#few * stories I’ve seen of parents adopting kids | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

urhoneycombwitch · 23 days

Text

foreword: intro to a new series Mayhaps! name pending… adoptive parents Eddie x reader, origin story of their girl <3

cw: rehab mention, au (in which Eddie lives and has a sister), brief insinuation of infidelity

___

You’ve been through so many huge, life-altering events with Eddie Munson.

You’d seen him nearly bleed out in the Upside Down, red rivulets streaming from his nose, his mouth, as you and Steve carried him back home. You’d helped him through all the physical therapy, all the nights he’d wake wild-eyed and sweaty, teeth gritted around your name.

And him, just as many, with you- buying your first house together, turning the corner into young adulthood at each other’s sides, turning 25 and then 30, every milestone more exciting than the last.

All that, and more. And here the more was, now- in the form of a toddler, standing with one sock foot behind the other on your front porch, holding out an envelope addressed to Eddie.

She’s got some wild, dark curls, twisting down past her small shoulders, framing a doll-like face; some familiar, chocolate-bambi eyes, lashes so dark and long it’s a wonder they don’t get tangled.

”Oh, shit.” Eddie stares at the envelope now in his hand- name reflected in scrawling black ink. “I- where’s your mom?”

The kid blinks up at him, shy but unwavering in her stance, posing as much braver than she probably feels, on a stranger’s doorstep all alone in the middle of the woods. (A touch dramatic, perhaps- it’s a lightly-wooded area, neighbors as near as two orchards away.)

On instinct, you reach for the girl, and she stretches her arms towards you. Your heart is pounding as you settle her onto your hip, as she rests the weight of her head against your collarbone.

She’s dressed in an oversized t-shirt that falls to her knees, worn purple socks that keep slipping down her legs- every so often, she reaches down absentmindedly to tug them back up.

”Am I crazy, or does this kid kind of look like you?” The half-chuckle sounds strained even to your own ears, trying to keep it light in front of the kid even as dread unfurls in your stomach. “How come she looks like you, Eddie?”

”Sweetheart, I-” Eddie gestures with the envelope between him and the girl in your arms, eyes going wide- “This kid looks, what- two ‘n a half? Three? I’ve been with you for more than triple that, now, right? She’s not mine, mine, I don’t-”

His face falls with realization, and you wait, anxious, as he rips open the envelope.

“Holy shit.”

He swears for the second time in front of the toddler, and you shush him while pressing a hand over her exposed ear- “Hey. Munson. Cool it with the cussing.”

”Sorry. I’m… it’s Lydia. My sister, Lydia- it’s her kid.”

The bile in your throat recedes, relief coming but leaving just as quick- “Where’s Lydia, then?”

Eddie shakes his head, reaches back to close the door behind the three of you, sealing off the cold spring air, eyes still scanning down the letter. “She’s in rehab. Geyser Springs, apparently- it’s a few hours away from here.”

You nod, slowly, starting up a rhythmic bounce with the baby on your hip, one hand still covering her ear as you whisper, “Aaaand… her kid is doing what on our porch, exactly?”

You’ve never seen Eddie so pale before. Not even when he was bleeding out in an alternate dimension.

“She says the kid’s turning three in July. And her name is Elsie.”

Elsie picks her head up from your neck when Eddie says her name, dimples in her fist as she jabs a finger at her own chest.

“Yeah?” Eddie asks, voice gentle in way you’ve never heard before. “That your name, princess?”

This gets a smile out of her, little foot kicking out in equal parts delight and bashfulness, a warbly hum in response to his question.

The phone, on the hook next room over, trills. You and Elsie watch from the archway of the kitchen as Eddie answers, pushing back into his splayed hand atop the counter. “Munson residence. Yeah, this is he.”

He’s quiet for a while, soft mm-hms punctuating the silence every few moments. The one-sided conversation continues for a minute, two- then rumble of a stomach catches your attention.

”Hungry?” You murmur to the girl, signing eat with your free arm and hand. When she nods, you slip past Eddie into the kitchen, moving as quietly as you can to get Elsie a snack.

The voice over the phone drones on- you’re dipping into the fruit bowl at the other end of the counter, out of range to do any effective eavesdropping. Hoping an apple is a neutral enough food to not be an allergen, you offer the kid a Red Delicious to munch on while you try and read Eddie’s facial expressions.

“Okay, thanks. Yeah, that’s our current address. Uh-huh- yeah, see her in the morning. Ten AM.”

Eddie answers the jump in your eyebrow, after hanging up the phone to face you both- “That was the social worker. Apparently, Lydia paid a trusted friend to drop princess here off-”

Elsie grins toothily around her bite of apple at Eddie’s acknowledgement of her, and he almost melts at the knees, you can just tell, but he recovers-

“-but she’d called social services to let them know about me ‘n you before turning herself in to rehab.”

”Why us? Why not- an orphanage, or something?” You hope the kid is young enough to not understand what you’re implying; you’re starting to feel a touch of true alarm at the thought of being tasked with looking after a whole human being. “Or, like, I dunno- a fire station…?”

Eddie collapses in the breakfast nook’s window seat, staring blankly at the wall behind you. “She said she always looked up to me. Thought since I have a girl and a house I’m the most responsible person she knows. Shoot, kid,” he laughs, suddenly, addressing Elsie- “we couldn’t even keep a garden alive in this house. You’re in for a ride, kiddo- sorry in advance.”

”Don’t you listen to him.” You bounce Elsie once with a playful little swoop and she giggles, the first time you’ve heard a glimpse of her voice- “We had some perfectly good green beans from that garden, and your uncle Eddie hand-built me those raised beds with scrap wood.”

“I digress.” The thing about Eddie is he’s great in front of an audience, knows just when to hamm it up for a laugh; palms spread in an appeasing gesture, he continues- “We got green beans out of the whole ordeal. Lucky us.”

Even if she doesn’t fully understand the joke, Elsie does read the laughing cue, another adorable giggling bubbling from her small frame.

“Well… just until tomorrow morning, right?” You ask, placing a warm hand between her shoulder blades as she snuggles back into you.

Eddie nods in confirmation. “Yeah. Just one night with us, princess. Wanna watch Muppets?”

One sock-covered foot kicks out in answer.

#eddie munson x reader #e.m. thots from lu #eddie munson #dad!eddie Munson #dad!eddie Munson x mom!reader #mom!reader

39 notes · View notes

flyingwargle · 7 months

Text

flufftober day 1: "i've got you." / fontaine siblings

lyney wakes to the sound of crying.

his ears are attuned to it. lynette, in the days after their parents’ deaths, would muffle her sobs, keep her cries quiet, so not to draw attention to herself. when they found themselves in their first foster home, along with other children, the younger ones would wail for mothers that would never come, and the older ones would cry to mourn for their lost future. lyney held them all, whispered in their ears, swallowed his own tears to be the older brother that they needed.

don’t worry, it’s all right. i’ve got you.

and tonight, it looks like someone is in need of reassurance.

lynette, curled by his side, stirs when he moves off the bed. she raises her head, eyes bleary with sleep, voice hoarse when she whispers, “lyney?”

“there’s someone crying. i’m going to check it out.” he doesn’t tell her to stay; she’s followed him everywhere since the first time they were separated.

the hallway is cold. moonlight pours in through the windows along the wall, torches flickering from the wind that’s snuck in. lyney closes the door behind them – they have their own room, not because they’re favored over the others, but because they’re the newest arrivals. he takes his sister’s hand and tip-toes down the hallway.

there is one door ajar – the children’s room. there are six beds, all filled, decorated with varying plushies, blankets, or other possessions that were left with the children. an oil lamp rests on either wall in the center, light dim. it’s enough to direct lyney to where he has to go: freminet.

despite the boy’s intellect when it comes to trinkets, he’s delicate, as fragile as clockwork on the verge of shutting down. his bed is one of the emptiest, dropped off at the house with nothing but pers, a clockwork marvel that his father left behind, and a penguin plushie that lyney has never seen freminet without. he’s only a few months younger, but held on to the promise that his mother would come back for him.

it makes sense for him to weep, mourning over unfulfilled words.

his bed is furthest from the door. the other children are sound asleep, or perhaps ignorant. freminet is upright, knees drawn to his chest, head bowed to muffle his cries, penguin soaked from his tears. a blanket falls from his shoulders and onto the floor. lyney picks it up. “freminet?”

when he looks up, his face is red, bangs obscuring his eyes. lyney sits down and brushes hair away from his face. “it’s all right. you don’t have to cry.”

“mama didn’t come for me.” his whisper is punctured with sobs. “where is she?”

he could've lied, reassured him that it was only a matter of time until she's knocking on the heavy doors for him, but he doesn't. it's useless to lie to family. “she isn’t coming. this is your new home, now.” no children have ever returned home after being left at the house. those who left either become soldiers beneath the tsaritsa or disappear into the darkness. “it’s okay, fremmy. we have each other.”

freminet hiccups. “it’s so lonely here. i’m too old for the kids but too young for the older ones. all i have is pers, but it didn’t matter since mama said she’d come back. but now…”

“come with us – you can sleep in our bed.” lyney offers him a hand. “i’ll read you a bedtime story.” after a moment of hesitation, the younger boy takes it, penguin plush clutched to his chest.

the bed isn’t large enough for all three of them, but they make it work. lyney is squeezed in the middle, with a sibling clinging to him on either side. he folds his arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling as he tries to string words together for a story. “once upon a time, there were three siblings. they came from a loving family, and each day together was fun. that all came to an end when their parents suddenly died, and they were left alone.

“it was hard for them to survive by themselves – they weren’t old enough to work, and because there were three of them, no one wanted to adopt them all. it was either one or two, but the siblings would not separate. the police didn’t do anything about them, either. there were lots of children without families or homes, and they couldn’t help all of them. that’s why the siblings decided to do what they could on their own.

“the oldest brother turned to magic. he watched a magician and learned sleight of hand and simple card tricks using a deck that he stole from the toy store. the middle sister used her hearing and sharp senses to overhear other people talk about good places to sleep or where to pick up a few coins. the youngest brother, though small, was the most innocent in his ways. he would dive underwater and find things that people had dropped, no matter how small, and if he wasn’t diving, he would play with clockwork and make toys with parts that people had thrown away.

“it took a long time, but they were able to afford a house, nice clothes, and proper equipment to do their work. the older brother and sister became famous magicians, and the younger brother became a famous diver. they all lived happily ever after, doing what they loved, and promising to never let a child live without a family.”

lynette has fallen asleep. freminet, however, is wide awake. he’s staring at him with hopeful eyes. “is it true? can kids do something like that?”

lyney reaches over to ruffle his hair. “of course, if we work together. we’re one another’s family now, and if we all do our part, we’ll make our own future. no matter what happens, your older brother’s got you, okay? get some sleep.”

freminet nods, then buries his head deeper beneath the blankets, closing his eyes. lyney turns to face the ceiling again. he knows that fairytales are just that – fantasies with varying degrees of truth. even if this is a future that he wants, it’s a future that can’t be obtained.

but…as the older brother, he knows that he’ll do anything he can to make it truth.

#genshin impact #text #flyingwargle original #drabble #genshin drabble #freminet #lyney #lynette #fontaine siblings #transience #flufftober

62 notes · View notes

ericdeggans · 2 years

Photo

Reckoning with the long shadow of TV dads on Fathers Day

As a longtime TV critic, I have written a lot of pieces about dads and television for Fathers Day. Some of them have felt a bit contrived, like this piece on TVs Dumb Dads, which is an evergreen subject; television loves taking characters who actually have the most agency and power in society and making them look vulnerable for storytelling purposes.

