#i need to learn how to draw trunks

[dailycupofcreativitea]

Miscellaneous sketchbook doodles 🧐

I like to draw a lot of stressed people 🤣

EDIT: someone on Twitter pointed out that even my doodles of Cell are really nice so I'm obligated to point out that these are cherry picked sketches and 9/10 times I draw him like this LOL:

[rabdom1]

Ok this was funnier in my head but

Goten: tell me you basically live somewhere, without telling me you basically live somewhere. I'll go first

*Pans camera to Bulma doing taxes*

Bulma muttering to self: right and two dependants

Vegeta from the other room: No, it's OUR turn with the brat this year!

Bulma: right, THREE dependants

[obsidiancreates]

Henry Spencer Is A Bastard (With A Broken Nose)

Shawn and Jules have been living together for two weeks when Jules storms into the precinct, grabs Lassiter by the arm, and drags him into the interrogation room.

“O’Hara, what the hell is-”

“You’ve spent time alone with Henry,” she says, sitting Lassiter in the suspect chair. “What was he like?”

“What?”

“This is important, Carlton.”

Lassiter sighs, looking around the room for a moment before answering. “Unpleasant and judgemental. He had every quality of a great cop but none of an actual person I’d spend time with.”

“Which for you is saying something,” Jules mumbles, looking to the side. “Would-would you say you think he’s capable of intentional child endangerment or neglect?”

Lassiter sits up more. “What? O’Hara, what is this about?”

Jules takes a deep breath, looking down at her hands. “I was helping Shawn get some stuff from his old room, and we found an old journal from when he was a kid.It was mostly just doodles and half-finished homework, and he said to just throw it away, but… I kept it. I thought it was cute, to be able to look at what went through his brain as a kid.”

“O’Hara. If you’re alleging what I think-”

“I read more later while he was out with Gus and one of the pages was a failed writing assignment. He was supposed to write about what he did over the weekend and he wrote that his dad locked him a trunk and made him pretend to be kidnapped.”

Lassiter lets out a breath. “Okay. But you and I both know Spencer’s imagination-”

“Carlton, remember the kicked-out tailight? When he got shot?”

“O’Hara, I was with Henry through that whole investigation, and I don’t think I can say that the man I investigated with would purposefully hurt or neglect his son. He was like a machine through the whole thing.”

“There was more, though, Carlton. One of the assignments was to write about how they spent Easter and Shawn’s said he got cut on some glass trying to dig up his eggs. He drew a picture, it-”

She pulls out her phone and hands it to her partner. Lassiter looks at a crude drawing of a small stick figure on it’s hands and knees, overly-large shards on the ground in front of it, and an egg a good few lines below it. There’s a taller stick figure behind the small one, with a wide-open mouth and the words ‘You can do better, Shawn,’ written beside it.

The teacher’s note on the side says that Shawn needs to stop making up stories for assignments about his real life.

Lassiter hands the phone back. “O’Hara…”

Jules sits back in her chair a bit, the tension giving way to a slumped tiredness. “I know they’ve never had an… easy relationship, but Henry has always been so present, ever since we’ve known Shawn. I thought that was a good thing and Shawn’s discomfort was just Shawn being… Shawn.” She looks down at her hand in guilt. “What if I completely missed that he has reason, Carlton?”

Lassiter grabs one of Jules’s hands. “O’Hara, Henry Spencer is a bitter, unlikeable, and overbearing old man- but I really don’t think he’s capable of child abuse.”

Jules holds his hand back and gives it a squeeze. “I just… don’t know how to ask Shawn if these are real. He’s not exactly forthcoming about messy emotions and memories.”

Lassiter nods, and then blinks. “So let’s ask Guster. They’ve been stuck together like flies on a flytrap forever.”

Jules shakes her head. “If Shawn isn’t going to say anything, I really don’t think Gus will.”

“Well, you can either ask Guster if these are real, or you can worry about it forever and never get any answers.” Lassiter knows his partner well enough to know that’s unacceptable to her.

She gives his hand one more squeeze. “I’m just worried. Henry works here. He’s in charge of Shawn.”

“And I’m sure that when we talk to Guster about all this, we’ll learn that Spencer was just exaggerating like he always does.”

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gus reads the page with wide eyes. “Wait, he was serious about that?”

Lassiter stifles the urge to shout ‘Come on!’ when he hears Jules suck in a breath.

“You mean you knew about this already?”

“I mean, Shawn told me once that he liked Easter at my house way more because there was no ‘manhunt training’, but I thought he just meant something like when his dad would have him stakeout their porch.”

“He what?”

“It, sounds worse than it is. … I think.” Gus looks down at the old notebook again. “I thought. … I mean, Henry was always a little intense. When Shawn and I were boyscouts he used to set up challenges that were impossible to win, and then make us feel bad for not winning.”

“What do you mean, impossible to win?” Lassiter is starting to get concerned now. Shawn’s incessant need to show everyone up has been a pain in his ass for years, and if Henry reinforced that grating attitude and now acts like he tried to quell it-

“Stuff like telling us to go find a rocket in the middle of the woods and then going and grabbing it himself. He used to promise us ice cream if we won, then say he’d eat it himself if we didn’t win next time.” Gus’s face pinches the more he talks about the memories. “Gosh, I haven’t thought about that in years. I guess I didn’t realize how messed up that is until I said it out loud.”

“It’s horrible,” Jules says.

“But not criminal,” Lassiter reminds her. “And as… weird and dangerous as the eggs thing is, that’s not criminal either. … I think.”

“What about the trunk, Carlton?”

“... Yeah, that part’s looking pretty bad.”

Gus shuts the notebook. “We need to talk to Shawn about this. I don’t know if I’m even remembering right, but I know he will.”

“He’d never open up about something like this,” Jules says, gesturing to the notebook and letting her arms drop back to her sides with a flop. “He barely tells me about his childhood at all.”

“Well I was there for most of it, and I need to make sure I didn’t miss some serious abuse going down for our entire lives. Do you know how many times I’ve defended his dad to him, Juliet? … Oh my god, on that same boyscout trip with the rocket, he told me his dad had never said he loved him!”

Lassiter doesn’t need to look at Jules to know she’s probably seething with the rage of the entire underworld- if he believed in such a thing. 

Henry better hope they find out it’s not as bad as it’s seeming.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Shawn gets home, Jules, Lassiter, and Gus are all sitting on the couch looking somber. Well, Jules and Gus look somber. Lassiter looks mildly offput.

“Guys! What’s all this, are we having some kinda surprise party?” Shawn looks around for decorations, but there’s nothing. He looks back with excitement. “Is it a case? A big one?”

“Shawn, sit down, we need to ask you about something.” Jules gestures for him to take a seat on a different chair.

“Uh-oh. That’s not your happy voice.” Shawn sits down and leans forward. “Hey, babe, what’s wrong?”

Jules takes a deep breath, and pulls out the notebook. Shawn looks at it. “Oh, that? Please don’t tell me that my drawing skills when I was eight are a dealbreaker.”

“Shawn, did Henry…” Jules falters. Shawn’s expression… 

It doesn’t harden, per say. It just… shifts. Becomes a little closed-off.

“Spencer, did Henry actually make you dig through broken glass to find ridiculous holiday candy?” Lassiter says, offering Jules his hand for support. She takes it.

Shawn’s mouth quirks up in the corner, a huff-laugh escaping him. His eyes aren’t as amused, a dark look in them. “What? How-how’d you know about that?”

“Oh my god.” Gus looks sick.

“Guys, seriously, what is this?” Shawn reaches out and snatches the notebook, flipping through it. Fast at first, and then slower. The slight smirk disappears completely, and Jules and Gus know that habit of sticking his tongue over his teeth means Shawn is not in a good emotional space whatsoever as he reads.

He closes the notebook and tosses it onto the coffee table, sitting back into the chair and sniffling. “It’s uh- it’s nothing.”

“Dude, that is not nothing. I thought you were making that stuff up when we were kids!”

“What? Why would I make that up?” That just seems to confuse Shawn.

“Because you were always making things up!”

“Not about my dad! You were like, the one person I could talk about him with! You thought I was lying about everything the whole time?” Now he looks hurt. 

“Not everything, but crazy stuff like him locking you in a trunk in the middle of a hot day and putting broken glass over your eggs, yeah! Oh my go- this makes me look back on everything I know in a completely different light, Shawn!”

“Okay, you can’t actually be this surprised, Gus. I mean, you were at my house all the time, you know how he was. We couldn’t even play hide-and-seek without me getting a lecture about hunting perps the right way.” The bitterness in his voice is familiar to his friends, the way he keeps from meeting their eyes, the arms crossed over his chest and tense body language. It’s not that they’ve never seen him like this. But they’ve never seen him like this and truly understood it. Even Gus.

Gus, who looks increasingly horrified as he thinks back on more and more memories. “When we were really little and you told me your dad would throw you out for reading comics, were you serious?”

Shawn scoffs a little. “No, I wasn’t.”

“Did he actually ban them?”

“... Yeah. That part he did. He said they made cops look bad.”

“Good god, Spencer, you’re talking like everything in your house was about cops twenty-four-seven.”

“Gee, Lassie, I wonder why. You’ve met my dad, right?”

“But you’re talking like he expected you to be a perfect cop from the second you were born.”

Shawn goes silent. He still won’t look at any of them.

“Oh, my god.” Jules reaches out to put a hand on Shawn’s knee. “Shawn, did he expect that?”

“... Look, guys, it’s… it’s done, alright? It is what it is, and… I’ve accepted that, and I’m working on making things work with my dad. I don’t… I don’t need this. Okay? I don’t want to think about it and get all…” He huffs. “Last time I thought a little too hard about all this stuff I ended up on my motorcycle with nowhere to go, and-and I don’t want to do that again, alright?”

“Shawn, this is important. We’re all working with Henry constantly, watching how he treats you, and this changes how some of that looks.”

“How?” Shawn finally looks at Jules, right in the eyes. “How does this change anything? He’s the same person, Jules. He-he’s controlling, and-and expects way too much, and is disappointed in me. That’s not different now just because you know he went overboard with stuff when I was a kid.”

Lassiter lets out a deep breath. He’d really… really been hoping this wouldn’t be the case. “How overboard, Spencer?”

Shawn looks at Lassie, and then clicks his tongue and looks away again. “Not in that way, man. He never hit me or anything.”

“So what did he do?”

“Why is this an interrogation?” Shawn stands up, pulling away from Jules’s outstretched hand. “This is stuff for me, and my dad to hash out, okay? Just me and him.”

“Did your mom know about this stuff?” Gus asks. 

The mention of his mom seems to make Shawn shut down even more. “Now this is really over.” He walks away, and pauses for just one second to turn around and say, “Don’t- don’t go my dad about all this. I don’t want…”

“... Don’t want what, Shawn?” Jules’s voice is soft and careful.

Shawn doesn’t seem to be able to find the end of the thought. He just shakes his head and walks back out the door.

The three sit in silence for a minute. Jules has tears in her eyes. Gus looks almost shellshocked.

Lassiter stands up. “Alright, I’m officially taking lead on this case.” He looks down at his partner. “O’Hara, find out who in the precinct knew Henry well and still works there. We’ll interview anyone who he might’ve talked to his son about, see if we can dig up any leads there.”

“Whoa, Shawn just said he didn’t want his dad finding out we’re asking about all this, and we just learned he’s way worse than we thought,” Gus says, standing up too. “We can’t start poking around the precinct, because in case you forgot Lassie, he works there!”

“Part-time.”

“He’ll know something is up.”

“Please. I think I know how to run a discreet investigation, Guster.”

“Could you hide something like that from Shawn?”

“... Of course.”

“No, you couldn’t, and if you can’t hide it from Shawn it’s a safe bet that you can’t hide it from his dad.”

Jules stands up. “No, Carlton is right. None of us realized how these pieces fit together until we all talked about it with each other, right? If Shawn won’t… can’t, open up to us about it, the next best thing is getting as many witness statements as possible.”

“Why? It just feels like digging things up to dig them up at this point.”

“Because Henry is currently in charge of Spencer’s livelihood, Guster.”

“I know! He’s in charge of part of mine too!”

“Right.” Jules looks up at Lassiter. “And if we can prove to The Chief that Henry has a negative, unreliable bias against Shawn, we can lessen some of that control!”

“As much as I’d hate to see Spencer off the leash again, I’d hate to be helping enable an abuser even more,” Lassiter agrees. 

“Abuser is a strong word.” Gus doesn’t look like he feels that sentence is 100% true. “He wasn’t all bad a lot of the time. I mean, he loosened up on the comic thing when we were older.”

“We know he cares, Gus,” Jules assures. “But, caring doesn’t mean he didn’t do something wrong. Really, really wrong.”

Gus swallows, and then nods. “I know.”

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They collect a good few statements over the next week.

One statement claims that Shawn would play poker with some of the officers when Henry brought him to the station- why Henry was bringing a seven year old to an active police station and then not keeping an eye on him was something that went unanswered- and that Henry was obviously upset when he discovered this. Another statement corroborated the story, and added that he caught sight of Henry taking all the money Shawn made from the games and shoving it into the police donation box.

One statement was from an elderly file sorter, who claimed that Shawn was sometimes sent down to grab files for his dad and used to complain to her that henry would only buy Shawn cop car toys, and no others. When she’d asked Shawn if he wanted to be a cop when he grew up, Shawn had reportedly said quote, “Something about not getting a choice.” Other statements claimed, when this was brought up, that Shawn seemed very excited by the idea of being a cop when he grew up- until his arrest.

One statement, given by someone Lassiter vaguely remembers being rookies with back in the day, lends more credibility to the recollections of the elderly woman. The statement claimed that when the rookie would go on ride-alongs with Henry or work under him, Henry would almost always complain about Shawn. Everything from Shawn having an interest that didn’t relate to being a cop, to Shawn ‘acting like a child’ when he would have been under twelve according to the timeline, to Shawn ‘not even trying’ during a specific incident where Henry claimed Shawn forged his signature to go on a field trip and quote “hesitated for a second with his pen or something- I remember it was something really minor, and Henry couldn’t stand it. I thought it was weird that he was teaching his son how to forge signatures and then expecting the kid to never use the skill, but it wasn’t really my place to say.”

By the end of the week, Jules is steaming and Shawn hasn’t come around the precinct at all. Gus keeps dropping by, digging up old journals of his own to use as cross-references when possible. Shawn is quiet with Jules at home, like he’s waiting for something big to happen and he’s worried he could trigger it early.

It makes Jules more upset at Henry, because now her boyfriend’s emotional immaturity seems a lot less like a natural childish nature and a lot more like having genuinely never been taught how to handle anything.

