and Stripes, and they couldn’t be more prouder. Stella remembered how she was crying happy tears as she sat on the couch with her friends and family to watch everything go down. It was freaking amazing.

~~~~~

Ahhh! That was a lot, anyway I hope you guys like it. Pls let me know what you guys think 💭

Keep the chain going! Which couple is next? 💘

Tags: @gaminggirlsstuff @gcthvile @cherrysft @missstrawbs2001 @mandylove1000 @eliohasmyheart @terry-perry @sherloquestea @superspookyjanelle @starkleila @buckysteveloki-me @parisparker269 @yetanotherwells @rickb-chaos @fluffystevefest @savemewattpad @daughter-of-melpomene

[rachetmath]

 Okay, I know some people might be mad at me, but I stand by this. Volumes seven and eight were the most horrible volumes to me. Many you would say because of Ironwood and how the heroes betrayed him. And I would say, “Yes. That is absolutely the reason.” However, that is not the only reason I hate those volumes, especially with nine.

Ren and Oscar:

Ren and Oscar were the MVP s of volumes seven and eight. In volume seven, Ren was concerned with lying to James and was more worried about the people's safety. He became the most emotional in the group and started acting somewhat critical to the point he lashed out at Nora, Yang, and Jaune. This causes Nora to become somewhat distant from him and Jaune to be a little disappointed, especially after mentioning he cheated Beacon. However, after a little talk with Jaune and yelling at Harriet, Ren semblance evolves to where he can read emotions.

Oscar, who was willing to trust James when Ruby, for reasons, didn’t. Who openly told James the truth about Salem, then gets shot for it. Then gets found by his friends and immediately gets taken by Salem’s forces. He then persuades Hazel to betray Salem and gets Emerald on the side of good.

Here’s the problem, Ren didn’t do anything. Like, he didn’t try to fill James in on anything. He stood by his friends and still carried out the lie. And then his evolution really was unnecessary and wasn’t well-earned. And many of you might say, “But he earned it by standing up to Harriet. And it helped them in some way.” Okay, but hears the thing. First off, Harriet was going to hurt Ren if Winter didn’t stop her. And second, his semblance wasn’t even that useful in finding Oscar.

Now Oscar, he just overstayed his welcome. He somehow persuaded Hazel to betray Salem… Even though he is the reincarnation of the man he hates. He gave away the information to Hazel, who was ordered to collect that intel by Salem, which Hazel got mad at Oscar about afterward. But what did he offer Hazel to make him switch sides, considering Ozpin still can’t kill her? Why offer the last question to him? He already knows everything.

 And then Emerald, whom he met once and tried to kill Ruby in Heaven, Oscar managed to get her to join the hero side. Why? Why would the characters who not only met Emerald but were betrayed by her and Cinder be willing to trust her? Because Oscar says so? And what makes it worse is Ren agrees to it first because of his evolution. The reason it doesn’t make sense to me is because it’s coming from the wrong characters. Which brings me to my next problem.

Jaune and Nora:

Mainly, Jaune was my issue. However, we will talk about Nora first. Mainly on how the writers gave her the Jaune treatment. Nora was more concerned for the people of Mantle, while Ren was concerned for the entire world. This is due to Nora’s backstory where she was poor, parentless, and alone on the streets. Nora knew exactly how the people were feeling. So you would think out all the characters, she would most likely side with Robyn. Maybe even so far as to tell her what’s going on. But then it was Yang and Blake. Even though Yang was completely against lying to Ironwood and was calling Ruby out on it. (But hey, bumblebee matters.) Then what made Nora's coming out party even more hollow is she leaves Mantle to her teammates, while she goes back to Atlas with the majority of team RWBY, only to be knocked unconscious for half of volume eight. All while thinking about only Ren.

Jaune got it the worst though. Not just with the fact that he had to kill Penny even though he trained with his semblance and probably the most innocent and cool headed person on the group. But as I said before, a lot of Ren and Oscar's actions were pointless - no, didn't make sense because they fit Jaune’s character more.

Look, I said this before, but Jaune has no reasons to trust James. Not only because of Leon’s betrayal but Ozpin whose secrets came to light. Jaune had his trust broken two times. By Headmasters, no less. And you may say, “Ironwood gave Jaune and his friends their licensees early. And a place to stay.” True enough, however, Jaune knows Salem exists. James is trying to keep her a secret until Amity Arena is ready for launch. Who's to say he’s not giving them their licenses and a place to stay to keep an eye on them? (However, that’s not true. Considering Ironwood as we have seen has done nothing wrong to them.) That’s something for Jaune to consider. And even though he could feel sorry for the citizens of Mantle, that doesn’t mean he would fully trust Robyn either, due to her methods causing more harm than good. (The only reason anyone would side with Robyn is that she is a better choice than Jacque. Plus, why do we just see Yang argue about this? Why would Jaune agree to something that he almost hurt Oscar for?)

Basically, Jaune should have been the middle man from the start of volume seven, and in volume eight he brings everyone together. In volume seven, we could’ve had Jaune struggling due to having to help Atlas and Mantle as a huntsman while training to extend his aura, keeping his team together, and watching out for Tyrian, who said he had an interest in him (still don't know why.), and Salem. Jaune would’ve had a hard time, especially because his friends would have been making things worse, and he had to follow up on their actions. (More importantly, Jaune might as well learn to stand on his own two feet as huntsman and a leader. Otherwise, how is he important to the story?)

Then in volume eight, when Ren lashed out at him, Jaune would have had more to prove. Imagen Jaune negotiating with Winter on letting them go in to save Oscar. Offering the relic as leverage so they can find Penny, who mind you they were looking for. Rushing in, extending his aura, and going on his own to find Oscar while relying on his friends to do their part. Then having to fight and reason with Hazel to help him. Even to promise Hazel a future where no more people need to die due to Salem’s and Ozpin’s war, considering Jaune lost Pyrrha. Even maybe seeing Hazel ask Jaune to bring Emerald with him. Jaune learning to trust Emerald, despite everything she’s done because he may need her or sees her redeeming qualities. All this, though unintentionally, is to prove Ren wrong. That he’s capable of doing great things and making him a supposedly better leader than Ironwood. He’s based on Jeanne D'Arc, right? Who was the biggest turnaround in the war for France in 1429. A leader and influencer who managed to convince her allies to join her side. Despite being a woman and a peasant with no proof that angels told her to help in the war.

(Okay, look, many of you might say, “Jaune is not a good fighter” which I agree… but isn't a fight more like a debate using strength and knowledge. And we have seen Jaune fight just not with human opponents.Him fighting Hazel may determine how far he has come from when we met him. Also Jaune’s and Hazel's character a true opposite 

Plus the whole point of Hazel’s character is him being a broken man with nothing left to lose. A man who lost all faith in humanity and the hunting world ever since his sister and possibly his whole family were slain by it. His faith slipped the moment he met Salem and found out she was immortal and cannot be killed, making his sister's untimely death even more worth less. However, Jaune is the opposite.

Jaune lost Pyrrha. He lost the very first friend and could've been lover to the hunting world. He was betrayed by others who he thought were  his allies. To make matters worse he too learns of Salem’s immortality. Yes, he was angered by this information. Furious. Almost enough that he would have done the same things Hazel was doing out of spite. But he didn't. He still fights the good fights.

Hazel is man who feels no pain. Sees an indifference between Ozpin and Oscar. Mainly because unlike Jaune he never hanged out with Oscar. So Jaune who was already worried for Oscar, especially after he got kidnapped would be the one to oppose and object Hazel for his actions. Believing that his actions will not only not bring his sister back… but mainly dishonor her. I'm just saying these two should have fought.)

But that’s it for volumes seven and eight. Look, I don't hate Ren and Oscar. However, as some of you complain about Jaune getting too much screen time or being a self insert but when Oscar does the same thing, no one talks about it and are ready to defend other characters and not call out their levels of screen time. Or how they don't fit into the situation. There were plenty of better things Jaune and Nora could have done beside kill or nap for the volumes. Instead, they’re pushed to the side until the writers need an escape goat to advance the plot.

