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venusandromedadjarin · 4 years

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Darling

Alive, part two

18+, soft!Poe if you squint, drinking, fluff, dom!Poe, smut... a whole lot of smut, light bondage, edging, begging... Poe is just a hot husband and his wife pissed him off so now it’s payback time, 3.5k words

The cantina erupts in shouts and whoops the minute the two of you step inside, Poe's hand wrapped tightly around yours as he flashes his dazzling smile. You feel the heaviness in your chest lighten marginally as you see everyone you took off with from the base this morning, all of them smiling at the two of you. General Organa’s words echo in your mind, no one was lost today. She was right, and you hadn’t even let that sink in until now. No one’s picture was added to the wall today, and you glance at it, the heaviness lightening a bit more when you see the number of frames hasn’t changed. Poe squeezes your hand, and you glance up at him, a smile tugging at your lips.

Red-Ten’s voice booms over the room as he lifts a bottle above the crowd, “To the Damerons!”

You can feel Poe’s chuckle as his shoulder’s shake with it, his hand tightening as he surges forward. People clap their hands to your backs, throwing out compliments about your flying and his leadership. When you see Red-Six, you break away from him to hug her tightly. She returns the hug, nodding as you thank her for saving your life today.

“Just doing my job, Sergeant.”

You slap her shoulder, “Don’t Sergeant me, Numa. We’re drinking tonight, come on.” You clamber up on a stool, stepping onto the bar and reach a hand down to her. Taking it, she follows you, throwing her head back to laugh, her Lekku swaying with the movement. Poe’s eyes find yours from below, and they shimmer in the low light as he watches you live. Something he hasn’t seen in a long time, and it suddenly strikes him, too, that everyone came back today.

General Organa strolls into the room and crosses her arms when she sees the two of you on the bar, both of you stilling as the bar grows quiet, waiting for her to say something. She slowly shakes her head, a grin spreading on her face as she comes through the crowd and announces, “Orson, first round is on me. The squadron deserves it. Congratulations on a successful day.”

The whooping that breaks out is so loud it drowns out her words as she slaps Poe on the back, Finn laughing beside him at whatever she says. You see her nod towards you before quietly exiting as the shots begin to be passed around. Two of Orson’s six large, green hands reach up to give you and Numa the small glasses, filled with clear alcohol. Once everyone has one, you wink towards her and lift yours up, “To the Rebel Scum!”

No one misses a beat as they echo you, laughter ringing out once everyone has downed the liquid. It burns down your throat and you grimace, swiping your lips with the back of your hand.

The evening goes on like that more or less, rounds of shots being passed out as you all eat at varying times before drinking some more. While Poe and Finn wager against some other people in a game of Sabacc, you bid Numa to cover for you as you slip out of the cantina. Technically, going outside at night is frowned upon, but you risk it and slide out the vented doors into the cool air. The base keeps the doors slatted open to improve air circulation and temperature at night, since D’Qar cools down significantly when the sun drops. The air is a welcome presence after being inside the humid bar. For a few minutes, you just stand outside the doors and look up, staring at the planets you can see in the sky. Finally, you push yourself forward towards the field that the base uses as a tarmac. The sight of your X-Wing makes you groan as you walk towards it, the sticky fire retardant still sliding down the sides of it. With hesitation, you decide to climb up the ladder, shuddering when you see the inside is full of the light colored goo. Hopping down, you walk around the ship and survey the damage. The entire left engine is gone, having blown up and all, and the left wings are severely damaged. Luckily the body and right side is mostly intact, though the canopy is cracked. It would take weeks for you to fix it, maybe less if Poe helped, which you’re sure he would. Sighing, you walk over to Poe’s X-Wing to asses his damage. It’s definitely less severe, but the right side is charred and cracked, the wings bent enough that they don’t match up properly. At the very least, it’d be easier to fix than yours.

You climb the ladder to his cockpit before sliding down into his pilot’s chair, the canopy open so you can sit back and look at the sky. It smells like him: leather and oak mixed with a slight hint of gasoline. It’s a scent you would never grow tired of having in your senses. Looking around his cockpit, you notice a fading picture tucked under the edge of one of the control panels. You gently pull it out of the metal it’s wedged under and study it in the dim light. Smiling, you realize it’s the picture Rey took of you and Poe the day you got married. On the back, it has your’s, Rey’s and Finn's initials signed on it. You wipe a tear from your cheek, realizing how fiercely you miss your best friend, before tucking it back into its spot.

“You’re always right here with me,” Poe’s voice makes you jump, your hand flying to your mouth as you yelp.

“Maker, you scared me,” your eyes close as you try to calm your heart beat. He just chuckles and smooths your wavy hair down, his hand gentle on the crown of your head. “What are you doing out here?”

He looks down at you, humor dancing in his dark eyes, “I’m checking on you. What are you doing out there?”

You smile and point upwards, the stars lighting up his features as he looks up. You’re struck by how handsome he is, especially with the grey hair starting to streak his dark curls. The scruffy beard he’s growing makes him look older, but in the best way possible, and his smile makes your smile grow.

“I don’t know why General Organa ever doubted your ability to be a pilot when you first joined the Resistance, you always have belonged among the stars,” he whispers, still looking up.

You duck out from under his hand and grasp it with your own, bringing his wrist to your lips. He lets out a low sound when you kiss the sensitive skin, your tongue darting out to taste him. “If I remember correctly, you also doubted me,” you whisper against his wrist.

Poe chuckles and looks down at you, “I never doubted you, darling. I had never met anyone as bright as you and I was terrified of how quickly this lifestyle can dim that light.”

You catch his eyes, gazing at him through your lashes, your breathing hitched. Even after being with him this long, it takes you by surprise when he speaks about you like this. You and Poe never had the luxury of a slow and sweet romance. It was frantic and intense because of the Resistance, the constant fight, the constant fear of everything good coming to an end. When you both realized you felt the same way, that was the end of it, nothing was the same. It was quick and fiery, at risk of ending before it ever got the chance to start. But at times like this, after a successful fight, after the hope of the Resistance being rekindled, you are reminded of the reason you fell for him in the first place. He’s fierce, stubborn, and rough around the edges sometimes because of his cocky nature… but underneath all of that, Poe Dameron is a romantic, kind man who had to become tough in the face of adversity. This is a man who wore his mother’s wedding ring on a chain, waiting until he could give it to his life long partner. Somehow, the Maker allowed it to be you.

“I love you,” you whisper up to him, scared of breaking the silence too harshly by speaking. He grasps your hand in his and pulls you up gently, kissing you gently before climbing down the ladder and looking back at you.

“Let’s go home,” he smiles up at you and you nod, scrambling out of the cock pit and down to him so you can take his hand again. “I love you, too.” You squeeze his hand as the two of you begin the short walk back to the main building.

The sweet talking is forgotten the moment the lock bolts your bedroom door closed, one of Poe’s hands palming at the key pad to dim the lights while the other is cupping the column of your throat as he kisses you. You only see two other people on the walk back, by some mercy everyone is either still getting drunk or in bed, which meant the two of you are finally, finally, alone. A soft whine escapes your lips when Poe’s other hand meets your hip, his fingers digging into you as if he’s afraid he’ll float away if he doesn’t hold on for dear life. You shudder at the thought of finding your husbands fingertips bruised into your skin in the morning. He slowly pushes you back towards the bed, his tongue dipping into your mouth to twist with your own. As the back of your thighs hit the mattress, he pulls back just enough to mumble against your lips, “You drove me insane today, woman.”

Biting his bottom lip, you tug slightly before smiling against his mouth, “What are you going to do about that?”

You bite back a groan as his large hands slides under your leather jacket, slowly pushing it off your shoulders and down your arms. His mouth works on your neck the whole time, hot and heavy against your skin as he nips and licks you. You sigh when he removes himself from you completely, blinking up at him as you watch him walk over to the desk and open the bottom drawer. Poe pulls out a belt and turns toward you, gazing at you with his brown eyes as he folds the leather into makeshift cuffs. Your pulse jumps as you watch him, heat pooling between your legs, and you fight to not press your thighs together. His voice is low when he breaks the heavy silence, rasping against his throat, his Adam’s apple bobbing, “Lay down.”

Crawling up on the bed, you follow his instructions, waiting for him to tell you what to do next. Instead, he comes over and grasps your wrists, pulling them above your head and positioning your hands in between the headboard slats. He slides the cuffs on you, pulling on the belt to tighten it before checking to see if it’s too much. You nod up at him, and he checks the headboard, making sure it won’t move too much and hurt you. Poe steps back, watching you as your breathing picks up just by being restrained. The way he’s looking at you is almost feral, his eyes darkening as his pupils dilate… and neither of you are even undressed yet. You’re vaguely aware that he can probably see your nipples hardening under your thin t-shirt as he moves to the end of the bad, slowly untying your boots and pulling them off, followed by your socks. His large hands grasp your ankles, pulling you towards him and making your arms strain against the bindings. The tension makes you worry at your bottom lip, the heat in your core intensifying. He slowly slides his hands up your legs, the callouses on his palms catching on the heavy fabric. By the time he actually reaches your waistband you’re trying not to roll your hips, searching for some sort of relief to the dull ache spreading through your body. His thick fingers quickly undo the buttons before dipping below the waist band, pausing as he looks up at you and you crane your neck, and then he’s pulling. Ripping the fabric down his legs like it might burn you if he doesn’t get it them off quick enough. He nearly chokes when he sees the lacy black underwear you’re wearing, licking his lips before he’s tearing those off you too. You lift your hips to make it easier and you shudder when the cool air hits your clit, the wetness on your thighs and pussy becoming shockingly cold, making the ache in your core even more intense. And Poe… Poe just watches as you squirm, your forearms straining as you pull at the belt.

Finally, he starts undressing. His boots clunk as he kicks them off, his leather jacket makes a soft thud as it lands next to them. His shirt is haphazardly tossed across the room by one hand as he unbuttons his pants with the other. He strips his socks and briefs next, his eyes never leaving yours.

You’re a wreck and he hasn’t even touched you yet.

Finally, he’s back on the bed, kneeling between your thighs as he parts them roughly, his hands gripping your knees and pushing them apart. Your chest is heaving at this point, the fabric of your shirt sending bolts of heat down your spine as your nipples rub against it. Poe leans over you, his cock dragging across your stomach and your back arches off the bad, chasing the feeling of his tip and the pre-cum that’s glistening on it. He just smirks down at you before gently pushing your shirt up, his fingertips barely brushing your skin as he bunches the fabric until it’s halfway over your head and covering your eyes. The more you squirm, the more your arms pull at the shirt and the more it darkens your vision. You huff in frustration and he tsks, “You’ve been walking around the base all afternoon with your tits on display underneath that thin fabric?” You smile, your top teeth dragging over your lower lip as you bite it, and he groans, a low rumbling sound that is heavenly and turns you on even more.

Then you’re yelping as he tugs at your nipple with his teeth before moving on to suck a hickey into the meat of your breast. He repeats it on the other side, your back arching as you try to chase the pleasure it brings. You feel him lay down between your legs, kissing down your stomach before nipping at your hips. He hooks your knees over his shoulders and then he stills. He just lays there, his lips pursed as he blows on your clit and makes you shudder, his hands digging into your hips and holding you down so you can’t lift your them to meat his mouth.

You’re breathless as you beg, the words coming out in between your groans because the waiting is just too much. “P-poe, please. Pl-lease do someth-thing.”

That’s all it takes.

He licks you, moaning as he drags the muscles through your folds and tastes you like he’s never tasted anything sweeter. His tongue dips in and out of you, circling your hole and making you squirm. Then he flicks it out against your clit. And you pull so hard at the belt you think you might pull a muscle in your arm, but his hands never leave your hips and you can’t chase his mouth for more of that beautiful feeling. All at once he’s sucking, sending shivers through your body as your thighs tense up and you do your best not to squeeze his head. You’re so close, teetering on that edge, the pressure coiling in your abdomen, pulling taught and tight and ready to snap-

Then he stops.

You think you must yell, or at least throw a curse word out at him, or something.

Before you can even stay mad that he brought you to the edge and refused you, his finger is inside of you and your hips come of the bed, pushing it in deeper. He curls it against the spot that makes you see fucking stars, and then he’s fucking you with it before adding a second. Curling and thrusting and sending you towards that edge again.

Right as you start to tremble, a soft whine escaping your parted lips, he stops again, your walls fluttering around his fingers, searching for the slightest movement to send you careening off that edge. You feel tears prick at your eyes, the coiling pleasure in your abdomen raging so hot that you think you might actually cry.

But instead of tears, you cry out as Poe simultaneously adds a third finger and sucks on your clit. Your walls clamp down around his fingers as he fucks you through it. Your eyes flutter closed underneath the blindfold, and you’re sure they roll back, as your hips jolt off the bed, chasing his mouth and that hot tongue that sends electric shocks down your spine and through your limbs. You’re trembling, definitely squeezing him in between your thighs, but you can’t bring yourself to care as the coiling, tight rubber band of pleasure snaps so hard that it feels white hot.

When you finally come down, he’s still drinking you up, lazily licking you and moaning into your folds. When he stops, he leans his head against the apex of your thigh, his facial hair tickling the already sensitive skin, as he watches his fingers slide in and out of you, shimmering with your juices. Even though you can’t see him now, you’re well aware of his fascination because he’s done this before. You gasp when he finally drags his fingers out of you fully and crawls over you, leaning down to kiss you as he pushes the t-shirt all the way up to your wrists. His tongue dips into your mouth, both of you moaning as you taste yourself on him. When he breaks away from you, you look up at him with big eyes, “Let me touch you.”

He smirks, kissing you once more before moving back between your legs and positioning his dripping cock so that the tip rubs your clit. “No,” Poe watches you as he slides his dick against your clit, making you pull at the belt and throw your head back, biting back a moan. Then he’s moving again, positioning himself before sheathing his cock in you with on thrust, his hips snapping against yours. You cry out, the pain and pleasure mixing low in your torso and coiling into the start of another orgasm. You wrap your legs around him, hooking your ankles behind his back and he palms your knees, spreading you and using your legs as support as he pounds into you. The way his hips dig into you with every thrust has you seeing stars already and you can tell by his furrowed brow and heavy breathing that he won’t last long but he reaches down to thumb at your clit anyways, pushing you towards your release again. “Cum for me.”

And you do. It overtakes you before you even have the chance to fight it, coursing through you and firing every synapse in your body at once, it overwhelms you so much that you barely make a sound as you squeeze his cock. Your eyes close and you pull at the bindings, your wrists aching under the pressure and all the while, he fucks you through it, his pace never faltering as he continues to hit that spot inside you that makes you feel like you might be on fire in the best way possible.

He doesn’t cum until you start to come down, your walls finally letting up just enough for him to tense inside you and paint them with himself. He collapses against you, shuddering as he nips at your nipples, low groans bubbling from his throat as he finishes pumping himself into you. He shakily reaches up to loosen the belt as he pants against your chest and you immediately pull your hands out to reach for him. You rub your hands through his hair, trace your fingertips up and down the curve of his spine, knead his shoulder muscles… you do all of it, just reveling in the afterglow of orgasms and in the fact you can touch him now.

Poe finally turns his head so his cheek rests against your sternum, whispering against your skin, “Don’t get tired on me yet, darling. I’m not done with you.”

#poe dameron x you #poe dameron x reader #poe dameron

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calitraditionalism · 3 years

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Arc Three: Chapter Eleven

(AO3 counterpart here.)

The silence continued into the dawn. No one got much sleep after Littlepaw’s vision. They were all afraid that they would be next.

Laurelclaw tried his best to stay positive, he really did. He pulled up as many hopeful, happy thoughts as he could while standing guard outside of Littlepaw’s den, ready to jump in and shake her out of another nightmare at the drop of a feather. Flyfang had tried to tell him to rest, but there was a silent understanding between the two that neither of them was going to sleep again when Littlepaw was at risk of falling back into whatever horrible space she had been in. Flyfang had conceded and gone into the den to be closer to her half-apprentice. When Laurelclaw glanced in occasionally, she was curled around Littlepaw’s tightly balled-up body, watching her with exhausted fear. He couldn’t blame her.

It wasn’t just that which made him fail to keep a happy image in his head. All of his happy images were of his family, the Plage – his mother, father, goofy deputy and snarky former mentor, among all the others, walking together, sharing jokes, watching the waves of the ocean rear and collapse, stretching their foam as far as it could go up the beach. The sense of companionship and confidence. Security in their strength as they stood together.

All of it suddenly felt so pointless, in the grand scheme of things. So temporary.

Laurelclaw fought against the dread that came with every reminder that his family was not going to a happy afterlife. He failed to keep it down. It soaked into his chest and stomach, sticking against the walls of his insides, making him sick. He shivered with nausea many times throughout the night.

The sun barely made it through the thick canopy above the makeshift camp. Laurelclaw hardly noticed it was daylight until Flyfang emerged from the den and shook out her fur. She wordlessly went off into the woods, tail dragging on the ground after her.

Everyone was awake and outside, sitting uncomfortably in silence, before Flyfang returned, carrying prey. Beetlefoot went with her to retrieve everything else she had caught, but there were still no words exchanged. They all formed a ring again and picked listlessly at their meals, nibbling without tasting.

Laurelclaw was absorbed in his own thoughts, but the tension eventually became too much to ignore. He followed his urge to say something.

“You know…” he started, and winced when everyone looked at him like he had shouted. “Imagining everyone’s reaction to all of this, it’s… it can be a little funny, I think.”

Silence. Every face was baffled. Laurelclaw internally berated himself and tried again.

“It’s just me thinking about my mom, really,” he said while fighting off shakiness in his voice. “She’d- she would want to go to sleep and find StarClan and fight it to the death herself. She’d leap at the opportunity. But my dad, he’d run. He’d take the entire family with him – the whole Clan, probably – and flee as far as he could go. He was always a little timid like that.”

The silence calmed a little. Laurelclaw could see the others considering their own families.

“I think…” Flyfang’s eyes lifted up towards the treetops, contemplating. “I think the Marish would panic. My sisters, maybe they wouldn’t get it. They’d think it’s some monster from a story, something easy to beat on your way to becoming a hero. It’d be exciting for them.” Her voice lowered a little, tightened. “I’d prefer for them to think of it that way.”

Surprisingly, Beetlefoot spoke next. “I know the Fleet would all follow Redheart’s idea to get the entire Clan out of the Territory, if they could. Though everyone where I was born is… rather traditional. They prefer the aspects. But they still cling to them going to StarClan for their ‘good behavior’ and ‘righteous worship’. If they knew that all their praying and piousness meant nothing, they might just fling themselves into the river. Leap into the mouth of the beast. Get it over with as soon as possible.”

Laurelclaw looked at Beetlefoot, a little startled. It was the most he had ever said about himself. That tiny, weak cynicism in him remarked wryly about how of course it was unhappy and dour, coming from Beetlefoot. He told that part to hush and be nice.

“My mom wouldn’t believe it,” Littlepaw said, a bit muted and flat. She wasn’t looking at anyone. “She’d find every excuse under the sun to reason it away as a mistake or a lie.”

“Hard thing to convince anyone about,” Mistface said.

Laurelclaw couldn’t help some desperation in his voice. “Isn’t there anything we can do? We could warn everyone, right? Spread the word?”

Redheart sighed, more in a world-weary way than in annoyance with him (thankfully). “I’ve wanted to run around the Territory and tell everyone the truth so many times, Laurelclaw. But the Runagate’s been doing that for generations now, and they’ve barely gotten anywhere. We’re not the first ones to know about StarClan. We probably won’t be the last.”

“I don’t know how much we could do, anyway,” Greyleaf said. His claws were deeply sunk into the soft ground. “Who would believe a deputy on the run, and who would believe a healer, of all cats?”

“But Littlepaw-“ started Laurelclaw, but Redheart shook her head.

“She’s not a seer anymore,” she said. “And so many of our actual seers are fooled, StarClan can easily lie to them and call us insane. Littlepaw got lucky with the Runagate visiting her and StarClan trying to talk to her again, it seems.”

“‘Lucky’ is a real subjective word,” Mistface remarked. “Ain’t sure how lucky it is to see what y’all see.”

“About as lucky as bearing witness to a murder when no one else was around, I suppose,” Beetlefoot said darkly.

“You aren’t wrong.” Greyleaf looked down at his paws and carefully retracted his claws, grimacing. “It’s a stroke of incredible fortune that any of you believed us to begin with. I mean…” He looked to his brother. “You didn’t at first, right? Even you?”

Mistface gave him a non-smile. “Thought you might’ve been crazy for a minute, yes.”

“And he’s my brother.” Greyleaf turned back to everyone else. “The thing is that, yeah, you all believed us, but you’re a smaller group with at least relatively open minds, and it still took a second to win you over. Telling a much larger crowd, or a couple of strangers you’ve never spoken to before, that’s going to be a lot harder to convince.”

“That’s the trouble with all of us,” Darkpelt said suddenly. “I’ve noticed it in my line of work. Cats like to follow along with the crowd because it makes us feel more secure, like somehow more cats means more logical thinking and correct choices. And we cling to any line of security we can get. If you were told a horrible truth, and someone in your group said ‘that’s nonsense!’, you’d be inclined to believe them. It’s safer for your sanity.”

“Then how did we all believe it?” Flyfang, despite her words, did not sound argumentative. She looked more puzzled than anything.

Darkpelt shifted to tuck her front paws underneath her chest and she shut her eyes. Her tone became contemplative. “For me, at least, it just makes sense. I’ve always believed that nothing is impossible, given how real StarClan seemed all my life. And the connections between Redheart and Greyleaf, especially the nightmares, made me far too curious to just pass them off as insane and leave it at that.” She opened her eyes and turned her head in Flyfang’s direction. “Like I said the other day, they have a completely bonkers story that no one would expect to be believed, except a nutter. But a nutter wouldn’t also have the story make sense if one stops to think about the logistics of it.”

“And you believed based on that?” Mistface asked, eyes half-closed as he regarded her doubtfully.

“Better reason than just a blood connection,” Darkpelt said, with a jaunty nod at him. “You’d believe Greyleaf if he told you he was Derecho in physical form.”

Mistface, surprisingly, did not react with his usual flat irritation. Rather, he looked amused. “It’d make more sense for him to be Gelid, with everything about Gelid’s inevitability, relating to what we know now.”

“You’d make a better Gelid than me,” Greyleaf said.

“Or Brume,” Beetlefoot muttered. “Slow and fluffy as you are.”

Mistface gave a breathy laugh, and with that the air of the ring loosened and relaxed. Appetites returned, everyone now eating properly and with a little more enjoyment of their food. It was quiet again for a while, until Beetlefoot spoke up, almost quiet enough that Laurelclaw didn't hear him.

“You know, Brume and Gelid used to be the same aspect,” he murmured.

Littlepaw perked up immediately. “I thought I heard something like that when I was a kit. Who were they?”

Speaking a little louder and, rather nicely, almost friendlier, Beetlefoot looked at Littlepaw. “They were called Rime. He was the aspect of ice and fog, once. He split into two a long time ago. The Brae still pray to him, though, as if he hasn’t been halved.”

“That doesn’t make much sense,” Flyfang said. “How could he still exist and be two different aspects at the same time?”

“Nothing the Brae do makes sense.” Beetlefoot shook his head. “They’re reclusive idiots.”

“Sounds like the Marish,” Flyfang said, almost nostalgically. “I had to peal out of there when they had their backs turned. They don’t want anyone leaving or coming in.”

Mistface swallowed a mouse tail. “Y’all got more problems in your families than they’re worth, if you ask me.”

“Your brother is on the run because he’s immune to a monster's visions,” Flyfang said, giving him a sarcastic head tilt. “Don’t you talk on family.”

“He’s kind of right, though,” Laurelclaw offered. “I love the Plage, but they can be a lot to handle. They all keep pushing me to be a patroller in the Fleet.”

Littlepaw lifted a paw to hide a smile. “They’ve met you, right?”

“I say the same thing.” Laurelclaw sighed a bit dramatically, for humor’s sake. “I’m just good at taking hits, that’s all.”

“You would not be a good patroller,” said Beetlefoot. “They’re all eager for a fight.” He paused, considering. “Though you cut an intimidating enough figure. You do have a chip in your ear.”

Laurelclaw lowered his head, a little embarrassed. “That was just an accident in my assessment.”

Littlepaw could not hide her smile now. “Have you been in a single real fight at all?”

“…No.” Laurelclaw’s ears (including the chipped one) started to burn, but Littlepaw’s laugh - quiet and small, but genuine - cooled them down again. Flyfang shook her head in mock disappointment. Even Redheart smiled.

There was a lull in the conversation again, but it was nice now – Laurelclaw could see everyone’s relief at the lightening of the mood as they exchanged friendly glances or started grooming their fur. Mistface and Greyleaf were talking in low voices to each other, and Greyleaf seemed calm for once.

“AH!”

A collective jump and the crew all looked at Darkpelt. She had shot up into a sitting position, her eyes huge even compared to her normal wide-eyed blind stare. Her tail stood straight up, fur sticking out like a fox’s.

“Something wrong?” Flyfang ventured when nothing was said.

“StarClan’s visions.” Darkpelt’s head twisted this way and that, like she was seeing something they couldn’t. “Greyleaf has been immune to them his whole life, and Littlepaw can see through the veil. ‘Through the veil’.” Her head turned in Redheart’s direction. “That’s what the Runagate told you. That was the specific wording.”

Redheart haltingly answered, confused. “It was, yes.”

“Littlepaw, Greyleaf, neither of you believe anymore, if you ever did.” Darkpelt looked between them. “As soon as you knew the truth, StarClan couldn’t work its magic on you.”

Littlepaw’s face fell. She seemed to be recalling the memory of her nightmare. “Yes. The field I always see was dead, and then it fell apart.”

“Is there a point to this?” Beetlefoot's head was craned a bit forward and his eyes were narrowed like Darkpelt’s were whenever she was concentrating.

“I don’t know yet.” Darkpelt lowered herself down again. “But it’s important. I can feel that. We have the veil and the knowledge of immunity. That’s all based on belief.” She squinted hard. “Belief. That’s going to be a factor. Keep that in your heads, everyone. We’re going to need to think.”

Laurelclaw didn’t know what to say. Thinking was not his strong suite to begin with, but this incredibly vague command to 'keep belief in his head' was already beyond him.

“Um…” He tilted his head, forgetting for a moment that Darkpelt couldn’t see him. “What does that factor into?”

“Haven’t the faintest,” Darkpelt said. “We’ll just have to wrack our noggins and see. Think hard, everyone. Think harder than you’ve ever thought in your lives. Our home and Clan depend on it.”

Redheart regarded Darkpelt with some puzzlement, but eventually she gave a small sigh. “We can do that. I hope this is going somewhere.”

“It is.” For the first time since they’d left the Clast, Darkpelt smiled broadly. “I promise.”

#warrior cats #arc three #steorra #chapter #chapter eleven #littlepaw #darkpelt #mistface #greyleaf #laurelclaw #beetlefoot #redheart #flyfang

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itsthemoofacewriting · 4 years

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Drowning in the night

Among us is quite popular at the moment (rightly so) and it’s Halloween, so I was really feeling this. It pushed aside all of my current WIPs in demand to be written.

There’s a lot of similarities with the game, but I did take some artistic liberties, so don’t come at me. If you’ve never played Among us, it might be worth looking up the rules/gameplay before reading- otherwise a lot of things are going to fly straight over your head. The ship is based on the Skeld map to give you a rough layout, but there are some differences.

Title is from ‘Burning Lights’ by The Weeknd, I listened to this a lot when I was writing.

Summary: The ship’s suddenly breaking down and crew members are starting to behave suspiciously. Bonds are about to be tested as suspicion rises of an imposter amongst them. ZoNami. Among us AU. Rating: M- Horror, Blood, Gore

Can also be found on AO3 and FFN.

Enjoy!

Nami’s looking at the charts on the screen in front of her and frowned. The ship’s slightly off course. She’d plotted that just this morning and the weather nodes hadn’t detected anything for concern, there was no reason for the shift. She shrugged it off. Sure this was the first time it’d happened, but this wasn’t the newest ship anymore. She’d check the weather nodes shortly and keep an eye on things.

For now though, she made the adjustments and as she did, she caught Zoro dozing off at the far wall near the door. He’d been hiding away in here for most of the morning and if she hadn’t already known about him dealing with stray asteroids this morning on his watch, she’d be moaning at him about being lazy. Give it another 10 minutes and she still might.

But then she stopped and gave him an assessing look as an idea came to mind. He hadn’t moved for the last 10 minutes, he was probably in a deep sleep by now, and that thought made her hand twitch for the permanent marker that she knew was in her desk drawer. She’s done it before, and it’d been hilarious. He’d walked around the whole day with a moustache and pirate patch without knowing. Some would say it’s mean but she believed it was fair play.

“No,” he said, one eye cracked open to glare at her.

How the hell did he do that?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She smiled at him far too innocently, hands behind her back, and his other eye opened to properly glare at her.

When it was clear he wasn’t buying what she was selling, she huffed and turned around to get back to her task and Zoro readjusted to get comfortable again as he let his eyes slip shut.

Nami and Zoro had been travelling together for years, along with Luffy, Usopp and Sanji. Only recently had they been joined by Chopper, Robin, Franky and Brook. In all honesty, Nami wasn’t sure how they coped without them. Running a ship was difficult at the best of times and before, they’d been doing with only five people and no mechanic- Usopp could only do so much. Franky had blanched when he’d seen the state of the ship.

She’d just finished her adjustments when the communicator in her ear suddenly started to screech and it’s so deafeningly loud there’s a moment where she can’t do anything other than clutch at her helmet. From the corner of her eye she can see Zoro having the same reaction, no longer snoozing against the wall.

In the next moment she’s trying to tear off her helmet, except she can’t get the final clip to undo at the back and the more desperate she was becoming, the harder it was to do. Her eardrums felt like they were about to burst any second and there’s tears collecting in her eyes from the pain.

