#idk just something random that infiltrated my mind

[writinggremlin]

Lock your whumpee in the freezer. Whether it's on purpose or on accident, it doesn't matter.

Just shut the door on them and leave them for a little bit.

Whumpee gets the time-out freezer for their sins.

[kwonhoshi0]

𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐰𝐞’𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝 | fic

navigation | requests : open | 3rd feb 2021

pairing : bakugou x gn!reader

genre : angst, fluff lots of fluff i promise

word count : 3.8k+

warnings : season 3 spoilers, blood, injuries, gore, knives, fire

themes : angst with a happy ending, kidnapping, injuries, worry, mutual pining

request : hiii so my idea was like a bakugou x reader (reader is kacchan's s/o) kinda storyline but the reader is like aizawa's daughter figure?? not necessarily by blood but like as a student she would always stay behind and make tea for aizawa and like just accompany him to not be lonely?? maybe?? idk something like that ANYWAYS we all know that bakugou gets kidnapped by the LOV so what if the reader saves him and reader gets taken instead so like how would bakugou and aizawa react or do when they see reader getting warped right in front of them? LOL HDKSLAMA does it make sense like hfkslala yeah idk but that was my idea hope you like it enough to write it<3 - 🐰anon

note : here’s me typing this out for the second time bc i’m stupid <3, by the way in this fic they’ve lived at the dorms since the USJ!

being the niece of a pro-hero isn’t easy, since he isn’t very popular you didn’t worry too much about press but when you’re trying to get coffee together no one can deny the resemblance, people put two and two together. you lived with your uncle, also know as eraser-head by the media, since your parents weren’t really around anymore he took you in and looked after you, your uncle doesn’t show a lot of emotion but he has admitted that it’s nice not being alone all the time.

after first starting UA you noticed a certain boy a lot more, especially when you trained together, having a crush on someone was difficult especially when they’re your classmate and when that said classmate also falls for you? it made it harder to sneak glances and kisses inbetween class, despite you knowing your uncle won’t really care you both wanted to keep it a secret from everyone for as long as possible.

it wasn’t that you’re afraid of your uncle finding out but you’d rather your relationship be your own for now, that was until you were playing video games in the dorms with your boyfriend who’s head was in your lap not thinking anyone would walk in through the front door since everyone’s asleep and aizawa doesn’t visit often, he wouldn’t have thought much of it but your boyfriend, katsuki bakugou isn’t one for pda.. not from just anyone so he just put two and two together asking you when you went to the staff office as usual, ‘y/n are you and bakugou dating’ he said with his normal toneless voice, knowing it’s best not to lie you nodded, ‘hm’ and that was all he said about it, which is a good thing because when aizawa didn’t like something he’d say a bit more. everyone else found out when you both tried sneaking a kiss before class, kirishima noticed bakugou left early for class so he went after him, when he caught up and saw him holding your waist and jaw he smiled yelling ‘FINALLY’ and that’s how everyone else found out, when everyone found out about you being aizawa’s niece you were surprised that more people didn’t know, bakugou noticed you going to the staff room a lot and how you left at the same time as aizawa so when he found out that you’re related he made sure to tred a little softer around your uncle, noticing the similarities between your quirks, your quirks are both mind quirks so it made sense.

after months of dating you never regretted saying yes to the ashe blonde, not once. of course you both had rough spots like any other couple but you talked it out, however long it took, bakugou’s willingness to talk to you and comfort you made you feel special and loved, it’s not easy for him but he’s learnt to trust you more and more as time went on slowly bringing down his walls for you.

you looked out the window of the bus at the beautiful scenery as he watched you ‘dumbass, there’s a prettier view here’ he joked making you snort ‘mhm’ he huffed in annoyance before you brought out the doe eyes rubbing your head into his shoulder ‘you’re a very pretty view’ you pout as he smirked, ‘fuck yeah i am’ you kiss his cheek as you laughed at his antics, it was time for the training camp you had all talked about for months, when aizawa brought it up everyone went wild, until a couple of class 1A whined because they had to do extra work since they failed the exams. aizawa told you about the pussy cats and to make sure to use this training camp to your full advantage since it’s only a couple weeks.

as soon as you got out of the bus the ground beneath you shook making you all scream as the pussy cats that just introduced themselves to you told you to get to the campsite as fast as you can, you stood up from the fall, groaning you helped up mina, uraraka and your friend kendo from class b, you looked around to see where the blonde was, noticing him you sighed relieved until you heard denki say ‘what the fuck is that’ you all peered through the trees to see a big creatures that looked like they were made out of...sand?

not wasting any time you pulled yourself into the air with just enough power so you were now standing in front of the sand creature you heard some of your friends scream at you, holding your hand out pointing at the creature you flicked your wrist snapping it’s neck in an instant, some people praised you as you felt bakugou’s breath on your ear as he quickly whispered ‘that was hot’ before running in front of you going after another of the creatures, giggling you ran after them. one of the reasons bakugou fell for you was because you didn’t hesitate when it came to fighting something in your way, when you got attacked at the usj he noticed this, the way you protected your friends first. as you all climbed through the forest you stuck with midoriya and todoroki, ‘y/n jump!!’ you looked to the side of you to see a sand creature coming straight for you guys, you did as todoroki told you, he blasted the sand creature with his ice, freezing it and letting midoriya smash it into small particles. you all ran through the forest as light started to hit your face, more light shining through as you got closer to the camp. finally at the camp you all panted while sat on the floor, you looked up as todoroki walked back over to you and midoriya handing you both water bottles, ‘thank you todoroki’ you smiled as you chugged the water down soothing your dry throat and warmth.

once you all got cleaned up and the pussy cats explained what would be happening over the time spent at the training camp you felt an arm snake around your waist, leaning into the boys touch he gave you a small peck before peeling away from you grinning, bakugou isn’t one for pda but no one was really watching since you were all walking to the cafeteria to eat and everyone was too hungry to care, besides if anyone pointed it out bakugou wouldn’t hesitate to cuss them out.

you slept comfortably that night until you all got woken up at an ungodly time that morning, the only person who didn’t look dead was bakugou since he gets up early anyway, ‘what time did you sleep last night’ he asked you with a raised eyebrow, ‘the same time as everyone else, 11pm’ he rolled his eyes, before he could get a word out you said ‘not everyone sleeps at 8pm grandpa’, denki and kirishima laughed at your statement, ‘shut up dumbass’ he retorted. aizawa explained what you would be doing, many groans and whining could be heard as he explained how hard you should push yourself, you had to practise holding yourself in the air while throwing random objects for as long as possible, the only problem with this is you feel extremely light headed and your nose always bled when you do this for too long, bakugou practised near you so if you did go overboard he could catch you, which he didn’t tell you but he didn’t want you hurting your head.

it had been a couple hours of this and you were exhausted, ‘hey y/n, catch!’ you spin around catching the water bottle midoriya threw at you, ‘thanks midoriya’ you smiled, he returned it throwing one to todoroki who was near you and then bakugou, ‘dont try help me deku!’ he yelled, ‘baby you’re sweating take it’ you said thank you to midoriya which made bakugou mumble angrily.

after some group training the pussy cats explained a game to you guys assigning you pairs, since the numbers were odd you got paired up with tsu and ochako, you looked over at bakugou who was complaining about todoroki being his partner which you giggled at. your uncle led the other kids back to the camp as you guys headed into the forest. it had been a while in the forest and you heard a couple screams making you shiver, you all talked about random things before ochako pointed a little deeper into the forest sniffing ‘what is that’ you looked up to where she was pointing and you could see blue flames, before you could answer you felt a blade slice your cheek, wincing you looked to where it was thrown from to your confusion you saw a normal school girl, ‘you’re all so cute!!’ she exclaimed making you raise an eyebrow. just as tsu asked her who she is you got a message from mandalay via telepathy, ‘students, villains have infiltrated the site, get back to camp as soon as possible’, eyes widening you jumped away from the girl aiming at her ‘tsu, uraraka are you hurt’ you said eyeing the girl in front of you, ‘tsu!! that’s such a cute name, i think i’ll call you tsu’ she said in a high voice, ‘only my friends can call me that’ tsu said with a shaky voice dodging the knives. she sent another knife but not at you or tsu, this time at uraraka slicing her shoulder, just as you contemplated using your quirk you all got another message from mandalay ‘you have been given permission to use your quirks, but only in need of defence.. we also know who one of the targets are, katsuki bakugou, if you can hear this bakugou please go back to camp immediately’ hearing this your head filled with worry for your angry blonde, pushing the thoughts to the side you needed to find him, so you used the force in your hands to pin toga to the ground sitting on top of her so she couldn’t move, ‘Y/N HER HAND’ before you knew what uraraka meant the girl loosened your grip from her right hand and plunged a knife straight into your thigh making you cry out, unable to move in time she pumped the blood out using a machine, screaming out in pain, tsu and uraraka ran to you but quickly stopped as toga held the knife to your throat threatening to hurt you further. hearing your scream and recognising it immediately bakugou ran towards your voice, jumping through the trees, toga leapt from you as midoriya, todoroki, tokoyami and shoji ran behind bakugou halting when seeing you all, ‘there’s too many people now, i don’t feel like dying tonight’ toga pouted before running back through the trees. you groaned as bakugou ran to your side ‘fuck, can you stand up’ you hopped up with the help of him pressing your forehead to his, happy that he’s safe, you quickly spun around to check on your friends wincing in the process ‘y/n what happened?’ todoroki questioned looking at yours and urarakas injuries, you explained while checking your friends injuries ‘shit midoriya, you look terrible’ he smiled at you reassuring you it’s fine. ‘okay so bakugou, we have to protect him and get back to the camp as fast as possible, you turned around to talk to the boy, panicking when he wasn’t there ‘where is he.. bakugou this isn’t fucking funny’ looking around you noticed tokoyami wasn’t there either as shoji pointed out his lack of presence. panicking you looked up to see compress, another villain apart of the league of villains, ‘you were so occupied with your plan that you didn’t even notice they’re gone’ he sneered, your blood boiled at his words, thinking what has he done with them..

‘WHERE DID YOU TAKE THEM!’ you yelled, you saw red, how didn’t you notice, your friends looked at you bewildered never seeing you this angry before, ‘sorry gotta run!’ the villain said as he hopped tree to tree, ‘fuck no no no’ you mumbled trying to think of what to do, ‘i have an idea’ tsu said quickly, she explained how she was going to propel you with her tongue and use shoji’s arms if needed to go any further, without a second thought you agreed, she wrapped her tongue around all of you and pulled back before releasing, the cold night air hit your skin, your wounds feeling soothed at the feeling. you could see him, the villain found where he was meant to meet his friends, until he turned to see you all coming full speed at him, panicking he hesitated as you jumped at him, another villain dabi tried burning midoriya but you pulled him towards you in time, todoroki didn’t get burnt as dabi’s fire only aimed for midoriya, you turned noticing the girl from before, you threw toga against a tree with a flick making her squeak in pain ‘that wasn’t very nice, i thought we were friends!!’ you laughed at the delusional girl, ‘never’, her facial expression changed to a furious one, she grabbed her knives throwing them one by one as you dodged and used your telekinesis to throw them back at her, one of the knives hit her leg and her arm ‘THATS NOT FAIR!!’ she stomped like a child, ‘she could be useful’, you heard from compress, you turned about to attack him but before you could shoji yelled, ‘IVE GOT THEM LETS GO’ you all looked at him in disbelief, he showed you the two pearls that were meant to be bakugou and tokoyami, letting out a sigh of relief you all went to the side of the entrance to the clearing, todoroki took your wrist pulling you back from a nomu who came through the trees you were about to walk into, ‘this way!!’ midoriya pointed at another way out ‘we’ve can’t let them get away’ dabi said about to unleash his flames, ‘no don’t, i thought i’d let them gloat a bit’ at his words you spun around, eyes widening in horror as he moved his mask and opened his mouth, two little beads, tokoyami and bakugou in them shone in the light, the two beads shoji had turned into ice, ‘is that my ice?’ todoroki shouted frustrated, compress was about to walk through the portal, just as you started running at them he got hit with aoyama’s laser beam causing one of the beads to fall out, the bead transformed into tokoyami and the other transformed into bakugou, but he was still in their grasp, running as fast as you could you grabbed his wrist just in time knowing he wouldn’t let you do this, you pulled him as hard as you could making him fall behind you as dabi grabbed you by the waist holding you firmly, ‘guess we’ll take this one instead’ he grinned.

the last you saw of bakugou for the next 2 days was him running at you before you got transported into the league of villains base. ‘y/n l/n huh, we originally wanted bakugou but you got in the way.. no matter, your power is still powerful if not more, the only problem is you’re level headed, you aren’t as.. explosive’ he drawled on. they didn’t hurt you but it was repetitive, constantly asking if you’ll join them.

when bakugou woke up he felt at peace for a couple seconds before remembering what happened, when he did fall asleep it’s because aizawa convinced him he needed to sleep at least a little, so here he was resting his head on a chair in the waiting room of the hospital, before he finally fell asleep he couldn’t help but blame himself, constant questioning his actions, ‘it’s my fault’... ‘what?’ aizawa looked at the boy with a raised brow, ‘it’s my fault they took them, they were meant to take me but they grabbed me and i couldn’t help them in time, i-it’s my fault’ aizawa looked at the blonde for a couple seconds before a small smile, undetectable to anyone looking at him crept on his face, ‘bakugou, i may be angry at those villains for taking them but i am not angry at you, they chose to save you blaming yourself won’t help anyone, besides we will get them back and in order to help you need to make rational decisions which you can’t do thinking these things’ he sat next to bakugou while telling him this, only loud enough for bakugou to hear, he put his hand on the blondes head as they sat there in a comforting silence, ‘besides you would’ve done the same for them’.

as soon as bakugou woke up kirishima lead him to midoriyas room, ‘what the hell am i doing here’ he said not having the energy to scream, ‘kaachan, before you leave.. we want to help get y/n back’. it didn’t take anything for kirishima to convince him, he was in once they told him the plan, despite the protests from his friends and classmates he had to, the feeling in his stomach and chest felt as if he was suffocating, he didn’t know how you were, whether you’re injured or not or whether you’re even alive and it was eating him up inside.

they watched momo and midoriya walk over as bakugou, kirishima and todoroki stood in silence. after some discussing and protests from iida they all got on the next train agreeing that as soon as things get violent they’ll get out of there, bakugou didn’t really care about that, he just needed you to be safe. ‘we need disguises!!’ after looking the part they slowly tiptoed around the building you’re meant to be in, ‘kirishima what can you see?’ he wobbled a bit before his eyes widened in horror, ‘g-god, it’s those nomu things’, they looked through the gaps of the window in fear, ‘wait shit y/ns not in there are they?!’ bakugou tried stretching his neck to see each corner of the warehouse, ‘don’t yell!! we have to be careful, i don’t think they’re in there i’m-’ before momo could finish her sentence the entire building shook making them fall to the ground, groaning they looked up to see mt lady and best jeanist, ‘they said all mights on the scene, they’ll be okay’ todoroki said relaxing a little. for some reason bakugou didn’t relax he couldn’t until he saw you safe but before he could even think he felt himself being pushed against the wall of the small alley, looking next to him to find the culprit he met 5 terrified faces telling him not to move, he listened in to what was going on, so this was the boss, it was never shigaraki, as they heard their pro hero jeanist get wounded and maybe even die they couldn’t move, they were in shock, until they heard you.

