#as you can see the idea of the Operator affecting Soul Marks makes me go NUTS | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

makiema · 3 years

Text

finally finished writing about how much stormbringer enhances the skk dynamic which was at a nascent stage in Fifteen and anticipates the developments which happen later and culminate in Dead Apple where the faith they have in each other is absolutely remarkable! the fact that i said i’d do this in a few hours yesterday but it took me like 24 hrs to finish i have an attention span of a whole 2 minutes 💀

my favorite thing about stormbringer is that it actually builds up on the concepts/themes introduced in Fifteen so it's a glimpse into what has changed in dazai and dazai & dhuuya after one year of being together. As much as it's about chuuya confronting his past and his identity this is also about dazai’s development from who he was in fifteen. chuuya and rimbaud both left their marks on dazai and in Stormbringer we see him, actually trying to emulate or follow in a sense a way of life, that chuuya and rimbaud represented. Stormbringer is not just about chuuya, abt his test of humanity, or he coming in terms with who or what he is. it's about dazai too. it's about dazai developing or at least attempting to develop what he calls “boyish”/ “ordinary” in Fifteen. its not about chuya having an identity crisis. in fact what we understand from Code 04's last section is that chuuya never considered it as his crisis and neither did dazai. so to dazai “saving chuuya is important, human or not doesn't matter” and when dazai gives chuuya time to think abt what the operation will cost him chuuya doesnt so much as flinch form his purpose. This goes on to show unlike verlaine he doesnt care about memory and certainly doesnt consider it as the only determinant of someone being human. He cares more abt yokohama and his friends and in that, in caring abt his “family”, he is just as human as the next person. whether he’s factually human or not comes secondary to his desire to save people. This is a message that the quality of being human has more to do with embodying human qualities or humanity than having memories and lineage. so yeah stormbringer is essentially about embracing humanity but this happens on 2 levels: both chuuya and dazai embrace humanity. Going back to the boyish or ordinary bit, im talking abt this segment:

here dazai is shocked because he assumed everyone “gangsta” and everyone crazy powerful delighted in homicide, in deliberately indulging in the macabre. but he is proved wrong. He logically concluded that anyone with power more than average and belonging to the underground would kill people and delight in that because it’s a given they lack any kind of moral understanding. To that end, they’d be exalted at the prospect of relentlessly shooting a dead body, mutilating it and dishonoring it. The mafia code (any general mafia code) works in a way where honor and death goes hand in hand. So only the lowest of the low would do that to a dying person, who even when faced with certain death is loyal to his own organisation. This really shows that even within the mafia dazai is the only person whos like the devil incarnate. So yeah dazai at this sate far lower than even a mafia member. But chuuya who actually embodiess the mafia code and is incredibly loyal to his organisation and “family” [ putting family in quotes bc he himself calls his friends family 🥺] ofc kicks the gun away. From dazai’s pov chuuya being as insanely powerful as he is should also do the same. But chuuya comes along and suggests that even enemies should be shown respect where it’s due. And that is what an ordinary person, oblivious to mafia life (mafia life as in waht dazai makes of it) thinks. So in undermining the binary between “ordinary” and “mafia” chuuya proves that being mafia doesnt necessarily mean selling your soul to the devil and giving up the last smidge of humanity. In fact by embodying qualities like compassion and kindness and mutual respect, you can make the mafia a better place for yourself and for the other members. Now in Stormbringer, we see how this affected dazai. here dazai is introduced as someone mercilessly killing to set up the channel.

Now to expand the channel one would need to keep doing it right? To mercilessly kill ppl and stuff but instead what he does is hand the channel over to chuuya bc he knows chuuya wouldnt handle it like him. im not suggesting that dazai miraculously becomes v good or anything with dazai the key words is “try” or “to some extent” like in Fifteen when Chuuya asks “do u wanna live” he’s like “ not to that extent”. similarly its not to say he doesnt kill people anymore. it is that he tries to lessen the number of casualties by handing over one of the most troublesome channels to chuuya who would manage it in a much more humane way. That dazai draws from his friends/at least tries to is smth we’ll see again later on when he deals with akutagawa. He talks about odasaku and ofc its baffling to him that a mafia member as powerful as him would be taking acre of orphans. and dazai says but he cant afford to be that kind and proceeds to shoot akutagswa but again does so in a calculated way such that he doesnt end up killing him ( im NOT justifying dazai’s abuse not at all im just saying that its hard to believe he coincidentally knew the exact no of bullets that aku could block. and had odasaku’s words and his way of life not been in the back of his mind he could’ve ended up killing aku) coming back to chuuya and dazai we also see him avoiding further conversation on the jewelry channel thing as he says “leave that for now”. He does a similar thing again when mori brings up the concept of double suiciding with chuuya.

Its a HUGE thing for him to digest that him suiciding would inevitably spell the doom for chuuya. this puts an unimaginable responsibility on him. And he avoids further discussion on this. Now we know dazai is the rambly type. Even in the most dire moments he goe son with his LOONG monologues so really he is the last person who’d avoid a conversation but he deliberately does it in these 2 instances because its hard for him to grasp these things. That he can go against his nature and do a conscientious thing by handing over one of the most grisly channels to chuuya (i dont think dazai’s nature is evil. Or even if it is, its a a social construct keeping in mind the war ravaged times or its mori’s construct because he does exploit dazai to the hilt. but dazai ofc thinks of himself as non-human, devious. perfectly devilish...etc.) And also the fact that someone as suicidal as him is actually responsible for the life of someone else is really too much to take in. a whole 10 seconds pause indicates just how much he was thrown off when mori opened his eyes to the reality of things: if he dies, chuuya inexorably dies as a consequence. also i dont think the “wow” here or the next bit :

is something jokey. if it was like haha double suicide with chuuya is the worst haha wanna do it w pretty lady kind of a deal. that pause would have been unnecessary. dazai’s immediate reaction would’ve been whining and shit. the use of “froze” too implies the gravity of the situation. so ofc what is “wow” is how much meaning his life has for someone else. and for some so much....better than him. and what is unacceptable is this sad, sad truth that his life (to which he ascribes no value) would be so inextricably linked with someone else’s and hold so much meaning to them. it is like when a suicidal person at the brink of suicide understanding his life is not his own. his life and death holds consequences for ppl surrounding him. so both of these are huge things to grasp and at both these times dazai is visibly shaken up so much so that he doesnt want to do his favorite thing- ramble in a condescending tone. smth he does in so many instances. this really is a testimony to the fact that things are changing in him. the redemption process has begun. he’s no longer the kind of maniac he was before he encountered chuuya. when zuko underwent his transition in atla he was so shaken up after one (1) right decision he had a fever. i think this is true for anyone who’s trying to change. change is after all a huge thing for everyone. ofc he’ll be unsettled. so anyways this is proof that he has indeed come a long way from being someone who revelled at the prospect of meaningless bloodshed.

now coming to the concept of love he assumes he’d get sick of love and die:

and that death is the singular goal worth chasing after because it makes you feel more alive/get a fuller picture of what living entails. but here he is erring by supposing love is something that’ll bore him/have no meaning. and it cant provide him that “something” he’s looking for. at this point he hasn’t loved so he doesnt know whether he’ll be sick of it or if it'll have no impact. And yet he’s morose and regretful. this is a kind of self-imposed constraint hes putting on himself. he cancels out the v idea of love because hes convinced it isnt worth it. he hasnt even been in love okay scratch being in love that sounds romantic and i really dont mean love in a romantic sense here...its just love. in general. any form is cool. anyway so dazai is not familiar with any kind of love. He is entirely alien to the concept. he doesnt even know what a friend/partner is so he doesnt know what love is. this is cleared out here when rimbaud confesses he did everything for paul and dazai is unconvinced:

chuuya ofc admonishes him and shuts him up for good, he says dazai has no right lookind down upon smth he doesnt understand. he doesnt understand friendship, love. or loyalty. or how important those feelings are at this point. now this situation is turned on its head in stormbringer. but before we go into that let’s look at the message rimbaud had for both of them. ik he specifically asks for chuuya to “live” but there’s purpose behind including both of them in the frame. it’s a message they should both take to heart. and at the end of it its implied both are changed after hearing it:

and in this message the first bit is for chuuya. what he says is basically memory doesn’t make u human... ”you are you” just a frame or not doesnt matter. and even if hes just a frame, he is still beautiful. beauty actually is a v important concept in literature starting right from Plato to Shakespeare. i’d not bring this here but because bsd is so deeply rooted in literature i feel like the reference to beauty, and later on to soul and even warmth and also the universal tone of this message carries some meaning. so the thing is both Plato and Shakespeare were endorsed the idea of love as a force awakened in the world by beauty which then leads the soul to perfection. so humans and by extension, all life are beautiful frames that can inspire love. this concept is also there in Romantic poetry like Keats and Wordsworth all of them talked about loving beauty in nature and how that can elevate the body mind and soul. so essentially in telling this to chuuya what ehe basically means is that chuuya just by being him, by being a beautiful framework can inspire love and warmth in others and thats a great purpose! how much chuuya understands of this purpose with his one (1) braincell and his low self esteem is questionable but he gets some sense of belonging. now this is a two way relationship so ofc dazai has to be factored in. he comes in the next part:

these are from 2 different translation so the disparity im sorry ;-; but anyway, this last part abt the world being a cold place. then paul. then “warmth” is a message to dazai who’s been introduced to us as cold-hearted and having like no bearings of a human being. this is the reason why its important for both o f them to be there. now going back to chuuya being a beautiful framework, the framework can be beautiful in so far as its beauty is appreciate by someone and inspires warmth and love in someone. this again is the whole beauty/beholder nature/the romantic concept that is there in shakespeare and in Romantic poetry where both are a part of a codependent relationship. so what rimbaud implies here is that dazai can have that kind of a relationship with another person (chuuya) just like rimbaud had with paul which makes him warm and the world doesnt feel cold anymore. rimbaud has no regrets about what he did because. so the idea is that dazai and chuuya can share the same dynamic. also after this, the narrative says that their hearts are now changed and wont return to what they were before....and even their souls are refined in a way. but in Fifteen we dont have a concrete proof of how this happened bc the novel ends at this point. Instead, Stormbringer shows exactly how deep the impact of those words is:

this is the third instance of dazai showing hesitation and once again this has to do with chuuya. the seed of the dynamic that rimbaud was talking about is already germinating in him. his reactions, his fidgeting, his hesitancy, in response to chuuya’s situation is such a big contrast to his cocksure self when he’s conversing with adam and verlaine. after this of course we have:

not only does he clearly express his concern but he gives chuuya 2 whole mins to make a decision and based on that he’s prepared to overturn the operation. the success rate of an alternative plan will ofc be lesser than the og one but that doesnt faze dazai. he’s ready to turn the tide for chuuya’s sake and if this is not development idk what is. just a year ago, he was someone to whom the concept of rimbaud going thru all that trouble for his friend was a lost concept. ironically enough, now he finds himself doing something that is along the same lines. he puts chuuya above his mission. to him, chuuya is more important than getting a satisfactory result. another bit that i wanna talk abt is that one controversial section where dazai says he’ll save chuuya, human or not, and then the justification is:

i think a lot of people got mad bc of this and honestly at first glance i was peeved too. as a chuuya stan some of the shit dazai has done so far did rub me the wrong way. i love skk obv but still those were moments that kind of left a bad taste in the mouth. i’ll discuss them later on bc stormbringer helps allay that feeling. coming back to the “i wanna see chuuya suffer” part firstly context is important. ofc someone like dazai cant be expected to be upfront about his feelings with ppl (or AI) he barely knows. so what be relays to adam, is only partly true and its actually a kind of a twist in concept. the things is, and this is smth dazai knows all too well is that ppl suffer simply on account of being human. human suffering is brought on because humans, by virtue of being humans, feel. so when he says he’s willing to acknowledge chuuya as human despite what N and Verlaine said he’s already admitting that chuuya suffers. so there is really nothing “new” to see for him. he knows chuuya suffers already and he does too because they’re both humans trying to make it thru their messed up lives. also chuuya “ceasing to be human” is a p huge concern for him bc he himself is like that. just like with the suicide thing, it bothers dazai when someone else shares his situation/his fate like as long as his life is his own, he has no problem ending it whenever but the situation is complicated when someone else’s life span is determined by that decision. and similarly, as long as he is “no longer human” its not that much of an issue because he’s like resigned to a doomed fate but someone like chuuya ceasing to be human or worse yet never getting to know if hes human or not are pressing matters. so anyways what he actually means here is that in saving chuuya, he saves someone who suffers just like he does and in their case, even the cause of suffering boils down to a shared psychological conflict: what essentially constitutes being human and if im human or not. now this sharing of pain and suffering is the foundation of forming a connection with someone, which makes life a little better. here again, what rimaud imparted to dazai and chuuya is driven home. also dazai’s key anxiety is not finding meaning/anything. this “anything” can be assumed to be something that justifies life. so all his anxiety and frustration stems from the fact that there really is no discernible meaning to be found in the mechanism of life. so it is an empty pursuit because it is true that nothing can explain why feelings of pain and suffering are exponentially heavier than feelings of happiness or why after getting to experience one (1) free day we’re back to square one where life is grueling. these are questions that really dont have an answer so every time dazai like gazes into the abyss and says he didnt find anything, he is not so much asking if he’ll ever find anything as swallowing the hard truth that there is nothing to be found, no singular entity exists that can magically justify everything. again drawing upon literature or philosophy more specifically, there’s a concept called Absurdism which says the only philosophical truth so to say is this that life is absurd and looking for meaning is futile. instead what we can do is accept that it is absurd and deal with it in the best way possible, by finding little sources and moments of happiness, and strewing them together so we feel somewhat content. even if it is just for a fleeting second. and this happiness/contentment amidst a wretched life (altho temporal) can be found in friendship, in sharing, and even in having fun with people you’re comfortable with! this is actually why dazai wants to save chuuya and now it may seem like im interpreting his words through the shipping lens but thats not so and it can be corroborated by looking into dazai’s words to odasaku. after chuuya, dazai’s next attempt at friendship was odasaku who he found “interesting”. now when odasaku sort of like threw hands and chose death over having to live a life without the orphans, dazai tried to stop him not by saying stuff like life is good. and things will def change for the better. but instead he admits that living is hard and the sense of void is ubiquitous and yet he doesnt want him to up and die because then he would be sad. because the little comfort that he got from odasaku and something he probably assumed odasaku also got from him would be gone. [how much odasaku considered dazai a source of comfort remains unclear. in fact the reason odasaku gave up and died was because he did not have this. this feeling of sharing in someone else’s suffering and seeking comfort in friends in the real world. instead he was too vested in his ideal world. his over reliance on an entirely idealistic concept is actually what pushed him over the edge. and this would have been the case for dazai too had he not encountered and sought comfort and companionship in chuuya and eventually in odasaku ] so this again goes on to show how rimbaud’s words changed dazai’s heart. and in a way dazai really has been doing this unconsciously form the v beginning like by teasing chuuya continually in Fifteen. you dont expect someone as cold as him to indulge in friendly bickering and taunting so often but he does. that there is significance and even happiness in that is something he learns over time, after rimbaud’s words to him. although these things seem futile on the surface they give a moment’s respite. so although chuuya spinning dazai on a rope in stormbringer might seem weird to everyone, they still serve a purpose:

what shirase puts forward is particularly relevant here because neither dazai nor chuuya is fully aware of the extent of their feelings (or even what those feelings are like they dont know what label to put. so typical oblivious lovers) for each other or what they stand to gain just by driving each other nuts but there is something intangible but satisfying to be felt. a kind of contentment that helps him continue. one day at a time. there is no one great “thing” that can make him like wake up one day feeling like he doesnt want to die ever again. but again like i said before, the key word for dazai is “extent” so, these little things to some extent contribute to a sense of fulfilment which helps him keep death at bay. thats why he’s bent on saving chuuya bc he knows they can share in their suffering and make life better for each other. its not like he wants chuuya to suffer. chuuya will suffer nonetheless like every other human. but in suffering together there is something to be found so he doesnt want him to cease being human.

this covers more or less the intertextuality between Stormbringer and Fifteen. i just wanna talk a bit more about a couple other moments in Stormbringer that i feel are p important because they put some things in the series in perspective and also made the dead apple moment 10x more emotional 🥺 one thing that really strikes me is the absolute fanon level of comfort that dazai and chuuya share in Strombringer. its like scenes form k-drama lol.

so yeah this stuff. compare this with dazai’s reaction @atsushi when he drops im not saying that its not just a joke and that what im saying should be the right way to look at this contrast. its not like that at all. but what this does is give an estimate to the readers just how close and comfortable dazai feels when its chuuya. and this plus everything i rambling on abt for so long also gives us an estimate about the sincerity of dazais feelings. now 2 things always bothered me : the fact that dazai actually left chuuya and the fact that after the fight against lovecraft he actualy deserted him (this again can ofc be construed as just a humorous bit but still it did leave a bad taste in my mouth) dazai leaving the mafia is ofc something he had to do to fulfil oda’s dying wish but it still dint sit right with me that he would abandon chuuya. just like oda levaing is harder on dazai, dazai leaving is harder on chuuya. its always harder on the one left behind. so anyway, these sorts of things sometimes made me doubt dazai’s feelings but now that stormbringer clears it all up i do think there is a larger motif at work here. when mori offers dazai to come back to the mafia in s2 we see him saying that it was mori who kicked him out and that he did so because he was afraid dazai would usurp his position. so he set it up in a way that dazai would be forced to leave but on his own accord. now more than usurpation i believe what mori really did fear is that dazai had no allegiance to the mafia (which is actually true) bc he doesnt have that sense of loyalty and that to him his friends were more important than swearing allegiance to mori. (which again is true). so by getting oda killed, the message that mori seemed to be giving out was if dazai didnt leave he would do it again. and if we consider ango’s betrayal which had already transpired at that point, the one mori would next target to sort of get at dazai would inevitably be chuuya. this is only conjecture but still, i do believe this might as well be true because then it would explain why dazai didnt carry chuuya back to the base after their fight [something he was v comfortable doing in Stormbringer. in fact in the first case he carries chuuya back to the billiards bar and not to the mafia’s base so he could hear albatross’ last words 🥺] its because mori needs to know unlike dazai, chuuya is absolutely loyal to him which regrettably he is. it kinda becomes imperative therefore on part of dazai to make it seem that way to mori. that they really are at each others throats and that dazai is insignificant to chuuya. and that the mafia comes before dazai. (which is not true bc we see chuuya protecting his friend [shirase] while also staying loyal to the mafia in Stormbringer)

mori also in his own way tries to provoke hostility b/w them like in Dead Dpple when he was all like yeah so dazai is the star and chuuya is merely bait. so it kinda makes sense if dazai left the mafia not only to like do good work but also to protect chuuya from mori. also the fact that chuuya did the same thing— left the Sheep and joined PM to protect Shirase from the mafia makes be believe that my speculation is plausible given all the parallels we find between dazai and chuuya.