But then it’s over. There’s another pair of hands pushing hers away and smoothly unclipping the helmet. Not a moment later and she’s clawing out the earpieces to throw them across the room. There’s still ringing in her ears but it’s fading quickly now there’s silence.

“You alright?” Zoro’s voice is rough, no doubt from his abrupt wake up call. He’s looking down at her with concern, like it hadn’t just happened to him too and his thumb is wiping the stray tear that fell.

It’s a soft gesture, especially for him, and it’s like it suddenly dawned on him what he’s done. He coughed, face flushing and took a step back, avoiding eye contact. Nami smiled to herself, he was doing more and more things like this lately and it was becoming more apparent why with each passing day.

In the early days of the crew, Zoro and Nami had spent their days viciously arguing with each other and if it hadn’t been for Luffy gluing them together back then, she wondered if they’d still be travelling together now. Their arguing had ceased as time had passed and they’d got to know one another. Now they bickered instead and it’s harmless, even if they do anger the other occasionally give it half an hour and they’re back to normal. It was easy for Nami to call Zoro one of her best friends. Because he is. He understood her and although it worked against her sometimes, she’d have it no other way.

But lately. Lately things had shifted. She couldn’t put her finger on it. More time spent together and soft looks that he thinks she doesn’t see. Yet, it’s hard to tell with Zoro. He doesn’t do anything overly romantic and as for flirting, she doesn’t think she’s ever seen him do it. He doesn’t seem like the type and that’s fine, but it made it hard to be sure. Maybe he just viewed her as a friend, or worse, as a sister. She knew that Luffy did.

When Nami nodded in response to his question, it should be awkward, Zoro still refusing to look directly as her and her cheeks were warm from his gentle touch, but the communicators were still screeching, and it could be heard from across the room. Frowning, Nami walked over to pick them up. It’s the first time it’s ever happened in all her time on board and paired with the drifting ship, she can’t help the suspicion that’s brewing.

Maybe their ship had seen it’s best already- a thought that Nami didn’t want to entertain too much. There were so many memories on this ship.

There’s a commotion outside that halted her thoughts, feet thumping through the long corridors and voices calling out to Franky. Zoro’s nodding to her then, gesturing towards the door that they should also go.

Unfortunately, Zoro took the lead.

“How many times do I have to tell you? It’s right out of navigation to get to the cafeteria!”

Zoro turned on his heel and stomped past Nami, face flushed in embarrassment. “I’ve gone that way before,” is his only defence.

Nami rolled her eyes. “You can go that way, but it takes twice as long and, knowing you, you’ll end up taking another wrong turn and do a whole lap around the ship.”

Based on his silence, that is what he’s done before.

She truly wondered about her sanity sometimes, falling for a guy that has no sense of direction. An idiot.

They’re the last ones to arrive when Franky’s explaining the issue. Something about a system that’s probably fried, although he doesn’t understand why it’s happened yet. Just that he’ll investigate and get back to them and that sounded reasonable enough to everyone as they nodded along. Franky collected their earpieces.

“Back to shouting then,” Nami sighed, imagining the chaos and noise this’ll bring. Luffy on the other hand is thrilled, and everyone knows he’ll spend the rest of the day running around the ship.

They’re breaking apart after that, back to their previous activities, and Sanji’s shouting after them about lunch being soon, which immediately stopped Luffy from leaving to tail Sanji back to the kitchen instead.

“I need to check the weather nodes, our course altered for some reason and I need to make sure they’re performing. If they’re not, I can’t anticipate any weather patterns that’d affect the ship’s course,” Nami explained as they walked back to navigation. Although as soon as she did, she realised she’s discussing this with Zoro, of all people. He’s never understood any of this and she’s sure it just goes in one ear and out the other.

Nevertheless, he nodded and wisely kept his mouth shut. At least he understood she’d need someone with her to do that. It wasn’t wise to step outside alone; there were old wives’ tales of people going missing when they went outside the ship alone.

“After lunch. The cook’s bitching at me about cleaning the garbage shoot.” Despite his words, he still settled back down into his previous spot by the door and she knew there’d be an argument kicking off soon if he didn’t move himself.

Before she could tell him as much, the lights above them flickered and there were voices throughout the ship shouting “Usopp” and “electrical”. Usopp could be heard loudly groaning in response and his feet dragging through the ship.

Zoro grunted his goodbye shortly afterwards and Nami shouted “turn right”, but it was too late. He was gone and she knew him well enough to know he’d turned left instead. Idiot.

Nami was typing away at the screen, downloading this morning’s data and making a note to head over to admin to do it there as well. If she didn’t, it was unlikely anyone else would. Although Robin might, she had been known to do it occasionally. That woman was a blessing. Nami honestly didn’t know how she’d survived all this time with those idiots, even if they were her idiots, they drove her insane at times with their laid-back attitudes.

She’s still downloaded data when she suddenly heard a rumbling sound behind her, far too close for comfort, and she jumped, turning as she did but nothing was there. It was quiet for a moment and she could feel a cold sweat breaking down her back. It was ridiculous, she’d always felt safe in this ship but there was something about this morning that was getting to her and she’d never heard that sound before. It happened again and one of the vents rattled.

Not a second later, she was running out of the room, feeling like a spooked child, and swiping her key card to lock the door behind her.

A shiver ran down her spine but before she could do anything else, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the ship. Her head whipped towards the direction and she was running before she could even think it through, she knew that scream anywhere, but she’d never heard him like that before.

“Usopp!”

She was passing through storage when a voice shouted after her. “Nami! What the hell happened?” Zoro asked, catching up to run alongside her.

“No idea. I’m hoping he just electrocuted himself.”

But for all her wishful thinking, Usopp wouldn’t scream like that over something so menial and Zoro must have thought the same as it was written all over his face.

Along the way, they’d picked up Brook and Robin and as they narrowed in on the room, from the opposite direction was Chopper, Sanji, Luffy and Franky.

The door flew open and Sanji was the first to ask, “What the fuck was that?!”

The room looked trashed, wires haphazardly dangling from units or snapped with electricity sparking from them. Usopp was in the middle of the chaos.

“Something grabbed me! It tried to drag me across the room,” Usopp said, his voice shaking and on the verge of hysterical as he sat on the floor hunched over and clutching at his ankle. His face was as white as a sheet.

Despite the state of him, and the room, the crew were aware of Usopp’s rather… theatrical storytelling.

“Sure it wasn’t just a rat? Maybe its tail touched you or something,” Zoro suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

Nami grimaced at that thought but she nodded. “As much as the thought pains me, it probably was a rat. You guys hardly clean very much.” Something she would make a point of nagging them about from now on.

“What’s wrong with your ankle?” Chopper inquired; he’d been quiet thus far but as the ships doctor, he’d noticed Usopp’s odd position.

Usopp cringed as he removed his hands from his ankle and the crew blanched. The yellow of his suit was ripped open and his hands were covered in blood. The skin around his ankle had a deep handprint that cut through the skin. The most disturbing part was the claw marks surrounding the handprint, the skin raw and red around the scratches. Clearly there’d been a struggle.

“Oh shit,” Sanji muttered under his breath, eyes going round.

Because not only was Usopp hurt, but that was a handprint on Usopp’s bloodied ankle.

One that looked very human.

The room suddenly felt far too heavy.

It was then that Luffy spoke. So far he’d been quiet but his frown had only grown. “Cafeteria,” he ordered, his voice firm and a stark contrast from the happy-go-lucky captain they were used to.

“This hardly seems like the time to eat,” Franky trailed off, rubbing the back of his head as his eyes trailed from Usopp to Luffy.

“There’s multiple exit points,” Robin supplied, catching on to what Luffy meant.

That set the mood. Suddenly everyone seemed on edge as the reality of the situation settled. Luffy was being serious. This was serious.

Sanji and Zoro wrapped one of Usopp’s arms around their shoulders and they were hauling him up to follow after Luffy towards the cafeteria. Chopper scuttled after them, saying he’d stop by the medical bay for supplies before meeting them there.

Nami stood there, trying to comprehend just what was going on as everyone filed out.

Robin walking over to touch her lightly on the arm. “If whatever this is was dangerous, it would have killed Usopp on sight without leaving a trace of him,” she reassured.

That at least got Nami out of her stupor and she gaped at her friend in horror. “That’s so dark Robin!”

The atmosphere in the cafeteria was tense, no one had spoken, not even when Chopper had trotted in to start working on Usopp’s ankle.

Sanji broke the silence. “Did you see anything?”

“No.” Usopp shook his head. “One minute I’m elbow deep in wires and the next I’m on the floor being dragged.”

“Full story, go from the start and tell us exactly what happened.”

“Okay, so I’m in the corner because for some reason the wires looked frayed and I thought I heard something but when I turned there was nothing. I turned back to continue but then there’s something grabbing my ankle and pulling me across the floor.” He paused then, his body shaking slightly. “It came from behind and that’s when I screamed. I started kicking and thrashing around, grabbing onto whatever I could and then it just disappeared. It was like nothing was even there in the first place.”

“Where was it dragging you?” Nami asked. She had a hunch.

“It didn’t get very far but I think it was towards the opposite corner.”

“Where the vent is?” She could feel dread filling her… surely not?

“Yeah!”

The crews gaze swivelled on Nami then, waiting for her to explain why she would guess something like that.

“There were weird sounds in navigation and the vents were rattling just a few minutes before you screamed but I ran as soon as I heard it.” She shivered at the thought, that could have been her.

“You think it came through the vents!?” Chopper squeaked, there was vents in the med bay too. There were vents in almost every room and that knowledge didn’t settle anyone.

“What the hell is small enough to fit in there and move around so quickly?!”

“Also, the ship’s behaving strangely. It was off course this morning just after I’d plotted it out, then the communicators breaking and then the lights?!” Nami said and with each passing issue she listed, the feeling of dread grew.

“What are you suggesting?” Robin calmly asked.

There was a moment of silence, because this moment was inevitable, and they’d all been trying to delay it. Where someone would have to voice what everyone was starting to think.

That someone in this crew did it.

“Where’s everyone been this morning?” Zoro asked, solemnly.

Everyone’s rattling off their locations and, so far, they’d all been with each other, apart from Usopp. But it’s then that Nami realised, Zoro had left just before it’d happened. He’d left to go and clean the garbage shoot and by the sounds of it, never made it there as Sanji didn’t say anything about seeing him.

“Me and Zoro were in navigation.” Zoro shot her a look and she’s not technically lying but if she gets found out that he had left briefly, it’d looked suspicious as hell. But there’s no way Zoro did this, one of the foundations of this crew along with her and Luffy, their longest standing member, their second in command, and she’s not about to have people pointing fingers at him.

Zoro’s shooting her looks that she decided to ignore but he doesn’t challenge her. If he did now, not only would he put himself under suspicion, but it’d also take her down with him. It’s the last thing either of them needed.

“Then something else must be on the ship,” Sanji offered, unwilling to point any fingers.

“How? We’ve been travelling for weeks and it picks now? Sounds too sophisticated for something that’s not human and how’s it not been spotted? It’s gone around undetected all this time?” Zoro questioned.

“So what? You’re suggesting it’s one of us? The vents are too small!”

“Unless someone in this room isn’t who they say they are,” Zoro continued and although he was off to the side, he had the attention of the whole crew. “The ship suddenly breaking when it’s been fine all this time and getting around undetected. This needs knowledge, something that can be learned by being around us all.”

“There’s rumours about this. They’ve never been confirmed though because ships and their crew disappear without a trace, never to be seen again,” Robin chimed in and it had Nami, Usopp and Chopper looking at her in terror. Franky shook his head next to her.

“That’s old wives’ tales!” Usopp said, but there’s a wobble in his voice that doesn’t make it believable. “Right?”

“Had to come from somewhere and we did just pick up new recruits,” Zoro said and his scrutinising gaze is aimed at Robin, Franky and Brook.

“You better not be suggesting what I think you’re suggesting,” Sanji growled, no doubt sticking up for Robin.

“Coincidental, no?” Zoro’s eyebrow quirked.

“I think everyone needs to calm down,” Brook said, his hands held up to avoid confrontation.

“So you’re accusing Chopper, too right? Because he’s just as new as the rest of them,” Sanji argued, ignoring Brook, to call Zoro out his favouritism. It was no secret that Zoro had taken the young medic under his wing.

They both started arguing and soon enough, the rest of the crew’s chiming in to either argue for one side or try to calm everyone down.

Nami agreed with Brook. They weren’t going to get anywhere sitting around pointing fingers at each other with no proof. “Luffy, say something!”

Her plea to the silent captain cuts through the argument and everyone’s turning towards Luffy for his verdict. He had yet to weigh in on the argument, but now wasn’t a time for silence. They needed their captain to take charge.

“No turning on each other,” is all he instructed, face serious and arms crossed from his position on the table.

“Luffy-” Zoro started, no doubt about to try and talk some sense into him as second in command.

“What if you’re wrong?” Luffy fired back, not letting up and he made a good point. Not even Zoro would forgive himself if he was wrong.

“And if I’m right?”

“Lot of ifs flying about,” Usopp jumped in.

“We’ll deal with that if the time comes.” There’s a finality in Luffy’s voice that said this part of the discussion was over.

“Franky, what are the routes for the vents?” Nami enquired, eager to move away from that topic. They needed to move forward anyway, not in circles. “Maybe we can avoid them until we find… whatever this is.”

Franky sighed, his shoulders slumping, “I connected them all together a few weeks ago… It made more sense for ventilation.”

Nami cringed in response, it’s a bad answer and one that put him on the receiving end of a few sharp looks. Robin rubbed his shoulder consolingly, but it didn’t do much to alleviate the tension in the room. It was like everyone in the room just put him straight into the number one position for most suspicious and he knew it.

Zoro was about to open his mouth but instead of words it was replaced by an angry shrieking of the alarm and red lights suddenly started flashing above their heads.

“What the fuck is that?”

“It’s the reactor!”

“So it can’t be any of us, we’re all here!” Sanji exclaimed, shooting Zoro a sour look as he spoke and Zoro returned the look tenfold.

“Not the time for that!” Nami barked, in no mood to break up a fight right now.

And then the lights cut out and they were in pitch black for a few seconds before the dim of the emergency lights flickered to life. They were far weaker than the main lights and the result was poor visibility- everything would be so much harder to do like this. The intermittent flash of red didn’t do much to help either.

It was just one thing after another.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Nami presumed that was Sanji based on the language and the chair that was just kicked across the room.

“What do we do?”

“I’m going to deal with the reactor.” Franky shouted, already making his way to the door with Robin on his heels. “The lights shouldn’t go off like this unless there’s multiple breaks in the wires, you need to find where the broken wires are, it’s most likely in multiple places.”

He’s almost gone but he stopped at the door when Nami shouted after him, “Franky, did you fix the communicators?”

“Not well but they’ve stopped screeching, it’ll have to do for now.” He quickly grabbed the small devices from his suit pocket, chucking them towards the crew.

And then he was gone.

“Everyone in pairs, do not leave anyone alone and we’ll meet back here after!” Luffy ordered.

Zoro was instantly by Nami’s side and Sanji looked like he was about to argue until Usopp clung to his side, telling him he needed the most protection out of anyone else. Although Sanji bitched at him to get off, Sanji’s face softened as he looked at the younger man.

“Keep Nami safe, Marimo!” He shouted as he ran with Usopp towards electrical.

“Idiot, he needs to worry about himself,” Zoro grumbled, folding his arms.

“Let’s go, we need to find any wires that are frazzled, we’ll start with the right wing.” She explained, taking off towards the exit of the cafeteria with Zoro hot on her heels. “Well… just follow me, you probably don’t even know where that is.”

“Oi! I know my left from right.”

Nami grabbed Zoro’s hand just as they entered the corridors and as much as she told herself it was so that he didn’t get lost, it wasn’t convincing enough to stop the flush from working its way up her face. Especially when Zoro squeezed her hand in response.

“So we don’t get lost,” she supplied.

Zoro snorted in response but for once, didn’t say anything back.

The peace from this morning was long gone and was replaced with thumping footsteps and shouting as the crew descended into chaos, scattered across the huge ship trying to stay alive. At one-point Brook, Chopper and Luffy ran past them and Nami was left shouting after them because it looked like they were running around with no real ambition.

It didn’t take long after that for Nami to find one of the breakages and she was left gaping at it. It looked like it’d been chewed apart, the metal was torn open with sparking wires hanging limply.

“Focus,” Zoro said, nudging her arm. “I’ll cover you, don’t worry.”

In that moment Nami was happy to have him with her. He kept a cool head in dire situations, and she needed that right now. She needed to not think about someone… something, on their crew trying to destroy their ship and kill them all. She took a deep breath in and a deep breath out to centre herself. Fix the wires first and everything else would come second, she told herself.

She clicked the light on the shoulder of her orange suit to illuminate the wires in front of her as her helmet was still clipped around the belt of her suit. No one had put theirs back on since the communicators this morning.

She was making good progress and she only had two wires left to reconnect when both her and Zoro’s attention was stolen by the communication doors closing just a few feet away. What the hell? No one was down this part of the ship.

The hallway suddenly came alive as doors started closing and opening randomly.

“What the fuck is that?”

“Someone’s tampering with the wiring or the controls.” Dread was building in her stomach; it was one thing after another. They were being sent on wild goose-chase after wild goose-chase- a distraction to keep them busy.

A crackling was heard through her communicator and she was struggling to keep up at everyone’s broken words.

“Someone- admin-”

“Not right- still- someone else-”

“I’m- route,” Brook crackled through and by the sounds of it, he’d be dealing with it.

They could hear feet running down the hall close to where they were and that reassured Nami that Brook was close and that the issue would be resolved soon.

Except that reassurance soon disappeared as Nami heard a familiar sound and it made her stomach drop. As quickly as she could, she was reattaching the last wire and stumbling over her words to tell Zoro what was about to happen. “Zoro, it’s the rumbling of the vents, that thing is on the move. Think of a room for us to hide in without a vent so we can go as soon as I’m done.”

Zoro was quiet for a moment and Nami knew how absurd it was to ask that of Zoro, he barely knew the layout… well, he thought he did, but that was an entirely different issue and Nami couldn’t think of everything herself right now. But then his hand was on her arm, ready to pull her as soon as she was ready.

As soon as the last wire was in place, she was almost pulled off her feet as she stumbled to keep up, running past communications as the door was still closed and into the woman’s room next to it.

Zoro pulled out his key card to close the door after them and she felt her patience thinning when he failed on the third attempt. Third!

“How the hell can you still not work your key card after all this time?!” She whispered huffily, pushing him aside to swipe her own key card and watched the door slide shut.

“Shut up, it’s tricky and you know it!”

“Maybe at first! How long have you been here?” Sarcasm dripping from her voice.

A scream ran through the ship afterwards and it sounded like Brook. It didn’t take long for Nami to piece together. He was in admin. There was a vent in there.

Nami choked on her sob.

Suddenly there were hands on her shoulders, and she was looking Zoro in the face as he peered down at her with a stern expression.

“Pull yourself together. Brook’s tough, he won’t go down easily and even if he does, you reacting like this isn’t going to help anyone,” his voice was firm and he squeezed the top of her arms, she presumed in an effort to comfort her. “Besides, you’re with me, don’t insult me.”

He was trying to reassure her and in doing it in his own weird way, it worked. She felt herself relaxing, well, relaxing as much as she could in a situation like this, and Zoro was rewarded with a wobbly smile. She couldn’t help herself as she pulled him in for tight hug, clinging to him as he gave her silent reassurance, and he hugged her back just as tightly. He was so warm, and, in that moment, it made everything feel better.

After a second, she pulled away to look up at him. “Okay, let’s go! There’s more wires to reattach,” she told him, fire back in her eyes and Zoro smiled at the change.

The doors slid back open and Zoro tentatively poked his head out, Nami followed suit, looking down the other end of the hallway. She frowned when she saw a purple suit at the end of the corridor, what the hell was Robin doing by herself?

Nami nudged Zoro to get his attention but just as she was about to call out to her, the middle of her suit split apart into a mangled mouth and a long, black tongue oozed out to lick the wall.

Nami felt the blood drain from her body. What was that thing?!

And was it trying to find them through taste?!

Nami squeaked before Zoro could clamp his and the thing was whipping around to peer down the hallway. Zoro just managed to pull her back in before they could be spotted as the doors slid closed behind them.

“You alright?” Zoro whispered, his hand still covering her mouth and she realised he was making sure she wouldn’t scream. Nami nodded and his hand fell away.

“I fucking knew it. She was fishy from the moment she stepped on board,” Zoro hissed, his expression furious.

“I shared a room with her,” Nami said, except there was no heat behind her words, only sadness. It was silly, Nami didn’t know her, clearly, but Robin had been her friend and she felt like she was mourning the loss of that.

They descended back into silence as footsteps could be heard thumping closer and Zoro’s hand was over Nami’s mouth again when they stopped outside the door- not that it was needed, she’d already stopped breathing. She wondered if it was trying to taste them again and a shiver ran down her spine. It was a long moment before they could hear the footsteps retreat from outside the door, but they still waited until it was gone to sigh in relief.

“I’m calling it in,” Zoro informed quietly and Nami nodded back at him as he clicked the side of his communicator.

“Everyone, it’s Robin! Keep your distance, she’s the imposter! She’s not human.”

Although Nami could hear Zoro saying it, she was in too close a distance to Zoro to be able to hear what the rest of the crew were able to through the communicator. She presumed from what she heard earlier from the others they would have received a jumbled message.

All they got in response was a variation of, “What-,” “-Robin-,” and “-Here-,” and that confirmed her suspicions.

Nami put her hand on Zoro’s arm to get his attention. “It’s no use,” Nami sighed. “We’ll need to find someone else and spread the word. We need to meet back at the cafeteria. We need a plan.”

This situation was looking grimmer by the second.

Nami stood then, determined to put an end to this as she started to make her way to the door but then Zoro stood and caught her elbow.

“Wait a second.”

And she did.

She waited but he still stood there saying nothing as he peered down at her. He looked intense and for once she couldn’t read the look on his face, it was oddly unnerving. She hadn’t had that problem with him for ages. She raised an eyebrow, challenging him to speak but his eyebrows only furrowed further. What the hell was he thinking about? Since when did he think through what he said?

But Zoro was not a man of words, he’s a man of action, so instead he leaned down to press a brief kiss to her cheek, as if that explained everything.

Nami gaped up at him but all he offered in explanation was, “Should’ve told you a while go.”

She’s still trying to get her brain to work, wrap around what he’s just done and said. She managed to string together words after a brief pause. “That you like me?” She asked tentatively.

He’s stubbornly looking at the wall, his ears bright red and he spat a “Yes!” at her.

“But you didn’t?” She had no idea why she asked that, but honestly, she’s not really thinking right now. At this point, the words are tumbling out her of mouth without any real filter. She’s still trying to wrap her head around what’s happening. This is the last thing she expected.

“Did you hear me say any of this sappy shit before?” He’s still looking at the wall but now he’s crossed his arms defensively.

“Well, you’ve barely said anything now, so it’s hard to say.” If he wanted to be a brat about it, she was more than happy to tease him.

He rolled his eyes at her and finally made eye contact, “Fine. I like you. In a romantic way.”

Very romantic when he basically gritted his teeth through the whole thing. Yet she could still feel a blush working across her cheeks. How is this working on her?

“Why now?” She asked, trying to distract from her reaction.

“Better late than never.”

Something about that didn’t still well with her. Why was never even an option right now?

“So you’re backing down on your word?”

He doesn’t say anything but looked down at her in confusion.

“That we’re getting out of this alive,” she explained and waited for him to catch on to what she’s referring to. She can almost see the moment the bulb goes on over his head.

“No. You’re coming out of this alive.”

Her stomach knotted at his words; he didn’t mean…?

“…But you’re not?” She hesitantly asked, did she really want to know the answer to that?

“Don’t know yet,” he muttered.

This should be a happy moment. The infuriatingly annoying guy she’s liked for a while has confessed, but the reality is they’re currently being hunted and there’s no guarantee any of them will come out of this alive.

But she’d be damned if he went down without her, so in her mind it’s either both of them or neither.

And then it hits her, they may not have another moment together like this.

So for once in her life, she stopped thinking and without hesitation grabbed his face to crush his lips against hers. He yelped at the abruptness, but it was soon muffled. She couldn’t stop the amused smile spreading across her lips at his reaction.

It was by no means the most romantic kiss, neither of them had much experience before this and the mood is hardly set by the looming possibility of death, but Nami regretted nothing as they exchanged clumsy kisses. Zoro tentatively settled his hands on her waist, like he was waiting for her to tell him off, but she didn’t, instead she’s slipping her arms around his shoulders to draw herself in closer. They’re only closed-mouth pecks that occasionally linger for longer but that’s okay for right now, they can hardly start a make out session and honestly, Nami’s not prepared for anything more right now, her stomach already feels like it’s going to burst open.

They broke apart shortly afterwards but didn’t move away from each other.

“Idiot, how long?”

“Hah?” He asked stupidly against her lips.

Christ, what an idiot.

“How long have you liked me?” She clarified.

“Probably from the fifth argument, but I didn’t realise until much later. You pissed me off a lot, but I realised I didn’t want anything else.”

That still told her nothing, they squabbled constantly, but yeah, she could relate. It’d just hit her one day too.

“You wasted a lot of time,” she accused.

“You were hardly forthcoming yourself!”

“Forthcoming? That’s a big word for you, trying to woo me?”

“Clearly don’t need to, do I?” His voice was impossibly smug as his arms tightened around her to make his point, and it grated her slightly. “Besides, you’re the navigator, aren’t you the one that’s supposed to be guiding?”

“Arse. I can’t do everything, you know. Navigate, repair wires, open doors for you; you have to pull your weight too,” she countered, her smile broadening as he glowered at her.

He didn’t grace her with a response, but she didn’t mind when he pulled her back into another kiss. It wasn’t as clumsy this time, and that was probably because she wasn’t trying to crush Zoro into her face. It was still just as insistent, but they found their rhythm quickly and mouths were tentatively opening for tongues to brush against each other’s. Distantly, Nami wondered if she’d ever be prepared for something like this. Her hands buried themselves into his hair and she stood on tip toes to get closer.

All of that came to a grinding halt as another siren started going off, alongside the reactor alarm and they pulled apart. Nami flushed when she realised just what they were doing, in the middle of a crisis no less. They were making out in the girl’s room whilst their ship was falling apart and being hunted by Robin. She was mortified and when she looked up at Zoro he looked nothing but smug.

She didn’t feel bad about elbowing him in the ribs.

Their communicators crackled to life and they could hear Franky rushing through his words, “Shit- O2- down- someone- fix-”

“-helmets-”

That was only a few rooms away from them and although she hadn’t said anything, Zoro was nodding his head at her. They were both taking their helmets from the belts to put them on but Nami stopped Zoro before he could put if over his head.

“To be continued,” Nami whispered, pressing one last kiss against his lips to make her point, “because there will be a next time.” She delivered that line firmly because neither of them was dying before she could do this again.

He didn’t look convinced but that’s fine, Nami was adamant about it enough for the both of them. They finished clipping their helmets on and it’d be enough to supply them with oxygen for the next half an hour until the machine was working again.

“Roger, roger,” Nami spoke clearly into the communicator, hoping someone caught that.

For the second time, they were peering out into the corridor and they were eerily silent. Nami pushed through any of those thoughts, she’d think about that later, and took Zoro’s hand as they cautiously made their way through the hallways.

The doors behind them suddenly started snapping closed one by one.

And now the doors were being tampered with. It was trying to split them up.

“Run! We’re going to get locked in!”

As they took the last corner, just making it before they were sitting ducks in a part of the hallway with a vent, Nami could see the O2 room in the distance. She watched in horror as the door started to slide close. If she didn’t make that there was no telling if she’d be able to open it anytime soon and before she could think it through, she was dropping Zoro’s hand to sprint towards the door and slide through just as it closed behind her.

Heavy footsteps thumped from the other. “Oi! Are you okay!? Open the door,” Zoro shouted, banging on the door and as she swiped her key card to let him in, her hunch had been correct. It beeped angrily back at her; the door wouldn’t open. She would be stuck in here for the foreseeable future.

“I’m fine! The door won’t open, go find the others. Tell them about what’s going on and fix the door system, I’ll deal with O2.” He stayed silent and she knew he was about to argue with her, so she continued. “There’s no vents in here, I’ll be okay. Go!”

“Shit. Okay.” She couldn’t see him, but she knew he’s be running his hands over his helmet, wishing it was his hair. “I’ll be back as soon as the doors open again.”

And then she heard footsteps running away and she breathed out slowly. She could feel her eyes welling up as desperation set in but then she remembered Zoro’s words from before. It wasn’t over yet and he’d been right, if she got inside her head now, she wouldn’t be able to do this, and they’d all suffocate.

She had a job to do.

Cracking her fingers, she got to work on restoring the O2 and hoping everyone was piecing everything else together whilst she was busy.

Her fingers were furiously gliding over keyboards, bashing in key codes and watching bars slowly fill back up on the screen. Another few minutes and she’d be done- crisis averted. In the background, she could hear her communicator crackling with a few words scattered in but none of it made sense and she couldn’t waste time trying to piece it together.

The doors still hadn’t opened by the time she’d fixed the O2, she wasn’t sure how long she’d been in here, but it’d been a while and it was hard to tell what was going on outside.

This had been the longest day she’d ever experienced so far; it’d all started before lunch and as her stomach growled, it’s just dawning on her that she never got to eat. Oh god, she sounded like Luffy.

From the corner of her eye she could see some empty canisters, she figured she might as well pass some time filling them just in case and it beat sitting around grumbling about eating and unopened doors.

Just as she finished with the last canister the doors were slowly sliding open… except, Zoro’s not back yet and she’s caught between wanting to find everyone and waiting here for him. But then she’s just a sitting duck and the crew might need her.

She steeled herself to go out, but the lights still hadn’t been restored yet, and all alone it somehow felt even darker. Just as she’s about to leave, a spare steel rod caught her eye by the door and she’s picking it up. She had no idea whether it’d work against a thing like that (she refused to call it Robin), but it’s better than nothing.