No, according to the information she and Lassiter have gathered, it looks like all Henry taught Shawn was that winning is everything, being the best is non-negotiable, and Shawn was born to be a cop and anything that didn’t align with that idea just… shouldn’t be there.

“Wow.” Lassiter tosses the latest statement onto his desk. “And I thought Henry didn’t discipline Spencer enough as a kid. Some of this stuff makes it sound like Spencer grew up in a boot camp.”

“He basically did,” Jules says bitterly, reading over one of Gus’s old notebooks. “Gus wasn’t even looking for evidence of it, and these journals are full of casual, offhand observations that look worse and worse the more we know. Listen to this one. ‘Today Shawn was in a bad mood, and when I asked him why he said his dad stole his mood ring after showing him to turn the box upside-down. I said that’s cheating, and Shawn said it can’t be if his dad said to do it.’ Who the hell steals a mood ring from a kid?”

“You’re getting caught on the small stuff again, O’Hara.”

“I know, I know. I just- now that we know some of the major things, even the small stuff is making me just unbelievably angry.”

“Yeah, it’s rough to read. At least you and I wanted to be cops.”

“Right? No wonder Shawn ended up a psychic detective, how do you just do something else after being raised so specifically like that? And no wonder he-he buys EasyBake Ovens and goofs off all the time, he had it so strict as a kid…”

“Mmmmm… let’s not excuse every antic, O’Hara. A lot fo it is still just him being a jackass.”

“I won’t get into this with you again, Carlton.”

“Good, I don’t want to get into it again either. … Heads up.”

Jules closes the notebook and tucks it into a desk drawer as swiftly and inconspicuously as possible, Lassie doing the same for his file. Henry walks past them, barley sparing a glance as he makes his way somewhere else.

Jules stares daggers at him so intensely that if dropped to the ground covered with enough puncture wounds to imitate Julias Caesar, Lassiter would think it was a mild scene all things considered.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s three weeks since Jules found the notebook when Shawn rolls over in bed, puts his arm around, and mumbles “I have an eidetic memory.”

Jules puts her book down and looks at Shawn with furrowed brows. “What?”

Shawn sighs and sits up properly. “I have an eidetic memory,” he says again, “And… I don’t like looking back, because I remember everything perfectly. Which means I usually remember what I felt perfectly too, and it usually wasn’t great feelings.” He can’t look her in the eyes this time, either, but instead of the tense, protective body language of before, he’s holding a pillow close to his chest and slightly burying his face into it, almost sagging around it.

Jules starts to rub his back. She knows how hard this kind of… difficult emotional discussion, is for him. Now she even knows why- suspects why, really, because not all of it is proven in full, but still she thinks she can cout is as knowing. “Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”

“About the memory?”

“Yeah. That sounds… really difficult to deal with, Shawn. Does Gus know?”

“Yeah, he knows. I think other than my dad, and… and you, he’s the only person who knows.”

“Shawn…”

“I just, I just want you to know… that I’m not asking you to drop it for no reason,” Shawn says, “Or-or because I don’t feel like it’s important. I know it is, I do. I just…”

“Don’t want to relive a lot of it,” Jules says softly. “... Shawn, does this mean you remember everything perfectly? All the time?”

“Eh… fifty-fifty. The ADHD gets in the way sometimes.”

“... But when it doesn’t?”

“I just try not to think about a lot of it.” Shawn moves again, to look her in the eyes, He takes a deep breath, and he looks a little pained. This kind of thing is painful for him, he’s so unsure how to navigate it. “I have to keep moving forward, Jules. It’d be so… so easy to just get stuck, forever, in all the stuff stored in my head. And I’m really, really trying to, I mean that. It’s difficult, and I’m not… always great at it, but I’m trying.”

“And you’re worried we’ll set you back?”

“No! No, I… I don’t know.” Shawn lets Jules pull him close to her chest and begin running her hand through his hair. “My dad and I don’t solve stuff, Jules. We just… argue over it. I’m getting tired of it.”

“... I understand.” She kisses the top of his head. “But I don’t like him being in charge of you when you’re a grown man anymore.”

“You think I do? … But it’s making him a lot happier than he’s been in a long time.”

“You should be happy too, Shawn.”

“Hey. Hey, I am happy.” He looks up into her eyes. “Look at me right now. I’m being cradled like a sweet little baby seal by the most beautiful, badass woman in the entire world. Of course I’m happy.”

Jules laughs a little and contorts a bit to kiss him on the mouth. “I’m glad you told me that, Shawn. And I promise, I won’t ask you to relive anything else for me.”

“... But you’re not going to stop investigating my dad, are you?”

“Did you stop with mine?”

“... Fair enough.” Shawn lays his head back down, and soon enough Jules hears soft snoring from him and mumbled phrases in his sleep.

…

An eidetic memory. Perfect recall.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Jules goes over everything they have so far knowing Shawn has a perfect memory, it makes her angry to such a degree that she thinks it might kill her. Not literally, but it feels strong enough.

She has some of Shawn’s old report cards, some statements she got from former teachers via social media contact, and some copies of pages of one of Gus’s old journals laid out in front of her, and she sees a pattern.

Shawn didn’t do good in school. His report cards are less than average, and are packed with notes about how he doesn’t pay attention, doesn’t seem to absorb any information, and doesn’t remember anything he’s taught. The statements from the teachers describe Shawn as hyperactive, passionate about everything but his schoolwork, and having difficulty with staying observant in class.

Gus’s old journals are full of the same, but also the opposite. Shawn didn’t pay attention in school, but sometimes he could pull something the teacher said from his memory word for word without even trying, and then a few entries later Gus would mention Shawn failed a test on that exact subject. Shawn got beat up because he told a bully he memorized the pattern of answers used in the math tests, but his dad told the teacher and let Shawn know he was doing it. And most of all, Gus writes about how freaky his friend’s ability to look at people and figure them out is. How Shawn notices almost everything almost all the time, and usually makes some dramatic conclusion that isn’t right, but he still notices things and Gus can’t figure out how Shawn fingers things out.

Detective training, and an eidetic memory, and psychic visions. Jules is now pretty sure that Shawn covers up some of his deductions using his visions- he’s known enough impossible information that they can’t possibly all be deductions in disguise, but when she thinks back there’s a few times where it’s obvious in hindsight he used his abilities to cover up the fact that he’s an incredible, highly-trained detective.

Maybe she’s jumping to a conclusion, but she finds herself thinking ‘Because Henry made him hate that he can do it so well,’ as she pieces it all together.

Gus’s journals lend a lot of credit to that theory. Shawn is smart, and Gus knows it, but Shawn acts dumb sometimes and Gus doesn’t understand why, and then Gus mentions that it’s weird that Henry kept Shawn up all night before to stakeout their porch and now Shawn is tired during Little League and Henry tells him to get his head in the game because Henry is the coach.

Henry is the coach, Henry is the chaperone on the field trip, Henry is their Scout Master- he’s in charge of every part of Shawn’s life except for school. And Maddie is rarely brought up, even when Gus writes about spending all day or night or even weekend at the Spencer house. Jules hasn’t seen Shawn’s Mom since Yang almost blew her up, and she just figured that Maddie wanted to stay out of Santa Barbara after that, understandably. She’s getting a different feeling about Maddie staying away now. It seems a lack of presence was her main impression in Shawn’s life, or at least, Shawn’s life through the lens of Child Gus.

So it was basically just Henry. And her heart aches for the thought of someone being stuck in a bad marriage, basically raising a kid alone, and that kid being as hyper and curious and chaotic as Shawn. But the ache is smothered in the sense of righteous rage when she reads other entries about things like a girl throwing a ball at Shawn and missing, and an ostrich choking on the ball, and Henry dragging Shawn away. The entry goes on to say that Shawn told Gus that Henry didn’t believe him when he said he didn’t do it, even after then-superior officer Captain Connors came in and tried to vouch for Shawn.

Henry always assumed the worst. Assumes, the worst, still.

Shawn tries so hard, sometimes, with his dad, and Jules is starting to realize that Henry doesn’t put the same effort in. He tries some, she knows it, she’s seen it, but she also sees him constantly berate, put down, and insult Shawn, publicly and privately. 

Suddenly she remembers something from when Shawn went undercover on the dating show, something she’d been too upset over about Shawn being there at all to really take in in the moment.

“I’m sorry, this woman is way too good for my son. If it was me, I’d vote no.”

She doesn’t have Shawn’s memory, so without rewatching the clip she can’t be totally sure those are Henry’s exact words, but she’s certain that it’s the exact sentiment.

First of all, she takes a little offense to that for herself. But secondly and more strongly, she takes offense for Shawn. As she thinks about it she can remember the way Shawn tried to cover up the awkwardness in the clip, the way the girl on the show whispered “Is this a joke?” and the way it absolutely was not. The way Henry said that on TV, to Shawn’s face, with no hint of shame.

“O’Hara.” She looks up to see Lassiter holding a cup of coffee and a bagel for her. She takes them and Lassiter says, “There’s more steam coming out of your ears than there is that cup.”

“Sorry,” she sighs. “I just… I don’t know if I can control myself tomorrow when Henry comes back in. The more I dig into this, the more I want to just- go back in time and pick little Shawn up and take him somewhere better.”

“Well as much as we don’t like it, O’Hara, Spencer is who he is because he was raised the way he was raised.”

“I know. And I like, who Shawn is!”

“Inexplicably.”

“Carlton.”

“Mmm.”

“Anyway… I love Shawn, and who he is, all of him, but I still wish he could’ve been who he is without going through all of this. It’s not okay.”

“No. No, it’s not.” Lassiter sighs. “Look, O’Hara, put the case down for a while. At this point we’ve got enough to at least make The Chief doubt some of Henry’s intentions and judgements when it comes to Spencer and, well, that was the goal.”

“... Yeah. Yes, okay, I will… I will put this down for a few days.” Jules closes up the file and puts it back into her drawer. “Shawn is still less than happy I’m working on this, anyway. He understands why, but I know he wishes he didn’t.” He probably understands a lot of things he wishes he didn’t. Jules has had to grapple with the realization that she actually doesn’t know as much about how Shawn’s mind works as she thought she knew, and that it’s possible she’ll never know a lot of it. There’s more than just psychic visions to the mystery of his mind, and some of those mysteries are locked up with a key cast out of self-resentments and resentments of his dad.

God, she hopes she can keep up a poker face when Henry comes in.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Her file is missing from her desk the next day, and so is Lassiter’s. They both know why.

They march over to Henry’s desk just as Gus comes in to collect a check, and all three end up standing over Henry as he openly and unashamedly reads through the Spencer Upbringing Case File. Gus takes a step back when he realizes that’s what’s happening, as does Lassiter.

But not because of Henry.

Jules looks murderous.

Henry purses his mouth in a frown and nods, raising up the file and then closing it and tossing it onto his desk in one smooth movement. “It’s comprehensive,” he says, like he’s grading a paper. “But it’s a bunch of biased bull.”

“Give them back.” Jule’s voice is ice-cold. 

Henry shrugs, moving his head side to side for a second, still frowning, and then says, “Nah.” He takes the files, and drops them in the trash. “I think you owe me an explanation for why the head detective and his partner are investigating the way I raised my son. Why’d Shawn put you up to this?”

“He didn’t.”

Henry scoffs. “Yeah, right.”

Jules slams one hand onto Henry’s desk. The whole bullpen goes quiet.

“I was helping Shawn get something from your house, and I found a notebook,” she says. 

“Oh, so, you found one of Shawn’s little projects where he exaggerated things to make himself look like a victim of the world?”

“I found the writings of a little kid who didn’t seem to realize at the time of writing that being locked in a hot car trunk and digging through broken glass for Easter Eggs wasn’t normal.”

Henry laughs, crossing his arms. “That’s what you have a problem with? It’s called training, detective. You went through it yourself.”

“When I was an adult, by my choice, and I sure as hell never had to dig through glass.”

“You’re really hung up on that.”

“Because it’s genuinely evil!”

Henry’s smug look melts into a scowl. “How dare you.”

“How dare I?! Do you understand how much all of this is still affecting Shawn, even right now?! He can barely talk about all of this!” “Oh, well, he sure seem capable of reminding me of it.”

“Because you did it! You’re the only other person in the entire world who understood what was done to him in the name of training because you did it!”

“Done to h- you’re overreacting, detective!”

“I, agree, what is going on out here?” Chief Vick hurries over to Henry’s desk from her own. “Detectives, there had better be a damn good reason-”

“There is, Chief.” Lassiter reaches into the trashcan and pulls out the files.

“Karen, Detective O’Hara has allowed her romantic entanglement with my son to-”

“Henry was borderline abusive during Shawn’s childhood,” Jules interrupts, facing her Chief. Chief Vick’s eyes widen and her mouth drops open, a disbelieving laugh escaping her even as she accepts the files and flips them open. “You understand what it is you’re alleging, O’Hara, and against who?”

“I do, Chief, and I think our case file speaks for itself.” All eyes are on them now. Jules doesn’t back down. “I’m well aware of my emotional ties to this case, but I assure you I’m not allowing it to cloud my judgment. If I was, I wouldn’t have used the word borderline to describe the conclusions I’ve come to.”

“Karen, this is ridiculous.”

But Chief Vick is focused on the files in her hands. Her eyes flick up to Henry. “Is it?” She looks over to Gus, who’s been watching with the quiet tension of a prey animal waiting to make a run for it. “Mister Guster, can you genuinely testify to the validity and accuracy of the claims in these files?”

“Oh, um, well, most of those are from my own journals.” Gus’s eyes flick between Henry and Jules. “I’d say that’s even more reliable than just plain memory.”

“It certainly is.” Chief Vick turns her eyes back to the file. “Henry, I think after I’m done going through these we’re going to have a chat about some of your current responsibilities and extent of authority over consultants.”

“Oh, come on, Karen!” Henry looks around at the entire precinct staring, and judging. “This is completely unfounded, and-and blown way out of propor-!”

Henry doesn’t finish the sentence because Juliet O’Hara punches him in the nose.

There’s gasps from everyone in the room. Jules’s fist is bloodied. Henry’s nose went CRUNCH! when her fist made contact.For a long moment it’s like the whole room has collectively stopped breathing. 

“I don’t make unfounded accusations, Henry,” Jules breathes. “Especially not when I have been building a case for over a month, and have watched Shawn completely close off whenever I asked him about this.”

Henry holds his nose, looking at Jules with fear that Lassiter and Gus don’t think is nearly intense enough. “Juliet,” Henry pants, blood streaming out from between his fingers. “This is insane.”

“Quiet, Spencer.” Lassiter moves Jules a little farther away. Her fist is still raised. “I won’t tolerate you disrespecting my partner, especially not in the same way you do your son.”

“What?! You can’t believe all this too, Lassiter.”

