#and no-ones being all 'theres only a matter of time before he becomes violent'

[elibeeline]

This weird time travel show is super funky. The main character now has DID, with widely different headmates, and it's a super interesting watch because even tho this is from the 90's its not seen as a bad thing?

[rottenpumpkin13]

I think the biggest factor re: Seph being the only one who broke down so spectacularly is that he actually had the power to back it up.

Everything about how he was raised, what was done to him, and the perfect storm of Nibelheim just lined up perfectly with the fact that he actually had the power to back up his breakdown.

Like no one else is as strong as Sephiroth. Other characters whos only major kneejerk problem solving skill (violence) simply do not have his firepower. He has the magic, he has the physical power, he has the skill.

The games have power creep and all so its hard to see this, but Sephiroth in the lore was just totally unmatched except for Cloud in terms of what a single person could do. Zack is crazy strong, and Sephiroth had to have been sleep deprived and not eating for a week and mentally compromised for Zack and Cloud to just barely win and nearly die in the process.

Sephiroth has the biggest rampage because he has the tools to do it in a way that any of the other people on a violent mental breakdown bender simply do not.

I dont think, strictly speaking, the reason why he broke down like that specifically was simply because he was always destined to do so - I dont think he was destined to always go evil- but it was 100% only a matter of time before he simply couldnt take the strain of everything and had a serious mental breakdown of some kind. Eventually the untreated trauma just piles up so much you cant function anymore.

He didnt have to have chosen violence as his method of mental breakdown, but with the situation as it was, that is what he landed on. He could have just as easily chosen to take his own life or made a beeline for the brass and killed them all instead given other circumstances.

Without Jenova whispering in his ear, he probably would have chosen one of those, I think. In even fairly well adjusted people irl, discovering what unnecessary violating medical atrocities were done to you as a child secondhand off your medical records is often incredibly harrowing.

Theres just so many layers to why Sephiroth snapped and why Sephiroth behaved like that beforehand.

When characterizing him, I feel like people really undersell and underestimate what chronic trauma starting from childhood does to your sense of self, decisionmaking skills, emotional regulation, and ability to cope with shock.

Like without the way he was raised, he would simply not be the same person. Chronic childhood trauma becomes your sense of self when you experience it because your sense of self was forming when you were put through all of that. Its baked into your bones and how your brain is wired.

A Sephiroth who was raised in a loving family that wasnt medically violated or stuck in a lab or trained as a child soldier and set loose in war and put up as a carefully cultivated symbol would simply be unrecognizable. He would not act the same, he would not have the same preferences, he would not have the same insecurities or instability. He wouldnt be recognizably Sephiroth- not just because no cat eyes and white hair.

Because to be Sephiroth, he has to be incredibly traumatized by default.

Im not saying that his trauma of all the characters was the Most Awful and therefore he blew up the worst or w/e, but more that this multilayered complex trauma left Sephiroth unable to healthily cope with all the events piled on him during the events of Crisis Core.

I think the factor of how childhood trauma and continued abuse completely shapes how you respond to things as an adult is often lost in the discourse when people try to detangle Sephiroth's actions, so thank you for pointing that out.

Another thing, when talking about how Sephiroth's power is unmatched, is the Jenova cells in him (and how he later became one with Jenova) The only thing that took down Jenova was the Cetra because it/she was that powerful. So while he wasn't destined to break down, you have to admit that something was waiting to happen given what Jenova was.

[wastelandlovingscenarios]

regret | deacon x sole survivor

“i don’t feel the same way, charmer.” his voice was barely a whisper.

sole felt a lump grow in their throat as they tried to fight back the tears that threatened to escape. they tried to let out a simple, “okay, i understand,” but only silence filled the air.

deacon knows. he catches the tears building up in their eyes and knows their voice is silently attempting to scratch its way out.

he desperately wants to stop their pain, wipe their tears and remind them that he thinks no differently of their relationship, but something in his heart tugs as sole fights back to hide their vulnerability from him. “i’m sorry.” is all he truly lets out because in reality, his words are just as lost as soles own.

to sole, his words become a blur. their knees become weak as their vision becomes clouded with tears they refuse to let out.

‘i’ll give them time,’ he thinks but his feet struggle to find movement as he continues to stare down at sole, speechless for the first time in a long while.

before he could make a move, sole rushes out of the room, not sparing him a second glance. the sound of the door shutting behind him breaks deacon out of his trance, grounding him back to reality.

a tinge of regret pokes at his heart and he silently pushes it away, knowing that this was for the best. he didn’t have feelings for them and it was nothing but the truth.

or so he thought.

-

the next few weeks are almost a blur for him as his partner goes mia from the commonwealth. the first two weeks, he tries to let it be, convincing himself that sole might’ve needed some time to themselves to sort their feelings out, so he lets them. seeing them might be the last thing they need, so he tries to fight the urge to do so.

yet, as time goes by, the worry in his heart rapidly grows when they’re announced as missing by the minutemen. he grows unnaturally quiet upon hearing their words and feels himself grow weak at the possibilities of what could’ve happened to his partner.

searching far and wide did almost nothing for him and only flared his concern. there was little to no clues of their disappearance and the hope that he would find them sooner or later began to slowly deteriorate.

deacon takes in a deep breath, trying to soothe his mind of all the concern and regret. how could he let it get this bad? why couldn’t he at least check up on them day to day instead of running away?

deep down, he knew the truth of it all. it screamed volumes to him and no matter how much he tried to silence it, it grew louder with every passing second. he avoided sole as much as they avoided him because deacon refused to confront the truth between them both. he never provided closure because he never knew how to.

and the more he refused to face the reality of the situation, the longer the days stretched. he found himself pushing everyone away, spending countless nights with tears streaming down his face, hoping someday sole would just turn up on the railroads doorstep. he didn’t care if they forgave him or not— he just wanted to see them safe.

tonight, he found himself with a bottle in his hand, hunching over the counter as he drank the night. he silently thanked lady luck for landing him in an almost empty bar for no one to catch the state he put himself in. unbeknownst to him, a certain mercenary watched his back from the minute he’s entered the bar till the very last drop of his nth bottle.

“you know, i don’t think that’s a very healthy thing to do.” deacon looked over his shoulder, and though his vision continued to spin, he automatically recognized the annoying face that pestered him.

“let a man ‘ave fun, asshole.” he slurred, trying to push out a grin. maccready rolled his eyes and occupied the seat near deacon, folding his arms.

“i’m serious.” mac pulled the bottle away from his hands, tossing it to the bin nearby.

“hey, i was-!” before he could finish, the mercenary cut him off, not wanting to listen to a word that left his mouth. “do you wanna talk about it?”

his words cut through the facade he tried to pull off and deacon immediately fell silent upon his words. “i know we don’t meet eye to eye all that much, but i hate to see you like this.”

as much as he wanted to lie to his face, continue his said facade, he wasn’t physically able to upkeep that image anymore. it was extremely tiring, especially with everything going on. he let out a sigh and allowed his head to fall on his arms that rested on the table. “you wouldn’ understan’.”

theres a pregnant pause, but he eventually responds. “i don’t, but i could try.”

it takes him a few moments to decide whether or not to confide in someone, especially maccready of all people. to his dismay, the words leave his mouth before he could stop himself from letting it out.

“you won’t tell?” it’s a point of no return— he knows — but for some reason, he doesn’t take it back. was the consequences of actions finally getting to him? probably. he didn’t have time to think as maccready let out a small, but shocked, “of course.”

and so he lets it out— not everything — but enough for maccready to get the message. how it all lead up this point and how it contributed to their disappearance.

“i think i made a mistake.” he says, voice barely a whisper. “i made a huge fucking mistake and i don’t know what to do.”

mac looks down at agent with sympathy, detecting the pain trapped in his voice and sighs, “we all do. it’s just the human in us.”

the rest of his words grow obscured as his eyes droop, the alcohol and sleepless nights finally catching up to him. slowly, but surely, the world blacks out.

-

it’s almost dreamlike— the feeling of his hair being brushed softly and the way a familiar voice lulls him awake. he lets out a small groan as his head pounds violently from what he hoped was the night before. he thinks it’s all in his head; the soft touches and the soft voice that continued to fall upon his ears. it’s so painfully familiar, yet it couldn’t be but he felt his heart jump at the possibility of it.

“sole?” his eyes shoot open but close back in an instant as the gentle light illuminating from the window cracks filled his vision. his head dips on what seems to be their lap, trying to block it out desperately. he felt the same hand that brushed his locks rest on top of his eyes to protect it from the sunlight that only made his head throb more.

“morning sleepyhead.” upon hearing that sweet sound, tears began to form in his eyes once more. the one person he’s yearned to see for what seemed like centuries was finally within arms reach. just like that, his tears fell effortlessly, collecting in soles hand as it streamed down his cheeks.

“deacon?” before they could remove their hand to reveal the tears spilling from his eyes, he quickly places his hand on top of theirs as a silent request to keep his eyes hidden.

“i’m sorry.” he chokes out, voice cracking through each word that left his lips, “i’m fucking sorry. i-“ he gently squeezed the same hand that rested on top of theirs. sole remained silent, watching as he spoke through ragged breaths. he tried his best to muster out his apologies, thoughts — feelings — through the pounding of his mind.

“everything i said, it was a lie. it was all a fucking lie just to avoid having some kind of attachment in my life. i hurt you because i was scared of facing my fears.”

“lie? scared? deacon, what-,” their words drifted into nothingness as deacon continued on.

“no matter how much i tried to run away from it, i knew i couldn’t. i had feelings for you. feelings more than this partnership that we both agreed to do, more than the best friends we claimed to be.” at this point, his feelings poured through the cracks of his heart and he knew that he would fix it this time, even if sole no longer felt the same way. “i fell for you hard. i was in love with you and i still am, sole.”

after a deep breath, he continued on. “you don’t have to forgive me. you don’t even have to give me the chance to love you properly, i just want you to know i’m sorry. i’m sorry it had to take you to leave from my life for me realize how much this meant to me. how much you meant to me.”

for a moment, it’s still; the air seems tense at first and time seems to freeze. there’s this sense of fear that overtakes his mind for a mere second.

soon enough, time seems to continue on as sole places a soft kiss on his forehead, allowing it to linger for a few seconds. “we’ll talk about this more when you wake up, okay?” they whisper and as reassuring as it sounds, he’s still terrified. terrified that he’ll wake up alone.

“will you be here when i wake up?” he tries to let it out calmly, but there is a hint of panic and unsureness in his voice he couldn’t push away any longer. all of that seems to melt away as sole lets out a small chuckle, his heart swelling with a mix of pain and relief.

“yes.” they reassure, “i’ll be here for as long as you need me.”

he let out a relieved sigh, keeping his hand on top of the one that covered his eyes. for the first time in weeks, everything finally felt right.

“love you, charmer.” before he could hear their reply, he felt himself being pulled into slumber that quietly called his name.

[prof-peach]

Hey Prof, I need your advice.

My sister recently decided she didn't wanted her bulbasaur anymore (she got him on a whim about a month ago) and gave him to me, he is quite violent and tends to attack when I try to get close to him.

Now, that wouldn't be a huge problem, but my Purrloin has gotten hurt trying to befriend him, she's quite outgoing and never really liked fighting (we enjoy contests so she knows a few more flashy attacks), so she couldn't even defend herself properly.

I don't want to give up on him and my local rescue center is filled with Bunearies (you know, after Easter kids don't want their Bunny anymore) so they can't take him in right now, any advice in how I can go about this situation?

Sounds to me like you have a tricky little dude on your hands. So you're not battle orientated which will make this harder, Bulbasaur in the wild are actually quite combat minded to defend their families and territory, and a lot of their herds consist of strict hierarchy based on power and skill, often led by older, fully evolved members of their group. 

Before you take any actions to befriend them, its worth noting that any pokemon who comes into your care showing aggression is usually doing so for one or two reasons that are pretty universal for any species. Fear being the main issue with pokemon who have been ditched, if a pokemon is unwell, if it feels exposed, if it is unsure of you or your home, your partners, it may lash out because it is afraid. Even what looks like pure anger can stem from a fear. Of course some individuals are just full of rage, its not unheard of, but for the most part it comes from somewhere else. 

For a moment, take the time to put yourself in this pokemons shoes. It was chosen, with hopes and ambitions of its own, by your sister, a stranger to them, and for whatever reason they were cast aside. This reason may be unclear to the pokemon, it may be unfair, unkind, or even without malice just out of pure indifference. No matter the reason, this pokemon has been left behind by a trainer it at one point probably wanted to try to get along with. I don’t know what your sister may or may not have done, or provided for the bulbasaur, but it will help you understand how its feeling, if you were to ask her about their relationship prior to you receiving the pokemon. If it has always been aggressive and angry, i’d seriously consider talking to it about release, not rehome. 

We humans have a preconceived notion that pokemon are pets and things to keep with us. This may be true for some sure, but not every pokemon wishes to be a captive to a human, they may want more for themselves, and wish for a free life with their own kind. We cannot put our wants and desires above that of the pokemons, so you two need to have a talk, at a respectful distance for safeties sake, to see what the Bulbasaur feels they may want. These are herd pokemon, born and bred to be with their own kind, if not a larger group, if its lonely, if it wants to go home, to start a family, or simply to not be held in a ball as some creature to be owned, then you as its current carer must give it what you can. You can always find another pokemon who wants to be your partner, but you cannot give back lost years to a pokemon who has lived a life its unhappy with. Treat them with respect, and be open and honest. At the end of the day we have a chance to help pokemon, and forcing what we want onto them is a hinderance, and will lead to them feeling unsatisfied and bitter in the long run. 

Some pokemon lash out due to the process of being handed off to someone else, trust is earnt, not always just simply given to whoever holds the pokeball. Remember this as you move forward, and try to keep your other pokemon away from them, Bulbasaur are territorial species, and have to accept pokemon into their families before simply allowing them to come and go freely into their personal space. Despite their grouchy natures at times they usually do have a morally positive compass, and defend with ferocity when they love something. Perhaps in you showing genuine concern for their welfare and future, offering them not what you want, but instead what they want, they may give you a chance to get closer, but take baby steps, and try to be their friend above all else. I bet they're feeling pretty lonely right now. 

Its worth sharing interests with the pokemon, talk about contests, see if they're interested, some pokemon have a predisposition for this, others have no interest and prefer more battle based lives, or even peaceful non-competitive existences. no amount of pressure will change a pokemon’s nature, and some just aren't cut out for the fine art of showmanship that contests require. You can however use powerful attacks in showy ways, so theres always hope that they could enjoy it, if you can work with them to their strengths. 

If possible, work to getting them outdoors, cooping grass types up can lead to stroppy, testing personalities, many thrive in the outdoors, he may need some serious outside time to compensate for the lack of exercise and natural stimulation they may have not been getting prior to your ownership. There are plenty of areas in public that are much like tennis courts, areas of space you can book for a set amount of time too exercise difficult pokemon, these locations are often secure facilities, both outdoors and indoors, to suit a range of species. find one that has outdoor facilities and book a few hours per week to go there, increasing the time whenever possible. This exercise and time with you may help to find common ground, and topics that you and the bulbasaur can bond over. This can be anything from battles, to sun bathing, playing sports, games, swimming, running or digging, and everything in between. Bulbasaur naturally are great foragers and tend to like to snaffle about in long grass and shrubland, hiding treats like berry slices in a secure environment is good enrichment and can tire the pokemon out. a tired pokemon is usually a little less aggressive, having lower energy levels and less want to expend attacks. this process also associated you with something fun, and your scent will be on the treats too, so they'll know you were the one to provide this activity for them.   

I’d also take plenty of time to observe the bulbasaur, as your sister got them on a whim, they probably had no prior knowledge of the species, or how to correctly care for them. In a month, a health complaint could have begun to show, so observe their colouration, feet, walking gait, sleeping patterns, feeding habits, and general behaviour. Excess scratching, heavy breathing, or unusual shaking or moving can suggest a health condition is starting to take form. Most can be helped if caught early, but some illnesses give the pokemon discomfort, and can lead to snappy tempers and irritability. It could be that this individual is in pain, or finding life difficult due to its health, which can cause a lot of hostility as i’m sure anyone would agree. It can suck to be sick!

This species can be won over if you can prove you have a skill of worth to them. This is the case with a lot of pokemon, having respect for something they cannot do, and learning that they need things from you can lead to them at least tolerating us humans. Its a foot in the door. A trick i like t use with particularly difficult bulbasaur is to give them their fav food, whatever it is, then put it in a clear container the pokemon cannot open. They have no thumbs, and their vines though dexterous, aren't able to open every kind of container. The pokemon will want whats inside, and be unable to access it. they will eventually give up out of frustration. this is where you come in. enter the space, don’t let your pokemon approach as this can be threatening, and open the container. leave it on the floor open, making sure they've watched you get the thing open. They can then approach and enjoy their fav food, all thanks to you and those wondrous thumbs you have. repeating this process yields good results, and starts a mutual relationship of tolerance and acceptance between you and a bulbasaur. Most will accept they want the food more than they want you gone, and you provide something they can’t get to. whatever you do, don’t let them see that you were the one to lock the food up in the container. Get a friend to do it, or do it in the room, and leave it in place on the floor, before allowing the bulbasaur to enter and investigate the item. If they see you're the one doing it, the trick is foiled, and your back to square one. Eventually this does tend to lead to the pokemon becoming less stressed with you around them, and eventually it leads to trust, and even friendship. This trick is good to use to get them use to you, once they're ok with you being around them because of your use to them, they may start to take food from you directly, engage in play, or even just sit and tolerate company for short periods of time. Do not expect this to be quick, but it does usually do the trick. 

Regardless, i do have concern that the pokemon may want to be with its own, should you discuss this and find they're not interested in being housebound and a pet, feel free to send them our way, we had exactly this situation in mind when setting up the islands facilities, and have extensive locations designed with grass pokemosn needs at the forefront. Theres a small herd of about 12 bulbasaur evolutions that live north of our labs, no people see them, they are happy as a unit, and are left alone to go about their lives, with the only interactions between humans being us giving them their yearly health check, or should we spot them with an issue, we may intervene. They live away from others and pretty much free, in a poacher safe environment. Its not ideal, we like to keep pokemon in areas they come from, with people who love them, and you show great concern for the pokemon so it would be a shame to have to let them go, BUT sometimes thats just life, and theres nothing to be done about it other than accepting that the pokemons wants come first. They may just be mistrusting so try everything else first, and see how you go. hopefully you’ll yield some results from this all. Good luck out there trainer. 

[urmomsstuntdouble]

Can you do one for america

Since I received this about an hour or two after posting my lithuania analysis, I assume you’re asking for an america character analysis. I was debating whether or not to go through with writing this or not for a while, but i’ve decided that I’ll try. I hope you enjoy it!

Idealism

The first thing that sticks out to me when thinking about america is that he’s super idealistic, and I think this has its roots in his birth. Everything in his life has been about hope and being better than others, even down to the decision to colonise north america. England needs to be the most powerful country in europe. Better set up a colony in america so that it can save us. It’s that sort of logic that i think gives america the idea that he needs to be perfect, or that he can be the ideal person. And though a lot of what we consider to be the “american” identity (intense patriotism, nativism, idealism, etc) took recognizable shape in the 19th century, i think this way of thinking was nothing new to alfred. He’d been raised on it, with the desire to please arthur sort of in his blood? Anyway i feel like the idea that the colonies would be so so prosperous really put the idea into america’s head early on that he was perfect and that he was destined to be such a great person, even if that wasn't true. I often see his daddy issues presented as solely abandonment issues, but my interpretation of america is more of a combination of abandonment issues and the pressure, some of it self inflicted, to be a perfect country. Basically, his idealism is deeply rooted in unhealthy places. 

Also, a religion headcanon i have is that while he was more raised to be a puritan, freddie prefers quakerism. Though he’s not the most compatible with quakerism, as it rejects violence and quakers often refer to themselves as the society of friends, and are very welcoming, i think it gives him some hope. One of freddie’s biggest problems is that he wants people to be better than they are, and quakerism helps a little with that, because it’s a way that he can help himself become better than he currently is. I feel like he’s been a quaker for a very long time, so he’s not a very good quaker, but this is still something that’s very important to him. 

Hero complex and other mental bullshit

America having a hero complex and also being physically 19 is something i think really highly of. First of all, it very much fits with the mythology of america being a sort of world savior. Secondly, a lot of american media focuses on heroism, whether its on the behalf of average people, like the hunger games, or on the behalf of superheroes, like the mcu- especially over the past 20 years. Though i think it’s a good thing to promote heroism, the hero-martyr complex that gen z has is. Oof. And i think alfred fits very well into that toxic sort of “heroism” that most gen z kids have. He thinks he’s somehow able to fix everything wrong with the world, just because he really wants to. Though that desire is genuine, it’s not always something that’s his place to fix or something that even needed fixing. There’s also a selfish component to that- He needs to prove himself, and heroism is the only way he thinks he can do that. It’s why he works out constantly and cares so much, on a personal rather than country-avatar-thing level, about being #1 at everything. He has to be better than everyone else because he has to be the perfect hero. 

I also think it’s interesting how america seems to have more pronounced daddy issues than canada, and i think this is something that harkens back to the 13 colonies (side note i hate the term ‘colonial times’ when referring to the time before the revolutionary war or canadian independence. These are settler states, its always colonial times.) and american independence. Canada sort of only exists because of british loyalists, as they made up the majority of the population around the turn of the 19th century. They saw themselves as being The Better Colonists. Real daddy’s boy types, and I think this is something that contributes to the hero complex. Because matthew refused to rebel so openly, that made arthur favor him as a son, so alfred felt the need to be even better than matthew- even though, of course, alfred was a bit more favored. 