Her communicator came alive then and there’s a frenzy of voices, she can’t quite pick out everyone but there’s enough voices to at least reassure her that the crew are okay.

“Nami- cafeteria-”

“Idiot-”

“No- engine- Nami.”

… What?

All the voices were talking over one another and with how poor the quality was she’s struggling to understand what she’s being told. From what she’s gleaned from the limited information it’s: go to the cafeteria, avoid the engine room. It’s slightly concerning that there’s still squabbling going on- but in truth, when is there not?

Before she had to make any hard decisions, a green suit comes into view down the hallway and she let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Zoro. He’d come back for her, just like he said, and maybe he’d have some idea about what’s going on.

“Zoro!” She whispered as loudly as she could, running towards him and he turned, his head nodding to acknowledge her. “Is everyone in the cafeteria?”

He grunted as she grabbed his hand and took off towards the cafeteria with him following closely behind. Although he’s normally quiet, he’s a bit too quiet considering the circumstances. She was expecting some scolding over her reckless move earlier.

“You okay?” She looked back at him, eyes quickly scanning along his body and didn’t see anything of immediate worry. Green suit intact, helmet firmly in place.

He nodded back at her and she figured the day must be taking a toll on him. She could certainly relate to that.

Shortly afterward she’s bashing in her key card for the closed cafeteria door but stopped short when it was empty. Where is everyone?

Before she could ask him, she could hear footsteps thumping from behind the opposite closed cafeteria door and she smiled to herself. So they were just early, for once.

As the doors opened, she started to walk forward and went to speak but her jaw abruptly snapped closed. Her eyes rounded and it felt like the floor was falling from beneath her.

She watched in horror as a green suit appeared through the opposite door.

Another green suit.

As in, there’s currently one next to her that she’s holding the hand of and one in front of her, that has also stopped dead in their tracks. They all had their own coloured suits for a reason, so they were easily recognisable with their helmets on.

Oh god. One of these suits is that thing.

And with that knowledge, she’s ripping her hand away from the green suit next to her and walking back slowly into the centre of the room, never turning her back so she can put equal distance between the two green suits and see them without having to turn her head.

From the corner of her eye, one of them moved, trying to slowly walk towards her like you would a spooked deer and instantly she felt adrenaline coursing through her as her body tensed. She’s reaching into her pocket then, pulling out the steel bar to clutch it in front of her.

“Back off,” she tersely told one of the suits

The advancing green suit halted immediately and took a step back, hands raised.

Her mind’s in pieces and she doesn’t know what to do. She’s in control of the room right now, both suits watching her from their positions but she knew that could change any moment and she doesn’t know what to do.

Suddenly the events of the day come rushing back to her.

Zoro had left navigation and then Usopp had got hurt.

Zoro sleeps a lot during the day and does basic tasks, like cleaning the garbage chute and heavy lifting tasks. Something anyone could do.

Zoro can’t open the goddamn doors!

She’d just kissed him- it!

Everything had been a lie.

Who the hell could she trust after this? Zoro was supposed to be it. It!

That thing can clearly shapeshift, going from a purple suit to a green one, but then, who said there’s only one of them?

Then she remembered earlier Luffy and Chopper had been running around aimlessly and Brook had screamed, and he was with them.

Luffy told them not to turn on each other.

Franky connected the vents together.

What ifs are flying around in her mind, as all of these thoughts come together. Seriously, who was she going to trust after this? Everyone looked suspicious.

Her breathing’s erratic and her heart felt like it’s going to jump out of her chest and her stomach’s rolling. Oh god, is she about to have an anxiety attack? Seriously, now of all places?! She’s about to lose her cool and control of the room. She needed to think.

One of the green suits that had appeared from the opposite door is ripping it’s helmet off, throwing it onto the floor, and she’s looking at Zoro’s face again.

“Nami, take a breath, I need you to calm down. A lot has happened since we last saw each other, but I need you to trust me right now and come over here.” His hand’s outstretched towards her but he’s not looking at her, his gaze is locked onto the other green suit that she had just been holding the hand of. Like he’s trying to size it up, to anticipate its next move.

Nami’s eyes flickered between them, sizing both of them up and god, did she want to trust the talking green suit, but how could she?! The other green suit is looking at her blanky, head tilted, and she just needed to confirm something before she made her move.

“Take off your helmet,” she shouted, jutting her steel bar at its helmet.

There’s a second where no one spoke or moved, and it felt like Nami was stuck in one of those crappy western standoffs. The one with the helmet still on tilted its head again and it’s looking between her and the other green suit without its helmet on.

Its hands come up to its helmet and for a moment Nami thought she’d be screwed if it actually took it’s helmet off because then she’s back to square one and the tension in the room can’t possibly get any higher without anything actually happening.

But Nami doesn’t have to go back to square one because it pulled its hands away without taking off the helmet and Nami watched in horror as the mask split apart to reveal a gaping mouth with razor sharp teeth and a tongue that came curling out with saliva dripping from it. It’s similar to what she saw before in the hallway but not even that could have prepared her for seeing it up close.

She’s frozen on the spot and it started to run towards her with what she can only describe as a screech of joy erupting from its mouth as it does. Except there’s another pair of feet running towards her too and she’s suddenly pushed down by Zoro as he covered her body with his. Zoro lifted his hand and the next second the thing is screeching in agony as he set off the blow torch in his hand.

Since when did he have that?

The thing reeled back, hands coming up to cup it’s scorched mouth and tentacles erupted from its back to lash out in its moment of vulnerability. One of them whipped towards them and Zoro’s falling back on her heavily. One look at him has her gasping and trying to sit up to get a better look.

“Zoro you’re eye!” Nami cried out. She didn’t see it happen, but she can see the blood that’s dripping from his eye and her stomach rolled. That’s because of her.

“No time, we have to move.”

And he’s right, the thing was still stooped low, sludge dripping from where it’d been burned but it’d only be a matter of time until it was on its feet again and they needed to regroup.

Nodding, she grabbed his hand and he was hauling her up onto her feet. She pushed him aside as they got to the closed cafeteria door, but her hands were shaking too much and the keypad denied her. She’d swiped too fast. She didn’t dare turn around when she heard a much less pained screech and, thankfully, Zoro didn’t rush her.

Second swipe and they were through the doors, but it wasn’t the homestretch yet. Nami could hear metal being torn apart and better judgement be damned, she turned around.

That thing couldn’t pass as human anymore. At this point it was more mouth than body, claws erupted from the suit and tentacles furiously swiped the air around it.

The next moment is disorientating as she’s suddenly swept from her feet and manhandled to sit at Zoro’s hip on one side. She clung to him in fear of falling off and it’s not exactly the most comfortable or stable position, but it freed her up a bit.

“I can’t drag you about as you stare, you’re too slow,” he explained as he ran.

“Just don’t drop me,” she told him, eyes narrowing in determination. He can run and she can keep it at bay. To his credit, he doesn’t even break a sweat at the extra weight, but she’d give that some more thought later.

The thing started to gain on them, screeching at them and when one of the tentacles came rushing towards them, Nami’s raising her steel bar to smack it away.

What she didn’t expect, was for the tentacle to absorb the bar.

“It took my bar!” She said, outraged.

Below her, Zoro grunted and his free hand is reaching into his trouser pocket. “That doesn’t work on it, use the blow torch.”

When the thing tried again, Nami aimed the torch and watched as the flame licked away at the tentacle, black sludge falling onto the floor below it. It stopped in its tracks then and Nami watched it slowly disappear from view as Zoro kept running and rounded the corner.

“It’s stopped chasing us,” Nami informed him, slightly confused why it’d give up so easily. Then she’s looking at the blowtorch, it either didn’t like fire or the light. Maybe it was both.

Then another thought came to mind. “When the hell did you figure this out?” She couldn’t keep the wonder out of her voice when she asked, she was impressed.

“I told you, a lot happened whilst you were locked in O2.” He took another left.

“Ah, so you spoke to Robin then.” She nodded to herself, the woman was sharp minded and no doubt, with the rest of them chiming in, they’d have worked something out quickly.

“Oi! I worked out that fire might work,” he grouched at her, offended that she was so quick to dismiss him.

“You came to save me on might!?” Of course he’d do something so ballsy and reckless.

“Some gratitude would be nice! What happened with your bar again?”

He had a point. Not that she was going to tell him that.

“I’ll give you that later,” she said lowly. It’s not fitting for the mood at all, but she couldn’t resist and maybe she needed some normality right now when they’re being hunted. Especially when she’s rewarded with an embarrassed flush working angrily up his neck.

“Okay, we can’t keep running around in circles. Where are the others?” He took another left and she frowned. If he wasn’t careful, they were going to end up back at the cafeteria and right now, they had no idea where that thing was.

“In the upper engine. They stayed behind, couldn’t have everyone running around with a shapeshifter on the lose.”

“Yeah, I get that, but why send you?” Yeah okay, it wasn’t helpful in this situation, but she had to ask.

He huffed but stayed silent, only adjusting his grip on her thighs.

“You ran off before they could stop you, didn’t you?”

“That’s not the point,” he replied indignantly, huffing. “Found you in the end, right?” It’s said with too much pride for someone who got lost constantly but she still found fondness building in her chest. Maybe they’re both idiots.

“Not hard when you told me to go to the cafeteria.”

“Don’t remind me, what idiots.” He came to a stop just down the hallway from upper engine and let her down. “We’d trapped it there and Franky had managed to block the vent but with how sketchy the communicators are I don’t even know why anyone bothered mentioning the cafeteria.”

“That vent isn’t blocked anymore, by the way, it got out,” Nami frowned, a thought coming to her, “It found me, I thought it was you, but the weird thing is, it didn’t kill me. It followed me.”

Zoro didn’t say anything in response, but he looked as perplexed as she felt. It’d attacked Usopp on sight but followed her willingly.

Those thoughts came to an abrupt halt though as she properly looked at Zoro for the first time since she’d met back up with him. He looked awful. His left eye was closed, and she didn’t know whether it was to keep the blood out of it or whether the eye just wasn’t there anymore. She couldn’t see the damage with so much blood oozing from the cut.

“Zoro, your eye,” Nami lamented, her hand coming up to cup his jaw and thumb soothing across the patch of cheekbone absent of any blood. She could only imagine how much that hurt right now. And he’d done it for her. The knot in her stomach tightened at the thought.

“It’s fine, stop fretting.” He tried to play it off and his hand grasped her wrist to gently pry it away from his face, but she wasn’t ready to let go of his face just yet.

“We’re not being chased right now; I can fret as much as I like.”

“I’d do it again,” he said gruffly, and it sounded like he was trying to reassure her about the wound so she wouldn’t feel guilty about it, but that didn’t detract from how sweet he sounded.

“Zoro,” she cooed, and he flushed a brilliant red when Nami’s other hand mirrored the action of cupping his jaw.

With her helmet on, she couldn’t lean in to kiss him like she wanted; for his sweet words, for her relief that he wasn’t a monster and that, so far, they were both alive. Instead, she’s leaning into him until she’s bumping her helmet against his forehead. It’s not nearly enough, but for now it’d have to do. He didn’t have any complaints when he leaned into her and his hands slid down her arms to cup her elbows to hold her close.

And that’s how they’re found. Standing around in the hallway, Nami cupping Zoro’s face and leaning into each other, a private moment that was suddenly very public.

“See! I told you I heard their voices,” Usopp stage whispered, eyes wide at the affectionate display.

Both of them paused, a hairsbreadth away from kissing, before whipping around to see Usopp and Sanji peeking out of the upper engine. Sanji looked outraged until his eyes locked onto Zoro’s bleeding face.

“What the hell happened?!”

Zoro groaned next to her. It was truly a testament to how bad it looked for Sanji to show such outward concern. They normally hid their affection for each other behind heated arguments and physical fights.

“Let’s all freak out over Zoro when we’re with everyone else,” Nami ordered. They were still standing in the hallway like nothing was currently happening. Zoro shot her a glare at that suggestion, something that didn’t hold much heat when he looked like that.

When they entered the upper engine room, it was empty. Just as she was about to voice her confusion, Zoro was pushing her towards the little broom cupboard in the corner.

As the door closed behind them, the small bulb in the room illuminated the rest of the crew, who were all looking worse for wear themselves. What the hell had been going on whilst she was trapped in O2?

It was a tight fit, as everyone huddled together, but it wasn’t important as her eyes jumped around familiar faces, taking in each one by one and doing a small role call in her head.

… 7, 8 and “Brook!”

“Brook! I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see you before in my life!” She’d definitely trod on someone’s foot to reach him, but she didn’t care as she flung her arms around his neck.

“Yohoho, this sounds like a backhanded insult, but I’ll take it!”

She allowed the hug for a moment longer but then she’s pushing is head out of the way, as he whispered a “so harsh”.

There’s a sudden commotion at the door then and it’s because Chopper’s just seen the state of Zoro. A pink suit is rushing towards Zoro, disregarding the rest of the crew as they start murmuring their own concerns, and he’s slinging his medical bag from his back to the floor to start pulling out things he’ll be needing.

“It’s fine Chopper! Just stick a plaster on it!” Zoro interrupted, swatting his hand to stop Chopper’s panicking as he started to examine the eye.

Chopper squawked at the suggestion and started laying into him, lecturing him about the danger of infections. Seeing as Chopper was no longer panicking and had started to clear away at the wound, Nami tuned it out in favour of getting some information on what the hell was going on.

“Right, someone needs to get me up to speed,” she stated and as an afterthought added, “And why are we huddled in the upper engine broom closet?”

“No vents in here,” Franky answered.

“Also, I don’t think the thing knows this room exists,” Usopp added as an afterthought.

“Not surprising, this is where all the cleaning supplies are and since when does anyone do that?” Nami sighed, but she couldn’t focus on their filthy ship just yet. Well, that wasn’t entirely fair. Sanji and Chopper kept their respective rooms clean, but that was it. The kitchen, med bay and the women’s room were the only clean places on board.

Nami’s comment was ignored as Sanji started to explain, “We don’t know how long its been on board, but Robin thinks it’s-”

“Morph,” Luffy cut off Sanji, looking far too proud of himself. When all she gave him was a baffled look, he explained further, “The thing. Its name is morph.”

As much as Nami was happy to see Luffy back to his normal self, so much so he was naming a blood thirsty monster, it was so incredibly unhelpful in the grand scheme of things. Before she could scold him, Usopp intervened.

“We didn’t name it Morph; you did!” Usopp accused and Nami was glad that he hadn’t become sucked into Luffy’s actions. “I still want Nightcrawler”

Urgh. Forget it. Of course Usopp wouldn’t be of any help.

“What happened to Rampage?” Zoro chimed in.

“No, we ditched that as soon as you left.”

“It was a stupid name,” Sanji sneered.

Nami could only stand there in disbelief and watched as the rest of the crew in front of her started to squabble about what to officially name that thing that was trying to kill them all.

“I quite like Selkie; they used to trick humans by transforming into them before mercilessly killing them. Quite like our situation, no?”

Nami barked a short laugh. Even Robin, her most trusted ally, the woman she could rely on when the boys descended into new levels of idiocy, had been sucked into naming this thing. She even noted that their lives were in danger and was still taking part. Was she going insane?

“Is this what you’ve been doing all this time? Naming this thing instead of figuring out how we’re going to survive?”

All of them looked at her, her voice cutting through their playful bickering and they all had the audacity to look at her like she was the one suggesting names in a dire, bleak situation. Maybe she was insane. She was in their books, based on the looks she was receiving.

“Don’t be stupid,” Luffy said, like he was the voice of reason here. “We did it after, when we were waiting for you.”

Ah yes, of course. She was the issue here.

She should be angry; she should throttle him but the day’s taking its toll on her and all she does is throw her head back and laugh. It’s a hearty laugh, right from her gut and it felt good. This situation is just so laughably hilarious.

“I think she’s lost her mind,” Usopp muttered and Chopper nodded next to him, looking at her cautiously.

Everyone’s looking at her as she started to calm down, wiping tears from her eyes. All she offered as explanation was, “I like the name Morph.”

Zoro caught her eye then and he smirked at her.

Luffy’s cheering then, arms thrown up in the air at his victory as the others mumble and moan about their loss. Apparently, everyone had their own name offered and with Nami voting for Luffy’s it was the clear winner.

“Right, so as I was saying, we don’t know how long Morph- I can’t do it! It’s a ridiculous name for such a serious situation.”

“Maybe that’s what we need right now,” Robin said and Nami couldn’t agree with her more. It’s why she liked it, it’s easier to deal with a shapeshifting monster with razor sharp teeth and tentacles when it’s named something so cute.

Luffy’s frowning, not budging as Sanji looked at him. “I won. Its name is Morph.”

“Nami liked it,” Usopp added and that’s enough to get Sanji talking again, seemingly accepting the name with no further complaints.

“Robin was thinking Morph’s been on board for a while because it seems to know where to go and what to tamper with to break the ship.” Sanji looked towards Robin, prompting her to take over from him.

“My theory is that it’s sophisticated enough to learn basic tasks and work out what we’re doing but Morph can’t learn complex things like language,” Robin speculated and Nami nodded in agreement, remembering Morph’s silence in the hallway. “I don’t think it likes light and that’s the reason why tampered with the lights before appearing fully. Space is very dark after all… and cold.” She’s looking towards Zoro then. “Did your theory work, Zoro?”

Zoro nodded back as Chopper was putting the finishing touches on his bandaged eye. “It seemed to hurt it and it backed off when it started chasing us.”

Robin and Zoro’s conversation held no tension like it did earlier from the cafeteria and Nami’s glad to see it. A lot seemed to have happened since then. No doubt she’d get the details from Usopp later.

“So what are we going to do now?” She’d got enough information about that thing- Morph, she corrected mentally, but now she wanted their plan of attack.

Except her question brought a hush over the crew and she’s looking at each of them to try and figure out what she’s said wrong. Usopp looked pained and Franky’s resting a big hand on his shoulder.

Luffy looked solemn and Nami hated it already, as much as his happy go lucky behaviour might irritate her sometimes, she wanted it back desperately in this situation.

“We’re leaving the ship,” Luffy said.

What? This was their home, where everything had started. “What? How can we-” She started.

“The decision’s been made,” he stated firmly and when Nami looked at Usopp, someone who would definitely agree with her, he looked downhearted but on board. This conversation had already been talked through at length it seemed. “Franky.” And Luffy’s nodding towards their mechanic to continue.

“The ships on its last legs. I’ve just barely managed to hold together the reactor, but we don’t have long, electrics are fried and on top of that there’s a monster out there making it worse,” Franky explained and as much as it pained her, she’d been out there, she’d seen the state of the ship.

“We’d have to find it and kill it, that’s even if it hadn’t tampered with the ship before we do.”

“Even then, something still might trip.”

“It’s too risky.”

Nami sighed and ran her hands through her hair. She understood but it was a lot of take on board. Ultimately, they were right. Their lives would be at risk and she remembered back to earlier when she was uncertain about how many of them were still alive.

She wanted them all to come out of this alive.

“What’s the plan?”

They’re huddled tightly into a circle going through the last few details. Franky and Usopp have prepared the emergency ship, it’ll be tight for all of them, nothing compared to their current spacious ship, but it’s good enough for now. It’s only there until they can land and find something else.

“I’m heading to the kitchen to get supplies,” Sanji informed them and Brook next to him is offering to go with.

“I need to go to the medbay,” Chopper added and Robin’s volunteering to accompany him.

“You need a helmet,” Nami said, pointing at Zoro. His was sat in the cafeteria and its current state was unknown. Everyone else’s were clipped to their belts safely. “If O2 goes out again, you’re screwed.”

“If you’re going that way, pick up extra helmets and suits,” Robin suggested and it’s a good idea.

“Someone needs to go to O2 to get backup oxygen,” Franky told the group, the emergency ship only had so much stocked into it and seeing at they’re abandoning the ship, they might as well take all they have with them.

“They’re already filled, I did it whilst I was waiting for the doors to open. Someone else needs to grab them, I’m going with Zoro.”

No one argued that and they’re all nodding. It was in their best interest to have the navigator with the permanently lost. Zoro didn’t argue it, even though he knew the reason behind it but now wasn’t a time for bickering.

“I’m going to the reactor to grab my tools,” Franky said and seeing and Luffy and Usopp are the last ones left, they’re going with Franky.

With everyone allocated to a task and paired off, they all agreed they’d meet back in the cafeteria in 10 minutes. It was a get in and get out job, no side tracking and if a pair didn’t come back- there would be a search party. No one was being left behind. Franky didn’t have many, but he had enough blow torches for one per group, should they come across Morph on their short trip.

It was then that Nami realised they’d been in the small cupboard a while with no disruptions but before she could voice her concern, the reactor alarm was blaring again. She hung her head, it felt like she’d jinxed them.

“That’s our countdown,” Franky informed them. “I stabilised the reactor as best as I could, but we only have twenty minutes before it’s done for. We need to be gone before that.”

With that last warning, the groups are filtering out of the tiny cupboard and spreading throughout the ship. There’s a shout of helmets off until they leave and Nami had no problem with that, it’d take away the element of surprise, because as far as she’s aware, Morph can’t imitate their faces.

Nami and Zoro run next to each other through the corridors with no hesitancy. There’s no time for it and at least they’re armed now. The cafeteria’s empty and neither of them bother to check if Zoro’s helmet is intact- no side tracking. They pass by Sanji and Brook as they make their way into the kitchen. They’re running past admin and they only have to make it through storage to reach the women’s and men’s rooms next to communications.

As they made it into the men’s room, Nami gets a bad feeling. All of this is far too easy. There’re no crackling voices in her earpiece, there’s no yelling or frantic feet and despite the reactor siren going off, it was almost peaceful. It didn’t sit right with her.

“Zoro, I have a bad feeling,” Nami told him as she grabbed a bag to start shoving spare space suits into.

“It’s too easy,” he agreed with her, taking another bag to put spare helmets into and then clipping another helmet onto his belt. “But I won’t complain. Maybe it backed off because we found it’s weak spot.”

For now, she could only agree with him and hope it was just good luck as they moved into the women’s room the other side of communications to repeat the process.

Nami doesn’t have a watch, but as they finish packing, she’s sure they must be getting close to 10 minutes.

There’s a loud commotion towards O2 and Nami and Zoro are shooting each other a look. They don’t need to verbalise anything before they’re running towards the sound- if any of their crew was in trouble, of course they’d rush to help.

Except when they arrive, there’s nothing there. It’s silent. There’s nobody in sight, they can’t hear feet running nearby and there’s no sign of a struggle.

“False alarm, let’s go,” Zoro said and he’s walking towards the door.

Nami nodded and went to follow him out, except out of the corner of her eye she can see a spare O2 bottle. She frowned, she’d definitely filled all of them and she’s not sure how someone had missed that one. Despite the voice in the back of her head that told her ‘no detours’, this technically isn’t one. They might end up needing that and she’d kick herself for leaving it behind.

As she picked it up, it’s far too light compared to the others she filled earlier and when she turned the canister around, the bar’s empty.

It’s then that it all clicked into place; no sign of Morph, the sound of a struggle only to find no one’s here and a strategically place O2 bottle to distract a passer-by.

A trap.

Zoro’s already left the room and she’s running after him, shouting for him to stop, not caring how loud her voice was right now. He’s almost into the weapons room when he whipped around, alert and ready for whatever she’s about to say but it’s too late. The doors between them are closing.

They’re both running but Nami knows it’s useless, there’s no way she’s going to make it through. With the last crack left, she’s throwing through her bag to Zoro and watching the doors shut on his panicked face. She imagined hers didn’t look much better.

Shit. He had the blow torch.

The keypad angrily denied her when she swiped her key card and her stomach’s sinking at the knowledge that she’s truly vulnerable right now.

There’s a loud thump followed by a silent curse from the other side of the door but it barely budged. Zoro’s trying to break down the door. It was no use; they’re made to withstand extreme conditions in the case of an emergency. Nami laughed at the humour, this is an emergency and now she’s in danger because of it.

“Zoro, go back to the cafeteria, drop the bags and get someone. Someone must be back by now. I’ll try the other door to the cafeteria.”

He had no choice but to agree and he left her with a, “Be careful. No reckless moves.”

Too late for that advice, she thought bitterly.

Nami turned to face the dimly lit corridor in front of her. Without Zoro here, it looked ominous, the shadows looked dangerous all of a sudden and every sound had her jumping out of her skin. But the longer she stood here, the longer she’d be alone. She clutched the O2 cannister in her hands for some form a reassurance and, as a last-minute decision, she clipped on her helmet for an extra layer of defence.

She started a tentative jog down the hallway, a stark difference from the quick and confident one she had with Zoro. She stopped at corners to peer around them, to make sure the coast was clear and yes, it did slow her down, but she needed caution right now.

It’s the home stretch when she reached storage and she wondered if her brain was playing tricks on her. Maybe it wasn’t a trap and the ship really was just on its last legs, like Franky had explained.

Just as she’s passing admin, she can hear heavy footsteps from behind her. She’s wanted to continue forward, but it also crossed her mind that it could be Zoro. He wasn’t far from the cafeteria before and if Franky or Usopp was there, they’d have the door opened swiftly.

Tentatively, she backtracked and as she peered around the corner, the relief is almost crippling.

Zoro.

He’s standing in the doorway of storage, looking around for her and then she’s jogging towards him, a cheerful, “Zoro”, coming from her mouth.

The joy’s over when he turned to face her and she’s looking back at two steel eyes. Not a cut or bandage in sight.

That was not Zoro.

She faltered slightly but remembered earlier when Morph had followed her after approaching it like nothing was wrong. She fought down the urge to flee and plastered a wobbly smile back onto her face to continue her walk towards it.

Except this time, Morph’s not curious, Morph’s hungry. It doesn’t keep up the pretence of a human and the moment Nami sees a mouth, she’s flinging the O2 cannister at it and darting away.

“Help, help, help,” she’s pleading into her communicator but its only static that responded back.

She was well and truly on her own.

She doesn’t dare look over her shoulder to see if Morph is chasing her, but her arms are stretching out for anything within reach she can knock over and hopefully buy herself time. As she smacked something behind her, she peeked over her shoulder and terror is almost choking her. Morph’s not close, but it is chasing her as it used its tentacles to propel it forward.

The thumping of her own footsteps is deafening, and her legs are burning as she ran down the empty corridor between electrical and lower engine, but she can’t let up her pace for even a second if she wanted to get out of this alive.

She skidded as she took a sharp turn and it definitely lost her some distance. It’s confirmed when there’s footsteps behind her, heavy and loud, and she can practically feel its breath on her neck. She didn’t dare to look over her shoulder again because she knew she’d be greeted by the sight of Morph practically on her back.

One second she’s looking at the familiar sight of upper engine just in front of her and she’s so close to the cafeteria, then the next she’s eating the floor. The impact has her face crashing into the shield of her helmet and so much for extra protection, she thought, as her nose smarted and started trickling blood.

Her feet are pulled from beneath her and she’s being dragged back. She doesn’t have time to register the pain in her face as she flipped over to watch as the tentacles around her foot pulled her slowly towards the towering monster. Morph’s grown and there’s multiple mouths erupting from the green of the suit

She kicked her free foot out, trying to stamp on the tentacle wrapped around her ankle but it’s quickly caught by another tentacle and then she’s being dragged closer even quicker.

Morph settled over her when she’s pulled underneath it and the weight of it had the air rushing out of her lungs. If it doesn’t kill her quickly, it’s going to crush her instead.

That doesn’t stop her from throwing a fist out to punch its face- she may be about to die, but she’s not dying easily. The image of Zoro’s face distorted from the impact before reforming, but it doesn’t stay that way for long as its face split apart to form a long stretching mouth. A tongue slithered out and licked across all its teeth as saliva dripped down onto the front of Nami’s helmet. It’s enough to get Nami moving as she squirmed underneath it, hands pushing and feet kicking desperately so she can shimmy out.

She cried out in pain when a tentacle from behind it’s back stabbed through her shoulder to pin her down to the floor beneath and there’s a clawed hand digging into the side of her waist. It’s enough to stop her squirming, as tears rolled down her face and her hands are at the tentacle in her shoulder to try and relieve the pain.

But the pain is nothing compared to watching its tongue slink out of its mouth down to her helmet and lick a long stipe across the glass. She’s helpless as the tongue started to undo the latches on her helmet and its claw dug even further into her side, as if expecting her to struggle.

She can’t believe she’s about to die at the hands (or mouth) of something that looked like Zoro. There’s probably something poetic in there but now’s not the time to be thinking about that.

As the last latch clicked loose, her helmet’s thrown to the side and she’s face to face with the monster on top of her (It turned out, Morph wasn’t a suitable name. She wished she’d gone with Robin’s option). Its tongue snapped back to its mouth, but her eyes are screwing shut as it stretched to lick a long path across her neck and face. There’s so much saliva that it dribbled down the rest of her face and she can’t believe this is it, this is her last few moments.

It growled in her ear, but she can’t bring herself to open her eyes, even when she heard its teeth snap just above her. She doesn’t want her last moment alive to be looking at an imposter of Zoro. She’d much rather remember the real Zoro’s dazed face after their first kiss.

But then it’s all gone, the weight’s gone and she’s gasping in pain when the claws in her side and tentacle are ripped out.

There’s a battle cry above her head and she opened her eyes just in time to watch Luffy jump over her body and a massive flame erupt from his blowtorch. She can’t be sure, her viewpoint from the floor isn’t the best, but she’s pretty sure there’s a massive grin etched onto his face as he launched his attack.

She felt like she was hallucinating as she watched the monster reel back and try to avoid the flames as it screeched in pain. She’s sitting up to watch but it’s blocked as Zoro knelt in front of her. His mouth’s moving and distantly she heard him saying that he shouldn’t have left her but she’s too busy looking at his face, soaking in the downward turn of his mouth, his remaining steel coloured eye searching her face and the green of his hair.

