#Now it would be in-character of Sage to say hi just for the sake of saying hi

[babacontainsmultitudes]

Oh, hi baba, found your tumblr while scrolling the jmart tag. - some jackass from the daddies patreon discord

Shit this could be so many people. Fuck- I'm so bad at guessing games oh gosh oh geez. Oh and hiiiiiiiiiii 👋 hehe hiiiiiiiii!

Hm I kinda miss the patreon discord I should hang out there more like I used to do...

[iamthat-iam]

"Ego", The Final Boss

Olivia (she prefers to be called Liv) has been on quite the spiritual journey for a couple of years. She was born and raised Catholic, then as a teen she decided to leave the church because it didn't resonate with her. She went through a law of attraction phase, followed by law of assumption, and finally, she found non dualism from a few Twitter and Tumblr accounts.

The message, from what she gathered, was that she needed to fully drop the ego in order to realize her true self/true nature and to experience whatever she wanted. She even read a few books where realized masters have spoken about their own personal journeys of dropping ego and how life is generally more peaceful for them now that they've done so.

Now, Liv is one with a troubled past. She would give anything to become an entirely different person with no childhood trauma, and just a happy life all around. She meditated every single day, practiced "sitting in silence", and tried her hardest to detach from her "ego."

She stopped enjoying her usual hobbies out of fear of identifying too much with the character. She would go out of her way to correct thoughts that she felt were "too related to being the person." Needless to say, her mental health began to go downhill very fast.

One of her best friends, Marcus, decided to check up on her one day through face-time. "Hey sis! How have you been?! Haven't seen you in a while."

"Hey..." Liv answered. "I'm not doing all that great to be honest."

"Yeah I figured that. That's why I reached out to you," Marcus stated. "I'm worried about you. It seems like you barely leave the house. Everytime myself or anyone else tries to make plans with you, you either cancel last minute or come up with some bogus excuse as to why you can't come out."

Liv had to laugh because everything he said was true. "So I'm guessing you didn't believe the story about my pet rabbit dying."

Marcus cackled. "GIRL. I've known you for years and not once have you ever had a pet rabbit. Stop playing."

"Okay let me tell you what's really going on with me," Liv began, "So a few months ago I found this 'spiritual practice' called Non Dualism, and the premise of it is you need to 'let go of ego' in order to realize your true nature as God, or Awareness, whatever you want to call it. Also you get to experience whatever you want."

"So this is the reason why you've stopped enjoying your usual hobbies, and why you've stopped having a social life?" Marcus inquired. "I'm going to be honest here. As your friend, I feel like I owe it to you to tell you the Truth even if it isn't what you want to hear. I don't think that this 'practice' has helped you one bit. Either you have misinterpreted the message, or these people are spreading misinformation. Never at any point should you sacrifice your mental health for the sake of 'becoming enlightened.'"

"I don't know what else to do," Liv started to cry a little. "I just want to become a different person living a life full of happiness, one without trauma and constant reminders of my horrible past. I hate being this broken person!"

"It's okay hun, I totally understand," Marcus consoled her. "I can help you. You remember my family guru right? She hates being called that, but I don't know how else to refer to her. Her name is Sage. My family has gone to her for spiritual advice and healing for years."

"Yes, I remember her! Didn't she help your mom heal her lower back pain?" Liv asked excitedly.

"She sure did. I can give you her number if you want!"

After Liv ended her face-time call with Marcus, he gave her Sage's number. She immediately reached out to her to schedule a day where they can meet up.

- -

One day, Liv arrived at a beautiful park to discover Sage already sitting on one of the benches waiting. "Hi! I don't know if you remember me, I'm Marcus' friend Liv."

"Yes! Hi Liv, it's nice to see you again," Sage reached out and gave Liv a warm hug. "Now what can I help you with?"

Liv sat down next to Sage. "Well, I discovered Non dualism a few months ago, and I'm not sure if I misunderstood the message or not, but I thought you had to let go of ego in order to realize your true nature as awareness. And after you realize this, you can experience whatever you want. So long story short, I stopped enjoying life because I thought I had to do that in order to be enlightened."

Sage hesitated for a moment, and then smiled. "Think about it this way.. if it's true that our true nature is awareness, or God, whatever label you put on it, why would you have to go through these unnecessary steps in order to 'become' it? If that's what you already are in the first place?"

Liv opened her mouth to reply, then closed it again. Maybe Sage had a point.

"Here are my thoughts. If anyone is telling you to 'drop the ego', it's bullshit," Sage chuckled. "The point of Non Dualism is realizing that you were always awareness. You were always the awareness behind everything that seems to appear. The ever-stretching, limitless silence that can take on the form of anything. The ego is just a thought. The idea that you are not already fully realized is also just a thought. In reality, there's no ego or person here to let go of. No person here who needs to become 'fully realized.' Just drop the idea that you are a limited human that has to become something, and you'll be golden."

Liv's jaw dropped to the ground. "You're telling me it was THAT SIMPLE THIS ENTIRE TIME?"

Sage laughed heartily. "Yes it is. Why do you think it took masters like Lester or Sri Nisgardatta months or YEARS to 'realize Self?' because they spent so much time trying to get rid of an ego that doesn't exist!"

Liv let out a sigh of relief. "So there really is nothing to do. I can't believe I exerted all that effort for nothing. I do have one more question, how can I experience whatever I want knowing I'm awareness? I want to be a completely different person with a different past."

"The person you think you are now, and the one you want to be are both illusions. You, as awareness, can 'choose' either one like a costume. Everytime you think about this ideal version of you, you've already experienced it," Sage grinned.

Suddenly a wave of emotions flooded through Liv, a mixture of relief and happiness. She felt the urge to give Sage a tight hug. "Thank you so much for helping me today."

"You're so welcome, sweetie."

Good for Liv, she has finally accepted her omnipotence and freedom to experience anything!

[melrosing]

I actually hadn’t seen that quote and now I know it exists I don’t know how the limits of redemption discourse still goes on ☠️ George has literally given spoilers to get people to understand

I don’t even consider it spoilers tbh lol because I think it is just quite obvious that Jaime’s arc is a redemption arc and GRRM doesn’t have any idea how many people online are trying to argue otherwise for the sake of being contrarian.

Like we understand that one of Sansa’s key arcs is about empowerment, i.e. we see her disempowered and lacking agency, but know from the general trajectory of her story so far that through her trials she will grow into a more active and empowered character. One of Arya’s key themes is identity, so we know that whilst she’s cycling through various different names and faces, this is all building towards her becoming Arya Stark once again.

And we know this because we know how stories work!!! doesn’t mean we can say exactly how these things will happen or that these are the only themes in their story, but knowing how arcs work is just basic media literacy.

So when people come out with these limp takes about Jaime’s arc as one of failed redemption/that his arc isn’t about redemption in the first place and wait for applause….. idk I just have to cringe.

bc it’s always backed with these sad little notions about ‘Jaime saving Brienne from a bear because she reminds him of himself and he’s that self obsessed’ or ‘Jaime saved KL to save his own skin’ or ‘Jaime sent Brienne to look for Sansa bc he couldn’t be bothered’ or ‘Jaime’s actions at Riverrun show that he’s just a Tywin wannabe’.

Sorry but this is just such a sad fucking way to read a book lol. Like. you must KNOW that that’s not what these scenes mean?? you must know that GRRM, who himself hates nihilism and says he believes in redemption, is not someone who would waste his fucking time writing a story about a character who starts out shit, does a handful of accidentally/selfishly good things, then decides he can’t be bothered anymore and dies. like is that really the story you want to see?? be honest lmao

I’ve said before I think that apart from the people who really can’t get their heads around the idea that redemption is even a theme here (and as for them…. what can you even say lol), the rest is just bad faith reading from ppl who are desperate to prove they weren’t taken in by Jaime Lannister and his charms, and want to shit on ‘the fangirls’ whilst they imagine themselves nodding sagely when he, inevitably, capsizes as a character in the next book. like for sure. Jaime, after abandoning his army to follow Brienne into the woods in hopes of saving Sansa, will meet LSH and decide he can’t be arsed w redemption and so will promptly go running back to KL to commit some kind of mutual suicide with Cersei because ofc, that relationship has to be as static as the rest of his character, as they see it.

I mean sorry but how am I meant to take that shit seriously lol it’s just not how stories function. that’s not subversive that’s just bad

[ellalalala]

Zandik, Sohreh and the Rishboland Tigers

Hello! Last night I began to think about Dottore just before falling asleep and now I'm back to write about something that's been bugging me for ages. This shouldn't be too long, but knowing myself I'll take it way too far so...!

Anyhow, every Dottore enjoyer knows of the Zandik's Legacy notes, and I'm sure everyone has their own theory on what happened between him, Sohreh and the investigation team he was with on Devantaka Mountain (if I remember correctly). Most people argue that he killed Sohreh just for the sake of it and lied about her being attacked by a pack of Rishboland Tigers, but I'd like to argue otherwise - she was attacked by the tigers first, and Zandik put Sohreh out of her misery as an act of mercy.

First and foremost, it's important to mention that Zandik and Sohreh, despite not having much in common (different Darshans, differences in their personalities etc) seemed to get along decently well. As written in Sohreh's Note,

"...Zandik and I discussed the traits of local plants and animals. We also exchanged views on their evolution models. We had a great time and decided to go on a picnic tonight..."

Despite their differences, Zandik made the effort to have a conversation with her and for him to agree to a picnic (hey, he could have offered first, you never know) means only that he was genuinely interested in Sohreh; if you have read my previous analysis about Dottore, then you might remember what I said about him and his loneliness and longing for companionship. If not, I will explain briefly: Zandik was rejected by his peers in the Akademiya. A monster, a madman, they deemed him, and it's easy to guess that he was very, very lonely. People were prejudiced against him, but here comes Sohreh - a Dastur who not only ignores the rumors about him, but is kind enough to talk to him, to want to see him more often. That must have been incredibly foreign to Zandik, who up until then had only known rejection and solitude.

With that said, why would he kill a girl?

Before I continue, I would like to note that we do not yet have a definitive timeline of these events. I am merely speculating based on what I know, so keep that in mind! I could very well be wrong when Dottore is released as a playable character and his Character Stories tell the true version of these events... anywho.

From reading the Ragged Attendance Record, we can understand that Zandik stubbornly acted by himself without caring to ask for permission:

"...Trainee Dastur Zandik has acted without authorization for the third time... It brings unpredictable risks to the investigation team... Punishment is advised..."

We know that Zandik meant to keep his research into these Ruin Machines secret; after all, investigating anything related to the fallen nation of Dahri was considered taboo back then.

The record continues,

"...Dastur Sohreh of Amurta has been critically injured under the attack of Rishboland Tigers. In need of first aid..."

Just what happened? It's unclear how she got injured. Can we assume that these records were written hours apart, perhaps? If so, assuming that Zandik had nothing to do with her injuries, how would he react to Sohreh getting hurt?

Moving on to the Sumeru Investigation Team's Note - this was very likely written after the Ragged Attendance Record, considering what we learn in it. It says:

"...Thank goodness, Zandik reacted quickly. Otherwise, the whole team would be in serious trouble...

...The terrifying killing machine has stopped. Zandik insisted on bringing it back to the Akademiya to be disassembled and reverse-engineered. That was absolutely ridiculous! Sage Sharnama reprimanded him and removed him from the author list.

...We buried Dastur Sohreh and sent the wounded back. Looks like this field research has come to an end..."

If we go over it line after line, we learn the following:

Zandik likely deactivated the Ruin Machine that attacked the Investigation Team. He must have gathered enough knowledge at that time to know how to deal with them himself; he also exposed that secret knowledge to the rest of the group, which only helped in strengthening the prejudice people had against him. Considering he acted so quickly, it must have been an instinct for him to solve the problem by himself/save the others.

The fact that he insisted on bringing the machine back could have played a role in the very reason why he got expelled from the Akademiya. This entire event could also be why studying mechanical life forms is now banned in Spantamad, which I believe to have been Zandik's Darshan.

Sohreh was already dead at that point, or she died shortly after the Ruin Machine attacked the group. Funny that they just buried her in the wilderness and left...

This begs one question: when would one even have the time to kill Sohreh? She was first attacked by a pack of Rishboland Tigers. Then, a Ruin Machine accidentally got activated, which Zandik quickly stopped, and there were even more people wounded - likely due to the aforementioned machine (oh, and if so, this might imply that Zandik hesitated to act). Of course, it could have been anyone else that choked Sohreh to death. It could be that someone just put the blame on Zandik because he was so hated. But if we are to assume that he and Sohreh shared some sort of bond, then perhaps he did it himself.

Indeed, for she was already terribly wounded. This is what the Dissection Records say about Sohreh:

"...The deceased...Dastur Sohreh... Multiple trauma wounds... Lacerations... contusions on internal organs... hemorrhage... ...But the fatal injury is the wound on the throat... fractured hyoid bone... Mechanical asphyxia... unable to ascertain the cause of death..."