Fighting Style

Freddie is very good at violence, but not in the same way that a lot of other nations are. Where they tend to be more well trained in specific styles of fighting, freddie just sort of has all of them? His mind is very crowded, i think. Also, the way that he would have learned to fight is different from the other super powerful countries by virtue of his youth, and by virtue of the different regional fighting styles in america. One that’s haunted me is a trend in the ability to rip off ears and noses- Particularly by white gangs in the antebellum south, this was seen as being like. A real badass. I think alfred was something of a feral child. If you know the saying “it takes a village to raise a child,” i think it really did with him. He had so many parents, just like a lot of the western hemisphere countries. But anyway because of all his many many parents, there was never any strong parental force in his life, so it’s more like he didn’t have any at all, and because of that, alfred was a very strange child. And because violence is so ingrained in american society, alfred is very good at fighting, both in order to be fun and flashy and for his own self defense. Though he doesn't really like to fight unless he feels like he has to (and other people are very good at convincing him that he does have to)

Sports

Though america is definitely super athletic and could probably naturally be good at most sports, i think there’s a few that he’d more gravitate towards. Those are basketball, track and field, and olympic lifting. I would include american football but it’s a stupid sport that doesn’t make any sense, so it will not be included for spite reasons. In basketball I think he’s sort of an every-man. I think he’s around six feet tall, so he really could play any position on offense, and as for defense, I think he’d play his best defense against the point guard, bc i feel like Alfred is really fast and good at getting up in your face. He’d have a ton of steals whenever defending against the point guard. I think he’d be a good center on offense, because he’s a bit aggressive and that would be useful for getting rebounds and put-backs, though i wouldn’t discount point-guard freddie, because he does like to be very inspiring. He’s pretty energetic as well, and a point guard can really carry the entire team in terms of energy and spirit. As for track and field, he’d also be an every man- I feel like he’d gravitate more towards sprinting events by personality, but his coach would stick him in wherever. Where olympic lifts are concerned, he’s absolutely a snatch specialist. 

Empire and contradictions

America is an empire. No way of getting around that. I think imperialism in hetalia is an interesting subject, especially where america is concerned. @mysticalmusicwhispers did a good job running that down here, but basically my thoughts on the matter are that alfred doesn't really like being an empire. There’s many angles to that. It’s lonely at the top, for one. There’s no one who relates to being a 21st century empire in quite the same way as him. Then you have the fact that a lot of people living in america have suffered under imperialism as well. Because of that, there’s a lot of self hatred and anxiety and a not knowing if he can fully trust himself. Theres also the obsession that many americans have with people from other cultures being able to assimilate to american wasp culture. Because of all the people who live in the states who are very much not wasps and who can never be, it’s really hard on alfred, though he refuses to admit that things are anything but fine. 

Extras/Fun stuff

A book that reminds me of him is The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. It’s a collection of short stories about O’Brien’s time serving in the military during the Vietnam War. It’s a very haunting book and I think about it at least once a week, but it is very violent and there’s a lot of fucked up stuff in it.

giveme chubby alfred or give me death

i feel like this shouldn’t have to be said, but sometimes there’s people who depict him as being pro-trump or pro-right wing bullshit, which. absolutely not. just because of all the political turmoil that exists within alfred, and because of all the pain he goes through because of all the hate that exists within his borders- hate that the entire world is forced to pay attention to. even though he might not have all the best sympathies or motivations, he’s just so tired of all the pain he personally goes through because of domestic political unrest, and would like it to end in the way that’s the least painful for him as a person. 

Bi king of my heart 

not a natural blond

I hc him as being mixed, though i’m not sure what exactly he’d look like? But i do enjoy alfred but not white, as poc are the driving force behind a lot of american life, right down to the languages we speak. Like. something like half the states names are the words of their indigenous peoples, and even more toponyms are indigenous across the country. Then of course i feel he’s very protective of aave and will always pronounce words in Not English correctly. (if u want to hear more about my language thoughts they’re linked below. Not gonna rehash it here cause those posts are Long™) 

My playlist for him!

Other analyses (age, linguistics) 

writing requests

[foryouthegays]

spreading propaganda [Dream SMP] liveblog yall lets go. this is so long i am sorry but the end is an actual summary of what happens asldkfa

sellout timer pog: 00:30:20, 01:00:40, 01:31:35, 02:02:03 (for like a second), 02:03:00, 02:34:35

time spent reading donations: 10 minutes, 20ish seconds. 

fanart credit he puts up (all from twitter i think): snumkt, reinneart, lihnsu, sestqr, jester_u, Brigade_Lost, natonyy

also taggin @antarctic-empire-technoblade​ :) theres an actual summary at the end that isnt just me ramblin so,,,,,,ye. i am so sorry its so long a;dkfja i dont know how to condense things 

00:00:35 “i stole a lot of sand recently,” ah yes, a casual conversation starter, the admission of theft 

00:03:55 hE HAS A VILLAGER TRADING HALL CHAPEL IN THE VILLAGE SIR THAT IS ILLEGAL 

00:04:13 

tubbo: -..--...--- 

ranboo: that means beans right

no, ranboo, not it does not (i put it into a translator and it just. it doesnt mean anything. i didnt see any spaces so im just. what was mr tubbo trying to say

00:04:35: relationship advice with technoblade! [reading donation] “‘techno, my boyfriend said he’ll never sub to you, how do i handle this travesty?’ uh, clearly you need to break up with him, and send me more money, is the most- that’s the most unbiased opinion I can give you, it’s just a good life decision, alright? It’s just a good life decision.”

00:16:00 ranboo hi!!!! him garden :D 

HOUND ARMY HOUND ARMY 00:18:10

00:20:15 ‘i have not made a tier list [for dinosaurs] yet’ Y E T? ? ? ?? ? 

00:20:55

“‘Hey, are you uncomfortable with being part of the SBI family dynamic?’ Uh, I don’t really- it’s not a matter of being uncomfortable, it’s just a matter of people making massive revisions to my character and the lore three months into the story without telling me, and it’s like, ‘no, that doesn’t- the story doesn’t- so many things don’t make sense now! What?? What???’ but if you want to make like, fanart of it, it’s fine”

00:21:25 imagine believing in airplanes, couldnt be me

00:21:35 SKLDJFAK a dono is like, hey can u call my new cousin a nerd, and technos like [claps] yOUVE COME TO THE RIGHT MAN im all about bullying infant children 

lakjshdfl 00:26:15 ‘philza this does not sound lore at all please’ poor techno

00:27:30 HKJSFDL :crab: TUBBO IS GONE :crab: also i cant tell if techno says ‘KILL HIM DEAD’ or ‘KILL HIM, DAD’ 

00:30:20 ‘we should have a grinch episode, where i go around stealing presents from l’manburg’ DO IT

also i was in chat at 00:31:25ish and i said ‘subscribe to technoblade’ and RIGHT AFTER techno said ‘did i hear subscribe to technoblade?’ and i felt so heard 

00:33:25 why is his only response to being seen in enemy lines to just stay realllyyyyy still a;lkdfjasf 

00:39:45 ‘this is crucial information coming to you live from anarchy news’ A;LSDKFJA;LSDF

00:46:25 :CRAB: RANBOO IS GONE :CRAB: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES 

alkdfja; 00:47:55 techno talks (sarcastically) abt how great it is when chat tells him where his stuff is

00:48:50 awww techno showin his not-dad his hound army!!! so cute 

00:55:30 techno specifies that theyre all characters/roleplayin!!!

techno talkin to phil is literally like a kid talkin to his dad after not seein him for a while. like yeah yeah family isnt canon in this but KSJDFLA hes like ‘phillll tommys being annoying also look at this new poster!!!!’ its so cute

01:09:20 A;SDJFADSL THE VILLAGER JUST. FALLS THROUGH THE FLOOR

techno nd phil reference smp earth at 01:19:50!!!!

(ik some people dont like enbyctechno so heres ur warnin, its just for this line tho) techno says ‘no one man should have this power’ but he HAS that power. therefore. mr c!blade is not a guy 01:35:00ish idk im not goin back to check

01:38:35 alright gang lets split up and look for clues 

01:45:20 ‘my chat’s sayin theres a 0% chance this is gonna work,,,,thATS A CHANCE I’M WILLING TO TAKE, CHAT’ skjdflasl;dfjaf (also, bit after, after readin the wiki say its 0% chance: ‘i like those odds’) 

01:48:15 [abt the zombie villager baby] 

Techno: on the bright side, we may have inflicted the optimal amount of trauma onto this child for it to become funny? 

Ranboo: ooooh yeah! it can become a minecraft youtuber!

techno: yeeeeeeah!!

pls get some therapy

a;ldkfassa the mental image of techno ownin an orphanage,,,,paldkfajslfasf 01:51:35

a;ldsifjasdklf ranboo is canonically a villager now, pog 01:56:50

01:57:50 ranboo: ‘they say that im built different, i am built different, in the fact that i have no moral backbone.’

01:58:30 BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD also why is techno so good at the bow like WHAT he looks in third person and turns nd shoots in like a second and hits most of the time its scary literally look at ranboo a;ldsjkfadsf hes like a porcupine 

ASKLJDFASLDF RANBOOS ‘OH NO HE KNOWS HOW TO OPEN DOORS’ AT 02:02:25 JUST HAS SUCH TECHNO SKYBLOCK VID VIBES ADLKJFALSDFJA OH MY GOSH

02:06:35 “i feel there has been an attempt on my life,” "no thats just how we greet each other in our country” nether lore pog?

02:08:45 why does techno casually type at 120 wpm?????  god i hate him so much why is he like thisssss ugh (also it took ~3 seconds to type 7 words (34 characters) which is 140 wpm and 680 cpm if i know how to do math i hate it here) /lh

nd then he types ‘punz we’re all outside your house get over here’ which is 47 characters nd 9 words nd it took him 5 seconds to type which is 564 cpm and 108 wpm so his average (from these two samples which. isnt a lot. should i do a post abt this in the future?) is 124 wpm and 622 cpm. hes so fast. 

SDA;FKJASDF PHIL WHY R U SO VIOLENT 

02:17:00 PUNZ POG ALSO MANIFOLD KILLED IN THE HOLY LAND

technos complainin bout the fights bein boring,,,,,,,fight them all, techno. do it. 1v8. do it, coward. 

02:24:02 ‘maybe the real combat was the friends we made along the way’ 

02:25:16 i love that technos first instinct when someone dies is to check what sword/axe killed them nd what enchants r on it aldskfjads

i love how techno calls the manhunt music ‘dream music’ its so funny to me

right before he ends the stream he says ‘p e r h a p s’ to techno plushies and i just,,,, wa n t 

if ya just want an actual summary and not that MESS:

Technoblade starts the stream in his house. the first thing he does is put another piece of fanart in his house, this one by snumkt on twitter. he goes to l’manburg, where he sneaks around very sneakily (/s) and replaces anti-techno propaganda with pro-techno fanart, stating that “If they take it down, it’s ‘cause they hate fanartists.” (00:09:18). 

While placing posters, Techno checks in on his hound army, and reveals that he thinks someone had been in the area, because a wolf teleported to him while he was home. He thinks someone placed water, the dog stood up, and then teleported. (00:18:25)

After breeding the dogs, Techno reads donations and one of the questions is about the SBI family dynamics. Here’s what he says at 00:20:55 

“‘Hey, are you uncomfortable with being part of the SBI family dynamic?’ Uh, I don’t really- it’s not a matter of being uncomfortable, it’s just a matter of people making massive revisions to my character and the lore three months into the story without telling me, and it’s like, ‘no, that doesn’t- the story doesn’t- so many things don’t make sense now! What?? What???’ but if you want to make like, fanart of it, it’s fine”

He then meets up with Philza, who is being escorted by Tubbo. Techno goes to Philzas house, and hides in his new basement. He joins their VC and finds Phil, Wilbur, Tommy, and Tubbo. talking about birthdays. Tubbo goes to the basement and sees Technos invis particles, hits him, and he is revealed. Techno kills tubbo, and declares it canon as a joke. 

He goes back outside, deafened on Discord, and puts down more propaganda. Philza joins his call, and they meet up to try and find Technos stolen items. They don’t find the barrel, but they do find a hidden room under the podium. Techno puts a piece of propaganda in the room. (00:43:30)

While Phil is killing an enderman, Ranboo finds them, and is killed by Techno. (00:46:25) 

Techno takes Phil to see his Hound Army, but they’re stopped by Tubbo. Techno tries to pretend to be Ranboo, but Ranboo goes up to them, so his cover is blown. Techno’s chased to the portal. Phil and Techno meet again in the Nether, and they go back to the house. 

At the house, Phil and Techno talk about the SBI characters, the sellout timer goes off, and then they go downstairs to cure a zombie villager. While it’s curing, Techno gathers books to make a new bow, with Power V, Punch II, Unbreaking III, Flame, and Mending. 

Philza reveals that Ranboo is coming over to give Phil a present. Techno seems excited at this, mostly at the fact that Ranboo can be his new bows test subject. 

Before Ranboo arrives, the villager is cured, and they find out it is a nitwit, meaning it can’t trade or get a job. Techno and Phil start working on a tunnel to bring the villager to a lava pool, so the other villagers won’t gossip and raise their prices. 

Ranboo joins the call at 01:15:35, right before they’re going to bring the villager to the lava pool. He gifts Techno and Phil four Netherite ingots.

After struggling to get the villager to the right height, Techno forces Ranboo to boat the villager into the lava. Ranboo escapes by throwing a pearl, and the villager dies.

Ranboo, Techno, and Phil talk about duping Netherite, and the current plot, and then Techno finds a zombie baby villager. It’s caught in a boat, and Techno nametags it ‘Orphan.’ They talk about the cobblestone tower, Philzas’ death to a baby zombie, and how if you don’t see a child's parents, you should assume that they are an orphan and attack them. 

Techno talks to Jack Manifold through chat about his axe. Techno, Philza, and Ranboo go around and look for zombie villagers. Techno finds an igloo, with two villagers. Techno was going to try and turn them into zombie villagers, but decides to not when he finds out that theres a 0% chance of that happening on Easy mode. 

They all go back to Orphan, and bully it when they find out it still hasn’t grown up. Techno and Ranboo make a joke about how it’s traumatized, so it’ll be funny and can be come a minecraft youtuber. please get some help. (01:48:15)

After Orphan grows up, Techno trades and gets the Bottle of Enchanting trade for one emerald. They all joke about Techno owning an orphanage at 01:51:35.

Phil, Techno, and Ranboo decide go to the Hound Army, but Techno remembers that Ranboo is part of L’manburg, and tries to kill him (with his new bow) when they enter the nether. He doesn’t succeed, and he continues fighting until he drinks and invis pot on the Prime Path. Techno and Phil meet up in the Bee Dome, where Ranboo finds them. Techno tries to kill him, but runs out of arrows. 

After reading donations, Techno, Ranboo, and Phil are back together at the Bee Dome, and they decide to team up in case someone finds them. They go outside of the Dome, and chase Jack Manifold out of his own country.

Manifold joins the VC, and they try to blame Punz on his attempted murder. After Manifold says “i feel there has been an attempt on my life,” Techno says that that’s how he greets people in his country.

Manifold asks if they want to help him get revenge on Punz, and Techno agrees. They gather more people, and by the time they get to Punz’s tower, their party is Manifold, Techno, Phil, Ranboo, Fundy, and Antfrost. Punz is in the Nether, so they wait until he gets back. 

Ranboo and Techno have a whisper conversation:

Ranboo: are you just going to jump fundy

Techno: no im gonna make jack 1v1 LMAO

Ranboo: good plan

While Fundy is taking a screenshot of Techno for his thumbnail, Philza attacks Fundy with a crossbow and his sword. He claims it was because he was getting bored. 

In the same spirit, Techno asks if they could kill Manifold to pass the time. The mob, which now includes Fundy, chases Manifold. He runs to the Holy Land, and the mob boos him.  Techno tells Antfrost to kill Manifold, and that the mob won’t tell that he was killed in the Holy Land. Manifold hands Antfrost his sword. 

While Antfrost debates killing Manifold or not, the mob chants ‘peer pressure!’ at him. Techno quickly realizes that Antfrost isn’t in the VC, and is extremely confused. The sword gets handed to Fundy, who gets into a battle with Manifold. Philza tells Fundy that he’s forgiven, if he can kill Manifold. The battle calms, and neither of the contestants die.

Techno convinces the mob to go to the pit trap, and tries to lure someone onto the trapped blocks using rotten flesh. Fundy takes the bait, but moves out of the way before the button is pressed. Antfrost sneaks up behind him and punches him into the pit. Fundy survives the fall, but is shot by Manifold to death. 

During the commotion, Punz makes his way back to his house, and the mob moves towards him to end his life. Manifold says that he’s going to kill Punz, and Techno says that the mob’ll have his back. He tells the mob to not have Manifold’s back. 

at 02:17:00, Punz joins the call, and is confused as to why Manifold wants to kill him. Manifold explains that Punz tried to kill him, siting his source as Technoblade. 

also, 2:17:15 technoswear!

Techno encourages Punz, saying “Punz, he actually dropped his sword by accident and now I have it, so it’d be really easy to beat him up,” and “he also just killed in the holy land, so you have a sort of...religious motivation to take him out.”

Punz tries to fight Manifold without armor (Manifold is wearing a full enchanted set of armor, with a Netherite chestplate and everything else Diamond), which fails miserably, and Manifold is killed. 

Techno decides to fight Manifold with his goons (the mob) for the audience retention, and Manifold’s quickly killed. The final hit was from CaptainPuffy. Ponk rushes in and grabs some of Manifold’s items. Puffy takes the rest.

Manifold complains about getting bullied, so Techno gives him his sword back and tells him to avenge himself. While looking for Ponk (or Punz? this is kinda unclear), Punz swoops in and kills Manifold in two hits. 

Manifold finds Ponk and chases after him, trying to kill him. The mob follows, and Ranboo kills Ponk with thorns. Manifold takes Ponks stuff. 

Right after respawning, Ponk was blown up by a creeper, and Techno claimed both as canon. 

The mini fights continue, and Manifold is killed by Punz. 

Ranboo changes the ‘Days since last war crime’ sign to 0.

Phil tells Techno that he’s going back to the base, and the L’manburgians question him as to what base he’s talking about. Phil tells Fundy that he ripped off his ankle shackles and left. While they talk, Techno starts running back to the base, and Ranboo whispers “lets run back” to him. Ranboo follows Techno, but quickly looses him.

Phil and Techno join a separate VC together and they go back to the base. 

At 02:29:15, Phil says “I trust you” to Techno and I am going to cry. 

Right before getting to the base, Phil drinks some honey, and Techno says “that’s the only thing we have honey for, now that we’ve uh...uh I guess you don’t know about that.” He’s referring to the Vault, I think, because the redstone required honey to work properly. 

Philza responds, “the honey- wait, what did you use the honey for?” 

“uhhh....food.” Techno, for some reason, doesn’t want to show Phil the vault. 

Ranboo whispers to Techno: “My alliance isnt with lmanburg, its with the people who help me. phil helped me.”

out loud, Techno laughs about it with phil, saying, “well, I’ve stabbed him like twelve times this week, so, I [laughs] I don’t know if that entirely qualifies here.”

Techno messages Ranboo back with “new phone who this” 

Ranboo replies, “no one,” and then, “:)”

Going back to the honey talk, Philza asked if Techno had been hiding anything diabolical from him, and Techno asks if he would do such a thing. Philza guesses several things he could use honey for, such as a flying machine, TNT dupers, and a door.

Techno takes him to the vault. 02:32:00. i LOVE peoples reactions to the vault, it’s always so good. Philza responds with a surprised ‘HOLY SHIT’ and some laughing. Techno also confirms my math of 55 withers. 

02:34:10 “i’ve seen this government, on the server, and everything to do with government is just bad. I’ve watched it completely destroy and tear down people’s wills and change people, I’ve seen it change the nicest people into complete and utter tyrants, so...I think it’s about time--”

“We need revenge. [sellout timer goes off] and more importantly, we neED SUBSCRIBERS ON YOUTUBE DOT COM” phil joinin anarchy pog? 

anyway that was it ;alskdfjas;f

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Comparing RWBY and YGO DM: The Handling and Evolution of Themes

Hey! Its been a hot minute since I last posted anything RWBY-related but Im laying in my bed right now and Im sick and bored so I guess we're doing this. Today I will do my best to analyze what I percieve to be the main themes and messages of both of these shows, or more specifically, how theyre handled narratively. Im mostly focusing on that part because, while these series do have similar themes and messaging, they are still a few things in which they are wildly different. And with that, lets start with this essay-post-thing!

1. Theres something we need to adress first

Okay so, before we can really talk about this, theres something I feel the need to clarify here: Neither of these stories was "planned from the beginning".

Now, I dont think a story being planned from the beginning or not nesscessarily makes the story any better or worse by default, however, it is still important to acknowledge because the way the story is planned is going to affect every facet of it. Things are not going to be foreshadowed properly, things are gonna be set up only for nothing to come of it, the story might drastically change directions, characters might act differently, etc, etc.

And, this is bit off-topic but, it's much better to just admit that the story was not planned than trying to pretend that it was. Like, there are a lot of reasons why I tend to be so forgiving towards YGO even though its not very good, but one of them is definitely the fact that, as far as Im aware atleast, the guy who wrote it isnt pretending to have had this big master plan all along and neither is the fandom. With RWBY on the other hand... yeaaaah, its kinda the opposite. From what Ive seen of RWBYs fandom, there seems to be this pretty popular narrative that everything was planned even though it clearly wasnt. Thats pretty bad and honestly lowers my opinion of the writers so much more than if they would just admit to not having a proper plan.

Like, I initially consumed YGO like this: Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh (aka Season 0), like, a quarter of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga (I still havent finished it)

In all three of these we have the character of Yami Yuugi, or just Yami. Broadly speaking, he is an ancient egyptian gamer spirit who lives in a magical puzzle that has not been solved for 3000 years until this highschooler named Yuugi Mutou comes along and solves it, thus setting him free and allowing him to possess Yuugi and have access to the vague magical powers of the puzzle.

