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buckysmith · 2 years

Text

Request from TikTok

How TFP decepticons would react if they find out that reader was starving themselves

Includes: Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Shockwave, Dredwing, Knockout, Breakdown, Predaking

HUGE TRIGGER WARNING: Mention of mental health issues and ED

Soundwave:

- He would notice it after a while

- Don't get me wrong, but he does in fact not need to eat and only knows that humans have to eat to survive.

- He would only notice it after you visited him more often.

- He can't really go out like knockout or the Autobots, but as you spent more and more time on the nemesis, he would realize that he never saw you eat anything, not even the slightest bit of a thing.

-He would ask you if you need something and you would politely denie his offer, telling him you already ate something

- You in fact did not and he knows that.

- He wouldn't want to confront you about it as long as he doesn't have a single clue what you might have and why you're lying to him about something so easy

- He would learn that eating something is in fact not as easy as he thought

- He would learn about ED. That some tend to eat way to less and others that eat to much, those who sometimes eat nothing and than eat anything.

- So you had a so called ED? He would ask himself not knowing how to approach you with his new earned knowledge.

- After a few days he would tell you what he noticed, that you eat nothing and that your starving yourself

- At first you would try to denie it, but no chance he already knows

- He would recommend therapy for you and he would do anything to help you

- In your whole recovery he would stand by your side, being your rock

- He would never judge you for your illness or try to play it down.

-He would be so incredibly proud of you for healing yourself and for trying to get over your own shadow.

Shockwave

- He would notice it pretty early

- He already had some test objects that happens to be human and he had to feed them regularly so they wouldn't die, so he would get curious why you, his human doesn't seem to eat anything.

- Don't get me wrong but this man would simply ask you why exactly you were not eating, not caring that it is a hot topic for you

-He would force you to tell him why exactly your not eating

- Whatever your reason is to starve yourself, he would simply tell you that it's not logical. Why? Cause humans needs to eat to prevent themselves of getting weak and dying.

-He would notice that his stone cold characters does in fact not help you, so he would try to comfort you.

- He would find a way with you to fight and get over your ED

- But it would need him a while to search those things up, but at least he would try his best to support you trough this hard time

Dreadwing:

- He wouldn't notice that you in fact do not eat

- But he would notice that you seems to get somehow weaker and weaker.

- he wants to know why you lost weight and look somehow ill.

-don't lie to him about it, he would notice that your lying.

-He would try to understand you but would terrible fail

- He would try to get you to eat something when he's with you and he would always praise you

- It doesn't matter to him how long it takes for you to recover, it would matter to him that your trying.

-He fought so many battles but not once was it him against himself so he would be so proud of you

- Not everyone would fight against themselves, but you are and it just shows him how incredible strong you are.

Knockout:

- He wouldn't notice it till you randomly pass out

- He would bring you back on the Nemesis, confronting you why exactly you passed out

- You would tell him that you don't know

- So he would go trough all what might cause your pass out and he would notice your lip biting when he comes to „did you eat enough"

- He would ask you why you're not eating and when the last time were you ate something

- after telling him the truth he would make sure to get you to eat.

- He would research on how to help you with your illness

- He wouldn't be great but neither bad

- what I mean, sometimes he's understanding sometimes not as much

Breakdown:

-He would hear your tummy

- Then he would ask you if you're hungry and you would denie it

- That would happen numerous times and so he would get confused

- It seems your hungry, but he never saw you eat anything except a little salty cracker

- After a while he would ask knockout about it and he would tell him that something humans do that

- But that wouldn't really be an answer for your behavior so he would ask you directly

- After you told him what's wrong, he would be your supporter number one, helping you through the hard times and praising you for every little milestone.

Predaking:

- He would notice that you're not eating anything while being with him

- He wouldn't ask you about it, thinking you just eat at home for whatever reason

- But it seems your getting weaker, you’re always tired and your eyes look pale and dull

- after bringing you home he would watch you and now he knows you're not eating

- He would try to understand why you're not eating before asking you about it, watching you all day and basically stalking you.

- He wouldn't understand it even after a few weeks so he would just approach you and ask you about it

- you of course would denie it or at least try to

do so

- in the end you would tell him your reasons

- He cares for you deeply so to see you suffering it's spark breaking for him

- He would try anything to make you enjoy food and to eat at least one meal per day

- but he wouldn't force you, he would take his time with you

Megatron:

- He knows humans need to eat so seeing you not eating anything while being with him would confuse him

- He would ask you about it

- even if you try to lie to him he would notice it

- so to tell him the truth ist better for both of you

- he wouldn't understand your reasons

- in his eyes you're perfect and you deserve to eat and to enjoy your life

- he would suck at comforting you but he would try his best

- He would get you the best therapists and docs he( or better Soundwave ) can find on earth

Starscream:

-He wouldn't notice it

- Don't get me wrong, he adores you and wants you to be happy and healthy but because he doesn't need to eat something he wouldn’t notice it

- if you vent to him about it after getting some dumb comments from your family/friends he would ask you about it

- what exactly do mean you’re starving yourself? Why are you doing this?

- after you tell him your reasons he would try to help you

- He would suck too, but at least he helps you a bit

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epiclamer · 1 year

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Hi! Could I request a Supervillain who runs a hospital for Heroes who have been abused /trying to ecaspe a corrupt hero agency . One day a usually happy go lucky ,sunshine Hero shows up at Supervillain's hospital, an absolute sobbing mess causing Supervillain to take them in right away and show them comfort.

Maybe Villain catches wind about what happened to Hero and rushes to their aid as well ?

What a wonderfully whumpy idea.

The Otherside

Betrayal was definitely the worst feeling in the world. To have everything come crashing down around you because you put something as stupid as trust in someone else’s hands and now you were paying for it.

Hero knew that lesson more than anyone else in this universe, they were sure of it. Countless times they had been used and exploited by the people they thought they loved; who they thought loved them.

So, imaginably, when the hero found themselves at the supervillain’s doorstep, blabbering every secret behind the agency as fast as their tongue would let them, tears streaming down their face and hands shaking in a grand orchestra of a breakdown. They couldn’t believe that for once, it was them betraying the people who trusted Hero with their full confidence.

They had become exactly what they had promised to never be.

Still trying to process the whole ordeal, Hero lay in a soft bed, atop a goose-down duvet and an overwhelming amount of pillows. The sensation could be described as no less than heaven on earth, but the crime-stopper felt anything but that.

Guilt was suffocating them, now that they were calm enough to realize what a mistake they had made, all of their training had returned. That constant drilling of rules in their head, the hammering of repetitive insults being thrown at them every time they failed, and most of all the steady beating of a baton bruising their back again and again and again—

“Hero,” They flinched, cringing at the sight of the supervillain standing to the side of the large bed as the guilt wound itself tighter in their stomach. “How are you holding up?”

A smile too gentle to be adorned to a master criminal graced their lips. Hero knew it didn’t matter if they lied nor if they told the truth, Supervillain could already tell what was going on in their head, they had probably seen it a million times over. “Pathetic hero overthinks their new found safety” blah, blah, blah. It was a movie skit at this point, you could find it in the first superhero DVD within any multi-service store.

“Fine.” The hiccuped sob they tried—and failed—to swallow afterwards said otherwise.

If the supervillain was annoyed, they didn’t show it. “Can I get you anything? I know it can be really difficult to bounce back after such an emotional night, if there’s anything I can offer, feel free to ask.”

“I don’t need anything, thank you.” The hero spat, refusing to make eye contact with the other. “And I was being dramatic earlier. I would’ve left by now if I hadn’t made a stupid mistake and ran my mouth.”

They hated the way tears were back in their eyes the moment they thought about returning to that place. Or the way their voice wobbled uncontrollably when they spoke about it. Or how they tried so desperately to seem like they had everything under control, when all they really wanted was a hug and a shoulder to cry on.

It was pure idiocy; to believe that they could want things after they had betrayed everything they stood for. Let alone to crave comfort after they had given out information that could end innocent peoples lives.

Yet still, the way Supervillain had been so soft with their wounds. Their strong and steady hands keeping the hero grounded while they worked them through the most painful of stitches. Stitches Hero normally had to do themselves to survive.

The Agency didn’t allow for weakness, if you couldn’t dress your own wounds—no matter how fatal—then you didn’t deserve your license. End of story.

“I thought you’d say something along those lines. So I made sure to cover the base of guilt for you.”

There was a knock at the door.

“You remember Villain, I’m sure. They are your personally assigned nemesis after all…”

Tentatively, it creaked open, standing tall as they worried their bottom lip between their teeth was Villain. The same Villain that pulled their punches during fights and helped the hero home after long training session. That same villain who didn’t look anything but worried as their eyes met.

“Oh god, Hero.” The villain looked frozen in their spot, eyes breaking Hero’s to scan over their torn and beaten body. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but Supervillain’s expertise with first-aid paid off as it wasn’t as painful anymore.

Supervillain took a soft step to the side, a welcoming gesture for the villain to take their place and they did. Racing to the hero’s bedside and clasping their fingers together at once. Panic, helplessness and most of all anger flashed in different phases across their face.

They gulped, “when I heard you were here I—I came straight away. I was at the other end of town and— and then you were asleep and god, I… If I had known it was this bad I would’ve—” they choked on their own words. Coming to a halt as they laid their head against Hero’s chest as gently as possible.

Even though Villain’s weight only added to the hero’s own, it felt like they were floating. The guilt that had stung its way through their body was gone, there was suddenly no need to be defiant. Not when the villain was in tears over seeing them like this.

Hero hadn’t noticed they were crying until Supervillain was thumbing the tracks away with care. They pulled Villain in, wrapping their arms around the other and Villain was extra careful as they did the same.

It was going to take a lot of healing and a lot of re-training, but maybe just maybe, Hero would make it out of this okay.

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jahayla-parker · 1 year

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Hey so I was wonder if you could write a story with either kaz brekker x ADHD reader or freddy Carter x ADHD reader where the reader is struggling and ends up with haveing breakdown and is in tears with the fact that they can't stay focused and everything is slipping into a mess and they are struggling and they just comfort the reader .

I haven't been feeling very well lately and begin feeling overwhelmed and I love your work

Over It All : Freddy Carter x Reader

Hi! So sorry for just getting to this! Ironically enough, I was experiencing this myself over the last few months. I hope you’re feeling better! 🖤

I did both characters/people, but I broke it up.

In this one you’ll find Freddy’s version. Kaz’s version is coming soon (I’ll tag you in it)

Description: 1.9k wc, reader struggles with her ADHD to the point of breaking into tears, prompting Freddy to come to her aid. Hurt-comfort, angst-fluff

Warnings: ADHD symptoms and experiences discussed, neurodivergencies mentioned, mention of crying and sadness, negative thoughts of self, some angst but fluffy ending/comfort

Y/n sniffled as she aggressively wiped her face with the back of her hand. She couldn’t stop crying. Her ADHD paralysis had flared up and left her feeling hopeless and ashamed of herself. She knew it wasn’t anything she did nor a true flaw, but she could help the misery she felt.

She’d been trying to finish this project for her job since the early hours of this morning. Yet, she’d gotten practically nowhere with it. It was as if there were a million other things her mind would rather focus on. She had lost all control over her flickering thoughts hours ago.

Meaning she was now crying alone in her home-office as her latest attempt to start the project failed. Her husband Freddy was on set filming today, meaning if anything she should’ve had less distractions. But, instead her mind had begun thinking of different tasks she should do for him since he was out. She knew she was screwed when even those self-created tasks weren’t ones she could force herself to do.

Everyone thought ADHD was silly and fun. Sure, some of the behavioral ‘symptoms’ of the condition could be taken that way. But, most of the time one was either overly engaged or under engaged. It was a constant pendulum that caused havoc when it swung too far in either direction.

Today it had swung too far towards the direction of executive dysfunction. Executive dysfunction was a hard concept for many neurotypical individuals to grasp. As such, many neurotypicals saw neurodivergents who were experiencing the effects of executive dysfunction as lazy or inconsiderate. This of course didn’t help the fact that those with ADHD often struggled with their self image already.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to do the work project, and she certainly wanted to do the caring tasks she’d thought of doing for Freddy. Yet, she was stuck. Y/n was not able to get herself to even begin any of the tasks. Instead, she’d wasted the day away in her futile attempts to start them only to fall into self-directed frustration over and over again.

So it came as no surprise that once she’d officially given up on trying to complete anything she had wished to do, she begun crying. She felt like a horrible wife and employee even though she wasn’t. But the frustration she had towards herself and her predicament clouded everything else. Hence why she was willing to sit by herself at her desk as she shook from crying.

Freddy had been home for only a matter of five minutes when he noticed the absence of his wife’s presence. She always seemed to greet him when he’d return if she’d been working from home that day. He recalled having said goodbye to her in their home-office this morning, so why wasn’t she greeting him?

He slowly made his way to their office space to try and see if she was still working. As he entered the doorway, he noticed the way her shoulders were hunched over her desk. He furrowed his brows as he checked that the lights were all on and therefore not the cause of her face being so close to the table.

It was in that moment that he watched her body tremble and heard her faint cries. Once he’d recovered from the sudden sinking in his chest, he took a deep breath and rushed over to her.

“Darling?” Freddy panicked, his hand placed on her upper back delicately.

Y/n’s head snapped up but she didn’t turn to him. Instead, she wiped her face again and took a loud breath. It was clear she was trying to compose herself before she’d face him.

Freddy knelt beside his wife, his worry evident in his features. But he knew not to push her. She’d respond once she felt steady enough to do so.

It took a few moments of silence but she eventually did turn to face him, a fake smile on her face. Freddy shook his head at her blatant coverup and grasped her hand in his tightly. Y/n sighed softly when she realized he wasn’t falling for her pretend happiness.

She didn’t want him to feel sorry for her. Nor did she want him to know she hadn’t been able to accomplish anything today. She felt like a burden. Despite knowing how much Freddy loved and cared for her, she didn’t want him to see her in this state. But she also wouldn’t lie to her husband.

“I… I did not get the project done” she admitted shyly, her hand shoving the planning sheets across the desk towards him.

Freddy’s eyes briefly left her frame to scan the documents she was showing him. He noticed she had a bunch of stray marks and squiggles on the paper. However, nothing else had been added since he saw the sheets this morning.

