#But her standards are really high and she forgets the toll fighting can take on her friend

[madametamma]

A while ago, I posed the question ‘Where do fans stand on Danny having an obsession?’  With different answers all around. 

Some said they don’t like the idea that Danny has an obsession because it takes away his agency and makes his choices less meaningful if he’s forced to do what he does.

Some said they loved Danny with an obsession because that can lead to angst potential.

Others said it depended on the story.

What about all of the above?

Danny seems to be slacking off in ghost hunting lately, at first it was just, “I haven't gotten a full night’s sleep in a while, let me take a break.” But that was quite a few days ago and his sleep schedule has gotten back on track so there’s no excuse for him to be cutting patrolling short tonight, or for him to ignore what could possibly be a villainous plot going on in town, Sam insists!

Tucker points out that said villainous plot is just a new hot dog shop opening up in town which she waves off.  She insists Danny could be doing more.

Danny replies that if his ghost sense goes off, he’ll do his job, but it’s nice to take a few days off.

Sam leaves Danny and Tucker to play games while she hops on her scooter to patrol the city by herself. As she zooms through the streets she mutters “I wish the one with actual superpowers on this team was more obsessed with with doing this job than me.”

When the friends meet up the next day, Danny is much more vigilant.  Sam’s pleased although Tucker is bummed that Danny doesn’t want to see a new movie after school in favor of patrolling the city. 

For a little while, everything is good.  Danny is taking his job as a hero seriously, ghosts are getting beaten and taken back to the ghost zone, crime is noticeably going down in Amity.

Tucker points out to his friend that he might want to do something about those bruises on his face and Danny waves him off.  Hazards of the job. Sometimes the ghosts get a few good shots in.  He’ll just say it was Dash, if anyone asks.

By next week, Danny was noticeably skipping more classes than usual.  His excuse being ‘ghost fighting’ and Sam warns that he should be more careful.  Even his clueless parents are going to notice.

Later that night, Sam’s house gets a call from Jazz.  She thinks she knows what the conversation is going to be about and prepares some excuses on Danny’s behalf, but is thrown off when she confronts her about not seeing Danny since Yesterday.”

“He staggered home at 2:00 AM last night, looking like he got run over by a truck! me, mom and dad tried to talk to him but he looked so exhausted, the only thing we could think to do was send him to bed, thinking we would talk again in the morning but he was gone when we woke up.  We haven’t seen him since then! Sam, what is going on?!” Jazz cries.

At that moment Danny flies in through her window, ectoplasm seeping through an an enormous gash on his abdomen. 

“Can I get a patchwork?”, he mutters, groggily. Sam hangs up the phone in shock.

She goes to work, stitching up his wounds.  Danny murmurs some explanation of why it’s not that bad and how he’ll just need a minute before he’s ready to keep going, as his eyes droop and head nods in his exhaustion.  She tells him that he can just take a nap here until he’s well enough to go home but he disappears the instant she’s finished.

[drdemonprince]

Not gonna lie it is quite emotionally dispiriting for a certain category of people online to treat me like i'm a flagrant covid denier who doesnt mask or care about disabled people simply because i'm like "oh hey, your grandmother who doesn't wear a mask is a victim of the same systemic forces as you." or "hey, profound social isolation takes a toll on people that impacts their health and their behavior and that must be included in our risk calculations and mitigation strategies whether we like it or not"

like. i mask. i test. i get vaccinated/boosted. i communicate risk factors to people. i plan outdoor events when i can. i fight to not have in person engagements at work tooth and nail and often at personal expense.

but even if i never did any of those things, i would not deserve to get sick and die, because there are no morally acceptable COVID deaths, no matter what choices a person makes or doesn't make, no matter which mitigations they do or fail to do.

one of my close friends just got fired because her boss said she was "taking covid too seriously." that's the kind of evil we are up against here. not like, your friend's friend going to a concert and forgeting his mask in his other jacket that one time. that guy's still doing better than 90% of americans by having a mask he carries around with him in his jacket. he's not some eugenicist demon. he's some guy living in really miserable and difficult circumstances who made a to-be-expected-sometimes human error. and your grandma who has been propagandized into believing that COVID isn't a big deal (while in actuality being quite high risk herself) is a victim not an evildoer.

way to win over more people to your cause guys. very public health minded of you to view anyone who doesn't perfectly meet your behavioral and ideological standards as an enemy. way to punish the behavior you want. it fucking sucks man.

[surveillance-0011]

TBOI Headcanons: Horsemen

Death

He/him

He’s...nice. Not a good person by any means but he’s the most polite of the bunch. Kind of strange though. Creepily calm, a bit sarcastic, and he has a pretty morbid view on the world.

Reserved and usually grumpy. He can be rather chipper off-duty, though. Putting up with the others takes a lot of energy from him.

Tired....

A bit neurotic but good at coming off as a down-to-earth guy.

He’s the most book-smart of the bunch and he’s fairly wise. A bit emotionally stunted, but he tries his best to be mature and make the right choices.

Death is more than a bit nihilistic and pessimistic. He has a hard time just... caring, mostly about himself.

Not to say he’s completely apathetic, he can be pretty empathetic but he tries not to act on that too much because if he did his job would have broken him by now.

He likes to think he’s got it all under control, but he does not. He’s more prone to pettiness and stupid decisions than he’d like to admit.

That being said he’s been pretty good with like. Growing and maturing though. He’s changed more than he realizes in just in the past.... decade or so ago. A bit of a late start for an immortal but hey at least he’s slightly less of a scumbag.

It’s usually not easy to anger him unless he’s really tired or something’s already set him off. When something does piss him off badly he’s a bit prone to freaking out. He’s not very good at handling his emotions. 

Sees his own job as a necessary evil, because hey, someone’s gotta do it.

Interested in botany/gardening, as well as literature.

Genuinely nice- or at least polite- to the kids when he’s not supposed to be murdering them. He sees no reason to go out of his way to do so, especially since unwarranted cruelty towards others has only bit him in the ass.

Famine’s older brother. The two have always had each other’s backs.

Diligent, and always considers the logistics to things instead of acting on emotion alone.

Protective of the other horsemen.

Pretty short tbh

His horse’s name is Chili.

Famine

She/he (bigender). You can use both interchangeably or only use one set, she doesn’t care. Fine with they/them too but it’s never really clicked w/ him enough to be preferred.

Usually prefers more masculine terms (brother, sir, mr...) but fine with anything.

.Flips between bouncing off the walls and having no energy whatsoever.

Impulsive, she’s got terrible judgement and has the most idiotic of ideas sometimes.

Fairly easygoing, tries to forgive and forget and doesn’t let little transgressions get to her

Actually pretty damn sad. Needs some self care but never looks after herself.

I mean she’s optimistic and usually happy but like. There’s always just a bit of sadness, you know? He’s dealt with a lot and it’s definitely taken its toll on him.

Disaster Lesbian

Tries to be a graceful loser but she can get a bit more competitive than she’d like to admit.

Has a hard time relating to others and considering how they feel, at least when it comes to anything more complex than “bad thing happened now I’m sad/mad” He’s a drifter by nature, always onto the next big thing for a quick thrill.

Eats a lot. It’s never enough.

Plants and a good deal of food will decay if she touches them, or even gets too close to them.

Like his brother he has some interest in nature. Famine is more on the adventurous side, though. She’s tried to live off the land a few times with varying success.

Named her horse Frisk

Pestilence

He/him

Calm, quiet, but also a pessimistic jackass.

Always in a bad mood. I mean, he’s permanently sick with just about everything contagious and deadly. You’d be grumpy, too!

Surprisingly high pain tolerance. A good deal of his nerves have probably just.. shut down or something. Or maybe he’s just numb to everything after a lifetime of pain.

Sleeps a lot

Dislikes his situation a lot, but doesn’t mind the company of the others.

Lazarus is terrified of this dude. The other kids are mostly grossed out or annoyed by him.

Likes to be alone.

Fairly smart, but comes off as absent minded bc he’s pretty much too sick to function. He slips up a lot and he’s pretty damn clumsy

Probably the most rational of the bunch, when he’s not in airplane mode. 

He’s also got a fairly strong moral compass. He doesn’t really like fighting the kids unlike War and Famine. Or just having to go up against people in general. Hell he hates the fact people get sick because of him. At the very least Pest has higher standards and is fairly transparent

But that isn’t to say he’s a good person. Yeah he doesn’t go out of his way to hurt others for shits and giggles and He’s Not Conquest but he doesn’t ever object to any of the shit the kids are put through and well. Yknow he still does kill them. He will also encourage some of War’s antics when it’s against someone he dislikes.

Tries to be as supportive as he can for the others. He knows he can’t do too much without overexerting so he tries to be encouraging and comforting as he can.

This compassion usually isn’t extended to humans, though.

Not very emotive, the only emotions he ever really expresses would be disdain and mild concern.

Not very fond of Conquest but they don’t hate each other. They actually work together well, too.

Friends with Mahalath. They’re pretty close!

His horse’s name is Moses.

War

He/it

He’s not very friendly, he’s pretty defensive and always on edge.

Out of all the horsemen, he’s probably the one closest with the Beast.

Lots of scars n injuries, it’s practically stitched together

One gold tooth

Impulsive, prefers solving issues through violence than through reason.

He can be fairly clever, though.

Intentionally angers/upsets others, likes causing problems and ruining things for people.

Desires wealth and power

Gets burnt out pretty quickly.

Emotional, insecure, and sensitive, and he hates this part of him. Definitely overcompensates for it.

Explosive temper, quite literally. Catches fire when upset and explodes if it’s more intense. Damage done to him also makes it happen. It’s not entirely voluntary but can be held off, and his “sobbing” sprite is him doing exactly that (but he’s probably also trying not to cry lmao). In the Ultra War fight, however...

Its daily routine leaves a lot to be desired. It wakes up, goes to work, then it goes home and just. Sits and rots.

Also, his diet is god awful. Please just eat a fruit or vegetable for once maybe you’d feel better goddamn.

He cannot remember if his horse is actually a horse or not but uhh he named her Bellum.

Conquest

He/they.

High and mighty sort of attitude. Can be very selfish. Stubborn, set in his ways. Gets defensive if you call him out or tell him he’s wrong.

Gay + nonbinary but in the closet (and denial) about both of those things. They’re trying to unlearn years’ worth of internalized bigotry.

Used to be worse, now trying to unlearn his toxic behaviors. But he’s still awful.

Doesn’t remember anything before their death. However they’ve held very strong Christian (specifically Catholic) beliefs all their life and they have a pretty black and white way of thinking.

Very cold and clinical. He has a bit of a temper but there’s a sort of calmness to everything he does even when he’s pissed.

Just as argumentative and aggressive as War but like more of a threat.

The others call him Connie sometimes, especially Death, who practically almost always calls him by this nickname.

Doesn’t harbor ill will towards Pestilence. They might have been overshadowed, but it’s not Pestilence’s own fault. If anything, being out of the spotlight has been good for Conquest, even if they do miss the attention sometimes. The only reason the two dislike each other is because their personalities clash.

Now if there’s anyone he hates that would be the Headless Horseman. Fuck that guy amiright

Very protective of Death. The two are close, Death is probably the only person who is consistently nice to him.

Utterly terrified of needles (hypodermic, not sewing needles, though he’s not good with sharp objects tbh) and medical stuff makes him anxious

Seems very... off. Just weird vibes but no one can pin point what about him is wrong.

Oh uh and his horse’s name is Josephine.

[thenovelartist]

Childhood Friends Headcanon -MLQC

I’m sorry to all the people who come to my blog for ML only to get bombarded by posts for MLQC. But I’m enjoying myself.

Premise: What if the boys and MC actually stayed together once they met?

(Note: Minor spoilers for chapters 7-13, particularly surrounding boys backstories.)

Gavin

He’ll never forget that day in the rain meeting MC.

She knew about him—his reputation preceded him—and it was clear she was leery of him.

But with a little time, she came around.

So much so that she was sad that he graduated before her.

He was kinda sad, too, to be honest. He didn’t want to leave her.

But they never lost touch. Made sure to meet up as frequently as they could.

He didn’t attend his high school graduation—he both didn’t care and thought the everyone else would appreciate him not being present—but she did watch him with pride as he graduated his cop training program.

He almost cried over the fact that he actually had someone there to support him. He didn’t have familial support, but that didn’t really matter anymore when he had his own personal cheerleader.

He surprised her by showing up at her high school graduation.

Not really a “Surprise” but she was still wildly excited to see him, nonetheless.

Though they didn’t get to see each other often—Gavin busy with his demanding job and MC busy with college—they were instantly contacting the other when they had a moment of free time.

Gavin totally tried to coordinate his days off with hers.

They were that couple that claimed they were just friends but looked to the world like they were dating while also each wishing they were actually dating but both being too chicken to confess.

But Gavin finally gets the guts one day.

No surprise MC quickly followed up with a confession of her own.

How do you date?

They’d been so close and doing couple-y things for so long. Like, what was even a date compared to what they normally did?

They decided to do something they wouldn’t normally do and have a nice, truly ‘couple-y’ dinner.

Then they chuckled all the way home because that really wasn’t their style.

Still enjoyed it.

Gavin took her home, dropping her off at her door… and totally chickened out of kissing her goodnight.

They try the “date” thing again. This time, something more casual.

And that time, it did end with a kiss.

Gavin’s little mind went “boom”.

Already positive he’s gonna marry this girl.

Waits a little longer to propose, though. Just to make it seem like he’s not rushing it.

Courthouse wedding a few months later. Her father witnesses.

Then when her father passes shortly after, leaving her with the company, she’s constantly having to ask her coworkers for new copies of documents because she’s not used to signing her new last name quite yet. Especially when everyone still calls her by her maiden name. Or sometimes addresses her like they would her late father. (It’s a change for everyone.)

She’s got it down in a couple of days and likes her new signature better than her old one.

After marriage, Gavin also has a problem of his own. Particularly with the ring on his hand.

It’s his new nervous tick to play with it when he’s stressed on a scouting mission. And when he has to take it off for an undercover one, he’s a mess without it on.

Feels like he’s being unfaithful to the love of his life. MC has had to reassure him many times he’s not but secretly is touched that he feels that way.

These two have disastrous schedules, which is why when they both have time off they can spend together, phones go on silent. Someone can literally come to their house if it’s an emergency.

Kiro

They make it out of the lab together.

Poor kids were terrified out of their mind, each only five. They never let go of each other’s hands during their escape.

And they don’t want to be separated afterwards.

These two kids are each other’s “emotional support person.”

Literally inseparable.

These kids’ guardians bend over backwards to accommodate them. MC has a killer set of puppy dog eyes, but Kiro’s pout is downright impossible to resist.

They end up in the same classes at school.

Play together on the playground at recess and spend lunches together.

They are the “class couple.” And do get teased for it.

They’re told to ignore it, but it still takes a toll on them.

Eventually, Kiro steps out of school to become home-schooled, thanks to his music career.

Oh, these two kids do not know how to handle themselves.

But they are growing up and they can be apart from each other, right?

Right?

Wrong.

They survive not being in class together, but the moment they’re each out of school, they are attached to their phones, texting or calling each other.

Get together to hang out as much as humanly possible.

Kiro has 1000% both snuck off sets to go see MC and snuck MC onto sets to have her around.