But TV’s relationship to the subject of fatherhood and parenting is far more complex. I’m much prouder of this piece I did five years ago on how I mostly learned about being a father from watching characters on film, TV and theater.

A sample: “My own father isn't with us anymore, and I loved him a lot. But he and my mother split before I was born, and during my formative years, it was mostly me and Mom against the world. Any sense of what it might feel like to have a father close by came from the first sitcom with a father who felt like he could live in my world: James Evans on Good Times. These days, when TV shows like Black-ish and Queen Sugar offer lots of different takes on black family and fatherhood, it might be tough to imagine how rare and important it was for a young black kid to see Good Times in 1974.”

Hear the NPR story by clicking here.

After raising four kids of my own, I’ve learned that fatherhood is such a big job, it’s tough to find one portrayal on the small screen that does it justice. In the real world, it’s a job defined by trying to provide everything your children require to have the best life possible. It means knowing when to encourage their passions, meet their needs and satisfy their desires and when to save them from their own excesses, inexperience, lack of judgment or impatience.

It means soaring when they succeed and feeling crushed when they fall short. It also means understanding that your own actions always serve as example and model – it’s up to you whether that conduct is something to emulate or avoid like a cautionary tale.

On the subject of fathering and TV, I also like an essay I wrote for IndieWire a few years ago; basically, a slightly different version of the piece I did for NPR. Here’s an abridged version of that essay below.

And have a Happy Fathers’ Day.

“For a long while, I thought most married couples were like Rob and Laura Petrie in “The Dick Van Dyke Show”; sleeping in two twin beds separated by a nightstand. So when I saw John Amos as James Evans Sr. on the legendary sitcom “Good Times,” I felt like I finally saw a dad who was something like the other fathers on my block, and something like the dad I could have had.

Yeah, he was often angry and threatened corporal punishment WAY too often for my tastes, especially back then. But he worked hard, loved and valued his kids, encouraged them to get educated and take advantage of every opportunity and wanted nothing more than for them to do far better than he ever would. It wasn’t just that James Evans was black; it was that he was a black man whose primary goal was taking care of his wife and kids. All these years later, I’ve seen other TV dads who also taught me lessons.

John Goodman’s Dan Conner on “Roseanne” taught me how to make space for a strong wife and mom, but assert yourself when circumstances require.

Bill Bixby’s Tom Corbett on “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” taught me the power of a parent paying attention.

I like fathers who show that being a dad takes effort and intention, like Michael Rapaport’s Doug Gardner on Netflix’s “Atypical.”

And even though Milo Ventimiglia’s Jack Pearson is modern TV’s best dad on “This Is Us,” I identify a lot more with his adopted son, Sterling K. Brown’s Randall Pearson.

In the same way Randall, as a black man raised in a white family, had to learn what being black meant to him, I had to learn what being a father meant to and for me. In the same way he found and reconciled with his biological father shortly before his death, I reconciled mostly with my dad before he passed. And Randall has a goofy earnestness mixed with a capacity to work a little too hard on stuff that takes him outside the family, which I also – sadly — can relate to.

My four kids are mostly grown now. But seeing a dad on TV who still struggles, despite having had the best example of fatherhood in his life, means a lot. Even now.”

727 notes · View notes

ecargmura · 21 days

Text

Wonderful Precure Episode 10 Review - The Stray Cat On A Snowy Day

We’re finally at the double digits in terms of episode count and I’m here bawling at the sweet story of how Mayu and Yuki met. Wonderful Precure does a great job showing off my softer side when it comes to animal stories. I have a huge soft spot for animal stories, so I can’t help but to get emotional whenever there is a story about a human and an animal.

All the worries I had about Pretty Holic back in Episode 4 were for naught as the store is now bustling with customers. I’m so happy for the Nekoyashiki family. Sumire allows Mayu to design a new product for the store and Mayu spends the entire episode wondering what it is she could design. While some classmates like a few things she drew in class, she’s still not satisfied.

I do like how much of a creative Mayu is. She really has promise in the design world with her ideas and drive to create something pretty. She thought of compacts and lipsticks with cute designs. I also love that her motivation for her finalized product comes from Yuki who she loves dearly. I actually would like to see more episodes of Mayu designing things, whether it be makeup products or even clothes. Her sense of style is great.

The flashback of Mayu and Yuki’s first meeting was so cute. Though, it does feel a bit coincidental that Yuki is also an abandoned animal with a heart-shaped mark on the back of her head. The same applied with Komugi. Could this be a coincidence? Was it done on purpose? I love how Mayu does take her father’s advice by not being too handsy or smothering towards Yuki and wait for her to approach her. Sometimes, kids would be a bit too forceful, so Mayu being an obedient child shows a bit of her upbringing. I love how Yuki, a stray who didn’t like people, slowly melted over Mayu’s kindness and eventually allows herself to be adopted by her. It’s also interesting how these abandoned animals have stories regarding weather. Komugi was found on a rainy day and Yuki was found on a snowy day. It makes me wonder if Daifuku was an abandoned animal and if he was, was he found on a sunny day or on a stormy day?

I honestly love seeing how Mayu has such good parents. Sumire respects Mayu’s opinions but also asks her questions like if she’s satisfied with these designs. Since Sumire only has time to make one product, she tells Mayu that she wants her to make something that’ll make her happy. It’s really nice to see such a respectful mother. Her father is also great! During the flashback, he tells Mayu to not approach the stray cat as it could be dangerous and she heeds his advice. After taking Yuki home, he tells her about the responsibilities about caring for living things alongside Sumire, but Mayu says that she’ll be okay. They respect her and she respects them back. It’s such a wonderful thing to see.

There were a lot of funny aspects of this episode too like Komugi being nosy about what Mayu was doing and getting their teacher mad. She also talked to Mayu in her dog form, which almost got her busted had Iroha not stepped in. Komugi, try to be a bit more subtle! There’s also Friendy trying to get the raccoon to wash its hands but Satoru tells her that raccoons only put their hands in water because they want to catch fish and that they’re actually violent and nimble. There are a lot of raccoons where I live, but I’ve never really seen them violent. I only know raccoons are scavengers and nocturnal; to be honest, I’ve never seen one in person in my life.

Seeing how Yuki saw the Precures and the GaruGaru, it feels like her time to become human and a Precure draws near. When will it happen? I can’t wait to see what sort of personality and appearance Yuki will have. What are your thoughts on this episode?

#wonderful precure #precure #Komugi inukai #cure wonderful #iroha inukai #cure friendy #Mayu nekoyashiki #yuki nekoyashiki #Satoru toyama #sumire nekoyashiki #review #anime #anime review #ecargmura #arum journal

10 notes · View notes

wooahaes · 7 months

Text

run & hide

pairing: non-idol!bang chan x gn!reader [mentions of non-idol!changbin x gn!reader]

genre: horror. ready or not au.

word count: 1.3k~

warnings: multiple mentions of marriage. adopted!chris into changbin's family. mentions of chris having a wife & kids in the background. blood mentions, mentions of death & curses. ending ambiguous as to whether chris dies or not. reader marries changbin (and probably regrets it in this fic--if u are familiar w the movie, u will understand). gun mentions. very vague mentions of chris drugging cups (not involving reader).

daisy's notes: hey i rly like this movie :)

Chris had seen this story play out before as a kid. And dear lord, he’d wished you got any card other than hide and seek, because that meant he knew exactly how this story ended.

His own wife had lucked out on getting checkers the night after their wedding. Now that meant he had two miserable kids that his wife had raised him the way that his parents always wanted to raise him. He was too soft sometimes, not business minded enough to take over the family company… not that he ever wanted to run it to begin with. He’d been adopted into this family, he didn’t believe in whatever bullshit they were buying wholeheartedly into. His adoptive parents had played old maid the night of their wedding, and it was this joke that he never got. And now that his adoptive brother, Changbin, had married you in an extravagant ceremony… You’d been the unlucky one that night when they brought you downstairs and given you the family box. All you had to do was accept the card it gave you, and your fate would be sealed. And, of fucking course, it was hide and seek that popped up.

Chris gave you one act of mercy earlier in letting you go when he caught you, the ugly feeling of looking like a predator to its prey leaving bitterness everywhere within him. He’d get hell if he didn’t mention seeing you, so he gave you a head start. A fighting chance to run away and hide. His uncle gave him shit for it anyway, but he could live with that—the same way he could live with the stony glare from his wife. He’d started to fall out of love with her years ago, and the flame extinguished this morning.

“Do you think they’ll get hide and seek?” She had said, fixing her pearl earrings as casual as could be. For anyone else, it sounded like she was discussing the weather. “I’ve always wanted the chance to prove myself to your family…”

Disgusting. He fucked up by telling her about that when his adoptive sister got married. He’d already removed his wedding ring when he saw her later that night, congratulating one of their sons for trying to kill you with a pistol that threw him to the ground when he shot—his little body too weak to take the recoil, especially as someone who barely understood how a gun worked.

That was what led Chris to find you. He needed to get you out. Even if he dropped dead with the rest of his family once it was all over, you would be safe. He was sure of it. He’d loosened his tie by now, jacket lost somewhere along the way as he kept his steps as quiet as he could through one of the passageways. Changbin had shoved you into one earlier, no doubt you had returned to try and get your bearings.

Trying to get an advantage over him, you had swung down the back of the pistol you carried, barely giving Chris enough time to catch you and shove you away. “It’s okay! It’s okay,” he had said immediately, “I”m not—I’m not working with them anymore. We’re gonna get you out, okay?”

“Yeah, fucking right!”

Unfortunately for you, Chris also easily overpowered you. Gym days with Changbin gave him the strength to, and he’d learned a few things living the life he did with this family. He’d drawn back, holding his hands up to show you he meant no harm. There was blood staining the white of your wedding getup. Yours? Or someone else’s? He hoped it was the latter, but he was sure he saw bandages peeking out from underneath your sleeve. Slowly, he lowered himself down to the ground, setting down the gun before taking another step back.

“I mean it,” he said. “I’m not gonna catch you.”

He saw the way you stared him down, fearful of whether this was a trick or not.

“There’s a way out through the kitchen,” he said, reaching into his pockets to pull out his car keys. “You can take my car. If the gates are shut, you can hide in it—the windows are tinted so no one can see inside, and no one else has keys to it.”

You said nothing, pressing yourself further against the wall, breathing quietly. After a moment, he watched as you reached out, snatching the keys from his hand and holding them close to you. “And what about you?”

“I don’t care what happens to me to this point,” he said, shaking his head. “Whatever curse is on us isn’t going to affect you. It’s either-or. Either we sacrifice you, or we blow up. You’re… an external factor in this situation.”

You clenched your jaw, staring him down before glancing down the passageway—head jerking all too quickly, as though you heard something. He never did, and Chris had pretty damn good ears. If he thought you were in danger, he would help. Then you turned back to him. “Chris?” Your voice was quieter than before, and you picked the pistol back up after taking those few steps forward. “I want a divorce.”

“So do I,” he chuckled, extending a hand to you. “Fuck this family.”

“They’re your family—”

“Only in name,” he said. “I’m adopted.”

He heard a soft chuckle emerge from you. He knew you’d grown up in foster care, too: that was why you were so ready to marry into this family. Maybe one day adopt kids with Changbin, save people from the life you lead for far too long. You slipped your hand into his after a moment, and he guided you forward, mentally making a map of where the two of you were. One of these passages led into the kitchens, and he was sure you’d be able to sneak out as soon as he disengaged the locks in the security room. He’d need a back-up plan, too, to deal with his family.