(Also if you are wondering why I am just talking about team JNRO then I am going to be straight forward with you. TEAM JNRO CARRIED THE WHOLE ATLAS VOLUME. And mean main character wise..They save team RWBY. They were the main one probably keeping the people of Mantle and Atlas alive. Jaune killed Penny to save Winter. Basically unlike team RWBY, team JNRO were doing their FUCKING jobs. Hate me if you want to.)

[zairene]

nobody else, katsuki bakugou x black fem reader

synopsis: after his constant thoughts surrounding his personality, bakugou begins to question why you would even choose to be with him.

warnings: bakugou actually shows some other emotion other than anger + vulnerability + cursing bc it’s bakugou, come on now.

wc: 958

a/n: this is my first EVER like comfort-ish kinda fic? if this is like corny or shitty writing i’m sorry i’ve NEVER wrote something like this before.. but the idea was cool so i just went with it.

IT WAS NO SECRET THAT BAKUGOU HAD THE TENDENCY to be a huge asshole. it was well known at this point, and everyone had seemed to get used to it. it wasn’t the talk of the class anymore, everyone grew less scared of him and more viewed him as the, hard on the outside but soft on the inside kind of guy.

knowing this, you still decided to test your changes with the hothead. looking for every opportunity to get close to him. whether it would be group projects, making both of your friend groups come close together during lunch, or even just being able to bring his things to him. just any reason to have some form of communication. and you knew bakugou was no dummy, so he treated you like the rest of him.

“fuck off.” was his usual response to you every time you came up to him. at first you probably would’ve been hurt by it, now you just find it endearing. you teased him quite often until his words toward you became normal? he used less curse words, his voice would be softer than usual, and he was nice. well as nice as bakugou can get, at least.

noticing this change, you took the opportunity to ask him out on a date.you expected his answer to be quite defensive and rude. along the words of, “no, why the fuck would i do that with you?”

yet, his real answer was, “sure, whatever.”

and after a few dates, you both had made things official. neither of you had told anyone but mineta had seen the both of you kiss outside of your dorm room before you had gone in one night and he decided to run his mouth to the rest of the class. and when things came out, you both didn’t deny it because there was no point. the news would’ve spread either way somehow because bakugou’s personality drastically changed after he asked you to be his girlfriend.

he never stopped insulting people or cussing them out, but he did it way less than he normally did. he was always more quiet than usual, staring in your direction all the time. watching you laugh with your friends and have fun. it gave him some comfort on the inside. denki kaminari swore he saw a smile creep up on bakugou’s lips one time while he looked at you.

although, behind bakugou’s face, was a mind that was overflowing with insecurities. sure, he was confident in every other aspect about himself. but his personality and how he treated others before you and even you, ate him up inside. he didn’t like that person and started to think that maybe the little shitheads had a point.

he couldn’t help but overhear jirou and ochako’s conversation about him.

“i’m shocked y/n would even wanna date a person like bakugou.” jirou said, while twirling a strand of her hair.

“maybe he’s just a different person around y/n. you shouldn’t really judge something that you don’t know anything about.” ochako came quick to his defense.

“yeah yeah, i know. but he was just an asshole who treated everyone like they were inferior to him. like he was a king or whatever. i just don’t get what she saw in him.” she continued writing down on her paper, oblivious that bakugou had heard everything she just said.

he didn’t get what you saw in him.

“why did you choose me?”

you and bakugou were currently in his dorm, it was day time and you both were just hanging out since it was the weekend. plus, hero training can take a lot out of a person so it was just natural that you both would look for comfort in each other afterwards.

you turned around, looking at him in confusion. he was looking to the side while he fiddled with his fingers. slightly embarrassed that he became so vulnerable around you.

“what do you mean?” you sat next to him.

“i just mean, like… how? how the hell did you like me? i was a dick to everyone, including you.” you sighed and thought for a second.

“because i saw you for who you were on the inside—”

“that’s fucking corny.” he deadpanned. you slapped him on softly on the leg.

“dude, let me finish.” you rolled your eyes. “anyways, i just knew that you weren’t just an asshole to be an asshole. sure, you were rude and i didn’t like it at first but i just got used to it. plus, i knew you started to like me too.” you smirked.

“oh really? how.” he found it hard to believe. he was a master of hiding his emotions.

“you see how you didn’t just flip out on me for saying that?” his eyes widened a little. “yeah, you like like me.” you laughed while you poked his chest.

“yeah yeah, whatever.”

“but seriously ‘suki, i liked you for you.” you scooted closer to him. “and trust me if i didn’t like you, i wouldn’t be here right now. i like your personality. i’m not saying continue to be rude to others, not saying you have, but i know why you do it. i understand. that’s why i ‘chose’ you.” you wrapped your arms around him and pulled him in for a hug, which he graciously returned. “and maybe you were just cute, i don’t know.”

“you don’t know?” he pulled back, slightly offended.

“i’m joking.” you pulled him close to you. “you are very cute.” you gave him a kiss on the lips. which made him look away, trying to hide the blush that grew on his face.

“better be.” he said, before pulling you into his arms to cuddle.

TAGLIST :: @kisamekiss @kisminarii @planetlunaa

TAGLIST FORM

[l0cal-catb0y]

Hero!Ghoap x God!Reader brainrot

this is mainly about ghoap cuz i didnt focus on them in the first post and they deserve love too!! and i wanna add backstory :33 based off this post i made and i think i want them to be childhood friends!! (its one of my favorite tropes im sorry </3)

once again this is just word vomit !! not my best but it must be shared :DD but also!! let me know if you have any ideas for what reader should be the god of cuz i really have no ideas and i wanna add more details to them!!

definingly have the vibe they would've meet by running into each other playing in a field when they were very young and just ended up sticking together. simon found comfort in johnny's presence and just sort of started following him everywhere he went with johnny just completely okay with dragging this boy around cuz!! he gets to have fun with his friend!! :DD sadly though they have to have reason to become fighters for plot reasons </33 their village gets destroyed, burnt and looted with few survivors left. theyre both distraught and angry with johnny openly wanting to track down the people behind the attack and fuck them up (simon too but hes silent about it) maybe johnny starts getting ready to start that hunt without telling anyone but simon can just read him perfectly and just pulls him aside to tell him that he's coming too.

I feel like along their hunt they would stop and take care of anyone that were causing issues, probably with just small trouble makers but as they become stronger and more experienced they deal with whole gangs of people (they end up getting the names ghost and soap along the way somehow) they become more renowned for their strength and victories that even cities far off know them!! im thinking the group that destroyed their village became an army and overconfident to the point of disrespecting the gods (probably not all but definitely some big ones) so when ghost and soap become bigger names they are given the upperhand with the backing of the gods who wish to put the group back into place. they basically get to the level of demigods !!

romance wise though,,, giggles,,, somewhere along their journey after a hard fight they would confess while patching each other up, the concern for each other far outweighing the fear of rejection <33 the gentle touch of making sure theyre still there and the whispers of love would be so soft after they know its a mutual love omg. their routines change a little afterwards too!! like simon giving johnny little trinkets to have in his pockets (probably something handmade when he cant sleep) and johnny braiding part of simon's hair before a fight (maybe he braids a piece of simon's hair into his own braid and his hair into simon's?)

I don't think they would actively worship one particular god? they would give offerings every so often as thanks for the blessing or in hope of getting some luck with something (finding info or just having good weather) but they are mainly on their own for the most part. yes they are favored more than others but it doesnt mean the gods really care about them yknow? they both know theyre just a means to an end for some of them :((

so when you start looking out for them theyre both just :OO you actually care about them outside of what they can do!! you help them with small things!! your watching eyes comfort simon when he cant sleep!! you guide johnny to peaceful areas for him to relax and draw at!! you send your associated animal to keep watch if they ever both crash after a fight!! they start to add stuff to their routines that relate to you in some way :33 making crafts of your symbols and having one with them for "good luck" or making a small spot for you at every camp they make or talking to you (aka the open air of your spot) about their plans and what they wanna do next!!