MC has also enabled Kiro’s snacking by sneaking him anything he desires.

Usually it’s chips. She’s his chip dealer. Which only leads to the nickname “Miss Chips”.

They were so close that this mutual crush thing was absolutely unavoidable and unsurprising to most people who watched them.

They were fifteen and each exploring their feelings for each other and what dating was like.

And by sixteen, these two were totally making out in closets.

Savin just deals. As long as it doesn’t get out to the public, he’s fine with it. They’re generally discrete, anyway.

Though, the poor guy has had to hunt Kiro’s hiding spot down more than once. Generally, he scopes out the building beforehand so he knows where to find Kiro and MC if the superstar disappears from set.

Kiro would totally get her a promise ring. “I can’t officially propose now, but… I don’t think I’m going to be letting my Miss Chips go anytime in the future.”

She’s in tears.

Kiro’s already planned out proposing to her as soon as they are eighteen and has scoped out the perfect wedding venue.

Though, Savin now has to do everything in his power to keep the whole thing under wraps. He thinks it’s best the public doesn’t know Kiro’s getting married so young. They’ll slowly break it later.

MC travels with him everywhere, attending school online for convenience sake.

But when her dad passes and she has to take over the company, Kiro does his best to settle down more in Loveland to be by her side and support her more.

He fights to film exclusively at her company.

They totally have a closet that they make out in there, too. One MC has the sole key to.

Victor

He doesn’t loose track of her during their escape from that hellhole disguised as a “lab”.

She saves him, and he manages to carry her to safety.

Refuses to be separated from her after that.

Victor soon becomes like her over-protective big brother.

If he’s with her, he’s got his eye on her. And he’s with her a lot.

He’s so soft with her. Yes, there’s name calling on occasion, but he’s always met with a giggle when he calls her ‘dummy.’

He doesn’t really mean it, anyways.

Totally helps her with her homework.

And she always helps him in the kitchen. Rather, she tries and just ends up being the dishwasher after an incident with the fire alarm.

But she’s just happy if pudding is involved.

And though Victor swears he’s not going to make pudding every single night… there’s pudding more nights than not.

She goes to all his graduations; high school and college.

And he’s there supporting her at hers, looking on like the proud big brother his is.

“Good job, dummy.”

He totally teaches her how to write reports and such. Makes her do them and redo them until up to his standards.

“If you can impress me, you’ll win over anyone in the business world.”

Also teaches her all the ins and outs about running a business and how to thrive in the business world.

She’s always ready to take advice he offers.

Everyone in LFG knows that unless Victor actually is in an important meeting, MC is allowed in his office any time.

Has always seen her as his little sister.

Until she takes over her father’s company.

Suddenly, there’s a warmth in his chest as he watches her handle everything with ease.

It no longer feels like he’s watching over his little sister but rather watching a strong, capable woman handle the high-intensity job of running a company with confidence and poise.

… okay, poise was too generous a word. But his point still stood.

Suddenly, he notices she’s actually on his schedule. And their meeting takes place with none of the familiarity that they’ve become accustomed to.

He won’t coddle her as the business owner. She assures him she expects that from him.

And when she leaves his office, Victor finds himself a little bit of a mess.

They slowly lose their brother/sister mentality and grow into business partners that are close enough to have dinner a couple times a week.

“Question,’ he asks her one night. “Can these be considered ‘dates’ or not?”

She drops her fork in surprise.

They date for a several months before Victor proposes. He wouldn’t have proposed so early to anyone else but MC has always been an exception.

They put the wedding together in eight months. It’s a good, large, proper wedding, and they honeymoon out of the country. Because of course they do. Victor wants to give MC the best and only the best.

Total power couple, and Victor takes pride in that.

Lucien

This tree, or their tree, as Lucien likes to refer to it as, holds a very special place in his heart.

It started off as his sanctuary, the spot where he came out to draw.

But then it became the place that he got to bond with the girl who saved him.

After his parents were killed, everything went downhill for him at a rapid pace.

But she…

“It’s going to be okay.”

He still remembers the warmth of her hands when she held his and the tightness of her hugs she engulfed him in.

This girl’s smile lit up his dark world.

She’s the sole reason he escaped the pull of Black Swan.

Being four years apart as they were put a little gap between them growing up.

People looked at them in disdain so often that Lucien constantly lied about her being his sister.

He didn’t like that kind of attention from people, though he also logically knew why they received it.

Though he did his best to act respectfully and appropriately, he couldn’t help but feel all fluttery around MC. Every single time she came around, he had a physical reaction to her proximity.

Did his best to always act the gentleman. The last thing he wanted was to make her uncomfortable.

For now, he focused on his studies, partly because he found them interesting, partly because he wanted to be the kind of man who could provide well for his family.

Because he had his heart set on making one with her.

It was irrational, if he thought of it logically, to be become romantically attached to someone simply because he was emotionally attached to. Yet he could not separate the pull of romantic notions from his emotional relationship to her.

He eventually surrendered his attempts at trying to separate the two and gave up entirely in his quest to understand it.

He was already on his track to a doctorate when she graduated high school. And suddenly, them both being adults made those four years that separated them growing up seem a little less of a hurdle.

That’s when he asked her out.

“I had to wait so long, but I think now’s finally an appropriate time.”

And that’s when she admitted she had feelings for him, too.

It warmed his cold little heart.

They did take things slowly.

But they were already discussing marriage by the time MC had to take over the company when her father suddenly passed.

Honestly, though it was a terrible tragedy, Lucien is glad he finally gets to return the favor of being there for her just as she was there for him all those years ago.

He also decides to hide the ring he’d bought in a drawer, only to open it again when things were stable.

Well… relatively. The life of a media company manager is never fully stable. Mostly, Lucien just got tired of waiting.

He takes her back to their tree to propose.

They get married there, too.

[lovelylunarwriting]

Yangyang Prince!AU

Yangyang’s known around the kingdom as less of a prince and more of “the king and queen’s child”

He’s just not the princely type??? He 10/10 looks like a prince and -33/10 acts like one

While some royalty just have that "aura” about them,,,, Yangyang does not

But that’s not a bad thing! He’s incredibly approachable as a person

Not a soul would dare to address him as anything but “Prince”, though, for fear of him overhearing and being like “excuse me what the fuck did you call me”

While the country itself adores the prince and his natural personality, the king and queen take issue with his “lack of royal precedent” and hold him to a ridiculously high standard.

He doesn’t seem to let this dampen his spirit, though. Whenever local newspapers ask him about it, he always says “I’m firstborn and in line to the throne. There’s not much they can do about it regardless if I keep filling the courtyard fountains with soap so that they bubble. Who doesn’t like bubbles?”

Deep down though it takes more of a toll on him. In his eyes, it’s like his parents are saying he isn’t good enough to be king one day.

The reality is that they’re just worried that being in charge of the nation will stress him out like it has them, and they want to prepare him the best they can.

To prepare him for his eventual role, they send Yangyang into the nearby villages to meet with traders from other nations who want to open up shop in the many marketplaces.

Yangyang’s nation is known for their vast and varying markets because they’ll let just about anyone open a business as long as a member of the royal family approves it.

They go about doing this in two ways:

One, they can request an audience with the king and queen and they’ll write up a contract. The king is pretty much there for show, the queen is really the one who’s built this trade empire.

Or, two, if the person is in a rush they can schedule to meet with Prince Yangyang in town and plead their case to him. If he thinks it’s an extenuating circumstance, they essentially get a “Prince Fast-Pass” and receive an immediate audience with the king and queen. 

For example, he had one woman who was a refugee from a war-torn nation across the continent and she came to their country to open up a shop to provide for her and her four kids. Yangyang was like “that sucks, I’m sorry. Do you wanna talk to my mom about it?” and personally escorted her to the palace.

You have been in this market for a  h o t minute though. You got your audience with the king and queen when you were like,,,, twelve?? And you’ve been selling your family’s farms produce ever since.

One of your parents would’ve gone to the audience but there was a Very Serious Ladybug Problem going on with the tomatoes so they sent you instead (the queen was surprised but you presented a fair argument for the business,,,, she had no reason to say no)

So you set up your market every week, Monday through Friday. The weekends are for helping around at home (and sleeping off the work week, of course)

This season’s harvest hasn’t been nearly as plentiful as the previous. It’s not that there’s a shortage necessarily, just that the last season’s harvest was abnormally abundant. 

Which of course means you’ll have to sell pretty much all of it to get a similar profit to last year while keeping the same standard prices (raising the prices wouldn’t be fair to your loyal customers)

“Guess there goes my Saturdays, then…”, you mumble to yourself, deciding to open up the extra day in order to sell every single tomato, carrot, and head of lettuce even if it kills you.

The first Saturday of the season comes and goes with no trouble, and so does the next.

But the third week. That’s when you notice him.

The pickpocket in the bright yellow shoes.

He weaves his way through the crowd with elegance and ease, reaching out here and there, plucking items from stalls, pockets, and displays,  slowly putting them in his pockets.

You find yourself entranced, staring at him slip through stall after stall.

That is until he steps up to yours.

He glances up, making eye contact with you, and flinches.

Apparently your glare was most apparent than you’d intended.

You don’t say anything though and neither does he. He just smirks at you and makes his way to the next stall.

Your eyes follow him and you see him swipe a pair of earrings off the man’s table to your left.

You might’ve said something but:

1.) That particular jeweler is a creep to the women in town so he deserves to be robbed in your opinion, and 

2.) If you snitch on some thief, that only makes you a target to whoever the thief is associated with. You don’t know if he’s got some thuggish friends and you’re not looking for a fight.

That is unless he decides to try and steal from you. Then he better be as good as fighting as he is pickpocketing.

After this initial encounter, you honestly forget about him.

That is until a few months later, when you spot a flash of bright yellow in the massive crowd on another Saturday morning rush.

You fumble to make change for the person buying three dozen heads of lettuce, trying to find his distinctly soft face in the sea of people.

At first you think you’ve lost him, until the lady buying out all your lettuce moves one of her bags and you see him snatch an apple from the barrel in front of your table.

Blinding hot rage sparks its way down your neck and shoulders, and without even thinking you shove the change into the woman’s hands and slide over the table.

The crook looks behind him just in time for you to grab him by the collar and drag him into the nearest alley.

The shock in his eyes is clear and although he tries to fight back, he can’t break your hold.

You shove him up against the brick wall of the alley and ask him one very important question.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?”

He kind of just makes a weird gurgling sound though because your knuckles are pressing into his trachea.

You loosen your grip a little and look at him expectantly.

“I’m the Prince-”, he starts, but you cut him off because listen you might not be rich but you’re not stupid.

“Bullshit. And you can keep that apple, but you better hope I never catch you stealing from me again”, you say, throwing him by the front of his shirt even further into the alley and storming back to your booth.

Once you gather your bearings, you think about the encounter.

You can’t pinpoint what it is that pisses you off so much about this guy in particular. There’s always been thieves in the market, it’s practically part of the system at this point.

But there’s always been one thing about the thieves that made you understand in a way, why they steal.

They almost always steal food and it’s because they need it. For themselves and probably their families. And you can’t find it in yourself to fault them for that.

But this bright-shoed bandit? He looks like he’s never missed a meal in his life. He’s got full cheeks, tan skin, toned muscles, and is missing that look of sheer desperation that’s in the eyes of all the thieves you’ve encountered thus far.

The only thing in this boy’s eyes is arrogance. And something else you can’t quite identify yet.

Sunday passes and you try to relax, but remembering that encounter just irks you.

Mom: “Y/N,,,, what are you doing”

You: “I’M GONNA GO PLOW THE FIELDS”

Mom: “Why would you do that by hand?? We have an ox for that??”

You: “Because I’m pissED oFF okaY”

It’s not until Monday that you hear the townspeople gossip like crazy about something that happened at the Sunday Market.

Even the vendors are talking about it instead of the usual small talk with customers.

“Did you hear? The prince rode into the marketplace on horseback yesterday”

“Hear? I was there! He made such a big scene!”

“Apparently he was looking for someone but he didn’t even know their name”

“Typical Prince Yangyang- he’s always up to something crazy. He’s such a lovely sight though~”

This goes on for hours and towards the end of the day you swear if you hear one more thing about “PriNcE YaNgyaNg anD hiS goRgEous faCe” or “PrinCe YanGyaNg aNd hiS sTeaMy mUScleS”, you might actually just close up shop and leave early.

At first it was interesting, but everyone’s repeating the same thing for h o u r s

Except for the man you’re currently selling tomatoes to.

“Yeah it wasn’t hard tah miss him with those bright ass shoes ah his”

Your whole body jolts and you drop the change the man just set in your hand.

Apologizing, you scramble to pick it all up and drop the coins on the table.

“What do you mean ‘bright ass shoes’, sir?”, you ask, your demeanor becoming physically tense.

“You know the kid loves collecting those new kinds ah shoes, right? ‘Sneakers’ or whaddeva ya call em? They’re all the rage in the next kingdom ovah, he musta gotten em imported from there-”, the man drones on and on, whilst you continue to panic.

“Sir please, what color were they?”

“Oh they were yellow like you wouldn’t believe! Brighter than the sun itself, and- hey! Where are you going?”

You hand the man his bag of tomatoes, grab what little produce is left and close down shop. If the prince comes back again today he could have you thrown in jail for treason for the way you spoke to him.

Everything's in the horse-drawn cart and you’re pretty much ready to go until you remember you left the change on the table.

Cursing to yourself, you abandon the cart for a brief moment and rush back to grab the money, but right as you reach for it, someone grabs your wrist.

Without thinking, you twist their arm around and pin them face first into the table.

Some of the coins fall off from the sudden impact and as your eyes follow them down…. you notice the man’s yellow shoes.

You quickly release him,,,, this thief,,,, the prince

As he slowly turns around, you contemplate whether you should request execution by hanging or guillotine….

But when he sees that it’s you, he just starts laughing.

Not like a maniacal “aha I’ve got you noW peasaNT” kind of laugh like you’d expect though. A genuine laugh from this boy.

From this p r i n c e

All instincts are telling you to bolt and just move to a different marketplace but,,,, you wanna know what this guy’s deal is.

Curiosity getting the better of you, you talk to him.

“Your Royal Highness”, you say in a sarcastic tone.

“Ah, so you believe me now? What’s changed?”, he asks and his voice sounds like honey. For some reason you’d expected him to be harsher.

“Your prance around town yesterday has been all anyone’s talking about today, Prince of Thieves”, you explain with disinterest dripping from your mouth.

“Prince of Thieves? I am prince of this nation, I’ll have you know”, he says and there’s that look in his eyes again that you can’t quite pin down.

“Then act like it”, you say with a certain degree of malice, and storm off to your horse and cart, leaving the money behind. It’s not worth it to grab it.

His eyes widen and he just stands there for a moment before chasing after you.

“Just- wait a minute!”, he shouts, running up behind you and putting a hand on your shoulder.

You grab his wrist, pulling him forward onto your back, and then flip him over onto the ground.

Once he’s down, you pin him down with your hands on his wrists and a knee on either side of his hips.

“I don’t care that you’re the prince. Your title means nothing to me. I care that you’re a thief. You steal from people who actually need money to live, and why? For the thrill of it? Grow up. If you want people to call you Prince then you better start acting like one”, you lay into him, letting all your frustration with him out at once.