and the last bit is about the brilliant Dead Apple scene and how much added context it gets in light of Stormbringer.

in this scene dazai first says: “you used Corruption believing in me?” and then the translation is “how beautiful” which is an okay translation but the exact thing dazai said was “nakasetekurerune” which literally is : youre gonna make me cry you know? now my knowledge of japanese is like duolingo level but i do know “nakasete” has to do with crying and “kureru” is used by the receiver to indicate he’s receiving a feeling/object from someone close. so basically chuuya trusting him is something so beautiful that it could almost move him to tears. now lets look at dazai’s intro in Stormbringer:

dazai, being dazai, ofc would be able to tell genuine trust from fealty out of fear so ofc the fact that chuuya has this kind of blind faith in him is overwhelming for him. also stormbringer really expands on the sight effects of Corruption in full detail. its so PAINFUL and to think that chuuya would jump into it right away for dazai’s sake.....no wonder he is so soft when deactivating him. and then he proceeds to flirt for a little bit with the Snow White and the kiss of life reference. but this flirting doesnt seem even a little out of place now. it doesn't feel like smth meaningless or smth that dazai is just saying as a joke. that there is absoluetly no subtext to making a statement like that. instead that kind of flirting feels like smth inspired from a deep, deep familiarity with someone who really shares his heart and soul. when he talks to chuuya abt the problem of not knowing whether he is human or not, it is a problem that is as central to him as it’s to chuuya. not feeling fully reconciled to a human identity is a problem thats fundamental to both of them. I don’t think familiarity gets any deeper than this where you share the exact same psychological problem. so its really wonderful how we can trace the skk development now: what starts out as a crush on part of dazai or not a crush exactly rather, a feeling of perplexed admiration because chuuya is breathtakingly beautiful inside out, eventually gain all these layers and develops into something meaningful where they have so much faith in each other and where they literally help each other live. knowing someone out there shares your exact issue so you’re really not alone in this is perhaps the greatest comfort in the world. also now its clear how both of them would have turned out had they not met each other and had they not taken in rimbaud’s advice. chuuya in his desire to learn about himself and frustration at not being able to do the same would have perhaps spiralled downward and ended up becoming like verlaine. he is his double here after all. and had dazai not seen chuuya up close being the wonderful person he is, he too would have probably ended up developing a god complex and becoming like fyodor. dazai is there to save chuuya literally from dying a monster and chuuya is there to remind him he too can try and mend his ways and embrace his human side. after all chuuya has so much trust him in! (despite him having questionable methods) for both of them, it starts out as an attempt to be more human, then establishing a fruitful partnership, and finally coming in terms with their feelings to some extent. for dazai, he’s comfortable enough to engage in occasional flirting at this point and for chuuya it’s playing along with dazai’s antics (well with the ones he get 💀 pretty boy has half a functional braincell) and openly showing his concern for him. so really by confirming their feelings what strombringer does is enhance the skk development in a way that Dead Apple doesnt seem like fan service anymore. the fact that dazai would casually flirt or be comfortable with chuuya landing on his crotch 💀 all that isnt as ridiculous as it first seemed because stormbringer lays the groundwork and anticipates all the intimate/flirty skk moments that have happened till now and ig will happen again soon.

#bsd #stormbringer #soukoku #dazai osamu #chuuya nakahara #bungou stray dogs #stormbringer spoilers #bsd meta #bsd analysis

366 notes · View notes

abnormallynice · 3 years

Photo

The World Evolves With You

The long-awaited personal take on a TWEWY-Digimon crossover is complete T3T/

Keep reading if you like headcanons and text! (TWEWY spoilers inbound):

The wolrd/AU follows alongside the TWEWY story with minor changes: - Players are partnered with a Digimon, not other players. Though, groups sticking and working together helps (as Shiki says in W1) - If the human or Digimon in a team is erased, they other will also cease to exist in several minutes. No Digimon nursery/rebirth or data downloading. - As a Player has personal growth, their Digimon will show equal in growth and digivolve into higher stages. - Digimon are In-training on Day 1 and outside of battles but automatically digivolve to at least Rookie when the battle initiates. In rare instances, some humans have Digimon higher than Rookie stage. - Where player’s prize for winning the Game is a second chance at life, Digimon have a chance at reincarnation into the human world, in a form of their choice. - Noise are mindless Digimon with tribal markings and appendages.

Neku and Monodramon: Evo line: Monodramon > Strikedramon > Cyberdramon > Justimon - Since Neku is our lovely protagonist, he gets the coveted dino/dragon Digimon. This was an amazingly hard choice to make (At first I wanted to go with Impmon, but ultimately I decided it suits Beat better). I did like the idea of Neku having rough, violent looking digis up until Mega, then showcasing a change of heart via the look of the final evo. - During the last day of W3, Justimon appears, a stark contrast in look and personality compared to prior forms. Justimon represents Neku’s final growth as a person, with a less aggressive shell but strong sense of justice for the friends he’s made, people he’s helped and a world he promised to get back to. - Notably, Neku’s Digimon is the only one that doesn’t have a set of wings in Mega. Let’s say It represents his stubbornness to not accept death, even when he was forced into the UG over and over. - It’s not surprising that Neku does NOT like this little, chubby purple creature that keeps following him around at the start of W1. It’s Shiki that helps convince Neku they have to work together (they still meet on D1W1. She and BlackGatomon saved Neku and Monodramon’s collective butts). Sloooowly, Neku and his digimon’s relationship betters and by the end they are 100% in sync.

Shiki and BlackGatomon (Mr.Mew) Evo line: Salamon > BlackGatomon > LadyDevimon/Angewomon > Mastemon - In contrast to Neku, Shiki’s Digimon was a painfully easy choice, lol. She always refers to her Digi as Mr. Mew as well, as they surprisingly resemble a stuffed animal she had when she was alive. In reality, her digimon IS her stuffed animal (thanks to data collection on the digimon’s part, it knows and understands Shiki). It’s one of the reasons that Mr.Mew is a champion level when they first meet. Mr.Mew only ever devolves to Salamon after Shiki’s first encounter with Higashizawa in W1. - Mr.Mew’s evo line is the only one that doesn’t follow ‘traditional’ evolution. The first time they go to Ultimate, the evolve to LadyDevimon; representative of Shiki’s still inner turmoil. When facing Higashizawa on D7, they slide evolve to Angewomon; representing her accepting herself (This is one of the reasons she is the winner of the Game in W1). In the final battle, the two evolutions combine to make Mastemon (I recommend looking at a pic of this digi because wow <3 ).

Joshua and Lopmon Evo line: Lopmon/Lopmon X > Cherubimon (Good) X - I knew knew knew Josh had to get Cherubimon as his Mega. Where most of the other’s Digimon Megas have somewhat seemingly human forms, Churubimon looks out of place as this massive pink bunny with winged ears, indicative that Joshua isn’t human like other players. Cherubimon X looks even more alien and ethereal (seriously, google it. The floating notes/digicode is perfect imo). - As part of Joshua’s deal with Kitaniji, he took a handicap and his powers were lessened, which made Cherubimon X a Lopmon. His Digimon appears as a regular Lopmon when meeting Neku for the first time, which helped mask his identity and assume his role as a regular player. However, Neku will soon notice that Lopmon never digivolves higher than Rookie (whereas his own Digimon was steadily evolving to Champion level). - When Joshua reveals his innate power in W2D5, his seemingly regular Lopmon transforms to Lopmon X. X-antibody Digimon are unheard of, and much stronger than their base-level counterparts (I tease at this in the image by giving Johua’s Lopmon a fluffy tail, which regular Lopmon don’t have. If anyone questions it, Joshua would explain how its a clip-on and looks much cuter than the stubby tail, lol). - Cherubimon X is only ever revealed right at the end of the final battle, when Neku and Joshua face each other. Joshua dares Neku into killing him, but Neku can’t bring himself to command Justimon to do it. Cherubimon X then attacks both Neku and his Partner.

Beat and Impmon Evo line: Impmon > Meramon > SkullMeramon > Beelzemon - Pairing Impmon and Beat just felt natural. They both share an innate need to be badass but are also unwittingly dense and easily embarrassed. They constantly bicker with each other but when it’s time to fight, they can’t wait to get in there and show what they’re made of. - On W1D3, Rhyme still sacrifices herself to save Beat (he knew Rhyme was his sister from the start so he and Impmon stuck around her and her partner). Although Beat didnt get erased, he still made the choice to become a Reaper. - When Rhyme gets erased, it sees a shift in Beat’s motivations and personality, which naturally affects Impmon. Impmon permanently evolves to SkullMeramon and is mindless fighting machine during W2, just operating off Beat’s whim. When Neku gives him Rhyme’s pendant, both Beat and his Digimon soften up. - As a reaper, Impmon could evolve and stay at Ultimate level without issue. When Beat rejoins Neku in W3, he loses that ability and his Digi has to start from square one; In-training level. Impmon (or Yaamon, in this case) wasn’t too happy. Eventually, Impmon gets back to comfortably sitting at Rookie during W3. - W3D7, at the dead god’s pad, (when facing Kitaniji and Shiki) with Beat’s resolve and growth, Impmon evolves right into Beelzemon (indicative of how Beat wants to become more capable and help people he cares about while looking awesome), saving Neku. Beelzemon also helps Neku, his Partner and the other Player’s Digimon to take on Kitaniji’s final form.

Rhyme and Kudamon Evo line: Kudamon > [ERROR] - Kudamon have cool, collected personalities and can conduct precise assessments, even during battle. For this reason I really liked it for Rhyme’s partner. It’s the most pleasing choice close to squirrel-shaped! I liked this version of Kudamon in particular as well (vs the 2006 anime version), since the markings on it were very Noise-like! - When Rhyme sacrifices herself for Beat in W1D3, Kudamon is at risk of being deleted. As a counter, Mr.H binds Rhyme’s soul to the Digimon, keeping it alive (although Rhyme couldn’t speak through Kudamon, the Digimon could feel her emotions and hear her thoughts). - During Beat’s Reaper stint, Kudamon was with him, but no matter what they said, Beat wouldn’t break away his focus. He loosens up eventually and can take Kudamon’s words to heart. - Kudamon accompanies Neku, Beat and their partners through W3, and does get captured by Konishi on D1. - Although Kudamon never evolves (or devolves) beyond Rookie, they do help immensely during the battle with Konishi on W3D7. They are at the final battle as well.

And that’s all for now. Thank you for reading all of that >v<’‘‘\ Hope you enjoyed!! Give me you headcanons and ponders if you like! Maybe someday I’ll get to the Reapers..... ‘‘‘OTL

617 notes · View notes

thunderheadfred · 3 years

Text

🤚Shigaraki HC's🤚

Part 1 of my Shigaraki Thesis HCs. The Second Worst: 1 - 2

This was rough because even though Shigaraki is one of my favorite characters of all time, I have nothing sexy to say about him canonically.

that's a lie, i'm lying. i had to break this post into parts, that's how much of a liar liar pants on fire i am

Warnings for quite possibly everything. Minors do not interact.

- - - - -

Okay first of all:

You know it. I know it. We all know it. This man is not boyfriend material. He disintegrates boyfriend material for fun.

You don’t want to date this man.

Frankly, you can’t date this man.

Seriously. Run.

If you’re a villain, you’re his underling. Maybe, if you squint, you’re kind of like his... um... least-hated workplace associate. What do you want, a trophy?

If you’re a hero, good luck not dying horribly. Maybe you’d make a cute hostage. Hope you can escape cuz he is NOT letting you out alive.

If you’re a civilian, perhaps that’s the best case scenario. He stalks you a little before he becomes infamous. You go on the worst date of your life but luckily you don't tell him where you live. Later you see him on the news standing in a pile of rubble and you just think, “ohhhhhhh.”

If he somehow, impossibly, against all odds, manages to develop a single affectionate feeling toward you, AFO is going to hunt you down for sport. You are NOT getting in the way of world domination. Again, good luck with that.

If somehow you managed to clear all those hurdles and kiss Shigaraki Tomura square on the lips, I can see one of two things happening.

1) You’re his body pillow now. Goodbye sunlight. You live in his room. He doesn’t have to chain you to the bed, because you know escape is pointless. Congratulations, the end is nigh.

2) Total mind break. At the first sign of genuine human affection, his trauma vault is instantly unlocked. Memories come rushing in, his quirk goes nuts. There’s like a 99.9% chance he’ll accidentally kill you and it will destroy his soul forever. But let’s say you’re the lucky 0.01% - then it’s time to fuck off together to a foreign country. He’s terrified, traumatized, and possibly broken beyond repair, but I guess he’s not a villain anymore? Have fun nursing him back to... semi-sanity.

Moral of the story: you’re better off getting hit with a quirk that takes you to an alternate universe where the worst thing Shimura Tenko ever did was throw a Playstation controller at his sister’s head. He’s an aspiring video game journalist with zero charisma and severe self-image issues. He has no earthly idea how hot he is. Please, for the love of God, fall for that guy instead.

haha just kidding

join me in hell, fellow Shigaraki fuckers:

- - - - -

Scenario the first:

so apparently you enjoy living in a cage?

Listen. He does not smell right. He doesn’t need to bathe much because his skin is constantly annihilating itself. So he’s not exactly dirty, but every instinct in your body is screaming in confusion, unsure if he’s alive or dead.

Breath of the damned. Sweet as moldy lemons. Whatever he eats just... rots. He doesn't produce enough spit.

He will kiss you very deeply. Until you choke. Forget the cold, chapped lips because they're the least of your problems. He's got those skeleton hands caging your face and you're trapped against a wall and his gigantic biting teeth are prying you open. He licks inside your mouth like he's trying to steal your soul. He'll probably succeed.

His hair is exactly as soft as it looks. Too bad you'll never get to touch it.

He’s either got no sexual impulses at all and will laugh at you for trying, or he’s a full-on incel. I don’t know which one. I don’t want to find out. Apparently you do, and I salute your resolve.

You will be lucky if Shigaraki treats you like a pet. He loves his Nintendo DS more than you.

Consent is not applicable. You showed interest in him once, now you're his plaything forever. There's a power imbalance between you so wide you could chuck a planet in there.

Safewords? lol

Doesn't want to break you, because what would be the point? He's already broken enough things. He wants to keep you around for a good long while. He'll take good, good care of you.

Unless you disobey.

Obsessed with making you cum whether you want to or not. Yes, this IS a high score thing. It's just so flattering. Say hello, orgasm torture. Was that another one? Aww. You barely moved. Oh, what's that? You're begging him to stop? Haha. He won't.

Don't cry. He'll drink your tears.

He'll touch you everywhere with bare fingers. Slow, feather-light strokes, like some kind of demented ASMR artist. This is not a trust exercise. He knows exactly how much it terrifies you.

Oh yeah. You're getting finger FUCKED. Do you fantasize about having a loaded gun shoved inside you? Same difference.

Will eat you out like nothing else, but not in bed. That's the kind of shit he does on a boardroom table where anybody could walk in and see you writhing. Spreads you WIDE open and sucks on you. Makes out with your asshole. The whole nine yards. It's wet and loud and nasty.

Only time you're out of his sight (and not locked in your room) is when he shoves a remote control vibrator where the sun doesn't shine. Operates it through an app while he calls you and jerks off. Wants to make your knees fail on a crowded train.

Come here. You get to sit on his lap like a dog. Four fingers on your throat, dick hard under your ass. He'll dry hump you in front of God, the Devil, and everyone else.

If he's playing video games, you're cock-warming. He does not care which hole. He won't even look at you.

He might get hard but he does not get naked. You do not know Shigaraki Tomura on a personal level. You have only the vaguest idea what his dick looks like. It feels long and thin, almost sharp. Maybe he's actually been fucking you with an ice pick this whole time. His hip bones dig into you and bruise. He likes to kiss and bite the marks he leaves.

He mocks you for being so fucking pathetic. Have you always been a such a needy slut or is he really that special? What is wrong with you? Even he thinks you're crazy.

Shigaraki won't kill you, but All For One will.

- - - - -

The Second Worst Scenario:

The half-mad ghost of Shimura Tenko is in love with you, and your life is about to become a tragic wreck.

(this half of the post went completely off the rails and turned into like... a whole-ass Victorian Novel)

#Shigaraki #shigaraki tomura #shigaraki x reader #shigaraki x y/n #shigaraki x you #gender neutral reader #mha #bnha #shigaraki headcanons #bnha headcanons #mha headcanons #smut #fred writes

110 notes · View notes

bollitosensible · 3 years

Text

Epilogue of Harrow The Ninth [theories]

Okay, I've just finished HtN and have come up with some ideas I'd like to share.

(I don't want to make any spoilers, so please keep reading if you are interested. I would like to know your opinions! 🥺)

Palamades, Camilla and the ending of HtN:

I think it's pretty clear that, by the end of HtN, Palamedes and Camilla have work out their own way of inhabiting the same body. I wouldn't call that lyctorhood, not without knowing the details, given that Camilla is a cavalier, not a necromancer. But we see Palamedes' eyes in Camilla and, taking into account what we know about it, I think we can be sure about Palamedes' soul being on Camilla's body.

"But, hey, are you sure those are Palamedes' eyes?" Let's look at the descriptions displayed on the books.

This is how Gideon describes Palamedes eyes the first time she sees him:

«Up close, he was gaunt and ordinary looking, except for the eyes. His spectacles were set with lenses of spaceflight-grade thickness, and through these his eyes were a perfectly lambent grey: unflecked, unmurked, even and clear. He had the eyes of a very beautiful person, trapped in resting bitch face» (GtN page 130)

And this is how, our unknown person, describes Camilla's eyes at the very end of the epilogue in HtN:

«...and she loved without reserve the eyes — those great lambent eyes, the iris so skilfully and gently blent it seemed there was no tint or shade in that clear and beautiful grey.» (HtN page 507)

I marked in the same way (bold, italics and red) the points in which the descriptions coincide. Camilla's eyes, in contrast, are described like this by Gideon:

«...Camilla's eyes were much darker than her necromancer's: his were clear stone or water, and hers were the unreflective, fathomless colour of overturned Ninth House sod, neither grey nor brown.» (GtN page 131)

In short, I think there are no doubts that this mysterious person is watching the eyes of Palamedes in Camilla, and therefore, is living within her, whatever this means.