One thing led to another and to another… And Chris had to make the decision. He spiked the ritual cup with a non-lethal dose of hydrochloric acid (enough to incapacitate all of them for now) as he broke you free from your bonds. He’d shoved you ahead of him on the way out, hoping to protect you until he got you outside… And it was then that he felt something slice through his neck, sending him crumpling to the ground. He watched as you disappeared down the hallway, not looking back. Good. Don’t look back. If you looked back, you would care for him. There was good in you that he needed to protect before the curse of this family destroyed it.

“Chan!”

Felix’s voice rang down the hall as he rushed to where he’d crawled away, trying to find a safer spot to die than in view of anyone else. The butler was a new hire, a nervous one when it came to game nights like this, and he fell to his knees next to him.

“It’s okay,” he said, over and over as he tried to stop the bleeding with hands that were slick with sticky red all too soon. “It’s okay, Chris,” he sounded as though he were making a promise. “We’re—We’re gonna get help. I promise—”

Felix only left his side when he was forced away. They had managed to catch you again, and Chris let his eyes drift shut as he cursed himself. Fuck. He’d seen the sun rising in the windows: surely that was supposed to mean you won and the fucked up demon that had given them their fortune would lose. He breathed shallowly, only opening his eyes when he heard a sickening splatter from the other room. Except… It wasn’t you. It was his adoptive family that were screaming. The matriarch, the parents, the sister… He shut his eyes when he heard his wife scream, too, trying to run away with the boys before they disappeared, too. At least death would embrace him soon.

He smiled to himself: you won. Take the family’s bullshit fortune that’d fall to you and run.

taglist: @twancingyunhao @weird-bookworm

#wooahaes.fall23 #wooahaes.fic #stray kids x reader #skz x reader #stray kids imagine #skz imagine #stray kids x you #skz x you #bang chan x reader #bang chan x you #chris bang x reader #Chris Bang x you

29 notes · View notes

sparkles-rule-4eva · 7 months

Text

I’ve officially been a Sonic fan for a year!

And to celebrate, since my bestie @thewritingautisticat and I were first properly introduced to said fandom via the movies, I decided to post a big fat rant about how much I absolutely ADORE the movie universe. Right alongside every other aspect of this amazing franchise.

Here’s the thing. I’ve seen people claim to be the #1 SCU defenders/lovers/etc., and then I’d explore their blog and still find them complaining about the human characters, and still imply that the movie universe isn’t as good as the games because it’s different.

Me? Dudes and dudettes, I think I’m one of the only people who can truly claim to be the #1 SCU defender. Because I love the movies in ALL their differences and wackiness. I don’t just tolerate the presence of the human characters, I love them. Right alongside Sonic and the original cast. During those wedding scenes in the second movie, the parts where everyone seemed to complain that they were bored and just waiting for it to get back to Sonic? I was loving every second of it. I see the human characters to be just as much Sonic characters as Sonic himself, Knuckles, Tails, etc.

I love scenes with Tom because he’s Sonic’s adoptive father. I love scenes with Maddie because she’s Sonic’s adoptive mother. Rachel is his crazy, unhinged aunt. Jojo is his chill cousin. That’s his family right there. Right alongside Knuckles and Tails, his adoptive brothers in the cinematic universe. I love and accept them just as much. I’ve barely seen anyone else do the same.

I love that the movies give Sonic (and the others) the ability to do something that the games can never do: be a kid. They show him to be kind, compassionate, empathetic, energetic, fun-loving, adventurous, sassy, and heroic, just like his game counterpart. And then they give him more: they give him parents who love and support him. Who cheer him on from the sidelines as he’s off fighting giant robots. Who will give their lives for him without a second thought.

People complain that the first movie isn’t a good “Sonic” movie? I disagree there, too. Because it’s missing the other characters and the lore and all that? Is Sonic not Sonic if he’s separated from his friends and original home? No. The first movie didn’t focus on the lore. The first movie focused on Sonic, him as a character. They established the settings of this new, alternate world for Sonic. Gave him a backstory because the games never do. They let him be a hero and a kid at the same time.

Guys. Paramount found themselves with rights to make a Sonic movie. A movie with a version of Sonic who had zero mandates hanging over his head. Did you really think they were just going to make a story that we’d probably see as a game someday? No, they were not going to miss this opportunity. They rewrote his story in this alternate version. They let him be a few years younger. They let him be emotional. They even gave him extra epic powers linked to said emotions, and those powers have even impacted the games.

I love the voice actor they chose for Sonic. People complain he doesn’t sound like he does in the games. So? The people who casted the voices weren’t looking for a soundalike voice actor. They were looking for an energetic, optimistic voice. Because that’s how they saw Sonic. Is he not? He feels like the very embodiment of energy and optimism a lot of the time. So I love the choice of Ben Schwartz. He does amazingly.

And about him getting adopted by humans? Found family is not a new trope in the Sonic franchise. In the games, we have Sonic raising Tails as his little brother. We have the Chaotix, a team consisting of a grown dude, an angsty teenager, and a literal child who see each other as family. We have Amy being a big sister to Cream and Tails. We have Vanilla being a mother figure to half the cast. We have the ARK siblings. The list goes on. Is it really so “cringey” to let Sonic himself get adopted? Especially when he’s younger than the game version, and was properly given the chance to be a kid? To have fun with his brothers and parents outside of fighting Eggman? And by parents who accept him wholly for who he is, strive to take care of him where they can, and allow him to relax and enjoy the remainder of his childhood??

Not to mention, Tom and Maddie are literally the perfect parents for Sonic (and later Knuckles and Tails). For one, they’re a very healthy couple. They’ve loved and supported each other for years even before their marriage and before meeting Sonic. Green flag number one. For two, they understand Sonic, they see that he’s still a kid and they want to help him, they try to “steer him in the right direction,” and they don’t try to stifle him and his love of running and adventure. Tom is a cop, a very good cop I might add (I absolutely refuse to listen to any of the crappy hate I’ve seen towards Tom just because he’s a police officer), and he’s inclined to help people just like Sonic is. Maddie is a vet, she loves animals. Sonic is literally an anthropomorphic hedgehog. She knows better on how to take care of him; and even before she got to know him, she still tended to his needs when he was out of it, even being cautious in doing so because she didn’t yet know his physiology.

So yes, I love the SCU. I love seeing the Wachowski family doing mundane, everyday things just as much as I love seeing the boys in epic battle scenes. I loved watching Sonic and Tom have a father-son bonding moment on a fishing trip. I loved watching them play along with his airport setup the same way parents play along with their child’s imagination. I loved watching them ask for a hug goodbye, make sure he knew how to contact them in case of an emergency, blow him kisses as the ring closed. I loved that Tom kept calling and texting Sonic to check in on him just like any parent would while they were away. I loved seeing Tom express wishing that Sonic could have buddies like him. I loved seeing Maddie call him “their kid.” I most especially loved seeing Sonic finally call Tom “Dad.”

I loved seeing my favorite trio of alien boys ride in the back of a truck, even though none of them needed the transportation, bickering about the baseball game they just played as their parents drive them out for ice cream.

Does this mean I prefer the SCU over the games? No. I love the games just as much, and I could easily rant on everything I love about them as well. I’m just not planning to because it’s not necessary. They’re the mainline thing.

Even though I’m disappointed to have missed so many years in this amazing fandom, I think I like being a fresh fan. I constantly see people griping and complaining about this or that in some area of the franchise, and tbh it annoys me. I’ve been ruined for reading reviews because I find people hating on things I liked. I introduce “NO-HATE REVIEW!” Not complaining about what I didn’t like, because there’s not much. Just loving on what I loved. Sharing my excitement with others.

As a result, I’ll later post similar rambles about other parts of the franchise I want to defend. Such as the IDW comics. Sonic Prime. Sonic Frontiers. All the parts people are far too quick to judge.

Replies that are hateful or irrelevant will be deleted. 👌

(A little later I’m also going to make a celebratory post about how this franchise literally changed my life in a good way XD)

25 notes · View notes

jaztice · 17 days

Text

Villainous Violence and Purposeful Power: An Essay On Child Abuse In Superhero Stories

So I wrote an essay a while ago and posted it on my website here, but I figured all y'all tumblr girlies might enjoy it too, so I've decided to post it to the hellsite as well. Enjoy my angry ramblings <3 CWs: mentions and descriptions of child abuse, mentions and descriptions of murder, mentions of rape

There’s a trend I often see in popular superhero media that has always rubbed me the wrong way. Specifically, in movies and TV shows, superheroes, if abused as children, are rarely if ever abused by their biological parents. Supervillains, on the other hand, as well as many antiheroes and even some non-villain antagonists, often are. It’s a trend I first noticed in the TV show Daredevil, which premiered on Netflix in 2015 and can currently be viewed on Disney+, but since noticing it, I’ve been unable to stop noticing it in other popular pieces of superhero media. I’ve seen it in the Jessica Jones TV show, the popular Batman movie The Dark Knight, in other less popular characters from the Batman mythos, the first season of The Umbrella Academy TV show, and even in J. Jonah Jameson of the Spider-Man stories. Even when considering examples of heroes suffering child abuse, like Bruce Banner (a.k.a. The Hulk), something always felt amiss to me in these representations. So naturally, I decided to dig deeper.

It’s important to note that trauma has been used in superhero media as an inciting incident for both heroes and villains since the genre’s inception. Popular superheroes like Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker often become heroes due to witnessing the unjust death(s) of their caretakers or people important to them. Child abuse, however, is a very specific sort of trauma, and child abuse from specifically one’s biological/birth parents even moreso. Natasha Romanov/Black Widow of the MCU’s Avengers certainly suffers child abuse, but it’s not perpetrated by her birth parents—instead, she’s abused by the mysterious organization that created her as a living weapon. All the kids in The Umbrella Academy are undoubtedly emotionally abused and neglected by their father, but he is very specifically their adopted father. To reference yet another Marvel Netflix TV show, Danny Rand from Iron Fist does suffer from child abuse; however, it comes at the hands of the monks who rescued him from a plane crash, not his own parents.

In terms of villains being abused as children by their biological parents, on the other hand, there are quite a few that come to mind. Wilson Fisk from Daredevil is a prime example, suffering from emotional and implied physical abuse from his father, until Wilson kills Fisk Sr. by beating him to death with a hammer. Kilgrave from the first season of Jessica Jones is experimented on by his parents until he develops the power to control people with vocal commands (and then uses it to escape their grasp). Trish Walker from Jessica Jones—who, granted, doesn’t become a true “villain” until season 3—is abused in a multitude of ways by her mother and acting agent. Leonard Peabody, the villain of season 1 of The Umbrella Academy, has a physically abusive father who he, similar to Wilson Fisk, beats to death before being imprisoned for 12 years for the murder. Even the Joker claims to have had an abusive father in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (though his actual past and the veracity of any of his statements in the movie are up for debate).

Even more interesting are the instances in which superheroes (or at least non-supervillains) are abused as children. The most notable, of course, is Bruce Banner, though this may come as a surprise to anyone unfamiliar with his character from the comics. After all, only one of the movies about him, Hulk (2003), really addressed the child abuse aspect of his past, and most movies about the Hulk aren’t very popular in the first place. Other instances include some members of the Batfamily, Jason Todd and Cassandra Cain, who both had fraught childhoods due to the actions and abuse of their biological parents, and J. Jonah Jameson, the notorious head editor of the Daily Bugle in the Spider-Man mythos (and a real piece of work), who, according to Wikipedia, had an abusive father who was also a war hero in the U.S. military. In the cases of Jason Todd and Cassandra Cain, both of these characters often vacillate between hero and villain status in the comics, and additionally, they have almost no appearances in popular superhero media (and certainly not as a main character). Jameson’s history is even more curious; his father’s hero status and abusive behavior towards his son and wife explains Jameson’s hesitation in fully believing Spider-Man is a hero, and yet in later editions of the Spider-Man storyline, it’s clarified that his abusive father is in fact his uncle and foster father (his biological father had to, quoting from the J. Jonah Jameson Wikipedia page, “leave his son behind for undisclosed reasons”).

