#i have never seen a show where the main enemy seems to be forced behavioral assimilation to blatantly in respect to autism

[pinkwhalepjs]

Class Conflict in ACoFaF (& Wuuvy)

I doubt this narrative will actually go anywhere in ACoFaF but interestingly, just like the Austin novels the season is based around, there is a larger conflict than just the injustice of the Court system at play here and that is the injustice of classism. However the Court system is vilified because it stands as an Obstacle to our Heroes desires for expression and romances, whereas the class system is taken for granted and played for laughs. This is not a critique of Aabria or the season just as an interesting thing that is mirrored from the original genre and I think really shows in how the audience comes to see Wuuvy.

Some Courts hoarding power in the form of Magic is the evil meant to be defeated at the end of the story. It clearly hurts our Heroes by cutting them off from loved ones and eliminating the members of Binx’s court. It also stands as a mirror to the hoarding of Love that all of the heroes struggle with. That their respective Courts or families withhold love based on preconditions of behavior or achievement or assimilation (Binx being the exception of course).

But the actual unfairness of the system they exist in goes largely unaddressed. From the salt goblins who are expected to live their whole tiny lives in service to their superiors and die on command, to the servants Lord Airavis polymorphs and maims for laughs, to Gobble begging for his life while forced to dance, even to Andhera’s dog who is sentient, all (with the notable exception of Binx who goes out of her way to respect servants from Andhera’s dog to Lady Featherfowl’s penguin messenger) enjoy their time at the expense of those below them. This includes Rue, who uses a Command spell on Wuuvy who up to that point happily obeyed their commands and never truly apologizes or addressed the gulf between them. This is a defining moment for Wuuvy. She was happy to serve as a friend and equal and although she continues her devotion to Rue, from that point on she must understand that Rue does not see her as quite such an equal.

But we are not especially meant to feel sympathy for the lower class characters. They are either set pieces or worse, Obstacles and Antagonists for our Heroes to overcome. Wuuvy not delivering the letter to Hob is naturally seen in a villainous light because the story is about the Romance between our Heroes. However isn’t it incredibly fair for Wuuvy to lash out in the only ways that she is able. The line between her and Hob is incredible thin. Both are military leaders of lower station who see Rue’s hidden conflict and admire them ardently. They are both beastly and duty bound. Yet Rue is enamored with Hob after meeting him once and sees Wuuvy only as a friend (or servant) despite (or because of) knowing her for decades. Wuuvy demands satisfaction and does not deliver the letter not because she thinks it will make Rue change their mind or fall in love with her instead, but she has simply had too much indignity to bear. She will not deliver up her own hopes and dreams to another with a smile on her face. That is a step too far. Yet in the end it is Rue’s feeling of betrayal that the story will follow and not Wuuvy’s revelation that she could spend her life knowing every little detail about a person and they could still not understand the most important truths about her.

Again this is not a criticism of the show, and it would be phenomenal if in fact this did arise as an canonical plotline/issue, it just fascinates me that the same phenomenon I find in Austen novels replicates itself here. Characters may actively talk about the oppression of their own station (Elizabeth in P&P or Hob in the show) and yet still happily take part in enforcing the class system. They will be allowed to rise above their own station for the sake of Romance but the stations themselves will remain.

[gmmtv-bl-tournament-but-evil]

i think dbk is honestly overrated, or at least that's how i felt about it. i get why people love it so much, but it left a very sour taste in my mouth. going into 2gether, i had already seen a lot of negativity about it, so i expected it to get bad (it did) but i did expect dbk to be a lot more bearable. i think the show just felt so stagnant in terms of petekao, and while i appreciate what it did with the coming out plot, i feel like petekao as a relationship felt really weak and i didn't really root for them to be together?

i didn't like how we could see how pete's possessive behavior having negative impacts on their relationship, and kao feeling compelled to hide things as a result (like, god. he wanted him to just refuse to tutor the kid cuz hes jealous?) was something that instead of being addressed seemed validated. i like flaws, i loooove when characters have big personality flaws, even. but this felt like it was just being validated. we get the vibe that pete was right, and at the end, kao affirms that he likes that pete is possessive. i feel like this would have landed a lot better if instead of possessiveness that feels detrimental, pete grew into being possessive but also respecting this boyfriend. it just felt. odd.

look. i love established relationship and i also ADORE break ups. i think a good break up -> getting back together can be really interesting. i am an exes to lovers enthusiast. but i also almost had zero care about petekao getting back together (this also happened when i watched kiss me again before dbk. i just did not care that much. as a side note the person who directed 2gether, puppy honey, kiss me again, teenage mom, social death vote, etc is my mortal enemy as a 4 pillars fan who has STRONG opinions on the quality of these???) because the show really just made me feel their relationship was really unstable at its foundation? of course, i know they’re good for each other. for example, pete becomes better because of kao. still? didn’t quite work for me.

then there's non. i have no idea how "18year old with a crush on kao who goes too far" became the main driving force of the entire story, because i think there were a multitude of ways to explore the coming out plot poignantly and non was! not it! and i've never enjoyed how they wrote non in the end. in a show where we sympathize with kao for his fear of coming out, i didn't like how we were pitted against the 18yr old with a shitty parent who was scared of coming out. yeah, he fucked up massively and almost ruined kao's life. i get that. but do i think not addressing the massive "bad parent" motivation elephant in the room felt odd? how is it a happy ending that he's just definitely going to suffer cuz of his goddamn strict dad? do we just not care about non? maybe i'm just overly sensitive about this as someone who sympathizes with people who do things because of the fear of their parents (looking at you, ben from nlmg!) and thought it was insulting to me personally that the show said that "a parent will always know what their children are" (i disagree) also pretty much abandoned non? i get most people just found him annoying, but damn. i felt bad. non is like pete in ways, but even more immature and without the presence of a supportive father

oh our skyy was bizarre to me, by the way. less relevant to my opinions on dbk but the characterization was SO off in it and it just felt unneeded. and i’m a kongart our skyy lover so maybe it’s that i subconsciously compared it (our skyy petekao just feels so markedly Not PeteKao of kiss me again OR dbk!) also this didn’t factor into my voting but the continuity changing between kma our skyy and dbk really annoyed me as someone who watched it in order.

i liked sunmork, but a side couple can never save a show for me. the ost & cinematography was nice as well (i looped the theme song so much!) but unfortunately, the show really didn’t work for me. honestly, dbk vs 2gether was hard for me because, well (i could write a rant of this length on 2gether 😭😭😭 maybe longer actually) yeah. but that’s the fun of the competition!

I agree almost completely with everything you say about DBK. Despite finding Non extremely annoying, it left a terrible taste in my mouth that the reason why he was such a dickhead was never addressed and I agree that he got dealt a terrible hand by the narrative.

As for SunMork, I understand your feelings but I have to say that if it wasn't for them I would have never finished DBK. Although it's also true that I watched Not Me way before DBK which endeared to me Gawin soooo much and was also already extremely in love with Podd. That is to say, I was personally invested.

The only episode from that season of Our Skyy I watched was the Puppy Honey one which I liked better than the entire show, so I can't really say anything on the matter of PeteKao there.

I had a completely different experience when first coming into contact with 2gether too and in fact, part of the reason I hate it so much is that I saw nothing but praise for it before watching it and it made me so fucking mad. All the people hailing 2gether as this fantastic, incredible, amazing, showstopping, revolutionary show made me extremely suspicious and then I watched it and completely hated it, and the suspicion turned into absolute fury. Especially when I see it compared to other, better shows as something they should aspire to be.

I realise I'm coming off as extremely mean about it but it pulls some visceral reactions out of me so I'll just stop here before I cross a line.

I love your message, Anon, but it's not lost on me that you didn't actually say which one you voted for!!!!

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Dunno if this is a stretch, but thinking about RWBY vs a lot of other media, and the reactions to the Ironwood and Atlas Arc made me think:

We have a LOT of pro-military, pro status quo, pro America (or America analogous) media, and maybe that played a part in why people had such an intensely negative reaction to the mere idea of any sort of media portraying the military in anything except a purely positive heroic light at best, or as a "flawed but absolutely necessary and thus people should shut up and follow them" sort of deal.

The MCU has light criticisms of the military, but they ultimately portray it as a force for good, while glossing over the evils of the military, and has been accused of having a lot of pro-USA pro military propaganda throughout. The Transformers movies have heavy backing from the US Military. I'd go further into detail, but I don't want to risk spoiling something to everyone.

And a lot of fandoms in shows where a military is portrayed at all have their groups that frankly seem to have a freak out or disdain for any media that portrays the military in a negative light. Hell Generation 4 of MY LITTLE PONY had a group of people develop their own little group purely because they didn't like that the Royal Guard was portrayed as incompetent or bullies, despite the fact that the focus of the series was on the civilian Main cast, the series is aimed at young children, and that the series was set during PEACETIME.

With all that in mind, for every good criticism of the Atlas Arc, the backlash at times comes off as being less about the quality of the arc, but also just as much about people not being able to tolerate anything that doesn't constantly reinforce the pro-US pro military propaganda mindset, especially for American minded fans. Those kinds of fans believe in the actions of the cast being heroic only so long as they toe the line of seeing anything remotely American as heroic, so long as any flaws of anything American analogous is superficial and easily brushed aside, and especially when it comes to making "big tough decisions", that the destructive and callous cruelty of American-esque behavior such as a callous disregard for the poor and minorities, elitism, and nationalistic behavior is seen as some kind of "necessary evil".

And you just hit the nail on the head. We as Americans are so used to the military being allowed to do everything, with their "greater good" philosophy being an excuse for any atrocity, with the assumption that generals and soldiers are smarter and better and wiser and more moral than the civilians who just don't understand that they have to kill people, they have to make these immoral decisions and in fact aren't they so much nobler for it? Aren't they heroes? The idea of military leaders being inherently flawed, of the military itself being an anti-democratic institution, of "the greater good" being a cover-up for personal flaws is practically unthinkable. The tropes we use for evil militaries are always modeled off our historical enemies, never on our own.

Atlas dragged you in with all the tropes used to humanize and justify the military, and then peeled the curtain back to show that no, it's not enough, this isn't right. And a lot of people, particularly those who see military power as a power fantasy, who dream of being allowed to make immoral decisions and kill and hurt and yet still be praised as heroes, took offense to that.

[rosemary-is-in-pesterquest]

I think(?) I tried to send an ask about this before but idk if it went through (can't remember if it was this blog or not, but if it was deliberately not posted for some reason, never mind and I hope you have a lovely day!) my personal pet homestuck theory is that auspistism, and by extension Kanaya as a character, is the key to revealing how quadrants are actually a toxic societal norm that helps systemically create the volatility of Alternian culture as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

to explain: in every other quadrant, you can't be too good at problem solving, or it gives whatever you're doing a distinctly ashen bend by Alternian standards. and this makes the other quadrants unhealthy due to the way partners are restricted from engaging in auspistice-type behavior, lest they be viewed as fully sliding into being their partner's auspistice. in the case of Kanaya, we see how thankless it is to get labeled as being good at auspistizing. a lot of her friends only seem to go to her when shit is hitting the fan, they use her by making her acknowledge, and force them to confront, the stuff they don't want to hear, whilst they never develop the ability to notice their problems on their own, or self-regulate their own behavior... and because the ashen quadrant is conciliatory, and also is a one-way street where the auspistice cares about a pair's problems, but not the other way around, Kanaya never even really gets any affection back for doing all this emotional work.

it actually reveals kind of a flaw in moiraillegiance too, because within the pale quadrant, part of the archetypal way that the relationship works is that the moirail of a volatile troll is meant to know how to calm them down if they fly into a rage. and specifically, it is often the partner who is lower on the hemospectrum that does this for their higher blooded partner, who then returns the favor by protecting the lowblood from harm by society with their status. homestuck never makes it clear if this is a biological disposition towards volatility on the part of high bloods, or a cross between societally expected violence for their class, and a systemically enforced lack of consequences, which leaves high blooded trolls with no tools to control their emotions, or any precedent that would suggest they need to do so. they can alway outsource their emotional regulation, and any issues that come from a lack of emotional regulation, to their moirail and auspistice.

and really, the pitch quadrant is sustained by the same thing that keeps the ashen quadrant relevant... the problems are never really solved. the person with the problems never learns how to maintain any of the solutions they've reached by themselves, so they can have sustained grudges, and permanent enemies, and never learn how to make anything better for themselves. and matespritship is also left feeling kind of hollow because of how many forms of showing affection actually belong to moiraillegience or auspistism. matespritship almost feels like it's seen as more utilitarian in function on Alternia, with "mating fondness" being its main value. emotionally, there are a lot of pieces that people would consider more the jurisdiction of a moirail, or more of a problem for an auspistice, and when you take away all of that, what you're left with is something so saccharine and textureless... it's no wonder the trolls disparage humans for seemingly only having the flushed quadrant in their romance.

but that's where this is all headed, isn't it? because human relationships can/do include all (or at least most) of the functions and emotions that quadrants include for trolls. almost as though the quadrants, when functioning in tandem, actually are the component parts of a healthy relationship. granted, some of the quadrants contain specific traits and issues that are actually caused by the fact that troll society is arranged this way, like the expectations of moirails to calm their partners... but on the whole, human romantic relationships are more like a mashup of all the quadrants at once, because ideally, a good relationship would contain healthy amounts of each quadrant all rolled into one partner. a good partner could, say, give you advice on what to do about a conflict you're having with one of your coworkers, or act as a sounding board for a heated emotional issue you're having with your family, or push back when they think you're wrong, and disagree with you when the two of you have a difference of opinion without the relationship falling apart, or kiss and act in love. I kind of think that, in terms of the disciple and the sufferer, this might be what "beyond quadrants" means, and if it is, then they might've simply been onto something, and any healthy relationship might start to resemble what they had figured out.

Yes, I do remember this in my inbox!!! It was very interesting and I loved your analysis, I just hadn’t had time to articulate my exact thoughts on your ask ;w;

[buckyjustbelikethat]

The Fiction of Fairytales: Chapter One

Title: The Fiction of Fairytales: Chapter One 

Characters: Stucky x Reader

Summary: (a/b/o au that is non-cannon compliant) After being captured and forced to live as Brock Rumlow’s mate for years you are kidnapped by the Avengers. They plan to interrogate you for information on Hydra and Rumlow, but after Steve and Bucky realize they are your true mates, they realize that their kidnapping was more of an unexpected rescue.

Warnings: Mentions of assault, kidnapping, death, and abuse, and strong language.

Word Count: approx. 3000

A/N: Hello lovelies! 💕 I’m so sorry for the late update. Life has been really crazy both personally and globally. I hope the longer chapter makes up for the wait. Let me know if you want to be tagged or if you have any suggestions or comments!

Previous Chapter

You followed his instructions until they reached the tower. As you were driving you had the urge to cry passing by the buildings and civilization you had been kept from for so long. But the freedom was a placebo, a momentary feeling that reality is plotting to destroy. You knew you were trading one cage for another. One where you were trapped with a murderer and one when you are considered one. Tony Stark fought for good, and he proved that Brock had turned you into something only recognizable as bad.

They arrived at the tower and the moment you placed the car in park your hands were put into high tech handcuffs. Stark’s hand firmly gripped your arm, and though it was not soft, you breathed a sigh of relief when it felt nothing like the force of Brock’s hands. Stark led you to an elevator that seemed detached from the main part of the building. You hoped he didn’t feel the slight tremble of your body. You were used to the danger of being a captive of Brock, but here, you didn’t know what to expect. The floor you arrived at looked like a police station. There were containment rooms and what looked like interrogation rooms. There weren’t many others on the floor, but the guards scattered throughout looked at you in disgust as you entered. You knew that you did not participate in any of the violence hydra had committed, but being looked at as if you did made you feel dirty.

Stark led you into one of the interrogation rooms, and sat you down on an uncomfortable metal chair. He sat opposite of you and placed his feet on the table between you.

“So, are you also a mass murderer or do you just have a fetish for murders in cults?”

His question reminded you once again that he did not save you, you were considered his enemy. You didn’t know the use in arguing with him, you were unsure if they would ever really believe you, and whether the reality of the circumstance would really save you, or if you were considered damned.

“I’ve never killed anyone.” You stated with as much confidence in your voice as you could muster.  

“A girl like you bonded with an evil person like that has to get her hands dirty a little once and awhile.”

You met his statement with silence. Staring at the metal table and wishing all of this would be over. When he realized you were not going to respond to his previous statement he placed photos down in front of you.

“Do you recognize any of these men?”

Your body involuntarily shivered as you had looked at the faces of men who had taken part in your torture. You recognized Pierce first, and other Hydra members that had brought you so much trauma.

“Yes.”

“Are they all still alive?”

“I don’t know.” It was your honest answer but it made you feel hopeless. Stark wasn’t going to trust you if you couldn’t tell him anything useful. You hadn’t seen a lot of them in a while, but you would never be informed of those kinds of details.

“So you’re telling me you recognize all these men and we are supposed to believe that you know nothing about hydra?” You didn’t have to look at his face to recognize the skepticism in his words.

As Steve and Bucky were walking into the interrogation room they were hit both with the most intoxicating smell, it smelled like warmth, like vanilla and caramel, and it reminded them of the cookies Steve’s mom used to make them when they were younger. Underneath the overwhelming scent was the unmistakable wave of distress. At first they didn’t understand where the scent could be coming from, or who. It didn’t take long for them to narrow down the fact that there was likely no one else nearby besides the Hydra member, who was also Brock’s omega, that Tony just brought in. They glanced at each other in apprehension before entering. They knew that whatever they were walking into it was not the happy meeting of their omega they had dreamed of, but their instincts were screaming at them to open the door.

Steve couldn’t ignore the protectiveness he was feeling towards Bucky in the moment. Whoever this omega was, they were somehow involved with the same people that had hurt Bucky. He was ignoring the protectiveness he felt towards the omega he had not even met yet, as far as he was concerned they did not deserve his protection, Bucky was his priority right now.

“Stark, Captain America and Sergeant Barnes request access to the room to aid interrogation.”

“Let them in, Friday.” Stark responds with a sigh, obviously frustrated he got nowhere on his own.

As the two men entered the room your heart stopped. Their scents felt like home. The dark haired man smelled like freshly brewed coffee, and the blonde haired man smelled like ginger and licorice. You knew without a question these two beautiful men in front of you were your alphas, your true mates. After your mind cleared from the fog that their presence brought you immediately diverted your eyes, cursing yourself for forgetting your position, if Brock was here he would have punished you for looking at an alpha, even if they are his enemy.

Bucky felt consumed by you. You were more beautiful than he ever could have pictured. He was hyper analyzing every frown, every tremor that your body was making, the way that you diverted your eyes from them. The distress and feeling of hopelessness that surrounded you suffocated him. He just hoped your emotions were not fueled by you missing your mate. Though he didn’t like the alternative. He could not win in this situation, and underneath his calculated demeanor, Steve could also feel the feeling of hopelessness Bucky tried to bury, he could not hide his emotions from his mate.

“We have reason to believe they are trying to capture and reactivate the winter soldier, what are their plans?” Stark spoke completely unaware of what was going on.

“The winter soldier?” You were thankful to be snapped back to the reality of the moment, but his questions once again made you feel useless.

“Me.” The dark haired man replied, or Sergeant Barnes as the AI called him.

Your face fell. Though you didn’t know whether to trust your true mates or not, you knew you had very little chance of gaining their love. Not only did you bond with someone else, but they were someone that obviously hurt one of them, and might be actively planning to do so again. You would be pissed if fate gave you you as well.It seemed fate cursed them and is turned your life into a farce.

“I don’t know.” You sounded like a broken record, and you knew with each repetition there will be dire consequences.

“How convenient, it seems you know nothing.”

“I’m sorry, I promise I’m telling the truth.”

Steve’s composure fell, he no longer could quiet his rage.

“Bullshit! What kind of sick joke is this? We are mated to an omega not only bonded with hydra, but obviously she has blatant allegiance to them as well.”

“Mate?” Stark questioned in shock.

“Steve...” Bucky interjected, still not as convinced as his mate was that you were lying and trying to get him to relax.

“No Buck! You deserve so much better than her, than this. And not only does she not have the decency to wait for her true mates, but she mates with a member of Hydra, and is actively covering for an evil organization.” Steve said, looking into Bucky’s eyes while ignoring Stark’s question.

“She’s your true mate?” Tony tried again.

“No.” Steve said, though the message behind his words was heard loud and clear by everyone in the room. He was rejecting her.

You felt like you couldn’t breath. You knew what was going to happen, but God, you didn’t know how you could live with it. You knew his words were the truth, he didn’t even know the full extent of how broken you were and he could already tell you would never measure up.

“I’m sorry.” You tried to show your honesty behind your words, but your voice was weak. You did not understand why you were mated either, but you knew they were good people, they were alpha’s sure, and there are parts of that that scare you, but you know that if you had met them before ever meeting Brock, they would be everything you had ever dreamed of. Your eyes remained diverted, but you could tell just from his voice, his love for Bucky. You felt like it was ripping you in two, all you had ever wanted was a fraction of that love, but the universe deemed you unworthy, adding validity to all of Brock’s claims.

While Steve was filled with protectiveness, Bucky wasn’t so sure of what to make of everything. The ways your eyes never met their own, the pain and fear he could detect though you tried to hide it, and the apology only filled him with questions. Your behavior reminded him of his own when he first got out of Hydra, part of him hoped this wasn’t the case. He would rather be mated to evil, than to be mated to someone that had to withstand the kind of pain he had to.

“What is it exactly you are sorry for?” Bucky asks, his voice still cool, but not laced with the anger Steve’s words were entangled with.

“For being mated with someone else…” you cut yourself off there, not sure if you should list all the reasons why you were sorry you ended up their mate. “And for not being able to help you all with the information you want.”

“Not being able to and not willing to are two different things.” He replied.

“I.. I know. I promise you if I knew I would help you. I understand you don’t like me or trust me. I would feel the same considering who Brock is, but please believe that more than anyone, I don’t want him to be able to hurt anyone ever again.”

“Then how the hell can you justify being with him? For not waiting for your true mates, for him?” Steve almost yells as he tries to keep his cool. He was hurt but he was masking it with anger. Bucky reaches out his hand and lays it on Steve’s shoulder, he gives him a look that pleads for his silence.

Bucky could see the tears pooling in your eyes as you fought them away, and his fear that his suspicions might be true was nagging at his mind.

“How long have you been with Brock?”

This was something that you had fought over the years to know the answer to. You weren’t sure of time when he first took you, the days blended together, but once he started giving you more freedom you decided to keep track of how long it had been.

“Eight years.” you said.

“Okay.” Bucky said, his voice calming. “We have no records of you before Hydra, so can you tell us how old you are?”

“25.” Your voice was still breathy and quiet, unsure his intentions behind his questions.

The fear nagging at Bucky became more pronounced when he learned that you weren’t even of age when you got together.

“How did you meet?”

He watched you as your body froze, panic entered your eyes and your breath became shorter. As you shrunk into your chair you winced at the metal pushing against your bruised body.

Steve started to sense the reasoning behind Bucky’s questions, especially when he saw your reaction. Things started to make sense to Tony too, especially when knowing how little you went out, and the way you looked for the cameras. He suspected you feared him and tried to find safety in knowing that Brock could see you in the surveillance footage, but now he was starting to think your fear was more of the cameras than him.

