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#everyone who sees it is driven to do anything in their power to get it for themselves?
screeching-bunny · 3 months
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Yandere! Game Show Host Hcs
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Warnings: Obsessive Behavior, Yandere Thoughts, Bad Writing, Stalking, Possessive Behavior, Reader is Referred as ‘You’
A/N: I saw this request and was like this is such a cool request but what if we made him an evil game show host. Like one that would put contestants in deadly scenarios.
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🌟 Yandere! Game Show Host who kidnaps all of the contestants and forces them to play this twisted game that he created for money. Don’t worry though, he rigged the entire game to be in your favor. It was discreet enough for the viewers not to really care but apparent enough for you to notice the favoritism. Did you care? Hell no!! As long as you were getting paid you and survived this whole ordeal could give a rats ass about what happened next. Even when you do manage to get certain questions wrong, he will just brush it off and pretend that it was just a warm up question. The contestants are definitely seething whenever they see this happening.
🌟 Yandere! Game Show Host is a psychopath by nature. In each round, he presents the contestants with morally ambiguous dilemmas, enticing them with promises of grand rewards while dangling the threat of dire consequences for failure. Whether it's forcing them to choose between betraying a fellow contestant or facing a treacherous obstacle, he revels in their anguish, relishing the psychological torment he inflicts.
🌟 Yandere! Game Show Host is doing everything in his power to make sure that you win the game. He can’t have his poor baby feeling upset if they fail to win the grand prize. He would absolutely give out the most insane questions that practically no one knows the answer to. The punishment for getting a few questions wrong is mutilation of certain body parts and if you get too many questions wrong then you’ll end up being sent to your death. While everyone is basically being tortured in their punishments, he’d never allow that to happen to you. At most he’d probably just flick your forehead and call it a day. I imagine that most of the people watching the show are people who paid for the contestants to be kidnapped and be brought there against their wishes. Everyone who is put onto his show is a horrible person, including yourself, and have done something to be warranted to be there.
🌟 Yandere! Game Show Host bends all the rules of the game for you, providing subtle hints or covert assistance to ensure your safety. Although he has a strong desire to see others in pain and suffering, his love for you is stronger. At first justifies these actions as preserving the "entertainment value" of the show, but deep down, he's driven by an inexplicable desire to protect you.
🌟 Yandere! Game Show Host would baby you during your time there. He’d make a fuss whenever you tried to do anything remotely dangerous or touch some blood. I could totally see him using a baby voice to try to convince you to stop what you're doing. He has no shame, and everyone is looking at him with utter disbelief/confusion on their faces.
Yandere! Game Show Host: “Oh No! Please don’t go over there! You might slip from all the blood on the ground! Come here let me carry you across.”
Viewers: “…”
The contestant with their leg cut off: “…”
🌟 Yandere! Game Show Host thrives on the power he wields over his contestants, reveling in their suffering as they navigate his challenges. As the game progresses, his demeanor grows more twisted, enjoying the contestants' internal conflicts and emotional turmoil. He taunts them with mocking laughter, reveling in their discomfort and manipulating their decisions to heighten the drama. God forbid that you manage to develop a crush on someone while you are there. He’d absolutely lose it and do everything in his power to crush them. You best believe that he’s going to keep them alive for as long as possible and give them the worst punishments known to man.
🌟 Yandere! Game Show Host has cameras everywhere and when it's time for the contestants to rest for the night he’s going to be observing you. He’s a loser who doesn’t really know how to act around you without becoming a mess. In his spare time, he likes to just watch you through the cameras and imagine himself right next to you. He’s absolutely delulu about your feelings towards him and believes that you feel the same way. Even when you do manage to win this fucked up game, he’s not letting you go. There’s no way that he’s letting you leave after you managed to steal his heart. After this is all over, he’s taking you to his house and locking you there.
🌟 Yandere! Game Show Host holds pride in knowing how many people are at the mercy of his hand. Has a minor God complex and has this skewed mindset about how everyone else is beneath him besides you. Believes that you were made just for him and that you're his one true love. Would rather die than give you up or allow anyone to “take you away from him”. He’s like an annoying roach and almost impossible to get rid of. He’s making sure to stay with you for as long as possible.
Yandere! Game Show Host strides onto the stage with a wicked gaze, his piercing gaze fixed on the contestants. His voice, a chilling blend of charm and malice, booms through the speakers as he welcomes the participants with a mocking flourish. Thom who were strapped onto a table with heavy objects over their heads.
Yandere! Game Show Host: “Alright contestant number one, what is the mass of the Sun divided by Planck's constant in nanometers.
Contestant One: “HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT!?!?!”
Yandere! Game Show Host: “Unfortunately, that's not the correct answer. You’ll now be facing the consequences.” In a matter of seconds, the heavy object comes flying down with alarming speed. Upon impact, it mercilessly crushes against their skull, unleashing an overwhelming and unimaginable force that distorts bone and flesh. Yandere! Game Show Host then makes his way towards you and begins to speak.
Yandere! Game Show Host: “Alright, it's your turn now. No pressure, I know you’ll do great just take your time. Okay what’s 1 + 1?”
You: “2.”
Yandere! Game Show Host: "Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it."
Other Contestants: “What the hell!?!? How is this fair!?!!
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achaotichuman · 2 months
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Acotar Rant
Whenever I see shit like ‘Tamlin is depressed and wants to die because Feyre left him’ ‘He’s so desperate for Feyre and that’s whats driven him to this point.’ All I can think is, do we just collectively think Tamlin is immune to trauma??
To even grasp this situation you have to go way back before the book even starts. Tamlin was preyed on by the pedophile that helped ruin his childhood who then cursed him because he told her no.
He then had to watch all his close friends die in vain for him while he desperately searched for decades for another solution. He brought in refugees fleeing from other Courts. He. Carried. His. Dead. Citizens. And. Hand. Buried. Them. And he had to do it all without ever being able to fall apart.
The Feyre came along, and he learned to care for her. He didnt want her to just be used to break the curse because he didnt want to just be using her. He fell in love with a person that saw past the mask (both figuratively and literally) and allowed him a safe space. One that had long ago been stripped from him.
Then she was sexually assaulted, tortured and killed in front of him. He watched the love of his life die for him and he was completely unable to do anything about it.
Then he was given another chance to protect her and he took it. Granted this is not to excuse his actions, but there has to be some nuance given to the fact that he watched her literally die and was by the grace of God given another chance.
Then this same girl that he loved and desperately wanted to protect from the same thing happening again, was kidnapped. This same woman then tricked him into believing she had once again been raped by the same monster who assaulted her under the mountain and killed his family.
The very same woman then mind raped his sentries, his friends, and then proceeded to destroy his Court which he had spent decades trying everything in his power to protect, from the inside out. Then allowed Hybern to rampage through, destroying a neighbouring Court in the process.
He had to watch his people die all over again, when Feyre lied to him, he saw her dying under the mountain all over again. And he still went to war! He was spying on Hybern and gave over vital information about them to the High lords!
Then he dragged Beron out by his neck to fight for Prythian.
And when all was said and done he helped bring back the monster that had destroyed him mentally all for the sake of the girl that had killed his people.
Then he left them all alone in the end. Spring was abandoned and him along with it. This man, who very clearly has abandonment issues from the fact he was rejected by his family and beat within an inch of his life to the point he ran from home to the War Camps, was left completely by himself.
Lucien does come to see him once every now and again, but I also don’t blame Tamlin for not wanting him too. Considering even though Lucien had extremely valid reasons for leaving when he did, he still left Spring for dead without an explanation.
In the end, it is not ‘Tamlin needs to get over himself and his ex’ its Tamlin needs an extreme amount of mental help. He is a survivor as much as the rest of them.
Not even Feyre was able to recover from her mental health without a ton of fucking help. No one was, everyone got their support groups in the end
Tamlin went through it all without ever taking himself into consideration and still made it. He deserves to be able to fall apart.
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tornado1992 · 3 months
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Sonic is acting strange.
From the moment he entered the cave at the top of the mountain and going on even after Shadow finished the battle, he was more energetic, talking faster than usual, to his friends’s eyes happier than they had ever seen him before. But deep inside his mind and heart, he felt more melancholic than anything.
Rouge said something about to going visit Shadow, wherever he’d gone, though it’s not probable that Shadow would gift her a powerful gem of inter dimensional proportions, it’s still a possibility. He finds himself comfortable with the idea of either of them guarding it, after all, Shadow would never let it bring chaos to their lives again, and now he knows Rouge it’s a better leader than he could ever be, they both would make the right call.
Sparring with Knuckles was as much of a way to get the stress out of his system as it is a reminder that the guardian isn’t a glory driven danger prone sailor, nor a extremely paranoid jungle survivor, and definitely not a soldier willing to hit an 8 year old if it means saving the world, no, he’s just Knucks. Ready to put him back in his tracks every time he goes off, same old Knucklehead.
Asking Amy to help him bake a cake to celebrate their victory on the mountain took her by surprise, not expecting Sonic to have the consideration or patience to think about and prepare that kind of gift just so their friends would enjoy it together. But what really shook her to the core was how many times he thanked her through the making, in his mind just one of those “thank you” was for the cake, the rest of them were for everything else.
Tails knows Sonic is acting strange.
it wasn’t just the sudden consideration on his words and actions, but also the eagerness to just spend time with them, an insane amount of time in which he paid attention to everyone and everything, he looked to the sea as if it was more of a new racetrack than an obstacle to his speed, he turned his sight to the sky as if he’d forgotten it was blue, and gazed to the palm trees as if he’d never seen one before. But most of it all, between his friends and the rest of the world, Sonic was looking at him.
It wasn’t the normal look he’d give him everyday, being the only one Sonic hadn’t been alone with since the mountain battle was weird enough, they would usually race and joke together after every battle, but not this time; Sonic was actively keeping him at arms length while never getting his eyes off of him, It didn’t matter who was Sonic talking to or what was he doing, if Tails was around, he was looking at him.
Every time he was smiling he would look back to see if he was smiling too, when one of his friends tried to approach him Sonic would instantly get in their way without any more reason than to talk to them, if there was a sudden movement or loud noise Sonic would turn to him as if to expect him to be gone, the calmness in his body being noticeable every time he found him.
It felt wrong, it felt distant, it felt as if he was a problem. He hasn’t felt like this in years.
Hours and hours later when their friends finally got too tired of watching Sonic’s odd behavior they all went their own way for the night, with Rouge just disappearing in the dark, Knuckles claiming he had places to be, and Amy saying the day had drained her and she needed sleep, Sonic and Tails were finally alone.
The walk to Tails’ lab was quick, but quiet. The silence prevailed all the way before they entered the house and closed the door, then it wasn’t quiet anymore.
With the way Sonic practically launched himself over Tails knocking the air out of him as he hugged the kit tightly, both falling to the floor as Sonic held him against his chest with one hand while the other one placed itself securing the fox’s head just below Sonic’s chin. Tails was quiet, way too shocked with the sudden affection after a whole day of being so close while feeling so far away. But Sonic’s sobs and whimpers weren’t quiet at all.
They were loud and broken, not forming any comprehensible words as hiccups broke in every time it seemed like he was actually trying to say something, as if he held back from crying for hours, It felt guilty, sorrowful, and desperate.
Tails found himself breaking his silence and asking repeatedly “what’s wrong?!” as he reciprocated the hug just for Sonic to tighten his arms around him, breaking into fully crying this time, with a sea of tears falling from the speedster’s eyes to the genius’ head, not letting him go even for a second, not loosening his grip after what felt like hours of holding his little brother, who held him back just as tightly.
Even if the tears stopped, their embrace didn’t, with the morning warmth closer than midnight’s coldness the blue hedgehog found himself surrounding the sleepy fox as he fought sleep’s calling to stay with his big brother.
“I love you” was muttered to the boy’s ears as he was claimed by the land of dreams, in which he could fly all day with the shining star he called his brother.
Tails wasn’t sure if that whisper was part of his dream. Sonic knew it wasn’t
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Villain: Jysh'parun, Outergod of Unwelcoming Earth
As distant and ancient as a mountain, as scornful as an axebitten tree
Many philosophies debate and negotiate the relation of mortals to their environment. Some see nature as a thing to be tamed in the name of survival, domesticated, exploited. Others proffer a more symbiotic path, a holistic system to be protected and stewarded.
Beyond these there are the ravings of those claimed by Jysh'parun, who claim that mortals have no right to exist at all, and survive merely by the beneficence of the trees and stones. While all but the most foolish agree that heed must be paid to nature, none but those under the unwelcoming earths dominion would think that there is some geological-feudal hierarchy to which we must all submit.
This then is the paradox of the Unbowing Mountain: a god that claims the worship of things that do not traditionally think, but views nature through a distinctly mortal lens of domination and hierarchy. It's an absurdity bordering on being a joke, atleast until Jysh'parun's influence washes over the land and the forest marches off to war while the rivers start demanding tribute.
Adventure Hooks:
Having come into possession of a disused tract of land, a young farming couple were picking the stones from their new field in preparation for planting when they came across the petrified remains of some indescribable horror. Resembling nothing so much as a horse sized mandrake-root with teeth, they've reached out to neighbours, the sheriff, even the local wizard looking for advice about what to do... only to wake up one morning and find the thing gone. Theft or reanimation are both equally alarming possibilities, and the whole region has been on edge since.
Having been thought dead for years after being lost in a winter storm, a dwarven cartographer descends from the mountains claiming to be their mouthpiece and demanding sacrifices in their name. Her words at first go unheeded, at least until the glacial rivers begin to run with noxious acid, transforming back only when something living is thrown in. Farms and villages are drying out and grisly offerings of livestock now fail to meet her standards she claims the mountains will only be satisfied when the people of the realm throw their rulers in and swear fealty to the peaks on high.
The king's palace is in chaos after a coup took place in the royal gardens, specifically when the great tree that shaded his majesty's favourite thinking bench stabbed him in the back with one of it's branches and then skampered off to replant itself on the throne with the crown in tow. Before Anyone knew what was happening, greenery had overtaken the palace locking most outside while trapping certain vital hostages inside.
Inspirations: Something that's all too often lost in the "madness and tentacles" misinterpretation of eldritch horror is that much of the genre is spun off from the particular phobias of HP lovecraft. When we use the iconography without understanding the anxieties behind it, we risk creating a shallow B movie version of the horror we want our audience to feel.
To write good horror then, we need to draw off fears we understand, and with Jysh'parun I wanted to tap into climate anxiety in a way I don't think I've seen before. We've all resigned ourselves to the fact that climate change is happening, with the understanding that its being driven by the bullheaded egos and greed of people who are so powerful their perspective on life bears no resemblance to anything we could possibly conceive of. Translate their willingness to let us suffer for the sake of profit into a psudo historical fantasy context and you get the Unwelcoming Earth: widening sinkholes that demand tolls from passersby while an approaching tsunami proclaims the divine right of kings. It's not only absurd it's fundamentally idiotic but that it doesn't mean it won't destroy you and everyone you know.
Worshippers: Delusional druids and geomancers. Goliaths and dwarvenkind who get too into being "children of the mountain". Sentient trees, Living crystals, and other elemental entities who seek to put themselves "above" other forms of life. Corrupted primoridals.