idk man brainrot and lack of sleep are getting to me!! im going to rotate these two in this au in my head for the next month ^-^

[cyclone-rachel]

MERRY CHRISTMAS PESKY

For once, Querl couldn’t think.

Inside of his mindscape, with Brainiac having taken over his body, he knew only pain- unable to move, or speak. He’d never meant for it to be this way… all he’d wanted was to find a way to save Kandor, to make up for the deeds of his ancestor in Superman’s eyes, and if he had to obtain some of said ancestor’s knowledge by accessing his code to do that, then so be it.

But it had not been that easy, and here he was, forced to watch what Brainiac was doing while using his image, his voice.

He would understand if Superman turned his back on him after what he’d done.

Which is why it surprised him so much when he didn’t.

~

Superman was here- him and Kell-El, somehow.

(If they got out of this, he would have to ask.)

Brainiac was speaking to them, attacking them. Of course.

But… then they became one being, and they- he- was up again, still fighting. The best of both Supermen, still defending him against Brainiac.

“Humanity?” he heard Brainiac ask. “He was a robot, Kryptonian.”

“Brainy may not have been human.” Superman said. “But he had the biggest heart I’ve ever seen. He was a hero- my hero!”

That stirred a spark of recognition in Querl- he knew those words. He’d programmed them into his simulation, scripted the encounter between him and Superman after he sacrificed himself defending the Kryptonian, with nearly that exact phrase being the last words he heard from him before passing away.

Did Superman know? Had he seen?

Or…

Did he just know Superman better than he thought possible?

Those thoughts spurred Querl on- he now had to regain himself.

And in ways he had not even thought possible, he did.

~

Querl still wasn’t truly able to be among the other Legionnaires yet- he had too much to answer for, there were too many questions and stares whenever he entered a room, too many possibilities for where conversations could go that could end uncomfortably. Ever since some of them had found out what the first Brainiac did, he thought they had looked at him differently, but that was nothing compared to this.

However, there was still one Legionnaire he wanted to see, and luckily enough said person was also willing to be around him, and would hopefully answer his question.

“Superman?” he asked, knocking on the door of his quarters- and grateful yet again that Clark had chosen to stay a little longer after Brainiac’s defeat. “Can we talk?”

As an answer, the door opened, and Querl stepped in.

“Brainy! What’s up?” Clark asked, rising from where he’d been sitting on his bed. “You feeling alright?”

“Yes, but… I did want to talk about what happened.” Querl said. “While we were inside my mind.”

Clark scowled, an uncharacteristic expression on what was usually such a kind face. “Brainiac…”

He placed a hand on Brainy’s shoulder, gaze now protective.

“I’m so sorry he hurt you.” He said.

“Yes.” He said again. “But I was more referring to what you said to him. About…”

His face flushed, and Clark squeezed his shoulder.

“About me being your hero.” He finished. “What made you say that?”

“It’s true.” Clark answered, and Querl could only stare up at him. “Seeing what he did to you… standing up to him must have taken a ton of strength. I respect you so much- and I have since we met. You’re the one who taught me to be a hero in the first place.”

“You mean you didn’t hear those words before?” Querl asked, deciding to be direct about it. “Somewhere else?”

“No.” Clark said. “They just… felt right. And they were, given what happened afterward.”

“I agree.”

“Wait.” He said. “Had you heard them before? How was that possible?”

Querl smiled, and offered his hand to Clark, which of course he took.

“I need to show you something.” He said. “Follow me.”

So Clark did, and on they went to the simulation room, where Querl loaded up the program he’d spent so much time refining, the scene he’d practically lived in following Clark’s departure to the 21st century. He told Computo to play it, and together they watched as simulated versions of them fought off the Dominators, at first having the upper hand until one of them took aim at Clark. Watched as the hologram of Querl dove in front of him, and upon getting fatally wounded, told Clark to finish the job- and when he did, rushing to his side, swooping down and immediately taking his hand, comforting him in his last moments.

And Querl watched, as Clark’s eyes widened, seeing a simulated version of himself virtually repeat what he’d said in real life.

(it had sounded even better coming from him in reality)

~

As the music faded and the simulation cut out, though, Clark didn’t seem happy.

“Why?” he asked. “What made you think you’d have to do that? Sacrifice yourself for me?”

“You would do the same for me.” Brainy said. “And you nearly did, going into my mind without any thought to your safety, attempting to save me from Brainiac.”

“But you saved me instead.” Clark finished. “You really are my hero.”

Querl smiled, but Clark still didn’t.

“But… I think we can make a better simulation.” He said, expression finally softening. “One that doesn’t end in you dying. Don’t you think?”

“I have the perfect idea.”

~

When Garth looked at the active simulation from outside, he expected Brainy to be in the room- he knew how much time he’d spent in there while Superman was gone, and it still made sense for him to be taking some alone time in that same room… even if the last time he was controlling things, it had been Brainiac pulling the strings in his head.

What he didn’t expect was for the simulation to have nothing to do with fighting at all- instead, Brainy and Superman were sitting at a table in the middle of the room, having dinner.

As he continued to watch, they finished dinner- and then they were dancing, Superman leading the way, taking Brainy through the steps.

And in no time at all, they’d stopped, and then they were kissing. Clark held Brainy in his arms, and Brainy’s arms were thrown around Clark’s neck.

Garth turned away, smirking. It had been obvious to most of the team- at least those who went on assignment with them together, anyway- that Brainy had had the biggest crush on Superman since he’d come to their time. The other simulations had only added to that, and he and several of his teammates had even taken bets on when exactly they were going to just kiss already and get it over with.

But there was also always something pulling Brainy back- that Clark had to go back to his time, to his own life and his own relationships. He had to grow up into the Superman they mythologized in museums, the greatest hero of all time, the one their team was built on the legacy of. Their relationship couldn’t last- easier for Brainy to just suffer in silence, create holograms and program scenarios of what could have been.

Besides, it was easier to tease Brainy about it this way.

“So, guess you and Superman skipped past saving the day this time, and got right to the fun stuff?” he asked as Brainy left the room. “I would too.”

“Something like that.” Brainy said, smiling, as he walked past Garth.

A moment later, the door opened again, and Superman stepped out.

The real Superman.

“You were- that was- you’re really-“

“His idea.” Brainy and Clark said in unison, and Clark held Brainy’s hand again as they left the simulation room behind.

[lucyav13]

Pixels

They were created by a powerful wizard from the tribe of the ancients, 3,000 years ago before the events of Spm. To create them he transferred a spirit into a vessel (the soul of his daughter, whose game was ended). It is said that he thus created 12 Pixels like this before he passed away. But his apprentices kept researching Pixls after his game ended... They learned to create many more Pixls based on his original 12.

These Pixls became widely used as 'thinking tools' for the grateful Ancients. Through the work of many Pixls, the Ancients prospered as they never had before.

But, that old technology has been lost and the remaining pixels have been scattered (until Mario manages to gather the original 11 pixels).

The truth is that they are more useful than any tool. They can think for themselves, and that's not always a good thing. The ancients feared that they would end up not obeying their creators. They say that the personality of the pixelites was created for that reason. There were some pixls that were very, very intelligent. But something terrible happened and the personality of the Pixls changed.

                                                                                        Pixl Queen 

Despite the Pixl Queen being the first Pixl ever created, she seemed to stay largely quiet for what is thought to be 1,000 years after the creation of the Pixels. However, seemingly long after the passing of her creator (the powerful magician who invented the process of Pixl-making), the Pixl Queen (then of an unknown name) finally rose into power, renaming herself with her only known name of "Pixl Queen." She then began to use her powers of mind control to manipulate all Pixls, causing them to eventually enslave most of the Tribe of Ancients (who were ironically once their masters) in her name. However, the owners of the magician's twelve original Pixl creations managed to somehow escape this Pixl Uprising and started to fight against the rebellious Pixls, containing them within Catch Cards and healing them. In the end, only one of these heroic Ancients survived, and he traveled with only his Pixl friends to the Pixl Queen's castle.

