#I really love how the last panel turned out but also. GUT PUNCH when I read his players tribune thing

[emuchipmunk]

John Tavares x Castles Crumbling - Taylor Swift & Hayley Williams

[love-killed-the-superstar]

The Last Ronin 2: Re-Evolution Issue #1 LIVEBLOG

SPOILERS ABOUND. I'M NOT GOING TO BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS IT'LL PROBABLY GET SUPER LONG

Okay so Casey Marie's muscles are something I'm never going to get over. SHE LOOKS GOOD!!!!! Her getup is feeling a little too reminiscent of a cape-wielding superhero for my tastes to be honest - I really loved the more practical outfits she wore in TLR Lost Years, especially in issue 4 when she was running the training mission for the kids. But ah well, I'm sure this will grow on me. It may not be practical (edna's law of no capes is coming to mind, also PLEASE TIE YOUR HAIR UP WHEN YOU'RE FIGHTING GIRL!!!) but it's very cunty anyway which I appreciate

Straight up thought she killed this guy - what was that sound effect if he's still able to walk??? I fr thought she snapped his neck

IDK if we needed a whole 8 pages of punching and kicking to exposition dump what we kinda already knew from what's been shown in the lost years (esp the lost day special) but IT'S FINE IG... NOW ONTO THE BABIES

SORRY, SORRY. TEENAGERS NOW.

GIGGLING KICKING MY FEET. We're ALREADY getting the leo-v-raph adjacent dynamic with these two and I'm living for it. if one of them drops a stone cold 'fearless leader' jab i will lose my shit

HI? HELLO, EXCUSE ME, MIND-TALKING? PICTURES IN HEAD? ARE WE A FAMILY THAT LUCID DREAMS OR SOMETHING?!?? I DON'T REMEMBER THIS BEING SOMETHING THEY COULD DO?? every new speech bubble here is like a punch to the gut, wdym telepathy wdym secret lair wdym honouring everything master splinter taught you???? (although i'm proud that when this panel dropped on news sites i was immediately like THAT ISN'T THE KITCHEN FROM LOST YEARS. turns out it was a Secret Lair TM)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Seance -- TURTLES COUNT IT OFF!!

not gonna screenshot the whole backstory but they're basically doing a telepathic puppet show explaining the backstory and it's pretty much the mirage origins with a bit of extra tlr flair. as always it HURTS ME seeing the turtles dying so thanks for that tlr2 :'')) icb these kids watch a mind movie of their uncles dying every fucking night. yall are messy

SOBBING AND CRYING,, I WISH YOU'D ALL HAD THE CHANCE TO KNOW HIM TOO!!!!!! I WISH YOU'D GOTTEN TO KNOW ALL OF THEM!!!!! (tlr splinter doesnt count tho because hes a dick)

there was a cool sequence of them rooftop hopping n stuff but i wont cover it bc we already saw it in a bunch of news articles weeks ago

i just did the SHARPEST INHALE. casey marie you and your beautiful muscular arms have aged like the finest wine

YI NO!!!!!

lmaooo moja is JUDGING your taste in women u two

lots of text... blah blah blah jobs, crimerates, blah blah... jiro in pig uniform jumpscare.. casey marie i thought u were going to fix him :(((

YESSSSS KIDS ARE GOING ON A MISSION WITH THEIR MOM, LETS FUCKING GOOOOO

MY BABIES ARE KICKING ASS!!!!!

....,.HUH

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY BABY BOY ODIE!!!!!!!!!!! WHO DID THIS TO HIM!!!!!!???? WHAT??!???? HUH/1?!!? EXCUSE ME????

I'M . LIKE WHAT DO I EVEN SAY TO THIS. IT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE??? WHAT IS GOING ON!!!

FINAL THOUGHTS:

dude that first issue was wordy but the kids were ON POINT. they were so fun!! their dialogue is fun and they kick ass.

i loved yi announcing the punishment for casey while the others were like NOO SHE DIDNT MEAN THAT DONT LISTEN TO HER. we're getting more of their personalities and it's great!! it was a nice throwback to issue 2 of lost years when they were cleaning - yi refused to help because of how strictly she was following instructions. im picking up that she might be neurodivergent but i did get that from the lost years too - only doing things within strict instructions, getting frustrated at teaching odyn chess, not because of him playing horseys with the knights but that it was Against The Rules Of Chess - and now not picking up on some social cues. It's nice to see!! I love her very much, but it feels like besides rehashing the origin story she took a bit of a backseat to the other three.

i want to know more about why uno said being a rebel was moja's 'thing', since she didn't seem to be any more rebellious than the other three in this issue. we didn't get any unique interactions between her and casey marie which is what i felt was lacking from lost years but i wonder if this is hinting towards a more turbulent mother-daughter dynamic with them... I REALLY HOPE SO!! her and uno butting heads in a leo-raph way is very fun - i don't mind one or two prior group dynamics leaking into the new turtle siblings because they're all so different from the original 4.

uno seems to be taking on slightly more of a leader role than moja so i think he won the title of fearless leader. which is fine, i think it'll be fun to see and he's definitely less of an asshole now than when he was growing up in lost years. still picking on odyn a bit but seems to snipe at moja just as much. even when he was commenting on yi's storytelling he didn't make fun of her, though - i think she may have inherited the 2k3 don ability of being Completely Unbullyable.

i was really pleased that odyn felt more involved!! i feel like he took the backseat a few times in lost years - it was fun seeing more of his personality shine through! he and yi seem to get on the best, and i giggled at them rolling their eyes at moja and uno's raph-leo schtick. i didn't expect him to TURN TO FUCKING STONE THOUGH, so i'm nervous about that. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? WHO DID THIS TO MY BOY? IS HE GOING TO TURN BACK NEXT CHAPTER OR IS HE OUT OF COMMISSION UNTIL THE END OF THE RUN??? (if it's the latter i'll be a bit annoyed - don't take odyn away from the equation please!!)

I do wonder if by introducing casually that they can PSYCHICALLY CONNECT, the turtles will use that as a technique to reach odyn's mind to make sure he's still in there and piece together what's happened to him. i mean, their casual telepathy has gotta be some sort of chekhov's gun right?

and shit.... april was so fucking mad casey took the babies out so she's going to EXPLODE when she finds out what happened to her baby boy, her beloved favourite, her baby odyn :''(( im giggling rubbing my hands together waiting for the fallout but also if she cries i might cry too. speaking of april, she seems to be working on a new project and i saw nano particles mentioned - are we going to have a roninverse version of nano in this run???? I NEED MY ROBOT SON

as always, casey marie... u have aged like fine wine. u are stunning. disappointed that ur still believing that jiro can do good as a cop when their entire police force and government is corrupt as fuck. just feels very naive of her. i'm excited to see her break down at the concept of losing odyn - in fact i need everyone to mourn this beautiful kid. they tell us so much that shes a super clingy helicopter mom and i am picking up on the strict part, but it would be nice to see more of her just... hugging her kids. holding them. i get why she didnt in this issue but id love more mama casey squishing their cheeks and kissing their foreheads.

i have zero fucking clue what's going on with odyn. im wondering if it's somehow related to nano, or to whatever project April is working on - she says it's to do with clearing the tunnels, but I''m not convinced. who knows, there might be some ulterior motive happening.

Anyway, that's the end of my liveblog!! thanks for reading all the way to the end... go read it wherever you read ur comics!!!

[dude1818]

Oh right, I had to switch sources (again) since the website I had been using was missing a few pages in a recent chapter. This version is a little better (also translates sound effects, for example). Let's see how it did that weird dig in my last post

Well, it reads a lot more natural at least. We do know Nazuna's priorities from when she was in high school. Anyway, onto the liveblog!

Oh no, when the girlfriend in Canada shows up at your school anyway

And immediately pulls him aside for a quickie. I mentioned this in my anime liveblog, but again great use of mirrors

Oh my god. Akira called Ko because she saw his bandage was off, but I completely cracked up at Nazuna waltzing back with blood still on her mouth

Real Ryo hours

Vampire eyes. Pretty obvious since Ko was just wondering if there were vampires here in Hokkaido too. He has the same "dress like a high schooler" technique that Seri used to hunt prey. At least there was a little gap between when Kyoko explained what a vampire's glamour was, since he seems to be using that too. (Although I think that power has been obvious since Hatsuka's harem in season 1)

Okay, that's a messed up cliffhanger panel. Obviously he was trying to pick off one of the girls in Ko's group for a meal, but that's giving much more date rape vibes than "just" a vampire attack

Last chapter had Ko punch the vampire once in the gut and then cut to him carrying the girl back to their hotel. Subtle, I liked it. This chapter then filled in the rest of his and the vamp's fight. Sure

But now Nazuna and crew are also headed to the same bar to talk to the "locals," i.e. this same vampire. That's too much a coincidence. Surely this guy isn't the only vampire in Hokkaido

Wait, he recognizes Nazuna's mom?? That's wild

Now the fangs come out. Nice. I wish they would finally acknowledge that they're been dating this whole time

A bit on the nose to show off your black widow fetish to your romantic partner. I'm trying to figure out when I predicted when this was Kiku's whole deal. Maybe even back in season 1?

Huh. I was not expecting it to be that. Haru I can see wanting to be human again to be with Nazuna's dad. Kiku seems to have had this MO for way longer though

That's a hilarious use of sound effects

Not posting this screenshot, but the bath scene ends with a full frontal shot of Kyoko getting out the water, and the author simply didn't draw her nipples. Not even a pretense of modesty steam or anything, just smooth like a barbie doll

This is why I love this manga. Under all her goofiness and sexual innuendos and refusal to admit they're already dating, she really and truly cares about him

They were talking about how most human myths about vampires aren't true, but may be corrupted from stories about real vampires over the years. If that's true, it would only be appropriate that the vampire myth that feeding on a human you love kills you is corrupted from the real property that feeding on a human you love turns you human. Because what is becoming mortal again except a very delayed death? Ironic, or possibly not, that Haru falling in love with a human killed her vis a vis getting pregnant with Nazuna

Baby don't hurt me. (That's basically the plot of the whole manga, huh)

[katvaramell]

Ive just caught up to the JJK manga (chapter 249) and its insane 😭

I started reading it after watching the anime and oh my god I did not expect it to continue this way!!!

One I was quite disappointed that the amazing „I am you“ sequence between mahito and Yuji was only a few panels. I really loved the way they did it in the anime and I think it gave the moment the gravitas it needed.

Yuta is actually helping Yuji??? I got spoiled about quite a few things but this didn’t register at all. I loved their work together though :,) especially now in the fight against sukuna I’m very curious how it’ll go

The amount of information at once about the culling games is very disorienting. It’s such a complicated magic system and now all these new people and rules all at once really take some focus to understand!! (Which I’m not used to after starting with one piece…)

I love how Yuji manages to unintentionally get an adult to adopt him every two weeks it’s so cute

This scene was such a gut punch!! Having it spelled out and then yuji saying he’s guilty just shows again how hard the shibuya incident hit him. And they had no breaks to mourn since then. I think it’s so heartbreaking how yuji only sees himself as a cog with a function and puts himself in this role he can’t escape. I genuinely appreciate that they basically redid the scene, but this time explicitly said that it was sukunas fault and that Yuji agreed!

When megumi killed that guy and it was announced that he got 5 points I absolutely couldn’t believe it. I know that they weren’t disillusioned to killing but still seeing them do it willingly really surprised me and also hurt :(( they’re just babies

It’s very overwhelming to be introduced to so many techniques after each other, but I think it’s very interesting how they work and develop!!

Also I love Maki so much. Absolute icon behavior. I love that she is as strong as Toji now!!!! Gege is not great at writing women, but here he really popped off

I’m very interested how the whole angel plot line will continue. Because after it turned out that she was someone that megumi saved, and she wants to help him in return for that I think some surprises will still come up (also I loved the flashback with gojo ruffling megumis hair 😭 it really showed how involved in each others lives they were :(( )

Poor megumi😭😭 I got spoiled for it but the panel at the end of a chapter where megumis soul is just lying in the dark all miserable made me cry :(( they’re just babies your honor

I’m also quite curious to see if he is still alive and how his cursed technique is faring. I didn’t quite get what is going on with him currently, so I guess we’ll see

There is a totally straight explanation for this I’m sure 🤡

I love and hate that gojo got a little flashback scene to his dead friends. I’m glad they’re reunited again, even if they’re still burdened by what happened to them - but it still hurts that they died here. Even though they were so strong.

I don’t think that Gege will bring gojo back. I do think he’s dead, because the way things look now they don’t genuinely need him to win. And it would take away the severity of the plot, if they could just do take backsies

I love that yuji has a voice as a sorcerer even without being sukunas vessel. He seems to still think that he is just a cog but I do think he starts to value himself more

It is also very interesting to see more of higurumas development and I was so surprised to find out that he is just as powerful as gojo! It truly seems to be a second golden age of jujutsu with all these powerful players assembling

I guess that even though Yuta beheaded Getos body, it doesn’t seem like kenjaku is dead because he is just the brain. I can’t quite tell if he will return in Getos body or a new one. It seems like the body is finally dead for sure, because all the curses escaped. But I’m sure we haven’t seen him for the last time

All in all it seems like the series is coming to an end in the near future. Everything starts to funnel down to a last show down, but I can’t quite tell how that will go.

[davidmann95]

Sooo… Superman and the Authority?

magnus-king123 asked: Your thoughts on Superman & the authority Give it to me...lol

Anonymous asked: Seeing Bezos take his little trip into space the same day Morrison puts out a Superman comic that touches on how far we’ve fallen from the days when we dreamed of utopian futures where everyone explored the stars was a big gut punch. Not used to Superman being topical in that way.

Anonymous asked: What'd you think of Superman and the Authority#1?

This is far beyond what I can fit in the normal weekly reviews, so taking this as my notes on the first six pages, with this and this as my major lead-in thoughts:

* Janin's such a perfect fit for Morrison - the scale, the power, the facial expressions selling the character work, the screwing around with the panel formatting as necessary to sell the effect, the numinous sense of things going on larger than you can fully perceive amidst the beauty and chaos. It's a shame he wasn't around 25 years ago to draw JLA, but I'll take him going with Morrison onto other future projects.

* His intro action sequence is such a great demonstration of why Black actually does have something to offer, and also how he's such a dumbass desperately needing Superman to save him from himself.

* While Jordie Bellaire didn't legit go with an entirely monochromatic palate the way early previews suggested, it's still an effect frequently and excellently deployed here. And glad to see Steve Wands carry into this from Blackstars since there's such an obvious carryover from its work with Superman.

* "Gentlemen. Ladies. Others." Great both because of the obvious - hey, Superman's nodding at me! - and because it's a phrasing that reinforces that this take on him (and let's be real Morrison) is old as hell.

* I'm mostly past caring about whether this is an alt-Earth Superman until it becomes indisputable one way or another, this and Action both rule so what does it really matter? But while there are still a couple signs in play suggesting some kind of division (the Action Comics #1036 cover, Midnighter up to time-travel shenanigans) the "lost in time" quote clearly thrown in after the fact to explain how he could have met Kennedy outside of 5G that wouldn't be necessary for an Elseworlds, the assorted gestures towards Superman's current status quo, the Kingdom Come symbol appearing in Action, and that Morrison would have had to completely rewrite the ending if this wasn't supposed to be 'the' version of Clark Kent going forward as was the intent when they first planned it all say to me that no, no fooling around, this is our guy going forward one way or another.