Signs: Aberrations that resemble roots or stone spontaneously emerging from nature, acid flowing from normally clear running springs, statues of lordly alien figures carved from erosion, not tools. Proclimations in an unknowable script engraved deep under the earth or on monumental scale.
Symbols: A glyph resembling a mountain range or branches of a tree in the shape of a crown.
Titles: The Unbowing Mountain, The Insuperable, King of all Corners,
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too-much-tma-stuff · 9 months
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Do What I Cannot
This is based on My Graveyard Song because I was captivated by the idea of Danny’s parents burying him alive. That’s basically the only part I took though. This is about him being confronted with his parents again once freed.
This is unedited so feel free to point out mistakes. Contains graphic description of violence.
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The Justice League’s newest hero has been a wonderful asset, truly! Phantom is a rather powerful hero and even though some of his methods are a little questionable he follows the ‘no killing’ rule more strictly then some of the long-term members. Even if it’s just because he doesn’t want to deal with them as ghosts it still counts. Some of the more magical people have an idea that Phantom is more powerful then he’s letting on, but they don’t push it. After all he’s still just a teenager, they don’t really want to have him dealing with universal threats either.
Honestly even if he weren’t a hero Batman at least would have kept him around for the impressively positive affects he has on Red Hood. Jason had been calmer and more reasonable then he had been since his resurrection since digging up that grave and teaming up with Danny. It was just a little unsettling sometimes honestly, sometimes his eyes would glint with the green of the Lazarus waters and everyone would tense up prepared for an aggressive outburst only for Jason to announce he needed to find Danny and leave. The more suspicious minds found it odd, but they figured it was just because Phantom could calm Jason down and didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Really the only problem was that knowing Phantom had alerted them to a potential new source of threat that they really knew very little about. The JLD knew some but not enough and the ways they had to fight ghosts were clunky and unreliable, they needed weapons that would work on ghosts. Not Phantom obviously, though the overly cautious ones privately thought about him too, just in case you know? And there weren’t many people who specialized in such tech, so of course their search lead them to the Drs. Fenton.
The magic users thought their methods were crude and crazy but had to admit they clearly worked so maybe it would be best to invest in at least some of their tech. At least to study and see if it could be improved on. So they were invited for a meeting, and it was decided Phantom would Not be told. Mostly because they didn’t want to stress him out and also because they’d learned these two were ‘shoot first ask questions later’ types who apparently didn’t believe there was such a thing as a good ghost so they might actually try and kill Danny on sight, which would be awkward.
The presentation they gave to the Justice League was predictably unhinged and they knew well enough to take all of it with a grain of salt, especially the part about all ghosts being evil. Danny had already explained it to them, that ghosts were driven by obsessions which meant they behaved differently then humans but the majority only lashed out when something got between them and their singular passion. Some were different, some had malicious passions and some were more complicated. Diana and J’onn both looked like they were trying hard not to pick a fight but they’d all agreed to smile and nod till they got access to the tech.
There was a familiar sudden chill in the room, looking around Batman could tell a few others felt it too, though Flash was typically oblivious.
“Oh dear,” J’onn whispered before Phantom appeared.
“Hey guys what’s up?” He asked, cheerful but slightly accusatory, they should have known better then to think they could keep the meeting from him. Before they could think of anything to say Danny’s eyes caught on the Fentons and narrowed.
“GET DOWN!” Jack yelled pulling out one of those stupid blasters from somewhere.
“What a perfect chance for a demonstration,” Maddie said, sliding on a pair of gantlets.
“You-you don’t recognize me, do you?” Danny asked, and for a moment he looked hurt, then something happened none of them had ever seen before, his eyes turned red. The toxic green they were used to changed to a deep, blood red and his feet touched the ground as he stalked forward. Jack shot, Danny didn’t break stride, a green shield blocked the blast like it was nothing. Maddie tried to lung and was immediately hit in the gut by one of Phantom’s ecto-blasts, knocking her back against the glass.
Batman leapt up and tried to lung and stop Phantom only to hit a wall that rippled with green, a bubble surrounding the ghost and the two hunters, invisible until struck.
Danny grinned, shark like teeth on full display without any mirth, white hair whipping in an unfelt wind, flowing so it almost looked like flames. “I guess I look a lot different then I did when you buried me alive huh? How long did you leave me? Because you ‘couldn’t kill you son’ so you thought it would be more merciful to lock me away till everything human about me rotted.”
“No,” Maddie gasped, recognition suddenly sharp and painful on her features.
“Yes ‘mom’,” Danny snarled bitterly. Jack tried to shoot again but the blaster was knocked out of his hands so quickly no one was sure what hit him before it could fully charge. “YOU MADE ME! AND YOU ABANDONED ME! You’re lucky someone found me, I would have gotten strong enough to break out on my own eventually and if I had I would have destroyed everything.”
“Oh my god, his parents?” Diana nearly whispered. Batman understood how she felt, Danny didn’t like to talk about how he’d ended up buried ‘alive’, that his parents were the ones who had done it… that was horrific. It made sense why he had never been able to speak about it, but Damn that would have been good to know before they had invited Danny’s abusers to give a presentation on weapons that had no doubt been used to hurt him. And now.. what? They couldn’t get to Danny, it seemed like he had gotten to the point that Raven did sometimes when her emotions overwhelmed her, could they get to Danny? Could they stop him from doing something he might regret?
“You are not our son,” Maddie hissed, her breathing still coming in a harsh wheeze from the blow to her stomach. “Danny is dead! He’s gone. You’re just an acto-entity imitating him, and not even well, you’re just a parasite.”
Danny seemed to be losing some control of his form, it was stretching, getting taller, his fingers curling into dangerous claws tipped with the blackness of the star studded void. “Pathetic mortals, you act as if you will never die, but you will join my kingdom. Perhaps it will be punishment enough to become what you hate, perhaps not. Perhaps I will speed up the process so you can’t hurt anyone else,” He snarled his hands beginning to glow with familiar green of his energy blast.
“Danny stop!” Superman said, hitting the burier to try and get through but not even he could break it. Danny didn’t seem to be responding to them though he was hesitating.
Batman was resigning himself to watching Phantom kill his once parents before Jason walked by him. Batman wasn’t usually taken by surprise, but he was shocked, and worried, both because he could see the green glow of pit madness through the eyes of his helmet, which was worrying, and because he walked through the burier keeping the rest of the heroes out like it was nothing.
He walked to Danny, taking his hand, there was a soft sizzle as the gathered green energy burned Jason’s hand without him even seeming to notice. He pulled Danny down to the ground from where he was floating, pulling the young hero into his arms. Danny let himself be pulled into Jason’s arms, the green energy fizzling out as he wrapped his own arms back around Jason’s waist, hiding against his chest. As the anger faded he slumped against Jason’s chest.
Just as the heroes were breathing a sigh of relief and relaxing Maddie went for the dropped gun. But she wasn’t fast enough as Jason drew his own pistol, the one with live ammo, and put a bullet in her head. Diana cried out in shock and Batman froze as blood and brain matter splattered over the watchtower floor and her body slumped. Before anyone could recover Jack followed, another shot executioner style and Batman had to turn away.
The watchtower was completely silent, enough so that he could hear Phantom’s soft sniffles as he cried into Jason’s chest. When Batman looked back Jason had holstered his gun and was just holding Danny Close. The green had faded enough from his eyes that it seemed safe, Batman approached warily and wasn’t surprised to find that the invisible burier was gone now that both the Fenton’s were dead.
“I’m sorry,” Danny said softly as he heard the approach, without emerging from his hiding place in Jason’s arms where he seemed to feel safe. “I wasn’t actually going to kill them, but I guess my want to, my emotions, were strong enough to make Jason respond. I didn’t mean to call you that way.” He looked up at Jason, his eyes green again though red rimmed from tears.
“It’s alright, I would have done it anyway,” Jason growled, holding Danny even tighter. “I’ve killed people for less, they deserved it.”
Batman took a deep breath forcing himself to keep his cool about his son’s constant flouting of his no killing rule, now was not the time to make Phantom feel worse. “Jason why don’t you take him down to one of the sitting rooms so he can calm down.” No doubt Phantom was reliving trauma, and grieving because even if he wanted them dead they had been his parents.
Jason nodded and scooped Danny into his arm who let out an indignant little squawk and insisted he could walk while making no attempt to actually get down. Jason ignored Danny’s performative complaints and kept the young hero’s head hidden against his chest so he wouldn’t have to see the corpses of his parents while Jason carried him out of the room.
Now, how best to deal with the aftermath of… all this. And later on he really would have to ask Danny and Jason what he’d meant by Jason responding to his energy, because it seemed like there might be something more to their relationship then just Danny calming Jason down and that was worrying to say the least.
Part 2: here
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tarotwithlove · 2 months
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PICK A CARD ⋆ get to know your future child
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reminder that this is a general reading and messages found here may not apply to everyone. take what resonates, leave what doesn't, and don't force anything if it does not fit.
BOOK A READING WITH ME · BOOK A 2024 YEAR AHEAD READING WITH ME (GENERAL OR NSFW) · LINKTREE · 18+ PATREON · TIPS ♡ tips, bookings, and feedback are highly appreciated!
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GROUP ONE
cards · two of swords, six of swords (reversed), ace of swords, king of pentacles, knight of wands (reversed), eight of wands. 
channelled songs · in our small way by michael jackson. ttg by kiss of life. demolition man by simon dominic. gucci flip flops by bhad bhabie. 
my dear group one ♡ the child that is coming through for you is likely a boy. this is someone who likes accounting, finances, and investing. they are business-minded -- though you could also say that they are somewhat greedy, obsessed with money, and would do anything to make a quick buck.
your child wants to be rich. they want to be a millionaire. and they know that they will be. 
your child is highly driven and highly proactive. they do not need someone to tell them what to do before they go out and do it. from a very young age, they know who they want to be and what they want out of life, and will do anything to rightfully shape their life as they see fit. they will wake up early in the morning and go for a walk or run, or go to the gym, then come back and work hard at their school work, business, or other responsibilities. 
your child will also, again from a young age, start picking up side jobs and part time jobs. anything so that they have their own flow of income. and not to buy the latest this or the newest that, but to save and invest. to put into their plans. 
you may sometimes look at your child, at how disciplined and focused they are, and wonder how you made a child like this. a child with such a good head on his shoulders, who knows themself and who sees the bigger picture when, at their age, you may have been aimless and lost. 
your child forces you to change your whole lifestyle. you become a more active person. you will rise earlier so that you have breakfast ready for him when he gets home from his morning workout. you will educate yourself on finances, accounting, and other aspects of business, not only so that you can keep up with him but also so that you can be a good business partner to him --- because you may also get wrapped up in his business ideas, and may quit your job to start working as his manager.
your child may be a bit overconfident and arrogant, expecting things to always go his way and difficult to reign in or teach lessons especially about the consequences of his actions, but when it comes to you he loves you and is devoted to you. in fact, it may be why he works so hard; because he wants to give you the best life possible. 
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GROUP TWO
cards · the devil (reversed), the sun, eight of swords, five of cups (reversed), seven of swords, eight of cups. 
channelled songs · applause by lady gaga. hate it or luv it by central cee. sky by spillage village. howl by florence + the machine. 
my dear group two ♡ the child that is coming through is likely a girl. one who prioritises their physical appearance and physical fitness, over anything else -- to the extent where they may have an eating disorder or disordered eating patterns, something which is caused by and worsened by their sport of choice. 
this child is athletic, either being a runner, cheerleader, or gymnast, and is incredibly devoted to this sport. they want to be the best in this sport, the best in the world, an olympic winner or something similar. 
they want to be recognised and will do everything in their power to make this happen. sacrifice anything. 
they may be a child of divorce, who may find it hard to open up to you about certain struggles they face and certain fears they have. they love you, but feel that you fundamentally do not understand each other. that you don't listen to them. that you love them, but that you do not love them enough. thus, your child will bottle up their emotions and internalise a lot of their anger.
they may have anger issues, often exploding in anger when things don't work out as they expected. or when they lose.
this child hates to lose, but they like to fail and be challenged, because they like to push themselves to grow and get better. they love that feeling of succeeding at something they trained day-in and day-out to; to land that specific trick, to cross that specific line, to achieve a specific goal.
they love the cheers of the crowd -- the applause, the awe -- they do something with their body that no one has seen be done before. 
this child may be very rigid with themselves. they may ignore a lot of their feelings -- especially around your divorce and other issues within the house -- and focus all their attention and brainpower on their sport and their body. this is the only thing they have complete control over, so, of course, they will give it their all. 
and as rigid as they are with themselves, they are as rigid with others. they hate people who lie, even small lies, and may feel like you are often lying to them or keeping things hidden from them. even if you are doing this because you think you are doing what's best for them -- for example, not telling them just how difficult your marriage actually was, but not realising they already know and are just waiting for you to be honest and upfront with them. 
the relationship between you and your child is complex. you will often butt heads and argue, and things you do with well-meaning intent only succeed in driving the wedge deeper and deeper between you two. 
this child teaches you when to walk away. you may have a difficult, painful, marriage, and for the sake of your child alone -- despite how much you love this person, and how much you want to try and make it work -- you decide to leave. you learn when to move out of comfortable environments, so that your child may have better coaches and better access to competitions. you learn when to argue and when to drop the subject entirely. you learn how to breathe and to let go, to love someone when they push you away because you realise that this is when they need it the most. 
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GROUP THREE
cards · ten of pentacles (reversed), the hierophant, page of wands, ace of cups (reversed), eight of swords, the devil.
channelled songs · planet girl by jooyoung. pansy by taemin. breathe by umi. lost in the citadel by lil nas x. 
my dear group three ♡ the child that is coming through is one who is more expensive to raise than you initially thought or expected. this is likely not your first child, but the circumstances of their birth and their disabilities might make raising this one more demanding than raising your first. and it is likely that this child may have developmental issues, dyslexia, or a brain injury -- may experience a major head injury as a child or may have been deprived of oxygen in the womb or during labour. for some, your child may have a degenerative disorder, with their condition getting worse over time. 
whatever it is, specifically, it is something that makes it difficult for your child to navigate the world as any other person would. 
this child requires more of your time and attention. you may have to home-school your child, or go above and beyond in order to get them into a specialised school that is equipped for their specific needs -- at least, for the beginning of their schooling career. 
your child may feel that they are separated from the rest of humanity. that they cannot connect with others, or that others just do not understand them; as if there is a glass wall between them and everyone else -- even between them and you, their other parent, and their siblings. 
they may feel entirely trapped, and like they will never live the life they want because of their disability -- or disabilities. 
they are a generally clumsy child. though they like to dance, to sing and hum along to music and make up their own songs. they love classical music, and will want to play classical instruments but wonder if they’ll ever be able to because of their body’s limitations. 
your child will get tired easily and, thus, will get frustrated easily. they may feel like they’re behind; like they’re failing at the simplest thing -- being alive. to self soothe, they may often sit in the sun or in nature, and cuddle and play with their pet cat. 
cats and/or lizards may also be their favourite animal(s). 
you may sacrifice a lot for your child, just to give them a leg up in life and ensure that they are not held back by their disabilities. this sacrifice may also include the relationship with your other children and the attention that you can give to them. 