Once he arrived at the stronghold, he confronted the dark Pixl Queen herself, who immediately hid from the hero and shot a barrage of disturbing images to his mind telepathically. Although this greatly weakened the Ancient hero, one of his Pixls helped him through the tragedy and ended up  defeating the Pixl Queen itself, although it was destroyed in the process of doing so. Afterwards, it was shockingly revealed to the hero who owned the Pixl that the Pixl Queen was the first created of the Pixls (perhaps created even earlier than the magician's so-called "original" twelve Pixls) and that the magician's motives for creating her involved the study of the Dark Prognosticus. The Ancient survivor, attempting to stop such a tragedy as the Pixl Uprising from ever happening again, then took the Dark Prognosticus with himself to unknown parts, likely founding the Tribe of Darkness known to once have possessed the dark book. Afterwards, the Pixl Queen's mutinous efforts led to the fall of the Tribe of Ancients and the outlawing of Pixl creation.

Though these are the only known actions of the seemingly late Pixl Queen, more is indeed known about the Pixl herself. Although the spirit united with the Pixl vessel that formed the Pixl Queen had previously been described as "demonic", Carson later stated that a certain one of the magician's apprentices books revealed that the Pixl Queen's spirit was actually derived from a human rather than a demon. It was on this principle that Carson theorized that the Pixl Queen's spirit may have been that of the magician's own daughter (who did indeed get a Game Over during her father's life due to a deathly illness), although he later seemed to have not been sure about this theory in his statement that the author disavowed it. It is also unknown if the Pixl Queen had any helpful ability, although she was indeed able to control all Pixls and used the power of telepathy in her battle against the Ancient survivor, making these possible ability candidates.

My theory: The Pixl Quenn is Shadoo. The Pixl Queen was created by an Ancient, and after developing a grudge against her people due to how they used the Pixls, she attempted to overthrow the Ancients by taking control of the Pixls. The Pixl Queen was also said to have "powers of illusion", which she used to hide from sight. Shadoo similarly despises the Ancients and wished to use the Heroes' Pixl companions to exact its revenge, and is capable of hiding itself, the Warp Pipe leading to it, and the various clones. The details of the Pixl Queen's fate is not revealed, with Carson only stating that she was "defeated" and the Dark Prognosticus "taken from her" after her defeat; this makes it possible that she survived the battle. (Yes, i made that fanart, do you like it?)

Trivia: In a pre-release version of Super Paper Mario, a ladder-like Pixl that did not make it into the final game can be found. This Pixl would have been used to flip Mario to 3D, as revealed by unused Pixl data within the game's files.

(A/N): Tell me what you think of my theories. I would like to read them!

[kay9leo]

Out of Time - Part 1/?

- A New York Yankee in Hogwarts' Courtyard, 1890 -

I'm inspired by @sychenb post the other day about wanting more angst and keeping the angst ball rolling and I thought, "What if MC finally got to go back home to her time period, but never told Seb she was from the future nor did Sebastian ever find out? And Sebastian doesn't figure it out till near the end of his life that his best friend was from the future, but he won't even live long enough to even make it to the year she was born?

As for his wand wood? I went with willow due to this post: Sallow Family Name

(The green ribbon line divider is by @bernardsbendystraws)

Out of Time

"MURDER!" One of the court spectators yelled at him.

I'm going to Azkaban.... Sebastian grimly thought to himself as some court official casted a spell on his willow wand, allowing it to reveal all the spells it casted on a a certain date.

And that date being Imbolc, when he sealed his uncle's fate on a holy Gaelic day.

Flipendo...Despulso...Expelliarmus...

As the spells he casted that night poured out of his wand, Sebastian felt dread in him grow as the he waited for the last spell he casted that night to echo out in the Wizengamot.

...Bombarda... Solomon's form Auror buddy smirked at him with a smile that would belong more to a basilisk than a person. He was the only one who demanded this trial when he somehow found out WHO really did kill Solomon Sallow despite all the work Ominis and Iñaki did to hide his crimes to the world.

...Confringo...

Ominis frowned at him from the spectator's bench. Anne was still not speaking to him, but she was there as well, tears swelled up in her eyes as she avoided looking at him.

Iñaki was the only one who was no where to be found. Sebastian sighed.

It's better if she isn't here... Sebastian thought with remorse as the prosecutor kept reading out all the spells he casted that infamous night. The Hero of Hogwarts doesn't deserve to have her name soiled by having me as a friend...But is it selfish to want her here? To see my best friend one last before they send me off? Surely, she should have heard...or was she that ashamed of me she couldn't bare to even be in the same room as me anymore...

Sebastian swallowed the tightness in his throat.

I know she became distant from me not much soon afterwards that Battle of Hogwarts when Professor Fig died...but I thought she would come around...I thought she still cared enough with how she tried to cover my back....but why can't she at least stop by to say goodbye?

He narrowed his eyes, hoping to hide the tears building up in his eyes, refusing to look weak in front of the court.

In front of his sister.

Even after all this time, even when his neck was at the line, he couldn't appear weak to her. He had to be strong for his sister. It was the only thing he ever agreed with from what Solomon taught him.

He gave a tight smile at his sister, as if to try to tell her, everything will be alright, but Anne never looked at him as the spell that would forever separate them rang out in the court.

AVADA KEDAVRA.

At that, Anne began to cry as she hid herself in Ominis' chest, with his best friend rubbing her back as the court room gasped.

"ORDER. ORDER IN THE COURT!" The judge ordered, slamming his gavel against the desk, activating a rune it struck to cast a muting spell on the spectators. The judge frowned as he glared at Sebastian

"Are you aware Mr. Sallow that the last spell that came out of your wand on that day is an Unforgivable?"

Sebastian stood up straight with a blank look that he hoped didn't show fear as his lips tightened into a fine line.

"I'm aware." Sebastian nodded with narrowed eyes.

"And that any unforgivable used is an almost instant sentence to Azkaban?"

"I'm aware." Sebastian stated, his own voice sounding so far away, as if he wasn't even there.

"How do you plead?"

This is the moment of truth. I can't deny that I didn't want to kill him either with how that spell use is now out in the open. Sebastian bitterly thought as he looked back to Ominis and Anne.

The only two people left in his world.

Not even Iñaki was here.

A pain he tried to ignore in his chest as he glanced at the third empty seat before looking back at the judge. He took in a deep breath and said,

"WITNESS FOR THE DEFENCE!" Iñaki's voice boom through the court room as everyone gasped as the courtroom door busted opened and Iñaki marched in. Her eyes, lightning blue as her ancient magic, were narrowed and sharp, eying everyone in the court room before zoning in onto Solomon's former Auror friend.

The Auror frowned. "And you are?" The judge stated despite his own eyes widening open like everyone else as whispers filled the court room once more. It's the Hero of Hogwarts!

She's the Troll Slayer who saved Hogsmeade in the beginning of the school year!

She saved my town from the giant spiders!

When did she get that new scar on her eyebrow?

Probably from doing something heroic as she is know to do.

What's she doing here? I thought she disappeared at the end of the school year. No one could find her. Not even Sallow. One of his year mates said, the daughter of some high Wizengamot member said from the spectator's bench.

It's been two weeks since school ended. Two weeks since she vanished. A week since he received his court summons for the murder of Solomon Sallow.

And now she was here.

In the flesh.

"My name is Iñaki Carmen Martinez Cariaga. But you may better know me as the Troll Slayer of Hogsmeade. The Hawk that took down Rookwood. HERO OF HOGWARTS who stopped the goblin rebellion underneath said school." Iñaki listed out, unamused as if she was forced to list out the potion ingredients for Wigglewend.

