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no-one-fuck-a-man · 2 years

Text

Berry Blues

Season Two

Part One - (Audition) You Gotta Love Blackmail

Quinn Fabray x Reader

Summary: A new school year. A summer history. What will this new year bring? Blackmail!

Word Count: 8,093

WARNINGS: None that I know of.

(A/N): Happy New Season!

Bold + Italics = Song

-----

The summer had passed quicker than you would have liked. But still, impossibly slow.

Your time was mostly spent avoiding the disgustingly happy couple, that was Finn and Rachel. Wherever they were, generally, you weren't.

Matt had left. Transferring schools and moving away with his family. Bringing on the inevitability most high school students faced when they were separated from their friends once had school finished, much sooner than you had ever expected.

You would miss him. He was one of your good friends, after all. But at least you still had Mike.

Speaking of the dancer. He also left you during the summer, soon after.

Not in the same way that Matt had left you. You didn't know what you would do if both of your boys had moved away from you, especially in the same year.

No.

Mike had gone to what he called "Asian Camp" with Tina.

Which had left you with a select group of friends for the rest of the holiday.

Namely Santana, Brittany, and Quinn.

Well… if you were being entirely honest.

It was mostly just Quinn.

You and the girl had spent a lot of time together. Going on unofficial dates. Which ended with the two of you making out in the back of your car. In some undisclosed location, where neither of you would be caught. Whilst also being there for her during her darkest times. The girl was still reeling after giving up her daughter Beth and all of the lingering hormones.

However, that all came crashing down a month into the season.

Quinn had randomly cut your… whatever off. Hardly contacting you after that.

You were honestly left so downtrodden.

Not knowing what was happening inside.

Your last encounter with the blonde replaying over and over again, every night you laid awake in bed. The lingering feeling that you couldn't help the girl with whatever she was dealing with festered within your chest.

Not knowing if you had actually done something wrong. Or, if quite simply, she just didn't want you anymore. At least like that.

Quite frankly, you were heartbroken.

There had been nothing official between you and the blonde. Never a label put on the thing between the two of you. But you liked her, and she had repeatedly told you the same.

Your family had noticed something was wrong.

Well… your father's did. Rachel was too busy to care about anything but performing, herself, and her relationship with Finn to notice.

It may seem terrible, but you had defaulted back to Santana.

But hey! That was your relationship. You were friends who also used each other for sex.

That's normal, right?

You were, however, curious as to where Brittany had disappeared off to. You weren't incredibly worried for the girl, though. She still texted and called. It was just in her nature to wander off and reappear at random.

LeRoy and Hiram weren't overjoyed by your spur of the moment decision during the final stretch of the summer.

You had come home with a project motorcycle. A hobby for you to work on, other than your job and Glee Club -also school-. They would have preferred a car. But once you had told them that it would take a long time to fix up, considering its condition and how old it was and that once it was running perfectly, you would make sure to wear the necessary protection, and finally that you would be incredibly safe.

And now, here you were. The first day of school.

A whole new year.

Same old school. With the same old people -mostly-. And the same old annoying JBI.

"Y/N! Y/N!"

"Oh, God, Jacob," you groaned as the boy followed you down the hall. Jogging to keep up with your strides, "Leave me alone. I've been here for two minutes!"

"How was your summer?"

"Hot. Can you go now?"

"'Hot' how?" the boy asked, thrusting his microphone in your face as another boy aimed a camera at you.

"In many ways. Namely in some that you won't experience, unless it's coerced, and will end up with you being on a registry."

He was speechless, pausing in his steep, watching as you walked away from him. Quickly shaking himself out of it, jogging to catch up with you, spotting your sister as he trailed along after you.

"Rachel, how do you respond to the rumours you're incredibly difficult to work with?" Jacob asked her, stopping before her and Finn as you stood beside your sister.

The girl moved from straightening out her boyfriend's shirt to face the shoddy interviewer.

"Oh, as her sibling, I can say that they're remarkably accurate," you stated before she could answer, for herself, "It's hell on earth. And that's on her good days. Trust me, I know. I've been there for 'em all."

"And, as her boyfriend, I can also answer that."

"We've been dating all summer." Rachel smiled into the camera after fixing her already styled hair. Creeping you out so much that you had to jump back and away from her slightly as she turned to the other camera the boy had following him, beaming into that one, too.

"Rachel's what you call a 'controllist'."

Your face scrunched up at Finn then. "That's not a word."

"I-I-I'm controlling. 'Controlist' isn't a word," she rushed to correct.

"Oh."

"I'm controlling."

"Yeah, you're telling me."

"Performing is my life," she continued to gush as her boyfriend stayed silent beside her.

You, on the other hand, swayed your head side to side. Mouth moving to mock her words, "And, yes, do I have opinions about it? Does my need to constantly express those opinions annoy my fellow Glee Clubbers?"

"Yes."

"Yes. Yeah," you and Finn interrupted, at the same time, in the same scoffed tone, nodding along as you did. Only for Rachel's smile to drop.

"That was out loud, wasn't it?"

"I meant for mine to be out loud," you told the camera, gaining a glare from your sister over her shoulder.

"When are you skated to make your triumphant return to the Shire?"

You snorted at the boy's joke about your sister's height before clearing your throat and turning to the couple beside you, "I'll see you guys later. I'm gonna go find the girls."

"Oh, you mean the ones you hung out with more than your own sister during the summer?" Rachel called after you.

"And what? Opposed to watching you and Finn make out? Yeah, I'm happy with that decision."

You found the three friends not long after. Sliding up to the, you whispered, "This little creep won't stop following me." In reference to Jacob, who was, once again, trailing after you.

The boy then chose to turn on Quinn, who was busy gathering things from her locker. With you watching along, from your place in between Santana and Quinn.

"How has life changed since the birth of your bastard child?" Jacob asked the blonde as she closed her locker door and turned to the boy.

"What the fuck did you just say?"

Her hand came out to stop you from advancing on him further. Even if you hadn't spoken in a while, she still knew how you were and when to stop you. It was almost a reaction at this point.

Quinn was taken aback slightly by the boy's question but still answered it anyway.

"Well, I'm happy to be back, and I'm ready to start fresh." Reaching over, she pulled the camera back on herself and away from Santana's breasts as she continued talking. Switching hands to keep her folder pressed against her chest, she moved to do the same to your chin. Pulling your face back up and straight, eyes no longer looking down at the Latina like the camera -and cameraman- was.

"And I'm a lot less hormonal. So- So there's not really any crying."

"Oh, God," you whispered to yourself, eyes hazed over and looking straight past everyone as memories flashed behind your eyes, "That was awful."

The blonde nudged you with her elbow, brows furrowed at your words, bringing you back to reality.

The wannabe interviewer blanked everything that Quinn and yourself said, moving instead to creepily ask Santana a question of her own.

"How was your summer?"

"My eyes are up here, Jewfro," the girl replied, gesturing with her pink nail file, "And it was uneventful."

"Yeah, sure, if 'uneventful' is spelt 'B-O-O-B J-O-B'," you said sarcastically.

Santana turned to sass you back but was interrupted by Brittany, who found it to be the perfect time to speak up, leaning into the blue microphone.

"People thought I went on vacation, but actually I spent the summer lost in the sewers."

Both girls -and Jacob- looked like she had just sprouted another head. All the while, you nodded along with her words.

"It's true. I had to go in there a week ago to get her out. Man, the sewers are disgusting."" Santana and Quinn both took a step away from you as if you were contaminated with something, disgusted faces being pulled as they did. "What?!" You looked between them, offended. "I took a shower afterwards! Brittany was in there for over a month!"

"What did you do with all of that breast milk?" The boy turned back to Quinn.

"I drank it," you said sassed immediately, "Next question."

"Okay, we have to go," Quinn said, hand on your bicep, pulling you away from the boy, his cameras, and the two giggling cheerleaders.

"People are gonna believe that, you know?" she questioned you as you strode down the hall, side by side.

With a scoffed snort, you replied, "I could say I could flap my arms like a chicken and can fly, and somebody would believe it."

"Chickens can't fly, either," she pointed out, confused.

"Exactly."

---

You didn't know he did it. But somehow, that little twerp Jacob was around every corner of your school.

It hadn't been more than five minutes that you had walked from the boy, when you turned the corner, only to spot him "interviewing" Kurt outside of the boy's bathroom.

"-For everyone who reads your blog. Next time, instead of posting an anonymous comment online, say what you have to say to my face."

What you didn't notice was Azimio walking past you with a tall cup clenched in his hand.

Your eye's widened when you saw him throw the red slush in Kurt's face.

"Welcome back, Lady," he laughed boisterously.

"Azimio!" you growled.

"Oh, shit." He looked over his shoulder at your angered form. Quickly taking off down the hall.

"You better run!"

Only the first day and this bullshit was already happening.

"These are the latest comments from Jacob Ben Israel's most recent Glee Club blog."

Your arms were folded across your chest, from where you sat behind Santana and Kurt. Listening as your Spanish teacher spoke at your first Glee Club lesson of the year.

""Glee is a giant ball of suck-"."

"Wow, Mr Schue. You really do know how to start a lesson, don't you?"

"Yeah, we get it, Mr Schue. Everyone still hates us," Kurt said, carrying on from your point, "So what? So we're plankton on the high school food chain. Only difference now is that none of us really care," he finished in a chuckle.

"Oh, I never cared."

"Kurt's right," Mercedes spoke up next, "We're a family. They can bring it all they want. None of it is gonna break us."

"I'm really happy that you guys have bonded. The problem is that all of this negative stuff is keeping the other students from auditioning."

"Well, good. Why do we need new members?" Tina shrugged.

"Well, since Matt transferred, we only have twelve members."

"Oh, great, thanks for reminding me of that," you sassed, "Now I'm sad again. And, isn't that fine? All we need are twelve members."

"Sorry, Y/N," Mr Schue replied, although he didn't really sound sorry, "But if we want to go to nationals, if we wanna beat Vocal Adrenaline, we have to go from a small rebel force to a giant wall of sound."

"Yeah. Mr Schuester's right." Rachel nodded as she stood. "You didn't see Vocal Adrenaline at Regionals. They were epic."

"Yeah, sorry, I was a bit busy seeing something scaring," you muttered.

"We're gonna need more voices in order to beat them."

"Yeah. I'm with Rachel on this one." Finn moved to stand beside his girlfriend.

"Gross."

"You and I have the same sentiment," you told Brittany.

"You're gonna have to trust me on this, guys. Now. Here's the plan. Nationals are in New York this year. And we are going!"

"Wait, so let me get this straight-"

"You're never straight," Mike joked, to which you outstretched your hand towards him, blocking him from your view.

"-There's a chance that we can leave this state and go to an awesome city?"

"Yes, there is!" Mr Schuester smiled happily, pointing your way. "Now, let's go out there and show the school how cool it's gonna be, how cool we can be. If they're not gonna come to us, let's go to them. They say we only sing show tunes and '80s pop. Let's show them how down we are. Let's give them the song of the year. New Directions style."

"Oh, God. Please don't pose like that," you told your teacher and friend, standing at the front of the class. Watching as they stood with their arms crossed over their chests in such a way that made them look like they were trying to be gangsters or something, "You cannot pull it off. Actually, no one can really pull it off. It's like those shutter shades." You gestured between your eyes. "They exist. But no one should wear them."

And yet, as you were drawing an end to your words, Brittany still whooped and cheered, scattered applause coming from the rest of the group.

"I really don't wanna do this," you said, dressed in the same 'New York City' T-shirt as everyone else, ready for the performance.

"You've performed in front of crowds before," Tina said with a laugh in her tone.

"Yeah, but they paid to see that. They knew what they were getting into. It's this school, remember?"

"I thought you didn't care what they thought of you?" Kurt was next to point out.

"I don't. I just don't wanna give them more ammunition than they already have," you reasoned, "I don't want to be suspended the first week of school for beating the shit out of them, for throwing a slushie in my face."

"You know you could just not beat them up instead," your sister offered.

"I'm not gonna let somebody do that to me and get away with it."

Finn placed the second bulky stereo onto one of the round outdoor cafeteria tables, cutting off any conversation that could have continued.

Rachel reached behind her, pressing a button on the stereo Mike had placed just before Finn, leading the group to vocalize 'Empire State of Mind'.

You were sat beside Kurt on one of the tables. Leaning over your legs with your elbows upon your knees. Gold chain swinging around your neck as you peered through your sunglasses, watching Mike dance his way towards you and the cross-legged boy.

Kurt tapped you on the arm, indicating it was time for you to get up and move into your planned places.

The boy headed towards Artie, helping him roll between the tables. While you slowly meandered around them.

Yeah, yeah, I'm out that Brooklyn

Now I'm down in Tribeca

Right next to De Niro

But I'll be hood forever

I'm the new Sinatra

And since I made it here

I can make it anywhere

Yeah, they love me everywhere

I used to cop in Harlem

All of my Dominicanos

Right there up on Broadway

Pull me back to that McDonald's

Tool it to my stash box

560 State Street

Catch me in the kitchen

Like a Simmons whipping pastries

Finally, you reached the foot of the stone bleachers, where students were sat, enjoying the sun and their lunch break. to make your way up them.

Eight million storied out there

And they're naked

City is a pity

Half of y'all won't make it

Me, I gotta plug

Special Ed "I got it made"

If Jeezy's paying LeBron

I'm paying Dwyane Wade

Three-dice Cee Lo

Three-card Molly

Labor Day parade

Rest in peace, Bob Marley

Jigga, I be spiked out

I could trip a referee

Tell by my attitude

That I'm most definitely from

You looked over your shoulder at the three girls now strutting their way down the cement steps, joining in on the song, as you leant against one of the metal railings.

In New York

Hey

Concrete jungle

Where dreams are made of

Thank God you were wearing sunglasses.

Because at that moment, the three girls used the railing they were closest to as a means to grind their bodies up against it. But the sunglasses did nothing to hide the faint blush that spread upon your cheeks at the sight.

There's nothing you can't do

Now you're in New York

You're in New York

Santana passed by you.

Then Brittany.

Followed up by Quinn.

The girl grabbed your bicep as she danced by, pulling you along with the trio.

Welcome to the bright lights, baby

These streets will

Make you feel brand-new

Big lights will inspire you

Let's hear it for New York

New York, New York

Yeah

Bypassing the girls where they were now gathered, you made your way to the very bottom step, besides Mike.

One hand in the air for the big city

Streetlights, big dreams

All looking pretty

No place in the world

That could compare

Put your lighters in the air

Everybody say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Along with the rest of your group, you joined the girls dancing before the whole school.

In New York

Concrete jungle

Where dreams are made of

There's nothing you can't do

Now you're in New York

New York

These streets will

Make you feel brand-new

Big lights will inspire you

Let's hear it for New York

New York, New York

"Well," you began slowly, "That went better than expected."

"What do you mean? They're all ignoring us," Rachel replied to your remark, gesturing to everyone."

"Yeah, it could be way worse."

"How?"

"Let's just be glad that none of them have food out here because a food fight would be an option."

"Do you seriously think they would do that?" your sister asked doubtfully.

"You and I go to the same school, right?"

---

"Hey, dude, you seen these?"

Glancing over your shoulder, you spotted Finn making his way towards you in the hall, a stack of papers in his hands and a proud smile upon his face.

Things had been getting back to normal between the two of you from all of last year's drama.

It was almost like you were best friends again.

"What you got there?" you asked, as he stepped up beside you, dipping the pamphlets so you could read them, "'Glee Club. Sign up, bro!'."

"Yeah," he exclaimed excitedly, eyes focused on the papers in his hands, "They're cool, right? I made them super masculine, just like these pamphlets I saw some army guys passing out at a day-care centre."

"Wait, a day-care centre?"

"Yeah!"

"This town is somehow worse than I originally thought."

"I'm putting them around the school since our performance didn't work." He shrugged. "I think they're gonna bring in some new members."

"In this school?" you questioned him, face sceptical as you studied his excited face.

"Yeah!"

'Oh, poor, sweet Finn'

You didn't have the heart to tell him the truth.

"I'm sure you're right, buddy."

So you lied to him instead.

You spent the next five minutes walking with him around the school as he put them up.

Up until he entered the boy's locker room.

"What are you doing?" the boy asked when you halted just outside the door.

"I can't go in there. It's the guy's locker room."

Finn chuckled. "So? It's empty. And even if it wasn't, it's not like you're attracted to guys anyway."

"That's not the point. And I've been in there before anyway it fucking reeks."

"Fine. You stay out here. I'll be two seconds."

You waited.

And you waited.

And you waited some more.

For what was way longer than "two seconds".

When finally, Finn re-emerged from the room. With an almost crazed look in his eye.

Gesturing your arms out at your sides, you asked the boy, "Where the hell have you been? "Two seconds", my ass. I thought you got lost in one of those lockers or something. A porn fantasy take hold of ya'?"

"A guy was singing in the shower."

"Oh, wow. The humanity," you replied sarcastically, "I've never heard of someone doing that before."

"No. He's actually really good," Finn explained his point, "It was that new transfer kid-"

"Wait. Which one?"

"The blonde one with the bangs."

"Oh, you mean the one who looks like an older Justin Bieber?"

Finn nodded. "That's the one! I saw him tapping his foot when we busted it-"

"Never say that again."

"-In the courtyard yesterday. I would've joined in with a kick-ass harmony, but the dude was naked."

You looked at him for a few moments.

"Sometimes, I worry about you. And not in the way that you think. You just... fill me with great concern."

"Thanks?"

"That's not a compliment."

---

"Finn, I need your help with something."

"Oh, sure, Arite, what's up?"

You were with the tall boy by his locker when Artie rolled up to the two of you, intent on asking Finn for a favour.

"Uh, you don't want my help? Rude."

"Are you on the football team?" he asked you.

"Well, no."

"Then you can't help me."

"If it's about muscle, then I can help. I have more than half the guys on the team."

Finn pointed your way. "That's actually true."

"I want to join the football team."

"Uh.." you sounded. Not sure if you should question the boy, but knowing that you would have to if he continued.

But Finn did that for you.

"Uh, Artie. I don't think that will work." A gesture to the wheelchair. "With your situation and all.

"I figure that if Kurt's gay and he can do it. Then why can't I?"

Now.

You didn't like hitting people who were at a disadvantage to you.

However, if it were deserved.

That's a whole other story.

Which is why you cocked your arm back and gave him a swift crack to the back of the head. The boy was quick to rub at the offended area. Glancing over his shoulder, only to be met with your glare. And a point of your finger.

"I do not appreciate the casual homophobia."

"Being gay isn't a handicap, Artie," Finn said, siding with you. And suddenly, you were shrouded with a wave of pride at how much the boy had grown over the year. "How can you play football in a wheelchair anyway?"

"I have to get on that team, Finn."

"What's so important about being on the team?" you asked, shaking your head.

"Yeah, dude, what's this about?" Finn was next to question as he closed his locker door and moved to lean back into it.

Artie almost had to grit out his reasoning, looking anywhere but at the two of you, "Tina. She dumped me for Mike Chang. They fell in love over the summer at Asian Camp," he explained, "They were counsellors in charge of teaching all those tech-savvy Asian kids about the arts."

"Oh God, when Mike told me he had started something with another counsellor, I didn't know he was talking about Tina."

You were in class now. Writing down your notes as Finn leaned over to Artie, who was sat at the next table over.

"So, what did Tina say when she broke up with you?" he asked in a whisper.

You could have made a comment about this being the reason Finn was failing most of his classes. If you weren't just as curious as the boy. So curious, in fact, that you leaned in closer too.

To someone looking at you it would appear almost as if you were trying to look at Finn's work.

"She said that she thought I was great. But that I was a terrible boyfriend. And that I ignored her for weeks this summer. When I was playing a marathon round of 'Halo'."

"Understandable." Finn nodded, agreeing with the boy's defence.

"Uh, not understandable."

"Then she went on about how when we did get together, all I wanted to do was watch 'Coming Home' over and over."

"The... music video?" you questioned slowly.

When Artie spoke next, he sounded glum beyond belief, "And then she said that Mike tried to be into the things she was into... like his abs."

"Oh, well, that's... fucked."

Class was dismissed the next second.

All it took was a single glance at Finn's blank notebook as you packed your things away that lead you into the realisation that he would be asking for your notes later.

"Dude, I'm sympathetic for you. I just don't see you on the football team," Finn said, rolling Artie down the people littered hallway.

However, the boy wasn't going to back down without a fight.

"Imagine you were pushing me in this hunk of metal down the field at full speed. The centrifugal force would be too much to stop. I'd be like a medieval battering ram."

You considered Artie's wheelchair for a moment. Gauging it.

"You'd need some specialized wheels. Ones good for dirt in all weather."

"Dude, you'd be like a human cannonball. That would be awesome!" Finn gushed.

"So, you'll help?"

"Sure. But you gotta help me first."

"I gotta go to history class." You pointed in the opposite direction the boys were heading, causing them to stop and look back at you.

"Aw, come on, Y/N. Class doesn't start for another fifteen minutes. You can come with," Finn whined.

You let out a groaned sigh, relenting, "Fine."

"Alright!"

You made your way over to the blonde transfer student that Finn caught singing in the shower the day before.

"Hey, Sam," Finn greeted, shaking the boy's hand, "My name's Finn. This here is Artie. And that-" He pointed your way. "-Is Y/N."

"Uh, I know who you are. You're the quarterback."

"Exactly. Which makes me very cool."

You snorted lightly. Both at the boy thinking he was cool when you full-well knew that he still slept with the stuffed dinosaur he had since he was six, and his tone as if trying to sell Sam something. Which, in a way, you guess he was.

"And we'd like to talk to you about Glee Club."

Soon enough, you were gathered in the choir room with the two missing male members of the club, minus Kurt. Sat in a line as Sam stood before you all. An awkward tension rippled from him. You couldn't help but notice Puck's awestruck face as he stared at the boy from your seat between him and Mike.

"So, Sam, tell us about yourself," Finn prompted.

"My name's Sam Evans. I like comic books-"

"Same." You nodded.

"-Sports."

"Not same." You shook your head.

"I'm dyslexic, so my grades aren't that good. But I'm working on it."

"Dude, your mouth is huge," Puckerman pointed out, "How many tennis balls can you fit in there?"

"'Tennis balls'? He's not a dog."

"I don't know," Sam replied slowly, "I've never had any balls in my moth. Have you?"

You laughed at the blonde's question, chancing a look at the buzzed haired teen, only to see him with a bashful smirked look on his face.

"Wait. Puckerman, is there something you wanna tell the group?"

"I like this kid," Finn said, leaning towards Artie.

"I like his confidence."

"You know he can hear you, right?" you asked, manoeuvring around in your seat to look at the two.

"But the Bieber cut's got to go."

Finn hummed in agreement.

"Or, you know, ignore me. Again."

"So, can you sing with that big mouth?" Puck asked. While Finn stood up and moved to grab a guitar.

"I've never really sung in front of anybody before."

"Dude, let me tell you, chicks dig singers."

Finn gently thrust the guitar into Sam's arms.

"Well, give it a shot. We'll back you up, I promise."

"Will we?"

"What song have you got in your back pocket?"

"Um." Sam took a moment to think, smiling up at the boy when he thought of a song. "'Billionaire'?"

"It's never rock," you say more to yourself than anyone else.

Finn snapped his fingers pointing towards the guitar, then spun to go sit at the drums, everyone else getting ready to join in on the song.

I wanna be a billionaire

So freaking bad

But all of the things I never had

I wanna be on the cover of

Forbes magazine

With your forearm resting upon Mike's shoulder, you nodded along to Sam's singing. Lips formed into an impressed frown.

Finn wasn't wrong. He could sing.

Smiling next to Oprah and the Queen

Oh, every time I close my eyes

I see my name in shining lights

Yeah

A different city every night, oh, I

I swear, the world better prepare

For when I'm a billionaire

Leaning close to Mike's ear, you whispered, "I think Puck may be in love with him."

The dancer followed your line of sight, finding Puck watching the singing boy with bright eyes and a giant smile on his face.

With a humoured smile of his own, Mike moved to whisper in your own ear, "I think he might have found some more balls to put in his mouth."

To cover up your snort, you began rapping the next part of the song. Trying to distract yourself from his joke.

Yeah, I would have a show like Oprah

I would be the host

Of 'Every Day Christamas'

Give me ya' wish list

I'll probably pull

And Angelina and Brad Pitt

And adopt a bunch of babies

That ain't never had it

Give away a few Mercedes

Like, "here, lady, have this"

And last but not least

Grant somebody their last wish

Artie took over for you as you came up beside him.

It's been a couple months

That I been single, so

You can call me Artie Claus

Minus the ho-ho

Ha-ha, get it

I'll probably visit where Katrina hit

And darn sure do a lot more

Than FEMA did

Yeah, can't forget about me, stupid

Everywhere I go

Imma have my own theme music

Oh, every time I close my eyes

Oh, what you see?

What you see, bro?

I see my name in shining lights

Uh-huh, uh-huh, and what else?

Yeah

A different city every night

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah

Oh, I swear

World better prepare

For what?

For when I'm a billionaire

Oh, oh, oh, oh

When I'm a billionaire

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Sing it

When I'm a billionaire

Oh, oh, oh, oh

I wanna be a billionaire

So freaking bad

"That was really cool," Sam laughed once the song was over.

"Dude, that was awesome!" You pat his shoulder in congratulations.

"Nice." Finn nodded. "So, you think you can come back and do that in front of everybody?"

"We'll help you through it again if you need," you offered, with the guys nodding along in agreement.

"Sure." Sam gave a half-shrug.

"Okay. Now, I've gotta get to history class."

---

You were still trying to wake up as you walked down the halls the next day.

You knew it was a bad idea to stay up till three A.M. playing video games with Finn and Mike.

Rubbing some of the left-over sleep from your eyes, you looked up. Only to spot her.

Dressed in clothes that she would wear work out in, hair pushed back with a thick red headband to match her T-shirt.