‘fuck, where.. am i’.. bakugou looked over the wall peering through it at the sound of your voice, iida pulled him back quickly ‘don’t, bakugou no’ he knew it’s a bad idea, just as he was about to peer again to see if you were injured a large thud made the ground shake, it was all might and while all might and all for one are fighting you’re in the middle of it, meaning all might can’t use all of his powers, everytime you screamed dodging toga or compress bakugou feared the worst, ‘is that all you’ve got’ he heared you say, you sounded tired and weak. his mind was running with things that haven’t happened, the worst thoughts taking over his head, ‘guys, i have a plan’, never had bakugou been more keen on listening to midoriya.

after telling everyone the plan and their roles they got ready, since you couldn’t fly they had to think of a way to get you off the ground into the air, the only person who can do that is bakugou, with momo’s quirk she created a bluetooth device that’ll let her talk to you, since you had a telekinesis quirk you can use your mind as well as your hands, so the league of villains used magne to magnetise you to the chair you were bound in, which means you still have magnetism in you, so momo used that to get the earphone in your ear. you felt a tingle in your ear but too occupied by fighting the villains you ignored it, ‘y/n please carry on fighting as usual don’t let this throw you, get as close as you can to the wall behind you, bakugou is going to grab your arm, let him and then he’s going to blast you guys into the sky where midoriya will catch you’.

and that’s exactly what happened, the plan could not have gone smoother, bakugou grabbed your arm and you both blasted into the sky, you watched large amount of ice form creating a sledge for midoriya and iida to use, midoriya grabbed your arm as you all flew past mt lady. you landed safely, ‘are you hurt’ the boy frantically checked, you smiled at him before wrapping your arms around your boyfriends neck, ‘the only injuries i have are from back at the camp, they have bandages around them but they haven’t been healed’ he sighed relaxing into your touch, ‘fucking hell dumbass, don’t ever do that again’ you hummed against him rubbing your nose against his neck smelling his caramel scent which you missed. ‘guys we should let the authority’s know they’re okay’ midoriya squeaked bizarred at bakugou’s affection.

after getting a hug from all the friends who insisted on saving you today, bakugou dragged you back to the hospital, insisting on carrying you, ‘y/n?!... i’m so glad you’re safe’ you’re not used to affection from aizawa, it isn’t something you were used to because he knows how to comfort you without using physical affection, but hugging you was a comfort he needed right now, knowing that you’re safe and he’s able to hold you comforted him greatly in this moment before you he didn’t have anyone to talk to after school or look after, whether he was used to affection or not didn’t matter to him here. ‘bakugou, midoriya, kirishima, momo, iida, todoroki, what you did was fucking stupid, but i’m thankful, thank you’ he mumbled a little as he ruffled your hair.

as soon as you were all back at the dorms you had a class movie night in honour of your return and safety, that didn’t mean bakugou didn’t insist on you cuddling him, for a guy who’s not one for pda he needed this. throughout the whole movie you kept your head on his shoulder.his head on yours lifting his head every now and then to place a kiss on your head, ‘i missed you so fucking much teddybear’.

A/N:

oh my fucking god, before we even talk about this fic i deleted this in the drags BY ACCIDENT but my amazing talented smart ass had it copy and pasted into a word count. sometimes i love myself i would’ve gone ape shit if this was gone forever purely because of tHE TIME i sPENT.

anyway rant over enjoy your days it’s 3am and i couldn’t sleep again 😽🥲🕳👨‍🦯

taglist : @blazedbakugou @todoroki-shoto-is-life @lulu

[the-fridge-is-on-fire]

Hi darlings time to do some decoding with me cause I don’t feel like focusing on the world rn

Let’s focus on the page we got

Here are my bs annotations

Okay so in general I think we can all agree that this was obviously an old ass page probably from a book about this whole topic. I’m thinking it’s from some old ass diary? His parents maybe?

Okay so we get the enderwalkerS ITS PLURal right? So obviously it’s happened to multiple people. So that opens up a lot of theroies id say. Who wrote it? Who are these people? We can assume enderman seeing it’s the ENDERWALK. I feel as if saying it’s just an enderman would be wrong, since enderman DoNt know how to write in engkish and all. So I’m gonna say it’s safe to assume it’s some part something part enderman hybrid similar to ranboo. So that means that maybe it’s some old ass relative or even some completely unrelated.

I lost my thought so we’re moving onto my next point- in the title we see (circ- before it cuts off. I think it’s says circa and a number. Like a date, an approximate date of when this person is writing it. And why the fuck would we be able to see that ughhhhhh ranboo u make my life hard. But like there’s a date AND ITS CROSSED OUT. Whys the date crossed out? Did ranboo do that?

Actually wre all these crossed out things ranboo? It COULDVE easily been someone else. We know that ranbok wrote the “YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN IN JT TOO LONG DONT U REMEBER Do-“ and thag word is def doomsday. I’m sure he wrote that. The “FIGURE OUT HOW TO STOP IT” is in the same handwriting so it’s safe to say that those are both him.

But I feel like the random crossed out things just are not ranboo. Why would he cross out information that could literally be helpful to him? I think that whoever wrote that was slowly losing their mind.

Better yet- someone or ranboo in did it in their ENDERWALK.

Also also uh the effects!! We know that the enderwalk affects memory but judgement? I think that has something to do with him/ whoever remembering random bits of the enderwlak or what not and their judgment or view of the world being changed by what happened.

Now my question is: how is dream finding a way to infiltrate this enderwalk?

Idk half of this is incoherent maybe it’s coherent I can’t tell tbh. I might add onto this later if I find more shit.

[pekorosu]

just a lil “if ash lived” headcanon that i need to unload somewhere bc i've been holding it in for a long time

- set within the manga ‘verse

- takes place when ash and eiji are in their early 30s... so around the mid 1990s?

- i don’t get the weird animanga trope where older = longer hair, so they’re gonna look the same... maybe with slightly shorter hair bc they get regular haircuts now 

- (note: i've always interpreted long-haired eiji as symbolic of the fact that he couldn't move on from ash’s death)

- ash and eiji will continue living in the states, idk if still in NYC or somewhere else. they’ll move around a lot though.

- ash will mostly remain underground as he had to fake his death after lao’s stab, but he does it in a "hiding in plain sight" kind of way. only a handful of people know he’s still alive.  

- ash spends most of his time on the computer, mostly coding, hacking, being a nerd, among other fun stuff.

- he also takes on “jobs” anonymously, and occasionally from max (who’s still into investigative journalism) when he needs info that can only be obtained through Dubious Means.

- i also like to think that ash's a bit of a hacker robin hood lol. but he isn’t doing it purely out of the goodness of his heart, as part of it is a subconscious need to atone for his “sins” and cleanse the gnawing and persistent feeling of shame that gets amplified when he’s around eiji.

- also whatever he’s up to these days would ofc still be Highly Dangerous and Illegal, but it keeps him busy and would sate the part of him that’s still hungry for adrenaline without him having to engage in stuff like active bloodshed or substance abuse. basically that’s how i imagine he’d try to cope with life the only way he knows.

- eiji continues to do photography and other part time gigs bc he does not like the idea of mooching off ash forever, and he slowly makes a name for himself.

- ash and eiji live together but they are NOT together in a romantic sense... not yet >:)

- therefore eiji will probably date other people in the meantime, which gets a little troublesome bc it's not like he can bring them home to where his secret Very Important Friend is secretly hiding.

- ash will maybe have one-night stands every now and then. or not. idk. this isn’t a very important detail.

- anyway there will be lots of clueless but mutual pining :)

- ash especially, is of the opinion that they should start living separately bc someone will eventually track him down, maybe someone who has a past or present grudge on him. combined with his current activities, it’s only a matter of time before eiji would unwittingly get dragged into his problems again.

- eiji is v adamantly against that plan bc he's sorta developed a debilitating sense of paranoia that ash might just get killed somewhere while he’s not looking. not that ash isn’t paranoid either, but his insecurities often tip the scale over to “eiji is safer away from me” than “with me”.

- basically they’re doing their whole “stay. no, leave. no, stay” dance all over again, but like, dragged out over MANY YEARS.

- you thought eiji’s letter would���ve cleared up any crossed wires? 

- HELL NO

- like yea, there was probably a beautiful honeymoon period of about a year or two after they reunited, before their respective trauma and issues started creeping in and fucking things up again.

- esp on ash’s end, i think he’d engage in a lot of self-sabotage. and eiji is only human, he has his own limits and baggage too.

- there will be a government conspiracy plotline but on a smaller scale compared to canon that i am unfortunately not knowledgeable enough to worldbuild on, but it will probably have something to do with cybercrime/cyberterrorism/stuff like that bc it needs to tie in with ash's hacking shenanigans.

- i've heard that sing ends up becoming some sorta political big shot in yasha? idk, i haven't read it myself, but since china’s rising status was mentioned in GoL i imagine the plot should relate to that somehow.

- therefore sing would also get to be in this story! 

- i guess this means yut-lung would come into the picture at some point as well, and it would be a good opportunity for a redemption arc but i haven’t given it much of a thought bc i’m indifferent to his character orz SORRY.

- look i can’t do plot, but i am basically envisioning a political thriller with a side of slow burn romance (wait, you mean like a rehash of canon?)

- i’m thinking max is the one who kicks off the story by bringing something fishy to ash, and they just end up uncovering more and more and MORE stuff as they keep going.

- so for like 80% of the story, ash and eiji will be separated bc ash will be busy spying or infiltrating something... and being at the center of Plot Things, while max and eiji will be more on the outside dealing with the journalist side of things. i’m fond of max-ash interactions but i’m also REALLY CURIOUS about max-eiji’s dynamic :D

- meanwhile sing will be like, half in and half out i imagine. he's versatile like that lol

- ...i did NOT mean that in a dirty way

- anyway, this will provide ash and eiji ample space to work out their issues separately, as i think living in close quarters for so many years has actually been aggravating them. ofc those issues don’t get 100% resolved by the end, but some time apart from each other to cool off and spend with other people should provide a bit of perspective.

- i want ash to make some NEW FRIENDS (!!!) that are on the same wavelength as him bc there’s only so much that he can tell eiji and i’m sure he gets rather lonely, so there will be OCs that he will meet in the middle of Plot Things.

- ash will get trapped at some point. preferably with sing so they can have a much needed heart-to-heart talk. they’ll have a lot to hash out, ranging from the events in BF, shorter’s and lao’s death, all the way to ash’s love life. 

- btw i like the idea of eiji and sing being close drinking buddies who confide in one another but ash is kinda, justalittle, not very happy about that LOL 

- i mean, it's not like eiji can confide in ash when ash is the topic at hand, ya get me? as for sing, he’s similar to ash in the sense that they live dangerous lives, so i imagine he just finds it nice to be able to hang out with someone mundane like eiji every now and then.

- not to say that ash and sing aren’t talking to each other at all, but i think they’d have a bit of a rift between them. sing probably does feel some resentment, both at ash for killing lao AND at himself bc he knows deep down that given a choice, he would’ve saved ash over his own brother. ash can sense that tortured vibe, so eiji’s like their middle man. AND THAT’S WHY THEY NEED A HEART-TO-HEART TALK

- (SIDE NOTE: i want akira to have a role in this too. i actually have a separate headcanon that happens prior to this story... kinda like an alternate GoL? 

akira goes to the states to visit eiji, but ash is also there, yeah? akira and ash start out sorta prickly with each other bc ash is all weird and standoffish and always cooped up in his room. she probably mistook him as a jobless model mooching off eiji at first since 1) eiji and ibe have never spoken about him back in japan (cuz he’s supposed to be dead), 2) why would eiji be living with some random hot guy? unless they met during one of his photography gigs? right??? 

and then she ends up witnessing them in the middle of a tiff, which makes her not like ash even more bc HOW DARE HE YELL AT POOR OKUMURA-SAN??? UNGRATEFUL JERK!!!

but over the course of her visit, she snoops around learns a bit about their history and gathers hints as to why their r’ship is kinda strained. also ash and akira somehow end up bonding (reluctantly) over their emotional insecurities and part on a friendly rivalry to win over eiji’s affections (which eiji is completely oblivious to. also akira may have been 100% serious but ash was just jokingly playing along with her (OR WAS HE???)). anyway long story short, ash teaches akira some cool tech/IT stuff along the way so that leads to her gaining an interest in the field. 

she won’t be able to do much in this story, but a minor role would be cool :)

 ^ a lighthearted gyoza-making scene amid all the angst)

- (SIDE NOTE #2: i ALSO want cain to feature in this, but bc canon provided very little bg info on him it’s hard for me to figure out where he’d fit. but i suppose that’s precisely why it would be great to include him, since i can just make up my own backstory! lol. for now, i think he should be connected to one of the new OCs to make him more central to the plot. or heck, he can be involved himself! ...yeah, i’m just salty about how cain was treated more like a convenient plot device compared to the other major side characters. we barely know anything about him even though he was one of ash’s most trusted allies. #caindeservedbetter2k20)

- anyway, back to the main story. ash (and his new "friends") barely escape where they’re held hostage. ash would be rusty with combat now as he’s spent the past few years doing only stealth work and being rather sedentary. 

- so there’ll be lotsa old man!ash jokes like them poking fun at him whenever he complains about his back hehe

- when they finally emerge outside they find themselves in the middle of nowhere! they then hijack a passing pickup truck and do a roadtrip back to civilisation. ROAD TRIP FTW

- at this point, quite some time has already passed and ash even has a fuzzy beard and mane and all. he’s standing at the back of the truck with a small smile on his face and the wind blowing in his hair, thinking GONNA GO BACK AND SEE EIJI, MISS HIM LOADS, HELL YEA 

- (bonus: this song and this scene is the catalyst for this entire headcanon btw)

(drew this about a year ago. i was trying to imitate the manga’s art style... and the ash i had in my mind was a little different. i’m too lazy to redraw, but he’s fuzzier now okay! MORE FUZZ! like an actual freakin LION!)

- meanwhile, eiji and max will get into some deep shit around this point? 

- eiji in the pic above was me imagining that the Bad Guys had tossed some damning evidence (eg. severed body part?) on the ground like “ash’s dead/ash’s in a lot of danger now so hand over all the info u have”

- and eiji and max are like. SHOOKETH

- this would be the 3rd time ash has “died” after all, and as they say... 3rd time's the charm...

- eiji almost gives in, but then max spits in their face like fuck no and then... yeah. they get beat up and taken away or something lol

- EDIT: hmm... what if the Bad Guy is someone IN the government, and he uses his power to get eiji and max arrested for aiding and abetting a wanted fugitive (ash). and then ash has to rescue them... JAILBREAK STYLE

- also it might be cool to introduce ash's mom somewhere in this story... maybe SHE'S the villain! mwahaha *drama intensifies*

- anyways they will get saved by ash and gang bc that’s just the way things go, BUT! only on the condition they already made it out at least 80% of the way bc GODDAMN IT👏LET👏EIJI👏BE👏BADASS👏FOR👏ONCE👏 

- (that is, after he overcomes the initial shock of ash possibly being dead again... again...... again............)

- there will ofc be moments of “oh my god, you’re okay” "i thought i lost you...!"

- something like this, because one can never have enough cheesy reunion scenes

- this will eventually lead to REVELATIONS (of the romantic kind, yes) 

- buuuut they will never say "i love you" directly to each other bc ash is too emotionally constipated and eiji is too japanese. it's okay, they will communicate it through heated stares 👀

- i would love for there to be a scene where they have to be separated again for Plot Reasons and ash sorta hesitantly goes all "...will you wait for me?" as a direct parallel to canon!eiji's "i'll be waiting" and it’s like,

- FINALLY! 

- FINALLY!!!!!!!!!! ash has finally allowed himself to ask for this, to let himself want it! 

- and eiji would be like OF COURSE I WILL YOU BIG DUMMY, ALWAYS AND FOREVER

- but i think it'd be hilarious if eiji pops up while ash's in the middle of the final showdown and ash's like WTF I TOLD YOU TO WAIT FOR ME and eiji's like I WAS WORRIED OKAY YOU WERE TAKING SO LONG

- idk how this is supposed to end...