She didn’t need to tell him what was happening. He knew of her ADHD and the highs and lows that came with it. As such, he knew how to best handle this situation on his end.

“That’s okay love, sometimes ideas don’t flow as easily as they normally do” he encouraged, neatly stacking the papers.

“It wasn’t just the ideas, I couldn’t even start the rest of it. I also…” she sighed as she trailed off and looked away.

Freddy sighed quietly as his heart sank further upon seeing her continued distress. “Y/n, it doesn’t matter what you did or did not do today, you-“.

“I was going to make you that soup you like” y/n interrupted, fiddling with her fingers, “but I couldn’t. I wanted to, but…”.

“But you weren’t able to get up and get started on it” he finished to her, tugging her hand back to him to calm her nervous fidgeting.

She nodded and sighed, “I wanted us to be able to have that soup, but then I began thinking about each step. Washing the dishes to get the ladle clean, getting out the ingredients, chopping the vegetables,..”

Freddy stood up quietly, prompting her eyes to snap upwards to see him. He wasn’t sure why there seemed to be a sense of panic in her y/e/c eyes. But he wished it weren’t there. He didn’t have to wait long to find out the cause behind it as she soon blurted out her worry.

“Please don’t leave” she begged.

Freddy gave her a sympathetic shake of his head, “‘m not, just standing to help guide you to the living room, my love”

Y/n visibly calmed but then began listing off the tasks she still needed to complete.

“Darling, those can all wait. You deserve to rest” he stated.

She shook her head, “no I don’t. I didn’t get anything done today. It’s embarrassing and I-“

“You don’t need to be ashamed” Freddy told her, stroking her cheek as he towered over her seated form.

“I don’t not what I’m doing anymore” y/n exclaimed, “I can’t do anything right”. She glanced up at her husband before continuing to try and explain what she was feeling. “I’m worthless, I can’t even focus on one thing for a mere second” she pointed out.

“Don’t put yourself down like that” Freddy pleaded, his heart clenching. He watched her sigh but nod as if accepting his request. As such he gave her a soft smile and tugged on her hand, “let’s go to the living room. What do you want to do tonight? Don’t worry about how we’ll do it, I’ll handle that. Just tell me what you’d like us to do”.

“I just want to be held for a bit” she admitted quietly as she rose to her feet before him.

“I like this” y/n told him as she snuggled further into his embrace.

Freddy chuckled lightly, “me too. I never want to let go, my love”.

Y/n let her husband hold her and offer her comforting words and back rubs while she tried to silence her mind. He had helped her not feel the deep despair she’d been feeling moments before he arrived. Yet, she still felt she should’ve done so much more today.

Freddy seemed to notice her quietness, his grip tightening ever so slightly. He placed a soft kiss to the top of her head as he hummed. “You don’t have to do it all” he whispered.

“But then people will be let down. If I don’t-“ she began, making Freddy notice the way her pace quickened from her emotions.

“They don’t matter. You matter, my love” he cut her off, carefully brushing his fingers through her tangled hair. “You’re all that matters, and right now you need rest. It doesn’t matter what they need or want” Freddy stated definitively. He smiled to himself as her muscles visibly relaxed.

Freddy was attempting to give her a long thoughtful compliment, but y/n was hopelessly distracted. She’d been staring at his dimples and then at the freckles on his face instead of focusing on what he was saying. She’d tried to listen, truly, but his face was just so beautifully distracting to her.

She broke her gaze from the patch of freckles on his cheek when she noticed she no longer heard his voice. Y/n glanced up at him as she silently hoped he hadn’t asked her a question. Fortunately, she could read his facial expressions and knew he wasn’t awaiting any response. However, she could also tell he had noticed her lack of attention.

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered, “I was listening.. at first. But then I… I wasn’t listening to you, I’m sorry babe”.

He shook his head, “it was I that wasn’t truly listening. If I had, I’d have remembered to use shorter sentences”.

Y/n watched him cautiously as she tried to let his words erase her guilt. It wasn’t until he smiled softly at her and placed a delicate kiss on her cheek that she accepted that her guilt was unfounded. Having realized this, she let her mind wander back to where it was before.

As such, she soon found herself tracing imaginary lines between his freckles with her pointer finger. She was acutely aware of Freddy’s eyes watching her do this. But her attention remained stuck on this unimportant but intriguing task.

“Are you playing connect the dots with my freckles?” Freddy grinned, his cheeks heating up.

Bashfully she nodded and giggled, “yes”.

He smiled widely, “see you focused and completed something”.

“On something minor, for short time” she argued.

“It’s still focus and you need to respect yourself for doing that. Today is just one of those days in which we need to have a more relaxed atmosphere” he stated as if it were the most simple thing in the world.

Y/n was so beyond grateful for her husband. He always seemed to know how to help her when she was in one of her downhill moods. She couldn’t understand how he comprehended her struggles with such ease and patience. But she was eternally thankful for it.

Unbeknownst to her, when y/n first struggled with her ADHD paralysis/executive dysfunction, Freddy had looked into it. She had tried to explain it to him but kept getting too emotional to effectively do so. Not that he minded. But, he took it upon himself to research the issue and see what ways to best offer her help. Clearly, the research paid off.

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onejellyfishplease · 7 months

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Jelly, help, I’m already letting this au consume me LOL

K so translating my notes(cause my writing sucks) and then a breakdown of each doodle. This is just some ‘testing the waters’ doodles to see what ideas I like and what I don’t.

This isn’t actually finished yet, but I ended up loving the Sketchpage that I wanted to show, so here we are lol

“Lantern/light clan cult gang thing, tried to get Donnie to join by sending an oozesquito after him.”

So yeah, there’s a gang of moths that worship light and they wanted somebody smart in their ranks. They wanted Donnie to join because he was known all over the hidden city for his intelligence during the krang invasion. They uhh… They kinda kidnap him during a mission ig lol. He escapes but not before getting turned partially into a moth. They weren’t really as smart so they didn’t even think that maybe the mutation would only take partial transformation so uhhh mission failed-

“Tiny hairs as per many insects”

I liked your idea of the hairs that allow Donnie’s hands to stick to stuff, so it was kind of a no brainer to add that here too, since moths stick to stuff all the time.

“Common Crimson & Gold Moth (an attempt at keeping sorta purple colors)”

Yeah no, it’s more red and gold than anything but dang these things are pretty. Could be a nice design.

“Luna Moth (mostly here for the green, but an iconic moth too)”

Yeah, I wanted a nice green match for the wings as a potential option too, and I also figured when you think of moths, a lot of people think of Luna moths.

“White Ermine Moth (fluffy Dalmatian vibes)”

Kinda thrown in for the recognizable reason again, since a lot of people tend to think immediately of fluffy snowy white moths like white ermine moths or poodle moths.

I kinda like the first two a bit better tho, ngl.

“Eyes go black when pissed or scared?”

Yeah, so, I had an idea where his eyes would invert so his eyes were black with white pupils, but I kinda dropped that idea, but then I picked it up again and thought maybe his eyes look more moth-like when really stressed or enraged or smth?

“So meticulous but I love the detail ngl…”

“Mini moth man”

So yeah, I learned I liked the more meticulous antenna style. Also yeah, even if I don’t use it I’m totally making a Mothman version of him lol

“Smth like this ig??”

Me trying to figure out the wings and she’ll mix. I had the idea that the wings would sprout out from inside, sorta like your idea ngl, but I think it’d be less like… Under, and more through, so the wings would kind of be impossible to hide at that point.

“Donnie Day 1

‘Everything’s fine ✨’

‘W a t ?’”

“Donnie Day 5

‘isaideverythingsfine~’

‘Wat.’”

A stupid silly comic I made for an idea I had where Donnie starts out kinda like a moth caterpillar, looking and feeling normal, but the more days that go by the bigger his wings and antenna grow, becoming impossibly to hide, and he just can’t really pretend that he’s a full turtle anymore lol

Also definitely not motivated by me wanting to implement an idea about how apparently the reasons you get holes in your clothes is because caterpillars are eating through it (and not fully grown moths usually) so maybe he’d be hoodie biting excessively during that time lol

I have a few more snippets only written on Google docs right now but gosh I am loving this au, I totally see the fun of formation swapping Donnie now LOL

Eventually, all the important info will be on one sheet though (hopefully) and I’ll tag you then about it lol

OMG i actually love this so much!

i love how the transformation is a slow one.

And he eats his clothes as a nervous habit??? love it. glorius. amazing.

Also the eyes going black? that would be so creepy to see, it would definitely terrify villians. and his brothers (the first few times lol)

AND HES FLUFFY AHHHHH

#also i love the cult bit at the beginning #how they wanna capture donnie and make him #one of us one of us one of us #but arent really competant enough to do so lol #rottmnt #rottmnt au #moth donnie au #??#idk what u want to call it #rottmnt donnie #asks

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spider-xan · 2 years

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I understand why people are frustrated that Van Helsing still hasn't come out and explicitly said that Lucy was killed by a VAMPIRE! and being resurrected as one, and several people have written great posts from a literary criticism perspective engaging with the text to explain why, and what the potential consequences and reactions would be if he did right now. However, I think people are overestimating how readily both Jack - the novel's embodiment of modernity, rationality, and science/technology - and Arthur, who's basically having an emotional breakdown right now, would accept a major paradigm-shifting revelation rooted in folklore that, at best, is only supported by circumstantial evidence at this point in the story.

Imagine a close friend of yours develops a chronic illness where they slowly deteriorate over time. You call in a specialist to make a diagnosis and manage her treatment, after regular doctors were completely stumped as to what the cause or disease is. Since this noted specialist is greatly respected and comes highly recommended by someone you trust with your life, you trust him through the process, even though you're not sure what's going on and some of his methods are unorthodox. It's frustrating he won't tell you more, but he assures you that he has a good, definitely scientific reason for it, even if he can't reveal things just yet, and it's not like you have other options.

Then the treatments fail, your friend dies, and you still don't know what the cause was. You're having a breakdown over her death, on top of all the other tragedy in your life. As you try to move on or deal with all of this, the specialist finally takes you aside, as he has very important information to tell you regarding your friend's death:

"Your friend didn't die from a disease — she was killed ... by SLENDERMAN!"

Or substitute aliens, the chupacabra, jiang shi (Chinese zombies who feed on qi), etc. If you were in Arthur's position, how would you honestly react? Would you really be like, "Holy shit, that explains everything! Thank you, sir!"? Or would you be like, HOLY SHIT, you mean to tell me that this entire time, my friend's medical treatment was being guided by urban legends the specialist read about on the internet?? How much fucking medical malpractice happened??? Was this part of the reason why she died?? If the reveal had come out while she was still alive, would you have been comfortable with keeping this guy on as a specialist, or would you feel betrayed and demand a new doctor? People in real life have rightfully called out doctors for far less than being told a supernatural creature was the cause of an illness or health condition.

WE know that vampires are real in the world of the novel. WE know Van Helsing is correct, and that all the signs we've seen so far are proof of literal vampirism. NONE of the other characters directly involved with Lucy right now are aware they're in a world with real vampires - they think their world is ours, where they're not real; even Quincey, who is more open-minded, was talking about very real vampire bats, not actual vampires. In not telling Jack the reason he wanted to cut off Lucy's head, Jack can assume Van Helsing has a good reason based on science he can trust. A good question to ask right now is what WOULD be undeniable proof that vampires are real, in order for people to believe and follow Van Helsing without further questions or thinking he's lost his shit entirely.

#dracula #dracula daily #abraham van helsing #once again reminding people that the characters think they exist in our world #and not a horror novel where vampires are real

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arlecchno · 1 year

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mission accomplished [ scaramouche x reader ]

twenty-one | where it all went wrong

prev masterlist next

when has anything ever gone your way?

warnings: blood mention, lots of swearing, slight angst, yelling and a bit of breakdowns, not exactly proofread

a/n: sorry for the late update! been really busy lately and this chapter was making me go nuts lmao. 5k+ words. happy reading!

“pfft.”

“shut up, it's not funny.”

you covered your mouth in an attempt to contain in your laughs, but failed when scaramouche had his face all scrunched up in front of you.

“y–you— you can't dance?” you asked once again, giggling as you do so.

scaramouche scoffed, turning his head away dramatically with his arms crossed. “i can dance, i just prefer not to.”

“sure you do, dude. wanna show me some moves to prove that statement of yours?” you grinned, raising your brows up and down.

the male in front of you groaned, and started to head somewhere else, annoyed with your teasing.

you swiftly grabbed his arm and pulled him back to where he was, laughter slowly coming to a stop. “come on, i was just joking!” you chirped, and scaramouche rolled his eyes. “i'll teach you how to dance, fair enough?”

“you're probably shit at it too.”

“hey!”

you slapped his arm gently, causing him to frown at you, but didn't continue further on the banter. smiling at his stupid yet cute expression, you sighed.

it's nice to have idiotic arguments with the ravenette once in a while. even though none of them poses a threat underneath now, you still enjoyed every single bit of it.

it was also still a little awkward between you two. the gradual change from being enemies to... whatever the hell you two are now is highly weird, and you can't deny that it's not exactly a good feeling.

sure, you've gotten way past the stupid arguments over the most minor mistakes, and have now gotten to the stage where you two are comfortable being in each other's presence, yet it felt quite weird.

it feels like everything is just moving too fast.

you wished things could slow down more, because you're not sure what you'd do if everything were to go wrong in just the blink of an eye.

“can you stop fucking this up? you've been stomping on my foot for archons know how many times!” you hissed as you get your foot stomped by scaramouche, once again.

he simply glared at you, indigo eyes filled with annoyance. ironic, you think. you were the only one here who deserved to be annoyed right now, not him.

“maybe if you taught me better then i wouldn't be doing that for the past ten minutes!”

gritting your teeth, you faked a smile at him. “i am teaching you properly, you're the one who has no skill in dancing at all!” you retorted, pointing at your feet. “this is going to be hell for me to take care of once we get home.”

sighing, he looks down to the floor, well, at your feet, you supposed.

you pursed your lips to a thin line. “if you don't like doing these stuff then we can stop and sit somewhere.”

at this, he huffed, hesitantly putting his hands on your waist to pull you closer. “um– well– it's... it's okay. i'm willing to learn, i guess.” he muttered, facing elsewhere to hide the blush that's creeping up his neck. “but only because you wanted to do this stupid thing so bad!” he quickly added, making you heave out a breath of laughter.