She wondered idly if she’s died and this was hell and she’s being forced to watch what her rescue could have looked like if it hadn’t gone all wrong. Zoro did always tell her she was going to hell when she died. She can’t wait for him to join her so she can rub it in his face that he ended up there too.

She’s pulled out of her scattered thoughts when Zoro’s softly wiping at her face with his hands, wiping the saliva on his suit and it’s the most worried she’s ever seen him; his face is pale and drawn. “I thought you were dead,” he breathed out and she came to the conclusion that she doesn’t like that look on his face. “With that thing over you and you were so still,” he continued and he’s still looking at her like she might die any second.

“Get a grip,” is all she told him and it’s worth it because he barked a laugh and it felt like they were back in her navigation room bantering with each other.

“You’re a mess,” he said bluntly and they’re falling back into their normal routine, so she decided not to take offense. His gaze does a circuit around her face, shoulder and side.

“You too,” she joked and although it wasn’t funny, she laughed lightly. Whether it was because she was alive, or he was or that this wasn’t hell after all. Maybe it was all of it.

He didn’t laugh back; the mood dropping suddenly, and she knew it was because he was feeling guilty. That this should’ve been him, not her.

Her hand cupped his jaw and her thumb’s running along the seam of the plaster over his eye. “You’ve done enough, have to do my part too, right?”

His expression instantly told her he doesn’t agree with that sentiment but before he can respond, Luffy’s next to them again.

“We gotta go,” Luffy said, breaking them apart and he’s throwing his empty blow torch down as the black puddle down the hall started to slowly reform. “You can make kissy faces when we’re in the ship.”

Nami spluttered angrily, embarrassed but Zoro just nodded and his hands are under her armpits then to help her stand. She cringed as she jarred her shoulder and pain lanced through her body. Its yet to stop bleeding and if she’s not careful, her orange suit is going to start rivalling Luffy’s red one.

“Put pressure on your shoulder,” Zoro said and she’s being scooped up to sit at his hip again, the wound at her waist facing outward so it’s not angered.

She’s giving him a funny look before cringing as she tried to clamp her hand over the wound on the shoulder that felt like it suddenly had a pulse. Zoro understood what she meant and answered, “Chopper’s lectured me enough, some of it had to sink in.” His free hand smothered over hers to press down on the wound and she’s borrowing her face into his neck at the pain. She almost doesn’t know what to do with herself. He muttered a “sorry” lowly but didn’t let up.

“Luffy, I’m changing my vote, Morph is a stupid name. I’m siding with Robin,” she murmured, exhausted as the adrenaline started to wear off and in need of a distraction herself from her wounds and the monster that was after them.

Luffy laughed brightly as he ran next to Zoro, no doubt happy to see her alive and arguing again. He tried to dispute her change of confidence, but she refused to hear any of it.

Behind them there’s an angry screech, it’s far off into the distance and when Nami looked behind them, there’s nothing there. It’s odd but she couldn’t give a damn right now.

Instead she’s asking, “Where is everyone?”

“On the ship, waiting for us. Franky’s getting everything ready so as soon as we’re there we can go,” Luffy answered.

“Curly cook said we’re not allowed on if we don’t come back with you alive.” Zoro’s doing his best to stop his jog from jostling her too much. It’s thoughtful but honestly doesn’t do very much.

She snorted. “I’m super tough, doesn’t he know?” It’s meant to be a joke because honestly, look at the state of her, but Zoro and Luffy only look at her with pride.

“You did really well,” Zoro murmured and his hand under her supporting her squeezed in reassurance.

The rest of the run to the cafeteria was uneventful and they should probably be questioning that but Nami’s too exhausted to bring it up. She’s hungry, in pain and bleeding. All she wanted to do was lay down and sleep.

As soon as they enter the cafeteria, the crew’s there waiting for them just before the small hallway that’d take them to the emergency ship and their faces shift from anxious to relieved.

It’s a short-lived celebration when the vent at the bottom of the cafeteria exploded open and black sludge poured out.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, doesn’t it know when to give up?” Zoro griped and his grip on her tightened.

They’re being ushered then down the small hallway and onto the emergency ship. Franky and Robin are at the front getting ready to leave and Chopper’s flitting around Nami, working quickly to staunch the bleeding. She wondered just how bad she must look when he didn’t immediately panic at first.

They’re watching as from the outside the black sludge was slowly growing bigger as it reformed, and she wondered if Luffy’s previous bombardment of fire had worn it down.

There’s an explosion in the distance that rocked the ship. Not only has that thing found them, but the reactor it sabotaged earlier has finally packed in.

They’re out of time.

“Uhh, Franky, we gotta go. Now,” Sanji warned as he stood at the back door with Luffy beside him and Zoro left her side then to stand with them just in case.

“I’m moving as quickly as I can!” And it’s true, Franky’s hands are furiously flicking switches and pushing buttons as quickly as he could with Robin co-piloting next to him.

Usopp’s down by her feet tinkering with something and Nami almost wanted to scold him that this wasn’t the time for that, but then her eye caught the ripped up top and fluid-filled bottle.

“Are you making a gasoline bomb?” Nami tiredly asked, her head lolled to the side to watch to distract away from the pain as Chopper worked on her shoulder.

“Yeah!” Usopp said proudly. “I started working on it when we were waiting for you three, y’know, in case.” His hands are quickly working as he soaked the top in alcohol (Zoro wouldn’t be happy about that later) and plugged it into the bottle.

“Franky,” Zoro barked.

“I need another minute! Stall!” Franky barked back.

When Nami looked outside she could see why Zoro and Sanji were panicking, Selkie’s almost fully reformed (Nope, not even Selkie’s the right fit). There’s still hints of different suit colours on its body, around the mouths (Nami shuddered to herself), but it doesn’t bother standing on its feet now, instead using the tentacles and long black nails slide out of its hands. She had no idea how something without a face looked enraged and furious, but it did as it screeched.

There’s a commotion at the door as Zoro stepped out, he’d pushed Luffy and Sanji out of the way and was trying to close the door behind him. Nami tried to get up too, but Chopper’s there to push her back down and it doesn’t take much to keep her down.

“Just go,” Zoro shouted, taking a step out of the ships door and facing the monster that’s only advancing by the second in front of him.

“If anyone’s going to be the knight in shining armour, it’s me!” Sanji exclaimed, puffing out his chest to stalk towards the door. Brook just managed to snag his suit to pull him back in.

Luffy’s frowning and Nami knows it’s because he’s not going to let anyone be left behind. Usopp’s calling towards Luffy as he was making his way to the door with instructions to get him inside and duck on his command. Sanji instantly stopped struggling as he pieced it together.

Not a moment later, Luffy’s wrestling Zoro into the ship as he’s shouting at him and honestly, it’s an amusing sight. Zoro who’s almost twice Luffy’s size being overpowered so easily.

As soon as they’re inside, Usopp’s shouting, “Duck!” and they’re both hitting the floor as Usopp’s lighting the gasoline bomb.

Usopp threw it just as that thing made it to the top of the small hallway and the glass shattered on impact, gasoline spreading over its skin and it’s reeling back as it caught alight, its screeching was almost deafening.

“Close the door!”

Sanji snapped the door shut and then the little ship was blasting off. If the monster hadn’t been hurt enough by Usopp’s gasoline bomb, then it certainly was by the flames that erupted from the back of the ship.

Everybody paused what they were doing, even Chopper had stilled, and watched in silence as they slowly drifted away from their ship. The left side of the ship was slowly melting away as the reactor exploded in on itself and it wouldn’t be long until nothing was left of it.

Nami wasn’t sure how to feel. They’d all escaped with their lives, so this should be classed as a win, but it somehow felt like a loss as she watched her home slowly destroy itself. A few tears were threatening to bubble over at the sight, but she didn’t dare look over at Usopp or Franky.

The feeling was chased away when Zoro sat down next to her, taking her hand and squeezed it.

…

“I still like the name Morph.”

Usopp slapped Luffy.

------------------------------------------

Huge respect for Oda, I hated juggling just 9 characters and he does it with an even bigger cast.

Also, sorry if anyone’s disappointed that there’s no deaths or a ‘real’ imposter. I’m weak. I want happy endings always and I can’t do that if I kill off parts of the straw-fam.

As always, please excuse any errors- especially as I rushed to get this done in time.

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!

#ZoNami #ZoNa #zoroxnami #swordgust #opfanfic #opwriting #one piece #zoro #nami

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bullets-and-masks · 4 years

Text

Fantastic Flustercuck: Lore, Interesting points, and a little thinking through

Here we go! This list is really, really big. I’ll do a short analysis/critic later on, but I want to get this out now! We’ll have 4 sessions: 1. Krieg and the Crimson Raiders 2. Krieg and Maya 3. Krieg and Himself 4. Final Notes

Session 01: Krieg and the Raiders

Sane Krieg starts by calling Psycho Krieg him; and dividing their mind between two minds, as if there are thoughts only Psycho Krieg has that he can’t access and/or understand

There’s a constant JACK voiceover that can be heard anywhere. Sadly, I didn’t catch the words, but sounded like the pre recorded messages at the preserve in Bl2

The first section of the DLC, the Castle raid, is considered imporant because it’s the first mission Krieg did along with the Crimson Raiders after a while

During this section, we fight the raiders

Brick and Modercai come first. They talk about how Krieg is too crazy to be a part of the Raiders. Sane Krieg does not want to fight them. Psycho Krieg fights - but it’s fear

Tannis quickly accesses it as fear of rejection. Krieg always had an issue with how the Raiders see him

Despite this Sane Krieg does know they’re friends, his family

Also sane Krieg uses the word oaf and that’s like... really funny

In this, Tannis says she relates to fear of rejection, but quickly corrects saying she doesn’t care

There’s the implication that Krieg’s eye was clawed out by a skag

The “Evil Lilith” inside his head calls him an animal, a beast, a weapon just to be used. Says they never cared if he lived or died

Sane Krieg quickly corrects this isn’t how she spoke to us

Lilith is tagged as “Scary fire lady” and that’s kind of adorable

Sane Krieg shows Psycho Krieg an old memory about how the Raiders treat him, and it’s the Raiders inviting Krieg to a bar. They don’t mind how he acts and laugh along with him

But Krieg follows from a distance

The Raiders guard his buzzaxe = strenght and attack

Krieg has a dialogue with himself that goes sorta like: Sane Krieg: (smth about finding out who is he, really) Psycho Krieg: Fragile Things

Sane Krieg also mentions wanting to learn dance, saying he has to exercise to keep his abs, calling it “lean muscle”

Session 02: Krieg and Maya

Oh boy

As soon as they see a memory of Maya, Sane Krieg wants to be careful. He doesn’t want the memory corrupted like the Raiders’.

Krieg KNOWS she is dead

Sane Krieg says Maya is the only thing he and Psycho Krieg ever agreed on

despite this, during the DLC they seem to get along better and better, Krieg is really working on themselves

Maya drops her book before proceeding. The player has to go after. Flowers grow on the ground where we walk

Tannis states diferent brain activity readings at this point, saying Krieg can really focus on Maya

Maya is taken by Locomobius, the monster train, and Sane Krieg says it’s because at the time they met, Psycho Krieg thought the train was taking her

Maya tells him in a goodbye ECHO: “No matter how far appart we are, I’ll always be with you.”

The name of the mission to catch Locomobius and free the memories of Maya is what love remains

Sane Krieg says the memories are all he has left of Maya

There’s a flashback to when they met, and it shows that Maya invited Krieg to come with her because he showed knowing how to fight

She does call him Big Guy constantly

Krieg has memories of Athenas, implying he has been there

Athenas is guarded by eridians, here funcioning as guardians to the memories of Maya

This is all viewed by Tannis as the protections of a grieving mind

The flashback about when they met also reveals that Krieg expressed he didn’t think he had anything to offer Maya and she understood him

It it’s not explained, whoever, how she understands him, but it’s very strongly implied that she sees his through thoughts/the translation of psycho speech

Maya guards his gauntlet = his defenses and hope

Even now, Maya is still a figure of hope for him

Sane Krieg complains about how Psycho Krieg lost a watch that he cared for

Session 2.5: Maya’s Spirit

Maya’s Last ECHO Maya leaves for Krieg one last ECHO that explains why she’s staying on Athenas for an indefinite time - to teach Eva. She says she knows she’ll pass her powers to Eva which implies she suspects her death could be soon. She says she can feel all the sirens that came before her like energy flowing, and says that if she days she’ll be among the stars waiting for him. There’s the quote, from her: “Even death and time can’t keep us appart from each other.”

The Spirit Maya stays in Krieg’s mind in a shining black and white form. At first, It looks like it might be his perception of her, the way she appears in his mind, but upon further triggering dialogue, there’s a lot of things told from a perspective that make it sound like Krieg didn’t know, and that also Maya is aware of this new form for her.

Quotes say:

that she never thought she could care about anyone the way she cared about Krieg

says that Krieg’s mind is less messy than she thought it’d be

had noodles in Minus-Prime, and loves it

she dyes her hair!

Maya says with all the words Siren’s have the power to leave memory on objects, memory that are almost a spirt

So this could be a fragment of Maya, alive in Krieg’s mind through the last ECHO he ever got from her

Also her spirit also mentions that one day a hotel showed up in Athenas, she slept there, it was a super interesting place, and she woke up lying on grass the morning after. Mancubus’ traveling hotel?

Session 03: Krieg and Himself

And Hyperion.

Krieg was at Hyperion to do a job at a lab

but then was “taken” by them. also not specified if he was taken for doing the wrong job, or he was there not hired by them and was captured

It is not specified what job, but he does mention he was a mercenary

The scientist responsible for him was Dr Benedict, and the called the subjects rejects of society

Sane Krieg says the lab saw the subjects as just meat. This is easily read as way Psycho Krieg registers meat as something that matters so much

Dr Benedict considered/might have done it: sweing the mouths of subjects shut or extracting their tongues so they couldn’t complain

Sane Krieg was really soft y’all... He fights a rat while imprisioned and names it Tawanda - unclear what happens to it - but Krieg says they’ll take care of each other

Krieg tells Tawanda “I’m called Krieg”. In a further ECHO, Dr Benedict calls Krieg Subject 24C. So Krieg really isn’t his name, and he can’t remember it

There’s an audio from Dr Benedict about an non specific subject asking to see his son, which the dr considers crazy, but all the others audios, even if not mentioning Krieg by name, seemed to be about him...

Sane Krieg sits along with Pyscho Krieg in an aparent crumbled cell space watching shadows that he calls The World. It’s Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, here showing Krieg is content with the world presented to him, unable, weak or even afraid to explore. It speaks to a false meaning he found to have the sense of living without having the strenght to do so

the player destroys the allegory, thus freeing Sane Krieg to see the actual world, a further step in regaining his mind as a world to really live in - he truly was trapped in himself

Bloodlust is a type of psychosis studied by Dr Benedict. It’s unclear wheter he created it, or what is behind it, but he uses a gas to infect people

considers making a gas bomb to infect whole populations

there’s a line from the Dr about how brain probing worsed pyschosis

the gas didn’t affect Krieg like the others - it is also unclear why

a mission with a Fear Mom, completely referencing the Clockwork Orange, tells Krieg to drink Milk to grow strong so “no one will hurt you ever again.” This could be read as remnants of his past self, creating a place to feel cared for someway, but also embracing the ultraviolence of his being and the brainwashing he went through

this side mission rewards a gun with the flavor text our eyes are yet to open like a baby, or like someone who lacks clarity

Krieg cared a lot about people before going insane. He holds strongly to a sense of right and wrong he calls goodness, and values innocence a lot

The Psycho personality is a schism that showed up in several test subjects that manifested the same personality

Dr Benedict wanted to change the subject pool to see the relation and considers an elementary school class

Also considers putting the gas in water supply to infect people since the gas won’t work on open areas

Psycho Krieg saves Sane Krieg when he had given up on scaping

It is a bloodbath Psycho Krieg calls Tea Party

Sane Krieg sees this realization, about being saved and the Vault Hunter being inside his head, as Psycho Krieg letting people in

Hyperion kept his mask from him = “false face is protection”

Upon defeating the boss, the Gigantic Krieg tied to an experimentation bed fades.

After taking the mask, this Three Figures walk into a portal in his mind and disappear forever. Sane Krieg doesn’t remember who they are and remarks that he forgot his past entirely. But looks at Psycho Krieg and decides on Forging a future.

They tell jokes to each other constantly, though Psycho Krieg only tells a decent joke by the end of the DLC. The joke is the one coherent sentence he can make; showing a lot of progress in how he communicates, but not changing who he is. By the end, his mind is empty, and both Kriegs work together to fill it slowy with new memories and thoughts. They start with Maya, and keep creating until she says “Enough for now. Come in and tell me about your day”, to which Krieg responds FUSING INTO HIMSELF, WHOLE, and walking into the house with her. The voiceover from Krieg tells us we’re always breaking and hurting, but we put ourselves together again, never perfect, but close enough. Always fixing ourselves.

Final Notes:

This DLC was really good, imo. I really liked the direction it took and I’m glad it wasn’t TOO wacky, loosing all the meaning and more seriousness it could have. It is a great character exploration, respects Krieg as a character and the one around him and their relationships. Krieg comes out as not needing fixing, and instead making peace with all he is and growing. Canon things confirmed: Worked as a mercenary, was a Crimson Raider, was one invited by Maya, was loved back, was experimented on by Hyperion, was saved by himself.

#borderlands #borderlands 3 #bl3 #fantastic flustercuck #krieg the psycho #krieg #dlc 4 #bl3 dlc #mmar talks #mmar plays bl3

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iaintyourbro · 4 years

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Helooo u. Ur opinions r fresh and i really did have same ideas but it just looked odd (specifically UT)and I didn't share my thoughts. Make ur own analyzes plz. Have do u see characters development and relationship with each other? And what u really didn't expect in ur firstplaythrough?

Hey there! Appreciate the comment.

I do plan on doing basic analysis on how I feel about things and interpret things. I am not a body language expert or an expert on human interaction, so pretty much it’d be me and how I deal with things myself or how I perceive things. @silver-wield @nibelheiim and @otp-oasis-heavenxearth Do some really good analysis on body language and psychology, among other things.

I can talk about my first impressions and things that I wasn’t expecting, here, though.. And it’s gonna be long, cuz I have a lot of thoughts.

So full disclosure - I was worried about FF7 Remake. I almost didn’t play it. I actually didn’t play it right away. I liked the OG a lot, but FF8 was my favorite. That being said, I still really enjoyed 7, so was anxious initially about the remake. I was worried they’d change too much, which I don’t deal with very well.

My husband played it first. I’m definitely the FF stan in the family. I played a game in college where people would play FF songs and I could name them. I was fun, I know. I guess it worked cuz my husband stuck around.

I wasn’t aware of the Love Triangle of FF7 between C-T-A. I thought it was pretty straight forward, even as a teen. Cloud was... well, Cloud, I didn’t get all there was to understand about that situation, but I didn’t see a lot of romance in FF7. Especially since I finished FF8 first. However, Aerith died... Tifa saves him in the Lifestream, and they go on their way. The ending was bizarre when he said he’d meet her and Tifa’s reaction also made no sense. But I didn’t think much of it - wasn’t the game with the romance, so I didn’t take it as such. The game also was riddled with translation errors. “This guy are sick.”

Anyway - Remake, I would glance at my husband’s play through and was amazed at times, but still being a stubborn dumbass, like I am. I think the few times I saw Cloti scenes I was like woahhhkayyy... I don’t remember this. I saw the pillar drop on his playthrough and cried when they showed Wedge. Like both of us wouldn’t look at each other cuz we both were losing it.

My first playthrough was truly played with no shipping goggles, because I didn’t own them yet.

So I decided to play. My kids were being total jerks and carrying on, so I was getting upset as I’m realizing I enjoy the game. The voice acting, battle system, environments, characters, I was like in shock and awe, and slipping back to being a young teen again playing FF for the first time.

Got to the Discovery Quest - Alone at Last. I mean, I saw the title of it and was like um okay... this seems suggestive. Then she tells you to come over after you’re done changing your filter. Ohh... okay... huh. Also noticed Cloud being jealous at times? That was new.

Cloud in general was different than he was in the OG. But I LOVED it. I loved how they did his character. It makes the battle of his persona much more intense and enjoyable. The SOLDIER!Cloud vs True!Cloud stuff. (I didn’t know these terms my first play through, I did notice his face changing a lot). At times, Cloud was a jerk in the OG (well, you could make him be a jerk, I suppose, he wasn’t all that bad).

Alone at Last I was like “HOLY SHIT!” This is so suggestive! And this was before I heard...

The Moan (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I actually heard it on a YouTube video where somebody pointed it out. However I DID notice that Cloud asked her if she was sure she didn’t want a break at the end too... I got that one. (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

So anything heavy Cloti wasn’t even a though thinking about remake. At all. Not a wish or anything, I just didn’t think there’d be anything even close to it. Remake is actually what made me absolutely fall in LOVE with the Cloud x Tifa pairing. It is so damn wholesome and charged. Whenever that sexual tension breaks, it’ll be intense. I didn’t even know Cloud x Tifa was “Cloti” until I looked up “is the remake pushing Cloud and Tifa?” cuz I was that confused.

I got the resolution scene with Tifa on my first play through, only because I chose her first in the sewers. I did every quest, so I didn’t miss anything. Another thing I had spoiled by watching my husband play, I believe. Another thing I thought I must have been imaging. Especially when he stands there and I start going “wtf dude... ARE YOU GOING TO HUG HER?!” Phew, glad he did.

Jessie drove me nuts - I don’t do well with characters like her. I kept commenting that she wasn’t like this at all, at least not that I picked up on. I was thrilled when Cloud said “Are you seriously that desperate!?” because that’s exactly what I kept thinking. I didn’t like her death scene, I’m not sure if it was the dialogue or the way it was delivered, but I definitely got upset when Tifa was crying, cuz she just was breaking down emotionally as things go. Then Cloud’s reaction... phew.

I ADORE BIGGS AND WEDGE, though. Wedge especially, since I’m also a cat lover. Biggs looking like Charlie Sheen had me laughing.

Barret is amazing. I love the growing broness between him and Cloud. They start rough and end good. His relationship with Marlene is much more developed, and Marlene had a major improvement, I think, since she actually says quite a bit.

All of the environments were gorgeous. Seeing Midgar as it should be seen and not a screen of dirt and buildings was incredible. Aerith’s house was insane. I definitely was in awe of that place when you first get to it. the skyline during the rooftop sequence was great. I cannot wait to see the rest of the game and those environments - like Cosmo Canyon, for example...

THE MUSIC: Who else lost their shit when the third phase of Jenova Dreamweaver played J-E-N-O-V-A?! The jukebox was a pleasant surprise that I was iffy on at first, but ended up loving it. Stamp, Midgar Blues, On our Way, Tifa’s Theme (jazzy), and FREAKING SCARLET’S THEME. The Arsenal battle theme was one of my favorites.

And can we talk about Scarlet? Using a soldier as a foot stool and making him crawl around? Guess he took the whole Stamp thing to heart. Scarlet is such a nasty bitch, but I can’t help but love it.

Aerith was greatly improved character wise for me over her OG version. I didn’t really like her... at all... in the OG. Not good with female characters that start shit with flirting. Just felt malicious at times (though as an adult I think she just was really immature). I ADORE THE FRIENDSHIP OF HER AND TIFA.

The new characters: Oh boy, change.

BUT ANDREA!!! Andrea was amazing. I absolutely ADORE him.

Madam M and Chocobo Sam were also pretty good. Leslie was great, and I hope we see more of what goes on with him. It’d be nice if he could be there to see Corneo die.

Honeybee Inn was incredible.

Things I wasn’t a huge fan of:

Well, Chapter 8 was good on my first play through, but after that, I had a hard time with it. It’s slow. You have to walk, you have to wait a lot. So, I’d say the pacing on Chapter 8 is a bit slow for me. There’s not much “action” if you will. The scenery is good, though.

Jessie... yeah, I know. A lot of people love Jessie. I just don’t - she’s too extreme with the quest to get laid. However, I did enjoy thinking about her and Biggs having a thing.

The sun lamps.

The robot arms in Chapter 9.

Getting around the stupid trash and stuff to leave Aerith’s house.

My list of bad isn’t long. I love the game, so don’t mind really going through all of that stuff again.

THE SEWER PUMP IS EVIL.

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it-will-not-last-the-night · 4 years

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PQ2 - End

As I did expect; making sure I was able to comfortably beat the Velvet Rangers first did mean Enlil, though visually impressive, wasn’t a difficult fight. I simply equipped Ryuji with the Omnipotent Orb and had him All Guard every turn and this left Enlil unable to do anything whilst the Joker, Mitsuru, Chie and Ann wailed on them.

The ending was honestly good though, very emotional, heart-tugging, I honestly haven’t had this much fun finishing a game since J.J. Macfield and the Island of the Missing.

PQ2 is honestly a gem I feel. Beyond fun mechanics that I found easy to get back into even after long gaps, it balances the character development of an enormous cast very successfully, with only some issues.

Even though I knew nothing of P3 or P4 the game conveys their characters in a way I found enjoyable and easy to sink into, and that is really no small feat considering that the cast is, honestly, just insanely large by the end.

I enjoyed Enlil as an antagonist for the most part, though they could definitely have used a little more substance in the plot, but this game, overall, was less focused on it’s villain and more on it’s protagonist, and that’s fine.

To that end Hikari: the game is honestly the story of her character development and I loved her. It’s a pity we don’t see much of her in the fandom, because I honestly adore Hikari and find her enchanting and relatable in a number of ways.

Her farewell to the friends she made at the finale of the game was genuinely touching.

In general the farewells at the end are emotional, and I enjoyed them all, event he little nod to Akechi’s own mixed feelings, clearly dealing with something, as he is the most hesitant of the Phantom Thieves to finally exit the theatre after they have learned they will forget everything once they are outside. A nice touch!

Of course, because it is me, I do wish to gush briefly about Ryuji: OH MY GOSH I love his dynamic with Hikari? But, also, I just love him in this game? He comes across in PQ2 as if he has matured from his incarnation in the vanilla game. Not only is he the character, along with Futaba, who spends the most time supporting and speaking with Hikari, but even in the ending when most of the Thieves all express varying degrees of excitement or forced enthusiasm about returning home, Ryuji is the one who most noticeably feels sad about the whole affair, expressing how he suddenly misses everything they’d gone through.

On the note of Ryuji and Hikari’s bond: I had thought it mostly just an accidental outgrowth of Ryuji’s common role as an externalization of Joker’s words, but when I watch the ending perhaps it is more intentional than I thought. Noticeably Futaba and Ryuji deliver the closing lines to Hikari, Ryuji is the one who, as she tears up, tells her to remember to keep her promise to invite them to see her movies and in the post-credits scene Ryuji is the character who feels they NEED to see her movie when they find a flyer for it, going so far as to clutch at his head because he, without knowing why, just knows he HAS to go do this. Furthermore, the cutscene as Hikari says her final goodbye and leaves, is framed around a small group of characters: Ryuji, Futaba, P3FemPC, Yukari, Mitsuru and Morgana. Among those Ryuji, Futaba and P3FemPC are the characters with the largest interaction with Hikari throughout the game, and I honestly have adored those four together.

I honestly have no idea why I am typing this, the game is dated and I believe interest in it limited, but I’d recommend any fan of Persona who hasn’t given it a try to do so, if only because the story and characters are honestly well executed, better in many ways than Vanilla.

To be frank; whilst Vanilla has moments that legitimately make me depressed, the scene in Shinjuku and the scene after Shido’s Ship, even at it’s worst PQ2 never has it’s characters be that mean to each other. Even when they jibe or insult they never cross a line to abusing or accosting, and they never all single out one character to relentlessly, constantly, deride.

A breath of fresh air really!

Anyway; I loved the game, I had fun, now I guess I wait for Scramble to become available, and I hope we get to see more of the P5 cast still in future (ALSO ATLUS JUST LET ME HOOK THE PT’S UP WITH EACH OTHER OR DATE THE BOYS PLEASE I WANT TO GIVE THEM LOVE TOO THEY DESERVE IT).

For fun below the divide I’m just gonna mention the relationships, romantic or platonic I’m not going to bother much with a distinction, I really have come to like following this game even though, I am sure, they are all crack.

Enjoy:

Chie/Yukiko: Whether best friends or girlfriends no pair of characters in the P4 cast seemed to, from the outset, come across as obviously as if they are close. The two seem to complement each other well, know each other well and play off each other well and are always delightful and entertaining to watch.

Mitsuru/Junpei: I talked about this one before; I just honestly loved their Ticket and found it endearing how both, in their interactions with each other, were almost Tsundere-ish in admitting to private desires to get along, and take care of each other dearly, but struggling to break through the shell of the other to confess this.

Ryuji/Hikari: Talked about this one at massive length already; suffice to say I honestly loved their interactions so much and, along with Ryuji’s interactions with Sophia I have seen now in Scramble, Ryuji radiates enormous, powerful, Big Brother/Father energy. Which I think is great? What better arc for Ryuji than, a person who’s life is overshadowed by his awful father, to turn out to be a wonderful father himself.

Yusuke/Yukiko: These two just get each other. Honestly they just click. They tune in to the same cosmic wavelength and leave everyone confused as they naturally just synch up. It is a pity as the game enters its later stages we see less of them, in the early game they are a treat.

Ken/Akechi: Ken and Akechi just are perfect, wonderful, foils to each other and it’s almost a pity the game can’t actually go the full way with it because Akechi’s secret can’t come out. This leaves it as a tease, the suggestion, of what could be, but that’s still plenty good. I also find it always interesting to see Ryuji and Akechi, two boys heavily formed by an abusive father, both in their own explicit words state outright they relate themselves to Ken in some way. With Akechi, because he is so good at wearing masks, I wonder how true it is when he relates himself to Ken, it’d be interesting to know if this is one of his lies to maintain his façade, or a bit of his true self creeping out as it often does.

