#also marcus would not straight up have a good time. she already had someone die on her in vienna and to have the person [SPOILER] somewhat | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mothandpidgeon · 3 years

Note

Ok but since you are writing a Regency piece...could you imagine having Din Djarin and Marcus Pike fighting over you? Each of them is so different and you can't help it because you're attracted to both of them because Din is the brooding yet kind introverted man that quotes to you poetry and takes you on long boat rides (with someone else of course because he cares about your image) and you're head over heels in love but then Marcus comes along and he's dashing and sweet and a little introverted but mostly talkative whenever he has to be and although he doesn't read to you poetry, he does gush about how none of the Greek and Roman and Etruscan sculptures and Italian works of art come close to your beauty and he takes you on long walks in gardens and even invites you to go to Versailles one time with him and then the three of you run into each other during one of the balls and the two are begging just for a moment with you and you're dancing with no one else but them during the entire night and when you try to go to the garden to get some fresh air, you're bombarded by the two men and they get into a heated argument to the point where they say that they will duel for you but you stop them both because you don't want either of them to get hurt and then...oh my sweet lord...and then, you take each of their hands and kiss their knuckles and fuck you shouldn't be doing this because what if someone sees and your reputation and no no no...but they both grow even more shy and you smile at them and-

"How about you invite us over to your estate Captain Djarin? I'm sure we can all...come to an agreement. Right?"

And the two are so confused but when they look at each other and return their gaze to you, they finally realize what it is you're talking about and they're both appalled by your offer but their shock slowly subsides because they fucking crave you and they nod and you throw each one of them a wink and-

"I'm looking forward to the invitation, good evening gentlemen."

And AHHHHHHHHHHH I DIE!!!!!!!!

Ok, Maggie, you went SO HARD on this one. Phew. You really know how to torment me!!! You are always welcome in my inbox. Considering the tale you wove, I really hope this lives up to it and you’ll have to forgive me I could go on but I was already approaching 1.5k words!!

Also I hope you don’t mind (and apologies to Regency!Din) but the mention of Versailles just screamed late 18th century (an important distinction in my nerd brain) so…

A/N: 18+! This ribbon bit comes from Barry Lyndon so apologies to the ghost of Stanley Kubrick.

It was a shame that Misters Djarin and Pike detested one another so when they had so many similarities. Both of them were kind and sweet and terribly handsome.

Mr. Pike accompanied you to the opera on more than one occasion. In the privacy of your box, he would whisper sweet words into your ear and nudge the soft skin of your neck with his nose. Mr. Djarin was more of an outdoorsman. He took you riding on his estate. When you were far enough on the grounds, he would help you down from the saddle and recite poetry to you beneath a shady tree.

And yet seeing them side by side now in Mr. Djarin’s parlor where you’d just shared a very awkward tea, tension straining the air between them, they couldn’t be more different. Mr. Djarin, so reserved, dark and modest. Mr. Pike, flirtatious and warm, cheek always dimpled with a smile.

You knew it wasn't going to be easy to break the wall between them but you’d been wise enough to plan for it.

“It seems I cannot force an accord between you but I know how men like their sport. I propose a wager. Nothing like a friendly competition to encourage affection,” you said.

Marcus cocked his eyebrow. He had wanted to win you since he’d met you last summer, pursuing you endlessly and yet this other man still stood in his way.

“I wonder which of you is a better hunter,” you said.

“And how would we prove that?” Mr. Pike asked. Din’s brow creased. He didn’t know how hunting had anything to do with your ludacris proposal, the one that they had both scoffed at at the ball. He wouldn’t have agreed to contemplate the thought if he hadn’t been so afraid of losing you.

You rose from your seat and both pairs of brown eyes watched you intently.

“I have devised a test. I’ve hidden a white ribbon somewhere on my person,” you said, trying to bite back your smile. “The better man finds it first.”

Both men looked at you in a stunned silence. Your heart was racing nervously but you were savoring their expressions. Mr. Djarin collected himself first.

“You’ll forgive me for being unfamiliar with the ways in which women amuse themselves but I hardly find such a suggestion to be entertaining,” Mr. Djarin said, his cheeks turning pink.

He couldn’t pretend that the idea of undressing you didn’t make his heart pound but he hated how easily you would give yourself over to Mr. Pike. He disliked the way Pike flirted with you so openly. Of course, he knew some of it was envy— he had never been a charmer.

“I do not speak in jest, sir,” you told him.

“That is what you want?” Mr. Pike asked, his soft eyes already slipping lower. He was already thinking of places to explore.

You watched Mr. Djarin look away from you when he nodded.

“And the better man, does he win something?” Pike asked, enjoying how flustered the other man had become.

“My highest regard,” you answered coyly.

Marcus chuckled.

“Then the lady should get what she wants, don’t you agree?” he asked Mr. Djarin.

Din cleared his throat.

“Very well,” he said.

Pike came to your side and took your hand to escort you to the couch where you sat between him and Mr. Djarin.

“Perhaps you should take the first turn,” you suggested to Mr. Djarin who was looking at you with a mix of fear and yearning in his eye.

He’d been so careful with you, always so cautious not to overstep or do anything at all that might invite scandal save a few soft kisses. And here you were laying yourself out for him. He swallowed dryly and met your eye with a shrug of surrender.

“Is it in your hair?” he asked, eyes darting up to your coiffure.

You smiled at him, nearly reached out to put your hand on his cheek. That protective nature was what drew you to Mr. Djarin in the first place. You knew what he really wanted, you could see it in his eyes, but he was too polite to take what was being offered. Not without convincing.

“I believe this requires a more thorough search, Djarin,” Pike said from over your shoulder.

He cupped your hands and turned them over as in a playful inspection, then lifted both of your arms. “No. Not there.”

You laughed and the noise made his heart jump. He’d found that he would make himself a fool if it put a smile on your face. Marcus was happy to take the opportunity to move in closer, to claim you with his touch. He brushed your neck so gently, his fingers tracing a ljne from your jaw to your shoulder where the bodice of your dress began. Goose pimples broke out on your skin and Marcus put his lips against your earlobe.

“I wonder,” he mused, leaning your back into his chest.

He hooked a finger under the fabric and followed the line down from your shoulder to the swell of your breast and you gasped. He had so often admired the rise and fall of your chest, Marcus couldn’t help but caress your skin with his thumb. Din felt himself stiffen as he listened to the soft moans Pike was drawing from you as he put a kiss on your skin. Watching your lips part, Din was frozen in place.

Marcus moved his hand down the straight front of your bodice and you felt yourself pulsing beneath your skirts.

“Perhaps under here?” he asked.

You allowed him to work the front of your gown open, the silk parting to reveal the creamy ivory stays below. Din felt twin aches in his chest and his groin as he saw the other man slide the bodice off of your shoulders.

Neither had seen you in such a state of undress before. Marcus took a moment to steady himself, admiring the figure below and sliding his hand across your middle. You were hardly naked, still clad in your stays, shift, and skirts but your underthings made his cock twitch.

“Now you see how the game is played and that Mr. Pike has been so far unsuccessful,” you said to Mr. Djarin, your voice more breathless than before. “Would you care to try, Mr. Djarin?”

You encouraged him by bringing your foot to rest beside his knee, leaning back into Mr. Pike. Din licked his lips, staring at the floral pattern on your delicate shoe for what felt like a century. Finally, he gave in to his longing.

He ran his fingers up your ankle over your silk stocking, revealing the smooth line of your leg. His large hands encircled your calf as he inched your skirt up further. You let out a shaking breath, squeezing your thighs together. You could hear Mr. Pike’s jagged breaths in your ear as he watched with anticipation. He had half a mind to release himself from his breeches to relieve the torment building there.

Din was careful not to reveal any of your skin, stopping just above the spot at your knee where your stockings were tied with thick ribbons.

“These are blue,” he said, running his thumb over the bow.

You were looking down at him flushed and breathing heavy and it took everything in his power to stop from taking you then and there.

You leaned to him, putting your lips against his and letting your mouth fall open to invite him in. You heard him whimper and he clutched onto your leg. Then you turned to Mr. Pike who kissed you hungrily, his wide palm kneading at your breasts.

“I’m quite disappointed in the both of you,” you said once you could speak again. Your whole body was thrumming with arousal.

You raised your skirts up around your hips and felt both pairs of eyes lustily watching. There, tied around the thickest part of your thigh was the white ribbon. But they only noticed the slick shining between your thighs.

“We shall call it a draw. But I’m afraid that means you’ll have to share me, gentlemen,” you said.

And from their twin growls, it was clear that they didn’t mind.

#Maggie the magnificent #I’m not sure what this is but I hope it was fun #historical au #regency au #regency!din #din djarin x reader #marcus pike x reader #ask the moth

181 notes · View notes

nicole-kaiwo · 4 years

Text

Blackinnon Week 2021 Day #3

You can also read the story on AO3 and FFN

Last goodbye

Exactly half an hour ago, a loud bang shattered the glass in all the windows in the McKinnon Manor. Since then, Marlene's entire family had been fighting for their lives.

The worst part was knowing that no one would come to their aid.

Or at least not until sunrise. But the chances that they would survive until then were very poor. Not to say none. There were just too many Death Eaters.

Nor could they escape. All that was left for them to do was fight and hope for a miracle.

"Marls, look out!" shouted her cousin Rosalie pulling her away at the last moment before a spell could hit her from behind.

"Two have made their way into the corridor!" yelled one of her relatives.

Not good.

Under no circumstances could the Death Eaters get into the basement.

Marlene, Rosalie and Marcus ran to stop them from doing so. They quickly caught up with Travers and Selwyn. An exchange of shots began. It was three against two, but Marlene felt no advantage.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a green light, and a second later, she heard the sound of a body hitting the ground. She looked to the side.

"MARCUS!"

Marlene dropped to her knees next to where her cousin's body lay.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Another body fell to the ground. Marlene was horrified that it had hit Rosalie this time. But when she looked at her cousin, she realised that she was the one who had cast the spell on the Death Eater who had killed Marcus.

"We have to go after them, Mars!"

At first, she didn't understand Rosalie's words. Marlene didn't want to go anywhere. And she had to stay with Marcus, she couldn't leave him like this. Besides, she was tired. She had fought continuously for so long, she was constantly on the move! Now she no longer had the strength to get up, run after Travers and Selwyn and keep fighting.

" Grandpa and the kids are in the basement! We don't have time, Mars!"

Rosalie was right. Wasting no more time, Marlene left Marcus' body and ran with her cousin towards the basement. On the way, she heard someone running after them.

"Alarte Ascendare!"

Rosalie launched Selwyn into the air, preventing him from entering the basement. But Travers was faster and was now already in there.

The girls ran in and saw their grandfather duelling with Travers. Rosalie started to help him, and Marlena went to protect the children.

Grandpa and Rosalie were doing really well, and for a moment, Marlene started to hope that maybe they could survive all this somehow.

And then it got dark.

And cold.

A strange shiver went through her whole body. As a member of the Order, she knew from experience what that meant. She knew what had happened. Who had arrived.

Then Marlene had the feeling that a hurricane was passing through their basement. She felt strong gusts of air and heard children screaming as if they had been carried away by the wind.

Then the light returned.

And before them stood Lord Voldemort.

Marlene heard the screams of her two youngest cousins. She looked behind her, but they weren't there.

She looked around the room and saw Bellatrix holding three-year-old Jezabel and Malfoy with five-year-old Ares.

The entire basement was filled with Death Eaters.

"Orpheus McKinnon," said Voldemort," you know why I am here. Give me this, and I'll spare what's left of your family."

Thus Marlene's fears that her grandfather, Rosalie, Ares and Jezbal were now the last surviving members of her family were confirmed.

Marlene knew that her grandfather would never give in. She knew that no one would come to their aid, and they had no way to escape. She knew that the children would be the first to die. She knew that she would be the last to die after seeing the last members of her family dying. She didn't have time to say goodbye to them.

She didn't have time to say goodbye to anyone.

Not even to Sirius.

Suddenly Marlene mentally shifted from that basement to a completely different time and place.

This morning. Just a few hours earlier. Their bedroom.

Sirius was still in bed. He didn't like getting up early, so she didn't want to wake him. But unfortunately, she had to leave now.

She walked over and knelt beside him, then kissed him lightly on the forehead.

He did not even stir.

Trying to be quiet, she started to leave the room.

"Are you leaving without saying goodbye?" he asked in a sleepy voice.

She smiled under her breath and approached him again.

" That' s not true. I left a kiss on your forehead."

"Really? Hm, I don't remember anything. I guess you'll have to do it again."

She knew how this was going to end, but nevertheless, she started to lower her lips towards his forehead. Only for him to pull her further down, and their lips came together.

It was a gentle yet tense kiss, after which she found it difficult to stand straight on her feet.

"Ok, now I have to go. They're waiting for me."

"I know."

"See you, Sirius!"

"I will be waiting for you."

I will be waiting for you.

Marlene went back to the basement, but she could still hear Sirius' words in her head.

She didn't tell him goodbye.

She said, 'see you later'. And he promised to wait for her.

And Marlene knew that Sirius would keep his word. Therefore, she had to do everything to keep hers so that they could see each other again.

Her brain suddenly started working at a crazy fast speed. She began to analyse all the possibilities and tried to anticipate her opponents' moves.

And suddenly, something occurred to her.

She again confirmed her assumption that there was no way she could save Ares and Jezabel. There was nothing she could do for them. There was no chance of saving her grandfather, either.

But there was still one way out for her and Rosalie.

Admittedly, the chance that her plan would succeed was about 5%. But she had to try. After all, she had promised Sirius that she would come back.

Marlene reviewed all the possibilities once more, and when she again found no better solution, she grabbed Rosalie's hand and began to pull her backwards.

Her manoeuvre took the Death Eaters by surprise, and they had no idea what she was going to do yet. This gave her at least a temporary advantage. However, with every step she took, her intentions became clearer. She knew that Rosalie had already grasped what she wanted to do. She could feel it in her body language. Marlene didn't have to drag her anymore, she just ran on her own.

"Avada..."

Apparently, Voldemort also realised what Marlene wanted to do.

It was now or never!

Marlene and Rosalie jumped up and had their goal literally at arm's length.

"...Kedavra!"

Green light.

The feeling as if she had jumped into a pool.

And then Marlene was on the other side.

#blackinnonweek2021 #blackinnon #marlene mckinnon #mckinnon #sirius x marlene #sirius black x marlene mckinnon #week of lasts

23 notes · View notes

onelastbreath-writes · 4 years

Text

I’ll Meet You There (Part 1)

Pairing: Marcus Moreno/ Wife!Reader (AFAB, no y/n)

Word Count: 2.5K

Warnings: Mentions child loss, loss of a spouse, survivor’s guilt, vague references to suicide/suicidal thoughts after loss of child (all located in the first 500 words, so it’s brief and not too dark, but please take care) and violence, swearing, and action/fighting.

Summary: What if Marcus’s wife didn’t actually die? What if she and a few others were kidnapped during an attack on Heroics’ HQ, and then held captive for years without realizing? If the only thing you “remember” from your past is that your husband and daughter were killed, well, you surely wouldn’t want to go back to the people who you believe did it. But maybe, with the help of a tenacious child and some re-awaking parental instincts, you’ll be able to break through the brainwashing and forced amnesia, and find your way home.

Tags: Hurt/No comfort (for now), ANGST, eventual happy ending, one really sad man for whom I just keep making things worse, #sorrynotsorry

A/N: This is my first We Can Be Heroes fic, and first reader fic, so please be gentle. I’ve got the rest of the story outlined, so I hope I can get down to writing and posting it soonish, but my RL is busy and doesn’t leave much time/energy for quick updates. If you like it and want me to do a taglist, let me know so you can know when I update again. Also a big thank you to the amazing Jay @disgruntledspacedad and her fic The Right Thing for inspiring this one, and for allowing me to use her wife!reader idea. Please go check her blog out, and give her some love <3

AO3 Masterlist

---

“You’ve been in a terrible accident, Doctor, and I regret to inform you of your husband’s and daughter’s passing. Our rescue and recovery efforts after the incident were unfortunately unsuccessful, and you have our deepest sympathies.”

It took months for those words to even sink into you; months before you even remembered anything about who you were... the accident, or the attack, as it was more commonly known by you and the other victims, took your entire life away in an instant. You survived, physically, but at the cost of your partner? Your child? All the memories of your life together? How could you be worth it?

“Your transcripts and accomplishments are phenomenal, Doctor, and I’m in need of talented and capable individuals such as yourself to help right the wrongs, and demand justice, from those who have committed such heinous acts against us. The Heroics are murderers, destroyers of peace, and they have gotten away with their crimes for far too long. They’ve been praised and applauded and worshipped as gods while all they truly are, are terrorists. How many more innocent lives can we allow to be lost to their carelessness? ‘For the greater good’ is quite the insult when the people saying such things aren’t the ones losing their families to the chaos, wouldn’t you agree? Join me, Doctor, and we can make a difference.”

It was easy decision for you, even in the early days of your recovery. From the distant and foggy memories of your past, your anguish in what you could recall, you knew that if you could stop someone else from having to feel the loss and pain that comes from losing their spouse and children, you would do so in a heartbeat.

Your husband had been an incredible man, your Everything, you would imagine, going by the ache in your heart when you thought of being without him. His name, his appearance; that was all lost to you when you lost him. His existence in what could be healed of your memories was just a shadow, a shade, the vague impression of the man you loved. You remembered his warmth, his kindness and gentleness, his love and devotion to you and the child you created together.

And your beautiful baby girl... if thoughts of your husband left your heart aching, then thoughts of your daughter left you in unparalleled agony, completely inconsolable. You tried to avoid thinking of her, if you were being honest, tried to leave all what-ifs and could’ve/should’ve/would‘ve’s behind... you had worked with people, mothers, who had lost children before, had seen them tear themselves apart in their grief, taking the blame for something that was in no way their fault; you had seen them destroy their lives with their hoarded guilt and perceived crimes... you couldn’t allow yourself to fall for that, those falsehoods, you had to be alive if you wanted to honour your child and husband’s sacrifice.

“We will make them pay for what they’ve done to us, Doctor, I promise you that. Together, we can get justice for your husband, for your little Missy.”

---

Marcus knew something was wrong as soon as his commlink started transmitting static instead of his teammates’ conversations. The Heroics had been deployed to stop a hoard of rogue security androids that were infected by a virus or something (he couldn’t usually follow the technobabble), which had led them to escape their testing facility and target nearby civilians with their advanced weapons technology.