* Janin and Bellaire making the first version of the crystal Fortress ever that actually looks as cool as you want it to.

Anonymous asked: I like that Superman and The Authority is basically the anti-All-Star; instead of the laid back, immortal Superman who is supercharged, we have a stressed, ageing Superman whose tremendous powers are fading. The former will always be there to save us, but the latter is running out of time and needs to pull off a Hail Mary. Also, he mentions in his monologue to Black that he was "lost in time" when he met JFK, so maybe he is the main continuity Clark. Or he's the t-shirt Supes from Sideways.

* You're absolutely right - the power reversal is obvious and the ticking clock in play seemingly isn't for his own survival but everyone around him as he wakes up and realizes all the old icons grew complacent with the gains they'd made and he's not leaving behind the world he meant to. Both, however, are built on the idea of preparing the world to not need them anymore - it'll still have a Superman in his son, but that'll only work because of the others he empowers and inspires. The question is what happens to Clark if he's not going to live in the sun for 83000 years.

* Clark's 'exercise' here does more to sell me on the idea of Old Man Superman as a cool idea than however many decades of Earth 2 stuff.

* Intergang being noted alongside Darkseid and Doomsday speaks to how much Kirby informed Morrison's conception of Superman.

* This isn't exactly the most progressive in its disability politics but at least it makes clear Black's being a piece of shit about it.

* It's startling how much Clark can get away with saying stuff in here you'd never expect to come out of Superman's mouth. "I made an executive decision" "Privacy, really...?" "You have nowhere to go, Black. Nothing to live for." "There are few people in my life who I instinctively and viscerally dislike, and you've always been one of them." It only works because there's zero aggression behind it, he's just past the point of niceties and being totally frank while making clear none of these assessments preclude that he cares and is going to unconditionally do the right thing every time. He is absolutely, per Morrison, humanity's dad picking us up when we're too drunk to drive ourselves home.

* The story doesn't put a big flashing light over it, but it's not even a little bit subtle having the material threat of the issue be a ticking timebomb left by the carelessness and hubris of generations past.

* Manchester keeps trying to poke the bear and prove his hot takes about Superman and it's just not working. The front he put up under Kelley is gone after decades of defeats, and as Morrison understands what actually conceptually works about him as a rival to Superman underneath the aging nerd paranoia he's exposed as what he absolutely would be in 2021: a dude with a horrific terminal case of Twitter brainworms. I was PANICKED when I heard there was an 'offensive term' joke in this, I was braced for Morrison at their well-meaning worst, but it's such a goddamn perfect encapsulation of a very specific breed of Twitter leftist who uses their politics first and foremost as a cudgel and justification to label their abrasive, judgmental shittiness as self-righteousness (plus it's a killer payoff to a joke from way back in his original appearance). Cannot believe they pulled that off when they're so very, very open about basically not knowing how the internet works.

* @charlottefinn: Manchester Black using his telekinetic powers to force someone he hates to fave a problematic tweet so that he can screenshot it and start a dogpile

@intergalactic-zoo: “Once they cancel Bibbo, Superman won’t be *anyone’s* fav’rit anymore!”

* Friend noted this issue had to be fully the conversation because the whole premise stands on the house of cards of these two somehow working together, and with three 'silent' inset panels the creative team pulls off that turning point.

* So much of this feels on the surface like Morrison bringing back the All-Star vibes with Clark, but when he drops a "That's all you got?" in a brawl you realize what's underlining that bluntness and confidence in the face of failure is that deep down this is still the Action guy too. This dude ain't gonna get wrecked in his Fortress while the other guy chuckles about him being A SOFT WEE SCIENTIST'S SON!

* Bringing up Jor-El made me realize that Morrison already spelled out that this is the final threat to Superman, what he faces at the end of the road:

"Now it's your turn, Superman."

* A l'il Superman 2000/All-Star reference with the Phantom Zone map!

* There's so much intertextuality going on here even by Morrison standards - Change or Die with the old hero putting together a team of morally nebulous folks out to 'fix' everything, Flex Mentallo with the muscleman trying to redeem the punk, Doomsday Clock with the fate of the world hinging on whether Superman can get through to a meta stand-in for an idea of 'modern' comics cynicism, DKR and New Frontier and Kingdom Come and Multiversity and Seven Soldiers and What's So Funny and All-Star and Action and the last 5 years of monthly Superman comics and Authority and probably Jupiter's Legacy and Tom Strong - but none of that's needed. You could go in with the baseline pop cultural understanding of the character and not care about any of the inside baseball shit and get that this is a story about a leader of a generation that let down the people they made all their grand promises to as inertia and day-to-day demands and complacency let him be satisfied with the accomplishments they'd made long ago, looking at a new era and seeing the ways its own activists are dropping the ball. The only thing that fundamentally matters in a "you have to accept you're reading a superhero story" sense is that because he's Superman he's willing to own up to it and listen to people who might know better about some things and try to set things right while he and those who'll take his place still have a chance. And yes, the oldster looking back on their legacy with a skeptical eye and hoping for better from the next generation, hoping most of all that their little heir apparent can fulfill the promise inside of him instead of being a provocating little shitkicker, is obviously also autobiographical.

* The overlaying Kennedy reprisal is such a great visual of a sudden intrusive thought.

* The Kryptonite secret is the obvious "This is going to matter!" moment, but "He lied about his son" is a bit that doesn't connect to anything going on right now so maybe that's important here too? More significantly, the Justice League can't actually be the villains here but that Ultra-Humanite's crew are in an Earth-orbiting satellite makes pretty clear what's up.

* I've said before that between Superman, OMAC, and a New Gods-affiliated speedster this was going to use all of Morrison's favorite things. King Arthur playing a role isn't exactly dissuading me.

* Love the idea that all the antiheroes have their own community in the same way as the capes and tights crew. They definitely all privately think the rest are posers though and that they alone are Garth Ennis Punisher in a mob of Garth Ennis Wolverines.

* Manchester's fallen so far he's gone from trying to convince Superman to kill to convince him to dunk on people for their bad takes and Clark just doesn't get it. Official prediction of dialogue for upcoming issues:

"According to these bloody Fortress scans, the only thing that can restore your powers is an unfiltered hit of dopamine. Don't worry, Doctor Black has a few ideas."

"Hmm. Maybe I'll plant a nice tree?"

"...fuck you."

* Ok I already talked about how great the Fortress looks in here but LOVE this library.

* A pair of pages this seems like the right spot to discuss from Black's original appearance that underlines both his and Superman's inadequacies up to this point:

Responding to the problem of "the government and penal system are hopelessly corrupt" neither of them has any actual notion of what to do about it in spite of their respective posturing beyond how to handle individual outside actors - each is in their own way every bit as small-minded and reactionary as the other. Clark's coming around though, and he's holding out hope for the other guy.

* Superman: Have a lovely mineral water :) proper hydration is important :)

Manchester Black: *Is a dude who can get so mad he vomits and passes out. At water.*

* That last page is the one to beat for the year, and does more to put over the idea of this as an Authority book than that Midnighter and Apollo are literally going to show up. It also feels like Morrison tacitly acknowledging all the ways the premise could go or at least be received wrong - from Superman saying 'enough is enough' to who he's bringing into the fold to go about it - in the most beautifully on-the-nose fashion imaginable. Maybe they'll save us all! Or maybe they'll drown us in their vomit.

[wanderingaldecaldo]

Leaving Night City

For Snippet Sunday, a bit of No One’s Gonna Love You, Chapter 4. Fuck, am I proud of this chapter. There’s angst, comfort, some of my tightest prose, a really cool literary trick I’ve been wanting to use, and also what’s probably my best smut ever. (Smut not detailed below though maybe I should do a smutty Sunday post too... 🤔😏)

V takes advantage of the shitty motel’s indoor plumbing and showers in private one last time. She dawdles in the cool spray. Rolling out means Mitch is better, and her stomach trembles with nerves at seeing him in person for the first time since that day. Finally she steps out of the water and dresses, donning her favorite jeans and tank as well as her favorite sneakers she couldn’t part with. Last is the Aldecaldos jacket. She pulls it snug, checks herself in the mirror and, once satisfied, hauls the duffel that contains her life to the Javelina.

Panam’s waiting for her when she arrives, and they share a moment gazing at the city. There’s nothing left for her here, but there might be something in Arizona, or someone. She lingers for a moment before following Panam to her truck. She might be dying, but it sure as hell won’t be in Night City.

The nerves in her stomach have grown into knots and she’s glad for Panam’s conversation for distraction. As they drive through the solar station and enter Jackson Plains, a Coyote speeds by them on the left, its horn blaring.

“Panam!” Mitch’s voice on the radio makes V’s heart sing. “Girl, are you running from Night City or goin’ to your granny’s for cookies and milk? Gun it or that storm’ll catch ya!”

“Screw you!” Panam says as she laughs.

“Mitch! Hey!”

“Hey, V,” he answers softly; she can hear his smile.

“Good to hear you,” she says, her voice wavering. “How’s things?”

“Give me a month and I’ll be good as new. I told y’all I’d be fine, didn’t I?”

“Come on, Mitch, you weren’t nearly that confident after Mikoshi, none of us were. He was in bed for weeks, a vegetable,” she says as V didn’t know, as if she hadn’t been watching her agent for any sign of activity.

“Did save every one of our asses, though,” V says.

“Pity Saul’s not with us,” Panam says with a sigh, and it’s like a punch to the gut. “Or Teddy. Or Bobby. Or Scorpion....”

With each name another punch, until her chest is squeezed tight and she’s biting her lip to keep from crying. Turning to the window, she blinks away the tears that started to form and cranes her neck for one last glimpse at Night City. The late afternoon sun has receded behind the city and the shadows of the skyline stretch after them like brittle branches of a barren tree.

“They would’ve kicked your ass out of whack after that move with the panzer. Then hugged you until you puked.”

“I know, Panam, I know,” Mitch answers, forlorn.

“Gave us all a chance at a new start. Let’s not fuck it up,” V says, and she tries to keep her voice steady, as if she’s not the cause of their deaths, the reason Mitch had to do what he did.

“I’m glad you’re with us, V.” His voice is once again gentle. “See you soon.”

If Panam can forgive her, if Mitch can, then maybe one day she can forgive herself. The tears that were hovering just beneath the surface break through and she swipes at her eyes with her hand, and she’s thankful Panam hasn’t noticed and, for once, lets her ride in peace.

They follow his car to a clearing of solar panels with an antenna tower. As Panam stops the truck, the door to the Coyote opens and Mitch climbs out, one long leg then another then finally the rest of him and her stomach flips when his eyes find hers. His pace is slow yet deliberate and she follows his movements until his handsome face and beautiful eyes are in the window and he’s smiling at her—smiling, not smirking—and there’s something in the smile, the crinkle of his eyes that makes her heart flutter.

Mitch leans in and it’s déjà vu like that time right before Mikoshi when she couldn’t breathe and he’d held her hand and she closes her eyes as his lips meet hers and she’s the best thing he’s ever tasted and it doesn’t matter how long this headache lasts as long as it means V smiles at him that way.

After a long moment Mitch opens his eyes and pulls back, and V licks her kiss-swollen lips, her look disappointed as it dips to his mouth. Nice to see she missed him too. Her messages said she did, but nothing like a kiss for confirmation.

“Shall we get the fuck out of here?” he asks, beaming at her.

[tedturneriscrazy]

Here we are with Eda's Requiem! This is one I've been eagerly anticipating, thanks in no small part to one Raine Whispers. You know the drill.

Opening with Eda being a soft owl mom❤

Also, she has her own keepsake Grom photo❤❤❤

Oh, impending empty nest syndrome? (Heh, how approriate, considering she has a literal nest)

Ooh, a preview of bard magic?!

Oh, that seems...ominous...

That was an impressive flying sequence! Whatcha training for, Luz?

There they are! Raine! My beloved!

Oh my god they're adorable

Wow, Eda, you sure do sound like you definitely don't want Luz to stick around for a while longer

Guess Lilith took the brain cell with her when she left

Ah, a race! So Luz wasn't playing Grudgby after all

Boy, Eda is doing her best to avoid that particular subject, huh?

Really pushing the "apple blood = booze" angle here

Oh, hey, it's that one demon hunter lady! Makes sense they'd all be wild witches, I suppose

The bartender's name is Kevin and I don't know how to feel about that (that's my name)

Either that mask spun around or Eda's punch was powerful enough to twist his head around. In which case, damn

Oh, there's the band! Bard magic!

Even with a mask they can't get over the stage fright

(I still love them)

Also, very impressive how they can pull stuff off with singular string plucks. Guess they're the head of the Bard Coven for a reason

Bards Against the Throne. BATs. Clever!

Ah, there's the sewer scene that kept showing up in promo images

Trailer shot of Raine!

Aaand blushing at being embarrassed by Eda. Looks like they'll kill you, is actually a cinnamon roll.

Still, glad to see they're not bitter exes

Flashback time!

Fuck, the framing is so romantic, it has to be intentional

Facing your fears by punching them in the face? Sounds like Eda, all right.

Those who were hoping for blushing Eda are being fed

They really wasted an opportunity for Luz to train with Willow

"LEAN ON ME!" Let's hope Hooty doesn't cover Bill Withers anytime soon

"You're not our mom!" Give it a minute, Amber.

So food fanfic girl's name is Katya! Good to know

"Rainestorm" it's not Rainedrop, but I'll take it!

Forgot to mention: these two are so obviously yearning for each other and it's amazing

I'm sorry, but Raine summoning Eda's...mandolin(?) while lounging like that is sexy as fuck

The way the curse affects that magic is fascinating

Oh yeah: title drop!

Amber turned around quickly, didn't she?

Keep on putting that off until the last possible moment for dramatic effect

Everything about the Cup of Ephemeral Glory is hilarious

And Eda's gonna miss the whole thing, isn't she?

Where's Admiral Ackbar when you need him?! *remembers TRoS* Oh. Right. God that movie sucked.

Ooh, Abomination and Beast Keeping heads!

Also, Horde Prime is that you?

(Looked it up. That is, indeed, Keston John)

Sick burns, King

Every once in a while Luz reminds us how good she really is with those glyphs

If people weren't simping over Darius before, they will be

It's really cool to see more beast keeping and abomination magic in action, ngl

Also glad to see resourceful use of invisibility glyphs

Also also, loving the way Raine is bridal carrying Eda. They stronk, indeed.

Oh shit, utilizing the curse

Uh, Darius? Buddy? You literally turn into abomination goo. A bit of mud seems like small potatoes in comparison.

Oh shit, they're going feral

This sequence is amazing

Oh, there's the question.