So all makes sense - I don't even need to spell it out. What I should say is another thing; ignoring the messy timeline and half-assed guess I made about the chaotic events that took place that day, I should return to Sohreh and Zandik.

Zandik - rather, Dottore - is not an actor. He does not pretend to be someone he is not, and Escher doesn't count because that was for a mission. Aside from being a bit polite with Nahida, Dottore never, not once, pretended to be nicer than he really was nor shaped his identity a certain way to make it easier to digest for others. Think of webttore - an openly short-tempered and brash man with a complete disregard for how others perceive him. That's Dottore, and by extension, Zandik. Sohreh wrote that he was rigid - would that not be a trait one would hide if they wanted to put up a front? Moreover, Zandik would have no reason to fake being nice with Sohreh. There was nothing she could realistically give him that he actually wanted - nothing if not acceptance and friendship. Knowing Dottore and his buried want for companionship, Zandik must have been entranced by Sohreh's kindness and curiosity. That must have been rare for him to receive, having already been chased out of his hometown and openly rejected and shunned in the Akademiya.

Say they went on that picnic and found more things to bond over - would it not make sense that he would be the one to show her mercy? Sure, strangling someone is not painless; he could have lacked other options. Perhaps she asked him to do it, or he felt as if he had to - she was bleeding out and helpless in the wilderness, without access to medical aid. Zandik could have thought that she wouldn't make it and took pity on her. Or... well, who knows.

I don't know. With such little information, it's difficult to make out a clear picture of what could have gone down. What I do know is that killing her just for the sake of it makes little to no sense. Dottore is resourceful and only does things that benefit him and his research. How would killing a Dastur of a Darshan that he did not belong to help him in any way? People already despised him and he wouldn't so openly risk getting expelled and losing any means of conducting research. It just doesn't feel right to me, y'know?

Anyway, that's yet another convoluted Dottore theory from me. Remember: I myself am not very confident in it. I had only my own audacity and 4 tiny notes to write this, so! Anything could have happened with Sohreh - this is just my take on it. It's the one I prefer, anyway. I'll humanize anyone looool

Thanks for reading!

[tavshortfortavern]

Omega HCs

Characters: Zevlor, Dammon, Rolan, Halsin

Warnings: only implied nsfw

Zevlor: No one is aware he's an omega. Hides his scent under steel and the smell of smoke. Doesn't try to keep it a secret but everyone just assumes as a leader he was either beta or alpha. Does not believe in omegas being weaker but for everyone's sake and reassurance, lets the idea of him being non-omega slide. Hasn't really indulged in his instincts in years. When he's with you and settled in a place, feels safe enough to build a nest. Has to relearn what he likes but as soon as you slip in with him he's content and purring. A foreign sound to him but he doesn't mind getting used to it.

Doesn't want to bother you during his heats and will hide somewhere else. Believing it would just trouble you. But having ignored it for years means it's impossible to hide and harder to ride out. Takes some time to convince him to let you help but when he does agree the next thing that happens is him laying back on a pile of pillows as his mate takes care of him, never letting him lift a finger. Worries and troubles soon forgotten as skilled and rough hands worship his body. His scent is more obvious than ever, it was floral, like a rose with a hint of wood and vanilla.

Dammon: A sweet, docile omega who wants a nice cosy place in the city and his forge. Is shy when someone he likes speaks to him. Get him a person who's strong as hell and just as kind. Doesn't hide being an omega either but spends a lot of time forging and not hanging out with the rest of the tieflings making it a detail to miss. Very stressed throughout the journey to the city. Seeing you walk in to the grove fully armored and victorious from saving them has them a little smitten.

His first proper nest since leaving Avernus was in his house in Baldur's Gate. It's empty at first, very bare bones until you kept coming over. Greets you everytime with a barrage of kisses to the face. Now that he's in a more relaxed environment his heat hits him like hammer. Is careful to ask if you want to help, but uses his puppy eyes. If you bring it up first he's beaming and pulling you upstairs to his nest. Begs a lot but listens to you in the end, wants someone to take control. Babbles when he's really out of it and has a lot of salacious things to say (we've all seen that book). His scent is as sweet as ever while being fresh, the hint of smoke from his forge never leaving.

Rolan: a brat and a tsun. Hides being an omega and never brings it up. Wants to appear capable after all. He's never left protection to anybody else but himself, he swears he could never be submissive. Despises you even more when those urges pop up in your presence. How dare you be reliant, protective and strong enough to save his family. He wanted to jump your bones after the fight with his mentor and it infuriated him. Still softens afterwards when thanking you for helping him and taking over the tower.

Has the worst heat ever after settling in his new position. It's nearly unbearable. Locks himself in his room waiting for it to pass. Of course he thinks of you and what you would do if you came across him like this. Your trait of being helpful tormenting him in his mind. Once you do find him and enter his room you're more than willing with his consent. Loses himself the most. You're the perfect mate. His needy side finally emerges and he won't stop whining until you satisfy him or stop him. The smell of sage and parchment hitting your nose the whole time.

Halsin: Is known to be an omega. Loves children and is gentle with everything. Is still happy to leave the role of a leader and follow your group. Clocks you immediately as a reliable alpha, seeing to his needs and making sure he was comfortable at camp with more care than necessary. It definitely peaked that primal side of him bit he forces himsef to focus on the mission. He finds it increasingly harder as time goes on. You keep being so good its distracting. Once his biggest burden, the shadowcurse, is done with he's feeling more himself in centuries. He didn't realize it fully until now.

Sees you with new eyes when it was over. He's attached now and eventually approaches you later on when his heat is soon due. Hasn't had anyone to spend it with in a long time. Tried to keep things in control, expecting you wanting him to lead and top as everyone always does, until you get him on his back and fully prepare him. Beyond pleased. No surprise his scent is of nature, floral and woody like sandalwood, some honey too.

Welp, this was bound to happen

[egg-emperor]

People are getting mad about Sage barely showing up in stuff since Frontiers and while it'd be nice to see more of her because I like her and I'd be bothered if people were getting the wrong idea and saying that I don't- but I really like how much she isn't joined to at the hip with Eggman because that's in character and what I expected

There's so much fanon that portrays the stark opposite of Eggman dedicating his whole life to just being A Dad now, living a domestic life almost constantly in her presence and his desire for evil and world domination and his love for himself coming second, not being his greatest passion anymore and that couldn't be any more OOC

Eggman's life is never going to revolve around another person because he's so selfish and narcissistic and egotistical that his life only revolves around himself, he's the most important person in his life and I knew Sage wasn't going to be a sudden exception. Even before we saw what would happen after Frontiers, I couldn't picture him constantly being around her

He seems like the kind to leave her doing her thing when immediate assistance isn't needed in terms of protecting him. He said he was granting her access to the whole Eggnet in Frontiers and I'd imagine she's often busy managing that while he's off working on his next plan and creations or going out to carry out his plan, separately, alone like he always has. Sage is independent, mature, and doesn't need the care real children do (he'd find that very convenient) and can handle herself and Eggman doesn't need her constant protection

The fandom idea that his whole life was going to suddenly change and shaped around a whole other person isn't Eggman. He would never drop his usual ways in not just evil but also just simple routine for another person and that Family Life, it isn't his style, it's always all about himself. It was hard for me to imagine otherwise so I still write many concepts where Sage isn't in the picture and official media has actually been taking that direction too as they haven't been together more than they have been so far and I like it, it should be occasional

That's also why I like how in the TailsTube December episode, Eggman said Sage has been saying she wants them to do more family activities, implying they haven't really been doing much together. Plus him saying this was on the subject of being given a book of things to build, so what gives him the prompt to go ahead and finally do that is being presented with a way to combine it with his work and evil robot creating and his personal passions because then it becomes more appealing to him. Not suddenly taking up a bunch of domestic family hobbies for the sake of it

They're going about every aspect of the Eggman and Sage dynamic in the most in character ways for Eggman and have since the beginning and it's becoming clearer with each new piece of media as those that misread their dynamic/Eggman's portrayal in Frontiers are shown that he never drastically changed and his portrayal in Frontiers only further emphasized his core traits that aren't going anywhere. He's the same evil selfish egotistical narcissist, he'll always be the most important person in his life and still enjoys time alone and doing things on his own

[mirikitakato]

[Translation] Shylock Initial SSR Card Story: Sweet Honey Mixed with Wine

I'm surprised this card hasn't been translated. I guess it's interesting to look back at the characters when the story just started years ago, considering the coming anime!

Characters: Shylock, Murr, Chloe, Akira

P/s: My main objective for now is to translate Shylock's cards, but sometimes Murr's cards if I have them. I would love translating Owen's cards for sure, but his card stories' motif tend to be the same so I hardly find them interesting to translate.

Card Story: Sweet Honey Mixed with Wine

Episode 1

Akira: Hm? The two people coming over there are...

Murrr: Ah, Sage!

Chloe: Good evening, Sage.

Akira: Good evening, Murrr, Chloe. Where’re you going?

Chloe: Murrr and I are going to play poker. We're heading to the lounge now.

Murrr: What about ya, Sage? Join us for some fun!

Akira: Is it okay if I do? I don't want to be a bother.

Murrr: Not at all! Don't worry about it!

Chloe: Yeah, come on, Sage! It's more fun with more people!

Akira: Haha. Well, since it's getting late, I'll just join you for a little while.

[In the lounge]

Murrr: Yay, I won!

Chloe: Eh!? Murrr again!? How many times has this happened?

Akira: Uhm... Pretty sure it has been...

Murrr: 12 consecutive wins!

Chloe: T-t-twelve!? That many? Maybe we're just bad at poker...

Akira: Hmm...It's not that we're weak...

Chloe:...It's just that Murrr is too strong... Even by chance, could he really keep winning like this? ...Maybe he's a cheater*...?

Murrr: Cheetah? Who's a cheetah? What do you mean?

Akira: Well, I guess he acts like a cat…so calling him a cheetah is not wrong?

Chloe: Wait, what do you mean by that?

Shylock: I couldn't help but notice some lively conversation. Would you mind terribly sharing what brings such joy at this hour?

Chloe: Oh...Shylock! What perfect timing!

Shylock: Oh, what a warm welcome. What's the matter?

Chloe: Actually, we're playing poker, and I can't seem to win against Murrr at all...

Shylock: —I see. So, you think Murrr is cheating somehow.

Chloe: Uhm... It's just that he's so good...

Shylock: Murrr's usual behavior is quite erratic, so it's understandable that you would think that... But for the sake of his honor, let's make this clear. He's not cheating. He's simply very good.

Murrr: Hey, so who's this cheetah anyway?

Shylock:...Even though he's a bit quirky, he's a genius when it comes to games. Not just cards, but chess too. To beat him, you'll need natural talent, a sharp mind, and extraordinary effort. He's that formidable of an opponent.

Chloe: I see... He really is that strong... Sorry for doubting you, Murrr.

Murrr: Yay! I got a compliment!

Chloe: ...So that means I'll never beat Murrr, will I...?

Akira: But even if you can't win, it was a lot of fun. Playing with you guys.

Chloe: Sage...!

Murrr: Hey, Shylock, why don't you join us too!

Shylock: ...You still haven't learned to read the room, have you, Murrr? I'll pass this time. It's getting late.

Murrr: Aw! Why? ...Oh, I see! You're scared to lose to me!

Shylock: Hoh?

Chloe: Wait... Did Shylock's face just tick there for a second?

Akira: Uhm, the room temperature also suddenly dropped...

Shylock: ...You're quite the eloquent speaker, Murrr. If you're asking for punishment, I'll be happy to oblige…

*Note: The Japanese word for cheating is ikasama, but Murrr heard it as ika-sama, which means Sir Squid, lol. That’s why he keeps asking who is ika-sama. Akira also continues it by saying “if he is a squid, then he is not human, so it makes sense he is good.” (no Akira you are not making any sense). Everything confuses poor Chloe. I just change the joke to something easier to understand.

Episode 2

Akira: I'm so sorry for having you walk me to my room. Thank you.

Shylock: No problem at all. I was in the mood for conversation rather than talking to myself. Speaking of which, you're quite the night owl, aren't you, Sage? I'm sure you would have kept going if I hadn't called it a night.

Akira:….Uhm, yes. I got a little carried away.

Shylock: Murrr and Chloe are wizards, they can handle a little sleep deprivation. You, on the other hand, are a delicate human being.

Akira: …Y-yes. I'll be careful. (...In the end, Shylock didn't take up Murrr's offer.) (Was he just trying to get me to leave, or was it like Murrr said…?)

Shylock: Sage, will you be able to sleep well tonight?

Akira: Oh, um. I'd like to say yes, but I'm still a bit wired from the poker game earlier. I might have trouble sleeping.