"Hey, blondie!"

"Back with the nickname, I see," Quinn stated, watching you jog up beside her over her shoulder.

"When did it ever stop?" Her only reply was a tick to the corner of her lips that could almost pass off as a smile. "Where you heading dressed like that? Normally you're in your Sunday best."

"Tryouts are today."

"Tryouts? For what?"

"Cheerios."

"Oh." You smiled, nodding your head. "You're gonna be Miss Cheerleader again?"

"If I get my way. Yes."

"Cool. Imma come watch."

"Is there any stopping you?"

You made a long, drawn-out sound as if you were considering the options while moving your head side to side.

"Nope."

Leaning against the gymnasium's wall, you watched as Quinn made her way to the centre of the room. Standing in front of Sue Sylvester and Becky Jackson, sat side by side at the Cheerios table.

When the coach looked up, she instantly said, "No way. Get out."

"Coach Sylvester, please hear me out."

"Nope." She shook her head, looking away from the girl. "I trusted you, and you let me down. I don't want you anywhere near my squad. You'll deafen them with the sound of your stretch marks rubbing together."

'Oh, yeah. Because it was her aim to get pregnant'

"I understand you had your confetti cannons taken away." Quinn got her attention with that. "I bet there are quite a few church groups who would gladly give money to a squad who helped rehabilitate a girl who got pregnant and now speaks out for abstinence education while wearing a Cheerios uniform."

There you stood, smiling, impressed by the girl, still whipped for her even after everything.

"Next!"

"It worked." You smiled knowingly at her when she came closer.

"I know."

"I missed you manipulating her to get what you want."

Just as you were about to leave with the blonde, you were stopped by Becky Jackson's voice.

"Oh, my gosh, Coach."

Looking around, your jaw dropped when you spotted Finn standing front and centre, trying out for the cheerleading squad.

Quinn turned with you, just as shocked at the sight before her.

"Is he doing what I think he is?"

"I think so." You nodded.

"I'm Finn Hudson-" You pulled out your phone, hitting record. "-And I'd like to try out for the Cheerios."

"Oh, my God."

"Are you seriously recording him?"

"Are you seriously not?"

'I've Got The Power' by Snap! played throughout the gym. And so stared Finn's "Dancing".

During his performance, Quinn raised her hand to cover her mouth, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene.

You, however, still had your mouth wide open. But just as much had your eyes glued upon the tall boy. Flinching slightly when his back connected with the hard floor as he did a front roll... badly.

"Am I dreaming? Is this happening?"

"You and me both, Becky." You stopped recording at that point." Oh, sweet, sweet blackmail."

"Why, oh why, did you make me watch his, Hudson?" Sue asked once he was back on his feet, breathing heavily.

"Coach Beiste kicked me off the football team. I'm not the quarterback anymore, which means I'm nothing."

"Oh, that's just sad," you whispered.

"That mean you're gonna delete that video?"

"Fuck no."

"I miss being popular," Finn carried on.

"This is really embarrassing," Becky stated.

"I have really great leadership skills and, uh, I'm athletic, so I can help with the lifts and stuff."

"No wonder he had a hard time finding a job last year. He's really bad at this."

"I hope you'll consider me."

"She won't."

---

"Do cows make cheese like chickens make eggs?"

You were at a loss for words as you looked over at Brittany.

"You're special." The blonde cheerleader smiled at you. "But no. Cheese is made by-"

Your explanation was cut off when a grunt suddenly filled the air. Followed by a clang of something connecting with the metal lockers that lined the halls.

With great haste, you and Brittany rounded the corner. Only to find two of your friends, Quinn and Santana, fighting there.

"You did this to me. You told Coach Sylvester about my summer surgery!"

"You have a surgery when you get your appendix out. You. Got. A. Boob. Job!"

"They look great, though," you muttered.

"Yeah, they do." Brittany nodded. Leading to you both sharing a fist bump.

"Yep, sure did."

Your jaw dropped for the second time that day at the resounding smack that was delivered to Quinn. Unable to move from your position out of shock.

"You can't hit me!"

"Oh, sure, I can." Santana waved her head. "Unless you got yourself knocked up again, slut!"

Those were the magic words.

Quinn sneered at the Latina, gripping her shoulders, shoving her into the lockers opposite, beginning the "catfight".

"Stop the violence."

At Brittany's monotone words, you snapped out of your shocked state. Quickly jumping into action.

Dropping your backpack to the ground beside Brittany, you moved forward to stop the two fighting cheerleaders.

"Okay, that's enough."

It wasn't long before you flinched back at Santana's yelp, thanks to Quinn pulling her hair.

"Jesus Christ!" you exclaimed, arms coming up in front of you in surprised fear, rushing to help Quinn once Santana threw her down to the floor.

Lucky for you, backup arrived in the form of Mr Schue.

"Hey, hey, hey! What is this?" he asked, rushing down the hall.

As it turns out, you didn't need to help the blonde as she jumped right up. Instead, you now had to help your teacher by keeping the two girls away from each other.

"Stop it," Quinn grit at you, trying to push your arms away from her, so that she could get back to fighting the girl now being held back by Mr Schue.

"No?"

"What happened to us being a family?" the teacher questioned, "Hey!"

With your arms now wrapped around Quinn's waist, holding her back as she desperately tried to get to Santana, while the Latina goaded her on.

"Oh, please. She has a family! She's a mother!"

"Walk away!" Quinn screamed, "And tighten up your pony before you get to class!"

"Oh, yeah, nice comeback," you snarked.

The blonde pushed you away from her, panting heavily, as she glared you down.

"What? You're gonna fight me, too?" you challenged, "Or you gonna kiss me?" You smirked, recognising that glint behind her eyes.

Quinn huffed, walking through the gathered crowd and away from you.

"What was that about?" Mr Schue asked.

You raised your palms up to the sky in a shrug. "I don't know. Some cheerleader thing. Was it bad that I still found that fight to be incredibly sexy?"

---

This was reminiscent of when you had to wait to see what the guys would choose. Football or Glee Club, when Coach Tenaka added an extra practice.

Sat at the piano, tapping against the lid that covered the white and black keys, as you watched the clock tick by.

"Well, I hate to break it to you," Rachel said, hopping up from her seat, seeming way too happy for someone in your Club right now. Your sister came to stand beside you, "But it doesn't look like anyone's gonna be joining us. So, I think we should just call it a day."

"You seem to be happy about that," you pointed out suspiciously.

"We said three to five," Mr Schuester said, "It's only four fifty-eight."

"Yeah, that means nothing, Mr Schue."

"Just wait. My buddy Sam's gonna try out," Finn said, still watching the clock. As everyone began gathering their things and moving to leave the room, "He totally idolizes me."

"Face it, Finn." Kurt walked past him. "You're no longer the quarterback. You're not The Pied Piper anymore. No one's gonna follow you around thinking everything you do is cool."

"If we're being honest here, I'm confused as to when that ever happened."

"What about that Sunshine girl? I thought you said she could sing," Mercedes spoke to your sister, who was quick to pat her back and exit with her.

"I guess she didn't want to hand out with us losers."

Your eyes squinted at her in suspicion.

"You're up to something, Rachel. I can sense it!" You called after her.

It was the next day, and you were once again in the choir room with your sister. Trying your hardest to get what she was hiding out of her. When Mr Schue entered, flanked by Tina and Mike.

"Rachel, sit down." The teacher was angry that much was true. Which confused you even more, when he turned on you. "Did you know about this?"

"Know about what?"

"Y/N didn't know," Mike assured.

"Didn't know about what?!"

"Rachel sent Sunshine to a crack house," Tina told you.

"You did what?!" You turned on your seated sister now. "A crack house?!"

"Tell me this isn't true, Rachel."

"She could have died."

"I don't send her to an active crack nouse," she tried to reason.

"How do you know if a crack house is active or not?"

"I..." Rachel pulled her eyes from yours, turning back to Mike and Tina. "Besides, how did you guys find out?"

You threw your arms up in exasperation, flinging your head back at the same time.

"The Asian community is very tight," Mike told her.

"I just don't get it," Mr Schue said, "You're better than this."

Tina scoffed. "No. She's an ambitious little freak who will do anything to hold onto her power."

You hated to agree with that, especially when it was directed at your sister, but you couldn't help yourself but nod along. A tight-lipped frow plastered on your face in agreement.

Rachel stumbled over her words.

"I- I just- I love you guys, so much. I was wrong before. I don't want any new members. I- I don't want anyone coming in and- And messing up our group dynamic."

"You mean taking songs that you want to sing."

"Tina, Mike, what if Sunshine can dance?" she asked the two, "Then your contributions to Glee will be even more insignificant than they already are now."

"Rachel!" you scolded, as Mike folded his arms after taking that insult.

"I did this for you guys."

"No, you didn't." You shook your head, "You did this because you were intimidated, and you didn't want anyone stealing even a shred of the limelight that you've always had. Mike and Tina have the ability to share their minimal spotlight and still cheer them on. You do not."

Mr Schuester stepped forward after your mini rant.

"Whatever your motivations, you need to make this right, Rachel."

"And please, for the love of God, no more crack houses."

---

"I'm sorry for sending you to that crack house."

"And I'm sorry that my sister sent you to a crack house," you told Sunshine when you and Rachel stopped her in the hall.

"They stole my sheet music and used it for toilet paper."

You snapped to your sister. "I thought you said it wasn't active?!"

"I didn't think it was," she replied almost timidly before quickly moving to stop the smaller girl when she turned to walk away, "Look, I'll buy you a new set. Hey, just, um, come pick it up at the auditorium at four o'clock tomorrow."

Four o'clock the next day, you were in the auditorium, sat in front of Mercedes, with your feet propped up on the seat in front of you, with your arm stretched out on the one to your left. Watching as Sunshine walked out onto the stage.

"Hi. I'm Sunshine Corazon, and I'll be singing 'Listen' from the movie 'Dreamgirls'."

Rachel nodded, turning to everyone behind her. "Broadway show first."

Everyone hushed her, still annoyed by her actions. Puckerman even went as far as to throw in a "shut up".

Listen

To the song here in my heart

A melody I start

But I can't complete

Listen

To the sound from deep within

It's only beginning

To find release

Oh, the time has come

For my dreams to be heard

They will not be pushed aside

And turned into your own

All 'cause you won't listen

Listen

I am alone at the crossroads

I'm not at home in my own home

And I've tried and tried

To say what's on my mind

You should have known

With the cheering going on behind you, your jaw dropped and brows raised in reaction to her voice. A smile soon pulled at your lips.

With her, Mercedes, and your Sister. There was no way you weren't getting to New York this year.

Now I'm done believing you

You don't know what I'm feeling

You looked over your shoulder as the cheering grew louder. Only for your eyes to solely land on a beaming Quinn as she swayed from side to side.

As if she had a senser that blared when you looked at her. Her gaze quickly snapped down to yours. Smile turning soft, her swaying doing the same. With her head cocked to the side, Quinn stared affectionately at you. You almost wanted to call it "lovingly".

Your chest swelled, the corner of your lip turning up just for her.

'Maybe things between you would be alright, after all'

I'm more than what you made of me

I followed the voice you gave to me

But now I gotta find my own

I don't know where I belong

But I'll be moving on

If you don't

If you won't

Listen

To the song here in my heart

A melody I start

But I will complete

Oh, oh

Now I'm done believing you

You don't know what I'm feeling

I'm more than what you made of me

I followed the voice

You think you gave to me

But now I gotta find

My own

"Wow. Um..." Mr Schuester walked closer to the stage, clapping along with the majority of your club members. "Welcome to the Glee Club!"

"Thank you."

---

You didn't want to do this.

You really didn't want to do this.

But Finn just had to drag you along with him, didn't he?

So, with a hand over your eyes, you followed him into the boy's locker room.

"What's up?"

"What's up, dude?" Two of the football players greeted their ex-quarterback before they spotted you.

"What are they doing here?" one of them asked.

"Trust me, I want to be in here just as much as you want me here."

Then you heard the door close behind you.

"Y/N, you can take your hand from over your eyes now."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Sam said, making you spin blindly to face the direction his voice came from, "It's just me in here now."

"Are you naked?"

The blonde boy chuckled. "No. I'm not naked."

With reluctance and slight trepidation, you slowly removed your hand, blinking against the harsh fluorescent lights. Quickly glancing around, finding both the locker room empty and Sam fully dressed in his football gear.

"Oh, thank God."

"Hey, man, why didn't you show at the audition?" Finn asked.

"I wanted to. I did. I-" He was silent for a second, considering his next words. "But after what Coach Beiste did to you... do you know how everybody talks about you Glee Guys?"

"Do you know how many fucks I give?"

"Oh, yeah. You get used to all that."

"Finn, I'm- I'm the new guy." Sam stood, pointing at himself. "That means I'm already on the outside looking in. I don't want to start three touchdowns behind. I gotta go. Coach Beiste makes us do one-handed push-ups for every minute we're late, so..."

"Yeah, you made the team. That's cool." Finn's jealousy was kept just under his skin as he smiled for the boy moving to exit the room. "Uh, what position?"

"Quarterback."

"Oh, no," you sighed as Sam left, and Finn's face fell, "You're gonna be talking about this for the rest of the week, aren't ya'?"

What an end to the week you were given. With Sunshine leaving to join Vocal Adrenaline and all.

And it was only your first week back.

This year was gonna be a long one if this was anything to say for it.

-----

Next Part

#quinn fabray x reader #quinn fabray imagine #quinn fabray #original work #original fanfiction

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spectre-writes · 11 months

Note

The Lake Edit has my attention, what's that, whats in there?

Oh hey! So, that's a personal project, something I technically (?) started writing back in high school, but I wrote myself into a corner and dropped it for a while. But then there was stuff in there that I liked so I've taken a stab at editing/re-writing what's there and then continuing the story.

Basically a necromancer goes tramping to take a break from like... bad things... then accidentally gets caught up in trying to destroy a lich that's killing people there, and oh hey an old high school acquaintance who tried to blackmail them once (twice?) is there too... then amnesia, and they've somehow ended up with a decapitated vampire head who agrees to help deal with the lich problem if they help them get their body back. So, road trip time. Running from the police. Being a general mess. Trying to figure out what happened to those missing pockets of memory.

It's sitting at about 30k words at the moment and I'm maybe a third or the way through. Snippet below the cut.

He hadn't learned much. Hadn't expected to, really, but it was in his nature to try. Now, sitting in the dark, as he pondered this problem, a hint of despondency crept into his heart. He couldn't save them, wasn't quick enough. He couldn't solve this, wasn't smart enough. What was the point in trying, always trying, when it never worked out? He was a necromancer, picking up the shrapnel of other people’s lives and struggling to wrestle some meaning from the whole business. What good did that do?

But maybe it was less about the outcome and more about the act itself. In striving for something despite the impossibility of the task, because the moment he stopped… the moment he stopped, what kind of man was he then?

It was immediately after that epiphany when he heard the footsteps, and just had time to turn before the torch light swung into his eyes, blinding him and ruining his moment of spiritual enlightenment.

“Oh my god, what the hell are you doing!”

Oh yes, he was crouching by a dead guy, that was right. Other people might have a problem with that.

Jayden stumbled to his feet, one hand covering his face to protect his vision, the other held up in the universal sign of 'I'm not holding a weapon and I don't want to murder you'.

“It's not what it looks like,” he said.

The torch beam swung back to the body on the ground, and he got the feeling the owner was deciding it was exactly what it looked like.

“Oh my god, is that a dead guy?” the girl demanded, voice rising in pitch.

“Uh...”

“It is!”

“Well-”

“You killed him, didn't you?”

“No! I mean, he's dead but it wasn't me, okay? I was just... investigating.”

It was funny how even without seeing her face, he could feel the scepticism radiating off of her.

“I'm serious, okay? And I- look, can you please not point that in my eyes?”

“Oh, right,” she said, swinging the light down to his feet and giving him a moment to blink the dark spots from his vision. “How do I know you're not lying though? You probably are. Oh my god, you're probably going to kill me!”

“I'm not killing anyone, okay?” Jayden said in exasperation, holding both hands up again in an attempt to calm her. He was fairly sure if he was thus inclined, he would have given in by now and murdered someone. He’d worked in hospitality. “If you don't believe me, just look at him. There's no way I just killed him, he’s grey. And… also rotting.”

Tentatively, the beam of light snaked back to the body, shaking in unstable hands. “I think I'm going to be sick...”

“It's okay,” he said, taking a cautious step toward her. “Most people have that reaction. If it helps, just think of it like… compost. Like human compost. Nothing wrong with compost. Unless you put meat in it, because that can attract rats which you really shouldn’t do… which kind of ruins my metaphor now that I think about it.”

There was a moment of stunned silence. “You're blithering,” the girl said.

“Yeah, I do that. Sorry.”

#ask #ask game #Jayden is one of my older ocs #he's just generally a bit silly and not in control of his life

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kangseluigi · 4 months

Text

I almost fell back into a habit of talking to my mother like it's no biggie but today the resentment is rising

it's not even a big thing, just that

a) I'm in bed all day feeling like dying for multiple reasons, then she comes in being snarky and generally annoying b) I get up and force some food down and she goes "slept enough?" with a smirk you can hear and I'm already over it c) she gets pissy when I say she told me something, which like…tbf yes, maybe I misheard, but it's the instantly being angry and defensive for me that gets under my skin cause it happens every. single. time!! every time I say "but you said-" she gets sooooo mad, and every time she just says "NO!! I did NOT say that! There's no reason for me to say that!!!! You ALWAYS do this! YOUUUU never mishear anything it's always MEE and MY fault!!!"" when it would be so easy to say you don't think you'd say that literally any other way. And of course whenever it's the other way around I just say "??? No? I'm sure I didn't, cause I never even thought that" and just stand there confused but calm and wondering how that happened, and she just needs to rub it in my face all "SEE?? See how that is!? But I'm SURE You said that!!!" basically she cannnot be wrong and then accusesme of …not being able to accept being wrong, when I regularly admit to mishearing or not hearing things or maybe forgetting or misunderstanding, and KNOW our communication is fuckeddddd d) she then gets annoyed that I don't hurry to take the trash out before tomorrow morning like babe who give a fuck e) and when I am done with that, feeling physically and mentally miserable, she is laughing loudly and making random noises to demand attention, while I am having one of the worst days of my life.

The bottom line is, thank you, for reminding me just in time, you don't give a fuck about me. I'm tired of it, it doesn't even hurt anymore. I've accepted it tbh. Over the last month, I have completely detatched from her more than in the last few years, which already were putting it all to the test, but foolishly, I still tried to fix things with better and clearer communication. I tried sooo hard to work on it, and yeah, I definitely had moments where I just didn't know how to explain anymore that I cannot have her talk down to me like she does because it makes me SO miserable, which she considred emotional blackmail on my side, cause she just…NEEDS to help me and be clear about things, which is hilarious, cause there is a big thing of mould in the wall by the stairs, on the floor I'm on, which she doesn't pay much attention to and leaves for ages before tending to ONCE and then no more, but then gets mad when I have a couple too many dirty dishes cause ~it's unclean~ like babe, priorities.

Anyway. Today it's been 1 month since Beau died. Just 3 hours and 31 days ago. Which is why I am going through it a lot, among other things, and the whole month she just…didn't seem to care. Not about him, not about me, and yet she's mad that I don't help her with her cat, cause she helped with him, as if I'm not struggling to keep myself alive rn, or get out of bed at all, as if I'm not entirely fed up with her and wishng one of us would finally die so I don't have to deal with her shit anymore, on top of having a difficult relationship with her cat due to the love of my life-cat dying, but you know.

#I HATE that at 31 soon 32 I am still making the same posts I made for 20 years #I've been wanting nothing more but to get tf out of this house for 20 years #I am gonna scream #why must life be this way #everyone says 'just move out you're an adult omg'#cool I'm disabled and broke #so it's not that easy #not to mention the mental bullshit #but now I no longer have to consider Beau's wellbeing in me potentially leaving for a few days or lifetime #it's just I have no will to live lol #and honest it'd be so easy to go to the river right now at 4AM #she wouldn't even notice I'm gone for at least 24 hours I'm sure #it would all be so easy #suicide cw #abuse cw #???#mother bullshit

0 notes

animeyanderelover · 3 years

Note

hey, can i get a promt 58 whit Shalnark :0

👍.

Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, obsessiveness, kidnapping, manipulation, delusions, gaslighting, forced feeding

Prompt 58: “Listen, I’m giving you two choices. Either you start eating willingly or I’ll force you. There’s no way I’m letting you starve yourself to death.”

"Why aren't you eating anything?", the blond boy asked you slightly confused whilst chewing his food. You turned your gaze from your plate filled with the steaming meal he had cooked himself. Your favorite as well. It was a sweet gesture from his side, Shalnark was a very sweet guy in general for you. Most of the times at least.

You had learned to not underestimate his adorable face for one second, he was a true devil with an angel's face. You were talking after all about the guy who had kidnapped you, kept nude pictures of you ready to blackmail you as soon as you became too hard to deal with and refused to let you see your family again. So he was really anything, but cute. No, he was devilish, savvy and ruthless. You were sure that he had ruined so much more lives than he had admitted. After all he was a criminal, part of the Phantom Troupe.

And for some cursed reason you had caught his attention back then when you two had met in the coffee shop. You wished you would have just stayed in bed that day. But one thing had let to another and so you had been drugged by him one day and had awakened in a cage. It had been a few months since then and somehow you had come to terms with that new life of yours. It didn't mean you loved him nor accepted him. But due to previous experiences you had learned that being nice to him and not throwing tantrums was easier if you didn't want any rumors about why you had disappeared go viral or letting anything happen to those you loved.

Good behavior was rewarded after all and this was the reason why you were allowed to walk freely through the house instead of getting cramps by sitting the whole day in a cage, shackeled and forced to be bathed and fed from your captor. What you didn't enjoy at all, he seemed to love too much and you had refused to feel like you were his favorite doll he treated with love and pampered when you made him happy.

Living with a adoring and somewhat naughty Shalnark was so much better than living with a shameless and blackmailing Shalnark who was almost sadistic with the way he degraded you. That's what you had realized and you felt somewhat stupid for not having acted the way you had easier chances to survive earlier. But now you knew better.

"I'm not really hungry. I feel a bit sick.", you replied carefully, giving the food a look that already gave away that you really weren't in the mood. You felt not good, worries rolling through you so the smell of the food only caused your stomach to stir up in a rather bad way.

"You gave me the exact same answer earlier when you refused to eat anything for breakfast which I also prepared for you.", he replied, observing you with his usual sweet look on his face, curious green eyes looking at you.

You wanted to shrivel instead of being hold in place by these green eyes, glimmering with such brightness that made it hard to believe how evil he really was.

"You've been such a lovely darling lately that I thought that it would be nice from me to do something from you. I admit that I don't cook very often, but this is your favorite meal after all and I spent quite some time into all of this. You could at least be polite enough to try it. If you're really nauseous then you should stay in bed instead of roaming through the house. Be honest with me, there is another reason for this, isn't there?"

Right on the point as always, his observation skills were nothing to joke over. There was a reason that had caused you to feel more on edge recently than you were usually already since you had been taken from him. You were sure he might already knew since he knew much about you, too much to make you feel comfortable.

From the way you instantly shifted your eyes away from him, instead staring at the floor probably already gave him the answer he needed to confirm his suspicion. "Hmm, I see. So there is. Well, I'm glad to know that I was right. It would have been really impolite if you would have refused because I was the one cooking for you. But I guess you're just a bit overwhelmed by knowing that tomorrow is your birthday. The first one you will spend with your boyfriend and not your family and friends."

You knew that he would know. How couldn't he? You already expected that he had prepared something special for your special day. But this year you really didn't want to celebrate your birthday at all. At least not with him. The knowledge that no one you really cherished would be there to congratulate you and spend the whole day with you was something that made you feel gloomy. The worst was that this could be only one of many birthdays with him. This caused you to feel depressed enough to give you the feeling you would have to retch the food down in order to digest it properly.

"Hey, try to be happy about it! You shouldn't feel so anxious about it. I know you're still adjusting to this new situation and life, but you've made real progress so far. That's why I'll make sure that you'll have a great day tomorrow and enjoy every minute of it. I'll even take you out for a bit so do me the favor and don't try anything stupid. Understood?"

His chair jarred when he pushed it away and walked over to you, leaning with his one hand on the table top, towering like this directly over you since you were still sitting in your chair, all stiffened up. It felt awkward when he was leaning down to you like this, an encouraging smile decorating his face. At the very least he seemed to understand you and wasn't angry or discontended with you.

"I guess your stomach is being a bit turbulent at the moment that you don't really feel like eating currently. Why didn't you tell me already earlier? I felt offended because I thought you just didn't want to eat what I cooked for you."

By now he was close eough so that you could smell the cologne that he had put on, the one he had worn back then when he had taken you out on a date for the first time. That was when you had been so wonderfully unaware of what he was doing. The scent and the closeness managed to fluster you more than you wanted to admit, a sudden shyness taking over you that made you quickly hide your face embarressed by turning your head away a bit.

"I wasn't sure how to tell you.", you muttered truthfully out, cursing yourself when feeling the blood rushing to your face. Your sudden flustered state was recognized from Shalnark as well who started laughing a bit before tapping your cheek to get your attention back.

"You really are cute when you are so shy like this. It's adorable.", he chuckled, you noticing the mocking tone in his voice that added only up to your embarrassment.

"However, you still need to eat a bit. It's important. Even if you don't think you can, it's not healthy. And from what I have planned for us you need the energy, believe me."

You glanced at him when he said this, narrowing your eyes when looking at his innocent-looking face. What did he mean by this?

He tilted his head when he saw the way you were looking at him. "Oh, don't look with that leery look at me. It' nothing bad. But I also can't tell you. It's a surprise.", he answered in hopes of soothing your doubts.