In Duel Monsters he's perfectly fine most of time, morally speaking. There is an instance of him almost murdering a guy and its a bit unclear what exactly happens to those he mindcrushes but overall he's very much a pretty good guy. In Season 0 most of what he does is set up these games for bad people, where they will go insane no matter what they do. From how I understand this whole Shadow Game, Penalty Game stuff, if you lose a Shadow Game, you get violent and intense hallucinations and you will always cuz yknow, gamer spirit. But if you try to cheat, which most of the bad people do in this show, you get violent and intense hallucinations as a punishment.

Since the two anime are generally considered two different continuities, its perfectly fine that Yamis characterization is wildly different in both of them. But in the manga both of these characterizations appear, basically one after the other with no real arc or consequences, for that matter. Why is that? Simply put, someone thought it was a good idea to try to turn an episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror manga into a more traditional, more plot-driven battle shounen. From what Ive heard, it was apparently largely because of network interference or something, but the point is, it changed directions incredibly drastically with little planning and everyone knows this and I can understand that for the most part.

In RWBY we have the character of Blake Belladonna, who, in the first 3 volumes/seasons atleast, was this aloof, more toned down loner-type character with a pretty strong sense of justice. She's an in-universe marginilized racial minority and she clearly cares about racial injustice. The way its initially framed makes it seem like she had a very hard life and no stable support system, which is what eventually pushed her to join a Civil Rights group/Terrorist organization (good god, the Faunus subplot is so awful, I could write a whole essay about it but Im already de-railing rn so I'll just save that for later).

Then, in volumes 4-5 it turns out her father is actually like, the mayor or chief of this island-place called Menagerie and she grew up in this big mansion with multiple guards/servants. Oh and also, apparently "space is a commodity" on there, so theres that. She still retains large parts of her personality but she's kinda like, worse somehow I think. I cant really describe it in a meaningful way but I hope you get what Im saying anyway. Then in Volume 6 she confronted her emotional abuser Adam (sorry for not mentioning him sooner but yeah, he was like, her abusive boyfriend, which is something that a lot of people disagree with but I wont really say anything about it either way because I dont really feel any specific way) with her friend, Yang, and ended up killing him.

After all that, she pretty much lost the rest of her personality, as well as her arc about all the Faunus stuff. She just kinda became the meek, generically nice, recovering abuse victim. Why? Well, the actual reason is that they didnt plan out shit and are just kinda flying by the seat of their oversized clown-pants and if they and the fandom just admitted it, I would have less of an issue. I still wouldnt be as forgiving towards RWBY as I am towards YGO because the crux of the issue, for me, is just that I dont particulary like RWBY but also like. Do you really expect me to take MKEK seriously as writers after admitting to not have a timeline because iT wOuLd CaUsE pLoThOlEs?

However, since they want us to believe that everything was planned out from the beginning, the explaination would be.... Idk, they deliberately butchered one of their main characters?? Because.. they hate her?? Maybe????

So yeah, that was quite a detour however, I would like you to keep this mind going forward.

2. Themes of the Early Series'

First, what do mean by 'Early Series' for both of these shows respectively? Well, for YGO that would have to be Season 0 or if youre reading the manga, everything pre-Duelist Kingdom. Basically, the part of the series thats a episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror series.

For RWBY that would be the first three Volumes, also known as the Poser-Era. Back then it was just kinda an action series that took place at Anime Warrior Academy (also known as Beacon) with some pretty bare minimum worldbuilding, character-driven plots and developments but now its more of an epic high-fantasy story with more of an emphasis on plot as opposed to just action.

The themes and messages in Early YGO are kinda vague, very confusing to me and if you were to follow any of it literally that would be pretty bad. For now Im just gonna say the main themes are Friendship and Identity and mostly focus on the Identity aspect.

Now, it took me a little while to figure out RWBYs deal but I think the main themes for Volumes 1-3 are also Friendship and Heroism. Once again, I'll mostly focus on Heroism and touch on Friendship more briefly later.

I dont have much more to add to YGOs themes right now, so I'll briefly go over Heroism in RWBY.

In RWBYs setting there are these man-eating monsters called Grimm that have basically infected the planet. In order to deal with that, they have people called huntsmen and huntresses that kill them and protect people. Theyre trained at special academies like Beacon and go on missions there and stuff like that. Our four main characters, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, are training to become huntresses and one day they go on this mission to clean up a grimm infested city block with one of their teachers. Obviously, that takes a long time so they have to camp out in one of the empty houses. Weiss, Blake and Yang cant sleep because theyve been thinking about this question that their teacher asked them when they were fighting grimm: "Why do you want to become a huntress?"

They have a heart to heart and we find out about their motivations; Weiss wants to bring honour back to her family, Blake want to distance herself from the White Fang (that terrorist organization I mentioned earlier) and as an extension from Adam, Yang wants to have a life of adventure. They also talk about why Ruby wants to be a huntress and it turns out that she judt wants to help people. Unlike the others, she has no motivation besides that. We're meant to listen to that and look at her as a sort-of personification of Heroism: kind, but not naive, strong and most of all, selfless. The others on her team are not portayed as bad for not being like Ruby by any means but we are clearly meant to admire her the most out of all of them.

Okay, now comes the part Ive been looking forward to the most:

3. How did these themes evolve in the Modern Series'?

Alright, before we can really delve into the way they evolved in YGO I'll have to give you a brief summary of the character progression. At the start of DM, during the Duelist Kingdom arc, Yami Yuugi is just that; A darker Yuugi. Hes more confident, bolder, his voice is deeper, hes somehow taller, more ruthless, all that good stuff. Notably, he doesnt actually seem more skilled than Yuugi even at the start of this story, but he's still dependent on Yami. Yami on the other hand, has no identity of his own or even hints at one at this point. He's just The Other Yuugi.

Then during the Battle City arc, they find out that Yami was actually a pharao prior to being sealed in the puzzle, he just didnt know because of amnesia, I guess. So now they need to find out his real name and then send him to the afterlife because hes meant to be dead, but not before saving the world from being swallowed by darkness, which is also a thing they have to do now.

Then we finally get to the Memory World arc, where Yami, Yuugi and the rest of the gang astralproject to ancient egypt via puzzle magic. Yami is trying to figure out what the hell is going on and who all these familiar people are, while Yuugi & Co are trying their best to help him. Then some weird shit happens and it turns out that all of that is not just Yamis sealed away memories, but also a giant D&D Shadow Game that will destroy the world if Yami loses. So now theres Pharao!Yami who is still clueless on the metaphorical and literal playing field and Player!Yami, who is kinda controlling himself now? I guess?? Yamis opponent, The Spirit of The Ring, has something similar to that going on where hes both controlling and properly participating in the game. So Player!Yami is now fighting against Player!TSoTR, Pharao!Yami is now fighting against Thief King Bakura (who is like, the human, ancient egyptian version of the Ring Spirit) and Yuugi is now fighting against Yami Bakura (who is like, the human, modern japanese version of the Ring Spirit). Yuugi gets Yamis real name, he and the gang go over to Pharao!Yami and tell him his name, meanwhile Player!Yami is also somehow helping as well and they defeat the Ring Spirit, thus saving the world. Then they travel to modern Egypt, the Ceremonial Duel happens and Yuugi wins, sending Yami to the Afterlife where he can finally rest and that was the series!

I originally wanted to recount the stuff that was going on with the Ring Spirit and his host as well because they parallel eachother, but this summary is already far too long and I think youll get the point without me needing to explain any more.

My point here is, that the story went from being vaguely about Identity, maybe? to being very clearly about Self-Discovery and Learning to Be Independent. I think this is a very good way to evolve the messaging of your story. How does RWBY track on that?

Well, uh... its not great. I will acknowledge that they have tried to introduce new themes and ideas since, even though I wont really be talking about them in this post. But yeah, the whole Heroism thing really regressed.

Like, I didnt explicitly say it when I was explaining grimm earlier, but theyre not going away. The grimm have always been there and people who sign up to become huntsmen and huntresses are effectively signing up for a job that will never truly be done, no matter what they do. Characters like Ruby and even more minor ones like Phyrrah have shown us that that doesnt matter when youre a hero. No life isnt worth saving, no grimm isnt worth killing, no criminal isnt worth arresting. Then, in volume 6 they find out about Salem. Salem is the Big Bad of the show, shes immortal, controls the grimm and is supposed to be very powerful.

What do our heroes do? They give up. Sike! They were just mindcontrolled by monsters or some shit, of course they didnt give up their mission (which is to bring an Important Macguffin to a city called Atlas, sorry I didnt mention it)!

But then they arrive in Atlas (which is llike, a city thats floating over another city called Mantle) and yknow, they do some plot stuff thats not really important right now until the city gets invaded by Salem and this big grimm army she has.

What do our heroes do? Well, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and some side characters are chilling, drinking tea in a mansion and Yang and the B Team were actually trying to do something, but even those efforts seem incredibly minimal.

Oh wait, I also forgot to mention that Ironwood (a fairly minor, vaguely antagonistic character up until now) wanted to lift Atlas even higher to save Atleasian civilians from danger while leaving Mantle vulnerable to Salems invasion.

What would be the most heroic thing to do?

A) Let Ironwood lift Atlas, get as much support as they can down to Mantle and save as many Mantle civilians as they can from the invasion

B) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas but then split up in order to protect both Atlas and Mantle civilians

C) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas and then dont do anything else

Congrats! If you choose C, you think exactly like the writers!

And I just

This is so mindboggling to me, I feel like I shouldnt even have explain how this is bad. And like, it wouldve been so easy to actually make them seem herokc through their actions, to make it seem like they did try but no.

I have never seen a central theme be this botched, how in the world did they do that? Why did they think it was a good idea for Ruby "The Embodiment of Heroism" Rose to sit in a mansion doing nothing, no planning, no organizing just ..... God, how are they this bad? Like, this doesnt even have anything to do with it being planned in any way, this is just straight up incompetence

4. Very briefly touching on friendship

The friendship is awful and its not solely because they all have the same opinions. They barely interact with eachother outside their designated pairs which leads to it all feeling incredibly hollow. Theyre also practically indistingushable from one another now, which is a shame because it wasnt always like that. Like, I dont think the characters were that well-developed in earlier volumes but they were very well-characterized. But now we've gotten to a point where you can literally copy and paste one characters dialogue onto another and literally nothing changes, it really sucks.

5. Some closing words

Damn, this took way longer than I thought it would and now Im pretty exhausted. I have no idea how yall always write these but props to you! I feel like this ended up a bit rambly but overall, Im pretty proud.

Please let me know what you think of the points I brought up! Id also really appreciate some tips on how to get better at these longer posts because I am planning on writing more in the future (not the near future, probably but yknow).

Thats all I have to say for now, thanks for reading!

[alicentsargent]

i cant stop overthinking this. theres a whole ass debate on twitter whether mickey hitting ian was ooc or not and i just gotta say -

there comes a time where people break tf down after being abandoned and abandoned time and time again. mickey was brought up in a violent household, he's made efforts to change and progress over the years, but you can't just forget about how he used to be since 'its been years and he's a changed man this is ooc!' i call BS.

its never been healthy! its never been promoted as healthy. punching ian was a violent act, but if yall wanna just look at this without critical thought bc you're on some pacifist kick by all means.

the way i see it, and really no ones gotta agree with me but we gotta stop cancelling what just happened and deem mickey as 'undeveloped' and regressed just bc he did something that was more s1-3 mickey.

we've never gotten to see mickey after ian's hurt him. e.g. 3x12, 5x12, 6x01, 7x11. the show has the habit of erasing mickey as a character after they show like 20 seconds of his emotions being hurt - especially post-s5.

mickey has felt abandonment and utter fking heartbreak from ian so many times, and yeah we can bring in how shit he was to ian in s1-3 but that doesn't make it 'even' or a competition on whos hurt who - that's a different story altogether.

mickey has put ian before himself too many times and after their time in prison together I really think he somewhat healed from the past, and i say somewhat, Liberally. i can defs see it giving mickey the idea of him and ian being more stable now since they survived everything and prisom together, and still made their way back to one another.

how many times do you think mickey hears i love you? from someone besides ian? probably no one right. the proposal scene was sweet as, you can see mickey tearing up bc he was happy.

the courthouse scene... that was just hit after hit. first ian didnt believe him abt paula, then he insulted him and basically called him a murderer, and even after that mickey was willing to sign and marry ian, (boy what are u doing...) and ian backed out (for his own reasons which we all kno abt).

and honestly. perhaps it is 'ooc' for mickey to hit ian, when ian is finally chasing him, finally wanting to talk it out with mickey and not just run away! and if you think of it from ian's pov, its growth. he's really trying here, i can see that.

but if you look at it from mickey's pov, he's shut tf down, he becomes overwhelmed, he leaves the room. the difference here, from the last times ian has 'left', is that ian finally followed. but that's not registering for mickey. he's not able to see that as 'this isnt the same situation repeating itself.'

so anything ian says is just sliding past, its not common to hear ian even talk about frank and monica but he did, ian was being vulnerable, but to mickey it just sounded like ian wanting to have the last word, to excuse himself, to not take responsibility for hurting mickey again.

and so i personally believe that when ian yells out 'i wanna know how you feel', mickey just wants to hurt him. maybe he was going to say something scathing and hurtful, but he snapped and punched him in the face.

its violent. its a punch. but its also 'leave me the fk alone NOW' and 'this is exactly how i feel do you feel that'

and boyyy do we have a lot more to unpack here from all of that but the 1 very important thing that stands out the most is mickey's unwillingness to listen. ian backing out, and not just that, but giving mickey that face, that face that mickey knows ian does right before he leaves him, mickey is transported to the past, it doesnt matter how differently ian tried to handle the situation this time. mickey's abandonment wounds run so fking deep and that's why i also think it wasnt ooc. mickey was finally done, he'd reached his capacity to hurt inside, the only thing he could control right there were his fists.

(mickey not helping ian and goin to the hospital AFTER ian fell down the stairs is a different story and i find that ooc and sad)

[kinoko-koe]

Story Overview and Basic Organization

Im not really getting around to typing down the larger posts of individual stories so im just placing down some basic information about the ones i have at the moment so i can come back and expand when i actually feel like it

-Stories are listed in the order i have created them not necessarily in chronological order nor are most of them directly related-

(usually when i say things like “over time” im skipping things)

Still cant remember what i called this one lol

The Ascension of the Demi-God of Chaotic Destruction

Using some generic tropes from isekai stories, a group of 5 college-aged friends (2 men 3 women) are suddenly transported to another world with baked in gaming elements that all its inhabitants are aware of. The summoned group have random skills assigned to them and the kingdom that summoned them wanted to find good skills from the summoning.

The main character of this story is one of the men who has been given skills that are more of a support-y mage type, the other man has skills well suited for being a warrior and is sent to the military and one the the women is given to the church to become a cleric, the other 3 including the MC are less valuable to the kingdom and are sent off to improve themselves with minor support from the throne. On his first adventure out with some novices he finds it difficult to relate to the people of this world and also loses his left arm when attacked by a maniac.

Over time the MC gains the class “Infinite Chaos” after being tempted by it as its a strange class not known or available to others. The class grants skills at random times and prevents further class changes among other things. This leads to the MC’s main combo of using the randomly acquired Oil Magic and exploding it from a distance with Fire Magic. The game like system in the world is setup by a deity masquerading as the Grand Deity of Order and this class’s availability, among other complexities, was added by the Ancient of Chaos without the deity’s awareness.

As the MC keeps coming back to the kingdom’s capital every now and then he finds his friends to be different then they used to be and over time become unrecognizable to him (except the one that just became a chef in the capital) although he is also changing to them from the influence of his class. As he feels the only people he can relate to changing he becoming increasingly alone and reckless in his combat while adventuring

While its hard to list all the small changes that happen over time from the class Infinite Chaos and all the non overarching plot events (as i dont want to keep on just this one story) everything reaches a climax when his friends are killed by the Demon King, a mountain-sized giant with absurd dexterity and and enormous sword. He sees this through Farsight rushes to the area, crushing all the monsters and demons in the way. The fight between the MC and the Demon lord triggers the Apocalypse skill they both have from their classes and the world descends into darkness and madness. The Goddess of Moonlight attempt to interrupt the fight but as the two are both almost Demi-Deities in strength together they dispatch her quickly causing the artifical moon she placed to fall towards the planet; and through the gamelike system giving exp from the kill and the Infinite Chaos class allows the MC to ascend into the Demi-God of Chaotic Destruction, a being made of eyes and oil (probably not like youre thinking) and through his Authority can destroy the skills the Demon King uses and wins the battle as the world ends from the moon crashing into the planet.

The Gods of the Sky

Uplifting a civilization to stall an invasion

A sci-fi story about an alien invasion and an alien scientist stalling for time for their federation to arrive with military support. The POV switches between a human female bureaucrat and the alien scientist. The humans are starting out their industrial era, their cities are built around giants that their “god” left on the planet. These giants are robots set to protect the planet from outside invaders. The story starts as the bureaucrat is leaving a city by train as alien ships descend from the sky and the city’s robot starts up as heavily damages the city as its launches itself into combat. Although the robot is able to defeat the scouting ships it is heavily damaged and stalls outside the city.

Later the bureaucrat reaches the city and gives a report on what happened, and the country leaders launch an investigation. The aliens send more ships and have their crew dismantle the worn-down giant robot, where the humans see the aliens for the first time, they are 6 limbed (2 legs 4 arms) creatures with obsidian-like exoskeletons and solid gold eyes. The church declares these aliens to be “demons” here to destroy the giants their “god” left behind.

POV swaps to the scientist who is in a observation ship in orbit, annoyed at the failure of their ship’s alarm system, sends an emergency message to their federation military for “protection of the innocent” from out of federation invaders. They descend their ship to the planet to help assist the humans from the invasion, where a giant robot attacks and is one-shot by their Matter-Annihilation-Cannon. The scientist is a starfish-esque creature that always wears a high-tech mech suit.

The government is obviously skeptical of the scientist at first and the scientist fight the first wave of the “demons” alone with only their ship and utility robots. The scientist finds the “demons” to learn weaknesses in equipment very fast and concludes that they are a hivemind. By using the Matter-Annihilation-Cannon aimed at their commanders the first wave is repelled, but the Cannon can only be fired 3 times before breaking down from its own mechanics and the ship is a science ship without much combat prowess. The goverment now trusting them a bit more the scientist starts using their engines along with advanced handheld weapons to make primitive fighter planes to fight with.

skimming over some stuff eventually a diplomatic spaceship from the federation arrives before the military reinforcements as they were nearby for a new planet colonization ceremony, where its revealed that the federation already has humans in it and the humans on this planet were abducted from Earth thousands of years ago. Along with the scientist’s species and humans there are three other alien species in the federation. A jellfish-esque species that communicates through bioluminescence and has a computer attached that translates for them, a slug-esque religious capitalist species that wears high-tech rugs on their backs as status symbols, and a sapient parasitic plant species that infested human livestock and intentionally bred them to be easier to control and move around in.

Even with this addition to their fighting force the “demons” have an absurd advantage in numbers and, over time, the humans on the planet are reduced to one last city and its giant robot when the federation arrives and completely annihilates the “demons” using terraforming technology to molecularly deconstruct the “demons” on the surface and use Matter-Annihilation-Cannons to destroy their ships. The starfish species that leads the federation dont even think twice as the entire species has a unified strong sense for justice as the planet was violently invaded the invaders are guilty and mercilessly destroyed.

(I swear theres a story im forgetting between these two)

Arisen Anew

Ambition-less Reincarnation and the Demon God Cult (aka everyone hates the Goddess of Resonance)

....Honestly this one went through so many changes and i dont actually like them all and i just kinda dont want to type it.

The basis of this story was a adventurer woman has her party wiped by a bunch of demonkin while on a guard mission and a unrelated mage to their party also took the guard quest and kills the adventurer and the demonkin by just nuking the whole area in fire and the mage has the Demi-Deity of Burning Resurrection (a phoenix) bound to them and the adventurer that is killed get reincarnated and eventually in the new life of the adventurer a cult is formed around the Demi-Deity of Congealing Biomass and they view the reincarnated MC as “the Betrayer” that is in their prophecy that betrays the religion set up by the Goddess of Resonance but... the story kinda got away from that premise, the cult is still around but they were manipulated by the Deity of Non-Physical Connections and i just idk im not that interesting in continuing typing about this one.

(this was typed before i typed to mini-summary) Honestly i think this story was better when i was building it without the ambition-less thing but it just kinda ended up that way when i was finding reasons for the MC to give in to the temptation of the Deity of Non-Physical Connections and the cult and after realizing that she really didnt have any ambitions for anything she was doing the whole time soooooo.......

Hero Killer

Ive just legitimately forgotten a lot about this one almost didnt put it here at all lol

This one is about a True Mimic, a being that can mimic anything (appearance not powers), who is given the Soul Shattering Spear by the God of Obscure Knowledge and uses the spear to kill the plethora of heroes summoned by the Goddess of Judgement to slay the Demon Lord. The True Mimic MC is in a romantic relationship with the Demon Lord so the slaying is more than just a loyalty thing.

The Demon Lord is a strange monster the closest thing is like a satyr with spiral staircase horns and three eyes. She wears a veil at all times and never talks as her speech has a strange power of a kind of soft mind control that makes monsters feel loyalty and makes humans feel disdain.

Honestly outside of the raid on the Demon Lord’s castle while the True Mimic is distracted killing a different hero there wasnt really a whole lot of events beyond that that were actually put in an actual order or were actually relevant to the overarching plot

Amongst Gods (in development)

The story follows a group of humans that like in a massive cave city under a mountain. Outside the cave is a world filled while powerful destructive creatures whose biology doesnt appear logical. A being made of floating mirrors that incinerates things prevents the humans from leaving their city farther than the forest they hunt lesser beings in. One day “The Sky Legs” pass by and destroy the mirror being after it attacked one of its legs. The group of humans go off past where the mirror being held them in.

