#but no one will talk about the people dying to Supreme Leader?

[randomnameless]

It's still wild to me that people will go to bat for the nothing characters that are Randolph and Fleche as proof of Dimitri being bad; we know next to nothing about them, they have miniscule screentime, what little we do know of Randolph paints him as human scum who'd do horrific things if it meant a chance at a promotion, and Fleche illogically only ever holds a grudge against someone for killing her brother if that someone is AM!Dimitri, with her completely vanishing from the game in every other route.

Eh,

I'd say they play the same purpose than this random child in TS in Roland's story - at this point, both lords want vengeance, and they have to face someone who also wants (misdirected!) vengeance at them, smth smthg like war sucks because people die.

But it's completely wasted in FE16, because, as you said, Randy isn't a random or a civilian or a war orphan, he is a general leading an attack on refugees/civilians/randoms to gain more fame, and dies in the process.

Now, can we say Flèche's anger and death are ultimately directed at Randolph, who died for nothing and took his sister down with him in his quest for "muhrit" ? Or are we supposed to think that this scene is important because Dimitri, the Blue Lord, isn't supposed to fall as low as the Imperial Army - something he comes close to (apparently?) ?

And yet again, it completely fails.

Because for one Randolph - who also had a family and loved ones - we have 50 Waldos and Baldis, whose lives aren't given any fuck about.

We don't see a war prisoner, or an Adrestian civilian accusing Supreme Leader of having sent her/his wife/husband/daughter/son to death with a conquest they never asked and trying to off her.

Only Dimitri receives this backlash from - invaders who wanted to invade and suddenly remember they have loved ones so are very sad when their loved ones dies - Flèche, but not Claude nor Billy, as you rightfully pointed out.

And Supreme Leader never receives any backlash - or wake up call - from a real third party/civilian/casualty who could have done the exact same thing.

Emile mentions how, during her attack, the Holy Grounds near Garreg Mach were turned in a slaughterhouse, why don't we have any civilian who survived from that try to take a jab at Supreme Leader? Waldi's best friend? Baldo's mother? A war captive from Leicester/Faerghus or a conscripted Adrestian?

I laughed about it with friends earlier, and again with the teatime paralogue, but it truly feels as if only 1/3rd (since the church doesn't count) of the cast will face consequences for the war and suffers backlash from the constant fighting (they didn't even start!).

Whenever you have to deal with serious stuff in Fodlan, it'll be for the BL members.

The rest? Will sip tea, talk nonsense, try to solve "mysteries" and live as if nothing is happening in the background.

Just imagine how both deer routes could have been much more impactful and interesting - instead of being a recycled Billy route with a different infodump at the end - if Raphael's sister popped up to a War Council, asking Claude to stop coddling the Empire because their lands were invaded, her grandfather put to Aymr and her inn destroyed by the Imperial Army, or how Ignatz's older brother discovers how Adrestia is burning pieces of art and history and every material related to Leicester and Faerghus history because they want to push an "Adrestia Eternal" narrative. Heck, Claude could even discover more "lore" by picking a Leif route, sort of rescuing the people "handpicked" to become new Baldos and Waldis, discovering the secret of the artificial crest stones and maybe having an infiltration map where, lo, instead of receiving an info dump, they maybe witness Rhea being turned in a relic or used to "produce" artificial crest stones.

War BaD, but only when we can make the BL suffer for it, for the rest, it's just a bgm.

And even then, it can't be too critical of Supreme Leader, because she was made to sell alts in FE heroes or dubious Cipher Cards.

"Supreme Leader", "cute girls" and "I want to see how Faerghus and its knights will deal with the aftermath of the Tragedy while defending against the invading forces".

Tl; dr : Flèche and Randolph are named, which is a cheap way to make people care for them despite their role in the plot, but the demonic beasts and the civilians dying aren't mentionned nor talked about.

Hell, why do you think I gave names to the artificial demonic beasts? The game doesn't want you to think too much about them, but if I talk about Baldo and Waldi, maybe the fandom will?

[captain039]

PART 6 Playing with fire

Alpha!Kylo Ren x omega!reader

Warnings: AOB, sexual, jealousy, slow burn, eventual smut, anger issues, swearing, harassment, needle usage, drug usage, dark themes

I’ve got big plans for this book I’m just hoping I can stick to them xD

Previous part <-

You awoke the next morning, half expecting an alarm to blare in your ears, but it didn’t come. Instead, the smell of breakfast and home filled your nose and you remembered where you were. You smiled wiping your eyes before getting up. You sat up only for your head to spin and your stomach flip, you ignored it though. Your mum greeted you with a smile and you said a quiet good morning before sitting down. Your sister was already ready and on her data pad.

“No tech at the table” your mum huffed and your sister sighed, but put it away. You chuckled letting the feeling of family warmth surround you.

Before lunch you headed to the healer. You were nervous to see your grandma. You didn’t know what to expect, but seeing tubes out of her made your stomach tumble. Your sister held your hand and you held hers tightly as you both walked in. Your grandmas eyes opened slowly and she smiled weakly.

“My dear” she said voice weak as you headed over to the bed and held her hand.

“Hey Grandma” you said and she sighed softly.

“I’m glad you’re alive” she chuckled and you did too nervously.

“Somethings different though” she stated frowning which made you frown too.

“Nothings different Nan” your father sighed.

“Hm, get out, except you” your grandma kicked everyone out except you, she still had her assertiveness.

“Did you find him?” She asked suddenly and you raised an eyebrow.

“Find who?” You asked and she huffed annoyed.

“You’re mate!” She said and you blinked in confusion.

“Gran I didn't find him, why does everyone think I did?” You sighed. Well two people, the nurse at the ship and now your Nan.

“Maybe they made you dumb up there” she muttered and you glared playfully as she smirked.

“So have you met our supreme leader?” She asked waving your family in again.

“I have” you said and she hummed.

“I slapped him” you added and she laughed. You smiled before she began coughing violently. Your mother began to fuss and got her to drink some water before her coughing calmed down. You looked up from your grandma only to freeze seeing the figure behind your father. The supreme leader was there, well projecting there, eyes on your grandma then you before he disappeared. You let out your breath as your grandma frowned at you and hummed. It was nice to see her again, just not in that state. You headed back home around dinner time. You called Leo and briefed him on what was happening before grabbing your bath things. You felt sick again and sighed taking a seat on your bed, grabbing your suppressants case, time to try the other one you guess.

“Another one?” You heard and just about jumped into hyper space.

“Yes another one, this one isn’t working” you snapped at the supreme leader.

“How is your grandmother?” He asked and you frowned looking to him.

“You were there” you stated.

“Not physically” he said.

“She’s dying” you muttered, the healer said she didn’t have long, what the had wasn’t working.

“What the healer has isn’t working for her, so they just make her comfortable” you said biting back tears.

“I’m going to shower go away” you snapped before getting up and leaving. You took the different suppressant before showering. You felt refreshed slightly and headed to dinner.

You and your family watched a movie before you headed to bed and went to sleep. The next day you woke up you heard commotion in the kitchen. You quickly went to investigate seeing your father and mother talking softly by the kitchen window.

“What’s going on?” You said tiredly.

“The supreme leaders here” she whispered and you froze. What on sith hells was he doing here?!

You began to panic, surely he’s come to kill you now, let you have your day to reunite then kill you. You groaned, maker this was horrid.

“Let’s get to grandma” you sister said worried and your parents nodded. You headed to the healers house seeing a fleet of storm troopers and the knights of Ren. You frowned as they headed this way before you caught scent of the supreme leader. You saw him in the middle of his knights and an overly scared healers? Behind him. You were confused as they came closer and finally stopped nearby. You walked in front of your family as the supreme leader emerged from the group.

“What’s going on?” Your sister whispered and you hushed her.

“Supreme leader” you muttered bowing your head slightly. He cocked his head and the two healers stumbled forward.

“Your grandma is here?” He asked and you nodded. He pointed to the door and looked to the healers who scurried off inside. You stared highly dumbfounded at the alpha.

“I’m confused” you stated your family tense behind you.

“You said the healers here couldn’t do anything so I brought my own who can” he said simply, but it baffled you more.

“Why?” You asked as you heard the healer door slide open. You glanced seeing your grandma behind wheeled out.

“I told you, you found him” she said the healer leaving her by your side.

“Found who?” The supreme leader asked and she scoffed apparently not caring of his title and status.

“Idiots the both of you” she rolled her eyes and your whole body went rigid. The supreme leader smiled slightly though and you relaxed a little.

“Your mate” she said hushed and you froze.

“Nan no, that’s not-“ you began to babble as nerves crawled up your spine.

“He’s not-“ you added and she smacked your arm making you shut up.

“You can’t sense it because you have about three different suppressants in your system” she scoffed and your mother gasped. You looked to the ground embarrassed and ashamed.

“Your sick, suppressant sickness is very real” your gran huffed.

“And he is too stupid to say anything” she pointed to the supreme leader and you chuckled nervously slapping her hand down. The supreme leader frowned slightly, but didn’t say or do anything. Your nerves were making you feel sick and light headed, there was too much going on.

“Leave” the supreme leader said to his men.

“Sir-“ one of the knights said, but the supreme leader sent him a look. The knights and stormtroopers left, the onlooking people scurrying into their homes.

“I know of suppressant sickness because I did the same thing as you” your gran sighed.

“I went to join the first legion, I covered my scent and suppressed my rank, I met my mate there too” she smiled sadly and you frowned slightly at her new words.

“I got sick and we had to leave, only problem is the first legion either kill or kick you out, you don’t quit” she sighed.

“So we escaped, hid in a planet were I had your mum” she smiled glancing to your mum who was currently holding back tears. We were hunted for years, your grandpa died trying to protect me and your mum” your gran said sadly.

“Then they stopped chasing us and I had to raise a child on my own, but I’ll never regret it” she finished.

“Come here” she beckoned the supreme leader and you froze.

“Grandma you can’t-“ before you could finish the supreme leader walked over and knelt down in front of her. The sight made your mouth dry as you stared in shock. Your grandma smiled sitting up and resting a hand on his cheek. The supreme leader didn’t move, didn’t say anything or slice her hand off.

“You are great” she whispered.

“But she, will make you greater” your grandma nodded to you and moved her hand back to her lap and leant back in the chair.

“I need to rest again” she said weakly as the healer took her back inside. You saddened at her leaving as the supreme leader stood again. You looked to him and he met your gaze. Was he really your mate?

Next part ->

[phoenix-flamed]

I can't remember if I've made a post about this before. (Not that that's anything new; my brain only retains completely useless information.)

Elwin/Miles, personally, doesn't want to see the Grand Duchy of Rosaria restored back to a ... well, a duchy, nor will he pose a threat to anyone else who desires to take over as ruler -- because quite frankly, becoming Archduke again is the last thing he wants. In addition to that, he would rather see Rosaria rise again with leaders who properly represent the people as elected officials, rather than ones who take a throne purely based on the circumstances of their birth.

While it's true that it has always been a member of House Rosfield ruling over Rosaria, just as it has always been a member of House Rosfield who awakens as the Dominant of Phoenix, the other High Houses also hold considerable power and sway in terms of the governmental systems. The Seven High Houses each represent the families who once presided over the individual territories that Rosaria was originally divided into, before they unified as one nation -- which of course means that they are all nobility.

Elwin's problem with maintaining the societal hierarchy is that it stacks the power in the favor of the nobility, while the commoners serve them, and the Bearers serve both classes. Which is the opposite of what House Rosfield, at least according to my personal interpretation of what Elwin talked to Joshua about during the feast at Phoenix Gate, is meant to stand for. If evening the playing field so that the rest of the noble families no longer have exclusive control based on birthright, then that includes House Rosfield as well, unless the people choose to have them in power.

It's a long-term goal, not one he intended to push for overnight.

But with Rosaria presumably regaining its independence from Sanbreque, or at the very least being released from Anabella's brutal chokehold and no longer under the supreme rule of Emperor Sylvestre, that means it's time to begin rebuilding their home and re-establishing themselves.

Keep in mind, these are just my Elwin's personal opinions and preferences. How the people choose to establish their government is up to them and those who are left to guide them. So if, say, another Rosfield decided to step up and take the throne as Archduke/Archduchess, he would do everything in his power to support and aid them.

So long as Rosaria doesn't return to its classist ways that encouraged slavery, or adopt a mentality like Sylvestre and Anabella shared -- that the people are expendable, easily replaced. (Incidentally, this also ties into why my Elwin before and during his reign as Archduke takes to the battlefield with his men. Because if the commoners and Bearers are going to fight and risk dying for the sake of Rosaria, then he would rather stand and fight with them instead of remain safe and sound while others die for him, all while they're being viewed as nothing but cannon fodder. Is it a bit of a reckless decision, all in all, given his position in the duchy? Yes, one could easily argue that. But kings and the likes going into battle with their men was incredibly common throughout history, so fuckyeah Elwin, you go out there and kick ass.)

... This ended up longer than it was intended to. And the ironic part is that I'm not even sure it addressed what I'd originally intended to write about, nor that it makes sense. Like always.

[renisfan]

Since I just mentioned DW, let's also take a look at how it handled the theme of Oudou vs Hadou! As I recognize it had been a topic of discourse before and people had different opinions on what they wanted to express with this concept. I find it may be valuable to see what KT themselves had said in their other game (since their writers did the most writings).

From DW7's Shu story:

Now this English sub isn't very clear about the concept of Oudou and Hadou, so I'll show you the jp subs too:

It literally says Cao Cao = Hadou while Liu Bei = Oudou.

DW8 explained a bit more into their respective thoughts, in the ending of Shu's hypothesis story:

There's one more line which I think isn't very well translated, in which Liu Bei asks for people to talk, trust and support each other (while in en he says "what we need are allies who we can trust and friends who'll support us!")

And this ending features Liu Bei reaching out his hand to a dying Cao Cao and Cao Cao challenging Liu Bei to realize his ideal if he can. Sounds similar to a certain moon route right?

And it showing a person from the Oudou fraction, a person from the neutral fraction and a person from the minor race fraction adjacent to the Oudou fraction being friends together has absolutely nothing to do with a certain gleam route.

Anyway, the general concept is rather clear:

Hadou = ruling through force, people need to be shown what's "correct"

Oudou = ruling with benevolence, believing in people's hearts

However, I don't think KT is treating Hadou as an inherently bad thing. Maybe because they really love Cao Cao and Nobunaga to death. They're somewhat treating it as an equally valid way to end conflicts. Even if you may have enemies or NPCs talk about how their path is brutal every once in a while, it's not taken that seriously because it's based on "reason" and to end things quickly and "dream of benevolence is too unrealistic" bla bla bla. It's only when getting explicitly compared with Oudou that it'll be shown in a more obviously "bad" light.

And that is probably why - as you may have noticed - both above comparisons are from Shu's story. In Wei's story, while they will still talk about their Hadou, they barely touch about Liu Bei's Oudou. Even if their conflict remains the main focus of the story, they just don't make the comparison. Just like their 3H counterparts.

(But, while AM have a lot in common with Shu's story, CF is way less similar to Wei's story. For one, while Cao Cao doesn't like Liu Bei running around "prolonging the war", he's always treated him and his ideal with respect, which Edel-chan certainly doesn't.

CF is more like... DW8's Jin story where the mitri is Jiang Wei. Feel free to find out what that means if you're interested... just know that I absolutely despised that story 🙃)

Well got a bit carried away but to conclude, in KT's eyes:

Hadou bad compared to Oudou

Except that Hadou good aksually, if you yeet the concept of Oudou away from the story

And Oudou just like chivalry is too good to be true, so Hadou good

Supreme Leader uwu

...or at least that's how I perceived their opinions.

Btw, do you know that DW had the OG gatekeeper-kun?