You didn’t know what to do, he asked about one of the worst days of your life, and you feared they would be disgusted by you if he understood. You saw Bucky move closer to you in an attempt to calm you down, his alpha instincts telling him to soothe the anxiety of his omega. But the closer he got to you the more you shrunk away from him. Trying to hide within the cold metal of your chair, as your pain became more pronounced.

“Hey, it’s okay, we want to help you, but we can’t do that if you don’t talk to us.”

His words calmed you and you cursed that he was able to have an effect on you. He knelt down beside your chair, trying to get a better view of your eyes, despite you doing everything in your power to hide your face behind your hair. You decided to rip the bandaid off, maybe if they understood then they would realize you were no use to them, and then maybe you could let you die on your own terms. You knew there was no other alternative. Brock would always find you, and you had no way of defending yourself, and you would not let yourself become a burden to them as an unwanted mate. You wouldn’t force them to deal with that, it would be wrong of you.

“He killed my parents and he was supposed to kill me too, but he took me as his mate instead.”

“He forced you to bond with him?” He was trying to suppress the rage overwhelming his body, he did not want to scare you away. Steve was still at a distance, now battling his own guilt from what he said to you.

“Yes, I promise, I meant nothing to him, I was just a body, everyone in Hydra viewed me the same. I promise they never discussed any information with me around, and if they did I would tell you, please believe me.” You spoke through your own tears.

“We believe you.” Tony spoke, laced with the same guilt Steve feels.

“Thank you... But they will find me, and what they will do to me is worse than death, I can’t go back, and I won’t be a burden to you, you both deserve to find an omega who is good enough. So please, I’m begging you to kill me.”

Steve and Bucky both started to growl. Unhappy with the words they are hearing from their omega.

“No!” Steve and Bucky both blurted out.

Your whole body was shaking, and it got worse knowing they wouldn’t allow you the kindness of a quick death. “Please, I know you don’t owe me anything but please. I can’t go back. Please.”

Bucky’s hand reached out to calm you, but he immediately realized it was a bad idea when you flinched away. Your face contorted in pain once again and Steve and Bucky wished more than anything that they could fix everything for you right then and there, no matter the cost. Bucky resigned his hand to himself, but Steve came up and knelt beside Bucky.

“No one is going to hurt you again. I promise you. We will protect you sweetheart. I’m so sorry we thought you were Hydra.” Steve spoke to you. His voice soft, and laced with pain for his mate.

“We are your Alpha’s and we will protect you.” Bucky said firmly, assuring you that they weren’t going anywhere despite what Steve had said earlier.

You calmed yourself enough to reply to their assertions.

“You don’t have to protect me,” you wiped your tears from your face with your still handcuffed hands. “I’ll be fine. Please, like you said earlier, you deserve better, and I understand that.”

“No, no. That is not true.” Steve said distressed at what his omega was saying to him.

“Honey, I was a captive of Hydra for years, they made me do horrible things, I understand what they are capable of, but that is not a reflection on you. Did you want to be there?”

“No.” You sniffled.

“Do you agree with the horrible things that they do?”

“No!” You stated, trying to convince them.

“Then there is nothing that could change our mind.”

You still felt unconvinced but Steve didn’t give you much time to reject what Bucky said.

“Are you hurt?” Steve asked, assessing as much of your body as he could.

You nodded. “I’ll be fine though, Brock wasn’t happy with me this morning.”

You could see Bucky and Steve’s body both tense up at your words.

“What happened?”

“It was my fault, I looked up at him.”

Both men started growling again, even Tony joined in already becoming protective over his teammates and friends’ omega.

“You did nothing wrong, sweetheart.” Bucky spoke to you.

“But I’m an omega.. and I shouldn’t have done that.”

Bucky wished he reached out and guided your chin up so you could look him in his eyes, but he was afraid of scaring you even more.

“Doesn’t matter if you are an omega, doll. You are not lesser than other people, especially not him.” Bucky said his voice caring.

“Can we take you to the medical wing to get you checked out?” Steve asked.

“S-sure.” You replied, still not knowing if you could trust them and their words, but the fantasy of their words of love was too enticing. You decided that even if this didn’t last, it was worth it to escape, even for just a moment, in fiction.

Next Chapter

Tags (open): @snakesonastarship​ @thanossucks​ @yomama-umbridge​ @grandluminaryearthquake​ @laughsandlivia​ @bloo-moon-freak​ @this-is-a-chilis-drive-thru​ @sergeantrosabellaswan​

[watchinglikeafangirl]

People being trapped in a circle

This is more about psychological stuff but I got inspired by this post and I thought I could dig a little bit deeper into the matter of why some characters have our pity no matter how they behave themselves.

Human beings love rules and habits. It's actually quite fun to observe people and discover their tics, their weirdness. Because everybody is weird and is ashamed for certain habits or behavior in situations.

Habits are by definition "a settled or regular tendency or practice" and new ones are established pretty slowly in life. They are hard to change and forget because the everyday-life doesn't feel the same without them. Establishing a new habit takes three months until you don't have to force yourself any more. That's why it's so hard to change oneself's style, language or lifestyle in general.

Okay, so, here comes the balancing act to TV shows. Every show (or movie) has an antagonist and you know it's a good storywriting when you're having a hard time hating them completely. They still show some humanity they have left deep inside and we mostly sympathize with them because they seem lost, unloved and trapped. Trapped where? Well, the circle repeating itself endlessly. A habit.

Everybody has a habit they can't get rid of, so everybody can relate to the antagonist in that matter. It's hard to change a habit or lose it and mostly, it doesn't work very well.

The circle out of a habit one can have is mostly the main reason for the antagonist to feel so pathetic. They can't stop but don't feel good about it.

I have two examples and of course, I'm talking about BLs because it's the genre I am consuming the most right now. The two most recent ones I can use as an example are "Lovely Writer" and "Fish Upon The Sky". I know, Pi is not the antagonist of the show but wait, it will make sense when I get to this point.

Let's start with "Lovely Writer". Here, Aoey is the antagonist and probably the most devided character I've seen in a long time. He seems good from afar but underneath this mask, he's a spoiled person and the worst, but the most pityful as well. He is the perfect example of someone being trapped in this circle of repetitiveness. His next move always means something bad and the drama always waits around the corner. It's who he is. It's his habit. But where does this come from?

Well, we've seen that Aoey's family doesn't support nor care about him. His father makes him feel unworthy of everything and that he won't survive on his own for long. His father is also the reason, why Aoey has a trauma because something happened to his ex-boyfriend because of him. So, Aoey is lost because he got kicked out. Aoey is hurt because of his ex-boyfriend. Aoey feels worthless because he feels like nobody loves him. Aoey feels pathetic because he pushes people away. He is full of desperation to find something, someone he can hold onto. He is ready to do everything in order to get that. That's why he runs after Gene who didn't make him feel bad about himself for a second. It meant relief for this second. It's the redemption and acceptance Aoey always wanted and craves for. But he is never the center of attention, not even close to it. Even playing the main lead in a TV show didn't help him to feel more appreciated either.

So, the only way to make people see him and hopefully notice how lost he is, is seeking their attention. He climbs on the highest mountain, crosses borders and screams at the world, only to be heard for at least a second. This is more than just desperation. This is helplessness.

Seeking attention is all Aoey does and he does it in the ugliest way possible because then, the attention will be bigger. It's his habit. He does bad things because people will then be forced to talk to him. A habit only establishes itself in ones life when you get something good in return. It might not look good for others. It might not be received out of good actions. But at least, you'll feel better than you did before. So, it's Aoey's habit to blow things up in oder to be noticed because he gets a good feeling in return.

This explains why he cries very much even when he's alone. Because he knows exactly that he's doing something wrong and he feels extremely guilty for it, but despite of this guilt, he can't help it. This habit is definetly a toxic one and causes him to feel even worse ever single time. The loneliness gets worse. The feeling of being pathetic gets worse. He's trapped in this circle and is drowning. But he's willing to pay this price because he'll feel good for a single moment. It's like a drug for him. That's why this habit will be extremely hard to let go. He even says in episode 9 that he's not ready to do so when he rejects Mhok who is really worried about him and sees Aoey drowning in his self-hatred.

This toxic habit he has lost himself in, is the reason why we sympathize with him. He is his own victim. It's what we believe makes him human because things are not black and white. You can see that he's not entirely bad but not entirely good either. It's an interesting storywriting for the antagonist to make him look like a human being. Habits make people unique and we sympathize with the idea of someone struggling to overcome one.

This was longer than I expected, but let me continue with my second example: Pi. The thing with Pi is that he's the main lead and he's not shown as the antagonist but he's also trapped in his circle. But when Pi is not the antagonist, then who is? There is no other option. So, I believe, Pi is the protagonist and antagonist combined because he is his own enemy.

When we get introduced to Pi, we know immediately that he finds himself ugly. He means, he doesn't like his looks but he obviously feels ugly inside... but more to that later. He feels like a weirdo. He feels pathetic. All his friends turned out to be not loyal at all, so he became a loner.

Because of the people who were close to him and turned their back on him, Pi hides. Like I mentioned here, he is very hysterical. He is loud. He snaps. His only friend is on Facebook (Or Twitter? Or Line? I don't really know). It's his habit to hide his true self because he is scared. Again, habits only exist because you feel something good in return. Pi feels better when he is not his true self. The change of his look is just the visible outcome of this habit. And it works because people seem to like him more than before. So, this is just a verification for what he always thought about himself: that he is weird and ugly. He choses to be weird and handsome instead because this change will at least cover up his flaws from the outside.

But this habit leads him to turn Mhok's friend request down everytime Mhok asks him and lets him screw up every private moment he and Nan have. He doesn't let people in and destroys situations by himself, to later blame it on the others. He is not even aware of his habit. He is too selfish to see it.

Pi dislikes himself so much and feels ungly as a person that he has become his own enemy.

Mhok sees that. He sees Pi's true self behind the mask and insists on wanting to be his friend. He keeps confessing to Pi, because to overcome a habit, you actually have to implement the thought of it in your hand. Only when your mind tells you, you should get rid of it, you have the self-devotion to do so. Pi will slowly see that he has to blame himself for screwing things up and that hiding himself doesn't necessarily mean a better life. He has to stop being his own antagonist. This is something the preview for episode 6 addresses. Pi supposedly screws up, scares Nan away and then blames himself for it. Maybe this is his awakening...

Pi is the character I dislike the most but he has depth we will get to explore. He only is such a dislikable character because he doesn't like himself but you can see this fassade fading slowly and it's again someone struggling to let go of a habit which is again something, everybody can relate to - in this context, probably more than I can count.

So, what is my point here? Habits are hard to overcome and we like antagonists because they are mostly trapped in a circle. The good feeling they receive consumes them so much that they can't let go of it even though they will feel bad afterwards. It's the price they are willing to pay. Mostly, they are self-centered characters because they don't care what they do to the others during the process. They long for something that will only make themselves happier with no sense of solidarity.

I didn't expect this to be that long...but what can I do when my brain doesn't let me sleep?

[the-resurrection-3d]

Shipping meme 12, 21

Was seriously worried for a second that this was about the CWC stuff lmaoooooo

12. What drives you away from a ship?

That's a good question! This answer got long because I thought about LHA and saw red, so I'm putting it all under a readmore.

My immediate thought would be "that's not enemies-to-lovers, that's just being a cunt (and not even the fun kind)." A good example would be The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson, which I literally had to ragequit several years ago because all the relationship development up to that point had just been the main guy ignoring the narrator's obvious distress and repeated attempts to tell him to fuck off so that he could disrespect her boundaries, physically grab her, and then trick her into going on a first date with him. After all these years, I have no goddamn tolerance left for shitty, one-sided relationships in YA. Maybe the book got better and deconstructed his behavior later on, maybe I just missed something, I don't care to find out because YA Books Cannot Be Trusted Like That. Far as I'm concerned Wintergirls is the only book Anderson's written that's worth a damn, anyway.

And this might seem like a weird thing to be upset over considering I literally just recommended a fic where Hermione has her body and life literally torn apart by Lucius Malfoy, but I think it's important to note that Eden holds Lucius accountable and never, ever pretends the relationship could truly work.

(A quote from the epilogue: "Can you imagine Lucius and Hermione being together in the outside world? Buying a house together, having children, and getting a dog? Lucius making Hermione breakfast in bed? Arguing about the mortgage and sitting in the garden drinking tea? It would never have worked.")

It's because the narratives truly recognize the fucked-up nature of their characters that these relationships can even be interesting. Imagine Hannigram if everyone on the show just acted like murder and cannibalism were completely fine. It would certainly be funny, but not nearly as interesting. (This is also why I prefer YinxYuck over Yoop even though both involving teenage boys violating a teenage girl's consent/trust. The fact that Yin was so quick to forgive Coop but not Yuck could have been interesting, but because that double standard is seemingly not recognized by the narrative, I'm pushed into the less charitable reading that it was just a lazy, off-screen redemption to force the ship to work. Yoop is also just a far less interesting ship for a myriad of other small reasons, but I hope you see where I'm coming from here.)

This also, to a lesser degree, applies to ship fandoms-- there have been plenty of ships where I could see myself liking it, ways it could be interesting, but everyone who's already into it is just there for the fetish porn. Cool for you. But no thanks.

(Completely one-sided power dynamics are also a turn-off-- if I'm gonna be in this for the long haul, then one character needs to eventually get some level of (at least) emotional power to wield against their lover/captor, even if physically they're completely at the lover's mercy. Will manipulating both Rat Boy Whose Name I Can't Remember Right Now and Hannibal while in jail. Yin outsmarting Yuck time and again even though he's physically and magically stronger than her, to the point that he doesn't even seem to really notice that Yang's there most of the time. Stuff like that.)

While we could further dive into genre and the different levels of realism within these stories, the more important element is just the fact that Knife guy had no personality outside of harassing her. Deadass that is all he did in the book. Where's the flavor. This tastes like fucking sand.

[I should probably also note that "stuff I write content for" and "stuff I ship" can be two different things-- I wrote a Ren/Strade ficlet once, but I don't really ship it, and I think Ren's a much better character in BTD 2 explicitly because Strade's dead. When it comes to stuff like BTD or even some of my old Tordtryck stuff, it's more about inhabiting the perspective of an abuse victim rather than shipping, if that makes sense.]

21. Have you ever received hate for a ship you liked?

Directly? Technically yes, once, but it was only a young kid bringing up Ye Olde Paultryck discourse to me, and I just tried to politely explain that I wasn't interested in rehashing that drama. Because I get it! There's a lot of context that's been lost here, and if you're just a young tween getting into this show, the accusations being made against shippers are quite upsetting! But that wasn't so much hate as concern.

There's also of course the indirect "paul and pat both hate the ship," "you're shipping real people," "you're shipping a dead man's oc" kinda hate that most every shipper in the EW fandom's seen at least once.

I think I've largely avoided hate by a) being irrelevant lmao and b) most of my ships being acceptable enough within their own fandoms. (Catradora is a five-season nightmare and YinxYuck is arguably incest, but both are so popular within their respective communities that sending someone hate for them is gonna get you laughed out of the room.)

I hope that all made sense, lol. Thank you for the ask!

[moon-in-daylight]

heyy! love your fics! i've seen you take requests so i'm testing my luck here. can we please get a dhawan!master x reader fic where reader is forced to pilot the tardis (like reason w her or link with her telepathically idk) to get the master to a hospital as he's passed out and kinda dying? like some angsty action that turns out fine in the end, please? thank you

Dispensable / Dhawan!Master x reader

Summary: You’ve always felt safe by The Master’s side, but when he endangers himself to save your life, you start wondering if his efforts to protect you are really worth it. Especially now that his life depends on you learning how to pilot a TARDIS.

Words: 4.6k

Warnings: Blood, weapons, injuries, insecure!reader, a little angst maybe. 

A/N: Anon, I’m sorry this took me so long. I’ve just been out of inspiration lately and this is what came out after a month of writing. I hope you still like it though 💖

It wasn’t unusual for The Master’s plans to go terribly wrong sometimes, as it wasn’t unusual that you regularly got hurt in the middle of your adventures as a consequence.

Luckily, it was nothing too serious most of the times. Maybe you would get some scratches while running on the quiet days, some scars on the most serious days when you had to face some extremely angry alien civilization… And, in the worst scenarios, you had almost encountered your reaper face to face.

It was inevitable to suffer some unfortunate accidents while travelling inside the TARDIS. You knew that from the very start, that your least developed anatomy would barely be able to follow a Time Lord’s way of living, especially one’s with so much love for chaos and destruction. You were well aware that while you travelled with The Master death would always be keeping an eye on you. Yet, you gladly took the risks that staying in his ship entailed.

From the first moment you had stepped a foot inside that console room, you had known there would never be a way of turning back to your old life. Not after seeing the things, places and eras he could show you with the simple pull of a lever. At first, the main reason you stayed with him was the time travelling.

Though it was extremely dangerous and you feared The Master could abandon anytime and anywhere when he got bored of you, you decided to endure his rage filled words about your species and his several rules on how you should behave to try and get him to show you the stars. He wasn’t an easy person to deal with, but you had grown to both love and deal with him, and you liked to think he had done the same with you too.

After more than a year aboard of his ship, you trusted him almost blindly, confident that he would do anything he could possibly do to try and get you uninjured of the deadly situations you faced daily.

He was way more gentle and caring now than he was when you first met him, though that was something he would never admit out loud to you. But his change of behavior was evident. You noticed it by the little thing. By the way he always kept an eye on you when you were outside of the TARDIS, on how he threatened anyone that seemed barely interested in hurting you… He almost seemed a different person now. He even took care of your wounds when he couldn’t prevent you from getting hurt, and making sure you got the fastest recovery possible instead of leaving you to deal with them on your own.

You supposed he had gotten used to having a ���human pet’, and that he took the trouble of taking care of you mainly because he didn’t want to have to take another human in his TARDIS to replace you if you were ever missing. Too much inconvenience to have to take another pet now that he had finally grown somewhat comfortable with your presence… Either way, and despite the many risks you faced time and time again, you always felt save by his side knowing that he wouldn’t let you die that easily.

While being by his side, you barely could remember what fear felt like.

That was, of course, until you found yourself in the worst situation you could have pictured.

The day had started as any other, with The Master taking you to New Earth in the middle of the First New World War, following your request of wanting to know more about the future of your species. The Master had told you repeatedly that humanity’s history was not worth seeing, that they were little more than amoebas. But your curious self had insisted him so many times about wanting to see your future that he had eventually given in.

You didn’t exactly liked what you saw there. The cruelty, the hatred that your own race processed against their own… The senseless death and unnecessary barbarism between those of their own blood… The Master had warned you that it wouldn’t be pretty, but considering the fact you were already used to face every possible form of chaos by his side, you had been sure that nothing he could show you could be worse than the damage you had already seen him cause to distant planets and civilizations.

Now that you ran for your life in the middle of an open battlefield, hand in hand with The Master as he tried to guide you to the safety of his TARDIS under a never-ending rain of bullets, you realized your mistake. You had never imagined a war could be so bloodthirsty, so atrocious… The Master hadn’t said it, but you were sure he was jealous of the destruction and despair caused by your species.

The two sides of the conflict were ready to do anything to get even the slightest advantage over their enemies, and of course, The Master had decided he should turn such horrible situation in his favor. He had manipulated both, the leader of the resistance and the supreme general of the new Earth’s forces, to make them believe the other would throw an offensive in the middle of the night. That way, while everyone fought to death in the middle of the battlefield, you and him could sneak into each side’s bases and steal whatever could be useful or valuable.

The Master’s plan was executing itself perfectly, to the point where it was all being too good to be true. Everyone had seemed to believe him and, though you were suspicious that things were never that easy with him, he appealed to your specie’s stupidity to justify the fact that no major complications had met your little scam. If everything went as he had planned, you would be in and out of each fortress in barely ten minutes, with your pockets full and the armory of the TARDIS completely renewed with new nuclear weapons. But just when the both of you were emptying the armory of the rebel band, two guards caught you red-handed.

Apparently, before indulging their soldiers into a bloodshed battle that would likely finish all live on the planet, the leaders of each side had decided to make things the diplomatic way. And for the first time in a very long time, they had decided to unite forces against a common enemy, you and The Master. You would’ve been proud of them, had your life not been in such danger.

Now, getting yours and The Master’s head was top priority to every living being in that planet, and you almost doubted you would be able to make it to his ship alive.

You had ran alongside The Master from angry crowds hundreds, maybe thousands of times now, but never before had you felt so trapped. The TARDIS was somewhere nearby, and every step you took closer to her was a sigh of relief that left your already tired lungs. Bullets and all kinds of projectile weapons were thrown in your direction, and The Master had to keep you even closer than usual to his body to prevent you from getting hurt.

When the disguised aspect of the TARDIS finally met your eye, you thought you had never felt happier in your life, but your legs were beginning to get tired and you felt yourself losing all the strength in your body, struggling to stabilize the rhythm of your breathing.

One last push, you repeated yourself internally as you forced your body to not give up, to resist until you could collapse on the safety of the TARDIS’ ground.

With every passing second, you could see your destination getting closer, but that little time felt eternal as you did your best not to lose focus and sprint those last meters for the sake of your life.

You only let go of The Master’s hand so you could extend your arms to push the TARDIS’ doors open, get inside and quickly close them after you. But the only thing your hands laid on was the ground as you tripped and fell only a few steps away from the ship.

Your heart sunk in your chest as your bad luck struck in, realizing that you didn’t have enough time to stand up from the ground before the hordes of soldiers reached you, probably killing you instantly. This time there was no way out, and you closed your eyes while you met your unavoidable fate.

This wasn’t a bad way to die, you supposed. You hadn’t lived too long, but you had lived your life to the fullest, running away through the stars with a psychopath alien and visiting places most of your kind couldn’t even dream about. You were at peace with yourself, suspecting that The Master wouldn’t be too affected by your loss and knowing that you had already lived longer than what could be expected of such a fragile being living such a dangerous life.

You were ready to let the rest of your body hit the floor and say goodbye forever, but then The Master’s hands gripped you tight from each side of your body and pushed you up and forwards, giving you the last boost you needed to reach the TARDIS’ doors.

“What are you doing?!” His angry tone reprimanded you as he positioned himself behind you to shield you from your persecutors. “Run!”

Taking The Master’s hand in yours again, you finally made it to the insides of the TARDIS, the comfort of the familiar console room greeting you as she hummed happily at your arrival. As soon as the doors closed, you threw yourself onto the Time Lord, surrounding him with your arms to pull him into a victory hug, or more a thankfulness hug for having saved your life seconds earlier.

You squeezed him tight as you let fear crawl out of your body, starting to feel safe again by his side. For a moment you had truly believed he wouldn’t turn back for you, that he would simply get inside his ship and forget about the fact you had ever existed. But now, after watching him risking his own life to save yours, you realized there wasn’t a single place in the universe where you could really be endangered if you were with him.

As your breathing calmed and you stopped hearing the throbbing of your heart buzzing in your ears, you heard him hiss slightly at the same time you felt the lower part of your torso dampening. Getting away from him, you discovered your shirt was covered in blood, and immediately, you lifted it up to find there was no wound underneath.

Looking again in The Master’s direction and finding that his belly was also covered in the thick liquid, you didn’t let him time to say anything before undoing the lower buttons of his shirt and discovering a bullet wound on the right side of his torso.

Blood was quickly coming out of it, and you were quick to tear the lower side of your shirt so you could use the fabric to press against the bullet hole and stop the bleeding. You had always seen that work in movies, but the material was soon soaked and you realized you couldn’t stop him from bleeding out when you found a second wound a few centimeters above the first one.