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GROUP FOUR
cards · king of swords (reversed), knight of pentacles, ten of pentacles (reversed), eight of cups, the fool (reversed), the tower. 
channelled songs · break my soul by beyoncé. headfirst slide into cooperstown on a bad bet by fall out boy. understood by mick jenkins. drowning pool by bbymutha. 
my dear group four ♡ the child that is coming through for you may be one born from a loveless relationship or from a one-night stand. from their conception, this child changes your life completely; sending your life in all directions of upheaval.
this person may be significantly wealthy or famous, or they may have a particular image to protect. and will, thus, choose to silence you with money. they will leave you with the child but will send you a large amount of money each month to make sure you are both financially taken care of. you will be set for life.
your child will grow up used to the comforts that you yourself may not have had while growing up. they may be a bit spoiled, but not to the extent where they are selfish or greedy. it may be better to say that, because of the way they are raised, they are a bit sheltered. 
this child will always help others, wherever and whenever and however they can. as you will often have a fully-stocked fridge or pantry, they will often ask you to pack an extra lunch so they can share it with a friend who either never has lunch or never has nutritious lunch. if they can pay for someone else to attend a field trip, they will.
they may feel as if they do not deserve the comforts they have been granted in life, especially because these comforts are given to them by someone who doesn’t even want anything to do with them. someone who thinks that throwing money at a problem makes it go away.
as soon as they can, your child will leave home and try to make a life for themselves; to build wealth of their own -- wealth they feel like they actually earned, instead of wealth that was just handed to them. 
rather than going the traditional route of college or university, they will rather prefer to gain experience in the world itself. if they do decide to go to college or university, it will be later in life. for the most part, they will travel. they will enjoy backpacking and hiking, and what starts as a hobby or as a way to see the world and find themselves will turn into a successful blog and, then, into a career as a travel journalist. 
this child will do anything possible to broaden their horizons, constantly pushing themselves out of their comfort zone. they will dislike people who are willfully naive and ignorant, who are so caught up in dreams and fantasy that they do not see the realities of life. 
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maxwell-grant · 1 year
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“What's impressive?! I've been a boy this whole time!”
(Spoilers for Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish)
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Big Jack Horner was delightfully wretched and felt a lot like he was a Shrek villain stuck in a Puss in Boots movie and it made for a really interesting contrast, with everyone else in the forest going through swashbuckling adventures of personal growth and companionship, while he’s cheating and steamrolling his way through everything with darkly comedic brutality, quite literally pulling Shrek gags out of a bag as he just kills and burns and stomps his way through the magical wonderland.
It’s like he was designed to be the Final Boss of Shrek, except there’s currently no Shrek movies for him to be in so, into the Puss in Boots sequel he goes, almost like this dark embodiment of the shadow cast over the Puss in Boots franchise that it must surpass (and somehow did). He just does not play by any of the same rules everyone else does and it’s great, it lets everyone look better by default. It lets the Puss vs Death story play out in all it’s poetic glory but still gives the movie a proper bastard for everyone to gang up on. I didn’t think of that at first, but I’ve read some comments and wonderful analysis commenting on Jack Horner as a extended pisstake on Disney, an update of Lord Farquaad for modern times, and it’s an analysis that makes a lot of sense.
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In that regard: while this couldn’t possibly have been intentional given their release dates so close to each other, I do think it’s pretty funny that Jack winds up connected to Pinocchio, a character who had having a rather busy 2022 if you can tell. Not only is he followed around by a bootleg Jiminy Cricket, but we see that Jack, who was extremely well-off and spoiled throughout his entire life, bears an incandescent bitterness against all magical creatures (and Pinocchio specifically) for taking attention away from his roadside show, which consisted entirely of him reciting his nursery rhyme over and over (even his family was shown bored by it), and so that’s why he wants to own ALL the magic in the world: so that nobody else gets any.
He, who already owns a massive empire and business and land and literally endless collections of powerful magical artifacts he can use to achieve anything he wants a trillion times over, who doesn’t even know what most of what he has does or is worth, is driven by the fact that Pinocchio upstaged him once,
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and so nobody else should get to do anything like that ever again.
(Again, not saying this was remotely intentional, just a funny coincidence)
Also wonderful how his ultimate undoing comes from said bootleg Jiminy Cricket, one of the countless employees he’d abused and crushed over the movie, finally having enough and sending him his incendiary “resignation letter”. 2022 saw the year end with a movie where Jiminy Cricket ends a titanic corporate manchild’s reign of terror and life by setting a magical contract map on fire and freeing everyone from it.
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It doesn’t even register as one of the best things about the movie only because the movie has SO many best things going on, that it can just casually work in one of the funniest Shrek subplots of all time like it’s easy. Still shocked at how good this film was and how much life they injected into it, perfect movie to end or start the year with.
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cosmicjoke · 1 year
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The Psychological and Emotional Impact of Levi’s Early Childhood:
I don’t think Levi’s early childhood really gets discussed enough in the fandom, or the ways in which those experiences in his formative years had to have impacted him.  This could be because we don’t really get many panels depicting his childhood.  Just a few.  But those few panels show us enough for us to extrapolate plenty and form a pretty clear picture of what he went through.
First of all, it’s almost a certainty that Levi was born as the result of rape. 
That’s something that I think everyone should let sink in.
He was born in the brothel that his mother, Kuchel, worked in.  And “worked” is a relative term here.  Kuchel was driven into the Underground as a result of persecution by the royal family.  She was undoubtedly very young, she was alone, with no real resources or support or guarantee of safety or protection from anyone, in an environment of criminality and violence.  There were likely very few, if any options available to her in terms of her own survival.  Her becoming a prostitute wouldn’t have been any kind of a choice then, but rather a move made in desperation.  And so I think we can also safely assume that Kuchel’s experiences working as a prostitute were tantamount to forced labor.  In other words, a kind of slavery.  She was almost certainly paid a paltry sum by the brothels owner, evidenced by the sorry, squalid and destitute state we see her and Levi living in when Kenny comes.  She was likely afforded very few, if any rights or defenses against whatever her clients chose to do to her, as also evidenced by the fact that no one seemed to really know or care enough about her or Levi to even realize when she had died. 
It’s impossible for me to define any of what Kuchel went through working in such a place as anything less than rape, then.
So, Levi’s very existence is one that is a literal product of violence.  I’m absolutely sure that Levi himself is painfully aware of this, knowing that he was born out of his own mother’s pain and suffering.  Going into the implications of this on Levi’s psychological health, I think you can safely assume this realization had a very negative impact on his own sense of self-worth.  His mother was the only person in his childhood who we ever saw treat him with any kind of actual love or kindness.  The only person who ever, actually wanted him.  And yet, Levi would have seen demonstrated to him, every day, how his existence in his mothers life placed an increased burden on her, forcing her into increasingly more desperate circumstances, now having to feed two mouths instead of only one, and as a result, likely having to engage in increased, unwanted sexual activity with her clients.  So Levi would be aware that not only was his mother, (again, the only person who loved and treated him with tenderness) being hurt on his behalf, but he also would have been aware, after witnessing the particular ways in which she was being hurt, that he himself was the result of that violence.  Levi would have been shown that his very existence, then, was something which caused immense suffering and pain to the only person in his life who loved him.  I honestly can’t even imagine the negative implications of something like this on a young mind.  Only to say, it must have been horrific and resulted in lifelong trauma.  Trauma which, due to the desperation of Levi’s life afterward, he likely never had any opportunity or chance to even address. 
Now, moving on to something else.  There’s a tendency by many to paint Kuchel as this sort of perfect mother figure.  Someone who, through the power of her love for Levi alone, was able to overcome the trauma of their general circumstances, to negate the negative experiences he would have been exposed to, resulting in Levi becoming the kind and compassionate person he would be as an adult.  But I think this assumption about Kuchel and their situation is not only unrealistic and idealized in the extreme, but also in its way, undermines the actual bleakness of their circumstances.
Again, we have to remember that Kuchel was driven into the Underground, and essentially forced, through lack of any other options, to become a prostitute.  Calling her a prostitute is a nice way of saying she had to sell herself into sexual slavery.  Kuchel’s own psychological and emotional trauma doesn’t often get touched upon or acknowledged when people talk about her and her relationship with her son, nor does the desperate poverty of their living situation.  Kuchel died right in front of Levi, and we can assume with pretty good accuracy that she either died from a sexually transmitted disease, or that she died from malnutrition and starvation.  These weren’t two people, then, who were living a comfortable or secure life.  In fact, the very opposite.  Levi was starving to death when Kenny found him.  It’s easy enough to assume from his state of general neglect and starvation that Kuchel, at the very least, was struggling to provide for him.  Not just food, but any kind of comfort or care.  Clothing, warmth, protection, cleanliness, and very likely even, affection.  This isn’t a knock on Kuchel’s worth as a mother, or her parenting.  She was, undoubtedly, doing the best she could given the circumstances.  But, again, this particular aspect of their lives isn’t touched on nearly enough.  Kuchel died out of neglect, impoverishment, desperation and abuse.  Given what we can assume her day to day life was like, having to let men come and sexually assault her just to keep herself and her son alive, one has to also consider the emotional and mental toll this sort of existence would eventually have on her.  She had to have been exhausted, both mentally and physically.  You add to this the always uncertain and present reality of whether either her or Levi would even be able to eat on any, given day, whether she would be able to keep her son from starving to death, and you can start to form a clear idea of how things like “playtime” or “fun”, or freely given and enthusiastic love and affection, would be, tragically, low on the list of priorities.  Their situation was absolutely a situation of survival, first and foremost.  Luxuries weren’t a part of their lives.  Anyone who’s ever experienced extreme deprivation, poverty and desperation on the level in which Kuchel and Levi were living would know that those material realities absolutely have a negative impact on one’s ability to simply live.  To be happy.  To indulge in fantasy.  To indulge in luxury.  To indulge in any kind of relaxation or ease of living.  It’s nice to imagine that Kuchel was always able to show Levi love and affection.  To always be a kind, caring and generous mother to him.  But that perception of their lives together ignores the bleak and harsh reality of what was really going on.  More likely than not, Kuchel was often too exhausted and in bad, physical shape herself to play with Levi, to pay attention to Levi, to indulge in Levi.  It was everything she could do, after all, to simply keep Levi alive, let alone healthy and happy.  Kenny described Levi, when he first took him in, as the most unfriendly kid he’d ever met.  We rarely see Levi speak at all in those early days with Kenny.  That doesn’t speak to someone who is well adjusted socially.  That doesn’t speak to someone who received a lot of open love and affection in the formative years of his childhood.  Again, this isn’t to criticize or undermine Kuchel’s abilities as a mother.  It’s simply acknowledging the tragic reality, that someone in Kuchel’s position, living the kind of life she was living, wouldn’t have had the luxury of being for Levi everything he needed her to be. 
This also leads me into another point I don’t think I’ve ever seen discussed, and that has to do with Kuchel’s decision to have Levi at all, and how that choice is, simultaneously, both entirely selfless, and entirely selfish. 
Kenny tells his grandfather that he tried to talk Kuchel out of having her baby, trying to explain to her how bringing a baby into the kind of situation she was living in wasn’t viable.  It was only going to make, not only her own life worse, but in turn, the baby’s life was going to be awful too.  We later see, in Kenny’s memories, a scene in which Kuchel is holding Levi as a newborn against her chest and crying tears of happiness.  Kenny recalls this as part of his monologue about dreams, and the desperation of dreams, and the ability of dreams to corrupt us.  This is important to acknowledge.  Because again, while Kuchel’s intentions in giving birth to Levi were pure, and her love for him was absolutely pure and genuine, still, she DID bring him into a situation of extreme poverty, desperation and violence.  In a way, Kuchel prioritized her dream of motherhood not only over her own well being (this being the selfless aspect of her decision), but also over Levi’s well being (this being the selfish aspect).  She knew her own living situation was terrible, filled with suffering, cruelty and pain.  She knew this, and she was aware, from Kenny’s own words, that bringing a child into that situation was only going to make things worse, for both of them.  But she chose to do it anyway.  She chose to give birth to Levi, and to keep him, knowing the sort of deprivation and desperation he would be exposed to.  Knowing the kind of violence and cruelty and ugliness he would be exposed to, being born and raised in a brothel, in which she was working as a prostitute, relegated to a single room with him in it. 
Chances are high, extremely high, that Levi saw his mother raped.  Maybe she sent him out of the room when she was with clients.  But maybe she wasn’t able to.  We never see any evidence of Levi having ever left their single room as a child, and even if he had, the building they were in was a brothel, catering to men seeking and paying for the sexual services of women.  It isn’t an environment that is, in any way, suited to a child, friendly to a child, or even tolerant of a child.  It’s almost 100% certain that Levi was, at one time or another, exposed to sexual violence against women, whether it was his own mother, or someone else.  He would have been exposed to violence in general too, because men who sexually assault women are also very likely to physically assault them.  I don’t think it’s any kind of a stretch, even, to assume that Levi himself might have been on the receiving end of physical violence, at the least, in a place like that.  Men who wouldn’t want some little kid around while they force themselves on the women there probably would have little qualm with hitting Levi to make him go away. 
Again, going back to Levi’s “unfriendliness” when Kenny first takes him in, I think we can extrapolate that a lot of what Kenny was perceiving as unfriendly behavior was in fact just Levi being withdrawn.  He seemed sullen and mute to Kenny.  We see this in children who have been abused.  They tend to go within themselves and make themselves as unobtrusive as possible, not wanting to draw attention to themselves, because whenever they have, it’s always resulted in them somehow being hurt.  Levi’s body language when Kenny first meets him speaks to this as well.  He’s curled against the wall opposite his mother’s bed, literally making himself as small as possible, his knees hugged to his chest, his head bowed close to them, etc...  Like he’s trying to hide.  Again, it doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to assume that Levi fell victim to the violence of the men who frequented that place.  The Underground in general was filled with violent and cruel men who made a living out of criminality, who in fact wouldn’t think twice about committing murder, etc... 
This is the world Kuchel brought Levi into.  A world of physical and sexual violence, a world of depravity and illness, a world of poverty and starvation.  Kuchel loved Levi with all her heart.  That isn’t for a moment in doubt.  But by choosing to have him and keep him, she also trapped him into a life of pain and suffering of his own.
Kuchel had to know, if anything were to happen to her, that Levi’s chances of survival were next to none.  He was helpless without her, and that too is evidenced by the fact that, when Kenny finds them, Levi is literally starving to death.  He’s just sitting there, resigned to his fate.  There’s no indication whatsoever that Levi ever even left their room to seek food, or help of any kind.  He just sat there, trapped with his mother’s rotting corpse, waiting to die.  And nobody there cared enough to even check on him or his mother in the span of time between when she fell ill and when she died.  Nobody there cared enough about either of their lives to see if they were okay, and we can assume, because Levi didn’t seek anyone’s help, that he didn’t think anyone would help him, which tells us all we need to know about how he and his mother were generally treated in that place.  Kuchel must have known, as she was dying, that without her, Levi was going to die too.  She had no way and no cause to know or think that Kenny would come by to rescue him.  And, indeed, if Kenny hadn’t shown up right when he did, Levi almost certainly would have died in that room with her.  I can’t even imagine the pain this must have caused her, knowing she was dying, and knowing as a result, that her son was going to die too.  It would have been unbearable.  But again, this is also the risk Kuchel took when she chose to give birth to and keep Levi.  She knew this was a possibility.  That her child would die a slow and painful death without her there to protect and take care of him.