Shylock: Fufu. Very honest of you. As a reward, I'll give you some medicine to help you sleep well. ...But only if you allow me to make a little detour.

[Shylock's room]

Shylock: Please, don't be shy. Make yourself at home.

Akira: Sorry for the intrusion... (In the end, I followed him as I was told, but...) (What could the sleeping medicine be? Hopefully not something too bitter...)

Shylock: ...Fufu, you look uneasy. Are you perhaps feeling nervous?

Akira: Eh...?

Shylock: A helpless, lost fawn...That's how you appear to me. You are truly innocent. …I'm in trouble now. When you make such an adorable face, I want to teach you.

Akira: Eh…teach me what...?

Shylock: ...Dangerous, risqué, and licentious love...things most wouldn't dare teach. What do you say, Sage? Aren't you tempted to learn?

Episode 3

Akira: ..........Um, no, I...

Shylock: Fufu. Such a charming person. Please wait here for a moment. And don't try to run away.

Akira: (.........He finally let go of me. Even if he was just teasing me, it was bad for my heart...)

Shylock: I kept you waiting. Here you go.

Akira: It smells sweet and nice…. Is this...wine?

Shylock: It's mulled wine. It looks like red wine, but it has almost no alcohol. Since it tastes good, I think you'll find it easy to drink.

Akira: Thank you. Oh, are you drinking the same thing, Shylock? But isn’t this non-alcoholic?

Shylock: Yes. I usually wrap myself in a blanket of intoxication and fall asleep at night...But tonight, you will be my companion. So, I'll skip the alcohol. Now, cheers.

Akira: (...Wow, his mannerisms are so sexy…) (He looks like a painting just by drinking wine…)

Shylock: What's the matter? The aroma is good, but you can't taste it without using your tongue.

Akira: Y-yes! I'll have some. Delicious!

Shylock: I’m glad it seems to suit your taste.

Akira: It's really easy to drink. It's so mellow. (Is it because of the wine? My body is gradually getting warmer…)

Shylock: Are you getting sleepy? Fufu. Your eyes are a little hazy...

Akira: Thanks to you, it seems to be working well. (Shylock's voice is so gentle…The tense atmosphere between him and Murrr earlier now seems like a lie) Um...Shylock, you are close with Murrr, right?

Shylock: Of course, we’re friends.

Akira: (I see…I'm relieved...)

Shylock: However, I also hate him and find him lovingly detestable. After all, he's a bad boy.

Akira: I-is he…

Shylock: Yes, very much so.

Akira: ....

Shylock: Sage, your hand has stopped. I still have more refills, so please enjoy them to your heart's content.

Akira: ….T-thanks. (I guess I shouldn't ask too much about this topic.)

Card Episode: The Engraved One

Akira: The chosen wizard crest is on your left chest, right?

Shylock: Yes. Would you like to see it again? If you wish, Sage, I can open my collar right away.

Akira: No, no! That's fine. (I feel like he's sexually harassing me...) When you're chosen as a Sage’s wizard, the crest appears, right? Were you surprised at first, Shylock?

Shylock: Yes, I was. I had heard stories about the chosen wizards and their crests, but…When the crest appeared on my body, I was disgusted.

Akira: Disgusted... As expected, it was a role you didn't want to be chosen for…

Shylock: No. It's not the role, but the crest. Isn't it unpleasant to have a crest that you don't even like appear on your body without your permission?

Akira: Ah! So that’s why…

Shylock: I liked my body, so I wasn't happy for a while. But over time, I accepted it, and eventually, it became my favorite. Isn't it sexy to have a crest over your heart?

Akira: It’s sexy…

Shylock: Would you like to see it again then?

Akira: N-no! Thanks!

Shylock: Fufu, how cute.

---- Home-screen line ----

“Even the best performance of madness pales in comparison to the real thing, don’t you think?”

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

OHSHCAU (Keysmash)

Part 3

Prev

You know how, when the school year starts up, a teacher might get everyone to go around the room and give a couple of vague facts about themselves? Or, even worse, they might split everyone up into teams based on some random, inconsequential factors and they would all be forced to work together on some dumb task? That way they can get to know new people better?

You know how everyone hates that?

Yeah. Marinette thought that, of all people, her fellow high schoolers would understand. But alas, here she was, glaring down Dick because he wanted to do a team-building exercise. Bastard. She was going to shoot him.

With a paintball gun! Because they were playing paintball!

Do not send cops her way! She will introduce neurotoxins to your system!

Anyways, she had no choice but to agree. Debt’s a bitch.

And, maybe, the idea of shooting the Waynes point blank in the face with paintballs would have swayed her regardless, but who knows. The option was never truly given to her, so who’s to say how she would have reacted?

Certainly, the Waynes would never know.

Which was probably for the best. They could end her life in a couple of phone calls.

She hummed as she absently messed with her paintball gun. They had been split off into pairs. Steph was still on the bench thanks to her copious amounts of injuries, unfortunately, so Marinette hadn’t particularly minded who she was going to end up with (she hated all of the Waynes equally, save fucking Tim, who would avoid her, anyway), and had allowed them to all pair off and leave her with the leftovers.

She was regretting that, now, of course.

Dick wrapped his arm around her shoulders and tugged her into his side. “Don’t get too competitive, please?” He said, and he sounded like he was one more ‘fuck you’ away from begging.

She glanced over his shoulder and found Tim making faces at her behind his back. He was supposed to be heading to one of the other nondescript, frankly unnerving steel tunnels that would lead them to a random place on the map. He should be spending this time with Damian so they could discuss their plans. He was not doing any of these things. He had followed Marinette and Dick to their room instead, and she would be concerned about him trying to figure out where they would end up for the sake of a tactical advantage… but, frankly, that was too smart for him.

He had no good reason to be here. How sweet of him to want to see her off.

She looked back at Dick, her eyes gleaming. “Of course I won’t. Only babies get competitive over stuff like this.”

Tim bristled. But his mic was on, so he was unable to say a word in protest. He could turn his face away from the people to mouth the curses he so clearly wanted to scream, but she could just look in another direction.

Her lips twitched into a kind of grin before she tamped it down.

Dick sighed. Deeply. “I’m guessing I can take that as a no.”

“Aw. You know me so well.”

He snickered. “Well, I’d hope so, since I hired you.”

“No one has ever lied to the people hiring them ever,” she said, nodding sagely.

He grinned. “Which is why we went with… atypical hiring practices.”

“You’ve basically kidnapped me and decided to hold my entire future ransom to make me work for you.”

“Shhhhhhhhh.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Oh, Marinette,” a voice called, and she was more than happy to let Steph drag her out from under Dick’s arm, even if this meant that a new arm was wrapped around her waist and a face came to rest close to her own.

Marinette raised an eyebrow, but wasn’t too surprised at the sudden closeness. They’d literally slept together, in the same bed, for days. She could handle a little bit of contact. And, besides, they’d both agreed that it fit their characters (a playful flirt would flirt with a girl next door, and a girl next door would blush and let it happen) and it would draw in more customers. Teenage boys and gay teenage girls would both rather enjoy watching ‘wlw content’ when given the option.

Besides, who doesn’t flirt with their friends a little? Now they got to monetize it. A win.

Marinette rested a lazy arm over Steph’s shoulder, careful not to jostle the microphone hovering by the girl’s chin. She gave it a pointed look, and Steph mouthed the word ‘off’. She untensed a little. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Your mic is off.”

“I didn’t get one,” she said, shrugging.

Steph blinked. “Oh. I can give you mine.”

“Well, if I accept that, how am I going to insult Tim without the audience knowing?”

Dick snickered. “You could try not insulting him.”

Marinette gave him a blank look.

He shrugged as if to say ‘well, I tried’. Which, did he really?

But her attention was quickly stolen away when Steph pulled something out from behind her ear and then presented it to Marinette, who looked at it how one might look at a dead rat their cat had just brought in.

“What the hell is that?”

“A mic,” Dick offered.

She glared at him out of the corner of her eyes, and then snapped her attention back to Steph when the girl leaned in to fit the device over her ear. “You’re not putting that on me.”

“What, is the scientist scared of technology?” teased Dick.

She gritted her teeth. “Chemicals are easy to understand. They’re predictable. This? Unreliable. Who knows who's listening in on those wavelengths.”

There was a beat of silence. The two Waynes looked at each other for a moment, something unreadable on their faces.

And then Dick sighed. “Listen, you know how our dad bankrolls the Batman?”

She nodded, still eyeing Steph as if the girl was going to jump her and attach the evil machine to her by force.

“Well, we get a couple of perks. Like this. If anyone tries to hack into these – which, really, why would they? – Batman will be alerted and I’m sure they will never be heard from again… or whatever it is he and his weirdo kids do.”

“Local Batman proves that all cops are corrupt,” she said, still eyeing it warily.

“Not a cop,” said Steph.

“Not corrupt,” said Dick.

She wasn’t sure who was being less realistic.

And it didn’t matter what they said, either way.

Batman was exactly the person she was trying to avoid, thank you very much. But it wasn’t like she could just say that, because being openly wary of the Batman in front of rich people was just begging for them to be suspicious of you. They were too used to their peers being affiliated with the Court of Owls. So, reluctantly, she let Steph place the mic.

The girl drew back slightly once she was sure everything was in place (and, more importantly, that it would stay in place even while they were all running around).

Steph grinned. “There. Done. All you’ve got to do now is press the button and you’ll be live. Anyways. Blush like I said something suuuuper hot, m’kay? They’re staring.”

“Maybe if you do something hot, I will.”

She hummed thoughtfully before she brought her free hand up to cradle Marinette’s face. She tilted her head up, her thumb caressing her cheek, their noses brushing. A quiet click sounded next to her ear as her headpiece was turned on.

“Fixed,” Steph said. Quiet, but close enough to the mic hovering by Marinette’s chin for their audience to hear.

“Thanks,” Marinette mumbled. Thank god she had melanin to hide the reddening of her face somewhat, but she was pretty sure it was obvious regardless.

“Anytime,” Steph teased, going so far as to press a kiss to Marinette’s nose before drawing back. She glanced at Dick. “Your mic is off, too.”

“What, not going to fix mine for me?” Dick joked, lifting a lazy hand to flick the knob by his ear.

Steph snorted. “I’d rather die.”

Dick grinned and immediately tugged Marinette closer to him again. Woe is her. If only she could retaliate by beating his ass like she so wants to do. She hates debt. Thankfully, he didn’t wrap an arm around her this time, instead he let her go in favor of crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re just jealous that you don’t get to teach this sweet little underclassman the ropes.”

Marinette was fighting a valiant battle with her face, trying to keep the unimpressed annoyance off of it. “You’re so kind.”

“Of course! It’s my job as the club leader to make sure that your introduction to the group goes smoothly!”

They wouldn’t be bothering with all of this otherwise.

For you see, a large part of being a Host was based around how physically attractive you were, and if they wanted her to be popular enough to pay off her debt, they would have to introduce her to the potential customers in a way that would draw their attention in that way. So, it had been decided that Marinette’s official introduction should be some kind of physical activity. Especially since their clients were all fellow teens, and likely would see a bunch of people fighting for their lives in slightly skimpy clothes and go ‘ooooooooooh’.

Steph rolled her eyes so hard she must have seen her brain back there. “It would have been easier if we’d just done a pool party.”

“My! A pool party?! Steph, have you no shame? What about her innocence?!”

“Dick. She’s wearing a crop top and yoga pants.”

“A crop top, yoga pants, and tasteful armor,” said Dick. His attempts at defending her honor were… definitely attempts. Marinette could give him that.

Marinette crossed her arms over her chest, grinning. “Would you prefer I work out in a hoodie and sweats?”

“Well,” said Steph. She brought her hands up to press against her own chest, winking. “I don’t want that.”

A glance up at the crowd showed that the people had caught the jist of what she’d said thanks to the overdramatic body language she had opted for. Thankfully. Marinette wasn’t sure how to naturally repeat that for the sake of the people watching.

Her eyes caught on one particular person in the crowd, though.

Fu, leaning against his cane heavily, watching her.

“Alright, Steph, stop flirting with the new recruit,” Dick said, slinging his arm over Marinette’s shoulders again, tugging her closer to his side. “Shoo. Scram. Other synonyms that start with ‘s’. I need to teach her how to shoot – shoot! No, wait, I’m thinking of ‘shoo’, and I’m pretty sure I already said that. Anyways. Leave so I can teach her.”

Marinette’s head jerked around to look at him, her eyebrows disappearing behind her hairline. “I know how to shoot. You just…”

She pointed her paintball gun at a nearby wall and pulled the trigger. A disappointed look crossed her face when, despite the gun clicking to tell her that the trigger was working, nothing came out.

“Hm,” she said, eloquently.