Evacuating the citizens trapped in the line of fire was the team’s first objective, and once the area was cleared of potential victims, they moved onto the containment and neutralization of the enemy combatants. The Heroics team was decently cohesive; they could work together to ensure the protection of innocent lives while in a firefight, but once the civilians were in the clear and the stakes not so high, the supersized egos of the members emerged with a fiery passion. This particular firefight was no different.

“Hey ‘Legend, bet you a week of incident reports that my count is higher!” Miracle Guy’s voice broke out over the ‘link, as eager to show-boat as ever, from where he was steadily piling up his deactivated attackers.

“I’ll take that action, Miracle, easy. It’ll be like taking candy from a baby!” Crimson Legend wasn’t the type of person who could ignore a bet, especially one issued from Miracle. “You’re probably so behind already that you don’t even stand a chance, ha!”

Of course, they just had to make it a game, keep the superiority contest going; like a single mistake couldn’t cost them a life or a limb. And just to further prove how amazingly mature the rest of Marcus’s team of Adult Superheroes were, they all started in on the bet too.

“If I beat your totals, I want a week off from training!”

“Ha! Like any of you have a chance of winning against me! I want my on-call weekend, off”

“If I win, you’re all my personal slaves for the rest of the day!”

Did Marcus say Adult Superheroes? He meant infants.

And they had started the mission so well, communicating and strategizing, actual teamwork instead of bickering and joking around like children. Hell, even their children didn’t get into as much trouble as their parents could.

“Guys, it’s really not the best time to be playing around. We need to focus on-” He was cut off by the loud static burst of an out-of-range radio. Shit. That’s not good. If his comms unit was fried, he couldn’t direct his teammates, couldn’t keep track of them, couldn’t help them.

They were pretty spread out by now, giving everyone room to use their powers without worrying about another Heroic getting caught in the blast zone. He knew from their most recent locational sound off that Crushing Low and Invisi Girl were working together near the intersection two streets over from him, and if he could make his way over to them, he could figure out what was going on.

Marcus needed to know if it was just his commlink that was out of commission, or if their entire network had gone down. The former scenario was a minor inconvenience, the latter was a major issue. Either he’d have to lead his team by correspondence, or he’d have to worry about them being completely alone in the field, without support from HQ, and without any chance of backup or rescue.

He couldn’t worry about the details now, he had to keep focused on finishing off the seemingly endless wave of androids. Androids with guns. Androids with guns that he was trying to kill with a pair of katanas... Maybe he hadn’t thought his primary weapon for this mission out very well... It was just something that he’d have to come back to later. For now: sword, robot, teammates.

---

They didn’t pay him enough for this. He should have gone into acting like he had planned before his powers manifested. This sort of shit didn’t happen to actors.

Marcus had destroyed all the androids delaying him from reaching his nearest teammates and was finally able to move to their location with relative ease and only minor distraction. He could see Crushing Low laying waste to the few remaining functional robots in the area, and could assume that Invisi Girl was around somewhere, disabling any downed but not dead enemies while protecting ‘Low’s back.

He was proven right when he heard a feminine voice call for him to “hit the deck, Moreno!”.

“Thanks Vis! You two doing alright? What’s your comms sitch?” He stood back up straight, just missing being nailed in the head by a flying metal limb had it not been for her heads-up.

“We’re a-okay! Comms are out though. No known damage to them, no knocks or surges, might be the tech, or it might be the channel. We’ll have to see what Tech-No thinks.” She was still invisible, but Marcus could imagine her animated expressions and movements. She was one of the most... normal... of the Heroics, if normal could ever be used to describe any of the team. Reliable and observant, with a good sense of battle strategy. He greatly appreciated her skills and efficiency in the field; she and Tech-No being the most down-to-earth of the Heroics, most willing to help him keep the peace between the rest of them.

“I’ll watch Low’s back if you can go find Tech. We need to know what’s going on, ASAP. If all the comms are down, and Tech can’t get them back up, I need you to find everyone and tell them to meet back at the robotics facility. Get Miracle and Fast to help if you can. If anyone’s injured, they’re your first priority, okay? Thanks, Vis.”

---

Getting every member of the Heroics team back together took nearly an hour, all coming fresh from the fight but thankfully not too banged up or bruised. They set up a perimeter once enough of the team had arrived to their meeting spot, allowing Tech-No to deep-dive into investigating their communications malfunction.

“It’s the network, not our comms. We’re dealing with a drop either from HQ’s side, or a forced drop here from RFI. But considering the standard distance and all the buildings and stuff around us, a radio frequency jammer wouldn’t be able to block our communications network as far out as we were. We must assume that the problem comes from HQ. which presents further concerns, obviously. I designed most of the technology there myself, so I know exactly how much work it would be to take down the whole system. We need to consider this as part of a bigger plot, and plan accordingly.” Tech-No’s eventual explanation hang heavy in the air, no one willing to break the silence following it... If something had happened to HQ… Their co-workers were there, their friends, their children…

Marcus thought of his daughter and wife. They were both there today. His wife worked in the medical centre, and they brought their daughter there for daycare. If something happened there... shit. If he was panicking about his family already, his teammates were doing the same. He had to head this off. He couldn’t let this get out of control. He took a breath and squared his shoulders. It was time to be Marcus Moreno the leader of the Heroics, not Marcus the husband and father. Lead by example, they’re all counting on you.

“We have no proof that anything is actually wrong, and until we know for sure why we can’t reach them, we need to do our jobs. Finish the mission. We’ve always trusted our people to hold down the fort at home so we can help people out here, and they’ve never let us down before. We are not going to doubt them now, understood? Whatever happened? We know HQ is doing their best to keep our loved ones safe. So, we finish up here, quickly and thoroughly, and then we head back to base. Let’s get moving,” He met his teammates’ eyes, allowed them to witness his own fears, but also his stubborn determination. He wasn’t asking them to ignore or dismiss their worries, but rather, put it into finishing the mission so they could go home sooner.

No one fought him; thankfully just picked their tasks and headed out.

“Tech, we need transport. Now. I don’t care how you do it, just get it done, alright?” Marcus refused to acknowledge the slight tremble in his voice, tried to breathe around the lump in his throat and the dread sinking in his stomach. He desperately stopped himself from thinking about coincidences and probabilities. This was all a fluke, a random string of events that didn’t mean anything more was going on. They’d be able to laugh about it when they got home and saw everything was just as they’d left it. He had to believe that. He didn’t have any other choice.

—-

Transport home turned out to be a military helicopter big enough to fit the whole team, in addition to the fully outfitted squad of soldiers already inside.

“According to the press release your director gave, there was small but powerful group of gifted individuals who invaded Heroics’ Headquarters, intending to either kidnap or kill certain “important personnel” within the building. Didn’t specify much more than that, other than that your organization would be dedicating as much manpower as they could to bring “those who would cause such destruction and terror” to justice. The address was filmed in the parking lot, but there were a lot of emergency responders and vehicle in the background. I’m sorry we can’t tell you anything more, but well, we were scrambled to your location ASAP, barely had time for the news we got...” The staff sergeant sitting across from Marcus briefed the team about what the intel they had on the HQ attack. And that was what it was. An attack. The thing they all feared most.

“Thank you for the information, and for the ride back home; we lost communication in the middle of a battle, with no clue as to why. Now, at least, we have an idea of what we should expect when we arrive.” The mention of “important personnel” jump-started Marcus’s heart into overdrive. That was the code phrase they used when describing their most vulnerable people to the public, non-combatants and injured persons usually; a smokescreen meant to dissuade targeted attacks, and shift attention away from those who couldn’t protect themselves in the case of an emergency. It was also the code that frequently represented their children.

The families of the Heroics were classified as high-risk targets; villains and enemies of their organization didn’t often have the moral decency to leave their loved ones out of the fight. So, to afford as much anonymity and protection possible, any time the team had to reference their partners and children in physical records and documentation, it was under that code phrase.

This attack was centred on their kids.

What kind of monster do you have to be to go after a bunch of kindergarten and primary school children?

Fuck.

The only good news was that there was no mention of the attack being a success.

So, all the Heroics knew for certain was that a group of villains had tried to get to their children, and while obviously causing significant damage to HQ, they had been stopped. Were unsuccessful. The Home Team had saved the day again.

Marcus thanked every deity he could think of for keeping his and his friends’ kids safe.

The rest of the flight home was quiet. Him and teammates finally able to get some rest after all the fighting and panic, and the soldiers conversing just loud enough to be heard over the headsets and hum of the chopper’s motors.

He was pulled back from the edge of unconsciousness he had been drifting along for a while when the pilot gave them their five-minute ETA.

They were home at long last, and everything was going to be just fine.

---

[Next Part]

#we can be heroes #marcus moreno x reader #marcus moreno #we can be heroes fanfiction #reader x marcus moreno #marcus moreno x you #reader insert #hurt/comfort #eventual happy ending #please forgive my bad fight scenes lol

35 notes · View notes

robotslenderman · 4 years

Text

Eternal Hearts Liveblog, pt 1

Special thanks to @missn11, who is probably mortified their name is associated with this travesty of a post, for letting me get my filthy little hands on this piece of embarrassing VTM history.

Okay guys, time to do the thing that’s gonna get me cancelled by fifteen-year-olds in the year 2032:

I’m gonna liveblog Eternal Hearts.

I once promised myself I would never make a rape joke, but today I break that vow because even the rape scenes are (sometimes) just that fucking ridiculous that I had to make fun of them.

This book is just.

Guys.

It’s GLORIOUS.

In the first twenty-four pages alone we have:

A guy is confronted by a locked door, so he whips his dick out. Everyone else acts like this is completely normal.

A guy meeting Final Death because a politician sat on his face. RIP in pieces Noah.

A mortal setting herself on fire, waving her arms around and running at a bunch of vampires yelling “DIE, YOU BASTARDS!”

A guy using his dick as a key ring. (Yeah, it’s the locked door guy.)

Lucita given the Hallowe’en treatment, in that she’s covered with sewage -- but sexy!

Daddy kink on top of the Washington monument.

Only some of the above makes sense in context. Some of it is as baffling in context as it is out of context.

This is the funniest shit I’ve ever read. Nobody told me about this when I went in holy shit.

Time to open this sucker up!

Liveblog under the cut!

DEAD DOVE, DO NOT EAT, THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT ETERNAL HEARTS IS, DO NOT READ THIS LIVEBLOG, HOLY SHIT.

You’re in for a ride, and it’s the edgiest, unsexiest ride ever.

First thing I notice: Eternal Hearts is, in fact, written by a woman. Which may mean that if she wanted to scare the shit out of her female readers, she'd know exactly how to do it.

gulp.

(^ I wrote that back when I thought I was gonna traumatise myself by reading this. OH BOY)

Next bit, the rape book is opened by the following foreword:

What follows is an essay that basically boils down to "no! :D but we wrote it anyway!”

Partway through that is this quote:

We’ll come back to that quote later. Several times, I predict.

Aaaand we open straight into a gang rape scene! Oh joy. And there’s church spires, to make it extra edgy.

Oh but then they give her the Kiss so she enjoys it! Yay!

Oh.

She's a shovelhead.

They never mentioned THIS part of the Sabbat recruitment process.

and now she's underground and buried and being raped again? Somehow. Like somebody’s got their entire goddamn fist in there. While under six feet of dirt. I know someone’s got their entire damn fist in there because the Shovelhead’s thinking about how somebody got their entire goddamn fist in there.

(Yeah this is the bit I had to make jokes about because it was that fucking ridiculous. I started this out trying to be respectful. I failed. Miserably. I just can’t fucking do it this is too -- too -- Eternal Hearts-y.)

Like the author just turned to the other people in the credits page and pitched this idea: “guys. Hear me out. What do you think is scarier than being raped or being buried alive?”

“idk what?”

“being raped after being buried alive!”

“That’s a GREAT idea!”

(”Lucy didn’t even break the rules as much as I was willing to let her” Remember that quote? Thank god for that.)

Jean - for that is our poor Shovelhead's name, RIP - seems only mildly concerned about the rape. and the fact it’s still happening.

Like yeah, serious talk, putting my respectful hat on: to be fair, everyone responds to trauma differently. You know how I respond to trauma? I make jokes about it. Like I’m the kind of person to say “what are you gonna do, STAB ME?” for the lols when a guy is pointing a knife at me.

Okay, respectful hat back off, back to edgy humour.

Anyway she’s being fisted by somebody while also six feet underground, somehow, and daydreaming about the guy she’s stalking and about how she’s in love with him, hmm, maybe he had something to do with it? She’s not entirely sure.

(ETA: So an anonymous Discord friend was reading my liveblog and said this:

and I laughed so hard my dog actually pawed at me because she was worried.

Yeah, I’m going to hell, but at least I know I’m taking you guys with me.)

Anyway she starts digging her way out, and I guess she’s still being fisted while she’s digging her way out???? IDK they didn’t say it stopped??? Like that’s gotta make digging your way out difficult.

And then cut to Lucita!

Walking past a protest outside a sex shop. There’s a bunch of Christian protestors outside because they’re bored or something. We get straight back into rapiness with a Dominate:

Damn Lucita, if jizzing your own brains isn't the hottest image you can give a guy, I don't know how what is.

Lucita decides to snack instead of raping him, but does sexually assault him by taking his dick from his pants and leaving it in his hand when he’s unconscious.

Lucita walks into a meeting at a brothel. There are “slaves”. I’m not sure if they’re sex slaves or if they’re actually ghouls, but then again, this is Eternal Hearts so probably both.

She expects Pieterzoon to be there, but he's not. When the others start talking like he's missing, she is completely unconcerned and immediately starts talking as if she knows he's missing.

They move on. Pieterzoon has paid Lucita to assassinate Marcus Vitel. Good fucking luck with that one. Everyone at the meeting is trying to stop her from doing it. Lucita’s like “tough shit he’s already paid me bitch is gonna die”.

Also the Brujah woman present is apparently this scene’s titillation or something because the author loves to remind us about how tight her clothes are and how she's "seductively cuddling" people.

no fucking kidding

I like how the VTM universe goes out of its way to avoid using the terms “son” and “daughter” to avoid the Unfortunate Implications when people inevitably start fucking their Sires

and the author’s like "nah fuck that let’s daddy kink it up.”

Oh and he does it ON TOP OF THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT!! Like gang rape in a churchyard wasn’t edgy enough I guess.

the author can't go a paragraph without reminding us that sex exists and everyone is utterly sex crazed. The bit I blacked out above? That was Lucita daydreaming about hiring a prostitute. Like that’s not erotica, erotica is arousing, this is just voyeurism.

Lucita apparently hasn't yet noticed she's in a porno.

Somebody makes a joke about the Christian protestors gang raping the prostitutes outside. It’s a Ventrue. Of course it is.

Apparently the slave (I guess the word “ghoul” isn’t sexy enough) in the above screenshot is a fucking senator. Pun not intended. She soothes the cranky Brujah by suggesting they get somebody called Torres deported? I have no idea what that has to do with Lucita assassinating Marcus Vitel, but there's almost certainly going to be fucking involved.

(ETA 23/1/21 -- I regret to inform you all that there wasn’t “fucking” involved so much as gang rape. Never mind.)

Lucita and the Brujah guy almost start stabbing each other (so much for that soothing), but somebody has just set the brothel on fire so they have to GTFO.

The mortal senator can't quite fit inside the escape tunnel because her skirt is huge and keeping it on is apparently more important than not dying of smoke inhalation. But it’s okay, she manages it.

The skirt will be important later, unfortunately.

They come to a locked door in the passage. Oh no, whatever will they do?

Will they take a key out of their pocket and unlock it?

Nah, that’s too fucking sensible.

The Brujah that tried to punch Lucita whips out his dick.

Yes.

He actually fucking does that.

Weird flex, but okay.

(ETA 21/1/21 -- I just realised... what if it’s somebody ELSE’S penis he just whipped out? Like the thing was actually just chilling out and he pulls it out the way somebody else pulls out a cucumber. It’s not attached to his body, it’s just THERE?)

Everyone is completely unfazed by this. Both by the fact he whipped his dick out, and the fact he uses it as a fucking key ring.

Like. Is this a habit of his????? APPARENTLY IT IS.

(ETA: Anonymous Discord friend says:

SDFADLFJASDLFJASDF)

They end up in a sewer.

Garinson keeps a key to a sewer on his dick key ring.

(”Lucy didn’t even break the rules as much as I was willing to let her” yeah I just remembered another place more fitting for a sewer key)

THEN!!!

PLOT TWIST!!

The senator suddenly threatens everyone with a lighter!!

After the kindred are done laughing their ass off, she covers herself in whiskey, sets herself on fire and charges them.

I'm sorry but the way it's worded - pin wheeling, cringing - just makes this the funniest shit. It gets even funnier when you remember they’re knee-deep in water. Ever tried to run in water? It’s. not exactly easy. So presumably she’s tripping and stumbling the entire time and somehow still on fire as she does so.

A kindred tries to escape by clawing his way up the wall. He falls. The senator assassinates him by flinging her skirt over his head and sitting on his face. That part of her is also on fire. The skirt and her thighs are on fire.

And I guess they’re obviously not thigh-deep in water any more ‘cause the poor fuck doesn’t survive this.

what a way to fucking go: death by fire pussy.

Everyone panics, except Lucita, who's like "fuck this", cuts off her head, puts out the corpse, then, uh. uses it as a shield against the remaining flames. as you do.

(Between that and the above screenshot, there’s graphic descriptions of what, exactly, the fire is doing to the senator, and how said senator doesn’t give a flying fuck that fire is kinda hurty because she hates vampires that fucking much.)

Lucita meets a Nosferatu who offers to guide her from the sewers. On the next page, we have an illustration of Lucita, in sewage, looking up at the Nosferatu.

You couldn’t possibly make that picture sexy, could you?

Welp the artist went “Challenge accepted!”

So I wanted to show you guys the picture but I didn’t want to get too banned from Tumblr for an Eternal Hearts liveblog, so I went to my friends for help. One of them, @intimidatethevoid, answered the call to arms:

Well.

This is awkward.

And so she bestowed upon me this glorious, but also cursed, image:

Yeah.

Her shirt’s somehow come off. And she isn’t wearing any knickers. Hence the Filthy Frank sticker.

And that’s gonna wrap up part 1 of my Eternal Hearts liveblog!

For more, like this post in secret shame so that none of your followers have to see it. To cancel me, send angry anon messages and death threats to my inbox.