"I wouldn't do anything that could bring you in real danger. After all I only want to protect and love you. You hopefully know that. This is why I can't have you going on without food for that long without any food in your stomach.", he added, pressing a chaste kiss on your lips which made you instantly jerk back, covering your lips flustered.

From the way he didn't move, looking expectingly at you, you guessed he waited for you to eat a bit.

"But Shalnark, I already said that I don't think I can eat anything right now.", you protested slightly, sounding almost like you were pleading which you probably did. You had been wrong. He still wanted you to do what he thought would be the best or what he wanted you to do.

"Listen, I'm giving you two choices. Either you start eating willingly or I'll force you. There's no way I'm letting you starve yoursel´f to death."

His voice had this slightly bossy undertone to it and he had by now leaned his whole upper body down at the table top, hand having wandered to the fork you hadn't even touched yet. You knew he meant it, he would feed you if you wouldn't do very soon like he wanted you to do.

"I thought you didn't like it when I fed you. But I missed it actually. I'll do it happily again if you can't."

#yandere hunter x hunter #yandere hxh #yandere shalnark

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ac3id · 3 years

Text

Plaything | 18+ | part i

plaything 1/ ?? | part 0

pairings: yandere! bully bakugou katsuki x fem! reader

warnings: [series] blackmail, bullying, dubcon/ noncon, filming w/o consent, yandere themes, no quirks au. ALL CHARACTERS ARE ABOVE 18 YEARS OF AGE.

↪ for chapter 1: dubcon, blackmail, humiliation, masturbation, filming w/o consent, boot grinding, a little bit of bakusquad + reader....this is filthy :D

summary: by luck you get enrolled into u.a high the best school in your town. the only catch is that the school is filled with rich, spoilt and powerful brats who just seem to hate you and among them, a certain red eyed blonde dreads you the most

↪ for chapter 1: you bump into bakugou by accident, dropping your vanilla ice cream all over him, you try to apologize and run away but wants more...oh wait why are his friends standing there recording everything too?

wordcount. 4k+

a/n: sooooo, it’s finally out! huge thanks to @sawamooora for proof reading this! helped me out a lot <3 sorry for making u sit through that mess x[

this scene was inspired by that one episode of boys over flowers where the mc’s best friend drops ice cream on the main guy’s shoe and he asks the mc to lick it off...obviously that didn’t happen in the show but it really got me thinking......

alsO the netflix show elite,,, i just saw it and knew,,,,

taglist: @mocha-focha, @erenyeagersbasement , @haribo-pop, @sunshine-fangs, @kuremis, @amazing-fandoms,

dm/ inbox/ comment to be added/ removed.

—navigation

It was a great opportunity. Never in your life would you have thought you’d manage to land a scholarship at the prestigious U.A Private Academy.

The school was a dream, the best in your city, and only affordable for the rich. Graduating from such a school could have helped you with life in so many different ways. Not only would it open doors you could never touch before, but it would help you to form connections which would make your life undoubtedly easier.

Graduating from U.A. was a blessing, but obviously, it did not come easy. It was rather unfortunate. After your previous school building had collapsed, due to some accident, the board announced its year-long closure.

At the time, you were beyond lost and understandably frustrated - it was your last year before college and you simply couldn't risk waiting the year out. The whole situation was nerve-wracking, looking for decent schools which would allow you in.

Honestly, you had no idea what you would’ve done if U.A. hadn’t called you that night.

It was the last day of the summer holidays, a week after your school building had collapsed. Luckily, no one was hurt - but the damage on the campus was severe.

You had been talking to your friends when your mother rushed into your room with exciting news. Apparently, the chairman of U.A was feeling generous. He had decided to offer four excellent students from your school a scholarship to U.A.

You were overjoyed being one of the students along with your two other friends; Shinso Hitoshi and Izuku Midoriya.

At first, the thought was a little scary - going into a completely different world than you were accustomed to. The kids there would be much different than you, you didn't want to be the laughing stock, you didn’t want to be their silly little entertainment... The thought made you nervous, but when your best friend, Izuku, called you the next night explaining how he also won the scholarship; followed by Shinso, you were relieved.

Yes, you were stepping into a whole different world but you at least had your two friends with you.

And that brought you to the first day of school.

You stood outside the huge gates of the even enormous academy all alone shaking in your little, expensive skirt they forced you to wear as the uniform waiting for your friends. You promised the two boys you’d wait for them, and besides, you weren’t planning on entering the building all alone.

Your friends, Shinso and Midoriya, lived close to each other. They were supposed to meet you at the gates of the school that morning, but they were running late. Your anxiety grew the longer you stayed there, with students filling the place- arriving in their fancy cars with their expensive bags and accessories. It easily made you feel out of place.

“Hey,” you heard someone before someone tapped on your shoulder. You quickly turned around to greet the voice. Staring back at you was Uraraka Ochaco.

You remembered she was in your school too, Midoriya has a huge crush on her.

“Yes, Uraraka? Right?” You weren’t close to her, nothing but mere acquaintances. But seeing her face - right here, right now - it made your day.

Uraraka was dressed in the same uniform as you, there was no doubt that she was one of the four kids who won the scholarship. Both of you talked while you implored her to wait for Midoriya and Shinso. You didn’t fail to notice the way her cheeks turned pink when you mentioned Midoriya. The two of them were so obvious.

Your friends arrived, they were late, but they came.

Apparently, there was an accident that forced them to stay back a little longer, but they managed to make it before the first bell.

“I actually have an old friend who goes there now,” Midoriya confesses out of the blue as the four of you enter the gates. You look at him in awe.

During the three years in high school that both of you had spent together, he had never mentioned any friend of his going to the U.A. academy ever.

“Why did you never tell us?” Uraraka asks.

“well, we’re not on good terms. He used to live in the same neighborhood before his parent’s business took off. He left after middle school.” Midoriya says, a slight frown forming on his face.

“Who is he?” Shinso asks.

Midoriya pauses briefly before explaining his entire history with a temperamental and rude blonde. Bakugou Katsuki, he calls him. His childhood friend. But from what you managed to gather, Bakugou was anything but a friend to Midoriya.

Bakugo was once just a simple boy, living a simple life, destined to do great things - but once his parent’s clothing line ‘Dynamite’ blew up and became mainstream, he started drowning in wealth. Bakugo moved out of his old neighborhood at the starting of high school before enrolling in U.A., just like all his rich friends.

“Maybe you should say hi,” Uraraka suggests. Midoriya’s expressions turned sheepish.

“About that…” he started. “I called him yesterday, got his number from mom, and-” he stopped.

“What did he say?” Shinso asked.

“He told me to get lost and die,” Midoriya said with a slight frown on his face, looking down.

That was your first impression of Katsuki Bakugou. For a man you had not even met, you sure loathed him.

School went smoothly for a week, everything was going great. The four of you kept your profile low, didn’t talk until spoken to, kept your distance, and everything was okay.

People often starred and whispered amongst each other when they saw you in the hallways, but that was about it. Everyone seemed to be decent but… there’s always a but.

Everything took a turn for the worse when you managed to piss off the wrong person, Bakugo Katsuki himself.

It was an honest mistake, not even that big of a deal - especially for his standards Yet, for some reason, Bakugo wanted to get under your skin.

It happened after your lunch break, you were on your way back to your classroom with an ice-cream cone fasted tightly in your hands. You mindlessly dashed through the hallways, trying your best to get back to class as fast as possible - you don’t want to be late. It’d earn you a bad reputation. You don’t need that- you don't want anything which could jeopardize your scholarship.

You walked straight and took a turn. Just by fate, you bumped into a stiff, hard chest making you wobble on your feet and sending your ice cream from your hand flying straight to the ground.

“Shit,” you cursed, looking down seeing what you had to work with.

The ice-cream cone splattered on the floor, the white creamy liquid flushed all over the floor along with staining an expensive-looking, black leather boot. A snarl comes from above you along with a group of chuckles. More expensive shoes come into your line of view as you realize you’re not alone.

You slowly bring your gaze up, ogling at who you just pissed off.

Staring back at you is a furious blonde, glaring at you with such intensity that it makes your stomach drop. It’s the infamous Bakugou Katsuki, you don’t want to deal with him.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” you don’t give him a chance to complain as you take your flight. Quickly, you try running away but a large hand grabs your forearm, stopping you dead in your tracks.

You look to the side, deep red eyes stare right back at you.

“Where are you running off to? Don’t you think you owe my friend here a proper apology?” Kirishima says, his grip on your arm growing tighter. He towers over you, his huge body trapping you with intimidation.

Going to U.A for over a week there’s a thing or two that you’ve learned about the rich, snobby brats who own the school. Not everyone is bad, a few of them are actually but the rest are just bad.

Bakugou was the worst. From how Midoriya described him, you knew for a fact he’d be a horrible person. But hell, he managed to prove himself even worse.

He was crude, mean, downright arrogant, and ignorant. Always screaming unasked opinions on top of his lungs, and gets mad whenever someone disagrees. He acts like the world revolves around him.

Bakugo had a bunch of friends who he called his “followers” and they weren’t any better.

They just watched while Bakugou ruined everything, they were there to support him.

Kirishima Eijirou the redhead, he was captain of the football team. He was a jock, brawns over brains kind of person. Girls cooed over him and his overly attractive, hot body. It looked as if he was sculpted by God himself.

Next was Kaminari Denki. He was in the school band, dating the lead singer. And yet, he managed to find time to flirt with other girls. He was the goofball of the group, dumb and stupid But he always knew what he was doing. Even though it was barely noticeable, you could always see a devious glint in those amber eyes of his.

Sero Hanta was famous for a lot of reasons. Most notably for having brought illegal drugs on the campus and skipping classes to go down to his junkie hangout spot to smoke weed. The man had no shame. Sometimes, he’d walk into the classrooms high as fuck. The teachers couldn’t do anything even if they tried, his parents practically owned the school; he owned the school. There was no going against the tall, lanky man who looked like he couldn’t even smash a bug. He held the most power and his friends sure knew how to abuse it.

Last but not least was Mina Ashido. The one and only girl member of the self-proclaimed ‘bakusquad’. Sometimes, Jirou Kyouka, the lead singer of the school, would hang out with the boys and her boyfriend, but she wasn’t a permanent member. Mina was.

In your opinion, Mina was a nightmare dressed like a daydream. With her short, pink hair and bright smile, she seemed like an angel. But she was the devil. Worse than even Bakugou, perhaps.

She knew everything about everyone, she had leverage galore: screenshots ready to leak, videos ready to ruin lives. She had them all, and frankly- she scared you the most.

Kirishima pushed you back, and Bakugo caught you by your shoulders.

“That was fucking rude,” he growled, biting his fingers into your shoulder blades tight and hard making you squeal. “Are you fucking blind or something? Fucking extra.”

“I said I’m sorry, let me go will you?” Even in such a terrifying situation, you try to remain calm.

“What do you think, Sero?” Kaminari began. Your heart sank, including Sero into anything was never a good sign.

“She ruined Bakugou’s new shoes,” he continued. Bakugou’s hold on you tightened and you winced, turning back to him and returning his glare.

“Okay, what do you want?” you give in, finally. A mischievous spark lights up in his crimson eyes as flashes a cocky smirk to his friends before turning back to you with a frown. He pushes you towards Mina and she catches you with an arm around your shoulder.

“Those were expensive, right?” she looks at you and then back at Bakugou. He grunts, nodding.

“Fuck yes, I’m pissed as hell. Some fucking extra managed to ruin it.”

You look back down to steal a glance at his heavy, leather boot. The small, white stain melted away.

“What will you do to make up for it?” Mina whispers your name and you cringe. They were teasing you. For their fun, they were making fun of you.

“What can I do?” you say, sarcastically. Prying yourself away from her hold. The crowd goes dead silent before speaking. Sero is the first one to talk.

“Lick it off.”

There’s a pause, no one speaks. Your stomach drops and your face pales at the look the five of them are giving you- it’s serious. Dead serious.

Kaminari bursts out laughing followed by Sero and the others. The four of them get a great laugh but Bakugou stares at you head-on with his grave expressions burning through your soul.

“Whatcha looking at? Do it,” he commands.

The laughing dies down and Kaminari speaks, “are you serious? You want her to lick your shoe,” he can’t control his laughter, a chuckle breaks with every word.

“Yes, I’m fucking serious. Besides, Sero recommended it,” he smirks. “Do you really want to say no to him? I don’t know so much about this but-“ he leans down close to your face, his lips ghosting the shell of your ear, “it might complicate your scholarship.”

There’s a twisted rhythm in his voice. He’s enjoying tormenting you. You still want to believe that they’re just messing around. That they’ll have their laughs and let you go, but the way Sero stares at you says otherwise.

“You don’t wanna do it?” Bakugou asks.

“Of course she doesn’t! That’s gross, oh my god.” Mina exclaims, earning a chuckle from the rest of the boys.

“Hey, let’s hear it from Sero himself.” Kirishima pats Sero’s back, pushing him forward. The five of them have circled around you, coiling you inside their venomous nest with you in the center. You turn to Sero with pleading eyes, looking up at his huge form, begging.

He smirks looking down at you, you look so tiny beneath bim. He wants to mess with you, even more, you look like a nice toy to him. He wants to play with it until he can’t.

“I guess, I did say that-” your blood runs cold, heartbeat picking up in nervousness. “-but you don’t need to do it.” He finishes. Your face lights up while the others groan in disappointment. Bakugou looks livid.

“Just know that, you’re the one who dropped the ice cream on Bakugou’s shoe and now you’re not even helping him out. That’s not very noble, is it? I don’t know if I even by mistake slipped that info back home- my parents might reconsider whether you truly deserve to be here or not. They don’t really like disrespectful kids who comprise the school’s name.”

Sero ends his speech with a wide, ear-to-ear grin, followed by a pat to your head.

“The choice is yours.”

You pause for a moment and think. Where they were really going to make you do it, where they were really going to humiliate you like this. They were. But were you willing to do it?

From Sero’s threat, you could tell he was serious, this was legit.

It wouldn’t have been the first time the school expelled someone who had beef with Sero, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. They don’t care about anyone but their loving son. They wouldn’t even think once before expelling you.

“What’s your answer, princess?” Kirishima teases.

Mina and Kaminari once again break into fits of laughter.

“What do you mean? She doesn’t have a choice here, kneel you extra.” Your heart hammers in your chest as Bakugou gestures you to kneel. You stop for a second, breathing unevenly- thinking. After a long, thoughtful sigh, you answer.

“No, I am not going to do it.” Your voice is meek yet clear. Even though you’re trembling under the heavy gazes of five snakes, you choose to stand your ground.

Bakugou glaring at you while the others boo.

“Aw, c’mon you don’t mean that.”

“Don’t be a little brat.”

Bakugou stays silent while the others continue to throw insults at you - calling you names and trying to make you regret your decision. You look straight forward into Bakugou’s cold, red eyes, searching for his next move. Your heart beats even harder in your chest with increased anxiety. After watching your torment for more than a few minutes, Bakugo decides he’s had enough of this game.

“Hey, shitty hair,” Bakugo starts. “Punch me.”

“What?” Kirishima asks, vividly shaken. “Why do you want me to hit you, Bakubro?”

“Punch me real hard, give me a black eye.” The confusion grows greater on everyone’s faces. You stare at him in awe, wondering what angle was trying to play.

Kirishima raises his hands in defense. “Woah, dude slow down there. I’m not just going to punch you.”

Bakugou clicks the roof of his tongue, letting out a sound of irritation. “You all are just dumb,” he starts.

“Imagine if this punny, little,” he leans down closer to you till his lips touch your ears and whispers your name with a crude chuckle. “Were to drop all her food over me, not apologize, punch and me then run away, that’d bring her into a whole world of trouble. Wouldn’t it?”

Bakugo’s words are calculated and sly, he knows exactly what he’s getting at when he starts. His voice fills you up with dread as he makes his accusations public.

“She would be expelled on spot and Kacchan could also raise charges,” Kaminari adds.

Your eyes widen in fear.

“Yeah, I’ll fucking do that.” Mina giggles. “That would succck,” she cheers. Your lower lip quivers as you stare at them in disbelief, your eyes open wide only to be covered with fear.

“Hey, c’mon, why are you doing this to me?” You feel them inch closer to you, their warmth leeching onto you the longer you stay surrounded by them.

“Because you have no fucking manners.” Bakugou snarls.

“Kiri, punch him. What are you waiting for? If you don’t wanna do it I will!” Kaminari cries, growing impatient.

Kirishima laughs before he charges Bakugou. Your heart hammers in your chest.

You think about your family, your future, and how disappointed everyone would be with you. Your dreams and aspirations, all were rooted in this school.

It was honestly sad, pathetic even. Your entire future was just a joke to these spoiled kids. These kids who could control you, and everyone else, with just a flick of their fingers. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the price to pay for a piece of the beautiful cake known as U.A... You resign yourself to your fate.

A piece of your mind.

“N-no, don’t do that. I-I’ll do it,” you murmured, your voice timid and weak. The five paused looking at each other with an ominous glint in their eyes. Bakugou was the first to speak.

“Well, then fucking get on with it. On your knees.” Obediently like a trained puppy, you got down onto your knees, not letting your eyes fall from Bakugou’s face. His red, fierce eyes barked at you with an unknown look, keeping you lost.

“Holy shit, she’s actually doing this,” Mina squealed watching you lean forward, bringing your face next to Bakugou’s expensive boots.

“Kaminari, record this.” Sero taps at the energetic blonde, forcing him to take his phone out and hit ‘record’. As you lean further to the ground, your short skirt rides up behind you, giving the audience a clear view of your round ass and pastel panties. The sight brings a smile to Bakugou’s face as he scoffs.

“Cute panties,” he remarks.

You jerk, trying desperately to sit back, but Bakugo stops you. Smashing his other foot on top of your shoulder, he holds you there facing the ground.

“Don’t. You. Dare.” he growls.

You squirm, almost falling under his weight and as much you hate to admit it, a tingle of excitement runs down your spine. This was turning you on.

A row of whistles flood in, the boys start teasing you and praising Bakugou.

“Lick it off,” he commands.

You look down at his leather boot, the ice cream almost melted. There’s still a bright white spot of the sweet now liquid splayed out. Even though it’s not a lot, it still makes you cringe. You peek your shy, little tongue out timidly, forcing yourself to do the heinous deed.

Bakugou watches you hesitate and pushes on your shoulder harder making you reach towards him.

You give in after a final attempt, diving into his wishes. Your wet tongue touches the rough, cold leather. You cringe after a single touch, closing your eyes and scrunching your nose at the salty taste. “Clean it all off,” he commands.

You dive back in, this time letting your tongue glide across a larger portion. The humiliation burns through your body. It makes you uncomfortably hot, mostly from anger and but a little bit of arousal.

“Nice ass.”

There it is. The excitement comes back the moment they start making suggestive comments, the attention riles you up and it’s horrible.

“Kaminari are you even supposed to be here? Don’t you have a girlfriend?” Mina asks at the blonde pervert who was currently zooming on your ass.

“Oh? We’re cool as long as I don’t stick my dick her,” he points to you. “That’s hella fucking tempting but I’m in love, dude.” He chuckles to himself, thinking about his girlfriend.

They treat you like an object, talking about you like you were some sort of a toy.

“Bet her pussy is tight,” Sero says.

Kirishima turns to Bakugou, looking at him with pleading eyes. “Yo, Bakubro, can we touch her?”

Bakugou looks on from watching you lick his boot and turns to Kirishima. A dark, unsettling gaze falls across his eyes as he speaks, “No. This one is mine.” he stares down at you.

You stop lapping on his shoe and stand back on your knees, buckling your knees you try to get up but Bakugou harshly kicks your shoulder, throwing you back and making you cry.

“Why did you do that?” you squeal, holding onto your bruised shoulder, glaring at him intently.

The rest of the group goes quiet at the display of Bakugou’s sudden violence.

He stands between your thighs, lazily resting his foot atop of your soft thighs.

“You’re fucking pathetic, you know that?” the angle you were spread out in had your skirt flipped over hips, displaying your pretty, pastel panties to everyone in the room.

Even though it’s subtle, masked by everyone’s fear of what Bakugou was planning, you still feel everyone’s gaze focused right on you and more specifically at your clothed cunt. Bakugou presses hard on your thigh making you cry.

“Useless Deku’s friends are just like him. The fucking second you walked in here, I knew you were just another useless insect for me to stomp on.” He pauses, smirking, pressing his foot onto you even harder, twisting his ankle to increase the burning sting surging across your right thigh. “And I’m doing just that.”

He steps off you for a moment, letting you catch your breath and recover from the burn. His eyesight travels lower down to your panties. He admires the cute pair you had on. Normally when he’d see girls naked, they’d dress themselves up the most luxurious to match his standards. But that’s not you, that could never be you.

He rejoices at the thought of seeing your flushed, tear-stained face breaking down under him. You’ll never be like those girls, always a step behind. He can build you up and break you however he likes, you’d have no say in it.

The power trip drives him crazy.

He presses the tip of his boot over your clothed clothed cunt, pushing the hard material right over your sensitive clit.

You gasp at the feeling, looking up at him with terrified eyes. He smirks down at you, moving his foot in a steady rhythm, rubbing the fabric of your cotton panties against your little pearl.

“This turning you on? What a freak.” The rest of his group basks in shock. They watch intently as the scene spiraled out for them, too captivated to make any comments. They just keep quiet and stare.

The way you squirm under Bakugou as he plays with your cute clit so unforgivingly makes them hot with excitement. Kaminari feels a little guilty but he blames it on his nature as a man.

Sero feels a little bad for you, they all do. But then again they wouldn’t waste the opportunity to be in Bakugou’s footsteps- literally.

“You’re a little slut, you know that?” Bakugou sneers.

Your gasps turn into whimpers as his simulation becomes harder. You clench your fists, desperately wishing it to be over. Tears brim in your eyes at the sheer humiliation of your corrupted form. This was just too much, too much for you to handle.

“Please, stop,” you beg, knowing he wouldn't listen. “I’ll report you,” you cry. A roar of laughter starts, shutting you up.

“Go for it, you do that.” Mina comments. Kaminari walks closer to you, bringing the camera down to your face recording your horrified expressions.

“We’ll just go ahead and post this online.” he threatens.

A drop of tear falls down your waterline following a waterfall. You cry, leave all of your dignity behind and cry. You beg them to stop but as your pleas mix with your moans, it’s hard for anyone to understand what you’re saying. It’s not like they don’t know what you’re asking them for, they just turn deaf, simply because they can.

Bakugou stops, he takes a step back, leaving you alone. You let out the tiniest cry when he leaves, ditching you just when you need his touch the most.

“Feels like I’m doing too much of the work, if you want it so bad, do this yourself.” He says. Your body still burns with desire, your clit still hard and cunt salivating, you are nowhere close to being done...

It’s as if something takes over and you are possessed by the dire need to cum, you do exactly as he says.

You snake your fingers down your panties, deliberately rubbing on your swollen little clit before pushing your finger into your drenched cunt. You cry out as you clench around your finger, the pleasure becoming unbearable. Your legs shake and you close your eyes shut.

You stay there on the floor, fingering yourself in the corridor, without any shame, while Kaminari records all of it.

“She’s gonna give me a hard-on,” Kirishima says and you moan.

“She really is a slut, huh?” Sero comments.

“She’s cute,” Mina adds with a smile.

Bakugou scoffs, “does Deku know how much of a whore you are?” He asks.

You don’t pay any attention to what he says, too busy bringing yourself to your climax.

“You’re getting all this right?” Mina looks over Kaminari’s shoulder and onto the phone screen which captures you beautifully losing yourself for everyone to see.

“You close?” Bakugou asks as you feel yourself clench around fingers tightly, he bends down on his and pulls your panties down your hips, admiring your precious cunt.

“Cute pussy,” he remarks before flicking your sensitive, hardened clit.

A rush of pleasure washes down your body as you cry while cumming. Bakugou pushes you right over the edge, a nasty grin screaming atop his face as he watches you. You curse at yourself for letting him see you like this, but there’s not much you can do but cry while you feel your juices gush around you before sliding down your thighs and onto the dirty floor.

It takes a second for you to calm down and when you do come to your senses, dread fills you up. Tears shamelessly fall down your face as you realize what you just did. The others laugh at you, without feeling any remorse.

Bakugou continues to stare at you with an unsettling look, while the others discuss the heinous crime you’ve just committed.

Sero looks down at you and you catch his dark eyes staring at you. A toothy grin scavenges his face as he speaks.

“Awesome,” he says as if he just finished some mediocre movie.

Finally, you find the courage to get up and run.

This was totally not awesome.

806 notes · View notes

mountain-man-cumeth · 3 years

Note

How would you rewrite Muriel’s route?

This is the 3rd question I got with similar vibes so imma begin by saying that I am not a writer. I am a reader, a decent one, but I’m not the idea guy. I will try, though, since it seems like people are interested for some reason.

First of all I'd make some baseline changes to set the backstory proper;

Muriel chose the mantle of Lucio's executioner willingly, him and Asra had no other means to survive so they willingly worked as indentured servants under Lucio. He reasoned with himself thinking these are bad people and that he has no other skills to offer. (There might be a threat on Lucio's part that they can be replaced, he doesn't have to had given a villain speech for the implication. He is a rich tyrant and they are street kids, it the service they provide isn't up to par Lucio can easily look for alternative options.) Let me be clear, Muriel was not a gladiator. Gladiators are compensated generously for the entertainment they provide and often due to the amount of investment made on them, fighting to death wasn't a common occurrence. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Muriel, or rather the Scourge was well known and probably liked by the crowd, there's literally no reason for Lucio to utilize him otherwise. He wants people to enjoy the show, if everybody hated Muriel what use is he to Lucio?

Kokhuri are alive. The tribe had to relocate but they left Khamgalai to tend to the graves. They are nomadic and matriarchal people who likely don't adhere to mother-father-child kind of European family structure. The children are raised communally.

Muriel's curse has nothing to do with myrrh, there's a rune that can counter it and only he knows how to make it, he figured it out by himself for Asra. Any magic that can nullify a spell by Major Arcana is no doubt strong as fuck.