Joker/Junpei: I don’t know why I like these two? But Joker comes across as really fond and supportive of him with his consistent chances to shout out “Junpei! Master Detective!”

Yukari/Junpei: As I said in my head I go back-and-forth whether this would be endearing or a toxic hate-love relationship. There’s no denying, though, that these two interact more with each other than anyone else in the P3 cast, they’re the Yukiko/Chie in that sense, if Yukiko/Chie consisted of a lot of barbs and harsh words. We actually get a glimpse of what, I feel, is a healthier dynamic for the two in P3FemPC’s world in the epilogue, where Yukari is still barbed but rather than deflating Junpei ripostes back, this automatically makes it seem less mean-spirited heckling and more two people, comfortable with each other, bantering.

Futaba/Hikari: This one is the obvious choice since the game is obviously going out of it’s way to make this an important relationship. Futaba sees herself in Hikari and appoints herself like an older sister to help her. It is adorable and amazing character development as the socially reclusive and shy Futaba clearly forces herself out of her comfort zone to prove to Hikari that she can change and that she is not a lost cause. Along with Hikari it is, perhaps, Futaba who is the true MVP of this entire game.

Futaba/P3FemPC: Futaba gets some lovely Sister-like sequences with the incredibly fun and social P3FemPC, who Futaba is clearly in awe of. It is a pity that these really only happen in the early game, I’d love for them to continue, but P3FemPC as the big, fun, sister figure of Futaba is fun.

Ryuji/Yukiko: This one is just because the ending of Haru and Yukiko’s ticket has one of the funniest bit ever when Haru and Yukiko decide they want to ‘play’ with Ryuji and Yosuke. Yukiko’s ‘Will you devote all of your being to the name of the Amagi Family?’ is wonderful and I can just imagine Ryuji’s reaction to such a frank proposition.

Mitsuru/P3FemPC: This one was actually surprising to me but Mitsuru really has something of an almost maternal instinct for P3FemPC. She seeks to console her and let her know she is valued, even if Mitsuru is poor at expressions of affection, as seen in Junpei’s case as well. In many ways it strikes me as a more sympathetic Sae/Makoto. Mitsuru clearly cares for the P3FemPC and is aware of her disconsolate feelings, but struggles to find the words to comfort her, but doesn’t let that stop her trying.

#persona 5 #persona #p5 #pq2 #hikari

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somekeepsakes · 5 years

Text

German interview with Peter (May 20, 2019) on drugs, love and new beginnings

I noticed that another version of the interview with Peter which @koidivisions translated some weeks back has emerged. The newer, longer, and presumably full(?) version can be found here. I’m only adding the translation for the bits that were missing in the earlier version. Since there are quite a few of them, maybe some of you are interested in reading the entire thing.

cut cut cut and off you go

Why did Hamburg change you so much? I felt privileged that Johann Scheerer opened his door for me. He trusted me.

He said: "You may live in the apartment and use the studio." He gave me his house key at a time when not even my own family would have trusted me with a key. Yes, it was a wonderful time in Hamburg! It was a shame that there was such resentment between my management at that time and the people from Clouds Hill as, much to the dismay of my management, there was someone who trusted me; that I stayed in Germany, recorded music, and took more control.

Did you feel something close to freedom? Yes, I believe so, there were no paparazzi lurking around every corner. And doing spontaneous gigs in the Golem, this wickedly expensive place, was great. I loved it there.

For some people, you’re a gifted song poet, whereas others tend to associate you with your drug antics. Yes, they believe me to be a caricature. There are even people who are disappointed when they meet me and I’m not all fucked up. This is really sad. But, then, it used to be like that for a long time. There used to be all these negative stories about me that had a nasty pic of me attached to them all the time.

And on the few days where I was alright, they manipulated the picture, or took one of me sneezing. This really killed me. It inwardly killed me.

And everything went hand in hand… The police were obsessed with getting hold of me. They arrested me repeatedly. That made me feel as if I was a dangerous person or a threat to society. That was sheer insanity.

But you’re out of the woods now? That’d be wonderful. But addiction is an illness – a mental illness. It’s self-destructive…

How safe are you feeling right now? Difficult to say. I’m feeling safe. But if I think about it, I don’t actually know what feeling safe means. At least I don’t want to go back to where I was.

[Regarding Margate] But why did you buy a hotel there? Because it was so cheap, so incredibly cheap!

It was said to be the most rundown hotel in Kent or even in England. That’s not entirely fair. The Nigerian woman who ran it had a bad reputation because she used to kick people out of the hotel whenever they complained. But saying that it was the worst hotel… No, I went to one in Aberdeen once which was worse!

And you invested money in yours? Sure, the whole thing was Carl’s idea. He decided that The Libertines needed headquarters. He then found this old five-storey townhouse. He didn’t pay me for five festival gigs for he knows I’m prone to wasting money. The others saved their share. And now I’m one of six investors.

Our studio has already been finished, and the hotel is supposed to come about bit by bit. The liquor licence is also there already so that Carl is able to open a bar beneath the hotel. The bar is going to be called "Wasteland" like the book by T.S. Eliot who lived four doors away. His father owned a bed and breakfast in Margate 100 years ago.

It’s supposed to become something similar to Andy Warhol’s "Factory". The Margate version of it. Carl wants to gradually set it up in a way so that different artists will be able to live and work under the same roof.

You’re said to have started a company for that business. I’ve read that article, too. What a load of bollocks! It said that I was worth 5.3 million pounds – crazy! Carl was really angry when he read that since he’s the businessman among the two of us. I would be completely unfit for a thing like that.

[Regarding the cat incident] There’ve been worse stories about you. And still, you were angry about it? Sure, because it was this incident that brought paparazzi to my doorstep again. That was the first time in two years, prior to that, everything was peaceful. There were no negative stories about me. And even on this day, I was kind towards the photographers. But they didn’t like that.

They claimed that I stood there in the doorway laughing. It broke my heart cause I love animals. And I love cats.

Does the sea inspire you? Tremendously! Every morning when I step outside. The light is unbelievable and the dark, wild sea – it’s calling for me. Sometimes, that’s dangerous. I’d like to run naked into the sea.

But so far you haven’t answered the call? I will do so in summer. Due to their arctic background, my dogs are used to freezing temperatures. They can step into the water when it’s cold, and they love it. But it’s not as nice as it may sound for humans in Margate.

In what way? We get these weird weather fronts. Every ten years, über-storms are causing serious damage. Just last week, the roof of the huge Tesco market got blown away, just like that. The buildings can take a lot but there are also lots of tunnels beneath the bases of the houses which were constructed in old smuggler times. That’s why the whole thing is unstable and causes buildings to collapse. It really is a weird place, Margate.

[Regarding the Puta Madres album] It probably won’t make you rich. That’s the reason why Drew isn’t part of the band. He preferred to make money while touring with Liam Gallagher. But it’s not always about money even if I’m not less greedy than others.

But I also know what damage money can cause. I need to take care of myself so that I’m not going to suffer from tunnel vision and therefore miss the genuine things that inspired me at a time when I didn’t have any money. If we make any money with that, which would be great for us, we’re going to build our own studio.

You’ve recorded the album overlooking a fishing village in the municipality of Étretat in the Normandy. Why not in Margate? Because Carl insisted that the new studio would be Libertines only. So we went to France where the family of our keyboarder Katia lives. That was great because we were able to record the album within a few days. Just like the Beatles did with their first album: one microphone in the room, press record, play the songs, and go back home.

[Regarding Someone Else To Be] Why do you quote Oasis in this particular song? "Please don’t put your life in the hands of a rock’n’roll band" has always been one of my favourite lines from a song. The warning it includes is probably justified.

[Regarding his stance on relationships] As complicated as Brexit? That is indeed complicated for the Puta Madres as so many nationalities come together in this band! We need to move freely, otherwise the knell will sound for us. But we’ll somehow find our way to France, Spain and Germany.

Where does the funny "Puta Madres" band name which literally translates as "goddamn mothers" come from by the way ? "Ah, it’s the puta madre!" – our drummer Rafa used to say that very often in the beginning when he referred to something positive as well as to something negative or something inbetween.

I didn’t really know what it meant but thought we might use that as our band name. Everyone says that in Spain and South America and it means "fucking hell".

It’s a casual curse word like "motherfuckers". It means everything and nothing. Technically speaking, it refers to the mother of a prostitute.

Do you speak Spanish? Sí. There’s a bit of German, a bit of Spanish, and a bit of French on the album.

How are your German skills? (in German) Not that good.

Do you have a favourite German word? Radiergummi! And I also like Creutzfeldt-Jakob and Methadon.

You presumably were given the latter as a substitute during rehab? Yeah, sure, horrible stuff. Sickly sweet. I call it the bad absinth.

Do you still think about Amy Winehouse? Yes, often. Constantly, actually. I met a girl called Jade Goldsworthy, an incredible singer. She reminds me so much of Amy. She hasn’t recorded anything yet, we’ve only met. But I’m planning to release something with her. We’re working on it. Amy would’ve loved her. I’m sure of that.

And The Libertines will continue as well? Of course, forever! Carl and I are stronger than ever.

Are you working on the new Libertines record at the moment? Yeah, but it was all a bit tragic. Ollie, The Prodigy’s guitarist, came round and wanted to help Carl and me with writing and producing. The next day, the news of Keith’s death – who was also a friend of Carl’s – broke. He committed suicide. The last thing Ollie texted Keith was a picture of my dogs as Keith was a fellow husky lover. And Keith replied saying how beautiful they were. And the next day, he hanged himself. We haven’t seen Ollie since.

How did you react to Flint’s death? I listened to all the old Prodigy records. There’s unbelievably good stuff among them, sometimes scaringly sinister.

Given the many deaths surrounding you, do you ask yourself why you’re still alive? No, I don’t think about that.

There are lots of discussions going on at the moment about whether it’s appropriate for radio stations to still play Michael Jackson songs or not. How do you see it: Should we separate an artist’s work from the artist? Wow – that’s a damn good question! His songs are being played every few seconds somewhere in the world. It’s amazing music, some of the best songs ever written. It’d be a fucked-up situation if he’s guilty… A part of me would die – a major part of my childhood. I loved his music.

Did you see the documentary? No, the film might have a significant impact on me – I can’t bring myself to watch it at the moment. I need to be careful with it, it’s too important. Michael Jackson used to be such an important factor in my life. It’s similar to Woody Allen: He’s a great filmmaker, he’s got a good sense of humour. It would annihilate so much culture if we didn’t separate an artist’s work from the private individual. But it’s tricky.

#Pete Doherty #The Libertines

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betsynagler · 6 years

Text

Critical Thinking is Hard

I’m lucky: I grew up in a family where thinking was encouraged. My parents treated me and my brother like we were brilliant, which makes you want to be brilliant, and come up with your own ideas. They liked to talk about stuff, and, while they definitely treated us like kids, they also didn’t really shelter us too much. My mother was always ruining TV shows for me by pointing out the sexist moments in television, from reruns of The Brady Bunch and Star Trek, to Charlie’s Angels, Three’s Company and, well, it was the 70s and 80s, so pretty much all TV shows. But they still let us watch them, as well as R-rated movies which may not have been age-appropriate, and while they told us not to smoke pot, when we found out that they smoked pot, they gave us reasons for why it was okay for them and not us (since they “weren’t going to have any more children,” which seemed to make sense at the time). Another thing they did was encourage us to take responsibility for our own decisions from a fairly young age, which meant that you could stay up until 10 or 11 pm on a school night if you really wanted to, but it’d be your fault when you felt like shit all the next day. One can debate the pros and cons of this method of child-rearing (pro: de-mystifying drug use and other taboo behaviors to the degree that they actually start to seem uncool; encouraging kids to develop strong ethical compass and think through their actions; con: kids are even more weird compared to their peers, and precociously develop anxiety and guilt about their own actions). Nevertheless, it did start me on the road to learning the value of thinking for myself.

I didn’t really come into my own as a critical thinker until junior high, however, when I spent two years in a program for gifted students. First, isolation from my peers at a time when I was supposed to be learning the social skills of adulthood and the bullying that naturally flowed from that taught me to look for other people’s faults as a means of self-defense. That made me critical, if not necessarily thoughtful. But then I also had two years of Mr. Snyder teaching me social studies. Many of us in the gifted program had all of the same teachers for all of our academic subjects two years running. This meant that we got to know those teachers really well, and, in the case of Mr. Snyder, came to greatly admire and be shaped by his worldview. Mr. Snyder wasn’t an obvious candidate for intellectual guru to early adolescents. He wasn’t particularly handsome, and he’d had polio as a child and walked with a prominent limp. But he was funny and charismatic, gave terrific lectures that were like brilliant comedy monologues or TED talks, and knew how to make his students feel smart and special — in part because we had made it into his class, but still. We liked him so much that several of us would get to class early every day so that we could draw cartoons of him on the blackboard with clever word bubble-jokes, and he loved that. Too see him come into the room and look at our clever depictions of him and smile and make jokes right back at us, to feel appreciated for our intelligence and creativity, a sensation could be hard to come by as a suburban New Jersey youngster, was wonderful. The class was a mutual admiration society and a bit of a cult of personality that I think hugely affected all of us who took it.

I learned a lot there, as we studied political systems, geography and the history of the ancient world, among other things. We were assigned projects that were unlike anything you’d typically get in junior high or even high school, a combination of fun, self-driven exploration, and out-of-control amounts of work. We had to make a map of the world that included every single country, city, major mountain range and body of water, using color-coded overlays — something that I would have enjoyed, and sort of did, except that, since I was in 7th grade, I was terrible at judging how long it would take and left it until the last minute, and had to repeatedly re-letter the smudged plastic to make it readable in my 12-year-old handwriting. The following year, when we did separate units on Greece and Rome, we had to either fill in an entire outline that he provided with a paragraph or more on every subject, or do a handful of more creative projects designed to help us probe the topics in more interesting detail. After choosing to do the outline for Greece, thinking it would be easier, and ending up with several pounds of handwritten paper (I could not type) on everything from Sparta to Socrates to Doric columns that was probably 75+ pages long, Mr. Snyder had stared at the pile and admitted to me that he hadn’t really expected anyone to choose that option, that he’d made the outline so absurdly long to encourage people to do the creative projects. I probably got an A more because he didn’t want to read the whole damn thing than anything else, and on Rome, I did the projects, like going to a Roman-Catholic service and writing about it — which I did by interviewing my Catholic friend, Tara, instead of actually going to the service myself — or going to the Met to observe and then expound upon the differences one observed between the Greek and Roman statues — which I did after 15 minutes of taking furious notes on a Sunday when we arrived just as they were getting ready to close. Just because I loved Mr. Snyder didn’t mean that I, like any other kid, wasn’t always trying to get out of doing homework in any way I could.

The thing I learned and remember best, however, was not the facts, but the method. We had a class about political and economic systems — communism, socialism, capitalism, authoritarianism — and the first thing Mr. Snyder did was define these terms for us, explaining that they weren’t what we’d been told they were. Specifically, “communism,” the way it was looked at in the budding Reagan Era of the early 1980s, wasn’t actually communism at all. Real communism was an economic system that someone named Karl Marx had come up with, in which everyone owned everything, nobody was rich or poor or more powerful than anyone else, and that was, in fact, kind of the opposite of what the Soviet Union had become. This somewhat blew my mind. Here was the boogeyman that everyone talked about as the great evil threatening us with destruction — and remember, in the world of an American kid who had trouble sleeping at night because she obsessed with how we were one button push away from nuclear war, that meant genuine annihilation — and it wasn’t even what it really was. How was this possible? How was everything that we saw on TV and in the newspapers and at the movies just plain wrong? It turned out that, once you delved into it, the evolution of the term “communism” in the popular vernacular was an education in how concepts entered the public consciousness and then were propagated endlessly in the echo chamber of the media and society until they became something else entirely, usually in the service of some political or social end. Sound familiar? It wasn’t the same then as it is now that we have the Wild West known as the Internet, in some ways it was easier to get an entire culture to basically think one incorrect thing rather than many insane things, but the ability to miseducate a huge swath a people without their questioning it? Yes, that existed, and understanding that was a very big deal to me. It meant that you always had to look deeper than the surface of things to be sure you understood the reality, even when it came to what those things were called.

Why doesn’t everyone get taught to think this way? Well, like most things in life, it gets increasingly harder to learn as you get older. The more set in our ways we get, the tougher it becomes to look at ourselves critically (which is essential to critical thinking, because to truly get that you must dissect and assess the viability of ideas, you have to start with your own assumptions), much less change the way our brains function in terms of adopting new ways of doing anything that’s really embedded in there, much less ways of doing everything, which is kind what it means to change the way you think. Plus, it’s in the best interest of those in power to keep the bulk of the human race from doing it. It’s tough to build an army of people who don’t automatically follow orders, or have a religion made up of people who are always questioning the word of God, or build a movement if the followers are continually asking the leaders, “Is that really true?” And so we’ve arrived at this situation where we have so much information out there now to make sense out of, and the bulk of us without the tools to figure out how to do that — and many who reject those tools because they’re told education is just liberal elite brainwashing. Instead, you see a lot of people turn to a kind of twisted, easy version of “critical” “thinking” espoused on the fringes of the left and right, which disposes with the thinking part and instead just espouses wholesale rejection of anything dubbed “establishment” or “mainstream,” no matter how awful the alternative may be (and at this point we know: it’s pretty awful). Add to that the folks who skillfully exploit the overwhelm of information and lack of analytical skills to support their own greed, lust for power and desire to win at all cost, and you end up with an awesome new and different kind of embedded orthodoxy, that encourages us to silo ourselves within “our” (really their) belief systems, walled in with “alternative facts” and media that support them, and defending it all tooth and nail with false equivalencies that encourage us not to critique thoughtfully based on evidence, but to to pick apart every idea that doesn’t fit or even makes us uncomfortable (“Well, every politician lies” was one of the most egregious ones I heard used recently to defend the president).

And, when it comes right down to it, can you blame people? Thinking is exhausting, especially in this environment, and even human beings with the best intentions manage to ruin everything good anyway. Like, even though my parents didn’t make us believe their ideas, of course they still managed to inculcate in us their most mundane opinions. My father was particularly good at doing this, particularly when it came to eating (yup, Jews), like how fast food and chain restaurants should be avoided not based on nutrition but on lack of flavor (which I guess is why we still ate at White Castle), or how chocolate was really the only kind of acceptable dessert. It’s amazing that, no matter how far I’ve come as an adult, I still find it really hard to shake these ideas — like I saw a conversation on Facebook about how pie was superior to cake, and I just thought, Huh? But there aren’t any good chocolate pies. Another case in point: by the time I was a senior, Mr. Snyder had moved up to the high school, and was teaching an AP history class that I had the option to take. I decided to take economics instead, because I had never studied it, because one of my best friends was taking it, and, on some level I’m sure, to show that I didn’t need the wisdom of this idol of my 7th and 8th grade self, now that I was all of 16. I heard from people who took Snyder’s class that in his first opening monologue of the year he mocked those of his former students who had decided not to take his class — which I think might have just been me. That wasn’t really an appropriate thing for a teacher to do, especially since I was kind of doing what he’d taught us: to move on, do my own thinking and evaluate him critically. But as a human being, it’s hard to be a charismatic leader and just let that go — which is why the world has so many despots, and celebrities, and despotic celebrities. On other hand, my economics class was a terrible waste of time because it turned out that I didn’t like economics and the teacher was boring, so perhaps my premature rejection of Mr. Snyder and my 8th grade way of thinking, just to prove that I could do it, hadn’t been the best decision either. It’s hard not to wonder if I’d be just a slightly better, smarter person today if I’d accepted one more opportunity to take his class.

I’ll never know, but I guess the fact that I’m telling you this story means I haven’t given up on critical thinking. Maybe it’s because self-flagellating comes naturally to me, but these days, more than ever, I try to employ those skills as much as I can, even as it grows increasingly fucking hard. On top of all that media landscape stuff I mentioned a few paragraphs back, I also have this stupid menopause business I mentioned in my last blog post, which just amplifies all of the emotion that drives me as a human to err on the side of insanity, as if there weren’t already enough bad news, and bad “news,” out there driving a person in that direction. There are so many bad actors with so many tools that can be used to manipulate our fear and greed and lust into steamrolling our thinking these days, and all we have to fight back are these little broken piles of poop in our heads. And yet, we all do have them, aka brains, and so we have the ability to use them. And as one of those cynical-on-top-but-at-bottom-idealistic folks who believes we all also have the capacity to change, no matter how hard it might seem, until the day we die, I think we all have the ability to learn how to use them better. And yes, that means you, and your friends, and your kids, and even your cousins in Florida maybe, if we all just try a little harder.

I’m not sure what Mr. Snyder would say about me now, as I try to get people to think about stuff with this blog that almost nobody reads, but considering how many years he spent trying to teach adolescents about Platonic ideals, I’d imagine he’d approve. So in honor of him, and any teacher you’ve had who inspired you to think more, and more better, let’s advocate in 2019 not just for “our values,” but for the value of intelligent thought, even if we have to do it one mind at a time.

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nellpire · 7 years

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[171222] Nell Official 2017 Photobook Fan Q&A (translation)

1. You are about to reach your 20th anniversary.. What do you think when you see fans maturing(!) together with you? Do you have any questions for the fans? Jongwan: Standing tickets or seated tickets, what’s better? Jaekyung: Though it’s intimate, since we only meet in concert halls, sometimes it feels a bit surreal^^ We can’t meet often but I’m always happy and grateful to see you… - A question for the fans / Why do you like Nell…? Junghoon: I’m always thankful. And I feel a sense of kinship with you since we’re maturing together. And of course happy that we’ve been able to be together for this long through music.

2. What part of the chicken do you guys like the best? Jongwan: Wings Jaekyung: Hahahaha / Wings vs tenderloin Junghoon: For chicken, wings are the way to go.

3. Please introduce your individual instruments! I want to organize Nell’s room. Please check any incorrect entries. Jongwan: I think they’re too many to introduce; when we record we use about 13 different guitars and 12 different synthesizers. Jaekyung: If I were to introduce the ones we use for concerts only.. Fender stratocaster (lemon) - Jeff beck signature Fender stratocaster (red) - Greg tessler masterbuilt PRS-custom24 Suhr - Scott Henderson signature Gibson 355 - Standard Gibson 355 - Historic Gibson Lespaul 59 - Historic Schecter Telecaster - Lee Jaekyung Custom model (a gift from Schecter Japan~^^) James Tyler Telecaster - Mongoose Retro Gene Baker B3 - Humburker Gene Baker B3 - P90 Morgan Acoustic Guitar - Jumbo orchestra Taylor Guitar - 414CE Nylon Bogner Shiva amp 20th anniversary Nord stage2 88

4. What is ripped jeans to Jongwan wanja-nim? Jongwan: Clothes that would be okay even if they ripped even more.

5. Which instrument does Jongwan feel the coolest while playing? Wan is cute when playing the drums! Jongwan: Guitar

6. How do each of you deal with stress? Jongwan: Alcohol, sleep Jaekyung: Deep sleep or heavy exercise Junghoon: Movies, games, music, travel Jaewon: Alcohol, friends, parties

7. I’ve just come back to Korea after studying in Russia for 6 years. I learned that Russian people all enjoy rock music (I often saw grandmothers with Nickelback songs for their ringtone and grandfathers with AC/DC for their ringtones. Seriously…!). Do you have any plans to advance into Russia? Jongwan: Spasiba Jaekyung: We went with Seo Taiji to perform in Vladivostok in 2004, and I could feel how the country loves rock music. How much they like alcohol and how cold it is also suits Nell well k I’d like to try it if we get a chance. Junghoon: Any place where people listen to our music and we can perform would be good, of course. Russia go go.

8. Is there a Korean musician who you want to be like or respect? Also, is there a person who you look at and think ‘let’s not become like them’? For the last question I’m more curious about whether you have someone like that or not, not who it is. Jongwan: I respect Lee Seunghwan-nim / Way too many Junghoon: I respect all musicians who go forward playing their own music, whether they are seniors or juniors. As for the last question, we definitely do.

9. Do you have any plans on doing this (Q&A) regularly? Aren’t you curious about the fans’ thoughts? Jongwan: We have ‘plans’. Jaekyung: I think it’d be fun to do this in some shape or form every once in a while!

10. What electronics or instruments are you interested in recently? Jongwan: UNFAIRCHILD 670 M II Junghoon: Playstation VR / Rolan Gaia

11. What song would you like to play a cover of at least once? Jaekyung: Purple Rain - Prince (even though not doing it would be better) Jongwan: Hallelujah, Jeff Buckley version

12. Any songs you want to play as Jung Jaewon band? kk Jaekyung: Beat it - Michael Jackson (even though not doing it would be better) Junghoon: Celine Dion’s Power of Love Jongwan: Nessun Dorma

13. Can you recommend us a movie, exhibition, concert, book etc that you’ve enjoyed this year? Jongwan: I, Daniel Blake Jaewon: The movie Maudie Junghoon: Manchester by the Sea, and for concerts Depeche Mode

14. If you could transcend time and space and meet one person in the whole world, who would it be? Jongwan: It’s not a person, but I’d like to see a huge dinosaur in real life. Junghoon: Rather than a meeting, I’d like to go to a Nirvana concert.

15. If you could give the fans anything (with no regards to cost, and it doesn’t need to be an object) what would it be? Jaekyung: Our unreleased songs (minus the bad ones k)

16. Jaekyung oppa, when you record entire concerts the file size must be insane, so how many external hard drives do you have? Do you have more Kumamon plushies or more external hard drives? Jaekyung: I have 5 hard drives. And I have 2 Kumamons that the fans gave to me k (the picture I uploaded on instagram was taken in a store hahaha)

17. Which out of your own songs are you the most pleased with? Jongwan: ‘What do you think’ Jaekyung: ‘Farewell’ Junghoon: ‘12 Seconds’ Jaewon: ‘12 Seconds’

18. If someone other than Jongwan hyung-nim were to take the role of vocalist in Nell, who would suit it the best? Jongwan: There’s no way.

19. Can you please show us the Selfish Love music video just one more time? Jongwan: No. Jaekyung: We can’t. Junghoon: How could we ever?

20. Jaekyung-nim, you know you’re good-looking, right? Jaekyung: Of course^^

21. I’m curious about your individual ways of overcoming painful experiences (alcohol and cigarettes, that’s no no, minus those two!) Jongwan: The thought that I would still have a hard time even if this didn’t happen. Jaekyung: If I can solve it then I do, and if I can’t then I do as much as I can, accept it and let time heal. Junghoon: I just keep thinking about it. Immerse myself in it. Then it will slowly start to get better.

22. If you only had one day left to live, how would you spend it? Jongwan: First I’d say goodbye to my family, then spend 8 hours in the studio before putting on a concert and finishing off with an afterparty with people I love. Jaekyung: I don’t know if there’s anything specific I’d want to do -- I think I’d listen to the songs we were unable to finish and then say my goodbyes. Junghoon: I’d be with my family. Jaewon: I’d watch the sunset by the ocean.

23. How come Junghoon has never once shown us a bass solo? And as you always use a pick instead of fingering (of course using a pick will sound better on some songs but), is there a reason for that? Junghoon: I will work hard.

24. How do you release everyday stress? Jongwan: Travel

25. What pictures do you use as your kakaotalk profile pictures and cover photos.. k (Jaekyung uses a cover photo of a street full of fallen leaves and no profile photo, Jaewon uses a picture from the movie Maudie)

26. I’m curious about the members’ favorite movies. Also, is there a movie that has influenced your music, like how you got your name from the movie Nell? Jongwan: Stay, Never let me go Junghoon: I like too many movies so it’s hard to choose, but Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind comes to mind. Jaewon: Lords of Dogtown, Stand By Me, Gilbert Grape

27. If you were a color, what would it be? And please tell us the reason as well. Jongwan: Grey Jaekyung: (picture of… the moon..?)

I love you. Junghoon: Me too.

28. Who cries the most out of the members? Jongwan: Me and Jaewon. Junghoon: Could be me. Jaewon: I don’t know who does the most, but Jaekyung cries the least.

29. Who do you think will get married next? Jongwan: Don’t

30. I’m sad because I can’t go to this year’s christmas concert, and I’m a 13-year fan who wishes to receive a signed CD at some point. I like you so much that I want to ask a question this badly. I love how pretty the album art is; do you decide on the design yourselves? Jongwan: We decide on the concept, the designer makes the art.

31. To. Jung Jaewon / Do you have other hobbies aside from surfing and skateboarding? Jaewon: Drawing, hiking.

32. To. NELL & SPACE BOHEMIAN / Who first coined the phrase ‘seubo-in’?? Do you like it? Jongwan: I like it. Junghoon: Was it Jongwan who used it first? I don’t know too well, but I like it.

33. Is there a singer you’d like to work with? Jaewon: The late Shin Haecheol-nim.

34. Chicken vs Pizza Jaekyung: Pizza Junghoon: Chicken Jongwan: Complete victory by the pizza

35. Jongwan oppa, I remember hearing you say on Nell’s Cruel Radio that you like to read. Please recommend me a good book. Jongwan: Blindness (José Saramago)

36. What’s the most memorable performance you’ve seen? Jaekyung: I’ve seen too many, but the ones that come to mind now are Black Sabbath in Korea, 1995 / Steve Vai in Korea, 1997 / Metallica in Korea, 1998 / Roger Waters in Korea, 2002 / Marilyn Manson in Korea, 2003 / Nine Inch Nails in Korea, 2007 / Björk in New York, 2012 / Paul McCartney in Korea, 2015 / Among those, Roger Waters’ (Pink Floyd) concert was the most memorable to me. / As for Nell, it’ll be this year’s December concert. ^^ Junghoon: That’s a difficult question. Off the top of my head, The Verve live in Japan. Their charisma was astounding.

37. Do you have any thoughts of letting us know the lyrics in the backmasked parts of your songs? Jongwan: No. Junghoon: I don’t think so.

