#he does it when the main trio try to help him remember what his real face is in season 17

[quirinah]

ally of justice, hero of fish, master of disguise!

[infinity-or-oblivion]

so my loa batkids au has gained a little traction and i’ve hit a bit of a wall when it comes to writing new stuff so here’s an infodump to hopefully kill my writers block xoxoxo

first of all, jason. my forever number one blorbo. there’s a bit of a role reversal here because compared to all the rest of them, jason arguably had it the easiest. like we’re not going to compare traumas but an argument could be made. i honestly don’t remember if i mentioned it at all in the actual series yet, but the story i have for jason is that his childhood with willis and catherine was about the same as canon/commonly accepted fanon, meaning he was homeless around nine years old. however, instead of living on the streets for years, it was only a few months tops before meeting bruce.

and bruce! this is very fun to me, but basically i was thinking that if he didn’t raise dick, then why couldn’t this version of bruce be younger? so bruce becomes batman in his early twenties, which is also around the time that he visits the league of assassins for training and damian is conceived. (for a little more about that, here) and bruce is roughly 25 when he finds a tiny 9-10 year old jason trying to steal his tires. just imagine that it’s so fucking adorable and heartbreaking ANYWAYS bruce, despite being overall a disaster, doesn’t let a malnourished 10 year old out to fight crime right away, so there’s a couple years between when jason first meets bruce and when he becomes a child soldier yayyyy!!!! but legit, it makes a lot of difference to jason, because you know how canon!jason has some self-esteem issues (for lack of a better term) around bruce not really loving him/seeing him as a son because bruce started training him as robin (and as dick’s replacement) immediately after adopting him- you know that whole thing? yeah well here, despite jason actually offering to help bruce as a vigilante, this bruce is like hell nah you’re literally ten years old and the size of a six year old no way, and those few years in between really stick in jason’s mind as solid proof that bruce really does love him, not for what use he can provide, but simply as a son. also being the only child definitely helps with that

(that little detail of jason and bruce’s relationship is slightly inspired by minimum height requirement, which is absolute batfam gold btw)

okay so. slight pet peeve of mine is in aus where dick isn’t the first robin, the legacy is still called robin for whatever reason (lookin at you reverse robins aus) because!!!!! how dare you erase mary and john grayson’s importance!!!!! (look there’s more nuance to it than that i know but. to put it simply it feels like flying graysons erasure to me) so in this au, jason can’t possibly be called robin. the real robin has been missing for roughly seven years at this point

and listen. i tried to be creative and come up with something cool and original for jason’s vigilante name i really did, but apparently i used all of my naming talent on nighthawk (fucking love that name for dick it’s so fantastic) so we just have bluejay. womp womp

also! on my list of things to expand on: main timeline stephanie!!! i’ve had an absolute blast making myself cry while writing every heart sings a song, incomplete and those who wish to sing always find a song, but spoiler steph will always be my babygirl. and duke!!!! i have not written barely anything for duke in this universe but believe me i have some Thoughts. perhaps even Ideas. basically a lot of steph&duke and steph&babs and steph&duke&babs because i love my little underrated trio

also just more babs in general, because like. i’ve had so many tiny little snippets of cass and babs and their sweet little relationship just sitting in my notes for literal years now that i really just need to organize and expand into their own fic. and yet. i have not done that. but rest assured cass&babs are very very important to me

such is the curse of female fanfic writers: always destined to fixate more on the male poor little meow meows than the female bad bitches. seriously what the fuck is up with that guys i don’t get it why does this happen

[sharkinthetoilet]

Hi can I have The main trio + butters and creek with an alt autistic boyfriend that also has a habit of losing track of time when playing video games

Alt + Autistic reader

Gender: masculine

Warnings: brief talk about meltdowns, slight ableism

Notes: mostly writing this from my experience of autism, remember how it's different for everyone!!

☆-stan:

• Definitely needs an Explanation what autism is • He tries really hard to do everything for you • Tries to avoid any sensory issues, speaks for you in case of non-verbality, gets you stuff from your hyper fixation/ special interest(s), etc • Protects you for dear god • Any abliest gets a fist across their face, by the star quarterback • If you're anything like me, you get overly panicked when you aren't in your time plan • So stan specifically tries to keep reminding you of the time when playing, so you keep the time in mind • Listens to you rambling • Always forgets what certain words mean • "Are you uhh uhm.. what was the word?" • Won't treat you much differently, only like the needed things he changes • really likes your style • Helps you find new clothing, but is super unaware 💀 • Will grab kids clothing or something, but usually not something you would wear

☆-kyle:

• Does a lot of research about autism • Also 'interviews' you to find out, what he needs to know • Like if it's okay to hug, what to do when you have meltdowns, etc • Tries to show interest in your hyperfixation but ends up irritating you, because he acts like he knows more • Still shows interest but with less enthusiasm (enough to seem genuine (which he is) though) • Sets strick times for playing, he heavily relays on time plans • Overprotective. • He may infantilize you without noticing • If it bothers you, he'll try super hard to stop though • He's pretty sarcastic • Then he realises you may not understand that it was sarcasm • "I looove hanging out with cartman" ... "that was sarcasm-" • He tries okay ��� • Doesn't have a big opinion to your style • (He finds it super attractive) • Buys stuff when he thinks it fits your style, he normally gets really good stuff

☆-kenny:

• Kenny doesn't really care • Not in a mean way, just he won't change anything • Except for like the small stuff you tell him you don't like (like physical touch, if you don't like it) • He cracks a few jokes about it but it's never really an important topic for him • He's a really good listener, you can ramble to him for hours • Is kinda oblivious when it comes to the more negative things • If you have a meltdown, you'd need to explain to kenny what that even is, before it happens • If he doesn't know, he'll just give you space • Doesn't care about losing track of time in games, he does it too • What he does care about is your style • He'll tell you everyday how hot you look • Goes shopping with you and helps choose what clothes to get • "6/10, i like how it looks, but it makes your legs look shorter, maybe go for a size smaller" • Real fashion guru

☆-butters:

• Has no idea what autism is • When he finds out, he'll do everything to make you feel comfortable • God bless his heart • Asks for permission to touch you, how you feel, if you aren't overwhelmed, always lets you choose what to eat, etc • Extremely considerate • As example, won't go to a party, if he knows that you don't like crowds (if you do yk) • Great at talking for you • That kind of "excuse me, he asked for no pickles" guy • He also think to much about your gaming habits • Except if you ask him to time it or something • Loves feeling like he can make stuff easier for you • Also loves your sense of fashion • Helps picking out clothes (while considering if you'd like the material) • Would buy similar clothes to match • God.Bless.His.Heart.

☆-creek:

• Neurodivergent couple goals • You'd guys' groupchat would be called something like: two autistis and the add guy • Craig and you would desperately try to find a shared hyperfixation and then battle each other with trivia • And tweek is just chilling • Craig knows how to handle you well, since he's also autistic • And tweek would also have his fair share of knowledge • Very supportive and considerate • Craig keeps track of time while playing (cuz he needs his goddamn time plan 🤝) but tweek loses track of time even faster than you • Both also like your style • But they aren't good at giving advice, in case of shopping or something • Kinda like stan yeah • You and craig have a ramble-tuesday where you tell each other stuff about your hyperfixations

[marvelstars]

ST VS OT VS PT

Sometimes I think about disney canon Leia and Han who never knew Anakin Skywalker because he is just Vader to them and this is also the reason why Ben only knows Vader and became obssesed with him as part of his adolescent rebellion and to a point Luke ends thinking in a similar way, isolates himself without any real need to hide from his Sister I guess and cutting himself from the force and from his father and teachers as well for most of his life.

While:

Legends canon Leia and Han knew a little more of Anakin, knew him as a slave and as a padawan and clone wars general as a result of Leia doing her own research trying not to hate him so much and be in danger of falling to the darkside and Han wanted kids but Leia didn´t want to have them until she stopped fearing them turning into darth Vader so he got really interested in helping her overcome her fear. This results in them not quite forgiving him but at least be at peace having children and recognize him as a member of their family while Leia explores her force powers with her brother. Two of my favourite moments from this story is Han talking about Vader being in the perfect place to defeat the Emperor and him and Leia seeing an old holo of child Anakin after winning his freedom while Luke becomes the Grandmaster of the New Jedi Order with many new students and even Darth Cadeus(Jacen Solo) isn´t enough to bring it down.

So I just sigh for the missed opportunities and Disney greed trying to break and fix what wasn´t broken.

I personally don´t hate any of the characters in the sequels, I believe Rey is endearing, Ben is fun if a little embarrasing to watch, Finn is fine and Poe was great until disney decided to use him as a prop for feminist general Leia and her friend whose name I won´t bother to remember.

The problem is that in a story you need your characters to change, be challenged, have problems and overcome them and most of them stay the same characters because they are never challenged in any serious way and form, Finn could be challenged in helping his fellow soldiers get freed and never does it, Poe could have been challenged in leading the rebellion after the republic failed to support them and he just becomes a prop for other characters and Rey stays the exact same way in all the movies, nothing affects her deeply because she doesn´t have a deep connection with almost nobody, they tried to link her with Ben but besides both feeling attracted to each other there´s not much more reason given to why they care so much for each other and Ben never explains why he got so obssesed with Vader in the first place, to the point he left his family and killed his father besides the fact he feels entitled to his legacy for some reason.

So the story doesn´t look as a story on it´s own, it looks more like a bunch of plot points taken from the original material without adding anything of substance to the story because they are afraid of challenging their characters and have them make mistakes, loss something or be rewarded, the end is bassically the same of the OT, the only change we saw was the virtual destruction of the Original Trio, Leia, Luke and Han in an effort to try to present the new trio as something new and different but they never quite manage it.

One of the main reason for this as Disney deliberately erasing any connection to the PT and what it added to the story, especially when it came to Anakin being in reality him and not Vader or Palpatine being an actual human being with his own pov if extremely machivellian and manipulative and not just the monster under the bed to the galaxy, seriously I saw a more complete management of Palpatine as a villain in two paragraphs of the ROTJ novel than the entire ST and this because they are incapable of creating a new villain for their story so disney treatment of the characters feels so flat all around.

Which brings me to the pure joy of seeing them bringing back not just Anakin but him and his Vader persona be at peace, seeing them bring Legeds Thrawn and Ahsoka and connecting them with Luke and Leia and the new characters like the Mandalorian but I also find it funny seeing them trying to act as if this was the plan all along instead of them doing damage control after screwing up in a legendary way but being too proud and greedy to admit it. I am just like LOL. Hope this is enough to save and change Luke, Leia and Han fate because they honestly deserve way more than what they got in the ST.

[merakiui]

Hehe Vil and Neige for character bingo!

I adore Vil!!!! He has such a sharp, pretty gaze. I’d be intimidated even if it wasn’t his intention to intimidate. ;;;; but omg he’s such a lovely character!!! Seeing his growth from book 5 to book 6 makes me so soft aaaaa!!! He’s genuinely so sweet and caring and only wants to bring out the best in people, which is why he can seem very critical and harsh and strict. It’s all done in good nature. But in that same light, he’s also incredibly critical with himself, which was seen in how he was comparing himself to Neige and always striving to be the most beautiful. It’s also just nice to see him realize at the end of his book that he doesn’t have to be fairest of all; he can be unique in his own way and there’s just as much beauty in that as there is in being known as the fairest. Also the fact that he sincerely apologizes to us and admits that he was in the wrong at the end… I might be remembering this wrong, but I feel like he’s the only character out of the Overblots who apologized so genuinely to us.

Also his UM???? IT’S SO COOL?????? There are so many possibilities with that. Somehow I always overlook it when I’m thinking about Vil, but it’s really so interesting and has many uses. Even the fact that Vil’s skilled in making potions is already giving me thoughts… so much potential with this. And his role in book 6!!!! Omg it’s made me appreciate the Pomefiore trio even more. I also love the method Vil used to escape his cell during the power outage in book 6. That felt so super spy omg!! <3 (super spy Vil au……. thinking thoughts.)

And because I’ve yet to say it: fashion inspiration!!!! Aaaaaa Vil is such an inspiration. Whenever I’m doing my makeup or putting together an outfit, I always think, What would Vil think of this look? He’s just so,,,, inspiring. And he always slays in every outfit he wears, as expected of Mr. Vil. Sometimes I think how fun it would be if Vil was real because I’d love to have a conversation with him about fashion. My friend called my wardrobe the “playable character closet” because all of my outfits feel like main characters you’ve unlocked in a storyline. Naturally. <3 you should feel like a main character in your life because you’re the star of it, after all hehe!! :D

Vil is just so wonderful to me. I love him dearly and I really should dust off all of the Vil concepts rotting in my drafts and share them. orz he’s so perfect. He could do no wrong (except for that time he almost poisoned Neige), but he was still so babygirl!!!!!

Speaking of Neige!!!!

I have this certain Vision in my mind when I’m thinking of Neige and it is not at all canon, but I still love his canon self a lot. I think Neige deserves to be talked about more (as does Che’nya, Rollo, and the staff). The lack of love for Neige is doing him so dirty! D: he deserves lots of love because he’s just so cute and sweet. And very hardworking!!! When Vil gives us more insight into Neige’s past, it really shows a deeper side to the normally always cheerful idol that everyone adores. His screen time is so minimal, and it doesn’t help that twst English had to cut the Minna de Yahoo rhythmic. :( I wanted to see it so badly in twst English, so it was sad to not see it. </3

Part of me was hoping to see a darker side of Neige in twst. But then he is based on a hero and he goes to Royal Sword Academy, which is essentially the school of heroes compared to NRC (the school of villains). Still… T-T I would like to see a cunning side of Neige, or Neige who may have known Vil held a grudge against him and had a feeling he might try something. Thinking about Neige putting on the oblivious, happy act to mask someone who is very observant and intelligent beneath… AAAAAAAA it would have been so interesting if he attempted to drink the apple juice while fully knowing it was poisoned just to see if anyone (i.e. Rook) would jump in and save him—perhaps to test just where Rook’s loyalty and heart lies? The idea of Neige intentionally putting himself in compromising or even dangerous situations just to test his own theories is so fun to consider. After all, he’s been working in the entertainment industry for so long now. It’s hard to think he wouldn’t be at least a little deceptive or cunning because I’m sure he’s picked up some tricks from so much time spent in the business.

All in all, Neige is very beloved and I’d like to discuss him more. orz

[artsartblog]

In honor of the new year I’ll be posting the last art pieces I did of last year plus an art summary for the year.

First the art summary of 2023 because I felt like just giving an overview of what all I’ve made plus what I will be adding to this post. The first two are of my persona, her main art and her as a Fairy Pokémon Gym Leader (which was made for a discord server I’m in). March is of my Welcome Home oc that I haven’t made much art of, but I do have a piece I’m still working on since I’m not as hyperfixated on WH but still enjoy seeing art of it. April is of an AU version of my Marvel oc Molly (I know what I said in the og post with that art, but I’m considering it an AU version of Molly to just add to the different version I have of her). May is art of my TWEWY oc Kotone after she becomes a reaper. June is art of my FNaF oc Kelly in her new daycare uniform. July is art I made for my SU art blog, which is art of an AU I’m occasionally working on because I have too many ideas to ever commit to one thing lol. August is a redesign of my RC9GN oc Clarissa. September is art I made for a friend. October is art of my TADC oc Odette, who I’ve never posted on tumblr because I keep forget to lol. November is actually the outlier of everything on here because I technically started it years ago, but only finished it November 2023, so we’re just going to accept it into the bunch. December is art of an old oc that used to belong to a friend of mine, but she’s given him up to me since she doesn’t do art anymore and I couldn’t just separate him from his girlfriend (my oc Lucy). Plus he’s apart of the first ever oc universe I ever created (with my friend).

Now onto my latest unposted art!

First we have is Annalei! She is a character I made based on my friend. Originally it was a trio thing, but now it’s just a duo (because of drama I won’t get into on here since it’s the new year and we don’t need that drama again). Anyways, she is an angel who acts as the guardian angel of my character (who I haven’t drawn yet) Nikki. The two actually live together as roommates with Annalei trying to help guide Nikki down a path of good. I made this piece for my friend for Christmas because I thought she’d like it (she loved it). I don’t have a lot developed for this universe because of reasons, but I’ll eventually get around to developing it more.

Next we have Odette. She is my The Amazing Digital Circus oc I made after falling in love with the pilot of tadc. She is based off a ballerina music box I have that belonged to my mom, plus my childhood love of ballet, and ball jointed dolls (since tadc gives off a whole toy-box vibe). She named herself Odette because it was the one thing she could remember from the real world. Ironically, she is living her worst fear because she feared being forgotten by loved ones and everyone she ever cared about. She hates that she can’t remember anything about herself and tries her best to find a way out, but doesn’t think too hard on escaping since she doesn’t want to abstract. She actually tends to stay hidden from the others, Caine doesn’t actually know she’s there, but is aware of her room. The others know of her room, but Jax was the only one to ever meet her until Pomni arrived. The other few things she does remember is how to dance, draw and sing (mostly through muscle memory). Odette has a weird friendship with Jax, but she doesn’t mind. Especially since she has social anxiety and making new friends is really difficult for her (even more so now that she has no idea who she is). This helps her with becoming friends with Pomni since they’re both filled with anxiety and the desire to leave. Though Odette does her best to help Pomni out whenever she can, hoping that one of them could leave at the least. When she does first meet Pomni it was by accident on Pomni’s part. Odette had been dancing around in a place far enough away from the others, but close enough to still be able to see whatever adventure Caine has them all doing. The music playing drowned out any sound of someone approaching that Odette didn’t notice Pomni until the song ended and Pomni clapped at the performance, which caused Odette to freeze up and panic. Especially when she saw that it wasn’t Jax that found her. Luckily for the two of them this led to a friendship (one where Odette would do her best to protect Pomni from Jax’s pranks).