So this sort of sunny, idealistic picture that tends to get painted of Levi’s life with his mother seems both unrealistic and unfair to them in terms of understanding their actual situation.  This wasn’t a happy or good life they were living together.  It was a life full of misery and pain.  Levi’s monologue later on to the 104th recruits, about not knowing if you’ll wake up and get to eat that day, or if your friends will still be alive, wasn’t just a reflection on their lives living with the threat of titans.  It was a reflection of his own life living in the Underground, living a life surrounded by poverty and violence and uncertainty.  That was Levi’s existence for the first 25 years of his life.  That was Levi’s childhood.  Violence and starvation, cruelty and deprivation.  Kuchel’s love, as pure and as genuine as it was, wasn’t enough on it’s own to overcome the scars of all that. 
One last note to end this on. 
There’s also a tendency to paint Kenny’s rescue of Levi as this very heroic and selfless act on Kenny’s part.  A moment in which Levi was pulled from the jaws of certain death and given a chance to live by his uncle.  And while, yes, Kenny certainly did save Levi’s life and give him that chance, I think it’s also important to acknowledge that Kenny’s treatment of Levi was abusive, and ultimately caused him more harm than good.  Kenny, we have to remember, went down to the Underground to rescue Kuchel.  He went to that brothel with the intention of pulling her out and bringing her to live back up on the surface, able to do so now that he had ended the persecution of their family through his connection with Uri Reiss.  But by the time he got there, Kuchel was dead, and she’d left behind her only child in Levi.  Kenny could have so easily brought Levi up to the surface with him, the way he’d been planning on doing with Kuchel, and given him a good and happy life.  He could have saved him from the hell of living in the Underground City.  A world of perpetual darkness, a world of constant danger and desperation and illness.  People talk about how Kenny gave Levi the tools to survive in such a harsh environment, and treat this as if it’s something to somehow be applauded and praised.  But Kenny shouldn’t have had to teach Levi to survive in a cut-throat environment at all.  He’d made it possible for those with the Ackerman name to live free of persecution up above.  He could have easily taken Levi with him and given him a good, traditional education, fed and clothed him, given him shelter, given him the chance to grow up in fresh air and sunlight, given him a chance to make friends with other children, to learn social skills and just live a normal existence with the opportunity to actually be happy.  But instead Kenny chose to keep Levi in the Underground, to teach him how to kill, to teach him to be violent, and not much else, before simply abandoning him there and never going back, forcing Levi to survive on his own in the most dangerous place inside the walls.  What Kenny did to Levi wasn’t a kindness.  A kindness would have been rescuing Levi from the Underground entirely and giving him a real life above.  A kindness would have been Kenny giving to Levi what he’d planned on giving to his sister.  But Kenny was too selfish to do that, and that’s the bottom line.  He didn’t want to have to take care of and raise a child.  He didn’t want the responsibility.  Whether that’s tied to Kenny’s own, negative perception of himself or not doesn’t matter.  He still chose not to take Levi with him and give him a real life because actually caring for and raising a child would have been too hard, too much work, too much responsibility.  By leaving Levi there in the Underground, he sent Levi the message, clear as day, that he wasn’t wanted.  And so Levi spent the entirety of his childhood, and a good portion of his adulthood, believing that, and living in the Underground, living a life of violence and desperation and suffering.
I don’t think the suffering Levi went through as a child gets discussed or acknowledged enough, or examined enough.  I don’t think people often look at it with enough objective realism to realize the extreme harm and trauma Levi experienced and was left with.  It’s genuinely a miracle that Levi turned out the way he did.  That Levi is as good a man as he is.  Nothing in his life growing up can really account for that.  Everything in his life growing up would evince that he should have become the sort of man Kenny was, selfish and cruel.  It’s truly against all odds that Levi became the exact opposite.  Selfless in the extreme, kind, caring and compassionate above and beyond anyone else in the series.  Someone who fights for and gives his life in dedication to the dreams and lives of others.
In many ways, Levi is, himself, the greatest miracle of all.
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trlvsn · 6 months
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as funny as the "phoenix giving edgeworth a whip" moment in aa2-4 was it is actually so important on an ideal level basically sums up phoenix's character development in that game. let me explain. the prosecutor that gets introduced to us in aa2 is franziska: a prodigy, daughter and successor of von karma, driven by the wrong ideas and using the wrong methods. the "wrongness" of her as a prosecutor is summed up by the whip - a tool that gives her power over the court, her main tactic she has been using all these years, a heritage, a pain, something she carries with her. the defense, on the other hand, is saddled with anger and sadness that come from a lack of understanding of miles edgeworth: why did he do this? was he really so foolishly prideful? could he not see himself be anything else than gant and von karma? was i foolish to see that in him?
but then, in aa2-4, edgeworth shows up and is neither his old self nor the new one. he is still a prosecutor, and he still helps phoenix subtly in the trial; he's still an ass, he's still wearing the cravat, but he is not on the same path as before. he claims to have learnt a lesson and intends to let phoenix learn it as well. he asks him: what kind of defense attorney do you want to be? the position you have will remain the same. you will still be at this bench. what can you do to deserve to stand there? what can you be? and the implications the question brings with it are more meaningful than the question itself: they mean you can be different kinds of a defense, they mean you can use the tools you have in entirely different ways.
so when phoenix gives the whip to franziska through miles edgeworth, he says "take the tool back. you have a hereditary power you could be using unfairly, waving it over everyone scarily, but you could take it back and do something with it. be a prosecutor. don't run. don't throw away what you have no matter who gave it to you; you are the whip's owner and you command it". he acknowledges the nuance of it all, and he acknowledges the fact that franziska does need to leave as well, do some soul-searching and find her own path. and when phoenix gives the whip to franziska, he does it through miles edgeworth, and with it, he says "i get it now".
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spotlightlowlife · 2 months
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Charlie Hazbin done better before?
The pilot in the first minute has her, in her own words let us know she is a dreamer, she outlines her viewpoints and objective clearly, lets us know she's been trying, she gets dismissed and she ask if the problem was the world or her.
We see in visuals that she has various superiors to outclassed her.
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It is obvious as to why she has to take her plans to her target audience which is the commoner and start from scratch, because what good is being born into power if you can't use it?
Again, we are just at the start.
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Charlie went to the media with her pitch, we would see that she isn't well known to the public and those who know mwhi she is don't care. We see that she is unprepared, unprofessional and not assertive, she quickly becomes a laughing stock.
Charlie was excited to announce she had the famous Angeldust on side which she managed through bribery, she was happy to boast that he was in the way to being one of her success stories, which backfires in her face immediately as he just made the choice to participated in a turf war going on at that moment for no particular reason. This turf war which immediately followed the cleanse.
Nobody has anything to lose, they're use to what they have, plenty seem comfortable with and are able to gain from death and destruction, so why would trust in pushover Charlie's words that she 'beleives' they're better than they are and can move on up to sit with those who wipe them out like vermin? Because that's what everyone even wants?
It's understandable that she would get used for her hotel, the hotel itself becoming the solution and the problem.
Charlie's mother is too busy for her and her dad is disappointed in her decision making, the only words of advice we hear Charlie echo from him are to not take shit from any demon. We know she's a pushover. She's out on her own, trying and feeling increasingly defeated.
Vaggie is sensible, she tries to prevent Charlie humiliating herself and making dangerous decisions that effect everyone but Charlie is going to do as she pleases regardless, she knows this. This could prove a great example of their class and power divide, unlike those she mixes with, Charlie is hellborn powerful princess, bad reputation is hurtful and nothing more and she doesn't fear for her life.
A pampered princess from a functional supportive family who didn't have to endure earthly hardships and demise.
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Now remember, the pilot may not be canon.
The first four minutes of episode one pit Charlie pretty low in establishing and fleshing out her parents, her charismatic mother who rose to power but is now a missing person a dad who was born into grandeur but faced many issues who is depressed somewhere, then Charlie came to be, she hasn't done any of the greatness expected of her for no other reason than she's their offspring and petty disrespect to her face is welcome from randos she hangs out with who haven't really been introduced and don't particularly like one another.
The groundwork is done, the unflattering advert has been released to nobody in particular and Charlie has her group of various acquaintances, there's no chemistry, the only one we can really class as a friend is Vaggie who speaks up for her in defense. Why are they all together? Anyone who watched the pilot knows.
Now she's out to save sinners and not just help any demon which the pilot left open for us, but just as her clientele narrows, we meet Adam, the ancestor of sinners, an unreasonable dudebro who outclasses her.
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Most characters outclassed her on the attention front, her plot vanishes into one of many subplots immediately.
The Charlie we had was idealistic, caring, enthusiastic, driven and hardworking all in her own right, pushing her own thing, but she was far from oblivious to the challenges she faced which were getting everybody in the room to listen and guiding troubled folk to change their ways. Obstacles faced with rehab.
This Charlie, antichrist chosen one fulfilling her destiny, is just there, somewhere at back.
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It may be early days technically but still, the pilot and the first four episodes of Helluva proved things can move along quickly and coherently.
We are expected to take what we remember of the pilot with us as a shortcut to knowing these characters, 'canon' or not.
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megolololo · 5 months
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why shockwave is the most fatherly decepticon (even more so than soundwave):
(aka i’m delusional and smitten)
every character in every medium revolves around a theme. a theme in a novel or a show or a film tends to be an idea that will be explored in both the subtext and text of that medium.
shockwave’s theme, surprise, surprise, is creation and rebirth (in most tf media). his whole character is concerned with the parenting of either himself (as a way of rehabilitating after empurata) or of others (predacons, his little bots in cyberverse, or even his subordinates like tarn)
now, you might ask, what sets shockwave’s fatherliness apart from soundwave’s? how is he any more fatherly than soundwave?
allow me to demonstrate with the following screenshot from guardians of the galaxy:
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yup.
shockwave was everyone’s father, but soundwave was everyone’s daddy (no not like that)
still not convinced? allow me to introduce you or remind you of the concept of nature vs. nurture. ironically enough, for someone who is only a father, shockwave is the more nurturing one. soundwave is considered a father because he is a cassette player and his “children” are cassettes
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in idw1 soundwave was actually more so adopted by his cassettes rather than the other way around. shockwave, on the other hand, birthed - even if not literally - and raised all the subjects he needed to raise to prepare for either war or for life
in idw1, shockwave was like a father to tarn. post-empurata, he still chose to call tarn the name that defined him the most: “damus.” not “glitch”, not “tarn”, which are all personas and not real identities (glitch = associated with his outlier power, tarn = leader of djd) but “damus.” shockwave knows the real tarn because he was there to raise him.
(extra note: to really drill in the fact that shockwave was fatherly to tarn, shockwave thinks “damus” is tarn’s real name while megatron, right before killing him, implies that “glitch” is. megatron is a military leader; he will favor the identity that holds the most militant potential. shockwave cared for tarn; he will favor the boy he knew when he was still in the academy)
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we can even still see the effects of pre-empurata shockwave on tarn, who takes great pleasure in the arts and everything conceptually and fundamentally beautiful like poetry or literature or music. and guess who wanted to be remembered for “both his brains and his beauty”?
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in cyberverse, he was actually kinda like a father to shadowstriker. he took her in after she was severely injured and placed her in his unit as a form as rehab, if you will (she wouldn’t have been able to go to more militant and armed units in such a condition). though he was less there to nurture shadowstriker, as she was already a developed adult, he was there to protect her. iirc, in a scene where they get frozen by this immobilizer, shockwave pushes her behind him.
it’s the same in tfp, where shockwave, near the end of the series, shoves ratchet behind him during the spacebridge battle and fires at other autobots. the enemy is LITERALLY next to him and yet he chooses to protect ratchet from stray bullets. and to address the predacon elephant in the room, he literally raised predacons. he petted them and comforted them and gave them sustenance to live and thrive.
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shockwave is cold, rational, and is obsessed with logic, yes, but he assumes this logic from what he has observed and what he has experienced before, whether that before be pre-empurata or before the war.
could he have had a fatherly and caring figure before the war? possibly. could he have picked it up from how animals assume this role automatically, as if it was biologically and universally a logical thing to do? possibly. but have we ever considered that… it’s just part of his personality?
BuT but shoCkwAve dOesnT have EmoTions
if he didn’t have emotions and therefore no personality, he’d never feel compelled to lie or have any will to do anything. he is driven. a computer is not. a computer is told to do something and will output the most logical output based on its coding. he’s self-driven and autonomous with his decisions.
so, to sum it up, shockwave is nurturing, but because he is often overruled by the need to follow a strict diet of reason and self-motivated curiosity for knowledge, this part of him is always overshadowed. he’s not a good man. he will frankly never be. but he can be a good father if he only let himself be. thank you for coming to my ted talk
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sparrowrye · 3 days
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Demi Demon || Alastor x Reader, A2 part 18
Synopsis: It’s been over a year since we were brought under Alastor’s watchful eye. We’ve unlocked our Demonic powers, discovered our own talents, and began building the Safe Haven with Charlie and co. Alastor seems increasingly interested in the power we hold as one and intends to use it properly.
Previous part
Part 18: Blackwater
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Reagan and I weren't having a great week.
Reagan was starting to get teased about Lucas by girls who weren't her friends. Even some of the boys joined in and would make passing comments. She felt further and further alienated. It grew worse, still, when one of the girls made a comment on her magiclessness and she turned it into a fight.
After the fight, I knew I needed to get her out of the haven for a break. I needed it, too, after everything with Alastor. So I took her with me to another ring fight attack.
As promise to Lucifer, I asked Charlie to stay in the haven and teleport everyone back when we were ready. I managed to convince her by telling her we needed her to explain everything to the newcomers and get them settled. She jumped on it right away.
This ring fight was a legal one. Vox's technology was growing ever bigger and broadcasting the legal ring fights became a norm. There was one stretch of land that was unclaimed by any Overlords but was frequently checked on to ensure no Humans were plotting anything. There was no order, no law, nothing but a different version of Hell on the surface. It was effectively called the Badlands.
The ring owner had put on social media that the top five winners would be released. I knew better than to believe that. So I made sure to arrive before the ring ended to save those poor five souls from being killed anyways. I kept Reagan hidden safely in the forest well away from here.
After the last ring fight, I waited for them to announce the five fighters who could be released. Instead of killing them, they were put into an enclosed vehicle and driven away from the ring and town.
I shifted into my Dragon form and hastily followed in the shadows. I ran for what felt like thirty minutes before they arrived at a dark, double storied building. Unlike most other old buildings from before the Great Collapse, this one sat in the middle of a forest. It would be extremely rare for someone to just 'come across it'. It was hard to see its exact layout since the trees blocked the moonlight. The sun was rising but it wouldn't do anything until it came above the horizon.