- oh wait! since the plot is government-related, maybe Someone will be able to pull strings to wipe out ash’s criminal record (past and present) and give him a brand new 100% legal identity, as thanks for his efforts? or maybe ash (or sing) just does it himself somewhere along the way LOL. anyway, he’ll be able to start over with a fresh clean slate and finally work on recovery FOR REAL NOW. yes this is a happy ending AND it didn’t require him to go to japan /flips off canon

- ...i realise it’s never going to be that simple but W H A T E V E R

- (also they probably will visit japan in the future with that shiny new passport... gotta meet the in-laws and all y’know)

- who do i gotta pay to write this cheesy self-indulgent fic for me

[jaskiers-sweetkiss]

Out of Time

Pairings: Avengers!Reader x Daniel Sousa, Steve x Bucky (briefly mentioned)

Summary: Just when you were starting to enjoy your time in 1949 everything falls apart. SEQUEL TO Not So Bad

Word Count: 2.6K

Warnings: some swearing, panic attack, mention of ptsd and war, some angst

A/N: @bookish-bucky @drinkerofcoffeewriterofwords and @mydoctorwho13 asked for a part 2 to Not So Bad so here it is! (I hope y’all don’t mind that I tagged you/lmk if you want me to untag you/idk why it didn’t let me tag all of you). More notes at the bottom!

___

The cat was out of the bag. 

Well, really just one cat was out of its bag. 

Basically your secret was out and it was entirely your fault. 

You were at Howard’s lab for the third time for even more tests. All of the previous tests had been inconclusive, though that came as no surprise to you. You had engineered them to be that way, pretending to suddenly and uncontrollably levitate in response to random tests, doing your best to ensure that Howard would be unable to make any connections. 

But today you were a bit distracted. 

You couldn’t help it, you were only human after all. And when Daniel Sousa is flashing an award-winning grin while Howard tried his most bizarre test ever (repeatedly trying to scare you in hopes it would spark a levitation reaction), well, any woman in your position would’ve done the same.

You jumped. No, you did more than just jump. 

Howard Stark snuck up behind you and yelled while shaking your shoulders and you flew. Shot straight up in the air like a rocket, feeling entirely like your teenage self with absolutely no control of your abilities. 

And then, to make matters worse, you disappeared. 

You assumed it must’ve been the embarrassment of smacking your head on the ceiling that caused the sudden invisibility though the ‘why’ didn’t really matter anymore. What mattered was you were invisible and Daniel and Howard were shouting your name. 

Except, no, that didn’t matter right now either. All you could focus on was the sudden tightening in your chest and the fact that you were finding it harder to breathe. The shouting faded to the background as you began to feel trapped in your own skin. 

I have to get out of here. 

So you ran. 

You didn’t even think as you flew out of Howard’s lab, racing down the hall. You didn’t stop until you were in the bathroom, door locked behind you. You slid down to the floor, knees pulled tight against your chest as you leaned against the door.

Briefly, you noticed that you were still invisible, though the thought left as soon as it came. You also vaguely noticed the tears streaming down your face, though you were unaware of when they had begun. Your thoughts zipped back to the lab and the concern lacing Daniel and Howard’s voices as they called out to you and for a moment you felt bad for running away but that too was pulled away in the hurricane of your mind. Your whole body felt abuzz and you couldn’t think or breathe as a feeling of utter helplessness settled into your bones. 

You tried to remember what Tony had told you to do- something about box breathing exercises and the five senses- but you weren’t sure that you were in control of your mind anymore. 

“Y/N, if you can hear me name four street names from where you grew up.” Daniel’s voice rang through the bathroom door. Before you could even consider how he had found you or why he needed to know you answered,

“Main Street, Birch Street, Higgins Drive, Cobalt Lane.” The words were stuttered and separated by harsh inhales and exhales. 

“Name your five favorite movies.”

“La La Land, Ferris Bueller, Beauty and the Beast, Spirited Away, Inception.” The words were smoother this time, though tears still streamed down your face and your bones still felt heavy and your skin restrictive. 

“Okay, name ten presidents.”

“Uh, Ellis, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR… Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower… Reagan, Nixon… Kennedy.” Your voice was steady as you spoke, your chest no longer heaving with sobs and shaking breaths. 

“Good. Now name seven state capitals.” 

“Albany, Trenton, Tallahassee, Nashville, Lansing, Richmond, Raleigh.” When you opened your eyes you noticed you were visible again, though when it had happened you weren’t sure. 

“Are you okay?” Daniel’s voice came through the door, soothing you more than you realized. 

“Yeah.” You answered quietly, your voice raw. 

“If you’re comfortable with it, will you open the door?”

Your soul turned to mush at his words, Daniel Sousa- ever the gentleman. You felt an immense amount of comfort in the man despite only knowing him a few days but you were scared. You had just fully exposed your powers and had a panic attack, you hadn’t been this vulnerable to another person in years. 

“It’s okay if you don’t want to, I just want to make sure you’re okay,” Daniel spoke again, no judgment lacing his voice, only kindness, compassion, and caring. 

You stood slowly, your muscles aching as you stretched them from their tensed position, and unlocked the door, opening it to reveal Daniel. Your eyes immediately jumped to his face, his expression almost pained though it changed as soon as he saw you, morphing into relief and something else you couldn’t quite place. 

“How did you know how to do that?” You blurted out, though you had really wanted the first thing you said to him to be “thank you” or “I’m sorry.”

Instead, apparently your brain was preoccupied with how the man before you had walked you through your panic attack. 

“Oh, uh…” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Well after the war… ptsd and all, I’m no stranger to panic attacks.”

You softened at his confession, forgetting, despite his limp and his cane, that the man before you had gone through a war and had not come out unscathed. Before you even knew what you were doing you were hugging him. He let out a small “oof” as you wrapped your arms around his middle, squeezing slightly. 

Tentatively, he wrapped his arms around you in return. 

“Thank you,” you finally mumbled into his suit jacket. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Daniel asked, confusion etched into his features as he pulled away from your embrace. 

“I-I disappeared and I ran and I panicked and you had to come get me and deal with all that.” You gestured wildly as you spoke, words fumbling together in your rush to get it all out. 

“Y/N, helping you isn’t a burden to me,” Daniel spoke softly, tilting your chin up so you could see the sincerity in his eyes. “And what you just went through- what you’ve been going through with these... strange abilities, your reaction was completely justified.” 

Your heart clenched at his words. He was speaking to you with such honesty and openness but you were lying to him. You sighed, taking a step back, his arms falling away from your waist and you suddenly felt cold without the heat of his embrace. 

“I-” You faltered, needing to take a breath before you could continue. “I need to tell you and Howard something.” 

 ___

“What exactly were you hoping to accomplish with this lie, Miss Y/L/N?” You winced at the use of your last name. Daniel hadn’t used it since that first night in his house. 

You tried to shrink into yourself, considering going invisible once again to escape the look of betrayal Daniel was fixing you with. 

“Are you a spy?” He was angry and betrayed and you could see him trying to reason this out to himself, but you knew he’d never even fathom the truth. “Was this an attempt to infiltrate SHIELD? Who do you work for?”

“Daniel,” you whispered, and the stern look you were fixed with told you everything you needed to know. The only way out of this was the full truth, timeline be damned. 

“I work with a team of powered people called The Avengers.” You sighed. “About two weeks ago, two of our members stole the Tesseract from Camp Lehigh in order to save the world from an alien who wiped out fifty percent of the universe. After we succeeded, I was tasked with returning the Tesseract but due to a malfunction I’m stuck here.” 

“I’m pretty sure we would’ve noticed the Tesseract being stolen and the destruction of half of the world,” Daniel said crossly, clearly not believing you though you didn’t blame him. 

“You wouldn’t have because for you none of that has happened yet and I returned the Tesseract immediately after it was taken.” 

“You mean this happened in the future?” Howard finally spoke, looking at you with a newfound curiosity.

You nodded. “In the year 2023.” 

Howard let out a low whistle at the date but there was a gleam in his eyes like a kid in a candy store. 

“I have so many questions.”

You smiled sadly, “Surely you understand that I can’t tell you what happens without destroying the timeline.” 

“No, we don’t understand.” Daniel snapped, “Because time travel doesn’t exist.” 

“Daniel I can’t make you believe me, I literally have no way to prove this to you,” you sighed, not wanting to argue with the man. “I didn’t even mean to drag you into this, I came here for Howard’s help fixing my device so I could go back.” 

“If it makes you feel any better, if I was a spy, I’d have absolutely nothing to report. I didn’t get anywhere near SHIELD or any of Howard’s projects.” You tried to smile, though you felt like crying. “You’re a good agent and a good leader, Daniel Sousa, but most importantly you’re a good man and I am not deserving of your help or your trust.” 

Daniel’s eyes softened at your words, though he still held a defensive stance. The lab remained silent for a few minutes but your eyes never left Daniel’s face, observing the flurry of emotions that resided there. 

“Time travel would explain those movies and presidents I’ve never heard of.”

You cringed slightly, not realizing you had potentially blown the timeline during your panic attack.

“Yeah, those won’t come out for another few decades,” you rubbed the back of your neck embarrassedly, “And I suppose I ruined a few elections for you.” 

“I’ll live,” Daniel responded with a shrug before his eyes widened in realization, “I will live right?” 

“Honestly? I have no idea what your life looks like. I didn’t pay a lot of attention in school.” You answered sheepishly, a small smile gracing your features at the forgiveness, however small, that came with Daniel’s statement. 

“I’m not even going to ask because I already know that I must be remembered for my genius because you came to me for help,” Howard smirked cockily, “Now, let’s get your time machine fixed and get you home.” 

“Oh hell, you did not need that ego boost,” you groaned. 

Howard had the audacity to wink. 

___

The next week was difficult. You were still staying with Daniel but the dynamic between the two of you had changed entirely. There were no more soft, shared glances, or meaningful looks, or chats over coffee in the morning. In fact, Daniel seemed to be avoiding looking at you at all, only doing so when absolutely necessary. He had thrown all his energy into getting you back to your time. 

It broke your heart a bit, though you’d never admit it. You’d known the man for a little over a week, you couldn’t be getting all teary-eyed because he wasn’t looking at you anymore. Plus, wasn’t he doing exactly what you wanted by helping you get back? Still, it felt a little as though he was trying to get rid of you. 

That week had felt like torture. A constant turmoil of indecipherable emotions swirling inside you and you had no idea what to do with it all. So you pushed on. Pushed all the way to the day Howard fixed your time travel watch. 

“I think I’ve finally got it!” He exclaimed, gleefully. “I’ve invented time travel!”

“Not so fast, Stark.” You chided, “My team invented time travel, you’ve just fixed it.” 

Howard merely rolled his eyes, muttering something about “no fun” and brought you the device. Daniel was standing off to the side, eyes refusing to meet yours, consistent with the past week. You sighed, accepting the watch and sliding it onto your wrist. 

“Well, we’ve only got one shot,” you may have been stalling, though you wouldn’t admit it to yourself. “Are you sure it’s right, Howard?”

“Honestly? No. But I’m sure that I have no other solutions than what I’ve already done.”

“Is this a good idea?” You asked aloud, to no one in particular. 

“Y/N, you need to get back.” Daniel sighed, lifting his eyes to meet yours and you thought you saw grief in them. “Your team is probably worried about you.” 

“If this works how it’s supposed to, I’ll be back just seconds after I left,” you shook your head sadly, “Just in time for retirement cake.” 

“Retirement?” His head was cocked to the side like a confused puppy and your heart leapt into your throat at the first unprofessional conversation you’ve shared in a week.

You nodded, “One of my teammates is stepping away to settle down with his boyfriend.” 

“His boyfriend?” Daniel questioned skeptically and you forgot what time you had been stuck in. You knew from Steve and Bucky’s stories that the 30s and 40s were not a good time to be lgbt but you could tell by the way that he had spoken that Daniel didn’t hold any of those biases. It was just one more thing about the future to be confused about.  

“You’d love them,” you whispered honestly. 

He probably would, the three of them have so much in common between the war and SHIELD and Peggy Carter and Howard Stark. For a moment you let yourself imagine a world in which you had been born in this era, in which Bucky had never been captured and Steve never frozen. A world where you could fall in love with Daniel Sousa and live happily ever after surrounded by friends. 

You shook yourself out of it. There was no future for you here and there was a team waiting for you in the future. You sighed, punching the date and time into your watch. You were out of time. 

“What if I didn’t go?” You blurted out, unable to contain the question any longer. 

“Y/N, your team-” Daniel started. 

“Doesn’t need me. They all have lives and happiness and fulfillment and-“ you shuddered as you released this word vomit of feelings you didn’t even realize you had before you whispered, “And maybe I deserve some of that myself.” 

Daniel Sousa made you feel cared for and appreciated in a way nobody ever had in the 21st century and you’d be damned if you gave that up without a fight. 

“What about the timeline?”

“Fuck the timeline!” You exclaimed and Howard giggled and your cursing. 

“Daniel,” you sighed. “You make me feel things I’ve never felt before and I don’t wanna put too much pressure on this, but I think meeting you might be the best thing that’s ever happened to me. But if you don’t feel the same way tell me now and I’ll go back.”

You were standing right in front of him now, having closed the distance during your speech. 

“Y/N,” he sighed, his eyes swimming with emotions you couldn’t read though he looked at you with such tenderness that you thought you might melt right there as he reached up a hand to cup your cheek.

You weren’t entirely sure, but you thought you might’ve muttered “kiss me” before his lips were on yours, soft and warm and you felt like fireworks were erupting in your stomach. It was a short kiss, no more than a few seconds, but it confirmed a number of things for you. The most significant thing being that you were never going back to 2023. 

___

A/N: A few things: 1. the street names listed while Y/N is having a panic attack are actually copied directly from Jessica Jones. 2. The listing miscellaneous things (street names, movies, presidents, etc.) is something my friend has had me do when I’ve had panic attacks. Idk if that works for everyone, but it certainly has helped me in the past and I can really only write from my own experiences. 3. I lowkey wanna write a oneshot for the fantasy Y/N has towards the end where she’s born during the same time period as Stucky, Peggy, Howard, and Sousa and she probably joins SHIELD which is how she meets Sousa (Edit: this exists now and you can find it here!). Idk, let me know what you think! 

[indioragod]

「I need to do more with Diva and just think about him more rip. These are just kinda ideas that float around in my head, I guess they could be considered a plotting wishlist or such? So if anyone is interested IM and let me know? Idk, random ideas just kinda float around in my head:」

-- Diva came to accept after meeting Yugi that the ideal dimension he was seeking can be made in the current dimension. However, this isn’t to say he doesn’t struggle with it. Especially when in situations that remind him of the worst of humanity has to offer it can make him wish to backpedal to the idea of achieving such a goal in other quicker means--Plana or not. I think him being faced with this issue and struggling with it could be interesting.

-- Villain Diva is really fun to play around with lmao. So him causing problems around the globe pre-DSoD with the rest of the Plana while they gather more members would be a fun thing to play around with.

I’ve also thought about how Diva’s power to rewrite (minor at the minimum) memories and write himself into them is a lot of potential for mind-bending stuff that the movie didn’t go into for the sake of duels? Made me think a lot about Adam from that one episode of Tor.hwood, if anyone knows about that. Obviously he wouldn’t be able to do it with everyone and to that extent, that’d be OP as heck, but some verse or AU that delves more into that and takes a psychological horror approach could be fun. Like who knows where else the Plana could have infiltrated with a power like that? The only reason why KC and such were mostly immune was because they were doing research on similar things at the time.

