#basically he’s a thief who sometimes helps killing people

[felyas-stuff]

Currently working on a bunch of new Reincarnationtale (my Undertale AU that I don’t post that much about on Tumblr because the ongoing webcomic and almost the entire fanbase is Russian) references, but yesterday I got really inspired by Loves Art23 redesign videos and decided to do something more than just an updated reference sheet so…get redesigned loser

btw please ignore the description on the old reference, because it is mostly outdated and my English was a bit rough back then (I made the old one in late 2019) 😳😳😳

[animentality]

How do I write good morally grey characters? (Genuine question)

you give a character a morality that makes sense, and could be understood by most rational human beings on this earth, but then have it also be harmful to others, whether that's intensely or mildly.

most people in this world are morally gray, you know?

selfish and self centered, and likely to do bad things in their own self interest, if they think they won't get caught...but you know. most people are not raging psychopaths who will go out of their way to harm others....nor will they make much of an effort to help others who are not their friends or family.

gray morality is sort of hard to pin down, but it always comes back to...

black morality is This Bitch enjoys killing, and does it for funsies. they cause suffering to others just because they want to, and can, and this is morally wrong, because...uh, well. the basics of human interactions suggest hurting other people without any cause at all is the lowest of the low.

white morality is This Guy is a hero, who saves kittens and little old ladies and refuses to harm others (intentionally or unintentionally). most people can agree, someone who saves other people from death or injury is good.

gray morality, though, is that guy is a selfish piece of shit, but sometimes, occasionally, he does good things. only for his own self interests, of course, but it's a net positive for the world.

he threw a bunch of people down river, when it suited him, but was there when it counted, or maybe, accidentally does help the good guys with his selfish actions.

let me give you an example... Jack Sparrow.

Pirate. Thief. Murderer.

Not a hero. Will sell out other people to save his own skin. Kills wantonly, drinks too much, steals anything that isn't nailed down.

Doesn't really go out of his way to save people...except occasionally, he does.

Except in the end, he does save his friend, and he does save his fellow pirates...who are.

you know. pirates.

bad people.

he's an agent of chaos. he's whimsical, lawless, lives as he likes, and causes all kinds of trouble.

and that's a good morally gray character.

someone who both helps and harms.

and that's something to keep in mind, when you write your morally gray character, btw, whether you want them to be more helpful to your heroes, or more of a hindrance.

either one works for the morally gray.

and then we have a character like say, Dexter.

A serial killer who kills serial killers, right?

Yeah, killing is bad, especially serial killing, but if it's other serial killers...fun, right?

Weird.

Interesting to think of.

So.

To come back to it.

My advice for morally gray characters is to sit down and think of a character who has good traits and bad traits.

Mix them together, according to how you want this character to affect, say, our villains or our heroes.

Then decide, well, are they more inclined towards helping the evil side, the good side, or is it more pure chaos they exude?

I myself tend to write a lot of morally gray characters.

But that's only because I love writing murderous MCs, and most people do see murder as amoral, for some reason.

Anyway.

That's my advice on the morally gray.

Give them rules. Give them motives. Let them have good traits and bad traits.

Let them be rude to old women, but have a soft spot for kids...and also do awful things that affect both negatively.

the most important thing to avoid, as that post indicates, is just making a grumpy hero who just seems kinda mean sometimes.

that's not morally gray.

morally gray, to me at least, implies that that character does actual harm.

if they're only mean to bad people, only negatively affect the bad people, then newsflash, they're just heroes. they're white morality, just not disneyfied into sterility.

make sure your morally gray characters do harm!!!

[sorrinslays]

Belobog Roleswap AU

So this is a small thingamaching I've been thinking about sometimes. Truthfully, I just saw some versions of the same concept and while they were certainly interesting, they weren't really my style. So, I decided to try and make my own version.

To start off, I wanna say that I gave myself a few 'rules' to keep it consistent and whatnot. Specifically, I want it to be a true roleswap, so that means no true personality changes, at least not when it's unnecessary. The roleswap should make sense, like it should be able to happen realistically. Nobody expect the people of Belobog are roleswaped.

So I'll start by who we meet first and work my way down until we get all the characters.

We meet Gepard first. He is a petty thief/vigilante that fights fragmentum in his free time, mostly because nobody is willing to offer him a job. At some point, his parents were arrested for really huge crimes (up to interpretation). Due both Gepard and Serval being over the age of eighteen, they are in legal care of Lynx.

They have trouble finding a job due to their reputation and moved to the Underworld because the rent is cheaper. Soon they are forced to steal to get by. When the Underworld was sealed off, Gepard was in the Overworld, pickpocketing, separating him from his sisters. So, for ten years, he was forced to do petty crime to survive, abandoning his "dream" of becoming a Silvermane Guard.

All that changes when the Astral Express comes to Jarillo VI. After the Supreme Guardian "becomes suspicious" of the trailblazers, Sampo comes to Gepard, offering to show him one of the secret pathways to the Underworld. In exchange Gepard has to be the guide for the Express. (Sampard/Gepo fans rejoice, a canon interaction!)

Of course Gepard accepts. So when Seele is chasing after the trailblazers, Sampo sends a few smoke bombs and, with Gepard's help, gets them to the Underworld, reuniting the Landau siblings.

Next, we see Sampo and Luka. Sampo is the Captain of the Silvermane Guards. He's still a Masked Fool but after coming to Jarilo VI and seeing that the role of the Captain is basically empty (the old one is on his last breath) he decides to take up the role.

The first impression we have of him is that he is one lazy Captain. Always slacking off and "going with the flow". He doesn't do his paperwork or listen to anyone all that much. He kinda does his own thing and bothers everyone.

He's still the only one who can travel between the Overworld and the Underworld freely, but he does so in secret, behind the Supreme Guardian's back. He is still helping the leader of Wildfire and he's still the one to plan everything behind the scenes.

We learn that he's the one who got us to the Underworld through Gepard when Seele almost kills him.

When we get back to the Overworld, he greets us and we have to hold Seele from trying to murder him. He doesn't outright reveal anything but he does tell us that more soldiers have been dying under Natasha's rule because of her orders and he's been trying everything to find a way to prevent more soldiers from losing their lives.

He helps us sneak past the Guards, lying smoothly when something happens. Soon, they reach Natasha for the Boss Fight.

Luka is the Intelligence Officer. He used to be in the frontlines but he lost his arm in a very big fight and was "demoted" to a desk job. He hates it and oftentimes does Sampo's neglected paperwork so that the Captain owes him and takes Luka to the frontlines with him as "payback", which is why we see him when we first arrive.

When the crew is back from their adventure in the Underworld and he sees Sampo helping them, he questions the Captain. Soon enough, he joins the crew in fighting the fragmentum.

Followed by those three, we meet Natasha. As an orphan, she was picked to be the Supreme Guardian instead of Cocolia, so she never got the chance to live the life she could've actually enjoyed. When we meet her, she has a faint smile on her face, her voice are gentle and her words kind. Yet, something is eerily off about her, it's just very hard to put a finger on it.

Unlike the lies the Stellaron fed Cocolia of the world dying and everyone getting to live somewhere else, in "the new world", they tell Natasha that by killing everyone, they are gonna resurrect everyone and change their biology to be able to withstand the Eternal Freeze. The cold never bothering them ever again. They say that the moment all of Belobog dies, the life of the fragmentum would be transferred to the people, so they will never again be in danger of either the monsters or the cold.

Her story ends just like Cocolia's in the original timeline, losing her life to the Stellaron and the Astral Express.

Next in line, we have Seele. We meet her during the same scene as Natasha. She doesn't really question Natasha, at least not as much as OG Bronya. Not because she's stupid, no, but because she trusts Natasha whole-heartly. She just follows orders. It doesn't help that Natasha is hiding all the orders that are made specifically to kill as many soldiers as possible.

So, later on, when she finds out that Sampo, a somewhat of a father figure to her, went against Natasha and even kidnapped Seele herself with some "criminals"? She almost mauls Gepard, the "messenger", on the spot.

Of course, she gets her reality check when she sees how bad the situation in the Underworld really is. She sees Gepard in tears after finally reuniting with his sisters after 10 years, she sees kids who never ever went to school, she sees the lack of medical supplies, she sees how dirty everything is and she sees how the fragmentum has been affecting them too.

Just like canon, her romance with Bronya still happens and soon they are back in the Overworld. After a brief conversation with Sampo, she heads off to confront Natasha, and the rest follows canon.

Following Seele, we meet Oleg. He works at the Neverwinter workshop, the adoptive father of Luka. He used to be a Captain but after openly questioning Natasha's rule, he loses his job, leaving him to tinker at the workshop.

He's somewhat aware of what Sampo is doing, which is why he humours him and follows his orders of assisting the Astral Express. He isn't present during the Boss Fight, keeping the fragmentum at bay with Luka's help, he's devastated to learn about Natasha's death though.