“You’re going to bleed to death…” Fear was starting to form in the pit of your stomach as your mind rushed trying to find a solution to the mess developing right in front of you.

“Don’t exaggerate.” He said, as if he had just gotten an insignificant scratch. “I will be fine.”

“No.” You shook your head, taking some piece of clothing you had left in the room earlier and placing it over his belly in hopes it would do something more than the piece of fabric you had used earlier. That didn’t seem to stop the bleeding either and you started to become more and more desperate. “You need to regenerate.”

The Master frowned at you, and then you realized the weak state in which he was. In normal situations, he would have look way more threatening and powerful with the simple act of just lying his eyes on you. Now, looking at the titanic effort he put in simply trying to stay awake was enough for you to pity him.

When you thought of The Master, many adjectives came to your mind, but pity had never before been a word you would’ve use him to describe him.

“I’m not going to regenerate for something so stupid.” He immediately refused, and you cursed him internally as you guided him to the nearest couch, hand still pressing on the side of his body as you helped him sit down as comfortably as possible.

“You’re dying.” You tried to reason with him, but his stubbornness was too much to handle at the moment. He didn’t say a thing as he let the weight of his body collapse on the piece of furniture, and you watched him in desperation. “Please, just do the goddamn thing!”

You pressed the fabric in your hands harder against his wounds, wishing that he would listen to you for once in his life. When you got no answer from him, you lifted your stare to his face again, realizing he had lost consciousness.

“No, no, no, no...” You muttered as you shook his body slightly, trying to get him to wake up. “Wake up, come on. Just wake up and regenerate!”

Seeing that he wouldn’t respond, you immediately decided to check for his heartbeat. Or more correctly, heartbeats. Placing two fingers on the side of his neck, you found that the rhythm of his two hearts was starting to get very similar to the one your single heart made, and then you realized just in how much danger he was.

You were no doctor, but he had already lost a lot of blood. If you did nothing, you feared he could be dead in less than a few hours.

You had been under The Master’s care and protection for so long that now that you were the one that had to look after him, you felt completely helpless. How were you supposed to help him? All you knew about Time Lord’s biology was that they could regenerate when in life or death situations, and he had refused to do it, so you were out of ideas.

“Please, help me…” You felt your eyes watering as you cupped his face in between your hands, shaking it from side to side slightly in yet another attempt to bring him back in himself and get him to help you save him.

You didn’t get any response from him, but you heard the TARDIS humming intensely at you. And you felt relieved to at least have received a single answer to your plea, even if it was by some piece of seemingly inanimate, alien technology. Turning your head to the center of the room, you watched the console lights flicker as she indicated you to get closer to the controls of the ship. Understanding what she wanted you to do, you looked at The Master one last time.

“I’ll never forgive you if you dare to die on me.”

He looked as calmed as you had ever seen him, eyes closed and facial expressions completely relaxed. Your last thought while looking at him before rushing to the controls, was that you wished you could see that serenity in him more often, in better situations that the one taking place now of course.

Placing yourself before the buttons and levers of the console, you found yourself completely lost. You had seen The Master piloting the TARDIS billions of times, but looking down at the controls you couldn’t recall any of the movements he made while doing so… Was it really that hard to show you how to pilot the TARDIS? Hadn’t he thought it could be useful in a situation like this one? And why couldn’t you have a better memory? How could you have seen him doing so many times and not have the slightest idea of what to do?

You searched around the console in hopes of finding a piloting manual, some instructions, or at least some note handwritten by the dying Time Lord that could give you some clue on how to put the time travelling ship in motion. But when you found nothing and realized you wouldn’t even know when or where to take the ship to if you knew how to pilot it, you started to feel impotence taking over you.

The Master was dying because of you, because he had stopped to help you, a simple, useless human. And you weren’t able to do anything to help him, to make things right. You were the one dying, not him.

Feeling the lump forming in the back of your throat you wished you could turn back time and stop him from helping you get to the ship.

How ironic was that? You were inside a time travelling machine, desperate to go back in time, and you simply couldn’t. You had never felt so small and worthless in your whole life as the tears started to fall down your cheeks.

“I don’t know what to do…” You looked back towards The Master, his unconscious body laid on the other side of the room. Your eyes examined him with an apologetic look for a few seconds before the TARDIS’ hum called you again.

Following the sound she made, you realized she was trying to draw you attention to one specific lever of the console, one she had pointed out by illuminating it with a characteristic purple light. Assuming she was trying to guide you, you got closer to the lever and pulled it without thinking it twice, desperate to at least try something to fix the situation.

When you heard the approving hum of the TARDIS and noticed the way she illuminated a close button in the same purple light, you proceeded to push that button too, and then the next one she pointed you to. You honestly didn’t know what any of those controls were doing or if you would be able to follow her instructions well enough to get The Master somewhere safe, but you had no time to waste with doubt and second-guessing.

You rushed through the console’s controls, pulling and pressing as soon as the TARDIS indicated you what it was that you had to do next. After pulling one final lever, you noticed the ground beneath your feet tremble as the ship entered the time vortex. You looked back at The Master one last time as the ship landed in an unknown location and time.

“Is it done?” You asked her, quickly wiping away the tears that had fallen from your eyes seconds earlier.

She gave you yet another hum, and you supposed you would need to go outside and figure out if you had succeeded in piloting the TARDIS to the right place. When you ran outside and found yourself inside a building that seemed like what you knew as a hospital, you finally let out the breath that you had been holding.

By the time The Master woke up again, he was lying inside a hospital bed, a sharp pain on his side and a little dizziness caused by whatever substance they were putting into his IV, which he quickly took off without even acknowledging what it was. He attempted to get off the bed to try and find out in which planet he was, or how he had gotten there, but he found himself too weak to move, the stabbing pain on his side making him desist from it.

Giving up and lying his head back on the pillow again, he caught a glimpse of something that look like a bracelet on his right wrist. When he looked at it, he realized his data was printed on that bracelet:

SPECIES: Time Lord

AGE: ?

NAME: Doctor

He immediately frowned at the name of his older enemy on his own hand, and for a second he theorized about being dead and having been sent to the profundities of hell as a punishment for his numerous crimes during his extremely long existence. For a second he feared he would have to live as The Doctor for the rest of eternity.

If there was in fact something similar to hell, he was sure this was it.

Your entrance in the room interrupted his thoughts as he sighed in relief by seeing you. He let out the air too fast out of his lungs, and he couldn’t help but hiss in pain.

“How are you feeling?” You asked him after you realized he had gained consciousness back again, closing the door behind you.

“Better than ever, love.” He said with that smug smile on his face, trying to ignore the intense ache on the side of his torso.

You looked at him for a few seconds, upset that he would act as if nothing had happened. Well, he was The Master. He was an expert in being annoying, you thought. What else could you expect from him?

“I hope it’s really hurting, you thick idiot.” You spitted out, not holding yourself back as you bitterly let him know just how angry you were with him. Had you been anyone else, you wouldn’t have probably lived to tell about it “Do you have any idea how worried I was about you?! I thought you were dying!”

“Dying is not something I’m very good at, as you can see.” The Master casually said with a pompous smirk on his face, one you wished you could slap off him. You simply decided to ignore his comment.

“Why didn’t you just regenerate? Do you have any idea how many trouble you would have spare me?”

“I thought you liked this face, pet.” He raised an eyebrow at you, arrogance showing all over his face as you couldn’t help but blush slightly. It was true you found him attractive, but he clearly didn’t need you to boost his already enormous ego.

“I would have rather have you alive with a different face than dead with this one.”

For barely a second you could see the façade in The Master’s eyes fall apart as you said those words. You knew he wasn’t very keen on talking about feelings, but you hoped he knew you were being serious.

“How did we arrive here?” He quickly changed the subject. “And why am I The Doctor now?”

“I brought us here. The TARDIS taught me to pilot her” You started to explain, watching the surprised look on his face as he tried to imagine you maneuvering his ship. “And well, when they asked me what your species was so they could give you the right medication, I thought I would tell them the truth, but when they asked me for your name I figured telling them they were treating one of the most dangerous criminals in all of time and space wasn’t such a great idea.”

“I would have rather you letting me die before letting anyone think I was her.” He rolled his eyes and ripped off the bracelet on his wrist, clearly annoyed by the idea of being mistaken for his former best friend.

“If you hadn’t stopped for me back then I wouldn’t have had to do it!” You pointed out in frustration, tired of him only complaining. You knew The Master would never thank you for saving his life, but those comments he made were starting to get you on your nerves. The Time Lord started at you in confusion for a few seconds, eyes glued to your face as he tried to decode what was going through your mind before forcing himself inside of it. After staying silent for several seconds, you decided to ask right away. “Why would you risk your life for me anyway?”

“You’re my pet, dear. I’m supposed to keep you safe.” He replied as if it was an obvious thing. When you had first met him, you had never thought you would hear him speak that way about a human.

“Not if it costs you your own life!”

“Did you really want me to abandon you?” He asked, tone deadly serious and eyes inspecting you carefully.

“No, but…” Sighing, you tried to find a proper way to express what was going on inside your head. “I would never want you to get hurt because of me. I’m only human, and my life is so ephemeral and fragile… Your life is way bigger and exciting than what mine could ever be, and you shouldn’t put it at risk because of me. I’m dispensable.”

While hearing your words, The Master regretted every time he had told you how inferior you were because of your ‘human condition’. He had seen you as dispensable at first, but he no longer considered you anything other than his equal, his partner in crime. The fact that you had grown to see yourself as something of less worth than him was almost as painful as the injury on his side.

“Don’t you ever say something like that again.” He warned you in what almost sound like a threatening tone. “You’re not dispensable. If you were I wouldn’t have you in my TARDIS. I did what I did, and I would do it again if I had to, love. I promised to take care of you and that’s exactly what I’m going to do, no matter the cost. Is that understood?”

A little taken aback but moved by his words, you simply nodded, trying to regain composure again.

“Good, now help me get out of here.” Without giving you a second to react, he immediately attempted to get out of the mattress. You quickly rushed to his side to try and get him to lay back again.

“What are you doing? You’re still not ready to go!” You tried to convince him to stay in the hospital for a little longer, to give himself some time to fully recover. Deep down you knew everything you’d try would be useless, knowing that he would run away from that room at the first chance he got. He would probably even want to go plan his next heist right after arriving the TARDIS, as if nothing had ever happened.

“It won’t take long for the staff to discover you lied about my identity, and they’ll want some explanations.” He began to explain to you. “We need to be gone by the time they arrive.”

Closing your eyes, you realized he was right. That was one of the few inconveniences of travelling around space and time causing chaos and destruction, you couldn’t stay anywhere for too long if you didn’t want to get caught, and The Master was a wanted man in practically every corner of the universe.

“Okay, we are leaving.” The Master’s face was adorned with a pleased smile as he heard your words. “But don’t even think about getting into trouble for the next few days. You’re going to get a full recovery first. You have to promise me.”

“I promise you, pet.” He stated as he leaned onto you to use your body as support when he got up.

“Oh, and I’m piloting the TARDIS, by the way.” You added, gaining a warning look from him. “What? You are going to need a lot of rest in the next few days and I have to practice in case I have to pilot her again.”

[kelyon]

Golden Rings 8: A Mayor

The Storybrooke Sequel to Golden Cuffs

Rumple has a chat with Regina

Read on AO3

After that disaster of a meal, the walk to City Hall gave Rumpelstiltskin time to cool his head. It was one thing to lose control in front of Mrs. Gold, the poor woman would just blame herself for any change in his behavior. But now he was strolling into enemy territory. Going eye-to-eye with the Evil Queen. He knew better than to blink. 

In the old world, there was no question that he was more powerful than Regina. She had learned her magic from him. Even then, the girl had a long list of grievances against a world that had, admittedly, treated her poorly. Rumpelstiltskin had trained her in the ways of dark magic, and that gave her the means to forge her anger into a weapon. Over the years, the queen had refined her rage, hammering her many resentments again and again until her pain was a folded blade, sharp enough to cut the world asunder.   

The most important lesson the Dark One had ever taught his protégé was that true power was the ability to cause pain. If hurting people didn’t make her happy, clearly the solution was to hurt more people. As Regina’s abilities had grown, so did her list of enemies and potential victims. Her wrath had expanded from targeting one little girl, to a small rebellion, to the whole realm.

Storybrooke was Regina’s ultimate victory, even over him. It was not enough for her to simply end the lives of her enemies. She had to torture those who had wronged her, prolong their suffering. For twenty-eight years, she had trapped them all in a world without time. A world where every day seemed exactly the same as the day before--except, somehow, worse. 

She had separated all of them from the people they had loved. She had forced them all to be the worst versions of themselves. She had destroyed their happiness in the hope that she would finally have some for herself.

Had it worked? 

Rumpelstiltskin had reached Main Street, the unofficial border between the old part of  town and the new. Regina lived in New Town, along with the rest of the Storybrooke elite. The castles of this world were made of drywall and stucco, and Mayor Mills lived in the grandest of them all. Did that satisfy her? Was it enough for her to be richer and more powerful than anyone else in town? Did she still feel like a Queen?

City Hall was in New Town as well, only a few blocks away from 108 Mifflin Street. That wasn’t the official residence for every mayor, but it was convenient that the only person who ever ran for the office lived within walking distance. 

Main Street was deserted at this late hour. Even Granny’s had only a few stragglers inside, lonely people lingering over cups of coffee before heading back to empty houses. The loudest noise on the street was the opening of the door from the offices of Dr. Archibald Hopper.

A little boy ran out onto the sidewalk, jabbering excitedly to a blonde young woman.

“I’m telling you, the first step is to figure out who people are. Once we know, then we can help them remember on their own. Then they can find their happy endings!”

“Okay, kid. Sure. We’re gonna suss out people’s secret identities from fairytale land. How?”     

“Don’t worry. It’s all in the book!”

The animated conspirators walked off. Neither one noticed the figure limping in the shadows behind them.

Well, Rumpelstiltskin thought. That was interesting. 

Gold recognized the boy as Henry Mills. Ten years ago--though to a cursed mind it couldn’t possibly have been ten years, my how time flies--Regina Mills had come to Gold and asked him to arrange for an adoption. She had demanded a newborn with no family, preferably from far away. She had wanted a closed adoption, with a birth mother who would never interfere with the life she had planned for the baby. 

It had been a tall order, but Gold had contacted a juvenile detention facility in Phoenix, Arizona. By some happy chance, one of their charges--herself an orphan who had spent her life in the foster care system and inevitably fell to a life of petty theft--had found herself pregnant. Gold had never gotten the name of Henry’s birth mother, but Rumpelstiltskin knew it well.

Emma Swan.

So that was why the Savior had come to town. 

And, apparently, the boy Henry had some idea of the true nature of the people around him. Was it because of this book he had mentioned? Or was reality obvious to anyone who  wasn’t blinded by the curse? Either way, the boy was trying to get Emma to help him make people remember who they were.

How very interesting.

The rest of the walk was easy. Rumpelstiltskin walked with a light step to City Hall. The lights were on in the Mayor’s office, but there was some activity in the garden around the back.

Rumpelstiltskin found the Queen on her knees, picking apples up off the ground. The sedate little garden had become a place of horticultural carnage. An entire branch of Regina’s prized apple tree was on the ground, with a fresh wound on the trunk. The grass was littered with sawdust and leaves and fallen fruit.

“What a mess.” Rumpelstiltskin announced his presence, walking into the enclosed space.  

Regina finished what she was doing before she stood up. “Not for long.”

There was a smile on her face, and a sharp gleam in her eyes. Rumpelstiltskin could read his pupil like a book. Despite the chaos around her, she was celebrating a victory. So far, she was happy. How fragile was that mood?

“This will all be cleaned up in the morning,” Regina said. “And the menace responsible is probably halfway back to Boston by now.”

“You don’t mean Emma Swan, do you?” Rumpelstiltskin circled the tree as he spoke. “I just saw her walking down the main street with your boy. Two of them looked thick as thieves.”

It was always a pleasure to see Regina’s smile vanish, and her satisfaction sour into spite. But now there was an extra thrill in watching her ire. She hadn’t changed at all. Twenty-eight years of getting everything she wanted, and Regina was just as insecure and petty as she had ever been.

Marvelous.  

“I told that woman to get out of my town.”

“Apparently, she didn’t follow your orders.” Reaching up into the tree, Rumpelstiltskin grabbed a low-hanging fruit and twisted the stem until it broke off in his hand. “That makes her rather a special person around here, don’t you think?”   

Regina ground her back teeth, an ugly habit she’d had for years. “I spent all day trying to get rid of her.”

“And you didn’t come to me?” Rumpelstiltskin tossed the apple in the air and caught it in one hand. A whole day? No wonder the Queen was frustrated! Normally her will was worked much more quickly than that. Of course, she normally had help. “I thought you knew where to go when you needed something done.” 

She turned her back on him to examine her tree. “I don’t make deals with you anymore.”

“And what a shame that is for us both,” Rumpelstiltskin lied. “After all, we have such a grand history of working together for our mutual benefit.”

“Your ‘benefits’ aren’t always what they seem, Mr. Gold.” Regina smirked, like she was pointing out some undiscovered fact. “Even when you got Henry for me, now I find out that there’s this woman.”

He held the apple in the palm of his hand. “Children are known to have mothers--”

“I’m his mother!” She cut him off sharply, and he knew that look. If this was a world with magic, the Evil Queen would be throwing fireballs right now. Her anger was always so close to the surface. She had never learned how to hold back, how to sneak and plot and keep your enemies close. 

“Be that as it may.” He kept his voice friendly, the same tone Gold would use. “Next time you need something, I hope you’ll remember to call on me.”

She smirked again, that regal expression of amusement and disdain. It was one of her better masks. “Nice to see you so accommodating, Mr. Gold. I’m glad that woman hasn’t ruined everything in Storybrooke.”

He shook his head, all businesslike courtesy. “No matter what strangers may do, everyone needs a friend in low places.”

“And you are certainly the lowest,” Regina chuckled. The smallest show of deference was enough to restore her good humor. The slightest reminder of the power she thought she had. “By the way, how is Mrs. Gold?”

“Quite well, thanks for asking.” He looked her in the eye and lied to her face. His masks were better than hers and always would be. “She’s a little, ah, tied up, at the moment. But I’ll give her your regards once she’s free.”

“Please do. I always like seeing the two of you around town.”

Rumpelstiltskin polished the apple on the sleeve of his suit jacket. This type was called a Red Delicious, though Mayor Mills would tell people it was a Honeycrisp. She could tell people anything and they wouldn’t question her. 

He began to saunter out of the garden. He had seen everything he needed to see.

 “I wouldn’t worry about Emma Swan.” He left Regina with a reassurance that would only remind her of her real problem. “How could she possibly be a threat to you?”

He didn’t let Regina respond. He had asked her a question that would haunt her waking hours. Whatever happiness she had accumulated with her curse had popped like a balloon the moment the Savior had entered Storybrooke. 

All he had to do was watch the show. 

On his way out of the garden, he took one bite out of the apple. Red through it was, the fruit was far from delicious. It was bland and bitter, just like her. Rumpelstiltskin tossed the apple over his shoulder and left the Queen to the destruction that had once been her sanctuary. 

****

Heading back to the house, Rumpelstiltskin’s mind went to another dark sorceress: Maleficent, the self-styled Mistress of All Evil. She had certainly been the mistress of Regina. Once Regina’s husband was dead and Snow White had fled for her life, Regina had taken Maleficent as her lover publicly. No one in the kingdom had dared speak a word against it. For a time, the two of them were inseparable, their mutual adoration a force that would move mountains. And they liked nothing more than to exercise their power on anyone who was weaker than they were.

They had done it to Belle. Rumpelstiltskin’s heart burned at the memory. Long before he married her, he had let them take her. When Belle had trusted him completely, he had been too much of a coward to defend her. Because he couldn’t have let the queens of darkness know that he had feelings for the pretty girl whose body he had bought and paid for. He couldn’t have exerted any force to protect her from them. He couldn’t have even said that she belonged to him and he didn’t want to share. That would have been a sign of weakness, tantamount to admitting that he loved her.

And he couldn’t have allowed them to know the truth. His reputation, his pride, could not endure it. At the time, he couldn’t even admit it to himself. 

Belle had come back to him naked and bleeding, with a testimony of the worst kinds of torture. Every wound on her body screamed out his guilt. Every word of what she told him as an indictment of his failure. For weeks after she had suffered nightmares and attacks of fear--things he only learned about later, because he hadn’t wanted to hear it, and Belle hadn’t wanted to tell him. The selfless girl had stifled her own trauma for the sake of his ego.

On Rumpelstiltskin’s mountain of regrets, refusing to protect Belle from Regina and Maleficent was a towering peak. 

Of course, Belle wasn’t the only one. Reports and rumors kept circulating about that kingdom, of the horrors inflicted on anyone who stood up to the Queen, or got in her way or even attracted her attention. Fair maidens with dark hair began to stay out in the sunshine to tan their skin and lighten their tresses. They wanted to bear no resemblance to the truest target of Regina’s rage, the girl who always evaded her grasp.

Eventually it had become too much, even for Maleficent. She had left, returning to her own castle. When Rumpelstiltskin had paid a visit to her, the witch had seemed more disappointed than heartbroken.

“It just got boring, Rumple. The same things to the same people, over and over! And Regina was never satisfied, not with me or anyone else. Evil is evil, but a person’s got to feel appreciated for the work she puts in!”

Maleficent would have taken Regina back, he knew. If there was even the slightest hint that things could change, that Regina was capable of growing up. Maleficent would have offered Regina a twisted version of happiness, if only Regina had really wanted to take it. 

Sometimes, late at night while Belle was sleeping safely beside him, Rumpelstiltskin liked to imagine the reconciliation between the two queens. It was an inevitable moment. One way or another, destiny would bring them back together, at least one more time.

Regina would come to Maleficent. Perhaps she would say she was sorry, that she wanted a new start. Perhaps she wouldn’t have to say anything. Maleficent’s eyes would glow with her green fire. And her smile would be of genuine joy. She would lower her defenses and welcome her lover with open arms.

Welcome Regina into her heart.

That image had comforted him through many nights when his mind was tormented by how the queens had tortured Belle. They would pay for all they had done to her. Even now, the thought filled him with vengeful contentment.

****

When he got back to the pink house in Old Town, Rumpelstiltskin found the place dark and quiet. The lights in the entryway were shut off, the candles in the dining room extinguished. The cold, fluorescent light in the kitchen was the only illumination on the first floor.

Plates and cookware were stacked on the counter by the sink. They were rinsed off, but not scrubbed. Gold didn’t trust his wife to wash his precious antiques. 

“Right,” Rumpelstiltskin said. 

In preparation to wash the dishes, he took off his suit coat and draped it over a kitchen chair. Then he removed the cuff links at his wrists and carefully folded up his sleeves. There were black rubber gloves inside the cupboard door underneath the sink. A green canvas apron hung from a hook by the stove. Gold was very fond of protection, of layers and separation. At last, there was something about him that Rumpelstiltskin could understand.

He took off Gold’s moonstone ring and put it in his trouser pockets with the cuff links. Now the only thing on his hands was his wedding ring, the golden band that had once been a shackle around Belle’s wrist.

Before he put on the rubber gloves, Rumpelstiltskin brought his knuckles up to his lips and kissed his ring. He had never removed it in the old world. It was as much a part of him as his own hand. He wouldn’t take it off here, either. The ring was proof that he was Belle’s husband. 