“You know I’m not Shawn’s biggest fan, but if you think what O’Hara has done over the last month is anything less than the best damn investigation possible then I have to seriously reconsider some of our shared opinions of your son’s work.”

Gus glances at a box of tissues on Henry’s desk- and then subtly moves to knock them on the floor and kicks them away.

“Herny, I’m going to have to ask you to step away from the precinct for a few days while this gets handled. O’Hara, I’m going to need to speak with you in my office.”

Jules lowers her fist, and nods. She knows she can’t just punch Henry and get away with it scot-free, and she accepts that.

No-one moves to help Henry. Not a single soul. He grumbles as he makes his way past Gus to grab a different box of tissues.

“It’s like he just sucks the respect out of people,” Henry grumbles. 

CRACK!

No-one is more surprised than Gus when his fist slams into Henry’s jaw. Gus reels away immediately, shrinking and cradling his hand, as Henry goes down.

“Mister Guster!” Chief Vick moves forward to try and catch Henry.

“Uuuuh!” Guss whines, shaking his hand. “I-I mean, you don’t get to say that about Shawn! He asked us not to keep doing this! You gotta stop assuming the worst of him all the time!”

“When he earns it!” Henry barks out, then groans and spits. It’s mostly blood.

“You won’t let him earn it!” Jules is furious again. “How many killers does he have to catch for you to see that your son is an amazing man?!”

“It’s not about catching killers,” Henry says, spitting again. “It’s about growing up.”

“Says the grown man who can’t even tell his son ‘I love you’.”

“He doesn’t say it either.”

“That’s not helping your case, Spencer.” Lassiter has his eyes on Jules and Gus. “And considering I’m the only one on said case who hasn’t taken a shot at you yet, I’d say keep your mouth shut.”

“Oh, what do you know.” Henry spits a third time. The Chief looks about ready to punch him herself. “Father-son relationships are complicated, especially when the father wants what’s best for the son and the son just wants to throw everything away and get himself killed!”

“You wanted him to be a cop, Spencer, you didn’t exactly put him on a path to a peaceful and easy life.”

“I put him on the right path, and he never appreciated it, and that is what your case file should say!”

“You know what, Spencer?” Lassiter takes a step closer to the bleeding man. “I’ve put up with a lot of crap from both you and your son over the years, and you two are a lot more similar than you think. But one thing I can say that Shawn has over you is that he doesn’t mean it when he says stupid crap like that.”

“He looks up to you, you ass,” Jules adds. “And he is willing to put aside all of the things you say and do to him to have a good relationship with you. Do you understand how incredible that is? That you don’t even have to work to have him in your life? That he comes to you no matter how many times you tear into him for it?”

“He comes to me because he never listens when he needs to.” Henry’s face is starting to become very purple as the bruises set in. “I don’t know what he’s been telling you, but he needs, my help.”

“Exactly! And he feels like you’re reliable enough to give it to him, and you do! So why do you treat that as though it’s a fault? Do you have any idea what I would have given as a kid, and even now, to be able to just-just go up to my dad and say ‘I need help,’ and have him be there to help me? That means the world!”

“Not to Shawn.” Henry looks pained beyond just the broken nose and possible broken jaw. “The kid is too focused on himself.”

“You don’t know your son at all, then.” Jules turns and walks with The Chief to her office.

Gus shakes his head, grabs the check out of Henry’s paperwork pile, checks that it’s signed, and leaves. 

“Oh, really? It’s up to me to take him to the hospital?” Lassiter looks around and then huffs. “Alright, Spencer. Don’t bleed on my seats, or my dashboard, or anything but yourself.”

“I’m not a bad father,” Henry says, still holding his nose. “I care about my son.”

“Yeah, and somehow Shawn knows that even though you act the way you do.” Lassie buckles Henry in for him so that the nose remains pinched. “But here’s the thing, Spencer. Your son is an arrogant, attention-hogging, impulsive, completely absurd person, and he didn’t just become like that out of a vacuum.”

“Yes he did. I did everything I could. I did everything right as much as possible.”

Lassiter sighs as he gets into the driver’s seat. “You seriously think that? You’d be okay with your grandkid being raised that way?”

“If they had Shawn’s potential, yes.”

“... Dammit.” Lassiter turns to Henry, and punches him in the gut. Henry coughs, and then chokes on his own blood, and then coughs again.

“What the hell?!” Henry gets out between hacks.

“O’Hara would’ve done it. I feel like I owed it to her. … And honestly, Spencer, after compiling that damn case, I’ve been wanting to do it for myself anyway. I already knew you were an overbearing perfectionist with a control issue, but you wishing your son was more like that than he is is even worse.”

“Shawn’s no perfectionist,” Henry wheezes. 

“But he is overbearing with a control issue more often than not. Like I said inside, you two are a lot more similar than you think, and frankly I blame you for the parts of Shawn that go past mild annoyance and into infuriating obstacle.”

“I’d never just hand a collar over to save someone’s ego,” Henry coughs out.

“See, that’s where I wish Shawn wasn’t like you.”

“He’s handed you a collar twice.”

“What? He has not.”

And Henry must be a little delirious from the repeated blows, because Lassiter is pretty sure his next words of “See, this is why Shawn should’ve been head detective,” wouldn’t come out of him otherwise.

Lassiter grips the steering wheel tighter and makes a sharp turn into the hospital parking lot. “Well he’s not, and from the sound of things he never would’ve been anyway.”

“He could’ve been a perfect cop.”

“He’d have been miserable and you know it.”

“He’d be doing things right.”

“You’re hopeless.” Lassiter isn’t any gentler helping Henry out of the car than he was helping him in. “I’m not picking you back up when they’re done with you.”

“I’ll call Shawn.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you will.” And Shawn will come, and probably be mad on his dad’s behalf, and will definitely be mad at all three of the punchers, because he loves his dad enough to overlook years and years of mistreatment that most people would probably consider ground for cutting contact. “And Spencer? If you ever insult O’Hara’s work again, or say anything that gets her that angry, I will help her cover up your disappearance.”

“You don’t mean that,” Henry scoffs.

“Try me.” Lassiter gets back in his car. “And if I hear from her that you’re still badmouthing your son to his face, I’ll make you disappear myself.”

And then he drives away. 

And Henry walks into the hospital alone.

[lostgirl14480]

A Not So Common Fairy (Teaser)

Summary: you're a dark fairy from the upside-down and when you see that a gate is open, your curiosity gets the best of you.

- eddie munson x fairy!reader

Nothing remotely interesting ever happened in this dimension. It was always dark with constant storms, which I didn't mind actually. But I always hoped something would change. Maybe a ray of sun, or the budding of a flower? But no, nothing beautiful ever came to this place...

So, when I got wind that Henry Creel was opening gates to another world, I decided it was time for me to leave this place in search of something more. There was nothing tying me here, only the memories of my family...

Without a second thought, I lift my multicolored wings and set off into the air, heading straight to an open gate. The only thing left behind is a small trail of black dust, but it is quickly swept away by the winds of the never-ending storms.

......................

I emerge from the gate, and for the first time ever, I see the color green. Instead of the dark decaying plants from my dimension, this one is full of life! I stare in awe at all the green leaves on the trees, the moss growing on the ground, even the small river flowing along a path. I'm about to fly over to a particular budding flower when I hear voices coming from below me. Not trusting what the noise is from, I try shrinking myself, but for some reason, being in this dimension is limiting my magic. So instead, I perch myself on a branch just high enough to be out of sight but low enough to hear what is going on.

"We need to see If there's a gate around here, It's the only way we'll be able to find Vecna and free Max from his curse." Says one of the younger humans in the group. Vecna? Curse? Are they talking about Henry? How do they know about the gates?

Intrigued, I lean in closer from the branch I'm perched on and continue to listen to the conversation this group of humans are having.

"Dustin, have you even considered how dangerous this plan is? And Eddie is still wanted for murder, we can't just go walking around town looking for a gate!" Murder!? These humans are getting more interesting by the second.

"Steve, it's our only shot, I don't see any other options..." Dustin replies. "And besides, I think Eddie should have a say, since he's the one being chased by the whole town. So what do you say Eddie?"

The one who must be Eddie stands up and addresses the group. I take a moment to look him over, and I can't help but stare a little longer than I intended, there's just something about him that draws me in.

"I say, you're asking me to follow you into Mordor, which, if I'm totally straight with you I think is a really bad idea. But uh the Shire, the Shire is burning. So Mordor it is." I'm amazed at how brave these humans are, knowing how ruthless Henry, or I guess Vecna, can be. But I guess I have a lot to learn about this new dimension, and the humans who live here.

After agreeing on what Eddie said, the group all start to follow Dustin. Eddie trails behind, seemingly lost in thought and I take the time to admire his features. In Vecnas dimension, there really arn't any attractive males, or any human like creatures for that matter, so it's hard not to admire Eddie in this moment.

But I guess I didn't realize how intently I was looking and how much closer I was leaning over the branch to get a closer look, because all of a sudden, the branch I'm perched on cracks, and I fall a few feet before my wings are able to extend. I quickly fly up to another branch, higher up this time, and behind the trunk of the tree. But I'm sure I felt eyes on me for a split second...

"Eddie! What are you still doing back there?" Dustin calls out. The group is already a bit further along the path, but Eddie is stood at the base of the tree I'm hiding in, staring at the cracked branch.

I stay completely still, not sure If he's already seen me.

"I just, I thought I saw-" Eddie starts, but stops and shakes his head, turing back to follow the group. "Nevermind."

🖤🖤🖤

A/N: This is just a random idea that I thought of, not sure if it'll just be turned into a few imagines or if I'll make it into a story, haven't decided yet 😂 But I've been in an Eddie mood lately so there's plenty more where this came from 😁❤️‍🔥

[stellar-skyy]

ONE WITH THE FOREST! - Platonic Tighnari & reader

i. SUMMARY: Tighnari teaches his trainee how to shoot a bow. ii. CONTENT WARNINGS: Very brief mentions of fighting. iii. NOTES: Fluff, forest ranger!reader, gn!reader, they/them pronouns used, 0.8k words. iv. A/N: :D

“Straighten your back.” Tighnari chided light-heartedly. He tapped on (Name)’s spine until they adjusted their posture to stand up properly, his hands then moving to poke between their shoulder-blades. “And untense your shoulders. You’re far too stiff to shoot properly.”

They huffed, forcing their body to relax away the tension building up in their muscles. Proper stance was important when it came to archery—or so Tighnari kept saying.

“Good,” he praised, a smile finally appearing on his lips. “Do you think you’re ready to finally practice with a bow?”

An eager nod, and a snort of laughter at their unconcealed enthusiasm. “Perfect. Now, what’s first?”

“Safety first,” They roll their eyes, reciting the two words that Tighnari had drilled into their skull long before he agreed to teach them.

His insistence on safety was one of the reasons it took him so long to agree to tutor them on how to properly shoot an arrow. He knew as a trainee Forest Ranger they needed a way to defend themselves—and some of the older Rangers were more than happy to teach them how to fight using the wooden practice swords—but despite being a long-ranged fighting style, archery could be a hazard. It left a person vulnerable to attacks from behind, or out of their peripheral vision, and a beginner archer facing against a crowd of monsters was a promised death. It was safer to stick with a weapon they were more comfortable with, and save learning a new one for another day.

But they would keep asking, and Tighnari knew it was a useful skill to have, so he agreed to put aside his duties for an afternoon and teach them how to properly use a bow.

“Here,” Tighnari hummed, passing over the arm guard. It was a simple leather strap, with adjustable belt buckles, worn down with years of use.

“Why do I have to use this?” (Name) asked with a huff. “You and Collei never do.”

“I’ve been using my bow for a long time. And Collei used one for months when she started learning.” Tighnari said, helping slide the guard across their forearm and adjusting the fastenings so it fit snugly across their skin. “You can wear it until I think you’re experienced enough not to snap the string across your arm when you release it. I’ve done that plenty of times when I was a beginner, and I can promise you it is not a pleasant experience.”

“Alright,” They sigh, fiddling with the arm guard until it was completely covering the inside of their arm. Tighnari picked up the bow—a simple practice bow that he had dug up from who-knows-where.

“Okay, hold up your non-dominant hand.” They held up their hand, and he grabbed it and pushed the bow into their grasp. “Hold the grip with this hand. See this notch?” He tapped on the slight protrusion just above where their hand was. “That’s the arrow rest. When you nock the arrow, it’s going to be held there. Now hold out your arm, straight in front of you—a little to the left… that’s it—and stand with your body facing away from the target.”

With Tighnari’s careful prodding in the right direction, they moved so their feet were firmly planted in the correct stance, one arm holding out the bow with the other hand drawing back the string. Tighnari slotted the arrow into the drawn bow, placing atop the arrow rest and tucking the end between the string. “Now, as you grow quicker with the bow, you’ll be able to nock it much faster than this. For now, you’re still finding your balance, so I’ll be here to help.”

The string was taut in their hands. There was a slight ache in their wrist from pulling it back, but they ignored it in favour of keeping their eye on the target about fifteen feet in front of them. It was a tree, identical to the ones around it, save for a red circle painted across the trunk. They took a deep breath in, letting the air fill every corner of their lungs—

And let go.

The arrow flew swiftly through the air, cutting across the forest in a wide arc that narrowly missed low hanging branches and ended firmly stuck in the centre of the target.

“I did it!” They cheered, turning to look at their mentor with unbridled excitement sweeping across their features. Tighnari grinned back at them, reaching over to ruffle the top of their hair like a proud parent.

“Yes, you did!” He cheered.

“It got in the target!”

“It did,” Tighnari nodded approvingly. “You did so well for your first time. I’m proud of you.”

They looked away, mumbling a quiet ‘thank you’ at his words. Tighnari took the bow from them and set it back down on the ground, before turning to his mentee and clasping his hands together.

“Now! Grab that arrow from the tree, and let’s have another go.”

reblogs and comments are appreciated! ♡

[incorrectbatfam]

What kinds of babies would the batkids be if Bruce adopted them from the start?

I did another ask here a while ago talking about what if the batfam were adopted as babies, which I’m using as a frame of reference. While it’s not totally accurate to their canon age differences, I kinda like how it worked out. 

Dick is mobile from the get-go. He crawls as soon as Bruce puts him down, tries to climb out of his crib, and is the reason the high chair has a seatbelt. Things only get worse when he learns to grab and stack things. Bruce walks in on him climbing a teetering tower of toys to reach the cereal box, and he just barely catches him before it topples over. Everyone thinks Jason is the reason for the child leash, but it’s actually Dick after he got lost at the museum. He’s the most outwardly affectionate of all the children, but his Terrible Twos are also the worst when he uses his limited vocabulary to argue with Bruce at every step. He’s also jealous when he’s no longer an only child and makes a big fuss at first before accepting it. 