"R-r-right. Of course. The Hero of Hogwarts." The judge nervously shuttered as Iñaki's sharp magical blue eyes met his. Sebastian nearly pitied the man; he's been a recipient of her glare before. Meeting her piercing magical blue eyes unnerved him when she glared, its very magical lightening blue hue ever present as a side effect of using ancient magic or being around magical places build by it. While Iñaki's pupils were normally a warm dark oak, her azure blue were preternatural.

would always cause her ancient magic to show in her eye color.

As if reminding the world the power she wielded.

Sebastian wouldn't lie, it was a bit unnerving when the force of her ancient magic could just be felt just by meeting her magically blue eyes head on.

For once, he was happy it wasn't him who had her attention.

"I am here to provide evidence." Iñaki stated.

"Evidence of what?" The judge frowned as he tried to not finch back.

"Evidence of Mr. Sallow's self-defense on that day. I was there." Iñaki stated as the courtroom gasped and the judge had to use his gavel once more.

From there, things were a blur as Sebastian stood there frozen as Iñaki provided two major evidence of her claim: Solomon Sallow's wand and her memories.

When Solomon's wand was reviewed in court, it turned out it wasn't just Sebastian who casted an unforgivable on that day.

Then Iñaki took out a string of smoke from her head and placed it on the pensieve before a court member cased a spell on said pensieve. Smoke rose from it and engulfed the whole room into the scene of that faithful night from her perspective.

Of Iñaki finding him in the catacomb.

Of the inferi being knocked down.

Of Solomon destroying the relic.

Of Sebastian firing back.

Sebastian glared at memory-Solomon as he fired a shot at Iñaki, dragging her into the fight as well. Then when a spelled fired by Solomon slammed her against the rocky walls, the scene became dark. Not even her breaths were audible as the darkness continued, but the sounds of spells firing and his own voice calling out her name out.

"Get up Iñaki! PlEase." He shouted as his voice cracked as the room heard spells continuing to be fired as the scene was still dark.

"She cannot be healed, Sebastian." The court room gasped at Solomon's voice. "You must stop."

Sebastian frowned.

They weren't talking about Iñaki here, but Anne.

But when he looked back to Iñaki while everyone was listening to the scene unfold, Iñaki had tighten her lips, and slowly shook her head as if to say:

Keep quiet. Let them decide what they want to see.

Spell kept firing in the darkness before Iñaki's memory had her finally opening her eyes slowly as she looked up to see a rock in front of her. A second later, it was blasted apart from a green spell.

She flinched away with a grunt.

Sebastian didn't even realize she was almost struck by a stray spell in the crossfire as the memories showed from her view her backing away from the destroyed rock before she looked at down at her hands, blood dripping on it like raindrops.

Her blood.

Sebastian could barely remember the minor head cut she got in the duel but suddenly it seemed relevant here in the courtroom as they heard his voice shout out:

"Argh! I won't let her suffer. AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The crowd gasped as Iñaki's vision slowly looked up to see memory-Sebastian's back to her, as his body covered her view as he struck his uncle dead.

Iñaki's eyes glanced back to the blood dripping on to her hands before it slowly blinked closed, causing the scene to turn black. Then they heard her body collapse onto the ground with a grunt as well followed by the deafening echoing sound of his wand hitting the catacomb floor.

The memory ended.

The smoke returned to the pensieve as Iñaki stared at the judge while the murmur in the room grew.

Solomon attacked the Hero of Hogwarts.

It was in self defense! Did you see how that stray spell struck that rock in front of her?

He isn't a cold blooded murder, he was protecting his friend! Did you see the way he was standing in front of her

Solomon Sallow was out for blood. You saw how he nearly killed the girl if that Sallow kid didn't kill him first!?

This happened before that goblin attack at Hogwarts...Sallow saved her before she saved us from the Goblin Rebellion!

So that's where her new scar came from!

He's a hero!

Sebastian glanced over towards Solomon's old Auror friend who looked nearly as shocked as the rest of the crowd and then at Ominis who looked at Iñaki with fright and concern for her while Anne's eyes were the ones that struck him the most as she stared opened mouthed at her as well.

They were filled with horror.

She never truly did believe that Solomon was out to get him. And it seemed that she must have thought the same thing as the courtroom when he and Solomon were speaking in the memory.

That they were arguing about Iñaki, not Anne.

He glanced back towards Iñaki as she stared at the judge, her ancient magic forceful behind her magical blue eyes. And suddenly, that faint scar line at her eyebrow that extended to her temple seem to be even all the more relevant.

Even he could see how the Judge was studying it.

"Your honor, as you can see, Sebastian Sallow saved my life from an unprompted attack by Solomon Sallow. The moment he shot at the inferi, should be noted as the first attack as it got in the way of directly striking Sebastian Sallow. The fight started there as there was no need for him to attack us when he could have very well just spoken to either me or Sebastian Sallow. The inferi were docile as the Relic allowed Sebastian to control them. See, he was looking for a way to control the dark magic to see if it can reverse the curse that Victor Rookwood placed on his sister. While unorthodoxly, as you saw, Sebastian Sallow never attacked me nor did he started the fight with Solomon Sallow. Solomon Sallow shot first. And you saw how the fight went." Iñaki said, staring at the Judge who nodded back.

"Sebastian Sallow also happens to be my boyfriend-"

Boyfriend? Sebastian felt his heart beat faster, wishing it was true.

"-we were seeing each other in secret as to confirm some of the school rumors about us."

The crowd gasped as he heard his sister huff quietly with a self satisfied voice, "I knew it!"

"As you saw from the fight, I was knocked out enough to nearly pass out. Enough to fool Mr. Sallow here-" Iñaki nods towards Sebastian before looking back to the Judge. "- to reasonably think that Solomon Sallow could have killed me. Solomon Sallow's death was that of a crime of passion as if you noticed, none of the spell Sebastian Sallow casted was an unforgivable until that green spell destroyed the rock in front of me and knocked me out a bit afterwards."

The courtroom murmured, approving of his actions, no longer painting him as a cold heart blooded murder but as a protective lover.

A title he didn't really hold.

He was protective...but not her lover.

"ORDER IN THE COURT ROOM!" The judge said as he slammed his gavel on the rune once more. The room was silent save of their breathing as the Judge stared at her once more.

"Why were you late? Where were you?"

Indeed Iñaki...where were you this entire time. Sebastian thought with a frown. He spent days looking for her without a sign. She found him instead.

"I needed to tie some loose ends with the Centaurs. I can't share details, but it was for exchange for their help in helping me take down Rookwood. I was able to just leave in time...you know how Centaurs are." Iñaki sheepishly smiled at the judge.

Sebastian knew it was a lie. It was that same smile that she gave him when she said she wouldn't go after Harrow when he found out what she and Natty were doing.

It was the same smile she gave to him before she vanished.

The judge nodded, believing in her lie before he called for a vote on whether to send him to Azkaban or not.

It was unanimous.

Sebastian Sallow would be walking out as a free man.

After the court session ended. Sebastian found he only had one major charge to serve - community service in St. Mungo. Specifically the sector that dealt with dark magic misuse for the entire summer.

He was alright with it as he felt Ominis hugging him once more the moment he could find him outside the courtroom. Anne was next to him, looking at Sebastian with tears in her eyes, apologizing for not believing him about what he said about Solomon. About Solomon nearly killing Iñaki.

"It's water under the bridge." He said as he hugged his sister who was finally, FINALLY talking to him once more and no longer saw him as something vile and unfamiliar. No longer seeing him as a monster as Solomon made him out to be.

"Where's Iñaki?" He finally said when he realized they were missing the one person he was wondering about the most.

"She went down to talk to someone in the Department of Mysteries." A clerk said, walking to him. "She said to find her at the entrance of the ministry."

When he found her, he gave her a hug and swung him around as she laugh before giving him a sad smile.

"You're free Seb, now what do you plan to do with your life?"

Sebastian frowned.

"Where were you? We were looking for you for days." He narrowed his eyes at her.