Next is of my Miraculous oc Dani. Maskerade (a play on mask and masquerade) is of akumatized Dani. The only reason for her getting akumatized is stress from her mother and everyone expecting her to be someone she’s not. Despite being a miraculous holder she would struggle with being akumatized because she knows that she’s just stressed out and there are ways to fix what she’s dealing with, but as a teenager trying to get her mother to just listen and understand her is difficult. Sometimes turning into a villain helps with getting the point across. Vespbee is Dani if she was the holder of the bee miraculous. I honestly went a little overboard with her hair, but I love it so much. Not much to say on it because it’s just a literal what if situation. Dark Swan is if Swanette got akumatized. It’s less likely to happen compared to Maskerade, but still possible because even as Swanette Dani has her doubts as a hero. Especially when she hears all the comments on how she’ll never be better than Ladybug and Cat Noir, not that she really cares but it hurts to be compared to other heroes. She’d be pretty dangerous because she’d be able to break away from Hawkmoth’s control and be an independent villain of her own control, which wouldn’t seem that bad but with her unlimited use of her abilities is not good. Especially because her miraculous ability is using her feathers to normally just brings out the best of person (like a trait or ability/talent), but an akumatized version of that brings out the worst in people and can bring out an animalistic/monstrous version of the person (practically turning them into a monstrous creature). Since she doesn’t have any goal other than proving that “yeah I’ll never be like Ladybug and Cat Noir”, which makes it even more difficult for Ladybug and Cat Noir to stop her. (She’s basically an eviler version of Hawkmoth)

Next we have is an AU idea I had for my DC oc Grace Kyle/Wayne (aka Catgirl).

This AU idea started out as “What if Catgirl died trying to become a vigilante like Batman to get closer to him in hopes of being able to tell him that they’re related?”, then turned into Grace swapping places with Jason and being the one to die instead. I plan of drawing what she looks like after being brought back to life as Crimson Cat (a name she gave herself) that has been trained under Talia al Ghul since Grace didn’t have any proper training to be a vigilante in the first place. Now alive she works on tracking down who killed her and getting revenge. It’s still a wip of an idea, but I think it’d be fun because of messing around with the personalities of characters. Plus angst for both Bruce and Selina.

Next we have the designs for my TMNT universe turtles. It’s a mix of 2012!turtles and rise!turtles, but with different turtles. Idk what else to say about them since I’m still working on that whole universe.

I’m adding this purely because I really love this design. This is Ozul Nightingale, otherwise known as the Boogeyman or Shadow Man, in his shadow/monster form. He’s the villain of my universe called Different Paths. He has the abilities to cause people to experience nightmares, slowly corrupting people into beings called shadow monsters, and brining out the true darkness in people. He was sealed away by The Council to save others from his powers. When he was sealed away he was put into an eternal sleep that could be broken by the blood of a pure-blooded shadow witch (a witch who is descended from Ozul that can perform shadow magic). To keep watch over him and prevent anyone from waking him a powerful witch, his wife, was placed as his guard, but over time she slowly became corrupted and became known as the Shadow Witch (who is the baddie for the most part of Different Paths). I haven’t drawn his human form yet, but I plan on doing it eventually. (Along with redesigning the main characters)

Next we have Barry and Aria. They’re just fun characters I made that are children of tumblr sexymen/women (Dr. Drakken and Shego). No, they are not related, but they do act like cousins to each other and we’re raised together by Drakken and Shego.

Lastly is my love Digger. He is being reworked because I’m basing him off of memory, but making him more my own. He is a ghoul demon creature that works in a graveyard. He’s a pretty chill guy and dating my oc Lucy (who is the long lost vampire princess). His family is a royal demon family that has constantly been at war with the royal vampire family because of things that happened in the past. However, Digger honestly doesn’t care about all of that and enjoys spending time working in the graveyard. He especially doesn’t react negatively like other demons (that aren’t in his immediate family) would expect him to react when finding out that his girlfriend is the long lost vampire princess (especially since it’s a big change for Lucy, who group up believing she was a weird witch girl that just was better with certain dark magic compared than other witches). He loves his girlfriend so much that her being from the “rival” family (it’s more the vampires that hate the demons) just means that they’ll be together forever. (Also he lets her paint his nails because it’s the only reminder of her that he’s willing to get dirty while he’s working). I do eventually plan of the two getting married, but that’s a future me thing to deal with.

That concludes all the art from 2023!!!! I hopefully will get around to posting more art on here than I normally do. I hope you look forward to it! Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful year! Remember stay creative!

[sonicasura]

Ok let's speed right through this

Jack who is a Dream Chaser ( basically a spelunker) and Cecilia the Princess of the Kingdom of Adelhyde are asked by a lead excavator Emma to go help an excavation squad dig up a Golem. The trio does so, and soon and exhibition of all the artifacts take place, but surprise the Metal Demons attack Adelhyde and steal all the Golems to use them too destroy Filgaia. The trio after fending off the attack the best they can set off too stop the Metal Demons and save Filgaia.

So on there adventure they meet a lot of different characters, the confident and headstrong Jane Maxwell who also has an ARM, a blind girl who lives in a village protected by a barrier to repel monsters ( which in game ends up getting destroyed because the Metal Demons kidnapped villagers and implanted monsters inside of them to get past the barrier) and whole bunch of others but lets get too the real good stuff. The group faces off with the Quarter Knights of Mother, led by the Zeikfried and through there fights they meet up with a Demon named Boomerang who strangely has one of Filgaia's spirits with him. When the Guardian Lucied is questioned as too why Boomerang answers. Luceid is one of the four main Guardians that represent desire and Boomerang who is just with the rest of the Metal Demons is only here to fight strong oppenents ( One of the Quarter Knights that he killed even alludes to the fact that Boomerang was one of the reasons the Metal Demons lost the war) and due to Boomerang's desire to fight strong oppenents that allowed Luceid to have a physical form as Luceid is the only Guardian that is neturel. The trio wins and eventually make there way to the place where Mother rests the Protosphere and with the help of a Golem, Cecilia formed a bond with, a defensive Golem named Asgard, they pirece the barrier protecting the Protosphere and kill Mother in a hard fought fight.

But wait that is what Zeikfried wanted, as he wanted Mother dead because he wanted to conquer Filgaia not destroy it like Mother wanted, as Zeikfried reveals to Boomerang that it was Mother who destroyed the Metal Demons home Planet of Hiades. So the group must know defeat Zeikfried, who is located at an area called the Gate Generator to try and located an ancient tower called Ka Dingel, to reach a Elw built Ark called Malduke that was built to act as home for the Elws and humans, that also has a weapon built into it to basically use it to conquer Filgaia with it's technology. The trio eventually make it, after facing off aganist a goofy Metal Demon named Zed ( he's awesome but for time I will cut info that isn't exactly nessacery) they make it to Zeikfried and battle.

Zeikfried loses and in an attempt to win tells Zed to amp up the Gate Generator to 200% causing a black hole to form. Though Zed is scarred he does it and everything goes to Hell. Rudolph wanting to stop Zeikfried, attacks and pushes him off the edge plummeting to the black hole, however Zeikfried sends out a wire that wraps around Rudolph's arm that ends up causing a deadlock either Rudolph goes in the black hole with him or Zeikfried gets to escape the grip of the Black Hole. Rudolph tries using his sword to cut the wire but Zeikfried just mocks that the wire is indestructible.

So in the most insane and badass move I ever seen a videogame protagonist do, Rudolph takes the Hand Cannon and blows off his arm. This causes Zeikfried to fall into the black hole and Rudolph to be in extreme pain as the trio is teleported away due to the blast from the generator and wake up in grassy plain. Cecilia immediately goes and tries to soothe Rudolph's wound who has not woken up like her and Jack, when a shocking discovery is made. Rudolph's wound is not one of flesh and blood, but of Metal and electricity.

Ok let's back up a bit, Remember when I said that we're going to skip over one of the Elws weapons for certain reasons well here's the reason. The weapons that the Elw tried to make after the Golems to act as their weapons against the metal demons was to create their own version of the Metal Demons made from the same living Metal known as Holmcrosses ( this was actually a mistranslation of Homunculi, but I like Holmcross better). This ended up a failure due too all the Holmvrosses being violent and all of them ended up destroyed by the Elw. Well all except for one a little baby prototype Holmcross, who was literally left to rot inside of an abandoned lab, forever in one of those wierd test tubes, forgotten by the world. That was until one Dream Chaser found the lab and that little baby that he ended up naming Rudolph, Zepet Roughknight.

Alright back to the present

The group brings Rudolph back for treatment only to see his condition worsen, figuring that they need to find the Elws as they would no doubt know how to heal Rudolph, they track down the last Elw of Filgaia, Miriam. Miriam hearing of the duo's plight to save Rudolph ends up taking them to the Elw dimension where she is immediately shunned by the other Elws. The reason for this is actually because of The Guardian Blade, you see her brother actually was the one who created The Guardian Blade and would have actually been banished to stay in Filgaia but his sister Miriam took the punishment in his stead wanting to save her brother and for those 1,000 years has been helping nuture Filgaia's plant life. Eventually they get help from Miriam's brother Vassim, who tells them Rudy can be saved but to do so needs the Huardian of Life and Illusion to do so. They get the Guardians and Vassim heals Rudolph by placing his hope onto him and not only heals Rudolph by repairing his arm, but places a newly forged Guardian Blade into Rudolph. Which makes Rudolph himself the Guardian Blade and Filgaia's hope.

Now let's go back to Zeikfried, who ended up in the remains of the Protosphere. Where a distrubing scene takes place where the remains of Mother who is nothing more than a pulsing ooze latches herself onto Zeikfried and takes over his body ( seriously for a Ps1 game about fantasy wild west game this was super creepy)

So I have too skip over a lot of character devolpment for Jack and Cecilia too try and make this go on forever.

Ok so, Zed ends up in the village destroyed by Monsters and meets the blind girl and falls in love with her and protects her from harm, the trio head towards a village inhabited by humans that protect the Guardians Alter were they awaken the last 3 of the 4 major Gaurdian, Courage for Jack, Love for Cecilia, and Chief among them Hope for Rudolph. Also in the Alter F remake the people of Surf Village apologize to Rudolph and welcome him back.

Ok final part, Motherfried raises Ka Dingel Tower, Boomerang and Luceid challange the group to one last battle. The Demon and Guardian lose and Motherfried sicks Demons on them all, which then in a surprising turn Boomerang tells the trio to go on ahead and that he'll hold them off with Luceid, showimg the respect the trio had earned from Boomerang and Luceid.

The trio climb the tower all the way to the Ark Malduke were they confront Motherfried who is killed by our heroes and in one last super petty attempt to kill the heroes Zeikfried regains control of his body to try and kill the heroes on there way back down to Filgaia, the heroes remain steadfast and finally destroy the evil that has plagued Filgaia.

The game ends with Rudolph and Jack heading out to have more adventures only to be stopped by Cecilia who tags along making the trio compleye once again as they head off to the next big adventure.

Oh Neptune, this took awhile, keep in mind a lot of stuff had to be cut out for the sake of time. If your interested in more of the characters stories and interactions, then please go check out a let's play or a recap that can go more in-depth. Despite how old this game is, I consider it a gem and I still want to play Wild Arms 2 and 3. The story in my opinion holds up well and has a lot of great moments. So thank you so much for sticking through this!!!!

Hot damn does that sound like a rollercoaster. Also major Cackletta and Jado(Spectrobes) vibes with the forced fusion. Luckily I found a Let's Play for the game so I'll update on how far I get.

[daily-venomous]

blazing hot take: venomous isn't a bad person and never was. he just got ROBBED by season 3 completely throwing out his previous character arc and making him edgy for no reason

Hey, that's totally valid! A lot of people seem to feel that way about season 3, so I get it.

If you want my two cents on it (which, I'm a massive season 3 apologist, so take this as you will), he's by no means a GOOD person, but he's not some heartless monster either.

Before I get to my main point I'm just going to go ahead and address the elephant in the room: Shadowy Figure, and by extension, Shadowy Venomous. It's not really like the season 3 reveals came out of nowhere--people had been theorizing about them for some time before they were confirmed--but Shadowy's foreshadowing (no pun intended) seems a lot less obvious than Laserblast's. Plus, there's the unfortunately rushed nature of season 3 and the Shadowy reveal. In Laserblast's case I think it's great as is. Even though I, like Boxman, would have liked to see it given another season to develop, I can't say I'm unhappy with what we got. The buildup to that episode is phenomenal and the reveal itself feels perfect for the show. Shadowy's is a bit different, mainly since it's so soon after Laserblast's and more, well, edgy. There's no real problem with that--OK K.O. is no stranger to the occasional edge, and I quite enjoy "Let's Get Shadowy" as an episode--but as a reveal, it does feel less well done, and I think a big part of that is simply because of how soon it comes after "Big Reveal." Like, we just found out Venomous was Laserblast, and they're already telling us that he's Shadowy too. Not that any of this is the fault of the creative team, mind you. They just worked with what they had.

Getting back on topic, though, after the Shadowy reveal, I couldn't help but try and make sense of it. It's clear that Shadowy serves a similar function to T.K.O., but if that's the case, where does he stem from? There's no way he just came out of nowhere, right? Shadowy simply has to correlate to Venomous's psyche somehow, the only question was what the correlation was. Looking at all the similarities, my best inference would be that Shadowy is, as expected, a manifestation of Venomous's worst qualities, but, more specifically, those qualities are ones that Venomous seems to either deny completely or justify in some way, convincing himself that they aren't as damning as they really are. Both are manipulative, megalomaniacal, and at least somewhat sadomasochistic. What sets Shadowy apart is that he owns up to them. It's what he is, and he embraces it, no questions asked. Venomous views these same qualities as either something that's just part of being a supervillain (sadomasochism), something he's long since gotten over (megalomania), or something that he never had an issue with to begin with (manipulation). Perhaps if the series were able to go on longer we'd be able to see him accept, confront, and improve these aspects of himself in more detail, especially after seeing the effect they had while he was Shadowy Venomous, but alas, we must settle for what we have.

Even prior to season 3, though, the few plans we see Venomous carry out on his own are undeniably more messed up than Boxman's tend to be. I mean, blackmail is arguable, but nearly killing Rad in order to break the main trio's team dynamic is a little much. What makes this even weirder is that Boxman's technically considered more evil, if their POW card levels are to be believed. Sure Venomous never so much as considers incinerating his own child minion, but you'll notice when Boxman brings it up in "All in the Villainy," Venomous's first response isn't "maybe we shouldn't incinerate the children period," but "that isn't going to work since my minion's not a robot," which... is pretty concerning, not gonna lie.

But therein also lies his biggest saving grace: Fink. I distinctly remember seeing where one of the show's crew members said, word for word, "Fink is his salvation," but considering that a) this was apparently said in a Discord server I don't have access to and b) I have no idea how to find the secondary source again, this should probably be taken with a grain of salt. Real or not, it's still an accurate statement. Fink is the one constant in his life post-Laserblast, and up until he starts dating Boxman, she's the only person he selflessly cares about. He's selfish by nature from the very beginning, even where Boxman is concerned up until "All in the Villainy." Boxman's complete disregard for the status quo gives Venomous the stimulation he so desperately craves, among other things. Boxman has a use, and that's reason enough for Venomous to keep him around. It's only when he falls in love with the guy that Venomous starts to view him more selflessly.

It's where Fink is concerned that things start delving a little more into headcanon territory, so bear with me here. I think she and Venomous started out similarly. He was at the lowest point in his life, recklessly experimenting on himself in his desperation to regain his powers, with practically nothing to his now literally dead name. At the very least, this trash rat gave him something. Maybe she aided him in his experiments somehow, but more importantly, she was just... someone. Someone to talk to. Someone who's actually around.

Someone who relies on him.

Someone who makes him feel important.

...

Someone who makes him feel powerful.

The man was slowly deteriorating in every sense of the word, but Fink gave him some semblance of a purpose when he needed it the most. Cob knows what would've happened to him if she had never come along. Probably long gone and long forgotten. Being the only thing to keep him tethered to the world outside of himself, it's not hard to imagine that he grew to care for her. To really care for her. Even more than he cared for himself. Which, depending on what you think he was like as Laserblast (personally I think he cared a little bit whether he thought he did or not, especially with Carol), could very well have been a first for him.

Whenever we see him in the show itself, it's worth noting that most of the time, Venomous is at his most selfless and most vulnerable where Fink is involved. He treats her more like a daughter than a minion (though both of them would probably deny it), but at the same time, he doesn't treat her like some helpless baby. He treats her like an individual and makes an effort to see eye to eye with her whenever he can. Yes, he exerts his power over her when he feel that he needs to, but this comes off more as him being a parent than him being abusive in any way. And yes, like any parent, he also makes his fair share of mistakes, but it's also worth noting that Fink is the only person he genuinely apologizes to until the last episode of the show.

Basically, as Zangief once said,

[writersmilex]

Hoi! :3 So i was wondering if you could do some headcanons of the main trio teaching the reader how to fight?,,,I love your writing so much ^^

Hallo daar! I know it's been forever since you send me this request, that makes me feel bad. But it's here know, with a little extra just for you! enjoy~

(Art by Yours truly~)

Hank:

- You weren't the best when it came to combat, and it annoyed Hank greatly. What if someone attacks you and he is not around to protect you. He decided to help you with that problem and teach you. 

- Let's just say; Hank is not a good martial teacher. This guy has his own fighting style and he can't remember when he developed that style, the best he can do is teach you the basics. 

- Unique fighting style aside; Hank is a little too impatient with you. He'll tell you to punch that bummy over there, and if you don't do it right he will get mad and so it himself. Not much to learn from that. 

- You get a little frustrated with Hank's methods and demand he'd be a better teacher. For once, Hank hears you and changes a little bit. He encourages you and praises you a little bit when you succeed in something during training. 

- His favourite part of training with you, is the sparring. It's a great excuse to be close to you, training for himself, and pummeling you. It is obvious that you'll most likely never be as skilled as Hank, but that doesn't really matter. 

- The next step of your training is a little test; you're coming with Hank on a mission. He picked a specific mission he thinks would be good for you. And you're coming with him. 2Bdamned was very much against the idea, but of course, Hank doesn't listen...

- You did better than he expected to be honest! He was proudly looking on as you performed all the moves he taught you, it was amazing and he loved it. 

- After the mission, Hank is sure to express how proud he is of you. Putting his hands on your shoulders and he says, "You did good, I'm proud of you."  You look at Hank with big eyes. That's the best compliment he's ever given you!

- That compliment was a huge ego boost for you, it made you feel fantastic for the following few days. Of course, you continued your training, simply to polish your skills. 

- You're glad not to be dependent on other people for protection anymore, you have accomplished what you wanted! With some few extra things. Skills and Hank's respect.  ~~~~

Sanford: 

- He was surprised when you asked him to teach you some combat. He agreed with your explanation to be able to defend yourself, it makes a lot of sense to him that you want to be able to and be less dependent on him to defend you. 

- Out of them all, Sanford is the best teacher. He will give an example and tell you to copy his moves, very handy! 

- Sanford is great at encouraging you to try new things, the more skill you have the better you'll be at attacking, and defending yourself and others.