Bruce Banner, however, I found to be a fascinating case study for this topic. According to the Wikipedia page for the Hulk, “As a child, Banner's father Brian often got mad and physically abused both Banner and his mother, creating the psychological complex of fear, anger, and the fear of anger and the destruction it can cause that underlies the character.” In the aforementioned 2003 movie, Bruce’s father tries to kill his young son, believing him to be a danger, but instead kills Bruce’s mother when she tries to stop him, causing Bruce to repress most of his childhood memories. In both instances, this abuse is considered one of the driving forces behind the Hulk, a monstrous, destructive, and very green force within Bruce Banner that reveals itself when Bruce becomes too emotional, excited, or angry. However, the Hulk is almost always considered a wild factor in situations, both out of control and often unable to be fully controlled. It is useful and even heroic, yes, and Bruce does manage to control it in some stories, but the Hulk is ultimately violent and destructive. That is what makes Bruce’s superpower useful. The Hulk is considered dangerous, volatile, and sought after by other violent factions like the military (and even, that one time, a gladiatorial ring). The result of Bruce’s abuse is a violent, uncontrollable, rage-filled monster, and only in controlling this monster can Bruce be considered a hero; otherwise, he is simply considered a threat.

Compare this to Wilson Fisk in the Daredevil TV show, who is depicted as a soft-spoken, deeply traumatized, and terrifyingly violent man in charge of a criminal empire. Wilson, like Bruce, has developed emotional and aggression issues as a result of his child abuse, and though he uses these issues throughout the course of the show to both his own benefit and detriment, he is always cast in the role of a villain. Additionally, Wilson only attacked and killed his father to stop him from beating his mother, and one possible reading of his character might be that both his need for safety and control and his drive to protect others are what drove him to become the leader of a criminal empire with the intention of reshaping Hell’s Kitchen.

What, you might ask, is the point of listing all these different depictions of abuse in superhero stories? To that, I ask you to examine the trend of agency in these depictions. In the case of those cast in more heroic lights (Bruce Banner, perhaps even J. Jonah Jameson), these children suffered from abuse but had little to no hand in stopping or escaping from that abuse. The more extreme the action taken to stop or escape the abuse, however, the more likely the individual is to be cast in the role of villain. Jason Todd and Cassandra Cain both ran away from their abusers, but the former was killed as a child, came back to life, and became a crime lord, while the latter eventually killed her own parents and then became a notorious assassin. In both these instances, Jason and Cassandra are cast as villains in their respective storylines. Trish Walker, though she doesn’t start out as a villain by any means, ultimately becomes one due to her desperation to prove she can save not only herself, but also others, due to her childhood abuse. Kilgrave develops his powers and immediately uses them to perform absolutely heinous acts, including repeatedly raping the main and titular character, Jessica Jones, as well as killing his own parents as an adult. And of course, Leonard Peabody and Wilson Fisk kill their abusive fathers as young children in brutal, violent ways.

Let me make something clear; I think the Daredevil TV show is a fantastic piece of superhero media. But it still falls prey to this trend I’m describing even in its attempt to deconstruct it. Wilson Fisk is not painted in a purely villainous light during the show, at least not for the murder of his father. Even though the heroic protagonist hopes to use this fact (once he discovers it) to put him away in jail, the other protagonists argue that Fisk was, perhaps, justified in his actions. Fisk is a character we’re meant to understand and even sympathize with; the juxtaposition of his motivations against the hero’s motivations are what make the story so compelling. And yet, Wilson Fisk is undeniably a villain, because even though his violent rages and desire to help others allowed him to save his mother, they have also led him to murder innocents in the name of creating a better Hell’s Kitchen. Despite his “good” intentions, he is a villain. He is the villain of this story. And the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father isn’t the reason he is considered a villain, but it is the driving force behind how he became one.

Perhaps it’s easier for people to give a backstory of child abuse to villains. Most people have no knowledge or understanding of what it’s like to grow up in a home where your parents, your birth parents, the people society claims should love and care for you and keep you safe, hurt and scream at and scare you. Perhaps these people cannot fathom how someone wholly good can be created in such an environment. In this way, attaching child abuse to villains is viciously puritanical in its narrative efficiency. When this is the story you see, the implied lesson is that good people always come from good parents (from “good stock”), and bad people come from those who are themselves bad. It is simple and easy to stick to the black and white tale of good vs. evil, hero vs. villain, to repeat (even unknowingly) the idea that good people beget heroes, and bad people beget villains. To show a superhero as flawed is compelling, and to show a supervillain as virtuous is revolutionary. In fact, even in today’s world of superhero story reimaginings (e.g., The Boys TV show, the Invincible TV show), it is far more common for heroes to live safe and healthy home lives before being thrust into their trauma, and it is far more likely for villains to have suffered abuse from their earliest moments.

I would argue it’s also more “tasteful” to write off those suffering from abuse as villainous if they kill their abusers. Suffering and being saved, like Bruce Banner, creates someone who could become a hero, as long as the emotional results of their abuse remain monitored and controlled. Suffering and daring to rise up, to take your power back from those who have hurt you and save yourself, on the other hand? That is the mark of a villain. Villains wrest power from those that hurt them with bloody hammers and bruised fists. And because in so many pieces of superhero media, heroes do not kill, they are doomed by that very action to be the villains of an inherently violent story.

It is a sign of great and unrealized privilege to write stories that center around violence and immediately villainize those that kill. Especially those that kill as children, and especially those that kill their abusers and tormentors. Superheroes have always been larger-than-life figures, bastions of hope and justice that people are meant to admire, so it makes sense that killing others would not be something they do with abandon. But these abused children were not killing with abandon. For those who have been abused by the very people society claims should love them, there are few depictions of how to survive such abuse in superhero media. Either victims of child abuse are meant to stay helpless and sad, props to be saved and then to be regulated and controlled lest their violent, traumatized urges hurt others too, or they are doomed to become villains from the start for daring to deliver a child’s justice to their abusers. After all, in these kinds of stories, killing is wrong, no matter what.

Perhaps now you can see why this would rub me the wrong way.

The world is not black and white. The world is not good vs. evil. It is a privilege to grow up loved and safe and happy and accepted, and most people don’t even realize this because it’s more common for that to already be the case. And for the world to be so safe and happy is a truly wonderful thing. But when the people who grow up without realizing their own privilege then saturate the popular superhero mythos with images of children murdering their abusive parents and becoming villains for heroes to fight, what do they expect to happen? What would you do if your favorite stories said your only two choices were “suffer in silence and control your violent urges” or “take action and become an unforgivable villain?” How is that message any better than the rhetoric used by abusers everywhere to keep those they hurt in line?

I implore those writing superhero stories to read this and think. Think about violence, about killing and murder, about abuse, in the stories you are crafting. Think before you create your heroes and villains, and have empathy for those who were, perhaps, not as lucky as you growing up. Think about the reality being created in your story, where problems can and are often encouraged to be solved with violence, and then consider what it means to villainize those who are violent and suffer violence from their earliest moments. Think about how you use abuse in your story, with your supers and their powers, between your heroes and villains. And think about why suffering abuse at the hands of your birth parents seems to be so different from suffering abuse at the hands of someone or something external, and why it’s alright for heroes to attack and target their abusers, but damning if villains do it to theirs.

Think about what it means to take your power back in a world where violence is not only commonplace, but a viable option for solving problems, and then examine why a child killing their abusive parent is considered a villainous act. Are you afraid of what children in this situation will learn if such an act is not considered evil?

Should you be?

#superheroes #marvel mcu #daredevil #bruce banner #wilson fisk #think piece #opinion piece #my post

9 notes · View notes

azulas-lightning-bolt · 29 days

Text

guys. guys. guys.

100yr war mako. guys.

okay so I know I’m already going insane about the dadamon au but. but hear me out. and this one is completely of my own design and I don’t think I’ve actually seen anything else on this (if you have pls pls pls pls send links) but there’s so much I could do with mako in the atla timeline because he’s a mixed kid.

now, I also need to account for how mako looks in my head (completely oc-ified). he’s way more ek the way I imagine him (he and bolin are closer in features, in short, but this post has me being stupid more comprehensively), darker skin, central heterochromatic green/gold eyes, curved nose, etc. for context the ek look in my head is kind of blasian? it’s not exactly but for the sake of succinct imagery, yk.

okay so moving on to au info (under the cut)!

fire nation soldier:

—this mako is an amputee. I haven’t decided which limb(s) but he is missing at least one is.

—he joined the army for the money, but given his appearance could only join closer to the eclipse and is treated like shit

—hates his firebending and the atrocities he has to commit with it to afford to eat

—mother was a fn deserter who left for ek father, hid in ba sing se for a few years where mako n bolin were born and raised, before oppressive class system and denial of war became too much and they moved out to ek town bordering fn territory (mako-5, bolin-3). they lived alright for a few more years, before naoki was recognized and she n san were killed. orphanism.

—mako joined the army at 13, the enlistment age being 16. passed himself off as a really scrawny 16yo. enlistments knew but disliked ‘half-breeds’ and hoped the front lines would just take care of him for them.

—he has to get a tattoo to signify he is not of pure fn blood,,, ohhh the angst potential,,,

—canon starts when he’s almost 13, as it has to get close enough to eclipse for him to join at 13. he only worked about a year in the army by the time canon ends and zuko becomes firelord. as a concession of losing, fn’s army is reduced greatly. zuko’s first choice is to remove child soldiers, esp the kids pretending to be 16. he has a program, but mako ofc slips through the cracks.

—traumatized 13/14yo amputee war veteran struggles to regain normal human behavior with worried brother: the saga, basically.

—maybe throw in a little found family/adoption, as a treat

Im so madly in love w this au btw.

joins the gaang (good start):

—there are two versions of 100yr war mako joining the gaang I have, and this is the happier one. almost no one dies! besides like. his parents. it’s for character development mako, sorry. so basically the plot is that the gaang is in the fire nation for the eclipse, but instead of mako joining the army then, they find scraggly street orphan and decide to drag him and happy brother along.

—to make this better, they originally think he and bolin are fully ek, hiding in the fire nation, and that mako is a nonbender (he still hates his fire) but then they’re like BAM we’re actually the children of a deserter and her ek boyfriend! they’re both dead.

—womp womp, teach me firebending mako!!

—and to literally no one’s surprise, his answer is an enthusiastic shove that stupid idea right back up your

—eclipse fails, but mako and azula freak each other out by being reallllyy similar.

—zuko joins; mako is also on toph’s side and bolin is content to follow his brother (reminder he is 11 at this point, mako is 13) because mako knows (as most fn citizens do) about the story of his scar and would die from guilt if he were to fight and scar the prince with fire again. (he has lightning scars and stuff too from early on after being orphaned, being without control of his fire)

—also mako still knows how to lightningbend, in all the 100yr war verses. Ik it’s supposed to be a royal family exclusive in atla, but either mako encountered iroh on the road and picked it up quickly or he had another version of zolt to teach him/give him the push to figure it out himself. GASP mako learning lightning from the dragons/sun warriors after going to the ruins for a safe place w bolin,,,

—so zuko joins. remember how I said mako/azula were still mirror images here? yeah zuko kinda gets freaked out by the 13yo who’s realllyy similar to his sister.