Past this location they run into a steel being that looks like a horse that starts killing them and a humanoid dragon that helps the survivors and brings them to the dragon settlement. The humanoid dragons are humans that made a pact with the Demi-Goddess of Dragonic Multiplication thousands of years ago and became half dragon. Their settlement is protected by the Demi-Goddesses’s children.

that basically it so far and i probably wont develop beyond this lol

Heretic (in development)

A world where the deities directly interact with humans personally, a grand system of schools have been set up under individual deities to teach humans magic. Each deity tests humans if they are compatible with their teachings and add the worthy to their branch of their overarching school. There are four overarching schools; Arcane, Elemental, Nature, and Dimensional.

Major cities are set up to have several deities with as many “school branches” as possible to scout as many new members as possible. Even larger cities exist solely to help mages progress their magical studies in well regulated “school cities” with over 100 different deities each with hundreds of students.

The story begins with the MC, a magic uh... fan? that recently became an adult, coming to a school city to find a deity to learn from. However, she constantly fails the deities’ tests for compatibility for a week, after 10 days without finding a patron deity her city permit expires and is basically kicked out.

As she is getting a bit desperate, a small strange shadow beckons her and she follows, this continues until the shadow brings her to the back of a strange house and the shadow lets her in and leads her to the basement. Obviously she’s a bit suspicious but also a bit dumb, and opens the way to the basement after some effort to open a strange old door. Inside the basement is a Deity. A shadowy skeleton beast with meter long finger and toe bones and a dinosaur-esque skull with six eyes with wing bones and its back that are layered in shadows.

The deity before the MC explains that the shadow owe it a favor and brought someone compatible with it before it, and that it knows that the MC couldnt find a patron deity and offers its own test. A simple test; it vomits a black liquid into a cup and tells her to drink it. A seemingly gross test thats truly about the trust she will place in the deity. After immense hesitation she drink the liquid and passes out, along with passing the test. The deity and the shadow from earlier bring her back to the room shes rented for her stay in the city, and the deity hides in her shadow.

After the obvious confusion that would occur, the deity starts to teach the MC about shadow magic through the rather forceful method of possession (as she really isnt that cut out for normal magic lessons) The deity also heavily avoids direct questions about its exact powers and school classification.

This is about what ive got so far theres is some general events after this ive got but they arent really fleshed out yet, however the deity that the MC found is the Deity of Inevitable Demise, and its School is the Heresy school that the other deities intentionally suppress as its consists of magic only useful for harming or destroying, such as mind control, necromancy, and instant death.

Why can the Deity of Inevitable Demise control shadows you ask? well thats because it has influence over the end of everything. The end of life, light, movement, fate, space, and time. Although its ability to manipulate those attributes is depended on how close those ends are to the current location, but darkness, the end of light, is readily accessible in most scenarios.

-----

Thats all for this post this has been loitering as a draft for a few weeks and i didnt double read it so somethings might not make sense but oh well done and posted is better than nothing.

[greenflamedwriter]

Percy AU

Percy Jackson AU

Keith as Nico di angelo and Lance as Percy Jackson.

But Lance was never claimed so he assumed he was Hermes kid he meshed well with them.

But once Keith got claimed so did lance and then shiro their dads had some sort of rivalry.

They didn’t account for the three to fall in love with each other. After an intense mission to save medusa. For lance.

Personophene for Keith and Ganymede for Shiro.

1 Lance is really nice and open with people until he realises that both Keith and Shiro are Roman descendants and not greek so they clash a little, Keith insults greeks and Lance is offended.

2 dinner and theres a party and lance is in the middle of it trying to get the daughter of Athena (Allura) To dance with him and that’s when it happens. Shiro is claimed by zues and everyone applauds then Keith by Hades and hears other say (it was so obvious he was an emo) But then lance is claimed by poseidan and everyone just stops and stares. What?

3 Lance is mad, he was a hermes kid wasn’t he? He looked like them, he had the same jaw line and nose and they all got along so well...this had to be a mistake and why now? He blames the new kids and this is when the party Lance becomes grouchy.

4 They get a quest (to save the victims by the abuse if the main three gods. Medusa, Personophene, Ganeymede)

5. Lance remembers his mother, and he always heard the tale of Medusa and thought it was sad. So when they go to the statues, and realise it’s people Lance keeps talking about how sorry he was and how being how she looks was to protect herself, Lance wanted to sacrifice himself and asked to let Keith and Shiro go to save kids. Medusa realising no trick lets him go.

6. Personophene and Keith, Keith apologises since Personophene hates Hades he thought and she blinks “I’m a god, I don’t eat.

Period. I knew underworld food would keep me trapped I hadn’t eaten in months and all of a sudden I’m peckish? Pul-ease.” Keith blinked confused.

“And I don’t hate you, you didn’t ask to be born. And I know Hades returns to me in the end.” Personophene brushes his cheek “You have his eyes, maybe thats why I can’t bring myself to hate you.”

7. Ganeymede. The boy who was stolen, raped and made into Zues personell wine waiter then demoted to a fate taxi cab telepromter. Boy he hates Shiro because who can actually hurt Zues?

Camp halfblood, was Lance’s home since before he could remember. He was here when he was seven years old and in all that time ten years later, he’d never been claimed.

He like any other child who wasn’t claimed stayed in the Hermes Cabin. They’re cabin was huge and the many children and teens there were very sociable. Sure at times they were a bit..much. But their pranks were legendary.

Lance always figured he was a hermes kid, he looked like them. Racheal was practically his twin, with long curly hair and Veronica was like his big sister, Luis and Marco were always taking care of him.

The hermes kids were amazing but Lance?

He just existed, everyone in the camp had gone on a quest, they’d been choosen. And some kids died young. Most die on they’re missions and Lance was the oldest person here.

The looks he got...it made him feel guilty and yet he was terrified of a prohecy that would choose to kill him.

He felt like on of the unlucky kids whose wisdom teeth hadn’t grown in yet.

And he was terrified.

But living his life in fear got boring after awhile and who had time to be afraid when an honest to god goddess lived in camp half blood whose name began with an A?

No not aphrodite, they weren’t that lucky.

Allura Altea- The most beautiful girl here also his age, but she has been on more quests and regained so any trophies. Lance could only gaze from afar and hope that one day he’ll have a quest and prove how much of a badass he was, maybe she’d give him the time of day.

Allura was at the pool, still in her white vest top and brown trousers sitting crosslegged and plaiting Romelles hair. They were best friends and girls always did stuff like that.

He sighed wistfully, maybe one day he’d sit over there playing with Allura’s hair and she’d kiss his cheek.

“Lance?”

“Fuck Zues!” Lance cried out almost punching himself in the face. Alfor the camp’s leader raised an eyebrow.

“Are you busy?”

Lance stood up hastily “No- No not at all.” He brushed grass of his legs, he would never admit his feelings for Allura with Alfor.

The guy was like her dad, well he was like everyones adoptive dad, along with Coran. So Lance would never tell him anything about that.

“What is it?” Alfor had his arms crossed and a knowing smile.

“Lance I would’ve asked but since you’ve been here longer, I hope you would do me a favour?”

Lance blinked “And what’s that?”

“Two kids from the roman camp got lost and found themselves here. They have no where to go and I thought someone like you would help them settle in, show them around.”

Was alfor...dumping these kids on him, why couldn’t he do it?

“I’m already introducing the first year campers, my hands are tied.” Lance raised an eyebrow then sighed “Fine.” It wasn’t like he wasn’t doing anything anyway.

Plus, being a tour guide to a bunch of snot nosed brats might not suck so much.

They were not brats.

Lance didn’t even think they were kids, he took a step out the cabin where they reside and made a show of looking around.

“Excuse me, have you seen any kids from a roman camp?” Because these guys had to be counselors, one was built like superman with beefy titties of doom, and a thin dorito shaped body and Lance had a good feeling he had a nice ass to go with the combo, he had a lock of white hair and beautiful almond eyes with a scar along his face. The guy could stop a room and the other one wasn’t bad looking either.

He looked like the type of guy Lance would ask to step on him, he was scowling with a cute pout and raven coloured hair that curled around his face and- god that was a mullet, well everything else made up for it.

These two were sculptures carved by pygmalion himself.

“Eyes up here,” The big one spoke and oh god even his voice sounded delightful. It was obvious, some higher power made these two to tempt him and Lance honestly didn’t mind.

He grimaced “Sorry,” He slid inside placing a hand in his pockets “Well I’ll take it you guys are the roman kids- and not some new counselors?” Who happen to model in their spare time, he kept to himself.

“Yeah, the roman camp just wasn’t for us.” The big man spoke again. Lance shrugged “Ever since the whole Roman and Greek exposure everyone feels as if their camp isn’t the right fit.” Lance shrugged “Who knows- am I the son of Hermes or the son of Mercury?” At this the scowling one looked surprised.

“You know the roman equivalents?” Lance winked “Not just a pretty face.”

He looked flabergasted and Lance almost laughed at him, he heard the other chuckle.

“I’m Shiro, and this is Keith. We were not selected yet which is why they sent us here. In case the greek gods want to claim us.” Lance grimaced “You might not get claimed some kids here have lived here years and still hadn’t been claimed. The greek camp is just a glorified holding place for the newbies and the unclaimables.” Lance beamed.

“So want a tour?”

Both glanced at one another then shrugged “Sure.”

Lance gaped at the white lighting bolt floating above Shiro’s head and then a purple scythe above Keiths. The other campers gasped as they drew away from the two except Lance as he beamed.

“Dude that’s amazing!” He clapped Keith on the shoulder “Claimed on day one, I’m jealous.” Then everyone was staring at him.

Keith looked up “I thought you said you were a kid of hermes?” Lance frowned “I am?” He glanced up and froze.

Above his head was a blue trident.

Poseidon's trident.

His eyes fell to the Hermes cabin and felt his heart shatter. They weren’t his family- they weren’t his brothers and sisters.

Alfor came and the rest was a blur, Lance was mostly in shock. It wasn’t until after when Alfor told him he’d have to move his stuff to his new cabin that he realised how severe it was.

His empty cabin, not much children of the big three stayed in the greek camp all of them were moving to rome. It was the only place that was big enough where they could live past eighteen. Allura the daughter of Athena mentioned moving there once, Lance never thought he could, he had his family here- or he thought he did.

His eyes slid over to Keith and Shiro, both looking excited and relieved that they were claimed.

Lance scowled he was never claimed before. Not once, then they show up and suddenly he is?

It was their fault.

Their new quarters are empty, there has never been children to the great three gods in a while, he’d been told. Shiro lay upon his bed glancing up at Zues. He looked ready to smite Shiro where he lay.

Where was the happy Zues from Disney? Shiro sat up, unable to sleep. Waking up somewhere different has always been scary and knowing Keith isn’t there? It’ll kill him.

He stood up from his bed and moved towards the back door opening it up with a slide onto the patio and took a step onto the wooden decking.

“Oh.” He flinched looking up then relaxed to find Keith there, looking awkward.

“Keith,” He asked relieved and the other relaxed too “Want to go for a swim?” Shiro glanced at the lake then smirked.

Lance couldn’t sleep.

He was in a new bed, with new sheets and a much larger, emptier room.

He rolled over and sighed, and that was loud. The silence was killing him, he sat up scowling into the darkness. He wasn’t sleeping no matter what.

Lance slowly makes his way towards the lake, he’s done this thousands of times and when he couldn’t sleep it usually helped in the past.

He heard a sound of splashing then laughter his head shot up and froze to see both Shiro and Keith in the lake.

Making out.

That...makes so much sense. But honestly Lance felt even more peeved.

“Oh come on! Really?” Both startled away to see Lance but he scowled shaking his head and tossing of his towel violently “No it’s too late,” Lance began to take of his shirt “I’m already out here, keep your cooties to yourself.” He dived into the lake and started swimming making lots of noise. He loved the glare the two had then dived into the water and kept swimming.

It felt fitting, sharing a lake with the kids that started this.

Sure it wasn’t their fault but if they didn't come to the camp Lance wouldn’t be choosen by poseidon in the first place.

He couldn’t see beyond the moonlight but he felt calm, he hated poseidon for doing this but it answered questions, made him lighter why he liked the water why sometimes the hermes kids were a bit...much.

And Lance just floated in the water and shut his eyes. There was a prophecy long ago about the greek children of the big three would cause the apocolpse. It ended and it turned out they didn’t do the apocalypse just the trigger for it, it was all dumb, but the fear remained. Roman kids were the exception...until now.

Lance opened his eyes still fuming, it happened four hours ago- he had a family, his friends in the Hermes Cabin now they looked at him weirdly he even had a chance with Allura (He didn’t) But now she couldn’t stand the sight of him.

It took him a few moments to remember that he wasn’t holding his breath, Lance brow furrowed huh?

He took a long inhale and he was breathing, like he was breathing air. This was- he was close to panicking now, had he ever tried this before? Well no what idiot breathed in water besides drinking it, of course he hadn’t tried this before. Until suddenly something grabbed his arm and he thrashed and felt something pull him up, the surface broke as he gulped in large bursts of air that burned his throat he was still being pulled he blinked water out of his eyes to see-shiro?

Shiro picked him up and practically tossed him on the back gasping, Lance gasped hand on his chest.

“Dude what the hell?” he asked outraged, what was Shiro’s deal?

Shiro glared at him then a voice spoke behind him “We thought you were drowning, idiot!” Lance turned and gasped to see not only Keith in a towel dripping wet and looking pissed, there was also

Alfor the Camp leader and Coran were standing just behind him.

Lance felt his throat close up “Uh h-how long was I…?”

Shiro looked up through his bangs grey eyes brewing up a storm that could rival Zues’s thunder “Almost twenty minutes.” Lance eyes bulged.

“I...I wasn’t drowning, I was always able to hold my breath under water.” Lance couldn’t say he wasn’t holding his breath period but admitting something like that would only solidify he was the son of Poseidon.

But shiro rolled his eyes “Son of posedion, typical.”

Alfor cleared his throat “What I have to ask boys, is what were you doing out in the lake past curfew.”

Now Lance almost stopped breathing. His first time in trouble, he glared at Shiro and Keith.

This was all of their fault.

Lance hides behind a pillar panting with a cut down his cheek. Oh god he was going to die!

“Hey!”

Lance turned to see Shiro lunge forward eyes closed “If you want a fight come and get me!”

Lance gaped what?

They were in the car silent, “Um, a-about medusa? I pretty much handled it.”

Keith snorted from the back even Shiro’s grip tightened on the wheel “Walking out into the open to face Medusa knowing full well what she was going to do to you?”

Lance felt himself flush “We had to save them shiro- she was my responsibility- you didn’t have to jump in there to help me,”

“She was going to kill you!” Shiro snapped almost swerving on the road, Lance and Keith gaped as Shiro continued his tangent “Like hell I was going to sit there and let her.”

“I’m trying to say ‘thank you’ you ass!”

The car became silent and Lance shuffled in his seat glancing away “You didn’t have to help me but you did, so, thanks by the way…”

He crissed his arms and Shiro was surprised even with Keiths bewildered look in the background “Your welcome.” Shiro said softly as they aimlessly continued west

“Cone on Keith wheres your sense of humour!”

“Lance, no.”

Lance grabbed his arm and dragged him backwards towards the carnival with Shiro following behind. Lance pulled Keith onto every ride forced him to eat cotton candy but what stopped Keith from snapping at the kid.

Was when Lance played a shooting range gane and gave Keith a hippo.

“Only the best for the prettiest boy.”

Lance grabbed his hand and pulled Keith fir more open stalls with merchendise.

Keithseyes were shinning theough the whole trip and Shiro was able to watch it all.

Carnival leads to persophene

After Aphrodite crisis to pair the three up.

Lance jumps at the teenage girl sitting at the pool beside him, “So why don’t you try them, I know you like them.” Lance flushed “What?”

“It’s obvious, except not obvious enough for those two. Love does make a person go blind.” Lance shook his head “What no? Come between Keith and Shiro?”

She looked amused as he babbled “I can’t do that to them, they’ve been through so much.” Lance looked over to the two his eyes softening “Shiro has been hurt so many times, gladiator fights? It was compeltely barbaric and his hair is white- and Keith he’s a demon with a sword and can raise skeletons from the dead! Both are so strong but only vunerable around each other...they’re perfect for each other. When I think of Soulmates I think of them two...I hope I can find someone like them one day.”

“Like them? Why not just court them, I doubt the two would mind.”

“Making them pick each other or me? That’s stepping down.” Lance said unknowing why this stranger tried to sabotage Keith and Shiro, was she a siren? If so it wasn’t working.

She shook her head “No, it is possible to be partners with three people. I should know, Hephaestus is very accepting of who I am and who I bed with.”

“Heph- wait.” Lance’s eyes widened in shock as he looks at the golden teen properly.

She was big, round belly and thick legs and arms with golden healthy hair curling at her shoulders her face plump lips tilted into a smile as sea green eyes seemed to swirl, unnatural. God like.

She looked exactly like the painting, Venus stepping out of her sea shell.

She stroked his face “We share waters, both are lovers of the sea.” She kissed his cheek “If Gods could adopt demi-children, all of Poseidon's folk would be mine. Artemis can do it, why can’t I?”

Lance gaped “I can’t turn my back on poseidon he’ll drown me.” She smiled “What’s wrong with co-parenting? Do him proud by defending his name and waters and do me proud,” She nudged his shoulder and glancing at Keith and Shiro “By falling in love.” Lance’s eyes widened “I give my blessing, and I wouldn’t do this for a lost cause I stoke the fires for love. Never extinguishing them.” Lance blinked and she was gone.

The beautiful teenager, Aphrodite.”

Ganeymede they use their powers keith summons dinasaurs lance dives underwater to save shiro (ganeymede drowns shiro as zues cant save him)

Ganeymede “Zues is gay!?”

Both Ganeymede Keith and shiro raised an eyebrow “Ih yeah, who wasn’t gay with the greek gods.” Lance felt as if his whole life was a lie.

“I feel like I should know this as a fellow gay,”

Keith oatted his head “Your a newbie gay it’ll take a while to figure out.”

[shibalen]

💥hewwo can I pwease get a romantic male matchup for bnha (darkbox bc I live for angst) (music box) when you have the time uwu

Levi he/him gay entp supposedly (also if it's not too much to ask please no characters under the age of 18 please)

I've been described as having a strong and loud personality, I'm extroverted and outspoken. I'm pretty eccentric too.

I value friendship, kindness and standing up for others.

Goal wise I'm pretty aimless. I dont have any goals, if I die well I guess that's it babey. In the meantime I'm just here to help animals and people who need it.

Positive traits: I always stick up for people in need, I'm good at reading people, I'm good with animals, I love to make people smile and laugh, cheerful, good at talking my way out of bad situations, uhm. Friendly!

Negative traits would be: hot headed, loud, stubborn, arrogant, comes across as intimidating:( good at getting into bad situations, gets into fights very often. Can be spiteful, I've been described as a pyromaniac so theres that. Can be sadistic

What pisses me off: my father. I can and will cause trouble for that man for as long as I live. And people who pick on the weak.

My hobbies and interests areeee: true crime babey! Crying over video games, baking, the occult, taking naps, dream interpretations and tarot readings

Likes: animals, cats specifically, stars, fire, sunsets, supposedly haunted places, storms, being dramatic for the hell of it, tormenting people in a good hearted way

Dislikes: uhhhh hot weather I guess.

Quirks: uh I have 5 cats! Ones my fathers but he never takes care of his cat so i pretty much count him as my own (plus he likes me more than my dad and it pisses my dad off hehe) I have weirdly accurate intuition, it makes reading people easy, knowing what they want to hear and what they dont.

Uhhh dates and relationship wise I'm honestly happy doing whatever my s/o wants to do. All I want is to see their face light up.

My love language is physical touch, I dont like touching people but if it's someone I feel strongly about youd have to pry me away from them.

I once got kicked out of a library for starting a fight in it, trashy I know but I wasnt going to stand there and do nothing while my friends were being bullied and pressured into getting involved with a really dodgy man. I scared the bullies off for good at least B) they never bothered my friend again babey

Oh I'm also known around the area I live in as someone who's good at finding homes of lost pets. Often times I come across a lost animal and befriend it in no time and use my connections to find its family.

Sorry if this was rly long and thank you for your time!! I hope you have a fantastic day uwu if anything's too difficult to come up with ideas for I'm more than happy for you to change anything to make it easier for you too!

♡︎ matchup for anon

heya! here i am with another late matchup but i hope you still see this. i'm sorry about the delay (╯_╰)

bnha: i match you with . . .

natsuo todoroki !!

• this was one of those "heureka!" moments for me. you both hate your dads and hot weather? it's a match made in heaven! okay jk, these are just nice add-ons.

• what really made me consider Natsuo were your values and personality. kindness and friendships are important to both of you. Natsuo's a medical student so i am convinced helping others is high on his priority list too. he loves your driven and passionate nature because he doesn't go sugarcoating bs either.

• you're definitely the more energetic one while Natsuo only gets hot-headed about the things that are the most important to him. i think it's a good compromise, you can help each other out :)

• he was a little taken aback and cautious of your explosiveness at first but warmed up to it quickly after learning what a kind person you really were. now he thinks your dramatic attitude is funny during your sillier moments ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶

• speaking of, you lads met at an animal shelter. there had been a dog that was astray in the neighbourhood of his home, so Natsuo, being a responsible boyo, took it to the local shelter.

• then there you were, standing by the help desk with five kittens wrapped in your jacket in your arms. apparently someone had been trying to drown them so you'd taken care of the situation accordingly.

• Natsuo understood jumping into a lake to rescue the poor animals because he would have done the same, but you could have had just called the police?? it was extremely ridiculous but admirable at the same time to beat all those guys up.

• your chat turned into a pleasant conversation afterwards as you were waiting for the animals to finish their check-ups. Natsuo was a bit shy but you didn't mind and kept the chat going which he appreciated.

• later he volunteered to help you look for good homes for the animals you'd both found. during this project the two of you got to know each other quite well and ended up hanging out together afterwards!