“you're cute when you're trying to give out dumb excuses.” you teased, and scaramouche fumbles even more at your sentence.

“what– you– ugh, whatever. it's not like you'd give up on it anyways.” the ravenette groaned.

in the midst of your banter, the music went from upbeat to a more slow and soft melody. lights became less colourful, and soon after, everyone with a date was filling up the dance floor to have the classic slow dance.

slowly draping your arms on scaramouche's shoulders, you let out another sigh. “you're lucky this is the easiest dance out of all.” you informed. “you just have to sway to the music slowly, like this.” stepping to the left, you lead the man in front of you.

he reluctantly followed along, stepping a few steps to the right once the music continues to a new beat, making sure he wasn't stepping on your foot again, or worse, tripping over himself.

“see? not that bad, right?” you arched a brow at him, and scaramouche clicked his tongue at your never ending teasing. you two continued swaying to the slow music, relishing in each other's presence.

scaramouche's hold on you was stiff, and his moves were much more of something a robot would be doing, but you paid no mind. you liked him like this, awkward and hesitant.

“we should be focusing on the case right now.” he murmured, looking away from you.

“hm... i would agree on you, but there's nothing suspicious here, it leaves us no reason to believe there's any leads.” you replied, causing him to look back at you.

scaramouche stared at you for a couple of seconds before speaking. “i just... have this feeling, y'know?” he muttered, his grip on your waist still firm. “that something is going to happen.”

the ravenette had always have this sheer instinct where he could just tell if something was about to go down, for whatever reason you don't know, but it has helped you two a lot whenever you work on a case before, as much as you hated to admit it.

this weird inkling of his serves a lot of help most of the time, but you don't think this is one of them.

“look, we checked out everything, no?” he slowly nodded at your words, and you continued. “i'm sure we would've found something when we went on a search, but we didn't. i know this case is important... but you've got to relax once in a while.” you said, going to the left as scaramouche followed along.

he lets out a huff, and his hold on your waist slowly softened. ah, you figured it right. he was so nervous about the case that he unconsciously gripped you a little too hard. not that you minded, of course, it barely bothered you.

“oh, now that i remember, where's viktor and yun jin? didn't viktor say that he wanted to participate in the dance?” you asked, looking around the dance floor to see if they were here, but they were nowhere in sight. “they're not here.”

scaramouche averted his gaze to peer around the area too, looking for the couple. his eyes came to a stop when he saw viktor sitting at a table, all by himself, yun jin missing.

he lightly pinched your waist, making you look back at him warily. “he's over there.” you snapped your eyes to the direction scaramouche had pointed, looking at viktor mindlessly playing with the food on his plate.

yun jin's not there, you thought. did she excuse herself to the bathroom?

you had just the slightest sympathy towards the tall brunette as you watch him continuously stab the leftover steak with a fork, before remembering that he was the main suspect to your case.

which made you realise that you were only three months in this undercover duty. you currently only have about half of the leads that were needed, but none of them were enough proof that viktor is your guy. sure, he had been suspicious at times, but you never managed to catch up with his schemes due to how wary he is, always looking out to his surroundings.

you glanced back to scaramouche. “should we go to him?”

“we can just watch him from afar.”

humming, you continued on slow dancing with the ravenette. this was enjoyable, you think. you never thought it'd feel this great to be dancing with scaramouche under the soft spotlights along with the other couples, without even being a couple yourselves. your arms were looped around his neck, fingers slightly playing with the ends of his hair.

after a moment, you speak up. “is it... really okay for you to talk to me about those stuff?”

“hm? what stuff?”

you rolled your eyes at his obliviousness. “y'know, your personal life, your real name, your mother and all.” you mumbled lowly, but still enough for scaramouche to hear. “knowing you, i'd probably be the last person you'd want to tell about them.”

he chuckled, hands smoothing along your waist. “i'm gonna be honest with you here.”

you perked your head up, attentively listening to what he's about to say. “go on, i'm listening.”

he took a moment to go over the words he wanted to say in his head, indigo eyes scanning your face fondly. to him, you were the most dazzling person on the dance floor right now, your presence alone was enough to light up the place.

“you're the most important person in my life.” he announced, and your mouth fell agape.

your breath hitched as you look up to him with widened eyes. did he... actually say that? blinking a couple of times, you continued staring at him with eyes as wide as saucers.

does he even know the effect he'd have on you when he said those exact words? scaramouche may be one of the most dense people you've ever met, but surely he'd have to know that sentence holds a big deal. especially to you.

flustered, you look away from him, peering over other couples dancing instead, seemingly like their dance was far more interesting than the one you're currently having with the man in front of you.

“you should really start thinking before speaking.”

he raised a brow, confused. “oh... did i say something wrong?” scaramouche asked, voice unsure.

you quickly avert your gaze back to him, unknowingly tugging him closer to you than before. “ah–no!” you said, fumbling for a reply. “it's just... goodness, how should i say this...”

“well– you should just, um, know how much of an effect those words would have on someone. it holds a big meaning.”

he scrunched his nose, and you swear it was the cutest thing he's ever done.

damn him and his stupid yet subtle actions.

he thinks about what you said, and registered those words into his head, deciphering on what he told you. upon realisation, he blushed furiously, unconsciously gripping your waist harder than before. “stop thinking further into it. it's– nothing of the sorts.”

cracking up a smile at him, you chuckled. “it's okay, i know what you meant, kuni.” you muttered, the new nickname of his still felt foreign in your tongue, but it was still adorable nonetheless. “you're the most important person in my life too. though we have been at each others throats for as long as i can remember, i don't think there is a day where i don't look forward to our silly arguments.”

“even when i have the day off?”

“even when you have the day off. you don't understand how exhausting it is dealing with childe all by myself.”

he laughed, you following along. out of the blue, he landed his chin on your shoulder, bringing you way more closer than you could ever imagine. eyes wide, you stood there frozen, not knowing what to do.

“thank you, y/n. i never thought we'd ever get this close in the course of this case, but i'm glad we are.” he mumbled, voice muffled from your skin.

smiling, you nodded, one hand playing with the back of his hair. you took in his scent, the faint smell of his cologne engulfed you whole, and you think it's the most attractive thing ever. your heart was beating like crazy, and you hoped he couldn't hear the vibrations of it, due to how you spared no space from each other.

you wished this moment could last forever.

but then again, nothing ever goes your way.

it's been a few minutes, and the slow dance slowly comes to a stop along with the soft music, making scaramouche tilt his head up from resting on your shoulder, reluctantly moving away. his indigo eyes stared into your own, and you slightly smiled at his actions.

“what?” you asked giddily, amused with how lost he is whenever he looks into your eyes.

spotlights were back to their colourful state, contrary to what it was a moment ago, students still filled to the brim on the dance floor, as if like none of them wanted this to end.

you didn't too.

“you're pretty tonight.” he blurted with a monotonous tone, causing you to widened your eyes, surprised at the compliment he gave you.

out of everything he could've said, the one thing you least expected was the one he said instead. it was almost unbelievable, he was never one to be giving out compliments willingly, let alone when he was forced to. he'd never say something nice about someone.

but as he stood before you, he seemed like a totally different person. the scaramouche you knew would never dance with you. the scaramouche you knew would never hold you close, the scaramouche you knew would never, ever, say something remotely nice about you.

yet he did all of those things in just one night. just who had posessed him into doing this?

the compliment left you in a flustered mess, and you mentally cursed scaramouche for making you feel this way.

stop it, you thought to yourself. you're not supposed to melt over him. he's merely your partner in this case, nothing more.

this case is more important than the relationship you two currently have, you think. you should, no, you have to move this aside, and focus on solving this case, first and foremost.

“...thank you.” you hesitantly said. you looked elsewhere to avoid his gaze, glancing up to the ceiling filled with spotlights instead.

you noticed something off about the spotlight that was a few feet above scaramouche. it was slowly dangling backwards and forwards, unlike the other spotlights that were hanging still. if you listen closely, you could hear the sound of screws squeaking.

letting out a small gasp, you finally realised that the spotlight was probably the one the workers were talking about the other day.

‘...there were a few screws loose, and the workers didn't manage to find them...’

that must be it.

“what's wrong?” scaramouche asked worryingly.

“we... we gotta get out from here.” you whispered, unfortunately for scaramouche, he couldn't hear you.

“what?”

you retracted your hands from his shoulders, resting one of them on his forearm instead. “we need to–”

you stopped your sentence abruptly, wincing at the sudden sound coming from your ear. scaramouche was doing the same, one hand leaving your waist to touch his hear, hissing from the unbearable sound.

looking to your surroundings, you hastily peered around to see that, no one else were reacting the same way as you two are, leaving you in a confused state.

why the hell are you two the only ones hearing the high pitched sound? why is everyone acting normal?

‘ear pieces. just in case we need them.’

someone here knew you had your ear pieces?

you snapped your head to scaramouche. “the ear piece!”

but as soon as you said those words, the venue suddenly turned pitch black, all lights stopped functioning. everyone let out sounds of confusion, weirded out by how the whole venue blacked out.

“what's happening?” someone asked.

“why did the lights go out?” another person near you questioned.

“y/n, stay close!” scaramouche said, pulling you closer to him.

and then you heard it. the sound of a screw falling down to the floor, landing with a small echo.

it was still pitch black, but you could still make out the exact location of the spotlight you were eyeing a moment ago.

widening your eyes even more, you quickly look back at scaramouche.

no.

it's gonna hit him.

you exhaled heavily, and on instinct, you changed your positions with scaramouche, leaving him even more confused than he already is.

“y/n? what are you–”

without hesitation, you pushed him hard, making him stumble backwards. scaramouche quickly looked back up to you and was about to speak, before he stopped when the sound of something crashing down to the floor echoed through the ballroom, making everyone let out gasp after gasp.

“what in the world was that?”

“i think i heard it from there!”

the people on the dance floor murmured between each other, asking what had just happened. the atmosphere from what was peaceful a second ago turned into chaos, as everyone slowly came to a panic when the lights still haven't been turned on.

everyone except scaramouche.

he stood there, frozen. the ravenette was still processing things, and when he finally came to the situation he was in right now, he lets out a shaky breath.

“y/n...?” he mumbled, hoping for a reply.

but no response came.

as if to make things worse, the lights suddenly came back, and scaramouche's eyes went wide.

lying unconsciously on the floor, you were knocked out from a spotlight, your head slowly bleeding out. it was a terrifying sight.

as everyone's gaze landed on your figure, gasps and shouts were heard, and people quickly surrounded you.

scaramouche was still frozen, but then swiftly snapped back to reality when he realised that you're hurt. he hastily brushed past the people that were starting to crowd the scene, pushing everyone that was in the way.

he stopped in his tracks when he finally stood before you, your figure lying helplessly on the floor. everyone shouted between each other to call an ambulance, and just as the students of snezhnaya university had thought this would be a wonderful night to remember, it is now their worst nightmare instead.

scaramouche crouched down to you, and checked for your pulse. she's still alive, he thought to himself, letting out a sigh of relief. he cradled you close to his chest, hoping that help would come as soon as possible.

gritting his teeth, he swore he'd hunt down whoever did this to you. and finish them for good.

you woke up to the familiar room.

fuck. you're back here again.

looking to your right, you peered over to the infamous iv drip.

shit, you can't be serious.

you suddenly felt lightheaded, wincing in pain as you brought up a hand to hold your head, but stopped abruptly when you felt a gauze roll wrapped around your head.

just what had happened to you?

you shifted yourself on the bed to sit up more comfortably, and unknowingly bumped your leg to someone. raising a brow, you looked down to see that, scaramouche, had his head rested at the edge of your bed.

huh, you just had a glimpse of deja vu.

you vividly remembered that you were in this exact type of situation back when the incident occurred. except that this time your head was the one all bandaged up instead.

due to your light movements, scaramouche slowly looked up from where he rested, and landed his eyes on you, who was now awake. he quickly scrambled to his feet and got closer to you, cupping your cheek with one of his hands, his other resting on your shoulder.

“oh–thank goodness, you're awake...” he said, thumb caressing your cheekbone. the ravenette clicked on the monitor beside your hospital bed, and informed the doctor in charge that you were awake.

your eyes trailed over his actions on the small monitor, and when he finally looked back at you after he was done, his demeanor completely changed to a 180, expression turning back to one you had never thought would return.

yup, you're definitely fucked.

“she can be discharged today. though, please look out for her, she needs all the rest.” the doctor in front of you said, writing on his clipboard. “the bandage should be changed every time she gets out of the shower, and the wound should be healed by the end of the week, it's nothing that serious, you needn't worry.”

scaramouche slowly nodded. “sure.”

the doctor looked up from his clipboard and landed his eyes on scaramouche. “i'd advise you to not make her stressed out that much, it could result in her having a huge headache. even though her injuries aren't anything major, it still left a big impact to her head.”

the doctor continued on informing scaramouche of the needed information, while you sat at the waiting area. scaramouche hasn't talked to you ever since you got out of your hospital room, and you slightly shudder at the thought of scaramouche hating you for what you've done.

you're not sure what you're gonna come home to, but you're sure as hell it's not gonna be anything good.

the ride back to the campus dorms was fairly quiet, scaramouche not uttering a single word, focusing on the road instead. you on the other hand didn't say anything as well, afraid of what you'd be greeted with if you were to even open your mouth.

as you both entered your dorm, the door slowly closed, and scaramouche stood by the door for a few seconds, hand still on the doorknob. the dorm was still fairly dull and quiet due to the dark weather, adding up to the sullen situation you're in right now.

“do you want to explain what happened last night?”

you halted in your tracks and turned around, looking at scaramouche's back. “oh, uh...” you trailed off, trying to find the right words.

“what the hell were you thinking?” his voice suddenly raised a little higher, his hand gripping on the doorknob tight, knuckles turning white. “do you even know what you were getting yourself into?”

you frowned, crossing your arms as you stood in the middle of the dorm. “of course i do.”