38. Can you reveal the playlists you’ve been listening to recently? Jongwan: Currently listening to this year’s Christmas concert setlist. Jaewon: Elbow, Death Cab for Cutie.

39. What are each of your favorite foods?! Jaekyung: Galbi, lobster, soy marinated crab, (bigmac) Junghoon: Braised spicy chicken Jongwan: There’s too many. Beijing-style duck, steak, pasta, Pyongyang style cold noodles etc.

40. When will Jongwan oppa do a V app live in your house like you said you would? Junghoon: Did he say that? Jongwan: Soon.

41. Junghoon oppa, at some point you started recording the fans with your camcorder -- do you…watch those back..?? Also, you’re taking a lot of pictures with your film camera recently. Have you been influenced by Simz oppa to do that, or is there another reason? Please reveal a few cuts that you’re pleased with! Junghoon: I’ve seen all of them at least once. I edited some (of the videos) and posted them on social media. I was taking pictures with a digital camera using a filter to make the pictures look like they were taken with a film camera, and so I thought ‘if this is how it’ll turn out, I should buy an actual film camera’, so I did. I don’t know anything about photography so I’m just taking pictures with my P&S.

42. Please tell us a song you’re disappointed with from each album, or a song you don’t like, and the reason for your choices, please. Or an album you’re displeased with. Jongwan: Walk Through Me. I think we could give each song a more fitting sound if we were to record that album now. Junghoon: ‘Reflection of’, ‘Speechless’. At the end of the day, it’s a pity how they turned out. If we had been a bit more skilled at recording and writing, I think they could have turned into a little bit, or a lot better albums.

43. If you were to be reincarnated, what would you like to be born as? Jongwan: A dolphin living in a place no human has ever touched. Junghoon: Wonbin.

44. What do you think when you see your increasing amount of male fans? I’m a fanboy too, haha! Jongwan: It feels good. Jaekyung: It’s good to see. The sceaming (of the crowd) became thicker! I understand now!! Junghoon: It’s great.

45. When do you recruit workers for Space Bohemian? (My ultimate goal is to become an employee there… just wait…) Jongwan: 11AM~8PM

46. Do you use Logic (music editing software) or Pro Tools more? If you use both, which is better? Jongwan: We don’t use Logic, we use Cubase and Pro Tools. We use Cubase up until the recording, then change to Pro Tools for the final phase.

47. Junghoon-nim, please let us know what brand of sunglasses you wear! Junghoon: I wear several different ones, but my favorite is Karl Lagerfeldt.

48. I’m curious as to what you’re thinking about! Jongwan: It changes a lot. Jaekyung: I think most of what’s in my head goes into our albums! Junghoon: All kinds of tremendous desires.

49. What is Bori’s gender?! Junghoon: She’s a girl

50. Is Junghoon-nim’s Bori doing well? Do you have any plans to open a separate instagram account with just pictures of her? Junghoon: Yes, she’s doing well. I don’t think I’ll make another instagram account.

51. I’ll give you a multiple choice question. How long will you continue making music? A. Until I die / B. Until all I have left is the strength to hold a spoon / C. For 50 more years / D. Until our 70th debut anniversary Jaekyung: A Junghoon: A Jongwan: If possible, A.

52. Is it okay to ask for a signature if I see you on the street? It is okay to let you know I know who you are? I love you. Jaekyung: Yes. Junghoon: Please be our friend. Jongwan: We don’t go out a lot, so.

53. What are your favorite Coldplay / Muse songs? Any songs you intend to play live sometime? Jaekyung: Coldplay: Gravity / Muse: Exogenesis: Symphony part 3 Junghoon: Coldplay: True Love / Muse: Stockholm Syndrome

54. What’s your most used apps? Jongwan: Lotte cinema Jaekyung: Hi-Q recorder / Soundhound / Producer tools / Metronome / Boss tuner Junghoon: Naver cloud. Coupang. Jaewon: Navigation.

55. Tell us about a movie you’ve seen within the last 3 months that left a deep impression, whether it was good or bad. Junghoon: The Outlaws. “Do you know who I am?”

56. What’s your favorite time of day? Jongwan: 9PM~5AM. Jaekyung: One hour before the sun sets. Junghoon: The space between midnight and 4am. Jaewon: Just because the sun rises.

57. To Junghoon and Jaekyung: Who’s your Twice bias? Jaewon: Tzuyu.

58. To all: What’s your favorite cover of one of your songs? Jaekyung: Taeyeon’s Time Spent Walking Through Memories Jongwan: Kim Feel’s Time Spent Walking Through Memories. Jaewon: Time Spent Walking Through Memories.

#nell #official 2017 photobook #interview #translation #jongwan #jaekyung #junghoon #jaewon

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ask-svt-hearteu · 7 years

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soulmate! Seokmin

a/n: showing some love for our underappreciated seokshine

Summary: in which you can feel your soulmate’s emotions, ex. happiness, sadness, anger

your heart kinda hurts for your soulmate

yes, you know it’s not possible to be happy 24/7

but the normal emotions you feel from your soulmate are generally in the categories of happy or stressed

both which are completely normal and it makes you happy to know your soulmate has been happy the majority of their life

never have you felt this much sadness from him or her, but i mean your pretty sure your attracted to guys so

specially this past month,

and now you feel even worse because as you’re feeling worried, he’ll be able to tell and maybe get even more sad

this cruel world is breaking both of your hearts

so you tried your very best to be as happy as possible

positivity is key

and there’s lots of positive energy around you so hopefully you can project this to your soulmate

your job as a PD-nim at MBC is really fun

part of it is just talking to a bunch of people your age so you’re on a first name bases with lots of celebrities

it’s funny how they’re like “you’re a PD-nim? you’re so young”

it’s so weird to hear honorifics from many of the idols your age so you insist they treat you like a friend

you like filming the waiting rooms before stages the best

something about the nervous but vibrant energy,

people doing what they love to do, making others happy, being with people that made them happy

you wanted to soak it all up and hope your soulmate would feel happier too

“y/n the next group is in the waiting room.” your boss tells you, shaking you from your thoughts

“okay we’re filming for our special right?“

“Yep, doing ‘what’s in my bag’ for show champ"

"okay fighting!"

"fighting."

you drag your camera over your shoulder and bring a few other staff with you

reading the sign on the door, "세븐틴”, you push open the door

“hey guys!“

"y/n!!!"

the thirteen boys scattered about the crowded room turn to say their greetings to you and the staff

"SAY THE NAME SEVENTEEN ANNYEONGHASAEYO SEVENTEEN IMNIDA”

you bow in greeting also

“I’ll just quickly check everyone’s stuff before filming just to make sure no one has anything that’s too personal,” you tell the other staff

“noona you got prettier,” seungkwan says to you

“ah thanks seungkwan, are you trying to butter me up?” you laugh

he denies it with the other members teasing him

looking at the group, you notice someone’s missing

“where’s DK, he usually jumping around being wild,” you ask

"hyung isn’t feeling well today he’s over in the corner getting his hair styled.”

if you had to choose one member in seventeen as a bias, it would be DK

because somehow, you had a crush on the guy

"I know I’m crazy right?” you think

it didn’t seem to make sense with your soulmate being out there and the both of you sharing emotions

but that had been part of the reason you liked Seokmin

without fail, he always managed to bring a smile to everyone’s faces and yours too

if you were to imagine everything you’d want in a soulmate it’d be him

and that made you feel extremely guilty to your own soulmate

“hiiii DK, can you gather with the other members?”

he smiles at you, though not as brightly, “yes of course”

now with the whole group, you ask them to show their bags before filming and to pick an MC

going along the line you look into each of their personal bags

as you pass each member of Svt, a pattern starts appearing as you ask each of them questions

“Seungcheol, you carry around a marker?” “Yea, just in case (his soulmate’s name) needs me."

"Wait so you found your soulmate? Does the company know? Are you telling fans yet?"

"You’ll see a lot of us have, but the company doesn’t want us talking about it to fans yet."

and as you walk down the line you realize that almost everyone had found the one for them

"Joshua how’d you get a scratch on your arm are you ok?” “Oh this is new. That’s weird it wasn’t here five minutes ago. I’m not sure, (his soulmate’s name) must have scratched herself somehow. Excuse me I’m going to call her and check to make sure she’s ok."

"Soonyoung, hey what’s up! What’s that?” you ask a smiley Soonyoung

“Oh it’s my lucky ear piece. (His soulmate’s name) bought it for me to bring good luck since she hears all the music I do too and she’s my luck."

this was how you found out that every member had found their soulmate

they all would tell you a cute little story or show you some cute little keepsake before you moved on to check the next person’s bag

"I still haven’t returned (Jun’s soulmate’s name)’s umbrella back to her. It’s sitting in the dorm and reminds me how amazing she is every time I see it."

Jun giggles while telling you about that rainy night and by the time you reached Seokmin

"I don’t suppose you have a cute story to tell me about your soulmate?” you say giggling and poking through his items in his personal bag

“Dokyeom?” you look up and your heart begins aching

DK is staring down at his feet, eyes wide as if trying not to blink

“No, actually, I’m the only one who hasn’t found their soulmate yet in Seventeen."

it was bad timing

you felt your positive front you had tried maintaining go down for a bit as you sympathized with Seokmin

and whoever your soulmate was, you could feel that they were even sadder now,

and maybe it was because you felt sorry for Seokmin that he tried smiling at you

"it’s ok though I’ll find them. I will find them."

those words made you feel hopeful and you could feel some hope in your soulmate too in fact, they seemed to cheer up a little after your talk with Seokmin

the conversation and timing replays into your head

no way….?

you decide to attribute the moment of hope as simply your soulmate drawing strength from your emotions

"Lee Seokmin, I believe in you, our sunshine and happy virus.” you say, giving him a smile as you pat his arm

you’re surprised when Seokmin gives you a hug, your heart racing as an effect

“Thank you, y/n for making me feel better."

"No problem” you say, barely breathing, your heart racing

and you think you’ve finally gone insane because you feel some other emotion from your soulmate that you hadn’t felt before

a kind of happiness and a feeling of lightness, a floaty feeling it’s kind of the feeling you’re getting now after hugging Seokmin

you shake your head and give Dokyeom one last smile which he returns before you turn back to face the others

after they were finished, they were surprisingly talking quietly among themselves

which was a bit suspicious for multiple reasons

wait…

you felt something in the pit of your stomach and realized

where your soulmate had felt sadness, there was nervous anticipation

a mix of being worried but also curious

not thinking much of it, you collect all the filming materials

suddenly, you feel a tap on your shoulder and turn around

your eyes meet the members who have pushed Seungkwan to the front with DK standng a little behind

"hmm?” you say

Seungkwan turns around really nervously too look at the others and you hear a voice say in the back

“yah Seungkwan pali, she tolerates you the most”

‘what the heck???’ you think

you watch as Seungkwan takes a deep breath and

“YAH!! I WAS LYING EARLIER BECAUSE YOU LOOK EXTRA UGLY TODAY!!!”

immediately, Seungkwans knees sink to the ground while he bows furiously in apology

“the heck. did you go crazy??” you say half angry half confused

suddenly you feel an emotion that’s not yours

happiness? it’s the kind of happiness that warms your heart and makes it seem as if the world could just explode from all of the happiness

it’s how your soulmate is feeling

and you look behind Seungkwan to see the most dazzling smile gracing Seokmin’s face

“hyung I think it’s her! the timing is exactly the same!”

“what??” you say shocked

is he serious

suddenly there’s screams everywhere and you somehow figure out a bit of what was going on

not the first priority but the most obvious, Seungkwan who’s still hugging your legs

pulling him up you shake your head and laugh, “you were the sacrificial lamb huh?”

“noona jinja mianhae, you really are pretty”

he engulfs you in a apology hug, surprising you

“YAH! What are you doing Seungkwannie!!!” Dokyeom says pulling him off of you

Seventeen backs away pulling Seungkwan with them,

and somehow, because of the staff and members, the two of you end up in a board room

together, alone, yup

you rock back and forth on your feet while he scratches his head, the both of you laughing nervously

as your nervous self, you blurt out, “you shouldn’t scratch, it’ll mess up your hair”

P R I O R I T I E S

you scream at yourself

“so i’m pretty sure we’re soulmates right?” he says chuckling

giggling you say, “yep, when you think about it, it makes sense”

“you’ve always felt a connection too right?!” he says excitedly

“of course!” you agree with a grin

and you think back to the almost perfect timing of your emotions earlier when talking

and then the hug

and how Seokmin always managed to make you feel happier

now you knew it was quite literally done too

handing each other your phones, you exchange numbers quickly

“I know you have a really busy schedule but let’s meet again soon”

“it’s a promise!” he agrees

the atmosphere gets weird for a moment, the both of you not knowing what to do next

as you feel each other’s emotions, you know exactly what to do

so you guys meet in the middle for a hug

he rests his head on yours

you can feel his chest vibrating from his chuckle

“I’m glad it’s you”

“me too”

as he’s walking out, you remember something and grab his arm

“hold on please!” you tell him and start digging through your purse

as you search messily, he stands there with anticipation

“ah!” you say and pull the item out

as you hand him a keychain, you can clearly feel his happy emotions

shyly explaining you say, “you don’t have anything of mine like the others so, here”

without warning, he pulls you back into a tight hug and then smiles at you like the sunshine you know

“I’ll take good care of it”

you nod

“it’s not that official, so when we meet next, let’s get something matching okay?” you smile, your eyes changing into crescents

“ah! a moon and sun keychain”

“why?”

“because your eyes are like the moon”

immediately you both giggle at his cheesy words

nodding you agree,

“and you’re just like the sun, bright and warm”

The Seventeen Soulmate AU series:

|| Seungcheol / Pt. 2 || Jeonghan / Pt. 2 || Joshua / Pt.2 || Jun / Pt.2 || Hoshi / Pt.2 || Wonwoo || Woozi / Pt.2 || Seokmin / Pt.2 || Mingyu / Pt.2 || Minghao || Seungkwan || Vernon / Pt.2 || Dino ||

MASTERLIST

~ admin jess & seri

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madokasoratsugu · 7 years

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/poses/ after a million years...i finally bring to u...a proper update to mafia au, this time with the adults !!! there’s more hints to the plot here so like. nice. some ended up way longer bc i rambled aha;;

check out the rest of the mafia au here / ways to support me if you enjoyed this

Sanzaemon is the former head of the Nakiri family, now retired (?). Passed the position to Erina, although it was originally supposed to have been taken over by Azami (the plan went to scrambles after Erina’s mother died, Azami abandoned the family and slaughtered any and all who got in his way, taking prized blueprints and tactician plans on the way out). Was initially still watching over Erina as an advisor in the main mansion until Azami personally came back to try and assassinate him. Heavily wounded, he now resides in a hideout with Dojima as his main link/informant as to what the family is up to nowadays. Back when he was a boss and even now, he helps Jouichirou with trying to find the murderer of his wife. Using his position as a boss and influential member of the mafia, has attained some of the most valuable leads Jouichirou currently has. Now that he's retired, he's been putting more time into this area of research, and is beginning to get a sickening suspicion that things are more than they seem, and Azami may have been much more underhanded than anyone could ever believe.

Shinomiya is one of the most successful bosses, having strong ties and alliances with families in both France and Japan. Also known as one of the most unforgiving and sadistic due to a past incident of nearly executing half his own family. It was a matter of the past when he’d just assumed his own position, yet found himself under heavy attacks/info leaks all of a sudden - immensely stressed and unable to trust anyone, he began witch hunting any and all suspicious members and executing them. Doujima and Souma were the ones who curbed his killing spree, albeit with much effort and investigation. Hinako was the one who properly stopped him, with a vicious slap to the face and cold demand for him to get a hold of himself, and live up to the name of the Shinomiya (and soon to be Inui) family. All family members who survived the incident deeply understand and know how badly it affected Shinomiya (esp mentally), and have sworn to never allow Shinomiya have a reason to doubt their loyalty again. As such, the Shinomiya family is also one of the most tight knit and loyal; spies and moles fear their family, so much so that it’s become common knowledge that to accept an infiltration job into their family means a fate worse than death. (funfact: Shinomiya knew of Souma through a job of hiring him to stalk and assassinate one of the suspicious members, and Souma got a lot more involved+talkative with the boss than necessary, resulting in their friendship. Shinomiya taught Souma quick firing techniques and sleight of hand. He has also quietly hinted that Souma is under his protection once, and if anyone fucks with him they won’t get away with it. Megumi, as his doctor, is also under Shinomiya’s protection.)

Hinako is a delicate and gentle flower of an internationally recognised tea shop, who is also a full time yakuza boss of the Inui family. She runs the family like a good tea ceremony; methodical, careful and (rather) unforgiving for mistakes. A calm and collected boss who always has a smile on her face (there’s only minute differences to that smile, and you better learn to tell what they are, and fast), and an excellent tactician who never takes more than necessary from her enemies. Has a good eye for hidden talents and polishing said talents. Marries into the Koujirou family after the “ascension massacre” (the underworld’s selfdub for Shinomiya’s incident), many hold her in high regard for that (although it’s partly bc of her that so many were killed - since Hinako and Shinomiya were seeing each other at that time, Shinomiya’s paranoia that someone would go after her too killed hundreds). Enjoys using poison to kill, though her favourite weapon is a traditional katana, handed down from generations through her family. Knows Mizuhara from functions between Japanese yakuza meetings, and was the one who introduced Shinomiya and Mizuhara, that lead to their families’ alliance being formed.

Mizuhara was initially from an influential Japanese yazuka group, but she moved to Italy to get away from her family as she wanted no part to do with them, considering how her brother was already set on becoming the next head and she didn’t want to complicate matters (sibling with different mothers, rivalry abound. her bro doesn’t rly care for this Drama bc he trusts and loves her v much but the mothers are a whole other story.). But mafia members recognised her, and she got into some trouble with the Italian mob, whom she thoroughly schooled. The mob was a small faction under Takumi and Isami, who met with Mizuhara and got chewed out for disorganisation within their family. After learning about the mess their family was in at that time (this happened around after Aldini papa’s death and Takumi’s ascension), Mizuhara contacted her family back in Japan who were more than happy to agree with her plan of including the Aldini family as one of their allies. She now works on extending her family’s alliances from overseas, and is also working with Takumi and Isami in managing Italy’s underground (but in terms of hierarchy she’s higher up). Plus partially helping out w the Aldini family’s management/organisational matters, as well as looking into dragging Shinomiya into Erina’s alliance at some point.

Soe was the previous head of the information branch, but is now travelling all over the world in an attempt to refresh the Nakiri family’s old alliances on Erina’s request, as well as collecting information from all these families about Azami. Cool headed (unless his family is threatened), charismatic and suave, is extremely sleuthy and able to hook information out of almost anyone. Pretty much the walking infobank of the Nakiri family, his life is constantly targeted so he isn't able to be with his family as much as he'd like. Due to this, he's also incredibly skilled in both close and long range combat, considering how he never knows how people are gonna try and target him next. He's the one who taught Alice her knife skills, and fav weapon is a rifle. Didn’t initially have many plans to join the mafia; he was well on his way to becoming a world renowned scientist and researcher when his sister died and Azami abandoned the family, prompting an immediate return back. Although he blames no one for his impromptu return to the mafia, to this day he holds a deep regret of not being able to fully give Leonora (and Alice) a life without bloodshed like he had promised.

Leonora is a weaponry expert/researcher, and is currently looking into combining poisons and various weapons in a much more efficient manner, plus inventing a few of her own weapons (she designed Ryou’s dagger and Alice’s favourite butterfly knife, and gave Hayama’s rifle an insane upgrade). Works in a lab in Denmark near a hideout, and is in constant contact with Alice and Soe. Born into a wealthy business family with many mafia connections, her love for experiments and Science was cultivated well ever since she was a child. Met Soe at one of the many mafia networking parties, and he fell in love with the young genius at first sight. Had little to no qualms about entering the mafia world since she grew up with the mafia integrated partially into her life. Quick witted, making a great conversationalist and negotiator. An expert at guns, has no preference. Knew of Azami and Erina’s mother ever since they were engaged, feels a deep sense of loss and sadness for them, but at the same time is unforgiving towards Azami for causing so much pain to her niece and daughter.

Chapelle used to be a spy who would work exclusively in France, now one of the most sought after informants by all mafia members alike. Typically uses go betweens to deal with his information exchange, very rarely shows up himself in public. As such, little is known about him by mafia members, except that no one has seen him (or doublecrossed him) and lived to tell the tale. Skilled with bombs and guns, good at killing swiftly and silently. Back as a spy, his allegiance leaned towards Sanzaemon (and to an extension, the Nakiri family), so despite his position as a neutral ally in the upcoming power struggle, he favours Erina’s alliance/side more so than Azami’s. His favourite and best go between is Ryoko, and no one but Isshiki and Fumio knows that Megumi’s landlord who likes going to the Polar Star Bar every other night is a famed (and heavily wanted) spy.

Hisanao is top of the mafia AU’s INTERPOL. Famously known among the underworld as the man who can and will singlehandedly tear apart an entire family, starting from the bottom. The mafia don’t really bother the public, but when they do, Hisanao is there to wreck havoc on them. Works closely with the mafia government (this AU’s version of WGO) to ensure that the fine line between the mafia and the general public is not crossed. Strong sense of justice and honour, has been awarded numerous awards for his service yet has accepted minimal. Does not believe in completely wiping out the mafia as that is an incredulous and silly thought. Sharpshooter whose skills rival Hayama’s, favourite weapon is his trusty police gun. Always carries a pair of handcuffs with him. Acquainted with Sanzaemon due to a past dispute that dragged in a civilian, and has his own information network running through the underworld. He’s keeping a close eye on the upcoming power struggle - it’d be a huge blow to the police force if the past were to repeat itself, after all.

#shokugeki no soma #food wars #nakiri sanzaemon #shinomiya kojirou #hinako inui #mizuhara fuyumi #nakiri soe #nakiri leonora #roland chapelle #hisanao kageura #mafia cooking kids #long post

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briangroth27 · 7 years

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Arrow Season 5 Review

Full Spoilers…

This year was—despite the uncomfortable and ill-defined reveal that Oliver (Stephen Amell) liked killing—the show's return to the heights of Season 2, building on the progress Season 4 made coming back from the low point of Season 3 (which I still liked, but was definitely lacking).

Oliver Queen/Green Arrow I was a little disappointed Ollie didn’t initially use his position as mayor to affect more change in the city (particularly with the Series Sell stating he’s trying to fix the city as a mayor and a vigilante), but it made sense given his insistence on being Green Arrow first. That said, I loved the baby steps we saw Oliver taking towards his more socially conscious and liberal side from the comics! Of all superheroes, Ollie’s probably the proudest Social Justice Warrior (to the point that it’s a defining characteristic) and I’m hoping to see Arrow’s Oliver evolve in that direction too. Oliver sponsoring things like a free doctor day, holding an art fair, and fighting for low-income housing were sparks of the iconic Green Arrow that I can’t wait to see ignite in the coming season. Ollie’s flashback murder of Justin Claybourne (Garwin Sanford) was because the businessman greedily raised the price of medicine too; even if what Chase’s (Josh Segarra) father was doing wasn’t necessarily illegal, Ollie taking issue with it felt like classic Green Arrow. Season 5 also had Oliver questioning the system and its effectiveness, and I liked that he was clearly affected by a gang leader’s story of being made into a criminal because of his prison time. I hope he continues to question how things work from the top down (particularly as his Green Arrow patrols allow him to experience the city from the ground up as well) and whether or not they should continue working that way. While a mayor doesn’t have the power to change laws that, say, a governor would, I think there’s great potential for drama in Ollie’s mayoral duties in the coming year, as we saw in a few subplots this season. They can pile on roadblocks by frustrating him with companies and billionaires who don’t want to shell out money for “nothing,” who think the poor just aren’t doing enough for themselves—so why should they get handouts?—or who simply don’t want to change, forcing Ollie to fight enemies he can’t shoot. To me, Oliver’s issues with getting things done in the political realm are just as interesting as his time as Green Arrow, so I hope the writers keep mining that area of his life for all its worth.

A major turning point for Ollie’s pivot towards his comic self was in “Spectre of the Gun,” wherein the show took on the gun issue. At first, I was a little annoyed that everyone but Ollie had an opinion on the matter, but then I realized watching him forced into forming one for the first time was much better. Even if Amell's Ollie landed more moderate than comics Ollie on the gun issue (which makes sense given both his lethal vigilante past and his position as a mayor who needs to build bipartisan bridges), I love that he's finally taken a large stride in that direction. His visible discomfort with having to come to a decision in front of the press—immediately after giving a statement that was sincere yet extremely full of cliché politician talking points—was great acting on Amell's part and an excellent character turning point (as were his conversations with Quentin and Thea). I also liked that he didn’t have all the answers and argued for honest discussion, hopefully sparking one among the audience as well as the citizens of Star City. I look forward to seeing more of this type of growth next season!

There were several times over this season I worried Oliver’s tenure as mayor would be cut short, because it seems like there’s such dramatic potential with that role that would be missed if he were removed from office for being Green Arrow or his Bratva ties. He had Walter Steele (Colin Salmon) helping him run Queen Consolidated for much of the first two seasons, but this is Oliver’s first subplot that’s really given him problems that only he can solve as Oliver. While I thought Star City would be OK with Ollie if he admitted he was Green Arrow to explain his actions (that increasingly seemed like the only way out of Prometheus’ game), I was surprised and liked that it was Green Arrow who was vilified by Ollie rather than Ollie’s administration being taken down. That created some great pressure on Team Arrow as Ollie was continually forced to put a larger and larger target on his own back. It was a clever way to play his dual roles against each other, physicalizing his emotional schism from the end of Season 4 and his belief that the Hood was the outlet for the “monster” he’d become during his five years away. With the destruction of Lian Yu, I feel like these two halves of his persona will begin to converge in a healthier whole. I still think a public reveal of Oliver’s identity is looming in the near future and I’d be interested to see how that goes if the writers pull the trigger. I think it’d be kinda funny if this gruff version of Green Arrow ended up becoming something like the nearly maskless, far friendlier Silver Age version (though they probably wouldn’t go as far as this hahaha).

I loved that Ollie was so rough on his new recruits because he didn’t want them to get hurt; there are many times I’ve seen the gruff leader being ridiculously mean to trainees and being vindicated because it “made them tougher,” but this was one of the few times I really believed the leader had the team’s best interests at heart. This was certainly helped by Oliver learning how to trust his new team as well; the development wasn’t one-sided. At the same time, it was amusing that Ollie’s odd tradition of shooting his partners continued, though. Haha! One area I think the show could’ve improved Ollie’s training lessons was during the Invasion Crossover when he was handling the Justice League’s preparation to fight the Dominators. Ollie had the heroes attacking Kara (Melissa Benoist) over and over again without teaching them to adapt to her powers or look for weaknesses. It seemed like we could’ve gotten a little more training from him than just “go again.” Unfortunately, Oliver’s trust in his friends led him to make some substantial mistakes this year, like believing Anatoly (David Nykl) was still working for the greater good, but a mistake I can’t back up was his awful plan to break Diggle (David Ramsey) out of prison. It seemed like they didn’t even try to exonerate Dig legally, so it felt like an unnecessary risk. I liked Oliver’s conversation with Dig in his cell and his commitment to his friends, but Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) was totally right about the life of a fugitive being a nearly equally bad path for Dig. That episode also featured one of the few flashbacks this year I disagreed with; it seemed imply Dig should accept this and trust Ollie just because “his brother” said so. That said, Ollie was getting enough pushback from the rest of Team Arrow—and Dig himself—to cast doubt on his opinion, so it didn’t feel like the show as a whole was saying “Ollie’s right just because he’s the lead.” Ollie did end up being right about needing Diggle back (and Felicity was eventually able to exonerate him with Helix’s help) and I get that he was going with his heart rather than his head, but the way the episode played out it seemed like he didn’t think anything through.

Another major mistake Ollie made this year, killing Billy Malone (Tyler Ritter), could’ve created a lot of friction between Team Arrow but I’m glad it actually brought them together. Everyone rallying around Ollie instead of blaming him for what was obviously an accident made sense and spoke to the bond they’d built. Amell was great in those scenes (as was Rickards) and it was good to see Ollie so completely shaken. His need to find redemption through Laurel’s (Katie Cassidy) “return” in the form of Black Siren and later, talking Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) down from her vendetta, were great story beats. The destiny stuff surrounding Dinah was a little weird at first, particularly as Ollie was so literal in replacing Laurel as Canary, but the reveal of “Tina’s” real name tied it together for me. Destiny isn’t a common topic for Oliver to talk about and I’d be interested to see more of what he thinks of it versus his ability to make his own fate, because it certainly seems like he believes people can choose to change for the better. After all, he did and continues to do so; that drive for self-improvement is one of my favorite heroic qualities of Green Arrow—who can’t relate to trying to fix your mistakes and become a better person?—and I love that it’s been an ongoing struggle on this show. I’m always a fan of optimistic Ollie and I love that he's become that person more and more over the past two seasons. I also really like Ollie trying to save people’s souls and being the beacon of hope on the team, even if he thinks it’s too late for himself. Anatoly calling him a sin-eater—a member of a community in some cultures who takes the sins of others onto himself—was a neat take on that idea, as was Ollie making Green Arrow a criminal and doing insane, illegal things like breaking Diggle out of prison (and, in hindsight, his willingness to kill criminals, taking that sin on himself so others will be spared). That said, once the core trio was reunited, I loved how well they supported each other. It's a little sad that the baseline of "hope in other people and the strength found in friendship" on the CW super shows feels like a throwback to the Silver Age instead of something that's a given in modern superhero stories. I’m glad these shows remember that, no matter how dark they get.