The identity of THAT person

Having this clear, I would like to provide some insights on who this person might be. The hints are quite vague, but I think we can assume we are talking about Gideon's body, as the cohort was unable to locate her, and Mercymorn saw her body:

«...When they show me your corpse I didn't think to check the eyes. Stupid, Mercy» (HtN page 409)

This post may also help to reconstruct what happens immediately after GtN. Knowing this, I'm holding the hypothesis that BoE took Gideon's body along with Camilla, Judith and Coronabeth, and that Mercymorn was, at least, supervising part of this operation -which concurs with the fact that she was collaborating with them.

Another thing that points at Gideon is the next scene:

«She and the person who looked after her had used to go to a different haunt, where the food was cheaper and the sausages more juicy —but there the man who fried the food had once said warningly, "It's hot," only to find that she had already stuffed her mouth full of lacy fried things anyway. The man had said, laughing, "Her lips should be burnt off, eh?" But her lips had not been burnt off. It had barely hurt."» (HtN page 506)

As it has been shown multiple times in GtN, not only does Gideon have some incredible high pain threshold; she also guzzles down very hot tea without thinking and stuffs down easily any other hot meal she's given — she even states she has never taken a hot meal before.

With this evidence, I'm quite confident about this body belonging to Gideon. But...whose soul is it?

I've read on some reddit post (can't find it, sorry) that it might be a mixture of Dulcinea's and Harrow's souls, based upon the fact that «she loved without reserve the eyes», and who, if not Dulcinea, would love Palamedes's eyes, even unconsciously. HOWEVER, it's quite impossible, isn't it? We're told, both by Cytherea and Dulcie herself, that they HAVE NEVER MET in person. They just knew each other by letter, so there is no way Dulcinea would recognise the Warden's eyes.

I think this affection might have develop during the time gap. After all, Camilla is the person who looks after her, and presumably, she has been doing this for, at least, six months.

Could it be Gideon? I'm pretty sure Gideon would still be on Harrow's body for the next book. We know she dies, but she also sees the Body (and Alecto, at least that's my take on it) commanding CPR on her.

What about Harrow? Here is where it starts getting a bit...messy. I'm unsure about the location of Harrow at the end of HtN. I'm guessing she's either in a new bubble in the River or she has reached the place Gideon's soul was occupying while Harrow erased her from her memories (would that mean, she as somehow, returned partially to her body?). I'm not into the idea that she has appeared in Gideon's body and now has amnesia. At least, I'm hoping that this isn't it — please, enough of erasing memories.

My fave hypothesis here is that we have been presented Nona The Ninth, whoever she is, and we would —hopefully— get some answers in the next book.

#the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #tlt spoilers #htn spoilers #gtn spoilers #gideon nav #palamedes sextus #camilla hect #dulcinea septimus #nona the ninth

19 notes · View notes

fireinmywoods · 4 years

Text

the heart of the matter (is Leonard McCoy)

Followers...friends. I come to you today, hat in hand, to ask for your support in a certain fandom matter, a trifling concern of little real consequence which nevertheless has been driving me absolutely cross-eyed bonkers for some years now.

Simply put: can we please all agree that Bones is the heart of the Enterprise???

In AOS, I mean. I’m not aware of any debate over this when it comes to TOS, where the roles of the triumvirate have always been explicit, though there are a few different ways to identify them:

Spock = logos = superego = head

Bones = pathos = id = heart

Kirk = ethos = ego = soul

So clear! So clean! So universally accepted by Trek fandom at large!

Oh, but things get murkier in AOS, and there are plenty of posts floating around which suggest that it’s Kirk, not McCoy, who serves as the heart in the Kelvin timeline. Even the writers of the first two AOS films have outright stated that their interpretation of the triumvirate had the original roles switched, with Kirk as the highly emotional one and McCoy as the arbiter between Kirk’s passion and Spock’s logic. It’s true that this technically counts as a Word of God pronouncement by the actual creators of 2/3 of the series thus far, which some would argue renders it canon. However, it’s equally true that those same creators also felt that Kirk was a fuckboi and that Benedict Cumberbatch wonderfully embodied their vision for Khan Noonien Singh, so honestly, who gives a hot hollerin’ fuck what those dingdongs think. This seems as justified a time as any to invoke Death of the Author, and in fact, it’s my firm belief that despite the writers’ intentions, Star Trek and Into Darkness both support the original triumvirate breakdown.

Under the cut you’ll find a long-winded and self-indulgent ~*~character analysis~*~ of the Kelvin-timeline incarnations of Jim Kirk and Leonard “Bones” McCoy, reviewing why Leonard is still unmistakably the heart, unpacking what the hell Jim’s deal is, and finally taking a look at some key examples from canon, because ya girl believes in showing her work.

Let’s get down to business.

[A quick warning, as this is starting to spread beyond my own followers: if you don’t like McKirk as a romantic pairing, you ain’t gonna like part IV, so I’d bow out before then or just take your leave now.]

i. Leonard

Independent of Jim’s characterization, it should be blindingly obvious that Leonard is the heart. He’s by far the most nakedly emotional of our seven core crew members, a trait we see writ large and small throughout the films. He’s reactive; he’s passionate; he’s humane. He cares, first and foremost.

Not about Starfleet, of course. Leonard doesn’t give a damn about playing the game or advancing his career, or even really about the Enterprise’s mission - he has no desire to explore strange new worlds, he’ll pass on seeking out new life and new civilizations, and he spends half his time trying to convince everyone else that boldly going where no man has gone before is a great way to die horribly. Fuck exploration, fuck space, and fuck the Federation while we’re at it. Leonard is perhaps the most improbable of the Enterprise’s senior officers for the simple reason that he seems to resent everything about the job.

Well. Almost everything.

See, what Leonard cares about is people. He cares about their lives, about their stories, about their hopes and dreams, about their suffering. That’s why he entered and has stayed in an extremely taxing caring profession, and it’s why he’s still on the Enterprise despite his incessant bitching about everything they do. He wouldn’t trust anyone else to take care of the crew he’s become so attached to, and he finds fulfillment in helping the people they encounter out there in the nightmare of space.

In every timeline, Leonard McCoy defines himself by what he can do for others: the pain he can ameliorate, the wounds he can heal, the diseases he can cure, the small amounts of good he can bring to a galaxy filled with so much absolute horseshit. Unlike most of his colleagues, he’s not motivated by curiosity or an adventurer’s spirit or a burning desire to make sense of the universe. (Fuck the universe, too, as a matter of fact.) Instead, he’s driven by the incredible depths of his compassion and empathy and concern for the people he serves alongside and those they meet along the way.

Sure sounds like the heart to me.

ii. Jim

I actually totally get why some people characterize Kelvin-timeline Jim as the heart. He’s quite literally a different man than the original timeline’s Kirk, and he definitely has more of the pathos qualities to him. Early on, he’s a total spitfire, fierce and hot-blooded, quick to anger and other sharp-edged emotions we’re not used to associating with James T. Kirk. Even as he grows into himself and leaves some of those traits behind, he remains spontaneous, passionate, protective, and self-sacrificing - easy enough to mistake for the heart if you squint.

But let’s not confuse having a heart for being the heart. Sure, Jim is more openly emotional and reactive than his TOS counterpart, but there’s still a marked difference between the way he and Leonard express and act on their emotions.

AOS Jim definitely has a lot of feelings - big ones - but at the end of the day, he’s not driven by his heart. He’s driven by his gut.

Whenever there’s trouble, Jim makes a beeline right for the center of it. He’s impulsive as hell, rarely pausing to think past his first instinct, because he just wants to be doing something, no matter the odds, no matter what it costs him. He explicitly calls himself out on this in ST:ID when arguing with Spock: “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. I only know what I can do.” He doesn’t have the patience or the constitution to sit and debate all the options, either internally or with his crew. If there’s a path forward from where he is, even a bad one, Jim’s gonna take it.

[Sidebar: One could make the case that the roots of Jim’s instinct to act reach back to his childhood traumas - canonically ignored abuse and neglect on the one hand, and the Tarsus IV famine and massacre on the other - but that’s a whole post on its own and we ain’t got all day here.]

Jim can’t not act, and while that gets him into a lot of trouble, it also saves lives. Sulu probably appreciated that Jim’s gut drove him to leap off Nero’s drilling platform without a moment’s hesitation after a man he’d only just met. He may have been a real shithead about it, but Jim’s impassioned insistence on going after the Narada and not wasting time on the possibility of a better option was key to saving Pike and Earth itself. And I don’t know why Spock was so surprised that Jim intervened to save him on Nibiru, considering that the reason they were there in the first place was because Jim couldn’t sit back and watch the Nibirans die when there was something his crew could do to help them, even if it meant risking a violation of the Prime Directive.

Jim is a good man with a big heart, and he cares about people, absolutely. But he cares most of all about Doing The Right Thing - which in the heat of the moment often translates to Doing Something, Anything, Hold My Beer.

iii. heart vs. gut (i.e., time for some receipts)

I think one of the main reasons Leonard and Jim’s characterizations get confused is because they both tend to act on instinct, only lightly informed by higher reasoning. However, I’d argue that their motivations and the nature of those actions are super distinct, and those distinctions remain relatively consistent throughout all three films. (And y’all know I really mean this shit if I’m out here calling ST:ID consistent.)

Jim is a big picture guy, figuratively and often literally heaving himself full-body into the mix of whatever problem the crew has encountered for lack of any better alternative. That energy propels the plots of all three films: the chaotic path he carves through the events of Star Trek and ST:ID, and the slightly calmer but still undeniably bananas course he charts for himself and his crew in the second half of Beyond.

As the heart, Leonard operates on a more micro level. His concern invariably lies with the individual people caught up in those grand events Captain Chaos is busy dragging them all through. While Jim’s zooming around flipping plot switches, Leonard can always be counted on to bring it back to the personal.

We frequently see this juxtaposed right there on film. Think of that slow pan through medbay in the first movie after the Narada’s ambush and the destruction of Vulcan: while Jim is stewing over what to do about the Big Bad, Leonard has stepped into the CMO role without fuss or fanfare to care for the wounded crew and traumatized survivors.

Or jump ahead to Beyond: during Krall’s attack on the Enterprise, there’s a gorgeous cinematic shot of Jim sprinting down the corridor with two crew members to take on the invaders - and then we cut to Leonard moving slowly through those same ghastly red-lit corridors, searching for casualties in need of help, visibly affected by what his scanner is telling him about the downed crewman he tries to save.

Actually, Beyond as a whole does terrific justice to each of their roles. (Perhaps because it was not written by dingdongs.) The first act finds Jim flailing around for a sense of purpose and forward momentum - an understandable consequence of a gut-driven character having stalled out for too long - and he ultimately gets his mojo back by spending the rest of the film careening through one insane seat-of-his-pants ploy after another. Meanwhile, in the quieter moments between all the mayhem, Leonard serves as the empathetic sounding board for both Jim and Spock as they struggle with deep emotionally charged secrets and Big Life Questions, helping them untangle their feelings and reminding them of the emotional attachments which are ultimately key to their respective decisions to stay on the Enterprise.

More examples, you say? Don’t mind if I do!

Star Trek

GUT: Jim hurtles around the Narada, improvising almost every step of the way and paying the price for his and Spock’s scheme in bodily harm, and ultimately succeeds in rescuing Pike. HEART: Leonard calls out for Jim as he runs into the transporter room, overwhelmed with relief that he’s made it back, and takes Chris Pike’s weight literally and figuratively onto his own shoulders to begin healing him while Jim runs back off to the center of the action.

Star Trek: Into Darkness

GUT: Jim argues with Leonard, Spock, and Scotty in quick succession as he’s preparing to drag them all off to Qo’noS, immune to their attempts to reason with him because, unraveled as he is by grief and pain, he can only focus on his visceral drive to Do Something. HEART: Unlike the others, Leonard is upset not about the larger moral questions of whether it’s right to go after John Harrison or bring torpedoes aboard the ship, but about the fact that Jim himself is hurt and hurting and won’t accept help.

GUT: Jim makes a snap decision to sacrifice himself by hurling his body against the warp core to realign it and save his crew. HEART: Shellshocked by the emotional grenade of his best friend’s death, Leonard suddenly realizes, through the haze of his own numbness and upswelling grief, that he might still be able to do something for this lonely radiation-ravaged body he’s been brought and the life it represents.

Star Trek Beyond

GUT: At the tail end of an improvised plan to out-maneuver Kalara, Jim quite literally shoots first and asks questions later, igniting a fuel tank and setting off an explosive series of events which he and Chekov just barely escape. HEART: The next time we see Leonard, Spock is opening up to him about Ambassador Spock’s death and his own plan to leave Starfleet for New Vulcan - and while he’s empathetic toward Spock (I can’t imagine what that must feel like), Leonard’s thoughts go immediately to the emotional impact of Spock’s plan on the other people he’s closest with. (I can see how that would upset [Nyota]. / I can tell you, [Jim]’s not gonna like that.)

GUT: Jim frantically strains to reach the final switch in the life support hub, believing that he’s going to die either way since the vent has already opened, but spurred on by the knowledge that his ability to move that switch is the only thing standing between Yorktown and annihilation. HEART: Knowing exactly what’s at stake, with the fate of the station and millions of lives hanging in the balance, Leonard’s greatest concern is that Jim won’t make it out in time.

iv. never bet against the heart

Let’s wrap this up with a deep dive on one of the absolute best examples of Leonard as the heart: his decision to sneak Jim onto the Enterprise in the first movie.

As relentlessly as I drag him for the, you know, poisoning and kidnapping aspects of that whole deal, there’s no denying that it is a god-tier heart move. Is it logical? Absolutely not. Is it really the right thing to do for either himself or Jim, as far as he knows at the time? Nope. It’s 100% the wrong choice for his own job security, reputation, and relationships with his fellow crew, and it’s almost guaranteed to get Jim into even worse trouble. Leonard is a smart dude who must understand that this course of action will likely end up coming back on them both in a real bad way. For someone who argues loudly and often in defense of self-preservation, this is a shockingly bad idea.

But none of that matters, because Jim shakes his hand and tells him to be safe with that horrible empty-eyed smile, and it gets him right in the heart, one-two-three.

One: sympathy, worry, and affection for Jim - his best friend, his wild and troublesome stray, his only family.

Two: guilt over adding onto Jim’s pain, and the instinctive urge to fix whatever‘s hurting him.

Three: fear of heading out into the unknown by himself, the agonizing uncertainty of not knowing what’s coming, craving for the security and reassurance Jim’s presence would give him.

“Dammit,” Leonard says, as his heart wins out over his brain. He knows this is a garbage plan, and he doesn’t care. His heart chooses Jim. That’s all that matters.

So he goes back for Jim, and to his own surprise it turns out that this Very Bad Idea was actually a Very Good Idea because Jim’s impulsive instincts end up saving Earth, and Leonard’s not in the habit of fixing what ain’t broke so he figures he may as well keep on chasing Jim’s crazy ass around the galaxy for a while, through jungles and off cliffs and into the goddamn afterlife when need be, until finally one day Jim’s gut drives him right into Leonard’s arms and he suddenly realizes that this is what his heart was choosing all those years ago: Jim’s wide terrified eyes, Jim’s voice breaking over his name, Jim’s hand pressing hard against his chest, reaching out for what’s his.

But that’s another story.

#mckirk #otp: bedside manner #fic related #palimpsest verse #@animetrashmuffin is a gift #several people messaged me when i vague-tagged about this a while back #but you're the one who had to listen to me rant at great length about this while i was sick so CONGRATS PAL THIS MESS IS FOR YOU #mccoy #kirk #star trek #aos #long post

245 notes · View notes

thejonzone · 3 years

Text

Riverdale is the Best Show You’ve Written Off

About once a month, a tweet will go around, reading something like “I can’t believe Netflix cancelled [SHOW X], but Riverdale is still on?!? *eye roll emoji, angry cussing emoji*.” It can be difficult to read tweets like these, because I like Riverdale. But I understand why it has struggled to keep an audience-- there is a perception that the show has gone completely off the rails, a chaos of hot actors in their mid-20s playing glamorous high school sociopaths, with the show choosing excess over narrative cohesion. That perception is pretty accurate. It’s an easy show to write off and easy to make fun of, especially because, as a CW show, it’s ostensibly geared to teens. So it brings me no pleasure to say that Riverdale, currently in its 5th season, has reached a renaissance, and its episodes so far this season represent its high-water mark.

To appreciate how stunning and exciting Riverdale’s new direction is, it’s important to understand how we got here.

In the first season, a murder in the titular town revealed an underbelly of thugs, power brokers, and shady backroom rulers, all vying for control with gothic morbidity. What followed after that season though, was something else entirely.

Riverdale, ramping up during Seasons 2 through 4, became a beautiful mess. I think it’s important to state that no other show on television is even attempting to do what Riverdale did/is doing. The show is, at any one point, 5-7 wholly different shows. There is a season’s worth of plot per episode. It’s storytelling mania and in-real-time dementia. I don’t remember what happened at the end of last episode because SO much happened. And besides, coherence is overrated! Give me hot actors, give me drug-addicted mobsters, give me creepy principals! On Riverdale, the parents are both former teen heartthrobs and serial killers, children operate underground speakeasies, and for some reason not one therapist has realized they could make a fortune helping our cast work through the intense psychological terror and emotional abuse they receive every episode.

This show is beyond pastiche, hyper-loaded with reference. My roommate and I had a joke that the show’s third season could be mapped to a quadrant of influences: Twin Peaks, True Detective, The Sopranos, and Gossip Girl. At any point Riverdale was acknowledging and playing into the influence of one of these shows. Season Four doubled down on the show’s horror anthology tendency. No one wants you to miss the references being made. You know that menacing boarding school Jughead attends in Season Four? You’d be right If it reminded you of Donna Tartt’s A Secret History. After all, consider Jughead’s classmate, whose name is Donna Sweet. Maybe you picked up on the violence simmering underneath the surface of Jughead’s other classmate, Bret Easton-Elli-- I mean, Bret Weston-Wallis.

Every week, the show seems primed for failure, attempting to juggle more storylines than possible or even necessary. The show is like a house of cards that has already fallen, and yet the writers are somehow still haphazardly adding more cards to the top. “Be reasonable!” I would plead. To no avail. And that’s the thrill of it. The plotlines are secondary to the spectacle. The show is a celebration and parody of violent legacy dramas, camp, teen horror, canonical literature, and anything else it can stuff under the hood, as much an ode to other pieces of media as it is an original work itself.