I'd start similar to main 3, MC is tasked to find Lucio's murderer. They find Muriel's brush or loincloth or whatever early on which leads them to the forest but because of the protective spells and the curse they get lost. They ran into Muriel or Inanna and she leads them to Muriel hunched over the corpse. They try to help, like the canon, and have a brush with Lucio's goat ghost. They tell him they were looking for the Scourge and Muriel says there's no Scourge here.

The day after they forget about Muriel but remember the rest and relay that information to Asra, who gets agitated by Lucio's return. He thinks Lucio is here for MC's body but doesn't explain anything, instead begs them to leave town until he figures something out.

They go to see Muriel and he reluctantly agrees to accompany them to the outskirts of the forest, on Asra's request.

Some point on their road trip Asra water-calls them to inform them that Lucio is looking for hearts and the Magician (or whoever else Asra consulted) implied they might find answers South. MC still doesn't know anything except maybe some comments Muriel could have made that painted Lucio in a bad light but they decide to investigate regardless. Muriel opposes, eventually caves (either thanks to MC or Asra). He lets out that he's been tailing MC on Asra's behalf for years so it shouldn't be that much different.

They go from town to town, MC helps Muriel ease into dealing with people again and it's easier since nobody knows jack about Scourge. They learn that he enjoys card games and collecting trinkets from different cultures. He might even get a little too enthusiastic about plants and gives random advice to a gardener.

We might learn here that Muriel doesn't like feeling that he's on a display or that he's performing. He prefers to lay low and blend in, not necessarily completely shut off the world.

They run into Morga(maybe they encounter raiders or a barfight or something alike), who's also been tracking Lucio. She proposes to work together. She berates Muriel for being a coward and convinces him to fight as that's all he's good for. (I think it's better if MC trains on magic rather than archery, I'm seeing alot of disabled MCs.)

She tries to train them but Muriel doesn't respond well to fighting and eventually Morga leaves. Valdemar or Vulgora catches them, Lucio's still trying to get MC's body. They escape just barely, MC gets hurt, Muriel beats himself up over it, some angst some fluff, you know the drill. Maybe he has a panic attack because panic attacks are usually not as on the nose as "Oh No I Gotta Fight Someone With a Knife". Looking for a shelter and aid, they find a cottage which turns out to be Khamgalai's. She helps them out, teaches Muriel how to heal using the techniques of their clan, I assume MC helps since they know some restorative spells too. She tells Muriel his family sent him away when they got ambushed so he wouldn't have to live on the run as Morga's clan was on a war path to conquer South. We get sad, lots of tears. Kisses might ensue.

Somehow it's revealed that this is the answer they were looking for and not Lucio (because I think the whole "Lucio's clan" plot was redundant) and Morga was just using them as bait to get Lucio out of Vesuvia.

Morga catches on to them, we learn who she is, Muriel and MC confront her but Khamgalai says her warmongering already costed her everything. She says she's trying to make up for it by killing her son and she needs MC to lure him out, they agree to work together, begrudgingly. (MC's past can be revealed here since they need to learn what's the deal with Lucio's obsession of them at some point)

Around this point MC might realize the mark's fading, Muriel brushes it off.

Instead of Lucio, Devil comes and tells them about Lucio's plan to do the ritual again. They go back to Vesuvia to warn people

Masquerade happens, people remember Muriel, Nadia or MC or someone give people an ultimatum. But oh no it was a TRAP all along, Devil told them of the ritual to get them right where he wanted. Lucio gets in MC's body, Asra sends them to the Arcana realm, same story as main 3.

MC forgets Muriel on the Arcana realm but through the power of love and maybe some guidance from the Hermit they go "oh no i forgot my boy". They return to find him in the Coliseum. What?! He was the Scourge?! Who could've thought. (this reveal wouldn't affect MC's opinion at this point since they already know he's a cinnamon roll)

This time Lucio's blackmailing him with MC's body. He says he needs hearts to make himself a new one and if Muriel grabs some for him MC can get their body back.

Story diverges to Upright/Reversed

Upright, if MC encouraged him to take it easy, but take it: MC snatches the body of someone he's suppose to fight to change his mind, he decides not to do it and instead go with defeating Lucio on the Arcana realm plan(curtesy of their friends). So here we can have a romantic scene like in Nadia's route where his chains are broken in the Arena.

They fuck around in the Arcana realm facing their fears and stuff, they bond, defeat Lucio, petrify the Devil etc. I like to think Muriel finds the forest spirit here, too, and maybe manages to heal it or learns that it's damaged but with enough time and care it will regrow. (a metaphor? in my arcana game? its more likely than you think)

Morga is charged for war crimes by the Kokhuri, the Coliseum is demolished and the love birds travel around doing their thing.

Reversed, if MC encouraged him to be strong and uncaring: MC fails to convince him and he decides to go through with Lucio's plan. He kills Morga and some more important spirits and fucks up the world. Which turns out to be a bogus plan anyways, Lucio only needed the hearts to settle his deal and Muriel kills him, too (I am untethered, and my rage knows no bounds!)

Without a body MC is stuck in the other realm so Muriel and them retreat to the magic dimension, defeat the Devil and live the rest of their days.

There might also be a 50 first dates situation going on inwhich they get stuck in a loop where MC constantly meets and falls in love with Muriel only to forget him in a couple of (magic realm)days.

idk man this aint my job im just spitballing here, im writing this long ass thing so ill look like im working

#personal #muriel

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monipoka · 3 years

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Addressing Content Warning Concerns

I am writing in response to points that were brought up concerning my recent post. If you haven’t read that post, you can find it here.

Be warned that this is a very long post (2.8k words). It deals with the topics of pedophilia and rape. Opinions expressed are my own; however, I do offer some resources for you to better educate yourself on this post’s content.

I will not provide a link to the user that responded as she had no ill intentions. Disclaimer if the said user reads this post, I write with peace and love at 4:00 A.M. There are a couple of places where I may sound aggressive or petty, but it is analytical and not meant to invalidate you or your opinions.

Red = user’s response with minimal changes (adjusted for grammar and clarification)

Black = my response

Part 1: Age Regression and Infantilization

To learn more about age regression, here are two lovely articles describing what age regression means medically and socially.

“Age regression [agere] is a form of coping meant to eliminate stress in potentially triggering situations. Agere is not a part of sexual play and never should be. I believe [Moni] is confusing agere for age play.”

This completely misses the mark. I understand that age regressors enter a younger psychological state often as a coping mechanism. There is nothing inherently wrong with age regression as therapy. My complaints are that people are FETISHIZING age regression. As stated in my post, age regressors enter the mindset of a child commonly called a “little space.” These individuals are to be treated like children as it helps them feel safe and loved.

In my experience on Tumblr, writers commonly misinterpret Daddy Dominant, Little Girl (DDLG) or Age Play (the larger, umbrella term) for age regression. For the purposes of explanation, I am going to be using DDLG and she/her pronouns. DDLG is a type of BDSM relationship where the dominant partner (male) takes on the role of a care-giver while the submissive partner (female) takes on the role of a child. This dynamic is pretend and intended for sexual interactions. Keyword here: pretend. While the submissive portrays childish behavior, she still has an adult mindset; therefore, she can give meaningful consent. Once writers describe the submissive slipping into “little space,” her mindset is corrupt as she has age regressed; therefore, she cannot give meaningful consent making the interaction non-consensual as she embodies a child.

“Infantilization is treating somebody as if they’re a child. For example, ‘babying’ someone is the best explanation for it. This, in my opinion, is not pedophilia because it’s not inherently sexual. If it IS sexual, I wouldn’t necessarily classify it as pedophilic, but it is questionable.”

Again, this misses the mark. In a non-sexual context, infantilization is completely okay. My complaints are that people are FETISHIZING the infantilization of characters. I used this term as an alternative language to age regression because I have encountered both on this site.

“Age Play, in my opinion, is pedophilic due to how the 'older’ of the partners is benefitting from it. So if [Moni] and I are thinking the same thing, but not really using the same terminology, then I agree.”

Age Play is a kink in the BDSM community between two consenting and level-headed adults.

Age Regression is characterized by regressing back to a younger headspace.

Sexualizing age regression is pedophilic because age regressors feel, act, and exhibit childlike qualities; they genuinely believe that they are a child.

If age play includes “little space,” then it is pedophilic because the submissive has age regressed.

“None of these is what I would consider illegal due to the fact that both parties are consenting adults. But age play definitely is pedophilic. But, obviously, if both people are adults, it can’t be considered illegal.”

I called pedophilia (and rape) illegal. In the eyes of the law, sexualizing age play--given that the individual is of age--is legal. This point used the transitive property of equality (Trans POE) to point out the hypocrisy in condemning pedophilia but supporting the fetishization of age regression. To clarify, it may not be illegal, but it is morally wrong.

“Infantilization and age regression aren’t inherently pedophilic because they revolve around the idea of a mindset and not physicality.”

This is contradictory to your previous point and only half true. Age regressors largely rely on physical objects (ie. clothes, stuffed animals, pacifiers) to feel safe. While the root of age regression involves a change in psyche, it is reflected in their appearance and environment.

Part 2: Dubious Consent and Non-consensual

To learn more about rape, here is a wonderful article on non-consensual sex.

“Secondly, I’m quite confused on what she [Moni] is saying regarding calling dubcon [dubious consent] and noncon [non-consentual] rape instead of dubcon and noncon.

They are rape, or at least some form of sexual assault, but I don’t think anyone’s trying to mask them from being as such.”

I whole-heartedly disagree. It is apparent by the staggering number of dubcon and noncon posts that people use these terms to try and justify writing rape because they consider it a “fetish.” The reason I am against these terms is that writers never specifically condemn them. Oftentimes, writers mix the content of the fic into their warning section. So, by writing ‘blowjob’ next to ‘dubcon’ it underscores the severity of the situation.

“Categorizing both of the two as 'rape’ could potentially end up being very damaging. Rape is a very triggering and harsh word for some people, which is why I believe a lot of people use non-consensual sex as a term to avoid potentially triggering people.”

Again, I believe that people use dubcon and noncon to try and justify their rape “fetish.” However, if using the term “rape” is triggering to some individuals and the terms “dubcon” and “noncon” are used as a substitution, why aren’t these writers coming out and explicitly saying that they do not support these types of interactions? Furthermore, why are they writing and sharing this content in the first place if they acknowledge it as rape?

“Also, I think it’s important to clarify whether the 'sexual assault’ in fiction is dubious or non-consensual. There’s a big difference between both parties being drunk in a fic (dubcon) and hard rape, and it’s important to distinguish the two in warning columns.”

Drunk people can’t consent. Both situations are rape. The “level” of rape that you refer to, being how consensual it is, is more damaging in my opinion. Because they were drunk, it means less than if they were sober. This perpetuates victim shaming. She was asking for it. She shouldn’t have drunk so much. Rape is rape. It is never okay. And one rape is never better than another.

“Dubcon is also very important to clarify in fics due to the fact that dubcon is only a fictional concept. It helps indicate the level of consent given in the fiction because someone could be not triggered by sex under intoxication but can be triggered by hard noncon.”

I’m going to use a quote I cited from this source because I feel that the writer describes dubcon more eloquently than I can: “What bothers me the most about this situation, and what I think you are partly getting at here, is when people say that their fic isn't "noncon" or they say it is "dubcon" or "noncon depending on your point of view." Come on! Have the guts to admit that what they're writing is rape. Dubious consent bothers me as a qualifier because if you aren't sure whether someone is consenting, you don't do it or it's rape. No excuses. So, I think that people should just bite the bullet and say, this is a rape fic.... If people want to write rape fic, go for it, and I will probably read it, but let's step up and acknowledge what it is we are writing. I take issue with these qualifiers because I think that it is far more insidious than out and out rape porn. At least when we say it is rape, then we can move on to the next step: saying it's wrong, just a fantasy, etc. But avoiding the label perpetuates the rape myths that have had such a damaging effect on victims and justice: did she enjoy it, she didn't really say no, she was a tease, they've done it before. None of those things matter, and when a person labels their fic, they need to stop pretending they do.”

Essentially, the writer is reiterating what I explained in my previous comment that rape is rape. Another statement that I found describes how damaging fiction can be in real life. While most readers understand that what occurred didn’t really happen, there are real-life consequences attributed to it: “...However, not everyone in fandom uses those terms in those ways. And I think that's a problem that we need to fix. Because, especially when situations that exist in real life and that would be called rape in real life are labeled "dubcon," I think it does real harm to us all.....We currently live in a culture where not fighting back - because, for example, the rapist has threatened to kill you, or someone else, or your pet, if you don't go along with it - will very often get a rape case overturned in court. Where judges and juries and god knows the popular media will pick out and analyze every detail of a person's life to determine whether they were asking for it, whether they secretly wanted it, whether they could have conceivably fought back more than they did, why they didn't scream, why they didn't report the blackmail that was used to control them, whether or not their "consent" might've been implicitly given by winks or nods or secret handshakes or a general miasma of sexual invitation. In other words, we live in a world in which rape culture, a thing we all unwittingly participate in at one time or another, works very very hard to label things dubcon when they're really noncon.”

“Most people 'romanticizing’ non-consensual sex are victims who are trying to gain some sort of control over their trauma, so they have every right to do so. If a victim of rape should have the ability to choose whether or not they want to read/write a noncon fic and if they don’t want to use the word rape because it makes them uncomfortable, they don’t have to and shouldn’t be forced to.

As a victim of rape and sexual assault, I find peace in having the control and ability to write about my trauma. It's a way for me to gain back control that I lost and the word rape does make me uncomfortable, it makes many victims uncomfortable, and if I prefer not to use that word then I should not have to if people know synonymous terms.”

Romanticize: deal with or describe in an idealized or unrealistic fashion; make (something) seem better or more appealing than it really is.

If you are writing/reading smut, you are trying to get off. If you are writing/reading dubcon/noncon smut, you are getting off to rape. Instead of writing/reading about how heinous rape is and how disgusting rape culture is, you write/read fics romanticizing rape since as a reader you enjoy the content to some extent: it is with your favorite character, it takes place in a cool universe, it got you horny, you felt good after reading it. Romanticizing rape is damaging to society as it subconsciously makes rape appealing. I doubt that is the intention, but you can’t deny that these underlying connections exist.

There is a difference between writing to cope and writing to entertain. My intention has never been to victim shame. But writing non-consensual sex between anime characters and a reader-insert is a form of entertainment. Remember the purposes of writing we learned about in elementary school? Yeah, I have a hard time believing that this is therapeutic. Journal therapy uses reflective writing to work through trauma and mental health issues. In sexual assault cases specifically, victims often write about their experience and/or letters to their perpetrator(s). However, if this is your way to cope, that’s fine. But writing rape fics is not the same as sharing rape fics.

“People know the severity of noncon and dubcon, which is what I think [Moni] is missing. No one is trying to not make noncon rape because it is rape. People know that it is. Most people just chose to say 'noncon’ to avoid unnecessarily triggering others.”

Do they? I think to my previous comments in this section, people use these terms to downplay the seriousness of rape.

“And there are far more 'consensual’ fics out there than noncon/dubcon fics, so I don’t exactly understand what [Moni] means by 'romanticize’ or 'normalize it.’”

Two comments up I describe what romanticization is and how it is being done in the community. I’m going to ignore the number part of this statement because I feel that there is no relevance; If there is a platform for rape fics and people are engaging with them, numbers don’t matter relative to another type of fic. I call that authors romanticize consensual sex because it is oftentimes not explicitly stated, and I think it should be. The character(s) and reader are in a relationship and sex is a byproduct of that (I do not consider this dubcon). Personally, I have found very few fics where explicit consent is written in. People sometimes think that asking for consent interrupts the flow and ruins a moment. Works of fiction have an impact on real life, and writing/reading about consent serves to reinforce healthy practices.

“Going off of that, I don’t understand what [Moni] means by 'fairly young’ audiences. I'm hoping that most 18+ consumers are, you know, eighteen or older (obviously that's not the case in all situations), and eighteen is a legal adult. Most people over the age of eighteen are very aware of what these terms mean, and they know right from wrong. So, there should be no need to clarify what 'noncon’ is for them.”

My point is that this community is relatively young. I have not encountered many writers or readers who are over the age of 25 (if you are, kudos). At this age, you lack experience. Many of these readers have never had sex or been in a relationship before. While you might know the difference between rape and consensual sex on paper, some of these things are more subtle--especially in person. You referenced drunk sex as something that you’d classify as dubcon although intoxicated individuals can’t consent. I recently read a fic where the reader was drunk and picked up at the bar by a character. He asked the reader if they consented to sex and they agreed. This is still rape as you cannot consent while intoxicated since alcohol impairs judgment. Regardless of enjoyment, which the reader experienced, this is still sexual assault. Can you see the confusion by labeling that dubcon? What is a young adult to think when they’ve been manipulated into sex but told they consented? It’s confusing, so these terms should be clarified.

Part 3: Fiction

To learn more about how fiction affects reality, here is this interesting TED-Ed animation that summarizes fiction’s impact. Also, I read this article that cites more examples.

“Also, our writing shouldn’t have to equate 'good practices,’ because a healthy-minded individual knows how to separate fiction and reality. Give people the freedom to write about whatever they want, whether it’s in private or not, that's what fiction is for.”

You claim that you don’t want to use the word rape to trigger people, so you acknowledge that not all readers are health-minded as they could be suffering from trauma or mental illness. Likewise, some individuals can’t discern fiction from reality.

More importantly, there is a connection between fiction and reality.

“Finally, I don't think we should be so open with connecting real-life issues with fictional ones. No one is going to become a rapist or want to be raped because they read fiction on it unless they’re truly a rapist or have been raped. Equating fictional works to real-life problems is a little insulting, whether [Moni] intended it to be or not.”

Watch the video and read the article. Fiction directly impacts culture and society. It may be insulting, but it’s factual.

“Because in the end, in rape fiction, no one actually got raped. In pedophilic fiction (I don’t support it don’t get me wrong), no one was actually a victim of pedophilia. Because they’re all fictional.”

That doesn’t make it okay. Again, my problem is that writers ROMANTICIZE these topics which reflect poorly on society.

“If someone is concerned about pedophilia and rape fiction, I believe it would be best to work towards real-life solutions to those real-life problems compared to criticizing fiction authors.”

If you’re concerned about pedophilia and rape FICTION, I’d hope you’d criticize FICTION authors. Honestly, this seems to be a diversion tactic to avoid accountability.

Part 4: “No Offense, but You’re Wrong About Everything”

“Overall, I think [Moni] had good intentions, but it was poorly worded.

You pose a counter argument to each of my points and make it sound like I did not educate myself beforehand. You then deflect to talking about rape and pedophilia in real-world context to downplay the severity of pedophilia and rape in fiction.

I sound petty here, and I do not mean for my words to hurt. I wish that there was some communication beforehand since it seems that there was confusion. If my original post was unclear, I hope my comments help.

Conclusion

This is for everyone:

Please check out the resources I provided and do your own research to understand the situation before forming your own opinion.

No hate to the writer of the response. I just wish you would have reached out directly for clarification before taking my words out of context and assuming their meaning.

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acesydneysage · 3 years

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My thoughts on how an Alchemist revolution could go

I turned some of the initial points into a one-shot, but I'm very unlikely to actually write anything that sees all of it through to the end, so I'm laying out what I imagine would happen. I could follow the initial fic's format and just write cutesy domestic fluff with hints of what is going on in the Alchemist revolution in the background, but who knows

In The Golden Lily, Sonya thought Sydney's blood might be key to a vaccine, since it was undrinkable to Strigoi. Later, in The Fiery Heart, in their visit to Inez, we find out that it's because her blood is coated in human magic. That makes it taste foul to undead vampires, and also broke her Alchemist tattoo, by countering the compulsion of Moroi magic with human magic.

She eventually uses a similar principle to make the tattoo breaking ink she gives to Marcus, and that she uses to help the other re-education inmates in Silver Shadows.

So, with that in mind:

My initial idea was that one of Marcus' operatives, who got tattooed with Sydney's ink, would suffer a Strigoi attack. Their blood would turn out to be undrinkable. Since Sydney's ink breaks the Alchemist tattoo, the receivers blood would get coated with human magic, like a witch's.

I would like it if that person was one of the people Sydney helped in re-education, because I'd like to think those people stayed loyal to her, and maybe see her as a leader. Just because it's really touching to me how she was still worried about others, and risking herself to help, while she was going through her worst nightmare.

In my fic I went with Sydney's roommate Emma, "the Sydney Sage of re-education", because I really love her. She really did turn out to be the Sydney of re-education, at least in part, because while she was repeating the party line and trying to seem cooperative, she was actually a badass rebel who fights back. There are other reasons, I'll get to that in the end.

Sydney's ink potentially working as a Strigoi vaccine is something important enough that she would risk her truce with the Alchemists to investigate. And since the ink also makes people immune to their mind control, the Alchemists wouldn't work with them like they did for the spirit vaccine. I truly believe that they value their control more than human souls.

I'm sure Declan’s blood will be important to the spirit vaccine. They couldn't mass produce it since it required a recent Strigoi restoration, trapping the spirit before it left the blood, while his blood is described as brimming with spirit. But Sydney and Adrian don't want their son to be experimented on, so that's just more incentive to seek an alternative.

I think Sydney’s ink wouldn't work on Moroi, going by the logic of the magic described in the books (human magic wins out in humans), but helping humans is already a big deal, and it could maybe work on dhampirs.

Meanwhile, the Alchemists have been getting polarized. When it's revealed that some of them were helping the Warriors of Light in the end of the series, while Warriors were keeping Moroi captive, that causes controversy. They eventually start to get divided into factions.

After the US re-education center burns down, those who oppose re-education try to defend that it not be rebuilt, and that other centers be shut down. There are symbolic concessions, but they eventually get basically re-education by another name. Similar things happen when it comes to demands for more transparency, and less authoritarianism in general.

And of course there's a reaction to progressive demands. A hardcore anti-Moroi faction is amenable to teaming up with the Warriors. They're tired of "fighting evil by cataloguing it."

If this faction wins out, they won't actually care that Sydney is blackmailing them into letting her live with proof that they worked with the Warriors, since they openly want that, and they consider her continued existence a humiliation. So Sydney and Adrian wouldn't be able to sit out this fight.

There are more and more defectors who simply leave and join Marcus (or go into hiding and try to stay away from that whole mess). But out of those who stay Alchemists, as things start to devolve into an actual civil war, the moderate faction has a lot of infighting about joining up with the rebels.

That's at least in part because Sydney is one of their most notorious members, and while they might not want to see all the Moroi exterminated, marrying one of them is still going way too far to a lot of them.

So, let's talk allies. Sydney definitely put Marcus in touch with more witches and taught them how to make the ink. And I think besides kidnapping Moroi and dhampirs, the Warriors could be capturing witches too, which would turn them against each other.

In re-education, when it's revealed that Sydney has magic they say that has happened before, and I imagine they handled it with the same amount of compassion. I think maybe Chantal is a witch too and that's why she was fown in the punishment level with Sydney.

Alicia definitely showed that some witches might be willing to work with them for their personal gain, but I think as a community they would protect their own. They wouldn't look kindly on Alchemists torturing witches. And even if they were born into the Alchemists, they chose to be witches, so their allegiance to them would take precedence in their minds. Sydney's coven and Ms. Terwilliger are definitely on board.

I think the rebels might be able to get the Keepers on their side, since they have a complicated relationship with the Alchemists, where they seemto deliberately keepthem dependent. Marcus' stated goal for a long time was helping Moroi on their own terms, that's what he did for a long while. He definitely didn't have any plans to topple the Alchemists in the Bloodlines era, he didn't thinkthat was possible. So they occasionally helped them get better technology and resources that the Alchemists don't want them to have, and they promise to help them further in the future. That gets them the Keepers sympathy.

The Moroi government obviously isn't gonna side with the anti-Moroi faction, but I think they'd try to stay out of the conflict and not be dragged into the fighting for as long as possible. But they've come to depend on the Alchemists too much to keep them hidden, and they're now in chaos.

With the Alchemists weakened by a civil war they aren't really doing a great job of keeping up the masquerade, Moroi secrecy gets very precarious.

Now. While Alchemists claim to be very worried about human souls, absolutely no one in the VA universe seems that worried about regular humans' lives. They don't even know about the existence of Strigoi so they could protect themselves. And yes, there are humans who'd work with Strigoi. Strigoi seem to have zero issue finding those humans as is, they simply tell them about vampires themselves when they wanna get servants.

Now there's a vaccine that could help protect humans, and really reduce Strigoi's capacity to feed, but you have to actually apply them to humans. And more and more supernatural events are being sloppily covered up since the Alchemists are otherwise preoccupied.

I'm sure there are some valid reasons for the masquerade, and humans might not behave amazingly towards supernatural creatures, but leaving them completely helpless to this threat isn't very ethical, and certainly not when you have a vaccine that could help them.

And honestly, as cliche as that argument is in discussions of monster hunting, humans could potentially take the Strigoi out, we have some pretty amazing weapons. Or we could be massively incompetent about a problem that we are fully capable of solving. You know...

So the supernatural world gets revealed, and that makes the Alchemists pretty obsolete. Of course, although they have been weakened by the decade(s) of infighting, that doesn't mean they lose all of their resources and connections all at once, but it would be a huge blow their relevance.

They get splintered into a lot of different groups that can still cause trouble, but they're no longer the omnipresent shadow organization they used to be.

And if this whole process took about 15 years, Declan and his buddies would be neatly protagonist aged in time to deal with the huge upheaval and the new mess of problems brought on by the integration of the Moroi and human world. And he'd more capable of thinking about his own relationship to the spirit vaccine and making his own decisions.

So most of this post was written to be understood whether or not you read Silver Stars, but this final bit is more about what could directly follow. When it comes to the fic I was more worried about the characters and their feelings, and excuses for domestic fluff and hurt/confort. So here's the fic on AO3 and on Tumblr.