I'm specifically referring to the one assigned to Shu (featured from 10:28) because his lines are the closest to gatekeeper's and iirc he was in DW7 too while the rest were added in DW8 as his other fraction variations. Sorry I couldn't find a video of the DW7 version nor did I find a English one, so this is the best I can get :( Actually found a video that has the DW7 part, but it's jp voice with Chinese subs, so still no English :(

People liked him in DW, so they made a Fodlan version of him too!

[baekhvuns]

This is truly devastating and disappointing to think that people are actually supporting something like this. It's literally a mass murder, a massacre. I'm not even going to talk about how terrible the condition of people is in Palestine because every now and then I see videos of literally kids....children dude, I saw a video of a girl who was...not even entirely 2 and the fear in her eyes....she, was probably traumatised to say the least. Are we loosing the least bit of humanity that we had...the world is truly at the brink of its fall and innocent citizens are suffering. It...breaks me so much and it frustrates me so much on top of that that, there's absolutely nothing I can do then to make people realise how cruel their actions are...and, that's like talking to a wall Because people are so consumed up by hate and violence that they see everyone as equal, they do not care for children, not animals, not women, not the elderly, not men, hell they've given up decency at this point. I'm... literally so angry right now, and i hope, the god, the universe or whoever the ultimate supreme power is, punishes these war hungry, violent, animals for making innocent citizens suffer. And hell to all those people who could've helped and stopped this...to all those superpowers out there even my own country, I truly despise you.

all of this,, seeing fetuses being taken out of mothers, people just helplessly laying in the rubbles, bleeding, kids and their body parts, their parents having to hold them to prove it to everyone that they are being murdered is just so devastatingly heartbreaking

it’s so extremely frustrating to see all of this, see the journalists upload videos and all u can do is watch and see their pain and not be able to do anything. you’re correct, the world is truly lost humanity, and the very pinnacle of that is these countries— america, canada, uk even the middle east’s, who instead of helping are sitting in their homes on luxurious beds and fine fabrics while people, kids, men and women are dying every 10 minutes.

truly, i hope for the same, if god thinks of everyone as his kids, then let him not watch them suffer. let the israeli president be criminally charged as a war criminal, let these world leaders fall into pits of hell for what they are doing to these people.

i truly truly don’t understand how rishi sunak has the audacity to not be in favour of a ceasefire when his OWN ancestral history is EXTREMELY similar to the one going on rn???? I CAN TELL STORIES AND STORIES ON IT oU he makes me so mad, justin trudeau makes me embarrassed to be a canadian & for biden what can i even say. but one thing, everyone should be voting for american presidency and be in their business atp with the way america is into everyone else’s.

i also, like you and many others, truly despise these people. because i know if they were in that situation it wouldn’t even take them a second to send aide and call for a resolution. hypocritical men in power, but unfortunately for them public is disconnected from their agendas, as they should. they won’t let palestine be forgotten, there will be a day when this all ends, where the palestinian’s can live in peace without having to worry abt dying. & there will be a day these people in power in suffer tremendously.

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysisle t

By Christopher Smart

April 18, 2023

IT'S TIKTOK, STUPID

t's a conspiracy. It's Chinese subterfuge to employ TikTok strategically to make its 150 million American users dumber by giving them stupid ideas they will think are cool. Just look at TikTok's “challenges,” like the “Gorilla Glue Girl (Hair Styling)” challenge, the “Erection Cream Lip Plumper” challenge, the “Pee Your Pants” challenge and many others. No Wilson, we aren't making this up. Pretty soon we will be a nation of “ignorant sloths,” lamented columnist Kathleen Parker. Even Congress is freaking out. It's a national threat, warned Congressman Mike Gallagher. "It's not just exfiltrating data from an American phone,” he said, “it's what they're able to push to Americans through the algorithm — control our sense of reality, control the news, meddle in future elections." Eee gads! Brave New World! TikTok's data theft also poses peril to national security. For instance, through TikTok the Chinese knew long ago that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was accepting million dollar vacations from billionaire Harlan Crow. And they knew Ginni Thomas planned Jan. 6. They knew Ivanka dyed her hair red and moved to Buenos Aires under the name Marla Maples. They even knew Kim K and Kanye West weren't really divorced. If that isn't a threat to national security, what is?

IT CAN ALWAYS GET WORSE

Call it reverse optimism. When things are going to hell in a fanny pack some people have the audacity to say, “Well, it could be worse.” That might make you feel better or you could want to smack them upside the head. For example, some motorists have complained as of late about the auto-eating chuckholes that make driving in Salt Lake City something like “Survivor,” the popular TV program. But it could be worse. They could be in Kiev, Ukraine where reality TV appears as a bunch of spoiled Americans fighting boredom instead of Russians. It can always get worse. The Utah Legislature, in lock step with other Red States, likes to make life difficult for transgender folks by limiting sports, healthcare and restrooms. But in Uganda, trans people face the death penalty, which severely limits debate on transgender girls soccer. It can always get worse. The denizens of St. George were buffeted by the gales of political correctness when the name of their beloved Dixie State College was deemed insensitive and racist. After headlines and turmoil, St. George's righteous leaders renamed it Utah Tech. But that was before they were beset with drag shows and the perceived ruination of childhood by bearded men in bustiers and fishnet stockings — it can always get worse.

DOES THE 2ND AMENDMENT APPLY TO THE UNBORN

We could talk — or argue — about abortion and guns forever and get nowhere. But a new twist in the gun-rights/right-to-life debate could shed fresh light on the controversy that could yield some kind of resolution: The proposition that fetuses have the right to bear arms. Think of Wayne LaPierre — only a good fetus with a gun can stop a bad fetus with a gun. Now some would argue that if fetuses didn't have guns at all, good fetuses wouldn't have to stop bad fetuses. But that's backward thinking because how are you going to disarm all those fetuses with AR-15s. This is, in the end, a mental health issue. All we have to do is determine which of those gun-toting gametes aren't stable and should not be packing if, in fact, red-flag laws apply to the unborn. The argument being that if those cute little zygotes have all the rights of folks with fully-formed eyes and ears, then, by gosh, they should have to obey the laws, as well. It should come as no surprise then that this has divided Republicans, who, on one side say red-flag laws do apply to fetuses, versus those who say they don't. And that gets right back to the 2nd Amendment and the big question: Can first trimester zygotes belong to a well-regulated militia.

Post script — You heard it, mayors Erin Mendenhall and Jenny Wilson not only uttered the “F” word, they sang it out like Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music.” The hills are alive with the sound of flooding. Yep and good photo-ops they were of the City and County mayors filling sandbags for the impending cataclysm. You just can't buy advertising like that in an election year. But don't say the word, “cute,” in association with Erin or Jenny. We can't have “cute mayors filling sandbags.” That would be sexist and anti-woke. By contrast Rocky Anderson — who is running against Mendenhall for Salt Lake City mayor — doesn't mind be called “cute” at all. You can imagine the press release his folks would put out: “The cute, youthful mayor looked even more youthful and cute filling sandbags.” That's just the way things are these days, unlike in 1983 when some 700 inches of snow fell in the northern Wasatch sending a springtime deluge down State Street. This season, a record 879 inches came down at Alta guaranteeing flooding on creeks and rivers fed by runoff. Some folks say that if spring temperatures warm gradually we won't have much flooding. Right and the Great Salt Lake will fill back up and Utah lawmakers can say, God is on our side.

Hey Wilson, did you know that Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson is the daughter of former Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson who was in office during the Great Flood of '83. True story. Ted asked the Mormon Church to sandbag State Street to corral the flood and then built temporary bridges over it to keep the city moving. So let's give some well-deserved props to Ted the Mayor of the Flood.

When you're weary, feeling small, When tears are in your eyes I will dry them all I'm on your side Oh when times get rough And friends just can't be found Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down When you're down and out When you're on the street When evening falls so hard I will comfort you I'll take your part Oh when darkness comes And pain is all around Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down Sail on, silver girl Sail on by Your time has come to shine All your dreams are on their way See how they shine Oh if you need a friend I'm sailing right behind Like a bridge over troubled water I will ease your mind Like a bridge over troubled water I will ease your mind

(Bridge Over Troubled Water — Simon & Garfunkel)

[litheammunition]

I found the aftermath of Queen Lizzo's death really interesting. I'm no royalist, but a lot of the comments about celebrating freedom and whatever showed that people in America and elsewhere don't necessarily understand what it's like to have a constitutional monarch or why her death was still a big deal for some people to process.

The monarchy is a vestige of weird, outdated tradition rooted in inequality etc. etc and I am not here to defend it, but I also don't think people in republics really understand what it is, and I think it's worth trying to explain it in terms that Americans might be able to empathise with a little more.

First off, people in the UK and other Commonwealth states still live in a democracy. They vote for their representatives and leaders as much as you do. They aren't 'ruled' in any practical sense that makes any impact on their day to day life, it's just a ceremonial position with a title - you could think of it like Miss USA, to start. The Queen was basically an official Mrs Commonwealth, so she got to wear the crown and sash and go represent us in events.

The monarch just takes on the symbolic duties of the head of state, so instead of a poor president having to deal with all that pageantry, they can get on with their job of also being the head of the government (remember that our prime minister has to be both president and leader of the house).

The Queen was... well, next think about the office of First Lady, which is a US specific position of unelected authority which we don't have (Prime Minister's spouses are never really spoken of and certainly have no role in public life). The Royal Family have to show up to important events and cut the ribbon on new hospitals and things like that, the sort of non-political public roles the President and their family pick up.

The Queen dying is sort of like a First Lady dying, except she had been around for a billion years so she was Eleanor and Jackie and Nancy and Michelle in one person, the symbolic partner to a dozen different governments and Prime Ministers who came and went, the one constant that remained through all of the chaos.

To come at it another way, having a monarch is just designating somebody other than your political leader (constantly changing and often polarised) to deal with that symbolic stuff, to create a greater sense of continuity, mixed with one of our many hollow hereditary titles (we also have viscounts and barons who have exactly zero power, they've just inherited the title like you might inherit your grandmother's jewellery).

The monarch is just like... the flag. She was the human embodiment of the country. She was just the national celebrity, like Kim Kardashian or Beyoncé or whoever, that we send to represent us like an ambassador. The monarch isn't supposed to have any real political power, and they're actually forced to be completely neutral and keep their opinions to themselves, unlike other unelected positions with lifetime terms like Supreme Court justices who seemingly have unlimited power to make policy for the rest of their life.

The Queen dying was a big deal because it's like the flag dying. She wasn't just the symbol of the country through your whole lifetime, but for many people that was true of their parents and even their grandparents. Pretty much nobody can remember a time before her. Her symbolism is also everywhere in your life: her face is on your money and stamps, the national anthem is about her, her initials are on every postbox and loads of public institutions are called 'Her Majesty's...' something. After being constant for generations, all of that needs to suddenly change.

That's the scale we're talking here: in terms of both time and pervasiveness, this was a massive, unprecedented shock. It's like the flag dying, or a symbolic bald eagle you kept alive for a hundred years and put on all your dollar bills. She was older than the faces in Mount Rushmore. She had been been knocking around for a third of the USA's lifespan as a country.

It's a bit like if RBG and Betty White and Kris Jenner and the Statue of Liberty were all one woman who died. Even if you don't like that cocktail and don't think she should get to symbolise the country, either by principle or because the country has done awful things whilst she was at the helm, it's a hell of a shock to see her go. The timing was especially bad, with the Prime Minister also having just changed during a period of chaos, and it was a bit like having everything you're familiar with pulled out from underneath you.

Or think of it like Catholics mourning the Pope, seeing as the monarch is literally head of our branch of Christianity for religious people... except it's even further than that, she was effectively the head of the national religion, the embodiment of what little patriotism we have left. The US may do more normal things, like having children pledge allegiance to the flag or worshipping their military, but here we pour all that stuff into a crown, and it's a bit weird for anyone when the avatar of your country pops her clogs.

[bitcofun]

Matt Corallo-- a veteran Bitcoin designer and among Blockstream's Co-Founders-- believes BTC maximalists are not assisting their preferred cryptocurrency by calling all other digital property procedures "frauds." Rather, those ought to appreciate some altcoins due to the fact that numerous have substantial use-cases. Over the years, the biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has actually generated various people as outspoken fans who think that BTC is the only digital property worth talking about and buying. Such examples are Max Keiser and Michael Saylor.' Bitcoin Maxis Are a Dying Breed' In a series of tweets, Corallo believed that bitcoin maximalists ought to remain faithful to their dearest digital possession and keep applauding its special nature. They must likewise refrain from assaulting all other jobs and identifying them as frauds. He included that in the last number of years, cash has actually been streaming to all type of procedures as a few of them are plainly not pump-and-dump plans. 1/ Bitcoin maxis are a passing away type. While there was a time where ~ whatever other than Bitcoin was generally a fraud, that hasn't held true for a very long time, and the wise cash has actually proceeded to determining which jobs are going someplace, and which are straight pump-and-dumps.-- Matt Corallo (@TheBlueMatt) August 8, 2022 The unfavorable position from bitcoin maxis towards the alternative coins might develop a "narrative war." The one group would declare that Proof-of-Work and BTC are the only significant things in the market, while the other would preserve that PoW is so damaging to the environment that it "boils the ocean." This hate in between the 2 sides is totally unneeded and will stop the development of the crypto sector, Corallo mentioned. Despite being the supreme leader in the crypto universe, bitcoin has actually lost a few of its supremacy in the previous couple of years. In 2017, the capitalization of the main cryptocurrency incorporated almost 70% of the overall market. Nowadays, however, it represents 41%. The second-largest digital property procedure-- Ethereum-- has actually been slowly capturing up and presently comprises about 19% of crypto's whole market cap. It is likewise on its method to moving from a Proof-of-Work system to Proof-of-Stake. The shift is anticipated to enhance Ethereum's advancement by making it less damaging to nature, more scalable, and more protected. It is yet to be seen how BTC maxis will respond to such a favorable modification sustained by the shift from PoW to PoS. Prominent Bitcoin Maxis When speaking of individuals who show their assistance towards BTC all the time and turn down every altcoin, it deserves beginning with Max Keiser. The American broadcaster and filmmaker typically applauds the biggest digital property as the very best monetary tool that exists. He likewise supported El Salvador authorities' choice to make it a legal tender inside its borders. MicroStrategy's Executive Chairman-- Michael Saylor-- becomes part of that club, too. He thinks bitcoin is the very best financial instrument that individuals might hold. In his view, it is far better than fiat currency and might work as an effective hedge versus inflation throughout times of financial collapse (like nowadays). For his part, the author of "The Bitcoin Standard"-- Dr. Saifedean Ammous-- claims bitcoin is the much better variation of gold as individuals do not need to stress over whether the coin has base metal inside it. The possession is likewise totally transparent, and everyone can see every deal. Discussing inflation, Ammous stated: " Bitcoin is basically the most effective protective innovation versus inflation. It's a huge radical change forward in the innovation of cash as defense of worth versus inflation. I believe it's a natural fit to any person who is efficient and wishes to conserve their worth into the future." SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored) Binance Free $100(Exclusive): Use

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[kokichixreaderthings]

Hi- i was wondering if i could request fem kokichi hand holding hcs-?