#Dusty liveblogs #Eternal Hearts #VTM #rape CW #Eternal Hearts CW #DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT oh my god I can't even #I'm going to regret posting this I just know it but I HAD to #eternal hearts liveblog

46 notes · View notes

pikemoreno · 4 years

Text

if you ever wanna be in love

Chapter I: Coffee Cures All Ills

a/n: Here it is folks! The first part of a Marcus fic heavily inspired by the Netflix rom-com Set It Up.

It’s more structurally and conceptually inspired and not an exact scene-for-scene remake because a) I was interested in the idea of this not even really being an AU. This is extremely canon-compliant and you’ll see more of that as we continue on. 😏And b) because I had lots of ideas that spun off from watching Set It Up that I just liked better for the purpose of this fic. So that’s what you can expect. It’s gonna be cheesy and fun and great.

The first couple of chapters are a lot of, well, set up (which has been infuriating). But we’ll get into the meat of it soon. My outline says so.

As a side note, a lot of the gifs I’m going to be using are from the movie, but these are not my face claims for any of the characters. I’m using them simply for the ~vibe~ of the chapter. Reader is not a small white girl... Or she might be. She is you. Or whatever OC you’d like her to be. Period.

And that’s it. Let’s go, I guess.

pairing: marcus pike x f!reader

word count: 2k (probably one of the shortest chapters we’re gonna see out of the 14-ish lolz)

warnings: none, and i don’t expect there to really be any serious ones in upcoming chapters either. this is just fun.

Marcus Pike never wanted to fall in love.

He’d seen what it had done to him in failed relationships including everything up to a failed marriage. Some would argue that it wasn’t love then, that love doesn’t fail, so it couldn’t have been. But he disagreed. He knows it when it hits. It comes on you like lightning, bright and fast. You accept it, letting it run through your veins, and risk suffering a fatal blow to your heart. And it most definitely can fatally fail. It can cause joy and pain in equal measure. He’d already been struck so painfully once, the blow of the electricity going straight to his heart. He was beginning to hope to the high heavens that he wouldn’t be so unlucky as to be struck a second time, just in case it should reach his heart so painfully once more.

Marcus Pike never wanted to fall in love.

He felt that especially strongly as he watched Adrian go through his recent break-up. He felt for his fellow agent, he really did. Adrian was completely convinced Sam was the one, sold to the point of going ring shopping soon. But one brief mention of an engagement sent Sam running for the hills. He’d been moping around the office for a couple of weeks now and, as much as Marcus understood the pain, he was already really looking forward to Adrian’s rebound or some similar distraction. He was needing his friend’s signature fire back right about now, not to mention his focus. His work had gotten sloppy in this mourning period. He was constantly distracted. Marcus was dreading getting him on this case today, but maybe it was just the push he needed. He hoped. He stepped up to Adrian’s desk, watching the glazed over look in his eye.

“Hey, Adrian, do you mind getting a head start on this? I’d really like you to be our head man on--” he slid the file onto his desk, but was cut short by Adrian’s response. A response that had nothing to do with anything Marcus had just said.

“I’m gonna die alone,” he muttered, hands supporting his chin, elbows on his desk. Marcus let out an exasperated sigh that he didn’t seem to notice.

“You’re not gonna die alone,” he played along once again, rubbing his temple.

“Maybe I’ll go be a monk. They never have to worry about this shit.”

“An honorable profession.”

“Yeah.” Adrian blinked out of his dream-like state. “I’m doing it again, aren’t I?” Marcus nodded rigidly. “Sorry, Pike.” He opened the file, nodding slowly, “Yeah, I’ll get on this.”

“You look exhausted,”

“I am,” he admitted sheepishly.

“I’m making a break room run to get coffee, you want one?”

“Please.” Marcus nodded his understanding and made his way down the hall to the break room. He doubted a case and a coffee could get his friend back on track, but he could hope, right?

***

If you had to listen through one more of Wendy’s mood swings, you might just scream. You love the girl, you really do. She’s your friend and the best boss you could’ve asked for, but Lord Almighty, had she been in rare form. Some days she was perfectly fine, strutting around like she didn’t care that her asshole boyfriend Daniel gave her an ultimatum instead of a ring on their last anniversary. Other days would see her doing a complete 180, shutting herself in her office and weeping into suspect files. Your least favorite days, though, were days where the heartbreak made her angry, where thinking about Daniel saying “It’s me or your job” made her border-line vengeful. But, unfortunately for you and the rest of the team, he wasn’t around to take the beating.

You couldn’t say you entirely understood. The short catalog of even shorter flings that you boasted brought largely apathy rather than heartbreak. You couldn’t say you’d ever been in love like Wendy had been. You’d never felt anything quite that strong-- and thank goodness for that. It wasn’t something you particularly looked forward to, at least, not the way you’d seen it lately. It was an uncontrollable force, dangerous and all-consuming. You liked control, liked being in your right mind. If love was to take up it's unfortunate residence, you could only hope it was for someone worth losing your mind over. You hadn’t seen anyone of the sort so far.

Unfortunately, it was already too late for Wendy Harrod. The already intimidating head of the Jewelry & Gem Theft Program in Texas was in rare form. You watched as an HR intern ran from her office in near tears. Poor Randy. Her sharp “come in” in response to your knock on her door made you wince.

“Harrod, I have the results of that house search you requested if you--”

“No, no! Absolutely not, I cannot handle this right now,” she was absolutely raging, leaving you grasping at straws for a response.

“I-- Uh-- Of course. I’ll just leave it right here whenever--” you placed it gently on the end table by the door before being interrupted again.

“Ughhhhh,” she groaned out before flopping into her desk chair, the red leather creaking as she let sit spin her around once, “I’m sorry. I’m being mean.” There was your Wendy.

“Just a little.”

“Sorry, sorry. Bring that here please.”

“What can I do for you? As your friend, I mean. You--” you weighed your words carefully as you hand her the report, “You haven’t quite been yourself since…” you stopped that thought, “Well, lately.” She sighed, shaking her head.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what I need,” she began to skim the report before looking back up with you with a tight lipped smile, “Maybe a coffee? For the more immediate problems anyway.” You laughed.

“Now that I can do. I’m headed there now. Break room coffee ok?”

“That’d be perfect.”

“The usual?”

“The usual.” She yelled after you as you walk down the hall, “You’re an angel!”

She wasn’t gonna be saying that when you came back without coffee.

The sign on the coffee pot reading “out of coffee” was going to seriously ruin your reputation and Wendy’s sensitive mood. You ran through the options: you couldn’t leave to get her a Starbucks; there were some bottled iced coffees in the fridge, but Wendy hated them; you could wait for someone to make a run at lunch and pass on the order, but this was too urgent. Then it hit you. Everyone knew the sixth floor had the better coffee stock anyway. The art freaks loved their fancy stuff. You could always just waltz down a floor and snag two cups from their stash. 5 minutes in and out. No harm done, no questions asked.

Or so you thought.

The sixth floor break room was already occupied when you walked in, finding another agent also brewing a morning cup in a single cup coffee maker.

They really did have everything here: multiple pots, another much fancier looking machine that looked like it might come to life and attack at any moment, recyclable coffee cups, every type of creamer. You name it.

You’d have to sneak over here more often.

You stepped up to the larger coffee pot, rinsing out the carafe before reaching for the container of grounds. Empty.

They had everything here. Except coffee.

Was the whole damn building in a coffee famine? You didn’t have time to check.

“No, no, no, no,” you panicked, frantically searching the cabinet for another container. In your peripheral you could see the other agent look at you like you’d grown two heads. You couldn’t be bothered with his judgement, but you met his eyes to ask, maybe a little too frantically.

“Is that the last of it?” you questioned, eyeing the cup he was brewing.

“Well, yeah, sorry.” It was obvious he meant it, but apologies were not what you were needing right now.

“Shit.”

“Withdrawals?” he laughed a little at your panicked state, but it wasn’t demeaning. He was genuinely amused, and maybe a little concerned, but it made you narrow your eyes at him all the same. You were not in the mood for the mocking, no matter how light-hearted it may be. No matter how much it was softened by the bright smile next to you.

“It’s not for me. It’s for my boss. My very upset boss who needs just one small ounce of joy in her life right now. The kind of joy that can only come from the fueling of her caffeine addiction, so if I could please just have that cup?” You blinked at him innocently, but his dark brown eyes widened as he shook his head

“What? No. I have a friend who needs this. If I don’t bring him this, he won’t be working for the rest of the day.”

“If I don’t bring my boss a cup of coffee in the next two minutes, I will probably not be working again. Ever. I will be dead. Do you want to be complicit in a murder, Agent--” you glanced at his badge, “Pike? Can you really live with that?”

“You’re awfully dramatic aren’t you?”

“I wish it was an exaggeration.” He inspected your badge then too.

“Jewelry and Gem Theft. Floor 7, right? What brings you down here to steal our coffee?” The argument was pointed, but his demeanor was anything but. He was smiling, enjoying this. A little too much, you seethed. You couldn’t stand around arguing all day.

“We’re out too.”

“Try another floor?”

“Time is of the essence here, Art Squad.” There was no room for addressing him politely now, he was riling you up on purpose.

“If you didn’t stand here arguing with me you could’ve tried another floor by now, Jewels.”

He must think he’s so clever.

“Please. This is DEFCON 5.”

“You do know DEFCON 5 is the good one, right?”

“You know what I mean. Please.” He looked at you and then the newly brewed cup, biting the inside of his cheek, thinking through the problem.

“Tell you what. I am willing to split this if you are. Maybe it’s enough to fix both of them.” The crease between his eyebrows was deep as he studied your face, “I know Adrian is too out of it to notice he’s getting jipped, not sure about your boss.” You shrugged.

“Wendy will manage. It’s enough to keep her from throwing something at my head next time I walk in.” He dutifully split the coffee between two of the recyclable travel cups and handed one to you. You took it gratefully.

“I hope this keeps you from… Dying? What’s up with that anyway?” You’re not sure what made this person that was essentially a stranger so interested in your life, but something about it feels nice.

“She had a really bad breakup: anniversary, thought it was going to be a proposal, instead it was him being a piss-baby. She’s a little all over the place right now. They’d been together for years and now there’s just… A hole. She doesn’t know how to deal with it.” Pike’s nod in response is emphatic, giving the cup in his hand a little wave.

“Same with him. Terrible breakup. He didn’t see it coming at all. She broke up with him on a voicemail… Then moved. ‘Course it just put him in this crazy funk, though. Doesn’t wanna work or do much of anything. No violence. Yet. But it’s sad to see.” You winced.

“That’s a rough one. Best of luck with him, Art Squad. Thank you. I owe you one. Seriously.”

“You definitely do, Jewels.” His smile is blindingly bright as he jokes. It makes you smile back.

“See you around.”

series taglist: @whiskeyslasso @ahopelessromanticwritersworld

forever tags: @acomplicatedprofession @hdlynn @makaela27 @space-floozy @catfishingmorales @ithinkhesgaybutwesavedmufasa @princessbatears @synystersilenceinblacknwhite @findhimfives

#im not in love with this first chapter but hey!#gotta start somewhere #marcus pike x reader #iyewbil #bri writes

205 notes · View notes

albertasunrise · 3 years

Text

Amateur Heist - Chapter 1

Summary: You know his name is Marcus Pike. You know he works for the FBI. You’ve seen him around the gallery the past week, or so. Thrown him longing looks when his back's turned but he's here for a reason, a tip that the gallery was going to be a robbed. What you don’t know is that you are about to get a lot more acquainted with him as his life will literally be in your hands.

Warnings: Blood and Injury, Hostage situation, Angst.

Relationship: Marcus x Reader

You know his name is Marcus Pike. You know he works for the FBI. You’ve seen him around the gallery the past week, or so. Thrown him longing looks when his back's turned but he's here for a reason, a tip that the gallery was going to be a robbed. What you don’t know is that you are about to get a lot more acquainted with him as his life will literally be in your hands.

The day started out like any other. You opened up the gallery as normal and busied yourself with cleaning and paperwork as you did every day. Your boss usually arrives around 9 with a coffee for you and he in hand, he never fails to bring you your latte with a single shot of Caramel syrup.

‘Good morning Sweet.’ He says with a smile as he hands you your to-go cup, pecking you on the cheek before heading to his office in the back.

Marcus doesn’t have a particular time that he arrives but he usually pops in around mid-morning to scour the CCTV footage and speak to you and your boss about anything suspicious that you may have seen. He’s always dressed down, never looks like an FBI agent and he explained that this was in case they were scoping the place. He didn't want to raise suspicion which was why he always enters from the rear of the gallery also as the alley made anyone spying on the place easier to spot.

‘I have a lunchtime reservation with Fiona today so I will be out until around 2.’ States your boss as he emerges from his office a little while later, iPad in hand ‘You think you’ll be able to hold the fort whilst I'm out?’

‘Oh, I think I’ll be able to handle it.’ You chuckle as you look around at the empty gallery.

‘Perfect!’ He exclaims before returning to tapping away at the tablet in his hand.

You busy yourself again after he leaves, busy typing up emails when the bell above to door dings, alerting you to someone entering.

‘I will be with you in just a moment.’ You say as you finish up a receipt for your latest sale.

‘You’ll deal with me now.’ A voice growls and you look up slowly to see a gun pointing straight at you.

You don’t know where the sudden confidence comes from but you manage to blindly dial Marcus’ number, knowing he was the last person you’d called on your work mobile to confirm something the previous day.

‘Step away from the counter with your hands above your head.’ He spits and you do as you’re told, your eyes fixed on his ‘Lock the door. You run, I shoot you.’

You nod, slowly making your way to the door and turning the key in the lock before turning back to face him. What now?

‘You going to swing by the gallery today boss?’ Asks Matt as Marcus walks into the communal kitchen.

‘I’m not sure yet.’ He replies, shrugging as he pours some coffee into this mug ‘It’s been over a week and there have been no hits on the gallery.’ He pauses to take a sip ‘Maybe we were given a bad tip.’

‘So you’re not even going to pop by just so you can see her?’ Matt asks suggestively as he wiggles his eyebrows at his boss.

‘Don’t Matt.’ He warns as he points at him.

‘Oh come on. I've seen the way you look at her.’ He states ‘Just ask her out. I’m sure she’d say yes.’

‘How would you know. My dealings with her have been nothing but professional.’

‘Because I’ve seen the way she looks at you when your back is turned.’ Matt finishes and Marcus feels a warm feeling wash over him.

Did you like him? He couldn’t deny that he had a rather large crush on you. He found you irresistible. You not only had a vast knowledge about art but you were also just as passionate as he was about it. His phone ringing in his pocket tugs him back to reality and he pulls it out to see your name flashing on the screen.

‘Who is it?’ Asks Matt quizzically.

‘It’s her.’

‘Maybe she’s calling to see where you are?’ He states, giving his boss a wink as Marcus answers.

‘Pike.’

He doesn’t hear anything initially and he wonders if you may have dialled him by mistake but just as he was about to pull his phone away from his ear he heard it.

‘Step away from the counter with your hands above your head’

Marcus’ face drops.

‘Boss, what is it?’ Matt asks upon noticing his bosses change in demeanour.

‘We need to get down to the gallery now.’ He states, hanging up the phone ‘It’s being robbed.’

In less than an hour, the gallery is surrounded, the whole street closed off as FBI and Police vehicles line the street. Marcus jumps out of his car and makes his way to the rest of his team that is eagerly awaiting his instruction and he glances inside to see you curled up against the wall as the assailant paces nervously.

‘We have both the front and rear entrance’s covered.’ States Alice as she nods at her boss in greeting ‘We don’t think he is aware that there is another way into the gallery. I think it’s likely that he’s new to this boss.’

‘Right,’ Marcus starts, looking down at the blueprint spread across the hood of Alice’s car ‘Matt and I are going to enter from the rear. If he isn't aware of it then we should be able to get in and subdue him easily. Alice, I want you and James to stay here and keep the local police instructed on what the plan is. If we aren’t able to get in then he may start making demands.’

‘You got it.’ She replies as she folds up the blueprint and makes her way over to a cluster of officers stood a little further down the street from them.

‘Right. Vest on. We’re going in.’ Orders Marcus and Matt nods.

As soon as they were suited up they were sprinting down the alleyway, Marcus pulling out the key the owner had given him and gingerly turning it in the lock.

‘Stay behind me.’ He says to Matt before opening the door and stepping inside, both of them watching their footing carefully as not to alert the robber to their presence.

Meanwhile, you have been made to move to the other side of the divide that sits proudly at the centre of the gallery and thats when you’d realised that this man wasn’t alone. There is two of them. You’d managed to keep yourself somewhat calm but you were starting to feel the adrenaline wearing off and your body had started to betray you. From the corner of your eye, you notice the storeroom door creaking open, your eyes growing wide when Marcus’s face comes into view and he raises his pointer finger up to his lips. You nod, just enough that he knows that you understand but not enough to rouse suspicion and then your gaze flits to the man across from you, you shut your eyes and pray for it to be over.

‘FBI, HANDS UP.’ Shouts Marcus as he jumps into the room, aiming his weapon at the man behind you, the only one he knows about.

‘MARCUS, WATCH OUT.’ You scream as your eyes shoot open and you see the second man aim his weapon at the agent.

It happens in a flash. Pike turns just quick enough to see his attacker before they pull the trigger, the agent hitting the ground with a loud thud. You look over at him, his face already painted in blood and he's blinking rapidly in what you assume is an attempt to try and clear his mind.

‘BACK UP.’ Shouts the man behind you as he steps closer to Matt ‘Back up or my partner here will shoot him between the eyes.' He spits as he waves his weapon at a dazed Marcus.

Matt did as he was bid, backing up with his hands raised in surrender. He glances at his boss, there's is blood and a lot of it. Marcus is laying there still blinking, desperately trying to make sense of what has just happened but all he could hear is a ringing in his ears as his vision starts to grey around the edges.

‘You tell your colleagues that we’ll have some demands.’ Growls, who you had decided must be in charge ‘If they aren’t met. These two die.’ He states and you lock eyes with Matt in a silent plea to save you ‘Now run along and tell them that we’ll be in touch!’

Matt turns and leaves, sprinting through the back door with Marcus’ attacker hot on his heels.

‘Make sure no one can get through that door!' He yells before turning his attention back to you, and then to the bleeding agent on the floor ‘You best take a look at that.’ He orders as he watches Marcus flop on the floor ‘He don’t look so good.’

You pull off your blazer and scoot over to him, pressing it firmly against his gushing head wound in an attempt to slow the bleeding. Now you were no doctor but you’d watched House. You know head wounds bleed a lot but do they normally bleed this much? You peel your blazer back a moment to get a better look at the damage and you gasp at what you see. This grabs Marcus’ attention.