Raine, you botched that quote, but I appreciate the sentiment

(God, they're cute)

Aw fuck

NOOOO GODDAMNIT RAINE

(The stage fright gag was set up to punch us in the gut, well done)

Eda is clearly devastated...and so am I💔

Oh that picture is wonderful

Somehow I had a feeling Luz wouldn't win the race

Even the vomiting? Wow, this episode is just callback central

Even Eda knows the power of social media (and her username is Badgirlcoven!)

Okay how dare they show such an adorable shot of Willow in her room (Might have to post separately about this)

Amity still rocking the purple hair

KING DAD REAL?!?!?! AND HE HAS WINGS!!!

KING CLAWTHORNE!!!😭

Much tears very cry wow

Eber is a little shit love it

Oh hi Kiki fuck off

I am very okay with Darius calling Alador a hack

KIKIMORA I WILL END YOU HSSSSSSSS

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

WHYYYYYYYYYY

I guess they're not dead?

THEY BETTER BE OKAY IN THE END I SWEAR TO THE TITAN

Wow! Loved this episode! My favorite this season, probably due to Raine! I love them! I'm a simp! I'm Raeda trash!

That aside, so many amazing moments, and the music was top notch. This show is a gift!

See you for Knock Knock Knockin' On Hooty's Door! It'll probably hit us out of nowhere, knowing how this works.

Can't wait for this post to be buried by the Comic-Con panel😆

[hadtochangemyurlquick]

can u write more leachel please

no but i can fuck ur bitch

Leah’s first public reading was not packed. Of course, the seven of them all filed into front row seats and of course her parents, grandparents, Ian, and most of her teachers were scattered throughout the audience. Even Emily, her friend from middle school who she hadn’t really talked to since she went to private school, showed up. It was a sweet gesture but beyond the people who knew Leah personally, only around fifty or so were actual fans. It was fine and Leah did an amazing talk and afterwards Rachel slapped her hand against her thigh, wishing she could actually clap.

Leah’s tenth public reading was standing room only.

The National book festival was held once a year in DC and while there were two panels Leah was put on, they also asked her to do her own talk because she had a new book coming out. It’d been called by the New York Times book review “the most anticipated book of the year!” And Rachel had only been allowed to read the first draft of the first chapter, which was slightly killing her. But her girlfriend had a process, even if that process was to solely talk to Nora about it. Nora and sometimes Toni.

When Leah walked onto the slightly raised platform the entire room erupted into applause. It was a standing ovation and Leah looked beautiful and also incredibly embarrassed. Her eyes found Rachel’s immediately and they were so fucking intense, Rachel just wanted her to keep looking at her forever. Forever and a half.

“Wow,” Leah began when she reached her microphone. “I haven’t even said anything yet.” There was laughter, more cheers, gradually people sat down. “Thank you all for coming, I know there’s some pretty amazing panels going on right now. There’s still time to go to Roxanne Gay’s talk, it’s a few rooms down.”

More laughter, more cheers, a “We love you Leah Rilke!”

Rachel shook her head, smiling. Leah could pretend all she wanted, but Rachel saw what was happening. The entire world was slowly coming to life under her touch. The English language was being shaped to fit Leah Rilke.

Every think piece, ever op-ed, every review, mentioned the words Leah Rilke somewhere in there. Every teenage girl was talking about her like they’d talk about the Bible. TV studios and movie execs sat in rooms and discussed about how they could capture her writing style. Publishing houses wanted to find their very own Leah Rilke. Tattoo artists were adding to their pre drawn collections symbols from her books.

It was happening slowly, a little at a time, but time happened all at once. And history textbooks were being printed in Texas for the year 2032 that had an entire chapter about Leah Rilke.

The world was changing, and for the next half-century it’d be one where Leah Rilke was alive. And after, it’d be one where everyone was looking for the next Leah Rilke, however futile.

Leah didn’t see it, but Rachel could. And Nora. They talked about it sometimes, when a Dolly Parton song came on or Tolkien happened to come up in conversation.

“I’m not really afraid of public speaking,” Leah continued. “But can you all look somewhere else for a minute? I just need a break, I feel like you all are staring.”

There was more laughter and Rachel felt her phone buzz. Her eyebrow furrowed and she ignored it, instead focusing on the woman wearing her engagement ring.

It’d taken her a minute to propose, insecurities thriving with Leah off giving talks or going to conventions like this one. In a big empty house it wasn’t hard to feel less than, especially with one hand.

It’d been Dot who talked sense into her. Dot surprisingly sensible when she herself had eloped with Fatin, annulled it, and eloped again.

“Okay,” Dot said. “Maybe she’s too good for you. So what? She doesn’t know that.”

“Exactly,” Rachel said. “That’s my fucking point. She’s gonna find someone better and realize that I’m just… me.”

“Yeah,” Dot nodded.

Rachel glared at her. “You aren’t making me feel better.”

“I’m not Fatin, or Shelby, or Martha.”

“I know that,” Rachel said.

“It sounds like you wanna marry her,” Dot said. “So fuckin’ marry her. Then she won’t be able to fuck off with someone else.”

“But I want her to be happy,” Rachel said.

“So fuckin’ make her happy,” Dot said. “I don’t get what the fuckin’ problem is.”

So she proposed. Leah said yes immediately, not even a moment of hesitation, and they were planning a small wedding with a rabbi they both knew and a Huppa but not a Ketubah. Some sort of halfway for the both of them.

Rachel’s phone buzzed again and she turned it off, slipping it in her backpack to focus on Leah.

“This is probably the hardest book I’ve ever written. Not because its deeply personal or anything, just because I had to do so much research for it,” Leah said. “I even had to dedicate it to my sister in law because she spent hours with me looking at flight patterns and chess strategies. Do you guys know how many different kind of tulips there are? I can’t say I don’t understand the dutch a little better now.”

Nora squeezed her wrist and she looked over at her. Shelby caught her eye from beside Nora and passed her a phone, the notes app open.

Jeffs here.

Rachel frowned. Jeff Greene? The book review guy? Or maybe Jeffery Wilson, the Sony guy. Didn’t they have a neighbor named Jeff who liked to complain about their noise level to the police?

“Jeff?” She mouthed back.

Shelby was stone faced when she nodded and something sunk in Rachel’s gut.

Fuck. Jeff.

Leah was still talking but Rachel couldn’t hear her.

Where?

Shelby took the phone back.

The back.

Rachel clenched her jaw and Nora squeezed her wrist again, eyes wide.

Has Leah seen him?

Shelby shook her head and Rachel let out a breath of relief.

She got to her feet, and cast a quick smile back at Leah who’s brow furrowed at her. She kept talking though, stumbling a little on her speech. Behind her, Fatin, Martha, and Shelby followed.

Jeff wasn’t hard to spot. He was the washed-up has been, with the fraying hair and dark circles under his eyes.

“You need to leave,” Rachel spat.

“I’m just here to apologize,” Jeff said. “I don’t even—”

“You’re leaving,” Shelby cut off. “Now. Or I’ll call security.”

“Take this outside,” Someone hissed and Fatin dragged him out, shoving him roughly through the open door. Several more people waiting outside slipped inside, entirely grateful.

“Listen, I know I fucked up, I want to apologize,” Jeff said.

“She was a child,” Fatin said. “You’re a fucking predator.”

Jeff paled.

“Wait,” Martha said. “Are you here to apologize for dumping her, or for raping her?”

“I didn’t—”

Maybe it was Shelby that threw the first punch, or maybe Rachel. Maybe they both came at him at once. But Martha didn’t hold Rachel back like she normally would’ve, and Fatin snapped at some people to put their phones away.

Leah said it was ironic later, that Fatin was telling people to put their phones away, while Martha urged on a fight.

But it wasn’t a fight, it was a beat down.

Shelby had taken Toni to enough kickboxing lessons over the years to know how to throw a punch, and Rachel had been picturing this moment with Jeff for too long.

No one intervened once Martha pushed a couple people away explaining he was a pedophile who prayed on teenage girls. One person said, “Isn’t that Jeff Galanis?”

And Martha said: “Yes.”

Jeff Galanis hasn’t published a book in five years at that point, he wouldn’t publish one again. Leah wasn’t happy Rachel broke her only hand, and Toni started going to kickboxing lessons alone.

“It was stupid,” Leah told her, when she met her outside after they’d all been thrown out. “I don’t give a shit about him anymore. I just wanted you there.”

“I know,” Rachel said. “But it wasn’t stupid to me. I wanted you to know you wouldn’t have to see him again.”

“Rach,” Leah sighed. “You remember how when we were driving here a Smith’s song came on?” Rachel nodded. “I realized then I literally couldn’t remember his last name.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Leah said. “We’re getting married in a few months, my new book is coming out, your starting your new job. We’ll probably be aunts as soon as Toni and Shelby finish those foster parent classes. Jeff is like—probably the least important person in the universe right now.”

“Sorry I missed the talk,” Rachel said.

Leah kissed her, soft and easy like they’d never once been.

“It’s okay,” she promised. “There’ll be others.”

There were.

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

So hero Deku, vigilante Deku, and villain Deku are all canon this week. Fun stuff! Hori really be going all in on the fanfic tropes… you love to see it.

Anyways, time to finish up this chapter. 

[No. 14 - Encounter with the Unknown]

We return to another dark portal opening up, with Izuku being dumped out of it over what turns out to be the flood zone. Luckily, it wasn’t high enough for him to take damage on impact with the water, just make a large sploosh. As Izuku reorients himself in the water, he quickly parses through everything that just happened - the teleportation quirk, the goal to kill All Might - but he still is trying to figure out everything going on.

Then we see our first villain in the flood zone, a guy with a shark mutation and… scuba gear? 

Yikes, if he was gonna get a shark mutation, he could at least have gotten the underwater breathing too. I wonder if he’s also part eel or snake or something, because the way his jaw opens up to attack Izuku is like Not A Shark Thing (as far as I am aware, I know I don’t know every shark species so.)

[IMAGE CENSORED]

Well then. Yeah, the villain makes his threat to kill Izuku, then gets absolutely bodied by Tsuyu stomping him in the head with both feet, Minetsa under her arm. She then grabs Izuku with her tongue and shoots away at high speeds only possibly with an aquatic quirk. Also dskgkld

Tsuyu you little savage I cannot even. 

Tsuyu surfaces by the boat we saw in the flood zone earlier, using her tongue’s reach to deposit Izuku up on the deck. Mineta, still out of it, makes a comment about Tsuyu’s boobs, which gets him slammed on the deck by her tongue right afterwards. Tsuyu climbs up the side of the boat as Izuku thanks her, and Tsuyu tells him to call her Tsuyu, before noting that they seem to be in trouble. 

(Also her quirk is noted to be Frog, which lets her do whatever a frog can.)

Izuku flashes back briefly to Kurogiri’s question about the schedule being revised, which Izuku realizes means the villains know the schedule, and that the simplest reason for that was that they caused the media rush in order to get their intel. Like Shouto said, they were waiting for their chance, and prepared for it well.

Mineta is skeptical, saying there’s no way the villains could ever kill All Might - he’ll thrash them once he gets there! He even makes a little show of punching the air to emphasize his point. 

Tsuyu points out that the villains must have figured out a way to kill him, otherwise why bother to show up just to get beaten? Mineta is stunned silent in growing fear as Tsuyu calmly goes on to explain that she wouldn’t put it past the villains, especially since that one guy promised to kill the students as well. She then ask whether they, the students, can hold out until All Might arrives, and that even when he does show, whether he might not end up killed after all.

Mineta, complete shook, turns to Midoriya for I guess some kind of denial of her claims? Which he doesn’t give. 

The shark villain surfaces, calling Tsuyu a brat and declaring that he’ll kill her. We get a wide angle view of the boat, showing a lot of villains surfacing around it. Mineta is freaking out even more, noting that it’s a whole school of them. 

Izuku is caught up in a muttering storm mixed with flashbacks, and I just. His face, the worry and fear at the thought of losing All Might. You can practically see the nausea crawling in his gut as he tries to figure out their motivations. 

And that ending panel before we transition to the other rescue zones, where we can’t see his face as he determines that if there’s even a chance the villains have a way to beat all might, then they need to do, well, something. Though that something is cut off with the scene shift to another zone. I am just, such in awe again over Hori’s use of facial expressions to convey what isn’t being said here, I just. Izuku’s so terrified of losing his mentor. Both Mineta and Tsuyu are worried for him. 

On a closer look at the transition panel, we see the landslide zone being iced over, with the panel after that showing Shouto having encased all the villains in his area in ice in one move. He calls them pathetic for losing to a kid, while the villains struggle to try and break out (and fail at it). Shouto taunts them a bit, point out how they’re adults, which adds back to that ‘you seriously lost to a kid’ thing just a moment ago. 

Next we get two shots of the other groups - Katsuki and Kirishima in some ruins, and Yamomo, Jirou, and Kaminari in some rocky area, surrounded by villains. There’s some narration stating ‘we’ve got a job to do’ in between the panels with the groups. And- wait, is that Jirou getting a fucking sword from Yaomomo?

Also, I just noticed Katsuki’s gauntlet here is on his right hand, which is the opposite of what we see in the title card page at the beginning of the chapter.

Weird! I suppose it’s not a huge deal since the chapter itself is consistent with Katsuki wearing the gauntlet on his right hand, but still. 

Our last page is another couple large group shots. The first panel is Tenya, Ochako, Shouji, and Mina all alert to the shadow villain as he recondenses. Next, we have Aizawa standing his ground in the middle of the group of villains while Shigaraki watches on quietly. And finally, we go back to Izuku, Tsuyu, and Mineta, with Izuku declaring out loud that they have a fight to win. 

Huh, that was a shorter second half than expected. Probably could have fit all the chapter into one update, but alas… 

Anyways, come back next time, where we get to see more student trauma develop! :D

[whirlybirbs]

                                          (   gif, again, by @barissoffee​ !    )

     —   STARJOCKEY & CO.   ;   2 of ?

summary: the bad batch gets a pilot, and they get a mission. acid rain happens. hunter & zip still don’t get along. no one is surprised. pairing: twi’lek!reader (zip nickname) x hunter word count: 3.2k a/n: pumping this out so i can write some hunter/reader content tonight to follow this character arc! we love some good ol’ action adventure acid rain! also, don’t try and neutralize acid with water, kids. that’s not how that works. but this is star wars, and it works here.

previous chapter   |   next (coming soon!)

It’s too early for this. 

Despite having a steaming thermos of caf in your hands, you still have to pull your eyes open wide and try not to sway on your feel as you remind yourself this debrief is important. Very important. 

Very early, but very important

Sleep, too, especially after the amount of hours you poured into repairs on the Havoc Marauder last night, is equally as important — but the debrief takes priority. For now. 

Maybe you can bribe D-M1 to pilot for a bit once you take off. Just so you can plant your head on the dash and doze for a minute. A loth-cat nap. 

Ugh -- a nap sounds good right about now. 

You take a long sip of caf and rub your face as Cody continues to speak, gesturing to the glowing blue holomap that casts a glow across the entire room.

Through the thick of the swirling mission debrief, Hunter is staring.

Well, more glaring, really.