Although Barbara has her own parents, the Waynes and the Gordons are very familiar with each other, both through Bruce and the Commissioner’s friendship and babysitting each other’s kids. Dick is more active, but Barbara learns to speak first and can even read the alphabet by the time they’re in daycare. Her parents try to limit screen time at home, but at the Manor, she learns to ask Alexa to play Little Einstein. Dick is also personally offended when he offers her his favorite candy and she goes blegh. 

Cass comes 3 years later, and she’s the baby you can’t let out of sight unless you feel like searching the whole house. She’ll hide anywhere, from under the bed to the trunk of the car. Selina suggests a cat bell, but Cass quickly learns to take it off. At first they think it’s because she’s shy, but it turns out she just prefers to watch people from a distance. Playing the Barbie ballerina music draws her out, though, because she loves twirling around. Cass learns sign language from her aunts Harley and Ivy first, and she makes up some of her own gestures to signal what she wants. Her hair was longer until Dick got peanut butter in it and they all agreed it’s easier to keep it short. 

Harper and Cullen are a year apart from each other, with Cullen being Cass’s age. They’re adopted at the same time, though, because it took a while for Bruce to prove that their bio father isn’t fit to be a parent. As a toddler, Harper is pretty independent, including dressing herself and using the bathroom. She likes to take things apart, so Bruce keeps expensive devices out of her reach—not that it works for long (see: Dick). She’s the most vocal baby and the first to learn “bad words” like poo-poo head. She’s the messiest though, often leaving things out and getting upset when people put her things away because she needs them. 

Cullen, on the other hand, is more shy from their previous household and takes some time to warm up to people. Bruce encourages him to ask for what he wants and always reassures him that there’s plenty to go around. The first person he grows close to is Cass, who takes him under her wing in a protective way. Together, they like to play pretend as mythical creatures or flip through picture books together despite not knowing how to read. He has a hard time falling asleep, so Bruce reads him stories until he does. On stormy nights, he goes to either Harper or Dick and will climb into their beds without warning. The first time that happened, Dick thought it was the monster from his closet and screamed so loud he woke everyone else up. Once Cullen learns how to use the remote, getting him away from the TV is a daily struggle. 

Jason is a year younger than Cass, and he’s a bit of a coin flip. Most days, he’s perfectly well-behaved and will quietly play by himself, especially with the pop-up books. Other days, he’ll throw the worst tantrums and break whatever he gets his hands on. He fights with Dick the most because at the time, he’s the youngest and can get away with more. Eventually, things even out a little and he fits perfectly into the fun-and-mischievous role, earning the affectionate title of Papa’s Little Nightmare, which he wears like a badge of pride whenever he licks people’s forks or sticks his finger up Bruce’s nose. He also likes to watch Alfred cook and his birthmark is his white streak. 

A full five years later is Tim, a quiet but observant baby who can learn fast by watching others. He picks up now to climb the banister from Dick, hide in tight spaces from Cass, how to use a hammer from Harper, what shows to watch from Cullen, and how to argue from Jason. He and Jason don’t get along at first because Jason felt like he was being replaced, but they eventually learn to coexist. Tim’s first toy to himself is a plastic camera that shows pictures of cartoon characters. He’s the kid that asks tons of questions, like why Bruce and Selina lock themselves in the bedroom. He also likes to explore and believes any unfamiliar creature is an alien. 

I know canonically Steph and Duke are a few years apart, but as babies I headcanon them as “twins” born on the same day to different parents and are two years younger than Tim because it’s cute and chaotic. Sometimes they share things, like their bedroom and toys. Other times, they get double, like two birthday cakes. At least once a week, they’ll try and confuse people by swapping clothes. Duke makes up stories and Steph scribbles out the scenes—sometimes she even does it on paper. If the house isn’t a mess before, then it definitely is with them when Bruce finds fruit gummies in the couch and shoes in the microwave. Instead of blankies and stuffed animals, Steph falls asleep clutching a box of toaster waffles and Duke with a bear-shaped honey bottle. Duke tells anti-jokes that he finds hilarious (“Knock knock” “Who’s there?” “Me!”) while Steph flat-out roasts people (“Dickie smells like icky”). They have concerts where Steph scream-sings while Duke bangs pots and pans. Steph prefers to be on Bruce’s shoulders while Duke clings to his leg. There’s a big Get Along shirt for when the siblings fight, but Steph and Duke just wear it for funsies. Because Tim sometimes gets overlooked, they follow him around like baby ducklings and think he’s the coolest sibling. 

Carrie, who’s two years after Steph and Duke, is the most imaginative baby and will loop people in as her side characters. Usually her roleplays involve being wilderness adventurers, after she watched Dora The Explorer. She likes to run around, often wearing a towel cape, and isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty or play with things like bugs. She’ll only do baths if she can bring her snorkel and her many pool toys. In the car, no one wants to sit in front of her because she’s a seat-kicker. She’s easily wired even with just a little bit of sugar, so whenever another kid mad at Bruce, they’ll give her a whole bag of candy and set her loose. 

Damian is the last one and is three years younger than Carrie. He’s the smallest baby because he was born preterm, and Bruce is also worried because he rarely cries. But when he does, he won’t stop until he wears himself out. Carrie is the most protective of him and Tim thinks he’s secretly an alien (after seeing him hooked to machines in the hospital). Whenever Talia visits, he’ll systematically show her his toys, including his favorite stuffed cow. Besides Mama and Dada, his first words are animal sounds. He also likes art and will poke his head in whenever he sees his siblings drawing. If he senses someone having a bad day, he’ll sit outside their door and wait for them to come out. 

[strawberrycakelove]

In defense of Chichi

ChiChi gets very little credit and recognition as a martial arts teacher and martial artist herself, just look at how Goten is not only well trained but apparently has much better emotional training than Gohan. Both Piccolo, who is from the Namekian warrior class, and Goku, who is a Saiyan (and now after the film Broly we discover that he is also from the warrior class, as the film shows that there are Saiyans who are not of that class, will that side " Gohan's nerd" came from this characteristic of Saiyans?), they hope that Gohan, being half-Saiyan, discovers his warrior instincts on his own and with him comes an instinctive willingness to fight and he an emotional control, which apparently, none of the two needed training, as it is innate to them, and both assumed wrongly, each in their own time, that Gohan would have it. And even though Goten is a child - 7 years old - during the Buu saga, despite being younger than Trunks and having less strength (by a very small margin) and not knowing how to fly, he has more emotional control and better controls his impulsiveness, better than Trunks, who has been shown to be worse at this than his Future counterpart even. Future Trunks isn't exactly excellent at doing this, he also shows this trait of impulsiveness that present Trunks has, so much so that much of his apparent "control" is very well portrayed as a product of reluctant and hasty anxiety (read : trauma) - the same one that makes him step forward and attack Cold and Frieza before Goku arrives and retreats in the face of Vegeta's stupid decisions - it is very well characterized that he only "controls himself", in an unstable way, because he was pressured by necessity to survive, because of his brutal reality, and because he has not been properly trained, his "control" is a result of trauma and the need to survive that his present counterpart does not have (and it is funny to see how exactly by not being anxious like future Trunks is, that present Trunks is so impulsive LOL). And Trunks' decision-making process is as bad as Vegeta's, the difference is that he makes terminal decisions because he doesn't have the desire Saiyan for battle and because killing quickly is the only safe decision he knows, All of the rest he is not sure of absolutely anything, insecurity that present Trunks does not know, he is sure of everything, because he is rich, spoiled and has everything, which is why his impulsiveness runs wild. ChiChi gets very little credit for how well Goten is trained and disciplined, especially emotionally, as he doesn't have the insecurity about fighting that Gohan had. It is true that he was not pressured by the need to survive and learn to fight in a hurry like Gohan and Future Trunks, and it is exactly this pressure that harmed their ability to make decisions in moments of pressure, which Goten did not do in the Buu saga, when ChiChi died, he wanted to take revenge, but he quickly recovered and accepted Piccolo's guidance, to train more and become stronger. He is not taken by the fear of inexperience and not knowing what to do in a battle, the moment arrived and he did not lose his there, not even when he was already pressured by Gohan's apparent death and after ChiChi's death when Buu killed in front of your eyes. As I don't have the patience to make prints of manga scans, and there would be MANY IMAGES, if you want to check them out, the chapters will be listed below, read them and draw your own conclusions: 354 - Future Trunks impulsively attacks the androids when Vegeta has his arm broken, scaring Piccolo and putting his life at risk, he does the same thing as his 8-YEAR-OLD counterpart from the present

~466 (Buu Saga) - His present counterpart does the same thing, but it's more understandable, here Trunks is 8 YEARS OLD compared to his future counterpart's 17/18 years

381 - Vegeta makes the stupid decision to let Cell complete himself by attacking Trunks, Krillin here is no better, and Trunks only decided to act when it was too late, even though he knew that Vegeta was terrible at making decisions.

383 - Trunks at least considered himself stronger than Vegeta and Krillin says he knows too, as he has more experience in sensing the power of others, but Trunks decided not to interfere in the battle and kill Cell before he was perfect because he didn't want to hurt his pride. Vegeta, and it was disastrous, because once Cell found 18 he was very efficient and Trunks didn't stand a chance. here Krillin even points out his subservience to Vegeta. (which lack of affection doesn't do, it clearly shows your lack of emotional control)

384-Trunks showing a little more how bad he is at making decisions, and only because he wants to preserve Vegeta's Pride.

Boo Saga

488 - Here it shows how Gohan, when he loses control with the Supreme Kai, and almost wastes the ritual (and only calms down because he sees that the old man wasn't bluffing), and being older, has less emotional discipline than Goten, who in the same chapter sees ChiChi die right in front of him and manages to control himself after hearing Piccolo's warning (Goten is still able to follow instructions here, when Gohan barely does so and his later fight with Buu only proves this) and begins his training immediately, while Trunks is more bothered by food, it shows how ChiChi trained Goten very well (and Gohan already went through a similar experience on Namekusei),

Goten is 7 years old and doesn't lose control at the risk of ruining everything, and it's not because he's more mature or makes better decisions or has more experience (as shown by Gotenks), it's because he has emotional control and has been well trained by Chichi. Chichi deserves more recognition!

Bonus:

366 - Read this chapter, it shows that Chichi is not as irrational as TOEI made her seem, she allows Goku to train Gohan and asks him to make him as strong as possible.

371 - Check out the cover, LOL. Future Trunks is just as rude as his present counterpart LOL, the animation makes him very "clean" and polite, but he's not so much LOL, he's just submissive.

377 -Read this chapter, Goku ISN'T DUMB, he learns when it suits him, he even remembers details when it's about things that interest him.

387 - Here he demonstrates all his experience and accumulated knowledge as a martial artist

Buu Saga

470 - I love Bulma's parents, they love animals and wouldn't leave them behind. It has nothing to do with it, but I couldn't help but notice it!

479 - Goku's dirty deal, LOL, he is neither innocent nor stupid LOL. The Supreme Kaioshin here talks about the 25-hour ritual! LOL, Gohan can spend hours studying yet another ritual he can't handle. LOL. Goku is a terrible decision maker, but he knows how to get what he wants.

492 - Goku teasing Shin LOL, he makes fun of anyone when he can.

[thesecretsoftheuniverse]

Could u do jealous neteyam headcannons or a fic pls? I love all ur works and ur writing style!

clouded perception !

– pairing neteyam x gn!reader | wc 2.6k | warnings a lot of jealousy, a lot of angst i guess (i had way too much fun with this oops) but also some fluff | what's inside neteyam has to learn how to deal with something he has never felt before as he watches you train with a close friend – authors note my first request! how exciting! i'm sorry it took so long. i hope i did your wishes justice anonie and thank you for the kind words! also feedback is of course always appreciated (and i'm the worst at naming fics haha) :)

neteyam excelled in anything you could possibly think of, especially in activities related to hunting, whether it was tracking, archery or flying. he was a natural in everything he persued. so obviously he felt hurt when you decided so ask another one of the skilled young na’vi to help you practice your shooting skills as you had always had a hard time keeping up with the others when it came to using your bow and arrow. you were training to become a healer, which put different qualities to a test. ever since you had been romantically involved with neteyam mo’at startet to take you under her wing to make sure you grew into your role of a possible future tsahík. but knowing every detail about plants and their healing capabilities and getting taught how to nurse and how to form a close bond with ewya didn’t spare you from basic training in archery to be able to defend yourself and your people if it ever came to a worst case scenario. this was the reason why you started to spend more time than usual with one of your closest childhood friends – ‘anoa. it didn’t pass anyone that he was one of the most promising young warriors of the clan, frequently being compared to neteyam te suli tsyeyk'itan, the golden boy and child progidy of the clan. but neteyam had been busy, now more than ever. if he wasn’t with the hunting party, he was planning with his dad for an upcoming raid, assisting him where- and whenever he could. because of that the time you and neteyam shared was scarce and most definitely not used to get additional lessons in archery. that was why you confided in your best friend who gladly accepted your request.

one morning you and ‘anoa were standing on the edge of a clearing, facing makeshift targets. it was still early, the first rays of sunshine barely touching the tips of the trees and morning dew still covering the grass. your back was resting against ‘anoa’s bare chest as you were repeating the basics while drawing your bow, him correcting your position again and again, “you need more core strength. mind your abdominal muscles.” he turned over, pressing the palm of his hand against your stomach, which was slowly rising and falling from your deep breaths, “more, more.” as you were trying your best to tense your muscles just like ‘anoa instructed you pulled funny faces to make your training seem extra exhausting and get a smile out of your friend. “skxawng,” ‘anoa chuckled, slightly tapping the side of your head, but immediately returning to a more serious demeanour, “now just position your elbow a little bit higher and put your hand next to your cheek. close your eyes and feel your breath tingling your skin. sense the tension flooding your body and how it spreads to your arms and legs as you pull the string of your bow,” he said with a calm voice while correcting the placement of your left hand. “good. now that we’ve freshened up that bit try and give it a shot.” you focused on your target, feeling the hot breath tickling the skin of your fingers, mentally checking your position one last time. your mind shut down completely as you were focusing on what was in front of you before you let go of the arrow, seeing it flying into the direction of your target and hitting its center. you heard the impact as the arrowhead drilled itself into the trunk of the tree. “hey, you’re a natural! i don’t even know why we’ve been practicing all morning”, 'anoa cheered with a smile, giving you a side-hug. unbeknownst to you you had been watched. neteyam noticed how you had been up too early for you linking and left the village. surprised by your secretive behaviour and also wondering what you were up to was why he decided to follow you, which led to him hiding in the thicket of the forest, closely observing your little meet up. he knew that he could trust you and that you would never go behind is back. he also knew ‘anoa and what he meant to you, that you had been growing up together and that both of you were very close, almost like siblings as you yourself never had one. this was rather unnatural to na’vi, who tended to come in big families. but due to that you and ‘anoa were basically a package deal as over time he became something like a substitute sibling to you. and neteyam also knew that ‘anoa was already having a partner, a lovely girl. neteyam hadn’t been introduced to her yet, but he knew that she was a talented weaver and that she occasionally helped out his mother if there was something needed last minute while preparing for special occasions. but still, neteyam couldn’t help but let jealousy cloud his thinking, especially when he should’ve been the one standing there with you, with your back pressed against his body, him adjusting your movements and watching you beaming with pride after successfully making your shot. jealousy – something he had never felt before. something he never had to feel, as every male na’vi knew who you belonged to and that the son of the olo’eyktan is someone not to be messed with . so they always kept their distance. neteyam contemplated whether he should interrupt your training session, but settled on heading back to the village, still lost in his thoughts and having a frown on his face, angrily pushing aside every branch crossing his way as he was desperately trying to get rid of the irrational feeling sitting in his guts, which was slowly spreading through his body and engulfing his mind.