Up next, we have Cocolia. She's a very smiley and kind doctor that greets us when we wake up from Sampo's smoke bombs. She is, gasp, in a happy relationship with Serval.

Competent is her middle name, and she mostly follows canon. Instead of Natasha, that doctor couple adopted Cocolia, which is why she becomes the Underworld's main doctor.

Not much to say about her, so let's move on to Bronya. She stops a fight from escalating when Seele causes a scene. While she still is very kindhearted, the Underworld has roughened her edges a bit.

We get bonding scenes between her and Seele and everything pretty much follows canon expect dialogue changes. I don't have much to say about her to be honest.

Pela! She works in the fight club, not because she wants to, but because she fell into debt due to trying to get her hands on the Tales of the Winterlands. Not much about her, sadly, Hoyo wasn't too keen on given her and Luka much screen time, I fear.

She helps us deal with the mine situation that happened in canon.

Now, we get to see Serval. She has an emotional reunion with Gepard and we learn that she is a member of Wildfire. Unfortunately aside from that nothing changes canon (blame the lack of Oleg in the story not me).

Now, we meet Lynx, who has befriended Svarog, the robot acting as her father figure. While Serval isn't a fan of Svarog, she doesn't discourage her little sister from befriending him.

Since day one, she is trying to get Svarog to agree to let people pass through the Furnace Core, she yearns for the outside and tries to find and all possible ways to change Svarog's calculations.

Of course it doesn't work until we, the variable, come to the Underworld.

Lastly, we meet Hook and Clara. Both are orphans adopted by Fersman, whose a Lieutenant under Sampo's command, send by the Captain. "The Moles", we learn, is a specific group of kids that wish to join the Silvermane Guards and, Sampo, to not break their hearts, made them honorary members.

Basically, he tells them sometimes to look out for any suspicious people, maybe follow one (if the job is not at all threatening), or the super duper important mission of getting lunch for him and the other soldiers. In this instance, he used them to lead the gang to Oleg and then to Sampo himself.

And that's it! Let me know your thoughts! If you have any questions about the AU, want a more in-depth explanation or wish to see scenes written about some of the things that happened feel free to ask!

[spacebarbarianweird]

Hi! Would you write Astarion x Rogue!Tav ? I always liked the idea of two rogues together, getting up to a bunch of mischief.

Inspired by my friend @psychicdreamlandpizza whose Tav is Tiefling Rogue

Thanks @rachelle-on-the-run @leomonae @glassphinixfor the ideas! NSWF version is coming later!

Astarion x Rogue!Tav

Masterlist

Headcanons

You are a street urchin, abandoned as a child.

You can only rely on yourself and no one else.

However, such a life didn't make you bitter.

You are a sarcastic rogue with a heart of gold.

You know lockpicking, deception, and many illegal stuff.

Of course, you knew stories of vampires using, the streets as their hunting spot.

You met them twice.

A tiefling woman. who tried to offer you a profitable job.

And an elf. who was selling his body.

You knew who they were and escaped.

Gods, why isn't there a vampire hunter when you need one?

You recognize the said elf at the shipwreck.

Before he manages to jump on you, you knock him down and put a dagger to his throat.

"Just tell me the reason why I shouldn't tell everyone you are a vampire?"

Now it's his dagger against your throat.

"Tell me the reason why I shouldn't tell everyone you are a thief and a criminal?"

Fair enough. It's not like you manage to keep secrets from the party, but you have an arrangement for a while.

You have a lot in common.

Basically, two feral cats, who try to gauge each other's eyes.

You have lockpicking races trying to open a door or a chest.

"I saw it first!", "I got to it first!", "I've been picking locks since before you were born, you little wretch!", "Exactly! Move, old man!"

Sometimes, failing perception checks and having to face a mimic.

You have charisma 20 and can make people love you without putting too much effort.

You can overdrink anyone and anything, but Astarion has to carry you away because you never know when to stop.

You always can get better deals and contracts, but your desire to help people (even for money) often goes sideways.

And it's Astarion's turn to get you out of trouble.

The intimacy of your partner helping you disarm a trap, knowing that a misstep could kill you both but also knowing that you've nothing to worry about because both of you trust the other's skills and steadiness.

And stitching wounds if one of you fucks up.

Sometimes it's you both.

Post-game, you stay together in Baldur's Gate, working as mercenaries and dreaming of earning a fortune.

You have a thing about luxury too, though, you've never had a chance to experience it.

You are two stray cats, finally having home.

The idea of sleeping comfortably in your bed feels weird.

Wearing clothes which are beautiful but not practical, too.

And you know when Astarion brings you something he hasn't bought it.

And you are more than fine with it.

You steal things for him, too.

Mostly, pieces of clothing. Sometimes jewelry. Often - books.

Date nights? How about breaking into someone's mansion whose owner has hoarded pieces of art and hidden them from people?

Goine through private galleries with Astarion giving you a lecture about art?

Or maybe swimming in someone's private pool?

And having sex in the rich people's luxury beds?

There are a lot of ways to have fun if you are two rogues!

--

Tag list

@tugoslovenka @marcynomercy @wintersire @vixstarria @not-so-lost-after-all @ashiro20 @theearthsfinalconfession @herstxrgirl @starlight-ipomoea @micropoe10 @astarion-imagine-archive @veillsar @elora-the-slutty-songstress @fayeriess @lumienyx @astarion-beloved @tallymonster @caitlincat-95 @tragedybunny @valeprati @lynnlovesthestars

[jerislimarc]

The Jerislim AC mixed with EE plot in scenario that Slim is alive but they still brake up in the finale

(it was an animatic at first but bruh I'm not gonna make it)

Sorry for my English

The first half is basically canon backstories of Jericho and Slim according to Matt and Lamp.

Then goes the Ep.3 prison arc or hcd (you can choose as you wish). They escape, and, maybe just share an apartment for some time(?) and keep on doing crimes.

Jericho after some time starts to reflect on Slim's behavior but still doesn't have enough courage to confront him.

One day Jericho was on his usual thief business and running from cops. He injured his hand and can't move it too well, which means that the hand doesn't constantly vibrate like the rest of his body does.

One of the cops handcuffs this hand with a Epithet eraser cuffs, and, suddenly Jericho's ability to stick to the walls disappears. And he falls down on that cop.

It appears that, because he was always constantly vibrating and basically facing through objects he was facing through eraser cuffs when the cops tried to put it on him the first time, so when it didn't work they decided that he doesn't have an Epithet.

But now, when he couldn't move as fast as usual, the cuffs seemed to work, that meant, that Jericho actually had an Epithet (This Is also based on Matt's description of Jericho's powers in his Q&A).

Jericho feels that Slim probably won't like this…

At home, when Slim comes back, Jericho calls him in the kitchen to talk, while Al goes to another room.

Jericho recaps what happened to him today to Slim and to prove himself, he puts on eraser cuffs on his injured hand.

And then he stops vibrating and knocks on the table to show that he can't phase through it either.

Slim at first tries to find some other explanations for this but Jericho shrugs. Jericho finally tries to confront Slim about killing Epithet users or helping bliss ocean to erase Epithets since he now understands that his Epithet made him into who he is today and that it made Jericho's life a lot happier than if he didn't have those powers.

Slim on the other hand starts to get angrier and angrier. He brings up his sister and that she died because of Epithet users and that while people will continue possessing such a power, people who don't will be hurt or killed.

Jericho switches the conversation to himself to show. Wouldn't Slim kill Jericho now when he knows that he's inscribed?

Jericho grabs Slim's hand that he was holding a knife for peeling Apple and puts it near to his neck.

Slim in rage at all the news starts a fight and in the end cuts Jericho's neck a little.After seconds, he realizes what he did and starts in panic apologizing but Jericho shoves him and goes away. Jericho gathers his stuff in the back pack and leaves.

Slim stands in the hallway for sometime and starts throwing and breaking everything that he can land his hand on.

Cut to the events of the finale of the Anime campaign. Everyone tries to stop Bliss ocean from erasing all Epithets.

Jericho meets main team of Percy, Molly, Ramsey and others and gets to the floor that was free of bliss ocean officers, unlike the previous ones, but Slim was there. Even if he was kicked out of the bliss ocean he still sneaked into the building and unlike the other contestants, he actually decided to fight on the side of the bliss ocean and stop other people from getting through.

Slim sees Jericho and offers him to just go away, but he refuses, reminding that he doesn't want to lose his Epithet.

Slim adjusts his hat and agrees, pulling Alcatraz and getting his ghost armor to start the fight.

He loses, and even then, Jericho reaches the hand to Slim to ask him to give up and join them to stop Bliss ocean.

At first he seemed to reach his hand back but it was Alcatraz. Slim with his free hand stops Al's hand and gets up, going away from Jericho and others.

Their roads split.

I have the rough sketch of Animatic on my patreon for cheapest tier if anyone need it:

[diamond-punk0963]

Descending Through Madness: Mad Hatter!Spencer Charnas HCs

(Note: My recent request from @starshoteyes is what pulled me into making this post. Huge shout out to them! I hope you like this!)