You expect him to get angry with you. Maybe even yell. But he just looks,,,, sad. A little defeated, if anything.

“That’s not why I came here”

“You’re right, let me get off you so you can go pickpocket my customers”, you say, standing up and brushing the dirt off your pant legs.

“No, I came here looking for you. That’s why I came here yesterday, too”, he says, getting up and stepping between you and your horse. “Please, I need your help”

You take a deep breath in and out.

“My help with what exactly?”

“You fight like no one I’ve ever seen before. I need you to teach me”, he explains.

“Isn’t that what you have the knights for?”, you ask.

“They go easy on me. They’re worried if they hurt me while practicing, they’ll be fired by my mom”

“I don’t see why they’re concerned about hitting you in the face. It’s practically all I can think about right now”, you say nonchalantly.

“Wow okay- I could’ve gone without knowing that. But what do you say? Will you teach me? You’ve already showed me like three moves, just,,,, not on purpose I guess”

And for some reason,,,,, maybe because you’re lowkey worried he’ll actually have you hanged,,,,, you say yes.

You tell him it’ll have to be on Sundays and that he’ll have to come down to the family farm because “there’s no way in hell I’ll fight you that close to the queen’s wrath”

When you meet with him that Sunday though, he’s actually,,, quite charming??? And very polite to your parents, who were extremely surprised to see the prince on their front step (you might’ve forgotten to tell them about it)

This begins a routine of Prince Yangyang dragging you out of bed at dawn to spar with him in the barn out back behind your house.

The first few times he’d leave in the afternoon saying he “didn’t want to take up too much of your time”

But every time he leaves,,,, you find yourself missing his company.

Listen, he was an ass at first and he’s still an ass but it’s growing on you.

So one day, you ask him if he’d want to stay for dinner. And to your own shock, he immediately agrees.

He banters back and forth with you, makes jokes with your dad, and flatters your mom.

He’s got all of you around his finger and he’s not even trying to. He’s just being himself.

Now every Sunday he still wakes you up at dawn, much to your dismay, but he stays the whole day instead.

You spend the day together sparring, trying to knock each other into the pond, having lighthearted conversations, and getting the produce ready to go to market the next day.

To you, he stopped feeling like a prince a while ago honestly he never felt like a prince to start with but still

He’s your friend Yangyang that you throw into hay bales while teaching him self defense

One of those nights, the two of you are laying on the roof of the barn looking at the stars, when he says that he’d better head back to the castle.

“Can I ask you a question first?”, you ask, sitting up to face him.

“You technically just did”

“Oh shut up, you know what I mean”

“Hit me with it”, he says, closing his eyes and tilting his head back towards the speckled sky.

“Why do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Why do you steal from the marketplace?”, you finally ask, after silently wondering for months at this point.

“I don’t anymore”, he answers somewhat defensively, opening his eyes to look at you.

“Okay, then why did you?”

“...”

“...you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want….”, you say somewhat resigned.

Over the past month or so, things between the two of you has felt,,,, different.

You’ve been closer than ever, and talk to each other like you’ve known each other for years.

You’d be lying if you said you weren’t falling for him.

But it feels like he’s got a barrier built up between him and the world.

Everything fiber of your being aches to shatter it. For him to feel like he can trust you, even if he can’t trust anyone else.To be special to him the way he’s special to you.

“I needed to do something to break out”, he says after some silence.

“Break out of what?”, you ask, trying to be gentle.

“Out of the box my parents are desperately trying to cram me into. I know they want what’s best for me and the country but,,,, it’s just so much pressure. I needed to do something else- anything else, even if it was stupid”

You scoot over to him and he sits up. Wrapping your arms around his neck, you pull yourself closer to him.

At first he just sits there, stunned, but then tightly returns the embrace and buries his face in the crook of your neck.

The two of you stay like that for who knows how long, with him getting everything off his chest and you quietly listening and running your fingers through his hair.

From that night onward, the two of you are practically inseparable. 

Neither of you have said that you’re an item,,, and for a while you were like “am I making this shit up or does he like me”.

But one day, he’s sitting behind your booth in the marketplace (like he usually is. You’d think as a prince he’d have more to do,,,), eating all of your apples, when he taps you on the shoulder.

“I’m in the middle of a sale”, you snap, and turn back around to the customer.

When you finish, you turn around and he hands you an apple that is just,,, seeping with juice.

“Yangyang,,, w h y”

“Flip it over!”

So you do, and he’s carved “for my beautiful s/o~” into the side of the apple.

You can’t help but smile at his literally sweet gesture.

But you also can’t help but make direct eye contact with him and bite straight into the carved part of the apple.

The look of horror on his face made your day.

He’s got a habit of making your day everyday, though.

[chasseurdeloup-retired]

The Crossing || Rebecca and Kaden

TIMING: Present LOACTION: Kaden’s Apartment PARTIES: @exorciseyourspirit and @chasseurdeloup SUMMARY: This mom empty

Kaden was sitting in his apartment, Abel in the crate he almost never used next to him, circle of salt around them both. He had an iron knife in one hand, a salt shaker in the other. Sure, the apartment was warded off already, but he’d thought that was the case before. He wasn't taking chances. Especially knowing that they were going to try and send her away tonight. There was no way she didn’t know. And no way this would go smoothly. So Kaden sat there in his stupid salt circle next to his whining confused dog and watched the door. Rebecca should be here any minute. He knew he should apologize, hell Theo told him as much, but he’d consider it after they got rid of the poltergeist. Maybe after her processed that, too. For now he was choosing to stay focused on the task. Emotions could come later. A knock on the door. He leapt up, moved his knife and salt shaker to the same hand and got the door, opening it wide for her to enter. “Let’s get this shit over with.”

Preparations were checked and double checked and triple checked. And then Theo had even insisted on checking, until Rebecca finally stood firmly outside the door, staring hard into the wood. It’’d been almost two years since she’d done an exorcism, let alone a summoning and banishment in one. Something curdled inside of her, a feeling-- but she pushed it aside, raised her hand, and knocked. The door swung open far too quickly and he was looking at her with far too much worry. “Yes,” she answered, stepping in beside him, “let’s.” She noted the salt circle on the floor, around the dog’s cage. “Is he secure?” she asked, glancing back. Having an animal in the room would make things difficult, but not ultimately harder. “We need as little room for error as possible. I’ll need a large space to set up the summoning circle, as well. And something of hers, if you’ve got it, to help.”

Kaden nodded. “He is. But I can move the crate to the bedroom if you think he’s not--” Safe. He didn’t want to know what his mother would potentially do to Abel. She always thought pets were pointless, would only tolerate the best hunting dogs. And in this state-- “Uh, yeah, I’ll move him while you get set up. Move whatever you have to,” he said pointing to the living room. He thought about telling her to be nice to any skulls around but bit his tongue. Not the kind of impression he wanted to make right now. He let the dog out of the crate and carried it to the bedroom. Gave Abel a deer antler and put more salt around the crate. Not taking any fucking chances with his dog. When he came back to the living room, he held out a necklace to her, silver bullet dangling at the end. “This was hers. Always wore it. Still wearing it in her spectral form, even.” If anything was going to work, it would be that. “Uh, how bad you think this could get?”

Rebecca didn’t have to answer, listening to him figure it out himself. When he was out of the room, she pushed the coffee table out of the way and began to lay down the papers she’d carefully sketched out, sticking them onto the floor. She figured he probably didn’t want her to draw all over his carpet, and by the time they activated, the magic would hold them together. She didn’t bother to explain there could be possible burn marks, depending on how easily his mother came. When he returned with the necklace, she took it gingerly. Surely, it meant something to him if he’d kept it. “Thank you,” she said, wrapping it around her wrist next to her red Kabbalah bracelet. Paused. “There’s a reason exorcists retire early,” was all she said, knowing he would understand. He was, after all, a hunter. “Stand in your salt circle. She’ll likely go for you once she realizes she can’t touch me.” Poised herself at the head of the circle. “Ready when you are.”

Kaden’s eyes stayed fixed on the necklace as she placed it around her wrist. So much of him felt like he shouldn’t care, shouldn’t care so much about his mother or her possessions at this point. Still did. “Yeah, I figured as much,” he said. He knew all too well about the toll this sort of work put on people. And he figured it was just as hard for an exorcist to walk away from fighting the fight as it was for a hunter. Stupid as it was for them to keep throwing themselves in the line of danger. With a sigh, he nodded and stepped back into his salt circle a bit away from the papers laid on the ground. His iron knife gripped in his hand, he took a deep breath and braced himself for this. This whole time, through all the torment, he hadn’t had to see her or even directly hear her for the most part. The last time he’d seen his mother was when he threw that coin over the side of Hanging Rock. He had a feeling this would be much different. “Do it,” he said with a small nod.

Rebecca drew in a deep breath. She could do this. She focused, concentrated on the bracelet on her arm, the dagger at her hip. She used the pull of the silver bullet necklace to search through the ether for his mother’s spirit. And when she was ready, she opened her eyes, chanting quietly in Hebrew. Her voice was deep, strong. The papers on the floor began to glow where she had marked them with paint. Harsh and yellow, pouring out light. The room shook with the force as Rebecca reached through the ether, searching for the soul connected to the necklace. Finally, she found out. Gripped, and pulled. The resistance was expected-- the strength, not so much. Rebecca grit her teeth, pulling her to them. Lauren Langley’s form flickered in the circle. She didn’t waver, even as an anger filled the room. And, finally, the woman was there, glowing with a light that matched the ruins beneath her.

Kaden could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he waited. He tried to concentrate on his breathing, but they kept getting shorter and shorter. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t trust Rebecca, she sure looked like she knew what she was doing and he could read the experience coming off her, he just wasn't sure he was ever going to be ready for this confrontation. His brow furrowed a moment as it looked like Rebecca struggled. Shit. Was it going wrong already? Leave it to his mother to make this shit difficult. He thought he might sigh in relief when he saw his mother's form. Instead his breath caught in his throat. She looked angrier than the last time he saw her. Much. Putain.

Lauren had done her best not to get dragged into some surely half rate exorcist’s summoning circle if she could avoid it. Apparently she could not. Rage boiled deep through her as she appeared in Kaden’s apartment, still in disarray from the other night. If she still cared, she might be proud to see him wielding an iron knife while standing in his little salt circle. Still he looked petrified, almost shrunken. Certainly no son of hers. “I see you’re trying to be rid of me, mon petitou,” she said, voice laced with venom, ignoring the exorcist across from her. “I’m sure she’s only as good as your standards seem to be lately.”

Rebecca didn’t often engage with spirits once they were in her circle, but something told her Kaden, and perhaps Theo, might appreciate the words this time. The circle was holding her tight in place, but the real trouble would come when she started the exorcism. Sending away a poltergeist, not just banishing them, was painful and hard, and Lauren was sure to resist, more so than even from the summoning. “He must have pretty high standards, then,” she quipped, before slowly pulling out the emblazoned dagger on her side. Iron, engraved, a hilt to match her bracelet. “I’d say sorry, but I’m really not. You’ve caused your last wound, Langley,” she said stiffly, before drawing in a breath, and letting it go as she spoke the words, low and heavy and demanding. Bracing herself for the resistance she was sure to meet.

Lauren wasn’t going down so easily. Whoever this exorcist was, she didn’t care. She was a Langley and a DuBois, she was descended from centuries of hunters. She would protect her line, whatever the cost. Even if that meant pruning the family tree. As soon as this exorcist started chanting, Lauren called on all the anger festering inside her. The room began to tremble, slowly at first, then building. The furniture scraped against the floors before raising up, shaky and rattling into one another. Lights flashed in and out, flickering and twitching. “This just proves it, Kaden. You’re rotten to the core. Filth. Just like that fae of yours. You will never be a Langley ever again. You hear me? You can cast me out but you’ll never forget my words, never!” she bellowed.

Kaden figured he should just stand there. Not interrupt or engage unless absolutely necessary. But as the room shook, he just wanted to turn and run. His mother was somehow even worse than he’d imagined. Shadowy, bristling with rage, and still somehow a part of like how he remembered her. Just on her worst days. The days he failed in training. Or tried to ask questions. Or spent too much time with the few friends he was able to see. All those times he stood there and bit his tongue, took his punishment silently and raged about it later when he was alone. No. Not this time. “Rotten? You tried to fucking kill me! What kind of mother does that?! Did you ever even lo--” The word caught in his throat. “Was I just some fucking prop for your precious legacy?”

The power of the ghost before her was pushing through Rebecca’s strength, reaching through the circle. Wind billowed throughout the room. Furniture hovered, the walls rattled. The two were yelling at each other and Rebecca had to cling to her own voice, raising it louder to try and drown out the anger. “Kaden!” she said when she had the chance to pause, “Do not engage her! Now get over here! I need your help-- your power!” She snapped, pointing to the spot she’d marked next to her. She’d hope she wouldn’t have needed to tap into him, but Lauren was fighting harder than she’d hoped she would. Rebecca’s arms felt weak, and she felt something reaching up inside of her. Dammit, she didn’t have the energy to fight both of them off. She needed Kaden now. “Hurry!”

When Rebecca shouted his name, Kaden realized how fucking stupid he was, yelling at a poltergeist. But he’d heard so much second hand by now, it just-- he needed to say it. He needed to yell back for two seconds. Still he sniffed and pushed his emotions back down. His mother was still yelling, the same shit she’d been saying to everyone else who could hear her, he was sure. No answers, no comfort, nothing to make him feel better about any of this. Why he’d hoped for that, he didn’t know. He took his place next to Rebecca, not entirely sure how this part worked. He’d never had the misfortune of witnessing a poltergeist exorcism til now.

Rebecca held out her other hand to Kaden, prompting him to take it. When he did, she immediately drew upon the well of power that sat in every hunter. She remembered the way Theo’s energy felt, and it lurched inside of her, the feeling of it, fighting off the memories. Something clawing for the power at the back of her mind. No, fuck, no. Eyes flickering for a moment. He came out just long enough to taste Kaden’s power, to taste her power, to interrupt her words. To falter the exorcism. And even after she shoved him back down, she could still feel him. She turned, letting go of Kaden’s hand. “In the circle!” she shouted, shoving against him, but her body moved stiffly. Give me his power, “The salt circle!” But it was too late. The binding circle was broken, and Lauren Langley was out.

Lauren had been pushing her powers at the edge of the circle from the moment she was dragged in there. When she felt the split second break, she smirked and slid out  of the exorcist’s trap. “Looks like I was right, again, Kaden.” He started to head to the salt circle, at least he was trying to obey someone here. It wouldn’t work, though. “This is far from over,” she told him as she slipped into his skin. He fought it more than the Harlow brat did, it wasn’t as easy as possessing a medium, but it hardly mattered. She had control of the body. First thing’s first was to get rid of the exorcist trying to cut her time short before she was properly repaid for all she’d done for son. “Remind me again about your standards,” she said as she reached over to grab Rebecca’s wrist where her silver necklace hung. She could feel the hunter strength in this body, a far cry from Blanche’s. She wasn't shy about using it. She went to take the necklace “I believe this is mine.” She had every intention of twisting her arm around, breaking her wrist, something fun, when she was interrupted.