Belle’s husband, and Bae’s father. That was enough. When the world was right, that would be all he would need to be. 

Once the dishes were cleaned, dried, and put away, Rumpelstiltskin gathered his things and went upstairs. Mrs. Gold had said something about taking a bath. She was surely done by now. If he was lucky, she would already be asleep and he wouldn’t have to talk to her again.

It was the end of Rumpelstiltskin’s first full day in Storybrooke. He was already tired, already heartsick, already waiting for the Savior to do her job and free them all.     

The red lamp was burning in the parlor of the bedroom suite, just as it had been the night before. Mrs. Gold had turned it on to welcome her husband. The bedroom was dark, save for a beam of light that shone from the half-open bathroom door.

“Is that you, Mr. Gold?” Belle’s voice came from the bathroom, as well as the faint sound of sloshing water. The whole bedroom smelled like some kind of artificial perfume--the expensive bath oils that Mrs. Gold liked to buy.

“Do a lot of visitors come into this bedroom?” Rumpelstiltskin stayed on the other side of the door and began to undress. 

Mrs. Gold chuckled, the way Belle did when she was relaxed and comfortable. “I never know when you might send someone over to surprise me.”

He winced at that, at the casual way she suggested the possibility. Gold had never allowed another man or woman to touch his wife, but it always seemed to be on the horizon. That was the next barrier to cross, the next thrill for Gold to seek. He had prepared Mrs. Gold to expect it. At any moment, he might invite some stranger into their home--into their bed, into her body--and her task would be to be a welcoming hostess. 

Regina had made it that way. Everything about this marriage was her design, a reflection of what she had seen of him and Belle. It was possible that the torment was supposed to come from how much Gold and his wife both wanted to sleep with more people, but couldn’t find anyone in Storybrooke willing to indulge them.

“I’m almost done shaving,” Mrs. Gold called from the bathroom. “Then I think I could use some lotion. It’s getting colder now. I gotta keep soft and moisturized.”

She was inviting him to rub her down, to put his hands all over her silky skin and cover her body with a slick, sweet-smelling substance. They had done this so many times, in this world as well as the old one. He had made her soft and smooth and warm. He had found her wet and willing and open. His wife wanted him. She was offering herself to him. She loved him and he loved her and joining their bodies together was the most natural thing in any world…

“Fuck,” Rumpelstiltskin whispered as he pulled his pajama pants up over his hardening cock. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then, more loudly, he said to Mrs. Gold, “Actually, I think I’m going to go to sleep. You take as much time as you need.”

For a moment, the silence from the other room threatened to swallow the whole of reality. 

“Oh,” she said at last. “O-okay, Mr. Gold. What--whatever you say.”

It hurt to hear the disappointment in her voice. But this was what he had to do. He couldn’t indulge in Mrs. Gold’s appetites--or his own. She wasn’t Belle. Doing anything more than sleeping next to her would be an unconscionable violation of Belle’s trust. 

And besides, that woman had no say over what she thought she wanted. Between the cursed personality Regina had devised and the cruel training Gold had inflicted, nothing inside of Mrs. Gold was real. She wasn’t a person, any more than Gold had been.

Rumpelstiltskin sighed, and got into bed. Maybe he could fall asleep before Mrs. Gold joined him. Or he could feign slumber until she went away to do something else. Would tomorrow be another day like this? And the day after that? Was he going to have to make excuses to this woman until the curse was broken? Coward that he was, he would run and hide from someone who thought she loved him.

He was still awake when Mrs. Gold came out of the bathroom. To her credit, she didn’t try to attract his attention. He had told her that nothing would happen tonight and she respected his decision--far more than Gold had ever respected any of hers. But she still strode across the bedroom to get to the armoire in the parlor. Gold had never made room in his closet for her clothes. 

The light from the bathroom illuminated her body. Her hair was wrapped up in the microfiber towel she had bought specifically for that purpose. Aside from that, she was completely naked. 

He should have looked away. He should have turned his face to the wall and closed his eyes until she put on a nightgown. But he hadn’t seen Belle in twenty-eight years. His wife, his beauty, his light in the darkness.

For a moment, he filled his eyes with her. Hiding in the darkness, he didn’t conceal his interest. He saw it all. Belle’s neck, her shoulders, her slim arms and round breasts. She was so pale and smooth, a statue carved from alabaster. The gentle slope of her belly and the soft curves of her waist and hips. Her long, lovely legs. And between her legs…

Rumpelstiltskin blinked. 

Bile rose in his throat.  

He clenched his jaw, and rolled over in bed. He couldn’t look at her for another second. 

Between her legs, Mrs. Gold was bare and hairless. Like a child. Gone were the wiry curls that used to hide Belle’s treasures. He used to enjoy running his fingers through them, to tease his wife before he began to play with her properly.

It was a style in this world, for a woman to shave or wax her pubic hair. Men thought any hair on a woman’s body was unfeminine or even unhygienic. Apparently Gold was one of those fools. 

But even worse for Rumpelstiltskin was the memory of when Belle came back from her time with the queens. She had been bare then as well. It had taken weeks for her hair to grow back. She said that Maleficent and Regina had shaved her with broken glass. That they had pulled out any stubble by the roots.

Belle had not described the pain, but he could imagine it.

He didn’t know if Mrs. Gold had put on a nightgown before she got into bed. She didn’t touch him or try to speak to him. She probably thought he was angry with her. And while Rumpelstiltskin did seethe with fury, Mrs. Gold had very little to do with it.

Regina. The name pounded through his mind, until the very instant he succumbed to sleep. Regina will pay for all of this. 

****

He is in a cell, in the deepest dungeons of Snow White’s castle. The cell is enchanted, so his magic is useless. It is a dripping cave, carved from solid rock. There are no other prisoners nearby. The guards are stationed at the other end of a long corridor. The only time he ever sees a living soul is when people come to him for help.

He is exactly where he wants to be. 

“I tried your curse,” the Evil Queen rants from the other side of the pointed bars. “It didn’t work!”

“Considering we’re all still here, I should think that’s rather obvious, dearie!”

The Queen snarls at him. Her dark jewels glint in the torchlight. “You know why it didn’t work.”

“Well, I can make an educated guess...”

“Then tell me!”

Leaning back against the rough stone wall, he chuckles at the Queen’s demands. 

“There’s a price to that, dearie.”

She sneers. “Name it.”

“When--” He stops. He makes a show of changing the word. “If you can cast this curse, you will be creating a whole new world. Everything will be as you want it to be, Your Majesty.”

“I know that!” she snaps. “That’s the whole point! This world is stacked against me. This curse is the only chance I have to get my revenge!”

“Yes.” He grins at the Queen, and runs his tongue over his teeth. “You will control everything. All of our fates will be in your regal hands.”

“So what do you want?”

“Oh nothing much,” he waves his hand. “Only what I already have.”

“It’s a world without magic.”

“But not a world without power, yes? Not a world without wealth, or a world without comfort? Not a world without any pleasures at all?”

“Tell me what you want, imp.”

“It truly is a simple request,” he lies. “What is mine, stays mine. Everything I had before I came to this…” He gestures to indicate his captivity. “So the power, the wealth--”

“The woman?” The Queen smirks. “Is that what this is? You want to make sure you keep your little plaything!” Now she laughs. “Are you sure you still want her? She is a little worse for wear.”

“You made sure of that, Your Majesty.” His voice is low, but she doesn’t hear the threat.

“I could make you a lothario instead. Give you a new girl every night? That would be a punishment for quite a lot of people.” 

He moves so fast she cannot see him until he climbs the bars and grabs her by the throat, pulling her toward him. He growls at the Queen. He almost roars: “I. Want. My. Wife!”

The Queen jerks from his clutches, stumbles backwards to get away from him. Quickly, she allows haughtiness to mask her fear. 

“Fine,” she says stiffly. “She will be your wife in the new world, though that will not save you from the curse. Neither of you will remember a second of this place.”

“That’s not as cruel a fate as you might think, dearie.”

“Nevertheless.” She acts like that’s the end of an argument she has won. “Now: how do I cast this curse?”

“You need a heart, dearie.”

“Yes, I know that!” she snaps. “The heart of the thing you love most. I killed my own father and it didn’t work!”

“Poor Prince Henry.” He shakes his head. “He died as he lived: being betrayed by women who never loved him enough.”

“I did love him!” The Queen seems on the verge of tears. “Daddy was the only person who stood by me through everything!”

“Oh!” He widens his eyes and purses his lip in a mockery of her sorrow. “While it is true that the love between father and child can destroy worlds, that doesn’t seem to be enough. The curse doesn’t demand the thing you love much. You must give up the thing you love most.”

“Snow White killed the only other thing I ever loved.”

“Oh, then you’re in trouble, aren’t you, dearie?”  He giggles. “You don’t understand what you’re trying to do!”

“I’m trying to get revenge!”

“You’re trying to make yourself happy!” He grabs the bars of his cage. “You said it yourself, there’s nothing for you in this world. You think you have no choice but to destroy everything here and start over. Do that, and you’ll lose things, dearie. What you love most is just the first step.”

“But I have nothing to love!”

“And nothing loves you? No one loves you, Your Majesty? No one in this world wants to make you happy? No one would embrace you, if only they thought you might embrace them back?”

She begins to speak, then stops. Her royal countenance freezes. He can see the thought blossom in her mind.

“There it is!” he cackles. “You know what you love, dearie. Now… Go kill her!” 

[rabbitsparklez]

Explaining the red rocks + Eugene’s and Rapunzel’s TRUE worst fears 

I was rewatching Be Very Afraid and I developed a headcanon about the red rocks and characters' worst fears. 

I am not a writer of this show, nor is my logic infallible, but I put together my theory on how the red rocks read people, and the possibility that they can misread people

This is my longest post yet, so grab some snacks.

Rapunzel said that her worst fear was the things Cassandra could do to Corona, and losing her as a friend, but unlike everyone else, she didn't actually see visions of her fears and wasn't screaming in terror, as Eugene observed and pointed out. Maybe the rocks only work when the victim chooses to acknowledge their fear, and if they choose to avoid thinking about their fears, the rocks won't sense their feelings.

In the previous episodes, we see that Rapunzel is obviously trying to push her thoughts about Cassandra to the back of her mind so that she can focus on her life in Corona. She's clearly still upset about it all, but she has always had the tendency to be optimistic and cheerful, even when she's upset or scared. Rapunzel chooses not to acknowledge her feelings, but others do, like Varian and Lance. Of course Varian was having visions of losing his father because of his recent traumatic experience, and he chooses to acknowledge that fear, having every reason to be afraid. Not to mention, being a teenager, Varian must think about his emotions and feelings a lot, and the rocks could easily sense that. What would be giving him nightmares and swarming his mind every day more than losing his father again? Throughout the episode, Varian had tried to keep his mind off of that so he could focus on helping Rapunzel, and mostly it worked. He didn’t see anything related to his fears until he and Rapunzel reached the chamber where the rocks originated, and he had to use the amber to eliminate their power. Varian was scared of the amber because he knew what it was capable of doing, and it was in that moment that he started seeing his fears. We see another example with Lance. He showed that he had stage fright and fear of clowns and spiders, and while he didn't openly admit that, he didn't try to push it back into his head either. When Lance decided to stop letting his fears overcome him, they shrunk and ran away, because he no longer had that fear. It appears that the person doesn't need to confess that they are afraid, but all they need to do is allow themselves to be afraid, and let those negative emotions stick in their minds.

Realizing this, I became very incredulous about Eugene's worst fear.

 The episode said that it was a cowlick, but......No. No way. Why do I think that Eugene's biggest fear wasn't a cowlick if that's what he saw? Because he allows himself to make a fuss about the way he looks. He acknowledges the fact that he hates imperfections in the way he looks, and doesn't try to push that away. His true, deep emotional feelings, on the other hand, are a different story. A while back, @timid-izzie wrote an essay that went over the possibility of him having post-traumatic trauma and the fact that he tends to hide his own fears and negative emotions, covering them up with humor. Eugene doesn't acknowledge his negative emotions and fears, and I think, similar to how Rapunzel wasn't seeing visions of Cassandra, the rocks didn't sense any of Eugene's greater fears because they are pushed into the back of his mind. Deep down, Eugene has very unbearable fears, but pushes them so far back that he doesn’t realize how badly he has them. 

A few people have compared his worst fear, being a cowlick, to the scene from “The Quest for Varian”, where he mentions the fact that he had a cowlick before Rapunzel hit him with the frying pan and it was fixed after the blow. Basically, the fact that he doesn’t have a cowlick signifies the fact that he met Rapunzel and became a better person. I agree that this theory makes sense, and it doesn’t exactly disprove what I’m saying, because the cowlick is also related to imperfections.The writers wanted a cheap way to brush him out of the picture so they can focus on Cass, so why not use vanity as an excuse to do so? With or without the significance of the frying pan, the rocks could easily sense Eugene’s discomfort regarding imperfections. But they only show his reflection, not anything related to the origin of having that fear. The rocks sense his “fear of cowlicks” as a vanity-associated thing, because they can’t read the rest of the story. They don’t know why he hates cowlicks, but only the fact that he does. Considering this, I believe that Eugene has more deep fears than just the cowlick. 

What are the rest of his worst fears, then? There are many things that Eugene has likely had negative feelings about that might be a lot worse than what he convinces himself to believe. If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. He spent a good 23 years trying to find himself and escaping his identity, having no family, no friends, no home, and no money  - until he started stealing. There are many things that can go wrong there. When he grew older, he made a lot of enemies and must have gotten into a lot of conflicts. He worked with and for very bad people who wanted to use him, and almost married an abusive and manipulative girl who only wanted him for his thieving abilities (Not to mention was way to young and naive to get married). Several notably traumatic things happened to him only in the last three years. In one day, he was sentenced to be hanged, witnessed the abuse of the woman he loved, and was stabbed and killed. No matter how much you think of others, there’s no person who can thoroughly escape such horrific events that happen to yourself. I think that Cassandra's taking the Moonstone was just as traumatic for Eugene as it was for Rapunzel, but in a different way. Remember that Eugene’s ancestors dedicated their entire family legacy to destroying that stone because it killed people, including his own mother. The Moonstone is directly the reason he was sent to an orphanage, became a notorious criminal, and received a death penalty. He forbade Rapunzel from entering the castle because he was so afraid for her safety that he didn’t want to risk losing her. Minutes after he built up the courage to let her grab it after remembering his faith in her, Cassandra took it like a piece of candy and ran away with it. He turned his back on the woman he loved to protect her and felt terrible about it, only for the stone to be stolen by someone who resented and wanted to kill her. Later, the unseen events or “No Time Like the Past” apparently forced him to stop resenting her because “friends don’t leave friends behind” (which, let’s face it, completely abolishes Flynn Rider’s persona and I hate it). But no matter what happened in that episode, I highly doubt Eugene immediately came to forgive Cassandra. The objective was to show that Cassandra was still redeemable, but it was poorly written, as a comment in “Flynnpostor” about Flynn Rider leaving people behind basically confirmed that either the events of “No Time Like the Past” never happened, or that he came back to his senses. Either way, there is no way Eugene’s (completely justified and understandable) resentment towards Cassandra just disappeared. 

It should be clarified that Eugene was not completely okay in season 3. He wanted to support Rapunzel and keep her hopes up, but logically, he would have serious problems deep inside.

 We get an example of this in "Return of the King", when he's irritated at Edmund for suddenly wanting to be part of his life after abandoning him. I've seen a lot of people point fingers at Eugene and call him rude for his hostility toward him in that episode, but honestly, I don't blame him. That was the first time he'd seen him since "Destinies Collide", and in his defense, Edmund didn't exactly welcome him with loving fatherly arms. When Eugene met his father, the first three things he had to do were accept his tragic backstory and identity crisis, dedicate himself to destroying the moonstone, and break his beloved girlfriend's heart. In actuality, Edmund is really a sweet and loving father, but Eugene didn't see that at first and it's not his fault. It wasn't until he found out that his father had kept track of him by reading his favorite books and bringing his childhood toys home that he realized just how much his father thought about him. In the finale, he admitted his resentment and confusion towards him, but that he had come to understand his motive. Until that cursed episode “No Time Like the Past”, he was very worried about Rapunzel’s behavior and the fact that she was thinking about Cass despite the fact that she almost killed her. The point is, Eugene is not immune to having emotionally painful feelings, and the writers didn't fool us when they claimed that his worst fear was a cowlick. It's an absolute pity that in a show where one of the morals is "you should never bury your feelings", one of the main characters has no story whatsoever relating to his very much real trauma.

If my theory about the rocks misreading peoples' feelings is correct, based on my observations, I don't think Rapunzel's worst fear is what she claimed it was either.

 It was not losing Cassandra as a friend. You might say I'm contradicting myself by saying this, because my original point for this theory was based off of that, but remember that Rapunzel generally does not express negative feelings. I believe that the rocks couldn't read Rapunzel's fears because she didn't allow herself to think about her fears. Perhaps losing Cassandra as a friend is one of her fears, but not her worst fear. Although she thought a lot about her, she thought in a hopeful sense rather than a miserable, negative sense.

In “Cassandra’s Revenge”, Rapunzel seemed to be completely over Cassandra, wanting to settle down and appreciate her surroundings. I’m not going to elaborate, but I’ve always regarded Cassandra’s and Rapunzel’s relationship as unhealthy, and it was especially bad for Rapunzel to keep wanting Cass to be back because Mother Gothel, her former abuser, was the motive. I saw this episode as a way to show that she was over her - she even painted over the pictures of her on her wall. But afterward she still seemed to care a lot about bringing her back, and even sang a song about wanting to do anything for her (which I don’t believe, seeing that she would use an incantation on her to save Eugene, showing that she wouldn’t give him up for her). Part of me sees this as another poorly written, contradictory scene that tried to cram in Cassandra’s potential to be redeemed, because, for her own mentality, Rapunzel should be over her. But I don’t think all of that was thought out in that way. Rapunzel still continued to pine onto Cassandra and bringing her back, but that came from her compassion for her rather than a deep and serious emotional feeling. The entire “Cass is still redeemable” arc was aimed to show that Rapunzel has compassion for everyone and won’t give up. It was not a matter of having a truly passionate fear of losing Cassandra, and I highly doubt that that was Rapunzel’s worst fear.

Similar to Eugene, I believe she has certain trigger fears that are buried deep down inside of her.

 I'm specifically thinking about "Rapunzeltopia", when Matthews controlled her dreams. According to Matthews, the things that he showed her were her worst nightmares. She saw Mother Gothel restraining her, Corona acting hostile, her fear of touching the rocks, and.... Cassandra. But it was not in a "afraid to lose her as a friend" sense. Cassandra was attacking her and blaming her for her problems. She tried to kill her and take revenge for getting her arm burnt. These visions must have had a more valid representation of Rapunzel's fears than the rocks did, because Matthews had entered and taken control of her mind. The rocks (again, if this is correct) merely read peoples' visible feelings; Matthews went inside her head and brought out her traumas, her true fears. A lot of people seem to think that Rapunzel has completely forgotten about Mother Gothel and what she did to her, but that is not true. I believe that Rapunzel’s fears are masked by her positive attitude, and this precisely was why the rocks couldn’t see through her, similar to Eugene. When she saw Mother Gothel keeping her in the tower, she was chained up. There was one time ever when Mother Gothel chained Rapunzel up. That was the day Rapunzel found out her life was a lie, was almost buried in a dungeon for life, saw the love of her life get murdered before her eyes (and might have partially thought it was her fault), and experienced other dramatic changes in her life - especially the part about losing Eugene. Throughout the series, Rapunzel has shown a particular weakness whenever she thought she would be separated from Eugene or lose him. He is her first friend, aside from Pascal, and an infinitely close and beloved one. He was the first person to ever show compassion towards her and care about her, which was the thing she never received from Mother Gothel. Whether she’d realized it or not, she had always craved that sort of attention and love, and Eugene gave it to her. She holds him especially close, not just as her lover but as a friend, because he repaired her life. Whenever his life was at risk, Rapunzel became especially desperate: He was what sparked her to use the Reverse Incantation on Hector to defeat (and possibly even KILL) him. Similarly, she used another potentially dangerous incantation to fight for him when Cassandra threatened to kill him (proof that she would not give anything for her). She stopped and dropped in the middle of a fight with Zhan Tiri because she saw him lying on the ground, possibly thinking he was dead (True, anyone would be concerned for someone they love if they saw them on the ground, but I can’t help but notice they were in a very similar position that they were when he died) Eugene has always been Rapunzel’s #1 priority, and I have a strong feeling that besides loving him above all else, she has the fear of revisiting that traumatic moment in which she lost him. Maybe she even felt responsible for letting that happen to him, especially since Mother Gothel made everything her fault.

I believe, among the other things she saw in that episode, Rapunzel's true worst fear was that day - that fateful day in which she found out her life was a lie and lost the one person who truly loved her.

Well I might be seriously overthinking this and be completely wrong, but from my POV it makes sense. People take trauma in different ways, depending on how seriously affected they are, who they are as a person, and their capacity to rise or fall from their demons. I truly believe that despite their natural optimism and resilience, both Rapunzel and Eugene have deeper fears and traumas than what is focused on in the show. We know as a fact that this show isn't afraid to let the audience know that characters suffer mental afflictions, such as Frederick and Varian, so why wouldn't characters like Rapunzel and Eugene, who have been through so much, suffer the same?

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and if not I thank you anyway.

Note:

I’d love to hear what you think, but please, if you have any questions or comments regarding this theory of mine, do not message me with the chat. I will not be active on Tumblr for a while. (You may use my ask box)

[solena2]

Hey y’all so I watched a YouTube video that I think was wrong, and as you know it’s illegal to be wrong on the internet, so I wrote a response!

Video is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8LF_KkrCJs

Spoilers for BNHA, in both the video and my response (which I wanted to put in the comments on the video, but apparently YouTube gets pissy about copypasting? Anyway)

Also, probably watch the video before reading this, since a lot of this is a direct response to the points they brought up.

—

I’d like to preface this by saying that you’ve made some valid comments, and that I understand where you’re coming from here.

My Hero Academia is, overall, a story about amazing people with amazing powers doing amazing things, and it’s difficult to see where someone with no power at all might fit in to this, which is the main emotional conflict Izuku faces throughout his childhood, that fundamental dichotomy between his wanting to save people, and his (assumed) inability to do so without a quirk.

But My Hero Academia is also a story that likes to repeatedly assert that anyone can be a hero. From Aizawa with his non-physical quirk, who primarily uses support gear to defeat enemies many times stronger than him, to Shinsou, whose quirk is seen as villainous, who would likely have to fight against other heroes as often as he would villains thanks to the prejudice that’s positively dripping from BNHA’s world.

So I’d like to explain why I disagree.

First, you begin the video by talking about the people who claim that Izuku’s getting a quirk ruins the story. I would like to make it clear, right off the bat, that I don’t hold this view. I believe that while Izuku having a quirk weakens the impact of the story and cheapens a lot of its messages, there is still undoubtedly a story there to be told, and one that is worth telling.

The reason I believe that Izuku receiving One For All weakens the story is because BNHA is all about the consequences of the kind of society wide prejudice that exists within its world. Every villain the characters face and every problem they overcome is one spawned by the very status quo they’ve spent their childhoods dreaming of upholding- the hero system.