Tysm :D <3

kokichi hand holding headcanons! <3

yes !! i want to hold kokichi’s hand so much <3 i hope you enjoy this!! 

kokichi’s actually really gentle with holding hands, it’s one of his softest actions! 

no one would probably believe you if you told them though, since he could be teasing and making fun of people while gently holding your hand underneath the table

but it’s true!

he treats holding hands as something kind of personal and affectionate so he doesn’t do it with people often

to him, holding someone’s hand is just a reminder that someone is able to put up with him

and it’s really nice and he secretly really likes it

so no matter his relationship status (platonic or romantic) with you, once he gets comfortable he’s holding your hand a lot!

 as mentioned earlier, he’ll hold your hand while teasing others

it’s always a secret, not that he’s ashamed of holding your hand but he’s usually just holding your hand to remind himself you’re by his side, so he doesn’t see a need to show it off...

unless he’s using it to his advantage and wants whoever he’s teasing to know you’re on his side 😼

“nishishi! see, y/n agrees with me!”

he also holds your hand to drag you to places, usually to go watch a D.I.C.E. member pull of a successful prank/petty crime (as the game calls it)

 “c’mon, y/n! you’re being really slooww!! here, grab my hand!”

that’s the only time he wouldn’t be exactly gentle, since he’s literally dragging you along

but the squeezing pressure is actually kind of comforting...almost like he doesn’t want to hurt you and is trying his best to be light..

and when you two are just hanging out, he’ll sometimes reach out to take your hand randomly while you two talk

he doesn’t really say anything, he just holds your hand for a while, like it’s  a normal thing for him to do

if it’s his first time doing it, he would probably hesitate a little, but once he’s holding your hand he acts like nothing happened!

he’ll only say something if your hand is unusually warm or cold

“y/n, your hand is freezing!! are you some sort of ghost??!!”

his hands are actually really warm! (this is implied in the game btw :))

but sometimes he’ll lie and say he’s cold just as an excuse to hold your hand

“jeez, it’s way too cold in here! y/n, you can’t let a supreme leader freeze to death! you have to warm me up!”

and if you ever need comforting, the first thing he does is grab your hand

“y/n, it’s okay, you have a supreme leader by your side! i’ll protect you i promise, and i won’t stop holding your hand until you feel better, okay?”

yeah it gets noticeable after a while that he’s holding your hand whatever chance he can get..

if you ever ask why he holds your hand so much, he won’t give you an actual answer

“huh, why? am i not allowed to hold your hand anymore? th-that’s so mean!”

it would probably take some time before he admits why

“..welll not many people let me hold their hand, y’know? they just think i’m tricking them.... orrr maybe i am tricking you and you have no idea!”

you understand his reasoning, despite his sly attempts to cover it up

and oh yes, sometimes he does do that cute thumb rub thing, usually when he’s comforting you or feeling extra affectionate/happy you’re around him

it’s not much different depending on if your relationship with him is romantic or platonic, but it will be a bit different if you two are dating

he doesn’t really need to restrict his hand holding at all since you two are dating, it makes sense why he wants to be so close to you!

he’d holding your hand in every situation,  while he’s cuddling you, while he’s walking with you, really anytime he’s with you he’s trying to hold your hand

and he’ll be much more outspoken about it too!

“y/n, beloved, will you pretty please hold my hand? i’m dying without receiving your affection!”

and really, how could you say no to him? holding hands with him is really fun, of course you’d say yes!

thank you so much for reading!! and remember that kokichi ouma loves you ! <3

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Can we get the V3 boys reacting to their s/o almost getting killed by someone in the killing game? If it’s not any trouble of course.

No trouble at all!

.................

Shuichi

Obviously very shocked and scared.

And angry.

He doesn’t know why someone would target you, of all people. Why did it have to be you?!

But he feels like he’s at fault for not paying enough attention to everyone’s behaviors after the new motive came out.

If the murder plot did succeed, then...

You’re quick to shutdown those “what ifs” he’s having, seeing that they’re making him panic.

For a while, you just hold him and wipe away his tears, promising him it’s gonna be okay.

He won’t lose you like he lost the others.

Gonta

“B-But..who would want to hurt s/o?!”

You’re afraid to say that somebody made you a target, but it’s the truth.

The fury in his eyes is real.

Though he’s quick to tear up and apologize for not being able to protect you from the ambush.

“Gonta promised to always be by s/o’s side. Promised to protect s/o like true gentleman. But Gonta broke his promises....Gonta failed..”

It shatters your heart hearing that from him.

“No, Gonta. You haven’t failed me,” you say. “They actually stopped because they realized they were messing with the lover of a strong giant. So in a way, you did protect me!”

Those words immediately cheer him up, easing his fears as he swoops you up into his arms and takes you to his lab.

Kokichi

At first he laughs.

“Sheesh, s/o. At least pretend like you’re trying to come up with a good lie!”

But when you’re not laughing with him, he abruptly stops.

“...wait, so it’s not a lie?”

One of the Monokubs appear to say that you were, indeed, attacked. And they so-happened to witness it, too.

Though they slip away before Kokichi can ask who it was.

Now he’s pissed, and you gotta stop him from leaving to strangle interrogate everybody one by one.

“All of them are dumbasses!! All of them!! How dare they mess with the Ultimate Supreme Leader’s partner in crime?!!!!”

Korekiyo

“No...no this can’t be! How dare they attempt something so foolish?!”

For all his talk of the Killing Game being “beautiful” in the absence of laws, Korekiyo didn’t find anything beautiful about you almost dying.

He was a paranoid train wreck.

Shutting you and himself into his lab/dorm, holding your hand at all times, and sitting away from everyone else in the dining hall were among the things he did for the next day or so.

He was scared you’d be ripped away from him.

The thought made him have several panic attacks, in which you had to calm him down.

You’ve never seen him act this way..and it aches your heart.

But you know he treasures you more than anything else in the world.

So you promise to be a hundred--no, a thousand times more careful.

Ryoma

“So...someone tried to..kill me.”

“....th-they what?”

For a moment, the tennis pro becomes choked up.

He finally..finally had someone who loved him, someone worth living for..

And some idiot tried taking that away from him.

But he’s quick to recover, and instead listens to your story of the ambush.

“I see..” Is all he says, before he leaves to find the suspect.

Next time you see them..there’s a cigarette burn on their person and they look away in fear when you lock eyes.

You miss your boyfriend’s small grin as he knows they learned a lesson.

Kaito

“ARE YOU SERIOUS?!!”

His voice is loud enough to be heard across the courtyard, and you gotta quiet him down fast.

“No! That’s..that’s unacceptable!! I, Kaito Momota--Luminary of the Stars--will hunt down this selfish son of a bitch!!”

You’re following him around, begging him not to do anything stupid.

But he’s just interrogating everyone he comes across.

If it’s one of the guys who attacked you, he’ll slug them across the face, no hesitation.

If it’s any of the girls, he would just ask them “why..why would you want to do something like that?!! To my starlight [y/n], of all people?!”

Afterwards he’s very upset and shaken up, swearing he’ll do more to protect you.

Rantaro

He goes silent when you tell him someone tried killing you.

Then he slowly turns to you, his face grim as he simply asks: “Who?”

You don’t wanna mention the name, so you just say you couldn’t see your attacker and instead ran for your life.

He accepts that.

Though he knows you’re scared to cause a rift among your classmates so soon, which is understandable.

But it makes him more determined than ever to end this Killing Game.

He lost everyone else before.

He’s not about to lose you now.

K1B0

He’s on red alert.

One of your friends..was going to kill you??

He feels genuine fear for the first time.

And guilt for not being there to protect you when you needed him.

You reassure him that it’s okay--you made sure your attacker won’t try something like that again.

K1B0 isn’t 100% convinced.

He’ll go to Miu to ask for defensive upgrades.

Not only to protect himself..but to protect you, too.

[randomnameless]

I am gonna be honest I really don't get how people don't understand Crest have nothing to do with being nobles, it's literaly the whole reason behind Mercedes's and Emile's tragic story, that their father who didn't had a crest wanted to marry Mercedes because she had one like her Mother so his children can inherit the Crest of Lamine.

On a side note, I do think that even if Rhea didn't created the Crest system it would have happened with or without her, Crest are superpowers that are rare and humans either worship like a god or treat as a witch people who have special power, I wouldn't believe for a second that left out as is in nature people who have Crest wouldn't try to rule over the other anyway or wouldn't be treated like aberrations.

Hm...

Mercie's mom had a crest and was a nobody, which could be married off to a bastard : aka, despite her crest, Mercie's mom wasn't a noble who was able to say big F to potential "suitors" who were supposed to be beneath her in status since they had no crest themselves.

Constance (and what's left of her fam?) were demoted to nothing and sent to the sewers in Garreg Mach, even if Constance comes from a prestigious family that got a crest from a Saint.

As you said, regardless of nobility wanting to pretend to have "better blood" than the pleb, Crests are superpowers, which would always be sought afer.

The games does it best to avoid talking about the tangible and objective benefits of having a crest - when we see Dimitri crush a man as easily as a snowball in a cutscene - but imo, it's part of Fodlan's DNA, try to spin a very objective and no-solution conflicts (you have a world with two races, and one has superpowers compared to the other, how does it work?) to artificial lip-service and copious amounts of smokescreens.

For something that was only alluded to but completely ignored because otherwise both Nopes and Houses fall apart - Seteth tells Yuri in their Nopes support how it is rumoured that an Elite was cured from an "incurable" disease after getting a crest...

Admitting this is remotely true to what happened in Zanado, does it justifiy the subsequent massacre and genocide? Dominic might die in 2 days if he doesn't kill a Nabatean, was he "right" or justified in killing the Nabatean who became Crusher and drinking their blood?

If humans are envious for good or bad reasons of the Nabateans' powers, what is going to happen when a Nabatean would refuse to share said power ? Are the humans justified in trying to steal it? Are Nabateans asses when they refuse to "lend it" to humans?

This game tries its hardest to avoid blaming the usual trifecta of human greed/assholishness/lust (for power!) as the reason why the world doesn't go round, and blame everything on... blue eyes, that can somehow shoot lasers too.

Of course someone with in-built lasers would be better seen/more valued than someone who hasn't the same lasers, but bar the milquetoast "we should try to accept everyone!", what is the specific answer to the Gautier border issue - crest means the border is defended, no crest and no plot hax means it isn't - should the defender of the border be the crested kid or the non crested-kid?

Nopes!Sylvains finds a loophole and replies with "we won't need to defend the border if we're not at war with Sreng anymore", and it's a nice solution, honestly. I like it. It makes for a bright perspective, of a future where, if everyone play their part, Crests won't be "needed" anymore.

But when it comes to using the power of a crest to heal, will you go to Manu, who cannot heal someone who has a cancer, or to Flayn, who can, if you suddenly learn you have one?

"Just develop chemiotherapy!"

Yes but I'm dying - who should I go to?

Imo, Crust System is used both in fandom and in-game to avoid mentionning the existence of super humans (or non humans if we want to stay close to Supreme Leader's words) and the inevitable jealousy/envy their existence creates/causes in humans, who cannot help but seek after the power they have.

[b0rista]

— 𝐁𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐄, 𝐒𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐀, 𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐍, & 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐎 𝐒𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐃. ˚ ༘♡ ·˚ ₊

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒: language, because i can't form sentences without using "fuck" every other word JDJD.

𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒: i only made this modern because i desperately wanted to include marco to the fullest leave me aloneEffsg. gn! reader, and i went pretty lengthy on this one so beneath the cut is where the headcanons start :)

𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓: bearbrickjia on instagram!

by far, the best friend group to have. everyone balances one another out, and it's a perfectly imperfect mesh of teenagers.

there's jean, the group's centerpiece. he's the alpha of the posse, usually working as their own personal line leader whenever they're caught doing something as a group. he'll never admit it, but he's also the dad friend. of course, he's more of a "i wish i never gave birth to you oh my god please leave me alone also i love you" type than the stereotypical dad friend.

there's marco, the glue holding the group together. unsurprisingly, he's the calm, kindhearted support system that balances out the cokeheads, keeping them all sturdy. without a doubt, the group would fall apart without him. they need him, okay!! and by "them," i mean jean and yourself. marco, never change.

following up, there's connie & sasha, the wonder twins. their roles are pretty self explanatory, given their natural rambunctiousness. they're the two that hang out outside of the group the most, for obvious reasons. they're the crackhead siblings that bring life to the group, despite the hot water they typically land the others in. through their antics and their comic relief, they're irreplaceable. still, it's easy to want to strangle them sometimes.

next, there's you! because you're the reader, i won't name any specifics, but you're greatly cherished. you mark your place in the crew through various ways, having a unique relationship with each and every member. when he's in need of a breather outside of his typical nest (AKA marco), jean hits your line. if you're needing any kind of assistance with literally anything ever, marco's there to help. craving some chaos? bitch, connie & sasha have GOT YOU.

the main hangout spot is jean's house, 100%. not only has his mom practically adopted the whole squad, but there's only two people living there, so it isn't crowded. connie banned literally all four of you from his place, lmao. there was too many people there, and his family lives to humiliate him.

the group has this one policy, set down by yourself and jean: four piece maximum. this is directed solely towards sasha, of course, considering her tendency to raid her friends' fridges entirely of any food. if she's ever caught rummaging through a fridge for longer than necessary, it's the home owner's duty to shout, "four piece minimum!"

^ it never fails to startle her 😭. one time, she hit her head so hard on the fridge ceiling at jean's house she had to use a bag of frozen peas to soothe the swelling.

then, she proceeded to eat the thawed out peas. jean gagged.

the inside jokes? endless. all it takes is one word from a single event, and the five of you are losing your shit. it's cute, to be honest, how overzealous you all get from a single instance from months ago.

"ha. heh. hee."

"what is it?"

"ngGhh,, chEDDAR TIDDIES-"

"AHHHHHAGAGSHHDJF-"

if there are any inside jokes formed between two group members that isn't shared with the rest of them, there will be immediate bitterness. one time, you and sasha were giggling to yourselves over some druggie named jerry who'd tried selling baskets of rotten cherries to the two of you during a gas station haul— the boys were not having it. what the fuck were you doing without them, "friends"?

right before starting your guys' senior year of highschool, the five of you were on a group facetime when you all sent your schedules into group chat. due to the scarceness of your soon-to-be-majors, absolutely none of you had any classes together. you had a single lunch period with connie while marco had one with jean, but that was about it. it was,, a dramatic discovery. sasha fucking screamed.

"i have nothing with nobody!"

"calm down, sash-"

"you have lunch with y/n! LUNCH! that's my place, lunch. this is despicable, this is evil, this is a braus hate crime-"

yeah, she didn't take it that well. it's okay, doe. the four of you made a special effort during your passing periods, giving sasha enough of a fix for her to make it through each and every day.

it isn't like the five of you don't hang out outside of the classroom, either!! if you hadn't already made plans during that week, the weekend is where you absolutely thrive as a group. study sessions that always shift into exclusive house parties, lunches spent at your favorite places, the occasional visit to the movie theater, and so on. with a mini crowd like that, it's hard for any of you to get bored.

jean's hopeless crush on mikasa is a big factor in your friendship. when everyone minus marco (because he's an angel) isn't mercilessly teasing him, you're all trying to actually help the fucker score the girl. from talking him up obnoxiously enough whereas she'll hear, or flat out telling her to give him a chance, it's an actual effort. though, it's unfortunately all to no avail. shawty's too smitten with eren to even consider her options.

^ with that being said, the four of you have to give jean the "there are other fish in the sea" scoop more often than you'd like to admit.

group cuddles. that's that.

because he's the tallest and therfore the longest (probably, depending on your height), everybody has a chosen body part of jean's to latch onto during naps. connie has one leg while you have the other, and sasha keeps her head rested on his shoulder. marco's at the very bottom, entangling his legs in your own. somehow, this is heaven for jean. he'll never admit to it, though. as far as any of you are concerned, he HATES IT.

ranking from #1 as the best and #5 as the worst, these are the rated group therapists: ⇩︎

#1: marco. self explanatory, he's an amazing listener and provides supremely good advice. that, and he'd literally rather die than let any of his friends internalize anything they're dying to let loose.

#2: you. really, you're just a lot better than jean or connie. sasha's okay at it, but she's not the best at rationalizing, leaving you at second best. basically, when marco isn't available, you're where the freak shows go. marco goes to you about things, too.