~Headcanons~

Spencer would be more of a horror take on the mad man rather than what people would usually think of the mad hatter as.

Is obsessed with the number, nine. (Keeps everything in sets of nine)

Carries pocket knives with him in his jacket at all times. (To play with or use as a weapon)

He has zero idea how many pocket knives he owns. (He just usually takes them with him and goes on with his day)

If he were to unload every knife he has, it would take HOURS for him to be fully unarmed. (Even then, he probably had a few on him that he forgotten about)

Lives in a dark forest, away from civilization. (Mainly because he’s an outcast from the local towns and kingdoms)

Has probably drank blood that was mixed into his tea without noticing. (I’ll let you decide how it got there)

A common thief (he doesn’t have a job because no one will hire him) in stealing tea and whatever items he can get his hands on. (He’s gotten himself into trouble, due to this)

His tea set is made up of cracked, broken tea cups that he either stole or found as it was left abandoned. (Again, can’t afford a proper set so he would have to make due with that he can grab)

Often gets tangled within the straps of his jacket. (He would either need help with getting untangled or he just finds a way to operate while being tangled)

He doesn’t have a favorite flavor of tea but would take any red-colored tea that would look the closest to blood as possible.

His clothes were also something that he stole over the years. (Probably modified to fit him better)

Loves messing around with other people, playing his game of insanity towards those who would fall into his trap.

When it comes to food, it would also be something he needed to steal for survival. (It isn’t all that great, not having any coins for food supplies)

Perceived as insane but really, his thought process is just different than everyone else’s. (He wishes someone could understand him, though.)

Has a soft red blanket to keep himself warm for when he sleeps either at his tea table or at the small house that he lives in. (House was abandoned but he managed to keep it lively as much as he could.)

Doesn’t speak in riddles or rhymes but will probably talk your ear off about spooky stories. (He loves anything spooky.)

Made his hat from materials he managed to obtain and random stuff that he could find within the nearest villages.

His fingerless gloves (not pictured in photo) were something that Spencer made on his own.

Due to his low income, a lot of what Spencer has is either stolen, abandoned, or made by his own hands. (He learned to be crafty at a young age)

Has major sweet tooth. (Strawberry tarts and cherry filled pastries are his favorite)

Has a TERRIBLE sense of direction. (Literally gets lost in the forest, almost every single day. Only way that he didn’t get lost was because he carved roman numerals of nine onto trees to guide his way home.)

Prized possession of his is a stuffed rabbit that he kept as a kid. (Sometimes, he cuddles with it in his sleep if he’s having nightmares)

Loves reading books in his spare time. (Has a small collection of books in his small house)

Very much introverted by default. (Doesn’t have much friends from being isolated from everyone in his home)

He would have tea parties on his own. (Which basically involves him just sipping on tea and wandering through the tea party area)

Has a habit of carving the nine roman numeral on anything he can use his knife on. (It helps him occupy his mind)

Has he ever killed anyone? Not even he knows the answer to that question. (He probably has)

Probably has scars on his hands from the number of times that he has cut himself from playing with his pocket knives. (May have gotten the nine numeral scar at the palm of his hand, due to it)

Uses his gloves (fingerless or fully covered) to cover up his hand scars. (Gets a little self-conscious about it but half of the time, he just doesn’t care about it)

Huge addict to anything strawberry and cherry related. (Again, it reminds him of blood. The dark it is, the better)

Probably paints his nails black or dark red. He does mix-match on the polish. (He gets polish on his fingers but keeps it because he likes the mess of it.)

Looks like he could kill you but he’s actually a cinnamon roll. (Probably the type that’s messed up in the head but he means well)

Keeps a broken pocket in his jacket, always stuck on nine o’clock. Inside, there’s an old picture that he doesn’t let anyone see. (The one items he keeps close to his heart, literally)

Although he likes the quiet atmosphere, he does crave having a companion. (Tried making friends in the past but failed since no one wanted to hang around someone like him)

[dhampiravidi]

marvel form for Fantomex/Jean-Phillipe

template inspired by this one!

—- BASIC INFO Full Name: Charlie Cluster-Seven

Alias(es): Fantomex (main); Jean-Phillipe Charles (preferred name)

DOB: he's somewhere in his 40s (but he'll look 30 for a while)

Sex/Gender: Cis-Male

Sexual/Romantic Orientation: Pansexual & Panromantic

Species: Mutant (Homo sapiens superior) + Super-Sentinel

Occupation: thief, adventurer (anti-hero), mercenary

—- APPEARANCE (FC: Warren Christie)

Jean-Phillipe appears as a typical male in his thirties, standing at approximately 5'9" (1.75 m) with a toned physique and light skin that tends to tan under intense sunlight. His black hair is always shaved close to his head (probably because he wears his mask 95% of the time). His eyes are blue-grey, appearing almost black from afar. On the rare occasion when he wears civilian clothing, he'll be in something very subtle, like a plain sweatshirt or top (always long sleeves) with jeans or tailored pants--in white, grey, or beige, of course (he's a sucker for his signature colors!). He wears a white tactical one-piece with a white trench coat, utility belt, boots, gloves & a face mask (which has night-vision goggles & telepathy-blocking ceramics). Sometimes the outfit is completely white, other times it has black accents.

--- BACKGROUND

He was born as 1 of 2, twin boys of a human woman carrying the mutant gene & Super-Sentinel engineering. To be brief, he was designated as Weapon XIII (13) & placed in The World, a contained environment full of deadly machines that forced him to grow up fighting. They wanted him to hunt mutants, but he said "fuck that" & found a way to break out. He met the X-Men when he helped them take down the violent Weapon XII. He'd go on to help them defeat other international threats & he personally destroyed all he could that was connected to the Weapon Plus program (an extension of the Weapon X project that sought to enhance & control Wolverine). He's had a few people get close to him...Ultimaton aka Weapon XV is his twin, who he was forced to kill, but then he remade him & let him live in The World. Similarly, he killed the child clone of Apocalypse, then later took another clone & enrolled him in the X-Men's school as "Evan Sabahnur", taking on the role of Evan's "uncle". Finally, he shared a brief romance with Betsy Braddock. Initially, they had a romantic/sexual threesome between himself, a female version of himself (long story) & Betsy, but Betsy broke things off when he insulted her love for Angel/Warren Worthington III. This mun ships the fuck out of Fantomex x Gambit, because the two had a brief partnership (yay bisexual sexy thieves!).

—- PERSONALITY

He's been through some shit. In the most simple terms, he's thematically & emotionally the lovechild of Deadpool & Gambit (I'm sure Wade would love to hear that). Once he accepts a job or plans a heist, he always follows through. He tells himself it's because he has a reputation to maintain as "Le Fantomex, the World's Greatest Thief (& occasional assassin)", but he's truly determined, dependable & prideful. He doesn't let himself get close to many more than a handful, yet he can be incredibly loyal when he's joined a team (like the X-Men). In his day-to-day talk, he has no problem bragging about his impressive abilities, or flirting with either sex (he really does like himself, though most peg him as an arrogant jerk). When it comes down to it, he's a utilitarian/greater good kind of guy. He also loves to live a hedonistic lifestyle, spending his free time stealing artwork & ordering room service at 5-star hotels.

—- ABILITIES

Powers

E.V.A: she's essentially a small aircraft with an A.I. who has a symbiotic relationship with him. He can see through her "eyes" & remotely pilot her with intense effort on his part. She can fire blasts of bioelectric energy. While connected to her, he can ignore injuries, because he won't feel the pain.

Body Supremacy: he has nanites that enhance his willpower, to the point where he will push on even if he's near death or attacked by someone attempting mind control. They sometimes even make him sociopathic on the rare occasion when he meets someone better than him. Jean can also will his body to push out shrapnel, bullets & splinters--& he can slightly speed up his healing factor (it's not much faster than that of a regular human's).

Misdirection: it's the ability to change people's perceptions & feelings from what they are, to what he wants them to be. He sometimes does this using illusions, which even skilled telepaths have trouble seeing through.

Reduced Aging: a lot of Weapon Plus/X experiments have this.

Enhanced Agility: he's always jumping across rooftops. Think of Catwoman, but...male & wearing all-white.

Enhanced Strength: this is somewhere on the level of your usual experimental super-soldier (think Bucky Barnes or Deadpool).

Enhanced Senses: others perceive this as him simply being very observant.

Inodorosity: he has no scent, which makes it difficult for people who rely on their augmented senses (like Wolverine) to track him.

Weaknesses

Some of his weaknesses are directly linked to his powers. If E.V.A. is hurt, Jean-Phillipe will feel her pain. If he unlinks himself from her, he can only see in black & white & he can no longer ignore his own pain from injuries. Because of how he was "raised", he sometimes has trouble relating to people, despite his ability to manipulate & read them. His drive can come across as cruelty.