something was off. you could almost smell it in the air. this undetectable feeling was following you around all day long, haunting you at work while you were taking care of the wounded, ill and elderly. it was eating away at the food as you were sitting on the floor sharing dinner with your lover’s family and it followed you into your sleep. you couldn’t tell what exactly it was, but something was different. at first it didn’t really catch your attention as you thought this was just a phase. the day of the raid, which had been planned for weeks, was coming closer. so not only was every clan member busy with preparations as everyone who could in some way contribute was imposed with tasks depending on what their role and function within the clan was, but everyone was mostly stressed and worried. over time dinners started to become quieter as the mood shifted. even tuk, who tended to talk your ears off, wasn’t as chatty as usual. in the morning you suddenly were left without a loving peck on your temple, in the evening you weren’t greeted with a welcoming hug, being asked about your day. and this was going on for days. kiri was the first one to notice, to notice how neteyam was the one who grew more distant. more distant of you. how the first thing asking about after coming back from a hunt wasn’t you and your well-being or how he started to barely mention you anymore, requiting questions about you asked in his presence with a grunt. he started to become closed off and stopped talking about you, the light of his life. someone he normally didn’t shut up about. really, he stopped talking to anyone as time went by and jealousy started to consume him, wondering about why you felt the need of turning away from him, self-doubts starting to creep in. neteyam was a people pleaser, always trying his best for everyone around him. not meeting expectations was definitely something he was afraid of. he was afraid, if he had given you too little and if that was why you were turning to someone else, to someone better than him. the mighty warrior was afraid of being inferior. a fear he had been carrying with him ever since he had been able to think, something that had always been sitting in the back of his mind and now his worst nightmare seemingly became reality. losing his love, the one he was destined to be with, to someone else. to an outsider watching this probably seemed like an overreaction, like something blown completely out of proportion. you had been enamoured by neteyam ever since you were children. even a blind one was able to see it. so of course not a single soul would have possibly doubted your connection and your relationship, but neteyam was seeing red as he was confronted with something he was afraid of the most – losing a loved one, which changed his perception severely.

now that he became hyper-aware of the relationship of you and ‘anoa neteyam didn’t fail to miss every tiny interaction between you and your friend. he noticed ‘anoa’s subtle touches and how he put his hand on your lower back to bring you comfort. and neteyam saw the little wrinkles under your eyes, which always started to show whenever someone made you laugh so hard you had to hold your stomach and throw your head back. he noticed more than ever how ‘anoa made you laugh in that specific way, in a way only neteyam should have made you laugh. these little things hadn’t been anything new, but they started to bother him. it started to bother him that he wasn’t the only one in your life, even though this was something that had been off the table since the very beginning of your relationship as this was never going to happen anyway. he knew how much space ‘anoa took up in your life. but nonetheless you had never given your boyfriend any reason to doubt you or your love for him.

when neteyam started to brush off your absent-minded touches the both of you had been sharing ever since you started going out it finally dawned on you. it wasn’t the raid that occupied your lover’s mind, it had been you. but not in a good way. all of a sudden so many things made sense. how neteyam had been deliberately avoiding you all this time. how neytiri started to watch you and her oldest son with a worried look on her face, knowing that there was nothing in the world she could do make the situation any better as she knew she had to let you figure this out yourselves. and how kiri’s behaviour towards her brother became almost unbearable after she finally put two and two together. so you decided to take neteyam aside in an unwatched moment and make him listen to you. you didn’t know yet how to do that, but your plan had been set.

as you were on a break from your duties and sitting outside of one of the healer’s tents, thinking about how you could approach the issue, which had been on your mind for several days at that point you spotted neteyam. he was just about to leave for the next war council, accompanying his father who was discussing the next steps with other great warriors of the clan. you knew there probably would have come a better moment than this to stop him from whatever he was doing in order to talk. but you had to get this sorted, especially when anything could happen to neteyam during the planned raid. so you pulled yourself together, got up and headed into the same direction as him, following him into the woods. after a few minutes of just walking neteyam finally made a halt. you noticed the tips of his ears perking up, which gave away that he had heard you and that he knew who had been tracing his every step. neteyam inhaled deeply before slightly turning his head and acknowledging your presence, “y/n, I know you’re here with me.” you hesitated to react and give away your hiding spot. “you can come out. i know you’ve been following me ever since i left the village. i noticed your step pattern.” shit, you thought. of course he did. you slowly emerged from behind the plants you were hiding, not caring about the leaves rustling and the branches cracking under your feet. “yeah, it’s me”, you confirmed. you hesitantly approached him from behind, trying to not get too close as you didn’t want to intrude his space. neteyam lowered his head, still having his back turned to you, as you confessed, “i wanted to talk.” “well, but I don’t want to talk”, he requited. even though he was so quiet he was almost whispering, which was why you could barely hear him, you noticed how he sounded hurt, disappointment tinting his voice. “my love, you’ve been avoiding me for days know. i don’t know what i did wrong or how and why i hurt you. so could you please talk to me so that we can resolve this together?”, you asked gently, trying to stay diplomatic, even though anger was boiling within you due to his unfair treatment of you. “you truly don’t know what’s going on, do you?”, he snorted, but shortly after admitted, “to be fair i don’t even know what got into me myself.” “no, doofus! of course i don’t know what’s going. you didn’t say a word, just blatantly decided to avoid me.”

you finally dared to come closer, now standing directly behind neteyam’s back, putting on of your hands on his shoulder and slowly turning him around. “talk to me”, you encouraged him. neteyam sighed, putting his forehead against yours and taking your hands into his, stroking his thumbs along your knuckles. “it’s him. i know it’s irrational as he has always been here and he always will. nothing is ever going to change anything about that.” it took you a second before you understood who or what your boyfriend was talking about – ‘anoa. the look in your eyes became soft. “oh, yawne”, you whispered, putting one of your hands on his neck, playing with his hairline, and cupping his cheek with the other one, “i love you. so much. nothing is ever going to change about that,” you reassured with a hoarse voice. never in your wildest dreams would you leave neteyam, your fiercest protector and greatest confident. “i needed some more training, okay? and i knew you were busy. there is so little time we have to spend together and i value it too greatly to just waste it on some stupid bow and a stick, alright? that’s why i approached ‘anoa as i knew he would be understanding and gladly help me out.” you noticed how tears dared to escape your boyfriend’s eyes, a state he was seldomly seen in, while he was repeatedly nodding his head, "i guess i just felt useless." your heart broke into pieces as you listened to his words. “you will never be useless. not to this clan and especially not to me. your pain is my pain. so please cheer up, okay? i can’t stand seeing you in all this agony,” you said with the hint of a smile on your face, now tearing up yourself, while gently shaking him to try and cheer him up. neteyam sighed in reliefe, coming to realization that you weren’t going anywhere but sticking right to his side.

© thesecretsoftheuniverse 2023 | all rights reserved. do not repost, republish, steal, translate, modify or claim my work as your own.

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

What does it mean that you're a catholic presbyterian? What are your views on Church authority and predestination?

I like to imagine myself as a tree with Irish Catholic roots, a Presbyterian/Protestant trunk, and agnostic/ecumenical/interfaith-reaching branches.

I need all parts to be whole. All parts rely on Divine warmth, water, breath for life. All parts depend on a rich soil of scripture, story, and the wisdom of those who've come before me for nourishment and grounding.

___

The roots:

I was baptized and raised Roman Catholic. My family (and a large number of families in the area I grew up) has a proud history of Irish Catholicism in particular. My childhood church was Catholic, and I was passionate about participating in that community's life all through grade school.

Some of my earliest religion-related memories are of reading Saints' stories, establishing relationships with those who most spoke to me. Mother Mary has had my heart as far back as my memories go.

As I discovered my queerness in college and gradually realized the need to seek fully welcoming community, I did not leave behind those things I held most dear from Catholic spirituality.

Over the years, my connection to the Roman Catholic Church as an institution has fractured more and more; last May it splintered entirely. But I refuse to let Rome have a monopoly on Catholic faith, or on Mary and the Saints.

...Especially because Mary and the Saints were my greatest spiritual supports in college: with delighted wonder, I came to recognize how very queer my closest Saints were! They helped me embrace my queerness as a holy gift; I carried them with me into a little PC(USA) church that my then-girlfriend, now-wife found near our college campus.

The trunk:

The Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination holds me up in sturdy community: this is the denomination I'm currently "officially" part of — got my Masters of Divinity at a PCUSA seminary, got married in a PCUSA church, am on this denomination's ordination path.

This doesn't mean I think the PCUSA is the best religion or even the best form of mainline Protestantism. They all have their strengths and their flaws. But the PCUSA was the one that first came into my path, and I'm currently satisfied with my decision to commit myself to it — so long as it continues to make plenty of room for my Catholic roots and ecumenical branches.

The branches:

Though Louisville Seminary is a Presbyterian institution, when I attended from 2016-2019 at least 40% of my classmates and some of the staff there belonged to other denominations (or in a few cases, aren't Christian at all).

The opportunity to learn alongside folks from a variety of traditions was invaluable to my continued spiritual growth. I learned so much from them! I grew into my sense that all individuals and faith communities have something to teach us the Divine and about what it means to be human in relationship to Divinity and to Creation.

Then there's the agnostic part of the "branches":

Over the years I've also experienced more and more seasons where I'm just not sure that the Trinity, the Incarnation and Resurrection, and all that Christian-specific stuff is "real." But whether or not it is, I choose to remain committed to this path I'm on — with openness to fresh insights — because I do draw spiritual nourishment here. I do believe that the story of the Trinity and the Incarnation can guide us into living for Goodness, Justice, abundant life for all beings.

...Basically, I don't know whether it's all "true," but I do believe it holds powerful Truth; I remain committed to the Story.

(Also the bible has been my main special interest since i was like 6 so it's one of the main lenses through which i view the world so i'm stuck here for better or worse lfadfjalfjdalk;j! )

I believe it's imperative for Christians living in Christian supremacist cultures to practice humility above all else — to accept the fact that we don't have all the answers, that we're not the Most Right, that we don't enjoy unique favor with God. For me, identifying as agnostic reminds me that I don't know everything about God by any means, and may actually know very little at all. It reminds me to remain humble, open, and curious.

The fruit:

My hope is that this little tree that is me yields good fruit. I don't care if I have all the right answers, so long as I'm glorifying the Divine in some small way; easing suffering in some small way; bringing joy into this world in some small way. That's what matters to me.

________

I imagine the above implies my views on Church authority. If it doesn't, well, I'll just say I'm kind of an anarchist about church as much as anything else! The Church should never have come to wield as much power as it has. And whatever the "role" of the Church is in the Divine Story, I remember learning somewhere in seminary that the ultimate future of Church is to dissolve — that when we've experienced the full in-breaking of God's Kin-dom, there will be no more need for Church.

________

Not all Presbyterians hold to predestination — and for most I know who do, it's not really a central part of their faith life.

But sure, you could say I believe in predestination: I believe we are all predestined for participation in God's Kin-dom! :)

________

Further reading:

My tag of LGBTA patron Saints <3

My first podcast ep explores some of my spiritual journey

My queer and Catholic tag

Some other semi-related tags — good fruit tag; religious pluralism tag; evangelism tag; church hurt tag

My PCUSA tag, which includes a post with some old class notes about predestination

OH ALSO there's a podcast called "Called to Be Multiple" that interviews folks who draw from multiple faith sources. Cool stuff!

[bogbees]

bunny is like. idk. there's stuff going on and I'm going to try and compose my thoughts ab it.

in Tweek Vs. Craig we get Kenny in home ec learning shit like "i think a trip to Hawaii will really improve our sex life" and being told the likelihood of him marrying a rich man is unlikely, and he's put into shop class for it.

and like. how Kenny ends up traveling to Hawaii with Butters so Butters will be able to chill out — in a way that mirrors the plot of Amok Time, thee sprik episode, the grandaddy of slash fandom.

And how Butters ends up being Kenny's right hand man in the future, both funding the projects and being the only other one who can access the research with voice recognition...

how we just had an episode where Cartman uses Kenny to manipulate Butters into getting what he wants, Butters' Paycheck, all like "Kenny deserves smth nice don't you agree? Do as i say and he'll get smth nice" ab it?? And it's just like "well Butters has always been down to give Kenny money"

the way in Major Boobage Butters is there like "there there buddy" comforting Kenny's brutal withdrawal. the lil drawing Butters made of him and Kenny in Kenny Dies. the way Kenny held Butters hand for most of Going Native.

and the line "I can't believe I had a secret crush on you Princess Kenny!" fr Paladin Butters in The Stick of Truth after Princess Kenny turns bad?? That's real and not smth i dreamed up???

and Mysterion vs. Professor Chaos??? like?????? the whole. hero vs. villain thing????? Mysterion Rises opens with a comic spread of the two fighting even!!

and then there's the Princess Kenny and Marjonne?????? genderqueer bunny??? t4t lesbians?? nonbinary and genderfluid?????? Kenny's interest in boobs ending up being a longing to look like that???

The way Kenny looks like he belongs on a beach in the future???? going back to hawaii?? how he and Butters both have sunglasses on????? how we saw both of their dicks??? no one else had their dicks out, just them??????? how tin foil is crucial to time travel not killing ppl, how professor chaos wears tin foil...

there's just. stuff. stuff i feel absolutely insane to be looking at like this. feels more insane than our schematics of creek that turned out to be canon. batshit crazy ab this

like, Band in China has Butters and Kenny in Stan's death metal band, and while they're trying to make their biopic Butters says this and Kenny looks at him?????? For what purpose animate Kenny's eyes and nothing else besides Butters?¿ He's surely just surprised at how upset Butters got over this, right, yeah, that's all this is, I'm just insane and my bff who got me to watch this show and doesn't care for the fandom aspect going "i remember noticing that when i watched it!" is like. nothing.

im insane looking at the colour of the popsicle. looking at the colour of Butters swim trunks. Butters wears teal, navy and green. Orange??? Orange?????????????

how Catman accuses Stan of inviting Butters but he says he didn't and they all look at Kenny

you need to kill me. Like for real just kill me.