But now, something completely different is happening. The beginning of Season Five brought an end to the seasons-long saga the show felt trapped in. Archie, Veronica, Betty, and Jughead graduated high school, and the show flashed forward seven years. What might be considered a hokey technique was one of the best decisions the writers ever did. Because now we have a blank slate for our main cast. The writers effectively cut the fat from three seasons of violent, ridiculous maximalism. And it’s psychically refreshing.

At the heart of any good sitcom, we just want to see our main characters hanging out together. Change is part of life, but it shouldn’t be in television. Which is why this new season is so exciting-- Riverdale is now in the process of bringing its four main characters back from their adult lives and re-engaging them in the deadly politics of their hometown. Pop Tate, the owner-manager of Pop’s, Riverdale’s diner, is retiring, and Archie gets the gang back in town to celebrate the man who helped make the diner such a great hang-out spot. In the words of Jughead, “You gave us a home, Pop.” Like so mant other sitcoms before it, Riverdale used Pop’s to establish its characters and their relationships to each other.

I grew up on Seinfeld so I’ve always been attracted to the idea of the diner. The pandemic has made me yearn even harder for the sitcom diner, that idealistic place where all my friends are, where people enter with problems to be solved, drama to be explained, good news to be celebrated. Riverdale’s acknowledgment of Pop and his diner as the show’s connective tissue is a grounding and human choice. It works fantastically to set up this upcoming season, where our gang must confront the newest nefarious plot for control over the soul of Riverdale.

No doubt the show will continue its pattern of naming and spoofing genre. Veronica, in her adult life, had an Uncut Gems-style few scenes where she works as a charismatic (of course) diamond merchant. She married a possessive, boring guy who’s only characteristic seems to be that his voice is *exactly* like Veronica’s megalomaniac dad, Hiram. Something something Freud, something something daddy sexy. And credit where credit is due, Mark Consuelos is really hot.

Jughead is a writer now, in the most white guy college freshman fantasy of being a writer possible. He attended the Iowa Writers Workshop as an undergrad, something that is definitely not possible. He’s written a hit book but now suffers from *gasp* writer’s block?? He’s a cool guy writer who, in his opening montage, gets recognized by, hit on, and then has sex with a college-aged fan. Back in Riverdale, Jug writes a speech for Pop’s retirement and sends it to his agent. His agent is smitten with the work, calling it “tragic americana” and proclaiming that Jughead’s next book will be titled “Elegy for a Small Town”. This is almost certainly a reference to J.D. Vance’s bad book, and I’m sure the show will be bringing in more elements of “tragic” “americana” as the season unfolds.

Betty is FBI in training, because as the show has loved to tell us, Betty has “the serial killer gene”, but is using it for good. For the record, her dad was a serial killer, and her brother was a serial killer. And it’s not like her mom or sister can cast the first stone. Betty’s endured enough trauma to fill 100 lives with unending pain and I’m sure the show will have no trouble heaping more on top. Already in the new season we’ve seen flashbacks to some point during the time jump when Betty was taken hostage, in what’s clearly a homage to The Silence of the Lambs.

And then there’s Archie. I don’t know if anyone knows what to do with the guy. Played by K.J. Apa, who is both really good-looking with his shirt off and a god-awful actor, Archie has been in the army. The show is using him to shill for the military-industrial complex.

I’ve long joked that the Riverdale writers have no idea what they’re doing. But through a global pandemic affecting TV production and *the* major narrative complication in any high school-set show (graduation), the Riverdale writers have seamlessly transitioned the show to a new stasis. Past seasons are informing this one, but we aren’t bogged down by the details in this new season. The bigger joke, of course, is that the writers have known exactly what they’ve been doing this whole time, and I’m just an idiot. Well I mean, of course I’m an idiot. I use television to regulate my emotions and simulate a static friend group that doesn’t leave or change. And Riverdale is perfect for that. If a renaissance is a rebirth, well then my friends, cut the umbilical cord and save the placenta to put in pills, because Riverdale is cranking out episodes that are better than ever.

6 notes · View notes

inkribbon796 · 4 years

Text

Crackdown Ch. 1

Chapter 1: Broken Trust

Story Summary: The heroes take all their information to put a stop to some of the crime and corruption is the city. Some of their operation goes easy, but threats are not often what they seem.

Summary: Chase and Damien have a long overdue discussion, and Damien has an ultimatum for the heroes.

A/N: To just get the parts I have done up on a Friday, I’m hoping I can get the rest of it done by tonight. But Dark and Yancy didn’t want to work with me. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4

It was Sunday, the same time that Chase liked to come over, practice magic tricks and talk. Damien was already packing up so he’d be ready to leave after practice.

Chase walked in, barely knocking, “Hey Dames, how’s yer day been?”

“The usual,” Damien answered. “Voting season is coming around again.”

“Yah going ta try an’ be mayor again,” Chase asked.

Damien seemed to be thinking on that, “This town has really turned around from how it used to be.”

“Yeah,” Chase smiled. “You’ve really helped out, why’d you want to work in politics.”

Damien shrugged, “I was steered always towards it as a child, but this city is its own beast.”

Chase nodded thoughtfully, “One last question.”

“You can ask as many as you want,” Damien promised.

The veteran hero nodded, then looked the mayor directly in the eyes, “Was any of this real ta yeh?”

Damien looked confused, “Any of what?”

Chase motioned between them, “This yeh an’ me fake friendship yah’ve been makin’ fun ‘a me wit’ cause it sure as shite ain’t funny ta me.”

“Ahh,” Damien answered in recognition. The Mayor leaned forward, “What do you think, hero?”

“I think yer a shite friend, the worst I e’er had,” Chase informed humorlessly.

However serious Chase tried to make his tone, Damien laughed all the same, a thoughtful look on his face, “At least I know how thorough your little invisible apprentice is.”

“This isn’t funny,” Chase spat, Damien still looking pleased with himself and more than a little smug. “Yer whole story about a fookin’ family, is that why yeh targeted me?”

“Well, you were the one who grew attached to me,” Damien offered. “It’s not my fault you and the entire town couldn’t do your research.”

Silver walked in at that point, “Hey, Mr. Mayor, you corrupt asshole.”

“It took you all four years,” Damien smiled, almost silently chuckling to himself, “I don’t know what’s more humiliating: the fact that I’ve been here for four years, or your little side show magic act never suspected a thing.”

“Don’t yeh fookin’ bad mouth Marv,” Chase spat, slamming a spike into Damien’s desk and the whole room supercharged with magic, painfully charging Dark’s form, bringing a pained scream from Dark. A blue and red echo, one clearly looking like Damien and the other like Celine, floated behind him for the length of the charge before Dark grabbed the spike with his aura and snapped it in half. His echoes dissipated and Dark stood in Damien’s place, smoothing back his hair and straightening his blazer.

“Amateur hour, indeed,” Dark’s ringing was in full force, a slightly more angry tone to his voice. “That was an attempt that should have been made by a more skilled mage, or at least with the mage in question present.”

“So you’re taking hosts now,” Mark tried not to sound nervous at Marvins’s enchantment clearly not working, they’d planned the whole fight around it. “Thought you hated the idea of it.”

“Define host,” Dark answered, “forcing myself to placate a thinking, slowly rotting flesh sack, does seem trivial and a waste of my energy.”

“What did yah do ta Damien and Celine?” Chase spat.

“The better question is what did they do,” Dark redirecting the conversation.

“Don’t redirect the conversation,” Chase spat. “We’re putting yer host under arrest.”

Dark laughed at that again, “Oh, like I’m so much more defeatable and able to be arrested all of the sudden. This vessel has housed me for so long it will crumble to dust if I leave it. So I’m going to propose a new plan for you heroes.”

The Entity walked around his desk, Chase taking a step back while Silver stepped in front of him protectively. “I’m not going to be placed under arrest. You heroes have two options: One, you go public with the fact that I’ve been your intrepid, hapless mayor. The town is disillusioned with the authority of the city, again, and I suddenly have more free time to run my network again. Or, two, I continue being mayor indefinitely, or at least until I get bored of being in the position again. Either way, I win and you lose.”

“Again?” Chase questioned.

Dark seamlessly turned back into Damien, his blue soul looking like it did before Marc violently ripped his soul from his body. “Damien used to be the Mayor of Egoton, and has been quite insistent on being mayor again.”

“What about the kids you kidnapped?” Silver spat angrily.

“Kidnapped?” Dark repeated, summoning his cane and smoothly tapping it to the ground. “I did no such thing.”

“How about the orphanages yeh bribed ta take a couple ‘a their kids, or the boy yeh had Ed take off the street from his actual parents.” Chase accused.

Dark gripped the top of his cane, studying them for a second or two, “You’ve been talking to Yancy.”

“An’ yer not takin’ ‘em back,” Chase threatened.

“You are not taking what is mine,” Dark threatened in return.

“Yeh don’t own children, yeh self righteous prick,” Chase spat.

The Entity could still see down the hall since Silver had failed to close it, and the demon could see J.J standing there, his pocket watch in hand. In and instant Dark’s attention went from Silver and Chase to J.J. His whole being became even colder and his shell cracked and splintered, his aura lashing out. “No!”

Dark moved through the Void and lunged for J.J, aiming for the pocket watch in his hands. “Don’t you dare!”

J.J didn’t activate his pocket watch, he pocketed it and waited for Dark to get in close to grab him by the jacket, to get his hand on some part of Dark’s actual being, but Dark was faster.

He’d been under J.J’s magic before, and while he’d been inhibited by the illusion of the Actor, he knew it was dangerous and slammed into J.J with his aura, stabbing his right shoulder with his aura and pinning him to the ground. Dark had his cane pressed into his other shoulder. There were muted, pained noises coming from the normally silent hero, but Dark was neither merciful nor lenient.

“You are not taking them from me, I will not allow it!” Dark roared. “I would sooner drown you in your own blood!

Something electric hit Dark’s back since he was so laser-focused on J.J he’d mentally forgotten about the two heroes in his mayoral office behind him. While Dark was quickly recovering, Silver slammed into Dark and threw them both through a window and to the ground outside.

“Jay!” Chase rushed over to his injured friend.

Dark was fighting against Silver, trying to tear his way back to J.J. “Let me go, what the hell do you know.”

“I’m not letting you kill someone in front of me,” Silver denied, sturdier against Dark than any other hero or human could have been in that moment.

The Entity literally growled at Silver, but when he looked back in J.J’s direction and saw a pair of black shoes.

“The Silver Shepherd should release the Entity,” the Host said as Dark took in the appearance of the young man in front of him, his long tan coat and bloodied bandages over his eyes.

“Like hell I’m letting him go,” Silver shouted. “He’s going to kill Jay.”

“The Entity will stop once he learns the mute hero cannot turn time farther back than a week,” the Host said.

Silver felt Dark stiffen as Silver was pried off of the Entity by Dark’s aura and Silver floated a bit off the ground, prepared to grab Dark if he attacked Host or went after J.J again.

Dark stood, looking over the Host, the tension slowly leaking out of him before asked, “Arthur?”

The Entity studied the Host again, giving a rather suspicious and angry glance Silver’s way, “What happened to you?”

“The Author went after the Entity’s archnemesis,” the Host answered, all Dark’s attention snapping to the Host.

“Hey, I didn’t do anything to him,” Silver quickly tried to divert Dark’s anger before it turned on him.

“Not you, you hyperactive man child,” Dark snapped at Mark. Then he became thoughtful. “However now that I say that out loud you do remind me of him.”

“I’m not your archnemesis?” Silver didn’t know whether to be relieved or insulted.

“Of course not, you’re practically human,” Dark snarled.

“Regardless of the Entity’s antagonistic rivalry with the Silver Shepherd, the Actor is coming for the Anomaly and for the Entity.”

“When?” Dark demanded. “How do you know?”

“Soon,” the Host answered. “When the Author tracked down the Actor he was unprepared and controlled by his pride. So when he encountered the Actor the curtain of this world was pulled back.”

“I told you not to go after him,” Dark reminded curtly. “We are having a long talk about this afterwards.”

“And the Author did not listen,” the Host reminded. “As his punishment he was driven mad and tore his own eyes out, and the Host awoke in his stead.”

Dark just stared at the Host, his eyes huge and for the first time, Silver saw fear in his eyes. “What?”

“The Author is no more and the Host exists in his place,” the Host answered. “The Author could not handle that he wasn’t the master of his own story, that he was merely a piece on the board, and much like the Colonel, the Author’s mind gave way before the world around him did.”

The Entity seemed pinned in place, at a loss for words at first. “How different are you then, Host?”

“The Host remembers the people the Author killed, he remembers everything, including the lengths the Entity went to try and protect him and his other children despite the fact it would have been easier to abandon such a violent child.”

“I would never abandon you,” Dark promised, “even if you are different now.”

“The Host knows that now, even if the Author believed he had to compete for that affection,” the Host reassured. Then the Host ripped open a hole in the Void with his narrations, his eyes bleeding heavily.

“Stop,” Dark stepped closer, sounding agitated, “I can open the Void, you don’t need to overexert yourself.”

“The Host is not interested in returning so soon to the Manor,” The Host refused. “But he and the Entity have much to talk about.”

“Fine,” Dark huffed, walking through the portal with barely a word. “However, I am opening the next one.”

The Host smiled at Silver, “The heroes should take their wounded and regroup with their colleagues.”

“I’m not leaving you alone with that psycho,” Silver declared.

“Not too long ago such words were leveled at the Host, and the Entity would sooner harm himself than the Host,” the Host promised. “Now go, the Host cannot talk the Entity into distraction forever.”

He gave a smile with way too many teeth and went to follow Dark through the Void portal. It closed immediately as J.J was limping out of City Hall with Chase. Chase didn’t look happy, but Silver knew he deserved to be more than a little pissed.

“The others called,” Chase told him, supporting J.J’s body. “They’ve got the other kids, but the Host is in Damien’s office.”

“We should leave,” Silver said, “Host seems to have it under control, and J.J looks like he needs stitches.”

“Yeah,” Chase agreed reluctantly, looked at J.J in worry, “yer not fightin’ that arse again.”

J.J gave him a tired but belligerent glare, huffing out wordlessly.

“We shouldn’t leave Host alone, even if nothing happens,” Silver decided.

“Nope,” Chase agreed. “Take J.J, I’ll wait for Host.”

“I can’t leave you alone either,” Silver refused, but took J.J knowing it was faster and safer to fly him to Iplier.

“Let me watch after the kid, please,” Chase asked.

“Fine, don’t take any risks,” Silver demanded.

“I won’t,” Chase promised and Silver flew off to take care of Chase and meet up with the other heroes at the police station.

#Superhero AU #Masks and Maladies #Markiplier #Jacksepticeye #Darkiplier #Chase Brody #Silver Shepherd #J.J #Jameson Jackson #the Host #magic #secret identies #upset Chase #and he deserves to be upset #deception #the heroes mean well

6 notes · View notes

snarkwriteswrasslin · 4 years

Text

FFT: sirens song; jon moxley

Notes:

So.. this came into my main from @vonschweetz and I had to do this, entirely based on conversations we were having at the time about Mox’s pirate patch. And sirens. This is a pirate soulmate siren au thing? Enjoy? I do definitely want to write this out in full at some point but again, i do not know. we shall see.

Summary:

Pirates and sirens.. Those two things do not fit.. Or do they? Mox is a pirate in search of a long sunken ship and it’s treasure. Serafina is the siren whose supposed to protect the ship. She’s trying to lure Mox to his death but Mox ends up saving her life. Bantering and flirting and the discovery of hey, we’re soulmates?!?

Warnings:

alcohol tw, drowning mention, and shenanigans.

Pairing:

Jon Moxley x OFC, Serafina

A flash of brilliant red caught his attention and in a rush, Mox drunkenly raced for the binoculars sitting on a long wooden bench near the side of the boat. Picking them up, he raised them to his eyes and peered through.

“Well, goddamn.” he nearly choked on the rum as the sip he’d taken conflicted with a sudden lump forming in his throat. He chuckled to himself watching the leggy redhead as she lazed on a rock just a few feet from the spot on the old weathered map in the pocket of his breeches. “ Hope she’s not lookin for the Pearl too, otherwise, we’re gonna have a serious problem. She’s been here every fuckin day this week.. Singin and layin on that damn rock..”

First glimpse showed that she seemed to be tanning. And upon closer inspection of the sky, a storm looked like it’d be rolling in later that day. But for whatever reason, Mox found himself drawn to her. And was that music he was hearing again?

He tensed all over almost as soon as the realization hit him exactly who he was looking at.

The boat was too close to the X on the map to turn back now. “Can’t hear her fuckin death song i-if I-I’m shitfaced.” Mox muttered drunkenly as he turned the bottle up and downed as much as he could.

But he couldn’t stop hearing it. And the more he heard it, the more he wanted to dive off the boat.. Swim out to her.

That was all part of their lure. He knew that. It didn’t stop her song from having some form of an effect on him.. But the kicker to all this was one thing.. He’d always been immune to the song of the siren. As in, he’d never been able to hear their songs.

It really got him to thinking. A sharp sting from his wrist had him dropping both binoculars and rum bottle to the deck and swearing as he gripped his wrist with his opposite hand. The pain felt hot, like a branding iron being seared to his flesh. When he took his hand off his wrist, red raised flesh greeted him.. An intricately designed silhouette of a woman with flame-red hair.

XXX

“Oh come on.. Seriously? You’re not going to turn back? Most are deathly afraid of my kind. Okay then, handsome sir, if you insist. Come on and meet your fate at the bottom of the ocean.” Sera tore her eyes off of the Paradigm as it bobbed in choppy water just a few feet away now. A sharp pain shot through her wrist and she quickly grasped her wrist with her opposite hand, biting down on the inside of her cheek.

At first she thought it may have been a jellyfish or something. But when she pulled her other hand away, two things happened. First of all, she noticed the intricate patch of red angry flesh as it swole and started to burst into colors. A man’s face. Bright blue eye, the other one hidden beneath a patch. She raised her hand to her hair as she puzzled what the sudden appearance of the marking might mean and then… Then the second thing happened.

A sharp pain to the back of her head and everything went black as she slipped from her perch and into the water…

XXX

The shouting from a fisherman’s boat nearby as they tried to tug up the net caught Mox’s attention, taking his mind off of the peculiar marking on the inside of his forearm bursting into color and on the red-head siren whose song he could actually hear and be affected by. And then that song went silent and he got the distinct feeling that something was very, very wrong.

Mox tensed and stood, making his way to the side of the ship, peering down into the water below. “It’s a trap, goddamn it. This is how they get us. I’m not goin out like that, no, fuck that.” he tried to tell himself that.. but then, just below the fisherman’s boat and right next to the rock she’d been sprawled on moments before, he saw that same brilliant red hue, floating. And he got this sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

No part of him should’ve been willing to risk certain death to dive into the choppy and icy ocean, but try reminding him the perils of doing so, especially while mostly drunk. Suddenly, nothing mattered but getting to the area he saw that brilliantly red colored hair floating almost lifeless in.