Kaden didn’t know what happened, but Rebecca seemed to stagger and dropped his hand. When he turned, he blacked out. No. He was there. But not in control. What was-- No. His mother. Taking his body. No-- No. He caused this with inaction. Not again. He saw his hand reach for the necklace and he pushed it down and away; tried to throw himself to the ground. He felt his knees buckle and his body waver but she was still there. It was still there, fighting back tooth and nail.

Rebecca jerked away as fast as she could. “Give me his power!” she said in a foreign voice, the first time he’d used his own voice through her mouth. She clasped her hands over her mouth for a moment, struggling to keep him contained. He struggled against her, tearing at her insides as well. She cried out. “Let me help you,” he said inside of her. She could feel him grinning. “Let me consume her. It’ll be so easy. So fast.” he reached out, using her hand, the arm with his brand on it. It glowed. Her palm made contact with his body and it burned. It seared, steam wafting from where they’d made contact. Fuck, no. Fuck. “Get out of him!” Rebecca shouted. “Get out of him, or I will destroy you!”

Looks like her son had more bite to him than he’d been demonstrating recently. Lauren stomped her foot before pushing the body back to standing. Then she heard the unnatural voice that radiated from the exorcist and she took a half step back. Her rage gave way for terror for just a flash. “What are you?” she asked, eyes wide. She didn’t get an answer, just pain, pain searing through her as the exorcist tried to force her from his body. “No! You’ll destroy me anyway. I still need to--”

Even from the back of his own mind, Kaden felt the pain rip through him. It was enough, it could be enough if he just pushed. His body toppled, collapsed in a pile of limbs. But it was his again. For now. “It’s me!” he shouted. “She’s out, she’s--” He almost said gone. But that wasn’t right. She was still there just not inside of his body. For now. It was only a matter of time. He needed Rebecca to hurry up. Even if he made it to the salt circle, it was broken; line split by the scuff of a shoe.

Rebecca stumbled back when Kaden’s shouted. It was him again. She forced her hands away, took all the energy she had, and shoved the Dybbuk back. I’ll never let go. But she ignored him. She needed to finish this. Drawing in a deep breath, she brandished her dagger again, gripping the hilt. “This is gonna hurt,” she said to Kaden, knowing he would accept the pain. Because it was what they did. It was what Theo would do. She nodded once before opening her mouth and bellowing the rest of the exorcism, calling on the energy of the universe to draw the spirit back into it. To take her away. To dispose of her anger and her soul and to recycle her back into the ether. Speaking in her ancient people’s language, feeling the power swell through her, watching as the spirit was torn from Kaden’s body. A tinge of jealousy in her heart. If only it were that easy.

Kaden didn’t need to be told it would hurt. Nothing in his life came pain free. Why would this? He nodded and braced himself, but of his countless near death experiences, not one could prepare him for this. He could feel his mother’s spirit clawing into him, trying to hold on with every bit of rage and vice she had. He could also feel Rebecca’s words drawing it out. If he could be torn from the inside out he was sure it felt like this. The flashes of thoughts he could manage through the blistering pain were all hers, the last ones he’d hear. You’re not my son, deserter, traitor, and filthy disgrace all rang through his head while he screamed and crumbled to the ground. The anger felt like daggers as it was pulled out from him. Every drop of rage like another pin prick. He kept wailing and clawed his fist into the ground, fighting to stay grounded, to keep himself there while she went away. When it was over, he folded over his hands and tried to breathe. The memory of the pain was like an aftershock he couldn’t shake right away. Bile rose up in his throat and he gulped it back. Not now. Not yet, at least. Maybe when she left. “Is it… Is it over?” he asked, shaking a little as he leaned on his hands. “What happened? You--” he looked up at her, trying to figure out what went wrong, hoping a glance could explain it all.

The world always stilled just before it happened. Rebecca, momentarily frozen in her own little pocket, watched as the spirit of Lauren Langley, full formed and floating above her son, glowered down at them with angry eyes. Such ire. She wondered if it had always been there, or if her decades as a spirit had multiplied the anger she’d felt in her life. She wondered if Theo would ever look at her like this. And then reality snapped back, and her spirit disintegrated before her eyes, and the room was still once again. Furniture was upturned and askew, the floor was covered in ash and paper shreds, a scorch mark from where the vengeful spirit had been summoned and let her anger spill over. The salt circle broken, scattered. Kaden’s voice was small, unsteady, and she looked down at him, shaking with her own exhaustion. She held out a hand to him, the brand on her arm burning. “Spirits often think they’re stronger than us,” she said quietly, “they’re wrong, of course.” She helped him stand. “You did good.”

Kaden took a moment to make sure all the bile was back down before taking her hand to stand up. He really hated how apt Blanche’s stupid phrase was, but he did in fact feel like used jell-o all over again. “Thanks. Didn’t feel like--” He cut himself short and looked in her eye. “Thanks,” he told her sincerely. Even if he could finally feel the full weight of what he’d just done starting to creep in. The tightness in his chest, the lump in his throat. God, he was so sick of feeling this raw and juts hurt and empty. He could hear Abel in the other room barking his head off. Probably had been almost the whole time, but there was too much going on for him to notice. He breathed a small sigh of relief knowing he was alright. He was sure Abel was going to love having a salty, sobbed ruff again tonight. Kaden took a glance around the room, unsure what to do next. “I-- How do you normally, uh, clean up? All this?”

He looked worn. And shitty. And Rebecca knew that, even though it was over, it would never really be over. She knew how words from loved ones hung in the air and stung. She knew how losing someone, even if they weren’t cruel and unjust, burned in the back of your mind. She understood. It wasn’t something to be solved in a night or in one exorcism. Without the ever present looming of his mother, surely now he would be facing the consequences of his actions. And of hers. The trail of destruction she’d surely left because that was the way of the world. That was the fate of all spirits who linger for too long and took too much. She turned to face the room, a disaster in its own right. Sighing, she looked over her shoulder back at him. “Tediously,” was all she answered.

[karinakamichi]

Saiki Angst Headcanons/Possibilities

So somebody mentioned that I should write about some angst and since Angst is my forte, I have decided to give it a shot.

There will be some serious and sensitive content warnings here so be leave this post if you’re not okay with that!!!

Also, I apologize in advance because a lot of my thoughts are really jumbled and might be confusing.

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So where to begin...? 🤔

Well, to start, This one is not really angst, but I figured I should put it here anyway, because I’m projecting a bit and it’s caused me a lot of issues and frustration in relationships to the point that I figure I’m just better off alone.

1. Saiki is either Asexual or demisexual.

Again, I’m asexual myself, so a pretty big part of me might be projecting. However, Saiki doesn’t really show an interest in relationships to begin with, but he seems like he’d be even less interested in sex. Or at the very least, it’s certainly not one of his top priorities. Heck he’s a lot more interested in coffee jellies than that.

However, for angst, maybe this could cause him to feel a little out of place when sex is brought up. Maybe he would even feel kind of odd for not being interested in something that is pretty much considered “a basic human desire”. While, Saiki is the type to usually be stoic and nonchalant about stuff, we do know there are things that upsets him. This might be one of those things. I certainly know my own nonchalance towards sexual contact certainly upsets me.

(And for that matter Kaidou is like one of the only other ones on the show that seems like he wouldn’t want to rush anything with a partner. He seems like he’d be awkward enough just holding hands and especially kissing.)

-

This kind of contradicts with the above headcanon or maybe not?

2. Saiki avoids any kind of close intimacy because he afraid of hurting people and getting hurt.

Saiki says himself that he has trouble controlling his own strength, so I feel like he could be insecure and afraid that he would do something that ultimately either hurts those he cares about or reveals his powers. He can’t have either, so it’s better and more convenient for him to just avoid it all together, even kind of with his own friends, whether or not it’s kind of lonely like that(though I doubt Saiki would ever admit to being lonely).

-

This is kind of a given, but

3. Down deep, Saiki feels like he will never truly fit in with others.

He may use his powers to force himself to appear just average, but that’s just it. He will still always feel different than others because he’s a psychic. He will always resent having to hide from others, and not being able to be completely honest with others, and there will always be barriers up between him and others.

-

4. If Saiki truly lost his powers(which the end of the manga kind of gives us mixed messages on that), he would no longer be able to appear just average, and he would probably have a very hard time adjusting to it.

There’s a high chance that after so long of relying on his usual tactics, he would begin to fall behind in sports, and basically everything. He might start to stand out, and become a victim of bullying.

Of course, this is especially if we’re going by the end of the manga, where he doesn’t have full control over his powers anymore.

He could no longer teleport, or turn back time or even read other’s thoughts, but he still caused a window to break and he still was causing damage to walls from what I recall. There’s a pretty big chance if he didn’t get control over what powers he did have that people would start to notice and he couldn’t just use his usual means to get out of the situations anymore. Sure, Terahashi showed up when he was being cornered by those guys and Nendo saved him when those guys pushed the bookshelf onto him, but I guarantee they wouldn’t always be around to protect him, and if Saiki did become a victim of bullying, he would be the type to try to hide it, and wouldn’t want to bother others with it.

Also, I kind of think he would feel frustrated at having to be protected by others if that happened, yet another reason he would keep the bullying to himself when he could.

-

5. Kaidou’s father was abusive.

- Maybe Kaidou’s Father would hit and beat Kaidou’s mother and say horrible things about her, so his mother eventually kicked him out. But like maybe impact of his father’s abuse is what made it so hard for him to stand up for himself and others. Maybe Kaidou even tried to stand up against him, but then just got hit himself, and he developed into somebody that was afraid of standing up against others because he was afraid of retaliation? Because when people get confrontational with him it always reminds him of his father and automatically weakens his resolve to fight back? But he also can’t stand to see people being insulted and hit because it reminds him of the way Kaidou’s father treated his mother?

Or

- Maybe Kaidou’s Father died when Kaidou was very young, so the lack of a stable father figure is what led to his interpersonal issues and insecurities/doubts when it comes to the certainties of his friendships.

-

This is gonna be a dark one, but

6. Kaidou either self-harmed or self-harms, and hides it underneath his bandages.

This could be caused by a lot of things. Feelings of insecurity and inadequacy, like he’s never good enough, frustration for not being “stronger”, maybe he’s a victim of bullying, maybe his father was abusive and and Kaidou can’t forget some of the things he said about him or maybe his father is even dead and he feels frustrated because he was left fatherless at such a young age. Heck, maybe he feels guilty for not being able to live up to his mother’s standards. Maybe he cuts because he struggles to make friends and stuff?

Although I feel like Saiki would find out at some point because of his telepathy.

-

7. If Saiki ever self-harmed while he still had his powers, he would just use them to heal it or rewind time, so nobody would see the injuries.

I think plausible reasons for self-harming could be:

To distract himself, to channel out the voices at least to a degree, to collect himself, to let out feelings and frustration he can’t through other means, because he feels like he’ll never truly be able to relate to others or like nobody will be able to truly understand him. To release pent up tension or anger?

But at some point, somebody like Kaidou or Nendou might walk in on it.

And while Nendou might be easier to fool, Kaidou likely wouldn’t be and he would probably feel kind of betrayed by Saiki hiding it from him.

But if we’re going by the headcanon that Kaidou himself self-harmed and hid it under his bandages, then he would probably feel even guiltier for not noticing.

Of course, if Saiki was doing it when he didn’t have his powers anymore(For some of the same reasons but also for some of the reasons listed in the fourth headcanon, like bullying and some of the other stuff), he would probably hide it with bandages just like Kaidou does, which Kaidou would probably pick up on(unless he didn’t have a history or self-harm in this).

Thought Saiki would more than likely cover up the bandages by wearing long sleeves as well anyway, in which case it wouldn’t be as noticeable at first.

8. Saiki is depressed.

Depression isn’t always obvious and many people can have it without even realizing it.

But basically it can be inhibited in

Constant Apathy, a lack of desire to engage with others, feeling like you’re alone, wanting to be alone, feeling like things will never change, having little to no interest in anything, being excited by very few things, feeling like there’s no point to living, the list goes on. I personally feel like Saiki has at least some of the symptoms and that it could be explored further.

-

I don’t have too much to say about this one, but

9. Sometimes, the voices are very hard to deal with.

I’m sure Saiki has also heard thoughts he didn’t want to from people, even from friends and family. After all, we all have negative thoughts about people we care about from time to time. But imagine having hear all of the negative thoughts from other people about you care about. Certainly, that would take its toll, so maybe Saiki is a lot more bothered by it than he lets on.

-

10. Teruhashi needs validation from others to love herself.

Like I deal with this a lot as somebody with BPD, but I will do whatever I have to to make people like me, and I often obsess if I think I did something wrong or made myself look like an idiot. I obsess over what people want to hear so I will be liked and not shunned. So maybe Teruhashi needs people’s validation to feel complete and secure about herself. Maybe she wasn’t always confident?

-

11. Teruhashi’s brother made some kind of sexual advances towards her at some point.

He’s kind of messed up in the head, so honestly I wouldn’t put it past him to do something like that since it’s confirmed he... um... wanted to marry her?

-

Anyway, these were just some stupid headcanons of mine.

It may be a comedy anime, but I really can’t help but think about it and consider the more darker elements of it, and the drawbacks of having powers like Saiki’s.

[ofaphrvdite]

silence ! raise the royal standard, for the bastard princess of rajasthan, LEELA JHAWAR, has arrived. being 26 years old, she is out of line to the throne. many around the court call her the hellion, by virtue of her being brazen and nonconformist, while also being perverse and turbulent.  — played by naomi scott. 