[rhaegang]

Transmasc Ollie in his period x hungry Vampire Felix(?)

I feel like this might exist? But also.

[Will be using a variety of terms for anatomy that may or may not be gender affirming for all readers, depending on the individual. But Oliver is not misgendered.]

Felix is a grubby little slob of a man princess, and that would be true even if he were a vampire man princess. You know he is a messy eater. As a human, he eats with his hands and gestures with his food, right?

Oliver, on the other hand, is tidy. Fastidious. And very sensitive to things he finds embarrassing or potentially humiliating.

A transmasc Oliver would likely consider menstruation one of those things. What a complete nightmare, this uncontrollable thing his body does, this thing that reminds him of his own wrongness. And on top of that, it’s messy. It smells. It’s uncomfortable and it stains his clothes. Absolutely AWFUL, every single time.

Until Felix changes his perspective on things.

If it’s Felix, Oliver doesn’t care if it’s messy. He loves Felix even when he’s a slob. And if it’s Felix, Oliver forgets his own wrongness, because Felix never seems to notice or acknowledge it as an issue.

Does Felix have any notable skill with using his mouth on a pussy? No, not really. He’s never bothered to learn. But Oliver’s special to him — if we’re thinking it’s an Oxford setting, they’re best friends. If it’s more AU, then you know, maybe Oliver’s his familiar. He’s special.

And Felix doesn’t find anything off putting about the smell. On the contrary, it’s distracting. Attractive. Appetizing.

Oliver starts to notice how much closer Felix hovers when it’s that time each month. How he tends to linger, how he inhales more sharply despite not needing to breathe.

Oliver isn’t stupid—he knows why it keeps happening. But he’s not able to come right out and acknowledge that it IS happening.

What Oliver, our beloved little freak, is able to do is this:

The next time he gets out of the bath, he skips any absorbent products. He free bleeds into his boxers (while he does his revising that afternoon, or while he’s doing his duties as familiar), and leaves those trunks conspicuously atop the laundry hamper.

And then, you can guess can’t you? He hides. He waits. He watches.

He holds his breath, grips his own knees hard, when he sees Felix pick up his shorts and stuff the wet fabric right into his mouth like the unselfconsciously messy creature he is.

He grabs his cunt and rocks against his hand, because damn, it’s disgusting, but Felix is so beautiful when he’s at his most unconcerned with the mess he’s making.

His fingers, they’re nowhere near as long and rough as Felix’s, with their big knuckles and their calluses from guitar strings, but he crams them in his hole regardless. His dick is chafing against his palm, hood dragged down and exposing the too-sensitive head. It’s too much all of the sudden, and Oliver moans.

Vampires move fast, and Oliver’s looking up into Felix’s face before his next breath.

Are words needed? What words would suffice? “Sorry I left my bloody shorts out like cheese on a mousetrap. You just keep looking at me like you want to put me in your mouth yet you never do, so desperate measures, yeah?”

No—Oliver doesn’t really have to say anything of the sort.

Because Felix is hauling him up from where he was crouching (in the closet or the antique wardrobe in the castle, or the dressing room, whatever suits the scene you’re seeing). And then Felix is grabbing his wrist, and pulling his hand away from his hole, which means the cool air kisses Oliver’s dick at about the same time Felix smears Oliver’s bloodied fingers across his own lips before he leans down to lick the mess off his face for him.

“I’d thought you’d rather me ignore it, considering, and so here I was trying to be polite.” And Felix licks his own lips as he draws back, just a few inches. “But I suppose this means you don’t mind, do you?”

Oliver shakes his head. His inner thighs are an absolute mess—he doesn’t think it’s all blood anymore.

“Good. Because I haven’t had any breakfast yet.”

Now here’s the part where Oliver being special really becomes obvious, because Felix doesn’t go to his knees for just anyone. But he drops like a stone, and he still has to lift Oliver up with both hands on his ass, until Oliver’s trembling on his tiptoes, his hips canted up toward Felix’s mouth.

Messy. Wet. Loud. Felix eats him like he’s a melon that’s just this side of too ripe — he splits Oliver open, slurps the flood of liquid that gushes from inside, then sets his jaw and tongue and teeth to work on the rest.

Oliver has watched Felix eat enough to know how he gets. Still, he’s surprised by how deep inside him Felix’s tongue reaches. He’s unprepared to have Felix’s fangs nipping at his foreskin, tugging it until it’s stretched taut. He’s sure, in fact, that he’s just died.

Because his idea of Heaven is this moment, where Felix releases his sensitive skin only to shove it back with his bloodied lips until he can get the full length of Oliver’s dick between them and suck hard, like he could drink Oliver’s body down the same way he’s just drunk his blood.

Maybe some day, Oliver’s body won’t bleed this way anymore. Maybe some day, he’ll even forget what it was like. But until that day, Felix is more than happy to make the whole experience significantly more positive for him.

And it works like a charm, every time.

[childotkw]

ive seen a lot of writers' take on this, but not yours! so, naturally i have to ask! how do you think the canonverse would go, if voldemort found out harry was a horcrux sometime post goblet of fire? perhaps even directly during deathly hallows, where most of the other horcruxes were already either destroyed or missing?

Hmmm, I’ve used the trope a few times for some AUs….the one that jumps to mind is the AU where Harry and Bill are the ones that go horcrux hunting after fifth year and the whole ministry possession bit, and Voldemort’s hunting them down frantically to stop one wayward horcrux from killing the others.

But I could spin another one?

Maybe after the possession scene, Voldemort catches a clue and knows he needs get Harry immediately and either lock him up or reeducate him so that he’s no longer a threat. A lot of plans get tossed out the window because of this revelation, and Dumbledore is forced to reveal the truth to Harry to even the scales and give him some leverage over Voldemort.

Voldemort won’t kill him now, won’t even risk harming him, because there’s never been a human horcrux before and who knows what might affect the soul sliver inside him?

And oh boy does Harry exploit this new, horrible fact.

The problem is that this ‘protection’ doesn’t extend to his friends, so Harry does the only thing in his mind that makes sense.

They make a plan for it. He’s the one Voldemort wants. He’s the one with the mental connection to their enemy, the potential leak. If he removes himself from the board, draws attention away from the others, then they can focus on finding the remaining horcruxes while Voldemort is distracted by chasing Harry down.

It’s not an easy choice. Harry is fifteen. He’s untrained, he’s frightened, and he’ll be alone again because he can’t risk his friends coming with him.

He’s so fucking scared but he’ll do it anyway because what other choice does he really have? They finally have a way to beat Voldemort, he can’t not take it.

He takes a trunk of books, potions, clothes and other things Hermione foists on him in the hope it might help - and he runs.

Harry runs, and he learns, and he makes a nuisance of himself in loud and dangerous ways to keep Voldemort’s focus on him only him don’t you dare look away Tom

And it works for a while.

Harry is a brilliant distraction, and each time he slips through Voldemort’s fingers again it just makes the obsession burn hotter.

He’s dancing in the flames but he’s never so much as singed.

Harry doesn’t have the Trace on him anymore due to the tournament, and for the first time he’s allowed to learn at his own pace. He prioritises offensive and defensive magic, he dives into survival charms, into healing, into stealth - anything he thinks might give him an edge.

Without the traditional structure of school holding him back, Harry’s skill grows fast. He’s always learned better by doing, after all.

He tests himself against Death Eaters - slowly, carefully gauging his abilities against theirs. Studying their own spells and curses and trying them out for himself when he can.

And without someone to tell Harry the correct way to do things, he blasts past restrictions and limitations like they’re not even there.

It continues like that for months, years.

The Order are gathering the horcruxes, holding off destroying them to keep the advantage for as long as they can, and Harry is…growing. Changing. Becoming better.

More.

It’s all going well.

Until it isn’t.

Until someone makes a mistake, and Harry has to bargain with the only thing he has.

Himself.

[harrywavycurly]

Hi Sarah!! I just am here to request some random conversations with Eddie🥰

Hiii babes!!! I hope you enjoy these, they are truly random😂💖

*Eddie doesn’t have Facebook but you keep him updated on the daily drama*

“Oh my goodness Eddie did you hear about Tyler and his girlfriend Amy?” “Uh..who are Tyler and Amy?…do we know them?” “We went to high school with them…but that’s not important…they broke up again.” “Again?” “Yes and Amy put all their issues on Facebook! Like apparently he cheated on her twice while she was at work.” “He sounds like an asshole.” “But then he went on her post and commented all the wild shit she’s done like she lit his clothes on fire the last time the got into a fight….Eddie are you listening?” “Huh? Yeah yeah…got his stuff lit on fire…keep going baby I’m listening…I’m just gonna start making dinner.” “Apparently she’s also cheated on him with his brother!” “That’s fucking gross.” “Right? I am shocked but also not…they are both toxic.” “I totally agree…”

“Uh baby…what’s all this?” “It’s about to be March…we have to decorate for St. Patrick’s Day.” “This is a lot…of green…” “well duh…oh can you help me get the rest of the bags out of the trunk?” “Bags? As in more than one? As in you have more shit…to add to this giant pile of green stuff on the counter right now?” “Just two more bags…will you please grab them for me so I can start decorating the kitchen.” “Why does the kitchen need to be decorated?” “Edward…” “fine fine I’ll go get the bags…but no decorations in the bedroom that’s where I draw the line.” “I know I learned my lesson at Halloween.” “That fucking ghost still haunts me…” “i mean…that’s kinda his job…” “you’re so annoying.”

“Hey baby how was your-” “thank god you’re home!” “What’s wrong?…where are we going?” “There’s a bug the size of fucking Texas in our bedroom.” “Oh so I’m getting dragged to the bedroom to kill a bug not for like…sexy time?” “We’ve talked about this…don’t call it sexy time.” “Sorry…where’s the bug?” “It was over there…by your nightstand….oh my god it’s gone…where did it go?…Eddie you have to find it and kill it.” “Baby how do you want me to find it?” “I don’t know…ah holy shit it’s on the bed! Eddie!” “Relax baby I see it…I’ve got it…okay it’s gone.” “Thank god…what? Why are you looking at me like that?” “You’re cute when you’re flustered…” “thanks honey…you’re cute when you’re killing bugs for me.” “Cute enough for a kiss…or two?” “I think so…but I’m not kissing you on this bed you just killed a bug on it…” “you’re gonna make me wash the bedding aren’t you?” “Yes…but I’ll give you a few kisses first.”

[subwaysurf45]

The Time of the Prey (Epilogue)

Summary: The younger sister of the most talked about princess in the kingdoms really can’t do much except smile and nod. When Natasha, your sister, finally goes to moves all of you to Shieldshire to marry her beloved Prince Steve you are left with your art, all alone. But one Knight took it upon himself to keep you company, and that company was all you needed to get through wedding season. Will that company last or will it be ripped away from the both of you? A war is starting and it seems targets are being made.

Pairing: Knight!Bucky x Princess!Reader

Words: 1k

Warnings: Fluffy fluff, wrapping everything up, Its over!!! :(

A/N: thank you so much for the constant love and support on this fic. I want to thank the people who waited an entire summer for this series, I hope it was worth the wait! I had so much writing for this AU and hope you enjoyed reading! I will be writing one shots and will be posting about sending requestions if you haven’t seen it already!!!

Series Masterlist      II      Series Playlist

SIX MONTHS LATER

In the depth of the winter you stood in front of you mirror, slightly tugging at your jacket to get it to sit just right. Your stomach was twisting and turning all morning, Bucky noticed how you couldn’t sit still during breakfast. It didn’t help that his feet gently brushed along your leg as you ate, his hand also holding yours whenever he didn’t need to cut his food. 

Beside you was a trunk, the same one you brought when you first arrived at Shieldshire. It was still scraped and dented around the edges but when you looked at those marks you remembered the journey, the love you created, and the moments you’ll remember forever; for better or for worse. 

Most handmaids would carry the trunk for you but you chose against that, handmaids weren’t as used in your castle than others you realized. You walked quickly around the small castle, making your way to the front gates and nodding to the guards as you passed by. Escorts weren’t your thing anymore unless it was Bucky walking beside you, and he was training young kids this morning. 

The small building off to the side of the castle had people of all ages walking in it, from the extremely poor to the Lords who lived within the castle. They all had their trunks clutched tightly in the cold weather, there was nothing warm about the Southlands. 

“Good morning,” you smiled as you walked in, seeing everyone setting up their stations. 

Everyone responded in their own manner, some looked up from their spots and others stayed quiet. You moved to the front of the room and faced everyone, setting down your trunk and opening it. 

Your easel and paint were quickly set up, people were blowing cold air on their complimentary warm lemon waters. You scanned the room and waited until everyone looked ready to begin, when most of them were ready you began to teach. 

“Today we are going to cover shadows,” your canvas faced the group of around fifteen, and using an inked quill you began to draw a circle, “we are going to draw our circle like so,” you faced the group and saw them all begin, “then we are going to choose where our light source is coming from, can someone tell me an example of a light source?” 

“The sun!” someone called from the back. 

“Wonderful,” you nodded with a smile, “another example is a candle, can you remember how the corner of the page closest to the candle or lantern is always the easit part to see?” people’s eyes lit up with understanding. In the beginning, it was hard to remember people of all different walks of life who joined your lessons to learn how to draw and paint. 

You had decided to start with quil and ink first before getting into paints because they were much harder for beginners to use, it also costed more to buy paint now because of the kingdoms coming back from the war. The Free Lands had faught against the Red River and combined the two kingdoms, now producing most of the realm's dye and fabrics. Lands disputes had fallen, the realm was healing but it came with a price. 

Not too long later the lesson was complete, people took their boards off of their easels and left the little space, making their way back to the castle or into the common wealth lands. People from Flea Bottom were slow to move back, you were in talks with your mother about cleaner water for drinking and bathing but it was a long and tiring process. 

Accepting you were an heir took a shorter time than expected, you were slowly falling in love with politics but those thoughts scared you. There was nothing you hated more than feeling as though no matter when you did you let some party down, not always helping everyone. Your mother helped you get through that easily, telling you stories of how she believe her ideas were for the greater good but ended up failing, blowing up right in her face. It didn’t ease your mind in the slightest but it was nice to know someone as perfect as your mother made mistakes. 