Mox dove into the water, swimming out towards the area he saw her floating in and he wrestled her free from the seaweed and other ocean life she’d become entangled with, swimming as best as he could back to his ship. He got her into the life raft on the side and he climbed back aboard, raising the life boat and letting it settle on the deck where he started measures to get her breathing again.

“C’mon, damn it. C’mon. Breathe, Red. Breathe.” the words came even though everything in him was quick to remind him just how against the grain what he was doing right now, saving a siren who was hell-bent on causing his untimely death not even one hour before.

He just knew she had to live. He was operating as if by instinct.

XXX

Serafina shot up violently, coughing, ocean water spraying out of her mouth with much force. Her head was pounding and ocean colored eyes darted around her, taking in her surroundings. She was on that damned boat. The one she’d been sent out to lure closer. She sighed and shook her head.

… you know the rules… he’s saved your life, you now owe him something… the others are never going to allow you to live this down… then again, you never really quite fit in with them, did you?… her mind was berating her for her foolish mistake as she tried to take it in. Almost dying is a shocking thing.

“You were supposed to drown.” Serafina frowned and shook her head. The man whirled around, staring her down intently, a smirk on his face as he did so. “Yeah, well ya supposed t’ be better at th’ whole siren thing than y’ are. What kinda siren doesn’t know how to swim.”

“I know how to swim.” Serafina mumbled, her jaw clenching. She went to stand but evidently, the combination of her being on a boat and not in water and as a result having human legs and in addition, the strong hit to the head she took… Those two things combined to leave her reeling. Strong arms gripped her waist and she found herself hauled over broad shoulders.

It wasn’t in her not to fight if she felt she were in danger and at this rate, she had no idea what to expect. The Purveyor of Violence, Pirate Mox… He was not known for being a kind man.

A loner and a drunk and perpetually angry, yes. But not a kind man.

So she started to attempt getting out of his grasp, but that beefy arm only locked tighter around her bottom and he chuckled. “What? Y’ think I’m gonna make ya pay for tryin t’ end me? I should, but I’m feelin generous today.”

… and you’ve been coming back to this exact spot for a week now, not only hopin to find the Pearl, but to catch more glimpses of her too…. and try and figure out why y’ can hear her song and not any of th’ rest… he’d never admit to thinking any of it, but the fact remained.

He tossed her carefully onto the hammock he slept in below deck and he turned, intending to walk away. “Hey, wait…”

Mox stopped and turned back to look at his guest.

“ I wasn’t exactly trying to kill you. But you’re the one who keeps getting closer and closer to my pod. I had to defend it. Why the hell were you getting so close anyway?”

“That’s my business, kitten. Not any of yours.”

Serafina laughed and immediately winced as pain rolled over her. Mox eyed her in concern and stepped closer, hissing as his fingertips clumsily touched against the beginnings of a nasty bump forming on her head. “Y’ not goin anywhere, Red.”

“It’s Serafina.”

“It’s whatever I wanna call ya. Ya kinda on my boat, kitten.” Mox’s fingertip trailed down from the bump on her head, across her jawline slowly, then trailing even slower over the outline of a quivering plump lower lip. “Tell me somethin’, Red.. The Pearl still down below?”

Serafina sucked in a sharp breath and raised a brow as he inched closer, a hand on the side of her face as he stared deep into her eyes. He smelled like rum and leather and the scent was almost dizzying. His eyes were almost a hypnotic shade of ice water blue. It hit her then, the angry raised patch of flesh on her inner arm.

She peeked down and gulped as soon as she realized that the man currently within kissing distance of her face was the same man staring back up at her from her own skin.

“I asked ya a question, Red.”

“Oh, it’s down there. It’s my home, actually.” Serafina’s tone came out quieter and she dared to look up at him, holding his gaze. Mox found himself staring at her harder, mouth inching closer to hers as he leaned in even more. As soon as he realized why she looked so familiar and raised his arm to look at her and then at the marking on his forearm, he swallowed hard.

“Well now, this is just interestin.”

“It’s forbidden, that’s what it is.” even as she said it, she just had this feeling in her gut.. All the excuses in the world weren’t going to be enough to sway her into leaving the man’s side. Literally no one in her own so called family were in a rush to rescue her before. This man dove off of a ship.. Drunk… and swam out to her… Then he did everything he could to save her life.

She at least owed it to herself to get to know the real Pirate Mox.

“Never stopped me before.” Mox said it before he could stop himself and the thought that he was even contemplating… A life with his soulmate, given their beginnings thus far.. It froze the man in place as it all washed over him. But see, there’s one thing that Pirate Mox, Purveyor of Violence had been looking for much longer than any kind of treasure below the ocean.

His other half.

His soulmate.

And if it was her, he was not about to let her go, forbidden or not…

Serafina gasped as his lips brushed right against hers and the taste of the coconut rum filled her mouth as he leaned in, those large and rough hands at her sides to pull her closer, pull her lips in deeper. “Maybe I just found somethin’ better than th’ Pearl’s remains.”

“Perhaps.” she mumbled softly as her eyes fluttered open and shut and her lips parted willingly to allow his tongue entrance. She clung to his body, deepening the kiss to a point where she was twice as dizzy as she’d been due to merely hitting her head.

“And I’m gonna take real good care of y’, Red.”

“Oh, I bet you are.” she cooed against his continued lust filled kiss, her fingertips digging lightly into his shoulders…

#jon moxley fanfiction #jon moxley fanfic #jon moxley fic #jon moxley oneshot #jon moxley imagine #// look. this is cute af.#// i am impressed with my stupid self for even putting this together #// i just hope it does the conversation had about the subject justice #// anyway yeah

14 notes · View notes

aboyandhisstarship · 4 years

Text

Kindergarten AU: car crash

Thanks to @dysphoric-artist for the prompt and proof reading

still written in a diary style and () are still kid adding his thoughts in after the fact

anyway without further ado lets hop into it

Ok now, you may not unreasonably say something along the lines of “Mike, you have literally died, hundreds of times. A good chuck of which happened when you were just a kid…how are you not 8 different kinds of traumatized.” And I thank you for your concern (weird guy who is reading my diary…really who does that you would have to broke into my room and stole this thing…which is uncool in every state) to be frank, I am traumatized…but I can’t really tell anyone why, what am I going to tell a headshrinker?

Headshrinker: so Mike…why don’t you talk to me about the tragic events at your kindergarten….”

Me: *bursts out laughing* which one…the time I got killed by the principle…or bugs, or monty, or Cindy…or the janitor…or those weird monster things (this would go on for some time)

Headshrinker: uhhh, I think you’re crazy…off to the crazy house! (ok in fairness I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work this way…but I’m not exactly keen to find out.)

“Ok Mike” you may retort, “They might think you’re crazy…but you could be a superhero! Like the Flash, or Batman! They could call you….Reapto!” (First off Random guy, Reapto? that’s the best you can come up with?) I tried that once to be the big hero…it can be rather hit or miss.

High school parking lot:

Nugget said with a smile “if friend Mike, Friend Carla and the Pretty Lilly would be willing to accompany Nugget, we will indulge in some super…”

Nugget was interrupted by the loudest car screech I ever heard, my eyes went wide as felt massive pain and the air forced out of my chest.

I shoot up hyperventling as my alarm went off screaming a little bit too loudly “FUCK!”

My mother bless her soul, responded with an “I know you don’t want to go to school today young man but I will not tolerant such language.” (yea that was embarrassing)

I shook my self-off, and considered putting on a tally before deciding that it was a one off death adding to my journal *Don’t go to the parking lot after school Dummy* (normally I leave myself notes like this…and normally they are a lot more helpful, like don’t mix the red and green flowers it blows up the room you know useful stuff)

Hallway, My high school:

I had been glancing at my watch about 4 times and Carla (Perceptive as she is) finally snapped “goddamn it Mike you got a date or something?”

I smiled awkwardly “what me no!?”

Lillie frowned “alright you are sketchy…”

Nugget nodded “friend Mike is definitely hiding something.”

A second later a car came crashing into the school slamming through several walls, nailing all 3 of us I paused briefly musing “man I didn’t think the school was this badly built,” Before hitting the ground hard.

I woke up to the sound of my alarm and groaned grabbing my pillow throwing my face into it saying “not again!”

Before throwing himself out of bed grabbing his marker he added two marks onto my skin

5 loops later:

Ok I didn’t know the school was this badly built, guess what no matter where I was I got taken out by that car, the bathroom, Boom, the library, boom…I even skipped school once…I may have gotten grounded but I laughed thinking I had in fact won, only to get hit by a different car crossing the road, and looping. (I sometimes wonder if the universe hates me…)

But before I died I did get some valuable intel, I saw the death count (the entire school by the way…yea after this I wrote a strongly worded letter to the school board…again) but also the names of the folks in the car, two high school seniors…(now for the sake of timelines I can’t tell you who they are, but mike they didn’t die! Yea yea…just trust me the less anyone knows about the other timelines the better off we all are, tried that once when I first started looping…the planet literally exploded, so no names) so these teens who I dub….Bob and Bertha crash and kill the whole school…and I need to find out why.

So I approached the gang saying “alright sit down.”

Monty asked “what this about mike.” His voice clearly impaintent

so I lifted my arm showing the tally’s, that was it they were all ears as I explained “alright in exactly.” I glanced at my watch “4 and half hours, a car comes crashing into school and kill literally everyone, we need to stop that so ideas?”

Jerome proposed “maybe tell them?”

Buggs shook his head “real high and mighty types won’t listen to us.”

Lilly sighed “well they crashed into the building…so they clearly were not leaving it…”

Billy nodded “that’s right, that means they left are coming back for someone or something…we figure out what and bing bang boom.”

I pointed out “has it literally ever been that easy?”

Ted smiled “me and penny can think about cars, figure out what caused it.” Quickly blushing

Penny also blushed “I would love to Teddy…”

Felix cleared his throat “perhaps me and Cindy can get close to them ?”

Cindy smiled brightly (she had grown out of her bitchiness, but she was natural born queen bee, even if she was cool with us all the snobs and assholes in school love her.) “I can reach out…maybe find out what they have going on and more intel.”

I nodded “right find out what we can but tell me before it happens, so I can write it down.”

Everyone responded “right!”

I spent most of the loop with Monty and Carla using their connections to figure out if they were getting any drugs or other fun stuff to explain there “Skillful” driving (got em….yea ok not the best burn)

Loop 12th:

I woke up with another groan “If I have to read another book about cars I am going to lose it!”

He glanced at his notes the car (a 66 Camaro…I swear those two are like a couple form the 60’s) and the other intel he had gathered from the others (they had indeed been indulging in drugs those bad bad boys and girls…ok I’m not one to talk, seeing the number of crimes I have technically committed…but those were other timelines…and you know what let’s not go down that rabbit hole) but the issue was simple, they had indeed nought some weed from Carla and monty’s secretive network (I never asked) but had not in fact gotten it yet, so the question still stood as to what exactly caused it.

Nugget hole:

The Lair (Ozzy wanted to call it that) is what we call our base of operation’s, I have been spending my time shooting down ideas that we already tried and smiling with evil glee whenever I make ted and penny work together (honestly I want to yell make out already whenever I see them) but then it hit us, instead of stopping the car crash maybe we should stop them leaving.

Now mike, you are likely saying, I literally thought of that after like the third loop, first off no you didn’t you liar, (seeing as we didn’t even know who they were then) also, this loop was different normally there are multiple things that need doing to affect a change in the timeline, so it is almost never that easy (ohh jee mister principle, the star athlete and his girl are going to skip class and kill us all ohh geee, yea real convincing huh?) there was of course the factor, that our group (ok just me) were not exactly popular around school or town, they called us the kinder busters (pretty badass name right?...yea I don’t dig it either) so people consider us bad luck (to be fair…we did end up at two schools run by crazy kidnappers in a row…if that is not unlucky I don’t know what is.)so we needed a couple of people that will actually be believed, now 3 guesses of who my friends who Is the most likely to believed about that kind of thing?

Cindy? Well no seeing as she has her queen bee rep they may think that she is “fronting” (there words not mine…I shuddered just thinking about them trying to street)

Bugs? (HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHAHAHA *snort* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA…wait your serious… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA)

Carla or Monty (better, but no joy they are bit to up to something…we need purist faces.)

Ok by now you have either guess correctly (good job!) or are yelling at the page, “stop teasing me mike and tell me!”

And naturally the answer is Ted and Penny, (I mean have you seen those faces! Who could say no to them?!)

Of course I had to convince them to do it.

Nugget hole:

Ted asked “are you sure about this?”

I smiled “of course I am…ninty percent sure this will work.”

Penny smiled “relax Teddy this will be fine.”

I pulled out 5 dollars “here you go get yourselves some ice cream afterwards.”

Ted pointed out “you know I’m a billionaire right…”

Penny took the five dollars saying “deal! Come on Teddy.”

Now you dear reader may be sitting there thinking “that was easy, that’s it, what no boss fight, no dramatic showdown, no sweet groundhog day style montage where you do whatever you want?” (that was happened…more on that later)

My rebuttal to that dear sir, is screw you let me have this, alright most of time when I start looping I have to fight monsters and a whole thing so I think I earned a nice break, but you might be sitting thinking “that was anti-climactic! Did Ted and Penny at least go on a date!?”

My answer to that is a yes… and no, you see both told me (under the promise to never tell a soul after the loop) they also sadly made me promise not tell the other person, now you may say Mike…after the loop they would not remember, you can pull a sneaky and just tell them that they like each other, and while you are right I don’t for a couple of reasons, number one being I keep my promises, number 2 is they would think I am messing with them (I know right those oblivious idoits.)

But sadly this journal is not a relationship journal of ted and penny (sorry guys, but this supposed to be a record of loops) but I will quietly disclose that they may have been a kiss on the cheek (I screamed I tell you) of course they are still claiming to be friends in front of us but I don’t buy it…anyway I should proably end this entry…

So thanks for reading? (I mean you are reading a private journal…so I don’t know why you are reading this)

Mike June 26 20XX

#kindergarten game #nugget kindergarten #monty kindergarten #ted kindergarten #carla kindergarten #penny kindergarten #lilly kindergarten #Ted X Penny #Kid Kindergarten #Cindy Kindergarten #as always feed back and prompts are welcome #this verse is really fun to write for so fire em my way

9 notes · View notes

bluehhj · 5 years

Text

listen to me — chapter 43

LISTEN TO ME — 0043

listen to me masterlist;

WORDS: 1.8K

Hyunjin sat and stared at the floor in a static way, as if only his body were there while his soul drifted away. Though several people circled around him, the hospital's silence was morbid and equally deafening, so that even the ticking of the clock on the opposite wall seemed to echo too loudly. And speaking of the latter, the dark hands that belonged to it marked exactly one in the morning. No news. Nothing at all.

It wasn't Woojin's personality to be silent for so long. He enjoyed telling jokes, talking loudly, making jokes, teasing his friends — anything was valid as long as serious moods were broken and smiles broke out from affected moods. Stormy atmospheres distressed him, yet, the situation was so, but so heavy, that he didn't even know what to say. The words seemed to lose all meaning, leaving only a hidden message that the silence might be less worse.

Chan and Seungmin, as hospital staff, tried to use their references over and over to at least get a peek into the operating room, but it was no use. Seungmin shouldn't worry so much, after all, he never made any kind of relationship with that group of friends — except for Woojin, who used to call him to chat on Sundays —, yet, the possibility of going home without receiving any solid diagnosis was out of the question for reasons he couldn't even see the need to understand. He was just there, steady, and would stay the same until the end.

Chaerin didn't think otherwise. Although Jisung had forgiven her, she still felt like she owed something. On closer examination, perhaps such a debt would finally be settled, since, if it hadn't been for Seungmin's little brother's birthday and the two had not gone to Mrs. Kim's house, and had chosen to take that same road as their return route, Jinah and Jisung could be much worse. Still, she thought Han was the last person in the world who deserved to go through what was happening. One loss of love had been enough, he didn't need two.

Changbin was still recovering from the scare. When Woojin called him, he thought it was some bad prank or joke — not that he had processed everything completely now, but, he forced himself to keep his thoughts in the right place and his feeling of positivity intact. Occasionally, hypotheses began to surface in his mind and, without even a clue what the resolutions were, Changbin was angry, for considering the possibility that Jinah had forgotten her seat belt after so many warnings about, his blood boiled. That's because Seo had no idea of the accident; if Jinah was really in a belt or not; if it was really an accident or some recklessness. In short, silence was widespread mental torture.

Hurried footsteps of thin heels aroused the attention of those present at the hospital's silent reception. The others turned their faces and saw the sight of a blond figure who just stood in front of the counter, not caring about the volume of her voice or the scare that the unprepared nurse took: "You have five seconds to tell me how my son is!"

Sooyoung was running right behind. She was wearing flat shoes, which should give her a certain advantage over her sister, but after being reported, Hyoyeon seemed tireless and unbeatable like a robot.

"Oh, my heart," the nurse said with her hand on her chest. On a badge attached to her lab coat was the name Son Hyejoo. "I see I'm still going to die in this place."

"It's been three seconds!" Hyoyeon kept pushing. Sooyoung touched her arm in a silent plea for her to calm down, but was promptly ignored.

"What's his name?"

"Han Jisung."

The noise of the keys under Hyejoo's fingers was nerve-wracking as she searched the system. Twenty seconds have never seemed so long in the history of mankind.

"He came in at 11:58 PM, but our floor hasn't yet received any news. You can sit and wait with the others, it is likely that-..."

"I don't want to know what's likely or not," interrupted Hyoyeon. "I want you to take advantage of your lack of what to do here, get up and check it out."

"That's not true, I have a lot to do now."

"Your phone unlocked in Candy Crush says you don't."

Hyejoo clenched her jaw and looked down at the bottom of the counter. Her finger deftly turned off the screen of the device. She was caught in the act!

"Okay, but, still, I can't leave the reception alone. I'm sorry."

"Girl, this is just the flies!" Hyoyeon gestured with her arms. "Nobody wants to steal your aspirin, you could be a little more nicer!"

And of all the times Hyejoo saw her boyfriend entering the reception, that one undoubtedly made her happiest.

"Okay, Mrs., your news has just arrived," she said with some relief, pointing her chin at the light-pink haired boy with a clipboard in his hands.

"Who is responsible for Han Jisung?" the doctor asked and everyone got to his feet, but it was Hyoyeon who ran over anyone in her path and stopped in front of the pink-haired boy.

"I'm his mother."