He snickered. “Well, I know why that happened, but before we fix that…” He reached a hand out to adjust her fingers. “Let’s not keep our fingers on the trigger. Unless you want to shoot at anything that dares to surprise you.”

Marinette absolutely wanted that. Unfortunately, she couldn’t say that while in character, so she was stuck smiling and saying, “Thanks, Richard.”

“Dick,” he corrected lightly, as usual.

“You don’t understand how much I can not call you that,” she said. Even if Dick was, often, a dick, and she didn’t usually mind going with whatever nickname or name someone called themself, it’s hard to say the word and still come across as demure.

“Well, then, you can call me something else. How does ‘my liege’ sound?”

Marinette snickered into her hand. “Terrible, King.”

“Oh. Hate that.”

“Got it, Queen.”

He sighed.

“Themporer?” she tried, batting her eyelashes.

“How many of those do you have?”

“So many, gender nonspecific monarch.”

“That one feels like a stretch.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, it is a bit of a mouthful.”

“You know, I’m starting to realize that you use humor to stall.”

Marinette’s face flushed at the direct callout. That had been unnecessary. And she couldn’t even curse him out for it. She hated life.

Whatever. She’d roll with it (not like she had any other choices). She gasped, pressing a hand to her chest. “What do you mean? I was trying to figure out your royal-title-specific pronoun preferences! I had only the best of intentions.”

“Of course, of course. Pretend to get ready to shoot your gun.”

Marinette huffed, mumbling that he was ‘no fun’ as she lifted her paintball gun.

He walked around her slowly, knocking his foot against the inside of her own until she moved them to be shoulder width apart, bending her arms so the recoil wouldn’t hurt as much, bending her knees slightly so she wouldn’t fall over at the lightest of hits…

“You sure know a lot about this,” Marinette said, eyeing him warily.

“Dad made me take some self-defense classes after I got held for ransom for the eight and a half-th time.”

“Eight times is a lot but I guess that’s still surprisingly competent for hi – wait, half-th?”

“Yeah!” he said, and then did not elaborate.

She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting.

He checked her form one last time before nodding to himself. He squinted at her gun for a moment, before cringing.

“I – uh – I’m not used to turning off the safety from an outsider’s point of view…”

“Then here,” she said, starting to stand up straighter and hand it over to him, only for him to rapidly shake his head.

“No, no, no, we need you in that position for as long as possible to get your body used to it.”

Marinette fought back a grimace, her eyes briefly flicking to the people still watching them intently. Dick, as the self-proclaimed ‘king’ of the Host Club, was easily the most popular among guests. She did not want to put a target on her back by looking like she was trying to come onto him. Or because it might look like he was coming onto her. She hated this fucking job. They were coworkers, damn it. She shouldn’t be stressing about getting, like, Court of Owls-style assassinated for being near him!

“Just – just… do it quick,” she said.

He nodded sharply.

Arms wrapped around her from behind, a chin coming to rest upon her shoulder. Warm breath just barely wafted over the side of her neck, earning a few goosebumps. His hands ghosted over the back of her own, briefly, fixing the positioning of her fingers once again (he really didn’t like her tendency to hang onto the trigger, apparently) before flicking the safety off.

He pulled back the second everything was in order, hands up like he was already actively surrendering. They sent the people watching them mildly embarrassed looks. It isn’t doing them much good, though.

Quick! Take legitimacy away from the intimacy!

“I need to stop bringing desserts from home, you’re getting heavy.”

Dick spluttered. “What?”

“I said what I said.”

She would apologize later.

… wait, would Babs count mental damage as adding to her debt?

She was going to apologize so profusely later.

Dick sighed, running a hand through his hair, briefly pushing his bangs out of his eyes. “Tell me why we made you the girl next door again?”

“Out of ideas,” Marinette said.

“Right, right. Any chance we can change it?”

“Well, you’re the king and all, you can choose,” she said, before winking and blowing a kiss to the people up on the viewing platform. “But, hey, everyone knows that most ‘harsh’ people are just hurt people trying to protect themselves from more harm. I’m sure that, with the right person, I could actually be the soft, kind person I portray. After all, every act needs at least a little bit of truth to work, right?”

She glanced at Dick out of the corner of her eyes. He gave the barest trace of a nod.

Good.

She had a bit of a reputation in the school. Not really because she was outright mean to people – she would never say half the shit she said around Adrien and the host club members to people she didn’t know, not without good reason – but because pretty much every student knew about her… antagonistic relationship with Tim. Because during the last finals season they had only been a step above fistfighting in the middle of the hallway. And not even because they had been scared of punishment or expulsion, but instead because Duke and Steph had physically dragged Tim away before he could jump at her.

Whatever. It was totally water under the bridge and she definitely didn’t want him dead anymore.

(Yes, Tim and Marinette could just put aside their differences, and show that they had changed… but Marinette would rather just kill him, to be honest.)

Regardless, it would be hard to convince the general population that the person that had almost fought another member was all that shy and kind. So, they needed to rework her image. Recontextualize her personality.

Whether or not Marinette or any of the other host club members really believed what she was saying didn’t matter, all that mattered was that their guests believed it. Thankfully, they had years worth of toxic media to back up their claims, and the rich kids who had never had real reason to distrust what they’d been told fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

Great. The goal for today is done. Now, if only she could get out of this stupid paintball tournament. She has changed her mind. A chance of shooting Tim in the face is not worth having to simulate a battle.

Maybe if she annoys Dick enough he might just call it off?

She watched him out of the corner of her eyes as they continued down the hallway. He caught her stare and, instead of being confused or upset or uncomfortable, sent her a tiny smile.

Yeah, she didn’t think it would work. You can’t annoy someone with as many younger siblings as he has. They are immune to outside annoyances by this age, she is pretty sure.

There’s no getting out of this.

She almost laughed. Story of her fucking life.

Dick rested his hand on the doorknob, glancing back at her.

“Ready?”

She flashed a wink. “As I’ll ever be.”

Their door opened up into what seemed to be a trench, carved into the ground. Once they had clambered out of the trench, their clothes already stained with dirt (at least she didn’t have to pay for any of it), they found themselves in a heavily wooded area, with a couple of concrete structures dotted around.

She walked to a nearby tree. All of them looked long dead, blackened, as if they had been burned. As if this was a real battlefield.

She rapped her knuckles against it lightly, and wasn’t surprised to find that, whatever it was made of, it wasn’t organic material. Judging by the sound, she would guess styrofoam, paper mache, paint, and a dream.

A quick check of one of the structures revealed it to have no ceiling.

The entire world around them was fabricated to give the people so far above them, standing on the glass and peering down at them with excited grins she didn’t want to look at, a good view of what was going on. No leaves, no roofs, nothing was allowed to take away from their fun.

Oh shit, she thought. This is what it feels like to be in the Hunger Games.

Or to be in one of Riddler’s escape rooms, she supposed.

She watched Dick carefully toeing at the dirt, checking to see how far down it went. Whether it could actually be used as padding, or if the metal hidden beneath would give some nasty bruises if someone fell on it for any reason. Such as dramatically falling over when shot ‘dead’.

Her lips twitched into a wry kind of grin. And he’s supposed to be the ‘dumbest’ one. Who does he think that he’s fooling?

It wasn’t until long after he had confirmed that the ground was, in fact, soft enough for them all to drop dead on without issue, that an alarm alerted them to the fact that the grace period was over, and they were now supposed to be hunting each other to the death.

Marinette brushed her bangs away from her eyes, taking advantage of the opportunity to see how the audience had dispersed themselves. They were, largely, grouped into four spots. No guesses why. Sureeeeeely not because this was where the four pairs of competitors were…

Okay, that wasn’t fair to the customers. There was no way for them to know that the glass wasn’t a one way mirror like they’d been told. They shouldn’t be aware of the fact that this was all a play that had been planned out well in advance. The Waynes weren’t the types to let on that they weren’t quite as ‘airheaded’ as they often portrayed themselves to be, for whatever reason.

Still… Marinette stretched lazily, rocking back and forth on her feet, trying not to laugh aloud at just how obvious they were all being.

“So, are we heading to the center or skirting around the edges?” she asked.

“Center,” he said, because that was where most of the male clients were, and therefore where Babs and Cass were likely to be. “Let’s see whether there’s a Hunger Games-style cornucopia or something.”

Marinette clicked her tongue lightly. “You can’t tell people what we’re ripping off.”

“I think they already know.”

She huffed, but it’s not as if she genuinely cared.

Without further ado, they were off.

*****

They happened across Babs and Cass in the middle. They seemed to be doing the same thing that Marinette and Dick were, picking around for anything that might be useful. As if the people who had made this place would make an entrance in a spot where they had special items.

“Find anything?” Dick asked, pointing his gun at Babs.

Cass retaliated by pointing her gun at him. He did not seem particularly pleased about this development.

Marinette wasn’t pleased, either, because this meant she had to point her gun at Cass in retaliation. Fuck this script for making her defend Dick Grayson of all people.

Their guests looked to Babs, expecting her to point her gun at Marinette and complete the circle, leading to a dramatic standoff…

Only for Babs to hold up her hands in the universal sign of surrender. “We don’t have to fight,” she said. “It’s better if we don’t. We can’t have Jason or Tim’s teams winning.”

If nothing else, Marinette had to admit that this strategy would have probably worked on her and Dick even if it wasn’t scripted. Because fuck Tim Drake. And, in Dick’s case, Jason, in particular, cannot win, because he would be insufferable about it. They would both take shady deals in a heartbeat if it meant that the other two teams wouldn’t win.

“What do you get from this?” Marinette asked, because it was expected of her.

Cass shrugged. “Fun.”

Valid reason. Marinette (and Dick, too, though she loathed to admit it) could sometimes be fun.

As for Babs…

“If we’re the last two teams, I want to shoot Dick in the face.”

Dick gave a screech of offense, complaining about his ‘beautiful face’. But Marinette sees now downsides! They shook on it before he could get a word in edgewise.

“Alright, team, let’s roll out,” said Babs.

“Don’t I get a say in this?” Dick whined.

“No. We are misandry-ing,” Marinette informed him.

“Perfect. Us girlies have to stick together,” Babs joked lightly.

“True. Can’t wait to kill ‘my liege’ for the sake of women everywhere,” Marinette said, snickering to herself.

Dick snorted at the ‘my liege’ callback, and then seemed to process what she had said. He pressed a hand to his chest. “Excuse you, I’m a girlie, too.”

“Woo, slay queen,” Marinette deadpanned. And then she frowned to herself. “Is ‘my liege’ a gendered term?”

“I… think so?” said Babs. The grammar rules for royalty is not the kind of thing the average teenager is looking up, after all. And, if Babs doesn’t know, then Cass (ESL speaker) and Dick (a liar pretending to be the ‘dumb one’ in a group already known for being stupid) had no shot. Pain. She must live without knowing for the next few hours. Why does god hate her so? Truly, she has suffered more than Jesus.

… perhaps it is jokes like that that make god hate her.

Whatever. She did not believe in Him, therefore He could not hurt her.

Anyways.

“Let’s roll out, then, I guess,” she said.

“Only I’m allowed to make that joke,” said Babs.

Marinette blinked. And then her face reddened. “Oh — I—!”

Cass shook her head in mock disappointment.

Marinette huffed. “Is it too late to un-team?”

“Nah, we shook on it, it’s binding,” Babs said.

Well. If that’s the case. They rolled ou— started off in search of others.

It was, honestly, a lot of meandering around. If they managed to go in the right direction too many times, the illusion would break, after all.

But, if nothing ‘entertaining’ was happening, they needed to work extra hard to have interesting conversations to listen in on. Which was hard. Usually, they entertained their guests by flirting, which was easy and didn’t take that much mental energy, but that was no longer really an option. They weren’t going to flirt with each other, especially since Dick and Cass were siblings and Dick and Babs were exes (Dick once again ruining things for everyone, shame on him). So…

Marinette walked alongside Babs. “If you don’t mind me asking, how the heck are you able to use your wheelchair when the ground is like this?” she said. The wheels didn’t look all that special, after all – it was all clearly high-quality, don’t get her wrong, but it wasn’t like she was looking at the wheelchair version of four wheel drive. And the gun in her lap was barely even moving.

“That’s the most fucked up question anyone’s ever asked me,” deadpanned Babs.

Marinette huffed. “Now, I just don’t think that’s true.”

“When have I ever lied?”

“I’m still convinced that the debt was a scam,” she sniffed.

Babs rolled her eyes but distinctly didn’t deny it. Because she couldn’t, clearly, not because she just didn’t feel that this was worth her time or energy. “This isn’t any worse than going down sidewalks.”

Marinette envisioned the Average Gotham Sidewalk. Then looked at the ground. She supposed that the sticks kind of resembled used syringes, now that she thought about it, and the dirt was surprisingly much smoother than the pothole-riddled concrete.