- THE BASICS.

full name: leela chandani jhawar name meaning: leela ‘play’, chandani ‘moonlit’  known in history as: the bastard of rajasthan, the moonlit princess, the crowned serpent date of birth: july 29th, 1641/1994 age: twenty six star sign: leo profession: influencer (modern verse) / bastard princess of rajasthan (royal verse) loyalty: house jhawar, rajasthan, the coalition alignment: chaotic neutral mbti: estp spoken languages: hindi, advanced marathi, advanced english, intermediate ottoman turkish (royal verse) / english, intermediate french (modern verse) mother’s name: lady marie victoire von arenberg father’s name: raghunatha jhawar siblings, if any: padma jhawar, vijaya jhawar, manikya jhawar, raya jhawar height: 5’6” hair colour: black eye colour: brown

- BACKSTORY / MODERN VERSE. 

born to a real estate tycoon and his second, swimsuit illustrated model, wife, leela hadn’t wanted for much in her childhood. she was the youngest of five and doted on by all her family including her half-siblings. until the age of seventeen, she knew nothing but happiness. she was spoiled and never learned how to fend for herself beyond wrapping people round her little finger and getting what she wanted with as little effort as possible.

so when her father’s fortune fell through and they lost everything, life got a little bit harder for the heiress who had never worked a day in her life. suddenly she was expected to work to help provide for the family, and she needed skills that she did not possess. college was off the agenda, she had literally nothing beyond her bank account that she was passionate about. so she started off selling clothes, organising the wardrobes of the people she used to call friends. slowly she built up a client portfolio and she was bringing in money for home, but not enough for her to keep up with her luxurious tastes.

eventually leela began to post on instagram. outfits of the day, workouts, skincare. she started racking up sponsors and soon realised that the more together her life looked, the more views and money she got. if she posted a selfie from her dull bedroom mirror, she might get a few hundred likes, a thousand at most. if she took the same picture in the bathroom of an upscale restaurant and tagged it then she would garner ten times the amount. even if she hadn’t eaten there. who needed to know that?

over the next few months she grew her instagram following and made the natural transition to youtube. she began to vlog her day, post meals she wasn’t eating full of sponsored supplements she wasn’t taking. she would post doctored photographs of her holidays in the maldives that never happened, just sunbathing in her back garden. when she went anywhere, it was because she was invited there as an honoured guest. little lies that would dress up her feed, give her the life she craved but didn’t have. as the money began to roll in, the lies needed to be upped.

leela’s life is mostly a lie. she does now possess a fraction of the money she used to have, enough that she can afford some of the luxuries she pretends are her own. rather than posting a photo of the rented gucci dress, it now hangs in her wardrobe. a proud testament to her supposed hard work. it’s a dishonest career that could be toppled with just one youtube expose commentary. but she was careful to cover her tracks, there’s no way she’s going back to the other life. whilst her siblings settled into quiet careers, leela was intent on keeping her star shining bright.

as she climbs higher, she only gets herself deeper into the lie. the friends she has made on her way up all assume her pockets are as well lined as their own and leela has to keep up. every holiday they plan, or weekend away in cabo, she must attend or risk losing the reputation she has cultivated. but whilst she has money, it’s not nearly enough to cover the costs of her made up life. the debts are beginning to pile up and very soon she’s going to have to pay them off or cut ties with the life altogether and risk public humiliation - but even that isn’t enough to slow the swipe of her credit card.

her weekends are always the same. she parties until the early hours and returns to her empty flat. literally empty, she only has the bare minimum flat pack furniture to fill out, because every cent of her earnings goes on the materialistic purchases she needs to stay afloat. the parties are always the same, and she always drinks too much. barely ever does she really enjoy them, but it’s an image she must keep up. who wants to a follow an instagram page that stays in on a friday night watching tv? 

her family have expressed their worry on multiple occasions, that have only made the stubborn self-proclaimed social media star to push them away. she doesn’t want to hear about all she’s doing wrong, that it’s not too late to really make something of herself instead of wasting all her time and potential on people who will desert her when her bank account depletes. leela knows full well that she’s the family fuck up, so why should she bother trying to change that now? either she’ll soar, or she’ll crash to the ground in a ball of flames. but at least she’ll look good doing it. at least she’ll be remembered. 

- BACK STORY / ROYAL VERSE. 

the netherlands, despite being her place of birth, is known only to leela through sailors stories and distant memories - ones that may be no more than a product of an overactive child's imagination. her mother had been of noble blood once upon a time, wed to a high up ambassador tasked with securing trade through india. the lady marie was a renowned beauty in her home, one leela’s father had found impossible to ignore. their affair had been secret dalliances, whispered promises when he was just a prince about to ascend. when her mother returned to the netherlands, it had only been just long enough to realise she was pregnant, to carry the child to term, and to flee to the arms of the man she loved. she remained in rajasthan as his proud mistress.

her life as a bastard would no doubt have been a miserable one in europe, with the eyes of scandalised nobles on her. but the halls of rambagh palace were filled with warmth, the young leela’s laughter imbuing the walls with joy and shielding her from others disdain. her summers were spent boating on the man sagar lake, and then evenings in the hidden depths of jal mahal. despite her status, she was never made to feel less. even at dinners, when her title saw that she must sit at the back for feasts to save guests the embarrassment of sharing a meal with a natural born daughter, she was sought out as the life of the party. the back of the hall always roaring with laughter as leela delighted them all with tales of her adventures and jokes at her siblings expense. she may have been born destined for low birth, but she was born loved. cherished by her father for her wild spirit, and treasured by her mother for being her only child. the two women were indeed very similar, both ambitious but keen above all else to lead a life of their choosing. decided by no one but themselves. perhaps that was why leela was her father’s favourite.

her childhood was as perfect as one could have asked for. almost pristine if not for the large black burn that would mar her for life. at sixteen, an evening in the cellars of jal mahal had gone horribly awry. with her siblings around her she had her first taste of wine, and all reason between the five of them had gone out the window soon after. leela had left to retrieve another bottle when she’d run into one of the noble guests staying with them. bastards were a product of lust, and their offspring assumed to be wanton too. the man had said as such when he had gripped her arm tightly. if her brother had not come looking... the man had been executed, and she had turned into her mother when the axe had swung. to this day, she avoids small spaces and dreads the feeling of someone lurking over her. she would be in control, she would have the advantage, or she would have nothing from them.

leela relishes in being a bastard, for she has all the royal benefits of her four siblings, but near none of the responsibility. whilst they must smile and preen for foreign visitors, leela can go where she wishes. no escort need follow the bastard of rajasthan, their moonlit princess they so adored free to wander the city and mix with commoners and merchants alike. it is for that very reason that her father saw an opportunity for his kingdom, and a use for the wandering leela. a bastard she may be, but everyone needed a place.

as she grew, leela’s friendly banter turned quickly to flirtation and she soon learned she had inherited more from her mother than just her beauty. the bastard soon grasped that her looks could be used for her own advantage, and manipulating the men of the court became her favourite sport. with one flash of her smile, men and women alike would bend to her every whim and that had been her first taste of true power. her father instructed her to use her charming talents to extract secrets from tight lipped nobles, the merchants in the city and the peasants he ruled over. leela was not royal, nor was she common, she was on a plane of her very own. the lowest trusted her and accepted her as one of them, whilst the highest saw her as nothing but a useless nuisance - evidence of their ruler’s indiscretions. secrets were easy to garner for the unseen, and leela was difficult to deny. the whispers she had fed back to her father have stopped many a disaster before they even had the chance to take root. 

but they took their toll on her too. leela can charm whoever she wants but always for a purpose. making bonds, forging friendships? this she has never mastered. always a fleeting enigma in another’s life. for that she suffers in quiet loneliness. she has the love of her family, but not much else. she’s never learned how to keep a hold of something for good. she loves her freedom, and has traded any stability in her life for it.

though she swans about the halls in red satin dresses and trusted brown leather boots, it is not just her seductive charm that she takes pride in. rajasthan is known for war, for it’s soldiers that were unmatched but for the warriors of old. she was no different. unlike the noble ladies, she was able to train from a young age and soon grew to be an excellent warrior of her own. though she will never be able to join the men at any front, she ought not to be crossed in combat either. with a sword she is light as a dancer, a breeze on a ships sail. many men have gambled their chances, and lost their bets and dignity soon after. often she trains with the men at the waterfront, enjoying the wind in her hair as swords ring around her. in another life, she might have boarded one of those ships and sailed the seas as an infamous pirate queen.

life didn’t change much for her when the war broke out. in fact, it didn’t change much for rajasthan at all. for a while they stayed out of europe’s messy business, not caring for a sultan that washed up dead on some beach. eventually, their powerful cavalry was sought out by the ottoman empire and they were drawn into the fight to aid the coalition. still, leela went about unchanged. the battles were not brought to their home, only men were sent away to prove their glory in a fight. life was all rosy for the bastard princess, until a certain kingdom came begging.

the marathas had allied themselves with the entente, with trade promises that had fallen through and leaving them with empty pockets. the two kingdoms had always been in petty dispute with the other, never really coming to blows but the tension had always been there. a war waiting to break out if neither side were careful. the marathas were still a great kingdom, well known and revered. it was not a fight leela’s father wanted to engage in, and so an agreement was drawn up. they would fill their empty coiffers in exchange for their alliance with the coalition. to seal the deal, leela was offered as a bride for the prince and a betrothal was arranged. a bastards hand for a prince was slap in the face, and they all knew it, but the marathas had little room to negotiate.

unsurprisingly, leela was not one to bow to authority. in fact, had she not been the daughter of a king she would be the one to rise against him, to rebel against the monarchy’s imposed rule. but such is not the case, so she finds other ways to flout the powers that be. ignoring the courtly graces everyone knew she had, purposely misusing titles and mocking the nobles who sneered at her. leela is overconfident, impudent and refuses to listen to anyone about what she can and cannot do. she is prone to chaos, revelling in it more often than not. she is quarrelsome, sometimes just for her own pleasure as she lacks any knowledge of consequence.

her very touch means chaos, and trouble follows her every smile. the serpent is chanted proudly by the people that adore her, for she is a woman who would drag a man to their grave given the chance, and slithered her way into the hearts of many. leela is bold, and relishes the adventure that her life has given her. she cares very little for anything. as far as she's concerned, she has all she could ever want.

leela is not pleased with the loss of her freedom, and her pending title of queen should raj ever make it to the throne. nor is she keen on the cocky prince, but she is thrilled that her hand is proving an embarrassment for him. they’ve both been sent to versailles to represent their separate lands, but leela only sees this as a chance to enjoy herself and see more of the world. her father has reminded her that she is there to be the face of rajasthan on the world stage, but that’s all semantics. after years of doing whatever she wished, she is not like to change now even if she may end up outranking all her siblings in the end. a nasty twist of fate for the woman who’d always been impossible to forget but never wished to be caged. 

[sponfawn]

MTH - Rowdy Bros (part 2)

Continuing from part 1, I'm not going to do every interaction in every chapter, but I'm going to analyze interactions in some key scenes.

* He knows how to use it/Lonesome when you go

In chapter 5, the scene with the team of school shooters happens. We get a lot of new information regarding the Boys' priorities, general lives, and interactions. Some of the info isnt surprising, since we know they work for an evil corporation, but it does give more explicit insight into their experiences. The Boys are completely unconcerned with the hostage situation - Brick is just annoyed, Butch is excited cuz there's a surprise with guns and even impatiently asks if the gunmen will shoot Brick or what, and Boomer's reaction is very nonchalant and relaxed.

Boomer acts like they're people he's just met (tho not new friends). Hes familiar, laid back, and just talks to his brothers like he normally would, as if the gunmen aren't of any significance at all. When one of them tells him to get on the ground, he literally just pouts back like a little kid and says no. Brick literally only decides to help cuz Blossom so desperately needs him to. From the exchanges with the gunmen and each other, we see more clearly what the Boys have likely done. Boomer can tell from a glance what type of gun the guy near him is carrying, all 3 of them know what the human brain looks like outside of the body (with disturbingly casual responses to the idea of it), and a bit later Brick instantly field strips one of the guns. They're familiar with identifying and handling advanced weaponry, and are clearly desensitized to extreme and traumatic levels of violence at 17 years old. But the most important thing that we get from this scene, I believe, is the dynamic that the Boys have.

Brick knows that due to their heroic duties, the Girls will be vigilant for their opportunity to strike, that they automatically will prioritize taking down the shooters to save the hostages, and that theyre perceptive enough to follow Blossom's lead in a split second. He know that his brothers don't have that same motivation, and is concerned that they won't get the message. But all he has to do is say, "Boys", and they snap to attention, Boomer prompting him for directions. All he says is, "help" - hardly an order - but they immediately understand and are ready to jump into action as soon as they get the signal. Brick can say what he wants about their lack of dilligence and obedience, but Boomer and Butch are on it when it comes down to testy situations. Butch still ends up collecting a bunch of guns and shooting various gunmen, and he's not as efficient as Brick would like because of his manic enjoyment of violent/dangerous situations, but he is ready to throw down for Brick at the drop of a single word. Putting a pin in this as well.

* beach episode! - we’ll still have the summer after all

Pretty early on in this chapter, Butch’s raging jealousy makes its first appearance (upon finding Brick and Blossom interacting alone on the beach). Because he works through his emotions with physical activity, he starts the (series of) iconic volleyball games. After the game between Blossom and Buttercup ends, Boomer and Butch try to get Brick to play a game with them. In the struggle between Brick trying to escape and his brothers trying to drag him to the net, he slips out of his shirt and all of the girls present flip their shit. As expected at this point, Butch, but also more surprisingly Boomer, becomes jealous, as well as the rest of the guys present. When Butch realizes that even Buttercup finds Brick attractive, he goes as far to say, "you're not allowed to find my brother hot!" After Brick declares hes going swimming, some of the guys say “girls suck”, to which Butch bitterly replies, "no, Brick sucks." He holds a ton of animosity and resentment towards Brick, certainly more than Boomer generally expresses for him. Yet, soon after, when the fighter aircraft attacks, Butch is the first to join Brick and pull up by his side when he yells for the others to pull back. After he orders Butch and Boomer to keep the aircraft flying at the same altitude and lead it away and then back towards him, Boomer is the one who asks what he's doing, Butch says nothing. After Brick rips out the aircraft's embedded computer, Blossom begins to examine it. He asks if she has any use for it, and as soon as she says no, he says "Butch, fire", and Butch immediately destroys it in her hand. He responds as quickly as if Brick had pushed a button to fire a laser. It's automatic, and he knew exactly what Brick wanted him to do, with no further explanation. It's also interesting to me that Brick didn't order Boomer to do it. While it may have been coincidence, I also want to put a pin in this thought.

After the Boys go home, and Brick finds out that Darius took over and they have to stay another year, he tells his brothers. And this time it's not Butch who sticks around, but Boomer. After Butch has already left, he helps Brick get blankets and a pillow for the couch, tries to cheer him up. He wants to go, but he knows Brick's emotional state is fucked up and he seems to actually care about him in that. After Brick tells him to leave, when he closes the front door, Boomer can't hold his smile in anymore cuz he's finally free to go back and see Bubbles. I think this is the first time when we see Boomer concerned about Brick, in terms of his emotional well-being. I would say his behavior still has an air of obligation about it, but it tells us that he cares about Brick and is loyal to him, in a way that is otherwise rarely shown.

* bonus chapter: Imperfect boys with their perfect lives

This bonus chapter is short, but it does reveal some things about our Boys. The first thing we find out is that the other field agents at JS genuinely like the Boys. They refuse to let Penny hire movers, insisting that they help. Later, they gather around and laugh as Butch chugs a gallon of coffee. Another detail of note, is that before they attend Townsville High, the Boys seem to have a slightly more amicable, normal (on the surface) sibling dynamic. Brick is still a grumpy pissbaby, complaining about how Darius wants them out, and he threatens to strangle them after they almost cause the Girls to discover them in the movie store. But he lets the Boys do what they want within reason. Boomer tries to lightly cheer him up, and even Butch seems to try to improve his mood, saying that once Brick is in charge of JS he can wipe Townsville off the map. In other scenes in other chapters, the Boys still joke and pick on each other like siblings, but I think that perhaps due to the toll Townsville takes on Brick’s mood and stress levels, along with Boomer and Butch’s growing relationships with the Girls, their dynamic is more strained. At JS, things were generally going according to Brick’s plan, and we’ve seen how an improved mood can change Brick’s entire demeanor and behavior towards them - going so far as to shorten Butch’s punishment by a week. In Townsville, I imagine he’s in a chronic bad mood, even for Brick standards.

* hey there Mr blue, we’re so pleased to be with you

The scene I want to talk about in chapter 7, is when Brick sacrifices Bubbles to the black blob that Him deployed. Again, we see Butch’s automatic loyalty to Brick. Buttercup is choking Brick, when Butch whacks her away. 

When Blossom rebukes him for protecting Brick, Butch repeats that she’s not his leader, that she shouldnt even think about giving him orders (and we’ve seen how immediately responsive he can be to orders that Brick gives). Even when Buttercup, his best friend, tells him to move he is resolute, taking a fighting stance. We know that he’s reluctant for things to escalate, watching Buttercup carefully, as he tells Brick to explain quickly. But his resolve never visibly wavers. Meanwhile, Boomer doesn’t move an inch to protect Brick. He’s simply in shock, over what happened. 