I teleported Reagan to me and explained what had happened. "We'll go into town as soon as I see what this is," I said.
"Do you think it's Blackwater?" she asked. She was the only one aside from myself, Husker, Charlie and Alastor to know of Blackwater and his threats. We didn't want to panic the town but I felt she deserved to know.
"At this point anything could be. Wait here, please." I melted with my shadow, Alcine, and snaked into the shadows on the inside of the building. The first floor was plain. A large fireplace burned on one side and a circle of chairs sat in the center.
Each chair held one of the fighters, a metal headband strapped tightly on to prevent them from using magic. They looked exhausted and possibly drugged.
Before I could watch further, Reagan's yell caught my attention. I sprang back to her and manifested as my Dragon form. The man fell away from her and casted a bright blue shield over himself. I had never seen such magic and resorted to staying planted over Reagan, lips pulled back in an ugly snarl.
The man laughed. "Well well well, here you are. Gotta say, that was some show with your Striker fellow." He stood up and dropped the shield, revealing himself as the man who had teleported Reagan and I into Hell that one time.
The tendrils on my neck and back stood up sharper, my claws digging into the earth as I grew more nervous at the sight of him.
"The name's Finn, in case you forgot." He stood up and brushed dirt off his tailored clothes. "What is a such a lovely woman like yourself doing all the way out here?"
"What do you intend to do with those fighters?" I growled, half using magic to speak given my current form.
"What do I—What do I~ intend to do with them?" He began to laugh and even went as far as to lean against a tree. I shifted into my Demon form and helped Reagan to her feet, eyes never once leaving him. "I do love how much credit people give me. I'm not the master mind here. I'm the one who gets shit done, excuse my language. I'm the one people can depend on."
"Then allow me to rephrase," I hissed, "what does your boss intend to do with them?"
"Well that's a question for him, not me." He held one hand up to pick at his nails. His eyes shifted to something behind me but I felt nothing. There was nothing, no presence, no magic, nothing behind me. The wind was blowing against me so I couldn't smell anything either. My ears twitched and I stretched my hearing.
I heard breathing.
I spun too late. Something heavy and sharp connected with my head. I barely remember hitting the ground. I was spinning, seemingly infinitely, and couldn't ground myself. My magic was all over the place.
Cold water splashed my face, wrenching my soul back into my body and eyes snapping open. I coughed up the water that had gotten in my lungs and pulled against restraints on my wrists.
I lifted my head to find myself in a gray, blank room. Finn held an empty bucket in his hands and moved to put it down. As he moved, he revealed another man standing behind him.
This man wore a long, dirty brown coat and a black mask over the lower half is his face. His dark brown hair was short and messy, nearly hiding the pair of short red horns. He held his hands behind his back as he walked over to me, black boots knocking on the metal floor.
I straightened up, finally realizing what position I was in. Two chains pulled my arms from a higher position while two more chain my knees to the ground. I tried to sit up as straight as I could as the man stopped a hand's length away. His red glasses glared unemotionally down at me.
"It's nice to finally meet you, Ms. Python." His hands were sitting in his pockets. "The name's Blackwater."
My jaw clenched. This was him. This was the man creating all those devices. This was the man who kidnapped two Overlords who have yet to reveal if they're alive or not.
"What do you want?" I curled my claws into fists. My magic was still gone, the metal headband successfully keeping it out of my reach.
"A test subject."
"You didn't get enough from the two Overlords you kidnapped?" I retorted.
He shrugged. "They're still proving their worth to me."
Metal clanging caught my attention and I turned to see Finn pulling out the blood sucking device that was used on Spencer. I attempted to move but the chains kept me in my kneeled position. I let out a hiss when it hooked painfully onto my forearm. He turned on the machine and it began taking blood at an alarming rate.
"Let her go!" Reagan yelled. I hadn't noticed her tied to a chair in the corner of the room. "Take mine instead!"
My vision turned fuzzy when he moved away from me to stand in front of her. "Don't touch her," I slurred.
"You don't have to worry," his voice was light and uncomfortably friendly, "I don't kill children. But I will take some of that sweet blood." He ran his fingers along her exposed arm, causing her to pull away, eyes squeezed shut.
Finn took off the machine and packed it away. Blood dripped down my arm and stained my shirt. "She's magicless," I struggled to say. The world was tilted at a funny angle and my shoulders were hurting from the position they were being held in.
"Oh?" he sounded genuinely interested. "You're a true Human?"
"What does that mean?" she asked, voice quivering. He stopped his assault and took a step back to examine her fully.
"It means your family line has stayed pure since before the Great Collapse." When she showed no obvious sign of understanding, he let out a sigh and put his hands back in his coat pockets. "Magic was not a thing before the Great Collapse. Demons were leaked into our world and brought their wretched magic with them. They started having children with Humans and generations later, everyone had Demon's blood in them. You, my dear," he stood beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder, "are a rare, pure gem. You're not infected with their blood."
Reagan's eyes snapped over to mine. All I could think was - oh no.
He reached up to his face to remove his glasses and his horns. They were fake. "I, myself, am a pure Human." My eyes widened, mouth dropping open. He was a Human. He was a defenseless Human. No wonder he had made all those inventions. "And I'm so glad to have found another one to add to our family."
"Family?" she questioned with a tone of disgust.
"I've been all around the world and collected ten pure Humans. We're going to be the foundation of the new world. A world that isn't tainted by Demons." His eyes narrowed on me.
"We're not all bad," I tried, limply pulling against the chains. My energy was taking forever to return. "We've created a safe haven for everyone. A place where both sides can live peacefully together."
"That wont last long." He waved his hand dismissively. "Demons are ruthless killers and Humans can't fathom having anyone above them. It's better to return to the way things were before the Great Collapse."
"You don't even know what that looked like. You weren't there." I made a point on his age. As a Human, he was restrained to the age period of all other Humans that lasted under 100 years. Demons could live for centuries.
"But I know enough," he turned on his heel to face me. "My family line has made sure we stay pure. I grew up with stories about the old world, about their inventions, about their trifles. I've known since I was a kid that I was born in the wrong generation."
A thought came to mind. "You hate Demons and our magic, but you're giving out inventions that allow people to use that magic."
He hummed with a smile. "You're catching on." He moved away from Reagan to stand in front of me again. I had to sit back on my heels and crane my neck to keep our line of sight. "There's Demons and Slight Humans, which outnumber you all. If I bring the Slight Humans to the same level as Demons, it's only a matter of time before they hunt your kind to extinction."
"But then you have the same problem as before. Slight Humans are just replacing the Demons."
Blackwater moved to the case next to Finn. He opened the back and pulled out a vile of my blood. He held it up to the single light for a moment. It connected in my mind before he spoke.
"They require the blood of Demons to have that power. When the Demons are gone, what's left? Just Humans with small magic."
"And what? You'll kill them off somehow? Make them turn on each other?" I retorted.
"In a way." He lowered the vile and settled his gaze on me. "But we haven't gotten there yet. The problem remains of the Overlords holding power over us. I know your kind can hide away in Hell. This plan has to be full proof."
He tossed the vile to Finn who wasn't ready. He fumbled with it before it shattered on the floor. He picked his hand up from the shattered glass and looked uncertainly to Blackwater.
I wanted to ask him why he was telling me everything. I wanted to ask what I had to do with anything, or if I was just a means for blood caught at the wrong place at the wrong time?
My questions would go unanswered though, as Finn's blood made its way to my nose. Immediately, my veins seized and my throat closed part of the way. I pulled against the chains and slammed my back into the wall. It had been two days since I last had Alastor's blood. The smell of any blood was enough to make me crave it again.
Blackwater was silent as he watched. My foot claws scraped against the floor as I tried to pull away from the smell or to free myself to take some of it. My hair was on edge and I struggled to keep my snarls quiet. They turned into horrible, pained whines through gritted teeth the longer I went. At one point I even started to drool from the lack of oxygen and aggressive seething.
"You've probably never seen her like this," he said to Reagan. I glanced through my messy hair to see her staring at me wide eyed. My shoulders dropped, if they could in their position, and I tried wiping my face on my sleeve. I tried to restrain myself, pressing my back into the wall and staring down at the floor. All my muscles were painfully tight.
Blackwater roughly pulled my chin up and smeared something across my upper lip, just below my nose. The smell of Finn's blood was suffocating. I let out a screech and pulled violently against all of the chains. I tried licking it off but I couldn't lengthen my tongue without magic. Tears streamed down the side of my face from the pain and shame.
Blackwater's laughter reached past it all. "A true Demon thirsty for blood. I expect nothing less from Alastor's soulmate." He turned to look at Reagan. "Did you know about this?" She shook her head in response, eyes never leaving my writhing form.
"Not...not all...just me...just Alastor." I spoke through the spasms and clenched teeth. I don't know how any of them hadn't broken yet from the sheer force. My breathing was getting faster, my whines louder.
"This is the person you're entrusting everything to," he went on, ignoring my response. "Demons can't help but lie. Lie and manipulate. It's why they come from Hell."
Not true. Not me. That's not who I am.
I looked up at her again, face full of pain. I couldn't speak anymore.
Please. It's me. I didn't lie. I love you. Please trust in me.
I doubled over as my body pulsed. I screeched again, long and loud. They covered their ears. Blood dripped down my arms again from pulling against the chains. My foot claws were practically filed down from trying to stand up.
Reagan let out a gasp. Everything stilled and went deathly silent as I looked up. Blackwater had cut the ropes and gently pulled her to her feet. "Come dear, let's have a civilized conversation." With a hand on her shoulder, he lead her out of the room. Finn casted a glare at me, hand wrapped in a rag, and slammed the door shut.
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Author's Note:
Dun dun duuuuuuunnnnnnnn
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Taglist:
@wendigonamecaller @saccharine-nectarine
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daughterofcain-67 · 1 month
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𝙾𝚞𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝙾𝚞𝚛 𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎 (𝚙𝚝. 7)
(Soldier Boy x Female Reader)
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(masterlist)
𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: Suddenly driven by the urge to find you, yet conflicted about the fact he would have to kill his own son, Ben sets out with Butcher and Hughie to go to the Vought tower and put an end to this once and for all.
𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: SPOILERS!!! Final episode of season three, but this series will continue after that episode. I don’t think there’s any major warnings. Little short but this will be continued. Hope you enjoy!
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All you could see was white all around you as you sat alone in the room. Captivity wasn’t your idea of a fun time, then again who likes to be held captive against their will? Maybe with the exception of those with Stockholm syndrome, you assumed it would be no one’s idea of a vacation necessarily.
You sat with your back against one of the walls and your legs crossed in front of you. Your eyes were closed as you tried not to focus on your current situation. Instead you were wondering if Ben really did find Mindstorm, and if he was able to get a little more closure and revenge that he wanted. You wondered when he would get to Black Noir, or if he could even get to him in the Vought tower.
Then you began to wonder if Ben would really be able to kill Homelander. You wanted him to be able. To take the hero’s powers away and show everyone that without his powers, Homelander was just an image of Vought’s imperfections. You wanted to know what their reaction would be when they found out their star-spangled mascot was nothing but a useless puppet, like most if not all supes, who just got paid to be glorified for nothing.
After that, your mind started to wander off to the aftermath of your life with Ben after killing Homelander…
Would he get caught yet again? Would he be sent out of the country yet again to a place like Russia? You wouldn’t put it past Vought to do something so cruel. You couldn’t imagine all of the horrible things Ben went through. Well, you could because you went through something similar, but the government wasn’t out to kill you.
The Russians were trying to kill Ben, and they had a lot longer of a time with him. The government didn’t have nearly as much time with you. So you couldn’t imagine just the amount of torture Ben had gone through for such a long amount of time, only to be left alone in a vault like he was some antique in the lab.
You wouldn’t let anything like that happen to him again. You couldn’t let yourself live with that if Vought took him away again. Back then you couldn’t do anything about it, but now you could.
You only hoped that Ben would be careful enough to not let it get to that point.
Then you tried to start thinking more positively. After all, you weren’t a fortune teller. You had to have some sort of hope in you after all.
So maybe you were over thinking and nothing would go wrong with Ben. Maybe he’d be okay after all and his little quest to kill Homelander would go smoothly. He was experienced at least somewhat when it came to some battles, even if he didn’t actually storm Normandy like Vought wanted everyone to believe.
You wondered what life would have in store for you if that were really the case. What would the future hold if both of you came out of this okay after all?
You were pretty confident you’d need a new hidden cabin in the woods somewhere. After all, you didn’t want Vought finding you again if they didn’t destroy your old home anyway. But you wondered where you would go, you wondered where Ben would want to go.
With Vought out of your hair and Homelander gone, you could go anywhere in the world you wanted to go. Would Ben want to go out of the country with you and start a new life?
Maybe you could go somewhere beautifull…
You heard Ireland was beautiful. You’ve never visited the country and you would love to see what it was like. Maybe you and Ben could travel the world before you decided to find a new home and settle down. Maybe have that family Ben always seemed to dream about.
There were so many positive ideas that came floating in your mind and they seemed to be a dream away. You weren’t sure if you could really have any of those fantastical outcomes, but it never hurt to have that hope.
After all… you dreamt that Soldier Boy would come back. Now he was back in your life so unexpectedly. What other things would come true for you?
The sound of the door opening brought you from your thoughts but your eyes remained closed because you knew all too well who was coming through that door. Judging by the stomps those boots made, Homelander wasn’t too happy. Then again, when was he ever happy and not plastering some fake smile for the public eye.
“Still don’t know where Soldier Boy is. Hate to break it to you, Kiddo.” You sighed with exasperation.
“I’m not here for that.”
“Oh really? No threats if I don’t give you some kind of top secret location?” You sassed with a smirk.
“Did you know?”
What the hell kind of a question is that? How were you supposed to respond?
“You need to be a little more specific than that, Kid.” You remained in the same spot, never opening your eyes to look at the ‘hero’ as you tried to go back to your own thoughts.
“Did you know about Soldier Boy being my father?”
This is what made you open your eyes. You looked up at the supe who had his hands on his hips, awaiting an answer coming from you.
Ben was Homelander’s father? How did that happen? And when? It was certainly a sudden shock, one you hadn’t anticipated to hear that morning - at least you were assuming it was morning. You were losing your concept of time after being locked up in the same place for so long.
“Do you realize how much of a perv he was back in the day before he and I started getting along? He was the one that started Herogasm remember? You can’t honestly believe you’re the only kid he has out there, can you?” You laughed, hiding your surprise.
You wondered if Ben had any idea about this. He couldn’t have known, otherwise he wouldn’t have been so accepting of the idea of killing Homelander?
“Oh please, I was born in ‘81. You two were close during that time, I know it. So did you fucking know he was my father, or didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know.” You finally answered after a few moments of silence.
“So how did you find out? You look equally as shocked.” You said while Homelander ran a hand through his bleached hair.
“I… I got a call sometime last night from… from him.”
You lifted a brow. Ben called Homelander? He must’ve gotten home and you hoped he got Dan after all. So did Mindstorm break the news to him? Was that the reason Vought took him away from you? Damned them. It was exactly something Vought would do so you couldn’t put it past them.