“Oh,” she said. “Okay, makes sense, yeah.”

Well. She had done her job. Someone else needs to pick up the slack, now.

Babs sent her a flat look that said she needed to say something that would interest the audience, not just her. She fought the urge to grumble under her breath. The microphone would pick that up, too.

She turned to look at Dick.

“Okay, philosophical question: if you are aware that you are in denial, is it really denial, or is it a weird form of acceptance?”

It was silent for a moment.

“Er… I guess… acceptance?”

“But then it’s not denial. Different stage,” Cass said.

“But if you’re aware of it, it can’t be denial,” Dick argued.

Babs sighed. “How ‘aware’ is this ‘awareness’? Because, I’m pretty sure, even people in denial kind of know things are weird.”

“Nonono, you’re aware of the denial,” said Marinette. “Like, you know the thing you’re in denial about is bad and you go ‘nahhhhh’. But it’s a conscious decision.”

“Then… ugh. Denial, I guess.”

Babs and Cass started arguing. Marinette was pretty sure this was the most talkative and passionate she had ever seen Cass.

As for the guests… they were either arguing vehemently themselves or watching other people argue with amused grins.

Marinette, discreetly, gave a little bow in Dick’s direction. He gave a huff of laughter.

By the time they stumbled across another person, Cass seemed pissed off enough to go all out. This wasn’t intentional, but it was still funny to watch Duke go from relatively calm and in control to immediately ducking behind a tree for cover for fear of death.

Until he started firing at them all, too, and they were forced to book it to the nearest shelter.

You might argue that they were cowards, and should help out Cass, and you’d be right, but…

They wouldn’t be much help, to be honest.

The way Duke and Cass were fighting was insane. Like they already knew what each other’s movements were going to be ahead of time, and thus were more intent on waiting for the other to slip up than outright outsmarting each other.

Marinette whistled lowly. “How often do you guys come here?”

“Here? This is the first time, actually,” said Dick, brightly. “But we have something like this back at the Manor.”

She hated rich people.

(This fact has been made abundantly clear over the past few chapters, but she would like to say it again. And again. For as many times as it would take for them to stop pulling Rich People Shit.)

“Woooow,” she said, trying to infuse as much fake cheeriness into her tone as was physically possible when her main thought was about how, technically, friendly fire is possible here. “What a perfectly amazing use of your money.”

He nodded his agreement. Whether or not it was joking did not matter when her blood was boiling beneath her skin. She started to lift her gun, intent on either helping Cass or betraying both Cass and Duke at once, only for a stray bullet to nail the wall by her head the moment she started to poke her head out.

She stared at the purple paint for a moment, eyes wide, before slowly shrinking back into hiding.

She was still pissed off, though!

Before her eyes could drift to Babs and she could weigh the moral implications of sending her out first, a handful of skittles was shoved in front of her face.

“Want some?” said Jason.

She nodded, taking all of the red ones and popping them in her mouth. Dick did the same, but with the green pieces, like a weirdo (who the hell prefers green?). Babs wasn’t nearly as picky, just taking a handful of the rest and popping them like pills.

And then she started to lift her gun.

Marinette nearly choked on her sweet treat.

“JASON?!” Dick yelped.

They scrambled for their own guns.

Jason managed to get a shot off on Babs before he was covered in yellow. Maybe they shot him more times than was strictly necessary, but that was what he deserved for using Skittles against them. Honestly, the fact that Dick didn’t believe in the death penalty was the only thing saving him right now.

As for Marinette… well, she had been too intent on looting his ‘corpse’ for more candy to bother with murdering him via paintball gun. After all, what if the Skittles ended up getting blood or — god forbid — paint on them? She wouldn’t even be able to kill him in retaliation for messing up her snack.

She grumbled when she found paintballs, but pocketed them for extra ammo, in case Cass won and needed more.

Then, finally, she procured her prize: a sharing size bag of candy.

Life is good.

Unless you are Jason Todd.

“Maaaaan,” he groaned. “Those are mine, y’know.”

“Shhhhh, you’re a corpse, you can’t speak,” Dick said, holding his hand out for some.

She set the paintballs in his hand instead.

And then watched on in horror as he bit down on one without thinking.

Dick stared at her for a moment, purple dripping from his mouth.

Marinette swallowed down the temptation to joke about him looking like a vampire in favor of frantically looking up whether paintballs were nontoxic or if they were about to cut this paintball tournament short.

… which she wouldn’t mind, actually, now that she thought about it...

She considered the google page saying that they were nontoxic (for humans, at least, apparently they were not good for animals, which Damian was going to be distressed about when he learned), wondering whether an ambulance visit would be added to her debt. And then decided she didn’t want to risk it.

“You’re fine.”

Want to know who wasn’t fine? Cass and Duke. Apparently, in the time it took for everything to settle, Duke and Cass had killed each other off. Or, well, Duke had slipped up and Cass had ‘died’ in solidarity with him. Mildly concerning behavior, but it was a paintball game and therefore has no real indication of actual behaviors. Hopefully. Marinette genuinely liked Cass.

No time to linger on that particular line of thought.

“If Tim wins I’m pulling a Cass,” Marinette told Dick.

Dick raised an eyebrow. “You’d already be ‘dead’ if Tim wins.”

She thought this over. “Then I’ll come back as a zombie and be killed again. Perfect.”

Jason did not seem to find this funny, but maybe he was still bitter about having his Skittles stolen. Dick grinned and, really, that’s all that matters.

“What do you think real life zombies are like?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Nonexistent.”

“Don’t know what I was expecting from the scientist,” he huffed.

“Fiiiiiine,” she said. She thought, long and hard, about what a real life zombie would be like. Blüdhaven got nuked a while back (deserved, fuck Blüdhaven), and she hadn’t yet heard of zombies, so radiation poisoning wasn’t going to do it. So probably an intentional thing — Jurassic Park style experimentation, or something. Which means that the circumstances would be controlled… except zombies would probably escape the labs, if Marinette were to ever see them. The body would have to be very cold to slow down decomposition. It wouldn’t even halt it entirely.

“Gross,” she decided.

Dick stared at her. “All that thought and you come up with ‘gross’?!”

“I’m not wrong. They’d be gross.”

“That is not the point!” he groaned. “Talk about whether you think they’d be fast or slow, strong or weak, intelligent or not! Talk about whether their decomposition would affect them!”

She snickered. “Careful, Richard, or you’re going to make people think you have a brain in there.”

For a moment, he froze. And then he purposefully relaxed, each muscle individually untensing, one by one. He laughed lightly, but it was a tad bit forced (when wasn’t it, though?). “Yeah, the zombies will come after me if they know.”

“Being stupid has its benefits, yeah?”

He chuckled humorlessly.

Before he could come up with a proper response, though, Tim wandered into their area, drawn by the sound of gunfire from Duke and Cass’s fight. Marinette and Dick pointed their guns at him immediately.

Tim narrowed his eyes. He pointed his gun at Marinette, but seemed hesitant.

Marinette fought off a smirk. She loved having plot armor. At the sight of her face, he only seemed more irritated, which was even better.

But there was nothing he could do.

He set his gun down.

“We could take him as hostage,” Dick offered. “See if that lures Damian –.”

“Nah, too risky,” said Marinette. Without any further ado, she shot Tim.

Tim fell over, and not entirely because that was standard for ‘dead’ people. He hugged himself. His dignity, breaking. In a very literal sense.

It was very quiet. Marinette’s hand found its way to her mouth.

Dick looked at her, his eyes wide and horrified.

“I know I hate you, but… I didn’t mean… I forgot that men have… Tim, I’m so sorry.”

Tim made a pitiful sound.

Shakily, he lifted a hand in a thumbs up.

She made a heart with her own hands. This did not seem to help in the slightest but, frankly, there wasn’t much else she could do.

Luckily, she didn’t need to think about it for long before she was distracted — a voice called from behind them: “Found you.”

She whipped around and shot Damian in the chest.

There were a few moments where no one knew what to do. The boy stared at the paint staining his armor bright yellow. Marinette’s grip felt clammy on her gun.

Dick tipped his head to the side consideringly.

She met his eyes.

She was no longer amused by the intelligence lingering in his gaze as he scrutinized her. She narrowed her eyes at him, briefly, daring him to say something. She wasn’t the only one hiding things, after all.

Play along, she told him. Help me fix this ending.

He relaxed his expression carefully.

They had an understanding. Despite Marinette’s supposed incompetence with guns, when startled she was quick to shoot and accurate. Despite Dick constantly acting as if he was dumb, there was clearly a brain hidden somewhere there. They both knew more than they tried to let on. Maybe that was why they didn’t have much trouble identifying each other’s acts… but, so long as their own secrets remained intact, they could keep each others’.

It was a little nerve-wracking, and yet, strangely, nice, to have someone you don’t have to lie to. That can see past it even when you try.

She smirked and lifted her gun. “See? This is why you keep your finger on the trigger, Dick.”

He grinned and held up his hands in surrender.

*****

Marinette and Dick grimaced as a cooler full of paint was poured over their backs. They definitely felt victorious right about now. This was their prize for winning. Yay them.

Sure, they didn’t exactly, genuinely earn the win, but that’s besides the point.

He looked at her. “You’ve got red in your hair.”

She yelped and brought a hand up to try and get it out, only to remember just a second too late that her hands, too, were covered in paint. She stared at the glob of paint-covered hair hanging limp in front of her eyes for a moment, devastated, and then glared at him.

“You did that on purpose.”

“I was just pointing something out for you,” he said ‘innocently’, unable to quite keep himself from smiling.

She hummed, and then slapped her hand onto his hair. He hissed and reflexively his hands flew up to touch the sore spot, only for him to realize that now he had been the one baited into getting paint in his hair.

“Marinette,” he said, smiling sweetly.

For a moment, one could almost see the regret flickering across her features.

And then he rushed forward to try and trap her in a hug. She shrieked, managing to get only a few steps before she was snatched up, dragged into the evil monster. She barely even had time to fight back before she was thrown over his shoulder, only able to yell off-brand curse words and try to writhe around in hopes of freedom – or, at least, in hopes that she could smear her own paint over every part of him she could reach.

Within minutes, they were swirling messes of red, blue, purple, and the occasional scrap of visible skin.

There were people laughing at their antics.

Both of them froze.

They looked up, and found the other members of the Host Club were enjoying the show.

As well as a few guests, but they couldn’t really retaliate against them.

So, Dick set Marinette down and they met each other’s eyes and silently resolved to make up for that by attacking their fellow club members twice as much to compensate.

*****

Marinette heaved a sigh as she sat on a bench, scrubbing paint off her arm with her millionth wet wipe of the day. Where did the green even come from?

It was then that she realized someone was nearing her.

She looked over her shoulder and found…

Well, someone her age. She recognized her, vaguely, from her English class, but their name eluded her.

The girl smiled nervously at Marinette, wringing her hands and somewhat avoiding eye contact. “I – uh – was wondering if you could Host for me sometime?”

Marinette stared at her for a moment, processing.

And then she lit up, practically jumping from her seat in order to shake the girl’s hand.

“That sounds great! What day would you –?”

She drew her hand back, and cringed at the red strings of paint now connecting their hands.

“I… don’t know if I have more wet wipes,” she said, blushing.

The girl smiled, amused. “If you walk me home, I’ll consider it even.”