“then why?” he asked, voice cracking. “why did you have to do that and injure yourself?”

“look, i just had to... okay? let's not do this right now, kuni. i don't want to think about it.”

he turns around, eyes snapping to you. “no. let's talk about it. right here, right now.” he said, folding his arms as he stood behind the closed door.

you frowned even more at this. “kuni, just stop, please. we don't have to make this complicated.”

“and what? you're just gonna continue doing all of those shit? be the stupid fucking hero where you sacrifice your life for others? and what next? continue this until you're battered to death?”

“kuni–”

“you're just gonna brush off the fact that you pushed me away? just to let yourself get smashed into the floor by that fucking spotlight?!” he said furiously, his voice getting higher and higher, curses spilling out of his mouth like there's no tomorrow.

scaramouche heaved out a breath of a laugh, though no amusement laced his voice. “y–you really can't keep doing this to me, y/n. stop being the fucking hero you think you are. stop trying to get yourself into danger. just stop– stop all of this.”

clenching your fists, you looked at him with a perplexed expression, quite the complete opposite of last night. it's funny, you think. you never thought you'd be standing here, having possibly the worst ever fight with scaramouche. even after everything you've experienced with him this past week.

the faint pitter patter on the outside of your small balcony can be heard, and slowly, the rain comes down rather harshly, making the atmosphere between you and him the more painful.

“weren't you the one who wanted to sacrifice your life for people's safety?” you inquired, recalling back to when he mentioned about putting his life on the line. “why can't i do the same? am i not a detective like you are? did i not vow to the same oath as you?”

“doesn't mean you can go around willingly getting yourself in danger.”

you let out a sound between a scoff and a laugh, slowly stepping closer towards him. “i'm a fucking detective, for crying out loud! getting into danger is the main point of my job, did you seriously think i was gonna stand there idly and let you take the hit?!” you shouted, your tone matching his.

“yes.” was what he said. “stop putting yourself through hell, y/n! is that something so hard to do?! stop trying to save my life every fucking second!”

“oh, sure, i'm the one who's stubborn here. why can't you just mind your own business?! not everything has to be in your fucking control! news flash, scara, the world does not revolve around you!”

he halted when you stopped calling him by his real name, opting to the usual nickname you used to call him. still in the heat of the conversation, he brushed it off.

“don't be stupid and naive, y/n. stop doing this to yourself. i don't like seeing you in this state.” he said frustratingly, raking a hand through his hair. “do you even have any idea how fucking worried i was when those lights came back on, just to see you lying helplessly on the floor, with blood soaking your head? has it ever occured to you that you keep making me witness you in those kind of states?”

at this, you stayed quiet, unable to reply to him. “you don't understand how many times you've made me worried sick about you. can't you see that i care for you? who would even do that if not me?” he continued, voice cracking more and more, as if he was at his breaking point.

“stop, please.”

“stop what?”

“stop— just stop fucking pretending you care, for archons sake! if you cared me so much, you wouldn't be standing there, making my life a miserable mess!”

he clenched his fists even harder than before. “a miserable mess? goodness, y/n, you're the one who's being insufferable right now!” he shouted through the heavy rain. “do you even realise that i've done nothing but care for you from the very start? do you even remember when i was scared shitless when you got shot? do you even remember that i always indulge in your stupid requests? do you even know that i've always been by your side, despite being complete enemies?”

“i don't want to do this, scaramouche, please. i'm tired.”

scoffing, scaramouche stared at you, eyes slowly tearing up. “scaramouche? you don't even want to say my real name now?” he chuckles, wiping the tear that threatened to fall down his cheeks. “after everything i've done for you, you're just gonna stoop that low, huh. what next, call me by my fatui name?”

you looked at him deadly in the eyes. “you know what, yeah.” you muttered, eyes red from refraining yourself to cry. “i don't want to deal with your bullshit right now, balladeer.” he felt a pang to his heart when you spat those words. “stop trying to fix me when you can't even fix yourself.” he widened his eyes at your last sentence, and before you knew it, you were standing in front of him. brushing past him, you turned the doorknob, and he flinched.

grabbing ahold of your wrist, he stops you. “where are you going?” he asked, voice suddenly shaky and low, as if he was a fragile puppet that was about to break.

glancing to his glistening eyes, you softened just for a moment. it was hard to not just engulf him in a hug and wipe those tears off his face, right then and there. but you can't. he's making you feel like your efforts were useless, he's treating you like you're a kid who needs to be taken care of every second, so why the hell even have the slightest sympathy for him?

“i need a break from all of this. please, let me go.” you pleaded, and he did reluctantly. opening the door, you looked at scaramouche one last time.

the rain was still heavy, just like how your fight was with scaramouche. ironic, you think. the weather feels just as down as you are right now. “i can't believe it just took five minutes to change everything between us.” was the last thing you said before slamming the door shut, leaving scaramouche alone in the dark dormitory.

he didn't bother to chase after you.

you headed for the elevator and pressed the ground floor button the second you entered. fishing out your phone from your pocket, you dialed for the only person you were close to in campus.

“hello?”

“ah, hi, yun jin. i'm sorry for asking this very last minute, but is it okay... if i crash at your place for a while?” you asked, biting on your nail anxiously.

upon hearing your voice, yun jin let out a small gasp. “luna! i heard you got into the hospital. are you okay?”

you laughed, though nothing was even remotely amusing. “yeah, 'm fine. i just need a place to stay at for a while, is that okay to you?”

yun jin sighed in relief. “sure, my roommate isn't gonna be here for the semester since they're at their partners'. but it's raining right now, do you have an umbrella to get here?”

the elevator came to a stop, and you exited to the dorm lobby. “i have my ways.” you said as you stepped outside of the building, the sound of the heavy rain suddenly comes crashing down, louder than from inside the building. “thanks, yun jin. i owe you big time. see you later.” ending the call, you looked up to the sky.

it was the worst weather of the month, you think, remembering about the forecast news you watched the other day. the sky was gloomy, and there was no one else in sight, only you, standing alone.

and that was all it took for you to finally break yourself into pieces.

sorry

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drabbles-of-writing · 1 year

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as the OG source of the A Little Kindness AU aka Raine adopting Hunter I would LOVE to know how you would change it to be canon compliant. i mean obviously the reveal would be after everything, but god just imagine Hunter worrying about his anonymous friend/caretaker and he finds out its the FUCKING OWL LADY'S PARTNER and hes just so happy theyre ok and to know who helped him out all the time but also OH TITAN LUZ IS GONNA BE HIS SISTER EVEN MORE NOW!

~adoption anon

the little gray box who started it all!!!! welcome back

good lord there would be so many overhauls...just so incredibly many I gotta try to break it all down to smaller sections to even get. a glimpse

1) okay so as we have learned Raine was NOT, in fact, under any mind control, just pulling the biggest brained move on Snapdragon she ever did see. so raine doesn't even go missing in the first place, if anything they might halt the notes altogether but still remain in the castle just because they were under constant vigilance and meeting eda again mightve made them triply afraid of getting other people involved with their work. hunter stresses about it, as you do, but flapjack isn't freaking out cause HE'S seen raine's face, and he knows that they're fine, but he has no idea what happened, so Hunter is less concerned since Flapjack isn't. not by a lot tho.

2) so INSTEAD of Hunter booking it to Luz to plead for help on some criminals, he instead takes all of this suppressed fear and worry and stress and just kinda. balls it up. and then shoves all of it out in the open during Eclipse Lake. he goes HARD trying to get that Titan's Blood and the thing where he tried to relate to Amity over being a failure? he doubles down on that shit TREMENDOUSLY and their shared failing to live up to what other ppl wanted and pushing away their friends (granted Amity actually pushed Willow away to try and help, Hunter didn't push Raine away he just thought he did). you think his breakdown in Eclipse Lake was concerning? hes about to make it even more concerning. hes very very afraid for Bat and he would really rather they hate him than anyone found out they'd been talking to him and they got murdered, so he better try and beat the shit out of Amity! if Belos is pleased with him, maybe he'll hesitate on whatever punishment Bat might be having right now

3) Raine, bless 'em, keeps trying to help Hunter how they can, dropping these tiny hints they don't mean to drop. Hunter's part of setting up and preparing everything for the Coven Day Parade and Raine is noticeably always checking in on the Golden Guard. we know now that Hunter started showing his face more after the Palisman incident, but Raine isn't seen around often, so I imagine it's around the Coven Day Parade that they finally see what Hunter looks like--and good lord that IS a literal teenager what the hell did they DO TO HIM---alright scrap all the plans. darius, eberwolf, change of plans. everything stays the same, but we're kidnapping Hunter on the way out

4) Any Sport in a Storm is pretty much the same, Hunter is just even antsier & more desperate to get these new friends to like him bc. Bat. and also punts Darius twice as hard. Darius for his part is only marginally nicer because he knows Raine's weirdly attached to this little rat of a child--oh wait nvm he sees why now. alright valid point. Darius is a firm believer in "for the love of god just tell him you're Bat it will save everyone a lot of stress" but unfortunately Raine subscribes to "if anyone i really care about is within fifty feet of me we are All Going To Die"

5) mostly everything would stay the same in Hollow Mind, i think? Raine, Darius and Eberwolf might actually go up to the Owl House and speak when Hunter and Luz get trapped in Belos's mind since its both Raine and Darius that are stressed as fuck over the kid? in that instance then everyone teams up much quicker (and in confusion) but Hunter still books it out at fast speeds into the woods and somehow makes it to Hexside. he's a slippery little bastard, but luckily now theres a whole gang teamed together to track him down and hes found by Darius pretty quickly after the Owl House is evacuated and torn apart. however Hexside is VERYYYYY on edge over coven heads claiming to want to "help" and "have betrayed the Coven" so they're all beating Darius back like a rabid raccoon and Hunter thinks he's here to kill him. so thats fun. eventually Darius gives up, scruffs Raine, and throws them down at Hexside and demands they finally clear shit up. its a very cute scene of Raine sneaking in and slipping little notes under the door of whatever classroom Hunter's hiding for his life in, wherein he realizes Bat's come back. and Hunter's finally brave enough to yank open the door to---RAINE?????

6) more stuff that mostly stays the same. Hunter however is very stressed over Raine when they're trapped in the human realm which eventually leads to him and Luz talking a lot and him realizing "im sorry waht the fuck do you MEAN that the owl lady and raine whispers were a THING??? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERES STILL SOMETHING THERE????" but above all i want to fuck this boy up so insanely bad and at least give him a GLIMPSE of Raine's puppet body being possessed by Belos. even if there is no interaction other than Hunter seeing them for a brief flash I know in my heart that would fuck him up so bad. he would blame himself so so much. Belos really here to kill everything he loves before he can finally be free huh

7) MOST importantly they finally get to hug when everyones reunited and hunter feels SO INCREDIBLY GUILTY when he sees all the fresh new scars Raine has courtesy of Belos. to which Raine, in peak parent fashion, just goes "nah, i dont mind 'em. now we match :]" and Hunter's just god u are missing the point so badly but i'll let it slide. how'd you know my new scars were from belos. and raine just stares like "how did i know your new scars were from WHAT????? oh im so glad i killed his ass" "YOU DID WHAT"

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unmotivated-badger · 1 year

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Fear of forgetting (Why I think Captain died from Alzheimer’s) (Essay?)

(SPOILERS FOR PRETTY MUCH ALL CAP LORE!!! TW: Discussion of death, brief description of a brain with Alzheimer’s)

What if Captain died of Alzheimer’s? It would explain why his medals are upside down, why his belt is on backwards, why there is no physical injury apparent in causing his death, why we never hear his name, why he was back at Button House five years after the war ended, and why he put a different letter than the one in his office in the bomb box.

But why would his belt be on backwards and medals be the same in the flashback? As a person who has seen many, many people die/suffer from Alzheimer’s, the first symptoms are usually casual forgetfulness and slowly diminishing of routine, but still trying to keep it. Cap is an extremely routine-driven person, he’s said it himself. Maybe he just kept on putting his belt on the wrong way and either 1) forgot to change it and slowly feel into the routine of putting it on that way without realizing it, or 2) keeps on noticing it’s on wrong but not being able to do anything about it because he forgets, and slowly forgetting that it’s on wrong at all. This goes for the medals, too.

But how would the Alzheimer’s theory explain his name? He clearly knows it, but the camera cuts off at just the right moments. Another common symptom of people with dementia, specifically Alzheimer’s, is being SO confident in doing things that they’ve done countless times before (like remember their names), but have forgotten how to do them because of the condition. We obviously don’t know what the Captain said after the cutoffs, but the fact that the other ghosts know his name and he never says it on screen is a little strange. It’s also a little weird that Pat used it as a quiz question when Cap, if he knew his name, would’ve known

It also explains why there is no physical evidence of the cause of his unalivement. If you look at CT scans and pictures of a normal person’s brain compared to one with Alzheimer’s, there is a noticeable difference. Alzheimer’s brains are dry, clotted up and shrunken. The brain cells, subsequently, can fail. If the brain fails, it’s not long until the whole system shuts down.

This ties into one of the possibilities as to why he was at Button House 5 years after the War had ended. Button House was a station that didn’t have a lot of action, based off of Captain’s line, “Maybe if they do invade, we’ll get a proper shot at (something I can’t remember)!” and Havers’s subsequent transfer in order to actually fight. It had a good possibility of being turned into a hospital for injured soldiers, considering its size, location and lack of action carried out there during the war. My theory is that they let Captain work there for a few years after the war because he had nowhere to go and they needed workers, but promptly realized he should be one of the patients and didn’t tell him out of fear of disrespecting his ranking (or just fear of a mental breakdown and how that would look socially and how that would affect the inner workings of the system), but slowly eased his work into almost nothing, while still letting him hold his rank. They didn’t have a lot of treatments back then other than alcohol to help you sleep, which, along with his already blurred worldview, would’ve made the lie a lot more convincing. If he did see through it, he would forget it in less than thirty seconds, anyway. It would also explain why he died in his uniform, with a swagger stick that went out of style at the end of WW1. Nobody told him☹️

There are a lot of reasons why he could’ve buried a different note in the bomb box than he had in the office (note: look very closely at the font on both of them. They look almost identical but if you look closer they’re different.), my personal favorite theory is that the letter in his pocket WAS actually a love letter instead of blueprints, but the other possibilities align better with the theme. 1) He simply forgot where he put the blueprints and had to make a copy lmao. 2) He actually wrote two different notes that were ment to look the same (one was the love letter) but unknowingly made himself forget later by making them look so alike, and he forgot that he had made two. 3) Someone else replaced it, trying to mimic his hand. “Not a single spy flew under my radar” or maybe you just forgot to remember the signs they had shown over time.