In the end of The Ruby Circle, there's indication that Zoe Sage and Stanton, with the incentive of Sydney's blackmail, will be trying to reform the Alchemists. I don't really think they're reformable, attempts to extinguish re-education would basically result in rebranding. @sydneysageivashkov has some lesbian!Zoe head that I think are pretty compatible with my headcanons for an Alchemist revolution, and what Zoe would be doing during that initial period.

I think it could take a few more years, 3 or 4, for Sydney to actually have to leave her home and go into hiding. Declan foes actually get a little bit of a normal school experience. I imagine this whole process going very slowly, as the situation gradually deteriorates. And the witches would now claim Sydney as one of their own, making it a bigger problem for the Alchemists to attack her directly, lest they make enemies of the whole magical community.

By the time Sydney has to go into hiding I imagine Zoe is gonna have to leave the Alchemists as well. The other reason why I chose Emma for the first fic, is that she was in re-education in part for her sister's actions, so it shows that the Alchemists wouldn't be above hurting Zoe for Sydney's actions.

Sydney has very important reasons to join the revolution, and in fact she might eventually not have a choice, but she knows that once she officially breaks her truce with the Alchemists her whole family and even her fellow re-education inmates that she got amnesty for.

I imagine Sydney, Adrian, Eddie and Declan could spend a while hiding in a ranch very out of the way that Chantal and Duncan got themselves. Insert Adrian joke about that escape plan where cute blonde girls had to wear cow girl outfits.

Duncan has been shown to be pretty hesitant to risk going against authority, and Chantal is even more psychologically messed up than Sydney and the rest of them. Sydney feels pretty awful about placing them in danger, but they're both very grateful to her for helping them escape. Also Chantal is a really badass witch, although a bit unstable, I'll eventually find something to do with that, revolution wise.

But Sydney and Adrian would eventually leave and get more active roles in the revolution. I would very much like it to be an actual collective movement and not one special girl bringing down the Alchemists by herself, but I think Sydney would have a pretty prominent role after everything she went through.

This is way too long, but I had fun with it, and if you got this far, thank you for reading 😀

#Rapha's Bloodlines Tag #sydney sage #adrian ivashkov #declan ivashkov #zoe sage #bloodlines series #bloodlines #Alchemist revolution #headcanons #sydrian

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king-litchi · 4 years

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Picture source : @Mnine5 (Meijo) in Twitter

Note : actually, it’s not a request but I was bored and I wondered « what kind of person would the SNK characters on the social medias be » - soo here we go

Sorry for my english…I am french and I still learning - please forgive me and protect your eyes 🤧

Warning : (12+) social media can be dangerous

SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN ON SOCIAL MEDIA 💥

Eren

Instagram : friends, family, abs, outfits, travel….king of instagram, super popular on instagram, everyone follow him but he only follows his friends and instagram he finds interesting, over time it has become an influence, Eren has like a million followers on Insta @IamErenJaeger

Snapchat : « who has a netflix account ? » in story, selfies with friends at all kinds of events, often takes pictures of Mikasa and Armin by surprise, never puts a filter on for him or for the people he snaps, everyone can watch his story and comment (public baby), already received nudes… @ErenJaegeeer

Whatsapp : he is in all group discussions but rarely answers, when he answers it is surely because the conversation becomes funny or because they talk about Jean and then it degenerates (when too far between Eren and Jean everyone leaves the group and they end up « wait…everyone is gone…? ») and a new groupe is created but the fight starts again (others are like « here we go again » )

Twitter : can easily get upset in a debate, is not afraid to say what he thinks, it is blocked by a lot of people (please take away his twitter), has a large fanbase : Jaegerist (@CaptainFlochForster is the leader fanbase…best to avoid them.) it’s very simple : either you’re wrong or you’re not right @ErenJaeger

Tumblr : He is not really known on tumblr, follow only his friends and is followed only by his friends. Does a lot of reblog tumblr he likes and post a lot kind of sick jokes like « What is the only dog you can eat? - A Hot Dog » (20 followers…)

Armin

Instagram : sharing photos of his travels around the world, a lot of ocean scenery, monuments like the Eifel Tower, does not put a photo of him or his friends, his instagram is public to share his beautiful photos with the world (2,5K followers) @ArminVibe

Twitter : Sharing conspiracy theories with other twittos, if by misfortune a conspiracy ends up in TT you can be sure that it will tweet all evening, twitter reveals its dark side, It can deal with all subjects and he’s gonna take his time to make you understand that you’re WRONG @ArminArlett

Snapchat : he doesn’t know why he has a snapchat, if you send him a snap photo he will just look without answering but if you start a discussion he will probably lose your message if you have not recorded (his fault, but he really does not do it on purpose, he does not really drag on this social media)

Whatsapp : quite active on whatsapp, in groups it is the one that stays the longest active, uses a correct grammar, always has time for someone who needs to talk (a colossal heart…)

Tumblr : very popular on tumblr with his famous landscape photos, he also likes to share theories with whoever wants it, has created a discussion group of which Erwin and Hanji are part (these three are often found in several discussion groups…), is subscribed to Annie

Mikasa

Instagram : her account is private (like most of his social medias) if she does not know you be sure that she will never accept a subscription request (and she receives a lot of subscription requests), sometimes post photos of Eren and her, sometimes with Armin and a picture with the whole group together, has maximum 5 publications and has maximum 100 subscriptions and she subscribes to only 25 people (who are they?) and her favorite girl’s band @MikasaAckerman

Twitter : is fan of girl’s band, a twitter just to follow their news, she has already been on top tweet (never knew why and honestly she doesn’t care), her account is totally private but she receives a lot of follow requests (she declines) @MikasaAckerman

Snapchat : does not do a lot of selfie but she likes cute filters, often does black snap with dark quotes « the sun always shines after a dark night » , tends to reply 2 days after being sent a snap (🤡) yet she makes the flames with Eren (already 834 flames) so she just ignores snaps

Whatsapp : she is in full of group discussions, but always reads without answering (”Read”), she often ends up leaving the discussion groups (but there is always someone to add her to the group, often Sasha)

Tumblr : has a fake account, by the way she is super popular, she posts her covers of her favorite songs @Mikasong (fucking great voice), already has a small community

Reiner

Instagram : is totally subscribed to Emily Ratajkowski (but who is not?), was the first happy to know that the likes are hidden, kind to like a lot of ass and body fitness (…<.<) it’s sure Historia blocked him (probably deserved) @ReinerBraun

Twitter : profile photo of a football player, often mentions his friends, and ALWAYS mentions Conny for challenges « Dare or not to ring your neighbor’s door at 3:00am and ask him for sugar », the kind to tweets like « Nicki Minaj or Cardi b ? » @ReinerTheBigBrother

Snapchat : You see this guy who makes a lot of views on snap and who everyone asks for publicity? Yes, it’s Reiner. Become master of the screenshot (already found himself in a complicated situation because of it…this awkward moment where you catch something you shouldn’t capture…), also receives nudes (btw 🤡) he never watches stories @ReineerGg

Whatsapp : he often ends up being ejected from discussion groups for his dubious humour and is often the victim of Ymir’s blackmail (screenshots can be fatal…)

Tumblr : he doesn’t even know what it’s for

Bertholdt

Instagram : has two instagram accounts, the first is his real account, he only follows his friends and is only followed by his friends and the second is a (secret) fan account on Annie Leonhart @fannie-kickass

Snapchat : goes selfie on occasions like birthdays (party) or when he is with friends, likes animal filters, snap everyone and without warning, during the evenings with friends he often finds himself in the snap of everyone without his knowledge and discovers him the next day (sleeper pose) @Berth5

Whatsapp : the kind of person to share a lot of petitions like « Hi, Nolan still needs 300,000 signatures to be able to convince his parents to buy him ps5 » (he can’t refuse to share when asked…colossal heart - like Armin <.<), calm in group discussions (is not the type to get involved in an argument, always remains neutral when the situation degenerates), he often speaks with Reiner privately and gives him advice on how to approach Annie - but by the time he decided to send a message to Annie, she had already deleted the application… (legend says he’s still waiting for an answer)

Twitter : if you identify him in a tweet, it will probably not read it but will still like it (why not), he does definitely part of the commentators of entertainment shows or sports matches @Bertholdt

Tumblr : hesitates to create a tumblr but does not really know what he could talk about

Annie

Instagram : shares his training and does not hesitate to make demonstrations of his techniques, is quite popular on instagram, to a lot of publication, post a photo with his father just after each victory with a caption « It is God who gives » ; already has a good community (320K followers), account is certified

Snapchat : never goes on his account, totally professional use, it is his father who manages his snapchat to post in story the videos her training and his official matches with the caption « Little Rocky 🔥 »

Whatsapp : it ended up deleting the app because too much discussion that ends in spam (it will be for a next time Berth)

Tumblr : her little cocoon where she can be herself, the only social media that has her interest, her tumblr is dedicated to the cat, she is a fan @Kitty-Catnnie , the only person in the group to know her tumblr is Armin with whom she sometimes chat

Twitter : She is still on top tweet despite her « Mikasa vs Annie, who wins ??? », she never tweet but retweet a lot of things especially those of Conny, it happens to like the tweets of commentator Jean

Jean

Instagram : if you want to see his account you must first subscribe, generally accept all requests, send quite a lot of DM like « you wouldn’t have a bandage because I hurt myself by falling in love with you » sometimes succeeds other times it ends blocked ( or screenshots that end up on Twitter) @JeanOfficiel

Snapchat : He was blocked by Mikasa and Eren (not for the same reasons), made the flames with everyone (but the most with Marco), has already tried to snap Mikasa in secret (it is caught in the act), loves selfies @Ihateeren

Whatsapp : the kind who doesn’t look to whom he sends a message and always has the wrong discussion, so becomes panicked « DONT READ!!! » accidentally already sent a nude in a group discussion (unfortunately screenshots have been made) Eren laughed about this story for several months like « How is Jeanbo doing ? He’s grown up since last time? » (he doesn’t talk about Jean…you know…)

Tumblr : he created a popular mini series on tumblr « You prefer…? » and also « If you were… » (the concept is very cool and we can do it with all the subjects), made a lot reblog, reblog ALL covers of Mikasa

Twitter : has been blocked by half of the tweetos sphere after several heated debates, is one of the people who comment on the shows mainly reality TV (he does it with passion) « SANDRA LEAVES WITH ANTONIO W/O MONEY !!!! IT’S A FUCKIIIING JOKE ?????!!!!! #TheVillaOfBrokenHeart2 » or « I’m the only one who hates Mike ? #MonacoShore » , it’s that kind of tweet that Annie likes) @JeanKirschtein

Marco

Instagram : accepts only requests from friends, his account is private, sharing small moments of his life with friends and families, use many hashtag like #AllThatGlittersIsNotGoldEvenJean (but nobody understands what he means)

Snapchat : often comments his friends’ stories, is the kind to come talk to you if you put a dark snap like « cruel world »

Whatsapp : often receives private messages like « Marco, are you there? » it always ends in long discussions (« The confidant ») he knows how to find the right words, it is active and always “available” if someone needs it

Twitter : always makes Jean’s defense on twitter, the kind of person to be part of a fanbase (like HarryPotter), uses hastag LGBT+

Tumblr : super popular on tumblr, he makes headcanons and screenplays of his favorite books, series and movies, has a preference for Yaoi but he can make any request (2K followers) @HalfMan

Conny

Instagram : very very popular on instagram thanks to his account with Sacha where they share their farce and does not hesitate to challenge, they post the pranks they make to their friends (1M followers) they are not yet certified @TwoDummies , he has a second private account : with just family and friends (arround 55 followers) @hismotherson

Snapchat : the kind of person who does a snap at 2H00 of the mat « who for the flames », has a lot of snap discussions, always makes stories that ends badly like « I’m going to ride a bike » and in his last snap he ends up in emergency… (true story)

Whatsapp : has an unimaginable number of “caption this” for ALL situations, it sometimes created discussion groups (it’s just that it prepares a stupidity) otherwise is not super active but will always answer if it has a message

Twitter : clash with everyone « Your mother was pregnant for 9 months of your big head but you can’t stand a joke ? SHAME » (blocked), king of challenges, makes all the challenges where it is mentioned, retweet all the « Dare or not… » of Reiner, uses a lot of abbreviation, he invented a lot of hastag like #AlphaLevi and people have fun with his hastag

Tumblr : his more than empty tumblr, has no profile photo, and compulsive liker, it’s literally a fake account for liking funny things @JustConny

Sasha

Instagram : receives many comments under the photos of his joint account with Conny like « POTAETOS GIRL WE LOVE U » and « POTAETOS POWER », often pranks and ends up in the account, has a second private instafood account and also post photos with Nikolo @MadamePatate

Snapchat : oh my dear, he gets into a lot of trouble (funny drama) so stay connected for his “Storytime” evenings (we often hear Ymir commenting in the background with sarcasm and Conny’s laugh)

Whatsapp : the kind of person to send in a « bbiad » discussion (I’ll be back in a bit) and never come back in the discussion, written in abbreviation, loves group conversations

Twitter : has disabled twitter because of a "caption” that Conny posted on it (potaetos girl exists thanks to a tweet) but there reactivated a week later, tweets like a dramaqueen « WHAAAAT @netflix SEASON TWO IS COMING OUT TOMORROW BUT NOT TODAY ???? WHYYYYYYYYY ! I’m never gonna be able to wait till tomorrow to eat my popcorns frkrkellelrlrl BUY ME POPCORNS NETFLIX BUUUY », has already been on top tweet #potatoesgirl

Tumblr : victim of her reputation even on tumblr, reblog a lot of post food and potential future challenges from Conny, often finds “caption this” with her face and always reacts with a more than dramatic surprise « SHIT AGAIN ??! »

Historia

Instagram : receives a lot of DM from people she doesn’t know, never accept them, like all the photos of her friends, you can see her insta only if you subscribe…(15K followers) @RealHistoria

Snapchat : renames all her friends by cute nicknames, the kind that snaps the place where she is or her food with a « have a nice day », queen of selfie, likes the filters

Whatsapp : uses a lot of emoji, hearts have become a punctuation, in group discussions she often comments « Ymir !! » after a sarcastic comment, tries to temper when the situation becomes too stormy

Twitter : avoids twitter like the plague, has disabled her account, reactivates it on occasions before losing interest once again, in fact her account is a fake where she is named @christaLenz

Tumblr : pretty active, committed LGBT+ activist, reblog testimonials, lots of likes, reblog Mikasa covers a.k.a Mikasong

Ymir

Instagram : a lot of photos of Historia (it looks like a fan account), often comments the photos of her friends (unfortunately for them) @Ymir

Snapchat : a lot of selfie with Historia, if a fight or something awkward happens in front of her she will be the first to make a snap (and no scruple to put it in her story), if Reiner is the King of awkward screenshots then she is the Queen for INTENTIONAL screenshots, her memories are filled with compromising photos on EVERYONE

Whatsapp : Do you remember the screenshots on snap? Well it is on Whatsapp that they find their usefulness. Can send them to a discussion group as if nothing had happened but her specialty is a service for her silence (yes blackmail) it’s never anything bad, but enough to piss off the victim (who is often Reiner)

Tumblr : forgot her password and honestly she doesn’t want to find it, why did she tumblr ?

Twitter : she is often upset about debates, often sarcastic in her retweets, « Caption This », always the last word, she is very popular on Twitter, she’s already been on top tweet (because a drama with her identity) @LadyYmir

Levi

Instagram : does not really look at his newsline, Instagram in black and white and very orderly (#GrandArt), his account is public but no one can comment on his photos @LeviAckerman

Snapchat : a block Hanji (too many snap video that turned into spam), to rename all his contacts by nicknames like « Brat Number one », « Brat Number 2 » (etc.) and Zeke « shithead » nothing abnormal, It has already posted a snap of his head in front camera (had not done it on purpose) deleted after realizing…(especially after receiving plenty of notifications), he and Zeke attack each other by proxy story (no one understands…but it’s funny to read)

Whatsapp : is always “offline” or “busy” but will always respond if sent a message, probably blocked Zeke on all social medias

Tumblr : shares his passion for tea and cleanliness, loves the healthy atmosphere of tumblr, has quite a fan, reblog and subscribes to Armin @TeaWithLevi

Twitter : Tweet by accident (in the pocket >.<) like « jf’dyt’rimsjrdy’yfgi » but other thant he almost never tweets, but when he does it is to complain or creepy « today I learned that a lollipop breaks easily like the legs of a clown » (…we don’t want understand), he’s already been on top tweet with the #AlphaLevi like « #AlphaLevi can surround his ennemies. Alone. » ; « #AlphaLevi makes the onions cry » ; « #AlphaLevi can go up downstairs » (we thank Conny for this hashtag) @LeviAckerman

Hanji

Instagram : honestly if you want to do a search on someone you have to check with Hanji, FBI of the net (”the stalker”), its account is public : post photos with Levi (who has to be taken by surprise) mentions everyone on its posts, photo with Moblit during their experiences (like “Break”), its instagram looks cool @OfficerZoe

Snapchat : snap often its scientific experiments (and other) and we always hear Moblit screaming in the background « Hanji-san! Back ! » , they like to comment on the stories of Levi and Zeke, already tried to make the flames with Levi and Erwin (tried without success)

Whatsapp : spends its time doing focus groups before it degenerates, its favorite pairs are Eren/ Jean and Levi/ Zeke but never has a battery

Tumblr : strangely its tumblr is very serious, they share its hypotheses and theories on scientific subjects, they talk about its experiences and future scientific experiments, they post the results of its research, has its own focus group (Erwin is one of them) @DrHZoe

Twitter : @Dr.troublegirl everything is in the pseudo, will accumulate and then become spectator of a massacre, his catchphrase is « you’re implying… »

Erwin

Instagram : it is very orderly and pleasant to look at, post works of art that crosses his path, does not often check his actuality but when he does it everyone is happy…(always the little comment that makes a good mood and a little like)

Snapchat : his story is public but only his “friends” can comment, snap his visits to the museum and snap a lot the streetart but is not really active when he makes “snap discussion” @Eyebrow (account created by Hanji…)

Whatsapp : uses impeccable punctuation and grammar, often discusses with Armin on intellectual topics and confronts their assumption he is the only one who is not part of a discussion group with ALL the characters (just a few groups like Hanji/Levi/Mike), from time to time he receives family photos of Niail and talks about old times

Twitter : activist totally committed to good causes ( #blacklivesmatter) (#justicepourAdama ), retweet the political news, has already tweeted with the #AlphaLevi @ErwinSmitt

Tumblr : pretty active, post on subjects that fascinate him (like history), his tumblr is very interesting and orderly, proposes developed theories and some people (students like Conny) go there to find answers to their homework… @Sasageyo

Zeke / Sieg

Instagram : created an insta to talk with Eren but he got blocked after commenting on one of his photos « Beautiful sweetren, you grow up day by day, signed your beloved brother » didn’t understand why he couldn’t see his instagram after that ; his instagram is very neat : instafood & instabook but doesn’t have many followers because his instagram account is private (like 150 follower) @ZekeJaerger

Snapchat : made stories to address to Eren instead of sending him directly in private (didn’t really understand the concept) that’s how to start the attacks between him and Levi, Eren ended up deleting the app to him

Whatsapp : uses impeccable grammar (also blocked Livai on all its social medias), tends to read without answering « Read since two days »

Twitter : tweets like « I am now on twitter. » or « Good Morning Twitter. » and lots of « Join me on Candy Crush » , he also likes to comment on his favorite culinary shows with a lot hastag, honestly he is one of the people who blocked Eren on Twitter but does not really assume it « What ? Weird…I must have hit the wrong button… » yes of course… @ZekeJaeger

Tumblr : reblog Erwin’s posts which he finds very interesting, to himself his own theories which he confronts with Erwin in discussion groups, is part of a quite popular team on tumblr “GenshiKyojin”, (with leader Eren Kruger) #uses #too #much #hastag (#like #me) @KemenoNoKyojin

749 notes · View notes

opalmaplehibiscus · 3 years

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Vice Dorm Leader Study Date HC

Hello Anon! Sorry for the wait! I wasn’t quite sure what you wanted to see so I tried my best trying cover a lot of ideas OTL If this wasn’t what you wanted, please do request again with what you wish to see!

Trey

· Study dates with Trey are very rare

· He’s always busy due to his responsibilities as vice dorm leader while preparing to becoming a 4th year, so going on dates with you in general isn’t going to happen a lot

· When you do end up going on with him though, he would cherish them and try to make it last as long as possible, trying to catch up on all the missed times with you

· Usually, the study dates happen by Cater (best wingman ever by the way), who ends up stealing Ace, Deuce, and Grim from you on the days you’re supposed to study with them

· Whenever that happens, Trey gets a message with a “U owe me~ ;9” from Cater as said guy drags the “interference” away

· Trey: Cater, you shouldn’t be calling our underclassmen interference... Cater: Eh~ So, are you saying you don’t feel annoyed that they’re spending more time with you-know-who? Trey: …You don’t see me saying it up front now do you

· He would do his best to help you study, teaching you whatever you needed to know - tips, tricks, what topic that would be covered the most on the exam, etc

· Would he try to make you flustered and blush though? Yeah. He thinks you’re adorable when you blush – endearing, cute, someone he wishes to cherish with all his heart

· It’s why he would make passes on you, leaning towards you and brushing shoulders when he sits next to you as he helps explain something you don’t know or purposely having his hand graze yours as he points out something in the textbook or your notes

· Expect to be spoiled with all types of sweets and desserts when with Trey

· Cake? Cookies? Pudding? He would bring all sorts of things for you two to snack on when taking a break and studying, including tea. After all, you’re someone he happens to love so he has to somehow make it obvious one way or another

· Trey has younger siblings. It’s why he naturally wipes the crumbs off your face since it’s habit to do so. Yeah. That’s it. Totally not

· What isn’t natural is when, near the end of the study date, you would either hug or kiss him on the cheek, after finally understanding something or making progress, as thanks

· Covering half of his face, he would turn his face away to hide his red face that could rival Riddle’s hair, trying to tell you he was fine with a small stutter and wavering smile when you ask if he’s okay

· Now if only you would realize said study dates were actually dates and he likes you…

Ruggie

· Like Trey, Ruggie is a busy man. Busy doing Leona’s orders while chasing after all the money and food he could possibly get, so having study dates with him are also rare

· In fact, the percent of having study dates with him are lower than Trey’s because of how much work he’ll be forced to deal with

· It’s why, the only times he would be able to go on study dates with you are when you come visit Savanaclaw once every blue moon

· Most often you would come over because of Jack, whether it’s to just hang out, give him a memo, whatnot

· The thing is though, whenever you come over, you end up meeting Jack a bit later because something would always come up right when he’s about to meet you

· And it’s totally not suspicious that it happens whenever Ruggie is coming back to the dorms. 100% true.

· Don’t worry about Jack by the way. It so happens that a certain dorm leader kidnapped said wolf because he happens to be a good wingman when he’s bored

· Also, he’s running low on blackmail on Ruggie. Might as well get a refill when he can

· When seeing you alone at the entrance either being bothered by the other dorm members or looking bored, Ruggie ends up taking you to the lounge and chat with you

· The conversation always school orientated with school work and teachers coming up

· While you’re in the middle of complaining about Trein and Crewel again over their ridiculous assignments (like seriously, what’s so important about hair-color changing potions again? And what about the history of the school’s chandelier, is this shade???), Ruggie teases you about not being able to do something “as easy as that”

· He does his best to hide his soft side towards you when you sulk about it, seeing it as you pouting. Which is adorable and cute in his eyes and he loves seeing it

· Just as you’re about to get up and leave from getting annoyed, Ruggie quickly offers you his help on your assignments despite saying it in a teasing tone

· Yes, he likes to troll with people a lot but he can be serious when he wants to, evidently seen when he helps you through the questions

· His explanations aren’t great, yet he doesn’t give up trying to get you to understand and solve the questions

· Will he tease you while explaining? Yes. Will he snicker at you and give his infamous infuriating cute smirk? Yes.

· In the end, the assignment still gets done along with you feeling better with the concepts you weren’t so sure of thanks to him

· It’s his turn to blush as you give him a surprise hug, ending up covering his face with both hands and sigh once you let go

· As this happens, a certain lion continues to film the whole thing while covering the mouth of his “precious” kouhai with a smirk on his face. He’s not sorry when he shows it to Ruggie by the way.