“He said it was some sort of… genetic experiment.” Homelander revealed. You rolled your eyes at the way he seemed so shocked at the news. Was he really that stupid when it came to this organization?
“Are you fucking kidding me? Of course they’d have genetic experiments. Most heroes don’t live that long. Vought must’ve wanted Ben to have some kind of early retirement because they were creating you. Some replacement.” You scoffed.
“Oh don’t act like you aren’t effected by it. Doesn’t it bother you that your precious Soldier Boy has a son and it wasn’t a result of something from you?” He asked and you rolled your eyes.
“Kid. Don’t try to use that shit with me.” You scoffed.
“You think I’m affected by that? If I was I wouldn’t have bothered getting close to him after Liberty, or Crimson Countess. But you? You were nothing but some kid that came out of a damn tube. You’re nothing but an experiment. You are not Soldier Boy’s son by any long shot, and you likely never will be because he hates pathetic men like you.”
You noticed Homelander’s eyes glow red at your last comment and you smirked. He wouldn’t be so affected by it if it wasn’t the truth, “Sweetie, if you kill me, your daddy’s gonna gut you like an animal.”
The color of Homelander’s eyes went back to normal and he looked away from you for a moment. You noticed that he seemed to be having a difficult time wrapping his head around this whole thing. Then he started getting some sort of notification from Ashley and you heard him let out a groan of annoyance.
“Fucking Hell!” He exclaimed.
“Something got your panties in a twist there?” You asked with your head tilted before he looked over at you.
“This isn’t over. I’ll find where Soldier Boy is. And he won’t even know you’re here. He’ll never find you and you’ll spend the rest of your days locked up.” He said and he stormed out of the door.
You looked through the glass as Homelander walked off and you looked down at your hand. You flattened it out before slowly turning your hand into a fist and the building started to shake as if you were indirectly trying to tell Homelander he could try to keep you here for a while, but you’d never stay here.
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So many things have happened within the last several hours and he didn’t know how to think of any of this. Everything felt so complicated.
Mindstorm was finally dead, and Ben was glad to have finally killed that fucker. Yet he still couldn’t believe that he was a father. That complicated things immensely, yet a deal was still a deal, right? Then there was the fact that you were missing. Ben was absolutely livid at the very idea that something may have happened to you, and you suddenly became his top priority, no matter the complications and the conflict ion he was feeling about all of this.
After the phone call he made to Homelander, telling him that he was the supe’s father, he had been drinking. He ended the phone call quickly and he knew he was still determined to get you back. He had this gut feeling Homelander was the one that had you. Ironic because you were always so cautious of where he went and who could see him, and you failed to think that you now had a target on your own back.
As Ben stepped out of his room with a little hangover remedy in his hand, he could briefly hear Hughie and Butcher talking about him.
“Listen, do you think he’s going to kill his own son? That’s a lot to ask of him. No wonder he was so hesitant to tell us after Mindstorm broke the news.” Hughie said.
“Well Homelander ain’t really his son. Deep down he knows that. He’s nothing but a glorified lab experiment.” Butcher said.
Ben clenched down on his jaw. He knew Butcher was right. He had a task to focus on, and he knew you would want him to stay focused. He knew they would have to go to the Vought tower anyway because it was more than likely that Black Noir was there. As he stepped out, he saw Butcher glance over at him.
“Mornin’ sunshine.” Butcher’s accent thick as he spoke.
“We’ve got a lot ahead of us. We’ve got to go to the office and get more temp V, then we’ll get our asses over to Vought so we can kill two birds with one stone. Then our little team up’s complete.”
“We’re still searching for Y/N.” Ben corrected sternly.
“Well yeah, of course that too.” Butcher nodded as he put his black coat on.
Ben turned and started heading to the room to grab his shield once more and he downed the rest of that little remedy and he tried to focus. You would want it that way.
He didn’t know what Vought was doing to you. Who knew if Vought actually destroyed those records the government had on their experiments with you. You were right, they were all a bunch of liars. No wonder you took to Grace Mallory. But Ben was still worried that maybe now that they had you in their clutches, would Vought really put you through that hell again to find a way to take a hero’s powers?
It was the uncertainty that gave Ben hell. He knew you couldn’t be dead. There was no way you could be dead and he had to believe that. But he knew the way Vought treated their heroes, and how their supes treated each other and got away with it. So who knew what Homelander would do to you.
Once Butcher and Hughie were ready to hit the road, Ben walked out of the door with them as he tried to keep his cool. He took the box of those cigarettes Butcher gave him with the weed and he lit one up whenever they got outside.
When they got to the car, Ben decided that he’d lay down and maybe sleep off the headache that was quickly forming. He could feel when the car was stopped and Butcher went to pump gas. The runt went to go to the bathroom and Ben eventually fell asleep.
A few hours later when Ben woke up he realized Butcher was still driving and he noticed Hughie was no longer in the vehicle with them.
Odd…
“Where’s the cockchoker?” He asked as Butcher started to reply.
“Ah well, you were right about ‘im, Mate. At the gas station he took off.” He said and Ben’s brows narrowed.
“We needed him to get to noir.”
“Oh I wouldn’t worry too much about that one. You said it yourself, Noir’s loyal to Vought so he’ll be there and so will Homelander. Two birds with one stone. All’s well.”
Ben wasn’t too sure if he was willing to believe that whole story. He wanted to believe Butcher was right and things would go smoothly, but so far in Ben’s life nothing has been smooth sailing. Whether he liked it or not, Ben had a feeling Hughie would go back to his little girlfriend and something could go wrong.
“Just wake me up when we get to New York.”
Ben laid back down and looked at the ceiling of the car but he wasn’t sure he’d be going back to sleep so easily. So instead he tried to think of you just as he did when he was in that fucking box in Russia.
He closed his eyes and he could see you in the very cabin you resided on the first night he was able to see you again. He could see you wearing that little necklace he gifted you what felt like eons ago, but you also had a golden band around your finger.
You would be in the kitchen making some sort of dessert and he could see himself walking into the kitchen. He’d say something a little inappropriate in a joking manner and you would roll your eyes pretending to be disgusted but you’d chuckle nonetheless because you knew his sense of humor.
But then, down the stairs there would be a sound of little feet running down to greet the both of them. A boy, one that looked nothing like Homelander. Instead, this would be the perfect mixture of you and him. And Ben would lift his son up into his arms and let him dip his finger into the batter of whatever dessert you were making despite your protests that your son would spoil his dinner.
Ben would shut you up with a kiss and then he’d make his son promise to eat his supper before he’d take the boy out to the backyard to play some sport whether it was football or baseball since he’d be too young to handle a gun.
It was a perfect life all inside of Ben’s mind and he desperately wanted that future. And he would stop at nothing to make sure he’d get you back.
Eventually Ben did finally fall asleep but the nap didn’t feel quite long enough, even if it was already dark outside. He didn’t realize just how worn out he’d been lately. Ever since he came back he’s been going nonstop to get the revenge he wanted on Payback and now to kill Homelander.
Ben squinted and looked around him, realizing Butcher had already pulled up to a building, likely the one that had his temp V shit. Ben groaned a little as he got out of the car and when Butcher popped the trunk, Ben was able to grab his shield and the two of them walked inside.
“Are you sure you’ll be able to do this?” Butcher asked and Ben looked over.
“What? Kill Homelander? You said it yourself, he’s not really my son.” Ben said, even if he did have some sort of doubts about it.
Anyway, the two men walked up the stairs and Ben noticed that they seemed to have a good view of everything. Ben noticed a table full of different alcoholic substances and liquors.
“Have at it. Calm before the storm after all.” Butcher said.
Ben glanced over at Butcher but then he shrugged and went ahead and poured himself a drink as well as one for Butcher, who accepted. Then Ben walked out towards the window where he had the view of the Vought tower.
“Supes are nothing but circus monkeys… Your little girlfriend was right about that. I’m glad she went to Mallory in the beginning.” Ben could hear Butcher say, Ben assumed Butcher saw him looking out of the window.
“You ever seen the Soldier Boy movie?” Ben asked as Butcher was looking at a map of Vought.
“Must’ve missed that classic.” Butcher said.
“I guess it is a classic now.” Ben hummed a little.
“It’s about a kid that lived in poorer parts of South Philly.. discover’s he’s got these super powers to match his little heart of gold. It’s a load of bullshit. All of it.” Ben said and he sat down.
“My dad was never poor, hell I even went to boarding school. Got kicked out of boarding school for bein’ a fuck up.” Ben began and Butcher looked over at him.
“Made sure you remembered you were a fuck up, huh? What’d he do, beat you to hell?” Ben shook his head.
“Couldn’t be bothered by it. Said I was his own personal disappointment. Not a lot I thought I could do about that. As I grew older I realized that I could go to some of his golf friends and they got me into the Vought trials for enlistment. I thought could be my chance at meeting more than just some sort of fuck up to my parents. Vought shot me up with their blue liquid shit and they made me a hero.”
“What’d the old man say to that?”
Ben recalled having this similar conversation with you at that New Year’s party you mentioned in one of your letters. He thought it would get a little easier to talk about and in a way, it was a little easier because now Ben’s father was long gone. It’s not like he had anything to prove to a dead man.
“Said I took a short cut. That a real man wouldn’t have cheated to be a hero.” Ben said as his jaw clenched and he looked down at his drink and cleared his throat.
“None of the supes are born with their powers, but I guess you’ve gathered that already. At first I thought I was doing what was right. Most naive kids do. None of us start off as bad guys.” Ben said before he looked at Butcher again.
“Then one day, when you’ve gone to too many parties, done pointless movies, did everything you were asked to do and yet you still don’t save as many lives as you hope to save, you realize Vought is all about business and money. That’s when you begin to stop giving a fuck, you begin to indulge in the lifestyle of a circus monkey as you call them, because you stop believing in any morals. You stop believing there really is good, and if there is you’ve already been so corrupted to the point where you doubt you can spread that goodness. One day you look in the mirror and realize… you aren’t the man you wanted to be.”
Butcher was quiet for a moment, thinking about his own past. He was always his little brother’s protector. It was sort of his job in a way until one day he had enough of it. And that would forever be one of the biggest regrets of his life.
“I don’t think Homelander had that much of a choice in deciding if he wanted to be a circus monkey or not. The whole world used to look up to him, Hell I even looked up to him at one point. But then one day, it all turned to shit.” Butcher said.
“Trust me, kid. Times are just as complicated and shitty now as they were back in my day. It’s not easy finding out that a kid you didn’t even know you had is Vought’s most beloved puppet. It’s harder to see that they couldn’t have made him better.” Ben sighed.
“What about you? Any kids?” Ben finally asked.
“That’s a bit of a complicated one too.” Butcher said.
Ben looked down, the news from Mindstorm still eating at his mind. He wasn’t sure he wanted to kill his own son. Homelander is the only blood that Ben had left, the only sense of family even if he was just some lab experiment.
“I knew I had a few running around somewhere. Never thought I’d actually run into one of them. I’ve always wanted them, thought I could do better than my old man.” Ben said.
“I’m pretty sure that’s either the hope of the parent, or the fear of turning into their parent keeps them from having kids.” Butcher said, knowing his reason was the latter. What happened to Becca was out of his control though.
“But you have to realize that Homelander isn’t yours. You didn’t name the lad. You didn’t raise him. I know he’s the only blood you got left, Mate, and I know it’s a hard pill to swallow. But Homelander was created in a damned test tube all for the purpose of taking your place. You’ve got to get that through your skull.” Butcher said before he walked over to Ben.
“Don’t you realize that Homelander is the very fucking reason Vought left you to rot? Homelander is the very reason the Ivan’s had you, tortured you, burned you. They filled you up with shit you never asked for all because Vought wanted you dead so they could make a way for a guy in a fucking cape. Not to mention the fact the he was probably the one that fucking took Y/N in the first place and now she’s in that tower going through who fucking knows what.”
Ben went quiet and he tried to think. He knew the reason Butcher was saying all of this was partially because of the deal he made so they could kill Homelander. But he tried to think of what you would have said in that moment.
You knew him better than anyone, and he knew you were so against Vought and all of their bullshit. Would you have said the same thing if you were in Butcher’s shoes?
“I’m going to get some air.” Ben said and he set the glass down and walked out of the front door.
After a few moments, Ben thought he could hear something. This time he wasn’t hearing things in his mind from the PTSD or whatever the fuck Hughie called it. He knew what he heard.
So Ben walked back in the building and as he made his way up the stairs and back to the office, he could hear two girls fighting. Something about killing Homelander and doing whatever it takes. Homelander must’ve been a piece of work if so many people wanted him dead. That was honestly… disheartening at best. Maybe even a bit…
Disappointing.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” Some red headed notch in civilian clothes said and Ben lifted a brow.
“No, but I will.” Ben said, truly not giving a fuck about who came to the office.
“You heard ‘him, Lad. Get in the safe.” Butcher said and looked at Hughie.
Ben took a glance at some guy who was glaring at him like he wanted to skin Ben alive personally. It wasn’t the first time Ben had ever gotten that look and he knew it wouldn’t be the last time.
Once everyone was in the safe, Ben started walking out of the door so he could go to Vought. Then he realized that Butcher was trying to stop him.
“Hey. You ready for this?” Butcher asked and Ben hummed a little.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Ben said and they started making their way to the tower.
When they made it to the tower, Ben Butcher and who he now knew was Queen Maeve, wouldn’t be expecting the incoming trouble from Hughie, Starlight and the others in the group.
Although it was getting to the point where Ben knew he shouldn’t take things at face value with this group. He wouldn’t be surprised if the blonde one figured out a way to break out of the damned safe, or any of them for that matter. He learned after his experience with Payback not to underestimate anyone.
Once Ben and Butcher made it to some sort of office, he heard the two of them exchange a little small talk. Something about scorching the earth. He didn’t know and didn’t really give a rat’s ass to know what they were talking about.
“Where’s Noir?” He asked sternly.
“Dead. He… didn’t tell me about you. Dishonesty is.. is something I just can’t tolerate. Queen Maeve there, she knows all about that.” Homelander said and motioned to the redhead
“And where’s Y/N?”
“How should I know anything about her? She was the one attached to you by the hip, wasn’t she?” The Supe asked.
“I just want to talk… That’s all.” Ben didn’t budge or initiate the fight. Neither did Butcher or Maeve.
“Besides, we could never be a family with her. I know you and I want the very same thing. Our teams never gave us that. Instead, every one of them stabbed us in the back. Sooner or later, Y/N will stab you in the back too.” Homelander said and Ben wasn’t sure how he should feel about that statement. Homelander didn’t know anything about you.
“It could be just you and I against the world. We would be an unstoppable duo. Both of us are practically unkillable. We could bring Vought back to its former glory. Just you and me.”
Ben thought about it before he looked over. Then he started walking over, “The only people that could kill us is each other. How would that end?”
“It wouldn’t happen. And what would even make you say that? Him?” Homelander motioned to Butcher. “He’s nothing but human. Flawed. He does’t stand a chance against us, no one does.”
“Don’t listen to that bloody lab rat. He’s trying to twist your mind around.” Butcher said, trying to interfere.