As you walked along the white fluff to head back to the castle, your feet trudged through the snow. The Northern Lands would go through a freezing over period which caused snow to grow to double the height of their houses, the Southlands got some but it only reached your ankle. 

You had talking a great a deal about staying put in the kingdom, part of you still wanted to visit the Free Lands just to see how their democracy was going. From word of mouth you heard it was smooth, no issues and laws were created faster. Part of you kept that in the back of your mind as you thought about your families line of succession - or lack thereof. 

You were dead set on not having kids, nothing was going to change that. No amount of royal duty could make you squeeze a child out of you, there was simply no world that would happen. Bucky was more than content with that, childbirth was a scary thing, if a mother had five children only two would make it to adulthood. You would always shiver at the numbers when it came to mother mortality, you were never going to take that risk. 

So, who would come after you? 

Democracy was coming and there was no way to stop it. 

“I honestly think you walking and thinking is the scariest thing in the world,” all of a sudden Bucky appeared in front of you, blocking you from walking into a wall, your nose almost smacking into the grey cinder blocks. “What is troubling you, my sweet?” 

You just smiled and shook your head, “Just royal stuff, succession and kingdoms and responsibility and-”

“You’re doing it again,” he commented, taking your hand in his and walking you to your shared room. You didn’t have to ask, he knew you needed a break. “You always do this,” as Bucky spoke to took a moment to admire him and much you missed seeing him in his royal clothes and not the ratty tunics, “you think and think and think, it never ends, you have to give that smart brain of your a day off- at least an hour!” Bucky laughed with you, squeezing your hand and leaning into you. 

“How was the training?” your hand pressed against your forehead, feeling how cold it was. 

“Cold,” Bucky laughed, “those boys don’t know anything about fighting in the snow, how much more they have to move and step, they’ll learn someday,” he shook his head, “do you want to get some soup and bread before we go to our room?” You nodded and Bucky found a handmaid, “would you mind grabbing those soup-bread-bowl-things?” the handmaid laughed, Bucky did as well, “do you know what I’m referring to?” 

“Of course,” she smiled and walked away, heading towards the kitchens. 

Once you reached your bedroom you took off the gloves and jacket you were wearing, also helping Bucky out of the beige padded tunic he wore when teaching the kids how to fight. You had asked again about the training, especially one kid Bucky had a liking towards. “I don’t think you understand how great he will be once he reaches my age, the kid is ten and six and can already flip as he fights,” Bucky laughed as he sat on the edge of the bed, “there’s a reason the young ones call him Hercules.” 

You laughed as well, going to the door and grabbing the two bowls which were actuall bread, “I still am fascinated by these things, truely, I must meet whoever made them,” you passed one to Bucky, flicking off the crumbs that immediately flaked onto his pants. 

You both ate side by side, brushing against eachother’s shoulders as you leaned in. for the majority of the time you ate in silence but it was comfortable, just enjoying one another company. 

After a while you felt the hair on the back on your neck stand up, freezing where you were and looked over to Bucky who was already staring at you, lost in thought. You giggled to try and break the tension, “what?” you leaned into him. 

“For the life of me I can’t understand,” he whispered, “here you sit: an heir to a massive kingdom and allies with another strong contender and you do nothing to get the revenge of the men that hurt you,” he sighed and bit into his bread. 

You looked forward with a sigh, “I honestly don’t know,” was all you could offer on the surface but the answer was right there, “it always comes back to my father,” you looked over at Bucky who grew remorseful, probably kicking himself for making you think about your father, “he was always violent and agressive and harsh,” your spoon collected the last bit of broth that hadn’t seeped into the bread, “I want to be the opposite of him, which meant I must stay composed, I can’t be violent - I have to use my brain, something he never did.” 

Bucky hummed, “that does make sense,” he spoke with a full mouth but used the back of his hand to cover as he spoke, “you’re always so detailed like that, I love it.” 

You laughed, “one of us needs to hold eachother back from doing the irrational,” you began to bite into your bread. Bucky just looked at you and shook his head, smiling to himself. “Stop doing that,” you laughed and placed your bread down, wrapping your arms around him and pushing him to fall back, making him scramble to put his bread bowl down as well. 

“What are you doing?” he laughed as you rolled on top of him, “this is my thing!” Your arms stayed wrapped around his neck and you laid your head on his chest, feeling him slowly wrap his arms around you. “How are your scars?” the question seemed to come out of no where but you could tell he was feeling them through the dress. 

They were completely healed and at no risk for infection but the skin still sat with a bump, causing jagged lines to be left for the rest of your life. In the beginning you thought Bucky would try to avoid them as much as possible but he didn’t, most of the time tracing them or sneaking a few kisses in when you slept with your back to him. 

“All good,” you whispered and closed your eyes, “that feels nice,” you sighed as he gently slid his fingertips against your back, he continued to do so. Your body began to feel heavier and sleep crept up on you, pulling you deeper and deeper. 

“You are one of the good ones on this planet,” you heard from above you right before sleep fully washed over.

Thanks for all the love and reading, if you enjoyed don’t be afraid to reblog!

- Rambo <3

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[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Manga ch. 21-26

Phew!  We’re almost done with the Zamasu Saga. 

Last time, we left off with Trunks holding off Goku Black and Zamasu so that Goku and Vegeta could escape in the Time Machine.  This is somewhat similar to what Trunks did to save them in Episode 62 of the DBS anime.  Except they never bothered to explain how Trunks survived against such hopeless odds.  Instead, in Episode 63, he just wakes up in a Resistance Bunker.  No one explains how he got away from Black and Zamasu.  It’s bullshit. 

In the manga version, he gets rescued by the Shin and Gowasu of the “main” timeline.  In Trunks’ timeline, all of the Supreme Kais are dead, but the “main” timeline versions can still travel to this world using their Time Rings.  They can also teleport to any planet they wish, including this reality’s version of the Sacred World of the Kais in Universe 7.  It’s deserted now, but they still know where it is, and it provides refuge for the good guys while they wait for Goku and Vegeta to return. 

But why do they even need to wait for Goku and Vegeta?  They used the Time Machine, so why don’t they just set the return coordinates for a few seconds after they left?  Goku asks this very question, and Bulma tells him that it can’t work that way.  I won’t get into the details because later it turns out Bulma was mistaken about this, but in this scene, she tells them that they have to “sync up” with the other timeline.  Spending one day here means that they have to return one day later in the other timeline as well. 

Tell you what, let’s just jump ahead to the ending, where Emperor Pilaf of all people figures out Bulma’s error.  Presumably Future Bulma, the one who actually invented the time machine, understood this, but Present Bulma is still learning as she goes.

Oh, before I get too far ahead of myself, check out this goofy rendition of Trunks’ sword.  It looks too wide in a lot of scenes, but in this one it’s like Toyotaro is trying to make it looks stupid on purpose.  Aren’t swords easy to draw?  Also, why is Mai wrapping her fingers around the blade like that? 

One more thing, I appreciate Goku Black in this scene declaring that he doesn’t want to destroy the entire planet.  He could wipe out all mortals very efficiently if he just blew up the planets they were standing on, but he wants to keep all the planets in tact.  This was heavily implied in the anime, but they never came out and said so, which always frustrated me. 

Here’s a scene of Black and Zamasu’s hideout, and it works a lot better than it did in the anime, because this scene shows them discussing their plans instead of just sipping tea and congratulating themselves.  Because of Gowasu and Shin’s little rescue earlier, they’re concerned that their plans have been exposed to the gods of the other timelines.  They’re worried that Grand Zeno might even catch wind of this, so their best bet is to leave this Earth and move on to a new base of operations.  But they still want to finish off the remaining Earthlings before they leave. 

See, this is excellent storytelling.  The way the information is presented, we learn additional things about their plan.  They could have wiped out the Earthlings some time ago.  It’s not even hard for them, which is why they’re gonna knock it out in one afternoon before they leave.  But like I mentioned in the last post, they’ve been using this Earth as a training ground to get Goku Black powered up and to practice for the more difficult work of invading the other timelines.

It’s also important to show that they’re actually concerned about something going wrong.  Their Zero Mortals Plan isn’t foolproof.  The only reason they were able to kill all the gods in this reality is because they had the element of surprise on their side, and because of that business where killing a Supreme Kai kills the Destroyer God and deactivates his Angel for free.  But now that Gowasu and Shin are onto them, it’ll be a lot harder to get the drop on the other gods from here on out.  Black and Zamasu are still confident about their plan, but they’re clearly troubled by this development. 

This was something that was sorely lacking in the anime version, where Black and Zamasu were constantly making those smug little grins the entire time.  They never worried about anything until Zamasu nearly got trapped by the Mafuba near the end of the arc.  And if the villain is never inconvenienced, it makes the story kind of dull.  Think about how troubled King Piccolo was when his children were killed, or how frightened he got when he thought Goku’s Kamehameha stance might be a Mafuba.  Or how annoyed Frieza would get when he lost the Dragon Balls.  Anime Zamasu never gives you any of that.

Anyway, their final push to kill the remaining Earthlings forces Trunks’ group to take action.  Gowasu refuses to stand by and wait for Goku and Vegeta.  Instead, he goes alone to appeal to Goku Black’s better nature, except Black has already murdered two other versions of Gowasu, so he has no problem doing it again.  And there’s a scene like this in the anime, but this time Black actually gets to stab him, and Gowasu falls off a building.  It’s pretty cool because:

1) It actually looks like he’s dead, because Black’s attack seriously hurt him, unlike all the times he stabs people in the anime and they’re fine.

2) It gives some karmic payback to Gowasu for failing to recognize the problem with Zamasu before it got this bad. 

Gowasu isn’t a bad person, but he made a very grave mistake, and it’s unsatisfying how he never suffers any direct consquences for it.  I mean, two other versions of Gowasu get murdered, but that’s a little too clean for my tastes.  Those dead Gowasu’s don’t have to live with it.  This Gowasu, who gets stabbed but survives, has something painful to remember this by.   It’s much more satisfying this way. 

So when Gowasu gets hurt, Trunks, Shin, and Mai return to Earth to save him, and not long after that, Goku and Vegeta return to pick up where they left off.  This time, Goku has learned the Mafuba Technique to deal with Zamasu, while Vegeta trained in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to counter Goku Black.

Vegeta’s strategy this time is to fight in the Super Saiyan God form, which is weaker than Blue, so Goku Black doesn’t understand the point.  But as Goku explains, Vegeta has learned to control his powers more precisely, switching from SSG to Blue at the very instant he attacks.  This way he gets the best of both worlds.  Super Saiyan God is easier to maintain and a little more agile, so Vegeta can defend himself in that form, and then he only uses Blue in very small doses, getting all the raw power while minimizing the strain on his body.

This is similar to something Goku did against Hit in the previous arc, but he only managed to do it once, at the very end of their fight.  Vegeta’s mastered the trick to the point where he can do it repeatedly.  Again, this is way better than the anime, where Vegeta didn’t do anything differently after training in the Chamber.  It was understood that he would be stronger than before, but there was nothing more to it than that.  One fight he lost to Black, and now he’s winning.  I hate to sound like a broken record, but the manga is just styling all over the anime here. 

I’m not even saying this “Switching Between God and Blue” trick is a cool idea.  I seem to remember fans disliking this when these chapters were published.  But the point here is that it is an idea.  It’s something new Vegeta does that he couldn’t do before, and that’s the in-story reason why he’s winning this time.  He doesn’t have to invent a new transformation every time he trains, but he has to come up with something to explain his improvement, and this works.

Meanwhile, Goku actually gets to do the Mafuba, so that’s another win for the manga.  Also, the gag with the talisman works a lot better in this version.  In the anime, Goku forgot the talisman altogether.  Here, he remembered to bring it, but he picked up the wrong piece of paper.  The joke is less about Goku screwing up and more about him looking at the talisman and seeing a coupon for “Club Tight & Scanty”. 

So this leads up to the Zamasu/Goku Black fusion, which works a lot better here, because Vegeta is handily kicking Black’s ass.  Goku may not be able to seal Zamasu away like he planned, but he can definitely keep Zamasu contained long enough for Vegeta to kill Goku Black, and Zamasu won’t be able to carry out his plan alone.  The anime borked that up by having Goku Black still have the upper hand, so they really only fused because Zamasu was rattled about the Mafuba.

So Goku and Vegeta fuse, right?  Well, not right away.  They have the Potara at their disposal, but they don’t want to go through with it.  Goku asks Vegeta, but as soon as Vegeta refuses, Goku’s more relieved than anything else.  Then while Goku fights alone, Vegeta hears Gowasu explain that Merged Zamasu should unfuse within an hour.   See, in the anime he said Potara fusion is permanent only when a Kai is involved.  But in the manga, it’s only permanent when a Supreme Kai is involved, and Zamasu never officially achieved that rank. He’s just a usurper, so his fusion has a time limit too.  That gets Vegeta’s attention, and so does Trunks when he says he wants to join in the fight because he doesn’t want Vegeta getting hurt over this, because his mom really wanted to go back in time and see him again before she died. 

So all of that changes Vegeta’s mind about the fusion, and that’s how we get Vegito in this version.  I like that, because Goku and Vegeta have shown a reluctance to fuse in the past, and it’s a lot cooler to have Vegeta motivated by sentimental reasons than just “The bad guy is really strong, so we just gotta.”  I like fusion, don’t get me wrong, but they need to sell me on it a little first. 

So Vegito starts off by blowing off Zamasu’s right arm, which sets up a nice little homage to Cell getting Final Flashed.  I think this is one of those scenes where fans whine about Toyotaro “tracing”, which is dumb as hell, because it’s clearly a callback.  Of course he’s gonna do stuff like this.  He’s a Dragon Ball fan working on a Dragon Ball comic.  Comic book artists do this all the time.  There’s probably a few thousand different tributes to the cover of Action Comics #1.

Vegito comes apart pretty quickly, and Zamasu works the boys over with Kachin metal blocks and that portals trick Janemba does.  I get the Katchin thing, because Toyotaro probably played Budokai 2 where the Supreme Kai would throw blocks at people, and he wanted to use that move here.  The portals thing... I don’t know.  He definitely needed to do a new power just to show off Merged Zamasu’s on a different level, and this works for that, but it feels a little out of left field.  I’m not sure what he should have used instead though, so I won’t complain too much.

So from the sidelines, Gowasu and Shin watch Goku and Vegeta getting clobbered, and they wish that they could help.  Once, when they were apprentice Supreme Kais like Zamasu, they had healing powers of their own, but they had to give that ability up once they assumed the role of Supreme Kai.  Then Trunks remembers that he was an Assistant Supreme Kai in a manner of speaking.  Back when his own Supreme Kai was training him to fight Babidi and Dabura, there was a ritual Shin did for him, one that he didn’t understand at the time.  As it turns out, that ritual was to give him the powers of an Assistant Kai, which included healing powers.  Trunks just didn’t know about it until now, which is... kind of goofy, but okay. 