Stain exists because heroes are held in awe by the general population without truly being worthy of it, treated as saviors despite being little more than glorified cops, which spawns anger and resentment from people intelligent enough to see past their facades.

Dabi exists because pro heroes are allowed to get away with just about anything so long as they’re covert about it, and in fact might have grown up to be a hero himself if Endeavor had been held to a higher moral standard by those around him, or had been appropriately punished for his behavior.

All For One exists because “strong” quirks are revered, and those who hold them are taught early to take what they want by force.

Shigaraki exists because those with “unpleasant” quirks are reviled and held in disgust by the general population, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation by outside forces due to their lacking support systems.

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point.

In my opinion, BNHA has always been centered around the society quirks have created and the consequences therein. I dare you to find a major character arc that doesn’t intersect with the universe’s social issues in some way.

Thus, I believe the message that BNHA attempts to convey would be significantly stronger I’d Izuku had remained quirkless, demonstrating once and for all that quirks and heroism aren’t so intertwined as it might seem.

Instead, it shoots itself in the foot, saying repeatedly that it’s not a quirk that makes a hero, but rather their spirit, while at the same time leaving it implied that the most important character of all would never have been able to help people if not for being given All Might’s power. (Again, it doesn’t ruin the story, but it does hamstring the core message somewhat.)

You say here that Izuku getting saved by All Might is the only reason he became a hero at all, being “saved from his fate of irrelevance”.

This is… Not something I agree with, to state it politely.

Izuku was planning to attend UA’s entrance exam long before he met All Might. Given that he is, you know, Izuku, I don’t think any amount of shittiness from Katsuki would have deterred him from trying. In fact, trying despite the odds against him making it seem idiotic to do so is one the largest parts of his character.

The way you speak of needing to give him a “resilient streak” for him to keep trying despite All Might’s discouragement implies that he doesn’t already have one wide enough to suffer through 14 years of being told he’d never make it as a hero. With how much he’s already pushed through by the time the story even starts, I really doubt All Might would succeed again breaking his will any more than anyone else has.

You say that Izuku’s arc is all about facing the guilt of having reached his goals purely through chance while so many others remain downtrodden.

That’s valid, and I agree.

You also say that this is not a character arc he could have had without One For All, which is not.

Merely being the first quirkless person to make it into UA would likely start this, as he would definitely still have to get through the exam on rescue points, which could feel unearned to him, what with his massive case of imposter syndrome.

Thus, it would still be entirely possible to give him the same overall character arc he has in canon, and it might in fact end up even more pronounced, due to all the discrimination he’d face from the general public.

You say that for this Izuku to continue, even despite All Might’s rejection, he would already have to have the sense of self worth such a character arc eventually gives him.

This is not the case. There are many instances in real life of people pushing past impossible odds and still not feeling as if they deserve to have made it to the other side. In fact, what would likely happen is that he’d try to be a hero anyway and then feel guilty for attempting it even after being discouraged by his hero.

So no, he’s not Naruto, because the personality changes you propose wouldn’t actually be necessary to give him a fighting chance as a hero without a quirk.

The next big point you make is that it would be difficult to give Izuku the standard shounen power crawl without a cool quirk.

You’re correct that technology would have a difficult time stacking up to One For All without feeling like an asspull, making him a Mary Sue, or needing to give him a seemingly infinite array of gadgets, a la Batman.

Notice I said difficult, NOT impossible. While it can be much harder to turn technology into a realistic way to fight superpowered villains, it CAN be done.

Not to mention, there is already a character in BNHA who does it and does it well.

Aizawa doesn’t have a combat oriented quirk, instead fighting almost exclusively with the use of his capture scarf, using which he is shown to be able to take out upwards of ten villains, depending on where you want to pull from. I really don’t think it would be so unrealistic to give a quirkless Izuku something along these lines.

Not that we even need to. We can have Izuku beating villains without the use of any technology he couldn’t buy for himself. (At least in a place with lax safety laws, which I imagine his world likely is due to how pointless it would be to heavily restrict the purchase of things like guns when there are people running around who can shoot glaciers from their hands)

Ninety percent of villains are as vulnerable to getting shot as a normal human. If that’s too violent and bloody for the tone of the show, there are dozens of ways to beat the villains with things like hairspray flamethrowers, slingshots, and traditional weapons (just look at Stain). While quirks certainly are powerful, they aren’t perfect and every ability has a counter, even if it’s not always immediately obvious.

This eliminates the problem of him needing to get his tech from somewhere entirely. (Which is almost a con, because Mei needs more screentime, man)

Actually your point of possibly making Izuku a “super genius” reminds me of something else. Izuku has an almost supernatural ability to identify and counter quirks. Gee, I wonder how that could be useful in a possible plot line where he’s unable to rely on being able to smash his way through problems…

You say that if Izuku getting a quirk is an issue for BNHA, giving him overpowered tech would be a problem as well. Though I already solved this problem by proposing less tech heavy solutions, I’ve decided not to skip over this point because it seems like the right place for me to bring up a piece of context you may be missing for why some people are so against Izuku being given a quirk.

Let’s talk about the disability angle.

Now, as someone with mental disabilities myself, I’m not exactly unbiased here. I’m not going to deny that I have a knee jerk reaction to any story that gives a character a disability (or something analogous within the setting to a disability, like quirklessness) and then “cures” it while implying that they never would have gotten anywhere if their disability had persisted. This is actually why I took so long to get into the BNHA fandom, since I saw a loose outline of the plot and immediately went “oh hell no”.

I did end up joining the fandom in the end, simply because I’m almost certain that this parallel was unintentional.

Anyway, the reason why giving him an overpowered quirk and giving him overpowered tech are so different from a lot of people’s perspectives is that giving him tech doesn’t erase his “disability”. If you give a quirkless Izuku powerful tech, he’ll still be quirkless, with all the hurdles and challenges that implies. (Especially the discrimination related ones) Meanwhile, giving Izuku a quirk removes the disability entirely, as well as most associated difficulties.

I’m sure you can see why one seems so ableist, from a disabled perspective.

You say that you would likely run out of ways to meaningfully progress his tech, in a series as long as BNHA likely will be by its conclusion, but I’d like to point out that this is just as much of a problem with superpowered media. It’s very common in shounen for power progression to feel like more and more of an asspull as the story progresses. Thus, you solve the problem in the same way, by relying more on clever use of what the hero already possesses than you do on creating a new application or ability in every fight.

And no, I can think of several ways to beat both Dabi and Shigaraki without “science magic”. Obviously, neither of them are immune to bullets, though again, that’s probably a bit too quick for this show. You could take down Shigaraki if you could numb his hands somehow, or if you protected yourself with something made of many interlocking parts, like chain mail. You could beat Dabi if you used something like a taser, if you could get close enough to use it. You could also just find a way to outlast him, since he’s not immune to his own fire. Maybe bring some gasoline?

I’m going to skip over the points you make while talking about setting, since I don’t believe you’d have to alter the setting to make a quirkless Izuku feasible.

I will talk acknowledge one point you make while discussing setting simply so I can say: inequality and societal imbalance do not require much, or even any, actual disparity in ability to both exist and be prevalent enough to disenfranchise huge chunks of a population. Just look at how autistic and ADHD people are treated for that. (Or gay people, or women, or the Poors(™)...)

In conclusion, your opinion is valid but I think you lack knowledge of where most of this criticism is actually coming from, which isn’t something you should be ashamed of.

I think the reason mine and your opinions are so fundamentally different here is that we’re coming from very different places, and our thoughts on a piece of media like this are always going to be shaped by our environment.

Thank you for reading.

[evolutionsvoid]

When it comes to dangerous creatures and ferocious monsters, many folk think of carnivores and vicious predators. Those who feast on flesh, tearing through prey with tooth and claw. No one pays any mind to the herbivores, as they eat simple plants, how scary could that be? Well, in truth, this plant-eaters can be plenty dangerous and there are those that the carnivores dare not touch. One may argue that predators eat these herbivores, so clearly they are dominant! However, a keen eye will notice that many predators seek out the young, old and weak, those that are easy prey. For some species, a healthy adult is untouchable, only attacked in desperate times. In some cases, this is done because one wants to conserve energy, so it is best to take the easier meal. In other cases, these herbivores are dangerous foes that can strike deadly blows or wound a predator so badly that they will never be able to hunt again. One's diet does not determine one's threat level, so one should be mindful before making such assumptions. A good example of this is the Khalkotauroi, a herbivorous behemoth that walks the grasslands and savannas. Though it feeds on grass, leaves and other plant matter, it is considered one of the most dangerous creatures of the continent. A hulking ungulate, the Khalkotauroi is actually related to the Catoblepas, as one can see in certain features. It possess the prehensile lower lip, the scaly armor and the long serpentine tail. The biggest noticeable difference, though, is that this beast does not drag its head on the ground. Instead it has quite the short sturdy neck, meaning it can function like any other animal on the savanna. Since it does not have to crawl with its face, this species is much more mobile. They still walk along at a leisurely pace, but if angered, they can charge with incredible speed and force. That is another thing about the Khalkotauroi, they are absolute powerhouses. Their bodies are packed with pure muscle, with backs practically bulging with all this strength. One's charge has the power to knock over a tree or barrel through a wall, which means that us much squishier things would pretty much burst on impact. A thick neck allows them to absorb a whole lot of shock from the attack, and it also gives them the ability to toss things around like toys. A pair of thorny, heavily armored horns is their main weapon, and they are things to be feared. Not only will they gore you, but you can get caught in them and thrashed about. The metallic shell on these horns is incredibly strong, able to deflect sword strikes and ignore a whole lot of punishment. This same armoring coats most of their body, which makes them even more intimidating. Thick scales give them an incredible amount of protection, making it difficult for any attacker to leave a serious wound. The bottom of their jaw and the back of their legs are the only places where one could get a hit off, but these areas are not very easy to reach when this beast is charging you. While it does not eat meat and it gains nothing from taking down another animal, Khalkotauroi often cause injury and death due to a rather short fuse. They are easily angered and they are quick to get defensive when approached by an unknown creature. Like Catoblepas, they have quite poor eye sight and thus rely on smell to truly understand their surroundings. Odors of danger or strange beings can put them on edge, and they are quick to defend themselves if something startles them in this state. Since smell is a big thing for them, a misunderstanding in a hectic situation can lead to an attack. My guides said that approaching one while drenched in a familiar odor is not a foolproof plan. If the wind changes and they catch the smell of a predator, they will get defensive. And if you happen to be in front of them in this state and make a sudden move, they will assume you are a part of the danger and charge. I certainly didn't need to be told to stay far from them, but this adds to the huge pile of reasons to keep your distance. This defensive nature and anger is also extended to their young, as they are very protective of their calves. Getting anywhere near a baby Khalkotauroi is a recipe for disaster, as their mother isn't the only one who will maul you for this sin. All Khalkotauroi keep an eye out for each other, and they will work in a group if threatened. Even their Catoblepas cousins are roped into this, though they rarely need defending. Living in a poison cloud means that a lot of enemies aren't going to visit you at home.   The rage of a Khalkotauroi is a well known thing, as they are essentially living battering rams. Fences, walls and any other obstacle is easily barreled through, and the whip of an angry tail can send a man flying. Loud snorts and pawing at the ground are clear signs of anger, but the biggest signal comes from their nose and mouth. Much like their Catoblepas cousins, they possess special organs that collect certain fluids from the plants they eat. These same organs secrete their own special compound, mixing it all into a particular substance. This soup is turned into a vapor and it can be expelled from the nose or mouth. This vapor is quite flammable, igniting at the slightest spark. This spark is provided by their tusks, which contain properties that are similar to flint and steel. With quick jaw movements, they can grind these teeth together and cause sparking, which will ignite the expelled vapor. So when a Khalkotauroi is angry, it will literally have flames bursting from its jaws! Though an intimidating sight to see, the fire itself isn't all that dangerous. The vapor burns quickly and the fire doesn't create that much heat. Getting hit by a puff of this flame may singe your foliage and hair, but it won't incinerate you like dragon fire. They don't really use the flames as projectile, rather the heat stays all around the head. That means if you are stuck on its horns, than maybe you are going to start cooking up. In reality, these bursts of fire are more for intimidation and distraction, scaring away attackers or disorienting them long enough to get gored. I see this application quite often in conversation about this species. When I bring up the Khalkotauroi, many are quick to mention the fire and say how scary it is. I often shoot back that the charging horned beast is the thing that I find quite scarier. Singed leaves are unpleasant, but having my body turned to mulch is a bit worse! The fire they produce may also be used to burn off the irritating hairs and nasty thorns of certain plants, making them more palatable. It is a behavior that is quite similar to the Crystal Horn, though they rely more on focused light rather than belched flame.       

With their immense strength, impenetrable armor and nasty temper, many people tend to see nothing else in these beasts. However, one may be surprised to learn that the Khalkotauroi are rather intelligent. They seem to be quite observant and a bit curious, both of which they use to learn and adapt. When some new object shows up in their territory, they are always quick to check it out and prod it with their lower lip. Land owners who put up fences or new structures can be sure that the local Khalkotauroi will be inspecting these recent additions. While some may chalk it up to normal curiosity and common threat assessment, locals have found these creatures actually learning the purpose and functions of these things. Though big and bulky, their prehensile lower lip can actually allow them to perform these functions after careful observations! Quite a few farmers I met regaled me of their first time they saw a Khalkotauroi unlatch their gate and stroll right onto their property. Though I think such a thing would be incredible to watch, the storytellers were not so thrilled about suddenly having these massive creatures near their crops and homes! It sounds like that most Khalkotauroi have mastered simple doors and gates, which means folk need to add extra layers and complexities to their barriers to prevent these beasts from easily flinging them open. I have also been told that Khalkotauroi have come up with interesting behaviors when it comes to the dry season. Though their eye sight isn't all that great, they can still pick out silhouettes, and a shape they are quite familiar with is that of a human carrying a pot or urn on their head. When water is scarce, the Khalkotauroi will follow these folk as they know that they are headed towards water. Of course not every person has to draw water from a watering hole, as many towns and villages have wells and other ways to gather this precious liquid. Well, the Khalkotauroi have learned that too. There have been stories of these creatures trying to get into a village's stored water, and one instance where a Khalkotauroi actually figured out how to pull the rope that brings forth a bucket of well water! The other thing that shows the intelligence of the Khalkotauroi is their memory. They appear to remember every place they have visited, even when they were calves. Water holes or feeding grounds they haven't seen in decades can still be easily found, and they are sure to bring their young along so that they can learn too. They also are able to remember certain individuals, which they often identify through smell. This brings up a rather fascinating thing about Khalkotauroi and one of the big reasons they are infamous to locals and hunters. Not only do they remember specific people or creatures, they associate these beings with certain things. There is a tale of a farmhand who was responsible for dumping any food waste or rotten produce from their farm, which they often pitched in the same spot every day. Eventually the Khalkotauroi came to recognize this location as a reliable source of food. From that point on, the farmhand would find these beasts waiting patiently for the regular delivery at the same time every day. Though terrified at first, the fellow found that they were quite friendly and peaceful towards him. The farmhand found these interactions pleasant, but never thought too much about them. He brought food and that was all they really cared about. Months down the road, though, and he found himself in peril. While out on the road to visit family, he was ambushed by bandits and captured. His attempts to defend himself angered the thieves and they gave him quite the thrashing. As they beat him, there was a deafening bellow and something massive came charging out of the grass. An enraged Khalkotauroi plowed through the bandits, sending everyone running. Each thief was chased down and ground to paste, but the angry beast brought no harm to the farmhand. It was later found that this Khalkotauroi was one that visited the dumping ground daily, and it recognized the man who brought the food. Hearing his friend in pain and peril, it came rushing to the rescue! It is quite a wonderful tale, and it goes to show how smart these beasts can be. However, a memory that can help remember a friend can also remember a foe. It turns out that Khalkotauroi can hold grudges. The most well known tale of this behavior is the story of Gnarl Horn, a rather famous Khalkotauroi that prowled near the town of Ndiounda. Gnarl Horn was a full grown bull that was identified by a twisted overgrown horn, which was probably due to an injury that occurred in his youth. Larger than all others of his kind, he was said to be the undisputed king of the territory, and that no predator dared show their face when he was around. All the townsfolk treated Gnarl Horn with respect and they dared not cross him even when he wandered into town. He was a notable specimen of his kind with an unique appearance, which obviously meant that some rich elite jerkbag would want to kill it and turn him into a trophy. Some far-off wealthy lord known as Hagen prided himself on being a big game hunter and saw Gnarl Horn as a must-have for his trophy room. So he sailed off and went to Ndiounda in hopes of bagging this behemoth, which the locals did not appreciate. They forbid anyone to hunt Gnarl Horn and refused to help the man. So instead of taking the hint, he decided to hire some shady folk to serve as guides so that he could claim his prize. They tracked down the beast and found him grazing in a herd of fellow herbivores. Knowing simple weapons were ineffective against the armored hide, Hagen decided to construct pitfalls and leg traps that would topple Gnarl Horn and leave him vulnerable. The group then had the genius idea of setting off explosive seed pods to whip the herd into a panic. The cacophony they made sent every creature into a frenzy, resulting in a stampede. Everyone had to duck and cover as the chaos ensued, only emerging when the craze had passed. The aftermath showed several ungulates that had fallen into the traps and crippled themselves, as well as a bunch that had been tripped by placed foot holds and were trampled to death in the panic. All in all, it was a horrible scene of misery and terrible waste of life. And of course, Gnarl Horn was nowhere to be found. Somehow having no remorse for his stupid actions, Hagen retired to the camp to plot out another way to take down the beast. As they prepared for dinner, though, their quarry made a violent appearance. Gnarl Horn came charging into camp, tearing through the tents and goring one of the guides. They all fled the scene in a panic, retreating to a place where the enraged creature couldn't reach them. After Gnarl Horn gave up and left, they went back to their shredded camp and gathered what remained. They set up their station elsewhere, and Hagen was determined more than ever to beat these behemoth. When he went out to hunt the next morning, Gnarl Horn appeared once again and attacked. Few more guides and helpers were killed in the assault, but even when Hagen escaped, the terror was not over. For the next two days, Gnarl Horn continued to ambush and attack the group at every turn. Finally his guides abandoned him and fled, leaving Hagen to fend for himself. With all his equipment and preparations shattered by this furious creature, he had no choice but to flee. He abandoned his quest and sailed home, vowing to return and kill the behemoth. While the locals were happy to see the rich fool get driven off, they wondered what had infuriated Gnarl Horn to this degree. Eventually the guides were tracked down and questioned, and it was revealed that a few of them returned to the scene of the failed hunt to collect what they could from the collateral casualties. They didn't want the meat and resources to go to waste, as Hagen left the mangled bodies where they lie due to their poor condition. When inspecting the scene, they found the crushed body of a Khalkotauroi calf, who had been trampled amidst the chaos. No one can really confirm if this calf was Gnarl Horn's offspring or not, but such a loss regardless would be enough to drive the beast mad. Years after the incident, Hagen returned to Ndiounda to try and take down Gnarl Horn again. This trip lasted only two days, as the beast attacked hours after Hagen had set foot in the wilderness. After the first assault, no one dared help him or offer him sanctuary. The townsfolk wouldn't even let him into the town, as Gnarl Horn pursued Hagen even into populated areas and didn't care what got smashed during his rage. With no place hide, he was forced to quit once again. A few years after that, he came back for a different hunting expedition in another part of the territory, eyeing a tamer prize. Four days into his expedition, Gnarl Horn exploded onto the scene and tore through the party, leading to another retreat. From then on, Hagen refused to return to that land as long as Gnarl Horn lived. Eventually, the beast's reign came to an end. Old and weary, Gnarl Horn was found one day lying underneath a mango tree in a local farm. Lazily eating the fallen fruit, he simply sat there for three days, never moving from the spot. On the fourth day, the villagers had found that he had passed in the night. The whole town held a ceremony for the great giant, and news of the funeral reached Hagen's ears. Gleeful that the terrible creature had finally died, he set up another hunting expedition in the territory to celebrate. Longing to bag some game from this savanna, he trekked out into the wilderness and was promptly attacked by a young bull Khalkotauroi. Hagen was run through by its horns and crushed against a mango tree. After Hagen was dead, the bull simply turned around and left, ignoring the horrified guides. It seems that the Khalkotauroi can pass down a lot of things to their young. In the regions they call home, the thoughts on the Khalkotauroi is a bit of a mixed bag. Many are proud of such a powerful and adaptive beast, as it serves as a perfect symbol for strength. Their impenetrable scales serve as great materials for armor and equipment, and those that can summon it through Thericorium will have a great coat of armor to wear into battle. The issue with all this, though, is actually killing one of these beasts to obtain it. Due to their anger and armor, they are not easy beasts to slay, which is extra problematic when they become a nuisance. Eating crops and wandering into towns is a bit of an issue, but trying to drive it away can cause untold destruction. Thus locals have to continually adapt to these learning creatures, finding new ways to keep them out and away from their property. Some have considered domesticating the Khalkotauroi, as they would be great beasts of burden and they are capable of learning. This does sound good on paper, as you could train them with gifts of food, but there is a catch. While they can associate certain folk with good things like treats and kindness, this will not apply to everyone they meet. So you may be able to dance all around your trained pal without any issue, but the second a stranger is added into the mix, then it may lead to disaster. Also they could get protective over you like they do their young, and try to charge to the rescue if you sound like you are in danger. It may sound cool, but it really isn't when you argue with your spouse over who is doing the dishes and then your guardian bursts through the wall and your partner.               Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian --------------------------------------------- So it turns out Khalkotauroi are not just "bronze bulls" like I thought, but turns out their real descriptions say they are just bulls with bronze mouths and hooves. which are literally the only two parts of this beast I didn't make armored. Great job, idiot. Also the story of Gnarl Horn was supposed to be a throwaway line that would speak of their ability to hold grudges, but I got bored at work one day and started thinking too much about it. So in the end, one sentence wound up being three paragraphs (which could have been longer if I wanted to add the details about his funeral, burial, supposed haunting and the mango tree, but those details probably aren't necessary). Oops!

[nachohypno]

The Daylight Club Ch. 1 - This is my life

This is an indirect sequel to “William and the demon”, so I recommend checking that one out first before starting this story.

-----

‘Wednesday already’ I sighed.

After opening a can of energy drink, I dropped half of it in my mug, then filled the rest of it with coffee.

I couldn’t sleep last night. Bah, it’s not like I couldn’t. I definitely could if I tried to. “I didn’t want to” would be better in this case.

As I finished my mug of ‘killer mix’ as we liked to call it, I ruffled my brown hair to make it look cooler, then washed my face.

I grabbed my phone, to check the time, then blocked the screen after that.

“You’re a great leader” I said to myself, staring at my reflection on my phone’s screen while flexing one of my arms and admiring my biceps, before putting the phone back in my pocket.

I grabbed my school bag and went downstairs, hoping dad wouldn’t hear me. As I opened the front door, I noticed Bobby was waiting for me on the doorway. It was a normal thing for us to walk together to school by now.

He lives across the street, and he was my best friend, so I didn’t see harm on going together.

“Donnie!” Bobby said, extending his fist for a bump. My classmate was wearing a hoodie as usual, with some light blue jeans. We were the same height, but he was better built than me. Pros of boxing in your free time, I guess.

‘I should start boxing too’ I thought ‘May come in handy sometime’ But honestly, I didn’t see me training anytime soon. I wish I could, but there was no time for that. Besides, I was too tired, may as well fell asleep in a wrestling mat.