The Alzheimer’s theory explains the most of Captain’s character out of any theory i’ve heard recently, apart from the $-¡(¡de theory (Sorry I had to censor it, don’t wanna get flagged) and it is the saddest one in my opinion. He shows a lot of the signs and personality traits associated with the condition, so I just thought I’d share. Thank you for reading my ramblings. Uuh some joke about a ted talk idk it’s 2AM rn.

ALSO: In the intro he is in a mirror and there are cracks over his head, which represent memory loss in a lot of media

#this might be a stretch #and it might be me projecting my silly little life #but I do think it explains a lot #bbc ghosts #ghosts bbc #the captain bbc ghosts #the captain ghosts #captain bbc ghosts #let the poor baby SUFFER #character death #character analysis #angst #I guess #theory

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linkspooky · 1 year

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I know you already said in a post that Batman would empathize with Tomura so I wanted to ask you if you think Batman could empathize with the rest of the League.

Sure, there are plenty of parallels already between Batman's rogues gallery, and the League of Villains. Batman is characterized by his relationship with his villains, partly because he frequently shows empathy for his villains, considering how many of them are victims who've had "a bad day" just like Bruce did.

Toga Himiko and Harley Quinn

This is the most similar parallel between a batman rogue and Himiko, I already wrote a post about it here, more or less Harley and Toga live their lives in a twisted pursuit of love which would be an understandable motivation were it not for in pursuing their love they create many victims along the way as they violently lash out.

There is an episode of Batman the animated series called "Harley's Holiday" where Harley is given a clean bill of health and is discharged from Arkham Ayslum. Harley however, the next day is triggered when the shop attendant forgot to take the tags off a dress she legally purchased and the shoplifting detector went off, what specifcally triggers Harley is the idea that she's going to go down for a crime she didn't commit and be dragged back into Arkham. Harley has a bit of an emotional breakdown at this point and thinking she's going to be arrested, knocks down the security guard, takes a hostage to protect herself and runs out the store.

Harley: I just wanna live a normal life without some cop always pouncing on me.

Harley all day long runs with the hostage not because she's trying to hurt anyone, but essentially is having a breakdown and legitimately believes that she will be dragged back to Arkham for a crime that she did not commit. She even did not intend to hurt the girl she kidnapped and was planning on letting her go.

Batman follows Harley the whole episode, not because he wants to capture her and put her back in prison, but he's trying to de-escalate the situation and protect Harley so she doesn't lose the progress she's made.

Bruce: Listen to me. All the work you've done, your freedom. If you run away, you'll lose them Harley. You're so close to winning back your real life. Why risk it now?

It's worth bringing up that Himiko is also someone who was specifically failed by the social systems that were supposed to teach her how to use her quirk in a healthy way. Imagine, if after her first violent incident, instead of being thrown out by her parents, and pursued by the police to lock her up someone would have gone as far as Bruce did to remind Himiko that one bad day, or one bad deed shouldn't ruin your whole life. The goal of batman isn't to throw away his villains and lock away the key but to reform them, as shown by his last action in the episode buying Harley a dress and expressing empathy for her troubles.

Harley: Why did you stay with me all day, risking your butt for someone who's never given you anything but trouble? Bruce: I know what it's like to try and rebuild a life. I had a bad day too, once.

TWICE AND HARVEY DENT

Disassociative identity disorder? Check. Formerly good person who goes bad and suffers a mental breakdown after what was essentially an accident? Check. For Twice it's losing his parents, it's losing his job, it's deciding to steal to make a living only to have all his clones turn against him and forget what's the real one. Harvey starts out not only as a well-intentioned person, but a prosecutor trying to fight crime, and a close friend to Bruce Wayne.

The inciting incident to his villainry is a sheer accident, through no fault of his own. Harvey has problems with another personality, a repressed angry side, and is attending therapy to address it while the pressures of his outside life pile on and one violent accident that scars half of his face causes him to snap.

Batman's focus the entire episode is once again, trying to bring his friend back. In Harley's case especially he's suffering from a dissociative identity disorder which does not make him fully in control of his actions. It's not even a question of whether or not Harvey is past the point of no return for Bruce, but rather how he is going to bring him back.

Bruce: Wherever you are, whatever you've become, I will save you. I swear. "Two-Face Part II".

As Two-Face insists that Harvey is gone and no part of him remains, it's Bruce who refuses to give up on the idea that Harvey is still there, reminding him he still has friends.

Bruce: I want to help you. Harvey: Help me? You don't know anything about me. Bruce: I know that you have friends, Harvey. Friends who love and care about you. Harvey: Harvey's friends are no friends of mine. Bruce: What about Grace? Harvey: Grace? What do you know about Grace? Bruce: Every day, she waits and prays. She wants you back, Harv.

Once Harvey's attempts at revenge against the man who scarred him are stopped, there are follow up episodes like "Second Chance" that emphasize once again that Bruce is someone who believes in Harvey's ability to heal. When he's kidnapped just before getting face restoring surgery after making major progress in his therapy, Batman spends the entire episode trying to get him back and it ends again on this hopeful note.

Harvey: Bruce. Goold old Bruce. Always there. You never give up on me.

Bruce doesn't kill his villains because he doesn't believe he has the right to act as a judge on whether they have the right to redeem themselves or not, and in many cases he is actively in support of their rehabilitation and return to society. Compare the way Hawks handled Twice. He started off making an offer to redeem him, but unlike Bruce decided he was the one who had the right to choose who was worthy of redemption and who was not. He divides good people and bad people and decides Only Twice is worth redemption because he is good and his offer of redemption comes at the cost of selling out the league, and then goes straight to the murder option.

Batman doesn't act like he has the right to decide who gets saved, and who doesn't, whereas in hero society there's a pattern of regularly ignoring the help of people in need of they don't fit the image of a "good innocent victim."

"Well Batman wasn't fighting a war like Hawks was" go read the Injustice Comics, Batman's best friend Clark Kent becomes the literal dictator of the world and Batman is running a rebellion against him and the justice league and he still never chooses to kill anyone even if that would make the fight he is fighting a lot easier.

Jason Todd and Dabi

This one is a little bit harder to explain, because there's no under the red hood arc in Batman the Animated series which I am using as my main example because it's the most well known version of Batman. I did write an arc comparing Jason and Toya.

Under the Red Hood the storyline if anything is a well-written tragedy because it shows how much Batman failing to save Jason is a deviation of his true self, and his desire to save and reform his villains. Batman suddenly has trouble helping save an obvious victim, because of how much his own guilt complex and fear that he will lose Jason again is sabotaging his feelings. Batman isn't perfect after all.

However, I will say two things, if you read the original Death in the Family arc Bruce isn't a perfect parent but he is leagues better than Endeavor and he in fact was doing what he thought was best to help Jason when Jason started showing signs of instability.

His attempt to remove Jason from the Robin role was because he thought Robin was making Jason worse and Jason needed time to be a normal kid. Which is on a totally different level than what Enji did which is just throw away the kid he didn't need, and then make no attempt to help a kid who was reacting badly through sheer regret. If Batman had a kid reacting like Toya, he would have noticed and at least tried to help because at that point in the comics Batman was a flawed parent yes, but one actively trying to fix his mistakes and do better, as opposed to one who just ran away at every opportunity.

On top of that Bruce's hesitation the entire Under the Red Hood arc is about how much he mourns Jason, and how afraid he is of grieving him again. He fears that he can't save him while wanting to save him. Whereas, Enji really only cares about whether or not he can keep being a hero. Batman makes it clear by the end of the arc he wants to save Jason, he's wanted to the entire time.

Batman also, unlike Enji is capable of admitting that he can be the bad guy and that he can fail. Bruce also admit, and I think this is what makes him symapthize with his villains so much that he's not a saint or paragon of morality either, much like Jason he also feels tempted to put villains on the ground or that it would be much easier to just take justice into his own hands.

Part of what drives him to be a hero is because he's capable of imagining himself being the villain, that's why he relates to his villains and tries to help them instead of taking justice into his own hands. Whereas, Enji can abuse his family for years and be told several times that he chose being a hero over a father, only to believe he's still somehow the hero in this scenario. You have one who understands they failed their son and they could be a villain and the other who can never see themselves as the villain and instead villainize their son.

SPINNER VS KILLER CROC

As for Spinner the closest comparison I can come up with is Killer Croc, someone who is just a normal person with a birth defect that causes their skin to grow scales who was treated as a sideshow freak and continually dehumanized throughout all of their lives. This one is harder because Killer Croc doesn't really get many sympathetic episodes in Batman the Animated Series, in fact there's an episode I kind of dislike where Croc is taken in by freaks who treat him as human and accept him and then he turns on them. Which I think is kind of against the message of a lot of these Batman the Animated Series episodes, that these people aren't bad at heart but created by the circumstances they've endured in life.

If you dig around in the comics though there are times where Killer Croc is treated in a much more sympathetic light, in Suicide Squad he has a romance with Enchantress of all people which calms him down significantly because utlimately he just wants to be treated as a human from having people hurl abuse at him all these years and treat him as an animal because of his skin condition.

COMPRESS VS THE RIDDLER

Closest comparison I can come up with for Compress is the Riddler, because Compress to me of the league is the most "Bank Robber in a Silly Costume" themed villains. Riddler's obsession isn't really with harming people so much as creating elaborate riddles for Batman to solve.

When Paul Dini did a run on detective comics they explored Riddler from this angle, by have him giving up his identity as the Riddler and instead for awhile act as a private investigator who turned his same obsession in creating riddle themed crimes, to solving them instead. he even worked alongside Batman a couple of times.

#askspookies #mha meta #dc comics meta #batman #dc comics #toga himiko #harley quinn #twice #jin bubaigawara #hawks #harvey dent #jason todd #dabi #toya todoroki #the riddler #mr. compress #btas #batman the animated series #metasks

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eliza1911o1 · 1 year

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Druckmann stating David is a dark version of Joel is a -10/10 take absolutely not okay because them being parallels implies they share many similarities… David acting as a reflection of Joel’s role (as many of the character’s we meet mirror Ellie+Joel’s position in the story), though, is a 11/10 choice. I believe the showed really emphasized this and yeah, I get it seems nit-picky, but it’s important to note how paralleling the two characters in such a way serves to explain how differently they approach the role of guardian and what could have been if Ellie had met someone else. Additionally, it’s leading us to the conclusion that even a a good person (read: parent) doesn’t always do everything right (*spoilers if you don’t know the game*)

Joel and David are both older male figures who appear to want to care for Ellie. They set these two up for compare and contrast through the role of a “father” figure (an older caring mentor who can be responsible for her). The word “father” is frequently used in ep 8 when addressing Joel as well as when David refers to himself, expressing how both of them are random men who found their way into Ellie’s lonely life. There is also a sense of obsession the two have towards Ellie and keeping her around that is followed be violence, which is utilized as an expression/form of love. Their motives and characters couldn’t be more fundamentally different.

Initially, Joel has no interest in helping Ellie and no expectation of trust. Joel’s conception of a father seems to be the universal expectation of providing, teaching, fundamentally caring for a child’s well-being. The only reason he begins to open up to Ellie is due to circumstance and the ghost of his daughter, who he feels he failed; the association comes with a deep personal trauma by unconditional love. Furthermore, this sense of care is entirely one of a parent, exhibiting care so great that his well-being and even the world doesn’t matter as long as she’s okay

In contrast, David is clearly beyond words off the rails messed up. He does appears to have little to no understandable morals, exhibiting little inhibition to resorting to cannibalism, physical intimidation, sexual violence, and pedophilia. What’s more, from what he insulates, this is not a result of the apocalypse, a breakdown of humanity — instead, this is a part of himself now freed. The apocalypse has not caused this collapse of morals, it has actually justified his propensity for the inhumane. David sees the violence in Ellie, but he’s partially confusing this inclination, which has been fostered by humanity’s collapse, extreme traumas, and general survival. Honestly, I’m not going to even try to understand his mind or why he would think it’s okay to kidnap and potentially try to make Ellie his partner — all that matters for this is how David sees this action as caring for her and views himself in a father role by doing such (he crazy so don’t even try to ask how he came to those conclusions)

On a related tangent (trust me here), ep 8 emphasizes religion quite a bit, most noticeably in the way the community is steeped in some form of Christianity and David is a preacher. Less clearly is this reduction of religion (or a faith in God) to faith in an individual. David, as we learn more about him, seems to have a God-complex, framing his himself as a savior and leader in his community; he utilizes religion to frame his actions as unquestionable. Furthermore, while the usage of “father” is frequent and in places implies reference to, it never directly mentions a relation to God. the opening verse that David reads (Revelation 21:3-4) is also supportive of this, as it states, “God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Not only is David attributing himself to a God-like status, but also this position of a “father” as a leader of faith in correlation with Ellie.

We have seen the way Ellie mimics Joel, like in the beginning of ep 8 when she threatens David and James over the deer. She gladly follows his “teachings” and even seeks them, shown in the way she continuously begs Joel to tell her what to following his incapacitation. She’s also only kid and this has been the first time she’s ever been loved in this way, so there’s no reason for Ellie not to feel okay with relying on Joel with almost blind faith.

But Joel is not perfect and he is not prepared to teach a kid how to grow up in the apocalypse. While Joel and David provide similar offers (at least from their first impressions), Joel will never take advantage of Ellie in the cruel way David would have. It actually highlights Joel’s humanity, and so, even when he is torturing and killing men for information on her whereabouts, this feels justified since Joel is a good man and a good father. Joel may cross lines, but it is out of necessity OR maybe he just doesn’t cross too many/the wrong ones, so we’re still able to stand with him.