—mako is super awkward around him, still kind of treating him like he’s a prince (running away). zuko misinterprets this as mako hating him. after mr prince loses his bending, what does this mean? mako gets to tag along on dragon field trip!!

—in line w mako learning lightning from dragons previously, he’s able to navigate super easily into the city, but leaves aang and zuko behind by accident in the process. they do the little dragon dance and mako is the one to find them (with sun warrior supervision, because they don’t want the baby dragon to die encountering someone he didn’t expect) and they are accepted significantly more easily.

—mako watches them meet the masters with stifled amusement. he’s not worried; he knows they’re pure of heart.

—speedrunning everything up to the comet with fluffy gaang relationships, mako tries to blow the guy up back (it does not work)

—day of the comet, mako stays glued to bolin. he’s offered the chance to sit out the attack, they can pull through in units of two (+aang) and he almost accepts. but he’s thirteen, a year older than the inventor of metalbending and the avatar. bolin is a year younger, and takes importance, but-but he needs to do something. he’s been by their side a quarter of what katara and sokka have been, and he doesn’t want to have been dead weight. he joins aang, able to be present after the battle if medical help or a quick escape are needed, and enhanced as a firebender so he’s good enough to fight a bit.

—aang’s energy is being swallowed and mako doesn’t understand what’s happening but he knows it’s not good. he goes running up to aang, bolin at his side, ready to pull the avatar away and save them both. aang wins in the end, and ozai’s bending is gone.

—the rest of the gaang lands, the weakened ozai is still restrained, but the looks of disgust aimed at him from not only his traitor spawn but two peasant half-breeds gives him enough rage to spit threats at them all, a promise that all of them, starting with the little green-eyed brat (bo) will be picked off and tortured to extermination by his sympathizers.

—mako, standing on business as usual, doesn’t hesitate. he relishes in the split second of terror in ozai’s eyes as he realizes his special, hoarded technique, lightning, is being used against him, and he is powerless to stop it, before he’s struck. toph’s earth bounds shatter at the bolstered impact, but it doesn’t matter as the former phoenix king falls lifelessly to the ground. mako’s eyes are hard and cold. he’s thirteen. he is not a stranger to doing what needs to be done, and bolin comes first. who will sympathize with a dead man?

—the end :3

this one is probably one of my favorite 100yr war versions

joins the gaang (bad start):

—this one is probably marginally more tragic. mako’s start towards the gaang is bolin’s death. he died in a night robbery from older firebenders; mako was powerless to stop them, and they didn’t care enough to stop themselves. mako didn’t bother saving up for another travel pack or enough food and clothes to fill it again. he regrets ever having been so foolish as to think that was something he could keep.

—he ends up at the factory that’s polluting the village’s river in the painted lady ep. he works at the factory but lives in the village, just as desolate as the rest (though, again, decidedly more ek-looking).

—based off their harshness upon finding out their savior was katara, the village people don’t take too well to mako either, considering he’s both mixed and works at the factory. when katara is outed (and mako is packing up, because they just lost him his job), he gets pushed to the front with her and met with the same scornful glares.

—sokka defends his sister (common sokka w) and strange, scrawny child. the village distinctly apologizes more to katara as mako gives them all a stink eye.

—he helps the gaang clean out the river as thanks by burning the muck and disposing of the smoke.

—he goes to leave at the same time as them, aang notices, and offers a ride (to sokka’s slight chagrin-he could kiss his schedule goodbye officially now.) mako agrees, thinking he’ll fall off the bison if he gets lucky (yk, and other regular very normal 12yo thoughts)

—a ride turns into ‘oh just stop here with us! we don’t mind sharing dinner, there’s extra!’ and that turns into ‘it’s way too rainy to go on your own, we can just camp together another night!’ which becomes ‘where are you going? if you don’t know, you can just hit a few more stops with us.’ and eventually they just stop making excuses because, if mako is honest with himself, he’s totally gotten attached. they all know he’s not leaving. he’s smiled, laughed, felt joy for the first time in two years, the two years since bolin was killed.

—gaang shenanigans ensue. mako and toph get along like a house on fire, because they’re both grimy, angry, shithead 12yos absolutely out for blood. mako and aang develop telepathic communication within two weeks because mako can’t communicate normally and aang tries so hard to understand that he actually does. they’re bsfs.

—mako is decidedly reckless with his life and katara gets to practice her healing even more regularly than in canon. she’s not too pleased. sokka thinks mako is the best ever (grumpy mini-me) and wants to wrap him in furs and tuck him away from the dangers of the war (he calls mako cute one time(!) and gets set on fire for it)

—zuko and mako bond over scars (lightning+fire to the face) and zuko sibling-izes mako cuz azula parallels

—sozin’s comet goes about the same, but katara insists mako comes with her and zuko so she can keep an eye on him, which actually saves zuko from the lightning scar bcs zuko taught mako how 2 redirect‼️‼️

—I don’t have too much on this au because my brain is being consumed by the next one and thinking too hard abt this one upsets me greatly. also so much of mako’s personality in canon is centered around bolin (oh look that’s an upcoming post too) that it’s difficult to imagine him as more than a shell of a person without him.

dead:

—okay so this one is technically atla and tlok. will elaborate later.

—mako dies with his mother and father (naoki is still a deserter here) but bolin survives on his own. he mourns his brother, but a nice earth kingdom family adopts him, mistaking him for a full ek earthbender, which he doesn’t correct. bolin eventually moves on with his life, scraping by in the tail end of the war. these events take place ~ten years before atla canon, so bolin is 16 by b1 and 17 when the gaang reaches the earth kingdom. mako is eight and dead. for the record.

—so how does a dead kid become part of canon? well, I’ll be making a post about how I think afterlife and ghostly spirits work in the avatarverse, but for the sake of conciseness, the dead who have ‘unfinished business’ become spirits that can interact with the human world at will, because they never quite “crossed over.” mako, not knowing if bolin will survive on his own, has ‘unfinished business’. however, this causes permanent spirithood, which is part of why it’s so rare. a soul has to be really upset to eternally subject themselves to that.

—so spirit-mako isn’t really mako anymore, he’s a guardian spirit of, let’s say, children fending for themselves. you know a group of children fending for themselves that’s pretty relevant in atla. yeah. so he ends up unable to find bolin, because bolin is being taken care of. he’s instead drawn to the southern water tribe, where dozens of kids’ parents traveled off to war.

—he doesn’t reveal himself at all, just preventing little accidents for the most part. the swt nicknames him veiti, deigning him their guardian spirit. he lost most of himself as mako, all that’s really left is a bit of snark left for other spirits and fondness for his brother.

—he follows katara and sokka as they find aang, drawn to the weight of another lonely boy. aang feels something off, lingering in the air around the water siblings, from the start, but doesn’t mention it. veiti doesn’t stop the flare from firing because he knows someone needs to follow it, needs to come.

—zuko arrives. veiti is confused by him, but the scar on his face bears so much weight. they feel familiar to veiti, so much so that the tundra fills with the weeping of a spirit. this actually scares off zuko’s ship before an escalated confrontation (aang going w zuko) happens, so it works out well in the end.

—when katara and sokka follow aang away from the swt, veiti decides he wants (he hasn’t wanted in a while now) to follow them. but he can’t just abandon the tribe that’s come to rely on his protection, even going as far as to offer the occasional fish, so he decides to temporarily possess a vessel. other spirits have told him he should be able to take a human form, but he hasn’t figured that out yet. he possesses a little otter penguin, and tells a mildly disturbed kanna that he is veiti, and will be joining the siblings and avatar to protect them there. he tries to give a spirit blessing on his way, but he’s not sure if it works.

—the wails of a spirit’s grief fill the echoing halls of the deserted air temple along with aang’s rage, and he hopes the avatar can feel the comforting weight of a fellow mourner draped over him when katara talks him down. veiti feels decidedly uneasy (seen) with the statues of past avatars, and is relieved when momo is found and they all leave.

—he clings to aang as he rides the unagi, bats away too-sharp too-close fans when the kyoshi warriors get too aggressive. he nearly smacks sokka upside the head, physical form or not, when he starts blabbering about the male warriors that don’t exist. that one behavior of his had always ticked veiti off, but he tried to be understanding with sokka’s lack of a… well, mother.

—as the gaang experiences the mundanity of kyoshi island, veiti finds himself regaining some sense of… something he lost. he remembers, seeing the face of a boy on the island, that the brother he longed to see again was named bolin. he remembered that he was eight, in human years. he couldn’t gather any more than that, hard as he tried.

—omashu was hell for veiti, the spirit confused as to if he should be defending despite the lack of aggression from the king, and what he should do if he needs to step in. aang recognizes his friend, however, and veiti allows himself a break from them as they travel to an ek mining town. he hovers over zuko in this time, observing him and his interactions with his uncle (what is an uncle, veiti isn’t quite sure. they didn’t have those in the swt)

—zuko finding katara’s necklace on the brig makes veiti rush back to the gaang, relieved to find them all in tact in a different town. however, this town is dealing with spirit meddling, which veiti approaches with some annoyance. he tries to get sokka back, asking the other spirits, but he’s told hei bai isn’t too hospitable. aang enters the spirit world, and catches a glance of a mangled boy around eight who looks a mix of fn and ek. he’s conversing with the spirits casually, which is aang’s clue he wasn’t taken from the village as well. he wants to call the boy over, but has more pressing matters to deal with. hei bai is pacified, and everyone is returned.

—veiti travels with them to the fn, despite everything in him yelling to run the other way. the sages are dangerous, the evil named zhao is far too powerful there, and the children aren’t safe, tied up, beyond his protection. he finds the fire bows to him, and that is another thing veiti recalls; he is a firebender. no harm comes to zuko or katara or sokka when roku’s fury is released through aang, despite veiti’s primal terror when roku’s gaze locks on him. buried deep inside, aang wonders if he is seeing the same boy from hei bai’s forest.

—the scroll is stolen. veiti is, again, halfway to a heart attack (can spirits have heart attacks?) working himself into a panic when katara is captured by the pirates. zuko becomes something else for him to worry about, katara’s necklace in hand. however, apart from numerous last minute saves from slicing blades, veiti barely has to do anything as the situation works itself out.

—veiti is again torn as the gaang meets jet. there’s distant wailing in the forest all the days they stay with jet (and aang recognizes it, the same as in the temple and the tundra because it was from that mangled little boy he keeps seeing. maybe sokka is right, something is off about jet. don’t you hear that, katara?). jet is a lost child, but jet is malicious as well. veiti can’t understand if jet is to protect or harm or defend and it’s making him crazy.

—veiti feels himself grow absent for a while, he resurfaces when aang is captured, choosing to dance through the arrows of the yuyan as they miraculously miss the blue spirit (zuko was to protect, veiti had a feeling) and his ‘captive’, the avatar. the divide between katara, sokka, and aang is one they must fix themselves. the scars on katara’s hands from the terrible lessons of the deserter (he had known a deserter. a mother, his mother. if only he could recall her name.)

—another temple echoes with a spirit’s tears as they visit the northern temple with its gadgets and gears. teo is a bright boy, veiti knows he will fly far with his strange inventions. the nwt is a destination veiti abhors. he finds pakku agitating, and far too reminiscent of sokka previous kyoshi island. the siege by the evil called zhao (veiti wants him gone. veiti can make him gone.) is terrible. he burns tui, and mako runs to her side in childish worry, asking la if he can in some way help. he warms her with licking flames that don’t burn (because he is a firebender, he knows now) and infuses what little of himself he can give. it hurts, almost, and la’s weeping joins his in the oasis.