• and from that point on, everything fell into place naturally. the growing spark between you was undeniable and you both knew it. Natsuo definitely liked you longer, he was just a lil dense about it . . .

• you're nothing short of a hero in his eyes but dear lord he worries for you. when he's attending lectures he sometimes can't help but wonder if you're all right and not getting involved in anything violent.

• attends to your possible injuries while nagging you not to be so quick to start a fight next time. in return, you playfully bully him for being such a mom.

• you join forces with Fuyumi to pick on him about your relationship. even though you're already together, soft Natsuo still blushes when his affection for you is brought up, it's entertaining for both you and Fuyumi.

• idk if you've heard but Natsuo's 181cm tall!! hugging someone has never been easier even if you happen to be taller than him. the only thing is his skin's naturally kind of chilly so he's lowkey worried if you dislike it but you always assure him he's perfect!

• one time he was stressed over exams so you baked him some blueberry muffins. he gave you the biggest hug and kiss because it's exactly all these little things you do that set his heart racing for you ♡︎

• "last night i saw a dream about being a frog and eating giant flies, it was gross."

• "oh, that just means your love life is about to become fun."

• "i'm not sure how those two are related."

• "just trust me. i'm a pro at this."

• he also likes giving you headpats as much as he likes receiving them! his hands are quite big so he often runs his fingers through your hair when you're cuddling or hugging. it's especially relaxing after a long period of studying. also him carring you on his broad back ԅ(￣ε￣ԅ)

• you enjoy the little things in life and complain about your fathers together. you've agreed to wait a while before even mentioning your relationship to them because, honestly, Natsuo doesn't want any more horrible influences in your life.

• you get him sucked into the world of video games. it's always fun to watch him struggle but he never gets salty about losing maybe a lil he adores your smile as you laugh at him for being so bad at them.

• your dates include: helping out at animal shelters and retirement homes, video game and movie nights (especially about true crime), arcades and astronomy tower explorstions. i feel like Natsuo's more into traditional, romantic and chill dates and that's your usual thing. though i see sometimes you going to get coffee and ending up solving a 50-year-old murder case instead (✧ω✧)

❦︎ ink box

— despite Natsuo's best efforts to distance himself from Endeavor, it wasn't quite as easy and everyone was very much aware of the Todoroki family. and now the son of the number 1 hero had a lover.

— it wasn't actually that troublesome at first. some newpaper paparazzi occasionally annoyed you but you didn't care for them. most of the time Natsuo and you had your peace during dates aside from a few casual fans.

— but of course there are all sorts of people out there, some out for revenge, some for money, and being desperate means using even the lowest of methods to get what you want.

— so one time it happened, and it was all that took. several bitter villains thought they'd get their revenge through you, silly as it may sound. they made a big show of kidnapping you and demanding Endeavor to 'make up' for his wrongdoing. but all got resolved thanks to heroes, the only casualty being Natsuo's heart from almost exploding from worry and his deepening hatred for his father.

— later on, it wasn't that Natsuo was worried about you not being able to handle yourself, he feared what might happen if more of powerful villains came after you.

— so, after some debate, you agreed not to meet up for a short while to let the fuse of the incident settle down. it would be safer once the media forgot about it. you still texted and chatter over phone though!

— but then a week turned into two weeks, then into a month. you were wondering what was taking Natsuo to say the coast was clear and did a straight-up inquiry through a video chat.

— you could see he was restless the entire time. he said you should wait longer just to be sure everything was calm before meeting up. you became irritated because he was obviously lying and not being his normal, brutally honest self.

— why was he giving you this crap straight to your face?

— truthfully, Natsuo hadn't been sleeping all right recently. ever since that day he had reoccurring nightmares about something awful happening to you. they were just dreams, he knew. yet considering his ruffled up past and the frequency of those horrible visions, it would have been lie to say he was unaffected.

— paranoia just wouldn't leave him alone, and no matter how much he wanted to hold you in his arms again and hated making up stupid excuses, the voice at the back of his mind whispered this was for the best.

— after a month and a half had passed you've had just about enough, however. whatever reason he was keeping you in the dark for did no longer stop you from crashing into his house and demanding the truth.

— Natsuo knew you and expected this to eventually happen. after you made such a powerful entrance though he also knew there was no getting around it this time. really, it was comforting knowing you cared so deeply.

— he told you exactly what had been happening and you resisted the urge to punch him in the arm for having such a mindset. but the look in his beautiful grey eyes was so heartbreaking you threw yourself to embrace him instead. your touch was everything Natsuo had craved for for all this time.

— you skillfully assured him for the next couple of hours while keeping the talk light-hearted (he had obviously been overthinking way too much already). soon enough the issue was resolved and you had a sleepover right there to make uo for the lost time (Shoto and Fuyumi kept eavesdropping on you because y'all were being way too loud in a cute way).

— "i love you, Natsu, but if you ever keep something like this a secret from me again, i can't guarantee the safety of your arm or your front door."

♫︎ music box

— If I Had An Airplane by SayWeCanFly

— This December by Rick Montgomery

— Round & Laundry from Carole and Tuesday

— Haven't Had Enough by Marianas Trench

— Bowie On The Radio by Ryan McMullan

♡︎ runner up: Dabi / Touya Todoroki

thank you for requesting, hopefully you enjoyed this! i'm really pleased about matching you with Natsuo, it's just so perfect. have a lovely day and remember to take care of yourself ♡︎

[gasstationshane]

I was driving to Los Angeles with my brother Mark, when my life changed forever. He had just graduated from high school, and accpted into the same college that I was going to. We with were on a road trip to Los Angeles so I could show him all the good spots for food and other needs as well as celebrating his graduation. Mark kept changing the radio or the music on the bluetooth speaker about a few hours or so after getting out of the Michigan border. At least it felt like a few hours, but it honesty could have been longer. Time flies when your driving.

At one point, we had to be bluetooth only for our road trip music, since the radio signal was so bad that all we were getting was nothing but fuzzy feedback. It's funny, you think with as advanced the way technology is these days, they'd have something to stop dead zones. But I guess people that make these things focus on one problem at a time. I wouldn't know exactly, despite me being a gamer and hopefully a graphic artist someday.

When we got even deeper into the woods that we were driving into, it started raining hard. Mark couldn't help but chuckle.

"You gonna be able to drive okay if it storms, or do I gotta take over?" He asked, teasing me about my fear of thunderstorms. I looked up through my window, and I was confused as hell. It was raining, pouring and a storm was about to hit. And yet, there was not a cloud in the sky. It was night time, but with all the stars shining, it was easy to tell. I sighed and shook my head.

"No I'll be fine, but I'll pull over the moment I feel like the storm is gonna effect my driving." I answered him in a slightly louder voice than usual, the rain hitting the car being loud. It's weird, even though thunderstorm's scare the living hell out of me, I enjoy the sound of rain hitting windows and cars. If the thunder is loud and hitting fast, like an elephant that just saw a mouse, I become filled with panic and freak out.

I heard thunder roll, and I sighed. It wasn't loud, but thunderstorms are like sloths. Slow and determined. I looked out the window once again, the starry night sky filled with dark clouds. Mark seemed to notice the difference between now and when it started raining.

"Are we ahead of the storm or something? How the hell did we get no clouds to a full on overcast?" He asked, just as confused as me. I shrugged.

"No idea. The rain more down south could be different than back home but who knows man." Suddenly, more thunder rolled. It was louder than before and I could feel it make the steering wheel vibrate. I pulled over, feeling my body already begining to shake. I hated how bad my fear of thunderstorms was. It was embarrassing that a 21 year old could stop doing anything instantly, just by hearing thunder. Mark reached over, rubbing the back of my shoulder gently.

"It's okay bro, I'll drive so you can get some rest." I nodded in response, getting ready to undo my seatbelt so we could switch seats. Mark already had his off. I took longer due to the shaking. My hands kept slipping and I almost had it when I saw a very bright light. I looked out through the windshield, seeing a semi truck. Once my eyes fully focused, I saw that the truck was swerving. My eyes widened. He was on the wrong side of the road.

My fear turned into a panic and my fight or flight mode, my body instantly honking the horn and trying to put the car in reverse so I could get us out of the way. The truck didn't go back to it's side of the road, and the car was moving slowly.

"Shit! Mark get out!" I shouted to my brother as I looked at him before going back to trying to get my seat belt off. It was stuck, making me growl in frustration as I desperately tugged at it. Suddenly, the truck hit us, making my body slam against the seat belt before violently pushing me back against the car seat. I squeezed my eyes shut out of fear. I heard a loud smack before hearing Mark cry out in pain, I looked towards him to see if he was okay, but the air bag went off, hitting my face without warning and knocking me out within seconds.

When I was awake again, I looked around. I was somehow still in my seat, the seat belt still clicked into the holder. I looked around the car, Mark no where to be found. Panic once again surged through my body, making finally get that damn seat belt off. I got out of the car, looking around for Mark and calling out his name.

When I found him, he was laying a foot or so away from the car. He had a bruised gash on his forehead that looked like he purposely slammed it onto a rock, a few shards of glass from what I could only assume was the windows or even the windshield scattered into his chest. I ran over to him, shaking him slightly.

"Mark! Wake up buddy. Come on we gotta get you to the hospital. Dad's gonna kill us, but it'll be okay." I said, trying to get him up. He didn't budge. I stared at him blankly, hoping like hell he'd show me some form of movement. But.. Nothing happened... Before I knew it, I was already crying. My brother was dead.. And it was all my fault.

I screamed in frustration, pulling my phone out of my pocket and dialing 911. I heard a beeping and looked at the screen. No signal.. "Shit!" I shouted, running down the road to try to find help as quick as possible. My emotions were really fucking me up on the inside... I could literally feel my stomach burning. After about a mile, I saw a gas station on the side of the road. Oh thank God! Maybe now I can actually get some help.

Before I could walk in, a huge raccoon jumped out of a bush in front of me, causing me to fall on my ass. I looked at the furry trash panda, confused. When I said he was huge, I didn't mean he was fat. This guy was so big that if he stood on his hind legs, he'd be three feet tall at least.

Something else strange that I noticed, as he came closer to me. He was carrying a small amount of what looked to be a couple dollar bills in his mouth. What.. The fuck? Why was a Raccoon carrying cash with him.. Don't they usually steal food or some shit? Before I could scare him away, he dropped the bills into my hand and got close to my face. He nuzzled me with a purr before heading back to the woods, leaving me there confused with bills in my hand that was dripping with raccoon drool.

Normally, I'd be grossed out at this point but I had more important things to worry about. I got up and walked into the gas station. "Hey, do you have a phone that actually works? I've been in a bad car accident and I need a ambulance. I'm pretty sure my brothers dead.." I explained, panting heavily from panic as I looked at the cashier. He looked to be about my age, but clearly needed a good nights sleep.

He had dark circles under his eyes that even made me feel tired after the shit I've been through. I saw the name tag on his shirt. His name was Jack. Jack... Why does that sound familiar? I shrugged it off as I got closer to the counter.

He looked up from the book he was reading before using a crutch to stand up against the cash register, sighing softly like I interrupted something important. He must've been at a good point in his book to have that reaction.

"If you wanna use the phone, it's twenty five cents a minute. Pay in advance, no exceptions." He said as he looked at me, seeming to think that I wasn't in a serious situation. So that explains why the raccoon gave me those bills earlier... But how did he know. There was a strange familiarity about the place. A guy named Jack that works at a gas station in what felt like the middle of nowhere, who also looked like the word sleep had absolutely no meaning in his vocab. A quote from a blog I read a while back came to my head.

'At the edge of town...' Then a bunch of details I couldn't remember at the moment "... Theres a shitty little gas station, open twenty four hours a day, seven days a week." I also remembered the blog mentioning something about a three foot tall raccoon named Rocco. Then it hit me. I wasn't at just a gas station. I was at THE gas station. The one that was talked about on a blog called 'tales from the gas station' by a guy known as gas station Jack. And that very Jack, was right in front of me. Well.. That explains the raccoon. That was Rocco.

"Holy shit!" I blurted out, unable to hide my fanboying. "Your gas station Jack! Author of tales from the gas station! Dude!" He looked back at me with a look of shock. This is the most awake he looked during our interaction. But now that I know who I was dealing with, the whole sleep deprivation look made sense. If I remember correctly from the blog, he had fatal familia insomnia. Meaning, he couldn't sleep. At all.

"You've read my blog?" He asked a bit confused. I nodded and smiled softly, ignoring my body shaking violently from the accident.

"Hell yeah! I've also listened to it being read by Mr. Creepy Pasta." I stated proudly, hoping he'd appreciate that detail. He sighed, crossing his arms. I was surprised at how well he was able to balance himself on his crutch.

"Are you sure your not making this up to get a free phone call? Because it's not gonna work. No exceptions. And no alternative forms of payment either." He said before repositioning himself so his arms were resting on the counter. I laughed and shook my head.

"Nah, I'm not the kind of guy that would use your Internet fame against you." I handed him both the dollar bills, not sure how long the call would be.

"Thankfully, Rocco gave me some cash before I came in here." I explained as he took the bills. He was gonna ask about Rocco, but decided against it once he remembered the situation I was in. He spun the egg timer and handed me the phone. Within in a matter of minutes, I had explained the accident I was in and was told that help was on the way.

I gave the phone back to Jack and thanked him, before heading back to the scene of the accident. They wouldn't let me ride in the ambulance with Mark, explaining that they needed room so the paramedics could start working on taking care of him. Instead, I rode in the passenger side of the cop car, with deputy Amelia O'Brien driving. I kept quiet, secretly happy that it was her that gave me the ride. She was another Character in Jack's blog. It was so cool to know that not everything he put in the blog was made up.

"He's gonna be fine." She started, snapping me out of my thoughts. "It looks like he hit his head on the dashboard. He's knocked out and possibly in a coma." I frowned, looking away. Maybe she was just trying to convince me that I wasn't responsible for my brothers death. A wave of guilt washed through me, the pain and burning I had felt in my stomach hours earlier had came back. I couldn't tell if I was gonna throw up all the stomach acid in my body, or explode. I was cringing and O'Brien had pulled over to the side of the road. I opened up the car door and fell out onto my knees. I felt like I had just gotten the worlds worst flu. I'm sure my body temperature exceeded one hundred, my hair and skin were already drenched in sweat. O'Brien stood next to me, calling in for another ambulance. And suddenly... I blacked out...

To be.. Continued..

[dadbodsarehot]

gget ready for a doozy: 2, 3, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16: would he go rrandonauting with me + mavericcck hehehh

fdsjfjfkldsf for someone who knows more about maverick than literally anyone else on earth you sure want to know a lot abt maverick 

gonna stick this under a cut so its not obnoxiously long 

2. Does your insert have a very strong relationship with a f/o, maybe more than one? Tell us a little about the dynamic they have! This can be a bond that’s romantic, familial, or platonic, anything - even an enemy would count as a strong relationship!

this is such a weird question. do people make self inserts for things other than selfshipping?? anyway. obviously his main dynamic is w kaz; they compliment each other in a lot of ways.. both kind of work too hard, in different ways, and find solace and relaxation in each others presence-- something that only becomes stronger over the years. they never really stop being playful and easygoing-- maverick can get away w saying a lot of things to kaz that probably nobody else could, and vice versa. the obnoxious pda couple to a fault, even if they get a bit quieter about it as they get older. 

mavericks other strong connection, as you already know, is to big boss. he never really had a lot of strong older male figures in his life that weren’t horrendous, and good ol john snake fits that older brother role to a t-- at least for a while. mostly they just train-- its how they communicate. maverick considers it an accomplishment if he can make him laugh. once in a blue moon trauma is mutually discussed, acknowledged and then never brought up again until the next time it happens.  

3. Who in their canon are they closest to? Who would they drop everything to come help, if anyone? Who’s the person they’re least close to? Who would they most likely not get along with, if anyone?

obviously kaz again. theres nothing mav wouldnt do for his husband up to and including die and commit violent murder. as for like.. people he doesnt like. hm. dunks on huey. ocelot can choke. next question 

12. Is your insert a loner, or do they prefer crowds? Do they warm up easily, or do they tend to take longer to befriend others? What kinda people do they get along with? Who are they likely to be uncomfortable with?

definitely a loner-- he didn’t really do relationships longer than like. one night stands before meeting kaz. crowds are good for blending into but hes definitely more of a solitary guy. he keeps people at arms length Often. he likes people who can take his sarcasm and keep up with him, and people who dont take his jokes too seriously and get all bummed out. anyone who tries to make him confront his Large Amount Of Trauma against his will is on his shitlist-- or just anyone too stuck up and serious in general. 

13. What are your insert’s goals? Their hopes and dreams for the past/future/present! Do they intend to achieve no matter what? Could anything stop them, big or small?

GOALS.... cant say he really had many before msf. his only goal was ..... not to die, really. keeping himself alive was a big focus, just surviving long enough to... survive. id say his larger goal that maybe even he didnt acknowledge was to kind of... reclaim his life from the hands of his father. over time, he kind of does this without realizing it, and his goal in life becomes to protect the optimistic peaceful world that kaz believes in-- even if sometimes neither of them believe in it. hes very determined fjdslfl 

14. Does your insert have any family relations? How do they get along? How do they disagree? Is it a biological family? Adopted? Or is it found family? How did this family come together, if it was one of the last two?

not at first. his parents are both dead and he killed one of them fdsjkfl you could say he eventually gains a family-- kaz and their kids and solid and otacon. havent decided how much of all that is canon BUT. yknow 

15. Does your insert have any enemies? What’s that dynamic like? Why are they enemies? Did they ever get along in the past? Is patching up differences out of the question for the future?

ENEMIES... his dad maybe ?? JFDSFKL ranger ford is a bastard who made his life hell every for 17 years and the world was a better place the instant he died jfdlsf 

as for 16.. idk probably hes always up for doing stupid and dumb dangerous shit JFKDSLF 

[gayregis]

if you've read season of storms is it any good? i read a sample and was kind of bored but i don't want to spend money on it if it's going to be like,,,,,,,,,lady of the lake

reading this i was like “wait lady of the lake was good though,” then i paused to actually think about it as a cohesive narrative for a bit, and went “actually wait never mind :/...” it was good thematically, and there were a lot of great scenes, but like as a whole book... if you could only read that book on its own... it would be very long and confusing. i just think lotl’s good because i do the uncivilized thing of skipping around to the parts i like and then i don’t read the parts i dislike

but luckily i have already ranted about season of storms before, and i’ll post that rant here now. for context, i actually read season of storms from cover to cover... yeah.

overall, it's a disorganized and aimless plot. it's set inbetween tlw and sod, so there's no quest to find ciri, because geralt hasnt met ciri yet, he's still our free bachelor geralt. which means hes still quite directionless and when it comes to his personal life it's mostly preoccupied with romance. but more importantly it means the plot is incredibly aimless and NOT PERSONAL to geralt, like all the stories in TLW and SOD and all the saga books revolve around events and people super meaningful to him. what happens in the plot is a whole JUMBLE of things that feel like sidequests from the witcher games, not a story from the witcher books. nothing really means anything for geralt's character development, and it suffers from being so long because there's like a lot of different settings and characters and everything just seems completely thrown together, mashed up, and not coordinated. 

i will admit that baptism of fire & tower of the swallow followed a style of “random encounters” in which geralt and the company traverse on and just interact with whatever they happen to find, but it felt like they were accruing knowledge (and also. members of the company) as they travelled on. in season of storms, it feels like geralt starts over and the entire book resets itself every time there is a new scene. none of the plotlines fit together, so it is just a super confusing and exhausting reading experience, unlike in bof & tos, where you can follow the action quite easily and it’s very pleasant to read because it’s all one continuous storyline.

in addition, all of these mashed up stories are pointless, because they dont END with the reader learning anything about the universe the characters live in or their relationships with each other. we might learn that sorcerers are power-hungry, but we already knew that. we might learn that people are violent and corrupt, but we already knew that. we might learn that geralt loves yennefer, but we already knew that. in the short stories, you learn so much about the world and geralts relationships (for example: we learn so much about the situations surrounding the elves in edge of the world, so it’s worth reading because otherwise you will not understand anything when the scoia’tael show up in blood of elves and later in the saga). and in the saga, this continues and more worldbuilding/relationship building occurs (geralt and ciri’s relationship grows from a question of price and then becomes crazy right around baptism of fire when they’re super linked by destiny). it really doesnt in season of storms. you don’t learn anything meaningful about the world or the characters like in the other witcher books.

another large flaw is that in the stories and saga, sapkowski was really good at creating likeable, enigmatic characters no matter how few pages he had to create them. they were deep and almost lifelike and also usually told a larger message. the NPCs- sorry, "characters" in season of storms are SUPER flat and uninteresting.

coral is h*rny for geralt and jealous of yennefer, like every sorceress ever to exist, pratt is a dick and corrupt, degerlund is corrupt and evil, mosaik is timid, the werewolf guy is JUST THERE, the auguara isn’t super interesting despite being cool, nimue feels flatter as a character than usual, even dandelion- okay actually jk i liked dandelion he was the sunny part of this book AS ALWAYS ... ofc he felt one-dimensional but he usually does so you know, EVEN GERALT feels a little one-dimensional and not his typical introspective self

one of the worst things sapkowski did was [SPOILERS] make the major villain character of the book gay and feminine... like its mentioned SO many times that "ohhhh this is a man that looks like a woman WOW HOW EVIL!" and he literally does the worst things like rip ppl to shreds and want to kill geralt painfully by torture with syringes, also he uses his sexuality to ?? seduce an older sorcerer to be his favorite so he can keep his job as a sorcerer?? 

and OK vilgefortz and bonhart arent complex villains. but theyre despicable and it feels a little deeper bc vilgefortz has that backstory and hunger for power, and bonhart is just terrifying and the embodiment of wretched evil, this guy from season of storms is just annoying and anime villainy like “OOHOHOH watch how i kill you now >:)” also theres a lot of crass humor like fart jokes and villains that are described as really super ugly like omg wow never saw that one coming!!! it just feels super bland and basic and almost like the antithesis of The Witcher as short stories and a saga, super out of place with the rest of the series. [END SPOILERS]

in my opinion, the BIGGEST FLAW with season of storms is that since the plot is so all over the place, and since the characters are so flimsy, the entire book feels meaningless. it feels like it would appease games or netflix fans who just want to read about geralt going on some crazy adventures, and it does serve that purpose, but it is NOT a “book belonging to the witcher series.” it has no depth where there should be... i do not feel like sapkowski is trying to tell me something as a reader about human nature, or the nature of parent-child relationships, or society, or violence and war... 

it just feels like geralt is doing all of this shit just because sapkowski had some remaining ideas and wanted to get all of them out into the world all in the same book, like sewing a vest out of fabric scraps. it was not refined like the witcher saga, because none of them were really meant to fit together anyways, and because they weren’t meant to fit together, there is a distinct lack of message and substance to it.