Jade

· Having study dates with Jade happens more frequently than Ruggie and Trey’s solely because Jade would make sure he has one with you

· By that, he means using the pretext of having to “tutor” you per request by one of the staffs to get to go on one with you

· He will proudly say it’s his favorite excuse to use against Azul and Floyd since they wouldn’t be able to bother him nor interfere when he’s trying to spend some time with you

· Yes, he enjoys hanging around them for entertainment but he has his own limits too. Plus, he wouldn’t have to use….some other methods to get them off his back though he wouldn’t hesitate to do so if they interfere (cough blackmail cough)

· Studying with Jade is difficult no thanks to how much he enjoys teasing you

· He’ll be kind, polite, and courteous but he’ll do everything he can to get to see you blush

· Brushing shoulders and hands “incidentally” is nothing compared to the times he explicitly makes a move on you like gently cupping your hand whenever he takes your pencil so he could write some helpful notes in your notebook or sitting really close to you in general

· The worst part is how he’s actually good at teaching you with whatever you’re struggling with

· Makes good analogies, explains things thorough enough for you to grasp the foundation, surprisingly writes neatly and draw good diagrams – he truly lives up to his position as one of Azul’s hands and vice dorm leader

· That along with the fact he would be providing hospitability such as teas and snacks that you enjoy definitely makes him seem like a kind gentleman

· He enjoys teasing you during the whole time, having fun with your reactions his favorite other than seeing you blush being you being annoyed

· Just needs to shade here and there to get a good grasp and push your buttons only to get amused in the end from seeing you huff and pout or chuckle at any smart remarks you make towards him

· However, when you give him one your softest, genuine smile or initiate any physical contact yourself, it’s going to be his turn to blush and perhaps even tsun a bit

· Will go wide eyes at first with cheeks dust pink to turning lobster-red if you point it out while covering half his face and look away a bit

· Hugging is a whole different story though where you would be very successfully into getting Jade to go “Jade. exe has stopped working” after surprising him with one once you finally understand and get whatever you were confused with and do it out of happiness

· Once the date ends, he’ll show you out before going back into the dorm and find Azul and Floyd who he knew was spying during the whole thing

· He finds all the photos they took of him blushing and either would burn them or delete the files if saved on phone or PC

· He does secretly keep the ones that includes you looking happy or being close to him

Jamil

· Study dates with Jamil happens a good amount of time thanks to Kalim who makes sure it happens

· By that, literally Kalim would get everyone in Scarabia to help out but that’s another story for another time

· Out of all the vice dorm leaders, he’s the one that takes the study date seriously

· Wouldn’t really strike up a conversation because he would be focused on trying to get as much done as possible no thanks to how he’s busy in general

· That being said, most of the time would be more studying orientated

· Jamil would be attentive and help you with anything you need help with, going over them and making sure you get at least the foundations solid

· His explanation and tutoring skills are nearly par to Trey’s probably because of his many years of experience with Kalim, his sibling, and now, the other dorm members

· So, the idea of teasing you wouldn’t come up initially. Keyword: Initially

· Just because he’s focused on studying doesn’t mean he isn’t aware of his surroundings and other’s behaviors, especially yours

· He’s aware his attraction towards you is very much mutual since he practically caught you who-knows-how-many-times you looked at him, only to blush and stutter whenever he asks if there’s a problem

· Cue the teasing like the rest but unlike the other three above, his is more subtle

· He’ll be testing the water- see how far he can go with teasing you

· He honestly enjoys how you’re trying to keep a straight face, all cool and collected when he sits next to you to the point only a pencil case would slip through the space between you two

· Acting innocent and nonchalant, Jamil struggles to not smirk when he sees your ears turn red and the corner of your lips twitch

· Totally would pull “face too close for comfort” on you when he finds you getting distracted from whatever he explains something to you

· It would only happen once and never again though during the next few study dates since he’ll realize he nearly lost his self-control when he unconsciously and nearly closed the gap between the two of you

· What do you mean you heard him click his tongue? He did no such thing. It’s not like he was disappointed or anything because he wanted to-

· When you hug him, he’s not going to be calm. Whatsoever

· Pulls his head over his head and tells you not to come near him as he pulls his hoodie’s strings and try to cover his face completely

· This is when Kalim comes out of his hiding place and tries to get Jamil to calm down while telling you that he was “just passing by” when you ask where he came from

· It isn’t until he’s back at his room does he start calming down only to drag his hands down his face from realizing he messed up on trying to look cool around you

· Kalim: You like them that badly, huh~ Jamil: Shut up

Rook

· Study dates with Rook is bad for your heart. Not because he does weird things to you or anything. It’s just that…he’s rather direct. Very direct

· Although he does an excellent job teaching you, he doesn’t hide his attraction towards you at all

· Calls you all sorts of endearment without any shame when you come over to Pomefiore to have the study date with him: mon cœur, mon chéri, mamour, and more

· Like with everyone else he takes interests in, he very much likes to look at you. Even though it’ll distract you, he’s genuinely happy and in bliss getting to spend time with you

· To him, getting to see the you studying with such calmness makes him think you look absolutely enchanting, loving to see you putting effort and trying your best

· Despite being a hunter, he isn’t aware how you tend to look at him when he’s focused though nor does he know that you like seeing his serious side

· …and you probably shouldn’t since the minute he realizes this he probably would take advantage of it and cause you more problems down the road

· He spoils you a lot, mostly because he wishes to see you happy. Meaning, he would prepare all sorts of things to make sure you’re feeling comfy and happy when you’re with him

· In all seriousness though, he does education justice when he’s the one tutoring/teaching you

· Goes over everything thoroughly to the point where he would continue practicing and quizzing you until he knows you actually understand everything

· Every time you get something right, he praises you a lot to the point you would probably feel bashful

· When you’re feeling down or frustrated from the fact you can’t understand something or from anything in general, Rook is the one who’ll realize it first which often leads to him being the one to make you feel better in a short amount of time through words of encouragement

· In fact, he’s one of the two people who would be the best comforter of the vice dorm leaders

· By that, he’s the one you would probably pour your heart to without worries and end up feeling better after every single study date

· Hugging can go two ways with Rook

· When he senses you about to hug him (happens 90% of the time btw), he’ll hug you back with the same amount of excitement. He wouldn’t let go after you realize what you’ve done out of pure instinct and would instead hug you tighter while your face burns in his arms

· When you catch him off guard, he’ll freeze and blush, completely not expecting it. Probably would be his first time ever getting flustered too as he tries to quickly recover once you let go of him

Lilia

· Study dates with Lilia is more like a hang out than anything else

· He literally will pull the “immortal-being” card, where he’ll look over your shoulder and see what you’re doing before going on a long story-time telling of how each theorem, principle, historical event, etc. was discovered when he was whatever age-old at the time

· When dealing with assignments, he would complain about doing them, muttering along the lines of “back when I was in school, we didn’t have to do these”, “kids aren’t going to even use what they learned in real life”, and so on

· Don’t expect him to even attempt to study. He would ask you why he would ever need to when he lived who-knows-how many years and being at all those events that took place

· With all of that being said, you would think it would be impossible to get anything done, doing a great job distracting you especially when he just name drops a famous historical person and tells you the guy/gal’s life from baby to adult all in one go

· “That kid used to be so cute, as expected they would end up being this great”, “What’s this nonsense? How did that brat even did that when they couldn’t even answer 1+1 correctly”-

· However, when you try to study and start struggling, he would always help you

· There’s going to be teasing and he is very bold about it

· When you stifle a laugh from his stories, he sulks first only to kabedon you in your chair

· Leaning closer to you, he’ll ask whether you’ll take him seriousness now, gently holding your chin so you wouldn’t be able to look away

· He does end up letting you go with a smirk, giving you some space and time to get over what had happened in less than a minute, thinking that you looking like a deer caught in headlights with a bright blush made you look extremely adorable

· It’s not shocking that he teaches you well, especially when he’s the one that taught Sebek, Silver, and Malleus. How? He’ll never tell you how but the look their faces when you ask them makes you decide not to think about it further

· Lilia also happens to be the other greatest comforter, probably even better than Rook

· It’s because he raised three children on his own, he’s able to pick up any stress or sense the struggle you’re having when you do your assignments or studying before you say anything about it

· When it happens, he has you take a break on studying and lends you an ear, making sure you say everything that’s in your chest since he knows you’ll be needing it

· By the time he’s done helping you and you hug him out of gratefulness, he’ll be surprised and widen his eyes at first

· He does quickly recover and hugs you back with a satisfied smile, rather seeing you happy and filled with joy than anything else

· And it’s obvious that’s the case since once you leave, Malleus, Silver, and Sebek would ask him if anything good happened

#twst #twisted wonderland #vice dorm leaders #hc #headcanon #trey clover #ruggie bucchi #jade leech #jamil viper #rook hunt #lilia vanrouge

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cherry-valentine · 3 years

Text

Spring 2021 Anime Season

Mars Red is one of two series this season set in one of my favorite periods, the Meiji era. It’s a vampire series that deals a lot with the politics of war as the Japanese military is attempting to establish a vampire unit, supposedly to compete with the British vampire unit (because of course that’s a thing). It focuses on a human military officer named Maeda who is charged with recruiting and managing vampires. Maeda is the type of character I really enjoy. Handsome, a little older than most anime protagonists, chain-smoking, overly serious, and voiced by Junichi Suwabe (who has to have the sexiest voice in all of anime). The series has a classic, romantic feel to it. Its take on vampires is somewhat traditional (they evaporate in the sun, drink blood, sleep in coffins, have super strength and speed, etc.). If it brings anything new to the table, it’s the concept of vampires having different ranks, from S-class down, and how lower ranks naturally fear higher ranks. Still yet, the classic vibe works in the show’s favor. Combined with the historical setting, it gives the show a certain charm. The art is lovely, from the backgrounds to the character designs, and the music is a high point. It easily has the best ending theme of the season.

Fumetsu no Anata e (To Your Eternity) is a unique series. I’ve seen a lot of people comparing it to Mushishi, but with an overarching plot, and that assessment is pretty accurate. The show follows an entity that comes to be known as Fushi. It begins as an orb, and as it makes contact with other objects and creatures, it learns from them and can possibly take their forms. Among the forms it most often takes are a white wolf and a young man. Originally, it’s a somewhat empty shell, incapable of communicating, but as it meets different creatures and learns, it develops a personality and begins to speak. The series is, overall, about Fushi’s journey through this world and all the experiences it gains, both wonderful and tragic. There’s a subtle beauty to the series, with an early focus on nature, but it also has scenes of trauma and violence. The animation is fluid and the facial expressions are amazing. There’s an overall natural feel to it that, like others have pointed out, reminds me of Mushishi (though it’s definitely faster paced than Mushishi). The show also likes to make you cry, so keep that in mind.

Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood is the other series set in the Meiji era this season, albeit an alternate version of it that has a strange form of technology. To be honest, I’m a little fuzzy on some of the details, but it seems to be about a group called the Nue who work for the government to fight against a growing rebellion. The main character is Sawa, a member of Nue who has some sort of special powers involving her blood, which allow her to transform and battle monsters, or whatever else stands in her way. Her goal is to get revenge for the death of her entire clan (implied to be wiped out because of their power). Sawa is a decent heroine, a woman who craves vengeance and is determined to get it through any means, but is, at her core, a compassionate person who would rather live in peace. It’s this internal conflict that makes Sawa compelling (even if it’s not entirely original). The other characters are interesting, particularly Tsuki, whom I won’t talk much about because it would involve spoilers. The plot and details can get a little convoluted, but the action and animation are solid. When Sawa transforms, the art style changes, and it’s a really cool visual effect. The music is also nice.

Shaman King received a remake this season. I was a huge fan of the original, and so far I’m enjoying the remake, but to be honest, I’m having trouble seeing the point. The art is almost the same (just a lot shinier), the voice actors are the same, the plot is the same. Maybe it’s just that it’s been so long since I saw the original, I’m unable to remember the details and so I can’t tell what’s different. But to me it feels like I’m just rewatching the show. Which is fine, because I loved it to begin with. Maybe it gets different later on. Maybe it more closely follows the manga. I’ll keep watching to find out. For anyone new to the series, it looks like the remake is a solid place to start if you want to get into it. I won’t go into plot details for a story this old, so I’ll just say it’s a top tier shounen fighting series with a unique art style and some very memorable characters. If you like that sort of thing, and missed the original (or you just want a refresher), definitely check it out!

Godzilla Singular Point is a true delight. I’m a huge Godzilla (and kaiju in general) fan. I’ve watched every single Godzilla movie, as well as all the related movies (the Mothra films, Rodan, etc.), but I never watched the previous Godzilla anime that was on Netflix a few years ago. It just didn’t sound like something I’d like. Singular Point, however, is right up my alley. Set mainly in a small seaside town that’s suddenly attacked by bird-like monsters known as Rodans, we have two geeky protagonists using their intelligence to figure out what’s going on while more and more monsters appear. Mei and Yun are excellent heroes. They rely on their wits rather than physical strength, which is a refreshing approach. It’s also interesting that they have little to no face-to-face interaction. Instead, they chat with each other via text as they work separately. They often challenge each other with science questions. It’s adorable. The show’s overall feel is fairly upbeat and energetic. The colorful art and peppy character designs by Kazue Kato (who did Blue Exorcist) help with this feel. It should be noted that Godzilla himself doesn’t fully appear until halfway through the series. It says a lot about the quality of the show that I don’t actually mind that at all. Some of the science stuff does go over my head, but the general plot is easy enough to follow and the action is very well done. It also has fantastic music, with my favorite opening theme of the season. Even if Godzilla isn’t your thing, consider giving this series a shot if you like nerdy science types as heroes.

Burning Kabaddi is a sports anime about an unsual sport. I’d never heard of it before now, and if people in the comments were not talking about the very real sport, I would have assumed it was made up for the anime. The show is aware that the sport is obscure, so it takes great pains to explain the rules and details so that we can all follow the action. The story centers on Yoigoshi, a soccer prodigy who decides to drop all sports once he gets to high school due to all the drama and angst that surrounded him (mostly due to his teammates being jealous of his talent), and pursue a career as a streamer. All the various sports clubs at the school want to recruit him (especially the soccer club, of course) because they’ve heard of his skill and he has an athletic build. He rejects them all, but the Kabaddi club is strangely relentless. He ends up being manipulated into joining (the vice captain of the team straight up blackmails him by threatening to show his online streaming account to the whole school). Despite this rocky beginning, Yoigoshi actually starts to enjoy playing Kabaddi, and more importantly, begins to bond with his new teammates. It’s pretty fun stuff that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The art is serviceable for a sports anime and the music is fine. The series isn’t going to blow your mind, but it’s a fun way to spend twenty minutes every week. Worth a watch if you have a weakness for hot blooded sports anime.

The World Ends With You finally got its anime adaptation and I was so excited. The game is one of my all-time favorites. So far the anime is pretty good. The art is a near perfect replication of the bold, thick-lined art of the game. The battles are exciting and cool. Best of all, the anime often uses music from the game. This is important because the game has one of the best soundtracks, ever. Every time I recognize a song from the game, I almost squeal. If I had a complaint, it’s that the pacing feels a little off at times. It feels like the anime is rushing through the story, but that’s understandable. In the game, it took longer for everything to happen because you were walking from place to place, fighting battles along the way, stopping to scan NPC’s, shopping at stores, spending time in menus, etc. The anime has to cut most of that out, so naturally things are going to move faster. The result is that you don’t get to spend as much time with these characters, and so you feel less attached to them. Anyone watching the anime who didn’t play the game might feel like the emotional beats are lacking. I feel like this anime is definitely meant to be enjoyed by fans of the game, rather than newcomers to the story. But if you are a fan of the game? You should be watching this every week. It’s an excellent refresher on the story, just in time for the second game to come out this summer. Super high on my watch list.

Boku no Hero Academia has a new season. To be honest I don’t remember what number we’re on. This season, so far, focuses on a tournament-style competition between the two main hero classes. I would much prefer the plot to move on to something more exciting involving the villains, but I suppose they have to throw arcs like this in every so often just to remind everyone of which characters have which quirks. The plus point is that instead of being an individual competition, it’s team-based. What this ultimately means is that characters that are viewed as weaker or having more obscure quirks actually get a chance to shine. These are characters who definitely aren’t going to win one-on-one battles. In an individual tournament, it’s pretty much a given that characters like Deku, Bakugou, and Todoroki are going to win most of the matches. But in a team, everyone has to work together. The end result is that the lady characters, all of whom have fairly weak or situational quirks, finally FINALLY get to actually do stuff! Even better, in several of the match-ups, the girls have taken the lead in planning and strategizing. It’s been pretty nice to watch. The girls from the other class have been very proactive as well. I really wish the girls could do more in “real” battles with villains, since it’s clear that they can step up when they need to. Who knows? Maybe this is a sign of good things to come.

86 is a new mecha/sci-fi anime based on a series of light novels. The setup is fairly cool: In a country where everyone has silver hair and eyes, the people live in what looks like a utopia. There is a war going on outside their protected land but all combat is performed by automated robots, so there are no human casualties... or so the government would have the people believe. In reality, there is a district that exists on the outskirts of the country called 86, where people who don’t have silver hair and eyes are sent to pilot the robots and fight to protect the country that shunned them. Most of the pilots are children or teenagers. The mortality rate is high. Only a few people in the government know of their existence, mostly military types that include “handlers”. These handlers each take on an 86 unit and communicate with them through a system called “para-raid”. Using this, they monitor the battlefield from their safe positions and issue commands. Naturally, most handlers view their units as nothing more than tools in the war, and most 86-ers view their handlers as privileged snobs who know nothing of actual battle. The real plot kicks in when Lena, a young Major, becomes the new handler for a particular 86 unit. Lena is sympathetic to the people of 86, but it’s going to be hard getting her notoriously rough unit to accept her. The plot is a bit complicated and the show deals with some weighty themes (racism, privilege, war, child soldiers, death). Lena is a likable enough heroine and the members of 86 are all interesting and fairly well written. The music is fine. The art... well, it’s pretty to look at, but it feels a bit generic to me. A bit too shiny. The mecha designs are great, but I’m not crazy about the character designs, which feel like they could be from any other modern anime. I also find it sad but hilarious at the same time that the women’s military uniforms are clearly designed for fanservice (they include mini skirts, thigh-highs with garters, and a short jacket that opens up just above the chest to show the tight shirt underneath) while the men’s uniforms are just totally normal military wear. To be honest it’s just too stupid to actually be offensive, so it comes across as comical. Thankfully, the interesting setup and plot carry the show, making it good enough to overlook the generic visuals.

Moriarty the Patriot has a new season... maybe? I think it’s technically still season one, but with a split cour. Regardless, it feels like a new season so I’m treating it as such. The series focuses on famous Sherlock antagonist Moriarty, here represented as a trio of handsome brothers (though one of them is clearly the protagonist and the leader of the group) who work as “crime consultants” and basically help the lower classes wage class warfare against the nobility. This season shifts the focus away from the individual crimes Moriarty concocts and instead focuses on larger-scale conflicts that involve government conspiracies, corrupt cops, etc. We’re also treated to a lady James Bond (finally!), fixing one of the very few complaints I had about the first cour (that it lacked strong lady characters). The show remains very compelling, with beautiful art and excellent new opening and ending themes.

Best of Season:

Best New Show: Godzilla Singular Point

Best Opening Theme: Godzilla Singular Point

Best Ending Theme: Mars Red

Best New Male Character: Maeda (Mars Red)

Best New Female Character: Sawa (Joran)

#Anime Reviews #Spring 2021 Anime #Seasonal Anime Reviews #Seasonal Anime #Anime #Text #Godzilla Singular Point #Mars Red #moriarty the patriot #Fumetsu no anata e #Burning Kabaddi #86

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princessfbi · 3 years

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Ok I have got to know what happened with Oliver's character on that one show that makes you rage so hard every time you see him.

WELL NONNIE I'LL TELL YOU!

This is a warning for spoilers if anyone wants to watch this show because my rage cannot be contained.

OK SO...

This show is called Into the Badlands and Oliver's character is named Ryder. Basically the premise of this world is that it's kind of post apocalyptic/alternative universe where humanity got so caught up in trying to one up each other that it sort of imploded and now you have this society where either you're super wealthy (the Barrons), super poor (Cogs and Nomads), or somehow a ninja (The Clippers and whatever the hell MK was supposed to be). ANYWAYS....

Ryder is the son of Barron Quinn. Now the surviving land is either divided into like factions run by Barrons (who control a majority of major trade) or there's these lawless lands that are run dredges of society. You either become a Barron by killing another Barron (which is what Quinn did) or you are an heir apparent. Ryder is more an heir presumptive because Quinn won't outright name him his heir even though everyone just assumes it.

This is because Quinn is batshit crazy and thinks he can just live forever through sheer stubbornness and will alone. This is especially hard to do because he has a massive brain tumor that's dwindling down what little bit of sanity he has leading him to make questionable choices such as killing the only doctor they have in the lands who would've been useful pretty much for the rest of the series but go off Quinn. Ryder has a lot of resentment towards his father, which I will get into in a minute, and at the same time has gone out of his way to prove to Quinn that he's a worthy heir. Except Quinn keeps comparing Ryder to his second and regent, Sunny, and he's just all around a shitty person in general.

NOW HERE'S THE AMAZING BACKSTORY WITH RYDER:

So, when Ryder was a child, he was kidnapped by these nomads who were trying to blackmail Quinn. Ryder's mother begged Quinn to pay the ransom and save Ryder. Quinn... refused. So the nomads tortured Ryder and (Gross warning) like cut off part of his toes and disfigured his foot in the hopes of crippling him and scaring Quinn into giving to their demands.

Quinn, again, refused.

Eventually Quinn's regent at the time, Waldo, defies Quinn's orders and goes to rescue Ryder from these nomads. Waldo defying Quinn is a big deal because he's a clipper which is basically a soldier (often brought in from the slave faction called Cogs) and they take their oaths to their Barrons very seriously. Barrons trust no one but their regents because again you can become a Barron by killing them. But Waldo always had a soft spot for Ryder.

SO Ryder is saved and eventually nursed back to health but he always has a bit of a tragedy cloud hanging around him because from what we were told Ryder was a very sweet, bright child before he was kidnapped and was brought back as "a broken bird" and he's been doing everything he can to get rid of the broken bird image ever since.

Quinn resented Ryder for making him look weak and Ryder resented Quinn for... Well being a heartless dick.

But here's the crazy part... They both, in their own way, still kind of loved each other.

Now I won't bore you with my rant about how the best antagonists are often the tragic figures who have fallen from grace (Peter Hale, Draco Malfoy, Loki to name a few) BUT I will say Ryder had the PERFECT foundation of showing that fall. He was an asshole and hard and spoiled and super privilege but also soft and still a little broken. There's a whole other narrative involved too with his childhood love and how his dad planned on marrying her but we won't get into that.

ANYWAYS Ryder still had this desperate need to prove to his dad that he was a worthy heir but in his attempts to prove himself (and his dad's fall into madness) his dad started seeing him as competition. Competition and another objects (like Quinn saw with most other characters but especially Sunny). But Quinn has this weird kind of pride when it comes to things that he considers his and an attack on his property is an attack on him. There's a character named the Widow who lured Ryder out and tried to kill him slowly and personally as well as Sunny as an attack on Quinn and he went bananas (sorta).

Ryder was fine eventually but he realized that trying to prove himself to his dad was never going to work so he decides to try the other option: which is killing his dad. Partially because if he doesn't, Ryder is smart enough to know that Quinn's going to get him killed, but also because Quinn's descent into madness is spiraling faster and faster and Ryder wants to protect the legacy. Nothing to inherit if his dad burns the whole thing to the ground!

Long story short, Sunny turns on Quinn and stabs him and everyone thinks Quinn is dead and Ryder takes credit for it therefore succeeding his dad by becoming not only Barron of his father's lands but some other Barron that got murdered by another subplot that was pointless.

Now Ryder is determined to bring peace to the lands (not out of some noble obligation but because he just wants people to chill the fuck out). And for the most part... he's doing okay.

BUT THEN PLOT TWIST HIS DAD IS ALIVE AND CRAZIER THAN EVER.

Basically his dad storms Ryder's house, chases him down in the garden, and they fight. But Ryder's foot that was crippled when he was a child trips him up and the fight gets even messier. Ryder's sword breaks and Quinn points the sword to his own chest and tells Ryder to finish him.

Ryder hesitates and so Quinn takes the sword and stabs Ryder. You know like a rational father would do.

Quinn then asks Ryder why he hesitated and Ryder whispers "because you're my father" before he dies in Quinn's arms. Quinn is... horrified because he realizes that with the death of Ryder is the death of the last parts of his own humanity. He mourns Ryder but also like... takes no responsibility for killing him but neither did Ryder so he can't process it. Later on he's haunted by Ryder but again the man has a giant grapefruit sized tumor in his brain so it's all very reverse Hamlet if you will.

SO LOOK AT ALL THIS POTENTIAL!

THE REASON I RAGE:

Is because Ryder was set up to fail from the beginning. Which is great!....... If that had actually happened. The show worked so hard to tell us that Ryder was a failure and a coward but if you look at it from a story perspective... Ryder was the opposite of a failure. Every time someone told him he couldn't do something, he proved them wrong. Again and again and again. But that was never good enough for anyone. So that vicious cycle would've been amazing to see!

But instead of exploring any of that, we had to watch a storyline that was frankly ridiculous from the beginning that took up way more time than it should. There's a character named MK, who was supposed to be inspired by the myth The Monkey King, but if you don't know that story then you never would've figured that out. Hell, I knew the story and didn't figure it out until I had to google his name because I kept forgetting it. In comparison to everything else happening in the show, this magical mythical storyline just didn't fit and I'm not kidding when I say I watched a season and a half of this show and forgot about MK every time.

Now if you noticed my icon is Buck in a Box. That's an inside joke I have with a friend about this fucking show. The first scene starts off with Sunny stumbling onto a group of Nomads who go absolutely feral about this massive box they don't want him to look inside. Turns out MK was in this box for reasons that were too weak for me to even remember but again MK was entirely forgettable. My friend and I kept talking about how it would've been better if Ryder had been in the box because the Ryder and Sunny rivalry had so much unexplored potential that would've been incredible if we started from the very beginning instead of just being told over and over again that Ryder hates being compared to Sunny.

Sunny is the main character and Quinn, unlike with Ryder, was incredibly proud to have Sunny "in his possession" and Ryder hated him for it.

But did we get to explore that? NO! Did we get to explore the parallels of Sunny and Ryder chafing at being considered possessions by Quinn? NO! Did we get to explore the trauma Ryder was working so hard to shake off? NO!

Instead the show spent so much energy victim blaming Ryder essentially for being the son of a Villain and his Nonsensical Ambitious Mother who had the misfortune of being kidnapped by bandits as a child while telling the audience that Ryder was never going to succeed. That Ryder had no honor and was a coward and weak.

They spent way more time trying to tell us that we should hate Ryder and that he was a bad guy but didn't do ANY of the work to show the fall from grace to prove that. Ryder remained a tragic figure that didn't fall from grace but was rather pushed off by lazy writing because they wanted to focus again on this magical ninja boy with a penchant for getting in the way and ruining everything.

I rage because Antagonist and Villain are not the same thing. Ryder had the potential of becoming a villain and his death by the hands of his father would've cycled him back into the role of a tragic figure. But instead... it was just wasted.