—it is by design that zhao does not take zuko’s hand.

—yue will give herself to tui, la tells him. but what if yue? he asks. he knows there cannot be a life handed over and a life kept. his fire has warmed tui, but it will not fix her. they will share the burden, la tells him. yue will lend tui the strength tui lent her, just as veiti did, and tui will recover in time. yue will be weakened, but she too will recover. as aang is returned, mako allows himself to jump up and cling to his frame. he is shocked to feel the ghost of a hug reciprocated. aang’s eyes search around veiti, as though aware of his presence but unsure where his eyes should land. veiti allows himself to beam.

—the earth kingdom general seeks to take advantage of aang in a way that greatly discomforts them both. he doesn’t revere the spirits the way he should. veiti makes sure his head gets stuck very firmly in a ditch once the children are safely away, and leaves them to their devices for a bit to make sure the general does not try such foolish exploitation again. he leaves them unattended for a while, not feeling a tug towards them as he normally would in danger. he drifts back around the time aang is being attacked for being the avatar, and it greatly unnerves him. why should he be scorned for being their savior? kyoshi makes an appearance much like roku did. and just as he did with roku, veiti pretends her all seeing eyes do not, for the briefest moment, settle on him. something of being perceived is far too disquieting for him in his state.

—veiti is greatly pleased when the blind bandit joins them. she has the burden of an unguided child, despite having parents. he doesn’t imagine them to be good ones.

—the girl with eyes like his (that’s another thing he remembers. his eyes—his human form has those—are gold, flecked with green. was deserter-mother gold-green, too?) hurtshurtshurts in her soul and in her fire. veiti cries at the too familiar violence, echoes of something that had terrified him once. he isn’t quite sure what, but his sniffles fill the air all the same. veiti cried sparsely in the south, sparing his tears for death and severe injury, but so many things in the rest of the world make him ache in a way he can through no other method express.

—veiti dislikes the heavy presence of the spirit in the library. he fuels toph’s veins with his own fire when her grip slips and somehow, he is enough to let her split her attention; the foul benders who reek of thieves are held up until aang can return, incensed at the muzzle on his bison.

—ba sing se is hell. veiti needs to find someone. he’s so close, he knows, but he doesn’t understand who he needs to find. his senses are torn between protecting the avatar and searching for someone he isn’t sure of.

—he parts ways with the gaang, and he looks. he searches all of ba sing se and the surrounding towns until he finds a small family of five. two parents, though the mother is scarred by fire, and three children. the oldest is a young adult, a boy named yuyi. the youngest is a girl named meiying. and the other boy has green eyes flecked with gold (gold-green, green-gold) and his name is bolin. veiti knows this is who he has been searching for. the world’s tug suddenly applies to him, and he feels his feet touch the wooden floor as he looks up instead of down at the family’s dinner. the creaks alert them to his sudden presence, and bolin’s (brother!) eyes widen, filling with tears. veiti’s voice is high pitched (he is eight in human years, he remembers) and warbles when he asks for confirmation that bolin is his brother. his body stings like bad fire when he is wrapped in a careful embrace, but a tentative smile curls his lips all the same. he asks bolin his name. apparently, veiti’s name is mako. veiti tells bolin that he is called veiti, and asks which name is better. bolin thinks they’re both nice, so mako decides he will use both.

—something tugs desperately for his help (aang needs help) so veiti tells bolin he needs to go, he needs to help. he promises he’ll always look after bolin and his family, and thanks his brother for reminding him of his name. he’ll miss his brother and his new family lots, he says, but they’ll be okay with his spirit blessing. he’s gotten better at those, he promises. with a smile and a wave, the little boy is in veiti’s form once more.

—aang is-was dead. mako wishes so terribly he has been there. he can do lightning, too, another spirit showed him how while he was searching. he could’ve helped. but katara is healing aang with the special water from the oasis. veiti wonders how she’s doing. he thinks about tui being hurt so badly and yue being weakened and aang being dead and mako misses his brother already and sobs fill the clear night air. the sadness weighs too heavily for his spirit form to handle, so he drops into appa’s saddle in the form of a little boy warped by fire.

—aang’s friends are wary at first, but it’s hard to deny he’s a spirit given his arrival. mako finds he like talking to them rather than just watching over them, and katara and sokka’s faces when he tells them he is actually veiti are really funny. the only thing he doesn’t like is how they seem so careful around him. at first, he thinks it’s because they don’t want to be so close to a real spirit rather than a half-spirit like the avatar, but he realizes it’s about how small he is when katara looks at him sad after he proudly announces he is eight human years old.

—aang wakes up and veiti is one of the first to greet, him, bouncing around in a mix of excitement and nervousness at the chance to meet him for real and have an actual conversation. he thinks aang has probably seen or heard him before, being the avatar, but they’ve never actually talked. aang tries to muster the energy to feel the same, but the feeling of failure drowns it out. mako retreats to his spirit form, upset, but understands he still needs to watch out for aang. he drags him to shore when the storm knocks him out, worriedly hovering until katara makes it on the scene.

—mako, as badly as he wants to, doesn’t go into a physical form with aang at the fire nation school. he thinks it would be a perfect chance for them to talk normally, as he’s been staying in his spiritual form since aang first woke. it’s not until they reach the village of the painted lady that he takes his human body again. the mood of the place is somber, but veiti cheerfully (foolishly) offers to try and talk to the painted lady for them. katara is all on board for this, and aang offers to tag along, but sokka is insistent that their schedule cannot take that dent.

—veiti goes to talk to the painted lady anyway. she’s very friendly, but she calls mako silly! she tells him he is to learn an important lesson from this; human affairs, like this, sort themselves out more often than not, and it is a spirit’s duty to meddle only when absolutely necessary. the gaang is there for a reason, and he should let them deal as necessary.

—the rest of b3 goes without much influence from mako. he tries to heed the painted lady’s advice and step back, even on the day of the black sun. human affairs, as they often do, sorted themselves out. however, he does tag along when zuko (who veiti is so happy to have. he was right!) and aang go to meet the firebending masters, because he is a firebender too! zuko doesn’t technically know about him, because katara is the one who introduced him to everyone else at the western air temple but she doesn’t like zuko, so he doesn’t show himself at all until aang and zuko go. he tells aang in secret that he’s going to stay behind to try and talk to ran and shaw, and not to worry when he doesn’t feel mako in the air. he’ll be back in no time!

—it’s on the boiling rock that mako shows himself to zuko, and it’s totally on accident! sokka was really stressing out, and veiti swears up and down that zuko was asleep, so he lets the world’s tug pull him down as human feet touch the ground. he tries to help sokka feel better, but it doesn’t really work because sokka got scared that he showed up out of nowhere and then zuko freaked out about the ‘little kid in a high security prison’. mako tried not to be offended, but eight human years isn’t a little kid! he’s basically an adult already! he’s as helpful as he can be with their escape plans, keeping zuko warm with his fire (and after he talked to ran and shaw, they taught him how to make it colorful!) in the cooler (what a terrible invention) and helping tug zuko back up into the cart when they get mr sokka and katara’s dad and suki with them and zuko battles gold-eyes sister. mr hakoda is kind of freaked out my veiti too, and he tries not to be upset, but sokka sees his eyes water and makes a whole huge deal out of it. and veiti is absolutely not pouting when he doesn’t talk to them the rest of the way back to the temple! he’s just recovering his strength cause zuko’s heavy.

—aang and katara are happy to see him in his body form again, and toph punches him which he’s pretty sure means she’s happy too. katara goes on a field trip with zuko this time, and he’s convinced to stay at the temple after zuko is told he tagged along with the last two. katara comes back not mad at zuko but neither of them are bloodstained so mako decides not to worry. then they go to ember island and see the terrible performance of their adventures by the theatre troupe there. veiti’s a little upset they know about the cabbage guy but not him, but he doesn’t mind too much.

—sozin’s comet comes, and mako knows that human affairs are to be dealt with by humans now. he’s still eight human years, but the time spent with aang has made him feel a LOT older. he tells them good luck, but he has to protect bolin and his family during the comet and he’ll see them later. and-he hesitates to make promises he might not be able to keep, but he tells them that if they really need it, they can call veiti and he will come. he stresses that it has to be the most important EVER because he has to make sure bolin’s okay.

—the cut off call from toph stirs a worry in his gut, but he is physically unable to part from his brother without a firm tug. but the comet passes, as do the fire nation forces, and mako returns to his friends (can he call them that?) to find them all mostly okay!

—the world continues on. veiti learns that eight human years is not, in fact, almost an adult, but he doesn’t grow farther than that despite how many years he lives, so he decides it’s adult enough. he, annoyingly, doesn’t ‘mature’ the same way the rest of his friends or his brother do, so he’s essentially an 8yo for the next 80 years.

—he spends a lot of that time watching the gaang and their kids growing up. he spends a lot of time w aang and katara’s kids on air temple island, especially kya. after he makes republic city his more regular haunt, he particularly fond of lin (who is an adult, at this point). none of the gaang kids see veiti much, but they all know about him from their parents. lin is the most often privy to his presence, kya second. he calls them ‘ms kya’ and ‘ms lin’ but everyone else is just their first name lmao 😭

—and then guess what happens (can you tell I’m getting tired. I’ve been writing this post for five hours straight and I literally had the atla episodes pulled up on my computer) aang dies aww :( and the new avatar is born!!!! she actually has parents and figures of guidance, so mako leaves her alone. but guess who he does chill with!? his grandnephew, bolin ii! family line goes like this: bolin marries an ek girl, they have kids. one of the kids’ names is san, after bolin’s late father. san finds himself a pretty fn girl named naoki, and wow, what a coincidence, huh? not that san ii is aware of it. they have one son, who is named bolin ii, after his grandfather. bolin ii is orphaned when he is 14, but toza is ushered by a mysterious force (dead mako) to find and take in earthbending child after a month or two at the orphanage cause no one wants older kids. or mixed kids.

—this post is actually so fucking long and it’s like ten o’clock at night rn (I’m gonna schedule this to post sometime tmr) so I’m just gonna summarize by saying mako tags along for tlok and freaks everyone out cause that’s what he is. a little freak. I am not rewriting an outline for four fucking season idc. spirit mako vs amon could be really interesting but I’ll just. make a separate post for that.

can you tell I hyperfixated so fucking hard on this au btw. ts has been in the fucking works in my brain for months now. I hate this stupid fucking orphan I need him to die immediately.