TLDR: no cohesive narrative and a confusing plot, no deeper underlying message or arguments about humanity or society or nature being made by the author, cheap new side & background characters, no ciri and no yennefer so geralt is quite directionless and stupid

other remarks that are just my personal preferences and comments:

geralt & dandelion:

geralt mostly works alone in this book... which is... not my favorite. this is why i got bored with tw3 after i read the witcher books, because i can’t stand geralt being alone, the world feels so... lonely! although he meets up with dandelion and has an affair with coral in season of storms, most of the book is him waffling about with side and background characters that i couldn’t care less about because sapkowski put no effort into developing them to be enigmatic or at least lifelike and likable (unlike some really minor characters in the witcher saga that, although they were so minor, were incredibly likable: for example, applegatt and toruviel i quite like). 

of course, i also have a preference for when geralt hangs out with dandelion, because it usually creates more of a lighter tone for the scenes and a more humorous nature overall, plus geralt changes his personality to be not in such a bad mood and we get to see him being kind and friendly. so it annoys me that although dandelion has some scenes with geralt, they never really have deep conversations like they do in a little sacrifice, or witty remarks & banter like in the edge of the world... i feel like dandelion was quite in-character for the whole book, which is good, but also, he’s dandelion so he’s pretty easy to get in character. he’s just easy-going, arrogant, preoccupied with earthly delights, cowardly, and friendly to geralt. but it annoyed me that their scenes together were both not very deep, and that they didn’t get as much interaction as i think they deserved. usually in a witcher book or story in which geralt and dandelion have met, they stay by each other’s side for like, the whole book or story, lmao... 

that being said, they do have some fun moments in this book and dandelion has some funny lines which i quite enjoy. like. they are eating at an inn, and the innkeeper asks them “how are you finding the pork?” and dandelion replies, “we’re finding it among the kasha. from time to time. not as often as we’d like to.” and somehow i just find that line so fucking funny... i think it’s just because it’s really relatable

sorcery:

coral is SOOOOO one-dimensional, she really is just like the same character as fringilla vigo or some other sorceress that’s jealous of yennefer for getting to bang geralt, and this lack of characterization is super transparent. people laugh about how many affairs geralt has had, but they never discuss how all of them have been super uneasy and unfulfilling.

already said that i hate degerlund as a character and all of the sorcerers being morally wack is predictable if you’ve read like, anything from the saga about the sorcerer/esses. also geralt talking with sorcerers is like, interesting if the sorcerer in question is vilgefortz, but everyone else is just super boring

other:

i didn’t really like ferrant de lettenhove until the very end of the book (which i won’t spoil) but because of this end, i wished that he got more backstory/development

NIMUE I LOVE YOU and it was nice that nimue got some more backstory in this.

i do enjoy the end of the book. not to say “my favorite part is when it ended,” but it’s true, because the ending in kerack is interesting and full of drama, the moments in the inn are alright if a little void of substance, the ending with geralt and dandelion on horseback is beautiful, and the epilogue with nimue is wistful and beautiful as well.

sheer pettiness:

oh my GOD why are the CHAPTERS so SHORT? it’s like, 20 chapters plus a bunch of interludes and an epilogue, and the book is only 357 pages long. it feels like as soon as i was getting into a scene, it switched to another chapter. i mean, idk whether i prefer this, or the haphhazard long as fuck chapters from baptism of fire where i’m not quite sure when a chapter begins or ends because i memorized the scenes and not when a chapter occurs. 

i dislike how coral is on the cover of it, even though it’s fitting, because if there was a work about... oh idk... the hansa... then angouleme could have been on the cover... and then i could have had geralt + yennefer + ciri + dandelion + the hansa on the covers... like wow that would be cool...

this book would have functioned much better as a series of short stories... i think sapkowski has talent for the short story medium, but novel-length books are more desirable by publishers, but this is literally just a guess, i don’t have anything to back this up

my recommendation: don’t buy it if you are just looking to read the witcher books as in, get a feel for the book canon world and characters. it’s pretty unnecessary for that. do buy it if you are a completionist like me / the witcher is something you’ve been into for years and you’re about to buy all the books as a set and it would feel weird to not have all eight books on your shelf and it’s only like $5 more to buy the set of 8 as compared to the set of 7. don’t read it and expect perfection, it’s basically like “drabbles” but canon from the author. there are like 2 or 3 nice gerlion moments if you care about that.

[my-brothers-corrupted]

My Brothers, Corrupted

Chapter 2 : Section 3 : The Chains that Bind Us

Dapper, overwhelmed by months of abuse, finally struck back - literally. Anti needs to put him and the rest of his family back in line and hide the magical signal Blue won’t stop radiating, as well as trying to care for Trick through a depressive episode, and in his stress he’s violent and distressed and out-of-control. Dok is trying to survive the punishment for Anti’s failure and Red works to hide Blue’s magic constantly, determined to keep his family safe, even from the threats within it.

Trigger warnings for torture (character hanging by throat, non-fatal), major abuse, mind control, dehumanization, and ableism, including infantilization of a disabled character and taking away ability to communicate. Remember that sexualizing the abuse in this fic is the surest way to get yourself blocked.

Find Chapter One here.

Find Chapter Two here.

 Section Two of Chapter Two: The Chains that Bind Us

Anonymous asked: yo is it just me that has No Clue what just happened to anti or do any of you guys know what's going on

Red and Blue peer out from beneath their hiding spots. Blue’s neck is a vivid purple.

“Is he gone?” he mumbles, glancing around.

Red gets to his feet and dares to open the door, peering around the hallway, gone quiet now, with medicine rolling around the clinic floor.

“He’s never really gone,” he says, maybe for his twin, maybe for himself, maybe for you. “But sometimes he goes off on his own. It’s not my place to question him.”

He scratches at his beard, worried. “Wish he’d brought me with him, though. I could protect him - I could hold him and he might even let me. Might even lay his head down on my chest, and tell me he feels safer when I’m with him.”

Red’s eyes shine.

spicydanhowell asked: is he gone? wow. i think he just... had emotions. i think he remembered trick's OD and.... was upset. i love that for him.

“Oh, don’t tease him,” chides Red, sighing and retreating into his room.

“That attempt really upset him,” mumbles Blue. “We have to get this figured out. It’s not good for anyone to be living like this.”

He keeps glancing out the window. Red comes to sit beside him and throws an arm over his shoulder, and the two of them relax back against the wall as best they can.

Anonymous asked: hey red, blue, are you guys ok?

Red and Blue sigh in sync and Red glances over at the little brother beneath his arm.

“Wish he hadn’t done that to Dok,” Blue mumbles.

“Don’t think about that,” answers Red, putting his head down on his shoulder. “We’ll go get him tomorrow morning. He’ll be okay. We’re fine, right? We got each other, huh, buddy?”

Blue chuckles, and then coughs, rubbing at his throat.

“Yeah,” he rasps. “We do.”

spicydanhowell asked: hey if he's gone maybe... y'all could give dok a little relief? did he just leave trick and dap alone, like???

“Well, I’m sure he’s watching through the cameras. Or maybe he sedated them or something so they’re safe.” Blue pulls himself up to glance out his window, where he can see the corner of his shed. “I don’t know what he did to Dok, but the door is all locked up again.”

Anonymous asked: wow wow wow the great antisepticeye feeling Emotions?? imagine

Blue giggles, only to earn himself a pinch on the arm from Red. “Hey,” he protests, brightening a little and pouncing on his twin, tackling him to the ground and grabbing at his ear in revenge.

“Ow, ow,” Red pretends to whine, only to flip him over onto his back a second later, and then they’re wrestling, laughing softly as they try to forget what’s going on around them all the time. Red lets Blue have the attack, minding his twin’s injured throat, and soon he is pinned down to the ground, rolling his eyes as his twin laughs and laughs above him, warm and cheerful and safe, safe for now. There is little else that matters, because there is little else he can control.

spicydanhowell asked: dok won't last more than a few hours before he's strangled to death, guys. if theres anything you can do to help him... please do. he's kind of in horrible pain atm, even if he's not "dying" persay

Blue sighs and draws away from Red again. “I don’t know if there’s anything we can do without bringing punishment down on our heads too. Tomorrow, I’ll take care of Dok all day if he wants. But this is master’s decision and it would be bad to interfere.”

He stares out the window again, his mouth slightly open, like there is more he could say, but he does not speak.

Anonymous asked: Hey Dok! Kann ein Känguru höher als ein Haus springen? Ja! Weil ein Haus nicht springen kann! (Eng: Can a kangaroo jump higher than a house? Yes! Because a house can't jump!)

Dok’s eyes blink at you for a moment, confused. Then he lets out one short, rasping bark of a laugh.

“That sounds like something Trick would say, back when he was happier.”

cest-mellow asked: dok, is there anything we can do for you? tell something to trick, maybe send his message back?

“No, no, please don’t tell him I’m in trouble like this, I don’t want him to worry. Anyway, let him rest, it’s getting late. Is he resting? Will you tell me if he’s alright for tonight? Does he look very pale? Very thin? I hope he is eating and maybe taking his medicine and maybe not so sad so much? I hope Dap is with him, I hope - I…”

Doktor groans and struggles on his chain, sighing.

Anonymous asked: How are you holding up, Dok?

“Oh, I’m okay, I’m okay. Honestly he could have done much worse. He didn’t even get the dog out or make me eat the mice or anything.”

He glances down at the squirming pests near to his feet and flinches, closing his eyes.

“I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay,” he murmurs to himself. His face is still calm. There is little he cannot tolerate.

Anonymous asked: Maybe we could keep you company, Dok. I know talking might be kind of hard right now, but do you have a favorite song? Maybe you could hum it. I hum when I'm tired or sad.

He pants slightly, trying to think.

“I… I’m not sure. Long time since I heard any music. We used to have a little music player, Trick and I. Anti gave it to us when he first gave us to each other. He told us we could only listen to it together, so we would lie next to each other as the sun went down with one earbud each. And Anti had picked out the music for us, but some of it was still good. Or Trick liked it, anyway, ha… he likes… he likes that album where all the songs are named after planets. I always thought it was kind of sad, but they gave him some comfort, I think… I miss that music player…”

florenceisfalling reblogged: sLEEPING AT LAST-

“That’s the one,” chuckles Doktor, finding a higher spot of earth and managing to set his feet more firmly on it. Relieved, he closes his eyes, and for a long few minutes, he is quiet.

“I’d give anything to hear you say it one more time,” he whispers, his lips faintly blue. “That the universe was made…”

He trails off, licking at his lips.

“Maybe I will never hear him say anything again. Let alone to see that light in his eyes, when he was happy, at my side, staring up at the universe… but still I have that song.”

reverseblackholeofwords asked: You'll see him again, Dok. It might take time, but you will. Family has a way of sticking together no matter what. You know that better than anyone.

“I really do hope so,” says Doktor softly, weary on his chain. It’s getting hard to speak. It will be a long night. He prays that Red comes to get him first thing in the morning. “Yes, we’ve all stuck with each other, haven’t we? Not going to lose my Trick just yet…”

Anonymous asked: Dok I literally don’t know how else to say this, you are amazing and you’re so so resilient. And you’re right, no matter what Anti says you are not a failure or anything close to that. You are exactly what your brothers need and you shouldn’t need or have to prove that to anyone when you already have by being yourself. We love you so much and we’ll do whatever we can to help you.

Deutsch hums lowly, his eyes flickering shut. He’s found a high enough spot he might even be able to get some rest, as much as this can be called rest.

“I am resilient,” he mumbles. “Everything my master gives me, I survive, and continue to do what I can. I am… nothing to prove…”

He gives a deep, shuddering sigh, growing faint as the light fades around him, dipping under the tall peak of the mountain that has become his home.

“Thank you.”

Anonymous asked: maybe someone should go check on trick, now that he's alone. he might do something to himself if there's no one there for him

“Yeah, we should see how he is.” Red sits up, glancing at the door. Blue steps over to open it and -

“Goddamn!” he hisses, rubbing at his throat and backing away. “He locked us in again! What did we even do?”

Red sighs, staring at the door, where an electronic lock blinks irritably back at him.

“He has his reasons.”

Red is calm, but Blue looks betrayed, slinking back to his mattress.

“Let’s go to bed,” he mumbles, rubbing at his eyes, coughing a little.

There is no bedtime routine. Their toothbrushes are outside the locked door and they’re out of toothpaste anyway. There’s no such thing as pajamas in this house. It is hot even at night here, so Anti has given them no blankets, and no pillows, and no light when the sun goes down.

Their mattress are disarrayed from hiding and tussling. Red gives his twin a few minutes to sulk in the corner before picking up his own mattress and pushing it over to sit right beside Blue’s. Eventually, in the night, Blue will turn towards him, and when they wake up their legs and arms will be tangled and their heads close together.

“Good night, Azul,” whispers Red, adjusting on his mattress. “I love you.”

And for all his irritation, Blue always answers with warmth, like he can’t even help it, cause maybe nothing is stronger than that promise they make each other every night.

“Night, Roser. Love you too.”

Anonymous asked: yo trick you doing ok buddy?

Trick, to his irritation, wakes up with the sun. Groaning, he flops over on to his side and curls up closer to the body sleeping next to his own. You can see him from a lop-sided angle on the drawer by the door, where Anti apparently left you to make sure he could keep an eye on his boys during the night.

Eventually, Trick stirs again, and begins gripping needily at the shirt of his companion, looking for some early-morning attention from Anti, only to pause at the feeling of a scratchy dress shirt underneath his fingers.

A moment later he jerks back so hard he halfway tumbles off his bed, clutching at his chest and laughing nervously.

“Holy shit,” you hear him laugh, getting up to peer over his brother. He turns to you and hurries over to show you too, giggling.

“I thought that was Anti, hahaha. It’s Dap! Why’s he sleeping next to me?”

Trick sits down next to him again, playing with a strand of Dapper’s slightly curly hair. Most of his concept of personal boundaries has washed away in the last couple weeks and he doesn’t seem worried about waking up his little brother. Dapper’s face is chalk-white, with dark circles beneath his eyes, his mouth slightly open as his raspy breaths break the morning silence.

“Maybe he can stay with me a while,” wonders Trick, sounding excited. “Then someone can be here with me all day and it won’t be so lonely and boring, haha.”

He rubs his thumb up and down Dapper’s cheek, invigorated by a visitor.

pixie-in-trebleland asked: Hey Dap...? You making out okay, buddy?

Dap stirs with Trick’s petting and Trick decides to let him come awake slowly, lying back down at his side, setting you on his stomach, and relaxing again. He pulls his crinkle paper out from beneath his pillow and runs it steadily through his fingers while Dapper blinks blearily awake.

Dapper breathes thickly, staring between Trick and the camera, his eyes a little glassy. Trick murmurs something that sounds like a mix between a greeting and a checking-in, an old sound from the days when they had no one but each other, and knew better how to look after each other as they changed into people they eventually stopped recognizing.

Dapper gives him no answer, so weak he can barely pull his head off his pillow. Alarmed by his frailty, Trick sits back up and leans over him again, setting a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

“Did you take something?” murmurs Trick, pulling gently at his eyelid to look into his pupil and checking his heart-rate. “A tranq or something to keep you down? Why did Anti need to sedate you, bro?”

Dapper licks his dry lips and stares up at him wearily. For a second, he reaches up his hands to try and give him an answer -

Oh, oh. His hands are bound up in thick, cord-like strings. His fingers, white with struggling blood, can barely move.

Shocked, he stares down at his poor bound wrists, and Trick does his best to soothe him, trying to massage some feeling back into his fingers while his eyes follow the strings back to their origin. Tied to the headpiece of the bed, they will keep Dapper from moving more than a few feet from the corner of the room.

White-faced, Dapper puts his head back down on his pillow, and wishes he could wake up anywhere else.

Anonymous asked: Dapper, Trick, are you two alright?

“I’m not sure,” mumbles Trick, helping prop Dapper gently up against the board of the bed. Dapper purses his lips in his best attempt at an appreciative smile, one of his stiff hands coming to rest on Trick’s thigh, perhaps to steady himself, perhaps asking for comfort. Trick’s replies as best he can, sitting himself up beside his little brother and letting Carver sink down against his shoulder, panting softly in the early morning light.

“He must still be hurting from that time Anti had to stab him.” Trick carefully lifts up the hem of Dapper’s shirt, checking to make sure his bandages are clean. For a moment, he smiles at the sight of his brother’s careful, steady, loving wrapping. He rubs gently at Dapper’s shoulder and tries to keep him sitting up and breathing clear.

“So Anti decided he needed to keep an eye on you, huh?” grins Trick. Dapper manages a rueful grin in return, his eyes hurting. “Or - maybe he just wanted some company for me? Yeah? We’ll be okay back here while you heal, okay? I can look after you if you need anything. I can do anything you need.”

He smiles bright. Anti’s poured a great deal of affection out on him, but in more than three weeks Trick has not had a single chance to give any affection back.

Anonymous asked: dap, can you not sign at all? do you have any other way of communicating?

Dap licks his mouth and lets out a small sigh. You watch as he does his best to curl his aching fingers, but even when he gets them to respond, you can tell he won’t be able to bring his hands fully together while he’s bound up like this. Perhaps when the sedative wears off a little better, he’ll be able to give you some sign. He offers you a small click of his tongue and falls quiet again, slumping on Trick’s shoulder.

pixie-in-trebleland asked: Hey Trick. You good, buddy? Hanging in, at least? Your twin is in trouble..

“I’m good! Or I’ll be good as long as Dapper’s good.”

He’s strangely buoyed by a visitor, in fact, his fist drumming against his thigh so fast he’s probably bruising himself, his eyes a little bright, talking fast.

“It’s been a long time since I had anything to do but sit here trying to make myself feel better, and I’m pretty shit at that, to be entirely honest, but I’m working on - wait, what?”

Trick straightens up, staring at you.

“Dok’s in trouble?”

His voice shakes hard, his eyes burning. He turns to you and Dap and back again, reaching over to give his little brother a small shake. “Wait, wait, no, no, no - Dap, explain to me, what’s going on, where’s Deutsch? Is he okay? What do you mean he’s in trouble? Is that all you have for me? He’s in trouble? He’s in trouble?”

He pulls away from Dapper and gets to his feet, rushing to the door and falling to his hands and knees to stare through the crack beneath the door.

“Doktor!” he cries. “Deutsch, Allemagne! Anti, where are you? Hey, someone come talk to me, Red, Blue? Where’s my twin, where’s my brother! I want my brother, let me out! I want Dok! Hey!”

His joy is all vanished, his face distraught and turning red as he begins to cry. Dapper clicks his tongue and whistles from the bed, trying to get to his feet, without success, worried for Trick. He’s not used to his big brother showing so much of what he feels like this.

Anonymous asked: "Trick.. I really hate to be the bearer of bad news but Anti kind of beat the shit out of Dapper before he brought him to you. That's why he's sedated and tied up. I don't think you should be this excited, unfortunately." PF!A

“Oh,” whispers Trick, his voice shattering. He gets up from the door and stares back at his little brother, who looks back with aching blue eyes. After a moment, Trick returns to his side and puts an arm back around him, his reddened eyes fixed on the floor.

Dapper sinks back down against his shoulder.

“Sorry that hap - sorry that - sorry that happened,” manages Trick. “I don’t know what you did, but I’ll help make sure it doesn’t happen again, okay?”

Dapper sighs. Trick puts his head down on top of his little brother’s.

“It’s gonna be okay. I got you.”

Anonymous asked: "I-I can take a message and pass them between you two, if it'll help, Trick-? Please calm down.." -PF!H

“I n-need to know that he’s okay! What’s going on? Does he need help? Can you send someone?”

Anonymous asked: hey trick, do you know where anti is? he got really upset about something and left

Trick looks up, surprised. “What, he’s not anywhere in the house? Well, he must have had something to do in the city or the neighborhood if he’s not in his room. That’s where he usually goes to sulk - ah, ah, I mean, uh, think, to think. Sometimes he comes home with blood on his hands or supplies. Maybe he’s fetching something? I would think he would have come home by now, though. It’s weird for him not to even lie down with me for a couple hours.”

Anonymous asked: "He's in the shed for defending Dapper after what happened. ..Anti decided to punish him because he thought he 'wasn't good enough' to look after his brothers.. He's been tied to the roof but he can breathe. Then.. Red and Blue are locked in a room. I can give all I can to help you at least feel a little better or know what's going on, but this is a really isolating problem. I'd help if I could.." -PF!H

Trick chews on his lip, his eyes lighting up with something you haven’t seen for some time as he thinks. He glances between the window and the door.

“Red and Blue are locked in their rooms most nights, but the locks are electronic, and usually set to let them out around seven.”

He glances out at the sun.

“That should be soon enough. You can usually hear roosters crying around the same time. If it’s an emergency, there is a window in their room. It’s locked, but I know they can sneak out of it.” He grins conspiratorially. “Because one time I saw Red leap out to get Blue cough medicine in the middle of the night. I didn’t tell Anti but I could. Anyway, if their doors don’t unlock and Anti isn’t back by the time the roosters are calling, they can go help him. They’ll get in trouble for it, but that’s their job cause they’re bigger than me, so it doesn’t really matter.”