Skills

Marksmanship: his "training" while in the World has made him a good enough shot to use handguns as his primary weapons, against Weapon Plus guards, other assassins & superhuman opponents.

Hand-to-Hand Combat: like the others in the Weapon Plus/X program, he was originally designed to hunt & kill. As such, he's an extremely formidable combatant.

Fluent in Body Language: his enhanced intelligence aids him in understanding the subtle vocal & physical cues of others, enough for him to predict movements & seemingly read people's thoughts.

Accent: some people think Jean is French. He's not. He's just weirdly obsessed with France & French things. He doesn't even SPEAK French (though he knows a few phrases). But he has noticed that people tend to become distracted by his speech when he fakes his accent...which is nice when he's trying to do something sneaky with his hands.

[cornercrescent]

COWBOY STORY MAIN CHARACTER CAST BABY!!!!!! these guys are obviously from... a cowboy story that is unnamed at the moment! ill give descriptions of them and the story under the cut :]

whiskey: a wandering petty thief who once used to pretend to be an actual cowboy and helped a town out for a day or two, and then in the night would steal their possessions and leave without a trace. this all changed when jago, her friend who sometimes aided her on these missions, was killed by a sheriff that found him stealing from his own quarters. once whiskey discovered this, she killed the sheriff in vengeance and fled. whiskey was found by abraham, another sheriff, after weeks of running from the authorities. despite whiskey killing another sheriff, abraham protected her from the authorities instead of killing her. why? simply, because abraham needs a hitman :]

betty: abraham's wife that had her former husband die about 2 years ago and came to abraham's town in search of help. she's currently pregnant with abraham's child, and is guarded and taken care of by whiskey when she's not doing her hitman training. however, what abraham keeps secret from the rest of the town is that he didn't merely take her in and they naturally fell in love. betty and her husband were stranded one day, and they lived not that far away from abraham's town, so he helped them get back to their home and kept bringing them supplies to help them out to gain their trust. one night, abraham tried to kill betty's husband by smothering him with a pillow and then covering up the crime so that betty would come for him for help, but that didn't go exactly to plan as the husband wasn't asleep and it turned violent, and betty walked into abraham killing her husband. ever since, betty has been under constant surveillance from abraham.

abraham: the charismatic and religious sheriff of the town the story takes place in. obviously, behind his charming and kind veneer is a man who is manipulative and will turn violent to get what he wants. he's also Very Religious and this is why he needs hitmen. basically, abraham believes he is a "persecutor" sent by god to kill certain people who he thinks are unworthy/heretics or deserving of murder to "cleanse the world". however, because he doesn't want to do this himself, he enlists hitmen for him. however, abraham's main hitman, lazaro, has been declining in health recently, and he wants to enlist another hitman. whiskey is his first candidate, because she can be blackmailed (if you don't do this ill just execute you lol) and because the sheriff that whiskey killed actually happened to be on abraham's heretic hitlist!

these are basically the blurbs for the starting states of these characters and the story theyre in.. things will certainly develop and get complicated later on lol

[kakusboyfriend]

O-kay whatever I'm gonna do mini lore dumps for some of my DC guys bc I'm bored. Read or readn't but I need to get the thoughts out somehow

• I don't believe Citrus and Red were married until *After* the Rise of the Tornado Tyrant episode, where Citrus' redemption arc truly begins after saving Roy (tornado champion/tyrant whatever I think the names r stupid) from himself. However that is also the catalyst for a huge strain in their relationship that lasts a bit offscreen because That was your Child and he Loved you. Both Red and Citrus really need a time out after that whole mess. Oh also Citrus really fucking hates Bruce after it and threatens to kill him if he ever gets close to his family again and that's my excuse for Red's abrupt disappearance (aside from him retiring as a hero) LOL. You'd have to watch the EP to really get it but yeah it changes a whole lot of things for my little weird family.

• Cupid is a weird little guy because I'm still working out how I want the Star Sapphires to work, since I'm very aromantic and the thought of Romantic Love as a constant in the human psyche makes me violent. I think the ring feeds off of positive feelings of comfort and (any kind of) love to give the user strength so it's encouraged that whoever's relationship youre mending, you should get close to that person to help them out even more. Both Indigos and Sapphires r rehab groups basically but one is made of Patients and the other is made of Therapists. If that makes any sense? They're twinsies because love and compassion are very similar + they're very close in the spectrum anyways. All of this to say, Cupid and Rudy work best bc they feed off of each other but they're normal about it. This is a very new thing I'm trying to integrate into their story bc i came up with it, like, Yesterday.

• Bruno is the most skittish weird guy you'll ever meet and his whole thing is about how sometimes there isn't an out for ppl that don't look like they're supposed to, even if they're not inherently evil. Like, he can't Mask who he is and he's not going to live in the shadows about it. If his existence is seen as a twisted state of being, living unapologetically as himself will be looked down upon one way or another - so he'd rather be with people everyone else fucking hates. He's the most autistic bitch I've ever written bc of how he was raised and is perceived + chooses to act (I don't mask anymore now that I'm in my 20s and it's a joy + being queer in a world that thinks you're depraved bc of it). He's not a villain by Choice by any means, but he has more fun hanging out with outcasts than with "good guys". He's a petty thief, not a monster, but god if he isn't going to put his whole pussy into being a weird bitch.

• oh Voltera... Darling, I'm so sorry. This guy was orphaned from a young age and his parents were Not from earth and didn't know anyone there by the time they died + their families had fully ostracized them back home. In truth Alesan weasels take the "it takes a village to raise a child" thing to heart, so a kit being left alone is heartbreaking. Plus, it means Voltera is barely aware of why he does certain things that weren't explained to him growing up, and it made him very immature and weird. He was generally considered "too much to handle" in any foster home he was sent to (because literally no one knew how to raise him. It's literally like getting an energetic pet you're not ready for - there's Going to be biting, and you're Going to be frustrated) and eventually just becomes a street urchin trying desperately to fit in with anyone his age. Mekt is semi sorta in the same position by being a weird loser no one really likes, so they make good friends from the start bc of it. I'm so normal about them.

• Alborean. God I haven't really touched on him here but he's the most Sure of himself out of any of my losers. There isn't even anything tragic going on with him, he just does what he does because he Wants to do it. He's the bastard son of the former Doppelganger emperor/whatever so he has immense potential for being an edgy loser (Citrus killed him off or something, but he's dethroned by the time Alborean comes to earth one way or another. Plus he was an illegitimate child and his dad didn't want shit to do with him, it would be So easy for me to write him as desperate and brooding) but he's incredibly self sufficient instead. He's the only guy I'll bring into Batman Beyond I think, and he's Essential to saving Victor from death because oh my god that sucked so bad.

• Winona

Kidding, but Winona is the same species as my other sona, Kit Karyotype (Marvel S/I) and closely related to Eudicot Sangria's (Futurama S/I) species. The major difference is that Anguipera Venenata have relatively normal eating habits and actively hunt for prey with venom or brute strength while Anguipera Amedo eat a huge meal once every month or so and are far less aggressive. Still working on how Winona gets with Scott and Barda but I'll get there one day.

• I wrote a huge thing for orchard but accidentally deleted it and I'm too tired to do it all over again. Sorry! That one was the biggest and had the most thought put into it. One day I'll come back I'm just so fucking mad rn

[nokingsonlyfooles]

Are your children unsafe? Why not just lie to them?

Quoth the article:

Recently, Morgan Hook's nine-year-old daughter Elise came home from school and took her family by surprise when she said the drills would not be much use if the gunman just shot down the door.

Mr Hook tried to reassure his daughter that wouldn't happen, but he thought back to a recent shooting at a private school in Nashville when the suspect did exactly that.

"Sometimes when you try to comfort your kids, that means you're lying to them," says Mr Hook, who lives in Saratoga County, New York.

Yeah. Don't have all the details there, but I'm not hearing a kid came home from school crying and screaming and needing emotional support. I'm hearing a nine-year-old correctly assessed she was being asked to participate in security theatre, and YOU tried to gaslight her into feeling safer, Mr. Hook. Do you feel better now? Does she feel better? Is anyone any safer? Does it even matter?

Sometimes, when you lie to your kids, they stop trusting you, and you lose any ability to comfort them at all. And sometimes, when you lie to yourself, you send your kids somewhere unsafe and they die. Odds are they won't, but sometimes they do. So who's lying to whom here?

What's the truth?

"Elise, honey, sit down. Mommy and Daddy and the school are playing a numbers game with your life, okay? You're basically like a bicycle we lock outside everyday. Probably someone won't try to steal you away from us, but if a bicycle thief/murderer finds you, we just want to make sure he kills some other bike, not you. So we want you to have the best U-lock we can afford! Someone could beat it with bolt cutters, easy, but maybe they'll go after another kid who's not lucky enough to be in a locked classroom instead. That's all Mommy and Daddy want, for someone to kill someone else's daughter, and not you."