#3: sasha. again, she's just a loT better than the final two. sasha's a sweetheart! she's empathetic, and nonjudgmental. we love her in this house.

#4: connie. also somewhat of a sweetheart, although not as much as sasha. he'll drop a shit ton of humor into serious conversations, making them just a tad bit more tolerable.

#5: jean. look, he's a great friend! however, he isn't all that empathetic, and he'll have some trouble understanding. still, he would try his hardest to make you or the other three feel better :,)).

in a modern universe, i know damn well connie's a half-assed stoner 30% of the time. he doesn't light up all that often, and he doesn't tell anybody about it, even you guys. mainly because marco will grill him for it DJFK. however, you stumbled upon his mini marijuana stash and he was like ahh, shit. you didn't really care doe, his secret is safe with you. you, however, now have DIRT on him.

matching bracelets that you all made for eachother yEars ago but never wear 🥺🥺.

many, many, many poly relationship jokes. only jokes, though. some people take it too literally, which y'all just laugh at.

there's a miniature rivalry going on between you and another nearby friend group: reiner, bertholdt, annie, ymir, and christa. of course, all of you are friends, it's all fun in games— most of the time, anyway. it's a funny rivalry, and you guys go at it quite a bit.

one of your guys' most intense debates is whether or not marco has freckles on his dick.

he,, refuses to show any of you, or even anSweR you.

"you act like we can't just check whenever we use the urinals, man."

"CONNIE-"

now, marco refuses to go to the bathroom at the same time as any of the boys <\33.

the group band? black eyed peas.

[renaerys]

Okay I've got one: Prompt 15 with Reds. 🤣🤣🤣

15. “I can’t hear a word you’re saying, I just keep thinking about how good that mouth feels.”

Somehow they can make even breathing a competition.

Send me a prompt and some characters! Reminder that the challenge is to make everything SFW, so we're getting creative here.

List of prompts

xxx

“So, we’ve called the paramedics and they’re on their way, but until they arrive it’s up to us. Remember the acronym, kids: C-A-B. What’s the first thing you do?”

Aiyeesha Simpson, a gunner in the making destined for academic greatness and social ruin, raised her eager hand. “Find a flat surface to lay him down!”

“Correct.” Blossom took Brick by the shoulders and shoved him down to the floor. A gaggle of Girl Scouts gathered around him as he wheezed for air.

“Ow,” he said.

Blossom patted his chest. “Please choke more quietly.”

I will end you, he thought so loudly he hoped she could hear him through the murder in his eyes. There was community service, and then there was cruel and unusual punishment. When his required hours were up and his record expunged, he was going to write a very negative Yelp review of the local Townsville Girls Scouts of America chapter and tank this year’s cookie sales. Supremely annoying, outrageously petty, and totally legal. That would teach Blossom for sure.

“Place your hands here between the nipples.”

Some of the Cadette Girl Scouts giggled. To be fair, Blossom of all people saying the word nipples in reference to her former mortal enemy as she trained a room full of twelve-year-old girls in CPR using him as the dummy was a perfect storm of absurd and kinky that he did not see coming. And now he was giggling himself, because he was a teenaged boy who thought the word nipples was funny regardless of the very clear contextual cues, and that pubescent shame was on him, one hundred percent.

Blossom, an ancient and inconveniently attractive evil resurrected in a lab for the sole purpose of making his life miserable, did not appreciate his amusement. “Push hard at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute. Remember to put your bodyweight behind it, like this.”

Brick flexed, and Blossom pushed against his heart like she was trying to crush it in her hands. Once, twice, three times she administered compressions, and Brick’s eyes glowed red with impotent rage.

“Assist Blossom with her CPR lessons to her satisfaction, and we can forget this ever happened,” Mayor Bellum had promised Brick when he lost his temper and blew up an (empty) ambulance. Butch didn’t need his Super stomach pumped no matter how much he drank, so the ambulance and the four-figure bill that came with it were completely unnecessary. This defense did not convince the mayor, however.

The promise of the bill forgiven and his record cleared—and the deterrence of Aiyeesha Simpson filming the whole thing to upload to YouTube later—gave Brick the strength not to eye beam Blossom in front of the children.

“Okay, who wants to try chest compressions on the dummy?” Blossom offered to the girls.

You evil bitch, thought the aforementioned dummy.

After the third little girl properly placed her sticky, little girl hands between his nipples, Brick had had enough. “Hey, I’m still dying over here. Can we move on already? Jesus Christ.”

“Of course.” Blossom smiled, and she had never looked more terrifying.

Brick hoped Butch was suffering. He hoped he was hung over so bad he couldn’t piss standing up. He hoped Butch tried going online only to find that Brick had disconnected the Internet and cut him off from all his online games and porn because fuck Butch and his weak-ass stomach.

“Who knows what the next step is? Maybe someone other than Aiyeesha this time?”

None of the other girls seemed willing to stick their hands up. The carpet under Brick had scorched where his power leaked out in his building resentment for this entire situation. The smell of burned polyester just made him feel even more powerless to stop this.

“No? Okay, well, remember the acronym. A is for airway. You want to be careful about a possible neck injury, so gently lift the chin…”

Blossom’s hands were not sticky like the Girl Scouts’ hands, but they were cold where they touched his skin and forced his head back.

“Are the paramedics here yet?”

Brick got a tight fist in his short hair for that one, and he considered it a small victory. “No. Something about a shortage of ambulances, apparently.”

Biiiiiiiitch.

God, he was going to destroy her so bad.

“Once you’ve cleared the airway and confirmed there are no obstructions—”

“Then you kiss!”

Some girls picked up the giggling again. Blossom, ever the professional, cleared her throat. “Mouth to mouth is a life-saving procedure and not something I’d recommend doing to someone you plan to kiss.”

Wow, great advice.

Some girls still giggled and whispered to each other. Brick had a sinking feeling that this was only going to end with his embarrassment: everyone knew that the cold judgment of pre-pubescent girls was the absolute worst type of judgment a person could suffer.

“Are you gonna show us?”

“Well, I don’t think I need to show you all how to breathe—”

“It’s in the manual! You have to demonstrate every step.” Aiyeesha waved the CPR manual, and Brick realized his misjudgment. She was no vapid goody two-shoes in the making, but a future Honors Student with a secret, a Work Hard Party Harder, an Ivy League Early Decision candidate with all of senior spring semester to slack off because no one was ever going to touch her 4.3 GPA.

Aiyeesha beamed a winning smile at Brick, and it was as chilling as Blossom’s.

Jesus Christ, there are two of them.

True to form, Blossom had never been able to defy a good instructions manual. “I suppose if it says so in the manual…”

Locking lips with Blossom was not a big deal. He’d done it before when they were kids, and he could appreciate the irony of a gesture meant to save his life this time rather than end it. She didn’t even try to mess with him by using her ice breath, just went through the motions as described in the instructions. The girls were disappointed with the lack of hormonal fanfare of it all, which was probably for the best. Leave it to Blossom to make mouth to mouth the sexless, medical act it was literally intended to be. He was almost upset, because it felt like she’d won something here, which could only mean he’d lost.

Disappointed but more educated than they’d been when they’d arrived two hours ago, the Girl Scouts dispersed after the lesson, leaving Blossom and Brick to put away the equipment they’d used.

She held a dummy torso, and she was looking at him with that pinched, constipated look she got when she was about to say something especially snobby. Instead, she surprised him. “Brick, thanks for being mature about it. I can honestly say you surprised me.”

He stared at her.

“I’ll talk to Mayor Bellum. I’m sure you’ve done enough to meet your hours quota.”

He had not fulfilled even half of his required community service hours and they both knew it.

“So yeah, thanks. I can finish up here if you want to leave.”

Was she trying to get rid of him? Why?

“Brick? Why are you looking at me like that?”

When Blossom was winning, he was losing. That was simply the way of the world. So, if she was losing, it could only mean he was winning.

“Are you listening to me?”

Brick smiled in what he hoped was a cool, sexy way if he imagined looking at anyone but Blossom. “I can’t hear a word you’re saying. I just keep thinking about how good that mouth feels.”

Blossom stared. “I’m sorry?”

He would make her sorry.

“Yeah, you’re a great teacher. I could really feel your passion for demonstrating the lesson correctly. With your mouth.”

Her staring intensified. “Did you.”

“Oh, yeah.” He leaned his hip against the table like he’d seen in the movies. It worked for Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, and that guy had convinced Eva Green. Iconic. “I could really feel you trying to save me.”

Where was Aiyeesha with her phone to film this? There was so little he could do to rattle Blossom as they got older, and while the challenge delighted him, it was also exhausting being constantly a step behind her. Was this truly her demise? Had he won the Teenage Experience? Was this poetic justice for how she’d once killed him with a mere kiss, only to suffer the same fate in turn? He could have cackled. This was better than trolling the Girl Scouts of America reviews, although he might still do that because it was a genius idea and he had always indulged his own genius ideas when they came to him.

So infatuated was he with his own self-fellating digression that he was slow to react to Blossom sidling up to him. Her hand was still cold on his chin, and it sent a shiver down his spine. “Shall I save you again?”

Brick’s dignity drained with his blood, which was an unfortunate side-effect of being a teenaged boy that he would just have to suffer. But winning was about recognizing one’s weaknesses and working around them. He leaned into her personal space. “Please.”

He wasn’t sure who kissed who first, but it was happening and all he could think was I am better at this than you and I hate you and also Do that again. He tried holding her waist, and she fought back with her fingers in his hair. Not one to be deterred, Brick tried some tongue but pulled back when he tasted thirty degrees below zero. He immediately went back in because he could feel her superiority, her Got you, you horny idiot, but the joke was on her because he liked her cold, always had when it was hot as balls out and he’d make up any excuse to pick a fight with her just for the chance to cool off.

The Girl Scout troop leader walked in on them competitively making out in the classroom like it was an Olympic sport and put an end to things, leaving them at a frustrating draw for now. They said barely a word to each other when Brick glared at the troop leader so bad she flustered and didn’t even question them before running out of there with some excuse about getting the wrong room.

Later that evening, Brick caved and changed the Internet password back just so Butch would quit whining at him. He Googled kissing techniques and spent the next hour and a half watching YouTube videos and reading GQ articles about How to Please Her Like a Champion, because he was a champion and a winner and he was not going to lose to Blossom in this. Not a chance.

This had to be what they meant when they said kill with kindness.

“I’m going to end you,” he muttered to himself as he read about the top ten highest voted movie kissing scenes, which he would then stream and commit to memory in order to be fully armed and armored for the next time he encountered Blossom alone in a classroom. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe during their shared free period.

Truly, he had the most genius ideas.

xxx

If you enjoy my writing, check out more of my fics on AO3, link in my profile. I’m currently updating Trinity House and The Alchemy of Us. Thanks for reading!

[stayevildarling]

Traitor- Cordelia Goode x Reader

Chapter 2: Little White lies

word count: 3.2k

warnings: cursing, angst/sad, fluffy ending

Following Cordelia, you walk out of the living room, leaving the witches to carry on celebrating Zoe's birthday, and past the kitchen, momentarily your mind wanders to countless nights spent in a room that is supposed to be about the preparation of something simple meals.

Nevertheless, the kitchen always had a different meaning to you, it reminds you of intimacy. Not the kind of intimacy that you would feel or experience in a bedroom for instance, but it represents a sense of home to you regardless and a sense of comfort. You remember all those late nights when you couldn't sleep after just arriving at the academy because everything felt so overwhelming.

First, it was the fact that witchcraft is real, like how could that even be true? despite seeing some of the girls perform spells before and watching Miss Cordelia clean a few of Madison's messes, it still seemed like some cosmic joke to you and there were so many questions back then.

''Why did mom never tell me sooner?'' you questioned, not understanding why she would need to wait till her dying breaths because it only left so many more questions and no answers. The blonde witch, currently leading the way into her office, used to find you here at the strangest times, very early in the morning before everyone got up, her wanting to prepare breakfast for the girls when you couldn't sleep a single bit that night. She found you late in the evenings, in the middle of the nights, and somehow, Cordelia always knew you would be lingering the halls of the academy and she would mostly be finding you in the kitchen, looking out the windows and overlooking the beautiful spacious garden, ignited by the moonlight and the stars.

The first time she ever found you in there, neither one of you knew that throughout the first few months at the academy, this would quickly become one of your habits together and something you would both cherish eventually. In the beginning the supreme thought, you simply needed a little extra help and support, after learning about both of your parents' passing, the supreme felt bad and like you would be another one of those girls that wouldn't just need help with their magic at the coven but also a home and family.

She took you under her wings, giving you everything she could, her time - she would sit with you in the kitchen for hours, listening to you very intently. She would give you her resources- always taking time to teach you and help you explore your powers and that process wasn't easy especially at the beginning, to ignite those powers, hidden deep within yourself. Cordelia gave you her strength- making you believe in yourself and teaching you and guiding you through this journey.

Although it might seem like you benefited a lot from this and Cordelia was the one lifting you up, giving you a home, a family, someone to talk to, and someone teaching you, it wasn't just one-sided. After Myrtle's passing or rather her being burned at the stakes, Cordelia felt like she was on her own. Neither a mother nor mother figure left to who she could turn to, get advice with this whole supreme thing. All the witches at the academy used to be younger, before Coco joined, being one of the oldest there eventually.

Even though Cordelia is now a confident supreme, amazing leader and a great role model and mother figure to some of her girls, she wasn't always like this. Before you arrived at the academy, Cordelia lived under the shadows of her mother Fiona, always insecure and doubting herself, the betrayal of her husband at the time not helping with all of that either. The only people she could turn to at the time and that would lift her up back then were Myrtle and Misty.

But both the mother figure Myrtle and also Misty, the friend and student of Cordelia at the time passed and so Cordelia felt a lot of lonely nights, where she would doubt herself and the responsibilities of leading the academy and being the most powerful witch on earth, resting heavily on her shoulders.

But then you came along and at first the supreme thought you would just be another student. One of those that would use the support of the academy to discover your powers before you would leave. But after meeting you and learning about who you truly are, she quickly learned that you are a very caring person, always checking up on people and offering help without asking anything in return. Something that stood out to the supreme from very early on, was you checking up on her.

As supreme and headmistress, the witches including the ones that have been there the longest, Zoe, Queenie, and Madison, they always just assumed Cordelia was fine. After all, she is an adult, supreme, and headmistress she has to be okay right? Of course, they occasionally asked and Cordelia would say she is okay because what else should she really say? She couldn't bother the younger witches with all of the things and the stress on her mind.

But every time Cordelia would walk into the kitchen, you would be there, greeting her with a warm smile, offering some hot chocolate, and asking how she is. You were different, you asked, you cared and you really wanted to know how she is feeling, not just expecting the usual ''I'm fine'' answer and you had no problem mentioning at first that even though the supreme said she was okay, she didn't seem it. It took Cordelia by surprise and slowly you two started bonding, unaware that soon feelings would get involved and something bigger, something more powerful and far more would develop eventually.

Next, you walk towards the long staircase and through the hallway and you look at some paintings on the wall, some of them of the supreme's before Cordelia and you realize some things have changed in this year since you have left because they changed the decoration slightly.

Even though you studied at this academy for a long time, you are unaware of the names of the past supreme's, only knowing the name of the former supreme, Cordelia's mother Fiona Goode. Despite never knowing or meeting the woman, you had heard a lot about her. At first, Madison would tell you all about how she was killed by the former supreme and all the bad things that happened before Zoe told you what Cordelia had to deal with at times and learning about the supreme's past.

Whenever you used to walk past the portrait of Fiona, you used to feel hate, even before dating Cordelia, you never understood how anyone, especially her own mother could make the beautiful blonde angel, feel anything but special and loved. Cordelia could never hurt a fly, at least that's what you used to think and despite everything that happened, the blonde sure doesn't deserve the things she was put through.