‘That bad eh?’ He asks, his brown eyes full of fear.

‘No.’ You reply, shaking your head ‘Just grazed you. You’ll be okay.’ You lie, not able to bring yourself to tell him the truth. The bullet had grazed him alright but from the looks of it, it had fractured his skull in the process.

His eyes were starting to droop. You know that people with head injuries need to stay awake and so you shake his shoulder and you speak to him ‘You need to stay awake agent Pike.’ You urge, feeling tears start to sting your eyes ‘Just keep those pretty brown eyes on me.’

‘You think my eyes are pretty?’ He questions, smirking at you and you let out a breathy chuckle.

‘Yes.’ You reply with a nod ‘I think they’re very pretty Agent Pike.’

'Marcus.'

'Hmm?'

'Marcus.' He repeats 'Call me Marcus.'

‘Matt, what the hell is going on?’ Yells James upon seeing the younger agent sprinting across the street ‘Where the hell is Marcus? We heard gunshots!’

‘He’s been shot.’ Matt states as he leans heavily on the car whilst he attempts to catch his breath ‘There's two of them.’ One’s hiding just on the other side of that divide. He caught Pike by surprise, got him in the head.’

‘FUCK!.’ Yells James ‘He alive?’

‘He was when I left.’ Matt replies ‘They’re going to be calling with demands soon so we need to make sure someone's ready to take that call. He was bleeding badly so I’m not sure how long he’s going to hold out.’

‘Right grab Alice.’ James orders, motioning to the female agent ‘She’ll be our best bet at getting them out alive.’

‘How did you get into art.’ He asks, his eyes growing heavier by the minute.

‘Well, it's the only thing I'm any good at.’ You chuckle before noticing how cold his skins gone Shit he’s going into shock ‘I went to school in England where I studied for 6 years. Learned that it’s impossible to make any money selling work no one wants. Then I met Simon and he offered me a job here. What about you?’

‘Pretty much the same.’ He replies, shivering as he looks sideways at the painting on the wall beside you ‘Apart from the studying on England part. Discovered that I was also quite the detective and ended up working for the FBI Art Crimes Division. I hadn’t even known there was one till I joined.’

‘I’ll confess I didn’t either. It almost seems like something out of a movie.’ You say and he smiles warmly at you before his eyes slip closed ‘Hey Marcus no. Keep your eyes open for me.’

You can see he’s trying but he’s failing miserably and so you rack your brain for something, anything you can do to get his attention.

Then it hits you.

You lean down and press your soft lips against his, smiling when he gasps in surprise before kissing you back and letting out a small hum of approval.

‘Normally I like to be wined and dined first.’ He jokes as you pull away, his brown eyes sparkling.

‘Well how about we make a deal? You keep your eyes open for me and stay awake and as a reward, I will take you out to dinner.’ You say and he grins at you.

‘Are you asking me on a date?’

‘Maybe I am.’ You reply, returning his toothy smile with your own.

‘I’m supposed to do that.’ He mumbles, eyes starting to flutter again.

‘Well, you’ve had over a week!’ You exclaim and he chuckles weakly ‘I guess I’ve had to take matters into my own hands.’

He looks up at you through hooded lids, his smile, though weak, still spreading to his eyes.

‘Okay. I will on one con-condition.’ He stutters and you tilt your head in curiosity ‘I pay.’

‘Hmmm, I think I can accept those terms.’ You reply, smiling sweetly at him as one hand presses down your blood-soaked blazer to his head as the other cups his cheek, thumb rubbing circles on the soft skin there.

‘Then it’s a date.’ He chuckles before scrunching his eyes as the pain starts to filter through.

‘What are they demanding?’ Asks Matt, watching as Alice listens to the perps over the phone.

‘They want to walk out of there.’ She states ‘They haven’t taken anything and they won’t if we let them go without charge. They want a car and the promise that when they leave, they won’t be followed.’

‘Are they insane?’ Matt whisper shouts ‘One of them shot a fucking federal agent in the head!’

‘Well, we might have to concede to their demands.’ She states ‘Marcus isn’t doing well according to him.'

‘Headquarters aren’t going to just let them walk out.’ States James and Alice throws the phone down as she lets out an exasperated sigh ‘Well it's that or Pike bleeds to death.’ She growls ‘Which will it be?’

You notice that Marcus’ eyes are starting to slip shut again. His skin is now a scary shade of white and his breathing has become erratic. You know the warning signs for shock and he is definitely ticking those boxes. You also know he didn’t have long before his organs would start to shut down. It would most likely kill him before the blood loss.

‘Where shall we go on our date then?’ You ask, desperate to keep him with you ‘Now I don’t know about you but I live for Pancakes.’

‘I l-love p…pan-cakes.’ Your heart twists at how hard it is for him to speak now.

‘Well, I know this super cute little diner. Does the best pancakes.’ You state as you pull him a little closer to you ‘They do the Canadian special. Thick, fluffy pancakes topped in crispy chicken and maple-cured bacon. Of course, it's then drowned in maple syrup.’

‘S-sounds good.’ He says, his hand grabbing your forearm and giving it a squeeze ‘I think I'd like t-to try th-that.’

‘Well, then that settles it. We’ll go there for dinner and order two Canadian Specials.’ You declare and he gives you a dopey smile.

‘Then what will we do?’ He asks, his eyes a little brighter than before.

‘Then we can go for a walk. There’s a lovely park a little way down from there. They light up the trees at night, it's magical.’ You state and he smiles as he listens to you speak ‘Then you can walk me back to my apartment, I don't live far from there, and you can kiss me goodnight on my doorstep.’

‘I’d like that.’

‘Just a kiss mind.’ You state as you feign a serious expression ‘I don’t do any funny business on the first date.’

‘Noted.’ He replies, his laugh followed by dry coughing that makes him groan in pain.

When the pain settles a little he looks up at you again. That fear you’d first seen has returned and you feel your stomach twisting in knots.

‘I’m so cold.’ He states and you feel your blood turn to ice.

‘You just need to hold on a little longer.’ You plead, shaking him gently as his eyes slip shut for a moment ‘Come on Marcus, let me see those eyes again.’

He graces you with his gaze. Brow knitted together as tears start to leak from the corner of his eyes ‘I’m scared.’ He sobs and you swear your heart shatters.

‘There’s no reason to be scared, Marcus.’ You say softly as you rock him gently in your arms ‘You’re going to be fine.’ You state as you look up and your captors who are busy growling down the phone ‘Everything’s going to be okay. We're going to get out of here. Okay? Marcus?’

Nothing.

‘Marcus?’ You glance down and sob.

He’s lost the battle to keep his eyes open.

Chapter 2

#Marcus Pike #Marcus Pike x Reader #Marcus Pike x You #Marcus Pike Fanfiction #Mentalist fanfiction #pedro Pascal character fanfiction #Pedro Pascal fanfiction #Pedro Pascal characters

12 notes · View notes

low-budget-korra · 4 years

Text

The first text I made was over 2,000 words so I’ll try to summarize it.

First I'm going to talk about what I think is Bury Your Gays and poor writing of minorities.

For me, Bury your gays is when certain productions kill the lgbt character for the sake of shock value, often in the most stupid ways possible. A famous example of this was what happened to Lexa in the 100. When it feels like the character only died because he is gay.

And for me, poor writing for minorities (poc, lgbt, people with disabilities ...) can be characterized as:

1. Productions that want to portray the image of progressives and put a poc or lgbt character (which are the most common cases) without personality, unimportant, without development ... Character that are just there for decoration

2. When they even create an interesting character but soon create a reason to kill him to shock the audience. Kill them because they are poc.

And for me having a poc or lgbt character (since these are the boxes where I identify with) interesting, important ... this is the word: Important! whether it is important directly in the plot as a protagonist who carries the story or a supporting role with a good role on the story and a good development, it is much more significant than a character forced only for certain productions not to be accused of racism, sexism or lgbtphobia.

Of course, each case is different. I will now comment briefly on Atomic Blonde, The Last of Us part II and The Legend of Korra.

In Atomic Blonde we have the death of Delphine, a lgbt character who has generated some discussions about being a "bury your gays". I don't particularly agree because I believe that if she were a man or straight, she would die anyway. Since the protagonist's other love interest had died in the beginning and he was a heterosexual white man, and because the character of Delphine, despite being a spy, did not belong in that work or life style . Something even commented by herself. She was an inexperienced agent in the worst possible scenario to be one . But i now understand and why some people still think It was bury your gays.

In The Last of Us part II I saw many people complaining about the death of Jesse, Yara and how Lev was just a supporting character. The Last of Us part II .... a game that is not afraid to kill loved characters without any ceremony simply because in that world, one mistake can cost your life. Regardless of gender, sexuality, age, skin color ...

Jesse and Yara played Asian American characters and died. Mel, Joel, Owen ... were Caucasian, cishet characters who died too. None of them die because they are asian american or caucasian, they die cuz that world is fucking ruthless.

And about Lev not being important just because he is an supporting character... First that he is for Abby what Dina is for Ellie, both of them are extremely important support for the protagonists and Interesting characters with their own internal struggles and development. I think it is very unfair to throw this away with the argument like: "ah, but he is not the protagonist so it is not important"

And still about The Last of Us part II we are talking about a game and for those who do not know the gamer community is toxic, full of sexism, racism, lgbtphobia ... And the game developers had the balls for not only make two protagonists women outside the steryotype of femme fatalle or defenseless love interest(still very present in games) and one of them a lesbian, but also introducing an important trans character in a mainstream high-budget game.

People, until recently the only image we had of women in games was that of a busty model running around, made purely to please male players, good and important black, asian and lgbt characters was really rare or just didnt exist at all.

And today we have characters like Ellie, Lev, Kassandra (AC Odyssey), Jill Valentine and Claire Redfield who were reimagined more humanely in the remakes of Resident Evil, Lara Croft herself in the 2013 Tomb Raider remake, Max and Chloe(Life is Strange), Lee and Clementine(TWD from telltale), Marcus (Detroit Become Humam ), Connor (AC3) ... I know, there is still a long way to go until we have achieved the equality and representativeness that we want in the world of games but we are advancing. They may be a baby step but they still are steps forward. We should continue to support this initiatives and demand better representation.

Now about The Legend of Korra ... Reading the comments in the post i get the feeling that people were much more angry with Bryke for being cishet than with questions related to the narrative.

It bothers me the fact that it seems that whoever made the posts (originally from twitter) did not watch avatar or simply watched without paying attention. It was NEVER about Korra needed suffering but about finding Meaning in suffering. And yes, they are two different things.

When in the end Korra is talking to Tenzin, about understand the why she had to go through all that , for them be abble to be more compassionate of others. That shit is real. When you have a panic attack , for exemple, you become more abble to help someone who also suffers from that. Or when some people lose someone for a disease or acident and choose to become a doctor to help others, wanting no other person had to go through that pain... In this case, the person didnt have to lose someone to be a doctor but maybe after saw all the fight that the doctors put in to save someone and the pain of losing someone may have made the person spend the rest of his life saving people. Get It?

And in Avatar, both TLA and TLOK, people have suffer.

Aang: Cast aside by his friends when people discover he was the Avatar. Runaway and lose all of his people. Had to see the devastation for himself and find the bones of his friend and possible father figure. Almost die a few times. For many years had the weight of been the last of his people. And in a part of the journey, lost Appa.

Sokka and Katara: Lost their mother. Their dad leave to fight and possible die in the war. Sokka was only a teen when he was the man responsable for his tribe. Katara had the weight of being the only waterbender of her tribe and be the only one that could calm Aang once he was in Avatar State.

Toph: as a blind kid, her parents think of her as someone unable to do anything. Had to choose between save Appa or save the others in some point of their journey

Zuko: When i start with him?

Azula: oh Boy...

Iroh: Lose is only son. Had to see his brother burn Zuko's face. And Zuko betrayed him, kind of, in the end of book2.

Asami: Her mom was murdered , maybe even in front of her. Her dad was a evil genius. She probably suffered with Korra in those 3 years.

Mako and Bolin: They grow up as orphans on the streets...

I could go on and on, dude, even the cabbage man had suffer from losing his cabbages over and over.

But all of the sudden, Korra now had to have plot armor or else Bryke is wrong and are terrible people.

Everybody loves to talk about how perfect Zuko's arc and development is. Zuko, who was one of the characters who most have suffered in the show. But for him all was necessary, had meaning, perfect storytelling and structure but with Korra.... "She cant suffer cuz she is brown"

And its not like Bryke was making something up outta nowhere just to torture the character. All she face it was a consequence direct or indirect of her actions and actions of other people.

Amon and the Equalists? Aang didnt kill Yakone nor put him in prison for life, just took his bending. Yakone was a terrible father, and one of the reason Amon hate bending (even himself been a waterbender) so much to the point of him do what he did. The same to Tarrlok. He turn his sons into monsters. And the triads only help them, because they use their bending to rob the non benders.

Vaatu? Look up The Beginning epsodes because this one is more complex.

Unalaq? Look, the worst villain of Avatar. But he took advantage of things that happen as consequences of the ending of book1

Zaheer? Direct consequence of that happen in the finale of book 2.

Kuvira? Direct consequence of things that happen in book 3

Again, i could go on and on and go deeper on all that. But this is already getting to big.

But what pissed me off most is ... Look im years in this fandom. As a Brazilian i saw and read stuff from the fandom here in my country and the fandom here in Tumblr. And in those years i read so much about how Korra journey help people overcome their struggles with ptsd, anxiety, depression...myself included. How much Korra was important to lesbians and bissexuals girls, especially girls of color.

And them we have those few people throw shit on all this and "cancel" you for not agree with them...

The Legend of Korra ended 2014, 6 years ago and still is so loved, so important to so many people, for the most diverse reasons.

For a cishet, Bryke did a amazing job creating this amazingly beautiful universe. With the most diverse inspirations, coming from places that are forgotten on western media. But i guess its easier criticize, and cancel them and the show than do what they did.

I know that sometimes we just wanted a scape from our difficult reality but seriously, if you Just want a movie/tv show/book...100% happy, rainbow and sunshine with no suffering at all, stick with the fanfics because even romcons sometimes have their among of "i you make you cry and suffer" kind of shit.

Suffer is present in our life and what a lot of movies/tv shows/games/books...try to do is bring our struggles and our suffering into them. Why? Its easier have simpathy for characters who look like us, characters who had been through the same stuff as us.

Is so difficult talk those things in another language. I always feel like i didnt express myself right. And im really sorry if i offended anyone, it wasnt my intention.

25 notes · View notes

pretend-writer · 4 years

Text

Down Below (Chapter 63)

Summary: After being sent down on Earth with the other prisoners from the Ark, Y/N Reyes faces series of events and learns about survival. With new things happening around her, she is now starting a new chapter in her life.

Pairing: Bellamy Blake x reader, Raven Reyes x sister!reader

Word Count: 2.1k words

Warning: swearing, mention of death, violence, cannibalism

Down Below Masterlist

✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤

'Why are you telling me this now?' Bellamy kept his head low, starring at the ground while sitting on the bench in his cell.

Finally telling him the truth about the Dark Year was pretty tough, considering the fact that that was the reason why we fell apart. He was going into the fighting pit and it seemed like the right thing to do.

'Figured I'd tell you since we're in a pretty fucked up situation.'

'It doesn't add up. What does Kane have to do with any of the things you told me?'

The flashback pained me, it's been over 4 years since the betrayal but it still hurt. 'Days later I told Marcus the truth about everything. He didn't believe me and instead sided with that monster.'

'A monster?' Bellamy huffed, standing up as he walked towards me. 'You had a choice to back away from everything and you blame Abby?'

'Are you kidding me?'

My eyes began to water as I remembered all of the hidden memories that I tried so hard to shove deep down. I never cried about the Dark Year but perhaps since it was the first time I've ever spoke about it out loud, it finally felt real.

'A grown adult who was supposed to protect us threatened to kill my friend if I didn't do as she said, told me to do something absolutely disgusting. You know exactly how it feels to be manipulated. Bellamy, you know!'

'You could've told Kane right when that happened. That doesn't excuse you for what you did for the rest of the years you've been in the bunker.'

'I was told to be brave, be strong. Look out for grown adults that should be able to take care of themselves. I was only a teenager, just a stupid teenager and was betrayed by someone I was supposed to look up to.' I took a deep breath and shook my head. 'What was I supposed to do? I felt alone. I had to keep doing what we were doing to survive.'

Bellamy flared his nose, I couldn't tell if he was angry or frustrated. Either way I knew it wasn't a good sign. 'I told you that I'm always here for you, why didn't you ever tell me?'

'How was I supposed to tell you that I've killed people down there? That someone manipulated me and I fell for it? Considering that I've been trying to be good all these years before the bunker, it's embarrasing. I lost trust in everyone, everyone but Octavia. Then you showed up, then got my sister taken away. What was I supposed to do?'

'But you're my gir-' He paused, I knew exactly what he was going to say. Given the circumstances I guess it was all over. 'I thought we had an understanding that we'd always be able to trust each other.'

'Well, things change especially after six years. You know now, Blake. It's easier for you to judge when you're the outside looking in. You didn't know how bad it was. Every trigger that I pulled is in my hands forever and I have to live with that.'

Bellamy started at me, 'I don't feel sorry for you.'

'For fuck sakes I'm not asking for you to be sorry for me, you ass!' I screamed, 'You could be dying in a few hours right in that fucking fighting pit. I-I'

'You can just end it, you know that right? Instead you're here trying to give me this sob story.'

I rolled my eyes, 'You know what, do whatever the hell you want. I mean that was your motto after all. Just go to the fucking pit for all I care.'

'It's not like I have a choice!' Bellamy yelled as I turned my back against him and stormed to the exit.

Stopping right as I was about to grab the door to leave, I quickly turned around. 'What do you want me to do, huh? Stop the fighting pit? You broke the rules and this is the consequences you have to face.'

'You said you're the one that started the fighting pit so fucking end it! It doesn't have to be this way.' Bellamy face palmed, kicking the wall as he grunted. 'You and Octavia just want to do whatever is convenient for you two. Come down here and try to sweet talk me when I'm about to die.'

'Octavia came down to see you?'

'Yep, of course she did. Now she wants me to be her sweet brother and beat Indra in the fighting pit, when all she have to do is stop th-'

My eyes widened, shocked to hear that Octavia was willing to sacrifice her mentor and someone she deeply loved for her brother.

Indra was someone she truly loved besides Bellamy, she considered her as family. Yet Octavia was okay to tell her brother to kill her.