"Do you not have anywhere to put me where I won't get stolen/killed, Mom and Dad? Could I go learn somewhere safe? Or stay home?"

"Well... It's complicated, but no. The only way we know how to socialize you and teach you while we do our jobs and take care of the house is to send you somewhere you might die. And it's too hard and expensive to make that place safer for real. Like, we would actually have to address systemic injustice, poverty, disinformation and mental healthcare - oh, and gun control! - but not enough people want to. Or maybe they do, but it doesn't matter because the people in power don't listen. So please just take a few minutes out of your day to practice these things that don't actually help. Mommy and Daddy will feel so scared if you don't."

"Sure, I'm happy to help you regulate your emotions and absolve you of your feelings of guilt, Mom and Dad. No problem. You don't even hafta ask!"

"...You're very sarcastic for an imaginary nine-year-old, Elise."

"Just tryin' to articulate the feeling of utter pointlessness that must be in the real Elise's soul, Mom and Dad!"

We've got households where the school is the only daycare they're gonna get and all the caregivers have to go to work - it is not fair to make these folks choose the form of their destroyer, poverty or gun violence. However, if you actually are afraid your child is going to die in school, you should be making noise about how unfair that is. For everyone. Not buying a bulletproof backpack and lying to your daughter's face with an equivocating smile.

At least validate their emotions and admit something is wrong. "You're right, Elise. I'm sorry. We're trying to fix this, but in the meantime, you're going to have to help the school and the teacher play pretend. The real thing is that sometimes bad things happen, but they usually don't, so we're able to be brave and keep going. If you're feeling sad or scared, we're always here to talk about it, and we'll keep you as safe as we can. And if something bad happens, all we can do is keep trying to be as safe as we can, and get through it. Are you okay with that?"

"Pretty much how I live my life every day, Mom and Dad. I'm a kid, that's my job."

[intheseautumnhands]

!!

- @nsfwitchy

!!

( for each !! I'll introduce you to an OC )

So let me tell you about Nate, angry mess and accidental protector.

Nate did not have a very fun childhood! His family had very specific ideas about what a man should be, and Nate only measured up in all the wrong ways. He was explosively angry, which would be fine if he just had a little more control over it; instead, he kept directing it in the wrong direction, usually in defense of people his family did not understand his wanting to defend, and getting in trouble and pissing off family. He liked art. He liked to cook. (He liked to sing, which would have been acceptable on its own if his other hobbies were okay.) He was the runt of the family, and even if he won half the scraps he got in, he still managed to do it wrong, somehow.

Realizing he was bisexual and that his family would probably quite literally try to beat it out of him if he ever came out just seemed like the inevitable cherry on top by the time it happened, really.

So he's already in a shitty place, feeling like he's never good enough and dealing with rage issues, when he finally goes off to college and gets the hell away from home. Things might have eventually, slowly, started to look up for him after that if he had a little longer before he met Katherine.

Nate was 19; Kat was a few years older, and a thief. She genuinely liked Nate, which is probably worse than if she'd been purposefully fucking with him, and he was head over heels for her. It wasn't that long into the relationship that she ended up needing help, and Nate didn't even need to be asked before he volunteered.

Somewhere along the way he ended up... kind of permanently helping her out, and usually by taking care of anything with the potential to get violent. Turns out, not only could he win a whole lot of scraps with his fist, but he was damn good with a gun, too. It's probably the first time anyone ever encouraged him with something he felt like he was good for. This is totally healthy for him in every possible way, it said, lying through its teeth.

Eventually Kat ends it. Nate drinks himself into a stupor at a friend's bar while Billy, whose known Kat a lot longer and been quietly encouraging both of them to end it whenver he can because he can see she is fucking this kid up, tries to see him through it. The bar is... kind of a criminal hot spot, because Billy's mom was in that. 'line of work', for lack of a better term, and sometimes these things just happen.

("Dear, do you know anything about crime at all?" you might say dubiously at this point. "Shhh, it's fiction, and the original version of this involved supernatural shit so it didn't need to be realistic," I reply, which is a long-winded way of saying no.)

Anyway, long story short (too late), guess who eventually makes his living out of killing people for hire while his only friend despairs in the background?

Yeah, Nate's a healthy boy. By the time Kat leaves him, he's somewhere in his early twenties, extremely self-loathing, depressed and definitely not admitting it, and basically a little ball of spiky armor to everyone but the very, very small number who manage to break through it and become His People. The depression and self-loathing just keep getting worse cause he's unwilling to do anything about it and shutting the world out, and he's pretty much passively suicidal, which works for him cause his job has a pretty high likelihood of killing him if he just waits!

Most of Nate's verses start around early-mid twenties, because if something doesn't happen to him, he's not gonna make it to thirty.

In his original world, he broke his leg on a job, rented a room while recouping, and ended up tripping and falling into a D/s thing with his roommate, who had his own host of abuse. That character was my ex's, which is why it's no longer really Nate's main story, but it really illustrates the thing that would be necessary for any other world: he does much, much better when he finds someone he feels needs him. He'll start to take care of himself and try to stay alive in order to make sure someone's there to take care of them. It's really the only thing that makes him do it, after a certain point. (Billy, his bar-owner only friend, can try, and it'll help to a point, but... Billy doesn't need him. They love each other in their own weird way, but it doesn't spark that same reaction.)

And honestly? He's pretty good for people once he decides they're his. He takes care of them. He's also... a little bit possessive, but it tends to come out in the form of "must keep them safe" more than anything else, so it could be worse. He actively tries not to be a walking open wound and lash out at people when he's trying to take care of them. He's more patient than he thinks with them. He's sweet.

He does not think of himself as any of these things, even as he's actively caretaking and protecting people. As far as Nate's concerned, he's an asshole and a pretty terrible person, and he only does this if he feels like encouraging someone to leave will lead to them getting in a worse situation. Otherwise, if he found himself attaching to someone who wasn't in a place where they had nothing, he'd probably try to detach himself because he's going to fuck them up.

He's also smarter than he gives himself credit for in a lot of ways -- he's quick on his feet, he understands things pretty well, he's good at reading people. But he's not, I guess, clever is the best word I can think of to illustrate it, and he gets easily frustrated and flustered when he feels like he's around people who are smarter than him and are lording it over him or rubbing it in. (That second part is key: being smart is fine, whatever, it's the using it to put him down that fucks him up. Part of this comes from family, but part of this is very squarely Kat's fault. She had a very "you're cute, let me do the thinking" attitude towards him that rubbed him the wrong way and he loved her too much to ever say anything, and now anything that comes remotely close to it sends him shutting down.)

There are also a handful of verses where magic/supernatural shit is going on around him! That's a lot of fun, because he's almost always the only mundane person getting dragged into the shenanigans, and it's terrible entertaining. :D

I do not have art because I do not art, but I do PB, because that's just the way I started doing things, blame LJ around the time I started making OCs regularly. XD So Nate is kind of this, but scrawnier. (Bonus link to his PB singing Creep because it cracks me up.)

[seawitchkaraoke]

You know what would be a fun leverage fic (and by fun i mean ouch) if Eliot got amnesia from one of his many concussions (I nominate the carnival job for this but honestly he gets hit into the head often enough it could fit a lot of places. Plus you can always make a job up) and loses the years with the team and thinks he’s back to being, y’know, a horrible person.

Could put his mind at a time where he’s working for Moreau. Or when he’s doing wetwork as an military contractor pre-Toby. Or sometime when he’s working independently as a hitman. Or for the probably least angsty version, just a bit pre- team, so he’s already post-Moreau, working as a retrieval specialist.

I think I like the “independent hitman” time the most, but really for any of these it just. Ouch. Like Eliot is Not A Good Man and he is absolutely ridiculously dangerous. He’d probably think the team captured him, so there’s not a small  chance he’d hurt someone to get out. What does the team do? Do they actually restrain him and try to keep him there (Very Bad Idea), do they let him go and track him/surveil him, hoping he’ll remember and come back (and that he won’t manage to slip their survelance?).

Parker probably breaks in wherever he’s hiding and just talks at him , being Parker and Eliot would be So Confused by this bc clearly she is a thief? Is she here to kill him??? No? Why does she keep eating his food? He could break her in two why is she not scared???? Meanwhile Hardison keeps sending him messages on his phone, no matter how often Eliot gets a new one, but those are also not threatening, they’re just about stuff??? He’s talking about Star Trek? Why?