You came to understand and realize that even a woman that technically has everything she could want, beauty, power, and a family, would crack sometimes under the pressure and need someone to lift her up, out of the ocean of responsibilities and also pain, and that even Cordelia needed a helping hand at times.

You were more than happy to provide that helping hand for her, whether it being helping her in the greenhouse over the weekends or throughout the week after classes, helping her water all the plants and helping them nourish and her explaining you all about each individual plant. You were more than happy to provide someone simply listening to the supreme, whether she needed to analyze one of the girls behavior and figure out how she can help them, or her stressing over some council meetings and unsure how to handle and deal with a certain situation. You would manage to get her to stay calm, relax and you would suggest her a few things or get her to make reasonable decisions again and it worked.

Next you walk past the bedrooms and just like it was yesterday you remember the room order and which room belonged to whom. First you walk past Coco and Mallory's room and you remember the many funny arguments they used to have especially with Queenie, arguing about the calories in people's foods and some fond memories, despite not knowing those two for long before leaving.

After, you walk past Zoe and Madison's room and this brings back a whole wave of emotions and also different memories and you can't help the bitter feeling when your mind momentarily wanders to all those nights spent in their room.

At first you would get along really well with Zoe, quickly realizing you both have the same taste in things and interests and she would often want to hang out with you, which only caused Madison to be jealous so eventually after getting over the arguing phase with the movie star, you got along very well with both of them.

They would often invite you into their room, especially at the beginning, getting to know you better, Madison asking you all sorts of questions, Zoe trying to calm Madison down and telling her she will end up scaring you off. The many nights where Madison would quite literally force you to go out together to a bar or a party and them doing your makeup or lending you their clothes.

Those things and interactions bring a smile to your face but it fades as quickly as you remember some of those dark nights you spent in there. Often you three would have little crisis meetings, Madison being dumped by a boy and needing a lot of ice cream and comforting, Zoe having her struggles with Kyle or you having your struggles with Cordelia.

At first it would be all these conversations about you doubting what is actually going on between you and Cordelia, all the nights drinking hot chocolate, speaking for so long and having such intimate conversations. Then the times where Madison encouraged you, telling you she noticed the way Cordelia would look at you and that she hasn't seen the supreme look at anyone like that in a while. Zoe was a bit more cautious, not wanting to get your hopes up but still you remember the many times you would burst through their room and gush over something Cordelia did now. Whether it being her inviting you to drive down to the city with her and pick up some new plants for the greenhouse, her helping you with another spell, her helping you discover that you are indeed a witch with a bloodline and that your powers just needed help exploring and so you could let them free.

You would start gushing over every single thing, to the point where Zoe became sceptic if you aren't just madly in love and reading everything wrong but indeed you weren't reading everything wrong. Madison was always confident and knew from the way Cordelia would glance at you from across the dinner table that there was something more growing and developing between you two.

The moments of bursting in there and gushing over Cordelia turned into moments of you three just swelling in memories and Zoe repeating ''I can't believe you were right all along Madison'' after you and Cordelia actually got together.

That soon changed too, although it took a few months, months of happiness, it fell apart as quickly as it grew and developed. From sitting there, over the moon gushing about the sweet things Delia did that day and Madison getting slightly annoyed, not wanting to hear all the romantic crap, your two friends would soon have to pick up the pieces Cordelia left and your shattered heart. At one point Madison thought you was going crazy, when you kept going on about Misty, after Mallory joined the academy and just like a miracle Misty came back to the academy, back from the dead.

Madison thought you were being stupid, accusing Cordelia of lying but Zoe had a feeling you weren't overreacting, weren't reading wrong that there is something going on and that the little white lies that you accused Cordelia of, would eventually turn out to be true.

Momentarily you are pulled out of your thoughts when you suddenly walk past your own bedroom door, or at least the one you used to sleep in before Cordelia's and your own feelings grew so strong for each other that none of you could possibly hide it for a second longer. And it didn't take long until you packed the few things you owned, some clothes, books and your vinyl player and you moved into the supreme's bedroom, just on the other side of the hallway.

As you glance over there your stomach flips and a bunch of emotions hit you like the familiar slap in the face or ocean wave crashing right at your body. You feel nostalgic, remembering the late nights with Cordelia, spent in her bedroom ,expressing secret love confessions, sharing each other's feelings and gradually taking each other's insecurities away, reminding each other and also showing each other all the beautiful parts about you and Cordelia, to the point where you would learn to love yourselves.

You feel happy that you were able to share such special memories with Cordelia, not just as her girlfriend back then but also her as a good friend to you, always there to lift you up when you doubted yourself or when your past and the grief for your parents hit hard. Even though Cordelia never had a stable relationship with her mother, she knew back then a lot about grief and she would help you on that journey of accepting things and learning to smile again, despite the things that life threw at you.

Part of you can't help but feel a hint of jealousy or maybe is it curiosity? whether they are still together, surely they must be because Zoe mentioned it on the phone but you do wonder, whether Misty and Cordelia share the intimate moments you shared together, whether Misty can lift Cordelia up the way you used to, whether she can love her the way you did and whether she is worthy of the supreme's love.

But before your emotions can overwhelm you or consume you further, Cordelia pulls you out of your thoughts, when she turns around, the same familiar perfume filling your nose, causing you to close your eyes just for a split second and remembering how at one point that smell used to remind you of home and safety.

She looks at you with a small smile and explains ''I thought it might be a bit more quiet if we speak in my office'' and all you can form as a reply is a nod, before she turns around again and opens the door.

Instantly a lot of flashbacks cloud your mind, the time you walked in there for the first time, after Zoe opened the doors of the academy to you and invited you in. The first few meetings with her, understanding what and whether you actually have a gift or not. The times where you would pop in there, sometimes even on the weekends or late at night and asking if she needed any help.

The times where she pushed you into her office, kissing you hungrily and taking you straight to her desk. The times where you would sit there, begging her, on the verge of tears and asking all of these questions, whether you two are still working, if she even loves you, ever loved you in the first place, whether you had done anything wrong, causing her to pull away from you or if it was indeed the return of Misty.

Every time you sat there, she would show the exact same reaction, her eyes locking with yours, her head tilting to the side a little, like she usually would when she noticed how much something is on your mind and how upsetting is it to you. Just there was a difference, she wouldn't do the things she normally would, like coming closer, kneeling down to reach eye-level and reassuring you that whatever is bothering you will be okay.

She simply avoided your gaze, often looking over to the window and overlooking the garden, her touching her nose gently or the scratching of her neck. Back then you didn't understand it was always an indication of what was really going on, her lying to you but not only you, to herself mostly, trying to push away what was so obvious, what you kept implying and what she tried pushing away since Misty passed years ago before you walked into her life.

Yet again, you are pulled out of your thoughts when Cordelia offers you a seat and points towards the same chair that you used to sit in all the time. She closes the door just like she usually would, swiftly and quiet and then she walks over to her chair, holding it with her hands for a second, her usual defense mechanism of her showing off her power and radiance but she quickly sits down and puts her hands on her desk a little nervously, playing with her rings.

You can't help but think back to your last conversation you had in this room, which was saying goodbye. Part of you always knew it was bound to happen, if not always, definitely after a certain blonde witch with curly hair and a Fleetwood mac obsession, returned to the academy.

It seems like the last conversation you had with Cordelia still didn't seem to finally give you any answers or any form of relief or clarity because only after saying goodbye, packing your stuff, saying goodbye and leaving New Orleans you learnt the truth from Zoe. Despite not really staying in touch with anyone, after you moved to Los Angeles, Zoe and you often messaged or talked on the phone, especially at the beginning, she wanted to know what is happening in your life and stay a part of it.

You remember your reaction when she told you a few weeks after leaving the academy, she told you that you were right all along and that Cordelia and Misty couldn't hide their affection and love for each other a second longer. It seemed like you were the piece keeping them from being happy and finally being able to share the feelings that they had for each other all along, despite Misty being dead for a long time in between and Cordelia being in a relationship in that time as well.

Of course it hurt and of course you cried but part of you felt relieved and you still do to this day, knowing you were never paranoid even if Madison and also Cordelia made you feel that way at times, telling you that you are wrong and reading too much into this. But you felt clarity and a bit of sanity given back to your life, learning it was never you being wrong, it was Cordelia and her little white lies. Always lying about these small or unimportant matters how Misty would gush over Cordelia or how they would look at each other or touch each other when they are in the same room and her lying in order to avoid hurting you.

[archetypal-archivist]

Xisuma and Evil X- A Hero By Any Other Name

So. This happened. You ever get the urge to write 9000 words of Evil X and Xisuma as brothers that in a Super Hero AU where the government is corrupt and runs all the heroes into the ground in the name of “protecting the most people possible”? With lots of Evil X making poor choices to help out his exhausted hero of a brother? And then have that story end up taking over your life for about a week until you can get it all out? Yeah. Yeah, glad I finally finished this but gosh darn am I double glad that I can move on to other projects.

Also on AO3.

__________

A story in which there are two little boys, a pair of twins by the names of Evil X and Xisuma. Xisuma is good and kind and responsible, everything that his mother ever wanted and more. Evil X was the mistake, the additional child their parents didn't want nor could afford to have. Their parents had run the math, knew the risks, knew that if they penny-pinched enough, they could afford to have the child they always dreamed of. Evil X threw their maths into chaos, and if they wanted one son, they had to take both.

Evil X and Xisuma knew that Evil X was a mistake, that his presence was why their family could never afford to go to the movies, why they couldn't buy school lunches like all the other kids, why their parents were so stressed and tired and cruel. Still, Xisuma was glad that his brother existed, even if it made his parents' lives harder. He wondered if that made him a bad son.

In time, Evil X and Xisuma were left alone by everyone in their lives and until all they had are each other and the void that their parents left them with when they had to look them in the eye and tell them that they couldn't take care of them anymore. Even now Xisuma thinks that the void raised them better than their parents ever did, teaching him and his brother to lie through their teeth, be sneaky, be cruel.

In the orphanage and the many foster homes that followed, Evil X did his best to take care of his twin as a sort of penance for screwing up the life Xisuma could have led. In return, Xisuma lied and lied and lied to the matrons and the well-meaning children about anything and everything he needed to. They don't need anyone but each other. (Truth.) They are happy. He is everything that Evil X needs, Evil X doesn't want a family. Xisuma is enough. (Lie.)

(Gods, don't take his brother away.)

Xisuma grew up with lies on his tongue and smiles in his eyes, warping himself into the golden child, larger than life. Evil X grew up in the shadows with bruised knuckles, a bruised heart, and eventually, scars across his face from a fight gone bloody and wrong. He was protecting Xisuma, the scars were worth it- his brother accepts them with an odd little smile on his face and a shattering in his eyes. It is a moment that stays with them long after.

---

Eventually, foster homes turn into streets and dumpsters, and long nights spent under the covers together are turned into nights spent up in the branches of trees in the park. Xisuma makes friends with the pigeons while Evil X pretends not to like their feathered neighbors. They curl up the same though, bodies fitting together like puzzle pieces high in their bower. Made for each other, quietly shaping themselves around their twin so as to better protect them and shield them from the cold.

Evil X comes home to their tree with stolen sweaters and wilted flowers and popcorn kernels from behind the movie theater so that the birds don't starve. Xisuma meets him with tears of wonder in his eyes and fire dancing on his fingertips.

Xisuma has magic. Evil X tries not to be jealous. As it turns out, he has very little to be jealous of when it's revealed that there are many other people who have magic throughout the city- or rather, "superpowers." It's like something straight out of a comic book, if that comic book resembled something like Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" or the Transformers IDW continuity.

People start dying. A lot of people. Those with powers that make them look monstrous are feared, hated, and eventually outcast. Those with powers that are useful are drafted to fight wars and heal people for hours and hours with no rest in the hospitals. Xisuma sells himself to the city officials behind Evil X's back and in return, he and his brother get a cold glass and steel apartment and food enough that they will never starve again.

Evil X begins to build up muscle, fleshing out and growing tall and strong. He hates it, hates his body, because Xisuma never becomes more than whipcord strength and whispered words- down-turned eyes, up-turned lips. Reassurances that he's happy, really, truly. So obedient, his brother, the ideal filial son to the system that Evil X could never bring himself to be. They train the civilian out of his twin and mold him into a leader, a real proper superhero.

They don't give his brother lunch breaks. They need his power too badly, they say. There are people dying and they need his strength.

Gods, it makes him sick.

Xisuma's slight figure hides in his brother's shadow when they are at home, and Evil X does his best to wrap around him until the "monsters" of the world can't get him. Evil X lets Xisuma's flames dance across his fingertips and tickle his face, their gentle warmth driving out some of the chill in their big empty apartment. On truly special days, they go to the park to feed the birds. The higher ups don't like that, of course, insisting that Xisuma under Evil X's care is like using his spark for a kerosene lamp, contained, stifled, unable to help anyone in any way that matters.

The city wants a bonfire. Evil X growls and tells them no, but Xisuma just smiles and his eyes shatter a little more as he goes with them willingly, offering himself up as kindling. His superhero name is Matchstick of all things, and Evil X knows his brother well enough to know that he picked it out himself.

A nod to the fact that he is destroying himself? An inside joke and an apology in one, maybe. It breaks his heart too much to think on it.

---

With time, the rules and roles become a little clearer and the war begins to solidify. Basic rights for those with powers is still in the works, but Xisuma is able to start eating a little more. Evil X makes him protein shakes to take with him to work anyway.

The heroes are this: Matchstick, Reaper, Ivy-Over, Xenon, Spatter, Shank, Krypton, and Trigometric. Xisuma, Cleo, Gemini, Tango, Vintage Beef, Iskall, Impulse, Cubfan.

The villains are this: Armistice, Zyon, Ooze, Clockwork, Poultryman, Valkerie, and Lumesce. (Welsknight, Etho, Jevin, Mumbo, Grian, Stress, Pearl- but our hero doesn't know this yet.)

Evil X sits on their shared bed and holds his twin in his arms, listening to him talk about work with troubled eyes.

Reaper. Cruel, with a tongue like a knife and teeth even sharper. She eats her enemies whole and seems to enjoy the taste of blood. Somewhere in the dark of the building is a man named Joe who whispers comebacks and threats to her for her to use in her next fight. She has not seen him free or unshackled in three years. Around his neck is a metal collar, an irony too bitter for her to speak of often. Xisuma hopes they treat him well.

Ivy-Over, blinded by the glitter and shine of heroism, still firmly thinking the best of her political overlords. Naive. Carefully herded off the battlefields as soon as her fights are over so that she never sees the casualties her massive vines leave in their wake. Xisuma worries that one day the illusion will be broken and with it her mind. She seems like the kind of person who could regress to using entrails as a skipping rope if pushed far enough. Evil X does his best to reassure him, but the lies turn to mulch in his mouth.

Xenon and Krypton, a duo that never let the higher ups split them up or force them to fight alone. Together they share a record for the fewest recorded injuries, as well as a certain fierceness in their eyes as they volley explosive balls of shadow and light between them, bouncing them back and forth to build up velocity before letting them loose on their enemies. Still, the people whisper about how much more help they could do if they were simply separated, able to cover more places at once. At night, Xisuma hears them crying, bundled tight in each other's arms and mourning their missing third.

Shank, their sniper. Supreme accuracy, a consequence of his self-built bionic eye and his special laser rifle. The higher ups are murmuring about what he could do if more of him was bionic. What improvements could be made to his body? How many more lives could be saved? (How many more "monsters" could be put behind bars?)