Bellamy saw my reaction and chuckled, 'Abby played you but so did Octavia. She had you wrapped around her finger.'

Talking about the Dark Year already had me in the verge of tears, I didn't want to be sad over Octavia either. Especially in front of Bellamy.

Just thinking about the possibility of Octavia could throw me under the bus next as if it was nothing made me think of the past six year we had together. I've killed people to protect Octavia from Abby, would she do the same? Or would she throw my life away just as she was doing with Indra's?

'Reyes, I'm not fighting Gaia and Indra in the pit. I'm not stooping to you guys' level and start killing people.'

I was busy thinking about my friendship with Octavia, I barely heard what Bellamy said. This all suddenly felt so stupid to me, what was the point of even fighting anymore?

All of the people I've cared about were gone; Marcus, Bellamy and now Octavia. Raven probably would just laugh at my face once she sees what I've turned into. She would be shameful of me, I would never expect my sister to stay by my side after all of the mess I've made.

'Do you think I like doing all of this shit? I don't enjoy seeing people die or killing them. I sure don't want to see you die.'

'I don't know who you are anymore, Reyes. I don't know what you like or hate, I don't even know if you love me.'

'Of course I love you.' Why wouldn't I? After I lost everything down here, Bellamy was the only person I ever thought about. 'You were the reason I kept going. The reminder of your voice telling me to survive, for you.'

Everyday down at the bunker, I always thought of the what-ifs. What if I stayed with Jasper in Arkadia and spent the rest of my shortened life happy? What if I refused to give Echo or even Emori the suit and went up to The Ring with Bellamy?

I know that one thing was for certain; any of the choices would've been better than spending six years of hell under this bunker. It turned me to someone I hated; I was no better than my parents, Pike or even Emerson that traumatized me for so long. I've become them.

'Bellamy...' I called for his name, 'The day we first met, I hated you for treating people the way you did. I hated what you did with Pike and I judged you for that. All those times of me preaching to be good and now I've become worse than any of the people that we've ever met. I'm sorry that I've changed and I'm sorry that you had to see me like this.'

Even when Abby blackmailed me to kill Wonkru, I knew it was wrong. Just as Marcus always said, we always have a choice. I had a choice to stand up and call her out, instead I hid behind and took innocent lives. I've failed at becoming a great leader and now, I realized that all the anger I had these years was toward myself.

Looking at Bellamy one more time would've just pained me even more, I had to walk away from his cell. Instead, I walked straight to look for Octavia. I had to try to talk her out on the punishment her brother was going to face.

The idea of Octavia basically throwing Indra's life away still didn't sit right with me. I was more sad and upset than angry that she would do such thing.

As I was headed toward Octavia's office, I felt a tug on my arm. 'Y/N!'

'Monty?' I was surprised to see him, also surprised that he was willing to talk to me. 'W-what are you going here?'

'I was looking for Octavia but found you instead. Look! Look what I have.' His smile always cheered me up; Even at times like this he was positive.

Before I asked him what it was, he brought out a pot filled with flowers. 'Why do you have that?'

'Flowers, Y/N! Can you believe it?! How long has it been since we've seen something this beautiful?' He grinned widely, 'Cooper gave me her hydrofarm right before she died but guess what? It still works. We can have enough crops growing to feed us. We don't have to storm into Shallow Valley and instead, we can live here.'

I couldn't find a word to say as I was processing everything that Monty said to me. All these years when we feared for our life ending stopped right at this moment.

We had never had any source of food other than eating human meat for a very long time. The fact that we didn't have to fight our way into a warzone to live made me feel relieved. This was a feeling that I haven't had in a while.

Monty noticed that I hadn't reacted to his good news, 'Are you alright?'

'Yeah... yeah.' I paused, then looked at Monty as I bit my lips. 'How do you do it? Be a good person all the time and being everyone's light?'

His brows raised, perhaps he was surprised that I wasn't acting hostile for once. After all, I have been a bitch ever since we crawled out from the bunker. 'Long time ago, a certain someone was walking in the same shoes as me.'

'No, no Monty. I've always had my ups and downs starting with the whole Jasper situation.' I chuckled, a bit embarrassed. 'I was a mess and I guess I am right now too. But you Monty, you're always so pure and have good judgment.'

Monty gave a light smile, 'It's hard especially at a time like this. I miss the last six years in the Ring where we had none of this chaos.'

My heart broke for him; Spacekru was happy up there, thinking and expecting that Octavia and I were doing great down here too. Instead they came down to this disfunctional family and was dragged into the mess that we made.

'I'm sorry for making you guys' life a living hell. You guys don't deserve this.'

'I can't really say it's not your fault because it kind of is.' He chuckled, 'But seems like you've slowly started to show effort already. It doesn't sound like Skafaiya that I'm talking to.'

'Definitely not her and I think I'm done being Skafaiya.' She was someone I thought was a savior for Wonkru, instead she was terror that everyone feared.

'Seeing you again after saving you guys from the bunker made me think that you've lost your ways forever. I thought that the Y/N that everyone loved and respected was gone.' Monty nodded, 'Turns out I was wrong.'

A smile formed on my face, appreciating the way he handled everything considering that he had every right to hate me. As I was about to thank him, I smelled something burning.

Monty and I looked at each other, confused to why something was burning inside the bunker. Curiously, we both followed the smoke that eventually led into the hydrofarm.

There stood Blodreina, smirking as she stared at the fire as it burned down our last resort of food. The whole farm were now into flames; everything that Monty built for us to survive was gone.

‘Octavia!’ I placed my hand on her shoulders, worried that she was too close to the fire. ‘You’re going to hurt yourself.’

‘What did you do!’ Monty yelled with his fist balled up.

‘No, no she didn’t do this.’ I disagreed with Monty, knowing that there was no way Octavia would demolish our options to survive. ‘O, you didn’t do this right?’

She bit her lip as she turned her head to my direction. ‘Wonkru is going to march into Shallow Valley and take what we deserve. Burning this farm down is the only way to survive.’

✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤

tag list; @jodiereedus22, @coffeebooksandfandom, @bellamyblakemorley, @wisestydia-15, @dbtvluv , @hurricane–amelia , @lexalexy , @olkathefoxi, @lena-davina, @kellbell44, @thehakunamatara, @akelly4477, @morgannope, @littlegirl-fox, @captainam-erika-trash, @greygarbage, @nathaliabakes, @eternallyvenus, @rauwz, @broco8, @eridanuswave, @minamisulemisa

#bellamy blake x reader #bellamy x reader #raven reyes x sister!reader #bellamy blake fic #the 100 series #the 100 fic #the 100 bellamy fic

42 notes · View notes

thesffcorner · 5 years

Text

Book Couples of 2019: Ranked

I stole this idea from Sam at ThoughtsOnTomes, and I’ve done it two years in a row. So why not keep the tradition going in the next decade too and rank all the couples from books I read in 2019.

Before we start, some ground rules:

SPOILERS AHEAD;

All of the couples are from books I read in 2019;

All the couples must be canon; they are only on the list if they are written as explicitly romantic;

Worst to Best, i.e. couples I liked the least to couples I liked the best.

Let’s go!

TERRIBLE TIER:

50. Erika and Michael from Corrupt by Penelope Douglass

Is anyone surprised that these two are the worst couple of the year? If you are, you must be new here.

This pairing has all the tropes I hate in literature: an abusive, possessive alpha male hero who treats the girl like shit, but it’s ok because he loves her. He’s also willing to destroy her life over his friends, who as far as he knows raped her, so that’s fun too. Oh, and also it takes for her to almost die for him to tell her he loves her. We stan an emotionally stunted idiot.

As for Erika, she’s entitled, dumb, naive and completely virginal, in spite of being in a committed long term relationship. She has no personality other than her unrequited 14 year old crush, but somehow she’s supposed to be smart and independent? Sure, Jan.

49. Joe and Beck from You, by Caroline Kepness:

I don’t think I need to explain to anyone why I hated these two. They are both pretentious, horrible people and I’d say they deserve each other, except no one deserves Joe, not even Beck.

48. Marcus, Maria and Saya from Deadly Class by Rick Remendeer:

2019 was a bad year for love triangles, which is a trope I’m not a huge fan of anyway, but man did this year make me hate it even more. As the first example we have Marcus, Maria and Saya, who are by far 3 of the most obnoxious characters I have ever had the displeasure of reading from.

First we have Maria, who is just ‘crazy’, because women be crazy y’all! She’s promiscuous, even though she has a boyfriend, who she then cheats on with Marcus, back-stabs her best friend over him, and then gets dropped like a potato when Marcus realizes he can sleep with Saya too.

There are some attempts in the latter volumes to give her some depth and explain why she was dating Dio to start with, but you know, I’d rather you had opened with that.

Marcus, outside of being the absolute worst person in existence, treats Maria poorly, talks shit about her behind her back, cheats on her, let’s her take the fall for stuff he and Saya did and in general doesn’t want to be with her, but stays because sex.

His relationship with Saya is even worse; they like the same shitty music, and are both horny. Also Saya is a horrible tsundere cliche, which is already annoying in anime and manga, even well written ones, let alone when an American writer tries to emulate it. Badly.

BAD TIER:

47. Mariko, Akira and Taro from Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean

The second love triangle on the list, and this one wins by being the dumbest, most underdeveloped one of the year.

Mariko was the character I liked the most, but her connection to both Akira and Taro was tenuous at best, and more than a little frustrating.

Akira gets put in the friend-zone, except not really because he actually is proactive and tries to show Mariko that he values her, but then the book forgets about him so we can develop Taro, who is somehow even worse. At least Akira had a connection to Mariko before he fell for her; Taro sees her and decides she’s the one because she talks back at him thinking he’s just an ordinary samurai, not the prince, a trope that needs to fuckin DIE. Not to mention his faster than Kylo Ren turn to the darkside.

46. Odessa, Evander and Mereday from Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh:

The next triangle on this list, and this one hurts more because it actually had potential.

There is something really compelling about two women coming together to grieve the loss of a loved one, with the idea that Mereday has nursed a crush on Odessa since childhood, but because of social norms and her brother, she’s stayed away.

What we get instead is an uneven mess, where neither character feels like they are progressing at all, and a ton of contrivances as to why they won’t talk to each other, instead of building on the existing conflict of ‘Odessa’s boyfriend and Mereday’s brother is the same person, and he is dead’.

45. Poe, Auden and St Sebastian from A Lesson in Thorns, by Sierra Simone:

Speaking of potential, these 3.

This is one of those triangles where all 3 legs should be, and are written to be equal, but unfortunately, the author clearly liked the one I liked the least, the most.

I liked Auden and St Sebastian, wanted to find out what happened to make Auden treat St Sebastian the way he did, and why St Sebastian let him do it. I even liked the pull they felt for each other and the jealousy Poe brought up in them.

I also really liked Poe and St. Sebastian, their angst over being separated, their bonding over feeling like outsiders in Auden’s world, and the loss of their respective mothers.

The couple I liked least were Auden and Poe, which is the one Simone spent the most time on. I hated Auden’s entitlement, the blindness to his privilege, the unnecessary engagement to Delphine, and I likewise hated how horny Poe was 24/7 even when she’s supposed to be finding out what happened to her missing mother, which uh… is not good.

44. Arthur and Ben from What If It’s Us by Adam Silvera and Becky Albertali:

I wasn’t a fan of this relationship from the start, because I just couldn’t stand Arthur as a character. Even though he improved, the relationship didn’t.

The two didn’t have any chemistry, they weren’t compatible, and Ben had rather serious issues he should have been solving, instead of jumping straight into a new relationship. Arthur also fixated on stupid shit like a box of stuff, which is appropriately immature, but didn’t make me root for them to succeed as a couple.

Also I hated the ending.

43. Penelope and Sam from Emergency Contact, by Mary H K Choi

In theory, these two would be in the meh tier, but what pissed me off about this relationship is how underdeveloped it was. Sam was a character who needed serious counselling and therapy, not a girlfriend, and Penelope was just an immature teenager. I didn’t root for them to get together, I rooted for them to get help.

42. Malachiasz and Nadezda from Wicked Saints, by Emily Duncan:

These two absolutely have to go to the bad tier, even though they had potential and worked with tropes I like.

I love the idea of a villain-hero romance; it can be done right, and the push and pull between power and control, light and dark, etc can be invigorating. This, was not that.

Firstly we don’t know that Malachiasz is a villain for most of this; at most we think he’s some kind of assassin, but considering the whole mission the characters are on is to destroy Kalyzin and kill the King, that’s not exactly damning. Second, what should be these characters’ conflict, their religious views isn’t at all explored and Nadezda falls for Malachiasz way too quickly for someone who has been indoctrinated from birth to kill people who do blood magic.

Also there’s a set up for a love triangle in book 2, and when will my suffering end.

41. Celine, Bastien and Grimaldi from The Beautiful, by Renee Ahdieh:

Speaking of love triangles, we have possibly the worst one I read this year, in that it wasn’t even properly established!

I had the same issues with Bastien as I did with Auden; he had no personality, other than being rich and handsome. He also does the whole ‘this woman talks back to me, so she must be the one’, which is strike 1 against him.

Celine was fine as a character, but her connection and love for Bastien felt unwarranted, considering both his behavior and everything she knows about him, not to mention it somehow felt rushed in a 500 page book.

Grimaldi I just plain hated. Him stepping in to pretend that he was Celine’s lover when she’s lost her memories and clearly doesn’t love him, but ESPECIALLY him deciding out of the blue that he loves her after he detains and humiliates her for his own amusement made me rage quit this series.

40. Daisy, Camila and Billy from Daisy Jones and the Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid:

Yeah, I know it’s weird to put the couple(s) from a favorite book of the year in the bad tier, but I really, really didn’t like these pairings.

Billy and Camila were infuriating. I get that people like that exist but Camila was far too forgiving considering everything Billy put her through. Billy was trash.

I also hated the way Billy treated Daisy, and I was furious that she had to live with knowing what was happening between them for decades while he got to go home to his wife and pretend nothing happened. Yeah, this book hit a personal spot, read the review if you want more coherent thoughts.

39. Noam and Dara from the Fever King, by Victoria Lee:

I am genuinely shocked they are this close to the meh tier, because boy was I not a fan of them.

I wrote a really detailed review of this book, and all my issues with Noam and Dara, from their age gap, to the weird sexual politics, to substance abuse, and especially to Dara reading Noam’s mind for months without telling him anything. Their relationship made me uncomfortable, and that was without adding the third leg of this Godforsaken triangle which is Lehrer, a man who is like 100 years old.

But hey, I still want to know what goes down in book 2, so they get to close out the bad tier.

MEH TIER:

38. Runa and Indigo from The Boneless Mercies, by April Genevive Tucholke:

Runa was a great character, but this romance is barely worth mentioning. It’s introduced at the very end, and it’s underdeveloped.

37. Jack and the Village Girl from Down Among the Sticks and Bones, by Seanan McGuire:

I tried to look up the girl’s name, I really did, but I couldn’t find it and I don’t remember it. I also don’t have the book so I can’t check.

I don’t know what I expected from a book about Jack and Jill, but Jill killing Jack’s girlfriend because she was jealous of Jack is… well not it.

36. Lowen and Jeremy from Verity, by Colleen Hover:

I struggled with whether to put these two in the bad or the meh tier. On the one hand, I cared not one bit about their relationship, even after we discover that it’s founded on lies and an attempted murder. On the other, there was nothing inherently wrong with their interactions and they did care for one another, even if was painfully boring.

In the end, I decided that boredom is a meh trait so, meh tier it is.

35. Annaleigh and Cassius from House of Salt and Sorrows, by Erin A Craig:

Instalove, the couple.

There was some potential, with the whole not knowing when it’s the real Cassius and when it’s Kosamaris or the Trickster pretending to be him, but it’s barely taken advantage of. In the end it’s just another ‘we’ve known each other for a week, but let’s die for each other’ plot.

34. Mei and Kai from The Bride Test, by Hellen Hoang:

I really struggled where to put these two, because as individual characters, they were fine, great even. As a couple? Yikes.

I loved Mei and wanted her to be happy, but the secret she kept from Kai was genuinely horrible, and I still can’t believe that the book resolved it by just not addressing it until the very end.

Kai was fine, not nearly as developed or likable as Mei, but the way he treated Mei in parts of this book were horrific, even if he struggles with expressing feelings and boundaries.

I ended up placing them in the meh tier, because at least they were never malicious to each other, which is more than can be said for the couples in the bad and terrible tier.

33. Rachel and Delphine from A Lesson in Thorns, by Sierra Simone:

These two get to be in the meh, not the bad purely because I actually understood their dynamic. I really liked the idea of Delphine discovering her sexuality, both in women and in BDSM, and overcoming trauma by taking charge of her own body and desires.

I also liked seeing Rachel realize that she had actual feelings for Delphine and having to deal with them. Too bad I’ll never get to find out how their relationship will pan out, cause fuck this series.

32. Stevie and David from Truly Devious, by Maureen Johnson:

These two were perfectly fine, even interesting at points, until the ending, which made me so angry that they get to squat in the meh tier.

Also Stevie going through David’s stuff? Not cool.

31. Yen and Vu Con from In the Vanisher’s Palace, by Aliette DeBodard:

The dynamic between these two was more than a little uneven, with the constant threat of murder and the knowledge that Yu would never be able to go home and see her mother, which is enough for me to resent any character no matter how cool of a dragon she is.

But… that human-dragon sex scene. Wildest thing I’ve read all year.

30. Henry and Diego from We Are the Ants, by Shaun David Hutchinson:

While I liked the book a lot, Henry and Diego were… not great. Diego was a character that at points came off more unreal than the aliens, from his wildly dramatic life story, to him not going to jail at the end, and his limitless patience when it came to Henry. Truly a manic pixie dream boy.

29. Olive and Ethan from the Un-honeymooners, by Christina Lauren:

This couple would have been in the great tier, had it not been for the last third of the book. Ethan not believing Olive, telling her that she’s jealous and dramatic for wanting to warn her sister that his brother is a cheater, and then making up for it with a stupid, grandiose gesture instead of, actually talking to her and learning his lesson? Nah, we don’t stan that kind of manipulative behavior in this house. The only reason they are in the meh tier is because they really were cute the rest of the book.

28. Isobel and Julio from An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors, by Curtis Craddock:

Not much to say about them, mostly because they met in the last third of the book. I would take a bullet for Isobel, and judging by the blurb for book 2, Julio might have beat me to it, so he gets to be in the meh.