- Not only does teach you basic combat moves, but also melee and ranged weapons. The best lesson he taught you is how to improvise weapons. You'd be surprised with how much damage you can inflict on a person with a tape dispenser!

-Sanford likes to spar with you, though he takes it easy on you. It's almost like dancing, but without the music and a lot more punching. One time Sanford accidentally hit you in the eye, giving you a black eye. He still feels bad about it. 

- During is when Sanford discusses other techniques with you. And compliment you for your efforts. It's great, Sanford is great. He has been a real help teaching you combat. 

- Next test; is to go on a mission with him. He made sure to pick the easiest mission he could find. hmm, raid an Aahw outpost sounds like a good one. Though he was hella nervous about taking you on a real mission, he can't back out of it now. And neither can you!

- The mission was a success, Sanford couldn't contain his smile while the two of you were driving home. He kept talking about how great you did for your first mission.  "Learned from the best." You reply with a bashful tone. Which in turn made him flustered as well. 

- After a few more missions together, you can go take solo missions too. Sanford trusts you enough to be capable to handle certain missions on your own. 

- In your spare time, you still spar with Sanford occasionally. 

~~~~

Deimos:

- He was excited to hear you ask for him to teach you some combat. He suggests that you and he start right away!

- He doesn't really care about the effectiveness as much as having fun. He explains the thrill he gets out of hurting people but doesn't go as far as necessary. "Once the enemy is dead, you move on to the next," he says. The way he talks so fondly about that thrill proves to you that Deimos is in fact, a psycho...

- All fun aside, once it gets through to him that some combat skills could possibly save your life, he takes it a little more seriously. 

- Deimos doesn't teach you any hacking though, that task is reserved for him. It makes him feel special, let him have that dammit!

- While you're training, Deimos has become your personal cheerleader. Praising you all the way. Which is confusing because you feel like you're not performing the moves correctly. Deimos is proud of you either way.

-Deimos takes you out on missions way too early than you're capable. Which is scary as hell but you did learn a whole lot. You can go all out on those brainless zeds, that's always fun!

- He brags out being your trainer to other people who really don't care. Dave is happy that you can fight now, but he has heard about it too many times by now.

- Sanford and 2Bdamned are afraid for you. Out of all the people, you could ask for training you asked Deimos?! Sanford tried to talk you out of it and let him train you instead, but you strangely refused. 

- Other the course of a few weeks, you obtained a very similar fighting style to Deimos. And together you are a force to be reckoned with. The enemies fear you.

- Deimos has a new prank buddy.

~~~~

(Special Bonus!) 2Bdamned:

- From the very beginning he met you, he's been training you to be better in combat. For more than one reason. To be a good soldier was one of the first reasons. and later, when he became more attached to you, it was to be able to protect yourself. 

- Doc is the exact opposite of Deimos when it comes to combat. Effectiveness has the most priority, he teaches you the best ways to attack enemies. Such as; finding weak points, how to disarm enemies and instant kills. 

- His training with you, is very therapeutic to him, to be honest. Dragging him away from his paperwork to train you, a change in his routine seems to have health benefits both on his side and yours. ( You got super buff, is all I'm saying)

- Though, 2Bdamned can be rather critical when training you. It's harsh if you can't handle that. But in a world where people shoot first and ask questions later, you better get over yourself. 

- In all honesty, 2Bdamned is glad that he trained you the way he did. You probably wouldn't have survived without that training. Doc is happy with you are still around, most of his allies die at some point, but you're still here. If you were gone, he might have gone insane.

- Your very first mission he remembers so vividly. He picked the best one out for you to challenge you. The challenge did come with a price that is, you returned with mild injuries. But that's okay, you only got stronger after that. 

- His favourite missions to send you on are info missions; you break in, get info and get out. Easy mission, he knows what you're doing and he gets to see you right after you return to deliver him that info. 

- After missions, Doc often requests you keep him company for a while. You don't question it much, it's simply so he can keep an eye on you for a while. 

- He hates it when you come back injured. Either mild or severe, it makes him feel like he failed you as a trainer and you failed him as his trainee. Both are equally bad. He makes sure to visit you in the medical wing once you're stablilzed. 

- You're a good soldier, 2Bdamned is very proud and happy to have you on his team.  _________________________________________ Trained by the best to kick some nether regions.

Thanks for reading.  - Smilex

[aio-rya]

Octavinelle Spicy Headcanons

「Requested by: Anon」

「A/N: since it was not specified what kind of 'spicy' were we getting, I'll make it a general spice~」

WARNING: NSFW content ahead. Suggestive/demi-explicit content under the cut, minor aged users, stay away from this~ You've been warned.

Azul 🐙

・He's usually shy about any matter that could involve his body. Even with you, his partner, he is, mainly by the fact he's not completely knowledgeable about humans body and its pleasures —in spite of it, he will never refuse whenever you wanted him to touch you, specially when you sat on his lap and placed his hands over your skin, taking them all over your legs, up and down until he let himself flow with you.

・Azul is a busy man, he often forgets he has a girlfriend, that is the main reason why he is fascinated when you assault him from behind with kisses on his neck or his cheeks. Or when you turn his chair around without any advice and fill his face with kisses. Specially his beauty mark. For him, when you appreciate such tiny details, is one of the greatest forms of love.

・His weak point are praises. When you praise him at work is wonderful, but praising him at bed is the most amazing you could ever try. Even if he is a little bit ashamed later, at the moment he will enjoy himself as if he were in heaven, driving you to the edge on the process. Since he is always tender, being in control with you at such circumstances is something exciting, specially by the fact of not being very often.

・When he is tired, he usually sits with you on the couch of the VIP Room and locks it, he doesn't want anybody interrupting because you are the only person able to make him relax. You embrace him in your arms, placing his head on your breasts, sometimes humming for him so he slowly gets sleepy over them. In fact, this has, once in a while, an arousing effect on him and you end up having an unexpected "happy ending"...

・Oh, for real. You must never bite him. Is not like you were to hurt him anyway, but Azul's childhood was not a nice time to remember, involved on such memories are Jade and Floyd of course, but not as nicer as you know them. They were kids, they were playful and one of those days, Floyd bite one of his tentacles —Tako-chan stained the Tweels on black ink and he still has not got over it. He's been having a bit of help, from you of course, so be patient.

・Though it is unexpected to see him having the initiative to behave a bit naughty, it's not impossible. Azul himself would be defined as elegance, that's why his teases are soft but provocative; specially when he moves closer from behind and massages your shoulders, slowly moving to your neck, your collarbone, the valley between your breasts, playing with the buttons on your shirt...

・He discovered you were specially sensitive when he touched your stomach, your sides or your waist. A way, sort of a sign he makes to you when he's on the mood or he wants you to pay attention and pamper him for a while is caressing, pressing, tapping or just tracing small lines at a very slow pace on those specifical parts of your body. It is his unspoken way to plead for your love.

Jade 🐬

・He is the most versatile of the trio. Outside, he is a gentleman, so tender, sweet and caring; but deep inside himself, he is mischievous, he loves teasing, playing with you and actually, being in control. You could be his prey and he could be your hunter as much as he could be your knight and you could be his delicate princess.

・Up to this point, you may be wondering how did it ended up like it? Jade asked you to taught him about humans, what they do like, what they do not like and you came to explain how they reproduced. The key word was "comfort", though sexual tension was already visible between you; he asked you for help to explore his body, you said yes, confession came and here you are. In love with each other.

・He has a thing with teasing, it's hard to explain. Jade is, most of the time, changing you and himself into teases —he loves surprising you, when you're in the most unexpected places; sometimes, he will sneak his hand under a table, caressing the inner part of your thighs, or when he's holding your waist, his hand will sneak once more inside your shirt. If he feels more... Cheeky, in a good sense, he will lean forward and press small kisses on your neck, right under your ears.

・The younger Tweel is thoughtful, you revive often some unexpected details at classrooms or cafeteria or even at your own dorm; flowers, a cupcake, some sweets, some cookies, seashells, fungus preserved in resin... They always came with a note, some of them sweet and clever poetry, some others... Well, you might have an idea of what would be awaiting for you at night. It could be an invitation for you to visit him, or it could be just an advice for you to prepare.

・I wouldn't let aftercare pass just like it, would I? I could but I won't, since Jade's priority is you, of course. He loves your face while you sleep, he will wake up a bit earlier than you just to appreciate your peacefully visage. Then breakfast, your clothes, when everything is ready, he will awake you, feed you, take you to the bathtub and then, let you dress up.

・Let's talk about his dark side —he understands it's inevitable to spend more time with your classmates and friends like Ace, Deuce, Jack... than with him, taking into consideration he works with Azul at the Lounge. Though, there are times when he claims for your attention due to jealousy; that's when he makes the impossible to reassure you that you are his... Some biting marks on your skin may do.

・Different to Floyd, he will not make a show in front of any other people, no. He's going to deal with you and your couple matters indoors; unfortunately for you, he knows your weak points, specially your pleasure points or where to tickle you. In the end, you will painfully enjoy it.

Floyd 🦈

・"Koebi-chaaaaan~ I am booreeed~ Please, gimme looove~". Yes, that's mainly how Floyd is, straight to the point. When he does this, most of the time he will end up laying over you, whether you be sitting somewhere, laying somewhere, walking or just standing there. And, sometimes, his hands may land on places considered... Inappropriate in public.

・Floyd loves squeezing. Squeezing people to gather information for Azul, squeezing ingredients to prepare his delicious and well-known Takoyaki... Squeezing you between his arms; whether he could squeeze you in a hug or put his body over yours to do it, he prefers squeezing your waist with his hands when he hugs you from behind, or teasing you by squeezing your hips with his fingers... Or your thighs when you lay down with him~ oh! Floyd just love squeezing...

・Even though you have a... Little big height difference, he loves being pampered by you. Sitting on your lap, laying down his head too, when you let him put his head on your breasts or your neck. He just wants you to give him love, all the love you have, given only to him —sometimes he can be a bit rough with other people who gets nearby, but sometimes he can be sweet enough to get you a sugar overload.

・Though Floyd is the one into biting, he will not do it unless you ask him to do so, and even when you want him to do it, he will not be rough. He can mess with you, he can play around but he will never, and he himself has reassured so to yourself, bite you strong enough to drag blood out of your skin. He's into leaving some hickeys though.

・Very, very visible hickeys. There are certain days a month when you have to wear the collar of your shirt fully buttoned because, once a month and a half, Floyd feels into the need of leaving you some love reminders for you to think about him —the first time you realised was because of Crewel pointing at the little red mark on your collarbone.

・Sometimes, he lifts you up when you're down. Many people can think that, at first glance, Floyd is not a romantic person but they're wrong. He's the type who will cook for you, look for your favourite book and bring your favourite music; scare everyone the hell away from you and give you your space and tools to relax —that includes some massage which may end in you two sharing the bed.

・When he has been long time away from you, the first thing he will do is taking you away, to the first comfortable place he remembers and lock you both there. He just wants to touch you, he's needy~

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 24 part two

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Arguing

After enjoying a tense  afternoon with Lan Xichen, Wei Wuxian comes home to enjoy a tense evening with Jiang Cheng. He pauses in the doorway as he takes in Jiang Cheng’s mood and decides which metaphorical mask he will put on to interact with his shidi. As someone who grew up with explosive people, I find this routine very familiar. 

Wei Wuxian is always carefully playing a role as he interacts with the people in his life. Clearly he has read the classic sociology text The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and is using it as a how-to guide. We see him do this same calculation over and over, in which he reacts internally to a situation, comes to a decision about what persona to inhabit, and then dons that persona. It’s a typical abuse survival tactic and...it is exhausting. 

This is why I think his leaving to be alone for a while in Episode 50 is a good thing. Being alone isn’t better than being with someone else, usually, but for Wei Wuxian, who is (by Episode 50) assured of love but not sure where he belongs in his own life, being by himself for a while is going to be the best thing for him. He can learn how to just be a person, instead of constantly trying to mold himself to fit everyone around him. 

For the current tense situation, Jiang Cheng is polishing his sword, which, incidentally, is slang (in English, not necessarily in Chinese) for masturbating. Which makes their conversation about how frequently it needs doing kind of a hoot. “One time a month should do,” per Wei Wuxian. 

Jiang Cheng yells at Wei Wuxian--fairly, really--for being drunk all the time and not working on clan tasks. Then he responds to a hug attempt by shoving Wei Wuxian and knocking him down. JC asks WW if he’s too drunk to manage his spiritual power. Now, we know that he doesn’t have any spiritual power to manage, and that’s the main point of this interaction. But it also shows us something else about their dynamic. 

This was just a quick hit, and when it takes WWX out, JC asks why he isn’t responding with spiritual power.  Which means that apparently *every* time Jiang Cheng gives Wei Wuxian a shove or a shoulder check, or strikes him--like he’s been doing constantly since Episode 3--he’s putting spiritual power behind it. That’s...really harsh. 

Jiang Cheng wants Wei Wuxian to fight back, and Wei Wuxian can’t; this is a big part of why their relationship breaks down. Casual blows loaded with spiritual power are part of their vocabulary, and Wei Wuxian can’t speak that language any more, even for basic defense. He’s literally not safe having simple interactions with Jiang Cheng now, because he’s secretly disabled, and Jiang Cheng is casually injuring him whenever he gets too close. 

(more after the cut!)

This time Wei Wuxian has had enough, and raises Chenqing to Jiang Cheng, who immediately backs off. Jiang Cheng has seen that thing in action, not just on the battlefield, but in a small room full of whatever remained of Wen Chao when they were done with him. He takes this as a serious threat, and backs off, disturbed and puzzled and hurt.

Jiang Cheng thinks the change in Wei Wuxian is coming from apathy, not from disability, and so he misunderstands it over and over.  Think of a friend saying “whatever, I’m sick of arguing with you, do what you want.”  Jiang Cheng is very ready to feel rejected, and not at all ready to look at Wei Wuxian’s behavior and try to actually understand it. 

Crying Over You

Wei Wuxian bails and goes to see Jiang Yanli in the ancestral hall, where she is polishing a name plaque. I turned the gamma way up to see whose it is and...I dunno. This character might be 江 (Jiang), I guess?

Jiang Yanli is the only one of the trio who knows how to mourn properly, in that she is taking some time to sit and be sad. Mourning the dead--both ritually and just in the emotional sense--is as important a part of reclaiming Lotus Pier as the training of disciples and having good times on the lake.

She asks him about his fight with Jiang Cheng and he says he’s used to fighting with him. Jiang Yanli asks him if he’s tired of living there, and Wei Wuxian deflects and deflects, saying “it’s my home, where else would I go?” and that if Jiang Fengmian hadn’t adopted him he would still be begging in the streets. He says “no matter what happens, I won’t leave Lotus Pier,” which is not an answer to her question.

It’s also not true. Like so many of his promises, it’s an expression of his wishes, with no space for the surprises real life is made of. He promises her that he won’t be reckless again, and asks her not to be mad at him. She says she can’t be mad at him, and then they share a flashback about Jiang Fengmian finding him on the street. This is a story, not a memory; Wei Wuxian can’t remember but he remembers her telling him about it. Jiang Yanli wasn’t there, in the moment. So this is her telling the story as it was told to her, probably by Jiang Fengmian. 

Flashback Time

In the flashback, picky salad-hating Wei Ying is out on the street, looking for food in a cartload of pretty okay scraps. I mean, yeah, skip the tomatoes, but most of the greens look fine.  

He’s found and fed by Jiang Fengmian, who recognizes him and decides to take him in. 

Within a couple of episodes, we will see Wei Wuxian paying this favor forward, saving someone he finds starving on the street. Just like Jiang Fengmian, he's going to upset and disrupt his family in order to help someone for whom he feels a deep connection.

During this flashback we get a look at Jiang Fengmian’s sword, and it is a beauty. 

What is Love

As the flashback ends, Wei Wuxian is smiling, hearing Jiang Yanli tell this touching story of starvation and orphanhood. She tells him he was born with a smiling face, and that he never minds much about sorrowful things; no matter how bad the situation is, he is always happy. Way to reinforce that metaphorical mask he’s wearing over his deep, deep despair, sis!

They talk a bit about Jiang Cheng’s bad temper.  Then Jiang Yanli says now that her parents are gone, they three are the closest in the world, and he responds by putting his head down on her knee and theatrically saying he’s hungry. But he’s crying for real, and so is she.

Then he decides to ask her why people fall in love, basically, and claims that he does not have anyone in his heart. He says there’s no need to like a person that much, that it’s like “haltering your own neck,” according to Netflix. Let’s have a look at that figurative language for a second, and what’s missing from the Neflix translation. 

What he says is (as near as my qhanzi.com skills can make out) “這不就是自己給自己脖子上套犁拴韁吗” which Google tells me means "Isn't this just putting a plow on my neck with a rein?" The part of the image that’s missing from Netflix subs is the plow, and the hard labor and animal servitude involved in pulling a plow. This isn’t a pro-romance image.

He’s clearly thinking about Lan Wangji when he lies about having no-one in his heart, but right now the yoke that he wants to escape has nothing to do with Lan Wangji. The person he’s harnessed to in a team, the person who he labors with, the person he wants to escape, is Jiang Cheng.  What’s chafing his neck is the promise he made, to stay and serve as one half of a pair, when he can no longer pull his weight. 

Busted

Speaking of Jiang Cheng, he is hanging around outside the shrine, listening to the conversation. Wei Wuxian busts him, pointing out not that eavesdropping is bad, but that it’s bad for grownups. Jiang Cheng points out that he’s the master of Lotus Pier so he’s allowed to go anywhere he wants.

(I love how he looks framed by this giant lotus behind him)

We Wuxian has another of those moments where he assesses the best approach to Jiang Cheng before responding. 

Then he picks a fake fight with him about soup.  Yanli comes out and tells them both to grow up, saying that JC is losing his demeanor as clan leader. He jokingly fixes his already-perfect robe ad they all have a chuckle.

Then Jiang Cheng reminds Wei Wuxian of his promise for the millionth time, and Jiang Yanli goes to make soup for the millionth time. As soon as the boys see that she’s gone, the smiles drop right off of their faces. They’re both performing their typical relationship dynamic for Jiang Yanli.

Being Reasonable

The brothers repair to the main hall, and stand behind the lotus throne looking out of this complicated wall/doorway thingy, while they talk about Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan. 

Jiang Cheng is being mature and sensible here, trying to give Jiang Yanli what she wants and also explaining very, very basic political stuff to Wei Wuxian, who is too caught up in his hate boner for JZX to want to think about the bigger picture. He also thinks that Jin Guangyao is a nicer person, but Jiang Cheng says that nice doesn’t matter.  