"Your son is out of danger" breaths were released when he announced. "The concussion wasn't severe, it is likely that he's already awake in the morning. As for the left arm injury, I must say that, if the bleeding hadn't been contained at the first moment, the evolution to a hemorrhage would have aggravated the case. I don't know who did the first aid, but I have to congratulate on the agility."

Hyunjin squeezed Chaerin's shoulder in mute thanks, and Hyoyeon brushed aside the urge she had felt to kick the Canadian's shin from the moment she noticed her presence. Later, she should also say thank you.

"Can I see him?"

"It isn't feasible to interrupt the patient's rest, so, I ask you to be brief."

"And Jinah?" asked Felix.

"She's still in surgery," the doctor subtly lifted a corner of his rosy lips, apologizing intrinsically. "I passed near the OR just now and they are doing what they can."

"Jeongin, let me have a look at her," Chan begged. He used to have coffee with the younger boy everyday, since Yang was his internship instructor. "Please, she's my friend."

Jeongin pondered for a few seconds, but abandoned puppy faces were never something he was good at ignoring.

"Alright, hyung... Just don't touch anything."

So, Chan, Jeongin, Hyoyeon and Sooyoung — this one dragged by her sister — left the reception. The rest sat down again. They were happy for Jisung, but proportionally concerned about Jinah; soon, the tension-laden silence continued to fill the air. Except for the vibration of Hyunjin's phone, which looked more like a machine gun in the pocket of his pants. He, then, withdrew from the group of friends to answer his sister, who hadn't been in touch with him for two months. Judging from this, Hyunjin had no doubt about the high importance of whatever Yeji had to say to him.

"Have you heard what happened to your friend?", she asked immediately, not even making room for a 'hello', 'how long' or 'good evening'.

"Yeah" Hyunjin wasn't friendly at all either. That was how the two had worked since they met. "I'm in the hospital."

"Alone?"

"No, the others and Jisung's mom are here."

"Don't let these people out, I'm coming."

"Why? You don't even like them."

"It happens, darling, that I'm working, and things are more serious than you might think."

Then the call was terminated by Yeji herself. Hyunjin was surprised, of course, but, considering that no one seemed willing to take their foot off that hospital before things worked out for Jinah, too, he decided to be quiet until his sister arrived and explained further.

It all seemed so upside down that Hyunjin only remembered to ask how Yoorim was when he sat back next to her. Heo was wearing a huge pink sweatshirt, practically wearing it as a dress, and her arms were crossed, staring at her sneakers as if something about them was too interesting.

"Did you get better?" Hwang asked softly. His voice could only penetrate the girl's consciousness after a few seconds.

"What?"

"Woojin hyung said you had a headache, so you went home early."

"Ah, it's true" Yoorim was so airy that, for a moment, she forgot about the migraine that caught her off guard earlier. Tired of spending so much time in the same position, she turned on the couch and hugged Hyunjin, laying her head on his shoulder. The boy returned the hug and left a peck on her forehead. "I'm better now. I think it was the fries, they almost always make me that way."

"Rest, baby. Anything I call you."

And being so well accommodated to Hwang, Yoorim closed her eyes and didn't think twice before agreeing.

On the other side, Changbin again looked at Jade without her noticing. Alone and sitting in one of the farthest sets of chairs, the brown-haired girl with two single blond locks at the front used both hands to cover her face. Dealing with the disastrous breakup of her relationship of so many years was already being very heavy, and now she also had to deal with her best friend being in grave danger of life or death. If a few days ago someone warned her that things would be so horrible, Jade would imagine any hell but what she was experiencing. Suddenly, she felt like disappearing, or maybe crying until there was no liquid left in her body. Her eyes burned.

Changbin took a deep breath and stood up. He said nothing, just walked toward the girl and bent down in front of her. His hands gripped the hands of others, and Jade jumped in place as she recognized the touch. Changbin hugged her, so tight she squeezed out a sob. The american didn't say a word either — it didn't seem necessary — and she buried her face in the crook of Seo's neck as she felt a gentle caress on her back.

Because, above all, Changbin and Jade were friends, and friends who love each other forget adversity and lean on hard times.

Time continued to pass, although the atmosphere remained the same. Hyunjin was playing with Yoorim's hair when he heard footsteps approach. His sister was very quick when she was interested in something.

She was wearing her typical black police uniform, her dark hair tied in a ponytail at the top of her head. Her keen eyes scanned the group, including Hyoyeon, who had just returned with Sooyoung.

"Good evening, or not so good," she began, seriously. "For those who don't know me, my name is Hwang Yeji..." she paused for a second, sharpening her hearing to understand the murmurs. "I know you would rather not know me, Woojin, I say the same, now shut up. I'm here to talk about the case I was responsible for, referring to Choi Jinah and Han Jisung."

"Case?" Hyoyeon frowned. "It wasn't a case, it was an accident. Wet track, I warned them to be careful."

"I'd say the wet track was the slightest problem, Ms. Han" Yeji pulled up a chair and sat down. "We have a lot to talk."

a/n: just to clarify, this suspense isn't completely intentional. the chapter almost reached two thousand words and if i put the two missing scenes to close this moment, it would be over four thousand and that would be well beyond my standards of writing, so i ask you guys to have patience

hwang hyunjin and hwang yeji, you two can end the secrecy at once and confess that you are siblings, everyone already knows, no use saying that you are only children

jokes aside, at first, who would play the role of the cop in this au would be hyejoo herself, but then i fell in love with itzy after much denial and decided that there was no one better than yeji for this girl power vibe, besides she being the perfect person to play hyunjin's sister, and i've thought they both look alike and here we are. by contrast, jeongin hadn't yet appeared here on LTM to this day and i'm so glad that i managed to fit our baby into the plot aaaaaaaa

and about minho, he’ll appear more in (d)lm, you guys will see in the next chapters of the spin-off, okay?

i'll TRY to see you guys again during the week. it's complicated for me cause i work at night and study in the morning, i think i've even said it here, idk, so there's not much free time left, but i'll do my best

i love you, don't give up on me <3

29 notes · View notes

ispywithmythirdeyeofficialbct · 4 years

Video

youtube

Today is the 3rd of May, and it’s another sunny day in Christchurch.

This is an example of some very basic after effects processing I will implement for my vlog, and my COVID-19 assignment. I’ve been busy the past few days focusing solely on university work and saying, damn I should really record my progress on this blog. So here I am.

I’m stoked, to be back at Uni, and in a distant environment no less, which is my favourite place to be.

STUDIO #ctec501

The assignment was a curveball, so I decided to curve with it and see where it led me. I can confirm - hours of being in my head on the ground going round and round, analyzing all the possible avenues I could explore, but I knew it had to be personal as well as fulfill this global necessity as stated in the brief, if I was ever going to work with it.

And thank goodness I am a BCT student. Like a bonsai tree, I can use the wire of my understanding, to train the tree (The Idea), to grow into the avenue which will bear the aesthetic or the soul of The Idea.

I am going to make my assignment based on theme number 2, focusing on Interactivity vs Productivity of online-based operations - How streamlining our lives into an integrated online virtualized lifestyle will affect and redefine the human experience. If any other student sees this and they want to collaborate, be my guest.

I might ask a teacher in the forums if this idea will fly, I’m sure it will. Better to be safe than sorry though. The Assignment however is a funny situation related to The Idea, which is the first stage of the assignment. The Idea has this criteria, which is significantly more expansive and broader in range than the actual Assignment itself which is curious ::L:

So The Idea itself is what I hope to lead onto from the Assessment, in terms of writing. I can’t share what my idea is because I’m submitting it to The Idea for the AUT XChallenge, but I know I have a lot of writing and research to do before then. Also if you are a student I know and want to get together and work on an idea for The Idea, aside from my idea, I’d love to get involved in a brainstorming seminar!

I’ve never been so organised in my life, and that’s probably because I have nothing to do all day is make art, or plan to make art (Assignments), eat, smoke and drink instant coffee with condensed coconut milk and soy milk.. Literally living the dream.

Programming for Creativity #comp570

I’ve barely started on the tasks set out in the end of Lesson 5, after taking the whole day to wrap my mind around the lecture, as well as all the other information, my head hasn’t been able to think about Processing since writing out all the examples in Lesson 5. I had so much fun with the bouncing ball and physics example, I quickly interpreted the Lesson 5 examples and made a ball that lost minimal energy as it bounced (elasticity) and the gravity made it much more realistic in float numbers. The 4 walls all became responsive and able to change the direction of the ball so I had the setup of the assignment! Exciting!

I AM SO GLAD THAT WE CAN PAUSE THE LECTURES. Seriously I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH STEFAN!!! tl;dr I really enjoyed all the work he put into his slides, the love is in there and I am learning so much MORE than a conventional lecture in this online setting.

Intro to CT #ctec502

The Vlog has been an interesting proposal, as 40% of my mark is at stake, I’m going to redo my Vlog completely and to a much higher standard, as well as tying it into the Studio Assignment, and The Idea. I created a story board, of the vlog as well as the contents, and I think I will go with taking video footage, mainly my own, and external video clips from youtube, while I am narrating.

I have a mild social anxiety that I have worked on over my life, and improved drastically from where I once was. Although this anxiety wishes to force me to put off making this vlog, I know I’ll be amazed to know I pushed through my own limitations with something I am pretty passionate about: Storytelling.

The lecture/meeting was simple and easy to follow. First time using Blackboard Ultra and the Virtual Classrooms, but it had been created in such a streamlined and easy to use interface, that I had no trouble interacting with it, even whilst using a smart phone. Always looking forward to Roy’s lectures.

Speaking of lectures, thanks to every Lecturer or TA or Teacher out there right now that have worked tirelessly at home trying to setup a whole new schooling system, while seperated from resources and dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. I’m a pretty relaxed creature so this whole event is floating gently by, but to some I know the reality is far more severe, and I am grateful, every time I get to interact with you. We have a really great system setup in all classes, and we are all able to make do with what we have.

Ka pai and arohanui.

Enoch

#ctec502 #ctec501 #comp570 #aut #theidea #universitylife

1 note · View note

vios-rockland-corner · 5 years

Text

Rockland: Zeitgeist pre-release thoughts PT 14

The date of this post is 8/24/19. Please note that information revealed at this time via Patreon or any of the creator’s blogs may be subject to change after this date.

Here I am again rambling about Cain because I’ve entered a state of confusion.

(Spoilers below for BTD2 and Zeitgeist demo)

Why is Cain kidnapping the MC?

I know that seems like a dumb question, one that’s technically already been answered: He’s bored.

Here’s the thing though: This was a question that was so much easier for me to answer with BTD Cain. BTD Cain was a straight up evil guy. He was a torturer and seemed to enjoy that work, but he was also a prisoner in hell who eventually became a fugitive. The guy was portrayed as up to no good essentially, possibly being a threat to humanity. He was dangerous, but I’m sure also still had to make sure he didn’t get caught while he was on the run. When you’re a sadistic character cooped up all day in your hideaway, I can definitely see one getting bored. Possibly even a little lonely. So picking up humans/creatures every now and then to torture and likely kill in the end doesn’t seem all that surprising to me. Sometimes when you have a character clearly defined as a villain, there’s not too much you have to explain. There’s not always a super complicated motive. As horrifying as it is to hear someone say a character is just receiving pleasure from causing harm to someone else, we know people like that exist.

Rockland Cain is starting to cause me some more confusion though. First of all, it doesn’t sound like this version of Cain is going to be presented as a fugitive. Not unless it’s an INCREDIBLY recent development in the story. Otherwise, it sounds like Cain works with the other angels as a normal part of the fold. Not necessarily a prisoner who they just bring out when they need him. Yet, he is still confirmed as a fallen angel, and there are still hints that he will be a threat at least to the MC. At the same time, some of the other people or angels who know him also seem to think of him fondly.

So I’m comparing evil fugitive BTD Cain vs. office worker Rockland Cain? I know that sounds hilarious calling Cain an “office worker.” Honestly, until I figure out what exactly the fallen angels do, I guess I’ll just keep saying that the angels work together in an “office” of some sort. Now, we did get confirmation that Sam IS still a reaper in this canon. Supposedly, their boss should also be Lucifer/Luke Morningstar. You know...the first fallen angel? Usually depicted as the ruler of hell? So I think a safe answer to “What are the fallen angels in charge of,” is judgement and placement of people’s souls when they die. They collect and decide who’s bad or not, and possibly even determine torture based on one’s crimes. There may be some other work they do. For example, Michael Volkov in previous canon was the angel of war/chaos. Certainly doesn’t sound like a “heavenly” duty, but nevertheless sometimes part of the world order. So that job I can see being giving to a fallen angel as opposed to...whatever their lighter counterparts could be.

Now to get back on track, I have two problems then with determining Rockland Cain’s thought process. First, why is he bored? And second, is he even allowed to kidnap the MC?

BTD Cain I already said was basically by himself on the run, and before that he was just kept a prisoner unless he was needed. He had plenty of reason to be bored and have a disregard for the lives of others. Rockland Cain though may not have AS bad a disposition as BTD Cain based on some of his relationships with other character. Not only that, if he’s got the freedom to walk about as he pleases even after work, then what about the way his time is spent has him bored now? Maybe the angels work 24/7, so Cain wants a break from the monotony? I did fancy the idea before that this game could also be an origin to Cain trying to break off from his regular duties and do as he pleases. If he also has positive relationships with characters though already, is that still appealing to him? Speaking of which, if he’s in contact with more people, there’s less of a likelihood that he’s lonely here. LESS, but not completely. Sometimes you can still get lonely even when constantly surrounded by other people. I guess “boredom caused by loneliness” is still a possibility, but it’s less likely here at least than it was for BTD Cain is all I’m saying.

Now, the reason I ask “is Cain allowed to kidnap the MC” is because I have no idea if the fallen angels have a strict code to operate under. At first I might have guessed that they could be forbidden from meddling with any human affairs and just stick to their duties. There may also be a strict rule about interfering in human lives that may affect their judgement later. However, you do see angels like Sam and Damien just mingling about in the human world for no special reason. I guess that answers my question, “Do they work 24/7?” Looks like they do have some downtime, and they seem to even like to spend it acting like normal people. Does Cain himself ever try this I wonder? Does he still have some restrictions because of his original sin I wonder? Perhaps he’s a little frustrated that while he’s not locked in a cage, he can’t mingle among the humans like some of the others.

Then again, maybe Cain can walk among regular humans like the others. But then I wonder, if he can mingle, is it alright for him to do as he pleases with them? I’ve mentioned this before, but maybe the angels act frivolous and don’t really care a lot about humans since they live in different worlds. Not really having any animosity towards them, but also if they just feel like messing with someone, who’s going to stop them? There was clarification recently on what was classified as a fallen angel. Basically if they defied god and lost their graces, they become a fallen angel (though there are some unusual cases). The angels with darker wings have done worse and probably whatever their doing is not for the benefit of god’s will or their job either if I had to venture a guess. I’m..assuming Rockland Cain has black wings? I’m trying to remember if I’ve seen a new official sprite art with him and his wings 0.0 Holy cow, I don’t even know if they’re fully black still. Hmmm, I’ll guess that yes they still are based on his past sin at the very least. Being the first murderer (and killing your own blood) is a pretty high felony honestly. If his wings aren’t completely black, that will certainly raise some questions.

In that same discussion, it was mentioned that not a lot of the angels are really even that bad. Truth be told, I know very little about most of these angels. Come to think of it, the only “bad” one I keep thinking to compare Cain to is Michael. In previous canon, he was portrayed as a character that also would have no qualms doing horrible, horrible things to people. Now? I don’t think there’s been an official update on Rockland Michael, so I don’t know if he kept that personality.

With all that in mind, is there still really a rule or not whether any of the angels can torture, maim and/or kill a person as they please? Again, if there’s no rule against it, then Cain kidnapping the MC might not be a big deal to the other angels. It’ll be interesting to see how the other characters react to news that Cain has been keeping a person hostage. There’s the added flavor that the creators dropped hints that Cain taking you already marks you as “dead” or something. At least that’s how I interpreted it. I still won’t know what that means until the game comes out. Is that going to be an issue for the other angels or no? The only hint that Cain has done SOMETHING troublesome, is Sam doesn’t seem all that thrilled that Cain has marked the MC. We don’t know what the mark means and why Sam’s concerned, but it leads us to believe that things might be complicated now.

What I’m interested in seeing is how Cain lives on a regular basis. Why is he experiencing unrest? Does he ever walk about the human world like the other angels? Is this the first time he’s kidnapped a single person? Does he only have wicked plans for the MC? Do the other angels care if Cain carts off a human just like that? Does Cain’s relationship with the other characters have anything to do with what’s happening?

#Zeitgeist #Cain Zeitgeist #runawayoutlaw #rockland #horror game #pre-release

2 notes · View notes

yanjunmyworld · 6 years

Text

Let's make a deal

Gif credit: evanism88

Pairing: Y/N x Demon King Yanjun

Genre: Supernatural

A/N : sorta want to make this a mini series wjat do you think? Also tumblr deleted my 1st draft when i tried to post this last week so i finally managed to rewrite it! Also spooktober is my fav month ever!

Peoples square park one of the more tranquil areas amongst the bustling cities of shanghai.

It was a little slice of nature that was like a labyrinth. Every path would take you to a different place maybe a: lotus pond, a waterfall, a group of old people playing chess amongst the trees. The possabilities were endless. It was my favourite place to go and clear my head.

When i was younger i met a elf there. Not the legolas kind, but a smaller version. My parents never believed me of course but after the time we spent together, he gave me a piece of rose quartz stating that i would need it for protection in the future. Since that day it had always hung on a necklace around my neck.

However today wasn't one of those lucky peaceful days.

I wasn't exactly the most co-operative when it came to my parents wishes of me getting married at the age of 26. I was getting 'old' and should settle down according to them i was past my prime. The match makers deemed me impossible to work with and thus they have resorted to last ditch efforts. The peoples marriage market. Every friday to sunday in peoples park there would be parents lined up for miles with umbrellas detailing everything about their children from their appearances to qualifications. Not that i wanted to be here but if i didnt come along i was gonna be kicked out of the house. And no one wants to pay rent prices these days. Hours passed and boredom was drilling into my soul. My phone was dying so no more watching Mack Daddy performances for me.

I waited until my parents were distracted with another couple and quietly slipped away from the crowd. I hastily made my escape to the waterfall in hopes of some momentary peace.