Splatter, their brawler. A sip of blood and he hulks out, his strength becoming all the greater the more he drinks, so the higher ups give him all the blood he could stomach and more. They never tell him where it comes from, and he's too afraid to ask. (He was a butcher before this whole hero thing, he had explained to Xisuma once. He knows what animal blood tastes like. What they give him is definitely not animal blood- and sometimes, it makes him feel sick. He always was allergic to steroids.)

Trigometric, who bent reality into fractals, who seemed just a bit more broken than the rest. He actually liked his job, and that perhaps made him less of a hero and more of a monster. (Mr. Goodtimes was a head of government of some renown, famous for his power plays and his campaign that favored brutal action against those that the city condemned. Trigometric called him "Scar" with affection on his lips and that was perhaps scariest of all.)

It's terrifying hearing about his twin's coworkers and their varying flavors of unfortunate and unstable, even worse when he has to stay at home and watch the news to see if his brother has survived to see another day against the violent protests and the drug rings and mobs and super villains.

Because there are super villains. He even meets one.

---

The pigeons need feeding. Life or death, whether Xisuma is around to remind him or no, the pigeons need feeding so every Tuesday and Saturday Evil X goes to the park with a bag of bird seed. It just so happens that one sunshine-filled summer day there is someone there before him. Crouched close to a few pigeons, at first he thinks the figure is just dressed in a purple cloak, but when the figure stands up and stretches, the cloak separates to reveal a pair of brilliant purple wings. Poultryman.

Evil X has seen his brother come back from fights and he knows that while Poultryman is a figure of some renown, his battles rarely cause collateral damage- that's more the hallmark of his partner Clockwork. So when Poultryman turns to face him, trademark white mask over his eyes and an odd expression on his face, Evil X just glares and walks up to him to dump the bag of bird seed on the super villain's feet.

"For the birds," he says tersely before spinning on his heel, preparing to walk away. The sound of bright, cheerful laughter has him pausing and the sound of wings meeting the dirt has him turning around. Poultryman is on the ground, rolling around in the bird seed and laughing his head off, clutching his stomach and flapping his wings wildly, which only makes even more of a mess.

"Pffftt- hahaHAhAHaH! Oh gods, your face! If I couldn't tell you were so pissed off to see me I wouldv'e thought this was the greatest prank ever!" Oookay? Evil X crosses his arms, unimpressed and left with a sneaking suspicion he is being made fun of.

"And?" Poultryman lets out a last few wheezing gasps before smoothly rolling to his feet, mask askew and utterly covered in dirt, grass, and bird seed. The local pigeons have, surprisingly enough, not scattered just yet.

"And that was brilliant! Tell me, are you the one who's been feeding the birds around here? The pigeons have been dying to introduce me to their 'friend' and I've been eager to meet them ever since. Well, the word translates more to family but there's some non-pigeon implications mixed in there, so friend works a little better. I don't think my feathered friends have quite yet figured out how to buy their own bird seed. You don't look like a pigeon anyway."

"No. I am not a pigeon," Evil X sighs, shifting his feet but keeping his posture defensive. If he remembers right, Poultryman never did any real damage but he apparently came off to Xisuma as a little unhinged and he'd rather not test the super villain's good mood. "And yes, I feed the birds around here. Can I go?"

Poultryman tilts his head to the side, going abruptly silent and still, all emotion wiped from his body language, expression, and voice. "That depends. Would you like to make Matchstick's life a little easier? I have a deal for you."

---

It goes a little something like this.

Clockwork and Poultryman schedule a raid on a local food processing plant, hoping to take their newest shipment of tin. Matchstick and Splatter are in the area and are called in to help. It's a poor match up to begin with, with Splatter's strength not doing much against Clockwork's robotika and Matchstick- while able to keep up with Poultryman in the air, barely- can't seem to land a solid hit on the villain. It doesn't help that he seems to be limited in how hard he hits, too conscious of what his flames might do to Poultryman's vulnerable feathers and of just how high they are in the air. Clockwork, meanwhile, is free to pilfer what he and his partner please from the plant.

However, despite the lack of damage the super heroes are able to do, the villains do even less. To Evil X, that is all that matters.

In another part of the city, a group of civilians meet in an abandoned railway car, dry docked in a train yard with its rusted frame resting on several heavy blocks of wood. The door is chained shut, but that means little when the underneath has a hole cut into it and if one is determined enough, crawling inside is easy. There, they exchange moth-eaten blankets, half-broken appliances, tattered clothes, and the tools to fix them. Money. Documents.

Evil X brings food. The government promised food unending to him and his brother, he may as well take advantage of it.

A deceptively normal-looking man with glasses and a deactivated metal collar around his neck brings a stack of books in, most of them picture books for the children. Another man, this one with green skin and robotik prosthetics, brings a stack of battered but newly repaired mobile phones, gaze shifting around nervously, as if scared to be caught there. Evil X makes a quiet note of the men but moves on. Theirs is not a story he feels like tampering with today.

When Xisuma comes home to find Evil X laying face-down in bed, fast asleep, he just smiles and tucks himself in beside his twin. Today is the first day in a long time he had come out from a fight unscathed, and tomorrow he will share the good news with his brother. For now, he sleeps.

---

In time, Evil X becomes a staple of the Homeless Enforcing Principles, which quickly gets abbreviated to the rather unimaginative "HEP." He wonders in the back of his mind if a certain man in glasses had something to do with the name, but decides not to bother with that quickly enough. He has enough on his plate as is with his newly adopted duties.

You see, when you get a diverse enough body of people together from all echelons in the city, and then put them into a rather small space, they begin to do what every group of friendly strangers like to do on the train- start complaining. Sometimes it's about the new "neighborhood watch" starting trouble on the corner of 6th and Fruit, sometimes it's about the new increase in taxes their boss wants to implement, sometimes it's about the stock that slips through the gaps when the trucks come to restock the supermarket.

Between him and his twin, Evil X never really was the one for idle chit-chat, but he knew lies just as well as his brother did and public speaking was just lying with a pretty bow on top. Stock begins to get left off of inventory sheets and put into the hands of the needy. The "neighborhood watch" get pointed towards the parts of the city that actually need their help (conveniently drawing the attention of the local law enforcement, who can actually do something about the problem).

He begins to donate more and more food to the cause, waistline thinning in the process. He thinks he likes his figure better that way.

As Evil X puts more time into his new project, crime rates don't exactly go down, but the number of people arrested for stupid reasons certainly does. The other members of HEP begin to bring in their friends and family and the pool of resources and talents grows, expanding outside the walls of their train car and out into people's basements, gas station parking lots, metal trash bin bonfires in the park. Little pools of community, and for Evil X, wellsprings of information.

Clockwork and Poultryman are some of the first actual super villains to come to the meetings, this time under the names of Mumbo Jumbo and Grian, but they are not the last.

---

Armistice arrives hanging off of Lumesce's shoulder one night, his metal body forcing her to drag him along on the ground, shredded legs unable to hold his own weight. She cries steady tears of light, seemingly near-physically pained at being unable to further help him. Evil X watches quietly from the background as Grian looks up and over the bonfire from where he is tending the jagged gash in the unconscious Mumbo's leg.

"Wels. Pearl. Got you too, huh?" The carefully kept-up cheer is gone from the man's face as the duo settle down by the fire, sprawling out in a rough heap.

The woman, Pearl, nods wearily, pulling off her hood and wiping at her face, glowing tears staining her black jacket. "Yeah. Trigometric decided he wanted to come and 'play' for a bit, seems he finally caught on to the illegal clinic I was running down in Mr. TFC's basement. I was lucky enough to get an anonymous tip that he was coming, but Wels got caught in the crossfire for defending me." Grian nods back, eyes distant.

"Give Mumbo a hand with his leg, I'll go grab the last of our tin for Wels to eat so he can patch himself up. E-X?" Evil X straightens up at the winged man's attention. "Call up Keralis and see if you can't get some hew housing sorted for Mr. TFC. I doubt his house survived in the crossfire and you might as well fix it for him with my permission and funds rather than just sort it out behind my back and try to sell it to me as an 'investment' later."  With that parting remark Grian stands up stiffly and flies away, leaving Pearl to make her way over to his partner, healing tears already streaming down her face so that she can start to fix the wound.

On the other side of the fire, Wels reaches down and rubs at the sharp and twisted metal of the remnants of his left leg, expression lost and weary. "Things can't keep going like this, so many of us are running on fumes by this point. Something has to change." Expressionless, Evil X just turns away, pulls out his cellphone, and begins to make a few calls.

He carefully ignores the twisting of his heart in his chest.

The next day, Mr. TFC has a room in a decent hotel and Evil X sits on his perfectly white couch staring at his overly large TV, watching the news. Armistice and Poultryman are fighting against Matchstick and Ivy-Over, dashing in and landing a few hits before retreating to the shadows, then running up to repeat the process again. The fight ends with both sides retreating, the heroes to the hospital, the villains to skies with Poultryman straining to bear both Armistice's weight and the load of cash stolen cash in his arms.

Grian's going to pull a wing muscle again, Evil X just knows it.

Xisuma leaves the fight unscathed. Gemini isn't nearly so lucky.

---

The next super villain he meets is mostly on accident, a random encounter more than anything. Tired of lounging about all day, if you call making connections and surfing the internet doing fuck all, Evil X decides he hates himself a bit more than he usually does and decides to go job hunting. A quick internet search later and he finds himself standing outside an abandoned warehouse on the North docks. He and his brother never had much more than their birth certificates and social security numbers to their name, so shady suited him perfectly fine.

A man steps out from behind a corner dressed in a hospital mask, black pea-coat, and a sailor's breton cap as white as his hair. Evil X freezes, eyes going wide as the familiar-looking stranger goes bug-eyed to see him right back. Then the man shifts his weight to his back foot, crossing his arms and wincing playfully, very real trepidation lurking in his posture.

"Uh, you wouldn't happen to by Matchstick's brother, would you?" Evil X takes a careful step away from the man, who he now recognizes as Zyon from watching the news, one of Xisuma's more common foes. His own research proved that the fellow had ice powers to put an iceberg to shame, which was ironic considering that he was secretly the business mogul Etho, who ran a shipping company helpfully named "Titanic Inc." It was doubly ironic since "Zyon" was notorious for causing problems for "Etho," who then claimed the insurance payouts when the boats eventually sank.

That the boats that sank frequently carried weapons, junk food made with GMO ingredients, and weirdly enough, socks, was of little consequence to him, but he kept that amusing tidbit in his back pocket for later. (The sailors on board were... collateral. And a nonissue. Anyone who signed up on a ship run by "Titanic Inc." deserved what they got.)

(Their deaths were not his concern.)

"Yeah, that's me. And you're Zyon- or rather, Etho." Zyon chuckles nervously.

"Yep yep, that's me. And you're very firmly on the 'no touchie' list around here, so I'm just gonna gooo...." Zyon flinches as Evil X suddenly attaches himself to his wrist, expression steely.

"List?" It's more statement than question, but it has Zyon gulping back a frantic giggle anyway.

"Oh no, I'm not messing with that one. Let's just say you should take that up with your brother and leave it at that. Get too deep into that mess and someone's gonna end up regretting it- and I'm not that dumb, that's for sure!" With that parting remark, Evil X finds his feet frozen to the ground and Zyon running off, dropping the black pea-coat of Etho to reveal the icy blue Kevlar ninja suit of the super villain underneath.

Bemusedly Evil X watches Zyon vault up a stack of pipes onto a nearby roof, then off towards the city where he could better better disappear.

Hmm. Seems like he needs to step up his game.

---

He runs into Ooze at the supermarket. Apparently they both prefer the green grapes to the purple ones. The more you know.

---

It's his encounter with Valkerie that really sets things off.

Xisuma comes home one day, tears streaming down his face and his gloves covered in blood and dust. He crumples in a heap at Evil X's feet where he sits on the couch and drops his face into his twin's lap, trembling. His arms dangle at his sides, blood dripping from his fingers onto the sterile white carpeting.

"Four dead found in a park near here. All teenagers, just having fun. Just. Just fucking kids! She ruptured their ear drums and they bled out because they couldn't move to get to safety. Gods E-X, their eyes... They looked so scared..." Evil X stays quiet and runs his fingers through his brother's hair, heedless of the muck clinging to the ends. Xisuma shakes himself to bits in his hands. "They were just kids. We couldn't do even do anything but clean up the mess afterwards."

Xisuma pauses, hesitant, before choking out- "That could have been us. Had we still been on our own, that could have been us." Ah. So that's it.

"We're safe, you know. Whoever Valkerie is, she won't get us here."

"But we don't know that! What if you're out shopping and she's at the market, or if she gets on the news and her scream works through the TV? What then?! I can't-" The words die in his twin's throat and Evil X gulps back his own.

I can't lose you. It's a phrase that's crossed his own mind more than once.

"Okay. Okay. I'll stay home until she's caught, okay? Get delivery or something, I don't know. And I'll keep the TV off, the radio too. Shhh. Shhhhh. I'll be okay." Xisuma struggles closer, shoving his face into his brother's stomach and getting snot and tears all over the both of them. Evil X doesn't complain. It's a lie and they both know it, but they've lived lies before, are used to it. What's one more, in the face of that?

To be fair, Evil X gives it a few weeks before he makes his move, and he knows he'll be fine so really it's only half a lie anyway.

---

Feet crunch against gravel as Evil X approaches the woman kneeling in the center of the abandoned construction site, hands over her mouth, eyes scrunched, biting the flesh of her thumb to keep her sobs held in.

"Hello Ms. Valkerie. Grian's told me about you."

The woman whips around, eyes wide and bloodshot at his sudden appearance, before she shakily lowers her hands from her mouth to clutch at the fabric of her pink cardigan. "I'm- I'm not some monster, got it? I'm just Stress, j-just- I'm just me! I don't want to hurt anyone!" Her voice goes shrill and thin towards the end and Evil X hides his wince, although apparently not well enough because she immediately slaps a hand over her mouth again, eyes watering anew.

"Okay. It's okay, Stress. I'm here to help," he placates, lowering himself down to sit next to her in the dirt. Around them, rusted I-beams and concrete pillars rise, giving them some semblance of privacy. The full moon lurks overhead, casting them both in a silver glow. "You're life must be very hard, hm?"

Stress nods, expression wary.

"And retail is very- ha- stressful too, I imagine?" Here a little grin leaks out from behind her hand. "All those customers whining on and on about discounts. 'Oh, I have a gift receipt why can't I return this?' Like, lady, you opened this box. 'I'm gonna talk to your manager!' Lady, he's just gonna say the exact same thing."

A stifled giggle and a whispered "Worse! I work in the women's clothing department." Evil X gives a mock gasp, face going wide and shocked.

"So you don't just have to deal with fussy customers- you deal with fussy suburban soccer moms!" Stress tips forward with the force of her muffled laughter, tucking her damp face into the curve of his neck and putting her full weight on him. Hesitantly she clutches the tail of his shirt with her freehand, then a little tighter when he makes no move to shove her off. Evil X just wraps a gentle arm around her shoulders.

"Some of those customers must make you want to go home and just scream, huh." Her laughter tapers off, but she nods, quiet. "So you go somewhere empty and abandoned and scream your heart out so you don't kill someone." Another nod, a little hitch in Stress' breathing. "And you scream and scream, so glad to release some of your pent-up feelings, but oops. It turns out there are people there anyway. And your screaming just killed them. You've become a murderer and the police brands you accordingly."

The hand in his shirt tightens, tugging. "I- I didn't want to hurt them! I didn't want to hurt anyone! But- but it just happened and then I was running, and no one saw me so I had to just go to work the next day, a-and. And-"

"And now you're the wanted super villain Valkerie." His hand smoothes up and down her back as her breath hitches again, once, twice, and then wetness against his neck.

"Valkerie is such a stupid name, anyway. I'm not escorting anyone anywhere, let alone to Valhalla. I just scream and. And they're dead."