Wei Wuxian is getting a full head of steam going about what a jerk JZX is, when Jiang Cheng makes him actually stop and think, by pointing out that it’s not for them to forgive or not forgive Jin Zixuan’s past behavior; it’s up to Yanli.

Wei Wuxian sees the reasoning in this, and starts to say he can’t understand why Yanli chose to like this person, but then he stops himself and goes through a rapid series of thoughtful, uncomfortable expressions. 

Perhaps he’s realizing that he himself has chosen to like an infamously stuck-up, fancy cultivator, albeit one with no soup-related character deficits.

Library Time

The stuck-up cultivator in question is currently in the Cloud Recesses library, where he has snuck into the forbidden books room, against his uncle’s express command, for the purpose of helping Wei Wuxian. The forbidden books room is an entire basement floor of the library; it probably has more books than the not-forbidden part of the library, since the main floor needs space for the restrooms, circulation desk, and copy machines.

(Did OP photoshop the Wangxian-in-the-Library porn picture onto Lan Wangjis’ book? She did.)

A couple of other Lans come along and see the main door unlocked. The lock is a big fish that probably uses magic for locking; it definitely doesn’t use a key. One of them steps in the doorway, glances back and forth without walking through, and does not check the secret door to the forbidden vault. Gosh, how did Su She and/or Jin Guangyao  ever manage to steal secrets from this highly secure location, wow.

Lan Wangji hears the Lan disciple on guard duty say “don’t tell Hanguang Jun about this!’ and has a series of microexpressions that might indicate some kind of feeling about simultaneously being a rule breaker and a rule enforcer.  

Boat Time

We end with an idyllic scene on the lake in Lotus pier, where a new batch of disciples is harvesting lotuses and learning the opposite of boat safety. 

Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian are having a good time, and seem utterly carefree; both of them are good at living in the moment, or faking it. 

Wei Wuxian thinks, in voiceover, that it seems that it’s not so hard to go back to the old days. Uh...ok.

Except he’s hiding a massive secret and these replacement kids are not the same juniors he used to hang out with, and he can’t actually teach them cultivation, since he has no socially-acceptable magic power, and everything is about to go to shit in the next episode. But you gotta take your joy where you can, I guess. 

Note: There are a lot of questionable effects in The Untamed, but there are also beautiful scenes like this one, which looks like a Maxfield Parrish painting. Compare with the BTS below and you can see what a good job the VFX team did in bringing this lake to life. 

[rare-and-beautiful-things]

Seongjoon x assassin!reader x 244

SFW - PART I

It doesn't really matter why you first started doing it. Perhaps you had no choice, or perhaps you had a choice and decided it was worth it. You've been trading in murder for the most part of your life now. You are good at it.

Perhaps you stopped? Decided you should leave before your job consumes you, before you're caught like so many others who thought themselves untouchable. Perhaps you moved on.

Or perhaps you never did.

I can see two main types of assasin!reader in this situation: the first is tired, scared, they moved on, they hope they never-ever have to go back to that nightmarish job. The second never stopped killing, never truly felt bad about taking another person's life. They're unapologetic and fun and playful.

Sure, there's a million personalities that would also fit, but I'm mainly rolling with these two.

Tired former assassin gets in 244's way and accidentally exposes themselves. Maybe they tried to protect someone, an ordinary, naive and pure person, or maybe they were simply that unlucky. They know of 244 and of Seongjoon - perhaps they even saw Waraioni once in Japan, but Seongjoon doesn't remember them at all - but the thing is 244 knows about them a whole lot more than they know about him. And he would simply love to work together.

The playful assassin is playing their own game. They are in Korea and they're kinda into newtube, so they think it'd be so amusing to get closer to Seongjoon and 244 pretending to be just another newtuber desperate for a collab with a celebrity. Perhaps they get exposed by Seongjoon or 244 or maybe they expose themselves, but they end up working with the XJ Studio.

Tired reader catches Seongjoon's eye first. He's compassionate, deep down, under all his facade turned real. He wouldn't outright tell them he cares - but he would care. He'll try to protect them where he can, to not make them do more dirty things than strictly necessary.

The fun version of the reader probably gets with 244 first. He's complex, he's also more dangerous and dirty than Seongjoon in a sense that he does a whole lot of things most people would find disgusting. I also feel like he and fun!assasin!reader would just click.

There might be multiple ways for the trio to get into this beautiful polyamorous relationship, but I really like to imagine it being the reader's initiative. I mean, yeah, they're greedy, they have to be at least a little bit greedy if they're working in that field. And it's not like there's any point in pretending not to be with these two.

While it is certainly a poly and not a love triangle, I feel like Jinho and Seongjoon would be... kinda competitive? Not even competitive over your attention or affection, it's just that you'll probably naturally assume the position of judge and mediator, so they're going to seek out your opinion on matters that would usually resolve themselves or simply die down when they're on their own.

Seongjoon is the protective one but only when he feels you need it which is not always. I mean, sure, you could say that he learnt his lesson from his backstory and all that, but honestly... has he? I'd say there's like 50% chance that you're gonna be in danger (mental or physical), but unless you clearly state it, Seongjoon can just assume what's convenient for him and overlook this. He'll blame himself relentlessly and do everything in his power to right the wrongs if something happens - but I wouldn't say there's no chance of anything happening in the first place.

Now Jinho is usually more perceptive, but most of the time he'll just... percept things and knly use them to play with you. He can help you, protect you, do things to your advantage - if he's in the right mood, so it's a coin's toss unless there's money involved.

They bring out the worst in each other. But they're also used to handling the worst in each other, so most of the time it works out, but there's always a chance they decide to bring this "worst in each other" onto you, so... Honestly, the only way to make this relationship work and to make them trust you and respect you is only counting on yourself. That way you will either be ready for the ahit to come or be pleasantly surprised.

I like to imagine poly with an assassin reader because it means that they all have a good idea of what each of them are capable of, and while there's still a fare share of secrets, it allows all parties to be more open with each other. It also means that all of you are... kinda holding each other back, in a sense that it would be even more impossible to come clean while being with them - unless they're in too deep and love you that much more than they love themselves.

They're both kinda hopeless, and chances are you are too. Not hopeless romantics or hopeless idiots, just plain hopeless, as in cannot truly believe in a possibility of living a normal, happy, bloodless life. Perhaps love will cure this hopelessness, or maybe it will simply transform it into one of your strengths, or maybe it will only further it.

They both can cook, Seongjoon obviously better, but Jinho's cooking is still better than average. Jinho will cook like once a year, Seongjoon can do it every day. Seongjoon hates when other people mess around in the kitchen, 244 loves messing around in the kitchen. Seongjoon can tolerate and even like your presence in the kitchen if you're 1) at least half-good at cooking 2) doing what he says and not trying to take control. He absolutely doesn't mind you cooking what you want or anything, just please, do it when he's somewhere else.

244 is secretive but he also wants to tell and show you things, to make you acquainted with his job even if you work in the same field. Part of him is like "the mortifying ordeal of being perceived" and the other part of him wants to show you all the most disgusting and dirty parts of his life and see your reaction. He wants you to be shocked, scared and disgusted so he can tease you and scare you more, but deep down he also wants you to accept him as he is, to be alright with everything.

Seongjoon wants to talk to you about his past, to tell you what really happened, but he also knows that the truth isn't really any better than the tale, so he doesn't say anything for a long time. It doesn't matter how many people you've killed, he probably thinks he's worse than you, especially in the tired!reader case (it can be different for the playful version though).

You rarely sleep together, since mafia doesn't sleep and there's enough... night shifts on your illegal job for all of you, so it's hard to aleep at the same time. It's even harder to sleep at the same place, especially in the beginning, since all of your instincts kick in and tell to get out or to get them out. It's hard to be vulnerable with each other for both Seongjoon and 244, and it's probably the same for you.

[revenant-dumpster-fire]

Hunter (Revenant x Reader)

Part 1 of 2 of the chapter “Hunter & Prey”. [Full chapter on AO3.]

Theme: The trios game is here, and Revenant's plan comes to fruition after days of planning.

Warnings: Male dominance, threats of violence, descriptions of violence, sharp objects, pain, bipolar, depression, mania, fluff.

Reader's Notes: Revenant (Apex Legends) x Reader, reader is female.

Writing Notes: Can I write non-fluff? Maybe? Or perhaps I need to maximize fluff to balance? I guess you'll find out.

Navigation:

First Chapter | Previous Part (Styptic & Canine)  | Next Part (Hunter & Prey)

Revenant manages to wake you up in the middle of the night with nothing but his incessant nuzzles and purring. His new chassis may be deluxe, but he can't seem to control how much he wants to show off all its features. He's holding you from behind, completely enveloping you in a warm hold, his nuzzles starting on the back of your neck and making their way around to the side of your neck. You've definitely slept some, but not quite enough to feel awake.

You reach up and begin lightly petting the top of his snout. His bovine skull emits a long, deep purr that can only be described as a very happy growl. He almost seems to be in a trance in his new body, as if something in the code is different, and he's acting out of something reminiscent of instinct. It's nice. He's almost like one of his prowlers. You extend your snout pets to reach from nose to the top of his head, and his purrs extend to last the length of each stroke. He leans into your pets, hoping for a firmer touch, which you try your best to comply with.

You roll over to face him, causing him to pull away a little. He looks at you with a little concern initially, like you might be upset, but you quickly quell him by holding his visage in both of your hands, pulling it close to yours. In truth, you're not sure what you're doing, but you can tell he likes it. His new silicone tongue licks your nose lightly, surprising you but not enough to make you pull away. He definitely has some software changes, whether he realizes it or not. He's definitely acting more like an animal. You slip your hands down to feel his giant mane, made of locks of fur. It feels both soft and fluffy; you can't help but run your fingers between each lock as you pet it. You work out any tangles you find, causing him to purr with delight over the free grooming. The tip of his nasal cavity presses into your nose, intentionally tickling you with his breaths.

"You should sleep," he manages to get out in his purrs.

"Nah, I'm just going to be watching the game tomorrow. You're the one who has to work." You whisper to him, massaging his neck through his fur.

He sighs a small moan at your massage, clearly giving up on his request in favor of getting more affection. He reaches out and holds your waist, softly brushing your sides in return. His head tilts up, revealing his throat. You carefully move your hand to touch it, moving all the way from the tip of his chin down to his clavicle with a soft touch. His breathing slows as you caress him, turning his purr into a low hum and vibrating in your hand. Eventually, his maw opens up, emitting a scary but relaxed hum and revealing his fangs. He's clearly enjoying every moment of it.

"Little skinsuit." You hear him mutter quietly. You pause for a moment, acknowledging him. He closes his mouth and locks eyes with you, pushing his nose into your face and huffing in it. He doesn't immediately speak, just nuzzles you on the side of your face, intentionally breathing into your ear to get you to wince from the tickling feeling. He shoves his tongue right on your face, licking you like a dog.

"Ack, what is it?" You lift your hands up to your face to defend your face from further onslaught. He pushes his snout into your hands and licks them instead. "Rev... Are you okay?"

He stops, pushing his snout through your hands and touching the tip of your nose.

"What are you supposed to taste like?" He finally utters. You're a bit taken aback by his question.

"I don't really know, why? Do I taste strange?"

"Honeysuckle. That's what I taste." He pulls you right into him, enveloping your whole body. "I haven't had a real tongue in so long. I don't remember what anything is supposed to taste like anymore." He sounds saddened by his conclusion, but you can't get your hands free to comfort him. You shove your face in his mane instead, snuggling up against him. You struggle to find any words to say, but try to come up with something.

"Hey, Revenant?" He doesn't respond, but it's safe to assume you have his attention. "I like you no matter what." You retreat into his mane as deep as your face can go, unsure of how he will react.

You feel his body heat up, and his claw cup the back of your head. His head tucks around your shoulder, and his legs surround you to pull you into his frame. His spare arm wraps around you, and his body starts to rattle in a purr. You carefully wrap your hands around his waist and softly caress it, unable to press into it like his other body with leather allows. You're stuck otherwise, so you make a small kissing gesture and noise into his mane, unsure if he hears you.

"Sleep, my little skinsuit. Before you convince me to forfeit this game." He purrs in your ear, brushing your hair with his fingers. You're not sure what he means; you've asked him to do no such thing, but you let yourself snuggle up against his heat, easily drifting to sleep as he coos at you.

• • • •

You wake up in a mess of damp fur, mouth open and now dry as a desert. You close your mouth and pull your face away from the sopping mats of fur, emitting a sound similar to a snore as you breathe through your nose again.

"Didn't realize you'd be the one to get me wet, skinsuit." Revenant teases, running his claws through his soaked mane. "Your dreams must be real fun for you to drool all over me like that." You snap to as you realize what you've done.

"Oh no, I'm sorry!" You pull away and try to dry him off with the sheets, to no avail.

"Don't be sorry, this is perfect." You ignore him, sitting up to dry him off at a better angle. He lets you, but you quickly abandon the sheet and go grab a towel from the bathroom. As you rub into his mane, he looks up with you with something that feels like a smile, but you can't be sure. Either way, he seems to be enjoying it. He lets you continue as he slowly sits up, leaning into your rubs and purring under his breath. You get as much of your drool out of his mane as possible, but eventually you finally have to give up and pull the towel away.

Revenant makes his way out of bed, satisfied by your work, although you don't feel the same. He stands tall over you, looking down at you with curiosity and adoration. He pushes his hand into your hair and rustles it.

"Don't look so dejected, you didn't ruin anything." He reads your mind; you feel like you've destroyed his favorite chassis with drool of all things. "Trust me, I was banking on you making a mess. It'll all work out in my favor. Shut off your little brain and let me do the thinking, just trust me." His voice growls seductively as he pokes the tip of your nose with his claw.

"Now, go eat before I force feed you. Your girlfriend should be here in an hour or so to watch the match with you." His voice is so smooth but growly. "I need to go prepare. Take care of yourself, skinsuit. I expect you here when I get back." And with that, he turns heels and confidently glides out the door, gone for the day.

You stare for a few moments, deeply hoping he will reappear so you can stare some more. Even his gait is so alluring, so confident, so strong. He is focused, powerful, and yet so secretive. You may not be sure how to respond to his flirtatious gestures, but knowing he is possessive of you is an honor he clearly doesn't give to many. What did you do? Does it matter? You want him to come back and make your face turn red again, tease you into forgetting about your depression, and treat you like his most prized possession. You want to make him melt with snout rubs, warm him, and delight him with your inherent shyness. You finally feel comfortable, but--more importantly--you feel attached.

You come back to reality, quickly scrambling to find the television remote, turning it on to the main event. They're still talking about Loba from the previous match, throwing up pictures all over the screen. How long can they talk about the same thing and still not run out of things to say? You sigh, knowing they will have to let up as the opening of the game starts.

You move over to the kitchenette and start warming up your leftovers. Chinese for breakfast is the sign of a good day, in your opinion. Some people say it's better the next day, but you can't wholly agree. It's different, not better or worse, but you love both. With your appetite finally back, you almost feel like waiting for it to finish, but you know showering while it heats up and cools off enough to eat is the wise choice.

• • • •

You answer the door, seeing Sherry bashfully waving to you with an unsure smile on her face.

"Hey Sherry, Rev told me he--"

"Put in a request for me to come and keep you company, right?"

"Yeah, I hope it's not too much trouble." You step aside so she can enter, which she does.

"So that's what he told you, but do you know what he really asked?" She reels around, fancying a tease as her finger twirled in the air.

"Oh no..." You trail off, already expecting something embarrassing. Sherry makes her way to the couch, throwing herself down and patting the seat next to her to invite you over.

"Oh, nothing that bad. He specifically asked me to make sure you were having a good time and safe. He requested that I not let you get sad, even if I had to--" she clears her throat, preparing to make a direct quote, "--encroach on my territory again." She giggles at the choice of words not even looking up to see your cheeks turn a light pink. He's definitely partially influenced by his software, that's the kind of thing a prowler would say if they could speak. Although, he is possessive on his own too.

"To be fair, you did shove my face in your tits right in front of him..." You sit down next to her, pulling your legs up to cross them.

"I dunno, the way his head tilted made me think he might have liked it." She throws her arms around you for a hug, relishing in pulling you in despite your pulling away.

"You're just as bad as he is." You sigh, accepting the hug that is forced on you.

"Oh? Maybe I can gang up on you with him sometime."

The innuendo isn't lost on you, making you grimace in further realization that you've surrounded yourself with people who tease you with questionable remarks. Sherry lets you go, turning her attention to the television.

"So, got any insider information on what we're about to see?" She lets you off the hook, for now.

"Well, sounds like our favorites are teamed up, for one." She beams, clearly excited at being able to root for the same team. "Second, Revenant has been teasing some grand plan for a while... apparently he's not fond of--" you nod towards Loba holding Revenant's scarf on the screen, "--that. He plans to erase it from everyone's minds."

"Not going to lie, that's the most exciting thing I've heard in ages leading up to a match." Sherry snuggles into the plush couch. It makes sense, she's been working here since before you started. Heck, she's the one who got you the job. She's probably heard everything when it comes to hype, and is likely unaffected by the commentator's excitement anymore. A Legend having some grand scheme for a match would be way more promising. "I'm just glad Revenant and Wattson are on the same team. It means I don't need to root against your shiny metal boyfriend." She smirks at you.

"You'd date Wattson if you could." You retort, trying to fend off her wit.

"Oh! So you are dating!" Ah, shit. You didn't mean to imply that. "So how is he? Is he everything you dreamed? Does he satisfy you?" She's so excitable, despite your answer being completely predictable.

"It's not like that." You turn away, hoping she won't push it.

"It's not like that--yet." She has to push the envelope, every time. She just can't let anything go. "I think he likes you. I bet he's thinking about you right now."

"When there's blood to be spilt? Fat chance." You finally see an opening for a comeback, and you take it. Sherry looks at you with shock, until it melts into a beaming smirk.

"It's cute how much you like him." She finally says.

"Oh, shut it." You leave it there, happy with the ceasefire, knowing you'll likely lose ground if you push it.

The television starts announcing the teams, showing Revenant with Wattson and Wraith. The camera holds on Revenant, standing in the middle and in front of his teammates in the drop ship, giving the commentators time to fawn over his unusual chassis. The floral language they use to describe the viciousness of his new body makes you chuckle as you think about how much he loves snout rubs. You feel a little badass for once; after all, you've tamed the unholy beast they seem so reverent of.