When Brick comes up to him, Boomer does something that we haven’t (and that likely Brick hasn’t) seen him do before. He directly questions Brick’s actions. In the scene with the aircraft, he asks Brick what he’s planning to do. But it’s because he wants to know what the plan is, not because he’s accusing Brick of making a bad or questionable decision. In this scene, he is showing outward disapproval of what Brick thought was the best decision. And not only that, he (a literal employee of Evil) is questioning how Brick (a verified supervillain and coworker in the industry of Evil) could do that to Bubbles, a superhero. No wonder Brick is unsettled, Boomer is expressing dissent, and suddenly has morals in regards to a superhero.

* Monday broke my heart

Chapter 9 has 2 important scenes that I want to discuss: interactions between his brothers and Brick the day after his date with Blossom, and some interactions at Robin's party. After the date, Brick is miserable. He doesn't sleep at all, he doesn't eat, he doesn't shower, he just hunches over the kitchen table all night. His brothers, who feel much better about their nights, try to cheer him up at least half-heartedly. Boomer is the one who asks if he's eaten, if he wants or needs anything. Butch encourages him to take a shower. After he finally does, they burst into his room, joint in hand. Boomer tells him to cheer up, Butch says "don't suppose you're gonna tell us what's up", and they just spend time with him, passing the joint around. It's scenes like this that I really treasure regarding the Boys. None of them are very communicative or vulnerable with others, and only Boomer seems to have much emotional intelligence in terms of self-knowledge and caring about others' feelings, but both Butch and Boomer do try to be there for Brick, in the ways that he allows them to be. It's easy to forget that between the ribbing, resentment, and abusive discipline.

Unfortunately, it's not even a week later (on a Friday, after several miserable days of Blossom basically ignoring him, and of trying to convince himself it's just adolescent hormones) when Brick turns his own emotional unrest against Boomer. He accuses Boomer of letting Bubbles get to him too much, of listening to her too much, and not having his priorities straight. He tries to order Boomer to break up with Bubbles, even threatening to make it more difficult for Boomer when they return to their jobs. And while he makes some good points about some of the unhealthy aspects Boomer's relationship with Bubbles (like fixating on her at the expense of his own interests and personal time, and becoming overdependent on her), he is absolutely projecting his own feelings and priorities onto Boomer. I think in a way he's worried about Boomer getting hurt like he is hurt, assuming it's inevitable and that it's just due to some distracting hormones.

He doesn't want Boomer to be "trapped". But it's still really very much about himself. He doesn't want Boomer to "drop everything [he's] doing if she so much as utters a word", and throw away everything Brick's been working for. He wants Boomer to do what he hopes he would do in that situation.

This exchange sends Boomer flying to Bubbles, and in their conversation, he reveals some very important aspects of his motivations, and his relationship with Brick.

Boomer is not invested in Evil. We've seen his more passive nature compared to Brick and Butch, and his active efforts to try to be good for Bubbles, something Brick would probly never even consider. Brick obviously makes the calls, and Boomer goes along with it cuz he literally has nothing else to do. His motivations so far have been his loyalty in emotional attachments, and lack of moral conviction. But recently, those things have been changing. Now he has someone he loves who reciprocates in a clear, communicative way. And that same person is teaching him what being "good" means, and asking him to change. In contrast, Butch goes along with Brick out of loyalty to a degree, and also cuz where else is he going to be able to get out his aggression and superpowered physical need for destruction and violence? Where else is he going to be able to handle dangerous weapons, and have enough money to self-medicate? Especially since, by himself, he's doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his reliability or ability to think on his feet.

Getting back to the scene, Boomer is venting about Brick wanting him to break up with Bubbles. And he frantically rants about how Brick is the leader, Butch is the tough guy, and he has nothing. How he's the runt, that the only thing people ever remark about him is that he's the stupid one, that his brothers don't need him for anything. That the one thing that makes him special is his music gift, but even that isn't really his. He's got some serious self-esteem issues, especially in regards to his brothers. Bubbles tries to calm him down, and Boomer ends up Bubbles about the Boys' job. Again, in their conversation, we get a little peek into his inner world, and his relationship with Brick:

Here we see that Boomer still cares about Brick, and still feels a sense of brotherly obligation to him. But I think he's pretty much done in terms of long term loyalty. I think he'll always care for Brick, but he's deciding in this moment that he won't always follow his lead, there's an expiration date. It'd be really interesting to see how Brick reacts to that when the time comes. I'm gonna put a pin in this thought as well.

Just before the party, Blossom and Bubbles go over to the Boys' apartment to give Boomer a haircut. As Blossom's beginning to cut his hair, Brick enters the apartment. After Brick asks what the they're doing, and Blossom says she's cutting Boomer's hair, Boomer makes a point of showing another act of defiance. He addresses Brick, making sure that he can see him reaching for Bubbles' hand - a silent, but pointed rebellion against Brick's previous orders to break up with her.

At the actual party, the infamous truth or dare game plays out. The part I want to talk about is when Buttercup kisses Brick on a dare, and Brick and Butch's subsequent interaction. As Brick goes back inside, Butch is waiting behind the door, glaring at him.

Brick glanced at him and frowned. What?”

Butch just stared at him, fuming.

“What, Butch?” Brick sighed.

“You're a fucking dick,” Butch spat, shaking his head, and shoved past Brick as he went back upstairs.

Brick's initial reaction, reads as confused. His second reaction is tired, exasperated, and I feel like he's just like "ugh what now". Like this is a repeated issue, where he doesn't know why Butch is mad at him. And this to me just demonstrates a continuous utter lack of understanding, in terms of Butch's perspective, and a surprising lack of pattern recognition for Brick. The only reason we've seen for why Butch is ever pissed at Brick, is due to jealousy. His reactions and behaviors are pretty damn consistent. But Brick just doesn't connect the dots, whether cuz of his issues with analyzing emotions, or cuz he was lost in thought. Either way, he fails to realize how attached Butch truly is to Buttercup. He doesn't see that it's not just Boomer (and himself) who's "trapped" by one of the Girls. And to be fair, Butch himself doesnt know it, but for someone who declared that he knew Butch and Boomer, he really doesn't know shit about Butch's internal experiences. This point of resentment and bitterness on Butch's part is a good jumping off point to go into a quasi-conclusion built from the many scenes I've put a pin in.

Butch is deeply loyal to Brick. We see this in many scenes. During the incident with the mama monster and her babies, Butch tells Blossom, "you ain't my leader". He says this again when defending Brick against Buttercup and Blossom in chapter 7. At the beach, Butch executes orders without question, and without hesitation. At a single word, he immediately eyebeams the computer in Blossom's hand, almost as quickly as if Butch was a gun and Brick had pulled the trigger. And all of this is in spite of the deep-seated jealousy and resentment Butch holds for Brick, the fact that he treats Butch like crap, beating the shit out of him over disobedience, and the fact that Brick is a controlling killjoy. So why is he so unquestioningly loyal to Brick? I think one aspect is that he obviously cares about his brothers. Yeah Butch makes fun of them, and gets mad at them sometimes, but that's what siblings do. Regarding the abuse, he has literally said that the reason Brick is so hard on him is cuz "he deserves it" (chap 3). This is a common mindset in abuse victims, and Butch is no exception. This next reason doesn't necessarily have much evidence, so its more of a headcanon, but i think he's also aware, to an extent, of how Brick has taken care of him and Boomer. He knows Brick got them out of Him's grasp, knows he's basically why they have a job with JS at all, why they've had good income. He's not the most analytical, but he's observant of others' moods, emotions, and behavior. We've seen him be so with literally everyone in the hallway when the Boys first attend school, with Blossom and Brick, with Buttercup, Mitch, etc. He acts like a dumbass, but he's not stupid. I think he sees how Brick has had his back (at least against outsiders), and this is a contributing factor to his loyalty. There's also the fact that siblings often fuck each other over, and still love each other and remain loyal to each other. As much as theyre atypical siblings, they're still brothers.

In contrast, Boomer seems to not be as unconditionally loyal to Brick. He tries to be there for Brick, particularly in terms of emotional support, but he is more inclined to ask questions about orders, and when it came to Bubbles he's even willing to outwardly show defiance against Brick's judgement. Ultimately, Boomer is very emotion driven. For loyalty, he needs to love and be loved. He loves Brick, and I think Brick loves him too. But Brick is not exactly demonstrative in his brotherly affection, and I think Boomer needs that. He craves and needs recognition and affirmation. Brick recognizes that Boomer is emotionally driven, but doesn't realize his emotional needs. And that is where Brick fails as a leader. Brick doesn't recognize the need for different leadership styles, based on the needs of his brothers/team. And that is why he's going to lose Boomer eventually. To someone who reciprocates and demonstrates their affection for him.

* Tried to stick a dead body inside me

This last part is on Chapter 10, with particular focus on the symbolism in the Vortex. I've already basically outlined my theories on this in relation to the Boys' dynamics in a post (link in the reblog), but I'll briefly summarize. The actions that happen in the Vortex, as well as the different positions of the Boys, is very important in regards to their relationships with each other. Boomer is at the lowest place, reflecting his lack of self-worth compared to his brothers. He stands at the bottom of a deep pool. He's alone in the cold, dark depths of the water, and the only way out is up. Brick is in the middle, standing on the floor around the pool. He has more freedom of movement than Boomer, and can make more choices. But soon he finds that he's swallowed up by rising waters as it floods outside of its designated area, disregarding boundaries, unable to be compartmentalized. It reflects his loss of control over his situation/environment, his inner turmoil, and relatively recent inability to simply contain and subdue his emotions. Butch is at the highest point, on a fence with Buttercup, feeling free and at peace with her at his back. Because he is literally "on the fence", with Buttercup on the other side, I feel like he might be (subconsciously) reevaluating where his loyalties lie - with Brick, or with Buttercup. It's worth noting that he is only able to be at that height when she is with him. As soon as Brick moves through her as if she's not there, Butch is eviscerated and pushed backwards off of his perch. And the culprit responsible for cutting him open and pushing him off the fence, forcing him "back in his place" or "back in line", is Brick - the one person Butch always seems to lose to (in his mind at least). This also reflects how Brick uses violence to discipline Butch and keep him in line, and that he tries to use that punishment as a way to regain control (since he unknowingly uses Butch's insides to pull himself out of a situation he couldn't control).

Going back to Boomer and Brick, Boomer is the weight dragging Brick down, reflecting Brick's view that Boomer is the runt, and also more recently, a liability due to his attachment to a certain blonde, blue-eyed Powerpuff Girl. Boomer sees Bubbles and her nurturing, loving care for him as a way out of the dark isolation he feels at the bottom. And that's the way he feels with his brothers. He's left behind, alone and cold, Brick and Butch far above him. But he has no hope that they will help him up. It's only Bubbles who seems to see him down there, and altho she doesn't help him either, she does inspire him to gather the strength to pull himself up to grab hold of her.

The symbolism honestly conveys their current relationships with each other, and their internal experiences, in such a concise and creative way that it gets me every time.

TL;DR

Butch is extremely loyal to Brick in an automatic and unquestioning way, despite all the resentment he has for Brick. But I theorize that that may be changing, very slowly, due to Buttercup. He genuinely cares about his brothers, even tho he rags on them a lot and isn't demonstrative or expressive about it. He seems to internalize the idea that he deserves violent consequences for misbehavior, and I wonder how much of his self-destructive behaviors are linked to that.

Boomer is loyal to Brick, but it's not quite as ingrained as Butch's loyalty. Bubbles is heavily impacting his loyalties, partly cuz, generally speaking, Brick and Butch make him feel worthless while she makes him feel wanted and loved. I think he knows his brothers care about him to an extent, but he has emotional needs that they arent willing or able to fulfill. He and Butch are closer than he is to Brick, and I think he understands Butch better than Brick does at least.

Brick is much more emotionally driven than hed like to admit. It influences what he allows his brothers to do, and how he enforces discipline on them. He's pretty typical in terms of thinking that his abuse and manipulation is justified or acceptable. I think he actually wants what he thinks is best for his brothers, but it's very tied to what he wants and thinks is the best path. He projects a lot of his wants and issues onto them. I don't think he's ever imagined a future where they weren't a team. Despite his emotional nature, he lacks emotional intelligence and doesn't understand or know Butch and Boomer nearly as well as he thinks he does. He knows their behavior extremely well, but not the inner processes and motivations that drive that behavior. And I think that's gonna trip him up.

[littlelovelymemes]

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[redwineconversation]

Thank you for your explanation about the whole relationship breakdown between Bouhaddi and Lyon! I really like this team and your explanations and opinions are very helpful in understanding all the history and why behind everything. Sometimes hard to became a late fan and understand how everything is laid out and why certain things are happening. Any thoughts on why Maro was having a shitty season last year and it seems to be continuing into this year? I know she was part of the wheeling and dealing with Aulus, but I feel like all of that was instigated by Bouhaddi. Maro doesn’t strike me as a demanding/cocky player, which seems to be what ultimately bit Bouhaddi in the ass

I think pretty much every player bar maybe the kids - Carpenter, Macario, and Damaris - were suffering from extreme mental exhaustion / burnout. Lyon's success rate, and expectations that come with it, was just so high that it was always going to take a toll on the players - mentally and physically. To have to perform at those standards, week after week, month after month, year after year - eventually it gets to you. Everyone breaks eventually under that kind of pressure. Lyon players just handled it longer than most.

So I think there was just this massive burnout, and Lyon didn't really get the opportunity to just breathe. Lyon played really well in August 2020, when they basically had the Coupe de France and UWCL Final 8 games, but people forget they literally went straight from winning the UWCL league to a week later having to start D1.

And Lyon was just gassed from that point on, and the pressure of the past five years in particular just got to them. The massive injuries list did nothing to help the moral of the team because Hegerberg and MBock were dead until further notice, half the midfield was hovering between life and death, and the chemistry just wasn't there. This team relies so much on innate chemistry - and I use that term deliberately - that when something happens to disrupt it, it throws them off. Sometimes they have the mental strength to fight back, because I really cannot emphasize how much this team hates losing, but during the 2020-2021 season, Lyon was just legitimately too tired to haul themselves over the finish line.

[Speaking of hatred of losing - I have never seen Henry or Macario that mad during a post-game interview, which does make me feel a tad more confident about next week's game]

I said before that Marozsan is an emotional player in that she is sensitive. The lack of chemistry, which she can sense, disrupts her game because she can feel the hesitation in giving her the pass, and that gets in her head and she makes mistakes because of it. She was never a fast player, so I think when Lyon plays a high press with very quick passing, she can't keep up with it (see: Lyon's first half against Juve). Her lack of pace is disruptive when they are trying to launch counterattacks at breakneck speed and she is wandering up the field with the speed of a drunk lumberjack.

When she's on, her passing is fantastic. But a mixture of burnout and self-doubt is affecting her performance. I don't know if it's just a question of time, if the kids and her just need a bit of time to work things out, or if the kids are looking for confirmation bias. Give it a couple of years and I think Damaris' passing will be other worldly. Bacha and Macario are so comfortable taking set pieces that the idea of Marozsan taking them seems absurd.