Of course Eliot figures out pretty quickly that he has a memory gap of several years, but that doesn’t mean he’d immediatly trust a group of people telling him “yeah trust us you work with us now and we’re a team and friends and we help ppl” bc no? Eliot kills people? He definitely does not help people, clearly they are trying to manipulate him

And OH the angst when he DOES regain his memories, bc in the course of this disaster, there’s a pretty good chance Eliot punched (or possibly even stabbed etc) at least one person in an effort to get away and it’s also very likely that the team find out several new things about Eliot’s past through this so even when he does remember he’s probably like “well, I ruined it, they know who I really am now, there’s no way they’ll want me back” and THAT is when he manages to slip Hardison’s surveilance bc he remembers how Hardison works now. Cue Panic for the rest of the team bc they LOST Eliot! (they find him again eventually and hug and cry it out of course)

Idk how Nate and Sophie would behave in this situation, Sophie would probably give a lot of emotional support to the rest and also be in support of leaving Eliot alone until he remembers on his own, Nate would of course drink a lot and, idk, try to manipulate Eliot into coming back? Honestly he’d probably be the one to get punched, but it’s also probably angstier if Hardison or Parker get punched (or stabbed. I kinda like the idea of them getting stabbed. Makes the aftermath angstier and the situation for the team scarier, Eliot is a scary dude)

Basically I wanna see the team have to deal with Horrible Murder Guy Eliot, and then still love him anyway, I think that’d be good

[beawriter]

Red Herrings

Want to misdirect your readers from a big plot twist, but still lay it out in plain sight? I have the tool for you: red herrings. 

First of all, what is a red herring? 

a fact, idea, or subject that takes people's attention away from the central point being considered:

[For example:] the police investigated many clues, but they were all red herrings.

- Definition by the Cambridge Dictionary

In general: 

It’s a type of foreshadowing, though it’s false clues

It can be used in any genre

What can a red herring be?

A character who seems evil or suspicious.

An object that seems important.

An event that seems to be significant to the story or protagonist.

A clue placed by the antagonist or a secondary character that sends investigators down the wrong path.

Those are the main ones, but you could have other ideas

What you should do:

Make sure that they’re important, logical and inform the plot

Lie, but not completely. For example: let’s say someone has been murdered. The victim was found with two glasses of wine in the room, one of them having traces of red lipstick, which implies the killer is a woman. However, it turns out that the suspect shared a glass of wine with the victim earlier that day.

Be fair with your reader

you don’t want your reader to finish the book and throw it across the room, just after lighting it on fire

misleading is fine, but if you leave out information completely, then no one could figure it out and you lost your reader’s trust

Make your reader remember it

It usually takes three times of information being said for the reader to remember it

If you only say it once and never mention it again, it’s basically useless

Put the real clues, just don’t insist a lot on them until you reveal it all in the end and show the reader all the real clues that you previously mentioned

When you plant the real clues, force your reader’s attention elsewhere

it’s giving them extra (sometimes useless) information to the reader

you can distract them with action

with high emotions (it can be almost any emotion, just intensely)

with hiding it in a list of things

What you should be careful not to do:

Be careful not to be dishonest. Just don’t.

Don’t have all the evidence point to a completely opposite direction or have the twist be something like “oh, the murderer was the guy we didn’t see for half the book”

A bit like being dishonest, don’t show your red herring as being the absolute truth

Don’t add them because the plot lacks tension, excitement, or conflict. They need to be relevant to the plot, perhaps even to the point that if you took it out, the plot would collapse

If the red herring is a character:

Don’t give any (obvious) reasons for your reader to suspect the guilty character to be the culprit

The innocent character needs to legitimately seem possibly guilty

maybe they benefit from the crime

maybe they had the means or opportunity to commit the crime

maybe they have a strong motive

or all of the above.

Double herrings:

This is optional for your story, so you can skip this section

A double herring is a clue that is introduced early in the story, which seems to be too convenient, and then a second clue comes in and conflicts with the first one. The character following the clues will believe the second one, until it’s almost too late and realize the first clue was the right one all along. 

Stories with good red herrings:

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, in which the narrator’s secret is mind-blowing, but it’s all there and foreshadowed in the book

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling, in which all the clues are there to find the culprit, but the red herring misleads the reader

And There Were None by Agatha Christie, where the red herring misleads and the culprit is, for a while, not a suspected

!!SPOILER ALERT!! Explaining one red herring

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, we, the readers, and the characters are led to think that the villain is Sirius Black

We are given many clues that Sirius Black wants to kill Harry and is on Voldemort’s side, just like when he was in prison and was heard whispering “he’s at Hogwarts,” so he is not explicitely saying he wants to kill Harry, or even that he’s talking about him, but we think he is implying it.

We do get clues about Scabbers (Ron’s rat) being the villain and actually Peter Pettigrew, who is supposed to be dead, just like how they could only find Peter’s finger and Scabbers has a missing paw. 

There’s many other clues and misdirections, but I won’t go through all of them because I’ll be here all day if I do

The End

I hope this helped, and feel free to add more:)

[gladerwolfstarkimagines]

Imagine seeing Ozai’s angels for the first time and being in awe

You’d joined the Avatar and his friends quite early on and had been with them ever since. They’d initially recruited you for protection as despite not being a bender you were a very skilled bodyguard and so you got roped into protecting the avatar. You usually took your job very seriously but sometimes things (or people) could distract you.

Meeting Number One: Ty lee

You’d all arrived at Omashu to see if King Bumi could be Aang’s earthbender teacher only to find the whole city had fallen to the fire nation. In your attempt to free all the citizens a fire nation baby had been separated from his parents and Aang arranged a trade. Bumi for the baby. You had your weapons within your grasp and were toying with them as you waited to see who you would be dealing with in this trade. You heard someone approaching and turned to see three beautiful women. You weren’t sure what you’d been expecting but this was certainly not it. The three walked up in formation and you just stared "wow". "What?" Sokka asked from beside you and you shrugged "nothing....just do you think all fire nation girls look like that?”. Sokka shrugged “I guess?”. “I really need to visit the fire nation then” you whistled and Sokka shook his head at you. Aang started talking and you eagerly watched hoping to find out more about this interesting trio. You soon found out the one on the right was a princess and the one in the middle was called Mai but the other one didn’t have a name yet. You thought they were all pretty cool and then when you saw them fight...you were speechless. The princess Azula went for Aang leaving you and Katara with Mai and the other girl. Katara called she’d deal with Mai and so you got the nameless pink lady. She sprang into action and you were very impressed at how quick and flexible she was. “Wow you’re amazing” you cried as she vaulted over you. The girl smiled slightly “thanks”. You blocked her attack but didn’t bother retaliating, you just wanted to see what she could do. She didn’t disappoint. Soon the girl gave you no other option but to react. You defended yourself keeping out of her way and soon found the pattern she fought in. Sensing the fight was rounding to a close you decided to find out more about her while you could. “So you got a name?” you asked. “Ty lee” she replied and you nodded “figures, pretty name for a pretty girl”. The girl smirked at you and you both jumped to hear Katara yell. Mai had successfully pinned her and was watching you two. “Ty lee what are you doing! Get her”. “I’m trying but she’s...interesting”. You smiled at the compliment and Mai sighed “fine i’ll do it”. You grinned as now both the girls fixed their attention on you before realising that was actually a bad thing. Mai raised her knives and you contemplated your life choices when suddenly Appa appeared and knocked them away from you. You rushed to free Katara and then hopped onto Appa’s back, leaving the trio of cool women behind you.

You managed to find Aang and escape but the trio had certainly left an impression. “Still want to move to the fire nation?” Sokka asked you and you nodded “without a doubt, they were the most interesting women i’ve ever seen!”. Katara turned at the pure excitement in your voice and raised an eyebrow “You’re not serious?”. In reply you just shrugged “hey don’t blame me! Angry powerful women are my weakness” you cried. Sokka nodded “that is true, remember in that fight against June? She was useless”. You smiled at the memory “she was so cool....” you stared off into space and the others all rolled their eyes. “Well be that as it may, you have to find a way to stay strong and ignore them, can you do that?” Katara asked. You nodded “yep, totally” but you weren’t sure.

Meeting Number Two: Azula

A few weeks later you’d recruited an earth bender to teach Aang and everything was going great...then a giant tank began chasing you. You were very fed up at the metal tank following you until it opened up and three women exited. “It’s Mai, Ty lee and Azula!” you cried and Katara looked at you “you know you could try to sound less excited when you say their names, they are trying to kill us”. You smirked “sorry?”. “Who?” Toph asked. “Mai, Ty lee and Azula” you grinned “okay so i’ll start with Ty lee, basically she’s this insanely beautiful acrobat who...”. “Maybe save this for later y/n” Sokka called and you nodded “yep good idea” and fled with the others.

The girls continued to pursue you and even you were losing your excitement at the idea. So when Aang decided to end it by confronting them you agreed. You accompanied Aang to an abandoned town to wait for them but they were taking a while. So, bored, you wandered onto the outskirts kicking rocks to pass the time.