Marinette hesitantly took her hand again, intertwining their fingers. “Okay. Don’t know if that’s much of a punishment, but if that’s what it takes to repay you…”

~~~~~~~~~~

TBC

Taglist: @ev-cupcake @thatonecroc @toodaloo-kangaroo @fangirlingfanatic

[5iyoomi]

Hello! I loved the work for the reaction to the sage outfit!

Sidenote: I was going to go with the Warrior outfit, but I felt the Mage to Sage outfits was a better choice.

So, if it's possible, could I request a part 2 with the Sage outfit reaction? I liked how it was nsfw, so maybe more of that? As for characters on your list, could I ask for Louis, Amber, Kagetsu, Rosado, and Pandero (Who I forgot to ask in the first part)?

Still, thank you again!

They React To Your New Outfit ━ Part 2

characters: Louis, Kagetsu, Rosado, Pandreo warnings: not proofread, some of these are like way shorter than others my bad, making out, frotting/mutual masturbation?, penetrative sex, reader tops (on Rosado's part), thigh riding A/N: SORRY AGAIN THAT THIS TOOK ME LITERALLY FOREVER writers blocks been dragging me through the dirt fr but I locked in to get this finished.... hopefully it's okay 🫶🫶 I only left Amber out because I couldn't really think of anything for him </33

Part 1 | Word Count: 1,938

‎

Louis

THE BI KING HIMSELF LMAO

Louis is an honest guy, observational, he won't be embarrassed to tell you that you look good. He says it so casually too, with a small smile on his face because it shouldn't be weird that he's always looking at his boyfriend

It might catch you completely off guard if you aren't expecting the compliment, his cool but pointed gaze making you burn underneath it

If you give him one back, though, he won't know how to respond. You can literally see his brain short circuit

It'll be an accident, really, when you're sitting down to talk to him and drinking the tea he made for you, that he'll crack a joke to get you to laugh. Some of it ends up spilling on your chest, making your clothes stick to you uncomfortably, and he'll insist on you changing in his room before you catch a cold

"Louis-" You manage to get out, your fingers tightening ever so slightly in his dark, loose curls. His mouth is warm, a stark contrast to the cool feeling of his fingers that make you shiver even over his thick gloves. "W-what happened to getting me a different pair of clothes?"

He hums, smoothing a thumb over your bottom lip and moving back to look at you for a second. Jade green eyes pull you out of the clouds and back to him, his lips curling up in a smile as he watches you blink a few times.

"I will- after this, I promise." He whispers, one of his arms just beside your head on the wall he has you pinned against. There's enough room for you to slip past him if you really wanted to, push him off and do what you came here to do. But you don't, and he seems to notice, a knowing look on his face that makes your stomach flip. "Just indulge me for a second, won't you?"

You couldn't exactly argue with that, so you mutter a soft fine before tugging him right back where he was. He tilts his head so that your lips slot together easier, and he's overly gentle with you, one arm snaking around your waist so that you don't fall on him and the other acting as an anchor. Something that would keep you in place.

You can still taste the smooth notes of the tea on his tongue, it's strong, and it smells from where it's most likely dried up on your shirt by now, but nothing mattered except how he was touching you. But you could tell he was holding back for your sake, trying to take it slow so that he didn't hurt you.

That realization has you running your fingers through his hair again and urging him closer, desperate despite your earlier hesitance. His knee makes contact with your growing hard-on, smirking at the whine drawn from your throat.

"You don't think the others will mind if we stay a little longer, do you?"

Kagetsu

He'll be about to look for you to ask if you wanna duel with him again when you come walking in through the door sporting your new outfit, completely oblivious to the fact your boyfriends staring at you with an almost unreadable expression. Hard.

Kagetsu.exe has stopped working

He's quick to play it off if you catch him, mumbling something about being antsy because he hasn't sparred with anyone in a while. You don't fully believe him, arching an eyebrow in doubt, but all he does is chuckle

"Come on, just a few matches? I'll make it up to you"

His version of making it up to you is by dragging you to his room at the end of the night; something he usually does anyways, and walking you backwards until your knees hit the edge of his much-too-small-for-two-people bed

"Kagetsu- we haven't showered yet," you try to push him off of you, but your attempts are half-hearted; he knows you don't really wanna stop. You're both sweaty after having trained together for an hour, the band of tension in the air finally snapping once he laced his fingers in yours and brought you to his room.

"We can after," he mumbles against you, peering up at you through his long lashes. Your skin is so smooth, so empty that he can't help but leave little marks in its wake, not caring that they'd most likely be on full display if you didn't wear your cape. Your clothes are still damp, the coolness from the dried sweat dissipating with the heat of his body on top of yours. "But I want you right now."

His hands drift down until they're resting on your stomach, two thumbs slowly running under the band of your pants in a silent request. You oblige, lifting up your hips to give him better access to slide them down your thighs. He smiles at the prominent bulge in your underwear, fingers lightly grazing over it to watch how your back arches and your lips part in silent pleasure.

You've always been so sensitive. Or maybe it's just because it's him.

His long, dark hair tickles when he leans down to attack your neck again, your hips bucking while he sucks a mark into your throat. You whine, trying to thrash but being stopped by one hand holding you down. He uses his free one to expose both of your hard lengths to his eyes, his tongue darting out to catch the drool that threatens to slide down his mouth.

"Good boy," he praises, wrapping a hand around his and your cock. You gasp, barely able to keep your eyes open to watch him stroke both of you off with a pace that suggests he's trying to get you over the edge as slowly as possible. You were in for a long night.

"Just keep making those pretty sounds for me, okay?"

Rosado

The self-proclaimed cutest boy himself will genuinely be shell-shocked when he sees you. The first thing he'll ask is if he can draw you, bright blue eyes trained on your figure and his pencil already in his hands, leaving no room for any arguments

He'll have you sitting still for the majority of the time, throwing in flirty little quips like how 'that pose made your eyes sparkle' or 'how cute you looked trying to play the role of a muse'

He's not upset if you say you aren't, but he'll click his tongue and pout, something clearly brewing in his mind as lines begin to gradually form on the once blank page. You can't see it from where you are, but you already know it's going to turn out perfect. Just like everything he makes

Hours later (or at least what felt like hours) he'll apologize for getting so wrapped up in it and losing track of the time, his gaze still heavy on your body, and then he'll insist on you crashing at his for the night because it's late

Don't ask him about the drawing, it was mostly an excuse to get to stare at you for a while <3

"You know, you should show me that drawing sometime," you smile, hips flush with Rosado's as you bottom out inside him. His long, cotton-candy like hair flows around his naked form, his fingers curled in the sheets for purchase while you still.

You think you're being a little unfair bringing that up, knowing exactly why he even asked you in the first place. Knowing what was running through his mind while he held his pencil up by your head as if to memorize the face he already saw every day. It's why you kept your outfit on while he laid bare. Unfair. "I posed all pretty for you and everything."

The boy whimpers underneath you, pink nipples perked and standing at attention. You run your thumbs over them, slowly starting to drag your cock back out and slam it back in. He chokes, surrounded by pleasure and wanting nothing more than to have you closer. You can tell he has to turn your words over in his mind, trying to process them and come up with his own response in his daze.

You aren't making it any easier for him, brushing against his sweet spot with every slight shift. He tightens around you when you find it.

"I-it's-" he starts, taking a deep breath and licking his lips. "It's not that good, b-but if you insist," he breathes, wrapping his arms around your neck with a sigh. You're satisfied enough with that answer, splaying a hand over his stomach and bringing one of his legs up to your shoulder.

You could tease him more later.

"Y'know, I think you're the cuter one, Rosado." you coo.

Pandreo

Another shameless one but let's be honest who's surprised?

He'd be the type to boldly show you off to anybody who will listen, bragging about how cool and handsome his boyfriend was. So when he sees you after you get promoted? There's a thousand things running through his mind and he somehow manages to say all of them at once

It almost gives you whiplash lol

There's no beating around the bush with him. He doesn't care if it's the middle of the day, unless there's something important that either of you have to be doing, he'll all but drag you to the nearest empty room, plopping himself down and telling you how much he needs you

His philosophy is that life should be fun, and that extends to the bedroom. He wants you to feel good, so he won't be worried about himself at all, much more content with taking the sight of you in

Pandreo softly kisses your neck, hands resting at your waist as he guides you to sit on his lap. You follow his movements, your own hands settling on his shoulders as you make yourself more comfortable. But he moves you until you're straddling one of his thighs instead, and you tilt your head in confusion, especially when he laughs. You were too cute.

"'Want you to ride my thigh," he grins at your wide eyes, fingers grabbing at your chin. You don't get to respond before he's pulling you into a heady kiss, his teeth gently nipping your lips and his hand gradually moving you back and forth against him. You groan into his mouth, the friction going straight to the sensitive head of your cock.

He sucks on your tongue, golden eyes burning a hole into you. Your nose brushes his, precum already leaking through your pants much to your own embarrassment. But if he notices or even cares, he doesn't point it out, bouncing his leg in time with the rock of your hips and humming when you tremble.

He mutters something about you being the 'light of his life' that you nearly miss once he pulls away, both of you struggling to catch your breath as he picks up the pace a little bit. You bite back a moan, your body working faster than your brain could ever possibly hope to right now.

You weakly punch his arm once it eventually registers, rolling your eyes with a dopey smile on your face. "So cheesy."

His laughter cuts through the heavy air between you, his giddiness radiating off of him in waves. It rubs off on you; it always has, really. He makes it a point to make the people around him happy, especially you, so why should this be any different?

"Can you cum for me like this, pretty boy?" he asks. A rhetorical question.

[beevean]

Call me a narc, but I generally feel as if the Twitter Takeovers have gotten increasingly more unfunny the more we got? I haven't even watched the last one, but it's the fact that the fandom takes everything they like and runs with it as if it's canon that bothers me... because "everything they like" ranges from dumb quips (Sonic liking Mongolian throat singing or hating Amy's shortcake despite neither having been shown in the games before ever, for example) to statements immediately seen as shipping (hi, Sonadow), to blatant mischaracterizations (I know we got the one ShTH advertisement with Shadow dancing but do you truly think he's gonna be singing and dancing at a concert?), to IDW being canon (Starline mention...), and everything inbetween. And now Amy's cards suddenly being her "hyperfixation", even though there's a million posts on Tumblr alone why a hyperfixation is not just a quirky synonym to "being deeply invested in a hobby". I don't know, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Of course they're just meant to be funny (unfortunately not forgotten in the grand scheme of things, because TMOSTH mentioned Shadow and his coffee bean thing, alas), but it feels as if the creators of the sketches think they are funny by mangling the characters and coming up only with the stupidest out-of-this-world nonsense that the fandom runs with it because it is stupid and out-of-this-world, you know? I want to like them, but... not like this, so to say. Not when the characters are not getting actual respect and the fandom becomes insufferable through it on top, if I may be blunt.

Real talk: Eggman gushing about Sage, literally saying that she is the reason he keeps existing, plus fans "booing" Sonic for laughing at such sappiness, makes me want to drink concrete.

bro. bro really. I thought Flynn confirmed that Eggman's appreciation for Sage is purely self-masturbatory? That he's only proud of her because she's such a big accomplishment and a testament of his genius? That Frontiers showing Eggman getting choked up at the thought of losing her, calling her "dear daughter" in a somber tone, and the DLC's new ending showing them holding hands, didn't mean that Eggman in that game had been warped to develop genuine fondness for Sage, and it was actually all as self-centered as Eggman should be? :^)

(also I don't get why he would love the Egg Salamander, of all things. Didn't he build it together with Nega? As much as I like Rush, it feels like a shoehorned reference for the sake of being semi-obscure.)

And even if, even if I accept that this is completely non-canon and for the sake of a joke... other fans won't. Because "everything is canon". Shadow canonically likes to eat raw beans. Amy is canonically neurodivergent (or she canonically misuses medical terms). Sonic canonically has nightmares about not being appreciated, which might I add was a scene deadass stole from Boom, the show that had no pretenses of being canon whatsoever. Eggman canonically adores Sage as his own darling daughter. Starline canonically exists in the gameverse. I canonically am done with this.

Honestly, from what little I've seen, this Takeover was so OOC and just unfunny that the concept has completely lost his charm. What's the appeal of asking question to the game cast, if the game cast simply doesn't behave like they would and they are twisted for the sake of memes and "how do you do fellow kids"?

oh and the shiptease is out of control. at one point amy talks about going at a concert with shadow which makes sonic jealous, in that "NO EVERYTHING IS FINE" way. this is literally 2000s-tier shadamy and the reason i to this day am sour about that ship. save me, save me, save me, can't face this life alone.

[janitorsupplies]

a gripe about the boys s4 finale + more

[big fat diabolical spoilers for the s4 finale]

tw: general the boys stuff,, Hughie's r*pe

after thinkin for a little while i'm not happy about the finale tbh !

and its not that i don't like it in the way that i don't like how it turned out, i think it leaves room for an excellent final season (i will wait 2 years for that, ong), i more so think that the characters in the episode acted,,, uncharacteristically?

acted not like themselves

acted out of character, yeahh

from what we've seen of sage this season (so glad she lived btw), i don't think she would just, y'know, stroll into Homelander's room, gloating like that i thought it had been established that she didn't fw Homelander anymore, especially now she's been fired, and she's smart enough to know how much of a loose cannon Homelander could be, and that if she says the wrong thing she just gets lasered (i was shitting myself hoping that wouldn't happen)