Tl:dr - Marozsan was just gassed and now the kids are feeling good about themselves, both of which affect her performance.

[prompts-and-micro-stories]

Okay guys, I’ve decided to post something longer for a change, because sometimes one gets ideas for story bits that you feel are intriguing, but there is no way you can integrate this in one of your WIPs. So not to forget them I inserted just enough stuff around that it works as a rough outline for a story. Will this ever be turned into a final product? Who knows, but at least I won’t forget the idea ;)  Of course if I feel like there is substantial interest I might put some more time into this.

The story takes place in a fantasy world (it does not really need many elements to work, just that there is no modern tech and that the divine is a tangible real influence). Demons are a constant thread for this world, that’s why there are places where people are instructed to become paladins, which fight those and close the rifts where they step into the world. Anyone can enter the school, but to succeed you need to pass on a series of tests which don’t only include fighting skills but also things like history and the like. Paladins are held to a very high standard.

Our protagonist is one that wants to become a paladin, but she has a hard time with school. She’s not dumb, but just can’t manage to concentrate properly on her text studies and she also gets constantly distracted by minor shit happening around her during physical lessons. Just looking at her personality would suggest she’ll make for a fine paladin; but all those constant mistakes take a huge toll on her sense of self-worth; not only do others tell her constantly that she ought be much farther in her studies, but she herself constantly compares herself to others which seem to have a worse starting point, but do manage to do so much better.

The story starts in the week before a big test, one that the protagonist cannot under any circumstances allow herself to fail, because that would be the end of her dream; but despite her trying even harder than usual and isolating herself from her peers to get less distracted she feels like concentrating just gets harder.

But then things get massively shaken up when a message arrives at the school. Some cult has build a massive portal to the demonic realm. They could shatter the group, but there is not way to destroy that portal until it opens up in a few days, spewing out a giant demonic army. On te plus side they now know of this, so they can assemble their own troupes to fight back the moment they emerge. But even when using not only every paladin and paladin-in-training available things are looking extremely grim.

So the higher ups send up their prayers to the gods, asking for their divine help, and indeed, they recieve an answer in the form of a messenger angel.

The angel explains that they cannot directly supplement the proper paladins, just those in training and even this not for free, because of cosmic balance reasons.

The angel gives them instructions: Everyone viable can get a divine tool in exchange for something that they are willing to sacrifice for the goal. To do so they need to write the things (which don’t have to be tangible objects) on a blessed piece of paper that they have to keep with them; it will transform into a divine tool when the time is near; the more precious the god considers the pledge to be (and the more honest the intentions seem), the more powerful the tool they recieve can be.

The protagonist is eager to participate, but has a very, very hard time to decide what to pledge. All her worldly possessions seem not good enough and promising to to some service just does not seem adequate (in the light of her self-worth). So she starts writing down what she thinks of all of this, and finally comes to a conclusion and pledges the only thing that comes to her mind that seems to have at least a tiny bit of value for the good, at least theoretically.

(At this point the readers are not told what she pledges.)

The day of the fight arrives and exacly like the angel had said, the papers start to turn into divine tools. The people who simply followed their guts get them first, while the people who take longer also need to wait longer.

Our protagonist is one of those who recieves a tool before the portal opens, but she’s determined to be let down by disappointment. Demons are invading, and even if the system has come to the conclusion she’s not worthy of becoming a proper paladin she still can fight.

She throws herself into battle and it turns out that automatically reacting to any little things happening around you is actually great if everyone and their mother is trying to kill you. The battle starts out great for the forces of good, but for each demon slain two new seems to pop out of the portal turning the tide of battle to their favour.

And just when the protagonist is sure that she won’t survive that next attack, finally her own divine tool, a sword, appears, just in time. She is not the only one to recieve it very late and three of the last ones stand out to be of a distinctly higher level than the ones dished out so far.

But that sword she got is awesome, too, emanating a cold so fierce it simply burns demons away. She does not really get the big picture, but with the appearance if those four tools the paladins’ side gets the upper hand back, and pushes the invasion back where it came from, sealing the portal, The victory is sweet, but an oath from a boss demon to return with an even bigger army leaves a bitter aftertaste.

Directly afterwards the messenger angel reappears and informs them that the proper collection of sacrifices will be postponed until after the second fight, but this who already can give should do so, because they’ll recieve new tools for the next fight (the old ones already disappeared) and showing their seriousness for their pledge ups their chances to be getting a good tool (or a worse one, if the payment is disappointing). People also can add to their pledge if they feel that this will make it more precious, but there is no compulsion to do so.

Suprisingly things turn back to business as usual afterwards, at least as far as the protagonist is concerned. She has no idea how to actually start paying off her pledge, and spends quite some time to think about what to do. In the end she decides to strive for self-improvement, because even if it does not count as payment, she still hopes that it pleases the god. She starts doing social services on top of studies, something a lot of the others also do, which does not make her stand out, which she thinks is a good thing.

She kinda feels like a fraud getting such a great tool in the first fight when her pledge still seems to her so worthless. 

The test is still on the horizon, and she learns for it, but her constantly nagging self-doubts are making it even harder to focus. On the day of the exam she even sleeps in, and hurries to it after the official starting time.

The examiner meets her with bewilderment and it turns out that she completely managed to miss the repeated announcement that everyone will get bonus points for that fight; and she is one of the four people who earned enough credits this way that the only way to fail the test would be to actively cheat. Not attending would result in a passing (but low) grade. (Turns out that her tool was one legendary sword called “Gefrierbrand” - which she would have found out herself if she had been able to learn her materials properly.)

The news hit her like a brick, and instead of feeling validated (because clearly the higher ups have interpreted this as her having the official approval of a god) her self-doubts grow stronger and she even starts questioning her faith.

Trying to make sense of things, she seeks out the other three that got high-level tools to find out how they are and what they pledged, hoping to find out more about herself in the process.

Turns out those three are also quite quirky and don’t have much in common with each other at first glance. Number one is extremely calm and collected and hardly fazed by anything. Number two is fierce and eager to figth, because that’s what makes them happy. Number three is a dedicated rules lawyer, determined to twist any rule they come across to its breaking point, to uncover hidden flaws.

On closer examination though, they turn out to have kinda similar pledges: Number one pledged “my gratitude” and spend now a while each day to think about stuff they feel grateful about. Number two pledged “my love” and now prepared little gestures and presents for the god, as if they were some person they’re dating. Number three pledged “my doubts” and now writes elaborate essays to sort out their thoughts.

The protagonist befriends those three (not on purpose, it just happens over time) and starts to regain a little bit piece of mind (because having good friends is awesome).

Time flies by and things seem to go the usual way, and the thread of the second invasion turns into a mere background thought, but a constantly nagging one. The protagonist manages to build up her sense of self worth slowly with encouragement from her friends and finally decides that she needs to stop worrying about how her pledge might have been missjudged. She’s doing her best and simply can’t offer more than that, so regardless of what tools she will get the second time, it should not be the sole thing that determines her value as a person, she needs to do that herself.

She even manages to deal with the expectations of the higher ups which think of her as some kind of trump card and count on her to pull out something legendary again. All the time she keeps her own pledge to herself and not even tells her friends.

The portal finally opens again, and the paladins’ army reassembles at the drop of a hat. Again, tools pop up and people recieve multiple ones this time, and our protagonist is among the first to get some, but they are worse than the gear she already has, so she puts them away. She groups with her friends, which unlike her are generously gifted again. But this time there are not the only ones, there are many high level tools on the battlefield this time, it’s now the norm, not an exception.

And how they need it! the onslaugh of demons is seemingly endless and paints the last battle as a piece of cake. The protagonist fights at her best, but is utterly outclassed without better tools, and only sheer determination and her friends keep her from immediatly joining the casualties.

Then the demons use their secret weapon: Their boss summons a thick darkness that wraps around anyone, stealing the light away and muting any sounds to a whispering. This turns the table into their favour immediately, because they are in no way incapicitated, so they start chipping away gleefully at the seriously incapacitated paladins.

Our protagonist loses her sword, and that’s the moment she had it. She starts cursing out like a sailor and angrily berating her good, even getting her current attacker to stop his charge because that emotional outbreak amuses them.

She starts complaining that she feels misstreated and that she does not deserve to be humilated this way, because she had done nothing that would justify first elevating her and then dropping her like a hot potatoe - and even if she had done something wrong this was still a shitty thing to do! This was not about someone worthy or not this was about stopping an invading army of demons and the god should stop from plaing dumb games and give them what they need to even the odds. She doesn’t want some superweapon, just a fair chance, because that was enough for a paladin. And if they had trouble with her they could wait till after the battle.

Another tool appears. It’s no weapon, just a big ring, gently glowing and filling one with a sense of hope and warmth. She recognizes what it is and decides on a whim to put it on, then attacking the nearest demon with her bare fists.

And with her determination the ring glows brighter and brigther, cutting through the darkness, marking her as a target, but also spotlightning the courage she found. She does almost now damage, but still feels her comrade with inspiration, enough to access their last reserves, and hitting back with all they got.

And then the fight is over. An eerie silence lies over the battlefield, until suddenly the tools start disappearing as they had appeared. Then pledges start to vanish, like one guy who had pledges his majestic bard, finds himself suddenly cleanly shaven.

Our protagonist sights heavy from relieve and vanishes just a moment later, while the paper with her pledge drops onto the ground.

[filmforthought]

The Shape of Water

Starring Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer and Michael Stuhlbarg

Rating: ★★½

At Nino’s Pizzeria, there was a decent size fish tank towards the back where customers could admire the beauty of salt water creatures. From yellow tangs to clown fish, I’d find myself gazing at the fish in the background rather than staring at an empty plate waiting for the sicilian pie to come out. Over the years, the number of fish have dwindled. The beauty that was once nestled in the back is now a bunch of bottom feeders hiding in the pebbles. There’s a special connection we can feel with the creatures who swim around in the water. Sure they don’t talk much or play fetch, but their presence is missed when they’re gone. I may have liked the fish that swam around in the tank, but Eliza Esposito, played by Sally Hawkins, has taken her admiration for amphibians a little too far.

Eliza is a mute who works as a cleaning lady at a top secret government laboratory. She has a couple of friends in her support group, but Eliza is a single and lonely woman. While cleaning one of the facilities in the laboratory, scientists bring in a creature for observation. Although the scientists mistreat the creature, Eliza sparks a connection with it. The creature does not see the faults in Eliza many others may judge her for; he sees Eliza for who she is.

Director Guillermo del Toro creates a unique environment while choosing a fresh approach for a main character. Also, there are strong performances by Sally Hawkins and Michael Shannon. It’s a nice story, but the crux of the plot is cliche.

The world created by del Toro takes place in the late 1950s or early 60s. Outside of the laboratory, all the items feel authentic and polished. The televisions stand on four legs, with big knobs on the front and the couches are drawn close to them for an optimal viewing experience. The cars are slick and shiny with long, chrome plated Cadillacs dominating the streets. Although the set design by Paul D. Austerberry is glitzy, the dark underlying tones of the era are captured as well. The Cold War is cynically taking a toll on Americans, as many wonder if they are living among the Communists. Additionally, racism brings out the true colors of those who may seem like respectable people. The production design and social themes transport us to the not so distant future for a love story that’s beyond belief.

The era might be familiar, but the main characters are fresh. Despite being a mute, Eliza is a strong woman who can take charge of a situation. There are many films that like to poke fun at the disability. Frankenstein is a mute and he is the scariest character we’ve ever seen, while the main zombie character in Warm Bodies is a mute too. Let’s not forget Mr. Bean, who annoyingly roams around England and looks like he has been hit by a train twice. The Shape of Water offers Eliza who carries her own weight by seizing her relationship with the creature, developing a strong core of friends, and handling pressure at work well. All of these positive attributes in Eliza are what the creature recognizes.

The creature sees the best in Eliza and looks past her disability. We all wish to have someone in our lives who looks past our faults and appreciate us for who we really are. It’s important to understand that there are people with disabilities who are judged for something they have no choice to live with. Eliza has accepted her place in the world and hopes for someone to love her for who she is. When that someone comes along, a spark ignites in her and she takes full advantage of having a relationship with that person. Also, the creature can relate to her situation because he is bullied by the scientists for the way he looks and acts. Two imperfect people can make the perfect relationship. Both characters have overcome so much in their lives and finding that special someone makes life a battle worth fighting.

The performances by Sally Hawkins as Eliza and Michael Shannon as Strickland are also great features. Hawkins plays Eliza, who does not talk for the film’s entirety. It’s challenging for an actor convey such emotion without any words, but Eliza grips the audience’s hearts naturally. Eliza communicates through sign language, yet conveys feelings through facial expressions. When Eliza rests her head on the bus window, gazing out to the bustling streets with a long look, we can tell a tough day is ahead of her. Then there are moments where her happiness emulates off the screen with a twinkling smile or tap dance. Hawkins’ performance shows how one does not need words to connect with the audience.

Michael Shannon’s character serves as the perfect foe to Eliza. As always, Shannon gives an intense performance as the leading figure in the study of the creature. Strickland is constantly stern and has a smug look on his face, even around his kids. Shannon plays the type of guy nobody would want to mess with. If I stole a cookie from Strickland’s jar, I’d probably confess right when he’d look me in the eye. It takes a strong person to stand up to Strickland, which is why Sally Hawkin as Eliza is the perfect fit.

Although del Toro’s piece is a special adult fairy tail romance, the plot is standard. Girl gets lonely, girl notices a locked up guy, girl must get guy out of captivity, and so on. It was predictable from the start and the ending wasn’t too surprising. The stakes feel high at times, but it always feels like the inevitable is bound to happen. The performances, setting and characters were fresh, but the plot wasn’t.

At Nino’s Pizzeria, the salt water fish tank is a far cry from what it used to be. With only bottom feeders scouring through the pebbles, the tank is practically empty. The same could be said about Eliza’s attitude towards life up until she meets the creature. Eliza finds herself alone as an outcast of society for not being “normal.” However, when in the presence of the creature, Eliza is full of life and feels loved. It takes the admiration of one person to bring out the best in others. When Eliza finds the creature, they define The Shape of Water because love takes many faces.

[republicstandard]

DUNKIRK: No, it is NOT About Brexit, You Bloody Simpletons

Ash Sharp Editor

Yesterday the good lady and I took a well deserved day off together, to curl up on the sofa and watch a good movie. Being my turn, I chose Dunkirk.  One of the great joys of being in a pan-European relationship is learning about each other's history, after all.

I'll leave the movie review to the to the professionals. I'm six months late anyway, but as Republic Standard has been running for only a month or so I beg your indulgence as I play a little catch-up. Movie reviews aren't my thing. I know my limits, and as much as I will wax lyrical about the meaning of art I am more than aware that I am not an artist- I will say that Dunkirk is a very good film indeed and you should see it if you are one of the few people on Earth slower at getting around to seeing films than I am. It does have a 94 on Metacritic though, just saying. It's pretty awesome. This movie's portrayal of the events is sublime, the cinematography is artful, real. The score perfect, Hans Zimmer at his un-nerving best.

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What I am annoyed by is elitist city-dwelling fools who used this movie to throw cheap barbs about how Britain is doomed as it leaves the European Union.