(Can you blame him? His senses have been cranked to 12 since he was made, and still, he can’t ignore the smell of your morning beverage of choice. All he can smell is your caf and the elaborator creamer you’d put in it. It smells like cocoa and star-cherries and caf and it’s all Hunter can smell. It’s giving him a damn headache.)

You’re beginning to wonder if that’s all his stupid -- albeit handsome -- face does. The scowl there digs in deep, and you have to try your hardest not to roll your eyes as you take another sip of your caf. 

He’d walked in here, hauled the helmet off, and you’d realized Cody was right when he said they didn’t look like the other clones you knew. They were all different -- higher cheekbones on Crosshair and a sharper profile on Hunter. Tech was small and boggly-eyed, while Wrecker towered over everyone in the room with his round ol’ dome.

They were nothing like the others from the 212th. 

Your lekku twitch, swatting a bit, as your attention moves from challenging Hunter’s glare back to the debrief at hand. 

Hunter, as he pries his eyes away from your cock-hipped posture, wonders how  in hell a civvie like you managed to land this job. He’d much rather have a reg flying him and his brothers around than a ex-criminal and her junkyard droid.

... He heaves an inward sigh. 

Maybe he’s being a dick. 

Cody trusts you. Hunter can at least try... 

... Right?

Hunter diverts his attention back to Cody’s words, ignoring the unsettling idea of being civil with you. “What’s the status of Yanibar’s alliance?”

“None,” Cody drops a hand to his hip, resting it on his holster, “Neutral -- but it lays between the Outer Rim and Unknown Regions. The inhabitants tend to be those running from things like the war. But, I’m sure the Separatists will have their eye on the space ports for GAR officials. It’ll be basic recon. You fly in under the radar, scope out the manufacturing lab on Yanibar, and get out.”

Cody pauses, takes in the affirmative nods of the room, then continues:

“And lucky for all of you -- that ship in the hangar has no Republic tags. You’re gonna be a ghost.”

“No Republic tags?” Hunter asks, dark brow lifting. 

“We’ll be off the books -- Seps will think we’re probably just smugglers,” you shrug, explaining as Tech hums quietly at the realization, “Knowing them, they won’t wanna start anything with locals. Especially if they’re break neutrality laws and mining a planet in the grey zone.”

“Exactly.”

You cop a smirk Cody’s way. “Now I know why you kept that bucket of bolts.”

“Repo’s have their uses,” the Commander shirks, “And civvie pilots, too.”

Now this is all starting to make sense. They wanted you to play the part -- and with any luck, the boys in the back cargo hold will go unnoticed as you carry on on Yanibar. 

D-M1 pipes up from her spot below the holo-map. “Zip plays a wonderful smuggler. Four varying counts of weapons, drug and wildlife trade have made her --”

“Alright, alright,” we swat at the droid’s bobbing head, “I swear, who ever programmed you should be shot.”

The droid makes a sound akin to a laugh. Cody snorts.

Hunter ignores the distrust settling under his skin. 

“Everyone got the plan?” Cody asks, looking around the command center. When he’s met with silence, he nods to dismiss the Bad Batch and their new pilot, “Alright. Head out. Comm in if there’s any trouble.”

“You got it, Commander.”

“Hunter?” Cody calls, “Zip?”

You both linger in the doorway. 

“Play nice, yea?” he grins, “And good luck.”

--   ↯   --

You realize, six hours later, as you hang yourself out of the landing ramp mid-flight, trying desperately to get a hold on Crosshair who’s trying to get a hold on Hunter, that Cody jinxed you.

He most definitely jinxed you.

--   ↯   --

The mission had started just fine, after all -- the ride was fast, the travel checkpoints passed with no trouble, and you’d entered Yanibar’s airspace on a pretty mild day. No questions were asked when you dropped the Havoc Marauder down fifteen klicks outside of the nearest space port. The boys off-loaded and headed for the manufacturing plant. 

The landscape gave enough cover as if it. 

Large, sweeping stone outcroppings punctured the dunes and climbed high towards the sky, casting long jagged shadows in the golden sand. Creatures moved with the shade, relaxing along the cooling surfaces as the suns moved high in the sky. 

Parked in a ravine and hidden from sight, you’d spent the first two hours monitoring the location of the Batch; every half hour, Tech would radio in giving an update on their location. By hour four, they were close. By hour five, the line had gone silent.

And you were starting to get nervous. 

Their geo-coordinates marked them about 30 klicks East -- in the estimated area of the manufacturing lab they were slotted to recon. 

By hour five and a half, the sun was disappearing. Slowly, with clouds shrouding the sky, but... the spaces between the brown clouds were turning a muddied color. You leaned, squinting over the dashboard with a confused look, before moving to the back of the ship and punching open the landing ramp. 

When you stepped into the hot, mid-day heat, you realized exactly what was happening. You kicked yourself for not realizing sooner.

D-M1′s the one that made a panicked sound. 

“We’ve got a problem!”

You were fast, bounding up the ramp and skidding inside as you slam the lock for the door on your way to the cockpit -- in a flash, you’d started up the engine and flicked alive the comms.

“Boys,” you yelped, pulling the headset on over your lekku, “We’ve gotta get a move on, now.” 

Hunter, elbows deep in a dune with his eyes plastered to a pair of specs, cursed. Your voice crackled from his helmet, resting between him and Crosshair, and Hunter was almost inclined to ignore it.

But, the sniper tapped his wrist without looking from his scope and spoke. 

“Go ahead, Zip.”

“Acid rain storm,” you blurted out, leaning as D-M1 points at the meteorological gauge in her little hands in a panic. The radar swept across the map once and showed the brewing storms, “About five klicks South of me.”

You knew acid rain storms. The planet you’d grown up on had them enough -- and even Coruscant had them. But, the color of these clouds...

Your father always used to say, the dirtier the cloud, the quicker the shroud. 

Y’know, like death shrouds? 

“-- Shit.”

Hunter was hoping that feeling in his gut was nothing. He should have listened to it.

“She couldn’t a’ told us sooner?” Hunter gritted out, pushing up from his elbows in a flash. Not entirely fair, but damn. This was not going according to plan. First the patrol droids and now --

A deep bellow of thunder rolled in the distance, then.

And now this. 

Crosshair inhaled sharply and proceeded to silently snap the attached scope from his rifle in one swift, practiced move. He’s not gettin’ in the middle of this.

“Unless you boys wanna melt your pretty armor,” came your voice, crackling alive in Hunter’s helmet as he pulled it over his head, “I’d say we hurry this little play date up --”

And that’s the precise moment Wrecker snapped one of three patrol droids over his thigh, much to Tech’s despair, and sent the entire op down the shitter. 

You found the squadron, then, pinned in a rain of blaster-fire, trading shots with the handful of B1′s -- their shots lit up the kicked up sand from the winds, beginning to howl as the dark brown clouds to the South began to loom over the once sunny dunes. 

“Bring it down low, Deemi!” you hollered, throwing your headset as you moved to the back of the ship, “Get ready to go when they’re loaded on!”

“Got it!”

You punched the ramp, pulling your green tinted goggles down over the slop of your nose as the door opened. Taking a braced step out, you were fast to spy the boys as the Havoc Marauder began to lower itself slowly. 

Then, a blaster bolt skimmed your head -- it leaves a charred sizzzzle against the matte black paint job of the repo’d ship.

You leaned back, tugging your pistol from you hip and firing a quick volley back at the droid who’d aimed for your head. After three shots, you nailed the B1 unit down, and turned your attention back to the Bad Batch. 

You’re about to wave Deemi down, to tell her to plant the ramp on a rising dune then, when an entire squadron’s worth of battle droids lumbered from the back entrance of the manufacturing plant and began laying down fire on you and the ship. 

“SWING IT AROUND!” Hunter screamed, waving you off.

Deemi listened, and you fell back through the door as the ship pulls away fast from the oncoming fire. Your back hit the navicomputer’s paneling hard as the ship banked left, and your breath flew from your lungs as you did, gritting your teeth tightly at the impact. 

You scrambled, quickly, to watch from the open side-ramp as the entirety of the plant came into view. 

It’s huge. 

A main control tower rises high in the sky, above the three conveyor bays that spark through the small slitted windows three stories up. The walls are encroached by dunes, and the desert threatens to swallow it up. 

As Deemi banked wide, you planted your boot on the doorway as you watched the firefight disappear around the edge of the massive building. 

And that’s when it started to rain.

You hissed loudly then, immediately drawing a hand back when a fat droplet of brownish water hits your skin. Cursing as you swiped away the acidic liquid, you scowled at the welt it left behind. 

And if the from the drop in temperature was any indication, it was about to pour.

“Deemi,” you screamed, “I’m gonna need you to speed it up!” 

You were fast to stagger back from the doorway, moving to haul the bottom of your flight suit up -- the sleeves, tied neatly over your belt, are yanked onto your arms and over the black compression top. You zipped the collar up tight and moved to the storage built into the bunk atop the navi-console.

“Come on, come on,” you muttered, digging around. You knew you saw a poncho somewhere and -- “Aha!”

It’s not much, but it at least covered your lekku. If anything it will keep the sensitive skin of the head-tails safe enough for a few minutes. You hauled the black, weatherproof poncho over your head and ignore the musty smell coming from it -- just in time, too, as Deemi had propelled the engines into a kick for the banking maneuver and the Bad Batch was in sight again. 

The moment you and Deemi get in range, the skies opened up. 

It starts raining so hard you could hardly see -- and the headlamps of the boys illuminated the muddied downpour a few feet ahead of them. Deemi bought the ship down low enough that the ramp connects with the tip of a dune, and you staggered a bit on the impact.

The ship’s lights cast bright cones of light into the acid rain storm, and Tech is the first one through the doors. You curse, ignoring the tingling sting of the rain splashing on your face, and call out to the others. 

“GET ON!” 

Wrecker is next, passing you and launching himself through the doors with a curse -- the droids have seemed to back off, leaving the squadron to book it as the acidity begins to gnaw at their armor. You can hear a commotion behind you, and assume it’s Tech snagging the gallon of filtered water stored under the refresher sink to dowse himself and the heavy artillery man. 

Next is Crosshairs, who you reached out to as he planted a boot on the edge of the ramp -- without warning and rather suddenly, the ship gave a terrible moan. Then, unceremoniously, the dune the ramp had been perched upon tumbled downwards into a slip of mud.

The landscape was melting, and so was your poncho.

In a panic, you grabbed Crosshair’s vambrace and barely managed to snag the ramp’s guard rail; in a flash, Crosshair had Hunter’s hand secured in his own. Good thing, too, since the Sergeant’s boots now hung thirty feet in the air where the tip of the towering dune used to be. 

And that’s where you find yourself now.

Cursing, you strain to readjust your grip on the railing as rain runs down your chin. It stings like a bitch -- but you can’t help but think the pull of your arm is a little worse. 

You curse sharply in Ryl, and scream Wrecker’s name so harshly the trooper’s heart nearly stops. His helmeted head whips around.

“DON’T JUST STAND THERE!” 

Your knuckles, beneath the thick flight gloves have gone from a warm peach to a pale yellow -- the strain there is only relieved when Wrecker finally moves to the other side of the ramp and grabs Crosshair’s upper arm; together you both haul the two troopers up onto the ramp as Deemi’s banks backwards -- a few moments too late -- and sends a pile of acid rain soaked bodies tumbling back into the belly of the ship. 

The droid closes the ramp as she banks away from the manufacturing plant.

You don’t even have time to celebrate the sheer survival of the stunt -- you’re instead stripping off the poncho that’s now got Republic credit sized holes eaten into it. You whip off your goggles, and curse again -- your flight suit is starting to sizzle and the acid on your face hurts and --

Suddenly, you take a whole bucket of water to the face and it all stops.

Tech, standing there clutching the now empty bucket, looks rather sheepish. 

Your shoulders immediately sag in relief, and the troopers behind you are the next victims of Tech’s hose-down. Deemi, from the front of the ship, asks if she should drop into hyperspace and the entire cabin gives a dejected chorus of yes at the same time. 

You wipe the neutral water, running over your nose and chin, from your face as you sit down in one of the chairs by the navicomputer. 

Hunter drops his hands to his waist, chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath, and opens his mouth to speak.

You, instead, cut him off with a single raised finger and a pointed look.

“You,” you snap, “Don’t get to say a word to me until my face is not swollen and Tech can confirm I don’t have acid rain poisoning. Understood?”

Hunter just snaps his mouth shut. You have welts down your cheeks from where your goggles met your skin. Your lekku, too, don the same blistered orange marks. Guilt suddenly washes over him, only for a second. He’d gotten off easy. The acid rain had only eaten through the first layer of his composite armor.

The whole cabin, suddenly incredibly uncomfortable, decides to go their separate ways. Hunter, though, doesn’t move. Instead, he watches as you stand and inspect the now shredded flight suit that hangs off of you. You move across the cabin quickly, not bothering to avoid him. 

You slam your shoulder into his and keep moving.

--   ↯   --

You don’t have acid rain poisoning.

Which is good, you guess.

But, the residuals still hurt -- bad. 

You throw yourself into the far-too-small ship refresher for a rinse off -- Wrecker was nice enough to insist you get to go first (“For savin’ our skins an’ all, Zippy!”) and you can’t help but snort at Tech’s face when you emerge in a clean flight suit. He looks worried.

You’ve got welts all over your face. 

“I think it’s a cute look,” you jab playfully, leaning to inspect your reflection in the polished chrome door, “Don’t you, Tech?”

“Looks painful.”

Crosshairs laughs. 

The welts on your lekku are. You’d had to smother the startled yelps with your hand when the hot water made contact. You hope the boys hadn’t heard.

(Hunter certainly had, and he wasn’t even in the lower level of the ship. He was up top, ignoring the dull ache in his arm and pretending he didn’t need to rinse off. It had sparked a little worry in him, though, and he’d casually muscled his helmet on to do some digging on the holo-net about potential complications from injured lekku. The results were... not ideal.)

You massage the point on the back of your neck where your headwrap normally clasps together, keeping the animated little appendages under control and out of the way. You’ve forgone it now, and Crosshair watches as you sigh quietly as you rub the tension point. 

You look different without it. A bit softer.

“It doesn’t feel great, but,” you shrug, shoulders a bit more relaxed than before, “I’ll be fine. Definitely the worst acid bath I’ve had in a while.”

“You’ve been caught in those storms before?” Tech asks, surprised. He’s placing his helmet down, stripping his armor as he speaks. 

“I grew up in the South Tann Province,” you explain, “The jetstreams would carry polluted air through during the summer months, and sometimes the rain would be bad -- tarkona taka, my dad used to call it. But, that, back on Yanibar? That was worse than anything I’d ever experienced when I was a little girl.”

“Tarkona taka,” Tech sounds out, “What does it mean?”

“Brown weather -- or, storm, actually,” you grin, “Tak is brown, and tarkona is storm.”

“Yeah, well,” Wrecker supplies, muscling around through the barely stocked fridge in the far corners of the meager living quarters. Behind the microscopic kitchenette lay a hall of four bunks. Wrecker closes the door looking dejected, “I can’t wait to be back on Coruscant. No brown rain there.”

“On the lower levels there is!” you call out, spurring Wrecker’s shoulders to sag.