You felt Azula before you saw her. You turned and locked eyes with the princess of the fire nation. “The princess Azula” you smiled “do I bow or is that too formal?”. “It wouldn’t hurt?” she shrugged before sending fire at your head. You dodged it with a laugh “not a talker huh?”. “Why would I waste my breath on the likes of you? A petty thief with no home or money, I do my research and you’re worthless”. Your smile didn’t even waver “awww you’re just saying that because we didn’t get to spend much time together last time...you’ll love me once you get to know me. Ty lee warmed up to me”. “I’m not like Ty lee” she replied and carried on attacking you. You had to agree, Azula was not like Ty lee, she was a lot rougher. Whilst Ty lee had been aiming to immobilise you Azula was aiming to seriously injure you at best. “Certainly not as friendly as Ty lee” you agreed “but that’s okay”. “Where is the avatar?” Azula called. “I’d rather talk about you” you replied “princess of the fire nation, that must be fun, it suits you”. “I know, now tell me where the avatar is or I will kill you” the princess retorted. “No you won’t, if you killed me then you’d never know where he is” you grinned. Azula groaned in frustration and threw a large wave of fire at you, knocking you over. She rushed after it and pinned you down on the floor “still not worried I’ll kill you?” she asked. You looked from the fire she’d conjured in her palm back to her face and smiled “damn those fire nation genes are good...I thought your brother was hot but you’re even better”. For just a second, Azula faltered and you used that second to break out of her grip. You threw Azula off you and scrambled up into a run. She was close behind you when you ran around the corner straight into a fight between Aang and Zuko. “Y/n where have you been?” Aang called while Zuko stared “Azula?”. “Brother” she replied. “Sorry Azula and I were spending some quality time together” you said loudly “but we’re here now”. Azula’s eye twitched and she attacked.

You and Aang only managed to get out of the encounter with the help of Sokka, Toph and Katara who all showed up to help. Then the tables turned and you had Azula outnumbered. You couldn’t believe the princess of the fire nation had been out-smarted but of course she hadn’t really. She used a distraction and then ran from the scene. You spotted her fleeing down a back street and smiled, the princess of the fire nation was immaculate and you expected nothing less.

Meeting Number Three: Mai

The next time you came into contact with Ozai’s angels was when they infiltrated Ba Sing Sei by dressing up as the Kyoshi warriors. Aang got a vision Katara was in danger and when you approached the earth king to tell him, the fake kyoshi warriors attack but something was familiar about them.

Toph took one of the warriors and you took the other. While you were sparring with your warrior you kept staring at her...something about the girl was very familiar, but you couldn’t place her. "You look really familiar...have we met before?" you asked. "Good eye" the girl grinned before she threw a knife at you. The minute you saw the knife it clicked and you grinned "you’re Mai the hot knife girl!" before realising you’d said that out loud "ow...". Mai raised an eyebrow and carried on attacking you. Mai was just as impressive as Azula and Ty lee but a lot cooler with a drier sense of humour. You admired her choice of weapon the most and found the way she fought with it strangely captivating, so much so you didn’t fight to immobilise her, honestly you didn’t even try as you just wanted to watch her. Toph had won her fight with Ty lee and rushed to help you, mistakenly figuring you were losing. Toph looked for an opening but as both your choices of fight were close combat she couldn’t attack without possibly hitting you. You and Mai dodged around one another but you knew this couldn’t last forever. "I’m sorry but i have to say it, you’re really good with knives" you grinned as you disarmed her. Mai glared "you literally just disarmed me". "Yeah but you’re seriously the closest a person has ever come to stabbing me!". Mai raised an eyebrow "i imagine a lot of people try to stab you?". You laughed in agreement and Toph and Sokka stared. "What are you doing y/n stop flirting and fight her!" Sokka yelled. "Ow right" you smirked getting back into a fighting stance when Azula appeared "this is over”. You dropped your hands as she held a flame to the earth king’s throat and Sokka and Toph followed suit. “Grab them” Azula called. Mai stepped to you as you were closest and grabbed your arms tightly twisting them behind your back. You blushed as she gripped you roughly and looked away. "Seriously y/n?" Sokka asked and Mai noticed rolling her eyes. "Shut up Sokka you’re embarrassing me" you spat when Mai chimed in “actually you’re doing that all on your own”. “Ow come on, you enjoyed that fight too admit it”. Mai paused and you grinned “knew it” and she yanked your arms tighter “quit talking and walk”. “Whatever you say Mai” you grinned and complied.

You couldn’t stop thinking about Mai in your cell and you shook your head in disbelief “they have to be the coolest trio that’s ever existed! Every single one of them is amazing”. Sokka sighed “y/n could you please try to not be in love with our captors?”. “I can’t help it!” you cried “Ty lee was sweet but powerful, Azula was deadly and impressive and Mai was cool and funny, they’re all knockouts”. “Well great how about we try and get their numbers on the way out?” Toph asked metal bending the door down and you grinned “I mean I wouldn’t say no”.

You, Sokka, Toph and the earth king escaped from your cells and looked for Bosco. You found him in the throne room with Mai and Ty lee and paused. Toph took out Ty lee with earth bending and you locked eyes on Mai. No matter your feelings you had to do this so you got into a fighting stance when Mai rolled her eyes. "Just take the bear" she said annoyed and you smirked "thanks Mai!". The earth king ran to Bosco and your group headed for the door but you paused looking at Ty lee trapped in such an uncomfortable position. “Will Ty lee be okay like that?” you asked and Mai nodded “i’ll get her out”. “Y/n” Sokka yelled and you nodded. “Well bye, hope you get out of that soon Ty lee and tell Azula I said goodbye, she gets jealous when I leave her out. Glad I got to finally meet you Mai” you smiled and with a wink you ran away. You heard Mai groan but Ty lee just giggled. “Bye y/n” you heard Ty lee call and the smile was still on your face when you caught up with the others. “Having fun?” Sokka asked and you nodded “I cannot wait until we see them again!”.

You successfully managed to get Katara and Aang out safely and you laid back on Appa contemplating everything. You knew you were on opposite sides but each of the girls was intriguing and redeemable, even Azula who had almost killed Aang was still only a daughter trying to prove herself to her abusive parents. You could sense there were so many layers to each of them and smiled as you leant back on your arms. Hopefully you’d seen them again soon and who knows...maybe when this was all over things could be different. 

____

So this is basically my literal reaction to seeing Ozai’s angels for the first time. I remember watching them all fight and just fell helplessly in love with all 3 of them. Then I read the Kyoshi novels and realised I just have a thing for fire nation women (Rangi is amazing I love her so much and I’d write for her if she and Kyoshi weren’t the best couple ever, I can’t break them up even fictionally). 

[zorcskhakis]

Because I've spent way too much time thinking about this here's how the Ryou/YB dynamic has played out in my head

I know everyone likes Bakura as a malevolent entity who fucks up Ryou's life on purpose BUT consider: he's not exactly trying to do that. There's a couple things that are abundantly clear about Bakura which are foundational to my headcanon about his relationship with Ryou and those are:

1. He's kind of constantly operating on lizard brain levels. He acts on impulse most of the time without considering consequences, and there's plenty of evidence for this in the source material (stabbing himself when plotting with Marik despite there being zero reason to, his duel with Yami Marik where he fails to consider pretty much every long term implication of the moves he's making... etc etc etc.) He's not trying actively to ruin Ryou's life. He's got his own goals and he's following his basest instincts to realize them, without considering any long term impacts to either himself or his host.

2. In his own fucked up little way, he likes Ryou! As his reincarnation Ryou might be the closest thing he's ever had to family. We've watched him reject other hosts and specifically choose Ryou. Of course Bakura is still... Bakura so when Ryou is actively getting in the way of his goals he does lash out at him, sometimes pretty harshly. But we also see him act protectively towards Ryou, attacking someone who threatened him and ofc later on shielding him from Slifer. Also, if he wanted to hurt Ryou, he could let him see all the terrible things he's doing, but he doesn't, possibly because he knows it upsets him.

Keeping these things in mind, we can then consider that Bakura has... a laundry list of issues. He's still bitter about Kul Elna, VERY understandably so, and he's also dealing with 3000-5000 years of brain rot which has driven him even more crazy than he already was and also killed pretty much every last brain cell he had. Modern Bakura is demonstrably very stupid compared to Thief King. Make no mistake, Ryou is ABSOLUTELY the one holding all the brain cells in this equation.

The first time we see Bakura in the manga he's having a grand old time tormenting Yugi and his friends. I've seen a lot of people interpreting this as him making some kind of jab at Ryou, or lording his power over him, but...he didn't even realize Ryou was aware of what was going on until Ryou took over his hand. Is everyone forgetting the massive 5000 year grudge he's holding? The tabletop shit was personal, yes, but 100% directed at Atem.

I like to think that Ryou and Bakura had a talk after all that happened where Bakura probably explained why he's so angry at Atem and what happened in his past, and Ryou being categorically disturbed by it is probably the first time anyone has so much as remotely validated Bakura's genuine hurt over the trauma he went through. When we next see Ryou in the manga he's still got the Ring but tells everyone "don't worry, it's not going to control me anymore" which leads me to think he worked something out with Bakura and convinced him to leave his friends alone. Notably, after this, we do not see Bakura behaving aggressively toward *any* of the Yugang, except Atem. He's even pretty friendly to Yugi, in his own way! He does still control Ryou all the time, but he just can't help himself.