and also how tf did she even get in Vought tower?? wouldn't the other members stop her??

and then there's butcher's reaction to grace's death, like damn, i don't think Billy fucking butcher is just gonna say nothing when one of the few people he trusts gets killed right in front of him (BY HIS SON TOO??), like how is he not shouting mad??

and then he just up and kills Neuman like bruh did Hughie's talk to him mean fuckin nothing or something like, he brings up Lenny for gods sake and butcher just,, says nothing?? it's been established over the season that he's not listening to monkey at all now he knows he's not real and on that, where the fuck is Becca in his head?? what's she doing?? speak tf up, stop him

and Ryan,, Ryan wouldn't just shove his basically adoptive grandma out of anger like that, at least i don't think he would.

and this is a little difficult to explain but i don't think annie would react like that towards Hughie engaging with the carbon-copy shapeshifted Annie. like he did not know it was not her. how would he know?? i feel like Annie would've been understand of that at least, if not annoyed, but not enough to go off on him like he did something wrong

this also brings up the point of Hughie just being Kripke's punching bag for the whole damn show,, like i thought he had a character progression of becoming more brave, but nah he's just getting fucked from all directions and its written for comedy most of the time (pretty sure Kripke said that Hughie's rape scene was written for comedy,,, ha ha funny)

i'm getting distracted now, might add more to this later if i feel like it

but hey, a-train lives baby CANT STOP THE A TRAIN BABY

(EDIT) I JUST REMEMBERED THEY ENDED IT WITH NIRVANA?? FUCK YOU!!!1 FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KIMIKO SPEAKING?? FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!! FUCK!!!

oh and yeah, kate really does ruin everything, huh.

another thing i forgot did they make kimiko worse while fighting the shifter?? i feel like she woulda easily been able to drop that mf right there, but nah she gets her neck snapped ggez

[emmalovesfitzloved]

Last question, who are your fav downwolders and why?

Ahh… well it has to be….

The one….

The only….

💫Magnus Bane! 🥂

(Art credit: @cassandrajean )

Queue the music!

Now. Reasons reasons reasons. Where to begin.

I took my time thinking about this question bc there are quite a few downworlders I have an affinity to. But the showdown where it was REALLY hard to pick one or the other was the battle of the warlocks…

Tessa or Magnus.

On the one hand, I love Tessa So much (wrote a piece on why you can find here hehe) and I truly think she is a timeless character (well before she became literally timeless ie. immortal) and her influence throughout the shadowhunter world is iconic, relevant and enduring.

(Art credit: @giannyfili )

However… her choices and inner narrative became a bit clumsy dealt with and a bit inconsistent unlike Magnus’s, as the shadowhunter novels went on. Of course, characters are allowed to change, grow, develop at any age, but her character felt slightly manipulated in the writing? All for the sake of peddling the plot. Not to get TOO into the whole herongraystairs touchy topic but I do think as I’ve grown up and done over a handful of rereads I do spot the slight manipulation that started then, which kind of set a precedence in her character throughout. I adore Jem but he as well was felt a bit clumsily. Topic for another time.

Meanwhile Magnus, while through his own self discoveries and through his own immortalities feels more cleaner in plot. He’s necessary, vibrant, witty and is that character that you ALWAYS look forward to reading. He is That character that just lights up a room and you wait with baited breath on what he’s going to say next. His air of lightness that he brings into every interaction makes you be able to read and listen to him all day long. With long promises made of laughter, sage advice, experience, history and adventure.

“I've got a stele we can use. Who wants to do me?""A regrettable choice of words," muttered Magnus (City of Ashes).

And because of this, when he is being serious, his words strike you when you least expect it and leave you stunned.

“You endure what is unbearable, and you bear it. That is All” (Clockwork Princess).

His bisexuality was handled wonderfully, and was truly one of the first stories I think our generation read where the sexual identity wasn’t about coming out but already at the stage of acceptance and fun loving. He remains respectful and doesn’t want Alec to rush out of the closet but rather does the best thing- inspire Alec to be the best version of himself in life which is finite. That’s the best thing a partner can really do for you.

However he isn’t a Mary Sue bc in every series he stars in the reader sees his vulnerabilities in pure daylight. And also has a plot line that challenges his Yodha immortal dogmas. Will being one weakness of his in TID, Camille and how she mistreated him and being alone in a very sad world. I don’t think these topics were explored nearly as well with Tessa.

“You left me. You made a pet out of me, and then you left me. If love were food, I would have starved on the bones you gave me” (City of Fallen Angels).

And of course, his relationship and development with Alec is my top 3 relationships in all the shadowhunter world. It felt natural, wonderful, sizzling, exciting and steadfast. Didn’t feel too young or naive like I sometimes feel when reading Clace, but new enough to feel like the honeymoon will never end. And I think in part it’s because of Magnus bringing out the best in people, and how Alec chose him. Of all the people Magnus helps out, he actually doesn’t really ask much in return. But for once Alec did a double take on him and let Magnus take the reins of where their relationship will lead them. With great readership payoff 🥹💍

“You could give me the past,“ he said a little sadly. “But Alec is my future” (City of Fallen Angels).

(Art credit: kasirose)

In fact, he has SO much to offer we got standalones, his own mini series with his partner and constant features in further novellas stories. There is no other character in the Shadowhunter chronicles who has been that centre stage as him. And he deserves all of it.

Favourite Swiftie songs that r HIS:

• BEJEWELED

• Begin Again

• Welcome to New York

• You’re in Love

• Karma

• You’re Not Sorry

• Ours

• I Know Places

• You’re on Your Kid

• Castles Crumbling

• The Last Great American Dynasty

• The 1

• Hoax

So yeah the superlative for the best Downworlder has to go to the delightfully and wonderfully written…

Magnus Bane <3

(Art credit: kasirose)

So yeah! I hope the answer makes up for the wait @imabitchforjemcarstairs ILY! And thank you so much for the lovely ask!

P.s. if any artist doesnt want to be affiliated, kindly DM me and I’ll remove your lovely art and mention from the post :))

[intogenshin]

Does it make sense: Lisa's letter to Cyrus

Genshin's writing doesn't seem interested in the logics behind their storylines on purpose, seeing how they put Fontaine in altitude to follow the imagery of fountains even though they knew the archon quest revolved around a flood —it would have made sense to put Fontaine in a hole instead, would have been logical for a flood to happen. But they didn't care, which is why we ended up with this

Which is to say, they dgaf about logic as long as they get to tell the story they want however they want it. And that's fine, we don't need to care either, but we do end up with a final product that we have to put together and fill in the holes for our own sake, if we so wish to.

Regardless of the author intentions, we can choose to make interpretations that give some sense to these questionable writing choices. Maybe the flood is upwards and in a block of water for a reason that makes sense in-universe, y'know, maybe primordial sea just work like that (after all what we saw had a weird shape too)

I'm not implying this is planned by the writers, cus I don't know, but interpreting the canon to shape up a more coherent story is valid as a fan is all.

So I know the writers of the game don't care much to match the story to the comic that was released earlier (and already had mistakes or unfinished designs) but there's still a story I need to put together for a character I like. Right.

These are the relevant events in the timeline I want to discuss:

Cyrus never discussed Cyno's past with him

Cyno remembered or researched enough to figure out most of it on his own (the proof: he commissioned his helmet, which is worn by Temple of Silence priests)

Lisa and Cyno discussed his past openly in Windblume

Lisa sends a letter to her professor about Collei's situation in the comic

In the comic, the knights find documentation in possession of the Fatui related to the incident of Crepus' death. Among the papers, Collei finds one about the experiments performed on her, but it's written in an ancient language.

Jean asks Lisa for help, but she can't read it either and sends the letter to her professor.

It is a bit weird that she's sending a request for Cyrus, the sage of Spantamad and not Haravatat, for an ancient language. I know this was supposed to establish her connection to Cyno when he shows up later instead of their professor, but that's not what we're doing here right now.

Lisa sent this letter about documents in an ancient language (that Cyno knows but Lisa, the Akademiya's best student in 200 years, doesn't) that depicted experiments to put archon residue (the remains of a god) within a child, she sent this letter to her professor who years before had taken part in experiments to put the fragment of a god in a child which he stole and brought into the city and then refused to tell anyone about it. She sent this letter to this man, and we know from Windblume that Lisa indeed does know about Cyno's past, so it makes sense that she asked for help with Collei's situation.

So the options are:

Cyrus told Lisa and Lisa told Cyno

Cyrus told Lisa, Cyno found out on his own and then shared it with Lisa who already knew

Cyno told Lisa, Cyrus never said a word

With 1 and 2, Lisa was told by Cyrus about Cyno's past and addressing the letter to him makes sense. With 3, Cyrus would still be avoiding the subject and it would be funny if she sent this to him, he probably had a heart attack thinking it was extortion from the Temple of Silence for a second.

Cyno doesn't resent him at all, he's only grateful, and Lisa doesn't seem to think anything bad about him either, so it's not likely she would send the letter to him with second intentions. Unless they found it funny.

From Windblume event:

Lisa: I suppose you're something of a mentor to her, aren't you? Now that I think about it, the two of you aren't so dissimilar. The power of Hermanubis once brought you great suffering. 

Cyno: That's all in the past now. Besides, Professor thankfully didn't treat me like a test subject for the priest's power like the higher-ups had hoped, even though I was a desert-dweller. 

Cyno: Instead, he gave me the tools I needed to lead the life I have today. He adopted me, educated me, taught me how to fit into society... I am very grateful to him. 

Lisa: You are very gifted, and sometimes that can become its own curse. But he has reason to be grateful to you, too — without you as his son-slash-student, he may never have changed his stubborn ways.

Cyrus had to watch Cyno show up in priest gear at some point, so he had to be aware Cyno knew more than what he was told. It's just something they didn't bring up to each other. (It might sound like something weird not to talk about, but realistically how many of us bring up pain that our parents or caretakers inflicted on us to them.. people usually just prioritize the relationship with their parents)

So Cyrus knows Cyno knows, he might assume Cyno has shared this information with Lisa as well. But Cyrus doesn't talk about it openly, so how did Cyno show up in Mondstadt in the comic?

The letter was for Cyrus, he awkwardly asked Cyno to handle it and made funny excuses about it in order not to address the issue directly

The letter was secretly for Cyno, Lisa just said it was for her professor

The letter was for Cyrus, but Cyno accidentally saw it and took the matter into his own hands

The letter was for Cyrus, but Cyno intercepted it because he spies his mail

Spying his mail honestly makes sense with the events of Cyno's sq 2 lol also maybe Cyno just spies his stuff to look for answers about his past. Maybe Cyrus just allows it because he knows it's fair. But also making something up on the spot sounds more like Cyrus.

Or maybe Cyrus always talked about Cyno's past with both, he just was vague about it, and none of this matters

From Windblume event:

Lisa: Oh dear, looks like you've seen right through me. But I was in no hurry. I knew we'd see each other sooner or later. 

Cyno: Yes. It's just as Professor Cyrus said — shared aspirations always have a way of bringing people into each other's orbit. 

Lisa: Hehe, he always has such a poetic way of wording things. I suppose that's the one respect in which I've taken after him, while in your case... 

Lisa: Yes, it's his wit and eccentricities that have left their mark on you. 

Cyno: Hmm. I'm not sure that describes me very aptly these days, given that I'm now the General Mahamatra. Still, if we're going to talk about ways with words, I think my deadpan humor is far superior than our professor's.

[thornybubbles]

I'm Gonna Make You Love Me (Yandere Oingo x Reader)

Another Picker Wheel Prompt with a character I haven’t written for yet. 

**Note: This was a hard one for me because for the life of me, I can’t see the Oingo Boingo brothers as anything but joke villains. I love them, don’t get me wrong, but they are canonically comedy relief characters. Boingo’s attempt at an evil laugh is the goofiest thing I’ve ever heard. And Oingo as a yandere? Can’t picture it. If anything I see him as being really shy around someone he was crushing on. I tried to make it creepy, but it just came across as kinda sad.** 

Prompt: Yandere surprises their darling by cooking a nice meal or at least attempts to.

Reader beware: Yandere content ahead! Though it’s pretty lightweight compared to some of my other stuff. 

Oingo put the finishing touches on the meal he’d prepared for you, glancing back at the recipe book to make absolutely sure that he did everything correctly. Cooking wasn’t Oingo’s strongest point, but since being abandoned by their parents, he’d had to make do for both his and his younger brother’s sake. Boingo never complained about his cooking so it must at least be passable. 

“How does it look?” he asked Boingo, who sat at the table with his half eaten meal and a coloring book. 

Boingo looked up from his coloring and glanced at the meal his brother had been preparing. He smiled encouragingly and nodded his head. 

“It looks great, brother! Yes! It will work out, just as Thoth showed. You have nothing to worry about.” Boingo said. 

Oingo sighed. 

“Then why am I so nervous?” he asked. 

Boingo resisted the urge to roll his eyes. What his big brother needed right now was reassurance, not derision. 

“Don’t be. It will be fine. Yes. You saw the pages? There’s no need to be nervous. Fate has already decided what will come to pass. Just play your part and everything will be okay.” 

Oingo sighed again, steadied his shaking hands, then picked up the plate of food. 

Boingo watched his brother leave the room before taking another bite out of his food and returning his attention to his coloring book. 

Oingo walked down the hallway of their current hideout and made his way to your room. He kept repeating to himself that everything was fine. His brother’s Stand had said that this was the way to earn your heart. It seemed wrong and twisted, but if it would make you love him, then he would do anything.

When he reached your door, he paused before knocking, waiting to hear you say something. When you didn’t respond he opened the door and peeked inside. You were still in the same spot you were in when he left you the last time. You didn’t even look up at him when he came in. 