“Remember, he’s not your real son.”
“Yes I am! I am your son! I’m your blood! That’s all that matters in the end, doesn’t it?”
Ben stood silently as Homelander than motioned for a little boy to come to his side. He looked exactly like Homelander, a spitting image really. “This is Ryan. My son. Your grandson.”
Grandson? He was a grandfather too?
Everything Ben had ever wanted was right fucking here in front of him, minus you of course. That was the only issue with this revelation of family. You had no part in it.
“Hi Grandpa.”
Those simple two words made Ben lean back, stunned really since he had never thought he would even hear those words in his life. Let alone a simple ‘hi dad.’
Butcher’s words continued to echo in Ben’s mind. Homelander was nothing but a lab rat, an experiment that came from a tube. He had no bond with this man, he had no bond with his son either. He was just another supe and some random brat. But he can’t completely ignore the shared blood in their veins. How could he?
“We’re all any of us ever needs. We’re a family just the three of us. We can raise Ryan here to be a better hero than the both of us combined so he could take our mantle one day.”
But this very man, this pathetic piece of shit that was the one that had the audacity to take you away from him. The only woman that ever loved him for what he truly was, despite his own imperfections and disappointing qualities. You loved him for who he was. And Homelander took you from him.
Ben walked over to Homelander before he spoke again, “It’s a shame to know that I’ve missed… so much.”
He could see the hope on Homelander’s face. He really thought Ben was going to give him some sort of approving speech, but Ben had to face the truth of what his son really was.
“I wish I could have raised you. Father to son. I could have raised you to be a better man so you could be a better example for your own son…” Ben said as he placed a hand on his own son’s shoulder.
“But instead you’re this… this… weak, sniffling, attention starved cunt that wants everyone’s approval.”
“Weak? But… But I’m you.”
Ben’s lips pressed into a thin line. Homelander was right. He was Ben, all of the parts of Ben he wished he never had to deal with, “I know… You’re a fucking disappointment. One who took away Y/N, and that’s something I just can’t move on from.”
Suddenly, Ben’s hand was attached to Homelander’s jaw as he intended to break it, but the fucking brat tried to push Ben away. Quake and Butcher both held Homelander still as Ben focused every ounce of his energy into his chest so he could use it to finally kill Homelander.
Butcher tried to tell the brat to move, but suddenly, two little red lasers shot from the kid’s eyes as Ben’s chest began to glow. It threw Ben through the glass and against the wall, clearly taking him off guard. What the hell just happened?
Ben slowly got up with a grunt and dusted himself off from the glass. As Homelander was telling Ryan to go upstairs, Ben used his shield to shove the kid into the bookcase.
“Little Shit. Must take after his old man.” Ben said and rubbed his jaw. Then he started to let the energy in his chest begin to glow again while the hero was tending to the brat. This was the moment now that Homelander was distracted. He could take him down as well at the little runt that was getting in his way.
That was when tables started to turn, Butcher’s eyes began to glow too with the temp V still in his system. Ben lifted his shield to block Butcher’s attack and he peered over the shield. Ben was at a loss for words. After all that talk about “a deal’s a deal” this was a change. Didn’t Butcher want the bastard dead?
He didn’t have time to ask many questions before the fight insued between him and Butcher, eventually Homelander joined in too.
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You had been hearing rumors that Maeve escaped. So Starlight was right after all about Homelander doing something with her. You knew Homelander must’ve been pissed when he found out that information. You wondered just how much his world was beginning to fall apart all around him.
Suddenly, all of the lights seemed to go red. A lot of people were beginning to panic and the doors of these cells were opened. You were freed! But why? What the Hell was happening? There was only one solution you could possibly come up with.
Soldier Boy.
You quickly got up and you saw all of the prisoners Vought had contained were escaping. You followed all of them, the flow of the crowd seemed to be evacuating the building.
“What’s going on? Why are we running?” you asked one of the lower workers.
“There’s an attack on the tower. Soldier Boy’s real and he’s going to kill all of us! He’s with that Butcher guy Homelander hates so much.” Someone said and you stopped in your tracks as everyone else ran out of the door.
You bit your lip as you tried to think hard of where Soldier Boy and the others could be. Homelander must’ve known Ben was there by now, what if things turned sideways again like they did in Vermont? You ran past the meeting hall but you had to do a double take. That was when you noticed that Black Noir was dead.
Your eyes widened because you knew Ben was at the last name on his list. And what if Starlight made her way back to the tower? What if she convinced the rest of Butcher’s team to put an end to Ben?
You didn’t want to think of that outcome but you could feel all of the adrenaline rushing through your veins.
You had to think fast and you started making your way up to the very top of the tower, deciding to use the stairs since the elevator must’ve been occupied by everyone trying to rush to the lobby from whatever floor they were on so they could rush inside.
You were suddenly held back by two people who made you stop running and when you looked over you saw that it was both Hughie and Starlight.
That was when your worst fears were becoming realized.
“Hughie?! What the Hell?!” You questioned.
“We have to kill him, Quake. He’s dangerous and he’s going to kill so many people! You saw what he did in Vermont.” Hughie said and you glared at him before you fought your way out of his grasp since you could tell he was surprisingly not on the temp V shit.
Then there was starlight and you saw her eyes were starting to glow and your eyes narrowed as you took a hold of her hands, gripped them as tightly as you could and you twisted her wrists, successfully breaking the both of them and you could hear her cry out in agony. She wasn’t the only supe in the room after all. The yellow glow went out of her eyes and you lifted your leg, kicking her to a wall.
Then you marched over and hovered above the ignorant blonde.
“Where the fuck is he?”
“H-He’s with Butcher. He’s going to kill Homelander and anyone else within a hundred foot radius of here. We have to stop him.” Annie said, looking up at you with pleading eyes as if she was begging you to listen.
“What exactly were you going to do with him. What weakness did you find.” You said with a certain darkness in your voice.
“I can’t tell you that.” She said and you wrapped your hands around your throat.
“Listen, Little Girl. At this point, Homelander is the least of your worries,” You tightened your grip on her throat, “if you don’t tell me what the fuck you found out, I will kill you, MM, Frenchie, Butcher, Hughie, mmm… I will kill anyone you’ve ever cared about if you dare take him from me again.”
“V-Vapor. F-Frenchie said it was a vapor that could weaken Soldier Boy. Some kind of toxin.”
“What was the name of the toxin?”
“I-I don’t remember.”
“You’ve learned to lie well. What the fuck is the name of the toxin?”
“N-Novichok! I-It knocks him out and puts him to sleep. L-Like an anesthesia. I-It won’t kill him but it’ll give us time to evacuate these people.” Starlight said.
You heard the name and you thought you’ve heard that name before. You recalled it was a theory you had in one of your papers when you were trying to think of what could have possibly happened to weaken Soldier Boy and taken him away. You didn’t think something like that could be true. For you it was pure speculation, a long shot.
“Try to stop me and I’ll break your fucking neck.” You seethed before you threw Annie next to Hughie before you started running up the stairs as fast as you could to get to Ben and Butcher before anything disaster out happens.
Unfortunately, you realized you were too late. Not only was Homelander fighting Ben, but so was Butcher. MM made it too and so did Kimiko. Kimiko was trying to fight Ben with hand-to-hand combat and she was starting to fail miserably. MM was using some big looking gun to shoot Ben, but obviously it wasn’t working. Butcher and Homelander were using their powers to try and fight him off.
Your eyes widened the very moment you saw Ben’s shield break into pieces. You knew this was serious and things weren’t looking good.
You raised your hands and the building started to shake as you started to use the material, the concrete of the building and you took chunks of it and you started to throw it at Homelander and Butcher.
Ben saw concrete and pieces of the building began to fly and he saw you there. You were alive, and you were there! But the very moment that he was distracted, he felt multiple people tackling him and they put some kind of mask on him. He was all to familiar with what was in the canister and he was instantly starting to feel weak.
“No. I’m not.. going back.. In that fucking box!”
He started absorbing so much more energy and they were finally starting to back off, but this time Ben couldn’t hold back the energy and it needed to go somewhere. The upcoming blast was too intense and he didn’t even realize that someone was knocking him out some window nearby. The next thing he knew, the blast engulfed him and whoever pushed him out.
“NO!” You exclaimed when you saw the man you loved was pushed out of the window.
Your heart was racing so fast, you felt so much more adrenaline course through your veins than you had in a very, very long time.
You stood up and you saw the way Butcher, Hughie, everyone in the room was looking at you and none of them knew what to do next, but Butcher and Homelander were the first to use their eyes on you, only for you to shift the floor in the building and rotate them to where the two were facing each other and attack one another.
MM tried to use the gun on you and the bullets did hurt sure, but they’d do nothing more than leave bruises on your skin. You took a chunk of the concrete in the wall and used it to knock MM across the room and send him flying. You knew it knocked him out but honestly, you didn’t really care.
Kimiko tried to come at you and you took the same chunk of the building that knocked out MM and you used it to knock out Kimiko and shoved her through the same hole in the glass wall that Ben was pushed out of.
You were already starting to feel dizzy from using your powers this much, but you couldn’t stand by this any longer. All of them ruined your life.
They came to your home, brought you out of hiding and Homelander found you making it to where you had to leave. Then when Ben came back, you couldn’t even have him for long before they tried to kill him all over again.
And you were done with all of it.
Your eyes darkened and you used all of the strength you had left and you turned both your hands into fists, raising up in the air. Then with all of the force you had in you, you slammed your fists to the ground.
The entire building started to shake, dust and rubble fell from the ceiling. Then the entire building seemed to drop a layer or three. Everyone started to scramble to their feet and try to find the quickest ways out of the building but you knew it would be too late for a lot of them, the ones that didn’t have V in them anyway.
You did the same motion again with your fists, bringing even more of the building down. Homelander took Ryan and fled from the building, Butcher must’ve still had V in him because you could see him trying to shield MM. But you knew he didn’t have much left in him.
With one more ground breaking smash, the entire building rumbled and it started to lose its foundations, the integrity of the building was now compromised and before you knew it…. The ceiling was falling of all of your heads.
What felt like hours later, you were covered in dust and you were coughing up some blood. You were surprised you were even awake with the amount of rubble that was on top of you. You should have been crushed. You managed to open your eyes and you realized you were unharmed. But the Vought tower was finally brought to its knees. They’d lose everything.
You used whatever was left in your strength to climb your way out of the rubble and when you looked around, you saw that there were ambulances all around. You realized that you used a little too much power and Vought wasn’t the only building you took down. People must’ve been caught in the crossfire.
You were lucky you were covered in white dust, otherwise some news reporters may have recognized you. Some of the paramedics were taking some people out of the rubble, you didn’t care to see who made it and who didn’t.
You started to look around the rubble, no one would really question it because they were all looking for loved ones. You were doing everything you could to find any sign of Soldier Boy. He had to be around somewhere. He had to be okay. There was no way a building killed him, so he had to be here, right?
Instead, you found nothing. You couldn’t find Ben anywhere. You didn’t know if he walked out of this play or if he had the Novichok in his system and he was still knocked out and someone took him. You didn’t know if the energy blast knocked him out because of how much was pent up in him and he hadn’t come to just yet.
You dashed into the shadows, knowing you had a new task at hand…
Find Ben.
No matter what it took, no matter if you’d end up crushing every singly building or destroying every city and killing yourself in the process… you would stop at nothing to find Ben and get him out of the clutches of whoever took him.
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amethystfairy1 · 1 month
Note
Are there any deleted scenes/miscellaneous ttsbc things you'd love to share but haven't found the opportunity to yet? This is an open mic to ramble about anything related to ttsbc (if you don't have anything, feel free to ignore this ask)
OHHHHHHHHHH BOY YOU'VE GIVEN ME PERMISSION TO RAMBLE!
Ok ok ok...
Well, there are a couple little things I guess as far as 'deleted' scenes.
I was originally planning on having more heroes in the overcity alongside Scar and then having several other undercity vigilantes and really leaning into that concept. For example Cleo was going to be an older undercity vigilante who worked in the overcity and was helping Grian out as a mentor-type. There was also plans to have guy-in-the-chair Doc, and have him and Cleo be the two people who raised the avian trio. Alongside that, Pearl, Jimmy, Bdubs, and others were going to be vigilantes as well with various gimmicks/power sets.
But then as I was writing I realized I wanted to expand the AU, so I decided to lean more heavily into the idea of having various pairings that all had their own storylines. First up was Flower Husbands, and as I was considering them I decided on the route I ended up taking, with Grian being the only vigilante and having a support network behind him in the form of Pearl and Jimmy. Then it just sorta spiraled. 😆
As for other rambling about stuff I deleted/changed, I've always shipped Doctho but it's kind of a rarepair so I wasn't originally going to include it. Like I said, I was originally going to have Doc and Cleo be the ones who raised the avian trio, with Bdubs and Tango in that mix. The more I thought about it though, I decided that I wanted to have Doctho be the parental figures for the avian trio!
For Doctho, I originally was just planning to drop them as sort of a background thing and not really give them much attention. Just that they were the parental figures for the avian trio. But then people started saying in comments how much they loved Doctho in this AU and that they wanted to see the worldbuilding expand, and learn more about the undercity and it's history, and I thought the best way to do that would be through Doc and Etho and their history together!
And so we got 'Bleeding Sweetheart' and that was really when the ball started rolling on having this AU have an actual plot that is being driven forward by the characters instead of it just being a world for all these characters to exist in. Let me be clear, TTSBC will always be a character driven narrative. If anything is happening, it's for the sake of driving their relationships, both romantically and for the found families we've met, such as the Oddball Family, Cleo and Bdubs, and the Empires family whom we are getting to know right now in 'Blessing in Disguise'!
Anything else to share...I dunno, there's a ton of stuff in this AU. What I have posted so far isn't even half of it which is kinda ridiculous, huh? Theres lots I have planned for the AU! I know right now Traveling Thieves is getting a lot of my attention because of Febuwhump, but I'm really excited to get back to working on TTSBC and continuing it forward! Zedango is one ship I'm really excited to show off, I have a plan for them that I think is really interesting and unique. Not to mention Nature Wives, I haven't forgotten about them, either! So yeah, I guess the conclusion to this ramble is please stick around! I wanna share a whole bunch more of the AU with everyone!
Thanks for coming by 💖
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therealdisneyfan2319 · 6 months
Text
The Spider and The Witch Chapter 4: The Mission and The Mistake
Summary: As Y/N's time with the Avengers comes to a close, Tony wants him to get some firsthand experience by joining the team on a mission.
Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x Male Reader
Warnings: Mild language
Word Count: 2.5K
A/N: Sorry for the sporadic posting. I've been dealing with a lot of personal stuff that hasn't given me the mental capacity to write or do anything really. The urge to write has been extremely low and I don't really want to anymore. I'm hoping it's just a phase and that I'll be able to power through and keep writing. In the meantime, enjoy chapter 4 :)
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“No.  Absolutely not.  He’s not ready, Tony.  He’s not coming.”
“He’ll be fine.  We’ll make him our water boy.”
“Who’s going to watch him?  Are we supposed to get a babysitter?”