"I was around..." Iñaki mumbled looking away before looking back at him. "So what will you do now that you're free?" "None of this "What will I do as a free man". You didn't answer my question. Where were you? No body knew where you were for days." Sebastian said as she held her by her shoulders, staring at her, as if daring her to tell a lie.

"I can't tell you...not now." Iñaki said as her eyes darted around the room before looking back at him.

Sebastian took a deep breath and sighed as he said,

"Alright, but when we're out of here, I expect you to give me the full story."

"Of course." Iñaki gave him that smile again.

That sheepish smile.

Right than and there, Sebastian decided he'll get the truth out of her some way, some how.

...

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for lying to my field trip partner and ruining his dreams?

Alright so, for context - I was in this field trip to a village to learn about the local legend for my assignment and I partnered up with a boy from another school that grew up in the village (Let's call him K).

He was awfully shy, but he seemed very nice, and it was really, really obvious that he adores the legend... though he was self-conscious talking about it since he was a big fan of the ogre that everyone was afraid of instead of the heroes of the story the townsfolk adored. But I didn't see anything wrong with having an opinion and I liked how happy he was talking about it and wanting to be its friend so I thought we were off to a good start of a friendship.

Now, here's where it all starts; At the local festival, I somehow ran into the actual ogre from the legend with K's older sister (let's call her C). The ogre dropped her mask and ran off scared. And the first thing C said after we realized who we just met was that she wanted to lie about encountering K's literal childhood idol because she was worried he'd act recklessly like chase after it in the mountains during the middle of the night.

I thought that was unfair but... guys, C has some serious anger management issues, she freaked me out too much to try risking it. Even if she wasn't actually planning to shove a ball of poison gas in my mouth, I was scared she'd get a stroke or something with how often she shakes in rage.

Not only that, but when we brought the mask to their grandpa, he came to tell us a whole bombshell about how everything we know about the legend is a complete lie... and then proceeded to ALSO tell us not to tell K the truth.

At this point, this felt more like a family matter that I wasn't sure I had the right to intervene on. So when he came up to me afterwards and asked me what I was up to... I went ahead and ended up lying to him.

He... really didn't take it very well.

He thought we were maliciously leaving him out on things and making fun of him behind his back... Which wasn't true - the ogre just dropped her mask and we wanted to have it fixed and return it to her - but considering how harshly C speaks to him, I can't blame him that much?

I apologized when the cat eventually was out of the bag, but then the ogre was intimidated about meeting someone new and hid behind me when K tried to give her mask back... He didn't take that very well either...

He challenged me to battle a couple of times but each time, he didn't take the losses very well. It wasn't like it was from a lack of trying because his team was genuinely getting better from every challenge. K was getting so upset about things that it was starting to make C worried.

A looooot of things happened throughout but it'd take too long to cover it all. But long story short, we all came to set things right for the ogre, clear her name, and went to return her home. But it turned out, she actually wanted to stay with me and have me become her new owner. K.... REALLY didn't take that very well.

K believed that the ogre would've acknowledged him and be his friend if he became stronger. So he wanted to battle me for the right to have the ogre as her new owner. C tried to talk him down about it since it was the ogre's choice but he really wanted to prove himself.

I thought it would've been much more worse if I held back since he was taking this very seriously, so I had my team hit his with all we got on that battle.

Well... he accepted the loss. But he was very obviously upset about it, and the next day he refused to come out of his room or even say goodbye when he and C had to go back to their boarding school. So it's been kind of a lot to take in these past few days...

So uhm... guys, AITA?

[pico-digital-studios]

Into, Across and Beyond! Cast: ChaosIIUniverse Sonic and Sonia

Replaces: Peter B. Parker / Webb-verse Spidey (CU!Sonic) and Mayday Parker (CU!Sonia) Created by: ToonsiteComics

"Here's the one you've been waiting for!" - CU!Sonic

"The name is Sonia Rose, and I'm here to kick your asses straight to jail!" - CU!Sonia

A Sonic in the Blur Gang who's actually started a family? Who'd have thought it?

ChaosIIUniverse Sonic is the lead hero of his dimension, and after marrying his Amy Rose, they had a daughter together, affectionately named Sonia Rose, who takes after both her father and mother.

However, due to some unknown circumstances, Amy passed away, leaving Sonic a single father as he raised Sonia on his own. He taught her about swimming (which involved giving her LOTS of floaties), was there for her when choosing the right preschool (taking offense to any that didn't have chilli dogs on the lunch menu), comforting her when she had been bullied in school, scolding her when she accidentally breaks some stuff, and even teaching her stuff like how to tie her shoelaces.

This checking, of course, goes both ways, with Sonia herself keeping tabs on her dad to ensure he's not trying to get another spouse without her permission, even confiscating a chilli dog when he's caught texting Elise. Seems like that controlling side of Amy rubbed off on her daughter.

When some thieves started wreaking havoc around Sonic's home city, however, he had to be away from home a lot more, which inspired Sonia to try and help to make her dad proud. For instance, she showed up and intruded on a bank robbery, somehow stealing the robbers' weapons AND their bomb when their guards were dropped. Granted, she didn't know how to disarm the bomb afterwards, but Sonic arrived in good time to send it straight to the nearest desert.

Unfortunately, the thieves escaped with the cash, and Sonic felt upset with his daughter for jeopardising that mission and getting herself into danger. Once he realised her motivations for doing so, however, he calmed down and felt sorry himself for his upset, considering she's one of the few reasons why he's still going, especially after the loss of his wife. The two hugged it out and made up, with Sonic promising to spend more time with her if she doesn't try to save the day alone again.

Which brings us to the point of More than One Universe, when the duo are the second ones brought in when OMT!Tails ran off alone. When they found him, he's the second one to chime in about his loss, assuring the kid he wasn't alone in losing someone close to him.

With CU!Sonia still wanting to learn how to be a hero without getting herself in danger, Nitro offered to share his knowledge with her in a special training course, whilst CU!Sonic actively got involved in curing the rogue villains.

“I can relate to what [Nitro] just said. I lost Amy a while back when we had Sonia as a daughter. She was my Mina… It took me a while to move on from then and cope as a single father. Ever since, I kept trying to be the carefree hero she saw me as, but it became tough as time went on. Sonia was all I had left to call family. You shouldn’t have to experience that same darkness.”

During that time, he was even there for Errorverse Sonic, who was also carrying the burden of almost losing everyone he loved to Toxinfect, an event that scarred that version of the Blue Blur for life. The poor guy wasn't afraid to sob in CU!Sonic's arms after venting about it.

After all of that, CU!Sonic and CU!Sonia became the ninth and tenth official members of the Blur Gang, with Sonia tagging along with her father to ensure he's safe, and vice versa.

A temporary point in the Quill Society had them goofing around with Lost Memory Sonic a bit. As you can tell, the hedgehog is not that amused at the father and daughter's silly antics, but still tolerates it.

[reheheeheeeeeeeeereee]

Since you were a child, you were comedic relief. Always telling the right jokes at the right times, making everyone laugh. You were bouncing off the walls with bubbly joy and hilarity.

When you got to high school, your humor only grew. You were quieter, less bubbly, but still hilarious. From one-liners to elaborate pranks, no one could stop laughing when you were with them. If they were down, they went to you-and somehow, you never failed them.

You realized what this meant. You realized that your dreams of being a comedian, dreams of being able to stand onstage and land those jokes perfectly with your name in posters and people buying out the stands, that was possible. Maybe even inevitable.

When you started out, basically no one noticed you. You were some teenage nobody making TikToks to land a gig before college. Someone who could make people smile at their phones, chuckle a little-but you weren’t big.

Not until Ivy found you.

At first she just DMed you on Insta. She said you were funny; that she was a scout for one of the Hero’s associations. Looking to bring in some new talent. She told you that this wasn’t normal, that the jokes popping into your head and scribbled in the margins of your tests was a power.

You shrugged. That was all you could do. It didn’t matter, really; in a world of people who could bend steel and read minds and change shapes, the ability to make the perfect joke meant next to nothing. You’d even begun to suspect it was a power-just wished it was a better one.