At the beginning of the year, I didn’t have a problem with Ollie killing when absolutely necessary and not having a schism about it. My opinion was, let Barry (Grant Gustin) be the guy who won't let anyone die while Ollie tries not to, but sometimes must. I thought Ollie re-embracing killing when it was the only option would make future team-ups interesting given the heroes’ differing moral stances. It’d be an intriguing line to walk: when does he absolutely have to kill, how does he make that distinction, and what gives him the right? That seemed to be where Ollie was going at first: his talk with Diggle about growing early on was great and it seemed like his killing had settled into a last resort that wasn’t ruining Ollie, even if he thought he was stuck in that mindset. I agreed with Anatoly about Talia (Lexa Doig) being wrong about the “monster” within Ollie. Then I saw how deep Ollie’s killing problem really was. I liked that Prometheus forced Ollie to see the truth about himself—that was a great way to resolve his schism from the end of Season 4—but I didn’t like the answer we got about Oliver. My biggest difficulty with the season was the revelation that Oliver liked killing, so I was glad the writers started walking it back almost immediately with doubts and denials raised by Ollie’s friends. Stephen Amell’s performance was stellar as Chase tortured Ollie and then completely broke him, but I couldn’t get behind rooting for a superhero who enjoyed murder, at least not with that being the only information we were given. I would’ve hated it if they went with him being a vigilante as a way to scratch some psychotic itch to kill (which was my first impression), because that wasn’t the person we’d been following (not to mention, a serial killer is not a hero). Ollie was clearly shaken by the idea he’d become a monster when Talia gave him a way to sequester it, so even though Ollie thought he’d tainted his heroic crusade because of this impulse, I don’t think they came close to implying he was a serial killer or something; he certainly cared and was troubled that he liked it. Amell phrased it as "the Oliver we met in Season 1" that took a little pleasure in snapping that guy's neck, so he’s been growing away from that mindset since day one, somewhat resolving the “this is not the man we’ve been following” problem. It’s also apparent he's struggled with the ease and efficiency of killing criminals rather than letting them live over seasons 2-5 (no recovery on this show is ever easy or wrapped up in 1-3 episodes). Oliver’s comment years ago about the island “scraping away everything except who he really was” was an early hint he’d become this monster: Lian Yu did scrape away the spoiled rich brat he was to reveal a better, more selfless man, but it also revealed the monster within him.

My major problem with this reveal comes down to how undefined it is. I really wish they had explicitly told us what the “pleasure” he took in killing was. Did he just like killing, or did he like knowing that he’s permanently made the world a little safer by eliminating a criminal? If the latter, I’m willing to go with it (especially since his arc has taken him away from that sort of thinking). If it was meant to be the former, I don’t think that gels with what we’ve seen over the last five years. I believe his “monster” is the acceptance that he’d do whatever it took to stop criminals and the fact that he didn’t feel bad about getting rid of them, and it’s his horror that killing wasn’t ever off the table—since that is “not the man his father raised” and possibly because that makes him as bad as the people he kills—that made him fear it so much he needed to bury it in the Hood.

But how does this work with his growing position as the light on Team Arrow; the guy who believes people can be better? I think that belief was reignited by meeting people like Diggle and Felicity and losing people like Tommy (Colin Donnell). As he got back into the world and became more hopeful, he was able to push that killer instinct further and further into the vigilante he’d become (eventually exacerbating his schism when he killed again), while Oliver Queen started to hope that redemption really was possible. In a way, the Hood/Arrow/Green Arrow was Ollie's way of saving and bettering himself by separating from his darkness. That guilt (and if we’re being honest, denial) of what he’d allowed the Green Arrow to be fueled by is part and parcel of his being a sin-eater: he takes the blame for what he’s done and everything his loved ones do, so they don’t have to shoulder it (even though no one asked him to). He’ll gladly damn his soul by killing, so others are protected and don’t have to. Right down to the core origin of a rich spoiled brat learning to fend for himself on an island before coming home and fighting for those who can’t fend for themselves, Green Arrow has always been a character built on personal redemption, betterment, and opening one’s eyes to the needs of the people around them. On Arrow, Ollie took on that arc, but the problem is he repaired and rebuilt himself by denying the pleasure he took in killing criminals and deluding himself into thinking he could contain it instead of facing it head-on. Of course burying ten years’ worth of guilt was going to eventually make him snap, so when Chase forced the confession out of him, Oliver’s emotional destruction was inevitable.

Oliver seemed truly broken by this revelation in the episodes that followed, leading to some awful mistakes. Not only did the drug thefts he allowed Anatoly to pull endanger jobs (and once Ollie knew what was happening, they allowed the creation of a new street drug), but several cops could’ve been killed by Anatoly and the Bratva going after Chase’s protective detail in the process of trying to take him out. That was a major lapse in judgment caused by desperation and I had no idea how they were going to bring Ollie around and redeem him for that. So, thank goodness for Diggle! I was pleasantly surprised his largely standalone prison arc emotionally connected to the rest of the season and that experience with guilt allowed him to get through to Oliver. Later, Felicity was able to pick up where Diggle left off and finally get Ollie to back off of his “I liked killing” stance, and those moments showcased some excellent acting from Amell, Ramsay, and Rickards. As much as I like Oliver being the beacon of hope on Team Arrow, I’m glad that the team is there to back him up as well; Ollie leaning on his team to bring him back from the edge was great. That Anatoly said he went evil because Ollie left felt manipulative in a “don’t blame me, this is all somehow your fault” kind of way, but perhaps it was a first step to Oliver believing he’s a good influence on people instead of a curse. Ollie’s continued conflict over the correct course of action when fighting crime and how far is too far when fighting crime was great stuff (and exactly what I’d hoped for from an “Ollie still kills” arc). I absolutely don’t believe Oliver’s crusade to save his city was just an excuse to murder people or that he went out of his way to kill, so I was glad they never implied Ollie was a serial killer and—while it wasn’t clearly defined—they landed the “likes killing” idea on something close to the “Ollie’s glad to make the world safer/will do whatever it takes for the greater good” outlook I posited earlier. Amell's acting has always been great, but the scenes where he nearly killed Chase on Lian Yu and their final showdown on the boat with William (Jack Moore) were outstanding! Oliver’s agony in fighting through his killer instinct to do things a better way was intense! All of the talk about who Ollie is, what he believes in, the moral schism, his darkness, etc. made this season the final stretch of his 10-year origin story and a true close to this chapter of the show. I think (and hope) this struggle is over now that he’s put his past behind him (and it’s literally been destroyed), but I left this arc thinking it was a great inner fight for Oliver that will leave him stronger as he rebuilds himself. I'm guessing next season is going to show us a completely different Oliver Queen.

In terms of Oliver’s love life, I really liked that Ollie and Felicity found a way to be friends and to support each other in their relationships. Back when Felicity was dating Ray (Brandon Routh), I never believed Ollie was supportive of it. I did believe he supported her relationship with Billy. While I didn’t need Oliver and Susan Williams (Carly Pope) to date, their relationship left me ambivalent rather than hating it. Digging into Oliver’s past didn’t feel malicious—just like she was doing her job—so I didn’t dislike her, but I do prefer Ollie and Felicity together and agreed with a comment I saw on Twitter that he should’ve been opening up to his friend Felicity rather than Susan in an attempt to strengthen their relationship. When Ollie and Felicity were trapped in the Arrow Cave, their romantic issues being forced to the surface felt organic and cathartic. I like Ollie and Laurel together in the comics, but I’ve never needed to see them together on the show: to me it’s always felt more like something that’s expected because of comic canon than something I was really rooting for. Besides Olicity, the only relationship Ollie’s been in that I was invested in was with Sara (Caity Lotz), one of many reasons why she’s THE iconic Black Canary for me even if she never held the full title. So, I’m glad it looks like Ollie and Felicity could be getting back together (assuming she survived Lian Yu). Regardless of who he ends up with, happy Ollie is great to see and I hope we get much more of it now that his past has been settled!

Speaking of his past, I was excited to learn how Ollie became a Bratva Captain in the flashbacks and I wasn’t disappointed! Anatoly’s return was more than welcome and Dolph Lundgren was great as the intimidating final obstacle for young Ollie. Ollie’s Bratva induction and training paralleled his present-day handling of the new Team Arrow recruits well. I didn’t think they needed to reveal that the other Bratva candidates who were executed for failing to ring the bell were criminals, but I can see how young Ollie would’ve needed that reassurance. That also continued Waller’s (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) teachings about killing criminals, so it was a nice connection to his methods in Season 1, his training in Season 3, and as it turned out, the rest of Season 5. Talia pushing Ollie not only towards his vigilantism but to forming his Arrow persona was a cool subplot I didn’t see coming at all. I would’ve liked to see them on a few more adventures before the flashbacks ended, because it felt like Ollie’s Bratva adventure could end satisfactorily before the season did, but what we got was solid. Talia giving Ollie what would become his Series Sell “something else” talk was a cool moment, which made me realize we’d actually been watching three Olivers in Season 1: the “monster” he’d become after the island scraped everything else away (relegated to the Hood), the Oliver he wanted to be (when he was at home), and the fake playboy Ollie he’d been before the island. It was also cool that even in Ollie's head, the love of his friends and family brought him back to "life" five years ago, beating out the part of him that said he was awful. It was awesome to see just how narrowly Ollie got the fire lit for his rescue from Lian Yu, and his “stranded for five years” disguise—provided by Anatoly—was a nice resolution to the discrepancy between how he looked in the flashbacks and how we met him in the pilot. It was quite cool that even his exit from Lian Yu was part of his plan to save his city. The reason behind the Hood suit being character-based was a neat way for Ollie to sequester his monster so he could have a life while doing what he had to. I do wish more of the details of the Arrow persona were his idea, but since he needed the Hood, Talia’s advice didn’t feel like arbitrary instructions on how to be a hero just for the sake of getting him to his destiny. Furthermore, his struggle with the right way to do things is entirely his own. The one area I think the flashbacks could’ve correlated to the present a bit better was that Ollie’s time in the Bratva could’ve given him first-hand experience of the criminal perspective, which could’ve informed how he dealt with crime and understood criminals as mayor (and as Green Arrow).

John Diggle/Spartan For a large part of the beginning of the season, I thought Diggle’s plot was the weak link. I wanted a bigger connection from Diggle’s court martial to the rest of the show and hoped it would amount to more than just a reason for John to return to Star City. That said, General Walker’s (Gary Chalk) motive for stealing a nuke, that the world is a crazy place now—which resulted in John being framed for murder—worked for me. Walker’s reasoning was simple and understandable in its fear and opportunistic greed. I totally believed Deadshot (Michael Rowe) was alive when they revealed Diggle’s “new cellmate.” That was truly surprising and exciting, so even though he was still dead, linking Dig’s turmoil over killing his brother (Eugene Byrd) to his hatred of Deadshot was genius. It made Diggle’s subplot so much more interesting than I initially thought it would be. Diggle being the Green Arrow in the Dominator’s perfect world instead of being happy with Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson) and John, Jr. (Keon Boateng) was an unexpected yet telling choice. I think it spoke to what he told Barry (Grant Gustin) in the Legends portion of the crossover: “the harder part is forgiving yourself.” As I saw pointed out elsewhere, it’s sad that even in a perfect world he lived this life of pain and loneliness, and I think it’s because he still believed he needed to atone for killing Andy. Since we later found out Ollie used the Arrow persona to lock away his monster, I wonder if the Dominators scanned that in Oliver’s mind and that’s why they gave Diggle the vigilante role: it took his guilt and allowed him to have a happy life outside the hood; as close to perfect as Dig’s guilt would let him get (even if he didn’t initially believe he’d killed Andy in the real world; part of the Dominator’s delusion, I assume). Though that line wasn’t drawn explicitly on the show, I think there’s a connection there. Diggle also got to fight and defeat his demon to escape the Dominator’s fantasy world in the form of one of Darhk’s (Neil McDonough) Ghost soldiers (Andy’s role in Season 4).

Despite the shortsightedness of Ollie breaking Dig out of prison, it was good to have John back in Star City and on Team Arrow. I liked that they didn’t ignore the reality of Dig being a fugitive in hiding (like they ignored Diggle and Thea (Willa Holland) admitting to a drug deal in court last year). Dig counseling Rene (Rick Gonzalez) worked well, but John’s trial was a little tedious. It felt like we’d already been through it earlier in the season and didn’t seem like it connected to anything else happening concurrently. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t feel like it was going anywhere. When his army plot tied back to Russia and the Bratva, his subplot was redeemed for me. Additionally, the theme of forgiving yourself for your past vs. torturing yourself—putting yourself in a literal or figurative prison to punish yourself—made a lot of sense with what everyone else, particularly Ollie, was going through this year. I liked those parallels and it was great to have Diggle back on the team fighting to help Ollie see the good in himself and in his actions; I just wish his prison plot had moved a little more quickly. His brotherly relationship with Oliver has always been a high point of the show for me, so it was great to see them reunited and leaning on each other to stay in the light.

John and Lyla fighting over the legality of her actions as head of ARGUS and his as a member of Team Arrow was a great note to hit and a believable source of drama. It felt like a worthy conversation to have on a superhero show: what are the legal limits for a vigilante, and how is taking the law into your own hands any different from the government taking extreme measures to protect people? I also liked that this rock-solid couple’s issues came from a source like this rather than a love triangle (which Arrow has almost always made less important than the business of saving people) or something similar. The other major challenge for their family (outside of John’s fugitive status, of course)—the Flashpoint retcon of Baby Sara becoming Baby John, Jr.—certainly got a reaction from John in the Invasion Crossover, but I would’ve liked to see more of what Lyla thought of it beyond her not trusting Barry when she appeared on Flash. Regardless, I hope Diggle and Lyla get to meet Connor Hawke (Joseph David-Jones) at some point, particularly as his potential future is much more likely now that baby Sara was written out of the timeline. I don’t want “Star City 2046” to come true completely, but I would like to see Connor/John Jr. again (and with Season 6’s theme being “family,” now would be a great time!).

Felicity Smoak/Overwatch I was shocked that the official reason for Felicity redirecting the missile from Monument Point to Havenrock really did boil down to population numbers, and that Felicity did choose to kill an entire city because it was less populated. I thought she just redirected it away from Monument Point and it happened to hit Havenrock due to the time left in the flight path…but if she had population information and consciously made that decision, then that was a major character moment that needed to be addressed more than it was. That's more interesting than Havenrock getting hit by accident from a character perspective, but it feels like it was so underplayed by everyone. While her confession to Rory (Joe Dinicol) about it seemed like it would spur more exploration of what she was going through, his understanding and forgiveness undermined the development of that plot a bit. At this point, I don’t think we’ll see much more of the effects that decision had on her, which is a shame and a massive missed opportunity. I liked that Rory and Felicity were going to watch each other’s backs to fend off their darker sides, but I wish we’d gotten to see more of that dynamic than a few meaningful conversations.

That said…I kinda like dark Felicity. While inner darkness twists Thea and blocks Ollie from becoming the hero he wants to be, Felicity seems more capable of pointing hers at a target and using it for the greater good. Gleefully hacking the NSA and blackmailing criminals were fun moments with her. Getting in deep with Helix was an interesting plot and I was definitely down to see how morally grey she’d get. Felicity walked that line between light and dark fairly consistently this season, which explains why she was able to fall to darkness right in front of everyone without anyone but Curtis (Echo Kellum) seeming to notice for so long. Helping Thea discredit Susan with lies was very wrong, so I was glad Felicity undid it and I liked Dig and Curtis’ attempts to bring her back to the light. Even still, I knew Helix would be bad news eventually and wasn’t convinced Felicity would side against them this year. In fact, I was surprised they burned her in the end.

Felicity got a lot of funny and insightful lines throughout the season and I enjoyed her sparring with Ollie over the right way to lead Team Arrow and how best to fight crime. Felicity’s increasingly ridiculous lies to Billy were a fun callback to Oliver’s ludicrous excuses to her in Season 1 (even if at least once, she could’ve just said she found evidence at the scene of one of Oliver’s events), but they began to strain his credibility as a detective. I also wish we’d gotten a stronger sense of why Felicity and Billy worked as a couple. Doing so would’ve made his loss matter more to me instead of just relying on Amell and Rickards’ truly excellent reactions to his death. Still, I’m glad she and Oliver eventually found their way back to each other, both as friends and potentially as a couple. Their conflict and bonding while trapped in the Arrow Cave made for a great episode! I’m glad the writers made use of Felicity’s paralysis when Chase trapped her and Oliver in the Arrow Cave; I had just been thinking it was like she’d never been paralyzed and then Chase came along to prove they remembered! On a side note, I’d still like more of her daily life; does she ever turn the chip off willingly? Does she ever stop for a moment to think about how that little chip is allowing her to walk? Does she fear its failure? Back to Ollie and Felicity, they seemed to get a lot out into the open in the Arrow Cave and if they hadn’t been trapped, I wouldn’t have been surprised if their argument had driven them apart for a very long time. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. The one thing I didn’t agree with was Felicity understanding why Ollie didn’t tell her about William when they were together. Yes, he made a promise to Samantha (Anna Hopkins), but he could’ve told Felicity the truth before he was forced into that position like he did Barry. Felicity didn’t have to understand every choice he made for them to patch things up; that lie was a concession he could’ve and should’ve made.

Thea Queen/Speedy Thea’s aversion to vigilante life was a smart path for her to walk after everything she’d been through with Malcolm (John Barrowman), but I did enjoy that she suited up again in the Invasion Crossover just because aliens were involved. I liked the maturity we saw from her as she became Oliver’s Chief of Staff, while she and Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) made for a surprisingly good pairing. Her dark background and his alcoholism—and their efforts to recover from both—made for strong bonding material for the two of them. After four years, their scenes were a refreshing dose of new chemistry as well! I love that Arrow deals with its characters’ trauma in realistic ways—it takes a long time for these people to really work through them and sometimes every day is a new fight—so I understood Thea’s initial decision to stay in the Dominator’s perfect world and be happy. It didn’t feel like a weak choice to me, it felt like a real chance at peace from her perspective and I liked that Ollie understood (perhaps due to a subconscious realization that staying there paralleled his Green Arrow persona’s protective nature?). With that in mind, I wish we’d seen her see the enemies surround Ollie, Dig, Sara, and Ray so we could watch her realize she was about to lose her real family. Oh well; that was a minor missed opportunity. And Thea getting to kill the fantasy Malcolm was cathartic and ironic, given he later died to save her in real life. I can imagine a lot of confusion for her over his death and her feelings about him next season!

Thea’s darkness reared its head mainly (and alarmingly) in her character assassination of Susan Williams, but I think there’s been a more subtle acknowledgement of it for at least a year now. Both Thea and Felicity made some pretty shockingly cold off the cuff jokes in Season 4 and this year that felt like far more than just deadpan gallows humor. After returning from one of her mini-hiatuses, her reactions to all the changes at City Hall felt like they were channeling audience frustrations I saw online, such as Oliver’s relationship with Susan. While her reactions were mostly funny, when looked at through her struggle with darkness they may’ve been warning signs. I like Thea a lot and I think giving Ollie a little sister was a brilliant move, so I’m genuinely worried about her embracing her inner Moira (Susanna Thompson). I didn’t like what she and Felicity did to Susan and I knew it would result in Susan suspecting Ollie of being Green Arrow even more strongly, given the timing. Sure Susan was investigating him while dating him, but Thea’s move felt more wrong. Knowing this, it was right and mature for Thea to step down from the Mayor’s office; I'm glad she's self-aware enough to see she's going down a dark path and needs to stop. Willa Holland’s short contract was definitely detrimental to Thea’s arc this year, since her struggle with her inner darkness was something we needed to see. Her fight with darkness could’ve played well against Felicity’s pull towards Helix and especially Ollie’s struggle with the idea that he liked killing, so I wish she’d been in those kinds of episodes. I liked what we got with Thea, particularly her material with Quentin and Ollie, but I feel like they missed a major opportunity to have her return and help Oliver navigate his inner darkness by sharing her battle with him. I really hope we get to see more of this struggle from Thea next year, as well as processing what Malcolm’s death means to her. I loved her confused and sad reaction to his sacrifice, so I can’t wait to dig deeper into that.

Curtis Holt/Mr. Terrific Curtis was my favorite addition to Team Arrow last year, so seeing him get to be on the team full-time was a blast! I do think they spent a little too long trying to make him a martial arts expert instead of letting him lean into his technological strengths (his extreme lack of athletic skills almost came off as a joke, particularly given he’s an Olympian), but I appreciate that he’s been trained to protect himself. It also makes sense that he couldn’t immediately be on Ollie or even Roy’s (Colton Haynes) level as a fighter in such a short time. Still, he has skills the others don’t and he should’ve been using them from the get-go; for instance, he could’ve been more useful against Cyberwoman (Erica Luttrell) than he was…though his response to Felicity’s "Nothing we can't handle," "That's everything we can't handle!" was a laugh out loud moment! Once Curtis did start leaning into his tech side, I loved it! He can contribute in ways no one else on Team Arrow can through that role. Curtis’ T-spheres are very cool and iconic, but I’d also like to see them differentiate his tech style from Ray’s and the other super-science we see on Flash and Supergirl. Since Ollie’s team is less funded than Barry’s and doesn’t have access to future technology like the Legends do or alien tech like the DEO, it’d make sense if Mr. Terrific came up with equally fantastic inventions that looked less polished and more homemade. That’s probably just me, though. Learning the backstory of the Mr. Terrific codename was cool and I loved that they are becoming so comics-accurate with his costume. I never thought they’d go with the T-mask and I’m so happy they did!

The weakest part of Curtis’ arc this year was his troubled marriage, because I don’t feel like we know Paul (Chenier Hundal) that well at all. I felt sad for him when Paul left because Curtis’ frustration over losing everything was knocked out of the park by Kellum, but otherwise I didn’t feel there was any great tragedy to Paul leaving him. Much like Billy and Felicity’s brief relationship before his death, we didn’t get to see enough of Curtis and Paul being happy together to show us what he’d lost. Despite the blow to his personal life, I really like that Curtis has taken up a role as one of the more optimistic lights on Team Arrow, free of the baggage Ollie, Dig, Thea, and even Felicity carry in their effort to maintain their goodness. Playing Holt as, essentially, Season 1 Felicity is a delight! I enjoyed his friendship with Rene a lot and I wouldn’t mind if Dinah was right and they started dating; of course that’d make things even more complicated when Paul is outted as Vigilante! Whatever happens, I’m glad they’ve got Curtis in the right role again and—if he survived Lian Yu—I can’t wait to see where he goes next year!

Rene Ramirez/Wild Dog I wasn’t sold on Wild Dog at the beginning of the season, but I did appreciate that he created conflict within the team and, eventually, he won me over. I liked that Oliver, even inadvertently and in the process of failing his own vow not to kill again by eliminating Darhk, inspired Rene to pick himself up, make more of himself, and carry on. Rene’s hatred of metahumans and aliens appeared and faded way too fast for me in the Invasion Crossover: we should’ve gotten hints of his distrust of anything paranormal from his interactions with Ragman’s rags from the first time they met. Even so, ultimately accepting Flash and Supergirl shows he has more common sense than most characters in “fear of the other” allegories do. I thought Rene really started to shine when the show started paring him up with Curtis and Quentin; he played off both men exceedingly well. I’d been low-key sensing a vibe from his and Curtis’ growing friendship, so I laughed and agreed when Dinah wondered when they’d start dating. Rene got deeper with the reveals about his tragic family life and his struggle to get his daughter (Eliza Faria) back, which rounded him out nicely. Even if his turnaround on wanting to get Zoe back felt a little fast, Rene’s reaction to seeing her again for the first time in so long made it work for me. Quentin’s own tragic family past provided a solid bulwark for Rene to rebuild his own on, creating an understanding between them that worked really well. Being kidnapped by Chase certainly put a roadblock in Rene’s way to getting custody of Zoe, so I’m interested to see how long it will take to work through what looked like his irresponsible nature. I don’t know anything about Wild Dog in the comics, so wherever they want to take Rene in Season 6, I’m down.

Evelyn Sharp/Artemis I liked Evelyn Sharp (Madison McLaughlin) in Season 4, so I was glad to see she’d be on Team Arrow this year. It seemed for a brief moment in the early episodes that she’d function as a new voice of reason among the new recruits, which made for a nice balance between Curtis’ eagerness and Rene’s angry impatience. Unfortunately, she seemed to get the short straw in terms of character development among the new recruits (and moments like Ollie’s “little girl” comment in the second episode were unhelpful and unnecessary). I would’ve loved to know how she felt about finally getting to work with Laurel’s old team. Did she feel she was living up to Lance’s legacy? Did once holding the Black Canary mantle make her doubt her (truly shocking) decision to side with Prometheus at all? In hindsight, she was one of the season’s bigger missteps, as she had both built-in tension with Oliver from Season 4 that could’ve been focused on and they could’ve done a lot more with her journey from Canary acolyte to villain. I didn’t see her turn coming and I believed it—even if at first I thought it was a trick and she was a triple agent, which would’ve reflected both Young Justice’s Artemis and Black Canary’s comic roots of pretending to be a criminal to take down criminal syndicates from within—but I would’ve liked to know more about her reasons for doing it and how she felt about working with Prometheus. We got just enough to sell it and I was left wanting more so much that I was relieved Chase only pretended to kill her when he captured Ollie; losing her would’ve been a waste. However, with her probable death in the Season 5 finale, it’s a shame they likely won’t get to explore her motives (or where she’d go now that Chase is gone) further. It also would’ve been fun to play with her as a mole on Team Arrow more, but I suppose she had to blow her cover to save Prometheus earlier than expected. Ultimately, she had the makings of a solid supporting enemy and I liked what McLaughlin did with the screentime she had. Unfortunately, she didn’t get enough time to really dig into Evelyn’s potential. I especially would’ve liked to see her played up as a dark foil for Thea; an externalization of Thea’s struggle like Chase was for Ollie.

Rory Reagan/Ragman Ragman was my least favorite of the new recruits; he just didn’t click with me on any level. His origin and introduction felt a little rushed, particularly the explanation for his ancient and magical rags. I’m more than willing to roll with the weird and I love that Arrow isn’t averse to playing in the larger DC toy box anymore in terms of superpowers, but the rags’ presence in this season felt off even to me. It didn’t help that their abilities were never really well-defined. While absorbing a nuclear blast was something only he (and Firestorm) could do, beyond that there was just a lot of bullet-catching and rags used as tentacles that weren’t really impressive in the grand scheme of Arrowverse heroes.

I did like his talk about fathers with Oliver and his connection to Havenrock and Felicity, but their agreement to keep each other’s heads above darkness never felt fully explored (though this was more due to the awkward handling of Felicity’s actions than Ragman himself). I had hoped Felicity’s confession of redirecting the missile would help drive Rory’s character more strongly and purposefully, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. In hindsight I get the sense that maybe he was supposed to be a serene, calming influence on the team (once he got over his early vengeance quest), but if that’s the case it didn’t work for me. Curtis seemed more primed to be the optimist in the face of tragedy and Rory came off as bland in comparison to the rest of the team. I liked that he was insightful, identifying the meaning behind one of Prometheus’ attacks. It was also good Reagan was able to contribute to the Invasion Crossover by figuring out what the Dominator language was based on, but the chance to create potentially interesting conversations between Rory as a devout Jew and Curtis as an atheist—particularly when so much of this season and series has been about saving souls and becoming better people—was dropped as soon as Curtis found out Rory’s deduction was correct. Looking at self-betterment through both a religious and secular lens could’ve been an interesting addition to the show’s meditation on the struggle for self-improvement.

Ultimately Rory just seemed to be there, with hints of opportunities for him to become a more engaging character appearing sporadically, but never really capitalized on. This is nothing against Dinicol; I think the problem was that the writers introduced too many new recruits at once and advanced the others while Rory’s arc was repeatedly nullified by not fully exploring the plotlines or by low-key reactions from him. They could’ve tightened up both Team Arrow and the first half of the season by mixing Wild Dog and Ragman, by giving Rene some family in Havenrock. As much tragedy as they would’ve heaped on Rene in losing his wife to violence and his parents(?) to the nuke, it would’ve fit with his already angry crusade and probably would’ve sparked bigger fireworks when he found out Felicity was responsible. Their similar stories made Rene and Rory feel redundant at first, and since Rene had the better arc, I’d have traded Rory’s screentime for more of everyone else. Dropping Rory would’ve also allowed for more time to explore Evelyn as a traitor.

Dinah Drake/Black Canary 2 While I was ambivalent about Dinah Drake’s addition at first—if there was to be a new Black Canary, I was hoping for a Black Siren redemption arc instead—I was quickly won over. I’m still not sure giving her identical powers to the Laurels is the wisest idea, but I liked that they named her after the comics’ first Black Canary. Her past as an undercover cop was a neat shout-out to Drake’s comics M.O. of infiltrating crime rings as a criminal to take them down from within too. Dinah fit in with the rest of Team Arrow nicely and I enjoyed her bonding with Oliver over Prometheus and the effects they have on the people around them. I also liked that she found herself on the Star City police force by the end of the season and, if she survived the finale, I’d like to see her encounter the other cops’ opinions of vigilantes in town. It’d be fun to see how she maintains her identity while also working as a cop too, and how he dedication to the law by day informs her vigilantism at night. I thought Oliver’s obsessive search for a Laurel replacement was a little odd, but the moment when he found out her real name was Dinah totally sold me on it. That said, I never felt Oliver’s belief that the team absolutely needed a new Black Canary was fulfilled by Dinah. I don’t mean this as a knock on her character, because I liked what she brought to the team, but I felt like she instantly fell into the group and didn’t stand out like I’d expected someone fitting Ollie’s expectations would. Laurel certainly left a hole in the team last year in the very well-handled fallout of her death, but by the time Dinah was introduced, it didn’t feel like there was still a missing piece demanding to be replaced by this specific person. To that end, I hope to see more of what Ollie saw in her next year!