Nevertheless, this conflict of morals (being a good person in a world where, really, you die if you’re good) has an especially strong impact on Ellie, who is only 14. A major theme of the game and especially so for the show is the concept of violence and idea that, in Ellie’s world, violence has become a show of love. Mazin himself states how Ellie’s tendency for violence has been enhanced through Joel’s presentations of care being through acts of violence, tracing this back to Joel killing the guard in episode 2. David says this plainly to Ellie, how Joel kills a man not defending himself, but defending her. The lines that should not be crossed are blurred; in the apocalypse, do they exist at all?

David, disgustingly enough, leads us the answer: cordyceps love through violence, this is not how humans love. “People need a father” and Ellie is not beyond that. David accepts we’re all animals, but Joel continues to teach Ellie what it means to be more than that through the way he treats her equally, he worries for her, he kills only when necessary (iffy, but at least it’s not out of enjoyment), and simply cares. Ellie has warped violence as a form of love, however, this is not all she knows, which is what makes the end of TLOU pt. II all the more poignant. *SPOILER* albeit stuck in a cycle of violence, Ellie finally decides to end things with her choice not to kill Abby. Though I don’t particularly like pt. II and don’t know if it was perfect enough to justify killing off Joel, I can appreciate the ideas behind it and think the emphasis on forgiveness is a powerful statement

#the last of us #joel and ellie #joel tlou #joel miller #Ellie #tlou spoilers #tlou hbo #tlou show #tlou #tlou meta #tlou game #tlou ep 8

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amatres · 4 months

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TV Tropes : Layla

Hello everyone. Sometimes you have little hobbies that are silly and self indulgent but you don't care bc you think they're fun. That being said. Look at Layla's fake TV Trope page under read more for length.

Spoiler warning as well, as there is no actual censor bar to be had.

“A new day means a new chance for something interesting to happen!” Name: Layla Race: Dhampir (Moroi-Heritage) Class: Bard (Dirge Bard) Alignment: Chaotic Good (*could alignment shift to Chaotic Neutral in companion au*) Deity: Desna

Once a noblewoman of Brevoy, Layla is now a wandering bard. After five years of being on the run, she fled to the Worldwound in a desperate bid to deter the pursuit of her cousin and the mercenaries he’d send to capture or kill her, only to be drawn into the Fifth Crusade by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Tv Tropes:

-All the Other Reindeer: Was ostracized for being a dhampir and then also for her uncertain noble lineage once her grandfather took her in.

-Animal Motifs: Like any true azata mythic path knight commander and desnan, she is often associated with butterflies.

-The Bard

-Barefoot Poverty: She is often depicted as barefoot, and at the start of Wrath of the Righteous, she had them stolen by the person who was helping her get into the city, alongside her cloak and violin. (*Or that is what her mind makes her believe after being captured by Areelu*). While joked she just keeps losing them, the fact she can not easily replace them is still something to take note of.

-Beware the Nice Ones/Beware the Silly Ones: While genuinely a rather kind and cheerful person who will help others simply because she can, she is not one to be pushed around. When she feels backed into a corner she can become venomous and destructive, as both her cousin Arthur and Queen Galfrey find out.

-Beautiful Singing Voice: While she primarily plays her violin, she is also trained in singing and is rather good at it, at least to the point she could still make money performing with singing and dancing alone.

-Big Screwed-Up Family: It doesn’t get more dysfunctional than being the Replacement Goldfish for her grandfather and the Abel to her cousin’s Cain because said grandfather liked her more. Not to mention what started the problems to begin a generation earlier, with their parents' fight and their father’s reaction to it being the catalyst to everything.

-Blue Blood: Apparently is the long lost grandchild to a brevic nobleman, though whether this is true or not was hotly debated the entire time she lived with the noble title.

-Bookworm: With not much else to do as a noblewoman with no friends, Layla developed a strong love for books of all kinds. She bonds with others over it, and happily shares her love of it and what she’s read with others, such as Lann or Nenio.

-Broken Bird: Subverted. The five years she spent on the run actually gave her the chance to refind herself after spending years under the stress of brevic court and her family drama, and she’s come out of it with a strong sense of self and love for life. (*however this can play out in earnest if the knight commander pushes her onto the chaotic route, causing her to have a breakdown and become self centered, self destructive, and callous*)

-Burn Baby Burn: A go to tactic for her when she finally has had enough. Most famously, she set her own home of around twenty years aflame to spite her cousin. She will do the same in her chaotic endings in the companion au.

-Cain and Abel: A less direct example, as he is her cousin not her brother, but Arthur continues to try to kill her to appease his own wounded ego and childhood trauma even after five years has passed. In her own world, he fails as he (*is killed by Areelu*) while he may actually succed in some companion au endings.

-The Chains of Command: Being in charge of the fifth crusade is not good for her ultimately, and she never wanted to be in charge in the first place. Act three really puts it into light as she starts to act out of character and become more bitter as she’s forced to act against her nature.

-Chaotic Good: Her In-Universe Alignment. She is a free spirited young woman, who values freedom of expression and anatomy above near all else, and is also rather kind and willing to lend an ear to those who need it, and will help people expecting nothing in return, even when it goes against what others tell her to do and potentially putting herself in trouble as a result.

-Combat Pragmatic: Layla may not seek out fights on her own, but when she is in one, she will do whatever she deems necessary to get out of them alive.

-Cold Blooded Torture: Victim of this if captured by her cousin in act 3 as a companion. In one route, by the time she is rescued she has been rendered unable to walk and has to be helped by someone else to leave the prison. Even though she eventually is able to walk again some time after the fifth crusade ends, the experience understandably leaves scars no matter how she escapes the situation.

-Corrupt the Cutie: Her chaotic route in her companion au is brought upon by encouraging her worst instincts and making her believe she only has herself to rely on.

-Dark and Troubled Past: While not as extreme as others, it’s not without its troubles. Coming into life with her mother dying in childbirth, being a social outcast at the orphanage that took her in solely out of fear of angering the vampire who possibly sired her, to thinking she finally got a chance at a better life only to become a social outcast in Brevic nobility due to her debated familial ties, then slowly backed into a corner by her own cousin as she was framed for slowly killing the only family member she had on her side, and having said family member in response to confine her to the manor in response out of fear for safety. This all leads to her saying enough is enough, and once her grandfather is dead, she destroys the very place she lived for over 20 years and leaves.

-Defiant Captive: If she is captured by her cousin, she spends months not breaking under torture, mocks her cousin all the while, and even attempted to run away once, though that was punished swiftly once she was recaptured. If the knight commander takes too long to rescue her after entering Act 5, it leads to…

-Defiant to the End: She refuses to give up, even when things have become hopeless, such as when she first confronts Minagho at the Wardstone. Another example that does fulfill the death requirement is in one of her bad ends of her companion au where she never gives her cousin the satisfaction of seeing her break over the months he has her in captivity, eventually leading to him killing her.

-Delicate and Sickly: Her albinism has not just left an obvious visual mark on her, but also affected her health, giving her life long health struggles and she has a very low constitution score fitting for what is expected of her heritage. (*This is possibly a side effect of Areelu’s experiments on her both when she was younger and later when she was captured near the Worldwound. While the foreign power in her body is making her stronger, it also eats away at her health*) Even as a companion, she mentions offhandedly about having been sick often as a kid, and other companions will remark on her poor health with varying levels of care on the matter. Layla is unbothered by her penchant for falling ill, and makes light of it due to how used to it she has become.

-Destroy the Abusive Home/Let the Past Burn: While her grandfather himself wasn't horribly abusive, his manor ultimately was a place of strife for her. In a moment of not only grief, but anger, she set the manor ablaze so that her cousin couldn't have it even after she was gone. She also treated this partially as a way of saying goodbye to that part of her life, unfortunately that part of her life isn’t willing to let her leave that easily.

-Dhampyr: Born as one, though no one knows who her vampiric sire is.

-Die Laughing: In one of her bad ends, she laughs in her cousins face even after months of torture and he finally snaps, killing her.

-Disappeared Dad: She has no idea who her father is, nor does anyone else. She is unbothered by this, saying he is either dead, or a deadbeat, and either way it’s of no concern to her in the end.

-Elegant Classical Musician

-Elemental Eye Color: Her eyes are a vibrant red, and she’s associated with fire due to her dramatic method of cutting ties.

-Elopement: She marries Lann without any fanfare or warning to anyone else. Unlike most examples of this trope, it was simply because the two got carried away.

-Ethical Slut: Has no problem with casual sex, and is open about it, while insisting that all parties involved are enthusiastic and that others don’t get hurt. If in a companion AU, she is happy to enter a casual sexual relationship with the Knight Commander but she will not accept being chosen over a different companion in the jealousy scene, and will leave saying she wasn’t aware of how serious things were and hadn’t meant to hurt anyone.

-Friendless Background: Goes from an orphanage where everyone avoided her because of her unnatural heritage, to living in an estate where everyone avoided her because of the rumors surrounding her and out of fear of angering her very powerful guardian. She never had much chance to make friends until she was already an adult and living on the run.

-Gentlewoman Snarker: While usually a Nice Girl, when she doesn’t like someone she is much more willing to mess with their heads and hurt their ego, and definitely has the wit to cut deep.

-Good Bad Girl: A person who many find easy to like, and is also open and unashamed about her promiscuity.

-Guile Hero: As someone who is not very physically strong, she relies on her wits and charm to get out of most of her troubles. For example, she has a habit of turning her enemies against each other so she can escape when they aren’t looking.

-Half Human Hybrid: Her mother was unquestionably human, whoever she truly was, but her father is unknown and speculated to have been a vampire.

-The Hyena: She is often laughing, and can find reason to laugh at almost anything.

-Impossibly-Low Neckline: Her dress perhaps is on the more unrealistic side and it's a wonder it stays on like it does.

-Just Friends: With Daeran, both as the knight commander and as a companion. In her own universe, she is oblivious to his developing feelings and turns him down when he attempts to turn things serious, while in a companion au the two start a Friends With Benefits arrangement but eventually end it, deciding to consider each other simply friends.

-Lonely Rich Kid: Her childhood in her grandfather's estate, as no one was willing to brave befriending her due to her grandfather's protective attitude and the rumors surrounding her.

-Magic Music: Comes with being a bard.

-Meaningful Name: Her name means ‘night’, a rather on the nose name for a dhampir.

-Mood-Swinger: While often cheerful, it catches many off guard when her mood changes at the drop of a hat. Any emotion she has will often be immediately obvious, and sudden, there and then gone with the change of the wind.

-Mystical White Hair: Not caused by magic itself, instead coming from the much more mundane reason of albinism.

-Never Found the Body: Some of her chaotic alignment endings invoke this, even inspiring in universe speculative literature and art on what became of her.

-Nice Girl: A kind person who many find easy to get along with and find something about her to like. She approaches most people with a friendly demeanor and open mind, and is willing to accept most people despite how different they are from her, though not to the point of letting people take advantage of her.

-Noble Fugitive: Was once a noblewoman of a decently respected noble house of Brevoy, but has had to live on the run for the past five years after her cousin framed her for murdering her grandfather and she set the manor he wanted so badly on fire in retaliation.

-Parental Abandonment: Her mother couldn't really help dying in childbirth, but her father is out there and no one knows who he is, let alone if he is alive or not.

-Plucky Girl: Both stubborn and optimistic in equal measure.

-The Pollyanna: Despite all the hardships life has dealt her, she holds onto her optimism and does her best to see the best of life, as well as to share that with others. (*unless the Knight Commander pushes her to her breaking point*)

-Polyamory: Is open to this if her partner wishes to, and as a companion she offers it as a solution to the jealousy scene, though none of them really go through with it.

-Pretty Butterflies: When she starts to show signs of her azata mythic path, she is surrounded by butterflies that follow her wherever she goes.

-Prone to Sunburn: Unfortunate result of albinism.

-Put the “Laughter” in “Slaughter”: In the companion au, if the knight commander pushes her into her chaotic path she laughs all while killing her cousin and all his men, with or without the knight commander’s help.

-Raised by Grandparents: Raised by her grandfather after she spent her first few years in a Taldan orphanage.

-Rags to Riches: Went from being an isolated child in an orphanage to a rich noblewoman loved by her grandfather. It wasn’t to last.

-Red Eyes, Take Warning: Unlike the rest of her outward appearance, Layla’s eyes are something that does mark her as more dangerous than simply a human woman with albinism, giving her away as a dhampir. While she doesn’t mean most people harm, it’s not uncommon for others to get unnerved when they notice her eyes and realize what they mean.

-The Redeemer: Has a habit of getting into evil characters’ heads enough to make them begin to question themselves and ultimately change. Makes her act 3 near breakdown under the weight of power all the more noticeable when she does the opposite for her companion for months Camellia, and the obviously deeply mentally ill, survival focused Wenduag. Despite this habit of hers, she won’t refuse to fight someone who tries to manipulate her to get away with their evil deeds.

-Replacement Goldfish: Was this to her grandfather, who used her as a second chance at raising his daughter. In his final months, he would call Layla by her name instead and would talk to her as if she was his long lost daughter. (*Areelu attempted to do a more twisted version of this to her as well*)

-Riches to Rags: Goes from being a well off Brevoy noblewoman to a shoeless traveling bard, not that she seems to mind.

-The Runaway/Forced From Their Home: While she ultimately falls into the former, she only started her life on the run due to her cousin trying to impose the latter, if not fully intending to have her killed instead.

-Quirky Curls: Is a cheerful girl, and has long, curly hair that she often lets flow free.

-Oblivious to Love: Unfortunately it takes a bit for her to realize someone has feelings for her and not simply flirting with her for fun. Those who try the hardest, with more elaborate and showy displays of affection, are only making it less likely she’ll catch on until it’s too late and someone gets hurt.

-Odd Friendship: Friendship is stretching it very far, but Layla holds a rather decent amount of respect for Regill despite how different their world views are, due to how true he is to his convictions. That won’t stop her from jokingly flirting with him because she thinks it’s amusing or stating her own views however.

-Of Corsets Sexy: One of the few articles of clothing she wears is a corset.

-Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: She will often go off on her own to do what she feels is right, not caring who it upsets.

-Sex for Services: Admits to having done this once or twice as a way to get into a city, or have someone help her out. She claims she isn't bothered by this, and says if she had ever felt she was in danger she could have easily torn out the person's throat with her teeth.