-- Diva having to get used to not having the Plana is always something he needs to slowly work on after being so acclimated to having the power. It’s gotten better over time, but for more lighthearted things I feel it would be funny to have him interacting with someone non-plana and is used to have to walk everywhere, be alone with their own thoughts, not have an infinite storage pocket dimension in a Rubiks cube, etc. XD

[its-a-nickname]

fitzroy maplecourt is the demon prince

alright im throwing my hat in the ring for weird graduation theories just hear me out

whoever this doppelganger hieronymous is has some relationship to the demon prince right. I think him just being the demon prince is too easy. He might be an advisor or something idk. Anyways the demon prince wants to get to the wiggenstaff brothers right. But theyre clever, they’ve been hiding and theyre good at it. This doppleganger and the demon prince need to infiltrate the school. but higglemass could fiddle with memories and minds, he could figure out that the demon prince is posing as a student…. Unless the demon prince doesn’t know he is posing as a student

if the wiggenstaffs can fiddle with memories why can the demon prince and co. what if they took an unsuspecting student from elsewhere, who just happened to be wrong place wrong time and fiddled with the demon princes mind to make him believe he was this random student they had found. This random student? the one and only Fitzroy Maplecourt.

I say that they abducted the real Fitzroy or something and have him locked away somewhere? And gave the demon prince his memories so now this demon prince believes he is a student at clide nites knight night school and has never done magic in his life (its interesting that the demon prince turned hieronymous into a dog while fitzroys first act of magic was catfishing his teacher js). and after the demon prince catfishes his teacher and gets transferred to the wiggenstaffs school, they have an in, the demon prince cant be caught by the wiggenstaffs bc he himself doesn’t know what hes doing or who he really is

What proof do I have? easy

I like this idea a lot.

Fitzroy is weird about his family and yeah it might be bc he has some issues with status or whatever but it could also be that he doesn’t really know them.

Theres some weirdness about why he wants to be a knight. He was so adamant about being good, and being in a position where he could do good and idk if I was an evil doppalganger that was fiddling with the demon princes mind, I would very much make sure that he doesn’t have any evil, demon prince like tendencies (like,,, swearing perhaps??)

in conclusion i will not trust sir fitzroy maplecourt until i see him and the demon prince in the same room

[gilmesc1]

Sacrificing my remaining braincells to the void

Ok friends, you requested it, you awaited it, I’ve cleaned out my ears to remove the melted remains of my brain, here we go, we’re doing this, tell my partner I love them. It’s time...for syscourse analysis.

So this is a very bare bones run through of syscourse, it’s as basic as it gets and if need be I’ll focus on components of it after I recover.

So, syscourse is literally the words system+discourse. Bet you guys never saw that coming. 20 seconds into this fucking mess and we already have a major plot twist. And I know what you guys are thinking. A bunch of traumatized people not getting along? Another plot twist!

Jesus I better tone down the sarcasm.

Anyways, what the fuck even has to happen to have syscourse, apparently two types of systems. Yes friends, two types of systems, and I’m not talking DID and OSDD (which are really quite similar).

Our players are traumagenic systems and endogenic systems. Traumagenic systems are systems that formed out of trauma, like DID and OSDD systems. Naturally this plunks me down in the traumagenic catagory, thanks to my big fucking mess of trauma. So we got that down, moving on to endogenic.

So an endogenic system is a system that supposedly split without trauma. No idea where the word endo comes from. Or like, what the fuck endo even means as a word like trauma. (Maybe I want to endo myself after reading a bunch of syscourse? Ok, ok that was bad.)

The biggest issue once you get down to it is who is the Real System tm, and do other systems belong in each other’s tags. This is the part where I’d smoothly bring you all to a good starting point, but *insert deity here* help me, there isn’t one.

Syscourse seems to be older than mankind itself mongrels, because I cannot find where it started and who the tags belonged to first. So for those of you who like to visualize, picture two dogs chasing each other’s tails, running in a circle, and that is syscourse.

So let’s break it down more. I, and I’m sure many others, flocked to tumblr to find others who experience what I do, that being traumagenic system stuff. Again, we have trauma that results in our system’s creation. And that’s all fine and good, sure not everyone gets along with each other but for the most part all us systems are vibing and sharing memes and posts.

Now like I said, to be an endogenic system you are a system without trauma, and to me this is a little confusing. Brains aren’t made to be multiple and I’m the clusterfuck I am because of trauma, but to just magically thanos snap a system into existence? That I have a harder time wrapping my mind around.

There are a lot of examples of endo systems, but the ones I’ll be looking at today are tulpas. What is a tulpa? Well at first I thought it was a ghost thingy that you get by thinking about it, (supernatural anyone?) but now that I look into it, it’s apparently a Tibetan religious practice.

So we have science vs spirituality. This spells disaster already for syscourse.

So to get a better idea of tulpas than I could give you, I’d recommend looking at tumblr posts on tulpas because I’m in sarcasm mode and not really in a position to educate about those. Long story short it’s a thought process where you can essentially create a second being that is similar to an alter, as it exists in a headspace and can switch in.

Now I said headspace and switch in on purpose, because that is where the issue lies. Endos and traumagenics fight about words like that, and who they belonged to first. Can an endo use the words system, fronting, ect when they are scientific words specifically for DID or OSDD, or can traumagenics use the word multiplicity when it supposedly came from tulpamancy?

Side note: Guys do not lecture me on words, I’m trying to give examples, sorry but I don’t have my words for traumagenics dictionary on me rn, that’s in my other hoodie.

The majority of day to day syscourse is endos and traumagenics “infiltrating” each other’s tags and safe spaces, and ruining everyone’s day. From what I have seen, many traumagenics do not want endos to interact with them, and personally I see a few good reasons for this.

1, mental illness is not a trend and DID and OSDD are very very rough to live with. With there currently being a lack of scientific evidence on the existence of tulpas, I understand how it can seem that some are cashing in on the “DID hype” and giving off this romanticized view of being a system.

2. People with DID might be looking for specific DID info, and having to strain through irrelevant topics to them might be heavily stressful.

3. We’re traumatized and random things can set us off. This is the internet and I think everyone is at least a little toxic, and both sides have said shit to each other, but when people get triggered its easy to lose control. Not an excuse, tis merely a fact.

I’ve seen endos post things like “all systems are valid” and it’s a nice sentiment, in my heart of hearts behind my black toxic drama loving one, I’d like it if systems could just get along, but on a topic as complex as mental illness I don’t think that’ll happen.

I’ve seen both sides say things that were really uncalled for, and there’s no right or wrong answer overall in a fight like this. Naturally I’m team traumagenic but as for whether or not I feel like endos are valid or not, jury’s still out on that.

Hear me out, I have heard the theory that endo systems can help deal with trauma despite not being formed by trauma, and I’ve met a few people irl and seen things that confused me. Maybe they were traumagenic systems who didn’t know their trauma, idk.

I really don’t want drama. I’m sure systems on both sides are good people but like I said, the internet is toxic. (btw I love you mutuals, you are all good people)

In my humble opinion syscourse is stupid. I think there definitely should be a discussion about endos and traumagenics, but like can we talk like adults and not be like “WE’RE ALL VALID UWUUUU” with a string of toxicity behind it.

That level of back and forth is dizzying and irritating, and quite honestly I don’t want to deal with it. This is me trying to be neutral and give an overview, but that’s hard as I am traumagenic myself, and I don’t really understand the other side.

That’s why I’m not going to say I reject endos. I need to figure out more for myself and since this does leak into my personal life i want to do it carefully. I’m open to polite discussions, but I really want to keep out of syscourse drama.

Another side note: Something I think that is especially stupid is the amount of outrage over users saying they dni with endos. It’s a choice for that person and it should be respected. Like how I have personal reasons for keeping discussion open, others have personal reason for closing it. That should be respected and not ranted about. There are thousands of tumblrs, find one that isn’t dni and leave those people alone.

Additionally, if any endos do want to talk I’d prefer if you dm me, as I want to keep my blog traumagenic focused, both for my followers and for me, out of respect for those who don’t want any endogenic content and for me so i don’t wear out my three brain cells (I’m accepting name ideas for them)

To end this, I don’t want drama, nothing makes it easier for me to cave to my vices then drama, and syscourse is so freaking tiring that it would be like rolling around like sandpaper to get involved.

So there it is, my useless, sarcastic post on syscourse. Let’s see how many followers I lose, and if need be I can look into more stuff about syscourse since this is an overview.

Again this was supposed to be neutral and not necessarily all of my views, I’ll get more personal on it later maybe, but tbh I’m too fucking tired for that rn. Chronic illness, hell yeah.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed, I’m impressed I wrote it all, have a good day guys, I have to go to a party while feeling like my body is leading a rebellion.

I don’t even like people, why am I going XD

But hey shout out to social distancing, I’m using my personal space bubble and NO ONE can stop me.

Ok, time to give the braincells a rest. See you guys

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

so i’d really like to finish my guardian takedown lore analysis, but honestly the game isn’t really fun to play at the moment anymore (even with the health debuffs they added) so I think im going to be taking a break for now because I’m just not having fun anymore.

this game has a lotta mechanical problems i think need to be addressed so im gonna summarize it as bullet points below. I’ll play the new dlc when it drops, but idk if i’ll be on more than that (grinding, end-game stuff) until they make some serious changes. I’ve been playing (near) daily since launch, followed the patch/hotfix notes every single week, and my patience has finally, FINALLY run dry, especially with that really disappointing Phase 1 Patch and then the hotfix this week not adding anything else. What is the balancing team doing??? 😩

tl;dr: FIX THE VAULT HUNTERS!!!!

anyway. That’s all I needed to get outta my system. I might log on to this blog every now and again to post some random shit that pops into my head (probably with regards to my AU), but I’m not going to be actively playing and posting for the time being. Goodbye (for now), and here’s hoping the new DLC is good!! 

guardian takedown only problems:

there’s a lot of waiting around, and sometimes it’s not explicitly stated that you’re waiting for something, so you’ll be lost on what to do next (not sure if that’s a dialogue glitch or not)

the crystal charge insta-death is bull. just. what the hell. at least make it so you just have to start over. killing ur players for failing a “puzzle” that they then have to fight all the way back to is so infuriating.

dying because you fell off a platforming puzzle is also bull. 

i remember playing the first DMC on my playstation in middle school and having a conniption over the part in the observatory(? it’s been a hot minute since I played DMC 1) with the disappearing/invisible platforms. I h a t e jumping puzzles. why are they in a section of the game where death is semi-permanent and a detriment to your teammates. i tried the takedown 2x with friends and both times one friend didn’t make the first big jump to the temple and had to wait for our inevitable deaths. that’s so unfair to them.

there’s absolutely no reason for a boss to have 12 fuckin immunity phases. 4 per health bar with 3 health bars? Who the fuck designed this? *pumps shotgun* i just wanna talk. 

i appreciate a tasteful immunity phase every now and again (the ones in the Valkyrie fight are actually p reasonable), but christ. that is overkill. I don’t mind the main boss fight, since u can end those early through certain actions, but jesus. the mid-boss fight is annoying as hell. you spend more time running from the immunity phases and finding the damn boss than u do actually shooting it.

drop rates are crap, which I guess should be expected given what happened with the Maliwan Takedown and the handful of months it took for them to fix that, but also you think they’d have learned.

in the maliwan takedown there’s a sense of progression thru the facility after you kill each area’s batch of enemies, but in this one it’s... dampened by the crystal charging sequences. you kill all the enemies in an area, press a button, and now you have to kill 3x that number of enemies in the same area, expect you’re just standing there motionless. It’s not fun.

the crystal charging stuff is just not fun in general. standing in a square is not entertaining. it’s worse that it was clearly designed for 3+ players when a majority of people play/grind solo

i gotta admit the boss fights just aren’t as fun as the Maliwan Takedown fights overall. I felt like a real badass fighting Wotan for the first time, but the main boss for this Takedown is kind of a bitch. Wotan’s fight is chaos, there’s so much shit happening at once and you don’t really have time to process everything and I love it. This one is p meh...

This would be fine and I’d 100% not care that much if there weren’t all these OTHER problems

General Issues with the Game

There’s no endgame stuff to play outside of the takedowns. 

I assume they’re working on the first raid given some stuff I found in the Guardian Takedown files, but I really wish they’d keep the seasonal events/areas. They give us the option to disable/enable them while they’re ‘active’, just give us the ability to do it whenever we want.

when i hop on i either run through Athenas (my favorite map), or farm a boss or two. I have all the loot i really need from the maliwan takedown/elsewhere, and the guardian takedown just... isn’t fun atm, so i have nothing to do.

I’ve reset my playthru multiple times to play the main story at m10, but u can only play it (and the dlc) so many times

Mayhem levels and modifiers are a hot m e s s

a majority of the modifiers just aren’t fun to play with

they incorporated like 2-3 fun modifiers (from the community), then added a bunch that straight-up aren’t. I’m fine with the game being more difficult, but at least give us modifiers that make it more entertaining to play at a higher level instead of more annoying. I like the ones that have trade-offs or add new ‘enemies’, but I hate the ones that just straight up reduce your damage output.

a majority of the weapons with the mayhem 10 anointment (scaling) do not work on mayhem 10 (we’ll go more in-depth with this later)

Player Characters (Vault Hunters!!!) are also a hot mess and a lot of problems plaguing them haven’t been fixed SINCE LAUNCH

theyre literally the basis of the game and its balance. why havent you guys fixed them yet. stop adding new content until they’re fixed. no new skill trees until the base 3 trees work ON EVERY CHARACTER.

seriously. Why is amara p much limited to using Phasegrasp. Why does Iron Bear not matter to Moze except to proc anointments. MAKE ALL ACTION SKILLS EQUAL AND HAVE HEFT.

i wrote an essay here about it bc i feel that strongly about this

SERIOUSLY FIXING UR VAULT HUNTERS WILL MAKE BALANCING SO MUCH EASIER PLEASE IM BEGGING YOU THEY ARE THE BASE OF UR BALANCING WOES

ZANE IS STILL UNUSABLE WITHOUT THE SEEIN’ DEAD CLASS MOD!!!!!!!!!!!

MOZE IS SCREWED BC HER DAMAGE IS TOO RELIANT ON ASE ANOINTMENTS!!

AMARA DOESN’T HAVE A FUCKING MELEE BUILD AS THE ADVERTISED MELEE CHARACTER???

FL4K’S HEADCOUNT SKILL IS S T I L L BROKEN EVER SINCE THE RELEASE OF THE MALIWAN TAKEDOWN

ARE YOU GUYS LISTENING TO THE COMMUNITY *PLEASEEEEEEE*

BUFF AND FIX THE GODDAMN VAULT HUNTERS

Anointments were a mistake. Damage end-game is wayyyy too reliant on them

anoints should have a maximum of, like, a 20% damage bonus. the damage necessary to kill enemies *should be coming from the VHs themselves*. i don’t care if you have to revamp every single Vault Hunter’s skill trees and buff them all by 9000%. THEY DESERVE IT AT THIS POINT

at the moment in m10 there really isn’t much build diversity *even between Vault Hunters*. We’re all using the same 5 guns (OPQ System. Kaoson. idk. fuckin brainstormer? is that still a thing? jesus fuck) with the same 3 anointments (100% on ASE, cryo while SNTL, and 300% while 90%).

you want to diversify builds like you said during the gameplay reveal???? you want our choice in Vault Hunter to actually fuckin matter???? FIX THEM!!!! THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEAL DAMAGE WITHOUT STUPID POWERFUL LEGENDARIES AND ANOINTMENTS!!!