THAT is why I rage. You had the material right there and yet you spent so long telling us that we, the audience, don't like Ryder instead of showing us anything that would make us not like him (besides the whiny white boy thing).

Instead I found myself rooting for Ryder. Like could you imagine if Ryder and Sunny went against Quinn together instead of having the weakest rivalry known to man? Could you imagine Ryder's fall from grace of wanting peace in the lands as it turned to greed? Could you imagine Sunny becoming actual competition for Ryder instead of being manipulated to do so?

WE GOT NONE OF IT.

THIS is why I rage.

#I'm so sorry nonnie #I ranted #But you asked for it #So here it is #Oliver Stark #Ryder into the badlands #Into the badlands #anon #ask #answered

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vaguely-concerned · 3 years

Text

X-men Evolution; the great 2021 rewatch liveblog

exactly what it says on the tin, about halfway through the show I had TOO MANY FEELINGS and had to start writing some of them out haha (gets quite gambit & rogue/gambit heavy in the latter half, Because of Who I Am as a Person)

- this is my childhood’s x-men, my formative experience with them, and I’m happy to report that still seems like a good thing. the little eleven year old within me gets to geek out and have a good time with the characters and the surprisingly good animation and writing, adult me gets to CACKLE at regular intervals at the fashion/technology/absolute bonkers hot garbage comic book nonsense they use to justify a storyline every now and then, it’s been a good time

- I was like ‘ah well it is super dated it probably won’t be quite the same now’ and then rogue’s HAIR did the THING in the opening and ‘it’s all coming back to me now’ started playing in the background... the little baby queer in me swooning across time and space

- such a good beast, both his design and the writing, my heart aches for him all the time. he’s just so passionate! about being a teacher! helping young humans learn the stuff they’ll need in life! the most wonderful nerd man, just let good things happen for him

- I’m going to go ahead and assume that rogue’s ‘crush’ on scott is more of a deeply complex psychological process about desiring normalcy and intimacy and trying to figure out if she’s queer and dealing with her emerging sexuality and latching on to the first and best safely unavailable and nonthreatening older boy to project these issues onto rather than actually being a real thing, because I respect her so much as a person and I cannot bring myself to imagine she’s honestly attracted to a man who has POSTERS OF CARS on his bedroom wall. (I’ll give jean a break just because she seems to have a longer deeper history with him that might counteract some of that libido-kill, and also she’s a jock so lol)

like I am very sorry but can u imagine being a teenage girl with any interest in a boy with model cars in his bedroom when gambit’s swanning around being a much, much, much worse choice on almost every possible level but in a teen girl kryptonite kind of way? inconceivable

(I drag scott quite a few times in this and it’s not because I don’t love him, it’s just his tragedy to be the most draggable man in the world)

to be fair by the time gambit shows up that whole Situation has mostly played itself out I suppose but still

- toad’s design is so ineffably brilliant, I can’t quite tell you why but that ugly cute charm has really stuck with me, he’s one of the characters I remembered the best to this day just visually

- poor evan... he truly never had a chance, did he, they just saddled him with the most 90s teen bullshit they could come up with like he’s some kind of ‘what adult writers think teens like’ frankenstein’s monster ;______; it’s not your fault honey

- poor poor POOR storm, she gets one focus episode and they were like ‘we’re going to make an episode so racist -- ‘

I’m still STUNNED at how bad it was, but undeniably I laughed hysterically to the point that my neighbours were probably worried when that dude was earnestly like ‘He [stunningly breathlessly racist caricature of a ‘witch doctor’ guy] has stolen her powers, and he’s going to use them to take over Africa!!!’ fhajsdlfhsakjldfh oh really? tell me more, like how the fUCK this could be on television within my life time fasdlfhsdkjfhsad f just... fahjksdfh

- it’s a testament to gambit’s appeal as a character that his charm can survive what they’ve done with his hair and beard choices in this one fajskfhs regrettable but true I still fuckn LOVE him and in my highly biased yet Correct opinion he should have been around much more. get you a man who manages to stay hot through sheer Vibes even with a bowl cut

- aw scott/jean is kind of sweet in this show even if it’s taking them forEVER to get there, I like it

- it’s very nice of rogue to not mention magneto’s romantic daydreams and nostalgic memories about charles xavier after touching his face that one time... or maybe her brain did her a service and repressed it, there’s some stuff you shouldn’t have to know about your father figure

- the danger room is the very definition of ‘why do we even have that lever’ and I wonder what the fuck prof x does to have enough money to replace everything that gets busted all the time

- I’d say that a lot of the writing holds up surprisingly well! (but some of it is also incredibly inexcusably racist in ways that beggar belief, so... not full marks here) the characters have distinct voices and their arcs are set up and delivered on solidly for the most part, and there’s a lot of love showing through in small moments that are just there to have a funny/interesting thing to say about the characters and how their powers work separately and in combination. listen, sometimes I get so thirsty for like. basic goddamn competency in storytelling, let me have this

- ugggggh why is there captain america in my x-men have I not suffered enough... very very funny when prof x goes ‘sounds like you knew rogers personally’ and logan is like ‘I did ;)’ *all the students ganging up on steve rogers* “did you fuck our teacher, captain america?!”

- fskadfhas WHY are you showing me hot young-ified magneto’s ass fksjahfskj charles is not even here to see it, what a tragic waste erik

- ...I was sort of kidding before but uh I think logan genuinely did fuck captain america (or at least wishes very much that he did lol)

- wanda can have a little watching the world burn. as a treat for the way every single adult in her life has fucking failed her (’aren’t they treating you well here’ professor x she’s in a straightjacket)

- poor rogue tho can you imagine finding out after your biggest crush on a girl yet that she’s your fucking MOM in disguise... I would break out in cold sweat every time I thought about a boob forever after

- well seems like they really just had all that homoerotic rivalry stuff between quicksilver and spyke in their first ep only to never do anything with that again ever?? I mean even without the gay undertone that seems like a dynamic you spent most of an episode setting up writers what the hell haha

- dslhfkasjlh GAMBIT THERE HE IS MY BOY IS ON THE SCENE THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! I don’t even care about his awful hair situation or the fact that his eyes are wrong here (coloured contact lenses, maybe, for a watsonian explanation? though he’d probably have to get them made special, considering he needs the sclera and the iris covered up in different ways, I’ve seen some comic panels indicating he has been known to?)

(cute little detail: when he shuffles the cards the first time we see him he ends with removing the top card to show the ace of hearts beneath <3 foreshadowing baBEY he’s a... good-ish boy deep down. hey he tries okay shit gets complicated sometimes lol)

- cracking UP at gambit perched cheerily on the edge of a crate dispensing cards in the middle of the battle... he’s like ‘eh it’s a livin’ sfsajkhf remy stop working for supervillains just because you had nothing to do on a thursday afternoon and they said they’d pay you

- I’m guessing magneto must have imposed a strict order of silence on these guys or something because I cannot imagine any other reason for him to shut up, especially once he notices rogue is a QTE (or, far more likely, they hadn’t settled on any voice actors for the new characters until next season haha. it is kind of odd that they’re all keeping up near monastic silence, though, even sabertooth lol)

- WHAT an epic first meeting for us rogue/gambit fans here... first his shadow like there’s fireworks going off behind him lighting him up and then he gives her the fuckn king of hearts and she’s so enchanted by his dumb handsome face she doesn’t even notice it’s about to blow up in her hands and it all happens in heavily meaningful silence afjsdfjashjk no wonder this ship ingrained itself in my hindbrain

yeah look smug while you can remy she’s gonna have you on your knees one day and you’ll be happy about it lol

- god storm is so COOL, everything just fading out of focus when she really gets going... give her more screen time, show!!

- mystique is every person... this person... that person... that bird... that cat... that wolf... I’m not even sure she’s not also me... are you sure she’s not you?

- holy fuck I respect the hell out of the decision to just... blow up the entire status quo in a season ender, I only vaguely remembered that (actually in general I appreciate how good the continuity is -- buildings and places that get damaged in battles need to be repaired or rebuilt, it makes the consequences feel more real even when no one gets seriously hurt. where they get the money to restore scott’s car and logan’s motorbikes every time they go cablooie is still an open question tho lol is it credit card fraud, professor? is it telepathically acquired blackmail???)

- I first watched this when I was nine or so, so it’s a real experience to go from my starry eyed intrigued ‘oh my god... they’re teenagers’ to my horrified adult perspective of ‘oh my god... they’re TEENAGERS D:’

that goes double for the brotherhood boys honestly, I’m here with tears in my eyes like ‘I’m sorry the system has failed you so badly you’re all just a bunch of dumb kids whose caretakers clearly fucked up spectacularly’

like lance is always waiting for mystique to come back because she’s the closest thing he has to a safe parental figure, may we speak about how crushingly depressing that is

- rogue is so ready to throw hands at literally any moment and for that I love and treasure her immensely (I think getting to see her be so surly and unreasonable and sometimes difficult and jealous, like any teenager, meant a lot to me as a kid who was not really allowed to be any of these things, this version of the character has stayed with me so deeply. she holds on so fiercely to her right to feel what she feels and be what she is even when it’s ‘ugly’ or unreasonable, which I think plays in really interestingly with how her powers involve getting invaded by other people’s thoughts and memories to the point of overwhelming her own sense of self and the fact that she clearly has a lot of self-loathing and self-consciousness and confusion about her identity as well. I love her so much)

- oooof this is the ‘the gang experience a microaggression’ episode huh (well more like macroagressions really)

hits a bit different with adult eyes and perspective huh

- hearing jean sound almost like a child when she says ‘that’s so unfair!’ somehow has me like ;______; -- she has to be so adult and responsible all the time, and having her be reduced to the kid she still is and should get to be in front of this awful awful man she could squash like a bug with the flick of a thought... ugh I’m Big Sad (it is funny that jean seemingly plays Every Sport tho djfhaskj)

- MY BOY IS BACK!!! this time with the duster coat and his eyes the right colour, im so happy (too bad about the subdued colour scheme tho; I adore his dumb bright pink getup with my whole heart)

it’s kind of adorable that he takes the time to take the bullies aside and go ‘I know these guys can’t wreck you without getting expelled, but I think you’ll find no law set down by god or man would stop me from doing so whenever I wanted to. so piss off and leave them alone’ lol he’s looking out for them, in his own way

- in this episode: remy lebeau wrangles some kids while looking bored yet mildly amused the whole time. what the fuck does magneto have on you for you to agree to this level of babysitting duty buddy

- fun detail I noticed b/c when I get a fave I hyperfixate: he gave rogue the king of hearts before, but he ‘introduces’ himself to the brotherhood here (lol) with the jack of hearts, probably to symbolize he’s here as someone who works for magneto in this setting and not as his own man? it’s a demotion he’s given himself there, anyway, might be he’s not very pleased about his current position huh

- I like it when rogue and kitty team up, they’re not very effective together but their squabbling is so cute and non-aggressive

- pietro is what draco malfoy would be if I ever found malfoy interesting to watch for even one moment, every time quicksilver talks I’m like ‘what wonderfully insufferable thing is going to come out of your mouth this time you little shit :’)’

- a) why are scott and logan shirtless for this scene? I am not complaining on the logan side of things at least but why and b) I laughed so hard I almost fell off my couch when scott asked logan if he’d ever been in love and he was like ‘once. she was the most beautiful bike I ever saw’ falsdfhaskjfhsakjlfhasklhjfd THE BEST VERSION OF WOLVERINE EVER, ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES

- mystique’s sheer dedication to being a petty bitch is kind of inspirational tbh, almost makes me want to go on a completely bonkers and extra crusade of personal revenge myself

- oooh they’re doing some genuinely cool things with vision/lack of vision in this one (it’s the scott left on his own in the desert without glasses one btw) even visually, dang! I’m so sad this show didn’t get more seasons than it did, honestly, it deserved it

- hell yeah jean wreck her, go get your man with the suspiciously specific clothing damage normally done to female characters

awww :’) okay yeah they’re super sweet, I love the tiny loving animation details like how he leans his head against her and her stroking his hair away from his eyes

- nooo don’t bully evan leave my t0tally r4dical sk8er boy alone :(

- I love the running joke of people fleeing in blind panic only to reveal that what they’re running from is kitty’s cheerful well meaning little face fskfaskh

- scott and jean are already peak married after officially being together for one episode and it’s adorable, and they just stone cold threw logan under the bus, rip wolverine we hardly knew ya

fjasdlfasldfhslajdkfhsadkjlfhsdkjalfhsdakfh h jean establishing herself as the alphabitch of this relationship by throwing her man to the wolves right after dsjfhaskjfhaskjhfsakjdhfaskjhfaskdhfskjahfskdajhf get smarter or get volunteered scott

- ...eyepatch lady is so hot ngl

oh evan went to the place hank used to go to calm down ;________; (honestly he’s kind of won a place in my heart just by being a pretty normal teenage boy haha)

- jesus fucking CHRIST can you imagine being storm having to look her sister in the eye as she tells her ‘I lost your only child, he’s *vague gesture* somewhere in the sewers we think’ this poor woman

- amanda the self admitted monster fucker you are so VALID (I love her and her family’s design so much tho!)

- it’s so cool that even in his human ‘disguise�� kurt’s fingers follow the shape of his actual hand beneath it rather than moving like a five fingered hand, it’s such a lovingly consistent little detail

- magneto and mystique in a breathless race to see who can be the shittiest parent... tune in next week for yet another parental nadir (also some low-poly gambit appearances in this one, for those at home keeping score (me), he’s in the background looking like someone drew him with their eyes closed fakjldfhasd look how they massacred my boy)

- someone please teach the brotherhood boys about consent huh

- jean ‘soccer mom before her time’ grey and her SUV dfhakjlhds :’)

- im sobbing rogue baby girl i’m so sorryyyyyy, this voice actress is so good, my parental instincts suddenly kicked into overdrive hearing the crack in her voice :( (bb me was right tho rogue centric episodes ARE the best episodes. that tension between ‘do I identify witn this character or am I crushing on her?? both???’ now has the fun new addition of ‘oh god oh no you are a baby I want to shield you with my body from everything trying to hurt you’)

- mystique is like ‘so you see despite you telling me you never wanted to see me again I completely disrespected that and posed as a friend your age, manipulated you by offering you the mirage of direly needed emotional intimacy and belonging and added some sprinkles of homoerotic tension to it just to massively worsen your already existing grievous psychosexual trauma and identity issues... out of love’

god go jump in a black hole you fucking monster

- there’s some very interesting and quite subtle subtext about the people she’s morphing into and what that says about her mental state/how it shows off some of her emotional baggage with the rest of the team. it’s like she’s switching between people/powers that fit the purpose as if she’s going through cycles of fight/flight (and then bursts of freeze where she’s herself, which is... so sad)

- this whole episode is hurting my heart but rogue at full power is undeniably epic

- ‘professor x get your goddamn act together and get this poor girl some fucking tHERAPY’ challenge

- SAFE PAPA LOGAN ;_____;

- EYYYYYY opening straight on My Lad, I cannot stop winning!!!!!

fasdfhsad disintegrating the window with a smiley face... remy I do love you more than my heart can bear honestly, hello may we speak about the fact that his urge to be a little shit is so deep and strong it survives mind control (that little breathed out ‘hiah!’ as he vaults the fence too dsakfjsd)

hahaha and he does up the coat fhsalfdsaj

- magneto dismissing other telepaths like ‘puh-lease, your Meaningful Looks have got nothing on my ex-husband’s’

- :’) rogue and kurt sibling timeees

- say what you want but this pyro guy’s got job satisfaction in being a creepy arsonist with a weird recurring horse theme (well at least twice but still weird)

- I love how beast is the kindest man to ever walk the earth but also straight up savage, this man drags people so hard their ancestors wince in their graves

- gambit taking the time to complete the guard’s game of solitaire -- this episode is giving me everything I want. u little disgrace mr lebeau

and THEN he takes the spider out in the most hilariously bonkers way my heart is so FULL

(I love that when magneto moves by he looks startled and has to quickly move his head out of the way to avoid getting kicked in the temple too that’s a fun detail)

I’m so INTO how this sequence shows off that his greatest strength isn’t even his powers (which are pretty straightforward, really, he makes go boom, longer time and bigger thing bigger boom) but that he’s clever and creative and always extremely ready to be the most harebrained-bananapants-extra-in-a-deceptively-laidback-sort-of-way person in the room (I actually have some genuinely Deep Thoughts about how his whole character does a really interesting thing with having the straightforwardly destructive nature of his powers yield to what his nature as a person is, and how using the playing cards play (heh) into it, maybe I’ll write it out some day. just the fact that he could use anything, but he deliberately chose something that adds style and playfulness and corny charm to it and that also limits the damage of the explosions compared to if he habitually used something with more mass... I find it fascinating how much he’s made a story around himself with it and how deeply it shows he does have a good heart, at the end of the day, in almost a metatextual way. he doesn’t want to destroy things or people, he’s at worst (and best lol) a thief.)

- I honestly have literally no memory of white nick fury (which seems so weird now isn’t it funny) in this series from when I was a kid, he clearly did not make an impression on me lol

- mr wolverine ‘assigned canadian at birth’ x-men

- oh man I dig the androgynity of x-23′s outfit (even tho they had to compensate with the long hair, which... kind of doesn’t make sense in-universe but does on a design level because it’s a crucial thing that she’s a female clone of logan so yeah okay fine whatever have your arbitrary gender markers if you must haha)

ooooooh that’s actually really clever, they make her gender gradually more obvious as she unravels through the episode and her outfit changes -- first the mask coming off, and then her jacket opening to show her silhouette more clearly, that’s cool!

- my god what really sets this show apart is how much it invests in little character and relationship moments, it’s just so fucking GOOD! it gives laura looking in on those moments such depth and weight because it’s new to her but established to us as an audience, this is how you make found family devastating people (storm growing bonsai trees is so charming too haha)

- ooof this is honestly quite harrowing

SHE’S SO SMALL COMPARED TO HIM I’M CRYING (at least that part of his genes translated over faslkfsjdh short king, I say this with all the love and support of a fellow short monarch)

- tabitha seems to just be running around doing precisely whatever the fuck she wants and you know what I support her even if she is an asshole her father left her a bunch of trauma and no fucks left to give

- still thrilled about professor x explaining the spider key fuckup to magneto after the fact like ‘magnus you dumb bitch this is why we split up’

- awww kitty has anime and movie posters on her wall and sleeps with a stuffed toy :’)

- remy rogue

🤝

doing completely unnecessary parkour around the brotherhood living room seemingly just for the hell of it... I’m not saying soulmates but fucking soulmates

- fhsadkjlfhsakjldfhsadjkfhsdajkfh just as gambit’s soul-level need to be a little shit survived his bout of mind control, rogue’s deep and urgent desire to kiss gambit full on the mouth survived hers I can’t breathe

she looks so pleased with herself too GOOD FOR YOU GIRL at least get something out of this other than more trauma

also not only the fact that he’s smart enough to figure out what’s going on (though he’s only partially right about who’s behind it. I do so enjoy gambit/mystique deep and sincere antipathy as a constant across all universes tho lmao pure wlw/mlm hostility) but also that he keeps fending her off like he’s not trying to hurt her even though she’s in nigh on unstoppable and invulnerable terminator mode... awww

- gambit having absolutely no patience for wolverine and sabertooth’s bullshit macho-off and consistently being this little biker trio’s one brain cell is adding years to my life with every passing moment

his voice is a little different in these scenes too, a bit softer and less like he’s trying to impress someone, it’s nice

- hank: well I barely recognize any of these (completely made up) ‘ancient egyptian hieroglyphs’ but from what I can make out -- *proceeds to infodump a perfect coherent narrative* fjdhfak

listen this whole thing is such nonsense on so many levels, I’m just turning my brain off so I won’t have to think about it okay, the compulsion to put ancient aliens in egypt haunts us as a culture

- I am CACKLING about gambit in the snow after having to listen to these two chucklefucks ooze testosterone at each other for hours

he started out taking it in good cheer and is now reduced to ‘dieu would both of you just jump off this fUCKING mountain please’

- ah. a little oops-a-daisy there, we seem to have unleashed the apocalypse. please stand by (they really don’t pull their punches with the season cliffhangers in this show haha)

- opening the season on gambit’s merrily grinning face is the easiest way to gain my favour. yes good this season may commence

baby u r my

ANGELLLLLLLL

(he’s so cute here tho haha I think it shows the design isn’t unsalvagable, just get him better hair and stubble more like logan has and you’ve basically got it)

love his exasperated eyeroll when the dude gets spooked (by his eyes? or just the general weirdness?) too

he’s just trying to keep this crazy family of evil mutants together and unmurdered by one another until they’ve managed to avert the end of the world, bless him

- oh NO rogue’s LIP wobbles my hhhhhheart ;____; such a good animation detail to put in

- like... I know kurt is just a sad scared teenager with a lot of shit going on and all the adults are too busy averting the end of the world to help him... but buddy maybe don’t ask your sister to wake her abuser (who forced her to kickstart the end of the world!!!!!) when she feels utterly unsafe even with her statue version around huh

- ...wanda is good and I want only good things for her. and for her dad to be disemboweled for what he did to her both the first time around and when he forced her to forget I mean what

- magneto throwing an epic satelite-slinging tantrum b/c ‘no I am the biggest sexiest strongest mutant of the pack :(’... erik fucking get over yourself

- yes boys absolutely go along with a plan suggested by a dude who looks at you like this

nothing bad can come of this surely asdfkhsa

- lance’s quarter of a braincell always trying to go ‘hey wait, maybe... not do this???’ and it never helps lol

- in this episode: Logan Has A Bad Day

...some very specific bondage positions he’s held in here, I am sure this episode awakened something in someone once upon a time lol

- logan shielding x-23 with his body... im fine it’s okay I’m not crying don’t look at me

- afsdhlsdfjasdlk those sure are some ‘scottish’ accents flsadkjhkdsjahfsd

- scott relieved to finally be able to cede the position of ‘charles xavier’s least favourite son’ to someone else fjsaklfhsajd (poor scott it’s not your fault honey)

supremely cowardly to suggest there is an ex-wife involved rather than charles slutting his way around the british isles back in the day but okay

- kurt with a cold is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. it’s okay kid it’ll get better soon

- ...is there an implication here that professor x is naturally blond. because I am losing my entire little mind about it (i mean he at least has to carry the gene, as does this lady?)

ETA: upon doing some research into this I can indeed confirm that charles xavier does seem to be naturally blond, and after this knowledge I will never be the same

- “listen, dracula” fskdafghasd oh scott you sweet baby angel I love you

- I know jean’s abilities are a bit ‘as strong or as weak as the plot needs right now’ at this point (so you can have the setup for what’s going to happen with them eventually and she’s basically invincible ;____;), and normally I’m cool with it but god I want her to just squash lucas like a little bug

- ewwwww please don’t ever say ‘daddy’ like that again

- ...what the fuck is even going on this episode’s a mess

like okay the split personality thing could be something but the way it’s done... what just happened lol

- MY BOY EVAN IS BACK! with a real glowup too (...though kind of weird how he suddenly looks like a grown man)

- augh scott’s eyes are so pretty oh my god ;__________________________;

- that episode in the first season where evan makes the ‘this is my new family!!’ video is so sad now (also, again, his poor poor parents)

- time for: life affirming road trip with gambit (involuntary) faskljdfhaskjd

stunt therapist remy lebeau

- I mean the way he goes about it is batshit insane and it’s very much secondary to what he’s actually up to but this is the first time rogue’s sounded genuinely hopeful and confident and like herself in like a season <3

- he is disconcertingly pleased about her nearly throwing him off the train, and may I just say I agree it’s so nice to see rogue with her old fire back

- the first time I watched this it was of course dubbed into norwegian, so I had no idea either of these characters were southern lol (though to be fair I probably wouldn’t have had much context for what it meant exactly either, I was like ten at the time and not too interested in america) I seem to dimly remember the norwegian voice actor did a little more of a ‘french’-tinged accent for gambit all over tho haha

- you know what respect where it’s due, pyro dude knows to live his life for the lols and one has to admire his sociopathic dedication to it

interesting that he, too, seems to have fucking hated magneto -- I wonder if the implication here is that he kept all the acolytes in line with blackmail or by keeping something/one hostage? (except sabertooth maybe he’d just have to say ‘you get to fuck shit up and fight wolverine’ and that’d be enough)

- fsdakfhsd he’s so focused on her he doesn’t notice that guy about to hit him fkafhsa

- fuck everything else except whatever the hell these two’ve got going on

- it’s weirdly cathartic to have rogue have a conversation with someone who was not happily adopted as well, I don’t think kurt like. gets it because his parents loved him unconditionally and still do

birds of a feather motherfucker

- fun detail: when the x-men team are on the shore and logan is sniffing around scott is stepping in something and trying to wipe it off his boots in the background

- when he wakes up after passing out from the touch he’s smiling even though she’s standing over him looking like the rage of god outlined by the moon fsajfsa well the last time he passed out like that it was from a kiss, maybe he still has some hopes and dreams in that direction lol (also he recovers from the tumble down the hill first and is checking on her before accidentally brushing her cheek with his hand, which I thought was sweet)

and it was in that moment he knew he fucked up *passes out*

- ‘I can explain’ can u remy. can u

- did it ever even occur to you to just. ask her. to help you. I mean I know it didn’t but like rogue’s always one second away from throwing hands with some bully and is stupidly ride or die, if you’d given her the puppydog eyes she would have crumbled immediately (fair enough I guess this entire episode is telling us he’s not from a background where he has much experience with people just helping him without a price haha)

- his eyes glowing when he’s angry or upset or using a lot of his power is undeniably cool as all hell. I’m just saying it would be Big Sexy if they sort of flickered with light in moments of genuine vulnerability okay

- his coat... his coat is what makes the Silhouette tm and I could not be happier about it

- another parent of the year contestant enters the running lol “hey remy have you ever considered that you’re more of a walking bomb factory than a person? that’s certainly how I think of you hahaha c’mon kid let’s go”

- the running joke of jean luc getting dollar signs in his eyes seeing the other mutant powers and gambit being like ‘nO!!!!’ and pulling him along is amazing haha

- from the way he looks when he touches rogue accidentally and the way he talks to his dad I’m sort of getting the feeling this gambit might actually be a bit younger than he looks?

here too -- idk why but it’s making the ‘wait is he baby???’ alarms go off in my head haha. very early twenties at most.