You move towards the ladder, planting a boot on the bottom rung when Crosshair’s calls out.

“Careful, Zip.”

“He still pissy?” you ask, loud enough that you know Hunter can hear, “Shame.”

The three members of the Bad Batch snort quietly as you move up the ladder anyway.

They like you.

And Hunter, still, doesn’t. 

[suckishima]

what are the top 3 chapters!!

alakjdajd tbh they fluctuate bc i’m REALLY bad at picking favorites, but the ones that come to mind and that I actually like Know the chapter numbers and what happens in each etc, are 298 (guide), 364 (if i wasn’t alone...), 365 (endings and beginnings part 2), 369 (food becomes muscle), 371 (on the other side of the world), and 387 (the greatest opponent)

I know that’s a lot more than three lmao. 298 and 369 are probably actually my top two, but it’s hard to choose lol.

(i started writing WHY i like each one and it got super long lmao, so if you wanna know my general thoughts on each of these it’s under the cut)

298 i love bc the character development is seemingly so simple but it makes me CRAZY. Tsukki is a character I relate to a ton and reading this one for the first time was really cathartic for me. The way there’s only a few lines of dialogue to help emphasize the impact of the flashback panels from Tsukki’s perspective and to actually get to see the respect he has for Yamaguchi, but also how he’s learned from him in how to go for the things he wants. Like, we’ve spent the WHOLE series knowing for a fact that Yamaguchi looks up to and admires Tsukki, but haven’t seen much about how Tsukki sees Yamaguchi other than the confrontation at the Tokyo Training camp, and it’s so rare to see Tsukki feel like he can open up - even to us as the audience we rarely see it. So to see him say “he’s always been one step ahead of me” and then the panels that actually SHOW Yamaguchi taking those steps past him??? fuck, like that’s just such good storytelling. We get to see Yamaguchi’s journey through Tsukki’s eyes and feel the respect there that previously we had only assumed probably existed, and then it doubles to let us see how Yamaguchi’s journey impacted Tsukki too. It’s about how they’ve grown separately and together and then the final “sometimes it’s actually kind of fun” like, aaah!!!

364, oooo tbh this MIGHT be the best written chapter in the series imo. structurally, it’s SO good - i made a post about it when i reread it a few months ago too, so I won’t ramble forever here. but as a standalone single narrative of just this chapter, it’s stunningly done. heartbreaking of course, but the writing tbh is practically awe inspiring. it takes hinata’s original, ultimate goal of just staying on the court, builds it up to it’s highest point, and then it punches us in the gut with it. absolutely fantastic stuff. and i will NEVER get over the little tagline at the end of the chapter that says “the sun rises and - “ while hinata (our sun) is hunched over on the floor. like DAMN. i know this is one of the few things furudate said they had planned from basically the beginning and ugh wow did they deliver.

and then 365 is of course, the fall out. these two go hand in hand and work off each other beautifully. we see all the evidence that had been in our face before, silly fun hinata things right? NOPE turns out it’s a major, life changing lesson!! and god takeda’s entire speech is SO good. i’ve talked about this one a lot bc his “this is still volleyball” speech is basically every single one of my favorite hq!! themes wrapped up into one. how hinata’s hunger is what caused him to fall bc he was too hungry and did’t stop to take care of himself along the way, and that every moment is connected and is all still volleyball,,, yeah. and then just ooof the very last page where there’s all this noise from the court and hinata looks at the doors as the close and then it’s this silent shot of them being closed. the IMPACT of that is so goooooood. catch me crying when this gets animated and i can actually hear those sounds out loud and instead of in my head loll

369 is kind of another sister chapter to those last two, it’s the final high school chapter where we finally get some of the last bits of character development for some of them. the third years bow and say goodbye, NO one on the team apologies for doing something wrong, tsukki wants to watch kamomedai’s blocking (!!) and kageyama wanted to take this team further (!!!), daichi thanks takeda. takeda says “nothing is over! nothing! not one thing for any of you has ended today!” and the ukai says “let’s go eat” !!! and then theres the shot of them all eating, ukai bring hinata his food while he cries into his bowl and ukai’s “food becomes muscle” lines aaah, so good. so so good, and a GREAT continuation of takeda’s speech from 365. they’ve all come so far and learned so much, but there’s still more food to eat, more experiences to share and more ways to grow stronger

371 mostly, i just love the brazil arc and there’s just this feeling of sadness and loneliness that carries throughout the chapter that’s almost kind of haunting, but it also has this feeling of purpose too. this one is harder for me to explain lol, but it’s like a test for hinata to see if he can learn to be okay, to prove to himself that he has what it takes to make the right choices to make sure he’s okay as much as possible. it’s something i really relate to on a personal level - “being okay” in a lot of ways is a choice, and i love how this chapter is the beginnings of us seeing that for him. and then!! oikawa showing up at the end as like hinata’s reminder of home is just so good lol. things are weird and different and he’s in a different country, but volleyball is still fun - and hinata isn’t alone, he isn’t the only guy who traveled the world for his dream

and then 387, ah what can i say about chapter 387 that hasn’t been said before lmao. i love how it both recontexutalizes AND emphasized every single kageyama moment from the entire series. it’s such a great use of flashbacks, it doesn’t give kageyama more depth, it shows how that depth has been there the entire time. and it just really solidifies the importance of his relationship with hinata and how integral their bond was for BOTH of them to get better. the second to last page where it’s showing kageyama’s middle school years and we’ve just read the “somebody even better will come” dialogue a few pages back, and then we see kageyama alone, and alone again, and alone to become the great king, and rejected from shiratorizawa, and then the bottom left cell is just the karasuno gym, a volleyball in the air and a big “I’M HERE” that we know from context is hinata, and he’s unknowingly fulfilling kageyama’s grandpa’s words. like aaaa!! THE PANELLING, THE WRITING, THE IMPACT!! i’ll be saying this until i die lmao, but haikyuu is a masterpiece and furudate is a genius at panelling.

[chicgeekgirl89]

The Runaway

Fandom: 911

Characters: Eddie Diaz, Christopher Diaz, Evan Buckley

Summary: Eddie picks Christopher up from Buck’s after the events of 4.08 “Breaking Point.”

                                      XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Eddie knew fear. He’d survived shootouts, bombings, five alarm fires, near drowning, and the death of his wife. He knew fear. But all of that paled in comparison to how he’d felt when he’d seen Christopher’s empty bed.

It was God or karma or sheer luck that he didn’t get pulled over on the way to Buck’s because he made the twenty minute trip in less than ten, ignoring several stop signs on quieter streets and speeding through questionably yellow lights. He needed to be with his kid now. 

The elevator ride up to Buck’s floor almost killed him. He stood right next to the door, one hand braced on the paneling, the other punching the button repeatedly as if that would make the machinery move faster. 

Buck was waiting for him in the hallway, his face serious. “Eddie, wait a second,” he said, holding out a placating hand.

“Buck, let me in,” Eddie said through gritted teeth.

“Just listen,” Buck said. “If you go in there yelling it’s not going to fix anything. He’s upset—“

“I know he’s upset!” Eddie snapped. “I’m upset too! How do you think I felt, opening his door and finding him gone? Knowing that it’s my fault? That he’d rather come talk to you than me?”

Buck stayed calm despite the jabs. “He’s just a kid Eddie. He’s confused.”

Eddie shook his head. “Buck I swear to god if you start trying to lecture me on raising my kid right now—”

“I’m not, I promise I’m not,” Buck said. “I just…I know what it’s like to feel like you don’t have anyone to talk to. And I don’t want you to make a mistake you can’t come back from.”

“Buck.” Eddie blew out a breath, his already thin patience having reached the breaking point. “Just let me in.”

Buck eyed him for a half second longer, then stepped back. Eddie pushed past him, striding quickly into the apartment. Words like ‘grounded’ and ‘no TV’ were at the forefront of his mind, but they died on his tongue the second he saw Christopher sitting on the couch. He was here. He was safe. He wasn’t kidnapped or lying on the side of the road or wandering the streets by himself, all scenarios that had run through Eddie’s mind in the last half hour. 

“Christopher.” He breathed out his son’s name and dropped to his knees, pulling him into a fierce hug. “Oh my god Christopher. You scared me.” 

“I’m sorry Dad,” Christopher said, his voice muffled against Eddie’s shirt. 

Eddie’s tears were closer to the surface than he’d realized, pricking at his eyes and making his throat grow tight. “I’m sorry too.”

Christopher pulled back and looked up at him, worry pinching his face.“Are you mad at me?”

Eddie sucked in a deep breath, struggling to find the right words. There were clearly some things they needed to talk about. As much as he hated to admit it, Christopher wasn’t a baby anymore. 

“I’m upset,” he finally said. “I’m glad you felt like you could come talk to Buck; that you chose a safe place to go. But it really scared me to find you gone like that.”

“I was just really mad at you,” Christopher said, shifting back and forth restlessly. “You didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend.”

“I know,” Eddie said, guilt chewing at his gut. “But relationships are a complicated thing. And I didn’t want to talk to you until I was…more sure about everything.”

“You lied to me.” Christopher said it accusingly.

“I did,” Eddie admitted. “And that was the wrong choice. I’m sorry. I will try to be more honest with you from now on. But I also need you to understand that sometimes I need time to figure things out before I talk to you.”

“Because you’re a grown up?”

“Yes. Because I’m a grown up. And grown up stuff is complicated sometimes.”

Christopher mulled this over for a moment and sighed. “That’s what Buck said too.”

“Yeah?” Eddie glanced toward the doorway but Buck had disappeared, apparently giving them some privacy, although with the loft’s open floor plan he had no doubt that his friend could hear every word. “What else did he say?”

“That it was okay for you to have a girlfriend and it was okay for me to be upset about it. And that it doesn’t mean you love Mom any less.”

Eddie’s heart squeezed. “Christopher, is that what you think? That if I see someone new I don’t love your mom anymore?”

“I don’t know,” Christopher said with a sniff.

Eddie could tell he was close to tears and he squeezed his son’s knee comfortingly. “I will always love your mom. Just like I will always love you. But I have room in my heart for somebody new. And I think if you try, you just might too.”

Christopher was quiet for a moment. “I think I could do that.”

Eddie felt a wave of relief crash over him. “I know you could. You are one of the kindest, most loving kids in the whole world.”

Christopher looked up at him from under his glasses. “Does that mean I’m not in trouble?”

“Oh no, you’re definitely in trouble,” Eddie said, amusement trickling through him in spite of the situation. “Grounded. For a week. No phone. No TV. No video games.”

“But Dad!”

“Uh uh, don’t even try,” Eddie said. “Choices have consequences kiddo.” He softened his voice. “Chris, the next time you get mad I want you to come and talk to me. But if you ever feel like there’s something we can’t talk about, you can tell me that you want to come to Buck’s and I’ll bring you. Please don’t ever run away like that again.”

“I won’t,” Christopher said. “I promise.”

“Good. Come on,” Eddie said. “It’s a school night. Let’s get home.”

“Can we say goodbye to Buck?”

“Of course.”

Buck reappeared at the sound of his name. “Hey time to go already?” he asked.

“Dad says we have to,” Christopher said. He walked forward and wrapped his arms around Buck’s waist. “Thanks Buck.”

“Anytime buddy,” Buck said fondly, ruffling his hair. 

“Hey Christopher, can you go wait in the hall for just a second?” Eddie asked. “I’ll be right out.”

Christopher eyed them both. “More grown up stuff?”

“Yes,” Eddie said pointedly. “Go please.”

“Fine.” Christopher turned with a sigh of long suffering and headed out the door.

Eddie stuck his hands in his back pockets and shifted his weight uncomfortably. “Hey, look, I’m sorry I came in here like that. That stuff I said…I know you were just trying to help.”

“It’s okay,” Buck said. “I get it. He scared the shit out of you. Heck he scared the shit out of me just showing up on my doorstep.”

Eddie shook his head. “I don’t know what I’m doing here Buck. He’s growing up. He’s almost a teenager. Sometimes it’s like I don’t even know him anymore.”

“Hey, you’re a good dad,” Buck said. “He knows that. He just…needed a minute.”

“Well thank you for being here. For both of us,” Eddie said. “I really—it means a lot to me that he feels like he has someone he can talk to.”

Buck put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “Always.”

Christopher fell asleep on the drive home, which Eddie took at a significantly slower pace than his frantic journey to Buck’s. When they arrived Eddie gathered him up in his arms and carried him inside, heart squeezing painfully in his chest. How much longer until he couldn’t do this anymore? Until Christopher grew too tall or too embarrassed to let him help this way? He wasn’t ready to let childhood go. But the last two years had changed them both, and it was time Eddie stopped pretending Christopher was going to be a kid forever and started preparing to help him grow up. 

He laid Christopher on his bed and slipped off his shoes before pulling up a blanket and tucking it around him. He pressed a kiss to his son’s hair and then gently removed his glasses, placing them on the nightstand. He turned off the light intending to slip from the room and fall into his own bed. 

“Daddy?”

Eddie turned back to find Christopher’s eyes open, peeking up at him from under the blanket. “Yeah buddy?”

“What if your new girlfriend goes away too? Like Mom did?”

God, was his kid trying to kill him? Eddie was not prepared for this tonight. “I don’t think that will happen. But if it does, then we’ll be sad. And we’ll try to remember the good times we had together. Just like we do with your mom.”

“What if you break up?”

“That’s a possibility. You know sometimes things just don’t work out. That’s what dating is for. To see if you want to be with somebody forever.”

“If you break up, what if she doesn’t want to see me anymore?”

Eddie sat down on the bed. This was the crux of why he’d avoided this issue; he didn’t want to cause Christopher anymore heartbreak. “I don’t think there’s a single person in this world who would ever want to stop seeing you,” he said. “And I would never ask you to stop being friends with someone just because it didn’t work out between me and her.”

Christopher was quiet for a moment. “Can you stay with me until I fall asleep?”

“Yeah,” Eddie said. “Yeah buddy, of course.”

He nestled into the bed and Christopher snuggled close into his side. “I love you,” Eddie said. 

“Love you too,” Christopher mumbled.

Within minutes his breathing evened out and Eddie knew he’d fallen asleep. But Eddie didn’t move. Not yet. He wanted to hold onto childhood for just a little bit longer.

[kurisus]

Chapter 88-2 thoughts

I’m writing this at 6 AM because I CAN’T SLEEP WOO. As mentioned in my snaps, I first read this chapter while in a work call so I’m rereading it now to be able to focus a bit better. Buckle up, this will be long. Spoilers as always.

So Yukine was not necessarily snuggling with the wolves. He was asking them to eat him. I think in all the other bad stuff happening this chapter this detail got overlooked slightly but it’s bad!!!!

Who was the shadow we saw approaching him when he was with the wolves?? Was it trash dad after all? I think it has to be.

really don’t appreciate the Suzuha mention in THE YEAR OF OUR LORD TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY

Yukine was such a caring brother it makes my heart hurt. Yukine in general makes my heart hurt. How did it end up happening that his mom just left him behind??

so if Fujisaki is telling the truth, we now know the context of Yukine’s death. And somehow, I think this is the most unpleasant revelation to come out of this chapter. Big statement, I know, but it explains...a lot.