Anoints also shouldn’t be common. At all. They should be, like, Pearl rarity. To let that happen, their damage needs to be tuned way the fuck down (again, 20ish % bonus MAX) and ALL ANOINTS NEED TO BE USEFUL IN SOME WAY

NOBODY IS GOING TO USE THE AIRBORNE OR SLIDING ANOINTMENTS JUST REMOVE THEM ALREADY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

obviously these changes can’t happen because they fucked up and buckled down with everything being anointed in m10, but still

imagine a world where the VHs actually did damage on their own without anointments and the damage buff from them was just an incentive to grind for the 100% perfect weapon and NOT A REQUIREMENT TO DEAL DAMAGE

>:(

A majority of gear is borderline worthless at M10

I’m fine with the difficulty of M10, i should let it be known. The enemy health isn’t really the problem IF ALL GUNS ACTED THE SAME AS THE OPQ SYSTEM

ffs.

you know, if you fixed ur vault hunters so they all did damage with just purple weapons (abt the same damage as legendaries w/o special effects) and removed the anointment requirement from late-game play, balancing your guns would be sooo much easier. you know. just saying.

right now only 10% (im being generous) of guns in the game are viable. 90% are worthless. We need AT LEAST 60-70% viable at M10. WHERE IS MY BUILD DIVERSITY. WHY ARE ALL LEGENDARIES NOW JUST “HEY THIS GUN IS STRONGER THAN THE LAST 4 WE RELEASED. HAVE FUN”

how to fix this problem? do as above: BUFF YOUR PLAYER CHARACTERS. MAKE ANOINTMENTS LESS STRONG.

then, at least the 10% already strong weapons would be stupid strong and OP as fuck, BUT AT LEAST WE COULD HAVE BUILD VARIETY!!! I don’t care if other people are dummy strong one-shotting everything in sight. I don’t! so long as they don’t play with me, I couldn’t care less!!! I want to be able to play with the unique, interesting legendaries. instead of the OPQ System. which, by the way, I dislike compared to the normal Q-System. let me use the frozen heart shield and the infiltrator mod. I don’t wanna be chained to the Seein’ Dead anymore :(

honestly at this point im starting to think removing slag was a mistake bc then at least we could use guns that aren’t solely damage-based guns. you know how fucked up you’ve got me that im thinking maybe slag wouldn’t be so bad this time around??? YOU GOT ME FUCKED UP B A D.

FIX THE GAME

IM TAKING A BREAK

MAYBE I’LL BE LESS UPSET WHEN I COME BACK FOR THE DLC BUT HOT. DIGGITY. SHIT.

[sugrx]

jasmine, lion's fairytale, apricot drift, everlasting daisy, honey perfume, creams and sky, lunaria, blazing star (except about one of ur ocs ;0)

jasmine; what mythical creature do you wish actually existed?

FAIRIES pls let me build my tiny little fairy houses made out of grass and put them outside make a little fairy umbrella and then when the fairies fly in slam the door shut and trap them forever as my pet SOBISGDJNFHGSD IM JOKING BUT NGL I T R I E D AS A KID i so desperately wanted to kidnap a fairy

it never worked obv

,,,,,,or did it? [glances at basement filled with fairies] you’ll never know ;)))

lion’s fairytale; would you rather be the sky, the ocean or the forests

forest bc u get to watch all the little animals live their lives and find love and happiness and see all these little creatures explore and adventure and that just sounds sO MUCH MORE ENTERTAINING than being peed in by fish all day and protecting the earth from meteors or w/e

apricot drift; how do you feel right now?

like that feeling when u finished something but you don't want to move onto another project yet and you feel like you’re forgetting to add something to this project so you just STARE AT IT

everlasting daisy; what’s the last dream you remember having?

OK SO i had a pet dragon right,,,, anyways me and this dragon cruising on until this weird organization is like ‘LOL NO WE’RE KIDNAPPING & BRAINWASHING ALL DRAGONS AND PEOPLE WHO RIDE DRAGONS suckers’ and me and my dragon were like ‘oh no’ BUT we were unaffected by the mind-control so in order to try to rescue all the other dragon and dragon riders we pRETENDED we were under mind control and infiltrated the evil place and also i vaguely remember their evil hq being on a floating island?? that was rad anyways so me and my dragon got split up but we kept doing the pretending-to-be-mind-controlled thing and trying to come up with a plan but then i saw my dragon again and my drAGON HAD BEEN BRAINWASHED and so i was like ‘oh no’ 

,,,then i woke up LMAOFSDGHFSGDF the ending of that dream remains fOREVER UNSOLVED IG

honey perfume; favorite movie ever?

INKHEART underrated pls watch it actually no don't watch it READ THE BOOKS FIRST then watch it its so good pls

or peter pan bc classic oR TANGLED BC WE STAN TANGLED OK NVM I CANT CHOOSE SOBBINFDGFH

creams and sky; what’s the craziest/bravest thing you’ve done?

IDK i probably did someTHING but i can't think of it off the top of my head rn,,

lunaria; what’s your favorite fictional universe?

i don’T,,, KNOW,,,,, thERE’S TOO MANY TO CHOOSE FR O M

HERE’S SEVERAL OF MY FAVORITES THO BC I CANT PICK JUST ONE: miracloUS LADYBUG, POKEMON, TANGLED THE SERIES, THE OWL HOUSE,,,,,,,,,,,,

blazing star; share a secret. (except about one of ur ocs ;0)

hMMMMMM,,,, :thonk: i have many ocs so i just put them in a random selector and got keres loL

ok secret about keres,,,,,,, u know their little flame buddy?? it’s not actually a flame, it’s a soul :)

[sarifel-corrisafid-ilxhel]

Hey, idk if this is just a mobile problem but the only little button appearing at the bottom of your posts is the share button for links and stuff, not hearts or reblogs. Also, if you don’t mind, I have a what-if idea: if the country was under lockdown as it is now during the Animorphs books, how do you think it would affect their missions? Thanks :)

Weird. I haven’t adjusted any settings on my end, so I’m not sure what’s happening there, but I will try looking into it!

As for the lockdown… hmmm. I can’t see much triggering a lockdown in the late 1990s other than the return of Smallpox or a sudden outbreak of a novel and potentially fatal virus. So whatever the threat is, it’s going to be something serious. We’ll go with the Prion Virus.

Let’s say that months after Book 38, an unknown pathogen begins sweeping through the global population. People who are afflicted by the virus begin to show signs of lethargy, agitation, lack of coordination, and decreasing motor skills. Some just disappear entirely. Others become confused. Then delirium and dementia set in, and the victims begin screaming about “Yeerks”. When the victims are pulled into ambulances or taken to the hospital, they die.

The incubation time of the disease is unknown. Transmission method is unknown. Symptom progression occurs over several weeks. The fatality rate appears to be close to a hundred percent. Outbreaks seem to occur near-simultaneously in major metropolitan areas around the globe. The disease becomes known as “Affluenza”, as it predominantely strikes at the upper crust of society. Rumors that the disease spreads through bottled water dominate the Internet and nightly news cycles. Lockdowns, Stay-At-Home orders, and Martial Law are declared in many areas. Madagascar closes its borders.

Day One of the Lockdown: Jake, Cassie, Marco, and Rachel are unable to leave their houses. It’s not that they can’t leave- They could easily morph and leave their houses, no problem. No, the problem is that their families are paying attention to them now. Jake’s mother habitually knocks on his door every twenty minutes to make sure he’s okay. Peter and Nora insist on keeping Marco in the same room as them because Nora wants Family Bonding Time. Cassie can’t even go to the barn without her mother or father following her. And Rachel has a nervous wreck of a mother and two younger sisters to keep entertained.

It’s Ax, perched outside of Jake’s window in Harrier morph, who explains what’s going on. The Prion Virus that Arbat dropped into the Yeerk Pool before he died must have finally kicked in. The Animorphs had suspected the disease had something to do with the Yeerks, even before the lockdown started, but the lockdown helped Ax and Tobias confirm that it was only Controllers who were being affected. Everyone who is dying in the hospitals? The Yeerks are silencing them with assassination cylinders, just like when the Animorphs destroyed the Kandrona generator.

Jake opnely wonders why it took this long for the virus to take effect. Ax briefly wonders about the state of Human medical knowledge before he explains that a prion is a misfolded protein that inhibits normal function of an organism’s brain. The Prion Virus works by infiltrating healthy cells and forcing them to create these misfolded proteins, and prion diseases are hard to detect early on because just a few misfolded proteins won’t do any real damage. However, as the cells continue to create more and more misfolded proteins, the damage begins to accumulate and become visible. It can take months for a disease like this to become apparent. It can take up to a year for a disease like this to kill. And the Yeerks never knew. They’ve been spreading the virus around with every personnel transfer. By now, the virus could be present in every single Yeerk Pool in the galaxy.

Jake wonders if he should feel bad when Ax reminds him the Prion Virus could mutate inside of Human-Controllers and begin to affect Humans. And now that the Yeerks are aware of the virus, there is a chance they could develop a counter. Ax starts to go on about virophages which could disable the Prion Virus and protein repair mechanisms that might limit or undo the damage when Jake tells him to go let the others know what’s going on.

Day Two of the Lockdown: Ax and Tobias are scouting the situation out and keeping everybody informed. Tobias hates the comparison to “Courier Pigeons” that Marco keeps making, but there is a certain truth to it. Most of the Animorphs are effectively grounded, leaving the two without families to do all of the spy work. It almost reminds everyone of the first few weeks of the war.

Marco has been following the whole situation on the news very carefully for over a month. Known Controller-celebrities are playing the virus up, feeding the hysteria. Marco reasons the Stay-At-Home orders are something the Yeerks came up with. Having all the Yeerks stay away from the Yeerk Pools will keep any uninfected Yeerks safe, with the added benefit of limiting the public exposure to people breaking free of their Yeerks to beg for help. What is notable, however, is that the Yeerks aren’t alone in investigating the disease. Human medical organizations are also investigating the disease, and they have already determined the disease is a novel neurological disorder spread by a virus. One doctor explains that the sudden screaming of “Yeerk” is because as motor function shuts down, people may begin to shout single loud syllables at random. Marco figures out that doctor is a Controller pretty quickly. However, another doctor wonders if this might be a prion disease, similar to Hoof-and-Mouth or Creutzfeldt–Jakob, because his team have noticed there are unusual proteins in the cerebrospinal fluids of the people they tested. Marco thinks that the entire invasion is about to be exposed.

Jake has been watching Tom like a hawk. Not literally as a hawk, not today, but it’s about the same. The early symptoms of the disease are easy enough to miss, but the more Jake thinks about it, the more it looks like Tom’s Yeerk is already suffering. But that’s not the only thing that has Jake’s attention right now. That morning, Tom got a phonecall from The Sharing, and ever since he’s been pacing anxiously in the living room. Jake knows the Yeerks have to do something about all the Controllers now trapped at home, but he can only guess at what. Eventually, the doorbell rings. The Sharing, with the blessing of the local authorities, is now delivering food and bottled water door to door in windowless vans. Tom volunteers to go out to the van and help unload things. He comes back in thirty minutes later, much less anxious and with very little to show for the time he was out there. He claims he was “Just talking with the guys about the deliveries”. Jake, however, suspects the Yeerks are using the food deliveries as a cover for giving Yeerks a chance to recharge with Portable Kandronas. Tom struggles to open a bottled water before reluctantly asking Jake to help him open it.

Day Three of the Lockdown: Erek shows up. Jake figures it out before Erek reveals himself, because even though Erek does a spot-on impersonation of a coat rack, Jake’s family don’t own a coat rack. They have a coat closet, thank you very much. And even if they did own a coat rack, it wouldn’t be in Jake’s room.

Erek tells Jake the primary Yeerk Pool is being cleaned out. The Yeerks have begun hoarding spray disinfectants and bleach out of a misguided belief the disease could be an Earth virus that has mutated to attack Yeerks. All the Yeerks in the pool have been transferred to holding tanks while the main pool is being disinfected. However, it’s all for nothing- The Yeerks still don’t know what they’re dealing with, and prion diseases are especially tough- They aren’t destroyed by conventional disinfectants.

Jake wonders briefly if he should feel bad for the Yeerks or not. That’s when Erek drops the bombshell of the day- The Chee are working on a countervirus. One that could save all the Yeerks. It should be ready in just a few days, and if it’s deployed quickly enough it could save millions. Jake is appalled. The Yeerks have been killing Humans by the thousands, they’ve enslaved hundreds of millions of good innocent people across the Galaxy. They took his brother. Why the hell would anyone want to save them?

Erek counters that he doesn’t believe in genocide under any circumstances. The Chee have directives from the Pemalites not just to be pacifists, but to love life, to want to perserve it and see it flourish. If it weren’t for those directives, the Chee would have never intervened to stop the Black Death. And, Erek reminds Jake, the Chee don’t answer to the Animorphs. They’ll save the Yeerks whether Jake wants them to or not. The reason Erek is here is that the Animorphs have an opportunity to end the war. Offer the cure in exchange for peace.

Tobias, perched in the tree outside, says that Erek stole the idea from Deep Space Nine. Erek unabashedly says that one of Humanity’s strongpoints is using stories to predict the kinds of problems they might face in the future. Jake, for his part, is extremely concerned. Even if he could put his severe distaste in Yeerks aside, he isn’t sure how they could prevent the Yeerks from simply coming back later or blowing up the planet as they leave. That’s when Erek suggests asking the others. He’ll cover for Jake here.

Reluctantly, Jake opens a window and begins to morph into a falcon.

____________________________________________________...Sorry I might have gotten carried away. You were probably looking for “What do they do to relieve boredom”. Sorry! n.n;;

[officially-dumb]

N, P, and X for the ask meme~

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

MORE LURKERS CONTENT/APPRECIATION!!! I talk about them too darn much but I just think there’s so much to explore with them? Mount Lady’s character development + the fact that she really reads to me as a character who performs her hypersexualized hero persona (she’s literally Not Like That whenever she’s not around the media), the fact that Edgeshot was a very successful Top Ten hero but yet was smart and humble enough to realize after Kamino that the future of heroics would need to rely on teamwork (and personally reached out to younger/more newbie heroes that he worked with in Kamino to make the team?!?!?), the fact that Kamui Woods is literally baby and deserves the world (he is absolutely the heart of the team). I know they’re background characters but I think that there’s a lot to explore in the little bits of characterization we get from them.

More posts exploring bnha from a narrative perspective rather than the big moral arguments that kind of ate the fandom, if that makes sense? Like I don’t mind the real-world comparisons, but I wish there was more talk about the world-building, characterization (outside of “this character bad”) and narrative choices instead of so much talk about who’s right and who’s wrong. At a certain point it starts to suck the fun out of things.

Last thing could’ve probably been combined with the first one, but there are only five fics on ao3 tagged with Hawks & Edgeshot friendship, and that is an absolute tragedy (also, I had to MAKE the Hawks & Kamui Woods tag). Hawks and Edgeshot are literally listed on each other’s relationship charts in the analysis books; they’re friends y’all, and I need to see more about their friendship pls.

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

Lmfao I dunno if this counts but I literally have a six page outline for a Hunger Games AU (I reread the books during quarantine and lost my mind). 

I’m not into writing about the actual Games, but a former tribute Hawks who gets tasked by the HC (Capitol) to infiltrate the PLF (District 13) sounds like fun to me. Hawks kinda reminds me of Finnick O’Dair (youngest winner/hero, information gathering, plays dumb around others). I would kinda change the rules of the Games to serve more as hero licensing exams and just in general make things not good, but less brutal than the actual Hunger Games lol.

Basically it would be about Hawks struggling over the fact that the HC is doing awful things but he also isn’t willing to risk the death that the kind of revolution the PLF wants to bring (they’d have to tear through all the Districts with the Nomu to get to the Capitol); he’d rather work to change things from the inside but that’s not fast enough for the PLF. Dabi knows him from training as tributes together but he never made it to the Games. 