Revenant turns his head, locking optics with something off screen. The camera pans to see who, and a familiar masked face appears. If Bloodhound could have an intense look, this was it. It was a primal look, a pure determination that could only be described as a hunter locking eyes with a most dangerous prey. This is what Revenant meant. This was his plan. There was no chance this would end without a fight for the ages. His animalistic appearance only added to the allure of this soon-to-be battle.

"Hey, why don't we watch the team channel?" Sherry breaks your immersion in the game.

"The what?"

"Oh my--you've been here almost as long as me! How do you not know these things?!" You shrug, still not sure what she's talking about. "Every room gets a special team-specific feed with communications and everything. We should watch it if Wattsy and Revenant are together." She gets up and grabs the remote, clicking a button as she returns, causing the perspective to shift and the commentators to fall silent. You can hear the team instead, loud and clear. Why didn't you know about this?

Sherry bops you on the back of the head before returning her attention to the television.

The voices come through loud and clear on this channel.

"Are you sure about this?" Wattson asks, looking up at Revenant's massive frame.

"Yeah, this seems like a good way to get knocked out early." Wraith crosses her arms, sounding equally skeptical.

"I don't need you to trust me, but I'm going to be chased down. I need to drop separately and lose their trail. I need you to kit up without me, and I will meet you where you are." Revenant must be referring to Bloodhound.

"And what if we're targeted for landing as two instead of three? Not to insult your intelligence, but this seems particularly unwise." Wattson is always so sweet, even when she's not very fond of who she's speaking to.

"You'll need to drop cold. Drop within running distance to me and I will come to your aid if you're targeted." Revenant insists. Wattson sighs, clearly unsure of how to change his mind.

"Very well, please do not get us all killed, even if it is in your programming." Wattson relents.

They walk over and stand tall near the open hatch, barely keeping themselves up and not falling into World's Edge. The wind makes it impossible to hear the communications, but you see Revenant pointing to a few places and Wattson making hand motions as if to discuss options. Wraith just keeps her arms crossed, looking like a badass behind them.

Revenant steps away from the two to step further inside the ship, leaning against the ship wall and appearing to sigh. You hear a voice pick up on his communications.

"You are not as clever as you think, bráð." Revenant turns his gaze to meet Bloodhound, who is haughtily ignoring their teammates in favor of stoking these flames. "You may have disguised your scent with that of your apprentice, but all I must do is hunt your apprentice in order to find you." Revenant huffs, unfazed. "I will be disappointed if this hunt is unworthy of my skills."

With that, Bloodhound turns away to face their teammates, returning to planning. Fuse and Caustic seem completely okay with Bloodhound's previous absence from the conversation, willingly taking time to catch Bloodhound up on their plans. Revenant moves back to his team, Wattson clearly having noticed the exchange over her comms.

"Making friends, are we? I did not think you had it in you." She chuckles a little. She's a bit sassy herself, no wonder her and Sherry get along.

Revenant blows a puff of breath out his nostrils and into his mic, refusing to acknowledge her question.

"You'd be surprised, I think our local murder machine is going soft on us." Wraith pipes up in a taunting manner. Revenant looks very concerned that she might expand on her statement, but Wraith clearly is just enjoying his somewhat panicked reaction, smirking at him with delight.

"Perhaps this is a story for another day. Our drop is coming up!" Wattson chirps, clearly getting a bit excited.

The comms go quiet, spare for the blowing wind near the hatch, before they all jump into the white abyss, the drone camera attempting to follow. As the camera breaches the cloud line, you can see the trails of the team splitting, two in one direction and the other in the opposite. A message appears on the screen reading: 'calling additional drone' before it follows Wraith and Wattson down below.

"Do you want to watch your big metal hunk?" Sherry teases you. "He went off by himself, so I don't mind watching him. I'm comfortable that Wattsy will just be picking up loot safely in that area. Nobody really drops over there."

"I'm being hunted as expected. Stay alive, you two. I'll be there soon." Revenant's voice can be heard over the television.

"Yes! How do we watch him?!" You pipe up, instantly concerned.

Sherry hits a button on the remote and a new visual appears. This new camera drone isn't at Revenant yet, but staring down Bloodhound instead. Bloodhound is looking back and fourth, clearly flustered. The drone hovers, refusing to move as it may give away positions of either Legend.

Bloodhound runs up to a bunker, opens the door, and immediately puts their gloved hands over their mask, as if they're smelling something pungent. They run over to the control panel, wiping the surface and sniffing their fingers. Suddenly, they look invigorated. Impressed, perhaps? It's hard to say. Bloodhound appears to speak into their communications mic and runs off in a full sprint, disappearing from the drone's view.

The drone watches longingly after Bloodhound's trail before it suddenly jostles, making the view blurred and incomprehensible. The camera slows, eventually able to capture an image. It's Revenant's visage, clearly holding the drone at arm's length while sprinting.

"I know you're watching, little skinsuit. Hug your girlfriend if you get too scared." The drone mic isn't as clear as his team comms device, but he's still understandable. "In fact--Sherry--keep her warm for me. You have my support, but I get her back as soon as this is done. Deal?" His voice is full of vitriolic flirting, if that description makes any sense. He crushes the drone and the screen becomes static. Sherry turns to you with a devious smirk.

"Oh, he's so kinky for you." She uses her deep voice and leans into you, wrapping an arm around your back. Your cheeks burn red. "You must have something special, huh? How else did you end up with a big dom daddy like--"

"Oh my fuck, please stop Sherry!" You burst from embarrassment, burying your face in your knees as you pull into your frame. "I can't handle you two teaming up."

She laughs, but not sadistically for once. She gives you a quick hug, a pat on the back, and changes the channel to the other, working camera drone.

"I'm fine, but I have another favor to ask." Revenant's voice brings you out of your human sphere. You don't recognize this area, it's not considered a hot spot.

"You're really pushing your luck today, rustbin." Wraith stays stoic about the whole thing, attaching a scope to a Havoc.

"Let's hear him out. What is it? I cannot promise I will agree to anything, though." Wattson is undeniably kind, but sounds like she's trying to be stern.

"If Bloodhound survives to the end with us, let me single them out and fight them alone. If I fail to finish them, you can kill them and take the match without me." Revenant plans to do what he originally teased you about: defeat your first favorite Legend. How did he find out it was Bloodhound? Or does he even know?

"The chances of that seem unreasonably low, and it seems quite risky, but if you really want to I will respect your wishes." Wattson says as she rummages through a supply bin, picking up some shield cells and batteries.

"The chances are actually strangely high..." Wraith almost mutters as she loads her Havoc. "Did you bribe some people to throw or something?"

"No, I gave the Hunter a challenge." Revenant says as he begins adding improvements to his RE-45, making a satisfying chunking sound as his mag extender slots in. "My mind is on making a spectacle of our battle, and the only thing on the Hunter's mind is surviving until they can kill me. Call it actualization."

"Yeah, you'd have no reason to pay your way to the top, you enjoy this too much." Wraith tests her scope by looking down the sights, apparently pleased with her meager kit for now. "Alright team, we need more equipment, let's move."

They all begin to move towards an area known as The Harvester. You had been dragged there and touched all the controls, doors, and climbed an excessive amount of the area. It makes you tired to even think about it.

"So, I have some actual questions though." Sherry brings your attention out of the television, so you turn towards her. There's not much point in watching until there are gunshots anyway. Otherwise they're just going to be finding more gear. "What happened to your leg?" She points to the puncture wounds on your calf.

"Oh, um--well..." You accidentally revealed it when you pulled your leg up on the couch. "He has a thing where he can't control himself for a few seconds after he reboots." She pauses, processing your response. It is a really odd string of words to put together.

"So... he's homicidal, and if you don't get away--"

"No, not homicidal. There is zero chance of that. More like possessive and overly passionate about it." You hope it makes sense. She pauses again, trying to process the meaning behind the words.

"So it's a sexual thing?" Of course she gets it all wrong.

"No, more like a 'nobody can have you' kind of thing, and then he got too worked up and clenched too hard."

"So... are you sure about this whole thing? What if this keeps happening? That's not okay." She seems genuinely concerned, and a bit unhappy.

"It was an accident, honestly. Sort of like tripping into someone and knocking them over." You try to make it as mild-seeming as possible, but you know she won't fully buy it. She sighs, crosses her arms, and shrugs a little. That's enough acceptance for now.

"So, follow-up question: are you sure you're safe?" It might as well be the same question, but you relent.

"I'm pretty certain."

"That's a horrible answer!" Obviously she'd be a bit upset that it's not complete certainty, but how can you lie to her? Nothing is completely certain.

"It's complicated, but this is a risk I'm absolutely willing to take." You surprise yourself with your own calmness. "I know this seems insane, but my life has only been better for every crazy decision I've made, and I need this to happen. Life is short these days, even if I die I want to do something better than nothing." Sherry stares at you with a dumbfounded look, apparently impressed by your short speech.

"I guess that makes sense, but if stuff gets too violent... please leave." She averts her gaze, looking down at her feet.

"I promise, but really, I'm quite happy." You hug her, and she hugs you back for a moment.

"So he must be really good in bed then, huh?" She ruins the moment, she absolutely has to. It's practically her purpose in life at this point.

"I don't know, to be honest." You try to sound as serious as possible to avoid further teasing.

"What? Are you kidding? He makes it sound like you guys are fu--"

"Don't say it please." You put your face in your hands, questioning why you're still so easily embarrassed by these things. You're always blushing, which seems to goad people like Revenant and Sherry into teasing you. It is a little fun, though. Their power trip of teasing seems to make them both so happy, and in a weird way you share in that happiness as a willing victim.

"Well, okay, but I hope you get some soon," she snickers, "Honestly I don't think it'll be much longer now, anyway."

Gunshots ring out on the television.

"I've taken hits! If you've got a sniper, try to cover me!" Wraith sounds hurt, despite phasing towards the opponents on a hill nearby. Revenant pulls a Longbow he must have found recently, doing his best to take shots at the opponents while Wraith closes the gap. The scope must not be the best, because you can clearly see his stature get frustrated as he whiffs his shots. The return fire seems just as poor, hitting at Revenant's feet and the wall behind him, leaving gaping bullet holes. Suddenly, you hear a crack as Revenant's shot lands, then another.

"One closest to you is weak," he quickly states.

"Got it, engaging." Wraith barely finishes her statement before she's downed her opponent. Without the fancy graphics of the public broadcast, you're not sure who is on the enemy team, especially with how far the drone is.

"Engaging on the opposite side! Someone is alone!" Wattson suddenly appears on the opposite side as Wraith, immediately engaging another body as Wraith moves in towards the final contender in the middle. The gunshots are really going now, but the camera drone has been staying near Revenant, who is hanging back taking sniper shots.

"I'm down, but he's hurting!" Wattson's voice comes over comms, prompting Revenant to switch to his RE-45 and sprint to close the distance. The drone lags behind slowly, not closing enough distance to make out the opponents.

Wraith curses over the audio as she and her opponent go down simultaneously, leaving one weakened contender to Revenant. He's closing the gap excessively fast; it looks like they're trying to use a med kit.

"I'm not wasting the bullet." You definitely watch Revenant's silhouette stab the other before the med kit is finished, prompting the whole team to be deathboxed. The drone suddenly kicks into high speed, catching up to Revenant. It makes sense that the drones shouldn't give away positions, but this was a little frustrating at times. They either have to stay side-by-side or it has to hang back.

Revenant goes to Wraith first, pulling a medical syringe in his fist. He pauses, looking down on her for a moment. He twirls the syringe in his fingers, stopping it so his thumb lands on the plunger and his pointer and middle finger brace the flange on the barrel. He kneels down to her, pinches the muscle near her shoulder, and injects it quickly. He tosses the empty needle in a different pocket on his belt and helps her to her feet. Wraith is staring at him with a strange but subtle smile. He huffs at her and turns to tend to Wattson.

"So you did pay attention." Wraith sounds soft for a moment, but it doesn't get a reaction out of Revenant, who is doing the same to Wattson.

"Have you ever thought of the long term effects of all these injections?" Wattson asks as Revenant helps her up.

Wraith clears her throat loudly, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, it can do crazy things for sure." Wraith says with a heavy layer of frustration.

"Oh, I am so sorry, I did not mean to dredge up old memories." Wattson shakes her hands in front of her as a motion of apology.

"Yeah, science these days tends to be used to ruin the lives of as many people as possible." Revenant adds.

They all stand there in a circle, silent. It's not an awkward silence, it's a mournful silence. Revenant's stare is deep in the distance. Wraith's body language exudes frustration over past traumas. Wattson looks at the ground, almost like in secondhand guilt for being a woman of science. The stillness hangs for an uncomfortable amount of time, before Wraith breaks it.

"Nothing we can do, we are who we are now." She sighs. "We're top seven now. We need to find some other deathboxes and pick up better gear. We're going to stay sneaky until we're down to the last two." She immediately begins running towards the center of the new circle, close to the giant ice-like structure known as the Epicenter. Revenant and Wattson immediately move to follow. More boring running for a while.

"Who do you think was on that team?" Sherry asks, understanding that there's not much point in watching these segments.

"I'm not sure either. Sneaky play is boring, but I can't argue with the results. I'm going to run and get snacks, do you want anything?" You stand up, wanting to move around after a long while of sitting. Sherry immediately lays down on the couch, taking up all the space you left.

"Sure, give me anything with that cheese powder crack on it." She shoots you finger guns.

• • • •

"Sherry, I'm not getting you more chips."

"Please?"

"No, you've literally had three and a half bags, you're covered in cheese dust, and I'm pretty sure you're an addict. How strong is your metabolism, anyway?" You're brushing dust off the couch, at this rate you might as well get a vacuum. You ate a half, and then Sherry destroyed the rest plus all the other bags you got. You wonder how on earth she keeps her thinner figure like this. She must be cut from a completely different cloth than you.

"I have the same metabolism as all of my tapeworms." She stretches, and attempts to wipe the dust off her pants. "Sadly this has been pretty uneventful so far. They're being so careful. Three teams left now, and it looks and sounds like the other two are fighting it out." The gunshots are weak and in the distance.

"We're kitted as best as we can be, we should approach this like we did last time." Wraith has a 30-30 Repeater now, extremely well-modded.

"Did you notice that we're in the circle and they are not? We should set up a bit of an obstacle course here!" Wattson chirps.

"We can actually use it to attract our opponents and engage them from afar too." Wraith is beginning to smile, seeing a good path to victory.

"Leave Bloodhound for me." Revenant mumbles, just as a reminder.

"You'll get your wish, we've got this." Wraith's smile is unusual for her, but it's hard not to be at least a little happy in the face of such a massive victory.

Wattson begins setting up electric gates in the area as the circle closes in from the distance, creating a strange set of gates around the Survey Camp, trying to get around and weave through cover. Wraith finds a spot away from the tangled mess, Revenant joining her.

"Do you think they'll win?" You hold your breath, not as sure as Wraith is.

"Of course, Wattson is with them!" Sherry pumps her fists together as if she didn't just eat an inhuman amount of crisps. How can she move so jovially with a stomach that must weigh as much as a brick?

Gunshots ring out, Revenant takes sniper shots at the last remaining team as they escape the incoming heat wall.

"Why did you give our position away!?" Wraith punches him in the shoulder, but he doesn't flinch.

"Use your portal to charge them, hit Bloodhound in the leg, and come back immediately through the portal. Let them follow." Revenant has no fluctuations in his voice. He's dead serious.

"This better work!" Wraith yells as she disappears, leaving a strange portal hole next to Revenant.

"Wattson, come throw down your Interceptor Pylon here, we need to make sure they come into the portal after Wraith." Revenant seems to have thought this through, but why does he want to fight up close?

Wattson throws it down and it immediately stops an incoming Knuckle Cluster, barely getting it up and running in time. Some incoming grenades meet the same fate.

"Excellent, thank you Wattson." Revenant sounds excited. Wattson pauses in minor confusion.

"You're... thanking me? You never do tha--"

Wraith appears in front of Fuse, Bloodhound, and Caustic. She pulls out her 30-30 Repeater and nails Bloodhound in the leg, taking many shots herself before retreating into the portal. Bloodhound takes a knee and begins using a med kit as Caustic and Fuse jump into the portal.

Revenant is unarmed on the other side, all his guns, grenades, recovery tools, and ammo on the ground around him. He's holding his sharpened arm right up against the portal's center, practically posing. Fuse first appears and is immediately skewered through the chest, exhaling in surprise. Revenant flicks his entire arm to the side, causing Fuse's corpse to fly off to the side, blood spewing everywhere out of the hole in his chest. He is deathboxed before he hits the ground. Revenant's other hand is already poised for an encore.

Caustic comes through second, taking the sharpened point in the neck. The blood is immediate and generous. Revenant lifts his body off his feet, letting the blood roll down his stabbing arm and drip everywhere. Caustic drops a live Gas Grenade as he dies, spitting blood. Revenant throws his body in much the same manner, and Caustic is deathboxed midair.

"Well, shit, that worked." Wraith has almost healed her injuries completely, Wattson watching over her and armed to the teeth. "I guess the rest is all yours, maniac."

"Do not make us wait too long, please! I am looking forward to this win!" Wattson helps Wraith up and begins to run in the other direction to escape the spreading gas.

Revenant immediately starts sprinting towards Bloodhound in a straight line with no gear of any kind. Not even a gun. He's thoroughly coated in fresh blood and looks like a monstrosity, surely he's going to be shot down.

"Is he trying to die?!" Sherry screams at the television. "They almost have it! What even is this?!" You wish you could defend Revenant, but in truth you have the same questions.

No gunshots come though. Bloodhound stands there, newly recovered thanks to their med kit. They're situated right near the tangle of electrical gates, arms crossed and waiting patiently. It doesn't take long for Revenant to meet them, standing tall and unarmed a few feet away, locking their gaze. Bloodhound begins throwing their guns, grenades, health items, and ammo to the side. They finish, staring down their opponent in a strange silence. You're glad you're on a private channel, this would be ruined by any crowd sounds or commentators talking over it.

Finally, Bloodhound reaches behind them and pulls out a beautiful axe. It looks ancient but well-maintained, certainly a relic from their sordid history as a hunter.

"Congratulations kill leader, how many did you kill to get to this moment?" Revenant asks.

"Fourteen bodies lay behind me." Bloodhound states very plainly. That's an insane number. Revenant growls happily at their answer. "I have fought hard to meet this moment. I will confess, you are more clever than I expected. I am sorry for underestimating you before. You brought your apprentice here and ensured she left her scent everywhere, then disguised yourself with the same scent."