Yukine was writing letters to his sister in secret for probably years, and as soon as his dad found out...well, we know the rest. I remember speculating (and a few others did too) why Yukine was barefoot and not struggling in that panel a couple chapters back that showed his final moments. So if he was already beaten enough to warrant hospitalization, that would explain why he wasn’t reacting the way he should have been.

At this point, if trash dad WAS telling the truth, I’d be fine if they didn’t show the actual scene of his death and just left it at that. Which means...we now know everything about Yukine’s time when he was alive. And of course there’s a lot we can say to fill out the gaps, but we have all the most important details. Finding out exactly how he died was the last piece in the puzzle. Aside from his full first name, that is.

Yukine yelling at trash dad to shut up and him continuing on anyway :) we really needed to know his final thoughts were “why?” :) I hate it here :)

I really hate even talking about this, this shit is FUCKED

okay so as far as trash dad is aware, Yukine’s body was still in the fridge. Meaning he had no idea that Yato went to dig it up all those months ago. Meaning Nora never breathed a word about it to him. I don’t really know how to express my feelings on this but thank you Nora. we owe you one. I have a feeling trash dad’s intent was not to give him a proper burial (since he’s all about false shows of kindness), though as to what it was, I cannot say.

I think at this point it’s pretty clear that Yato is the one who gave him a proper burial. When the panel of the empty refrigerator dropped a few months back, the fact that the body was missing struck me as just odd, and I thought maybe Yukine’s dad dug it back up for some sort of weird ritual, but judging by what we know now, that doesn’t seem likely. As soon as people started saying Yato buried him I was smacking my face like “of COURSE that’s what happened duh”

so trash dad is confirmed to drop his body in a very similar way to Hiyori, and we also confirmed that the version of him in the black robe is his spirit form. Nora mentioned his “body” a while back but now we finally got to see it. Is he a half ayakashi?? Is this just something he can do because he’s possessing Fujisaki’s body??? gah Adachitoka I want ANSWERS

Hagusa’s vessel name is just a double whammy. It’s like a horrible inversion of the fact that Yato named Kazuma Kazune. “Kazune” has the double meaning of referring to their time limit as well as being the “Kazu” Yato was already familiar with. With Hagusa, that name refers to a type of grain that looks like rice...in other words, something that appears valuable but is worthless. And now we see the vessel name is Yuuki? Adachitoka galaxy brained to punch me in the face.

SO THE REASON YUKINE DOESN’T HAVE A CELL PHONE IS BECAUSE HE DIED BEFORE THEY WERE INVENTED???? I always thought it was because he didn’t need one since Yato, Hiyori, Kazuma, and Kofuku were really the only people he needed to communicate with. but he seemed really excited to use trash dad’s. I’m in pain.

I’m thinking back to when Hiyori almost asked Yukine how he died way back in the beginning of the manga and trash dad now telling Yukine “Hiyori never wanted to know? I bet she did, since humans always want to pry into other people’s business” you shut your mouth

Speaking of Hiyori all we got of her this chapter was her looking pissed off. When she arrives to the fight I just want her to fuck shit up. She may not have her half ayakashi form but she can still snap trash dad’s neck in half.

Perhaps the reason Yukine didn’t find any news articles about himself was because “Haru” was just a nickname. I find it hard to believe that there was nothing about him going missing, especially since his dad made a fuss with putting up missing person flyers everywhere. There’s no way the police wouldn’t have gotten involved, right?

Either way it doesn’t really matter--his dad never got charged with anything even if he was a suspect, and no one else cared enough to look either.

this is so many levels of fucked

“So even now my father is still killing me” this line. THIS LINE. THIS FUCKING LINE. It’s such a succinct and excellent summary of Yukine as a character--as much as we love our son, the fact remains that he is dead. And he is dead because of his father’s abuse and society’s neglect. So no matter however much he grows and changes in the afterlife, it cannot change that his life was cut short far too soon, and everything good that happens to him is overshadowed by the fact that it’s indirectly because of his nasty father. And he got away with it. I can’t.

Before this chapter came out I speculated we’d want to strangle Yukine’s dad even more than we already did. and I was right. but holy shit this line was a kick in the gut while I’m still recovering from “that boy loved people”

Yukine loved people too....he loved people and they turned their backs on him BUT HE NEVER GAVE UP ON LOVING!!! IT JUST TOOK A DIFFERENT SHAPE. FUCK.

So Father knows someone visited the fridge. I wonder if he’s figured out that it was Hiyori yet. I just want her to snap him like a twig. it’s what he deserves.

Father also doesn’t care about Yukine, like, at all (we been knew), to the point he couldn’t even realize the only blond character in this fucking manga now has black hair. MAN. that just says a lot about him, huh.

Are we going to find out whether one of his parents was foreign?? He and Yuka are both noticeably light-haired and it hasn’t been addressed aside from Yukine’s hair color changing.

The hair color change was the only spoiler I saw before the chapter came out and it’s been haunting me ever since. I thought initially Yukine dyed his hair while trash dad was out, but now I wonder if the dark hair is his vessel form? Fujisaki summoned him before leaving, so I don’t know. He does look like his bird ayakashi form with having clawed hands as well.

I remember seeing speculation that trash dad generally tells the truth. well as of this chapter we know he’s a fucking liar. Hiyori left that flower, and I think it will end up being important in the long run when Yukine realizes that she’s the only human who truly cares about him.

Whether trash dad has been telling the truth about other things remains to be seen. We still don’t know how he got out of Yomi, if that’s really what happened to make him immortal. But this lie about the flower seems to be a white lie. He could have just said he didn’t know. If he so readily lied about this, who’s to say he hasn’t been lying about other things too, you know?

Yukine destroying the fridge would normally make me be like good for her.jpeg but since the context is him with trash dad I actually hate it

Since Yukine is now so eager to meet his dad I can’t shake the feeling that he’s dead. It would be the perfect gut-punch for him to demand why his father killed him, only to find out that he’s dead (and maybe even that YATO did it...which would only add more fuel to the fire....fuck) and never get to resolve his turmoil.

I’ve been on the fence about whether Yukine’s dad is still alive but based on this chapter I’m putting my bets on “he’s dead and Yato killed him back in the early manga because that would cause the most suffering at present and that generally seems to be the route Adachitoka takes.”

Like, yeah, if Yato did it it was to protect Yukine, but that doesn’t matter when he’s already so pissed off at Yato.

Yato only fired on trash dad because he didn’t know that it was Yukine with him. And Yukine is again thinking that Yato is trying to hurt him. This chapter is also a horrible inversion of...was it 83-2? where Yato tried to kill trash dad and Yukine stopped him? Except now this time it’s not because Yukine wants answers, it’s because he’s pissed at Yato and loyal to trash dad.

Yato was also a fool for thinking sniping trash dad from afar would work, especially when it didn’t even work the first time.

So now the thing I’ve been working up to talking about throughout these many, many words: Hagusa’s vessel form is...himself. He is the weapon. This is such a wonderful (and terrible) narrative choice I’m delighted by where it will take us physically and metaphorically, but obviously it hurts. A lot.

Yuuki being himself the weapon that trash dad fights Yato with for what may be their final showdown is such a fitting culmination to his character arc in this section of the story. (when trash dad said he would turn him into a weapon I DIDN’T REALIZE IT WAS LITERAL)

This is also a good choice art-wise because it means even more pain with seeing Yukine physically fighting Yato rather than Yato and trash dad fighting with swords or something.

So Yato met with Yuka before (it was a flashback, as many people pointed out to me after I goofed last month lmao) but whether that was earlier today or further in the past remains to be seen. I hope he told her to get out because it seems like trash dad is heading into her house while Yato and Yukine face off.

well. “face off” is maybe an exaggeration. Yato will not be able to fight Yukine at all and I’m anticipating he gets the shit kicked out of him, again, while he tries to make him see reason. bro. I hate this. I really, really hate this. This final fight is going all the ways I knew it would, but hoped it wouldn’t.

Hiyori and Nora come help please

July can’t come soon enough

I’m pretty sure this is my longest thoughts post ever. so much happened and I have so many feelings about all of it.

[coffee-n-bagels-comic-universe]

The Salem House or The Scottish Cottage

Quick Tag List: @kuruumiya @spacelizardtrashboys @stupidbluegirl @enigmaticandunstable @nattinngrst

This Passage Contains Potentially: swearing, violence, blood, angst, whump, fluff and smutty content.

Summary: Rod and Kirby move in to their new cottage home in Salem, Oregon.

Kirby's POV:

Rod blindfolded me with one of his ties and drove our rented van out to the property, taking off my blindfold in front of the house.

"There it is, our new home," he twirled the keys around his index finger, "all ours now, Kirbs."

There it was, white panel exterior with fancy windows and lights along both sides of the gravel path towards the house. Without thinking I pulled Rod into a hug and kissed him, tears of happiness rolling down my cheek.

"Woah, baby, are ya alright sweetheart?"

"I love it, and I love you and-" Upon hearing that, Rod hoisted me over his shoulder, "Woah, Roddy, what are you doing?"

"Taking you inside and carrying you to the one room I know you're gonna love."

He carried me through the front double doors, through the foyer and then the kitchen, before carrying me past the television and sofa, past what I believe is the ground floor bathroom and up the stairs, letting me get a glance at the basement staircase as we went up to the top floor of our new home.

He then put me down in front of a pale green door with a childish or childlike, chalk or pastel drawing on the front.

I turned the handle slowly, not knowing what to expect.

Then I saw it.

The lone white bassinet.

Surrounded by soft toys and things you'd assume would be in a nursery.

"The former owners said that they're daughter was gonna move in before she moved to L.A. They knew she had a baby and set this room up. I'm gonna be honest with ya and tell ya that I let a couple tears slip when I saw this room ma-self, so I completely understand if you need a moment alone."

"Rod, Roddy, as much as I hate the weird wallpaper in the foyer, this room is," I took a second to compose myself, "It's perfect."

"Do ya wanna see our bedroom?"

"Yeah."

Rod showed me around the rest of the house before going into the basement.

"There's no attic, so the basement will have to do if we want to store anything anywhere."

The basement was large, the only room separated off from the rest of the basement was another bathroom. I walked to the opposite side of the basement and stopped in my tracks.

"What's wrong babe?"

"They have a hot tub?!"

"What?"

Rod walked over to me, also stopping upon seeing the hot tub in it's own corner of the basement, separate from the gym equipment and rugs and the very empty basement.

"What d'ya reckon they use that for?" Rod asked, teasing me slightly.

"No, Rod, eww, that's gross, you wouldn't dare suggest that!"

"Hot tub sex, babe, it's a thing."

"We are not doing that. Ever!"

"We are alone in the house, you know." He started unbuckling his belt, chucking it as well as his sporran down at his feet, "I know we've gotta fly back to the other side of the country later, but, right now, we're home, honey," He started walking towards me, whipping his jacket and shirt off, leaving him in his kilt and boots as he ran his hand through his hair, letting out a deep guttural sigh.

"I guess we could test out the new bed, Roddy." I started unbuttoning my shirt, exposing the peach toned tank top underneath.

"Or, We could have sex right here and now," He suggested, whipping his kilt off and in true Scottish fashion, revealing nothing but his bare body below.

He unclenched his hand, showing off the fact that he had brought a condom with him.

By the time we got to Taunton, Massachusetts on the first of March, Roddy had set aside some time for us to redecorate the house, and by the time we actually got around to redecorating, Roddy had recruited the rest of the D.O.D as well a Schultz, Orton and Orndorff to help us. We had met back at the house on the Eleventh (of March) and unbeknownst to me, Piper had made a couple calls to his friends from back in his NWA and Mid Atlantic days.

"Woo!"

"He didn't." Schultz grunted out, partly worried and partly surprised.

"He didn't do what … David?"

Schultz guided me outside to meet the guys.

"Piper! introduce ya wife to the boys, I'll go grab us some beer."

"I'm not his wife," I called after him as he walked back inside, "So, Roddy, who are these guys."

Rod leant up to kiss me, he would have backed me into the nearest wall if I didn't pull away immediately after, concern taking over any hint of a flirtatious mood in me.

"Who's this fine female?"

I recognised the voice from the yell earlier.

"Ric, this is my girlfriend, Kirby. Kirby, this is Ric Flair. Over there," he gestured to the other four, "Are Tully Blanchard, with the black hair, JJ Dillon, the other blonde looking one and Ole and Arn Anderson."

"Are they here to help or are they here to distract you?"

"The only thing distracting me is the idea of seeing you na-"

I covered Rod's mouth with my hand and gave Ric a sheepish smile, "I apologise for my hus, I mean boyfriend's attitude Ric."

"You almost said husband, Kirbs." Rod whispered to me as we led the boys inside, before he took me aside.

"It was a slip of the tongue."

"I'm sorry, about the kiss, I got a bit jealous because I know what Ric can be like, with women in particular."

"Rod, you shouldn't have to apologise for that, I love ya. I was going to start looking for you anyway, what d'ya want for lunch?"

"Don't you worry about that, I'll go grill those hamburgers we have in the fridge and … hey look, beer."

"Thank you, David."

"Anytime, Tall-ass."

"Look, babe, I'll deal with it alright, you stop worrying and I'll deal with it. I'm the man of the house so I'll deal with it."

I came up behind Roddy, putting my head on his shoulder and wrapping my arms around his waist, kissing his neck.

"I'm gonna go rest for a bit Rod, my head feels funny."

"Baby, baby come here."

Rod helped me upstairs, making sure I didn't fall over and letting me lay on the bed.

"We have today and tomorrow here baby, relax."

"Rod, you know me, you know I wind myself up with worry."

"I know," He brushed his thumbs over my knuckles, "I'm gonna get you some hand wraps or something, stop punching things until ya knuckles bleed."

"I thought you were gonna go cook."

"I am, but, right now, I'm taking in every little detail of the woman I love."

"You softie."

"Oh really? I'm soft. You worry way more than me baby."

"I love you, Roddy."

"I love you too, Kirby."

I slept for a short while until I was woken up by Piper and Schultz yelling obscenities at each other. I ran down the stairs and outside the house to see the two grown men squabbling like children.

Without saying anything I picked Roddy up by his midsection and took him back inside, chucking him down on the sofa.

"I'm gonna fuckin-"

"Roderick!"

"Yes, baby."

"You are drunk, and shut up."

"Yes, Sweetheart."

I helped Roddy up, almost gagging at how strong the smell of alcohol was coming from him, swiftly avoiding his attempts at kissing me and placing my hand over his mouth.

By the Thirteenth we were back working and Rod had started to get fidgety around me until things came to a head on the Thirtieth.

"Rod, are you alright, you've been awfully quiet today."

"I'm fine baby, actually, Kirby?"

"Yeah?"

"Would you like to be on Piper's Pit?"

"When?"

"Sunday, Yes or No?"

"This Sunday?"

"Yeah."

"Well, there's your answer."

"Wait, you'll do it."

"Of fucking course I'll do it. I don't give a fuck what Damien says."