27. Emily and Haskel from Passing Strange, by Ellen Klages:

Like Mei and Kai, I liked these two as separate characters more than as a couple. It’s not that there weren't any chemistry between them, it’s that they weren’t developed enough for me to care. If this were a longer work instead of a novella, they’d probably be higher.

26. Jonas and Florian from The Monster of Elendhaven, by Jennifer Giesbrecht:

I liked the idea of this relationship more than the execution. Jonas being horny 24/7 for Florian’s dainty wrists was understandable, but Florian being sad that Jonas isn’t his dead twin sister… less so.

However this does get points for having the strangest sex scene in any book I’ve read this year; yeah even stranger than the one in Gideon the Ninth.

OK TIER:

25. Ruby and Dov from The Wise and the Wicked, by Rebecca Podos:

While I didn’t love the book, Ruby and Dov were fine. I appreciated the trans rep, I liked the way their relationship developed and the oddball humor the characters shared, and I thought they were cute together.

24. Lila and Cassel from the Curse Workers Series, by Holly Black:

Lila and Cassel grew on me substantially between White Cat and the rest of the series. I liked the angst in Red Glove because of Lila being worked and I liked the rod trip they get to go on at the end of Black Heart.

23. Aurora and Kal from Aurora Rising, by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman:

There is nothing wrong with Aurora or Kal, even their bonding/imprinting thing reminded me too much of Twilight/Avatar.

They do have cute scenes together, but I’m just not a fan of the alpha male, macho boy ‘protecting’ the girl and deciding for her what he will do with their relationship. There’s room for improvement, is what I’m trying to say.

22. All the couples from the Witchlands Series, by Susan Dennard:

I was originally going to split these up in different tiers, but seeing as it’s been exactly a year since I read these books, and I don’t remember much about these couples, they all get to go in the OK tier.

First we have Ryber and Kullen from Sightwitch. I liked Kullen’s humor, which contrasted well with Ryber’s seriousness and diligence, but there’s very little of them as an actual couple. I hope we get to see them again in Bloodwitch.

Aeduin and Iseult were also fine. I know they feature more prominently in Bloodwitch, but what little we get from them in Truthwitch and Windwitch was some solid set up for a good Ben/Rey, Zuko/Katara type relationship.

Safi and Merik are my favorite, but that’s only because I love Safi. Merik is the weaker part of this duo, though I do enjoy their banter, and the scene in Truthwitch where they dance and start levitating was amazing.

21. Sam Cade and Gina from Stillhouse Lake, by Rachel Caine:

I was really surprised by how much I still like these two as a couple. The only reason they aren’t higher, is because they don’t stay a couple by the end of the book.

I genuinely loved how tender and slow their relationship developed, and how much character development Cade got to get to it. Him bonding with Gina’s kids, was super sweet and the scene where he asks Gina if he can kiss her warmed my shriveled heart.

GOOD TIER:

20. Frey and King Roth from The Boneless Mercies, by April Genevive Tucholke:

I think the theme for the good category is my surprise at how much certain couple stuck with me. When I read the book, I wasn’t thrilled with Frey and Roth, because a different romance for Frey had been built up.

But now, a year later, I still remember their scenes, especially the one where Roth tells Frey he is writing an epic about her, and asks her to come back to him. Good sh*t.

19. Kate and Shepherd from This Is Our Story, by Ashley Elston:

I was surprised at how much I liked these two as a couple. They were supportive and cute, while also dealing with some serious issues and angst. The ending was a bit dramatic, but the scene where Kate likes a 4 year old picture of Shep on instagram by accident SPOKE TO MY SOUL.

18. Grier and Shafeen from STAGS by M A Bennett:

This is another pairing that surprised me with how much I liked them. The book claimed that Henry was charming, but Shafeen was the real charmer, and I could actually believe that he is a gentleman who went to private school.

Grier was a bit dim, and more than a little naive, but I liked how she got through the huntin’ shootin’ an’ fishin.

17. Levi and Enne from Ace of Shades, by Amanda Foody:

I loved these two and they had great chemistry and banter, but they aren’t yet an official couple so I can’t really justify putting them any higher than good.

The scene where Enne plays for Levi’s life? Amazing.

16. Harrow and Gideon from Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Mur:

I wanted them to be in the great tier, but they just weren’t.

I loved Gideon; she was funny, a true himbo. But Harrow? I hated her for about the first 300 pages of the book. And when I finally stopped hating her, they had that weird bath sex scene and then Gideon DIED.

So I can’t put them any higher knowing that I liked only 20% of their actual relationship.

15. Cat and Tyler from Aurora Rising, by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman:

Cat and Tyler? Now that’s some good sh*t.

I am a sucker for the captain and his/her pilot pairing, especially if one of them is a smooth talking pretty boy and the other a daredevil always ready to fight. These two were excellent, not just in their chemistry and banter, but also in the angst because what kept them apart actually made sense.

I love that Cat broke a chair off of Tyler’s head when they met, Anne of Green Gables style, but I also love the scene where they first got together at the bar. Chef’s kiss.

14. Sebastian and Emir from Running with Lions, by Julian Winters:

Seb and Emir were really close to making the great tier, but there were just too many contrived reasons to keep them apart.

I liked the slow build from enemies to friends to lovers, but I just wish we had gotten more time on the lovers section without unnecessary drama keeping them apart.

13. Poppy and Cerenic from Sleepless, by Sarah Vaughn:

I freaking love Poppy and Cerenic, and they would have been in the great tier, had it not been for the rushed ending.

They were still excellent together; supportive, trusting and caring, and that scene where Cerenic kisses Poppy so she can’t put him to sleep? God tier.

GREAT TIER:

12. Mia and Grace from On a Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden:

I loved how cute and realistic, Mia and Grace’s relationship was, which a wild thing to say for a series set in space. I loved their friendship, how it slowly became a romance, the heartbreaking way they split apart and then found each other again.

The only reason they aren’t higher on the list is because they don’t end the comic as a couple, which works perfect for the story, but less so for my, uh, list of couples.

11. Millie and Flora from Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins:

I am a sucker for the stuck up snob falls for the earthy dumbass, and Flora and Millie were exactly that. They were a really cute couple; I liked the discussion of homophobia in the royal family, letting someone else define your life and the overall way the two of them got together. I also appreciated Millie being the one to fuck up and doing everything she could to fix her mistakes.

10. Daisy and Miles from Prince Charming by Rachel Hartman:

Daisy and Miles beat Millie and Flora just because reading their banter put tears in my eyes. I don’t think I’ve laughed out loud at any other book like I did this one.

There were so many great moments in this book, starting from Big Bird Hat to Sebastian getting punched by Alex, but the scene I love the most was the scene between Miles and Daisy in the cabin.

9. Severin and Laila from The Gilded Wolves, by Roshani Chokshi:

The amount of angst and sexual tension Laila and Severin have makes me wonder if this book perhaps should have been an adult.

I like both characters on their own, though I’m always a sucker for the trope of two competent and smart people making the other an absolute fool just by being in the same room as them.

I would have put them higher, but I just hate the way this book ended. Though since I’m mentioning scenes that were great… the dance. If you know you know.

8. Jack Zimmerman and Bitty from Check, Please! By Ngozi Ukazu:

Jack and Bitty are too cute for words. I love the way their relationship developed, I love their dynamic, how positive their relationship is while also dealing with real world issues, like families and gossip magazines.

Also this comic is amazing and free, go read it.

7. Hypnos, Zofia and Enrique from The Gilded Wolves, by Roshani Chokshi:

I didn’t know that my perfect pairing is where every character is Jonathan from the Mummy, but I guess that’s my jam.

Enrique and Zophia using their skills in math, languages and history to solve riddles together was great and hilarious, especially Enrique antagonizing Zofia just to see her reaction.

Hypnos is my favorite character and the banter between him and Enrique was excellent; I’m always a sucker for smooth-talking rich, misunderstood anti-heroes with tragic backstories (ahem, Lando, ahem). If this is to be a love triangle with one pairing at the end, I really don’t know who I’m rooting for.

6. Zara, Beatriz and Nadim from the Honors Series, by Rachel Caine and Ann Aguire:

Finally, some good fuckin food.

This love triangle fed me. It was the only one that was properly developed and established, I loved all 3 characters in it, and they all complimented each other amazingly.

Zara is a great lead, I really loved her journey; I would die for Nadim, though I’d probably have to fight Zara for that because her commitment to him was so wonderful. I also really love how slowly and carefully Beatriz was introduced as a love interest, and how well balanced the three of them are. Can’t wait to see what happens in Honor Lost.

5. Bri and Curtis from On the Come Up, by Angie Thomas:

Listen, their banter alone was enough to make me root for them. Also Curtis saved Bri from a freaking SWAT team so like… what more do I need to say.

They were just super cute and entertaining ok?

GOD TIER:

4. Nax and Ryan from The Disasters, by M K Englnd:

The only couple that came close to making me laugh as much as Miles and Daisy, except I related to Nax way more as the bisexual disaster he is.

I loved the way Nax’s always on the edge of a panic attack, and yet somehow still so charming personality was complemented by Ryan’s cool calm and collected demeanor, and their banter was hilarious.

I especially enjoyed Nax’ inner monologues, and the scene where they have to hide in a herd of goats had me in stitches.

3. Neil and Andrew from All for the Game Trilogy, by Nora Sakavic:

People should learn how to write an angsty slowburn from this series.

Andrew is an absolute piece of shit and Neal definitely deserved better, but I am not about to sit here and tell you that the scene where Andrew let Neal put his hand on his chest and Neal didn’t move it, didn’t send me into a weeklong crisis.

2. Rachel and Sana from Tell Me How You Really Feel, by Aminah Mae Safi:

Sana and Rachel were like two halves of my own personality and yet somehow infinitely cooler than I’ll ever be. Their romance was an excellent homage to every great teen rom-com, and I loved every page of it.

Sana was amazing; I loved her personality, the way she stood up for herself and dealt with problems. I also loved that for once the more feminine of the duo was the one who took charge of the relationship.

The only gripe I have with Rachel was that she finished the film before the screening, like hello, ex-film student here: I call bs.

1. Alex and Henry from Red White & Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston:

Was there any doubt here? Henry and Alex were hands down the best written couple of 2019. Not only were both individual characters fleshed out and so well developed, their relationship, going from enemies, to beruging friends, crushes, and finally lovers willing to upheave international politics was amazing to read about.

Alex Claremont Diaz is my favorite character of the year and maybe even top 5 of all time, and if you haven’t read this book, read it. It will make you a happier person.

And there you have it, 50 couples ranked. Happy reading in 2020!

#book couples 2019 #book couples #reading #moni talks

1 note · View note

cruddyborderlandstheories · 5 years

Text

also can we talk about Lorelei for a hot second here

long Lorelei analysis post incoming (also i have a friend named that in real life so... hiiii this isn’t about you, promise <3)

listen,,, i’ve been on since the beginning that i don’t trust her yet and i think its pretty reasonable. we’ve got all these returning characters (seriously, like Axton, Gaige, Salvador, Krieg, Maya, Zer0, Lilith, Brick, Mordecai, Tina, LB, Gortys, Rhys, Vaughn, Fiona, Sasha, shit maybe even August or Cassius, Claptrap, Timothy, Aurelia, Hammerlock, Moxxi, Marcus, Tannis, Ellie, well you get the idea)

all these returning characters and they introduce a new one! and she’s the only new main character we know of so far outside of the twins and well the new VHs (who are very good for obvious reasons)

And ive seen it mentioned multiple times that Lorelei was “a beautiful siren who sat upon a rock in the Rhine River and lured sailors to shipwreck and death”. Well we know she’s not a in-game Siren (that we can see. her left arm is left uncovered, but she’s got no tattoos) and we know name meaning isn’t a great indication of allegiance in the borderlands series. I mean, we’ve got a Lilith... and she’s our new leader lmao

so its entirely possible she could become a Siren during the events of the game. I’m worried about that because, so far, the only one we know who can take Sirens powers is Tyreen, so we can assume that means she’d be the one who can transfer them, as well. (for simplicity’s sake, i won’t talk about how i think troy is the output here lmao)

It could also be shown in-game how people can get Siren powers in the Borderlands universe, I know in one of the interviews it was stated we might learn more about that, though iirc they wanted to keep it a little bit of a mystery. I like that a lot tbh, mostly cause they seem to enjoy fan interpretations (notice me senpai goddamnit)

from the interview (i promise im getting to the full analysis lmao i am working thru a lot of old drafts):

“Are new Sirens created when old ones die?

Danny Homan: These are all great questions. You might find out some of that in this game. Who knows?

Can existing people become Sirens?

Danny Homan: Um, that’s an interesting question. I mean, there’s a lot of ways that someone can become a Siren. It’s not a de facto X-Men kind of thing. There’s some different conditions that kind of arise. Yeah, Sirens are unique and I feel like we like to keep it a little amorphous. What we like the most is when fans kind of create their own myths and stories about how this kind of stuff happens. As a writer we try not to definitively say one thing because there��s a lot possible.”

personally, i think his “um, that’s an interesting question” kinda confirms we will at the very least learn something about this. the best thing that could occur is that we get to see it happen!

sooo let’s theorize now!

Was Lorelei a Siren before the twins? well the timeline doesn’t really match up. In BL1 we have Angel, Steele, Lilith, Tyreen, Amara, and Maya all alive. If we’re going with the theory that Tyreen isn’t a natural Siren then it could be possible? Maybe they found a different way to steal Siren powers before Tyreen had powers, or Tyreen was gifted her powers from the red Vault and became the 7th Siren.

I personally dunno about Lorelei being a Siren before the game begins, but it is possible! She’s got that hombre look a couple of the Sirens we know have (Amara and Lilith with their dyed tips- shit Maya’s hair is even darker at the ends) and her outfit seems to account for Siren tattoos with the exposed left arm. It could be possible that Tyreen took her powers and sent her to go work undercover with Atlas to get information on Vault (which we can’t get until we talk to Rhys) and/or weaken Atlas from the inside while they’re under attack by Maliwan. I think I mentioned back when she was first revealed that she was the mysterious woman on the MoM. She’s not shown to have wings, so I don’t think she’s a Siren before the events of the game, unless she is that little girl we see to the right of Troy (which I hard doubt because the girl has gauges and Lorelei seems to just have regular-ass earrings. Personally, I think the little girl is an Angel-type situation whose powers either have some use to the cult (eg future-sight, brain-washing) or she had her powers stolen by Tyreen already (and maybe became Little Blue? I like the theory that Little Blue betrays us and becomes her, though. we’re too trusting of little kids in these games. I’m looking at you, Pickle))

Is Lorelei a Siren now? iiii dunno about that. Again with the timeline and the whole “Tyreen may not be a natural Siren” shebang. But, also, she doesn’t have the tattoos. Maybe her powers have something to do with deception or illusions? but I don’t get why she’d hide her tattoos if she’s on our side. If she’s on the Calypso’s side, then why send a Siren out to work for Atlas? Again, she could be used to weaken the inside of Atlas/get information, but you could send literally anybody with half a brain instead of one of the most powerful beings in the universe.

Will Lorelei become a Siren? it’s possible. i think this is the most likely thing that could happen. her outfit design would 100% allow the tattoos to show up without sacrificing anything.

How does she become a Siren? well... I dunno lmao, there are so many possibilities.

She could be working with the Calypsos and gets her powers through Tyreen

She could be gifted powers by some Eridians/a Vault/weird alien bullshit

She could be the next one chosen (?) to take on Lilith’s/Maya’s/Tyreen’s powers after they die.

She could be the one to get the powers after Tyreen gives up the ones she’s collected (be it through death, willingness to do so, or otherwise) and one of the people they were meant to return to is dead... so it just goes to Lorelei (?)... maybe its a proximity thing. like Fruits and Devil Fruit powers. iunno

i got no concrete ideas and idk if I know enough about her character to say affirmatively what’s gonna happen

tbh i doubt she will actually betray us/work with the calypsos and then either NOT rejoin our side or straight-up get killed, mostly because she’s a side-quest giver and i don’t think gearbox would lock away all those quests by killing her off. i mean, roland had no direct side-quests in bl2 so i don’t think they’d be dicks and make it so you can never complete her side quests in that playthrough by killing her off or making her join the other team without reversing that decision by the end of the campaign.

still don’t trust her yet tho

#borderlands #borderlands 3 #bl3 #lorelei #she cool #bloody. badass #still don't trust her yet tho

10 notes · View notes

anthonybrxdgerton · 6 years

Text

A Discovery of Witches reread

Last week I re-read A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and it took me a long time to do it; I had to pause every few pages (sometimes paragraphs) because of the choices characters made I didn’t agree with. I will be doing my reactions about episodes as well (as soon as I re-watch them) and comparing the show to the first book.

My reactions, notes and everything under the cut. There are some trivia I forgot about, some minor changes book vs tv show, some stuff referencing the next books and what not.

BEWARE OF SPOILERS FOR THE BOOKS. IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOKS, DON’T READ THIS POST. Enjoy!