Ivy had smiled, told you that even if it seemed useless-even if you couldn’t join the Young Minor Hero’s Association, the YMHA would love to have you on a stage.

You protested at first. In a room with people like that, they’d just make fun of you. You wouldn’t mean anything. But Ivy’s smile reached her friendly eyes and what else did you have, so you said yes.

It went better than even you thought it would. Some scrawny high school senior on a stage surrounded by heroes? But they laughed. They did. And a few of the mentors, the older heroes-they even shook your hand afterward.

So begun your career as a superpowered comedian.

They spread the news-news of a bright young student. Hilarious kid, they said. Show next week-you should go. And soon enough theaters were inviting you, contacting you. Saying, “hey, we heard you’re pretty funny. Magic, even.”

When Cal State reached out to you, you were stunned. This power that started out as just some inside jokes with your friends actually got you somewhere. You were still landing gigs, doing shows- making enough money to rent a little apartment near Henry Beach. Start your own little life.

College was okay. Yeah, you were doing great-making money, cozy place, good grades-but there were whispers. Sometimes even blatant insults.

“You shouldn’t be here,” they said. “You don’t even have an actual power. It’s a hobby. It won’t get you anywhere.” And it only got worse and worse the more famous you became.

“World’s Best Comedian,” the headlines said, but they also said “making people laugh: a real power? Experts say no.” They also said, “college kid thinks power will win them life.” They also said “flimsy ‘power’ questioned more and more.”

The first time you did it you were at lunch. Surrounded by your laughing childhood friends, a goofy grin on your face as you crammed potato chips down your throat before your test. And someone had come up to you.

“It’s you?” She sneered. “That’s it? Some hero. Not even a suit. Oh, wait-that’s probably because your ‘powers’ don’t matter, huh?”

Her gang of buck toothed girlfriends let out agonizing cackles and she threw me a cold, icy smile. You wanted, so badly, to snatch that laughter away as easily as you caused it. To reverse your powers. So you did.

Suddenly there was no laughter. No cackle. Eyes wide, the girls scrabbled at their throats, letting out murmured “what?”s.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STOP IT!” their leader shrieked. You only smirked. Serves them right.

But it only got worse. You were still running shows, but the more famous you became the more haters. The more people showing up with signs that said ‘not real powers’ and ‘you don’t matter’.

When you graduated college it was the worst. Everyone in the corridors and streets flying and using superpowers and telekinesis and whatever other crazy power they had. You did nothing. They saw you, and some gave you sympathetic looks, some patronizing. Some rolled their eyes or blatantly whispered, not bothering to look anywhere other than you.

Your teachers gave you encouraging smiles and you got this, honeys, but you knew. Your powers meant next to nothing.

They were growing, though. Without even trying you could strike laughter into people and take it away from others. You started experimenting, doing it to larger and larger groups at a time, then causing your roommate to burst into uncontrollable laughter from two rooms down. And yet, no one truly cared. Believed in you. Saw anything other than the teenage comedian.

Until you broke.

Until the laughter and the teasing got too much. Until they all hated you for little to no reason and told you you didn’t matter, and you’d amount to nothing. That your powers were meaningless.

They were only meaningful when you couldn’t bear it anymore. Only meaningful when you decided to show them-when you snatched up the teasing laughter and you didn’t let it go and in a horrified moment the world lost it all.

No one was laughing then.

You have a completely useless superpower in a world full of amazing superpowers. You have been a laughing-stock for years, until you started using your powers for evil… nobody is laughing now.

[thebeauregardbros]

Before @wolquestion deactivated(???) they posted a question smthn along the lines of "How does your WoL get along with the Scions?"

Spoilers up to the Endwalker expansion below, don't click if you haven't finished it yet!

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT CANON TO ALUS' RP PERSONA. He is not "The WoL", as in the main character of FFXIV, he is simply one WoL of many that work with the Scions in passing. In RP canon, I don't think he has interacted much with most of the Scions at all, and is moreso just a mildly annoying (albeit useful) fanboy they see once in awhile.

The following analyzation is for the AU where he is the main character of FFXIV.

If you feel I have written your favorite Scion incorrectly please feel free to correct me, but please do so politely.

-

Minfilia: Purely professional - he is polite and loyal to her, but feels easily flustered if she attempts to talk to him casually. They never got emotionally close, but I'm sure she regarded him as a valuable asset.

Tataru: Get along well enough but I think they suffer some passive-aggressive back-and-forth regarding her clothing designs. She thinks Alus is a bit of a snob when it comes to taste, but she also values his design input on occasion, as well as his business talent.

Y'shtola: Definitely respects her, but feels too nervous talking to her and tends to avoid doing so unless directly addressed. He is very submissive to her presence and dreads accidentally offending her somehow, which he absolutely did once he started praising her cutesy past persona revealed by Matoya. Greatly respects her intelligence, talent for research, and commanding demeanor.

Yda(Lyse): Got along really well with Yda! Her rambunctious and tomboyish personality made him feel at ease, I'd even say they were close friends! Unfortunately, after her reveal as Lyse and her appearance changed to something much more feminine, he immediately developed a massive crush on her and struggled to talk to her normally afterwards.

Papalymo: Thought he was too serious, therefore intimidating to be around. Unfortunately never knew him well before his passing, which Alus deeply regrets.

Thancred: I think early on Thancred enjoyed flustering Alus with talk about his romantic escapades and comments on surrounding women, but Alus found him vulgar and crass, and Alus' funny reactions got old after awhile. They don't really have anything in common except a shared interest of agility-based skillsets, which I imagine they've helped train eachother in when things were slow, but they don't really seek eachother out. Alus worries he's a bad influence on Arc.

Urianger: Became friends very shortly after meeting for the first time. Alus found interest in Urianger's research, and they share an interest in old faerie tale texts. Alus regards himself as Urianger's apprentice and just like a fanboy towards his hero, he started picking up Urianger's speech patterns quickly and adapting them to his own (albeit a bit clumsily.) Every time Alus sees Urianger, he breaks out in a sprint to do a running hug towards him. Other Scions have started taking precautions in blocking Alus' stampeding body to help Urianger avoid any injuries or general discomfort. Urianger is one of the very few people known that Alus feels comfortable making physical contact with besides Arc and G'raha. I think Urianger finds Alus' affections a bit overwhelming, and surrounding people find it painfully obvious Alus has a crush on him.

Alphinaud: Alus hates complicated politics, so tends to not really "click" with Alphinaud since his hyperfixation on planning political strategy in that head of his nonstop oft doesn't calm itself. Alus has always felt awkward around Alphinaud; although they both have a burning desire to see the world improve from a young and naive age, Alus would rather use his hands to forge that way.

Alisaie: Total besties, but she probably rolls her eyes because of his flamboyant oddness a lot. Despite that I think she cares deeply for him and worries about his tendencies to not put himself first ever to a point she gets very angry at him often. She probably has a small crush on him (as is imo canon with WoLMeteor) and is both a little frustrated and thankful that Alus doesn't look at her like he does Minfilia or Lyse. She probably criticizes him a lot in a sort of tsundere loving way. Alus regards her as close a sister to him as Arc is a brother, and would do anything for her. He always asks to team up with her when prompted for a mission, they work together and get along verbally well.

Krile: Was intimidated by her at first but very slowly began to think of her as a warm and comforting presence in his life. He thinks of her as kind and gentle and admires her for it. They probably have tea together sometimes. He still feels a little awkward around feminine women, but I think she does a decent job matching his demeanor to keep conversations going.

G'raha: Both Arc and Alus are in a polyamorous queerplatonic relationship with him but neither of them are fully aware of it despite the three of them often always side-by-side. G'raha has two hands. Those hands are the Beauregard Brothers'.

BONUS

Estinien: Absolutely could not stand this guy when they first met. Alus would take almost nonstop jabs at Estinien in barely-veiled insults every time the man would speak for the entirety of Heavensward. He eventually warmed up to Estinien once he realized the man was trying hard to be better, but I think their past has a lingering effect of tenseness at them getting closer than strictly lukewarm coworkers. Alus is still not a fan of his hygiene habits and is trying so fucking hard not to dunk on him when he finds out Estinien overspent his money. Alus won't insult him anymore though, and like with anyone else, he tries to see the best in him and compliment him when the situation arises.