- and we’ve officially seen him with all the face cards in the heart suit folks! (yes this is the sort of thing my brain notices no I don’t know either)

- poor logan running his ass off this whole episode in a panic and then she’s like ‘nah he’s fine (in several meanings of the word ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ) please put him down’ hfaskfsda

- rogue without makeup!!! her eyes look so naked like this haha <3

- oooh here’s a really interesting thing that tickles my brain a bit in this specific part of the scene where gambit frees his dad -- the part where he’s leaning against the door frame waiting for jean luc, who’s about to suggest using the opportunity to ruin the rival gang from the inside rather than slipping away while they still can

from his expression here he knows what’s about to happen, what jean luc is about to say, and it’s clearly a ‘man who thought he’d lost all hope loses last additional bit of hope he didn’t even know he still had’ sort of situation. he KNOWS what jean luc is like, and it still hurts that he really, honestly can’t give him even this, can’t appreciate that remy’s already done all this shit for him when he extremely didn’t have to, without immediately (no really, it took him less than ten seconds to go there? jesus) demanding more.

remy tells him “I’m just here for you” and jean luc does not understand it. remy seems to be sincere in this motivation -- rogue certainly thinks so, having experienced it second hand and found enough at least emotional merit in it to decide he was worth saving even after all his bullshit (lol a bit of a running theme maybe. I think it’s very telling that after she absorbed mystique she was like ‘what the FUCK you’re a fucking monster’, and after she absorbed gambit she went ‘you did the wrong thing for the right reasons’ after she got over the first wave of outrage)

there’s also what he says as he stands there: “You don’t need me for that”, with the distinct implication that jean luc would only keep him around because he has a use for him and for no other reason -- and then jean luc shamelessly doubles down on that by specifying that it’s not even him he’s got a use for as such, just his powers. that’s some kicking puppies level of deliberately missing the point, it’s almost impressive in how cheerfully mean it is haha

this idea of using people is really important in this episode because remy’s doing basically exactly the same thing to rogue to begin with; it doesn’t really matter to his plan that it’s her that’s with him through this, just what her powers are. (I think it’s p r e t t y solidly implied that he does actually like her a lot outside of that too and maybe there is some comfort in having her around for this, but mostly he’s behind a smokescreen of lies through the whole thing sooo I doubt he’s even aware of it, honestly)

but then it does matter that it’s her when she comes back for him, even after what he did. and unlike jean luc he understands what that means, that she did that for him, and that she didn’t have to. and instead of asking her for more, in return he gives her the thing it’s been established is what he considers the most valuable thing he has; his ‘last card’, the thing he’s credited with keeping him alive many a time, basically. it’s gone from using to mutuality, a tentative place of friendship, and at the end of the day he is a different man than his adoptive father, with a capacity for selflessness and love he lacks. which is of course some of the same stuff going on with rogue and mystique too, except rogue acted from a more fragile and unstable place and did something she regrets, or at least has a LOT of doubts about now, and she found some catharsis in helping someone make a different choice in a similar situation. man there’s some Stuff going on under the surface here haha

(by the way it’s a weirdly... meaningless yet intensely meaningful thing, the gifting of a symbol? of an idea? but he’s putting something very crucial of himself into her hands, is the subtext, and he expects her to understand, which she also does seem to do. at the beginning of the episode he’s proving that he’s seen something true about her -- “You’re such an unhappy girl”, knowing where she comes from, the way she’s mourning her lost confidence and autonomy with her abilities -- and here she’s proving she’s seen something true about him. :’) I wish this show had gone on long enough for this dynamic to progress, it’s really interesting and touching)

- gambit dragging himself up onto dry land seeing someone approaching (to help?!): :D

gambit seeing that it’s logan and the look on his face: D:

- rogue using her powers so confidently and fearlessly in this episode tho!!!!

- *me crying* and then her FAMBILY comes to take her home and he says he’s looking out for her too and kurt still loves her even though they’re having a conflict thing between them and she’s finally able to use her powers without so much fear again and --

- ...did I just watch some baby lesbian love at first sight shit right now???

- okay last two episodes let’s go

- HELL YEAH STORM (I love that she’s like ‘don’t give me a dumb order like that and I won’t have to disobey it’ too sdfjsaj) her voice has such command I’m usually very much not the ‘step on me’ type butttt

- y’know I feel like apocalypse’s main fault across all versions I’ve seen of him is that he’s like an immortal superpowered god king and he’s not even sexy. like at least make him hot if he’s going to be insufferable in every other way

- also callout post for apocalypse: one time he made gambit into the Horseman of Death... and didn’t even make him sexy!!! you were handed remy lebeau, supreme bi disaster slut of the x men universe, and you couldn’t even make his brainwashed superpowered evil side hot?? a beautiful stubbled twunk with glowing red eyes and extremely charming :> face practically delivers himself into your hands and you do that to him???? I mean I’m sure apocalypse did some other bad stuff too but that was the worst one

(comics are so dumb y’all)

- having to watch jean cry is emotional terrorism!! ;___; she has such older sister/mom energy, whenever she gets sad and helpless it hurts

- oh, OH so PROFESSOR X you’ll make into a hunk and ~*strategically*~ rip his clothes to show off a nipple and a flawless pec in a way that makes me extremely uncomfortable because he’s like The Dad??? apocalypse you are rotten to the core this is unforgivable

- so wait wanda never actually gets her real memories back. what the FuCk I hope that was a dropped storyline because they ended the show tragically prematurely rather than like. the plan

- why is spyke calling storm ‘storm’ show that’s his auntie o!! >:(

- as a society we need to acknowledge that apocalypse looks like a fucking clown

- ooooh yeah I have been thinking that this show’s greatest visual weakness so far has been not having a visual way to show telepathy/battles of the minds, but this is a pretty cool way to do it! better late than never

- I’m so happy rogue gets to end this herself, since she was forced into starting it against her will, it’s just nice and neat storytelling

- YEAH FUCKING TELL HER KURT AND ROGUE I AM SO PROUD OF YOU and she has the temerity to look pissed off oh my god

the only valid thing mystique has done in her entire life is be in love with destiny. literally everything else she gets up to is a travesty. like I know objectively she’s hot but my loathing for her stops me from even appreciating it. I do enjoy loathing her tho so please don’t change her haha

(a bit odd to have kurt’s attitude to her swing so much but I’m just going to assume he and rogue had a good long conversation after ‘cajun spice’ and that he understands what’s going on better now)

- this last part is such a cruel tease faskdfhsdaj ‘here are all the cool-ass things we had planned. sucks you never get to see it huh’ im devastated

- magneto without his helmet and playing charmingly with children like charles is going ‘well at least I saved my marriage finally’ fsadkhfjsd (honestly tho I would be super interested in seeing how they’d redeem this magneto because he’s been a real bitch the whole time lol)

there’s an interesting thing here where magneto looks down at wanda as the last thing he does on screen before this epilogue part (yeah I hope it fucking haunts you forever what you did to her erik you absolute piece of hot garbage) and the last thing charles does is look at jean b/c he knows what’s going to happen to her and it breaks his heart... Dramatic Parallells

- just the hint of jean as the phoenix has me in full D:D:D: mode tho maybe I wouldn’t have survived it

- gambit in the last groupshot with his arm around rogue ;^) I mean I’m sure they’re headed for some turns and roundabouts along the way but what’s that thing she says as her wedding vow, that she’ll always find her way back? anyway that got me in my heart

- man I really wish this show had been given more seasons, we were barely even getting warmed up here :’(

#x men evolution #x men #gambit #rogue x gambit #aaah this is like therapy for me... just dumping all my emotions into a tumblr post and then let them go into the ether #I am now wondering if I'm desperate enough to go all the way back to the x-men animated series (which I've never seen before!)#like am I willing to go there for more Contente. time will tell I suppose #happy tag #...this is very long #MAN why can't I channel this dumbass energy into fiction writing I'd get so much DONE

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ibijau · 3 years

Text

How to Woo a Lan pt3 / on AO3

The issue with getting Nie Huaisang’s assistance in seducing Lan Sizhui was that Nie Huaisang wasn't an easy man to get a hold of. Except for conferences, or to go beg for help from his brother's sworn brothers, he rarely ever left the Unclean Realm. The second reason wasn't going to ever happen again, and Jin Ling wasn't in the mood to wait for both of them to attend the same conference.

That meant he had to invite Nie Huaisang to Jinlin Tai (an invitation he was almost sure would be refused) or invite himself to the Unclean Realm. He'd need a decent reason for that, or else the Nie wouldn't allow him inside their fortress, sect leader or not. He also needed an excuse to give the Jin elders and Jiang Cheng, who might not want him anywhere near Qinghe at the moment… but that part would be easy enough, when he had a lifetime of experience in dealing with overprotective relatives. He’d just say he had been invited by… well, not the Lan, that’d be too odd when he’d just been on a Night Hunt, but Ouyang Zizhen was always up for some mischief, and he was weak to a good love story.

Or a bad love story, for that matter, but Jin Ling knew his future romance with Lan Sizhui was definitely going to be a great one.

So he’d tell everyone he was going to meet up with Ouyang Zizhen for a made-up Night Hunt, and they’d head for Qinghe together, and… and it wouldn’t be difficult to dig up some official sounding business that he’d need to urgently check with sect leader Nie.

It would be easy.

It was easy.

Ouyang Zizhen loved the idea, especially since he’d had yet another argument with his father and wanted some space. That seemed to happen every other week, and Jin Ling suspected that his friend spent more time away from home than with his family. He suspected, also, that sect leader Ouyang wasn’t quite the tyrant that Zizhen made him out to be, but rather a grumpy old man who didn’t know how to deal with his emotions, much like Jiang Cheng.

The two of them, after meeting in the place they’d decided, headed for Qinghe together. Ouyang Zizhen stayed behind at an inn, so he wouldn’t get dragged into a bad situation in case sect leader Nie didn’t take too well to having his past affair with Lan Xichen thrown in his face. So it was alone that Jin Ling made his way to the high gates of the Unclean Realm, alone that he faced the guards standing at the entrance, alone that he announced he needed to urgently meet with Nie Huaisang on important business.

The guards, quite predictably, refused to let him in so easily. They insisted on being given details before bothering their sect leader, while Jin Ling absolutely refused to share any critical information with low ranking disciples. It was, quite frankly, a little insulting that people so low in importance could dare resist him in that manner, especially when Qinghe Nie hardly counted as a great sect anymore these days, but Jin Ling was starting to have some experience in dealing with obtuse underlings. He insisted, and insisted, and insisted some more until at long last the highest ranking of the guards gave in and sent someone to warn their sect leader he had a guest.

Jin Ling was allowed inside.

Not only was he allowed inside, but Qinghe Nie’s first disciple in person came in person to fetch him, and after he refused to talk to her about the business that brought him there, she promptly took him to see her sect leader. Everything was going according to plan. Jin Ling was starting to feel mildly nervous, especially as quite a few Nie disciples glared at the sight of an intruder wearing robes of gold… but that was to be expected. He’d known he wouldn’t be a welcome guest, and the Nie weren’t exactly warm people to begin with.

It came as something of a relief when Jin Ling realised that he wasn’t being led to the normal reception room to meet Nie Huaisang, but instead towards private quarters, most likely the sect leader’s office. It meant there would be no witness to their conversation. Then, just as quickly, Jin Ling panicked a little when he realised that meant he’d probably be alone with Nie Huaisang, a man who had every reason to despise him for being related by blood to his beloved brother’s murderer. It occurred to him that maybe this whole plan wasn’t the smartest thing he’d ever come up with, but at that point it was already too late: the door to Nie Huaisang’s office was being opened for him, revealing the man himself, sitting at his desk.

As he walked inside the room, Jin Ling thought there was something different about Nie Huaisang. Maybe it was just that he’d so rarely seen him in a state other than “drunk and making a scene” or “crying and making a scene” or even “just making a scene for no discernable reason”. Instead, Nie Huaisang looked calm and collected, a bit annoyed perhaps, but there was enough paperwork on his desk that the annoyance might not even have been caused by Jin Ling’s visit.

“Leave us alone,” Nie Huaisang ordered his first disciple, in a voice firmer than Jin Ling had ever heard from him. To the boy’s mild horror, the first disciple did leave immediately, closing the door behind her. “Well? What urgent business do you have to share with me?” Nie Huaisang asked, opening an elegant fan and using it to gesture that his guest was welcome to sit down.

Jin Ling took the invitation and knelt down on the other side of the desk. He realised, a little late, that he hadn’t really thought of something to say, having half expected he wouldn’t even making it this far. In the end, Jin Ling decided that the best way to deal with this situation was to be brief and to the point.

“I remember about your affair with Lan Xichen,” he announced. “And I want to talk to you about something regarding that.”

The fan in Nie Huaisang’s hand closed with a sharp sound, and for a brief moment the man glared at Jin Ling with such open hatred that Jin Ling shivered and unconsciously leaned backward. Then, just as quickly, Nie Huaisang’s expression turned so perfectly indifferent that Jin Ling might as well have imagined that brief moment of rage.

“So you remember that,” Nie Huaisang pleasantly mused, tapping his fan against his chin. “I suspected as much, but Lan Xichen seemed to believe you’d forgotten. He’s always been the hopeful sort. I must commend you for keeping that secret, Jin zongzhu,” he said, his smile turning sharper. “And for trying to blackmail me now. A very bold move certainly, though not exactly smart, I’m afraid. After all, you know what sort of things I’m capable of, and I doubt you told anyone you were coming here. I might well do something regrettable to protect Lan Xichen’s reputation.”

“Someone knows I’m here,” Jin Ling retorted, suddenly glad Ouyang Zizhen was waiting for him. “And anyway you’re not stupid enough to kill me. You know if there’s one thing that could make Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng reconcile it’s that, and if they’re working together they’d find out the truth for sure.”

Nie Huaisang’s smile became milder, yet somehow Jin Ling still felt half threatened. “You’re a smart boy. Smarter than I expected. Very well, I’ll listen to what you want, if only because I’m very bored lately.”

Jin Ling nodded, and took a deep breath.

“Right. I want you to help me court someone from Gusu Lan!” he said. “Because everyone else I could ask for advice is a damn idiot, and you at least had that fling with Lan Xichen, and I don’t know when the two of you broke up, but…”

Nie Huaisang chuckled somberly, reopening his fan and moving it in a lazy manner.

“Of course you know. You were there. Let this be a piece of advice for you, Jin zongzhu,” Nie Huaisang added with an innocent expression. “Don’t make your lover kill his best friend, no matter how just and deserved the death. It can put a strain on a relationship.”

Jin Ling gaped, and awkwardly stared at Nie Huaisang who placidly returned the stare. He had expected the break-up to have happened a while before all that business with Wei Wuxian’s return started. But if those two had been together, then…

“Why didn’t you get him to willingly help you avenge your brother, if he was still your lover?” Jin Ling asked.

“That’s none of your concern, Jin zongzhu,” Nie Huaisang snapped, before mellowing back into a pleasant, if insincere, smile. “So you have a thing for someone from Gusu Lan… I heard you’ve been very friendly to that loudmouth boy, what’s his name again?”

“It’s not Jingyi!” Jin Ling protested, offended at the very idea. “I have better taste than that!”

“Then my second guess is Lan Sizhui,” Nie Huaisang mused, his smile falling. “Hm… of course you’d have to make this complicated for yourself. It runs in your family, I’m starting to think. You Jin can’t ever do things the easy way."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Nie Huaisang’s fan stilled, and he glared at the boy.

"It means give up, Jin zongzhu,” he said coldly. “If I'm right about the object of your affections, he'll refuse you even if he likes you. Especially if he likes you,” Nie Huaisang corrected after a moment of consideration. “He was raised by Wangji, he'll be just as stupid. No, find yourself a nice girl who'll let you play under her skirts, marry her, have a few babies… love isn't worth it, my generation should have proved that."

“Well, my generation isn’t going to be stupid about it,” Jin Ling hotly retorted. “If I had problems, I would trust Lan Sizhui to understand, and to do the right thing about it, because he’s the best person in the world! I just… need to figure out how to let him know I like him, first. I’m making a bit of a mess with that so far.”

“Truly your father’s son,” Nie Huaisang muttered, appearing unimpressed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Nie Huaisang didn’t reply right away. Instead he resumed fanning himself and stared a long while at Jin Ling. So long, in fact, that it was becoming uncomfortable, and Jin Ling found himself wanting to shout at the other man for being a creep… but ultimately Nie Huaisang was his elder, and someone of equal rank, and Jin Ling was pretty sure shouting at another sect leader could get him in trouble if his uncle heard about it.

Then again, just being there at all would get him in trouble if Jiang Cheng heard about it.

“I don’t suppose people have told you all that much about your father, have they?” Nie Huaisang asked, something going softer in his face. “A good man. Not the smartest, terrible with people, but… yes, a good man. A kind man, even. Bit of a prick when he was a teenager, but we all were, and he grew out of it in time. We had good fun together, back in the days.”

Jin Ling stared right back, and nervously pinched the hem of his sleeve.

“I didn’t know you were his friend?”

In truth, he didn’t know a lot about his parents, aside from a few basic facts. Few people had actually known them well enough for that, and those few people hadn’t been very willing to talk. Even Jin Ling, capricious as he could be, had quickly figured out how unkind it would have been to ask Jiang Cheng too many questions about the family he’d lost. But if Nie Huaisang had known his parents too… well, Nie Huaisang didn’t deserve Jin Ling’s pity, did he?

Nie Huaisang shrugged, and looked away.

“Zixuan and I got along pretty well, but I’m not sure I would have called us friends.” He sighed, and turned silent for a moment, before a half smile crept on his lips. “Well, I might have, I’m just not sure he would have agreed. But I helped him write poetry to woo your mother, back then. Heavens know he needed the help. Lovely, wonderful man once you knew him, but he had a gift for always saying the worst thing possible, no matter how well he meant.”

“Everyone told me my father was a perfect young master,” Jin Ling protested, fidgeting harder with his sleeves while heat creeped up his face at the insult, however slight, “and that he was well liked everywhere he went!”

“Oh, they said that when he was alive as well,” Nie Huaisang said with a short laugh. “People always find something nice to say about rich young men. No, your father was a disaster, and it’s a miracle your mother ever gave him a second chance.”

“A second chance?” Jin Ling gasped. “What’s that supposed to mean? They were engaged from birth, and they fell in love over the course of that engagement, and then they got married, what second chances were there to be had?”

It was the story he’d always heard. Even Jiang Cheng hadn’t ever said differently, on those few occasions he’d agreed to talk about Jin Ling’s parents. Their story had been beautiful, and romantic, and…

And come to think of it, Jiang Cheng had always firmly been opposed to any efforts by the Jin sect to pick a fiancée for Jin Ling, insisting that it should wait until he was old enough to have his say in the matter. Jin Ling had thought it was just his uncle expecting him to be a confirmed bachelor as well, or guessing that he usually liked boys more than girls, or…

Nie Huaisang grimaced, and closed his fan so he could toy with it.

“So you really don’t know the whole story, hm? You should ask…” he trailed off, and frowned. “Ah. Well, I suppose there’s not really anyone you could ask, so that’s the problem. Guangyao’s dead, Wanyin can’t stand speaking about his sister… I’d suggest you turn to Wei Wuxian, but quite frankly he’d already ran off to the Burial Mounds for the truly fun parts of the story. Of course I could tell you about your father’s great effort to seduce your mother once he realised that she was, in fact, the best woman in the world, but… I don’t particularly feel like it,” Nie Huaisang admitted with a disdainful smirk. “Nor do I feel like getting involved with any of your family’s problems. So shoo, off you go,” he ordered, chasing Jin Ling away with a gesture. “You’ve come to make a request, I have refused it, now leave me alone.”

“But you have to help me!” Jin Ling protested. “If you don’t, I’ll have to ask Wei Wuxian! Do you want that to happen?”

“Or you could just give up,” Nie Huaisang retorted. “I’ve told you, even if he likes you, that boy won’t… It would be a bad idea.”

“And it wasn’t, when you got together with Lan Xichen?” Jin Ling asked, slamming his fist against the desk, earning an unimpressed glance from his fellow sect leader.

“Of course it was a dreadful idea,” Nie Huaisang replied. “It’s a choice I’ve regretted almost every day for the past few months. Every day since I’ve discovered what was done to my brother. And now, the man I loved is in seclusion because I kept secrets from him and turned him into a murderer, almost ruining his reputation. If I could go back to the past…” Nie Huaisang paused again, his face tightening. “I should never have become involved with him. Love is a mistake, Jin zongzhu. Look at me, look at your parents, what good did love ever do anyone?”

“My parents were happy, before things went bad,” Jin Ling retorted, getting annoyed by all the self-pitying happening before him. Maybe Nie Huaisang really was as pathetic as he’d seemed to be, in the end. How disappointing. “Jiujiu doesn’t talk much about them, but he always says that: they were happy. Even after my father died, my mother said she didn’t regret that she’d at least had a little time with him!”

Nie Huaisang blinked at him, his expression softening.

"They were happy," he said. "Your parents. Out of everyone I’ve met from our circles, they were… I remember when your father told me your mother had agreed to marry him. I've never seen a man happier than that, except for the year after when he told me that they were expecting a child."

"I want to be happy like that, too," Jin Ling said. "And I know if I could just convince Sizhui… and I'd make him happy too! I'd do anything to make him happy! I just… I'm not sure how, because he's so perfect, and I'm me!"

Nie Huaisang blinked a few times, and put his chin on his hand, resting his elbow on the table.

"Oh dear, you have it bad, uh ? Ah, you remind me of… well. Nevermind that. And I suppose I'm the last person who could blame you for falling for a Lan. You are really sure it has to be a Lan, and that Lan in particular?"

Jin Ling thought of Lan Sizhui, kind and strong and unwaveringly good, and nodded firmly.

"Yes. I love him, and I'll court him, with or without your help!"

Nie Huaisang grimaced, but this time it looked almost like a smile.

"I see. Well, I suppose someone needs to make sure you don't cause a diplomatic incident like your father almost did a few times. I'd like to go a few years without Lanling Jin causing any trouble, if that's not too much to ask. Fine. Fine! I'll help."

"You will?" Jin Ling gasped, trying to restrain a happy grin.

"Sure, why not. I'm bored enough," Nie Huaisang sighed. "Fine, let's just… Tell me about Lan Sizhui."

"But you know him already. Better than me, probably."

"Oh, without a doubt I know him better than you," Nie Huaisang agreed. "But I want to hear this from you. I have to figure out how serious you are about this. Yes, yes, very serious,” he said, raising his hand to stop Jin Ling from protesting. “I remember being fifteen, thanks, and I thought I’d die if he didn’t look my way for too long. But he was a few years older than me, and there’s a lot I didn’t understand at the time, so I want to see how much you understand.”

Jin Ling opened his mouth to answer, than closed it again as he realised what Nie Huaisang had just said.

“You were already in love with Lan Xichen at fifteen? How long…”

Nie Huaisang raised a hand again, a severe expression on his face.

“Let’s establish something right now,” he said. “I am helping you, out of pity toward you and because your father was, in fact, one of very few people I’ve ever considered a friend. Aside from this, I still consider you an annoying brat, and the grandson of the man who had my brother murdered. Just because I’m willing to help you doesn’t mean I intend to confide in you, least of all on the subject of Lan Xichen. In fact, I’d appreciate it if you never mentioned him again in my presence.”

Jin Ling grimaced, but nodded anyway. Nie Huaisang, however, wasn’t done.

“And let’s be clear on something else,” he said, slowly, as if to make sure Jin Ling wouldn’t miss a single word. “If you ever tell anything, to anyone, about his relationship with me, nobody, not even Jiang Wanyin and Wei Wuxian, can save you from my wrath. I will not let anyone ruin Lan Xichen’s life, least of all another Jin. Do I make myself understood?”

Jin Ling shivered at the threat, which he felt to be a very serious one. Then, because he just didn’t know when to shut up, he said: “Oh. You still love him, don’t you?”

It was the wrong thing to say, and Nie Huaisang startled at the accusation, tensing like a wounded animal cornered by dogs. Of course it had been the wrong thing to say. Otherwise, Jin Ling wouldn’t have said it.

“I’ve just said I don’t want to confide in you,” Nie Huaisang hissed, but he couldn’t quite make himself feel scary again, and instead just looked again like the sad, pathetic man Jin Ling had known all his life.

“Have you told him that you still feel like that?” Jin Ling asked before he could stop himself. “Because I think you should. Maybe you can still mend this! I mean, if Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji got together, then anything in the world is possible. You should…”

“I should kick you out of my house and let you deal with your boyfriend alone,” Nie Huaisang snapped, his face redder than cinnabar. “Now tell me why you love that damn Lan kid, and stay out of my business.”

Jin Ling pinched his lips, annoyed that yet again, every adult around him was apparently determined to ruin their own life by refusing to just talk. First there had been his uncle with Wei Wuxian, now Nie Huaisang… Apparently, growing up made people stupid. Jin Ling could only hope he wouldn’t end up like that, too stubborn to do the right thing.

He was sure he wouldn’t, because Lan Sizhui wouldn’t let him.

Ultimately, though, Nie Huaisang’s private life really wasn’t his problem. So Jin Ling dropped the matter, and instead prepared himself to explain every little thing that made Lan Sizhui the most amazing person in the entire world.

#xisang #zhuiling #lingzhui #nie huaisang #jin ling #mdzs #jau writes #operation woo a lan

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