Of course, a movie about one of the most incredible military escapes in human history must be quashed. It might make the proles think that they aren't completely worthless.

Jenni Russell in the New York Times- "No Dunkirk Spirit Can Save Britain From Brexit Defeat";

How I wish that Christopher Nolan’s new film, “Dunkirk,” had not been released at this moment in history. The reviewers have been near unanimous in their praise: searing, complex, uncompromising about the savagery of war and death. Yet the essential message of the film, with its narrative of heroic retreat in order to fight another day, cannot help but feed the national pride in Britain’s capacity to triumph eventually, no matter what the odds.

Nothing could be less helpful to our collective psyche as the country blunders toward Brexit.

My fingers clench reflexively as I read, knowing that soon my eyeballs must surely swivel into the back of my head in the midst of a hopefully fatal grand-mal. Mrs. Russell is a Cambridge graduate and has worked inside the mainstream media establishment for her entire career. She is upper middle class through and through- and this is the face of pro-EU elitism, unfortunately. Wealthy, status-quo in all manners, vaguely socialist in politics so long as they don't feel the pinch themselves and dismissive of people below them on the ladder looking up. The majority of British people who could be bothered to vote decided to leave. The majority of British people define themselves as working class.

Dunkirk is a movie that strips these differences away. A Briton can easily spot the class differences between the characters- while stereotypes, these are not just memes. The Rear Admiral carries himself like a sea lord should, the 'tommies' are scared boys from the terraces and farms. The pilots, mostly from monied backgrounds, avoided the hell of land or sea combat for another kind of hell thousands of feet in the air. The entire meaning of this movie was about British identity. Collective British identity, that beyond the class differences between Britons there are indeed ties that bind. Between fathers and sons, about what duty means. Beyond class divide. It is the antithesis of what we see in the Remain camp.

Emile Simpson writing in Foreign Policy weighs in with a piece entitled "Brexit's Dunkirk Fantasyland".

Beyond trade, the memory of World War II evokes a sense of national unity, symbolized in the “Dunkirk spirit,” which can be taken to represent a cultural unity purportedly absent in modern Britain.

I have said on these pages before that the cultural unity of many Western nations is not yet absent but is sorely wounded. Mr. Simpson -who served my nation in the armed forces and for which I thank him- does not live on a council estate. He does not live in Blackburn.

He does not come from such a lifestyle. He comes from Oxford University and Sandhurst. If he cannot see the lack of unified feeling in England today, the lack of cultural meaning then I really am at a loss. How can you miss it unless you walk around looking at the sky? The media elite creates Far-Right boogeymen out of people like Tommy Robinson, denounce the President of the United States as a racist, and arrest people for criticizing Islam while the largest political party in the nation is riddled with Hard-Left anti-Semites.

This is not what I would consider being expressive of even a hint of the cultural unity on the scale represented by Dunkirk.

Charles Mudede, in a piece for The Stranger entitled "Dunkirk: The First Brexit Movie in the History of Cinema."

It's not just about Brexit/Dunkirk being a one-to-one dub: the Brits fleeing a Europe dominated by the German military/the Brits fleeing a Europe dominated by German banks. It's sadder than that. It is the acceptance that the lie is better than the truth.

Zimbabwean Mudede's latest piece for this site is entitled "Father Recognized Son Shot By a Non-Muslim White American Because of His Nike Socks." I think it's safe to say that he has an agenda. Even so, let us play the ball and not the man. Yes, this movie is a sad film. It's hard to imagine yourself in the shoes of those soldiers paying the ultimate price, going to their deaths in the certainty that the nation -your nation- was surely doomed to fall under the yoke of Nazism. The Wehrmacht was a monstrous machine, technologically and militarily superior in almost every way, and only defeated thanks to the combined sacrifice of millions from dozens of nations and the madness of those in charge of this death-dealer.

Is drowning in a few feet of water off the coast of Dunkirk a parallel to wrestling with the Deutsche Bundesbank? I don't know. I haven't done either. I do imagine though that being shot in the back as I run to a ship or taking shrapnel to the heart from a Stuka, as my friends die around me- that I can imagine is worse than the financial interest of my nation being rivaled -without bloodshed- by another, larger nation. Perhaps Emile Simpson, as a veteran, would do us the service of telling us.

Rafael Behr, in the Guardian, wrote a lovely diatribe entitled "Dunkirk reveals the spirit that has driven Brexit: humiliation."

There is a swelling body of evidence that Brexit is shaking confidence in the country’s international credibility, and cannot be completed in the allotted time without economic vandalism. There is also the referendum result, before which evidence is made to cower.

I fear we are about to rehearse the cycle of shame and resentment all over again. There are two routes ahead, neither free of humiliation. The enactment of Brexit will complete an economic, diplomatic and strategic devaluation that is prefigured already in sterling’s post-referendum slide.

The Pound is still fluctuating, but no longer due to Brexit uncertainty, according to economist Liam Halligan. The value of the currency is now near the value it held before the Brexit vote, manufacturing output to rise to a 10-year-high. Employment also rose by 102,000 from September to November 2017 to a record of 32.2million.

Prior to the referendum, the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted UK growth of two percent during 2016, which was calculated on the Remain vote.

After the leave vote growth rose by 1.9 percent.

Former Treasury minister Lord O’Neill said:

“I wouldn’t have thought the UK economy would be as robust as it currently seems.”

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, as I am sure the Mr. Behr, who persists in tolling the bell of doom, would agree. He continues;

Humiliation corrodes the soul of nations. This thought occurred to me during Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan’s cinematic re-enactment of the 1940 evacuation of British soldiers from fallen France. It was a disorderly retreat following a defeat: “a colossal military disaster”, said Churchill. Yet Dunkirk spirit became an emblem of national character – a metaphor for plucky survival against insuperable odds, and a benchmark for resilience.

Britain will be measurably smaller on the world stage. The reversal of Brexit, or its dilution into some pale simulation of the status quo, requires a plea in Brussels for more time and a fresh start. That will be hard to distinguish from a grovel.

Well, Where to begin. Mr. Behr will surely not slip beneath the waves along with the rest of us, after all- his family has land in Israel to escape to, should the worst come. His advice is to fall to our knees and repent, so I can only attribute total altruism to him- that he cares for the plight of Britons, that if only they could see the error of their ways, we would see that Neville Chamberlain was right after all.

Oh, excuse me- I forget that it is only the pro-EU glitterati who may invoke World War Two in support of their arguments.

We plebs from the council estate ought to listen to our betters when they tell us how stupid we are to want to think for ourselves. When I was on the left wing of politics I thought in a little way like these people did, though I fooled myself that class-consciousness just meant I knew better than anyone else what the working class truly needed. Instead I was a useful idiot, an early precursor to the swarms of useful idiots clogging up the place today with their socialist slogans and proclaimations of undying fealty to the European Union.

Dear Brexiters, Leavers fall into 7 categories. Which one are you?#FBPE pic.twitter.com/sMUKBXQrlQ

— Brexit Bin 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 #FBPE (@BrexitBin) January 28, 2018

What the working class need is what ever the working class choose to vote for in the democratic process until we decide to just shelve the idea of democracy all together. Sermonizing by wealthy graduates from elite schools who publish books, work for the BBC and own land in a literal ethnostate are not on that list, funnily enough. Let us finish up where we began, with Jenni Russell, who rightly said;

Nine of Northern Europe’s 10 poorest regions — including West Wales, Cornwall and Lancashire are in Britain

Yet, she wonders why the people of West Wales, Cornwall and Lancashire decided that a change from the prescribed route was in order. The only solution to Russell is more of the same. Damn your democracy. She goes on;

Britain is not an economic powerhouse waiting to be liberated. We are a country of mediocre education and limited skills, whose preening vanity has prevented us from seeing our failings. Our membership in the European Union is not a set of restraints; it is what has been propping us up. If we insist on cutting ourselves off, parts of our economy will start to die.

Dunkirk is remembered so fondly only because, in the end, Britain was on the winning side. That wasn’t down to our plucky spirit. It was because America, with its overwhelming resources, entered the war. There is no such ally waiting to rescue us now, as we start down the dangerous path of methodically shredding our links with our neighbors and friends.

What a rousing speech. Join me on the barricades, Jenni Russell. I truly know we are of one heart. We are together, for our people. On the beaches, on the landing grounds, on the streets and the hills. We shall never surrender. None of what Russell says is true, of course - except perhaps we are mediocre in education, low in skill, and vain. I would apply that for sure to every writer in this piece today, myself included, and in spades to the political elites who earn so much and say so little in service of the nation. We don't need a recitation of The Lays of Ancient Rome right now. Nor do we need sermons from the Little Red Book.

Yes, that is Parliament. Yes, That is a book by Chairman Mao.

We needed a film about Dunkirk, a message of hope and unity and sacrifice and family conducted in a way that we can all understand, from the smallest child upwards. The strokes of this film are conducted not in dialogue nor in splashes of gaudy CGI, but in marks of chalk. In the certain look in a man's eye. Not a film about defeat, but a message that says England is not lost, and will never be lost. We are glad to be reassured that our culture means something, that we stand for something. That the sacrifices of our fathers were not in vain, that the policies imposed on us that none asked for may be repealed.

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It doesn't matter that the Empire is no more, or that Britain is not the powerhouse it once was. It matters that it is Britain. Our culture and way of life that for all its many and manifest failings deserves to exist without apology to anyone, least of all jumped up writers on the internet. Doesn't being British count for anything?

“I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation...  we shall never surrender." - Sir Winston Churchill. 4th June 1940.

Now that is top drawer word-crafting. We should all take note.

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[thewordonmainstreet]

Hey My Bullies, You Can’t Keep A Good Woman Down

It happened again.  I was bullied in the workplace for a 4th time.  So that makes me a veteran of workplace bullying, a label fraught with weighty sorrow.  Just like the last three times, the bullying was cruel, it was calculated and relentless and tore me apart but I have a steely resistance that gets stronger every time.  No one or nothing can take away my resolve to keep going as I have so damn much fight left to give.  Try as my haters might, my comeback game is hella strong.

It was at a big box retail store that employed mostly millenials, the ones who seem to go for me.  Most retail is like a re-run of high school.  The gossip, the immaturity, the girls talking about their makeup game and the moody, prickly personalities.  I find that millenials are quite challenged by having to interact with those older than 30 and being segregated by them has happened to me in every job, them being the prime suspects in all the bullying I have known. 

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and I think they’re jealous.  They’re jealous of how hard I hustle, how pleasant I am, of my winning ways with customers.  I think I let people in too much, people who don’t deserve to be let in.  For the first month, I noticed nothing and then it began.  I would walk into a lunchroom buzzing with conversation and it would fall silent.  The locker room, same thing.  I just got “the stare”.  Such a cold, repugnant stare that would almost give me chills.  I was being ostracized by a growing group of peers every day.  Very quickly, it became clear to me that it was them against me.  I would hear giggles in the bathroom after I had spoken in the locker room across from it.  One girl began asking me really inappropriate personal questions like if I live on my own, if I make my own lunch, if I had many friends, if I did my own groceries. I was only very grudgingly spoken to and of course when I made an effort at starting a conversation, it was very clear that I didn’t belong and it was over just as quickly as it began.  The rancor expression on their faces, the pithy, forced replies.  I worked hard at that job like all my past jobs.  I made customers feel like my friends, made their kids feel important and made them laugh too.  I reminded customers of sales and special promotions, always followed standard cash procedures, and made sure they left happy and appreciated.  I delighted in helping the elderly, made a downcast and seemingly misunderstood-looking person laugh by being witty.  I would remember regulars and they would remember me.  I was thriving daily but behind the scenes was the beginning of the end.

All I ever wanted in life was to belong. To be a productive member of society and to be remembered.  To have a story.  To talk to another staff member in the break room and know that I mattered to her.  I was the subject of gossip, constant random personal questions and some girl was targetting me asking how I was and why wasn’t I smiling and that made me cry.  Another would circle around me on cash and ask if I was okay.  I tried to make conversation with other cashiers but they began snapping at me or just wouldn’t answer me.  One called me a bitch and one said when I suggested that the cash gates needed to be WD-40ed, she said “have a fucking fun time with that”.  Feeling so very alone when everyone else is amicable with each other even after work is the hardest thing in the world to endure.  It would take forever to get a change order or receipt roll and I was often put on a cash furthest away from other staff.  I was exiled.  My pages to other staff were ignored.  When it all became too much, I requested a meeting with the assistant manager.  I handed him a note of the all too familiar documented incidents of harassment.  I told him I have been harassed in the workplace three times before so I know it is happening.  He and the HR manager promised to investigate it, after all they have a anti-workplace harassment policy and duly abide by Ontario’s Bill C168.  So they said.

I got called into a meeting after the investigation was complete, a meeting that would seal my fate.  I was told that my allegations were baseless and I was heinously accused of things I never did.  That girl who was asking me personal questions and always wanting to know if I was okay?  She told them that I was telling her personal things that I shouldn’t have and denied checking up on me.  That girl who told me to get my own receipt roll and that I should never ask her and the others who laughed at me?  They both adamantly denied it.  And the others who I complained about denied everything too.  Well of course they’re going to deny any wrongdoing to a manager.  I was then slammed with the accusation that customers were complaining about me (what, I had many times been told by the assistant manager how customers loved me), that I talked out of hand and that I wasn’t learning fast enough.  I should have fought back in an effort to keep my job but I was too depleted by the abuse.  I was absolutely sideswiped that all my hard work didn’t matter.  Popular vote had won.  30 staff trying to push one girl out is always going to win.  I was in pieces.  I tried to reason with them as tears began to fall but it was too late.  I was being told that they were letting me go.  And then sudden rage came to the surface at the unjustness of it all.  I was going to be given a severance of four weeks’ pay but I would have to sign a two-page form alleviating my employer of any allegations.  They gave me this money as they knew they were in the wrong and they didn’t want me to pursue legal action.  I needed the money and they knew it.  It was hush money.  My purpose, the structure for my days all destroyed by a gang of bullies who didn’t want me there.  I cried so much the following two days, my stomach began to hurt.  Then came the shock.  I would go into stores and feel confused.  I would drive and feel out of sorts and my reaction time was impaired.  Quite often, I felt dizzy and would forget the simplest of things, even in my home.  I felt I had truly suffered mental trauma and it took a few weeks to feel normal again.  I was taken down by people who never appreciated who I was.  Who didn’t deserve to appreciate who I was.  Being bullied has cost me and my family thousands of dollars and a lot of anguish.  It has also destroyed the dream of having a stable job.  I live a life interrupted and it has as well taken a toll on my mental health.

The anger lasted a long time.  I would think of how I wanted the worst things to happen to my haters and this would help me cope. I want them to go through pain and hardship like I did.  They took something from me, so life should take something from them.  What goes around comes around and nothing could be further from the truth.  Listening to the song Karma by Kristina Maria on loop helped me channel my anger as well. Today, I am soaring.  I am beyond strong and every day is filled with hope.  The depression is gone and I’m thankful for a supportive family and the resolve to keep going. I am tirelessly applying to jobs and am starting a part time job at a coffee shop tomorrow.  It’s nothing great but it’s something. Resilience and the will to keep going is entrenched in my bones and I am grateful that I don’t tap out even when the whole world is against me.  You may try but you can’t keep this good woman down.