[denisezd0]

Academic Blog #5

I will be choosing one of my favourite sad romance movie posters as a media object to analyse.

The film is ONE DAY Below are the posters I found about each country's choices.

United Kingdom

South Korea (Republic of Korea)

Hong Kong, China

Georgia

Thailand

United States of America

I still think the male lead is handsome, even though I'm a little numb after seeing so many posters in similar and different sizes. Please forgive me for being a nymphomaniac.

Production began on 15 July 2010, based on the 2009 novel of the same name by author David Nicholls. It tells the story of two people who have graduated from the same university, at the beginning of a graduation ceremony prepared for them by the university. Taking advantage of this frenzy, Dexter searches for someone special to spend his last night of revelry and romance with. He sets his sights on Emma. However, after a brief exchange, nothing happens between them. For the next 20 years, they met on this day every year just to meet and talk about each other's lives. Dexter went through the ups and downs of his career and marriage, while Emma savoured the sadness of life at the bottom. They are soulmates with hearts of gold, hearts of gold but furthest apart. The theme of the film seemed to tell me a love story for one day of the year.

One of the things that surprised me was that this poster was different from other such rich film posters. I have looked for many photos and almost all of them have this one of the male and female protagonists kissing on the street as the background, so I can venture a guess that, firstly, the place where this kiss took place must have been a special place that made it memorable for the male and female protagonists. According to the plot of the film, it proves that this is the street where they kissed for the first time after graduation that day. Secondly, its hazy architectural backdrop and ambiguous texture made me speculate if their relationship wasn't that established yet, could it be a chance encounter? Then the film shows that the heroine is seen as having a crush on a guy in college, and I'm indicating that she's seeing as being a little nervous by the body language of the poster where she gently grips as she embraces the kiss.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the male and female protagonists walk in opposite directions, with a sense of brushing shoulders and kissing goodbye, echoing the slightly sad ending of the film - i.e., approaching from afar, then meeting, falling In love, and ultimately somehow leaving. The course of the film indicates that for a year afterwards, Emma worked as a waitress in a London restaurant and wrote her own literature. Dexter, on the other hand, is a presenter of a programme and becomes successful and wealthy. The next year, Dexter and his wife Selvie, whom he married through pregnancy, had a daughter, whom he began to care for as Selvie fornicated with an old friend of hers, Clem. A divorce eventually ensued. In the meantime, Emma broke up with Ian and became a writer. Emma had a new boyfriend and Dexter was devastated and ready to leave when Emma chased after him in time to kiss him deeply and passionately by the river. One afternoon, while cycling out of an alleyway, Emma is violently sideswiped by a lorry and is put to sleep for eternity.

Fourthly, what is amazing is the movement of the hero and heroine, as at the moment just before the climax in the picture, the folds on the clothes move as if the wind is fluttering. The costumes are also fresh, young and slim-looking, like the youthful flavour of first love.

As we know, film posters are mainly used for film publicity, and the symbols are mainly created artistically using painting, writing and photography. It can predict and indicate the plot of the film more accurately, and convey its artistic influence and the central idea of the film review. One day the slogan "twenty years two people" deepens the mystery of the film given by the poster, two people twenty years, what kind of two people how to twenty years? What kind of two people?

The compositions representing visual culture in ONE DAY are visual images taken by the cinematographer reflecting visual culture, the main background is a man and a woman kissing on the street, and the ideology covers the purpose and concept of the design. The film revolves around the love story of two men. The beautifully crafted images are used as a marketing and promotional tool to capture the viewer's attention.

I also saw another layer of meaning that posters bring to the table in an article written by Gary Don of Roz. The article writes that the general function of a film poster is not to advertise individual films or genres but to herald the simple fact that a film is being shown in a particular venue. I think this is the commercial purpose of the poster as a media object.

The experimental method of classifying film posters into multi-labelled genres through the Gram layer makes film posters less mysterious and summarises the different types of posters. For the action genre, weapons such as guns and knives received attention. For the adventure genre, characters were mainly focused on the animation genre, with an emphasis on showing animated characters or titles. The fantasy genre also showed a focus on characters. The comedy and drama genres generally focus on characters and atmosphere. The horror, suspense, and thriller genres emphasise a sense of gloom throughout the poster, depicting an atmosphere of terror. Romantic films show a focus on characters with many posters featuring a man and a woman. The sci-fi genre focuses on the background and characters, reflecting the atmosphere of the poster.

References

Yang, S. (2023) ‘Analysis of top box office film poster marketing scheme based on data mining and deep learning in the context of film marketing’, PloS one, 18(1), pp. e0280848–e0280848.

Rhodes, G.D. (2007) ‘The Origin and Development of the American Moving Picture Poster’, Film history (New York, N.Y.), 19(3), pp. 228–246.

WI, J.A., Jang, S. and KIM, Y.B. (2020) ‘Poster-based Multiple Movie Genre Classification Using Inter-Channel Features’, IEEE access, 8, pp. 1–1.

Mahlknecht, J. (2015) ‘Three words to tell a story: The movie poster tagline’, Word & image (London. 1985), 31(4), pp. 414–424.

[ericmhe]

Probably the last of these. Originally it was just going to be four, but this one was actually asked for. Anyway, there's only the one main design for Biollante and while there are some others from video games or toys they're usually pretty slight variations on a theme.

Hero - 'Cartoon series' redesign

Since the conceit is that the friendlier designs come from a fictional cartoon series that managed to license most of the Toho kaiju the idea is that Biollante was such a victim of executive meddling, insistence on making female kaiju distinct even though the artists pointed out it's not obvious is most reptiles and not really relevant in giant monsters. As such it resulted in her design heavily relying on Biollante's initial flower form to feminize the creature's appearance. It had the unfortunate side effect that she wasn't used very often mostly out of protest. Early concept art was much cooler looking and when it leaked online the assorted takes became the default for fanart over what was used in the show.

Biollante might not have gotten to do that much, but a lot of it was fairly memorable when she was allowed to get in on the action and a writer managed to sneak in a Biollante & Mothra focused episode. Said episode is rather divisive with some loving it and others hating it but that does make it one that's remembered.

Horror Setting -

This one's a pretty easy call, Biollante's an unholy mishmash of heavily unrelated creatures so just play it up. A reliable horror thing is to distort humanity into something barely or even entirely unrecognizable, so putting a bit more human into Biollante's look felt like an obvious way to make her more disturbing. I had considered kind of making the vines out of hands but I knew I'd never draw that and dropped it quickly. The consistent fear reaction the hand enemies from Legend of Zelda get did kind of push me into keeping the vines ending in hands though, the most recent as of making this are the Gloom Hands, so we can consider them an inspiration here.

The creation of Biollante is one of the weirder kaiju origin stories, but when the creature changed from seemingly peaceful to another violent giant few were surprised. The tendency for many kaiju to resurrect somehow after apparent death meant few were shocked when Biollante reformed after her first battle. What was shocking was the creature's apparent reclaimed human component, seemingly Biollante had become benign to humans. It wasn't the case however, eventually it was discovered that small populations had been wiped out after inhaling Biollante spores and sprouting vines that joined with the main body. The monster found itself in battle with another kaiju shortly afterwards and towards the end became less coordinated and more animalistic as her power was drained. This became a cycle and in spite of seriously skeptical individuals it became impossible to deny that Biollante paradoxically gains a level of intelligence and compassion for humans after feeding on them. Nearly all psychics refuse to be anywhere near Biollante for long and have come to serve as something of an early warning system for the plant monster's respawning, but few believe them when they claim Biollante is a soul-eater, some kind of mass delusion caused by the foulness of contact with an alien monster mind tinted with human consciousness.

Shame I didn't pull of finishing this yesterday, would have been a fun coincidence. Oh well.