He let out a chuckle as I pulled into the hotel parking lot.

"How's the Visa status going?"

"It's good, I'll hopefully be a US citizen before the end of May."

"So, May, you'll be a citizen, so," He mumbled to himself for a short while, "Alright, cool."

Before long it was time for me to be on Piper's Pit, fully expecting Roddy to do something and cause a ruckus to occur.

"Well, I'd just like you to know, it's a pleasure to have our first, female, guest on Piper's Pit. I want you to know that I asked every single female in the entire WWF if they would be on the Pit and only one of them said 'yes' to me. The only woman with enough guts to face me with 'Gluttony' herself, Kirby Lucifarian. Kirby, I would like to thank you for being brave enough to come out here and face me. I had Captain Lou on here last week and he said something vague about you and your sisters protecting Lauper. Why would a woman like you, someone who doesn't smoke, doesn't swear, doesn't drink, or shack up with skinny little idiots like Dave Wolff, Why would a great and accomplished female wrestler like you offer her protection to Lauper?"

"First of all, Piper, thank you for having me on here."

"My pleasure."

"Secondly, I was going to let you unmask me, but you showed support of Big John Studd, A man I greatly despise for his disrespect of both me and André."

"I am sorry for going back on that unspoken promise, Miss Lucifarian."

"Thank you for the apology, Roddy, Thirdly, may I say that I did not offer my services of protection to Miss Lauper, instead that was my father who told, Miss Lauper, that the D.O.D would protect her. Why on earth would a woman with an intelligence that rivals, yours for example, protect a girl like Cyndi Lauper?"

"I don't admire a lot of women, but you, I like you. I admire your intelligence, your ability to strike fear into the hearts of men with your words alone. I know that you have been searching for your next challenging opponent, and I for one don't wanna offer myself up, I just want to know how difficult it has been for the past few weeks going without a challenging enough opponent for your skill level?"

"Well, Piper, it's been tough, honestly, I think I may have scared everyone off. As someone who has previously been banned from women's competition, I find getting any support in the ring quite hard at times. I find your lack of fear quite charming, honest to the Lord above, you charm me, boyo."

"Thank you, you're a real sweetheart. Quick question, why do you call me 'boyo'?"

"Don't you call men 'lad' in Glasgow?"

"Oh, I see, anyway, before you go, one last thing."

I wasn't expecting this, the rest me and Rod had planned in advance, but not that line, he said he wasn't going to pull anything, he gave me his word.

Then, before I knew what was going on, he unbuckled my mask, pulling it down for a moment and kissed me square on the lips, in front of the cameras and the fans.

I tried to stand up and he dipped me down into the kiss, much to the enjoyment of the fans, who were hooting and hollering, obviously this doesn't happen much in the WWF.

Roddy kept his right hand intertwined with my ponytail and had his left arm around my back, supporting most of my waist as he brought me back up and helped me re-fix my mask into it's rightful spot.

After the show I tried to avoid Roddy for a couple minutes, trying to make sense of why he would do such a thing knowing full well we were not an 'out' couple or even an 'in' couple with the fans, sure the fans enjoying the moment was nice, but we were both heels, we were not supposed to do that off-screen, let alone on-screen and in front of a full crowd of fans.

I came to the decision to drop it for now and wait for Rod to hopefully explain his actions or somehow work it into a programme.

My mind started to wonder, maybe he would try to use that as blackmail against Damien, or even against me.

The D200's door opening and slamming shut caught me off guard, making me jump a little.

"I'm sorry, baby, I didn't mean to scare ya."

"I'm fine, Roddy, just caught up in my thoughts, that's all."

"What were ya thinking about?"

"Nothing important, mainly just what happened earlier."

"Ya mean, me, Orndorff and Schultz winning the match?"

"No, Roderick, the kiss, we didn't plan that."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to clear that with ya, but Orndorff and Schultz said that it would get the fans interested."

"Hon."

"Yeah?"

"Next time, please clear everything we do in a promo or interview with me first, so I don't start wondering if you'll blackmail me."

"I would never blackmail ya, maybe Damien, but never you."

"I love you, ya hot-headed, kilt wearing idiot."

"I love you to, ya blonde, gothic, tattooed Ivory tower."

"Did you call me an 'Ivory tower'?"

"You're tall and pale, what d'ya want me to say?"

END OF THE SALEM HOUSE or THE SCOTTISH COTTAGE

[groovycatcollector]

The Wonderfully Right, And The Horribly Wrong (Daryl Dixon Love story)

Summery: After losing her brother and his wife, one young woman is left on her own, caring for a new born and trying to survive. After being taken in to a community after years of mistrust, how will she adapt, and what effect will a certain archer have on her. Starts the last episode of season 5

Warnings: slow-burn, angst, eventual fluff, violence, strong language. ptsd, age gap

Pairings: Daryl Dixon x OFC

Chapter 9

I had decided to stay awake after one of the baby’s feeds, I had told Maggie I’d help her planting some veg, considering food supplies were running low. I had time before I would go to the infirmary and my mind was still buzzing with distrust for Alexandria. But knowing I should stay for the baby I did, wanting to give him a better chance, so I occupied my days, distracting myself from my gut screaming at me that something was gonna go wrong.

The sun was just lightening the sky without making an appearance, so it was cool enough to work. I was already to go; food packed, baby fed and in a basket, just my hair.

I was standing in front of a mirror in the sitting room. I couldn’t brush it, it was too curly and it would only puff it up more. My last hair elastics broke last night so I stared helpless at the ringlets in the mirror. I could shave my head?

I’m not shaving my head …

After deciding not to shave my head, I graded a pencil (Something one of my older sisters had thought me) and twisted it and weaved it into my hair; leaving me with a low bun. It wouldn’t keep it off my neck but it would stay out of my face. Deciding that was enough for me I wrapped my new found scarf around my head once, making sure to secure my baby hairs and front strands in the fabric. Tying it at the base of my neck around the bun, leaving the flimsy material falling loosely at my shoulder blades.

**

 “One Russian name and one normal name?” Maggie confirmed, using her foot too glide the spade into the ground. “Yep, family tradition, honour the grandparents” I grunted, following suit. The sun had risen, and oh mama it was hot. We had started working before dawn, so we had a few tomatoes plants in the ground, and the conversation has drifted to the Christening tomorrow, and the lack of a name.

I’m guessing Maggie was also tired with an aching back by her strained reply “I don’t know many Russian names so you’ll have to excuse my lack of input there”. I huffed with a smile “I was thinking maybe Luke? Does he look like a Luke to you” I straightened glanced at the baby, who at this stage couldn’t really crawl; only sat there content with his big hat. Maggie halted, turning to look at him clumsily pulling out grass “He could be a Luke”

I decided to test it out “Hey” I called at the oblivious infant “You think you’re a Luke?” Waiting a moment, looking as he tried to put a blade of grass into his mouth before it fell from his weak grip. “Okay not Luke” I announced before bending back over continuing my work.

We were quiet concentrating for a few more minutes. “You thought of any names for yourself?” I asked, whipping a bead of sweat from my neck. The sound of shovels scratching threw dirt filled my ears before she gathered an answer. “Haven’t really thought about it yet, suppose it’s still early days” She said, focusing her eyes on the ground.

I nodded “Just be careful you don’t end up like me, waiting for the day before you have to name him” She chuckled at that.

 When the sun got high I wondered over to the infirmary. I was reading a book I snagged from the hippie on natural herbs, writing out Denise’s beloved Short Cuts on a sheet of paper for each herb. Luckily not many were sick, so besides writing all of my useless information I just tidied up. It was nice, I felt like it was summer vacation and I was down at my Grandpa’s practice.

Denise and I sat on the porch, still in the shade. She looked off long fully in the distance at Tara on post while I quizzed her on her spread sheet. We had come up with a routine of cleaning, testing cheat sheets, cleaning again, and home time (If no one came in of course)

“Infection” I called out agents the hot air. Denise groaned, flopping back onto the wooden panels.  “No, I’m sick of this” she exclaimed rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands. I was sick of it too in all honesty. I lay next to her book on my chest “Yeah me too” I admitted staring up at the white porch roof. I glance across at her, she reminded me of Sonya, just getting in her head all the time, and trying to pull it all together for other people.

“How’re things with Tara?” I asked, somewhere between genuinely curious and just making small talk. “They’re fine, we moved in together” She sighed. Oh shit big step.

 Hold the fuck up that’s a very big step. I bolted up right “What the fuck, I see you ever single day for the past five weeks and you didn’t say anything?” I starred, mouth wide open.

Denise shrugged defensively “I dunno Nina I didn’t think it was that important” My eyes darted to Tara who stood on the watch tower. I scoffed, repeating her “Not a big deal” before lay back down. It was quiet for a moment, just listening to the baby babbling in his highchair before Denise broke the pause in dialogue.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you” She said, putting her face in my direction but still not meeting my eyes. “I guess I was kinda scared how you’d react” She paused, biting her lips thinking “With you being so religious and all”

I narrowed my eyes, not fully understanding her meaning before it all clicked into place, which caused an eruption of laughs burst from my stomach. She looked at me bewildered before I could catch my breath, whipping a tear away from my eye. 

“Dude” I gasped “Dude I’m catholic not an asshole” Her look of shock, followed by a small chuckle of relief calmed me a little.

I lolled my head to look at her “So you’re not homophobic” She asked still chuckling, I offered her a smile before leaning in and whispering “Not an asshole” while putting my hand on hers while we lazily starred up at the roof. I liked Denise, she reminded me of what it was like to have a sister, even if she presumed I was an asshole.

“Sooo” She sang, just as my mind was beginning to wander too far into sadder thoughts. “What’s going on with Daryl?” She cocked on eyebrow teasingly.

Confusion shocked my body, now I definitely didn’t expect that. I got on with Daryl, but I don’t think I’m into him “what about him?” I asked, cautiously.

I’ve gotten too comfortable here, just the hint of romantic relationships got my palms sweating. Now it was Denise’s turn to let a giggle “Are you kidding? You guys are always looking at each other and I see you guys early mornings talking to each other” Her nose was scrunched up like a kid tattling on their friend to teacher.

It’s true we had made a routine of crossing paths when I would feed the baby, and we would get up to hunt or get ready for a run. I just never figured it would spark town gossip.

“We are not always looking at each other” I said defensively. She scoffed sitting up “Nina you both are constantly gazing at each other from across the street!” I sat up next to her leaning agents the wall, her crossed legged and my arms resting on my bent knees. What in tarnation, gazing? I don’t gaze, I’m a Price and we’re not a gazing family

“We do not gaze”

“Then why are you getting so defensive”

“I’m not getting defensive”

Denise through her hands up in the air in defeat “Okay okay nothings going on, shouldn’t have asked” She looked down rubbing her palms together after I thanked her. Suddenly her face contorted in a smile “Say…” She sounded way too pleased with herself for this to end well.

“What are you doing later today?” Shit. I chewed my lip “I’m going helping with the cars” I answered bluntly, trying not to show just how completely she caught me.

“And who is it again who’s doing the cars today?” I hope that smile was hurting her face, it was far too big. My shoulders slouched in defeat, trying to hide my smile, my signal of “You got me” as Denise burst out laughing.

“You” She said, pushing my shoulder making me wobble “Are full of shit” I barely got to mumble a ‘Am not’ before the doctor continued her sentence “And I think you two would be cute”

“Fuck off”

 **

Me and Daryl, that’s weird, crazy even. Just because I get on with someone who’s reasonably attractive and single doesn’t mean I’m attracted to them

Even if I just said they were attractive. Not the point.

I’m gonna go in there, and be cool, chilled, just doing car stuff. And I’m a friendly person, I’m friendly with everyone. Sure I spent a little more time with him but so what?

 I walked into the garage seeing Daryl with his head under the hood of one of the cars. His back was covered by a black vest top but his shoulders were glistening with the sweat, and his hair was damp and sticking agents his neck; obviously not enjoying the summer heat.

“Hey, need any help” I asked, putting the baby on the floor “I know a thing or two about cars” I leaned agents the car and peered into the engine, seeing it had all its parts.

“Had a boyfriend that was into cars?” He taunted, still not looking at me, knowing it would get on my nerves.

“My daddy was a mechanic” I clarified. He shot me a glance from behind the dirt and oil that covered his face “Thought you’d been more into them pageants” His mouth came up in a half smile, just flashing his teeth.

A wicked grin grew on my face “Oh yeah, real big into thoughts, won a few too” I hoped he could pick up on my sarcasm, pushing him over so I could get a better look at the valves threw the walker blood “But that’s only because I slept with the judges” I looked up and gave him a big smile but the look on his face ment I couldn’t hold back a laugh “Dann I never thought I’d see you look shocked” I said, slapping him on his back. See? Friendly.

Then a grumble past his lips “Always knew you’d be easy” Without looking up I punched his arm.

Sonya was into Pageants, real good. She won a scholarship to a nursing school in New York kinda good.

“You’d wanna know” I said, sticking my hand into the slimy shit stuck in the engine and pulling it out.

 Just too buds, having laughs, no feelings.

Part one Part two Part three Part four Part five Part six Part seven Part eight Part ten Part eleven

Tags:@buckysjuicyplums

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 247: Todoroki Angst

Previously on BnHA: Ujiko started some kind of procedure on Tomura to make him even more powerful, because that’s what we were all asking for at the end of the last arc, isn’t it? “Horikoshi can you go ahead and make the homicidal nihilist even stronger please and thank you.” Well not to worry, because he’s got our backs! Meanwhile Hawks poked around the villain HQ trying to find out more details about That End Of The World Thing That’s Happening In 4 Months, and came up with squat. But he did successfully pass on his secret message to Endeavor about how “THE CHILDREN ARE OUR ONLY HOPE,” so Endeavor shrugged and was like “fine, HEY CHILDREN, LET’S GO FIGHT CRIME.” Anyways, so I was thinking, do you suppose they all just figured out they’re actually in a shounen manga? Because that would explain a lot.

Today on BnHA: Endeavor gathers the kids together and is all “so tell me about yourselves.” Deku is all “I have two quirks shut up it’s not weird” and says he wants to get better at harnessing his power so that he can use it without it being destructive. Kacchan is all “I’m already strong but I want to become better as a person” and I appreciate how the other characters are able to hold themselves back from exclaiming, “THIS KID’S REDEMPTION ARC... IT’S TOO POWERFUL...!” because I sure the fuck would have if I was there. And then Shouto is all “hey dad, friendly reminder that I’m here because I want to get stronger to reach my own goals, but you’re still a shitty dad and I hate your guts.” Endeavor, to his credit, reacts very appropriately to all three kids (including a resigned “got it” to Shouto, which was in fact the only appropriate response, so props to him for that), and dives right on in to mentoring the shit out of them. He then delivers a challenge -- defeat at least one villain without him beating them to the punch. So that should be fun, and I mean that with complete sincerity. Bring it!