“Hey Bobby” I said, as we fist bumped and started walking. School wasn’t far, but this wasn’t a big town, nothing was far. I wished we had some kind of vehicle though, that would save us so much time…

“You seem off today, everything alright last night?” Bobby asked. Honestly, last night had been a great one, besides of one loss we had, but it was alright. Much less than what we usually had.

If everything went according to the plan, our mate should be back at school today, barely remembering last night.

I yawned, before answering “Yeah, just… things get weirder every night that passes, y’know? I don’t know If we’ll be able to keep going if we don’t change our tactics”

As we arrived to the school, I noticed there was a guy wearing a dark green polo shirt tucked in his khaki pants. He was giving pamphlets to other students, I noticed one in the floor, it was for the variety show. ‘There’s another variety show?! Geez, these assholes sure have a lot of free time’

He was one of my friends, and a former club member.

“Pat’s been acting weird all week. Are we still trying to get a cure for that or we’ll just focus on beating those stupid gods?” Bobby said, almost whispering.

“Patrick, my friend” corrected the preppy guy, coming closer to us. Apparently, he noticed us too as we stared at him. “I don’t go by ‘Pat’ anymore”

“Cool, you talk to us now?” I told him, in a very annoyed tone. The lack of sleep and my anger was getting to me; I should calm down before things end up badly.

He looked around before answering “My parents don’t want me hanging out with you. They say you’re problematic, and I think they’re right, man” I rolled my eyes “Look Brandon, just stop leading that stupid club and we may be able to be friends once—”

“Why don’t you go get fucked by your daddy, Pat? And I’m Donnie, not Brandon, asshole.”

My former friend frowned at my aggressive answer, but that wasn’t going to stop me. Got worse stuff to deal with rather than a mind-fucked asshole. “Why do you have to be that rude all the time?” He said, handing Bobby one of the pamphlets and walking away.

“Man, you sure you don’t want to sleep for a while? You can tell the nurse you’re having headaches and she’ll let you skip a few classes” Bobby put the pamphlet on his bag. We usually participated on the variety show, but we usually didn’t have to deal with weird stuff at night.

“I’m…” Yawn “…Fine. But I think you’re right, may ask for a little nap later” I told him.

If I had more nights like this, I would probably end up passing out at school.

Hmm… I should explain what was that all about with Pat and “the club”.

First of all, there’s a secret club in this town. We call it ‘The Daylight Club’, because ‘we crave the light of day to be safe’ or some shit like that. Don’t ask me where does that corny line came from, Molly came up with it.

It’s kind of poetic, if you think of it, but it’s true. We are safe during the day, and our lives return to being… somewhat normal again.

It was started not long ago, two or three months ago, maybe? Or at least, we noticed it a few months ago.

One random night, adults around the town started to sleepwalk at night. At the beginning it was already strange, but when parents started acting even more strange is when the club started his own doings.

You could say that the whole high school knows about the club. Students can choose if they want to enter, or they prefer to stay out. We can’t and won’t force anyone to join.

The dangerous parts are for the seniors though, my class.

Freshmen and sophomore students or younger ones can NOT, BY ANY MEANS, go out to the streets at night. And if so, they have to be in a life or death situation, but that would never happen.

The shape and the sleepers don’t seem to care about them, probably because they’re too scared to move from their beds when they hear noise at night.

Juniors are the next on the line for leading the club. They can enter the hideout, and they can go out the streets at night, with a senior supervisor. They CAN’T, by any means, get seen by the sleepers. We take the safety of our members very seriously.

They shouldn’t even be involved in this, but the more the merrier, I guess.

Seniors, that’s where I come in. Well, me and my class. Most of my class.

We are the ones that are most in danger, since we have to be actively out on the streets, trying to check on everything and setting the pieces together to save the adults, and the town.

What do I mean with “being in danger”?

The definition of nightmare fuel, the shape.

It’s not an artistic name or something like that, it’s a real creature. We can’t see it, we have to close our eyes to see it, and even then it’s just an orange shape running towards you.

Pat… Patrick, my former friend, got dragged by it two weeks ago. Three times in a row.

We thought he was dead, to be honest. He disappeared for the whole night and the day afterwards.

His behavior changed drastically after his ‘resurrection’.

Wearing awful polo shirts tucked in his pants, stopped hanging out with us… Yeah, he got mind fucked. I know my best… former best friend too well to know he wouldn’t do some of the stuff he’s been doing lately.

A few more mates were mind fucked like him. Pat was the first one, but then the shape took it as its objective to drag as many of us as possible. Like it probably did with all of the adults.

Should we be more secretive about the club’s existence? Probably, but the adults don’t care about us.

We use drama club as a façade to reunite at school and talk freely about our plans, without anyone overhearing.

Funny enough, as soon as someone gets mind fucked by the shape, they want to step out of the club. I assumed they weren’t interested on spying for their evil overlords.

Speaking of which, I should explain a bit more.

Gods, voices, whatever you want to call them.

They’re invisible, no matter if you close your eyes or not. They can whisper things to us, or send messages while we keep our eyes closed. Some of us even had dreams where they talked to us.

I’m sorry if it sounds like the ramblings of an attention seeking senior student, but it’s really not. I don’t really care if someone tries to tell the adults about the club, they won’t believe it.

They don’t even believe the existence of the voices, or their sleepwalking behavior. We even tried showing video footage of the sleepwalkers to them, but their eyes glaze over and they dismiss us like some kind of troublemaker kids.

That’s why I’m the leader.

I’m the most problematic guy around, not proud to say that. I’m not walking around the town stoned, or going around doing harsh vandalism.

Our main enemy seems to be looking out to have complete order in our society. I manage to keep the opposite. Free will, chaos, noise, everything that can have them one step away from their victory, we try it.

And the shape never was even close to getting me, and I’m the one who sinned the most overall.

I think the most serious sin I’ve been accused of was “Murder” (Which totally wasn’t, I just pinned down a guy who was attacking one of my friends, and knocked him out with a tranquilizer dart.

Another adult found him, and reported him as dead just because the dude wasn’t moving an inch. Then he got up and started patrolling again a few minutes later, but it was already too late and the shape had been summoned.

The shape seemed to be after a different person every night, that’s why we try to go out in small groups.

Four is the ideal number, but sometimes we have less members around.

Breaking into another person house, fighting against the adults when they try to subdue us, make noise at night, etc. Everything counts as a sin, and I’m the less careful guy of the bunch, I guess.

You just have to be quick and think fast, be faster than the sleepwalking adults and the shape, and it won’t even see you getting away.

“Dude?” Bobby shook his hand in front of my face. I must have zoned out. “You really need some sleep; I’ll take the lead tonight at the club. Last-Laugh told me some curious and funny facts about…”

“You should stop talking to it, we don’t know if we can’t trust them at all” It was a common practice at the club, and sadly, there wasn’t a way for me to stop it. I could only say my opinion: The voices weren’t to be trusted.

“C’mon, man. You’re the king of chaos, and you’re afraid of a prankster like him? He always makes me laugh, even when he just tells dumb jokes. It’s like some kind of superpower he has”

King of chaos. That was a good title, never heard it before.

I shrugged “You asked for my opinion, and I gave it. Do whatever you want with it”

Bobby frowned at me, and folded his arms. “I hate when you get all edgy, you know that-” He got interrupted.

A girl grabbed him from behind. Molly, she was at the club. A senior member of the daylight club and the president of the drama club. She’s the one who offered the drama club as our base of operations

“What did you do to Pat?” She asked me “He’s been really pissed after he talked to you two, you know we can’t mess with him when he’s acting all weird like now. He’s unstable and he can take revenge at any time”

Just like she interrupted my best friend, I interrupted her “He’ll be more unstable after I break his jaw, I won’t stand here and let some random dude order me around”

Bobby sighed, placing a hand over my shoulder and looking at Molly “It’s okay, he hasn’t been sleeping properly. Donnie was about to head to the nursery, right dude?”

I wanted to complain, but he started pressing my shoulder and I got the message very clearly. ‘Do as I say, or you will be the one with a broken jaw’.

I would retaliate later, but he was right. I was tired as fuck.

I wasn’t mad at him; it was very hard for me to get mad at Bobby. I couldn’t get mad with Molly either. In these weird times, you can’t afford being mad with your allies.

“But wait, before you go” Molly started “I’ve got a dream last night, I thought I should tell you guys” She said, lowering her voice.

Bobby and I exchanged looks before looking back at her “What was it about?” My bro asked.

“A kid prayed to one of the voices, but I couldn’t get which one it was. Probably a freshman? I dunno.” She shrugged “The voice was Dance-for-them, I recognized her cheerful voice. She told the guy that he shouldn’t be scared as long as he had music around, and that something nice would happen for the club kids tonight”

“Could it be some sort of new mission? Or a clue about our mind fucked classmates and parents?” Bobby asked, excitedly interrupting her.

“Do I look like a gypsy with a crystal ball?” I told him, pretty annoyed. “It’s maybe some normal thing, right? Doesn’t really *have* to mean anything. Just a dream because we live in a fucking nightmare”

“Language” the janitor said, as he passed by.

I frowned at him, and looked back at my pals. “But Donnie, we should at least be on the lookout for tonight. If nothing happens, then we go back to the hideout without anyone ever noticing, but if something happens… better be ready, right?”

I shook my head in denial. “No missions tonight, and that’s the last word—“

Bobby chuckled and grabbed me by the shoulders, pressing strong to make sure I wouldn’t complain. “Alright bro, you’re going to the nursery. I’ll catch up with you in a bit, Molly!”

Skipping first class… Well, here I go.

-------

The day passed by pretty fast. I almost didn’t enter any class with the excuse that I went to the nurse’s office and took a long nap.

And now… it was nighttime, and I was back at home.

I took dinner with me to my room and avoided my dad. I wasn’t on the mood for ‘family time’ tonight.

After I finished eating, I tried to go straight to bed, but I wasn’t tired at all. Sleeping seemed impossible.

I looked around. My room wasn’t THAT big, but it was cozy and I liked it. A pair of customizable dumbbells on the floor which sometimes made me trip and fall. My mission bag hanging from the closet door, next to my school bag. A few posters of horror movies, those made me laugh.

Now, my life was a horror movie itself. Imagine how a poster of this horror movie would look. Probably with me shirtless, abs tensed and holding a grappling hook while running away.

I looked at my computer, I could jack off, but I wasn’t too horny. I mean, it’s always a good time to jack off, and I’ve got a nice gay porn collection on my computer, but I was just like… meh.

I laid my body on the window frame as I looked outside.

Adults wandering the before-empty streets.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Molly’s dream. It was normal, even if she was excited about it. Every kid of the daylight club had weird dreams, and also lose track of time sometimes.

I woke up on the middle of the street once, covered in mud. And I almost get passed over by a car.

This was going to be a stupid idea, nothing good could come from those stupid voices. There’s no way they could help us in any way, without wanting anything in return.

I couldn’t sleep, and decided to make a video call.

It was a rest night, but I knew that at least Bobby would be awake. On the other side of the street, I saw the lights on his room were on.

It would be good to talk to someone instead of just look at the chaos- no, sorry. “Order” around my house, with mind fucked adults whispering and patrolling the neighborhood.

The Shape was nowhere to be seen. Which made sense. The club wasn’t out tonight, that means nobody is ‘sinning’ around town.

I grabbed my phone and unlocked it. “CHORUS Communities” was written on the back of it.

I suspected- No, I KNEW they had something to do with the ‘sudden’ appearance of the voices and the shape. The ‘sudden’ part being still under investigation, because there was this theory that they were always there. Watching, waiting. Around us at all times and we were just oblivious to them.

Look, my town is isolated from the world.

No Wifi, we have a special local thing. We could call other townies, but not anyone on the outside world. Since I’m still a student, and most of my club members also are, we can’t leave town without explicit permission from our parents, which they would never give.

No TV, unless you count the local channels.

No exits.

I turned on the phone and video called Bobby, who lives at the other side of the street.

“Bro!” He shouted at me, after answering the call. As I suspected, he was awake. I think I caught him preparing himself a joint. Lucky fucker.

“Seems like you don’t want to sleep either, huh?” I said, smiling at the camera.

“Huh… what can I say, Donnie? You know good ol’ me” He placed the camera on his desk, in a perfect spot so I could see him preparing his thing, while he was fully visible too. “Free nights are some of my favorites. No chases, no sleepers besides my mom patrolling around the house, but she doesn’t enter my room”

As I said, Lucky fucker.

“Hold on, bro. Gonna head there” I said, turning off the lights of my room and grabbing my night bag.

That’s where I put all my club stuff. A bandage, my grappling hook, a quick snack and a few firecrackers.

“B’ careful!” Bobby said, before I finished the call.

I passed through the open window, and set my feet straight on my rooftop. I walked to the edge and slowly climbed down.

Just cross the street, right? Piece of cake.

I grabbed my phone from my pocket and started to record, this just turned into a club mission.

“Donnie Thompson here” I mumbled to the phone, just to set the record. The club members had to record the happenings during every expedition at the curfew. Good thing about CHORUS phones, they have a good camera.

I looked around as I walked through the street.

I reached Bobby’s doorway. But, instead of going through the main entrance, I gave a few steps back, jumped and grabbed the cornice.

He opened his window to let me in and I climbed to the rooftop. “Heyo, bro” He said, offering me his hand for help.

“Yo, no need to help me bro” I entered the room. His room was similar to mine, just that it was a bit bigger, and had a bit more of work out equipment.

Bobby sat on his bed, leaving some space for me to sit next to him. I took a little time to look around as I got back on my feet.

I did notice he had the variety show pamphlet Patrick gave us earlier today. “Huh, thinking of joining the show of freaks?” I asked, raising my eyebrow.

The idea actually did amuse me. Imagine Bobby, the guy who loves boxing with his life, singing and dancing in front of the whole school.

“Doing Molly a favor, because we’re at her club. And we’re supposed to be drama freaks. And it wouldn’t hurt you to try something else besides being an ass from time to time” He said, grabbing the pamphlet from his desk and throwing it in the trash can near him.

“It’s okay, not gonna judge you or anything” I said, in an apologetic way. Bobby is… a kind of a sweet guy.

He’s really nice, and I appreciate him being with me after Pat was brainfucked, but he’s not Pat.

He doesn’t really get my humor like my former best friend.

“It’s… okay. So, wanna play some COD?” Bobby said, shrugging the subject off before pointing at his monitor.

“Bro, you should have told me before, I could have brought my joystick!” I said, with a big smile.

My mate chuckled “Alright, we can play some dbd in the meantime if you—“

There was this loud honking sound. Like a car horn, but at this hour? Who could it be?

We both ran to the window and noticed something weird. There was a light coming from one side of the street, being followed by a pretty determined sleeper. The light grew bigger and then it became much clearer. It was a biker, which was already a weird sighting in Greenwood.

After that, I noticed a faint glow of red from behind a house. The shape came out to play, that means whoever this person was, they were in danger.

The person fell from his bike as he tried to avoid another sleeper in his way. Bobby gave me a nod, before running out of his room and downstairs.

I went out through the window and climbed down the rooftop, trying to get to the guy ASAP before the shape did.

He was wearing a biker helmet, luckily. A leather jacket and a dirty as hell shirt, which seemed to be once white.

As I reached out to the stranger and lifted him slowly, Bobby came to my side. “Grab him and take him to my garage!”

“Roger that, cap’n!” He answered, before helping me with the stranger.

I closed my eyes and noticed the shape was getting closer to us.

On the rush of the moment, I snatched Bobby’s crossbow and pointed it at him. I didn’t take a look to see if it was loaded, but it served for a few seconds as a distraction. The shape stopped right on his tracks, waiting to see if I actually was a threat, or if I was just playing around.

By the time it discovered I was doing the latter one, it was too late. Bobby was already off to my house, carrying the biker on his shoulders.

I lowered the crossbow and started running away from my house. The shape was following me, which was a great thing. I just had to buy some time and it would be over.

A turn to the right and I was soon climbing another rooftop. I had to be quick, there was no room for error when the shape is chasing you.

I tried to grab my grappling hook from the bag, a gift from the club’s local genius. After that was done, I threw it to the cornice of the next house in front of me. It grappled to it, and a long rope came down, ready for anyone to climb it.

Without a second thought and with the shape right behind my ass, I jumped and clung to the rope. Climbing quickly and getting on top of the other rooftop. The shape tried jumping after me, but I grabbed the grappling hook and ran away again.

‘That’ll give me some time’ I thought, as I ran to the other part of the roof while the shape tried to climb from the side of the house.

I headed back to my place, but not by the front door. That would rat me out quickly.

I crossed the street in a rush, while trying to keep my stamina ready just in case the shape surprised me. Nothing of that as I went outside of my neighbor’s house.

A sleeper in the backyard, no problem. I crouched and just walked next to the fence, until I was next to my own backyard.

I climbed the fence and jumped towards my door. I opened it and just ran inside, closing it behind me.

Now, to lock everything.

I ran around the house, closing every window and door as quickly as I could. I would close my eyes from time to time to just check the shape wasn’t in front of me.

After I was sure my house was safe, I went towards the garage.

Bobby was there, with the biker guy. My classmate was hugging him, whispering what appeared to be things to calm him down.

“—will be alright, man. We just… We just need to wait for my bro and everything will be— Donnie!” He said, as soon as he noticed me. “Where’s the shape? Is it still outside?”

But I shushed him.

We haven’t misbehaved, we just helped a stranger who fell from his bike. If anything, we did the opposite to sin tonight. But we couldn’t trust the shape’s rules. Better be careful and not give out where we are.

I was mostly worried, who was this guy and why was he so important?

“Should we try to wake him up?” Bobby said, pointing to the stranger beside him.

I nodded and poked the stranger’s belly, hoping to bring him back to his senses. “Hey, bike-man. What’s your name?”

He took some time to answer, while the two of us remained in silent, waiting for him to react.

Until he whispered a weak “K-Kevin…”

I exchanged looks with Bobby. Was this a joke? Another guy to take care of? I mean, I wasn’t expecting a ‘I’m the one who’ll save you all’ or anything like that. The guy just smashed his head on the pavement so it made sense for him to be weak and all.

I sighed, before grabbing him by his legs, and motioning Bobby to grab him by the torso.

“Well, Kevin. Welcome to the daylight club” I said, as we started to slowly carry him to my room.

------

Chapter 2 is already available in my Patreon!  And by pledging you also get access to other stories before they go public!

[seventeendeer]

Bro give us the deets on the (sadly limited) female characters!! Tbh i can only remember like two that aren't amy, which are Rouge and Cream....i know theres more tho!!

this. this question. this is the ideal question. obviously I love 99% of the major Sonic characters, but the female part of the cast is VERY special to me and I CANNOT thank you enough for giving me an opportunity to talk about them, because they are wildly under-appreciated and seem to go mostly unnoticed outside of the fandom, which is a crime

and yes! it is true that there aren’t many female characters in the central, recurring cast, HOWEVER! there is actually a very decently-sized amount of female characters who are key characters in the plots of various games, and many that only show up for one story and then leave for a variety of reasons (just to torture me, I think, because a lot of them are some of my absolute favorite characters).

so, a warning to anyone reading this: if you’re looking to get into Sonic, please be warned that many of these character descriptions come with major spoilers!

and without further ado, a little presentation on a handful of the many oft-ignored female Sonic characters:

Amy Rose the Hedgehog:one of the series’ central characters. she’s unfortunately often mostly characterized by being obsessed with Sonic, but she’s actually a really fun character outside of that - she’s a fierce fighter, a brave hero, and aggressively idealistic. she believes in people’s ability to be good and is determined to make others live up to their true potential. she has super strength and super speed, and is occasionally shown to have magical powers, mainly clairvoyance.

Cream the Rabbit:Amy’s sister figure and close friend. at only six years old, she’s the baby of the group and quite sensitive. she hates fighting, but still stays by her friends’ sides and has helped them save the world many times. she has the ability to fly and is sometimes cast as a healer character with the ability to magically bring good luck and health to those who need it.

Rouge the Bat:a master thief who was hired as a government agent when the authorities realized there was nothing they could do to stop her criminal behavior. she tends to follow her own agenda and likes to pretend she has no morals, but deep down, she’s a caring person who will do the right thing when push comes to shove. she has super speed while in flight, as well as super strength. she’s also extremely tech-savvy and uses a lot of gadgets in battle.

Blaze the Cat:the princess of a parallel dimension who guards the magical sol emeralds. she was originally born 200 years into the future, but due to time being rewritten, she was separated from her best friend and gained a new past, where she grew up lonely and ostracized despite her status. her aloof attitude hides an emotionally broken person who more than anything needs a friend. she has super speed, as well as power over the element of fire.

Vanilla the Rabbit:Cream’s mother, who unfortunately isn’t seen in the series very often. she’s a kind and devoted single mother, who serves as a surrogate parent for the many orphans in the series. she also currently looks after an ancient war robot that has turned over a new leaf, so she’s presumably got her hands full somewhere off-screen.

Tikal the Echidna:the spirit of a teenage girl who sacrificed her mortal life 4000 years ago in order to magically contain an enraged god of nature and balance. these days, the god’s anger has been quelled and her spirit lives with it in harmony. she was originally the daughter of a chief of a Mayan-like civilization, the same one that Knuckles is descended from. she believes in peace and has a great amount of respect and appreciation for nature.

Shade the Echidna:another echidna who lived around the same time as Tikal. her tribe was stolen away by an unknown force and trapped inside a pocket dimension where time stood still for 4000 years. recently, Shade escaped. despite her young age, she was the most powerful fighter among her people, as well as the highest-ranking member of their military. she’s a ruthless tactician and fighter, but she’s also noble at heart. she’s got super strength, and uses her people’s futuristic technology in battle.

Maria Robotnik:a chronically ill human child who lived on a space station 50 years ago with her scientist grandfather and his research team. because of her illness, she couldn’t survive down on Earth, so she spent her life dreaming of the day when her grandfather would find a cure for her illness so she could be free. when the military raided the space station in order to destroy her grandfather’s work, she sacrificed her life so that her best friend could escape to Earth, even though she dearly wanted to be there with him.

Wave the Swallow:a young genius and engineer, who descended from a civilization of technologically advanced aliens that crash-landed on Earth in ancient times and used their tech to become master thieves. she prides herself on her intelligence and is something of a snob. however, she’s more of a schoolyard bully than a villain, and while she’s happy to rob people blind and cheat to win, there are still lines she won’t cross. she uses her knowledge of her people’s ancient technology to create hoverboards that her gang cruise around on.

Marine the Raccoon:I never played the game Marine was in, but as far as I’m aware, she’s a loud, excitable kid who makes friends with Blaze and plays a key role in the plot. I’m going to have to play her game eventually, but until then, if you’re curious, you can always look her up on the wiki!

Cosmo:a character from a spin-off series that I’m including here anyway because she’s one of my favorite characters in the franchise. she was an eight-year-old kid who was the sole survivor of a race of plant aliens, and watching her family be killed left her heavily traumatized and filled with both survivor’s guilt and determination to get revenge on those who destroyed her childhood. with the help of the main cast, she slowly got better and formed new bonds. in the end, she sacrificed her life in order to save her new friends and destroy her enemies once and for all.