#mako lok #legend of korra #lok #tlok #atla #katara #avatar the last airbender #zuko #toph #aang #bolin lok #korra #sokka #slug’s stuff

12 notes · View notes

thisisnotthenerd · 10 months

Text

maybe i’ve read a little too much bridgerton recently but

regency romance bells hells. it feels a little funky in certain ways because bells hells has been about the little guys. the people who are living their lives and banded together in that process and got swept up into saving the world. anyway. also staging regency on exandria is a little difficult when you think about the fact that the ‘regency’ that we think of was very localized, while everyone we’ve seen from exandria comes from a variety of places.

oh boy contextualizing laudna means vm has to be in place to be in the background of her story just as she is in theirs. ok hold on vox machina speed round:

percy is pretty similar, noble background, everyone died, he disappeared for a bit, went off traveling then came back to take on his ancestral lands and title as the lord of whitestone (duke maybe?) only for the briarwoods to have been granted control ostensibly after taking in cassandra, as the “last remaining de rolo of the main line”. oh maybe he gets a military title for inventing the firearm and that’s how he comes into society after his disappearance.

keyleth would probably be a princess in this scenario, with regard to her place in the ashari. very overwhelmed for her first season--friends with percy, but he’s probably not in place with his proper titles at the start. anyway. ooh korrin is a ‘regent’ defining this au at the moment because of vilya’s disappearance/death. maybe we still have the ruling family of tal’dorei and she’s specifically an ashari princess.

vex & vax--illegitimate kids of syldor, ambassador of syngorn. they get legitimized mostly for the sake of strategic marriages before they break off from syldor and go off on their own. they negotiate for some land that they primarily run after syldor starts pushing vex to debut early in prep for a marriage to saundor. anyway once they’re each married to percy and keyleth respectively, syldor comes knocking because hello, duke of one of the resource richest cities on exandria and the princess of the ashari connected to your family are a major advantage diplomatically. too bad he gets knocked on his ass.

pike stands to inherit a baronetcy before she goes to the temple of sarenrae--after her parents eloped in disgrace, she lived a few years with them before they basically drop her off with wilhand. she chooses to study at the temple of sarenrae after growing up with wilhand and their shared faith. known to be very devout--’debuts’ the same year as keyleth but is a few years older due to her extended studies and continued relationship with the temple. ooh maybe wilhand is a member of the clergy in this au.maybe pike is on call to officiate marriages and provide spiritual support to the members of polite society. becomes the equivalent of a chaplain in whitestone when percy gets his titles back, runs the slayer’s cake on the side. her kids take on the baronetcy after grog has it for a while.

grog gets adopted by wilhand as a kid--grows up with pike as his elder sister. when pike goes to the temple, issues of succession for the title are raised to wilhand, since pike’s parents and ogden get disinherited, and theobald passes before wilhand does. grog is then formally adopted in and gets the title until he passes it on to pike & scanlan’s kids. i think he would have some time in the military after pike leaves for the temple, and that’s his main presentation, much like percy. bonds with scanlan over not really being in with the nobles who look down on both of them.

scanlan is a musician, born and bred. conservatory and everything. considered one of the most exclusive musicians to call to play for your events. makes the rounds during keyleth & pike’s debut season--he’s probably the lady whistledown equivalent for this--Burt Reynolds, Esq! or the Meat Man! very funny to imagine. both he and pike occupy a weird space in high society, hired on by nobility as they are.

tary is foreign nobility (instead of the continent it’s wildemount) and comes in after percy and the rest of vm take back whitestone. ostensibly looking for a marriage, actually ends up staying with percy and vex for a while before he goes home with a list of inventions under his belt.

#critical role #cr regency au #vox machina #bells hells

9 notes · View notes

officialfoxsquadron · 2 months

Text

Home Stories: Chapter 6

In which Luke Skywalker reunites with old friends on a new home base, delivers a speech, and digs up dark secrets.

Read on AO3!

Full text under the cut:

“I still hate this shade of orange,” Luke called, stepping out of the Millennium Falcon’s bathroom in his flight suit.

“It’s great!” Leia said.

“It’s hideous,” Han said. Their voices clashed over each other, and Han and Leia exchanged annoyed glances.

At least some things don’t change, Luke thought to himself, smiling.

He was three days back in the larger fold of the Alliance as a whole, and today was the day the new recruits arrived.

He barely felt more than a new recruit himself, but apparently blowing up the Death Star came with a few unforeseen benefits, including a squadron, mostly full of greenhorn pilots, all who joined after seeing the explosion.

“They don’t know who I am, right?” Luke asked. “The recruits? They don’t know that I-”

“We don’t tell them,” Leia said, shrugging. “But you’ve seen how fast word travels around here. I hear there’s already a betting pool on whether…I can’t even say it.”

“Oh, the bet on you and Han?” Luke said.

“Ah,” Han said, all smirk and swagger as he approached Leia. “Got any insight on that, princess? I could stand to make some money here.”

“You flatter yourself,” Leia scoffed.

“I’m pretty sure it’s just a money-extortion scheme,” Luke said. (And he was pretty sure he knew who was behind it.)

“Still, it’s a nice thought.”

“It’s a revolting thought,” Leia insisted. “You look good, Luke.”

“Commander Skywalker.” Han said the words with a drawl. “It suits you, kid, congrats.”

“Thanks, Han.” He knew his friend was being sincere. Han had played the cynical card, but it was hard for anyone to deny his loyalty after the Death Star. There were plenty of fighters like Han–drifters, people who came and went as they pleased, who were tied to the Rebellion in only the loosest of terms. There was a surprising lack of pressure from Alliance leadership for these fighters (mostly pilots) to join in a formal role; Luke suspected that the Alliance leadership knew they wouldn’t survive very far without them.

“I’m sure you’ll do great. It’s not that hard to fly an X-Wing, anyways. Not like flying the Falcon.”

“Here we go,” Luke grumbled, as Leia rolled her eyes.

“I could bore you with the specifics, but you two should get going. I can’t be hearing classified Alliance information, remember, Your Worship?”

Leia rolled her eyes, again. “See you soon, Han.”

“Bye, sweetheart.”

“Bye, Chewie!” Luke called. He heard the Wookiee’s grumble from the bowels of the ship. He smiled.

As soon as they stepped off the stairs of the Falcon, Leia let out a large sigh, shaking her head.

“He is so infuriating.”

“The most infuriating,” Luke agreed, although he was tempted to laugh at just how angry Han made Leia.

“You know he’s thirty-two?” Leia said, scrunching her nose. “How a life form reaches the age of thirty-two while being that stupid is honestly a medical miracle.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Nervous,” Luke said. He didn’t bother to hide his fidgeting. “This is…It’s a lot, Leia.” He sighed, straightening his collar again. “A lot of responsibility.”

“It is,” Leia said, stepping towards him. “Did I ever tell you about my first day in the Senate?”

Luke shook his head, curious.

“When I started in the Senate, it felt like everyone was looking down on me. I was sixteen, and I’m not exactly tall now, so I felt like every senator had to bend over just to shake my hand. When I went to speak for the first time-this formality on opening day-my voice shook so bad, I thought I sounded like a bird.”

“Did you?”

“Mon Mothma said I sounded fine,” Leia laughed it off. “Being an Organa, a senator’s daughter, a princess, I’ve always had these expectations on me. To be more than what I was. And a lot of responsibility,” she added. “And yet, I was adopted. I was not the biological child of my parents. So, a lot of people looked at me sideways.”

Luke laughed, recalling uncomfortable memories of having to explain why he lived with his aunt and uncle to the other children at school. “I know that feeling.”

“So you know how deep it can bury inside you, that those doubts never go away.”

Luke breathed deep, in and out, Rostah’s crisp, cool air filling his lungs. “Yeah, I don’t think they do.”

“I didn’t give you this command because you blew up the Death Star, or you met a bunch of recruits, or anything like that. I gave you this command because you came from nowhere, saw a distress call from a woman half the galaxy away, and dropped everything to help her. That’s why I think you will make a great leader, Luke. Because you help others.”

Luke smiled, swelling with pride. “Thank you, Leia.” And then, smiling, “You were probably a really good Senator, huh?”

“The best,” Leia said. She clapped him on the shoulder. “Welcome to the Alliance, Commander Skywalker.”

–

The new home base for the Alliance was tucked away in a lush green mountain range, built upon the ruins of an ancient city. Rostah, a planet with few moons and fewer neighbors, was the perfect place to hide an army. The lights of hundreds of ships and thousands of living beings could hardly be seen amongst the snow-capped peaks of mountains, veins of lightning that cut the clouds in half.

At the center of the base was a temple, formerly the central feature of Villinvaru City, Rostah’s capital. The temple was a building of crumbling white stone that housed a golden bell tower, with precarious steps, outlined in red, spiraling their way on the outside. Each day, two or three monks chanted their way up the winding steps, holding colorful prayer flags. Once they ascended, the bell rang out, a deep gong of sound. The head monk’s high and reedy chants rose and carried on the wind. This happened every day, three times a day, morning, noon, and night.

The meeting of the Rogue Squadron took place in a white and red stone house, part of the inner city that radiated from the bell tower. The monks had just finished their noonday adoration, and they stared at Luke as he passed. With saffron yellow hoods enshrouding their gray skin, the monks looked half-dead.

“There aren’t many monks left,” Leia said, catching Luke’s gaze. “And they’re not exactly thrilled about hiding an army here.”

“But they did,” Luke said, suddenly grateful.

“They did,” Leia repeated. “There’s more hope now.”

Luke felt it, the hope, buzzing around them like flies. Practically everyone on base was smiling. Their new home, Villinvaru City, was like nothing else Luke had ever seen, awash with emerald green grass and ruddy brown soil. They made their homes and workrooms in squat white and red buildings that circled the city. They still had colorful prayer flags too; faded, having been abandoned a few years prior.

The Empire had massacred the population of Rostah under pretense of harboring Jedi fugitives. Citizens that weren’t killed were sent to labor camps.

Another Imperial graveyard, Luke thought. Briefly, his old home on Tatooine flashed in his mind. Was it still on fire, did he think, or had the burning stopped? Had the Tusken raiders scavenged it already, torn up his model ships for parts?

“You okay?” Leia tapped him on the shoulder.

“Yeah,” he said, returning to Villinvaru, returning to the meeting, the task at hand. They had already reached the door of the meeting room, a placard hastily hung on the post. “Just daydreaming, that’s all.”

“Well, snap to it, Commander, the recruits are waiting,” she said brusquely. Then, after a moment, “You’ll do great.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I speak after you?”

“Yup.” She grabbed the handle and gave it a twist, the door flying open before her.

The chatter of the room didn’t quite stop when they walked in, but it did hush. They were holding the meeting in what was once a family home, a living and dining room. The members of Rogue Squadron sat cross-legged on floor pillows, or leaned against counters smoking and drinking caf. It was an odd scene, hardly the setting one imagined for a guerilla pilot squadron meeting.

Before he could think to greet anyone, he felt a nudge against his leg and a series of beeps.

“Hey, Artoo,” he said, smiling and kneeling to touch the droid. “How was your touch-up with Jax?”

The droid whistled and waddled back and forth, spinning his much shinier dome.

“It does look good,” Luke agreed. “Thanks for taking care of him, Jax,” he said, as the taller man approached behind the droid, sipping a mug of caf.

“No problem at all. I think there’s still caf in the pot, if you want some.”

“That’s alright,” Luke said, checking to make sure Leia had moved to speak to someone else before whispering, “They know about the betting pool.”

“Huh, that was fast,” Jax said, entirely nonplussed. “What’d they think?” “Leia’s not happy, Han thinks it’s funny.” He paused, and then asked, “Do you ever stop to think about the morality of placing bets on people’s relationships?”

“I simply give the people what they want, Skywalker,” Jax said.

“And what they want is to be conned out of their money?”

“Exactly.” He stepped closer to Luke, and nudged his shoulder. “Hey, you tell me anything, I’m happy to give you a cut.”

“Very funny,” Luke said, rolling his eyes.

“Fine. If you don’t want the money, I’ll just give it to Artoo.”

Artoo whistled affirmatively.

“Artoo!” Luke scolded. “What do you need with-you know what, Artoo, don’t answer that, I don’t want to know.”

“If I could have your attention?” Leia stood in the center of the room, her voice clear and confident. “For those new to the Alliance, I am Senator Leia Organa-” she paused briefly, “-and Princess of Alderaan. I come to personally introduce you to the Rebellion, and to the commander of Rogue Squadron, Luke Skywalker.”

Leia extended a hand to Luke. He raised his own hand in a friendly wave, dampening down how self-conscious he felt.