[ a discovery of witches | shadow of night | the book of life | time’s convert ]

the book takes place in 2009 in the span of 40 days

miriam and marcus have very different taste in music (The whole area seemed unoccupied, although from somewhere there came faint strains of a Bach cello concerto and something that sounded an awful lot like the latest hit recorded by the Eurovision song-contest winners);

marcus wears converse and he's BLOND (so are nathaniel and satu);

the killings that occurred at the time (a.k.a jack’s doing) were the reason matthew thought that vampires are going extinct and are not able to sire anyone else;

Patience, alas, was not the strong suit of Bishop women - you can clearly see that in the books as well as in the show;

sarah and rebecca's mother's name is joanna (which only matters to me because it’s my name too);

matthew came to oxford at 1989 (when he met hamish);

matthew was 37 eyars old when we was re-born as a vampire and baldwin was in his late twenties or early thirties. marcus was in his late twenties and diana is 33.

marcus is into red-heads (but phoebe is not a red-head, which will be notet later by baldwin or matthew (i don’t remember which)) ;

"I asked if you were hungry.” Why he continued to do so was a mystery—when was I not hungry? #relatable, I’m Diana here;

“I love your hair,” he murmured. “It has every color imaginable—even strands of red and black.” which will be important later on when diana’s hair change

matthew knows how to knock the cork off with a sword (and now i feel robbed that we didn't see it)

both matthew and hamish won all souls prize fellowship

"What’s your name?” I asked, smothering a smile. “Timothy,” he answered, rocking back on his heels. He was wearing mismatched cowboy boots, one red and one black. His eyes were mismatched, too—one was blue and one was green. “You’re more than welcome to check your e-mail, Timothy.” “You’re the one.” He tipped his fingers at me, pivoted on the heel of the red boot, and walked away. - i just love Timothy, okay? He’s a sweetheart PLUS he is somewhat important in The Book of Life

ashmole 782 has been missing since 1859 but gerbert had it a thousand years ago and “it is a strange book, is it not, Diana? A thousand years ago I took it from a great wizard from Toledo. When I brought it to France, it was already bound by layers of enchantment."

diana's fingers were already colorful (mostly blue) especially when she was angry/stressed

Somewhere in the center of my soul, a rusty chain began to unwind. It freed itself, link by link, from where it had rested unobserved, waiting for him. My hands, which had been balled up and pressed against his chest, unfurled with it. The chain continued to drop, to an unfathomable depth where there was nothing but darkness and Matthew. At last it snapped to its full length, anchoring me to a vampire. - matthew could feel the chain if diana wanted him too. I think she weaved it subconsciously without realizing she’s using her weaver’s powers at the time

Matthew also knew his faults, anger chief among them. Typically, Matthew’s rage was so destructive that once the poison was out of his system, he disappeared for months or even years to come to terms with what he'd done - first reference to the blood rage

matthew used to be friends with marquis de lafayette

when marcus was dying and matthew told him about vampires, marcus thought he was tormented by a demon

“Holy God,” Marcus said softly. Staring at the picture, he tried to imagine what it would be like to receive a photo of his own father ripped to pieces and tossed into the dirt to die. - a.k.a. WAIT TILL SHADOW OF NIGHT AND NOW I'M CRYING I JUST LOVE MATTHEW AND MARCUS’ RELATIONSHIP SO MUCH OKAY

Matthew wore his pilgrim’s badge only when he was afraid he was going to kill someone or when he was thinking of Eleanor St. Leger—or both. - i wish they kept it in the show too especially since it created the tree of life in bishop’s house

My aunt was good with spells. Emily wasn’t but could fly for short distances and see the future.

Matthew’s books were arranged not by size but in a running time line. Those on the first bookshelf were so ancient that I couldn’t bear to think about what they contained—the lost works of Aristotle, perhaps? Anything was possible. - headcanon that he has books from a Library of Alexandria (maybe he got them from Philippe or Hugh or Godfrey?)

“It was spring, you were bored, and so you got up one morning and went to Italy to make war. Your father had to beg forgiveness from the king on his knees”. now I NEED TO KNOW WHAT MATTHEW HAS DONE

“Perhaps, but one thing hasn’t changed in all these years. Whenever there’s a crisis, there’s a de Clermont nearby.” - it should be their motto, really

diana has visions too - i know it's obvious but i completely forgot about it since the show didn’t include it at all except for episode 7 when everybody saw the past

Matthew was unusually tall for the time, though not as tall as he became once he was a vampire - being reborn as a vampire not only makes you stronger but bigger and taller too.

His mother strode forward and slapped him, hard, across the face. “How dare you ask that question?” i need to see it, WHY DIDN’T YOU INCLUDE THIS, SHOW?

marcus is "good at wheedling information out of people."

“And you are going to give me gray hairs—long thought impossible among vampires, by the way—with your courage, your firecracker hands, and the impossible things you say.” - i just like it and i wonder if deb already knew that diana would do that for him in the book of life?

Baldwin had him by the throat before the words were out of his mouth. Their heads close together, one dark and one bright, they rocketed to the far end of the hall. Matthew’s body smashed into a wooden door, splintering it with the impact. - friendly reminder that Baldwin is a much better fighter than Matthew and the show SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF MAKING HIM WEAKER

Vampires didn’t usually get all of their names (5) when they were reborn but over the years.

One reason the de Clermont family was so long-lived was that each member had different skills in a crisis. Philippe had always been the leader of men, a charismatic figure who could convince vampires and humans and sometimes even daemons to fight for a common cause. Their brother Hugh had been the negotiator, bringing warring sides to the bargaining table and resolving even the fiercest of conflicts. Godfrey, the youngest of Philippe’s three sons, had been their conscience, teasing out the ethical implications of every decision. To Baldwin fell the battle strategies, his sharp mind quick to analyze every plan for flaws and weaknesses. Louisa had been useful as bait or as a spy, depending on the situation. Matthew, improbably enough, had been the family’s fiercest warrior. His early adventures with the sword had made his father wild with their lack of discipline, but he’d changed. Now whenever Matthew held a weapon in his hand, something in him went cold and he fought his way through obstacles with a tenacity that made him unbeatable. Then there was Ysabeau. Everyone underestimated her except for Philippe, who had called her either “the general” or “my secret weapon.” She missed nothing and had a longer memory than Mnemosyne. - i really like it and i wish it was in the show too. That being said I really am interested what are the talents/skills of Verin, Stasia and Freya.

A helicopter,” Baldwin said. “It was waiting in Clermont-Ferrand to take me back to Lyon. - does Baldwin have a house there?

”Fancy seeing you here, Miss Bishop”. It was what he always said when I sneaked into his study at home or crept downstairs late at night for one more bedtime story. FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT STEPHEN TOLD HER THE SAME THING IN LONDON TOO

Let me know if you need anything, Ysabeau.” Baldwin brushed her cheeks with his lips. - WERE THEY ENEMIES? FRENEMIES?? I THOUGH THAT HATED EACH OTHER WHAT IS GOING ON I NEED ANSWERS ESPECIALLY THAT YSABEAU SAID SHE HATES HIM IN BOL AND THAT HE TRIED TO BANISH HER FROM JERUSALEM ONCE

Marcus was Matthew’s son. He was my son. / When the door swung open, Marcus’s blue eyes met mine with a twinkle. “Hi, Mom, we’re home!” I JUST LOVE IT, OKAY, WE NEED MORE OF THEM IN THE SHOW

Marcus prefers whiskey even though all of his family loves wine

One morning Marcus turned on his heel and stormed back to the house, leaving his father alone in the old apple orchard. “Diana,” he growled in greeting before streaking through the family room and straight out the front door. “I’m too damn young for this!” he shouted as he left. - I LOVE YOU MY BABY DRAMA QUEEN

Gerbert had always wanted to be included among the Knights of Lazarus, and my father refused him time and time again. - which is why he sent Juliette to spy on Matthew and it gives interesting layer that he told about The Knights in the show. He’s so bitter loool

Stephen Proctor could timewalk into the past OR into the future hence why we saw him in the 1x01 - he wasn’t just a hallucination, he probably timewalked into the future to make sure Ashmole 782 is safe

also, at the end of the book, right before they timewalked, Matthew noticed that there are some annotations in his “Doctor Faustus” copy he made that he didn’t remember putting them there. - is this a sign that 16th century Matthew somehow subconsciously remembered Diana or his fight with Kit or something? I wish that was explained too because that’s interesting.

this is so long I’M SORRY. Overall, I had very hard time re-reading this book especially when Matthew was so possessive and controlling. I wanted to punch him every time he said or did something. Show!Matthew is definitely more bearable and les creepy. Also, I love the familiar/platonic relationships between Marcus & Matthew, Marcus & Diana, Marcus & Miriam, Miriam & Diana, Sophie & Diana, Sarah & Marcus and more. Too bad the show didn’t care about those relationships too much. As for the romantic relationships, I wish I knew more about Miriam & Bertrand, Philippe & Ysabeau, Sophie & Nathaniel too.

#a discovery of witches #all souls #diana bishop

32 notes · View notes

the-erudite-library · 5 years

Text

Villainy pt 1: The Big Bads

okay i’m going to just admit right now that this post is a little biased, but i’m a salty, overanalyzing fuck so i’m going to write it anyways.

for the sake of ease of understanding, lets pretend that all the antagonists in this story are actual villains (villainy describes a malicious intent where as antagonism describes a character who is direct opposition to the protagonist) and ignore the biased narration of the series being that it’s told from a first person perspective (more on why that makes understanding the characters in this series shitty and confusing can be found here). I care a lot about the antagonists in this series and so it just feels right that i write a fucking essay based entirely around how cool they are, their wasted potential, and why some of them are just way, way cooler than others. I’m just going to go ahead and cover all the supposed villains rather than just the big bads, and i’m probably going to massively overestimate their complexity and actually try to work out a narrative for all of them because a lot of these supposed villains are actually rather sympathetic characters when they’re looked at from the right angle and honestly the narrative kind of treats them like garbage. I’m not saying that any of them were totally justified in their actions, I just think that sometimes the plot and writing of the story is so aggressively vague, biased, and nonsensical that it can be difficult to understand them.

I genuinely think that Jeanine is the best antagonist out of all of them, and I’m sure that that can be fiercely debated because really it depends on what you mean when you say ‘best’. What I mean is that I appreciate the way that there are all these little breadcrumbs for people to draw their own conclusions about her but nothing that ever really redeems her as a person, also that she’s really the closest to an actual villain that the story ever gets. I already talked about how she’s really not in the post linked above and also in this one, how she’s really a morally gray and complex person. But what I also love about her is that she’s so incredibly straightforward about everything. For the most part, she doesn’t waste much time with theatrics or melodrama, she just does the thing (aside from that one thing with the water tank in the first book that was really kind of out of character for what had just been established about her and i could not have been more glad when they changed it in the movie). Her plan makes sense, the goals are clear and her methods are obviously well thought out; I wouldn’t at all be surprised if she spent years putting it all together piece by tiny piece without anyone ever seeing it coming but by the time they did there was no stopping it. She went to great lengths to protect her own image even after the Abnegation attack and for the most part it really felt like it was just Tris and her scrawny little army up against this massively powerful woman who had the whole city at her beck and call (if you ignore the fact that the insurgency never really lost a battle of course). She suffered no fools and for the most part seemed to keep everyone at an arms length; no one knew the full scope of the plan but her and no one could ever get close enough to eventually betray her. She built up an empire of people that she held together for quite some time. Even as the war began to tip out of Erudite’s favor, no important people ever seemed to even try to leave (Jack Kang is the only example that I can think of that didn’t die before things really began to fall apart for Erudite, which leads me to think that she didn’t have all that many important associates to begin with). She was kind of one track minded and completely relentless in chasing down her goals, and it made her terrifying because you knew that she was just never going to stop until she got what she was after. She wasn’t above using any and every dirty and underhanded tactic at her disposal so long as it got her what she wanted. She wasn’t an antagonist that could be handled easily or quietly; stopping her required amassing an army and half-destroying the entire city because anything less would have been snuffed out before it could gain any traction because she was just that powerful. She always seemed to be one step (or ten) ahead and defeating her ultimately required having not much of a plan at all or a plan that not everyone was clear on because chaos was the one thing she couldn’t break down, compartmentalize, and ultimately conquer.

Jeanine and Tris’ dynamic is interesting to say the least, and not in a shippy way but in like a very genuinely compelling way. I’m going to include movie canon in this because despite how shit the movies were about some details, others were greatly improved upon (i.e. replacing the water tank bullshit with a straight up execution, it may have been a little bit less dramatic but it was far more in line with Jeanine’s character). From the very moment they meet, Tris is full of snark and sass no matter how inappropriate it may be in the moment. What they have isn’t so much witty banter as it is Tris making really disrespectful comments and Jeanine starting off as being polite about it and she just gradually loses her patience. They clash on the deepest level, not really equals but complete opposite. Let’s be honest with ourselves; Tris was not more powerful than Jeanine, she was not smarter, in the grand scheme of things she wasn’t stronger either. Which makes the fact that she was able to best her really interesting. Jeanine doesn’t handle chaos well and Tris is almost all chaos. It’s hardly a game of chess and more like one person losing and deciding to knock all the pieces off the table...which in and of itself is a kind of victory I guess.

Evelyn is...an interesting villain. For the most part, she seems to be a person driven largely by hatred and fear as a result of years and years of suffering and pain piling up on top of each other like some sort of sedimentary rock of trauma. She very well may have started out as someone who was simply just power hungry, or maybe not power hungry but just ambitious. I highly doubt she was cut out for Abnegation and there is a lot of evidence that she’s Divergent (if she’s not then it’s kind of unclear exactly where she would fit, Erudite maybe). From the way that things are set up in the Four novellas, it sounds a lot like her plans have been coming together for a long time too and that they have been the complete and total focus of her life. She brought together potentially thousands of people, made them obey her, made them fight and die for her, but most impressively she made them stick by her for years when they had absolutely no reason to. It’s kind of insinuated, if not outright said, that Evelyn is completely self made and that everything that the factionless are they what are because she built them up like that. By all accounts, she is just as impressive as Jeanine and quite the force to be reckoned with. However, her reasons for doing what she does make her all the more interesting. Like I said, perhaps she might have started out with a simple desire to be powerful and that may have been why she picked Abnegation in the first place, in hopes of getting on the council (i’ve seen that theory tossed out in fanfic before and it actually makes a lot of sense). But Marcus’ treatment of her and the way that many of the Abnegation are just so willfully ignorant, the way that they will go to great lengths to protect their image as a faction (and by extension, Marcus’ image as a leader) even if that means turning a blind eye to the fact that she was being abused must have been much more than disillusioning. It certainly couldn’t have done any good for her emotionally and by the time Four reunites with her for the first time in his novella she is a far cry from the woman that he knew as a child because she had to become someone else entirely just to survive.

It obviously spurred a powerful desire for revenge within her, not just against the man who wronged her but against the faction system as a whole that neglected her and held her down. When she finally saw her chance to take that revenge it wasn’t her capitalizing on the war, on Dauntless’ fracturing, Abnegation’s destruction, and Erudite getting less trustworthy by the day. No, it was her perceiving a hairline fracture in the very foundation of the system that wouldn’t become anything threatening for literal years. Much like Jeanine, she stacked the deck in her favor long before anyone knew what she was doing; and in her case she had the extra advantage of nearly everyone who knew her thinking she was dead. Evelyn’s Factionless and Jeanine’s Erudite were two very powerful and very similar forces led by two very powerful and very similar women, and honestly it’s a damn shame that we got Tris constantly butting in and all but bending fate in her favor when we could have had a delightfully destructive and complex war with Jeanine and Evelyn as the central focusses.

Especially because Evelyn has a flat, kind of boring, and frankly rather irritating relationship with Tris. I think they maybe say a few sentences to each other ever, despite Tris hating her and wanting so badly to fight her. And I get it, Tris hates her for abandoning Tobias and that’s kind of understandable I guess, but given the fact that she was meant to be one of the big villains in book three one would think that there would be more of an interaction. I mean, sure, they had that one thing at the beginning of Allegiant with the interrogation scene but I’m like 90% sure that was the longest conversation they’d ever had or ever would have and it’s disappointing.

And then there’s David, the disappointment of the three big bads imo. Generally most elements of Allegiant were disappointing and frustrating, but David was honestly one of the worst elements. He was sort of cooler in the movie, and by cooler I mean a hell of a lot creepier especially regarding Tris. Combine his relationship with Tris in the movie with the fact that in the books it’s very heavily implied that he had unrequited feelings for Natalie and it makes his relationship with her both fascinating and unsettling. Of course, that’s all wasted because those two qualities are exclusive to the book and movie respectively, therefore making his relationship with her sort of flat in both. He doesn’t really have all that much “screen” time in the books at all, at least not in comparison to characters like Nita and Matthew. He had virtually no personality and the only reason I’m including him here at all is because of the role he plays in the Allegiant movie. I’m not saying that he has the same potential or deserves the same amount of plot focus that Evelyn and Jeanine do (mainly because they just have had more time for their characters to build), but honest to god if VRoth was going to make genetic damage a metaphor for oppression (don’t get me started on how badly that was handled) at least, maybe, i don’t know, give the oppressors more than a vague and distant role in the story. I’m not in any way saying that the issues between the GD and GP people should have been highlighted, because god knows that VRoth would have just handled it poorly and I would legit have probably set something on fire. And David doesn’t need to be humanized, what he needs to be is a direct counter to Tris’ ego. If absolutely nothing else that should have been the role of all the Bureau characters save for Amar and George. Tris lowkey kind of doesn’t know how to be wrong and thinks that she knows better than absolutely everyone, and when she’s revealed to be something ~special~ again in Allegiant she became even more of an asshole. She very obviously did think that the genetically pure or the Divergent or whatever were better than the genetically damaged and it goes unacknowledged to the point where i’m just convinced that it’s completely accidental. She’s completely unsympathetic to the actual oppression that the genetically damaged face.

But I digress.

David is honestly too distant and vague as a character to be analyzed very closely, which is unfortunate because he could have paralleled real people with real sociopolitical philosophies.

#divergent #evelyn johnson #jeanine matthews #david (divergent)#a little candor of me #first big analysis post in a while #theories headcanons and meta #i'll do caleb and nita and stuff later

17 notes · View notes

milquetoast-on-acid · 6 years

Text

Red Queen, a reactionary post

Red Queen, 5x2, comments with pictures and meta with kabby. But mostly Kabby okay.

Miller is totally Octavia's head of the guard

So like...how do they stick that cog on her head? They got bunker glue? I never cared much for the whole idea of Octavia and Niylah but this episode is really selling it.

Love that its Dad!Kane who heard his daughter outside and now Abby is convinced that it's Clarke.

So much tension between these two it's like season 1 Kabby tension except that they've already had sex. This would be a really great time for them to have some angry hate sex. But like after they discover the door is shut.

Marcus we don’t have chains...but we do have tape. ;)

Everyone of Octavia's original council is not a part of her counsel anymore. With the exception of Indra who is on her way out. It will only be a matter of time before Indra is forced to make a choice.

She should have kept Marcus, Abby and Indra as her council.

"I didn't us all so we could just kill ourselves." Irony at it's finest.

How did I miss Oslaya? Octavia’s got like 50 names. Skairipa, Osylaya, Blodriena I can’t freaking keep them straight.

That looks so appetizing.

I mean look how happy Marcus looks at getting fed. Almost as happy as he looked on the ark.

"Mind if I join you?" and make it reaaaallyy obvious that you’d rather be somewhere else....

No I really wasn’t looking at her...

Honestly I’d rather sit with Abby then Jaha and his creepy adopted son any day.

"Whatever your fighting about, she'll come around." Well I guess everyone knows their a couple...but I guess neither of them have been subtle about it. I mean Abby jabbed Jaha with a seditive and Marcus refushed to let her die outside.

"Uncle Theo, can I have some more?" "Here Ethan have mine." Marcus never wanted that slop so any chance he can get to give it away he's going to take it.

"I'm still glad you stopped me from fighting Octavia for this place." They are really pushing redemption really hard for him. First he adopts a kid and now he's all happy Marcus gassed everyone. Also...he wouldn't be saying that six years later....but it's Jaha maybe he would.