Sticks the Badger:another character from a spin-off, who seems to have been more or less adopted into the main universe. a borderline feral child who grew up in the wild by herself. as a result, she doesn’t fit into society well and tends to be aggressive and paranoid. once she decides she trusts someone, though, she proves to be a sweet and supportive friend, with a happy-go-lucky “we might die tomorrow, so let’s have fun today” kind of attitude. she doesn’t seem to have any powers, but doesn’t let that stop her from being excellent in battle by force of will alone.

and here’s where I’m gonna stop listing characters, because I could keep going on forever. these are the ones that I think are the most central/interesting female characters, though there are definitely more out there (you’ve probably seen me mention Elise, for example, but she’s more fun because of her wonky character writing than her actual story, so I left her out). anyway, thank you for an excellent question!! bless you for giving me an excuse to talk about all these under-appreciated gals

[thelawyerthatwaspromised]

Episode 1 Should Have Been Titled “The Truth”

Simply put...there was major indications that we are getting dark!Dany, Jonsa, and political!Jon in this last season. The major signs and subtle nuances were extremely consistent. The only real complaints I’ve seen is the “flavor” of some of Jon’s actions in episode 1. It’s an understandable criticism but I really think we were fed quite well for a premiere and a TON of plot boxes were checked off and done so quickly enough that the “there’s no enough time!” argument against the Big 3 is really starting to ring hollow.

I think I’ll work largely going theory by theory here and showing what makes them all even more likely than ever.

Big 3 Jonsa Fan Theories

1.) dark!Dany

If you don’t know already...the dark!Dany theory is the idea that Daenerys Targaryen’s arc has been tell the story of an emerging antagonist - principally with Jon Snow as her main political foe. 

This is probably the easiest of the Big 3 to identify in Winterfell. Right off the bat, we get a glimpse. The Northerners don’t approve of Dany, very clearly. She gets satisfaction when her dragons flyover and terrify the bejeebers out of the commoners. 

Charming.

We move on to the terrifically uncomfortable first meeting with Sansa...and we all know how this went.

I think EC did a really good job conveying the air of superiority and her dissatisfaction with Sansa’s response.

Dany doesn’t have much a poker face. And it’s shown to be contentious for good reason.

This is the first time she’s ever been to WF and she expects to be called “My Queen” like everybody is Jorah Mormont. That’s just not how it works. The first town hall meeting with the North goes even worse than the initial greeting.

“What exactly do dragons eat anyway?” “Whatever they want.”

Bingo bango. If EVER you needed a money quote point to Dany both 1) being oblivious to what it means to be a good politician; and 2) being an entitled ruler who believes the rules don’t apply to her...this is it.

And it mirrors what we’ve seen before with regard to the dragons.

Ring a bell?

Then we get maybe the darkest Dany moment of the episode. Well...at least one of the top 10 darkest Dany moments of the episode.

“If she can’t respect me...”

Then what, Dany?

Her subtle head shake before she says it conveys a “don’t you get it, Jon?” She follows it up with a very intentional narrowing of her eyes...she’s letting Jon fill in the blanks of what she means here. It’s impossible to ignore the implications. 

Notice that Jon doesn’t look too thrilled and gets yet more confirmation that he is walking a very, very fine line.

Next, we get the culmination of a lot of offseason speculation that, as a Jonsa/dark!Dany/political!Jon believer...was told was NEVER going to become an issue: the burning of Randyll and Dickon Tarly.

Let’s recap...

Wonderful advice. Then..

We know how this turned out. And we were shown pretty emphatically that, yes, burning a father and son alive when they are prisoners of war is going to be viewed negatively by a family member of that father and son and it’s probably going to have an effect on how a region feels about you when your father started a war by deciding to burn a father and son alive (or burning a father and strangling a son, as in the books). 

So she bumps into Sam. Because Sam’s connection to Jorah does, again, matter. Sam happens to mention he belongs to House Tarly...and Dany’s demeanor gets noticeably stiffer and more steely. 

Let’s unpack this. 

Randyll Tarly wasn’t executed for being a bad father. He wasn’t executed as a form of justice for “betraying” House Tyrell. He was executed specifically because he would not bend the knee. Bending the knee would have allowed Randyll Tarly to have the exact same lifestyle he’d had before he’d bent the knee. So, again, this was not an act of justice. It was an act of dominance. Unequivocally. 

Then...she reveals that Dickon Tarly was executed likewise for:

...standing by his dad. Please, if you have belief in Daenerys as a hero at this point, consider the extraordinary meaning of her words here. 

The Loot Train Battle was a temporary triumph and a long term disaster for Dany. There’s not enough food to eat and she executed the members of maybe the greatest non-great house (in stature) in Westeros, people that could have at the very least been valuable hostages. And it’s hurting her now even double because the surviving son of the man she executed is best friends with the man she wants to romance and who holds her only chance for political cohesiveness in her newly “acquired” kingdom. What a complete and total disaster for her. Rightfully so.

2.) political!Jon

I’m going to say that political!Jon is probably the hardest of the Big 3 to identify in the episode...but then again it was hard to identify last season too. The difference is that I’ve actually been seeing much more popular speculation that Jon isn’t necessarily as blind and foolish as he might be leading on. 

First, let me remind everyone of what I think is basically the central thesis of political!Jon:

political!Jon is the theory that Jon’s main objective for the entirety of the time after he left Winterfell was centered on obtaining Daenerys as an ally so that her resources could be redirected to the Army of the Dead. This objective was the primary reason for every significant action he took in Season 7, culminating in Jon determining that he must bend the knee in order to get Daenerys’ help in the North.

What I’m seeing from Jon, maybe more than I even anticipated from Season 7 is that his actions are also colored by a distinct emotion that seems to be increasing as the “game” goes on: fear.

Yes, Jon is afraid of what Dany might be capable of doing. To his war efforts. To his home. To his loved ones. So now, I’m practically ready to amend my central thesis of political!Jon to read:

political!Jon is the theory that Jon’s main objective for the entirety of the time after he left Winterfell was centered on obtaining Daenerys as an ally so that her resources could be redirected to the Army of the Dead. This objective was the primary reason for every significant action he took in Season 7, culminating in Jon determining that he must bend the knee in order to get Daenerys’ help in the North - and an increasing realization that, at all costs, Jon must never appear to be a threat to Daenerys’ quest for power else he and his loved ones would become her enemy and he is not powerful enough to stop her.

It’s startling in a way. He truly is Torrhen Stark in this scenario. Think back to what Jon’s seen:

A terrifying first meeting where he’s told that by calling himself a king, he’s in open rebellion against Daenerys...

And asserted her belief that she is entitled to his home...

She leveraged his fear of destruction to demand that he bend the knee...

He watched her berate her Hand for the crime of not wanting his family dead quite enough for her liking...

He had to talk her out of using her dragons on King’s Landing...

He knows how she views her “children” as her source of “specialness” and that she craves being viewed as special...

Because she told him exactly that...

And he knows that even after SEEING the Night King, she gave him no indication that she was willing to halt her war efforts in the south to help save the world unless Cersei agreed. (she also stupidly believed Cersei)

So we get to the first town hall meeting...and Jon drops this incredible truth bomb...

Act surprised if you want...but he’s only confirming what he’s said the whole damn time...

He declared in front of EVERYBODY that he could not protect the North while holding onto his crown. He doesn’t care about Dany getting her chair. He doesn’t care about her war against Cersei. BUT because of who Dany revealed herself to be throughout the Season 7 (very powerful and very volatile) Jon’s learned that being her enemy is an untenable position. 

Follow this thought process if you’re still skeptical:

Did Jon believe his crown was important?

Yes, he refused to give it up during the season because of exactly that. It does matter.

Why would he change his mind then?

Theory 1: His relationship with Dany has shown him that titles don’t matter. Ok, well that’s hogwash because now Dany is threatening Sansa for not respecting her enough...and Jon himself was threatened in Season 7 for not bowing to her and calling her Queen.

or

Theory 2: Jon is intimately aware of how important titles are to Daenerys. And that’s exactly why he has to make her believe he could never be threat to her. He knows the things she’s said; the things she’s threatened. He knows how her priorities...else the Dragonpit summit wouldn’t have been necessary to get Dany’s agreement to help in the North. Jon is terrified of the idea of becoming her enemy because he knows how incapable Dany is at seeing things any way other than black and white.

Considering Jon explicitly states that having the crown prevents him protecting the North...I know which theory I find more plausible. You can make up your own mind on that.

This explains Jon’s behavior, I think, better than any other idea. Jon fears Dany. He fears that speaking out against Dany exposes people he cares about. He needs them to realize that this is a dangerous situation. And I think they get that - but I’m not quite sure yet that they understand the amount of destruction that Dany has openly threatened to exact on her enemies. 

Sansa is more outspoken now and more confident. When Jon jokes with Arya about Sansa thinking she’s smarter than everyone, he very obviously remembers back when Sansa said that Dany would try to force his political submission before he left for Dragonstone. And that’s exactly what happened. He told Tyrion that Sansa is smart. It’s not a secret that he knows Sansa is smart. But, in my opinion, his fear is centered on Sansa being outspoken to the point where she enrages Dany and puts herself at risk...which is EXACTLY what happened...

This is precisely what Jon fears. 

“I’ll protect you, I promise” and

“I had a choice: keep my crown or protect the North.”

His submission is his way of preserving lives. 

What’s the best indication that Jon fears Dany? It’s the R+L=J reveal.

So Jon’s finding this out for the first time...his initial reaction is disgust. It took Jon 16 seconds to say “I’m so sorry”. He was at a loss for words. And then Jon has to deflect, deflect, deflect. 

His next words? Do they address the problem? Or do they display the heart of Jon’s problem? The latter.

This is a big nothing from Jon. The reality is that this war has put Jon in an absolutely terrible situation and he hates it. But what “war”? Hasn’t he pledged himself in TWO wars?

Why would defeating the NK be in any way connected to Dany killing the Tarlys in the other war? The answer? Jon’s only doing what he’s doing and not openly confronting the realities of who Dany is because he absolutely believes that he MUST delay addressing this situation because raising issues with Dany when the war with the NK is so near creates havoc that Jon can’t even comprehend.

He’s terrified of addressing what’s happened to Sam’s family and he’s probably not even sure what to do next. 

To Sam’s credit, he cuts right through the bullshit and presses Jon on the “rightness” of Dany’s actions: “would you have done it?”

I’m not going to go into some silly discussion about “well gosh, hanging Olly is exactly the same as executing the Tarlys”. They’re not the same, but it doesn’t really matter because according to the writers - executing prisoners of war for not bending the knee is very very bad and significantly different than hanging someone who stabbed you in the chest. And we all know Jon Snow wouldn’t execute someone for the simple crime of not bending the knee and recognizing him as a monarch. Every single shallow thing Jon says back is countered immediately by Sam because we know that Sam’s right.

“I wasn’t a king” “But you were. You’ve always been.” “I gave up my crown, Sam...”

JON WALKS AWAY AFTER TELLING SAM HE GAVE UP HIS CROWN.

He’s visibly upset about it. Sam tells him that Dany executed his family...and Jon feels powerless to do anything about it. He tries to walk away when telling Sam he gave up his crown.

Ok, so, if titles don’t matter, then why does having a crown or not having a crown determine whether Jon can say whether he would or wouldn’t have made the same choice Dany made? Jon is saying it’s his not his place to say because he doesn’t have a crown anymore - just after saying that titles and crowns don’t matter.

They do matter. And Jon knows this. But he can’t say it. Not yet.

The last bit of powerful political!Jon evidence is in Jon’s reaction to being told he’s the rightful heir. That, in Sam’s opinion, Jon should be the King and Dany should not by Queen. (gonna go ahead and say this means Sam’s not going to be in favor of Jon-Dany marriage...)

Jon’s first thoughts are to step towards Sam and express anger that Ned lied all those years. Then Sam explains that Ned did it to protect him. And that Jon is the TRUE King. And this is where Jon’s episode-long poker face starts to really fall apart. Jon’s backing away. Stunned. Not totally unexpected...but it’s his first words that REALLY paint the picture.

He’s immediately terrified of the talk of succession. If Jon is SO SURE that titles don’t matter. If he’s SO SURE that she’s a good queen. If he’s SO SURE that “it doesn’t matter” - why are these his thoughts. Why is he panicked? Why is he unable to make eye contact? He learns that his birth wasn’t anything like he thought and his first real words about it jump to what it means for him politically.

Sam says what he thinks: she shouldn’t be the Queen. And this evokes terror in Jon’s mind...

It’s treason. His birth status would be viewed as treason. If Dany is a just queen. If she believes in the rule of law. Then Jon SHOULD be the King and Dany should not be the Queen. it’s the line of succession. But...again...titles DO matter. They matter to Daenerys above all. Jon has spent the entire time since he bent the knee trying to craft an image of himself as a total non-threat. 

He had made the best decision for the safety of his people.

“When you play the Game of Thrones; you win or you die.”

Jon had very intentionally played the Game of Thrones by not playing the game of thrones. It was the only way for him to survive. Now, The Truth of his birth throws his entire plan out the window. He’s scared. He’s backing away. He’s panicking. Because he knows what it means. He realized at some point that when it comes to Daenerys Stormborn or House Targaryen, you bend the knee and live or you do not, and you die. 

Daenerys essentially uses “you win or you die” as her motto. Jon chose the option that Mance refused. He bent the knee. He became Torrhen Stark. Except now imagine he is exactly the threat to Dany’s reign that he tried so tirelessly to avoid. 

It’s so clear in Jon’s reactions that he’s afraid. It’s so clear in what he said that he came to view his crown as a threat to the safety of his people BECAUSE titles matter so deeply to Dany. RLJ just exposed ALL of that because his reaction is utter terror.

I can’t even get to the Jonsa stuff because this got so long...but I’m going to end with the central question of the episode and one that Jon doesn’t answer, mostly because of the terrible implications of the question itself.

No. She wouldn’t. And he’s known it all along. And The Truth of that is what scares him most of all.

[phoenixmaiden-reading]

Captive Prince Book Review

Captive Prince by C. S. Pacat

Read: March 16, 2020 – March 26, 2020

After hearing about the characters on Tumblr for a while, I had to read the book to see what everyone was talking about. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I don’t read LGBT+ books mostly because I just never really looked. But this one hooked me right away, I couldn’t put it down. Nothing sexual happened between the main characters, Damen and Laurent, not that there weren’t some scenes where it did. Damen is captured and turned into a slave and sent into enemy territory where he has to learn to survive and try to get back. Yet while he is there he learns and sees the way Veratians live and honestly, it’s messed up. The way they use their slaves as entertainment, the hidden games, the backstabbing, and agendas going on behind the scenes between Laurent and his uncle. And Laurent…he is very smart and clever. He thinks several moves ahead to outwit anyone he meets. Damen is confused about him because when he thinks he has figured him out he goes and does something that surprises him. We don’t see Laurent’s side of the story but I can tell that he is just as confused with this slave that is not like the submissive ones and doesn’t back down or follow orders. I could see what would happen next, it was easy to guess, but it was still surprising when it did happen. I really can’t wait to start on the sequel.

Stars: ★★★★★

Warning! Summary spoilers ahead!!

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It starts with an Ambassador of Vere, Guion, viewing the slaves to be picked up for his Prince from the country of Akielos. One of them is a man who is kept gagged and bound, big and a bit frightening, unlike the others who are obedient and have been trained. His name was “Damen” and looked like he would give the Prince a hard time to be tamed. It then cuts to the Prince of Akielos, Damianos or just Damen. He gets surrounded by guards from his own household. He fights but is soon overpowered. But they don’t kill him. Instead, he is taken to the slave baths where he is cleaned and oiled. Damen doesn’t know what is going on, but soon the Lady Jokaste told him that it was his half-brother, Kastor, who had ordered his capture. They did not kill him because it would be to easy and quick. Instead, keeping him alive and as a slave will haunt him forever and remind him that he, Kastor, had won. The Keeper of Slaves, Adrastus, said that as of that moment, Prince Damianos was dead and he was a slave, worth nothing.

Damen is now in a room but he doesn’t remember how he got there, yet it comes back to him in stages. He had attempted to get free when he heard the bells ringing in the new king but they had managed to contain him and after they had him drugged to keep him compliant. He had then been on a ship and taken somewhere. He could hear people talking but it was a different language, yet he recognized it. He was in Vere, enemy territory. He was still alive and from the conversation he overheard from his handler and a guard, they didn’t know who he was. This country held no love for Prince Damen, so if they found out there was no telling what they would do, so if he wanted to survive he would have to play along and wait for an opportunity to escape. But first, he had to get through his presentation to the Prince of Vere, Laurent, who he could tell was a spoilt brat. Laurent didn’t like people from Akielos and thought it fitting to have one on his knees, but didn’t have any use for him and was just going to have him broken in on a cross, but changed his mind and instead welcomed him into his harem. So Damen was taken to a slave quarters where he was chained and guarded by the Prince’s orders. There was no opportunity to break free yet, so he will have to play the obedient slave, so he rested…and was woken up later by guards and Laurent, who was a bit drunk. Damen remembered to make sure he restrain himself, yet Laurent wanted obedience. He wanted him to crawl, yet Damen still had his pride. So a guard had to throw him to the floor and started to beat him. Laurent noticed that Damen had a scar and he said he had been a soldier, that he had somehow angered the king, though he doesn’t know how. The Regent then came in who was Laurent’s uncle and the ruler of Vere until Laurent becomes of age. He told Laurent to treat the King of Akielos’s gifts with respect. They had a treaty with Akielos and King Kastor and to not jeopardize it. They then left.

The next day, Damen was set before the Overseer, Radel. He said that he was lucky to have a position in the Prince’s household and he must cast aside his pride and former life forgotten to serve him. If he didn’t behave, he will be drugged again. He was then blindfolded and taken through the pet residence and to a natural hot spring where he was washed and then allowed to soak for 5 minutes. As he soaked, he remembered how he got the scar Laurent had seen. During the battle at Marlas, he had fought and killed Laurent’s older brother Auguste. He had another scar lower on his body when Kastor had run him through during training when they were younger. Now he was not so sure it was an accident. Once his bath was done, he was dressed, restrained and blindfolded and taken to an amphitheater. There were courtiers and pets among the benches waiting for the entertainment. He was placed in front of Laurent who was gloating about Damen’s injuries from the night before. He asked by King Kastor sent him here, did he beat him at something, fuck his mistress, Jokaste, or did he stray after Kastor fucked him? Each thought was horrifying to Damen and it showed, but it was just funny to Laurent. Guion and two others came, Vannes and Estienne and they gossiped as they waited for the entertainment, and it wasn’t the normal sort either, it was rape disguised as so. Two pets (slaves) would wrestle each other and try to mount the other until the victor climaxed. The audience was captivated by it and would be pleasured by their own pets as they watched. Damen was appalled by the Veretian court, in Akielos this sort of behavior was done in private, but here it was on display. But what was next horrified him more. He was suddenly grabbed by a guard and pulled into the ring opposite a brute of a man, clearly, a mercenary brought in because of his size to pin Damen down and rape him. So the wrestling began with the mercenary and Damen soon found himself bring pinned down. But it was because something was wrong, he felt weak and dizzy and soon understood that in the bath they had some perfume wafting in the air while he was in there, he had been drugged. Even so, he managed to force the man off him and punched him to unconsciousness. He had won, but he wasn’t like them to rape an unconscious man. So instead he knelt before Laurent and prostrated himself to him. Laurent then told him to kiss his boot. Damen hated the idea but did it anyway. Despite his winning, the audience still wanted a performance. Another man came over and offered his pet, a child, as a reward so they could see the Prince’s pet really perform. Damen refused to rape a child. When asked why he hold Laurent in his language that he wasn’t like him who take pleasure in hurting those weaker than him. Laurent said to the others that Damen had refused his services and he then left the hall. Damen was surprised that Laurent had let it go just like that. He was then dressed and got ready to return to the harem.

Damen was kept in his room for 6 days, only seeing the servants who came with his meals and the guards who escorted him to the bath. During that time, he tried to make light conversation with them but they wouldn’t speak to him. He did get out of a guard that the man he had beaten in the ring had been the Regent’s thug who had been kicked out of the King’s Guard. So not only did he win against the man Laurent had put him up against, but he had also slighted the Regent. It was clear that Laurent held no love for his uncle and was trying to spite him. On the sixth day, he was taken to his bath as usual but Laurent was there. He said that his uncle was away on a hunting trip, he had waited so they could be alone. He tried to goad Damen into a reaction so that his guards could storm in, but he didn’t rise to the bait. So instead Lauren told Damen to wash him, so he did. Only as he did, his mind wandered to the slave in Akielos that looked like Laurent, blonde and fair-skinned, who had not been shy when cleaning him. His body reacted to it and Laurent assumed it was because of him. As a reaction, Laurent tried to slap him, but Damen instinctively caught the hand to stop him and wouldn’t let go until he commented that he was only interested because he was not a young boy. He then called in the guards and they took Damen to the cross. The cross was a flogging pole. Some of the guards were wary about doing it because the Regent said to not harm the slave, but Laurent said that his uncle wasn’t here and to listen to him, so they did. Laurent didn’t give a set number of lashes and Damen could do nothing but take it. Once they stopped, Laurent said that he should have done this in the beginning but didn’t because he wanted to know what kind of man he was. He then had the guard begin again. But the guard didn’t want to because he may die. Laurent then bet him a gold coin that he wouldn’t, so the guard began hitting him again. When it was over, Damen was on the verge of passing out. Laurent then said that he had been on the field of Marlas, but hadn’t been let on the front lines. He knew what Akielon honor was, once given the chance they will stab you in the back. It was Prince Damianos who taught him that.

At some point, Damen had been removed from the flogging post and taken to his rooms to be treated. It seemed that Veretian way of treatment was different from what he was used to. They made him comfortable so that he could lay on his stomach and not antagonize his back. The good thing that came out of this was that the other pets and guards were not so wary around him. It was like a spell had been lifted and he was now one of them. In this way, Damen was able to get some information. The guards that were placed at his door were Laurent’s guards and didn’t have an affiliation to the Regent and they didn’t seem to like each other, something they had picked up on with the feud going on between the Regent and the Prince. He also learned that in Vere there were a lot more same-sex relationships because it would breed bastard that they don’t want. So high born men kept male pets, and female high born’s kept female pets. It was better that way. Damen himself preferred women but was not opposed to fucking a man if he was attracted to him. Vere was just complicated. Damen also learned that pets were not slaves and therefore not guarded. The harem didn’t have guards, except the ones placed on his door. So once he got past them, he wouldn’t encounter anyone. He filed the information later. Seven days later, the Regent returned. Guards came into his room, ones he didn’t recognize, dressed in red. With them, the Regent came in with the two Councillors Guion and Audin. They were appalled by what happened to Damen’s back. The Regent said that Laurent disobeyed him. He had told him to treat King Kastor’s gift with respect and yet had him almost flogged to death. This was what he thought of the negotiations with Akielos. Laurent had to be punished, but how? Especially with him coming of age in 10 months, but his actions couldn’t be ignored. So the Regent asked Damen, as a soldier in Akielos, what would he do if someone from the army disobeyed orders. Damen said a public flogging and let go. They couldn’t do that since he was a Prince, but the Councillors said they would support what the Regent decided. The then left to discuss what to do. Left alone, Damen remembered the past during the battle at Marlas 6 years ago. The King of Vere had been killed by a stray arrow and Damen had killed Prince Auguste. But with the death of the King and heir, Laurent had been too young to inherit the throne, so the King’s brother had stepped in until Laurent became of age. During the battle, Laurent had been about 14 years old and Damen had been 19. Laurent hadn’t been on the front lines because he was young, so he wouldn’t know what Damen looked like, even if he did he would have been covered in blood and mud, unrecognizable. But there was what Laurent said when they first met…He had a scar…Later, Radel came in demanding to know what he had said to the Regent. Damen hadn’t said anything but the truth. Besides Laurent wasn’t King yet, so he had to follow what the Regent said. Turns out he had been summoned to court. Damen then was washed, painted in gold except for his back, and given jewelry. Then he was taken to a lavish room that was all red, the Regent’s colors. Laurent’s blue clashed with it. Yet he stood up straight and faced his uncle in what was only a public flogging on a political scale.  Laurent tried to sweet-talk his way out of it, but the Regent wasn’t fooled. The proof was in Damen’s back. So the Regent took away part of Laurent’s army, land, and money and essentially told him to do his job. The Regent then told Laurent to “embrace the slave” to show that all was forgiven. Laurent did but was obviously not happy about it because he said Damen looked like a whore. When everyone was leaving. Laurent took Damen’s leash and led him out of the hall.