Evil X hums quietly. "You must be very tired."

"...Yes. Yes." The moon slips through the sky for a while and they drift with it, lost in thought. Evil X stares up at it, squinting against its light to try and figure out what time it is, if Xisuma is likely to be home yet. The gravel is harsh against his knees.

Then. "Things can't keep going like this. I'm so tired, all the time these days. It's just work, day in and day out, and all this stress." She pulls away then and Evil X watches as Stress scrubs at her face, expression going cold and determined. She stares him straight in the eyes, but something about her still seems lost, like she's gazing through him. "Something has to change or else someone is going to get themselves killed."

He tilts his eyes head, considering, thoughtful, with a well-hidden edge to his voice.

"I think I could help with that."

---

The morning news. Four calls placed, a frantic brother reassured, Stress is sitting a cafe on the corner of Elm and 5th. Her gut flutters with nerves but Evil X can see her expression is calm from her position in the background of the shot. The news anchor is a pretty blond-haired, blue-eyed young woman blathering on about how the cafe apparently is the oldest one in the city and some other historical nonsense. Out of shot of the camera, a desperate, dog-eared petty thief is running for his life down 6th street, the hulking figure of Spatter hot on his heels.

They round a corner, onto 5th. Past the cafe, the startled reporter, the public shrieking as their morning is disrupted. Stress nearly throws up as her heart launches itself into her throat but she's... There's a plan and she's going to stick to it.

So she stands up, small and in the background of the shot, but her bright pink jacket makes her stand out. She opens her mouth, expression going scared like a civilian's, and screams just as she had been told to. It's not for long, barely a second or two all told, but it's enough to have the people near her cringing away, blood trickling from their eyes and from where their fingernails dig into their skin in trying to cover their ears.

Spatter freezes in his tracks, pupils mere pinpricks as the sudden outpouring of blood triggers something deep and wild in him. The camera shakes, the frightened camera man ducking down to avoid notice but carefully recording what's about to happen, as if sensing that whatever happens next is about to be important.

The hero turns towards Stress, eyes wild, and although she's scared out of her mind, she stands her ground. Her voice barely even shakes as she speaks.

"S-stop. Stop running, can't you see you're scaring people? You nearly ran me over!" In the eyes of the camera Stress looks like a frightened civilian gone civil defender in pink, the morning light casting her in gold and the cafe's shadow creeping over Spatter's massive, muscled-out form to cast him in darkness and grey. The lack of harsh lighting makes it even more obvious when he starts sniffing the air, darting eyes pausing on all the bloodied hands and finally resting on the woman who caused the damage.

The world has insisted, long and loud, that he is a hero and with that comes certain ingrained responsibilities. Stress is Valkerie. Splatter fixes his gaze on her and with a snarl, he moves.

The camera catches it in perfect, awful clarity when his arm goes through her stomach and her blood starts pooling on the floor. Her expression is so betrayed.

From his place on his clean, white couch at home, Evil X turns the TV off.

---

Stress is buried with honors and all media depictions of Valkerie as a monster cease as the streets are made "safe" from the super villain. Instead, news programs and talk shows take up a new crusade, this one against the "heroes" that protected the city and the governing bodies that controlled their movements. Mr. Goodtimes has his name dragged through the mud, and each day his brother comes home with stories about how frazzled Trigometric is, Evil X has to hide his smile.

Seeming to pick up on the way things are turning, Clockwork disappears from the public eye while Poultryman steps up the showmanship, making more appearances in public spaces to egg government buildings and steal petty amounts of scrap metal from junk yards and factory scrap heaps. The heroes that give chase, usually Xenon and Krypton, end up causing more damage than they actually prevent.

Ivy-Over- shocked at the public outrage about the apartments left in shambles after her particularly brutal battle against Zyon- rather predictably ends up snapping, although not in any way Evil X expected.

She ends up going to the news and telling them everything. Public outrage rises anew.

There's a riot in town square and Matchstick and Reaper are sent in to stop it. Thirteen people die, kindly Mr. TFC one of them. Xisuma comes home, collapses into Evil X's arms, and cries.

Things have to change. And so they do.

---

Midnight and two figures meet on a roof top somewhere overlooking the domed silhouette of city hall. The first wears a set of armor shaded in green and grey, a purple visor over his eyes and an oxygen-filter over the lower half of his face. The second figure has wings, stretched wide to block out the light of the crescent moon above.

Matchstick. Poultryman.

Xisuma. Grian.

Matchstick tilts his head to the side, drawing himself up to his full height to loom over the far shorter villain. "The status quo is falling apart, Poultryman. Does the deal still hold?"

Poultryman rolls his head to make it clear he had just rolled his eyes, the purple insignia on his mask flashing to display his annoyance. "Yeah yeah, I've spread the word to the others and they're not as crazy as the news likes to make 'em out to be. No one has hurt your precious 'E-X,' nor do they have any plans to. Too much trouble to mess with beyond trying to keep him out of whatever crime scene we'll be making, and that's hard enough as is. Your brother has a habit of making himself hard to track and it's getting... troubling."

The hero's posture suddenly goes as stiff as his namesake, smoke starting to hiss from the vents carefully built into his suit. "Troubling?"

Violet wings flap once, twice, before pulling tight against Poultryman's back and not for the first time, Matchstick curses himself for never bothering to learn what his various wing positions mean. The villain in question just rolls his shoulders back and settles into a careful parade rest that gives nothing away, expression pensive.

"Xisuma..." Matchstick flinches back, the careful line between them wavering at the name. "What exactly do you about your brother?"

A hesitant head tilt and he taps his fingers along his leg, thinking back to when he had last spent more than a few fleeting hours with his twin at a time.

"He likes sweet foods, even if he pretends he doesn't. Has more money invested in Derp Coin than he probably should. Likes red and black but gets fussy if anyone calls him a goth. Never seems to sleep, or eat regular meals, but he never seems to forget anything either. Best brother I could ever ask for- he loves me, I know that for sure. All the important stuff. Why?"

A wisp of cloud drifts overhead, casting a brief shadow over the pair, and in the sudden darkness Matchstick could swear that Poultryman had pulled a frown. Then the moment passes and the villain is back to his usual inscrutable self, the only emotion in his body language being what he had put there intentionally. His wings remain tight to his back.

"Then I think you might be in for a bit of a surprise one day, Matchstick. Here's to hoping you can roll with the coming storm."

---

Evil X is beloved by the HEP network. Regardless of Grian's intention in putting him in contact with them- or even why the villain knew of the group to start with- his repeated contributions to their food stocks made him an opening among them and his ability to make and exploit connections made him their hero. If you were desperate, hungry, in need? Evil X could get you whatever you needed at the cost of a simple favor.

When it came to the price of a life, a favor is a small thing to ask indeed. Is it any wonder that they became so loyal to him? So when Evil X began asking questions about some of the city's more sensitive secrets and its shadier underbelly, it was only natural that they told him.

From the tall man with green skin, he learned the best places to dump things so that they disappeared. From a sleepy-looking fellow with a bandana, he learned the locations of the best drug dealers, and from those dealers he learned of their suppliers, their manufacturers, the places where heroes never walked. From the man with glasses, he learned about the back doors and hidden routes through the biggest, most important buildings, the places where they held people until they could make them disappear.

And with this information, Evil X's services expanded even further. Drugs for the addicts, as contaminant-free and trust-worthy as he could find them. Ways to make people appear and disappear in the eyes of the law (and the occasional abusive spouse). Alcohol, cigarettes- and most importantly, information.

Or rather, black mail. If you wanted to know something on someone, Evil X became the person to go to. Months of careful manipulation had spread his name and his reach through all levels of the city and people from all walks of life took advantage of her services, although usually all meetings were held over the phone and through a voice changer fashioned to look just like his twin's mask. The secrecy only increased his popularity, as people just love a good mystery and a grey-shaded crime boss made a lovely story indeed.

And soon, this caught the intention of another of the city's fabled figures- the mad scientist who lived deep in the underbelly of the city, a place where no light shone. The man, the myth, the legend... Void.

But then, myths never were all that accurate, especially with things like names.

---

Curly blond hair, brown cardigan, a ripped white lab coat. Calculating purple eyes and a wide, wide eerily white grin. Short and stocky with a complexion like a ripe peach, the blue light coming off the lights overhead casting hazy shadows over his form, everything about the good doctor is simultaneously creepy and a soft sort of handsome- he has to say, he's impressed. The mythical Zedaph lives up to the city's dark rumors of him and he says as much, which prompts that grin to grow all the wider.

"Ah, hello Weaver! Y'know, I kind of thought you'd be shorter. And down here a lot sooner, I almost could say I missed you~!" Evil X balks as the scientist steps forward and grips his chin to tilt his head down, purple eyes wandering over his scarred features.

"It's not like you make yourself easy to find- and that's not my name." Zedaph shakes his head, leaning his face up with just scant inches between them.

"Little spider, you might be pretty good at hearing things but you're awful at listening. If you have large enough ears, you'd find you're just about the most talked about thing in the underground these days-"

"Do spiders have ears...?"

"-so like it or not, your web is big enough that people have been spotting it in odd places, which means your twin will probably catch on soon. Which means..." Here Zedpah spins away to walk to the opposite wall, pressing a few buttons on his tablet which make the underground laboratory brighten considerably. Evil X tries not to feel bereft at the sudden loss of contact. "Your plans are gonna have to hit double time. And I love me a good speed potion!"

Speechless, Evil X just nods as the scientist opens a previously hidden door and pulls out a laptop case from inside, turning to present it to him with a fiercely proud expression on his face.

"Knock 'em dead darling. I can't wait to see you rock their world~!"

---

What does the end of an era look like? It's not a sudden collapse of civilization, people screaming and running through the streets. It's not the violent murder of the governmental leaders or riots against the past order. It's not as clear cut as all that. Nor is it so subtle that people look around one day and go huh, as the world around them had shifted beneath their feet without their notice. Indeed, there are many who saw the tide rising and were all too happy to watch the waters sweep in and away.

It goes like this.

The super villains go missing. First one week goes by with no wild scheme or dangerous incident, then two, then three. The higher ups are frantic with worry, running constant meetings and keeping the super heroes out on the streets for as long as they could without the heroes themselves rioting. It keeps Matchstick out of the way of Weaver, and at the moment, that's all the thought he can afford to spare his twin. It's for the best, really. The next step is important.

Across every government-issued computer in the city, an email is issued out. Personalized, first middle last name, parents' names, chidlrens' names. An alphabetical list of every law the person in question had broken in the last ten years, the number of witnesses who saw them do it, sometimes video footage or photo-copied documents if the crime was serious enough to warrant more concrete proof. What the punishments for those crimes would be. What could be done, if those punishments were waived for money or fame.

Nearly a thousand people get an email in the span of 24 hours. (Evil X never wants to write another email ever-fucking-again. None. Ever.) The heroes also receive an email detailing what laws were broken by denying them rights, food, decent living conditions and overtime pay, as well as the names of several lawyers who would work for them for free if the email was shown to them within three days time.

Every email is emblazoned with a web-like logo with a bright red "X" sitting in the middle like a bloody spider. Though some plucky tech people attempt to track the emails back to the sender, their every attempt is rebuffed by the impossible firewalls built into the computer the messages were sent from. As imagined, chaos in its most understated form ensues.

The city officials scramble to keep their sinking ship from falling apart and the little people kept cooped up in square offices and cell blocks come crawling out of the woodwork to jump ship. Some of the heroes, such as Xenon, Matchstick, and Shank try desperately to hold things together, but others like Reaper head for the nearest legal office and hole up with a team of vicious prosecutor attorneys. Meanwhile, the civilians go about their business, unaware of what is going on in the ivory towers far above their notice.

Xisuma comes home to fin their apartment empty, and although betrayal sits like a rock in his gut, his guts still squirm with desperate, aching fear. (No... please, no.)

The super villains make their reappearance with flair, setting the stage for the next act. Each one takes to a corner of the city, working in pairs to capture civilians and hold them hostage en mass, their efforts to wide spread for the remaining heroes to deal with in one go. From here, walking along a quiet street and watched by hundreds of frightened eyes- a captive audience- Weaver makes his debut as he makes his way to the city capital.

Tall, whip-thin enough to make his proportions lean more towards slenderman than super model, and dressed in red and black armor with a matching helmet and visor, Weaver cuts an imposing figure as he makes his way up the white marble steps of the capital building to where a nervous-looking reporter stands. She straightens up at his approach though and with a nod to her camera crew, she starts asking questions just in time for Poultryman to swoop in and land beside the newest super villain, expression stern but a clear presence of support.

In his hands a laptop is clutched.

---

The demands are simple in theory, but Xisuma feels his heart thunder in his throat at every point on the list.

The week would be split into three types of days. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays would proceed as normal and the heroes and villains could go at each other as they pleased. Fridays would be reserved for the villains to do as necessary without hero interference under the caveat that no blood would be spilled, and Sundays heroes could have the same. Tuesdays and Saturdays, no one would fight, a proper break for everyone.

The villains would keep to their side of the bargain, Weaver says darkly as he stares directly into camera, just so long as the heroes kept to theirs. And measures would be taken for anyone who chose not to comply. Xisuma's brain goes fuzzy with static as the super villain makes a few other demands, something about fair wages and from when to when each group could operate, but his gaze remains locked to where he can just barely make out his twin's face through his visor. The words filter through him, dismissed into a soft numbing blur.

The air suddenly feels chilled on his skin, fingers twitching in his lap, a rough, twisting feeling in his gut like the bottom of his stomach just dropped away. He feels trapped, unable to move from the couch, from the wrong side of the screen. Oh, he thinks hazily to himself, he's about to be sick. Hmm, ought to do- something. About all of- of this.

Gods... What did his brother do?

---

An era ends like this- Poultryman sweeps Weaver away in his arms and in his place, Evil X comes home. Xisuma watches his brother come through the door, eyes glued to his brother's face even as Evil X places his keys on the table by the door and takes off his shoes. There's a gentle realization bubbling up that this is the first time he's seen his brother's bare face with his own eyes, without the tint of a visor between them, in far too long. His twin's got paler as of late, making the eye bags and scars stand out all the more.

"You're home." The words hang in the air and Evil X sags at their weight, leaning against the door as if to prop himself up for the conversation to come. His arms hang behind his back, a laptop case dangling in his grip.

"You know this isn't home any more than the tree was."

"We- we were supposed to be safe here. This was where we were going to stay!" Xisuma is going red now, rising up from the couch in his anger, and Evil X watches him with the dredged-up calm of a man resigned to drowning. Good, anger he could handle.

"You thought this was where we would stay, got us a nice, normal apartment that looks like it's out of a fashion plate without asking me. You think I like staying in this pretty white bird cage that you bought by selling yourself to the most corrupt people around? This place isn't any safer for us than the tree was, and at least in the park we had company!"

"Says the one who fell into bed with the literal bad guy! At least here you weren't getting into fights every other week."

"No, now you're the one doing that!" They're shouting at each other. They never do that. An acrid taste fills Evil X's mouth and he gulps it back, along with a few words he just knows he would regret if he said them. A deep breath, a slow in and out. "Look, just. Don't be a hypocrite, okay?"

Xisuma pauses in his wind up for a proper tirade, eyes wary and wet. "What?"

"You aren't the only self sacrificing moron here."

"...Oh." Yeah. Oh.

Here Evil X takes another breath, resisting the urge to hold it, then extends his arm to show his twin the laptop case. "Hey."

Xisuma folds his arms behind his back, looking at his feet and then up again, shuffling back a step. "Yeah?"