Quentin Lance After years of dealing with heartache after heartache, it was nice to see Quentin finally on the road to recovery this year. I also liked that his “reveal” as Prometheus was treated exactly as the red herring it was and that he came forward so quickly instead of making himself look guilty. Working for Ollie as Deputy Mayor was a fun inversion of their previous dynamic I hope we see more of in Season 6. I also loved how he bonded with Thea and Rene and hope both those relationships continue into the new season as well. Thea seemed to come into her own as an adult by dealing with Quentin on the same level this year (a huge turnaround from their Season 1 interactions) and I’d like to see them lean on each other to continue fighting his alcoholism and her darkness. Again, I really like that this show has never played around with how hard it can be to beat addictions of any type. I liked how invested Thea became in Quentin and how involved he was in Rene’s life in turn. Lance’s playfully antagonistic relationship with Rene was a lot of fun and reminded me a bit of early “spoiled” Oliver’s interactions with Quentin in the first season. I loved that Quentin and Rene developed a true bond over losing their daughters and Quentin’s dedication to helping Rene get Zoe back was perfect. In terms of his own daughter, Quentin got a significant moment to show he’d fully put Laurel’s death behind him by passing her mantle on to Dinah, which I liked a lot. It might be easy to write Quentin off as an expendable part of the show, given his increasingly limited presence in fight scenes and now that his daughters are dead or traveling through time, but Season 5 found a lot of new territory to mine with him by flipping relationships and discovering new connections between characters he’d barely interacted with before. That’s certainly a lesson about finding new character combinations in your writing: you never know what results will come out of different pairings. I hope he survived the finale, because I’m very excited to see how he deals with Black Siren next year as well!

Adrian Chase/Prometheus I was sure Chase was Vigilante, so I was thrown off the Prometheus trail for quite a while. I thought perhaps Prometheus was Tommy Merlyn, resurrected by Flashpoint or from Earth-2, angry about both his death and Laurel’s and using similar methods to Malcolm’s in the first season, or Robert Queen of Earth-2, who is that world’s Green Arrow and someone we know nothing about (I’d love to see him on the show regardless, BTW!). A version of either Tommy or Robert would’ve been a great way to bring the show full-circle, I thought, and would be much more emotionally satisfying than Prometheus being the son of some random guy we never knew Oliver killed. I figured out Chase was Prometheus after Oliver visited his mother Amanda (Corina Akeson)—once we met her, the story about revenge for his dead dad had to be true—and eventually I remembered Caity Lotz’ initial casting announcement had her listed as Dinah Drake, not a recast Sara Lance. I figured they were pulling the same trick here (Segarra’s casting announcement mentioned he was Vigilante in the comics), and Chase made absolute sense given Prometheus’ extensive reach into City Hall. While the reveal didn’t affect me emotionally (and it could’ve been more dramatic than him casually taking off the mask after fighting Vigilante), the insane intensity Segarra generated and the personal hell Chase put Oliver through absolutely made up for it and turned Prometheus into a strong contender for best villain of the series so far. If not my favorite enemy, Chase was certainly the most effective and damaging. He’s also a huge improvement on the comics’ Prometheus, who was imposing, but felt like another in a long series of villains billed as “anti-Batmen” as if that was some skeleton key to instant awesomeness.

I loved that Chase was miles ahead of everyone else for the whole season and his planning screwed over Team Arrow at every turn. Once he was revealed as the villain, it felt like he almost never stopped menacing Oliver until the season was over. It was clear he’d go to any lengths—even killing his own wife (Parveen Dosanjh)—to win and I couldn’t wait to see what new attack each week would bring! When he was briefly captured, they described Chase's escape plan as him wanting to be captured (or at least Dig guessed that), but I didn't think that was necessary at all; it could've easily been a backup plan in the event that he was captured. I’m just tired of the “villain wants to be captured” trope, so I’m choosing to believe Dig was wrong here. Chase’s anti-surveillance technology was cool and clever, and a smart way to tie Felicity’s Helix subplot into the main one. His father being killed by Oliver gave him a nice connection to Evelyn’s thoughts about her own parents’ murder, which was a great subtle strength to their partnership. Chase getting “justice” for his father also paralleled Oliver following his father’s List very nicely.

Styling Prometheus as yet another evil archer wasn’t stunning, but the addition of sword and throwing star skills made him a neat echo of three of Ollie’s former big bads: Malcolm, Slade (Manu Bennett), and Ra’s al Ghul (Matt Nable). Chase’s friendly demeanor before his fiendish reveal could also be an echo of Darhk’s affable nature. Bringing Robert’s List back into play was great and Prometheus killing people whose names were anagrams for criminals on it was ingenious! I also really dug the idea that Prometheus’ weapons were Oliver’s melted-down arrows; that was a cool personal touch that made Ollie’s past coming back to hurt him literal. Adrian being so calm and collected after Ollie found out who he was—even just going to work like it was nothing—was psychotic and perfect. The way he talked openly to Oliver about what he was doing with only the thinnest of veils felt very “comic book supervillain” (as did insisting Rene continue doing his City Hall job), but there was never any doubt that Chase was incredibly dangerous. Since the entire season felt like they were wrapping up threads from the last 10 years of Oliver’s life, Chase kidnapping William had me very worried he’d kill him too. Oliver didn’t need that pain (and it’d be a waste of the Ollie-as-a-dad aspect William adds to his character), so I’m glad it didn’t turn out that way. Even so, they had me truly nervous on that boat in the finale, both for William’s life and Oliver’s soul. I didn’t want Oliver to kill Chase and prove him right about who Ollie was, but he had to go and what a way to do it! The way Chase emotionally ripped into Oliver and shattered him emotionally (metaphorically stealing this “god’s” fire, you could say) was brutal, and his well-executed plan for revenge easily sent him to the top tier of Oliver’s rogues gallery. I’m glad he’s dead, because I don’t know how they could top this onslaught with repeat appearances.

Malcolm Merlyn John Barrowman’s Malcolm Merlyn has long been my favorite of the Arrow bad guys. I loved that he’s been increasingly conflicted between his lust for power and his twisted love for his children for the entirety of the show…and that Merlyn found a way to turn that conflict into a deliberate choice where he views his power grabs as best for his family, no matter who they hurt. Once he offered William up to Chase, though, I was absolutely over any remaining sympathy I had for him. I've wanted Malcolm to mastermind one last supervillain plot before dying for years now, particularly after the masterful downfall of the League of Assassins, but I was surprised by how fitting his rather low-key death was. As wishy-washy as Malcolm had become over the last two years, switching sides so often that Team Arrow didn’t even bat an eye when he was momentarily teaming up with them again, his trajectory firmed up across the Arrowverse this year and I'm satisfied with where his final arc took him. Felicity said it best: he was a bad guy and a worse father, but he did love Thea. I felt the emotion between Barrowman and Holland in their final scenes together and I can’t wait to see her deal with it. Merlyn’s appearances were always welcome and I’d be down for flashbacks—such as this year’s cool flashback to Malcolm planning the Undertaking—but I’m glad Malcolm is really, really dead. Plus, even if it wasn’t his plan, we got that final supervillain arc over on Legends of Tomorrow and it was great!

Laurel Lance-2/Black Siren I think they definitely missed a chance to have Laurel of Earth-1 working within the legal system in tandem with Ollie's team much more than she did and I would've preferred her retiring from vigilantism to focus on that to killing her. That said, Laurel’s death truly felt like it mattered and impacted everyone around her (arguably even more than she did in life) and bringing Laurel-1 back via Flashpoint, the Lazarus Pit, or time travel would’ve undermined that. So, I was really happy the show didn’t revive her and instead brought Black Siren into the fold after her introduction last year on Flash. I’m definitely down for a redemption arc for Laurel-2, which could make a potential battle with Dinah over Laurel-1’s legacy interesting. We also have no idea what she’s done on her world, so I’m absolutely eager to see where Laurel-2 has come from and what she wants now that she’s marooned here. The one thing I thought was missing from Black Siren’s appearance this season was a scene where Barry told Oliver they had Laurel-2 locked up; Flash left its titular team choosing not to say anything about her to Ollie’s crew. I would’ve liked to see when and how Barry broke the news to them and how Ollie reacted. Besides that, her introduction here was strong and she was well-utilized. The Ollie/Felicity and Laurel/Prometheus cat-and-mouse games were exciting and the question of who was the leader of each pair fleshed out their dynamics well. I had hoped she’d join the Legion of Doom over on Legends to meet Sara, so hopefully they’ll meet next year. I can’t wait to see her and Ollie try to redeem Laurel-2, even if there ends up not being anything of the person they loved within her. It’d also be cool to bring back Alex Kingston as Dinah Lance of Earth-2, who could’ve passed her villainous legacy on to her daughter Laurel in a twisted version of the comics’ Black Canary history. Siren’s origin echoes another part of Canary history, wherein Dinah Drake crossed from Earth-2 to E-1 to join the Justice League in the Silver Age. No matter what they do with her, Black Siren is probably Arrow’s best female villain, Katie Cassidy seems to have a blast playing her, and I can’t wait to see what they do with her next!

Allies It was great to see and/or hear about Robert (Jamey Sheridan) and Moira Queen, Shado (Celina Jade), and Yao Fei (Byron Mann) again as Arrow wrapped up its first five years! Susanna Thompson’s return in particular was very touching, as we finally got to see the moment where Oliver told Moira he was alive in the season finale. Both Amell and Thompson were fantastic in that scene! The only other returns I would’ve liked were Tommy and especially Roy, but both got shout-outs in the 100th episode. Lyla going full-Waller as the head of ARGUS was interesting and I wonder if she and John’s marriage will hold up if this continues. She made good points about Team Arrow breaking the law, but I also think Ollie’s people have an argument about the government overstepping its bounds and the need for vigilantes to step in. I like that neither side is purely right or wrong. I do think it’s too easy for Team Arrow to get away with things like sabotaging prisoner transports just because Lyla runs ARGUS, so I wonder if she’ll continue down this path and that support system will no longer be at Ollie’s disposal. I kinda hope so; Ollie and company facing real consequences to their actions would make things harder on them and require them to act smarter (or at least stealthier).

I am a huge fan of Nyssa (Katrina Law), so I’ll take any and all appearances from her I can get! I liked that they included the bit from Legends about Ras telling Nyssa to go to Lian Yu to rescue Sara in the first place. Nyssa bickering with Malcolm was so much fun, as was the banter between all the villains on Ollie’s last-ditch team! I hope she and Talia lived to fight another day, because I definitely think there’s more to explore there. I would absolutely be down for Nyssa appearing on Legends to reunite with Sara as well! Getting Slade back after so long was a huge win for the show (and a surprise, given all the apparent bad blood behind the scenes) and I’m excited to see his quest to find his son next year. Older, wiser, saner Slade was an unexpected and inspired choice for Ollie’s finale team. I never liked that Shado was fridged to make Slade insane (even though Slade was a fantastic villain), but his appearance here leads credence to the theory that it was really the Mirakuru amping up his anger and driving his madness all along. It was so good to see him and Ollie patch things up and come to an understanding, moving beyond their problems instead of falling into an endless cycle of violence and hatred. I think Ollie could’ve called Roy for help in the finale, but I can also see him not wanting to drag him back into the life or put him in danger. He could’ve called Barry, but Flash had a lot on his plate around finale time too.

I was never really sure where I stood with Susan Williams. I didn’t hate her and she definitely didn’t turn out how I thought she would, but I don’t think she ever gelled with the rest of the show for me. She was fine for the role she had. I thought for sure Oliver’s Russian past would come back to bite him via her search into his ties there, so I was surprised she never brought them to light. On the other hand, I was worried they’d ruin his mayoral stint, so I’m glad she didn’t. I didn’t think she needed to be dating Ollie and their relationship seemed like it was meant to engineer more drama when she was kidnapped than if she were just an ally. I do believe she really fell for Ollie, regardless of whether she started dating him just to get closer to the target of her investigation or not, and I believed he had feelings for her, but not anything as strong as what he’s felt for Felicity, Sara, or Laurel. I was definitely on her side when Thea and Felicity got her fired for plagiarizing articles, especially since they made those accusations up. That was simply wrong on their part and I’m glad Thea owned up to how badly she’d screwed up.

Christopher Chance (Wil Traval) was a cool, low-key addition of a little-known DC superhero and I liked his use both in the present and the past. It was especially cool that, while doubling Oliver when his life was in danger, he managed to continue Oliver’s socially conscious policies. I’m very glad Captain Pike (Adrian Holmes) has been such a solid, continuing part of this show. I think he’s got to know Oliver is Green Arrow by this point and I’m interested to see what he’ll do with that information if he does. The split-second Captain Singh (Patrick Sabongui) and Flash “cameo” was an excellent, perfectly-executed use of the shows’ shared universe and of Green Arrow and Flash’s friendship. Little connections like that are so much fun! Billy was bland at the start and never evolved into a character I cared about. His career as a cop didn’t bring many complications to Oliver’s life until he died, I didn’t see the spark between him and Felicity, and I think we needed to know him much better before Oliver accidentally killed him. As such, I didn’t care that he’d died. The same goes for Paul leaving Curtis; I feel like the overwhelming majority of their scenes were brief appearances by Paul, mainly focused on him chastising Curtis for not telling him where he went or for putting himself in danger. If Paul appears in Season 6, I want to know why Curtis fell for him so we can get a sense of what he’s lost.

Enemies I loved Talia (Lexa Doig) and the tack they took with her! Making her Yao Fei's mentor was an awesome way to bring the flashbacks full-circle while also incorporating her backstory from Legends of Tomorrow. It was cool to have her generate Ollie’s vigilante style and even inspire the Series Sell, which was another smart tie to the beginning of the flashbacks and the series itself. Her reason for turning on Ollie to help Chase was a great use of the show’s history and a twist so simple and logical in hindsight I’m surprised I didn’t see it coming. Doig’s Talia is definitely up there with Batman the Animated Series’ version as my favorite, so I definitely hope we get to see more of her in the present. I’d also love to see more of her relationship with Nyssa, so hopefully they both survived the destruction of Lian Yu.

Thomas Church (Chad L. Coleman) was a good opponent to start the season with and a smart herald of the “back to basics” tone of the year. He earned his badass status by casually ignoring his thugs getting shot and being so intimidating, so I quickly grew to really like him. Despite one moment where Wild Dog had a chance to kill him and inexplicably didn’t take the shot, Church felt suitably untouchable. Even so, his death felt like a natural end for his character. I expected him to have a bigger hand in the season’s events, but what we got felt just right. Even with only a handful of appearances, Dolph Lundgren’s Konstantin Kovar was an excellent final flashback foe. He seemed to pick up the baton from Church as a villain on a similar level, which was a nice subtle bit of continuity while Prometheus operated on a whole other plane. I liked Kovar’s turnip story (a popular Russian fable) about unity and I hadn’t been expecting all the Bratva infighting, but dropping Ollie into the middle of it worked really well. At first I didn’t think Kovar needed to survive his initial major fight with Ollie—he was imposing enough after just two appearances—but popping up again to nearly prevent Oliver’s “escape” from Lian Yu was a nice final battle for the flashback timeline.

It was awesome to see Anatoly so much this season, in both the flashbacks and the present! He’s one of my favorite Arrow characters, so it was great that he got such a big role here and could return in the future. I loved that the flashbacks seemed to imply he was still doing evil for the greater good (and certainly convinced Ollie of this), only to twist things so that he really was the bad guy. He caused Ollie to screw up massively, and I really liked that their former friendship held that sort of sway over Oliver. Helix was a fun development and I liked that it encouraged the return of Felicity’s dark side from her college days (coupled with what she’d done to Havenrock). Helix proved to be a sufficiently powerful force, so Oliver going up against a network of hackers is going to be a fun new challenge for him. I can see them being the big bads for the show next year (especially if Michael Emerson is playing their mysterious leader, Cayden James), at least for the first half. Like Flash and Supergirl, I wouldn’t hate it if Arrow found a way to split the season up between two main antagonists.

Vigilante (??) may not be the most inventive name for a vigilante, but he certainly proved formidable! I loved the tricks built into his costume, like a flash grenade to stave off revealing his identity. His method of killing criminals without a second thought seems like he’s been set up to be a dark reflection of Oliver next year, so I’m looking forward to playing out that presumed Punisher vs. Daredevil interaction in Season 6. I absolutely fell for the casting announcement—saying that Chase was Vigilante in the comics—so I just assumed that he was Chase for most of the season. So, who is he? I ran down my theories in an earlier blog, but essentially I think it boils down to two suspects: Captain Pike and Paul Holt. I don’t think we’ve seen Pike and Vigilante together and the mystery man vanished completely after Pike was nearly fatally wounded. It’d also be interesting to pay off Pike’s long tenure on the show with him becoming a vigilante himself, and a public official moonlighting as a vigilante can parallel both Ollie and Dinah. But my money’s on Paul; maybe he thinks he can clean up the streets so Curtis will stop going out, and we’ve already seen Vigilante get Curtis in a position to easily kill him, but he didn’t. He could have literally any motive, since we barely know Paul at all, and Curtis was so busy with Team Arrow that he wouldn’t notice if Paul weren’t home either. Stephen Amell also mentioned that Vigilante will be one of several people who are villains for each specific member of Team Arrow (if they were to team up, would that make them a Green Arrow Injustice Gang?), so perhaps he’s Curtis’ opposite number. I also considered that—whether he’s one of these two or not—Vigilante could be an operative of Helix, since their overall goals seem similar and he’s gotta get his tech from somewhere. Whoever he turns out to be, I really like that we got a badass mystery villain in Prometheus and a second secret identity comic fans didn’t even bother to consider for the longest time. It’s so cool that this red herring gets to be his own mystery next year!

I love that these shows can pull off cameos like Anarky (Alexander Calvert), just like the comics. It makes the world feel full and the threats ever-present. I thought Cupid (Amy Gumenick), Chien Na Wei (Kelly Hu), and Liza Warner (Rutina Wesley) teaming up would be fun and it was! I kinda expected a grander scheme than just a hunt for Church’s money and some gang hits, but I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to this team returning. I also liked Warner losing her last shred of faith in justice in Star City because Quentin worked with Darhk last year. I definitely hope China White isn’t dead and that she was only shot in the shoulder (what an inauspicious way to go that would be!). Cody Runnels was a strong minor enemy as Stardust. He felt like a comic book villain, his powers played well, and Ollie's takedown was brutal. Brick’s (Vinnie Jones) mention was nice and I’d like to see him on the show again. We finally learned The Count’s (Seth Gabel) name, which was a cool bonus, and I hope that the Werner Zytle (Peter Stormare) version returns with some of his comic book reality-warping tech. I didn’t expect Captain Boomerang (Nick E. Tarabay) to betray Ollie at all, though I totally should’ve. If he’s dead (and he probably is), I’ll miss him and wish he’d been used more often. I liked him better than the Suicide Squad Boomerang and it would’ve been fun to see him clash with Barry more than once.

General Plot Notes I liked that Arrow played in a larger world in Season 3 and touched on magic in Season 4, but getting back to the street level heroics was a welcome breath of fresh air. While I definitely miss Team Arrow members like Roy, Sara, and Thea, most of the new recruits grew on me and I came out of the season liking them and their steep learning curve. Overall, they had a pretty good arc coming together as a team despite serious growing pains. It was fun to play with them not knowing Oliver’s secret identity at first; Team Arrow taking orders from Ollie on com without realizing he was in the hospital with them felt like a classic spy/comic moment. Another classic superhero moment came when Team Arrow did some bystander rescuing early in the season, even if “citizens burn cars and fire into the night” was kind of a random action scene premise.

The stunt work was fantastic throughout the season! Since the villains were more physical than Darhk and his magical powers, the stunt team seemed to have many more opportunities for show-stopping fights and they certainly delivered. Even if Alias and The Dark Knight beat the show to it, a grapple hook-plane extraction will probably always be cool. I will always love Green Arrow’s trick arrows—they’re a fun and iconic bit from the comics—and this season boasted a very cool variety of them! My favorite new ones were the bulletproof screen arrow and what the writers referred to on Twitter as the “Parrowchute.” The anti-molecular spray from early on in the season was another cool gadget.

The flashbacks—and flashbacks within flashbacks—worked really well to look back at the history of the series. Callbacks to people like Isabel Rochev (Summer Glau) and Yao Fei were great, as was a flashback that connected to Ollie’s Season 3 flashback trip to Starling City. For the first time since Season 2, I loved the flashbacks just as much as the present-day action and felt like they tied into the rest of the corresponding episodes smoothly while satisfactorily finishing the story of Oliver’s five years away. Flashbacks in both Season 3, with its promise of a change of pace from Lian Yu, and Season 4, with the introduction of magic, started well, but both also felt like they became excuses for a fight or chase scene that didn’t move the story forward significantly rather than important pieces of Oliver’s past from about midseason till the end. That wasn’t the case this year and nearly every flashback felt important. Even with the strongest and most relevant flashbacks since Season 2, I’m glad that fixture of the show is finally over. At about eight minutes an episode, so much screentime will be freed up to expand the present-day stories now. I’m hoping that if they continue to dip into the past, it’s like on Daredevil and only done as needed rather than an obligatory part of each episode. If this structure was an intentional metaphor for drawing back an arrow before firing it—showing us where Oliver came from while also showing his heroic trajectory—that’s a cool idea, but I’d rather focus on the present. I’m glad we’ve finally got the whole picture of Oliver’s origin and it’s fitting the flashbacks ended just as Ollie was forced to let go of his past and will no longer be anchored by it.

On one hand, I wish they’d made more of the Arrow segment of the Invasion crossover about the Dominators. On the other, the Arrow part was an excellent way to celebrate the 100th episode of the show: the Dominator tech provided a cool method of looking at the past and what could’ve been for our heroes while furthering the overall plot as the Dominators studied their non-metahuman brainwaves to program the metabomb. Though Smallville certainly developed the DNA for Flash and Supergirl and probably the proof-of-concept for a Green Arrow show, Arrow built all four of The CW’s current super shows, so including their anniversary in the first 4-show crossover made perfect sense. This was a great celebration of the show's legacy and I liked that the Legends part acknowledged this whole universe started with Ollie and Sara. Team Arrow’s dream world reminded me of the “Perchance to Dream” episode of Batman: The Animated Series, and if you’re going to borrow a plot, that’s a great one to use! All the callbacks to the show’s past were great and this is one of my favorite anniversary episodes ever. It was good to see Laurel and the Queens again. In a perfect world I would’ve liked to see what Ollie and Laurel were doing with their lives beyond him maybe taking over Queen Consolidated and them getting married, so that felt like a minor misstep. I assume she's running CNRI, but I wish it had been said. It's been a long time since Ollie, Sara, Thea, and Quentin were this happy and at ease, and that was awesome. I loved that they found ways to incorporate Roy, Tommy, and Andy Diggle (who was initially supposed to be the Ghost Dig fought, so I'm going to fan-canon this that it was Andy with a mask on) even though their actors were unavailable. It would've felt incomplete without at least Roy and Tommy (and the nod to Donnell's Chicago Med show was funny!). Giving everyone some catharsis by allowing them to kill their arch-enemies to break out of their fantasy world was perfect. Thea, Sara, and Ollie passing weapons to each other was an outstanding bit of fight choreography! I was glad the show played the reality of Team Arrow having no idea how to escape the Dominator ship and barely got away, while “So…this is double the number of spaceships I thought I’d ever be on” was a hilarious line from Thea!

The Crossover’s subplot about Cyberwoman felt kinda haphazard at first since we’d never met her, but in hindsight it's cool (and very comic booky) that their world has random super people running around without the need for elaborate introductions. Cyberwoman was exactly what they needed to justify Flash and Supergirl being called in and didn't need to be anything more than that. I think it would've been tighter plot-wise to send Barry and Kara against Dominators trying to secure tech that could be used against them or something, but ultimately Cyberwoman worked for me. It would’ve been cool to see a quick cutaway to Team Arrow during the final battle with the Dominators, because it felt like they (and especially Thea, who left after the Legends rescued them without explanation; that was particularly weird given how enthusiastic she was at first, but maybe the Dominator fantasy world got to her) were a little forgotten in the Legends portion. I liked Oliver getting a little overwhelmed by the sci-fi happenings, even though he’s lived in a world of magic and super-science for four years now (six if you count his experience with the supernatural on Lian Yu). “One sci-fi problem at a time” was a great way to demonstrate his limits, and benching Kara in the Legends part because he couldn’t handle how weird things were getting worked well for me, no matter how unfair or unreasonable that decision was. I liked his human reaction to the stranger bits of his world: it wasn’t irrational hatred like we saw from Wild Dog, but just a guy coming to terms with the fact that he can’t take on everything, no matter how hard he fights that fact. I also loved his support of Barry as the leader of this nascent Justice League.

Season 5 showcased one of Arrow’s finest hours and one of my absolute favorite episodes, “Spectre of the Gun.” It was not only a very good “very special” episode about the gun debate, but a huge step towards Oliver discovering his iconic liberal side from the comics. I love that they took the time to dig into current issues with the gun control debate, and it was smart to present all sides of the gun argument from nearly all the characters. Even the "let's not talk about it"/”don't make it political” point of view was brought up and shot down as unhelpful. I know that got a lot of hate online, given Felicity voiced it even though she’d been the victim of gun violence, but I’d argue that she probably has a very solid point of view on the debate, but like she said, she doesn’t think talking about it helps. It’s also good to let every character be wrong occasionally. I would love if Arrow took more inspiration from real-life issues in the coming years: not only would it fit with this being the most grounded of The CW’s super shows, but it would play perfectly with Ollie’s developing politics. Dealing with these topics at least as much as Supergirl takes on feminist issues would be a great way to revitalize and refocus the series while keeping it relevant. Marc Guggenheim told me a while back that it’s difficult to get these issues on air despite them wanting to, so I appreciate that they’re trying and I hope they can swing more episodes like this!

Particularly in the back half, Season 5 kept up a constant intensity that felt like a return to Seasons 1 and 2, when every few episodes would feel like any other show’s midseason or season finale. The pressure on Team Arrow and specifically on Green Arrow was great; a perfect use of Ollie continually making his alter ego out to be a bad guy for the greater good. I felt this worked much better than the similar plot at the end of The Dark Knight, which resulted in Bruce retiring as Batman. Here, Ollie still had to go on being Green Arrow (and his black masked nameless vigilante) to save the day, which made both his job as a mayor trying to keep order difficult because he had to hunt himself and his vigilante life increasingly harder since his cops were always after him. The fact that Green Arrow actually murdered Detective Malone (albeit accidentally) and wasn’t just framed worked really well too. I do feel like we needed a scene where it was made public that Green Arrow was no longer considered a cop killer by Ollie or the police, though; I can connect the dots and say the news reported that Chase set him up, but it feels like we missed something with it not being said onscreen. It felt like after all the pressure he’d been under, Green Arrow got cleared a little too quickly. Likewise, attacking the ARGUS transport and letting Chase go probably shouldn’t have been something Ollie just got to walk away from; he’s got friends in high places because Lyla runs ARGUS, but that was an opportunity to make things even harder for him that his connection to Lyla negated.

Oliver being kidnapped by Prometheus and tortured for an entire episode felt like a completely different sort of story for the show and it was absolutely intense. Whatever my misgivings about the revelation in that episode, Amell and Segarra’s acting was fantastic and the tension was insane. Ollie’s revelation at the end was a massive shock when we should’ve gotten release from Ollie’s torture, which played really well into the destroyed man Ollie was in the following few episodes (and my own disillusionment in him). Even free of his captor, the real villain was apparently himself. Chase trapping Oliver and Felicity in the Arrow Cave was a cool use of a bottle episode that made it stand out from the show’s usual adventures. The writers and director of that one (all women, which was cool to see!) did a great job of escalating all the threats and keeping Ollie and Felicity on even footing over who was right and wrong in each situation. Sometimes they were even both right in different ways: I knew Felicity was right about the elevator shaft being booby-trapped, but I was also 100% behind Ollie trying to climb out anyway; were I in his shoes, I wouldn’t have been able to sit and just assume it was rigged when it could easily be a way out.

Bringing everything full circle back to Lian Yu worked perfectly and I love that they wrapped things up for this chapter of Ollie's life so completely. The fights were on point like always and I really liked how seamless the cutting between the present day and flashback battles were. They also did a good job of splitting between the chaos of the final battle and giving the individual face-offs (Nyssa/Talia, Ollie/Chase, Laurel/Dinah) enough time to feel like weighty battles. Neither Chase nor Savitar over on Flash felt dragged out this year, so kudos to the writers for keeping the stakes and tension high, especially in the last segments of the season. I have no idea how anyone could survive the destruction of Lian Yu, but it seems like most people will. Rene, Dina, and Black Siren all have series regular contracts for next year, so they lived. Marc Guggenheim has said he’d never kill Thea, so she’s safe too. I can’t see them killing off Diggle or Felicity, though I wouldn’t mind Felicity’s spinal tech being damaged to the extent that it can’t be easily repaired or replaced and she has to deal with her paralysis far more than we saw in Season 4. I’d hate to see Curtis go and hope they won’t do that. I could see Quentin dying, but I feel like there’s a lot of potential with Black Siren joining the cast next year that’s worth exploring. Slade survived according to the Season 6 trailer. Talia and/or Nyssa could die, but I’d be very sad to lose either of them, especially Nyssa. Samantha is probably dead; bringing William onto the show full-time next year would let us see Ollie as a dad, which is something entirely new. I hope Malcolm is really dead; it feels like time. Even if Boomerang survived that mine (hey, Deadshot took an arrow to the eye and got better!), I doubt he’d be in a position to get to cover from the island blowing. Artemis is probably dead, since we last saw her still locked in that cage and that’s a shame; she could’ve been explored more.

Had this been the final season, it would've been great, but I'm stoked to see how Ollie can grow now that his past is truly behind him. Despite some missed opportunity for more depth in the new recruits, lack of repercussions to Felicity destroying Havenrock, and the somewhat ill-defined reveal that Ollie liked killing, I loved this season and it certainly feels like they've set up a whole new ballgame for Season 6. With callbacks all season long and a villain who challenged Ollie to face who and what he is—along with the end of a major part of the show’s format in the flashbacks—it definitely felt like they closed this chapter of his life and the series.

This has been a long ten years for Oliver and I can't wait to see where Arrow goes from here…when Oliver becomes, I assume, something else.

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