Trick sighs, leaning slightly back. “I wish anybody outside of the room was allowed to talk to me. Even poor Dap can’t talk to me like this.”

He picks uselessly at his brother’s strings.

“I hope Dok’s doing okay.”

Anonymous asked: dap, do you know morse? you could try tapping using that to communicate!

“I’ve never seen him use that,” frowns Trick. “I don’t know it. It’s kind of a hassle, but if he knows that maybe he could use it in an emergency. Do you?”

Dap kind of nods, kind of shrugs. Been a long time since he used that.

Anonymous asked: doktor's being punished by anti, unfortunately. but he should be fine, trick. anti wants to keep you away from him. he thinks he's a bad twin, even though we know that's not true

Trick’s expression slackens. He stares at the floor, playing with his crinkle paper.

“Miss him,” he mumbles.

spicydanhowell asked: anti where the fuck are you. you locked everyone up with no water or food or toilet and several of them are injured or tied up are you Stupid???

“Hey, don’t snap at master,” snarls Trick, something venomous filling up his face. “First of all, we all have bathrooms here. This place was designed to be a medical facility - I know because I saw the medicine cabinet and the sinks and everything in every room, and the doors are really wide so wheelchairs can fit through. See? So, look, each room has a little space for sleeping and a little bathroom. It’s meant to be used for people who are injured to come stay here as long as they need to while somebody takes care of them. But that never happened, because this side of the mountain is so poor. They built the building and left again.

“Secondly, Anti’s always watching.”

Trick glances right at the camera and straightens up proudly, simpering for his master’s attention. Dapper has closed his eyes, turned slightly away.

“He’ll be back when he needs to get back. He wouldn’t - ”

There is a loud click as the electronic locks change for the day.

Trick turns to you with a self-satisfied little smirk on his face, playing innocently with his hair.

“See? Master wouldn’t let anyone get hurt. That’s my big brother. I’m his little pet. He looks after me at least. If he’s gone, it’s because he has to be.”

Trick rubs at his eyes, trying to keep up his enthusiasm. He has to prove that Anti is good, after all, and not only to you.

“Maybe he’s getting stuff for Christmas. He said we could celebrate.”

He sits up for a while longer, staring at the door, waiting for his brother to appear.

But Anti doesn’t.

Tired, Trick eventually leans back, the light in his eyes fading, Dapper pressed against his heart.

Anonymous asked: Red, are you scared?

Red jolts awake to the unlocking of his door, sneezing.

“Hngh, what? Scared? Of what?”

He glances around the room and finds his twin standing at the window, staring out at the shed.

“No, no, we’re fine,” mumbles Red, as Blue rushes past him to open the door and head out towards Dok. “What’s there to be afraid of? Not that weird for Anti to be gone, you know, sometimes he leaves us for days.”

He yawns, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes. “It’s okay to leave me in charge, you know.”

Anonymous asked: do you have anything to do in here, trick? like any entertainment at all?

Trick’s mood has soured. He stares blandly at the ceiling and shrugs, proffering his crinkle paper just a little. Dapper glances up at him and then at you, more concerned the more he wakes up.

Anonymous asked: so trick, are you feeling better? after, you know, everything that happened?

Trick groans a little, closing his eyes.

“I… yeah. Of course. I mean, I should be, right? I have everything I need and all of Anti’s attention and I’m okay and I’m… I survived it and…”

He stares out the window, tears welling in his eyes.

“Shouldn’t still want to die,” he rasps, fatigue flooding down his face.

And Dapper, with aching, stiff white fingers, reaches gently out to squeeze his hand.

There’s something bigger than gratitude in Trick’s eyes when he turns to meet his gaze. They set their foreheads together, warm in their little bed, and they hold each other close.

Anonymous asked: "...Your Master isn't a good person, Trick. He really isn't. But.. Sure, I guess. ...Maybe you should lay down?" -PF!H

“Nothing else to do,” mumbles Trick, staring at the ceiling. He reaches out to help Dapper lie back down, but he shakes his head, pulling away, still trying to get to his feet. Trick watches him struggle for a moment before lying back down, drawing the blankets around his shoulders and burying his face in his pillow.

spicydanhowell asked: trick, you know you have depression, right? and you know that's a chronic illness that even anti can't cure. you need actual therapy and several months of daily medication and sunlight and exercise to get better. what anti is doing for you is not a solution.

“Not Anti’s fault,” answers Trick through the pillow. “Stupid fucking shitty-ass brain. Nobody else is fucked up like this. Everybody else can take it.”

nikkilbook asked: “Shouldn’t” is a tricky word. Of course you’re not the kind of person who *wants* to leave your brothers and never come back, to stop existing forever. But it’s a trick your brain is playing on you, a heavy filter that’s been slid over everything while it tries to cope with chemicals that are out of whack and overwhelming situations. The chemicals and the situation haven’t been successfully addressed, so of course your brain is still confused. This isn’t your fault, Chase.

“Actually I think I like that ‘stop existing forever’ option just fine.”

He sighs deeply, running his fingers through his greasy hair.

“But Anti and Doktor would be so upset, so I guess my ghost would be even more of a problem than I am now.”

Anonymous asked: Dok? Are you okay? Blue is coming to let you out.

The beeping of the camera draws blank eyes back into focus. Dok’s aching arms let his weight onto his calves again as he stares at you, his mouth open, thin breaths passing in and out. He manages something that might be a nod.

spicydanhowell asked: trick, your brain is not healthy, but that's not a personal failure. hell, dap and red have "different" brains too, and they struggle, and it's not their fault either. it's nobody's fault that you have depression, but you say you have everything you need when you really don't. you need treatment and time to heal

Trick watches Dapper make his way to his feet and stand panting beside the bed.

“Maybe,” he grumbles, closing his eyes like he’s in pain. “But I hate hospitals and even if I would go, I can’t. Someone would be able to track us through the hospital system, or even a therapist, Anti says. Besides, doubt we can afford it. Anti has to feed the others before anything, you know? And sometimes we even struggle there, so…”

He rubs at his face, watching Dapper move despite his hurt. Maybe he should get up too.

“I don’t think Anti knows what to do with me,” he admits frailly. “I don’t think anyone would.”

Anonymous asked: Has Dok been in the shed before?

Blue races out the door to his own room, and then the backdoor of the house, setting his bare feet on the craggy earth, barely avoiding splinters of glass and sharp stone in his haste to help his little brother.

He finds the shed door chained.

“Goddamn!” he hisses, slamming his hand against the door, hard. Gritting his teeth, you watch him pace round the shed looking for a hole to enter through, but it’s a sturdy structure, and as the sun rises, it grows hot to the touch.

“He’s going to fucking boil in there!” snarls Blue, stalking back to the door and yanking on the chains. You hear the door creak as Red steps out of the house behind him, wearing his own shoes and carrying his brother’s.

“Blue, take it easy, I can go find Anti if we need to.”

“Yeah? How’re you going to do that? For all we know he’s in the middle of something dangerous.”

“He would have told me if he were going to do something dangerous. Or taken me with him.”

“Sure,” spits Blue, trying to twist the chains with his bare hands. “Sure, I’m sure he would, Red.”

cest-mellow asked: blue? have you gotten dok yet?

“We’re working on it,” Red answers calmly, watching Blue scurry around the shed a second time. He’s beginning to look at the roof in a way Red doubts will lead to good things. “Blue, we might have something under the sink that can get him out.”

“Go check! Please!”

“Okay, but put your goddamn shoes on before you cut yourself. Hey, Dok? We’re out here, bud, we’re coming. Hold on.”

spicydanhowell asked: blue, do you have any tools or do any neighbors have some? you might have to cut the chain

“Red, did you find anything?”

“Give me two seconds! We’ll get him down, okay?”

“He’s in pain, can’t you hurry?”

“Getting freaked out won’t help, Blue. Hell, I don’t know… there’s not really anything down here anymore. I thought we used to have a bolt-cutter. Hey, maybe it’s one of the keys Anti has us look after? I’ll go check.”

Blue hisses impatiently. For a second, the sun makes his eyes flash a very vivid blue.

immabethehero asked: Find a treestump and bash the door down!

“Fuck, I don’t know if Anti would like that much. Maybe I can find something. There aren’t many trees up here, though, I’ll tell you that much.”

Anonymous asked: Blue please hurry and get Dok out of there. He can barely breathe.

“He can barely breathe,” repeats Blue anxiously, as Red heads back towards the house. “He could choke, I don’t know how much strength he has, if Anti beat him or hurt him… And it’s so hot, it’s so hot! He’ll cook, he could get hurt, I bet the chain is so hot on his poor throat.”

Blue squeezes the chains tighter, close to the door, his eyes flickering. He staggers slightly, closing his eyes as the world spins around him. Fuck, maybe Red was right, maybe he does need to calm down a little. But Doktor is in there, his little brother, for all that he acts tough, suspended by his neck, wheezing and gasping as the sun rises hot over his head and he grows frailer and frailer, his muscles aching and his body shaking -

Something is dripping through his fingers.

Startled, Blue frowns at his hands.

And then he yells aloud, jerking backwards as molten metal singes the ground in front of the shed, the chain melted clean through between his fingers.

He stares at the twisted metal, shaking.

“Blue, we’ve got three different keys here, one for the medicine cabinet, and we can try the other two, but - ”

Red stops short behind him.

Trembling, Blue turns to his twin, his hands held out in supplication, in fear, in apology.

Red takes a long look at the situation, his eyes fixed on the faint whisps of blue trailing from his brother’s hands.

“Are you hurt?” he asks, in a voice all too calm.

Blue shakes his head, his pupils blown wide.

Red stares only a moment longer.

“Well,” he says, eventually. “Doktor is. Go get your brother. Go on, now, Blue.”

Blue nods shakily and bursts into the shed, leaving the chain behind.

Red stands there watching for a long time, his mouth calm.

His eyes afraid.

Anonymous asked: Oh, oh, Blue, be careful! Your magic! Anti will be angry again!

Red leans slowly down.

Picks up the chain where it’s cool.

Brushes away the broken or melted pieces from the ends.

And places what remains inside his hoodie pocket, heading back towards the house, where, in his room, you watch him carefully place the chain inside of his backpack.

Anonymous asked: could blue use his magic? i know he's technically not allowed, but anti's not here, and your brother could be hurt really bad if you don't help him! and you needed to find an outlet for your magic anyway, right?

Red pushes his backpack behind his door, trying to plan when next he’ll be allowed out of the house. Maybe today. He’ll have to see.

“Let’s have no more talk of magic,” he says, getting back to his feet. “Let’s have no more talk of this.”

Anonymous asked: blue! is dok ok!! can you get him down!!!

Blue knocks a blood-stained crate towards Doktor and stands up on it, hooking one arm underneath Doktor’s legs and another around his waist. It is the work of a moment to lift him up enough to remove the chain from the hook on the ceiling.

Dok is so stiff it hurts to be held.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” chants Blue, sliding down to the earth with his brother in his arms. “It’s going to be alright, that’s all for now.”

Doktor might scream. He is clutching to Blue’s shirt so tightly he has torn it.

whydoilovesomanyvillians asked: Blue hows doc doing

Blue brushes his brother’s overgrown hair from his eyes, clutching him to his chest. “He’s hurting,” he admits, reaching out to massage one of Doktor’s trembling arms. “It would be awful just to have to stand for that long, let alone to hold throat up to breathe. He’ll be stiff for a long time, I’m sure it hurts terribly.”

It feels like his muscles are doing their best to escape from his bones. Everything inside of him is fucking peeling, splitting, twain. He can’t feel his calves anymore.

Anonymous asked: is dok hurt?

“Did Anti hurt you?”

Doktor’s mouth parts dryly.

“What?” he coughs. “Other than this?”

His throat is fervently black.

“No… No, I’m fine. Let’s go inside, p-please.”

He seems, for a moment, to strain himself to stand, but then his muscles scream out again, and he collapses back into Blue’s arms.

Anonymous asked: Get him some water or something, Blue, please

“Here we are, Dok-Dok, it’s okay.”

Blue heaves him into his arms and carries him back towards the house, where Red is uncapping a bottle of water. He’ll need to go get more from the well soon, but for now they have enough.

“Why don’t you lie him down in his room?” suggests Red. “Nice and quiet in there.”

“Is Dapper still asleep?”

Red heads past him into Doktor’s room, sitting down beside the mattress with the water and grabbing his first aid kit from the corner.

“Dapper’s not in here anymore, Blue.”

“What?”

“Let’s worry about Doktor for now, okay? There we go, bud. Is it easier to lie down or do you need to sit up?”

In response, Doktor slumps down on the mattress.

“Permission to scream, sir?” he rasps up at Red, his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

“Permission granted, medic,” answers Red, grinning a little despite himself.

Doktor opens his mouth -

“Nein, I don’t have the strength.”

Red leans down and presses their foreheads together for a long time, one hand set solidly on Doktor’s shoulder, a warm, steady pressure.

“You kept Dap safe,” he whispers. “You did good.”

Doktor’s eyes water. Slowly, he nods, biting down hard on his lip.

“I did good,” he whispers. “I did good.”

Blue is massaging his arm again, determined to give him some relief. “We’ll get some water in you and you can have a nice cool shower and some clean clothes and food and anything you need, okay? Poor Dok, hanging up like that all night. We’re going to take it nice and easy.”

“Yeah,” agrees Red. “You can have whatever you want.”

“Does that include the sweet release of death?”

“Doktor,” snap the twins in perfect tandem, and Doktor can’t help but laugh, staring up at his brothers with a mouth that hurts to smile.

“Don’t joke!”

“Yeah, too soon, man.”

“Little pansy, one night in the shed and he gets all sardonic on us.”

“Oh, ‘sardonic,’ aren’t you fancy?”

“Shut up and give Dok his water, can’t you see the man is thirsty!”

And Doktor closes his eyes and lets his brothers look after him.

pixie-in-trebleland asked: Are you guys going to watch Dok all day? Can you check on the others?

“Fuck, give us a minute,” grumbles Blue, blinking back into appearance before you. He’s up and about now, standing over the sink and using water from a bottle to clean their three plastic plates. “We take two seconds to look after our brother who’s been tort - disciplined and you’re impatient?”

He sighs and tries to relax. At his side, Red is chopping up potatoes, his eyes faraway.

“Anyway, what do you want us to do? No, we can’t check on the others. We’re not allowed to talk to Trick in his room, let alone go in there. You know the rules by now. You were here when we had an attic. Besides - ”

He’s cut off by a sudden flicker of the camera that catches his eyes. Blue brightens immediately - though his cheeks also flush slightly - and he turns to see Anti step out of nothingness in the corner.

“Anti,” he cheers, while a relieved smile, only trembling a little, appears on Red’s face. Blue saunters cheerfully over to Anti and -

“Oh,” he breathes, his face falling. “You’re hurt.”

Anti scoffs and takes off the backpack on his shoulders, letting it drop to the ground with a heavy thud. Not only is his neck bandaged as usual, but there is a damp dark stain on his shirt, spreading as Blue watches.

“Anti, let me look at it, please.”

“No, Blue, it’s fine. I’m not hurt.”

“Where were you?”

“Selling drugs,” says Anti.

Red and Blue exchange glances.

“Ha ha?” Red ventures. “You’re, uh. Kidding.”

Anti glances up, frowning. “What? No. We don’t need that much pain medication in the house. Speaking of which, Blue, you keep the key to medicine cabinet for me, okay? So if Dok needs anything out of there, he can explain to you why and you can open it up for him if he’s got a good reason. No sleeping medicine, though, and no pain stuff unless it’s for visitors or you’ve run it by me. You understand me?”

“Oh, yes, Anti, I can do that.”

“Good boy. Here.”

Anti hands over a tiny silver key.

“Anti, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Shut the fuck up, Blue. Listen, make yourselves scarce today, alright? I’ve got work to do and it’s better if you’re not around for it.”

Blue opens his mouth like he might protest, but Red steps up beside him and silences him with a hand on his shoulder. “Yes, Anti,” he says, meeting his master’s eyes calmly. “We’ll fill up all the water after lunch.”

“Mh, good boys.” Anti wipes at his face, slightly sweaty. “Oh, here. If you go into the city, you can do me a favor and pick up some candles for me. I got everything but that.”

“Some candles?”

“Yeah. Like a shit ton of them, actually, I didn’t realize how many. Like fifty, okay? By tomorrow. I’ll pick them up myself if I have to but - ”

“No, no, no,” Red insists, accepting a small wad of cash from his brother. “No, I’ll fetch it for you, Anti, of course. Whatever you need.”

“Good. Good. That’s my Red.” Anti tugs on a lock of his hair. “The next couple days will be happy if everyone is good, okay?”

“Yes, Anti.”

spicydanhowell asked: anti? red is worried about you

Anti pauses on his way back to his room, and low flush creeps over Red’s cheeks at the message.

“Worried about what?” he demands snippily, adjusting his backpack on his shoulders. “You getting paranoid on me too, Red?”

Blue moves to stand slightly in front of Red, but his brother pushes him away and puts the butter knife he was using to cut the potatoes in his hand, shoving him towards the counter. Irritated, Blue nevertheless obeys his older brother’s silent command and begins cutting potatoes.

“Um, Anti.”

Red slinks down the hall towards him. Anti straightens up, crossing his arms over his chest and tapping his foot. “What?” he snaps. “What is it now that I have to deal with? Huh?”

Red stares at him for a moment, his mouth slightly open, his eyebrows drawn back.

And then he reaches out and wraps his arms around his little brother’s shoulders.

Anti stiffens like a mannequin beneath his grip, breathing a little faster than he did a moment ago. After a long three seconds has passed, his hands come up to rest, just barely, on Red’s back.

“What is this?” murmurs Anti. “What’s wrong?”

Red shakes his head against his shoulder.

“You’re having a meltdown or something. Go lie down.”

“No, Anti, it’s not that, it’s just - ”

Red draws away and Anti shifts uncomfortably at the look in his eyes. Worried, worried Red. Loving Red. Ah, fuck.

“You don’t have to do this alone, okay?”

Anti sighs through his nose, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

“You’re so stressed all the time lately, I worry you’re getting sick, but you never take a break or come out of the room anymore, and - I just - Anti, I’ll do anything to keep you safe. You know that, right? I’d do anything for you.”

Anti softens, humming warmly, the discomfort slipping away. “Really?”

“Yes, of course.” Red’s eyes shine. He presses in for another hug, clutching at Anti’s shoulders. “I’ll protect you from anything that ever comes after us. I’m never going to let you get hurt. I - I - I love - Anti, I love you so much, I - ”

“Aw, Hoodie, don’t cry, darling, don’t cry.”

Anti is smiling now, stroking at Red’s hair and kissing at the side of his face.

“What a good boy you are. What a good boy.”

“I don’t want you to feel alone!”

“I know, Red. I know. Sh, calm down, love. Everything’s okay. Master’s okay. Little brother’s okay. Listen, I have work to do - ”

“Right, right. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stop you, I just… I just love you. Okay? And if you need anything…”

“I know, Red. I know.”

“Okay.” He wipes at his face, embarrassed. “Okay.”

Anti’s eyes are brighter now. He strokes his thumb fondly across Red’s beard, smiling a little too widely up at him. The stain of blood on his shirt is gone.

“Go back to your twin,” he orders in a purr, pushing Red away. “Go on. There’s a good boy.”

Red retreats obediently. Anti turns to open the door to his office, and as soon as he is alone, he looks directly at you.

“’I just love you, Anti,’” he mocks, barely suppressing a giggle. “‘I don’t want you to feel alone!’ What a fucking child he still is!”

He bursts into raucous laughter, clapping his hands together and shaking for joy.

Anonymous asked: How's Doc doing now then? Can't have been a fun night :/ Wish I could hug that poor guy.

“Let’s check on him.” Blue picks up the camera and steps down the hall, popping you and his head into Doktor’s room.

His little brother is deep asleep on Dapper’s mattress, clutching a spare shirt to his chest for comfort. Blue lets out a soft little sigh, looking down at him, and Doktor lets out a quiet hum in his sleep, his peaceful face twisting into something more afraid for just a moment.

“I think he’ll be okay,” murmurs Blue, drawing the door almost closed behind him again. “I’ll leave him with some lunch and water and stuff. Maybe later I’ll make good on that hug offer, too. My tough little brother.”

“Blue,” calls Red, stepping down the hallway past him. “Get your backpack and help me gather up the water jugs. We’ll fill up everything before we go into town.”

Blue heaves out a sigh. They have a lot of water jugs. It’s good - but it’s also heavy when they’re full.

Anonymous asked: That's not very nice, Anti...

“‘That’s not very nice, Anti,’” he repeats, pacing around his office and giggling wildly. He’s making a mess, opening up spare backpacks and shoving through his closet, searching for something. Red’s devotion has re-invigorated him. “Let’s not forget, little ones, between the haze of the world I’ve created - I fucking hate Red. And there is nothing in the world that I like better than seeing him brought so low he doesn’t even have to be asked to try to comfort me.”

pixie-in-trebleland asked: If you hate him that much, Anti, then why keep him so happy? If you hated him, it would have been preeeetty safe to assume that you'd want him to suffer, no?

“Oh, he has,” says Anti. “For my sake. More than you can fucking dream.”

He pauses for a second, staring at you.

Then he brightens again.

“But you have to make puppets happy sometimes, otherwise they’ll catch on to the falsity of it all! And then who runs my errands for me and guards the door at night? He can have a little time of joy, running around with his twin. I don’t mind. It only makes him more devoted. And Red - aha!”

Anti has found what he’s looking for. Delighted, he reaches into a box at the very back of his closest and pulls out a pair of collars, one yellow and one black, and the black muzzle he showed you once before.

Anonymous asked: Hm, you say that like Red wouldn’t do that for anyone. You forget the type of lifestyle he left, he protected and saved people. Sorry to say Anti, but I don’t think you’re very special.