(All comments are my unspoiled reactions from my initial readthrough of the chapter. I did a quick edit for grammar and clarity afterward, and added a few ETAs in the process, but aside from that there are no changes.)

oooooh shit we’re starting right on a continuation of the Fuyumi panel from last week. TODOROKI DRAMA ARC INCOMING. THIS IS IT BOYS. THE BIG ONE

omg omg omg

friendly reminder that chapter 242, in which this internship was first announced, came out on September 6. that is six whole weeks that we’ve been waiting for this internship to actually get started for real. I WAS PROMISED CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND UNUSUAL INTERACTIONS AND UNLIKELY BONDS BEING FORMED. and I have been patient, because In Horikoshi We Trust, but is it finally that time now? I just need them to stop hinting at it and finally get to it before I lose my mind okay

so Endeavor is asking Baku and Deku for their character profiles

Deku: “I used to break bones on demand, now I shoot wind from my fists along with the occasional Venom Symbiote”

Bakugou: “I blow shit up and I also have your character development arc, but fast-tracked so that it kicked in before I could fully become a massive prick like you”

meanwhile Shouto just sits there pouting because as we know from the Babysitter’s Club arc (and also from the Sports Festival arc, during which he dragged Deku into a hallway and was all “time to tell you about my tragic past” completely unprompted), he actually has his own character profile on standby ready to go at a moment’s notice, but everyone just keeps it benched all the time. poor Shouto

(ETA: he will not be silenced!!)

so Endeavor is phrasing this in the weirdest way possible, asking them to state “their current ‘assignments’” lol what. at least the second part of this is clearer, with him asking what they want to gain from this internship

okay so Deku says he wants to control his power so that he can “move at max performance.” yes that’s a very good goal for you, World’s Last Hope

lmaoooo

“weren’t you the kid who broke every bone in his arms several times in succession while attempting to KO my youngest child.” way to make an impression Deku

so Deku patiently explains that, yes, but we’re WELL BEYOND the whole bone-breaking stage now and currently at the “trying to master my new SECRET POWER which is still under wraps” stage. get with the times, Endeavor

hahaha here we go. this is so painfully awkward

“yeah so I kind of have a second quirk now. you know. as one does. please ignore how the only other known person to ever have multiple quirks just so happens to be the greatest villain of all time who is currently incarcerated in Tartarus following his last stand during which the number one hero lost all his power. that’s not relevant. anyways so yeah, two quirks, it’s totally normal and not a big deal at all”

what the actual fuck is he going to do once quirks # 3, 4, 5, etc. come along? this is such a disaster it’s not even funny. and by the way, this whole time I’ve been ignoring the elephant in the room that is Katsuki’s face while Deku nearly spills the beans about his so-called secret. but let’s all just acknowledge that it’s amazing and it belongs in a museum

thankfully Endeavor has had more than enough of exercising his brain today after all of that codebreaking, and isn’t even bothering to ask any questions. instead he’s just like, “show me.” probably the right call; easier to just see wth he’s going on about rather than keep listening to this strange and incredibly suspicious explanation

here we go guys time for some BLOOP

that’s because you’re still scared of it! boy if you’re not going to listen to Katsuki then I hope Endeavor can knock some sense into you at least!

you know, Endeav may be scowling so hard his face is gonna get stuck that way, but so far he’s not half bad at this mentoring/coaching thing

really appreciate how he jumps straight into asking pertinent questions about what Deku wants to do with this new quirk, rather than being all “how the fuck do you go from breaking all of your bones to THAT”

so now Deku’s explaining how it works and says he’s been applying the same principles that he uses with Air Force

LMAOOOOO

this right here is the most accurate introduction to Deku that Endeavor could ever have possibly received. THAT’S IT, THAT’S THE CHARACTER

and it also neatly sums up his whole problem with Blackwhip as well, which is just that he’s way overthinking it. no fucking wonder he can’t do anything with it yet! he’s trying to run NASA-level calculations in his head in real time while using it, like wtf. just let loose boi

also can we stop and appreciate how both Bakugou and Shouto are just fucking done. like, Bakugou is one thing, but just look at Todoroki fucking Shouto, Deku’s #1 fan and admirer, being all “wtf I hate Deku now”

LMAO AGAIN

Burnin’ is quickly rising through my favorite character ranks. meanwhile Shouto has gleaned, quite correctly, that those were in fact words coming from Deku’s mouth. what kind of words is a mystery, but at least it’s something

omfg Endeavor can speak Deku

(ETA: one of the things I’m noticing on a reread is how Endeavor is approximately twice the size of the kids. and it’s not like they’re small or anything. but they look like toddlers next to him. he’s only 6′4″ how is he towering over them to this degree.)

I feel like Endeavor’s intelligence levels fluctuate from week to week. or even from panel to panel. enigma

so blah blah blah he’s thinking to himself “his raw power rivals All Might’s” and then -- ! LOOK AT THIS SHIT

SOFT ENDEAVOR ADOPTING DEKU WTAF. holy shit. if anyone says they saw this coming, I’m calling you out as a fucking liar. BUT I’M HERE FOR IT OMG

AND NOW THIS ONE’S TURN!

(ETA: Kacchan is 5′7″. pretty sure Endeavor is actually 8 feet tall.)

lmao Deku’s face. trying to work out what this means and whether it’s good or bad

meanwhile, after the multiple pages of extensive rambling from Deku, Endeavor is about to get an introduction from Bakugou which will likely just consist of “I WANT TO BECOME THE NUMBER ONE” with absolutely no introspection whatsoever. basically the polar opposite of Deku. gotta love it

HERE WE GO

ooh, unexpected! though still brusque. but to be fair, he’s gifted when it comes to saying a lot in few words

(ETA: out of the three, Kacchan definitely took up the least amount of time with his introspection. not bad for a kid who used to think the entire fucking world revolved around him. growth!)

now he’s bitching at Burnin’ for not having anything better to do than stand around heckling them lmao

SHE’S HERE TO PROVIDE COMMENTARY KATSUKI SHHH. in other news, today I learned that Burnin’ is actually me. huh

OH MY GOD KATSUKI IS METAING -- !! [ELBOWS MY WAY INTO THE FRONT ROW] EVERYONE FUCKING SHUT YOUR MOUTHS AND LISTEN!!!!

OH MY GOD

y’all Katsuki really just fessed up and admitted to needing to work on his growth as a person rather than his physical ability. along with a NEW ADORABLE CHILDHOOD FLASHBACK, EXCUSE ME WHILE I ORDER PRINTS OF THIS TO PUT IN MY WALLET

AND HERE WE GO NOW, THE WHOLE “I WANT TO SURPASS THE NUMBER ONE” PART. BUT IT WAS SO MUCH DEEPER THAN I EXPECTED, KATSUKI YOU CONTINUE TO MAKE ME PROUD! LOOK HOW DETERMINED HE IS TO BE A BETTER PERSON

PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, IF YOU’RE NOT ROOTING FOR BAKUGOU KATSUKI THEN WHY ARE YOU EVEN READING THIS MANGA HONESTLY

OMG ENDEAVOR

“this kid...” REMINDS YOU OF SOMEONE, DOESN’T HE! OH MY GOD I NEED TO SIT AND CALM DOWN AND DRINK SOME WATER

anyway so do you love him. YOU BETTER SAY YES!!

LMAO SHOUTO COULDN’T HOLD IT IN ANY LONGER

LET’S HEAR IT THEN, FIVE PEEPEE MAN!!

Endeavor is whipping back around on him all “I THOUGHT YOU CAME HERE TO MASTER YOUR NEW TECHNIQUE” with this look of borderline panic on his face that implies to me that it’s one thing to take on two new kids with no familiar baggage, and quite another to have to deal with his own son’s personal angst which is directly related to his own worst personal shortcomings and sins! but that’s just too bad, Endeavor! also, fuck you!

OH MY GOD TODOROKI SHOUTO HAS THE SOFTEST SADDEST EXPRESSION AND THIS SPEECH IS GOING TO MAKE ME CRY WHAT THE HELL

even Kacchan has gone soft. meanwhile, is somebody cutting onions in here or

(ETA: also, Kacchan really has been promoted to best friend status, hasn’t he? or co-best friend at least. Shouto really does value their time training together, huh. “spending time with these guys.” anyways so this officially is the TodoBakuDeku arc, sorry everyone I don’t make the rules.

also! I really love how Shouto’s character development has been all about him finally figuring out what it is that he wants. one way or the other, Endeavor has been the focus of his life since childhood. everything he did was centered around him, even when it was centered around defying him. it was still always him, and never Shouto. because he’d been raised as his father’s tool, he struggled with feeling like anything he achieved was just giving his father exactly what he wanted. so he never really had the freedom to strive toward his own goals until Deku finally broke him free of that mindset. it wasn’t until he was surrounded by others who shared the same dream he’d once had that he was able to move past the toxic part of that resentment. not to say that it wasn’t justified, because it was! and is, still. but all the same, it was hurting him at least as much as it ever hurt Endeavor, if not much more so. 

so I really like the message his arc sends here, which is that forgiveness is not so much for the benefit of the one who hurt you as it is for yourself. and that’s obviously not the right word for it, by the way -- “forgiveness” -- but it’s just a placeholder for lack of a better one. because obviously as we can see, he hasn’t forgiven him, but what he has done is put that part of his past behind him. for his own sake, for his own peace, which he deserves. anyways guys Shouto is so fucking strong and I love him so damn much. shit.)

“y’all didn’t think I was gonna put the Terrible Trio together with Endeavor and not follow through on it with piles and piles of Todoroki angst,” Horikoshi says, casually filing his nails with one eyebrow raised. “c’mon”

here it comes y’all

ain’t no force on this earth more dramatic than a Todoroki. did he somehow get a wind blowing in from somewhere. aren’t they indoors

loool Endeavor getting DRAGGED LIKE AN UNTIED SHOELACE in front of these kids he just met two seconds ago, oof. “don’t forget dad, just because I’ve mellowed out a bit and accepted that I need to learn how to use my fire side doesn’t mean I don’t still hate your guts because BOY DO I.” oh damn

so your kid is justifiably pissed at you for your decade and a half of abuse, not to mention annoyed that you’re just putting it all behind you now and acting like it never happened. but it’s not like it’d make things any better if he just went back to acting like a jerk with these new kids! so here we all are, with no easy answers for this situation. what’s a 45-year-old man trying to make up for his past sins to do

(ETA: boy I just took a stroll around the ol’ fandom and a lot of people have really strong feelings about this huh. the most common sentiment seems to be “YAASSSS SHOUTO”, which I can 100% get behind. but it seems like a lot of people are also angry that Shouto is in this situation to begin with. specifically, we have the usual faction of people who are upset that Endeavor is getting any kind of redemption arc at all, and would prefer if he remained eminently hatable and shunned and detested for the rest of his days.

and look, I get it. humans are hardwired to want things to be fair. we want karma. kindness should beget kindness, and cruelty should net you the same treatment in return. reap what you sow. and while some crimes occasionally fall into a grey area, it hardly gets more black and white than Endeavor’s case. not only is there the child and spousal abuse, there’s also the incredibly dubious consent issues that arise in the case of an arranged marriage. like, there’s really no question that what he’s done is bad. so to see behavior like that “rewarded” by his becoming the number one hero, and to see people actually admiring him, and to watch him taking steps to turn his life around even as his wife and children struggle to gather the shattered pieces of their own lives -- yeah, that’s gonna trigger something in a lot of people. because it’s not fair. he hurt good people who didn’t deserve it, and all of this makes it seem like he’s getting away with it.

but here’s the thing -- there are different types of penance. there’s punishment, but there is also atonement. and Endeavor is getting his just desserts in some ways -- by being forever denied the chance to reach the goal that he worked his whole life toward, and by finally developing a conscience, the better to fully experience the remorse of knowing the pain he brought about to his family. but what’s arguably more important than that is that he also has the opportunity to try and atone for some of the terrible things he’s done, by doing good in the world now. he is a hero. his job is to help people. every day he is making the world a little better by doing that. and that, to me, is such a fascinating idea: a terrible person doing good things. and it’s something that feels almost counterintuitive, and that’s part of why a lot of people have so much trouble accepting it, I think. but it’s a fact of life, isn’t it? if good people can do bad things, then it stands to reason that the reverse is true as well. 

and I’ll just come right out and say it -- for me, if it comes down to a choice of having someone be punished, or having them be forced to do good things to atone, I’m gonna go with the latter just about every time. because while it may not feel quite as viscerally satisfying, it’s the option that produces the greatest net benefit for the world. without Endeavor, the world would have one less person out there battling evil. and as I suspect we’re going to continue to see in this arc, there are other, subtler ways that he can still do good as well.

so yeah. it’s a tricky thing. but to be honest, the ability to explore this type of complexity is one of the things I respect the most about Horikoshi’s storytelling. he’s not taking the easy way out here. he’s not giving us easy answers one way or the other. no matter what kind of resolution we get to this character arc, it’s not going to be something that will satisfy everyone. but that’s just how it is. anyways, apologies for the rant.)

hmmm Endeavor

yeah you really read that one wrong. anyway I guess it’s your turn to make a speech now

...

classic Endeavor

(ETA: actually truth be told, that was quite eloquent, and pretty much the only thing he could have said in response to all that. it’s not like he can even begin to justify all of his actions, and pretty much anything else that came out of his mouth would have come off like an attempt to dismiss his son’s feelings, or him trying to weasel out of taking responsibility. there is pretty much nothing else he can say here except for “I understand. that’s valid, and I fucked up.” which this is pretty much acknowledging. anyways this whole chapter is basically the sequel/continuation to 192 and I’m loving it omg.)

so he says he’ll watch over the three of them as a hero, and lead them in hero stuff

oh, I wasn’t going to post this panel, but now Endeavor’s saying “those are the three fundamental skills sought after from a hero” so I guess I should, huh

ooh he says that generally heroes will choose to specialize in either rescue or battle, but his policy is to kick ass at all three. well that’s one similarity between him and All Might, at least. if you’re not here to both win and rescue then what are you even doing with your life am I right

damn there really is a reason why this guy is the number one huh

okay, like. not to knock like 99% of the other heroes out there, but is anyone else sitting there thinking “wow, finally someone competent” or is it just me. like, I really do get a sense of “he’s got it all under control” from him which is lacking with pretty much all of the other heroes. no wonder society is on the verge of being in shambles. what we really need is for all heroes to be this capable, and not just All Might or Endeavor or whoever happens to be the current number one

okay, Endeavor is really out here being a genuinely good mentor, I’m speechless

holy shit

-- WHAT, NO! ARE WE ALREADY DONE?? WHY

okay but I do love that, though. it’s a perfect goal for them. difficult, but not impossible at the rate they’re growing. and it also just so happens to be something that they need to be able to do if they really are going to be the shoulders that society is resting all of its hopes upon. and last but not least, it’s something that all three of them will be able to set their minds too gladly. kick this old man’s ass, kids

anyways. ladies and gentlepeople this chapter was only thirteen pages. shortest chapter we’ve had in a minute. but at least it was densely packed! even if Shouto took up like half of it with his Daddy Issues Speech. that’s okay Shouto we always welcome your daddy angst

all in all I am satisfied. character development, and finally a clear goal for the arc. though part of me would also love it if they manage to achieve this in like the very next chapter. you never know with these wunderkinds lol