“As sponsor of this squadron, I want you to know that I am committed to your welfare. Should you need anything from the Alliance High Command, please feel free to speak to me. Now, Commander Skywalker? Would you like to say a few words?” From the look Leia gave him, it seemed he barely had a choice.

“Yes, um, hello,” he began. Great start, Skywalker. “Like Leia said, my name’s Luke Skywalker, and I’ll be leading this squadron.”

“So it’s true?” a voice said from the crowd. It belonged to Wes Janson, one of the newest recruits, a man with a strong jaw and close cropped black hair. Luke remembered reading about his results on the Alliance’s standard piloting exam. They were impressive.

“You are a Jedi.” The other man pointed at the lightsaber on his hip.

“Not exactly,” Luke laughed. “I mean, not yet. I hope to be one day.”

“And you blew up the Death Star?” asked another voice. Tycho Celchu, a gifted pilot from Alderaan. He still had bright red acne on his left cheek.

“Yes,” Luke said.

He searched the faces of his new squadron. The recruits ranged in age, in species, in culture, but all had the same look in their eyes. They expected something from him, and he feared the words would not come.

Then he found her eyes, and just like that night on Yavin, time seemed to halt, and the galaxy fell around them.

Lottie, whose mismatched eyes peered through him, and would tilt her head and smile, as if she knew. She sat sipping calf on a counter, feet dangling from the edge.

He recalled something she had said when they first met.

“The Rebellion is full of orphans.”

The words came to him then, easy and sweet as flowing wine.

“Look, I am uncomfortable in front of crowds. So, I’m not going to make these big speeches a habit.”

That got a few laughs. Lottie sipped her calf, still smiling. The world returned to focus.

“But Wes, Tycho, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, but I joined only a few months ago. So, I’m very excited to learn from you all. If you’re new, welcome.”

He gestured to the recruits. A few sat on stairs, peering through the railings.

“And if you’ve been here for a while, welcome.” He looked to Leia, who grinned.

“There are many paths to joining the Rebellion. A lot of them aren’t easy. So, wherever you come from, know that you’re welcome here. This isn’t always easy either, but it’s worth it. Thank you. Practically speaking, there are a few introductions I have to make.”

Confident now, he strode a bit, gesturing to each member of the squadron he introduced.

“You met Senator Organa, our sponsor between High Command. My second in command, Wedge Antilles, Rogue Two. For any help with astromechs or other droids, speak to Jax Fraga. Pazima Reynard leads the technicians. And our medical liason is Lottie Reynard, her sister.”

Lottie winked, smiling through her coffee. He felt a thrill in his stomach.

This is kind of fun, he thought. And then, maybe this is where I belong.

He thought of his father, the greatest pilot in the galaxy. I hope he’s proud of me.

“The only way we change the galaxy is together, so we have to care for each other. Look out for each other.”

He put his hands on his hips, looked to the more experienced in the room.

“I think that’s about it. Is there anything else?”

“There will be food and drinks tonight at our quarters, at twenty-one hundred,” Lottie called from the back of the room. “Bring yourself, bring your friends. It’s local fare, so don’t expect greatness.”

“Oh, right. Thanks, Lottie,” he said. They shared a smile, for the briefest of moments, a secret between the two of them.

“Welcome to the Rebellion, Rogue Squadron.”

–

The Rebellion’s legacy would grow beyond any of them, but the histories would neglect to tell future generations just how good the Rebellion was at throwing parties.

Parties were, of course, illegal, but in name only; establishing by-laws for a guerilla army was easier said than done. The alcohol was plentiful, but awful, brewed by soldiers or smuggled in from some galactic backwater. Tonight, Lottie and Wedge served grilled meat from a local species of deer that Pazima hunted–earlier that day, Luke had seen her carrying the animal, slung over her broad shoulders as she hung it up to dress in their yard.

The Fox Squadron had a home on Rostah, something even Luke realized was a rarity. More than that, they had a little garden, complete with a fire pit. Lottie had practically cried when she first saw it, and even Pazima let out an uncharacteristic squeal of delight, which she promptly covered with a cough.

The members of Rogue Squadron, along with medics, technicians and droids, gathered in that back garden, spilling over the fence and into the overgrown road outside. Music played from a speaker-one of Jax’s droids-and the air smelled of barbecuing spices, alcohol, and cigarra smoke.

Luke did not go to parties often before the Rebellion, especially not ones like these, boozed-up affairs full of people his own age. Mainly because he was never invited. He enjoyed these parties, because he enjoyed the people. He found his comrades endlessly fascinating, with their stories of adventure or tragedy or dull, regular lives from the wider galaxy. It was a feast for his imagination.

He spent most of his time with the new recruits, learning more about who they were and why they joined. Mainly, he saw how some of them tensed up when he approached, and it made him uncomfortable. The Rebellion was practically a machine for tall tales–he could only imagine what the rumor mill had come up with.

He found her after everyone had left, or had fallen asleep slumped against their fence. She slept curled in a chair, arms wrapped around her knees, long hair spilling along her shoulder. Lottie seemed peaceful, at ease. He hesitated a moment.

There was talk at the party, in the way some men liked to talk, all about who was the most attractive woman on base. He had excused himself from the conversation, partially because something about speaking about others in that way unnerved him, and partially because he really never spent much time thinking about it.

It’s not that he never noticed beautiful people. He had come to terms, at some point before Yavin, that his friendship with Biggs had been a crush too, innocent and sweet as spring. He had, of course, noticed Leia’s beauty, and for a moment, had been jealous of Han; before realizing that Han, for all of his flaws, had a profound capability for sensitivity when Leia was around.

Lottie was very beautiful, he thought, in a way that he had never thought of beauty before. On Tatooine, one was either a man or a woman. Lottie seemed to be both, or neither, or something in between. And something about that made Luke feel things that he did not understand, that felt dangerous and thrilling and horrifying and perfect all at once.

Boy, I know how to pick ‘em, Luke thought. And then, I should probably stop staring at the assassin.

He tapped her gently on the shoulder. “It’s late, Lottie,” he whispered. She jumped at his words.

“Fuck, Luke,” she said, clutching her chest and laughing. “You know, I think you’re the only person in the galaxy who can sneak up on me.”

“I’ll take it,” Luke said. He extended a hand. “It’s late, Lottie. You should get some rest.”

“Mm,” she said, shaking her head.

“You did a good job in there,” Lottie said, raising her drink to him. “Very impressive.”

“Thanks. Leia gave a good pep talk. And…” he hesitated, unsure if he should tell her this, but pressed on, “I dunno. I feel like…” He looked at her, resisted the embarrassment- “You’re a very comforting presence to me, Lottie.”

She smiled, and suddenly she did not look like a great assassin, or a war veteran, but a pretty girl, who was very rarely paid compliments. “Thank you, Luke.” She paused, and said. “I think that’s the first time anyone has ever called me comforting.”

Both of them laughed, because it was absurd. He thought of his friends back home, Biggs-what would they say about Lottie, a girl from the very center of the galaxy.

“Eh?” Lottie offered him a cigarra from her pack, one already stuck between her teeth, an expectant grin on her face.

Luke sat baffled for a moment. Does she really think I’ll- “No,” he said, half laugh, half rebuke.

“Ugh,” Lottie rolled her eyes, shaking her head. She lit her own cigarra, exhaled, and then turned, facing him and staring straight at him, squinting. “There’s got to be something, I’ll find it.”

“What?”

“Some dark secret of yours,” she said. She searched his face, as if she really expect it to be found there.

Luke laughed, embarrassed suddenly. “I don’t have any dark secrets.”

Lottie’s mouth twitched into a smile. “Oh, I’m sure you have plenty.”

He was used to this by now, the games she played. “And you’re the expert?”

“On dark secrets?” Inhale. “Yes.” Exhale. Her voice dropped, all serious. “When did you first realize you were different?”

“Different?”

“You’re not seriously telling me the Jedi powers came as a surprise to you?”

Luke sighed. There was something. It was a dark secret once, before the stormtroopers, before Darth Vader.

“I was dreaming. I don’t remember much of the dream, just-snippets.”

A spark of lightning. A palace on the lake. The raging fire of a city razed to the ground. A planet of lava. A creature drowning in mud. A child’s hands, soaked in blood. A dead woman fair and beautiful, with flowers in her hair. An island at the end of time.

“When I woke up, there was this huge bang. Everything in my room had been floating in the air, and it all came crashing down then.”

“What did your aunt and uncle say?”

“They told me never to speak about it.” That if he did, he would die. That there were people out there who killed people like him, and he would never be safe, never.

“Huh.” Lottie nodded. “How old were you?”

“Thirteen,” Luke said.

“Mm.” She looked away from him then, for the first time.

“Fair’s fair,” Luke said. “When did you first realize?”

Lottie inhaled, her chest heaving. She exhaled, her eyes studying his face. Finally, she closed her eyes, looked away, and said, “When my people wanted to exile me for the scar on my face, that’s why.”

“Continue,” Luke said, intrigued.

“The night of your first menstrual bleeding, you have to have this ceremony. You have to sword-dance through the night.”

“Sword-dance, that’s…” Suddenly, so much made sense in how she fought, the fluid movements, the quick feet, the rhythm of it.

“Yes. And the whole village sings while you dance. It’s a time when…”

She looked at Luke again, suddenly hesitant.

“...When you’re very close to the gods. I suppose you would call it the Force. And…well, during mine, I got this.” She gestured to the scar again. “I won’t bore you with all the details, but for me to have this particular scar on this particular eye…” She sighed, shaking her head. “I dunno. They were still debating what exactly it meant before everything went to shit.”

“What do you think it meant?” Luke asked.

“I-” Lottie sputtered, taken aback by the question. “I have absolutely no idea,” Lottie laughed. “I still pray to them. I ask. But no answer.”

“I talk to ghosts,” Luke blurted out. “If that makes you feel less…”

“Insane?” She giggled, and Luke laughed too. “Gods, what a pair we make. After we win this blasted war, maybe we could start an asylum for the mentally ill.”

“Are you sure that’s not just Coruscanti for Jedi Temple?”

They both laughed, so hard they woke up Wes Janson who was snoring in the corner.

“Sorry,” Lottie said, still trying to compose herself.

“Sorry, Janson,” Luke said.

Janson snorted, and continued to drool peacefully.

“We probably should head to bed soon,” Lottie said absentmindedly.

“Right.”

They both stood up. Suddenly, it felt profoundly awkward to remember he was sharing a bunk space with Lottie, too dangerously intimate.

What was the proper way to end this conversation? A handshake? A hug? A kiss-no, that wouldn’t be right-

A now familiar sound rang out; the dawn monk’s chants, a high, plaintive cry.

“I wonder who their gods are,” Lottie said, as the monks began their march, and the sun began to rise. Then, to Luke, to herself, to no one at all, “I wonder if they’re listening.” She took one last drag, stamping her cigarra out in the mud.

Both of them found their way to their bunkroom, Jax already snoring. She fell asleep quickly, but he could not, his mind racing with a million thoughts, a million questions.

Was this right? What he was doing, with Lottie, with the Rebellion, any of it? Was he on the right path?

The gong rang out, startling Lottie awake. She shifted, whimpered, pulling her covers over her head.

“Ben,” he said. He wasn’t sure he even said it aloud, or just in his own head.

Luke, trust your feelings.

Trust yourself.

The monk’s chants became a lullaby, something Aunt Beru used to sing to him as a child. He welcomed sleep, and the dreams that would come, of a new home amongst the misfits, of a new future.

#luke skywalker #luke skywalker/oc #star wars #star wars fanfiction #luke skywalker fanfiction #home stories #chapter update #eowyn speaks #my writing

3 notes · View notes