You're stunned into silence. All that running around was to literally make it impossible for Bloodhound to hunt by scent alone. You almost felt happy to be a small part of this, in some way, but also a little frustrated at how hard that day was. It explains why Revenant took your shirt before, why it came back so grimy, why you had to touch everything, and why he wasn't upset that you drooled all over his mane. Is this simulacrum also a conniving genius?

"I noticed you didn't use your sonar to find me earlier." Revenant pries a little.

"It would be disrespectful to the honor of this hunt." Bloodhound is beginning to sound excited in a bloodthirsty manner. "You also have come unarmed, so I meet your challenge as my ancestors would."

Bloodhound shimmers the blade of the axe in the sunlight, proudly caressing its blade. They've got one knife, an axe, and their wits. Nothing more.

Revenant begins to sidestep, Bloodhound sidestepping to match, never leaving each other's gaze. They're circling each other, neither making the first move. Bloodhound breaks the silence with a thunderous declaration.

"May the Allfather bless this hunt!" They lunge forward, axe at the ready.

Revenant leaps to the side, avoiding them, immediately lunging to counter. His giant maw is wide open, going straight for Bloodhound's head. Bloodhound ducks, and plunges one of their smaller knives into Revenant's gut. They push the knife in hard enough that Revenant buckles at the torso and falls backwards, letting the knife slide out in Bloodhound's grasp.

Revenant's clawed foot hits Bloodhound right in the breathing mask, causing them to stumble backwards long enough for Revenant to get on his feet. Revenant lunges again, but uses his arm length to pick Bloodhound up and toss them through the electrified fence. Bloodhound lands on the other side, obviously hurting. A knife comes flying through the fence and chunks into Revenant's chest. Revenant grabs at it, clearly in pain from both his hits so far. He leaves it in despite his pain, knowing that Bloodhound can't have it back this way without getting close.

Revenant strafes to the side to see around the electric fence just to find nothing there. They've vanished in the web. Revenant begins to prowl around the inside of the fence with all its jagged nooks, looking for anything. Revenant keeps turning to look behind him, clearly expecting some kind of attack from behind. The heat wall closes in on the fenced in area, leaving only half of the area available. Revenant watches as the wall moves up close to his face, then begins to turn to leave.

Bloodhound leaps onto Revenant's back from behind the heat wall, their garb charred a bit from hiding beyond it. Bloodhound gets their axe around Revenant's throat and pulls so the handle begins to choke him, but Revenant throws himself backwards into the heat wall, burning Bloodhound. They shove the axe upwards in an uppercut-like fashion, stunning Revenant so they have time to dismount and leave the heat wall before swinging for another blow. The axe lands in Revenant's hip, but Revenant grabs it and holds it in place, lunging forward with his open jaw to bite. Bloodhound jumps back, avoiding the bite, but losing their axe in the process.

Bloodhound shows no fear, immediately lunging for Revenant's lower body, taking advantage of his shifted center of gravity and forcing him to fall forward, right on the knife in his chest. Revenant emits a horrid sound which is only compounded when Bloodhound pulls the axe from his hip. Bloodhound swings for the head, but Revenant shifts so his horn takes the brunt. Revenant grabs Bloodhound's leg and in one swift motion gets to his feet and throws Bloodhound like a ragdoll across the field, away from the fences. Revenant sprints towards them, leaning so far forward that he's nearly on all fours. It's bestial. Bloodhound is able to sit up just in time to save themself from a massive bite, but only by shoving their axe in Revenant's jaw to force it to stay open.

Revenant takes the opportunity to get his hands around Bloodhound's neck, claws fully out. Bloodhound retaliates by using their free arm to pull the knife from Revenant's chest, causing him to reel in pain. He still is unable to close his mouth, and Bloodhound isn't choking fast enough to save him from getting his throat slashed by the now freed knife. Revenant is forced to release Bloodhound completely and staggers backwards, holding his own throat now instead. You could be mistaken, but it looked like the inside of his mouth might have been injured from biting the axe too.

Bloodhound immediately throws the knife again, hitting Revenant in the thigh. He falls to a knee, giving Bloodhound enough time to get up and lunge, landing the axe right in Revenant's mask. With a twist of the wrist, their axe is free and Revenant's mask is cracked. Revenant's pain seems to convert to adrenaline, as he lets go of his throat and grabs Bloodhound's leg out from underneath them, causing them to land on the back of their head before Revenant goes in for a stab. Bloodhound deflects Revenant's arm stab with their axe. Revenant's arm chunks into the ground next to Bloodhound's head instead.

Revenant is making a disconcerting wheezing noise. There's tons of damage all over his body, and the pain must be unreal at this point. Bloodhound is banged up too, taking mostly concussive damage to the head. Their chest rises and falls rapidly, but you can't hear them pant through the breathing mask. Despite all the apparent hurt, you do not expect either of them are done.

Revenant lunges down for the bite and nails it this time, his maw right around Bloodhound's head. Bloodhound is bleeding immediately, but takes the opportunity to pull the knife again from his thigh. Revenant, now wise to the possibilities, uses his whole body to fling Bloodhound by their head to the side. Revenant is finally able to stand up completely, but he limps a little.

Bloodhound's head is bleeding pretty badly now, their blood splattered on the ground from being bit and thrown. They quickly get to their feet but quiver a bit while doing so. They seem confident now having their knife and axe at their side again.

"Allfather is pleased by this battle." Bloodhound states very factually. "Were it not for my weapons, I surely would have lost this fight long ago."

"Hate to break it to you, but you're still going to lose." Revenant's voice sounds wispy from exhaustion. He limps closer, and Bloodhound stands their ground.

Revenant ignores his limp just long enough to lunge, this time claws out and jaw open. Bloodhound sidesteps, but Revenant recovers quickly and turns to lunge again. Bloodhound is ready, and uses both the knife and the axe to stab and brutally chunk into his back as they take a massive bite to the waist, as well as an arm stab to the thigh. Bloodhound just begins wailing his blades into Revenant's back, who seems unwilling to release the hold he has. Bloodhound's waist is dripping blood and the cloth on their outfit is soaked crimson. Revenant's body seems to be giving out on him, but not before Revenant uses his spare arm for a stab towards the chest.

Bloodhound clearly plans to take it. They're unable to dodge or move, but before Revenant can land the blow, Bloodhound plunges the knife into Revenant's throat. Revenant's stab finishes, but his chassis goes limp right as Bloodhound is deathboxed from the stab to the chest.

The final camera shot of the fight is of Revenant's bestial chassis limply hanging off the edge of Bloodhound's deathbox, his head resting on the top like a mourner on a coffin. Then Revenant is deathboxed, ending the match.

The camera shifts to Wraith and Wattson who were watching the fight from afar, now waving in victory to the camera and celebrating. Wattson holds a Nessie plush toy over her head in victory, but where did it come from? As the camera zooms in, you see she's surrounded by a few. What the heck?

Sherry and you sit, stunned in silence. Sherry changes the channel to the public broadcast, and you hear the crowds reeling in cheers at the primal violence they just got to enjoy. The commentators are losing their minds over the ending, calling it 'The Allfather's Hunt' and practically gushing at the seams over the imagery of the Hunter and the Prey dying together. Wraith and Wattson are showered in confetti and champagne, although Wraith doesn't seem as much into the celebrations as Wattson is. Revenant really did make a spectacle out of the whole thing. Nobody was going to care about 'Loba the Scalper' after this.

Sherry seems conflicted. Normally she would be on her feet, screaming loud enough to warrant a noise complaint whenever Wattson wins. However, now she seems worried over what she just saw. She turns to you.

"This guy can and might kill you." She speaks very quickly and quietly. "I just watched him kill with no weapons, just brute strength. He can throw people and crush them and stab them and bite them, and he can absolutely break every bone in your body if he wanted." She looks down at her hands, as if to soak in the frailty of humanity. "I don't want you to end up like that."

"Sherry, I know. Trust me, I do. He's the strongest, most terrifying person I've ever met, but I'm not and will never be his target." You speak confidently. "He finds some kind of comfort in me and has taken a liking to me. He will not intentionally hurt me. Unintentionally it may happen, but he seems to know how to handle that when it does happen."

Sherry sighs.

"Do you love this guy that much?" She asks.

You pause. It's not a word you've really used yet to describe how you feel. Like, sure, but not full-on love. You think about it. You don't like throwing that word around.

"I am that fond of him, yes." You finally say. "I just want to see where it goes."

"If you're sure, just please don't get gored." Sherry stands up, a concerned look still plastered on her face. "I'm going to go clean and decorate Wraith and Wattson's room for them. I would do this one too, but Revenant never seems to like it."

"Thanks for hanging out, Sherry. Don't worry, I'll be okay, I promise."

Sherry nods a little, then leaves the room, allowing you to stretch and relax until Revenant gets back. You wonder how long it will take this time.

• • • •

It's mid-afternoon, by now all the broadcasts should be finished up on all the different planets, where it should be later in the day. Morning matches are a theme here, but it lines up perfectly with the end-of-the-workweek evenings for other planets. It also means the lighting during the match is perfect. Sometimes the broadcast will be held off to make sure it shows at prime time on each planet, but that always means tourism to the planets where it's shown live is excessive.

Right about now, this planet should be clearing out from everyone who wanted to watch the Apex Game live today. Talos probably had it worse today, if you can call tons of tourism worse. After all, they must make bank in souvenirs, assuming the locals are one to sell souvenirs. You question if the people Bloodhound came from would be the type to do so. Probably not. Anyone who is willing to though: they must be rich.

It's been a few hours and despite last time, you cannot shake the anxiety that Revenant might never come back.

There's a knock at the door, to which you quickly go and open it.

"Oh, hello, just dropping this off, as requested!" This stout but strong mustached man with permanently squinted eyes rolls in a large deathbox on a caddy. He must work in a different section of the volunteers than you did, otherwise you would recognize him. He carefully lays the deathbox on the floor. You move to help, but remember when Revenant collapsed on you and realize you're not strong enough for this. This guy is impressively strong to be able to carry it. He wipes a bead of sweat from his head after finishing, and begins to roll his caddy out.

"Have a nice day ma'am!" He waves goodbye and shuts the door after himself. You turn to stare down at the deathbox.

Open it.

You want so badly to open it. You have to know. Yes, you need to know. Does his chassis really have all the parts a human does, or was his flirtatious teasing all a grand bluff?

Open it.

This box may not contain all the answers, but perhaps it can solve that one question. Does he really like you that way? Is it possible that he could like you that way? Or is it possible regardless of his body?

Open it.

Is this an invasion of privacy? Probably, but since when has he given you the same courtesy? If you're lucky enough, he won't be back in time to even notice.

Open it.

However, you don't think it's right. You meander to the bed and sit down, turning on the television to see more of the commotion. They're not going to stop talking about 'The Allfather's Hunt' anytime soon. This isn't a good distraction.

Open it.

Forget it, you start flipping through the channels. There's some sickeningly optimistic and colorful kid's show. Now it's news, listing off dozens of people murdered just in the city streets yesterday, per usual. Now it's a show about an unsolved murder from a few years ago. Now it's a documentary about the Frontier War. This isn't working.

Open it.

You grab your badge out of your pocket and leave the room, freezing outside of the door. Right, there's not a single soul back from the medical bay to talk to. You didn't know Wattson well enough to go knock on her door, and you're not sure where Wraith was moved to after Revenant busted her door. Even if you did, you don't know her that well either.

Open it.

You scan your card and reenter Revenant's room, stagger over to the box, and mess with the latch. Once unlocked, a button releases the door and it springs open.

Tears well up in your eyes. Why did you do this to yourself? He's lifeless, bent up into a tangle of limbs and parts to fit into the box. What did you expect? He looks like an old sarcophagus that was forcefully shoved into a box he could not fit in. His corpse is so beautiful, but so empty and void of life simultaneously, like an art piece left to rot in the elements. You can't help yourself. You have to get him out of there.

You move to one side of the box and leverage your legs to begin tipping the box. It's very heavy, but you have to do this. The box tips over its center of balance and rotates the rest of the way over, spilling Revenant's corpse onto the floor. You pull the box back upright so the opening faces the ceiling again, and get back up to run over to his body. His chassis is laid out now like a more normal corpse would be, although his limbs have fallen where they may.

You crouch down, letting your tears hit the chassis with a hollow thumping sound. You hold his hand, but there's nothing: no squeeze, no sharp points, not even a bashful resistance to such an act of affection. No amount of knowledge that he will come back can fix how you feel right now.

You struggle to pull his body into your lap. This may be lighter than his classic metal body, but it's still difficult to move it around. You silently weep, finally getting his crushing weight on your legs. You lean forward into his nuzzle and rub it, hoping for that awkwardly stifled joy he shows when he likes something. There's nothing, his eyes are void.

You begin to cry out loud.

You carefully cradle his head, ignoring the matted fur in the way. You rock back and fourth, crying into his cheek and begging him internally to wake up. The tears flow around and into the giant crack in his mask. He had wounds all over him, and you trace your fingers around each one. Hope is worthless; it can't fix him. You touch his horns he seemed so proud of. There's a massive break in one of them and the horn is almost loose off his skull. So much damage. So much pain. Your crying gets louder.

Why did you open it? Why did you have to be curious? At first you just wanted to look to see if he was bluffing about this body having sexual mods. You didn't bargain for the excessive and overwhelming grief of seeing him dead. You rock his body, mourning in utter despair, cradling his head so close to your chest that it hurts. You squeeze your eyes shut to try to hold back the tears, but it flows right through. Maybe not seeing the body will help.

You continue to sob and rock him for what feels like an hour. In truth, it's probably only ten or so minutes. It hurts so bad, even with your eyes closed the image might as well be etched on your eyelids. Your nose is stopped up from the crying, but you cannot find the energy to try to wipe it so it can breathe again. Your only air flows through your mouth in painfully hitched gasps between sobs of agony.

Suddenly, something cold and metal begins wiping away your tears.

You wince in surprise, but as you open your eyes you see nothing. You look side to side, panning the entire room, but there really is nothing. The door didn't open, you would have heard that. If Revenant was here, you would have seen him, right? You make sure to turn fully around and look behind you, maybe he's in your blind spot. No, nothing. What even was that? You turn back around.

You take a deep breath and sigh in disappointment, a few more tears escaping your eyes.

Hands cup around your cheeks, drying them again. You look up. He's on the ceiling, attached by his feet, but holding his hands downward to touch you. He's back in his normal, red body. He carefully releases himself from the ceiling one leg at a time, being careful to step behind you. He curls around you in a hug so your back is against him. He carefully pulls you backwards so the chassis in your lap rolls off of you, and he envelops you in his cool embrace. He uses a foot to push the corpse further away from you. He grabs your jaw to force you to face him as he leans his head forward to look at you.

"Why are you crying?" His voice is plain and without emotion, but his face--his eyes--have life. You begin to cry again in some kind of disbelief, forcing your body to turn towards him and hug him back. You grip the red straps on his chest and press your face against his metal torso, letting the tears roll down him. You won't let go. This one is alive.

He brushes your hair with his claws, lightly scratching your scalp as he does. His other hand rubs into your back, careful to press into your spine and knead it. His legs bunch up and cross around you.

"I was secretly hoping you would snoop around in my deathbox, looking for something you shouldn't." He sighs into your ear. "Instead you cry over me. What a disappointment when I was hoping to catch you being naughty. Do you really feel that attached to me already?" He squeezes you a little, but you can't stop crying to answer him. "You must, otherwise you wouldn't cry for me like this, despite knowing I will always come back."

He continues to try to soothe you as best as he can. He's warmed up and is now reflecting heat back at you. He nuzzles his mask into your shoulder. He takes breaks from brushing your hair to try to wipe away any tears that'd don't make it onto his chest.

"Idiot." He lets out a small chuckle. "You're making me soft." You can't respond, but your tears are finally beginning to run dry. "You know, they say the best way to know if you're loved is to attend your own funeral. Obviously, that's impossible for most. Thank you for attending mine, and showing me this." He unwraps his legs, scoops his arms under you, and stands as he lifts you up with him. You refuse to let go of his straps, although your arms have to extend to hold on as you lie back in his hold.

He brings you over to the bed and lays you down carefully. He touches his mask to your forehead, and begins to pull away. He catches on your grip on his straps. You're still trembling a bit and probably still have that ugly crying face you're self-conscious of, but you can't help it. He carefully starts to pry your fingers off of the straps, but you grip even harder. You're not letting go. You won't let go. What if he leaves?

He sighs, recognizing your distress. He lets go of your fingers and scoops you back up again, this time so you're sitting against his shoulder. He's so excessively strong, he barely even seems to be bothered by the weight of you. He walks you over to the computer desk and sits down with you, leaving you in his lap. His hands wrap around you and begin typing on a keyboard. You carefully touch his face, not paying attention to what he's doing.

He pauses, looks to you, and takes your hand for a moment. He pulls it to the ridge of his mask that has a lip-like tint and angle, pressing the back of your hand into it for a moment before releasing your hand and returning his attention to the computer.

For the first time since you opened that deathbox, you trust what you're seeing. He's back, he's alive, and he's okay. You let your body limply lean into his shoulder, release his straps, and let him handle your weight with his body. You close your eyes and remember how to breathe normally. There's no reason to have a panic attack anymore.

"Take a nap. You're more exhausted than I am somehow. I'll wake you up soon." You feel his hand forcefully guide your head over his shoulder where it can rest comfortably. "Don't argue with me, now. Just do as I say."

You really are exhausted from all the excitement and emotion. You snuggle up against him as he shifts his body to fit your comfort. He makes a slow, heavy breathing sound in rhythm with his typing, and occasionally lightly runs his fingers over your bare skin. You're gone soon after.

[forasecondtherewedwon]

Stare Enough

Fandom: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Pairing: Sam Wilson/Bucky Barnes Rating: T Word Count: 4034

Summary: Bucky's got a new stare. Sam spends all afternoon and most of the evening working up the courage to meet it.

Both Sam and the food are the main attraction at this party and the problem with that situation is that it takes so damn long for one main attraction to get a second to enjoy the other.

He’s grateful—god, is he grateful—for the turnout. Friends, neighbours, the kind of people he and Sarah call family without there being any actual relation by blood, they’ve all shown up. Since the Blip, Sam’s felt like he’s always around, but this feels like a real homecoming. No sadness, nothing bittersweet. It’s a celebration and he’s at the center of it. Him and the food.