-Single Woman Seeks Good Man: The gender doesn’t matter to her, but it’s not the obvious flirtations or showings of power that catch her attention, but earnesty. She simply wants someone who accepts her as she is.

-Smarter Than You Look: Is a lot more well read, a better judge of character, and much more introspective than most people would probably give her credit for right off the bat.

-Street Musician: How she makes a living.

-Success as Revenge: Well more simply moving on with her life as revenge. She has no interest in getting any revenge against her cousin after burning down the family manor, and even tells him to his face he is wasting his life by pursuing her when he could instead be making a respectful name for himself back in Brevoy if he just did the same.

-The Tease: She finds it fun to flirt with people, and will do it with or without romantic or sexual intention. Some she even flirts with because she thinks their rejection of it is funny, though she tries to remain mindful of people’s boundaries and won’t flirt with certain characters like Sosiel or Arueshalae out of respect.

-Tragic Keepsake: Her violin, as it was the only gift her grandfather gave her that she has left now that the rest of them are reduced to ashes.

-True Blue Femininity: Very feminine and is often dressed in a light blue dress.

-Turn to Religion: She became a worshiper of Desna only after she left her old life behind.

-Unkempt Beauty: She doesn’t put in much effort into her appearance, mostly because she can’t, but is still rather pretty.

-Walking the Earth: While she might not have chosen to leave when she did, Layla is happy to live on the road, and returns to it once the 5th crusade comes to an end.

-Wandering Minstrel

-What the Hell Hero: In the companion au, Layla will leave the party for a handful of actions, one being causing Arueshalae to fall. (*at least as long as the commander hasn’t also triggered her own chaotic path*)

#layla (oc)#pwotr pals #sorry if it reads a bit weird i am. not good at very eloquent. heart.#im glad to see other ppl doing it too this is smthing ive been doing. for years. and i will infect others.#fair warning this was 8 pages in the google doc. and could have more added to it if i feel like it

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mightyflamethrower · 4 months

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They tried electric buses in Connecticut. Because of their tendency to burst into flames, the entire fleet was pulled from service. They tried them in Wyoming. At last word, none works. Edmonton blew a fortune on 60 electric buses. Most of those don’t work either. Turns out electric vehicles don’t make sense in the cold. Naturally the next step was to try them in frigid Minnesota:

In 2015, Duluth received a $6.3 million federal grant for six, ultimately seven, battery-electric buses from Proterra.

Proterra has gone bankrupt, leaving customers trying to keep their vehicles running in the lurch.

In Minneapolis,

Metro Transit followed in 2017 when it received a $1.7 million federal grant to buy eight battery-electric accordion buses…

They got free money and saved the allegedly imperiled climate from harmless carbon emissions. Everyone lived happily ever after — until reality set in:

Both the Twin Cities and Duluth have had problems with their battery-electric buses. For one, they can’t go as far as their builders advertised, in part because of the cold weather.

Too bad the global warming hoax isn’t real. If temperatures would rise by more than the current insignificant fluctuations, EVs would be less insane.

Metro Transit’s battery-electric buses are also less reliable than their diesel-fueled counterparts. A September 2023 presentation to the Met Council’s Transportation Committee showed the battery-electric buses broke down twice as often.

The outlandishly expensive batteries frequently fail, as do the chargers.

Duluth also had problems with its battery-electric bus fleet. Between April 2019 and February 2020, the fleet averaged 7,717 miles between breakdowns, four times as often compared to their diesel counterparts. … The buses struggled to make it up the city’s storied steep hills and to keep riders warm in the winter.

The federal government continues to throw our money at the quixotic cause of electrifying buses in frozen Minnesota:

In August, the Federal Transit Administration awarded Metro Transit a $17.5 million grant to buy 12 battery-electric buses… Since Duluth and Metro Transit rode the electric wave, other agencies joined in on the current. With $5.4 million from two federal grants, Rochester placed into service four battery-electric buses of the exact same make and model as Metro Transit’s…

Another federal grant for electric buses in Minnesota will cost us $8.1 million.

It’s almost as if our rulers couldn’t care less how hard we have to work to create the wealth they waste.

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disorganizedkitten · 23 days

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This Is The Road To Ruin Chapter 2

Harry Potter | 2022 | 3,862 | Ao3 | Prev | Masterlist | Next

4/11/87

I had a nightmare last night. It was another one about the stone room and the people in masks. I wish I knew what it meant. I wish I understood how my Sight works.

I think the dream has to do with why I’m here, in the muggle world, instead of home, but I still don’t understand it. If I hadn’t met Tansy, I think I would have assumed that my memories of home were imaginary - they fit into fiction ever so well. But Tansy is real, and she has magic, which means my childhood was too.

I just wish I understood it. I wish I remembered what caused the change. Hopefully I will one day.

Hopefully it wasn’t as bad as the nightmares make it seem.

‘

Clemencia is off at a placement, officially, but she came to Aletris’ today Freaking Out. It’s… a lot.

Tansy, Hawthorne, Hana, and Clem all have magic. I’ve mentioned this before, because we’ve had to grow around it. I remember growing up around magic, so I knew that we weren’t… as isolated as it seems, I guess, but I didn’t expect this to be our way in. Back.

Clemencia got accepted to a Magical Secondary School. It’s called Hogwarts - they won’t tell us where it is, but the teacher who came to deliver her letter took her on a tour of what sounds like a magical mall. She’s going to take us there tomorrow; she chose to accept the acceptance/invite.

I’m going to talk to Mrs. Calmiris tonight. Apparently, school starts at eleven, and I remember her asking me about letters around my eleventh birthday. The next year I got Hawthorne. She’s always been very calm about our magic; if she’s like me, or like Clem, I want to know. I know she’s not like Tansy, though.

Speaking of Tansy-

***

Justin hadn’t meant to go school shopping during the apparent pre-school rush. He’d been hoping to beat it, actually, but his summer had taken a sort of nosedive when he got his letter. Not intentionally! It had just been… derailed. They’d had everything scheduled already, from ordering his textbooks to his uniform fitting. All under the impression that Justin would be attending Eton, come fall.

Which was not going to happen.

Instead, a week before his birthday, they’d had a guest over who informed him he’d have to spend the next seven years at a Magic School unless he wanted to become a human bomb.

Which, obviously, he didn’t.

The professor has offered to escort them while shopping, but Justin had been having a slight breakdown at the time, so his mother had gotten directions and gently shooed the professor out. Which lead to now, three months later, exploring the Wizarding World by way of Diagon Alley, in London.

Justin was sure it was going to be super cool, as soon as he could stop hating it for tearing apart his life. If he’d had more warning the change might not have been so jarring.

He had hoped that coming to Diagon Alley would show him something cool, something to make it seem less horrid, but they’d entered through a dingy tavern that gave his parents headaches, had to get help entering the alley and were given condescending looks when they asked, and the they were greeted with less of an alley and more of a mosh pit. A magical mosh pit. Lovely.

Justin knew he was being unfair, but he didn’t particularly care. He had to go to a school where he’d have none of his friends, because of something he had no control over. He was allowed to be bitter.

Professor McGonagall had also failed to inform them that they’d be using an entirely different currency; luckily Dad had noticed while they were in the tavern and before they were actually trying to buy something.

That would be embarrassing. So very embarrassing.

Of course, then they had to hope that the bank, once they found it, offered exchange services. Thankfully, the bank was huge, visible when they entered the Alley (through a brick wall that vanished when it was tapped, which was actually pretty cool, Justin had always wanted a secret room in his closet) and bright white, so it was easy to find. Getting to the bank was another matter, as the alley was crowded, with an air of anticipation, as though they were all waiting for something big to happen. It, alongside the constant thrum of noise, put Justin on edge.

They tried, rather unsuccessfully, to make their way through the masses, until they noticed the crowd shying away from a pair of young adults - who were also heading towards the bank. Justin grabbed his mom’s hand and followed them.

The man called out once they had a direct line of sight, and got an enthusiastic wave back from someone much closer to the bank. The couple seemed to be hunting for friends or children in one of the few places that wasn’t packed beyond belief.

It wasn’t until they reached the open space that he realized there were two yards of white marble steps, on which the rest of the couple’s group seemed to be waiting. And they were the only ones - everyone else seemed to go up and down the steps as fast as they could, or stay off them altogether, as though unwilling to infringe upon bank territory.

The Finch-Fletchleys watched as their unknowing guides met up with a group of younger teenagers and one he couldn’t tell if was an adult or a child. The shortest one’s features changed as he watched, and Justin felt a giddy bit of awe bubble in his chest before his parents herded him the rest of the way into the bank.

Shapeshifting!

The only superpower Justin had wished more for as a child was invisibility. If he could learn to do that, this whole charade would be worth it.

The creatures that ran the bank were a little scary, less so inside than the guards outside were, but his dad treated them just like he would the bankers at home, and the conversion was quick and painless, minus the part where they had to calculate everything in seventeens and twenty-nines, instead of tens and hundreds.

Still, it was easy to move on, until they realized they had no clue where to go for anything. Maybe they should’ve tried to reschedule with Professor McGonagall, or at least asked for a map.

So this wasn’t their best planned trip. It was fine. His mother had immigrated (illegally, not that it was common knowledge) and had to learn Britain and London from the ground up; thus they could too. At least it didn’t look like he’d have to learn a whole new language.

“Perhaps the bookshop?” Justin’s dad offered hesitantly. Flourish and Blotts sounded like a stationery store, but the display was full of books, so that’s where they went.

Thankfully, the bookshop seemed to be more organized and less busy. It also smelled like books, which was a welcome change from the sunlight-and-burnt-sparkplugs of the rest of the alley.

They split up, giving Dad the list to find the required books while Mum and Justin went on the hunt for anything that looked acclimation-y. Cookbooks, history, Mum even grabbed two fiction novels, and they continued on in that manner for a little while. Justin grabbed all three of the etiquette books he found and promptly plopped down to skim them.

He didn’t want to accidentally insult someone’s family line, or ask them to marry him, or call them names. He refused to be engaged before he was sixteen, at the earliest.

“Muggleborn?”

Justin jumped, looking up. There was a translucent person looking over his shoulder. “Um. Yes?”

“Well, I’m glad to see you willing to learn. Have you tried Modesty and Magic, by Harold Sheppner yet?”

Justin shook his head mutely. The… ghost? Astral projection? nodded. “You should, if you get a chance. It was my grandson’s final project for his History of Magic mastery, and while a lot of that’s gone out of style, knowing it can earn you points with some of them prissy purebloods.”

“Yes, sir,” Justin said slowly, pretending he knew what half those words meant. He took note of the title, though, because it did sound useful. “Would I find that here?”

“Yeah, sonny,” the man grinned. “It’s got a gold spine, in the S section. Want me to show you?”

“Yes please.” Justin stood up, closing his current book around a finger. “What’s your name?”

“Geronimo Harvester,” he said with sly grin. “Halfblood, if you were wondering.”

Justin was not, but he’d take note of it anyway.

Harvester turned out to be a great guide; Justin’s earlier guess was right, he was a ghost, and he’d been haunting Flourish and Blotts for around seventy years. He helped customers find their books when they weren’t being rowdy, but he was a bit of an open secret in the shop.

“Necromancy is one of those magics people ain’t that fond of,” Harvester explained, pulling out a book on The Legality Of Tabooed Magics Throughout The 19th and 20th Centuries. “Not that I’m too much necromanced, but we ghosts ain’t supposed to be able to touch stuff. Can’t say I remember the whole reason, but people who die steeped in Dark Magicks tend to have a stronger presence if we stick around. ‘s why they don’t use the Death Penalty in the Magical World.”

That was… slightly horrifying but good to know.

***

Leonie had read through nearly an entire cookbook when she realized she’d lost Justin. He hadn’t wandered too far, and since the crowds outside had stayed outside, he was easy to find. Once she found him and they finalized their haul, they set out to find Caleb

He was at the checkout desk, conveniently finishing at the same time. She leaned forward to kiss her husband and hand him their plethora of extra books.

He hummed into it. “All done?”

“Yeah,” she confirmed. “I do love these baskets.” They had to be enchanted somehow, with how many books she and Justin found, but once the books were inside it didn’t seem like they weighed much more than a single textbook, which, while a lot, wasn’t nearly as much as twenty should weigh. Her shoulders heartily appreciated the lack of strain.

Caleb hummed in agreement, brushing noses, before turning to Justin. “Find anything cool?”

“I found a book on something called blood magic, and the first three chapters look like an overview of various legal, illegal, and once-legal magics and why they’re considered such. It’s partnered with a book detailing the topic for the past two hundred years. It sounds interesting!”

He sounded happy. Leonie smiled proudly at him, some of the guilt from this summer dissipating. She hadn’t helped him accept his fate as a wizard, griping about how many things had to change, and how she’d have to lie to her cousins, and every other thing she could, until their older son came and asked what they’d done to convince Justin he was cursed and should’ve drowned that time at Lake Windermere.

It was a horrifying conversation.

She’d been very careful to be as positive as she could be since, even though many of the obvious enchantments sent her head spinning and the people were rude and it had become very obvious humans were not the only human-adjacent species out there.

That last one was not as much of a surprise, but she would admit she’d mostly blocked out those memories as a child’s overactive imagination and underdeveloped brain.

After the bookshop they went to clothes, which was… a thing. Leonie’s fashion sense consisted of ‘is the texture okay’ and ‘does my daughter laugh at me’, so she was definitely no use there, but it looked halfway similar to their own with flowing regenmantels (robes, probably, but why fix what isn’t broke) thrown over the top, or occasionally worn alone, as she would a dress.

They also seemed to do a lot with embroidery and ‘runic enchantments’ on the clothes themselves, something that she found thrilling. It made them shiny!

Justin laughed at her, but it was fond and he was finally smiling, so she had no regrets.

Of course, then they managed to get dragged down a branch off, first by stepping in as it was another of those places that most of the crowd avoided, and then further when Justin saw a shop called The Cloak and Decoy and practically dashed to it, expecting… well she wasn’t sure, but he must have thought that it sounded very cool.

Leonie felt her heart slow and then speed up again as they ventured deeper into the branch off. It felt distinctly similar to when they had to visit gang controlled areas. Still, they weren’t attacked on their way in, just eyed like prey.