Guilt rose in Oingo’s gut when he saw you like this. You hadn’t spoken or shown any signs of awareness in days. You stopped eating a day or so ago and Oingo was at his wits end. Boingo just kept nodding sagely and saying that everything was going as it should. But you looked so weak and sick. How could Oingo not worry? 

He entered the room and walked over to you, sitting on the ground next to you. He held the plate of food out for you to look at, but you made no motion to do so. 

“I made this for you. You said it was your favorite, right?” he asked, pausing to see if you would respond. 

You didn’t, you just stared at the floor, eyes lifeless as always. 

Oingo’s heart clenched at your lack of response. Balancing the plate of food on one palm, he waved a hand in front of your face. You didn’t even blink. Oingo huffed, looking down at the food in despair. He picked up the spoon and scooped up some of the food, blowing on it to make sure it wasn’t too hot for you. He held it up to your mouth, gently touching it to your lips. You made no move to eat or do anything else. 

Oingo gritted his teeth, fighting against that ever growing feeling of hopelessness. 

“Will you at least eat this time? Please, it’s been days. You’ll die if you don’t eat something soon.” 

No response. Not a single movement. Not even the slightest sound. 

Oingo glanced at your wrists. 

“What if I took the chains off? Would you eat then?” 

No answer. 

Oingo set the plate aside and pulled out the key for your shackles. He unlocked them and took them off of your wrists. Your arms went limp by your sides and you slumped against the wall, but that was all. You did nothing and said nothing. Oingo picked up the plate and scooped up another spoonful of food and placed it to your lips. Still nothing. 

Oingo felt a lump working its way into his throat. 

“Please, you can’t… you can’t just let yourself die like this! Me and Boingo… our parents are long gone. They bailed on us when I was just a kid. Boingo hardly knew how to walk then. We had to struggle to survive. You wouldn’t believe the things we had to do to stay alive! And now… Lord DIO’s gone… we don’t have anything else! Me and Boingo were right back to square one before we met you. Do you remember that? The day you found Boingo by himself? I was trying to find a place to stay and Boingo had to wait outside… you came up to him asking if he was lost. I thought you were gonna be just like everyone else, but you weren’t. You didn’t bully him for being shy or try to take advantage of him because he was a kid. You actually wanted to make sure he was okay. When I came up to you, you didn’t say anything about my scars. I don’t think you even looked at them. I didn’t know what to think. You didn’t seem real. Nobody’s that nice unless they want something from you. When you found out we didn’t have anything to give, you wanted to help us anyway. You paid for our medical bills, dammit! Who does that for complete strangers?! That’s when I knew… you were just too good for this world. It eats up people like you. I had to protect you, just like with Boingo. I had to make sure that no one took advantage of that kind nature of yours.” 

Tears flowed freely down Oingo’s face as he spoke. He wiped his face on his sleeve and sniffed. 

“That’s why… that’s why you’re here now. Boingo said that if I let you get on that plane, we’d never see you again. I didn’t mean to take things this far… I just…” he glanced at the chains. “I just couldn’t let you slip away. Aside from Boingo, you’re the only good thing in my life. I know you don’t understand all that stuff I told you about Stands, but Boingo’s can tell the future. It said that we would be together if I did this. It may seem scary right now, but this is how it’s supposed to go. If you just…” 

Oingo stopped talking when you opened your mouth. His own mouth dropped open in shock before he straightened up and gently pushed the spoon into your mouth. You accepted the now cold food, chewed and swallowed. Frantically, Oingo got another spoonful of food and held it to your mouth. Your lips parted and Oingo thought he would scream with joy. 

“Thank you…” he sobbed. “Thank you so much.” 

He didn’t say anything else, just quietly fed you as tears of relief streamed down his face. 

On a whim, Boingo looked up from his finished meal and summoned Tohth  into his hands. He flipped open the book to the latest page and smiled at the image that formed there. 

“Yes. Just as I thought. We finally have our happy ending, big brother.” he said with a devious grin.

[datastate]

hi... 🙋‍♀️ id like to know more about your mr c dies au but im unsure where to start since ive seen you mention it from time to time...

i wanna know how emiri would behave and feel in a situation like that... theres already a contrast in what emiri says and does and what michiru says and does and how they both tie into asunaro SO do you have any kai and emiri interactions in mind?

theyre both really interesting in general and its a shame they only have the frying pan interaction in the game... for now (smiles darkly)

looks at you so sweetly... here's how emiri & kai both being begrudgingly trapped in a timeloop can still win-- but that. is an entirely separate & less fleshed out au. still very fun to me though <3

in any case! :D

because of the amount of characters i'm balancing, emiri's only accepted into asunaro's inner circle only a few months after mr. chidouin has already died (she was previously quite restricted) & the conflicts have (mostly) settled down, -- however, because of his role as the leader of asunaro, there's still reference to the absence he's left; even if it's only implied through the characters surrounding her. it really formed a bit more resentment + feeling of inferiority with the thought that she was only brought in to speed up work on the death game, even if she's been intended to join for a while now...

but i digress. even after being accepted, emiri and kai are separated because of kai's position as the aide/sage of asunaro's godfather. thus, he has the privilege to the same sort of privacy that the heirs of the original hades incident were granted... but when the initial assignment he was given (surveying the chidouins) is expanded into some of the other candidates, that is when he must interact more often with the asu-agents we know, who are focused on the technological development of the death game.

i focus more on emiri w the others (mainly michiru), but... some of the key scenes i have in mind for kai & emiri specifically. smiles.

even though it takes a little working, i do find it fun specifically having emiri confront kai on the hopelessness of all he's trying to do. he finds the malicious manner in which she kills people to be in poor taste, but it's clear to her he's had to (or would) kill to keep the chidouins safe. and, sure, she'll give it to him that it's a nice gesture. but when does the bloodshed end? he knows asunaro's going to crop up again somewhere, sometime, and as long as it has its hands on the people he cares about, they're going to be held hostage. hell - even the ais... they're holding the idea of sara hostage. is there something in their bloodline that just makes them the most arrogant bastards, or is he just stupid?

emiri has... a lot of potential and is well aware of this. it's the only thing she truly does know about herself -- is that she's resilient, and can push herself past any previously imagined breaking points to prove she still has this value if she has no right to anything else in her life.

it's. difficult for her to see gashu, especially, as a reflection of what she could have if she was truly respected within the organization -- and even he's still left to the whims of what the organization needs. it's alive in its own right and devours even those who've helped it survive this long. from mr. chidouin, to those of her similar position who are killed to settle petty conflicts between the patriarchs, even to complete innocents like her partner who endure something crueler for the sake of asunaro's privacy... civilians who don't know why they were played with before they died, or even how asunaro had trapped them.

and yet kai believes he can pressure this destructive force to work for him. but she's learned from experience just how impossible it is to fight the tide. she's surviving, but kai's fighting to live. it's a losing battle, and it's almost frustrating to see him actually make progress through it when he shouldn't. emiri's only salvation is in the destruction of asunaro, but because kai's grown up within it and seen how it overcomes each attack against it, he also has an idea of how to mislead or blind it. it's been a given in his life since the beginning, so he knows how to anticipate it -- a chance she was never given because of the safety she harbored for most of her life. it's such an interestingly strange sort of exchange seeing two people who feel as if they've lost everything, including any standard for morality, now trying to recreate their lives from the ground up.

& of course... whether kai means to or not, he is making it more difficult for not only emiri, but michiru too, to make their way through asunaro without also becoming a target. which is also a source of conflict for how he treats them as compared to civilians that he can still "save" before asunaro gets to them -- which, as a thought that emiri verbally reinforces, ironically means he cannot save sara from it. even after her father's death, kai's moved in and is still putting them in danger through association + the fact that asunaro is so ingrained in who he is. the other agents have seen the worst of it, and emiri cynically believes that this is who kai 'truly' is, but. gah. even if it's untrue, the only one with the heart to counter emiri here would be michiru, because she was there for the point that kai began to change... and is still the only person within asunaro that she can say she trusts, and that he trusts in return.

... in essence: emiri resents kai for overcoming what asunaro is trying to enforce (similarly to gashu in the main game, he's breaking the new rules she's presently trying to adapt to so that she can find her standing), and yet also betraying concern as someone who's already lost her life. even if kai can navigate asunaro well -- he shows that painfully well in how he regards most other agents -- he still doesn't understand the amount of ways that asunaro can invade everyday life. even if he gets rid of the ais, of the patriarchs, of whoever and whatever else that's keeping the death game project running... how will he explain it to sara. emiri's been in that position of having asunaro's actions hidden from her, she's experienced that helplessness first-hand. does he have any idea the sort of resentment and fear he's embedded in the very people he thinks he's saving? does he even understand the guilt that will be left when asunaro finally catches up to him? he's acting like an agent, still paying into this belief that all things are a matter of equivalent exchange, of give and take, with his life being no different. but he can't live like that, and he's stifling everyone around him through surviving like this.

it's one of the first warnings, you know... sara will find out. and who knows if she'll have the heart to forgive someone like you, really. she doesn't even know you anymore, or did she ever? are you too arrogant to look past what you're doing, and ask what she wants before you arrange your grand scheme? don't you see you're no different from him?

[tsukuyomii45]

Obito brainrot?? Now we're talking

One thing that I dislike about his character arc is that he died

Not only because I like him, really, but because dying means he refused reality in some way AND got no real consequences over his actions

He went to heaven(?) with Rin, the person he loved the most in all his life, and she doesn't hate him (I still think Rin is more merciful than God) after all he had done

Isn't his character supposed to accept reality and face the fact his actions do have consequences?

*runs hand over hair* *fixes tie* *places briefcase on the counsel table*

"Obito's criminal defense attorney, presiding."

~~

*clears throat*

Hello, anon.

Before I begin talking about Obito, I want you to look at this post here because it addresses WHY Rin forgave him and never hated him in the afterlife after all he's done.

Just give it a quick read and it should provide some proper understanding in regards to Obito's character and the way she feels about him.

~~

Now then, let's talk about Obito:

Anon, we shouldn't forget that Obito was going to die either way, regardless of whether he gets to suffer consequences or not. As soon as the husk of Juubi was extracted, he was bound to die one way or another. He was going to remain paralyzed and in a permanent coma if it weren't for Naruto healing him with his newfound powers from the Sage of the Six Paths. But even with that, he was still going to die. His time was very short and he had to make the most out of it.

*picks up paper* Tackling your allegation that Obito has "refused reality in some way and got no consequences" by dying - I would like to say that this is untrue because Obito in fact, REMARKABLY LOST to the reality of the world he very much tried to destroy.

He would've escaped reality and suffered 0 consequences if his plans actually worked. But no, he ended up getting defeated.

Also, here are the following consequences that he suffered for being a criminal: -He's hated by the rest of the world, and the only people that respect and appreciate his efforts, and know of his efforts, are Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, and Sakura. They're the only witnesses to his attempt in redeeming himself. Everyone else was stuck inside their eternal dreams and they failed to see Obito awaken and choose to fight alongside Naruto and save the world. They failed to see that he's the one that betrayed Madara again and saved Naruto's life.

-He lived the life of a war criminal with a costly ambition, and achieved nothing. I mean, come on, anon. Seriously, who would want to spend 20 years of their life plotting, controlling, killing, sacrificing - all for the sake of what they think is "the greater good", only to end up being played like a puppet? He was 31 years old, and he achieved nothing because he was manipulated from the start. Even if he did survive, he doesn't even get to be the Hokage. He's simply a lost cause. Isn't that a fitting end for a criminal like him?

-No legacy. Obito left nothing behind but a trail of corpses and traumatizing memories. The only ones who did get to see his good side towards the end are Team 7. But he didn't leave anything behind for the future generation to live by; all he did was play a role in saving the world by sacrificing himself to save his old friend and ensure that Naruto would be the one to carry on his lost dream.

I'd also like to note that the way he died was pretty fucked up. He didn't get to be buried. Like, he didn't even fucking die in the land he was born in the entire time - he only has his name engraved on a big stone (after Kannabi), and he died in a whole other dimension; the same dimension that Kaguya was sealed in. Seriously, even his death was just depressing - he crumbled into fucking ash. And just as he was disintegrating, Black Zetsu was literally slandering the shit out of him (I found it hard to watch because damn), and even after he crumbled, he was still getting slandered.

Sure, he wasn't getting called out by the alliance (they actually wanted him executed after he got the Juubi extracted from him), but still - imagine just getting called names right before you're about to turn into ash... like it's just so fucked up. His entire character is just so tragic and depressing.

Lastly, to address your question - he did accept reality. He told Naruto that there will be more suffering on the way. He literally lost to the real world - and his death is an acceptance of that. He too, admitted that his fucked up death is fitting for the criminal that he is.

So no anon, he did not refuse reality - he embraced it.

Thank you.

Next case!