I walked up the small slope and perched myself down on a rock out of the view of the public and listened to the sound of running water, surrounded by the vivid green scenery. I could see why the fae liked it here, it really was beautiful in a world full of buildings. I closed my eyes trying to clear my mind when i got a eerie feeling something was watching me. My eyes flickered open as I checked the surrounding area. To my surprise nothing was there so i shrugged it off as my imagination. Once again i closed my eyes and this time i heard a rustling in a bush. Once again my eyes flickered open, but this time i saw a something red sticking out of the bush. It looked like a tail. You know what they say curiosity killed the cat and so i started to approach it. I saw a figure crouched down in the greenery with what was a red pointed tail.

"Hello...?" I called out

The figure looked up at me with bright red eyes and a sharp shaped face. He had a slight panic upon his face before speaking in a low tone.

"Oh shit"

And with that he dissappeared. I wasn't sure if I was imagining it or what but it felt very surreal. I headed back to my parents so that they wouldn't hunt me down and resumed my place behind the umbrella. Not long after my mum started talking in an enthusiastic tone.

"Hey handsome young man are you here looking for a wife? My daughter would be perfect for you."

"Baobei why would this young man be looking for a wife, I'm sure a good looking man like him will be surrounded by women."

A familiar low toned voice spoke up.

"Actually I am looking for a wife, i just haven't found the right girl yet...until now."

I glanced up to see who my mother was making a fuss off. He was tall around 6ft i would presume, decked out in a black suit with a red shirt underneath. His face was sharp in all the right places and his deep brown eyes alluring. He flashed a quick smile that revealed his dimples. This guy was too good looking to be true. I didn't trust it. His voice reminded me of the thing I heard earlier. Could they be the same?

He quickly got into a deep conversation wih my parents bringing up his qualifications for them to inspect and then turned his attention to me.

"So beautiful, what do you say, wanna make a deal with me?"

I couldnt shift this uneasy feeling I had.

"Who are you?"

"My names Yanjun. Lin Yanjun and you my angel?"

"First of all not your angel, most likely your worst nightmare. Secondly my name is y/n"

"Fiery too, everything I've always dreamed of."

He started to walk towards me closing the distance between us but with every step closer he took the hotter my rose quartz started burning. I quickly lifted it up from my chest, blowing down towards the red mark upon my chest.

"Clever little fae,protecting the angel of this place."

"What are you talking about, how do you know of the fae?"

"You could say im acquainted." He smirked

"You're that thing from earlier, the one spying on me with the red tail."

"I have no idea what your talking about." He spoke smoothly but his face suggested otherwise.

"Oh really? The whats that red thing behind you."

"WHERE"

he started to turn around in a circle which was quite amusing considering he was trying to play it suave.

"What are you?"

"I'm about to be your fiancee either way what does it matter?"

"Stay away from me. You demon."

"I did always love a challenge. How about we make a deal. If you don't fall in love with me in one month i will leave you alone. If you do, you have to be my wife for all eternity."

"What makes you so confident."

" well i know your bored of this mortal world i can show you everything you've dreamed of. Also i am the great Lin Yanjun, king of demons. Do you know how many women would kill to be in your position right now."

"Then i accept your deal but only because i hate vain creatures like you. Looks like i won't be falling for you anytime soon. Plus you cant touch me, I'm never taking this quartz off."

"We'll see about that my darling. I've watched you for a very long time." He smirked as his eyes flickered a deep red.

"Because that's not creepy at all."

"I look forward to our first date. I'll pick you up tomorrow at 7pm."

Had i really just made a deal with a devil and of all people it was the king of hell? What is wrong with my stubborness. Well there's no way i will fall for him. Hes too arrogant. Although handsome but i can't let his looks affect me. Either way this was going to be an interesting month. Maybe i can use him to find the elf boy again. All i know is for now this quartz is never leaving my side.

#lin yanjun #lin yanjun imagine #idol producer scenarios #nine percent #idol producer #yanjun #nine percent imagines #lin yanjun scenarios #nine percent scenario #idol producer yanjun #nine percent yanjun #idol producer imagines #supernatural #demon king

89 notes · View notes

writing-royza · 5 years

Text

Tainted Blood, Tainted Soul: Chapter Twenty-seven - Spill Your Secrets

A/N: Happy Sunday, everyone! Sorry to have left you hanging without a chapter last week; I was at a convention and so had been in cosplay crunch all week without time to write. I'm at another con next weekend, but I'm hoping to be able to finish a chapter anyway. I guess you'll know if I was successful if Chapter 28 is on time! For now, enjoy.

I do not own FMA.

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

Chapter Twenty-seven - Spill Your Secrets

GUEST ACCOMMODATIONS, JADAD, ISHVAL

1142 HOURS, APRIL 25TH

She settled into a cross-legged seat at the head of the single-occupant bed, waiting as he sat down at the foot. A ray of light from the window landed on her face, causing a spike in the headache that was putting pressure across her forehead and around her eyes. She shifted, making sure to keep her face neutral as he looked up; he didn't need to worry about her any more than he already was.

Roy smiled encouragingly. "All right. From the beginning?"

"From the beginning." Riza took a deep breath, reaching up to the charm around her neck to reassure herself it was still there. Of course it was, otherwise the vampire persona would be trying to reassert itself right now, instead of lurking – motionless and quietly fuming – someplace in the very darkest recesses of her mind.

Lurking like the memories and knowledge she inexplicably had. Riza didn't know where all the knowledge of vampires and her own abilities had come from, but she knew instinctively that the information was correct. Some sort of primal memory, perhaps, that operated purely on reaction and instinct. Ducklings knew how to swim, foals knew to stand as quickly as possible after birth… perhaps vampires knew their own bodies, abilities and limitations, as intuitively as that.

"You already know it started in the hospital in Central," she said, after a moment to collect her thoughts. "The morning that Mrs. Curtis had to help wake me up was right after he first bit me." She held up two fingers. "And there are two reasons why that happened: first, in his… feeding, he took almost more blood than was safe for me to lose. Second, extreme tiredness is a natural side effect of first being bitten."

"Really?" Roy's eyebrows lifted. "Hang on a second."

Getting up quickly, he disappeared out into the main room, returning a moment later with a pad of note paper and a pen. "If there's anything you tell me that might be useful for either hunting Kimblee down or tracking his movements and activity, I'll make a note," he said, already writing. "Such as, if anyone reports feeling inordinately tired for no discernible reason?"

She nodded. "Good idea. And if reports like that do come in, we'll know who to keep an eye on for changes both before and after we take him down."

"Right." He glanced up, flashing a smile. "Don't let me stop you. Keep going."

She took another moment to reorder her train of thought, then continued. "From the tiredness, which faded within a day or so, there were almost no signs of turning. I noticed, right after, that I was pale, paler than I ought to have been, but I thought that it was likely a side effect of losing so much blood."

Roy was nodding as he wrote. "I thought that, too. As soon as I got my sight back, it was one of the first things I noticed." He looked up. "You've always had a fair complexion – part of the territory, when you're a natural blonde – but now, you're…." He eyed her thoughtfully. "I think the poetic term is 'porcelain.'"

"Small wonder I don't much care for sunlight, then," she answered, smiling at her own small joke. "So that's the tiredness, and the paleness…. I should mention, that once the tiredness began to fade, I started to feel stronger. It seems relatively normal, but… in retrospect, I was feeling much stronger much more quickly than I ought to have."

"How so?"

"Just… stronger. Physically stronger." She shrugged, unable to make it any clearer. "A day and a half after you and Mrs. Curtis had to wake me, I felt completely normal. A few days after that, I felt like I could have checked myself out of the hospital. By the time we left a week later, I was practically itching to run laps around Headquarters, and I thought I could probably bench-press you if you would let me try."

His eyebrows lifted. "I knew you were getting fidgety, but I thought you were just anxious to get home," he commented. "I didn't think it was that bad."

Riza smiled. "I also noticed, from just before we left the hospital, until I turned fully, my pulse and breathing were consistently slow. They would rise after any serious physical exertion, but would drop down again within seconds of stopping. Aside from that, the only other noticeable change was that I would get occasional flashes of irritation or anger over petty, trivial things."

"Things like what?"

Riza flushed, her eyes dropping to where her fingers were laced together in her lap. "Things like… if you were asleep and breathing with your mouth open. If a nurse's shoes squeaked when she walked by in the hall. If someone walking along the sidewalk outside was wearing a brightly coloured shirt." She shrugged. "Things that have never bothered me before, things I've never even noticed." She shook her head. "Once, I was annoyed because you were staring into space thinking about something and you weren't blinking."

"Oh. I can fix that." He fluttered her eyelashes at her, and Riza couldn't help but smile. "There. Why didn't you mention any of this at the time?"

"And say what?" she countered, giving him a dubious look. "'I understand that the nurse has to wear a certain type of shoe for the work she does, but so help me, if I hear those soles squeak one more time, I'm going to surgically remove my eardrums?'"

"It'd save you from having to listen to my mouth-breathing." His smile was brief, to show he was joking, but he sobered quickly. "The anger issues, we knew about. But so we're clear – they start slowly, with just little things? Gradually escalating to full-on rage?"

"More or less." Her earlier flush faded to a pretty blush, high on her cheeks. "It's more accurate to say that the flashes of irritation over little things become less noticeable… because there are suddenly more 'intimate' concerns."

She saw the recognition register in his mind seconds before he nodded in understanding. "So in just under a week, it goes from extreme tiredness, to occasional petty annoyances, to wanting to jump someone as soon as you get half a chance?"

"For what it's worth, I think there has to be genuine attraction to the person, first," she answered dryly. "You'll notice I wasn't trying to seduce anyone else." She frowned, taking a moment to think, before adding, "I think it must be something like… hypnosis. When the turning is beginning, but the vampire persona hasn't fully asserted itself yet. You can't be forced to do anything you wouldn't do yourself." She looked up to find him watching her interestedly. "So, I wasn't inclined to try and seduce anyone else, because that's not something I would do if I were completely myself."

Roy grinned. "Glad to hear it. That also partly answers my next question: how much the vampire persona affects you while you're in the process of turning. Or, actually…." He paused, rephrasing. "Not 'how much,' because the answer is 'gradually more.' What I mean is just 'how?'"

Riza nodded, understanding. "The way I felt it, it started as… as though I were slowly losing my impulse control. I would start to feel annoyed or angry, and I would find it hard to… to clamp down on it, control it, mostly because I didn't want to. There was this feeling, in the back of my mind, that after all I'd been through, I didn't need to keep myself so reserved, I was allowed to be angry if I wanted to be… and it made a certain kind of sense. I didn't want to resist it, so… I didn't.

"The full vampire persona didn't take over – didn't fully split from me and overpower me – until we reached Ishval. I reacted to the blessed sand, and while my mind was still recovering from the shock, she seized her chance and took over." She shifted, discomfort beginning to creep back in. "Up until then, since Kimblee's visit in East City, it was the same as ever – feeling like I didn't have to control every impulse – only it was stronger, then. More… insistent, and more frequent."

Roy had looked up at the mention of the strange reaction, watching her with both sympathy and curiosity. "Going back to the blessed sand…." His eyes dropped to her hands, and the marks that spiderwebbed across her palms. "What can you tell me about the reaction?"

"That it hurt. Worse than anything has ever hurt me." Her eyes grave, she waited until his gaze lifted to meet hers. "It was worse than when I asked you to burn my back."

He grimaced. "It certainly explains why you screamed," he said quietly. "What happened after that? The Master had you hustled off so fast that I didn't even really know where you were, let alone what was going on."

Taking another steadying deep breath, Riza re-laced her fingers together in her lap. "The shock of the pain dazed me, briefly. We were down at ground level and a few blocks away before I realized I wasn't with you anymore. Even then, when I asked where you were, where we were going… they didn't answer." She frowned, trying to remember. "I was still feeling hazy, and they were talking amongst themselves in Ishvalan…. It sounded urgent, but I couldn't understand anything.

"They took me directly to what I later learned was the Reconstruction Authority's outpost office, and to the upstairs room where you came to see me the next morning." She hesitated, then looked up. "All during this time, I didn't realize what was happening to me, mentally speaking. I could feel that… something wasn't right, but I didn't realize what. It was as close to the vampire personality taking over as I could come while still being in control myself."

It was Roy's turn to frown. "She didn't immediately try to force her way into control?"

"Not at first," Riza said. "At first, she was there, just under the surface. Like a person seen behind a frosted-over window; there, but not completely visible. She had to wait to seize her moment… which she did when I finally fell asleep later that night."

She paused a moment, waiting for him to add a comment, but he didn't. Dark eyes watched her calmly, and he nodded encouragingly for her to go on.

"It was like…. Do you ever get that feeling, just as you're falling asleep, that you're falling? From some impossibly high place, when it's dark and silent, and just before you hit the ground… you wake up?" Her fingers fidgeted in her lap. "That's what it was like, when she took over. Like I was falling, just… endlessly… and instead of hitting the ground, I wound up stuck inside my own mind."

She saw Roy's shoulders rise in momentary tension; he took a careful breath before asking his question. "And… what was that like?"

The look she gave him was doubtful. "Anything I could tell you about it… all it would be is a metaphor."

"A metaphor is better than nothing."

"Right…." This was an answer to think about. There wasn't much in the physical world that compared to… what could she even call this? 'Self-imprisoned consciousness' was about as close as she could get. Maybe prison was a workable description, prison where the cells have no light… or floor… or walls…. Wait….

"Did Edward ever tell you what it was like for him, trapped in the false portal in Gluttony's stomach?"

The question caught him off-guard, judging from his expression. Roy's eyebrows shot upward, his mouth falling open just slightly. He blinked, trying to formulate a response, before managing a curious "…He mentioned the incident, and how he escaped, but not much else aside from that."

"He told me details, the night he came to return the gun I lent him," she explained. "The night I told him about Ishval. According to him, what was inside Gluttony's portal was some kind of… he used the phrase 'pocket dimension?'" Roy nodded to signal understanding, but said nothing. "There were no walls, no ceiling, a knee-high lake of blood, a 'floor' of clotted blood, and no light except for your flames that Gluttony had swallowed.

"Being trapped inside my own mind was like that. As I said, I could see things going on as though through my own eyes, but the perception was skewed." She shook her head. "I wasn't standing on anything; I was free-floating in the middle of nothingness. No normal human needs like food or sleep, either. Just awareness of what was happening outside, powerless to leave unless something broke me out, and powerless to stop her."

A shudder slithered involuntarily down her spine. "The last time I was that powerless… Kimblee was forcing his blood down my throat."

Wordlessly, Roy set the pad aside, moving up beside her. He leaned back against the headboard, drawing her gently to his chest. Riza smiled, nestling her head comfortably into the crook of his shoulder, one arm wrapped across his chest as his curved easily over her back for his hand to rest on her waist. "Let's move on to another aspect," he suggested, once they were settled. "What about day-to-day habits? Or… night-to-night, I guess."

"What do you mean?"

"Let's start with sleeping. Does a vampire need as much sleep as a human? More? Less?" He smiled, nudging the top of her head with his nose. "Do they sleep hanging upside down from cave ceilings?"

"If they do, then I was doing it all wrong," she answered, knowing her smile would show in her voice, and that he would be relieved to hear it. "At the abandoned inn by the marketplace, my vampire self made a small bunk from a shelf in a linen closet. Once Kimblee came along, though, they each took actual rooms and took precautions to cover the windows to block out light." She stared up at the ceiling, considering the question further. "I wouldn't actually call what they do 'sleeping,' though."

She knew the moment the words were out of her mouth that Roy's mind had taken them and run in a completely opposite direction from what she intended. She felt the muscles of his chest tighten, heard the faint whisper of a sharp inhale. When he spoke, his voice was too perfectly calm to be genuine,

"…By that, do you mean there 'wasn't much sleeping going on?'"

"To give her some credit, she has standards," Riza answered dryly. "The only reason she would have slept – or not slept, as you said – with him is to make you angry, jealous, or both. Not out of any kind of attraction to him."

"From the way she acted the morning before we caught her," Roy added, his tone curious, "it seems like the… urges were still there, and she wasn't happy about having to take no for an answer."

"Yes, I watched that little episode." Her lips pressed into a thin line. "I saw every little motion, everything she did. She couldn't sneeze without my knowledge." She looked up, the grim expression dissolving into a small, teasing smile. "I've never had cause to think you would sleep with someone else, but I never thought the person you would turn down would be my alter ego. You didn't have to, but you proved yourself to be very trustworthy."

"I'll take that as a compliment." He kissed her softly, chastely, on the lips. "But we're getting off-track. About the sleeping habits?"

"Right." She considered a moment, then spoke. "I wouldn't so much call it sleeping, since she was still aware of things happening around her, at least in a general sense. She could tell if it was night or day, based on light sources from outside, and from the passage of time. If someone had entered and spoken to her, she would have heard them, but not been able to make out words. If a mouse ran across the floor, she wouldn't have noticed, unless it touched her."

Chewing thoughtfully at his lower lip, his eyes staring at the opposite wall, Roy ventured a guess. "Sleeping with one eye open, so to speak?"

"Not quite. I'd be more inclined to call it a trance," Riza explained. "A vampire doesn't recover spent energy the way a human does. Where you or Scar or Miles – or me, when she's not in charge – rest up through sleep, a vampire gains energy along with sustenance by feeding. The trance is just a way to rest, to pass the day until sundown. They get some energy back from it, but not a lot."

"That explains the tiredness, once a victim is bitten," he commented. "Aside from the loss of blood, the vampire drains their energy as well."

"Precisely." She tilted her head back to look up at him. "Is there anything else you want to know?"

"A few things." His free hand reached out, tapping the pouch that hung around her neck. "There was some concern that this would affect you, as well as her. Are you doing okay?"

Riza hesitated a moment, then lifted one hand, tilting it from side to side. "Yes and no…. I'm fully in control of myself, and that control feels as firm as if she weren't there at all. As long as I'm wearing this, I doubt she'll be able to take over."

"I see." He held quiet for a pair of heartbeats, then added, "And what aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing. I've told you everything."

"Everything except that you have one boomer of a headache."

She looked up so quickly, overtaken by surprise, that it sent a wave of pain sweeping through her skull. She ignored it, staring him in the eye. "…How did you…?"

He smiled then, sympathetically. "Your eyes get this kind of glassy look when you're fighting off a headache," he said. "They're not as bright. If it's a small one, I usually don't notice unless you tell me, but when it's worse…." He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Then it gets pretty obvious."

"And you were hoping I'd talk about it voluntarily?" she guessed, shifting her head back to her shoulder and letting her eyes fall closed.

"Only so that you know that nothing in this situation is too small to bring to me, if you want to." He rested his chin on the top of her head. "We've got some bigger problems to worry about, true, but that doesn't mean I'm going to disregard the little things. If it concerns you, it's my concern."