At last, Sam’s done the circuit with his plate, spooning creamy salads and grilled vegetables, stacking shellfish pink as a sunrise. There’s a fresh-baked roll perched atop a scoop of sweet potatoes and caramelized onions that smells so fucking warm and mouth-watering he has to resist walking with his nose buried in it. He collects a set of utensils furled in the middle of a paper napkin (courtesy of an efficient assembly line of old ladies, chatting and twisting neat rolls of cutlery), plate bowing into the palm of his other hand, and that’s when his damn phone vibrates in his pocket.

Sam halts and makes a sound of frustration. Nobody’s come to this thing empty-handed, so there are dishes crowding the surface of the tables, no place to set his plate down. His phone vibrates again. A teenager comes up to peruse the spread in front of him and Sam sighs, knowing what he’s about to do.

“Here,” he says heavily, offering up his beautifully arranged and wonderfully fragrant meal. The cob of corn shining with the butter he lovingly smeared over it nearly rolls over the edge. “You’re the luckiest kid in the world.”

Quickly, Sam turns away, sliding out his phone and bringing it to his ear. He doesn’t want to witness the boy digging in. His stomach growls as he greets Joaquin Torres.

“Sam,” Torres says. “Uh, I mean, sir. Mr. Captain Am… Captain Wil—”

“Take it easy,” Sam laughs. “You know me, Torres. Don’t get starstruck now.”

“Honestly, I never really got over you being the Falcon. Now that you’re Captain America… Apologies if it takes me a little while to be cool about it.” After a pause—taken while Torres attempts to become cool with Sam being Captain America, Sam assumes—he asks, “You celebrating?”

Not far from where Sam’s standing, there are two little girls singing along to their clapping game. At a table behind them, a trio of elderly gentlemen are arguing over which one of them it was that caught that 50-pound snapper off the dock back in 1978. There’s a sear of meat and fish being rotated onto and off of the grill and, bouncing over everything, music from a speaker someplace.

“Yeah,” Sam says with a broad grin. “Yeah, we are. I’d save you a plate, but I can’t even manage to hang onto my own.”

He doesn’t mention that Torres is responsible for that situation; he’s aware that, besides being a fan, the Lieutenant is a little bit infatuated with him. Sam’s trying to be gentle until the day he can respond to Torres with friendly smack-talk, the way he would Steve or Scott or Bucky. Maybe not exactly like he does with Bucky.

“Don’t worry about it,” Torres cheerfully insists. “I wasn’t calling for that, I just wanted to give you a heads up about something.”

“Alright. Let me just…”

Sam strides away from the heart of the party towards the water, seeking quiet. Kids dart in front of him and that’s nothing unusual, but when he follows them with his gaze, he sees they’re running towards Bucky. Bucky, who has his Vibranium arm extended and two kids dangling off it already, one of whom might be Sam’s nephew. Of course, Mr. Casual, Mr. Smiles, Mr. Social Butterfly, is carrying on a conversation like his arm isn’t being used as a jungle gym. A conversation with Sarah.

For just a moment, Sam stops in his tracks, considering whether he should go over there and break up any potential flirting. But then he watches them. Bucky’s just talking to her, not flicking his gaze up and down while he checks her out. And Sarah, she’s relaxed and smiling, totally at ease, like Bucky’s another member of their community. That makes him a friend. Family.

That’s one thought too far and Sam jerks himself into motion again, walking until he’d be swimming with another step.

“What’ve you got for me?”

“Well, I’ve been trying to watch as much of the coverage of the fight outside the GRC vote as I can, trying to get a sense of how they’re spinning Walker’s reappearance, the legacy of the Flag-Smashers now that Karli and her inner circle are gone… Anyway, there’s a lot of footage and you’re at the center of most of it.”

“Guess the new suit draws the eye. And the cameras.” It’s no surprise to Sam. Part of the job of being Captain America.

“Yeah, but…”

“What is it, Torres?”

“Bucky’s in the background a lot,” he explains in a voice that tells Sam there’s more Torres isn’t saying.

“Makes sense. He was in the thick of it as much as I was.”

“He’s there at the end too. When you were talking to the Senator about power and the common struggle. Man, that was a great speech. Do you think—”

“Torres. Please. The point.”

“Right, for sure, man. Bucky never takes his eyes off you.”

That flusters Sam for a second. He wasn’t expecting the blunt delivery, especially of those words. He squints down at the water where it’s lapping the side of the dock. He knew Bucky was there; they spoke right after, when Bucky tried to feed him that bullshit (and he knew it was bullshit at the time) about texting and missing the exact speech Torres is apparently still hung up on.

“So Bucky was actually listening to me,” Sam says carefully. “That’s a surprise, but it isn’t really the kind of thing that’s significant enough for you to bother notifying me about, is it?”

“I’d say that depends on what you consider significant.”

“Torres.”

“I know, but he’s not just listening! It’s how he’s looking at you!”

“Like he’s wishing I would wrap it up?” Oh, Sam remembers Bucky’s miracle from their session with Dr. Raynor.

“Like he’s totally into you! Major heart eyes. Sir,” Torres hastily adds.

And Sam should reprimand him for this. Calling with a trivial piece of information when he must know Sam’s already being very selective about which of the hundreds of recent calls (and it’d be more if more people had this number) he chooses to pick up. Calling to speculate on how Bucky was staring at Sam that night in New York.

“I don’t need to tell you this is gonna be one of those investigations we keep between you and me,” Sam states.

“For sure. I just thought maybe you’d wanna know.”

“Uh huh. You get any real news, you pass it along.”

“I will.”

Sam ends the call and turns. He looks to his right: the sparkling river. His left: his people, all the way down to the squirt with the glasses who’s hanging off a metal arm, and the man that arm belongs to.

He’s felt it, the way that Bucky stares. It’s not like it used to be though, when it irked Dr. Raynor at the police station in Baltimore, or confused Walker and Hoskins in the back of that jeep in Germany. This new stare of Bucky’s isn’t one Sam’s ever caught him doing. Bucky hasn’t quite let him. That’s actually how Sam noticed it was happening—Bucky would immediately glance away instead of leaving that dead expression on his face when Sam met his eye. Now that he has proof of it, proof he’s certain Torres would send him footage of in an instant if he asked, he’s scared to look.

Instead, he watches Bucky look at other people. Like Sarah. Like kids from the neighbourhood. His literal hangers-on disperse as Sam observes, scattered after Bucky leans towards them to say something. Sam sees half his smile and even that much has his heart swelling up in his chest. Bucky weaves through the tables and standing groups, the dancers and the kids who’ve broken out a skipping rope. (After eating from that buffet? Kids are crazy. Gonna make themselves sick.)

Without thinking too hard about it, Sam returns to the noise and the smells, trailing Bucky with a stealthy eye on his ass in those jeans. There’s no friction here between him and everybody else Sam cares about, he can see that in every short, friendly exchange someone engages Bucky in as he walks. Things flow as smoothly as the butter oozing off the corn Sam reluctantly gave up. Clearly, they remember Bucky from when he was here helping with the boat. They respect him. They like him. They’ve gotten to that last thing faster than Sam has, which makes Sam feel a little embarrassed as well as a little overwhelmed by how much the two of them have actually been through. He’s seen Bucky as a mindless killer and it almost brings a genuine tear to his eye—here on this glorious day in front of all these folks—to see the dork who rushed out to get his hands on a copy of The Hobbit in 1937 return in his current form as the dork who’ll take a fake punch from AJ and blush over brazen old women telling him how handsome he is.

Bucky stares different? Well. Sam feels different about the staring.

Sam keeps his distance until Bucky reaches the food, then his stomach gurgles a reminder than he hasn’t eaten yet. No ass is nice enough to distract him from his meal. He sidles up beside him and Bucky seems unsurprised, not even glancing over.

“Anything important?” he asks.

“What?”

“Your phone call,” Bucky clarifies, adding a heap of glossy green beans to his plate. Damn, those are some of Sam’s favourite. Bucky better not take all of them. “They need us somewhere?”

“Oh. No.”

Bucky shoots him a suspicious look after this stilted response, but he doesn’t say anything until Sam grabs a plate of his own, hungry eyes roving the feast that’s diminishing now that people have started coming back for second helpings.

“Put that down,” Bucky instructs. He doesn’t wait; he takes the plate out of Sam’s hand and tosses it back towards the pile. Thankfully, the plates are made of paper.

“Buzz off, man,” Sam tells him, reaching for the plate again. “I’m starving.”

“I figured.”

Wait.

“That’s for me?” he guesses, gazing longingly at the plate Bucky’s preparing.

“Yep.”

When Sam doesn’t reply, Bucky pauses with the plate in one hand and a serving spoon in the other and sighs.

“I didn’t want you to miss the good stuff. This party’s for you.”

“I think it might be for both of us.”

Bucky seems too self-conscious to say anything to that. He goes back to loading up Sam’s plate while Sam quietly feels his throat close up with emotion as he watches. He clears it gruffly.

“I woulda had to eat the cake you brought,” he jokes. “Pretty sure only the really little kids have eaten any. You know, people who don’t know better.”

“I was tryin’ to be a good guest.”

“I can’t believe you brought a store-bought cake,” Sam says, laughing as he grabs a set of cutlery for the second time and continuing to shuffle along next to Bucky.

“Have you ever seen me cook?”

“…No.”

“Exactly. Trust me, what I did was kinder.”

“If you say so.”

“You know what, Sam?” Bucky demands challengingly, turning to face him. “I do say so.”

Sam’s eyes go from the plate Bucky’s holding between them up to Bucky’s face. He’s close. And he’s got this look, this dancing look in his eyes that undercuts the shit out of the hard line of his eyebrows. Trying to seem all stern. All Sam can think for several seconds is that, if he just grabbed Bucky by the chain around his neck and hauled him forward, they’d never get the food stains out of their clothes. But their laundry would smell delicious.

He clears his throat.

“Then you better stay for a while.”

The corner of Bucky’s mouth twitches up and he hands Sam the plate he’s prepared for him.

“I plan to.”

When Sam picks a table to sit at, he makes sure there’s enough room for Bucky too. When Bucky sits next to him, he sits so close that their thighs press together and claims that’s all the space there is. Bucky talks and laughs when other people at the table talk to him. He’s easily drawn into conversation now and Sam feels weirdly proud of having brought this great guy home to meet everybody, even if he’s not here like that. People tells stories about last week and last century interchangeably, one old smartass making Bucky howl with laughter when they toss out a memory of Little Sam Wilson streaking from his house to the river for a naked swim. This is the danger of welcoming Bucky into the community. Sam, suppressing a smile, doesn’t really mind.

Elbows up on the table so he can eat, talk, and gesture emphatically with his fork, Sam feels Bucky’s stare creeping up on him. Slow, like the sun slides across the landscape when the clouds blow past. Bucky didn’t make this food, but Sam can feel his satisfaction as he watches Sam accept what he provided. Feels like there are grasshoppers springing around in his stomach. He still has a roll on his plate, one side soaked in family-secret barbecue sauce, and he tears it in half. While the rest of their table are caught up in some story being boisterously told by overlapping voices, Sam turns to Bucky and wordlessly offers the bread, edges dimpled where he gripped to split it. They watch each other chew and Sam’s closed mouth is smiling.

Inevitably, somebody pulls Sam back into the conversation and he does his best to laugh and heckle, covering the fact that he wasn’t listening, that he dropped the thread. The voices rise and rise and fall like water slopping over the side of a bucket.

In the next quiet moment, Bucky inclines toward him slightly and says, “You wanna talk later?”

And Sam says, “Sure.”

The day feels long, long, long, and Sam’s face gets sore from smiling, tired from talking. He does not confess that to Bucky, who’s almost always at his side. Lights go on overhead and beers come out of coolers, leftover food packed up and redistributed among neighbours, small children with drooping eyelids toted home. At first, Sam thinks Bucky’s leaning into his side because he’s drained from so much socializing too, but when he meets his eye, he just sees an invitation.

“Where are you two goin’?” Sarah asks when they slink past her carrying a too-big Cass in her arms.

“Just walkin’,” Sam tells her.

“Gotta stretch our legs,” Bucky contributes.

She looks from Sam to Bucky and back, smiling knowingly.

“Uh huh,” Sarah says.

Sam grabs Bucky by the shoulder to turn him forcibly away from his sister’s insinuations and just… forgets to let his hand fall as they wander along the water. Bucky’s steps angle towards his until his arm’s bumping Sam’s side, Sam’s arm slung around his shoulders. Is this still the body language of a couple buddies on a warm Delacroix night? Is it now, when Sam drops his arm and brushes the back of his hand across Bucky’s?

They leave the party lights on the horizon with the lazily setting sun, scrabbling off the end of the dock and onto the riverbank. Sam reaches up to give Bucky a hand down, so he won’t step in the soft mud and sink to his ankles. Bucky clasps his hand firmly and jumps.

The sound of people drops off down here and the sound of wind in grass, frogs hiding between reeds, rises.

“Are there alligators in here?” Bucky wonders, scanning the river’s edge.

Sam laughs.

“For sure.”

“And you swam here when you were a kid?”

“Even then,” Sam boasts, puffing his chest out, “my courage was legendary.”

“Yeah, and your nudity. Is there anyone within a mile of here who hasn’t seen your bare ass?”

Their eye contact holds. Oh right. Sam breaks away with an awkward, hiccupping laugh, directing his gaze at the dirt.

“The gators haven’t gathered too close to the dock in decades,” he promises Bucky. He stares out at the undisturbed water, enjoying the sun on his face. “Got skittish of the boats. Most of ’em, anyway.”

“Consider me not entirely reassured.”

“You scared of a little Louisiana lizard, man? Didn’t you grow up with Creature from the Black Lagoon?”

“Nah, that was after my time.”

“Damn, you’re old.”

Bucky snorts a laugh, refusing to look at him.

“You wanna take a dip?” Sam goads.

“No.”

But by the time Sam’s pulling his shirt over his head, Bucky’s peeling off his socks. Sam spares him a smile and keeps going, the ground soft underfoot. It could be like the few times they’ve changed in proximity to one another before, but it’s not. He senses Bucky’s eyes on him the whole time. Face hot, he takes a quick look in Bucky’s direction as he’s unzipping his jeans. His heart feels like his new suit—wings just waiting to unfurl.

When they’re down to their underwear, they wade in.

God, it feels nice. The water’s cool and the sun’s clinging to the horizon.

“Just don’t get any water in your mouth,” Sam instructs, then dunks his face and comes up squirting water at Bucky from between the gap in his front teeth, a trick he perfected as a kid. “That arm ain’t gonna rust, right?”

“You asked for this,” Bucky warns. He points a menacing finger and plunges below the surface.

Sam twists as he treads water, trying to see what’s going on down there, searching for a ripple or bubbles of released air. His legs move in twitchy kicks because that’s where he’s expecting Bucky to grab him. But the idiot is playing some kind of psychological game first, making Sam wait a full minute. Two minutes. Three.

He’s opening his mouth to call out Bucky’s name when he breaks the surface. Sam’s ready to swap the concern he was about to form into words into a taunt instead—did Bucky get down there and decide the scariest thing he could do was let Sam’s imagination take over?—until Bucky shakes his head and slicks his hair back. Then the words get caught in Sam’s throat and he just kinda stares.

“There was a really gross fish down there,” Bucky informs him. “Do you guys have eels there? Mighta been an eel. Maybe we should get out.”

“Alrighty, scaredy-cat, let’s get you to shore.”

Bucky propels himself out in front, arms moving in powerful strokes, and Sam’s hand darts out on instinct, fingers closing around Bucky’s hard calf muscle. Bucky jerks and Sam burst into loud laughter.

“Did you think that was an eel? Did you?”

“You’re lucky I…”

I’m lucky you what? Sam wants to ask when Bucky trails off, but he just swims after him.

During their game/possible eel panic (there’s no way it was an eel), they weren’t always fighting the current, so they’ve drifted downstream some. Bucky takes sloppy, sloshing steps out of the water, underwear that might’ve been light grey now dark and plastered to his ass. Sam feels like he’s choked on river water, though his mouth is dry. He lumbers out too and they begin the march back in the direction of the dock and their clothes. The water tickles as it runs down Sam’s legs; must be bugging Bucky too because he plucks his waistband away from his skin before letting it snap back. Clenching his jaw, Sam stops himself from trying to see too much.

This end of the dock is made of old boards before it transitions to pavement farther down, wood smooth on Sam’s feet when he and Bucky haul themselves up, dropping their collected clothes and shoes into a single pile. No point getting dressed until they’re dry, so they sit on the edge of the dock, feet swinging. Feels good. Feels home. They don’t speak until the sun’s set, the sky orange, then grey, then rich, velvety blue.

“You know, don’t you?” Bucky asks softly.

“Know?”

“Yeah, you know. Whenever you don’t know something, you talk and talk—”

“Sometimes I can work through a problem better if I vocalize,” Sam explains.

“But when you do know,” Bucky goes on, ignoring Sam’s input, “you’re quiet.” He looks at Sam. “You’re quiet.”

What else is Sam? Nervous. His skin’s prickling with it, and because even the warm air feels cold when he’s just climbed out of the river. There’s a wet patch spreading around him that he can barely see with evening rapidly deepening into night. He lifts a hand from the dock and sweeps it up his neck, brushing water droplets away.

Without glancing over, he says, “You’re doing that thing you do.”

“What?”

“Staring. That new stare you do.”

“Maybe,” Bucky acknowledges. A bird starts calling, the sound drifting in and away like the sway of a hypnotist’s watch and Bucky’s silent until it’s over. “Maybe I’m staring for the same reason you’re quiet.”

Sam waits. Bucky doesn’t add anything, so Sam turns to look at his face, hung with cool shadows.

“You’re not gonna say it, are you?”

“I thought you would say it,” Bucky argues defensively.

“You’re the one who’s been staring at me like that for a week. You should go first!”

“Please, you don’t even know how I’m staring at you, I only do it when you’re not looking.”

“Do it now then and see what happens,” Sam dares him.

“Fine.”

Just like that, Bucky locks in like Sam’s attention is the only handhold on a sheer cliffside. Vital and stable, a last chance, the one thing around him that wants to help him higher instead of watching him fall. A lot of that’s familiar from his regular hard stare, but then something opens up behind his eyes. Some fragile thing (that might be Bucky’s sense of caution) breaks. Suddenly, Sam’s seeing what Joaquin saw in the news footage and amateur cell phone video. Except he’s seeing it two feet in front of him. It’s intense. It makes the air a little harder to breathe.