“He’s got Karen, she’ll keep him out of trouble.”
The back and forth between Steve and Tony drolled on as you zoned out.  You were due back in Manhattan at the end of the week and you were more than excited to get back to late night study sessions and chemical equations.  The past month at the Compound was a transformative experience in so many ways, but you didn’t particularly enjoy it all too much.  It was difficult making friends with the rest of the team.  Bucky was the closest thing you could consider a friend seeing as you spent every morning in the weight room with him, Natasha coming in at a close yet still distant second.  Most evenings you spent alone in your room, frozen vegetables strategically spread over your battered body and the faintest image of your corpse being magically driven by the Scarlet Witch in the corners of your mind. 
Being an Avenger wasn’t what you wanted.  If anything this experience further solidified your decision to pursue medicine.  But Tony didn’t want you to leave without getting some real-life experience.  There was a mission planned for the end of the week.  Rogue A.I.M. agents had been tracked to a secure facility in Washington, D.C. where they were planning on stealing the last remaining samples of the Extremis virus.  The mission was simple: get in, get out, ensure the sample’s safety.  It was going to require all hands on deck.  A month of training had given you rudimentary Spider-Man skills.  You didn’t think that you would be useful, but Tony obviously thought otherwise.
“Tony, Steve’s got a point.  He’s only been here a month,” Natasha added.  “What if he gets caught up in a mess?  We can’t have eyes everywhere all at once.”
“There’s going to be more than enough of us to make sure that he’s got backup if he needs it,” Tony explained, rubbing his temples.  
“Look, I don’t have to go.  That’s more than okay with me,” you interrupted.  A dozen heads abruptly turned in your direction.  It felt like everyone forgot you were actually in the room.
“You’re going and that’s final, young man,” Tony snapped.  “I’ll keep him under my watch.  He won’t cause any problems.”
“And what if someone gets hurt?  Then what, Tony?” Steve asked. 
“He won’t get anyone hurt.  Well, except maybe some bad guys, but that’s okay.  You won’t hurt anyone, Y/N.  Right?”  You quickly nodded.  “See, look, he just promised he won’t.  Case closed, he’s coming, see you all tomorrow.”
Great.
******
Spandex clung to you a little too tight as you sat in the very back of the Quinjet.  Maybe it was the anticipation of your first mission, but everything felt a little too tight, a little too warm, and a little too loud as you flew towards D.C.  You nestled up into the back corner, cool metal radiating through your suit and feebly working at cooling your skin.  The apprehension about your first mission was one you’d never felt before: it was like the anticipation of a final exam dialed up to an eleven.  While you could always retake a course if you failed, there were no do-overs if you messed up on the mission.  A sense of dread looming over you, you failed miserably at relaxing into your seat.
“So,” You looked up as Tony plopped down next to you, “how are you feeling?”  You shrugged.  “Nervous?”  You shrugged again. “Everyone’s first time is a little nerve wracking.  Performance anxiety’s a killer.  Hey, did you know that one out of every-”
“Where exactly are you going with this, Mr. Stark?”
“Here’s the deal: we’ll drop in, you hang back.  We’ll call you when we need you.  Water cooler’s over there.” He motioned to the orange cooler resting in the opposite corner.  
“So that’s it?  Just swing in with the water and swing out?”  
“Pretty much,” Tony nodded.  “I just want you to get a smidge of experience before you get out of here.  Nothing too crazy, maybe have you shoot a web at a building or a tied-up bad guy.”  He clapped you on the shoulder rather awkwardly.
“Thanks,” you replied.
“Look alive, kid.  We’ll be heading in soon.”
While Tony turned to address the group, you found yourself deep in your own world.  Logically you understood that the likelihood of being in danger was extremely low.  Even so, images of Peter’s final fight flashed through your mind.  The last thing you wanted was to end up like him.  You also felt incredibly unprepared.  These were literal superheroes fighting literal bad guys.  It wasn’t your wrestling room, faux-city training sessions with Tony’s drones: this was the real deal.  Things could go very wrong and people could get hurt.  While Tony asserted his confidence in you, you doubted your own instincts.  Your “spidey sense” was still faulty in the sense that it was difficult to tell what was a true threat and what was a false alarm.  If you couldn’t trust your own superpowers, how could anyone rely on you to get the job done?
“You get all that, kid?” Tony’s voice snapped you back to reality.
“Huh?” you answered, jerking your head towards him.  “Uhh, yeah.  Yeah.  Let’s do this.”
Natasha chuckled, shaking her head as she tossed Clint some more trick arrows.  “This is gonna go well,” she muttered.  
******
“Rogers to base, we are over the drop zone,” Steve called over the radio.
“This is base.  Area secured, you are all clear,” the agent’s voice crackled over the other end of the radio.  “I repeat, you are a go.”
Steve stood up, placing his headset on the dashboard before turning to address the group.  “You all know your parts, let’s get the job done.”  Bucky snapped off an exaggerated salute as Steve rolled his eyes.  
“Once we land, you’ll-”
“Stay on the ship, I got it,” you interrupted as Tony tried to remind you yet again of your inaction on the mission.
“Call if something catches fire,” he instructed, his nanosuit deftly encapsulating his body.  
As the ship landed, you hugged the back wall as everyone departed.  Steve, Bucky, Natasha, and Clint took off toward the main bunker where the virus was being held.  Wanda and Pietro would secure the perimeter while Tony, Sam, and Rhodey took to the sky to keep an overhead watch.  Sighing, you slumped down, clutching the silky mask in your hands and watched the mission unfold in real-time over the holographic display.  Steve’s crew expertly navigated the maze of buildings and security measures as they trekked toward the holding facility.  Wanda hovered overhead, observing Pietro dash wildly around the entire complex.  He was a mere blur against the grainy screen, barely visible to the naked eye.  Even higher were the three flyers: stationary yet constantly scanning for threats.  
So far, so good, you thought.  No enemy agents had been spotted, making this retrieval of Extremis easy.  Standing up and stretching your arms overhead, something caught your attention on the bottom of the screen.  A small shadow flickered near one of the other buildings.  It was difficult to make out what it was at first.  As you studied it further, your eyes straining against the low video quality, your heart started to race: a group of A.I.M. agents had somehow made it through all of the Avengers’ defenses.  Regardless, they were slinking their way towards Steve and his crew were retrieving the virus.
“Karen, I need to talk to Mr. Stark,” you shouted as you pulled the mask down over your face.
“Hold on, I’ll connect you,” Karen’s quasi-robotic voice politely responded. 
“Fire extinguisher’s right under the-”
“There’s a bunch of bad guys heading toward the south entrance of the building where Cap is, Mr. Stark!” you exclaimed somewhat aggressively.
“What?  You sure?”
“I just saw them on the video feed.  There’s, I don’t know, maybe half a dozen of them?”
“Armed?”
“Yeah-?  At least I think so.”
“Well, you spotted them.  Finders, keepers, so why don’t you swing on in?”  Your heart lurched, as did your stomach.  You were being called into action.  
“Karen, I guess we’re going in,” you sighed, tugging at your mask.
“Would you like to activate instant kill?” she asked.
“No.  No, I’m good.  Let’s…let’s just see what happens, I guess-?”  Taking a deep breath, you jogged off the ship toward the commotion.  Your jog quickly morphed into a sprint as you eyed the nearest tall object.  An oversized gate post became your target as you flicked your wrist, a silky white web launching out and attaching itself to the concrete structure while you used your momentum to propel yourself into the air.  
The weightless feeling of web-slinging wasn’t one you particularly cared for.  You hated roller coasters and anything of the like.  The inevitable lurch and stomach drop were two sensations that were extremely unnerving.  At least while swinging you could control whenever the weightless sensation occurred.  
As you crested in mid-air, no webs to tether you to solid ground, you shot another web to the side of a building, pulling yourself closer and closer to your foe.  The rhythmic thwip and release of your webs and the wind whooshing past your ears was unusually calming: it calmed your overactive senses and focused you on your objective.  
“Karen, can we get a location on the bad guys?” you asked as you landed somewhat awkwardly on the side of one of the robust brick buildings.  
“Targets are in the building directly to the southeast.  They’re heading north toward the building where Captain Rogers is.”
“How many are there?”
“Eight, but there could be more.  I’m not able to scan inside the buildings.  That building’s walls are lead-lined.”
“Okay, umm, guess I’ll just follow them-?”
“Would you like to activate instant kill before you start moving?”
“What is it with you and that goddamn instant kill, Karen?” you gritted.  As you stuck to the wall, postulating what your next move was, you felt something whoosh by you: it was the flyers.  Rhodey and Sam were nosediving directly toward the agents, Redwing following closely behind them.  Tony fell back and drifted over toward you.
“Nice job,” he complimented as his helmet flipped up. “We can take care of it from here, but if you wanna hop down and shoot a web at them just to kick a little extra sand in their face, be my guest.”
“Sounds good,” you responded.
“Great!  I’ll let you know when we’re ready for you.”  He flipped his helmet back down, his hand propulsers firing him toward the fight on the ground.  Steve and his team had joined in, fighting and easily overpowering the A.I.M agents.  You smirked underneath your mask.  As much as you didn’t like being part of the Avengers, it was pretty cool to see them kicking butt.  Clint was shooting off trick arrows that were exploding and dropping nets.  Steve had one of them cornered, using his shield to keep another one at bay while Natasha roundhouse kicked him.  Bucky was shooting in every which way.  It was reminiscent of a Fourth of July celebration.  The colorful fireworks and booming explosions were replaced with the hazy smoke and echoing pops of gunfire.  The sulfuric scent of the powder overpowered your scent even though you were stories in the air.  Yet as the scene wore on, your spidey sense told you something was off.  
“Hey Karen, can you scan the area again?”  The eyes of your mask narrowed as you slowly circled your head around the perimeter.  “Wait, hold on, what’s that?” you asked, the hair on the back of your neck standing up as something spooked your senses.
“Three more agents, heading up the southwest corridor.”
“Shit!”  The rest of the team was directing all their attention to the primary group of agents.  There was no way they’d be able to see these other three.  But there were only three.  The odds were in your favor and you could probably deal with them long enough for Tony to fly over and give you a hand.  “Karen, if they get into that building they’re gonna take the samples…shit.”  Time you spent contemplating what to do was time wasted in the grand scheme of stopping anything bad from happening.  Taking a deep breath, you lept from the building, aiming your webs as close to the targeted building as possible: it stuck.  You swung forward with all your might.  
Your field of view narrowed and sharpened as the three assailants drew closer to you.  Hoping they didn’t sense your incoming presence behind them, you shot a web at the one furthest from you.  It snared his legs and he hit the ground with a loud yelp.  The other two whipped around, their guns pointed straight at you.
“You know, I’d like to get home in one piece,” you quipped as you trapped the next one to the wall of the building just as you landed on it yourself.  He stuck to the wall just as you landed against it.  The man yelled in protest, so you webbed his mouth shut.  The third assailant sprinted on, firing sporadically at you as he ran past the building.  The bullets pinged off the building, chunks of brick popping off in every which way.  Somehow you could tell where the bullets would land before they did: chalk one up for Spidey sense.  
“Nope,” you shouted.  The assailant dodged and weaved as you shot burst after burst at him.  His luck quickly ran out.  You awkwardly trapped him on the yellow bollard set alongside the sidewalk.  The angle of your webs caught him on the butt.  It left him wriggling like a worm.  
The sight of three rogue agents caught in your trap unexpectedly filled you with a sense of smug satisfaction.  Maybe you weren’t as helpless as you and everyone else thought.
“Hey Karen, can you let Mr. Stark know about these guys?” you asked.  Just then a wild dust cloud tore towards you: it was Pietro.  The dust settled around him as he stopped, his hair whipping wildly in the remnants of his self-contained cyclone.  His blue shirt, drenched with sweat and dirt, clung to his heaving chest as he caught his breath.
“Did you do…this?” Pietro asked, motioning to the three captives with his finger.
“Yeah,” you yelled, jumping down from the wall.  “Karen’s gonna let Mr. Stark know about them.”
“Nice,” Pietro grinned as he pushed a strand of hair from his face.  “I’ll go back in and double check on everything.  Make sure it’s all safe, you know?”  He turned on the spot and jogged toward the door.  You were a fair distance back from the building watching Pietro head inside when you saw it: the thug you strapped to the wall managed to wiggle his hand to his utility belt, get his hands on a grenade, and, much to your horror, pull the pin as Pietro opened the door to the pressurized building.
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justsomeantifas · 1 year
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michigan turning fully blue (house & senate flipped for the first time in 40 years) is not a fluke of 2022's engagement only, is not because only of abortion being on the ballot (although it was one of issues that contributed to turnout), or anything else. it is because organizers in the state have been working consistently on the issue for over half a decade.
in 2017, average everyday people got together and formed Voters Not Politicians with the goal of taking away making the state district maps away from politicians and putting it in an independent commission. Michigan is one of 3 states that has petition-driven ballots, and they were able to get enough petitions to put it on the ballot for 2018. this is after forming connections with other left-wing groups and organizations, including SEIU, teachers unions, ACLU's newly created People Power. etc. who helped contribute financially and get the word out.
VNP was at literally every corner, every store, every college campus, doing both petition signing and voter registration. they were literally up our ass every day for months. VNP was made of up average people. we were not lobbyists, we were not politicians, we were just people. the majority of them were grown adults, people in their 30s and 40s and 50s. i was the youngest person for years in my section of it in my corner of southeast michigan. i was a full-time college student and could only contribute maybe, maybe an hour of my week to it. and because of my age, i was able to show them what younger generations thought and how we worked, to connect them to college campuses and students who wanted to get involved, and so it grew yet again. and with the advertising campaign they were able to pull as well the ballot was able to pass with 61% support.
then, the GOP tried to shut it down. it went through so many courts. there was genuine fear, especially in the wake of multiple states gerrymandering efforts being shut down by their states supreme court if not the national SC, that it would happen in michigan too. but it didn't. we were lucky, and we were organized, and we had lawyers backing us up from the partnerships and relationships we had built in the years prior. we knew it was going to happen, and so we weren't caught off guard. we were ready. throughout the entire multi-year litigation it went through.
we created new maps. and then, 2022 comes. we have a shot at turning the state blue. Roe v Wade happens, but before that, organizers are doing massive voter registration as well again. people are talking to family members, to friends. political education is going on throughout the entire state, hell, the entire nation. it is a group effort. people are becoming aware of what's at stake.
and then this week happens and the results come out. it was a combination of organizer's work, of direct involvement with communities, of seeing what the GOP desires and how much they are able to destroy, of the chance of gen z outvoting boomers, that pushed everyone to work overtime to get us across the finish line. it is a combination of chance of current events combining to the perfect storm, luck for the circumstances and Michigan's unique situation (like all states having unique situations), but also heavy heavy heavy and consistent consistent consistent daily weekly and monthly work.
THAT is why michigan is blue. because we believed. because we hoped. because we got together and put in the work. because we pushed and we knew that there was a big possibility we wouldn't succeed, but we tried.
you have to try too. you have to contribute too. it is never too late to get involved. no matter what the stakes are, or how successful it is, you never know what the outcome will be 100%.
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