Laurent ended up leading him to the gardens after talking to several sympathizers. When they were alone, Laurent told him that siding with his uncle was a mistake, all the guards that he had made friends with will be against him now that he wasn’t loyal to the Prince. He then broke the Damen’s chain, so when Councillor Herode came, he thought that Damen had broken free and had his guards pin him to the floor and chain him up to a fence. Laurent and Herode then went to talk. Damen was left alone for a while until Audin’s pet, Nicaise, came looking for the Prince. Nicaise wasn’t as sweet as he had been before; he spat in Damen’s face and said he wasn’t important because he was a slave and his master (Laurent) had his money and land taken away. When Damen told him Laurent was back in the audience chamber- a lie, but Damen got satisfaction out of it, -he left to go look leaving behind an Akielon slave. The slave didn’t recognize him. The slave’s name was Erasmus and he helped clean the spit off Damen’s face. Vannes, a few noblemen, and a red-haired pet, Ancel, came upon them. They commented on how Damen had performed in the ring, but they didn’t get to see him mount anyone. Vannes said that Damen wasn’t trained to perform as a pleasure slave, but he may have a natural talent. Laurent made an appearance then and joined in the conversation. The pet, Ancel, offered to perform with Damen, to tie him up first so he wouldn’t cause harm. It was apparent he was trying to get into Laurent’s good graces, but Laurent wasn’t having it and was going to disagree until Vannes said it would do good for Damen to learn his place. Laurent then had Damen placed on a bench and tied into place, and Ancel sucked Damen off at Laurent’s direction. Damen was humiliated but couldn’t stop his body’s reaction. Ancel performed until Damen climaxed, then Damen was taken to his knees in the dirt and he just glared angrily at Laurent for allowing it to happen. Nicaise came and asked for the Prince, saying that his uncle wanted to see him. Laurent didn’t go right away, not caring that he was making his uncle wait. Instead, he toyed with Nicaise saying it was almost time and asked what he was going to do after. That his body was going to betray itself if it hasn’t started already. Basically, his master liked young boys and got rid of them when they got too old. Laurent said he could offer for him, but Nicaise sneered at him and said he didn’t need him, his master said he was going to keep him, he promised. Nicaise then was horrified that Laurent was going to tell him he wanted him. It would ruin him (I don’t understand why), but Laurent said he wouldn’t do that. They then went off to see his uncle, leaving Damen behind.

Once alone, Damen and Erasmus could talk. Damen was concerned that he and the other Akielon slaves were being treated right. It was especially hard when they don’t know the language of Vere. Damen said that he hadn’t been trained to be a slave, he had been a soldier and sent her by Kastor as punishment. Erasmus told him that he had been in training to be a pleasure slave in Akielos in a separate area, so he had never been to the main palace. He had been in training to possibly pick to serve the Prince, which was Damen. But now he was in Vere and serving the Regent. It was very different from how it was in Akielos where the act of submission was an art. Here in Vere it was ownership. As soon as Erasmus had gotten here on the ship, in a cage, he had been put through a test of obedience by some guards who put a hot poker on his legs and told him not to make a sound. With the Regent busy, the guards took liberties with him and came up with all sorts of “tests” as entertainment. It made Damen sick to think of what his countrymen were going through, and he couldn’t do anything. He was especially helpless when the mercenary from the ring, Govart came to pick up the Regent’s slave. He manhandled Erasmus by his collar so that he couldn’t breathe. Damen told him to stop, but Govart said he could do whatever he wanted. He then proceeded to rape Erasmus in front of Damen while the guard did nothing. But when Damen tried to yank at his chains the guard told Govart to take the slave and go, so he did. Eventually, Damen was taken back to his room, moved now with funds low to the Prince’s wing. He tried to think of a way to help, but he was powerless. He wanted to be free, but he couldn’t leave his countrymen here to live with this cruelty. When Radel came, he asked to see Laurent. He, of course, said now, but he was obligated to pass it along. Damen thought it would take a while, but in the morning Laurent was there when he woke. Damen bowed his head and then asked him for a favor. To look after the slaves from Akielos in the Regent’s care because he believes they are being mistreated, in exchange for his obedience. Laurent seemed surprised as to why he cared about others and not himself. Damen just told him that he was stuck in this cage and couldn’t help them himself, so if he must sacrifice his pride, so be it. But Laurent thought it was a scheme by his uncle and called the guards to question them if anyone had come to see the slave, no one had, except Govart in the gardens after he had left. Laurent thought it was a scheme.

Before Laurent could leave, Damen said that he thought he could appeal to Laurent’s better nature but he had been wrong. He was just like Govart who took pleasure in harming those weaker than himself. It was then revealed what Govart had been doing, but Laurent didn’t react. It was like he didn’t care, which he said he didn’t. He had no control over the Regent’s men, they can do whatever they like. Laurent then asked why he gave him the advantage of knowing he cared for something. They don’t like each other and now, Laurent had a way to hurt him and get his obedience by threatening to hurt any of the Akielos slaves. Damen hadn’t realized he had done it. Having won, Laurent left. The next day, Damen was sent for and brought to Laurent’s chambers. He was taking him to a trade negotiation with Torveld of Patras. The country had good relations with Akielos and was quite similar to them. Laurent said that Torveld could be persuaded to take the Akielos slaves as part of negotiations with his uncle. Damen didn’t know why Laurent changed his mind and wasn’t sure if he should believe him, but he didn’t have a choice. But if the slaves could get out… Laurent told him to keep his mouth shut about the plan and to watch out for Nicaise; he may be a child, but mentally he is a lot older. So they went to the negotiations, but it wasn’t until later. First was a reception, then entertainment, then the negotiations. Laurent met Torveld and the Patras Prince was captivated. While they were talking, Laurent asked about what was going on in Akielos and Torveld said that the country was still in mourning of their king and prince. There were beginnings of conflict, Kastor’s legitimacy was the issue. There was also a rumor that the Prince’s death wasn’t an accident, but Torveld said that Kastor’s grief was real. The reception was to start and they went inside. The Regent pulled Laurent aside for a minute and said that Laurent hadn’t been invited to the negotiations, he had never shown interest in it, but Laurent said that it was he who said he should make an effort to be more involved, that was what he was doing. The Regent just said to behave himself.

During the meal, Damen was seated at the high table with Nicaise next to him and Laurent with Torveld on his other side. With no master to curb him, Nicaise proceeded to try to goad Damen into a reaction, including stabbing him with a fork. It caught Laurent’s attention. Nicaise said that whatever he was planning wasn’t going to work, Laurent bet that it would, so they came to an agreement with Nicaise’s earring as the bet. So Laurent continued to talk to Torveld while Nicaise continued to get a rise out of Damen, but it didn’t work. When Torveld and Laurent started talking about Torveld taking a look at the Akielon slaves, Nicaise perked up and quickly left. Damen asked why he was goading Nicaise when he was the one that told him to be careful with him. Laurent ended up silencing him with his fingers, caressing his face which was not something that Laurent did because the couriers all went silent and were truly stunned when he fed Damen some meat. It was not done for a master to fed a slave, always the other way around. But then Laurent captured Torveld in conversation again and things moved on. After the meal, Damen went in search of Nicaise but was unable to find him. Instead, he ran into Vannes who introduced a pet named Talik, she was a warrior of Ver-Tan. They got to talking about Ancel and she said that his contract was almost up and was in search of a higher bidder. But Prince Laurent didn’t take in pets, Damen was the exception. Damen spotted Nicaise and when we cornered him, he said he was too late. And that the Regent wanted to see him, he had sent him ages ago. So Damen left to meet with the Regent.  The Regent asked if they had slept together, and Damen said no. He was only doing what he was told because the last lesson was still upon his back. The Regent said that Laurent could use a steadying influence and who could not be swayed by him. Damen didn’t think he had any influence over him at all. That Laurent didn’t have any love for Akielos or its people. The Regent was glad that he was honest and had him go get Laurent. Damen was grateful to leave because he had to be careful what he said at least until his people were safely away from Vere. Damen found Laurent and Torveld out on the balcony, he heard them talking intimately. Torveld was talking about being distracted by beautiful men. He was getting closer to Laurent by the time Damen stepped in. Laurent left to go see his uncle and Damen and Torveld went back to court for the entertainment. It turned out to be Ancel doing a fire dance that was truly an art; Damen was impressed and gained a little respect for the pet. After he was done, Nicaise came in claiming to have an Akielos slave perform next. A handler was dragging in a petrified Erasmus who wasn’t acting like himself. Nicaise was trying to show how the Akielos slaves were untrained and it almost didn’t work as Torveld said he couldn’t take untrained slaves to Bazal with him. But Damen said that Erasmus had been burned before and was scared of the fire. Nicaise tried to play it off, but Torveld had the fire put out and Erasmus was able to calm down. After speaking with him, Torveld had Erasmus sit next to him for the remainder of the night. He was enamored by the blonde slave, mostly because he was similar to Laurent but more vulnerable. Beside him, Niscaise was having a silent fit and accusing Laurent of having tricked him and he was going to tell him, but Laurent wasn’t worried since Nicaise was the one who helped him, unknowingly or nor, it wouldn’t go over well. Niacaise just left in a huff without giving him the earring Laurent had clearly won. After, the negotiations went underway. Damen watched Ancel serving the Regent and thought he had gotten a high offer for himself.  Also, Laurent had gotten the Akielos slaves out of Vere with no difficulty even if he lied and cheated to do it. Once everything was done, Laurent asked why Damen smiled earlier. When he mentioned that Ancel may be bought by the Regent, Laurent said that it was just an act for the court. He then said that Niacise was not Councillor Audin’s pet. And that Ancel was too old for his uncle’s taste…meaning Niacise belonged to the Regent.

In the morning, Damen was taken to see Torveld to answer some questions regarding the Akielos slaves. Erasmus was clearly a favorite of Torveld now as he was now welcome into his bed-chamber. Torveld asked what had happened to Erasmus and Damen told him. Torveld thanked him and wanted to give him a gift but Damen didn’t wear jewelry. So instead Damen asked what the state of the Prince of Akielos household. Torveld said that it had disbanded and the slaves had slit their throats in grief. Kastor had been furious and had killed the Keeper of Slaves, Ardrastus. Basically, Kastor had been covering his tracks of everyone who knew what had really happened. He also said that Jokaste, Kastor’s mistress, was pregnant and the child would most likely be named heir. Torveld had been watching him closely and commented that he looked like Kastor a little. Damen told him not to tell Laurent that because he had no love for Akielos royalty and Torveld understood. It was well known. The Regent wanted a friendship with Akielos, but not Laurent. Especially with Akielos fractured, Kastor wouldn’t want Laurent on the throne right now. Later, before Torveld left for Patras, they had a hunt. Damen was brought along to attend to Laurent and wait. It also gave Damen a time to think. He was still reeling from learning Nicaise was the Regent’s pet, yet it explained a lot with how he acted better than everyone else. While the hunt was on, he also spoke to Erasmus who was grateful that Damen had somehow arranged for him to be taken to Bazal. Damen also learned that Laurent had spoken to him before the negotiations to learn of what happened to him and what would happen during the entertainment at court. Damen was surprised that Laurent would even care to do so. Erasmus said that he was glad he was going with Torveld, he liked him. He had been taught being a slave was sacred but here in Vere is was shameful, he wouldn’t last here because it wasn’t in his nature to not be submissive so being with Torveld was a godsend. When the group came back from the hunt, Laurent was in a bad mood. He had gotten the boar but his horse had been injured and had to be put down. The Regent told him that his brother had more finesse in tracking a mark without slaughtering his horse. Then confronted him about how Laurent had influenced Torveld to take the slaves and why. Laurent just said that it wasn’t fair that he could harm his slaves and yet he got in trouble when he did the same to his (Damen). The Regent just said he wasn’t going to talk to him when he was acting like a child. A few days later, Damen was summoned in the middle of the night to Laurent’s “bed” by the Prince’s Guard. Damen was stunned because he never summoned him like this but he was forced out of his room at knifepoint when he resisted, so he had no choice but to go along.

The walk to Laurent’s chambers was long and Damen tried to think of why he would be summoned to be bedded, it felt wrong. Plus, all the guards that had been in the hallway before were gone. When Damen got to Laurent’s chambers, the guards unchained him and pushed him into the room. Laurent was reading and drunk. Laurent briefly looked surprised to see them and was clearly not expecting them, nor did he recognize the guards that were supposed to be from his own household. Suddenly everything moved very fast as the two of the guards suddenly attacked Laurent. Damen was moving before he realized it and helped Laurent in taking the guards down. Damen had one still alive and Laurent killed him. Damen noticed that Laurent’s fight had been messy and Laurent tried to attack him but Damen was able to make him drop the knife. Damen said had not come here to help them, they had brought him here, but didn’t know why. But before he could say more the Regent’s Guard came in. They had found 2 of the Prince’s Guard dead and they had rushed over. They then proceeded to arrest Damen. Laurent said he wasn’t the one responsible, but the guards said that the weapons used had been Akielon, he had to be in on it. Damen understood that he had been brought here to be blamed for Laurent’s death, though it was obvious that the attackers hadn’t expected to die. They would have blamed everything on him. Yet what was surprising was that Laurent didn’t take the easy way to get rid of him, he defended him saying that the guards had been here to attack the slave not him. He then had the Regent Guard leave after cleaning up.  After they left, Damen noticed that Laurent was injured, but he wasn’t drunk like he had first thought. He had been poisoned, but upon checking the water that had been spilled he recognized it as an Akielon drug used during training for pleasure slaves, an aphrodisiac. So he wasn’t hurt, he was being affected by the drug and clearly holding on by sheer will. Damen then became aware that he was unchained with no guards and Laurent in no condition to stop him from leaving. It was his chance to escape. Laurent tried to stop him by saying that if he left, he couldn’t protect him. He had saved his life even though he hated to be indebted to anyone, but he had to trust him. Damen could only stare at him in shock and then just told him that Laurent had him flayed, lied and cheated to every person he encountered. He is the last person he could trust. Damen then left.

Damen had to make sure to take measured steps so that he wasn’t stopped. Along the way, he ran into Nicaise who was clearly there to see if Laurent was dead and trying to get passed him, but Damen said that Laurent was in a bad mood and didn’t want to be disturbed. He said he didn’t care and was leaving, yet Nicaise didn’t move and only left when Damen didn’t leave. Once he was gone, Damen continued on and was able to get passed the Regent’s guard. He then went through the empty hallways and to the garden’s where the cross was. It was there that he found old discarded clothes that he put on to replace his slave's outfit. He then headed to the roof and set out to wait until dawn when people were starting to come out so he could blend in. An hour before dawn the Regent’s Guard came out of the palace to go out on patrol. They were clearly looking for him, so someone may have alerted that he was missing. Waiting for his change, Damen climbed down from the roof at a dead-end alley and ran into the last person he wanted to, Govart. He had been coming out of an underground Brothel. The woman then screamed and alerted the patrol and he was cornered and captured. His freedom was so close and he was debating just trying to make a break for it when the Prince’s Guard came and claimed him saying he was taking him back by order of the Council. Damen was then taken to the courtroom where Laurent was facing the Council and his uncle. Apparently, Laurent had been defending him despite having run away. The Regent said that Damen must have some sort of charm for his nephew to defend him, but Laurent was disgusted at the thought of sleeping with an Akielon. The Regent said that if there had been an Akielon attack he had to know, but Laurent denied any such thing. Nor was he an Akielon sympathizer, he hated them. The Regent then asked why he was refusing to do his duty at the Delfeur border if there wasn’t any collusion. Laurent really didn’t have an answer and the Counsellors agreed that it was suspicious, a contradiction that he was defending an Akielon slave and yet he hated them. Where was his loyalty? So Laurent didn’t have a choice but to agree to go to the border.

Once everyone left, Damen asked Laurent why he would lie to his uncle, not that he wasn’t grateful, but he didn’t understand. But Laurent didn’t want his thanks. Their debt was now clear. Laurent said that they will be rid of each other now that he will be riding to Delfeur. Damen was then taken to his room and was able to try to think about what had happened. He was angry because he had been so close to freedom an now he was not to leave his room for anything and dressed again in slave attire. He also thought about the night of his escape. The Veretian guards with Akielon knives, him being brought to be blamed and Laurent lying about it all. Why? But then he understood and requested to talk to the Prince. Only the first one to come was not Laurent, but the Regent. He wanted to know the truth of that night, but Damen before he could say anything, Laurent arrived. Laurent said they had already been through what happened that night, but the Regent wanted to hear from Damen. Yet Laurent asked if the slave's word was worth more than his. The Regent just said that Laurent’s brother could be trusted and yet Laurent wasn’t. He hoped time on the border will improve him and he left. Laurent asked what Damen wanted and he told Laurent he knew what happened last night. He had killed the survivor so he wouldn’t talk. It was supposed to look like Kastor had sent those men to kill Laurent, but Kastor can’t afford war right now so he couldn’t have done son. So whoever had sent the assassins had been aiming for war between Akielos and Vere. It would be the perfect time for it with Akielos so weak with discontent. Yet Laurent had stopped it, he had survived. Damen just asked why he couldn’t get along with his uncle and just talk. But Laurent couldn’t because the would-be murderer was his uncle.

Damen was shocked and suddenly knew that Laurent going to Delfeur was a death trap. If he left the city, then his uncle would take the capital. Damen then realized that his uncle had already cut off his supply line when he was “flogging” him and took away some of his land, money, and troops. If there was to be war, Laurent would be targeted to get him out of the way of the throne. Laurent wasn’t safe. So he told Laurent to take him with him, he needed someone he could trust, but Laurent said no. He had no reason to do so when he had just tried to run away and he might do it again out in the open and close to his homeland. Laurent just said that didn’t need him and wanted him to rot here and he left. The next day, Damen listened to the noise of everyone getting ready for Laurent’s departure the next day. He felt helpless. It was clear that the Regent was aiming for the throne to two kingdoms. But didn’t understand why he hadn’t gotten rid of Laurent before now. All he knew was that the Regent had to be stopped. In order to save his people in Akielos, Laurent had to survive, but he wasn’t sure if Laurent could do it alone and he couldn’t do anything chained up in his room. In the early morning, Radel came and had Damen change into Vertian clothing. He didn’t know what was going on, but all Radel said was that the Prince had requested that he join him and be dressed to ride. In the courtyard, Damen was given armour and a sword; it was strange to be wielding one again. Radel also gave him his duties that he was to do. He was to report to the Captain of the Guard as a member of the company, as well as report to the Prince as his attendant. Around the courtyard, everyone was preparing but there was not very of the Prince’s Guard and some of them may have turned traitor for the Regent. Damen also thanked Jord in helping him in the night of his escape, but Jord just said that he was just following orders. Laurent then made an appearance and said that he had just had them follow the Regent’s Guard, but he knew what direction he would have gone, yet didn’t. Damen also saw that Gorvart was there as well as Captain of the Guard, not a good sign. Nicaise also came, but he had only come to give him the earring Laurent had won, he didn’t want it because it made him think of him. The Regent then came and they had a little ceremony to send them off and then they left the palace, heading south.

 The Training of Erasmus Short Story

This story followed the Akielon slave before he was brought to Vere. In the years before, Erasmus lived in the gardens of Nereus until he had his first wet dream. He was then deemed ready for training as a slave, it happened late for Erasmus, but he was overjoyed it had finally happened. He could finally catch up with his friend Kallias. After being cleaned and dressed, he was taken out of the gardens and to the Palace for training, he was to be groomed for the Prince, a gold lion pin a mark of his status upon his silks. He spent his day's training in different forms of submission and learning languages and etiquette. He also found his friend Kallias who was in training to be the slave of Prince Kastor. In between lessons, Erasmus and Kallias spent time together; talking about anything and everything, getting close. Kallias told him that he was to be Kastor’s welcome gift when he gets back from Delfeur, so he has begun training for the First Night. Erasmus was being trained to be the Prince Damianos’s slave, he learned his favorite songs, and foods, everything. Having the golden lion pin meant he was certain to be in a royal bed. It was a privilege and many would want that position. Even Aden, another slave would want the pin even though he was being trained for the King, yet the King was sick and likely not to last, so his training would be for nothing. Yet Erasmus had been groomed for this since he was young and not it was upon him. It made him shiver in delight at the thought. Even though it was rare for the Prince to take a man to bed, it wasn’t unheard of. Erasmus had the right coloring- light-skinned and blonde – that the Prince liked, so it was possible. He really couldn’t wait. He wanted to be with the Prince and imagined what it would be like to be pinned down by him, but he couldn’t touch himself; that was only for those special retainers that washed him and for the Prince. During the night of the Fire Festival, Kallias told him that Kastor had returned early and he was leaving tomorrow. Erasmus was saddened his friend was to leave, but happy for him. They will see each other soon, each of them serving a Prince together. Kallias didn’t seem too happy though and told him he wished he could be his first. The words surprised him and yet at the same time thrilled him. Kallias then asked for Erasmus to put his arms around his neck, which he did. They got close, too close, there was something there between them, an attraction, but it wasn’t allowed. They both knew it. They most likely would have kissed, but Kallias pushed him away. The next morning Kallais was sent away to serve Prince Kastor. One night Aden woke him and said that Kallias was here and wanted to see him. So Erasmus got dressed quickly and made his way to the garden overlooking the ocean. Kallias was there, his face covered in the paint of a pleasure slave. Erasmus was glad to see him, he had missed him. But Kallias was acting strangely. Then suddenly Kallias was kissing him. Erasmus couldn’t pull away, he was too shocked as to what was happening and he was trying to hold his silks up because Kallias had torn his golden pin off. He then said that Erasmus couldn’t serve the Prince now, he was tainted. Then the lead instructor came and Kallais was saying that Erasmus had kissed him and Aden told him it was true even though Aden had left and not seen anything. Erasmus was stunned as his whole world fell apart because of Kallias’s lie and he didn’t understand why. The instructor was furious and said he had ruined himself and thrown everything away. He was then taken into confinement. After 3 days, he was collared and brought to a white room where there were other slaves. He then became aware that something was going on outside, but no one knew what. Another slave said that something has been going on all morning. Soldiers had come and had asked for the slaves that belonged to Prince Damianos and they had all been taken away. But the ones in this room were being sent across the water to Vere. Then the screaming started.

**I didn’t want to spoil it at the top, but I believe that Kallias found out what Kastor was up to and went to save Erasmus. If he had been the Prince Damianos’s slave he would have been killed along with the others. That was why he tainted him. Sad way to do it, but he didn't want his friend to die.