Bucky’s lips curve into a smile, then part as he says, “I love—”

Hopefully, he wasn’t going to end that sentence with ‘store-bought cake,’ because Sam can’t really take back his reaction. The finger slipping behind Bucky’s ear as he cradles his face, the mouth sealed to his. Especially that. Thankfully, Bucky kisses him back, just as hard, and then harder.

“Thank god,” Sam pants when they break apart.

“You interrupted me.”

“I got you to stop talking? Guess we’re in my miracle.”

“I’d complain…” Bucky shrugs. “…but your miracle is pretty nice.”

“Not bad, right?”

He sighs and looks out over the water. Bucky pushes up on his fists and sits closer, offering his hand for Sam to interlace their fingers.

“Hey,” Sam prompts when it hits him that it’s super dark outside and they aren’t gonna dry much more like this, “did you book a hotel room again?”

“You kiddin’ me? I spent all my money on that cake.”

Sam laughs.

“Right, well, I guess you need a place to stay tonight then.”

“You know anything nearby?” Bucky asks with a soft smile.

Getting to his feet and bracing to pull Bucky up after him, Sam uses his free hand to motion towards their clothing pile.

“Put your pants on,” he says, “and I’ll see what I can do.”

[lunarthedragon]

Idea for Luca sequel, titled “Alberto”!

So a few years after the events of the first film, Portorosso has become a secret haven for sea monsters looking for safety and acceptance.

Alberto, meanwhile, is flourishing as the local life guard who helps his dad in the pizzeria, but something has been bothering him. He’s antsy and hungry for SOMETHING, but he doesn’t know what. He assumes he’s excited about Luca and Giullia returning for the summer in a few days…

Wanting to surprise his friends (and hoping to make some of this antsy-ness go away), he’s been saving up and he goes to buy a fresh, new Vespa! As he’s driving around the new Vespa, getting used to it, and showing off to Massimo, a visitor enters the city on a motorcycle, catching people’s attention with the noise.

Turns out she’s a migratory sea monster that is dropping by for gas, food, and a place to rest for a few days before heading out. She draws Alberto’s intrigue but the Paguro family warns to avoid her, claiming migratory sea monsters are dangerous and uncaring.

Still, Alberto tries to speak to her but she’s flippant and claims she’s only passing through. He says this place is a haven for sea monsters and she should enjoy herself, but she insinuates it’s not a haven for all sea monsters, and she loves travel too much anyway.

Finally! The train comes into town and Luca and Giullia are back! The welcome is so exciting and warm and happy! Alberto’s so happy to have them back and listen to them talk about school and show them his Vespa! Giullia keeps mentioning having to research colleges while Luca is still considering what he wants to do.

The three eventually go out on the Vespa to have some fun, and it’s fine at first, but Alberto keeps getting bored too quickly and isn’t as excited about everything. Giullia is too excited/college-worried to notice immediately, but Luca does, and the two boys have a heart-to-heart in the water or on the island.

Alberto explains his issues and Luca says he wants to help but he doesn’t know what’s up either. Alberto thinks he should be happy, he finally has a family and support system, and he doesn’t want to be ungrateful, but somethings wrong.

Unknown to them, the migratory sea monster, let’s call her Noemi, is swimming around nearby and overhears. She calls that Alberto sounds stir crazy. That having a home base is the first step to discovering oneself. Then she leaves.

Luca suggests that he was able to figure out what he liked and enjoyed when he left, but he knew he had his family and Alberto always waiting for him. Thus, maybe it is Alberto’s turn. Maybe now is the time for them to finally go on their Vespa adventure!!

They rush to pack, trying not to wake anyone, and leave a note to explain that they’re going on a quick trip and they’ll be back soon. They also don’t take Giullia, since the original plan had always just been them so they want to do this themselves. They’re both still a little reckless…

Problem is, something happens to the note, maybe the cat tears it up or something, so no one knows where they went. Giullia, however, finds a torn piece of the note or she remembers some conversation and she suspects they’re somewhere nearby. So, she hurries to catch the train but misses. Instead, she runs into Noemi on her bike, about to leave, and somehow convinces her to take Giullia along.

I’m not sure about the finer points of the rest, but basically the boys end up on a cross country journey, followed by Giullia and her new “gal pal,” and through the journey they meet other sea monsters that are different. A lake monster from Scotland whose grandpa accidentally mooned the humans and the picture taken of his butt and tail became the Loch Ness Monster photo. A river monster from the Nile that looks like a crocodile and gets snippy when people call her a gator. A swamp monsters that can never seem to dry off and is a little gross. A snow monster that is “technically” water related and is fluffy when cold and has a heavy Russian accent. They’re all different and treated poorly even by the “plain” sea monsters.

The main baddie is also a sea monster who hates humans because a hunter took his leg, but he also looks down on the “lesser sea beasts” because he claims they don’t know what the real sea monsters have been through, sighting his leg. Baddie attempts to recruit Alberto, seeing the harpoon scar on his arm, but inevitably he realizes that the baddie is a hypocrit and they should all be supporting each other as sea monsters, even the more obscure ones, and he, Luca, and Giullia manage to save the day somehow.

It closes out the trio plus Noemi returning to Portorosso to worried but happy families. Alberto is so relieved to be home and hugs Massimo and Giullia together. Noemi says, however, that this is a good feeling, returning to home base, and is essential, but she’s pretty sure Alberto is migratory too and it’s okay to crave the world.

Alberto comes to terms that he’s finally comfortable and happy enough to go out into the world and explore (a bit more safely than the unplanned road trip he just took) similar to Luca going to school. So, he starts properly planning and getting ready to go, Noemi helping him plan while the Paguro’s and Massimo help him pack and plan his locations.

Finally, as he’s getting to his Vespa and wished everyone bye, he notes that there are more baggage than he needs. He turns and finds Luca lugging one, final bag over, all smiles, and says that he’s going to take a year break before looking into college, and that they need to give this whole adventure a second go.

Alberto smiles at him, hugging him tight, and the two best friends hop on their Vespa and are off to see the world.

(The credit art probably shows the Vespa unable to handle the distance and Noemi has to help them get a motorbike instead lol)

[linkspooky]

That’s What Makes Us Heroes and Villains

All the way back in the aftermath of the Stain Arc, Dabi and Himiko were the first new recruits introduced for the League of Villains. The three of them together, Shigaraki, Dabi, and Himiko are a trio. Effectively the three main characters of the villain side of the story. They are all three of them, traumatized children who were thrown out by society, and are now fighting back against it. They’ve been pushed out further and further until all three of them came to the same conclusion: Heroes are in the way. 

Dabi: “There are no true Heroes.” 

Shigaraki: “You heroes hurt your own families just to help complete strangers.” 

Toga: “You heroes mess everything up.” 

All three of them are children screaming the same thing at the heroes, trying to get somebody to listen only to be ignored. Shigaraki, Dabi, Himiko were all driven to become villains because of hero society. They became villains because heroes existed in the first place. 

A meta on the villain trio under the cut. 

1. Monsters

Shigaraki, Dabi, and Himiko are all introduced to us as monstrous villains who slowly become human over time. Their development is effectively then in reverse of the main heroes. The heroes we sympathize with right away because they’re introduced to us as innocent kids. We see the villains as violent monsters first before the curtain is pulled back and it’s revealed they started out as children all along. 

When the three are introduced they have no affection for one another. Shigaraki even calls them “the two types I hate most.” There’s no trust, as the first thing the three do is try to kill each other. 

We’re introduced to them at their lowest point. All three of them are in a bad place effectively. Himiko has been on the run for months, Dabi has been who knows where, and Shigaraki has had two successive failures in his attacks on both Stain and USJ. 

Their cooperation in the Camp Raid arc is begrudging at best. This goes for the whole league of villains, (Spinner and Magne end up making things harder for each other, Several members get captured) they seem to be working against each other as much as they are working together.

Shigaraki, Dabi and Himiko were all effectively traumatized by the same thing, being cast out from hero society. However, in this arc they all have vastly different desires that make working together difficult. Dabi wants to fulfill Stain’s Will, Shigaraki wants to take down All Might and Hero Society at large to show how fragile it is, Himiko wants to take down Hero Society for the sake of her easier life. 

They are not at this point motivated to work together at all and it shows in their cooperation.Dabi doesn’t really make any attempt to lead. Shigaraki just watches from the sidelines and sends out other people on a mission where he doesn’t really care much if they succeed or fail.  Himiko doesn’t try that hard to complete her mission objective because at this point all she cares about is her own survival. 

However after the defeat of All for One, the league of villains ends up all experiencing the same traumatizing loss together. They all become disenfranchised, living off of no money, and constantly having to be on the run. They lose all of their resources. However, as a reuslt their bonds with one another are strengthened and they really are working together for the first time. 

Himiko isn’t just looking out for herself anymore. Not only does she not run away when things get hard, but she encourages Twice to do the same because she empathizes with his feelings. 

Shigaraki goes from ordering people around in the shadows to not only meeting with his comrades face to face. He also has become the type of fighter who jumps straight into enemy fire on the front line for the sake of his comrades, using his own body as a distraction so he could work together with Compress and Dabi. 

And remember, Dabi’s flames physically destroy his body every time he uses them. Yet, he respects Shigaraki’s leadership enough that he goes all out for the sake of the league when he’s asked to. If Dabi didn’t care about the league at all, he probably wouldn’t be constantly burning himself alive for their sakes. 

All three humanize one another through their relationships with each other, Shigaraki values his comrades lives more than his own, Dabi cooperates with other people for the sake of his goal, Himiko’s empathic side began to show all because the three of them were for the first time surrounded by people who were just like them. 

When shown empathy and understanding, Dabi, Shigaraki and Himiko all improve as people. They are not lost causes the plot has shown us the opposite, they’re capable of growing and changing. However, they are just as capable of GETTING WORSE. 

2. Bad Children

Shigaraki, Himiko and Dabi all share the same origin. They were pushed to become villains because of what happened to them as children. They are the only three members of the league who have been shown as children, deliberately so, because the fact that this happened to them as children is what is so important to their narratives. 

Himiko was born with a weird quirk, and that was it. She didn’t even show problematic behavior that far off of most children (most children don’t have the empathy to know that say, small animals will suffer pain if you hurt them) before her parents started to punish her. Tenko just wanted to be a hero and had a father with a grudge against heros when his punishment started. When he was in the streets begging for help the only thing he was guilty of was having a quirk  that activated on accident. Touya was bred by his father for the purpose of his quirk, and because of that had to grow up in a household where his mother was constantly crying and his father either ignored him as a failed experiment, or paid attention to him which would have made his life even worse. 

It’s not just a sad backstory for all three of them, it’s a case of systemic failure. Systems that should have protected them did not. The reason we’re shown this happening to them when they were children before they did anything wrong was that the narrative most heroes have is villains choose to be evil and there’s no helping it. 

However, this happened to Dabi, Shigaraki and Himiko through no choice of their own. They were all helpless children when they survived these circumstances. The argument that “They could have tried to endure and become heroes” doesn’t work either, because all three of them did try to endure. 

They all at one time or another made an attempt to be good children. They tried to reach their parent’s expectations for them. They tried to swallow up the abuse that was hurled on them and live with other people. 

They were all children who were being abused, and told to just go on with their lives, told not to cry, told to suck it up. Instead of trying to fix or even address the circumstances of their abuse all of their pain was effectively ignored. Shigaraki, Himiko, being children DID TRY to live exactly as the adults told them to. They tried to be “Good Children” under the standards of adults, and they couldn’t be. 

That’s the reality of living in an abusive household like the one Tenko grew up in. No matter what he had done, he would have been punished. He was the problem child, the scapegoat for his father’s abuse. Rather than tell the father to stop abusing the child, the child is held responsible for the behavior and told that they were at fault for provoking punishment. 

Before you use Shoto as an example of still wanting to be a hero after enduring abuse, here’s the difference. Shoto didn’t die. Touya did. 

All three of them were cast out before they did anything wrong. Are they still responsible for the choices they made as adults? Yes. However, I think it’s important to acknowledge that all three of these characters did attempt to try making the right choices and they still got cast out anyway. It’s not because they were good or bad children. It’s because society was designed to reject people like them. 

RHA TRANSLATION: That’s how the muck gets cast out. That’s how they break and retaliate. That’s how it loops back, again, and again, and again. 

The translations are radically different this week I’m not sure which one is right, but they are vaguely talking about the same cycle. Shigaraki, Dabi, Himiko were rejected before they did anything wrong. They were forced to endure all of this as children. They gained power to survive and began to fight back. They retaliated against the violence done to them as children as adults. Then, they are punished again. 

It is a cycle where both people are acting badly. Shigaraki, Himiko, and Dabi drag innocent people into the conflict, because all they can think of to wake people up to the reality of their suffering is to make them endure the same. To show the world the violence they’ve endured on a mass scale, until it becomes impossible for those who are sheltered and protected by society, those who are saved to ignore the problems of those who aren’t saved. Shigaraki, Dabi and Himiko get innocent people involved it’s true.

HOWEVER. Were they not innocents at any point? Were they not just children who had not done anything wrong? 

And we return to the Tenko household. Shigaraki, Himiko, Dabi are all responsible for their violent reactions to the problem, that was the choice they made. However, they weren’t the ones who created the situation in the first place.

Villains are held as responsible for all of society’s ills. We are told by heroes that villains choose to become evil, and that the only way to stop them is to violently suppress their activities. However all of these villains for the most part, are outcasts who hold no real power in society, and all have yes made choices to retaliate violently but were also pushed into those choices. 

The society around them is designed to exclude people like Shigaraki, Himiko and Dabi. THE PROBLEM ELEMENT, is ignored rather than addressed. 

What Shigaraki is saying here is that heroes don’t protect the people most in need of their protection, the biggest victims. They are designed to protect a status quo. 

Heroes protect the institutions that are already in place, no matter how cracked or flawed those institutions are. they keep them in place. They are fighting to preserve a power structure that keeps heroes in power. The ones who have the power in society are the heroes. The ones who create society are the heroes. The ones who create the situation are the heroes. The villains in MHA are reacting to the problem, but they didn’t create the problem. 

3. Twice

Dabi, Shigaraki and Himiko all have an incredibly important relationship to Twice. Dabi shows up to try to save Twice, even though he states he doesn’t care about the league. Himiko opens up to Twice and empathizes with him. Shigaraki goes to save Giran because Twice asked him to, and opened up to his team for the first time because of Twice’s begging and pleas. 

The scene we see play out with Twice is what happened to Shigaraki, Himiko and Dabi as well. Twice is given an impossible choice. He can conform and sacrifice all of his friends to go with Hawks, or he can die right here. Once again, yes it is a choice. I must emphasize everything is a choice. The choice to retaliate is still a choice even if it’s influenced by the environment. However, this is a choice effectively made with a gun to Twice’s head. 

What’s interesting is, when given the choice between betraying the people closest to him or getting shot in the head. Twice chooses to take the bullet. 

As I said everything is a choice. Even an influenced choice is a choice. If someone is holding a gun to your head, you can just choose to die. You might be stuck in a situation where there are only bad choices, but it’s still a choice you make. 

I emphasize choices over and over again, because somebody chose to make the world this way. 

They exist in a system where villains are held accountable for all of their violence, their choices, and heroes are not. Heroes can effectively get away with murder as we’ve been shown with Hawks and Tokoyami. 

I’d also like to emphasize that the villains make these choices while directly facing all of the flaws of society. The heroes for the most part are completely ignorant to the suffering of villains. We are shown this ignorance again and again. The villains attempt to explain themselves, their motivations and reasonings, and every time they are literally ignored. 

Heroes and Villains both make choices, but Heroes are completely blind to their own faults. When they are told about the cracks of society by people who have lived through that, they effectively ignore the role they had to play in it. Twice tries to explain he can’t betray his friends to Hawks, that they’re all capable of being good people and he gets ignored. Shigaraki explains to Endeavor that his father told him heroes hurt their own families, he gets ignored. Endeavor’s case is especially EGREGIOUS. Endeavor who should be more aware of his own flaws than anybody else, still pretends to be the perfect faultless hero. 

Heroes and Villains are both responsible for creating this flawed world, but the villains are held responsible, and the heroes are not. Heroes are given special privilege in society, Villains are mostly made up by the underprivileged and cast out. Society, is intentionally designed to divide up people like this and categorize one over the other. 

And I think it’s especially important that every time Shigaraki tries to get someone to listen to him he gets told the same thing. Endeavor believes he is a good person fighting to protect others. He claims that he is the hero, fighting against someone who only hollowly wishes to destroy. Shigaraki tries to explain himself, he even makes a reference to familial abuse which Endeavor SHOULD RECOGNIZE and Endeavor’s response is to tell him to shut up and die. 

Shigaraki, Dabi, and Himiko are wrong for violently retaliating, but every time they make any attempt to explain themselves they’re rejected just as violently. They are told, like they were when they were just children, to just shut up and take it. Shigaraki is told by Nana, Endeavor, Gran Torino everyone around him to die rather than fight back, is it no wonder he believes the whole system rejects him? 

It is an unfair system to begin with, deliberately designed to uplift a few people into privilege and cast others out. 

Heroes act like the few people who don’t get saved are just bad luck, but it’s not. Good social programs would have saved Twice. Social services would have saved Himiko. All Might realizing Endeavor was an abusive jerk would have saved Touya. If Gran Torino had checked up on Nana’s child, Shigaraki would not have happened. 

All of these kids “just got unlucky” except the society they live in was designed to outcast certain people like them from the start. It’s meant to let people fall through the cracks. In each case it wasn’t bad luck, but rather intentional neglect of all parties involved. 

Twice is told what happened to him was bad luck, but Twice didn’t slip and fall  on a knife. He was put into the situation intentionally by Hawks. Hawks singled him out, targeted him, pushed him to the breaking point, and then killed him. The one who had power and the upper hand in that situation was Hawks from the start, but Twice is blamed for his own death for merely fighting back. 

The connection between Shigaraki, Dabi, and Himiko is that they’re pushed to become more and more radical over time. Himiko had killed a few people yeah, but she wasn’t a terrorist on a mass scale. 

Dabi had no criminal record when he started. He only started killing people to make the news  when his father became the number one hero. The more they are rejected, the more radical they become. 

All three of them have become radicalized by the death of Twice, and all three say effectively the same thing. 

Dabi: “There are no true Heroes.”

Shigaraki: “You heroes hurt your own families just to help complete strangers.”

Toga: “You heroes mess everything up.”

Why do they blame heroes? It’s because heroes are the guardians of the society that rejects them. Heroes do not protect people, they protect systems and structures first and foremost. The heroes aren’t coming to save them and they never were.