Jackson + Miller is so cute and I love it about a hundred times more than Brian & Miller. Plus it's about time that Jackson had some romance. Or a plotline that doesn't just consist of "Hey Abby"

Also Abby is a Jackson/Miller shipper and I love it. Even though she's pretty broken.

"Marcus said you had another headache..." MARCUS - the fact that Marcus and Jackson are on first name basis I love it so much. I can't wait to see more of their friendship and bond over loving Abby. I feel torn on one hand yeah Jackson really shouldn't be talking to Marcus about Abby but on the other hand it's great that he is because someone needs to take care of her because she's breaking and needs help. And she's in that ugly self loathing place.

Why'd you have to hit my bae?

"Abby opened the door. I wonder would you have done that if he was already safe inside?" maaaaybbe. Love that this show asks the hard questions. She was really uber conflicted about keeping the door shut. And it did extend beyond Marcus. But Marcus really was her main goal. and seeing Abby stab Jaha was everything.

"It will stop the next culling of our people." hahahaha Okay Kara Cooper.

So Abby is in chains with Marcus...she had to have protested. I’d expect nothing less from my Abby.

Abby says the C word. This is actually something I speculated on before the episode aired and before Abby mentions it. and...that's definitely what happened during the dark year. The blight or The dark year....whatever you want to call it.

And now I can REALLY see why Abby took that downward spiral and now much guilt she must feel for putting them into that situation. Poor girl can't win. Doing what she thinks is right. Telling Jaha about Jake and then having to live with it and him being floated. And having to live with that decision. Then pushing to open that door to save Marcus and the others and now....cannibalism.

Jaha is the boy in the book sitting by the tree and resting.

Wasn't Niyah kind of a doctor? Why is she now a street vendor for wonkru?

How to solve a problem like Octavia and Gaia? My speculation on season 5 was some serious sibling rivialy between Octavia and Gaia. Now it totally has flipped with Gaia completely encouraging this blood thirsty side of Octavia. With Indra 100% regretting pushing the two of them together. Octavia and Gaia are going to be a HUGE bloody force to be reckoned with. I am totally here for Indra being on the outside instead of the inside of her daughters.

Wonkru Population Reduction: Gladiator In this situation that Wonkru have found themselves, population reduction is something that is needed. Gladiatorial matches however feel like their going backwards instead of forward. And now Jaha's method of floating seems way less harsh. My question or speculation is that in 6 years it seems like the Gladiator matches have evolved from 'this is how we solve our problems with criminals' to 'this is entertainment'.

No longer is the one to survive the match automatically granted freedom. Octavia votes on wheater you live or die. SO even if you win the match you could still die.

Headcannon made clear by canon: Kabby are totally into BDSM.

That is an insane amount of food. I dare TWO people to eat that much.

Also this episode has been brought to you by Marcus Kane’s love affair with a dammned good meal. Look at that face. Look at how much we wants that damned food.

I also really thought that Abby wasn’t eating because she’s not eating when they are at lunch. Only takes her pills with water and then here she passes on the food.

"Really? Then why did you try to float me on the ark?” When he told her he’d save her life even if he didn’t love her. She called him on his bullshit. I would have loved for him to respond to that but what could he have said? I’m a different man now. Which is true and she knows that. I feel like the reason why he didn’t respond is that he knows that he has no excuse for what he did. And again he doesn’t see things the way he did before. That whole exchange reminded me of last season when Marcus was trying to talk Bellamy out of going into the acid rain. And Bellamy yells at him that he floated his mom. Another thing I wanted to point out is I love how much the two of them have gotten to know the other. They both see right through the other.

"I know you've never felt you were apart of the ark." In which case Octavia and Marcus switch places.

Who is this guy? I know I've seen him somewhere...and is Kara picking her nails? Wow so damned casual while she’s just waiting for people to die outside.

I love that they have this gorgeous piece playing during the heartfelt Kabby scene. Abby going through withdrawal. Marcus watching Abby with concern and so much love. My god he loves her so much. I love how he just puts his hand on her back to calm her down.

"How did you think I could carry you outside and shut the door? Abby I'm sorry but I'm not that strong." Marcus LOVES YOU SO much. It's so devastating but so beautiful.

Even as broken as Abby is she doesn't regret saving him. And in all honesty I don't know if the other would have surved in that bunker if they hadn't saved the other one.

WHHHY!? did you have to interrupt their beautiful kiss!? The fact that Abby was the one intiate it. Damn you!

knock knock knock! Surprise Bitch it's Blodreina!

"Abby you can't fix me this time." Season 1 parallel, to when Abby saved his life.

Marcus saying the travelers blessing for Jaha! aaaaahhh!

Thelonius Jaha...May we not meet again. Really felt like this whole episode is them trying their best to redeem Jaha. Giving him this kid, saving wonkru and giving Octavia leadership advice. but.... I really have felt like Jaha's story had run out years ago. And that he might have meant to die at the end of season one but he just kept popping back up. And then he influenced Clarke just the way he did to Marcus and that shit was going down bad.

Gaia reallly loves herself some bloodshed.

"Your a healer not a fighter thats why I love you." awwwwwwweee! Their like mini kabby.

Kara is the first winner of the pit and Marcus is the last. BE THE LAST. and Marcus was the last.

#the 100 #kabby #marcus kane #abby griffin #octavia blake #blodreina #indra #gaia #jackson #miller #thelonious jaha #otp:hope #wonkru #skaikru #the 100 season 5 spoilers

35 notes · View notes

argyle-s · 6 years

Text

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME CHAPTER 20/38

Rating: Mature

Read at Ao3

Start at the Beginning

Maggie is confused, Kara is busy, and Alex is taking a boat tour of a river in Egypt.

Thanks to @ifourmindbeso for her great work as a beta. Any remaining mistakes are entirely my own.

Chapter 20 – Building the Brand

Kara touched the button on the holoprojector and the green screens behind her disappeared, replaced by the interior of one of the guest lounges in Sanctuary. The backdrop was chosen carefully. The room could have been part of any structure anywhere on Earth. It was unusual only in the curved walls, circular floor plan, and the paintings hung on the walls. One of her and Kal’s fathers, Zor-El and Jor-El standing together in their science guild robes. There was one of Lara holding Kal, and one of Kal sleeping on the couch with Krypto curled around him, and another of Lara holding Kal, with Jor’s arm around them both, and Krypto at their feet. The painting of her mother and Astra, as well as the paintings of her with her mother and father, and her with Astra were carefully kept out of frame of the projection. She wanted to share as much as she could with the world, but there were limits, having Astra’s face plastered all over YouTube would make it impossible for her aunt to ever have a civilian identity.

“You ready?” Wilma asked.

Kara nodded. “As long as my cape is on straight,” she said.

“You look fine,” Marcus said. “After all, I did your makeup.”

Kara and Wilma both laughed and Wilma reached over and gave Marcus a bit of a shove, then hit the record button on the camera.

Kara fixed her gaze on the camera and smiled.

“Good morning YouTubers,” she said. “Supergirl here, bringing you the first of what I hope will be a number of videos. Now, I’m sure right now a lot of you are asking why I’m taking the time to do YouTube videos instead of flying around helping people, and that’s a great question. The thing is, I can do both. Even my cousin doesn’t spend all of his time flying around in his cape, and just like him, I’m able to use my super hearing to listen for trouble in the city while I take a minute to talk to you about things that are important. On top of that, the wonderful people at Catco have offered to edit the videos for me, and help me out by moderating the comments section, so I can devote more time to helping people.

“Some of you may also ask why I want to do these videos in the first place, or why Catco’s helping me set up a Facebook page, an Instagram account, and a Tumblr. After all, my cousin doesn’t have them. Neither does Batman or Wonder Woman. So, why me? Why am I taking the time?

“My cousin once said, when asked what he stands for, ‘Truth, Justice and the American way.’ I think that’s a wonderful sentiment. My mother was an Adjudicator. Truth and Justice were her purpose and goal in everything she did. To see my cousin take up that mantle warms my heart, and makes me feel like a bit of my mother lives on in him. And the American ideal is a good one. A place where everyone is free, where we come together, regardless of race, creed, or place of birth, and work together to build a better life and a better future.

“But that’s not why I put on this suit. I wasn’t sent here to carry on my mother’s fight. You don’t need me for that. You already have police officers, lawyers and judges working to ensure justice is done. You already have people like Cat Grant, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Vicki Vale and Perry White working to find the truth. What I believe this world needs more of is compassion. Someone to lend a hand, to help when we’re in need, and to offer hope that that we can make it through today, and that tomorrow will be better.

“My cousin once told Lois Lane that this symbol means hope, and he’s right. In one of the languages of my homeworld, it is the glyph for the word hope. But more than that, it’s the Coat of Arms of the House of El, and it stands for our Motto. El Mayarah. It means Stronger Together. I believe that with all my heart. That we are stronger together than we are apart. That we can help each other and give each other hope. That hope is stronger than fear, and the only way we can move forward.

“That’s why I put on this suit. That’s why I’m out there. That’s what I believe in. Hope, help and compassion for all. Human, or alien. That’s what I want these videos to be about. A way to reach people I can’t just by flying around the city. A way to remind people that someone cares, and a way to remind people that all it takes for them to be a hero, is to care, to reach out and offer a helping hand, or a shoulder to lean on when someone needs it.

“Now, I’m sure there are those of you out there who are going to say that this is nothing but a publicity stunt. There are already people out there who are questioning my motives, asking why I’m doing the things I’m doing. To those people, I want to say this. If you don’t want me here, if you don’t want me in the skies above National City, or in the streets helping people, then do better. Make the world better. Make a world that doesn’t need me or my cousin. Make a world that doesn’t need Wonder Woman or Batman. We would all love to live in a world that doesn’t need us, where we don’t hear cries for help, or sirens in the distance.

“For the rest of you, that’s all for this video. I’m Supergirl Zor-El here on YouTube, Facebook, and Google+, SupergirlZorEl, no spaces or dashes, on Tumblr and Instagram, and @SupergirlZorEl on twitter. Also, if you’re interested in information about my homeworld of Krypton, check out my website at kryptonremembered.com. It’s got everything from a full Kryptonian encyclopedia, to an archive of Kryptonian music, recipes for how to make traditional Kryptonian food using Earth ingredients, a library of Kryptonian literature, and even courses that will teach you how to speak, read and write Kryptahniuo, which was our main language, and Kandorian, Vath, Twenx, Urrikan, and Lurvanish, the five classical languages spoken on Krypton prior to the planetary unification. All the content is available for free, in fifty different languages.

“Until next time, may Rao light your way.”

“And we’re out,” Wilma said.

Kara smiled. “How was that?”

“Good,” Wilma said. “I want to do one more take, just to be safe.”

Kara nodded. “Okay.”

Supergirl @SupergirlZorEl 15 Nov 2015

Good morning to the people of National City, human and alien alike. #elmayarah

From Instagram

(image of argo city)

SupergirlZorEl

I know it’s cheating a bit, but for my first Instagram post, I wanted to share something really special. This is a picture of Argo City near sunset. According to the time stamp, it was taken about five Kryptonian days, or ten Earth months before I was born. The tall building in the middle of the image is the House of El’s Argo City Tower. You can actually see my childhood bedroom in this picture. And off to the left, you can see the Citadel, where my mother worked with other Adjudicators to bring justice to our world.

November 15, 2015

“I’m not sure whether to be proud or jealous,” Kara said as she leaned back in the chair, a smile on her face. “The YouTube video’s only been up for two hours, and Supergirl’s already topped half a million followers.”

“Did you really think our girl would do any less?” Cat asked, causing Kara to jump a bit. She turned around, looking away from the bank of displays she’d been looking at, and forcing herself not to smile as Winn scrambled to take his feet down off his desk.

“I wasn’t sure,” Kara said. “She’s got a good message, but she’s only been around a few weeks.”

“True,” Cat said, with a slight tip of her head in acknowledgement, “but in that time, she’s managed to save a plane from certain disaster, foil a bank robbery, prevent a disaster at the docks, took down a villain that her cousin couldn’t defeat on her first try and kept a cruise ship from going down in the middle of National City Harbor. Not to mention what she did at the Gala.” Cat raised her index finger and gave it a little wag. “No, our girl’s star is definitely on the rise. The public is hungry for Supergirl, and she’s using that so well, it’s almost like she learned it from me.”

Kara knew she was blushing and couldn’t quite meet Cat’s eyes. She could feel the pride radiating off Cat, and she could feel the butterflies in her stomach. She wanted to kick herself to make it stop, but she couldn’t help it. The other Cat, the Cat in the original timeline, had offered praise so rarely that when she did, it had always had a profound impact. In that timeline, Cat had left, and she’d come back only to die in the Battle of CatCo Plaza. She’d always wondered if things would have been different if she told Cat. Oh, there wasn’t any doubt in her mind that Cat had known in the other timeline, just like there was no doubt in Kara’s mind that Cat knew in this timeline.

The difference was, this time, when Cat finally confronted her with it, she wasn’t going to lie.

“Now,” Cat said. “I believe I was promised a tour.”

Kara looked up, and this time she did meet Cat’s eyes. “Of course, Ms. Grant.” She stood up and led Cat towards the studio. “We’ve got the studio for the YouTube videos set up in here. I just used CatCo’s standard rapid-deployment studio package…”

Kara sat down on the sofa opposite Cat in Cat’s office as Kaldur’ahm carried in a pair of trays. One of them held Cat’ usual sushi order, while the other held a small family-sized Chef’s sampler, and two orders of pot stickers.

“I hope you didn’t have plans for lunch,” Cat said as Kaldur’ahm set the trays down.

“No,” Kara said. “Nothing urgent. And if something comes up…” she held up her phone, “people know how to reach me.”

“Good,” Cat said, then waited as Kaldur’ahm finished setting the trays down, and left Cat’s office. “I have to say, you did a good job finding Jacob.”

“Jackson,” Kara said, “but you already know that.”

Cat just smirked as she reached for her chop sticks. “I’m impressed. You put together an entirely new department in the span of five days. I wouldn’t have bet you could get the construction permits cleared in under two weeks.”

Kara shrugged. “I know people,” she said. “Some of them are on board with what Supergirl is trying to do. A little bit of judicious name-dropping, a little bit of helpful arm-twisting here and there, and some careful horse-trading.”

“Hmmm… I’d be curious as to what kind of horses were being traded.”

Kara picked up a pot sticker. “One of my contacts may have traded the design for a meta-human containment system to the city in exchange for expediting the permitting process.” She tossed the pot sticker in her mouth, moaning softly as she bit into it.

“That’s quite a trade.”

Kara nodded. “A good one,” she said. “National City PD gets something it needs, and so do we. Everyone wins.”

Cat smiled at her. “You keep surprising me. I still don’t think I’ve figured out just how badly I’d underestimated you.”

Kara laughed as she started mixing wasabi into her soy sauce. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said.

“You should,” Cat replied. “I hope you don’t mind working over lunch. I have the initial proposals in from the first batch of licensed Supergirl merchandise, and I wanted to go over them.”

“Okay,” Kara said. “Any trouble with the requirements she put down on the clothing and toy makers?”

“The clothing companies were fine with it, though they wanted to get the standard sizes out right away and release the plus sizes after they had time to do a study on how high demand would be.”

“You shut that down, right away?”

Cat nodded. “I told them exactly what Supergirl said. Everything launches together, or not at all.”

“And the toy makers?” Kara asked.

“Confused,” Cat said. “They had no idea why she insisted on multiple ethnicities for the Supergirl dolls, and they balked when they saw the percentages she insisted on, but when I threatened to take the license elsewhere, they folded like a cheap suit.”

“Good,” Kara said. “We’ll probably get a lot more proposals from them once they work their way through the Encyplopedia. Especially when they get to the section on Garata.”

“What’s that?” Cat asked.

“Supergirl said it was like soccer, with dragons.”

Cat grinned. “Well, whatever charity she eventually designates, they are going to make an awful lot of money.”

“We might have an answer on that soon,” Kara said. “She’s apparently meeting with Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince while they are in town to discuss work with the Wayne Foundations and the Artemis Society.”

“Our girl is going to be awfully busy, between making videos, taking meetings, and rescuing kittens. I hope she isn’t taking on too much.”

Kara reached for another pot sticker, avoiding Cat’s eyes this time. “I worry about that too,” she said. “But I get the impression that she’s got good people backing her up, and she’s being careful to try and build a solid support network that can handle everything except the actual punching and flying.”

“What about the other aliens. The ones that showed up to the Gala? Supergirl’s Aunt and Uncle?”

Kara looked up from her food, staring at Cat for a moment, before looking down and picking up a piece of spicy tuna roll with her chopsticks. “She’s not ready to talk about that just yet.” She dipped the sushi in soy sauce and popped it into her mouth, chewing slowly, then swallowing. “I know a lot of the news outlets are buzzing about it, but I think she might be willing to address that in another interview soon. Maybe we could even talk her into letting us tape it for a joint release on her YouTube channel and on CatCo’s.”

“You think she’d do a live interview?” Cat asked.

Kara shook her head. “No. Definitely not.” She frowned when she saw the way Cat’s face fell. “Ms. Grant, I don’t think it’s a matter of trust. I think she’s afraid that it might provoke an attack on CatCo. Reactron attacked her while she was pulling people out of a wrecked bus. If someone knew where she was going to be for a long period of time, they might attack just to get at her. That’s why she brought in the hologram projector for her video. She doesn’t want anyone to know they’re being taped in this building.”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Cat admitted.

“Considering how many times the Daily Planet has been attacked by someone looking for Superman, I’m sure it’s something she’s given a lot of thought,” Kara said. She looked into Cat’s eyes, making sure Cat understood the weight of her words. “She’d never forgive herself if something were to happen to you, or anyone else here, because of her.”

Cat stared back at her for a moment, and Kara could feel how thin the pretense that Cat didn’t know was wearing. Part of her wondered if she should just say it, but something was holding Cat back. In the other timeline, Cat had confronted her as soon as she realized. Here, Cat knew, and Kara knew she knew. Neither of them were being subtle about it, but for some reason, Cat hadn’t pushed, and Kara wasn’t quite ready to throw aside that decision.

“Well,” Cat said, “for now, we’ll just have to respect her judgement on that.”

Kara nodded. “Of course.”

#supergirl #supercat #supercanary #sanvers #fanfiction #the shape of things to come #kara danvers #alex danvers #cat grant #maggie sawyer #sara lance #j'onn j'onzz #susan vasquez #lois lane #clark kent #james olsen #winn schott jr.#future shock

8 notes · View notes