I have a lot more but I doubt I ever actually write it since it sounds like hell to write something that long. It’s fun for me to think about though!

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

Ah,, idk how to word it succinctly but I guess the whole “character who isn’t what they seem” is always fun to me? Like characters who kind play the fool but end up being revealed to have their own thing going on (Hawks, obviously, Renzo Shima from Blue Exorcist, etc.)

[rosesanthology]

Escape Plan | Matsukawa Issei x F!Reader [mafia!AU]

This took me SO MUCH TIME to write aaaaaah it's not surprising that it's so long :0 i just have many many feelings for Matsukawa Issei ALSO im begging y'all to listen to the playlist before/as you read please !!

Im kinda pissed that i cant add a "read more" option since im on mobile tho :\

(Also ngl at first i planned to get one of the 2 shot but i didn't have the heart to go thru with it)

Warnings : Fluff, it starts with humor but at some point it gets angsty ???? Idk y'all tell me

- Au that could be considered as a ennemies-to-lovers type of situation

[Tags] : @raevaioli and @haikoo like i cannot stress this enough @haikoo this your main manz

- if you could only use one sentence to describe your job to a Karen it would be : stealing from the rich in order to trick other rich people

- you had been what the people would call a spy for most of your life now, the Tokyo based Nekoma Organisation being something close to a family

- you worked with both of your very good friends, Kuroo Testurou and Kozume Kenma

- Kuroo, the leader of your little squad, had been the first one to open up to you when you joined

- he was a gifted chemistry genius and you were sure he could make any poison or soporific out of the most random stuff

- he also had insane combat and physical abilities which made him fit to act in a lab as well as on mission grounds

- Kenma was a little more reserved at first, he was the same age as you but still was really reluctant to accept you as one of his own at first

- when he saw how much Kuroo trusted you and how interested you were in his work he slowly but surely found himself caring for you

- to put it simply Kenma, better known as "apple pi" was a hacker. His job ranged from creating computer viruses to full on enabling the security of whole museums

- despite his cute appearance and shy demeanor he was probably the scariest of you three

- finally, you Y/L L/N was the infiltration and weapons expert of the group, you could weild literally anything from guns, to swords to,,,,,metal rods (but you don't wanna talk about this one) and you were of great help when deciding which infiltration angle was the best in missions

- Kuroo, under the orders of Boss Nekomata, quickly taught you the dangers and ways of the job during your first months working with them, the organisation specializing in outsmarting rich bastards and stealing their precious ressources in order to make "better use of them"

- if they were hoarding a particularly efficient brand of medicine, your goal was to steal it all, and sell it to people in need for free or a low price

- if they were in possession of some important object like let's say,,,,,the construction plans for the emperor's new vacation house, you stole it, made copies to sell at a high price to the highest bidder and your good affiliate, the Fukurodani Corporation would keep an eye on the original as part of their personnal collection, you were fine with that

- yeah they were others organisations like that in Tokyo, your friends from the Fukurodani Corp of course but also the Shiratorizawa elite crime group with who you had worked a couple times before

- ah and there was the Yakuzas too....honestly they were the only group in Tokyo with whom you were still on dangerous terms with

- they didn't like Nekoma in their affairs and you didn't like them in yours, but you tolerated each other

- your boss had established a truce with the representant of the big Yakuza group of your area, Kondo "the viper" Takara, a truly scary woman who had blasted her way to the one of the top positions of the hierarchy

- she even had a cool nickname ヾ(｀ε´)ノ

- but you knew better than to mess with them

- all in all y'all kept doing your jobs well, not bothering anybody

- except for one remaining rivalry with some Miyagi group

- the Aoba Johsai Institution.

- well, rivalry would be a strong word because you kinda got along with that Iwaizumi guy, he was a great hand to hand combat fighter and you respected that

- the others however ? Trash. 👁3👁

- they seem to act like Tokyo will be their territory in the next 5 seconds flat like ??

- THEY DON'T EVEN GO THERE ????

- "they be acting like they can just swoop in and eat OUR rich" you had told Kuroo and Kenma one day over ramen

- spoiler alert : it was a bad idea cause Kuroo snorted and almost made the noodles go up his nose

- no but seriously they always seemed to take advantage of YOUR missions to attract attention

- how did they even know which missions you were on anyway ??? (Kenma and Kunimi are actually good friends cause they play video games together but he'd never tell you that)

- it's like that one time you infiltrated a business company's heir's residence and then you came across a dude named Hanamaki and you had the HARDEST time whisper shouting to him how blowing up the whole place was a bad idea to retrieve one (1) diamond

- at the end you felt so tired that you gave it to him anyway ಥ_ಥ ("just take it ffs" "really ??" "Don't make me regret this")

- they also had the single worst person ever on one of their teams.

- Matsukawa Issei

- just thinking about it made you want to take your metal bat and break something in your shared room with your two other friends

- seriously that guy was like the epitome of clownery

- he's also supposed to be his team's gun expert except that's not the best task for someone who refuses to take anything with him but his freaking FISTS

- the first time you had met y'all ended up being on the same case to assassinate some guy who had kidnapped some cute freckled kid from a place in Miyagi called Karasuno

- EXCEPT HE WAS IN TOKYO SO IT WAS YOUR DUTY !!! NOT HIS !!!!

- you had Kenma on the earbud telling you about the guy's position in the club you were currently one street away from. You were posted on the rooftop of a building with a sniper rifle ready to get done with it and go save the kid but GUESS WHO COMES IN FISTS SWINGING WHEN YOU LITERALLY HAD THE TARGET IN SIGHT

- and he had the nerve to look straight toward your rifle's aim and flip you off while smirking

- sir you're about to catch these hands🚶🏽

- he had knocked him out alright and he got the young boy out but you were NOT ready to let that slide so you quickly got down and crossed path with him at the back exit of the club

- "what exactly do you think you were doing in there ?" Listen. You may have sounded confident enough saying that but you had NO idea that this dude was like a whole ass giraffe

- and he knew he was tall so he had the audacity to say

- "sorry can't hear you so well from down there midget, i was just doing my job (▰˘◡˘▰)" if it weren't for the karasuno boy being right there you would have stabbed his kneecaps on sight

- anyway after that y'all just seemed to run into each other wayyyy too often

- insults were shared just as often tho

- "well butter my buns and call me betty broker if it isn't my sweet little midget shooting people !"

- "stfu before i choke you"

- "kinky but can you reach my neck ?"

- "you've sunk low enough"

-so yeah f u n  t i m e s

- aside from that, business was going great but Kuroo had had news of a very important mission for you but he insisted on letting Boss Nekomata tell you about it himself for some reason

- he'd never done that :(

- you were kinda hurt that your best friend was hiding stuff from you tbh :(

- and Kenma did not seem to know more than you for now

- so you spent a whole week just mopping around

- sometimes you would go and poke fun and the newbie Lev Haiba but it wasn't the same

- Kuroo and Kenma kept working on missions while you were left waiting for that one assignment that Nekomata seemed to keep you for

- until today when Kuroo finally told you that the boss was requesting you in his office

- ngl you were EXCITED

- maybe you would have to zipline down the Tokyo tower (σ≧▽≦)σ maybe he was going to let you take a chainsaw with you this time (σ≧▽≦)σ

- maybe he- "oh" you deadpanned, stepping foot into the office and seeing none other than your arch nemesis, Matsukawa Issei in all his pisces clown glory

- "why tf are you there shitty eyebrows"

- "i had a good day too Y/N ! thanks for asking :D" today was the day. You were 100% ready to kill him and the knife that was attached to your thigh strap seemed like such a good option rn-

- "stop it you two. Y/N take a sit" Nekomata gestured, as you didn't hesitate to listen to your superior even fully aware of Mattsun's eyes annoyingly following your every movement

-"Okay so. Y/N i know you may be wondering why Matsukawa's here but to put it simply we've been informed that a rich family have gotten their hands on one of Aoba Johsai's rarest item : a gold engraved katana that belonged to their first boss"

- "so what do you need us for ?" You didn't mean to use "us" but you knew better than to piss off your boss, he was like a parental figure come on

- "i need you guys to infiltrate an auction held by said family and steal it back in the span of one week. It's up to you to work together or not but keep in mind that our arrangement states that we're autorised to make copies of the katana for future sells."

- you guys nodded, after all you were professionnals before everything and you were about to leave when Nekomata put something on the table

- "here are the keys to your appartment near the auction site it'll be your hideout !"

-.....now this had to be a cruel joke-

- "id rather sleep under a bridge then live with her for a whole week"

- "wow this is the first time we agree on something Mattsun" the oh so familiar nickname dripped in venom as you said it, unsure of what was supposed to happen

- "oh yes you could but i suppose that you don't have the supplies and tools that you will definitely need during that mission :)"

- you locked eyes with the brunette for a minute before reluctantly stomping to the table and grabbing hold of the keys and adress written on a paper, storming out of the door,  letting out a loose "come on shitty eyebrows we have data to collect" to your new....partner ? Ugh it was about to be a long week

-  it turns out the appartment was a lot smaller than you hoped for, with two single person beds, a computer post and different storing purposed furniture

- it was a common thing however, because the last thing an undercover spy would want is to draw attention with a flashy hideout

- the first step was to gather information on who would be at the auction which shouldnt be too hard

- "hey ill take the lead and contact my friend so that he can determine who is going to be here" you said as you sat on the chair in front of the computer

- "mm yeah you do that ill check what kind of weapons have been provided to us" Mattsun had no difficulty finding them as the drawers well full of them....this was very promising

- Kenma had just sent you the list of people that had been invited to the event, and you recognised many names as being members of the powerful Yakuza group lead by Konda Takara, of course.....the infamous viper herself

- you called out to Mattsun to show him and briefly explained what they were up too and how they usually fonctionned

- the auction was to take place the last 3 days after an opening party, leaving the rest of the week for preparations

- they usually took their time in comitting their crimes so you thought that stopping them mid plan by taking advantage of it was the best way to get the sword

- Mattsun didn't have anything to say for the moment, seemingly thoughtful about the whole situation

- "just so you know" you started, already regretting the decision of talking in your head, "i don't plan on being friends with you anytime soon but i feel like for this we should at least try not to rip each other's hair out"

- "i never planned on that second option"

- "huh ?"

- "i hope you know that we've never had a single conversation without insults of some kind before so for the sake of both of us it would be better to actually get to know each other since we're supposed to work together"

- you hated to admit it

- but he was right

- however you didn't comment on it, opting for throwing him a dry "let's sleep" before plopping yourself on your own bed on the other side of the room

- this is about to be one hell of a week

-3 days had passed in the crammed appartement both you and Mattsun struggling to inform yourself on each specific individual that was going to be present at the auction

- right now, you were both sitting on the floor, wearing simple oversized shirts and pyjama pants and shorts, cheese pizza box laying on top of the document covered surface

- "Mattsun, pass me the paper about Okuda Takeda please" :000

- Matsukawa froze, because he knew that in 2 days of living together y'all had establised that you wouldn't be at each other's throats

- but hearing you using his nickname unironically and saying please ???? That was still something he had to get used to

- "what are you staring at ? Give me the paper shitty eyebrows >:[" ah there she was

- "thats my girl" he thought, handing you the document and resuming his own reading

- here's the catch : Mattsun was head over heels in love with you since like day 1 that Hanamaki told him about this pretty girl who let him take the diamond from his mission. He tried to repress his feelings as he had noticed that you seemed way closer with your friend Kuroo who he had seen on missions with you

- maybe you liked him

- he would understand, he seemed way more confident than him and he was also probably way smarter since he was a genius and all

- also the way you were always soft to him and not Matsukawa kinda got to him

- he wanted you to hug HIM after a mission too and NOT insult him

- but he judged it for the better as he still got to be close to you in his own way with the playful fights you always seemed to pick with him

- it was easier than confronting his feelings or rejection

- this mission proved to make things so much harder for him tho

- like yeah he saw you being a badass plenty of other times but now ?

- he got to see you being all clingy and grumpy in the morning (he never knew being called a dumbass while you were falling back asleep on his shoulder was his thing but hey) , got to see your nose scrunch up when you were focusing on mapping out the position of the vent system of the venue

- he could go on for hours about how much he loved you and your plan was not making it easy.....profiting off the yakuzas' plan took way too much waiting and he understood that you wanted it to go as well as possible but he just couldn't keep living like this until then

- it felt like torture

- and he did not want to see you in that gorgeous dress that you were supposed to wear at the auction during the infiltration

- he knew that a couple more days could drive him crazy and make him do dumb shit like kissing you

- he had thought about that a lot of times but never brought himself to do it because je knew it was pointless

- he had to take action now

- the night of the opening ceremony, the day before the Yakuzas would start their scheme

- both of you were laying in your beds, awake, that was a habit you had developped over the past nights, you were just, aware of each other's presence and then sometime you would ask him something about his life, his friends, himself

- it made his heart beat too fast everytime and he could feel himself falling even more by the second when he heard you giggling talking about the time you pulled a prank on your friend Yaku with Kuroo

- he knew that you were already very sleepy from the way you were slurring your words

- "Y/N do you hate me ?" He said, abruptly and he heard a strangled laugh coming from you followed up by the question

- "what's that for dummy ?"

- "please answer" he asked in a whisper, sounding almost desperate

- you took a second to think about it

-you had grown quite close to your tall partner in such a short period of time, even letting your guard down and stopping from being so defensive

- "i don't hate you....i could never" you said the last part more to yourself tho but Matsukawa didn't miss it, he wished he did as he heard the soft sighs coming from your now sleeping form

- his heart ached as he got up, putting on his black coat over his mathing turtleneck shirt, taking his gun and spare map of the auction venue

- you were totally going to hate him now....

- and then he left for the opening party

- the rain was pouring outside

- for some reason you couldn't sleep well that night

- that only happened whenever Kuroo was out on a mission at night or Kenma was working in his office

- you hated sleeping alone, you couldn't do it

- being alone was the one thing you dreaded the most in your life, death was nothing if nobody knew where you were, if nobody aknowledged your existence you weren't alive

- but Mattsun was there and you trusted him.

- yeah you were kind of an ass to him during like 90% of your interactions with him but you just didn't know how to talk to him ??? He was so strong and good at what he did so you couldn't help but feel admiration but also intimidation

- yet you've felt probably more comfortable with him than anyone in your life (yes even Kuroo and Kenma weirdly enough)

- it was a nice feeling

- maybe it was because you saw him differently than them...

- but anyway

- you felt like yourself around him

- and yet

- why couldn't you sleep ?

- "Mattsun ?" You called out to him, voice cracked from not having used it for a while

- no answer

- maybe he didn't hear you over the rain....?

- you had a bad feeling about this

- "Mattsun ?" You called out a little louder, sitting up

- yep definitely

- you turned on the light and to your surprise, Matsukawa was nowhere in sight

- your heart sunk at the realization

- you were alone

- what about the plan ? Ah its true that he never said anything about it

- did he not trust you enough with it ? Did he think you were too assertive ?

- you wanted to cry but it seemed as if your brain wasn't working, your body rushing on its own to check the date and time on your phone : past 10pm on thursday night.....

- the opening party !

- "shit shit shit he must have gone there to take them by surprise wtf is he thinking doing this alone?" You thought aloud, maybe it would trick your body into not being scared

- at this point you were terrified, rushing to get the red dress on as well as putting your 2 guns under each of your thigh straps

- is he alone ? Surrounded by highly trained and dangerous Yakuzas ? What if....you were too late ?

- you didn't have time to think too much about it as you knew that this kind of thoughts led nowhere.