"Got you a present. You always were the best of us, so. Here. It was the last part of the deal I kinda set up, a kind of fail-safe slash card to add to your deck. This laptop has evidence of my entire operation, every backroom deal, every piece of black mail, every person I've had killed or vanished or what have you. Everything I've been up to for the last however long. And... it's for you to read. It's not gonna be fun, but like, I trust you so it's okay. If you read this and really, honestly think I've crossed a line you can't forgive me for, you can turn this into the police and... I'll deal with whatever you choose to do with me. No loop holes, no take-backs."

Here Evil X leans his full weight against the door and lets his arm swing back down to his side, gaze sliding off to the side and a melancholy smile curling at his lips and pulling at his scars. "I trust you. I trust you. It... It'll be okay, yeah? Just make whatever choice you need to. Don't hesitate." He doesn't promise anything, keeps the words 'I'll be okay' from spilling into the air between them, but instead allows a careful submission to enter his posture, head bowed and figure loose and hanging.

It... might not be alright, but it will be right and that will have to be good enough. (It has to be.)

Xisuma chokes, a sob rising in his throat as his brave, strong brother gives up before his eyes. The air in his lungs freezes solid at the thought of having to choose whether or not his twin lives or dies, because that's what this is, he can't pretend that the city wouldn't execute him at the slightest chance, agreements be damned. His gaze tracks wildly from the laptop case to the top of his brother's head to the window, as if trying to see if anyone could be watching, could make the choice for him.

It's not fair. It's not fair, why him, why? He was so good, tried so hard- his heart is loud in his ears, breath rattling in and out in wheezing gasps- sobbing now, utterly sobbing. Evil X doesn't look up, doesn't try to comfort him. Won't even move, gods.

Fuck it.

Evil X startles, back banging against the door as Xisuma rushes forward and rips the case from his hands, only to chuck it into the far corner before throwing himself into his arms. On instinct Evil X catches him and holds him close just in time for Xisuma to bury his face in the crook of his neck and burst into messy, tearful sobs. They shake together and Evil X lets his head thump back gently against the door, eyes hazily gazing up at the ceiling.

"It's not- *hic*- it's not fair! I didn't want this!"

"I know. I know." He runs his hand over his twin's back, his taller form bowing forward to shelter his brother's smaller one. Somehow, even now it feels like Xisuma is the larger one between them, solid and warm in his arms.

"Why do I have to choose? I never wanted this! Why?! Why would you do this for me?"

"You're my brother. I love you." A gasping, wet sob against his neck and his twin lets out a moan like a dying cow, low and agonized. Evil X focuses on a soot mark on the white ceiling, tears stinging his eyes and running down his face to plop softly into his brother's hair.

"But why?!" Screaming. Gods, he can't-

"I love you. I love you." Rocking now, back and forth, gentle, just as he had when he had come home from beating up the men who had tried to lay stomp out his brother's heart, scarred and beaten and bloody. I love you, he had said then, and he repeats it now.

Later, much later, Xisuma will have to boot up the laptop and read through its contents. He will try to burn it, first, but Zedaph's work is more durable than most and Evil X will watch as his twin will dump his emotions into his flames, desperately trying to stoke them hotter and brighter. Later, a choice will have to be made.

But for now, Evil X will hold his brother, warm and safe, and let him cry.

[kyouxa]

Diabolik lovers Chaos Lineage: Kino (Story 14)

In terms of the gameplay: The black choices lead up to a bad ending, the white choices lead up to a good ending. Please no reposting onto other sites, ask me before translating this into another language too! If you enjoy these translations, please consider supporting me on ko-fi.

Place: Outside — Cave

Yui: Nn…

(Is this place… the cave? I wonder if I was carried back here, I probably fell asleep as soon as we returned)

(Maybe I should go back to sleep once again…)

Kino: …..

Yui: Ehh… Kino-kun!?

Kino: You overslept again. Wasn’t my sleeping princess talking about getting up earlier today?

Yui: I’m really sorry, I seemed to be really tired and I slept pretty soundly as well.

(T-That really surprised me. Kino-kun was right in front of my face when I woke up)

Kino: ...Your hair is all tousled. No matter how you’d put it, it looks really awful, y’know?

Yui: I can’t help it since I just woke up, okay?

Kino: Shut it. Let me fix this messy hair of yours for you while you simply stay quiet, ’kay?

Yui: Uh… sure.

(I-I wonder, why is he using his finger to brush my hair? It’s somehow embarrassing…)

Um… where’s everyone?

Kino: They got up a while ago and started preparing themselves. You’re the only one who still slept until now.

Reiji was about to start a strategy meeting from this time forward anyway.

Are you really gonna force yourself to join us in this kind of state though? You could still sleep as things are now.

Yui: No, I’m good. I’ll participate in this meeting too.

Kino: Fine, then let’s go.

Yui: (Ah… he simply left)

(To be honest, I didn’t think Kino-kun would make me feel better as easy as he did just now though)

(And having him stroke my hair was really nice too…)

I mean, I obviously have to worry about the strategy meeting from now on first!

(Gosh, just what was I thinking a second ago…)

*time passed*

Yui: Umm, good morning, everyone!

Laito: Did you finally get up, Bitch-chan? Seems as if you slept really comfortably.

I was about to mess around with you if you were still sleeping... doing all kinds of things... you know?♪

Ayato: Shut up, pervert.

Yui: Ahaha...

(I was so worried about coming here, but I guess I totally forgot that everyone’s memories already returned to them)

Kanato: Aren’t there any sweets available here? I can’t stand this anymore. I want to go home as soon as possible.

Yui: I-I’m sorry Kanato-kun. You have to be a little more patient.

Subaru: Fuck, what kind of a punishment game is it to sleep in the same space as these guys!?

I can’t sleep calmly because I don’t have my casket with me here.

Yui: I’m really sorry about that...

(Why am I even apologizing in the first place...)

Kino: Hey, you. Did you really use to live with these selfish guys?

Yui: I’m also questioning my personal experiences so far...

Reiji: Be quiet. If everyone has prepared themselves, we shall start holding another strategy meeting.

The topic of this discussion… shall be how we possibly could get out of this place, right?

Yui: ….. !

(I can finally face this problem together with everyone in the Sakamaki family)

(Maybe we can finally find an opening to get out of here like this… !)

Reiji: As Kino and others already mentioned, if this truly is a space which is completely isolated from the outside world...

The number of people who can do such impressive tricks are limited.

Subaru: Then who did this?

Shu: ...Our father, obviously.

Ayato: Ngh… that old geezer!?

Kino: ...As expected, they all think so.

Yui: Kino-kun…

Reiji: No, it is way too early to conclude that this might be our fathers doing after all.

However, it can be inferred that our father or someone with equivalent power created this space.

Kanato: What is it that you are talking about?

Reiji: This might be a simple guess, but we could easily judge this by the names of the supreme ruler and Eve.

Subaru: Tch, the nerve to do this shitty thing again...

Laito: Hey, if we try something out, we might actually achieve something.

If we can live up to their expectations, do you think we could get out?

Reiji: Well, that could be the case indeed.

Yui: But what should we do in order to live up to their expectations then?

Kino: It’s about fighting for the supreme leader, so why don’t we kill each other until there’s only one of us standing?

Yui: Kino-kun!

Kino: And if we don’t do that, why doesn’t the sleeping beauty herself choose her prince to be with?

Yui: A-Are you being serious about this right now… ?

Reiji: Let us return to that. As Kino already said, killing each other appears to be infertile.

But does anyone else have something else in mind?

Monologue

After that, Reiji-san and the others tried finding a solution for us to return back to the real world, but in the end they didn’t get to any conclusion.

In the meantime, time is the only thing that’s progressing.

As things were now, we were only going around circles, and therefore decided to interrupt this discussion to take a break.

Place: Outside — Cave

Yui: (Ah… speaking of which, Kino-kun was gone before I even noticed it)

(I wonder where he went?)

Reiji: You. Where do you think you are going?

Yui: Ah ... well, it looks like Kino-kun isn’t there, so I wanted to go out a little and look for him.

Reiji: Make sure not to go too far. There is still a possibility that someone from another family might be wandering around outside.

The others’ memories have not returned yet. Which means, they will aim for you if they spot you.

Yui: Yes, I know... I’ll be careful.

(He’s right. Everyone else’s memories are still weird)

(In that case, I have to be really cautious...)

Place: Outside — Cave entrance

Yui: (Kino-kun, where did you go? I really hope you’re somewhere nearby)

Ah… Kino-kun!

Kino: What? Why are you here too?

Yui: When I noticed you weren’t there anymore, I started to get worried. Why did you come here anyway?

Kino: ...I was wondering if I could see any shooting stars if I go outside.

But, this is a fake space. It has a fake night sky… which obviously means there won’t be any shooting stars falling down.

Yui: I see...

(Since everything is covered with trees, even the night sky can hardly be seen)

(But despite that, he still came here to try and see the stars. I wonder what he thought about?)

(After all, Kino-kun’s profile still looks somewhat lonely to me…)

Kino: If you’ve got anything to say to me, why not say it to my face instead of staring at me like that?

Yui: Ah, s-sorry! To be honest, I’d really like to see the stars too.

By the way, what did you say before to me? The stars always guided you, if I recall correctly?

Kino: Yeah, I did say that. What about it?

Yui: That sentence felt really important when you said it, so I kept thinking about it all the time. And I simply wondered what you mean by that.

...But if you don’t want to talk about it, I’m obviously not forcing you to say anything.

Kino: Nah… it doesn’t matter. It’s not like I have anything to hide from you anymore.

...When I was still a child, my father, Karlheinz, abandoned me in the demon worlds hinterland.

I don’t remember much of that time back then, but I do know that I was left behind there. Left on a cursed plot of land which was fully covered in the smell of rotten fruits.

Yui: A cursed place… in the demon world...

Kino: I was trying my best to keep walking despite tripping over rotten mud and being left in darkness. But even if I ended up in another place, there was nobody there.

I was so lonely I eventually started believing that I’d end up dying like this.

And in that moment… I saw a shooting star falling down for the first time. It was like an affirmation for my whole life to continue.

Yui: ….. !

Kino: My father… I desperately continued to think about why Karlheinz would’ve abandoned me as he did.

But I’m still certain there must’ve been a reason. Because at that time, the stars saving me felt as if it was fate.

I’m more than convinced that there must’ve been a reason why I was chosen for that.

Yui: Is that why you believe you’re the most suitable one for gaining his powers… ?

Kino: Exactly. With those powers in my hands, even those other stupid guys would have to realise that it was my destiny to get them.

Until now, nobody has ever acknowledged my existence so far.

But I’ll be recognized. Once I’ll have absolute power, no one will be able to go against me anymore.

Yui: (The stars guided him… and the stars gave him affirmation一)

(I see. The reason why Kino-kun is so particularly interested in gaining his power is...)

Choices

1) Someone recognizing him (white)♡♡♡

2) Proof of being alive (black)

一 Someone recognizing him ♡

Yui: (Kino-kun, I’m sure he just wants someone to recognize him. His existence in general一)

(But this is really sad thinking about it…)

Kino: What’s with the depressed face now?

Yui: It’s nothing... I just thought about it for a moment.

Even if you might not be able to show off your power, I’m sure there are people who will recognize you, Kino-kun.

Kino: Hah? I don’t need this kind of thing. You’re simply saying this half-minded stuff to pity myself again.

Yui: I do believe in that though. And so would Yuri-san.

一 Proof of being alive

Yui: (I think he wants proof that he’s being alive)

(After all, I’ve heard him talking about being strongly oppressed by others several times before)

Was there anyone around you that you could’ve possibly put trust in?

Kino: Well, that might be true.

Yui: But only Yuri-san is this kind of special person, right?

end Choices

Kino: Eh… Yuri… why do you know Yuri’s name?

Yui: Ah… ! Um, err…

(I know I should’ve kept silent about that, but it accidentally slipped out of my mouth…)

(But now that I’ve already said it, there’s no point in hiding it anymore)

I might’ve heard you sleep-talking and saying that name while doing so.

Kino: What, so that’s it? Is listening to other people talk in their sleep one of your hobbies or something?

Yui: I’m really sorry…

Kino: It’s true that Yuri and I’ve been together for a really long time already. We’ve always been close to each other after all.

Which is why I’m sure Yuri’s still undoubtedly waiting for my return.

Yui: ...Nn. I see… that’s probably true...

Kino: ….. ? What’s wrong?

Yui: Nothing, let’s just try our best to go back to the real world as soon as possible.

Kino: Yeah, you’re right.

Yui: (So he does think Yuri-san’s waiting for his return as well. Why did my chest hurt so much when I heard him say this right now though?)

(I should at least try to act happy for Kino-kun to be able to return to someone as important as her)

Kino: After all of this is over, you’ll also be able to live with your beloved Sakamaki guys again. Aren’t you happy about that too?

Yui: Yes, I am… I want to go home soon too.

Kino: ...Nn.

Well, remember once you returned home. I’ll come and get rid of all of you.

Yui: T-That’s not something I want to remember...

Kino: ….. !

Yui: What’s wrong?

Kino: ...Someone is heading towards this way.

Yui: Eh… ?

*someone walks up*

Yui: ….. ! Carla-san…

Kou: So you really were in a place like this. No wonder it was so quiet when we went to Scarlet’s mansion.

Azusa: Eve… we’ve been… looking for you.

Yui: Kou-kun, Azusa-kun…

Carla: Obediently hand over Eve to me. Someone like you is simply not fit for the tasks of a supreme ruler.

Kino: ...So they really did end up finding us, hm? It would’ve been easy if it was only Kou and Azusa, but Carla is here with them too.

Yui: (What should we do? Everyone is still inside the cave… !)

Kino: It’s alright. We know Carla can’t remember anything about being a founder, which should make things somehow manageable.

Yui: Why?

Kino: Because he doesn’t remember being a founder, he wouldn’t know he has any sort of great power to begin with.

Even if he’s a founder, he doesn’t know anything about how strong his powers are, which means there is something we can do after all.

Yui: (Is he reaching into his pocket? What on earth is he about to do?)

*Kino’s pocket rushles*

Carla: Just what is it that you are hiding? You will not be able to escape from me with a little trick you might have up your sleeves.

Kino: I know that already. So 一 I’ll do this instead!

Carla: Kch… !

Kou: Ngh… ! What was that… !?

Azusa: My body… it won’t move...

Yui: (Why did Carla-san’s and the others’ state change so quickly all of the sudden… ?)

Carla: You… what did you do… !?

Kino: Now we’ve earned a little time!

While we still can, run!

Yui: A-Alright!

*they start running*

Yui: But, Kino-kun! What did you do to them!?

Kino: It’s a talisman with magical power. It’s an item that can suppress any devil’s power for a certain period of time!

Well, it’s a one time only item, so that’s it.

Yui: These kinds of things exist!?

Kino: I’m the only one who has things like this here, right? Seems as if I accidentally brought it with me alongside my smartphone.

But that doesn’t matter right now, we have to let the others know about this as soon as possible first… !

Yui: Ah, everyone! You’ve come outside...

Reiji: What is it you are making this much noise for? It is almost as if you encountered an enemy raid.

Yui: It’s Carla-san! He came here with Kou-kun and Azusa-kun!

Kino: Carla and the others are unable to move right now. We have to make a run for it while we still can!

Kanato: And where exactly do you expect us to run?

Kino: I know a place where nobody should expect us to be!

Subaru: Doesn’t that sound kinda sloppy? Does a place like that even exist here!?

Laito: I don’t think Carla came here with the plan to aim for us though.

Shu: Yes. It’s obvious that they’re merely suspicious of their absent brothers being accompanied by other guys.

Ayato: Then what are we supposed to do?

Kino: Even so, we still need a place to hide ourselves in...

There’s no other choice than that!

*Kino leaves*

Yui: Kino-kun, where are you going!?

Kino: It’s fine, just follow me!

Yui: Kino-kun…

(Let’s follow him. I believe in Kino-kun一!)