“Red only ever killed men on my command. And kill them he did, with my name, adoring, on his lips. And when he wept, later, to realize what he had done, it was me that he came to, and my chest where he laid his head down.”

Anti stares at you. His eyes are brown.

“Is that special enough for you?”

Anonymous asked: so what do red and blue do during the day when anti's not here?

“Well, most mornings we go for a run on the other side of the mountain.” Blue looks up at the height of the mountain, not far off from their little home. “See, the rain washes down that side instead of this one, so while this side is dry as a desert and barren entirely of plant life, that side blooms green all year round. Want to know the funny part? This side is populated by thousands of people all working their asses off just to put food in their stomachs. The other side is owned entirely by one man, who lives far away and makes no use of it. He’s waiting for the property value to increase to sell it. So of course we slip through a gap we cut in the electric fence and we run around his property for miles. Safer back there, and nicer to look at, and easier on our feet. Right, Red?”

Red heaves his backpack up on his shoulder and turns to smile at the little camera mounted on his twin’s shoulder. He wears his hood up with a pair of cheap sunglasses he stole from the pharmacy truck yesterday. “Right,” he agrees, as they head out of the house and begin making their way down the dusty, rocky trail, dirt sliding dangerously beneath their careful feet. “And then most days we get drinking water.”

“There’s only one place to get it for miles. A truck comes and fills it up everyday. Luckily, there’s plenty for all - it’s just a pain to carry around. What else do we do, Red?”

“Whatever Anti tells us to. Stealing and errands and shit. It’s been nice lately, though, cause he’s letting us have so much freedom now that we can look out for each other. We can go into the city just about whenever we want and we’ve got a card full of bus money. We’ve practically been tourists.”

“Yeah, we even went to the library the other day. Anti said we couldn’t bring anything home, but we hung out and read for the longest time.”

“We do a lot of cooking now that we have a real stove and Blue made a sort of fridge for us.”

“We go to the markets for fresh food because that’s just how people buy things around here. Things are cheaper here so we’ve been eating more.”

“Yeah. So we do that. And we, you know. Talk.”

“Yeah. We talk.”

Red smiles back at his brother.

Anonymous asked: blue, is anti gonna be mad at you for taking dok down?

“Oh, no.”

“Blue has special privileges,” Red calls, his smile teasing now. “He’s a special boy.”

“Lol,” says Blue out loud, looking unamused.

“Haha.”

“I kind of do, though. My job is to look after the others. Obviously I don’t interfere when Anti’s running drills or disciplining or anything, but I know that at some point Anti we’ll let me step in and help. If he had been here this morning, I’m sure he would have taken the chains off for me by the time I went to get Doktor. He would tell me if he wanted me to let someone be disciplined longer than the usual one night or one day. So no, everything this morning was pretty normal. Except for the, uh.”

Blue trails off, staring anxiously up at Red. Red does not even look back at him.

Anonymous asked: oh fucking hell anti whatever you're planning, please don't

“Now you’re just tempting me. This is reverse psychology. You really want me to, don’t you? Some of you are so funny.”

He’s gotten out other things too now - thick cord, and a tie, and… clothes you think you recognize from somewhere, another starchy white dress shirt and a dark vest. Anti runs his hands fondly over it, humming something bouncy to himself.

the-weirdest-fan asked: Anti, do you ever slip up and call them by their old names? Why did you give them those names? I get Red and Doktor and the others, but the name Blue doesn't make much sense to me. Could you explain if it's not too much trouble? Thanks!

“Ah, an interesting question, I do like this intrepid, polite one… Actually, you’re right, I do sometimes come close to slipping up. Especially when I’m angry - they just look so much like those same stupid fucking people they used to be… And Doktor is just a quieter Henrik, and Trickshot a more confused Chase, and Dapper…”

Anti sighs and shakes his head, turning his gaze to look out the window.

“The line between Dapper and Jameson has always been a thin one.

“But as for Blue, well, first of all, by the time I got my hands on that little bitch I meant for him to be Red’s twin, and I like the pairing of the names. But blue’s always been the color that reminded me of him. It’s the color of his power when he casts. He cast it against me so many times - I guess I like the inversion of it. Now Blue belongs to me. Not even to himself. It’s a name I chose for him. Nothing about him is his own anymore. And so he is Blue, because even that which he once used against me is now mine for the keeping.”

Anonymous asked: anti what the hell are you planning just TELL us you overdramatic bitch hdfgjfhdgdfgddh

“Can you give me a damn second to get ready! You ask me all these questions and then don’t want to wait for answers, damn! Anyway, when did I say I was doing anything? It’s just work. You’re the ones hyping it up. Geez.”

And he pulls a line of fairy lights and a box full of finger puppets out of his closet. You can see him trying not to laugh, fixing you with a cold grin.

whydoilovesomanyvillians asked: Finger puppets and fairy lights wherent those in dappers toy box thing

“Very good. My littlest puppies are acting up. There are ways to make them… revert.”

immabethehero asked: Woah, woah, woah, Anti, calm down! No need for collars!!!

“Shut the hell uppppp,” sings Anti, bouncing on his heels as he gets to his feet. “I’ll decide what they need and what they need is - ah, shit, I should get his new medicine figured out too. Something stronger. Just a second. Hey, Dok-Dok!”

A moment later, he is yanking open the first door on the hallway right, and Doktor jerks awake with a cry, both from the pain of his aching muscles and from the alarm.

“Did you decide on Dapper’s new medicine?” demands Anti, crouching down beside him, a little too close.

“His new - his new medicine?”

Anti’s voice sharpens dangerously. “Yes. Like I said yesterday. I want new medicine for him. Something stronger, less generic. Obviously the old shit’s worn off him.”

Doktor’s mouth has gone dry. “W-well, Anti, I was thinking about it and maybe he should actually stay on the Haldol?”

“No.”

“It’s just sometimes people have bad episodes even if they’re on good medication, and he’s very used to his medicine now and handles all the side effects well, it really just fits him well, he likes it, he - ”

There is a hand pressing down hard on Doktor’s bruised throat. The pain makes his vision spark.

“You really want another night in that shed, don’t you, love?”

“N-no, Anti, no, please.”

Anti lets him go.

“So! What new medicine is Dap getting? Or would you like me to keep sedating him til his freaky little brain cells put themselves right again?”

Doktor’s mouth opens dryly. He pushes anxiously at his glasses, trying to think.

“Fanapt might be okay,” he manages finally, licking at his lips. “Kind of a newer medication. But I’d like him to be tapered off the Haldol and then - ”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll handle it.”

“Oh, but, please, don’t start him with too much, it - ”

“Doktor, you know I have the whole fucking internet under my fingertips, right? I’ll read the goddamn research report or whatever. There, that wasn’t so hard, was it? You can go back to your fucking nap now.”

Shaking a little, Doktor lies back down, his eyes pricking, though he couldn’t tell you exactly why if he wanted to.

Just feels like a betrayal.

“Oh, yeah!” Anti pauses to look at him one more time from the doorway. “I’m about to do some work with Dap and Trick and you might feel the… how do I put it… ripple effects. So if you start feeling weird, that’s why. Don’t come bother me about it. You’ll be fine.”

He slips off into the hall.

Anonymous asked: trick, dok's ok now! he's out of the shed, he's with red and blue and he's safe!!

Trick and Dapper are playing cards.

Dapper can’t hold them with his fingers tied up like this, but Trick found a solution.

Trick puts a six down.

Trick puts a three down.

Trick puts a six down.

Dapper and Trick slam their hands down on the card at nearly the same time, with Dapper’s hand just barely beating Trick’s, and Trick ending up slapping the top of his little brother’s hand. Chuckling, he makes an exaggerated noise of disappointment and shoves the cards towards Dapper, who pulls them into his pile.

Trick looks worn, but his melancholy face gives Dapper sudden warm smiles every couple minutes. Dapper is doing his best to smile back, grateful for a reason to keep the blood flowing in his hands. There’s a slight twitch in his right eye.

Trick glances up at your message and suddenly the warm smile is for you.

“Oh, he’s okay!” Trick rubs at his chest over his heart, his eyes glazing slightly. “Th-thank God, I was worried. Maybe Anti will let him come see me soon if he let Dapper in!”

The door creaks open.

Dapper and Trick turn towards it as one, the cards fluttering out of Trick’s hands.

“Hi, Anti,” he says softly, trying to smile for him.

“Hi,” Anti answers, reaching down to pet Trick’s hair. “Sorry I was gone last night. Let me make it up to you. Are you two playing games? I have a game we could play too.”

Trick chews on his lip, a little unnerved, plucking at Anti’s sleeve. His eyes flicker to Anti’s backpack. A length of string dangles out of it. Dapper has gone very white, staring down at the floor, silenced in every sense of the word.

Anonymous asked: Who’s the dog muzzle for, Anti? If you put that on Trick we’re going to have a problem.

“Oh, come now, my dear.”

Anti sets his backpack down and pulls out the great dark muzzle.

Trick’s pupils bloom into moons, his gaze fixed on the old muzzle.

“This was one of my best controls, when I was breaking him in,” Anti purrs, running his hands along the small, stiff spikes on the inside of the mask. Trick’s fingers drift mindlessly up to his chin, where the old scars are hidden beneath his beard. “You remember, Trick, I can see it in your eyes. You were never better behaved than that first month after I broke you in, and let you be Dapper’s little bodyguard… his twin, his friend…”

Anti steps forward. Trick does not move. Dapper shrinks back.

“You would be so excited to see me. You trusted me completely - with your face, with your hunger, with your dignity. What little of it you had left, anyway. Maybe you always wanted me to strip it away, so you could justify the person that I’d made you into. There was no thought of suicide, then, because you knew something that you have since forgotten - ”

For a second, Anti’s eyes are black instead of blue.

“Your life belongs to me.”

Blue again.

“Of course, we ran into our little problem later, and I had to take the two of you apart. And Doktor was always so ashamed when he would hear about how his twin had let me put this on him, do you remember?”

Scarlet explodes through Trickshot’s cheeks and he turns his head away, panting.

Anti reaches forward to touch his neck.

“Tell you what,” he says lowly. “I’ll settle for the collar for now. Provided, of course, that you play nice and set a good example for your little brother, so that he can get back to where he needs to be, like when the two of you were twins, and he was my puppy too. How does that sound?”

Dapper has recoiled all the way to the corner, his eyes flickering desperately around the room. Trick, for his part, is frozen stiff, staring at the muzzle.

He can almost see Doktor’s face - the horror in it at seeing his twin letting Anti put that thing on his face. He imagines disgust too. He always imagined disgust, though Doktor never gave him anything but comfort.

“That - that - that - that - ”

He swallows and tries to steady his stammer. Anti strokes at his beard.

“That sounds good.”

Anonymous asked: ANTI DON'T YOU DARE HURT HIM PLEASE HOLY SHIT

“Nobody has to get hurt if we all play nice,” hums Anti, stepping towards Dapper with his hands out-stretched, the black collar clutched in one fist. Trick holds the yellow one in shaking fingers. You watch him fix it around his neck, his face draining entirely of color, as if the collar had sucked it all out.

“I know you have to go gentle with Dapper,” says Anti, though his voice is cold as frost. “Otherwise he goes into his horrible little snaps, and near kills everybody around him. Treacherous little brain you have there, isn’t it? Even when you convinced yourself that I was the enemy, you could never direct your insanity just at me, could you? Do you remember, Dapper? Do you remember Red’s blood beneath your hands, and the dying tick-tock of a clock unwinding?”

Dapper pants fiercely, his nails scrabbling at the wall behind him, his hands bound, muted.

“Stupid little boy. You need a stronger hand to guide you. You’ve always needed a stronger guide than your brothers. Stupid, stupid little boy.”

Anonymous asked: Special doesn't mean valuable. You're a germ, Anti, and a temporary one at that. They won't follow you forever and you know it. And it's killing you. So have fun with that.

“A germ,” Anti hisses, stalking closer to Dapper, who fumbles at his side for a knife that no longer hangs there. Desperate, his stiff right hand manages to draw a circle at the wrist of his left -

“Blue! Blue! Blue!”

The only brother he can call for with his hands like this.

“Mama bluebird isn’t coming, songless lark. It’s just me and you and the other puppy. Isn’t that right, Tricky?”

Trick sits with his back to the bed, his hands suspended around his collar. He nods blankly, shaken.

“Are you a good boy, Trickshot?”

His face is beginning to look a little green. He nods again, weaker.

“Very good?”

“V-very - very - s-sorry, yes, very good.”

“Very good what?”

“Very good, m-master.”

“Trickshot’s going to get lunch,” smiles Anti. “Trickshot’s going to get water and sleep and a blanket to curl up in. You want that too, huh, my little Carver?”‘

Dapper’s eyes are filled with tears and hatred. Shoving himself back against the wall, he kicks out as hard as he can at Anti’s stomach.

The blow never lands. Anti grabs his ankle and then he attacks.

Dapper wheezes as his face, still bruised purple from last night’s beating, is shoved into the floor of Trick’s room and his arms yanked back so hard he fears dislocation. But you know what? He’s taken it before, and he’s taken it more willingly than this, and no matter what, he survived it. He survived it. He can fucking take it. No more shoving him around. If he’s going to die, he’ll do it with his dignity. Not like this fucking coward has the courage to end his life, anyway.

He slams his head back into Anti’s chin, snarling, proud to elicit a sharp, furious cry. And then Anti has grabbed him by the hair, and he disciplines, striking Dapper’s head against the cold linoleum again, and again, and again -

There is a second where Dapper exists outside of time entirely.

His hands could move it if he only had the strength.

But blood trickles swift from the side of his head and he cannot keep his focus. His eyes slip to silver only for a second, and then they are blue again, and he is trapped beneath Anti’s hands, wailing without making a goddamn noise.

Not that anyone would be able to save him if they could hear.

the-weirdest-fan asked: Ooh what's the plot of this puppet show?

“This puppet show,” pants Anti. “Is about a very naughty little child.”

Beneath his hands, a 30-year-old with intelligence more than enough to hate Anti passionately.

“The child was born stupid, and broken, and completely unwanted. Its master took it in one day because the brothers who claimed to love it were not watching over it, and it was helpless.”

Beneath his hands, the most powerful little magician ever to walk the face of the earth, doing his damnedest to flip Anti off with bloodless fingers.

“Everything the child became, it became because of its master. Everything that the child loved, it had because its master had given it.”

Dapper hand flails desperately in front of his chin, trying to get the pointer finger to stick out - “Liar!”

Anti presses down harder on his neck, pinning him to the floor with his knee between his shoulderblades. Somewhere behind him, Trick has staggered to the bathroom to vomit.

“Its master worked very hard for it, and gave it everything it needed. But as soon as the master started giving attention to another one of its puppets, the child began to think that it hated the master. Maybe it thought that because its mind was so broken and strange. Or maybe, just maybe, the stubborn, stupid little puppet had caught on to something that all of its brothers cannot see no matter what I show them, something that changed everything about the plot of the play, changed everything about the child’s life, and purpose, and loyalty…”

Anti leans in, bowed over Dapper’s body, and he places his lips at the very base of his ear, so Dapper could feel the movement of his mouth.

“I hate you so much I would die just to make sure you and your precious fucking brothers spend the rest of your miserable lives suffering hell on Earth.”

Dapper has gone still, his wide eyes staring at you, frozen.

Anti draws away again. Blood drips through the bandages on his neck.

“But whether Jameson had understood this truth or not did not matter to its master. All that mattered was that the child was broken again, and it was up to the master to put it back together.”

The tie is suddenly wrapped around Dapper’s throat and pulled so tight he gags, spasming desperately beneath Anti’s hands, his rapid heartbeat visible in a vein on his throat.

“And the master always knew, no matter what the puppet did,” hisses Anti. “Exactly how to shatter the puppet in exactly the right way to put its broken mind back together again the way that he liked it.”

And Anti summons all the power he has left inside him, and unleashes.

The power makes your camera short out.

 End Section Three of Chapter Two.

Find the next section here.

[oliivverwood]

dazed

flintwood + marcus suddenly being nice for @fliintwoods 

(bonus: people get injured and its the freakiest of fridays. and it’s from changing povs!! hahaha im so tired)

doll im soooo sorry this took so long i took some stupid bitch juice and i may have twisted the concept a bit but i hope u like it 

-

When the both the Slytherin and Gryffindor Quidditch Teams stalked off the pitch without both their captains, there was no aggressive tinge of animosity in the air, no violent urge to fight, nothing. No, now was not the time to act on their rivalry, not when this had happened. 

It went like this. 

Marcus Flint caught the ball. He began to zoom towards the goals with all the swift skill of a truly experienced player. He’s going fast. 

Oliver Wood had his hands up, eyes narrowed, following the player as he zigzagged through players, obstacles. And it’s down to the two of them, as per usual. 

A wayward bludger. Finally, they both lost control. Marcus crashed into Oliver, a nasty collision of their heads, and they were sent tumbling unconsciously to the ground in a mess of blood, broken bone, and all everyone else could do was fumble for their wands or watch, horrified. 

It’s like a car wreck. Your eyes betray the rest of your body, your eyelids pasted wide open rather than squeezed shut. And you watch. 

So no. 

The two teams couldn’t fight over this. 

Angelina Johnson placed a cautious hand onto Terence Higgs’ shoulder, an olive branch, a white flag, as they walk off the pitch silently. 

He didn’t shake it off. He’d never admit it, but perhaps he leant into it.

--

Then it’s the freakiest of Fridays. 

But they wouldn’t realise that yet. 

--

Oliver woke up cold, blinded by heavy drapes. He frowned. Normally, the sun would flood through his curtains, no matter drawn or not. 

He raised a hand to cover his mouth, yawning, then to run a hand through his hair, and yelped in shock. His hair was coarse, short and trimmed at the sides. Oliver looked at his hands.

They were big, his knuckles scarred and bruised, the blue of his veins standing out on the pale backs of his hands. They ran up his forearms, then his biceps, straining against his simple black shirt. 

These hands were not Oliver’s. 

He got up much too quickly for someone so heavily concussed, groaning as he swatted the windows open, letting the green-washed light into his room, blinking as black dots appeared in his vision. He mustered all the strength he had and staggered to the bathroom, flicking on the lights and looking in the mirror. 

Oliver threw up into the sink, heaving and retching, and when he finally looked back up into his reflection, he only saw Marcus Flint. 

--

Adrian had automatically known something was off when Marcus, pale faced and looking rather timid, said “sorry” when he knocked into Terence. 

Marcus walked straight to him, tapping him on the shoulder, and Adrian beamed. “’Lo, Flint.”

“Morning,Pucey.” Marcus’ voice was a pitch high, and his eyes were flicking around, side to side. 

Adrian frowned. He’d said good morning. 

Marcus’s knuckles were clenched so tight that they were white. “Need to talk to you. In private, please.” 

He’d said please. 

They stalked off, out of the Great Hall and into an empty classroom, and Marcus spun around, wincing from the ache in his head. 

“What is it?” Adrian asked kindly. 

“I’mnotMarcusFlintIdon’tknowwhyI’minhisbodybutIthinkhemightbeinmine.” The older boy blurted what sounded to be nonsense to Adrian’s ears. 

“Come again?” 

Marcus took a deep breath. “I’m not Marcus Flint. I’m Oliver Wood, I don’t know why I’m in his body but I think he might be in mine?” 

Adrian’s jaw all but fell to the floor. The doors of their classroom then slammed open, Marcus letting out a truly uncharacteristic squeak. A furious looking Angelina Johnson was dragging Oliver Wood in by the ear. 

“Morning, Captain.” Angelina snapped at Marcus, then shoving Oliver at him.

“Morning Angie.” Marcus said absently. Angelina looked vaguely nauseated that he was addressing her so casually from another body. 

“Bloody hell, woman.” Oliver, who was Marcus, rubbed his ear, then his temples. “My head felt like it got trampled by an erumpent and you’re grabbing me by my fucking ear!” 

Marcus, who was Oliver, scowled. “Does my accent actually sound like that?”

Angelina chose not to grace the statement with an answer, instead turning to Adrian. “How do we fix it?”

--

Pomfrey didn’t believe them at first. 

“I can’t believe you let those horrid Weasley twins get you in on a joke.” She had said crossly, and Angelina had to beg her to hear them out. 

“If you’d like me to provide some proof, I will, ma’am.” Oliver said, sounding all too grouchy to be the real Oliver. “For example, Wood’s got a tiny cock.” He began to raise his hands to demonstrate. 

Marcus gasped furiously, smacking Oliver in the shoulder. “You- you’ve seen my-”

“Would’ve looked worse if you wet yourself in class, arsehole, don’t get your knickers in a twist over it.” Oliver snapped. 

“Flint, you pervert, I do not have a tiny- speaking of knickers, why does your mum send you so many tighty-whities-” 

Pomfrey cleared her throat before Oliver lunged at Marcus, the downward curve of her mouth going much deeper than they thought was humanly possible. “I believe you. Not because of that lewd comment, Mr Flint, mind yourself please.” She directed this at Oliver. 

He grinned, looking feral. 

 “It’s a simple fix- you will need to come into see me every day for as long as I see fit after I cast the spell on you, and you two will have to spend some quality time together. Theres’s a chance you two will pick up certain traits or habits from one another- they’ll go away with time, don’t make that face, Mr Fli- Wood.” 

She pulled out her wand.

Oliver and Marcus shared a glance before quickly looking away. 

--

People looked at Marcus funny the day he held the door open for people and openly smiled at everyone, even Oliver.

Whoever made fun of the fact that Oliver’s thick Scottish brogue had suddenly become a softer Welsh got hexed into the next week by Angelina. 

-- 

Whoever poked fun at the pair sitting across from one another on a sickly-white hospital bed, scowling as Pomfrey put them through more icebreakers, got beat on by Adrian Pucey. 

When Marcus cried after winning a quidditch match and Oliver scowled and swore at his own teammates, people began to stop batting an eyelash. 

--

When people found the two snogging in the locker rooms, three months after the incident, nobody even bothered questioning it.