They probably seemed like it, so obviously unsure. Except Justin, because he was eleven and finally enjoying magic and didn’t have the experience Caleb and Leonie had to smell danger.

That was why Leonie didn’t pull him back, as much as she wanted to.

***

Justin pushed open the door to the cloak shop and nearly stepped right back out. Unlike the one they found earlier, where they purchased only what was on the list because they weren’t sure what else would be useful, this shop’s lighting was pale white, giving off a heady, psychedelic feeling of being in-between worlds.

More odd and unsettling, though, was the sudden chill, the smell of frozen metal sharper than that of fresh snowfall.

Despite that, Justin persevered.

His parents followed him in, and he split off to look around. Despite the lighting being dim enough to give him a headache, it illuminated the cloaks rather well. And boy was he glad they hadn’t gotten anything extra earlier. These cloaks were beautiful.

Some of them were made out of materials he couldn’t recognize, thick furs and silvery leather and some fabrics that looked like they were cut out of a star. Dual layers, single layers, reversible, one even could adjust the length, operating as a cloak, a caplet, or a scarf.

This was so cool! How many times had Justin wished he didn’t have to lug around a coat during winter events?

“Mom, come look at this!”

She did. They were discussing it (and the concerning note that said it could be enchanted with a command word if someone needed to be ‘eliminated’) when the door opened again, a familiar gaggle making their way inside.

“Oh, it’s you!”

“As close to in the flesh as I can be,” one of the young women said brightly. Somehow, her presence seemed to make the room’s temperature fluctuate uncomfortably.

Justin wondered if the theory behind keeping Cloak and Decoy so cold was that people would want to buy cloaks, even in the summer heat. If so, it was clever.

"Yes well," the man behind the counter said, turning to duck into the back room. "I know your cloaks haven't worn out already, why the menagerie?"

"But Gordan, we're not animals," said one of the teenagers, the one with blue tips, moving forward to drape herself dramatically over the counter. "We're flowers."

"Of course," he called back indulgently. He was humoring them. "Why bring the greenhouse, then?"

The older half of the group laughed.

"Do you remember last year?” The blond young man asked, darkly amused.

The proprietor reemerged, a mannequin and cloak floating behind him. “I suppose we don’t want a repeat, no.” With a flick of his wrist, and likely the wand held loosely in his hand, the mannequin landed in the middle of an aisle and the cloak settled prettily on top of it.

“Alright, Florine, have at it, I think I’ve figured out the enchantments,” said Gordan.

Florine, (Justin assumed the name went to the one with the most rapport - ad who responded) hummed doubtfully, looking at the seemingly expensive fabric. “You do know it’s going to be destroyed if you’re wrong, right?”

Gordan shrugged. “And if I’m right, it proves I’m using the right materials.”

“Almost,” hummed the other woman, with dark skin, darker eyes, and a ponytail. “It’ll only last one use.”

Florine’s head snapped around so fast Justin thought he’d seen her neck vanish. “Oh really?” The slow, creeping smile that accompanied the words was the most unsettling thing they’d seen yet. Frankly, Justin didn’t hate it.

Magic came with monsters. The question was what kind of monsters they were.

Florine stepped forward, leaning as though she was going to do a flip, and then there was no woman, only an oppressive cloud of smoke. It started from her feet and pulled the rest of her body into nothingness, and whipped out at the cloak so fast mum shrieked beside him. Thankfully, it seemed to be largely drowned out in the cheers of the other kids.

A moment later, the smoke meandered back their way and turned back into a girl.

The mannequin had been reduced to dust, but there were fabric scraps left.

"Holy crap, it survived," muttered one of the younger girls.

"That's impressive," said the boy, moving to inspect it.

Justin stepped closer to the ruins, accidentally falling in line with the shapeshifter.

"Won't stand up against a second go," said Florine from behind them. "But, congratulations, Gordan."

There was a sigh. "You still obliterated the mannequin. That doesn't say good things about the wearer’s chances of survival."

"You can figure out the design once you have a working ward,” said the smoke girl, unconcerned.

“That was awesome,” Justin said, crouching to look closer at the rubble. It felt like leaning into a commercial freezer, so cold it burned. He didn’t touch. “Do they teach that at Hogwarts?”

“No,” said the boy beside him. “Florine’s self taught.”

“You can do that?” If he could be self taught, maybe he could still go to secondary school with his friends.

“It’s not advised,” said Blue Tips, dipping her fingers into the remains of the mannequin. She slid them lightly through the dust before yanking them back with a muttered swear. She pulled them up and made a face. “Ouch. If you’re eligible, everyone wants you at an actual school.” She wiped her fingers off on her pants and then stuck them in her mouth.

“Oh.” Justin’s heart sank. “Why?”

“Something about proper growth of a magical core. Florine’s exempt because hers is pretty damaged.”

“Oh.” Justin paused. He wondered what that meant, what a magical core even was, and if it was rude to call what must be a chronic illness or disability cool. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” said the shapeshifter, standing from his crouch but still leaning down. “Anyway. I’m Harry, nice to meet you.”

“Justin,” he returned, taking the chimera handshake-hand-up. “You too.”

“Justin, we’re ready to go, honey!”

He glanced at his mum, who had apparently decided to buy the size-changing cloak. Awesome. “Coming!” He turned to Harry. “See you around?”

“First year starts on September first,” Harry returned with a grin and a peace sign.

Justin’s smile widened. Maybe Hogwarts wouldn’t be so bad.

***

Caleb listened with a soft sense of foreboding as the man behind the counter of the Cloak and Decoy explained how the murder aspect of the cloak they’d just bought their son worked. He chose the code phrase option, and had it ‘keyed’ so it only activated if Justin himself said it. The last thing he wanted or needed was for Justin to accidentally strangle himself with magical tech they didn’t think through.

Caleb had considered asking Mr. Gordan to leave it off. But they didn’t know what awaited their son in his new world, they’d just seen a girl turn into some sort of shadow monster, and Caleb did not doubt in the slightest that Wizards’ very wands were more dangerous than a loaded gun in the hands of someone with a grudge. He didn’t think a switchblade would work in this instance, thus Justin got the assassin cloak.

He’d tell Justin about it when they got home. And inform him to never say “Loki would stab Merlin with excalibur for the fun of it.”

He asked about the legality and how traceable it would be if the cloak did kill someone, and finally saw a glimmer of acceptance in those muddy eyes. They’d definitely walked into the magical version of the black market. Or mafia. Lovely.

When they’d finally ushered themselves out, Justin carrying the folded cloak while Caleb took the books and Leonie held the clothing bags, it was nearly noon.

“What next?” Caleb asked.

“Drop these in the car?” Justin offered. It was a good idea, they wouldn’t be able to carry much more and anyway, lugging around this much shopping was already tiring. Caleb wondered how the wizarding folk stood it - did they levitate everything? He’d certainly seen plenty of floating objects in the main alley.

Leonie stopped at the edge, looking at the crowd that seemed to refuse to so much as brush the side alley they were in. She was still carrying their clothes purchases, in a little themed bag that didn’t seem nearly big enough. Caleb hoped it wasn’t this busy everyday - how many wixen could there be in Britain anyway?

“Aw,” said a voice that sent chills down Caleb’s back. He’d thought they’d done well enough at acting as though they belonged to keep anyone unsavory away. He shifted closer to Justin. “If you don’t want to brave the crowd of big bad wizards you could come join us for a game.”

“I’m afraid we don’t have time, as much as we appreciate the invitation,” murmured his wonderful wife, turning as well.

The old woman with galaxies behind her eye pouted. “I’m sure you could make time.” her other eye was scabbed shut, gray skin stretching over the socket in a hollow way.

“Echo, don’t be an ungracious host.”

Caleb didn’t jump at the extra voice, but it was a close thing. The smoke woman from the Cloak and Decoy walked up, unhurried, but the old woman backed away slightly. “What’s ungracious about inviting them to experience the magical world?”

Smoke didn’t say anything, just tilted her head slightly. Apparently, that was enough of a threat. ‘Echo’ backed away with a side comment about how they’re welcome at any time, should they change their minds.

“Sorry about that,” the shadow witch said, turning a much kinder smile on them. “Are you okay?”

Justin nodded, slipping between him and Leonie. “Yeah, thanks. I’m Justin Finch-Fletchley.”

“Florine Dupont,” she said, shaking the offered hand.

Justin pulled his back a little fast, just enough for Caleb to worry. Still, he and Leonie introduced themselves as well. Caleb quickly learned why Justin’s handshake was too fast - her skin felt like frozen chicken on bare skin. The intrusive thought that flesh was technically raw meat was entirely unwelcome. Still, he smiled at her. “Caleb Finch-Fletchley, it’s nice to meet you.”

#Harry Potter #Hawthorne Doe #Jaymeow Writes #Crossposting Spam #TRTR #This Is The Road To Ruin #Hyacinth Au #Saturday Updates #Florine Dupont #Jacinta Perez #Clemencia Doe #Clemencia Riddle #Hana Griffiths #Aletris Carson #Wbwl #Harry Potter fic #Justin Finch-Fletchley

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mynameisnowwyrm · 1 year

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thundermans future au

This won't so much have a concrete plot as just stuff I think would happen in rough chronological order.

So I would like to make clear that I never finished the show so I’m going off the wiki for how it ends.From what I read it says that max and phoebe become the leaders of a new elite hero group and they hire the rest of the family to be part of it and i think that’s stupid so I’m changing it. Instead of their family they recruit a bunch of other heroes their age and their family stays in hiddenville that’s it.

So Max and Phoebe graduate in 2018 I think so right after that they go full into hero stuff and leading the group. I know the whole last season was basically phoebe not trusting that max was fully a hero now and I want to extend that. Since the whole team will be other teen heroes who probably mostly remember max for how hard he was trying to be a supervillain, max is still going to have to deal with a lot of shit.

Throughout the show we see hank and barb treat phoebe better than max, which is presumably what lead him to wanting to break away from the hero role that was expected of him. His whole mentality is that it’s better to not try at all than risk failing, the fear that your best isn’t good enough, failing in this case meaning not living up to his parents expectations. We can see evidence of this thinking in the episode where max is continually failing math and phoebe finds out that he doesn’t even try bc he’s scared of failing. This does not go away overnight and max will likely need to spend a long time working on his own self worth.

Also max did spend a few years of his life actively trying to become a villain, even if it was just a phase I don’t believe that none of the villain mentality stuck. Sure deep down he doesn’t want to physically hurt anyone but what is his internal policy on theft, cheating, lying? Furthermore he has to be fully aware of the injustice that exists in hero society from experiencing it himself and being influenced by the likes of dr colosso over the years so I believe he is currently working with an “i can fix it from the inside” viewpoint.

All that combined will likely cause massive amounts of friction between him and the team. I think that if they were doing missions as a side thing until everyone graduated and everyone had less constant exposure to each other the inevitable breakdown could be staved off but once they start spending time together and going on missions full time the cracks in the foundation would be immediate. I give it maybe a year before everything goes to shit and max once again quits being a hero, only this time he’s not going back to being a villain but rather some in between as a chaotic neutral vigilante.

With max out of the hero game phoebe is scrambling to pick up the pieces. Pr decides to fix the mess by completely redoing phoebes hero persona to distract from everything. She gets upgraded from thunder girl to thunder woman, solo leader of Z-force and gets painted as the “feminist hero”. Not that she didn’t already hold any feminist views they’re just really leaning into the marketing. Since billy and Nora are set to debut as heroes they get pushed into the thunder twins role.

Nora is greatly frustrated with being stuck with billy, especially since he usually gets the credit for her ideas. She comes up with a plan, he runs and does it, teamwork. Except billy gets all the attention from the press, leading him to get more attention from hero society.

Max leaving hero work undoes a lot of closeness that was between him and phoebe resulting in the two barely speaking anymore and everyone only ever really seeing max at big family holidays.

A few things I’m just gonna put in bullets bc it’s important to know

Both max and phoebe are autistic, bc I said so

They are both queer. Not sure exactly what labels they fall under but it's not straight and both are suffering from comphet/internalised homophobia. Basically max is be gay do crime, phoebe is be gay fight crime.

Chloe is their cousin who they occasionally babysit, not the fith sibling. Adding another child was a completely stupid move I dont care

Hank and barb are not good parents

Billy is not an idiot, just oblivious which is valid

So we cut to five years later. Phoebe is a well established young hero, the z-force team function as a teen titans thing where they meet up regularly to fight crime as a team while still doing solo hero work. Max is doing vigilante shit and was initially doing freelance tech stuff to finance it but at some point a rich client screwed him over so he stole all his money. His newest venture is to get rid of all of the hypocrisy inside the hero community and he's trying to figure out the best way to go about it. Billy and nora are rising stars in the hero world but mad that she constantly gets overlooked, nora sabotages billy so that he will get cancelled on social media and she can advance.

Phoebe is dating a female hero named chromatica with light powers but wider society does not know about this bc phoebe has to keep up her image and being gay will hurt that or whatever excuse her homophobic pr team gave. The building pressure and max releasing blackmail he has on multiple corrupt hero's puts a strain on their relationship and at one point she has a complete breakdown causing her to track max down and they finally have an actual conversation after years of not speaking.

Nora's scheming leads to a massive falling out between her and Billy. Not wanting them to go through the same thing they went through, max and phoebe get billy and nora together so that they can all talk about their issues as a family. They come to realise that no matter how much they want to deny it, they all are still fighting to get out of their parents shadows, trying to be the perfect heroes. Even max, who at this point is much happier with his life than his siblings, is still effected by his parents. This whole talk does not fix everything, they all still have the same problems they went into it with, at least now they know they can rely on each other.

Billy is still trying to do pr cleanup and as an apology nora is publicly supporting him. Phoebe's relationship is still in ruins and she realises that its going to take more than an apology to fix things. Coming out is not the answer bc she is still dealing with a lot of internalised homophobia on top of the potential stress of being a queer superhero who has to defend themselves against millions of people and she is not ready for that.

#the thundermans #max thunderman #phoebe thunderman #billy thunderman #nora thunderman #future au #future fic #honestly i can expand on max #this was just already way too long #maybe ill post everything on ao3 eventually

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