- you had to infiltrate that party the fastest you've ever done in your life and see for yourself, luckily, the venue was only a few crossroads away from your appartment

- truth was Mattsun's plan was not so bad

- after all you had insisted on making him find info on every staff member there too so it's thanks to you if he just so happened to know what type of guy that one waitress liked in order to flirt with her and convince her that he had forgotten his watch in one of the closed off aeras of the venue

- the place was absolutly gigantic, after all it was a mansion bought will illegal money

- he hated this, he just wanted to get it over with, retrieve the sword, gtfo and go back to Miyagi forever so that he wouldn't feel the pain of the illusion of being by your side when you were clearly far ahead of him

- you'd always been anyway

- he had finally reached the generator room and opened the vents with much difficulty as the room was a mess of cardboard boxes and storage shelves

- he was just going to cut the power, which would take about 15 minutes to get back, allowing him to go thru the vents to the main hall that was right thru the wall to his side, retrieve the sword and just make a run for it

- hopefully the rain would cover most of the sound he made so that was even better

- see that would have been great if he hadn't felt the icy cold metal of a gun at the nape of his neck as he was fiddling with the generator

- he had been caught.

- it was the end.

- shit he fucked the whole mission over and now even you didn't have a chance to-

- "what exactly do you think you're doing Mattsun ?" You said coldly even tho the hurt in your tone didnt go unnoticed by the taller man

- "haha Y/N whatchu doing here on this fine night ? You look stunning btw"

- "Cut the crap shitty eyebrows i asked you a question"

- you finally lowered your gun allowing your harsh glare to show how upset you truly were

- damn, Matsukawa really felt shitty :\

- he'd never seen you like that- well not soaked from the rain but....so vulnerable to him

- all your feelings talks happened in the dark of night in your hideout, he'd never seen your face look so pained before

- "I did what was best for both us..."

- "bullshit." He wasn't sure that he believed himself either to be honest

- "what the fuck are you even doing anyway ? I thought you and i were in this mission together ?? Did nothing matter to you ? I finally think that i found someone who i could trust other than my fucking family and that's what you do ? Ditch me for your own profit ?? You did what was best for your damn self Matsukawa"

- you were upset. He got it really, his insecurities had gotten the best of him like they often did....except he didn't have the strength to confront them, to confront you about it. So he got it and he didn't retaliate.

- "so what ?? You're not even going to say anything ?? Not even TRY to fucking apologize ? Do you really don't care ?" You searched for his eyes, but little did you know that he just....couldn't talk nor maintain eye contact with you right now

- "Mattsun...i thought you and i had...something ? I don't know maybe i hallucinated or some shit but i thought we were at least friends you know ? D-did you ever tolerate me at all ?"

- your voice cracked, it got lower and it cracked, and at that moment he was sure his heart broke right at this instant too

- he wanted to tell you that that was the farthest thing from the truth

- he wanted to tell you that he loved you

- but you were too far. Once again, you were miles ahead of him, more than ever

- and the sound of voices coming from the corridor did NOT HELP

- you could not afford being found here so with the professionalism left in you, you pushed your feelings away and pulled Mattsun behind a shelf, crouching and waiting

- you were so close he could feel you shivering from the cold and he felt so so bad

- but now was not really the moment

- "didn't you hear shouting ?" Shit. Maybe you should have waited until getting out of here for your heart to heart because this guard was definitely not trippin

- there were 2, luckily they didn't have the idea to split up to search the room, all you had to do was move low and close to the walls in order reach the door and well....the katana literally could not matter less to any of y'all rn

- at this moment you really regretted going out in such a hurry completly forgetting to contact Kenma, he could have hacked into the camera system and told you were they were so easily.....

- anyway, despite that you guys were stealthy enough to get out if the room

- now the problem was getting out of here.....

- you held Mattsun's wrist loosely as you ran thru the corridor of the building, thunder raging and labored breathing filling the silence

- "Y/N we could get out from the rooftop !" Right....if you could only get there then maybe you could just parcour your way out of this by getting on other rooftops....damn you were glad Matsukawa always thought of every escape plan possible

- you didn't really mean what you said earlier

- yes, you were disappointed but, you were also scared for his dumbass

- and rn may not be the best moment to realize it as you were most likely in a life of death situation but....you loved him

- fuck you loved him so much that you were running in a goddamn dress right now

- "i truly hoped it wasn't you" said a voice from the end of the lobby

- of course it just had to be the Yakuza boss you dreaded so much

- Kondo was just standing there, arms crossed but you knew better than to take her lightly

- "did you come to retrieve it ?" Its funny how her voice seemed to dominate even the full on storm outside, the occasional lightning bolt shining light from the huge windows into the corridor

- "No....let us pass please we just want to leave" Mattsun felt how tensed you were and immediatly rested his hand on his gun handle under his coat

- "yeah sure sweetheart but only if you tell your guard dog to calm down unless he wants me to cut his fingers clean off" she threatened nonchalantly as her hand met the handle of her own katana strapped to her belt

- Matsukawa was deadass glaring at her so hard you didn't recognise him

- he honestly looked like he could take her on but...you didn't feel like testing this theory tonight

- "hey hey, it's alright" you soothed him, putting your hand on his arm and squeezing slightly

- it seemed to work because he quickly let go of his gun even tho he was still glaring

- "let us go" he said firmly

- she pushed herself out of the way and motionned with her arm as if to say "go on~" in the most theatrical way

- you passed her without issues and soon found yourself on the roofs as planned in Mattsun's escape route and made it safely to the streets, rain still pouring

- you were finally letting out a breathe you didn't know you were holding all this time

- you were alive and most importantly, so was he

- you turned around and were ready to say something when he cut you off by grabbing your arms and pulling you into a kiss

- it was short but it managed to get his point across very well as well as warm you up when he wrapped his arms around your waist, resting his forehead against yours

- "i love you Y/N....i swear i didn't mean to hurt you and put you in danger like that....if i knew i would have done things differently i-"

- "i love you too Mattsun and it's never been a problem to me, i've done way more dangerous things in my life than rescue my boyfriend from getting killed dummy"

- in the end, you weren't alone

- somehow he had become, your escape plan from it

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 3

 Thanks, I Hate It!

This week, we move forward by first jumping backwards. Last episode, the Bad Kids found that Riz and Fig were missing. Now, we get to see what happened in the meantime. Riz was in his office, trying to put together anything new on the Nightmare King. We’re reminded that his sword--the Sword of Shadows which he got from the arcade and lets him misty step (also, which he used to kill Kalvaxus)--was made by Tabaxi ninjas (seemingly relevant considering the whole Shadowcat thing). He notices that, in his photo, Kalina’s image doesn’t look as time-worn as the rest of it, as if only the part where she appears was protected. He hears a noise and goes to investigate. What he finds, is a creepy-ass nightmare skeleton person in the mirror claiming to be Baron, from the Baronees (the person he on the fly lied--poorly--that he was dating in ep 1). Respecting the fact that Murph never clarified whether Baron was a guy or a girl, Brennan has Baron exclusively refer to themselves as Riz’s R̵̪̹̄o̸̱͝m̸͔͔̂̽a̴͕̾̈́n̵͙̬͒c̸̣̏͠ḙ̸̃̓ ̶̞̇̕P̸̞͚̈́a̸͉͒͝r̴̛͈͈t̷͓͇̋͒n̸̬͛̈́e̴̮̒r̴̝̃̓ in this mega-cursed, fake Swedish(?) accent.

Thanks, I hate it. 

Riz, faced with his lie brought to life, is pretty freaked and tries to shoot it but he’s quickly subdued and dragged into the mirror. Luckily, he’s able to leave the photo for his friends to find. 

Meanwhile, Fig spent the night in a weird fugue state--almost like an enjoyable nightmare. Most of her focus is on this feeling of isolation, fame, and power--but in a good way. In the background, she’s doing some unimportant stuff. You know, packing her stuff, stealing a gem, trapping Gorthalax in it, and going to Bastion City. No big deal. Anyway, that brings us back to the present with the rest of our party.

They make it to Bastion City and, more importantly, the hotel where Fig is supposed to be. On the way, Adaine tries to detect magic on Sandra-Lynn to try and figure out why she can see the photograph but nothing comes up. At the hotel, they unsuccessfully try to get the concierge to tell them where Fig’s room is. Adaine detects that the receptionist has some kind of transmutation on them and her first thought is, “Magic plastic surgery.” She dispels it. Not magic plastic surgery. The concierge is a demon--which is different and worse than devils who are at least lawful and, like, part of the bureaucracy of punishing people who deserve it.

Anyway, fight time! A lot happens during this fight so I’m going to try and highlight the most important parts:

All the employees in the immediate area turn into various demons to fight the party.

Adaine and Kristen catch sight of Fig’s room number (downstairs penthouse) right before the fight starts and, at the top of the initiative, Adaine goes invisible and runs for the elevator. 

Fabian vaults of Gilear’s face--unnecessarily--and rolls a nat 20.

Gilear (who has FIVE hit points) ducks and covers because of course he does. That doesn’t stop him from being completely obliterated by one punch from one of the huge gorilla demons. He freaking DIES. Thanks, I hate it.

Downstairs, Adaine finds a bunch more demons who are with Fig who is clearly being mind controlled. They have Riz strapped to a table and Fig’s about to stab him with a ritualistic knife. Adaine goes for a dispel magic and gets advantage because of Boggy which leads to her rolling *two nat 20s* and snapping her out of it immediately. 

In a very boss move, Fig immediately grabs Riz and dimension doors him out of his restraints and them both to the coat check where she left the ruby with Gorthalax. Before they poof out, Riz sees yellow eyes in the shadows. Familiar tabaxi eyes. Seemed like she was calling shots. 

Riz gets in a very cool kill with the line, “Tell Daybreak I said hi.”

Fig finds out Gilear is dead and grabs his soul. Kristen heals him up.

Fabian vaults off of Gilear a second time and rolls a nat 1, sending him back into death saves. 

Kristen tosses a spare the dying at Gilear and then kisses full wolfed out Tracker because time isn’t of the essence or anything.

Fig grabs the ruby Gorthalax is in and sees that it’s cloudy--cursed somehow to keep them from breaking him out. Not good. She also finds a bunch of other gems which she also grabs.

We meet Kristen’s new spirit guardians which are now hipster Post-Grad philosophy students in a full spectral coffee shop. She finds them insufferable but is also kind of into it. 

They clean up the rest of the demons and then Fabian does donuts on the Hangman. And we are out of combat.

Fig is a little distraught about having almost killed Riz and brought them all into this dangerous situation which literally killed Gilear--even though no one else blames her even a little. Gilear has a bit of a breakdown which is fair. The man died. They try to send him home--Fig wants to give him 10k gold and send him on vacation--but he is determined to stay and experience things and be useful. Also, Fabian has it in his (and Gorgug’s) head that Gilear must be some kind of chosen one since one of the demons in the fight chose to attack Gilear over him. 

Fig looks through the other gems she got and only one--a Celestial Sapphire--is similar to size to Gorthalax’s. When they bring it out, a slot in Gorgug’s van pops open. They slot the Sapphire in and, through the radio, an Angelic voice speaks to them. He sounds like Owen Wilson and he doesn’t remember his name. The Hangman hates him immediately. Fig pretends to be a cop to get info from the cops that arrive on the scene, doesn’t find out anything useful, but does roll a nat 20 on her deception (come on) and briefly turns the game into the sister, cop-drama show set in the same universe as the Grey’s Anatomy sham-life she’s living, kissing another full adult man. Incredible. 

They regroup at a posh restaurant/cafe called The Swan’s Little Parade. Sklonda calls and, after she and Sandra-Lynn do the mom-catch up thing, she has a quick talk with Riz where we find out a few things about Kalina:

She only worked with Pok on missions between Falinel and Solace.

She was great at going invisible and other infiltration things.

(Note: We actually learned this earlier but I wanted to keep this info together)She looks more like a traditional housecat than a big cat like some other tabaxi.

It’s extremely hard to scry on her. 

She didn’t attend Pok’s funeral.

The last time Sklonda heard from her was 12ish years ago.

Riz only encountered her a few times as a kid. 

Last Sklonda remembers, she reached out to Pok it was something to do with the ship the Oracle sank on. 

They pass around the picture to see who can see it and not only does it appear that Ragh can see her (oh, kinda implied this before but Riz can too) he also seemed really bugged out. Tracker says she can use her cleric mojo to put up some wards to (1) keep them from getting mind whammied like Fig did overnight and (2) maybe make Ragh feel safe enough to talk. She also suggests they all sleep in a huge dog pile for safety which I think is great and someone should draw that.

Gorgug gets a text. It’s Zelda. She can’t believe he left without saying goodbye.

Thanks, I hate it. 

Detention

Fabian for Using Gilear as a Launch Pad Two (2) Times

This was a top contender for this spot, even before Fabian did this a second time and screwed up so bad (nat 1!) that Gilear dropped to zero again and had to make death saving throws.    

Honor Roll

Adaine for Freeing Fig 

Listen, I will freely admit that I have a clear bias towards Adaine. You got me. She’s my favorite. HOWEVER, you cannot tell me that going invisible, rushing straight to the elevator, then rolling double nat 20s (a 1/400 chance) to release Fig from domination right before she plunged a knife into Riz’s heart wasn’t the sickest series of events that happened during this ep. What could possibly compete? 

Random Thoughts

I’ve been trying to figure out the rhyme or reason to who can see the full photo but I haven’t figured out a pattern yet. It’s not that only people who have seen her before can see her because Sandra-Lynn can see it and she said she’s never met her--although I guess it’s possible that she has and she didn’t recognize her since she’s a super spy. And it’s not a blanket thing on the Bad Kids specifically because Riz can see her. I was hoping they’d show it to more people so we could get a better idea of the rules. Maybe it’s based entirely on if she wants to be seen by that specific person? But then why wouldn’t it default to the blank image. It seems (from our limited POV) that most people can see her. Maybe for most people a blank space would be more suspicious than a random tabaxi? Idk.  

Riz forcibly installing himself as Fabian’s best friend and it working is low key the funniest relationship development in FH. I’m so glad Murph and Lou ran with that. Also, the fact that he’s basically accepted that Riz is his best friend but the Hangman hasn’t at all is so good. 

Brennan really just shot Zac in the head at point blank range at the end of the episode, huh? He really just did that to our boy. What’s also funny is that, unlike--say--CR where there’s usually at least a good minute of decompression and goodbyes, Brennan just goes for the kill shot and then peaces out immediately. What a power move. 

Also, poor Zelda! She’s already so insecure, this isn’t gonna be good for her self esteem. Arguably, there were extenuating circumstances Gorgug can claim but you know that’s only gonna help so much since he def could have at least called/texted her to let her know he had to leave in a hurry because Fig/Riz were missing. I wonder if there’s a section of the binder on this. 

For reference, the demons they fight in the hotel lobby are a Cambion, and then several barlgura and skeksis.

“He’s just a guy!” He certainly is. Check out his stats. Hilarious but also, I can’t act like my stats would look that much different. 

I truly, truly cannot believe that Emily pulled the exact same hospital stunt again and it resolved in exactly the same way. This is like when I played blackjack with my brother when I was a teenager to teach him that the house always wins and he hit 21 twice in a row. 

Also on the topic of Fig, her coming down from her mind control was my favorite part of this episode, for a couple of reasons. I love how sincerely Emily played the immediate shock and horror at what she almost did (closed book my ass). I love how every other person was so happy to get her back. I love that none of them even entertained the thought that she might be dangerous or untrustworthy now. Relationships at the intersection of constant bullying and ride or die are my favorite. 

While we’re on the topic of emotional scenes, Gilear full breaking down in the van post-fight was very funny but you also genuinely felt for the guy. It’s been a really long day for the guy and he died like one and a half times. His, “I haven’t experienced anything before this moment,” line really hit me hard. And I think it’s very wild that Brennan set the DC for convincing him to go home at 25 (which Fig did not pass with a 21). It’s very interesting that Gilear’s reaction to this series of events was to double down and be like, I *need* to be here. Seems like this could be a set up for some interesting Gilear development. 