Which brings me to my next foundational piece, Bakura caves like a wet paper bag when Ryou genuinely stands up to him. Ryou is good in that he both validates that Bakura has genuine reasons to be pissed at the world but also that he cannot just go wild and ruin Ryou's life in the process of getting his revenge. Bakura... tries, from here on out, not to have Ryou be in the path of his chaos anymore, but of course it happens anyway because he is fucking stupid.

From here on out its basically Ryou trying desperately to control this feral goblin living in his brain and very often just throwing up his hands and saying fuck it. Bakura thinks they're best friends (which, lbr, they are.) and he will constantly leave shoplifted gaming paraphernalia around Ryou's apartment like a cat leaving dead mice. He sees Ryou like a little brother. Ryou largely doesn't try to stop Bakura from enacting his evil plans anymore, figuring he's too stupid to get anywhere anyway. Once Marik comes into the picture there's even less chance of him getting anywhere cause now he's distracted by a raging full five-alarm-mushy crush. Ryou is probably a little leery of Marik and the baggage HE'S bringing to the table but hey.... at least Bakura is happy.

Anyway I just think the Bakura Bros are neat, thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[mafiaaubts]

BTS Mafia Profiles📁

Kim Namjoon- The Leader

* The Leader

* Was born into the Mafia.

* Always the smartest man in the room.

* Multilingual.

* Always has a plan.

* No one he trust more than his 6 brothers so he is very protective over them.

* Not really type to go on missions or meetings. Just doesn’t like the idea of people seeing his face unless it’s the last face they’ll see.

* HOWEVER when he does need to go on missions they normally end up bloodily. And meetings end earlier with them getting more than expected.

* He’s more of a Bring a gun to a knife fight just cause he has other shit to do.

* He’s the leader of 6 crazy mfs so he build he’s patient up high. He tries to not to get mad or starts fights but just as fast has one can start he can end it even faster. It’ll be a full on yelling match just for it to end up with him telling you what was done wrong.

* However this is a humble man so if he’s wrong he’ll own up to it but that’s rarely cause he’s never wrong.

* He drives himself.

* If he lives the expensive life style so does his brothers.

* Always checking on his brothers around him and making sure they have everything they need.

* In the life of a Mafia leader trusting people come rarely so he’s going to keep the people trust the most safe and comfy.

* And those people are his brothers.

Kim Seokjin

* The Hacker/Doctor/Lawyer

* Oldest in the mafia gang.

* Namjoon second right hand man, handles all the Legal activities/papers.

* Steps in for Namjoon at times, goes to all the meetings for him, meets all potential partners, handles anything Joon hands him and never fails.

* Given that Jin is the face everyone meets first he is dressed to impress 24/7.

* He willing to do just about anything to protect his younger ones.

* He learn the Law and then went to Medical school. He can at least keep them out of jail ~mainly keep the the younger, more reckless members from being dead on the floor.

* His main skill/job is being a damn good hacker. Can get into anything.

* Given that he’s been the oldest brother to 6 others his patient is high so he doesn’t get mad easily. It would take a lot to make him mad something like a death threat made to his brothers.

* He’s the type of mad that he doesn’t need to fight or yell to prove his point he’s death glares are enough.

* On his bad side, he’ll make anyone life a living hell. From draining their bank accounts to just making their whole identity disappear from the world.

* Seokjin is the one of the members that doesn’t mask his personality. He’s charming personality always leads him to get what he wants.

* He enjoys cooking for his brothers.

* If he isn’t cooking he taking everyone to a new 5 start restaurant every week just to try the food with them.

Min Yoongi(SUGA/AGUSTD)

* The Drug Dealer

* He isn’t just a drug dealer he does all kinds of jobs the only thing is it’s always done at night.

* This man can deal anything from guns to people.

* He is more of a shoot first ask later. It makes Hobi mad sometimes cause when he wanted to get information out of them Yoongi would have already had a bullet in their head.

* DOES NOT like messy scenes but when he having a weird combination of being tired and aggravated he’s patience no longer exist. If someone so much as breathe too loud he’ll pull his gun out and ready to drop him.

* Messy scenes like has happen enough time for Namjoon to always check on Yoongi before going to the mission or out on a deal; the brother learn to pick up the bloodlust that Yoongi radiate so they tend to stand behind him or just walk far enough to give him space but stay close enough to help if he needs it.

* Just like Joon getting in a fight with him is a yelling match but he’s not a clear headed fighter so he says off the wall shit.

* Gun collection is at a minimum. He’ll test and go through a lot of guns just to fine the perfect one that work for him. So it’ll be more of a personal collection that’s no one is allowed to touch.

* He is tired 24/7. He lives off energy drinks, coffee, and only fruits.

* The boys know when he is sleep to just let him have the 14 hour nap that’s about to happen. Waking him up would be as deadly as fighting with Joon.

* He doesn’t so much as mask his personality, it’s just no one stay around him long enough to see how he really is. RBF

* His brothers know who he is and on the rare occasion he is up and happy they’ll see that secret gummy smile he has. And they love it.

Jung Hoseok(Hobi)

* The Interrogator/Tracker

* Walking lie detector, knows when someone is lying through their teeth.

* He can’t stand liars. It drives him crazy; if he hears even a tiny lie he’ll go insane and loses it.

* For this rare skill Namjoon sends him to the meetings with Jin with the rule of he doesn’t kill anyone.

* When he needs to get information out of someone he can find creative ways to get what he needs.

* Picked up skill is learning to properly locate someone.

* He can find anyone, anywhere. Not a soul on Earth can hide from him. If Joon gives him a name, you’ll see him soon.

* photographic memory

* He knows every corner of any street. It’ll only takes him a second to memorize the whole grid system of a map

* He also is what you would call a clean up crew for more sensitive jobs.

* Doesn’t leave a trace of EVIDENCE when he’s leading the clean up.

* Also another brother who does mask his personality. Tries to be the happy go to person, but can easy get depressed.

* Likes kids and has a very soft protect feeling for them.

Park Jimin

* The Assassin.

* The face of an Angel but the mind working like the Devil.

* This man is so beautiful and he KNOWS it; uses it to his advantage.

* Gets whatever he wants without hesitation.

* Beloved by everyone, home boy even stopped TRAFFIC once.

* When he’s walking in the club men and women want him. Send him drinks or bottles, HELL even gifts.

* The fact that he can win over anyone: take them home is the reason why if Namjoon needs an important figure blackmailed or just killed he’ll give Jimin a photo and send him on his way.

* Jimin would be more of a knife man. Really he like to poison his targets just so he can have full control over them.

* He’ll play any game for them but the second that poison touches their lips they are his and they are dead.

* The thing about Jimin is that he’ll go off on a trip for days. No one but Namjoon would hear from him. He just loves to travel and be free: always bring his brothers back something he thinks they’ll like.

* The most caring person with his brothers but when they are out and about he’s a MASTER manipulator.

* He has the shortest temper among the brother, which leads him into a lot of later night bar fights or overkill on a target.

* However all the brothers know the real Jimin. The man who hates his own face because it’s the only thing anyone cares about.

* So they extra care of him when they feel like he isn’t at his best.

* They love taking care him.

Kim Taehyung(V)

* The Gunmen.

* This is Bangtan personal sniper.

* Can shoot any target from any destines. He prefer long distance; doesn’t like being to close to the messes he makes.

* He was trained to go days without food or sleep just to have complete focus on who he is shooting.

* Just like his Hyungs, V mask to hid his true personality. However because of his killing preference no one ever really see/meets him.

* The day anyone ever gets a chance to meet him face to face is only because Namjoon told his him needs to kill them.

* He has a very small fondness for making bombs. So when the boys need a bomb he’ll cook one up for them to try out. Always going for the biggest fire.

* He’s a thief.

* He’s lived in the dark for so long he’s master art of stealing shit without getting caught.

* Looks up to his older member so it’s only natural that when it’s just the 7 of them V can be himself, and every time it throws the older ones back.

* Has a love for art, always looking at art or making art himself.

* The members love his art work and always talks about it.

Jeon Jungkook(Kookie/JK)

The Golden Maknae.

Bangtan youngest most skilled member.

Was trained by each other member themselves so that he could be the best.

Learned how to mask his true self while also being charming and social.

Learned how to do basic level hacking without a trace.Can name every poison and drug on the street and black market.

Can hear lies coming from the person’s mouth before they even speak it.

In a gun fight this man would win on every level. He skilled in everything.

Knows a few tricks with some knifes as well.

Needless to say he loves his job because he’s on every job.

But his favorite thing to do is execute the raids where there is always tragedy.

He loves tragedy.

Where Namjoon needs him to go, he’ll go and get the job done.

Has no intention to be a new leader or any high role in the gang. More focus of being the perfect member for his hyungs.

With his hyungs he is not longer the golden gang member but the silliest member that picks child like fights with the other two youngest.

In his brother’s eyes he’s just a child.