"If you don't mind helping, then…." She sat up, turning her back to him, one hand pointing to where her neck joined her shoulders. "I think it's caused by my neck being stiff. Could you —"

His hands settled on her skin before she even finished the sentence, fingers pressing into the taut muscle. His practiced touch found the pair of knots, either side of her spine, within seconds, and he applied pressure. Riza groaned in a strange combination of pain and pleasure, relief beginning to seep in.

"Maybe you ought to have a talk with her about not going crazy with climbing buildings and sleeping on shelves."

A few moments later, she shrugged free of his massaging touch, a signal that he could stop, and she relaxed again against his chest. Pain still throbbed dully, in her temples, now, but not as insistently as before.

"Better?" he asked, the words forming a vibration in his chest as he spoke, that she felt under her shoulders.

"Some." She turned over, folding her arms across his ribs and resting her chin on them. Sunlight from the window glinted off his dark hair, turning his eyes from black to the deepest blue that was only visible in light like this. They smiled at her fondly — no. There was a deeper emotion there, one that had blindsided them both and been the silent third-wheel in every interaction until they had embraced it.

There was love in those eyes, and Riza was almost sorry to close her own as she stretched up to kiss him.

His mouth was warm as her lips touched his, and he was returning the kiss within an instant. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a hug they both knew was desperate with his need for reassurance that she was here, she was herself, that Kimblee hadn't managed to take her away completely.

Riza felt her heart give a happy flutter, a thrill flashing through her chest the same way it had when she was a teenager, the same way it had the first time the two of them had stumbled awkwardly into a kiss. But where the first had been unsteady and lasted no more than a few seconds, now they were sure and lingering.

His hand lifted, resting protectively on the back of her head, his forehead pressing against hers. "I've got you," he murmured, his voice sounding strange. When Riza opened her eyes just enough to see him, his were squeezed tightly shut, his brows furrowed in the same desperation that had been in his hug.

He's not trying to reassure me, she thought to herself, the happy thrill fading to a sympathetic ache. He's reassuring himself.

"I'm right here," she answered, snugging her arms more closely around his neck. "It's all right. I'm here."

She kissed him again, on the cheek, then leaned back in time to see his eyes open. They fixed on her, solemn and watchful, his fingers toying idly with a lock of her hair… until, at last, he smiled.

The third kiss was hungry, both of them pouring their relief into it, each of them revelling in the smell, the feel, the taste of the other. His hands rested on her upper back, keeping her close; her palms pressed softly against the curve of his jaw, feeling the motion as he pressed his lips fervently to hers, once, twice, three times.

She could feel her heart rate speeding up, could feel the pressing, purposeful heat of her own desire coiling in the pit of her stomach. Riza forced herself to take a deep breath, surreptitiously, of course, so that he wouldn't worry. She couldn't go rushing things, couldn't go too fast. Everything they had been through in the last few days, dashing headlong into this felt as though it were doing both of them a disservice,

Freeing her lips momentarily, she pulled back just enough to look him in the eye. "Take your time," she advised gently. "We're not in any rush; we don't know when we're going to get this chance again, so let's do it right."

"Right." He had that slightly punch drunk look he got whenever things started heating up between them. His left hand moved from her back, the backs of his fingers trailing lightly over the curve of her cheekbone, his eyes tracing a path from her eyes, along her nose, to her lips. "Scar and Miles won't be done with their research for a while yet, the others won't be here for close to two days…. It's about as much time as we could ask for, given the circumstances."

They settled into a comfortable rhythm, learning each other again, gauging the other's pace by touch, by body signals, and Riza's sense of time and her surroundings began to fade as she focussed all her attention on him. Not so for him, apparently, since after several minutes, he gently disengaged himself and crossed to the window, tugging the curtain shut to keep out any prying eyes.

"We're at the back of the house, and there's no one occupying the one behind us," he said quietly, slipping back onto the bed, "but I'd just as soon not take any chances."

Riza smiled. "I thought I was supposed to be the security-conscious one?"

"You're busy, right now."

They resumed the pattern of light, comfortable kisses, lying curled closely together in the single-occupancy bed. Riza gave a contented sigh, her fingers trailing the familiar curves and ridges of his arm and chest through the light fabric of the desert tunic. She felt the motion, with her cheek pressed to his, of his smile a moment before there was a soft tap of skin on skin behind her head.

When his fingers brushed the back of her neck a moment later, they left a tingling trail in their wake. Not one of pleasurable touch; this one was different.

One eyebrow lifted quizzically, she shifted to look up at him… and found him smirking mischievously. "…Planning something, are you?" she asked, feigning indifference.

"I had the thought that, since you like alchemy used on you in some places —" His hip pressed against hers in indication. "— then maybe there are other ways to use it you'll like just as much." His smile widened. "Alchemy is supposed to be used for the benefit of the people, after all."

She was still laughing quietly as he traced tingling trails of cold fire down her left arm.

She had no idea what kind of transmutation he had to be holding back for such a light, pleasant tickly feeling, but that didn't concern her. This secret use of such an art forbidden by the Ishvalans, even for such a small thing, spoke volumes to her. He had already shown his willingness to break restrictive rules, just by being with her, but it was a willingness that apparently also extended to an international scale.

Fuelled by that thought, she caught him off-guard when she caught his shoulder and easily rolled him onto his back, following to settle herself astride his hips.

He was still smiling, watching her with a glint of challenge in his eyes. "Not content to just lie back and enjoy yourself?" he asked.

"When am I ever?" she countered.

She bent, abandoning the 'take your time' approach that she herself had suggested in favour of a return to fervour and passion. Roy evidently didn't need much convincing, from the way adapted almost instantly to this new rhythm, and the way his fingers began inching the hem of the desert dress upward.

Riza smiled against his lips. "Not content to just lie back and enjoy yourself?" she quipped, shifting to nuzzle gently against his cheek so that her words wouldn't be muffled.

"When am I ever?"

Laughing softly at the back of her throat, she drew a line of teasing kisses along his jaw and down the side of his neck… and paused. Consciously, she kept the tension she felt from her shoulders, kept her hands from curling into anxious fists in the front of his shirt… but her eyes snapped open, staring blankly straight ahead.

Something was wrong.

He hadn't noticed yet. One hand lifted to tug aside the neckline of the dress, revealing the mostly-healed scar on her shoulder; the only reminder of her brief face-to-face fight with Envy. His lips touched the still-red scar tissue, and she thought she ought to make a joking comment about a 'kiss-it-better'… but the words wouldn't come.

Annoyance at her own inability to use her voice, however temporarily, flashed hot and constricting in her chest. It was her own voice, why shouldn't she be able to use it if she wanted to?

The red anger vanished into a pink flush of desire as she felt the faint nip of his teeth over the wound at the top of her shoulder, the light dig into the muscle as he tugged her slightly closer. Her smile returned, a shiver running the length of her spine. Two could play his little game.

Turning her head, she bit playfully at the exposed column of his neck… and knew in an instant, from three very distinct signs, that things had just gone terribly, utterly wrong.

First, beneath her, his entire body went rigid in surprise, a breath being sucked in through his clenched teeth with a dread-inducing hiss. Before she could ask what was wrong, a taste flooded her mouth and brought with it a horrible realization. Iron and copper mingled on her tongue, and Riza jerked herself away from him, sitting upright. For a long moment, brown eyes stared at black in shared shock and mortification… until he slowly looked down to where a warm trickle came from the corner of her lips.

Thirdly, as Roy stared horrorstruck at the sight of his own blood on her lips… the hunger shifted restlessly in the pit of her stomach and then became still again.

#fma #fmab #Roy Mustang #Riza Hawkeye #royza #royai #fma fanfiction #royai fanfiction #tainted blood

3 notes · View notes

juuls · 6 years

Note

Got any stuckony recs?

YES! Absolutely yes!

My apologies this took until today. I had a busy weekend and had to rest a lot, but I’m here now. :) Also, I don’t have my old bookmarks list (long story) so I’m having to go through and look for my favorites, old and new. Long process! (This took me over four hours, though I was doing a few other things as well. Still, I’m a bit of a slowpoke.)

See below the cut for some of my favorites, and don’t forget to leave kudos and comments (even just an “I liked this!”) for the authors, to let them know their hard work is appreciated!

(If someone knows an author’s Tumblr handle, let me know or tag them so that I can edit this rec list and tag them appropriately!)

Equilateral by FestiveFerret @festiveferret

It was the way Steve had said, “I found him,” the desperate, agonized hope, that had Tony replying with, “Bring him home,” without any hesitation.

But now, now he was hesitating like fuck.

Penny Candy and Sparklers by StrivingArtist @striving-artist

James Buchanan Barnes: formerly the Winter Soldier, formerly Captain America’s right hand man, formerly a sergeant, formerly a dock worker, formerly Stevie’s best friend…. currently a glorified prisoner of Prince T’Challa…. had trouble wrapping his head around all those former selves. He spent too much time thinking about all the bits of him that he kept gluing back together to pretend he was a person anyone would want to keep. He spent even more time picking at the cracks, pointing the flaws out to himself. Only thing he did more than that was make sure no one else noticed how far he was from human.

So, James Buchanan Barnes, who didn’t know what to call himself, who didn’t know how to go forwards, agreed, and moved back into the tower where his best friend lived with a husband orphaned by the Winter Soldier.

Hide A Heart of War by RayShippouUchiha @rayshippouuchiha

“You’ve got war in your heart boy,” Howard sneers, “don’t ever try and pretend to be anything but what you are.”

Tony feels the familiar burn of a flower mark being etched into his skin but he doesn’t look, doesn’t try and check to see what it is. Instead he keeps his eyes on Howard and his hands cupped around his bleeding mouth and nose.

Of Spiders and Super-Soldiers by AuddieAussie (Juulna’s note: I come back and read this all the time when I need some family feels and a smile. :))

After the hell that was Ultron and the Sokovia Accords, Tony doesn’t blame the team for wanting nothing to do with him. To make up for past mistakes, Tony disappears into his lab and focuses on using his money and brains to provide the Avengers with more fancy tech than they’ll ever need. By doing this, he also doesn’t have to worry about Steve’s grim frown, Bucky’s hateful gaze, or everyone else’s cold annoyance.

For six long months, this formula worked, but then fate decided to be a Loki-like dick and Tony wasn’t sure how it happened, but in the span of one week, he’d somehow acquired a kid.

and you needed someone to show you the way by SailorChibi @tsuki-chibi

Tony knows what the team really thinks of him. It’s a delicate balance: they tolerate him because of his money and his toys, and he gets to stay on the team and fight with them. He’s okay with that. So long as he hides the fact that Steve’s and Bucky’s names are written on his skin in the most embarrassing act of one-sided love affection ever, everything will be fine.

It just figures that a fantastically stupid villain, a kidnapping plot and a video camera will bring Tony’s well-kept secret out into the open.

The Mechanic, The Soldier, and The Captain by AvocadoLove (Juulna’s note: this is sad)

HYDRA need a replacement for Zola’s genius, and they have years worth of experience breaking and brainwashing a good man into something they can control.

Beware of Super Soldiers And Their Enticing Laps by Confused_Emo

Tony’s eyes shifted back toward the remaining occupants of the room only to realise there was literally no space in the sitting area for him.

This apparently was the best time for Bucky to make suggestive gestures, as the soldier patted his thigh lasciviously, “Why don’t you come sit on my lap, plenty of space right here.”

Just Far Enough by TheSopherFly (Juulna’s note: please read the tags. This is triggering and sad and angsty but fucking phenomenally well done and one of my all-time favorites… And I don’t like angst at all.)

Tony couldn’t honestly remember how long it had been like this. Probably since the day he’d called T’Challa and offered his help. At first it had just been compulsive self-denial: you can’t eat until you’ve drafted your opening remarks, until you’ve finished your research, until you’ve rewritten every last colon and comma and apostrophe in those Accords so that everyone can come home.

Those goals had been realistic. Lately, they’d become impossible. Until everyone forgives you. Until you forgive yourself. Until you make up for every bad thing you’ve ever caused.

He was fine. He was coasting in a dangerous place, but he was fine. He wasn’t taking it too far - just far enough.

Trinity by cinaea (immediately followed by pt. 2: Volition)

He’s become the kind of monster he all but died trying to stop.

A D/s, soul-bond AU set in modern day. More than two years ago, Bucky Barnes was lost during a Howling Commandos mission and captured by HYDRA. He and fellow prisoners Clint and Natasha—all submissives—are treated as slaves and forced to carry out terrorist attacks for their masters. An attack by the Avengers enables their escape but leaves Bucky with an incomplete soul bond to two superheroes.

Vowing to never be imprisoned again, Bucky and his friends go on the run from HYDRA, from law enforcement, and from the two dominants who will do anything to find him.

Don’t Tell Pepper by Crematosis

Tony convinces Steve that it is totally okay to include Bucky in their relationship because nobody will ever know. They’ll keep it a secret from the team and they’ll absolutely keep it a secret from Pepper because she’ll only yell at them.

Like most of Tony’s good ideas, it comes back to blow up in his face.

Underneath the Mistletoe by DreamcatchersDaughter @dreamcatchersdaughter

5 times Tony gets caught underneath the mistletoe and one time he doesn’t (and thank fuck for that).

and another like it by the same author:

Christmas Kisses (aka Sam is So Done With Your Shit)

Their mutual pining is driving him crazy, but its okay cause Natasha’s got a plan.

The Colors That Bind Us by yasminakohl @stuckonstoney

When Steve Rogers was six a boy saved him from a bully, then sky went from white-gray to brilliant blue.

When Bucky fell, the world stayed colorful and everyone told him it was because of the serum, he believed them.

When he woke from the ice and he finds the black and white he’d expected years ago, sixty-six years ago it seems, he’s crushed.

Now there’s color again, this time it comes with amazing reds and golds.

Until he wakes up and his sky is brilliant and his color mate is trying to kill him, his first color mate.

Will Steve ever be able to have his blue, red and gold?

The Melting, the Spark, and the Suffocation by btBatt @batterology

“So, Bucky,” he said, clapping his hands. “You ready to change the lives of asthmatic little punks everywhere?” Bucky sent a skeptical look Steve’s way.

“It seems to be my calling in life,” he said. Steve just smiled. He looked a little like he was having a moment, one of his oh-my-God-I-have-Bucky-back moments, so Tony smiled too.

“There are worse things,” Tony mused.

“Hear, hear,” Natasha said.

The Limitations of Wax by RayShippouUchiha @rayshippouuchiha (Juulna’s note: This has been untouched for quite a while but there are separate WiPs being written and branched off of this – and completed – that are fantastic, and the core character study in this fic is fantastic so I still recommend it.)

Toni Stark grows up with the tale of Icarus swirling in the back of her mind. Instead of taking it as a precautionary tale about hubris and overreaching she decides it’s more about the limitations of wax.

Years later when she builds herself wings of her own she makes sure to build them out of better material.

Difficult Conversations by yumekuimono @yumekuimono

HYDRA had brainwashed their Asset into silence, and then muzzled him to boot. It’s not that surprising that Bucky no longer considers talking to be one of his strong suits. So why does he keep having to have difficult conversations?

Or, the road to loving Tony Stark is never an easy one. (Juulna’s note: Eventual/Pre-OT3)

Strip it Down by Batfink

“Think about who you’re talking to Bucky. I am the technology king. What you’re asking me to do goes against everything I hold dear.” Tony looked positively distraught.

Bucky slid his hand onto Tony’s cheek, tilting his head until their eyes met. “Crying, Tony. Over the fucking washing machine.”

Giving a Friend a Hand by neunundneunzig (seasidesunset)

Bucky gets Tony’s help dealing with… anatomy malfunctions, and it turns into much more.

Operation: Knuckleheads by FestiveFerret @festiveferret

Bucky is enjoying his new, post-Winter Soldier life at Avengers Tower, until he discovers that the constant tension between Steve and Tony was caused by a recent (and mysterious) breakup. Determined to make his friends happy, Bucky gives himself a new mission: figure out what went wrong, and get these two idiots in love back together again.

Compass Heading by antigrav_vector @disco-pinecone

So… It’s complicated. Steve went and got himself killed on a mission, and, somehow, in the aftermath, Tony ended up getting together with Barnes. He’s still not entirely sure how that happened, really, but he’s not about to question it too hard. He’s enjoying it too much.

Then, because the universe loves turning his life upside down, they find Steve. It’s been two years, and things have changed, but Tony still cares about the asshole, and that, right there, is a problem.

Too Damn Short by MrShyRockstar

“I’m too short for this shit.”

This literally sums up this little ficlet. Tony’s too short, Steve is clearly (to anyone with eyes *coughnottonycough*) pining, and Bucky is just watching everything with exasperated amusement. That is all.

Put Your Arms Around Me, Hold Me Tight by StarSpangledBucky

Tony and Bucky desperately need to sort out the kink in their relationship, before they both lose Steve, or one of them does. It isn’t until the second week Steve is away on a mission that Tony goes through a nightmare, and Bucky decides to comfort him. From there, it gives them a chance to talk. And by the time Steve comes back, he’s more than satisfied by the results.

Minefields by arianapeterson19 (Juulna’s note: Please heed the tags! Content is triggering for abusive relationships.)

Being in an abusive relationship was a bit like needing glasses. He didn’t realize it until the damage was done.

Funny how people assume only men can be abusive.

And a new fic by a new author I would like to recommend to people to read:

Lonely Boy by thereddame @the-red-dame

Tony gets a visit from a Tony from a different universe and she needs him to help keep her children safe until Girl-Tony can kick some HYDRA ass. She’s being pretty tight-lipped about the father but he’s got a sneaking suspicion it’s Steve. Hey, maybe he can get ‘best babysitter in the universe’ award after this?

I’m sure since you are sending me an ask you know about my fics (though maybe not my oneshot), but I’ll list them anyway. ;)

Necrosis by Juulna

Necrosis (from the Greek νέκρωσις “death, the stage of dying, the act of killing” from νεκρός “dead”)

Tony always thought he’d die first, of the three of them. He’d accepted it, even. Hell, he wasn’t even sure that Steve or Bucky coulddie. Shows how much he knew.

Hanging From a Cross of Iron by Juulna

Toni Stark never - not even once - had a soulmark appear. Not one she can remember, at any rate. But when one finally appears, and the date of her rendezvous seems impossible to meet, does she decide to move on with her life, and forget the words written upon her skin?

Of course not. She’s Toni fucking Stark. Making the impossible possible is practically her family motto.

Well… there we go! I hope that that suffices for recommendations? If you want some more, I’m happy to provide them! Happy reading, and don’t forget:

Leave the authors your love in the form of a kudos and/or comment!

MUAH! xoxo

385 notes · View notes