The amount of times I have almost typed Balnor is unreal. My brain stores all the middle aged men hanging out with people too young for him to be hanging out with in the same folder.  

I can’t believe Adaine just went for that dispel except that I can because she did the exact thing with Iris’ wig at the NY live show and I couldn’t believe that either! I really did not think (1) that was a good move or (2) gonna lead to combat (except for the kind that gets you banned from a hotel). I completely misread that situation. Like, it’s a world full of magic. It’s not that weird that a random person would have a spell on them. Anyway, this is why she’s the oracle and I’m not. 

The Barlgura needed a 3 or higher to hit Gilear. He got a 19. Yikes.

“I had to ask.”/ “No you didn’t.” (The crew explodes into laughter.)

Riz tells the whole gang about the Baron thing and tells everyone that they need to stop lying in case all their lies are gonna pop out and attack them. Gorgug admits that he’s kissed the Hangman. Kristen confesses to a group of her closest friends and girlfriend that she is gay. Tracker is like, “Babe, what?” Tracker (and the Bad Kids but in a different way) must really love Kristen because she is just so much all the time. 

Fabian: Who are you seeing then?/Riz:...................No one. 

Ally Middle Name Beardsly wtf is a paranoia check? 

The comedic rhythm of Fabian vaulting off of Gilear’s face with a nat 20, him dying, being resurrected, and the Fabian trying to do it again with a nat 1 and knocking him near death is so perfect that it’s wild that it was totally random. This is the kind of thing that makes you get superstitious about dice. 

We’re introduced to Boggy’s second mood this ep which is Boggy’s mood which is a slightly squinted, “Hmm...I don’t know about this.” Thanks, I love it. 

In addition to considering Gilear might be the chosen one (by who? Of what? They don’t know and neither do I) the half of the group entertaining this theory also considers Gilear might be the Nightmare King (”If you are you have to tell me. I’m your daughter.”). I don’t know if the NK does possession but please have the NK possess Gilear at some point. If the theme of this season is carefully filing away random off the cuff gags and making them plot relevant, please let this be one of them. Also, lol at Murph trying to roll high enough so that Riz has the knowledge to stop the shenanigans before it derails the whole campaign.  

The group bestows upon Gilear the positions of Tour Manager, Social Media Manager, and Honorary Bad Kid (listed last of course).

Fig grabbed a lanyard of out Adaine’s jacket and I remembered, oh yeah, she has a very magical jacket that is only ever used for shenanigans, if at all. Imagine being so magic that you have a magic jacket that you’re always wearing that can summon anything (w/i reason) and you just kinda...forget about it most of the time. 

Curious about why Fig specifically was called in to do the sacrifice and why Riz was the one who had to be sacrificed. 

I hope Adaine just continues to loan out Boggy to anyone having a bad day. I love that.

“Maybe this is one of those massages that hurt.”

Really wanted Hilariel to Skype in and ask about Gilear. Her take on everything is always so funny. She is as crazy as everyone else in her family but in such a low key way.  

Lol at the party being like, “Yeah, Tracker healed me just fine without any 69-ing,” which is truly an incomprehensible sentence without context and still mostly incomprehensible with context. 

Don’t wanna overlook the coolness of Fig rolling double 17s (disadvantaged) to command the barlguras. Not magically, just convincing them she was still in charge of them. Very clutch.

Fabian is so much chiller about letting people on his motorbike these days. He let Gilear ride it. He let Riz ride it. He gave a blanket invitation for anyone in the area to hop on before he did donuts. I love Sophomore Fabian. 

Gilear gets a nat 20 for his first roll! Riz and Kristen got two nat 20s. Fig got one, Gorgug got one (he rolled a second one that was lost with disadvantage), and Adaine rolled two but they really only count as one since it was with advantage. Fabian rolled one of each. That’s a lot of 20s for one ep!

[idk-my-aesthetic]

Hey uhhh ok @ Jewish allies I hope this doesn’t sound rude but,,,, could you please make a little bit more of an effort?

Like. Not to sound ungrateful but,,,, there is an insane amount of antisemitism in the world atm. And like,,,, so much of it on tumblr/ in social media in general that’s just completely ignored? And it’s super prevalent in both left and right-wing spaces

Obviously not in the same way. Like w/ right wing spaces it’s generally like “ahhh the Jews are infiltrated the white race to cause a reverse holocaust we need to kill them all!!!” But w/ left wing spaces it’s a lot more subtle

Like. Micro aggressions against Jews are completely ignored. We’re considered “annoying” for like,,, asking to be included a lot of the time in progressive spaces. Ppl unironically think we’re no longer opressed when there are white supremacists literally advocating for our extermination. Like White supremacists are literally trying to give Jews corona rn

And ok u might be saying “well those are antisemites, not allies!” And you’d be right! But,,,,

My problem is that in general ppl tend to like. Say that they’re allies but rarely do anything to help. They see antisemetic stuff and they ignore it, which i get like its not everyone’s job to be an activist all the time.

But when antisemitism is ignored again and again by so many,,, it’s given a chance to flourish. And that’s dangerous.

The other part of this is just,,,, I’ve seen and experienced a general,,, refusal to listen to Jews in general? Like,,, a Lot if antisemetic stuff is hidden behind code words and dog whistles and I can get using it on accident. But then all the time I see ppl having stuff pointed out to them as antisemetic, and they just flat out refuse to care.

Or like. If we say that something is antisemetic there’s always such a large group or people angrily ready to fight us in it? Like,,,, a lot of Jews are uncomfortable w/ gentiles using the word Jew, but for some reason if that’s pointed out people will come out of the woodwork to defend their right to use it?? Seriously?? Think about a hetro sexual calling gay ppl gays and get back to me on that one

I’m not trying to say all allies are like lazy or don’t care or w/e. I know it’s hard- from first hand experience. There’s a lot of random bs you kinda need to know. And I am so so grateful to the allies who take the time to learn and listen and try to call out antisemitism when they see it

But there’s not enough of y’all. And it’s scary. I get legitimately more afraid letting ppl know I’m Jewish than I do letting them know I’m gay or trans.

I just. I’m asking y’all to just keep this in the back of your mind I guess? For when you see Jews saying something is antisemetic to listen. Or if u see something you know is gross but someone else might not to point it out? and just maybe make an effort to learn a bit more. Idk.

[the-captains-ayebrows]

I’m intrigued by the therapy one and the studio?

The Studio AU was supposed to be a three-parter Modern AU. The first part is modern deckhand!hook backstory. It’s all him and Milah and Gold. That’s the only part I’ve written so far. Part 2 and 3 were going to be Emma and Henry’s backstories, respectively. All of them are told as flashbacks and the stories dovetail into each other so Killian, Emma and Henry meet at this recording studio where Emma works and Killian is a guitar player. I may post part 1 just on it’s own, since it’s actually finished. IDK.

The therapy one though...Oh lord... *blushes* That sprung from a GIF of Bernard Curry as a high school principal.

The basic premise is that Emma is in court-ordered anger management counseling. Liam is her therapist. Emma has been angrier than usual lately because her new neighbor wakes her up cheering at football matches that air at 4 am. She also may be having a few questionable dreams about said neighbor. Little does she realize the neighbor is her therapist’s brother.

Here’s what I’ve got thus far:

“I don’t need therapy.”

The doctor slid on a pair of reading glasses, and began thumbing through her paperwork. “That may well be Miss Swan, but Judge Spencer seemed to think otherwise. Hence, making it a condition of your probation.”

Emma rolled her eyes. God, this was irritating. “Geez, you slam one slimeball’s head into a steering wheel…”

The doc paused his perusal and looked up at her, blue eyes peeking out over the top of the lenses. “Just the one?”

“I mean,” Emma gestured vaguely with one hand, “there may have been a few skips that I had to get physical with, but they all earned it.”

“Mmhmm. I see.” The doctor closed her file and removed his glasses, sitting up straight to face her fully. “Still, as well-founded as your reasons may have been, the Superior Court of the state of Maine believes that you may have a bit of an anger management problem. And they shan’t reinstate your bail bonds license until I’ve cleared you.”

“So, here I am.” Emma made a sweeping gesture with both hands, encompassing the large tufted leather couch upon which she was sitting as well as the elegant wood-paneled office in general.

He nodded, one corner of his lips tilting up slightly. “So, here we are. Anything you’d care to talk about?”

No. She cocked her head to one side and said the first thing that popped into her mind. “How did America end up calling it ‘soccer’ when the rest of the world calls it football?”

The doc’s eyebrows made a little peak over his nose. “An excellent question to be sure, but I’m afraid that discussion won’t bring us any closer to discovering the root of your anger issues.”

Emma snorted a bitter laugh. Shit. She’d meant to say something random and meaningless. But no. He was infiltrating her thoughts again.

“What’s funny?”

“It’s just…” Emma gave him a tight smile.”You’d be surprised.”

“Ah, well then enlighten me.”

Emma leaned forward on the couch, resting her elbows on her knees. “I don’t have anger issues. I, uh - I haven’t been sleeping much lately. I guess it’s making me kind of…” She leaned back on the couch again and raised her arms helplessly. “prickly.”

The doctor narrowed his eyes. “And this is somehow related to football?”

“I’m getting to that. I’ve got this new neighbor, see? He’s from your side of the pond, and no offense to your countrymen, but this one’s an asshole.” Emma crossed her arms over her chest. “He’s all arrogant and smirky and clearly thinks he’s hot. Okay, so he is hot, but the point is he knows it. And he seems to have made it his life’s mission to annoy the shit out of me.”

She didn’t like the way the doc was raising his eyebrows or the tone of his, “Mmhm.”

“Look. All of that I could ignore, but it’s the damn soccer or football or whatever the hell you call it. Apparently my neighbor is a rabid fan of the English Premier League - oh, I’ve googled all of this since I’m fucking awake anyway - and what the hell kind of sport starts at 9:00 a.m. on a Saturday?”

“That doesn’t sound too early…”

Emma leaned forward for emphasis, slamming her hands down on the couch cushion on either side of her. “In England. 9:00 a.m. in England which is 4:00 a.m. here. I swear to God if I hear ‘Glory glory Man United’ drunkenly slurred through my wall when the sun isn’t even up yet one more time, I’m going to go over there, tear his scruffy head off, and shove it up his-”

“Right. Got it.” The doc crossed his legs and tilted his head, seeming to study her. “I don’t supposed you’ve tried asking him to keep it down?”

She fidgeted, taking particular interest in a loose thread sticking out from the seat cushion of the couch. “No,” she finally answered.

“Why not? That seems the simplest solution.”

Emma really didn’t like his insufferably reasonable tone. “That would involve talking to him.”

“And that’s bad.”

“Yes. That’s bad.”

Crap, now he was starting to look worried. “Do you find him to be threatening or harassing? If so, I can-”

“No, no no.” Emma waved his concern away. “It’s not like that. He’s not a creep, and even if it was like that I can take care of myself.” Her fingers fiddled with the thread some more. “I could definitely kick his ass,” she added under her breath.

The doctor fixed her with a wry look. “You realize you aren’t doing a lot to convince me about those anger issues, Miss Swan.”

Emma glared at him in a manner that clearly communicated she could kick his ass, too. He raised a hand in surrender and gestured for her to go on. She didn’t know how to go on. God this was stupid.

“It’s just- he just…” She exhaled heavily. “Flirts with me.”

“And you don’t like that.”

Damn, that thread just really needed to be plucked or clipped or something, and how cliche was it for a shrink to have a leather couch like this?

“Miss Swan?”

Emma pressed her lips together. “Hm?”

“You said that your neighbor flirts with you, and I asked if you don’t like it when he does that?”

Emma felt her cheeks warming. She turned her head to the side and gave a nonchalant shrug. When she glanced back at the doc, he was smiling at her like he’d made some big discovery.

“I see.”

Emma glared again, emphasizing her point with a jab of her index finger in his direction. “You see nothing.”

“Miss Swan, do you have feelings for your neighbor?”

Emma huffed in exasperation. “Of course I have feelings for him. It’s like I just told you: anger, hatred-”

“Sexual frustration?”

“Ew!” Oh, God. What am I twelve? Who says ‘ew’?

“Oh, really?” His eyes were wide and it looked like he was trying to suppress another ‘eureka’ kind of smile.

“It’s-” Emma shook her head and looked at the top of the bookshelf behind him. “It’s nothing. I’ve been having kind of a dry spell, and he’s there, and he’s-”

“Hot? I believe you said he was hot. Your word.”

“It’s nothing. I’ve been having these dreams. It’s kind of the other reason I’m having trouble sleeping.”

“And in these dreams…?” he prompted.

This was getting ridiculous. Emma exhaled sharply and sat up, looking the doc square in the eye. “I have wild crazy monkey sex with my neighbor. Who I hate. Anyway, it’s confusing and I don’t want to talk to him.”

“Fair enough, but Miss Swan, you do realize you have to deal with these issues and perhaps get some sleep before you’ll be able to resume your livelihood?”

“I don’t have issues.” Emma’s voice sounded petulant and unconvincing even to her own ears.

“Lass, I’ve known you for less than half an hour and in my professional opinion, you’ve got a fair few. Trust, intimacy, anger management, denial-”

“Okay, okay. I still don’t want to talk to him. Can’t I just move?”

“Disregarding for the moment whether that’s even a remotely psychologically healthy attitude, is moving a financially viable option for you?”

Emma slumped. “No.”

“Then I’m afraid you’re going to have to face this.” The doctor shifted in his chair, and furrowed his brow. “Now, you say you’ve been having sexual dreams about your neighbor. Have you engaged in any self-release?”

“Self-re...oh my god.” Emma’s head dropped into her hand, covering her eyes. This wasn’t happening. She wasn’t about to get the talk at age 30 from a stuffy Brit in a sweater vest and blazer with elbow patches. He must’ve taken her reaction as embarrassment, and maybe it was, kind of. The second-hand variety anyway. He kept talking. Emma checked out.

“...and that’s why masturbation is perfectly healthy.”

Emma finally raised her head. “Stop. Please. Look, I’ve… self-released before. But, I’m not feeling myself up while thinking about my neighbor. I’m not a creep.”

He extended a hand toward her in what she supposed was meant to be a reassuring gesture. “I’m not suggesting you make it habitual, only that it could be a safe way for you to confront and explore your confusing feelings for this person. Particularly since you seem so resistant to confronting the actual person causing them.”

Wait, that - that actually kind of made sense. “So…” Emma narrowed her eyes. “Like banging one out, only solo?”

“Bit of a gross oversimplification, but yes, I suppose so. Much safer at least than picking up a stranger at a bar and projecting your feelings onto him or her.”

Well, that hit close to home. “Have you been reading my diary, Doc?” Emma asked coyly, trying to make a joke out of it.

He chuckled. “Analysis is my job, Miss Swan. And you, I must admit, are a bit of an open book.”

“Huh.” Emma considered her options. As much as she thought it was dumb and unnecessary, she had to do this therapy thing if she wanted her license back, and this shrink didn’t seem like such a bad guy. A little awkward, maybe a little judgey, but not awful. He didn’t seem put off by her which was unusual enough, and she suspected he might even have a sense of humor in there somewhere. She guessed she could suck it up and deal with this. It was all confidential anyway. It’s not like he can go blabbing on her, right?

“Well, if we’re gonna be discussing every intimate detail of my life, I guess you better call me Emma.”

He smiled again. Not an ‘ah-ha!’ kind of smile like before, but a friendly one. “Very well, Emma. You can call me Liam.”