So he can heal the others, but it turns out he only has enough power to heal one or the other, so he’ll have to choose.  At first, Trunks goes with Vegeta, but Vegeta refuses.  While he was fused with Goku, he realized that Goku has the power to win this fight, so that’s who he wants Trunks to heal up.

This part isn’t exactly brilliant, but it sure beats what they did in the anime after Vegito came apart, which was just having Trunks chop Zamasu in half using ki from a handful of ordinary civilians.  I mean, if we’re choosing between two different asspulls, I’ll take the asspull that makes a little more sense. 

So Goku gets healed and fights alone, and Vegeta explains how Goku managed to perfect the Super Saiyan Blue form, allowing himself to use Blue for sustained periods of time.  And that works because this is the first time we’ve really gotten to see Goku fight at this level, but if he had this mastered already, why was he so impressed with Vegeta’s deal where he switched between God and Blue?  Because that sounds like a workaround that Goku had already made obsolete.

Goku even manages to use Hakai against Zamasu, but he pulls Mai in the path of the attack so Goku has to back off.  Again, a little goofy, but I can like with it. 

The main thing here is that Goku didn’t get to do much in the first two-thirds of the arc, and that’s by design.  You bring him out at the end so he can show off all his cool powers and everyone talks about how strong he is.  Which means you have to do a lot of scenes where Goku is on the sidelines, or absent altogether.  And this is nothing new.  We’ve seen it in a lot of classic Dragon Ball arcs in the past, but Toei wants to go against that idea and put Goku all over the place.  Well, they got their way in GT and they got their way in the anime version of the Zamasu arc, and both of those things sucked.  This manga Zamasu arc has some problems, but it’s a lot more sound from a structural standpoint. 

Does it make sense for Goku to be able to fight Merged Zamasu alone?  Not really, but he doesn’t have to beat him, he just has to hold out long enough for the fusion to wear off, and it does.  But it’s all weird because it was two Zamasus.

And that’s when Trunks chops them in half.   See, this works so much better because Merged Zamasu was already starting to come apart anyway, so this is just Trunks delivering a final blow instead of inventing some new power from nothing.

But it’s not the end just yet, because each half grows back, and then the Goku Black half gets up from being impaled.  How did he become immortal?

Then both of them regenerate into their Merged Zamasu forms, so now we have two Merged Zamasus.  Vegeta does a Final Flash variation called “Gamma Burst Flash”, and that rips them both apart, but then the pieces grow into even more Zamasus, so we have this Sorcerer’s Apprentice thing going on.

Retreat isn’t an option either, because the Zamasus reveal that they have their own time machine.  Remember that ancient civilization in Universe 12 who invented a time machine?  Well, the Destroyer God from U12 kept it, and Zamasu found it .  So he can use that device to invade the other timelines.  Wait, how would Zamasu know how to operate an alien time machine?  I mean, he’s not stupid, but still.  For all he knows, it’s not even functional anymore, and there’s no tech support in Universe 12 because he killed everyone in it. 

So Goku and Vegeta try to hold off this Zamasu army while the others escape.  They have no idea what good it’ll do, but it’s better than nothing.  I like Vegeta’s like here when Goku asks him if he has a plan. “Go wild until you die.  That’s all.”

I also like how Goku’s only regret is that if he has to go out in a hopeless battle like this, he’d rather do it in Super Saiyan mode.  Luffa would be touched.

But then he remembers his button that he got from Grand Zeno, and things pretty much play out like they did in Episode 67 of the anime.  The entire timeline is erased, and in the manga, we see the Time Ring that represents this timeline vanish along with it.  That kind of bugged me in the anime version, where Gowasu looks at his box of rings one last time at the end of the arc and all the rings are still there. 

On the other hand, should the Time Ring vanish?  Zeno didn’t erase the timeline, just the multiverse it contained.  Is that the same thing?  The history of that reality still exists, right?  Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter, since the Time Rings can’t go back to the past, and now this timeline only has a past.  So even if the history of that timeline remains, the Time Ring that goes with it is useless, so it might as well self-destruct.

Except Whis still has that plan to go back to the timeline before Grand Zeno destroyed everything in it, nip Zamasu in the bud, and drop off Trunks and Mai to live out their lives.  This will create a new alternate timeline, but the fact that Whis can do this at all suggests that the Time Ring for that reality still needed to exist.  Ah well, this whole business is pretty dumb anyway. 

My head canon for all of this is that Whis dropped off this version of Trunks and Mai in the timeline where Xeno Trunks lives, and sometimes he’ll come home from Time Patrol duty and say hello to his blue-haired duplicate, an older, more traumatized version of himself who lives with his wife in some cabin out in the middle of nowhere.  Blunks sees his mom now and again, but he and Mai keep to themselves for the most part, as they can’t quite feel like they truly belong in this world.  But they have each other, and that’s enough.

But I can never figure out the timeline logistics to make that provable.  It probably isn’t worth the trouble.

Anyway, Pilaf keeps asking Future Mai what happened to the Pilaf and Shu of that timeline, and she seems to know the answer, but she can’t bring herself to tell him the truth.  I was sort of hoping Future Mai wouldn’t even know who Pilaf was, since the anime never bothered to establish this, but the manga makes it clear that this is the same Mai who we saw in the first DB arc in 1984.  So whatever. 

The thing is, Pilaf’s all worried because he doesn’t know what unspeakable fate awaits him, but for all we know, Mai just doesn’t want to tell him he died.  I mean, everyone died in that timeline. It’s just a question of who killed Pilaf and when it happened.  Maybe something else happened to him before he got killed, and that’s what Mai doesn’t want to talk about, but even if he lived right up to the end, he still would have died in that one shed Goku Black blew up. 

Like I said, this arc is pretty damn morbid, and it bothers me how casually Toriyama brought back this alternate timeline just to eradicate it completely.   He could have just... not brought it back, and that would have been the same as destroying it, but instead it’s like he went out of his way to do this arc just to burn the whole thing to the ground and piss on the ashes. 

And we never really know for sure that Whis succeeds in his plan to relocate Trunks and Mai.  This feels very much like when someone says they took your pet dog to a farm where they can run and play all day long.  Maybe Whis just killed them in secret to wrap up the last loose ends.  Or maybe he made a good faith effort and it just didnt’t work the way he expected.  Or maybe it worked just fine, but Trunks couldn’t handle it and flipped out.   It’s not fun to think about. 

But it’s over now, and I’m pleased to say the manga version is a lot better than the anime, although I guess that’s not saying a whole lot.  Good night, and fuck the Zamasu Saga forever. 

[dballzposting]

okay my brain isn't fully turned on and I have more to say on this subject that won't come out of my brain rn but ive been thinking about this for days and i need to share

I think trunks is like. he watches culturally important films, or like cult classics, a lot bc he feels it is a good way to expand his worldview or like just become more cultured. but by and large he does not like them.

oh for sure there's some he enjoyed. And there's a few where he's like 'Well, I didn't enjoy it, but i definitely think it was a good film. Just not my thing.'

meanwhile goten does not seek them out at all. he could not care less. BUT if Trunks is watching one when Goten wants to hang out, he'll sit his ass down and watch! He's not passing up a free fancy people movie!

And almost every time he REALLY likes it. And after every single one he goes on for like 30 minutes about Themes and Symbolism before interrupting himself to see if trunks wants to go get milkshakes.

and then after they get shakes trunks has to spend the night thinking about it. Why does goten seem to Get things so easily? Why does understanding worldviews he doesn't necessarily agree with come so naturally to Goten, when Trunks is actively trying?

Why won't Goten stop asking to see the movie where a disembodied head bites a girl in the butt (Hausu)??? Why does he think that's so funny????????????

PART 2: (Copy & pasted just to keep it all in one place)

okay i think i figured out the rest of what i wanted to say re: goten and trunks cultural movie bonanza as an example it's not like goten knows what chiaroscuro is. but he DOES notice and enjoy how filmmakers use lighting to draw the eye to or away from stuff. He picks up on the little clues. and once he starts watching enough of a certain genre he likes noticing how so-and-so film stands against the others. it's like i spy to him. and he likes hearing what a film has to say, under its layers. trunks talks like that sometimes, when he's doing business stuff. it's all code. it's mental stimulation but Trunks is like UGH nobody has said anything for FIVE MINUTES can we PLEASE move the plot along. this is like a BUSINESS MEETING tbh. and it's not like he doesn't get the plot or, once he's taken a film class, the meaning of certain techniques. he just can't bring himself to care. AND THE MAN JUST WON'T LEARN HIS LESSON AND HE KEEPS WATCHING THESE DAMN FILMS. also Goten like. he doesn't know these movies. his parents don't fucking watch movies. i mean maybe chichi watches like. romance and martial arts movies probably. he probably likes to compare himself to crouching tiger hidden dragon. so he DOESN'T know what to expect!!! when trunks is like 'hey im gonna watch Citizen Kane or Vanishing Point or Deliverance' or whatever and goten says NEAT i would like to watch also and trunks is like 'I know. that's why i told you. come over around 4 okay' and so goten doesn't have any sort of knowledge of these movies! it's exciting!!! bc the movies he saw growing up were his moms movies about kissing and punching and then whatever trunks took him to see in theatres. so like action and comedy and some horror. so it's new! it's fun! even when he doesn't really like the movie he's like 'well im glad i got to experience this new thing with my best buddy Trunks' ALSO they watched Eraserhead once and goten sat there afterwards on the floor (he likes to sit on the floor) for like ten minutes chewing his lips before turning to trunks and saying something to the effect of 'Trunks. I'm worried about what kind of father you're going to be.' and trunks just sort of. sat there. and looked goten in the eyes for a while. bc he didn't have a response. okay i think i got it all out of my system thank you for your time (i have been making my way through my movie bucket list so this is very strongly on my mind)

TL;DR: Trunks watches classic and high-rated movies becasue he thinks that he's an intellectual / because he's interested in increasing his cultural/artistic literacy & expanding his worldview. But he doesn't really enjoy most of them. And it is Goten who actually is able to see through to the heart of the film, exercise deep empathy, and reap delight at the tactics of storytelling unique to the medium. He's like WOOOAH SO COOL & MEANINGFUL .. (offers a critical analysis perfectly, that is sensitive and insightful). And Trunks is like wtf .... (stays awake at night pondering his deficits.)

DBALLZ COMMENTARY:

I WANT TO BE GOTEN ...

From what I'm gathering he A.) Has the capacity to UNDERSTAND what he's seeing B.) Has the capacity to ANALYZE/INTERPRET what he's seeing C.) Has the heart to EXPERIENCE the movie in full and D.) Has the faculty to ARTICULATE/VERBALIZE what he's experiencing.

Goten no doubt is lacking a lot of cultural and artistic context, but he makes up for it with his observant eye, and then over time what he gathers from one movie transfers to the next and he's able to feel even more moved and offer even more insight ....

It's because his heart is open .. Trunks is trying too hard without realizing it. And you can't have an open heart when there is inner pain that you're not aware of. That's what I think about Trunks .... his trying to be someone he's not (a movie-savvy type of guy) is entirely self-removed without intending to be... He thinks it's self-improvement but really he's being entirely daft to what intrigues his mind and what would really facilitate his growth. And he can't be open-minded toward others if he can't be open-minded with himself.

But the format of movies I guess really works for Goten, they're not usually longer than two hours and they're faster paced than say a novel and they're colorful and they have a lot of movement and the mode of drama-deliverance is altogether captivating for him .... They can communicate a lot with a few small visual or auditory details and Goten is hip to just picking up on those, because he's genuinely engaged and enjoying himself.

But Trunks has elected to adopt this hobby on an intellectual principle. But all the rest of him is like ehhhh whatyever. He probably likes sitting and chilling and eating popcorn. But there's a lot he's not into. It's just not his medium. Just doesn't work for him

I also think that part of it is that Goten notices a lot of things just because they are new to him. Trunks has been watching movies his whole life. Menahwile Goten has been only watching the movies of LIFE ... The lighting of the sun and the pacing of the seasons <3 Also Ponyo

So the whole thing is new and he's like "WOOOOAH .. SO COOL HOW the camera was so high in that shot so that it made me feel tall..... really shows you how small the character feels..." And Trunks just like Didnt notice that

Also trunks just DOESNT CARE !!!! But he doesnt know that he doesnt care. SILLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like this part regarding Goten: "He picks up on the little clues. and once he starts watching enough of a certain genre he likes noticing how so-and-so film stands against the others. it's like i spy to him. and he likes hearing what a film has to say, under its layers. trunks talks like that sometimes, when he's doing business stuff. it's all code. it's mental stimulation"

Thats such a way to put it .... Goten is being such a genius rn. He would liken it to the mysterious business-speech. IT'S ALL CODE. IT'S MENTAL STIMULATION.

I don't know any of these movies but I do agree that Goten would sit for 10 minutes and then say that to Trunks ... It's like him to assume that Trunks would be a father one day becasue that's just natural to him that's just life.

When this all started I think that Trunks was like "You sure you wanna watch this with me? It's not like Kung-Fu Panda or anything."

And Goten said "Are you kidding? I LOVE your movies. They're like delicate poetry being told through the form of telenovelas."

Becasue the only life-action TV Goten had been exposed to before was his mother's telenovelas.

I don't really agree with this next part but it's obligatory.

Goten would pick up that Trunks isn't enjoying the movies as much as Goten is, before Trunks even gives proper acknowledgment to his boredom. Trunks just keeps watching them and Goten respects that and doesn't think about it much, but eventually it must be pointed out that hey, Trunks isn't getting as much out of these as Goten is.

Maybe he keeps inviting Goten over so that Goten can tell him what the movie is about. That would make sense. But really I think that Trunks just likes to chill out with him.

But the way that Goten woiuld crunch the numbers in his head (if he's ever removed enough from the movie to ponder) (maybe during a pee break or something) is "He doesnt like the movies. He keeps watching the movies. He keeps inviting me to watch the movies. He doesnt like the movies. But he always invites me. Why do people watch movies with somebody if they don't like the movies? As an excuse to be with them. He just wants to hang out with me."

But he would take it too far and he would fall on the couch next to Trunks and start kissing on him sweetly and when Trunks goes like WHAT Goten says "you dont even like the movies. You just want to hang out with me and eat popcorn."

And the most self-awareness that Trunks had exercised about this whole thing was when he was wondering why he sucked such shit at watching movies compared to Goten. He never really thought about WHY he was doing this to begin with. And so he's doing some hard calculations in his head meanwhile Goten nuzzles him like a pigeon